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C3 Ep. 15 Grave Dawn Chapter Three
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Now they are in the city, but can they find the answers they're looking for?
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Irene Viorritto, Darrell DeLaney, Charles Compton, Deviouspoptart, Nastasia Raulerson, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Rebekah Gowman, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, Jerry Theuns, Mark Stanley, and Shelby Johnson.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play podcast set in the Eberron campaign setting. I am your game master, Eric. I'm Mia. I'm Phillip. I'm Trevor. I'm Madison. I'm Jeff. Welcome to another episode. Folks, what happened last time? My computer kept breaking. Yes. We're on our way to Kernsville, and we were attacked by some of the demon or zombies that are besieging it. We fought them off. Everyone behaved completely normally.
00:00:30
Speaker
yeah Yeah, nothing weird or surprising happened. I mean, actually, frankly, the actions of the rest of the party really covered the strangeness that Nick's introduced at the beginning. Some of us have tails now. Yeah, the didn't before. Tragically, temporary hit points do reset at the end of a battle. So unless tale I don't keep my tail sad. Oh, I'm sorry.
00:00:51
Speaker
Rebs gonna be so disappointed. Two thumbs down. Two thumbs down. If you want a permanent one, Hendrik might be able to hook you up. so but you bring it over my He might know someone that's a wear raccoon that can bite you and then you can just be halfway through all of a sudden. There's a lot of like contracts, consensual. Yeah, a lot of red tape.
00:01:10
Speaker
Okay, so you all are headed towards the walls. Just eat garbage. trash cans over yeah You feel ah so bad the next day. You are so sick. Most adorable were creature though. So true. So you all are headed towards the walls of Kernville.
00:01:28
Speaker
But before we get there, now's the opportunity to do a quick rest. So if you had a recharge ability, you can re-roll to see if you roll high enough to keep that. Otherwise, it is used up for the rest of the arc. And additionally, if you have recoveries that you want to use, you can use recoveries just like you would when you were rallying in a battle. If you are staggered, which is less than half of your max hit points, you have to heal in some way. So that is how quick rests work.
00:01:57
Speaker
A quick rest occurs after each battle, and then you get a full heal up at the end of the arc. So unlike D and&D, but just going to sleep at night does not provide you with enough rest to fully recover your hit points um or reset everything, unless you had four battles and in one day, in which case, woof. However, if you all hit a point where you have not reached the end of the arc,
00:02:23
Speaker
but you feel like you need a heal up like you've used all your like big resources you're low on hit points you don't have any recoveries left you all can choose to take a full heal up But that is an action known as fleeing. And that results in a narrative loss where something significant occurs because you did not press on towards your goal. So in this instance, it would be you all going back to Applehampton and probably something bad happens to Kernville because you all decided to rest instead of dealing with the problem. Make sense? Well, then we must continue. Sounds like life.
00:03:04
Speaker
I've taken a recovery and I have recharged my summoning spell. Excellent. I'm going to need a reminder on the recoveries. So you start, you have eight recoveries per arc. As a wizard, your recovery die is a D. Guess a D6. D6. Plus your con modifier. Okay. So. Okay. Lots of six. And you can use multiples during a quick rush. You can use many issues.
00:03:33
Speaker
Okay, I'd like to use one more. And then I did recover or successfully recover Brilliant and come back. Nice. And I got back to 30 health points because I use two recovery rolls. I expended no resources. OK, so you all rush the the people on the wall have ropes that they've thrown down over the edge to assist with you all getting up and over. So there's no check necessary. And a couple of ah kind of stare literally at Nick's like you all seem to handle those things well.
00:04:07
Speaker
Yeah, real spooky stuff down there. Yeah. Like that. I'm assuming you're the, given the the the signal, you're the ones that we were told to anticipate your arrival. That's right. All right. If you want to follow me, I can take you to Core and you can need to talk to her. Appreciate it. Okay. I'm just going to like lean over to Nyx and just be like, are you, do you turn back soon? Because I think everyone's a little... just it'll I just need to settle down. Okay.
00:04:38
Speaker
Yeah, just don't freak out. Just don't freak out. I didn't. And well done by not doing so. Well, not me. I think it's cool. Nix, give me a wisdom check with your Shabirath-touched background. Kidoki? That is As this this person is leading you to see Kor, you first off caught that he's very young. He's only a couple of years older than Kaz.
00:05:07
Speaker
But what you clock, given your background and just kind of your, your knowledge of things, his hands are smooth. Like the palms of his hands are very simple and you clock that immediately. Okay. hey and Yeah. So you all go down the the stairs and this is a makeshift barricade. They've clearly taken a lot of spare wood. It seems like sides of certain buildings, just the direness of the situation. They kind of like.
00:05:33
Speaker
tore them down and like put them up to make makeshift walls around the town. And you can see the inside. ah This town probably has a population of 200 people total. we got And it a lot of the buildings are in disarray and disrepair due to trying to build a large enough barricade to keep.
00:05:54
Speaker
ah the horde at bay. Once y'all are up and over the wall, you also hear kind of this a similar sound you heard shortly after the signal of whatever opening they had closing. And yeah, there's some stairs leading you down off of the the wall that you were you were up on. Somewhere along the way, Nick's like swipes something off of a clothesline or something and starts trying to clean off her arms below the elbows or whatever else.
00:06:23
Speaker
I can't I mean, by my count, Nick's killed personally seven demons or seven um zombies. And I don't know what the demon yeah and stood there while a demon clawed a bunch of them apart. So I yeah don't know what she's looking like. But I imagine it's Dragon Age early early days, Dragon Age kind of yeah mess. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, your're you're you're wiping yourself down as well as you can.
00:06:48
Speaker
as as As she gets the blood out of her out of her nose and things like that, the her hair kind of resumes a more... hair-like appearance and her horns start to return back to the fairly small size that they are and the scales start to withdraw. Okay, as you all get towards the center of the town, you see a small grouping of people that are in, and I mean, kind of like this this young man that's leading you is in a ramshackle collection of leathers and other just
00:07:20
Speaker
things to stop zombie bites from hitting. Like it looks like in actuality probably under the ah poor ah leather armor on top he's just got like five shirts like five long-seat shirts on just to provide padding on the arms.
00:07:36
Speaker
And you see kind of similarly four of the people standing in the town square are in similar types of of armor. And then there's one person that is staying there in actual proper scale male armor ah with a sword on her hip. And she's got black hair with some gray streaking through it cut relatively short.
00:08:01
Speaker
and you just see her sitting there kind of nodding as the other four are talking at her. As you all get close enough, you can hear the four younger, it's two men and two women, basically giving a status report of opening the gates and you all hear as you approach.
00:08:19
Speaker
We lost Vicar, we lost ah Jack, and we lost Dane, and she just nods and sees you all approaching and with a hand dismisses them and turns to face you all. Thank you for coming. I appreciate it. What's it look like out there beyond the wall? I apologize. I'm Corvinee. I'm head of whatever the town guard is here.
00:08:43
Speaker
You're thoroughly encircled, but I imagine you knew that. We didn't encounter any until we reached the outskirts of your village. Perhaps we've exhausted all the ones that are in the area then. Perhaps so. Any noticeable weaknesses or strengths amongst the Horde as you all were fighting through them? They can be dismantled with weapons. Quick.
00:09:01
Speaker
Here, let let's go view the cleric. Holy damage seems to be effective. Unfortunately, we had a cleric. But, right. badja go perfectly sorry all right that's go economy me man everyone Let's go take a seat in my home and I'll i'll brief you of the situation. And she begins to walk towards one of the buildings that's still assembled. You can talk to her on the walk if you want, or if you're just following and waiting to get behind closed doors, that's fine.
00:09:28
Speaker
She opens the door to one of the buildings and walks in. As you all enter, you see a small sitting area with a fireplace. The fire is not lit in it currently. And you see there's some small banners hung around the room that are hiring in nature. They seem to be of different, like, festivals, feasts, ah things like that. And everyone give me a wisdom check.
00:09:55
Speaker
If you have anything related to... All right, Shabirath Touched would work, Nyx. Karnathia Assassin would work. the What kind of check is this? Wisdom. It's it's perceiving something in the room.
00:10:09
Speaker
I got 20. I'm apparently distracted. Related to like military background, basically. 22. I'm 25 total. It's not matters. 17. 17, Kaz? I got an eight.
00:10:27
Speaker
Okay. Vow, V, and Slayna, you three notice ah above the manttle mantle, above the fireplace, ah there is a rack that would appear to hold a weapon, a sword, and it is it is a very well-made weapon. display. Like obviously this would have been to display something of great value or importance to the person, but the rack is empty. But you can pretty easily, the three of you can clock pretty easily looking at her hip that the sword that's now on her waist was up there. um
00:11:07
Speaker
and so yeah Um, she, she takes off her belt and sets the sword, like leans it up against the wall. She takes a seat in one of the chairs and gestures for you all to sit. I would offer you something, but we are effectively been under a siege for about two weeks. So rations are running low. So you didn't see any other undead making, I guess introductions. I told you who I am. Feel free. Um, I would love to know who our potential saviors are.
00:11:38
Speaker
I'm Casimir Panerius. and Nice to meet you. That's it. That's my name. That's what she asked for. I was going to speak, but I think Valk is just stunned by the sun. I didn't know he could get that loud. I'd get really loud if I need to. I'm assuming that wasn't any character. It absolutely was. Then Valk's just going to turn this on. I'm Valk. That's it. Next. I'm Selena.
00:12:01
Speaker
I'm V. Nice to meet all of me. So I understand that you are associated with Javier up in Kalazar. So what is, what's your plan? Javier posited some potential theories as to what had befallen our town, but I'm interested to know what your plan is so I can assist you in whatever way you may need. Find what happened that turns your town into a beacon.
00:12:25
Speaker
Yeah, we're looking for a potentially a ah manifest zone and potentially high level necromancer kind of gauging the reaction because that could have just been like, yeah, that's what they're saying.
00:12:41
Speaker
level if young menists have their own sort of dason high maybe so i don't know much about them no one and he can continuously make recuring hors of undead it's not a new guy it's i mean i can i can tell you that haven't really had any newcomers come through town. We're not, town is fortunate enough to not draw the attention of any of the armies that need to restock or resupply off crops and the like. We're not an arming town, so we're pretty well coistered. Anyone have any strange experiences recently?
00:13:14
Speaker
someone go exploring, get into crypt under a local temple, find something interesting recently and bring it back to town. I'll be perfectly frank with a fang ya. I'm not normally in a leadership position in this town. I came here to get away from such tension and responsibility. So i I am speaking with Yahta necessity but rather than desire to. So i you're going to need to speak with the people in the town to get a sense of that. I tried to keep to myself. not Nothing major, obviously. I'm aware of what's happening in the town in terms of
00:13:54
Speaker
if something big were to have happened, but I typically keep to myself. So I'm i'm good with the sword and good with fighting these things. So there's no way I can assist you in that. I'd be happy to help.
00:14:09
Speaker
In terms of lay of the land of the town, we did keep the tavern open. It's pretty rationed off. ah You can't go get a full meal, but at least stave off hunger. And then the, on the assistance of some in the town, the chapel is still up. Other than that, that's just folks homes. So you can go poke around where you need to.
00:14:29
Speaker
And there's obviously the graveyard and the mausoleum are still there, but the ground is pretty well turned this point. So is there anyone else who lives here? I'm sorry. Anyone else? is presumptu as oh like he says it Is there anyone who lives here who makes their living adventuring or fighting? And this is kind of their home base. They may be like, I know you don't know everything, but I feel like that'd be something that beyond the radar. This really isn't the place that draws those types. There's not adventures and she she starts to say and then stops like somebody that would be interested interested in adventuring
00:15:04
Speaker
We wouldn't have anything to offer them ah in terms of being a home base. There's not really a whole lot of need or awareness of adventures or treasure of the like. This is the type of community I would imagine somebody would come to get away from all that. How long did you say you've been here? I've lived here for about three years now, and I'm still considered one of the newcomers. Right. Do you have much experience in this sort of problem from your days? Give me a charisma check.
00:15:29
Speaker
sure if youd like to pitch not going have anything to do with reliccorre or my black market connections i yeah but yeah now
00:15:40
Speaker
That's a good roll though. but ship up about Three, 17. Okay. Oh, plus level. Her eyes. Yes. Her eyes kind of narrow when you say from your days, next. And she, I've had my fair share of run-ins with the undead and the like. I've even, I like to think, taken down a few high level necromancers in my day. However, I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen what is effectively a beacon for the undead. We're estimating you know some of those undead outside the walls are wearing Carnath military vestments. Yeah, you've diverted an army.
00:16:22
Speaker
they They would have had to travel dozens of miles based on where the closest battles would be taking place. So it's not like our town would be naturally attracting them ah for food. Did you bring anything back with you from those adventures? I take trophies. She glances at her sword. Only that.
00:16:40
Speaker
my
00:16:43
Speaker
I didn't stop for a happy retirement. My adventuring days ended in a much more tragic fashion, so not a whole lot I wanted to remember. Would it be terribly presumptuous to ask if we could take a look at your blade just as a starting point to clear that off the list? She, you can see, takes a very like stiff swallow as she thinks, and you can look, and she picks the sword up and un-cheats it. and Kind of just holds it out, but doesn't like keeps a firm grip on the cult. Nix will look pointedly at our wizard and then will lean, lean forward to examine the blade from her perspective, which is not primarily going to be the magic of it, except in so far as she understands weapons on a primal level. I know that there's not like the arcana skill in this, but yeah. yeah i Can I check it out and see if I can see anything?
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah, you can make a intelligence but check. And then if you have a background that you'd like to try to apply to it, you're more than welcome to do so. May I do that with Shavarath touched? Yes. but matt Does Mabar touch? I would accept Mabar touch. Oh, yeah. for For what we're doing. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I've got a 15. Okay.
00:17:57
Speaker
26. Nice. okay As you are, there's nothing really related for if this is a exquisitely made blade mix. Like even you are taken aback by the craftsmanship and you can in fact tell that this sword, the metal of the blade You can tell it was reforged from different sources like multiple. Interesting. Multiple things were taken together to create this blade. Old.
00:18:32
Speaker
Um, the 15, you can tell that the blade was forged in the past decade itself, but maybe there's more to the reforging aspect. Right, right. So, yeah. Selena with a 26. You can tell this is most definitely a magical sword, a deeply magical sword, kind of what Nyx is noticing about the reforging.
00:18:56
Speaker
Any kind of enchantments, you know a lot of magical weapons or implements can have runes carved on the outside of it, kind of like the the the thing that Hendrik gave you all. This, it looks like, like maybe they did some kind of enchantment where like the runes were put on it before it was like forged and full like the enchantments run deep into this blade. You ah note that the the magic, the nature of the magic that you can sense from this blade Sorry, real quick. You can tell that the the nature of the magic within this blade emanates from the planes of Donvi and Kithri, which is interesting because those are the planes of order and chaos. So those two planes typically don't interact that often. They've got to put their differences aside for one last job. I changed my mind. And the pommel of the sword is the head of a falcon, by the way.
00:19:56
Speaker
Cool. Like a fake one. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Trevor. That is a fair shirt. I was going to be silly. I don't know if it was a skull or if it was a metal falcon. Okay. I just want to know. Sorry. I just got to get my bird faces. It produced a funny image left.
00:20:20
Speaker
Importantly, though, Selena, you do not detect any kind of Mabarin or Dolorin magic as associated with this blade. So, yeah. ah You can also tell that there's an enchantment. This is a newer enchantment that is obviously in the leather of the hilt or the hilt itself, but that where you get a sense if anybody else were to try to pick up and use this sword.
00:20:43
Speaker
The chaos aspect of the enchantments might fire a little bit more powerfully like booby trapped. So, yeah. OK. um
00:20:56
Speaker
Unfortunately, a lot of the folks that lived here for a while, a lot of the leaders in the town like our cleric perished in the the first wave of attacks from the cemetery. So who's the closest thing left? There's a man, his name is Terrence. He's a dwarf and he claims to have known Kern when the town was founded, whether or not that's true.
00:21:19
Speaker
Who knows, but he's a bit touched, so might be difficult to get much useful out of him. But if I was looking for somebody with a good knowledge of this town, that'd be where I'd go. Um,
00:21:36
Speaker
and then if Terris doesn't do anything for you, Clara, she is Kalashtar woman who's also lived here for a while. Is the cemetery in mausoleum within the city or in the town walls, or has it been barricaded outside of the- No, it's what used to be a very sweet sentiment in this town. It's it's pretty centralized because this community respected and venerated its dead, and so it's right in the heart of the town, but there's no bodies left in it now.
00:22:08
Speaker
Did the first wave start from the cemetery in the center of town or was it? Yes. Before anyone, any undead came from other locations, they literally crawled out of the ground. I'm now realizing that not, there's potentially some bodies still down in the mausoleum who weren't able to break out of whatever encasement they may have been in, given that a lot of those are stone. So there may be some bodies trapped in there. I think I would want to check there for disturbances to see if there was something that was overlooked and then if we also need to
00:22:41
Speaker
kind of help out the town, clear out the mausoleum, at least so they don't have to worry about something coming out. I mean, to be clear, we we have maybe 72 hours before we're out of food. We weren't planning on ... We don't have food stores. We're not a town that would ever be sieged by an army, so and we have access to trade roads to go get food from other places if necessary. so right Well, that's a start. So there's the tavern, Terrence, Clara, and the graveyard. I didn't write down tavern. And the chapel. Yes. The tavern's called the Owl and King, by the way. do Thank you. That was good. Yeah, I gotta put some more daylight between the voices of this game. I gotta figure that out.
00:23:24
Speaker
um
00:23:28
Speaker
I need to go continue talking with those folks about how we can try to thin out. Most of them never even shot to a bow before, so I've got some training to do. If you need anything, I'll be up on the walls, but I should probably get back to it. Right. Extends and steps out of the house. South is going to follow. Cas follows those two.
00:23:47
Speaker
Selena follows. And V stays. yeah And Kaz is going to look to the older compatriots around him and say, okay, so if none of them have any idea what's happening, how are we supposed to figure it out in three days? i know It works a problem. i don't look Honey, that's the reason we're here.
00:24:02
Speaker
Don't call me that. That's weird. Something changed here. This place was not summoning undead to it, and then it was. Something changed. So we just need to identify what it was. They haven't had time to investigate. They've been trying not to die. They've been building barricades. They've been being eaten. And none of them are professionals. We're Are you insinuating we're professionals? We are paid. And so we are here. So. And among us, we are expert in some things. Yeah. Well, should we split up or should we stay together? Who feels like they might be successful talking to a mad dwarf?
00:24:45
Speaker
Maybe. i the only Am I the only charismatic character? all those my I'm full of charisma. That's my whole... that's stays cat Okay, cat I've been wanting... i I feel like it's time I go to a tavern. And importantly, for Selena, Selena's charisma is low, but you are also trained as a diplomat, so you do... That is true. yeah kind of about no if Your concern is getting your first drink? I'm not concerned about it.
00:25:14
Speaker
No, that part will be easy. The rest is what we're worried about. I would imagine they're out. I'll go talk to the dwarf with you. For his nameless. Terrence. Terrence. I know I have it written down too. Is everyone going to see Terrence or just Nyx and Kaz and the others are going to investigate other things?
00:25:34
Speaker
I know for sure Valk is going to want to go to the the graveyard since he's paranormal investigator. I don't think you should do that alone.
00:25:47
Speaker
Well, I said it would keep going. If there may still be... Yeah, if there may still... All right, so the two of you can go talk to the Mad Dwarf. He may not be dangerous. You should not go to the graveyard alone because if there are still undead there and then there's... I'll go where it is. No doubt you're capable. I just don't want you to be alone and attacked by zombies. That's fair. Yeah, she has a graveyard. I'm going to keep going. V, where are you going, V? I'll go to the graveyard. Okay. Why not?
00:26:16
Speaker
I can't dream. It's nothing. Oh, because it's because there's OK. Yeah. I was like, is this is this a new piece of information about this? He's in recovery. Don't worry about it. So. OK, then next we'll go to the tower. OK. The three split. Well, have fun, Eric. No, no. OK. Next. Next is her friends. She can pull from other places. Next is. Next is fine. All right. Kaz and Selena, you you make your way towards a pretty small home and you see a a stooped over figure sitting on a small chair in front of the house and he's got a lute on his lap and he's plucking notes off of it that is like intentional discordance. It's not that he's playing badly
00:27:08
Speaker
He's playing meanly. I guess it's not even in a minor chord. It's intentionally discordant is what he's plucking away on. Kaz assumes this is a genre that has been shown up in popularity in the last two decades. But he he is bald on top of his head with kind of the horseshoe hair around the sides of the back that are very long and coming down to his shoulder, but wispy and thin.
00:27:35
Speaker
and then he also has a stark white beard that the center section is braided in kind of a decorative dwarven braid but it's clear that it was probably braided eight years ago so it's kind of matted and Yeah, just not well-kempt. And the rest of his beard hair is very frizzed out and and dry. so And he's sitting there in a very simple clothes, and given all the tension and everything you feel around the rest of the town, there's none of that coming from this guy. He seems just wholly focused on the tune that he is playing, and that's the only thing that matters.
00:28:13
Speaker
Hello, my name is Kazimir Pinarius. Do you have some time to talk? Not looking to be converted. Oh, no, I don't even know what you're talking about. We're here to help with the zombies. Zombies. The undead. The one they're eating they're trying to kill all of you. And that's why your town is in not the best shape right now. We're trying to kill all of us.
00:28:36
Speaker
Okay. Right. Listen, I just wanted to know. I should have talked to this guy. you could If you could help us out with some ah answers and questions, that's that's all. Nothing personal. Why would I take that personally? No, no, the questions will be personally about you personally, necessarily.
00:28:53
Speaker
We were told you may have some information that could help us and solve the problem that the town is facing. Do you have a few minutes to to help us with that? Whoever wants to give me a charisma-based check to... Yeah, I'll give it a shot. Yeah, to penetrate ah Terrence's veneer.
00:29:09
Speaker
That would be a 26. I'm not going to say what I almost said. His shoulders kind of drop and he hits a final like twang of a ah harsh note and he looks up and you can see that he has a very, very large brow and big bushy forehead as forehead big bushy eyebrows as he sections of his forehead are big and bushy and he kind of like looks up from beneath his brow and you should let her talk more. I was just going to ask him if I could roll to see how annoyed he was already with me and say, this is Selena. But got it. Guys takes a step back and says, go for it. sure I mean, the stuff we want to know is is has he noticed anything new or different that has come into town or if anyone's been talking about, you know. Well, I guess, first off, we're wondering if you've noticed anything that's new or different in the town. Lots of new people come into town. Town isn't what it once was.
00:30:05
Speaker
Are there any of those that have stood out to you? Wait, how new? I'm sorry, I know all of us let's talk, but I'm just wondering how new is new to you guys that have been here for a while? Like last couple of weeks new? Because parents said she's still one of the new ones. Shakes his head like, time, time loses meaning after a certain distance from what you care about. They're new. I do not know them. I do not care to know them, but no, not weeks. Okay.
00:30:30
Speaker
So nothing new that you've noticed in the past few weeks? No new people. Lots of new comings and goings of the people that live here. People find new passions, new interests. They change like the wind. Has someone found a new passion or interest that they've been kind of vocal about that might, I don't know, have something to do with plane shifting or maybe raising the dead. You seem, you seem really observant and all the time I've known you, you've been on the porch. So I assume you see a lot. So that's why we came to you, Terrence. Sir, that's why we came to you.
00:31:10
Speaker
No one has been screaming about planar shifting or anything of that nature. Only...
00:31:20
Speaker
new passions, people loud about passions, mostly passions about love. That's the loudest passion that people seem to have these days. I've heard it's a good one. well who's been who's Who's been loudly passionate lately? Maybe we can go talk to them. Do you have any names of anybody we could go and talk to about that? Cannot talk to all. No. ah The loudest, most recent passion was Lazar and Serena.
00:31:48
Speaker
kamme is very suddenly interested in the sort of loud passion that to you caught up to not go to lie problem being serena was karen's husband her serena was karen's wife ok was passion can make people do rash things okay So Serena is no longer around. All three of them had gone. Got it. Hm. Pre-zombie? Sorry, pre-undead? Incidents? Yes. Check. Do any of them have other family in town that might... I'm going with what I'm getting here, guys. I don't know. Yeah? All of what you got, man. Serena had a sister, Terra. Okay. She left shortly before the undead arrived, though. Of course she did. However, Terra's husband and what's his name? Taurus. Taurus, like a donut? Okay. Do you know where we could find him? Presumably at his home, or at the tavern, getting drunk. All right, I'm putting it to the group. Is there anything I haven't asked that I've just, I may have missed a hint about from our head of the guard whose name I have written to our core? Not that I can think of. Okay. Does this location face the cemetery, the center of town? I mean, it's a pretty small town. Like, most most everyone can see part of the cemetery from from their house. So, yes, the the cemetery is visible from where you are. Is it possible that Ghost Valk, is it possible that he could have seen anybody who is frequenting the cemetery or mausoleum at a rate that is unusual as he has seen and he's been in this town for a long time? Have you seen anyone
00:33:23
Speaker
Or anything unusual around the graveyard or the mausoleum? Other than the obvious, any unusual frequent visitors? Anything that might have changed in that area? Probably about a month ago, Victor's wife died and he he started going all the time, every day, multiple times a day. Okay. Were there any gifts that have been left? Did he leave any gifts at the gravesite? Anything that hasn't been there? He would go into the mausoleum where his wife was laid the rest, and he would sometimes have a satchel with him, his bag, but I do not know what he took down with him. I don't know a delicate way to ask this, but did was Victor's wife reanimated among the undead, and do we know what happened to her at that point? I'd really rather not ask Victor. I'm sure you understand that. I do not know. I was asleep when the undead rose.
00:34:19
Speaker
I did not wake in the night when I woke up. How suffer for je how are you protecting yourself from the Terrence? Just wondering, just just making sure you're okay is all, since we're here to help with the problem. I will die one day, makes no difference today or many days from now.
00:34:36
Speaker
He could die every every day. Just the most annoying chill person. Just the worst. Just like positive nihilism, baby. Nothing bothers him. And it's the most bothersome thing you'll ever experience. OK, that goes without question. Is there anyone in the cemetery or mausoleum that's been buried or associated with the army that is zombie soldiers that are now showing? Oh, the Carnathy army? Yeah.
00:35:07
Speaker
That might be something we could eyeball, I mean, with names and like insignia on gravestones probably, right? That's where the shot. Maybe. I i mean, yeah, that's where that's where I get there. One last question. Everyone that's been buried in your town graves, your your town graveyard, are they all locals? People who grew up here were born here or moved here and lived here for a time? Or have they been I mean, I know sometimes there are war casualties. Again, not knowing if the war came through here and kind of really hedging his bets on asking it this way. I know there are sometimes war, the battlefield, graveyards and things like that. Is that something near, is there one nearby or here in some time? So we are led to believe that any Carnathy soldiers have traveled quite a distance to get to this town then. Yeah. Okay. Madison, did you have one last question? Thought I saw you starting to ask something.
00:35:57
Speaker
So Victor's wife was in the mausoleum, correct? Yes. Okay. That is different. Did I miss that or did you just get clarification? I got clarification. Check you out. You don't have to make him feel good. You can tell him that. It's it's okay for me. It was briefly mentioned and I wanted to make sure. i am I am constantly looking over my spell list to see if there's anything helpful I can do. So I miss things.
00:36:19
Speaker
And the answer is no. Every spell I have is battle only. so Yeah, most of the most of the class features in the system are combat specific. The background is what you use outside of combat. Anything else you wish to know? Just the name of that song you were playing. That was awesome. The notes just come to me. Well, good glad they.
00:36:36
Speaker
I'm glad they came through you because I was enjoyed i enjoyed hearing it. Then I will continue playing as you walk away. Hell yeah. And you get a thumbs up as I walk away. Grub also gives a thumbs up. We had on our way. Oh yeah. There's no way Terrence was not charged by this raccoon. Yeah. yeah So I have a little like cross body bag that Grub chills and he just pokes his head out sometimes.
00:36:58
Speaker
Sometimes you'll see a little thumb just pop up. Like the Terminator just like... And sometimes you just hear terrifying, chittering and hissing because it's still a wreck. It happens sometimes. Yeah. Okay. i I do think that we try to hustle towards Valk. Who always goes to the graveyard? Valk and Vi. Valk and Vi. Okay.
00:37:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think maybe we do try to hustle that way a little bit. but I know we're going to jump, but that's where we'd be heading. So Valk and V, you all head to the graveyard as the other members of the group head elsewhere. So what are we looking for in the graveyard? Anything anything suspicious? and Yes, anything suspicious. And I also want to try and like look for military symbols on the gravestones. Which I would recognize.
00:37:41
Speaker
And then also, so I'll probably leave that to the and then I will try and find anything that is kind of like magical or necromancy with my paranormal investigator and okay general occultist kind of vibes. Gotcha. Okie dokie. So this is the very definition of your wheelhouse. V, go ahead and make your wisdom check to walk about and see if you can spot any military insignia. So that is am I adding Carnathy Assassin to that?
00:38:11
Speaker
yes and your wisdom and your level yes so that is so you 23. You, walking about, do spot a few gravestones with military designations on them. There's like a total of five though in this whole graveyard. The first two are just Chiron military, like not super recent, but you know it's it's one of those things where prior to the last war, this was one massive nation of Gallifar.
00:38:47
Speaker
But the different, like, sorry, provinces, the different like sub-nations, states of Khair, Andere, Breland, et cetera, had their own designations because their culture and their identity and and things like that. So these are marked as military designations for Khairan service under Gallifar. The other two that you see are much older. There's no designation for Khair. It's just the Gallifar army and then the one that's like near the back like right like behind the mausoleum in fact is a very very old tombstone and it has a designation that you would
00:39:25
Speaker
immediately recognized to be kind of confused because it's very similar to the symbology that you would have as a member of the Karn military, but having studied history and stuff as part of your training, this is a military of Karn the Conqueror, who like was the first person to like, the first human to settle and like kind of conquer the different lands of Corvair. So this is an extremely like over a thousand years old grave.
00:39:54
Speaker
all of them returned. All of them like clearly but something's dug out in front of each of the tombstones. There's a couple tombstones with nothing in front of them, but I'm just going to allow you all to have logic that maybe these were tombstones without a body buried. They're just there to designate but someone.
00:40:11
Speaker
Yeah, not going to force you to dig up a grave to find that there's nothing there. So that's what you find. You don't find any like Carnathy like current, like the current version of the Carnathy military that you know that uses undead as soldiers. There's nothing here to indicate that anybody belonging to that organization is here.
00:40:29
Speaker
Is there a way to, this could be so difficult, probably not. Is there a way to see if there's of these military graves, if there's anything, someone who dug into one versus something digging out of one? That would be a pretty difficult check just like just because the earth is so turned, but I'm more than happy to let you make the check. And since you're an investigator background, I'm happy for you to use your background for that role. It's not going to be great, probably, but I can try. Please rub off an extra 20, please. That is... Oh, plus what? Plus your vision, plus your level, plus your background as a paranormal investigator. Okay. This is the one that has the extra bonus. huh So that's 24. 24. As V is kind of identifying the different military graves as you all walk through and you're looking pretty intently at the ground,
00:41:23
Speaker
you are reasonably confident that you don't see any markers of anybody digging into the earth to dig up a green. It all seems to be just gnashing and clawing up and out of the dirt. Okay. And there's no, like, I don't know, like,
00:41:41
Speaker
items or markings on the graves that would be like, they were specifically chosen to be, you know, a verb, whichever tense of this verb, like they were selected to become part of an Unden army. Oh, no, it was like a sabotage. OK, no, no, random selection. so And the mausoleum is 100 percent like it's still sealed or is it?
00:42:07
Speaker
and it No, I mean, it's it's open like people people get go in there like the it's it's a mausoleum with I guess designations of people of higher status and money or whatever. But people can come and go to see the the markers of their loved ones and things like that. So do I hear any noise? Like I don't want to walk in you know any whales, not from out. God, we're so funny.
00:42:35
Speaker
So from the outside of the mausoleum, you can see that when you initially walk in, there's like a 10 foot wide walkway with yes like eight like eight places for bodies on either side. So a total of 16.
00:42:51
Speaker
But you can also see from the outside, those at the very least, the stone was broken through and whoever was in there was able to crawl out. There are stairs that go down. So this mausoleum was obviously built into the ground where you can go further down into the mausoleum. You can't see down there from up here, though. yeah But all of the graves topside have been broken out of.
00:43:16
Speaker
it With the exception of a couple that you're you're able to pretty easily intuit are just markers for yeah someone whose remains weren't available. ah yes Yes, most of the graveyard is just turned earth. It looks like a tilled field almost. And there's no, again, looking for any sort of like specific markings that there might have been one specific person, at least on this level, that that somebody potentially was looking for.
00:43:41
Speaker
Nope. Looks like we gotta go jam. I'm not really sure if we should go down alone. I'm sure we would be fine, but I don't know. We were warned that some might not have gotten out. We don't really know the layout of the under level. We're not gonna know what up here either. but Come on, you and me, it's an adventure. Didn't you almost die? he Oh, many times. Okay. Sorry to sound like Terence. Tough guy. I don't think it's smart right now. I'm not getting any necromancy occult vibes topside. No, it's topside. It looks like some effect caused all of these bodies to reanimate, but there's no... like you're looking and there's no like ritual circles or rude like there's nothing to indicate any kind of necromantic foul play up here. Would I maybe know of something that wouldn't have anything to do with that that might have been Lady Vol related?
00:44:48
Speaker
You don't you don't see any indications of lady voles involvement either with your with your wolf. OK, I'm stumped. Amazing. I would want to go down further, but I know I feel in my deepest heart of hearts and in the back of my head, a specific woman telling me not to go down there. I'm not going to go down there. I'm going to wait and try to at least get the other half of the party.
00:45:17
Speaker
Okay. Before looking, before actually going down there. Who said not to go down there? Who said not to go down there? to there? to to Yeah, it seems like exactly the sort of desperate place. Lots of marks where you could really, really ruin somebody. Yeah, but does not.
00:45:55
Speaker
There's a bartender cleaning a glass that is a goliath. Nice. Then you see three people sitting around the bar. There's one middle-aged human man with kind of dark straight hair hanging down over his forehead as he kind of just stares down at the bar. He has ah a small glass with a dark brown liquid in front of him.
00:46:17
Speaker
And then you see two younger people probably probably around Kaz's age that also are like bummed out, but in a different way. It's like their their energy of direness is that they're scared. They're going to die. The guy at the bar, you pick up the vibe. He wishes that it had already happened. And it's just those three people in the bar.
00:46:38
Speaker
Yeah, and then the bartender is stone faced. Okay, Nyx. And the bartender- Nyx as you walk in and gives you a nod. This is a dangerous place. Nyx still has the the armored plating, the magical armored plating that's formed down along one side, down along her left arm.
00:46:55
Speaker
She walks in, looks around. Nix has a lot of personality, but she's not really personable. And so she walks over to the bar and says hello to everyone in general, to all of them. Just to the room.
00:47:11
Speaker
The two younger people at the table, you hear them kind of start as their chairs like skid on the ground a little bit. The man at the bar has no reaction in the bartender. Oh, yeah nice to meet you. What can I get for you? What do you have? I got a little bit of ale left and I've got some, any gestures at the man sitting at the bar. Stuff that debatable whether or not it's fit for consumption, but do the dot job in a pinch? Not just now. What can I do for you? She continues to address herself to all of them in general, sensing with the sense of a life previously ill lived that the two young people might be movable.
00:47:58
Speaker
I'm here with my team. We're here to do what we can to fix this. The two young people like kind of gasp and perk up and are really focused in on Nix now. We've fought our way through. We're going to find what's causing this and we're going to put an end to it. But to do that, we need to like to identify what it is.
00:48:15
Speaker
So until quite recently, this was a perfectly normal town. Now it's a beacon summoning every possible undead within quite a large radius. That's going to be bad. You're going to run out of food or you're simply going to be overwhelmed by numbers or some combination of the two. And then everyone here will die. Probably my team and I will fight our way free before that happens. But what I need to know is before all this started,
00:48:43
Speaker
before the things crawled out of your graveyard. Did anything strange happen? Was anyone in here talking about some adventure they'd just had? Some thing they'd found? Something they'd done? Was anyone down in that mausoleum the night that it happened? Anyone in their cups? Talking loose? Threatening? Bragging? Treasure they'd just recovered? Secret they just unlocked? Someone they were going to take vengeance against?
00:49:10
Speaker
um
00:49:15
Speaker
the two young people. Well, okay, give me a wisdom check. This is to this kind of insight adjacent. So if you have a background that you think would be relevant, but don't think reading until Nick's a strong suit. I think reading people is really relevant to any of these things. Oh, but I rolled well. 18.
00:49:36
Speaker
18, 19 plus level 19. nineteen ah so you you notice as you start talking about like anything strange happening in the town, the two young people kind of like perk up a little bit and like look at each other. When you specifically mentioned anybody down there the night that it happened, the middle-aged man sitting at the bar who has not looked at you at any point, you see his shoulder kind of shift a little bit, like it tightens up. But yeah, that that's what you clock during your speech in terms of what people are saying. The bartender is just listening very intently and kind of nodding along with what you're saying, but
00:50:15
Speaker
He's the first to speak up once you finish, like, honestly, yeah it's a pretty sleepy town. Nobody was in here. We don't, we don't get adventurers type of vocal if we don't to really go on adventures unless it's thrust upon them. And then if they do, they don't come back. So nothing, nothing to those lines of thinking, unfortunately. And one of the young people, it it's a man and a woman, the woman kind of like speaks like.
00:50:39
Speaker
I mean, right probably a couple weeks before there was the business with Lazar and as our Serena, ah they were having and an affair and it got brought to light in the town. And then Serena's husband, well, it was a ugly business. But Serena and Lazar disappeared after Karen and Serena, their bodies were found. So that that was The biggest hullabaloo, uh, the town is seen in some time. Who disappeared? Lazar. The- The old Karen and were found. And Lazar disappeared. Yes, I see. How long before the undead? Couple weeks. But it's like, Lazar wouldn't have hurt Serena like that. I- I- If Karen's body had been found and they both disappeared, that would be a pretty open and shut case, I would think. But Lazar wouldn't have done anything to Serena. People kill every day. I have a dwarf I think he'd be really good friends with.
00:51:34
Speaker
Do you have a dwarf? I know a dwarf. Eric has a dwarf. Yes. Fair enough. What did you say your name was? My name? It's Tish. Tish. And yours? Daru. And you, sir? He doesn't respond. He just takes a sip of his drink and sets his glass back down. Acheron sort of leans forward on Nyx's shoulder and glares.
00:51:56
Speaker
Nick turns her attention back to the two young people. What's his name? They kind of like both look at the man and then you can tell they look at the bartender like we don't know what to do here and.
00:52:12
Speaker
the barts. She narrows her like vertical slitted fire colored eyes and the two young kids begin to shrink to hold them. The bartender speaks up and says, Victor, she's here to help. Philip does. Nothing to say, Victor. Nothing on the night. Let the dead rose. You look like a man with troubles. A man mourning something. Victor pushes back from the bars.
00:52:39
Speaker
and stands up out of his stool. And Nix's right foot just shifts back ever so slightly, and her right hand hangs down and opens. Turns to face Nix with a pretty aggressive stance, but Nix knows enough to know that it's not cocked ready to swing, it's posturing, whether or not Nix is going to honor that or... But that's what Nix's read is. And after a beat, he grabs the glass and, like, downs it and slaves the glass on the table and...
00:53:09
Speaker
Don't need no help anymore. And Victor goes to walk past Nyx. nix puts her left hand against his chest whatever your trouble is worth the whole town dying rather than talk to me because it's not worth it to me but the whole town to die rather than you talk to me um
00:53:29
Speaker
Ekaron kind of flares his wings a little bit. Give me a charisma-based chat. Okay. I would like to argue Shavarath touched makes her scary. Sure. Okay. Well, that's a very good role. I rolled a natural 19. So 29.
00:53:47
Speaker
nine Yes. 28. Sorry. There it is 28. Victor turns to say something smarmy and then seeing Nix's eyes and Acheron and the the metal plating on Nix's arm, he stops himself. I just went to visit my watch that night. Didn't do nothing. Didn't call us enough. Left no gifts. His eyes kind of glare at Nix. He's like, I left some tulips. They were a favorite. That's nice. i'm not I'm not intuitive, but I will roll
00:54:20
Speaker
ah wisdom to see whether or not I i believe what he is saying. 15. You believe what he's saying. okay You maybe get a sense that there is there is more but not nefarious in nature, if that makes sense.
00:54:35
Speaker
like There are just some things that he doesn't want to talk about with you, but it's not a shifty, like, she can't possibly find out my secret kind of thing. The more I know, the more likely I am to save your town. Victor kind of looks behind him at the bartender and Tish and Daro, and he like gestures with his head to step outside. Nix will not allow much space to form between them as she moves outside with him. And Victor looks around to make sure no one's really with an ear shot, and he says, she is mocked. Not one of the houses, but one of those other ones. Aberrant. Aye. You said is, was. Your wife is deceased, yes. Yes, she's she's gone. Right. You were in the mausoleum when it happened, or just the night that it happened?
00:55:24
Speaker
No, I didn't. But I was talking to her. You didn't see anything. I heard voices further down. Further down. Did you know the voices? Yeah.
00:55:35
Speaker
They're speaking to some strange dong. Also, I was talking to her, trying to... things I'd rather not repeat, but... That's fine. Victor, did she answer? It wasn't her voice, but having a voice, um hearing a voice after I had spoken, I ran all right. I was scared. Didn't expect to hear voices telling that that time of night. Fair enough. Sorry if you don't have to be fair. I... Mark didn't have nothing to do with this stuff. I don't know how they work after people die, me but she is... Nix doesn't feel the need to argue with him about the possibilities. You'll be more used to this town...
00:56:05
Speaker
sober, and Nyx will walk towards the mausoleum, presumably to meet back up with the rest of her crew. Seems like everyone's converging on the graveyard, and that's where we'll leave things. Thank you all so much for listening. If you want to be part of the conversation surrounding this episode, you can head on over to our Discord, the link to which is on all of our socials, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. We also have a YouTube channel, youtube dot.com, slash e-pantheon, where I do TTRPG videos. Philip's going to plug something now. We have another podcast called Tales from the Laughing Tree, where Eric is a player. I'm the GM. We play Tales of the Valiant in a campaign called Blades of Banner set in the Lazar principalities, which you can also see on our YouTube channel.
00:56:43
Speaker
laughing tree. in Indeed. ah We also have a patreon patreon dot.com slash ski pantheon. If you want to financially support the show, you can do so over there. Thank you all so much for listening. I've been your game master, Eric. I'm Mia. I'm Philip. I'm Trevor. I'm Madison. Jeff. We'll see you next time.