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C2 Ep. 196 Head in the Sand Chapter Four
443 Plays6 months ago
Last gasp of a dying flame
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Transcript
Introduction of the Cast Members
00:00:09
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is roll.
00:00:48
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Eberron or Newton Actual Play Podcasts at the Eberron Campaign Setting. I am your game master, Eric. I'm Phillip. I'm Randy. I'm Jeff.
Recap of Past Events and Tensions
00:00:58
Speaker
Welcome to another episode. Gentlemen, what happened last time? We almost went home after a very successful evening. Yes, we had a very successful abduction and delivery. Erin was able to hide whatever just absolute decline she's been dealing with in prison really well to make us feel like she's fine.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, married couple reunited. Everything was wonderful. We were going for a nice rest visiting hob.
00:01:27
Speaker
And then all of a sudden, kaboom. Eris and Milo were all like, I don't think we should stay together. Guys, we should stay together tonight. And I was like, I guess that's fine. And then Eris decided to get us into a fight as soon as she had backup. What a generous framing of the last episode. That's how I remember it. And it's just sad that our listeners can't see the expressions on our faces sometimes.
00:01:51
Speaker
like Philip at this point. So yeah, we rolled initiative for you all to fight this spirit of preservation that works for some greater devils who was trying to apprehend and quote unquote punish Norsen Millhatch.
Debate and Fight between Eris and Milo
00:02:06
Speaker
And yeah, so the first slot goes to the NPC and given that Eris was doing the talking and the back and forth in the first attack, we'll head her way. So what are your defenses, Eris? Insufficient. I have one of each. Okay. So one black.
00:02:30
Speaker
Do you have any talents or anything that cause an upgrade on melee checks? I don't think you do, but I just want to double check. Okay. So four yellow, two purple, one red. Would you like to flip a story point to upgrade the difficulty of the check? Four, four yellow, one red. Oh man. Sure. Flip a story point. We're all the good that we'll do.
00:02:51
Speaker
Change it to one red, one purple, one black. Roll. Two success, one advantage. It's remarkably. Yeah. What a letdown. Considering what he just rolled. Okay, so the damage from that is going to be 11 base damage, no pierce or anything.
Encounter with the Spirit of Preservation
00:03:11
Speaker
He doesn't have enough to activate any of his cool stuff on it. So he swings the sword with his left hand out towards Eris and the blade extends with chains connecting each segment of the blade as it whips around and slashes at your midsection Eris. And you can feel both the cutting bite of the blade as well as the residual burning heat of the blade. Sure can.
00:03:38
Speaker
You look real good. And then he is going to pivot and move over to Hob because Hob also seems to be a big threat on the field. No, he's just a big guy on the field. What is your melee defense, Hob? Three. Four. Four yellow, two purple, three black is the pool. OK. Wash, complete wash. Wow.
00:04:01
Speaker
Remarkable. I wish I could say that had anything to do with me. And that was both of his checks. So, yeah. How does Hobb avoid taking damage from the swing? I ducked down to check on Aeris. It goes over the top. Yeah. I think maybe can he just miss or is he too good for that? No. Yeah. Because Hobb is not agile. Hobb didn't dodge that. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe he's new in his powers or something and he's a little unsure of himself. Yeah.
00:04:29
Speaker
this creature has lived for tens of thousands of years how dare you but the body he's currently inhabiting is older older than the city upon which this city stands the incompetent cat burglar okay pc slot the randy expressed desire to go first to cast barrier yes milo says would it be a good or a bad idea to possibly let verla know what's going on
00:04:56
Speaker
We were going to have to explain ourselves at some point, if we really don't. Sure. You have the. I just got stabbed. That can be something that happens on Eris's turn if Eris wants to do it, but. Yeah. Reaching out and trying to get an NPC ally to come assist is not a free action to be done whenever.
00:05:14
Speaker
No, Milo's just throwing it out there. We're going to cast Barrier. I would like to add Defense. Okay. And you want to do an additional target as well? Yes. So that would make it a... Three purple, I think? Four purple, friendo. Four. It starts off as a easy check. Yes. Add Defense is plus two. Additional target is plus one. Oh, it is plus two. Yep. I know. How could I doubt you? So four purple. How you feeling, Randy?
00:05:43
Speaker
Well, how many story points do we got? Two. Yeah, mind if I flip one to get a boost? Go for it. Yours to use. Ah, flip it back. Turn one of the purples into a red. That's not kind. I gave you a story point. All right, so I got four yellow, a green, a blue boost, and one red and three purple. Here we go. Sounds cool. Send it. Okay. God. One failure, three advantages, and a triumph. Okay, so no barrier on anyone. Nope.
00:06:14
Speaker
that magic fizzles. And like, Randy, Milo can set, like there's a lot of magical energy emanating off of this thing now that it's gone into like combat mode. And so yeah, magic is acting all kinds of wonky around this thing. And so that can be in your head, your explanation for why the barrier didn't stick. Three advantages and a triumph. I'm gonna take that story point back, by the way.
00:06:42
Speaker
because you had an upgrade on your first check from your initiative role. So I didn't need to flip a story point. Two of those advantages. Can I just keep the strain? Two of those advantages just to offset the strain. Sure. And so one advantage left and a triumph. Pass a boost with the other advantage. Sure. And triumph. I'm open for suggestions. This would be how you would alert Verla. That was my...
00:07:07
Speaker
My exact thinking was, Verla is not sleeping until she finds the serial killer and so. She's been following us. Not following you necessarily, but like is in the vicinity of the crime. Well, she has been following us though.
00:07:21
Speaker
Well, yes, but you all rolled really well in your stealth to where she couldn't have been following you this particular instance. Oh, don't you use that against us? And now by way of a triumph, we would like to say she's picked up our trail again when Aerith made a sudden and very illegal traffic maneuver. Fair enough. So yeah. There we go. If you want to use your time to say that Verla is on the scene, sure.
Battle with the Spirit and Revelation
00:07:42
Speaker
That sounds good to me.
00:07:45
Speaker
OK, I'm I'm just giving you all heads up. The scene is not unambiguous right now, like if that makes sense. She may be on the scene already because they're already out looking for us.
00:07:56
Speaker
She's so smart though, she's gonna realize, oh, another fire thing. Perhaps, like she's bright. Somebody we should use for something else. No, no, no. It's definitely not any of us that chained Norse into the ground. No, we don't have that sort of magic. So what I can do, okay, let me ask you this. Are you wanting Verli here for the alibi and the clarity of what's going on? Or do you also want Verli here to be an assistant in the combat encounter?
00:08:24
Speaker
I was going to say I want part of the triumph to be that Verla stays out of it. Just for the alibi and the clarity of what's going on. We know why Milo would call it. Verla has to bring is so insignificant that it's not going to make a difference here. Right. I just wanted to put it away with a hand crossbow.
00:08:44
Speaker
One to make sure. Sure. Okay. So yeah, whether or not you all clock it and notice it, but Verla is watching the altercation and we have a boost being passed to the next PC slot. Who would like to go? Eris Hobb. I'd like to before Hobb engages because, so am I correct in presuming that since this thing reached out with a chain to attack us, we are not yet engaged. So I have an opportunity to act at a short range. Yeah. Attack from short range.
00:09:12
Speaker
Cool. Then I would like to make an attack before I am going to spend and then take back.
00:09:19
Speaker
story point to activate my heroic ability and activate the auto fire aspect of Fletcher. And so Eris cranks the Fletcher. I was going to use my flush that thing, but it's all Bernie and Eris is not stupid. This thing's already on fire. Eris channels her terror into Stark and says, I do not know what vocal chords you were using to scream and cranks the lever on the Fletcher and goes.
00:09:47
Speaker
inside deeply angered that Norsen is going to see her use the auto fire mechanism. She copied his design. All right. I do have some things for the difficulty before you roll anything. Oh, good. I mean, it's also good for me to not have adversary ranks. I'm just adversary to range defense one results. So I wish I would have resulted in one red, one purple here. Yes. OK. And then add a black.
00:10:15
Speaker
I add a black and I add a purple because I'm using the auto fire. And I'll give you all a story point back, make it too red and a black. Sure you will, sure you will. I am a generous and benevolent GM. I know that I should know this by now, but are we considered engaged with each other if we're all in the boat together?
00:10:35
Speaker
I have a thing that helps if I'm engaged with an ally, but I can't imagine a point where I'm grappling one of them. So we need to... I assume we're engaged because we all climbed out of the boat and we've been standing together and we really haven't had the opportunity to spread out. Okay. So I think you get a boost. We're effectively flashed. Oh, really? Cool. Yeah. I have a thing... So many boosts on this check. I've had a thing for a thousand years, but we're so rarely actually engaged with each other since you guys shoot and I punch. Yeah.
00:10:59
Speaker
Okay, so Eris is there's so many boosts. Okay. So I've got three yellow and one green. I've got one boost from the Fletcher being accurate. I've got two boosts from the goggles. I've got one boost from Amy. I've got one boost from hob for a total of five.
00:11:16
Speaker
And then two red, one purple, one black. And here we go. Nice. Three success and one triumph. Yeah. OK, so I'm doing twelve damage Pierce two. OK. And I am debating whether to crit or hit him again with the triumph. So those are the two things I can really do here. I could use a trigger to auto fire.
00:11:40
Speaker
or I can use it to impose a critical injury on him. What is auto fire the same damage again? Auto fire just, I'm sorry, Eric is auto fire. I just, he just takes the hit again. Like my second punch. I think it's just take the damage again. Let me confirm.
00:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, sorry, I should know that by now. Very good. Because it's slightly different than linked, and I can never remember which distinction is between them. Did you increase the difficulty by one? I did. For the auto fire? Okay. Yeah. If the attack hits, the attack can trigger auto fire by spending two advantage or triumph. Auto fire can trigger multiple times. Each time the attacker triggers auto fire, it deals an additional hit to the target. So, yeah. So it just does it again.
00:12:20
Speaker
I think I'm going to do that because I think I'm worried about this fight going and I think we're going to manage through in the sense of us dying, not in the sense of time.
00:12:30
Speaker
So yeah, I will use the triumph to trigger the auto fire function of the Fletcher. So he will take another 12. Cool. Also fun auto fire rule. Auto fire weapons could also activate one critical injury for each hit generated on the attack per the normal critical normal rule. So if you were to roll.
00:12:50
Speaker
You're crit rating advantage. Yeah. Or I mean, if you were to roll two advantage and a triumph, you could have activated auto fire to advantage and just crit twice. Yikes. OK. We need to have two advantage for each crit. Now, according to this, because you're duplicating the same hit.
00:13:11
Speaker
Oh, okay. I think, I think, I mean, I don't know. I might be misreading the rules. Well, that makes sense because like, that's interesting. Anyway, cool. That's good. If it comes up, we'll have more conversations about that. Cause that sounds awesome. Anyway. Yeah. Eris puts a couple of bolts just square into this guy's.
00:13:28
Speaker
whatever his body is made of. Yeah as the as the Fletcher fires into this figure you see like as it tears through the leather armor like just orange light glow out from underneath the leathers. Hob man. So I'm sure the assembled group remembers the last time Hob attacked something that hurt him back when he hit it. It was unbelievably bad and he assumes the fire will do the same thing. I don't know what to do. Are there spots
00:13:58
Speaker
that are not on fire. Is he wearing some sort of armor that is not aflame? Yeah, his leather armor isn't on fire. Okay, I think we mentioned leather armor earlier, but I didn't know if we were making jokes. Then I guess I'm gonna run at him and try to punch him in the chest something.
Emotional Confrontation over Ace's Death
00:14:18
Speaker
Stop his heart a little, maybe. I don't know. I am going to do all the things for Double or Nothing just because
00:14:25
Speaker
I have a feeling this guy's got a lot to give. So he's adversary two, so the two purple become two red, and he has melee defense three, so three black. Three black, and then I increase the difficulty means add one more purple, correct? Yes. For the dull or nothing.
00:14:41
Speaker
Okay, and then remind me again how I punch four in one, yeah. Okay, this sucks. This is four yellow and green, two red, a purple, and three black. Oh, I do get a, is it a boost for a ring fighter, I think? Let me pull that one up. Yeah, I get a boost for a ring fighter, so that's fun. There's no boost on the table, are there? Eris, did you use the one for Milo? I didn't know there was one for Milo. Yeah, Milo has one, that's true. Yep, one boost. Okay, I think. Did you aim? He maneuvered, so it cost him two strain.
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I know I already did maneuver, and I used Too Strain to do the thing, so I think I'm like, wait, did you say you did or do not have a boost? I'm so sorry, I was reading another talent. There is one. Okay, I'm gonna take it then. All right, I'm just gonna roll this, and we're gonna see what happens. I think that's how the game works, right? Yes. That's usually. That's how it's quote unquote fun. All right, so Hob is just going to rush at and kind of like double heels of his hands into this thing's chest to knock it back some if he can.
00:15:36
Speaker
Okay, jeez. Oh, and you doubled her nothing. Now what I didn't do, unfortunately, that I should have was leaping attack and I thought about it, but I don't want to.
00:15:49
Speaker
If it hit this one with Leaping Attack, it would have been like 36 damage. Okay, so doubling advantage means... So we've got four successes and six advantage for the listeners. Okay, so that's eight successes and 12 advantages, is what that comes out to. So, eight success, what's your base damage? God, what is my base damage? Seven? Is that right? That sounds right. Because my Brawl is four, or my Brawl is five,
00:16:17
Speaker
and my punches give me, oh no, it's 11. My base damage is 11, because it's brawn plus the zestus damage, right? So that's 11 plus eight successes. 19. So that's 19.
00:16:29
Speaker
No Pierce or anything? I don't, I neither Pierce nor bleach. Pierce one. I do Pierce. Pierce one. Yeah. Oh, you're right. So 19 Pierce one. And let's go ahead and use two of my 12 advantage to just do that twice. Cause why not? Okay. Now what guys? Shall we crit a few times? What's the crit rating on your three? Three. So you have 10 left. So you could, and Sestis have vicious two. So you could crit with a plus 50. What do you want to do guys? That's pretty good.
00:16:59
Speaker
The problem is when you crit with a plus 50 and you get a 61, and you're like, okay, I just used 10 advantage to nothing burger this. Nothing 61 is nothing, I know. But it could just be like, you know, stinging headache. And he just loses his ability to maneuver or something, I don't know.
00:17:16
Speaker
I mean, if you guys want to go nuts, I can't, I can't heal with advantage. I could, let's just see what happens to this guy. You know, we don't know what happens when I, when I, when something punches a bones on fire, maybe it is crazy. So let's, let's, let's crit with the final 10 advantages. I should be stupid with it. Okay. Is that insane? No one's, no one's stopping me. You want to roll the D 100 Jeff? Yeah, I do. And then do I just click the pluses down here?
00:17:45
Speaker
I've had issues with, I'll just do that manually in my head when I'm looking at the table. So you just add the 10 and the 100, the two dice and then roll it. And yeah, don't hit roll crit, just hit roll dice. How does he look after those two punches I gave him though? Just wondering. Not good. Okay, fair enough. I guess that's what I should have expected. All right, I'm rolling for a big crit and that's a 92 plus 50.
00:18:10
Speaker
Is that 140? It's 142. 142, oh no. And you're also the last initiative slot, so. Oh no, we know this guy. Oh no. How to play this. I cannot believe that just happened. What is 142? Is that death? 150's death, right? The end is nigh, where you die after the end of the last initiative slot, unless the critical injury is healed. That's 142.
00:18:36
Speaker
Yes. Well, what demon thing like? Yeah, but it sounded like he was trying to do something kind of maybe good. So other than going out, it is. No, that I have like Eris has currently no regrets about this decision making, and she's thrilled to watch Hob tear this thing in half. Give it about 30 seconds. I just need dramatic irony. Hob, you are.
00:19:00
Speaker
Jeff, are you OK with me narrating how this plays out or would you like to OK? Absolutely. I just can't believe I've never done such a dumb big swing like this. And I mean, I have, but not out. So comic book panel view kind of thing of like the profile view of Hobb rushing up.
00:19:18
Speaker
and grabbing this figure on the shoulder and bringing one fist back and just uppercutting into the sternum. And, Hob, you feel very little resistance as your arm, you feel your hand feel the night air again as your arm goes straight through the chest of this figure, them kind of resting on your forearm.
00:19:41
Speaker
And you feel the burning on your forearm of the like molten blood that's dripping down as it begins to cool. And then you look up and you see the face of Ace staring you in the eyes with fear and confusion as the flaming skull is gone. And he just looks at you. I wanted to help. And then his head lulls over.
00:20:10
Speaker
Jeff has left the bill. Do we want to take a couple of minutes before we continue with the role playing? Jeff has fallen out of the frame. So I mean, I'm not. I want to be clear. I am not upset with. Yeah. Anything but myself for losing sight of everything we talked about when I had an opportunity, something stupid and fun. I'm so. Oh, my God. It was awesome. I mean, I how how wonderfully cinematic that ended up, though, that's
00:20:42
Speaker
Man, I know better. And just because I know all of the elements going on in the scene, this isn't I mean, it's going to pour salt, but you hear a voice scream. No, as hob you from above feel a figure land on you and Eris and Milo, you recognize Kath's armor as Kath tries to pull. Yeah, interesting. Kath caring about aces new information I'm absorbing.
00:21:09
Speaker
It's not gonna carry anybody's. And Kath pulls Ace's body off of Hob's arm and just, what did you do? The, yeah. I mean, Hob's not saying anything. I don't even know. I don't know. My God, I'm so mad. What's the current status of the chain? The chain has disappeared. Milhatch is beginning to get his bearings. Eris puts the Fletcher on Milhatch and says, if you move,
00:21:36
Speaker
A tiny little thing keeping me from killing you will be over. So stay put. I mean, Hob screams at Milo to help if he can. I don't know if there's help to be done. There's just takes a couple of paces forward to keep Milhatch covered because she cannot deal with what's happening.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah. Milo rushes over to try to do a medicine check on Ace. Ooh. Or is it just blatantly obvious? I mean, that part is blatantly obvious. I'm just trying to think of what would happen if Milo got within reach of Cath. I mean, Milo, from a distance, you can tell that, like, yeah, you saw what happened. Like, Hob literally punched through this person's chest. Like, short of...
00:22:21
Speaker
short of resurrection magic. Yeah, so my step Milo rushes up to Hob and just lays a hand on his back. I have shoves him off. Hob's not interested in being comforted right now. Not violently, but you all see another sky skiff lower as Verla hops out and doesn't run over, but definitely
Verla's Intervention and Arrest of Milhatch
00:22:42
Speaker
approaches the scene looking at Milo you all should go and Verla pulling out a pair of cuffs approaches Milhatch and kind of gestures at Eris to like I'm here to help kind of thing as she reaches down to begin cuffing Milhatch. There's a significant tense moment and then Eris lowers the muzzle I think kicks Milhatch as hard as she can in just impotent rage. Milhatch winces and kind of groans and
00:23:08
Speaker
looks up at verla you're gonna let her do that to me officer and verla just says you're lucky i don't let her pull the trigger she yanks but latch up mila walks over to aris and i guess i just i guess we should go
00:23:23
Speaker
I don't think there's anything else we can do here. We just leave. We just leave Kath like this. Kath. That's probably not good either. Jeff, what's Hobb doing? Hobb is sitting on the ground trying to think of, I mean, one thing he's doing is constantly justifying in his head that he was in a fight and that's how you
00:23:44
Speaker
Like this was not a, I don't know. He's, he's, he's in his own brain. He's not talking to me. If someone talks to him, if someone says something to him, I know Cath asks, what did you do? But he, I don't think he thought that was actually expecting an answer. He would, he would respond, but he's not. He's trying to make himself understand that what he did was he didn't just attack ace with malice is what he's trying to remind himself. Yeah.
00:24:08
Speaker
He didn't just kill Ace, he just got in a fight and Ace happened to be inside that thing. What is Kath, I mean is Kath like sobbing or just angry? I was about to describe, I mean Kath is sobbing but like after a moment of like holding Ace's body, Kath is starting to scoop Ace up and stand up with him in the
00:24:28
Speaker
just carry, carry his body. And unless anybody's gonna say anything or try to stop her, she shoots you all up incendiary glance and then turns to go leave. We have the skiff you just have to carry. I got it. Hub is going to I think I mean, I think Hobbs Hobbs just gonna say, you know, Catherine was a fighter. I couldn't have known. I'm sorry. And then let her go if she wants to go.
00:24:49
Speaker
You attacked us. You tried to kill me. Kath looks back at that and is like, no, you interfered. He had it under control. He was fine. He was taking care of it. Because Ace wouldn't have attacked me with a sword. I was not in control. I don't know what you got him into. Ace wouldn't have done that. She wasn't.
00:25:07
Speaker
that. At that you see the anger really boil up in Kat's eyes and he came to me he told me what he was doing that he was trying to help take care of all the people that are destroying the city all the enemies that you all have made all the people that could have come after you because he wanted to help he wanted to use these powers that he got in a really dumb deal to do some kind of good
00:25:34
Speaker
Right, and when he came to us like that, we got in my job as a waiter. We didn't say, sure, let's go. He wanted to be more than that. And you know what? He could have been. This is not more than that. That's not more. I didn't get him caught up in anything. All I did was stop him. He didn't try to stop him. Be there and help him. You didn't try to stop him. You didn't tell us. You're not supposed to have your back when your friend's being an idiot. Just stop him.
00:25:58
Speaker
Keep him out of danger. It's a good speech. Maybe you can give the eulogy. Frack you, Eros walks off. As does Cath. With Ace. Yeah. Verla doesn't. Try to stop her. Verla knows where to find Cath. Right. So, Verla, um, sorry about the suspicion. And, I'm sorry. What time is it? It's totally- Five in the morning? So crazy. You're right. That's right. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry, Milo.
00:26:19
Speaker
Milo just kind of nods. I'll need it for, you know what, nevermind. I might reach out to you on the next couple of days, but I'm going to take him back to where he belongs. She says gesturing to Mill Hatch in her skiff. I think Hobb says something just, I'm going to go. I'll be at the for sales when it opens.
00:26:39
Speaker
to tell Sana and Olsen what happened here. And then he starts to walk off. I imagine after this, I can petition to have. This situation won't happen with Milhatch again. So, shouldn't need to worry about that anymore. But, sorry. I'm sorry I didn't intervene when I saw what was happening. I'll let you all go. Vrilla walks to her skiff. Eris is already aboard, Tasha. Milo gets on board also. Hob's walking. Yeah, Hob's walking. Yeah, I think we know each other well enough to know that you don't offer him a ride. Yeah, no. Is Hob going back to Savia's or to Highwall?
00:27:09
Speaker
how to know where he's going. He's not gonna go look for trouble or to drown his sorrows. He just wanted to get away from the spot he killed Asat and didn't wanna be around his friends right now. So. I get that. Fair. I mean. Okay. Yes, and if you could just drop me at the back of my place at the top where the balcony is by my room, please. You're going back to your house? It's where I feel comfortable. I have wards in place. Someone shows up at your house.
00:27:39
Speaker
We're miles away. Well, I guess take me to Savia's. We're going to Highwall because we're so close to the fracking into this thing. Why is that? Why is that changing? I don't know. That's not my frame of mind is not in a good place. It hasn't been in a long time and now things are just worse. So keep your frame of mind in a better place and put your body in a better place. Take me wherever you wish. Fine. That line. Put your body in a better place.
00:28:09
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. I mean, Hob, you, you're able to walk the early morning streets, especially since you're exiting the warehouse district. You see a lot of people showing up for work early, getting ready to, uh, to start the day. A lot of people, yeah, clearly heading out to grab some calf, some towel before they had to work.
00:28:30
Speaker
Yeah, I was gonna say, I think, I think Hob might actually duck in and get some calf just to see if some stimulation might clear the fog out of his head. Okay. Someplace that has some. I mean, that's, you know. Yeah. Pops in. He wants a big cup of it. He doesn't know how much to drink because he doesn't really drink it.
00:28:45
Speaker
You walk into this like hole-in-the-wall bodega-esque spot, then obviously serves calf, and you see a minotaur behind the counter. It was like, hey, new face, long face. You okay, Fred? Yeah, I could just use something. A little tired. Yeah. How do you take it? I'm new to it. I hear it's acquired, so palatable.
Reflections and Seeking Solace
00:29:09
Speaker
All right.
00:29:10
Speaker
I'll dress it up for you. Thanks. He turns around and you see him put a couple pumps of a couple something in it and he'd hand you back a warm cup with a light beige liquid in it steaming. And here you go. Hope it helps. If this is a place that has someplace to sit, I think Hob goes and he sits down.
00:29:31
Speaker
And there's not really, I assume, I don't know enough about it. I just really should know more by now. There's not really absolution in the blood of vole. Because if you are your own. Guidestone, then what you did was fine. But I think, I think he, he meditates on some of the, just the ideas of honor and, you know, uh, responsibility and stuff that he learned when he was.
00:29:55
Speaker
studying at the monastery, just the ideas of defense, of protection, the things that he learned that honorable kind of stuff that went awry today, but I don't know. And probably does a bit of crying. He didn't love Ace, but he sure didn't want to kill the guy. Yeah, for sure. I like to think that it was...
00:30:14
Speaker
implicit that he didn't dislike Ace. Who knows, apparently. Yeah. So we have to see and does that and just kind of contemplates what happened. Yeah. And probably the internal struggle that Hobb feels as he meditates on
00:30:31
Speaker
What he learned is, yeah, obviously divinity lies within. And so, you know, somebody was seeking to harm you and your friends and you had to defend that. But on the inverse, a big tenant of the blood of all is stronger together, like your family, your community, the people around you are where your true power lies. And so while ACE may not have been in the center of the circle.
00:30:56
Speaker
probably tangentially he resided within that communal circle at the very least. That may be what's feeling a bit of the sense of loss for Hobb is that he removed an element of his circle. Not intentionally, but of course.
00:31:12
Speaker
Y'all gotta tell me that. I've been singing that song all day tomorrow at the four sales. And yeah, as you're sitting there and you're contemplating on this sense of stronger together in community, it being early hours of the morning, the thrum of the background noise of a sharn that's waking up to the day proper.
00:31:30
Speaker
you hear this minotaur as people enter to get their morning calf or towel or sandwiches, food, things like that. The reason he was able to immediately clock you as a new face is this guy knows every name of every person and their order as they walk through the door. Seems like this corner shop is a big part of the
00:31:49
Speaker
the lifeblood of this neighborhood. And I don't know, there might be some something in that for hob, maybe not. But yeah, Eris Milo, anything before Eris drops Milo. I think Eris Eris offers to drop Milo at the for sales or at the soaring or where I don't know, where is it? Where is their breakfast? Where is their breakfast available? Like Eris will take Milo to whatever place there is breakfast.
00:32:15
Speaker
Remember, for sales did a like soft, soft launch just to catch the wave of the festival. So they're not fully operational yet. So probably we can watch Eris assumes we can walk into the for sale. Yes, but they may not have a breakfast menu up and running yet. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Then Eris drops Milo off at the sorting spirits and then Eris leaves. Eris goes back to the leaves Milo there and goes back to the cauldron.
00:32:39
Speaker
because she's gonna she's gonna yell at Milo about magic again otherwise and so she goes back to the cauldron and just crosses the cauldron she drops the the leaves the Fletcher on Tasha she drops the coat drops the goggles drops all the various accoutrements
00:32:56
Speaker
and climbs into Olive's bed because she just needs to not think about this right now and just be close to someone. Yeah, as you climb in, it stirs Olive enough to just roll over and place a hand on Aeris and she dozes back to sleep. Just a reflective gesture.
00:33:14
Speaker
into the soaring spirit. Do they have rooms here? No. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Highwall, Highwall's does not have nobody comes to Sharon to stay in Highwall's. Highwall's does not have an inn. It's a refugee camp that is on the is on the up and up. So, yeah. So Jorland sees Milo walk in and just not giving not even giving himself an opportunity to read the tone of the rooms like, hey, Milo, morning. What can I get for you?
00:33:42
Speaker
just whatever just give me some eggs and some bacon please and a cup of calf and I'll sit back over here.
00:33:50
Speaker
Okay, yeah, we can whip that right up for you. Yeah, it's pretty dead in here. You get the sense that they just opened the doors for breakfast service. And yeah, Jorland, after a few moments, brings the calf over. And what's going on, Milo? Just I'm extremely tired. Didn't rest last night. Just need to get a bit of breakfast. Might even doze off for all I know.
00:34:16
Speaker
And Jorland looks at Milo in regards him for a second, takes the coffee off of the table, like pulls it back. He's like, follow me. And does Milo follow? Yeah, Milo gets up. It's a trap. Where are we going? Says for the claim and stabs my nose. He's the Bellashira.
00:34:34
Speaker
He opens the door into the kitchen and you see Grubly, the dwarf cook back there, kind of look up and see you and New Orleans walk through the door and New Orleans kind of gives a placating gesture. I have a space back here that could probably actually serve up what you're seeking.
00:34:52
Speaker
and he opens a door at the back of the kitchen. And you see, it is a storage closet. There are boxes and things like that, but there's also a small single bed up against one of the walls.
00:35:05
Speaker
This is, there's a lot of nights where I'm up late doing the books and trying to, you know, keep this place soaring. Uh, and it's just too long with time to get home. So I crash here, but why don't you go lay your head down for a bit, Milo, and you can come out whenever you're ready. Many thanks to you. I certainly appreciate it. Just, I'll tell him to like make do, but Grumley might, you might get disturbed by Grumley getting some stuff, but he'll be quiet. Thank you very much.
00:35:33
Speaker
Yeah, and he shuts the door behind you. Okay, so the only one not sleeping now is Hob. So Hob, you finish your calf. What now? I don't think it helped much.
00:35:42
Speaker
I think it tasted fine, but I don't think it helped much as far as clearing the fog in his head. Because he's certainly not tired. Like he's adrenaline to all the hell. It's a bit on the nose, but I'll go ahead and just lean into it. You detected hints of like stone fruit, which would have been like a common sweetening like food from where you're from. So that's probably an intentional choice on
00:36:05
Speaker
the Minotaur's part to try and give the Goliath something familiar a little bit. So nice. There was there was a bit of familiarity in the flavor profile. OK, so it was comforting, a little comforting in that in that regard. Then I think he gets up and puts some coin. He's got something on him. He keeps it in his wrist strap on the on the counter as a thank you for the the nod to do his home. And thanks. What's your what's your name? Call me hob around here.
00:36:33
Speaker
half a bit of a joke. Please be super literal and call him hob around here. Nice to meet you hob. Yeah, you're sorry. Oric. I knew an Oric once. Not that common of a name. Betrayed me actually. I hope I can shame outside my namesake in your in your mind.
00:36:48
Speaker
I'm sure. Well, thank you again. And, of course, I'll probably see you. I think I will. Thank you. And what time does he expect? I mean, he would know what time to expect sauna showing up. He does not want to tell the story twice. He wants to get them both there. Yeah.
00:37:05
Speaker
I mean, given the fact that they are primarily doing lunch and dinner right now, probably you have a few more hours before Sana would realistically be at the for-sales. Okay. Is there any God? Is there any God? There are many gods, in fact. I don't know if Hob... A plethora. See, so Jeff's thing is now Hob is going to find out who gave Ace that bike.
00:37:30
Speaker
Like, that's Hobb's thing, but I don't think he would jump on it this quickly, but he's also not gonna go to, Hobb has a couple hours to burn and Jeff doesn't know what to do with him. My brain's all messed up, guys. Yeah, he's not going to go lay down. I mean, if you wanna roll on a random table, Hobb deserves it. No, I mean, Hobb, like, Hobb slash Jeff does have a lead on figuring out more about this entity, because you notice some similar talking points from somebody that Hobb knows. Yeah.
00:37:59
Speaker
and demon hunters keep long hours. Was I given a means of contact for Dorla? But weird hours. I guess it's not a means of contact, like a way to reach her. Was I given a means of semi-immediate contact? Yeah. You know where she's staying while she's in town. Oh, she is still in town. That's what I couldn't remember. Okay, wonderful.
00:38:22
Speaker
Yeah, I got time to kill. I guess I go see if she's where she's at. Okay. I guess she is where she's at. She's where I expect her. She is always where she's at. No, no stopping that. A demon hunter is never late. Thank God. Did you come up with that?
00:38:35
Speaker
Yeah, straight off the dome. So yeah, you arrive at the inn that Dorla had told you that she was staying at and the proprietor tells you like head up what room and his hob gives it a knock. After a couple of moments, the door opens and you see Dorla not in her full armaments very much in kind of
00:38:59
Speaker
casual clothes that she would just be in her room in. And you can detect not so much sleep in her eyes that you woke her up, but she's still definitely in the process of getting going. And she, Hob, I didn't come in, and she opens the door. Yeah, I think Hob walks in and goes, I think I killed, no, I don't think I did. I got in a fight with a demon servant tonight, and when I finished the fight, I had killed a friend of mine. Can we sit down and talk? Yeah, that sounds like a...
00:39:29
Speaker
Yeah.
Understanding the Spirit's Motives
00:39:30
Speaker
I mean, do you want to think we can go downstairs if you want something to drink or we can just talk here? I think Hob has already, like when he said it out loud, his knees went from under him and he is sitting. Yeah, Dorla. He sat down and then asked, can we sit down and talk? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, there was there's there's a chair next to a desk in the room and then Dorla sits on her bed across from Hob and you fought a demon. I don't know. No, not a demon.
00:39:59
Speaker
Cause like, that's not a thing. Let me try again. If I had fought a demon, I wouldn't be here, right? I'm still learning this stuff, but okay. I'm not learning this stuff. I know what you told me previously. Tell me your story. Yeah. He says the highlights being we saw a guy engulfed in flames. He said he worked for, this is Jeff remembering his best. He said he worked for the big demons and he was trying to stop someone under the city. Very important distinction. He worked for the greater devils.
00:40:28
Speaker
That's right. I probably did remember that. Western theology, devils and demons, mix and match all you want, but in Eberron, very important distinction. The greater devils. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Then yes, Hobbes is the correct term. At least devils. He gets the distinction of devil and demon. He may have said the big devils. Yeah.
00:40:47
Speaker
When he died and the flames left, it was our friend that was left behind. I am not joining your cause yet, but when we find out who this one was, I'm on board for whatever happens. So how do we find out who it was?
00:41:03
Speaker
Did the figure that you fought before they turned back into your friend, did they give you a name or a title of any kind? Just pronouns. That's all we got. We got a lot of hers and hims. Am I wrong? I don't feel like I'm wrong about that one. They refer to themselves as a spirit of preservation.
00:41:22
Speaker
Okay, great. God, now I feel even worse because I was reading my talent list when he said that, I bet, trying to find how to really knock him back. Yes, so I relay that information. He referred to himself as a spirit of preservation. Dorla stands up and walks over to her desk and you see a few tomes and books sitting on it and she shuffles through them and pulls one out and returns to her bed and flips through it. Now, we don't really concern ourselves with
00:41:47
Speaker
devils that much, but they are relevant oftentimes because, as odd as it sounds in the war against the dormant overlords, oftentimes devils can be allies. The spirit of preservation, all of the devilish spirits
00:42:04
Speaker
are ancient entities with the devil's control. And if a overlord's influence begins to interfere with a devil's purpose, they will oftentimes unleash a spirit to remove elements that are empowering an overlord. Overlords gain power based on their domain being active where they slumber. So a overlord of war
00:42:28
Speaker
if a great battle were to take place where they lay dormant they would gain power from that. Did he speak to what he was attempting to do in the city? I think at this point Hobb might kind of relay the reason we interfered at all. Like he hadn't said that he was just talking about the fight he's like I don't here's what I know about what he's been doing in the city. I explained the previous murders and who Norsin was and and like
00:42:53
Speaker
that's the person he was with at this time, like not a good man this time. And Hab is starting to get really concerned that, not really concerned, but Hab is starting to realize there's a chance that we were on the same side and just we didn't like the way that he was dealing with it, which is not something we've loved before either, but anyway. Dorlin nods as Hab relays what this entity had been up to and what they were doing and what they specifically spoke about, which was,
00:43:21
Speaker
unchecked ardor being something that Eris stink of, but it was not interested in killing Eris. It's difficult for me to imagine Hobb saying anything about, now that he knows it's potentially an overlord that he was talking about involving Eris in that part of the conversation. Fair enough. So he just mentioned unchecked ardor being a problem. Yeah. He locks that away to think about and discuss with Eris perhaps, but he's not saying it to Doris.
00:43:49
Speaker
Dorla hops up and grabs another book off of her desk. And when she gets halfway across the room, she stops and looks back and just scoops all the books up off her desk and pops them into bed next to her. Wonderful. And sits down and flips to a page. And so the reason that I have been here for so long and the reason that my tribe has been interested in
00:44:10
Speaker
The city is because there is documents that an overlord resides under the city named Sor Aktash, which is the overlord of ardor, unbridled passion, enthusiasm, or innovation. Well, sure. Hob thinks innovation. Would you spell Sor Aktash? S-O-R space A-H-T-A-S-H-K. Well, that's not what I had. Well, it was well. All right, got it. Sor Aktashk.
00:44:41
Speaker
so in my professional and educated opinion it seems like there was a devil or multiple devils that had an interest in the city specifically in devil's deal in contracts and offers and fulfilling the needs and desires of people but if there was a great way of innovation and invention amongst the greater minds of the city then perhaps
00:45:08
Speaker
people could be provided for without needing to rely on devils in their contracts. So I could see a devil being interested in stymieing the wave of
00:45:18
Speaker
innovation happening in the city. So, unleashing a spirit of preservation to preserve the status quo. But spirits cannot operate independently. They need a host to operate within the city. It sounds like your friend was operating as the host for the spirit. That is the impression that I am under, have been under,
00:45:40
Speaker
for some time. It would seem like it depends on the devil's intention with the spirit. Devils used to utilize corpses to they would wait for somebody to die and then a spirit would possess the body. But the spirits lack judgment, nuance, good decision making.
00:45:57
Speaker
they are just spirits of a singular mindset. So hosts allow for that. The mind of the spirit and the host become one. So all this to say that whatever actions the spirit would have been taking would have been through the lens of
00:46:13
Speaker
how your friend would have sought to not necessarily deal with the problem, but how to approach the problem. Your friend would have had agency, is all I'm saying. So that is seemingly what happened. Is your friend signed a contract with the devil to take on this spirit in exchange for something?
00:46:31
Speaker
without seeing the contract, I couldn't tell you what, but like hob, hob curses and says what he says a curse wording motorcycle. That may have been part of it, but I know and also some sort of power and abilities.
00:46:46
Speaker
The spirits are not, they're not rare, but they're not common, if that makes sense. You won't, many people go their entire lives without seeing one, but they are around us operating. But it seems like this devil is interested in stymieing the growing power of sore Aktash, much like myself. Did you, I'm sorry, I rambled. Did you have any specific knowledge that you sought regarding what happened?
Discussing Vengeance and Futility
00:47:13
Speaker
Is there any satisfaction to be gained from pursuing vengeance on this singular entity that has that had manipulated my friend? Ah, no. Not unless you are willing to travel to the various planes that the greater devils reside in and fight them there. Even if you caught one on the material plane to kill it here, it would return home, much like that spirit that you fought. It is not gone. Yeah.
00:47:42
Speaker
It returned. And that's what I knew. Sorry, go ahead. I would discourage that path of vengeance, but that is what it would look like. The tornado warning sirens have just been tested in Shawnee, and that is the steam blowing out of Hobbs' ears right now as he realizes everything is futile and nothing is good. Yay. I'll not take any more of your time.
00:48:06
Speaker
Hob, I, I'm sorry what happened. I, it's a hard thing. Cause yeah, man, I was, no, I was kidding. Sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so bad. It is an action I don't wish on anyone.
00:48:17
Speaker
But I understand your grief and pain. I've been there, and I'm sorry. I suppose I do have to ask one more question. I don't want to are my friends and I now in danger of our own retribution or acted upon us for stopping this guy. More so than him, he can come at me. I'm going to speak about this the way that they think about it. Sure. You damaged a carpenter's hammer.
00:48:44
Speaker
understood. He doesn't like it, but he gets it. If you need help. Yeah, that's right. If you need help, if you need anything, let me know. I appreciate that. I think I guess I just need to deal with it for a while. And if you need help with that, I'm also here. Yes, I appreciate it. Thank you. And I think Hob gets up and excuses himself, thanks her again, walks out the door, didn't kill nearly as much time as I think the player hoped, but
00:49:10
Speaker
killed enough time as the producer hoped because end of
Conclusion and Community Invitation
00:49:15
Speaker
episode. Thank you all for listening to a very weird episode of Eberron Renewed. Hope you all enjoyed it from a, you know,
00:49:24
Speaker
Consuming a story standpoint, if not from an emotional standpoint. I've seen the thing these people read in the Discord, they can handle this. If you want to be part of the conversation, as I'm sure there will be one surrounding this episode, you can head over to our Discord, the link to which is on all of our socials, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. We also have a YouTube channel, youtube.com, slash to keep Pantheon, where I post TTRPG videos there.
00:49:45
Speaker
And Philip is going to plug another thing. Yeah. We also have a channel called Laughing Tree, where there's another actual play called Kyber Shards, where I'm the GM and Eric is a player. We also have a Patreon, patreon.com slash Geek Pantheon. If you want to financially support the shows in any way you're able to do so, you can do so over there or you can buy some merch at the geekpantheon.com. Thank you all so much for listening. Truly. Thank you for listening. I have been your game master, Eric.
00:50:08
Speaker
I'm Phillip. I'm Randy. I'm Jeff. We'll see you next time, please. Please come back. We'll see you next time.