Transcript
Speaker: Okay The salambia saga is a story driven action -packed fun filled D &D podcast I'm your DM Anthony and today we are joined by Lucas playing Roshka. That's me Larry playing tiller be will er Hello everybody Everybody have a great podcast experience
Speaker: Robin, playing Fosk. Hello, everyone. I hope you enjoy the session. And Hailey, playing Deelan. Deelan B. Baudoir, at your service. All right. So as we last left off, you were talking to the leader of this cult, Dora Mir. Basically gave you a couple options.
Speaker: You took the option of taking discarded garments, staying for the rest of the night, and then leaving in the morning to tell them that you had, you know, defeated the cult. You were taken to a room where you discovered a hiding and very small cat -like person.
Speaker: who spoke to you about killing the cult in their sleep. And as you agreed, he transformed into the form of Dora Mir, and that is where we left off. So Dora Mir stands in front of you, shiny bald head.
Speaker: carved teeth, pale skin, and a robe that's much too small for him. And he looks down on you. So you do you have anything to say for yourself? Well, honestly, if you were in my position, you'd probably do the same thing if someone's offering you
Speaker: What is akin to the greatest treasure I've possibly thought of in this last, I guess, two days that I've known my party. All right. The, I have questions, mister. Are you actually a cold center there? I'm kindness. Oh yes. And this is kindness to you.
Speaker: tricking people, flying, changing the rules of engagement at the last moment. Is that kindness? Is kindness plotting to kill the people that have provided you shelter? Is kindness plotting to kill believing people who claims to
Speaker: have witnessed these people being rapist villagers, hmm? Right now we had two people insisting that you were bad. An entire guild, and an entire person who claims to have been here, claiming you are doing terrible awful things. It would be a moral disservice in order to not want to do something about that.
Speaker: You change the rules of engagement through lie. That is entrapment. You are a liar. That is not kind. Lead is not shelter. That is victory. I'd rather call myself a mistruther. Not a liar. A trickster. Fascal kind of like start pacing back and forth as he's like ranting and raving. And, um,
Speaker: He'll be like, as he, like every loop he's taking, he's like looping in a way where he's like a step back from the guy until he eventually bumps into the party and he'll kind of like gently shove them back as he's talking. And my intention here is while Fosk is ranting and raving to provide a distraction while he's slowly inching the party towards the door.
Speaker: So we're gonna go ahead and roll. What do performance for that one? Okay, performance. To see if you can keep him captivated long enough for him to not notice that you're doing that. Okay. Alrighty, one second here. Gotta find where he put my character sheet. That's a smart thing to do before the session, Robin.
Speaker: Oh, so kindness is trickery. Kindness is lies to you, sir. In a dishonest world, you're just supporting dishonesty. That is not part of what makes the world brighter and kinder. It's part of what makes it darker. Marcinister. And I'm sure you're fully aware of that. Well, in Kriara's eyes,
Speaker: Lying is so much... That would be a 22 for performance. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. In Creara's eyes, lying is a much smaller sin, especially if that is in the goodwill of the people. And I am protecting the goodwill of my people by eliminating
Speaker: the bad and evil who have come here to kill us. Well, I would be protecting the goodwill of other people who do not want to be lied to, maybe not raped or pillaged, mister. It would be a moral disservice, and that is what you led us to believe when you were in disguise. We would not have wanted to attack you had we just been left alone.
Speaker: I didn't want to attack you. I just want out of here. That is all I want, mister." Vosk will say, giving them like another shove towards the door as he's ranting and raving, like throwing in hand gestures now to emphasize anger and feign it.
Speaker: It does not quite seem to notice yet. So if you think that the ins justify the means,
Speaker: And the disservice would be to kill us or at least stop us because of what you have heard. I would call that hearsay. If you don't have real witnesses and people that can, you know, actively back that up, how would you know that we've been doing all of these things just because some silly guild told you we were doing these?
Speaker: Have you ever heard of this wonderful thing called propaganda? You led us to believe we had a real witness. You were transformed. You claimed to be here for two weeks. You claimed to be the person who was here before us. We weren't here before us. We didn't have that information. We didn't know it was you. But clearly that witness was not true.
Speaker: A witness who has been here for two weeks hiding would be more true than any witness we had thus far. You had the intention of disguising yourself, apparently, and your true intentions. That is just lying. That is as much a lie as propaganda would be, mister. We were going off the information we had, and, uh, fast, you know, once more, again, like, inching in towards the door.
Speaker: probably like picking up speed because wanting to get out of here and wanting to drag this out. So you reach the door. Now, the door is a quite heavy door. It's going to take some strength and also stealth to open without him noticing completely.
Speaker: I did mention last session that Fosk did opt to leave the door slightly ajar in order to. Oh, good point. You're right. So basically as Fosk gets gets everyone close to the door as close as he can, he'll kind of stand like next to the already cracked door and he'll be like,
Speaker: Well, if you are so fond of trickery, let's see how you like this. And Foskel, like, slammed the door open wide and dashed for it. Okay, so I'm assuming you other three follow, Fos. I'm running.
Speaker: my arm falls off as you uh as you dash into the hallway you notice both ways you look blocking both ends of the hallway are four guards apiece not just cultists guards full
Speaker: steel armor, purple gyms and crusting, you know, the shoulders and the waist. And you see each of them hold very large battle acts and they stand sturdily in your way.
Speaker: And you hear a couple of footsteps come from behind you. Dormir exits the room. So you didn't think that me, the supposed trickster, could, you know, ignore what was going on. I have a contingency plan. You can't get past me. Okay.
Speaker: So Fosk is going to turn around to face him and he. So Fosk used to be like a private investigator. He always needed like a way out of things from my class. I got like a bag of ball bearings. So that's how I'm justifying him having this. He's going to look at Dormir and he's going to be like thrift and fall.
Speaker: And he's going to empty like half of the ball bearings onto the floor behind them and just make a mad dash towards the guards. Okay. What is the goal? What is the goal to look into the guards? So my idea is to, they're standing sturdily in front of it. I don't think they get as tall as the ceiling. I'm going to try and, um,
Speaker: find whatever means or methods I can to get over their heads, like jump over them. It'll be a fight, it'll be a struggle, I know, but it's, Fosk is in like, I need out mode, survival mode, basically. Okay. And I'm going to use my racial ability to teleport Roshka 30 feet away past one of the guards.
Speaker: Okay. You chose specifically Roshka. Okay. All right. Um, so when, uh, you teleport Roshka, um, for some reason he ends right in front of the guards. Fosk, as you reach the guards, you realize that they are not moving at all.
Speaker: Not even living, per se. They're just standing there. And Dora Mir kind of chuckles a little bit. I.
Speaker: I have a bit of a gift for you. We'll call it in the name of kindness. So, after hearing your true nature and how you're very eager to kill. I'm eager to escape. It's different. Not quite. Very. Twisted in which way you will, just to justify. But the evidence is in front of you.
Speaker: If you wish to stay alive and continue proliferating your fake kindness and misconstruing your actual goals, then you will take up a take, take me up on my offer. However, if you wish to continue to. Well, let's see.
Speaker: I think it'd be much more fun to just take you there myself. So in fact, let me change this. We're going to take a little trip. You're going to follow me and you're going to do as I say, when I say it, whenever we get there. How does that sound? Like we don't have a choice.
Speaker: And I go to bite the nearest of the guards, like, spear. Arashka, Arashka. I'm assuming he's near the guards right now. As he would be near Arashka, so he's gonna walk over to Arashka and put a hand on his shoulder. And I'll be like, this isn't the time to fight Arashka.
Speaker: All right. So just come with me and we will solve this predicament, as you will. And he begins walking down the hallway. And as he walks down the hallway, you see the guards move equidistant from him. Oh, be careful about the bearings, sorry.
Speaker: You see you see it's completely unbothered by anything that has happened And you all begin to walk down the hall As you walk down the hall you take a you take a corner and you see a dead end And as he gets closer and the guards reach the wall the guards disappear and
Speaker: and the wall opens up and you see a very well -lit staircase going downwards and so as you continue walking you go down these stairs and the walls around you begin to open up wider and wider and wider until you are in this very dark space that is just lit up by the torches along the ever
Speaker: ever increasing walls and you realize at the bottom of these stairs there seems to be some sort of structure it's lit up very well it looks kind of similar to a maze and he stopped about halfway down the staircase so
Speaker: We will be arriving momentarily when we get to the bottom of these stairs. The guards behind you will disappear, technically opening up your escape. I will say, if you try to escape, good luck.
Speaker: Now, at the bottom of these stairs, you all will enter this structure. I will give you instructions briefly before, and you will complete those instructions and hopefully come out alive. If you don't, then it's destiny, fate, fortune. And if you do,
Speaker: Then good for you. It was meant to be. And he begins walking again. And you get further, further down. You reach the base of the structure, which you now realize is about 25 feet tall and quite wide. And you see a very small door open up.
Speaker: just large enough for Dormir to squeeze through, but obviously he's not going in. And he turns to you once more, and as he said, the guards behind you disappear. So, when you enter, you will be met with choices, and you must make choices correctly. Every correct choice you make
Speaker: is a reward you get to move on every wrong choice you make is a punishment and something will happen each room is different each section is different and you must use your heads to figure it out now these tests will be of kindness
Speaker: And for you who say that you are kind and that I am not, we will see if you make it out or not. You cannot deceive the gods. So I wish you good luck. Any steps aside so you can enter the building. Hey, Fosk!
Speaker: this guy I don't like this guy he seems weird you know he said good luck if we try to run away
Speaker: But he said something else earlier, and then it turned out that he was lying. So I think he's lying if we go back. He actually said good luck, but I think he meant bad luck. Well, let's see. Well, I can explain Rashka.
Speaker: Good luck in this sense. And Fosco reached to gently grab Roshka's hand and will guide him towards the thing. Because I feel like trying to leave right now is a death sentence because yay. And Fosco would be like, when he says good luck in this sense, it's more of a tongue -in -cheek kind of thing.
Speaker: Which means that we would likely experience very bad luck if we prayed to actually leave right now. That's what I was thinking. It would be bad luck. Yes, it would be bad luck for us. But why would he try to chew his own tongue? That doesn't seem good. A tongue in cheek simply means when you say one thing and mean another.
Speaker: So he's not biting his tongue. It's not necessarily the action of biting your tongue. That's fair, Rashka. Let's try and see if we can complete this trial, okay? Yeah, I've heard about these before. It's like a big rock, right?
Speaker: Rashka, do you have rites of passage in your hometown? Yeah, we do. I didn't do it. Like tests and trials that you need to complete to be worthy? Yeah, yeah. I can do one, though. I run away. I see. Well, that's kind of what they're trying to put us through now. And Fostal guide Rashka to where we're supposed to go while he is talking.
Speaker: Kind of like a little hunched over, but still like holding his hand to guide him along. Okay. So, uh, as you - Oh, go ahead. I was going to say, tell her to follow along suit. Okay. Um, what's, what's D 'Elon doing?
Speaker: He is fiddling with his bones so they keep falling off for some reason. He's just like his arm falls off and he's like, I'll bother. He picks it back up, sticks it back on. Okay. I'm having, how do you say, technical difficulties.
Speaker: OK, so as you as you enter this this structure, it's very well lit and you're in a very large room. The door closes behind you. And you notice in front of you, there are three doors. Each of them with a letter above them. And you see a sign.
Speaker: above the middle door. The doors say D, L, and M. As you enter this room, it actually does get a bit brighter.
Speaker: And the doors don't seem to be made of much of anything other than just plain old wood and probably old wood. They do look like they've been here quite some time. There's dust and cobwebs in the in the place. But yeah, that's it's up to you now. Is there anything else in the room besides these three doors?
Speaker: Not that you can tell. D -L -M. Is that what the letters say? Yes. So Foskle kind of like point to the different doors with their corresponding letters and like read out what letters they are. So Rosh goes up to speed. So that shape there, that's a D.
Speaker: Rachka is staring very intently at the letters trying to comprehend. Rachka is doing everything in his power to have a single brain cell right now. Interesting. If this trial is divine in nature, I don't really know if any of the letters actually matter at this point.
Speaker: So maybe I guess, even though I'm not really a fan of it, we just pick one and hope that it works out. DLM. What could these possible letters stand for? Do you think D stands for door mirror? It stands for door, actually. I would like to remind you, there is a sign above the L door, the middle door. All right.
Speaker: There's a sign that's probably got instructions or telling us we're stupid or something. So I read the sign above the outdoor. So as you read the sign, you realize unless any of you speak Draconic, you may not be able to read it.
Speaker: I was, I was looking at my languages and I saw the D I was like, Ooh, I speak Draconic. All let's go. But it was actually druidic D R O thing. That's a you. Damn. That about that third vowel really got me shook up.
Speaker: But in the third letter, you specifically, Tiller, notice this is kind of in the structure of what looks to be a poem. And you notice that there are letters that you can read, but it is the letters above the doors. So you do see a D, you do see an L and you see an M.
Speaker: So the first one you see is the M. Very quickly followed by the L. And at the very, very end of the sign, there is a D. My life is quickly followed by L's. You know, he did mention faith in this being godly in nature.
Speaker: Do you think maybe these are the name of gods? Maybe. People are at bombs about gods all the time in their weird, godly concepts. I don't think so. So, hmm. Sorry, I'm just thinking.
Speaker: At this point, what did he say the name of his God was? Delirious? I don't actually remember her name. So he said that he he worshipped the demon, not God, the demon, Creara. Creara. And Creara isn't one of these options. She is the demon of kindness.
Speaker: The demon of kindness. Um, D for kindness, D for death. At this point, D for kindness. We're going, we're going.
Speaker: You are going to be for kindness. OK. All right. D for dairy. D for dairy. L for legume. M for lingo. Yeah. You know, like A for effort. All right. At this point, I would say I would say how about we have. Let's just pick a random door. We honestly aren't able to read the sign and we don't know.
Speaker: necessarily where, uh, these letters mean. Wait, lift me up. I think I can read it. Okay. Sure. I love them. Yeah. Yeah. It says that the M door is the right door. Let's go inside. Are you deceiving? This rash can't really believe the M door is the right door.
Speaker: I love Roshka. Roshka can absolutely not read the comics. So we'll go insight into deception. Yeah. I got a natural 20. It doesn't matter what I got at this point. Hey, you never know. It might be a net. I'm pretty sure I got plus zero.
Speaker: Okay. So, according to you guys, or according to Roshka, Imma is the right door. So, yeah, okay. I guess Imma is the right door then. Need the way to Roshka. He's gonna put Roshka down.
Speaker: and then ready his scimitar and shield. Fosco kind of like take a deep breath and as he'll like place his hand on the hilt of his blade, preparing to go through the door with a fight. Okay. So who is opening the door? Roshka, obviously. Roshka's just trotting along. Okay. He's very confident. As Roshka opens the door, it creaks open.
Speaker: And, uh, you see another room on the other side. Uh, Dylan? Well, didn't I? I got the right door. Uh, yes. You're ready for this? Foskel saying, like, offer a hand. Oh dear. Well, I am Israeli as I'll ever be, I suppose. Come. We'll have each other at least.
Speaker: Right. I am very chivalrous. I can do this all on my own, but, uh, you know, help is appreciated. Yeah. Yeah. And Fascal, follow everyone in. Yeah. Tell her we'll try to go second, uh, behind Rashka.
Speaker: Okay. Depending on how stubborn the alarm is, class will either be leading the back or going third.
Speaker: Oh, he'll take the front. He's scared. Obviously, you can hear his clacking bones as he shakes beneath his armor. But he's got a shield. So, you know, he's a coward, but he's not dumb. So he's just slowly walking forward. You just hear the random clinks and clacks of his bones. Oh, it's quite cold in here.
Speaker: All right, so as you enter the next room the door closes behind you You see one very large humanoid looking wolf man with very very bright red eyes and tattered clothing and to his left your right you notice a quite small
Speaker: God, what is the name for that right now? Halfling Woman, it's a halfling, there it is. That was so hard, for no reason. You had a halfling woman with bright blue eyes, red hair, pale skin, and she has finer looking clothes, like almost nobility level. And then you hear Dora Muir's voice come over what seems to be maybe a magical intercom.
Speaker: In this room, you must take their stories and weigh them against each other. Find who is in the wrong and who is in the right. OK. All righty.
Speaker: So as you approach, both of the people look at you. Almost pleadingly, both of them. And they just wait on you. Fosco, look to the wolf man. And he'll be like, hello. How are you? Hello.
Speaker: I am, uh, well. How are you? I've, hmm, eh, seen better days, but I'll get through them. Well, I can only imagine since you're in here with us. Yeah, but it'll be fine. May I hear your side of the story?
Speaker: OK, so first off, my name is Sayas. I haven't always been like this. I was in dealings with this hoodlum over here, and he points over to the halfling.
Speaker: She promised me a cure for my affliction, and I have gotten nothing from her, even after paying gold and silver.
Speaker: And I've been here for way, way too long. So please, please help me get out of here. We signed this contract, right? Do you have the contract on you? I do not. When we were brought here, it was lost. But supposedly she has one. But we'll get there in a little while, I guess. So we had this contract.
Speaker: It told me what she was giving me and what I had to pay her. And you would have seen on my contract that she wrote over the numbers after we had made the deal. And so my signature was on this paper for something that I had no money for. And she said that she couldn't give it to me.
Speaker: Okay, but did she ever give you your money back? No, she took it and called it a contingency fee. Can I attempt to incite this person saying so far? Sure.
Speaker: All right, so another insight, which is a 19. He seems to be telling the truth. OK. And then I would ask, do you have this supposed contract?
Speaker: Uh, like I mentioned already, it got lost in the moment that we came here, but I believe she has the one as well. Okay. All right.
Speaker: Uh, and, uh, you, uh, as I say to the other person, can you tell us your side of the story? Oh yes, I could tell you everything.
Speaker: My name is Alara and I come from the Yttriaal family and I am a purveyor of very fine potions and salves and just medicine in general. This man comes to me in normal human form and looks me in the eye and says,
Speaker: Need something very quickly and I needed to stay under the wraps and of course I said, okay, I'm used to this kind of dealing and so he described what he was ailed with I Told him I could help and we signed a contract. Yes. I put numbers on there but I did not do it after we signed until I
Speaker: He got into the back of my store in the middle of the night and tried to steal the cure. While stealing the cure, he was confronted by both my father and my brother. And he had transformed at this point and heartlessly murdered both of them. And so I changed the numbers being a business woman.
Speaker: too much higher to not only one, pay for the deaths of my family and to pay for the cure, which is now more important to him. You know, it's a, it's a business, you see. And I do have the contract right here. I have the contract in which I wrote over the numbers. Okay. May I see?
Speaker: Oh, absolutely. And she pulls a small rolled parchment out of her back pocket, and she hands it to you. OK. Fosk will briefly read over the contracts, see what the terms and conditions were. And as Fosk is looking over this paper, I'd like to ritually start casting Detect Magic. OK.
Speaker: I will get back to you on that in just a little bit. So, Fosk, as you're reading over this paper, you do notice that they mention the cure and the price. You mentioned that both you'd see that it's mentioned that both parties need to be in good standing, as is custom with the local business.
Speaker: And if anything happens negatively on either side, price points can in fact be changed. Whether it is hardship, whether it is
Speaker: theft, uh, whether it is famine, just general negative things, um, disease, death in the family, you know, those kinds of things. Okay. Fosk will kind of manhile reading it to them, to himself. And then he'll roll up the parchment and he'll look at the Wolfman and he will say, Hmm.
Speaker: And from your memory, what is the most exact wording this contract held? Uh... Times conditions. Well, you see, um, I can't read. So I mainly just signed it. I know that sounds terrible, but I really can't and I just needed a cure.
Speaker: OK, I would like to insight check that. OK, go ahead. Could I assist? Not right now. You are ritually casting detect magic. I forgot. Yep. True. Let's see. Where is insight? Insight isn't a real word. It's like a seven. It's like a seven. You know. So you rolled a seven? Yeah. OK. Yeah. For all intents and purposes, he's telling the truth.
Speaker: okay okay and uh miss did he tell you he couldn't read she looks at you for a brief moment and looks back at the wolf he did not tell me he could not read and read it back to me
Speaker: Hmm. And he interjects, I did not do such a thing. You are such a liar. First, you say that I killed someone and did this blah, blah, blah. I can't even remember the past few nights before that. Hmm. I see. Hmm. Hey, Foske. Yes. What's the contract?
Speaker: Okay, so a contract is like a legally binding agreement. You've made promises before, right Arashka? Yeah, but I don't understand this right legally. Okay, well, let's say that you had somebody who led your tribe, your city, your place of living, yeah? Okay.
Speaker: So imagine you made a promise to someone, right? Yeah. And you broke that promise. Yeah. And if you broke that promise, your pa came to punish you for breaking it. Yeah, yeah, you would punch me in the face. Yes. That would be, well, some form of a quote unquote legal punishment. And so breaking a contract like this can guarantee basically
Speaker: is a proof of a promise and a promise between two people where one of them can then be punished if they were to break it. So you punched them in the head? Something of the sort. Ah! So then we punched the wolf in the face? No, not yet. We are not. We aren't the law.
Speaker: So we punch her in the face? No. Your enthusiasm to deliver the law is admirable, Rachka, but not in this situation. Well, he did the bad thing, right? According to her story. Alrighty.
Speaker: Okay, so we deal on Rashka Taylor. Would you mind talking in private really quick? And here you go, miss. Um, you'll offer the contract back to her. Okay. Uh, I'm still, uh, focusing, um, a couple of minutes as I'm still trying to cast my spell.
Speaker: We'll just have the conversation right next to you to be just as distracting as possible. Okay, so, the Elan rashka. Do you have any questions for these nice two people? Not to them, no.
Speaker: I have many questions, but I don't think they're gonna be good questions. That is fair, Ashka. Diyalan? Do you have any questions you might want to ask either of them to get to the bottom of this? Ah, he's a bit scared right now.
Speaker: Elon in a pile of bones on the floor. Sorry about that. I think I would prefer to watch for right now and kind of piece the pieces together like a very elaborate puzzle. Excuse me. Yes. You. I smell bones.
Speaker: Oh, that is nothing to worry about. Can I have one? I haven't had a bone in so long. No, you cannot have a bone, I am sorry. Oh, okay. I thought I would ask at least. You see, I actually drink a lot of milk, so you are in fact smelling my bones through my very tangible flesh. Yes.
Speaker: But milk makes my stomach very unhappy, actually. So I might need to stay away from that anyways. Good, good point. Good point. Yes. Very good, very good. A wolf with lactose intolerance. You know, honestly. I think I don't care. I think I'm thinking in character. I've never heard of a wolf having lactose intolerance. He's a bad wolf.
Speaker: So does my spell finish casting? We'll say it does. So you notice that there is magic in this room. But it's on the walls and the floors and the doors.
Speaker: So they can't escape, basically. And neither of them have any magic on them? No. And you also know that that school of magic is enchantment. I say to the others, it looks like we're surrounded by enchantment magic, but neither of those two are magical.
Speaker: So let me get this straight. You guys both had the dealings of for a potion. At this point, would you say what the potion was for? The potion was to cure me of my my ailments. See, I'm not I haven't always been a wolf man.
Speaker: And is that true? Is that what the potion was for? Yes, that that is indeed what the potion was for. And by any chance you wouldn't have any others potions on you. Oh no, heavens no, I wouldn't bring any of my work outside of my work. That would be quite silly, wouldn't it?
Speaker: I guess, um... I didn't kill them. It wasn't me. She's blaming me so she can drive her prices up. I don't even remember the past few nights how could I kill someone.
Speaker: Hmm. Wait. So if you can't remember the past few nights, how do you remember? Oh, God, you definitely. I could have, couldn't I? Oh, you're at the night of their death. I don't know. No, no. I go over to my colleagues and I say I try to get them like away from the other two in the room.
Speaker: Well, one of them is having a mental breakdown. Um, you know, this looks very kind of clear, uh, and shut, but just something isn't feeling right. Um, I don't, I can't put my finger on it, but it's something about the potion makers words. Is it perhaps? Well, I did read her contract.
Speaker: and Fosk will basically describe the terms and conditions he found within the contract. He'll keep his voice at a very hush tone so that they can't overhear. I don't think Wolfman would be able to overhear in the midst of a mental breakdown, but it's fine. We'll deal with that later.
Speaker: And while we're doing this, uh, is the potion maker any making any signs or gestures? No, but she's standing there. Did she seem to be particularly sad when she mentioned the death of her family? No, she did not. Hmm. Interesting. People are normally sad when that happens. Um, Fosco be like, okay.
Speaker: So, we should separate, um, I think we should separate the two parties so that they can influence each other's stories. Like, bring one to the other side of the room, talk in whispers, etc. Alright, um... And then when we come back together, we can share the stories and find discrepancies. Okay, um... I have an idea! Oh yeah?
Speaker: I must say, this is a very good idea. I really had done myself this time. Okay, let me know if I asked. So, my Nana told me about this once. There was this really smart man, and he had a pipe, and he had a silly little hat, and he went down, and he had this weird accent, and he talked, and he had a doctor that always followed with him. Anyway.
Speaker: My Nana told me about this man, and he was really smart. So I'm gonna think like this really smart man. And that's gonna solve everything. Okay. You like it? It's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good, Roshka. Roshka Holmes. Roshka Holmes. I don't care.
Speaker: No, I think we should save that for Dilan. I think Dilan would be the best able to handle that.
Speaker: I think I think the Alon and Roshka should go and speak with the potion maker while we will try and speak with the wolf man. I have I have a couple of questions I'd really like to ask the poster maker Taylor. So you want to question the potion maker? I would in fact like to question the potion maker.
Speaker: All right. Um, then I will take, uh, deal on very well. This is what we shall do. Okay. So tiller and deal on are questioning the Wolfman and Fosk and Rashka are questioning the potion maker. All right. The Rashka we're together on this.
Speaker: So we will start with the wolf man, uh, tiller the Alon. Um, uh, would you follow us over to the set of the room and I try to get, is there any like chairs? No, no. Um, and then I try to like, basically like, uh, get them over to the other corner of the room.
Speaker: He very sluggishly walks over there and then slumps to the ground, just kind of sobbing. I can't believe I could have killed someone. This is life changing. I can't have taken someone's life.
Speaker: Uh, I'd like to try and insight that statement before we start speaking. Go ahead. The man sobbing. I got a 20. He seems very genuinely upset. Yeah, me too buddy. Dirty 20. Um, the filthiest 20.
Speaker: Seems it seems like he's telling the truth and he's very genuinely upset. All right. Um, so now in a whisper, uh, and I tried to motion for deal on to get closer so that this way we could like hear it better. Um, can you say again exactly what happened from start to finish?
Speaker: I went to her shop to get a potion and I said that I needed a cure for my ailment and she said she could help me and then a couple days go by and then I come to get it and then
Speaker: And then she rose the prices on me and kept my other money as a contingency fee. And I don't have the money to pay for that. I'm a very poor man, you see. I'm so sorry. I didn't know I could have killed someone. And by any chance, how many days was it between when you first came and when you came back?
Speaker: It was, it was two, two days. All right. And, um, okay. Now any chance that you drank anything. Uh, so after you left the shop, did you go anywhere else? I went back home. Um, and how far did you live from the potion shop?
Speaker: Not far, like three streets down, maybe. And you, did you know this potion maker fairly well or did they know you fairly well before this or not? Oh, not particularly. It's the first time I had gotten there. I just looked around for someone that could potentially help me and she said she could. Okay. So, hmm.
Speaker: And they said that you were in a different form. Uh, I understand that you're in your wolf form now. Were you in your human form permanently a couple of days ago? Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I haven't always been a wolf man. Yeah. When do you usually transform? I don't know. I just wake up and I'm like this.
Speaker: All right. Do you have any questions that you want to ask? No, you are doing great. I am just listening. Are you sure you don't have a bone I can use? Where are you on the night of night? I don't know. What is the night? What are you doing on the night of the murder?
Speaker: I don't know. I can't remember anything. How about this? Here's another question. As I put my hand on Diolan and I start speaking and thinking about what to say, I'm also trying to cast guidance on him. Why? While I'm thinking about my next couple of words.
Speaker: And I say, uh, do you remember what you've eaten for the last couple of days? Um, in, in the morning I have my, my same breakfast. It's just potatoes. Um, with a bit of, of lamb shank. And that's, that's really it.
Speaker: I eat that every morning and I don't eat lunch and then I eat dinner, but I haven't really remembered dinner from, uh, I don't know the past couple of days. Hmm. So, uh, where do you usually get your potatoes from? Oh, my, my farm. Hmm.
Speaker: All right. Um, you know, that is a lot of questions I've asked you and I'd like to give you a little bit of a break. Uh, and then I say, and then I motion over to Foscon and, uh, I asked if, uh, anything changed while, uh, while we were having a discussion with, uh, the old man and any signs from the, uh, uh, potion maker.
Speaker: Okay, and that'll bring us to Foskin Roshka. Hello, Miss. Could I... Let's get your story from the beginning. When this man, as a man, of course, walked into your home or your potion shop, might I ask what he looked like?
Speaker: Well, he was a quite attractive young man, uh, about six feet tall, very fit and, and, and hardworking and brown hair, nice, pretty blue eyes. Definitely a sight to see. But he walked into my shop a little, little disheveled.
Speaker: Okay, sure. And how did he describe his element to use, specifically? Well, in the beginning, he just said, I have something wrong with me and I need it fixed very quickly. Okay. And when I questioned
Speaker: what it was. And he didn't give me a whole lot of details other than the fact that he was transformed in some way, cursed even. And, you know, I mentioned that I had a potion or two that can cure most cure, most curses and most ailments of that variety. Okay, okay. May, uh, two
Speaker: mind describing your relationship with your family post pre the murders? Oh, very, very close. Very, very close. We have wonderful times together running the potion shop and the business and I'm really the mind for everything. I'm, I'm the business person. And most people talk to me because I can, I can, I can make business moves. I am, that's my specialty.
Speaker: My father crafts them. My mother organizes them. And my brother gets the ingredients. I see. You must have been devastated when you found out what happened. Oh, absolutely. And you said you weren't there to witness what happened. And Foske is going to like keep a very close eye on like her reactions and her
Speaker: the way she expresses things, looking for like micro expressions and the specific tone of her voice, seeing like how she feels about this. Oh, I saw. I saw. Right. I was here. We all live in the potions, obviously. Okay. And we heard commotion, uh, from the bottom and my mom and I rushed down.
Speaker: And we saw this this wolf man over here just ripping my brother and my father to shreds. I see. And so it was your brother and father specifically running the potion shop at the time? No, they had just been down there. My father was creating, you know, crafting, doing as he does. And my brother was giving him ingredients as he does. And so they just happened to be back there when
Speaker: the Wolfman broke through. I see, I see. So it seems like everyone in your family has like a specialty. And what led you to come here? How did you end up here with us? Honestly, I'm not sure. I was standing in my potion shop one minute and the next minute I've been in this room, right next to the one who killed my father and my brother.
Speaker: You can imagine how upset I was. What kind of light did you, did you see any light, any sort of sign that you were teleported? No, it was just an instant. Bam, you're here, huh? Yeah, precisely. I see, I see.
Speaker: All right, listen here, you dumb goober. I only have one question for you. Why did the wolfman kill your family? I couldn't possibly know that. Do I look like the wolfman to you? I don't know what motivates people to kill people, but I surely, surely couldn't imagine. All right, follow up question. Why did you kill your family?
Speaker: Hold on, that's preposterous. How could you accuse me of killing my own father and my brother just to drive prices up? Fosk will be kind of mouthing like I'm sorry, it's to the lady. Interesting, interesting. All right, follow up question. Why did I kill your family? Wait, I've never even seen you before. I watched the wolfman kill my family.
Speaker: Who are you? Why do you? What is going on here? I would like to insight check her. Fosky in Roshka perfectly believes everything else she says, but the second she pressures back against Roshka doing it, it's insight. She's telling you the truth. All right, I believe you.
Speaker: You're dangerous when you're under here. Foskle, like, kind of have his head in his hands, and he'll be, like, kind of, like, trying his best to keep his composure, but, like, his shoulders are, like, shuddering as he's struggling to not laugh at Roshka. Why did I kill your feelings? I only have one last question for you. How long have you been a halfling?
Speaker: I don't know how this is relevant but I mean my whole life but I cannot believe that you would insinuate I killed my family just to raise prices for this poor man hmm I believe you I believe you didn't do it all right first let's go we've got all we need
Speaker: Um, Rasha, you can catch up with them for a moment here. I would like to continue my conversation with her just for a little bit. Okay, you're lost. I love Rasha. Okay, uh, and okay, so. Duperu's Deloitte is when a person happens to smile just
Speaker: briefly for a fraction of a second when they are lying. How dare you like insinuate that I killed my family? Did I see any fraction or hint of like a grin or a smile on her face when it was the wolf guy during any of her statements thus far? You did not. Okay. But you did notice tonal changes.
Speaker: lots of total changes, which are in fact a sign that somebody, she did deliver the insinuate I killed my family to raise the prices. Hmm. Okay. So, nice. I read your contract and, uh, very thorough. Um, look there, is that just your typical business contract that you use with
Speaker: All of your clientele. Of course it is. I can't just change things willy -nilly. Cause how do you keep a customer base there? Well, if your customers won't talk, there's room for changes, but I digress. Having just a base contract is very smart. So then what might be the motive of, hmm.
Speaker: Declaring that you can change the prices based on specifically a few incidents like death in the family or robbery, which you just so happened to mention in your story. Well, how did you what made you think? What were you thinking when you put those on there?
Speaker: Well, provided when you lose product or things happen in your family, hardship falls on a merchant and you have to make up for that. For the time that it takes to grieve and the time that it takes to recover from robberies and theft and the like, it's just, you have to recover from that. And what is the price, like the scratchdown price?
Speaker: Like I saw the actual contract. I would have seen where she changed the numbers. What did the number get changed to? So the numbers looked very messy and very quickly scribbled on there. But you can see that the number was relatively small. And when it was scratched out, you notice the numbers added a couple zeros.
Speaker: Mmm, couple zeroes. Okay, okay. So, let's see here. How difficult per se would you say it is to make one of these anti -carcosposions?
Speaker: Um, well, considering the, uh, potion maker is now dead, quite hard, actually. But before. Yeah, before it's relatively easy if you have the right mind for it, but it's very expensive to make. Very expensive to make, huh? Hmm. And this man says he gave you money.
Speaker: only for you to change it after payment. I was wondering if you could collaborate that information, whether it's true or not true. Did this man ever hand you any gold? He did. Okay. And what is your usual
Speaker: a commission process, like when somebody orders from you, say, I need a potion from you for like, I don't know, memory, and we set the price. Do you start to make, do you have the potion on hand? Do you make it afterward? Well, that quite depends on the potion that we're, we're looking for. Sometimes we have to make them and sometimes we don't. Okay. Do you tend to keep easier to make potions just on hand?
Speaker: Typically, yes. Okay. Okay. So I walk into your shop. I need an easy to find potion and I hand you the gold. Do you just hand me the potion? Well, if we have it on hand, absolutely. Okay. And how?
Speaker: If frequently do people just buy like curse removal potions or anti -transformation potions? And not very often. Okay. Let's see. Um, I would like to insight and see if she's lying at like any point during this. Okay. Hold on. What would your, what would your passive insight be? What's your intelligence score? My intelligence score.
Speaker: It's an insight based on wisdom. Like just a one modifier, so a 13 base score. So I think at best that's like an 11 or a 10 or something. Insight is based on wisdom, just in case. Is it? Oh, it's based on, is it? Oh. Well, regardless, it doesn't change anything. Oops. Oh yeah, it is wisdom. I'm an empty. But yeah, my passive wisdom is still probably an 11.
Speaker: or whatever 13 has wisdom perception. There we go. Okay. So we'll just wait. We'll use that number since it's just going to happen while you're conversating. Okay. Yeah. So you're feeling very weird about this conversation. Yeah. No, that checks out how I'm feeling right now, actually. So it's an easy to make. So it's an easy to make potion that you just didn't happen to have on hand. That's,
Speaker: very expensive to make that you charge cheaply for. This woman's cut story contradicts itself. A lot. So I get the feeling out of character talking right now that she's lying. And I think considering Fosk and his current previous little background, I think he also kind of would have that hunch.
Speaker: So he'll be like, okay, thank you very much for your input. I would like to talk with the rest of my colleagues right now, but I do appreciate your help. Absolutely. I don't have much else to do. Fair enough. And Fosk will head over to the rest of the group. I'm assuming Roshka is filling their heads with all sort of
Speaker: thoughts yeah yeah I know exactly what happened here alright tell me tell me little goblin man so she's innocent he made the potion and then he stole her potion and then she became a wolf man
Speaker: I love you, Roshka. Out of character, I love Roshka. He's so lost at this point. Okay. So, let's see. dlontiller, did you guys get any information in particular about, say, a whole friend?
Speaker: The only information that I was able to get was just some time frame information. He went to the potion shop to help cure his being changed into a werewolf. And he went there to commission the potion. And then two days later, he came back and the pros and prices were basically changed.
Speaker: So honestly, I'm really, I wasn't able to pick up, uh, what was going on over by your end because, well, Ashley was telling us an interesting story about, uh, the smartest man he knew or something like that. Um, Elon, were you able to, was there anything out of note that you wanted to mention?
Speaker: No, he did not answer my question. Okay, well I got a lot of answers. If I will say as he kind of gives his hand like a broad gesture and then claps them together and he will say, okay, so I read this contract of hers.
Speaker: And this potion was originally for quite cheap, actually. However, I noticed that she didn't seem particularly upset by the death of her brother and her father. And that's very concerning to me.
Speaker: because the price afterward after this contract was a couple zeroes tacked on and i think that is overall quite the deception
Speaker: Um, actually, wait, I just realized something. This is a potion for like canthropy. Uh, you just see teller just like in his own head, just thinking about the different plants and things that would be needed. Can I see that contract as I say to the potion maker? Well, of course, I'm not really going anywhere. You can't go anywhere either. Couldn't really part with it. There you go.
Speaker: She answered to you. All right. Um, I go over and I look and I go over to the group and kind of like going like a huddle formation. I try to think about the history and the plants and the plants that would be used in a lycanthropy potion. Um, sorry, I say lycanthropy as if I know what it is. My apologies in a potion that would, uh, transform someone back to their original form. And I look at the price, the original price. Um,
Speaker: And I try to think, would the value of my being like selling herbs be adequate at that? Like I'm trying to, my intention is to figure out the usual price for an herb that would be used in this potion to see if there's like the dip, the profit margin. There is a major discrepancy here. Like the very large number she tacked on afterwards is
Speaker: way out of the water and you see the much smaller number that was just scribbled over makes a whole lot of sense. Yeah. Um, and I understand the reason for it, but, um, and I would go over to her and ask and ask her, um, who sets the prices in your shop? Oh, that's me. I'm the businesswoman. All right. Um, Hmm.
Speaker: And do you know the ingredients that were used in the potion? As that's not really my forte? No, not really. Well, then how would you come up with a reasonable price if you don't know the ingredients that you're using and the labor required? You may not be able to craft the potion,
Speaker: But at least to come up with a fair price, you'd have to know the materials and labor needed because otherwise you're just making a random price. What are you saying here, boy? I then like turn around and I go over to the group and I say, I feel like it's her.
Speaker: from my understanding of potion shop knowledge, even if it's usually split between a person who makes the potion and a person who sells the potions, it feels like you would let the person who sells the potions know so that way that you can accurately judge the price of labor and materials.
Speaker: She probably did know, but she's only allowed to make more money when she saw her desperate. He was, you know, trying to exploit a tragedy. Um, and I would look over at this person and I would like to get like a good look at them. Like, what do they look like? Alara. Yeah. Uh, she,
Speaker: She's a halfling, pale skin, you know, bright blue eyes, red hair, and she's wearing quite, quite expensive finer clothes. Okay, okay. I think Ilara is leaving a full story to us. I hear
Speaker: Numbers here. You said they normally make sense, Tiller, but she told me it's very expensive to make, which would not reflect these cheaper prices. Right? See if the portion were truly that expensive to make? You will obviously know more about this portion making business than I do. Is it actually expensive to make, Tiller? Um...
Speaker: Well, while I don't make potions, I do collect herbs to make a living. Okay. I just want to make sure of what I'm saying. From my understanding of plants and what would be needed in a potion like this, the ingredients wouldn't be that expensive, correct? No, not that expensive. Yeah, no, this price was very, very fair and the ingredients are usually middle of the road.
Speaker: Not too cheap, but not expensive enough to create. Like the first price is fair, but they said that the reason why they increased the price was due to the contract conditions. So I honestly, I really feel like she's the one that's lying. Okay. I also feel that she's the one that's lying.
Speaker: Mr. Big evolved demon cat guy. Wait, Roshka. Don't commit to it quite yet, Roshka. We don't have. I'm listening. No, no, Roshka. We eat. Roshka does not speak for the group at this time, Doromir. A verdict has been delivered. A verdict has not been delivered. An opinion has.
Speaker: Yeah, verdict, opinion, same thing in the minds of sheep. Do you all agree? Begrudgingly, I'm going to look at Foskin and say, at this point, we can't really say exactly why, but it makes the most sense at this point. Your story contradicts itself. I think she is lying.
Speaker: So I guess we should just bite the bullet, and if we're wrong, well, it was good knowing you. Well, we'll be punished, so let's see what that entails. Dormir, we believe that the halfling woman is lying to us. And what about you, skeleton? I am not a skeleton, first of all. You have no idea what I look like under this armor.
Speaker: and yeah I agree with them okay so Alara, Vindictis, Itreal, you have been sentenced to death for the murder of your own father and brother and the terrible increase of prices
Speaker: on a disadvantaged man who is just looking for a cure. And you see something out of the wall or out of the roof come down, a stone pillar, and it literally just smashes her. Blood, guts, viscera, everywhere. And the wolf man looks over and just cowers.
Speaker: and you see the door behind them open. Foskle approached the Wolfman. And he'll kind of kneel down to where he is crouching and he'll be like, Mr. Yeah. What can I do for you? Foskle kind of like reach over
Speaker: And he'll give the man a hug, why not? And he'll be like, it's gonna be okay, okay? Her story was very contradictory and she didn't seem to actually care about the potential death of her family. I watched her expressions very closely and I have a bit of experience in rooting out liars.
Speaker: Don't believe you actually murdered this woman's family. I think she was taking advantage of your gaps in memory. And I'm sorry for this situation. Well, that's a relief. I promise you that they're okay. Thank you. And as he says that, he just disintegrates. Alright, first we'll stand back up. I didn't know!
Speaker: I didn't know. So now the door behind them is open. I thought this was a game. I'm sorry. It'll be okay, Roshka. Fosquill offers hand to guide Roshka along. Roshka immediately hugs your leg.
Speaker: Alrighty. Come up here. Fosgull will take up Roshka if Roshka allows. Alrighty. Let's go on. And Fosgull approached the door. So, as you enter the next room, it's a bit more dim than the last one. And in this room, you see rats.
Speaker: all over the floor. You see spiders and insects of all shapes and sizes just skittering around. And at the end of this room, you see a door. Okay. A stronger door looks to be metal and a little reinforced. Okay.
Speaker: So are these rats and spiders poisonous? Who knows. Oh boy. Time for a day. I'm not one to like bugs or really vermin, but I guess this is what's going on now. Foskles say stepping into a room very displeased with the situation right now.
Speaker: All right, so as you all entered the room, the door shuts behind you once more. And you don't hear much of anything other than the skittering of rats and insects. I never did like this sound. No, it's very familiar. How's it going, dear? Are you OK?
Speaker: Does the door have any handle or any way to open it that I can see on the far side? Yeah. Yes, there is a handle. Oh, I am fine. I am just watching you do your thing. I am ready for whatever it is that is going to pop out of the shadows that I am inevitably waiting for. It is going to happen. I promise you we should have never came here. But hey, we are here. So I am watching.
Speaker: I guess this, uh, wind doesn't get stupid. If you're scared, you can hold my hand. I can lead you. No, no, I am not scared. Do not get me confused. Ignore the bones rattling. That is just because it is cold and I do not have flesh to keep me warm, so. I walk up and try to grab Yalon's hand. Fast moving says to not drop Roshka.
Speaker: Now look what you have done. I am just a pile now. He's coming down in the bones. Listen to me for a moment here. Bravery is not the lack of fear. It is action in spite of being afraid.
Speaker: Okay, you can be brave and afraid. No, no, no, no, no, you have me confused, dear friend. I am not afraid. I am very courageous and very chivalrous and very, very brave. It just so happens that I also happens to be bold and it is very cold and the cold is, how do you say, not keeping my ligaments together.
Speaker: So, you know, it is just a victim of circumstance, as you put it. And then you must have the very votary of a fool because I am terrified right now.
Speaker: No, I am not scared at all. I have fought demons. I have fought monsters from the Great Sea. I have fought a luton. They could only kill me in my sleep. So that says something in and of itself. And like I said, look me up. I am very brave, very chivalrous.
Speaker: At least three books were written about me. Oh, really? Why were they called? One of them is The Brave Adventures of D 'Alon B 'Boudoir. Another is Fully Ashes with D 'Alon B 'Boudoir and The Odyssey. Did you write those? I did not write them, no.
Speaker: When you are a very famous and chivalrous knight like I am, other people tend to write about you. Were those other people there? Were they? No. If they weren't there, then maybe they didn't write the truth. I'm going to pick myself back up and form back into a body and kneel down and put a hand on Roshka.
Speaker: When you are a very famous and chivalrous knight like I am, and you go out and you do many adventures, and you slay many things like I have, people hear of your great exploits. And then when they hear of your exploits, people write about them. And that is where autobiographies come from. You understand.
Speaker: No. When when they when they daddy book and they mommy book love each other very much, they get together and they make a baby book. No, they don't. I don't know. Stupid right now. I do not see how this is relevant. You hear in the corner. Oh, what was that? All eyes turn towards the voice.
Speaker: Someone in the shadows, you say? Yes, I am in the shadows. Would you mind coming to greet us? No. Not really. I don't care if they're going to ask a question. Yeah. Is there a reason why this guy also sounds French? Do I recognize this? No, not particularly.
Speaker: Wow, all French people know each other. Damn, they all are. In my area, yes. Yes, actually, as a matter of fact, they do. May I ask what you're doing here? No, you may not. Alrighty, then I will talk to you. Who are you? Wouldn't you like to know? Yes, I would like to know. Tell me who you are. That's terrible, I'm so sorry.
Speaker: Being mysterious and chic is so... 200 B .E. I guess so. But it does not matter. What are we supposed to do here? Are we supposed to go through the rats in the box? Because I can do that. I don't know. What are you supposed to do here? Close the door.
Speaker: Are there any is there any kind of signage, a hint? No, the room is very empty other than the dim light and the guy in the shadows and all the creatures in the room. OK. Is this guy in like a magical darkness or is he just in darkness? He's just in darkness. I have like I have dark vision up to like a like 120 feet. He's in a special corner.
Speaker: A special extra dark corner. Yeah. Is there something about being kind? You have a nice mustache? I do not have a mustache. Well, you certainly hide in the shadows very well. May I... Do you want out of here? No, this is my home. Oh, okay.
Speaker: Are these your friends? I don't know. Are they? That is a question only you can answer. Oh, that's a good, that's a good question. But, uh, I refuse to answer. Okay. Do you just hate questions? Well, actually, oh, yeah, good job. Ask, ask if he hates questions with the questions. Well, you must say, yes, I hate questions. Okay, then.
Speaker: Mainly, I just do not like speaking to things that can speak back to me. Okay. Um, while this conversation is going on, I'd like to start ritually casting, uh, speak with animals. Okay.
Speaker: So, Mr. Cornerman, you're a little bit like, uh, my brother Brutus and my sister, at least. Cause Brutus also likes to talk to things that can't talk back. He likes to talk to rocks and, uh, trees and bushes. No, no, no. You, you miss, you misunderstand. I only like speaking to things that move that also do not talk back to me. So like rats and stuff. Yes. Like everything in this room.
Speaker: Can you tell your friends to not bite us if we walk? Have they been you yet? No. They're already at your feet. Are they? Oh! He's just so used to bugs and rats and everything crawling on him. He didn't even notice the sensation. This is weird.
Speaker: Yeah, it's very weird. I don't know why you're in here. Well, I'm just going to like carefully to like I'm going to like specifically slide my feet across the ground so I don't step on anyone. And make my way toward the other door and just see if I can open it. Is anyone following or is it just Fosk? I want to follow.
Speaker: I'm still trying to cast my spell. I'll follow. OK, so you're leading Tiller to be swarmed by rats and bugs and stuff. That's fine. As you reach the door, it opens. Oh, hey, close that door. Don't let my pets out, please. Oh, OK, sorry, sorry. I'm fast. We'll shut the door quickly. Why'd you close the door?
Speaker: You said you're supposed to leave. Get out of my house. So we're supposed to leave without letting your friends out. I don't I don't know. I just want you to leave. Get out of my house. All right. Goodbye. Make sure you shut the door. You can come. The rats are friendly. Um, does my spell finish casting?
Speaker: Sure, yeah. I try speaking to the rats. Rats, rats. What do you say to them? I say, hello. What's going on with your friend over there? I say it in druidic, so that way that the person shouldn't be able to understand. You know, you could have just asked me a question. You don't have to ask the rats.
Speaker: You hate questions, and I wanted to speak with your rats. But you could have just asked me. I can speak that. How do you think I speak to the rats that don't speak back? All right, I then say to the rats in Sylvan. Hi, how's it going? Yeah. I'm a rat. What do you want?
Speaker: What's going on in this room? What's going on with your friend? He's my friend. He feeds us. What does he usually feed you? Food. Do you know what type of food? The food that we eat. Does it usually look like my friends and I? Not particularly. I don't know. I can't see very well. I'm a blind rat, you see.
Speaker: All right, can you get one of your not blind rat friends so I could speak with them? Yeah, sure. Hold on. Hey, Timbo Timbo, come here. This guy, he wants to speak to you. Yeah, what do you want? Hi, pleasure to meet you. And I hand them a cracker. OK, bye. Wait, I have a couple of questions. He's gone.
Speaker: I can you bring another, uh, I'm not blind rat, my friend. Uh, no, probably not. They don't like to listen to me cause I'm blind. Can you get your other friend to come back and stay here so I can ask him another question. I'll give you a crack. No, he's kind of stupid.
Speaker: All right. Well, it was great speaking with you. Oh, wait. Hold on. Hold on. Let me talk to this guy right there. And he looks over at the cockroach just right next to him. Hey, can you speak to this guy? Oh, yes. I can speak to this guy. You see the rat moving his mouth. What do you want?
Speaker: Well, I want you to have a great day. Enjoy your next meal. Hopefully it isn't us. All right. Take care. Goodbye. Did it work? Is he's gone? I hope so.
Speaker: So as you all enter and leave the door, nothing happens. You both enter into this, this next room, a very large circular room. There is no longer a door at the end. And you see a very small pile of skeletons in the center. Oh, hey. Fosco like a deal on not saying anything else.
Speaker: It's very, very well lit. And the architecture in this room is quite ornate. Don't you say it. I know what you are thinking, and I swear to God, do not say it. Vosk has like this mischievous grin on his face. What are we thinking? Oh, nothing important. Those look like you, Deilon.
Speaker: That is very racist you're doing well keep it up Big bones and little bones and medium bones and the sharp bones and dull bones and round bones and
Speaker: This is like that song. I'm sorry. I don't, I didn't mean to be racist. Oh, that's sweet. Good. Good. Good job. Training him correctly. So you're in a very large room with just skeletons in it. What do you do? No exits. No. Nope. Nothing that you can see. Hey, Tilly.
Speaker: Hello. You got any more of that magic in you? Fosk will say waving his fingers like only somebody who doesn't know magic can. So detect magic lasts for the duration. Oh, is it concentration? Yeah, it is concentration. Yeah, it's concentration. All right. It will last up to 10 minutes.
Speaker: I look around, um, is there any like signs of life in this area? Any animals? There used to be life in the middle of the room. A pile of used to be life. I mean, like, is there any animals like bugs or stuff like that? Nope. There's just used to be life in the middle. You ever heard the term, good news is good news.
Speaker: Well, fair enough, because this doesn't feel like good news. All right. Hmm. I started thinking to myself and I then put my hand on to ask and I say maybe checking out the bones is most likely the best idea.
Speaker: You're the quickest out of all of us in case anything is there as I cast guidance while I'm saying this. Alrighty, it's bound time. So as you're standing there and guidance has been casted, in each of your independent fields of vision, you notice in the very bottom of your vision, you see a red line very slowly draw across your vision.
Speaker: Wow. And just above it reads Vorshak, the devourer of men. And you see a giant rat, much larger than a regular giant rat, probably about 15 feet tall, 15 feet wall wide, and he flops down onto this pile of bones. He's a dude.
Speaker: And you hear music start playing. Very ominous, dramatic, orchestral music. Tiller, sing them a song. Now, this rap actually does look a bit familiar. Oh, no. Oh, no. And you hear it screech and look right at you with just red in its eyes and its black beady eyes just turned bright red.
Speaker: Cause that's all applaud by the old man to get revenge on us for killing his rat. I guess we're rolling initiative. Are we? Go ahead. Uh, I try to speak way before we do that. I try to speak with the rat to say, um, how's it going?
Speaker: It's going terrible! How do you think it's going? Uh, what happened? You killed me! Why are you here? You killed me and now you've come to do it again? Um... Uh, no, actually not this time.
Speaker: How'd you get here? I don't know. You killed me, and then I went to sleep, I think. And I woke up in here, very large, just not that long ago. Why am I so big? I don't know. This place is a magical place.
Speaker: I'm again, I'm sorry for what happened to you. We didn't intend to fight you. The old man didn't tell us you were there and I just, I guess the best thing I could say is I'm sorry. That's all you can say, sorry? You killed me, separated me from the one person that gave me love. I mean, if you want to stay with us, we could bring you back to them. I'm pretty sure they'd appreciate
Speaker: How do you think I'm getting out of here? There's no doors, no windows. No, no hatches? What do you expect me to do? Maybe it's underneath that pile of bones. You think you can move it for us? And maybe there's a door underneath there. We'll try to get you out. Vorshak swipes it with his tail and there's just more floor. See? It's just bones!
Speaker: Rorschach! Devourer men! I have come to be the champion of my people and I will strike you down again! Rorschach, no. Rorschach? I'm imagining Rorschach driving forward. See, you do want to kill me. He said it. I knew it. I know I couldn't trust you. You said you wanted to talk.
Speaker: Wait, remember, he is the guy that hit me in the knee. He doesn't know how to hit. He he doesn't know what he's saying. He's probably talking about attacking me. He would attack one of his own friends. He attacked me already as I like lift up my armor and show like the scar where my knee is. Oh, that's that's terrible. Why would you do that?
Speaker: It happened when we fought. You remember? No. He literally hit me in the back of the knee. I don't remember anything. I just remember being here and then dying and then being here. All right. I'm also saying this in common so that way the others would understand them speaking to the rat. And I say, yeah, this is a scar when he attacked me. He likes to attack his friends.
Speaker: But that's not very good practice for a friend. And are you saying he's my friend? I think he would consider you a friend. It didn't sound like it. Certain cultures express friendship in different ways. Foskles say, like, hurrying over to, like, Scoop up Roshka. And, like, muffling him. Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, okay. You know, is the door still behind us, like the reinforcement door? The door is still behind you, but it seems to be much more shut than it was earlier. Well, so much for fate. So are you guys my friends?
Speaker: Did you really not mean to kill me? No, we were just checking out and there was also a mimic inside of that room as well. I know. We were told there was a monster in there. Yeah, I was trying to fight it, but then I got tired and it left me alone because I'm not what it normally likes to eat. But I wasn't strong enough to fight it on my own.
Speaker: You came in and I thought you were going to hurt me or steal our stuff, so I got a little scared. Oh, I'm so sorry. It was a very awful misunderstanding. You see, your friend, the man, he was telling us about the zippest, the mimic, and we only found out about what happened afterward.
Speaker: Oh. We ended up helping your old man sort through his finances as we left. He is pretty well looked after, at least. Well, that's very good. I like to hear that. So you don't want to kill me? No. Absolutely not. I'm so very sorry. That's what happened the first time. It crashed off.
Speaker: He's being very friendly, it seems. Oh, very. Oh, I feel kind of weird. And you see the health bar very slowly reach zero. No. And he says, oh, I think it's time again. Oh, goodbye, friends. No, no, no, I'm sorry. And he evaporates into the air.
Speaker: If I was cool, I'd kind of like let Rush go and then just kind of like sit down. Do you have any idea how lucky we were? That thing is so dangerous. Hey, don't be racist towards rats. No, no, no, it's not. Rush is one of the biggest and baddest guards there ever was. Oh?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, it's back in my village. My Nana used to tell me stories of this big, god -devouring rat that used to crawl across the sky. She always read it. I always wondered what she'd read now. I see. So that rat eats gods then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At least according to my Nana. Well... ehh...
Speaker: didn't eat us. Oh, we were so lucky. You guys are so good. And we must not be his favorite food. So you see, you see in the very far end of the room, a very large set of double doors forms and very slowly begins to open. Revealing a hallway with quite large torches. Oh,
Speaker: I guess we must go then. Well, one door opens and another door closes, right? So let's go. Foskle, get up and walk over towards the doors. You guys ready for whatever awaits? No, anything that's not close to Roshak. Let us go. Alright.
Speaker: So you begin to walk down the hallway. And it's quite, quite long. But as you near the exit, you notice another set of large double doors. And that slowly begins to open as you see again. And you see in front of you a large staircase in a very dark room. Upwards or downwards? It goes upwards. An illuminated platform. And you see DoraMere standing there. Good evening.
Speaker: Very, very large smile. So it seems as though you all are quite kind. You picked the door who stands for kindness. You picked the correct victim and suspect of the murder
Speaker: You picked to not squish and kill insects and spiders and rats. And you reconciled with an old enemy. That is quite kind of all of you.
Speaker: I would say you passed the test and maybe I can overlook you trying to kill us as just a defense mechanism. I'm not going to lie. The only reason why I agreed to kill you or at least try to was cause you said that you had something I didn't think possible in the last 48 hours. Were you lying to me? I just need to know.
Speaker: Not necessarily, but it's something you will learn on your own. No, it's okay. Walk up and like after a hand to like, quote unquote, shake on it. And he reaches his hands out and grabs yours. His strength is immeasurable.
Speaker: He dials back very quickly upon reaching your hand and almost crushing it all the way. My... you have impeccable strength. Oh, I apologize. But it seems as though Kriara, the Lady of Kindness, has granted you pardon. And for that, I am very grateful. So,
Speaker: We will do as we originally intended, give you some tattered robes and some artifacts and you will be on your merry way. All right. Thank you. Do you think we can like take a rest first? Oh, absolutely. My home is now your home as you have proven yourselves to be kind.
Speaker: All right. And I say to this point, at this point, if they do decide to kill us in our sleep, at least we'll be comfortable when they do it. Yeah. Well, he hasn't died yet. You can't say otherwise.
Speaker: And so you notice one of the one of those original guards that didn't move is much more loose now walks down the stairs and guides you back up to your old room. And you guys arrive in your room. The door shut just slightly ajar behind you. There you go. I like it. And you're left alone in the room.
Speaker: Don't worry, I learned my lesson. I'm not gonna say anything tonight. Wow. Can't believe we actually got to encounter the poor rat we killed. It feels kind of...
Speaker: great knowing we could reconcile with at least maybe an apparition of him or maybe just him or something of that sort. I don't want to alarm you but I think it's magic. So while you're in this conversation you see in the middle of the room a large chest just blinks into existence.
Speaker: Let's say we open it and if it's not robes, we don't touch it. All right. All right. What's in there? And so you open the chest and you see tattered bloody robes. Oh. And artifacts that you were promised. Okay. Some look very expensive. Well, I mean, okay.
Speaker: And there is also a quite large bag. It looks very similar to a duffel bag, but could definitely fit all of the things that you need to. You know, I'm starting to get adjusted to the way this magic does things. We'll start cutting things inside the bag.
Speaker: Alright, and with that, we will go ahead and end here.
Speaker: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Salambia Saga podcast. I'm your DM, Anthony, and would like to remind you that we are novice podcasters with very novice editing skills, and are doing this for both your and our enjoyment. This means that the end product could be just a little rough. I would like to once again thank you for all of your time, and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.
