Episode Transcript
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Welcome to Garrett's and suffering.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: We play fifth edition d d, but.
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[00:00:39] Speaker B: Storytelling, and I hope you like the story we tell.
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[00:00:43] Speaker B: And review wherever you get these podcasts. And with that, we head into our story. Last time on carrots and suffering.
After a very quick jaunt through Hilock.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: To buy some potions and check in on their allies, our heroes arrived at Turtle Bay, the metropolitan trade hub rivaled only by the capital of the astragarian empire. Weird things have been happening, however. The catacombs have been shut down.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: Why?
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Well, your replacement found an undead in them. Gone. Rolsk. Some of gone's parishioners have gone missing. The last full moon, three of his parishioners disappeared.
Some strange buoys have been appearing in the harbor, increased presence of a ghost ship, 50 reports of a dragon.
[00:01:29] Speaker D: What do you know of the pirate queen?
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Our heroes decided to investigate the shutdown, catacombs, confronting Imston, the elderly elven priest of the silent judge, and demanding entry.
[00:01:40] Speaker E: Well, if it's her mistake, either let her take a look and fix it, or we can call Brightwind and get this matter resolved. Intimidation. Okay, roll that.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Intimidation, please.
[00:01:53] Speaker E: That's a 19 on the die.
[00:01:55] Speaker D: Look, Creedon's so uncomfortable.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: Like I said, she used your name on purpose.
[00:02:04] Speaker D: Don't nepo baby me.
[00:02:07] Speaker E: That is a 24 total.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Let's see what they find inside.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Nate, and I will be your dungeon master.
[00:02:26] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Mandy. I play Boulain, the grave domain death cleric nervous in her home.
[00:02:31] Speaker D: Hi, I'm Claire, and I play Creedin, the warlock of love, who is in love with the idea of hanging out with a pirate queen.
[00:02:39] Speaker E: Hi, I'm Robert. I play Zerus, the Hexblade warlock. Let's go.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: So, into the work area. There's a section of small rooms here for essentially working on and interning bodies. They are a mess. There is grave dirt and bone dust everywhere. It looks like clumsy hands have been doing a lot of moving and maybe.
[00:03:02] Speaker C: Repackaging of Bones and then moving them off, like, improperly.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Roll me. Investigate.
[00:03:09] Speaker C: Okay, that is a ten.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: So this first investigation role is enough to tell you this is non standard work. It should never look like this. This is some sloppy. Beyond sloppy. Now you may roll an advantaged role, which will tell me this is your workspace.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Natural 20.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Natural 20. Okay. Someone has been using large devices to grind bones to dust. This is not part of regular internment.
[00:03:45] Speaker C: Are these devices here?
[00:03:47] Speaker A: You don't see them in the room, but it's clear from the dust patterns someone has basically a large mortar and pestle in here and a lot of the grave dirt is actually bone dust. So someone has been grinding up skeletal remains.
[00:04:03] Speaker D: Can Creedon roll an arcana check to see what type of things bone dust might be used for?
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Go ahead and roll it.
[00:04:14] Speaker D: That isn't 1212.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Bone dust can be used as a.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Component for many spells. Usually rituals that take a long time to cast. It's not considered a wholesome ingredient. Usually associated with things in the necromantic school. There are necromancy spells that are not faux pa, mind you, but with a twelve, you think bone dust is a fairly common reagent? Reagent?
[00:04:43] Speaker D: Would this seem like a massive quantity of it?
[00:04:46] Speaker A: I mean, it does look like someone generated a massive quantity of it. Yeah.
[00:04:51] Speaker C: Boulain pulls her veil back from her head because she doesn't care if you all see her. And she says she looks at Xeris and her eyes have gone very hard and she says, this is unacceptable.
[00:05:05] Speaker E: Clearly. Are there any other reagents among the bone dust?
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Nope.
[00:05:09] Speaker E: All right, let's see if any of the dead made it back home.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: All right.
If we thought what was happening in Palmville was a violation of my order, this is up there with that.
[00:05:27] Speaker E: We will definitely have another conversation with Emston on the way out.
[00:05:32] Speaker C: I am concerned about influence on her. Did you see her eyes?
[00:05:36] Speaker E: I did. Can I make a religion check for the eyes?
[00:05:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:41] Speaker E: That is a twelve.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: It's weird. It's real weird. Crescent moons are associated with probably the moon goddess.
[00:05:50] Speaker E: I was going to say the luminous.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: One, but she's supposedly dedicated to the silent judge, so that would still be weird.
[00:05:56] Speaker C: Is there any book or any scrolls or anything lying around that don't belong here?
[00:06:00] Speaker A: No.
[00:06:01] Speaker E: Any records or historical occasions of the miracle of crescent eyes?
[00:06:07] Speaker A: You can roll history.
[00:06:08] Speaker E: Sure.
That's much better. That's a 22.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: So the elves are fairy creatures who migrated from the fairy world and came to this world, at which point they began aging and dying for the first time. And it is historically recorded that a lot of them, when they get truly, truly old, the symbol of the moon goddess appears in their eyes. Presumably because the moon goddess created the fae.
[00:06:34] Speaker E: All right, I will relay that to Bolaine as I remember my religious texts.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: But it's wildly esoteric knowledge. Wildly.
[00:06:42] Speaker C: Like even Boulain, an elf, wouldn't know that.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: I mean, how many 800 plus year old elves have you met.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: That's true.
[00:06:49] Speaker D: Is making bone dust out of a bunch of corpses that had been laid, the rest illegal?
[00:06:54] Speaker A: I would guess so the person who decides if that's illegal is in the room with you, and her name is Boulain.
[00:07:02] Speaker C: Are you asking her that?
[00:07:04] Speaker D: Yes, I was mainly asking Nate, but it sounds like you could make that choice.
[00:07:09] Speaker C: Unless a person, prior to their death specified that their bones are to be ground into dust and used or not used in some way, it is desecrating the corpse.
[00:07:23] Speaker E: The truth of the matter is, everything's legal and nothing's legal.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: Yes, but it is unusual to hear.
[00:07:30] Speaker D: That coming from you.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: If a person prior to their death did not specify that their bones are supposed to be ground or there is not a religious purpose to grinding their bones, then it should not be done.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: Agreed.
[00:07:44] Speaker E: And I understand what you mean, Creedon, but what can I say? I am a disciple of truth.
[00:07:48] Speaker C: Whatever form of convenience that might take for you. I understand. We should go deeper into the catacombs, not into Zuris's moral code.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Right. You head into the catacombs. Romi, investigation. Anybody who's looking in the catacombs.
[00:08:09] Speaker E: That is a six.
[00:08:10] Speaker C: That is a 1715 with a six.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: This place is cramped and creepy with a 15.
Newer bodies have not been disturbed. Boulane, you would know that if something were to happen to newer interns, like people visit those that would be noticed. Okay, so with a 17, you know that nothing in the newer section is touched at all. It doesn't look like anybody's reconsecrated anything.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: It looks exactly like your work.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: But both 15 and 17, when you get into the deeper areas of the catacombs, there is just empty squares, places where the bodies were and are not now.
[00:08:53] Speaker C: Okay. Boulane is openly pissed off seeing all of this. And you all have probably not seen her actually get pissed off before, but she is not happy.
[00:09:04] Speaker E: There's no other markings or symbols or anything where those.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: There are standard silent judge markings and symbols on pretty much everything above every catacomb on the walls, et cetera, but there is nothing that has been added anytime recently.
[00:09:21] Speaker D: Are we sure that Imston isn't an undead?
[00:09:24] Speaker C: Because she was real old.
800 is rare for an elf to reach, but it does happen, and she is known within my order.
I can't cast gentle repose on the entire catacomb.
Can only do that by touching corpses.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: So, Boulain, the other thing, you know, whether 17 is. There's nothing wrong with these bodies.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: There's nothing wrong with them at all.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Okay, no.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: Yeah. The ones that are left, the ones.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: That are missing are the ones that are still here. There's nothing wrong with them. It doesn't look like anybody's reconsecrated anything.
[00:10:00] Speaker C: How deep are the catacombs?
[00:10:01] Speaker A: So Turtle Bay has been here for over a thousand years. So these catacombs are massive and they're into the bedrock around this coastal region. They're long, they're windy, they're deep.
[00:10:16] Speaker D: Paris. Catacomb type.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Okay, as we get into the section where there are bodies missing out of the niches, she is going to use her eyes of the grave feature to detect undead. And that has a radius of 60ft.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: There are no one dead.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Okay. And then she's going to go deeper and deeper. She's going to use it one more time. Going significantly deeper.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: There are no one dead.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: Okay, as we go, what percentage of bodies are missing? Of remains are missing? 10%, 50%?
[00:10:53] Speaker A: I mean, it's not that big because of how many people have been buried here. You can detect, though, that a solid hundred or so bodies are missing.
[00:11:04] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:11:04] Speaker D: This entire time, Creedon is listening to Boulain make comments and is attempting to take good investigation notes.
[00:11:12] Speaker C: Like dread. Like Dreadwood, actually. I actually wish dread had come with us.
[00:11:17] Speaker D: She tries to sketch something and it's like a stick figure laying sideways.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: But.
[00:11:23] Speaker D: She'S trying to write things down.
[00:11:26] Speaker E: I'm definitely ready to talk to Emston.
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Again, but what do you want to ask her?
[00:11:30] Speaker E: One, we need to see her books. Two, we need to know the trade guild responsible, and three, we need to tell her she's shit at her job and she can't do it anymore. Probably in that order.
[00:11:42] Speaker C: She outranks me.
[00:11:44] Speaker E: She doesn't outrank the will of the gods.
[00:11:47] Speaker C: I mean, the channels I am supposed to go through to report a negligent priest is to write home to Astragar and wait for a reply. I could send a message and get a reply, but she may or may not listen to that.
[00:12:01] Speaker E: Allow me to ask you a simple question. Do you think the evidence that we've seen so far constitutes an emergency to the populace of Turtle Bay?
[00:12:10] Speaker C: I think potentially, yes. Especially if we pair it with some of the other strange things going on. The ghost ship being sighted so much and the buoys appearing in the harbor.
[00:12:20] Speaker E: Right. So with that, we now have a state of emergency where we can't wait for due process.
And in such emergencies, you can use a different set of rules and laws to usurp control. Again, the will of the gods. Greedon do you think this could constitute an emergency?
[00:12:39] Speaker D: Personally, I'm not sure if we have enough information, but I definitely feel like it's messed up. All right, I am happy to go with what you two decide on this one.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: I am worried she is being manipulated. She is obviously senile.
[00:12:55] Speaker E: Then she is too weak to perform her function. And you agree she should not do it?
[00:12:59] Speaker C: Yes, I agree with that. I just am out of my depth for how to make her see that.
[00:13:07] Speaker E: I can certainly try. It is my job, after all.
[00:13:10] Speaker C: This is true. On the way back out, Boulain will send. Is there a distance limit on message?
[00:13:19] Speaker A: I think message is 100ft, but sending feet.
[00:13:22] Speaker C: Sending.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: No, sending does not have a distance limit.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: On the way back out, she will do ascending to Gavon, who was her mentor in Astragar, and say there is 25 words. There is trouble with Emston in Turtle Bay, with undead. We need to consider this an emergency send blessing question mark.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Okay, you can receive a response and you get one immediately. Let me roll my d 20 here.
The response that comes back is Imston predates the church.
Proceed with caution. She is not trusted by the established order.
[00:14:10] Speaker D: That's good enough for me.
[00:14:11] Speaker C: And that's it? That's the whole message?
[00:14:13] Speaker B: That's it.
[00:14:14] Speaker C: All right, we have the blessing. As far as my order is concerned, she is not, evidently a trusted entity and we should proceed with care. Caution.
[00:14:25] Speaker E: All right, well, this is your place, so let's be a touch smart then.
[00:14:31] Speaker D: Is she a cleric? Do you know anything of her abilities? She could be quite powerful.
[00:14:36] Speaker C: What do I know about her? I know she's old.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah. She was a cloistered priest of the silent judge. So you would imagine her spell casting capabilities are equal to, if not beyond, yours. Although her combat capability is probably not as good as yours.
[00:14:54] Speaker E: I assume her office and her living quarters are separate rooms.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I believe that would make sense.
[00:15:02] Speaker E: So she can't be in both places at once?
[00:15:04] Speaker C: No.
[00:15:04] Speaker E: You want to see if you can find her room while I chat with her in her office? We might gain some knowledge.
[00:15:12] Speaker C: All right, so by this, we can assume she was living in the funeral home, not elsewhere.
[00:15:18] Speaker E: Where did you live?
[00:15:19] Speaker C: Boulain and seven had a house that was near the funeral home, but they did not actually live in the funeral home.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: So you don't know where she was living, but you'll find out soon.
[00:15:30] Speaker C: All right, yeah. What if you ask to see her records and to get her into her office and I will look around to see if she was staying in the quarters here?
[00:15:41] Speaker E: I'll tell you what, why don't I take her to look at what's happening behind the curtain? Explain the bone dust.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: I will go into the office.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: Good call.
[00:15:49] Speaker D: If you give me a couple of minutes cast, detect magic, we might be able to find something.
[00:15:55] Speaker E: I think we can spare another ten minutes since we're on a self guided tour.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: Oh, welcome to my catacombs, by the way.
[00:16:04] Speaker D: Lovely, lovely. I love what you've done with the place.
[00:16:07] Speaker C: I am very proud of this place and I am very upset with how it is being treated.
[00:16:12] Speaker E: I share your ire.
[00:16:13] Speaker D: Okay, so I suppose Creedon will ritual cast, detect magic.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Creedon, you cast, detect magic. There is no sign of magic. There's some residual markings that are standard glyphs that are put around in a crypt, but there's such weak magic that it's somewhat irrelevant. You walk out into the working areas. There's no magic anywhere in here. You step through the big curtain and there is no magic and no people here. And the front door has been closed and locked magically? Nope.
[00:16:46] Speaker E: Can I unlock it or does it take a key from the inside?
[00:16:49] Speaker A: It takes a key. Boulain, did you take a copy of the key with you?
[00:16:55] Speaker C: Yes, she did.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: All right, let me roll me a d 20 just to see.
[00:17:02] Speaker C: All right.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: If you rolled above a ten, you have a copy of the key on you.
[00:17:06] Speaker D: I feel like you'd be way too respectful of this place.
[00:17:08] Speaker C: That is a six.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: That is a six. Okay. You don't have a copy of the key on you? It is a key lock. The door isn't anything impressive.
[00:17:16] Speaker C: Okay, I'm sorry, just to be clear, I might not be understanding. We are locked in the working area. We can't get out to the funeral home.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: There's a front door, and then there's a funeral parlor, and then there's a working space, and then there's the catacombs.
[00:17:30] Speaker C: Okay?
[00:17:30] Speaker A: So the door that everybody comes in to access all of this is the one that is closed. It's the door you would have locked on your way home for the night.
[00:17:38] Speaker D: The front door.
[00:17:39] Speaker C: Okay. The front door to the whole place. Okay, yes. And it is locked from the outside?
[00:17:44] Speaker E: It's locked because there's a key on both sides.
[00:17:47] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:17:48] Speaker D: Don't feel good about that.
[00:17:49] Speaker C: Belain will go into the office and see if she can find a spare key because there probably was one.
[00:17:55] Speaker E: I'm going to make sure we all stay together.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:17:58] Speaker A: Everybody heads into the office. Boulain, roll me. Investigate.
[00:18:00] Speaker E: Can I assist or investigate myself?
[00:18:03] Speaker A: You may investigate yourself. Or assist. You choose.
[00:18:06] Speaker C: Boolain, got a two. So please do better than I did. She's flustered. She's getting really upset about this.
[00:18:12] Speaker E: I got a 17.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: So Boolean. The spare key is exactly where you left it.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Xeros with a 17. No one has used this office in months.
[00:18:21] Speaker D: Any magic?
[00:18:22] Speaker A: No.
[00:18:23] Speaker C: All right, Boulain will go through the ledger. And I guess if nobody's used it in months, she says this is my handwriting. The last entries were mine from three months ago. People have certainly died here since then.
[00:18:36] Speaker D: I was hoping that we could see what was being done with the dust.
[00:18:39] Speaker E: I'm sure this is going to tempt the fates. But there's no reason to just falk us in here in the middle of the day without more of a plan. And I don't see more of a plan right now.
[00:18:51] Speaker C: She was not expecting us.
[00:18:53] Speaker E: But that door poses no problem for us.
[00:18:57] Speaker C: No.
[00:18:57] Speaker E: All right, well, let's just leave then. Unless you have another clever idea.
[00:19:01] Speaker D: If there's some kind of trap on it, it's not magical.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Nope. You unlock the door, it opens, all of the guards are gone.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: Hey, Boulain will close and lock the door behind us and says, I do not know what to make of this.
[00:19:17] Speaker E: Are we outside the door? Is this just an open area, or is this still another, like, entry hall?
[00:19:23] Speaker A: I'm assuming it's a side street. Streets of old, old Paris. All right.
[00:19:28] Speaker E: Yeah. Wait here for a minute. Let me just step ahead. All right, I'll get to the main thoroughfare, but still in line of sight.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Yeah, you get to the main thoroughfare. It's afternoon. It's still hopping. There's people in the restaurants, people at the food carts. No sign of any of the people who used to be here.
[00:19:47] Speaker E: And nothing suspicious? No watchers? Nope.
[00:19:52] Speaker D: All right, with Creighton having undetect magic, does she see anything that she is surprised by that's magical? On Xeris or Boulain, I know that the glave is Magic. I've got magic on the glave.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Actually barely detects his.
[00:20:06] Speaker C: Oh, okay.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: It's, like, really quite weak. It is magic, but not impressively in any way, shape, or form.
[00:20:13] Speaker D: Well, we got rid of the curse.
[00:20:14] Speaker C: On it, so that makes sense, but.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: No, I think all magic items are accounted for.
[00:20:20] Speaker C: Okay, Boulain's tattoo is magic, but I.
[00:20:23] Speaker D: Think that's also not a huge surprise.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: That's not something that's secret.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Boulain has a magical chest.
[00:20:29] Speaker D: I just realized that, I don't know, there could be something that I didn't know on somebody. So while I have it up.
[00:20:37] Speaker E: So we should get help from your order to put this house in order.
[00:20:43] Speaker C: Yes, agreed. I can send another message to that effect, but it will take them time to get here.
[00:20:51] Speaker E: I will go get a locksmith.
[00:20:53] Speaker C: Are you just going to remove the lock? We have the key.
[00:20:56] Speaker E: I'm going to change it.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Good call. Boulain will send Sadie up and say, go up above and see if you see either Emston or the guards anywhere.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Sadie flies up and has to loop through some streets. But no, if they left, which you assume they did, it probably was right after you went to the catacombs. They appear to have been gone a long time.
[00:21:20] Speaker C: Okay. The other thing she's going to have Sadie do while she's up there is she's going to guide her to Boulain's old house and see what she sees there.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: One of your old neighbors has apparently kept it up and put your mail inside.
Yeah, nobody's squatting it or anything. It's exactly how you left it.
[00:21:39] Speaker C: Okay. Dulain says we can regroup at my house if we need a place.
[00:21:45] Speaker E: Let's get this door settled.
[00:21:47] Speaker C: All right.
[00:21:48] Speaker D: I will point out that if she is actually a powerful spellcaster, changing the locks is unlikely to do much to prevent her from injury.
[00:21:57] Speaker E: I was going to do a bit more.
[00:21:59] Speaker C: I can do something a bit drastic to the door, but it is violent, and I do not know if we have quite cause for that yet.
[00:22:10] Speaker E: Well, let's do this. I would like.
I mean, turtle Bay is busy, so I'm looking for two vocations. I'm looking for a moderately powered wizard, and I'm looking for a locksmith.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: You can find both of them very easily.
[00:22:26] Speaker E: Great. I want a strong, sturdy lock, and I want the door reinforced, and I want work fast.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: They nod and say, all right, we will build a church. Admiral Lenari will cover it, since this is an official building, and they go to work.
[00:22:40] Speaker E: Yeah. Reinforce the door, change the locks, and give us a key, Boulain. A key.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Specifically, very shortly, Boulain, you are handed a key.
[00:22:48] Speaker C: Great. She hangs that around her neck.
[00:22:51] Speaker E: Second, the moderately powerful wizard. I would like a magic mouth cast near the entrance or about halfway down the alleyway until you get to the catacomb, warning people not to enter the catacomb under penalty of the church.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Done.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: He puts it there and basically dusts his hands off and says, all right, anything for the church.
[00:23:13] Speaker E: Thank you both. I'll tip him a little gold.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:23:17] Speaker E: Pull five gold off and give him each half.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: They seem very grateful.
[00:23:21] Speaker C: Should we have Admiral Lenari send more guards? Handpicked?
[00:23:24] Speaker E: Certainly can.
[00:23:25] Speaker C: Okay, we will do that.
[00:23:26] Speaker E: Bad plan.
[00:23:27] Speaker C: She will hire a runner with a message to Admiral Lenari saying, please handpick six guards to guard the catacombs. Emston is not to be allowed in.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: You send the runner, the runner disappears. And a few moments later, you see Max and Dredd come walking up the street towards the catagoms. Max is covered in sweat from head to toe.
[00:23:47] Speaker D: Has he ripped the sleeves off his hawaiian shirt?
[00:23:49] Speaker A: He has ripped the sleeves off his hawaiian shirt.
His legs are shaky, but every time he steps forward, you can see him crunch his abs to show him off.
[00:24:00] Speaker C: So he's walking like, awkwardly, right? Because he's trying to flex the whole squat waddle.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
And dread's walking behind him, just not even acknowledging Max's efforts. And they walk up and they're like.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: Hey, how's it going?
[00:24:15] Speaker C: Not great, since you asked.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: Oh, that's too bad.
That sounds terrible. Can I help with anything you want me to carry? Anything heavy?
[00:24:26] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:24:27] Speaker D: Creighton passes her bag to him.
[00:24:29] Speaker E: I want you to watch this door.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Watch this door.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: Hey, I can watch a door.
[00:24:33] Speaker E: Dredd, maybe watch for any kind of trouble out from the alleyway, because it'll probably come up by surprise if there is trouble to be had.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Okay. All right. If we're concerned about trouble. Gentle, spot it.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: Bolane describes Emsten and says, emsten is the very, very old elf who was sent to replace me as the mortician. And we are suspicious of her. And she is potentially quite dangerous.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Dredd rolls really high on his religion. Check. And says priests who are older than the church aren't given official stations.
[00:25:09] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: She's not here on orders of the church.
[00:25:16] Speaker E: Well, that was made clear to us inside the building as well. Oh, we will find her and figure out whose order she's actually acting on.
[00:25:26] Speaker D: Wait, so they never actually sent her a replacement for you? Or, I don't know, maybe they're dust.
[00:25:30] Speaker C: Or she intercepted the replacement. Possibly. I cannot imagine if Admiral Lunari sent a request for replacement that they sent no one. But it is becoming clear they did not send her.
[00:25:43] Speaker E: A moon eyed elf can't be too hard to find.
[00:25:46] Speaker D: Also, let us know if you've seen anyone else with moon eyes.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Dread will roll his history. Check.
He says moon eyes.
[00:25:57] Speaker C: Her pupils looked like crescent moons.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Dread will roll his medicine. Check.
That's not natural.
[00:26:05] Speaker E: That's right.
[00:26:06] Speaker C: It is rumored to happen in very old elves sometimes. But most elves do not live to be old enough for that to happen. Oh, we do not know what she can do, so be careful.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Dread pulls out a notebook and begins writing this all down.
[00:26:24] Speaker D: Creedon pulls out her notebook and tries to be like, I got it started for you.
[00:26:29] Speaker C: Here's my stick figure drawing.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: He grabs your notebook and scans through it, flips through the pages, and then starts copying things down. And he's writing probably three times more than you did, and it certainly looks better. But, you know, whatever.
[00:26:44] Speaker C: Dredd, there was evidence that they had been using some of the older corpses and grinding the bones down, a lot of bones down into dust, possibly with large mechanisms. I probably do not need to tell you that this is not something sanctioned by the silent judge order.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: It sounds magic, but I'm not familiar with bone dust based Magic spells.
[00:27:09] Speaker E: Given everything we have, I think the next logical step is to check the buoys.
[00:27:13] Speaker C: Yes, I think we should also go look at the buoys. Actually, we should probably take dread with us to look at the buoys.
[00:27:20] Speaker E: I definitely don't want to leave Max alone.
[00:27:22] Speaker C: Yeah, well, they are sending guards.
[00:27:24] Speaker E: They are. And there's a work crew there now.
[00:27:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we should all go look at the buoys.
[00:27:29] Speaker E: All right. Let's all go look at the buoys.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: So you give it a minute, and two guards come striding up. Admiral Lunari said you had an emergency and you needed guards.
[00:27:39] Speaker E: That's right.
[00:27:40] Speaker C: Yes. We need no one to enter here. All right, Nate, I have a question.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:45] Speaker C: If I were to cast glyph of warding on this door going into the funeral home, it says I can choose the trigger. Can I be very specific with that? Like, somebody puts the wrong key in the lock.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: You can. Yes.
[00:28:00] Speaker C: All right. I think that's what she wants to do.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: Okay. I assume you tell the guards not to futz with the lock.
[00:28:06] Speaker C: Yes. She is going to warn. This does take an hour casting time. So we'd have to spend an hour here while she does this.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: That's all right. You can actually put the glyph up while the guards are coming, and then.
[00:28:16] Speaker C: The timing will work. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, she's going to put a glyph of. Warning. Warning, warning. It's much more than a warning.
[00:28:24] Speaker E: The warnings in the middle of the alleyway.
[00:28:25] Speaker C: The warnings in the middle of the alleyway. This is the storm warning. We are eating tacos now. So she's going to put a glyph of warning. She's going to make it do.
What do you all think? Acid, cold, fire, lightning or thunder?
[00:28:40] Speaker E: Thunder.
[00:28:41] Speaker C: Thunder. I don't want to bring down the.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: That'll be loud.
[00:28:44] Speaker C: It will be loud. I suppose if it was lightning, we'd see it from wherever we are. Right.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: If it was thunder. No one's getting in here sneakily.
[00:28:52] Speaker D: It wouldn't be bad to know.
[00:28:54] Speaker C: Okay. All right. She'll have it do thunder damage.
[00:28:56] Speaker E: That's why I said thunder.
[00:28:58] Speaker C: Yeah, and that trigger is going to be. If the wrong key goes. If somebody tries to use the wrong key on the lock, that's what's going to trigger it's.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: Gather round, apprentices. Today we learn of life.
The essential spark of the soul that churns every living creature in this world. What type of person could possibly be worthy of the blessing of such a God as the whispering shepherd who roams this earth breathing souls into the living of the tiniest sprout to the grandest dragon?
Let me tell you a story.
There once were three supplicants to the whispering shepherd. The first, a farmer who raised crops and animals so that others might eat. Each spring, the blessings of the whispering shepherd granted his family prosperity. And now the farmer wished to repay this kindness. The farmer offered to the shepherd their loyalty that each spring they would tend to each new generation. The shepherd did not answer.
The second supplicant was a healer who had overseen the birth of hundreds of babies and extended the lives of those in distress.
Each day in their work, the healer saw the miracles of the whispering shepherd and wished to help. To the whispering shepherd they offered devotion that they would, for the rest of their days, continue as they had working to cure the sick. And still the shepherd did not answer. The third supplicant had been many things. A baker, a laborer, a painter, a woodsman, a farmer, a carriageman, good at none. Yet they loved each pastime the same each day. They loved the task they chose to do and so they wished to revel in their own life.
They offered the shepherd nothing but a promise to live their life as fully as they could and vowed to settle down with children whenever they were ready raise crops when it brought them joy and share what they learned if it suits them. And the shepherd did not answer.
The farmer went home to raise their cattle and crops and did so with great success. Continuing with the blessings of the whispering shepherd the healer went home to treat a fever and prepare a new mother with child and did so with great success, marveling at the miracles of life.
The third, with no profession and no goals went to travel and chanced upon another on the road. This fourth person was a man who could not use his hands and was miserable in sorrow, as many unfairnesses of this world seemed to be visited upon him. In jealousy of the wandering and purposeless supplicant, the man asked them, why do you travel? Why not settle down, earn money, earn respect? Why not start a family dedicated to your God? To which the supplicant laughed and said, there is too much life to live to do as others would expect of me.
Have you, for example, ever considered learning to paint? The man who could not use his hands was quite bitter and said simply that he wished he could. And in that moment, the third supplicant gained the power to heal and heard the faintest whisper on the winds.
Share life.
The whispering shepherd found its priest. The power of the God was not for those who saw to the abundance of new life, nor to those who prolonged the life of others, nor to those who found their own joy and cared not of others. No, the whispering shepherd chooses to give power to those who share the excitement of life and inspire others.
Those who make the most of life and share are the only ones worthy of the whispering shepherd's blessing.
So, apprentice, someday you will find a thing that brings you great joy. Someday you will cherish it above all others.
But when that day comes, know that that is the beginning.
For what is life if not lived well? And what is living well if not shared with others?
Enough talk. Back to work.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: You all walk down to the bay. It takes a little bit of time because the bay is on the opposite end of the catacombs, which are back on the rock wall portions. And you arrive at the docks, which are truly massive. There are huge ships of different sizes. There are dockhands running everywhere. You see lots of fishing boats floating around the bay in all directions. It is a madhouse, just an absolute madhouse. But you see, if you look past all of that, out into the middle of the bay, there is a lighthouse that is positioned on top of this grassy Knoll. And Boulain, you know that that grassy knoll is a skeleton of a dragon turtle that has just grown moss and stuff over it, right. And they put a lighthouse on top of it. But next to it, you do see a couple of floating buoys just out in the middle of the bay.
[00:34:20] Speaker C: Okay. And there are usually buoys out there. Right. That's not an OD sight in itself.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: It's not uncommon for there to be buoys. No, it's really quite regular. They mark different shipping lane arrivals and things, but putting them there is OD.
[00:34:37] Speaker D: Admiral lunar did suggest that we talk to the harbor master. Perhaps he can tell us which ones are the weird ones. And then Sadie could get an aerial view and tell us if there's.
You could tell us.
[00:34:47] Speaker E: I also think we should figure out a boat from the harbor master.
[00:34:50] Speaker C: Boulain says, well, we can go talk. Is it Vellar eagle leaf? Vellar eagle leaf, she says, yes, the harbor master is Vellar eagle leaf. We can go talk to him. We could probably find him fairly easily.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: So you find Vellar. Veller is a tiny, skinny chap working at a desk. He has a modified chair that basically has a kid's booster seat put into it. And he is covered in paperwork. There are maps on the walls, big charts. Multiple clerks running around behind him as you come in. And he looks up and says, yes. How can I help you, feller?
[00:35:27] Speaker C: I do not know if you remember me. My name is Boulain. This is Zuris. This is Creedon. Max, Dredd. We are following up on a lead that the admiral gave to us about mysterious buoys that have been placed out in the harbor.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. This is an od circumstance. So over the last couple of months, several buoys have just disappeared, which isn't unusual. I mean, ships hit them, they break away and float off, but they all just sort of reappeared, tethered around the dragon turtle, which is strange.
[00:35:58] Speaker C: Do you have a map of where they're appearing?
[00:36:02] Speaker A: No, I haven't felt the need to do that. Although I have sent men out to cut them loose and bring them in.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: And put them back where they go.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: And someone replaces them.
[00:36:13] Speaker E: Is one of them here on the shore at the moment or at the valve and put back out?
[00:36:17] Speaker A: Well, they're replaced. So someone steals another one and moves it out there.
I'm sure you could take a look at the ones that were out there. But they're just buoys. I mean, they float and someone had a weight on the bottom of them. A big rock rope. Nothing too exciting.
[00:36:37] Speaker D: But you said that they continued coming or showing up in the same locations when you removed them.
[00:36:42] Speaker A: Yes. I've been told they're in the exact same locations. They're clearly marking something. But I haven't sent a diver down to figure out what they're marking.
[00:36:49] Speaker E: Do you have any diving equipment or magics?
[00:36:53] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. He stands up and says, I have a smidgen of magic. I can grant you the ability for a short period of time to either walk on the water or breathe under it. But I did not prepare any potions per se.
[00:37:08] Speaker B: Nothing I can send with you.
[00:37:11] Speaker E: I assume that short time is an hour.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: Water breathing.
Up to ten willing creatures for 24 hours can breathe water.
[00:37:22] Speaker E: That's a much longer time.
[00:37:24] Speaker D: That's pretty good. I'll take it.
[00:37:26] Speaker E: That would be very helpful.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: I can definitely do that for you. It'll take about ten minutes, but I have a little chapel in back. It's all set up with the reagents and everything. Come this way.
[00:37:38] Speaker E: Sure. Is this the green man?
[00:37:41] Speaker A: No. When you step in, it is clear this is a divine hammer shrine.
[00:37:46] Speaker E: Okay. Right. Yeah, no, I remember. They're from divine hammer. That's why I was curious about the.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: All right. There is a green man priest in town. You have not met them yet, but they are considered the master of ceremonies, and Boulain knows that. They actually run little shrines to the green man that are all along the harbor. All the sailors come and kiss their foreheads or whatever before jumping on their ships, but no, this is a divine hammer person who seems to be mostly about ship building technology. Gotcha. Takes you into the back, where they do, in fact, have a little chapel, and he casts this spell on you. You may now breathe while underwater, just normally.
[00:38:24] Speaker E: All right, well, that will aid us a little bit.
[00:38:26] Speaker C: I would like to go up on the knoll by the lighthouse and send Sadie up to see the configuration of these buoys.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: Roll me. Investigate, please.
[00:38:35] Speaker E: Are we traveling to the lighthouse, then? Are you just sending Sadie ahead?
[00:38:39] Speaker A: She set the bird out ahead.
[00:38:41] Speaker E: She also mentioned getting on the knoll, which is why I was.
[00:38:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I was saying we could go to the knoll and see what vantage point we can get from there. But also send Sadie up to look down and see what the configuration is?
[00:38:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:51] Speaker C: Investigation.
[00:38:52] Speaker E: Is it faster walking on the water or boating?
[00:38:56] Speaker A: Boating. I think water walking is a less effective spell.
[00:39:00] Speaker D: Didn't he also say that he could only do one or the other between breathing and walking?
[00:39:04] Speaker E: Oh, if it's only one or the other than breathing.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: You can either walk or breathe, but not.
[00:39:08] Speaker D: I'll take the breathing.
[00:39:09] Speaker E: Yeah, for sure.
[00:39:10] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:39:11] Speaker E: Can the harbor master get us a boat? I mean, if it's faster, I don't.
[00:39:13] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, he gets you a boat. No problem.
[00:39:15] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm fine with traveling out to the lighthouse and doing that there.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: Okay, give me an investigate roll from the bird's eye view.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: That's not great. 1313.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: There are five of them. Okay, they are in a circle around the turtle.
[00:39:32] Speaker C: Just a perfect. They're just making a pentagram.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: I mean, you see?
[00:39:38] Speaker C: No pentagon. Sorry.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: Yeah, a pentagon would be there. Again, nothing is tied between them. It's just points.
[00:39:45] Speaker E: Right. I guess the question is they're equidistant.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: They are, yes.
[00:39:49] Speaker C: Okay, they're equidistant. Are they lined up with north, southeast, west, any of the cardinal directions?
[00:39:55] Speaker E: They can't be with five of them. One of them might be.
[00:39:58] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: No, they are not.
The fifth one is pointed directly out of the harbor. And then two of them are kind of back towards. But the orientation is not compass points.
[00:40:10] Speaker C: Do we know where the turtle's head would be?
[00:40:13] Speaker A: So this thing has been underwater for ages and ages and ages. So it's like 1000 year old skeleton. You would have to go underwater and look. But all that pokes up is part of the shell.
[00:40:27] Speaker E: Okay, before we do anything underwater, I think we should cut loose at least one of the buoys.
[00:40:33] Speaker C: Agreed.
[00:40:34] Speaker E: Good.
[00:40:34] Speaker C: So we'll boat out to one of the buoys and cut it.
[00:40:37] Speaker E: Mean if that's. If you want to do that now, we can certainly do it. I was just saying before we go onto the surface. I don't want this. Whatever this is still set up when we go.
[00:40:45] Speaker C: Right. Boulang thinks about things as she says. Well, a turtle has a head and four limbs. And we are dealing with a vestige that raises the undead.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:40:56] Speaker E: Not a terrible deduction. So I'm going to cut loose one of the buoys.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Okay. It is a yellow shipping lane buoy. You cut it loose, I'm going to.
[00:41:04] Speaker E: Bring it back to shore.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: Okay. You can haul it over into the boat. It's about 3ft long. And I'm assuming it's wood. It is wood, yes.
[00:41:14] Speaker E: I'm going to hack it apart with my axe.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: Okay. It is just a wooden buoy.
[00:41:19] Speaker E: Nothing interesting inside. Nothing?
[00:41:21] Speaker A: Not a thing. No.
[00:41:23] Speaker C: Should we tie rocks to ourselves and weigh ourselves down so we can go see what's on the bottom?
[00:41:27] Speaker E: Well, armor will help, but also the other buoys have ropes that go down to the bottom.
[00:41:33] Speaker C: That's true.
[00:41:34] Speaker D: Creighton doesn't think it's a great idea to be weighed down. Creighton is going to remove most of her very heavy wind wet clothing. Then use her mask of many faces to make herself look like she has a very cute swimsuit on.
This is what magic is made for, Creighton.
[00:41:52] Speaker A: You get Max and Dredd's attention.
[00:41:54] Speaker D: Nice.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:57] Speaker E: You should get ready for a swim, boys.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Dredd starts pulling off equipment, drops his pack, gets down to some skibbies. Max is basically always half naked. So he's ready to go.
[00:42:10] Speaker E: I will wear my armor down. I will not bring my axe, and I will leave my pack.
[00:42:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:14] Speaker D: Creedon is going to bring her arcane focus and her potions along with her.
[00:42:21] Speaker C: Philly says perhaps it would be wise if I stayed with the boat.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: Max is like, are you afraid of water? It's cool, it's cool. Everybody's afraid of something.
[00:42:32] Speaker C: She definitely did not take off any articles of clothing.
[00:42:35] Speaker D: I am okay with somebody staying behind, although I'm trying to think if there's a way we can communicate.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: All right, last one in is a rotten egg. And Max dives straight, right?
[00:42:48] Speaker E: Yeah. I will also take my potion of healing.
[00:42:50] Speaker D: How's the water? You should have two of them.
[00:42:52] Speaker E: I.
[00:42:53] Speaker D: Okay, make it.
[00:42:54] Speaker A: Max comes up and he's like, little cold. Little cold, but a little like. It's brisk. It's brisk.
[00:43:01] Speaker C: It's a little cold, but a little warm.
[00:43:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like cold on top and warm on the.
[00:43:06] Speaker D: That's.
[00:43:06] Speaker C: Is that normal?
[00:43:07] Speaker D: Od.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: Shit, I don't know, man. Come on in.
[00:43:10] Speaker D: Jaden dives in.
[00:43:12] Speaker E: All right, I will jump in next to a buoy and use the rope.
[00:43:16] Speaker A: To guide me down. Okay. So, strange sensation breathing underwater. I don't imagine you've done it a lot in your life.
[00:43:23] Speaker D: Oh, wait. Creighton cannot cast light and it will get dark, I'm guessing. And she does not have dark vision.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: It will get dark. Yes. In fact, none of the people diving are going to be able to see well.
[00:43:35] Speaker D: But does Boulain have light?
[00:43:37] Speaker C: Yeah, Boulain's the one who can see in the dark, but she did not want to get naked.
[00:43:43] Speaker D: Credum will resurface, then ask if you can cast light.
[00:43:46] Speaker C: I guess I can cast dancing lights.
[00:43:49] Speaker D: Yeah, but light you can cast on an object and take it with you.
[00:43:52] Speaker C: Oh, wait, hold on.
[00:43:53] Speaker E: Can my flaming armor.
[00:43:57] Speaker D: SpongeBob rules.
[00:43:59] Speaker E: Does that emit a glow?
[00:44:02] Speaker A: No, not underwater.
[00:44:04] Speaker E: All right, what about a flaming weapon?
[00:44:07] Speaker A: Also problematic underwater.
[00:44:10] Speaker D: There's some steam.
[00:44:11] Speaker E: It's just bubbles.
[00:44:15] Speaker C: Okay, so I can cast dancing lights and move it up to 60ft at a time. I could cast dancing lights and have it descend with you.
[00:44:23] Speaker D: Okay, that would be good.
[00:44:26] Speaker A: So dancing lights is fascinating because it pulls in all the fish, ocean. You just get this audience of schools of giant lake tuna and ocean fish and you work your way down the rope.
[00:44:38] Speaker D: Can we speak with fish? Water breathing?
[00:44:41] Speaker E: Oh, yes, with fish, water breathing does not give us a swim speed, is that correct?
[00:44:49] Speaker A: It does not, no.
[00:44:51] Speaker E: All right, so we'll be using underwater combat rules if we fight down here, correct?
[00:44:56] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:44:56] Speaker E: All right.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: Disadvantage if it's not a piercing weapon.
[00:45:00] Speaker E: Water weapon. Yeah.
[00:45:01] Speaker D: Kaden's just pulling herself along the rope downwards. And is it getting warmer as we descend?
[00:45:06] Speaker A: It does actually get a little bit warmer. You get the impression that the water in the bay is churning, so the cold water pulls in and it warms as it wraps down. It's actually kind of pleasant, though. Seems to pull the fish along. It's somewhat beautiful down here. As you get down about 30ft, you start to see the dragon turtle because it is bigger on the bottom than it was on the top.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: So you can see the shell, which.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: Is slick with kelp and slime. And as you go all the way down to the bottom, you see it is sort of half embedded in the sand and silt. But at the bottom of the buoy, there's just a rock.
[00:45:43] Speaker E: And the rest of the dragon turtle is buried here?
[00:45:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it's partially buried. Most of it's above ground, but not all of it. The sediment has kind of reburied the base of it.
[00:45:54] Speaker E: Investigation.
[00:45:55] Speaker A: Yes. Roll it.
[00:45:57] Speaker E: That's not a good roll.
[00:45:59] Speaker D: Creedon also wishes to do this.
[00:46:02] Speaker C: Twelve.
[00:46:02] Speaker E: Dread, what do you see?
[00:46:05] Speaker D: Help us, dread.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: Dread is here.
[00:46:08] Speaker C: We're idiots. Help.
We're idiots in the dark underwater.
[00:46:14] Speaker A: Let's see.
[00:46:15] Speaker D: Stop staring at my swimsuit.
[00:46:17] Speaker C: Look around.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: So, dreadnat, 20. Is it for a 33?
[00:46:22] Speaker C: Oh, my God.
He gets a plus 13.
[00:46:26] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a specialist. Oh, I forgot to say. Dread didn't take his glasses off. He has a pair of glasses that he is wearing.
[00:46:34] Speaker D: Excellent.
[00:46:35] Speaker A: Even underwater, but, yeah. Dread looks around and in a bubbly voice that I'm not going to do because you're underwater. He basically says, they've scouted this out a lot. The sand's all been disturbed. And he reaches down and digs a little and pulls out a bag. Looks like a water skin, maybe. And he hands it to you.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Xeris.
[00:46:55] Speaker E: I feel it. Does it feel like it's filled with grain?
[00:46:59] Speaker A: It's filled with some sort of crunchy material? There's a solid in it, not water.
[00:47:04] Speaker E: Yeah, I can guess what that is.
[00:47:07] Speaker D: We should take it. Does it look like there's a bunch of them or is it just like at the bottom of the buoy?
[00:47:14] Speaker A: It was below the buoy, buried in the sand.
[00:47:17] Speaker D: Okay, so it's not like a ring of these bags or something?
[00:47:20] Speaker A: No, there's just one here in this location. As far as you can tell, dread, with a 33, starts to draw a line in the sand and begins circling along the ocean bottom. Here he stops periodically and digs a little bit and pulls out another bag and just sets it down on the ground and begins digging some more. He stops after he finds about three of them, but they appear to be going in a circle around the dragon turtle.
[00:47:48] Speaker D: Oh, boy.
[00:47:49] Speaker E: How long did that process take us?
[00:47:51] Speaker A: So Dredd is a wildly meticulous person. So you should assume that he spent probably half an hour investigating.
[00:48:00] Speaker E: But they're at regular intervals.
[00:48:02] Speaker A: Yeah, they are at regular intervals.
[00:48:04] Speaker E: So the real question I'm trying to get to is how long would it take us to undo this work?
[00:48:08] Speaker A: I mean, you'd be here for the rest of today for sure. Pulling these baggies up, I think that's worth it.
[00:48:15] Speaker E: But we should probably also tell Boulain what's going on. So maybe we should surface and discuss real quick.
[00:48:21] Speaker D: How heavy are these bags? Will we be able to swim up with them?
[00:48:24] Speaker A: Yeah, they're actually not that heavy individually, they weigh about four or five pounds.
[00:48:30] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:48:31] Speaker E: I breathe in, open the valve on the water skin and blow into it.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:36] Speaker E: It puffs up and seal it.
[00:48:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:48:41] Speaker E: And let go.
[00:48:42] Speaker A: It floats to the surface.
[00:48:44] Speaker D: Clever.
[00:48:45] Speaker C: All right. If these bags start coming up, bobbing up to the surface, she will start rowing and gathering them to follow your progress.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: Okay, you get a couple of bags.
[00:48:55] Speaker E: Let's do this leg of the pentagon.
[00:48:57] Speaker A: You get about 20 bags before people pop up.
[00:49:00] Speaker D: I mean, we're only like 30ft below, right?
[00:49:03] Speaker A: You were more like 45.
[00:49:05] Speaker D: Okay, well, at some point Creedon's going to let the boys do the digging. She's going to swim up and chat with Boulain and just fill her in on what's going on and then go back down and help some more with mage hand.
[00:49:17] Speaker C: Oh, good call.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Yeah, it takes a while. It takes a while. Boulain, you have to keep dropping new dancing lights down there. It's an exhaustive and tedious process.
[00:49:27] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:49:28] Speaker A: Because every minute you have to send a light down and then grab a bag that comes up.
[00:49:31] Speaker C: And she also has Sadie circling up because she wants to see if anybody takes an interest in what we're doing.
[00:49:39] Speaker A: The bay is pretty packed. Go ahead and roll me a perception check.
[00:49:44] Speaker C: I am rolling for shit. That's a twelve.
[00:49:47] Speaker A: I mean, people notice that you're out there, but they don't seem to care enough to stop and stare.
[00:49:52] Speaker C: Okay. And nobody seems to be agitated. I think that's what she's looking for. Is people getting agitated that we're doing this?
[00:49:58] Speaker A: No. So you work for about two, 3 hours. And you realize you found 100 water skins that had been just on this.
[00:50:09] Speaker E: One edge of the Pentagon.
[00:50:11] Speaker A: Oh, no, I'm sorry. I thought you were going to do the rest of it.
[00:50:13] Speaker E: No, just one edge of the Pentagon.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: Okay. One edge of the Pentagon, you find 20.
[00:50:17] Speaker E: Okay. And then let's surface and chat and make sure it is what we suspect it is and all that stuff.
[00:50:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So you pop it open. It is a water skin that has been filled with bone dust.
The air is then squeezed out of it and it was taken to the bottom and buried.
[00:50:33] Speaker E: So, yeah, I do think that we should somehow remove all these. I don't know if that's us. I don't know if that's the admiral, but I don't know if I want the admiral to know we've done this.
[00:50:44] Speaker C: Do you suspect the admiral?
[00:50:46] Speaker E: I don't, but I think if someone thinks this is done, they should keep thinking that. And the fewer people who know it's not is better.
[00:50:54] Speaker C: That is a good point. So do you think the 20 that you have pulled up is enough to interrupt it or should we get the rest of it? I would like to reinter all the bone dust because this is a problem for me.
[00:51:07] Speaker E: Right. So we have to get the rest of it.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: We need to get the rest of it.
[00:51:11] Speaker E: So I will get the rest of it.
[00:51:13] Speaker D: Can Creighton, I know that earlier I had tried to roll an Arcana check for bone dust stuff, but since she's seeing like, okay, it's around a giant corpse, she's seeing how it's laid out. Can I try?
[00:51:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, go ahead and give me a new arcana role.
[00:51:25] Speaker C: I mean, necromancy did come up with that previous role.
[00:51:29] Speaker D: Oh, my God, I'm hot shit. That's an eight. When I say I'm hot shit, I mean I'm not.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: Dread pulls seven. So, yeah. You've never seen a spell like this before.
[00:51:38] Speaker D: And I'll teach this in divine mercy school.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: They don't teach this in any school.
[00:51:44] Speaker E: I imagine they don't. All right, so I will spend the rest of my day collecting water skins until the sun goes down.
[00:51:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:52] Speaker D: Good thing we have 24 hours of breathing Max.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: And dread will help.
[00:51:55] Speaker D: Creighton helps.
[00:51:56] Speaker A: Basically, by the time the sun goes down, you have found 100 water skins. They were essentially in a perfect circle. No one has rolled high enough on Arcana to figure out what the hell else is supposed to be happening here. But you have removed these things.
[00:52:11] Speaker D: Claire, the player has some guesses.
[00:52:14] Speaker E: Let's spend the night in the lighthouse.
[00:52:16] Speaker C: In the lighthouse. You want to see who comes by?
[00:52:19] Speaker E: Yeah. Or if a ship shows up. That's a little ephemeral.
[00:52:23] Speaker C: Yes. That is also a possibility. Should we replace the buoy that we cut?
[00:52:27] Speaker E: We should.
[00:52:28] Speaker D: I think that we should not replace it because that would make them want to come out and replace it.
[00:52:34] Speaker C: Yeah, that's true.
[00:52:35] Speaker D: We want to keep an eye out. We know where that buoy is supposed to be. We can watch that spot.
[00:52:39] Speaker E: Yeah, that's a good point.
[00:52:41] Speaker D: They'll just assume the officials did it.
[00:52:43] Speaker E: Can we get into the lighthouse?
[00:52:44] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:52:45] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:52:46] Speaker C: Do we need to negotiate with the lighthouse keeper when you get up there?
[00:52:49] Speaker A: The lighthouse keeper is just a random.
[00:52:52] Speaker B: Dude who happens to be on shift.
[00:52:54] Speaker A: Today, and he just looks at you and goes, oh, church officials.
[00:52:58] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: It's all yours, men. Great.
[00:53:00] Speaker C: We appreciate that.
[00:53:02] Speaker E: You should take the day off.
[00:53:04] Speaker A: Cool. Do you want to keep the light lit all night? Yes.
Awesome. I know. You guys are cool people.
That was you, too? He hops in a little boat and rows himself to shore.
[00:53:17] Speaker D: Oh, my God. An entire day of swimming is so exhausting. I don't have to do watch, do I?
[00:53:21] Speaker C: I will do watch. I think I expended the least amount of effort.
[00:53:25] Speaker D: My arms.
[00:53:27] Speaker E: Max's arms have to be jello.
[00:53:31] Speaker A: Max is blasted, and he's so happy with it. Although he's laying on the floor like a jellyfish.
[00:53:39] Speaker D: I lay near him also like a jellyfish. Just pass out.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: Dread. Also moderately physically fit dude, but way out of his element. He's crouched in the corner like, oh.
[00:53:52] Speaker C: God, what did I do? Well, I think if everybody is comfortable there for a minute, Belaine will row back to shore, pick up dinner for everyone and bring it back.
[00:54:02] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. You have a lovely, exhausted picnic dinner at a lighthouse. It's like bed and breakfast vacation almost.
[00:54:12] Speaker E: I'll pull boulain and Max to the other side of the lighthouse near the end of dinner.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:19] Speaker C: Yep. And I guess we're watching outwards and not watching what Creedon and Dredd are up to. Is that what that's about?
[00:54:26] Speaker E: Exactly.
[00:54:27] Speaker D: Creedon's passed the fuck out. Creedon's exhausted. Are you kidding me? She never does manual labor for an entire day. No, she's never been so tired.
[00:54:38] Speaker C: But are they snuggling?
[00:54:39] Speaker D: I feel like Creedon is probably an ugly sleeper where she, like, sprawls out.
[00:54:44] Speaker C: And snores and drools a little bit.
[00:54:49] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[00:54:49] Speaker A: I can assure you that dread is way too awkward to make a. So I think you sleep separately in your corners, to everyone else's disappointment.
[00:54:59] Speaker C: Oh, my God. We do everything we can.
[00:55:03] Speaker D: Creighton might have tried to make some kind of move, but. Full day of manual labor. Exhausted.
[00:55:09] Speaker C: She's just too tired.
[00:55:11] Speaker E: I assume there are windows on the ground floor of the lighthouse.
[00:55:15] Speaker A: Yes. All right.
[00:55:16] Speaker E: I'll be taking periodic watches outside of those.
[00:55:19] Speaker A: All right? It is midnight, and so it's quite bright as one rowboat. And then two, and then three, and then six and then twelve and then 30.
[00:55:32] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Fuck.
[00:55:34] Speaker A: Under the COVID of darkness, approach the dragon turtle.
[00:55:37] Speaker E: I will definitely immediately wake up everyone in the lighthouse. Quietly, as soon as there are more than three.
[00:55:46] Speaker D: What do you want?
[00:55:50] Speaker A: Something happening.
[00:55:51] Speaker C: We have a lot of company.
[00:55:53] Speaker E: Yeah, there's a veritable force that has landed, so I thought you should be awake.
[00:56:00] Speaker A: They don't land immediately. They stop at the buoys. One person, you can't really see them in the dark, but you can tell they jump overboard and swim.
[00:56:10] Speaker C: Swim down or swim.
[00:56:11] Speaker A: Swim down. Pops back up and you can hear the water is quite loud, so you can't make out anything. But you can tell there's some loud talking out on the water. A few minutes go by and then you can see them take out these again in the dark, it's hard to tell what they are. But you've already seen these water skins. So you see them throwing water skins overboard.
[00:56:37] Speaker D: Whenever we were digging up, all of the water skins. Was part of it incomplete?
[00:56:41] Speaker A: No.
[00:56:42] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:56:43] Speaker C: Are they strategically dropping these in particular places?
[00:56:46] Speaker A: They seem to be dropping piles of them and then diving in after them.
[00:56:49] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:56:50] Speaker A: But there's a good 60 people working here on this water right now. 30 of them on boats, 30 of them underwater, man.
[00:56:57] Speaker D: And they knew to bring another full set of bone bags.
[00:57:01] Speaker C: I kept watch to make sure nobody was noticing what we were doing. So how would they know to be replacing the bone bags?
[00:57:09] Speaker E: All right, we still have water breathing, so my thought is, are they clustered or now have they now surrounded the island?
[00:57:17] Speaker A: They pretty much immediately went about four boats to a buoy and then left a couple circling.
[00:57:23] Speaker E: How easy would it be to get in the water without them seeing? I assume not easy, but it's dark.
[00:57:29] Speaker A: And the lighthouse somehow spins because magic. So you could time it and slide into the water.
[00:57:36] Speaker E: My thought is we go down there and stop them.
[00:57:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:40] Speaker D: Maybe we could have cost one of the sets of boats.
[00:57:43] Speaker E: Right. Well, under the water, where it's harder to get messages up to the surface and there are fewer people.
[00:57:49] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:57:50] Speaker A: There's some shouting that you can definitely hear. Roll me an insight roll with disadvantage.
[00:57:55] Speaker E: Everybody.
[00:57:56] Speaker A: Give me an insight roll with disadvantage.
[00:57:59] Speaker D: You said I rolled. Two twos, rip.
[00:58:03] Speaker C: Five and a six.
[00:58:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:05] Speaker E: Five is my low roll.
[00:58:06] Speaker C: That's an eleven for me.
[00:58:08] Speaker A: Yeah. You guys don't know shit about nothing. Just hear shouting.
[00:58:12] Speaker C: Can Boulain send Sadie overhead to see if she can hear better if she's closer to them?
Yes.
[00:58:19] Speaker A: Birds do not generally not known for their dark vision. Go ahead and give me, though, a d 20 roll.
[00:58:24] Speaker C: Just straight d 20.
[00:58:25] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:58:26] Speaker C: Two.
[00:58:27] Speaker A: Two. Okay. Sadie is flying absolutely blind.
[00:58:31] Speaker C: Okay. All right. She pulls her back. She doesn't want her.
[00:58:34] Speaker A: Can't deal with night.
[00:58:35] Speaker C: Yeah, okay, that's fine, but, yeah, you.
[00:58:38] Speaker A: Hear a lot of shouting. Eventually, two or three of the boats come toward the dragon turtle. And you hear some more shouts. And then they throw something on the dragon turtle.
[00:58:51] Speaker E: Onto the shore.
[00:58:52] Speaker A: Onto the shore. And three guys each hop off a boat and shake the water off, grab whatever it was they threw onto the shore and start walking towards the lighthouse.
[00:59:02] Speaker E: So we should do something now or never.
[00:59:05] Speaker D: I think that we should let them come into the lighthouse because we might be able to quiet them down.
[00:59:09] Speaker E: Are they heading toward the lighthouse or they're just heading straight across the island?
[00:59:14] Speaker A: No, they're going into the lighthouse. They're coming straight for the only building on this.
[00:59:18] Speaker D: Wait a minute. The lighthouse keeper was probably in on it. All right, so that might have been why. They know. They knew what we were up to.
[00:59:26] Speaker C: Maybe.
[00:59:27] Speaker A: That's all right.
[00:59:27] Speaker C: Boulink says we need to try to preserve the lighthouse at all costs because a lot of lives depend on it.
[00:59:32] Speaker E: I'll cast armor of fire. Yeah, we should.
[00:59:35] Speaker A: So, you hear the front door of the lighthouse.
[00:59:38] Speaker E: Oh, and I wanted to prepare an attack for the person walking into the.
[00:59:42] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:59:42] Speaker A: The knob jiggles, and then it snaps and swings open, and a guy steps in and says, hello.
[00:59:48] Speaker E: And I chop him.
[00:59:49] Speaker A: Whoa.
[00:59:50] Speaker C: Okay. You want to ask him questions first?
[00:59:54] Speaker D: Well, we can try to non lethally get them with weapons.
[00:59:59] Speaker E: That's a 21. That hits ten slashing and six flame.
[01:00:06] Speaker A: Ow. You hit him real hard. He immediately recoils backwards as an axe slaps into his torso.
[01:00:14] Speaker E: It's a glave, but yes.
[01:00:15] Speaker A: Okay. As the glave slices into his torso, he seems to be holding his innards in as he goes. Oh, shit.
And I need initiative because this is.
[01:00:26] Speaker C: About to be a fight.
[01:00:28] Speaker A: Things are happening.
[01:00:29] Speaker C: 17.
[01:00:30] Speaker E: My initiative is poor.
[01:00:32] Speaker D: I get advantage.
[01:00:33] Speaker C: You do?
[01:00:34] Speaker D: I got an 18.
[01:00:36] Speaker A: Okay, Creedon, I believe you're first.
[01:00:37] Speaker E: My role was off three, by the way.
[01:00:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:00:40] Speaker D: Just as they know now that we're in combat, something that I didn't notice at level five is that my eldritch blast is now supposed to have two.
[01:00:46] Speaker C: Beams, which is pretty cool.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: However true.
[01:00:49] Speaker D: I instead want to target one of them that was not just glaved in the belly. And I want to cast suggestion on them.
[01:00:59] Speaker A: Okay, you will succeed in doing that because you can see them. They get a ten, which is not enough to save.
[01:01:09] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, that's not going to cut it.
[01:01:11] Speaker A: What do you suggest?
[01:01:12] Speaker D: I am going to say don't fight us and tell us what? Well, that's two. Can I say two things?
[01:01:20] Speaker A: I suggest you.
[01:01:22] Speaker D: I suggest you don't fight us and you tell us what you're doing here.
[01:01:26] Speaker A: Okay, you are limited to a sentence or two. So, yeah, you can do Finley, do both of those. He fails. And so instead of running, which seems to be what everybody else is going.
[01:01:38] Speaker B: To do, he starts talking.
[01:01:40] Speaker A: Boulain, it's your turn.
[01:01:41] Speaker D: I'll also say, don't hit that one.
[01:01:45] Speaker C: Everybody else's turning to run. Yeah, okay, I would like to.
[01:01:51] Speaker E: I got the wounded one. At least.
[01:01:53] Speaker C: You got the wounded one.
[01:01:54] Speaker D: Make sure that the one that I did that to doesn't run away because I didn't think about that.
[01:01:58] Speaker C: Wait, is the wounded one dying?
[01:01:59] Speaker A: No, he's still standing. Okay, that wound could not be good for him, though, right?
[01:02:06] Speaker C: I'll wait till he says zero hit points to stabilize him. Okay, so there's three guys on the island.
[01:02:11] Speaker A: Correct.
[01:02:12] Speaker C: One of them is about to start talking. One of them is running away. What are all the other boats doing?
[01:02:17] Speaker A: They're still drifting.
[01:02:19] Speaker C: They're still drifting and they're still diving and coming up. And diving and coming up.
[01:02:22] Speaker A: Well, I mean, it's 6 seconds. So that's what they were doing.
[01:02:25] Speaker D: Okay, make sure that the one that I cast my spell on can't run away. If you have anything that can do that.
[01:02:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I could do that. I could cast hold person on this guy.
[01:02:36] Speaker E: Well, that's aggressive, isn't it? And your suggestion was to not run, right?
[01:02:41] Speaker D: Well, I said don't fight it. Yeah, I should have said surrender. I didn't think about it. Know, Creighton's not that smart. Sure, and sometimes neither am I.
[01:02:50] Speaker C: But you also said to tell us what you're doing.
[01:02:52] Speaker D: I did, but he could, I guess, yell at us running away. I don't know. That's how Nate wants to interpret it.
[01:02:59] Speaker C: Would cast playing a hold person end.
[01:03:01] Speaker A: The suggestion spell, if any of your companions. Damage the target, the spell ends.
[01:03:08] Speaker D: Yes, says damage.
[01:03:09] Speaker C: Okay. This wouldn't damage him. It would just be holding him.
[01:03:11] Speaker D: I said don't hit him.
[01:03:13] Speaker C: Right. All right. I will cast hold person to make sure he doesn't run away.
[01:03:18] Speaker A: He gets a four.
[01:03:19] Speaker C: Okay. He is stuck.
[01:03:21] Speaker D: Got him.
[01:03:22] Speaker A: Okay. The thugs get to go. The one who is trying to tell you something is frozen solid and can't move his mouth for a bit.
The one who is holding in his intestines turns to run.
[01:03:37] Speaker E: Does not make it.
[01:03:39] Speaker A: Zerus, you can have an attack of opportunity as he tries to scream his head off.
[01:03:45] Speaker E: Lucky I've gotten a ten.
[01:03:47] Speaker A: You just miss. Mostly because he's slippery when wet.
[01:03:54] Speaker C: You had to go there.
[01:03:55] Speaker D: Well, is Max by him? Can Max attack of opportunity?
[01:04:00] Speaker A: Max will try something different on Max's turn. But they sprint, slide down the lichen and moss of the last two, who are not the guys who are frozen in place, sprint slide down the lichen and moss to the shore. And that's about as far as they can make it. As they start trying to get into their boats.
[01:04:20] Speaker E: Did they drop what they were carrying?
[01:04:22] Speaker A: They did, yes. Max and Dread Dredd is going to attempt something interesting. He rolls a perception check. It's not see much going on there. Dread pulls out a little hand crossbow and fires it, doing some damage to somebody.
It's a little too dark for anybody to know what's going on there.
[01:04:45] Speaker C: Boulain can see in the dark. Can she see what he hit? Yeah.
[01:04:48] Speaker A: He tempted to shoot a guy in the leg and ended up hitting him in the back.
[01:04:51] Speaker D: Okay.
[01:04:52] Speaker A: And then Max takes off running towards them. He does a diving tackle.
[01:04:56] Speaker D: Get him.
[01:04:57] Speaker A: He rolls in at 20.
[01:04:58] Speaker D: Fuck yeah.
[01:04:59] Speaker A: The other guy rolls in a one. So Max runs up, grabs a guy, and the two of them go down on the turtle shell. And apparently the other guy hits his head because he doesn't get back up.
[01:05:11] Speaker D: Mags killington.
[01:05:14] Speaker A: Xeris.
[01:05:15] Speaker E: I will run after the other guy who is not maxed or credent.
[01:05:21] Speaker A: It is the guy that you have chopped. He's in bad shape.
[01:05:25] Speaker E: I'm just going to go ahead and rage and chop him. Then I'll use a reckless attack.
That is a 16. So that will hit you said?
[01:05:34] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[01:05:36] Speaker E: This time the damage is nine slashing, six radiant and seven flame.
[01:05:45] Speaker C: Holy shit.
[01:05:46] Speaker A: Okay. He goes down at the end of the round. The three boats that were on their way to pick these guys up immediately begin rowing in the other direction. One guy casts a spell. A glistening set of dancing lights sparks up into the air, and you pretty much immediately hear some shouting and all of the boats start rowing. They appear to be heading to shore.
[01:06:07] Speaker E: Were the lights enough to illuminate the scene and allow us to gain a better vision of who these people are or who the person who cast a spell is?
[01:06:18] Speaker A: Give me a disadvantaged perception roll.
[01:06:21] Speaker E: I would love to just roll. Two twenty s right now.
It's an 18 and an eleven. You said perception. Yes, perception. That's going to be a 14 from me.
[01:06:32] Speaker A: Whoever cast a spell on that boat appeared to be wearing a wizard's robe. And you recognize it from your little jaunt through town. This is some sort of wizard mercenary. They're wearing essentially, a guild robe. All right.
[01:06:48] Speaker E: Not a particular guild's robe, just a guild robe.
[01:06:52] Speaker A: There is one guild robe, all right, so, I mean, you know that they will be registered and their employment will be registered.
[01:06:59] Speaker E: If it's guild work.
[01:07:00] Speaker C: Can we tell whether they're human? Elvish?
[01:07:03] Speaker A: Almost everybody seems like a human.
[01:07:05] Speaker E: Last investigatory question, what was the thing they were carrying?
[01:07:09] Speaker A: So, back up at the lighthouse, Boulain, they dropped this pack, and when you open it up, it contains all sorts of glass and crockery jars that you immediately recognize as spell components. A lot of them.
[01:07:28] Speaker C: Okay, are we still in initiative?
[01:07:30] Speaker A: No.
[01:07:31] Speaker C: Okay, I think we're going to tie up the person that we have. Hold person on so that we can free his mouth so he can talk.
[01:07:37] Speaker E: Okay, we should tie up both captives.
[01:07:40] Speaker C: Yeah, both of them.
[01:07:41] Speaker A: I assume someone's going to stabilize the guy who's been chopped up real bad.
[01:07:44] Speaker C: Yeah. Boleino cast.
[01:07:46] Speaker E: All right.
[01:07:48] Speaker C: Not gentle repose. I'm sorry, I'm looking at the wrong. Spare the dying.
[01:07:51] Speaker A: Gentle repose does not save him.
[01:07:56] Speaker C: Spare the dying. She will cast. Spare the dying on him so that he doesn't die.
[01:08:00] Speaker A: Okay. And we will stop our recording and we'll start up.
[01:08:03] Speaker D: Next time, tell me what we want to know. What they're doing, Nate, how can you do this to us?
[01:08:22] Speaker B: Well, they did it again. So quick to violence, this crew. Don't forget to leave us a rating and review. Special thanks, Todd Ferguson of my pet.
[01:08:29] Speaker A: Machine, for our tunes and Juliet.
[01:08:31] Speaker B: Elaborate flight of fancy for our logo. Tune in next time to find out what they learn when they try talking.
Next time on carrots and suffering A-D-D odyssey.
