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C2 Ep. 40 Shifting Tales Chapter Three
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The crew finds themselves on the path to find Gorden, but they find obstacles may cause their investigation to run dry.
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Darrin Katzska, Irene Viorritto, Ryan Royce, Darrell DeLaney, Jessica Smith, Charles Compton, Danielle Bramhall-Smith, Nastasia Raulerson, The Kamm Family, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Andy Dossett, Rebekah Gowman, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, Eric Witman, and Shelby Johnson.
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Transcript
Dedication to Patrons
00:00:00
Speaker
The following episode is brought to you by the generous donations of Laura Pickron, Darryl Delaney, Darren Katska, Deavius Poptart, Irene Villarito, Ryan Royce, Andy Dossett, Danielle Bramhall-Smith, Elizabeth Clark, Eric Whitman, Jessica Smith, Charles Compton, Natasha Rallerson, Richard Cree, The Cam Family, David Scrams, Dustin Troop, Edvard Arnoff, Michael Clark,
00:00:25
Speaker
Rebecca Gowman, and Shelby Johnson, as well as all of our generous patrons.
Introduction to Eberron Renewed Cold Open
00:01:16
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to another cold open of Eberron Renewed. I am Eric. I'm Jeff. And welcome. We hope you all enjoyed the last episode of Eberron Renewed. And today we are going... Jeff's indifferent. So yeah, we are doing another cold open with Hob meeting his contact within House Deneth.
00:01:39
Speaker
Um, his Minotaur friend at the consistent bird was the agreed upon meeting spot. Um, so yeah, uh, Jeff, anything that you want to lay out before we get started with the scene? Um, not
Meeting at the Consistent Bird
00:01:55
Speaker
really. I mean, hob has been kind of wrecking his brain in the interim about how.
00:02:02
Speaker
how he wants to do it. And I'll be honest, he's hoping the Minotaur has some ideas on what could be effective as well. Um, but no, the only thing I ask is just remind me, cause I, I've misplaced my notebook and that's not great. What is the name of the proprietor of the consistent bird? Raffin. Raffin Luger.
00:02:21
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's right, I gave her the last name, Luger. Which, did you see, speaking of, real quick, and this can stay in, because this is Bongers, Peter Lugers, the very restaurant that I named her after and recommended to people, is doing this absolutely just next level weird thing where they've partnered with Madame Tussauds, so they're filling empty tables with wax figures of celebrities during limited capacity.
00:02:43
Speaker
Yeah. No, I don't want that. Yeah. I don't want to look over and see James Van Der Beek's dead gaze. You could be trying to eat your steak while the lifeless stare of Jon Hamm will not leave your line of sight.
00:03:01
Speaker
Anyway. Yeah. Okay. They don't have the consistent bird wax fingers. Yeah. Um, so yeah, you're going up to Raffin's spot, the consistent bird, uh, to meet with your, your Minotaur, uh, contact. So you enter, uh, the consistent bird hob. Uh, the line isn't as crazy. You know, I think we agreed at like three o'clock in the afternoon or something. I don't remember if there was a time agreed upon. It was mid afternoon. Yeah. So like, you know,
00:03:30
Speaker
downtime, no lunch or dinner rush to contend with. There's some like two drink business lunches winding down as we go. Just dudes in business form will get up stumbling out into broad daylight. Hob knocks one of them over quote-unquote accidentally.
00:03:52
Speaker
So yeah, one of the, uh, the automated, uh, hosts, uh, seats you at a table and you know, do you, uh, one of them walks up and kind of stares at you and you hear this kind of canned voice, uh, say, welcome to the consistent bird. What can I get for you? Um, actually I'm waiting on, on someone, so I'll just have, uh, some water to drink for now.
00:04:22
Speaker
Very
Minotaur's Role Revealed and Task Planning
00:04:23
Speaker
well, I will return with your water. And it turns and takes off. I'm going to name these guys. So yeah, the automaton brings your water back and says, I will return when your guest arrives.
00:04:40
Speaker
So you wait probably a good five minutes at the table, um, before you see a large figure come lumbering in. And I don't say that stereotypically. This minotaur is very large and seems very uncoordinated, like into one of the automatons.
Recruitment Strategy for House Deneth
00:05:03
Speaker
And, uh,
00:05:05
Speaker
He looks across the dining area and sees you and kind of brings his large arm up to wave and then begins like coming over to you. Um, hop, hop does, hop does that thing. He's done multiple times before where he kicks the seat across from him out, but this time it's genuinely like, please don't break this when you're, when you're pulling it out from the table. Um, he gets the table and are you hob?
00:05:35
Speaker
Right, that's me. What do you call you? My name's Non Yolok. In? I don't know what's accident. What is it? Is there a sneaky R in there? There is a sneaky G and a sneaky R. G-N-A-R-N. I was gonna pick where the G goes. G-N-A-R-N. And then surname is Y-A-L-A-A-K.
00:06:05
Speaker
Of course it is. Well, may I call you, may I call you Narn? Oh yeah, of course. I prefer it that way. And he plops down in the chair. Audio poison. This cold outfit is going to be rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber, rubber. I've been instructed to come assist you in your expedition. Right. Down into the cogs.
00:06:37
Speaker
Remind me He knows what we're doing as well. It's not like Yeah, it's not like boom rush sent him and like he's gonna this guy's gonna figure out what the plan is. Okay. No, no, right? Um, right Yes, and I do appreciate it. Um, of course, you know many hands mix the work lighter. Um, so Well, hmm
00:07:08
Speaker
Is there like an Ellis Island of the Cogs? Or is it just like when people get to Sharn, they inevitably get shunted down to the Cogs if they are of these races? Yes, that's part of it.
00:07:24
Speaker
It's a place where they can live without being harangued and stuff like that. And also it's incredibly cheap and easy to find lodging. And if you are traveling from Drowam to come to Sharn,
00:07:41
Speaker
nine times out of 10, you're going to know somebody. Yeah. So I've got family down there already. That makes sense. That makes total sense. Yeah.
Cultural and Racial Dynamics of the Cogs
00:07:49
Speaker
Um, and I like it better than, I like the idea of self-exclusion much better than forced. Um, right. Um, so you told me what you think of this. I think you might have the temperature of the cogs a bit better than I do. Please don't say hot. Um, Oh, that's good. Do you think?
00:08:12
Speaker
spreading the news of the proclivities of the leader of House Jarasch, is more effective than simply promoting working for House Deneth?
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah, I can see that, you know, Boom Rush puts more stock in how much of an impact the Dragon Below business is going to have down in the cogs than it would in the upper parts of the city. I think that can be a bit of a play. It's just you'll need to take it from
00:08:50
Speaker
culture to culture, basically. Some people are gonna be like, oh, great, drag him below. Right, exactly. A multi-pronged attack might be bad. I'll tell you this, I've never once thought about who Satan worships. Not one time. And I probably won't, and my accent changed. I traveled a bit there. Yeah, you know, it's one of those things to where some people are going to consider being, I mean,
00:09:18
Speaker
They're known colloquially as cult of the dragon below. So you know, cult, that word carries some weight in certain circles as being a negative thing. So yeah, I think that people to not bring up the whole dragon below thing to would be primarily, gnolls aren't really gonna care that much. Medusas, not gonna make a big thing out of it.
00:09:48
Speaker
I'm sorry, they're called Medusas. Gorgons. Leave it in, leave it in. Yes, no walls, Gorgons. The big ones that you're going to want to try to hit, I would say.
Reputation Challenges of House Deneth
00:10:06
Speaker
Orcs, generally speaking, pretty solid pull. They're not going to be big fans of the Cult of the Dragon below, especially if they traveled
00:10:17
Speaker
from the shadow marches through Joam. People with shadow marches hate Cult of the Dragon Below. Goblins, also, not gonna be a huge fan unless they are themselves, of course, a cultist. That's the caveat to all this, right? Right. And you can't just ask. Yeah. So, Cult of the Dragon Below. Thoughts?
00:10:41
Speaker
So yeah, but I agree that another fine tactic, the idea that you had to build up House Deneth as opposed to attempting to tear down House Thrashek is a good way to go. Generally speaking, from experience as a employee of House Deneth, House Deneth is a bit more
00:11:07
Speaker
I guess we could say legitimate than House of the Rashk in the eyes of certain circles. So if you want more honest pay, quote unquote. Now that's largely- Hob is clenching his fist right now. Like under the table, not like he's going to hit. He's just, oh yeah, sure. Honest, legitimate. Right, right. That's why I'm here. Cause how honest and legitimate you schmoes are. Now, to be fair, a lot of that reputation is built around the fact that House of the Rashk are made primarily of
00:11:37
Speaker
half orcs and monstrous races and House Deneth are humans. So the more monstrous races that come into House Deneth, that reputation may lessen, but that's not our problem right now.
Logistics and Recruitment Planning
00:11:49
Speaker
You know, speaking of as a, as a, as a, as a brother of the same, don't you hate that term? Oh yes, absolutely. I think I, you know what? I don't think we have to say it here. Fair enough. Um,
00:12:02
Speaker
Yeah, I guess people of DROAM. Our people. That's, I mean... No, it's wrong, but it's better. It is better. You're the first Goliath I've ever sat down to have a meal with, so... But I see what you're saying. Well buckle in, buddy, because it's gonna be a real spectacle.
00:12:26
Speaker
So yeah, I guess, do you have any questions for me? I mean, I, I've been with house Dennis for about five years now. Um, I'm not a Sentinel Marshall. I'm, I'm, I'm just a member of the house, uh, that offers mercenary and security services. Uh, I'm not one of the big wigs. Um, so I don't know a whole lot about the inner workings of the house, but certainly I can offer any guidance possible.
00:13:01
Speaker
I'm going to level with you I would like that I don't need word getting back to another house that I've done something to piss them off I don't think that recruiting would do that, that's business besmirching might so I'd like to focus mostly on an information blitz in the cogs
00:13:32
Speaker
fair. If we start, you and I, and if it's successful, perhaps it will become a pipeline for your, uh, your associates, simply making new arrivals aware of a good paying legitimate job that could use a skill set that hey, they may find it fun to employ.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah. Am I an idiot? Would that work? No, you're not. Well, I don't know you that well. But in this case, you are not an idiot. I don't feel like an idiot. No, certainly the campaign of positivity as opposed to negativity would be, I think, a longer lasting ploy. I do know that Boomerush, when he was
00:14:29
Speaker
briefing me on this whole situation, seemed very excited at the idea of ruining the name of a rival house leader. So I do think if you come back and report, hey, we did it without the cult of the dragon below stuff, you may fulfill your end of the bargain, but he will be less than satisfied, if that makes sense. Oh, we'll say the dragon stuff.
00:14:58
Speaker
Between you and me, and I hope that I can trust that, I have doubts that a rumor from the cogs will be besmirching anybody at the head of a house. That's fair. But my concern is raising applicants, which I believe was my only rubric for success. That is true.
00:15:29
Speaker
Um, at least based on what was told to me.
Reflections and Future Plans
00:15:33
Speaker
Um, right. So, so we have two prongs and I'm happy to be a part of both. I will need your assistance. If I, if I say, how's Dennis a great place to work or what do you do for him? Don't work there. Fair enough. Yes. We can, um, we can certainly.
00:15:59
Speaker
head down there whenever you feel ready to, you can feel free to contact me and I will join you in this endeavor. And yes, help spread the good word of House Deneth. So, assuming that I end up having to do some of this on my own, to whom do I direct potential applicants?
00:16:30
Speaker
There is a registration area, obviously at the Enclave, but also in some lower parts of the city. There's one in Lower Dura that you could send them to that would be more welcoming to them than where the Enclave is. Also Lower North Edge,
00:16:57
Speaker
It's a primarily shifted district, but Houston, it does have a registration area there. So those would be the two places in the lower parts of the city that I would recommend sending them. Wonderful. Thank you. Is there, I'm simply not familiar enough with the other houses, um, with their, uh, operations outside of my, my, uh, general, uh, stomping grounds, if you will.
00:17:27
Speaker
Is there a dentist outpost of some sort in the cogs that we could direct people to? At this point, when you ask that question, the automaton returns and says, hello, welcome. What can I get for you? Um, Oh no. Cause she doesn't cook. She's enchanted the automatons to cook too. I was going to say about some about, you know, that Raven's let Raven pick whatever she wants to make. But.
00:17:58
Speaker
Oh, I'd like the, you know, I'm feeling punchy. I'll take the breakfast spread. Oh, very well. And what's for you? Uh, yes, I will have the chef salad, extra eggs, and a sparkling water, please.
00:18:23
Speaker
Very well. It takes off. So back to your point.
00:18:33
Speaker
House Deneth does not have a outpost, so to speak, down in the cogs. They don't really have much of a presence down in the cogs. The only house, what? Go ahead. It's the problem, I assume. Yes, yes. The only house that really has a presence down there is House Caneth with one of their manufacturing facilities because they like to use the...
00:18:57
Speaker
lower cost labor available down in the cogs. Yes, I understand. Um, so yeah, that's the only house that has a major presence. And even then to work down there is pretty crap detail. Um, so, um, so no, uh, we would, I would probably be the only associate of house Dennis down there. That's fine. We can make that work for sure. Um,
00:19:27
Speaker
Okay. Hang on. Remind me, it was, I have some time to plan and then it's 10 days from the actuation of the plan. They're going to reevaluate how many applications they've gotten from the, the, the sort of people they are desiring to get applications from. And that will determine my, and if it's not enough, then basically you're still on the hook for another 10 days, essentially like go do better, like go do better. And then eventually if they become unsatisfied and impatient, then you know, right.
00:19:58
Speaker
Okay, I think I don't really have much more to discuss with Narn right now. Well, I'm ready to begin as soon as you are. Great. I have work, you have work. Or is this your assignment for the foreseeable future?
00:20:18
Speaker
Uh, yeah. I mean, I, I take what the house assigns to me. I don't really get to make my own hours or pick my own gig. So this is what the house has given me. So this is what I am doing. So I'll be going back to the enclave, reporting, uh, to boom rush about how this meeting went and forming him on any takeaways. And then we will meet again in three days, basically, unless you want to start tomorrow.
00:20:47
Speaker
Um, timeline wise, we couldn't start tomorrow, right? No, because this is take like, tomorrow is, is nearing the beginning of the adventure you're currently. Right. Right. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. I think three days sounds perfect. Um, great. Would you like to meet here again to, you know, load up on greens to get our energy up before we head back down? Certainly. Right. I'll see you here three days. Um, just so I'm clear that our notes are the same.
00:21:16
Speaker
The goal is a two pronged approach for those that we think might not be swayed by the dragon below. Yeah. Tom Tom comes back with a Narnes water. Thank you.
00:21:30
Speaker
You know, I'm more of a still man myself, but I respect what you're doing there. I used to drink a lot of ale and I'm trying to cut back, so it gives me that same kind of sensation. Oh, no, I understand. You know, I'm not a drinker myself, so I understand where you're coming from.
00:21:48
Speaker
And for those, we will focus on the benefits of working for House Deneth, or even simply the presence of job opportunities there that they may not be aware of. Exactly. And if we have time, we'll see how much steam we can build on the whole Dragon, Cult of the Dragon Below thing, in addition to using it as a recruiting tool. Yes.
00:22:16
Speaker
Sounds like a good plan. No, I think so as well. And I think that you and I will have a very pleasant work and relationship. Indeed, I agree. This has been a good meeting and I look forward to continuing to work with you, Hob. Right, Hob.
00:22:36
Speaker
Well, I guess we sit there and eat in silence. As you're about to get up, your breakfast bread is laid before you. Well, I take it to go, I give them a hug. I didn't do an effective job of discre- so Narn is a large minotaur with
00:22:55
Speaker
very rustic horns. Like a lot of minotaurs will sometimes decorate their horns, but his are very kind of rough looking. Black hair all over his body with kind of graying around the snout and fiery red eyes. So it looks like at one time he would have been a terrifying black minotaur with red eyes. But his demeanor is very
00:23:19
Speaker
I love that. Yeah. So I love them. I like that he ordered a salad with extra eggs. Okay. Well, uh, thank you all. I hope you all enjoyed that cold open and getting to meet, uh, Narn, uh, Hobbs contact with that in house. Um, and yeah, we hope that you enjoy the continuation of this arc. That's about to kick off and yeah, let us know what you thought in the Facebook group or the discord or on our socials at Twitter and Instagram.
00:23:48
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play podcast set in the Eberron campaign setting. I'm your game master, Eric. I'm Phillip. I'm Trevor. I'm Randy. I'm Jeff. Welcome to another episode. Gentlemen, what happened last time? We CSI delivered the mail. Everybody hates Raynard. What else is new? We need to find Dr. Connors.
00:24:19
Speaker
We had various conversations of wide-ranging length and efficacy. That's not true. We don't have no idea how efficacious any of them are yet. Yeah, we talked to some people. Milo and Raynard talked to people who lived nearby. I talked to someone who worked nearby. Eris, I guess, didn't actually talk to anybody. She examined the scene. As she likes it. And found the one of- She explained to Faroo why he's wrong and that it's not a demon. Also, that did happen.
00:24:51
Speaker
And she punched Reynard. She did punch Reynard. Hit. I mean, with a closed fist. That's a punch. Didn't say she's real good at it, but she punched him. OK, so where we left off precisely is Gordon. Milo has just found out that the mailman's name was Gordon, and he did not deliver the mail yesterday and in fact was last seen running away from the crime scene.
00:25:21
Speaker
And the woman whose name you did not get is convinced that he might be the killer, but he at the very least stole her male. He's definitely a male thief. Yes. And then, yeah, Hobb just finished up their conversation with the shifter working the stall and Eris presumably wrapping up looking at the crime scene. So Milo leaves the male bag inside the door.
00:25:50
Speaker
and just leaves it there. Okay. Unless people think we need to keep it. No, you do you. Okay, so presumably everybody's kind of reconvening in the street. Faroo is still looking confusedly at people shopping.
00:26:11
Speaker
but sees you all. No, it can't be a demon. It's some guy who's enchanted himself to turn into, well, I think a big lizard, maybe a dragon, but not a dragon. Why couldn't it be a demon that had enchanted itself to look like some dude? Well, he works at Millet Industries. See? Demons play the long game. He could have gotten a job.
00:26:42
Speaker
Trevor, you're new to this, but if you want to go ahead and get a quick nap in, they could go with this for a while. You came here specifically because you thought this was a demon, but by what you just said, literally anything could be a demon. Now you understand what I'm up against. So how are you ever not away from your post?
00:27:09
Speaker
Didn't you pass like eight billion things that might have been demons on your way here? But I'm investigating this thing. At this point, Milo, Raynard and Kath come out of the building. Right, we have a name for the mailman. His name is Gordon and he was seen running away from the alley. We know where this guy came from. And Eris holds up the mill hatch.
00:27:38
Speaker
industry's ID card. I feel like we need to examine all avenues, especially considering I don't know that we're in particularly good standing with Millhouse. Secondly, I don't know that we're in good standing with Millhatch Industries right now.
00:28:06
Speaker
I thought Reynard and him were a thing. You know, you just say one kiss at a party and never hear anything back. Oh, you got ghosted there a grand year? That's usually my M.O., but here I am. It's not usually something we say with pride, I think.
00:28:38
Speaker
Oh, the woman in the stall over there, who I just realized didn't get her name. Just rude. Nothing I can do now. He turns over and told her, hey, what was your name? Huh? Oh, Jane. All right. My friend Jane stole a copper from me, but then she told me.
00:29:04
Speaker
But then she told me that if we wanted to get a better idea of how life really is down here for the people that work for Lissa, we need to talk to her second, uh, a fella named Adele. Yep. Yeah. Do we want to get a better idea of what life is like down here? No, I just wanted to contribute something. I keep up empty. All right. So we know that the lizard man came from Mila Milach.
00:29:41
Speaker
I agree we need to pull that thread But I also think it's possible that we do need to find Gordon ask him what he saw that night I see is my is the thing This is Milhatch LD and
00:29:59
Speaker
there's shifters missing, and this Arcanist turned into something that he's not normally. Now it's not, I don't think it's normal for this to be reptiles, but if LD stands for like and throat division,
00:30:26
Speaker
and Norse and Milleach is kidnapping shifters because, well, I guess I don't know if this is true, but it's the general thought that the ancestors of shifters were lycanthropes. And so maybe he's using
00:30:50
Speaker
the word genetics doesn't exist in this world. The traits trait. Yeah, he's trying to extract the traits of shifters and use them to create some kind of concoction or experiment to change people into like and ropes, human animal people, shape shifters, something.
00:31:22
Speaker
Well, unfortunately, Hob is going to go along with you because it just enforces Jeff's knee-jerk reaction being correct, so... It's either that or it's Milhatch Lower Dura, and it's just where it is. Well, I'll say they're... I was gonna say they're equally plausible, but that's actually not true.
00:31:42
Speaker
The lower door one is considerably more plausible. I mean, maybe on the other hand, a man here, the murderer really did turn into a big lizard person. That is true. More plausible. Is there any chance any of us would possibly know what the LD stands for? No, I mean, yeah, no. I could.
00:32:11
Speaker
I mean, I could ask somebody if we need me to. That didn't sound like Eris. That was weird. That's fine. Eris is being awkward. That was good. So, um, okay. Sorry, go ahead. I mean, that sounds like a logical
00:32:40
Speaker
proposition to me. Okay, somebody that may know. I yes, I think that that'd be good. In fact, before, especially before we go. I can't imagine a better first step for learning more about what what Milhatch Industries has to do with this than a friendly person who we could talk to. Oh, and it's, and it's three and a half. Dragon Mark ours is because Milhatch Industries works with Canon.
00:33:11
Speaker
that one i'll give you i don't understand why you won't give me the other ones give implies i wanted them i would really like it if you would take all three and a half i feel like one of them has been taken so where are we last few times someone tracked you down i was there and i mean i don't see how it doesn't everyone all right
00:33:39
Speaker
So are we going to the post office or do I need to? We should go to the post office first because I shouldn't bother, I shouldn't bother, bother during the day. Right. And we're already here. Are we already at the post office? Well, I assume the post office is nearer. Eris looks around in case she had like driving hypnosis while we were watching. Hold on. I'll be, hold on. I'll be back. Where are you going? Milo goes to retrieve the letters. We're going to the post office. We might as well go ahead and take them.
00:34:09
Speaker
There's people shifting through trying to find theirs, and Milo just goes, oh, I'm sorry, I have to do the right thing. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, you're able to grab up the bundle letters easily enough, Milo. Okay, so yeah, you all are able to easily find the post office. It's an easily marked building.
00:34:30
Speaker
is the motto like a whole lot longer since there are so many other things in this world that could stop the rain or fireball nor hypnosis nor blink dog no they recently admitted to say no morning but just kind of tasteless but you know
00:34:48
Speaker
So yeah, you all walk in. It's a fairly loud building. You see lots of magical implements, like moving letters about, sorting them. There's a front desk with a couple of people manning it. There is a long-ish line of people waiting to do their business. I am curious. Yeah. Is this a sharn post office, or is this a house civis
00:35:17
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. It's in relation with House Civis. It's a partnership kind of thing. It's not run by House Civis directly, but certainly Civis assists in the infrastructure, as it were. So, yeah. Cool.
00:35:38
Speaker
Um, so yeah, there, there is a line, there are also some doors. So you walk in the, if you go to the right is where the line kind of starts and the little desk area with the, the people working is over to your right. Um, there are 12 stations.
00:35:55
Speaker
but only two postal employees? Yes, yes. They're set up for a grand capacity, but only a couple of people there. Directly ahead of you are a series of small boxes on the wall with keyholes and things like that labeled. And then to your left are some doors that you would guess look like offices and things like that. So. For the general.
00:36:22
Speaker
Wait, wait. Well, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll doesn't have the letter. So for the general, does the general work here? The postmaster general. Anyway. Um, we met a dude who insisted on being called the general boom rush walks out. And we did want to save some time. Very good. Trevor. There you go. We got it in one arc too late, but, um, okay. So Milo, you have the letters. So what would you like to do? Milo sees the long line and
00:36:53
Speaker
I don't really want to stand here and wait in this line all day. Perhaps we should try an office. And he looks at Reynard to see if he's in agreement and then he looks at Aerys and then he looks at Hob and everybody else that's with us. I also do not want to stand in the line.
00:37:23
Speaker
through kind of why did you look at me? You are part of this group for the time being. Yes, I understand. OK, so I'm sorry. Right now we're deciding if we want to go knock on an office door or stand in a line. I say yes, let's go knock on an office door. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:50
Speaker
OK, so I think I think that we have a sufficient purpose to not cut an office door. Yeah, surely. Under your mail carriers has gone missing. We may not have sufficient credentials, but we have sufficient purpose. So yeah, the office door, three doors, one of which is just a plain wooden door that kind of goes back further into the building, you can see.
00:38:14
Speaker
Um, the other two are on the wall, um, kind of sideways from where you came in and they both are half windowed. And on the one on the right, you can see somebody sitting behind a desk, uh, looking at paperwork and just kind of flipping through stuff. The other one, um, has a desk in it, but nobody is in there. Let's do the one with someone. Yes. Um, so do you knock as you like, do you do the knock, knock open thing or do you just knock and stand there? What's, what's the plane?
00:38:44
Speaker
Uh, Milo Knox. Person looks up from the window and sees, is everybody like standing at the door or did Milo just go over? Like what's, what does this person see? We're clustered around super often. Hob is very aware of himself and is not staring down at this person in their office. And to be fair, could this person actually see Milo? How tall is this little window?
00:39:11
Speaker
Like a Kilroy was here kind of thing. Um, so, um, so yeah, he looks up, it's a human male, uh, fair skin, dark brown hair, um, with a very kind of wide jawline and a little bit of a butt chin. He kind of looks up, he's like, yeah. And like waves you all in. Can I help you? This is where Hob makes his presence node. He walks into the office. Good day to you.
00:39:42
Speaker
And to you. Hi. Can I help you all? I was just curious as to when you expect Gordon back. It's Gordon's day off, so I expect him back tomorrow. But we gave him the day off because he seemed kind of out of sorts yesterday. He witnessed a murder.
00:40:13
Speaker
Oh. Mother, would you like to return this man's property? The things that he was saying now make a lot more sense. Hmm. What were you saying? Oh, thank you. Uh, and takes the bundle of letters and sticks them in a basket. That was our leverage. What if he doesn't want to answer now? Uh, why wouldn't I want to answer?
00:40:31
Speaker
I don't know. We have met very few helpful people. Well, in the last 200 and some episodes, well, hopefully your experience here at the Sharn Postal Services will be different today. So, um, no, Gordon came one way in which Sharn is superior to the real world. Um, Gordon came sprinting in, uh, ranting, uh, about something that he saw in, in on his route. Was it a big lizard?
00:41:01
Speaker
uh he mentioned he mentioned a monster um which you know we uh tend to try and avoid that word around here but um but he was uh certain that no other word word would do claiming he saw a monster attacking somebody in an alley uh we obviously heard about the tragedy that happened yesterday assuming perhaps uh gordon uh saw
00:41:26
Speaker
saw something that maybe he conflated in his head as being bigger than it was, is our take. So we sent him home for the day, told him to take a day, take some rest, we would see him tomorrow. It wasn't. It was as big as it was. It was quite likely as big as it was.
00:41:45
Speaker
Well, thank you for being so forthcoming already. I want to let you know that we've been tasked by both the victim's employer and the local police department to look into this. So if we could have Gordon's address to speak to him while it's still... I know he's traumatized, but if we could speak to him while it's fresh on his mind.
00:42:09
Speaker
Well, we have a policy not to give out our employees' personal information also. I have a policy to investigate murders thoroughly. Well, I... And I feel like this might supersede that. I don't understand the hostility all of a sudden. Everyone thinks that just because I'm big, everything I say is hostile. Frankly, that's... It was more the tone of your voice, honestly, that I was responding to it. This is what I sound like!
00:42:35
Speaker
What you sounded like when you said good day, so that's there was just a shift I felt like so is it possible that Milo with Trixie could have a police identification on him Or a badge or something
00:42:56
Speaker
I'll allow it if that's the route you're going to go, but I'm going to need a deception check from old Milo to flash the badge. I'm waiting to see how this plays out before I decide to play that card. I totally understand what you all are saying in the gravity of the situation.
00:43:15
Speaker
You all just walked into my office the day after a murder happened and claimed that you know who the witness is and want their personal address and I don't know you. Well, has this, has, has he gone to the police to report what he has seen? I couldn't tell you that. I can tell you because we are working with the police that he is not.
00:43:38
Speaker
And I understand that this seems hasty, but you have to understand that the percentage of solving this crime goes down dramatically after 24 hours, and even more dramatically after 48. And after that point, basically, I mean, I don't know how to tell you this. If it ain't 48, it probably ain't happening. So I understand that it seems hasty, but you need to understand that we need to strike while the iron is hot.
00:44:09
Speaker
I would hate to have to drag a uniformed officer in here for you to trust us enough that you would give that person an address. You might hate to have to do that, but being perfectly honest, if you're asking me to tell you where one of my employees lives the day after you witnessed a murder,
00:44:28
Speaker
And I've never even seen you in this district, much less know who you are. And there's no insignia on these notepads, these folders to at least add a little bit of. We should just we should just go get Spade and have him or this guy's cooperation. I'm sorry.
00:44:55
Speaker
I'm gonna kick you in the nuts as soon as we can see each other in person again. Everybody's asking what's the first thing you're gonna do when you can... I'm gonna drive to Trevor's house and kick him in his nuts. I've been waiting a year.
00:45:15
Speaker
If you all have something official that I can trust you all, but we did just have a murder and we've had other factors going. All right. All right. If you require something, Milo pulls out his his police identification, whatever that may be. We're not getting anywhere with this guy, so I mean, is there any response from Haben Aris that Milo just flashed a badge?
00:45:44
Speaker
I mean, I think Hobbs eyes get pretty big, but he keeps his mouth shut. Uh, Eris is torn between what she was going to try to do and the horrible suspicion that of course Milo is an undercover cop.
00:46:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's, that's what I figured Eris would think. But that was, that was a deception role. I want, I want to see what this deception rules is like before I decide which one Eris is angry about. Okay. So Milo, give me a deception role against this guy's, um, um, just as a reminder that when this role is done, you get to add two advantage to it. Right. Because I'm looming. Um, I don't know what you roll this against. I was gonna,
00:46:37
Speaker
who's going to see what Aeris's difficulty is so that I can know whether she buys this too. So his vigilance is going to be... Postal employee. Yeah. They're very vigilant. I mean, it's going to be one red, one purple. I'm going to fill up a story point to make it too red. Well... Because the perception would be very interesting here. Well, I want to flip one too.
00:47:07
Speaker
OK, you can. So that turns a green to a yellow. Yeah. Hey, this is like evenly matched, isn't it? All right. Three failures. Oh. Wait, so that means that Eris is not deceived by this, right? Because it cancels out the successes. It does look. Yeah. Yeah. That's all right. Yeah. This is unfortunate.
00:47:37
Speaker
He kind of looks at the badge and looks at Milo and says, can I see that? Of course. Eris has just had in a hand. Yeah, at this point, Hob is thinking, you never had it over. You never had it over.
00:48:00
Speaker
And he kind of looks it over, flips it around, and hands it back to you and says, this might be embarrassing for you, but that's
00:48:13
Speaker
a Fairhaven Police Department badge. So if you are a Fairhaven Police Department, you don't have jurisdiction here for one, but also I don't believe I'm on loan from Fairhaven. We'll just be going. I
00:48:37
Speaker
uh you were briefly very helpful thank you and and then extremely obstructive and i hope that when that goes in i don't see how i did anything wrong but you all seem very upset about it so no you didn't do what we wanted no no it's not it's not you it's not you
00:49:05
Speaker
Look, I just want, I just want justice for the victim. And if, if we're not going to get that here, then we're going to move on. Thanks. We weren't going to find it here. We're going to find it when we get through it.
00:49:19
Speaker
I mean, I would have, I would have asked him to come in if you would have asked that, but now I think you all are weird. So you can, you can go. As we're walking back through the lobby, Bob just yells at the two people that are working lines and goes, Hey, either of you know where Gordon lives.
00:49:40
Speaker
And they kind of look at each other and they're just like, no. Eris turns to the groups or I just want to be clear. If anyone ever comes in and asks that in that voice about me, I expect you all to say no to, you know, I'm taking a lot of taking another channel out about my voice today. Let's get, it's not about voice.
00:50:06
Speaker
All right, fine. If a really big guy ever comes in that you don't know and asks me, and asks if you know where I live, say no. I mean, well, everyone and Eris, Eris Southerdorf. Okay. Okay. To Hobbs knowledge based on what he knows about these types of parts of the city.
00:50:29
Speaker
Is there a hall of records? Is there a public place? If we go back to the police station and hopefully avoid Detective Spade, could we get possibly an address for El Gordo? We just need to go around to the local postman's bar. I mean, there are places with those records, but without any kind of
00:50:54
Speaker
official last jurisdiction to and also a last name. That's a good point. I mean, it's gonna require a deception check to convince them that you all are people who have access to that information. So if we go back to the police station that saw us leave with notes from Detective Spade, even?
00:51:17
Speaker
Probably I just like to expect a heck of a spade. Once we're out the door, Aeros says, so just as hot, next time we need a cop, we have an elf who bears a striking resemblance to a man who's pretending to be a cop, and can apparently change what he looks like. That was me, right? Yes, I do believe he views you. Yes. Yes.
00:51:45
Speaker
I mean, we won't get into the theatrics of what this necklace can do and can't do right now, but I can alter what I appear, yes. Yes, I know. I've seen you do it. You've been doing it as long as I knew you. Just never in a manner that could be considered helpful. That's very helpful to me. Right. Right. Can I hit him again?
00:52:13
Speaker
I'm not quick enough to stop you. Just trust me when I say you do not trust you. I don't trust you. I don't trust you when you say anything. Well then don't ask for my opinion. I wouldn't
00:52:45
Speaker
I'm in favor of going back to the police station and seeing if we can figure out where Gordon the postman lives with the hopefully the bit of clout we got by getting a meeting with Detective Spade and walking out with his notes on a crime. Does Boromar Clan have a department that finds people?
00:53:15
Speaker
Is that us? You're about to tell me it's us. Sounds like a good job for some fixers if you need to locate somebody. Well, show's what you know, Eric. It's a terrible job. It's a terrible job. You know what? Actually, though, I think you're right. It probably is a really great job for some fixers. You always go to VGO and Jason. They can probably get something done. No, they can't. They just send us to do it.
00:53:47
Speaker
It's a good idea. You'll find him. Nope. I mean, Boromar doesn't have like a division dedicated to the location and, uh, like hunting people down. Um, that's literally what Thrash does, right? And Dennis, but... And, and Mordain to a certain extent. I guess I'll call the general. Call him that favor, he owes me. Madani, thank you.
00:54:09
Speaker
Me and the Dragon Mark houses today are not... Mordane is something though. Do we know someone's name? Mordane the Fleshweaver is what... Oh, Morden. No, there's someone's last name in this campaign is Mordane right now. I just don't know who it is. It's not Verla's last name, is it? Yes, it is. Verla Mordane. Thank you. I mean, she also might be good at finding people. That bridge still feels a little warm.
00:54:38
Speaker
So Raynard should try to cross it. Eris has given her idea of who we can talk to. It's just not about the postman. But Eris is also not convinced we have to find the postman. That feels like excess do-goodery.
00:55:07
Speaker
Where we heading, gang? I mean, it would be nice if he could give us a more concrete description, maybe. But I'm kind of with Harrison thinking that the mill hatch route is probably going to get us. Did we hold on to the coat?
00:55:38
Speaker
Aris, did you hold onto the coat? Yes. Yeah, because she's going to need to show it to me. Right. I mean, it's just, you can't resist a dramatic set piece, like throwing the coat in front of somebody and saying, we've got you.
00:55:57
Speaker
Okay. I recommend we don't do that because I know that the immediate response says you killed one of my one of my arguments. No, see what it was. No. But Eris has also already said that she can't contact all of it yet, right? Eris has said she doesn't want to do it during the day while it has students.
00:56:21
Speaker
and it is still during the day right now right i'm i'm saying i assume that our GM would allow us to cut to we can definitely time jump but i thought if we could use the day you're right i don't i at this point i think i got nothing as far as finding him like i'm i'm totally willing to spend the day finding the postman i just Philip has no more ideas on how to find the postman we know his name is Gordon that's literally all we've got
00:56:48
Speaker
You go back and talk to that sweet old shifter and see if she can describe Gordon for us. Straight up. I want to do a 30 second scene. Okay. Oh no. Hob goes back to the police station, cracks the door open and just to the sergeant at the desk. Okay. So we've made a little bit of headway. Do you happen to know a postman named Gordon? Oh yeah, Gordon, he's our postman here.
00:57:14
Speaker
Do you know where we could find him? Do you know where he lives? He witnessed it. When we tried that, it didn't go great. They didn't trust that we were working with you guys. He doesn't live at the post office. Do you live at the police station? You asked where you could find him. And then I amended it because I knew you would say the post office.
00:57:35
Speaker
We believe he witnessed the murder? We believe he witnessed the murder. Oh, and we get detective's fate. Well, hang on. He's made it fairly clear that he wants us to run with this one. He actually has some other things he's working on. That's why he gave us all these notes and I show that we have all of the notes.
00:57:53
Speaker
Outside, Eris says to Milo and Renard. He gave you all the notes? Well, not all the notes. Go ahead, Eris. Sorry. Eris says to Milo and Renard. You see, Renard could be in there right now looking like Detective Spade and just telling people to tell him things. And it would be working. Yeah, that's a wonderful idea. If he just wasn't a tart. Um,
00:58:20
Speaker
OK. Detective Spade gave you all the notes on the crime. We we can certainly try to track down Postman Gordon. It'll take some time going through files and things like that. I mean, he's not at the top of our list of people to contact. So the witness.
00:58:45
Speaker
I'm saying we don't have a file on him here at the police station because he's not a criminal. We need to go through contacts to get his address. I would suggest the postmaster. No, it wasn't the general postmaster general, was it? No, no, no, no. There's a human to get that guy's thing. Nope. Nope. Here we go. There's this guy at the post.
00:59:08
Speaker
There's a human man works in the second door on the left off the lobby.
00:59:17
Speaker
We were speaking with him earlier and he in fact admitted that he does know where Gordon lives and they'd give him the day off today because of things that he had seen the previous night. He was not willing to share the address with us. I'll never tell him this, but good on him. Because we couldn't prove we were working with you all. So I would start there. In fact, if you'd like to send some uniformed officer,
00:59:44
Speaker
I'll run back there right now and say, look what I found. Uh, I mean, yeah, I can, I can go with you if you want. I, uh, sure. Yeah. Let's go track down the witness.
01:00:02
Speaker
Okay, we go back to the post hob at this point a hob hob is like I'm finding this guy because Especially now that we're going back to the post office with the uniform cuff Hob is going like at a beeline if you guys are coming if you're following or if you're waiting or if you're what? Sure, yeah
01:00:24
Speaker
Cool. Kath continues to brood. She does. And Faroo continues to take in the surroundings. Baffled like anyone would choose to spend any more time here than necessary. That's where Faroo's at. So yeah, you all go back to the post office. You walk up to the door. The police sergeant walks in. It's a dwarf. It's a dwarf man.
01:00:53
Speaker
And it says, hi, my, I was told that you have a witness to the murder that occurred yesterday. Hob's a little excited, he goes, just ask him where Gordon lives. Just say, hey, where does Gordon live? I'm a cop, where does Gordon live? Cops.
01:01:18
Speaker
he kind of the dwarf kind of looks over his shoulder up at you and the human man is like sitting behind his desk he's like yeah we we sent him home for the day so he could he could get some time we would we would like to question him he's like okay yeah sure here's here's his address um officer um i hope he's doing okay
01:01:40
Speaker
Thank you. Do you say anything, Hob? Yeah, I say, well, I guess we can go ahead and knock an unnecessary 15 minutes off that 24-hour clock. As he stretches and walks out the door. I regret nothing. Out the door, Aerys is sitting on the curb. And of course, a really first-rate thief would have stolen Spade's badge while we were in the room with him. Raynor, do you want to punch Aerys?
01:02:10
Speaker
Do it. Do it. Let's go. Reynard's just kind of pretending that none of that ever happens. He's trying to like even forget that Basil was even there. Reynard's obligation is going to be 175 by the end of this arc, isn't it?
01:02:30
Speaker
can only max out at 100 as a group. So, so there is. We'll figure out a way. I think we're currently at 50. Well, with that, we're at 70 now. Jesus. Are you kidding? Every session. Um, where's everyone's obligation at? Uh, Jess is at 30. Mine's at 30 because I handle things when they get rolled. Um, Reynard's is 30 now as well. Mm hmm. Or was, yeah.
01:03:00
Speaker
Yeah. Mine's at 10, 10 70 and Milo is at 10 as well. I think so. That sounds right. 80 in fact. And we're about to go get a favor from mine. So, um, so, um, okay. Um, moving on. Um, you know, for some reason I thought mine was 20.
01:03:30
Speaker
I hope not. Wait, because of the last arc. We'll talk about that later. I mean, it is a rule when you all hit 100, you can no longer spend experience. Like you have to deal with somebody's obligation at that point. Okay, we're just kick Raynard off the team.
01:03:56
Speaker
Take 30 right off. Yeah. If we just, if we just tell Raynard we don't want to work with him anymore, Trevor, would you pull up a new character and lose Raynard's obligation or would it stay with Trevor? Basil seems like he's got it together. He does not. Okay. So, uh, you all now have Gordon's address. Um, it is nearby. Um,
01:04:24
Speaker
a very quick walk away. It's another apartment building. What I might know is how the police missed the giant clawed footprints. Or the big bag, a big, big stack of letters that we saw quickly. Or because they didn't care is why they didn't see it because they immediately, because it's a lower class citizen that they immediately assumed was killed by another lower class citizen. And it's easier to write that and move on.
01:04:56
Speaker
This has been Jeff stuck into the podcast for a second. Sorry about that. I mean, you say that was a lot of judgment, but we work for a bunch of lower class citizens that do a lot of harm to lower class citizens. Oh, you might not have noticed when my eyes rolled back into my head and I stopped being hot during that. I think I might have become an oracle for a minute. By the truth.
01:05:20
Speaker
Faroo attacks hob thinking that he is a demon Let's roll it buddy. Oh, man guys would love to watch me get the crap out of Faroo The way I stabbed him
01:05:37
Speaker
Okay, so y'all going to talk to Gordon? Sure. Is the sergeant coming with us or does he need to go back to his desk? He's gonna go with you. Yeah. Heck yeah, get some of the splash off of this thing. We're gonna solve this thing and it's gonna let go on you. Who's that? It was mounting the desk back at the station.
01:05:58
Speaker
Oh, there was another, another officer back there. They're like tissues. You pull one, another one to pop. So, um, yeah, well, uh, we can go talk to the witness, uh, figure out what's going on. Um, and if, uh, and potentially bring them in for further questioning with the detective if necessary, but let's go. Great. We go. Okay.
01:06:29
Speaker
This is the Lord of the Rings. We don't have to narrate the walk. Your feet fall on the stone of the shifter district. It's grass as far as the eye can see, and we're going to follow you every step. They're good books, Phillip. Sorry. I mean, indisputably great writers all fall into that. We don't need a page for a fish, Hemingway.
01:06:57
Speaker
But sometimes you hate that book. To describe a fish, we all know what one looks like, and there's very little variance. Honestly, the book's handled a lot better than the movies. I got so bored of watching the wharf walk through the grass in the first movie. 30 minute super cut you could make of just walking in grass.
01:07:17
Speaker
Um, there's, there is a great on the commentary discussion between the, the guys that played the hobbits. Uh, they counted how many hours of their lives they spent in makeup, getting their hobbit feet put on for days of shooting that their feet were never seen. And like when they watched the movie, they're like, Oh yeah, we had to sit and make up for four hours for our feet on that day. Never saw our feet. Um, so anyway, so yes.
01:07:40
Speaker
Um, so you all get to, uh, get to Gordon's building, uh, walk up. He lives on the third floor of this, uh, this apartment building and the, uh, the officer knocks on the door. And, uh, there's a very shaky voice on the other side of the door that says, uh, who, who is it? Did you see a big lizard the other day? What?
01:08:04
Speaker
And the sergeant kind of looks at you, Aeris. It's been a long day. I hate this day. I want this day to be over. Maybe I should handle it. I don't see why. Well, because you did it poorly. I asked a relevant question. And based on his answer, the answer is yes. But we already knew that. Well, I just got the right guy then.
01:08:30
Speaker
Um, yes, uh, Gordon, is it? Yeah. Um, I'm, I'm Sergeant Hemingway, uh, from,
01:08:49
Speaker
I'm Sergeant Hemingway from the North Edge Precinct, and I had a couple of questions for you about the incident yesterday. I really would rather not. Thank you, though. I'm sorry, but we're under the understanding that you saw what happened, and we need to talk to you about it.
01:09:18
Speaker
I think I know what happened, can I describe it and you say yes or no? Is that easier for you? You know what, Hob doesn't know about trauma, so go ahead. Jeff is recoiling, but Hob doesn't know apparently any more than Aaron. I'm sorry, how many of you are there?
01:09:48
Speaker
Seven there are seven we why what why do you need seven police officers? I didn't do anything Look I spent the last hour trying to convince us that we ought to have had someone pretend to be a police officer and no one went with it So if we're not doing it, then we're not doing it
01:10:15
Speaker
Oh my god, you're not the police. Oh my god. Oh my god. Well, nope, he is. The door's still not open. He can't see any of us. Sir, please. We are here on behalf of the police. Yes, the first officer Hemingway here is a police officer. We think we know what happened last night, but hearing an account from you of what you saw,
01:10:45
Speaker
will help us find what or who did this and stop them. A shifter died and you can help. Will you please answer some questions? Give me a charm check. I mean, I'm going to beef it. One red. But it's fair to do for sure. And one red and a setback. I think you all know why.
01:11:15
Speaker
Well, uh, okay. Then just putting it all out there. I already have a setback to charm checks cause I'm stone headed. So does it need to be too? Yes. Okay. Thank you. You can use the story point. Oh yeah. Yes. I got to tell you.
01:11:34
Speaker
We made Hob stone headed before Hob became who Hob is now. We may have to revisit what my encumbrance or my archetypal ability problem thing is. That's just a Goliath thing though, isn't it? It might be. It might actually be a Goliath thing. You can use a story point though, if you like.
01:11:52
Speaker
Well, I'm just, let me look at my charm. I think, yeah. Against a red? Yep, one red and two black. And two setback. I have to flip a story point. I only have two green. I think it's mathematically near impossible. I mean, it still is. Anything is possible. Okay. One success. Look at that.
01:12:20
Speaker
Hobb looks down at the assembled crew around him and says, all of you, shut up. Except for you, officer. And you hear footsteps approaching the door and you see the door. And honestly, Cath, I'm sorry, you haven't done anything. You can say whatever you'd like if the inspiration strikes you. I'm good. Yeah, I thought so, anyway. The door kind of...
01:12:48
Speaker
opens a little bit. And you see a man with dark khaki skin and black hair around the side and back of his head, very long, kind of down past his ears, but bald on top, kind of open the door. And it's an elf, you can tell from the ear shapes. OK, what do you want to know?
01:13:20
Speaker
The big lizard thing will happen. I feel like we've asked. Oh my god. I mean, the thing is she's not wrong. But, Mr. I'm sorry, we only caught your first name. It's Mr. Gordon. Gordon Gordon Gordon. Gordon Gordonson.
01:13:52
Speaker
Gordon Drumway. No, I think it's Lightfoot. Levitt. He's postman Gordon Levitt. Everybody's getting a kick in the nuts.
01:14:08
Speaker
Um, his, his last name is, uh, his full name is Gordon Rizzle. R-Y-Z-Z-E-L. Oh, he has to tell me that. You can't do it. Uh, my, my name's Gordon Rizzle. Mr. Rizzle, last night, did you see a murder or did you come upon a body?
01:14:37
Speaker
No, I saw what happened. We believe that a person appearing potentially to be a dragonborn or some sort of lizard folk attacked the victim. Is that what you saw?
01:15:00
Speaker
I it was it was a monster. I mean, that's I it was. Could you compare it to a quick and crocodile? It was it was huge dinosaur color scales. Did it have a tail? Yeah, there was a tail. All right, so not a dragonborn.
01:15:31
Speaker
in claws and teeth. I don't remember what color it was. I remember seeing something happening in the street. And then when I rounded the corner, I saw I ran. Was it wearing a white coat when you saw it?
01:16:01
Speaker
or a coat of any kind. And he kind of takes a beat and thinks it wasn't. But I remember I saw the shifter being chased into the alley by a human in a white coat.
01:16:23
Speaker
I don't know why the shifter was running away or anything like that, but as soon as I ran to the corner, there wasn't a white coat anymore. Um. Yeah, I told you. Still could be a demon. Mr. What? Oh no. It's not, it's not, it's not a demon. He thinks everything's a demon. Hobb says quietly enough to feign like he's trying to be quiet. This guy thinks it's a demon, but it's not a demon.
01:16:52
Speaker
Mr. Rizzle, we believe that what happened was a kidnapping gone wrong, or that someone has escalated. Going worse? Yes, kidnappings going right are also bad, but just, you know what? We believe it was a kidnapping that escalated, or that someone who has been doing kidnappings has escalated their MO.
01:17:20
Speaker
You have been extremely helpful in stopping this person today. Thank you for opening your door. Thank you. Um, I'm going to, I'm going to go now unless there's anything else you need and Sergeant Hemingway kind of on your mail to get back to the office. Thank you. And Sergeant Hemingway says that that'll be all Mr. Rizzle. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um,
01:17:51
Speaker
Go get some sleep, try not to think about it. Um, Doris Chudz. Milo, aren't you supposed to ask about the letter from Karen? Uh, no.
01:18:08
Speaker
So yeah, um, the sergeant kind of looks at you on says, um, I, anything else I can do for you or otherwise I'm going to head back to the precinct. Um, do you all need to go check in with detective spade? No, pretty significant. We don't know. Okay. Pointedly looking at Reynard, perhaps we might later, but we'll want to bring him more than just you were wrong and we know that now.
01:18:39
Speaker
Okay, well, I'm gonna head back to the station then. Okay, bye. Hemingway takes off past you all. No, describe it like Hemingway would. Okay, so what's the plan, gang? Where to now?
01:19:00
Speaker
I mean, cut to Olive. Do we want to have a group debrief of what we know before we go to Olive and what more she might shed light on or do we just cut to Olive? I don't know that we need a group debrief. Yeah, we were all there. Basically, so far, Aris was right.
01:19:23
Speaker
Okay, so you all find yourselves- I would argue that Pab got a thing or two right as well, like the spook bail man running away. I didn't say Eris was the only one who was right. I'm just saying Eris reached the correct conclusion at the crime scene. And we needn't have traumatized this man anymore. Okay, so you all head to Morgrave University. You know where it is, easy enough. You know where all is.
01:19:53
Speaker
lab is Eris, you know that it's it by the time you get there, it is past time where she wouldn't be having students or anything like that going on. So Eris, do you want all of us going in there or would you like to go talk to all? No, I was about to say, I don't know if you guys know this, but we can be quite kind of a lot when we all show up somewhere.
01:20:15
Speaker
It doesn't come up very often, I don't think, but, you know, it just seems like it might not be entirely appropriate for all of us to barge in on somebody at the same time. I would say some people have been a lot individually today, but sure, go have your conversation. Look, he's right there.
01:20:38
Speaker
I mean, she's not wrong, but she's also not comprehensive. Okay, so just Eris is going in, at least initially.
01:20:58
Speaker
Eris just doesn't want seven, well, no, I guess we lost him. Eris doesn't want six people barging into the lab, is mostly Eris's concern. I don't care if anyone wants to come along. I just, Eris would- Hob's not going in unless he's invited. This is again the Venn diagram of Eris's life, overlapping in ways that she's uncomfortable with. Milo will go unless Eris expressly asks him not to.
01:21:25
Speaker
And Hob is the exact opposite of that. Hob knows that Eris will ask him if she wants him, and will stay out otherwise, since... Cat is fine staying outside with Hob. Faroo is going to just go wherever most of the collective goes unless prompted to do otherwise, because he is here to bear witness to conversations and figure out what's going on. Eris does not want Faroo.
01:21:49
Speaker
Then Eris will need to tell for me. If Faroo tries to follow Eris, oh no. Look, is that a demon? You realize I'm not an idiot, right? You don't say anything, so I'm really not. I haven't really had any evidence on which to form a judgment about that. And you say a lot. Yeah. As I said, I hate this day. It's been really terrible.
01:22:19
Speaker
And she turns and knocks. What's Raynard doing? You never weighed in. Oh, Raynard assumes he is not welcome to join. Eris stabbed Raynard. Raynard took the temperature of a situation accurately. I mean, he's not in the mood to be confrontational right now, so. So Milo is at the door with Eris, or did Eris tell Milo to not come either? Eris did not say anything to Milo. OK.
01:22:49
Speaker
Um, so you hear a voice, a familiar voice from within, uh, say, uh, come in, come in. And, uh, Eris will open the door and shuffle in. Okay. Uh, you walk in to see Olive, um, not in the, the armed harness that we were introduced to in, uh, the cold open of last episode.
01:23:16
Speaker
Um, but rather, um, she's in a separate like harness just strung up to the rafters and she's actually working on the arms of the harness. And she kind of sees, um, Eris and Milo walk in over the shoulder. She's like, Oh, hello, Eris. And Milo, so, so happy to see you again.
01:23:39
Speaker
Good to see you. I'm just saying, guys, as it stands right now, if she turns evil and becomes Dr. Octopus, Eris is siding with her. Hey, wait a minute. She's in the rafters? She's dangling. She's dangling from them. So Milo's looking at the rafters. Does Milo happen to see anything in the rafters? Randy, you listen. Oh, that's right. You were with us. Probably. Milo's perceptive, isn't he?
01:24:08
Speaker
I mean, it's presumably, yeah, you would see a hammock. There is no reason to think that it's not Olives, like that she just chills in. True, but Milo would see it. That's not true. Milo probably has begun to nest and quite a lot of Aeris' random knickknacks are stacked on the... Okay. Enough to lead Milo down that path. Give me a perception check, Milo, with a... Let's do a two purple. There is some distance.
01:24:36
Speaker
Oh, my God. Oh, a success and a triumph. So, yes, you do see a hammock up there with also some familiar bits and bobs that you would recognize as heiresses up in the rafters as you immediately put the entire situation together as Olive is lowering herself down to greet you all. We have a triumph on the board, gang. What are we going to do?
01:25:05
Speaker
We're about to learn a whole lot about what LD stands for, I have to assume. Well, I mean, that's just part of the adventure, so... Well, since it's fairly obvious to Milo that what Eris has been doing...
01:25:24
Speaker
I don't think I need to spend a triumph on knowing what is going on with Aeris because I assume Milo could probably put all that together just based on what he knows about Aeris. That was your one success was what got you that. All of us going to be able to give us a name of somebody who works in LD.
01:25:49
Speaker
And she knows what LD is. Well, yeah. I think all of- Of a useful contact. A sympathetic contact. And if they're closer to LD, the better. I guess that's fair. It might not be possible for there to be a sympathetic contact in LD.
01:26:11
Speaker
Okay. Um, so yeah, you all, um, yeah. Uh, yeah, that, that will come up in the conversation. Okay. And Milo does not say anything. Okay. He feels like this is a conversation for the later. Harris is, Harris is one foot to the other, one foot to the other, one foot to the other. So Olive walks up to you all and says, um, yeah, Harris, Milo, uh, what, what can I do for you? We're, um,
01:26:41
Speaker
We're on a job and it's more honest than usual. And we're trying to find out someone was killed over in... Correctly identifies the neighborhood we were just in.
01:27:00
Speaker
north, north market in North edge, lower North edge. Yeah. Over in North edge. And we found this near the scene. And Eris will take out the identification papers. I feel like the bloody lab coat might not be necessary at this point. Yeah. So she takes the papers from you and kind of looks them over.
01:27:29
Speaker
and kind of throws her brow, it's like, huh. No, but that is. I do. Um, actually, does it stand for Lycanthro division?
01:27:43
Speaker
No. Oh, all right. Although, well, we'll get to that. Is it just lizard division? Because that's not inspired, Eric. It's lizard doctor. It's Milton Milach lizard doctor. That's what it actually is. This whole time he was an LD. Oh, I'm so glad I broke Eric.
01:28:12
Speaker
So, yeah, she takes the papers and I actually, it's thanks to you all that I know what this means. Whoever it was that just elected to grab everything out of Mill Hatch's safe really helped you all out here. There's one for the tall one.
01:28:41
Speaker
Look who's doing something right. Come over here. Accidents don't count. She walks over to her desk where she has many papers strewn about and kind of gestures for you all to follow. Does she have a murder board? No, she doesn't have a murder board, no. But she kind of takes a moment and kind of assesses the mess on her desk and is like, OK. And she reaches her hand very confidently into one section of a pile and pulls out
01:29:09
Speaker
Some papers, it's like, yeah.
01:29:13
Speaker
Milhatch had some papers on a new project that Kenneth doesn't know about, called Milhatch Lower Division. Oh, Iris looks disappointed. But it's actually, and she kind of rolls the papers out. Based on the notes here, it's for things that that Norsin might want to do, that is
01:29:41
Speaker
that things Kaneth wouldn't approve of, I guess, is the best way to put it. Which is why he stuck it down in the cogs, I would imagine. This down in the cogs? Yeah. Tucked away where nobody would think to go looking for it.
01:29:58
Speaker
Um, I don't know the exact location that's kept pretty well hid, although I have in kind of poking around in certain places and asking the right questions, been fortunate enough, um, to make good with somebody inside of Mill Hatch industries that I can put you into contact with who might be, I know that they know where the lower division is. Um, so yeah, that's, um,
Mystery of the Giant Lizard Person and Shifters
01:30:28
Speaker
This guy, he turned into a giant lizard person and killed a shifter who he was trying to kidnap. And there's a bunch of missing shifters. Is that even possible? I mean,
01:31:00
Speaker
As soon as I don't think something's possible in that regard, Vaedalus rolls out their next new bold idea, so I don't know what's possible. Has Milhach got any connections to House Vaedalus? I mean, you know, the House has talked to one another. They communicate, they collaborate. Oftentimes, Kenneth and Vaedalus have been known to
01:31:25
Speaker
to share some ideas and things like that. And there is a name, and she starts rifling through papers that I did see that had some connection with both Norsen and House Vaedalus. He was in town fairly recently and was headed back to have contact with Vaedalus, and she is rapidly going through a binder of information that she started to, quote unquote, organize.
01:31:54
Speaker
And she's like, yeah, um, a guy named TARDIS, the tithers, um, wait, he, yeah, wait, he had, um, him and mill hatch, uh, we're working on something that he was going to make contact with house. Um, not too terribly long ago. What's that from? Where is it? It's the guy that was on the train.
01:32:25
Speaker
Right. Some things were overshadowing that name in that session. The guy that Raynard had the great one-liner that made him show up. So that's the only name that I have any kind of association with Vadilis and Millhatch. I don't think Vatythers is part of House Vadilis. If he is, he's not an heir.
01:32:53
Speaker
But yeah, like I said, I can put you in contact with my contact though. And you all can meet up and share. We can even do a meeting here. I mean, it's late enough. So what, Philip? Oh, probably Eris too. What, Eris?
01:33:19
Speaker
Nothing. Nothing. I'll tell you about it later. It's just not, I'm not sure. And it would be really, really bad to tell you if I'm wrong. So I won't. I feel so much better then.
01:33:31
Speaker
Right, I know. That happens when I come around. Stop it. So yeah, I mean, I, my contact could be here in probably an hour. I don't know what they're up to, but maybe
01:33:53
Speaker
I don't want you dragged into anything.
Suspicions and Overcrowding Concerns
01:33:58
Speaker
Would it be better for us to meet in, you know, somewhere outside your office? Aerys, what you're working on now, of my own accord, and she gestures to her desk, I'm... You're not dragging me into anything. I'm on this trail too.
01:34:13
Speaker
Um, and, um, my contact has business at Moore grave anyway, um, because of the relationship with mill hatch. So, um, it wouldn't be suspicious for them to come out, come around here. Right. That might not be this suspicious thing. Um, there's an uncomfortable and suspicious number of people out in the hall. Oh, your friends. Well, at least one of them, I think, um,
01:34:45
Speaker
And also, we're just very strange. Faroo is a half-orc or a full-orc? Half-orc. Very strange half-orc. And this person that we hang around with is reasons that I am not sure about anymore. It's fine. OK. All right. And she goes back to the door.
01:35:16
Speaker
You can come in. Yes. Faroo is standing very close to the door. Why? I was waiting. But he was standing so close to the door. Where else would you have me stand if I'm waiting farther back from the door? He didn't hit me with it. You said we can come in. It probably opens in.
01:35:43
Speaker
I know it's true. Most office doors do. So you didn't hit me with it as just him being persnickety. Yes. You can come in. Great. Everyone can come in.
01:35:56
Speaker
It's all fine. I want to say, Hal and Kath have been having a conversation during this, but we do not need to go into it right now, or at all. I want to. What was it about? It was about Faroo, I'm sure. Maybe that's cold open material. Totally cold open material.
01:36:18
Speaker
Well, then Kath's spirit seemed a little bit up compared to where she's been brooding. So you can always count on her to cheer you up. So yeah, you all walk in. Those of you that weren't in here before see the giant
01:36:36
Speaker
harness with the big arms hanging from the ceiling. It's a rather messy lab and you see all of standing behind a desk overflowing with papers that you all would recognize. I can get some seats, don't worry.
01:36:57
Speaker
And she starts. I'm happy to stand. Thank you. Oh, well, as I was explaining to Eris, I have a contact who might be relevant from within Milhatch's company and is associated with him that I they're friendly and they can help locate the lower division and help you all find it.
01:37:22
Speaker
and hopefully figure out what's going on. It's just, it's lower division.
Past Actions and Current Implications
01:37:28
Speaker
Yeah. All right. I was disappointed too. I don't know about this. You know, the more I think about it, it's probably better. I mean, I don't think so. They're still doing that. I mean, that's fair. It's because they're not holding that. It might just be more fair. And by lower, they really mean lower. Yeah. It's also very unimaginative. It's down in the cogs.
01:37:53
Speaker
Mmm, I don't love it, but... Um, so, uh, Hob, um... And she pulls Hob over into the corner. Sure. She remember that guy, we went on the train to steal his briefcase. And Hob says, oh, you mean Vatavis.
01:38:14
Speaker
the titers, but instead I said the titers. Sure. I have an accent. It travels around, but it's always there. I wouldn't know anything about that. He was working with Milhatch on this on this thing. And I think the papers we took were probably about this. And we gave them to Vigo.
01:38:47
Speaker
And then Viggo gave us this job. I don't like it. Right now, I'm going to put my faith in the idea that Viggo is far too dumb to do anything with what we've given him. But he was all happy. Sure. He was all happy. You ever squeak a toy in front of a dog? That means something terrible is going to happen.
01:39:18
Speaker
I don't know that B follows A necessarily, but I absolutely agree. I mean, usually. I don't necessarily agree that the thing that you have assigned to being B is actually B because you're right. B certainly follows A. This has been fun. Here's what I'm going to say. You are absolutely right that we need to be diligent about this and probably look into it more. It doesn't change the fact that we've got right now to figure out
01:39:49
Speaker
how we can stop these young shifters from being taken and or killed. We can't do anything today about Viggo already having those papers, but we can certainly work on ways to mitigate their harm in the future.
Concerns about Raynard and Future Harm Mitigation
01:40:03
Speaker
So I'm 100% with you on that. Did that help? No, I hate this day. It's a very bad day. Everything about this day is horrible.
01:40:17
Speaker
You all, while you're talking, just hear Olo from across the room, like, pulling a sending stone, like, out of her ear, saying, okay, she'll be here soon. Reinhardt has been lying to us, and now he's got connections to another house, and that house is apparently going to chase him and maybe try to kill him, and that will probably get on us. Oh, and the only way that's gonna get on us is if some of his exploded body gets on us.
01:40:45
Speaker
The way he's been acting today, I can't see myself going out of my way to save Raynard, unless it is also imperiling me.
01:40:54
Speaker
I don't know, it seems like they might hate him a lot more than House Deneth hates you and that kind of got on us. And... It did, you're right. And if I had realized, if I had known from the beginning that they were after me, hopefully I could have mitigated that song. Right, but he knows. I know he won't, but that's not the point. But he knew. And now everyone's here and...
01:41:24
Speaker
I hate this day. I understand. I do. And I commiserate in so far as I can.
01:41:33
Speaker
But I also, I also don't want crap on Trevor's character anymore right now, because I don't want it to cross a line into... Because unfortunately, Trevor can hear us right now, even though Raynard can't, and Trevor will make us pay for it through Raynard. I love everything we're finding out about Raynard, just for the record. This is delightful. Hob wants to kill Raynard.
01:42:01
Speaker
Not kill kill, but how was to beat the hell out of Raynard right now? I really expected you to say butt after that. What's Raynard and Milo doing while this conversation's going on? Milo's gathering chairs. Okay. Yeah, there are chairs. There's a lot chairs.
01:42:30
Speaker
wants to it's like what is happening no like what is what are you doing yeah there's there's chairs lining the walls where her students would sit during during lessons and stuff so um yeah um so she has announced that contact is on on their way um anything that you all want to uh relevant that you all want to discuss
01:43:00
Speaker
Eris will begin trying to draw everyone's attention to something in the opposite corner of the room from the side of the room where her nest is. Okay, so after nearly an hour passes, you hear a knock on the door.
01:43:25
Speaker
and Olive gets up and goes over to the door and kind of opens it and cracks and says, they're here. And so she opens the door and you all see a fairly small blonde woman walk through the door and kind of stop and look at you all and go, now this is hilarious.
New Character and Episode Conclusion
01:43:46
Speaker
End of episode. What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name?
01:43:51
Speaker
Thank you all so much for listening. If you want to be part of the discussion covering this episode, you can head on over to our Facebook group, the Geek Pantheon, or our Discord, which you can find the link to on all of our social medias or on our website, thegeekpantheon.com. We have a Twitter and Instagram at the Geek Pantheon. We have a YouTube channel, youtube.com slash thegeekpantheon.
01:44:09
Speaker
that has a couple videos a week that come up for me discussing DMing stuff and various D&D and other tabletop gaming things. And then we also have another actual play over there called Kyber Shards. If you like what we do here and want to hear Philip do it from a DMing capacity I get to play, then go check that out.
01:44:28
Speaker
Um, I also stream on Twitch every Sunday and Tuesday at 8 PM central and Saturday mornings at 8 AM. And yeah, I think that's it. Just, uh, Hey, I got, I got something. Yeah. Um, unlike last campaign, we are going to stick with three episodes and a review to format. So if you are hearing this near the time it drops, you likely have between 48 and 72 hours.
01:44:52
Speaker
to get your questions onto the Discord. A reminder that Discord access is free, so anyone who is listening right now can jump in the Discord and ask a question. However, we do give preference to our patrons, but we have yet to have a reviewed episode where we didn't dig into some of the non-patron questions. I think I'm going to start putting the call for questions out at the end of every third episode, as well as putting it in the Discord.
01:45:19
Speaker
There you go, if you have any questions, and I have a feeling that if you ask the question, what's the name of the person who showed up at the end of the episode, you're not gonna hear it on the reviewed. I'm gonna beat it out of Eric over the next week, but you're not gonna hear it on the reviewed. Thank you all so much for listening. I have been your dungeon master Eric, game master Eric. I'm Philip. I'm Trevor.
01:45:41
Speaker
I'm Randy. I'm Jeff. We'll see you next time.