Campaign 2 (Astragar) Episode 45:Looking to the Stars

[00:00:30] Speaker A: Welcome to carrots and suffering at DND Odyssey. I am Nate, your dungeon master, and. [00:00:34] Speaker B: This is season four, book four of. [00:00:36] Speaker A: Carrots and suffering chronicles. Don't forget to leave us a rating and review. Onward. Last time on carrots and suffering. Our heroes arrive back in their homeland of Astragar after spending months as frontier. [00:00:50] Speaker B: Marshals in old Fenrir, only to find. [00:00:52] Speaker A: They are not as popular as they were when they left. [00:00:55] Speaker B: But there wasn't a string of headlines about government corruption. [00:00:59] Speaker A: You see how that would look? [00:01:00] Speaker B: It's been disappointing. [00:01:02] Speaker C: It looks like there was government corruption and we rooted it out and fixed it. [00:01:07] Speaker D: Your excellency, if I may? [00:01:09] Speaker A: Please. Serious? [00:01:10] 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. [00:01:31] Speaker A: Our heroes are drafted into a new job that is much more political than the old one, with a boss who sucks a lot more, which they don't love. So, inquisitor Ziris of the dark arbiters, I assume you are ready to take on these tasks. [00:01:46] Speaker D: I am. Poolain, your questions suggested that you are also eager to get to the bottom of at least one of these issues. Is that correct? [00:01:54] Speaker C: It is an issue that concerns my order. So, yes, I would like to get to the bottom of that one. [00:01:59] Speaker A: All right, Creedon, I assume you're going to stay with your handler. [00:02:03] Speaker E: Yes, of course. [00:02:04] Speaker C: What a word. [00:02:05] Speaker A: Creedon splits the party and does some investigation where she is specifically told not to. [00:02:10] Speaker B: And it doesn't go great. But she does make a new friend named Harold. [00:02:14] Speaker E: You're making me roll everything I'm bad at. [00:02:16] Speaker A: Yeah, this is not for you. [00:02:18] Speaker C: I mean, you did come out here on your own. [00:02:21] Speaker E: I know. I'm an idiot. [00:02:23] Speaker C: In spite of us specifically telling you not to. [00:02:25] Speaker A: It's like a baby kitten. [00:02:27] Speaker E: Oh, my God. I love this thing. Definitely taking it home with me. [00:02:31] Speaker A: It happily curls up into a pocket. [00:02:34] Speaker E: Do you want to go with me? [00:02:36] Speaker A: Change. Time, Harold. Time. [00:02:41] Speaker C: Okay. [00:02:41] Speaker E: I just got to check. What do you eat? [00:02:43] Speaker A: Creedon warns the local journalist away from the vengeance of Xeris and Mulane. [00:02:49] Speaker E: Well, Samu, I do have, I guess, a scoop for you. And that's that. I think that you're in danger. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Oh? [00:02:55] Speaker E: I've been traveling with Max and Dredd. 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 mean, I think that you should go find them. They're internal. Bay might be able to protect you. I don't think that you're safe here. [00:03:11] Speaker A: Okay, let's get into it. All right, you all get back together at the end. What's up? [00:03:25] Speaker C: I think Zerus is kicking Boulain's ass at chess. Probably. [00:03:30] Speaker A: Having freshly bathed. [00:03:32] Speaker C: Yeah, having crushed, actually. Can we roll for it? I mean, hell, what is it? [00:03:37] Speaker A: What is your chess skills? [00:03:38] Speaker D: Certainly can. [00:03:39] Speaker E: Is this intelligence? [00:03:39] Speaker A: Your intelligence modifier? [00:03:41] Speaker D: Except the problem is, I'm proficient. [00:03:44] Speaker C: I rolled a three. [00:03:46] Speaker D: I rolled a 14 for a 19. [00:03:50] Speaker C: All right, you did the beater in three moves thing twice. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Boulain doesn't seem to be learning this game very quickly. [00:03:59] Speaker C: He almost seems distracted. [00:04:03] Speaker D: Something on your mind, Bolane? [00:04:05] Speaker C: There are a lot of things on my mind, Xeris, but they are not necessarily in our control, so I will try not to worry about them. [00:04:14] Speaker D: All right. That's one approach. We've been traveling a while. We can talk if you want, but if you don't, I understand. [00:04:22] Speaker C: If I were to tell you we were just subjected to a zone of truth in which we all had to truthfully confess that we were not part of any heresy. So I want to be very clear that that is not what I'm going to allude to now. But if I were to tell you that my name in that newspaper is going to draw some very unwanted attention my way from a specific quarter, and I do not know what to do to mitigate that. And we are heading to Ashtragar, where this has a potential to come to a head. And I am not just worried about that. I am actually quite frightened of it. [00:05:00] Speaker A: All right. [00:05:00] Speaker D: I'll do what I can to protect you. [00:05:02] Speaker C: I appreciate that. Do you remember the man in Sternheim who I thought might be blackmailing me? [00:05:09] Speaker D: No. [00:05:10] Speaker C: He was the key witness who was given the go order on the. [00:05:14] Speaker D: Oh, yes, on the thing. [00:05:15] Speaker C: And he wrote the thing on the paper and said, get me a. [00:05:18] Speaker D: No, I do. Yeah. Yeah, I do remember him. [00:05:21] Speaker C: This has to do with that. And the more we get drawn into any kind of political situation, the closer I am coming to a certain fire because of that. [00:05:33] Speaker D: All right? [00:05:34] Speaker C: And I cannot really tell you any more than that. And I'm sorry. [00:05:38] Speaker D: Sorry. I know we haven't always been on the same page, but I'll protect you as best I can. [00:05:44] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:05:45] Speaker D: You're welcome. [00:05:46] Speaker C: I do not really want to mire you and Creed in this mess? If I can help it. [00:05:51] Speaker D: I think you're doing a good job dancing around the subject. Another game. [00:05:57] Speaker C: Another game. [00:05:58] Speaker D: All right. [00:05:59] Speaker C: Going to roll. [00:05:59] Speaker A: Sure. [00:06:01] Speaker D: We can certainly roll. [00:06:02] Speaker C: Oh, she does better. She has 16. Hey, you still won. But she actually put up a fight. [00:06:08] Speaker B: You paid attention. [00:06:09] Speaker C: I paid attention. Learned my lesson. [00:06:11] Speaker E: She had, like, four good moves. [00:06:14] Speaker A: Xeris was almost lured into a false sense of security by how badly you. [00:06:18] Speaker C: Did in the first seven minutes. If Belaine were better at, she could hustle. All right. I guess we'll be waiting for Creedon when she gets back. [00:06:28] Speaker E: Yeah, I guess Creedon eventually walks in. She probably, like, picked up. I assume that there's vendors selling little masks around. [00:06:37] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:06:38] Speaker E: You mentioned that there were, like, ten different types of masks, assuming for each God. [00:06:42] Speaker A: Oh, there are many types of masks. Most of them are not tied to the gods. But there are these divine pendants you can wear that all the kids are wearing to try to get the attention of gods. They're like good luck charms. [00:06:53] Speaker E: Just buy a little, I don't know, a little fun mask. Wear it back. [00:06:57] Speaker C: Okay. [00:06:57] Speaker A: You show up with a little froggy mask. [00:07:00] Speaker D: Oh. Who is this sitting at our table? Boulain? [00:07:04] Speaker C: I have no idea. Some crowdgoer has wandered in and come into our space. [00:07:10] Speaker E: Oh, I got to tell you, I have been feeling really homesick lately, and it is. I mean, you know, in the capital, there's always a parade or another for one of the gods. [00:07:18] Speaker C: I remember. [00:07:19] Speaker E: So nice to do one again. Feels like it's been so long. [00:07:23] Speaker D: I see you just wanted to join the festivities as a frog. [00:07:27] Speaker C: Did you clear your head? [00:07:28] Speaker E: Yeah, it's feeling a lot more clear. [00:07:31] Speaker C: Good. [00:07:31] Speaker E: So, how was Tanglebeard? [00:07:33] Speaker C: He was stressed out. [00:07:34] Speaker E: Can I have my money? Oh, yeah. [00:07:36] Speaker C: I suppose boulain hands over her hundred gold. [00:07:39] Speaker E: Was it 100 gold? [00:07:40] Speaker C: Yeah, it was 100 gold. [00:07:42] Speaker D: I will reluctantly give it to you. [00:07:44] Speaker E: Yes, write it down. [00:07:45] Speaker C: Now I have 1327 gold. [00:07:48] Speaker E: How do you have so much gold. [00:07:49] Speaker C: From their dragon horde? [00:07:50] Speaker E: Oh, yeah, I haven't added the amount from the dragon horde. [00:07:53] Speaker C: You know, like, how weighed down we would be with that much gold. Good God. [00:07:57] Speaker D: That's why I took mine in gems and precious objects. [00:08:00] Speaker E: Where did I write my gold? Oh, I must have wrote it on my old character sheet and didn't transfer it over. [00:08:06] Speaker C: To answer your question, Tanglebeard is stressed out and under fire from the empire, and he is going to get out of town for a while and go work on repairing the lock. So we sort of did him a favor. [00:08:17] Speaker E: Look at that. My glue made a job. [00:08:19] Speaker C: Your glue made a job for somebody who wanted to get away from here. [00:08:23] Speaker D: You're so good for the economy. [00:08:24] Speaker E: That's great. Hey, Nate, how much was 16 pounds of gold again? [00:08:28] Speaker C: 1227. [00:08:29] Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, it should be 1000 in addition to what you had. [00:08:32] Speaker C: Oh, 1000, right. Sorry. I added that to the amount of gold I already had. [00:08:36] Speaker E: Okay, cool. I was missing a one on the front of my sum of money. [00:08:42] Speaker C: So what is next? We are waiting for Samu to show up in his office, and I am needing to go talk to the crypt people. [00:08:50] Speaker D: Yep, that's about it. [00:08:52] Speaker C: Any disturbance on your spell? Zero. [00:08:54] Speaker D: Nah. We can go talk to the crypt people and let you know if Samu shows up. [00:08:58] Speaker C: All right, we'll go do that. [00:09:00] Speaker E: The crypt people. How many kids were there? [00:09:03] Speaker C: Five. [00:09:04] Speaker D: There are five. [00:09:05] Speaker C: Three sons, two daughters. Oh. [00:09:07] Speaker E: We should also have tried to find a local diviner at some point to find out something about that fallen star. [00:09:13] Speaker C: Oh, that's fun. [00:09:14] Speaker E: But the issues with the silent judge church, I think, are more pressing. If there's anything we've learned, it's not to put off possible issues of Undead resurrection. [00:09:24] Speaker D: Oh, I forgot to ask. I wanted to ask him why he thinks Undead are involved. Because he only mentioned missing bodies. He didn't actually mention undead happening. Speaking of not mentioning things, Creed, in what trouble were you in with the mask? [00:09:41] Speaker E: Wait, did they not brief you on at least a little bit of this? [00:09:45] Speaker D: No. [00:09:45] Speaker C: What did they tell you, sirs? [00:09:47] Speaker E: What did they tell you of why you were watching over me? [00:09:50] Speaker D: Hi. Here's Creedon. You should watch after her. She's a problem. [00:09:56] Speaker C: That is vague. [00:09:57] Speaker D: So what trouble did you get in with the church of the mask? [00:10:01] Speaker E: Well, I don't really want to talk about it here. She, like, looks around at the, I assume, rather bustling in on a festival day. [00:10:08] Speaker C: We got a room in the inn, right? [00:10:09] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:10:10] Speaker E: Oh, are we, like, in a room now? I thought we were, like, in the. [00:10:12] Speaker A: No, I mean, you were in the bustling inn. You can go to a room, though, or. [00:10:16] Speaker D: I'm sure there's not a lot of people on the walk to the morticians. [00:10:21] Speaker C: True. Yeah, because they're all in the parade, which is over there. [00:10:24] Speaker D: So we'll head towards the morticians. And at quiet points, when no one's around, you can fill us in on the story. [00:10:30] Speaker A: So the parade seems to be wrapping up and the concluding ceremony is being delivered. It's basically a fiery speech from a preacher, but you can hear riot. Emberhardt is the name of the local bishop of the mask, and he is firing the crowd up at the end of the festival. [00:10:49] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:10:49] Speaker E: The kids might also be at the festival. [00:10:52] Speaker C: They're adults. [00:10:53] Speaker E: Well, yeah, but it seems like everybody's kind of at it. [00:10:55] Speaker C: Everybody is probably there. Yeah. [00:10:57] Speaker A: And the festival is mostly breaking up now. You arrive at the catacombs. [00:11:02] Speaker E: Wait, hold on. [00:11:03] Speaker C: But on this walk, Zuris asked Creden a question. What is she going to say in answer to that? [00:11:07] Speaker E: Yeah. Okay. So, first off, is it possible for Creedon to prepare reaction while explaining things? [00:11:14] Speaker A: Yes. [00:11:15] Speaker E: Prepare it, actually. She wants to be ready to cast greater invisibility on herself in case she sees Xeris go for his weapon. Because while she has seen him be a little bit more flexible in his rules in recent days, she does still remember when he was very, very quick to the axe and is still kind of scared of him. Actually, still quite scared of him. But she is hoping that her long camaraderie together will temper any tempers. And on the walk, she will begin to, I think, very awkwardly explain. Well, you know how I was in the church of divine mercy and you know that I didn't get my power from divine mercy, right? Well, I might have rooted around in the areas of the library at the church that I wasn't supposed to get into, and I read some things that I thought would help me become closer to divine mercy and actually find her favor. But what I actually ended up doing was aligning myself with. How are you feeling? Are you doing okay? [00:12:20] Speaker D: I'm good. [00:12:21] Speaker E: You've had a beer. You're feeling pretty good. You won some chess games. [00:12:24] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm doing great. Thank you for asking. And deflecting. [00:12:29] Speaker E: Okay, so I may have aligned myself with the Faye, but I'm not involved with her anymore. Everything is all above board now. [00:12:39] Speaker D: So you would say you're reformed? [00:12:41] Speaker E: Absolutely. [00:12:42] Speaker D: All right, I'll tell you what. [00:12:44] Speaker E: All thanks to your influence, Siris. [00:12:50] Speaker D: No, as long as you do not act heretical or traffic positively with Faye in the future, I think we're good. [00:12:59] Speaker E: Honestly, my old patron made me incredibly uncomfortable. I'm happy to be, as far as I can tell, free from her influence. [00:13:08] Speaker D: That's excellent. Good news all around. [00:13:10] Speaker C: Sometimes, Creedon, we all do make mistakes, especially when we're young. And the best you can do is learn from that when you go forward, you know that it is best not to entangle yourself with the Fae. [00:13:23] Speaker D: That's true. [00:13:24] Speaker C: Not just because the empire says you are not supposed to, but the fay is bad for mortals, generally speaking, many laws. [00:13:33] Speaker E: Yeah. A couple of the other people that we interfaced with were also gifted power by my same associate. And things didn't end as well for them. [00:13:44] Speaker C: Who? [00:13:45] Speaker E: I don't know if we need to get into all that. [00:13:48] Speaker C: Did you know that you were going to meet other. What? Proteges? [00:13:53] Speaker E: She did warn me, but I didn't always know who it was. [00:13:58] Speaker D: Well, that's in the past, isn't it? [00:13:59] Speaker E: Yeah, as far as I know, she might be out of the business of gathering people to serve her at all. [00:14:05] Speaker D: Let's hope she is. [00:14:06] Speaker C: To the crypt. [00:14:07] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:14:09] Speaker A: So at the crypt, there is a crypt keeper. [00:14:12] Speaker C: And this is Morgrim. [00:14:13] Speaker A: You find Morgrim Gravebinder at the funeral home above the crypt. He is working in an office. Seems to be just reading a book at the moment. When you walk up, he lifts his head from his desk and stands up and walks out and. Welcome, welcome. Oh, Boulain Kulama. [00:14:33] Speaker C: Bishop. It is good to see you. [00:14:36] Speaker A: Yes, indeed. Good always to see a member. [00:14:39] Speaker D: Is he a bishop? I'm just making sure. [00:14:41] Speaker C: I'm sorry, I thought you said he was a silent judge. Bishop. [00:14:43] Speaker A: He is the local bishop. So the bishops in Astragar. Archbishops. So he is like local council member, title, bishop. [00:14:53] Speaker C: Great. [00:14:53] Speaker A: Okay. [00:14:53] Speaker D: Just making sure. Got it. [00:14:54] Speaker E: But is he like equivalent in authority to Bishop Sturgeon or Sturgeon's kind of like higher ranking, right? Because he's like the interim mayor. [00:15:02] Speaker A: So Sturgeon. Because this town is patroned by Sturgeon's God. He is the head of the council. Okay, so he is one level below sturgeon and on par with nine other bishops in town. [00:15:17] Speaker C: Okay. Bishop Graybiter, I hope things have been going well. More or less. I'm afraid I am on an unpleasant errand from your immediate boss. [00:15:29] Speaker A: I was expecting him to come in person, but was nice of him to send someone who at least understands the importance of the work we do here. [00:15:36] Speaker C: I thoroughly do. What can you tell me about the ten bodies that are missing? [00:15:42] Speaker A: Well, we didn't know to go looking for them until news broke. But once the news article was published, we went down to the catacombs and there were ten missing. They were newer, but not so new that we were looking. We were able to spot them immediately. They were a little bit further back in the catacombs. [00:16:05] Speaker C: Have we read this article? [00:16:06] Speaker A: You did? Yes. [00:16:08] Speaker C: Oh, this was part of the Palmville article? Yeah, I'm just not remembering. [00:16:12] Speaker A: Same article. [00:16:12] Speaker C: All right. [00:16:13] Speaker A: Bodies went missing in Astragar. Heresy was declared, inquisition was started. [00:16:19] Speaker C: We're in Tuscan, not Astragar, right? [00:16:21] Speaker A: Correct. [00:16:22] Speaker C: So there are also bodies in Astragar missing. [00:16:25] Speaker A: I mean, that started it all. [00:16:26] Speaker E: Yeah. One of the bodies missing was lake Frikers as well. [00:16:29] Speaker A: Correct. [00:16:30] Speaker E: And 100 others. I think that's what I have written. [00:16:33] Speaker A: Yes. In Astragar, there are 100 bodies missing. There are ten missing here in Tuscan. [00:16:38] Speaker E: That was some information, I think, that we also got from the order of the silver thread as well. So it might be related. [00:16:46] Speaker C: The arch sage told to send a message to Zuris, but I believe the. [00:16:50] Speaker E: Zuris shared that because that was, like, our next quest. [00:16:54] Speaker C: Okay, so we do know. Actually, no, this is not news. [00:16:56] Speaker E: Okay, well, I think the bodies in Tuscan is news. [00:16:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Do you have the names of the missing bodies and when they died and how they died? [00:17:03] Speaker A: I do. They were all natural causes. And he slides across a list with ten names on it. [00:17:11] Speaker C: She will either copy it or take this list if he's okay with her doing that. [00:17:16] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's fine. It's all people who have died in the last year and a half. [00:17:20] Speaker C: Are there any names of note on here that she would recognize? [00:17:23] Speaker A: None. [00:17:23] Speaker C: Are they all human? [00:17:25] Speaker A: Yes. [00:17:25] Speaker C: Okay, can I see the places where they were interred? [00:17:29] Speaker D: Yes. [00:17:30] Speaker A: We'll have to go down into the catacombs, but we can definitely do that. Let me get a lantern. [00:17:35] Speaker E: Yeah, let's go to the catacombs. [00:17:38] Speaker D: Into the catacombs. [00:17:39] Speaker E: We need to fight something. [00:17:40] Speaker C: Does cretan still like catacombs, or she got thoroughly disenchanted with the grossness of death? [00:17:45] Speaker E: I don't know. This is just Claire out of character, wanting to fight something because of him. Playing Balder's gate in the combat is fun. [00:17:52] Speaker C: All right. Down to the catacombs. [00:17:54] Speaker A: So you go into the catacombs. It is very much like any other catacombs. It's wall to wall spaces. Most of the ones near the door are empty. And as you move further in, they get more and more dense. There are just walls and walls of walls of bones, but a lot of them are not necessarily bones. They are in viewing positions, if you will. So quite a few of the ones that are close to the door mummified, almost like desiccated. And he brings you to the end of the desiccated section, and he says, they disappeared from here and gestures to a wall where there are ten empty alcoves. [00:18:30] Speaker C: Okay, can she investigate the empty alcoves to see if there's any clues here? [00:18:34] Speaker A: Yes. Roll me investigation. [00:18:36] Speaker C: Does anybody want to help? [00:18:37] Speaker D: Yeah, I'll help. I'm also. [00:18:39] Speaker E: I'll do my best. [00:18:41] Speaker D: Also curious. [00:18:42] Speaker C: Oh, that's good. That's a 19. [00:18:45] Speaker E: That's a four. Creedon is really wishing that she had taken some notes on how dread did. [00:18:49] Speaker A: His thing with a 19. There are some drag marks that go further back into the catacombs. They look like two solid drag marks. It might be like two wheels or two sled runners or something. [00:19:04] Speaker C: Trenches in the dirt. Or, like, marks on stone trenches in the dirt. Okay, what are those from? [00:19:09] Speaker A: He looks down and says, well, I don't know. We use a cart to get the bodies down here, but we haven't brought the cart this far in a long time. [00:19:19] Speaker C: Shall we go see? [00:19:22] Speaker D: All right, give me a minute. I'll cast detect magic. [00:19:29] Speaker B: Okay. [00:19:29] Speaker A: There is no magic in the area. [00:19:31] Speaker C: I will use my eyes of the grave to see if there's undead in the area. [00:19:35] Speaker A: There are no undead in the area. [00:19:37] Speaker D: Invocation. That's why I can cast it at will. I'm like, why can I cast it at will? That is nuts. [00:19:42] Speaker E: That was my old disguised self ability. [00:19:45] Speaker D: Have there been any sightings of undead or anything of. [00:19:48] Speaker A: No, no, of course not. We would have taken that very seriously. [00:19:52] Speaker D: As you should. [00:19:53] Speaker E: Can I do an insight on him? [00:19:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I would like to do that, too. [00:19:56] Speaker E: I can't tell if it's just you, Nate, and how you're doing this character voice or not, but he sounds suspicious. [00:20:02] Speaker C: I did not do. Okay, well, no, it's a twelve. I rolled a two and I got a twelve. [00:20:07] Speaker A: That's pretty good. [00:20:08] Speaker E: That is a 21. [00:20:10] Speaker A: 21. [00:20:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:11] Speaker A: He seems to be completely straightforward with you. [00:20:15] Speaker C: Earnest. [00:20:16] Speaker A: He says, well, let's follow these and see what happens. [00:20:20] Speaker C: I will not lie to you, Bishop. There is a concern about undead activity or raising the dead, given the recent activities in Palmville and Turtle Bay. [00:20:31] Speaker A: Turtle Bay? I didn't hear of any dead in Turtle Bay. [00:20:35] Speaker C: Never mind. There were not undead. There was a plot that was going to involve some undead and also some catacombs that were pillaged. [00:20:45] Speaker A: Has the inquisition been active for more than just a week, then? [00:20:50] Speaker C: No, we happened to be internal bay. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:20:53] Speaker C: Well, and those were my catacombs that were desecrated, so I took a personal interest. [00:20:58] Speaker A: I'm very sorry to hear that. And you have my 100% empathy, my outrage, as my catacombs have also been desecrated. [00:21:09] Speaker C: And with the bodies also missing in Astragar, this is becoming quite a concern. [00:21:14] Speaker A: Understandable. Let's look together to see where these tracks go. It's probably a cart. [00:21:22] Speaker D: All right, let's take a look. [00:21:23] Speaker E: Is tuscan known for having any really powerful people buried here? [00:21:28] Speaker C: Or. [00:21:29] Speaker E: I don't know. [00:21:30] Speaker C: Or saints? [00:21:31] Speaker E: It's not like Turtle Bay, where there's a big old bone monster hanging out nearby. [00:21:36] Speaker A: No, there's nothing like mean. You're assuming that this is all humans as far as the eye can see. And no saints. Most of them are buried in Astragar. Okay, so you follow the cart trails, and it winds down to the end of the catacombs, where, you see the ceiling of the catacombs isn't dirt. It's stone. And there is this large lifting contraption, mechanical device here, and it seems to be pressing on the ceiling from the floor to the ceiling. Think of, like, a giant forklift almost. And the two wheel lines lead right up to it where there are wheels. And he says, oh, my. This is the lifting device that Galen Gearsmith, the bishop of the vine hammer, locally made for us. Gosh, 20 years ago. Now, we needed it at the moment when a particularly sizable individual passed, but it's been just lying here unused. Someone wheeled it down to the end of the hall, clearly. [00:22:31] Speaker C: So, I'm Mandy. I'm not understanding what this thing is for. [00:22:34] Speaker A: It's a giant body lifting forklift. [00:22:38] Speaker C: Oh, I see. Okay, so they can use it to lift it into niches in the catacombs. [00:22:43] Speaker A: Yeah, but apparently they don't use it unless literally, like, a giant dice. [00:22:47] Speaker C: Okay, and it's in the ceiling, or it's pressing up. I guess. [00:22:51] Speaker A: It's currently lifted to, like, maximum capacity and is touching the ceiling. Yeah. [00:22:55] Speaker C: All right, well, could we lower it down? [00:22:57] Speaker A: We can do anything you need. And he walks over, and it has these different pole gears on it, and he says, just a moment. I haven't used it in gosh years. And he rolls himself a D 20. [00:23:08] Speaker C: To be clear, I am not going to stand anywhere in the vicinity under this thing in case it comes crashing down. And I'll make sure Zuris and Creedon are clear of it, too. [00:23:18] Speaker A: He pulls the lever, and it grinds, and it starts to come down. And the block of stone that it was pushing against lowers with it, revealing an opening. The ceiling has come down and is now lowered to about chest height. And there's a hole to the sky. [00:23:37] Speaker C: What is up there, Bishop? What is above us? [00:23:41] Speaker A: The street leading out of town. Maybe. [00:23:45] Speaker E: Perhaps we should poke our heads up there and investigate. [00:23:48] Speaker D: Yeah, I think so. We can. [00:23:50] Speaker A: Well, if you climb on the slab, I can push it in the up position. [00:23:54] Speaker C: Yes. I need to ask you a few more questions before we do that, if that is okay. [00:24:00] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:24:01] Speaker C: I need to ask you about your children. [00:24:03] Speaker A: Okay, that seems Od. [00:24:05] Speaker C: I know they have followed you into the silent judge trade, but I was asked to look into the entire family. Who runs the cribs. [00:24:14] Speaker A: Well, I have three sons and two daughters. I can give you their names, of course, but they all work for me. Most of them are married now. All but one is married now. And they all have their own children. They have houses in town. [00:24:28] Speaker C: All right. What are their names? [00:24:30] Speaker A: Elowin, Esold, Lorian, Thorn and Kalar. [00:24:37] Speaker C: Bishop, is there any reason to suspect any of your children of any mischief here? [00:24:43] Speaker A: Of course not. No. They've been here for generations. My kids are all well behaved. I mean, they had rebellious phases when they were in their teens, but no, they're straight and narrow citizens of the empire. They've all managed to learn to channel divine power, too, which is exceptional. I certainly wasn't expecting all five of them to do it. But life in a mortuary leads to a certain respect for death. [00:25:09] Speaker C: Do you know which of them was most recently down here in the catacombs? [00:25:13] Speaker A: I have no idea. No. They all have access. Constantly maintaining the catacombs, reuptating wards, removing vermin. It's all part of the job. [00:25:24] Speaker D: Who else would have access down here? [00:25:26] Speaker A: I mean, now that I know there's a hole in the ceiling, possibly anyone. But supposed to be no one else. Just me and my five children. [00:25:35] Speaker C: But the access from the hole in the ceiling could only happen if somebody was down here to lower this forklift. [00:25:41] Speaker A: Yes, well, and the catacombs are locked with a standard key, and they are left unlocked during most the day for visitation hours. In case anyone wishes to see the. [00:25:52] Speaker C: Recently dead bishop, I am going to recommend you change the lock and make sure that you and your children are the only ones with the key. [00:25:59] Speaker A: I can do that. In fact, I will do that. [00:26:02] Speaker C: And you might also look into placing a magic password on the lock as well that only the six of you know how to unlock. [00:26:11] Speaker A: I will look into that. I thought that the key was sufficient. Maybe it was not. [00:26:19] Speaker C: I also thought my key was sufficient. But then someone posing as a legitimate silent judge priest gained access to it. [00:26:26] Speaker A: I see. These are dark times, indeed. Maybe the comet's coming does, in fact, herald the. [00:26:34] Speaker C: Well there. [00:26:35] Speaker E: Are you a. [00:26:38] Speaker A: No, no. Galen Gearsmith is our diviner. [00:26:43] Speaker C: Where can we find him? [00:26:44] Speaker A: Galen? Oh, he's a star nerd. Probably only after dark. And your guess is as good as mine. Which field he's going to go stand in. But if the skies are clear, he'll definitely be out. [00:26:57] Speaker C: But he built this forklift so he would know how it works. Does he also have access to the catacombs? [00:27:02] Speaker A: No. [00:27:03] Speaker C: All right, well, I suppose we will get on this stone and let you raise us up through this hole and hope there's nothing just waiting up there for us. [00:27:09] Speaker E: How long ago did these bodies go missing? [00:27:11] Speaker A: Well, we found them about three days ago. Who knows how long they were missing from then? We weren't looking. [00:27:19] Speaker C: When did the article come out? [00:27:21] Speaker A: It came out about four days ago. [00:27:23] Speaker E: And when did the star fall? [00:27:25] Speaker A: Well, the star fell. Gosh, seven, eight days ago. [00:27:28] Speaker C: Now, what were we doing seven or eight days ago? Were we? [00:27:31] Speaker A: You were killing a dragon. [00:27:33] Speaker C: We were killing a Dragon. Okay. [00:27:34] Speaker E: This little guy was under there for. [00:27:36] Speaker C: Seven or eight days. [00:27:37] Speaker E: I do not say that out loud. That's so sad. [00:27:42] Speaker C: I mean, I think it's pretty clear it's not a normal creature. It has healing abilities and shapeshifting skills. [00:27:49] Speaker E: I've either got a really cute pet or it's definitely going to kill me. I don't know. [00:27:53] Speaker C: All right, well, I guess we will get on top of the stone and let him lift us up through the hole. [00:27:58] Speaker D: Okay. [00:27:58] Speaker A: He pushes it up, the whole thing slides up into place. And you are standing not in the road like he thought you might be. His sense of direction is just a little off. But basically, this is a nice little seating area next to a shrine. Leaving town to the east, you're essentially on the edge of the city. [00:28:17] Speaker D: Who's the shrine to? [00:28:18] Speaker C: Shrine train. [00:28:20] Speaker A: So it is a shrine to the green man. It doesn't look well used compared to the other shrines. It's clear off on the edge of the city and fairly plain. [00:28:30] Speaker C: Is the floor stone. Like, I know we came up on this heavy stone, but is the rest of the floor stone? [00:28:35] Speaker A: It is, yeah. [00:28:36] Speaker C: How big is this stone thing that lifted us up? [00:28:40] Speaker A: It is 5ft by 5ft. [00:28:42] Speaker C: All right. Boulaina is going to kneel down and she's going to touch the raven on her chest. And she's going to cast stone shape on this. And she wants to mend that seam so that it's not a hole in the floor anymore. She's going to solidify the whole thing. [00:28:56] Speaker A: You mend it. It is solidified. Okay, roll me, Arcana. [00:29:01] Speaker C: I'm not great at that, Nate. [00:29:06] Speaker E: Can others roll this as well? [00:29:08] Speaker C: No, that's a one. So a two. [00:29:11] Speaker A: Okay, great. You seal this sucker off. Well done. [00:29:17] Speaker C: All right. [00:29:17] Speaker E: Job well done. [00:29:18] Speaker C: And then I want to look for signs of activity up here. [00:29:21] Speaker A: So it is a shrine that people walk by every day. They pay homage, but they don't maintain it as well as the ones that are actually in town. And larger. So it gets foot traffic, clearly, but not a lot. There isn't anything suspicious. [00:29:36] Speaker C: Okay, do we get to roll investigation, or is that just. There's just nothing to see here. [00:29:40] Speaker A: You can roll it. [00:29:41] Speaker C: We'd probably look for activity around the shrine, too, like, leading to and from town. Any tracks, any signs of bodies being dragged? [00:29:51] Speaker E: I'm going to roll investigation as well. That's a 16. I can only do as well as I roll. [00:29:58] Speaker C: I got an ash 20. [00:29:59] Speaker A: There is a boatload of cart tracks. Strangely, though, one set of cart tracks does lead to the shrine fairly recently. But it disappears when it hits the road. It appeared to be pointed out of town as it was pulling away from the shrine. But that's it. This is a place people are at all the time. [00:30:20] Speaker E: And this road would also lead to the farmhouse. [00:30:22] Speaker C: They're heading east towards this farmhouse. [00:30:24] Speaker A: East towards the farmhouse? Yes, that is the same direction. What else is many, many other farms? And if you go far enough, a whole nother city. But that's quite a ways away. [00:30:35] Speaker C: Boulain looks at Xeris. Well, Xeris, we have been instructed not to investigate this farm, but our investigation of the crypt seems to be leading us in that direction. Would you say we are justified as inquisitors to go to this farm on the authority of the Church of the radiant one? [00:30:51] Speaker D: I would say so. [00:30:52] Speaker C: All right, we should go. [00:31:03] Speaker B: The dread files extremism in Turtle Bay Turtle Bay is typically split between the pro business, anti empire faction resisting taxation and regulation, the pro empire, anti business faction resisting inequality and lawlessness, and the anarchic factions resisting all law and order, regardless of who would impose it. The empire has its own philosophical extremist factions in the form of the three major heresies. The mist wishes for change in the church and in society, and is willing to cast aside entire components of the theocracy if need be, believing that humanity doesn't require the gods and is even hindered by reliance upon them. The star worships the founding saints and prophets of the empire. Even proposing the empire's founding figure is, in fact, a goddess, though the faction remains in debate about how that works, considering their desire to preserve a ten God pantheon. The final heresy, the eternal, believes that the prohibition of the worship of fairy gods is a form of institutionalized racism and worship, eternal knowledge and eternal cycle in secret, these six factions, three religious, two political, and one antipolitical push agendas behind the scenes in Turtle Bay, creating a great amount of cross contamination and pollination between the factions, who rarely agree but regularly find themselves working similar purposes. The introduction of the 7th extremist faction, referred to by the dark arbiters as the cult of Vecna, now branded by the empire as the heresy of the rotten, caused one such flurry of interaction. The initial hypothesis that members of long lived races had kept pre empire faith alive has proven to be true, but in too small a number to be indicative of the speed and power with which the heresy of the rotten was mobilized to reanimate the dragon turtle. Interviews with local information brokers indicate that all six factions saw the 7th as an opportunity and rushed to support it, or at least not hinder it using its existing infrastructure. Multiple interviews have corroborated that the anti Empire faction, led by Coin Lord Zestildi, agreed to support the heresy of the rotten to allow an indirect power to assault the navy and undermine empirical rule of Turtle Bay. Agents of the mist are believed to have orchestrated the capture and replacement of the rightful silent Judge priest, likely jumping at the opportunity to undermine the church. Agents of the star inherently believe that powerful mortals can become gods. In their attempt to validate empirical myth and legend, this faction appears to be secretly backing powerful heroes, subtly pointing them to threats that would both expose the existence of an 11th God and perhaps create a new godlike saint. Interviews seem to indicate that the 7th faction was purposefully hidden from the empire by the star inside the conservative church factions to allow individuals to strike at. [00:33:47] Speaker A: The threat after it had matured. [00:33:49] Speaker B: The anarchist faction, composed largely of pirates, got surprisingly quiet when word was leaked to them that the navy would suffer a great blow if they weren't distracted by matters at sea, and seemed to have taken a sort of vacation. This was likely an information campaign initiated by Sistildi agents, but the result was loose cooperation to stay out of the issue amongst the Fay populations of Turtle Bay, rumors that eternal cycle and eternal knowledge were behind the 7th faction's true intent surfaced. It's not clear if the factions believed these rumors, or if they saw the potential of additional gods to validate their beliefs and stepped back from the issue entirely. Either way, they also obfuscated the heresy of the rotten to allow it to operate. The final political faction, those that are pro empire and anti business, saw an opportunity to take down to Cecili and allowed the conspiracy to reach maturity, even offering to help Cecili behind the scenes coordinating labor and resources. However, the final destruction of property eliminated most evidence in the final hours of the conspiracy. Before Dickey, the devious struck at the heart of the cult's operations, the enigmatic traffron beach crown emerged to ally with Cecildi. This sudden shift remains a confusing development for which no additional evidence or motive has emerged, as Traffron is simply not an extremist. Traffron is a long lived elf with direct ties to the immortal. Fay is notorious for his long game view of the world and hands off approach to politics. This does not bode well, as he assuredly sees some potential here that we do not, which is unlikely to be ended by the death of a single priest or the burning of a warehouse. I'll be sending Max to contact Zestilde now that sufficient information has emerged to support an investigative narrative and a path to established rapport. [00:35:43] Speaker A: You noticed cart tracks that appeared to head out of town east. The road becomes a road, and distinguishing one cart track from another car track is basically impossible. But the road does lead to a series of farms, one of which, you know, a falling star did in fact fall upon. You. Pass a couple of farms, they look idyllic, countryside of Tuscan, and you arrive at what is essentially a checkpoint. Two guards, both wearing sister truth symbology, are standing, blocking the road that leads up to this farm, which even from here, you can see is essentially a smoking crater. [00:36:27] Speaker E: So while I was out on my walk earlier, I actually might have swung by here and I did find something. And just before we go in there, I wanted to see if you could make heads or tails of what I've found. [00:36:42] Speaker C: Is this something that we should talk our way past those guards first for? [00:36:46] Speaker E: I don't think so. What I found is pretty small. [00:36:50] Speaker C: Alive, dead, magical. [00:36:53] Speaker E: Definitely that. Definitely alive. Creighton will kind of like, pop open her bag and just have both of you look into it. [00:36:59] Speaker A: There is a tiny black kitten, looks about ten weeks old. [00:37:04] Speaker C: You found a kitten? [00:37:05] Speaker E: Well, no, this was speaking to me. I found it caught under rubble. It used to look like a frog. Now it looks like a cat. It's something magical. It kept on saying something about Harold and time. [00:37:19] Speaker C: Elaine trades a glance with cirrus. What can we roll? [00:37:23] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:37:24] Speaker B: What do you want to roll? [00:37:25] Speaker C: Nature, maybe, or arcana or history. [00:37:31] Speaker A: You choose one, you're going to get a different thing for everything. [00:37:33] Speaker E: I think Creighton tried to identify it before and failed. So I'll sit this one out. [00:37:37] Speaker C: I'll do religion. [00:37:38] Speaker A: Sure. Give it a roll. [00:37:40] Speaker C: All right, that's an eleven. [00:37:42] Speaker A: Cats are animals and animals are symbolic of the green man but also the whispering shepherd. [00:37:49] Speaker D: My 13 on history is not going to get much better. [00:37:52] Speaker A: You know that falling stars have a history of proceeded or followed directly after by an angel who sort of heralds a prophecy. In this situation no one seems to have seen angel. You have a frog cat that survived. [00:38:08] Speaker C: A hell of a collapsed building. [00:38:11] Speaker E: Apparently it shouldn't be alive. But it is. And I don't know. It was trapped. It asked me to free it. I had to. [00:38:20] Speaker C: Boulain looks at the cat and says, do you have a name? [00:38:23] Speaker A: It tilts its head and it says name. You do not see its mouth move, but you can hear it. [00:38:30] Speaker C: She points at herself and says Boulain points at Creedon. Says Creedon points at Xeros and says Xeris. And then she points at the cat. [00:38:38] Speaker A: Harold. [00:38:39] Speaker C: We can call you Harold. [00:38:40] Speaker D: We all hear the conversation. It's not like a psychic conversation. [00:38:45] Speaker A: Well, it is a psychic conversation but. [00:38:47] Speaker B: You can all hear it. [00:38:48] Speaker A: It's sort of projecting at you. [00:38:51] Speaker C: Okay, what are you heralding? Harold? [00:38:56] Speaker A: Harold. Change. [00:38:58] Speaker E: Oh, Creighton's just getting it now. [00:39:03] Speaker C: Can you tell us what kind of change? Is it an event that is going to happen? Is someone coming after you? [00:39:11] Speaker A: The cat sort of tilted its head at you, Harold. Change, time grow. [00:39:17] Speaker C: What do you think? [00:39:18] Speaker E: I think it's just the cutest. [00:39:21] Speaker D: Do you know anything about corpses? Have you seen any corpses? [00:39:27] Speaker A: Again, the cat tilted its head at you. [00:39:29] Speaker C: Well, if Creedon pulled it out from under rubble I doubt it has had a chance to see much. [00:39:35] Speaker E: Yeah, I don't think that this thing is related to our hunt for those missing corpses. But maybe if we can find Galen, that diviner we could show it to know. Before we go in there, I wanted to show you what I found in there. [00:39:49] Speaker C: Are we agreed we should not show this to the guards on our definitely. [00:39:53] Speaker E: No. I stole this. I stole this cutie. [00:39:58] Speaker C: All right, Harold, we need to get past a certain waypoint to investigate something. Can you be sure to keep quiet for a few minutes? [00:40:13] Speaker A: Stars, veil, sky. Truth, Herald. Change. [00:40:19] Speaker D: And a stars. Veil, sky. Truth, Herald. Change to you. [00:40:24] Speaker E: I don't think that it will be a problem being noisy. I mean, I've had it with me for several hours and you didn't know about it. [00:40:32] Speaker C: True enough. All right, well, what will be our story to get past these guards the. [00:40:38] Speaker D: Bishop sent us, we can say that our investigation is taking us that way. The one that we are on. For the bishop? Yes. [00:40:45] Speaker E: Yeah, I think that's a good idea. [00:40:46] Speaker C: All right. To the checkpoint. [00:40:48] Speaker A: You arrive at the checkpoint. There are two guards there. [00:40:51] Speaker C: Hi. [00:40:51] Speaker D: Hello. We're on an assignment investigating some trouble for the bishop. And it led us this way. We need to pass. [00:41:04] Speaker A: I see. We're told to not allow anybody to approach the site until the council has come to a decision. Did the council come to a decision? [00:41:17] Speaker D: I'm Zirus, of the dark arbiter's inquisitor under the bishop. Do you really want to have this conversation? [00:41:25] Speaker A: He says, well, cirrus of the dark arbiter's inquisitor for the bishop. If there's undead nearby, I can't stop you from your job as an inquisitor. [00:41:40] Speaker D: Excellent. [00:41:41] Speaker B: I haven't seen any undead. [00:41:43] Speaker E: Do you have magics that allow you to detect that? [00:41:46] Speaker B: No. [00:41:47] Speaker C: I do. [00:41:49] Speaker D: So we will go on our way, then. [00:41:52] Speaker A: I'm not going to stop you. But I am going to caution you. The whole council of Bishops is fighting over this place like you're going to step on some toes. [00:42:06] Speaker D: We are not interested. I am not interested in looking at whatever's happened here beyond finding the missing bodies and potential undead that I'm seeking. [00:42:20] Speaker A: Okay, if you think this is related, I guess I'm willing to look the other way. [00:42:27] Speaker D: Or don't. And report it. It does not matter. [00:42:30] Speaker A: Okay. I will be reporting it. [00:42:34] Speaker D: Great. [00:42:35] Speaker A: And he steps aside. [00:42:36] Speaker E: Why'd you tell him to report it? [00:42:38] Speaker D: I'm doing what I'm going to do. It's not. [00:42:41] Speaker C: We are following an assignment, as far as I am concerned. [00:42:45] Speaker D: Me, too. All right, we carry on. [00:42:47] Speaker A: You don't have to walk very far. There used to be a house and a barn and a chicken coop. Fields of different crops, maybe some sheep. Now, there's a massive hole in the ground, easily consuming all of these things. And on the edge of the crater is a collapsed barn, which seems to be the only thing left sort of standing. [00:43:07] Speaker C: Boulain will use her eyes of the grave feature to see if there are any undead in the area. [00:43:12] Speaker A: No, there are no undead in the area that you can detect. [00:43:15] Speaker C: All right, what about cart tracks? [00:43:18] Speaker A: No cart tracks in the crater, which seems quite fresh. And the road that leads up to it has many decades of cart tracks. [00:43:28] Speaker D: I'm going to attempt to investigate, see if I can find something of note. That's 15. [00:43:36] Speaker C: Okay. I will cast effect magic. [00:43:39] Speaker A: You don't find human remains. You do find remains of humans. So you suspect that when this thing fell, whoever lived here was obliterated. So you find scraps of clothes that survive the impact, bits of Wood. No sign of any bodies. There is one set of footprints that walks kind of around the crater to the barn and then stands near the barn for a bit and then walks back out. [00:44:07] Speaker C: Creedon, are these your footprints? [00:44:10] Speaker E: Are they? [00:44:11] Speaker A: Yes. They fit your feet? [00:44:14] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah, they are. [00:44:16] Speaker C: What about magic? Other than what we have on us? [00:44:19] Speaker A: Down in the bottom of the crater, there is a source of intense magic, divination. [00:44:24] Speaker C: There is a strong source of divination magic in the crater. [00:44:29] Speaker D: All right. [00:44:31] Speaker E: How deep is this crater? [00:44:32] Speaker A: It is the size of a couple of houses. Middle of the crater pit filled back in with dirt so, like, you can't see a meteor or anything, but it's probably 10ft deep at the deepest part. [00:44:45] Speaker E: Okay. [00:44:45] Speaker C: Should we go check it out? Belain will say quietly, Harold, did you climb out of the crater sky? [00:44:52] Speaker A: Truth. [00:44:52] Speaker C: All right. Well, I guess we get out our poop shovels and start digging at the bottom of this crater. Unless we have a real shovel. [00:45:04] Speaker E: Creighton looks at you like you have a poop shovel. [00:45:07] Speaker C: We've been camping. Of course we have poop shovels. [00:45:10] Speaker E: What? No, you just do it in the woods? [00:45:12] Speaker C: Yeah. And you're supposed to bury it. [00:45:13] Speaker E: You are. That sounds disgusting. [00:45:17] Speaker D: I will, one, tie a rope around something that looks solid, and then two, I'm going to stand watch and not participate in what's happening. [00:45:29] Speaker A: Okay, you have a rope tied around the remnants of a fence post just outside of the main crater. [00:45:36] Speaker D: Outstanding. [00:45:37] Speaker A: Boulain. You take a step into this crater and immediately there's movement in the earth as two chunks of rock just stand up. [00:45:50] Speaker C: Are they rock giants? I mean, are they humanoid? [00:45:53] Speaker A: A tangle of rocks that sort of wrap itself whip like or maybe snake like up into the air? They're big. They're like 11ft tall. [00:46:03] Speaker C: Okay. Boolain says, greetings. [00:46:05] Speaker A: They do not respond. There's this sort of groan and rumble of rock. [00:46:10] Speaker C: Harold, is this a friend of yours? [00:46:13] Speaker A: Fall on. [00:46:15] Speaker C: All right. [00:46:16] Speaker E: Ball on, my friends. [00:46:17] Speaker C: Is it menacing us? Is it coming towards us? Or is it just upright and it's. [00:46:22] Speaker A: Just kind of floating there? Think of it as sort of a line of pebbles tied together like a moving cairn. Yeah, there you go. [00:46:30] Speaker C: Okay. I don't know what to do. [00:46:32] Speaker D: Do you speak celestial? [00:46:34] Speaker E: Oh, I do. I never thought this would come up. [00:46:37] Speaker C: You want to have a go? [00:46:38] Speaker E: Yeah. Creedon will attempt to speak celestial and say, can you understand me? [00:46:44] Speaker A: You hear psychically in your mind, Herald, but the creatures do not move. [00:46:50] Speaker E: I guess you will just say, we mean no harm. We just want to look at what's in this crater. [00:46:56] Speaker D: Is this the magic, or is there something else? That was magic? [00:47:00] Speaker C: No. This is something different. [00:47:02] Speaker D: All right, then. There is value in trying to see what's beyond them. That's all I was curious about. [00:47:08] Speaker C: Should I go further in? [00:47:09] Speaker D: Maybe we should stay on task and find some bodies. [00:47:13] Speaker E: I really want to see what. [00:47:16] Speaker C: Really want to know what this is. [00:47:18] Speaker E: It seems incredibly important. If the entire council is fighting over it, this may be our only chance to see what's going. [00:47:26] Speaker D: A. It's an omen of what is to come, and I'm sure they are fighting over which one of them it's important to. [00:47:33] Speaker C: Harold, can you translate what the rocks are saying? [00:47:37] Speaker A: Words hard, Harold. [00:47:42] Speaker D: Sky in celestial is celestial. Easier for you to converse. [00:47:48] Speaker A: Words hard. And then it switches to celestial, and it says the following. When the stars fall to borders nigh the veil sunders in the sky past returns, truth denied an end and a beginning a question answered the world reels, choices known deaths wry can you paste that in chat? [00:48:16] Speaker E: I want to copy that for my notes. [00:48:19] Speaker D: All right. I'm sorry. I'm not educated enough for that. [00:48:21] Speaker E: I need to reread it. [00:48:23] Speaker C: Do you translate this for Belain? [00:48:24] Speaker E: Of course. [00:48:25] Speaker A: W-R-Y. [00:48:27] Speaker D: Rye. Okay. [00:48:28] Speaker E: I was also thinking. The bread. [00:48:33] Speaker C: I was wondering if it was a new word, like R-I-G-H. That I didn't know. [00:48:38] Speaker E: Interesting. That doesn't give us any answers. [00:48:41] Speaker D: I know this is pedantic, and if it's ambiguous, that's fine. But the last phrase, death's wreck, is that death apostrophe s, or is that death, plural s? [00:48:55] Speaker A: Tragically, punctuation was not visible in his words. [00:49:00] Speaker D: Why aren't we playing a video game? So I can see how this. [00:49:04] Speaker C: I mean, we're looking at what Nate. [00:49:06] Speaker A: Wrote, so you should definitely not trust what Nate's punctuation was in his notes. [00:49:13] Speaker C: Should we trust your spelling of rye, or did you mean the bet bread? [00:49:18] Speaker A: No, that is the correct word. [00:49:22] Speaker E: At the end of this prophecy, death will bake some real good bread. I mean, we just got to take this guy to a diviner that can make heads or tails of some of this. I think this is outside of our area of expertise. [00:49:35] Speaker D: This is everything we've been dealing with already. [00:49:37] Speaker C: What do you mean? [00:49:38] Speaker D: I'm just concerned that all of this points to more confrontation with evils we've already confronted once or twice. Specifically, the undead vestige. [00:49:51] Speaker C: Stars fall the borders nigh. How far away from the Fenrir border? [00:49:56] Speaker A: Mere miles. You're very close. [00:49:59] Speaker E: Can Creedon possibly be prepared to cast invisibility on herself? But slowly start approaching and see if these things get aggressive. [00:50:07] Speaker A: Roll me a disadvantaged persuasion. Roll please. [00:50:15] Speaker E: Oh no. Well it wasn't an at one. That is a twelve. [00:50:21] Speaker A: As you start walking toward the middle, one of them coils kind of like a snake and pulls back. What do you do? [00:50:28] Speaker E: I guess I would try to cast invisibility on myself. [00:50:32] Speaker A: You turn invisible. [00:50:33] Speaker E: Does it look like it can still sense me? [00:50:35] Speaker A: It is still coiled back, yeah. [00:50:36] Speaker E: I mean rocks don't have eyes. [00:50:41] Speaker C: But. [00:50:41] Speaker E: I thought it might work. It worked last time I came here. [00:50:45] Speaker C: Didn't try to go in the crater's. [00:50:46] Speaker E: Going to try to keep going in the craters. He's not the brightest in the bulb in the box. [00:50:52] Speaker A: Okie dokie. [00:50:54] Speaker E: You can't see me. [00:50:56] Speaker C: I can see your footfalls in the dirt. [00:50:59] Speaker A: The little heart shaped boot prints whips its body. Does a 20 hit you? [00:51:05] Speaker E: Oh no. Yeah it does. Wait, hang on, hang on. No, I cannot shield to save myself from that. Yeah, it definitely hits. [00:51:11] Speaker A: 14 damage and you are swatted clean out of the crater and lands with a sizable thud of dirt, invisibly right next to Balaine. [00:51:24] Speaker C: Do you become visible? [00:51:26] Speaker E: I think so. Let me double check. [00:51:29] Speaker C: I mean you could also just let it go. [00:51:31] Speaker E: Well, I failed my concentration check, so I'm immediately visible and I'm just like. [00:51:37] Speaker C: Oh, when she lands right at Boulain's feet. Boulain size and squats down and cast cure wounds on Creedon. [00:51:46] Speaker E: Creedon is just gasping for air. She just had the wind knocked out of her. Oh, that was really stupid. [00:51:55] Speaker C: Twelve points back. [00:51:56] Speaker D: As long as these creatures are not moving toward us, then I'm fine with what just happened. [00:52:05] Speaker B: No one in the crater. [00:52:06] Speaker A: The snake seems to sort of reverse coil into the dirt and disappear. The only interesting thing about that is it leaves no trail. [00:52:17] Speaker D: I will try a religion check to understand it. Sorry, that's a 19. [00:52:23] Speaker A: You think that this is an elemental? From a religious perspective, associated with the green man. They are essentially raw natural elements given form. The green man doesn't have angels. It has giant beasts and elementals. [00:52:40] Speaker C: Well, whatever is down there, they are obviously meant to protect it with some impressive brute force that we probably do not have the means to dispel. [00:52:52] Speaker E: If only I knew. [00:52:53] Speaker C: Shatter. [00:52:54] Speaker D: And we probably shouldn't have a big dust up with the checkpoint so near. [00:53:00] Speaker C: Honestly, the checkpoints are the least of my concerns with confronting this. I mean, do we want to tangle with green man minions? So I think this one is out of our purview. And we should continue down the road and see if we can find ourselves. Some corpses. [00:53:23] Speaker A: Conclude that there are six farms located along this route. So whoever left here probably went to one of the six farms. They did not. You're pretty sure. Go to the 7th farm, which was hit by a falling star. [00:53:39] Speaker C: Well, we could knock on the doors of every single one of these farms. Or we could go check the town records and talk to people in town we know we need to talk to. [00:53:48] Speaker D: Yeah, I think town is going to be more efficient. [00:53:52] Speaker C: Agreed. All right, back to town. [00:53:55] Speaker A: The parade has completely ended. The children have gone home. The town seems to be being cleaned up slowly. Where do you go first? [00:54:04] Speaker C: So you try to find this Galen character. [00:54:06] Speaker A: You ask around, and you can get pointed to Galen. Galen has a small house very near the shrine to divine hammer, but his house is pretty modest. The only odd thing about it is this large machine shed full of metal and wood and bits of glass when you knock at the door. It's officially early evening, but the door takes a little while to open. And there is an older man with a large beard and a balding head. And he says, I'm sorry, I don't keep normal hours like others. I don't recognize you. How can I help? [00:54:42] Speaker C: Master Galen, we are the dark arbiters. This is Zuris. This is Creedon. My name is Boulain. We were wondering if we could trouble you for a little bit of your time. [00:54:53] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. Come in, come in, come in. And he gestures to a table. The table is also covered in gears and grease. And he pulls a chair up and sort of sits down on it. [00:55:05] Speaker D: So we found one of your devices, and it looks like someone used it. But it's my understanding that specialized knowledge. We're here to talk to you about who you think may have activated the device that removed part of the ceiling from the crypts. [00:55:21] Speaker A: His eyes kind of narrow at you, and he says, the crypts? The crypts designed door lock, although nobody really uses it. I designed a lifting device for when the half giant died. Gosh, ten years ago. [00:55:37] Speaker D: That's the one. The lifting device was used to create another point of egress. [00:55:43] Speaker A: Is this related to the missing bodies issue? [00:55:46] Speaker D: Yes, it is. What would you know about that? [00:55:48] Speaker A: Well, I don't know anything, except that the church has decided in its infinite wisdom that an inquisition is warranted and suspicion falls subtly on the priesthood of the silent judge. But I've been here a long time, and I can assure you that Morgrim gravebinder and his children are fine, upstanding people. [00:56:11] Speaker C: Have you noticed any of the six of them acting strange lately? Anything at all? [00:56:18] Speaker A: No. But in fairness, I am the least likely to notice. I have tried to invent a great invention with my life, but I find my telescopes are the only things that bring me joy. And I stargaze, so I'm out at night. [00:56:37] Speaker C: What do you know about the falling star? [00:56:39] Speaker A: Well, most things that are to be known right now about the falling star, they are a kind of omen. He stands himself up and walks over to a desk, which, again, still covered in gears, but has some papers. And he Sort of pushes a greasy chunk of metal off and pulls out a piece of paper and walks back and hands it to you and says, so when the stars fall, there's usually an angel to interpret it. And as far as we know, there was none for this incident. So I had to use magic to ask the gods myself. And this is what they said. And he hands you a piece of paper that says, when the stars fall, two borders nigh the veil sunders in the sky. Past returns and truth denied. An end and a beginning a question answered. The world real's choices known. Death's rye. [00:57:30] Speaker E: Oh, my gosh. My baby's a little angel. [00:57:35] Speaker C: What do you make? [00:57:36] Speaker D: The council knows this? [00:57:38] Speaker A: Yes, I shared it with them, and they're currently debating what it means. The fallen star seems to have angered sort of spiritual forces in the earth. [00:57:49] Speaker E: Which God gave you this answer, oh, divine hammer. [00:57:54] Speaker A: Although I believe the other bishops did all attempt an augury of their own, it seems all the gods are consistent. We get exactly this riddle and nothing more and nothing less. [00:58:07] Speaker D: How do you know the elementals in the earth were angered? [00:58:12] Speaker A: Well, it's possible the elementals are angels of a sort. The green man is not known for delivering prophecies. In fact, he's never delivered a prophecy. [00:58:26] Speaker E: How well known are you for your discretion with some of the prophecies that you interpret? [00:58:32] Speaker A: Oh, I interpret prophecies all the time. That's sort of my role. I can be discreet. Or not. I mean, this one, obviously. I've told the council of bishops they are in debate. [00:58:47] Speaker E: I got an eight on my insight. [00:58:49] Speaker C: I'll do an insight roll on this. [00:58:50] Speaker E: I'm just trying to decide if I should show him Harold or not. [00:58:53] Speaker C: I got a not natural 20. Hey. [00:58:55] Speaker A: Okay, you think Galen Gearsmith is being a little humble and that his whole life is prophecies? [00:59:03] Speaker C: Okay, but as far as discretion goes, hard to tell. [00:59:07] Speaker E: I guess Creden will kind of like, try to get the attention of Xeris and bulhit and just kind of glance down at her pocket to indicate I. Should I share. I'm seeing a no no. All right, another no. We aren't doing it. It doesn't seem like he knows much more than our little baby angel knows anyway. [00:59:28] Speaker C: Her little baby angel. [00:59:32] Speaker A: I crafted that lift probably 14 years ago or so ish at the time, I trained all the morticians on how to use it, but it was kind of a big deal. I built it in the front lawn and I told everybody about it as they walked by. It's not a complex system, just sort of a six lever manipulation device. [00:59:59] Speaker C: Is it something that the Morticians could have trained others how to use? [01:00:03] Speaker A: Oh, yes. No. How to fix it is really the hard part. The levering devices were the simple bit. [01:00:11] Speaker D: Who could have fixed it? [01:00:13] Speaker A: Well, that is tricky. It would require someone with mechanical expertise. There aren't that many around to be. True. [01:00:23] Speaker C: Villain looks around at the gears and grease and things and says, it seems like you might be the man in town for that job if it needed fixing. Has it ever malfunctioned? Did you ever have to fix it? [01:00:36] Speaker A: We only used it the one time. [01:00:40] Speaker D: Well, thank you. I think maybe if we investigate the other children, maybe this information will make more sense. [01:00:48] Speaker A: Investigating the children? [01:00:50] Speaker D: Well, the morticians. [01:00:51] Speaker A: Oh, yes, they're adults now, but I get it now. Roll me insights, please. [01:01:02] Speaker E: Oh, my God. I cannot roll above a ten. That's a ten total. [01:01:07] Speaker A: Boulain, you think he doesn't like the idea of you bothering Morcom's children? [01:01:12] Speaker C: Well, tough titties, Master Galen. [01:01:14] Speaker E: That's our job. [01:01:15] Speaker C: She does not say. She might say it in an elvish. [01:01:23] Speaker A: He says. Well, if this prophecy thing comes round, I'm happy to. I don't know. Tell the future. Tell your fortune. And you can always find me. As long as the skies are clear just outside of town in the fields after dark. [01:01:39] Speaker C: What have you made of this prophecy? How do you interpret it? [01:01:42] Speaker A: Well, here's the trouble. Everybody wants to read into a prophecy. Their own struggles. It's hard to know which struggle the prophecy actually applies to. I can tell you. The fated faction in town of which I am a member believes that this is a call to unity. That there will be some challenge to the empire, some great scandal or revelation, and that we must come together. The chalice believes that there will be some sort of upheaval. This is a moment of great change accompanied by struggle. So they are circling the ranks and wanting the prophecy to reflect a time of turmoil. They're, of course, always trying to create change within the church, and the promise is, of course, always trying to avoid that promise seems to have interpreted this as a direct threat. They want no one to go anywhere near it. They would prefer it go away. Some of the more imaginative folks find it very interesting that the gods have provided no additional information. It's as if they don't know. [01:02:54] Speaker C: Is that possible? [01:02:55] Speaker A: It's possible. Prophecy applies to the gods as much as it applies to man. But my personal philosophy is the gods are never wrong. The fact that they are all united in delivering a riddle with no clarity means they don't want us to know. And that is our show for today. Music by Tod Ferguson at my pet machine logo by Julie at elaborate flight of fancy links are in our show notes. Don't forget to leave us a rating. [01:03:34] Speaker B: And review the art. [01:03:35] Speaker A: Sage is busy, so I'm using our. [01:03:37] Speaker B: Mid rolls to tell the stories our heroes avoided. [01:03:40] Speaker A: Tune in next time as the investigation begins in earnest. Will our heroes tolerate politics long enough to learn the truth? Find out next on carrots and suffering at DND odyssey. Close.