Transcript
Speaker: to National Play Podcast at the Everon Campaign Setting. I'm your Game Master, Eric. I'm Mia. I'm Phillip. I'm Madison. Hello! who are you? I'm Jeff.
Speaker: And welcome to another episode. Folks, what happened last time? We visited provisioner and his blacksmith brother who's maybe dubiously alive.
Speaker: and We made them very uncomfortable. couldn It's not my fault this time. It's true. That is true. And we left off with Nix commissioning a weapon. Yes.
Speaker: Yep. So it's going to take some time, obviously for him to craft a sword before it's ready. And Nix isn't waiting around. So where are y'all headed? Once we're outside, Nix is, I'm not sure we are any closer to a plan of action.
Speaker: Does it feel like it? Yeah. I want to write in the book. I think we have, we have, we've seen the order. We've also talked to the scout.
Speaker: What is the orb? What is the asset? The writing comes back saying the once misbelieved it would unlock greater resources in the woods. Was this your asset?
Speaker: Or were you just funding this? I was funding it. What a dork man. He's a majesty! He's an admin! What do you want from the guy? know, I know! He can't even be evil! it's just He's an admin who saw threats, so he said, lock lock it down, guys! He's just the guy that signs papers, and that's what's making it worse.
Speaker: He's not some, like, evil wizard in a tower. He's... It's just the guy signing the check. It does make me not very concerned about getting of his manor. I know. Yeah.
Speaker: and Except he has staff in there with him. That that are starving. Yeah. That he's not allowing to eat so he has food for a month. did I mean, they outnumber him.
Speaker: What does he do? We know and i the providence of the asset. I'll write it down. Like, is that a thing? What's the question? If, if, if we could ask him the provenance of the asset, like that feels like it might be something worth knowing.
Speaker: Where'd you get it from? Yeah. or Or where did they get it from? Because it's not his. Right. sorry Yeah, sure. Like, I know where we all think the origin of it is, but that doesn't necessarily mean, like, how did it get to their hands? He says it was acquired. um
Speaker: it was acquired from Vedalus. The orb? Talking about the orb? Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Like how, wait, am I confused? The Vedalist is not the, it looks like they're the horse trainers, right?
Speaker: Mage breeding and that kind of thing. yes it Yeah. It's handling, which raises some interesting questions about what's the orb. and it not the mark that fashion had? me He had the mark that what had?
Speaker: Uh, fashion. Oh yeah. He was, he was dragging Mark. What was it? I wrote it down saying It starts with a V. I have a V and then a bunch of question marks. Then it would have been Vatalis because that's the only one that starts with Yeah, that's what I had down, but I didn't know. Oh, yeah, I have that here. A Vatalis excoriate. Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know that means anything, but... That's a thread. It feels like another line of questioning. Yeah. Is this why you know... tim today and got so little that I think it's fair we go broke again. And now he's drunk. Maybe he's pretty fine.
Speaker: More answers. Maybe I can roll another one. thanks okay Yeah, I mean, we need to ask him what it is.
Speaker: i hope it's not an egg. if I think it's an egg. not an egg. I'm pretty sure it's an egg. Yeah. A horse egg? but Yes.
Speaker: Yes. Or fated horse eggs. That's right. All I know about fatalists is made with the wild. Eggs. I'm rewriting the canon right now. yeah They are hatched.
Speaker: Do we still want... Are we still wanting to return to the Wandsmith's workshop? Did our... It might be better...
Speaker: to head to the Druid before we do any sort of doubling back because we still don't know what the orb is in order to go to the Wandsmiths for a a second look.
Speaker: We would be going with the same amount of information as the first time if we were trying to trying to look for anything specific. We had talked about wanting to find some of the wood they were using. I didn't know if it was actually useful for anything or just...
Speaker: No, I don't think that matters anymore. Some ideas we can just let float into the wind, you know? All right. We're going to ignore that. We're going to keep going. How it's not, is it nightfall yet? Do we have to?
Speaker: yeah the sun is down once you all get out of Black Veins. Hey.
Speaker: We can sleep and... start in the morning, or we can bug our friendly neighborhood druid and then just not leave his house and sleep there.
Speaker: I'm not sleeping there.
Speaker: And that's how we get tower decisions. We offer... the good The one that we want first and then the one that everyone will hate second. ah The illusion of choice.
Speaker: And I am saying that out loud. Valk, you're so weird. Let's just do the thing. Yeah. yeah Definitely not. I don't know about the nocturnal habits of beetles and mantids, but I don't know if we want to go messing with Vash in After Dark.
Speaker: Yeah, his battle toad might get us. Roger. Roger needs his beauty sleep, you know. That is true. He was well kept. Did we get rooms somewhere?
Speaker: That's a great question. That's a great admin thing to handle when we first arrive at a location, isn't it? We do typically do that. Not this time. We went to the...
Speaker: The Silver Stag. yeah went to silver Yeah, we went to the Silver Stag. I don't think you buy rooms, but you can. yeah We should probably go get rooms. I feel like we can probably swing back by the Silver Stag and get a room. fu Vacation.
Speaker: course we. I'm saying, of all the people in this town, Dala's the one we are least likely to have offended to the point to not want to help us right now. So, she'll probably give us a room.
Speaker: Or, you know let us a room. So shall we go to the Silver Stag? Yes, we shall. See what's on the dinner menu. Very good impression on Captain Lyra, who gave us authorization to travel around and investigate. That is also true. true I don't think we offended the wounded scout.
Speaker: but Who is currently trying to get some peace from the whispers. That that didn't hooked Kaylin up. Care less whether we've offended the magistrate.
Speaker: can't get it so we're heading this over stag yeah okay i think so how there's a hole in with the owner affiliated with the arcane congress and dora and morin is still under the radar is pretty amazing actually good reason to get him out of town yeah only a matter of time Maybe they might be watching to be, he, he also might be desired as a specimen.
Speaker: Sorry, Eric, you were saying, yeah, you all return to the silver stag. It's fairly busy. It is dinnertime. So, but you all are able to find a table easily enough. Um, and if you all inquire about rooms, they do have rooms on the second and third stories of the building for rent.
Speaker: So yeah, you can get a peach for the table. Hey, are the are the peaches bigger? They picked some fresh more fresh ones and they're even larger now than they were previously. Is this an exponential problem?
Speaker: but It is now four times the size as it was previously. No. The silver stack is now in a peach is the problem. You do see that, you know, most tables only have one plate in the center of them with a very large meal that everyone is... The silver stack has been forced to convert to family-style dining. Yeah.
Speaker: Love it. Oh my gosh. I mean, i hate it, but... You hate family style? I do. I want my food. It's my food. Joey doesn't share food. I like a family style side dish experience.
Speaker: Sure. don't mind that. I want my entree and then a big bowl of mac and cheese that we can all get as we like. Babe's Chicken Dinner House in the greater Dallas metro area. They do it right. It's great.
Speaker: um mean one are those whatts actually Yeah, good. Yeah, you you see very large portions of pork chops. You see a roasted chicken the size of a wild boar in the center of a table. Have there been bizarrely large animals wandering around the town that we have noticed?
Speaker: Nothing that's in the town proper. Like, uh, there's not a giant alley cat. Like somebody got a chicken coop, like a little chicken coop and there's now, you know, chickens the size of a Buick.
Speaker: Yes. No, it it either the wildlife is avoiding the town or the garrison is doing a good job of keeping the enormous wildlife out of town. Okay. The chickens are the size of wild boars. i don't know what the size of wild boars are, but I don't know what barrier they're putting up. That's going to keep that away.
Speaker: Um, and
Speaker: So yeah, yeah. You see a Scotch egg, like the size of a like giant Easter egg. You got a Flintstones style rack. Yeah. yeah having'm Having a great time. So you all are able to get rooms easily so you can eat and then, retire from the evening if you want.
Speaker: Anything else that you all want to, I mean, you all are at a table, anything that you want to discuss debrief on before the end of the day, talk amongst yourselves. I feel like we have fewer. actionable clues on the current problem than we have ever had before on any of these jobs.
Speaker: I agree. thought necessarily. We're just receiving them out of order. I have a fairly straightforward investigative yeah knows Is it possible that we don't have clues because it's less a mystery?
Speaker: Like we've talked with the magistrate, we believe we've talked directly with the magistrate about what happened. And we've, just want to point out, he has the handwriting of a crazy person, if that's really the magistrate. So we should be concerned. has the handwriting. It's an admin. Of a what?
Speaker: Of an admin. I think the main issue is that I am trying to approach this without having to go into the forest that we've been told many a times to not do.
Speaker: But only I that one drew it. We really gotta work interrupting. Yes, by the one druid who we have in the journal written that he was correct and that they should have listened to him.
Speaker: So, I'm trying to find a solution that does not require going into the forest. us But we're also getting very piecemealed information because we are now learning as the people who we thought were mostly involved...
Speaker: isn't and the focus is actually the wandsmiths that we really don't have the much information on because they're all gone they kind of cleaned house before they left i was i was gonna say is there a reason to go back to the workshop i mean i feel like we gave it a pretty good a pretty good look look around right like There's not, it depends on the information that we get.
Speaker: If there is something more about the orb itself, we might be able to do a secondary search specifically looking with the new knowledge in mind. But I mean, that's not.
Speaker: Well, right. Like the, that's what I was thinking was he said, you know,
Speaker: On the specific case of removing the defenses around the Magistrate's home, it says it requires the Wandsmith's implements. And I mean, I ah immediately took that to mean they're Wands, but I suppose that's chosen language.
Speaker: Maybe there is more to look at there regarding that. And then, yeah, we need to talk to Vashon again. Now that we know more about the origin of the orb, I think it's possible that...
Speaker: Now don't let this knock any of your socks off, but I think it's possible that the curmudgeonly druid who lives with the bugs wasn't as forthcoming as he could have been with us. i I don't want to go back there. That whole place stay heres it creeps me out.
Speaker: you can You can stay here if you really want to. I definitely don't want to be anywhere by myself, though. That is the other thing you gotta know about me. You don't have that many options.
Speaker: No, I'm aware. I'm not going to be pleased by going back there, but they're going. Yeah, you stand outside. yeah i stood outside. I just don't pick up any wands. They might start whispering to you.
Speaker: so Sorry, what? what What's that wand doing? don't know, man. it sounds like you do know, and the answer is whispering to you. To be honest, I couldn't tell if there was people outside, if it was It was probably the wand, yeah.
Speaker: But I also hear whispers all the time, so I mean, it could just be the normal whispers, it also could be wand whispers. It could also be people talking outside the locked door, which is why I wanted to get it out. What did it say? ah Well, there was the guy who sold it. i think he was pretty happy to to get rid of it.
Speaker: Probably because it was whispering. And then there was a lady, which, I'm kidding. Here. Having a hard time keeping track of of the women speaking in my head. That is fair. Was very sorry that this had to happen. and then there was another person it was like, no, we trusted you. and then they're like, just tell me where the rest of it is. And they're like, we're never going to tell you. And then it went to the guy who sold it, who was probably like, yeah, I don't want to keep this anymore. And I don't blame them. But why are we keeping it?
Speaker: oh Because it's interesting. And you're not keeping it, I'm keeping it. You tried to set our minds at ease by saying, it's okay, I hear voices all the time. It feels like it's a bad one to have. if it' Not all voices are bad voices. These don't seem to be bad voices. The bad voices I actually can get rid of, so I feel like you should be concerned with those voices, but I'm really as concerned with those voices.
Speaker: I'm concerned with those voices. You don't think the woman who said, I'm sorry, i have to do this and tell me, just tell me where the rest of them are you don't think that was a bad voice? Compared to the other lady who says, who looks at me and says, no not yet?
Speaker: i would say that the scale of those extreme is, ah put that kind of in the middle versus the lady who's just kind of prey What's that? prey upon the who's Who's that?
Speaker: Who's... The bug lady? Oh, that that died dumber than I ever knew the details of the conversations of the bug lady. I'm assuming it's the bug lady, yeah.
Speaker: Right. She's not haunting. Well, you know, still is, but when you start getting a little more threatening, you really have to evaluate your options there.
Speaker: and Also, I don't know if she can hear my thoughts. so we're going to kind of keep it on the down low.
Speaker: Yep. You think she might find in disrespect? You know, that's a good question. Well, I'm not really trying to find out. well This has been a fantastic conversation. i'm going to try to go to sleep.
Speaker: Just to summarize for my benefit. Okay. Because sometimes, oh, a conversation with you, like this investigation, feels like some of the information might be out of order. The bug lady.
Speaker: She's been there. And she continues to be there even after the… after our excursion that dealt with her cultists. Yes, so before that there were just kind of voices and whispers on occasion. Kind of like if somebody was just kind of washing over your shoulder and that's, you probably know this, you've got a lizard. And he just kind of like says things and then disappears. But I don't get to see anything.
Speaker: And then we went to the cultist and then I saw her and I'm like, yeah, visuals match in the audio.
Speaker: It was, she was here before. ah She's been there since I left Zoria. I don't know. I did not know that. Oh, it feels like important information.
Speaker: It does. she It's just a normal day. You know, she's not there all the time. Usually it's pretty quiet. Is she louder since the encounter with her cultists, since you acquired a visual to go with it?
Speaker: No. Okay. So it has returned to what it was before? Yes. Except now you have a face for the voice?
Speaker: Yes. All right. And now the lawn whispers. for clarifying. So we will figure out the lawn whispering. honestly really didn't need a new wand.
Speaker: oh But i mean don I myself wondered why. Don't know why i bought it, but so it looks like it's got a lot of stuff attached to it. Having bought it, you don't have to carry it around.
Speaker: But I will. It looks kind of cool.
Speaker: I accept that. It pretty neat if I can unlock its secret. Very well. I can't move in a pen. I'm leaving. You guys could be at the table. Yeah.
Speaker: Good night. I'm gone. oh
Speaker: so I guess. That was a lot. It was. So is the plan to get up in the morning and go see Vashon?
Speaker: I believe that is the plan. Okay. I think we're going to have to go to the forest. Agreed. think right now, plan We are so clearly going to have to go to the forest.
Speaker: Correct. If anything, the more I'm warned not to, the more I'm sure that's where we're going to end up. Next. I also think that the longer we delay, the potentially more bad that it will be because the Scout was seen by the Wandsmiths.
Speaker: He didn't stumble upon their shredded bodies. He was seen by them, and then he ran away and remembers the trees attacking him and ended up back here. So it's not like Or just going out there to find the dead bodies of the Wandsmiths.
Speaker: Right. Right. i do I do think with this extra bit of information we have to take to Vashon, we may actually get helpful information before we go, but then I think we got to go.
Speaker: <unk> And we'll have do something about the fact that he's going to keep saying don't. I don't think we have to do anything about that. We can ignore him. Well, we can, and I, I, I'm great at ignoring warnings and better at judgment, but Valk seems really intent on listening to the don't go in the forest.
Speaker: Valk will probably. be able to be persuaded of the necessity of going into the forest and will probably be content to point out that it's probably a bad idea. And in fairness, if we worked in if we if we were people working in a sensible line of work, it would be a bad idea. Yeah, I mean, I think that it being a bad idea that serves no master in this conversation. That's a constant. But we do have to do it.
Speaker: I think we do. Kaz looks around, like can we, I guess, get food ordered to our rooms or something? and I don't think a anyone can carry these things up the stairs. Yeah. Fair. Yeah, so would you say it's family style? Does that mean it's buffet style? Like, do we just walk up with a plate and start cutting? No, i'm I was just thinking, well, I had put it in order for food and stuff, and we're eating while you were having this conversation. That's fair. and That's fine with me. I have... You have...
Speaker: Nothing. nothing ah kid I should, I thought this was me talking to you guys, and not in character. i don't, I can't think of any stuff Kaz needs results right now. So I I guess we do, there is the mausoleum of it all.
Speaker: Selena, are you
Speaker: interested in pursuing this, whatever it is?
Speaker: I kind of want to handle the task at hand first, unless we think something in the mausoleum will help us with that. And then kind of deal with it after.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it feels like they're just two things happening in the same town that's related. Yeah, that's fair. i'm just I guess I'm saying I'm on board for figuring out what what's what's going on there and why those people were...
Speaker: so keen on hurting you. And if we can learn something or start the process of making all of that in for you, we should tackle it while we're here. It makes sense.
Speaker: We probably should as much as I don't want to. All right. I guess I'm going call it a night too. Yeah, me too. Okay. All right. Nyx, are you going to bed?
Speaker: Nope. Where are you going? I was going to ask permission, but I'm goingnna take that conversation as permission. Nyx is going to go just scope out the mausoleum. It's night.
Speaker: There's a creepy death cult apparently in town. They definitely meet at night. So i'm not going to and approach it. I'm not going to try and go into it. I'm not going to mess with the ring of ashes around it. I'm going to find a place where I can watch it and watch it for a little while and see if there is any activity.
Speaker: Okay, give me a give me a check to try and find a good spot to stake out the place. Okay. Well, I wish that this roll had occurred on the roll to watch the place, but I'm very well hidden. I have a natural 20. Nice.
Speaker: So I have found a great spot. what What skill and background and everything were you using for it? I suppose. don't know. Is this a tactical activity? I'm reconnoitering something. Can I...
Speaker: pitch my my innate battle sense of Shavarath touched to post myself up somewhere to to get a good view of of an enemy.
Speaker: Sure, scouting, like yeah, subsurfuge, I'll allow it. And it's probably wisdom or maybe intelligence. I'm gonna pitch intelligence because that's slightly less bad. And then with level and that, so that's 30.
Speaker: 30. Okay. Yeah, you are able to find a very well-hidden spot with a very good vantage point. I mean, you describe what when what the space is that Nix has. There's definitely, i don't know why this town has a really gothic, not cathedral, it got really gothic graveyard, but Apparently at some point there were lots of families here who did who were really into the like big Gothic mausoleum thing.
Speaker: And so Nix is up on one of those sort of seated along the angle of the roof next to this very aggressive looking gargoyle that's that's sort of crouching here. Yeah.
Speaker: Nice. OK. So as you are perched up there, you spot
Speaker: a figure, like you see movement in the doorway of the mausoleum. And you see just briefly from the various lanterns and lighting implements around the town in the middle of the night, light shine off of a gilded mask that appears to be skeletal in nature with a hood pulled up over. So you can't see anything about the person wearing this mask as they kind of look about and then
Speaker: A couple of individuals walk down the street in front of the cemetery. One of them, it's a human man and a human woman. And they kind of stop a little ways from the, the cemetery and they hug each other. It looks like they may be like,
Speaker: on a date or something like that saying farewell and the man like turns a corner and walks away and the woman starts to walk past the cemetery and she stops and kind of glances around and then she turns and walks into the cemetery and stands outside the ring of ashes for a brief moment.
Speaker: And you see kind of a greenish light glow from within the mausoleum. And then she steps over it and approaches. Did I see her do anything?
Speaker: looks like she was for that to happen. She, she was like the green light was like the all clear and then she could cross. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Secret handshake. Exactly. Jeff.
Speaker: And then you see a figure walk out of the mausoleum after ah half hour or so later. Does she go into the mausoleum or she wait around in the ring? Okay. No, she went into the mausoleum.
Speaker: And you see this figure walk out and step over the ring of ashes. Give me a, is this one of the figures I've seen go in or are you about to make me roll for that? No. Okay. Give me an intelligence check for identifying for identifying like what's going on with the ring.
Speaker: No, like this, this person that's walking out. Okay.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, unless black market here for like casing a mark, I'm not sure that I've got anything that's really gonna work for me there. Okay. and not terrible. do You said intelligence.
Speaker: Okay. So 16, 17 level 21, 21. twenty one This individual looks geared up as though they are, they, they're, they're dressed and provisioned like a hunter.
Speaker: Um, you know, they have hatchet on their belt, bow on their back, and they seem to be geared up for like going out to hunt.
Speaker: 21, you can tell this person is, you can't really tell any more specifics, but they are not entirely Trying to think of the right word because human's not the right word because human is like a specific race of... There is something supernatural about this entity in a planar way. Like they are touched by a plane in some capacity. Okay. You don't... But it's not... get It's not evident. Look at them.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean... In the sense of like they read like they're a tiefling to me or... No, a bit more like trying to think of the right. Because tieflings are enough of an occurrence on the material plane to almost be outright mundane.
Speaker: Just something eerie about them. Yes. Essentially. Okay. Okay. Neither of the other figures I saw go in emerged though. This, this is something sent out. Yes. Does it go in a particular direction once crosses the.
Speaker: It heads towards the forest. I actually don't know if I know where the whispering or the direction of the whispering cops. Do I know the direction of the whispering cops?
Speaker: Well, Jarp is like on the northeastern edge of the forest in general. so Right. So everything is going to, okay. If you're going into the woods, you're going in that direction. Okay. Yeah. Yes.
Speaker: Okay. all right. um
Speaker: What time is it when this, when I see this happen? yeah ah this one but A little bit before midnight Okay Nyx will hang around For another Couple of hours To see if Anything else happens Anything emerges You see a couple other people like enter the mausoleum. Like it's clear that like there are members of this town that belong to this like secret sect of the Emerald Claw. Okay.
Speaker: But you don't see anything like ritualistic going on. like Sure, sure. Because that's happening down below. Do I see anyone leave? like i see people go in. do i Do I see any other people leave? Other than that one person, no.
Speaker: You don't see anyone come out. Interesting. Amazing.
Speaker: Okay. I will make note of how many people i saw go in and the best general description that I can of each person that I see go in by moonlight. Obviously that's limited, but rough, rough guess at height and build and that sort of thing.
Speaker: Yeah. then I will go back to the end.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And I'm absolutely going back to not sleeping in my room because there's a death cult in town that has already tried to kill a member of my party. Pish. So Nick's crashes in the hallway outside of Selena's room, I guess.
Speaker: Okay. Alright. So you'll hear it like the window breaks or something. Yeah. Okay. Morning comes. ah Does anybody do anything else in the night while Nyx is staking out? Everyone else just go to sleep? Or you all just said you were going up to your rooms. Was anyone doing anything else?
Speaker: I create another purple fairy and try to figure out if it's alive. And I like think... Go ahead. good as that i like to think it's not. It is just a construct because that's all I was trying to make. But I'll roll. the Give me a charisma check. Yep.
Speaker: That is 20.
Speaker: 20, the purple light swirls in Kaz's hand as he's sitting on his bed and a small Tinkerbell-esque fairy pops up wearing a faceless mask and looks up and waves at Kaz, kind of stands there for a second, waiting for some kind of directive because you summoned this without any intention, unlike the previous creatures that you summoned. Right.
Speaker: And I'm legit, I'm just like checking, like, is it spectral? Is the, like, I'm i'm looking at it. I'm analyzing it. is ah It is a bit translucent. um Yeah, like, you can you can see through it a bit. Okay.
Speaker: I think, yeah, I just tried it. I'm like, so... It's like, what's your whole deal? what are what Who are you do you? Can you talk? Do we talk?
Speaker: No. Okay. Got it. It's wearing a faceless mask, but you can tell that it is confused. Yeah. Okay. I think that you are a construct that I created.
Speaker: And so I'm going to now dismiss you. What happens? Disappears. Okay, great. Not real. in screen No, please. yeah Actually, you know what?
Speaker: Before I dismiss it, I'm going to say, but I remember this and I hold up three fingers. And then dismiss it. And so the next time I summon it, I'm going to see if it remembers three fingers. And if not, I have zero regrets about what happened today.
Speaker: It's just a different one. Also possible, but I'm not thinking of that. I know. i Give me a break, Nyx. And yeah, and Kaz, secure in what he has decided with no real evidence other than what he needs to be true, he goes to bed. Okay.
Speaker: Selina, Valk, do anything in the night? Oh, because I went to bed. I know.
Speaker: Going to bed and going to sleep are two different things. Well, he's going to sleep. Okay. He's been up all day. There are many nights where Miley tells me at 8.30 that she's going to bed and then I roll in there at 10.30 and she's scrolling on her phone. so Unless you want to give me more random whispers. i think I've been up all day as a wild poopsie. I mean, the train ride was like, we said looking at my nose, it was 10 hours and then we got straight to work.
Speaker: That's true. That's true. Good point. So let's just go into sleep. Okay. ah So next morning, you all wake up. ah What time do people get up in the morning? Nyx was out until like 3 in the morning, so probably whenever a whenever gets whenever she gets tripped over. Slay this tripping over Nyx, yeah. I think whenever food starts being cooch.
Speaker: Yeah, when I smelled the food. Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah, so breakfast starts getting served. I mean, there there are like...
Speaker: A lot of trades people in this town, probably breakfast starts getting served at like 530 in the morning. Nope. That's so early. Maybe a little after I started. Everyone's so confident when the food starts cooking, you all, you all come down for breakfast.
Speaker: You see, once again, massive family style plates in the center of the table with like fried eggs that are the size of like a platter, very thick bacon, et cetera.
Speaker: But yeah, Selina, you open your door and accidentally kick Nyx in the ribs.
Speaker: Oh, sorry. Are you okay? Yes. Nyx sits up and sort of looks past you to the window and sees that there's daylight. All right, there's definitely a death cult in town.
Speaker: did Did you go there? I just watched. I give the number of people who went in and out. At least one of them was wearing one of those masks and then something.
Speaker: maybe a person, but there was something off about it. Something came back out of the mausoleum, dressed and to equipped for a hunt, and went into the forest. Okay, well, good to know we might encounter them in the forest, too.
Speaker: Yes. I was going ask why you were outside my room, but I get it now, so never mind. to There's a death cult in town. Yes, understood. That'll check, but... no Well, I'm going to go get some breakfast.
Speaker: Good morning. Yep. All right. Next, we'll go wash her face and then come down and order coffee. Fantastic. And probably some of that wonderful bacon. That sounded great. work Very large egg. Very large bacon. Big bacon. Big eggs. Giant. Does the bacon need to be big?
Speaker: Like, do the strips have to be in? Philip, if you were sa served two fried eggs the size of a dinner platter and then served a regular-sized bacon next to it, would you be satisfied with the bacon?
Speaker: would not two. would not order two. Two for the table. but The bacon does have to be big because the the whole point of bacon is that it is the entire cross cut of that piece of meat. So you get the meat and the fat with You could then cut it into sizes of bacon, into pieces that are reasonable in size. what if you just You don't have to serve me a dinner table length strip of bacon. Yeah, Philip, where's the fun in that?
Speaker: My ability to eat the bacon? There's all kinds of stuff I don't have to do, but I want to try. Checkmate. Anyway, what did you do? I was trying to Nick sees breakfast.
Speaker: Gotcha, gotcha. And caffeinates yourself. I assume everyone's at the table next to you. Share what you found last night with the entire table. I don't hear because apparently people from this town are in a death cult.
Speaker: And this is the place where people eat breakfast. Okay. So at some point, your breakfast says, ah Nick says, need to tell you all something when we're not surrounded by the townspeople.
Speaker: yeah this Is it the reason why you don't look well rested? This morning, it's the reason I don't look well rested. i hi walk We will eat and then we will continue on our wedding and have a chat while walking. All right.
Speaker: Yeah, once we are out and away from people, some portion of this town are part of the Emerald Claw.
Speaker: And then Nyx will relay her observations from the night before again. well live I will remind everyone I do you have a Deathward mask.
Speaker: Oh, that one. If we need to infiltrate the place, that may be very useful. the To my mind, the urgent part of this right now, as we go about the rest of our day, is some of these people.
Speaker: Right. Yeah. I can't say whether they meet nightly, but there was a good deal of coming. Well, a good deal of entering the mausoleum last night. i Knowing that we were probably going to have to venture into a very dangerous forest, I did not.
Speaker: stay until sun up, but I didn't in the court time that I stayed see anyone come back out of the mausoleum. That just may mean they wait until dawn or there's a different way out or something. I don't know. Or there's more vampires.
Speaker: It is very possible that there are vampires in this town.
Speaker: What? Oh happy Oh, apparently there are vampires in this town. That is not where I had gone until Eric did that. I was saying that's crazy.
Speaker: Yeah, I know. How do you take that as confirmation? that Yeah, we're on to you, Stripple. We love a good recurring theme. Is this directly related to the forest and the Wandsmiths?
Speaker: Directly, I don't know. In that the Emerald Claw deal in necromancy, which is... drawing which draws on the plane of Mabar and we have these Mabar and axes which are ostensibly for use on trees but I am more and more convinced every time we find out something about the Wandsmiths, I become more convinced that the Wandsmiths are something other than just Wandsmiths. I think they trapped the Magistrate in his house on purpose, because while I can easily believe that the Magistrate was stupid enough to not know what a ritual cast around his house, I don't think...
Speaker: That the eight mages who cast that spell, that not a single one of them thought went, hey, I think this might leave the magistrate and his staff trapped indefinitely inside his house.
Speaker: I just don't think that that sort of... Accident is likely. Agreed. Until he finds true love's kiss. 100%. And then... I didn't see that footnote in the trail. And apparently he has to find it among his staff because... Yeah.
Speaker: Gross. No visitors. I don't know why that's gross. He's not really- Also, how is the staff allowing him not to feed them, if that's our hypothesis? Like, I think the most likely scenario is we get this thing down and the magistrate has been murdered by his staff for trying to starve them. well Not if they've been turned into various household items.
Speaker: No. You know what? That's fair. I hadn't considered that. It's a good point. Toosh. Additionally. And then, of course, the only person I saw come out of the mausoleum did go into the woods.
Speaker: So I don't know if it connects. It may be nothing but circumstantial that we have come to a place where there is also a death cult. But I just mean that we should be careful in our interactions with these people.
Speaker: And when we are inevitably forced to pursue this into the woods, we should be aware that there may be things out there that are not trees.
Speaker: Or large animals. Okay. I don't know what this has to do with the orb they took out there. It... They got it from House Vedalus, and so... It's some kind of egg? I don't know.
Speaker: I cannot see that. It would have kind of a weird... Very specifically said it was... See? put in Yes, it's very strange and I don't have an explanation. That's we're going to our favorite. Sorry, I was... i i vedalian It was that interrupting thing I should have waited for you to finish. You are delusional.
Speaker: You know that um it's typically recommended for women to have about nine nine to ten hours of sleep. i was going to leave you with that fact. She might want to see I don't know if that's true, but if it's true, I have never been well-rested in my entire life. Yeah, you'd be surprised a lot of people are not well-rested. I'm not surprised that I'm not well-rested.
Speaker: Most people do not need eight hours of sleep. They need more.
Speaker: Until I came here, most of my business dealings were nocturnal, so it has been quite a long time since I Yeah. Probably like... negative on sleep.
Speaker: You know? I'm certain. so I don't know how that interacts with my particularly odd circumstances.
Speaker: And now that I know there's a death cult around, I'm very eager that we acquire that sword I commissioned before we go out into the woods. Oh yeah, do you know how long that was going to take to get that? He said he could do two hatchets a day, so he seems to work very fast.
Speaker: I like it. Hatchet is a sword. Also, he didn't seem to sleep because he's not alive, I don't think. Which might be relevant to the death cult thing we're dealing with.
Speaker: Kaz's jaw drops. What? Oh, did I not exp- I was focused. There was a lot of this. Yeah. Yes, I was focused on the voice. Well, not focused on the voices. Cass has not been privy to any of the is-more-in-alive conversation.
Speaker: Morin at some point was stabbed through his eye in a way that I don't think likely left him alive. And oh i present this highest I present this as a hypothesis very carefully because I am not entirely confident in the authority of the source of my information, but when I was young and in a different sort of training, we, one of the things that was explained to us is that when
Speaker: People who die are brought back from death. It is often the case that they come back sometimes with something else attached to them.
Speaker: Not always evil and not always malicious in some way, but in the same way that many of us have something.
Speaker: attached to us. Or things. She glances at Val. Wait, what are you looking at me? You seem to be troubled by voices from multiple sources. I... One is from... I'm not saying one isn't enough. And one is from Zoria.
Speaker: Okay, well, I misjudged how many different kinds of voices you were hearing from Zoria. Then I apologize. Wait. But in the same way that the bug lady, the kyber shard in Morin's eye, I believe is there to keep whatever that is from getting out. Possibly because if it got out, Morin would die.
Speaker: Possibly because if it got out, it would be bad. I invited you to our house. I know. I suggested that you should. You knew that then? Yes. I have means of figuring that out if that is something that you do and then we would pick.
Speaker: It might be good to do. then when if If he comes to stay at the manor, it might be good to try and find out what it is. But he is a better smith is a better smith than you currently have there. You?
Speaker: Oh. yes oh i The things he makes are better than what I make. And someone one is eventually going to pick him up and study him as a specimen. I mean, if they haven't already. Fair. Anyway, that's a later problem.
Speaker: but good I don't think he sleeps much, and he seems to work very quickly. So, if it's ready when we need to go to the woods, then we I'll bring it with us bi me. We're going to the woods? I believe we will be going to the woods. Almost certainly.
Speaker: almost certainly Yeah, you you kind of you in the left it before we had a chance to talk about it. Well, I'm not 16, so can't stay up.
Speaker: A
Speaker: a trade-off of that is that we continued to talk. Okay, let's just go. I believe we will have to go to the woods. I might be wrong. Maybe. They're not an idea.
Speaker: I agree. Most of our jobs are bad ideas. Yes. and We are. And realized I have a way to check if we can resolve this without going into the forest. I'm in favor of talking to the druid.
Speaker: I think we should go. we' are on our way to do that. I think we should talk to the druid. But I think I do not have much confidence that anything the druid is going to tell us is going to mean we don't have to go to the woods.
Speaker: If I could be wrong, and the druid will tell us how to resolve this without going to the woods, I will be thrilled. In which case, I'll go collect my Erian-infused sword, and I'll use it to kill whatever's in that mausoleum.
Speaker: But... Okay. You don't think it's worth killing whatever's going on in that mausoleum? I... We come from very different lifestyles, and my first reaction to things is not going into dark places.
Speaker: Killing things. I'm just getting used to that. Our first job was a death ritual under a mausoleum, and it was very bad for the town. Yeah.
Speaker: Doesn't mean I can't have my reaction. Oh, no. It's a bad idea to go down into the mausoleum also. Yeah, no, i'm I don't disagree with you on what's a bad idea.
Speaker: I just think we're going to have to do it anyway. Ooh, that went from me to we. it All right. I mean, I... I'm going to.
Speaker: we had We talked about it last night. I'm i'm i'm also going to. cool because they tried Because they tried to kidnap or possibly just to murder Selene.
Speaker: we Okay. So. i had pause But first. close but not The druid. Yeah. Kaz pockets some giant chicken piece to take to the mantis as an offering. to Pockets? I'm imagining like hauling over his shoulder. It's a full wing. yeah Well, write that down so you remember Jeff because we'll find out what happens at Bastion's spot next time.
Speaker: And this time for real, you all will have like a few weeks to think about what you want to do next. So thank you all so much for listening. If you want to be part of the conversations around this episode, you can head over to our discord, the link to which is in the show notes of this podcast episode.
Speaker: We also have a YouTube channel, youtube.com slash pantheon. If you want to financially support the show, you can do so, or no, not financial. Well, we do get ad revenue. If you want to watch the videos over there, you can do so. Philip.
Speaker: On YouTube and Spotify, you can also find Tales from the Laughing Tree, where we've got another actual play going on right now using Legend in the Mist. It's called The Queen's Blades. It's true. We also have a Patreon, patreon.com slash think pantheon. 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. Bye, Mia.
Speaker: I'm Philip. I'm Madeline. I'm Jamie. We'll see time. Bye.
