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C2 Ep. 195 Head in the Sand Chapter Three
442 Plays8 months ago
And everything was going so well....
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Transcript
00:00:21
Speaker
. . .
Introduction of Hosts
00:00:46
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Ed Brodner-Dude, an actual play podcast set in the everyone campaign setting. I'm your game master, Eric. I'm Philip. I'm Randy. I'm Jeff. And welcome to another episode.
Recap of Kidnapping and Rescue Plan
00:00:55
Speaker
Gentlemen, what happened last time? We're waiting on some kidnapping. We are, yes, we, we, we have begun the, the unstoppable emotion has begun and now we're just going to ride the train until something good or terrible happens.
00:01:10
Speaker
vis-a-vis getting errant out of the Dreadhold. And also some stuff that our characters don't know happened, happened there at the end. Yes, some third-person kind of ways. Yeah, so you all are headed to the boats to go to the rendezvous point with Thirani, kind of a ways away from the Bilgratz docks. And then you can bring, we go to Tarvel for the exchange.
Healing After Battle
00:01:36
Speaker
But I believe as Philip so kindly stopped us before we did it off mic, some of you want to do some healing before we get going. Yeah. This is going to attempt some first aid on Milo who got pretty beat up in our encounter with our awesome doppelgangers.
00:01:50
Speaker
And since Eris knows how to heal, you know, cuts, chemical burns, abrasions, she will attempt this. Two success and one threat. Sounds about how Eris' first aid would go. Two success, so I get what? Four wounds back, right? Stop wincing. I believe that you heal one wound per success on a medical chair. Yeah. Yes. So you heal two wounds. Thank you. A bit better. And Eris takes a point of strain.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I just have some wounds. I think Hob notices that, hey, we have a second and rubs some dirt on it and... Well, do you want Milo? Do you want Milo? Let Milo heal Hob. That's exactly how I wanted it to play out. Yeah, if Milo wasn't, I mean, I am not that... I've only got four of 17 wounds gone. I'm actually not that hurt that bad. Unless, I mean, if you guys are both at 100%, then I may as well get there as well. I'm fine. I didn't think so.
00:02:47
Speaker
But that's as many medicine checks as I'm allowed to attempt in this. And I would definitely like to heal some strain. Yeah. So can I medicine check on Hob to heal him and try to heal some strain as well or no? I would allow, if you do a medicine check on Hob, you can take the advantage for yourself to heal strain if you roll advantage. Okay. We love giving it to Hob. Difficulty on that. It'll make you feel better. It's only one purple because Hob's not that hurt.
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah, so you should get some strain back after this. Oh, exactly. He says it'll be one free spell moments before rolling. Something about before the fall. That's exactly what happened. Three success to advantage. So it didn't hurt you to help me. Thank you, Milo. Awesome. The problem is it doesn't cling. What you really want is grease. Yeah, a little grease vial.
00:03:43
Speaker
Ow, ow, ow, ow. It's gonna be mild yesterday because it would work. Okay. What are we doing? Anything else that you all would like to do before you head for the boat?
Mission Prep and Stealth Maneuvers
00:03:51
Speaker
You have a handful of hours between now and then. I know we left off the last recording with you all resolved to do it, but we've had some time to think if you all thought of anything you'd like to do in preparation. I assume Eris has all the necessary implements. So yeah. We've definitely been thinking about it. Definitely. We've definitely been thinking about it. That's definitely what's been happening in the intro. I know I got absolutely nothing. As far as I know, we have done all the things that can be done to control what will happen next.
00:04:19
Speaker
Cool. OK, so. Well, other than the things that can go wrong. Oh, yes. Right. But we can't control those. That's left up to the dice. That would be us not having control part. OK, so you all get the boat that you've pre-ranged and head out into the water as you all are pushing off the dock. I'd like everyone and this kind of relates to the whole journey to get to the boat. I'd like everyone to give me or you all can do it as a group. I need a stealth check.
00:04:49
Speaker
What does doing it as a group mean? You take one person's base attribute and one person's ranks in the skill and combine them if that creates a better pool. Ah, good. Aeris will contribute nothing to that, as her pool is too green. My pool is identical to Aeris's. I got too yellow. Oh, really? I thought you'd be more agile than me. Too yellow, too green. Sounds like Milo's making it. Milo is the one rolling for both of them. Purely by his size, Milo is something here that I'd request.
00:05:18
Speaker
I was about to say I am willing to allow Raynard skills to play into it just since metatextually, like, but, uh, Milo's stealth is better. So Raynard has, you know, kind of been working with Milo on his stealth skills. That's why they're, that's what they are. See. Yeah. Okay. So it's one red, two purple is the difficulty, Randy.
00:05:40
Speaker
You want stealth, what if I tell you Sada's been with us the whole time? All right, one red, two people. We didn't even see her. She's in the boat. All right. One of each good thing. One success, one advantage, one triumphant.
00:05:53
Speaker
Cool. So yeah, you all successfully, you, you all are probably aware at this point and it makes sense that you would try to be at least a little bit stealthy, that you've had multiple people in the past day follow you. So yeah, you are, you are confident that you have found back roads, alleyways, smugglers routes throughout Sharn to where nobody could reasonably have followed you to this small dock where you have about stashed and waiting for you.
Encounter with Elves and Viggo
00:06:20
Speaker
You have an advantage and a triumph everyone.
00:06:22
Speaker
I mean, Milo, you can take that advantage to heal a strain, if you like. Yes, I would definitely like to do that. I'll fill the empty Trevor vacuum and say, can the triumphing be that everything goes well? Yeah, can we just win? Okay.
00:06:34
Speaker
I guess so. Cut to you. Erin sits behind Satan's desk with a smile on her face. God, God, Hob. Hob, God. Man, Randy, don't think I don't appreciate the triumph, but boy, what a cruddy time to get. I know it. I have a genuine proposal for the triumph. I'd love to hear it. That is simple. That is simple. It's not very narratively interesting, but we're kind of in the beginning and we always have this trouble with triumphs at the beginning. Eris and Milo do spells. Eris and Milo have still some strain. Can we just wipe the strain? I think that sounds great.
00:07:04
Speaker
Everybody feels real confident. We feel good about it. Sure. Yeah. I like it. Then let's just instead of using that advantage to heal one string since the tripe is clearing out the rest of the strain, let's pass a boost to the next role, just so the advantage isn't wasted. OK, so you all get into the boat and push off and head to the designated spot that you and Alastair agreed upon and wait.
00:07:28
Speaker
I like to think that Milo had a little elixir that he forgot about in his pouch. Take a sip of this, my friends. It's one of the, it's one of the, it's one of the, uh, the, the test, the test vials from, from Eris' potion making. Yeah. How he became an ostrich, you guys feel amazing. Yes, I forgot I had this little vial. In, in making the, in making this shrinking potion, Eris discovered super coffee.
00:07:54
Speaker
OK, so you all feel good, body strong and wait, we cured our wounds, too. No, strong, like, you know, stamina wise, quiet, Randy. And you all see a small blip coming down the shoreline in the cover of darkness, blimp, blimp, blimp, blimp, B-L-I-P. That's how Thirani rolls. Just small little blimps. Really? They're really old fashioned. And they just tie elemental stuff.
00:08:23
Speaker
They tied Vigo to a balloon and shoved him down the shore, figuring they'll find him. So yeah, you all see a small blip with a unnatural amount of shadow.
00:08:37
Speaker
It's not like a cloud of shadow, but definitely it's like a cloud passes in front of the moon in time with this ship coming down the shoreline, making it very difficult to make out who is in it. The only thing you can really spot is the disturbance of the water as it moves through down the shoreline. Wasn't it close enough? Eris gets the Fletcher out and lays it against the railing of our boat. Yeah, that's fair. Anybody else doing anything in preparation of the ship getting closer?
00:09:06
Speaker
Yeah, I'm Cox's biceps. I will say Eris Ames. Okay, Milo, anything?
00:09:10
Speaker
Well, he sees what Eris is doing. And then of course, anytime he sees Hob flex, he pulls out his wand. He knows it's fighting time. Let me build like an external, like an exoskeleton for your arms. You could actually cock them. It kind of goes against my whole thing though. I've cultivated a bit of a thing. It's not your vibe. Hob turns side long to the approaching boat where it's a sliver target.
00:09:36
Speaker
Yeah, so once it gets close enough, you see the shadows begin to dissipate and you see a couple of elves with very prominent marks showing. You don't recognize either elf as they get close and they...
00:09:55
Speaker
of the competent ones, because she said he was going to put competent people on this. These must be the competent people we've never met. He's not even here to fight. That's kind of what I'm saying. That's kind of what I'm talking about. This is not the most important moment we've ever done and he doesn't bother to show up. There's not a lot of arguing with that, is there? So one of the breaches down and you see them grab a moderate sized bundle that's in a vaguely humanoid shape.
00:10:22
Speaker
and the other one looks at you all, and Alistair sent us. Excellent. He gives a nod. Viggo. What were you gonna say, Philip? Is that Viggo? Yes. Viggo Boron. It's George. Just, okay.
00:10:39
Speaker
Yes. And he just jerks to the other one and the other elf puts a foot on the edge of your all's boat to brace and then just kind of like like a sack of potatoes dumps vego into yours makes absolutely no move to cushion that. Yeah. Does it let out a groan? Is it a sack of potatoes that grunts? There's no noise that came out. Yeah, which might be concerning, but that's not their problem. So he's alive when he entered your boat, he was and the other one shoves his foot off of your boat and they begin to float away from you.
00:11:09
Speaker
and the shadows like re-enveloped them. Eris will pull up some shadows. There's like a bag over? Yeah. Eris will pull the bag up just to make sure this is in fact the halfling we asked for. It's another Vigo, you know? It's a very common Boromar name. They show up with four bodies. We couldn't figure out which one you meant. Right, you're a Vigos. No, yeah, you recognize Vigo Boromar. His face looks very slack like there is
00:11:38
Speaker
no real effort to control his body right now. You see very shallow breathing, but it's, well, yeah, that's what you notice. Shallow breathing and a very slack face. If you want to know more information, you can make a check.
00:11:53
Speaker
It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be useful to like... I really want him to know he did it. I want to leave a note pinned to his arm or something. Right one on his forehead. That wouldn't help. That wouldn't help. I know, it wouldn't help. We're gonna have to rely on the satisfaction of a job well done here. I'm sure we're already putting Aaron under an immense amount of strain doing this. I know. I know. Proper vengeance if he doesn't know we did it.
00:12:20
Speaker
He might have a good idea. Eris, imagine him for the rest of his time here on Earth, in the Dreadhold, not knowing who did it. Wondering. Oh wait, I know how to teleport things into his cell. I can just send him in out there. That's also gonna work, yeah. Well, as long as you figured it out. We are on our way back, by the way.
00:12:39
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, are you? OK. Yeah, we're going. We've just been floating. Floating on the tide. You look up and the shoreline is gone. Does anyone know how to row? My arms are not quite long enough. Hobbs just on the side of the boat. Hobbs swim. Yeah, I don't I never I never learned. All right. So, yeah, you all medicine check on him to see what's up with him. Sure. One red difficulty as we row back. Yes. Hey, do success. Success. Three advantage.
00:13:10
Speaker
Yes. So as the others are rowing back to the Bilgerats docks, Milo, or at least in that direction, examining the body, you recognize that this poison that the Thrawny kidnappers, trying to think of the right noun. So that was the professional term for that.
00:13:32
Speaker
Yeah, right. Bagging taggers. They use the poison. They work in human resources. Yeah, that's very, very funny. Very funny. If you were playing D&D, you'd get an inspiration, Phillip. So, yeah, Milo, you figure out the type of poison that was used
00:13:50
Speaker
from a particular type of flower that's only really found in Arenal, that when distilled down allows the subject to be put in a very intensely deep sleep with extremely vivid nightmares of their death. Well, Eris,
00:14:11
Speaker
It appears that they... I don't know how often they use this, but they've got him in a very deep sleep where he's experiencing some extreme nightmares of his death. That's awesome. It's really like that. Eric, you're not gonna like hearing this, but I don't like that at all. Alright, Eric said while the others are rowing back, and I'm picturing how many strokes Eris would need to make for each one of Hobbes in order for us to not just be rowing in circles.
00:14:39
Speaker
Aeris could be the rudder or Hobb could just be at the front, you know, be in the engine and Aeris could just be keeping the direction. Are you all headed directly to the Bilgirat's docks or were you going to try to be so cutest about it? Oh, no. Well, well, I guess like, yeah, we want to we want to get there as quick as we can
Teleportation and Office Arrival
00:14:56
Speaker
because. Yeah. I mean, Tarble is very watchful. It's a spuggler's dock of this package longer than we need to.
00:15:03
Speaker
Yeah. In fact, you all know through your time with the clan, I'm more than happy to hand wave this and say that this is knowledge that y'all would have as you're approaching the build rat docs, you would know to send up a
00:15:19
Speaker
signal of a sound that sounds like a specific bird native to Breland. Philip, what kind of bird is the signal noise? It goes, look at me, look at me. I like it. I love it. I hate you. Trying to do a cool, narrative thing, whatever. I can make no bird sounds whatsoever. I was just asking for the species of the bird, but it's fine. It's the look at me bird. It's the it's the greater narcissus. God.
00:15:49
Speaker
I hope you all have enjoyed it, everyone who knew that this will be... I expect it from him, he says, pointing at Jeff. I know, because there was a little bit of, there was some cerebral content to that. I'm like, it's called the butt bird. No, that was a very funny joke. So yes, you all make the noise of the narcissist bird. The greater narcissist. The greater narcissist.
00:16:12
Speaker
And if you ask it, it's the greater nurses. The smallest, the smaller of the species. Yes, I can't remember what the lesser sounds like. That's funny. Right, because it's less vocal about it. Yeah, he's more quiet. The lesser ones just smudge. Welcome to Wingspan. You all make the requisite noise and you see the bottom part. So the docks are obviously built for larger ships coming in to port.
00:16:40
Speaker
there are some shorter docks but one of the larger docks you see the bottom third of it slide up revealing a hidden a hidden dock that you all are able to go into to remain out of sight so you all go under and the darkness gets even darker you see faint bits of moonlight coming in through the slats of the dock above you and you eventually reach the end of what
00:17:04
Speaker
is basically a wooden tunnel built into water. And the floor above you slides open and you see Tarvel standing over you. And he reaches down and offers a hand to one of you to help you up. Milo grabs his hand. There is out and looks around it clear. Give me a perception check.
00:17:27
Speaker
With what difficulty shall I know? Two purple, but it's nighttime. So out of black and I'll flip a story point. So one red, one purple, one black. Is there some aspect of the goggles that negates darkness? It adds boosts to all of my cunning checks, which counts for this. Right. I think Raynard's the only one that has dark vision that removes darkness. I will flip a story point and upgrade one.
00:17:52
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
00:18:09
Speaker
like, 4.30 in the morning at this point. So, like, you don't expect a lot of activity. Sean, like, there are beings that only need to sleep for, or meditate for four hours a night, so the town never really fully shuts down, and it seems quiet even for 4.30 in the morning. Okay. Five advantage. A free upgrade on the next check. Sure. Do you want better? Free upgrade and a boost. And that's now two boosts, because we did not use the past boost. Oh, right. I didn't use the boost. Yep. So.
00:18:37
Speaker
It's okay, I didn't remember either. Tarvel reaches down towards Hob and kind of points at the body to pass the body up. I mean, I just want to clarify, this is not a quiet, almost too quiet situation. It kind of sounded like that's what you were insinuating. I mean, to your old's perspective, maybe, because like, it's quieter than you've ever seen a block of the city be. Right. Okay, well, I mean, if Tarvel's there and ready for the handoff, Hob does it.
00:19:04
Speaker
Okay. Tarval obviously kind of struggles a little bit since him and Viggo have a much similar body mass, but managed to just get him up on the dock. And Tarval looks at you all, presumably as Hob is climbing out of the hole and any, any problems? No, no, no. There's some egg lamps trying to kill us, but I don't think that it relates specifically. Well, obviously what they're doing relates to all of this, but I don't think that will affect this thing that we're doing right now.
00:19:31
Speaker
I think you told him about the black lamps already because you were on your way to meet with him when they attacked you. So he's not shocked by that information. Okay, well let's get him into my office. Charvel says he begins to walk towards his office door. As you all get into his office, you see that he has pulled his desk a little bit away from the wall. The painting that covers the safe that has the teleportation circle in it is off the wall and the door is open to the safe. It seems like he got everything prepped and ready
00:20:00
Speaker
a free wall and he kind of looks expectantly at you three and was like, okay, what now? Eris takes out a little leather case and lifts the open, unfolds it, opens it. There's little vials in loops. She plays her hand on one. And then in the only manifestation of Eris's unusually high presence, pretends that that's the wrong one and puts her and, and makes an elaborate show of her face and moves her hangers back to the other one.
00:20:28
Speaker
and pulls out a couple of identical ones, one of which is wrapped in a bit of parchment with instructions. It's not wrapped in a bit of parchment. She's put an adhesive on it. It's got prescription-like instructions on the on the outside of the vial. It has, of course. She sets that in the little canister. He needs to drink this one. Okay. Also, go down his fro. Tarvel
00:20:49
Speaker
grabs a vial off of his desk and kind of shows it to you all. After the transfer is done, we confirm that Eris's errand is safe and sound. I'm going to pour this in that hole and Eris, you can easily recognize it as an extremely caustic acid, like any kind of rooted markings or anything to activate the teleportation circle will be destroyed and rendered useless. So, yeah, Tarvel is going to cut the bridge once, once it happens. So. Did you bring clothes for her? What was that?
00:21:16
Speaker
Did you bring clothes for her? Yeah. And there's a small satchel on the couch in his office. Yeah, because you told him that she would be naked. Yeah, we told him.
00:21:24
Speaker
Either way, he would have brought clothes because hey, look up home, you're in your prison jumpsuit. Watch your mouth. Okay, so yeah, I mean, administer the potion. Yep. He naturally swallows once the liquid enters his mouth and you see this Vigo disappear effectively because now there is just a large burlap sack sitting on Tarvel's desk with a little bump in it.
00:21:50
Speaker
Quick, quick, quick. Here's a list of the Relax app. Oh wait, before he suffocates. All right, there's your Tiny Vigo. Tarble kind of takes the Tiny Vigo from you and just kind of looks in his hand. When you get used to things, then something happens that just, yeah. You should have seen what Hobb turned into while he was working on it. We don't need to keep talking about it. It was so good. Look, you're gonna wonder. It was an ostrich. You're gonna wonder if I don't tell you.
00:22:15
Speaker
So you gave Tarvel the tiny V go and then the vial with the note, correct? Yep. OK, so he takes the two things, walks over to the safe and places them in shuts the door and turns the latch to activate the teleportation circle. And then just there's just the sidearm out of its holster, because I don't know what's going to come through. I don't know what's about to happen.
00:22:42
Speaker
I think I know it's about to happen. I hope I know it's about to happen, but just stands ready. Does Hobb have to notice those sorts of things or does he, or have we been together enough that he knows? I assume Hobb can notice those sorts of things. So Hobb can put out the steady. Steady. Steady. A little palm down, hand out to Eris. Yep. Definitely twitchy. Let's presume success, Eris. After all signs pointed, we're going to nail this one with no bumps, just like everything else we've ever done.
00:23:12
Speaker
after probably about
00:23:16
Speaker
45-ish seconds. You hear a tone come from one of the drawers in Tarvel's desk that sounds like a very low note tuning fork, like just a very like constant hum of a singular tone. And he lets out a breath as he rushedly flips the latch, opens the door and then reaches in and pull, like you see him have something in his hand and he sits it on the desk and then all of a sudden a naked halfling whoopin appears
00:23:46
Speaker
sitting on Tarvel's desk. Hob turns away. Sorry, Aaron. Aaron shoves Milo to turn away. Yes. Tarvel rushes over to the couch and grabs the satchel and hands them to Aaron.
00:24:02
Speaker
as she is silent while she's getting dressed. And then she stands and walks around the desk and thank you for your help. Welcome home, Aaron. I'm sorry about the circumstances. Thank you, Milo. I do appreciate it.
00:24:20
Speaker
It's been a long time, and Tarvel takes her hand, like, it has the right thing to do. Tarvel told me that you all had some plans, things that you were hoping that you could accomplish and I could accomplish. Perhaps lunch tomorrow? Okay, it's probably not a very good idea for people to generally know that your ear
00:24:41
Speaker
I know. Tarvel told me the nature of the situation, and what's been going on with the clan and my family, and I don't intend to leave this office. We have some smuggler's tunnels that come out of here, so I can get back to our home if I need to, but no. No one will know what has happened, unless the Dreadhold makes us think about it, but that's not really their style, so unless you all need anything from me, I would ask that you leave me and my husband, please.
00:25:09
Speaker
I was Hey, before we go, Tarvel, you want me to kind of points to the vial that he said he was going to pour it out of the portal that hub notices this yet to be poor. And Tarvel, Tarvel grabs the vial and throws it into the opening. And you you smell the you smell like caustic acid and everything like start to burn.
00:25:26
Speaker
Tarvel said good riddance. Wow. And yeah, thanks all. So you suggested lunch tomorrow? Yeah, yes. Let's let's just meet here. You all can have a appointment with Tarvel in his office and we can we can talk then. Okay. All right. We'll be here around lunchtime. Thank you. Okay. And we're off.
00:25:48
Speaker
Okay. Right. As you all get about five steps away from Tarvel's office, you hear what sounds like a physical altercation began in Tarvel's office, but you, context probably know that everything's fine. And are you all just taking the boat back to the dock where you got it or are you walking home? What's the plan? Tasha? Tasha's back where you got in the, I guess you can call Tasha here. Yeah. Forget about your magic boat. We arranged for you picked up by our ship. Yes. Okay. So yeah, Tasha shows up still creepily quiet.
00:26:18
Speaker
in the neighborhood. But yeah, you all just head back to the cauldron, or you drop a milo off at home, like what's the, and hob
Post-Mission Safety Concerns
00:26:26
Speaker
off at home? Do we need to- I suppose? Suppose what? That that's what we'll do? That I, unless someone suggests something else. I mean, we don't really need to debrief. We kind of just put one of the biggest problems we've had in the Dreadhold forever, and that
00:26:43
Speaker
is good. Like, I know we have a whole mess of problems, Aaron being out now, but I suppose...
00:26:52
Speaker
take those as they come, so I'll just go home then. Yeah Simon, I definitely need some rest. You guys, I mean, should you stay at your places? Should you want me to drop you at the sales? Stay in rooms there. You know, after everything that's been happening and people following us and attacking us and stuff, I'm not sure going home is...
00:27:14
Speaker
probably the best option i guess we've actually established that hob is fairly safe staying it's obvious but if if milo and eris seem concerned he'll be like oh yeah let's all perhaps we should all just bug down then if something does go wrong we're all not scattered across the city yes that's a very good idea down the street
00:27:33
Speaker
You're right, I feel a lot better if we were all together. Says, thinking he needed to comfort someone else, but not really understanding what's happening. If you all would like to give me a perception check, you can do either all of you individually or a group check. Oh guys, are we gonna see how much our friendship's grown? So much. My perception is four green. I've got two and one. I should have two and two, I guess I never did the thing.
00:27:55
Speaker
So you could do two yellow, two green, plus all of Aeros' fiddly bits for cutting checks. Plus two boost and an upgrade. Holy cow. So mine would be... My perception is one yellow, two green. What's the difficulty? The difficulty is it would normally be one red, two purple, but I'm going to flip the story for you.
00:28:17
Speaker
Make it two red, one purple. Two red, one purple. And set back because it's nighttime. We still have a boost, do we not? Or two? I've got him. Yeah. The pool, the total pool with all of our various things is two, well I guess it's gonna be just three yellow, one green, four blue, against two red, one purple, one black. That sounds fun to me.
00:28:42
Speaker
Sure could be. It is. Six successes and one advantage. Probably the most boring possible. Very successful. I know. What do we get? What does Eris see through space and time? So this isn't to say that you need to go actively pursue this or anything, but you do hear kind of nearby where you're flying Eris towards high walls.
Investigation of Cogsgate Explosion
00:29:01
Speaker
You hear like an explosion and then immediately followed by sounds of some kind of fighting.
00:29:10
Speaker
Near Highwall? No, not near Highwall. It turns around, pulls down a map. Activates his Weatherman green screen. You hear it in Cogsgate, which is like, you are almost to Highwall's. Highwall shares a border with Cogsgate, which is a warehouse district. But you also know that Cogsgate, you know, it's not just used for warehouses. It's like, Kundarak has a presence there. So things that people want, like, stored, locked away. The Sharn City Watch has a jailhouse in Cogsgate.
00:29:39
Speaker
so probably don't need to look at that look into that right guys we just fly on by the explosion are we sounds of battle yes no i'm not ready for any more battles at the moment i was being sarcastic adventure has obviously been presented to us you all don't have to we should know what's going on right absolutely yes yes all the time right we are the busiest of bodies
00:30:03
Speaker
we are very curious. Eris banks Tasha hard and we zoom around who take a look from a reasonable distance at least to figure out what's going on before we are mixed into it if ever we do so. Okay so yeah you you're able to kind of fly a little bit high not too high because obviously Cog's Gate is underneath another district so as you're kind of weaving around through it in the early morn you see some flashes of
00:30:32
Speaker
fire, like little orange motes of light that are moving in between some of the warehouses. And as you get closer, you got a really good perception check. I'll let some of those successes carry over. You recognize and see Norsen Millhatch sprinting in between some warehouses being chased by a figure that seems to be
00:30:57
Speaker
made a fire to a certain extent like they seem to be humanoid clothed but also made a fire. Is that fire wearing a very well-tailored suit? That was more like more like leather armor if you had to put a specific style on it. Black really cool looks very cool.
00:31:12
Speaker
Does their head look like a skull? You can't really tell from this angle. It just looks like a fire. Um, okay. Um, I need help reacting to this. Hold on. Let me, let me make a roll to see. Cause. Cause that's Dawson. And I mean that fiery dude wants to kill Dawson. Yes. I rolled that for Aeris for some reason. That was my role, not Aeris's role. As you all are trying to process how to react. It says my name, my triumph.
00:31:40
Speaker
you see the the fiery figure extend a hand out and a fiery chain erupts from it and around Norsen's legs and Norsen stumbles as the figure like tugs back and Norsen gets to slide towards them with the triumph. With the triumph this is gonna sound weird but I promise this is me using the triumph.
00:32:03
Speaker
These are the only figures that you see in the scene. So the Ram is hidden. The Ram was the friends we meet along the way. I think we now know who the person is using fire killing people, whoever that is. I mean, no, we don't know who that is. We know who that person is. We know that's the guy. We have no idea who it is.
00:32:21
Speaker
At this point, Norsen is close enough where the figure bends over and picks up Norsen by the expressive shirt and lifts him. How is water piped to the tops of these towers? Is it external if I flip a story point? Define external. Like pipes?
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah, no, not like it's free floating water by magic. Is there a water tower close by? Like pipes running along the exterior of the towers. Yes. Sure, yeah. I will say that it is more, it is cost prohibited to create water rooms all over the city. So they have like really big ones in one location and pipes that flow it out to where it's needed. Fantastic. That's cost of story point, yes? Yes. You got it. Just wondering, just checking. I know that we've done, because we've done something,
00:33:16
Speaker
We've diverted a big water pipe to put out a fire before, actually, in the cogs or sigil. So that has precedent. Great, wonderful, perfect. I'm taking my story point back. We already did this, Eric. Okay, I just wanted to establish that because that's something Hob can do is break a pipe, I have to assume. Okay, so. Eric has to throw us into this situation, basically.
00:33:39
Speaker
Okay. So the figure turns and looks and sees you all screaming down and tosses Millhatch to the side as like Millhatch like cracks up against some walls and it turns and like faces you all.
Confrontation with Fiery Figure
00:33:55
Speaker
Not in a defensive stance. It is prepared to defend itself, but it's not like running towards you to attack, if that makes sense. Eris should be familiar with this kind of stance. They're twitchy. So.
00:34:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, sweep down in Tasha, pull it up and pile out, I assume. Yeah, you see a figure in leather armor, black leather armor, gloves, boots, covered head to toe, except for from the neck up, and you see a flaming skull staring at you all. It regards you silently. The chain is still wrapped around Norsen though, like Norsen can't get up and take off. Like it's holding like a leash. The chain wrapped around Norsen's legs.
00:34:31
Speaker
Everything okay here, guys? What do we do? I don't know. Eris brought us here. Eris brought us here through a long complicated series of things that Eric has created in Eris that require her to do something about this. I know. I mean, I don't even know what to say. Do we say? Do we speak? Can it speak?
00:34:52
Speaker
like we obviously know what's going on as far as with it's going to kill miller you all you all drift like tokyo drifted into this scene and so they are waiting for you to explain yourself i just want to know one thing of why i'm i'm getting awfully tired of being blamed for your actions hey so like we know why we don't like that's what is yes and we know why we don't like this guy we're wondering well maybe why you don't like this guy and maybe
00:35:21
Speaker
we can find some common ground for you to quit framing our friend for several murders unhand our nemesis the enemy of my enemy i don't even know man what the what the frack is going on
00:35:32
Speaker
Yes, and I really am getting tired of being followed and blamed for what appear to be your actions. The figure looks at the three of you and then glances over at Norsen on the ground and you hear them say, he must be punished for his transgressions. And then he kind of looks at Eris and you have a faint bit of the stink on you too, but no. That's rude. And we were down by the docks.
00:36:01
Speaker
You go down by the docks and see if you don't smell a bit. Look, no one's arguing that he needs to pay for his transgressions. The stink of what? The stink of. Can you smell? No, not right now, Aris. He was gonna answer. He was answering! The stink of. Destructive art. The stink of. Her. What? Her? I'm gonna need more words. I need more words. You've only got a bit of it, so can't be somebody we spend a lot of time with.
00:36:27
Speaker
I can't think. Who are you saying I smell like? I don't understand. There is a entity that lives beneath this city, grows more powerful, the more reckless people are. I seek to stop those that would awaken her. The more reckless people are.
00:36:44
Speaker
Do I need to make a perception check? Hearing this talk, Hob's gonna start clocking this guy for any demon hunter paraphernalia he might have on his person. It is reminiscent talk. Yes, it is reminiscent talk. You do not clock any visual similarities between this guy and Orla or that. Okay. Yeah. And Harris would like. There goes my attempt at calming ground.
00:37:09
Speaker
Eris would like to- I mean, you're talking the same language. It may just stop me. Yeah. Eris would like to skullduggery to use the properties of the goggles to start lining up a shot at the chain around Norsun while we have this entity talking. Okay.
00:37:30
Speaker
So this would be, let me get the difficulty for you. That's fine. I clicked and something glitched and it clicked like 18 times. So I have to clear some sex anyway. Well, you're not allowed to roll all those dice. So I wasn't planning on it. Cannot find one of my Genesis Core Rulebook PDFs. For now, you said Eris was just getting ready to shoot if she needed to. Clocking, lining up a shot without the figure noticing.
00:37:58
Speaker
Okay. We hope. Yeah, she's trying to line up the shot without raising her weapon while while we are still talking. Okay. We're having a perfectly good conversation with the guy. Eros would like to be prepared for when the conversation stops being perfectly good. Look, he just said you stink. Is that enough to really put a gun? She wants to shoot the chain off of Norsen. Sure she do. Sure she do. Sure she do. A little piratey there. A shovel. Sure she do.
00:38:24
Speaker
I spent a bit of time on a boat recently, if you recall. I think, after you've been stabbed by some pirates, you get to occasionally appropriate their vernacular.
00:38:35
Speaker
matey and ridiculous. Yeah well. Just picturing a setting in which pirates are really sensitive about landlubbers using their terminology. Hey you know I almost had a joke that I think as a native person I should be able to get away with but not enough people know that I'm native that I'm not. But not record it. You know a slogan you see a lot around Halloween. You don't have to explain this to me when we're not recording. Yeah I know I'm sorry I just a pirate a pirate poster with my culture is not your costume on it made the idea. Okay.
00:39:02
Speaker
Which is not bad again, but that is very funny. And yes, I think you're very in bounds there. That's very funny. If I had just screamed, my culture is not your costume, which is what I almost did. I see the wisdom in not doing that.
00:39:19
Speaker
Okay. Sorry. So, Iris, you are trying to clock this. I'm just getting their perception is what I was needing to get to notice that you're doing this. What's your skullduggery? I have two yellow, two green, and I get two blue from the goggles. Okay. Since this would be an opposed check, I'll tell you a difficulty and you can elect whether or not you want to do this because this is an agent of hunting down things and killing them. So they have a five cunning and three ranks in perception. So it'd be three red, two purple.
00:39:49
Speaker
It would be the difficulty. You're more than welcome to, just wanted to let you know. You can flip a story point if you want. No, it's probably a bad idea to...
00:39:59
Speaker
ruin this too quickly. Okay, I can say that you're, you're after ready, unable, unable to see where this creature's eyes are pointing. Eris can't figure out how to do it. Yeah, what I'd like would like to know is, you say he needs to be punished. But he was already in prison. You need you mean like permanent punish your prisons mean nothing is kill and he's kill. He's gonna kill him. Yes. A cosmic punishment. It feels like
00:40:27
Speaker
Why not just leave him to rot in prison? As long as he lives, he gives her power. So just like wanting to be reckless is enough? Eventually this time was going to run out, wasn't it? The person doing over there, is he just... I mean, like the chains are clearly like, he's not, he's like groggy. He's like, clearly had his bell rocked.
00:40:49
Speaker
And I seek not to quarrel or fight with you. I also seek not to justify my actions to you. Do you wish to stop me? So you're trying to prevent a greater evil by killing this man. Yes. Every time you burn somebody up, our friend gets blamed. And see, the problem is now I've created a situation where we're actually present at the scene of the crime that you're about to commit.
00:41:12
Speaker
And so it's going to be a lot harder for us to point to the really obvious alibi we've had every time that somebody mysteriously dies and our friend gets blamed. Tell them it is me. I fear not your justice. That's weird. I mean, we scoff at it pretty regularly too. It's kind of an intense thing to say. Yeah, no fair enough. It was kind of cool. Who are you? Yeah, I'm his arbiter.
00:41:33
Speaker
Look, do these people have, do these entities have names? Can I learn something about them somewhere? Perhaps, I'm very- You said- Right now, from you. You said the stink of them is on my friend, and you are killing people who are involved with them, so I'd like to learn about this a bit. I am a spirit of preservation. I serve some of the great devils. Wait, I thought devils were bad. What, devils bad? Well, so we- No, Eris, first off, let's not do that in front of the flaming head guy. He doesn't say.
00:42:03
Speaker
He yanks on the chain to pull Millhatch a little bit closer and says, are we done here? Can you take him elsewhere or not? No, no, frack, no. Are you about to? Yeah. I can't punch the, okay. At this point in my life, I really don't care what he does to Millhatch, I'm sorry.
00:42:26
Speaker
At the exchange of the, are we gonna? Yeah. The chain around Milhatch, he throws it to the ground and like the end of the chain turns into a spike and it sinks into the stone of the warehouse district.
00:42:41
Speaker
and extends his other hand in a large like bastard sword, wreathed in flame emerges. But you can tell that the chain segmented to where it could extend out into a chain if so desired. Or I mean, that's really cool. Yeah, good move, Eris. We don't have anything that does that.
00:43:00
Speaker
And
Combat with Fiery Figure
00:43:01
Speaker
Eris will activate the array of flechette launcher on her on her gauntlet. And let's roll initiative. I don't know what we're doing.
00:43:12
Speaker
I'll let you do cool or vigilance. Eris can't let this guy kill Harbin's dad. I know. And I can't let this guy kill Eris. So here I stand. Here we are. Marlowe's heart is not in it at all. Well, if we get rid of this guy, people will stop showing up cooked from the inside.
00:43:33
Speaker
And Milo getting blamed for it. Two and two. Pretty good initiative rolls on our part. So that's nice. I don't know how I'm going to punch the flame guy with your fists. I mean, I have like, you know, via D&D and D&D adjacent game logic. I have had this staff on me the entire time we've been hanging out. We just don't ever mention it. I don't take you off when I sit down, but it's there.
00:43:59
Speaker
I mean, look, there's like no muscle and sinew holding his skull on. Right. So I think if you punch it hard enough, just fly right off. Okay. Well, so that person has a very high vigilance role. He does. Literally built different. What's a vigilant based off of willpower?
00:44:18
Speaker
Okay. So since it is the start of the encounter, the initiative slots are NPC, NPC, then PC, PC, PC. And on his monster card, I need everyone to make a fear check as he lets out a bellowing devilish demonic whale at the start of the encounter. It is a hard fear check. So three purple.
00:44:40
Speaker
I'm so bad at that. Discipline. What are we rolling? A fear check. So let me confirm that. It's on page 243 of the Genesis Core Rulebook. For those of you reading along at home. Fear. Adventuring. Yes. A discipline skill check. Alchemy. So can Milo get any boost ice? Because Milo's about halfway on his side. But you still acknowledge that at this point he seeks to kill you. Like. So he's OK.
00:45:09
Speaker
I could be in an area that's getting deforest and come across a bear and be like, man, I'm on your side, this sucks. It doesn't change the fact that the bear's gonna eat me. Like- But what about the fact that Hob ain't scared of nothing? Is that gonna be- No problem. So what is the difficulty? Hey, Hob ain't scared of nothing. Three purple. Heirs, just take two strain.
00:45:30
Speaker
Two successes, baby! Two success, two threat for me. Milo, one success, three threat. Three threat might be able to deal with something more interesting, and also Milo's strain is a precious resource. Yeah, it is. I think it makes complete narrative sense that at this point, even if we are scared, it's just not going to affect us. Like, this place is like, we've been scared and we gotta do this now, because Eris started it. I'm scared, let's find him on your side. Eris channels your fear.
00:45:59
Speaker
So with you all succeeding your fear checks, you all stand resolute. Milo, just add an upgrade to the first check that you make in the encounter with your three threat on that fear check. So the figure lets out a demonic whale as their sword glows even brighter and they raise it to attack you. End of episode. Thank you all so much for listening. That's the second NPC slot is the demonic whale he let out.
00:46:25
Speaker
Thank you all so much for listening. If you want to be part of the discussion surrounding this episode, you can head over to our Discord link to which you can find on all of our socials, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. We also have a Patreon, patreon.com slash Geek Pantheon. If you want to financially support the shows, you can do so over there, or you can buy some merch at thegeekpantheon.com. There's also a YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Geek Pantheon, where I post TTRPG related videos all the time. And then we also, there is a sister channel of sorts called The Laughing Tree, where there is an actual play called Kybershard's, GMed by Philip.
00:46:55
Speaker
played in by me set in the city of stormy choosing dnd fifth edition and yeah it's a good show check it out thank you all so much for listening i've been your game master eric i'm phillip i'm randy jeff we'll see you next time