Episode Transcript
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Welcome to carrots and suffering, a DND odyssey. It is 2024 or for me, a couple days before that. I am proud to introduce to you season four, book four of our production, carrots and suffering season one and two we shot during pandemic. You can occasionally hear our life stresses sneaking into the fantasy world, but you know, we lived. The first campaign was an experiment in an intrigue fairy tale in a dynamic world sandbox storytelling structure told through the lens of Sable, Jalen and Silpha, portrayed by Sandra, Mandy, and Julie. Taking pandemic as a separate issue, the experiment was a success. I will definitely be running more contained location campaigns in the future. I think it was great for intrigue and for NPC consistency. For campaign two, we did decide to go very traditional, where our characters move from location to location, solving the local problems, being heroes, while trying to keep enough consistency and visibility to the local governments to have some intrigue. And of course, we took a twist on heroes in a lot of ways. We ended up with something feeling a little bit more like a three way buddy cop film. We went so traditional, in fact, that we reprised cities and plots from classic DND adventures from the 1990s, which was a lot of fun. I highly recommend them. See the episodes for author citations for this second half of campaign two. We're moving into the end game again. Our heroes are going to kind of negotiate the ending as we go by weaving through their character decisions and the different types of intrigue. This campaign has Boulane, Creden, and Ziris portrayed by Mandy, Claire, and Robert. We've gone with kind of a middle fantasy sandbox. If you're just tuning in, I strongly recommend listening to campaign two from the beginning because the characters are growing and changing. It very much causes some plot twists in our march to the end, and it causes some very interesting solutions. So with that, we start a new story with very little introduction. So let's get into it.
Hi, my name is Nate, and I will be your dungeon master.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Hi, I'm Mandy. I play boulain, the grave domain death cleric. Excited about level eight stuff.
[00:02:47] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Claire, and I play Creden, the sorcerer of a couple things who is super excited that she's killed a dragon.
[00:02:54] Speaker D: Hi, I'm Robert. I play Xeris. And like I said last time, the slayer of dragons.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Okay, team, before we get too far, I would like to do a quick level eight check in. So tell me about level eight, Boulain.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Okay, well, since level eight is one of the points when you can increase your stats I went ahead and took a feat. Instead of adding two points to something, I took the skill expert feet from Natasha's book, and that gave me one more to my wisdom. So that's now an 18. And it gave me expertise in one skill I was already proficient in, and it also gave me another proficiency. So I took expertise and insight, and I gave myself deception proficiency. And then class wise, I get potent spell casting, which lets me add my wisdom modifier to my cantrip damage.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Cantrip spells that do damage. I can add my wisdom modifier to that damage. So that was 50. I'm at a whopping 63 hit points, which is apparently up with zeros from what I hear, but, yeah, I think that's pretty much it.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: All right, Zerus, what does your character look like at level eight?
[00:04:02] Speaker D: Well, I have 63 hit points now. Let us see. Right, so I took the third level of warlock, which unlocked the pact. So pact of the blade hex blade. Right. Now I can store my weapon inside me.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:04:17] Speaker D: Inside my soul.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: Just sounds really unhealthy.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Just sounds like a bad relationship.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Now that nodig isn't in it anymore, there's no consent issues with that.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: I wasn't even thinking of.
[00:04:34] Speaker D: Right. So. And then spellwise, I got mirror image, and then we just talked about this spell layer sense from deep magic by cobalt press that I'll also be using.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Claire, you are sorcerer in two different ways. Mostly the same. What happened to you at level eight?
[00:04:51] Speaker C: Well, the same thing happened both to daytime and nighttime Creedon. First off, with the ability score improvement, Creedon now has twiny charisma. It seems like the influence of both the luminous and radiant one have really given her skin some extra glow. She's looking real good.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Real luminous and radiant.
[00:05:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: You look lumadiant.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: Yes. That's going to be her makeup line.
She got a second 4th level spell slot both in her daytime and nighttime classes. She decided to learn greater invisibility.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Excellent.
[00:05:24] Speaker C: And she's got 58 hit points now. And that's about it.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: You enter the empire of Astragar and head to the sleepy city of Tuscan on the southern border. Tuscan is run by the church's conservative faction known as the promise, which seeks to preserve the current balance between the gods and the mortal realm. The town is patroned by the sun God, the radiant one, lord of light and leadership, and the creator of humanity. His symbolism adorns every building and every street corner. Anyone with a modicum of talent works for the church, and anyone who channels divine power is considered the upper echelon of society. Each God or goddess has a following of nearly a dozen leaders, people who channel magic energy from their God, organized into a hierarchy under a local council of ten bishops. In a society ruled by divine spellcasters held to a code of behavior by their patron deity, disorder and violence are largely eliminated. Everywhere you look are signs of the gods and worship. Above every door is a symbol of a favored divine. People stop to pray visibly as they pass each sign of a different God. Lesser divine miracles are available on display on any walk through town. The dark arbiters have arrived on one of the city's ten high holy days, known as the parade of masks dedicated to worship of the God of children and youthful rebellion. The mask. The city throws a parade for children and a carnival of various sweet tasting foods. The children all wear masks to the parade. They follow along behind it. It travels from each shrine to each shrine, visiting the ten shrines, one for each God. And the children are adorned in different divine symbols by their parents, hoping that the child will catch the attention of a God and join the top rungs of society someday. The wealthiest children are decked out in ten different divine symbols, along with their mask rattling around their tiny bodies, while poor children are limited to usually just a mask. Maybe one other symbol, but the town is hoppin as you march into town. It is a party. A very orderly and clean party, but a party nonetheless.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Children. I don't think so.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Tuscan is your first stop in the empire on your way to Astragar. If you leave town by the north, you can arrive there. But Tuscan is also where your employer is based, provincial governor Grimble Tanglebeard.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: It's also where Samu is, right? We wanted to have a word with him.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: Samu Elliard is also here. He runs a newspaper out of the government main building.
[00:07:58] Speaker C: Now, do we have anything that we wanted to like, any information we wanted to sell to Samu or. I remember that he wrote an article about you. Somebody got a hand on Boulain's report.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: He wrote an article about Palmville, and he mentioned Boulain by name, and so she's a bit upset about that.
[00:08:14] Speaker C: So that was the main driver of us wanting to talk to Samu. Yeah. Okay.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Well, it's the main reason I want to talk to him, and I think the reason Zuris wants to talk to him.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:08:23] Speaker D: I support you. Back you up.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Also, we were going to maybe talk to Tanglebeard, because that was not the narrative that we had agreed on, so we were probably going to ask him about how that came to be. And we probably need to explain ourselves about destroying the lock to kill the dragon.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: No, I think that that's somebody else's problem.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Well, it's definitely his problem. He's probably going to want an explanation.
[00:08:49] Speaker C: I guess he did do it as part of the.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: None of the navy died, though.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: You achieved the stated objective gloriously.
[00:08:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Said nothing about collateral damage.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: So maybe we go to Samu first.
[00:09:04] Speaker D: Let's go to Samu first. That seems fine about me.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: So you head to the capitol Building. Almost everybody is out and about again. There's a massive parade on, going through every shrine with children, specifically soliciting the potential patronage of gods and goddesses. And so pretty much all of the clergy are out. But as you get close, you see a tall, almost deathly thin individual in Bishop's robes. This is not necessarily a person you recognize. Go ahead and roll. History for all three of you, please.
[00:09:40] Speaker C: Happily. I'm so good at that. I paid so much attention in school. Actually, I did great. 21.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: You know this one?
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Yeah, 22. 22.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: Actually.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: All three of you know this person. He is not a tuscan official. Or was not when you left. But this is Bishop Dewalter Sturgeon. He was third or fourth in command in the radiant one temple in Astragar. He is an inquisitor, and so he is essentially an in empire investigator. He looks to be in his late sixty s and just rail, rail thin. Almost wasting thin.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: So does inquisitor in this world mean the same thing that inquisitor would mean in the real world? Interrogation via torture, that kind of nefarious thing?
[00:10:23] Speaker A: It depends.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Okie doke.
[00:10:25] Speaker C: Are we talking like, Zyrus level?
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Xeris would make a great inquisitor.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: I mean, he kind of already does.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Bishop de Walter Sturgeon is not having any of this festivity. Clearly. He is standing just outside the building, the administrative building for the town, looking sour, disapprovingly out at the crowds of people as they prepare for the parade to walk by. You see a small army of children, all in different kinds of weird masks, animal masks, princess masks, all kinds of things. Anything that mostly covers your face. Piling up to begin this parade. And Bishop DeWalter walks towards you. Excuse me, bishop.
[00:11:10] Speaker D: Bishop.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: I believe I recognize several of you. And my title precedes me. Wonderful. We have business. You are the dark arbiters. Xeris, Boulain and Samantha. Yes.
[00:11:27] Speaker C: Creedon, actually, but close enough.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Thank you. I will update my records. Please follow me to my office.
[00:11:37] Speaker D: Of course.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Can I do an insight to see how much trouble we're in?
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: Natural 20.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: You get the impression that Bishop Dewalter Sturgeon does not approve of you or your organization or the fact that your group exists, but you can't tell how much trouble you're in.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: He takes you to his office and gestures to a small set of furniture. And the first thing you notice is that you were in the mayor's office the last time you left Tuscan. Three months ago. He was not the mayor. In fact, he did not live in Tuscan.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: Tanglebeard was the mayor, right?
[00:12:14] Speaker A: No. Tangelmeard is provisional governor. Oh, so he lives in Tuscan, but he controls everything south of the border. So as you sit down, the old mayor was Thalia Donbringer, also a bishop of the radiant one. But he sits down at a desk, and you don't see any of Thalia's things lying around.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: Did something happen to Thalia?
[00:12:36] Speaker A: No. She has simply retired. Nearly 70 years old.
The church of the radiant one didn't feel her energy levels were as high as they needed to be any longer. Not when we have a heresy to investigate. Please have a seat on any of the couches. And he sits down and spins his little cushy chair around. Creighton will take a seat, as will zirus. Now, I have been promoted by Astragar to the bishop role here in Tuscan as the leader of the Church of the Radiant one. Here.
[00:13:14] Speaker D: Congratulations. Your excellency.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: Oh, thank you. I'm pleased that you are polite. I am also the head inquisitor of the cleansing light, the current investigation into our heresy problems involving the undead. So in my day, the promise administered the Fenrir province by sending paladins to solve every little problem. And Grimble Tanglebeard has, in his wisdom, determined that this strategy exposed the empire to too much risk. He assembled your organization, this dark arbiters, to do what was traditionally the work of the paladins. And my order. The promise feels that Grimble is. Well, his intentions are pure, but the execution is drastic. I mean, we have had leadership changes in three of the four towns. There's been reports of a dragon, major Corruption scandals. Let's just say his administration may be short lived.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Which is why I do not understand. You are faulting him for assigning people who uncovered corruption and fixed those problems.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: It's not about me at all. You see, as far as the empire was concerned, there were some negative headlines coming out of the province. You know, paladins dying, fighting great beasts, cursed fairy magic, that sort of thing. But there wasn't a string of headlines about government corruption. You see how that would look? It's been disappointing.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: It looks like there was government corruption and we rooted it out and fixed it.
[00:15:06] Speaker D: Your Excellency, if I may?
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Please. Serious.
[00:15:08] Speaker D: I think the problem isn't that these things happened or existed, because they did. I think the problem is maybe they've been given too much of a mouthpiece. And that mouthpiece has its own agenda. So one of the things we wanted to do, actually, while we were here was say hello to that individual.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Let's take our business in an order of operations before I give you any advice on dealing with Mr. Elliard. First off, Boulain Culema, you were a prime witness to the incident in Palmville.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: I was.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: This incident undermines one of our saints. Do you feel, in your wisdom, that he should be unsainted?
[00:15:54] Speaker B: I feel that that is not my call, bishop.
My duty was to report on new facts that had come to light that were covered up before.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: Indeed.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: What the empire decides to do with that information is not up to me.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: And could you clarify for me, because, again, the mouthpiece has an agenda. What were the facts that you submitted for the record?
[00:16:22] Speaker B: If you go to Palmville and look into the city record, I entered there everything that I found out.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Excellent. I will do that. Or I will dispatch someone to do that. I am concerned the church of the radiant one is displeased to hear that the official history is in refute. And the promise as an organization does not like instability.
Certainly not historic instability. In the future, when you discover new things, I would like you to bring them to me instead of grimble tanglebeard. Is that clear?
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Excellency, for matters that concern my order, I will report to my order.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: I wouldn't ask anything else of you. But logging historical records aren't necessarily the purview of the silent judge. So I think I have some say in the matter.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: She doesn't have an answer for that.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: Zerus.
[00:17:23] Speaker D: Excellency.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: You have been tasked with overseeing the young brightwind here. Creedon. Yes.
[00:17:32] Speaker D: As you can see, my ward is still in one piece against all ods.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: I have reviewed her case file. It would seem that in her youth she mistakenly aligned herself with some questionable entity. Is it in your approximation that her behavior has been righted?
[00:17:56] Speaker D: It is. I have seen her commit no heresies nor anything that seem precursors to such heresies.
In fact, as I understand it, she has deepened her connection with the gods.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Wonderful. That is wonderful news indeed. Congratulations.
Congratulations, creden. May I ask which God or gods?
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Well, of course. I've spent my entire life working to serve under divine mercy.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: And divine mercy is now patroning you.
[00:18:33] Speaker C: I'm a good liar.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: Can I ask something out of character? Is there anything wrong with her belonging to the radiant one and the luminous one? I mean, those are legit gods by the empires.
[00:18:45] Speaker C: It's a big deal to have two gods in your corner.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: I know it's a big deal to have two, but you could just name one. You could just name one.
[00:18:52] Speaker C: I wouldn't say it's true, but I don't know, I kind of want to. I don't know why I was. I guess I should have maybe talked to my.
[00:19:00] Speaker D: And I just said deepened. I didn't mean like you got magical powers from the fucking sky. I didn't say that. I just said you deepened your connection.
[00:19:08] Speaker C: Well, yeah.
If I am not getting power from elsewhere now. Oh, gosh, I'm going to lie to him. Yeah.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:19] Speaker C: Yes. Divine mercy has begun bathing me in her gifts.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Would you be so kind as to demonstrate one of those gifts?
[00:19:28] Speaker C: All right. What time of day is it? Is it daytime?
[00:19:31] Speaker A: It's definitely daytime.
[00:19:32] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:19:33] Speaker D: She gave me this cool wand.
[00:19:37] Speaker C: I mean, okay. I would know. Growing up in the Church of divine mercy, how does magic of the people that serve under her typically mana best?
[00:19:45] Speaker A: So he's asking you to cast a divine spell.
[00:19:48] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: When people are new, that's usually a cantrip, usually light or guidance or resistance. Some really basic thing.
[00:19:58] Speaker D: Thomaturgy.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: Thomaturgy. It's not uncommon. However, the more powerful your display, the more prestige it tends to get you. So if you would like to impress him, go big. If you'd like to just prove that you are divinely powered and deserve your position in the government, go small.
[00:20:17] Speaker C: Okay. Creedon will say, well, it's still rather new and I think I still have a lot to learn. But here she will walk up and touch his arm and cast cure wounds on him at the first level.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Oh, congratulations. Healing magic is notoriously difficult to fake. That was quite genuine. Congratulations, indeed. I'm thrilled at your progress. It would seem this stay of judgment put against you by the Church of Mask was well placed. Well done.
[00:20:53] Speaker C: Yes. These challenges, I think, have been exactly what I need to be able to write my path. And, well, now I have everything I ever wanted.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: The excesses of youth must sometimes be handled, but not as severely. We see the wisdom of Mask's teachings in your successful proliferation here. Congratulations again. I am going to have Governor Tanglebeard fire you. All three of you. Now, don't get upset, because I would like to.
[00:21:24] Speaker C: We're going to get paid, right?
[00:21:25] Speaker A: Oh, of course. He's good for it. But I would like to hire you immediately. You can keep your dark arbiter's distinction. In fact, it may even be more appropriate now that you are directly hired by the Inquisition.
[00:21:40] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: We have several issues in town that are in need of investigation, and I believe, given the accounts from the various survivors of the various incidents, that you three are, in fact, not members of any heresies. But I am going to ask very quickly, if you don't mind, and he starts to cast a spell.
[00:22:05] Speaker C: Can I do Arcana?
[00:22:06] Speaker B: Is he casting zone of truth?
[00:22:08] Speaker A: He's casting zone of truth. Yeah.
A Brilliant, daylight level energy swirls around the room.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: Villain flinches even though she's got her veil on.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: And he says, are the three of you familiar with the heresy of the mist?
[00:22:25] Speaker B: I know of the mist. Yes.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: The mist teaches that the gods are unworthy of worship and that humans should rely on their internal powers, their own capabilities. Are any of you a member of the mist heresy?
[00:22:43] Speaker B: No.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Creedon?
[00:22:46] Speaker C: No. I'm not completely sure what the mist heresy is.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Well, that's good. Keep it that way and you'll be fine. Are any of you familiar with the heresy known as the star?
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Are any of you affiliated with the heresy known as the star in which you believe that mortals have the ability to become gods?
[00:23:10] Speaker B: No.
[00:23:11] Speaker D: No.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: Wonderful. And are any of you familiar with the eternal heresy?
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:19] Speaker C: Are you still that I'm supposed to know?
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: The existence of these heresies is no secret. People have heard of these things.
[00:23:26] Speaker C: Okay. This is something that me, the player, is not remembering. If I've read this before.
[00:23:31] Speaker D: Yeah, it's stuff from the first world packet.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: This was knowledge we had going into the game.
[00:23:35] Speaker C: Oh, gosh. I even have that document up.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: It was a year ago.
[00:23:38] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay, you're excused.
[00:23:40] Speaker D: And also, this is Xeris's job.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: I do appreciate the reminder of what each of these heresies is, though, because I don't have that on the top of my head and I don't have the document up.
[00:23:49] Speaker C: Yes. The eternal. Let's see. Catching myself up on it.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: All right, hold on.
[00:23:54] Speaker D: I'm reading the cliff notes.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Creighton pulls the note card out from her sleeve. Oh, yeah.
[00:24:01] Speaker C: Okay.
Memorization was never my strong suit. Okay.
[00:24:06] Speaker D: Fucking cheater warlocks.
[00:24:07] Speaker C: She, like, pulls out her little pocket Bible that just has basic church stuff in it, and she's just. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, I remember this.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: It's written. The notes are on the bottom of your shoe.
[00:24:17] Speaker D: So you can cheat warlocks and sorcerers together. They know nothing of true scholarly work like a wizard does.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: So, assuming Creighton says yes, you're familiar with the eternal heresy.
[00:24:30] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: Then none of you are associated with the eternal heresy. And none of you directly worship eternal cycle or eternal knowledge here on the mortal?
[00:24:40] Speaker B: No.
[00:24:40] Speaker D: No.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: All right. And then just one more question. Given recent events, I wouldn't be surprised if some of your answers change here. But would you be familiar with the heresy of the rotten?
[00:24:56] Speaker D: No.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Is this something we would have heard of, Nate?
[00:24:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Is this related to pox religion?
[00:25:00] Speaker D: Check.
[00:25:01] Speaker B: I mean, I'm guessing it's related.
[00:25:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: Can we roll religion?
[00:25:04] Speaker A: Yeah, you can.
[00:25:05] Speaker D: 28.
[00:25:06] Speaker A: That's a six, not 2014. So, Zerus, there have been a few heresies of the rotten in the history of the empire. They are always snuffed out. Unlike the star and the mist and the eternal, these ones are fought with violence rather than just exile and shunning. But a heresy of the rotten is someone who raises undead and is a necromancer.
[00:25:33] Speaker D: Oh, yes.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: We have a new heresy of the rotten that we are investigating now. At this moment. Have any of you raised the.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: No.
[00:25:45] Speaker C: No.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Sirius, I need you to roll me a saving throw.
[00:25:53] Speaker C: Oh, my.
[00:25:54] Speaker D: Who did I raid?
[00:25:55] Speaker C: The drag dragon, maybe?
[00:25:58] Speaker A: Don't worry. Let's roll the saving throw. I'll tell you what happens.
[00:26:00] Speaker D: Wisdom safe.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: Let me double check that real quick. Zone of truth.
[00:26:05] Speaker C: We did kill that dragon.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: I want to make sure it's wisdom and not charisma, real quick.
[00:26:09] Speaker C: And that dragon is walking around still.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: You say charisma safe. At least that's what I have in my head.
[00:26:13] Speaker D: Okay, charisma is going to be 1212.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:15] Speaker D: But I didn't knowingly do it. I don't know. I'm telling the truth.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: No, but.
[00:26:19] Speaker D: I don't know.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Your nose stands, but you can feel the spell tickling in your nose. You are pushing the truth, but the spell does not react. And he says, excellent. With that out of the way. And he waves his hand and the light fades. You are hereby appointed inquisitors. You are the dark arbiters. We have several issues in town that need dealt with. Here's what I would like you to do. Once you're done checking in with Grimble who is on a short leash at the moment kindly inform him that you've accepted this role. And then I would like you to look into a few issues. Any objections?
[00:26:58] Speaker B: I have not yet accepted this role.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: How stubborn of you.
[00:27:04] Speaker C: Are we still going to be able to finish traveling to Astragar? I was kind of looking forward to going home.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: The inquisition is across the empire at this point. I see no reason. You may not. However, there are ten bodies missing from our local crypt.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Ten bodies?
[00:27:20] Speaker A: Every member of the silent judge's congregation is a suspect.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Who is in charge of the crypt?
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Well, the local bishop is Morgrim Gravebinder.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Morgren?
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Gravebinder keeps to himself, but has run the local mortuary as a family business. Each generation, his children have succeeded in achieving the silent judge's patronage. I believe he's a third generation.
What's the word? Mortician.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: Mortician, coroner, undertaker. Yes, most of us take on all of those roles.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: His three sons and two daughters have all been selected by the silent judge. As such, I believe another generation will go through this same thing. Unless, of course, they have been raising the dead. Now, Morgrim has, of course, 45 years of dedicated service. I not sure I would suspect him. But I need you to investigate his children. They are, of course, adults now, in their twenty s and thirty s. Are they human? Oh, yes. All of them.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: Two children in his thirty s and.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Forty s. They're all in their thirty s and forty s. He has five children. Three sons and two daughters.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: Nate, how much would I know about this whole family? Because she spent some time working in Tuscan before we started.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: You can roll. History or knowledge. Religion. Either one would be helpful here.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Do I get advantage because I've been around?
[00:28:46] Speaker A: They were not working where you were an itinerant person, so. I don't think so.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: I'm sorry, you said history or religion?
[00:28:54] Speaker A: Yes, we'll go with religion.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: That's a 14.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Okay, you've heard the name. So. Morgren. Gravebinder. His name wasn't originally Gravebinder. He chose that name when he became the bishop of Tuscan, which he did while you were working in Turtle Bay.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: Many, many years ago now. But for an elf, not so many. But that's it? That's all you know of him?
[00:29:14] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: There is a second issue I would like you to avoid. A falling star destroyed a farmhouse. It is an ill omen. It's being investigated by all of the bishops. Kindly stay away from the issue. I don't want you getting entangled in local politics just yet.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: Where is his farmhouse so we know where not to go?
[00:29:37] Speaker A: East of town, about a mile and a half.
[00:29:39] Speaker C: Can I do some kind of. I don't know, history or some kind of check on the superstitions that come around a falling. It sounded like there's superstition or something around it.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Religion would be really appropriate.
[00:29:54] Speaker C: Not so good at that one, but.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Oh, that's 1717. So divination is a very popular magic school by divine casters, and star based divination is considered one of the more legitimate forms of divination these days. And so people in all of the ten gods practices tend to have some knowledge of stars and starbased prophecies. A fallen star is usually a prophetic thing. So if you can find whoever the local diviner is, they could probably tell you what prophecy occurred when the star fell. And then the last order of business. You have been away in the province for some time. I will remind you that your authority as an inquisitor is derived from me. And you will only respond with violence when violence is called for.
[00:30:49] Speaker C: I'm awesome with that.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: Mr. Eliard is an upstanding citizen, as far as we know, a member of the chalice, a priest of the mask. And I would sure hate it if someone were to find proof that he was a member of the heresy.
[00:31:07] Speaker D: I can see why that would be difficult to process.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: Yes, it would be quite sad. A lifetime of work destroyed, one that would not be good for the chalice, but would certainly make the promise pleased.
[00:31:21] Speaker D: And it might fix the mouthpiece issue we talked about earlier.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: Indeed. So, Inquisitor Zerus of the dark arbiters, I assume you are ready to take on these tasks.
[00:31:32] Speaker D: I am, Boulane. Your questions suggested that you are also eager to get to the bottom of at least one of these issues. Is that correct?
[00:31:41] Speaker B: It is an issue that concerns my order. So, yes, I would like to get to the bottom of that one.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: All right, Creedon, I assume you're going to stay with your handler?
[00:31:50] Speaker C: Yes, of course.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: What a word.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: Excellent. Stay on the right side of the faith and everything will be okay.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: Sirius is a great influence.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Good. Do you have any questions for me before you get to work?
[00:32:05] Speaker D: No, your excellency. Just one comment from me. As you weigh Tanglebeard's next career moves, I will point out that he was on board with serving justice to family members and I think he has been a good governor of the province from this perspective.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: I'm concerned that my harsh nature and resting scowl face has given you the wrong impression about me.
I have no doubt that Grimble is a talented and honorable and excellent individual in all accounts. Politics dictate, however, that he have a close eye kept on him because he's not winning any favors back in the Capitol.
[00:32:50] Speaker D: I understand, your excellency. I just meant the fate of him.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: But I appreciate your endorsement for his personality.
[00:32:57] Speaker D: I'm trying to endorse his continued tenure.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: But yes, I do not have the direct authority to remove him. But I will keep your endorsement in mind when I file my reports.
[00:33:10] Speaker D: Thank you, your excellency. And I will work on all the things we discussed.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Excellent. And he stands up, and again, he's this just raily, deathly thin individual, and says, with that, it's time for my evening rest and a bit of tea.
[00:33:29] Speaker D: We will take your leave.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: And he walks you to the door and opens it up and closes it behind you. You're in the administrative building, which means Elliard and Grimble's offices are both just down the hall.
[00:33:41] Speaker B: Gulain slowly and loudly cracks her neck at one side and another and says, I need a bath.
[00:33:49] Speaker D: Should we talk to Tanglebeard first?
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Yes, let us talk to Tanglebeard first.
[00:33:55] Speaker D: All right.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: How do you feel about this, Cirrus?
[00:33:58] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:33:58] Speaker D: I find it kind of an exciting opportunity.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: Creedon.
[00:34:02] Speaker C: I don't know how to feel out about a lot of this. I don't know. I like Tanglebeard. I don't love the idea of planting evidence to sentence people.
[00:34:12] Speaker D: What? What are you talking about?
[00:34:14] Speaker C: Was that not the implication for taking care of Samu?
[00:34:19] Speaker B: We have more or less been instructed to find him guilty of heresy.
[00:34:23] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: Third is true or not.
[00:34:26] Speaker D: We were told pointedly that it would be a shame if that were to happen. I don't understand what you're talking about.
[00:34:34] Speaker C: Okay, Zerus. Yeah, forget I said anything.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: I very much dislike politics.
[00:34:43] Speaker D: For sure.
[00:34:43] Speaker B: It has very little to do with my calling, and I prefer it that way. And I do not appreciate being conscripted into a political scheme.
[00:34:54] Speaker D: You know, maybe it's a good time for a bath, too. Who knows? But let's talk to Tanglebeard first.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: It is a good time for a bathrooms. Sastildi Part one Lord Artemis Estildi is the current executor and owner of the Southern Ocean Trading Company. The company boasts twelve freighter ships and keeps a private tier contract with known smuggler smiling zona argent, all information available around the docks. According to Harbor Master records, the Southern Ocean Trading Company has monopoly trading power to the diverse and extensive chain of small southern jungle islands. The climate produces rare plants and animals along with sugar and tobacco making. Zestildi, the pet and potion supplier to the rich and famous while also producing staple crops for the commoners. According to Turtle Bay City records, Lord Zestildi is a widower with a live in consort who has six children of his own. The oldest boy fled his father's influence to become a wanted pirate, Richard Zestildi, known as Dicky the Devious. The remaining children of Lord Zestilde have all entered the family business and see to the various shops and trading posts, with Lord Zestilde's oldest daughter seemingly permanently placed in the jungle islands, married to a local jungle lord, nearly impossible to get close to Zestildi proper interviews with extended business colleagues describe him as a detail and metric oriented man running a fairly flat organization. His children hold a majority of important positions and describe his parenting as protective but strict. Zestildi's business contacts appear to be the closest thing to his friends and comment that he's a wry sense of humor but is quick to anger and grow confrontational, but is just as quickly back to normal. There is some evidence that he focuses on the negative. Taking all this into consideration is likely we're dealing with a controlling personality with low levels of emotional intelligence resulting in anxiety. We should expect him to lash out, but by appealing to a clear set of business rationale, he can just as quickly be won back. There is some slight indicator that he suffers from paranoia, but it's hard to not be paranoid when your son is a pirate and a terrorist bent on your destruction. Investigations into local occult activity confirmed that Lord Zestildi was using his immense fortune and herb supply chain to patron a local death priestess, Instin Dreylin. The purpose of this commission was to reanimate the gargantuan dragon turtle skeleton, forming an island in the harbor. Investigation of the ritual site exposed bone dust from the local catacombs, along with rare herbs that could only be purchased in bulk from the Southern Ocean Trading Company, as well as local night laborers supplied with funds from Zestilde cotfors. Timing of the ritual will coincide with a large gathering of navy forces in the harbor scheduled in response to the black dragon of the swamp's recent river raids. Zestildi money produced an open contract for the death of the dark arbiters, for which seven people could be found to make an attempt on their lives. Exotic but dangerous animals removed from the Sicili warehouse to form an ambush location. The ambush was foiled with assistance from my local organizational contact and suffered from a lack of planning time, though it has clearly had an effect on Bouling's paranoia. Given the complexity it is unclear if the assassin contract was in response to the dark arbiter's connection with Dicky the devious, or if they contacted Dickie out of desperation to avoid further angering house Cecili. But the center for operations in Dragon Turtle Resurrection was firebombed shortly after the assassination attempt, resulting in a half dozen casualties, most notably the ritual caster, Imston, who was clearly killed before the bomb went off. The dark arbiters left the investigation. Too many questions remained unanswered, and the truth must be ascertained. Can Zacildi find another caster capable of such a wild ritual? What did Zacildi hope to gain from a devastating and heretical assault on the navy? Why choose Imston as an ally, given that his own private army was likely sufficient? Given the information network, why did no other coin lords or religious factions intervene? I will return to Turtle Bay to conclude the investigation and ensure the danger has truly passed.
[00:39:02] Speaker C: Creedon was thinking of bath. She may want to go for a walk and clear her head. I guess she'll vocalize that and say, would you be willing to talk to Tanglebeard without me?
[00:39:12] Speaker B: If you wish.
[00:39:13] Speaker C: I don't know. Collect my portion of the payment.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: Are you all.
[00:39:17] Speaker C: I just. I don't know. I guess I'm nervous. A lot of things have been changing in my life.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: It has been a lot to process.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: Creedon, are you okay with me going off?
[00:39:27] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:39:27] Speaker C: On my own.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Go do what you need to do. Please stay out of trouble.
[00:39:31] Speaker C: Please. The last thing I want right now is trouble.
[00:39:33] Speaker D: Stay out of the east side of town.
[00:39:35] Speaker C: Yes, please.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: Under no circumstances should you go to the east side of town with no subterfuge.
[00:39:42] Speaker D: Seriously, don't.
[00:39:43] Speaker C: The east side of town was where the. Oh, the falling star thing.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Do not use your greater invisibility spell to go and see if you can find out what is going on out there.
[00:39:54] Speaker A: Don't wink wink.
[00:39:59] Speaker B: Under no circumstances should you see who.
[00:40:01] Speaker C: Is involved, what happened, and what the fallout is. I actually wasn't even thinking of doing that.
But now that you've brought it up, that's also a good idea. A mile and a half is a.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: Very nice long walk there and back 3 miles. That should give you plenty of time to clear your head.
[00:40:20] Speaker C: Dang.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: So you two, Xeris and Boulain arrive at Grimble's office. Grimble is covered in a mountain of paperwork. You see the stamp of Sternheim on most of it. He seems to be working through a bunch of invoices as he looks up and he says, oh, you're here. Sorry. I would normally be out doing the parade thing, but you look well buried in work.
[00:40:43] Speaker B: You have your own parade going on in here, I see.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: Yes.
Also, I have to give you a heads up. I have a babysitter now from the Capitol.
[00:40:51] Speaker D: We met him. He was very eager to talk to us.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: Yes, we just talked to him.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Oh, I'm sorry.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: So were we. Or at least I was.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Yes, well, he's. Oh, what's the word?
Forceful.
[00:41:05] Speaker D: Indeed. He's also decided we're better in his.
[00:41:09] Speaker B: Forceful is a word you could use for him, yes.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: Yeah, well. So it would make my babysitter happy if I were to relieve you of duties in the province. But I am not going to fire you. You are still the dark arbiters, and you still maintain my authority in the province.
[00:41:27] Speaker D: Excellent.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: Thank you for the work you've done.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: Thank you. Tangled beard. Whatever trouble you are in. I know. I do not know all the ins and outs of the politics of the situation, but I have a feeling it is unjust for you to be in trouble.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Well, here's the rub of it. I was not great at politics, and that's why I got this job. The province is a hot potato, if you will. Nothing good ever comes out of administering it. It is beset by monsters and fairy magic. It's essentially a war zone, and it is largely lawless. Anyone who gets this position usually finds themselves retired shortly thereafter. I tried to do something different. In a way, it worked. But we'll see how much longer they'll let me hold the position. Long enough to ensure stability, I hope.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: Can I ask what you are in trouble for, Tanglebeard specifically?
[00:42:25] Speaker A: To be honest, the press around the different issues has been a bit more revealing as of late, and it's been a bit of a problem for me. But nothing published, to my knowledge, has been a lie. And so there isn't really a recourse, at least legally, for me to do anything about it. And to be honest, Chester was corrupt. Val was corrupt. The problems below the Palmville cemetery, the corruption below the Palmville cemetery was there. Honestly, the only good news to come out of the last three months is that the march sage Mason is dead.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: Yes, that was good news.
I have a question that is frankly personal to me about the story that was published about Palmville. Because from what I understand, you would have had to okay the information that Eliard used to write that article, and it did not match the story we agreed upon when we spoke in Sternheim.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: When we spoke in Sternheim. You asked me to subtly correct the record, implying that the two priests were not woolly, evil entities and that their acts were driven by desperation. And that is what I wrote and that is what I filed.
[00:43:49] Speaker B: So the embellishments here are eliards, do.
[00:43:52] Speaker A: You refute the details?
[00:43:54] Speaker B: I do not. I am not happy that my name was attached so publicly to this story. I am a very private individual. Tanglebeard.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: Well, I didn't approve his stories. I just filed the paperwork. He went and found it. Say what you want about Samuel Elliott. He is a talented researcher and a tireless pursuer of the truth. Anyway, him making my life difficult isn't necessarily a problem. He's trying to do what he thinks is right and he's an asshole.
[00:44:30] Speaker D: There is that.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: It is a frequent occurrence in history that the people who were on the side of the right were often viewed as the assholes of their time.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: Perhaps he pulls a bag out of his drawer and sets down 300 gold pieces on the desk and says, I believe this is what you are owed.
[00:44:49] Speaker D: It is. Thank you.
[00:44:50] Speaker B: We will see credence to her.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: We are sorry about the damage to the lock. That must be another one of your is.
[00:44:58] Speaker A: It is, actually. I am not at all sorry about the damage to the lock. I mean, it's a shame it happened, but I'm going to go work on it personally. And that will get me out of Tuscan. It'll get me away from the babysitter. It'll get me back to the part of worshipping divine hammer that I enjoy.
[00:45:15] Speaker B: Well, good. I am sure you and gray street will get along famously.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: Ah, Gray street, yes, an old engineer. I think he and I will swap quite a few stories. Well, if you need anything, by all means. And you're still on the record as provincial agents, so if you find yourself in the provinces in need of business, I trust you to throw my. Nay around with good intentions.
[00:45:42] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:45:43] Speaker B: Also, Tanklebeard, I do not know if you have had communication from the sharp edge of the pub, but they were headed back to Turtle Bay because they were not convinced the trouble there was resolved and they could probably use some support.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: I have received communication from them and I expressly told them that I do not have authority in Turtle Bay, that it belongs to the admiral, and they needed to get their asses out of there. Their response was, and he picks up a little piece of paper and slides it across the table, and it just says, in shockingly perfect handwriting, the truth is all that matters.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: I thought it was going to say, go fuck yourself.
[00:46:22] Speaker D: I'm sorry. This was from sharp edge.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm guessing from the handwriting that that is dread.
[00:46:29] Speaker B: He does always talk about finding the truth.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Anyway, they're ignoring my orders. It would seem, in favor of what is hopefully justice. I am going to alert the admiral that they no longer work for me soon. And whatever they get up to is whatever they get up to.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: Given your present difficulties in the mired paperwork you are dealing with, it is probably best you wash your hands of them if they are going rogue.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Well, chastity kept them in line. Her ambition was always aligned to the goals of the capital. Without her, it seems Max and Dredd are younger and more foolhardy.
[00:47:11] Speaker D: Unfortunate.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: Well, they seem like good people. I hope they use their talents to help where they can.
[00:47:20] Speaker D: I hope so. I hope it's helpful what they're doing.
[00:47:23] Speaker A: Anyway, Eliard is, of course, a mask priest, and it is mask day, so if you're looking for him, I'm sure you will find him at the head of the parade.
[00:47:33] Speaker D: Excellent.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Indeed. Well, thank you, Tanglebeard. It has been a pleasure to work for you.
[00:47:38] Speaker A: Well, don't speak as if it's over. Whenever you're done doing whatever it is that you've been conscripted into by whoever has gotten their way today, you're always welcome here.
[00:47:50] Speaker B: Good luck in the locks.
[00:47:51] Speaker A: Indeed. I will be leaving in the morning. All right, so you step out. Eliard's office is right there. It just looks locked.
[00:47:59] Speaker C: Is that Samu's office?
[00:48:01] Speaker A: Samu, Eliard. Yep.
[00:48:02] Speaker C: Yeah. While they were talking to Tanglebeard. I need to do a thing before they talk to Samu.
[00:48:06] Speaker A: Yeah. What are you gonna do?
[00:48:07] Speaker C: As soon as Creighton is out of sight of people, she's going to cast regular invisibility on herself because it lasts for an hour, and then she's immediately going to try to find Samu.
[00:48:14] Speaker A: Okay, so roll me. Let's go with perception.
[00:48:17] Speaker D: And then she's going to stab him.
[00:48:20] Speaker B: Right in the throat.
[00:48:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I add nothing to perception.
[00:48:25] Speaker A: 1414. Okay, so you have a problem. You know that he is a clergy of the mask. You know that he is probably in the parade, but everyone in the parade is wearing a mask. You can definitely tell he's not the children, but there are actually a whole lot of adults marching along with them.
[00:48:43] Speaker C: So he wouldn't be in his office then?
[00:48:45] Speaker A: He's definitely not in his office. Okay, your 14 tells you he is in the parade. You think he's probably one of the people in the front. It looks like three older guys in masks are leading the front.
[00:48:57] Speaker C: Okay. How long does this parade go on for?
[00:48:59] Speaker A: It walks a whole loop around town, so probably 2 hours.
[00:49:03] Speaker C: And how far in is it?
[00:49:05] Speaker A: It's made it through about half the town, so it's probably going to go on for another hour. But it's such an informal event. It follows a set path, but it's just a giant crowd of humanity walking from shrine to shrine, surrounding this legion of children.
[00:49:19] Speaker C: Man, I wish I had message. Why didn't I take that? Well, there goes that idea. Can I walk to the farmhouse? Yeah, jog to the farmhouse. Try to get there and back in an hour.
[00:49:30] Speaker A: So you get toward the farmhouse just on the edge of this farming property. There is a guard posted. Several of them are wearing divine emblems of sister truth. And they are keeping people off the property, but it's like a mile by a mile. So they're keeping people from approaching the property on the road. I'm also invisible, and you're invisible, so you just walk right by them. Roll me an advantage. Stealth roll.
[00:49:57] Speaker C: All right. What dice do I want to use for this one? I'm going to use these two.
Okay. My dex is. All right, that's also a 14.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: Okay. So you walk on by them. They don't respond to you because they can't see you, but they do seem to hear something as you walk by. And so they go on to alert, but you get by them just fine and take yourself a nice leisurely stroll. The farmhouse is a crater. It landed directly on the house. The impact is such that it has collapsed the barn. It has collapsed the pens. You see all the animals are loose out eating the crops in the field. It's a disaster for this farmer, if they're even alive. And judging from the damage, your guess is they're not? Give me an investigation role crap.
[00:50:48] Speaker C: Where's my good at that boyfriend when I need him? That's a two, probably plus zero. Yes, indeed. That's a two.
[00:50:58] Speaker A: All right, so you walk up to this crater, it's disastrous looking. And the one thing you notice is that under the debris of the. I mean, the house, there's. Calling the house debris is generous. You can't even see a part that you thought probably belonged to a house. It's just splinters. But the barn collapsed. And that is still kind of visibly a thing. And you walk over towards it. Yeah.
So as you get up next to it, there seems to be some movement under the collapsed barn.
[00:51:33] Speaker C: I feel like I'm in danger.
I mean. Yeah. Creedon, would be curious. She's gonna probably get closer and try to see what it is. Still being invisible, okay. With her two investigation.
[00:51:45] Speaker A: So you walk towards it, you hear echoing in your mind. Who there?
[00:51:53] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:51:58] Speaker C: Nobody'S around, right? No. People that I can see are near me.
[00:52:01] Speaker A: You don't see anybody?
[00:52:02] Speaker C: Okay. In that case, I will speak up and say that this is Creedon. Who is there?
[00:52:09] Speaker A: Fall to hear.
Nameless, formless.
[00:52:16] Speaker C: Where did you fall?
[00:52:22] Speaker A: Heavy.
[00:52:23] Speaker C: Oh, gosh. So there's like something under a pile of wood?
[00:52:26] Speaker A: Probably.
[00:52:29] Speaker C: I don't think I want to free it by myself.
What do you want? Other than getting out of. From under all of that stuck.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: Help.
[00:52:42] Speaker C: Oh, gosh. What does Creden do? She likes helping helpless things. I'm rolling a dice for this. Creedon's going to help it.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:52:50] Speaker C: She's going to try. She's not very strong. She probably can't even help, but she'll try.
[00:52:56] Speaker A: Give me an athletics roll.
[00:52:58] Speaker D: This is where you roll the 20?
[00:53:01] Speaker C: No, I rolled another two, so that's going to be a one.
[00:53:06] Speaker A: Okay. There is a shifting of lumber as you try to pull up, and the whole barn shunts 2ft to the right, and in your mind you hear, oh.
[00:53:19] Speaker C: My God, did I kill it?
[00:53:20] Speaker A: You still don't see anything?
[00:53:23] Speaker C: Are you still there?
[00:53:24] Speaker A: It does not respond.
[00:53:27] Speaker C: Walks back away.
Oh, no, wait. I can heal things, but I can't see it. I can't heal it. If you can't see it, you can.
[00:53:37] Speaker A: Roll me an investigation.
[00:53:38] Speaker C: Oh, gosh. Okay, I can do it again. I'll try it.
That's a 15.
[00:53:44] Speaker A: Okay, so as you're digging through it, you find a frog, a bright kaleidoscopic green frog. It's weirdly shaped. Instead of hopping like a frog, it's got functional back legs. Instead of having front paws, it's got almost like arms, but it's about half the size of a small cat, and there is a board jammed through it. It seems to be the only thing moving in this area, and it's just twitching there, and I cannot lift the.
[00:54:13] Speaker C: Board off of it.
[00:54:14] Speaker A: You did not try. You can.
[00:54:16] Speaker C: I want to try.
[00:54:17] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:54:18] Speaker C: Is that another athletics check?
[00:54:20] Speaker A: Actually, medicine would be more appropriate.
[00:54:22] Speaker C: Okay. Because I want to heal it, but not while it still is a thing in its chest.
[00:54:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:29] Speaker C: Oh, gosh, what do I have? Medicine? Oh, gosh, I have so much my wisdom and intelligence just in. That's an eight.
[00:54:36] Speaker A: An eight. Okay.
[00:54:37] Speaker C: God, I'm such a fool.
[00:54:39] Speaker A: So you grab the board and pull it out of him. You see it kick several times and then the hole in the chest of this frog just fills back in slowly with froggy bits.
[00:54:52] Speaker C: Wait without me casting cure wounds on it?
[00:54:54] Speaker A: You didn't cast anything.
[00:54:55] Speaker B: And while it had the gaping Chest wood, you're like, I remember this from dissecting frogs in 7th grade.
[00:55:02] Speaker C: I feel like. Would they do that in divine mercy school?
[00:55:05] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: Probably not.
Roll me a nature roll, please.
[00:55:10] Speaker C: You're making me roll everything I'm bad at.
[00:55:12] Speaker A: Yeah, this is not for you.
[00:55:15] Speaker C: That's an eleven.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: An eleven? Okay.
[00:55:18] Speaker B: I mean, you did come out here on your own.
[00:55:20] Speaker C: I know, I'm an idiot.
[00:55:22] Speaker B: In spite of us specifically telling you not to.
[00:55:25] Speaker C: I wanted to find Samu and talk to him and he's off wearing masks, okay? That was my original goal. You just put new ideas in my head.
[00:55:34] Speaker A: Its blood is neon yellow.
[00:55:37] Speaker C: That's cool.
[00:55:38] Speaker A: You think maybe it glows in the dark?
[00:55:40] Speaker C: Well, that's just cute.
[00:55:41] Speaker A: But it's weird as hell and its eyes flutter open and you hear in your mind, you save.
[00:55:49] Speaker C: Yes. What are you? Is it invisible if I pick it?
[00:55:52] Speaker A: No. No it's not. But it's so small. It's irrelevant.
[00:55:57] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:55:57] Speaker A: And like if you tuck it in your clothes, it would probably disappear, but it says.
[00:56:03] Speaker B: Oh.
Oh boy.
[00:56:07] Speaker C: Nice to meet you. Harold.
[00:56:09] Speaker A: Harold. So what do you do now, Harold? Change.
[00:56:15] Speaker C: What? Did you used to be a Harold?
[00:56:17] Speaker A: And you see his body start to shift a little bit and after a second or two there's just a cat.
[00:56:23] Speaker C: Oh, good. I thought this was some kind of princess and a frog situation and I did not want to kiss it.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: But you'll kiss the cat?
[00:56:29] Speaker A: No, it's a cat.
[00:56:31] Speaker C: Does it also change to cat size then?
[00:56:34] Speaker A: It's still a very tiny cat. It's like a baby kitten.
[00:56:39] Speaker C: Oh my God, I love this thing. Definitely taking it home with me.
[00:56:43] Speaker A: It happily curls up into a pocket.
[00:56:45] Speaker C: Do you want to go with me?
[00:56:47] Speaker A: Change.
Time, Harold time.
[00:56:52] Speaker C: Okay, I just got to check. What do you eat?
[00:56:55] Speaker A: Time.
[00:56:56] Speaker C: I mean, I guess I don't see any harm in eating time.
[00:57:02] Speaker B: Time is in the earth, right?
[00:57:04] Speaker C: T-H-Y-M-E. You're just eating all the time. It's always there.
I mean, I will have to have a deeper conversation with this thing, but I don't have a clock running on invisibility. So I suppose I'm going to tell it that I'll take it with me for now and try to help it with whatever it wants as long as it doesn't want anything too crazy. And then I stuff it in my pocket and then try to sneak back out and get back to town.
I guess just like in an alleyway, I'll drop my invisibility and try to participate some in the parade. Kind of. Still trying to find Samu, but I assume at this point they're probably also looking for me.
[00:57:49] Speaker A: We'll see what happens with them. So back over to Zerus and Boulain. Eliard's office is right there. The door is locked. You're guessing he's not there.
[00:57:57] Speaker B: Do we wait or do we go find him?
[00:57:59] Speaker D: Well, I have a couple of questions because now I kind of want to be a dick.
[00:58:07] Speaker C: So, Nate, as opposed to usual?
[00:58:10] Speaker D: Well, this is more of an out of game level. I want to ask a few questions about spells. Yeah, specifically the spell we'd already discussed. Layer sense.
So two questions. One, it never says anywhere in here that I need to leave the valuables in the area.
But it is a reasonable assumption that that is required, even though not stated.
[00:58:38] Speaker A: I think if you leave something of equivalent value behind, that would suffice.
[00:58:44] Speaker D: So the thought is to cast as a ritual layer sense on Samu's office, making his office and the entry that I can gain access to the layer so that I know when someone's in the office.
[00:58:56] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:58:57] Speaker D: How against the spirit of things does that feel?
[00:59:01] Speaker A: I think you would need to slide something under the door of value.
[00:59:05] Speaker D: Well, I was going to say the office and the first 3ft in front of the door, which I have access to.
[00:59:11] Speaker A: Yeah, sure, that would work.
[00:59:12] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:59:13] Speaker C: This may be the first time that our party has had absolutely opposite, conflicting goals.
[00:59:19] Speaker D: I'm just trying to figure out when someone's in there and when they're not seem.
[00:59:25] Speaker C: And you really have hated him the whole time.
[00:59:29] Speaker D: Yeah. I'll sit down. I mean, I'm assuming the office is. The admin office is fairly clear right now at the moment, anyway.
[00:59:35] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. There's very few people. The only people in the building have no love of fun.
[00:59:41] Speaker D: Yeah, as long as I don't see any social or overly concerning reason why I couldn't just spend ten minutes and cast a spell there in the hallway on like a bench. I'll totally do that.
[00:59:55] Speaker A: No, you do it.
[00:59:56] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:59:56] Speaker B: Elaine will just stand around awkwardly while you do this.
[01:00:01] Speaker C: What you doing?
[01:00:03] Speaker B: Do you tell her what you're doing?
[01:00:05] Speaker A: Sure.
[01:00:05] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm just putting a spell on the office to know when someone enters or exits the office.
[01:00:12] Speaker B: That is probably wise. I would rather not wait around for the parade to finish.
[01:00:17] Speaker D: Exactly. Also, what I'm going to do is take 500 gold of gems and stash it up under the bench. I'm on.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: Done.
[01:00:25] Speaker D: So now we have eyes. Excellent. How about a drink?
[01:00:30] Speaker B: You're having a drink?
[01:00:31] Speaker D: I'm asking what you think about going and getting a drink and maybe a bath.
[01:00:35] Speaker B: Yes, I could do both of those things. And then I should probably start looking into this crypt issue.
[01:00:41] Speaker A: Yeah, you find a classy inn to rest and relax, Creedon. You get back to town. The parade is wrapping up. Give me another perception roll, please.
[01:00:50] Speaker C: All right, that's an eleven. Get such middling or bottoming roles here.
[01:00:57] Speaker A: The masks are really a problem for identifying humans, but you are pretty sure it starts and ends at the shrine of masks. So one of the people around here is Samuel Elliott, if you would like to talk to him.
[01:01:10] Speaker C: Yeah, she's going to try to do that. I want to make sure that I think that this came up actually in game, but I also know that I've read these character sheets, so I want to make sure I'm not metagaming. I believe that either Max or dreaded vintage that Samuel was an important person to them.
[01:01:24] Speaker A: Max did.
[01:01:25] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:01:26] Speaker B: Max expressed that he really likes him and they seem to know each other going way back when we encountered them together.
[01:01:32] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, the people that I care about, care about Samu.
[01:01:36] Speaker B: Max likes everybody.
[01:01:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, Max likes everybody. But it did seem like, I don't know, this was important.
[01:01:42] Speaker B: Max even liked the dude who challenged him to a duel and tried to bludgeon him.
[01:01:47] Speaker C: That was very cool.
[01:01:49] Speaker B: And then hired him.
[01:01:51] Speaker C: And he turned out to be great. Look at how good he did against that dirk.
[01:01:55] Speaker B: He did great. He did do great. Chim chom. Chum, the chump.
[01:01:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Do I just wait around and roll another perception check?
[01:02:02] Speaker A: No, but you're going to have to ask around for him. The result of this is that people know you're looking for, uh oh. But you do find him. So Samuel removes his mask and again, he's an older professor looking guy, and he says, oh, yes, Creedon, right?
[01:02:18] Speaker C: Yes, you got it right. This you remembered.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I try to remember all of my good sources and leads, although you haven't come back to give me any. You got anything good? Anything juicy? And he pulls a little notebook out.
[01:02:34] Speaker C: Yeah, well, we have been a little bit busy. Are we still in the public square?
[01:02:38] Speaker A: I mean. Yeah, but it's so public that it's not even really. It's so public. It's private.
[01:02:43] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:02:44] Speaker A: There's a legion of people here.
[01:02:47] Speaker C: Well, Samuel, I do have, I guess, a scoop for you and that's that. I think that you're in danger.
[01:02:52] Speaker A: Oh?
[01:02:53] Speaker C: I've been traveling with Max and dread. I know that they care about you, but people do not like the stories that you have been writing. I think it's important that you keep doing what you're doing. But I think that you should go find them. They're internal, Bay. They might be able to protect you. I don't think that you're safe here.
[01:03:08] Speaker A: Roll me. Persuasion, that is.
[01:03:11] Speaker C: This is going to be good. Got to figure out what I add to that. Oh, baby. That is a 24 samu.
[01:03:19] Speaker A: Gives you a fairly serious look, it says. Well, the truth has gotten me in trouble in the past, and I am not surprised to hear it's doing it again. I'll tell you what. I'll go catch up with Max and dread in Turtle Bay for a couple of days. A couple of weeks, maybe. Do you think I have time to get some equipment out of my office or head home and pack?
[01:03:41] Speaker C: That I can't tell you.
I don't know how immediate this risk is, but I think you should make yourself scarce pretty soon.
[01:03:50] Speaker A: Well, I can't tell the truth if I'm dead.
He hands you a little card and a key and says, if you're staying in town, use my house.
[01:04:02] Speaker C: I'll take that. But I don't know if you want my companions in your house either.
[01:04:08] Speaker A: You know, there's nothing in there that shouldn't be public.
[01:04:12] Speaker C: Well, I don't know if I want them to know that you have offered me your house.
[01:04:16] Speaker A: I'll tell you what. Feed my cat or hire someone to feed my cat. We'll call it even.
[01:04:22] Speaker C: Okay. I'll make sure that's taken care of. Although I don't know what exactly is even here. Wade, I've done you a huge favor.
[01:04:30] Speaker A: Good point. And I owe you one.
[01:04:32] Speaker C: All right, I'll accept that.
[01:04:34] Speaker A: And with that, he puts a mask on and disappears into a crowd.
[01:04:39] Speaker C: Hey, wait. You didn't hear this from me.
[01:04:41] Speaker A: You realize you're talking to no one? No, a trickery priest just walked into.
[01:04:47] Speaker C: A crowd protecting his sources maybe.
[01:05:02] Speaker A: And that is our show today. Special thanks to Tod Ferguson of my pet machine for our tunes, Julie at elaborate flight of fancy for our logo. And to you for leaving us a rating and review. Wherever you found this. Our heroes have a new job working for a real jerk. Let the investigations begin. Next time on carrots and suffering, the D D odyssey.
