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Ep. 73 City Trawling - De Profundis
165 Plays3 years ago
Helena and Carstan fan the flames of revolution, Folly lurks in the deep for answers, Robin befriends a local bookkeeper and Claude is on the hunt for a double headed Orc...
Follow us on our Twitters - @FellowshipTable
Intro written and produced by Joseph McDade - https://josephmcdade.com/
The Fellowship Party Twitter Pages:
- The DM/Mark - @HastilyRolledDM
- Drago/Ian - @IRolledA1
- Folly/Callum - @TheD20Gamer
- Princess Helena/Casey - @unicorncrit
- Carstan/Will - @Natural20Will
- Robin/Darren - @DarrenPage06
- Claude/Danny - @totalpartythrlz
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Transcript
Introduction & Humor
00:00:00
Speaker
So I'm not going to tell you how to get the password, otherwise that defeats the point of having a password if I tell you how to get it, because then I might as well just tell you the password.
00:00:34
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of the Fellowship of the Tabletop. We are a live play 5e D&D podcast set in the magical homebrewed world of Aerith. My name is Mark, I am the Dungeon Master and also with us for today's episode we have Will who plays the human bard, Karstan. You don't seem to do your hello very energetically anymore. Don't I? No, normally you go, hello welcome to this week's episode, but you didn't, you didn't, yeah, I'm, but it's cool, it's fine, you know, if you want to change that's fine.
00:01:01
Speaker
Thanks for the note. And we've also got Callum, who plays the new sorcerer, Folly Fizzlebang the Ninth. Hello, and I'm here not to criticize my idea. Thank you. We've got Darren, who plays the human fighter, Rogue Robin.
00:01:14
Speaker
Holy, holy, holy, haven't got anything prepared, Batman.
Recap of Previous Events
00:01:18
Speaker
We've got 45 minutes. We've got Casey, who plays the human champion, Helen, a sleet guard. Hello. And we've got Danny, who plays the human cleric, Claude. You're doing a great job, Mark. We're in your corner. Thanks, Danny. We love you, man. I'm glad someone is. On last week's episode. A lot of you. Shut up. Magic item will.
00:01:40
Speaker
last week's episode of the Fellowship at the Tabletop we started to explore ourselves or not explore ourselves. I learned that I like long walks on the beach and that I'm an every spiritual person and that I might be a Christian discovering Jesus, it's been good.
00:02:00
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, good. I'm glad you had a good time discovering yourself. We had a good time discovering Goldview. Once we'd entered into the city, we started to split off and start to cover a number of avenues ourselves. Helena and Cast, I went off to get back into Helena's home, into the palace in Goldview. Folly and the others clawed.
00:02:20
Speaker
and Robin and Tally went off in search of a number of things, mainly cast on taking them on a little adventure round to Elthir's house, which turned out not to be Elthir's house, but a shop that was misnamed or was previously named the Elven Ear, and has since changed its name to the Tiefling's Ear since Claude was last there. So going on a bit of a wild goose chase with some of Claude's magical adventures around Goldview,
00:02:49
Speaker
We ended up in the live nutritionist's library where
00:02:53
Speaker
Robin
Folly & Claude's Quest
00:02:54
Speaker
and Tali were discussing with the librarian there a number of tomes and books that they might be interested in purchasing or borrowing which they couldn't borrow because they hadn't got a library card and actually Robin ended up paying 10 gold and taking the books anyway. They then finally finally asked about another book that maybe the party might be looking for and he said yes he knew some of them might know some more information about
00:03:19
Speaker
the book The World Away, which was the holy book based around the faith of mixoas, which is the book they need, and along with the onyx reaver, allegedly to end the blight.
00:03:33
Speaker
And that's where we left off. We're going to pick up with this week's episode with Folly and Karsten as you start to make your way across the city of Goldview. Folly, if you remember, you were searching for an entrance to one of the stock magic, the stock magic holdout, which is a kind of secret labyrinth of old abandoned waterways underneath the city that are used for the purpose of hiding the clandestine and now slightly illegal practice of stock magic.
00:04:03
Speaker
You find yourself walking down an extension of Ashcroft Road, which is one of the long main roads, the arteries that enter into the city of Goldview, along with Claude after your adventures through other parts of the city. You've just dropped off Robin and Tali at the library.
00:04:21
Speaker
and you're now making your way further through towards the entrance to the stock magic holdout was there anything you'd like to discuss on the way as you're walking by the way it's uh relatively bright still the sun's still up a number of people are walking up and down the street no one's paying any attention to you what what what do you think you're going to find here but knowledge i hope okay and i'm sure you could
00:04:48
Speaker
possibly agree there, Claude, that my knowledge of stock magic could do with a little bit of, shall we say, levelling up. I've blown myself up far too many times what I'd like to remember. Yeah, it would maybe be worth getting a bit better at it. Yes, yes, that is lovely to hear. Or walking away from it entirely, which would be my suggestion. I believe stock magic has more uses than what you might permit it, Claude.
00:05:16
Speaker
Yeah, waiting to see that come true. Hopefully I never have to come to too much of an extreme to prove it. I tell you what, if you go to this place and it turns out to be an absolute dragon's horde of goodies and you have a great time and everything,
00:05:43
Speaker
And say that you really felt the need to do what Folly does when he goes to centres of people in like towns and cities and stuff. Say like you get your nice new stock magic ability and you're like, I really want to burn another pub. I've got exactly the pub I'd like you to burn, by the way. You want me to burn a pub?
00:06:10
Speaker
Yeah, like, you know how you do. Is it always, I know one was an orphanage, one was, you know. I wouldn't say it's exactly my thing, but I'm not exactly saying no right now either. But it's like, you know, oh, we're not fully visited because, you know, um, one really poor business and our city has gone. That's the sort of thing.
00:06:30
Speaker
I thought that was your calling card. Well, I'm not going to dispute it for certain. Which pub did you have in mind? It's a little shithole, right? It's called The Lodge. I used to get bullied a lot whenever I went in there, which was once. Everyone I work with, when I used to work here, they always used to go there for social after work events, and they never invited me.
00:07:00
Speaker
So one time I decided to just go uninvited and I was picked on, laughed at, teased, tickled, all sorts. I'd like to see it burnt down to the ground if you're willing to do your thing. What did they say exactly, Claude?
00:07:21
Speaker
I don't remember, but it made me like have tears in my eyes and there was comments about my intelligence. There was comments about my enormous wealth. There was comments about the enormous wealth. Yeah, I don't know what that meant either. They started saying like, oh, he's such an idiot. He's sitting on all this money that he's never picked up from his wages.
00:07:51
Speaker
And then the cats used to talk about me. Yes, they used to be around us at the moment. Shoo, cat, shoo! And Folly's just going to stop gently shoving these cats along with his stick into walking along. The cat just hisses at you and continues to follow. Folly's going to hiss back like, bah! Basically, Folly, lots of very nice people go there and they make you feel very small if you don't mind me saying something, you know, because you are quite small.
00:08:20
Speaker
They're feeling smaller and being smaller, two very, very different things. Yeah. You know, if you told me, oh, of course, there's a place over there and those people used to bully me, I'd knock them into tomorrow, you know?
00:08:37
Speaker
So if you get the urge to blow something up because you've just gone into that place and you've got loads of cool things, that's the place to do it. I see. Perhaps you could put it in the general direction of this building you might like to be burned down.
00:08:55
Speaker
As long as it's still there, because the elfier's house changed name the last time I was here, but that place had a lot of activity. I imagine it's still there. I think, Mark, it's number three on your map. I need to open the map. It's in the west of the city. And I'll just describe landmarks and stuff near it and where you can find it. Yeah.
00:09:23
Speaker
Okay, and you do a pretty good job of that, making clear it's just kind of like, if you're coming into the city left off Union Pass, it's next major road on the left. Yeah, you can make pretty clear assertion of that. It's the biggest building in the area anyway, so I think Follett would be able to figure out where that is from there, or at least you can ask people on the way. So you continue walking down the street,
00:09:49
Speaker
And a number of people walk past you, none of them of which are interested in use. Claude, you're still in your full Sleetguard Surge gear with your helmet on. Folly, as being a little person of your own volition, there is very little interest in the two of you, as you know, the abcriscrot looking for large groups of people with very specific characters within that, and neither one of you really draw any attention.
Folly's Solo Exploration
00:10:14
Speaker
You continue to walk for a number of minutes as this conversation takes place and finally you get taken fully across another main road down an alley and you take a right. Down that alley you continue walking as it continues to narrow and narrow and narrow. It's kind of the backs of shops, refuse barrels, crates are left on the side as the alleyway gets narrower and narrower. You take one lot more corner and what you see in front of you is a dead end.
00:10:43
Speaker
At the end of that dead end, though, is a stone square on the floor with a grating across it. And as you approach it, you can see below the grating are stairs going down underground, basically. Claude, to the best of your knowledge, this is what is referred to as one of the entrances to the stock magic holiday. This is the place, Folly.
00:11:10
Speaker
And Follie's just going to look around for a brief moment, still looking for a door. And then obviously realise he's kind of torn you right in. Oh, you mean down there? Yeah, I know it looks a bit suspicious. This was always on our radar, you know, as people who worked for the King. But I was always too afraid to go down there on account of being turned into the toad that one time that I did go down there.
00:11:40
Speaker
Four weeks, Folly. Four weeks is it, Rob. Oh God. It really changes you, you know. I'm sure it gave you a fresh perspective on things, most certainly. Yeah, I mean, I like flies. They're really tasty, actually. I'll trust you on that one. How did you come back, by the way? Four weeks is a long time for... I don't like to talk about it. I see.
00:12:06
Speaker
very unusual to just wear off. I think perhaps you had a stock magic angel looking after you and turned you back into your normal-ish. No, no, Folly, someone squished me thinking I was a rodent or something and then I came back into my form. I actually, thinking about it, it's quite similar to the eagle situation when they said, oh, we'll just kill you and then you'll come back as Claude. I think that's what happened to me when I was a frog.
00:12:38
Speaker
And do you want to know who fucking squished me? Do you want to know? Oddly enough, I do, yes. Fucking Cassandra, who works at the lodge. I see. And is that for the reason that you want that place burned down? Yes. And thank you for making up more NPCs for me, Danny. Thank you. I've never heard this side of you, Claude. I haven't seen it. It's rather enjoyable.
00:13:00
Speaker
Well, mate, you know, this sort of thing that you're hearing now is my life before the Blessed entered it. I was unhinged. I was quite wimpy. Not an awful lot's changed. But it's not going to look for long-ly into the street. I think I would have liked pre-Deathclaw. Sounds like fun.
00:13:30
Speaker
Alas, I will pursue my endeavours. By all means, you are welcome to come, but I assume that it is not your... No. No. I'll check in on you in an hour, from a distance, and if, you know, if anything goes wrong, I'll blow up the whole sewer system to find you. If you haven't heard of me by tonight, then yes, please do blow up the sewer system. That's fine.
00:13:55
Speaker
OK, I said, you can find me down that way and I'll point back in the direction that we came. Look for the double up pub. I'm just going to be round the back alley praying and laughing through the window. Very well there, Claude. I shall leave you about your business. Before you go, I'm afraid I'm not the strongest of people, but would you mind just pointing to the great... Oh!
00:14:22
Speaker
Can you check for any sort of enchantment? Yes, yes, of course. And Folly's just going to wave his quarter-snap over it. He's not actually doing anything, he's just waving it. Even slightly cautious now. Folly's just going to eat on the shore at this stage, but he's still going to slowly put his hand down to it. Reaching out, reaching out. It's as far away as what his arms will actually let him before he just gently puts a hand onto the grate. Just to see if anything happens.
00:14:52
Speaker
You feel the cold steel of the grate? See you Claude, nothing. Perfectly fine. Insight check. Okay. This looks like gaslighting to me. This is where the DM tells you to make a deck save. 2025 on Insight, do I think Folly is telling the truth?
00:15:20
Speaker
Do I have to counter-roll it, or... Not particularly, I mean I... No, is it just up to you? You can roll... I mean, I didn't really let you have a chance to say anything in response, really. Oh, you did, did you see... Yeah, deception or persuasion? Depends if you're telling the truth or not. I'll go with persuasion then. Yeah. What did you roll, Claude? 25. Son of a bitch, I rolled 24.
00:15:48
Speaker
You're telling the truth anyway. I know, but shit. Yes, Claude, you see straight through his truth and see it for what it really is, the truth. All right, Folly, I trust you. And I've got to limber up my back and get two hands around the grate and rip it. All right, give me a strength check, please, Claude. That'd be a nine. The gate doesn't budge.
00:16:17
Speaker
It stays perfectly still as you get your back into it. It creaks a little bit, but stays perfectly still. What's wrong? Um, it's quite heavy. I'm gonna, I'm gonna need some help for it. Okay, very well, let's see what I can find.
00:16:37
Speaker
If I was going to just try and use this quarterstaff a little bit as leverage, I was kind of going to stick it in between the grades and just kind of push down on it a little bit. Just try and give it a little bit of nudge up. Okay. We'll consider that. We'll add four. It'll add five to the roll. Claude, do you want to roll again? Another strength check. I'm not that strong. Twenty-eight. If we're adding five, it's twenty-eight.
00:17:03
Speaker
Fantastic, yep, so, wow, okay, so with Folly and the quarterstaff in the grate, Folly's kind of putting your whole body weight onto the top of it. Claude, as you go, you realize the first time you grabbed it, you actually grabbed a part of the...
00:17:18
Speaker
the ground, that's why I wasn't moving. And you had one foot on the grate as you tried to lift it, hence why it didn't move. So as you step off and you really get everything lined up, you're ready for your big lift. It just absolutely flies off so much so that it flies like 20 foot in the air. And Folly, can you make a Dex saving throw, please?
00:17:39
Speaker
I can try. Oh, 22. Yeah, you're fine. As the gate grate comes, flies up high into the air, and as it comes back down, Folly, you manage to sidestep at the last minute as it hits unceremoniously in the mud next to you where you previously were. The gate is now, the grate is now open dramatically. Bloody hell, what's up with your stick? No, I am.
00:18:07
Speaker
I'm a magic user though, Claude. You know, sticks can sometimes have a lot more power. You should always be weary of the stick. I think you're going to be fine down there. I think so too. Why don't you go away from me and wait for the arms of the pub? Yeah, I'm going to go now. Have fun, Folly. I'm going to walk away because I'm quite terrified of how strong Folly is capable of being.
00:18:37
Speaker
Amazing. So as you slowly back off, you're heading towards the Double Ork Pub, you make your way down the street and you disappear out of Folly's View. Folly, in front of you is these dusty and disheveled old and dilapidated steps that lead down into the darkness. That's a lot of D's in that sentence, no pun intended. So that's what's in front of you. You cannot hear anything except for the general noise of the city around you. You cannot smell anything and looking down, you don't have dark vision, do you?
00:19:06
Speaker
I think yes I do 60 feet. As you look down the staircase just goes down down down down down as far as you can see you know it does stop and you can see you can see kind of slabs of slabs of stone on the base of it with a little layer of water on it as you can see the bottom of it probably about 30 feet down. Okay so he's going to kind of just keep walking down until he does eventually get to the bottom is it just like a really shallow level?
00:19:33
Speaker
Yeah, we're talking like literally like a couple of centimeters of water. Nothing, nothing huge. Okay. He gets that and he realizes obviously what he's treading in. He's not stupid. This is basically part of the underground system of
00:19:45
Speaker
gold view. So he's just going to look around for a bit and just see if you can see anything that would indicate which way to go. Okay, so as you as you reach that bottom layer, the path goes in one direction straight ahead in front of you, this thin layer of water, there are outcroppings of small rocks, the walls are, it's like an arched, an arched tunnel, but it's all made of like stone with purposefully built stone archways, the whole way along this, okay.
00:20:12
Speaker
Off to the side you can hear running water now that you've reached a lower level and you can see off into down this tunnel, triggers of water in from either side at specific moments. You can tell this is some kind of inlet for other parts of the old sewer system now not being used properly. Looking down you do see that the path curves off slightly to the right about 20 feet further down in front of you if you were to walk down.
00:20:36
Speaker
OK, Folly was very apprehensive at this stage, but he's going to slowly walk down and follow the path as best he can. He is very interested at the moment, because this seems very, very well crafted. So he's got that kind of thought as he's going down all of this. So he's kind of, as he gets to these archways that seem to be really well built, as it were, really neatly done, he's just kind of running his hand up and down and investigating them.
00:21:04
Speaker
a little bit just to see if there's a anything that stands out or be just anything that looks kind of like a sign or something like that. He understands that all stock magic stuff is very, very low key everywhere he's been.
00:21:22
Speaker
this place is no different but there's always some kind of trail normally that will point the direction of where you need to go. Nice okay yeah brilliant as you're making your way down it yes you do notice this design is relatively old as well you do see these outcrops these gaps in the stonework along the way and there are like little mini waterfalls of water trickles of water coming down which fills your ears with this cacophony of kind of water if you will obviously why not
00:21:51
Speaker
As you run your hands along, can you give me an investigation check, please? Yes, I can.
00:21:59
Speaker
22. As you're running your hands along it, you're feeling all the different rocks. It's all got a slight mossy film to it because of the water and the density of the water in the air as well. And it all feels a bit filmy as you run your hands along. It all seems relatively normal. Even the cracks, crevices, missing sections seem to have always been there and none of them seem to give away any push, anything. You continue walking for quite some time and the darkness around you
00:22:24
Speaker
you can assume for everyone else you have in your dark vision seems to encapsulate you no longer see the stairway further back as you continue to walk this bend round as you continue to run your hand along suddenly you do your fingers reach a crevice which you know for almost certain has been done more recently.
00:22:42
Speaker
As you run your fingers along it, and as you look at it, the design you can see is that of a, it's like a Y, but the central, a center line has been pushed up. So it's kind of like a fork, almost with a trident, almost three bits sticking up, but in the shape of a Y. You know that to be a symbol, one of the many symbols that are used in runes, but also a symbol that is used to describe and discern stock magic.
00:23:08
Speaker
or places of stock magic because mainly it is one of the symbols you would use in the writing of a stock magic scroll. So you instantly recognize that and you feel that is etched into the wall at your height, so relatively low for that of a human or kind of a humanoid. It's quite a low level and you do notice that has been etched in probably a couple of years ago.
Goblin Guardian Encounter
00:23:30
Speaker
Is it pointing in any particular direction, like pointing up or in the direction I'm going? It's pointing the way a Y would point, so it's kind of got the three points upwards and then the kind of neck of it obviously down, so it's kind of just sat there. It's probably like three slabs up from the bottom. Okay, if I was probably going to assume at that stage that at the very least there's something to say, you're going the right way.
00:23:55
Speaker
So he's just going to carry on walking along this path and now he's keeping an eye out for more brunette symbols. The same can be different, he's not too sure, but he's still just walking on his path even more cautious now because he...
00:24:08
Speaker
possibly has encountered stock magic mods in the past that definitely don't want to be discovered and may have laden traps along the way. So now he knows he's definitely on the right track, even though it could be a bit old, he's being extremely cautious. As you walk further down you do notice more of the same symbol. It's never a different one, it's always the same one at different points and almost you're attuned to where this would be and when it will come up.
00:24:31
Speaker
As you take one final, it's a sharp left corner. By a sharp corner, it still arcs quite delicately round. You feel like you're reaching the edge of a city or the edge of this old sewer system when the city might have been smaller in the past. It takes a sharp left turn and suddenly in front of you, you see this sheer
00:24:48
Speaker
Concrete, not concrete, sorry, the sheer stone wall blocking your path. It's noticeably different for two major reasons. One, it's totally different stone to stone that is used all the way around you. And two, it has a vibrating kind of magical aura to it.
00:25:04
Speaker
There is, and it's like perfect, there is one single mark on it, it's this kind of light grey colour that seems to almost hum with energy, but it's smooth, it looks absolutely smooth, it's not made up of single stones, it's just one single smooth piece of rock.
00:25:24
Speaker
right okay um i think follow is just going to start hitting the wall with his quarter staff he's trying various things he's possibly maybe trying to find a weak point in it if there is such a spot so he's kind of tapping along different levels along his quarter staff just as trying to discern any kind of
00:25:45
Speaker
noise differential as you're tapping it sounds almost identical the whole way along especially along the top as you follow along as you move into the middle bang bang bang bang bang along again nothing really seems to change but you can hear it echoing behind you but you can't hear it echoing out in front of you obviously because there's a wall there which gives you a sense of how thick this thing might be you're talking a minimum of like a foot maybe two-thirds thickness as you're moving along what you start to hear you start to hear really really faintly right in the middle uh almost a low
00:26:16
Speaker
You can almost hear a voice on the other side, very, very, very faint. It almost sounds conversational. And all of a sudden, the central portion of this perfect stone wall just literally disappears, a circular portion disappears, a perfect circle. And this head just appears through it. It's the head of a goblin or a goblin-looking creature. Sticks his head out.
00:26:45
Speaker
What? Oh, hello. Down here. Yes, sorry, pleasure to meet you. I'm looking for the stock magic in Purim kind of thing. It's not here. Wrong place. Are you sure? Because this seems very, very secretive. Yeah, for good reason. Do you know the password? Password? No, that's not right.
00:27:15
Speaker
Look, I'm afraid nobody told me a password. I'm here to see Claire Lightfoot. Never heard of her. If you don't know the password, I'm not letting you in. How about, let me in or I'll burn you. Not gonna work. Nice try.
00:27:36
Speaker
Listen, I don't know how you find your way down here or why you came down. We've got serious problem at the moment. We're being hunted. Hunted a lot, you see. And so I'm not just gonna let any fucker come in. Thank you very much. Especially one that doesn't know the password. I'll get my balls cut off.
00:27:52
Speaker
then how could I find out the password nobody told me about the password yeah but if I let me know before you go for this trip this happened once before and I told someone how to get the password then they got the password then we had to change the password because the wrong person got in because he wasn't someone that should have the password it was someone else right so I'm not going to tell you how to get the password otherwise that defeats the point of having a password if I tell you how to get it because then I might as well just tell you the password
00:28:17
Speaker
But you clearly are much smarter
Obciska Guards' Plans
00:28:19
Speaker
than I first gave you credit for, sir. Very well done. They don't put me on this entrance for no reason. No, no, no. Clearly not. Clearly not. I mean, I'm sure nobody's been able to get the password out of you in the past, have they? No. Clearly you would know it, though, wouldn't you? But how do you know you know it? What if I've been given a different password to what you've been given? Well, it's all the same password, isn't it? Well, I don't know. You'll have to tell me. What, tell you the password?
00:28:45
Speaker
Well, I have my password, but how is my password the same as your password? Well, I've got my password written on this side of the wall. It's built into the wall. It won't open unless the word is said. What word? Well, the word for the password is on the other side of this wall. He's not having any of it, mate. I know your games. I don't think I'm not done to this. I'm not on guard for no reason. The reason this place hasn't been entered by the Obriska or by the Magikarim or by anyone else is because of the fact that people like me do my job properly.
00:29:12
Speaker
Now, I'm very sorry. You might have good purpose with Claire Lightfoot here, but unless you're the password, I cannot be letting you in. You must understand the secrecy. Yes, yes, I suppose I do understand. You're still there? Hello? I can't speak very well in the dark. There's no torches out there. I can't see shit. Would you prefer a light? Yes.
00:29:40
Speaker
Very well. And Follie's just going to use his mage hand, bring out a torch and cast Control Flames on it for the creature in the world. Yeah, and you do see, ah, it causes us for a second. He's just a goblin. He's a goblin. And he's just sticking his head through. But he's quite well dressed, actually, clean for a goblin. You know, you haven't seen a clean dressed goblin in a while, actually. But the last time you did see a goblin, they were also part of the stock magic trade. And so starts to give you an inkling towards
00:30:08
Speaker
That maybe this is a legitimate a legitimate place of interest for stock magic But he kind of squints for a bit in his large black eyes and his pointed ears sticking out this hole You can't really see much behind it as the the hole almost moves around the shape of his next we put his head Through and it kind of shortens around his next you can't see what's behind him. Even if you were a political height Sorry Thank you You are
00:30:35
Speaker
Listen, I can't tell you the password, otherwise it defeats the point of the password as we've already previously been through. But, um... I don't know, make an aim for yourself. Do something, uh... And how about a demonstration? You can't demonstrate it to me, that doesn't make any sense. I can't just let you in. I can't... See, then I've got to tell you the password. I can't tell you the password, you see. I'm banned from telling the password. How might one make a name for themselves in this town? Well...
00:31:05
Speaker
You've heard of the Obciska, haven't you? Yes, yes, I'm very well aware. I've already had my dealings with them, shall we say. Making things difficult. The Magikarum don't have much power here particularly, but the Obciska, they're kind of doing the work for them. I don't know how to burn them down. It has to do that a lot. Yeah, that gives us a bad name then as well, you see. Yes, I suppose so.
00:31:30
Speaker
Listen, um, you, uh, convince Lucy at the, uh, at the police station, at the, at the center for policing to, fuck it. I don't know, release all stock magic prisoners and, uh, come back and I'll give you a password. There you go. Good luck. Very well. Thank you very much for your time.
00:31:57
Speaker
Follies kind of disheartened, so he's just going to extinguish the fire and put the torch back in his backpack. You're welcome. I mean, that was a legitimate offer, but it's fucking hard. Anyway, so yeah, and suddenly the wall just closes around his head and there's nothing there but the light grey wall and rock blocking your way.
00:32:20
Speaker
OK, Folly is certainly a little bit disheartened by this. He was hoping to get some kind of easy access to it, but there you go. Is he aware of where the sense of policing would be in this town? Has he had that information pointed out to him yet?
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of those buildings almost stand out different from the others because of their importance and they're normally taller, et cetera. So yeah, be easy enough to find, absolutely. As you turn around though, you start to hear further down the corridor, the noise, a conversation of two people having a conversation, hushed tones heading towards you. Okay, how high is this area that we're in at the moment? So how high is the actual ceiling?
00:33:06
Speaker
it's tight, it's probably sitting at about nine feet, so a human would fill the majority of it with about two or three feet above. However, there are crevices and cracks and kind of gaps in the walls off to either side, which you could hide yourself in if you were inferring what I think you're inferring. Yeah, Folly's basically going to try, he's going to investigate in the area around himself and just try and find somewhere where you can
00:33:33
Speaker
hideout okay and you do manage to find one just off to the side there quite a large gap in the rock that you could push back into and what you notice is you see a torch light start to get closer and closer and closer and pass by you i'm assuming you've moved a little bit away from this um the entrance to
00:33:49
Speaker
I wouldn't be exactly at the end. Yeah, exactly. To read a little bit back, and you've hidden yourself well, you see a torch light pass by you in two voices, and you see the unmistakable hoods of two members of the CRISPR dark blue gold trim as they walk towards the same gray walkway, sorry, gray stoned area that you previously were, and they start investigating the area too. And you can hear them hash tones, and there's definitely saw him down here.
00:34:19
Speaker
We'll have to keep looking around, see if we can find any sign of him. And you can hear those kind of mattered things said as they're kind of investigating the wall, talking about someone. What would you like to do? Folly is... He's scared at this point. He knows the power of the UPCRISCO from the previous fight. He knows they're not to be
00:34:44
Speaker
trifold with he is basically listening in trying to get as much information of what they're actually doing there as a can obviously they followed somebody down is it that they are following folly or have they followed somebody else down here and they've gone back he's not too sure so he's discerning for keywords that possibly could be part of a description or something like that as to who they're actually after but he is not under any means revealing himself in stealth mode right now
00:35:11
Speaker
Okay, and as you're quietly parched up there, listening to the conversation, trying to pick out as many keywords as you can, we're just going to leave you there for just now under that really tense situation in the dark until we return to see what happens.
Helena & Karstan's Political Maneuvering
00:35:24
Speaker
As we bring ourselves out to the sewer and pan across the city, we move from the deep, dim, dark, dripping underworld that is the first layer of the sewer system in Goldsview into plush opulence and beauty.
00:35:42
Speaker
aesthetic, the pleasing backdrop of greenery, colors, trees of all colors as we make our way into the gardens of Tiriani, where we join Karstan and Helena as you make your way full-on after leaving and dealing with a very, very difficult member of the
00:36:02
Speaker
member of the guard working for the abcriscoa, working for Delmon Trace at the door, we see you making your way along the path to come into the gardens as that was your next port of call. Is there anything you want to say to each other before you enter into the gardens? Helena will be quite conscious of everything that's obviously happened and that she's at the moment feeling quite alone in her hometown
00:36:30
Speaker
she's probably not gonna be full of conversation. She probably looks a little bit more perplexed and a bit more troubled, just trying to question, or she's questioning a lot that's just happened and she's trying to find answers in herself, trying to think about these questions that she's going to talk to, you know, sort of bring to Tiriani when she's able to sort of speak with her or to the gardens, so whatever message that she gets back.
00:36:58
Speaker
from the gardens, she's sort of wording it in her head before she's gonna speak it. Okay, and Karsten, you're following along and you can see the princess kind of deep in thought. Is there anything you'd want to do or say? Karsten is going to be checking for a tale. He's gonna be very conscious of the fact that this city is essentially under
00:37:26
Speaker
the control of the Obcisca and is essentially an occupied city and it's all very strange now all of a sudden this idea that the Obcisca appear to be sort of occupying the city and the royal family have been essentially disappeared. So he's going to be watching his surroundings trying to make sure that they're not being followed and that kind of stuff mainly.
00:37:54
Speaker
Okie dokie, so just kind of on watch and everything like that. I'm going to do a scurry with your natural perception. Anyone that kind of almost looks twice at you, you're very aware of that. And no one seems to around this area, especially. It seems quite quiet. As you are making your way along, you do hear Helena and Carson from behind you. Wait, wait.
00:38:15
Speaker
As you turn around, you see one of the guards that you previously were speaking to, one of the city guards, running up after you, kind of looking behind him and then kind of making his way quickly towards you both. Wait, wait! Is this the one that started eating his food in front of us? No, the other one. Oh, okay.
00:38:32
Speaker
Well, what is it? What do you need? And he kind of quickly looks around to no one's kind of looking at us, slightly bows his head, Your Highness. I wanted to just tell you what I knew. It's more rumoured than anything else, but might be useful. You're not rubbing more salt in the wound, are you? I promise you I would not do that. I do not serve these people. I serve you. I serve the Royal Family. There are still many of us who do. Then tell me what you know.
00:39:01
Speaker
dumb on traces calling the shots in the city. I'm sure you heard from that chap there that you know that's true. Yes. Listen, it might be just rumour but the last I heard the last I heard which was from a chap in the lodge a while ago, was that your brother
00:39:22
Speaker
the other brother your mother the queen and your king sorry my king your father had been escorted to the horal empire for some warm weather recuperation as they called it did you say mother was with them apparently so but like i said this is just rumor i don't know how true it is i don't know how much i can trust from cassandra of the lodge anyway but she's never led me astray
00:39:50
Speaker
Then we need to go and see her, Carstan, if she knows more than anybody else can tell us. Yes, I suppose that would be the sensible place for us to try and find some more information. How long ago was this? A matter of months ago, I think. It's been like this for a while and it's getting worse. Again, it's just rumours, it's just hearsay, but what else I hear is that they're stepping things up now since looking for these seven
00:40:20
Speaker
since the attack on Evishaya, they're framing it all against the triumvirate, against the religions, and they're framing it as this big attack on independence of the kingdoms, of everything, and they're riling people up. The last I hear is they're starting these eight posts in the city, these checkpoints.
00:40:43
Speaker
I'm not sure if they've opened them up yet or not, but I heard him speaking earlier about it. There's a checkpoint where they force you to allow a member of the abcrisco to detect thoughts, to read whether or not you know anything. That's ridiculous. It might be rumour. I hope it is.
00:41:02
Speaker
But I thought I should warn you that if you do want to keep your identity quiet, I've spoken to the other guy on the door. He won't say anything. He didn't realise who you were. We still serve you and we will serve you, but you must be careful. What do they want to detect? I'm confused. They want to find me. Sorry, what's your name?
00:41:23
Speaker
Roderick. Roderick Terry. I'm no one. I'm just a guard. I'm just someone who liked things the way they were. I wanted to be courteous to you, Roderick. I wanted to call you by your name. Oh, your Majesty. There's no need for that, honestly, please. I appreciate it. You're the only one that's been loyal so far in this city. There are more of us.
00:41:50
Speaker
I know many, I know many in the city that would but then speak out against the Obciskra. As you can understand, their power is innumerable compared to just what we are as the city guard. But listen, me and the guys I've been talking quietly every now and then in the pub
00:42:09
Speaker
late nights after a couple of beers. And if you want the city back, your brother's the best way into it. I mean, he's a legend. He could, if your family are in the Heral Empire, he could stage a coup. He could lead a revolt against the abcriskra. If you get Lucian Blightbane involved in the retaking of his city, in your city, in your family city, that could really turn the tide. That could draw people out.
00:42:36
Speaker
That might be the answer that we need to save, and he's looking around again, to save the city from the abcrisca, from what's happening. There are lots of forces that work in here that don't want them here, but they've got the money and they've got the power. You sort of see Helena's face turned from something quite solemn and bewildered to something that's a little bit more positive and hopeful, and she looks at Carstan with a bit of a smile on her face.
00:43:05
Speaker
I think I know where to go. Okay. If ever you are, sorry, he'll just, the NPC's just gonna fuck off now. If ever you need me, I always hear bits and pieces. I'm on the gates most mornings. I never do the night shift, not anymore. I worked plenty of those when I was younger. So, if ever you need someone to listen to, a loyal friend, I'm always there.
00:43:36
Speaker
Thank you, Roderick. Roderick, are people on the lookout for us? Do we need to change our appearance and that kind of stuff? Are people going to be looking out for us? After your discussion you just had, no, I think they're arrogant. I think they're going to let you wonder how you want and then I'm not sure. They seem to let you go. I don't understand. If you wanted you dead, you'd be dead by now. I just don't think we're safe anywhere. No.
00:44:06
Speaker
I think they're waiting for their right opportunity moment. I'm sorry this has happened. It's never meant to be this way. Me too. I'll return to my post Your Majesty, but if you need anything else, you know where to find me. And he's going to turn and start making his way off after a solemn and very small, subtle bow as he looks around to make sure no one can see. And he moves back to his post. Castan, I think we need to speak with Cassandra at the lodge who says that they've seen
00:44:35
Speaker
My mother, my father, my brother. I need to hear it from the horse's mouth, what happened to them. And then from there, I think we need to, Lucian. I know that he's on the front line. I know it's going to be a bit of a trek, but whether or not you decide to come with me, that's your choice, but I know that's where I'll need to go if I need to see my family again, if I need to reclaim my city. But we should try and
00:45:02
Speaker
I agree that we should try and, you know, rid this place of the oppression, but we should also be careful any, you know, if armed conflict of retaking the city is only one option. And normally when an army besieges a city, even if it is your brother coming to retake the city, the populace will suffer. It's not an easy way of taking back a city. History has shown us that.
00:45:31
Speaker
Well, listen, if we need to defeat this blight before we visit my mother, then that's what we need to do. But you're right, we should... I'm not too afraid to say if I'm on the first. She is my priority. But if I can't find her, then this might be our only shot. We should go to Cassandra and see what she knows. But I know you want to try and hear it from the horse's mouth, but it may be that she's only heard it second or third hand as well. So be prepared to not get
00:45:58
Speaker
many concrete answers, just more rumours. Well, we should try and get moving. I think the last thing we want is these checkpoints to start showing up. Yes, I'm still a bit confused as to what they are. Can I just have a moment in the gardens? Yeah. I would just like to feel something familiar and pleasant.
00:46:27
Speaker
And Helen is going to walk towards the gardens, walk around the gardens, see, you know, she'll sort of touch a few petals and trees and, you know, she's in that same place that she used to visit as a child and she feels connected to her mother a little bit more when she's there. So that feels good for her. And she will just whisper under her breath
00:46:55
Speaker
Anything you can give me, any sign. Tiriani, I'll do whatever it takes. You enter in the gardens, Helena, and you see the well-worn gravel paths in front of you that seem to wind all around this garden, meandering almost like a free-flowing river.
00:47:14
Speaker
A cacophony of colour surrounds you as it always seems to all year round of magentas, reds, blues, teals, topaz, yellows, greens, opulent blues, whites that seem to eminently flower all year round almost powered by some other celestial being.
00:47:31
Speaker
The trees above you almost reach up arcing, almost trying to reach up and touch the sky itself with these beautiful array of greens, oranges, burnt orange, browns and their leaves that never seem to change in their tint and cue and they stay.
00:47:47
Speaker
perpetually in that autumnal state of beautiful color, meaning that light entering through it has this beautiful orange glow as the entire garden is filled with a sense of nature. You seem to escape from the high walled, well-trimmed hedges that run alongside the outside of the garden controlled by the city.
00:48:05
Speaker
the insight which is obviously controlled by the priests of Tiriani. As you walk down you see no one really particularly. The odd bench is placed made out of the stump of an old tree that was felled many years ago that have made into small benches that seem to dot around and
00:48:22
Speaker
incubate certain areas within the garden but it's very quiet and serene in a meditative space as you remember even when you were very younger running around them looking for good hiding points to hide from your brother Sebastian it seems to have a new meaning now to you as you walk your way through it a cool breeze enters in blowing this gorgeous smell of pollen and
00:48:45
Speaker
flowers through your noses and again that ever-present smell of lavender something you instantly link to that of Tiriani. As you make your way through you come to one of your favorite kind of stumps of the gardens where what's happened is it's a very very large oak tree that was wanting to cut down and what's happened is the inside has been bored out and filled with soil and it's become like a small blessing patch where gardens
00:49:14
Speaker
Well, it's referred to as tending the seedlings, which is one of the holy prayers that's done to Tiriani and a form of meditation where people would go and plant a single seed into the soil in this area in order to bring across a sense of calm to the worshipper and make them really become attuned without nature and that of themselves. And you see lined up along the side a row of
00:49:36
Speaker
a mixture of seeds. They're never labeled, they never are. That's not the point. The point is to enter a seed and to calm yourself. And as you do say, what you previously did said, you'd probably be tending to the seedlings, doing one of those little rituals that you were taught when you were younger in order to kind of say your piece to Tiriani. Is there anything else you want to do while you're in there, Helena?
00:50:00
Speaker
I'm just going to take a deep breath and, you know, take it all in, have a little bit of, probably even five, 10 minutes of just doing this where the castan's going to stand aside and watch or, you know, whatever the castan's doing. But Helena will just be on her hands and knees. She'll take it in. She'll touch a lot of the soil of the weeds and the flowers around her. The base of the tree trunk. She'll tend to, yeah, the little potted plants and the wild flowers and that sort of stuff.
00:50:29
Speaker
and just take it in, smell the soil, a lot of earthly familiarities and things that she'd choose, feels really comfortable around and yeah, grounded too. Lovely, brilliant, thank you. And Carstan, would you have followed into the gardens or what would you be up to? Yeah, Carstan won't like leave her alone unattended because, you know,
00:50:53
Speaker
could be assassins everywhere. So he will stay with her but keep an appropriate distance to allow her to pray properly. Would you like to attend to the seedlings with me? I can if you'd like me to. I've
00:51:18
Speaker
I don't want to push you. I just wanted to make you feel comfortable in a place that's probably not familiar to you. I wanted to invite you to join me if you'd like, and you don't need to say anything. In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't. You can just take these seedlings and replants. Karsten will join the replanting of the seedlings.
00:51:46
Speaker
And you both, after this whole meditative process, it's quite quiet, and again, very much attuned to nature, and very much attuned to just a simpler time, something away from the blight, away from politics, away from war, away from death, honor, courage, and the need for
Robin & Talia's Research
00:52:03
Speaker
it. You find simplicity in such an easy and menial task, something in which you've never been able to take part in for quite some time, both of you for quite a while. You both also receive bless,
00:52:19
Speaker
So you've got that and that'll last for, is that an hour? I think it's an hour. 20, 12 hours. We'll figure it out. A while. You got blessed by the way. And as that image just takes place, and as you just kind of finish up and you're just sitting there taking it in, as you start to get the feeling that, right, we're about to get up and move on, the campus is going to pan out and spin across the city in through the tiny, squat building that makes up Tristan's library.
00:52:47
Speaker
kind of corralled by one of the dusty, dusty passageways you see the mustachioed man give an unassuming look over to the members Robin and Tali as they talk with Tristan about the procurement of one particular book in particular. There is a low amount of light that seems to pierce through the small windows of Tristan's library as he stands looking at you both. Yes, the
00:53:15
Speaker
the world away. I do know someone who would be able to help you with that. Now, young sir, are you sure you want to know? Look, my friend, between you and me, this is the fancy tales of a childhood fable. It means nothing to me, but by all means indulge my childhood
00:53:43
Speaker
and tell me I won't be doing anything with it.
00:53:48
Speaker
Well, if that's the case, just come down here with me and he's going to gesture you down away from the moustachioed man near the front of the library and usher you down one of the smaller kind of side passages into the library, kind of a small kind of study area within the very center of it. It's dark, dusty. There is one or two candles roughly around the area casting some shadows across his face at this point as he quickly looks around
00:54:13
Speaker
moves a few books to look through into the next act, to make sure no one's doing the classic library thing and is listening on the other side of the bookshelf. He looks around a couple of those and then looks, okay, right. It's not so much that the book is dangerous. I know books are dangerous, except when they fall on you from great heights. That really hurts. It does. Yes. Glad you agree. It's the person you have to speak to.
00:54:39
Speaker
just general chaos seems to follow this person wherever they go it's always very dangerous wherever you're around them so just be um be really careful because uh he uh well they they seem to court danger and not the fun kind let me assure you of that not like the fun ones you read in the stories that you'll be reading young lady oh no of course not yeah yeah but they're really dangerous stuff the stuff that gets you bloody
00:55:10
Speaker
By all means, as I say, we are not looking to pursue this. You're just nourishing childhood curiosities, that's all. Yes, childhood curiosities. Good, yes. Well, and he kind of prepares himself. Yes, there is one.
00:55:32
Speaker
He's a scholar, a hero, and a champion of the people who is working in secret against the forces at work in Goldview. He goes by the name of Dawnstrider. I know nothing more about his whereabouts, but Threadbear, he hears all the comings and goings at Goldview. He might be the first port of call for information about where people might go when you were trying to find, you know, him. Threadbear.
00:56:02
Speaker
Sounds fascinating. It's almost as if you're saying that you actually believe the stories behind this book.
00:56:09
Speaker
No, I didn't say that. I take everything with a scholastic approach, thank you very much. And he starts to raise his voice. I will tell you one thing for certain, that everything is done here for a reason. Anything is done here for the good of the academia. And suddenly you see this figure appear behind you, tall, unassuming, the silhouette as the small light that enters through the small windows of Tristan's library, pierced through over his shoulders. He turns to the side and you see the glimmer of a goatee, and you're just here for the final time.
00:56:43
Speaker
I'm trying to study and he turns tail and kicks up a bit of dust and moves over back to his seat again. God, he's so annoying sometimes. Don't tell him I said that. Anyway.
00:56:57
Speaker
Yes. No, I don't believe it. I don't believe it at all. But if you were interested in the academia, like you said, your childhood, you know, stories, et cetera, Lord Strider would be the person to speak to. But his whereabouts, like I said, Fonkin threadbare, he's the person to speak to. He runs the shop. You know the one.
00:57:18
Speaker
that'd be the best place to go. He runs the shop. The shop, the discount store, it's not that he dies, they sell lots of bits and trinkets and stuff like that that no one really wants to buy but he seems to flog them and make quite a bit of money off it really but a relatively nice guy if you were, you know. The tieflings, horns or whatever the shop's called, do you remember Tarly?
00:57:41
Speaker
Oh, Tiefling's ears. Is that the one? No, no, no. Different shop. Big City, you see. Lots of different shops, lots of stupid names that the DM gets to make up. No, this is Threadbear's Discount Store. He's put himself in the title because he's a prick, if I'm being perfectly honest. But don't tell him I said that because he, yeah, it's a bit scary sometimes. No, no. We won't.
00:58:08
Speaker
you've been most helpful. And so have you any gestures to the 10 gold you gave him for the books entirely looks across? So have you and kind of gesturing to the books as well. This book you sold as it's a tome to provoke the study of the Arcanic, would you say?
00:58:30
Speaker
Uh, let me just check my notes to see what the book was called. What did I give you? Oh, I gave you a book. Uh, Ogrymov's, uh, Ogrymov's fables. Was that right? It certainly was. Ogrymov's fables. That's the one.
00:58:44
Speaker
It speaks to the arcade of the old scholar Ogremoth, a famous wizard that took many adventures in the city. He was a divination wizard by practice and could allegedly see it deeper to the future and deeper to the past. Some say he even managed to travel through time itself, though that is highly discounted and has been censored out of the Ogremoth's fables as it is not written for those kinds of people, you see.
00:59:15
Speaker
There you go, Talia, you're reading about the time traveler. Her eyes are just wide open, like, whoa. Oh, cool. And she just starts thumbing through the opening section of the book. Just be careful with that. The pages sometimes might fall out. Just be, just be, just be careful. Oh, I know it's yours. You bought it. I forgot. Silly me.
00:59:37
Speaker
Was there any other books I could help you with? I never actually caught your name, sir. I believe I mentioned it when I came in, but by all means, I can tell you it again. My name is Dustin Fogg and this is my sister, Elliot. Oh, yes.
00:59:53
Speaker
Yes, I think you did mention it, actually. I have a very good memory these days, you see. Not because of my age, I'm quite young, despite the voice. It's the dark, you see. I can't see very well. Dusted. Well, nice to meet you, Dusted.
01:00:08
Speaker
I'm proud to meet you. Thank you. Just remember to be nice and quiet on the way out. He gets a little bit angry with the noise. If I could just impart some wisdom back before I leave, it's often my belief that imagination
01:00:31
Speaker
breeds academia and I can see that you have a good mind for fanciful stories and you've added knowledge to a childhood fable for which I thank you. And he's going to take him what you've just said and kind of take the compliment, but also... Yes, you're right. Creativity does breed academia. Imagination, but imagination breeds creativity, so perhaps they're logical steps.
01:00:59
Speaker
Yes, I jump to step ahead, you see. Very intelligent, you see. No, you're absolutely right. I need to get out of here. I need to see the world. I need to make a change. I need to learn about the world. I should go to the front. I should meet Lucian Blightbane. I should go see Ruth Hawke splitter. I should go to Wild Heart. I should travel the unknown lands of the wild jade heartlands and just travel. He've opened my eyes, Dustin. I need to get out of this shithole.
01:01:29
Speaker
I should leave. As he says that, Robin has almost been, for a moment, his façade is kicked as a name from his past rings through him. And he just turns around and looks at Talia and then turns back to this chap and says, what do you know about Ralph Orksbitter?
01:01:54
Speaker
Well, don't I know about Bob Hawkes? Bless her. He's the leader of the kingdoms, of the whole realm, really. He's the big... Do you not know? He runs the...
01:02:07
Speaker
the Sanguine Lands. He founded Obsidia, he leads the council, he helped us, saved us in the Unmending many, many years ago and fought back demons from the Nine Hells. He's quite the soldier, quite the politician, quite the marksman, hence his name, he comes from a family of archers, you see, and quite the charismatic fellow for all I've heard. He runs the council, he's enigmatic, he is
01:02:38
Speaker
He's the, to be honest, he sounds amazing. I'd love to meet him. I really would one day. Maybe that's where I'll go first. Maybe I'll go to Obsidia. I see. I'm just curious. I'm not very good with geographical politics, a verifer. He judged Naughty's head to the books, spent my, uh,
01:02:56
Speaker
Head in the clouds and in the stories, I'm afraid. Yes. Thank you. We won't take any more of your time. No, please, you're both welcome to take up my time. It's not like I'm busy, no one comes in of it anymore. Neither will I after a bit. I'm going to go, I'm going to talk to Gregor and I'm going to tell him he could run the place and I'm going to go, I'm going to travel the world. Maybe I'll follow you. Do you need another travelling companion? No.
01:03:24
Speaker
I say that bluntly, because as you can see, we tend to seek our employment in
01:03:39
Speaker
marksmanship in hunting and we wouldn't be particularly fun to travel with. Oh that's of course, yes, yes, that's a very good point, very boring. Maybe I'll go down to the docks, I'll go to Green Barrels and see if I can board a ship somewhere interesting. Yes, thank you, Dustin. I know it's early days and I only just bet you but I genuinely think you've changed my life. High praise, I'm humbled.
01:04:05
Speaker
Enjoy your travels, I suppose. I will. Hopefully, I'll see you again someday. You can change my life all over again. Anyway, I should finish my shift here because, you know, Noah wants to leave their bridges burned and then I'll be off, I think. Well, good luck with your Dawnstrider. Good luck finding him. Threadbear, remember, Threadbear's Discount Store. That's where you'll need to go. That's the next place.
01:04:29
Speaker
Of course, but as I said, childhood fantasies were little. Of course, and he taps the side of his nose and gives you a wink and then turns us back. And he waves to you over his back as he makes his way deeper into the darkness of the library and starts to busy himself with reorganising some shelves of books. Robin will turn to Talia and just go, well, that was fun. That was?
01:04:59
Speaker
You, um, have some reading to do. Yeah. And I believe we have another person to see. It's threadbare. Threadbare indeed. Perhaps that's the direction we should go in. Perhaps. I'll keep this book for now though. It sounds quite interesting. Ogramorph's fables. I'm quite interested about time travel. That sounded, uh, never really thought of that before. Sounds quite original.
01:05:28
Speaker
If nothing else, Talia, no studier of the arcane arts from the Sword Coast will ever have laid their eyes on that tome. That's a good point. You're going to be the first, not even your father. So perhaps, perhaps questions that he couldn't answer. Who knows, eh? Who knows? That's a very good point, though. Old Icewind didn't even look at this.
01:05:55
Speaker
I'll bear that in mind and she'll kind of pop it in, kind of stuff it in next to her father's spell book in her satchel and kind of tap it twice and then look up to you. So, where do you now? I guess we're going to, well, we have two options. We either go and keep tabs on Claude and try and find him at this double-aupe pub or
01:06:25
Speaker
we go and find Fred there. I am. I'm happy with either. This double-headed orc sounds hilarious or scary or both. But then again, if we need to find the book, we need to find the book. I'm happy either way. We have an opportunity here to
01:06:46
Speaker
to perhaps investigate something of crucial importance with a degree of nuance and subtlety that might not be afforded if we have Claude and Toh. I'm just saying. That's a good point. You make a good point.
01:07:01
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, I have shown myself to be very good at lying recently. I'm quite the liar, you see. So, yeah, maybe if you and I just solve it all, then everyone else, we can just tell them where we need to go and find this dawn-strided person. I'm seeking your advice here, Talia, because we have no knowledge of errors whatsoever. The others do. But what do you want to do?
01:07:32
Speaker
Oh, and she pauses for a minute and kind of does almost doesn't expect it. And I see me doing this as you're kind of walking out of the shop and into the streets. Yes. Yeah. And she'll kind of stop for a second and kind of look around a bit. I want. She second guesses herself once or twice trying to get the words out, the furrows her brow. I've come to terms with the fact that I don't think I'll be going home. So I want to find somewhere that could be home. That's all.
01:08:02
Speaker
And I think first things first, there can't be a home if there's blight, and there can't be a home if there's the undead. I'm not saying Sleekguard could be my home, or Goldview for that matter, but either way, I can't live in a place that has this threat hanging over you. How can these people survive? How are they not losing their minds with worry and panic all the time, knowing that at any moment this stuff could... I mean, you remember Bleakmore. If that happened here,
01:08:32
Speaker
It could happen at any moment, and I couldn't live with that. So either way, I think my mind's still on the blight. If we can somehow cure it or destroy it, then maybe this can be a home for us. Maybe this can be a place that we
01:08:54
Speaker
You know, just get comfortable, relax and stop this incessant following of danger and death and decay and we can properly mourn for Jadar. It's been so long yet it only feels like it was yesterday that happened. I still don't feel like we've truly unpicked it and I truly feel that until we slow down and stop, we never will.
01:09:22
Speaker
You don't think we'll go home? No, I don't think I'll go home. You, that's your journey to make. I can't speak for you, Robin. All I know is that there was nothing for me there. My family's gone. I didn't have many friends. When you found me in the forest trapped,
01:09:51
Speaker
I was hopeless. I had no real purpose. Now at least I feel like I've got a reason to live. I've got a reason to help. And I've got people to help. Sure, they might not be my people, but the people on the sword coast never felt like mine either. And these people need help. And they've got no one. Nobody looks at things. Why can't we be that person? Why can't I be that person? Why can't we all?
01:10:22
Speaker
Well, I am... It doesn't matter. I... No, forget it. Okay. Only if you're sure, Robin. I promised my sister that I wouldn't abandon her. I don't even know if she's alive. Then we need to find out.
01:10:53
Speaker
And then if she is alive, we need to get you home. At some point, you need to go home then. Doesn't matter what I do. If you've made that promise to her, I will help to try and make sure we can get you back. So long ago when I was... I was a different person. I don't even know anymore.
01:11:24
Speaker
With that, she's not going to probe any further. She's going to look further down the street. What do you reckon then? The thread there? I'm thinking that I'm done with intrigue for one day. And I'd quite like to see an orc with two heads. She smiles at this to the double orc pub.
01:11:53
Speaker
and you start making your way down the streets. Luckily, Claude gave you the direction so you know where you need to go.
01:11:58
Speaker
The last bit, we're just going to pan back over and deep down under the ground along some dark alleyways underneath this labyrinthine following of the sewer system beneath the city. We end up back with Folly curled up in a corner, quarterstaff and hand-watching these two members of the Ecrisca walk past him and start to inspect the wall. You hear words such as gnome. You hear words such as stock magic. You hear words such as arrest.
01:12:25
Speaker
You hear them talking in hushed tones as they feel across the wall, and you hear also the mention, this is another one. It's the fourth time I've seen this type of wall before. They're always using these kind of entrances. We can't ever get through. They're clever, you know. They know we know where they are, but they still don't let us in. Yeah. Oh, at some point, they're going to have to, they're going to have to let down the defenses at some point. It's only a matter of time before we get in. I know.
01:12:54
Speaker
Anyway, we should double back, look for that gnome. You can't have got far. And they do turn around and you do see the faces of one half orc and you do see the face of one half elf. You can tell them quite obviously from their features on the faces. They turn around in full of krisca gear with their staffs glowing with the torch in the hand of one of them in the hand of the half orc as they start to walk back past you following anything you want to do.
01:13:23
Speaker
I want to follow them. You're going to follow them. Could you give me a stealth check, please? Sixteen. OK, you managed to make your way down and you're following relatively close behind. But enough of a distance, obviously, for you to keep walking through the puddles quietly, avoiding loose rocks. Your dark vision really helps you in this regard as you start to make your way down. You hear them continue to talk of you hear names such as Damlon Trace mentioned as they discuss rumors of
01:13:52
Speaker
the seven that have entered the city. Rumors of these new... You hear them talking about finally introducing these checkpoints into the city. You start checking people as they enter and exit. It's taken ages to set up, but finally they've gotten the right sorcerers, the right mages in place for them to be able to basically cast the spell almost as many times as they need.
01:14:15
Speaker
But that stock magic, the stock magic holdout and the power underneath the city is causing problems, just little kind of skirmishes that take place every now and then pops up. Boom, there's this explosion in an important area and then disappears, guerrilla warfare. It's really bugging them. It doesn't really dent them much, but it's just more an annoyance because it's a dent into their show of power. You get quite far down that before. Can you give me a perception check, please, Folly? Yeah.
01:14:45
Speaker
thank god i rolled well zero bonuses 15 15 okay you do notice uh the one on the left which you know to be the half elf uh their ear kind of tilts up slightly and then you see them nudge the other one and they both stop where they are and you can't hear anything anymore folly will stop um immediately as well folly's just going to kind of really
01:15:35
Speaker
kind of like Mission Impossible but the opposite so you're on the ceiling rather than the floor.
01:15:40
Speaker
yeah nice okay and as you do that you pull up comically so they turn around at the last minute and turn and they look back down and the torch gets pulled around and looked around and there's no one there and they kind of he starts to lower the torch for a second and the half elf looks to the half orc sounds like the start of a joke but it isn't the half elf looks at the half orc and says
01:16:02
Speaker
I swear I heard something. Very odd. Anyway, let's, and just before he gets the chance to finish that sentence, you hear from behind you, so towards the stock magic door, this, and this ax thuds into the head between the eyeballs of the half elf, splatting in as he falls back, he basically cartwheels back over his own body.
01:16:27
Speaker
smashing down, splashing into the water, blood twirting up. As you see this take place, you look behind you and you still can't see anyone there, but suddenly you see the axe inside it start to hum. And you hear this humming in your ears, this buzzing in your ears as the axe starts...
01:16:42
Speaker
vibrate and suddenly gets ripped out of the head and starts flying back down the alleyway, down the pathway. As you as you do finally turn around you see the thudding footsteps of a figure starting to approach a kind of almost a bluey white hue around the outside to this tall figure now with a large sword on his back as the axe returns to the hand of Drago.
01:17:09
Speaker
And that's where we're going to leave it for this week's episode of The Fellowship at the Tabletop.
01:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's the return, it's the axe of Olaf, the Thor-like axe. But that's where we'll have to leave it for this week's episode of The Fellowship at the Tabletop, as Ian isn't here, obviously, but Drag will be joining us at the start of the next episode, obviously. Who wants to do the sign-off? Callum. Callum did. Callum told me before that he's ready to step up to the plate.
01:17:55
Speaker
I've got a text message, I can read it out. Dear Darren, I really want to do the sign off from Callan. I heard it say wrong, I heard the same thing. It was in the group chat. Will, did he text it to you as well? I actually got a, he sent me a WhatsApp screenshot of a legally binding contract saying he wanted to do it. Mine was a voice note. Voice note. I have text listeners, I have text nothing to, I got a hand in the note.
01:18:22
Speaker
Zero messages sent. If you want to send us a message you can too do at our Twitter feed. I'll get lots of approval for the slight survey there. At fellowship table you can follow us also individually. At William, where can we follow you? Natural20will. Darren, where can we follow you? DarrenPaget6. Danny, where might we find you? At Total Party Thrills.
01:18:52
Speaker
Casey, where might we find you? At Unicorn Crit. You can follow me at TheD20Gamer, and you can of course follow our miraculously wonderful and suspenseful building DM at... Hastily Roll DM. Until next time, guys.