The Glass Cannon Podcast - Strange Aeons Episode 19 – Sleepless Little Town

Episode Date: June 22, 2022

The bad boys of tabletop are BACK and ready to hit the road for more Glass Cannon Live! shows all over the US! But first, they wanted to dig back in to the story by jumping directly into Book 2 of the Strange Aeons Adventure Path! They've left the asylum behind, but what new terrors await them on the mainland in Thrushmoor? Join Troy Lavallee, Joe O'Brien, Skid Maher, Grant Berger and Matthew Capodicasa as they tour the country playing the Lovecraftian Horror Strange Aeons Pathfinder Adventure Path. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/5rEENwMpFQM Recap 14:57 Gameplay 21:02 For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com and for exclusive content and benefits, subscribe today at patreon.com/glasscannon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's easy and only takes a few minutes. The sooner you get started, the more time your down payment has to grow. Open an account today at Questrade.com. Hello, good afternoon, planet Earth. It's your old buddy, Troy LaValle, and I want to thank you for joining us for the beginning of the Strange Aeons Book 2 Marathon. I almost forgot the title. The Strange...

What the hell's the name of this thing? Strange Aeons Book 2 Marathon. Now, there are legit marathon gamers out there, like our good friends at Order of the Ember Die who play for like 17 hours straight, take a 20 second break and then go for 17 hours more. I hesitate to use the term marathon for what we're doing. But considering we normally play in just one hour chunks, two hour chunks, five hours today, five hours tomorrow, 10 hours combined, you know, we're going to go long today, five hours tomorrow, 10 hours combined.

You know, we're going to go long. That's a lot of gaming for us. But the reason we're doing it is, well, there's multiple reasons. One, the Glass Cannon Live Tour is back. COVID be damned. I don't know if you know about this. Pandemic's over. Oh, God.

You're not allowed to say that. You can't say that? Joe and I were in Vegas a couple weeks ago. You couldn't find a mask if you threw a poker chip. Which was shocking because, you know, Vegas has a reputation of just being the most, you know, safe-minded people. Really a safe haven. It's a haven for scholars and scientists of all stripes. No, obviously the pandemic

is far from over, but we're getting back on tour in the safest way that we think imaginable, and that starts with getting vaccinated. So if you want to come see us, get vaccinated. I'm not saying they're not going to let you in

if you're not vaccinated. They might. I don't know what the rules are, but just get vaccinated. I felt so great being out in Vegas being like, ah, this is wonderful because I'm vaccinated. Get vaccinated. Come see us live. We got tickets on sale for all these shows. Grant, throw up the shitty graphic I made a couple of weeks ago to show all of these tour dates. Look at this. We're going to be in Philly in just four or five weeks. In that same week, we're going to be in Washington, D.C. And then we're going to be back in my hometown, in my home state of Massachusetts, in Boston, beginning August.

And then two shows in Atlanta during Dragon Con. Two shows in Indy during Gen Con. And then Chicago and Columbus during Origin. I'm going to tell you right now, there are more shows coming to round out the end of the year that we're going to be announcing very, very soon. VIP tickets are pretty much sold out for all of these shows, with the exception of Atlanta Night One, because they just forgot to put them up when the tickets went on sale. Otherwise, they'd be totally sold out. But VIP is pretty much sold out across the board. There are still plenty of

general admission tickets left. Usually they're going a little bit faster. I think it's because people are worried about getting back out. Listen, I'm not going to tell you to change your fears about those things. But if you're ready and you feel safe and you're vaccinated, buy those tickets. Come see us. Come support us because we have so much fun doing this live in front of the niche. And that's the other reason we want to play today is because we just miss playing Strange Aeons. We want to just dive in, do 10 hours, play this, get back into the skins of these characters, get back into this very complicated, complex story, unique story, too, where the PCs don't remember who they are, And just kind of gear up to get back on the road.

So I'm excited. I've talked enough. Let's hear from Skidmore. Hello. That's me. I heard my name. Hello. The only man that dressed up today.

You look great. I did. Yeah, it's not quite how I envisioned it. I got my wizard robes and the wig here, but I look more like if Estelle Getty were a federal circuit court judge than anything else. I did order other stuff that wore fits, but I'm going to take the new costume on the road with me,

so you'll see the full outfit. Oh, wow. The gauntlet has been dropped for cosplay. We've been delving into a lot more cosplay. We've been dipping. We've been dipping into the chaos. Take a little cosplay dip. Joe, you going to go full rat in Philly?

I don't know. Would your dad beat you up? Probably not. Take that super wig off, son. Kick my ass. Throws a block of cheese at you. I don't know. We'll'll see it's a lot of pressure it's also

I don't I also don't feel like flying I know I don't have to fly to Philly but I don't want to get in the habit of trying to fly with a top hat you just fold it down I think yeah I gotta get one of those nice ones I have a very cheap shitty one

yeah no I thought about it for today decided with with Merc Borg happening i had enough eyeliner this week and uh then i also you know the whole tux and like thing is it's more of a night function kind of thing and since we decided on a day uh stream for this i think i'm just gonna focus on playing the game and hanging out with my buddies, uh, rather than going too much into costume. Uh, Matthew,

I don't think you've ever cosplayed except for star Trek. Um, I think, I think the, the, the fans want to see you get all dolled up as a, uh, uh, an,

an older, uh, woman night. I, I mean, for the shows, I kind of have a, a set look as the kids say like a set suit jacket yep nicely trimmed beard nicely trimmed chest hair and lifts at the bottom of

your shoes sadly i have no lifts that's why I can't compete with your massive height, Troy. It's true. It's so hard. I scoot down when people ask for pictures of the two of us just so you don't feel bad. Maybe you need to build a character that wears a suit jacket. Well, I did promise, I think on an Androids and Aliens stream, that if someone were to be able to find a wrath of con era star trek uniform i would wear that at live shows so totally regardless of what the show is you would just wear

i would just wear and i would and i would unpin the the kind of like vertical epelet thing and let it like fall down like kirk does when he's stressed that's why that's that would be my live show look. You could only pull that off during Dragon Con, where everyone is cosplaying, or during Halloween, which I believe we're having a show on Halloween this year, or the Halloween weekend. So maybe you can do it.

And spoiler alert, you won't have to carry that costume very far to the theater. I think you're saying too much, Troy. I've already said too much. I'm going to get a text from our agent being like, dude, we said we weren't going to announce this today, but I get excited. Let's talk about Grant Berger. Grant, how are you, buddy?

Good. I'm trying to look like I'm working catering right now with this black button up. I figured if Troy's going to wear a collar, I got to wear a better collar. Yeah, I had on a nice powder blue polo when he started just because I wanted to exude a calming presence to accentuate my natural calming presence. But it was too light. I just looked like the lead from that movie Powder.

Sean Patrick Flannery? Sean Patrick Flannery. Sean Patrick Flannery. Yeah, it was too white. I was blinding the scene with my whiteness. But Grant, you look great. We'll try to get you out in time for your shift later. Thank you. Thank you.

I live off tips, so I need to be there on time. I didn't realize Ruby Foos was open again. It is. It is. Good for you. That's a good reference. I've had some good times at Ruby Foos was open again. It is. It is. Good for you. That's a good reference. I've had some good times at Ruby Foos. Yeah.

It's a little bad mornings afterwards. When I used to, I used to work at Caroline's Comedy Club, which was right next door to Ruby Foos. And so the cooks would come in after their shift sometimes and just be like, here's a pound of General Soza. We were just going to throw out. And so like you're,

when you're just a poor bartender or waiter you're just like ah eating eating general with a gallon and i mean it's just you know ruby foods nothing against ruby foods they're very successful but man they really gen the general does uh he executes the von Schlieffen plan on your colon the next day. It's pretty bad. What a mix of different military strategies from across the world there. The General Stowe and the von Schlieffen strategy. I don't know why my high school history just popped into my head. The von Schlieffen plan. It's like a Dennis Miller reference.

Von Schlieffen plan. The von Schleifen plan. Oh my God. We're going to have some fun today. I can't believe we have over 20,000 people watching live right now. Thank you for doing that. 20,001 with

Ad Norological in the chat. I bet Nora's dressed up. And it's Nora and Skip. That's's it she's dressed up as an audience member for today's sitting there in a full uh cthulian i know i know i really think like uh oh i just feel i don't know i feel like when nora's watching i just i should bring my a game she's probably just like sitting there disappointed come Come on, Joe. We've got to be on our best behavior when Nora's there. Right. I'd have to watch my language.

All it would take was Nora. All this time, all we had to do was have Nora around. We should have called her years ago. I'm so excited to get into this. You know, I said this at the beginning of the tour, the beginning beginning when we first did our first show in LA 100 years ago, that when we were sitting at the restaurant, having our pre show dinner, we were just excited to like start a new adventure. There's nothing better than starting a new adventure path. The second level of that the second level of excitement there, there's nothing better than starting a new book.

It's like first day of school. Remember, like, you'd get your notebooks, your little mead composition books, and you'd have them all laid out with your new pens and your new pencils. Like, I feel like I start a new Google Doc. You know, you guys probably adjust all your characters just so, make sure your dice are all lined up. It's just, I love starting a new book because it's like a fresh start. You can just, okay, we haven't made any mistakes yet. I think I've got all the information out that I needed in book one. Let's just start fresh.

It's like elementary school. It's like you have one through six, book one through six. So it's like it's each grade, or for me, college. You have the six years. You waited about 20 years before you finished books yeah i took a little break about 25 years uh so i'm just i'm pumped and uh this this adventure path we we really we really picked a hell of adventure path strange ions is so effing good and last book you were sort of confined to the asylum the entire time. There were only three maps in the whole book. There was

the dungeon where you woke up, there was the asylum map, and then there was the upper floors where it all ended. Now it's going to be a lot different. But you guys, do you have any idea what this book's about? Or what you're about to get into? Only what I read.

You read the book? You read the book? I didn't have time before we went live but see joe you think if you really cared you would have read the whole book i did i don't busted no uh i have no idea at all no concept which which really worries me but i mean i think that that's also kind of intentional and that you're supposed to be an amnesiac. And that's one thing that I'm really not clear on. I think I'm going to need you to clarify for me. I sent it to you in email.

You're still being vague. But basically, like, we found out stuff about ourselves, but like, we never really got all of our memories back. Right? I mean, we still have these, what, huge gaps? Do we remember our whole early lives, but just don't remember the last year or do we you know what i mean like where is the so you know we'll get into it when we get into it but basically uh unlike most adventure paths you really had to come in with no backstory you uh don't know who you are you wake up in a fugue state with no memory of who you are and how you

got there you have some information now uh as, as the adventure path has worn on, as you gain some information of how you got there, who put you there. But the only other information you have to go on are these visions, these flashbacks that we've been playing out that are both dreamlike, sometimes incredibly dreamlike, and other times very, very realistic. But there's no certainty as to how true even those visions are. But that's all you have to go on. So in my mind, when we play these flashbacks out, when we play these visions,

it's you having this memory that you're like, I think this happened. I think I remember that. I will say by the end of book two, you'll know a little bit more, but I think we should just jump right in. And Grant has been working on a cool little graphic for this. So for the first time in 2021 to kick off the Glass Cannon Live Tour, let's take it to the recap. Oh, nice. live tour. Let's take it to the recap. Oh! Nice! Woo! Woo! Woo! Oh, yeah.

Oh, that's nice. Nice. That's real good. I appreciate that. That is red hot. Really good. That's real good. I appreciate that. That is red hot. Really good. That's on recap. Dude, that was great. Joe, give me some dark music.

Give me something good, something that's like ominous and dark. Something that really sets the tone. That's often how I'm described. Yes. Ominous and dark. Yeah. And a tone setter. And a tone setter.

Okay, I'll try. Yeah. Try. If it's not good, we'll sit here until it is. All right. Noted. You can just use the aura I'm giving off as your music. I can hear the symphony.

And ooh. Oh. Matthew's tiny chest hairs rubbing against each other. What about this? Is that good? Ooh, this is pretty good. That's pretty ominous. It's ominous. Okay.

The classic recap. You know what? This might be the last time that I give a good recap of what happened in the asylum. Because we can't, five years from now, when we're wrapping up book six, or however long it is, I can't be like, it all started in the asylum.

That would be it. That's all I'll say about the asylum. So enjoy this, because you may not hear about what happened, the details of what happened in the asylum much longer. Our journey together, both us as players, us as friends, and the niche, who were there live, watched it later on the tube. That journey began in a shared nightmare in a gloomy, abandoned

city that was clogged by this thick yellow mist. In that dream, our heroes at the time, and the team has changed, were all ritualistically slaughtered by one horrible figure that was cloaked only in tatters. You awoke in an asylum with no memory of who you are or how you got there and began fighting your way through doppelgangers posing as doctors and patients and other strange beings that just seemed to seep in through a crack or a tear in reality. in reality. Eventually, you find a group of survivors led by a priestess of Phrasma named Winter Klaxa. And you learn from her and the other survivors that there was a patient uprising in the asylum

led by a man named Alvar Zandalus. Praise, praise. Praise, praise. Words fail. Words fail. Words fail. There's no way out, you find out from them, because the whole asylum is built on an island,

and as well as being surrounded by water, it's surrounded by a, oh, oddly enough, thick yellow fog that is full of otherworldly creatures. You walk outside, you see huge shapes just walking through the clouds, and you even get attacked by this mass of flesh and mouths, and you're like, well, we can't go outside again. led by a royal accuser that came to the town of Thrushmore to investigate why the Count of Versailles County, where Thrushmore lies, a guy by the name of Hasterton Lowles IV, why he mysteriously abandoned his post. She was sent to the asylum because it was said that the Count had dealings with the administrator

after taking a shine to one of the patients here. Which patient? Albus Andalus. You eventually find what's left of the administrator, Dr. Eliage Lossandro, as she had been transformed into a malfunctioning version of a creature known as an Onerogen, a byproduct of a nightmare experiment gone wrong and like a physical manifestation of a gateway between the material world and the dreamlands. You find out there are other such Onerogens in the asylum. And you realize that by dealing with them, you may be able to remove this fog that's surrounding the asylum.

And you may be able to get out. But you're still going to have to confront Xandelus himself because he's still running the show. By pouring through records in the administrator's office and all the records rooms nearby, in the administrator's office and all the records rooms nearby, you discovered that the Count was visiting Zandalus because he was fascinated with Olver's drawings, drawings that seemed to come from Zandalus's dreams, depicting things he would have no idea existed, along with strange cityscapes and monuments. So fascinated with Zandalus was the Count that he offers the administrator his copy of a book that she had been coveting called The Chain of Nights.

He says that she can use that book to perhaps cure Xandalus and other people plagued by dreams. And all she has to do in return is take a group of his servants and take them on as patients and she can do whatever she wants with them. You were those servants. You were those patients that Count Hasterton Lowles gave to the asylum. You have no memory of this. You now realize that Lysandre performed the ritual in the Chain of Knights in an attempt to cure Xandilus of his ailments,

but instead of doing so, she unleashed the horrors of his dreams upon the asylum, allowing creatures from the dreamlands to seep in. One in particular known as the Tatterman. So finally you face Xandalus and realize there is no Dana,

only Zul, as the Tatterman is using Xandalus' husk as a mere puppet of discord, ruling Briarstone in the guise of Olver while taking victim after victim in their dreams. Because that's what the Tatterman does. After an insane battle with this extraplanar serial killer, you defeat him.

The mist is lifted, and you are able to leave Briarstone, heading to Threshmore to hopefully unravel more of the mystery around your bizarre fugue state condition and your connection to this missing count, Hasterton Lowells IV. It's fog. Thick, yellow, gray fog. it's fog thick yellow gray

fog and the fog parts and we find ourselves back in Briarstone Asylum back in the chapel

but instead of winter and the cult of the log praise log praise praise praise praise there is just Winter and the Cult of the Log. Praise Log. Praise, praise. Praise, praise. There is just one figure kneeling in the aisles. Camera shot just coming in from behind on this figure.

And we see that it's a woman in her 50s, dressed in a simple tunic and trousers just kneeling there in the aisle murmuring under her breath eyes closed healing flame may you cleanse evil from the world and protect the denizens of these realms

and may you protect your sacred knights in whatever battle they may find themselves in. She is, of course, Sir Julie Andrews. Yes! As she says her prayer under her breath, a loud crash sounds from outside the room, followed by screaming, Ah! Ah!

This insane-looking guy comes in. He's like, they're coming, they're coming, get off of me! They're coming to kill us all! Sir Julie rises on guard and looks out from the chapel and towards the lobby. Several orderlies are struggling to drag in a knight, a young man in armor that has been slashed, sundered, and otherwise savaged in a great battle. He's kicking, screaming, and swinging wildly at the orderlies. He's like, let go of me! Let go of me! They're coming to kill us all!

And Sir Julie, from the chapel, she just stares. She can't move. She can barely breathe. Soon enough, the orderlies are able to drag the young knight into the asylum, and the sounds of his struggle fade behind the heavy oaken door. Days later, Sir Julie steps once more into the chapel and sees that same young knight, now dressed like her in the gown of a patient at the asylum, sitting peacefully in the pews. For a moment she hesitates, then takes a breath and takes a seat in a pew across from him. Sir Julie Andrews, Knight of the Dawnflower,

2nd Phalanx, 5th Battalion. The knight doesn't respond at first, then casts a weak glance over at Sir Julie. Mark, Mark Oenol, Iomedae, first phalanx, first battalion. Ooh, your battalion fought most bravely in the Third Crusade. Third Crusade. Third Crusade?

There is a fourth now. A fourth? I am heartened to hear this, heartened to hear that we shall battle back the forces of evil once more. He just laughs under his breath. You old fool. The armies of hell are nothing compared to what is coming What? Who? What is coming? The gateways are being opened as we speak

The blood of the innocents are being spilled to power their entry into our world Who? Where are the knights of the dawn flower? Are they... world. Who? Where are the knights of the dawn flower? Are they? And he starts just speaking in this unrecognizable language. And Sir Julie stands up, starts to slowly back away from him as he does. And he starts foaming at the mouth. Orderlies rush in as he's getting louder and louder and restrain this young man again, drag him to the floor, trying to stop his flailing arms. Sir Julie just rushes out of the chapel.

We cut to her bursting into her room. There lays her gleaming golden armor, the armor she polishes every morning. She grabs her breastplate, begins strapping it on, and then Sir Julie strides out into the lobby, now fully armored, making for the door, carrying her helm in her hand. A youthful-looking, very much alive,

Dr. Eliage Lossandro, who's emerging from the chapel, sees this. Sir Julie, where are you going? I am needed. My comrades need me. A great evil is encroaching upon the world. They are being routed. The doctor, like, makes eyes with an orderly who blocks to move Sir Julie's path. Sir Julie, you're not ready for this.

There's no more time. Stand aside. Allow your comrades to do their work, Sir Julie, and allow yourself to do your own. There's no shame in that. yourself to do your own. There's no shame in that. Sir Julie has no time for this. She moves to force her way past the doctor, but the doctor signals to more orderlies

nearby, and suddenly they've all descended upon Sir Julie. Unhand me! I am sworn to protect the... And now there's like six or seven people all trying to tackle her. It's just, it's chaos. Sir Julie grits her teeth. There's no time for this.

She slams a gauntlet into the face of one of the orderlies. Kicks another one in the stomach. Deftly tosses the third one to the ground. Another one leaps on her back. But undeterred, she starts making for the door. Just carrying this guy with her. All those awful evil orderlies. I must help my comrades.

And then just bam, an orderly slams Sir Julie's helm right into her face. She stumbles back, dazed, and all the orderlies take that opportunity to jump on her and hold her to the ground, drag her down, and she just keeps fighting them all the way. I must help them! As she cries out against her restraint, she looks out the lobby window and sees only the fog rising on the lake surrounding the asylum. That fog

thickens and just blots out the scene. Blots out Sir Julie's cries. And the gray fog starts to have a pale, yellowish tinge to it. And the haze continues to block everything out of sight. Until a faint shape can be made in the distance. And slowly the shape approaches until we make out what looks like... until a faint shape can be made in the distance. And slowly the shape approaches until we make out what looks like

a small boat with five figures in its hull. Their faces come into view. The faces of Aldo Casimir, Atticus Grimm, Halster Price, Sir Julie Andrews, and a man named Faustin York, who you simply know as Crossbow Jackson. Yeah! Yeah! Crossbow!

Crossbow! Faustin York is a really strange nickname, I gotta say. I don't know why he took that on when his first name is Crossbow! Crossbow! Bauston York is a really strange nickname, I gotta say. I don't know why he took that on when his birth name is Crossbow Jack. We watch this boat as it moves carefully through the choppy water. Although you've escaped the strange mists of Briarstone Isle, the weather here is hardly any better. Deep gray clouds loom like a low ceiling in a dark room, and driving rain soaks them through. The wind and the rain make for choppy conditions on the water and limit visibility,

even though the sun probably hasn't even set yet. You can't even see it, the fog's so thick. You've lost track of the days at this point. You don't know if you've been traveling for a few hours, a few days. You haven't had a good sleep in a while. You've rested. You've slept on the floor, covered in blood, not being able to have all of the healing powers you've needed.

Some of you sick with plagues and filth fever. You're tired. You've had some rations, but you're starving, and thoughts of sleeping in a bed and a warm meal seem like distant memories. Several hours into the day,

Crossbow Jackson stands up, his eyes fixed ahead, and he points through the fog. He's like, do you see? Do you see those lights up ahead? It looks like there were lights glowing in the town's windows. Land ho!

You look up, and you're trying to see what he's seeing, and you're making your best perception checks through the haze And you do see several Disparate lights Floating at various distances Through the fog And as you move closer and the fog starts to thin out

They are indeed The lights of several Buildings Of a town. Crossbow lets out a big sigh of relief at the sight of land, but the four of you know better than to think that this ordeal is anything but over. Crossbow turns to the four of you. Crossbow turns to the four of you It's like, what, uh

What do you know of Threshmore? Very little, if I'm honest But I'm also suffering from memory loss Could have been there before, for all I know You could be from there, James I could Could have been there before, for all I know. You could be from there, James. I could. Could have grown up there. I have vague memories of being in a city, a very crowded city.

Is Thrushmore very crowded? In a way. What does a Thrushmorian accent sound like? Yeah, that would be a clue Perhaps I'm from there Yes I haven't encountered this accent that I've got in anywhere else So maybe that's a clue

They sound just like you and I Although from time to time I'm sure the GM will come up with something ridiculous Fair enough Forward to that Although from time to time, I'm sure the GM will come up with something ridiculous. Fair enough. Forward of that. Always entertaining. They say that the town is cursed. Always has been. But, then again, welcome to Ustalav. Doc?

Yes? Doc I'm sorry to interrupt but I'm a little bit anxious to find the offices of the sleepless detective agency we heard of it inside of the asylum and since we're in the business of dreams and nightmares without knowing anything more about them they might be the

best place to start and thrush more curse though it may be well it's funny you mention that Because Winter gave me directions to tell you After I leave you at the shore I'll row back to ferry her and the others back here as well And she plans on taking the survivors of the asylum To Newchapel here in Thrushmore

It's a chapel dedicated to Phrasma. If you don't find her there, she'll most likely be at the Sleepless Detective Agency, because that's where the accuser was headquartered when they arrived in Thrushmore. She instructed me to ask you to seek her out once you get settled. What do you know about the Sleepless Detective Agency? I'd never heard of it till Winter mentioned it. We found a card for it, I believe in Dr. Elijah's office, so I don't know exactly. We just have their advertisement, really. No solid, firm details.

advertisement, really. No solid firm details. Well, that would certainly be a place to check out, and Winter will be there at some point once I get her back. As for Threshmore, like most of Ustalav, there are dark forces

teeming underneath the hills and waters of the whole land. Threshmore is a fishing village, for the most part. Here in Avalon Bay, the fishing is good all year round, and even the few days of the year that the water freezes over, there's still good ice fishing near the port. But as for the people here,

they're a superstitious bunch, and they have every right to be. Strange religions and their wild-eyed worshippers abound. Now, where that kind of behavior might be hidden in more sophisticated towns, it's much more out in the open here. But, no matter what, it's gotta be better than being in that accursed asylum. Right? And you wonder, is it? but it's got to be better than being in that accursed asylum. Right.

And you wonder, is it? Yeah. No, I... In all likelihood, yeah. I'm sorry, I don't wonder. It is most certainly better. It's bound to be better. I've spent decades in that asylum, and it's pretty awful. It's pretty bad.

I don't... I don't think it's any awful it's pretty bad i don't yes remember i think it's any worse than what we just went through you do recall you threatened to kill us over and over simply because we walked down the hallway well i thought you were doppelgangers and i had every right to be careful well that was the thing is it was infested with doppelgangers as well like apart from being just a medieval asylum in a magical world, which is the worst thing I could possibly imagine, but also didn't know

whether a person was a person or someone taken on the form of that person, which added a different, an extra layer of sort of ill ease. Didn't like it one bit. One star. You were going to kill them? I was. You know what? You've talked me into it. I One star. You were going to kill them? I was.

You know what? You've talked me into it. I'm sure this town is going to be better than what is happening in this town. I think it's better. I mean, you know, I'm an optimist by nature. And you seem to be a little bit of a glass half empty sort of person, but Hospital Jackson, eh? It's been a rough month.

I believe it. But I think I've talked him into it. I think he's on board with us. He's coming around. Looking forward to this new adventure. Who hurt you when you still have Crossbow? Did you go to high school here? I didn't.

I went to the rival high school. That explains it. I went to Freshmore Academy. Oh, see. There explains it. I went to Threshmore Academy, not Threshmore High. Oh, see, there we are. Yes.

No, I'm not from here, but I've spent some time here. Whenever I came out to work at the asylum, I would take the ferry from the port here. It's a fine town,

but Ustalav's weird. Can you recommend a good A good meal for us A good tavern for us to start in Yeah, it'd be nice to get a pint Or something, after all those Months in the asylum Do you have lodging in Throshmore, a place to stay?

No, that might be the place to start As far as I know There's only one inn in town. It's known as the Silver Wagon, and it's connected to a tavern called The Stain, I believe. It's a fun place. I've hung out there with some of my co-workers. But unless you have lodging set up,

I think that's going to be your only bet, is to check out the silver wagon. And it gives you directions. It's like the northwestern part of town. Now, do you know what Count Hasserton Lowe's relationship is with Thrashmore? Is it his domain? It is. It is. And from what I understand in talking to Winter,

he just up and left his post. I don't know much about him. The Lowes have run Threshmore for over 100 years, I believe, at this point. His father before him and his grandfather. He is the fourth of his name. Maybe the first even settled Thrustmore. I don't know the history.

Not much one for history. I like spelling. Spelling and recess. Well, in that case, Could you do me a great service And spell his name Hasterton Lowell sir Yes H-A-S-T-E-R

Can you use it in a sentence Oh me I'm sorry Yes Yes Get off me Count Hasterton-Lowes. That really got me.

The fact that you would say his full title, his full first and last name. Get off me, Count Hasterton-Lowes. Is he on you? Is he like Chasterton Louse? Is he sexually advancing? Is he like trying to kill you? It's unclear, but get off me. We have amnesia. Did he fall asleep on you on the subway? Get off me, Count Chasterton Louse.

Passed out after a ball in Times Square. Yeah, he's taking the train home from the stain. H-A-S-T-E-R-T-O-N-H-O-W-L-S. Howells? Not Howells? Howells? Howells? Oh, I got it wrong.

Shit. I'm so sorry. I wasn't reading it. It was Greek origin, not Latin. Get off of me. Laos is L-O-W-L-S. Oh my God, I spelled it exactly right. I had written that for a while and I wasn't sure.

The fourth is I-V. Right, I've got it in my book now. Thank I.V. Right. I've got it in my book now. Thank you. Yes. So he went missing. And that is what sent Winter investigating near the asylum. And as far as we know, he has still not returned, though none of us have any word from the city that's been updated, right?

No, they sent in a royal accuser. And that's who Winter came with. Right. Okay. Well, we shall have to ask around his home. Where is it? On top of the hill somewhere, I imagine? I believe so, yes.

I would check out the Sleepless Detective Agency as well, because that's where the royal accuser was. So they may be able to update you on the situation. I don't know how long you were in the asylum, but I would say check in with Winter at New Chapel, and if she's not there, meet her at the sleepless detective agency. But it seems like the sleepless agency would be a good place to start either way once you get settled because that's where the royal accuser set up her headquarters. Could you explain to me what a royal accuser is? Is that something our characters would just know?

Is that a common title in these nations? It's an inquisitor archetype I think you can take, but they're basically like these above-the-law people that are sent in to enact their own personal brand of justice. By whom? In this case, they're hired? Are they like private detectives? In this case, Ustalav, it's like the court of Thrun probably said, sent this person in to take care of business.

Got it. Because if Laos abandoned his post, that's obviously weird. And so they, they sent in the accused to find out what exactly happened. And so,

you know, while maybe the sleep detective agency was involved investigating it, maybe the local magistrate was involved in trying to figure this out. Maybe they weren't

doing their job. Either way, when a royal accuser comes to town, everybody's like, oh, shit, let me know when it's all over right but again you'll find out minimizes solitaire it that it'll you'll find

out more as you talk to people like what actually happened crossbow doesn't know um as for thrush more like knowledge checks are going to be hard for you because you can't remember anything. You know it's a fishing town. Climate's good here. It's a bay. It makes sense. You know it has a dark and sordid past. And he said it was cursed. That's kind of true of all places in Ustalav.

But you did discover some information in the library. I tried to find what show you guys did your library checks on, and I couldn't find it for the life of me. But I want to refresh your memory on what you do know about, at least about the asylum, because it may lend some information about the history of Threshmore. Was this The Witch? Yes, The Witch. of Thrushmore. Was this the witch? Yes, the witch.

You know the asylum was founded about 120-something years ago with the support of Count Hasterton Lowes I and Rosenport's Syncto-Macti School of Sciences, which is the big school of... It's the big Cthulian school out here. It's like... What's the... What's they call the Cthulhu uh school arkham oh uh miskatonic miskatonic it's like the miskatonic of uh galarian you know that the asylum yeah

terundalar in chat said indianapolis was the library and you thought that would just couldn't find it show one or show two i can't remember i i looked i was skipping around but i thought it it was Indianapolis because I remember you made the joke that like we're going to do this all in real time because it takes hours to find out this information. You know that the asylum was originally intended to be a fort positioned to protect Threshmore and trade along the Danver River from pirates sailing Lake and Carthen. river from pirates sailing lake in cartham you know the fort's construction was plagued by accidents culminating in the apparent death of its overseer the man named captain anok atherton come to find out the captain didn't just die his entrails were strewn ritualistically across the site when they found him a week or so later. So construction on the fort halted, and rumors began to spread that Briarstone Isle was haunted, and those rumors started to spread to Thrushmore as well. So Count Hasterton Lowell I convinced the Church of Verazima to perform an island-wide

exorcism. It was successful, but locals across the bay were still saying they saw lights in the distance and the half-constructed structure, and then they started to see things around town as well. And these rumors continued to spread until they attributed the tragedy and the weird things happening around town to a local urban legend known as the Briarstone Witch. urban legend known as the Briarstone Witch. They claimed that she haunted the isle, and she'd curse or kill anyone who trespassed upon her home. In fact, folklore attributes many disappearances and spates of bad luck in the Thrushmore region to the Briarstone Witch. You also learned, and if you didn't, I'll tell you now because we just kept a lot of this off air, that the first reports of the Briarstone Witch date to the early 4000s, soon after the founding of Threshmore, by a congregation of psychopomp-worshipping homesteaders. These tales, however, attribute many good works to the witch, and present her as a figure who helped the settlers survive their hard early years.

figure who's helped the settlers survive their hard early years. However, some of those tales refer to a servant. She added her retinue, a servant called the tatter man. So I have in my notes, and this is kind of like stream of consciousness. So if there may not be connected dots here, but I know we learned at some point that the servant of hoster and the

Briarstone, which were somewhat related and that over Z Hoster and the Briarstone Witch were somewhat related, and that Ulver, Xandelus, and the Tattermans were in cahoots with Zastor, the King in Yellow. Are they all connected, or did I put two thoughts together there? Haster, the King in Yellow. I can't remember what you guys learned about the King in Yellow. Do any of you guys remember exactly? Because I'm hesitant to say too much.

Because Hester did come up at a certain point. Wait, I just want to go back to what you were just saying, Drey. Yeah, let's cover that. The witch in some tellings actually was a positive figure. Yeah, in early tellings, it was like she was a hero. She helped the settlers. Maybe she had some magical powers, it was like she was a hero. She helped the settlers. Maybe she had some magical powers. Obviously, if she was a witch and she was able to help them get settled.

But now you know that she had an assistant called the Tattered Man, and you know what the Tattered Man is. So, yeah, I don't think you found out any more. Yeah, I think we just learned that they were all working for hastur um maybe including the briarstone which it's not clear from my notes but i don't think we knew much about was that a was that a theory of ours i feel like the hastur king and yellow stuff came via xandalus and xandalus's followers right not the library uh could have been um this is around the time we found jenny two tails in my notes so it could have been from the library honestly uh but again we'll go back to the indie shows someday poor jenny two tails we hardly knew you forget about jenny two tails frederick and marguerite

her parents her poor parents that's what i feel Yeah, Grant, just in looking at my notes here, it seems like you found symbols that were attributed to Hester, and so you guys just started making the connections on your own that there might be some connection between the Tatterman and the Dreamlands and Hester. Can you spell that? H-A-S-T-U-R. And Hester is a, you know, this goes into the Cthulhu mythos.

This isn't a Paizo-created character. I think it was started by, I think the last name of the writer is Ambrose, and then Lovecraft wrote about it, and a lot of people. That's the way the Cthulhu mythos works. Oh, you mean the king in yellow you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah, Elster is the king in yellow. Yeah, that's his manifestation here when he enters the material plane.

You know, all these deities have, it's basically like a potluck, the way the myths are created about the elder mythos. And so everything is true and nothing is true. Oh, Ambrose Bierce. Yeah. Ambrose Bierce, and then Sergeant Boondock is saying Robert Chambers. Yeah, Robert W. Chambers. And I'm just going to read this whole thing.

That way we know what we're getting into. Yeah. You know, what's funny is I have a statue. I've talked about this before. I have a statue of the King in Yellow behind me, and I have the book of the play, The King in Yellow. And as Skids mentioned before on one of our streams, the whole thing about the play is like if you read the play,

it causes you to go insane. I think, yeah, if you see it. I don't know if you read it too, but the first act is super weird, and then if you stay for the second act, you go insane. I think. That bad, huh? And a lot of the Cthulhu mythos has to do with you know the people who worship it on earth if you're reading lovecraft or on galarian and the pies of thing

like they're trying to find a way to get them over from their realm into our world you know they're trying to find passageways and so a a little bit of that, you saw that because they worship them, they think that they'll come here with a snap of their fingers like Thanos, just wipe everything out and let them be their prince or their princess because they helped them get over. So they want to bring these otherworldly creatures over here to destroy everything and then let them rule over the ashes with these Elder Mythos creatures. I ask because I'm also trying to resolve this with Atticus.

I mean, this is a big part of Atticus's archetype, and I think it's going to be in a lot of archetypes that are out there for Strange Aeons. But it's hard for me to even wrap my head around. But, you know, it's like this compulsion even wrap my head around but you know it's it's like this this compulsion to study the elder mythos and you know it doesn't say you don't have to define why you're doing it i just sort of like that's the way my brain works is like i want to know why i'm doing it yeah um because it is so unbelievably dangerous uh not only because it could destroy the world but also because you risk insanity at just the knowledge of it and so but you still press on as this wizard archetype uh and i love it and i

want to keep doing it but i just want to try to understand like why do cult followers try to do this what is their motivation it's the truth yeah like this is the reality that like we all live live in it's like it's the same drive that anyone who seeks religion or science or anything it's like they're trying to get at the truth of the universe and this is how they see it you know this is what's actually going on i love it so much and i don't know why i can't verbalize why I love it, but it all started probably with True Detective because I'm not a horror guy. I don't watch horror movies, don't enjoy them. The first season of True Detective

might have been my first real exposure to the idea of the King in Yellow and Carcosa and Hastur and this true Lovecraftian, a way to tell a Lovecraftian tale in a modern setting. Now obviously here isn't modern, but by the end of book two you're going to have a much better understanding of how

this all works because it's just a part of the fabric of this adventure. So that's what I think you know and it kind of accentuates what Crossbow was saying in that, like, oh, this land's cursed. Everybody's superstitious.

It's haunted. There's probably people that still believe in the Briarstone Witch, and that's what you're walking into. You're walking into a very fearful community. community. Is there any additional role based off of Halster's involvement even though he's lost a lot of his memory with the Church of Phrasma being his deity

that he could do based on the exorcisms or the place of Phrasma within Threshmore? We can also wait until we get closer to the Monument or Church itself you mentioned earlier. Yeah, New Chapel. So if New Chapel is the place of closer to the monument or church itself you mentioned earlier yeah new chapel so if new chapel is uh the place of uh phrasma worship there could have been an old chapel uh maybe

old chapel was phrasma as well um but what specifically were you curious about just to see how involved it is within threshmore if the citizens have any superstitions around it if that helps inform how strange they are yeah you you'll'll know more when you get in because of the memory lapse. But yeah, for you as a Phrasma worshiper, it's a positive sign that there is a chapel dedicated to it. Now, if there's a chapel on every corner dedicated to every god, you're not going to feel as special. But even the chapel at Briarstone, it was a pantheistic chapel,

but Phrasma was the main one behind the altar. But there were little things to everybody. So there's a good chance you're walking into an area that holds Phrasma supreme. It was also Phrasma worshippers who exercised the island in the first place. So chances are they're the number one. chances are they're the number one I think it's Desna in particular

hates like the Elder Mythos gods get out of here because Desna's all about travel but not that kind of travel get out of here Ashton Liles so yeah the last thing I'll just remind you about is Winter

she's a sister of the Maiden's Choir Cathedral in Kalifas which is also a noose to love she came to Threshmore with Royal Accuser Omari to investigate why Hazardton Lyle's abandoned his post Royal Accuser think of it as like an Inquisitor it's pretty sweet

and like I said I'm pretty sure you can play this archetype if you're an Inisitor. You can be like a royal accuser in training. And even though they work for the state accusers, they often involve the church. And so Winter was brought along, most likely for her healing abilities. If they thought there'd

be trouble, you want to have a cleric with you. She was sent to Briarstone to investigate Lottus' connection to the asylum. But just the fact that the Royal Cruiser was brought in lets you know things are not right here in Threshmore.

So, eventually, you come ashore. Let's go to roll 20. Let's take it to the limit. Past the point. Michael Rowe, your boat ashore. Alleluia.

I'm just trying to get some good vibes in before we get into what will inevitably kill us. That would be a good song to play under this scene. Like as you're arriving. Oh, now it's creepy. Oh, God, it's so creepy. All right, let me... You got that yellow mist up there, Grant? I like that.

I got it up there. From the mist, we're going to take it to a little image of what this town looks like. Oh. Oh. Little town. Quaint.

Quiet village. Quaint, right? Little town. Oh, little town of Throshmore. As you're hopping off the boat, you see the town. Mostly wooden buildings. Shingled roofs. Dirt roads instead of cobblestone streets.

Smoking chimneys. It's very hilly. You can see some of the larger buildings and monuments are built upon the larger hills in the distance. There are some people about, and they look at you suspiciously through narrow eyes, but you quickly notice they're kind of all looking at each other that way. So it's not just because you're outsiders. Maybe you get a slightly narrower look,

but everyone is just eyeing each other. So there's a tension in the air, for sure. You start to walk around. What's your plan? Where do you want to go? The inn, the detective agency, and the ancestral home of the Laos. Those are three.

And Winter, New Chapel, to get rendezvous with Winter eventually. And our characters are starving, so I think the need to get to an inn would be way high on the list, right? To get some supper, not bellies. Gotta hit up the stain. Do we have any money? We do. We found money. Yeah, we found money. We have plenty of money to buy a meal with.

I mean, no! Could I borrow some of yours? You stole money from plenty of dead guards. You guys should have some money. The problem of doing the show live, I don't know how much bookkeeping was done. At least 95 gold in between all of us, which should get us a room to stay in and some food.

Okay. Where did you come up with that number? Because writing down 45 gold or 50 gold on two different encounters for the loot we got. So, yes. I definitely have that. You idiot, Joe. You dummy. I just thought it was a funny number because I have 93 gold for me personally which i think is accurate ah i think that we split gold like if it was coin i'm pretty sure we split it

live during the show so we're like just do this because we knew the bookkeeping wasn't really gonna happen right well then maybe it's 95 gold for me then because if we split it that way maybe there's an odd number so maybe we each have 95 93 somewhere in their gold. Yeah, that sounds right. You know, it's weird. You went through that whole first book, couldn't go to a shop to buy anything, couldn't go to a shop to sell anything. So you have the opportunity to do that here,

but you've got bigger fish to fry. So your plan is to go try and find the silver wagon or the stain. Probably the stain has rooms, too. Crossbow made it sound like it was all part of the same building. Great. Maybe they have live music tonight. It's funny you should mention that. They do.

But I'm getting ahead of myself because... Billy Joel? Billy Joel? Live tonight? At the Stain? Soon enough, we're going to be in there saying, man, what are you doing here? It's a pretty good crowd. It's actually a pretty good crowd for a Saturday.

We shuffle in. The manager walks up, gives us a smile. Oh, we could do this for an hour us a smile. Oh, we could do this for an hour and a half. This is right in the wheelhouse of our dad humor. So you

start walking in the direction that Crossbow gave you to go to the Silver Dragon slash the Stain. And as you walk around, you start to notice something particularly eerie and you saw remnants of it when you first walked into town and you didn't think too much of it but as you

start to see it a few more times it just strikes you as odd there are these half drawn murals on just random walls not graffiti because there is some artistic merit to them. Although that's not the thing you notice like what beautiful art. Um, but they, they're just like these charcoal drawings on walls of buildings of a gloomy abandoned city.

Um, and if this town that you're walking through, uh through wasn't gloomy enough or creepy, just the way everybody's kind of looking at each other, seeing that just adds an even greater air of despair and pause. Was charcoal the medium that Zandalus used as well, or were they just black and white? He did use charcoal, but he did have paint as well. Does the city resemble this one, or does the city resemble some of Zandalus' paintings? It has a very similar feel to Zandalus' paintings. For all of you, even you, Sir Julie, there is a feel to this city that you would find yourself in from time to time while you were dreaming in the asylum. Because even though, Sir Julie, you weren't there at the beginning, I like to think that this was happening to you as well. If you ever slept outside of the chapel, you were sleeping

outside of the chapel. So every night you were rolling will saves to see if you'd have these dreams. And maybe one night you failed and saw this abandoned city i don't mean to like toot her horn or anything but sir julie is the og asylum resident she's probably the longest serving your patient there she's been there for literal decades real feather in your cap patient 001 come at me bros you must be very proud you must be very proud of yourself longest serving resident of this asylum they gave me a ribbon but you

you see that and you're like awesome that's what I want to see right when I walk into this town so you head over to and there's no I'm sorry there's no knowledge check we could do in that city, right? We've already done what we could based on Xander Lips' paintings? Yeah, and there's really nothing to see. It's just like...

It looks like what you remember. But yeah, any knowledge check is going to think, okay, maybe this has some sort of connection to the Dreamlands. Maybe this is one of those cities. But that's really all you know. Why it's here on the walls. Any knowledge check is going to think, okay, maybe this has some sort of connection to the Dreamlands. Maybe this is one of those cities, but that's really all you know. Why it's here on the walls. Gross. Do you guys want to go to the Silver Wagon or the Stain?

Because as you roll up, you see there's two buildings. It looks like the Silver Wagon is upstairs and the Stain is downstairs. And it does say live music tonight at the same. Well, we know where we got to go. Yeah. Poor guy needs some bread in his jar. Right.

All right. So you, uh, you walk over to stay in this, this and people milling around outside and, you walk in and there's, I don't know, a dozen or so, maybe a dozen and a half people sitting around. There's a couple guys playing music,

playing the spoons. That's Johnny and the Spoons. Oh, I love cutlery-based musicianship. It's great. There's a bartender. He's got mutton chops, bald head, big guy. And

you walk in. Who walks in first? Aldo. Aldo? Aldo is by far I think the most eager. He fancies a pint and he thinks it's important that we all get a pint together after everything we've been through. Okay.

Yeah, you walk in there, Aldo, and there's something so familiar about this place. You don't know if it's Johnny and the Spoons or just the layout, but you're like, I have been here before. Who comes in after Aldo? It is I, Sir Julie Andrews. So Sir Julie walks in, resplendent in her paladin armor, and people kind of, whoa, give you an eye, because you're an imposing figure. Hello, fair people.

Enjoying your music, I see. They nod. It's newfangled song stylings. The music has changed since I went away. When I was much a youth, they played the forks. I was going to make that same exact dumb joke. Gotcha. You beat me to that terrible joke.

I played the forks. Do you have an image of your deity on your armor? I mean, I'm sure I have my, you know, my image of Shailen, if I, you know, I have some sort of pendant. No, sorry, not Shailen. Sarenrae. Sarenrae.

I was like, can I seem like a Shailen worshiper? All right, so I was just curious. I didn't know if you had it emblazoned on your armor. Who's after Ser Julie? I think Halster is gently elbowing his way through the crowd. He was a little upset, but not upset in an angry way just like scared that he was losing sight of best friend he really wants to be close to them he's scared of being amongst all these people and he only wants to be near like the one person that's been

kind to him so far so like excuse me i'm sorry sir julie uh let me just as she's showing off to the crowd he like ducks under her beautiful cape or whatever's hanging off the back of her armor and gets close to Sheila to get a drink. Aldo is like so excited about being here that he kind of loses track of best friend and the minute he sees this, oh, oh, there you are, and he throws his arm around him.

Like all six foot seven, like your arm says, come on, it's here to va. Yes, let's, let's, that sounds like fun. That sounds, that sounds relaxing. So you, you sidle past,

uh, Sir Julie and make your way towards the bar with Aldo. And the bartender looks up at you and points a finger right in your face. Halster. It's like, Oh no, you don't. Oh no, you don't. Oh, no, you don't.

You think I forgot about your ugly mug? You're banned from this place. Did you forget? What, did you come to pay your tab or start another fight? They should have kept you in that holding cell at Fort Hale course for more than one night. If it was me, I'd have locked you up

and thrown away the key for what you did to that poor fella. They say he'll never see again. Now get out and take your friends with you. And he comes around the bar and he's this big guy. And he's like, get out. You get out right now. And starts kind of like, he's not being physical, but he's being physical enough that you guys are backing towards the door.

What do you say, Halster? Halster says, oh, no, no, it's just the gray eyes. I often get confused for other people uh please sir i i would never start a fight i'm not a pugilist um i am please um i'm very hungry um please have mercy on me uh diplomacy check nine damn it's like nice nice try you're a terrible actor but a hell of a fighter like i said that poor guy was left Blind, he can't even see He has kids, he'll never see his kids again

You think you can just walk right back in here You get out, I never want to see your face in here again And as he's pushing outside You see a man in shoddy clothes Like wearing a signboard Across his shoulders And he's walking up towards the entrance And shouting at you and shouting into the bar,

and he's like, Doom is coming! The second vanishing is upon us! Pray for your salvation that the Briarstone Witch doesn't come and take you! And the guy's trying to push you out. He's pushing you into this. Sir Julie?

Sir Julie walks up to the sandwich board man and says, Tell me to push you out. He's pushing you into this. Sir. Julie, sir. Julie walks up to the sandwich board man says, tell me more kind sir. Oh, what do you want to know? What do you want to know? Sir? Night, the Briarstone,

which is coming and you think you will be strong enough. You and your faults. God to send her back from whence he came. She's going to take us all, all in Avalon Bay and feast upon us. And the guy looks at you, the owner of the bar, looks at you, Aldo, and is basically like, well, he looks past you at the guy that's yelling, and he's like, would you get out of here, El Grior?

You're scaring away our customers. I'm not going to tell you again. And then he looks to you, Aldo, and to Halsey. He's like, you know what? You want to lift the ban? Lift your ban from this place? You and your friends? You want a clean slate? You get him out of here, and then we'll talk. If you can actually get him out of here, then I will discuss maybe lifting the ban on you. And then he just kind of pushes you out, gets a foot in the door, and shuts it behind him. And now you're left with this madman out on the streets. Atticus, you never got into the bar

so the guy's like just right next to you yelling, oh, the Briarstone Witch is coming! And Sir Julie puts a hand on the guy's shoulder and says, I am very interested in what you have to say, sir. Tell me everything you

know about the Briarstone Witch. And she puts a hand around her shoulder and just starts, like, walking him down the street. He pulls his shoulder away. He's like, don't you touch me. Don't you touch me. I'm so one of them. You're one of the leaders, like the Count and the Magistrate. All the leaders, they're all responsible.

I bet you are, too, because you probably work for the church. You're all working with the witch. They're the ones. You're the ones. You're the ones that called the witch here and made a deal with her. I bet you're going to leave town too, like all of them did. Because they're going to leave. They're going to leave.

And then they're going to come back after the deed is done. So they can have full run of Fush more and all the spoils left behind. I know you. I see your truth. You're with them. You're with the magistrate and the count. You're going to come here, and then you're going to leave, and you're going to come back. Don't you touch.

Are you going to touch my beetles? Don't you touch my beetles. I have them hidden away in my house. Now, I've told her where the beetles don't you touch my beetles I have them hidden away in my house oh no I've told her where the beetles are she has come this night to steal my beetles you stay away from my beetles you sick pig

so Julia slaps him across the face now that was for the big comment as to the beetles I have no I have no particular preference for beetles Now, that was for the pig comment. As to the beetles, I have no particular preference for beetles. If you like them, then you may keep them. I am more interested in what you say about the magistrate and the count disappearing. They left together? I've been a bit out of the loop. Oh, yeah, act like you don't know.

Act like you don't know about the magistrate and the count. Because maybe you want to be the new magistrate. Or maybe you think you can be the new count. I had a dream. I had a dream and I saw the witch rising from Avalon Bay, just plucking townsfolk one by one from their homes with her wicked long nails. Let me ask you this, Sir Knight, future magistrate or future count

when there's no one left here to rule over and I'm dead in the ground, do you believe in the power of dreams? You have no idea, sir, what I have, the power of dreams have had on me and my friends. Your friends?

What are their feelings on Beatles? And Mr. Julie turns to the others. What say you to the Beatles? Oh, they're great I'm more of a Rolling Stones Sort of person I like a bit harder rock But no they're great

Empty your pockets I want to see if you have my Beatles I can't abide it No they're great You take that back James This one has stones? Do you have my beetles? What about you?

Points a finger and pouts his face. I've just learned that I may have blinded a man, so if you know what's good for you, I might blind you too, and you won't be able to see any more dreams, so you stop talking about your beetles and start telling us about the missing people. He means

it. When he gets like this I can't control him. Hold me back. He's like an NBA player trying to get in a fight. He doesn't really want to throw a fist but he's like hold me back. Hold me back. You could take away my eyes but I will never be blind to the truth. The truth that

the witch has come and will come again and drag us all underwater. You think I'm alone in my theories? Just ask the fisherman. The fisherman saw the briarstone witch in a cave just outside of town. Soon all you mindless sheep... He starts banging on the window to the stain.

All of you mindless sheep and ignorant fools will be believing, but it'll be too late because you'll all be dead and this knight will be the one ruling over you. So you realize this guy's gone. Now, there might be some elements of truth to what he's saying, but to try and suss it out is hard because he's a raving madman.

You also know that this guy that said Halster is banned from this place might lift the ban if you can deal with this guy. So how, if at all, would you like to deal with him? Deploy him? Intimidate? Beat him up?

Aldo's gesturing at Julie to like kill him. Gets her attention just like Julie receives the sign and then says unfortunately I cannot do that. I am sworn to protect

the innocent and I cannot enact violence against a fellow like this who is oh a victim of his own psychosis is that what you meant? sorry if I misinterpreted

no I just meant really hammer home the point that everything's alright and he should go away that's what this gesture meant ah yes what does this gesture mean? Ah, yes. I never would have played violence. What does this gesture mean?

The slashing motion across the throat. That was like, it's like, hmm. You know, where I come from, it's sort of like, a lot of people do it like that, against the cheek, but like where I come from, it's like, hmm. There's this thinking, what to do? And then it's just like, hammer home the point. Tell him to go away.

Ah, that I can do good sir kind sir we have no interest in your beetles I have no interest in being a magistrate or a count I am a knight of the dawn flower and that has always been enough for me personally now perhaps we can arrange a

later time for you to show us exactly where you saw the witch rise from Avalon Bay so that we may perhaps investigate ourselves and, you know, do battle against evil if we must. How does, oh, I don't know, midnight suit you?

Time no longer exists! Well, I'm out of ideas. But you can roll a diplomacy check to try and calm him down so that you maybe can reason with him. If anybody else wants to aid, what do you say to them? I should aid rather than roll the check. None of us are good at this, right?

Oh, well, then I'll roll. I have a minus one diplomacy. This is not a forte. I'm a plus three, so I can roll the check if you want to aid. All right. If, Skeeter Joe, you want to aid, you've just got to tell me what you're doing to aid. Yeah, I aid.

And be like, look at her. You can trust her. Look how impressive she looks in her armor and everything. I mean, she's religious as well I think I believe her, I don't know about you I aid as well Atticus

I'm not going to aid Just watch this go down Alright, so plus four to this check Halster, do you want to make a speech To see if I'll give you any Untyped bonuses? Yes. There's always a place in the

Church of Phrasma for those who love beetles. In fact, she is the patron saint of beetle collectors, and if you'll allow me to show you this literature on beetle collecting and their place in Phrasma's lore, I will and then he puts him in a headlock. No, that's not diplomatic.

He just wants to get this guy and then he stabs him in the neck with a dagger he wants to roll a heel check to do a full frontal lobotomy on this guy basically

intimidate is another option but it seems like you're going the diplomatic route he'll just continue to like kind of meander on about the things that he seems interested in

to calm him down to move him on and hopefully that'll work so that will be uh 14 plus two aids takes it to an 18 he's like I

I you would teach my beetles the way of phrasma yes yes her road is long and twisted, but many beetles have rolled their dung up it before, and many will in the future as well. It's a long and winding road, one might say.

Yes. Listen, I might seem a little crazy, but is it crazy to want your beetles to be blessed before they die so that they'll go to beetle heaven? If that's crazy, then I'm crazy. I will think on this young man. Yes, yes, I will think on the beetles. But you should watch your back, for the witch is coming. Yes, I will think on the Beatles, but you should watch your back, for the witch is coming. And he just slowly walks away, talking about converting his Beatles to forasper worship.

Well, maybe I could. Ah, but Jimmy's going to be a tough sell. He's always been more of a serenade. And that's what he's saying as he walks off perfect nice should we attempt to re-enter the bar without this madman

raven? yeah let's do it alright I invite you jeepers give it up for that guy on the spoons That guy On the spoons Alright so you Kind of start walking back in and the

Proprietor comes around again And he looks and he notices that Elgrior Is gone And he doesn't talk to you Halster but he talks to you, Aldo. Is he gone, gone? Yeah, no, he's gone. He's out there. Oh, no, he left. No, he totally left. You won't see him again, at least tonight. Well, I don't know what you said to him, but thank you.

Well, I don't know what you said to him, but thank you. As for you, you can't start any trouble in here again. Now listen, I deal with people that are over-served all the time, and shit happens. But what you did to that poor man, it's not my place to judge you. But you gotta pay your tab. And if you do, you're welcome to hang out here. But if you cause another problem like that, I'm going to find somebody to take care of you. And that's a threat.

Threat taken. Noted. How much is my tab? 95 gold. Damn it! Oh, no. Roll a... It's a massive bar tab. Yeah. Like a staggering bar tab.

Did I pay for a replacement eyeballs? Here's how we're going to do this. Roll a D100 and divide it by two. That's your bar tab. Okay. In gold? Oh my god. Jeepers in gold that's insane dude what if you roll a 10 uh 36 so 18 gold 18 gold so imagine that what the hell did halster this teetotaling scaredy cat what do you do here what do you rack up on that well it's um it's just casting doubt on what we learned in our flashbacks in our dreams you were talking about this at the

top some seem real some seem more uh abstract and absurd and difficult to take as as what happened in the past but just as soon as he feels like he has any bearing on his being after seeing those flashbacks which scared the hell out of him he has more um more uh information to make him believe that he's not the kind of guy he is currently in the past wow so you sit down and you pay your tab and he introduces himself as Emin. What the hell is his name? He's got a good name. Eman? E-M-M-A-N.

Emin Galston. Emin Galston. It's like, name's Gulston. Eamon Gulston. I guess you were too drunk to remember. Uh, you're welcome. You're welcome here. I appreciate you paying that tab.

You can understand why I was so upset. 18 gold is no joke. Uh, people will come in here and rack up tabs of that nature and just walk out after a night in Fort Halecourse. Um, you're welcome to, You're welcome to hang out. You know what? First round and apps are on me. We'll do some apps.

A round of apps would be lovely. Apps for the table. Apps for the table. Do you have some sort of sampler? A little bit of everything. You want to do a sampler? All right. I think we do. Aldo, do you have some sort of sampler that you can do a bit of everything? You want to do a sampler? All right. I think we do.

Aldo, do we... Sampler? Yeah, no, sampler. I could go for a blooming onion, actually. I can't explain the urge, but I could do that. Sampler would be great, too. Anybody have any allergies? No.

Not that I know of, but... We do! No, we don't know! We could all be allergic to shellfish and peanuts. And you would know. That's the best way to find out. A sample of platter. That sounds like a D100 roll to me.

Oh, yeah. I'll bring out the... You just start vomiting. Somebody get an EpiPen. No more shrimp cocktail for me. It's like shrimp cocktail, lobster tail, peanut satay. It's a Thai seafood. Almond-crusted mackerel.

All right, here you go. And I'm sorry I got so mad. It's all right. And I don't wish to take more of your time. It's very busy in here. I completely understand. But if you could humor me for a moment. I wasn't there, at least to my memory, or perhaps I had too much to drink.

But when exactly did this whole incident take place? Do you remember? How long ago was it that my beef-headed friend here started this brawl? A couple months ago, I think? Yes. Well, he's done a lot of soul-searching since then, I can assure you of that. And what started the brawl? Do you remember?

Well, this one. What is your name again? Halster. Halster. Halster, but you can call me this one if it's easier for you. What is your name again? Halster. Halster.

But you can call me this one if it's easier for you. This one was way in his cups. And he was buying drinks for everybody sitting around him. He had several young ladies at his table. He was maybe trying to impress them. I don't know what. And I think someone made eyes at one of the ladies. He didn't like that. And he just walked over to him with a mug of ale

and smashed it right into the guy's face, completely unprovoked. Right. His eye popped out, landed on the floor. I got the guard here. I went outside. Luckily, they were nearby. They took him off, hauled him

off to Fort Halecourse for the night. He spent a night in the tank, and I went to check in the next day to try and get my money, and they had released him after a day of being in there. Probably because of your associations. Somebody said

you were one of the Count's thugs. Oh, yes. Of course. Who was the fellow that's now missing. Oh. Yes, of course. Who was the fellow that's now missing an eye? Oh, I didn't get his name. You know. Has he been in since?

No, no. He can't find the place. No. Jesus Christ. That's just lazy improv. And mean, too. Just mean. Give him our best if you see him.

Yeah, I should try and find out where he is, maybe if you want to make amends. Yes. Was there anyone else here who might remember the incident? A regular, perhaps? Someone who also saw it all go down? A regular? No, no, I mean... Here tonight?

No, we have plenty of regulars, and you see more people are coming in as it's getting later. But it's like I don't... Are you asking me if I know what clientele was there that night? No, I don't know. All right. But, you know. Just wondering if anyone else overheard something, something that was said, you know, perhaps it wasn't simply a lock. Perhaps there was something else.

That's all. Yeah, no, I'm telling you all that I know. But once again, you're welcome here as long as you don't cause any problems. If I see that bar tab going up, I'll be happy, obviously, for the money that we'll be making tonight, but I'm going to have to keep an eye on you. We'll just play as we go, if it's alright. That would be wonderful. I'd appreciate that.

And how about a room? Is that something that we can negotiate with you, or should we speak with the silver wagon upstairs? I only have two rooms here at the Stain, and they're both booked up for the night with some out-of-towners. But Dana probably has rooms upstairs at the wagon. You're welcome to go up there and check.

And it's all connected. You just go outside, and there's like a stairway that goes up to the subway. What was the bar on top of Cheers? Wasn't there another bar on top? It was't there another bar like melville's it was the restaurant restaurant yeah it was a restaurant yeah but they they were like rivals yeah yeah that softball episode gary's old town tavern no that was the other yeah yeah all right so um i mean i atticus wants to square away lodging. He doesn't want to sleep outside tonight.

So, can we go up to that Silver Spoon place after we get some food in us? Silver Spoon? Silver Spoon? Upstairs? Yeah. Ice to Fice. I think Silver Spoon's had a Cheers crossover, too, if I'm remembering correctly. Oh, every episode.

They shoehorned it into every single episode of Cheers. All right, so your plan is to head up there and grab a bite. After you grab a bite and get some rooms, and sure enough, you go up to the— We'll do apps at the Stain. Right. Main course. Dinner at the Wagon. At the Silver Wagon. A little pregame. Dinner at the Wag. Dinner at the stain right main course dinner at the silver wagon little pre-game at the wag dinner at the wag well it's two for one at the stain it makes sense to go with apps yeah

sliders two for one sliders um okay so you're hanging out there getting ready to go upstairs maybe somebody went and checked to see if she has room. She does have rooms. She's very nice. And as you're sitting there having a bite to eat, a guy is like eyeing the table. And he's this young, kind of ruggedly handsome guy he's got like a uh what are those caps called scully cap he's got a scully cap uh you see his hands are all cut and scarred up he's probably uh like a fisherman or something and he he's looking at the table

and then he slides up to you and just slaps you on the back aldo and he's like goes right through your chest it's like boom aldo aldo you son of a bitch how in seven hells are you i was looking across the table and i'm like is that is that casimir and sure enough it is i haven't seen you around in a while. Where the hell did you get off to? Hey, it's you. Man, well, it's been quite a tale. How are you? I'm good.

I'm good. I just felt like we were hanging out, and then you just disappeared. I knew the weather's been bad. I figured maybe you were just waiting out the storms but i'm at the stand every night and you never you never came by we were having a good time of course and i was wondering as i came in here and i was like where is he oh by the way these are my friends perhaps they'd like to introduce themselves you could have some nice greetings back and forth classic i do that move all the time and like I hate when people don't

pick up on it. I know, it's like, you fucking better respond to this the right way. Here's one of my friends here. He points at Julie. Hello, my name is Julie Andrews, Knight of the Dawnflower. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet

you as well. And what's your name? Points to Atticus. Atticus Grimm. A pleasure. Atticus, like you, you look so familiar to me. And so do you, tall guy. What's your name? I'm Halster Price, but be careful when you look at me, because I might blind you, apparently.

All right, I will. I feel like I drink too much i feel like we all hung out but my aldo i remember aldo playing cards drinking going to those parties uh we had a good time i just do you remember do you remember the night we were playing we were playing cards here and those two sisters came up to the table with their names their names? Betty and Sweaty. What were their names? Betty and Sweaty, and then there was, then we went to that God, we had some good times. It's good to see you! Oh!

It's great to see you. Let me ask you. I'm sorry, I didn't catch you on there. No, no, no, wait. Hold on. I'm sorry. Aldo jumps up to hug him, and then he fakes a seizure. He starts like, I'm sorry. Aldo jumps up to hug him. And then he fakes a seizure.

He starts like, and just falls on the ground and starts writhing and then goes unconscious. The guy's watching him. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Is your friend all right? Is Aldo all right?

Aldo. Aldo. Adelkiss will come over top of him, start slapping his face lightly. Aldo? Aldo? Aldo? Nothing I'm talking to the guy I fall over

And what does he do? What does he do? Yeah Is there a doctor in the house? I'm moaning I'm moaning I'm moaning I'm moaning

I'm moaning I'm moaning I'm moaning I'm moaning I'm moaning I'm moaning I'm moaning I'm moaning

Are you alright? He gets down He like... Are you all right? He gets down. He's like, are you okay? Who's there? It's your buddy, Keldron. Keldron. Keldron. And he pops up and he's just like, oh, sorry about that.

Oh, it's been a long journey. Keldron, everybody. Oh, Keldron. Woo. Just great. Great to see him again. You areron, everybody. Oh, Keldron. Just great. Great to see him again. You are a crazy bastard. It is good to see... Do you mind if I sit

for a sec? Oh, please. Keldron's welcome anywhere I'm about. What, uh... He kind of looks around. He's like, do you know what's going on with the Count? Are you, uh... Are you still working for him? I heard he left town, and now you turned back up.

It looks like he's hired some new people over at Iris Hill. It's a strange lot he's got over there. You know, certainly not from around here, if you know what I mean. What's up with that? No, we quite don't know, actually. Not from around here, if you know what I mean. What's up with that? No, we quite don't know, actually. No. He's gone missing from us as well.

We came here looking to see if he'd returned, but apparently not. Aldo, roll a bluff check to pretend that you actually remember this guy. Okay. Ooh, 90, 16. My bluff, 17. 17. He's like talking and he's telling a story and asks you about the count. He's just like, there's a way that you're looking at him that he doesn't. He kind of like, he stops himself. He's like, are you all right?

There's something different about you. Yeah, your little trip must have been something, you know. Old Meb said that you got shipped off to Briarstone, but he's always making up stories. I didn't believe it. But now the way you're looking at me and you're with these guys. Were you doing time over at Briarstone? Kevin, I have to come clean.

I just can't live with the lie. Yeah, we were in Briarstone. No shit. I know what they did to us but to be honest i don't i don't think i've been the same since my memories of you cherished as they must have been are so hazy now that i just can't remember much of my time before that is fucking wild what is it like over there? How long were you over there? No wonder I didn't see you. I'm walking over here.

I'm all excited, and you're acting weird. I'm looking at you. You got your weird friends, no offense. And now, so it's true. Oh, Memnu, what is it like over there? How did you get out? Were you committed? Did you commit yourself?

This is blowing my mind. I know, I know. Keep your voice down, though. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. It's not the sort of thing that you want spread around. You've been in the nuthouse. But, yeah, we don't really know, honestly. We've sort of kind of been able to piece together little bits and bobs.

But we were there for, I think, a couple of months. When was the last time you saw me? Oh, God. It's been like four months. Four months. I think. Whoa. Maybe five.

I don't know, man. You know me. I'm out every night. I lose track of time more than most people. I'm an alcoholic. most people. I'm an alcoholic. A best friend.

They say that you were here two months ago. Is that right? Yes. Apparently that's when I assaulted that poor man. You didn't see any of that, Kelton. Were you here that evening that I apparently blinded a man? You assaulted... I've got these fights here every night, but you...

Talon, I feel like i've seen you and you not you madam but uh oh no i've been in the asylum for more than 40 years wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute we're all you we're all you locked up are you all are you all my chubs i prefer the term you know crazy person i don't think that's preferred either this is wild this is let me tell you things are things are weird here too you might have been safer over there there's people disappearing left and right you got you mind if i grab some of this peanut crusted shrimp no please grab it. Grab, he takes a bite. He's like, you got,

there's people disappearing left and right. The leaders of the town are just leaving these weird murals all over the place. And then there's all these, yeah, then there's these like new people about. They look like rich out of towners. I think, what do I know? But I think they're here to make a move

now that the count's away. So, you know, they think like, oh, the count's gone. They're going to come into town, shake the right hands, and then they're going to be the new count. I don't know. But, you know, if you're still working with him, I'd watch your back because he's not a not a popular figure here in Threshmore. And I don't know. It's just not a not a great place to live. Be honest. I was thinking about leaving. I was thinking about leaving yesterday. I was wasted. And I was like, I'm leaving this town.

I'm never coming back. But then I woke up and I forgot. I forgot all about that. I forgot that I said that. I swore a blue streak that I was going to leave. But now I'm here drinking. I'm glad I came because I'm seeing you and your friends. But listen, you just got out of the asylum and now you're here drinking.

I don't want to take up any of your time. I'm just going to take one more peanut-crusted shrimp and some of that almond mackerel. But we should hang out. Do you have my number? How do people communicate? I don't know. Give us a crow, I guess. All right. Tender even. Here is my address. Give us a crow, I guess. All right.

Here is my address. Come visit me if you ever want to see me. But yeah, it's good to see you. I'm glad you're all right. I was worried about you. Old Mev says asylum. I'm like, it's not in the asylum. You were.

And he starts to walk away and then he stops. And he's like, I remember. Yes, yes! And he leans back in on the table, turns the chair around. He's like, yes, it was going to drive me nuts. I'm glad it's early in the night and I can still walk straight.

The last time I saw you, he points at Aldo, you were with him, points to Halster. And this little guy points to Atticus. And some old lady, not you,

and a green fella. Maybe a look. Oh, no. We'll see a loser. He looked like a real loser. He looked like he'd go down in one hit. He looked like a strong wind would knock him out. Oh, yeah.

I thought those guys had more ferocity. I expected more from you. I'm just trying to get more info. I saw you guys. It looked like there might have been a couple other people with you, too. I was over at the docks, and I was talking to this lady of the night, as it were. And I swear, I swear I saw you over at Worm's Hook. You know, over by Pier 19?

Nobody goes over there, obviously. And so I was shocked to see anyone. I keep looking over there. I'm looking like, who the hell's over there? Trying to talk to my date. And I'm like, is that fucking Aldo? And who the hell is he with? It looked like a group of you were down the end of the pier,

stuffing like a bundle up underneath the end of the dock. I'm watching you guys and I'm like, you know, listen, I know you were crazy. You and I did some crazy shit, but I didn't think you were that crazy to head down to Pier 19. And I certainly wasn't going to leave my date to try and stop you. What the hell were you thinking

going over there? Well, maybe that's one of the reasons we were thrown in the asylum, was that sort of behavior. That seems like a strange cause to be thrown in. I don't know. You're lucky it ended up dead.

How does one get to Pier 19? Oh, you just head down to the water and it's right between Pier 18 and Pier 20. Ah, okay, okay. Okay. You can't miss it, but you don't want to go down there. What? You're looking at me like I'm crazy.

Do you not know what goes on down at Wormsook? What? Nice. What? Well, about a year and a half ago, they found those three anglers just melted right down by the pier. anglers just melted right down by the pier. You know, they say kids go over there and stuff, like trying to be brave to show off, you know, but then another guy went missing.

So that's why it was just, nobody goes over there. Just was crazy to me that you would go, you're down there, it's like you and a couple other people, I saw you shoving something up under the dock. I'm thinking to myself, what the hell is he doing? I don't know. Maybe the rumors aren't true, but they found three melted bodies over there. So, I don't know. Urban legend, I guess.

Welcome to Thrushmore. That's what we do here. Anyways, I've taken up enough of your time. You hang out with your friends. You have a good time. Dude, we got to go out. We got to go out and do it right. We will.

Yes. I'm going to hold you to that. We gotta go out and do it right. We will. Yes. I'm gonna hold you to that. We really enjoyed this time together. This was great. So I'd love more of it. All right. Aldo, Halster, Atticus, Sir Julie. I wonder where the rest of your friends are.

Anyways, we'll talk. Good seeing you. Good seeing you. Good seeing you. Oh, mate. Yeah. Hey! And he goes over to another table. It's Keldron Mon.

Keldron Mon. Keldron Mon. Sounds like a Star Wars character. Sounds like an alias. Yeah. What's the, what's the, what's, um, in the X-Files, not reboot, but the new X-Files guy-man. Guy-man.

Guy-man. Sir Julie leans in and says, So what were you stuffing under the pier? Well, that's the question, isn't it? I think maybe we should take a look. Maybe there was something. We knew we were being sent away and we left ourselves a little prize when we got back you know total recall style

yes we are getting a great deal of information about who we are and what was happening here lots of clues to follow up on. The dark seems very promising, though dangerous. That does sound dangerous. Could I do a knowledge check on that? On like people melting? Like if there's a creature that does that? Or like a disease that does that? Yeah, maybe a knowledge arcana

or knowledge planes. I can do a knowledge planes. Oh, 27! Knowledge arcana. That's pretty good. It'd be a 15 for Atticus. There are lots of creatures

that have abilities like that, whether it be like creatures that shoot fire if it's some kind of a monster. Were the bodies burned? It doesn't seem like they were burned. He would have said burned. Melted was the word he used, and you think, you wonder if like just all the blood was drained from them.

Exsanguination. Exsanguination. Oh, dear. Chupacabra. And they would look like just melted husks because someone just sucked. Oh, the bones, too? Like they look like a floppy, floopy skin bag? They look melty.

Maybe we got some vampire action. No. I don't want to be a floppy floop. I don't want to be a floppy floop. Don't make me be a floppy floop, I don't want to be a floppy floop. Don't make me be a floppy floop, Mommy. That should be on a T-shirt. It will. I don't want to be a floppy floop.

James, you said we were finding out more about who we are, but do you think that's necessarily so? Do you think it could just be we're learning about who we were and we don't have to be that could just be we're learning about who we were, and we don't have to be that person again that we keep hearing about. I don't like what I hear about myself, James. No, that description that the guy says, nothing like you now. Please, don't overthink it.

It is simply an incident. You have no idea what the set it up or what you were thinking at the time or anything like it. Don't read too much into it. All right, all right. This man says that a man looked at a woman you were with funny and you bashed his face in. I refuse to believe it. I think he must have provoked you in some way. He must have been harming one of these women, and you came to her rescue, Halster.

It's the only possible explanation. Thank you. Now. Detective Elon Halster. I'm sorry. I'm kidding. I actually can now detect evil on halster i'm sorry i'm kidding i actually can't hey so i was listening back to our last marathon and i just want to make sure i can't remember if we talked about it but your archetype uh does it prevent you from having any auras that help us yes that is part of my archetype is the auras only affects me okay it's very selfish actually it's uh it's a psychological psychological baggage but thanks for bringing it up well sorry i'll just refer to you as a crazy

person from now on as is your preference i'm surprised all the treatment you received over the decades didn't help you with that well it might have helped, but their tactics were fairly medieval. Yeah. Did her tactics at the asylum move from a science-based treatment method to more of a magical treatment method during Julie's stay there, or did that changeover happen prior to her arrival? Do you know, Troy? So if Julie was there from the beginning, you know

from looking at the records of Briarstone, they started out with a little bit more medieval. Scientific rigor? They started a little more medieval and using magic, and then they were like, let's get away from this and focus truly on science. So what Lysandro did with

the Chain of Knights was going backwards, but she was desperate. She was desperate to try and save Xandalu's. Maybe for selfish measures. Maybe not. Maybe she just wanted to get published. You've got a lot

of information here. You know that Winter's going to be back hopefully tomorrow. She might already be back. And she's either going to be at new chapel where she's going to put the survivors uh or she's going to be back at the sleepless detective agency you think you don't know the sleep detective agency is another place that seems like a great uh opportunity to get some information they're a professional organization uh get some information what the hell is actually happening here without just talking to drunks and guys with signboards on their chest talking about Beatles. Now you hear from Keldren Mon that you were possibly last seen shoving a bag up underneath this pier that's linked to another urban legend in the town.

that's linked to another urban legend in the town. And the last bit of information is you find out that Halster blinded a guy in a bar fight after running up a tab worth 18 gold. But you got rooms for the night. What do you want to do? Can we go check out the pier? Yeah, I'd like to go check out the pier Under cover of darkness In case there's anything valuable that we hid for ourselves Whatever it is

I don't want to be seen looking for it Just in case So I'd love to do that before we turn in Allow me to offer another perspective As one who would have no problem at all Skulking in the pure darkness into the docks uh you all would be unable to see and so you'd be casting a light anyway and it sounds like from what our friend says no one goes there anyway so maybe we could go in the daylight

not be so concerned about being um set upon by something that can see when you cannot, and not worry about passers-by seeing us for there are no passers-by. But what if someone nicks it tonight? After four months. Well, but he's just shouting about it over there. Maybe he's going off to tell somebody else in his drunken state. I don't trust that man. I love that idea that

you just look over and this couple of guys just like let's get out of here. P19? Not unless they want to be melted. Don't underestimate our powers. They're drunk. You can't trust the judgment. And Mr. Mon

was there himself. He's drunk. Mr. Mon. Well himself. He's not. Well, it's your grave. Hey, Mon! Yeah, Mon? Where's your sense of adventure, Atticus? What's that? Where's your sense of adventure?

Oh, I only seek to protect you, Sir Julie. We need so many more of you to keep this world in line. Why don't we... There were once... Once there were more of me. Once. Yes. And they fought too much at night. And Sir Julie looks over at Aldo and Halstern

and is like, I think, as a theory, Anticus is afraid of the dark. Shut up. No, I'm not. I heard you. So Atticus brings up a good point. You know, it is dark, and Atticus is the only one with dark vision.

You could use a light source or torches. As you know, GM is notoriously unforgiving when it comes to anything like ambient moonlight or starlight. If the sun has gone down, one cannot see the hand in front of their face. That is what it looks like outside. Could be maybe a dim light situation. could be maybe a dim light situation i do agree that it makes more sense to do it during the daytime but aldo i think really would be concerned because this guy he just remembered this happened right and now he's off talking to god knows who else so i i would think that there's a at least a chance that he

or somebody else is going to hear about this and go try to find it before we do. Houster says, theoretically speaking anyway, I don't see anything wrong with being afraid of the dark. Or lighting a candle by your bedside. Don't try to defend him, Houster. We know that you are not afraid of the dark It's just Atticus Okay, good, good But again, no judgment if he were

I, however, am immune to fear Yeah Alright, well you guys have to make a decision Aldo's here. Atticus is over here, pretty clear. Where are you two? Let's go. And then Halster? Halster is terrified,

but he's gonna follow, uh, Aldo wherever he goes. It's his best friend. Alright. Halster really doesn't want to go, but he will just get him. Aldo off a bridge! He jumped off a bridge! Okay. All right, so you're going to head to the pier. Let's do this.

And Halster will cast light on his shield, his plus one heavy wooden shield. Okay. You make your way over there through this now dark city. It's not like it was super light when you arrived because the fog and the rain clouds. It's just a gray, dark place. You see more of those murals pop up from time to time. It just makes you feel like, where the hell are we and what is going on here?

But eventually you get down to Pier 19. Is it still raining? It is. An area affectionately known as Worm's Hook. And you see the dock in

question, driving rain, just pours down on the decrepit dock's boards with a sound like a score of out-of-sync drummers. Gentle waves lap against the barnacle-studded posts that hold up what remains of this sagging dock. And you see Atticus, I'll say, can see what looks like a metal pail just resting, sitting at the end of the pier. There's a gravel path that leads from the road that you traveled to get here

to the pier, and there's a nearly collapsed shack sitting at the edge of the water nearby, probably a bait house that looks totally abandoned, perhaps after the rumored events that happened in this area. The pier stands about five feet above the water and stretches about 60 feet out into the channel. Let's go to roll 20. You know, let's just go to roll 20. Check it out.

Have some apps. Oh, dear. Atticus is going to cast Mage Armor on himself. Okay. Obviously. It takes you four hours to get from the gravel road to the beginning of the pier.

That's wildly inconvenient. Oh! Speaking of four hours, we're level four. I didn't roll any HP. I don't even know what. Oh, my God. We didn't even talk about it. I don't even know what all those abilities are. You know what?

Let's talk about this. I didn't have it on my list. I was just like, remember to talk about the level up. Can I just say how fun this is? This is what we used to do before we had a podcast. We just played on Saturday afternoons. This is just fun. Yeah.

I'm really enjoying this. let's talk about level four because yeah it's kind of in the heat of that last marathon you guys leveled up after barely defeating the the tatter man uh fourth level's a big one to get some ability score boostonies atticus you're the one shaman of the bit what'd you get yeah let go, because I think I'll probably be the most boring. Wizards are generally pretty boring. It's all just kind of spell-based. They're so interesting, though, when it comes to how spells work. I mean, the more I dig into it, the more I'm like, oh, my God.

It's so interesting, because it's all about study and money. You can just buy spells. You have to just take time to learn spells. It's very unlike other classes and how they work uh yeah he doesn't get anything uh really i mean except uh the so the ability score i just did intelligence uh but it it took me from 18 to 19 so at eighth level hopefully i may get that long i'll have a 20 intelligence, but you'll get a headband. And then at eighth level, you'll be a 20.

What do you have now? 19. You'll be a 22, which is sweet. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be sweet. So,

um, yeah, I guess that's it. I got a couple of new spells, but, uh, literally two new second level spells that I added to my spell book for free. I'll bring those up when I,

uh, when they come up and I, um, uh, uh i took so remember we got the chain of nights that's another thing i'm saying is like even as he's going to this doc like he's got the chain of nights like under a fold in his uh like uh suit coat that he's wearing and he's just like constantly sort of like touching it to make sure that it's still there he's very frightened of its power but also does just doesn't want to let go of it at all. And that book,

as I delved into it after our last marathon has five spells that are fifth and sixth level. So they're just like really powerful dream based spells, including nightmare that are well beyond him right now, but he's, he's got them. Um, and I guess that's about it.

Yeah, that's it. So you didn't get access to any higher level spells. You just got more second level spells. Yeah. Next level. I'll get third level spells. Yeah.

Fourth level. I'm still at second. It's a little game changing. Uh, all right, let's roll for hit points. What are you? A D six D six.

Oh, and we have a, we have a special camera. Oh, on my dice tray this evening. I don't know if you want to use that. It is a Strange Aeons marathon, which means we have new visual innovations to bring you.

We have the fresh, brand new Joe's Gonna Roll cam right on stream. Yeah! Alright, D6 for HP. Let's see. Alright. Ooh, I got a HP. Let's see. All right. Oh! Oh! Oh, I got a three, buddy.

Can we see it on the screen? Oh. Five. Can we see it? Oh, you can see it? Good, good. All right, five. Excellent.

So you got a five. That's great. I'll take it. What about old Aldo Casimir? You've got an interesting situation here yeah i realized that i didn't like the archetype that i was i was mad scientist that was the mad scientist archetype i think it was one of the things that was voted on i just i like the name but i realized that the powers that it gives you the one that I had was this... It was an ability to...

You use one of your extracts, and it gives you an extract of a level higher than the one that you took, but it's random. So it was like, I'll never use that. I will never, ever use that. It could be fun,

but I don't want to. So I wanted to shift from that To being more of a bomb focused Like regular alchemist I just want to be regular alchemist So the problem is that if you want to retrain You have to retrain five days For every

Every alternate Ability that you have that your archetype Gives you So at third level i have one so i'd have to study for five days at fourth level i had i would have two so it would be 10 not knowing how long we would have on that boat my plan was to stay awake for five days not go to sleep and thus level up in the morning and just do all of my retraining over that period now how would you stay

awake for five days although you might be asking well i'll tell you homemade pepsi which is what i was talking about if i have a whole bunch of it so i'm just jacked up on homemade pepsi and no sleep for five days going over my book studying how better to make bombs and so that is my my new thing i have a couple of different discoveries now and i got rid of that stupid power and i don't have the other one so i'm good now you are good now so uh what is the effect of not sleeping you're like shaken yeah yeah that's what it is i don't know i don't if I've slept. I don't know how long it took. I don't know if I still haven't slept. I think that's a fair tradeoff for at least now you're fatigued

until you sleep in a warm bed. So that's a minus two to strengthen deck. So it'll make you to hit on your bombs a little bit less, but it's a fun little level. So I still haven't leveled up then. It's technically. Yeah, technically I haven't leveled up. Technically you just live.

Oh boy. Stay in the back when a fight comes up. All right. So we'll hold off on talking about yours, but that is very cool. What about you, Grant? I used to be terrified that this party was going to TPK around every corner. Every encounter we had was another brush with death now i'm convinced of it because my archetype the disenchanter has replaced channel energy

with mystic interference oh dude the archetypes are all so bad for like survivability like they're very cool and weird but like i i was looking at my thing and i'm just like oh okay so i got rid of scribe scroll you know what i mean like this like very very basic and valuable thing for survivability of a party that a wizard can bring god you get it for free it's gone we have no one to thank except for the nash thanks thanks thanks thanks um yeah so i might want to do the same thing if he has enough spare pepsi but i'll tell you what mystic interference does it allows you to spend two of my fervor points uh which are very useful to give everyone within 30 feet a plus one bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities for four rounds.

So I don't know. If you guys can talk me into that being really useful or better than channel energy, let me know. No, it's not better than channel energy. I mean, a plus one to saves is great, I think. But channel energy can harm haunts, you know what I mean? Which is going to be riddled through this entire adventure. Yeah. And we have no other way to fight them.

I mean, I have other healing capabilities. Will Sir Julie be able to channel? Or never? Spoilers. But no. Yeah, so brutal. Yeah, I mean, it's up to you, Grant. It costs money, too.

It costs a good amount of money, but I could rule the same thing that I rule for Skid, that you're not leveled up yet and you're fatigued. But Skid works out what the cost is. I think it's 100 times your level or something. To change archetypes, there's no cost. Oh, there's no cost. No, it's just time.

As far as I read. This could also potentially be, it doesn't have to be retrained as you level up, does it? Can you do it at another period of time? Can we do this later on? Yeah, it would just cost more time, more abilities you have to support. Yeah, so let's roll with it.

Maybe it'll come up as being useful I also get sacred weapon plus one so to daggers and kukris my sacred weapons are now magical plus one and that stacks on top of anything up to a total of plus five when it really levels up which is neat for I have some really

neat new spells went through the spell book and found some new spells that will also come out in combat, but that kind of go along with some of the flavor and the kind of eerie evil that you see in a bunch of Halster's flashbacks. So that'll be neat to show that side of his character. And it made sense to do it now.

You ready to roll HP? Yeah, let's roll some HP. There is a cost for retraining by the way I think it's like 400 gold but we'll figure it out later figure out how you guys pay that what are we rolling a d6

d8 nice try here comes the grant I theft system wham wham wham grant I theft that is going to be a 2 for me um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um

um um um um um um um um

um um um um um um um um

um um um um um um um um

um um um um um um um um

um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um,um,um,um,um,um,um,um,um,um,um Oh, that's so painful, Grant. Very, very, very painful. I kept looking at it like, is that a seven? You know, one and seven, it's definitely a one. That's gross. I'll be pre-recording these in the future.

Sir Julie Andrews, what does a fourth level Sir Julie look like? Pally. Pally. She gets an extra Smite Evil per day. Great. Which is going to come in handy. Normally, she would get the ability to channel positive energy, or channel energy.

Because of her archetype, she does not. What she gets instead is the ability to convert two uses of Lay on Hands, which you would have to use for channel energy, to instead give herself an extra smite evil oh i see yeah the idea is it's not selfishness it's that uh a tortured crusader can't ask others to confront the same horrors that she's faced so it's she's led too many people to their deaths and seen too much, and she can't ask us.

Her auras don't extend, and her channel energies don't happen because of that. But she does get access to spellcasting, so I can cast a first-level spell per day. And I got my ability score bonus, which I added

to strength. Ooh. Let's talk about HP. What is your die? D10. A D10. Oh, we got another one and a two. Let's find out.

You go. Eight. Ten. There it is. Oh, nice. Stay in the back, guys back guys oh that's so good our paladin can stay alive a little longer so grant did you decide to retrain as well i wasn't 100 paying attention um you know i'm having trouble deciding that now and i was the cost

for all retraining if it matters to you is 10 times your level times the number of days. Also, as far as the cash, I didn't realize that there was actually a cash cost within the archetype. I would argue, did I even have those powers to begin with because I never used them once? I think it's a fair argument. And also, it's a rule of fun.

You want to enjoy the character that you're playing. I'd rather enjoy the character. I'd rather find a creative way to do this. Now, Grant, I feel like you may have used some of your archetypal abilities. But, again, I'm not going to rake you over the coals for this. No, that's the first ability. Then the archetype that gets replaced. So it would be the very first time.

It would be an affront to democracy and the tournament we had for everyone. It's true. Oh, dude, you could do nothing. you could not retrain at all you could do nothing and just not take the archetype right well that's right because technically you wouldn't have to make the decision on the archetype until it mattered i mean again this is like nitty so no but but i know for retraining it's just about when an ability replaces an ability is when it matters when like the money comes in and stuff like that yeah here's why i want to go towards deleting the archetype it hasn't shown up yet um but also just it's not just about having fun playing it it's also just about being useful in circumstances

yeah for sure and i think we get get frustrated when our characters can't do anything and it ends up making things become a slog when they shouldn't. So if you're cool with it, I'm ready to delete it. Yeah, I would say just go with my blessing. You can change it. But just the penalty will be

you're fatigued and you can't level up until tomorrow. We could die here. You could die here. And then you don't have to worry about it. You can just go. Shmaldo Shmazimir. I will say that the 2hp is a bummer but given that i rolled 878 on the first three levels it's evening out to a decent oh yeah um so you're not that far behind as a total character yeah right and then the the other thing that's tough uh for me as i ended up going I had two scores at 16

my con was at 14 I boosted strength up to 17 in the hopes that I don't know, it really wasn't worth getting it might be worth 4 extra hit points at this point to change it to constitution rather than strength

but I wanted to be able to hit a little easier well think about it you got some time but we'll say that you and Aldo are fatigued and you'll level up constitution rather than strength but i wanted to be able to hit a little easier um yeah well think about it you got some time um but we'll say that you and aldo are fatigued and you'll level up tomorrow as you approach this dock oh hey uh welcome back to the shit time fun bunch with the I got a Kit Kat It's a key lime Kit Kat What? I've seen those I also have a green Kit Kat

Is yours key lime? No, it's matcha, the superior flavor Mine is American and delicious It tastes so good and I can't eat the other ones until someone else is monologuing. That was a fun first half

until the horrible end. Wasn't that bad? Really fun. We're working out the kinks before we're back on the road. Hey, don't forget, you said you're editing it out of the video and the audio those people don't know what happened and so yeah it was it was the

worst yeah i used to mock joe when he tried to use instagram but really joe has managed to evolve and now troy you're the old man who gets mad at the cloud or technology doesn't work in yeah well the thing is it's like i don't i i only have myself to blame because i take zero time trying to learn it uh but the problem is it's like i'm just i i just try to use the basic functions because i don't want to use all the other nonsense and then you change the basic function functions function munchkins you change the basic functions it just drives me nuts munchkins. You change the basic functions. It just drives me nuts. But we figured it out. But you realize everything that you're saying is not helping you in the argument against

learning like an old man using technology. Like, that's exactly what my dad says. He's like, all I needed was the basic function. I didn't need all this other stuff. Why can't I just use the basic functions? I think we just had a breakthrough. Troy just admitted that he had only himself to blame, and I think that is

a large step for today. Listen, I'll admit that I am not spending any time to try and learn it. That's fine. I don't have time. That's why. But, in this case, there actually was a change that fucked it all up, so it's not my fault. It's my fault that I didn't learn it, but it's not my fault... So it was a change that fucked it all up so it's not my fault it's my fault that i

didn't learn it but it's not my fault it was a glitch it wasn't a setting but i think this part of you guys are thinking that like oh troy's just saying that they changed it and they didn't he just can't figure it out no they changed it it was already garbage and they made it even more difficult to navigate through the garbage i feel like I was thrown in a landfill, and they said, find your keys. Sorry, I don't mean to be disrespectful. Such a specific reference. Has this happened to you before? Yes.

One step forward, two steps back, I suppose. I'm with you, Troy. I think if they change something, and there is a legacy mode, so it operates the way that people who are used to it want it to operate, it should just operate the way it used to operate. And the solution was turn off both modes. That was what we discovered in the break. But anyways, I digress. We digress.

Can someone talk for a while so I can eat these Kit Kats? No. We learned a ton. There was a ton packed into two hours before the wheels fell off you know what i will say if you want someone else to talk i'll do some talking i'll do some talking right now so you can eat some lime kit kats key lime kit kats i went out for in our brief intermission uh and to the amazing smell of Taco Bell. I don't know if there's Taco Bell fans. No better smell on earth.

There is a Taco Bell, a softball's throw from my house, and I never go. I actually don't think I've ever gone once in the three years that I've lived here. But I come out and I'm like, college. Like as soon as the smell hit my nose. college like the first like as soon as the smell hit my nose and here my wife had the kids down at a park brought them back and decided to go to taco bell like i don't know why but i was just like did you go to taco bell and i'm like what is left and she was like i didn't even think i thought that you were going through until five i'm like did you not give me any Taco Bell? I'm coming out so hungry. Nothing to eat.

I'm like, it was just torture. An empty bag of Taco Bell in the kitchen. Oh, that's the worst. It was terrible. But I did find myself, and this is where I'm getting back to why that first part was so good. I found myself just like unloading to my wife, like what's happening in the story. and like she normally doesn't care about this shit at all but i couldn't help myself i was like it's so fun because it's like you walk into a bar it's like no no not again not when you and it's just like what was i doing here who was i and then

somebody else being like well i saw you guys down at the docks and so i'm telling her i'm like so now we're going down to the docks it's good we're gonna see what happened down there and she's like wait you just got to the docks? You don't know yet? I'm telling you, she was into it. It's a cool story. All right. All right. That makes me feel like we can do another couple hours.

Your sheer excitement. Thank you for letting me eat those Kit Kats. They were delicious. Is it just the chocolate that's key lime flavored or is it also the filling? It's basically a lime coating and the inside has got sort of the cream. It's just, it tastes like a key lime. You close your eyes, you think you're eating a crunchy key lime pie. Troy, you let me know in 20 minutes.

I always have problems with lime-flavored candies. Bad aftertaste. You let me know if you have an aftertaste. Oh, I thought you were going to say, if your asshole starts leaking, that's my problem with key lime. It's like 15 minutes after I have a key lime pie. I don't know what it is, but it just starts leaking. It's just anal drainage, right? We've talked about it before.

It's the second slice of key lime pie. That's why you never have the second slice. It runs right through me. So if you start sitting in a puddle of troy in about 20 minutes let me know all right we're gonna play a little uh pathfinder yeah you learned a ton uh in that first in that first beat a lot of information i like that i like to throw a lot at you now you decide where you want to go uh atticus was a little like i don't know if we should go to the pier it's night but this town is dark and crazy anyways it's not going to be much better in the day or maybe it will but you decide you know what i want to know what's in that bundle if it's

still there so you go to the dock let's go to world 20 yeah i'm happy to see is that uh it's very well lit so we don't have anything to worry about based on the map so it is the middle of the day i would try to do something to make it dark, but I don't know how to use this program. So there the four of you stand. The funny thing was it looked perfectly dark, and then you changed it. It was very atmospheric. It was like grayscale.

Yeah. Yeah. I guess that was what I needed to do. All right, we're going to take another quick intermission. Fucking nonsense. All right, so're going to take another quick intermission. Fucking nonsense. All right, so this pier we're looking at. This is pier 19. Yes, I can move Atticus.

Yeah, that's Worm's hook. Six, Atticus taking a quick dip. Somebody else moved Atticus. That was me. As is tradition. This is the shack that looks all but abandoned, totally dilapidated, starting to cave in. And then you've got this pier jutting out into the ocean, and you see a little rusty old bucket at the end. Atticus can see that.

What are you guys doing? I still. Well, I suppose we go check out where we were stuffing something up under the dock there. Would you like to head up there? Halston or Sir Julie? I'm wearing heavy armor and I suspect that if I fall into the water, I will drown.

So I shall bring up the rear, though perhaps we should take a listen into the shack to make sure we're not set upon by things behind us. So, Julie, we're not going diving. We are going to the very edge of the water. You're not going to drown. I live my life by a code, Atticus. And one element of that code is,

if you can fall in the water, you will fall in the water. And if you're wearing armor like I am, you will drown. I was hoping Sir Julie was going to say, I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Yeah, let's

check out, let's take a listen in on the shed See if there's any Boogeyman inside and then move on To the dock Sir Julius happy to lead the way Unless Halster wants to go first You're more than

Welcome to lead the way if you really know no fear I mean it doesn't make sense for Halster Halster would be right on your side, right next to you in fact Immune to fear Yeah, because you're immune to fear. He's taking your lead as an example. So, yeah, we'll slowly approach the shack,

rolling perception as we go. And Aldo is going to pop an extract off of his bandolier, shake it up, drink it, cast shield on himself. Okay. 20 on perception. Excuse me, 20 on perception

for Sir Julie. Okay. You listen near the shack. You don't hear any movement, anything within. Only thing you hear is the sound of the water lapping against the shore and against the sagging wooden planks.

Is there a door on the shack? Or is it so broken down we could see in if we got close enough? No, there's a door. It's actually broken laying on the ground because it looks like the ceiling kind of caved in and crushed the opening of the door, which would have popped off the door. So you take a look in. There's nothing.

It looked like there's a little counter where things were sold, but you don't see anything or anyone. Just shingles lying on the floor. Can I detect magic? Yeah, you detect magic on the shack. Wait, no, I don't even know if I can yet. Oh. No, I cannot detect magic? Yeah, you detect magic on the shack. Wait, no, I don't even know if I can yet. No, I cannot detect magic.

You don't detect magic on the shack. Atticus can. He will detect magic. Do I detect the presence or absence of magic? Absence? Absence on the shack. What about over toward the dock? How far does your range extend?

60 feet, dude. 60 feet. Which would be about halfway up the dock. A little less than halfway up the dock. Nothing. I detect no magic here. Go on, Halster. You're fine.

As we... I shall wait for you on the shore. I really keep on getting screwed into going by myself, even with the frontline fighter now. This is incredible. As Halster gets within 15 feet of the shack, the light emanating from his shield begins to fill in the umbrous gaps within. Does he see anything else? No, he just looked down and you see the water lapping.

The deck is kind of like swaying or the pier rather is swaying a little bit from the waves. Okay. Then Halster will approach the edge of the dock. At the water's edge. I Don't know if it's high tide now In the evening

Maybe we See the edge of wetness At the sand and the waves Lapping at our feet It's a river isn't it It's a tidal river It's affected by the moon's gravity This is right into Avalon Bay

so this is a bay and the water is all the way up about 10 feet in you don't know how deep it is okay Hauser also has a plus 2 to swim in his heavy armor so not great but as long as it's shallow

he'll raise his shield up towards the bottom of the dock where it was told to us by Mr. Mon that we were stuffing a bag. You don't see anything there, but you do remember that his story said he saw you guys at the end of the pier. Oh, so maybe we go. Oh, at the end, so yes Well, so Julie I assume you could step back Um

I could give it a go Unless Halster you want to Okay, good luck Halster's charging ahead And Al goes right with him That was the equivalent of Joe pulling out a wallet An uncle that pulls out his wallet to pay a TGI Fridays. He never was going to be there, no matter what happened.

Oh, oh. You got him. I'll get the next one. You beat me to it. Oh, too slow. I'll go to the far end of the next dock. So as Aldo and Halster are moving forward, I think we're looking through kind of the too-wide-for-comfort gaps in the wood in the dock,

trying to see if there's anything blocking the view down to the water below, indicating some sort of cache that we've left there. Atticus is also going to take out and load a crossbow. Okay. So Julie will actually step to the side and see if she can see, kind of keep an eye on the water, see if she can see if anything's coming up from any way. She'll have her sword out, just in case.

Okay. So Sir Julie stays back on the shore, watching as Aldo and Halster creep towards the end of the pier, and Atticus is back as well. Halster, you keep looking down and you just see water through the cracks in the planks. The

pier is really moving under your weight right now. Sagging. Halster will do a perception check as he moves forward. Really looking through until he sees something in his line of sight. Nat 20. Ooh!

This is a after the fact, but grant I theft is active. So that'll be a 23. Listening to the waves as well in case there's anything on the wind. You look look and right where I'm pinging here, right towards the end of the dock, kind of underneath

the deck where the bucket is, it looks like there's something stuffed up between the planks. In order to get it, you feel like you'd have to lay down and reach your arm under

at this point Atticus now slightly out on the deck will attempt another detect magic which would cover the whole dock is it detect the presence of any magic beyond Halster yes Halster. Yes. Halster can do that as well, and he will stay there for 18 seconds to determine the full benefits of Detect Magic.

Yeah, he detects several auras of magic coming from the bundle. Okay. Are you seeing what I am seeing, Halster? Yes, um, I'm not sure if this bodes well for us or not, but there's magic at the end of this dock. Um, speaking of mundane objects, on the other hand, does anyone have a rope should I fall

in at the end of this dock? Does anyone have rope on their gear sheet? No, we just came from an asylum. I've got a rope Oh, well done, Aldo Bravo Well, I'd love this friendly umbilical cord

And Halster will tie the rope Cinch it around his waist And throw the other end back to Aldo Sheath his sword Put his shield over his back Captain America style There's a big magnet back there And he goes prone the last 15 feet and crawls army style to the edge where the cash is and

reaches his hand under he reaches his hand under aldo do you stay there in the middle? Do you get closer to him? Aldo is going to get just at the edge of his light aura. Okay. Makes sense. Atticus, you can see the full length of the dock. Do you do anything? No. Okay. And Sir Julie you stay

On the shore Watching the water Yeah I'll alternate between looking at the water Making sure no one's coming up behind us Looking at the water Your sight obviously limited By your lack of dark vision But Atticus and Aldo

Roll a perception check By your lack of dark vision. But Atticus and Aldo... Roll a perception check. Oh, not Halster. I'm so tired! Halster, you can go ahead and roll one too, actually. Because you're not just blindly reaching over there, you're paying attention as well. Ooh! Joe's gonna roll. Cam would have caught that natural one! Oh!

On perception. Goddammit! Natural 20 for Aldo. 28. 18 for Halster. As you're standing there, Aldo, you see

something crawl up one of the posts of the dock and Halster you're reaching over there and your hand brushes up against something and it feels wet

and leathery but then you get the sense that something's nearby and you turn but then you get the sense that something's nearby, and you turn while you're on your stomach, and you feel that wet, leathery thing in your hand, and Aldo, you see at the same time, crawling up the post and onto the deck, this horrid mass of eyes, mouths, and formless flesh staring in all directions.

Oh, no. All of its mouths just going, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Oh, no. Jibbering Mouther. It's a Jibbering Mouther. They're so bad. Roll for initiative. Oh, they're so deadly. Oh, my God.

Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, my God. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, man. The biggest issue is Aldo and Halster are still third level, and Atticus and Sir Julie are fourth and very far away. And tired. And tired. Oh, yes, third level and fatigued.

Oh, it's horrible. I'm up on homemade Pepsi. It just answers out. That's true. Sir Julie, what's your roll? 16. 16. Atticus.

Sorry, I forgot to roll. Oh, natural Twanzo. That's for a 27. Oh, and you got it live on the stream. Awesome. Nice work awesome nice work Aldo 18 for Aldo 18 Halster Halster rolls

a 13 for a total of 16 13 for a total of 16 it is the surprise round in which this creature Aldo and Halster will act. Aldo, you will be able to act first. You can do a standard or a move.

Let me reveal this creature to you. Oh, man. They're so bad. Matthew, have you faced one of these before? No, I don't think I've ever seen this before. That's exactly what it sounds like as it comes for you, and it's so terrifying. Aldo, what do you do? Aldo.

Oh, man. Okay, so he's actually in a unique position with his current third level abilities and position on the dock. He'll fire in the hole and, like, pops a bomb off of his belt and tosses it at the creature's spot. That is a 13 against touch AC. That is a hit. Okay. Oh, thank God. That is 15 points of fire damage.

Awesome. Awesome. Boom. 15 points of fire damage. Amazing opening salvo there, getting that shot, that bomb off. Halster, what do you want to do? I'm going to move down the dock and run away from this thing. It's surprise round, so you can only do the standard.

That's okay. You rolled high enough. You feel like you're going to be able to get out of there before it does too much damage. Halster, what do you do, mover of standee? Halster feels very trapped at the edge of the dock. The question is, if Halster was unable to level up, was he able to memorize any new spells? Even the third spells?

Well, when do you get third level spells? No, just the spells I had at third level. Am I able to... Yeah, no, you would have had time to rest, just so you wouldn't get the new stuff yet. Then, as a standard action, Halster panics

and says, No, no, no, not again! And you see two barbed chains materialize out of the dock and whip out at this gibbering mouth. He has cast barbed chains. And instead of making a trip combat maneuver, because it seemed like this thing's floating. Was that true? No, it's kind of just moving slowly. It's like amorphous.

It's like it moves on the ground. The picture makes it look like it's floating, but yeah, it's just kind of blobbing along the ground. All right, well, these chains are going to just do standard attacks then. Here's the first one. 12 to hit. 12 is a miss. Second one, 17 on the die for a 23.

23 hits. All right. That will be D6 damage. Two points of damage. Is that slashing damage? Let's see what type. Or with chains. Slashing damage.

Slashing damage. All right. So you notice that it has no effect On the creature as the second chain hits And it doesn't do any Damage It is now the creature's turn You can take free actions

During a Oh this free action is so Unbelievably overpowered That's a free action A little free action during a surprise round. Let's see if Sir Julio... Sir Julio, you're right at 60 feet. Everyone roll a will save.

All right. As it starts gibbering, a cataphony of... Catch it on the Joe's gonna roll where you'll see the live Natty 18. Natty 19 for Sir Julie. Natty 25.

The two who matter least in this moment. What about Aldo and Halster? How's a natural one suit you make? Oh no, we need Aldo! And Halster? Ten. Both Aldo and Halster

are confused for one round. Oh no. Roll of the dice to see what they do. Could be damage against themselves, damage against their allies, or maybe they'll be able to attack the creature or just babble incoherently as this maddening sound like an earworm

gets into your brain and you're like, ah! That was its free action. I believe I can take a 5 foot step So it will 5 foot step And it will then take one attack On Halster As one of the mouths bites out at you

Natty 19 For a 26 That'll hit any AC I have Couple things are gonna happen First is going to be The regular damage, which is one point of damage. Not bad, am I right? Then the free attempt to grab is going to be a natural 20.

So one of these mouths just grabs onto you, grabs onto you and as it grabs onto you it starts widening it is round one and it is Atticus's turn I hate this

you just you think that the wizard can fix everything, but not at fourth level. Uh. Oh. Da. Fwa. Bleh. Um. Okay.

Um. Let's see. Oh, now that it's all up with Halster, this is super bad. At least you're a fourth level what's your head at you were thinking about an AoE spell but now you're like well I can't because Halster's there yeah I was thinking about color spraying

it which I think it you know at best would give us like one round but it would be way worse for Halster than for it now if Halster failed it if that's your phone right couldn't you just step one step further back and just target it i mean not with this dock and the way it's located i can see no cone that doesn't hit you unless there's an edge of the actually i could stand next to aldo yeah but i'm still that's a full round away uh another thing is well let's see if we can get aldo out of this confusion then i might

have an option um uh first i'm going to do a knowledge okay so this is uh an aberration right so it's dungeoneering yes it is an aberration uh let me just throw this out here too on that successful grapple grant you take one point of con damage as it drains your blood ugh and then the other question I had is

I'm guessing in the surprise round where it kind of moved onto the dock am I standing now? it's not grappling me while I'm prone right? do you think I stood up at the same time it kind of moved to where it was on top of the dock. Am I standing now? It's not grappling me while I'm prone, right? Do you think I stood up at the same time it kind of moved to where it was on top of the dock? That's fair. Yeah, that's fair. The way the generosity

Troy is showing there is very scary to me. Yeah, these things, they're really bad. Really, really bad. Alright. I don't have an bad. Really, really bad. All right. I don't have an answer. I just don't. I'm going to try Knowledge Dungeoneering.

Yeah, let's just see. Knowledge Dungeoneering. That is a 16. Okay. That is, in fact, a gibbering mouther. I can give you one point of interesting information. Is there something specific you'd like, or do you want me to just give you something?

Um... Um... How about how it reacts to mind-affecting things? It is not immune to mind-affecting things? It is not immune to mind-affecting effects. Okay. Okay. I am going to move up 20 feet.

Okay. And then I will just attempt to shoot it with a crossbow. Really tough shot here. Okay. Here we I will just attempt to shoot it with a crossbow. Really tough shot here. Okay. Here we go. Great. Natural 20. Wow.

Needed it. Needed it. Wow, did you need that? Roll to confirm. But the Joe's going to roll cam. To confirm, and the Joe's going to roll cam. That is a 19, but it's minus four, so it's a 15. It's not confirmed.

Yeah. Unconfirmed. But exploding Johns. I won't give you exploding dice, yep. All right, let's explode it. Here we go. Three. Three points of piercing.

Did any of that go through? It appears the piercing did go through. Oh, it hit an eyeball. Oh, three. Three points of piercing. Did any of that go through? Uh, it appears the piercing did go through. Oh, it hit an eyeball! Oh, wait. No, it didn't go through. I lied. Oh, okay, so it's only bludge? Yeah. All right. It did nothing! It will not be hurt by your slashing weapons!

Yeah, so you needed that crit to even, like, break through the DR. Uh, unfortunately, you didn't get it. Fortunately, it is Aldo's turn. Aldo, give me a D100 roll. Okay. 49. 49. I don't have the condition up in front of me.

I'm slowly trying to get it. It is 49 is do nothing but babble incoherently. Just like the mouths. The only one better than that is act normally, but everything after that, you take damage or hurt your friends. Alright. It is Sir Julie. I don't know

if it's Sir and Sir Julie. You can't see what's going on down there. That must be terrifying. Like, you just, you hear Atticus act, you hear something going on back there, but it's just pitch dark when you look up at it. I'm sorry, so there's no moon, and this gleaming light at the end of the dock, I can't see a thing. So you can see everything

in the light, at least that's what they were very specific about in second edition. If there is darkness between you and the light that is not magical darkness, you can see everything in the light that's kind of far away. Yeah, I would say, you know, I would say think of this in terms of if this was realistic

and not a game, you can see, you see shadows moving, like you can see in the pale moonlight silhouettes of things happening, but you can't like see the, you couldn't draw this creature from memory. I mean, that doesn't make any sense to me, but okay. Well, hold on, I don't mean to attack you but I just want you to imagine

you're standing at the edge of a dock at night and just at the very end of the dock is a floodlight just on the edge of the dock but I can't see anything that's not how I picture it so all that matters is how I picture it and you look down there and it's dark you're 60 feet away

but there's a giant shield emanating light in a 20-foot radius Tell me what you want to do and I'll tell you how it's going to work. I want to target it with a spell.

You can't do it. I'm going to move and then I want to target it with a spell. All right, then you've got to get within... From the same distance Atticus is.

Okay. Okay. So Julia will move and sheath her greatsword as she goes Can't do that I can't do that? It's a separate action

Alright, for now she'll just hold on to it And then she will reach out and cast a spell on the creature Please roll Okay, wow Fourth level pally, isn't this your first level of spells? It's my first level of spells Level one pally Spell zody fourth level Pally isn't this your first level of spells level one Pally spells

please roll a very important will save a very important will save 13 you got it exactly he's so good everyone's lives you know what?

If you could have seen it better, you might have been able to pull that spell off. But it's really fucking dark. All right. That's your turn. That's Sir Julie's turn. Halster, even you get to go before the creature. And let me tell you, good buddy, big turn. All right.

Here comes the confusion die first. 87. One away from 86. Oh, man, that would have been fun. 87 is deal. Oh, no. Attack nearest creature. So you can attack.

Oh, Grant. Excellent. Grant, I theft in action. You do have the grappled condition on. Learning about the piercing and slashing and seeing two attacks fail against it. This is the time for Halster to use

his heavy shield bash. Bludgeoning damage on the way. Nice. Heavy shield bash? 21 points. Well, hold on. Let me throw in. Can you use heavy shield bash while you're grappled? I don't know.

It's a one-handed weapon. It's a one-handed weapon. Yeah, it is. It's a light. I don't know if it's... Does it have to be a light weapon? It makes sense to me. I think it only needs to be one-handed in order for the grappled.

Okay, then you're fine. Yeah, I mean... So that's a total of a 19 to hit with grappled on 19 to hit with grappled is a hit yes oh crap bash it alright let's might as well get the damage on screen too here comes gosh dang it right

out of the box perfect gosh out of the box again out of the box a third time this is unprecedented no it's not one point of damage one point of bludgeoning damage bludgeoning damage Gosh, out of the box again. Out of the box a third time. This is unprecedented. One point of damage. One point of bludgeoning damage. Bludgeoning damage. It is the creature's turn.

First free action. It gibbers again. Atticus and Sir Julie are immune, but Aldo and Halster need to roll again on it. Oh, I'm so glad we're immune. I didn't remember that. That's good. Yeah.

Because it's a free action. It seems so awful that it can make everybody confused, but the one nice thing about it is the confusion is only one round. Yeah, you're immune for 24 hours. You can keep doing it for free, so it's kind of tough. I don't know. For the record, there's actually, the spell light sheds an additional area with a 20-foot radius of dim light.

So, it is... Here's the thing. I live out in the country. There's no streetlights. I can't see 60 feet in front of me. But if there was a streetlight, there's a streetlight right here. There's a streetlight on my shield.

But also, by the rules, there is a 20-foot radius of dim light around the other light. Of dim light, right, by the rules, there is a 20-foot radius of dim light around the other light. Of dim light, right, right, right. Halster cast streetlight on his shield. That's exactly what he did. That's why I let you cast the spell. I wasn't going to let you cast the spell.

That's my new archetype, streetlight people. Streetlight! Alright, what did you roll, Halster? 20. 20, you're fine. Aldo? Six. God, so Aldo is still confused.

Aldo! The creature... Get your shit together. Will then attempt to maintain the grapple, and then fun stuff shall happen. Got it with a 24. Rocks. Absolutely rocks.

So now, a couple things really are going to happen. First, you're going to take some damage. You're going to take a lot. You're going to take 15 points of damage.

Oh, holy moly. And then the mouth engulfs you and swallows you whole. Oh, no. And that just happens automatically. No save against that, right? It happens automatically if it succeeds on the grapple check to maintain the grapple. So you are inside of it.

You take 15 points of damage and two more con damage when you're engulfed. Oh, man. So you're down three con, a few hit points. You're a level behind the main party. You will take damage each round you are in there. You cape the grappled condition.

The creature does not. And you know from past experience you can try to cut your way free with any light slashing or piercing weapon. Or you can just try to escape the grapple. I didn't think the first combat of this book would be a possible death, but that's why we do it live.

Hauser is inside of the creature, and just for good measure, as another free action, it goes to spit something at Aldo. It just like turns and spits at Aldo. Here we go. 19 against touch. Yep.

Oh, yes, yes. All right, so this acidic spittle comes flying at Aldo. I need a fortitude save to see if it blinds you or not. Oh, I'm sure it will. Oh, well, 18. 18? It was DC 18.

Oh, wow! That's a high DC, too! Oh, man. You would have been blinded for, uh, I rolled two rounds, but instead, you just get hit by this thing, and, uh, I don't think you take any damage, which is nice. Yeah, no, it's just to blind you. Aldo's gone, but he's no longer confused. Excuse me, Halster's gone, but he's no longer confused.

Aldo is. It's basically a two-on-one fight at this point. New round, Atticus. All right, I'm just going to try something here. Put myself in a lot of danger, but Atticus is going to run out to the edge

of the dock right next to Aldo. I'm assuming there's no mechanic in this for shaking him out of confusion, right? That's not that kind of confusion. He's just confused, right? The confused condition? Yeah, I don't see that anywhere.

All right, I've got it prepared, so I'm just going to say, what the hell? Atticus is going to fire off a color spray at it. Oh, by the way, sorry, I will say, because the creature spit at you, Aldo, you can now attack it as normal.

Oh, right. So that was foolish of the creature to do that, because that's part of the confused condition. You now know you can attack it. Sorry, Joe. That's okay. I just need a will save. A will save. All right.

Natural 20. Is that good for a will save a will save all right natural 20 is that good for a will say just just really hitting the rolls when they do it I mean that's so fucked this is how characters die when like one person starts rolling rocks you know and when the creature is immune to slashing and piercing damage yes and we're on a dock but hey at least you have the light of the moon it's a beautiful beautiful creature is immune to slashing and piercing damage. And we're on a dock. But hey,

at least you have the light of the moon. It's a beautiful way to die. Okay. That's that. Do you want to move at all? I already did. I had to move up to do the spell. There you go. Save or suck.

There you go. You never have to wonder about why my stance is the way it is. All right, Aldo, per the confused condition, any confused creature who is attacked automatically attacks its attackers on the next round as long as it's still confused when its turn comes. So you can either move up to it and attack or throw something. What are you thinking? I'm going to say, Hey, how dare you spit at me, you bugger?

And he's going to pop another bomb off his belt and toss it. That is a 25 to hit. 25 is a hit. And I will say the light is gone because Aldo is inside of him. Is there any light emanating from this creature, being that he has a light spell cast inside his body? Streams of light going out of every hole. That's amazing. Every light opens his mouth.

Then I can see the target. Yeah, 25 is an absolute hit. Okay, so that is 13 points of fire damage. The damage that Aldo's doing is the only chance you have of Halster not just dying in there. I mean, you're still conscious, right, buddy? Correct. Oh! But for how long?

Aldo, do you want to move at all? I'm going to say right where I am. So, Julie. Aldo do you want to move at all I'm going to say it right where I am Sir Julie So if Aldo if Halster can cut Himself out of

The gibbering mouther It stands to reason that we could cut The mouther out of it even though it does No hit point damage to it right It stands to reason That what So Troy said Aldo has The ability to cut himself out of the gibbering mouther, though we know that piercing and slashing damage doesn't do any damage to it.

So I'm trying to see. It's just DR. Don't drag me into this. It's just DR, dude. Like, your greatsword is going to be fine. All right. It's going to be like DR5. Like, if you roll 12 or 13 points of damage, that's going to do damage.

I'm pretty sure it's not immune. I think it's just a DR5. If you roll 12 or 13 points of damage, that's going to do damage. I'm pretty sure it's not immune. I think it's just a DR5. Let's see. What a great... So Julie has to double move, but she will double move to... She'll move to right next to it in Curring if it does

get an attack opportunity. Wow, that is so brave. She just saved our lives, Aldo. You know what? I will take that attack of opportunity. Which you can only do because you're currently not considered grappled. Correct.

But I might be after this. 17 to hit. Get out of here. This is Julie Endres. That's why she took the AOL because she knew it wasn't going to hit. Get out of here. You're sure Julie Endress. That's why she took the AOL, because she knew it wasn't going to matter. Alright, so Julie double moves right up next to the creature,

avoids one of the bites from its horrible mouth. If you would do me the favor of spitting out my friend. Halster, here are your options. They are a few. I'm trying to see. You might take the damage.

You know, you'll take it on its turn. It doesn't really matter, as far as I can tell. You can cut your way free with a light slashing or piercing weapon, or you can just try to escape the grapple. You are effectively pinned. I'm aware that I'm unable to cast spells while grappled.

However, what is the GM's rule on using supernatural abilities? Supernatural abilities, that sounds fine. What do you think, Alan? I'll allow it. As a swift action, Halster will expend a use of fervor, but he will also use a blessing to empower said blessing of fervor

to heal himself for 1d6 plus 50% healing as his first action. Alright, how many hit points to heal himself for 1d6 plus 50% healing. That's just smart. That's his first action. All right, how many hit points does that... Grand Theft Auto. Let's get a six. Max, baby, nine points of healing.

Ugh, huge. All right, nine points of healing. Absolutely huge. And then just let me, one other time, let me just make sure... And that was a swiftie. I'm just making sure it's the war war piece targets himself, in which case it's a swift action.

Okay. Great. So nine points healed. So I guess grabbing my short sword is what, what is that a move action while I'm inside this thing? What is the deal? You had my shield out. I don't, I don't know. It's your call. Yeah. You it's, it's a move action while I'm inside this thing? What is the deal? Do you have my shield out? I don't know.

It's your call. Yeah, it's a move action to draw a weapon. And then he will strike out with a plus two short sword, I believe called Red Dawn. Was that the name of it? I can't quite remember. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know what?

You found the sleepless. Red Destiny. Red Destiny. You found the sleepless agency's card nearby there, the plus two short sword. Okay. I love it, a business card. And I am still grappled making sure that's on. Another fantastic trinket from the sleepless detective agency.

17 to hit. 17 hits. All right, and now this is the other interesting thing that happens, like, I don't know inside of the creature with its internal organs is whatever damage reduction to cut out going to count? That's another Troy call, I suppose.

I don't know if it is a Troy call. I think it's by the book, yes, the DR is still effective. It says in the DR rules if you're swallowed whole by a creature, it's still effective? I'm going to say the DR is still effective. It says in the DR rules if you're swallowed whole by a creature, it's still effective? I'm going to say the DR does count. Interesting. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's not really coming from a hide. It's sort of coming from its entire bulbous nature. Okay. Here comes the damage. Almost max. That will be 10 points of damage. 10 points the damage. Almost max. That will be ten points of damage. Ten points of damage. All right, so you are able to cut yourself free.

Yes! Nice! Like a birth in the back of a New York taxi. He comes oozing out of it. Which is huge, so you just kind of like fall out of it. Onto the ground. And you notice that, unlike

the swallow hole ability, that hole seals right up. Oh, because it can just create a mouth space inside of it? This is what I was trying to get at, Joe. Isn't it like a different number you have to hit to get out of a creature it has nothing to do with it's actual hit points

isn't it? it has it's hit points are like 1 5th of it's hit points or something it has it's own AC and HP you went enough to get out of it I thought you were talking about trying to cut him out

cut Halster out of the creature you just have to kill the creature there out, cut Halster out of the creature. I'm like, you just have to kill the creature. There's no cutting Halster out of it without killing the creature. I want to see a battle scene of Aldo with a bomb in his hands or Julie flanking this thing. Atticus thinking about casting a spell. And just this light emanating from a shield as Halster is being birthed out in this ooze out of his gibbering mouth. That would be so cool looking. That's awesome. It is the gibbering mouther's

turn, and he has six attacks. Yeah. Six. Six attacks with all these little moths, and he can swallow hole again, unlike the normal swallow hole ability. So, the

first one will be against Sir Julie, and that's going to be a 21 to hit. That is my AC exactly. Oh, Sir Jules, he's hungry. I should have smited evil last turn in case he was evil. It's going to be three points of damage, one point of con damage. Okay.

And then what the heck? Let's go for a grab. You've probably got a pretty high CMD. Ooh, but I rolled well. That's gonna be a 20. You got it by one. Ah, gotcha! You son of a gun!

Alright, so first attack grabs Sir Julie and does some damage. I got five more attacks. Now we're at a minus two. You know what? I'll throw another one at Sir Jules just for old time's sake. Miss with a 13 and another one at Sir Jules, a miss.

And then three at Atticus. Miss. Miss. Terrible rolls. And then the last one is a 21, which I'm assuming is a hit. You'll take three points of damage and another point of con damage. Oh no!

Excuse me, you don't. That's only on a successful grapple. So just three points of regular. And then free action, it will jibber again. Only Aldo has to roll against the jibber. Oh! Natural three! Oh my gosh. Only Aldo has to roll against the gibber Oh natural 3 Oh god Oh god It's so hard it's DC 19

Um That is hard I'd have to roll natural 20 And then you know what I'll give myself another free action and I'll spit at Atticus Uh That's gonna be a'll spit at Atticus. Uh, that's gonna be a 17 against touch, Atticus. Uh...

That is a hit. Give me a DC 18 fortitude save or you're blind! I'm gonna be blind. Joe's gonna roll! Here we go! Oh! 20! 20! Oh! 20.

20. Oh. Natural 17. Nice. Acidic spittle just comes flying out of one of the mouths, and you get right out of the way. Okay, Sir Julie is in one of its mouths. Both Aldo, excuse me, both Halster and Sir Julie

have taken some con damage. I am grappled, not swallowed whole, right? Correct. You'll be swallowed whole this round. So I cannot use my greatsword. Sir Julie will let her greatsword fall to the dock. Wait, did you already go yet this turn? No, I didn't go since I charged up next to it.

I think that was this turn, no? Because it's not your turn yet. It goes to the top of the next round. It's Atticus's turn. All right. Yeah, that sounds right. I'm so glad he didn't get blinded because... Oh, jeez, okay.

Let's see. Blind would have been so bad for you betty yeah okay uh atticus will reach out uh he keeps out of your filthy mouths

and he will cast Magic Missile. There you go. Let's try to get a couple juicy hits here. Here we go. Max. Max. And. Oh, I hit the camera.

And Min. Maxie Minnington. So seven. Seven points. Okay. Cattle cat. Son of a... The magic missile, classic missile cat.

All right, so you did seven points of damage. It's still alive. Damn it. I was hoping it was getting low. Well, Aldo, big roll here. Can you beat the confusion? Oh, no. This is the world we live in.

Oh! 48. 48, do nothing but babble. The biggest damage dealer is just, this thing is getting inside of his mind. I'm like, I think I'm like mesmerized by this. I'm like, I'm kind of mimicking what it's doing. He's trying to communicate with it.

No, I think I've got it. I just told it that my sister is very good looking. Single. Sir Julie. Big round, Sir Jules. You're grappled. Minus two to attack. Dex is down.

Daisy's down. Sir Julie will drop her greatsword to the dock. Ting, ting, ting. Goes into the water. I knew you were going to say that. I'm just going to keep moving. You'll never find it in this darkness. I will draw.

It's light now. The house is out of its misery. She will draw her masterwork dagger. She will smite evil, in case this thing is evil. Is it evil? It's actually chaotic good. It's trying

to help us. No, believe it or not, it's neutral. It's neutral, yeah, okay. So I will, I'll use power attack. He's an outstanding gentleman in his plane of existence. He's a father of three. And has a good job at the factory. All those mouths to feed.

Hey! Hey! Have a good time. Hey-o! Hey-o! All right, I will... Is that Robin Williams over there? I will risk using power attack.

Or what is it to break free? Escape artist or CMB. It's impossible. It's not happening. Okay. I will stab at it with my dagger. Power attack is on. That is going to be a

14 to hit. Big old miss. Sir Julie, it's flashing back to when you were restrained by the orderlies. Now, same amount of mouths holding you down. Good throwback, Troy. And you just look out, and you

see the fog on the very same lake. It is Halster's turn. Big round! You're about to see how powerful Halster can actually be. He's going to expend a use of fervor to, as a swift action that uses no

somatic components and does not provoke Cass' divine favor on himself. He is a level 3 caster by the rules, which gives him a plus 2 bonus on these, but he also has fates favored as a feat, which gives

him plus three total, bringing his two hit up to plus ten on this attack. Oh, wow. And what power allows you to do that without provoking? Fervor. You can expend one use of the ability to get a spell that targets itself as a swift action without provoking.

That's amazing. That's huge. I mean, it's grappling anyways, but very, very cool. That's going to come in handy. Here comes the attack. Oh, okay. 14 on the die for a 24 to hit. 24 is a hit.

Nine points of damage. Sorry, I'm clicking on it. Still up. Oh, come on! I'm not even adjusting these HP. It's just straight by the book. It is still up!

And it's its turn! Try another jibber. Let's keep Aldo out of this and those big, big old bombs. DC-19 will. Come on, Aldo. I'll never make it. I know. Natural one.

You're getting all your natural ones out. So that's good. All right. Let's try to maintain the grapple on Sir Julie. This is big. Roxlaalle, 21 against CMD.

Alright, you're going to take 6d4 regular damage. 6d4. That's going to be 17 points of regular damage. Ow. And 2 points of con damage. And you are just this mouth goes

really big and engulfs you inside of it. It's not even like eating you so much as like engulfing you with its amorphous body. And you're just inside of it. They put it right in there. Boom! And then for good measure, I'll

spit at Atticus. Actually, you know what? I'll spit at Atticus. Actually, you know what? I'll spit at Halster. You're right next to me. Or is that now ranged? Actually. Will that provoke? Yeah.

Would a ranged touch provoke if I spit at Atticus? Yes. I think it would provoke any spit. All right, I won't spit. You spit last time. Go ahead and do that attack retroactively. You're telling me we have to believe your streetlight nonsense, and then you're telling us this gibbering set of mouths would know not to spit

to avoid provoking an attack of opportunity? That is the height of absurdity. It says right here, the gibbering mouth or nose not to spit when someone casts divine fervor on themselves. Divine fervor. The second before. I am just very much looking forward to Boston.

Go up there. We'll do a little live show later on in the evening. We'll go over to the docks. We'll take a little Instagram shot of Troy near a dock with a light at the end of it. And we'll see if he sees shadowy silhouettes or if he just sees

what's in the light under the light at the dock. Is it possible there's clouds in front of the moon? It's not about the moon. It's about the light source. This is amazing. Mythbusters for kindergarten.

It's what it is. It's Mythbusters for four-year-olds. You're talking to somebody that reads like this these days. So all I have to go on is my experience and I can't see anything. Moon or no moon.

Fair enough. I've also lived in New York for 20 years and you can't see the moon at night or any stars. You do get the moon's light, though.

It still diffuses through the clouds. You take me down to the docks and I'll push you in. It's Atticus's turn. Atticus, what are you going to do? Atticus,

what are you going to do? And a voice inside his head says, Run. And he says, Yes. He will... Man, I...

I got nothing. Yeah, this is such a weird situation. I will... You know what? I will fire off another magic missile. I just have to make sure that I can do it by the rules. So just give me one second. Okay.

Do you guys have dim light or low light vision? What'd you say? Do you have low light vision? Not you. You have dark. But do the other guys have low light? No. No, everybody's just got...

They're all humans. So there's various spells that are based around moonlight. And when you cast it, it creates dim light in an area. So one could argue what I'm saying isn't that ridiculous. No, we're talking about Halster's light. We're not talking about the moon at all. Halster has a light cast on his shield. That's the aura you put on my shield.

That's why we keep talking about a streetlight. Never once during this entire discussion did I realize you were talking about Halster's Light. I thought you were just saying the light of the moon. That's why I screamed emphatically a moment ago that it has nothing to do with the moon. And even when you said that, I was like, what is he talking about?

There's no streetlights around me. We were all like, there's the equivalent of a streetlight. It's the smell light. The whole time I thought you were talking about the moon. And I'm like, am I crazy? I'll give them that it's dim light. I forgot all about Halster's Light. And to Grant's credit, you have the big beacon on your thing.

I've just got 17 tabs open. I'm not listening to what you're saying. Okay, so basically what I want to do is I want to use my Eldritch Talisman of Revealing to... It opens up like the freaking time crystal in Doctor Strange. It just opens up and a magic missile flies out of it. I wanted to make sure that I could... You can use it to cast any spell in your spellbook, even if it's not prepared. It doesn't say you can't cast a spell that was prepared that you've already cast, but

it's in the spell book. It's not an extra one wasn't prepared, but I think I can cast it. So I'm going to cast another magic missile. For example, like what you just said, I didn't hear it all just because I'm thinking of other things, but it sounded interesting. I'm just talking it out loud. Yeah, no, they appreciate it for the audience. All right, here we go. Let's

get a little Joe's Gonna Roll and Magic Missile this thing. I'm really throwing everything I got at it. That is a two followed by a three. So that is another seven. Seven points of force damage.

And that kills the creature. Yes! The arcane bounded object! However, Sir Julie is still trapped inside of it, so for her to avoid taking another 64 and two points of con damage, can you cut her out? How, sir? Get her out of there! Can I cut myself out?

It's Aldo's turn. Aldo is confused. Roll a d100. 51. 51. Deal 1d8 points of damage plus strict modifier to self with item. Skid's favorite. That's on the top ten of things Skid hates in this game.

I think it's insane that I'm barehanded. I'm as weak as a brownie. And somehow, I'm dealing up to nine points of damage. Or eight points of damage. You could take more damage than if I shot you with a crossbow.

With my own fist, I've tried hitting myself in moments of extreme frustration, which I'm building up to right now. I don't think I've ever hurt myself that badly. But that's one point of damage, so it's not too bad. Oh, not too bad. All right, the acidity inside of his stomach is churning away. Sir Julie, cut yourself out and end this fight.

Thank you. Do you have a light weapon? My dagger that I have in my hand. Perfect. I'll leave power attack on so I can make sure I hit that damage. Okay. That should do it. That's a 22 to hit.

You got it, and you get out of there. So Julie just saws her way out of it. You're it Like out of the side You just see like And she peels back And is like Did we get him?

And it just Slinks off the dock Into the water He got got Good fight Hell of a fight To start book two I used

My entire compliment To first level would we that's the thing it's like you take aldo out and now it falls on me to add into the damage dealing which is like he's not a damage dealing wizard he's not a blaster wizard and so it's like i gotta use my bonded object i gotta do if aldo doesn't isn't confused it's like boom boom, boom, boom. We're fine. We opened three rounds.

Right. If I was leveled up and I wasn't confused, yeah. Would we conclude that based on my injuries and Halster's injuries, that the gibbering mouther would have produced the so-called melted bodies that were found here. Yeah, it would just sort of spit out someone whose con had been entirely drained. Yeah, because while you're inside of it, it's just draining your con, and all that we left would be this puddle. But yeah, you guys, both Halster and Sir Julie took three points of con damage on top of all this other damage, but you seem to be out of danger.

And there's a leather sack. A leather sack of lesser restoration potion. Oh, my God. And normally you'd say, we'll see you next week, and we have so much more planned to do. It's amazing. Solid 90 plus. All right. We do have a wand of lesser restoration, by the way.

Do we? Oh, great. We found it with seven charges. I think we may have used a couple, but I think we still have some left on it. You gain one point per rest, right? Per rest, yeah. So it might be probably worth using. How much damage did you take?

Three altogether. Three, okay. So, yeah, you just need two to be healed and you're fine. Yeah. All right, who's going to grab that thing at the end of the dock? Atticus will walk by Houser's, like, beaten, bleeding, lying at the end of the dock. He's like, thank you for drawing it out, Houser. And then he'll climb around him and undo the dock.

Hey, I was going to get that. I will, Sir Julie will lay on hands or so you should rest uh if you're if you're telling me that it's not going to be unbelievably treacherous troy he'll crawl like down and around and pull up the package oh yeah let me retcon my turn before this combat started if you're telling me this won't be unbelievably treacherous when i reach down here and that a gibbering mouth stalker won't attack me, I'll reach down and grab my bag too. Gibbering mouth stalker? Whatever the hell it's called. It sounds scary. I am the gibbering

mouth stalker. I may be in jamming several different enemies. That's going to be the title of your memoir. Gibbering mouth stalker. The Grant Berger story. Atticus, you go flat, you go prone, you reach around with your little rat hands, and you brush up against the same wet leather,

and you dislodge it and pull it up. And it's a package. Here it is. Take the strings off of it, and you open it up. And Aldo, you're shaking off the confusion, shaking off the self-inflicted damage, and you're just watching Atticus untie the package, and you're like, lost for a moment, taken back to a strange memory.

And you're watching the strands being pulled and the strands start to turn into dozens and dozens of naked bodies writhing all over each other in an opulent room. There's wine stains on the floor and the walls, and there's just bodies everywhere copulating. It's all so hazy.

Even the air in the room is thick, and you're looking around, and you look down, and you're naked as well. But there's something weird going on. The bodies surrounding you undulate in a pseudo sexual rhythm that makes them all look like one and there seems to be chanting going on as well somewhere in the room and and and you just like look to the left and you see keldron there and he's in the throes of passion with a couple different people and he just like

looks at you in slow motion nods and smiles like ew creepy and from there you're taken out of that and you see Mrs. O'Lady and Boral

and Haster and Atticus, and a couple other people just creeping through the shadows coming towards this very dock. And you see Atticus scramble down to the end of the dock while the rest of you keep a lookout, bundle up the equipment, stash it underneath, and then he runs back to the end of the dock.

And all of you disappear into the woods. And you come back to this moment, watching Aldo unwrapping this package, and you have no memory of the first part and the second part of you guys putting this package here. You can almost perfectly remember now, but you have no recollection as to why you stashed this stuff here. Atticus, you unwrap it, and there's a potion in there.

There's a scroll. There's a potion in there. There's a scroll. There's a wand. And then there's a box with Aldo's initials on it. A.C. There's a box with Atticus's initials. And then there's a weapon. Some chain mail and 120 gold pieces and six platinum pieces wow uh oh amazing um he'll immediately go to a box that has his name on it i mean he'll immediately go to a box that has his name on it

I mean he'll start like pulling out at this stuff but then he sees a box with his name on it and it's just his curiosity can't be stopped and he immediately goes to it tries to open it you open it up and there's a small pearl inside and

a cloak. Detect magic? Yeah, almost everything here is magical. Okay. Okay. Well, he'll start spellcrafting stuff. Yeah. In the interest of keeping things popping, just give me spellcraft checks, those of you who have them, and then I'll let you know what you discover.

22 for Aldo. 12 for Sir Julian. 5. You only got a 14. Rolled a bad roll. 9 for Halster. Luckily, Aldo is going to be able to suss most, if not all, of this stuff

out, and Aldo recognizes the pearl as a pearl of power, and the cloak is a cloak of resistance plus one. Ooh. Nice! Holy shit. What is the

weapon? The weapon is a plus one greatsword. Yes! Sir Julia will gingerly pick it up and kind of test its balance. Ooh. A most useful weapon. Wow.

The armor? The armor is quite strange. It's ugly. It looks like it's never been polished. Its magical ability is that it's plus one chainmail. But there's something more about this.

It has a dark quality to it, and as you look at it, Halster, it seems very, very familiar to you, like perhaps it used to be your armor. And Halster in that moment flashes back to the moments you saw to you, like perhaps it used to be your armor. And Halster in that moment flashes

back to the moments you saw in his flashback at the top of the castle in the swamp, speaking to that silhouette of a prince that was giving him some sort of orders in the past. And shivers as he reaches out to retrieve it.

It is known as Grim Gloom Mail. Ooh! This ugly plus-one chain mail resists polishing and easily acquires bent links and other cosmetic damage from everyday use, though such blemishes never impair its function

as armor. Once per day is a standard action. The wearer can afflict one target within 30 feet with bad luck, giving it a minus two penalty to armor class, attack rolls, or saving throws for one minute. Whoa, cool. In addition,

once per day, the wearer can use protection from good. Oh. Wow. Holy shit. Grant thinks that's really freaking cool. Houser's probably terrified and trying to clean it, but it won't get any cleaner. The potion is a potion of non-detection.

The scroll is a scroll of protection from energy. scroll is a scroll of protection from energy. The wand is a wand of death knell with 18 charges. Death knell? I know that spell, don't I? And then Aldo, you're handed

your box. You pop your box open and inside is, you recognize it immediately, a boro bead, muleback cords, and a jar that just says, Vegemite. Awesome. Especially the Vegemite. Why was this stuff put here? You don't know.

Some of it seems for you others maybe not what was the potion there was a scroll of protection from energy and a potion of non detection death knell is a an anti-paladin spell wow also witch which is i think i've seen it on the spell list for that reason

interesting oh you know what i might have the wrong list selected okay oh i know i know what i I might have the wrong list selected. Okay. Oh, I know. I know what I did. Okay, never mind. Ignore that. Oh. Oh, wow. So you're actually drawing out the dissipating life force of a dying creature, pulling it into yourself. Get healing by casting it on someone who has minus one or fewer hit points. And you get temporary hit points and a plus two strength bonus.

That's dark. That's dark magic. That's on the Warpriest spell list. Oh. Oh. Could we use that wand of lesser restoration? Yeah. I'm sorry.

I think we can assume it has... I may have taken track on it, but I think the safest way to do it is to say it has two expended off of the seven I have on my notes. Just because I want to be fair. And say it has five now, and I'll do a casting on you, Sir Julie. Do you want me to roll the D4?

Yes, I do. Okay. We're putting it on the Grand Tithe F system. Here it comes. Oops. Totally wrong. Here it comes. Two.

Great. And for myself? Four. Why do we even myself? Four. Four. Why do we even ask? Sorry. If we rest, I'll be fine tomorrow. I'll be good as new tomorrow.

So three charges remain on that, we're going to say. Great. It's been a rough day. You decided to just keep pushing it and come to the docks but I imagine by now you're pretty tired and you've got a wealth of things to check out tomorrow so you make

your way back through town back to the stain back to the silver wagon where your rooms where your room awaits. Get up there. Take your armor off. And you go to bed.

For the first time in... You don't even know how long. In a bed. You had some apps earlier. And you almost died because you got eaten by a gibbering mouther. But now you get to sleep. It's comfortable, but you're... At this point, you're probably almost afraid to go to sleep.

Yeah. You're not even safe in your dreams anymore. But you do rest easily enough. And you wake up the next day, you look out the window of your room, and it's gray out. You think it's probably gray out here every day. Across the street, you see just the tiniest little bit of one of those murals. Like, about a foot, foot and a half wide. And you're like, what's that?

I don't even remember that being there yesterday. Are these all over the place? Got some options here this morning. You don't know when winter's getting in. Maybe she got in yesterday. Maybe not. What do you want to do? The Sleepless Detective Agency?

Sure. That makes more sense, right, than trying to go up to... Would it stand to reason if we asked around that Iris Hill is the name of the hill that the Count's residence is on?

It stands to reason. Because Keldron said, well, we saw they hired those new people up there at Iris Hill, and I assumed that it was like, quote-unquote, replacements for us or something. Yeah, you have a good feeling that's the case. If you went to Sleepless Detective or someplace else, you'd be able to find out more. Yeah, I mean, we haven't heard anything about the Count being back, so why would anyone up there have anything to help us with at the moment? I think Sleepless Detective Agency is probably best.

Unless you guys can think of anything else right now. I'd like to roll hit points. Oh, that would be a good start. Halster, we already rolled yours, but Skip, what are you at D? D8. Here we go. Four.

Eight, good buddy. Oh, yeah! Helping him out. Helping him out. Thank you. Eight. And if you didn't have enough, Sir Julie, with your lay on hands,

for whatever damage you took, and anyone for that matter, there's plenty of healing left on Halster to top everyone off before then. I was totally fine. Hey, baby, there's plenty of healing to go around. I shall lay my, I laid my hands upon myself when you weren't looking.

Normally I do. We're sharing a room. I laid my hands upon myself when you weren't looking. We're sharing a room. So I am going to go ahead and take the scroll of protection from energy. And then the potion of non-detection somebody else should take. I mean, I have means to just like vanish myself in an instant and stuff like that so like um basically like it's not invisibility oh actually no it's not it's more like it's more divination protecting you from divination oh well you can hang on to it and then if we ever want to if we ever need it okay uh and then yeah i already put it on my, so I'll just hold on to it. And then Wand of Death now is going to have to be, I think, Halster. Yeah, and between this gnarled wand,

I imagine wands kind of take on the aspect of the character of the spell that I have in them. And a healing wand looks welcoming and smooth. Polished. This is a gnarled kind of gray wood. Broken branch. smooth polished this is a gnarled kind of gray wood broken branch he holds it uh in one hand and he's wearing this dark glue mail on top of himself he looks like yurt the silent chief from demon souls wow good reference bottle cap yurt cap yurt cap. Yurt cap. Oh, okay. So you're heading to Sleepless Detective Agency?

Yeah. Okay. Let's do it. Halster pulls out that card. It's just got that accusatory eye on the back. Sleepless Detective Agency. That's right. So you follow the address on the card.

Maybe you ask Dana Galago sort of how her name is on the way out. How do you get there? She's like, oh, you just gotta John up the John. Just John up the John. Actually, if you guys would like, let's you've walked around a little bit. Let's look at a map of Threshmore. Sweet.

Beautiful. Oh, alright So it's a fish, this is a pretty big fishing village Yeah, it is In Pathfinder parlance A large town Okay Okay, so

Interconnected islands You guys are staying right here This is Right up here, sorry for our audio listeners. Up here in the northwestern portion is where the Silver Wagon and the Stain is. And then the Sleepless Building is this big building right kind of in the middle. Oh, wow. So we're sort of just crossing the center of town, and that's it.

We don't have to go to the extremes of town. Aside from the fort, that's kind of the biggest building in town. Yeah, this must be a very prosperous detective agency that's kind of the biggest building in town. Yeah, it's supposed to be a very prosperous detective agency. It literally is the biggest building in town. Well, it has the biggest roof. That's all we know so far. There's like a little bridge that leads to a smaller island. It's kind of like an archipelago here.

But this is where Pier 19 is, off of that small island. So that's where you went last night. You guys walked through town, went over that bridge, and went to that pier. Dude, just even hearing it made me think of Chelsea Piers, all those numbered piers and stuff. And I was like, what, do they have intramural soccer down there? It's like, you don't picture a small fishing village having that many piers. So this is bigger than I expected.

This is a big place. I'm glad I showed it to you. But, yeah, you came in and you went all your way uptown and then you came all the way through and now you're going back down to Sleepless Detective Agency. Okay. You get there and, yeah, it is a large wooden, uh, two story building. Sorry. One more question about the environment. What is it like today weather wise? And I just mean that as it is like, is it like rainy here all the time?

Is it like foggy and overcast and stuff? Or is it like a bright, beautiful day today? Is the weather warm? Like what is it? Well, you do remember Keldron was like, it's been raining for, the weather's been bad recently. Maybe that's why I didn't see you. But he's like, I still came out to the stain. I was surprised I didn't see you. So you know that it's probably been raining for a lot recently.

This morning, it's like spitting. It's not pouring, but it's. That annoying. It's wet out. It's the kind of wet that when I see people wearing an umbrella, I'm like, well, you just, it's not that bad. Put your umbrella away. Wearing an umbrella? It's a fashion statement?

I see people wearing umbrellas. I'm like, why did you stitch that into your clothing? It's foolish. Now you understand why I'd be mad. All right, you head over there. Large wooden two-story building. It's wet out. It appears pretty dark and quiet from the outside.

You see a wooden carving of that same accusatory eye outside and a sign that says the Sleepless Detective Agency. What do you do? Atticus will walk up there. He'll lead the way. Okay. Knock? Yeah, he'll knock on the door.

Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum. There's no answer the first time. Dum-dum-dum-dum. Nothing the second time. We know they're not asleep. Right. Couldn't be that, right? Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum. It's false't be that, right? Dump, dump, dump, dump, dump. False advertising!

Hey, wake up! You're liars! The detectives might sleep, but the agency goes without sleep. Finally, on the third knock, the door opens, and there's a woman who answers. She opens the door kind of absentmindedly and then sees you, and her expression changes. How can I help you? Good morning, my dear.

We are coming to discuss the case of Count Hasserton Lowes. May we come in? She folds her arms and looks right at you Atticus I'm surprised you would even show your face here Why do you say that man? She shakes her head and she's like You're going to have to speak to Miss Rance If she'll even see you

come in and wait right here and you understood we're allowed to come into the foyer come in let's go yep uh we'll walk in and we'll wait by the uh the waiting area uh atticus will grab a magazine There I'm What the fuck Just no butted you on the magazines She's just kind of like eyeing you She walks down the hallway You Atticus And she leaves

And a minute or two later A tall woman approaching middle age. She's got a long black coat with double buttons that run all the way down from top to bottom. A purple scarf, short reddish-brown hair, pale skin scattered with freckles across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. And she's got like a tiny hat with lace that could be pulled down over her face. She just slowly walks down the hallway towards you. Also very arms folded, kind of eyeing you up and down. And it's all at you, Atticus. But she still looks at the rest of you. She's like, well, well, I was under the impression that all of Lowell's flunkies were committed to Briarstone.

How did you get here? Why are you here? And she looks right at you, Atticus, and says, Should I bring the rest of my agents out so that you can scream insults at them again? Well, your investigations are correct, madam. We were taken to Briarstone Asylum. We've recently left. The asylum is no longer in operation. We have been released, as it were, for suffering from a spat of amnesia.

suffering from a spat of amnesia. And it is for that reason that I do not know this behavior of which you speak. If I offended anyone, I apologize. We are here only seeking answers to what the Count may have been up to and why we were in his service. Well, that's very convenient. You don't remember.

You don't remember berating my hard-working agents in the streets, almost causing a brawl in the town square. I heard you went to Briarstone. I'm surprised they didn't lock you up in Fort Hailcourse and throw away the key. An asylum was the better place for you. How you got out is beyond me. But you want to tell me that you forgot all of this. You'll appreciate that I need a little more information.

Of course, I'm happy to divulge as much as I can. You are welcome to question me, interrogate me all you like. If this is such a crack detective agency, you should be able to get to the bottom of it. How else do you find out if people are lying or not? Isn't that your job? Are you all under the same story with him, that you don't remember anything? You, madam, I don't know, but if you're hanging out with the likes of them, you'll understand if I have to call your character into question as well.

Yes, they do seem to be a disagreeable lot, don't they? Now, Sir Julie, please. Ma'am, you are Now, Sir Julie, please. Ma'am, you are speaking with Sir Julie Anders of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment of the 4th Winged Brigade of the 17th.

Yes, she dual-wielded Uzis in the World Wound, so I would be very careful with how you address her. She says flatly, none of that is true. With all due respect, ma'am. Sir Julie Andrews, that part.

Yes, that was not a lie. With all due respect, ma'am, Sir Julie Andrews would not deign to adventure with folks such as us. Did she not see that we were on a mission of particular importance? Something very horrible happened at Briarstone,

and I believe that the Count is the key. We are here seeking answers that could save Throshmore itself. So, I am happy to answer any questions you have. And you? You? She looks at Aldo and Halster. Halster nods, but then at the edge of the table, he sees an unattended mug, and he's fighting back the urge to reach out

and stab her in the eyes with it, just like the guy at the bar. But he nods and says, I don't remember anything at all um but uh i ran into a similar mix-up at uh at the stain actually uh the proprietor there said that i did something i don't remember doing and was very angry at me but we made things right and i think, oh, no. Anyone else? That's a lot. Can you hear me? Yeah, we can hear you. Did you see all the lights flicker in my house?

Yeah. Wow, that was bizarre. Wow. I didn't see the lights flicker in your house. I was worried you were having a stroke. You were like, wow. Whoa. No, I thought the power was about to go out here.

I thought the screen stopped perhaps it's just an eldritch nightmare creeping into your window that's terrifying but yeah we made things right at the stain and I'm sure we can make things right again please listen to us and believe us she stares at Aldo Aldo sees

the reaction that Halster is about to have. He sees that flicker in his house. No, over his face. It's happening. He puts a reassuring hand on his shoulders. He says, no, no, we're all

ready to help. There's no secrets here whatever we just want to get to the bottom of things as I'm sure you do and you your memory loss does this extend to your

relationship with the count as well no memory of him couldn't pick him out of a lineup. Yes, I'm afraid it does. He could walk in right now and none of us would know him. You could be the count for all we know. Yeah. Are you?

Jeez, can we do masks, unmasks ourselves? Ah, I knew it! And he goes, Mwahaha! One! Two! We did discover, without any question at all, definitive proof at the asylum that we were in the service of the Count. That is all we know.

That is what has brought us here. You have to appreciate, if I have a hard time believing any or all of this, that's not to say that you're being false, but there's a lot going on here, and I need to be cautious. I'm believing any or all of this. That's not to say that you're being false, but there's a lot going on here, and I need to be cautious. Your reputation precedes you, and it's a bad one.

Of course, if what you say is true, and you are looking to help and get involved, actions speak louder than words. She turns from you, and she like shaking her head Talking to herself It's like this town I don't know what you remember But this town is falling apart The leadership has collapsed

Abandoned their posts Shut their doors And somehow the responsibility of putting it all back together Has fallen to me And my skeleton crew of agents here at the Sleepers building. I don't even know where to begin. What do you know about the state of Thrush War these days? Anything?

Nothing but what we see in the streets as we walk it. It looks rather gloomy. Your friend, Count Lahls, has always been a peculiar man. This is not something that is unknown around town. His family has run Throshmore for over a century, but his focus has always been on his scholarly pursuits instead of what it should be, running and maintaining Versace County. I guess you could say the trouble all began when people started disappearing. There was a rash of kidnappings, which, while strange, is not altogether that

rare here in Ustalav. But when they started happening here in Thrushmore, a group of concerned citizens went up to Iris Hill to seek support from their count, which is when they were informed that he was gone. And his assistant, left in charge of the state, refused to help, advising the citizens to just wait for her master's return. So then the townsfolk headed to Fort Hailcourse, the seat of our magistrate,

to see if perhaps he could step in and protect the town. The town constable, Constable Cecil, tells them that Magistrate Padgett had left town for some unknown reason, and when asked to at least set up a night patrol to protect possible future kidnappings from happening, she tells them that's impossible. Her orders, she claimed, were to keep the fort safe with the few militia members who remained, as the rest of the mercenaries had evidently fled their posts after weeks of unpaid work.

The townspeople were sent away, and that's when my door began knocking off its hinges. Now, you must understand, we are not a government agency, nor a charity, nor a business. And now the town's coming to me, begging the sleepless agency to take charge of policing Threshmore,

because the leader's gone, the magistrate's gone, and now the coffers are running low as well, if we can't even afford the militia that we had. So now I'm obviously concerned, knowing that these men left for no apparent reason, and it seems like no one cares enough to take care of the financial issue, and to top it all off, it becomes known that a royal accuser is coming to town to investigate. So this accuser, Omari, rather than going straight to the church, straight to New Chapel, she wants to keep a low profile, and so where does she go when she arrives? Right here.

My doorstep. Because of course she does. She has a... a small group with her. She sends one of them, a sister of the Maiden's Choir Cathedral, a phrasmin priest named Winter Klax, to Briarstone, actually.

And then she tells me she intends to take the rest of her group up to Iris Hill to speak with Lal's assistant, left in charge of the estate. I let her know my suspicions about Lal's peculiar man, rather shady reputation, and convinced her to go to Fort Hailcourse instead. I've been up to Iris Hill. Can't even gain an audience. He's built a shrub up around the whole place. You can't even get in.

Thwarted by a shrubbery, have you? Well, it's not that simple. So the royal accuser does take my advice and goes to Fort Halecourse, thinking it best to perhaps force an inspection

there and maybe enlist the help of the constable where our citizens failed. I have not seen her or the group that went with her since she left for the fort. Now understand, she is a royal accuser. They are, by all accounts, above the law. They come and go as they please and they do as they please. It would not surprise me if she took care of whatever business she had and left. But this is where Threshmore is at

right now. And right now, my biggest concern, believe it or not, is the kidnappings. If you walk around town and you listen, there are many who insist as always that the Briarstone Witch is back, snatching up townsfolk. They think this is the second coming of the Threshmore Vanishing, but I know there must be some more reasonable explanation, and I believe there is something

strange afoot, and it all leads back to the missing people. Now, my agents and I have noticed there have been a number of newcomers to town lately, and we suspect that there might be some cult activity to blame for the missing persons, but as of yet we have no hard evidence. This is just conjecture at this point. The shuttering of the fort is highly irregular, even with the magistrate missing and the mercenaries' recent deflection. That said, I am not convinced that Count Lal's departure somehow ties into all the town's misfortunes. There seems to be something else going on. It may be connected. Maybe not. Before he left, Lal's fired most of his servants and replace them with peculiar foreigners brought to Threshmore by ship. My agents talked to some of the men at the docks who swear it was a slave ship that came in that night. I'm not saying Count Laws was a slaver. Just another piece of the puzzle. And that's just one major scandal. In town, she moves over to a desk and starts shuffling papers around,

pulling them up to show you reports. There's Dana Galagos over at the Silver Wagon. This is the woman who you rented a room for. And Eamon Galston at the Stain, the one that kicked Alistair out. They're constantly nagging me to try and convince some town lunatic to stop scaring their clientele. She's got, I've got reports over here. There was some otherworldly

creature that arrived near Carrion Hill, evidently wiped out a whole group of mercenaries. Took the entire town to take it down. Oh! Would you say the creature was incredibly overpowered?

It seemed like... I feel like a group of that level Should have been able to defeat it with ease Hmm But they Do you think their god got the rules right? Let me see The reports say they played poorly

And made bad decisions But it's neither here nor there The internal investigation Yes What happens in Carrion Hill stays in Carrion Hill It's a cover-up It's a cover- It's a cop! I tell you! Julia starts to lose it.

Where do I get the cop? I've got reports. She's going through all these papers. I've got reports every other day that people in town have spotted the apparition of Threshmore's previous countess just bandying about town. A ghost of an old lady just walking around, haunting the city.

I'll tell you this. If you want my help in tracking down lols, and you truly are reformed versions of your former selves, prove it. I'm completely overwhelmed here. You help me, and perhaps I'll help you. Here. Here, you can start with this.

She throws a file down in front of you. She throws book two of Strange Aeons down in front of you. All the answers you need are in here. This will have all the maps you need of the city. James, I believe you've read half of it so far. Yes. We've got plenty of time to finish the other half before tomorrow's session.

This is Toli Ramsata, local fisherman. Right as the kidnappings were starting, apparently he noticed a glowing light in a small cave along the shore about a mile out of town. Caught up, no doubt, in the common fear that the Briarstone Witch has returned to take

everyone in Thrushmore out into the bay, he got into his cups at the stain and fed the flames of that fear. You don't have to be a raving maniac to believe in these ghost stories. There are plenty of well-educated folks here that have heard Tully's story, and heard the ravings of the town lunatic, and take it as the truth. ravings of the town lunatic and take it as the truth. We don't know what, if anything, is out there at this grotto. I haven't had time to investigate it myself. I don't even know if it's relevant, but if you'd like to take a look into that, come back here and let me know if it turns up anything. If nothing else, I can cross it off my list and perhaps get a little closer to believing you are who you say you are.

Other than that, I don't know what to tell you. Well, let me ask you this. We are happy to help you if it will lead us closer to possibly finding out more about the Count or ourselves. That is our ultimate goal here. So, what is it exactly you are offering for our services? What information do you have that you have not yet parted with? Now, believe me, I appreciate your shrewdness. If you have information and you're withholding it, I respect that and I will do the work to earn it.

But so far, we do not know what it is you know. You are as in the dark as us, it seems, about the Count. What do you know that you're not telling us? Well, it wouldn't be professional for me to discuss an ongoing investigation with a bunch of people who used to be the subject

of my investigation. However, should you prove... I'm a paragon of goodness. You are, but guilt by association. Hang out with these lowlifes. She's got you there. You're a lowlife. You've got me there. Objection! Overruled.

Good call. The story you tell Is A believable one And I'll be straight with you Sort of fits in to this Tapestry of madness That is going on here

In Threshmore What? Tapestry of madness atticus freaks out i don't know if you're just saying things you've heard me say but that is that's the name of his book the book that drove him mad that was true of madness i know what i'm doing no he doesn't he didn't even know. Oh, I know. Atticus gets chills down his spine when she says that, and he's like, where do you need us to go? His voice gets very serious. Here.

Examine the scrotto. It's probably nothing. It might be something. If you're able to do this and turn something up Then perhaps I can move one step Closer to trusting you To trusting that we are After the same thing You have to understand

All I know about you Is that you work for Count Hazerton Liles And you come in here And you're asking for his head I need more I need more. I need to know more. In the meantime, I'll do my own background work.

I know this adventure has been spread across a long time. Two years, basically. More than two years. And so I just want to let people know real quick that don't know or don't remember, The Tapestry of Madness is a book. Now, these are all, again, it could be dreams, could be memories, but in the flashbacks, The Tapestry of Madness is a book that Atticus stole

from a baron in Hostilove that he then tried to use to get better at illusion magic uh in order to compete because he was falling behind and it was like a dark magic tome and in so doing he may have unlocked certain things like mind swap which he attempted to use on a human that was another illusionist in order to get out of his rat body and try to move up in society a lot of dark and dangerous magic within the book now he doesn't have the book on him now but it's just something in his dreams he keeps seeing the tapestry of madness this book he once owned that led him down a dark path was that book also the subject of matthew's

mrs old lady flashback i think it was right yeah i believe that was the uh the book that her son-in-law and his business partner were trying to sell to a halfling crime lord yes and fanny wellfleet so yeah her saying that is not uh it better not be coincidental or I'll be angry. You better start writing, LaValle. Better retcon that into the story. Well, everything else, just her saying and using that turn of phrase makes it feel

like it's all connected. Yeah, that turn of phrase was no coincidence in Atticus's mind, so he's going to move forward with this cave about a mile outside of town. Is that what it forward with this cave about a mile outside of town. Is that what it was? Yeah, about a mile outside of town. She gives you the directions.

It's well beyond where Pier 19 is. And a fisherman saw it or something, like from a boat, and saw a light inside the cave? Yeah, in fact, you'd have to go along the shore to the east. It's the opposite way out of town. But we don't need a boat. We can walk along the shoreline. We can go along the shore to the east. It's the opposite way out of town. But we don't need a boat. We can walk along the shoreline. We can walk along the shoreline, yeah. Okay.

What do you say? Shall we do that? Might there be evil there? There is always evil, Sir Julie. Everywhere. Then you may count me in. Good. good like her I feel a sense

of reassurance just being around Sir Julie and I myself am also enthusiastic about this new opportunity

to wreak havoc alright cool alright so you shove off to go check out this cave system uh your only other lead right now is meeting up with winter at new chapel maybe um you know just a general exploration of the town but like yeah but but we might have a more productive conversation with Winter having gotten the information from this cave. So I think going there first makes sense for us as a party, right?

Yeah, and maybe Winter could vouch for you, too. Yeah. Okay. Alright, so you head in that direction. You follow Miss Rance's directions. Her name is Cesadia Rentsch.

Cool name. That's good. Oh, Cesadia, you're breaking my heart. Couldn't resist. Four hours in. It takes you about an hour and a half to walk a mile out of town along the shoreline. And as you're walking away from the town, the shoreline begins to split with the water, and you start going up a ridge, and you're separated from the water a little bit.

And you're just walking up this rocky ridge, looking for an opening, and you get to a point where you're about eight feet above sea level when you see a small cave mouth opening into the limestone face of the water's edge partially obscured by uh vegetation thing is like you can go back down and like swim to it or you can just try to climb down because that'd be a long swim. You don't know what the hell is out there. Also, you see like two rocks that are placed just perfectly.

You might be able to do like a jump jump. Parkour? Yeah, basically you could swim around, parkour, acrobatics, or climb. None of those options are there for surgery. Yeah. Aldo, you have a rope, don't you? I do, yeah, assuming we were able to recover it from the other night.

It's just a little soggy from the inside of that creature after having used it. Someone should have just pulled me out like a plug in a bathtub. Oh, yeah. Too late now. Okay. Let's use the rope and attempt to climb down um i'm assuming it's going to be dc5 troy is there any reason why it wouldn't be uh for a rope rope against the wall is dc5 uh yeah it's it's against the rocks so i'm gonna make i'm gonna bump it up to a DC 7. Alright, so that just went from a natural 1 to a natural 3 for me, where he falls.

It's only an 8-foot drop, which I'll say is D8 damage, just to have some fun with it. Okay. Only D8. DC7 climb check, you're saying? Only D8 for a wizard.

Yeah, just roll over a three. I rolled a nine, and I have a minus one to climb. So you made it. So I made it. Exactly. All right, DC7. Give us a Joe's going to roll, Cam Grant, if you would. A natural one to a natural three is going to put Atticus on the rocks below.

Natural 20 instead whoa let's go straight from that let's go straight for the joe's gonna roll cam to the grant i theft system to keep things moving natural one look at the cameras well it's uh it's check, Grant, so what's the total? Total is a three. So you're fine. You just don't get down. You've got to try again. Okay. Second attempt. So you're just going to get down eventually. Yeah, because you can't roll five. Next one, it's a 14

on the next one. So you get your foot stuck on the way down, but you don't fall. Second time through, you get down. How old did you get down? 90, 17. Nice. Slides down like Ray down the fire pole. I've got to try this pole.

Guys, get down there, and I'll direct you to roll 20. And if it doesn't work, ending the stream. It works. Atticus is going to cast mage armor on himself. Sir Julie will draw her sword. Her new

plus one greatsword, that is. Oh, yeah, nice. Oh. And a shield for Aldo. All right. Getting buffed. Very good. So you get down there.

Is it dark in there? Oh, yeah. Okay. It's dark in there. Alistair casts the old light shield, Zony. Yeah. The old light shield zoney. Yeah. Old light shield zoney.

You see there's a small strip of muddy land or muddy sand choked with reeds right at the entrance of this low cave just at the lip of the bay. There's scraggly vines draping over the top of the cave, just hanging like tangled hair over the mouth. It's dark. Atticus, you can see a wooden barricade sealing off the tunnel towards the back, but there's also an opening to the left. Okay.

He'll give everybody that information and then say... And actually, sorry, with the Halster's light, you all could see that in the dim light. Both the opening to the left and that barricade. Okay. I'm just going to do a perception

just to see if there's any tricky, trappy kind of stuff protecting the mouth of the cave. Did everything just go dark, by the way? Sorry, I was trying to put a dim light aura on top of them, too, so we don't forget that, but I chose black as the color. So, there you go.

I got a 14 perception. Just... Yeah, you don't see anything. All right. Well, we have two options here. He huddles, like, everybody in. He's, like, smaller than all the humans looking up at them.

Just, I could go in, disguised, perhaps unseen, take a look around. It could also easily be trapped in there and killed immediately. Or we all walk in together with this bright light. What do you think? So, Julie, you are the tactician among us. What say you?

What would your disguise be? Oh, I would be quite invisible or you just go in with invisibility well in a manner of speaking no yes with invisibility so here's what he was thinking is i have this spell uh called shadow fade which is pretty awesome i i don't know if you have that, Matthew, one of your shadowy characters, but basically it makes you invisible, effectively invisible in the dark

against creatures with dark vision. So it's a first level spell of invisibility, but it's only in the dark against creatures with dark vision. The one thing that gives me pause, though, is that whoever saw this said they saw light coming from the tunnel, so it might dark against creatures with dark vision. The one thing that gives me pause though, is that whoever saw this said they saw light coming from the tunnel. So it might not be somebody with dark vision might be somebody who has light, in which case if I'm put in light,

I'll be visible. Um, but I also just have invisibility, which is one of my new spells for fourth level. So I could go invisible and just start walking around or we could all just walk in. I'm leaning towards all just walking in because you know know, at a certain point you've got to do it anyway. And if I get trapped in there by something, I'm going to be fucked.

Yeah, that's really risky. I think we should all just go in together. Let's just all go in. Okay, let's all go in. All right, what's the party order here as you're walking? Sir Julie will take the lead so long as halster is nearby to offer light okay you're right behind you you all single filing looks like some of your sharing spots or is that just uh you know what i have it now too i prepared it uh after yesterday so if like sir julie if you want light i

can give you light oh yeah if you want to cast it on my sword or something. Yeah, let's do that. I'll cast it on your sword. I did not prepare prestidigitation. All right. So, single file, you start going through as Sir Julie passes the mouth of the cave

two things happen. The first is you hear what's a thing? As a poison blade comes flying at you. Oh no. Was it a trap? It was a trap that you didn't see. I know it.

I was wondering if anybody else was going to roll attacks. Perception. Nobody did. You did. I thought you did. He did. He rolled poopy. 19 against flat-footed AC.

That is my flat-footed AC. I was going to say, that's right on the line. Hold on. I healed my ability score damage. Why is my AC down one point? Because you're still grappled? Ah. I am still grappled.

That misses my flat foot. Yeah! Up yours, gibbering mouther. Wow. Second gibbery. What may not miss is the vines that start to grow into a creature and grab out at you. Oh, my God! And a surprise round!

Roll for initiative. Every round is a surprise round when you play with Troy. Every single round! I was waiting for one more perception check. Every single round! I literally rolled it. No, hang on. Here's the thing.

I literally rolled it, but I thought the mouth of the cave was up here. Grant, I had too much Bo Burnham inside last night. It's perfect. You got his musicality down. Every single round. You might not have quite the same musicality as Bo does, but it was beautiful. No, no, no. We have very similar talent levels, so I get it.

All right. Sir Julie, what'd you roll? Ten. Ten. Halster. Halster is going to get up the grant I theft. Halster rolled a two for a five. Two for a five.

I always write the first number, and then I write your second number. Aldo. Seventeen for a five. I always write the first number, and then I write your second number. Aldo. 17 for Aldo. 17. And an Atticus. Switch over to that. Joe's going to roll.

Show everybody that natty 18 that's sitting there for a 25. 25. This is why I have surprise rounds. All right. Let me put this creature on the map here. No. Feed me, Seymour. Feed me, Seymour.

Feed me all night long. All night long. The veins come up. Vines come up, rather, and it turns into this creature. And it's going to go to slam Sir Julie. Oh, dear. Which is probably the best case scenario. She's got the best AC.

Here we go. Natty 18. No. Boom! No! So that's a 25 to hit Sir Jules. Yeah, that is. All right, a couple things are going to happen.

First thing is going to be some damage. It's going to be 12 points of damage, and then it goes to grab you. Of course it does. Will all of the enemies have more than one mouth and grab us? Is that the whole book? Spoiler alert, that's book two. It's called The Book of Many Mouths. Bad CMD roll.

That's going to be a 17. Miss. Miss, okay. Nice. Ooh, wow. First time ever. That's big. That is so big.

My gosh. Matthew, you about to go out and run some rock? Play some hoops? Some street ball? Man. Shout out to the writer of this book that chose these creatures that have just great free actions. Because I can do these free actions in my surprise round. All of a sudden, on the ground around, uh, yep, 40 foot radius spread around all of you.

The ground starts to come alive to try and entangle you. I need a... I think it's reflex save. Nobody freak out. Entangle is not that big of a deal. Especially if you're already in melee. If you're already in melee with the monster. What did everybody get?

Eight. Sorry, did you say reflex save? Yes. Eight for Aldo. Here we go. Rough day at the plate four for sir julie oh jeepers natty 19 for a 24 jeepers you nimbly rat halster 17 for a 22 all right so aldo and Sir Julie are entangled. You gain the entangled condition, which you can break as a move action, making a strength or escape artist check.

And it's the same DC, and it's all difficult terrain. So just imagine this whole area is difficult terrain. It's a 40-foot radius. So you're pretty much stuck in place. So it's not great. You've got to use a strength or escape or a check. You are stuck? I thought you could move at, like, half speed.

You can't move anywhere. What am I thinking of then? That's entangled in Starfinder. Is that true in Pathfinder? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Entangled creature moves at half speed. Yeah, it's just difficult terrain. That's all that happens.

So I don't understand what happens if you fail it. Well, minus two panels. I'm sorry, if you succeed. Oh, okay. So you don't get the minus on attacks, but it's still considered difficult terrain. Yeah, and here's the nasty thing. You get a minus four to dex. Yeah, that's bad.

Hurts your AC a little bit. And here's the thing is, all of you are going to have to keep rolling these because it's a 40-foot radius spread. And if you end your turn in an entangled area, you've got to make the check again. So it's bad. You want to get rid of this thing, get rid of this condition, because it's difficult terrain, which means no five-foot steps,

and it slows down Aldo and Sir Julie. However, it is round one, and it's Atticus's turn, and you are free to move. Maybe you want to fly. Get above it. It's noticus's turn, and you are free to move. Maybe you want to fly, get above it. It's not a bad idea. He will, yeah, Atticus will move over next to Aldo,

and he'll start moving his hands around in an elaborate trick, and I had forgotten this one for so long. I had never quite gotten it to work. But after a little time, I was able to write it correctly. And he does his little show of what he would do on a stage and rises his hands into the air. And then he just levitates up into the air. Cool. Just a simple five feet up into the air to stay off of that difficult ground.

It was foolish of me to give you the idea. With a, oh, he had the idea. I've only got two level two spells, man. That's true. Levitate is one of them. So that's what I took at second level. Levitate is one. And invisibility.

So those were the two. Spoiled. It is Aldo's turn. Aldo, Entangle isn't the worst for you. It's not like you're bipping and bopping around the map. Yeah. No, it's not too bad. So Aldo is replenished with his bombs on his belt.

He has his new abilities that he's been studying. He's ready to go pops a bomb out of his belt and says let's see how this goes fingers crossed and passes a bomb at the creature that is an 18 against touch that is a hit.

Now, I have a question for you. Is this going to put Sir Julie in the splash range? It sure would. Okay, but just Sir Julie, not Halster. Well, it's funny you say that, because now he did take the Discovery Explosive Bomb, which expands his threat range, the blast radius of his bombs, an additional five feet. So that's a 10-foot radius explosion. Zoinks.

Scoob. All right, so does it need to roll a reflex save? No. Or where it was a direct hit, it just hits? Yeah. Okay. But I do need to roll a reflex save. How so?

No, you don't. Oh. Oh, it's just automatic? So that's 13 points of damage. Okay, is that fire damage? Hold on. It is fire damage. Okay.

First thing you notice is, like, not all that damage gets through. It's got some fire resistance. Okay. It also catches fire. So it will take another D6 of damage on its round. It can take a full round action to get a reflex save to try to extinguish it okay um i also have the discovery precise bombs so i'm able to exclude a number of squares equal to my intelligence modifier from the blast of the bomb

this is what's so ludicrous is like like, really? So you're going to give that up In order to randomly Roll on elixirs? I know How does that make any sense? Well, whatever, it's archetypes This is why you guys almost got TBK'd like five times Now you're so much more effective

Great, great Okay, yeah, so you notice that Almost none of that fire damage Gets through, so you think, oh, this is never going to catch on fire. Might want to change your tactics, but it did take some damage, and luckily, none of your friends do. Grant, when you get a chance, can you throw the map up on the old stream? It is Sir Julie's turn.

Sir Julie! Sir Julie! Sir Julie grips her grace sword. You've been playing a lot of knights lately. I have? I'm just thinking of Lord Northwood. Oh, Lord Northwood, yeah. Well, I think I thought up Lord Northwood before I thought of Sir Julie,

but then because Sir Julie was a backup I made when we were sure Mrs. Julie was, Mrs. O'Lady was going to die. Mrs. Julie? And then she didn't, and I was like, oh, but I got so used to the idea of playing Sir Julie. So then I was like, oh, maybe I'll come up with another character. But then we didn't play Lord Northwood for a while.

Yeah, so basically that whole story can be summed up as such. In the car on the way to D.C., we know Mrs. O'Lady is going to die. And Matthew, while we're packed into this Uber with all of our, like, boxes of shit, introduces Sir Julia Andrews to us. And we're like, this is going to be amazing. Then, against all odds, she survives. Coronavirus hits. It goes nine months. We don't even think about Strange Aeons.

We come back and play. Mrs. O'Lady goes down. And when you bring it, I completely forgot about that car ride, and I was like, Sir Julie Andrews! It was so exciting. Correct me if I'm wrong, I feel like I was sitting in the front seat of the Uber, and I threw that name out as a joke, and then you changed it into

the ridiculous spelling. But I didn't think it would actually stick. No, the name was always my, it was always like, that was my idea, Paladin named Sir Julie Andrews, but I think you threw out a ridiculous spelling. It's probably. And then I did the other way around. It was either way around.

I just said it's so funny because, yeah, it was a while before that came to fruition. Well, it is Sir Julie Andrews' turn. Sir Julie grips her greatsword, takes, you know, managed to wedge her feet in in the entanglement, but still gets a good stance and takes a big, giant cut. Power attack is on. Let's see what we can do here. Get it! Get it!

15 to hit. 15, and that's with all your penalties? Yeah. That is a hit, my friend. Oh, dude. Oh, we got this. It's over. Target.

Power attack. Oh, dude. Oh, we got this. It's over. Power attack! Uh, okay. That is 22 points of magical damage. Holy shit. Alright, so you light this

thing, just slash through a bunch of vines, go flying on the ground, and they're just squiggling on the ground, like kicking in the entanglement. Uh, amazing. Alright, you might be able to take this out before it even comes back to its turn. ground and they're just squiggling on the ground like kicking in the entanglement. Amazing. Alright, you might be able to take this out before it even comes back to its turn. It's Halster's turn, but Halster

Well, Halster, you're in difficult terrain. You got the movement. You can get up there. Yeah, Halster is going to step right up next to Sir Julie Andrews and will make an attack roll. There will be no divine favor on this attack. He's saving it for later in the cave.

Here we go. Three on the die. That's gonna be an eleven total. Oh boy. And now it's coming after you, Alster. It's going to just try and come down and slam on you.

Uh, natural two. Nice. It misses! So just, boom, a big vine comes down, chops off a piece of the rock wall next to Halster's head, and misses. Top of next round. Atticus, you're levitating.

What do you do? John, John, uh, um, Atticus, What do you do? John. Dad. Uh. Um. Atticus. Oh. Atticus will. He's just going to. This round he's just going to fire a crossbow.

And I'll take a minus one to it. And the other minus four. Here we go. It's gonna be tough. Natural five. So that'll be us. Shunk! You're still levitating, and it is Aldo's turn. Well, Aldo,

yeah, if the bombs aren't working, there really isn't much else he can do. Well, it's working. It's just being chipped away at. I don't, you know, I think it's probably Resistance 5. It sounded like Resistance 10, based on what he was saying. It's like almost none of it went through.

Oh, I thought he said not all of it went through. And I didn't even roll the D6 for it. Oh, I missed the burning. Okay. Well, fuck. Yeah. all of it and i didn't even roll the d6 for oh i missed the burning okay well fuck yeah um it's gonna hang out i was gonna hang back hey if sir julian can get landed on those hits you don't have the ability skid to do any other bombs like acid not yet that's that's other discoveries okay get like another level so julie think you've got a natural one coming. I'm going to put it right out there into the universe.

You're going to roll a natural one. That's really rude. Extremely rude. The dawn flower will protect me. Power attack still on. Let's take another swing. La machu. Well, you were like kind of right, Troy.

Let's see, I don't know if you can see my dice tray close enough if I put it up to the camera. 14? Is that a natural 20? That's a natural 20, my friend. Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah. That's going to be a fan crit if you can confirm. That's a 20 to confirm.

That's a confirmed crit. Dirty 20 to confirm. Wow. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Almost five hours into the stream, our first fan critical of the day. All right, let's kick it over to Ryan from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hi, Ryan.

Grants Grace. Oh. Oh. Oh, God. You strike your foe so unerringly, you know that a deity must be smiling upon you. Is Grant a deity in this situation? Light shines down upon you,

and a beatific smile lights upon your face before a prayer escapes your lips. And Quasi has, we're taking TwinZoni. For the next 1d4 rounds, both you and Grant, or a player of your choice, roll a d20 for your attacks,

and you take the better of the two results. Oh, wow. So it's advantage for the next 1d4 rounds! It's Grant-vantage. As it is Grant's Grace, I must give it to Grant. Should I roll the D4? Yeah, probably.

If it is my Grace? Is that cool? Here it comes on stream. One round. Grant's poop, Grace. Did you say double damage, Joe, or regular damage? Oh, they didn't say.

So double. Yeah, so it's just, they don't say. They don't say, it's double. Okay. Double damage, all right. Double damage. I just rolled two sixes. Let's see about the other two.

Three sixes. Let's see about the other two. Three sixes. Oh, great swords! So that is 46 points of damage. Oh! It had five hit points left. Oh, wow. Holy shit.

Say Julie! Right through the old vine. Power attack. Oh, holy shit. Say Julie! Right through the old vine. Power attack. Oh, holy shit. That's insane. That is amazing. That thing did have energy resistance fire 10, cold 10, and was immune to electricity.

Wow. Not immune to a great sword. Joe, I would have laughed so hard you were thinking about going invisible and walking right in two things would have happened one you would have set off the trap and uh well that yeah that's why i looked for a trap yeah and then two it has blind sight so it would have seen you attacked you slammed you and constricted you i was like oh my god he's gonna walk off the street because you would have been grabbed and constricted you i was like oh my god he's gonna walk off the street because you would have been grabbed and constricted in the first round and then poisoned by the blade you're right

well to be fair i did say up front that like it could put me in a horribly dangerous position oh god that would have been so good you know i think the way it works with wizards is like if you're gonna be the one to go invisible and walk in it better not be until you have like dimension door you know what i mean like but even then if you get grappled you need freedom of movement is really what you need before it's it's very so dangerous if you have a high level of images it's it's relatively safe but it's still no guarantee out of it. Right. Well, you look up ahead through the light that Halster is shining, and you see this wooden barricade, and then you see an opening up to the left there.

You look down, and there are a bunch of tracks in the mud. Can I roll a survival on that? Sure. Okay. I'm not going to put a survival on that sure okay uh i'm not gonna put a survival on grant cam 14 for a uh 21 21 it looks like it's just one person's foot tracks but there are some smaller tracks and then there's like big stumpy weird looking tracks big stumpy, weird-looking tracks. Big, stumpy, weird... Does anyone know what these big, stumpy, weird-looking tracks are? No one has nature or anything.

Yeah, of course I do, buddy. Here we go. Knowledge, nature. Oh, I dropped my die. Oh, man. Natty, 15. Or 23. 23. uh oh man natty 15 or 23 23 uh so the the smaller tracks look like it might be some kind of wolf or dog type situation um the big stumpy tracks not really jumping out at you like a big

something large but it doesn't have, like, toes. Toes? Yeah. And they're not webbed feet, and they're not fins. No, and it doesn't look like that vine that just attacked you. Are they flat like an elephant's foot, or, like, hooved, like a horse's? Yeah, no, flat like an elephant's foot is a good way of explaining it, but without the toes.

It's an elephant! It's a giant elephant! There's an elephant in here, look out! I hope you brought peanuts. Maybe it'll be afraid of you, Atticus, being a mouse and all. Perhaps. There's only one

way to find out. He runs in alone. I'm here, elephant! Show yourself, you cowardly beast what do you do Halster come on you're dragging the stream move along

I shall follow Sir Julie who has no fear really has no fear immune to it perception check and then towards the door. 13 on the perception check. Okay. Ooh!

You look up ahead, and... there's, like, a wooden barricade that looks like it's made of small tree trunks lashed together with thick twine, sealing the entrance into whatever's beyond. There's loops of rope that look like handles tied to the barricade on each end so that maybe you could drag it, but it's huge.

Drag it or pivot it to one side. It would take a couple of you, maybe all of you. And the way it's wedged in the passageway, it doesn't look like it could be pushed over. You can kind of see through the logs, but you're still a little far back. Come, Alster. Help an old knight drag open the door. My pleasure. And we'll strength check

yeah so as you guys walk up you look over to the west and you see another chamber a small chamber off to the west that is also dark but obviously you're lighting it up limestone smells like

wet mulch and looks pretty bare aside from a scattering of animal bones. It's like a pile of animal bones. Do you detect any magic in there, Halster? Detect magic. No magic. I bet that's where the creature lives

when it's not ready for an attack and that's where it pooped out the bones of other people it ate. No magic. I bet that's where the creature lives when it's not ready for an attack, and that's where it pooped out the bones of other people it ate. Quite possibly. Do you want to search that room prior to going through the dragging door? Yeah, that's probably wise. Let us sift through the bone poop. Yes. Howl, sort of do a perception check as we walk in.

15. You don't see anything. Just that pile of bones. But it doesn't look like it's just animal bones now that you're in there. I have a pretty good heel check. And that would be within the clerical interests of Halster. So he'll approach the bones and do a heel check, and that would be within the clerical interests of Halster. So he'll approach the bones and do a heel check. I don't know if that's

even applicable, but... Yeah, no, for sure. To determine what happened to the human bones and to try to tell what the other bones are. 17. 17. So it's mostly animal bones, but sure enough,

there are some human bones in there. Or human delayed. They look very human. And they all met the same fate of what I'm assuming, based off my earlier deduction of being eaten and pooped out, or what happened to them. Yeah. It looks like they've been just eaten,

picked clean, no meat left on the bone. And as you're standing there, Aldo's still in the hallway, but you guys all come in to look. Suddenly, Halster, you feel something bite

out at you. You... 23 against Flatfooted. You take 8 points of damage. What?

And something very strange happens, because as Halster gets bit, all of you, with the exception of Aldo, see this creature appear for a second. Oh! It, like, appears from invisibility, bites Halster, and then disappears. Oh, no. Roll for initiative. Oh, jeez. Oh, my God.

Oh, man. That's something. Like, fades out. Oh, man. That's something. Like, fades out. Oh, dear. Ooh, doggy. So, Julie, did you take a hit in the previous fight?

Are you hurt? I am hurt, yes. Great. I didn't heal, but I could lay on hands this round. You can do that to yourself as a swift? Yeah. Okay, then I won't heal, but I could lay on hands this round. You can do that to yourself as a swift? Yeah. Okay. Then I won't channel on you. I mean, if you're also hitting you on a channel, I wouldn't.

No, I would use fervor and just heal myself if you can do it as a swift. And then I can go on to channels later in the cave. Got it. It's Halster's initiative. What'd you get, buddy? Nine. Nine. Ald buddy? Nine. Nine. Aldo?

Uh, 24. Nice, Aldo. For Aldo. Oh, wait, no. Sorry, 21. 21. Hula! Atticus, what'd you get?

16. 16. Sir Julie? 20. 20 for Sir Julie. We're making some progress. All right. Aldo, it's your turn in round one,

but it's a really weird position here. You are outside. You heard Halster get bit, but you don't see anything. Okay. I'm going to take a five-foot step in. I can never remember. Can we,

can you move and ready? Yes. Okay. Aldo is going to take a five foot step like into the entrance of this cave. And so what's going on? And he's going to ready an action. If he sees whatever it is that bit Hollister, he's going to throw a bomb at it.

Smart, smart, smart, smart. It Halster, he's going to throw a bomb at it. Smart. Smart, smart, smart. It is Sir Julie's turn. All right. Sir, can I roll a perception to see if I hear anything, if the creature has moved, perhaps?

Or do I still sense that it was in that same square? Yeah, roll a perception. There is my natural one that you called, Troy. Oh, no. Ten. An action too late.

You have no idea. It last appeared right next to Halster. It's a chance that it's still there. You could strike out at that at a 50% mischance. You could hold your action. You could ready an action. I will strike out at that square with a 50% mischance. Okay.

I will strike out at that square with a 50% mischance. Okay. I think I missed on both. So it would be a 15 to hit and a 40% on the mischance. 40% on the mischance. So you know you at least missed on the mischance.

Just whiffs through that area and it is Atticus's turn. Actually, I'm going to take a five foot step back to stand next to Atticus. Okay. Just right in Aldo's bomb range.

Okay. Okay. I have a feeling there's danger here. Like we're under attack, but doesn't know how many. He only saw one, right? Can I do a knowledge check with that brief flash of what I saw? Yeah, absolutely. Give me a knowledge.

I believe nature. Nature. Hold on. We need to go back and retcon Matthew's turn. He was under the effects of Grant's grace. Oh, but he missed with the concealment anyway. So you can't use Grant's Grace later on, by the way. Also, it was one round.

It was one round. We haven't taken that round yet. Well, I mean, I assume it expired after the combat. I think it's like a spell. You can't carry the round over the next combat. It's a critical. It's not a spell. I also did like one bajillion points of damage on that critical, so i got my got my

money's worth we didn't get the use out of the crit yeah it happens unfortunately alone grant you're alone on this one i think uh it is atticus's turn we vamp for you joe uh i i rolled a an 11 on the knowledge nature which i assume is a fail um and i'm just gonna go ahead and cast mirror image on myself okay so you rolled a knowledge 11 assumed it was a fail and you throw a mirror image how many uh images uh okay gonna roll that now images coming in hot five additional five images six Atticus's that is max okay

it is the creature's turn the creature appears in the same spot again as it bites or attempts to bite Halster. Oh, big old miss with a 10. It phases out. You can't see it, and you don't know where it went. What about my ready to action?

Ah, yes, Aldo, you get your ready to action before it went. What about my ready to action? Ah, yes, Aldo, you get your ready to action before it disappears. Okay, so this is tough, because it's minus four being in melee, and I'm blocked. So another plus two to its AC. Oh, natty 17, though.

That's a 24 to hit. That is enough to hit. Okay. That's 10 points of fire damage. Okay. And it's on fire. And I exclude everyone from the radius. Okay.

Huge. It looks like that all got through. And can I do a quick knowledge nature based on seeing it first what second absolutely that's an 11 11 same as Atticus yeah so just a peer to attack a peer Aldo ready in action once he saw

the creature to throw the bomb at it throws the bomb at it hits it but then it gone again, and it's Halster's turn. Halster is going to spend a blessing and a fervor to heal himself without provoking if it is next to him. Okay, nothing bites out at you. Nothing could. That'll be four points rounding down great and then he has

a little feat I like to call blind fight so if he hits and it's in that square there will be no concealment check I think you get to roll it twice you get to re-roll it yeah re-roll if you fail natural 20 oh god it wasn't on the camera.

There you go. Oh, how convenient! Oh, I should keep the camera up for the roll to confirm. Shoot. So it's a 19 on the confirm. Now we get to roll the concealment twice. Yes. 49

on the first one. Alright, guys. Yeah, I think by the rules, you get to re-roll if you fail, so now this is the one that counts. 38. Oh, no! I'm fine! Oh! The worst part of that is, you don't have

any information. You don't know if you, even if he missed, you'd know, right? It's not there. So, Alster, god, it's been there so Alistair god it's been really light on crits today top of the next round it's Aldo's turn oh man okay

Aldo is going to move closer in and he's going to ready the same action okay throw a bomb if it shows up all right hopefully avoiding having to throw through his buddies. It's Sir Julie's turn. All right.

Sir Julie is going to take a five foot step up. Locking me again. Oh, God damn it. All right. I'll take a five foot step to the side then. Mm-hmm. And take a swing at that square. At the same one that Halster

swung at? Yeah. Cracked die, but I made the concealment. Okay. I left power attack off, so that's going to be a 19 to hit. Roll a 50% mischance. I got it. You did. You swing into that space, and there's

nothing there. Was it warping out of this plane or no it moved it just moved oh it's a cool little cool little combat uh it's perception check to see if i can sense where we're sure if natural 20 natural 20 okay what's your perception bonus plus 9 okay that will actually require a stealth check on my part uh okay um because

remember it is also on fire so we can also smell the fire sure or feel the heat it's right next it. It's right next to you. It's right next to me. It's here! It's here! Yeah, the natural 20. It's really hard to

detect an invisible creature, but you beat my stealth. Because I'm moving and attacking, so I take penalties to that. Unbelievable. Okay. Well, it's Atticus's turn. Atticus, Sir Julie feels pretty confident it's here You're still gonna take A 50% miss chance

If you try to attack it But at least you have an idea That it's right there He'll just Shonk Try to shoot into that square With a crossbow bolt Grab that

On the old Joe's gonna roll Camelicious It's coming back around Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy Great Crit fumbles Always mean You attack scared It's coming back around. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Great.

Crit fumbles always mean you attack scared. All right. Let's see what we got here. Fumboni. This is going to be bad. It's called Kill Your Buddy. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Your miss kills your buddy.

All right. This one from Zion in Medford, Oregon. Here comes Mr. Mean. Don't like the sound of that. Your shot misses. That's a long one. You guys love writing so much.

Your shot misses so dramatically that it ripples across space and time and catches the attention of a Oh, God. It was a cold and misty day. It catches the attention of a... Oh, God. It was a cold and misty day. This sounds familiar. Catches the attention of a failed comedian-turned-podcaster, Troy LaValle,

who immediately appears nearby in a spectral form to mock you. It's just me. Make a will save. On a fail, the jeering of Troy's spectral form goads you into fruitlessly arguing with him, and you must spend the next 1d4 rounds taking no actions of any kind except arguing with Troy. If you spend the next 1d4 rounds taking no actions of any kind except arguing with

Troy. If you receive any damage during these rounds you cease and may act normally. On the successful will save you are shaken for 1d4 rounds. World breaking quits. So it's just basically fascination. Here we go. Rolling against fascination.

And I fail. So for 1d4 rounds i am out of it unless i take damage uh two rounds two rounds i cannot act okay uh great this is mean this is mean uh necessary all right it is That was Atticus's turn. So, right next to Sir Julie, this thing phases in, which should resolve Aldo's action first. Okay. Why are you bothering Skid? He's taking a sip of a nice, cold Sam Adams. All right, let's give this a turn.

That's 17 17 against... No, sorry, 13 against Touch AC. 13 against Touch, and it gets... Does it get any bonuses or no? You got a clear shot there. Yeah. Right, 13 against Touch. Yeah, no, you're fine. Yes. That's 12 points of fire,

and it rolls another D6 for being on fire on its turn did I do that last round? I don't think I did I don't think so this is the first round of it isn't it? you know what happened though? you hit me after I went

because I did it wrong your ready to action should have resolved first so I'll take 2 points of damage from last round, and then on my turn I'll take another d6. Okay, so. Well, this is very important, because now it's my turn, and I'll resolve that damage first.

One point. So he's still up. I think I should roll it. That's true. You roll it. One point. I wouldn't have been able to sleep tonight. All right.

It appears and goes to bite Sir Julie. It's a nasty little dude here. 17 to hit. I think that would be against your flat-footed AC. It's still a miss. Yeah. Okay. It's an argument to be made either way.

But anyways, once again it disappears and you don't know where it is I think that's a nice thing about Sir Julie and Halster is that we aren't really heavily dex based do you still have a your flat footed is relatively close to your regular AC yeah it's one

difference of one because my dex bonus is plus one mine too it is really nice when they're like flatfoot and you're like, oh no! Ah, it's fine. It's fine. Alright, it is Halster's turn. Alright, Halster is going to step up to the square he last saw

the creature in and will strike out with blind fight. Let me get this all on camera this time. Here it comes. Blind! Oh god, one out of the box. let me get this all on camera this time here comes oh god one out of the box that's going to be a 17 to hit and it will be a

73 you swing into that space and there's nobody there oh man it's so tricky if only you guys could see the GM layer it's all right there next round it is Aldo's turn

same thing Aldo you want to ready in action and I'm going to do a perception to see if I can pinpoint where it is natural one never mind you think it's Atticus hit him Sir Julie what are you going to do

reception check okay You think it's Atticus? Hit him. Sir Julie, what are you going to do? Reception check. Okay. Natural 20. Oh, come on. Man, she is on this thing. What is your total? 29. You don't know.

Only because I rolled a very high stealth. Okay. But it's on fire. But it is on fire. It is on fire. It's on fire. So maybe you should take a new high stealth. Okay. But it's on fire. But it is on fire. It is on fire. It's on fire. So maybe we should take a new shaker. Where's that fire?

It's warm from towards the back of the room. It didn't move forward towards Atticus and Aldo. You feel pretty confident about that. All right, cool. Sir Julia will take a five foot step forward and she will swing into this square. Okay. With the 50% mischance. Let me get my percentile die

Okay 71 percentile This time power attack is on So that is a 23 to hit 23 to hit, you swing into that space Nothing there Wow It's a number square

Atticus, you are up. Atticus is fascinated. He's arguing with Troy. It is actually oddly appropriate, because I will ignore problems right in front of my face just to argue with Troy. It's true. It's true.

He appears right here as he's about to bite. You guys were close. That's not where you swung? No, I swung the one directly in front of me. No, Halster. Where did you swing? I swung where it was, which is where Sir Julius is standing. Sir Julius, yeah.

So it took a diagonal step. Got it, got it, got it. North, west. All right, Aldo. Well, you should have swung in the other one. Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Joe. Really appreciate it.

Why are you a Troy instead of me? Yes, invite. You, Joe. Really appreciate it. Why are you arguing with Troy instead of me? Yes! In fight! You're misinterpreting the fumble. Dude, this creature, this is the exact kind of creature that turns parties on each other. Yeah, that's true. Little infuriating beast. They know what they're doing. Atticus,

excuse me, Aldo, take your prepared action. Okay. Oh, uh, that is a 19 against touch 19 against touch Describe your kill Oh, yes! Wow So he's just chucking bombs from the back of the room

It flashes for a moment Boom, boom, boom And it's these giant explosions Twice as big as what you've seen before and he's just giggling with delight at the sight of this huge fiery explosion every time and yeah this thing just like

blows apart fiery chunks of it smashing off all the surrounding walls and now they're just like yay my bones got it and it is dead as a creature known as a phantom fungus it has this cool ability called phantom flesh and uh aldo cracked the code very

early on really the only way to to help yourself out is to ready attack when i see it i hit it the problem for a melee combatant is you have to ready that attack and hope that it ends up right next to you right next to you yeah because otherwise it can appear and you'll be like i can't reach you can't walk up to it if you consider it could have been in like four different squares on that last time we would have had a better chance readying melee attack should have oh yeah yeah every time you just should have read it yeah yeah well you were cornering it too so it became where we were before we didn't have it cornered so it could have like there was a it had a lot more leeway so i was like oh let me just roll it it's a cool little

creature it really it does a lot of damage just 2d6 plus 3 damage which is good at this level but that's all it really does uh there's nothing else of import in this room you look in there the only thing that's important is that there's human bones and animal bones. The way you described, or got ready to describe it disappearing, though, I thought I was going to have to roll a monster of a fortitude save. I thought I was dead.

So, kudos. Sir Julian will lay on hands, by the way. I never did that. Alright, Atticus is going to be adamant that he wants to push through this open door immediately and as fast as possible if there's any danger in here he's got very limited time on these mirror images so he's like let's just go before i run out of this and i'm unable to do it again strength checks from halster and sir julie yeah you might need all of you get up there so you can't uh open

it it's you have to push it open what if i took a big old hack with my great sword does it look like something i could hack through no strength check all right here i will attempt to aid fail 18 on the strength check for sugele i fail to aid seven i failed to aid okay as you're trying to pull this open you can see through little gaps in the logs and you see that I fail to aid. Seven. I fail to aid, too. Okay. As you're trying to pull this open, you can see through little gaps in the logs, and you see that this cave system opens into a much larger chamber behind this barricade, and it's filled with, like, hazy remnants of smoke from a campfire that you can actually hear crackling somewhere within. There's also a yellow glow throughout the room,

like maybe from a lantern. It's casting strange shadows on the back wall. Sir Julie tries to pull. Can't get it open. However, I'll say, like, over time, you guys give it the old heave-ho enough that you're able to fucking pull this 400 pound uh barricade open like swing it to one side jesus

you walk in rush in you rush in. Heedlessly. Heedlessly. Recklessly. Oh. Go ahead and rush in. Excellent. Don't be coy here. Get yourselves right where you were. As if you were actually going to rush in. Yeah, I was right behind Sir Julie.

Rush in. So, here's what you see. You see a table in the back littered with cooking pots, glass flasks, other tools against the wall in the southeastern part of the room near this smoldering campfire and a wooden crate. There's a wooden work table against the wall holding a wide selection of containers and vessels, maybe for cooking or making concoctions. There's jars and tins everywhere and a small tin pot sitting on the edge of a table.

You also see three creatures snarling at you right when you walk in. There are two wolves it looks like but then as your eyes adjust to the edge of Halster's dim light you see that the wolves look totally misshapen with like

they're like covered in moss or fungus they look like this oh cordyceps that is so cool. Yeah, it's the last of us, baby. It is. Dogs.

What awesome artwork. And Atticus, you rushed in here to try and keep your mirror images going, and then you think, like, oh, my God, they must have heard us. They must have heard us, all those bombs. And sure enough, you're the only one that can see deep into the back of the room. A woman. If she wasn't, if she hadn't already cast a bunch of spells on herself, she would look like this. But instead, she looks like she's covered in wood with bramble strikes sticking out from her. She takes her spear, spins it around in the air, and brings it down like this.

Reaches out her hand, and fire appears. And we'll see you tomorrow. Oh, come on! Who is this woman? Let's talk! It's Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn. Yeah, totally, man, with these wolves and everything. Halo from Horizon Zero Dawn. Yeah. Totally, man.

With these wolves and everything. She looks exactly like that. Troy, you should play that game. That's a good game. That's a good one? I don't think you'll ever go back, will you, to any PS4 title at this stage. Well, you got Forbidden World, the sequel. Yeah. I think I'm going to have to.

Well, what I am going to play is five hours more of Strange Aeons tomorrow. It's so amazing. I'm so psyched that we play like this. This is the best way to play Strange Aeons. It's fun. It's fun. You know, it's tiring, but this isn't too bad.

And I feel like we really played an old school session today, just like banging out four or five hours, making tons of progress. Who knows? We might finish book two this year. That would be amazing. That would be amazing. That would be amazing. Finish it tomorrow. We'll finish it tomorrow.

We're going long. Thank you, everybody. If you stuck with us the whole time, stuck through the intermission, it looks like our numbers stayed pretty steady all along. You guys are great. Thank you. Go treat yourself to a pride hat.

We'll see you tomorrow afternoon. See you tomorrow.