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C1 Ep. 1. Dancing With Shadows: Chapter One
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Welcome to the first episode of Eberron Renewed, an actual play D&D 5e podcast focused on storytelling and character development. In this episode we meet our heroes: Berric, Lyle, and Draconos, and we see them set out on their first adventure in a town that is known for its lack of excitement. Join us for the first episode of Eberron Renewed!
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Transcript
Reflecting on War through Tolkien
00:00:03
Speaker
War must be while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all. But I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers.
00:00:36
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is roll.
Introduction to Eberron Renewed Podcast
00:00:55
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play D&D fifth edition podcast. I am your dungeon master, Eric, and the players are... I'm Philip. I'm Trevor. I'm Jeff.
Excitement for New Campaign
00:01:08
Speaker
And welcome to episode one, the beginning of a campaign, always an exciting time for any D&D group where you have high aspirations of all the crazy things that are going to happen with your story as the dungeon master and as a player, you're already thinking about what you're going to do when you're level 15.
00:01:23
Speaker
and hopefully you'll make it longer than four sessions. So let's see how this goes.
Setting the Stage in Eberron
00:01:29
Speaker
We are going to be running a game in the Eberron Dungeons and Dragons setting, which is my favorite setting. Those of you that have followed us over from the Geek Pantheon podcast will know that our previous actual play series that we did over there was also set in Eberron. But this is one that I am writing myself, and so that will be a fun experiment to see how that goes.
Character Introductions
00:01:52
Speaker
So I guess first things first, character introductions. So why don't you each go around and tell us just a little bit about your character, just so people will know who you are. Playing Beric Rowan. Beric is the son of a general from during the last war, Lady Eurek Rowan, who was, for a variety of reasons,
00:02:15
Speaker
somewhat controversial, and while she retired a hero, she was always kind of haunted by the war. Beric has come into possession of some of her things. She died, including a journal, and the more he's read in this journal, the more he's had this feeling that something's wrong, and it's led him to the town of Mistmarsh, which is near a place called the Faded Forest, and he's very interested in finding out more about the Faded Forest.
00:02:44
Speaker
for reasons. Reasons, you say. Reasons, indeed. He is a half-elf warlock. Yes. Okay, Trevor, why don't you tell us a little bit about your character.
Lyle Mothris' Rogue Story
00:02:56
Speaker
My character is Dachronos, and he is a tiefling paladin. When he was a small child, his family was killed, and so he kind of had to make it on his own for a while.
00:03:10
Speaker
He did some things that I guess he wasn't necessarily proud of, but he just had to survive really until one day he tried to steal some food from a paladin that was in this town that he was kind of living in.
00:03:25
Speaker
And he was caught, but instead of hurting him or turning him in, he decided that once he saw that he didn't have any family and he was kind of on his own, he said, I will let you live here, but you must train to be good and be a better person.
00:03:43
Speaker
do something with the gifts that you have. And so we trained with him for a while, about 10-ish years, and then decided it was time to go. He had overstayed, I mean, not overstayed as welcome, but he had gotten what he needed and he needed to move on. Started traveling, trying to figure out where he needed to go, kind of wandering lost, and then found this town. And that was where he is at.
00:04:04
Speaker
At first he was kind of attacked just a misunderstanding but held his own in the fight and was seen by some of the guards. They realized he could put up a good fight and asked him to stay and train with the guard. Very cool. My character is Lyle and because I'm an idiot his name is Lyle Mothris.
00:04:29
Speaker
He's a human rogue. He grew up in Thrain, which was a part of our last campaign, where they are basically a theocracy for this thing called the Church of the Silver Flame, and he has decided that he doesn't want to follow that anymore. His devout family kicked him out, and he fell in with a band of thieves and learned the thieving adventuring lifestyle, really appealed to him.
00:04:51
Speaker
But he decided to kind of strike out on his own and headed south. Now he's been in mist march actually for a couple of years. He just kind of liked the people there and living was fairly easy. So he's been there for a few years now, didn't plan on staying that long. And now he's getting kind of impatient and wander lusty and ready to see what is next.
00:05:07
Speaker
Very
Deputies in Mistmarsh
00:05:08
Speaker
cool. All right, so you all have been in the city of Miss Marsh for a few months, just enough to kind of establish yourselves as regular faces around this fairly small town, working for the sheriff named Albin Ehrklaern, who, Berwick would absolutely know this, that Albin is the son of the Prime Minister of Breeland, Rooken Ehrklaern, so... Yeah, he's like my third cousin or something.
00:05:35
Speaker
You have a family tree. That's what happens when there's too much time between when you get the idea for the character and we actually play and you're me. Yes. So you all have been working for him for a little while as his deputies around this town. Albin is a fairly apathetic sheriff. He just kind of has this position
00:05:57
Speaker
as a means to have a cushy job because his dad is who his dad is. And so the people are pretty unhappy with Albin Asherif. They like you well enough. You all are a group that are capable of getting things done generally. Are we the only members of the- Yes. The stabularies? The three of us? Well, there is a fourth- The posse? There is a fourth deputy who is Akko Mills, who is a cleric of- He constantly dresses in a red tunic.
00:06:24
Speaker
Red, red shirt. I'm on board now. But it's fantasy, so it's a tuning issue. He's going to outlive all of us.
00:06:36
Speaker
But he is a cleric who was a soldier during the last war and found religion after all of the devastation that he witnessed on the battlefield. And so he was actually an officer for the Brelish army and that's kind of his deal. He has been working with you all probably about the same amount of time that you all came to Miss Marsh. Obviously you all didn't come as a group, but it was fairly contained, you're all's arrival. So today is like pretty much every other day you've
Graham's Lost Locket
00:07:01
Speaker
been in Miss Marsh.
00:07:01
Speaker
It's very late afternoon and there is a woman in the sheriff's office complaining to Albin. You know her affectionately as Graham. She's kind of the resident old lady in this town with a piece of candy and a crazy story for all the children. But she's complaining that she's lost her locket and that Albin should help her find it, which Albin is
00:07:23
Speaker
half asleep behind his desk, one hand holding up his head just lazily. As you all kind of watch the scene, Albin disinterestly remarks that this is the 12th time you've come in complaining that you've lost something, Graham. I can't send forces out every time you misplace a trinket, so no, I'm sorry, just go home. So she exits the sheriff's office, if you all have nothing.
00:07:50
Speaker
to say an interjection and Albin just makes a remark to you all that half the time two days later you see her walking around the town with the thing that she was complaining she lost acting like nothing had ever happened so it's probably just Graham's mind starting to go so where did she lose it are you asking this before Graham leaves she didn't say it
00:08:08
Speaker
She just came in kind of exclaiming like, I swear it was on my desk when I woke up this morning and now it's gone. This is awful old lady voice, but you know. It's early in the morning. I mean, it just at some point during the day, she saw it that morning and it was gone out of her house. It's starting to get close to sundown and Albin is electing to close up the sheriff's office for the night.
Routine at the Red Wolf Inn
00:08:33
Speaker
This is one of the few police stations that holds bankers hours.
00:08:40
Speaker
You all can either elect to leave the sheriff's office, the usual routine for the working class and just the people in this town to meet up at the Red Wolf Inn after work to have a few drinks, share stories about the day. You all spend most of your evenings there just enjoying the people of the town, enjoying the ale. So yeah, I mean, if you all want to follow up with Graham or if you just want to head to the inn or if you want to go home or randomly run off to the faded forest,
00:09:07
Speaker
Wildcard I mean I don't care about Graham I'd feel like if one of you guys does I'll go with you But I mean that means nothing to me except for that. There's there's missing jewelry somewhere, right? I don't want to help her find it. I want to find it on my own I don't mind going to get a drink
00:09:27
Speaker
Yeah, I'm up for the end. Okay. You all walk down the street and you hear the general reverie coming from the well-lit building with a crimson wolf on the sign outside. And you all walk in and you see the friendly face of Gregor, the bartender, standing there cleaning a mug like most bartenders do when a scene is beginning. And you all... We got a few questions for you.
00:09:49
Speaker
You all actually do have a standing arrangement with Gregor because your presence a lot of times calms the more rough citizens of the town. And ever since you all have been hanging out there in the evenings, there have been less fights, less brawls, things like that. So Gregor lets you drink for free because he has to replace fewer tables and chairs with your presence.
00:10:10
Speaker
And we have abused the hell out of that privilege. But sadly, you all tonight enter in the middle of a bar fight. So there's some ruffians punching each other. Gregor's screaming at them to... Calm down! Don't break anything! You hate deputies!
00:10:28
Speaker
I let you drink for free. Step in. To which some of the customers go, you let them drink for free? Enjoying the constabulary. Initiate it. Can we, can we, wait, wait, grab a pencil. Do, do we have to jump into this? Can we not try to verbally or our presence? Let's, let's give this a shot. Sure. Sure. I don't want to jump into it.
00:10:47
Speaker
Alright, everybody. Alright, calm down. Come on. Put the chair down. Put the dwarf down. And let's... What happened? How'd this start? Can you
Jacob's Disappearance
00:10:55
Speaker
guys please... What's it look like? You're going to need to make a, like, scream or show a force or something to get them to pay attention to you.
00:11:02
Speaker
Fire my gun in the air like the whole the whole tavern is engaged. Yeah, that's a good. I mean there there are Probably I would say at least 60% of the people are in some way engaged with the brawl Okay, not everybody's up fighting throwing chairs, but most people in here are paying attention to that
00:11:22
Speaker
They're just standing around the perimeter going, bye, bye, bye, bye. Barak sort of looks as Lyle tries to draw attention and get everybody. Barak sort of puts a hand up and then steps forward. So Barak has just like ink black hair and sort of pallid, dusky skin. He doesn't actually usually look very healthy. He doesn't look like most half-elves. Sounds like you look like a vampire, in fact.
00:11:51
Speaker
but he's very very careful to make it very evident that he has no fangs and he walks around in the daylight whenever possible to just dispel rumors and he also wears a holy symbol of the silver flame just as a final precaution to ensure that everyone
00:12:06
Speaker
Hey look, it's not burning. Always orders his beer with garlic. He's not a vampire, I swear. But he does have black irises that make his pupils look really weird and enlarged. So he just sort of steps forward and you're sure he's not a vampire. I'm very certain he's not a vampire.
00:12:23
Speaker
And he makes a couple of gestures in the air, and all of a sudden this just banshee-like scream rips through the tavern, casting minor illusion and making the sound of a banshee-like scream in an attempt to draw all the attention so that Lyle's attempts can be heard over the ruckus.
00:12:42
Speaker
Lyle runs away terrified. Okay, well I'm going to go ahead and just roll a general... Okay, yeah, everyone loses their crap over this banshee screen and like drops to the floor and there's just silence.
00:13:01
Speaker
How many how many actual people were in the melee like how many punch-thrower eight people all right I Start to walk and I kind of gesture for you guys to walk with me into they're all in the ground now cowering Into the middle of what was the scrum and I say those you know that we don't take kindly to that sort of behavior indoors so I'm gonna ask you one time kindly and
00:13:27
Speaker
to take it out of town or go back to your tables and enjoy the rest of the evening. We're not going to take anybody in. We're not going to take down any names, but we need this to end now. Everyone kind of starts to dust themselves off and they got a bit of a
Investigating the Disappearance
00:13:40
Speaker
glower in their eye, especially this dwarf that stands up. You know him as Farling Cragstout is his name and he's actually a brewer. He provides Gregor with a lot of the finer ales, but he just gives you the side eye and growls that you while as they walk outside.
00:13:55
Speaker
So they're grumpy, but you have dissolved that situation. So good job. One beer, please. You're still standing back at the door, like you're dealing with the situation. I say, Gregor, I'll take one of Farland's. Okay. What was that all about? Oh, you know, folks get to drinking and somebody told Farland that his ale tastes like rat piss.
00:14:19
Speaker
know how dwarves are so things got pretty heated so but thank you for resolving it here's round of the best stuff and I'll have Bessie drop it off at your table
00:14:30
Speaker
Bessie is Gregor's daughter who is also the barmaid as we're just going to lean hard into these fantasy stereotypes. Bessie is very fair but very naive and just thinks you all are the best heroes ever. It looks like a tiny town, right? This is like 200 people or something? Around 500. Okay. Enough to where you know all the faces, maybe not all the names sort of thing. Other than that, the eight people you kicked out- Bessie walk around singing about books.
00:14:55
Speaker
Did you say that Bessie was very fair and very naive because that is Lyle's kind of girl Yes, but Bessie thinks that you're all honorable heroes that do what is right and like like the nights that she read about in her stories and
00:15:10
Speaker
Other than the eight guys that got into the scrap, it's a typical night at the Red Wolf Inn. Some people are playing games of chance, other people are just talking about their day. Anything you all would like to do or discuss about the goings-on in Miss Marsh? Any questions you want to ask Bessie or Gregor? Anything like that? Well, Barak's not necessarily like really sold on doing a thorough investigation of the whole issue of the locket because it's really just a locket and how much does it really matter. But...
00:15:39
Speaker
He's curious about it and the fact that things keep disappearing around old Graham. And so just sort of casually he asks Bessie, anyone come in with more money than they usually have? Oh, no, nothing like that. Nobody's really, you know, the people around here, they have plenty of money to spend, but nobody has an excessive amount of money. Nobody came in buying rounds for the whole bar sort of thing. So, no, nothing, nothing I've noticed. All right. Takes his money.
00:16:08
Speaker
Bessie just loves all of you for very different reasons and you just got that dark brooding I could I could change him and turn him good look. Right, but he's super polite and really nice. But still, you look like a vampire with shark eyes. Everything is black, he has shark eyes. Okay. I'm telling you right now, Burt, you stay away from Bessie. Is that Lyle officially calling dibs?
00:16:32
Speaker
Uh, Lyle's called dibs on everything he sees. There's like 25 buildings in this town. How do you expect me to avoid her? I guess you should vampire power to face through a wall, you weirdo. I'm not a vampire.
00:16:48
Speaker
Okay, we're having fun. Alright, suddenly you hear a bang as somebody busts in through the door of the Red Wolf Inn, and you recognize this figure as Trant, the town's blacksmith, and he just boisterously shouts as he walks the door, They've taken my son! They got him!
00:17:24
Speaker
Take your son. Do you have evidence that it was goblins? If I would have seen the goblins taking my son, I would have come in here with a goblin head for you. That's all a point. That would be helpful. Yeah, but talk about evidence, buddy. No, but you're making your own point that you don't like the goblins. And I'm not saying that's here nor there. I'm saying we need to know for sure. Before we go tromping into the fated forest to look for your kid, I want to know, do you know for sure they're goblins? Or you're pretty thinking that they're goblins. At this point, Gregor interjects and says,
00:17:30
Speaker
They got Jacob.
00:17:52
Speaker
Trant, you know that Jacob's always running around with his friends, staying out late, getting into trouble. He's probably just late getting home. To which, Trant, it feels different to him this time.
00:18:03
Speaker
Do we have any reason to believe that there are actually goblins in the faded forest? You've heard people talk about seeing small smatterings of goblins on the edge of the forest. It's certainly no indications of like a giant tribe. Goblin dropping. And more importantly, goblins have never attacked Miss Marsh. So this is a point of good bookkeeping for those of you listening and the players around the table. One really neat part about the Eberron setting is
00:18:24
Speaker
The fact that it kind of does away with some of those gross racially charged things of like everybody that this race is evil. Eberron doesn't really operate that way. Nobody is inherently evil just as a point of order. So you would be aware of that. So we don't hear Ork and think back.
00:18:41
Speaker
No, especially not. Orcs are actually very good guys in this setting, so yeah. Good to know, because that's never been the case before. I'm about to stab a good guy. Goblins tend to get in trouble. They steal things a lot, but they're not like innately steal your baby evil. Some are, but not all of them. So there might be some there, but we haven't ever had a problem. No, goblins have never been a problem for Miss Marsh.
00:19:01
Speaker
Alright, fellas, I mean, I just want to throw out, why don't we organize a search party, comb the town, and, you know, the general surrounding area, let's try to stay out of the forest for right now. We could go, like, in the forest. You in the forest, I know. We'll check the forest, but let's check the town first. That's fair. We don't have any reason to believe that we're, like, pressed for time. We have no reason to think they took him to sacrifice him or anything like that. Trent thinks it would be super if he found his son ASAP. Well, sure.
00:19:28
Speaker
I mean Trevor you're a dad you understand So yeah Trent thinks it would be awesome if you all got on the case I've already had like a quarter of this beer
00:19:45
Speaker
saying Lyle's just a super lightweight don't drink don't drink in search that's okay all right when was the last time you saw that this morning he we usually have breakfast together and then he goes off to Graham's house she teaches him and his friends
00:20:05
Speaker
She calls him history lessons, but they're just tall tales that Graham likes to tell kids. Normally, he comes home just before sundown for dinner and he did not come home tonight. Okay. I'm sorry, because we would know this. I'm asking how old is this kid? He's 11 years old.
00:20:21
Speaker
Okay, and Trent admits that there have been some nights where Jacob didn't come home right at sundown and he's had to go track him down, but I've checked all the places that him, Julian, and Farrah usually play and they're not there. Have you talked to Graham? No, I came here to find the law enforcement in the town to go kill goblins and find my son.
00:20:42
Speaker
Right. Well, we should probably talk to him. Yeah, let's all go see him. He usually sees. Okay. Tran, do you have someone at home in case he does come home? Is there someone there to meet him? I can go back home. If you all are going to go track him down, I will go home and wait for him. Great. We're on it. We're on it. Okay. Are the other two boys, I assume, are Julian and Farrah both boys? They are twins, brother and sister. Okay. Are the twins missing? I don't know any of this. They weren't out playing with Jacob. Jacob's not there.
00:21:09
Speaker
I don't know where Julian and Farrah are. I have not talked to Graham. I don't know any of that. I just know my son's gone. Fair enough. Okay. All right, well, we're gonna head to Graham's. All right, you head home. If Jacob comes home, let us know. We're gonna keep you apprised of what we're doing, but we're gonna go talk to Graham first, see when she saw him last. At no point in running off into the forest without some knowledge of this, all right? Farrah gets up, takes another drink of his beer, and then carries it over to the bar and hands it back. The handle of it has turned black.
00:21:37
Speaker
You see Gregor kind of sigh, pick it up, and just drop it in the weight spin. He really just needs to set aside a block. Lyle makes a note in his notebook to never lend any of his fame to Beric. There are probably days where you guys have noticed that Beric's clothes have not started out black.
00:21:56
Speaker
Okay. Can I just stare at like, even though it happens pretty much every single time, anytime he takes it and starts putting the waistband and I see that it's black, I just stare in awe of like, what happened? Okay. So you all head to Graham's house. Do you all knock? Do you walk in? What do you stand outside and shout, Graham, get, get out here. I'm not going to let Barrick knock on the door.
00:22:17
Speaker
due to his infectious necrotizing. I have to hold it for a while. It's everything I touch. So, yeah, I mean, I knock on the door. You wait probably about three minutes, though you hear shuffling for the entirety of it. All right, I go in through a window. Did you find my locket?
00:22:40
Speaker
No, Graham, we haven't found your locket. We actually came here to talk about that, but we have a couple other things we need to mention, we need to talk to you about first. You know, Jacob comes over and you... Yeah, Gregor's boy. Yeah, Gregor's... No. Trans boy. Trans boy. It's okay, Graham. I'm old. It's so confusing. Fantasy dementia. I remember when there were five people living in this town.
00:23:06
Speaker
No, Graham. Jacob's missing. The last time Trant saw him was when he sent him on over here. Did he make it here today? Did you see Jacob today? No, I assume Jacob's... Some days he stays with Trant and works in the shop, and he didn't come here today. I assumed he stayed back at
The Allure of the Faded Forest
00:23:22
Speaker
home. Alright. It was odd that normally even on days when he stays at the shop, Jacob comes over here for lunch to spend time with Julian and Farrah on days where he can't play, and he didn't come here either. Were they here today?
00:23:35
Speaker
Yes, yes, they were here. Jacob would have loved today's lesson. We talked about the faded forest and an old story about that. That's not timing. Calm down. Did it seem weird to them that he didn't come over for lunch? No, like I said, there's days where Jacob just stays at home.
00:23:56
Speaker
I meant for lunch, though. I mean, once again, it was odd, but no reason for concern. Well, Jacob always loves the Fated Forest stories. Those are his favorite, and he enjoys hearing stories about the annual acorn run and
00:24:13
Speaker
Back when the town was formed when we first started doing that, and you all are aware that every year in Miss Marsh, families send out an emissary into the Fated Forest. It's called the Acorn Run, where they collect magical acorns. That's the primary function of the Fated Forest is it has magical trees that drop very...
00:24:32
Speaker
fertile powerful acorns, and there's actually a rare tree that only exists in the faded forest in all the world called the ghost oak. And if families can find those acorns, ghost acorns, then that's the big find. But once a year, they send everybody out. So do it. Yeah, what's the point? We sell them to other to other settlements that would like to have these trees. They're very sturdy. They're very, very good trees. Interesting. Do they grow elsewhere?
00:24:59
Speaker
Uh, it depends on the temperament, but, you know, like a zone three tree. Yeah, no, we're done missing children. Yeah. Well, Graham, thanks. Thanks for your time. We're going to keep looking for your locket, but I hope you understand that a missing boy is going to take precedence for a little while.
00:25:19
Speaker
Oh, all right. Thank you. Graham, good question. Did, you said he was interested in these stories. Did, did he ever seem like, like he really wanted, like, I'm assuming he's too young to be the one that goes every year. Oh, you have to be at least 15 to participate in the acorn run. And so Jacob obviously is getting older and so looking forward to when he can do it, although I doubt Trunk would ever let him. But do you think he would ever try to go out on his own without telling anybody to try to prove that he could do it before?
00:25:48
Speaker
Jacob doesn't seem like an irrational boy, especially on a night like tonight. I mean, I don't think he would run to the faded forest. Is tonight any different? Well, you know, there's the moon rises high in the sky and the winds blow cold, which is a bad omen for nights in the faded forest.
00:26:07
Speaker
Let's go Let's go have a chat with with Julian and fair See if they Jacob said anything to them about his plan for the day. That sounds like a good idea Walk walk walk. Okay to middle-aged people open their door to you. What are the names again kids are Julian and Farrah, right? I said Julian and Farrah's dad
00:26:26
Speaker
Can we talk to Julian and Farrah? Hello, Julian and Farrah's mom. Hey, Marcus and Adar are the parents' names. They open the door and do you immediately lead off with that of, can we talk to Julian and Farrah? No, no, no. Okay. Those were jokes. Those are goofs. Good old gang goofs. So they open the door and officers, what can we do for you? Who wants to take first chair on this one? Hi. Anybody else?
00:26:51
Speaker
Quick question. Can we talk to your kids real quick? No, we're not leading off with that. That's an odd question. Are they in trouble? No, no, no, no. They're totally fine. We just had a question about something that happened in the town. Nothing to do with them. Just a quick question. Jacob's missing. Yeah. Oh. Marcus, we can't find Jacob. We need to talk to do the invariant. OK. Go ahead and give me a persuasion check. I'm trying to convince wonderful people. OK. You all were talking, so either of you can do it.
00:27:19
Speaker
That's a 19 19. Okay, they side-eye each other and well if Jacobs in trouble then Probably should go up and talk to him. They're just right up the stairs. Just let us know if you need anything They open the door to you. Well, I mean before they walk away now we
00:27:35
Speaker
Do you want to be around for it? Do you want to bring them down here? We can all talk. Would it be more likely for us? Honestly, if Jacob has gotten into trouble and Julian and Farrah were in any way involved in that, I feel like they would be more reluctant to speak freely if we were in the room. So if you need us, come get us. But I think we would only impede your investigation. We'll let you know what we can when we're done as well. Do you want to try talking to the kids?
00:28:05
Speaker
Yeah. With your delightful cartoon voice. You know what's funny? Oh, but you are terrifying looking, right? Yeah, I'm part demon. But they know you. Yeah. What's funny is, like, this whole time prepping, I was like, okay, like, my character's kind of like, he's been homeless, he's had a rough life, his parents are dead, I'm gonna have this, like, deep kind of brooding voice. And then the second I say the first word, beer, please! I was like, oh shit, it's a character. So, that all went out the window, and so now this is my character.
00:28:32
Speaker
Outstanding. Hi, I'm a sweet demon. Yeah. Sweet, sweet demon boy. By the way, I can't speak for Philip, but I'm never going to refer to you by your name because you chose a three syllable name that I can't shorten. That's fine. Okay. Drac. I mean, I'll call him Drac. Except for I think that might be a more upgrading name for Beric, Drac-ul-ah. Okay. So are we in the room now? Yeah. Hi guys. They're kind of sleepy. Like you've clearly woken them up and they're like,
00:29:05
Speaker
Officer, kill it! Oh, hi, sir. What can we do for you in our bedroom? We just have a quick question for you. Look, guys, we thought it was weird, too, but we told us to come up here. We left the door open. Yeah, we just have a quick question about your friend, Jacob. We know that normally he, you know, hangs out with you guys during the day, eats lunch with you, all that stuff. Did he say he was gonna do anything differently today?
00:29:33
Speaker
Everyone give me insight checks. 20. Yeah, we'll take his because I got a 40. 20. Okay. You all notice that as soon as, while you were talking, as soon as Jacob's name came out of your mouth, their mouths kind of closed and they kind of slumped down and they've grown very quiet and uncomfortable. So you can give me a persuasion check since you're taking the lead on this to get them to open up a bit more.
00:30:02
Speaker
Yes 17 listen We need to know what you know his dad is freaking out right now And he's about to try to go kill some goblins that we may or may not know Okay And I'm like an inch away from their faces like tell us what you know, all right drag
00:30:34
Speaker
We're just trying to make sure that everybody's okay. All right, you're not gonna, no matter what, you're not gonna be in any trouble. Jacob's not gonna be in any trouble, at least not with us. I'm sure his dad'll have something to say to him. But we need to make sure that he is okay. That's all we care about. Once you kind of finish that thought, they both just word vomit erupt to the point where you can't tell what they're saying. You hear Jacob's name flying around a lot, but they're both... Calm down. I'm gonna bring these two terrifying people back in.
00:30:48
Speaker
Can you be cool for like a second? Kids
00:31:06
Speaker
Boy you guys Once they kind of come down they tell you very quickly and just kind of in a frantic nature Jacob didn't show up to Graham's house today I mean he sometimes stays home with his dad to work But he told us yesterday that he was gonna be at Graham's today and usually his dad gives him more notice that and usually he Comes home for lunch or it's Graham's house for lunch I mean and eats lunch with us and he didn't show up
00:31:26
Speaker
then. And so after Graham's lessons, we went to Tran's house to meet up with Jacob, but he wasn't there either. And we knew that Tran would be mad at Jacob if we told him that he wasn't at Graham's and he was supposed to be there or if he was at home. And so we lied and said that we were playing hide and seek with Jacob. And so we were just looking for him and thought that maybe he hidden
00:31:42
Speaker
his own house and then Jacob we tried to go look for him and we actually found him at one point and he was on the edge of town and he told us that he was gonna go on the acorn run but tried to convince us to go with him and we said no that's really dumb Jacob and you should go home to your dad and so we came home to our parents and went to sleep like good kids and Jacob is real dumb
00:32:02
Speaker
Okay, um Cool. I almost want it. There's not really a we we really don't like the faded forest because Graham stories talk about how people People's own shadows would turn against them and find them in the forest and that sounds real creepy And I like my shadow just being the thing that does the thing that I do and not fighting me Yeah, I'm with you Julian. Only weirdos are infatuated with the
00:32:27
Speaker
And then I wink I Want to know it like I know in in in Pathfinder. They call it sins motive Inside that is inside. Yes. I just want to roll and see if they're up and up. I mean, okay, they're kids, but they're scared Yeah, well, that's a seven. So as far as I know
00:32:45
Speaker
Their word is law. I only understood every third word they said. This is probably, I don't know if this is going to be relevant or not, but having lived here for a bit, would we know, is this the right time of year to do the acorn run? No, no, no, no. The time for the acorn run has passed. It happened like a month and a half ago. It's, Larvion is the month, which is July in our terms. Fellas, I think that we've learned everything we're going to learn. What do you say we head back to Tarantiles, let him know we know, you know, maybe take his hand off the hilt of his sword, his goblin cutting sword.
00:33:14
Speaker
And, uh, then figure out what to do next. Okay. Sounds fine. Alright. I mean, I think it's fairly obvious that after that we have to go into the Fated Forest.
Preparing to Search the Forest
00:33:22
Speaker
Okay, so you all are headed back to Trane's house? Yeah, we get it. Yeah, we call off his, his jihad.
00:33:33
Speaker
is a
00:33:49
Speaker
gargantuan, I mean he's the town blacksmith so he's appropriately sized and so it's it's almost if the situation weren't so dire it would almost be humorous seeing this gigantic bear of a man like frantically like rubbing his hands and just he seems very meek and vulnerable at this point he's incredibly worried is he is he I mean I guess he said most racial characteristics don't matter anymore so like it doesn't matter if he's human he's a human most people in Miss Marsh are human
00:34:18
Speaker
Okay. Okay. They don't look down on those of you that are not human. Thank you. They look down on you because you're weirdo. They look down on you because you look like monsters. Yeah. They're cool with, like, wars. Graham has told stories about your people. That's fine. They're all dead. The reason I asked, I just want to reiterate this. Like, we don't have to take into account his race as far as his, like, volatility of the person. Like, because if he was a half-orc, he'd be more likely to flip out and... Mm-hmm.
00:34:47
Speaker
That's not a thing in I mean there are people that fall into those stereotypes like in the real world There are people that fall into certain types, but let's not have that discussion It's not it's not like typical fantasy worlds where it's that broad brush everybody. Yeah. Yeah is a stereotype. Okay, let's talk to train You're so excited. Yeah, you're like that in a thousand so far. Okay What what where's my son?
00:35:10
Speaker
Okay, so we don't 100% know, because we haven't seen him, but we do have a little bit more of an inkling on, that's not a word, more of a understanding of where he's at. Um, where is he? Well, he asked his friends if they wanted to do the acorn run with him. You just see Trant's face just drop. And so we're thinking he did that.
00:35:33
Speaker
What's important is, he wasn't taken. There's not a bad guy in this situation. Yeah, but he ran into the faded forest. Yes, and we're gonna go. We are going to go, and we are going to investigate him back, but we need you to understand that there's not a vendetta to happen here. Like, this is not a hostage rescue, this is a search for a child who ran off, alright? We're gonna find him, or Drek's gonna die trying. Preferably, yeah, that one.
00:35:59
Speaker
Okay, um, we'll just, uh, do you need anything for me? Like, uh, go, go find my son. Yeah, do you have any studded leather armor? Yes, I do, for 150 gold pieces. Well, God, I told you a thousand times, Kyle. Well, it is getting late, Tran. I'm sure your boy will be fine alone at night in the forest. Are you bribing this man? No, Merrick's already walking towards the forest. No, I'm threatening him.
00:36:28
Speaker
Yeah, we're gonna follow the burnt grass No, I would never actually say that to a father each other Is there anything that we we need from him? I mean, I got a battle axe. I need anything else I think our whole thing is that we're right I don't ask him for a weapon cuz I don't want him to think we're expecting a fight Although we the three of us out of character are clearly expecting a fight. Yes, so Alright ever on question here
00:36:58
Speaker
Is Trant a blacksmith or is Trant a majorite? And he might have like... Blacksmith. ...light sources. Is there something we can take? No. Is he an artificer? Did he come towards the light, kid? No. Blacksmith. No? Alright. We do need a torch, though, huh? Yeah, we're gonna need a torch. Um, I've got... Can't do anything light. I've got a lantern. I've got a fire. I think. Well, yeah, it's true. We can fire. Fire, we can... Yeah. I'm a demon. I can make fire. You are a Tiefling, not a demon. I mean, I've got a... I'm working on it. I have a lamp.
00:37:27
Speaker
That's not how leveling works. You work hard enough. One day. I'm thinking level three, I'll be a full on demon. Race to the bottom. I've got a lantern in my pack. Do you guys have that sort of equipment on you? All right. OK, so you all start your journey out of town. The Faded Forest is about a mile. Wait, sorry, I forgot one thing. Best you wait for me. I'll wait for all of you. Whatever.
00:37:56
Speaker
So you all begin your journey. The Faded Forest is about a mile away from Miss Marsh. After all of your investigation, walking around town, talking to people, it's about 10 o'clock at night at this point. So the journey is largely uneventful.
Goblin Camp and Forest Dangers
00:38:12
Speaker
Lyle, you're actually able to spot a little bit sooner than everybody else a small fire in the distance and kind of a clearing in a field as you're getting very close to the Faded Forest.
00:38:23
Speaker
But the fire that you see is outside the fated forest. Okay, fella fella, we gotta stop, stop, stop, stop. You guys consider yourselves... sneaky.
00:38:32
Speaker
Oh, yes. All right. Well, I do what I can. Okay, well, Barrick and I are gonna go. How far are we from the fire? You spotted it about 80 feet away? About 80 feet away. Okay, I mean, I just I want to go. I want to go check it, but I want to do so in the shadows. You said it's outside of the forest? Yeah, just outside the forest.
00:38:54
Speaker
This is a mechanic. Here's what I want to do. I want to go to the fire and spend as much time while I'm still away from it, gathering as much information I can about what's going on over there, essentially. You start hearing voices speaking, but it's kind of faint, so you need to get a little bit closer. This is a trick that I learned from another dungeon master on YouTube. The reason I asked for your stealth modifiers, I'm going to roll your stealth check. That way you don't know if you've successfully hit or not. You just sneak it up.
00:39:24
Speaker
So, okay, you're walking through the tall grass, and once you get within about 30 feet, the talking stops, and they kind of, you see three goblins all of a sudden turn their heads away from the fire, and they're kind of looking out. They can't quite spot you, but they definitely heard you. Okay, see anyone else around the fire? Has everyone made our goblin? There are three goblins around the fire, so... And I don't see goblins. And there's not like a suspicious looking bag with a...
00:39:51
Speaker
And you hear a muffled bag just kind of squirming. There's a lumpy squirmy bag. No, you do not say that. A name tag that says not Jake. It's got potatoes. I also do not say potatoes. Oh man.
00:40:06
Speaker
I would wait. Maybe they speak. What were they talking? What were they speaking? You could not understand them. You're not quite sure if it was the distance or language barrier. Gotcha. You just kind of, when you hear just people talking in a distance and you can't quite make out what they're saying. Okay. And that's it. That's all we get. Cause I got heard. Yep. Okay. If I want to try, I want to try to get close. How many torches, how many torches they have? There's anything around a campfire. Oh, okay. A small. In theory, we could get closer if they saw less, right?
00:40:36
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Uh, I'm gonna, where it's not super noticeable, but enough to where it's going out. I have a tantrum that I'm going to just make the flame a little bit less burning. Okay. So it's not as bright. They don't take notice of that simply because it was just kind of a natural dimming of the fire. You didn't snuff it out. And so they kind of are looking a little bit harder. Are you going to try to move even closer now that
00:41:02
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't even think to ask are they sitting around the fire? Are they all sitting on like the the windward side? Is there a way I could get behind or are they I mean it's it's pretty generic like here's the fire and then I can see that they're sitting screen Well, they're sitting equidistant from each other around the fire. Okay, so they already a triangle very close enough see if they're armed
00:41:21
Speaker
Yes, you can see the metal of their daggers shining in the moonlight and the fire. They don't have any, I mean, there's just three of them. They don't have any like... Sorry, scimitars. Or anything like that piled around the fire. So as far as we can see, this is three goblins drinking around a fire.
00:41:42
Speaker
Are they drinking? Are there barrels? They have mugs of grog style, like gross, gross stuff. Okay, you gotta figure out... Fermented banana peels. If we can't, if they're not speaking our language...
00:41:57
Speaker
We don't know that. Oh, okay. I thought as we go. Generally speaking, most goblins that you all have encountered in the world speak goblin and common because they do a lot of dealings with outside races, so they need to be able to speak common as well. So if they're only around goblins, usually they'll only speak goblin, but they are capable of interacting with other races.
00:42:18
Speaker
Alright, if we don't see anything that makes us think that this has anything to do with Jacob, I say, and I don't know how you resisted the thrall of the forest being this close this long anyway, so... We're working, we're out of here. Right, okay, so I, you came with me. Yeah. We go back to Drak and I say, um, it doesn't look like there's anything there for us. So, let's just go around, and we might be able to ask them if they've seen it.
00:42:43
Speaker
y'all can do that you know that yeah i mean if they don't look nefarious let's assume they aren't and ask if they've seen a little boy sure all right so okay go ahead and crank their fire back up to 11 so they see us so they see us coming and we can just to where it was
00:42:59
Speaker
All right, so you all are just boldly walking towards fire. No, I'm gonna we're 80 feet away right now Yeah, okay when we when we get about 50 feet away, I don't say uh, you know while while he gets closer I'm gonna stay at a distance and I take out my longbow and I put an arrow on the string Just in case this turns south. Okay. Yeah, I'm resting my hand on the hill. Yeah. Yeah, like I'm making what are you doing? I'm waving like an idiot. Okay? It's like as we get closer Hi demon boy
00:43:29
Speaker
Every time. Yeah, that's a good point. Maybe I... I mean...
00:43:33
Speaker
I thought nobody was racist here. You still look scary. We sort of goblins. All right. Wait, you're a demon? I thought you were like some kind of minotaur. I'm a tiefling. So I just got some demon blood in me. Excuse me, fellas. We don't mean they just kind of freeze and stare at you. Listen, we're not here. We just we need to ask you a question. We're looking for a missing kid. All right. We're the law enforcement from the town over there for Miss Marsh. We don't mean any harm. We don't.
00:44:00
Speaker
We don't we don't mean to scare you we just have a quick question you guys have a second for us. What do you want? There's a boy from town missing we heard he might have come into the forest we just wonder if you see if you seen a boy no Okay, we'll resolve the insight check and then I'll answer your question
00:44:25
Speaker
From what you can tell, they are being truthful. I hate when you say, from what you can tell. I always say that. I know. I know. Okay. On a night's like tonight, we don't sleep in the forest. Oh, right. Because of the high moon and the wind, right? What's up with tonight? He shouts from a... Ghost! I should barrack my vampire food. We call it barrack black staff, because if you don't even put his hand on something for... Rowan.
00:44:52
Speaker
Nights where the wind blows cold and shadows dance in the moonlight. So like winter? It's July. It's weird when the wind blows cold. Fair point. Well made. Well, listen. What happens when the wind blows cold? What's going on in the forest tonight that we- Just said shadows dance in the moonlight. That's friggin' weird.
00:45:16
Speaker
So is it dangerous or just spooky? I mean, we sleep outside the forest so we don't really know if it's dangerous. It's just been something that our tribe does. We sleep outside the forest on nights like tonight when the wind blows cold and shadows dance in the moonlight.
00:45:32
Speaker
I love your song by the way, it's great. And the green grass grows all around, all around, all around. Alright, can you tell us anything? We're gonna have to go in there. There's a missing boy. And Beric's already got the... I mean, our tribe has not made time to kidnap anybody. We still have to miss Marsh. No, sorry. No, we're not asking if you know about the boy. I'm asking you, what can you tell me about the forest?
00:45:54
Speaker
I mean, are there paths that he would have potentially followed once he got in there, or is it just all overgrown? I've never been in the past. I mean, there's paths that the goblins follow. I don't know about people from the town. I mean, it's really annoying that one time a year when there's like 20 of them running around.
00:46:13
Speaker
Oh, you mean the acorn run? I love the acorn run. I mean, if you need, it probably won't help you, but we have this new leader of the tribe that is a real dingbat, but we got one of those. It's a goblin word, right? Yes.
00:46:31
Speaker
And he might know something about your missing boy. I mean, we don't kidnap children, but once again, this dude's a hobgoblin and he seems really aggressive. So, I mean, he's holding up in the ruins of an old daikani knight thing. I don't know, like an old hobgoblin temple. I don't know. Where's that?
00:46:50
Speaker
It's a structure. Oh, right, right, right, a night thing. I remember reading about those. It's like in the forest. Yeah, it's in the forest. Wait, so he stays in the forest. What have they locked themselves up for the night? Ooh, all right, well. The night thing. They locked themselves up for the night thing. When the wind blows cold and it saddles into the wind. Night with a K. Oh, God. Wait, are you guys serious? You're getting better. This is in character. Are you dipshit?
00:47:13
Speaker
Really telling me that you just realized that he made a good night Everyone's talking about the forest being all weird tonight, and he said they were locked up in a night thing So I was thinking about what he said he said he said to Connie night
00:47:27
Speaker
Who's the Connie? You know what? Let's just go in the forest man. I'm with you. They draw us a helpful map to get us to- No, they absolutely do not do that. What's your chieftain's name? Drexugan. Could you say that with a little less accent? Drex? Okay.
00:47:44
Speaker
Shugon. All right. Hey, can you give us some direction on how to get there or is this some goblin secret you're not going to share with us? We could give you vague directions, but you don't know how to follow the goblin paths and we don't really have time to teach you. It's a lot of different subtle signals and signs where it's just intuition for us. We know where to walk. It's near the middle of the forest. So if you hit the other side of the forest, you've gone too far. Once we break that way, turn around. Got it.
00:48:10
Speaker
What happens if we don't walk on the goblin paths? Is something terrible going to happen if we don't walk on the goblin paths? It's just the paths we use. I mean, your people, when you're running around like idiots in our forest, don't use the paths. I see. That's true. Let's go! And so I'm just going to start walking. Yeah, no, we're going in. Into the forest we go.
00:48:28
Speaker
Okay, well, shockingly enough, you all managed to avoid every single combat encounter that I had laid out for that adventure. So I hope you all have enjoyed a whole lot of talking this episode, but that's where we're going to wrap up the episode. That was honest to God. My goal was to avoid as much combat at the beginning as possible, just to see if we could build characters a little bit. The heroes are headed into the fated forest to find out the fate of young Jacob. So join us again next time.
00:48:55
Speaker
And once again, I am your dungeon master, Eric. And I am Philip. I'm Trevor. I'm Jeff. And thank you for listening. I'll see you next week.