Transcript
Speaker: and Our characters have none of that. This is a deeply serious stoic party. We have we have no personality, Will.
Speaker: Hello everybody and welcome to this week's episode of the Fellowship of the Tabletop. We are a live play 5.5e d and d podcast and Ian talking has really thrown me off now. Fuck! Anyway, I am here, I am your DM and you are joining us for our little bits of a mini campaign. With me tonight we have the hidden assassin Will playing Alessio.
Speaker: Hello, there are two of us, that's really confusing. Well, bit of a spoiler, but getting into it. But yes, we have our second Will ah joining us with a character soon to be named.
Speaker: I'm not a hidden assassin, I swear. We have the one who always comes close, Darren, playing Remy. I am hiding in your ass, I swear.
Speaker: And we have our assassin from On High, Ian, playing Caelan, I want to try and remember correctly. Caelan Ashwing, the snipper.
Speaker: Yeah. The snipper of the really productive kind of melded group of winged watched ah characters.
Speaker: Will, would you like to recap us on what we did on our last session? And the Will that was here for the last session. I wasn't here. I hope it's the that wasn't here. Let's just clarify that. No, no, no, no, no. We have an interesting spin here. Will, why don't you recap us on what you thought happened last two episodes? No stress whatsoever. I'm just going to scroll back through the game log and see the rolls. So...
Speaker: ah there There were some characters that were obviously sneaking their way along because there's some pretty decent stealth checks looking back and previously. And Caelan, you know, he decides to bring his longbow out at some point and pierce a bitch or two. um And then Alessio's like, you know what, here, have some psychic blades and and pierces a bitch as well. um And it looks like there's only two of them because where's the fucking third?
Speaker: Where's Remy? Remy's not made a roll. Remy doesn't make rolls in the game log. You've got to understand that Remy is played by Darren, who still uses an abacus to calculate if he's hit or anything. How far up was I, Will?
Speaker: That was bad. Yeah, basically, so to sum up, um a group of us approached the village where we were told to meet Lady G, having received a message in the night saying that Lady G was in danger and we needed to save her.
Speaker: So we snuck upon this village where we learned that a... um collection of the automatons from the Steel Nightmare had ah clearly attacked and were in the village.
Speaker: The group snuck forward. Caelan decided to scale the church, Assassin's Creed style, and perch upon it and do a little bit of a synchronization. you know There was no eagle, but it was fine.
Speaker: He spotted a multi-headed creature in the middle of the village square and unfortunately he was also spotted and an alarm was sounded at this point the party taking up position Alessio in a building using a window for cover uh Remy on his velociraptor ready to charge in on the left flank and Caelan on the rooftops battle commenced Using his keen sniper sense, Caelan absolutely took down the main bad guy, and the DM was deeply displeased with this as it absolutely wrecked his ideas for that combat. Meanwhile, Alessio kept playing peekaboo, popping up and shooting and then hiding again because rogue, baby. and the
Speaker: On the other flank, you had Remy, who went in charging on his Velociraptor, skewering some bitches with his rapier. And thus, combat happened, and... we they They sailed through it. It was great. It was fun. And as the dust settles, the creatures, the automatons, having crumbled to dust, now combat is over, across the village square, the inn.
Speaker: And as the three heroes, the three highly efficient, mission-driven, deeply serious heroes of the winged watch stand in the middle of the square, the door of the inn opens.
Speaker: Thank you very, very much, Will. That was a wonderful setup and a wonderful recap. Yes. The eerie calm that resided for those few seconds between the final attacks of our Winged Watch members causing these constructs, these automatons to crumble away and begin to disintegrate and waft into the air is only broken.
Speaker: by the creaking hinges of a door on the tavern.
Speaker: Cautiously, a man steps out. Human, mid-fifties.
Speaker: Stereotypical kind of tab and keeper look. He's got an apron going off, just bog-standard kind of slacks and a t-shirt for it. His eyes darting left and right.
Speaker: Cautiously, In this little alleyway between the tavern and a bakery, he takes a few steps forward. He sees you three all in plain sight.
Speaker: He peeks his head round the tavern, now into this wide open area. Seeing that these creatures are gone, he takes a big breath in and exhales a sigh of relief.
Speaker: He begins to walk up to you.
Speaker: Thank you, kind strangers. As that happens, Folly just rushes towards him. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy there, boy. he Easy, easy, easy there, Folly boy. I'm sorry. He's get gotda he' been in a bit of a hoo-ha and a bit of a fight and a bit of a rumble, and he's just there feeling a mother kind of hungry. You ain't got a cat in there, have you, or anything like that? He's just maybe got the sin or something. Are you baking a pie? This fucking dinosaur here, he fucking loves a pie. He demolishes a pie, boy.
Speaker: as your velociraptor runs. towards the tavern keep he kind of takes a step back stumbles and falls onto the ground look of fear come across his face and then obviously you start talking about pies and cats and almost his hand up don't be starting or i'll fucking end it i will end it i'm sorry about him i i feel mighty mighty i'm embarrassed um we've just had a little bit of a tohoohoo with the things that have been floating around here and
Speaker: ah Folly, will you calm down here, boy? And eventually the raptor will calm down. He won't do it again. Or if he does, he's going to fuck around and find out. That's fine. but I'm sorry if I startled him. Yes, we saw from inside the tavern some of your actual combat. very We are very, very grateful for it. And just for the record, we do have, and he looks behind into the tavern,
Speaker: We do have a tabaxi in the tavern. That's not something that's going to set off your creature, is it? Oh, no, he ain't too first about no tabaxi. It's more that that that the little ones. They like to run and hard. He ain't going to do that again. i promise you.
Speaker: Takes a big breath in again, so sigh relief. Okay, thank you. Thank you. But, yes, we we we owe you. We owe you our thanks, O's. Creatures have been patrolling around for nearly a full day now.
Speaker: We didn't know if they were ever going to leave. They never seemed to stop. We couldn't catch a break. You these creatures have been patrolling. Where about did they did they come from exactly? owet don't Don't mind the elf s scaling down that church over there. hes He's with me, and that one over there is with me as well. We travel as a team.
Speaker: I work very well as a team as well. Clearly I can tell. we Well, thank you. i Well, I got a little shot, but yeah, we we we sure do. You said there's more folk in that place so with you. How many people in there with you?
Speaker: A few. um We've got ah five people in there. Sorry, four. about Five, including myself. Um, we've just been kind of hiding out, going through our, uh, current level of supplies.
Speaker: These things, I don't know where they came from. They just seem to appear from nowhere. ah guess this village isn't just populated with five people. Is there anyone else knocking the about? Or should we go around these houses? Make sure, can you say these creatures have been here for 24 hours? We won't, we won't make sure that you folk are all right.
Speaker: There was some more people, um, But they they tried to fight the creatures and they they weren't very successful.
Speaker: We're only a small place, but there's normally another three or four of us and
Speaker: they um they didn't make it. It has my limitations, friend. I'm a my sorry. Thank you, but they're gone.
Speaker: They're gone now. We can... try and rebuild. But it does beg the question, are you here for any reason or are you just traveling through? So Alessio is going to, as the person asks that question, Alessio is going use his psychic, use the psychic whispers that we're still under. we've still got five hours of psychic communication between the three of us.
Speaker: And Alessio says to the group, says we should be careful. We don't know what our contact looks like. we should maintain a cover story of being traveling mercenaries and go from there. Our combat prowess clearly shows that. And then when we start to meet people, if we find anybody in there that isn't from this village, we should use one of the winged watches code phrases and hopefully they can return with the return phrase and we know who they are.
Speaker: can we take the Can we reply to that? Yeah, it's two way communication. We can literally communicate two way within the space of an an hour for the next five hours. I will psychopathically care back or telepathically rather, not psychopathically. I will telepathically ah reply. we we using code names around these folk or we giving them our real identity. We got to find that lady, right? um Alessio says, I'll handle it.
Speaker: Alessio steps forward. ah We're three wandering mercenaries just looking for work. You know how things are with the war going on. And we've decided to try and travel and find more work.
Speaker: hey This was an answer to the innkeeper's question to Remy earlier. Okay, so you've joined into this conversation Yeah, basically he's stepped forward. He's he's been probably checking things around and he's joined in the conversation having ah that that that that the question that um obviously asked who we were and what we were travelling. And so just answering that question. I'm just going to hitch him, but but give me one second. I'm going to get off and take Folly over to the hitching post. I'm going you should do that, boy. I'm just going to flick him a bit of meat from the satchel as I do that.
Speaker: just Just to allow a natural break to allow Alessio to take centre in the conversation. Yeah, that's fair enough. And often um this guy is going to be yeah addressing you now, Alessio.
Speaker: So you're just out here looking for work then? it's We were working.
Speaker: Sorry, Callum, I spoke over you then. What was he saying? What was the last bit he said? Said you were far traveled out for that. Well, we had been traveling from the east.
Speaker: Now we're swinging west. yeah know how things are. just I do. Between ah it's most of the people here, let me put it this way.
Speaker: Staying out here is not something people aspire to. Being out here, you know, people looking for a fresh start. So, look, if you're just looking for work, that's fine. If you're just passing through, that's also fine. But if you're here looking for a rest, then by all means, we do have a couple of spare bunks.
Speaker: um They're yours as thanks. Thank you. It was our intention to stop over here. We've been traveling on the road and as much as ah slipping in under the sky is enjoyable, it can wear a little bit. So I bet it'd be good, I think.
Speaker: Well, by all means. And he's going to shout over to Remy as well. if If your creature wants anything, i there's plenty of meat in the tavern. You're more than welcome to help yourself.
Speaker: Oh, I'd be much obliged. so he he but He understands me and and and he behaves himself, but ah he can get a little bit rambunctious if he ain't and he ain't had his belly fill. So I appreciate that offer. Thank you, Khan.
Speaker: Did I know hear right with Will that we're going to get a bed for the night? Well, you're more than welcome to stay here, and it's still early. um But I will... much obliged I'm going to advise the rest of the people in the yeah tavern that they can, for now, at the very least, return to their homes. But again, thank you. And if you need anything, please, don't hesitate to ask any of us. Well, there is one thing that perhaps you could help me with, which is... what Well, before I came here, I've been doing some remedial work in Sligard and they had these things. No tale of metal things flying around the old Herald Empire. We had tale of Giffy Yankee, we've seen the old flying rabbit, but we...
Speaker: she's You're supposed to be having a different kind of war. and That that that he points up at the still nightmare.
Speaker: not too many stories of things floating around these patches where'd they come from well and as i said they seem to do descend upon us rather randomly we think they came ah from the east themselves but they got to a certain point around us and they stopped they seem to settle in the village um started to patrol, walk around.
Speaker: They didn't seem to want to go into anywhere. seemed like they were looking for something. I'm not too sure what. But... Unfortunately, I don't have much more help on where they may have come from.
Speaker: ah There was... i won There was another though. just trying to... Oh, really? Yeah. um We have a... ah We have a guest sometimes that frequents our place. I think she lives around here, but she's a bit of a a lonely soul, I think.
Speaker: And she comes down here to talk and entertain. Seems to address most of the strangers around here, just trying to ah be social, I think. But I think one of the...
Speaker: One of those things was chasing her, but a much bigger one. This thing must have been 15 feet tall. Sturdy, heavily armoured.
Speaker: Which direction you see? They might need help. North.
Speaker: As I said, they this have been sometime yesterday. I'd be surprised if she's still alive, as hard as that is to say. What's what's your this local's name?
Speaker: Well, to be fair, we always had to call her by her chosen name, the Masked Orchid. But when she introduced herself, it was mostly just Orchid.
Speaker: Does she live to be very... I do believe she had something of a ah hovel up to the north, near a lake. She always bragged about the views that she had as the sun rose and set over the horizon.
Speaker: It's only a dangerous thing. If she's still alive, then that's a miracle. Is she the only one from this area unaccounted for? We'd have to wander around the houses and wander around, but for the ones we know, some ran.
Speaker: As soon as those creatures came upon us, some tried to fight and failed and she fled to the north, but we didn't have a good view of her. So we don't know how far it was before or if that creature caught up with her.
Speaker: There's no other strangers present here other than people you know inside your inn. No, I can account for every soul less than my tavern. We all decided to settle down and hunker around there together.
Speaker: If the worst were to happen, then we just wanted to go with each other. Of course. Alessio switches to telepathic communication with the others. Thoughts? Is this local person our contact, or do we wait here for a bit longer?
Speaker: The instruction was to wait here, was it not? and and were I'm inclined to wait, but unless either of you got any notion that this orchid is the person we're looking for,
Speaker: Caelan, thoughts?
Speaker: Let me peace survey the area. If she ran and something was chasing her, I should be able to find the tracks.
Speaker: Okay, if you can. We should, we should buy that while you're doing that, just so you don't look funny, we we we should go retcon the inside, see if there's any sign of our contact in there.
Speaker: um Our friend and Alessio speaks out loud now and nods towards Caelan. He's going to quickly have look around, see if he can pick up the trail of your ah orchid lady.
Speaker: um If you don't mind, my friend and I, and he nods towards Remy, ah we'll come in and rest for a moment if that's all right. Of course. Yeah. As I said, beds are yours. Help yourselves.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So bit of a party split. We'll do, uh, Kaylin first. Kaylin, you start doing what you do best. You are surveying, surveying, surveying, surveying.
Speaker: You are going round scouting around the outside. Thank you. Of this halfway house. You've heard the direction of the north. Can you give me an investigation check, please?
Speaker: Yes, I can.
Speaker: Let's see how I'm rolling tonight because I did quite 19. You had a heroic rolls last week. as well Yes. Yes, I did. It's good to see that it's carried on.
Speaker: 19, are very easily able to pick up a rather unusual trail. You've seen footprints going in and out of this village anyway. You determined long before you even got here that there seemed to be a mass um exodus going off from this halfway house.
Speaker: You find a set of footprints that, for panic, seem to be too controlled. too purposeful you follow panicked footprints and there's a little bit of a left and right to them these are purposeful strides in one direction and then seeming to follow them a second set of larger footprints much larger and bigger than any human any dragonborn any goliath but they are more scattered so these go a little bit over to the left
Speaker: and then move up a bit, almost trying to level off with this purposeful stride. And then they move a little bit to the right and then try to catch up to this purposeful stride again. It's strength you is very odd.
Speaker: How deep are the footprints on both sets? The large the ones, pretty damn deep. You're probably talking about maybe two inches worth of weight pushed down.
Speaker: into the ground. The lighter ones, only a couple of centimeters.
Speaker: Right. Given the description from Orchid and um what they've just fought, he can kind of deduce from there that some mechanical entity was given chase and probably the lighter footprints being Orchid. ah What about the direction in which these footprints take place? Caelan's going to not look too far ahead but instead he's going to like pull back any like uh bushes or i did like does it go into a forest does it go into a road does it go into what's the scenery around me so there's it's majoritively um grassland majoritively playing with the odd kind of
Speaker: bramble um pack just to the left right of these ah paths to expand out of the village. The ones that are lighter, as said, they are heading straight north.
Speaker: Ones with determination, they are not veering. You can easily find a few broken twigs on the ground and a few ah bushes and brambles that are just literally, they seem to be either walked through or just crushed.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. As kaillin takes ah
Speaker: this all in, um he's just going to mutter something under his breath and click his fingers and his hands down by his waist as he does this. and Just a light click.
Speaker: um And he's going to use a Druidcraft weather sensor. where I create a tiny harmless sensory effect that predicts what the weather will be at your location for the next 24 hours. The effect might manifest as a golden orb for clear skies, a cloud for rain, falling snowflakes for snow, and so on. This effect persists for one round. So as he clicks his hands, this kind of, imagine um for you Zelda Ocarina of ah fans out there, the hey, Navi, it's that kind of effect that comes out as he clicks, and it's this pulsing,
Speaker: blue circle from a 90s video game. um Yeah, if you could tell me what the weather is, the prediction. This pulsing blue circle that appears when you click slowly manifests into a nice, calm yellow orb, at least for a few seconds.
Speaker: It then starts to kind of almost waver into...
Speaker: It is basically like a puff of cloud now exists in your hands. It just slowly blocks out this light orb before it fades away.
Speaker: Cool. the connection still with us, Alessio? It's for the next five hours and within a mile, so yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, baby. Okay, cool. So, Remy, Alessio... You would hear in your heads um everything that Kaylin's just seen and what he's deduced from the tracks, the location, the direction.
Speaker: um
Speaker: If we're after Lady G,
Speaker: probably best make haste.
Speaker: I'll wait here. And with that, we are going to zoom the camera back into the village, into the door of the tavern as Remy and Alessio enter.
Speaker: And it is what you expect. It's rather a spacious one. Tables and chairs are quite well ah kept for a halfway house, but a lot of them have been moved and pushed towards other entrances and exits just to try and block it off.
Speaker: There seems to be some to the right-hand side of the door, obviously. You would probably assume these were blocking the main door as well, just to try and keep them out. The people that you see in there, you see our barkeep.
Speaker: You see a tabaxi in the corner, just now sat, legs crossed, leaning against the table. And you see two half things that are just kind of talking to each other just on the other side of the bar.
Speaker: What would you like to do while you're in the tavern? Where's the other person? You can't see the other person at the moment, but you can hear noise coming from behind the bar and in the kitchen.
Speaker: um As I walk in, Alessio is looking. So he's assuming that if um their contact has been here or comes here frequently, he's going to be looking to see if there's any sort of sign or subtle...
Speaker: Like like you know like a so a subtle mark made somewhere on on a beam, perhaps around the fireplace, something that's completely innocuous, but someone from the winged watch would look out for it to know, right, this is where my contact is or has been or can be found. And knowing that, okay, good, this person goes, this is a safe place where you can meet me, that kind of thing.
Speaker: So with that, because you're trying to do it as a nonchalantly type of examination, I'm presuming it would just be a perception check. rather than investigation. Yeah, yeah. He's looking around because he knows that, a the the the mark wouldn't be on anything that could move or be replaced like tables, chairs. i could It's going to be on an upright beam. It's going to be on something around the fireplace, something that is innocuous but could be left there because it's not going to get moved anytime soon.
Speaker: So he knows where he's looking for these things. he's's He's not looking on anything that could be moved or replaced because that's pointless for a mark to be permanent. But yeah. but i'll do So roll perception for me and obviously take your passive if it is ah better.
Speaker: Nah, my 25 on my perception there will be yeah good, thanks.
Speaker: Okay, 25.
Speaker: You casually look around. There doesn't seem to be anything up high. There doesn't seem to be anything in some of the more obvious places at first. So you take a bit of a walk around the tavern, and then just next to the fireplace, there is a table.
Speaker: And just below that table, you see a very, very small etching into the floor of one singular wing. the same wing that you have got hidden and the same wing that I think Remy has kind of hidden ah underneath just on their clothes themselves.
Speaker: While that's happening, Remy is just making but very, very subtle, not obvious distractions. He's just going, well, hi, folks. i but to do Just appreciate your hospitality. on the road. and God, the metal things. We should have been here. you Are you folks all right? That must have been a terrible, terrible shock to you all.
Speaker: um um I'm just going to put ah ah some copies on the table and go, I'll, what, the four of you? Yeah, let's get some mail in. let just Gosh, one earth happened. I mean, i i mean um I'm quite fortunate that I'm pretty handy as someone who traverses that the the wild. but But gosh, what a terrible thing. to don't Talk to me, talk to me.
Speaker: roll a deception check or a persuasion check, depending on how you wanted to approach this little conversation starter, whether you are feigning an interest for them or trying to entice them to your, um, I'll just entice them to you to try and get the stories out of them.
Speaker: That's a 10 on deceptions.
Speaker: So you're trying to garner their attention with the deception roll, and some of them still seem a little bit shaken about what's going off, and they don't really pay much heed to you until you kind of put some coin on the table.
Speaker: And then the tavern keeper says, I'm not having any of that whatsoever. If you want anything, by all means, it is on me. We don't have much around here, but...
Speaker: We at least have some food, some drink, and ah a comfortable place to sleep. Oh, well, that makes me feel mighty, mighty, mighty pleased that decided to help, that we decided to help such and upstanding citizens. ah Most kind.
Speaker: Most kind. What do you think there, Alessio? Are you say oh we we weep we able to stick around, or do we need to hit the road? um sticking around sounds good and because Alessio is like carrying a few wounds and then as hes as he says that he's like he says in his he suddenly hears Alessio's not Alessio's Caelan's message about that we found the he's found the trail of the person and Alessio sort of speaks out loud I found the mark on the floor near the fireplace. Our contact's definitely been here or has been here.
Speaker: The orchid may be our contact. um And unless you sort of stretch this, but as much as I'd want to stay, we might have to come back here. And he looks, what's the tavern keeper? We might return. I think given that your local orchid lady ran off and was pursued, it might be nice for to find out what actually happened to her.
Speaker: And if she's alive, we can always bring her back and join the rest of you. I'd be much appreciated if you could, but you've already done a lot, so I wouldn't ask it of you. She is not very well liked around here.
Speaker: It's no problem at all. Anything you know garner a bit of local popularity and you know goodwill. um ah think we should join... Our colleague, Alex, if it says to Remy. Down my pint. And what I will do is I will just take the pint and down it. And as I do that, his fingers are just going to glisten, not in a way that anyone could see them, but I'm going to cast Cure Wounds on myself as I turn this beer into a healing salvant because I also have taken a bit of bashing.
Speaker: bashing And what I will do is, look as as I know that Alicia will have seen me do this before, I will go, one for the road for you, friend. ah Yes, thank you.
Speaker: And he comes over and downs a pint as well, I'll cast a cure wounds on Alicia as well.
Speaker: Thanks, friend. Very nice. couple of quick cure wounds. As you guys are engaging in conversation with the other people in this tavern, the tabaxi, stands up, starts making a stride ah for the door. And just as she does, she kind of, Elysio, you're the one that feels it. She kind of sticks a claw just into your back and just glides it along your lower back.
Speaker: She makes no attention to you or what she's doing, but she does that and then she just starts to leave.
Speaker: That's 10 points appealing for me and 11 points of appealing for you, Will. Thank you. um As they attempt to leave, Alessio's going to like grab that person's wrist.
Speaker: Okay. If I can. ah Yeah, I suppose. How do you do grappling nowadays? can't remember. the Athletics against Athletics.
Speaker: ah so Strength or dexterity saving throw. The DC of the saving throw is... 8 plus proficiency plus your strength. Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, so um the DC for this is... ah It's minus. If I've got a minus of strength, it's minus that, isn't it? Correct.
Speaker: So it's ah it's ah it's a 10. DC of 10 for them to me not to grapple them.
Speaker: You turn around quite quickly to grapple them, but the slenderness of the tabax's hand just kind of slides out of your grapple.
Speaker: Okay. So you pick up a certain bit of a pace just to ah try and oosh out the door quicker. Alessio's going to follow um quickly.
Speaker: He's not going to say anything. he like He just follows them.
Speaker: That's fine. You follow the tabaxi. She walks out of the tavern. ah you I'm assuming you're doing this within without any kind of stealth or sneaking. Without any stealth, literally. You're just basically walking after them.
Speaker: Yeah, we're just walking after them.
Speaker: You see her walk out of the tavern, take her right, walk a bit further down and go into one of the buildings at the side. Okay. I will probably try and, once out once we're out the door and sort of out, turn a corner, Alessia will try and speak to them first.
Speaker: If that's okay, can I try and speak before they're trying to building? You can absolutely try and speak, to yes. Alessia sort of shouts ahead, strange to fill up a stranger a tavern without her he's at least buying them a drink first.
Speaker: We all do things with interesting reasons. And she's going to raise a hand up. just kind of She's wearing like a ah vest top but over and She just kind of lowers it at the shoulder blade a little bit just to reveal um a mark branded into the back of her shoulder.
Speaker: Almost looks like it's been burnt in to it, but you do see a wing.
Speaker: Okay. um Alessio says telepathically to the other two, may have found our contact, could be the tabaxi. Going to try and verify. um And he's going to basically come up with a He's basically going to try and... there's There's probably a phrase that they've been given or a phrase that they would use for contacts. Because first of all, clothing and marks, they can be easily... um impersonated easily forged.
Speaker: um So he would come up with like a code for, he'd basically speak a code phrase at the wing watch have given for be able to identify other members of the watch without actually giving any, um anything away as it were something innocuous, a simple phrase that hopefully the person responds with something that he, he will recognize. And then we, then he knows the person is the person.
Speaker: And because we've not actually discussed what these phrase words or code words are, yeah I'm just going to reiterate and say she gives you the correct response. Excellent. Okay.
Speaker: um That's fine. um
Speaker: Lady G?
Speaker: No, it is not I. And who are you? I am merely a ah watcher of here. I live here in... Something of an information feeder.
Speaker: That's your mark in the end. No. I have my mark on me. I am a potion keep here.
Speaker: Sell many things to many people. Sometimes bad things to bad people.
Speaker: and That's her mark in the end. I'll actually have steps closer now and sort of lowers his tone so that it's just avoiding any sort of people overhearing.
Speaker: Is the orchid the one we seek? She is. She risked her life to save this place. Right.
Speaker: We'll pursue. And Alessio then takes pauses for a moment and speaks to Remy and Caelan and goes, Remy, the orchid is our contact. The tabaxi is a watcher for the place. One of us.
Speaker: You should join me. Caelan will join you shortly. We need to pursue the orchid. as As you say that, remy Remy has noticed you follow this tabaxi, but he doesn't want to make it look obvious that we're both following them. So Remy has casually made it out, has started to adjust the saddle on folly, on hitches folly, and he's just going through that kind of like pre-taking off, ah just just casual, very normal checks. And then as you say that, he climbs into the saddle and just just goes, well, we should be about it then.
Speaker: Before you depart, Alessio, the tabaxi just kind of steps a bit closer to you.
Speaker: I don't know where she may have gone, but she has a place further up north near the lake. Somewhat of a an old tower.
Speaker: Follow the footsteps. You'll find her. Make sure she comes back alive. Thank you. Do you have any supplies we could perhaps um beg of you before we set off?
Speaker: Come with me. And roll a persuasion check. I will, of course, roll persuasion.
Speaker: Ha! 23? 23. She takes you into her potion It's called...
Speaker: um it's called Rats, bats, cats, and vats. And she doesn't seem to have a lot of stock.
Speaker: But she a apologizes. I'm sorry, shortly before these constructs turned up, my place was robbed, so I don't have much to spare, but these will be of help. Please do take them.
Speaker: And she will give you a small box that has has four potions of healing in there.
Speaker: Just standard potions of healing, yeah? Just standard potions of healing. No greater ones. Just standard potions. And not stock healing potions. Not stock healing potions, no. These are clearly marked, clearly displayed. They are the healing potions that you would see and have used many, many times before.
Speaker: Alessio takes the the the box and the bottles. Thank you. i When we get back, I'll ensure that the yeah watch compensates you. It is not necessary, but thank you.
Speaker: Just save her. Save the good lady. We'll do my best. Thank you to you. And Alessio leaves.
Speaker: ah He rejoins Remy. happening Yeah, remy's Remy's just got Folly in like a horse's trough, like just having a drink. and and Everything to make this look casual. Okay, boy, I'm not going to make you walk out till you've had drink. I've had one soon, right? You do too.
Speaker: Warn out, boy. And as soon as Alessio comes out, just not not immediately, but a few seconds later, Folly will emerge from the trough and just pull the reins and move move over towards Alessio.
Speaker: You've got water just dripping down from his snout at this stage. Alessia will hand um ah Remy a bottle, one of the potions of healing, and say, just in case we need it for later. Thanks for that healing in there, by the way.
Speaker: And then he'll lead off to rejoin Caelan.
Speaker: And you all move up north. You see a stoic Caelan still just kind of... He seems to be stood in the middle of nowhere, but you guys know Caelan better than most people. And you know he is still, every second, he's reading this land.
Speaker: He is taking the accounts of everything that's going off. Every branch shake, every animal that runs past, he is watching. And you guys start to come up behind him.
Speaker: Anything you'd like to discuss? Yeah, and Lesio sort of pulls that bottom, um pass it over to Caelan. From our contact in the town, just in case we need it.
Speaker: thanks um What has the birds been doing, Callum?
Speaker: The birds, are you looking for anything specific? They've started to come back um towards the village, where beforehand, when these things were patrolling around, you couldn't really hear the animals.
Speaker: You couldn't hear the normal nature sounds that you would do. But now they have gone. Now they have disintegrated. Not overly so, but you do hear a couple of birds tweeting. They seem to be returning to this halfway house and nestling on the rooftops of a couple of them.
Speaker: Okay. which, uh, direction is the wind blowing? If any wind is currently blowing eastward and we're going north. north
Speaker: At least our scent won't be tracked. We head north. We'll follow your lead. We at least don't have to speak out loud if we don't need to. Stay my footsteps.
Speaker: The grass remembers more than the earth out here. We follow your lead.
Speaker: And you depart northward.
Speaker: Kalen leading the way. Can you make a survival check for me, please, as well? Survival? Survival. You are leading way. don't like You are trying to follow... 14. Prince...
Speaker: You are very good at obviously keeping ahead of everybody at this stage. You are following the footprints. While the smaller dainty ones might kind of dissipate every now and then, the larger ones you can keep track of quite easily, and they're always leading you back to the smaller ones.
Speaker: You're not too sure how long this journey is going to be. You just know that if you follow the footsteps, you'll get there. You've probably been going for... About an hour's worth of walking at the stage. and Okay. Has the footsteps remained the same? as Because an hour with someone being chased is a long fucking time.
Speaker: So do they are they wayward? are they Are they constant? What's the pattern? Roll perception and we'll see how much information you get.
Speaker: Roll perception. You've already conceived the footsteps. 18, you've noticed that the steps of the dainty ones, they're getting shorter and shorter and shorter over the course of this hour.
Speaker: The larger ones seem to be getting pushed further and further to the left and the right. For any kind of logic to what you're seeing would mean that whatever is in pursuit is getting distracted somehow.
Speaker: You're sure how, you're not sure why, but it seems to be at least able to gain a bit of breath. You follow it for a few further few minutes and eventually it comes to a bit of an odd situation.
Speaker: The smaller ones stop.
Speaker: The bigger ones seem to walk around in a circle.
Speaker: but you push forward north a bit more. No, hang on. So where the shuttle ones stop, yeah what's the grass looking like? How bent is it? Is it bent in a 360 motion as if ah ah someone just apparated?
Speaker: or like talk to me about the grass. I want to know the direction of the grass. Does it show an indication of like someone just shooting up into the sky or does there, is that, are they leaning to the left indicating that that person and the wind moved left or forwards or back or right. And Caleb's going to use like his, and his amber eyes are casting a deep detailed look and the fingertips that he's pushing out to the grass to feel them. He's feeling for any bend in them.
Speaker: So as they stop, it's because an area of the grass, a large area, just seems to sink down.
Speaker: So where you've had dainty footprints, there's a large area of the grass that seems to recess downwards, flattened.
Speaker: You examine that. You look at every blade of grass. And then just a little bit forward, you kind of see the steps start again.
Speaker: But these ones are much fresher than what the older ones are.
Speaker: Define much fresher. Is it like within an hour or within like how wet's the ground underneath? If it's fresh, the ground's going to be more wet. If we're leaving tracks, moisture is going to be there.
Speaker: The tracks that you've been following so far. I've been researching. I can tell. I can tell. Anything to try and catch me out. No, it's part of the fucking character.
Speaker: Parts of the footprints, parts of the steps, the ground has started to overtake again, but you was able to pick up a bit of a trail form quite easily. As you've kind of pushed on and kept on going,
Speaker: These ones have much flatter and more flatter blades of grass. There's more flat blades of grass on these footsteps. So the ground hasn't had enough time to try and recover from these fresh footprints.
Speaker: Nice. Which direction? It's still north at the moment. they're still going north.
Speaker: okay Remy, what would you like to do just while Kalem is still examining the ground? remmi's Remy's used to to being able to follow in Kalem's slipstream with things like this and and seeing... there's a seeing he will He's worked with Kalem enough to know there's a distinct change in that grass and in that area. So what Remy does is he climbs off down from the saddle and he just takes the reins and and walks over with folly. He takes a little bit of grass from that area and just holds it up to the rough the raptor's nostrils and is going to cast Speak with Animals again on Folly. He's just going up to this this this this beast that primitively can hunt and can track and is just going to go, do you reckon, boy? And Folly's going to give a big sniff of this grass and that.
Speaker: Hold. Powerful. Arcane?
Speaker: Definitely. Yes. Person? Human. This way! And he kind of sniffs and you, well, Folly is going to try and rush off in all fairness in pursuit of the smell unless you are going to try and hold back on the leash. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. whoa whoa whoa whoa Don't you be rushing off now.
Speaker: And I'm just going to climb back into the saddle and I'm just going to turn and say to these two, not ready not shouting, not raising my breath, while he's got the scent of a human in this direction and something powerful.
Speaker: And he's got the he's got a, he's got he's got he's getting jumpy, which means I don't think we're too far off.
Speaker: our contact spoken unlessia was keeping this in the mind by the way unless i'll say otherwise Our contact spoke of a tower near a lake that apparently Lady G or occupies. is that whether is that where this trail leads? He looks towards Caelan and Remy.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, keep low, spread out. If they're watching the trail, they'll be looking for the group, not individuals.
Speaker: Okay. well Follow your lead, let's keep going. Callum, just before we take off any further, I'm going to just, as as a a creature of the forest, I'm just going to, and knowing how nooks and um riverbeds run, can I make a survival check just to see if we are closing in on a significant area of water like a river?
Speaker: Absolutely you can do. Go for a survival check.
Speaker: Doesn't matter how good my modifier is, I roll the turd. That's an eight. You, yeah, you yourself can't kind of pick it up in this thing because you guys are heading north and the wind is blowing east. you know sometimes when you get to like near the ocean and as Nix would know to reference the campaign, the smell of brine kind of can fill your nostrils even when you can't see the ocean, but you can smell it and you feel it in the air.
Speaker: The way the wind's kind of blowing, you can't pick that up. You're relying on Folly's nose at the moment. Right,
Speaker: I'm following you, boy. I'll just pat him again.
Speaker: And cautiously, you start to head more north, based off the advice of Caelan. He told you fresher footprints. Folly still kind of push forward, rush forward, and you're still holding him back, but his scent is keeping strong.
Speaker: The slow approach does indeed kind of pay off. After probably another half hour worth of walking, you start to see a tower rise above a very old type of tower.
Speaker: And there are a few things that just catches your eye as you get closer.
Speaker: You've all got pretty good passive perception. and But, Caelan, can you give me a perception check? because you'll probably be the one at the front of all this. 16. As you start to approach the tower, you can see it looks a little bit old and decrepit. You're still far enough away from it to be nice and safe.
Speaker: But at the very precipice of this tower, you will see a flag, a white flag that seems to have hastily had painted onto it a wing, a wing that you all kind of recognize.
Speaker: the wing from the winged watch. Just like a little sign of help or a symbol of I'm here for any passers-by who really kind of know but are in real distress. It's an emergency option to even think and consider something like this. And your eyes kind of pan down and you see a rather large construct that just kind of punching at the base of this tower, but every punch that it does, you guys can see, is hitting an illusion.
Speaker: The construct doesn't seem to realize this, but every single swing that it does, it's almost like it's trying to break something down.
Speaker: But every hit just seems to hit the ground below it rather than the actual tower itself. So is that saying the whole tower's an illusion? Is that what you're saying? or that the door offset? What I'm saying is that where this large construct is attacking, which is at the base of the tower just in front of it, is...
Speaker: You can tell it's an illusion. Every hit just kind of goes through what looks like a pile of rubble.
Speaker: Okay, so it's attacking what it thinks is the building, but not the building, okay. But the rest of the building looks solid. my So my point is, obviously, if you can tell an illusion an illusion, the illusion almost but appears semi-transparent to you. and and But the point is, that if if basically, what what I'm trying to establish is, is there a physical tower? And this illusion is giving the impression of a tower being slightly in a slightly different place that the creature is attacking rather than the actual tower.
Speaker: Why don't you do me an arcana check for that?
Speaker: What, to test my knowledge or to try and test the illusion? this is the This is for your knowledge of how you're interpreting what you're the illusion that you're seeing.
Speaker: Okay. Because it's normally an investigation check to break ah break illusions, just to say. but but You already know it's an illusion, so there is no need for the investigation check. Okay. 22? twenty two
Speaker: You would probably safely assume that this illusion has been crafted and created to try and distract whatever this kind of construct is trying to achieve.
Speaker: It clearly wants to get into the tower, but somebody or something is creating an artificial place for this construct to attack, and it is falling for it. The rest of the tower seems to be as real as what you would imagine.
Speaker: Okay. Alessio will communicate this to the rest of the group via their telepathic link. Looks like we've got to deal with that creature first.
Speaker: They're spread out. um And yeah, Alessio will get his bow out because he's going to start with his bow first. And as Kaylin says, they're going to spread out. And Alessio, Remy, and Caelan just start to spread out around this particular area, preparing themselves for combat and battle once more so soon.
Speaker: But that is where we'll leave it for today's episode of The Fellowship the Tabletop, as I have to give time the guys plan. have to give the guys time to plan and prepare. There we go. I will get my words out.
Speaker: What did you do on today's episode? We walked. Walked. You did a lot of walking. walk You did a lot of walking. So much walking. king Yeah. So drinking and Alessio thought a tabaxi was coming on to him.
Speaker: It's not the first time Alessio's had that. And he'd be down, but he's got a mission to handle. So, you know. You put in the job first. I get it. I get it. It's honourable. It's definitely. Puntang later. Job now.
Speaker: it Just reminds me of that Tom Cardi song with the Lord of the Rings. Somebody's following them. Walk, walk, hide, walk, walk, walk.
Speaker: Else for the first time. ah Cool. Right. Canem, do you want to sign us off with something whimsical and magical? Bye. Shit.
Speaker: Bye.
