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C2 Ep. 44 Shifting Tales Chapter Six
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The party is now on the inside, but will they find to solution to their mystery? Or is there more hiding behind the next corner?
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Darrin Katzska, Irene Viorritto, Ryan Royce, Darrell DeLaney, Jessica Smith, Charles Compton, Danielle Bramhall-Smith, Nastasia Raulerson, The Kamm Family, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Andy Dossett, Rebekah Gowman, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, Eric Witman, and Shelby Johnson.
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Transcript
Introduction and Recap
00:00:00
Speaker
The following episode is brought to you by the generous donations of Laura Pickron, Darryl Delaney, Darren Katska, Devious Poptart, Irene Villarito, Ryan Royce, Andy Dossett, Danielle Bramhall-Smith, Elizabeth Clark, Eric Whitman, Jessica Smith, Charles Compton, Natasha Rallerson, Richard Cree, The Cam Family,
00:00:20
Speaker
David Scrams, Dustin Troop, Edvard Arnoff, Michael Clark, Rebecca Gowman, and Shelby Johnson, as well as all of our generous patrons.
00:01:15
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Everon Renewed, an actual play podcast set in the Everon campaign setting. I'm your game master, Eric. I'm Phillip. I'm Trevor. I'm Randy. I'm Jeff. And welcome to another episode, gentlemen. What happened last time? We fought some local toughs.
00:01:35
Speaker
Yeah, what's up with Milo getting kicked around? Yeah, we had a fight that ended with the leader of the group disappearing and taking out his whole crew on the way out. Yeah, that's weird. But we managed, ultimately, we managed to get into the mill house, mill hatch, pardon me, lower division.
00:02:02
Speaker
Building. Everything's coming up Millhouse.
Infiltration of Millhatch Industries
00:02:07
Speaker
They're thrilled. Oh, that show was funny for a while. Yes, so you find your way into Millhatch Industries lower division with your compatriot Aransas helping and Cath and Faroo along for the ride as well.
00:02:32
Speaker
So again, you find yourselves in a hallway. The sending stone that was set up to monitor this hallway is disabled, thanks to a triumph rolled by Jeff during the combat. And half of the security measures are in your rear view, thanks to a triumph rolled by Trevor during the setup for the warehouse. So. And just to refresh the listener, this is a, all we can see right now is hallway. Yeah. And it's like pristine, sanitized. Yeah.
00:02:59
Speaker
like a gap commercial. It's a welcome change from the bar gas fight. It's just grody everywhere. So Rancis, once you got in here, pointed basically if you like we're looking in through the window to the left further towards the back of the building from where you entered to a door that direction saying that the other way is towards the front of the building so you all need to head that way.
00:03:27
Speaker
The place where it says, do not enter. Yes. You get a sense that this whole section just has an employees only kind of vibe. So yeah, you all are in a hallway, Rance, this is one of that direction. We're about halfway through what I got as the tour towards the main lab facility, as they put it.
00:03:52
Speaker
which is a live space in the back of the building. Hob takes a backseat with some of this stuff. Like he's not sneaky and he doesn't know from magic or traps. So he's kind of like looking at Milo, looking at Raynard. He isn't looking at Ares being like, what, what, what do, what, what do he says in goblin?
00:04:23
Speaker
that way i mean we go that way but is there do we need to i mean it it i just begins walking that way okay i'm gonna follow her i get jeff is concerned about traps and things but i don't know how that works in this world or in this game so i mean who's our who's our resident expert in that field
00:04:45
Speaker
Well, I don't think we're relying on our resident expert in that field. He doesn't really know that he is our resident expert. Raynard, you would be the one to handle any traps or unlock them. Oh yeah, because I have all the skullduggery. Yes, skullduggery, perception to notice traps.
Magic and Strategy
00:05:05
Speaker
Um, things like that. Um, so, uh, would you like to make some checks on this door or is Raynard just going to, uh, valiantly and boldly walk through it? Well, these people don't really like me, so I don't know if I'm going to help them.
00:05:19
Speaker
Oh, great. I'm kidding. No. Yeah. That's the only time he says that's the only time he has ever even thought about liking was cool with the idea of ditching sharn. That's true. I have half of a brownie point from.
00:05:41
Speaker
Eris. Eris knows that Rainard's the one that would go with her, just not the one she wants to go with. Well, it's just cruel irony that the only other person who's willing to leave is the one person that Eris would immediately split from as soon as we left the city, so. Okay, let's do it. Okay, so go ahead and give me a perception check on the door. Perception? Or skullduggery? Well, trying to notice the trap.
00:06:08
Speaker
you're checking for traps at this point. Okay, okay. And go ahead and do it with a two purple difficulty. Okay, but I'm gonna spend a story point. Okay. Because my perception is not that good. Yep. Okay. Wow. Zero success, one advantage, and a triumph. How do we always start sessions, like we start our play sessions off with a triumph so often?
00:06:38
Speaker
Okay, so you're in this building. You're looking at this door. You don't really notice anything out of the ordinary on the door. Seems to be on the up and up to you. Let's start with the one advantage. So you can obviously pass a boost die to the next check made. It might be a check to avoid taking damage from a trap on this door. It might not be.
00:07:08
Speaker
Or if there's something kind of good from a narrative standpoint that you would like to like to declare about this door, you can. Well, I was, okay. So this, I never talked about the advantage, but I was wondering. Yeah. For the triumph.
00:07:31
Speaker
Could I just use the advantage to like do a skullduggery on the door? Like, I know there wasn't a success, but like use part of the triumph to be like, I kind of know what I'm doing. I have an idea for the triumph. If like, if, if, if we're throwing them out now, I was going to wait, but sure.
00:07:55
Speaker
if this might be too much. What if the triumph is there's a transom window above the door that is the exact right height for one hob plus one milo to see through? To look through the door? To look through the window above the door that is there now because of the triumph.
00:08:13
Speaker
so Milo can get his eyes on what's through the door. We still don't know if the door's trapped. He has not succeeded, but we have intel on what's on the other side. If that's too much, that's too much. That's a lot.
00:08:31
Speaker
I would say, yeah, you can establish that there is a window above that door that you all can look through. Just a rules clarification moving forward, just so you all know, stuff like that can also be accomplished with flipping a story point. You all can just declare, like, flip a story point, hey, there's a window above the door that we can look through. Well, here's the thing. If Trevor rolled the triumph, if he would rather come up with something and I'll happily use a story point for that window, but I'm kind of sold on that window.
00:09:04
Speaker
So, Trevor, how about this? With the advantage, I will tell you, because you're checking for traps, one thing that you can definitively spot while you're checking the door, it's not locked. You're not going to have to make a check to get through the door. But based on what you're seeing, there are no traps on the door either.
00:09:24
Speaker
So, um, so that can be your one advantage is, you know, definitively it's not locked. So if you go to open it, you know, it will open, if that makes sense. Um, so, uh, so what do you think, Trevor, in terms of the triumph? Do you want to use it to establish that window that they can look through to see what's on the other side before opening it? Or, um, is there something else that you would like to, um,
00:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, I say yes, let's do the triumph for the window, okay, and The advantage just pass off to someone who's gonna try and safely just go through the open door. I guess Okay, so if there if there's a check necessary due to a trap Yeah, they'll have a boost time because the door is unlocked. So they'll be able to just kind of
00:10:16
Speaker
easily barrel through it. Okay, I can go with that. Okay, so, Raynard, what do you tell the group? Okay.
Hacking Attempt and Discoveries
00:10:30
Speaker
Well, based on what I can see, the door is unlocked. There's also a window above us that we could possibly look through and see what's on the other side. Oh, Milo.
00:10:45
Speaker
You didn't notice any traps or anything like that on the door then? I did not. Interesting. Yes, Hal. Would you like to... I could lift you up onto my shoulders and you could probably see through that window. That's probably a very good idea.
00:11:07
Speaker
I just like to ask before I make those decisions for other characters about riding on shoulders and things And he puts Milo I'm thinking like little kid like standing on the shoulders not like seated so Milo can looking Into the window Milo tell us what you see What does Milo see?
00:11:29
Speaker
Okay, so Milo, you can see that this seems to be some kind of preparation room. Like you see some various equipment on the wall, lab coats, lots of like magical implements that seem to be like
00:11:50
Speaker
not powered currently, like there's no arcane energy flowing through them or anything. But you also see the door on the other side of the room seems to be a bit more of a reinforced door than this one. And it seems to be less
00:12:09
Speaker
It seems to be a much more mundane door. You see a very large metal lock in the door. But you don't see anybody in this door. You do notice a sending stone whose runes are active on where the wall and the ceiling meet. If you're looking through, you see the door straight ahead and most of the room exists.
00:12:32
Speaker
more to your right, going towards the center of the building, and it's on that wall. So if you open the door, whoever opens the door will be blocked from sight of the sending stone until they move past it, if that makes sense. Yes. But this seems to be some kind of prep room where people, before they go into the lab area, get ready, essentially.
00:13:00
Speaker
Yes, this appears to be a preparation room. There's some equipment. There appears to be some magical implements. There is a door straight across that has a lock on it. And also, which is good for us to know, is that there is a sending stone on the left wall as the door opens. It appears when you open the door it will not see you, but when we go past it, it most certainly will.
00:13:33
Speaker
okay just so we're clear did you see any demons no not a soul oh i don't suppose that's a good one let's suppose either you kind of cast a spell to make one uh invisible
00:14:12
Speaker
to create an illusion. It's like the spell create illusion. But then as you add things onto it, there is an invisibility version of it that adds three purple difficulties. So the invisibility spell is a four purple check. I would say so. To be established, I am the one that's going to do this.
00:14:16
Speaker
I know he's not talking to me
00:14:35
Speaker
You or Randy could. I mean, what's your what's your first skill, Reynard? I don't think I've upgraded. I think I just have it. So that would be your presence. Yeah. Oh, no, it's well. It's one yellow, two green. OK, so yeah, yeah, when you took it, you gained a you gained a rank in it. So, OK. But I think Milo, yours is how many? Four.
00:15:05
Speaker
Or yellow? Yes. Well then he should do it. Wow. That's probably why I forgot I could do magic. Now is it I can turn myself or somebody else, correct? Yes, you can target...
00:15:23
Speaker
Yes, you can target anybody. You can also with the cost of one purple or upgrading or increasing it, one purple, you can basically add an additional target. So you could try to change all of your appearances with enough advantage with a guarantee of changing two of your appearances. So and you do have the lab coat. There are some holes and some bloodstains that you would need to try to like
00:15:51
Speaker
Position yourself. Can I use utility as press to digitization? Sure. Yeah. Uh, so Aeris, uh, wait, so we decided we're going to do the, we decided we're going to do the, you know, look like somebody else, not the invisibility.
00:16:08
Speaker
No, we're going to do the. It has occurred to Eris that somebody wearing the lab coat is probably intelligent just on spec. Yeah, I'm sure. Right. I mean, it's zero cost, potential high benefit. Do I need a role to clean the lab coat with prestidigitation effect? Yeah, it's just do it with one purple.
00:16:30
Speaker
Two success, two advantage. Yep. So the coat all of a sudden looks to be a pristine, crisp, freshly dry cleaned lab coat. All right. What do you want to do with the two advantages? Can I have, can I have artificially changed the name tag that was on it?
00:17:00
Speaker
Sure. To identify, not with her name, but to identify Eris as a lab tech here. Sure. And also it says lizard division now. Lycanthropy division. Okay. So Milo, which one, are you going to turn somebody invisible or are you going to try to alter appearances? I have a thought.
00:17:30
Speaker
Since there is a door on the other side that is locked, what do you all think if I attempt to turn Reynard invisible and he can go across the room and check that other door? Any other ideas?
00:17:56
Speaker
Um, noise. It's fine with me. I am. I can watch because I'm just walking in, but no one's seeing is better than... Right, so, you know, I'm not entirely sure I can do this. I've never attempted it before, but I will certainly give a try. Comforting. Well, I don't think anything bad will happen. It just will work or it will not.
00:18:24
Speaker
so let's try that and and Reynard if it does succeed and you go in um you might try to see if there may be as any uh magic guarding the door as well i i think this one may be okay so i'm not going to bother okay so
Descent and Exploration
00:18:49
Speaker
Okay, so we're doing invisibility on Reynard, correct? Yes. And then Reynard's going to go over and try to inspect the other door and then come back. And how long will this, is it four purple? Four purple. And did I get any boost from anything? No boost? Nope. There is a boost on the table from Reynard, isn't there? Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:18
Speaker
Yeah, go ahead and take that boost. Okay. All right, here we go. One success. For the listener, four yellows, four purples, one blue, and came out with one success. A lot of stuff was rolled. We've rolled. Yeah, the yellows and purples are all full of symbols. They just cancel each other out. That's amazing. Yeah. Okay, so. What do you know? It worked.
00:19:49
Speaker
Yeah. All of a sudden, Raynard cannot be seen. Raynard, you can't... I feel just successful. I like this a lot better. I can still smell him. Okay, Raynard. You know I'm invisible. Not deaf. But yeah, wouldn't serve saying it if you were deaf. I'd have to, you know,
00:20:13
Speaker
after then and sign and do it that way. Well for at least four minutes I won't even be near you. You're welcome. Thank you. Okay so Raynard, two things. A, you can go into the room and you can inspect the other door like you did this one and try to unlock it.
00:20:38
Speaker
because this one does have a big metal lock on it that you can clearly see and know that that's something that you can tend with. Additionally, as a user of the verse magic skill, as a bard basically, you have access to the spell Dispel to nullify magic.
00:21:00
Speaker
So you could also, while you're in there and invisible, try to cast that on the sending stone that's mounted on the wall to turn it off, basically. So those are the options in front of you, essentially. But first, you must go into the room. Milo steps away from the door. You have no reason to think anything's wrong with the door.
00:21:27
Speaker
You don't know that check wasn't passed. So the first thing I need to do is just go through this first door. Yes. Rainer, perhaps try to squeeze through the door open as little as possible. The less movement that shows up, the better. That's fine. I mean, try to rewire the screwing. I think that's a great idea as well.
00:21:56
Speaker
you know, fiddle with the scrying stone. Uh, Milo, could you tell what the, what the angle of the stone was? I, I would think I could have. I mean, is it looking, is it looking down into the room? It's, it's basically where the, the wall and the ceiling meet in the center of the wall in that pointed in an angle down at the room. So,
00:22:25
Speaker
presumably if you got right up against the wall. How much of the ceiling would it see? Probably a bit at the far side, right by the door. No, actually, it would be the opposite. The closer you would get, the more the ceiling it would see. So. All right. So, right now you work on the block.
00:22:48
Speaker
And Eris goes up the wall to the transom window. And I want to... I mean, I guess Skullduggery would be the way to do it. I want to try and...
00:23:01
Speaker
Uh, or mechanics. I don't know which one it is. I want to basically, I assume this transom door, why would this transom window open? That doesn't make any sense. I assume this transom window in this highly secure facility does not have a hinge that just swings on because that would challenge credulity. It could spin a story point and it will. No, I realized that it could.
00:23:26
Speaker
i realize i could fill it doesn't what he's a story point to break logic but but come on he thinks more highly of mill hatch industries couldn't be me could not be me no i just want to take the pain out i want to i want to just you know remove the the window pain me too me too oh trevor you don't know yet buddy and then drop it on reynard to take the pain out
00:23:53
Speaker
Yeah, so removing a window, an entire window. I'll let you make skullduggery or mechanics, either or. Now to do it, I'm going to need a
00:24:12
Speaker
Let's say a two purple difficulty, you know, it's, it's a tricky thing, but it's not overly difficult, but you are trying to do it in such a way as to make sure that nothing is spotted by the camera. So go ahead and add a setback die to that. Okay. Oh, you're just gonna say, cause I was standing on the ceiling. I mean, I can give you another one if you want. Is this something I can use my glove with?
00:24:37
Speaker
Since I'm fiddling? Sure, yeah. Okay. Two purple, one setback. Okay. I'm good to go if you are. Yep. Four success, one advantage, and a triumph. Unbelievable.
00:24:52
Speaker
So yes, Eris, you do that and apparently so much more. Eris pulls out her little stylus and adjusts the runes on it and it starts to have this sort of red-hot glow to the top of it and just sort of draws it slowly along the window frame while one of her climbing gloves is, well, her climbing glove is against it and then just pop the window pane right out stuck to her hand and hands it down to Hobb.
00:25:23
Speaker
who takes it and drops it. If there were a thread on this roll, then yes, that's what. You either set it down carefully or if you want to hold on to it and smash someone over their head with it later. That would be an option to smash somebody with a real pane of glass. Just sounds awful. Presumably quite a highly secure pane of glass, too. Yeah, it's like the ones with the lattice work of chicken wire in it.
00:25:52
Speaker
Okay, so we have one advantage and a triumph, Eris. So, one advantage you could pass the boost to Reynard for his check on the door. I would like to spend the triumph to obtain the ability to say that there is, when I go to Fiddle with this security viewer,
00:26:22
Speaker
I'm going to be able to hack into their security network. I will say that you can have that capacity. Try to. Yes. Like have the capacity to do so. There is an access point to the security network as a whole, as opposed. Yeah. And there's a Post-it with the password because this guy is good, but he's not great at OPSEC. Okay. And what about the advantage? The advantage.
00:26:52
Speaker
Oh, I didn't take my screen. And Randy, take your screen as well. Yes, yes, yes.
00:27:01
Speaker
I will pass a boost to Reynard in his upcoming lock picking check. Well now I'm gonna have to earn that half a browning point again because you just spin it. Okay so yeah Eris, you created a point of entry without moving the door?
00:27:24
Speaker
that Reynard could use also so the door doesn't open. Aeris just begins to climb along the ceiling towards the scrying carriage.
00:27:35
Speaker
Like she's tied the coat up so that it's not going to hang down. Like the hob has her satchel and probably the Fletcher and she's just pressed as close to the ceiling as she can get. She's got goggles and yellow mask on as well. Yes, absolutely. Of course. Okay. We're committing crime. Raynard, are you going through the door or the window?
00:27:58
Speaker
The door. OK, OK. So, uh, Raynard, I think, honestly, Raynard didn't really stick around to figure it out that they were taking the window out. Raynard just went OK. So you want to wait while Eris was up there cutting up the window. You all see the door slightly open and then swing back shut.
00:28:18
Speaker
Um, okay. So Raynard, uh, you are at the door. You see that this is a mundanely locked door. There's no magic here. It requires lock picks and a lot of skill to open this thing. So I, nothing happened in the room. I just walked to the door. Well, you're invisible. So yeah, nothing like it. There's, there's implements. There's white lab coats. There's yeah, you were able to just open the door. Uh, you were right. There were no traps.
00:28:44
Speaker
Good for you. You're still faced with your own doubts and shortcomings, so there's that grim specter. Yeah, there's that thought director of like, well, that's lucky because I was not certain. But yeah, so go ahead and give me a skullduggery check to unlock this story.
00:29:03
Speaker
It's a hard block, so three purple, but because we are talking about a house, Kenneth assisted house, the assistance of the houses in
Confronting the Lizard-like Entity
00:29:18
Speaker
constructing this facility, there is certainly going to be a boosted level of security.
00:29:23
Speaker
go ahead and flip one of those, turn one of those purples into a red. So one red, two purple. And I have a boost. So just get rid of a purple. No, just add a blue. Oh, add a blue. Okay. Yeah. One red, two purple and a blue. And then you're still hungry. Yep. Yes. Huh. Okay. We do have lots of story points too. Then let's flip a story point. I do. Okay.
00:29:49
Speaker
Take away a purple? No. Turn one of your greens into a yellow. I'm sorry. I'll learn one day. Okay. This is a lot. Here we go. Yay. Two success and a threat.
00:30:05
Speaker
That's OK. OK, but I'm worried. Yes, the culmination of being unsure about the traps on that door and kind of the realization is you're unlocking this of like, this is it. Like if I don't unlock this, we don't we don't go no further. So I better get this right.
00:30:23
Speaker
And you do, but some sweat starting to collect on your brow. So go and take a point of strain. And one bead of sweat falls and touches the sensors on the floor. Beep, beep, beep. That you're standing on. But I'm invisible. They only look out for sweat. That cancels that weight too, right? Sure. Okay. So, Aris, you are on the ceiling.
00:30:51
Speaker
For a long time when my daughter was trying to describe invisibility in comic books or D&D, she would describe it, they can go clear. You know. Like a Scientologist. That's what it's called, I don't know what to tell you. Okay, so Eris, this is going to be, you're trying to magically hack into a system, so it's going to be skullduggery as well.
00:31:19
Speaker
Once again, a highly fortified security system. So we're talking about a hard check with
00:31:35
Speaker
Two red, one purple. And, yeah, that's perfect. And this is just to potentially get access, not to actually do anything once you're in. Well, you will get control. You will have control of this one to make it not, like, yeah, all of you have to say. Do my skills in Artifice, grant me a boost tie. Sure. Okay.
00:32:00
Speaker
And so I've got two red and a purple, and I would like to flip a story point. What do I push for that? Just the circles at the top. Yes. Okay. Um, to upgrade my green to another yellow. All right. So I'm throwing three yellow, one blue, two red, one purple.
00:32:24
Speaker
so much so much get another blue if she hears I'll go um you got this bar monkey inspirations aris's intense fragility makes that tragically plausible all right I am good if you are good yep here we go
00:32:49
Speaker
unbelievable zero success one triumph just nothing and a triumph that's so very weird okay um well i haven't gotten access but i also haven't alerted security to my attempt to do so that would have been a despair so okay you don't need to spend a triumph to say you haven't alerted anybody um
00:33:20
Speaker
you just failed to gain access. And Rainard, as you finish unlocking the door, you turn to go back and you see Eris on the ceiling. Yeah, as in like in a horror movie. She's the girl in the scene. The zest girl in a horror movie. She's like the grudge. She briefly accelerates in her movements.
00:33:44
Speaker
I have a suggestion for the triumph, but I think it's to one for one replacement. And I don't want to. If you have an idea, I don't want to say it anyway. I don't right now. I'm working on it, but I'm open to hearing his suggestion. This feels like it might be too much still doing the desired outcome. But what if she doesn't get access to the system, but she somehow accidentally has paused to the camera so it still looks like an empty room? That's the same thing in it. The initial intent of the check before the previous triumph was just to shut off the camera. So I feel like that
00:34:16
Speaker
That's succeeding while not succeeding. Yeah, I was going to go for looping the camera. Yeah, that's not like speed. That's exactly what I was thinking. Yeah. You transfer funds out of a Canis bank account into Aeris inexplicably. Man, Aeris could make good use of that. Okay, I have something. Please.
00:34:40
Speaker
You have not gained access to the system and you have not successfully disabled the camera in this room. However, in fiddling with the fiddly bits, you have disabled the element of the alarm system that communicates to any external facilities.
00:35:06
Speaker
Like basically, if an alarm goes off, people in the street will be able to hear an alarm going off, but the Caneth or Kundarak or whoever facilities in the upper part of the city that would be alerted and send people down here would not get a flag. Okay. Yeah. I like that. I've, I've isolated the system. Um, you're off the grid. Yeah. Take her offline. Yeah. Okay. I'm good with that.
00:35:35
Speaker
Just a thought. Yeah, no, I like that. Okay. And more importantly, you know what you've done. Yeah. And seeing that, she's a little frustrated by this, so I would like to simply try to dispel the camera at this point.
00:35:52
Speaker
Okay. Um, so yeah, that is going to be a, a three purple, uh, difficulty. And you know what, I'm going to flip a story point because yeah, it's potent. So.
00:36:10
Speaker
One red, so two purple, one red. Yes. All right. I'm good. Here we go. Oh, fascinating. All right. So one success, four advantage and one despair. OK, so I've yeah, crap. OK, so you do a string of a string of fluent goblin cursing suddenly fills the room.
00:36:38
Speaker
Four advantage is not nothing. So let's talk. Let's talk the advantage first. Well, I don't know how many of them it would cost, but I'd really like to know what I'd really like her to know what what she has accidentally done, know what the despair is, like know what she has, whatever she has accidentally triggered. She'd like I'll take advantage from you for that. OK, you have three advantage to be aware of that.
00:37:03
Speaker
Um, frying the system is too big, obviously for three. Um, is it possible to have gained insight in case we run across others that they might be a little easier to deal with?
00:37:23
Speaker
Depending on what that despair is, we may have passed the secrecy portion of this adventure.
00:37:40
Speaker
I want to say she's pulled something useful to her out of this system. It may not be relevant right now, but I want to say that narratively that she has pulled something useful to her out of this system. Either she, I don't know, when she's got the thing cracked open, one of the schema that are its motherboards and that kind of thing, she's like, ooh.
00:38:04
Speaker
Um, maybe that's even what's caused the despair is she's become distracted. I was like, oh, I've been looking for one of these. Um, she's like, okay. Yeah. So, so yeah, you find, uh, yeah, you basically find, uh, a component, uh, that is a schema for, uh, the proprietary house civice, uh, specialized surveillance sending stones.
00:38:29
Speaker
Exactly what I'm doing with this. If you yank that out, you might be able to even replicate this kind of thing. I know exactly what I mean. This is what's going to allow me to Bluetooth sync my goggles to Tasha the bird and use her as a spy drone. Your magpie senses get the better of you and you grab the shiny thing. And all of a sudden, you hear a
00:39:02
Speaker
the sending stone fade. And then after a brief moment, the room becomes pitch black for a second. And then a faint redness comes up as some like emergency runes that are along the edge of the ceiling begin to glow as you realize something you did caused a magical feedback loop to shut off the lighting in this place to where
00:39:22
Speaker
as you pull it out and you see the runes on the
00:39:31
Speaker
If there is anybody in this facility, they are certainly aware that you are here and now it is very dark. So not not pitch black. Like I said, there's red lighting. It's a lot creepier, but because now everything's cast in red instead of start. So yeah. And somewhere over in like the camera cut somewhere over in the facility and just see a glass door.
00:39:52
Speaker
and a foot steps out. Just a lizard tail flops. And Rainard, you witnessed this. Well, you all witnessed this. And I'm like, I'm invisible. It doesn't really matter. So I think we can come through the door now. OK, I think I think it goes dark. She says that Hobbs through the door. Rainard, are you coming with that lock?
00:40:23
Speaker
It's open. I mean, Hobb thinks even if he, because he doesn't know that this crying stone is no longer working, but at this point, the situation means that is irrelevant and he's going through the room. I mean, these crying scoons had glowing blue runes on them and you don't see them in the darkness, and so... Well, now they're angry red runes. But I was not in the rune room when you did it all, so... Yeah. Where it happens.
00:40:51
Speaker
Aeris drops down off the ceiling and retrieves her things from Hobb. Okay. So Raynard, are you opening the door? I thought I did. You unlocked it, but you had to think that you had opened it. Oh, well then yes. Okay. Uh, so, and Hobb goes, Oh, right. It was just automated all along. So they can't talk to the outside anymore.
00:41:17
Speaker
I'm sorry, what? I cut them off from the outside. The system's isolated. They won't be able to call in reinforcements. Oh, great. It wasn't perfect. Obviously. Right. Well, what has been so far? Nothing.
00:41:39
Speaker
Okay.
Episode Wrap-up
00:41:40
Speaker
So, uh, the Rainard, you open the door and you see a large ish facility, uh, lots of lab tables, uh, in the, uh, in the corner, you see another like makeshift office set up similar to what you saw, uh, in the other, uh, mill hatch industry facility that you were in. Um, so, so yeah, that's, that's what you initially see. And there's lots of paperwork. Uh, there's a filing cabinet behind it.
00:42:09
Speaker
It's kind of caddy corner from the door that you entered. So yeah, that's what you all see initially walking into the room. Anybody that would like to, so what's everybody doing walking in here? Hob's looking for another big specimen tank. That you do not see a specimen tank, right? Another sending stone.
00:42:37
Speaker
Well, uh, so you see some sending stones, uh, up in the ceiling Milo, but it seems like the power to the facility at least. So they've nixed them all. Yes. Eris, uh, she, she tried the breaker while, while alerting everybody in the facility. If there is anybody here, if they haven't all been killed. Yes. Um,
00:43:03
Speaker
So yeah, so what's everybody doing? Milo's looking like scoping the place out, looking for something to do with it.
00:43:20
Speaker
So that's not made clear in the rules. For Emmet's concentration. There's concentration. So Milo, essentially, you're having to use one maneuver every turn to keep this active. You can stop doing that at any point. But basically, if you want to take an action at any point, I'm essentially going to need you to take two strain to do so until you stop allowing Reynard to be invisible. And then once we get into combat, then we can
00:43:58
Speaker
Is anybody going to check out the desk or anything like that?
00:44:03
Speaker
Uh, is anybody going to inspect further into, I mean, we're trying to find out what's going on here. So Eris is definitely going to brand second and get any desks. I think, I think hob wants to make it clear to Eris that he's watching the door because he doesn't know what he's looking for except for potential victims. Okay. So she slings the Fletcher and goes over and she's.
00:44:22
Speaker
I mean, Eris's tactic here is going to be to try and sort of quick scan for things that are obviously important. But if there's a journal, if there's a ledger, like it's going in her bag to the degree that she can, because we got we had a lot more luck in just stealing everything. Last time we were in one of these. So you're welcome. You're grabbing scanning over things, trying to find anything that relates to shifters or anything like anything related to why you're here.
00:44:52
Speaker
As you're pulling around, you do see, so this desk is set up very similarly to a lot of office desks. On the left side, there's two smaller drawers. Both of those slide open. There's more paperwork and stuff in there, but the big one on the side is locked. Can I do something about that? What? Can I do something about that? Yeah, skullduggery. Two purple.
00:45:18
Speaker
a pretty janky desk. You could just smash it. Oh, oh, open this drawer. I walk over and okay. Uh, I grabbed the drawer by the sides. You have a, you have a four brawn. So yeah, you just, you can grab by the handle and just yank the locking mechanism. Just lift the desktop off like a can, just peel it back. Okay. Raynard, what are you doing while this is happening? You're invisible.
00:45:49
Speaker
Part of me wants to think Raynard's just kind of like, am I still invisible? Raynard's looking for a mirror. Yeah. No, I think taking advantage of the invisibility, just kind of looking watch, keeping watch, I guess. OK. Kind of like, you know, by the door. So, Milo, you said you're kind of looking around. Yes. So, Milo, give me a perception check. One purple difficulty. However, due to it being dark in here,
00:46:19
Speaker
Add a black to it. So one purple, one black. And you have plenty of story points if you would like to upgrade it. Okay. Go for it. Three success, two advantage. Yay. So, yeah, Milo, you succeed. And as you're kind of looking around, scanning about, you hear a kind of smash as Hob breaks open the desk.
00:46:46
Speaker
you something catches your eye towards the back of the room and you notice with the darkness that Eris has created it's a lot easier to spot. You imagine this would have been much more difficult with this place of light lit up like it was before. You see a seam on the floor of about a 10 foot strip near the back wall that you can see faint greenish light coming up out of it like there's
00:47:16
Speaker
a hatch or something that is hidden here that leads down. That's where the mill is. Now, so as you're noticing that, Milo, I'm having these two things happen concurrently. So you walk over as Hob is smashing up the desk. That's what he's doing. Yes. Oh, we need to get in here and just start pulverizing it. How do you open the drawer with your strength?
00:47:46
Speaker
If, I mean, if it's got a handle and it's just like one little barrel lock, then yeah, you can rip the... Probably just rip it out of the... Or if it just rips the face off of it because the lock is strong enough that she can still reach her little hands in there and pull stuff out. No, I like the visual of you just walking over grabbing the handle and just yanking the whole drawer out. So, plop that on top of the desk.
00:48:06
Speaker
Um, you all, uh, you see now kind of what you were looking for. You see reference to, uh, to shifter. You hear, you see lycanthropy, uh, transformation. Um,
00:48:19
Speaker
And as you're grabbing the stuff, you notice you say, uh, basically, um, you see schematics for I like those something. Uh, wait. Um, no, she still likes the schematics for lizards. Don't blame the schematics, Eric.
00:48:41
Speaker
Schematics are beautiful no matter what they're for. So essentially, this is the schematic for something to potentially, in theory, strap a creature to this device. You're right, I don't like that at all. And essentially the goal is to magically transfuse properties of that creature.
00:49:06
Speaker
Um, so, so like, for example, like extract qualities. So, so you strapped this to the creature and it extracts certain qualities of that creature. So you transfer them to another to regenerate, uh, its flesh. And then you could theoretically transfer them to someone else, someone else. Uh, and the notes on this talk about, uh, and this can be, while you're, while you're looking at the schematic hob, you see like a notepad with some like frantic note-taking.
00:49:37
Speaker
Basically talking about transformation not controllable yet, theory, only creatures that can fully transform themselves that still have controller shifters, try to extract stability of transformation from shifters to make transformation more controllable. So.
00:50:05
Speaker
That's those are the notes that you see. And you all are reading this while Milo has spotted the secret door. Yes, this is something very curious here. There appears to be a door in the floor.
00:50:27
Speaker
Let's call it a hatch. Floor door. Oh, well, a two advantage. We simply cannot walk into it. Thank you. I have something for the two advantage, Milo, if you would like. Yes, I've been sitting here trying to think of something and have not, so fire away. Due to presumably some kind of commotion going on, you do hear noises coming from beyond the hatch, beyond just spotting where it is.
00:50:58
Speaker
And you hear kind of a muffled gruff, like, exclamations and things like that. But beyond that, you hear some faint, like weak screaming and cries as well from beyond this door.
00:51:28
Speaker
There's some strange noises below and. It appears to be some faint screaming as well. Oh, does it sound like it's getting closer? No, we just hear it. Just yeah, it's down there. Aris, the schematics that you see of these devices, you don't see any of them in the lab.
00:51:51
Speaker
But there are markings because this has like mill hatch industries, you know, this is, this is a, a project tracker of sorts. This is the schematic and the progress and all that stuff. Uh, based on the paperwork, this schematic is complete. Like they successfully in theory created this thing based on the theories behind it. If we're trying to rescue.
00:52:21
Speaker
The Bournemouth people, the Ravens, I think they're down there. That was my thought precisely. Does the hatch visibly locked? Is the hatch visibly locked?
00:52:48
Speaker
You don't see any means of opening it is the problem. It's just kind of a sheer section of floor.
00:52:56
Speaker
So I could have somebody make a arcana or artifice check to try and figure out how this would work. There's not a gap. You could just jump on it. Is there not a gap big enough to wedge a reinforced pane of glass into it? I would let you try it. Okay, Hob runs back out and he grabs that piece of glass that he left behind. He almost brought it in with him just to appease Aeris, let her think something was going to happen with it.
00:53:21
Speaker
Um, okay. And then yeah, using very little of his might, um, what would this be? Just, um, you're trying to pry open a door with it. I don't even know. Uh, what, uh, I guess I agree based on Braun. Um, what's the hardness of the glass athletics.
00:53:47
Speaker
Uh, it was, it was decided it was reinforced glass. That's all I know. Yeah. I mean, I, I would go with athletics cause that's like controlling your, the capacity to control your body while using your strength. So that makes sense to me. Okay. Uh, so yeah, athletics. And I think, uh, uh, Hobb is like, okay, here's what he says. If I get this up, even a little bit.
00:54:15
Speaker
And he looks at Faroo and Kath, says, hmm, get your fingers under it and I'll join you and we'll get it up. They're like squatted next to you, like, to shove their fingers under. Could Milo use something like using Arcana to open the hatch? So I was thinking if I could use Arcana to try to open it while he's using his athletics to try to open it, like two things going on at the same time. That's what I was thinking.
00:54:46
Speaker
Gotcha. I think our check would have been to try and find out how to open it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's true. Yes. Let's let's have let's have Hob go for his thing. And then if it doesn't work, then we'll let you do a check to see if you can solve the riddle. OK, so the
00:55:11
Speaker
difficulty is gonna be too purple because I don't think they built this facility with somebody shoving a pane of glass in the scene to pry it open in mind from a security standpoint, so However, you are using a pane of glass to try and accomplish this so go ahead and add two black dye to it. Tools for the job this ain't fair.
00:55:35
Speaker
Uh, take a moment to aim. Okay. So, Hob, uh, there's just a little bit of a gap. Hob wedges that piece of glass in there and he kind of gives the nod to, uh, Faroo and Kath. They're squatted ready. And then he's, he's not at the other end of the pane of glass. He's closer to the fulcrum point than that.
00:56:03
Speaker
No, I want to see the and try to smash it down into the scene. And so he watches it and it's in the scene. And what happens?
00:56:12
Speaker
One success, nothing else, just one success. So yeah, he does it. Up just enough, Faroo and Kath get their fingers under it and begin trying to, with their collective might, lift. I think I excitedly let go of the pane of glass to grab one with them and start lifting, and the glass absolutely slips into it and scurts at her against the floor below. I mean, there's stairs, so it slides.
00:56:41
Speaker
You hear, ah! So it takes out some of these shins. Oh man, my window. So yeah, you all are able to, you're clearly working against this thing. It was clearly meant to slide, like you're prying it off of tracks that went like into the wall, but you're able to essentially break this door to the point to where the floor is just bent up like this.
00:57:11
Speaker
The noises that Milo heard with his perception check have become louder. Additionally, with the two advantage on your check, Milo, I'm going to say that didn't break your concentration enough to ruin Raynard's invisibility. So Raynard's still invisible.
00:57:26
Speaker
Um, so yeah, uh, the cries for help are louder. The gruff exclamations are louder. Um, you all can hear this. So yeah. Harris is ready to follow. All right. Ray not lead the way. You're going to follow an invisible person. As long as I know that you're in front. I mean, would you like to make a deception check to tell them you're in front, Reynard?
00:57:54
Speaker
Raynard. Okay. Okay. I'm up there. Raynard, you have to. Yes. The smart move is for you to at least stick your head in and look and then come back up and tell us what's down there. No, that's fine. Yes. Okay. So. I don't think there should be a line of people behind an invisible person though. Raynard, you head down the stairs. It's a flight of stairs. It's not like a super long way down. You reach the bottom.
00:58:22
Speaker
And you are cast in kind of a... It ends up being kind of a brownish light with the mixture of the red runes and the greenish glow from the equipment down here. You. I don't know if I've ever been in a brown light. I don't know what that even means.
00:58:42
Speaker
I don't know, like. You're immediately gone. You're coming in a long point, but it's just. Who did this? Who was the charge? This aesthetic is awful. Raynard says full voiced. Raynard, you get to the bottom of the steps. You see faint green glow accompanied by the red runes along the top. You see. Six.
00:59:09
Speaker
devices with shifters strapped into them. Like they are strapped down, they are barely conscious, but whatever these devices are doing, they're on and active. And you also see the silhouette, because this large green apparatus is behind this creature, you see the silhouette of a large lizard-lurking humanoid with a long tail with like
00:59:39
Speaker
tubes strapped into his arms, kind of looking at the tubes and he's just muttering, come on, come on, quicker, go. And that's where we're going to leave things.
00:59:54
Speaker
Thank you all so much for listening. If you want to be part of the conversation surrounding this episode, you can head on over to our Discord, the Geek Pantheon. You can find the link to that on all of our socials, as well as our website, thegeekpantheon.com. Speaking of socials, we're on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, all under the Geek Pantheon.
01:00:11
Speaker
Um, if you want to keep up to date on all the things that we're doing, we also have a YouTube channel, youtube.com slash the geek pantheon, where we have more actual play content. If you like this, this, but want to see faces, then head on over there for a show called Kyber shards that Philip is the GM for. Uh, we play D and D fifth edition. Uh,
01:00:36
Speaker
And I do other videos also about D&D and tabletop gaming and it's fun. I also stream on Twitch, twitch.tv slash the geek pantheon. If you want to come hang out and talk in real time about the shows. And lastly, we have a Patreon, patreon.com slash the geek pantheon that enables us to do all kinds of cool things like Kyber shards and Twitch streaming and all kinds of fun stuff. So
01:01:00
Speaker
big thank you to all our patrons and if you would like to join that community you can head on over to patreon.com slash the pantheon yes Jeff this is episode three which means our next episode will be a reviewed yes
01:01:13
Speaker
Please get your questions in as quickly as possible because I haven't I'm shooting straight This is the Monday before this one goes out and I have no idea when we're gonna record the reviewed yet So it could be as quickly as the Monday after this one goes out. Yeah So please get your questions in I will say as usual We have yet to have enough questions that we haven't gotten everyone in so don't worry if you're not a patron at this point just ask your questions of
01:01:43
Speaker
Us seen a lot of kyber shards questions and I gotta tell you I don't love it. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what it is I've heard some things about it people asking questions. I'm confused. I'll try to answer them. I don't know what Okay, I'm I'm Unbelievably pleased that things that people have picked up on kyber shards. I really am
01:02:04
Speaker
All right, so thank you all so much for listening. Thank you all for your continued support of the shows. Please get us questions for Eberron reviewed based on the past three episodes, or just the show in general, or questions for our players, whatever you like. Yeah, go wild. Yeah. We reserve the right to not answer. Yeah, that's a good addendum there. All right, well, thank you all so much for listening. I have been your dungeon master, Eric. I'm Philip. I'm Trevor. I'm Randy.
01:02:36
Speaker
I'm as Jeff as I ever was. And we will see you next time.