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Chapter 3 - Buff Arms, Fast Hands
72 Plays1 year ago
Making soup is thirsty work, quench your thirst with a glass of juice served by a strikingly buff woman.
Dungeon Master – Zach Meikle (IG: @zachabee)
Clay Campbell – Prima Zhao (IG: @primbdraws)
Faunalyn Vaydark – Shannon Meikle (IG: @sharsharbinks)
Glimki Treefellow – Jordan Johnsen (IG: @jordan_johnsen)
Edited by Zach Meikle
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Music & Ambience
Special thanks to Alija Kajan for letting use his cover of Mr. Tambourine Man
You can find him at www.youtube.com/@alija_kajan
Music: Beyond the Horizon by Alexander Nakarada (www.creatorchords.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License
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Music: Wonderland by Alexander Nakarada (www.creatorchords.com)
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Music: Detective Goofarian by Alexander Nakarada (www.creatorchords.com)
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Music & Ambience: Ghost Town by Tim Roven (www.tabeltopaudio.com)
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Music: Tavern Loop One by Alexander Nakarada (www.creatorchords.com)
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Music: One Bard Band by Alexander Nakarada (www.creatorchords.com)
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Music: Greenlands by Alexander Nakarada (www.creatorchords.com)
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Music & Ambience: Underground Lake by Tim Roven (www.tabletopaudio.com)
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Music: Red Mystery by Alexander Nakarada (www.creatorchords.com)
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Music: The In-Between by Alexander Nakarada (www.creatorchords.com)
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Additional sounds provided by Pixabay
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Now, where were we? Ah, that's right. After arriving in Ergeny, Glimky Treefellow quickly discovered that not all was well in
Glimky's Investigation Begins
00:00:09
Speaker
the Great City. Not only was the princess Callisto Galchii's missing, but the streets were perilously narrow, a lesson he learned first hand. After getting run over, Glimky was introduced to Faunalyn Fadark and Clay Campbell, and although the three of them came from very different backgrounds, it would seem they have a mutual interest in finding the missing princess.
00:00:31
Speaker
The three made a plan to meet in one of the upper districts of the city, the Sapphire District, later that night to share what they knew.
Sewer Exploration and Pact
00:00:38
Speaker
Getting there proved difficult, as Clay and Gloomkey had to convince a guard named Reggie to allow them into the sewers. But, eventually, they found Lady Farland's residence, and the three met in a gnomish hedge maze. Clay shared that she had helped move a human-shaped package out of the city on the night the princess disappeared, and her associate stole a ring with the symbol of an aloe bear from their employer.
00:00:58
Speaker
These two strangers made a pact that night, sealed with blood to work together and find the missing royal.
Encounter in the Copper District
00:01:05
Speaker
Their first step was to visit a few of Clay's associates, residents of the Copper District, for more information. They traveled there and found a desolate shack that this group uses as a hideout, and, in a sudden puff of shadow, a cloaked figure put a finger. A finger? No, something much sharper, I fear. A dagger to Farlowin's throat, and demanded
00:01:27
Speaker
They identify themselves. You already said all that. Ah, did I? Apologies. On with the story then.
Character Introductions
00:01:52
Speaker
Come gather round travelers and sit on the stoop We'll tell you a story about Batsu Three lovable scamps in our traveling troop We'll tell you a story about Batsu
00:02:29
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Bard Soup. If you're here for the third episode that means you're three years old and you're almost ready for pre-k and we thank you.
00:02:42
Speaker
coming in with some fun educational information. I am your dungeon master, Zach Meekle, and I am joined today by three big ol' loaves of celery, Prima. Hello. I'm Prima and I play Clay Campbell, a suspicious Tiefling cleric. Amazing. So you have to keep listening to find out more, I guess.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah, you better. If you're here, you better stay through this intro. I'm joined by a big old quiche of celery, Jordan. I'm Jordan, and I play Klimky Treefellow, a traveling tree now finding himself far away from home.
00:03:30
Speaker
Did you write a poem for this? I did just now, right? Gosh damn. And I am joined by that little bit of celery at the end of the piece, Shannon. The leftovers. I'm the inedible part of the celery? The whole celery is edible. Damn, I'm Shannon.
00:03:53
Speaker
I play Faunalyn Vaidark and I want to see if I can come up with a poem on the fly. She's a spicy elf. Don't leave her on the shelf. Oh, nice. No, it's good. Oh, thanks.
00:04:11
Speaker
We rejoin our three would-be heroes in this moment.
Confrontation with Una Saris
00:04:15
Speaker
Faunalyn, you have this dagger to your throat, there's this cloaked figure in front of you, and a feminine voice speaks out for a second time and says, who are you? Clay, is this one of your vagabond friends? Is it? Give me a perception roll, Clay. And do it quickly, because I'm about to fucking die.
00:04:39
Speaker
19 plus, what's perception? Three. So, yeah. A big old juicy 22. Yeah, with a 22, this person is wearing this kind of dark cloak that kind of wraps around them. You see they've got this hood up, but through the hood, the bits of the face that you can see, you recognize this as Una Saris Silphayan, also known as Una. Una, Una, stop, it's me. They're with me.
00:05:09
Speaker
The person looks over at you and immediately pulls the dagger back and says, oh, hey, Clay, sorry about that. Oh, it's been a weird night. You too.
00:05:27
Speaker
You shouldn't come in here unannounced like that. That's,
Interrogation and Negotiation
00:05:31
Speaker
could've killed your friend here. Hey, why are you bringing strangers around? And from kind of off to the side, the three of you are kind of just in the doorway. You've kind of just entered this building when a knife was pulled on you. You glance over, or you hear rather, from kind of off to the side, this voice say, yeah, why are you here? And you recognize the voice is that of Riggs Trimbly.
00:05:57
Speaker
Oh, Riggs, I was looking for you. We need to talk. The two of you, Glimky and Phonolin, you look over and, yeah, like I said, the first person with the dagger kind of pulls their hood back. You look over to the side. You see a human man in his probably late 30s. He's got a shaved head. One arm is covered in tattoos and the other one is in a sling.
00:06:22
Speaker
And you see that propped up in the sling and kind of supported by this. The tattooed arm is a heavy crossbow that he is aiming at you. The other person, Faunalyn, you recognize some very elven features on this individual. Kind of like the sharp angular features that you are accustomed to seeing. She is a woman in her early 30s. She's got this spiky, bleach blonde hair. But you notice that the tips of her ears do not have the characteristic point of an elf.
00:06:52
Speaker
Uh, and as she's looking at you, you see that her eyes are just black. There's no, uh, there's whites, there's like whites to her eyes, but her irises are just pure jet black shadow. Cool. And yeah, the individual, the male individual rakes. He says, yeah, might not be a bad idea. And he kind of lowers the crossbow and puts it down, leans it up against this ratty couch full of tears with stuffing poking out. Take a seat. I prefer to stand.
00:07:22
Speaker
Yes, I would also prefer to stand. And I, you know, I hate to be rude. I would question why you wouldn't just lock the door instead of standing beside the door and holding a knife to whoever comes through it. But, you know, perhaps that's just my educational background speaking. I went to school, you see, and I'm assuming no one else here did.
00:07:42
Speaker
The woman, she says, oh, I wasn't standing by the door. And then with like this bamf, she just disappears in a sudden cloud of shadow, kind of swarms over her and she reappears behind this bar and she grabs one of the liquor bottles and pours it into a glass. Yeah, I was actually over here fixing myself a drink when you came in. As you are talking to her,
00:08:04
Speaker
you notice and this is something clay you know she has not blinked once since you've started talking right eyes are just like wide open unblinking the entire time hmm she's kind of freaking me out oh she's nice
00:08:21
Speaker
Okay.
Faunalyn's Warning
00:08:23
Speaker
We'll see. I think she almost let my blood two minutes ago, so I'm not entirely convinced by the she's nice argument, but I will try to keep an open mind. If you're not going to take a seat, at least close the door, would you? That's fair. I close the door and I go sit down. Yeah, I'll go sit down.
00:08:46
Speaker
I will continue to stand. Perfect. So the, yeah, the human man rigs, he looks at you Clay and says, that's good to see you, but who are, who are your friends? Why'd you bring them here? Um, do you want to introduce yourself?
00:09:07
Speaker
Sure. I mean, you don't have to introduce this, Clay. I'm a pleasure to meet two rigs and I put my hand out expecting a handshake. He looks at your hand, makes no move to like cross the distance between you and kind of just continues to stare at you deadpan.
00:09:25
Speaker
Okay. Well, okay. I'm Glimky. I'm a friend of Clay's here. Clay has had a pretty big realization come to, you know, have some heavy, I wouldn't say guilt. Yeah.
00:09:48
Speaker
Okay, get guilt. And I thought we could, you know, we could help out here. She thinks that you might be able to help us find a missing someone. Anybody who wants make a insight check. 12. I got 10. Oh, geez. I got nine. Wow. Yeah, we did really, really good.
00:10:12
Speaker
Faunalynn and Clay, you see, it's barely perceptible, but you see, as you mentioned, a missing person, he stiffens ever so slightly before he relaxes. He says, yeah, that's, I get that a bitch, huh?
00:10:31
Speaker
Um, it is, but I think that there's an opportunity here where we could, uh, we could all work together, right? And I look around the room if, if we, you know, work together to find this person. Yeah, about that. Um, Clay, you told them everything, huh?
00:10:49
Speaker
I did. Did you know it was the princess before we took the job? Did you know? No. I didn't know it was the princess. No. I was hired to get a package out of the city. That's how it was put. That's what I thought. How did you hear about this job again? Can you tell me everything about how you got wind of this job?
00:11:14
Speaker
He kind of reaches over to his arm that's in the sling and kind of adjusts it slightly, repositions it. I think the less said, the better. No, I think you should say more. Well, Riggs, if you're anything like Clay, and I imagine that you are, you're probably feeling a right amount of guilt as well. We can right this wrong. Guilt ain't exactly the word for it. And from behind the bar, Una speaks up and she says,
00:11:42
Speaker
if we actually did help kidnap the princess, then we're dead. As simple as that, we will lose our heads. And I don't think any amount of finding the princess will make the king change his mind about our involvement should he learn about it. So I think the less said about any of this, the better. And she kind of finishes her drink and walks over to this little...
00:12:02
Speaker
like pack that is kind of half fulled with clothing and various items and she starts throwing some some some skirts and you know a pair of shoes in there and says uh i'm thinking i'm gonna leave uh probably tonight uh just until things calm down a bit well wait well hold on you don't seem like the type to have spent much time with nobles he looks over at you faunalyn says now tell me honest if you were
00:12:32
Speaker
the king and your only child in heir to the throne when missing. And someone dressed like me walks in and says, I think I kidnapped your daughter, but I brought her back. Do you think that would be any offers of a prize or reward would be honored? Or do you think my head would be on a pike before the sun appeared in the sky?
00:12:51
Speaker
Oh no, certainly not. I think that quite frankly you have the option of getting out of dodge or dying. Now the question really is if you're going to be getting out of dodge, are you going to do it unimpeded or will you be pursued by the full armour of the Kingsguard? Because
00:13:11
Speaker
it would be just dreadful if the information about your involvement got out. And I do think you would rather be pursued if it did. And unfortunately, there seemed to be rather a handful of people who know for a fact about your involvement, some of whom are, well, quite reputable. Hi, Lady Vedoc, pleased to meet your acquaintance. Now,
00:13:30
Speaker
Let's say you tell us what you know. I think that we could come to an agreement regarding your sort of slipping through the city unnoticed. In fact, I'd be happy to speak to the guards. You know, if it came to it, aid in any way that I can with my considerable resources. But let's say you continue to be cagey and not disclose the things that you clearly know. Well, I think we'd be looking at rather a different situation. Do you take my meaning? Give me an intimidation check.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yup. Straight up threats. Can I get advantage? Cause I did it so eloquently. No. Damn. Can I get advantage of glimkey or clay slightly nod behind me? No. Okay. Whoa. Shit. I have a plus five to intimidation. That's a 16 tracks. I'm a scary bitch. He, uh, tenses once again and kind of glances over at the, uh, the crossbow, uh, that's propped up against the couch. He says an interesting proposition.
00:14:29
Speaker
Now, alternatively, me and Ona here could kill you and leave the city tonight and nobody would be looking for us whatsoever. That's an alternative thought. But don't you want to know who really did it? Can't say that I'm particularly interested. They screwed us over. We have to fix this. We have to do the right thing and find the princess. I mean, the way I see it, they...
00:14:55
Speaker
paid us for a job. The job is kind of a problem, admittedly, but they paid us. They upheld their end of the bargain. It just so happens that the bargain may have been more than we bargained for. Una kind of walks over and she leans in close and whispers something in his ear. If anyone's trying to eavesdrop, they may make a perception check.
00:15:25
Speaker
Yes. Now, I would if they're doing that while this is happening, I'd like to just kind of try to move myself between my friends and these people slightly. Yeah. Friends. I mean, these people aren't my friends. That's for sure. It's relative. I got a 21 for eavesdropping. Oh, nice. You hear Una say
00:15:56
Speaker
What about Patrick? You know, we shouldn't leave until we're able to find him. Do you say anything, Clay, to indicate that you heard what she said? Yeah, where's Patrick? Riggs shoots her just a piercing look, and it's still dark in here, but you can tell she's kind of blushing a little bit. She says,
00:16:18
Speaker
I don't know. We haven't seen him since yesterday. And yeah, I don't know. I'm worried. I think someone's been following me. And I don't know. I've been keeping to the shadows and, you know, I haven't like seen anyone. You know, I've kind of like looked around and I haven't seen anybody, but I kind of feel like, you know, like eyes on the back of my head sort of thing.
00:16:41
Speaker
I don't like that. And yeah, Patrick is gone and just a little worried about him. Riggs kind of cuts her off and says, tell you what, you can keep your posturing to yourself and you don't need to run to the authorities. You track down Patrick. I'll tell you everything I know about this job. How's that sound? Of course. Patrick might know something.
00:17:11
Speaker
Well, how do we know you won't skip town? Every thief has a code. And I promise I won't leave until you come back with Patrick or Till Nova. Okay. Why don't you come with us to find Patrick? He gestures to his arm that's in the sling and says,
00:17:38
Speaker
I'm not much good in a fight right now and frankly I got some packing to do. Can I cast a healing on him to fix his arm?
00:17:48
Speaker
You could. I think you would know that a mirror cure wounds would not be sufficient to repair a broken bone. You've talked to him about this, this injury. And so you know that his arm was broken and it would probably take something a little stronger, like a lesser restoration type spell to speed up that natural healing process.
00:18:09
Speaker
Fair enough, okay, well, I mean, when was the last time you saw him? And what does he look like? And who's Patrick?
00:18:19
Speaker
Um, his name's Patrick, uh, we call him Patrick Fast Hands. He is, I don't know, he's part of the crew. He plays the mandolin. Well, he, he's, he does a good job on this, well, in our line of work, but really he just wants to be a, you know, musician, travel around, play in different cities. But, um,
00:18:40
Speaker
Yeah, he's I don't know about Yehi and he's got ginger hair and like the most freckles I've ever seen on anybody. Yeah, he's a real sweetie. And the last time you saw him was how long ago? We saw him yesterday morning. And here? Yeah, she kind of glances at Riggs and then back to the three of you and says,
00:19:03
Speaker
uh the job we the three of us anyway crashed here for the night and then the next day he said he was going to uh he was going to use his cut from the job to buy a new mandolin and then i think he was going to try and find a place where he could do a show a tavern i think did did you have any place that he performed regularly uh yeah what was it think uh he was a big fan of the the flask
00:19:33
Speaker
and he looks at you glimkey and says the tungsten flask it's uh well it's not far from here it's well still in the silver district and i know he also was a fan of uh the anchor's beard in
00:19:47
Speaker
I think those words to kinda his, his hots, so to speak. And Uno speaks up once more and says, and I think he got his instruments tended to or cared for. I don't, I don't do instruments. Uh, someplace it was saws or something saw. I don't know the exact name, but maybe that would help. I don't know. Have I ever heard of any of these places? I would say.
00:20:12
Speaker
Clay and Phonlyn, you can both make a general intelligence check to see if you've heard of any of these. Glimkey, given you just arrived in the city, you wouldn't know.
Information Gathering
00:20:22
Speaker
Oh no, I write on a notepad and then I rip the pad out and I slap it into Clay's chest and I'm like, all right, find these things. I rolled an eight. I got an eight on my intelligence. I rolled a five.
00:20:38
Speaker
An eight and a five. Okay. Yeah. Uh, a place. Can I have a washroom?
00:20:45
Speaker
yeah gestures towards a door kind of past the bar okay i walk towards it perfect do you go inside yep okay and i feel like i need to ask what you doing in the bathroom but describe your business okay little number one little number two little something clandestine what's going on hard solid soft liquids what's going on haven't had much fiber since you got to ergeny is there a is there a is there a mirror in here
00:21:16
Speaker
Yeah, there's a dirty, cracked mirror and a chamber pot on the floor. Okay, perfect. I can imagine that this man's Patrick is a clever one since he plays a instrument and has fast hands, I don't know. I'm gonna write a note on my little notepad. Okay.
00:21:36
Speaker
I'd like to, like, somehow fix it to the back of that, the mirror. Sure. In case, I don't know, maybe he does mirror performances. And I'm gonna write, they're selling you out, call, or come find me, Clay. Oh, hell yeah. Damn. Perfect. Behind the mirror? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Are you leaving, like, a little bit of paper sticking out, so... Yeah, sure. Yeah, tiny, tiny little edge.
00:22:04
Speaker
I feel like there's a strategy, but Shannon doesn't know what it is. So it really just seems like Jordan is being messy, and I love that. Yeah, that's definitely gonna come back to buttons. No! No! The second someone who's not here finds it! They'll be like, what the fuck is this? So no one else takes any moves today?
00:22:29
Speaker
Well, I mean, it's kind of ambiguous. It doesn't say who it's directed to, so any of the other people that may be worried... Just all three of them show up.
00:22:41
Speaker
So while you're doing that, Clay and Faunalyn. Faunalyn, you don't recognize any of these names. You have been mostly to private engagements, you know, a lot of meals cooked within the birth hold estate by their personal chef. You have not gone to either of these pubs and saw or whatever the actual name of this instrument shop. You don't recognize it.
00:23:10
Speaker
Clay, I would say you had, what, a nine? I think eight because my intelligence is minus one. Excellent. With an eight, and as just like someone who spent many years in Air Dineen, you are aware of these two taverns. Actually, I would say you can make your roll with advantage just because you are a local. So I get to roll again? Yeah.
00:23:32
Speaker
I rolled worse. So with an eight, you are aware of these two pubs. You've maybe even been to them after a job or just like, you know, hanging out. And in regards to the music shop, you remember Patrick mentioning a place that he goes to and you think it's in the gold district, but the actual name of it you don't recognize or you can't like infer what the actual name of it or where it is. You just, you think he mentioned a place in the gold district at one point when talking about like after the job.
00:24:03
Speaker
what he was gonna do with his money. Okay. Is Glimky back from the toilet yet? Sure. Glimky, how long do you spend in the bathroom? Not that long.
00:24:12
Speaker
Do you flush? I guess there's no flushing. I throw the bucket out the window, I guess. Perfect. There's a clang and then a screeching alley cat and then a guy saying, hey, what's the big idea? And then you walk back out into the common area.
00:24:33
Speaker
That was suspiciously fast. Anyway, I'm wondering if we shouldn't split up since there's three locations and we only have till Nova or would we rather stick together?
00:24:42
Speaker
I don't know where anything is, so I would like to maybe, if we're going to split up, I go with Clay. I was going to say I go with Clay, but I guess you can go with Clay, and I can go with Una. You guys can both come with me. Well, this is what I was thinking. Yeah, honestly, I could take Riggs. He can walk, can't he? Once again, I'll be staying here. Thanks. Okay.
00:25:08
Speaker
Okay. And spooky one behind the bar. Will you be coming with us? I see no reason why you shouldn't. You seem perfectly able bodied. Oh, I'm very able bodied, but I am packing because I plan to leave the city at sunup, if you recall, and, uh, or, you know, Nova, and I still have to pack quite a few things and I was going to swing by my old place maybe and. Well, say goodbye. Uh, well, now that's none of your business and yeah. So I don't think I will be coming. She looks to you clay and says, I think you should stick together though. I'm, I'm nervous.
00:25:46
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, if, if he's gone, then maybe he's just left ahead of us, you know, uh, he might've gone a headstart and I don't blame him. I mean, uh, things are kind of messed up right now and I think we're to blame. So yeah, if he's, if you can't find him tonight, I think we're just going to have to go and wait for this all to blow over and we'll see you when we get back.
00:26:04
Speaker
Are you gonna leave without Patrick if we don't find him tonight?
00:26:11
Speaker
You could come with us if you want, but, uh, I know you kind of just got that thing at the artist's guild and really, really proud of you, by the way. That's, that's really amazing. But yeah, I just gotta do what you gotta do, right? Yeah, I guess. Is it all right if we come find you if, uh, if you do end up leaving?
Preparations for Morning Meeting
00:26:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I tell you what, if you're back by Nova, then we can say goodbye in person. And I, uh, uh, yeah, you can, you can definitely come find me anytime. And she kind of bamps in front of you and gives you a big hug. I hug her back. Like bear hug. She's trembling a little bit. You can tell she's really freaked out by everything that's gone on in the last couple of days. Yeah, so is Clay. Yeah.
00:27:00
Speaker
Well, shall we head out to the three locations? Yes, let's go find Patrick. Excellent. I'm just going to run to the loo. Do you mind if I just meet you both here, you know, outside by the door? I'll be right out. Yeah, it's over by in the bar. Yeah, it's right by the bar. Okay, that's phenomenal. Thank you. Do Clay and Glimpy leave at this point?
00:27:22
Speaker
like just waiting by the door I guess. Yeah. I feel like I start like going towards the bathroom and I'm like waiting to see if they're gonna like step outside as I suggested and when they don't I'm like okay okay I was too subtle you know that's on me I I was too subtle and that's something that happens very often with me um listen I didn't want to do this in front of clay but
00:27:47
Speaker
If you two hooligans leave this city without giving us the information you need, let me just say, you're frankly lucky that we're engaging in this little song and dance running after your little friend, but if you two leave the city without telling us what you know, so help me God, I will use every resource at my advantage to chase you down and drag you to the king. So, Clay wants to be nice, but I grab her arm and pull her out of the room. Let's go find Patrick.
00:28:17
Speaker
Yeah, you are dragged out into the dark of, you know, just after midnight. Yeah, Riggs and Una don't respond to your threat, but you're kind of dragged out before you can kind of really see what their reaction is. Do I get to roll intimidation on my way out? Sure. Yeah. Come on, high roll. Ooh.
00:28:38
Speaker
That's going to be a 15. Okay. You don't have a chance to see what their reaction is, but you feel like you made your point pretty convincingly. Yes. I am famously succinct. So you step out into the late night air. Where do you wish to go? The tungsten flask. That's the only one I managed to write down. Oh, I got them all second. There's also the anchors beard in and something saw, I don't know.
00:29:07
Speaker
something saw or saws something yeah okay is there anyone around in the street um it's pretty late like it is after midnight oh my goodness we so we don't have that many hours till nova
00:29:19
Speaker
no you got maybe eight hours oh man okay the bird can be a little unpredictable so maybe it'll sleep in would he be at any of these places in the middle of the night though we should have asked where his house well hold on it's funny that you bring that up because i was gonna suggest another course of action so my sister read a book once and told me about it it was it was called the cleric and the rogue they were two unlikely friends that despite their differences had to work together
00:29:49
Speaker
with different means of approaching a task. And I think we may consider a roguish approach to this. She said that she had to go visit someone before she left. Why don't we just... Tell her. ...figure out who it is. I mean, what are the chances, like you said, that Patrick's even at one of these two places? I think the rogue in me is saying that perhaps we can just follow her to some information.
00:30:18
Speaker
First of all, this book sounds frankly ridiculous. I've never heard of a cleric in a rogue being friends. It seems impossible. But beyond that, I do think there could be some merit to your approach. We agree that these two are deeply suspicious. Apologies, Clay, but so strange. Yeah. She did say that she thought that someone was following her. So what if there was? What if we find who's following her? Cause they might know who, where Patrick went.
00:30:46
Speaker
Yes. And then we interrogate that person and we make them tell us where Patrick is. We use torture if necessary. Hot damn. We're on an adventure, aren't we? I think we're on an adventure! I have goosebumps, do you see? Me too. Can I do a perception check or something? See if there's anyone around that's like looking at the hideout location? Sure, give me a perception roll.
00:31:16
Speaker
13 yeah, uh kind of on the corner you see uh Someone just like sleeping. They're gonna like have a ratty blanket pulled over them and they seem to be sleeping but no one else appears to be Out and about on this particular street You would know that the copper district has a pretty unsavory reputation and those that can avoid navigating it by night Prefer to do so nice
00:31:41
Speaker
nice so i mean we could we could just find a nice hiding spot get some eyes on the door here and and wait till she leaves there's no other exit is there clay is there another exit do i know there is you know that there is a hidden trap door oh damn it is it in the washroom he's not in the washroom you know that there's a hidden trap door kind of behind the bar that is
00:32:09
Speaker
used case of emergencies in case you know while it's never happened while you've been there because why would the guards come knocking upon your friends you know hide out or hang out you are aware like it was pointed out to you after like the first couple jobs that uh should you ever need to make a hasty escape then you can go out through there okay i say you guys watch this exit uh
00:32:35
Speaker
watch the other one and just yeah deal whistle if someone comes out i guess where does the other where does the trap door lead out to it leads into the back alley okay i go wait next to that door yeah we need a good signal should we whistle a particular tune or should we just sort of you know
00:32:54
Speaker
just shout rumpus yeah oh that's good i like that or we could make sort of a like a like a street noise something you might hear in the street like if someone could make the noise of like a i don't know like a trash can being knocked over well that would probably alarm the dog might or something bucket of shit hitting the cobblestones well i mean i yeah i i could use uh if i see somebody i could use some minor illusion here to to make some sort of
00:33:23
Speaker
that's good i like that or i could make like or i could yeah a drum or maybe a certain whistle or something we can get creative with it and then clay if you see something i can also i have thama toji hey all right perfect little couple magic magic pals
00:33:44
Speaker
Yes, magic pals. We're all magic pals. I like it better than the rumpus group or whatever. The rumpus pal. The rump trio. It sounds like a bad Pokemon. I'm imagining Doug trio, but instead of like faces, it's little bums coming into the ground. Could I get three stealth checks? Oh no, I'm not good at stealth.
00:34:11
Speaker
Come on, no. That was not good. Well, I got a 15. Nice. I got a three. Excellent. I got an eight. Eight, okay. Yep. Even if I like purposefully try to be extra stealthy. Yeah.
00:34:29
Speaker
Dang it. What if you just let me be stealthy? Come on, Zach. The one thing paladins are bad at. Yeah. My apologies. Yeah, I'm just crouching down. My armor plates are scratching together. So Faunalyn and Glimky, the two of you kind of post up in an alleyway. There's, you know, a pile of trash that hasn't been cleared away. Smells awful, but you kind of
00:34:56
Speaker
crouch down next to it, occasionally one of you kind of gags a bit, undercutting. I guess it would be Glimky with, based off the rolls, a 15 versus a 3. Every once in a while, Glimky, you retch a little bit. You are not accustomed to such a foul stench. Good lord, Glimky, get it together! The trashy and dwells smells like cinnamon and nutmeg. And this is neither cinnamon nor nutmeg. Even in the woods, we bring our compost a fair distance away.
00:35:25
Speaker
Well this has a rather advanced garbage collection service that apparently is lacking in this part of Erdenin. Clay, you go to the back alley and after about
00:35:39
Speaker
45 minutes maybe even an hour has passed you see that there's this stack of crates and you see the lid on one of the crates opens up and Una pulls herself out of it and she kind of gently places the the lid back down and uh
Una's Confession
00:35:54
Speaker
starts to walk down the alley and as you do you're kind of like oh that's where that leads and you kind of mouth it to yourself and she looks over and she locks eyes on you it says
00:36:08
Speaker
Clay, what are you doing?
00:36:14
Speaker
yeah hi okay yes this is a good place and she walks over to you says hey everything going all right have you found anything yet no you haven't been sitting out here the whole time have you no of course not we can't find Patrick we were just wondering like i know my friends come on a little strong but you said you were being watched earlier
00:36:39
Speaker
yeah i mean at least i think so you know i didn't see anyone like i said but kind of a general feeling of it yeah when did it start did it start after the job yeah i'd say it started um kind of last night was the first time i noticed i went out for a drink and then as i was coming back to the the hideout uh kind of felt like someone was watching me and i looked around and didn't see anything and then earlier today i went out to get groceries and i was in the market and
00:37:09
Speaker
had the same feeling haven't been able to shake it really do you think do you think they might have been watching patrick as well yeah i think it's possible i hope not it's uh it's not good timing you know yeah can't help but feel like it's it's related you know i can't i can't believe it's coincidence do you think they could be watching me it's possible yeah i don't know i mean you were
00:37:38
Speaker
If it's related to the job, you were a late addition, right? Like, wealth and moon derrick were supposed to be on the job. But, you know, as you know, they went off to do that other thing. So it's possible they don't know about you just because you weren't part of the original crew. But I mean, I wouldn't count on that necessarily. I just I feel like it's not safe for you to go out when you're being watched. Are you going out to say goodbye?
00:38:04
Speaker
She sighs and says, yeah, I was gonna go see Vanna one more time. I know we broke up, but I just, I feel like it'd be weird if I left without saying goodbye. You know, I was kind of hoping we could patch things up and if I leave, then I won't really have the chance to do that for a while. So I just wanted to tell her how I felt before I left, you know? Let me escort you just to keep an eye on your back. Is that okay?
00:38:34
Speaker
She looks at you and says, no offense, but if I'm trying to keep a low profile, I kind of like my odds a little better if it's just me. I think if I keep to the shadows, like no one will be able to follow me too, too well. And as you're kind of talking to her, she's like in this alley with you and she's kind of cast in shadow. And it's like, at times she almost kind of like fades out of existence. Like it's, at times you can only see like her, the whites of her eyes and like the rest of her kind of almost drifts into shadow and disappears completely.
00:39:01
Speaker
And she is harder to see when she's, you know, standing in shadow. How is someone following her if she's so hard to see? Okay, uh, by the way, do you know where Patrick would be at this time of night? I don't think he would be at any of the taverns.
00:39:24
Speaker
I mean, they still be open, you know? Late night crowd for a little while longer anyway. I mean, the anchor, you've been there. It's a sailor bar. There's people there, you know, well late into the night. Any sailor on shore leave, you know, they'll stay at the bars as late as they can. I think the flask would be open too. It's a little more reputable maybe, but they keep pretty late hours. He's been sleeping at the hideout most nights. I don't know if he's got another place that he crashes. We never really talked about that.
00:39:54
Speaker
You know him better than I do. Do you know which tavern he might be at tonight if he was out there? I think the flask was his favorite. I think he was really excited to play a show there. So that's where I would check out. That's probably your best bet. And I mean, honestly, it probably closes earlier. So if you're trying to get to it tonight, then I think you should go there first because it might be closed if you go to the anchor beforehand.
00:40:21
Speaker
Okay, thanks. Can you point me in the direction of the flask? I don't know where he is. Yeah. And she kind of crouches down and draws just a quick little map in the dirt that is the road here. And yeah, it's Silver District, maybe 15 minute walk from here, not super far. Does she also put the other two locations on the map? If you ask her to. Yes.
00:40:49
Speaker
uh so yeah the tungsten flask is in the silver district and the the anchors beard is in the pearl district over that's where the the ships come in that's the harbor area of eredinine so she kind of is as accurately as one can with a
00:41:07
Speaker
with a dirt map, she draws it out for you and she says, yeah, like I said, I don't know where that music shop was. Gold district. I'm not sure entirely where. Sorry. Okay. Thanks, Una. You be safe. Okay. Yeah, you too. I'll see you in a few hours, right? Yeah. I'll meet you back here before Nova. Okay. Sounds good. She gives you another quick hug and then kind of disappears into the shadows.
00:41:29
Speaker
I sneak back to the front of the building and I whisper shout rumpus so the other two come out. Yeah, Glimky, the smell of rotting fish kind of wafts up through your nose and then you hear from off towards the hideout you hear. Rumpus. Oh, Glimky, are you all right? Do you need some water or something? I haven't got any, but we could find you some.
00:41:59
Speaker
I don't know if it's the fumes that are maybe messing with my brain, but I feel like I'm remembering that book a little differently now. I guess she must have seen something. Okay, I suppose we should go investigate the rumpus call. Do you think we should answer it so she knows we've heard? Rumpus!
00:42:22
Speaker
So you just hear gagging and then Rumpus! Okay, I head towards them, where the returning shout of Rumpus came from. Amazing. Rumpus! Rumpus! You all rejoin in front of the hideout, or you know, maybe like a block up, whatever. Where is she? Should we follow her? Okay, so what happened? We've been sitting here for like 45 minutes to an hour.
Tavern Visits Begin
00:42:48
Speaker
I feel like we should check out the pubs and see if we can find Patrick.
00:42:52
Speaker
Wait, so you didn't see anybody? Did you see anyone? No. I feel like if we stay too long, the pubs will be closed and we'll miss our chance to see if anything. I really don't want to sit in the trash for any longer. I was really hoping this plan was going to pan out. I like the plan. I suppose maybe we could double back. We could do the flask first.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah, let's do that. Well, lead the way, Clay. Okay, I confidently know where the flask is now.
00:43:26
Speaker
I don't know what happened to that alley, but Clay is like a different person now. I feel like we'll miss our chance. Agreed, agreed. So the three of you set off. You walk for about 15 minutes or so. Eventually the mud and dirt roads at the Copper District lead to more cobblestone streets of the Silver District.
00:43:51
Speaker
And before long, you find yourself standing outside of a fairly nondescript wooden building. There's a metal sign hanging in front shaped like a flask. For those of you that are familiar with metal, you'll determine it's not actually tungsten. It's probably iron, but, you know, hey, you got to make do sometime.
00:44:12
Speaker
tungsten in this economy? Exactly. You push the door open and inside you find a cozy interior. There is a wooden chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It holds a dozen candles. They each have long trails of wax hanging down off of them. At the center of the room is a stone fire and kind of surrounding it there's these four archways. It's kind of a square fire pit with these archways kind of
00:44:36
Speaker
flanking it on every side there at the far end you see a bar there's a human woman tending to it she's kind of just polishing the uh the countertop there's a a tabby cat sleeping at the far end of the bar just kind of curled up on it and while it's gotten a little late and things aren't fully bustling there's still you know a half dozen patrons there as well as a bard sitting in the corner playing tambourine man by bob dillon
00:45:05
Speaker
Oh. Is it Patrick? You look at him and it is not Patrick. It is a half-elf man who appears to be maybe 90 years old or so. He's got slightly thinning dark hair and is playing a liar. Okay. Can I go up to the bard to talk to him? Sure. Hey Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me. Is this guy Bob Dylan? No.
00:45:35
Speaker
It's Billon. You walk up in the jingle jangle morning, I'll come following you. And he kind of wraps up the song and there's some polite applause from the from the audience in attendance. And he looks up at you and says, Yes, can I help you? Hi. I was just looking for my friend. He's also a musician. Do you know, have you been playing here all night?
00:46:01
Speaker
uh yes yes i have wonderful singing by the way that was a wonderful performance ah thank you that's uh quite the song i'm quite fond of it actually and i noticed that your your uh instruments really nice too can i ask where where you get your instruments tuned ah yes i am not from airdanine i'm a traveling bard of uh quite renowned my name is uh
00:46:26
Speaker
Ptolemy Henkel, I'm sure you've heard of me. Yes, I am not from here, as I've said. I've traveled quite some way, but whenever I am in the fine city of Ergenin, I tend to get my instruments tended to by Sahir, shams, and musical mechanisms. That's the name of the shop. Sahir is the owner, Sahir Haroon. He's an excellent musician and craftsman of all manner of fine instruments. That's fascinating. I've got to check out that store.
00:46:56
Speaker
I quite recommend it. If you are interested in the arts as I am, then I would surely recommend it to you. Could you tell me where it is on this map? Reminding you that the map you were provided by Uno was dirt. It was sketched into the road. I sketched it onto a piece of paper.
00:47:14
Speaker
Yeah, he kind of like came and hazed for a few seconds and then kind of like takes a little bit of candle wax and kind of just smushes it down onto a spot and says, I believe it's out here. Give a take. Should I get you close enough? Thanks. Do you know if they're still open? I would be surprised, but I know the owner. So here he lives above the shop. So if it's an urgent battle, I'm sure he'd be on the premises at the very least.
00:47:39
Speaker
Cool, cool. Oh, and about my friend, have you seen a human man? Is Patrick human? I forgot. I mean, he's ginger, so debatable, but yeah. Damn. Yeah, Redhead about Ye Hi. Have you seen him?
00:48:01
Speaker
I can't say that I have. You could talk to Lenore. I gesture to the bartender. She is the proprietor of this establishment. If there is another musician that is booked here, then I'm sure she would know more than I would. I only care about my craft and don't have time for other concerns, such as the competition. Cool, cool, cool. I'll leave you to it then. Love your performances.
00:48:26
Speaker
Thank you. And as you walk away, he's carries off onto another
Clues from Lenore
00:48:30
Speaker
cover. Once upon a time, you're just so fine. Is this going to be like a beetle from Legend of Zelda thing where he's just like at the destination every time? Oh my gosh. I love it. Every tavern we go to.
00:48:46
Speaker
This guy's freaking fast. I go to, what did he say? Lenore? Lenore. Lenore. Lenore? Yes, Lenore. Am I tripping or did I write that name down? Did you? I'm tripping. Carry on. Yeah, you walk up to the bar and you see a human woman. She looks to be in her mid 40s or so. She's got blonde hair with a little bit of gray streaked in and kind of
00:49:14
Speaker
Held back in two braids. She's wearing a short-sleeved shirt that reveals some pretty buff arms and she's kind of just polishing the the countertop and she looks up and says Hey, what can I get for you? Just some juice if you have juice Yeah, I can do juice. I want apple black currants
00:49:36
Speaker
Oh yeah, Glimkey hops up on a stool next to Clay. I'll also do a juice if we're having juice. Yeah, sure thing. Blackcurrant or apple? Oh, yes, please. Blackcurrant sounds lovely. Yeah, blackcurrant for me too. Two blackcurrant juices coming right up. Make that three. I'll also take a blackcurrant juice. Thank you. Yeah, sure thing. A couple of juicy boys.
00:49:59
Speaker
She comes back with three glasses and says that'll be a three silver. I look at clay I Hand over three silver she pockets it. All right. Yeah kitchens closed unfortunately But if you need anything else, just let me know while I have your attention. Is it okay? If I just have you seen Patrick he usually plays here sometime. Oh Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I saw him yesterday actually yesterday. Yeah around when I haven't seen him around for a while
00:50:27
Speaker
He came in midday, just after the lunch rush. He had a new mandolin, I think it was, and was looking for a place to show off, do a show. I wouldn't let him, but she gestures over to...
00:50:43
Speaker
like a rolling stone that's holding me hankle in the corner but uh i've got him booked for a month so uh i told him he could maybe try the anchors beard i know uh they were looking for someone to do some shows so that's where i recommended he check out okay cool cool i'll i'll look for him there then did he look all right to you when he stopped by with his mandolin yeah he looked uh he looked good he was uh had a little pep in his step you know bought a bought a
00:51:13
Speaker
Bought a beer and left a pretty generous tip, but if I do say so, yeah, he seemed well. I have a question, if you don't mind. Yeah, what's up? Sorry, Clay, did you have any more questions about Patrick? No, I'm good. Lenore, did you say it was? I didn't, but that is my name.
00:51:32
Speaker
I have a good intuition for these things you see. Now, Lenore, I was wondering, have you seen anyone come through here or perhaps do you have any regulars that sort of look like me, not in the Elvin sense, but just in the general affluence sense? She kind of brings a hand up to her chin and she's got these bulky arms.
00:51:54
Speaker
There's arms, am I right? This juice better be cold because I'm heating up. I think we're all into buff women. Another thing the three of us have in common. No, we don't get much in the way of, to put it frankly, savory crowds. We usually get more of a salty group and she looks over at Tallamy Henkel and she says,
00:52:21
Speaker
See? And you look over and you see that there's this large half-orc, like six feet, six inches tall, just massive. And he's standing in front of Ptolemy and saying, now, I want you to play the ballad of Voke the Snapper. And Ptolemy stops his third Bob Dylan cover of the night and says,
00:52:39
Speaker
I'm afraid that is a bit base and beneath me. My good man, the hell did you just say to me? And he grabs him by his lapels and just holds him up off the ground. And you see that a fight is clearly about to break out. He's right. That song is based. Now, shall we skedaddle? We're not going to help the man.
00:53:00
Speaker
Oh, do you want to help Glinky? Go ahead, I won't stop you. I mean, Glinky downs the rest of his juice. Yep. And walks across the bar. You sir, place down the musician. The half-work looks at you and says, you're going to make me?
00:53:24
Speaker
You're not gonna wanna see if I do. And I look back over my shoulder. I down my juice and walk over and stand behind Glimpy like menacingly. I continue to sip and just like watch on. Like drinks and a show.
00:53:46
Speaker
The half-orc turns to Ptolemy once more and says, I'm only going to ask you one more time. I want to hear the battle avert the snapper. My good man, I will not do it. I am sorry to report. I simply cannot or, shall we say, will not. You heard the man put the gentleman down. The half-orc says, all right.
00:54:06
Speaker
And then he kind of tosses his Ptolemy up in the air, grabs him by the ankles, and attempts to use him like a club to hit you. I'm going to need everybody to roll initiative. Hey Mr. temporary man, play a song for me. I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
00:54:27
Speaker
This feels like such fitting first on that for this group, yeah. I got a cool 21. Oh, I thought I was gonna have the highest. I got a 19. I have 13. Wow. Dang it. Okay, so Fondling, you are first. Though you are sitting at the bar, do you make any move to intervene?
00:54:47
Speaker
okay i think i see this going down and i go all right here we go and i also down my juice and i pull out my umbrella and press the button so that the top of the umbrella part falls to the ground and i'm just holding my sword and i sprint
00:55:05
Speaker
I slide through Clay's legs and I pop up in front of the half orc and I go in with like a flap flap across his chest. Amazing. For the record, I'm not trying to kill him. I just want to like cut up his shirt like in the movies. Sure. Give me an attack roll. Okay, so I and I get an extra 1d6 this turn. Yes, if you hit. Okay, that's gonna be a 14 to hit.
00:55:32
Speaker
14 will hit, he's not wearing very heavy armor. Yes! Okay, that's an 8 damage plus a... ooh, plus a 1. That's 9 damage.
00:55:44
Speaker
Do you slash this guy across the chest? And he looks at you a little surprised, not realizing you were part of this group. And he's still upright, but yeah, seems a little perturbed, shall we say. Glimky, you are next, sir. You just slashed him across the chest? Damn. Glimky is gonna take his shield out here. But he's not gonna draw his weapon. Instead, he is going to...
00:56:15
Speaker
Yeah, you know what? I'll take my shield up. I'm just gonna do with like an unarmed strike. I'm just gonna punch him. I'm not gonna pull by it. Okay. Give me a punch deck. Nice. 21. 21 will hit.
00:56:31
Speaker
So excellent. You punched this guy in the hip for three damage. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, your business is with me. Yeah. So a woman in a poofy dress and a floppy wig, uh, just went sliding across the floor and Zorro this guy's chest. And then you punched him in the hip. Yep. I'm going to need a persuasion check. Perfect.
00:57:02
Speaker
24. He looks down at you and says alright.
00:57:07
Speaker
And we go to Clay. The half-work is still holding the bard. He has Ptolemy up over his, like his ankles up over his head and he is preparing to bring him down and smack Uki with a bard.
Calming the Bar Tensions
00:57:25
Speaker
Can I try to grapple the bard out of his arms? Just like take him away?
00:57:32
Speaker
Yeah, we can make a contested athletics check as you try and pull Ptolemy Henkel from his arms. He rolled bad, I will tell you that. I got a 14. Okay, yeah, you step up and you kind of twist his wrists a little bit and his hands involuntarily pop open and you catch the bard in your arms and he looks up at you and says, ah, thank you, my lady. Much obliged. He tips a non-existent hat towards you.
00:58:00
Speaker
Ptolemy Henkel also maybe loves muscular women? Yeah, he better. Or he doesn't get to hang. That's the requirement. I set the bar down and just like kind of push the...
00:58:16
Speaker
like him and the orc apart from each other and say like, cool it. Give me a persuasion roll. Nat 20. And my persuasion is plus four. Okay. You say cool it. And the half orc, he kind of massages his wrists a little bit. And his hip, right? And his hip. Yeah. And his chest, which has like a small bead of blood coming through his shirt. And he says, yeah, you're right. I'm sorry.
00:58:41
Speaker
go a little carried away there. I just really like the ballad of the snapper. It's always been a favorite of mine. He would snap his enemies in two, find him quite the motivational figure. It's all right. Just if the bard doesn't know the song, he doesn't know it. Oh, I know the song. I just think it's beneath me. I mean, yes, I'm sorry, my dear man. It's just simply not on the set list tonight.
00:59:07
Speaker
And the half-orc says, all right, well, fair enough. And he kind of steps away and mutters a sorry. And you see him sit down at a table with two other half-orcs who were kind of halfway towards standing up and coming to their friend's aid, but kind of settled down as you have successfully diffused the situation.
00:59:27
Speaker
We should really start looking around rooms when we enter the room. Nah, nah. Probably be a good habit to get into. We've been fine so far, so why should we start? I want to dust off the good Ptolemy Henkel a little and say, now, my good set. First of all, I quite agree. That song is based. And secondly, I do wonder how long you've been in Ayrdenine. Ah, I arrived in the city, oh, two weeks ago, I'd say.
00:59:56
Speaker
Ah, from where? From where do you come? Oh, here and there. Before this, I was in Sunfall for a very short engagement. I find the city a bit beneath me. I'm going clockwise around Zav at the moment, you see. I might catch a ship though while I'm here and perhaps spend some time in Alarsha. I find the Dragon Lords are quite generous with their tips. Now, I wonder, dear friend, while you were in Sunfall, did you happen upon a... a... a voon family of some nobility?
01:00:26
Speaker
I cannot say that I am familiar with one. Like I said, I did not spend much time in Sunfall, but as part of my time there, I did make a point of at least approaching each of the great houses of the city in hopes of perhaps booking a lengthy engagement. And he kind of looks around the tungsten flask and says, this was not quite what I had in mind, but well, it's something. It's a gig at the very least.
01:00:50
Speaker
And it's consistent work. But no, a House of Oon does not strike a familiar chord within my mind, I'm afraid. Interesting. And now, I suppose it's been, if you're working clockwise, I suppose it's been rather a while since you were in Uleth or Thayad. Ah, yes, it has been quite some time indeed. I may travel there. Or I might not. We'll see how the next little bit shakes out for me. Fair enough.
01:01:17
Speaker
Yes, it's not quite what it was, but I suppose it's still something of a nice destination. You know, I might put in a good word for you. With my host and hostess, you may have heard of them, the Bertholts of the Sophia district. They have, you know, rather a comely house by some people's standards, but that is to say, I'm not sure that they would be keeping musician residents, but they do keep sort of opulent friends who might desire to have sort of on-site entertainment. Now, I suppose I could mention you.
01:01:45
Speaker
tomorrow to my host and hostess and you know just by having your name sort of in circulation you might have a better chance of securing a wealthy patron in this beautiful city and if that were to happen perhaps you and i could be sort of friends and you could kind of keep me abreast of the oh just the fun little chit chat of the house that you happen to stay in because i do so love to hear secondhand chit chat give me a
01:02:09
Speaker
You tell me, what are you giving me? Give me whatever asking a man to be an informant, whatever ability you think applies to that. I'm thinking persuasion. I'm thinking persuasion too, but I just feel like it's a good deal for him. I don't know why. Oh, okay. That's a 16. 16. He says, how's Barthol? That is remarkable. Give me an inside roll. Ew.
01:02:33
Speaker
That's 16. He has never heard of house birth hold in his life, but he looks at you and says, I think that could be a agreeable arrangement between the two of us. I see no issue sharing secondhand chit chat. It's not chit chat, but a song, longing to be sung. I would say that it is best sung as a duet.
01:02:58
Speaker
Quite right. Now, uh, Rump Trio, shall we head out? I think so. We have some more stops on the way. Yeah, let's check out the Anchorous Beard. Onward. You make for the door and Ptolemy sits down. He picks up his, uh, his lyre once more and goes, uh, the answer my friends is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the- And the door slams. And you are once more out in the, in the night air.
01:03:27
Speaker
Clay, do you happen to know where this anchor's inn is? Yes, follow me. Excellent. And I lead them. While we walk, can we just chit chat for like two minutes? I know we got places to be, but I just want to ask a couple questions. Of course, yeah, it takes time to get there. What are you chatting about while you walk?
01:03:45
Speaker
Glimky, I can't help but notice that you seem to be rather fond of books. I think when I hit you with my carriage, you were also reading a book and you mentioned another book and now you've cited like three more books since we've spoken. What's that about?
01:04:00
Speaker
Well, I mean, to be honest, I'm not the biggest reader, but my sister is. And she's back home and she's given me a lengthy list of books that I should keep my eye out for. So if you want to help me out, I can show you, but perhaps at a more opportune time. Sure. I mean, the Bertholts have rather an extensive library and I'm happy to steal anything you need. That would be amazing. Yes, I don't think they read. So, you know, they'll hardly notice.
01:04:29
Speaker
Or if they would notice the night, I could just rip out the pages and leave the spine. I think I could get away with that. Well, if we get over this and we make it through Nova, then perhaps, yeah, I'll take a gander through the books. Of course. You mentioned a sister. Is she your age, older? Younger. I'm the second youngest, actually, of six siblings and she is the baby. Oh, wow. Clay, have you any siblings? Oh, no, it's just me and my dad. He's back in my hometown.
01:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, what about you, Miss Faunalyn? Miss Vedark is fine. And... Yes, I have, I, um... Hmm... Yes, I've got some siblings. And are you close? No! And I keep walking! Oh. Fair, fair enough. Yikes. And I look at Clay, do we, do we console her? What is the situation?
01:05:25
Speaker
I think I hit a nerve. Perhaps we let this one go, but if it happens again, one of us has got to say something. Yeah. Amazing. So, you continue on for a ways. There's kind of a general uphill slant as you make your way through Erdenin towards the Pearl District.
Entering the Pearl District
01:05:47
Speaker
The city, as you I'm sure know, is kind of a bull.
01:05:50
Speaker
surrounded by heavy thick walls that separated from the ocean and you kind of find yourself moving upwards and there is another of these walls there is a several gates that access the Pearl District just have to go through the walls to get to it there the gates are open there are guards on duty but they kind of are just making sure nobody tries to you know come in and pillage the city that sort of thing like they're kind of just hanging out they don't really stop you in any way
01:06:19
Speaker
And yeah, you make your way through this thick wall into the Pearl District. There's all these wooden houses, some of them on stilts. There's just a strong smell of ocean water kind of drifting through. It's late, but you can hear the sound of waves kind of crashing in and creaking of docks and tall ships. You look down towards the water and you see all these
01:06:39
Speaker
double masted triple masted ships lining this entire length the kind of entire eastern side of the city before you kind of turn off and you follow clay's directions once more and find yourself standing in front of a two-story stone building uh has this aggressive lean to it like it's wants to fall over but hasn't quite made up its mind when you see hanging above the door is an anchor with a rope beard woven onto it you are at the anchor's beard in okay
01:07:08
Speaker
this time when we go in there perhaps we should discuss a plan of sorts i mean we tried the try the cleric road thing that didn't work and i'm not quite sure how well your intimidation worked the other time
01:07:23
Speaker
but what did work in the other bar was when we worked together so maybe this time being on the same page will help so and take a look around i think we go in there do a sweeping check of the room here's our eyes i would say that's a top priority and then well what did everyone think of the juice at the other place it was delicious i could go for another round of juice
01:07:47
Speaker
I liked that part of the plan where we all just kind of hung out with the bartender and asked pointed questions. So I think that could be part of our plan. I like that plan. Okay. Same as last time. So we're using our eyes and then drinking juice. Yes. Yes, exactly. Okay.
01:08:01
Speaker
And we swing open the door. Yeah, we go in. This door is, has sort of a sponginess of a wood that has absorbed far too much water. It's got a little, yeah, a little give to it as you push it open. Inside, you see that this is all of the charm and coziness of the tungsten flask is absent in the Anchor's Beard Inn.
01:08:23
Speaker
You see that the interior, the floor is slanted and there's a bit of water pooling in one corner. You see various sailor types with tattoos of hearts that say mom and anchors and one guy with a bare chest and it's a big old ship's wheel sitting around drinking.
01:08:38
Speaker
It's pretty late in the night but it's still a pretty rowdy crowd. You see in one corner with all the pooling water is a human man who is playing the mandolin. He's not playing very well like every kind of fourth note is kind of plunked and sounds bad. In another corner you see a cloaked figure smoking a long pipe. He's got a hood that covers like most of his face and you get the sense he's staring at you as you walk in.
01:09:02
Speaker
Behind the bar, you see a tiefling woman. She appears to be quite young. She has just like a rich blue skin and these, these horns that are kind of curled like that of a Rams. And how buff is she thin actually pretty slender, not a whole lot of muscle definition. Next behind her is a framed portrait of a male tiefling who looks to be older than her.
01:09:28
Speaker
Hang on, do I recognize the tiefling in the portrait? You do not. While there are some similarities to that of a certain humiliation house, they don't appear to be, it does not appear to be any member of house humiliation that you have met up until this point.
01:09:48
Speaker
So it could be a humiliation, but not one that I met or saw a portrait of. It could be. Yeah. It could be either a humiliation that you were unfamiliar with or a different blue tiefling. Okay. And if it is that, you're going to feel like a bit of a racist, I have to imagine.
01:10:05
Speaker
Well, I just feel like we're in a ship-themed bar and the humiliation thing is shipping. So I'm thinking, gang, that we should ask some questions about the humiliation ships and whether one of them was leaving the harbor on the night that the princess went missing or something like that. Well, if you're saying this out loud, I would say perhaps we tread a little bit lighter around it because if these are affiliated, perhaps they won't take too kindly to people digging around their business.
Exploring Anchor's Beard Inn
01:10:34
Speaker
is the shitty bard Patrick no you look over he is human appears to be maybe around Patrick's age maybe a couple years older you see he's got dark hair and does not have the characteristic red hair or orange hair and freckles that Patrick does how fresh is his mandolin
01:10:54
Speaker
Yeah, is it brand new? Give me a perception check. This is going to be pretty hard to evaluate the freshness of a mandolin from this distance. Can I also roll? Sure. Oh my God. I want new dice. I got 11 plus three. I got a six.
01:11:11
Speaker
Glimky, you're having a hard time seeing through the crowd. There's kind of, you know, people, all these bulky sailors kind of going this way in the next. Clay, you look over and you don't really know anything about instruments. He's holding a mandolin. You know, it's the same kind of instrument that Patrick plays, but you don't know. You know, you know nothing about the mandolin beyond that. Okay. I just go, damn, it's not Patrick. Do I see him anywhere in the pub, like not playing?
01:11:39
Speaker
Looking around, you do not. There's a bunch of sailors in striped shirts with little ascots around their necks. There's the cloaked figure in the corner. There's the bar. There's the bartender. None of them bear any resemblance to Patrick Fast Hands.
01:11:55
Speaker
Oh, by the way, everyone, I should mention, and I'm dropping my voice quite low, the house humiliation was potentially implicated in the attempted murder of myself that happened two nights ago. So let's not mention who I may be. And I'm going to draw my hood. I was going to say, I look at the incredibly like brightly, I guess, flamboyantly dressed character. Yes, that will be very easy to hide. I'd also like to point out you're wearing like a 18 inch tall wig. So your hood is just like.
01:12:24
Speaker
A camel's humbled. Yep. Perhaps, my lady, you find a corner table? I'll go get us some juice. Yeah, I'll go with cookie. This plan is looking spectacular. By the way, I didn't roll perception when we came in the door.
01:12:41
Speaker
you would like to take a look around go ahead what are you looking for i'm gonna look for any faces that i recognize or any hostile looking figures okay give me a perception 16 i'd say with a 16 this seems like a rowdy crowd you see quite a few of them have like daggers and uh swords kind of strapped to their hips you see one guy he has a peg arm with a cup holder arm attachment they all look unsavory but none of them
01:13:05
Speaker
care about you none of them are looking at you the three of you with any interest beyond oh the door opened okay there's more people here back to back to our merry making there is a guy in the corner staring at you okay who's the guy what's he look like he is wearing a hood that covers like his eyes you can't really see him his head his bow down low he's got a long pipe kind of sticking out you can see a bit of stubble is this aragorn
01:13:42
Speaker
It's Strider. It's Strider! This is Strider Core as hell. You're welcome to ask him his name. But yeah, he seems to be like kind of looking in your direction. I would say after like a few seconds, he kind of looks away and takes a flag in a veil and sips at it, but kind of keeps his figure obscured.
Fletcher's Engagement
01:14:01
Speaker
Wait, I'm heading to a corner to sit anyway, right?
01:14:04
Speaker
Uh, that is what you said. I'm going to head to that corner. Okay. What do you do? I'm going to, is there any like table near him? There's a couple nearby. Okay. I'm going to sit at the table next to him, like facing the same way that he's facing towards the door. Yep. Okay. So not looking at him and I'm not going to look at him, but then I'm going to say, um, can I have my associate buy you a drink?
01:14:33
Speaker
us mysterious folks have got to stick together. And I draw my hood a little closer down towards my forehead and squash my wig a couple more inches. He says, that might be nice. But did you say you brought an associate though?
01:14:51
Speaker
Oh, he's really more of, um, I guess a friend. You can see the head like walking between. I'm going to, I'm going to try to wave down. I look over two juices, two juices. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Um, I hit him with my carriage earlier and we're working through it. He says, I thought you would be coming alone.
01:15:19
Speaker
Um, you know, he doesn't know anything. It's just that he really loves juice and he wouldn't take no for an answer when he heard I was going very loudly from the bar. You hear Glinky. Yes. Uh, I would like your, your finest black currant juice. Cutting over to the bar, the tiefling woman looks down at you and says, we don't have no chiefs here. We serve ale and we serve liquor.
01:15:46
Speaker
Oh, cider maybe? Veltari sin no more does not serve cider in her bar. Wine? Do you have milk or water? I could do a paralyzer. What's that?
01:16:01
Speaker
coming right up and she walks away and she comes back with a mug of milk and vodka mixed together so she did have milk she just wouldn't give it to us can you take the can you just give me the milk like like like like okay just drink it just drink it just drink it we can't we shouldn't argue here okay i'd like four cups please
01:16:26
Speaker
Yeah, she whips up four paralyzers for you and says that'll be a gold. But someone's on me. You reach up and slide her a gold and she grabs in. She she bites. Did you see she's got like jagged shark teeth that kind of like line her entire mouth. Oh, cool. Before we we walk away, can I? Is there is there any orcs here?
01:16:52
Speaker
There is, and he's sitting alone in groups. You get the sense, kind of looking at this crowd, that most of these people, with the exception of Man and Corner, seem to know each other. There's kind of like a general camaraderie. You haven't spent much time in Air Denim, but you get the sense that they're probably all from a ship that recently docked here, and they're kind of enjoying some shore leave. Okay, I would like to look at what they're drinking, a group of the orcs.
01:17:18
Speaker
A mixture of, you know, brown ale and... Who's the biggest one?
01:17:24
Speaker
Uh, I'd say there's a full-blooded orc, uh, kind of standing in a, in a, in a circle and he's kind of telling this rocket story. He's, he's flexing his arm and there's like a ship on his bicep that looks like it's kind of going up and down on some waves every time he flexes. I would like to buy an extra flag in a veil. Sure. She says five copper. Okay. Sure. Dang it. And I will. Damn, we got fucking ripped. It's a real premium on liquor and milk in this place.
01:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, you walk over and you hand him a flag in a veil, or you reach out with a flag. Well, I'm going to be walking by with my paralyzer and flag in a veil. And I go, so, so sorry to interrupt. Has anyone ever told you that you look like Verk the Snapper? Give me a, just a charisma check.
01:18:21
Speaker
It's only a 13. A 13. He looks down at you with the meanest, most like scowly face. It looks like someone made like a clay face and then smushed it in like every possible way. And he looks down at you and says,
01:18:38
Speaker
That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. And I like smile and laugh. It was like, you know, I've got I've got an extra an extra ale here. I think for for someone that, you know, shows the image of Virk the Snapper, I think you've earned yourself this. Thank you.
01:18:55
Speaker
uh you know uh since we're talking um you guys all look like friends you might do you guys know who that man is sitting in the in the corner there i mean you guys all look familiar but i don't think i've seen his face around here before uh they look over and he's uh the the the orc turns back to you and says now
01:19:19
Speaker
I have been here long, just called in yesterday, haven't really left this place since we got here, but I will tell you this. Here goes by Fletcher, he does. Don't know much else about him, but he's been here for the last three hours or so, kind of just staring at the door. Fletcher, you say?
Patrick's Mysterious Absence
01:19:38
Speaker
That's interesting. Fletcher, yeah, that's what he said, yeah.
01:19:41
Speaker
Well, you folks enjoy your night. Enjoy your drink and I hold my tankard out for a nice cheers here. Give me a strength saving throw. Oh no. Ten. Ten. You barely managed to hold on as he clinks glasses with you and nearly knocks your paralyzer out of your hand, but you kind of like grab it with both hands and hold on and you get spun around three times.
01:20:12
Speaker
Clay, what are you doing? I'm keeping one eyeball on Gloomkey talking to a massive orc. But I want to stay and just quickly ask the bartender if they've seen if Patrick had come by to play. Yeah, you bring up Patrick and she says, you know, Patrick, do you? Yeah, yeah. I haven't seen her around lately. Has he been by?
01:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of the problem, you see. He comes in yesterday and begs me to put him up, you know, give him a spot. And I agree, because, you know, if there's one thing Veltari sinned no more is, it's charitable. And wouldn't you know it, he doesn't show up tonight. I guess he actually didn't show up last night either. He showed up in the afternoon, asked for the gig, didn't come back, you know, so gave it to that bloke and he's not great. This drunk lot doesn't seem to care, but
01:21:08
Speaker
So you didn't see from Patrick since yesterday afternoon either. Did he seem like he was headed off somewhere? Did he mention? I mean, he promised he'd be back around Supernova to start playing for the evening crowd and he never came. If you see him, tell him he's not welcome back here. We don't need unreliable sorts.
01:21:29
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Thanks for the drinks. And then I go catch up with good key. Sure. The two of you coalesce and a funnel and you are sitting in the corner staring at the door. Still, I'd say probably a little while later, clay comes by with a pair of paralyzers. Go, go. I want to talk to the guy. Oh, who are you? Leave me alone. I don't know who you are. Stop harassing me. I know I'm attractive.
01:21:57
Speaker
Thank you for carrying the drinks over. This table is taken. You can't sit here. I'm a single woman and you have no right to speak to me this way just because I'm alone at a bar. Go. Go. Okay. Bring you these drinks.
01:22:14
Speaker
Okay. I'll take the drink. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I grabbed the drinks. Um, now I sit at another table. I'd say the two of you, uh, fondling, you don't see this because you are pointedly looking away from the man in the corner. The two of you though, Clay and glimkey, you see, he kind of grimaces as you slide him a drink and he mutters, you draw far too much attention to yourself.
Haros Foxian's Claim
01:22:39
Speaker
Okay.
01:22:40
Speaker
Well, they've cooled, they've chilled out now. So I don't even know who that person is. I've never seen her before in my life. That is my associate. The other one, total stranger. I only brought one friend to the secret meetup. Anyway. We're sharing drinks. I am so sad to have possibly hurt your feelings, but I did what I had to do.
01:23:07
Speaker
I slide in the drink and I say, so, um, now that you have your, whatever the hell this is, milk, I guess, I don't know. Anyway, um. Smells like fermented yak milk from the Four Mountains. Oh, yes. Yep. That's what I like. And I do my shot. It's a full blown glass.
01:23:34
Speaker
He looks at you and once again, you don't see this, but the two of you at the other table, you see him kind of grimace slightly. And he says, well, shall we head upstairs then? Yes, but first let's, I like to draw it out. So let's just chat down here for just like another minute. And then we'll go right upstairs and do the upstairs things.
01:24:00
Speaker
All right. I just, you know, he kind of pulls out a pocket watch and looks at it and says, I just, you know, time is rather of the essence for these sorts of things, but all right. I'm sure you won't take anywhere near as long as you think you'll take.
01:24:15
Speaker
So why don't you just remind me, just give me, you know what, let's do this. Give me the agenda and then we'll go upstairs and set up the conference room and we'll have the full, you know, we'll do it all up there, but give me the agenda down here so I can, you know, brace myself going up the stairs.
01:24:38
Speaker
Right, well, I believe the plan is we meet here at the bar, we have a drink, then we head up and have 15 to 20 minutes of passionate lovemaking, perhaps an equally appropriate amount of post-coital talk, and then we go our separate ways before our spouses realize we're here. That was the plan, was it not? Can we hear this at all? Give me a perception check. 14. Me too, I also got 14.
01:25:06
Speaker
Yeah, the two of you hear every second word, but like in, out of sync. So you each get half of what he said and kind of are able to piece it together. Yes, no, that's definitely still the plan. I just, you know, um, just, you know, I need to be sure that you are who you said you were going to be. So just, just give me a quick glimpse of your face. And then once I have your identity ascertained,
01:25:35
Speaker
we can head fight on up give me a persuasion check i really can't roll tonight that's 11 he sits up uh kind of stops slouching puts his pipe down and pulls the cloak back just a bit revealing a handsome man shoulder length hair nice stubble and a face you've never seen in your life shit okay um
01:26:01
Speaker
Wow, you're better looking than I remembered or imagined, whatever applies. The other thing is I have sort of a fetish that you must accommodate, otherwise the deal's off, you see. And the fetish is that I must call my lovers by their real first and last name. A pseudonym just simply won't do it. So could you remind me of the proper pronunciation of your name so that in the throes of my ecstasy I might
01:26:28
Speaker
heighten the pleasure by speaking out your real actual identity in privacy of our shared chamber of course well my friends the other rangers of the forest call me Fletcher as you know but my true name and he kind of looks around and says my real name is Haros Foxian and sorry his friends call him what Fletcher
01:26:56
Speaker
Can I told you that? I could've told you that! Okay, excellent. And, um, now... Of course I am the true king of Ardenine. Okay, wow. I'm getting a lot of- a lot. Okay, wow. Um, you know, that's all very helpful and I'll be sure to recite that all during my orgasm. Yeah, I swear to God, this ends up being true.
01:27:23
Speaker
But the other thing that I just want to check real quick is, could you just pronounce my name, who you think that I am, so that I can correct your pronunciation, so that when you're in the throes of your ecstasy, you might heighten the pleasure by shouting out my true and full name. Go on. Well, of course. You are Lusmina Harris. You are Lusmina, are you not? Oh, oh my God.
01:27:47
Speaker
Not only am I a lusmina, I've just, I've just gotten my period. I can feel it. There's blood everywhere. And oh God, yep, the cramps. You know what? I simply don't feel up to it. Give me a deception, you're whole. What if Eve did get her period? That's fine, but you're also claiming to be this woman. Oh, that's a dirty 20. Wait, a dirty 19.
01:28:16
Speaker
He says, well, I believe you are who you say you are. And I will say, that's not really a deal breaker for me, but I understand if it's something you're not comfortable with, perhaps another time. And he's going to stand up dramatically, grab his pipe, and then cloak like billowing out behind him, make his way out the door.
01:28:47
Speaker
I'm immediately going to scramble over to Clay and Glimkey and say, I am so sorry for being so nasty just then.
Gossip and Bard's Tale
01:28:55
Speaker
You see, I thought that something important was going to go down with that mysterious fellow, and really he was just trying to have an affair, which is quite exciting for me, but quite irrelevant to the pursuits of this night. I don't even know how to react. I also thought that that was a good lead.
01:29:15
Speaker
That's why it was so nasty because he was all, Oh, I thought you weren't bringing any friends. And I was like, Oh, I don't have any friends here, but of course I do have at least one friend here. I'm honestly glad that you told us to walk away because who would have known what would have happened? Should we, Oh my God. Should we come up with a, with a code word of sorts when one of us is being sneaky and doesn't want to be interrupted and then they can just say that word and then the other one will know exactly, you know what that means?
01:29:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. We're coming up with a lot of processes here. That's teamwork for you. Yes. Processes make the prophecies come true. Prophecies make it men. Yes. We said that quite right. Should we say the word prophecy?
01:30:09
Speaker
When we want the other person to go the hell away. Sure. Just work it organically into a sentence. I see no reason why that shouldn't be very possible in almost any situation. Yeah. Okay. Honestly, yeah. Cause you could get, you could get away with just doing the prophecy and people. It's brilliant. Okay. Now what did you learn?
01:30:34
Speaker
I learned that his name was Fletcher. I meant while you were away from me, but we could talk about Fletcher. There's a lot to say. No, that's what I learned while I was away from you. We were rounding the same drain. Oh my god. Can I do a retroactive insight check on Fletcher to see if he was way smarter than me and just playing along? Sure. Give me an insight roll. Oh my god. OK. Because in hindsight,
01:31:03
Speaker
He could be the true king. That's a 15. A 15. With a 15, you don't know if he's the true king of Eridanine or not. That is fully up for debate. But you do think that guy was just here to get laid. Okay, perfect. Good. Great. Awesome. I learned that Patrick was supposed to play here last night and tonight and he didn't show up.
01:31:32
Speaker
Wait, hold on a minute. I'd like to go back to my friend, Virk the Snapper. He says, Hey, you little boy, how are you doing? He says, you go and leaves your hair. Oh, that's weird. Yeah. Yeah. You noticed. I, you know, I, you know what I found out. Cause it's like I touched your head and there's like sticks and little branches and brunchy in my fingers.
01:31:57
Speaker
Yeah, careful with that. I don't want to break any of them up. You see, I'm a man of the sea, so I don't see many trees or leaves or grass. But you can't have it. Would you come with me on my ship? And we could sail the air-sweet ocean forever, and I would never have to say goodbye to sweet green trees.
01:32:12
Speaker
Well, you know, I actually spent quite some time on a ship and, uh, I'm, you know, just getting used to my, my land legs again. So maybe next time, but I didn't have a question for you. So actually, I actually got a little bit of gossip too. You know, like I Fletcher in the corner, pervert. Oh, I knew it. No man sips there drinking Yax milk and smoking a pipe. And he's not a bit of a pervert.
01:32:40
Speaker
Yeah, honestly, I thought he was like, I thought he was going to be cooler. Now I kind of wish that we didn't interact with him at all. Ain't that the nature of beasts? But quick question for you. You've been here for how long? A few days. So you would have got in just like, I don't know, a few nights ago? Yeah, a couple nights ago. When you were, you know, locking up at the docks. Yeah. Did you see anything suspicious down there? Yeah, yeah, there was a rat.
01:33:07
Speaker
But I think it was a man. Like a rat man? Are you talking about druid craft? Oh, no, no, the most stinking druids artists know that he was right. And then he was a man. I look back at my, my group. This guy's know some stuff. You saw it. Okay. So you saw that you saw a man, sorry, a rat become a man. And that's all you saw that that was weird. Nothing else stood out to you. Um, at the docks. Yeah, that's about right.
01:33:37
Speaker
Interesting. He was eating a piece of bread. As a rat or as a man? Well, both, which is kind of what made me sure he was a rat who became a man, because, you know, there's this rat dragon, a big old baguette down the alleyway. And then, and then it was a man eating the baguette. You know, I thought that's odd. A rat and a man with a baguette? What are the odds? Yeah, interesting. And this was at, where did you guys lock up any, uh,
01:34:05
Speaker
Any recognizable shipping crew crews down there? Are you guys working beside? Uh, with a 16, he knows what recognizable means. He says, no, just a rat. Oh, okay. Well, that's good to know. Now that that's very, uh, that's very peculiar. You into music at all? Yeah.
01:34:40
Speaker
You're probably a fan of the song about Burke the Snapper then, and I shout out to the bard. BARD! Burke the Snapper! Hey, hey, hey, yes, and I start walking away.
01:34:58
Speaker
I guess there once was a man named Vert the Snapper. He had lots of fish and his favorite was Red Snapper. If he was a musician he'd be a rapper and that's the story of Vert the Snapper.
01:35:13
Speaker
It's a good story. It doesn't sound right. There's more to the story. He's like, right. Wrote the snapper, tore 50 men in half, bent them over into two pieces, and then had a good laugh. Wrote the snapper, was quite a monstrous figure, but we sing his song anyway.
01:35:35
Speaker
Tearing them in two wasn't good enough for hurt. He wanted to eat them and make their eyes split. He starts to like gaggle in the ways he's singing. He says, I really don't think this guy should be remembered in song. He's kind of a monster. And the orcs and half orcs in the crowd start to boo. And he says, but that's cool and good and we like him that way. So we sing his song to this day.
01:35:59
Speaker
Beautiful, yeah, beautiful. And then your friend says, now play the other 17 verses. And he says, okay. And then carries on describing the many war crimes and atrocities Vert the Snapper subjected upon various societies. They say it's an action tale, but I'd rather think of it as rather a romance. I wonder, perhaps there is a book somewhere, Vert the Snapper.
01:36:25
Speaker
Ah, no one here knows how to read it. I think the 12th verse is the best one. Go on and sing that verse for us. I can't remember how it goes. Oh no. Wait till the bar gets to that one.
01:36:40
Speaker
uh your orc friend uh cuts in and goes now he was a guy who burned down all the towns and all the little people they'd cry and they'd frown but vote would just laugh as he snapped them down the snapper's my hero thing he's not carrying an instrument
01:36:59
Speaker
Oh, lovely. You have a charming voice, my friend. Now, sorry, I couldn't quite hear you, but I think you were saying something about the names of the ships that were leaving the port on the night that you saw the Ratman, which is the thing that I overheard you say to my friend, Glimky. I think he said no, but... Oh, sorry, sorry. Never mind. I really just saw the Ratman and then kind of came here and I've been drinking ever since.
01:37:21
Speaker
What did the man and the rat look like? Like what kind of... Well, he looked like a rat, you see. Rats are these little creatures and they've got long tails and they kind of scurry around. And a man is kind of like me, but uglier. He's, you know, walks on two feet. One walks on two feet in the day and four feet in the evening. It's a rat man. It's a rat man.
01:37:42
Speaker
Well, what was he wearing? What was he wearing? I don't know. He was wearing rat man clothes. You're asking a lot of questions. What are you, cops? What? No, no, us. No. There's a sudden hush through the crowd. You hear the the 19th verse of the song and then the crowd goes, cops, cops, cops. Yeah. Fletcher was a narc. We should go. Yeah. As the bard kind of looks at a string and there's a record scratch sound. And then your friend, the orc says,
01:38:13
Speaker
Fletcher's a narc.
Fletcher's Accusation
01:38:14
Speaker
All right, boys, let's get him. And the whole bar vacates as about 20 sailors make their way into the evening in search of Fletcher the narc. No. We've done a bad thing.
01:38:28
Speaker
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He was trying to do a bad thing. Klimky is proudly monogamous. It's like Burt the Snapper, fine. Cheaters, death.
01:38:45
Speaker
and you hear yeah the the the the bard picks up the the the mandolin for the 20th verse and says so that's the story of vert the snapper he's a good guy and we sing his praises this song really fell apart by the end of it all and that's the story of vertling and he looks around and there's like no one in the bar and he says well there goes my tip and starts to uh pack up his mandolin he puts it into this this case and uh starts latching it up
01:39:14
Speaker
Where did you get your mandolin from, friend? No one asked him that year, right? No one's talked to him, actually. Oh, hello, friend. That was an adequate rendition of a tolerable song. Where did you get that shiny mandolin? I bought it. From? What's it to you? No, it's just beautiful craftsmanship, and I'd like to acquire something like it for myself. You see, I have very much gold. Not on me, like in a robable way, but at a different place. It was from my dad.
01:39:45
Speaker
Who's your dad? What's it to you? What's it to you to what's it to me? I'm asking you a perfectly normal question. I'm just making conversations. So who's your dad? He's my dad. That's all. Okay. He doesn't have a name. Sure. Okay. What's the name? He kind of looks you up and down and says Grigor. Grigor.
01:40:09
Speaker
Okay, bye. See, that guy's dad's name is Grigor, and that doesn't mean anything to us, right? I thought there might be kind of an inn with his mandolin, like maybe he would know someone who knew someone who knows. It was Sahar? Sahar, something. Oh, yes, okay. I'm gonna walk up back to the part and say, do you know Sahir? I wrote down the last name. Let's see, let's see, let's see. Sahir Chong's at Musical Madness.
01:40:41
Speaker
Neither his name nor the name of his store. I don't know if that's Sahir something? I believe you were told that his name is Sahir Haroon. But his store is called Sahir's Shams and Musical Mechanisms. A sham being a type of woodwind instrument.
01:41:06
Speaker
Okay, musical mechs, okay. So Sean's was a thing, I was right, in a way. Sure, from a certain point of view. Okay, so here's Sean's musical method. Did you know that guy? Mechanisms. Nope, can't say that I do. This guy's a phony. Yeah, this guy sucks. Let's go. I hate this guy. Let me see that thing. We should kick this guy's ass. Let me see that thing.
01:41:31
Speaker
kind of holds the case tight to him and says, no, that's okay, this is my mandolin and I don't need you messing with the tuning. Insight. I want to know where this guy fella shit with. Yeah, give me a Insight roll. I got a... Insight. Oh, plus nothing. 16. 16. You've known some musicians in Dwells. Pretty much everybody plays something, whether it's a lyre or a mandolin or
01:42:00
Speaker
a band whistle or a toot sniffle or a wash bin with a single pole and a string coming out of it. All kinds of instruments make up the orchestra that is dwells. And you've known some musicians to be rather cagey and protective about their instruments. This seems to be going a little beyond that. Where did you say you got this again? I bought it.
01:42:30
Speaker
with my own money. Wait, he just said that his dad gave it to him. This guy. Have you seen Patrick? He was supposed to play here
Mandolin in the Alley
01:42:39
Speaker
tonight and I was expecting to see him. Oh my God, this guy killed Patrick. I didn't kill anybody. I didn't kill anybody. I did not kill anybody. This is my mandolin and I bought it from my father, Grigor. Grigor Stallworth. You lie. And you know what?
01:42:59
Speaker
As long as you're telling the truth about one thing and you didn't kill him, that's fine. But what you should do from this point forward is at least tell the truth of where you sourced that mandolin. Give me a persuasion roll. Can I help? Sure.
01:43:12
Speaker
Persuasion roll with advantage. Nice, good, because that was very low. 15 plus Persuasion for 19. He kind of deflates a bit and says, okay, yeah, I wasn't lying. I didn't kill anybody. I found this a couple of days ago in an alley. I was just lying there in perfect mandolin. I don't know. Does it look like Patrick's old mandolin before he bought a new?
01:43:42
Speaker
I would say you look at it. Patrick had a pretty beat up old mandolin. This one looks pretty pristine, like the case at least. I mean, and from the glimpse, it just looked pretty, pretty new. Okay, so it's not the same one. Well, it looks like, yeah, the one that he would have just bought, right? Something bad has happened to Patrick. And whereabouts did you find this? Yeah, where? A few blocks from here, not far. Would you be able to take us there? If I take you, can I keep the mandolin? No.
01:44:13
Speaker
I say yes. I don't know. Should we do a vote? Clay, what do you think? What if Patrick's alive? He would like his mandolin that he's earned. This man, I mean, didn't necessarily steal it, but it doesn't belong to him. Oh, I really think Patrick's dead. That's on me. That's okay. No. Sidebar, and I grab Lady Badar. Can you move her to the side? That's her friend. Oh, yes. Clay, my condolences.
01:44:42
Speaker
No!
01:44:46
Speaker
I put my hand on the bar's shoulder. I'm like, show us where you found the mandolin. Yeah. Okay. Um, sure thing. And he takes you outside. You see that as you're walking through the streets, you hear the sound of, we'll say squelchy impacts and you round a corner and you see Fletcher is tied to the mast of a ship and 20 sailors are pelting him with tomatoes and potatoes. Keep walking, keep walking. And other fruit vegetables. Uh, and he says,
01:45:16
Speaker
I was just trying to have an affair. Is that so wrong? I don't love my wife anymore. And I don't think she loves me. And we haven't talked about it, but I don't think this is so wrong. And they continue to pelt him, uh, showing, nark, nark, nark, nark. Um, and- Purr, purr. The chair gets picked up and they're like, purr of nark, purr of nark. And this bard takes you away from that horrendous thing to a nearby alleyway.
01:45:46
Speaker
Uh, this is, this is where I found it. And it just, yeah, you look around, it is a kind of a back alley, cobblestone streets. You know, there's kind of obviously buildings on either side, bit of trash, but not too, not too messy. I completely would like to, you know, now that he's gotten here, take a little bit of a look around, um, see if there's any other signs and maybe
Discovering Patrick's Fate
01:46:09
Speaker
ask Clay, is there anything else that, you know, that, that Patrick may have had that might stand out that we could look for?
01:46:15
Speaker
Do I know? I also want to look around and just see if there's anything that looks like Patrick's or suspicious. Anyone who wants can make an investigation check. As far as personal effects go, you know, Patrick Fast Hands, he's not a cartoon character. He didn't have a single outfit. He did have a green cloak that he was fond of. But, you know, you don't see a green cloak nearby. What did I hear for investigation rules?
01:46:43
Speaker
I got a 13. I got a six, so pretty low. Clay, you look around and you do not see a green cloak. What you do see is a dark stain on one of the cobblestones. Like blood? Like blood. I want an elbow glimkey and go like
01:47:08
Speaker
You see? Oh, but there's no body. Is there like a trail of blood or is just one spot? It takes you a few minutes. You look around, you kind of go up and down the alley. You get the sense. It looks like a lot of it's been wiped away. You see that there's like some of the blood ends in like streaks. You know, like there's multiple spots you see now as you're like looking around this alleyway. Like someone was dragged? Possibly.
01:47:36
Speaker
And you kind of see that, yeah, if there is a trail, it would lead further into this alleyway. Okay, I'm going to look back at this man's. He is deathly white, like just all the blood is drained from his face. And he's like, I don't want this. And he kind of shoves it into your arms. Glimpy says, here, you have it. Give it a good home. And he is going to try and run away. I grab the back of his
01:48:04
Speaker
collar when he's running. Okay. Give me an athletic check as you try and grab him. Ooh. I got an 18. 18. You grab him by the back of his, back of his cloak. Nice. Uh, the blood's like dried, right? Like a day old. It looks, it seems to be mostly, mostly dried by now. I asked the Bard, like when you found the mandolin here,
01:48:32
Speaker
What else was here? Was there anything else here? No, that was everything. I saw this and thought, hey, what a great thing to find. A lucky day. I was kind of in the market for a new instrument myself, and one comes upon my path.
01:48:53
Speaker
I didn't, I didn't hurt anybody, I promise. I just, I just, I just found the instrument. That's, that's all I did. Please, please let me go. Yeah, I want to insight again just on how- Is he telling the truth? Yeah, what he's- Yeah, both of you make inside rolls. Well, not 20. Nice, that's good. That makes up for my four. I rolled a 10. 23. Nice.
01:49:22
Speaker
You look at this guy, and he seems completely genuine. He seems extremely freaked out by what you have found here, and it seems like he's being completely honest. He saw a mandolin, or you know, he saw an instrument case in an alleyway. Sure, it probably belonged to somebody, but he seems very freaked out that something violent seems to have happened here.
01:49:50
Speaker
Should we let him keep the lyre? Because no one else is using it. No, I take the mandolin. I take it and I'm like, okay, go. And then I push him away, I guess. Let go of him. Yeah, he just runs off into the night. Okay. I strap the instrument case to my back, I guess, next to my maze.
01:50:15
Speaker
Yeah, you throw it over your shoulder. There's a strap and can I, is there like a trail of blood to follow like leading further into the alleyway? There appears to be a bit of a trail. It seems like it was maybe cleaned up for the most part, but you see like occasionally like a little smudge here and there. It takes you a little while, but you kind of do pick up that there is a trail. I follow it.
01:50:35
Speaker
Okay. You follow the trail for a few minutes through this winding dead work of back alleys. Occasionally there's like a split and you take a few seconds and you're able to see a few more drops here or there that lead you in a certain direction. And eventually the trail ends at a stack of crates. You're in a, you know, warehouse sort of shipping district. The alleys, a lot of them have been lined with barrels and crates and what have you, but yeah, this trail seems to end at a stack of crates.
01:51:03
Speaker
Are they open? Can I see anything about the crates? Are they labeled? You look round. On them there is an insignia of a double-masted ship. It's humiliation.
01:51:17
Speaker
you kind of check the crates they all appear to be sealed uh nailed shut but as you're kind of pouring over them you happen to look behind the stack and as you're peering over you come face to face with the bloody remains
01:51:33
Speaker
of Patrick Fast Hands. You see that his ginger hair that kind of was his trademark symbol is soaked with blood and there is a large hole in the top of his head as if something was just like punched through and you can just see like bits of brain and he is thoroughly dead. Okay, Omni Man, gross. Oh no. Well,
01:52:00
Speaker
Can I do, can I do a medicine check? I can fix him! Patrick! What are you trying to accomplish with this medicine check? Um, just anything, like. Get the brains back. Yeah. Sure. Give me a medicine check. Clay's like still, oh, I got 19. Plus five.
01:52:23
Speaker
yeah you start to like pour like you know peer down at his body it's gross but you kind of will yourself to take the time to examine it thoroughly you can see down into his neck uh whatever killed him was
01:52:42
Speaker
Had a lot of weight behind it. It was something you think piercing a piercing weapon, probably and something very strong and heavy from the top like a spirit. Glinky throws up. Yeah, it's it's bigger than any sphere. I'd say the the hole is almost the entire size of his head, like a good four, five inches across. Oh.
01:53:09
Speaker
Yeah, Gloopy throws up. Clay also throws up. Yeah. Away from the body. Faunalyn wasn't going to throw up, but you two throwing up makes her throw up. We're just in a little triangle. We're just wrecking. Is this a horror podcast? What is this? Yeah, that's a good turn. Yeah. Damn. Okay. I hate to say this, Clay.
01:53:36
Speaker
But I rather think we should go find your friend Una and the other one whose names I can't remember because Una did say she was being followed and... Yeah, okay, wait, is there any like cloth or stuff around the crates that I can toss over Patrick's body? He's wearing his green cloak. I wrap him in his cloak. Is there anything else nearby that looks suspicious or was his body just dumped here? Give me an investigation check. 13.
01:54:05
Speaker
Looking around it appears like just his body is stuffed here. Doesn't appear like much care was given to it. Seems like he was kind of just dragged here and dumped and yeah there's no telltale signs of who or what did this.
01:54:20
Speaker
Should we bring him back to your friend? Or does he have a family we could bring his remains to? I was thinking perhaps what we could do is we could maybe leave a note to the guard with his whereabouts. I mean, if we were to find him and bring them, I fear that perhaps we might be implicated in some way. Quite right. I'm sorry, Clay.
01:54:52
Speaker
Here, how about this? Do you have paper on me? I can't imagine why you would. Okay. Thank you. Yes. That's quite generous of you. Yeah, rip off some. I think I have paper too. I have my sketches of Albert. Okay. Everybody has paper except me, I guess.
01:55:17
Speaker
Glimky, you are down one more page in your notebook. I know we're tracking that very carefully. So one page out of 800 is gone now. Please keep close track of that. I will. I can just steal more if you run out. I'm going to make a tally. Entire character sheet is just hatch marks. I want to write,
01:55:46
Speaker
My name is, what was his full name again? Stan? Patrick? Patrick, yes. Patrick what?
01:55:55
Speaker
I don't know. Patrick Fast Hands. Oh, Patrick Fast Hands, you're so right. My name is Patrick Fast Hands. I don't think you should put Fast Hands. Okay, I crossed out Fast Hands. That's a good note. My name is Patrick, underline Patrick. I live at... Where does he live? I don't know where he lives. Okay, what's the address of the place we were at before? I'm not giving the address of the hideout.
01:56:16
Speaker
Oh my god, I'm really trying to do a nice thing. I think that if they were to find the body anyway, the note doesn't really do that much. Yeah, I think I just want to like, make him like, you know, kind of make him as peaceful and like, cover him with the cloth. It's a good, it's a nice gesture. Yeah, it's a nice gesture. Okay, I just dropped a quote on him. My name is Patrick crossed out.
01:56:44
Speaker
i live in crosstown this is just patrick oh no no this is patrick and to be clear you're putting the note on him not in a visible spot like i want to put it on him yeah
01:56:58
Speaker
I made a note saying Glimkey wants to write a note to deliver to a gardener at some point, but not immediately. That's a better idea. Just let someone know. I don't want to bring him his body anywhere. I feel like whoever finds his body having his name would help them find his family. It says I am Patrick on it now. We're good. I'm Patrick. Not fast hands. Now they know his name is Patrick, so that's fine. Jeez. Well, what the heck do we do now?
01:57:27
Speaker
I guess we go back to the other ones and get the information we were promised. Yeah, I think we need to find Una. This went from a kidnapping to a murder. And if we're not careful, or if your friends aren't careful, there may be some more. It's seeming to me like perhaps these people who may have hired you are trying to tie up some loose ends.
01:57:53
Speaker
I think that's why we need to go back to let them know what happened to Patrick and get that information. Agreed. And how much time do we have till Nova?
01:58:02
Speaker
It's probably nearing 3 AM. It's getting pretty late. Okay. You've been out for quite some while. There's time to go back though. We just head straight back. We should go back then. Are you rushing or are you just like kind of making like a brisk pace? There's no reason for us to hide at all at this point, right? Some of you are residents of the city. There's nothing, you know, you're not prohibited from walking the streets at night.
01:58:31
Speaker
I guess we just head back, but also like Clay is like on edge. Like she's looking out for prayer. If anyone's following her the same way, give me a perception roll and a seven seven wolf.
01:58:46
Speaker
Perhaps if you were less agitated, you would have seen a little rat scurry into an alleyway. Oh, no. And then kind of a second later, a man with some like gleaming yellow eyes would walk out of the same alley. But you don't see that. You instead hurry through the streets of Erdening back to the Copper District. The ground beneath you goes from smooth cobblestone to thick dirt that there's the clouds kind of start to roll in overhead and a bit of drizzle starts to pour. The ground starts to turn to mud
Hideout Attack Aftermath
01:59:16
Speaker
beneath you.
01:59:16
Speaker
And you navigate the familiar streets of the Copper District back to the hideout, and you can immediately tell that something has changed. The door with this peeling paint has been knocked off its hinges, just completely caved in. No. Oh, shit. When I see that the door is open, I like run. No, wait. I'm like, no. I go. I go in.
01:59:44
Speaker
Clay, you rush in, and inside is just a scene of absolute carnage.
01:59:52
Speaker
You feel a dripping and you look up and you see a pair of legs sticking out of the ceiling and a second later they kind of topple down, they kind of break free of the rafters and you see that there is no body attached to these legs. You look across and you see kind of just smashed into the wall with the liquor cabinets is the upper torso of Rakes. He's been torn in half, pieces of just like viscera and guts hanging out of him.
02:00:20
Speaker
You look around and you see that next to the bar is a trap door and you see Una is kind of reaching towards it. In one hand is a glass orb, a thing she often used to channel her magic. She's kind of lying on her back and you see that there's just a gaping hole in her chest and you can barely see a little bit of movement as she breathes one of her last breaths.
02:00:49
Speaker
Can I quickly go up and cast healing or stabilize her quick? I also have some healing if I can run in.
02:01:00
Speaker
You run up, Glimpy, you lay on hands, Clay, you cast Cure Wounds, and you watch as the magic tries to take hold, and it tries to weave the skin and the broken bones back together, and it just, it's like trying to build a bridge across a gap without enough support. There's just not enough of her left to bring her back.
02:01:24
Speaker
And she looks up at you, eyes wide open, and she kind of coughs up a bit of blood and says, he knows about you. And for the first time since you've known her, Una blinks and her eyes don't open again. No. And that is where we will end tonight's session. Oh, my God. God damn it.
02:02:06
Speaker
Hey, Mr. temporary man, play a song for me I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
02:02:18
Speaker
Hey, Mr. temporary man, play a song for me. In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you.
02:02:32
Speaker
Oof! Ouch! That hurt!
Outro and Future Schedule
02:02:36
Speaker
Haha, just kidding. It's me, your Dungeon Master, Zack Meekle. Not your Dungeon Master, the Dungeon Master for this group, Bard Soup. Thanks so much for listening to Episode 3. As always, my name is Zack Meekle, I am the Dungeon Master and Editor for this group. I am joined by Prima Zhao as Clay Campbell, Shannon Meekle as Faunalyn Vadark, and Jordan Johnson as Glimpy Tree Fellow.
02:02:57
Speaker
New episodes are gonna drop every two weeks. I know I said every one week in the past and some people got mad at me. Only every two weeks. Whoops, my bad. But in the meantime, thank you so much to everyone who's left a five-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. We really appreciate it. We're gonna try and keep this thing going for as long as we can.
02:03:15
Speaker
I keep telling this story. In the meantime, you can find us at bard underscore soup on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. I want to extend a very special thank you to Aaliyah Kajan for letting us use his cover of Mr. Tambourine Man this episode. If you want to check out more of his music, you can find him on YouTube. We have included a link in the description, so check that out and give him a follow. In the meantime, we'll see you in two weeks, and until then,
02:03:41
Speaker
Watch where you're walking. Bye bye.