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C3 Episode 44 Little Boxes on the Hillside Chapter Six
0 Playsin 11 hours
The meeting with the Mayor requires some aggressive negotiations.
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Transcript
Introduction and Recap
00:00:00
Speaker
D20 Radio, at your
00:00:14
Speaker
radio
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Everond Renewed, an actual play podcast in the Everond campaign setting. i am your game master, Eric. I'm Mia. I'm Phillip. I'm Madison. I'm Jeff. And welcome to another episode.
00:00:32
Speaker
Folks, what happened last time? Vindicated. Everything we always thought it was true. so Totally. Yes, we were completely right. We were right about Jim Johnson. He's another poor victim of all of this. Yep, that's what we thought. Exactly
Vampire Suspicions and Jim Johnson
00:00:45
Speaker
what we thought. There is implied hot vampire lady. Oh yeah, and also there is implied hot vampire lady. Get the important bits out there. Who is definitely drinking blood in a public bar.
00:00:54
Speaker
It happens. It does. we most Most of it, I mean, we were really belligerent to Jim Johnson and it turns out he's also a victim of this. and I still don't like him or trust him. You were belligerent to our situation. Johnson is avatar.
00:01:10
Speaker
The good news is apparently he won't remember any of this. so Yeah, true. And Valk has found a very secure door. Super creepy door. Super reinforced with noises. One of those doors. The scary door.
00:01:22
Speaker
So, I hate doors on this podcast. Y'all are new. We don't like doors around. Not new. First campaign. So,
Unlocking Mysteries
00:01:30
Speaker
Vap, you are looking at this door. Are you going to try to open the door?
00:01:34
Speaker
How reinforced was it, again? I mean, it is a wooden door, but it's got metal bands going across it to basically prevent it from being, like, broken down. Okay. There's a lock on it, though.
00:01:46
Speaker
Okay, so I don't hear things. Do I have... Will I be able to sense anything like magical coming from behind the door?
00:01:55
Speaker
um
00:02:00
Speaker
When you hear the thrum coming from below, you don't really detect anything else. Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:13
Speaker
Can I try to undo the lock but not open the door? Or you tried to undoing the lock automatically opens the door? No, you try to unlock it. I'll try to unlock it. What is that? a Dexterity base check.
00:02:26
Speaker
Oh. 19. 19? You hear the lock click. And we are standing upright and going back to our people. um Our part out of the way. I'm going to keep an eye on the door just in case. Well, ooh.
00:02:43
Speaker
What if something comes out of the door? We'll meet it when we go back back down the hall. you maybe what Maybe it wasn't locked to keep you all out. I know. After I've already locked it. Then we'll finally have an answer.
00:02:57
Speaker
That will be a clue. We gotta deal with it at some point. and Okay. mean yeah So, you unlock the door, cut back to the office. I know
The Battle Begins with Jim Johnson
00:03:05
Speaker
exactly what I want to say when when Valk walks in. Okay.
00:03:08
Speaker
Before Valk gets there, the doors behind you all slam shut of Jim Johnson's office. eighty What? What? Um, Jim Johnson stands up from behind his desk, but in a very like mechanical way. And I need initiative. no yeah You're gonna kill Jim Johnson. I'm done with it. and ah I'm not worried about Jim Johnson. I'm worried everyone who is under that control is now about to come to the town hall and let him separate it. Hey, you know what? I locked that door. They all heard me lock the front door. I locked the front door. Yeah.
00:03:44
Speaker
Super did. Okay. Hold on just one second. Okay. I've got some rolling to do. need your presentile. need your presentile. need your presentile. Yeah, go for it.
00:03:55
Speaker
Nyx, 17. Selina? 8. Kaz? scene 16. I need to look something up. Oh no. Do vampires need permission to enter public buildings? No. No.
00:04:11
Speaker
Okay. She might need a key. and just have to unlock the door and hope that she's outside. Yeah, if this turns into like Dawn of the Dead, World of the Dead starts banging on the windows. I think that's very plausible.
00:04:23
Speaker
I've got to fight 42 orphans out of here. i We're leaving that to you specifically. I believe we did say at some point during the first campaign, you asked me how many five-year-olds I thought i could fight in like sequential combat.
00:04:36
Speaker
And I said it. We didn't take a roster of the ages of the orphans. Okay. What do need to look up for you? You may know what this is. It's on page 166 of the cool rule book, Fighting in Spirit.
00:04:47
Speaker
This is what my weird is. I rolled an attack. So it says on my turn, I get to fight in spirit as well as take a standard normal turn. That's weird. Disembodied, just like. Well, that's entirely plausible with this character.
00:05:02
Speaker
Well, the other thing that I rolled is i can use the my move action to teleport. yeah I have to be able to see it, so I guess it has to be in the room, which isn't as fun as it could typically be, but too bad I said I walked in and confronted him instead staying out in the...
00:05:15
Speaker
So you would have been even more scared, though. Yeah, but just by myself in the lobby. So
Constructs and Chaos
00:05:21
Speaker
basically each so fighting in spirit is a mechanic where if if your character like straight dies in a fight or ah if Valk were in a completely different part of the town and there's no conceivable way where Valk could get back in time, you can fight in spirit by You basically describe what fighting in spirit looks like, and you can grant each round a plus one bonus to attacks, AC, physical defense, mental defense to someone else in the fight.
00:05:51
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. but there so wait Interesting. Um, so. Yeah. So essentially I just can grant someone a little buff during my turn. Yeah. Great. Okay. Okay, so Jim Johnson goes first.
00:06:06
Speaker
So Jim Johnson gets up, steps around to his desk, and goes to grab. Wait, did you roll? You rolled weird? Your weirdness was that you... Yeah, it's during my turn.
00:06:18
Speaker
Did you also roll warp? that Sorry, the warp is the thing that's during my turn, the teleport thing. Gotcha. So my move action, and I can... Gotcha. If I was in a big space, it would be great, because I could go well past my movement, but...
00:06:32
Speaker
He's actually going to use his bureaucratic authority. Of course he is. On Nyx. So he is going to say, please put your weapon on the ground.
00:06:42
Speaker
You have a stake. I'm armed. by That is a 10 versus mental defense. That does not impel me. And likes off at him and says, you're looking at it.
00:06:53
Speaker
And now it is Nyx's turn. Okay, well, I was going to just try and knock the desk over him me and pin him to the ground so that we could leave him alone. tota What's in the room? ah desk, couple of bookshelves, globe. but it is round world.
00:07:12
Speaker
That's what they want you to believe. Okay. i By that logic, Phil, the existence of maps means it's a flattery. Oh no, I never thought of it that way. I wasn't going to it. I think it's the same thought, but I was like, I wasn't in the room, I don't know.
00:07:29
Speaker
I don't know what to do here. I guess what Nyx will do is surge up to her feet, grab the chair she was sitting on, and just swing it around and try and smash it across Jim.
00:07:46
Speaker
Okay. hey Um, to just put him on the ground. Okay. Lots. 22. 22. Yeah. The chair makes impact going. So damage. Sure.
00:07:57
Speaker
Um, it's not a heavy weapon. Like I'm usually wearing, so D eight instead of 10. Uh, 11 damage.
00:08:05
Speaker
ah damage
00:08:07
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, the chair makes impact and you see the chair like shatters against Jim Johnson. going to have him to stock those stunt chairs that break.
00:08:19
Speaker
This here saloon fight. But Jim Johnson doesn't react to it. It just like shatters off of him. But you do see but like his perfect cheekbones.
00:08:30
Speaker
The one on the side that had impact dents in. Like he's made of putty? Yeah. No, not like... like But it to infer he is a construct or like you've broken him in such a way that you've... It doesn't look like a broken bone.
00:08:43
Speaker
Right. Okay. yeah you But it's not like putty. It's not like a it's It's like a car fender. Right. Yeah. but right yeah so jim johnson isn't a person yeah okay guys your turn cool okay quick action then i will go ahead and apply demonic violence yeah he takes an extra point of damage a question and okay a quick action could i use a quick action to after my other stuff could i use save a quick action to check the door and see what it would take to get it open back up the double doors sure
00:09:17
Speaker
Okay, then what I would like to first do then is after youre seeing that and being like, okay, I don't think I might be killing an innocent person by hitting them. I am going to attack Jim Johnson. Oh, hey, but who might need some mental defense help? I feel like that's the thing I should buff this turn, just to be safe.
00:09:36
Speaker
Mine's actually fairly hot. Mine's decent. Decent, yeah. Okay. Well, fine. Then I'll end the story. Okay. So the first thing I'm going to do is my attack.
00:09:48
Speaker
i I kind of well up my hands and just do the thing I do where I shove them forward and hope something comes out. And it doesn't. I rolled a five. I think I just biffed the hit. Nothing nothing happens.
00:10:01
Speaker
But i I think I shout at Selena. Just how can I help Selena's AC? Don't let him brainwash you. Yeah, no kidding. I think I just i just want to like remind Selina that she's tough. I don't know what I'm doing you can also tap into like the the weird like other Kaz's and stuff to for the fighting in spirit thing. Oh, that makes it a lot more fun, doesn't it? Let's pretend I came up with that on my own.
00:10:27
Speaker
You all heard it. um I think that... I'm going to use this warp and teleport. I think as I teleport in my place for just a split second, there's an old Kaz and it just threw an imminence thing and you'll get plus one to mental defense. Awesome. Good idea, Jeff. That was a really good day creative idea. Yeah. Warp your warrior weirdness. But I'm using i'm using my teleport. I had to get closer. I'm using my teleport to bounce back to the doors, and I would like to use a quick action to inspect them to see if it's just a matter of them locking or if we need if there would be more to it. was Did they lock? You got it.
00:11:03
Speaker
They definitely flew closed. if Yeah, if I can open them with a quick action, I'd love to, but I assume that's...
00:11:10
Speaker
A wisdom check. 13. Can I count mischief and my experience unlocking doors? Sure. Okay. 16. That's a 19. 19. can tell that the door slams shut. There's not a locking mechanism on the door, but you can see from the light coming in through the scene of the door, it's like the door slams shut and then something barred the door from the outside. Okay.
00:11:37
Speaker
So you need someone outside the room to unbar the door. Okay. How strong am I? And is whatever barred the door out there with you? a and t You know. Valk, you are...
00:11:51
Speaker
How quickly would Valk be moving? Because Valk, like, ah alarms did not start sounding or anything. But did I hear the door slam shut? The doors that
Turning the Tide
00:12:01
Speaker
I knew were open slam shut.
00:12:03
Speaker
It wasn't like a loud slamming thing. okay. Yeah. They just kind of, just click close. um I think his but his pace would still be brisk because he's he's by himself. Yeah. And he has more information and discovered seemingly the location. So I think.
00:12:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. You are able to make it far enough to where you round the corner and you see that where the door was open, it is now closed. And there is um basically something came out of the wall that is just a like horizontal piece of wood that is shot out to like keep the door from being able to be open from the inside.
00:12:42
Speaker
That's what you see. Was that just my movement? So do I still... so So you would have basically had to double move to get all the way back from the door. So you still have a quick action if you... I think Valka's going to be a bit alert, and I'm going to use Stance of Necessity a quick action, which gives me my plus four bonus to all defenses when I don't have my focus, which I do not have.
00:13:05
Speaker
Okay, that was wise. So, Valk, as you were looking at the door from the other hallway that you did not go, you see two figures come around the corner and look at you.
00:13:16
Speaker
And these are two. You see that from here up, they look like humans. there But from here down, the bodies are clockwork.
00:13:29
Speaker
And they just stop and turn and look at you. And then they immediately start sprinting straight at Oh no! Not fast robots. first one is going to attack you. From the other end of the hallway?
00:13:43
Speaker
They are very fast. How far is their movement? If it took me... that they They can move twice as fast as a normal person. Okay, thank you. That is a 19 plus.
00:13:54
Speaker
25. six twenty five That Five damage. Okay. five damage The other one, that is only a 16 versus AC. That is not it.
00:14:06
Speaker
Okay. the first one rolled higher than a natural 16, so you are grabbed. So it it basically rushes up to you, Valk, like as you turn to look at them, and immediately one motion grabs Valk by the throat and holds up in the air.
00:14:24
Speaker
And. Selina. I'm going to try to cast Confusion. Okay.
00:14:30
Speaker
Oh, no. Okay, well, that does not hit. That's a nine versus mental defense. So... His mental defense is higher than a nine, I think, but i would check. Yes. I assumed so, yeah.
00:14:46
Speaker
I have also lost my stance of necessity because I got hit. I'm sorry. It's okay. It saved me for one. The Escalation Eye is now at a one. Jim Johnson is going to... you Attack
00:15:04
Speaker
Nyx. 23 to hit. Yes. His eyes glow gold for a brief second and like flash and Nyx, you get a stinging headache right in the front of your ah forehead and you take six psychic damage.
00:15:19
Speaker
Okay. It is now Nyx's turn. All right, so Nyx sees the face dent and realizes that she did not just hit a person, and there's just a wash of relief. She pulls the sword out of the air and swings it at whatever this is. Mayor Jim Johnson.
00:15:39
Speaker
Well, who so you say. keeps saying we don't trust him. That is a natural 19. It's just one off from critting, getting the crazy things with this stupid sword. so that's a 27 to hit.
00:15:52
Speaker
That hit. White. ah That is 15 damage. Okay. Yes. you You strike at Jim Johnson. As ah asz your turn ends, Nix, or as after your attack, you see your his face where you hit him with the chair.
00:16:08
Speaker
Like, the skin has, not immediately, but, like... turned very, like a very intense bruise almost immediately formed. So Philip just dismounted his microphone.
00:16:21
Speaker
I didn't need to know that. All right. Anything else on your turn, Nix? No. Casimir. Panera Bread. mean and i've been I've been looking at what I should do. It's the big icon set. Yeah, I'm just going to try this. I think Kazmier, I'm getting it since I can't get through this door from the inside. Yeah, like I'm not sure. I'm trying to break through it. But it would take physical strength and Kaz doesn't have that. Or blast in it, but yeah.
00:16:45
Speaker
Well, problem is the dice I roll is mostly psychic and holy damage. It's my icons and it's the late ones. Yeah, let's see. Holy damage, psychic damage.
00:16:58
Speaker
Holy damage. Holy damage is still, i mean, it's like still physical blast of radiant fire. I think, yeah. Okay. Here's, here's what Kaz does. Kaz is going to turn back to this Jim Johnson and.
00:17:14
Speaker
If that is his real name. If that is his his real name. And I think he's trying, he saw himself too. He saw old Kaz when he teleported too. And I think that reminds him of some of the things he's learned. And he thinks about stories and victors and all of these things and just yells, this isn't a story you can win.
00:17:33
Speaker
Like you can't be the hero here and is, and is going to do, boy, so that's a 16, 16, sixteen 24 to hit against mental defense. Yes, that will hit.
00:17:48
Speaker
Okay, 14. That's 20 psychic damage to Jim Johnson. how Describe how you disabled Jim Johnson. I think it is, ah i mean, he did he just collapses. Like, he's he's a construct and the brain broke and he just goes, you know, cool. Actually, I think he just hinges it down.
00:18:10
Speaker
Like a decommissioned row. He doesn't all the way to the ground. He just kind of does that. Head droop, shoulders down. Cool. Love it. Have. Nice. I go, Nyx, break this down.
00:18:21
Speaker
yeah That's cute. what happens when I'm
Victory and Decisions
00:18:25
Speaker
grabbed? Your movement is zero feet. Oh, shoot. I forgot. I lose some hit points. And Kaz's nose bleeds a little bit, by the way. I lose four hit points when I do that spell. Or 86 hit points.
00:18:37
Speaker
Then. You go all 11, basically. Yeah. yeah oh at all So you basically have to take the disengage action and make the roll to get out of the grab.
00:18:50
Speaker
To do anything? No, you can still attack it while being grabbed. Okay. Okay. You just count as being engaged with it. Yeah. So. Okay. You know, why not?
00:19:02
Speaker
kind and think Vap's going to take out his sword and just try to pierce it while he's... Nice. Okay....being held. I have not done melee, so it what am I rolling for or to hit?
00:19:14
Speaker
So since you have your hero, Treek, you get to use your intelligence in instead of strength or melee attacks. So you would roll the d20, add your intelligence and your level yeah to the roll.
00:19:28
Speaker
and And the escalation die, yeah. Oh, 23. 23. That hit. twenty three
00:19:37
Speaker
that is a hit Okay, and then that is Just the thought. We're all ready. I'm so sorry. Hello?
00:19:51
Speaker
are you... Don't worry. Okay. She's so short. I know. That is... 4 damage. 8 damage. Do I add any state notes?
00:20:03
Speaker
That's what I was looking up. I didn't think my turn was that fast. Your... I mean, I think it's the same modifier. Plus my... I have 1d8 plus wisdom. I just want to make sure I'm not adding extra stuff.
00:20:19
Speaker
me Unless that's just for the hit. No, you just add your wisdom to to the roll. Oh. To the roll to hit or roll to attack? The damage.
00:20:30
Speaker
Okay, so the damage. So that is actually nine. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Anything else? Oh. That was your standard action.
00:20:40
Speaker
That was my standard action. I... Oh. Nope, that's a spell. like could Okay. I mean, that's... I think that's all I can do. I don't have any other quick actions that I can... Cool.
00:20:54
Speaker
Yeah. That's it. All righty.
00:20:58
Speaker
Construx are gonna go. So the one that is grabbing you, the start of its turn, since you're grabbed, it gets to deal two points of damage. Okay. As it squeezes your neck a little bit tighter.
00:21:12
Speaker
And then
Mysterious Discoveries
00:21:13
Speaker
the other one, well actually the first one that has you grabbed is going to attack. 21 to hit. Yep. Five damage. Okay. And then the other one, that's only a 14 to hit mental defense.
00:21:27
Speaker
That is my mental defense. Okay, so it lands. It, like, as you're looking at them, Valkyrie looks up at you and its eyes glow low gold for a brief second, and you feel a singing pain in your brain, and you take four psychic damage, and you are dazed.
00:21:44
Speaker
Used to it. yeah Selina. Can I cast magic missile at the door? you can't.
00:21:55
Speaker
Okay, I only get to use it once. That sucks. Okay. You deal five damage the door. Makes you take a damage, right? Yes. okay The... A hole gets blasted in the door from the magic missile to where somebody could conceivably reach through and try to, like, grab the barrier. But you can see through the hole. as So magic missile, like, missile of white light hits the door and explodes. And then you all see through it this, like, construct holding Valk up in the air with another one staring at its eyes glowing don't know why glowing gold is, like, something that wants to trip my tongue up.
00:22:33
Speaker
And now the escalation dies at 2.0.
00:22:36
Speaker
Jim Johnson is dead. Long live Jim Johnson. Nix, your turn. Okay. My... The other two people in here can make use of that hole in the door to attack.
00:22:48
Speaker
It's going to take me an action to get through, and my friend, Bawk, is currently being strangled by a robot. Yes. So, that is an accurate assessment of the situation.
00:22:59
Speaker
Okay. Excellent. Nyx, seeing this when this when this hole is blasted in the door, just snarls and immediately reaches out. And Vauk, behind the robots, the sky tears open and blade-covered fiend crawls its way into into the into the the foyer wish you. We're getting used to it.
00:23:22
Speaker
And will attack the one that's strangling Vauk. Okay. One, two, three, two. So one, two. So it's going to make two attacks, right? Because of one again.
00:23:37
Speaker
And how that's going to be 21 versus AC. It's three damage.
00:23:45
Speaker
And 16 versus AC. All right. It is...
00:23:52
Speaker
A hit. Three damage. Koki doki. Kaz. Well, rolled a defensive spell. I think I'd probably be better used to throw this bar off of the door. So Kaz reaches it through the hole and tries to throw the bar so that we can get out.
00:24:05
Speaker
yeah Okay. And pushes the door open. And if that's not an action, like that that was... government I don't know if that was my movement. Absolutely. That was your or your your action yeah And that's what I do, because what I'm not going to do is run out there and stand next to the other one that's lifted Valk up. i'm back I weigh less than Valk. I could be lifted more easily.
00:24:24
Speaker
<unk> Okay. Actually, Valk's very thin. Valk is very thin. So much taller than me. Very tall. Very thin. We might balance out. Yeah. Either way, i don't want to get lifted by my throat.
00:24:35
Speaker
Fair enough. Fair enough. So I will end my turn there. Okay. If you don't cast your spell, do you still draw for another one? No, I hold it till the next. I can always just wait, but I can't change it yet.
00:24:48
Speaker
right Okay. Malk. Oh. And I use my movement to disengage, or is that an action to disengage? Yeah, your movement is disengage. Okay, then I will attempt to disengage.
00:24:59
Speaker
Well, I can't, dazed. No, dazed means you get a minus four to... That's so much. That's a substantial minus. Yeah. It's 20% of the die.
00:25:12
Speaker
Minus four penalty to attacks. Yeah. Okay. Roll a d20. Get 11 or higher. 16. You can get away. Okay. I can't say what I want to say.
00:25:26
Speaker
You say it us. I would have to be muted. Valk is just gonna kind of pry himself out. but thanks And just get down onto the floor. Okay.
00:25:41
Speaker
Okay. And then i already used, that was all of my movement are half my movement. So you can move as part of the disengage. Oh, okay. So you can move away. So then I would disengage, move closer to the now open door. still have my action.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yep. Then I will take my focus. Cool. All righty. One of the constructs will turn and try to attack the demon. That is a natural 16. Lucky. so Almost certainly will hit.
00:26:09
Speaker
Demon takes five damage. Okay. The other one will look at Kaz and its eyes will glow gold. That is 25 versus mental defense. Yeah, man.
00:26:20
Speaker
Four psychic damage and you are dazed. Okay. Selina. I will try to do Ray of Frost to the one who just got Kaz. That is 26.
00:26:32
Speaker
when he's six A6. That hits. Great. 11 damage. All right. That construct is looking goofed up. Escalation dies now to three.
00:26:46
Speaker
Nyx. Nyx will ah rush out with sword in hand and attack the construct ah that Selena just blasted. Okay.
00:27:00
Speaker
Well, it's escalation. now Maybe 18 with the escalation. day us so That is 11 points of, I'm sorry. That's six. So that is 14 points of damage. How does Nix destroy this country? I mean, she just like slices through it from, from shoulders aside and it falls ah apart.
00:27:20
Speaker
You see, as it falls apart, as you slice through it, some of the gears are like tubing in it. Like, it looks like oil almost starts leaking onto the floor. Just a black viscous.
00:27:31
Speaker
Gross. And the fiend gets to attack three times. Right. So that is plus six. Twenty to hit. Three damage. hit this. And that's not going eight.
00:27:43
Speaker
Nope. Sixteen. Hit. Three damage. but And do you need to roll to see if it pays. Need to roll its degradation. Yeah. Kaz. I, it's a defensive spell.
00:27:56
Speaker
I am not doing so hot actually. So I forgot, I rolled it, but I forgot to mention on Mike, I also take a little bit bit of damage when I cast that one spell. Um, so I'm going to roll, and hope that this gives me something that was cocked because I rolled it my keyboard. screen
00:28:15
Speaker
All seven temporary hit points. Great. I'll take it. And I will... Do you grow anything weird? No, this is not that one. There's one construct left, and it's engaged with the fiend right now. Yes. Yes. I will step out of the office in that case, like into the room. I'm feeling confident that I'm not its biggest concern. Yeah. So I will leave the office.
00:28:33
Speaker
I will glance back at Jim Jones and make sure he's not like twitching or boring thing. And then step out of the office. Reconstructing himself. Right. T-1000. Yeah. Okay. yeah You see the hard reset? Yeah.
00:28:45
Speaker
I think if we could use something like that, if we can de-proble-ify it. Okay. What would Javier think? map I am... i'm going to use a recovery. Okay. That is... Wait a minute.
00:29:03
Speaker
ah I'm sorry to pause you, but I forgot to roll. No, you're fine. Take this time. 88? Is that the same thing? Okay, so I gain seven next round.
00:29:14
Speaker
Probably is going to end by then. And then I will use my quick action for karmic rebuke on that the construct that is standing that gave me a real bad headache. Okay.
00:29:28
Speaker
That is not a It was close. Oh, ah that's not good. Minus four. no Yes. No, that was only until the start of your next turn. So yeah, that was, yeah.
00:29:42
Speaker
Okay. Then it's 16. 16. Mental. Hit. Oh, I wasn't, I was prepared for that today. Andrew dice play. You really just put them. Okay. Oh, lovely.
00:29:55
Speaker
Six, ah six damage and it can't hit me. yeah As Kaz steps through the door out of the office, he starts glitching again like he did on the train. If it's like he did on the train. Is old Kaz appearing? Is that yeah the new glitch? I'm going to figure this guy out.
00:30:11
Speaker
Tell you what. lin Kaz starts trying talk to him. Except this, the the glitch that you all see as Kaz walks out of the office rather than previous versions of Kaz that you've seen, old Kaz.
00:30:22
Speaker
This version of Kaz still has the tavern with the Lady of Slayers. Lady of Stories. Oh, yeah. can't remember if was that or like Eternal Tales or something like that. Her heraldry on it, but Kaz is wearing armor and like has a shield and a sword.
00:30:37
Speaker
Mid-30s, hot as hell. Just throwing that out there. Long curly hair. You know how he does it. And... and
00:30:45
Speaker
Thomas Vow's turn, so the Construct is going to attack the demon. 16 to hit. Does not. Okay. Selina. I will do Ray of Frost again.
00:30:56
Speaker
That worked pretty well last time. Oh, well, I don't think it will. 14. 14 against physical defense or AC? Physical defense.
00:31:07
Speaker
Hit. Oh, yay. 10 damage. 10 damage. Okay. okay Escalation die is now at a four. Nyx. Yeah, Nyx is going to ah attack the remaining and construct. 18 with the escalation die. 20 points of damage.
00:31:24
Speaker
Same thing as before. You slice and dice the thing. Yeah. It starts leaking black fluid all over the the hallway. Okay. Nyx immediately rounds on the demon with a slightly uncertain look on her face, but it draws it is drawn back through the opening and disappears. Nice. good. Okay. Okay.
00:31:42
Speaker
So you are a timer on how quickly we have to finish a fight. Cass stops glitching. Looks around for his shield though. with windway So you want a shield?
00:31:54
Speaker
I wanted that shield. That was my shield. that I don't know. I liked it. could reproduce the image. We'll talk about it. Well, that's not exactly what I thought was happening.
00:32:07
Speaker
Me neither. Holy crap. He's a robot. Did we? Yes. It appears to be ah some sort of clockwork construct. I'm doing great, guys. Thanks. not Doing fine. Feel great. Are you actually?
00:32:22
Speaker
Well, i mean, no one was asking. But are you? and know I'm fine now. oh okay excellent Do we recognize the heads of the other two constructs? No. yeah ah Are they also Jim Johnson? Is there just a storage room of Jim Johnsons?
00:32:40
Speaker
No. I was going to say, sorry, mechanical grip on the neck there. I found a door. i unlocked the door. And then these two showed up.
00:32:54
Speaker
It was an alarm on the door, presumably. I only wanted to open it. i Didn't know I had to check for alarms. Where's the door? It's down hall. Sounds like a door we should go through. I think so. Valk said I was going to say, like, we're the ones that stopped him from coming and telling us. Well, no, I was stopped by two constructs. I am glad you're okay. Nyx takes off down the hall. Thank you.
00:33:18
Speaker
and Okay. Yeah. You don't want to check the other hall that they came from just in case there's more of them. Well, if there's more of them, they'll find I think they'll find Okay. I'm the only one that got choked out, so I guess next time. This way. Next time you will not be alone when they come when they arrive.
00:33:37
Speaker
Okay, so you all reach the door. You all also hear a low thrumming sound so down below. Open the door. Okay. You see a set of stairs going down.
00:33:48
Speaker
Sword drawn. Got Start heading. Nix will go first. Start heading down the stairs. So as you all get to the bottom of the stairs, you see... In her other hand, Nix has pulled out the compass from the satchel.
00:34:04
Speaker
Okay. I've hand on mistake just in case. Sure. Giselle beat us down here. to ah When you reach the bottom of the stairs, you see a circular chamber that has a circular desk in the middle of it.
00:34:19
Speaker
And there are a few different spell shards ah set into the desk. And you see um like projecting up out of the spell shards.
00:34:31
Speaker
you see the images of a couple people in the town. You see Yosef and you see Constance Weatherby. And underneath the image of them, you see efficiency rating. And i Yosef has Weatherby has 92. Wow.
00:34:52
Speaker
and costas weatherby has a ninety two So we are, ah we have established all roughly acquainted with the basic functions of the different planes.
00:35:05
Speaker
So this is obviously at this point, Don the plane of law and order and that sort of thing. That'd be a reasonable assumption. Okay. So Nyx is, Nyx is cranking the adjustment of the compass to Don V. Okay.
00:35:18
Speaker
Can we be sure? Cause last time I did that, it didn't work and we can't recharge that. Okay. If there's anywhere that it's going to work. But is this the manifest zone or is are these just... Well, if there is a manifest zone this seems like the manifest zone. There there is a hall. Like, this isn't the... Sorry, I should have described.
00:35:40
Speaker
There is a doorway on the other side of the chamber. Like... ah Okay. Let's check that out. But it cover this covers a substantial space, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. Like, this covers a space as large as City Hall, right? Mm-hmm.
00:35:55
Speaker
Yeah. But there's also an underground, so it might go deeper then. suppose. I feel like we have to open the door. You can Also, was there a shard for Barnaby that's missing?
00:36:06
Speaker
so So it looked like you see various controls that like are in a language you don't understand, but you get the sense that these can be tuned to view different people. Okay. So this is where their mind controlling people from.
00:36:19
Speaker
Is it mind control or people replacement? i That is a fair question. Well, I mean, Jim was new. yeah right Everybody else has been in the town. The other two. So I think he's the...
00:36:34
Speaker
He's the face. The avatar. Yes, the face of all this. Yeah. i I think it's mind control because Barnaby snapped out of it. so and And I assume if they were to if the Donavi were to create replacements, they would all be operating at 100% efficiency, as ah as is their desire.
00:36:54
Speaker
So we don't think setting off the compass breaks this. Question. should If I sense that they weren't puppeted, would that not be the same thing as mind control? Because So there would be a distinction between, like, mind control in the sense of, like, somebody being puppeted by another individual. Puppeted or manipulated.
00:37:14
Speaker
Or somebody, like... being influenced, brainwashing, reprogrammed. This is where the programming is happening. like guess Where it still seems like they they believe what they're saying as opposed to being forced to say something like, yeah. yeah Okay.
00:37:32
Speaker
I was trying to convey to you that they weren't being like directly puppeted Like ah yeah wrote like they weren't being ratatouid. This is where the programming is being observed.
00:37:43
Speaker
That's right. Linguini. I know. Thank you. It's my favorite movie. Oh, yeah? Yeah. great Okay. Where to now? What now? You can setting the compass off if you want.
00:37:57
Speaker
I think we should check out the other door. Okay. All right. Okay, well, real quick, I know I won't, I don't understand the language, but it does it look like there's any way to, like, power the efficiency to zero, or just a monitoring station? Because if we can turn it to zero, then assuming that they would gain consciousness back.
00:38:16
Speaker
Give me a intelligence check. Ooh. That one. Not the good one, which is not a good one. It was intelligence? Mm-hmm. Eleven.
00:38:27
Speaker
Eleven. 11, you get McKenzie's Tales of this control panel. Looks cool, though. It's pretty cool. Because it's not only that it's in a different language, it's a different, like, lettering sense. Yeah. Yeah. So you can't even understand the symbols that are on the... Mm-hmm.
00:38:44
Speaker
Okay. So you head to the other door. It opens. On the other side, you see a series of filing cabinets lighting the walls.
00:38:56
Speaker
And there are tables in front of them. Mm-hmm. um with various files sitting on them. It's pretty easy to see from a distance before directly investigating that the files have different people's names on them.
00:39:13
Speaker
Is there anyone in here? There's no one here. i mean, this is weird, right? Like this is not what a, okay. Yeah. Are there any other doors? There's another door. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
00:39:26
Speaker
Whose files are there? If this is a language we can understand. Yes, currently sitting out, you see a file for ah Margaret Brightwater and Lavira.
00:39:41
Speaker
General story. Okay. So we did not meet Lavira, right? You've already mentioned Lavira, though. Okay. Okay. Yeah. To the door? I think so. All right. it It feels like we're getting... Can I read the file?
00:39:56
Speaker
Yeah, you can open the file. One of one of the files. Wait, who is someone we... Did we meet? Read Miss Brightwater, please. I better. Okay, I will read that one. Okay. So you see Margaret Brightwater's image in the file.
00:40:09
Speaker
Are back cameras here? don't know if they do. That was a legitimate question. I yeah do not know this world. Yeah. No, cameras, this is just a very, very accurate yeah the illustration.
00:40:22
Speaker
Margaret Brightwater scrolled away. When people said, let's go to the, there we are. but You, so reading through it, you get the gist of, it's a very positive writing of Margaret Brightwater's development in efficiency and understanding.
00:40:38
Speaker
It describes that she was when, when process began, she herself was illiterate. and unable to keep the books for the mill and now she runs the education center helping to teach others how to read and understand logistics and her efficiency rating has grown at a steady positive rate over the preceding months are the filing cabinets locked nope okay i want to pull a barnaby's file Okay.
00:41:07
Speaker
Give me a intelligence check. Ooh, natural 20. Nice. Okay. You find Barnaby's file. You see his image. This is very different from Mrs. Brightwater's file. You see description of Barnaby as being a forceful personality and attempts at efficiency manufacturing, not proving fruitful.
00:41:32
Speaker
Must consider additional options. to bring Barnaby into harmony and then the last entry you see all attempts have failed thus far must move on to protocol delta and that's where it ends okay we have to go through door now yeah now it's time to go through the door You see, similar to the first room, you see a circular desk with spell shards, but these spell shards are showing what you all can pretty immediately recognize as live feeds of the town.
00:42:08
Speaker
So basically every street, every building, you can see a live feed of. You see the ordered hearth. You see, even see people's houses.
00:42:20
Speaker
yeah
00:42:23
Speaker
like From the angles, and would we, like, in the tavern, would we be able to kind of recall what would be in that same corner? so like, if they're looking down from being inside the tavern, would we be able to remember where the camera is?
00:42:39
Speaker
yeah i mean, you can remember the angle it's looking from so that when you go back, you could try to spot it. Okay. Yeah. And there's another door. It's out of here. Are there cameras inside the hall or the town hall?
00:42:51
Speaker
um No. Oh, yeah. So they didn't see us kill their guys. Is there one outside of the town hall? Like front door? Yeah. Is there anyone out there?
00:43:02
Speaker
You don't see anyone. Is everyone still acting normal yeah in their normal? Okay. We are not going to get swarmed right now. That's good to know. Okay.
00:43:13
Speaker
Through the next door. We must. you think so. Okay. As you walk through this door, you see three constructs working and they turn and look at you. These look like the constructs you all fought, except they don't have the human faces. They're just mechanical crash test dummies.
00:43:31
Speaker
That is the second most interesting thing that you all spot. oh You see what they're working on. You see four crystalline pods.
00:43:44
Speaker
with the children in the pods you see Timothy Kess the young man that works in the education center you see Marcus Tolliver you see Matilda Greenway and you see Barnaby Finch end of episode cool thank you all so much for listening if you want to part the conversation surrounding this episode you can check out our discord link which is in the description of the podcast and also on the youtube channel youtube.com slash the geek pantheon fill it do the thing Also on YouTube and Spotify, Tales from the Lack of Tree, we have another actual play called Blades and Banners. It's Pirates and Eberron.
00:44:20
Speaker
We also have Patreon, patreon.com slash geekpantheon. If you want to financially support the show, you can do so over there. Thank you all so much for listening. I've been your Game Master, Eric. I'm Mia. I'm Phillip. I'm Madison. Jeff. We'll see you next time.