Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 4 | Trouble Brewing: Part 2
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I'm Jammity and you're listening to Beneath Dark Wings. Here's what happened last time. You confront some cleric, a wizard, or something that can help him. And you're all level four. You start making your way towards Kirsten. Hey, somebody help me! I know who's gonna help you, son of a- Fifteen foot tall, two feet.

gigantic creature. What the fuck is going on? I don't know. I'm gonna smash him. I'm Jammity. I think there's a key somewhere. You're telling me that the only reason you're in that cage is because you were trying to steal booms? You ain't never seen a fucking bugbear before? Come on, let's take cover. Lock on me, man. All right. And I pick him up. As you see, probably about two dozen Korvahian soldiers is there.

And they recognize you as sheltering me. We're all dead. I'm letting you know that right now. And then a large wooden gate slides open and you step in to Keerstar.

You step into this town that seems to be like, you know, it's very, it feels like the quintessential country town. Quaint country town. It's like built up. Most buildings are no larger than two stories. The buildings are fairly simple, but seem to be very well constructed.

There's very large, the craftsmanship seems to be incredibly well done. This thick, dark wood is used, as well as very strong, thick, strong stone foundations.

and plasterwork are used to kind of build these shingled, these houses that, these buildings that have shingled roofs, and it seems like it should be quaint, but there is an element of joviality to it, and it seems as if every other building is a bar or a tavern or a beer garden or a tap house, and they all seem to be pretty

pretty full. The smell of warm food and bitter beers is kind of mixed with a strange unpleasant stench of horse manure.

As you start to kind of look around, and it smells like home to you. Nay! And it's been, like, years since you've been back, right? Like a long-ass time. Like a long-ass time, right? Like close to a decade, if not more. And you kind of see that everyone is riding horses. There are almost as many horses as there are people. It seems as if, like, this town's

Identity is based on beer and like a portion of the beer is. And you're walking through and Lufty, I will give you a map of Kirstein. Don't look at it. Don't look at it. No mana. You can kind of get the general gist going through. She would know. It's her home town. Less than us. I thought you meant her. I'm like, no, she should.

At the center of the monastery. Are we just all hanging out, like, inside the gates? You're, you've all, like, walked forward into the gates. You see kind of, like, there's an open area, and there's all sorts of, like, you know, bars on either side of you, and you

And you can kind of see that there are different, uh, there's like different tiers. You can see that there's actually, um, down the cliff there's a tier of the town that seems to be a farm for horse breeding. And you can kind of see that there are farms in this building. I just want to turn to Lufty and say, uh, listen, I, you know, is there any kind of a cleric or wizard prophet or some sort of medic here? Where would they be located? I mean, honestly, any kind of church would probably do the trick.

Question for you. Yeah. The monastery, is it far off or central? It is, the monastery is the very top right corner. Okay. And it's fully, you know that basically this river goes through the town, and the monastery is built on the highest tier, where they have their private barley field, their private vineyards and everything. Cool. And the only way to get there is by a ferry across the river. So you can't scale those cliffs?

you can certainly tromp it. And so, depending on how you want to do it, the standard way to do it would be to go and, and you know that, you know, the monastery is fairly reclusive. It's not like they're like antagonistic to the common folk of the town. That thing in the middle is just the standard,

ordained like a tomb of the Raven Queen. Basically, it's a crypt where people who worship the Raven Queen live. You know that basically the predominant religions worshipped here are Lacroix, who's the god of drink, and then obviously the Raven Queen, given that you're in Corvallia. And so that's basically the... there's a small shrine to the Raven Queen, but it's mainly just used for those that pass that are not worshippers of Lacroix.

Okay, so I'm sorry. Just, my question was, I'm looking for either the town cleric, wizard, prophet, or medic. I'm looking for something. Well, you know, we've just got here. I haven't been here in such a long time. Listen, you do you. I need to know where these people may be. Absolutely. How long has it been?

Well, I've been away a long, long time. I mean, is that like a couple of weeks for you? I don't know much about Eugenacia. Are you like mosquitoes? Yes, yes. Oh, years. Oh, okay. That's meaningfully important. I don't know. A decade? Yeah, we'll say it's a decade. It's been a long time. I don't want to stop you from getting back to your roots and enjoying the time here. I'm just looking for anyone who might fit this description. What I'm saying is that I might not know where everything is anymore.

Tell me what you know from where it was and I'll go look. How about this? I will take you on the route to my favorite tavern and we'll see what we see on the way. I sigh and say, fine, fine. Yeah, I think Dad would be closer to one of the favorite taverns of the city of Kornrakia more so, no offense, more so than, you know, some sort of

structure of gad. Or immortal. Apparently, the guy's big deer is a standard compass. So, walking out the town, I would lead us going on the northern path. Is the monastery visible? Is it, like, up high? Yeah, so you'd be able to see the monastery kind of towering above. Does it look like a church? I mean, you know. It doesn't look like a standard church. It seems to be more of, like, a

I guess my point is if I were to see it, would I be like, what's that? I think it's the prominent feature of the town. It's way off, though. It's across the town, but you'd be able to see kind of in the distance. What? I like having a secret map. I actually described that everyone could see the monastery. It wouldn't be ridiculous for me to turn to Lifty and be like, what is that structure up there?

Because that is the monastery. That is where we're going to have to go to get at least some of the casts. So, are the people that live in the monastery, are they just alcohol-making monks, or are there any kind of mystic...

What's going on there? The monks are very mysterious people. There could be many things that you're looking for. I don't know. I suppose we'll head there eventually. We have to cross through the entire town to get there. That's fine. That's fine. Either way, I'll follow. Are there any alcoholics in your monastery? Because I feel like my father would be beelining towards that. It'll be fine. We'll find them, I swear. Okay, okay. Just good to know. Alright.

Alright, so we'll head on the northern path. Northwest? Straight up? Yeah, this northern. Okay, yeah. So you make your way through the streets, kind of the main...

There are several main drags, and you know that basically that there are... There's a lot of residential area. You pass a number of farms, small farms, as you make your way through the town. You hear that familiar sound of people kind of laughing as it's kind of getting close to sunset now. People have gotten off. Some of them might have cut off a little bit early from work and are now enjoying a very happy, happy hour.

as they're all drinking of a wide variety. And you know, as you can kind of hear, you can kind of hear the slight buzzing of bees as you know that the primary alcohol here is beer, the primary alcohol is beer, but there's also a lot of wine and meat as well. And so, you know, that basically...

that everyone takes it pretty seriously here, to the extent that you can take alcohol consumption. You wind your way north and pass a couple farms, and across the street from one of the horse farms, or across the way, is a large cavern, which you remember to be the Rallian Stallion. And you see a... a... a...

The sign is kind of this wooden hanging sign on the metal post, and it has a very intent-looking horse holding a large pint of beer as the sign.

Oh, you are all in for a very special treat. This is my favorite tavern in all of Kirstein. Shall we go in, rest our feet, share a drink, and we'll think of our next steps to find you what you're looking for. I would love that very much. Do you know any of the people here? That is yet to be seen.

Well, I mean like, but do you know any of the people here? If they have not died, perhaps. Oh, that, I mean, that's fine. Let's go in. It's the only way we know. If you recognize anybody, please point them out to me. Also, please keep in mind we have companions waiting in a dimly cave. Don't you think I would forget my poor pretty Gizzy? I don't know. I'm not so sure. With her in a cave. Listen, I don't presume to know anything about your relationship. What have we done with the bodies? They're watching us.

To Toad's plan to kill him for Beatrice. In a coma cycle. And we've got a familiar. You're not keeping me up all the time. We have two people and a familiar watching this body. You can pass it in 10 minutes.

I am constantly on alert for anyone that may be military.

Okay, you look around and you get the sense that there are guards and they all seem to be armed, but they don't seem to be military. You understand that you get the sense and you kind of got the gist of this is the case with Mist Coast Crossing. Right. That all the towns are responsible for their own protection, but obviously there's patrolling, you know, patrolling military to protect them.

Totally. The first thing I look for is the person responsible for running shows or who organizes people at a tab. Okay. So you step into the Rallings' Valley, and this is a two-floor...

bar. However, you can see that the main part of the bar is open. There's actually an inner balcony where there's rooms and stuff all up on the top floor. And you can see like an okay operation. I told you this is my favorite place. No, no, no. Verticality is not better than depth, but you know, it's fine. I don't know what you mean

You see a stage. No one's quite playing at the time. But you do see a stage. Do I get no music?

So you do get a piano off on the side of the corner. And there's a piano off to the side, and then there's an accordion player. Or not an accordion. Oh my god, what do you call it? An accordion. An accordion player and a piano just kind of off to the side playing, but the stage isn't. Oh man, this is really so business here. An accordion. I've never had that back home. You really could be breaking into big bucks.

It seems like, yeah, I mean, we've done it in every village we've gone to since moving here. Did you really play in accordion? No. Oh, I thought you could. I mean, I can play pretty much any instrument. But besting the accordion experience, like if you really want to listen to a saggy vocal chord just spraying its air against your ears, or do you want to listen to nothing but the sweetest violins?

That's the difference between a de Sesto. That's actually a selling point of a de Sesto. That's their motto. It's not second year. You can produce pretty much any vocal sound that happens to be necessary for any role-playing moment. It's very specific in that way. It's magic almost.

Do I see anybody that I recognize? Do I find that person that I was looking for? So you... The manager, the person who... The same... You recognize the same person. So you remember... Um...

You remember one Frida... Frida? ...Horleyburg. Me? Yes. And you see her. She was a relatively young woman who had taken a risk in her teenage years and bought the property in order to establish the Rallying Stallion. And you were a little girl and you kind of snuck in and came to the music for the entertainment because you thought the name was silly.

And, uh, Frida would occasionally, you know, sneak you drinks when she thought you were old enough. And you would sneak drinks when she thought you were too young for her to think you were old enough.

And you recognize her. She seems to be, she's obviously aged about 10 years. How much older than me is she? So she's probably a good, probably a good like 10 years older than you. Okay. And then, you know, so she may have been like 20 or 10, but not a genocid. No, she's a human. And so.

You know, she kind of knew that you were a strange sight and kind of not, obviously not standard around here. And she kind of took, like, you know, she took a liking to you. And so, like, you would come here occasionally. When you could escape. When you could sneak out of the hospital. Okay. She's my bad. What? She's my bad. Sure, yeah. Okay. Luffy. Luffy.

And she looks like she's running, she's running the steps. She seems to look, you recognize her. Do I recognize her? I mean, it seems like you might. This is my fleeter, fleeter! As you call out, she turns and she blinks a little bit. And she looks and she immediately, she's holding a large stone that she was cleaning behind the bar. And she puts it down and she looks and says,

Is that my little Lufti? And I'll do a little dance and like... She does the same dance. It is... I can get you your usual. And she runs, she immediately goes to...

the keg with your favorite beer and immediately pours you a glass, a mug of that large sign and runs over to you and hands it to you. It just shoves it in your hand and with one arm, and I will describe her physically, she is a human woman. She seems to be...

She's not super tall, but she's obviously taller than you. She's probably about 5'4". And she is, you know, not super slim. Probably average build. And kind of you remember her, despite her smaller size, her strength. And she kind of pulls you in for a huge hug. And you kind of see she has short black hair that kind of just goes down into short bangs across. And she pulls you in and says...

How long has it been? So I'll take the stein. I don't know if there's a table, but I'll slam it on the table. Yeah, the table right next to you. And then just wrap her in a big bear hug. Too long! Too long, my flea! That's the loopy I know. And she gives you a very, very tight hug. And she kind of holds you in for a second and says, It's so good to see you. I'm so glad you're alive. Going to neck bed. What do you think?

You know, every girl needs an adventure. Well, I knew this place couldn't keep you. It's so good to see you again. Who are your friends? They're as interesting as you are. Yeah, you know, I pick them up on the road. These are my buddies. He's a little shy, but he's with... Who's with her at this party? Four of us. It's the three of us. Minus me and Rich. Right, so it's the party minus... Nikki and Rich.

Here's your Aunt Persia and her heart. She's a hooch, you're gonna love her. Yeah, I come from the Grizzlepaw Mountains. Oh, all the way from Yonaville. Welcome, welcome. Yeah, I'm so surprised that you know where that is. Well, it is. Yeah, no, I remember everyone

knows I mean we have traveled once a year we can travel from all over the world so I've heard violent stories from all kinds I tell you what we're going to challenge all three of us we'll have a drinking contest later and I think she might win I look forward to that I have

to run my business, but I will watch. I will watch. I know that you like to rule sometimes. Well, I'm not convinced that you're going to win that contest. I will happily participate. However, what I'll say is that it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Capriccio Gassesta. You can call me Caprice.

Do you need a show tonight? Caprice, you're so handsome. What kind of show are you talking about? I'm talking about a musical show. I like to do lyrics. I like to do poetry. I like to do storytelling. I like to do music. I like to do performance. Whatever your choice is. Dealer's choice.

What instruments do you play? Oh, I play a variety of instruments. I'm a fan of the viol. That is what I... So... Can you stop right now? Can I start right now? Do you want me to go up right now?

Charlie, stop playing! And immediately, there's like, and then you hear the wacky accordion stop, and the piano stops. Immediately, the two say, I'm breaking light, and then they, the two musicians leave. All right.

There's the stage. You and your friends will drink all night. Well, typically we have a conversation about compensation, but because this is Luffy's bar, I'm going to go up and I'm going to have the best time of my life. It's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure to meet you. I really appreciate it. Thank you kindly, and I'll be on my way. You and your friends can drink all night. It was just going to be Luffy, but you, you, and who are you? Quiet. Shh.

You said your name is Frida? Yes, it's Felix. The name is Felix. It's a pleasure. I appreciate the hospitality. You look like you're more from around here than she does. I am from Corvacchia, yes. Well, have you ever made your way out to Kirchner? No, no. This is a first for me. I'm just from a small town that no one's heard of.

Well, I'm glad. I'm sure I've heard of it, but we can talk later. Gladly. And again, thank you for the hospitality. Well, you're welcome to enjoy. Have a drink of your choice. When you have a moment, I have some questions for you. Well, you will see if I have answers. No rush. Thank you.

Okay, so whatever you guys want to do. She goes off to start tending the garden. We have to catch up with her. Absolutely! And so she goes off to her business. I run up to the people who have been performing. What instruments do you have? We got a piano and an accordion. An accordion and a piano? There's no like a flute operation? No.

Not tonight. Yas, fruit. That's in two days. Alright, I'll take the accordion. And I sink my hands into both sides and I start to... And I start to make my way up to the stage and I start to try to engage the audience as much as possible. I'm gonna hop on a table and start clapping and dancing. Okay. Make a... Both of you make a performance check. I still can't.

13. Okay. For the performance... 23! 23! You are kicking your clogs all up and down the table and clapping, and you're doing a pretty good job, Caprice, but it's really Lufty's hyping that's getting the crowd really into it. You're flinched probably about, like, maybe...

Probably about like seven silver pieces as your... Oh, thank you. Kiersha wants to start singing the Rocky Road to Grizzlepaw 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Okay. If I may. Is that what Caprice is playing or are you just going to sing it? Well, you know, if it's within, if it's within saying the Rocky Road to Grizzlepaw 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Or is it the Rocky Road to Grizzlepaw 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So, make a performance, Kiersha. Okay.

He's got a fucking gun. Eleven. Eleven. So Caprice is doing his own thing. You're going along with it. And Herja just starts banging on a table doing a completely different song. And everyone's like, Hey, Frida, should we cut her off? I start incorporating it. I start incorporating it as much as possible. Oh, no. Okay. Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-

I start mixing the melodies as well as I can based on my performance, which was not a great performance, however, I try to blend those. Okay. You do that, then. You know, everyone's having a really good time.

Except for Felix. I'm keeping my eye on the audience as much as possible, by the way. I want to know who's involved that isn't my party. Anyone who isn't me, I'm looking at those cables, I'm looking at those grafters. I'm trying to get a sense of the space in the audience to play them as much as possible, but also just reading them generally.

Okay. You get the sense that a lot of these people in here are either farmhands or brewers that are just basically getting off of their work. Male and female. Almost entirely human. Classic audience fodder. I start to wave and start to work the business. I'm really playing every aspect of that social interaction as possible.

Okay, make a no performance check just one more time. 19. 19. I would say you're probably tossing the two gold pieces to finish out, basically during this time. Okay. The crowd is loving it, they're beating it up. Frida is even kind of like bobbing her head. I'm feeling really strong. What are you guys up to?

I'm just chilling by the bar. I ordered a beer, I'm sitting, sipping on it, minding my own business, looking, unassuming. Okay. Just make a general scale for reception, your choice.

- Well, they're both pretty bad. - Stealth, because I get plus one. - Oh, stealth is probably the best. - Oh hell, 17, baby. - 17. You just look like an average joe. - Just a bar, just sipping a beer. - Sipping your beer. Frida's kind of right in front of you, kind of going about her business. - Right, and my goal was to wait for her until she felt the need to have a moment to discuss.

That was it. As I said to her, I would wait until she had a moment to talk. Okay. So, kind of things are going pretty intense, and then kind of things calm down a bit. And she says, so what questions do you have for Phoebe? Well, again, I just want to thank you for the hospitality. I haven't known Luthi long, but she seems like her heart's in the right place, and

So thank you. That's what I wanted to say first. She's a very good girl who I cannot believe is still alive. So I'm very happy. I appreciate that. And I don't want to dampen the mood, but I'm looking for answers. And I know that this thing... Have you heard of the Beast Blig?

She tilts her head and says, "The Beast's playing? No?" There's been no mention of people changing or getting sick and turning into... No, I've never heard such a thing, no. Okay, and again, I don't want to dampen the mood, I don't want to alarm you. That's very... that's dark. Listen, as a friend of Lufthi's, again, I haven't known her long, but...

Just, just, I ask you, forget you ever saw me and what I tell you is incompetence. I assume as a bar owner you get a lot of weird requests.

We are very discreet. We don't ask questions and we don't try. I assume. And I ask that everyone else do the same for me. You have my confidence. In this town, is there a cleric, some sort of wizard or prophet? Maybe even just a medic. We don't give clerics or prophets. We have the monks up on the hill there, but they are probably...

about all of the religions they do is just drinking their faces off. So they don't know anything about the Mystic Arts? I think they practice some healing arts, but between you and me I doubt they are very good. But what's wrong? I guess my question is, is it even worth me going up there to talk about it? If you're looking for clerics, the monastery may be the place to do it. They're more into the martial arts, but the clerical arts are...

From what I understand, something that one or two at the very least. Brother Gruber. You said Gruber? I did. Gruber? I don't even know her. I knew that was coming. Listen, I appreciate the information. And again, I offered my name earlier.

It'd be best for everyone if you just forgot it. I forget everyone that comes in here. Thank you. Except me. The beer's fantastic, I'll have another and I slide two gold pieces across the bar. I appreciate your kindness. Thank you. She pockets them. And then... You guys enjoy the evening, the time as much as you like.

We're performing as much as possible, myself and anyone who is performing on stage with me. Do I get a sense that anyone joins me during this time, or is it primarily a Derek has grabbed, or a Caprice has grabbed a... Caprice has grabbed an accordion, just basically doing whatever he likes from it. Okay.

I'm off to the side supporting you from the shadows. Okay. I'm mostly playing to you then as I sort of make my way through the course of this song. And I'm making my way through song after song. I don't feel like anyone's gathering

And so I just play through. It's a tough crowd tonight. I mean, everyone's more focused on it. They enjoy it and they're always excited, but no one's like joining to play an instrument. They're more interested in making their pair. Kind of common working class folks.

About halfway through, I would say that I probably get a sense through that. And I'll just play the typical fodder. That makes sense. I transition from what I think is going to be an epic experience that melts people's faces to... Oh, yeah. Fucking elevator music. And that's fine. Go fucking do whatever you want to do. Okay. Um...

We've got a drunken bugbear, so I'm not gonna risk...

Her being loud and drawing attention. I would probably sit outside of the silence. That's 120 feet. That is? Why would tell Beatrice in a gap of silence to sort of fly around outside of the silence and let me know if there was any trouble afoot. Okay. So she's flying out away, and so I just make a...

Can we make a general perception check? Me? Yeah. Oh, jeez. And now get advantage, because she has King's Sight. I rolled a 19, plus... Uh, so, uh, 23. 23? Yeah. Um...

So, we'll just say that's the 23, and so she kind of flies around a little bit, and she comes back and just kind of gives you like a, like things are fine. As soon as this is happening, Jammity kind of moves up to you, Iris, and she like weaves at you and says, and she hands you a flask.

hands it to you, pulls it back, and she takes it, and she sticks it in her pack. And, um, so, you guys are at the bar, things are kind of dying down, what do you guys want to do? Um, so I'm going to flag over for you. Yeah, we're going to go check on Peach. Ooh!

You're going to what? I'm checking on the dog. And I'm flagging down Frida. You're flagging down Frida. Okay. So Frida comes over to you and says, Well, so how are you enjoying yourself? Have we won the other booze yet? Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Just observingly, passively, I will say that if you... If I get the sense that I could...

stop my performance and join these heads, then I would make my way, but I wouldn't arrive right away. Okay. So you stop the performance and you kind of sit and all meet and meet back together. And she says, Jeff, do you say that? It is impossible. I have a limitless drive.

Oh, we will test you on that. But in the meantime, we've been on the road for a long time and my bones are aching, my dogs are barking. Do you have any rooms available for the evening? Yeah, we do. I mean, of course we can. I will give you a night for free. Oh, please don't. You spoil me. I swagger forward.

Hey, I just finished with the various performances. Very well done. Thank you kindly. It wasn't my best work. I honestly kind of phoned it in, to be honest. I was... This crowd, they'll be happy with me.

Yeah, no, they really seemed like they were pleased and I was happy to do it because they seem so invested in the alcohol I so enjoy. Were you able to secure rooms this evening? Fleda was so generous. She said she would give us a room for free and I, you know, we are good buddies now. We all stay in one room together. Just the one room. How many beds do you have? Probably two. Two.

I mean that's better than the forest floor. That's three per room. I mean, that's a little tight. I mean, I can sleep with the floor down. That's what you're worried about. Yeah. Two people do a bed.

Is it like a standard, I don't know. Like the double tree? Yeah, it's probably like two standard single person beds. I just hate to think about Toa and yes, even Iris in that poor, dark, dank cave by themselves. Of course. But you know, what are we going to do? We do what we have to do, right? Exactly. Let's get a good night's sleep. I'll make it up to Toa somehow. Yes, exactly.

Flutah, we would love a room for the evening if we can. Okay, very well, I will give you hold on. She goes behind her counter and pulls out a key. Take room 13. Okay. Should we get some extra sheaths or anything like that? Just in case I need to cuddle up with Dakota real snug.

You know, I will give you the key, you do what you need to do, be comfortable, be happy, my friends. Are there additional copies of the key if I should need to exit in the evening and eventually make my way back? Of course, I'll give you two extra keys. Thank you, thank you, family. Does anyone need an additional key? I only need the one. It couldn't hurt, I'd take one. I flip a key like a coin.

I just need an extra pillow, maybe some sheets. I will send some things out. At what time or does the monastery have any kind of time frame that they're open to the public? Generally, they're not open to the public, but, you know, besides special appointments. Well, it sounds like Lufti may know of them, so maybe I'll just wait until she's ready. I appreciate the information again and the hospitality. Thank you. I can't thank you enough.

You are welcome for the evening. I appreciate you bringing my Rifti back to me. No, it was all her. I was just following along. He is too naughty. He was aching to come to Kirsten. Well, of course, but our meeting was just chance. And I appreciate it. I really do.

Well, it is my pleasure. And so she sends you off with your key, so you have the email. Do you need any additional performance? Do you need me to give, like, an inspirational pitch for, like, a speech to the folk? I think they'll find themselves a good speech from the master.

No, it seems it won't do anything at all, which is why a speech is necessary. It seems like a very specific thing. I think you're tired, Capricci. I think we should go to bed. I'll just go to bed. I just want to talk to Luthi before we all resign or retire. Listen, I know that you have some sort of connection to the monastery, and I don't want to ask what it is, but

Is there any way that you can take me there in the morning? When do they open? I don't know how a monastery works, to be honest with you. Yeah, well, the monastery is a very sacred place, and...

I haven't been there for many years and I don't know that they'll be happy to see me, but I'll take you with me when I go. If you can get me in, the, uh, Frida, she mentioned something about a groover who may be able to answer my questions and I think between the man that we have captive and some personal things that I need to take care of, this man may have some answers and if you could get me there as first thing in the morning, I'd be very appreciative.

Well, I will do my best. I don't know. I know you all keep calling me uptight, but that's not the case. It's... Just take a rest. We have the night. Go upstairs, get a good night's sleep, and I will take you in the morning. Fine. I hope you understand me. I act the way that I do just due to safety. This isn't a joke. Of course. Okay. And I'll retire to bed. Okay. So... Can I place an alarm on the door?

It's a ritual. And again, I dictate the four of us and Frida to be able to go in and out. Okay. So you set an alarm on the door. The four of us? Are able to go freely in and out of the door. Who's the four of us? One, two, three, four, plus Frida. Not to, uh... No, they're not here. So if, yeah, so if for some reason they were able to trek up from the cave, they would have set off the alarm. Because I'm not expecting them to come through the door.

Just making sure we're spiked here. Thank you. Okay. So, Toa, meanwhile, Jammity, as Iris is continuing to cast the silence, she's going to beckon you over. I'll sign the silence. I will slowly... I'll join her. She pulls you over and says...

I don't know how long they're planning on taking. I'm fine... I'm fine... Keep an eye out here. I mean, if there's... If you guys can do them some interest, if this guy is just gonna be tied up for your lips, then I can keep an eye out. Well, I think the whole point was... Is that... It's not to say we don't trust you, but we did just meet you. Well, we just met this guy.

That's true, but the point is we're trying to figure out if we can use him to help a lot of people. And I think that, I mean, are you saying that you will watch him and keep an eye out? For how long? Well, I mean, I got a bloody dream last night. Pilfered along the way. I found an extra cask on that piece of shit that didn't fly.

And so I'm pretty good up here for a couple days if you gotta be paid care of something. I feel like the three of us twiddling our fucking thumbs. Both of 'em often need drinking, keep in mind this guy is not that difficult. And I'm sneakier than any of you two. That's true. Well, perhaps I think we should talk to Honest about it and see how she feels.

You gotta get her to stop casting silence. Well, I think we should... We're honestly worried about the fact that this guy's gonna start going crazy and alert everyone to our presence. And given that there's at least a few military guys walking around, it's a bit risky. But I think that if he starts screaming, we'll be able to take care of it.

Anyways

When do we want to call dinner break, by the way? We can call dinner break now, otherwise we're going to go to sleep. Four minutes? I'm not going to sleep yet. Okay, so why don't we say, well, how about this? We can talk about it in the morning. It's already pretty late. I think they've probably already gone to bed. Yeah, we're all in bed. But how about in the morning we'll talk to Iris and we'll just keep watch and we'll discuss it then.

How did me, a Jailer be good enough for them?

And so she walks in and then we'll call it a dinner right there. Who's in what room real quick? You guys are all, so in one room. The three of you are in one room and I'm still downstairs. But you will, we're all retiring in one room. Yes, but we have one room to go between. Very good. Yeah, and she will end up coming with the court on the floor if she has to. Yeah. Okay. Alright. So,

I'm going to be looking around the bar and seeing if there's any like little workabies with the pegs or

Somebody like that. You can see that there's like two like bar backs. Yeah, kind of just like working. It seems like Frida does a lot of the work herself. But there are a few. There's some help. Okay. I'm going to like work my way into a back corner where maybe Frida wouldn't see and see if I can snag one of the

The workers. Do the self-check, please. Okay. That's bad.

So nine. Okay, nine. So you non-discreetly... I've been drinking pretty heavily at this point in the day, too. Yeah, call over... I think I'm sleepy. One of the... There's a young man, seems to be probably no older than 18. He's just kind of bringing a few, like a big box of bottles of wine to the bar, or to the back room. And he kind of looks at you and says, you know, what's up?

So full of confidence this one. Hello baby! How are you doing tonight? I'm okay, I'm just working. I'm still on the clock. Oh yeah? And you look so busy! You must be pretty important, yeah? No, I just carry things, that's all I do. Don't diminish your work! I appreciate the coin, look. You are very strong, I can see in your arms, yeah?

I guess so. I carry a lot of heavy things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, how far do you think you could carry something pretty heavy?

I don't know, what do you need carried? I carry a lot of alcohol all day, every day. Well, you know, I'm a good friend of Frida's and I'm looking to have a casket for a private party carried somewhere out of town. But it would take a very strong man to carry it out that way.

Okay, I mean I could do it after my shift. Are you giving Payne coin? Of course, of course. But are you willing to do a favor for Lufty? Make a persuasion check? I can't believe you're about to steal from Frida. Steal from Frida. Yeah, well we'll see.

so bad fuck you it's an eight and it goes in the jail he looks at you and says what is this for I told you it is for a private party and I'm willing to pay coin it's basically all you need to know

How much for you to take a cast? If only I do it at half o'clock, then that's fine. Okay. Fair enough. Name your price. How much for a cask of Beowulf? Do it for three silver pieces. Okay. And another silver for you to take a message. I could take a letter, yeah. Okay. You meet me after your shift. I will be in the bar. Okay, that sounds good. Okay. Done.

Okay. Um... Tom, Tom, Tom. So, um, I guess you guys are all going to sleep. Take and watch the rest of you. Um, Iris and Tori, you guys want to sleep? After your conversation with, uh... Uh... I beckon you out of the silence. We'll just drop silence. Uh, I think we should keep watching that. You think that makes sense? I think it would be stupid not to do that. We don't have the code yet.

Should I do four hours and you do four hours? Is that how you want to do this? Is it possible for you to do eight hours? Not quite. I do need to get some sleep. Hey, you're weak. When you're on the trailer, you've got to go to sleep with one eye open.

Could you do six? Let's try four and I'll wake you up, you can do four and then you can wake me up. How about you do two, I do two? You do two, I do two. That sounds terrible but fine. Perfect, it sounds like your long pass in the morning. Let's do it. It's true. There's a request for you to put on the hat. Yeah. In chat. So... You...

Just do the walk with you. Jamin just seems to kind of enjoy herself. She's awake much of the night. Kind of taking naps throughout. But, you know, kind of enjoying herself. You know, I've kind of been getting used to the quiet. This fucking river is noxious. And, uh...

Then you guys eventually fall asleep. Lifty, kind of late into the night, probably about 3 o'clock in the morning, and the young man walks up to you and says, "Okay, before I lay off..." He looks a little bit tired, he's got some bags under his eyes, but he's looking like three silver is worth it for him. Okay. So I'll hand him three silver, and a note, and in the note... Four silver.

Four silver, excuse me. Four silver and a note for Iris that says, "Heading to the monastery tomorrow, meet us if you can. Tell the bugbear more is coming." Okay. And I'll send that with him and a kiss on his cheek. Okay.

You kind of go in and kiss him quickly, get on your tippy toes, ding, five feet fall, and you barely manage to get the bottom of his cheek. He says, "Uh, thank you, I guess?" I'm pretty directly those guys. Where are you getting the cast, by the way? Oh, he's taking it from the back. He's taking it from the back? I'm bad at making deals. Nobody seems to know what my deal is. I knew exactly what you asked. Thank you!

How much to take a cask over? That's what I was saying. You're literally stealing from Frida. I'm not stealing. I said, how much to take a cask?

That's for a delivery charge. Yeah! You didn't like give him money to pay Frida for it. I was hearing it the other way. It's that she was paying for him to take a cask. Right, how much does it take to carry that shit from here to there? Not how much does the cask cost so that your employer doesn't know that you stole from her. She's not my employer. It's the guy's employer. That's how I understood it.

I knew what you meant, Kels. I think guys just don't speak English. We also want to make sure that we do this. Do you have a sign off from Freedom? Yup. Oh, why would I need that? I'm very good friends with her. Oh, so you talked about it? I talked about it with you and we had a deal, didn't we, sweetie?

I said I would carry it down. Well do me a favor, you go ahead and make your way and I will talk with Felina and we'll work it all out. I think persuasion's right. Yeah. I don't think I want to get fired. Last dice I have. Come on, you. Bring out your dicks. What'd you say, persuasion? 13? 13.

Come on, baby! I don't think that... I mean... Unless you talk to him, you guys seem close, but... I don't want to get fired over this. Don't you think I would... Lufti would get you fired. If I get you fired, I'll get you rehired, and that is a bonus. Well, you paid me more coin, then. What, another silver?

You make it a full gold piece. I'll give you one gold piece. Okay, I'll do it. Does it hold you? Sure. Okay. As long as you work it out with Frida. I don't even know how gold works. Ten of those is one gold. So what did I jump from? Four? You already gave him four. He wants another gold piece. I didn't give him anything yet. I promised him four. He wants an additional gold piece.

In addition to four silver? Yes, it's 14 silver pieces. That's not what I thought you said either. I thought it was a total of one gold piece. He literally just said I want a total of one gold piece. Yeah, I didn't think I'd give him anything yet. We'll say a gold piece. I'll give you one gold piece.

Master of making beer. I don't understand how people don't understand what you're saying. You know what I'm saying, right? I literally think that they've all had way too much alcohol. Disagree. I will give you one gold piece. This is only my second angry orchard, so I know that I'm perfectly sober. He looks at you and says, okay, I'll bring it down, and he takes it and he leaves. Okay.

Okay. Are you going to bed? Yes. Okay, so, um... Oh, where am I going, by the way? Did he tell you? I'd give him a description of where to go. Okay. With the note. He takes the cask, and he's on first watch. Just blowing our cover. Oh!

I would take first watch. Okay. So Toa, as both Jammity and Iris are sleeping, and you kind of hear footsteps walking, coming towards you, they kind of seem like they're struggling a little bit, a little bit unsteady as they're heading towards you. Footsteps? Yeah.

I look to the footsteps. You see a teenager carrying a heavy cask of ale as he's walking over and says, I have a delivery for Lufty. Oh, hey, man. Yeah, yeah, we were expecting this. Yeah, just put this right here. Hey, hey, Jammity.

He loves citizens.

He kind of sees Jerry and is like, "Is that a bugbear?" You're like, "Don't worry about it." And then he's like, "Yeah, it's fine. Thanks, man. Did you get paid already or something?" "Yes, I did. I'm gonna go home and go to sleep now. Goodbye." "Good night." He shrugs and heads off. So you have as soon as it's almost as his dad, she immediately tapped in and she's pounding back.

the beer. Did he bring the note that moved you left for me? Yeah, he would have delivered you one. He always...

I kicked you a little bit. Hey, Alice! What do you want? Uh, Liv, did you let you- left you this, uh, this letter? Haven't opened this yet? She left me a letter before she left. No, no. Then you can give it to me. No, she- this- this- this guy came. I should have woken you up first. And you didn't wake me up to talk to us. No, I- I- they brought booze. I didn't realize that you were at the meeting. Why does Felix trust you if you're incapable of handling anything? He was just making a delivery. Why would I wake you up until I found out he had a letter? What?

Well, what if the letter says, Felix is dead, by the way, sold Herrscher. Meet me at the bar, because that's classic Lufti. I open the letter. Exactly what I thought. Felix is dead, we sold Herrscher. I'm just kidding. They want to sneak in a monster. Oh, God. We can't do that.

Well then do you understand why it's important if you wake me up if I get a letter? Well that's why I woke you up presently. But do you think you should do it while the deliverer is still here? Oh right, that's fine. I guess that's just not how we do it in the islands where I'm from. I've woken up when the messenger's here but now I remember that tune of phrase. When the messenger's there, be aware. To be

- Swear wolves. - Pretty good big guy, okay. - It's pretty, now I remember that. Thank you for teaching me. - This is the problem. I need to get a response to her and now I have nobody to get the response to her. - He literally just left, I could just run after him. What do you want to say? - Well, werewolves, not swear wolves. I'm not sure even if anything can I-- - Werewolves, guys, what's werewolves? - I get one of my quills out of my pack and I write a letter.

Can't meet you there. Have to watch the furry guy. Sorry. And then a paw print. I like stick my hand in like the mud. And then a paw print on it.

I'm giving this goat, darling. Can I thank you? Get it to have as fast as possible. That's so cute. And I just run as fast as I can after him in the direction that I saw him lead. He's walking back up. He looks really tired. And he hears a doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh of heavy footsteps of Toad sprinting. And he just looks like sheer terror. And he starts running. Hey, man. No, no.

Hold on, hold on, I just want to give you this. There's a whole gold piece for you. He stops and he's clutching his hands and he's like, Oh, I thought you were a monster. Okay, I'll take this. Can you just give this to the... Yeah, yeah, you know. There you go. Thanks, friend. He nods at you and he grabs it and he stumbles off, clutching his hands like reading a poem in Amalek. And you...

So you head back to the camp and, uh, Jamin just kind of drinking a bit more and she eventually passes out. I guess the rest of you are gonna go to sleep. And, um, you, uh, eventually, um, are you going to sleep or? I would have gone to sleep after he left. Okay. So, um, we'll just say everyone goes to sleep and you all enjoy a long rest.

You wake the next morning feeling fairly refreshed. And as soon as whoever, you know, which of you would wake up first and notice that there is a letter under the door. I was slipped under the door. I'd be up early. I don't know about first, but early. For sure. You notice a letter on the floor. Can I roll to see if I perceive that letter? Sure. Okay.

So no or yes? Natural 20. Dang! The shit out of it. 23. Let her proceed. I will pick it up and I will open it.

Okay, so-- In addition to Andy. I mean, uh, whoever you are. Alright, hey, uh, you wanna teamwork this letter, miss? You wanna double-team this letter? Do you want Eiffel Tower that letter, my friend? No, no, uh, Caprice, please, uh, after you, I insist. Oh yeah? Are you sure? Yes, please. You seem really eager. No, I mean, by all means, if it's anthrax, you buy it and I won't. No problem, I will, uh, read the letter.

I can read the letter, and it's exactly what Iris said. Oh. You're opening up somebody else's mail, so you're about to... What do you think that means? Someone's start that letter. I mean, can you read the letter to us? It said...

Cannot come to the monastery. Have to watch the furry guy. Thanks. And that's my paw print. Do you think that someone, I assume, say it's Lufty? Lufty invited her to the... No, but on the back, it has Lufty's note to Iris. That's what I'm saying. I'm RPing with Caprice, and I'm saying, do you think that...

Do you think Lufty wrote to Iris last night? Maybe we should just show it to her. I don't want any part of this. Caprice opened this, Lufty. I didn't have anything to do with this. Hey, Lufty. Yeah? Oh, thank you. Um...

Fussy kitty. She never does nothing that I tell her. It's fine. We're going. We don't worry about it. So wait, did you never do nothing that you tell her? Nothing. So she does everything that you tell her? Ugh. So did you... You're one of those, huh? I mean, double negatives are double negatives. Did you send a message to Iris last night? Uh, yeah. I had movies. What did you ask her? I asked her to join us. Never mind. That doesn't matter. How did you get the letter to her? Did you deliver it yourself?

Do you want to ask me questions and get answers, or do you want to ask me questions and ask more and more questions? I want to know who you sent to the secret out cave that we have with the person that we don't want Kirstein to know about. That is for me to know and you to never find out because you are rude. Oh dear lord, I'm working with absolute imbeciles.

Are we going to the monastery or not? I don't know. Are you going to be a rude boy? To you? Yeah, absolutely. Then I guess I'm going to the monastery and you are going here. The lovely Frida has been nothing but lovely and I've thanked her every step of the way. But if you can't seem to even for a second keep this potential outbreak contained, then I don't know what to say. Okay. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Totally. Okay, okay.

I'm looking for Herrscher and trying to figure out where she is. Herrscher is right next to the move. I'm going to get up and go downstairs and have some breakfast. Okay. You want to go have some breakfast?

Or is it about that time? Yeah, it seems like the thing to do is the morning. Okay. I mean, breakfast is morning, and then there's a whole afternoon lunch type operation that we enjoy. There's a dinner that occasionally happens if you're into it. I would just have a full oofty, what do you think? Yeah, a full oofty. I thought it was a midnight snack, but yeah, let's go. Those are also good. I love the midnight snack.

But you know, you wake up, you have the eggs, you have the bacon, you go on. Oh, I have the eggs, but eggs. The eggs? The eggs. Oh, the eggs. Eggs. The eggs. I don't understand either of you. The eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs? Yes, the eggs. Oh, eggs. Yes, the eggs. You know, that's crazy. Let's just move on. Oh, the eggs, yeah. It's easily two of the campaign words.

Everyone's talking about eggs! In two of the campaigns that I'm in, no one can pronounce eggs, and nobody fucking gets my name right! Caprice! Caprice! I say Caprice! Hey Frosty! Is that our role? Hey Frosty! So you all go down. Are you gonna stay in your room? No, I'm following her because I need to get to the monastery. Okay, so you all are sitting down and doing introductions. Toa and Iris. As you awake...

You look down and I assume something funny is going to happen. Anderson, why are eggs such a problem in LOA? We don't know what to talk about eggs. It is what it is. Some groups have problems with doors, we have problems with eggs. You start to hear kind of a rustling and

and a loud noise of Toa and Amos. Oh my god. Yeah, Toa and Amos. Oh, I farted. I farted out. I don't know if you heard that. I thought that's what the rustling was. I am so sorry. Dami says, he doesn't look too good. Oh, shit. You look down at Amos, and he seems to be kind of unconscious, fairly unconscious, but he just...

All of like the words of him saying like "I apologize" have now been kind of replaced with *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Humming* *Hum

grunting and breathing through its nose. I could attempt to knock it out. So that it stops breathing? That's what I asked you first. Can I talk to the itch rate? That's a really great question, right? Because I know my only knowledge of familiars is Lumi, right? They can communicate to you telepathically as long as you're within...

A hundred feet. But I thought Lumi can fly places but instantly port back to you. Lumi... Well, yeah. I mean, technically, I guess she could. She flies and carries things places, but she can port back to you instantly, I thought. But I don't know if that's a familiar thing or a Lumi thing. It's what you can do in... I didn't say anything about that. You can put her in a pocket dimension. So if you knew...

So the difference between Lumi and Beatrice is I have a warlock thing that allows me to communicate with her no matter where she is as long as we're on the same type of distance. So she can be like, hey, I need to come back. I can put her in a pocket dimension and then bring her to me.

But you can't do that if you don't know that she needs you. So would you rule that Peaches would be able to understand what you're saying? I would say that Beatrice can understand common. Common, right. And would understand what you're saying. She can't teleport and she can't communicate. But she flies 50 feet per second. She can fly. 50 feet. She can look around for you. Well, and you know where we are. You know where we're at. Right. So you can tell her to fly to me at the end. Monastery. Yeah.

Well, the inn, at least. If we're not there by then, then she misses me, but you know what we're saying at the inn. We do?

No, all she said was meet me at the monastery. That's all I know. She mentioned your favorite inn. I did mention that. You mentioned that your favorite inn was the Rallians' Valiant. So that would be a good guess, but you wouldn't know 100% that I was there. But that's where you would send her. If you needed it. So what I would do is I would find Beatrice. I would call her down. She's just floating around. Hey, I think you should jump on Felix's

and ask him, just let him know that this guy's getting pretty bad, he's not really a human anymore, he's turning into more of a beast and uh, and just try to get any information if you can, if you could like fly back a little letter of his in your little like talon things, are those talons? Is it, are they talons if it's like a small little songbird, like a bluebird? I'm not sure anyway. If you could ask him for a letter.

Just so we can tell you what to do, I'm just not sure. Just let him know that things are getting pretty bad. Tell him to find some kind of cleric or somebody as quickly as possible. Beats just as light turns your head and blinks. And look at the, what was it called? That stallion, rallying stallion in...

Try there first, otherwise just fly around. He's kind of easy to see, unfortunately. Anyway, black. Seeing this, I want to look for any kind of small creature that I can see in the vicinity. Mega perception check. That's the wrong guy. Um...

Sixteen. Sixteen. I think probably the closest thing would be like a frog hopping along by the bank of the river. So I'm going to get down next to it. I'm going to kind of look around and make sure no one's watching me. Excuse me, frog. Um, Bruce. Could you send a message to Lufthansa? Can you let her know that I'm getting very bored? And I want her to come and take care of this weird furry creature business. How does it work? Frog.

I guess it's working. Let her know that I'm really bored and I also need a massage and I need to tell her to get one of those wooden handle brushes so that I can brush out my tail. It's getting matted. Yes, do those things. Thank you, Froggy.

It hops into the river. Oh, it must be taking the water. So, you guys are enjoying breakfast. And we'll say you have a nice breakfast, and you get up and you're heading towards the monastery. Is that where you guys are heading? Yep. I'm going to lead them up the northern path. I'm heading generally towards the monastery, but kind of like...

You know, willy-nillying about the town, but in the general direction. You're dilly-dallying. Yes, dilly-dallying. You're dilly-dallying, not taking the most direction. Do we pass a music store or a store that looks like it might have instruments in it?

I would say that you do pass an old flute shop, kind of for woodwinds and all that, but that's about... Woodwinds? That's about the... like you pass one of those. Yeah, yeah, you want a touch of flute? I'm not going to stand against it. Let's go!

If you're going to do your horn, you have to not blow it. I just want to go in and get a sense of the instrument. I want to try to go in and look around and get a sense of the instrument's quality in this area. Okay. You look around and these seem to be very, very basic, just like wooden flutes that just have very simple, a couple

no finger holes, no like read situation, not much room to switch opt-ins.

So it's just very basic, but it seems to be more focused on kind of like the design than we were in '82. It's like there's ones with animals carved in and fantastical things. Do I see one or more workers? There is one gentleman behind the shop. Okay, and I will approach him and say, "Excuse me, I'm sorry. I only have a brief period here. However, I will say, what is the quality of the work that you have here? Do you sell them all the time? What's going on?"

I have the best fruits in town. Fruits? Uh, yeah, no. The fruits in town. Uh, we're not looking for, we're in the wrong shop, Capricci, let's go. We're not here for fruits. No, no, no, I think that exists in that position. That's why it's no fruits. Uh, do you, do you, do you, yeah, no, no, exactly, fruits. Um, do you, how much are the fruits? Oh,

It depends on which flutes you would like. What is your best fruit quality? I have this flute here. He goes and he pulls out this beautifully polished dark oak flute. Oh, wow. There's like owls and rabbits and living creatures all carved in it. This runs 200 gold pieces. 200 gold pieces? May I give it a try? Here we go.

It is for look, not touch. Look for not touch, okay, that's fine. That sounds like it is not for sale. Yeah, it's a lot of money for a fruit. I mean, I would have to try it in order to know if I was going to buy it. What fruit have you not had at this point? That's going to cost you 200 gold. That's a lot of money for a fruit. I think you are not hearing me. No fruits. No fruits.

Yeah, you're right. We should go, Caprice. You're wasting time. I think we are wasting time. Thank you so much, sir. It's been a pleasure. Just know the name Caprice and we'll be on our way. Yeah.

Then we leave. What a strange exchange. Come back anytime. Too much money for a friend. And so you are on your way, lollygagging. You know, you see the occasional street vendor along with the various shops and bars. You see, you get the sense that although this town worships

You had mentioned a...

You mentioned something about the Raven Queen. Is there-- but there's no church of the Raven Queen, there were just like symbols of the Raven Queen? There-- I mean, you can't really see that symbol of the Raven Queen, there's just-- But the monastery is very agnostic or like very-- The monastery is of-- is an order that worships Lothlor. Okay. The god of drinking. Right, right, right, okay. So, you know, you kind of see a glimpse of a mausoleum.

that has a tomb of people that basically worship the Ravenclaive. But it's relatively agnostic. But it's generally the predominant worship here in Kirstein is of Loporn. Got it. And so it's just one of those instances of kind of public in the sense that this town has worshipped Loporn for well before the government that took over and basically instated the state religion took over. And so it's still holding onto its traditions.

So, you make your way through the town, lollygagging, visiting the flute and the flute stands, and you make your way up the hill towards the monastery. And the...

As soon as you're making your way, you see that there's a steep path up with a thick row of trees on either side. Beautifully well kept. And there's actually apples growing from all of these trees. And Beatrice flicks down.

right in front of you and flaps and lands on your finger, Felix. And I guess communicates... Telepathically. Telepathically communicates everything that Toa told her.

Then I will, you know, put her on my shoulder, take out pencil and paper, just a little parchment, write a note that basically says, "Haven't reached the monastery. Looking for a man named Gruber. Hoping he will answer my questions. Do what you need to do. Signed, Felix." I give it back to Beatrice and I send her on her way. She flaps off.

and all of you make your way up the hill and arrive at this kind of small, like the river that's kind of expanded in this area. You can see across the way the monastery that really looks more like a brewery with its own private vineyard and private beach.

beehive area and its own private fields for barley. And you see that there is a small boat tied up on a dock that's directly in front of you, with a dock on the far side. And there is a

a gentleman standing there, standing a couple feet from the boat, kind of leaning against one of the pylons. And he's kind of, his arms are folded and he's kind of looking down at the river, not really paying attention. - Hello over there, hello. - Excuse me, I wasn't dozing, were you? - Of course not. How are you today?

I'm fine, how are you? Oh, always good, I'm Luffy. Who are you? My name's Conrad. Conrad, what a big man you are. That's my mom, sis. Yes, your mama, of course. What do you do here on the Riverside? You're not from around here, are you? Oh, what makes you say that?

Everybody knows I run the fairy. Comrade runs the fairy here on this side. You run the fairy? You are that comrade? Yeah, I'm the comrade. Oh my goodness, I did not know. I never knew. I never knew. Now you do. I never knew. I never knew. My word.

You know, I've had many stories about this kind of at once affair, but I, you know, I normally walk the other way and I take the road up the cliff. What's the benefit here of taking the boat with you? This is the only way in and out, you know, make sure that people can't disturb the monks while they're practicing. Hmm. How big is your boat? You can see right there, it's about eight-tole. Hm. Have you gotten a hole in your boat?

No, I don't understand your meaning. Just a question, nothing to be offended by.

And then the man gets a hole in his boat every now and then. Not comrades. No? Not comrades, huh? No. No, not comrades. Interesting. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. How much does a trip across the creek cost for you? Well, it's free, but you gotta come by invitation. Oh, invitation by the month? Yes. Hmm. Okay.

And what would you say to making an unsolicited tour before survival? Not to see the monks. I'm not authorized to do that. By the monks? I can take your name and see if they'll see you if you want to make an appointment, but that's all I can do. Okay. I pulled a few signs and say,

I hear you huffing, Felix. You mean to tell me we've come all this way and you didn't think to maybe schedule an appointment? Or wait, should I guess that they don't want to see you? Do you generally make an appointment to go into your own home?

You've lived here for how long? And you're gonna tell me that after like hundreds of years the monks just all of a sudden start setting up appointments? I've never needed one before and I've loved it. And now it's not often that I'm asked for an appointment. How far away from Conrad can you hear this? Pulled aside. I mean, it's an aside. It's very much an aside. I turn to Conrad and I say, what does it take to get an appointment with the monks? Well, you save your business for a good reason, for a good cause, and...

Serves the god of drink, we'll see. Is it written word? Do we tell you? How do we get the word? You can tell me, sure, yeah. I'll head over there. Think to myself for a moment. Generally, this is, you know, it's for the monks. They don't want to be disturbed while they're brewing and practicing their martial arts.

Full disclosure, my name is Felix. I'm a wizard. Conrad! Pleasure to meet you officially. Pleasure to meet you too, man. I'm a wizard. I enjoy learning and I enjoy seeking knowledge and I believe that the monks may be able to teach me a thing or two. I know they're very, very busy people but it would be an honor if you could spare some time, if I could have a few moments to speak to them about different arts and mysticism perhaps. I'll let them know. Thank you, I appreciate it. Anybody else?

You heard it. Okay. How long should we expect to wait? Give me about...

In about 20-30 minutes? No, I'll wait here then. And I find a stump and I like sit on it. You sit on the stump, he gets in his boat, he shoves off. It's not very, it's not a very far trip across the river. But it is definitely a bit too rough probably to swim across without being taken down by waterfalls. Toa and Iris. It's not much longer before Beatrice returns, flapped down with, in her little feet, the message from Lufden.

Perfect news. I'll read it. Well, how did you do that? Do what? How did you make the bird do what you wanted it to do? Oh, it's Felix's bird. It's not my bird. I don't make her do anything. I just ask her to do things. Oh. So he has some, like, special kinship with birds? Well, it's just his bird. I mean, have you ever had a pet before? It's kind of like the same thing. Well, yes, I'm lufty. But she doesn't do anything that I ask her to do.

I suppose Beatrice doesn't always follow orders that Felix gives her, but I mean, honestly, it's probably the same relationship that Felix and Beatrice has as you and Lufty. I'm going to give him my deepest condolences the next time I see him. Well, in that case... You have, like, a really agitated look on my face for no reason. You're usually funny. Alright.

It's playing us with its feelings! Oh, that's not a feeling! But it doesn't work with any bird. Like, it has to be that one specifically. To be fair, I've never tried it with any other bird. But I suppose it could work. Right, but if you happen to see... And not that I did anything, but if you happen to see a frog with a letter, just let me know. Ah!

Well, you know what, I'm not even going to eat. Look, honestly, just what does it say? Any questions? I mean, honestly, it's best if we just look at the room. Just leave the room. I'm standing right here.

I'm not a brother for them. Are you fully awake? The messenger's still here. I just want to make sure that you're awake. You're talking about the bird. Because the messenger's here. The bird's the messenger. Am I talking to you, Teo? I just want to make sure you're fully awake. I don't talk in my sleep, though. All right, I'm just making sure. Well, thank you. Because I'm trying to learn the cultures of this land. Anyway, I open the door. He trusts you implicitly. Well, it basically sounds like...

They're kind of stuck, I guess. Why don't you read it verbatim? Something about Gruber and... I said, if I can remember correctly, I said...

We're not at the monastery yet. Like, looking for help, looking for a man named Gruber. And then in caps, do what you need to do, referring to the gentleman who's transforming Cyan Felix. It was very short, very current. I don't want it to be, you know, misconstrued or intercepted or anything like that. So, anyway, it sounds like they're working on it, but that it's taking a long time. It sounds like...

We're trying to get some kind of information in. We've been at this for a long time. And if I know anything about me and Felix, this could take like a month. So I'm very concerned. So you're telling me that we are stuck at a waterfall with a dog and a drunk. Is there a waterfall? And this weird guy that's turning into some kind of animal.

There's a waterfall nearby? Is there a waterfall? Yeah. Oh, shoot. That's so cool! Oh, he's right there! I'm like, blind! Look, and I can see it! I'm like, what are you, fucking blind?!

Are we in a cave? Yeah. No. There's like a little kind of outcropping and then there's a waterfall like right down crashing down from the river that runs through here. It's kind of like hiding our voices. I think that the party can see the map at this point. So we're like right around here. Oh, yeah. And so it's crashing down and then the water continues to... You're like...

A little further down. Where are the priests? I have no idea. I'm just standing with him. The four of us are waiting for the monk to deliver his message at the monastery to hopefully come back and take us across. So I'm with you. Yeah, the four of us are chilling. So... Do you want to go check out that board?

Sure, absolutely. While he's gone, maybe we come in over it. Yeah. He's on the boat. He took his boat across the waterway to the monastery. Is there a second boat? Is there a second boat? Oh, well, poor shame.

I guess we'll just work on... I'll just do my... Do you have a place in Cornhole? Yeah, yeah, no, I'm... I got distracted by the waterfall, but my point is that he trusts anything that we do with him. It just... it's not... I was hoping we'd have hope at this point, is all I'm saying. I don't know why you thought we would have hope at this point.

When we knew that you were staying with this gentleman, once we went to sleep last night, I knew this was all going to come out. Well, anyway, we're just keeping... It's not like we looked at him and we thought, oh, you're slowly turning into some weird goat man. I bet we have a month. Oh.

And you know, it's been like, what, three days since he began his transformation? I'd say we've got longer than expected. How come all the other villagers took so long to turn? Again, in the letter, in all caps, it said do what you need to do. You honestly have no idea how long it took them to turn. All we know is that he came running at us. They could have been turning for a month beforehand. We don't know. I say give him till the end of the day, and if not, we knock the guy out and bring him on in.

I'm not taking him anywhere near that town. I'm not going to risk spreading seeds. Then let's just wait until the end of the day. Let's wait until this evening. If he turns worse than that, you need to kill him. And the blood will be on your hands. I will knock him out and then maybe kill him in his unconscious state. Jesus. Jesus is also staying at the cave with them. Once delivering a letter. So you guys are off. Uh...

So Beatrice is staying there? Yes, yes, correct. This is how it was before. Correct. And after a while, you see Conrad coming back out. You saw him leave, go into the main doors of the monastery. And he was gone probably inside for about ten minutes. He comes back out, and he gets in his bow, and he shoves off and heads over. Goes over to you all, and he dots...

And he looks up and says, "Well, Kanna said he can come on over." And says, "Apparently he knows you." So that's all you had to tell me. Great. Who does he know? This one, blue one. And who is that?

That's the man that I might be looking for. Yeah. Yeah, he says that you're a monk yourself. Oh, should I have told you that? Yeah, probably that would have been a good idea. Oh, you know, it's little

my mind. Conrad, I appreciate what you've done. Does this Gruber have a few moments to talk? Is he the one that we can speak to? Yeah, he says. He wants to talk with this one. I'm sure he does. I just hope that he can spare a few moments for me. That's all. Yeah, I mean, yeah. He's a good man. An amenable man. Just don't waste his time. Thank you. I give him one gold coin. Okay. He takes the gold.

- It's like a tip. - Thank you, Garland. Okay, everyone get in. The boat's here now, you two. - Oh. - And he points at her. - It's the board. - Hop on in, guys. Hop on in. - No second boat, so I guess we gotta take it. - Man, it's been the whole way down. - I get in the boat.

We're all on the boat. You're all on the boat, and you get kind of splashed by the spray of the roaring waterfall that's not too far from you, and the current seems to be a little bit strong, but Conrad is easily able to navigate it. It's not that long of a trip. As you're taken across, he docks at the other side, ties up the boat, and says, Okay, everybody out.

I'll be waiting here. Danke, Conrad. Appreciate the voyage. Thanks. Thank you, Conrad. Can you point us in the... I guess maybe this one could tell us where Gruber is. I'll just walk towards him. Yeah, she should know where it is. I would have asked during the journey what kinds of beasts might approach Gruber.

boat of this type during a journey like this maybe some like are there some kind of like monsters that are constant friction for this captain that kind of thing carpenter bees just trying to get a sense of the story there's no uh no monsters we're pretty uh pretty safe we got some uh some catfish that are pretty uh

pretty rough they get pretty big and sometimes bump the boat sure that's about that's about all i got termites carpentry sounds like a pretty easy life pretty simple i feel yeah monster all right thank you kindly really appreciate it one of those quattros and then uh sure

I give it a little slap and I'm like, "I like your boat." Thanks. Well, not "boat." It's a good boat. It got us across. No holes. It's a really tight boat. It's a Canada Tant boat, boy. No, that is no really... It's tucked in, you know? Yeah, okay. Is Conrad the name of your boat? This is Dakota. It's the name of my weapon. Did you name your boat? No, I didn't name my boat after myself. Okay, I'm gonna just sit here and enjoy. Well, you should consider giving it a name. It's quite a sentient being.

Well, I don't know what that word means. You all enjoy your trip. Thanks. I guess Lifty would be the one that's guiding you here. Thank goodness. Through the... Good thing. So, Lifty...

You would know. As soon as you kind of cross this river and dock, all of a sudden, the memories of home return to you. You see the sleeping quarters of the monks. You see the train and

grounds and you see a few young students kind of out there now working on their stances and working on their martial arts. You kind of wind through and you see some of the monks in their kind of simple attire walking around

and all of them kind of have a bit of a swagger as if they may have been drinking at this point. As you see, as you're walking past the large mixing room and you see this huge brewer's spoon stirring up the beer as you make your way to

to where you know Brother Huber at Resonance, who's the one that basically is the high... If Lophor really had clarity that were of an elevated status, he's the one that kind of is the de facto leader of this place. And so you...

Rather than any kind of office or anything, you go to the very small, intimate in-house bar for the older monks that are there, and it seems to be pretty unguarded. And you step in, and you see, all of you, a large man.

both in height and in width, everywhere. Very, very large. He's kind of pressed up against the bar with a huge, like, kind of orange, bushy beard. Completely bold.

as he has kind of a large starring of that famous Kirshai male that they make. And his face is red, especially his nose. It's kind of this bulbous red nose, and he kind of turns as he hears you coming.

I'm Luffy! It's been ten years! Would I know that this is brother Gruba? Yeah. He was probably one of the ones who kind of brought you in. He would have brought you in and probably would have been one of the brothers or sisters that gave you the name. I am right behind you. You are? I would roll in and do like a

I don't know, some sort of acrobatic, like, Kurt Wheely kind of thing and, like, spring on him and give him a big hug. Hey, it's been a long time. I can't believe you're back and not dead. That's good. I can't believe you're here and not dead. Who are your friends? Oh, no.

Just kidding. They are good people. That's her, Jacques. Isn't she pretty? Okay, that's good. You're not my dad. No, I'm not your dad. Don't say that. He's my teacher. My name is Capriccio. You can call me Caprice. It's a really pleasure to meet you. What's your name again? Brother Gruber, you can call me. Brother Gruber? Gruber. Gruber. Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much. Hey, Gruber.

Yeah. Yeah. And this is Felix. Yeah, Felix. Thank you for... Look at this guy.

He's not there. This guy, he's got an invisible friend. He's hitting it harder than I am at this point. Did I say the people I drop in with? You keep in company. Always good. What are you drinking today, brother? I'm drinking what I always drank when you were a little girl. I always drink the same thing. Why are you asking me such a question?

You know, I'm being polite, but can we have a taste of that sweet nut that's in there? You can have a little sampling glass. Especially for these. I'll welcome the outsiders because they're your friends, but that's the only reason. He goes behind the counter and pulls out these very small glasses. He taps it. Perfect. And hands you with your drink. And...

Cheers! Cheers! And it is, I would say, probably the best beer you've ever had. You can understand why people come here and around the world. Even better than Godric. Yes, absolutely.

Well, it depends. Yeah, I would say it's better than... You'd consider it better than... This is amazing. Thank you for the taste. I appreciate it. Well, you know, it's the best in the world. I say so myself. Do you make it? I do, and all of my brothers and sisters have served La Croix and his...

Good word. Drinking and being married. This tastes like a lot of experience goes into a beer of this craft. What are you... How long have you been brewing this? Is this like a family operation? Has this been decades? Centuries? Hundreds of years passed down from our order. Holy shit.

He holds those lines. Oats and barley, grapes and wine, drink and brew are very fine. That's our prayer. That's all we have. Well, long days and pleasant nights, brother. I'm totally with you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I finished my glass. Thank you.

And he says, so, I don't have much time. I'm very busy praying. I'm communing with Lapuard, so... I don't want to interrupt, and by all means, if you have questions you need to ask him, that's fine, but I just want ten minutes alone to talk to you. Who are you communing with? Lapuard, the god of drink. No, I'm not roleplaying, I'm asking. Oh, what? Lapuard. L-A-P-U-A-R-D.

Wolf, I have no way of... La... L-A-P-U-A-R-D. La Pouard. La Pouard. Yeah. Got a drink? Yes. Thank you. Again, I don't want to speak for anyone else. I only need ten minutes of your time to ask you some questions in private. Well, I suppose I could, if he is a good lad. Well, I have not known him very long, but...

He's certainly more serious than I ever was. I think it could be, you know, an interesting party to have here. Why don't you answer his questions? Very well. If you join me, you can probably all go browse the grounds and our beautiful vineyard, if you care. What time is it at the point? It's probably...bite noon, lunchtime.

Anybody want to go to the vineyards? Yeah, do you want to join me or take you on a tour of the gaunt? Yeah, absolutely. All right, let's go. So we'll leave and I'll just kind of take them walking around. What questions can I ask in my room? I promise I won't take much of your time and again you may not even have what I'm looking for but I are first off

I need to ask, are you involved in any way, or I assume with what you're doing up here, you have no involvement with the Kravakian military. I imagine you oppose them. I keep those dogs out of my town. That's good to hear, and it's for the best, and all I ask is that you pretend we never met.

I don't need them causing trouble. We don't have any trouble. We defend ourselves. Great. I'm glad to hear that. Have you heard anything remotely sounding like or of Beast Plague? Beast Plague? No, I don't know anything about any plague of beasts. They're like frogs falling from the sky. Unfortunately, I wish that's all it was, but just...

Be aware. Be careful. There's apparently sightings of men, humans, and I don't know other people, turning into beasts. And just be aware. That's all.

Okay, is there something I can be concerned with? I do have healing properties. Well, it's... From the research that I've done, it appears to be some sort of transmutation magic. And unless you can reverse or undo that, then probably not. I can see what I can do with some of my brew, I suppose. But you have... None of our villagers have come down with any plague.

We're generally very healthy. That's fine. Then I guess my advice would just be to keep an eye out for it and be aware of what I've told you. Other than that, again, if you haven't really dealt with the Kravakian military, then there's nothing else that I can ask in regards to that. Are you aware of anything of the Makani Islands? Do you know any? I have a fellow traveling with me from the Makani Islands, and I know that he would like to ask you questions, but I'm here to represent him since he can't be here.

That's okay. I just figured I would try. He's worried about some sort of... It seems like almost guardian spirits, the four wind spirits that live there. If you never heard of the place, then...

Then that's okay, but I figured it was better than nothing. Spirits? There was a big fella that came by here talking about spirits. A big fella? Big fella. Can you describe him for me? He was big and gray, covered in tattoos. He was a rough customer. Wait, how big is big? How tall? A good seven feet tall. What was he asking about? He was a mean-looking fella.

And what did he ask you about? He was talking about spirits looking for... came in making demands and threats and asking all sorts of questions that I didn't know anything about, but he mentioned guardian spirits. I don't know if that helps you at all. Did you catch the gentleman's name? I did not. We had him escorted off of the ground because quite a...

He got past Conrad. I can't believe Conrad let him by, but he thought he was gonna come to blows, but once there were 30 monks around you, I think he backed down. Did he mention where he might be going next? He said he mentioned something about heading to the city. I don't know which. Well, again, if you haven't had much run-in with the Krovacian military, I...

You know, beyond the transmutation magic, the wind spirits, and what the military may be doing, all I can offer is...

Well, dear one, I appreciate the warning.

Let's go find your companion. We shall walk the grounds. I could use a stretch of the legs. Sure, sure. And again, just don't tell anyone I was here.

Sounds good. I won't. I'd probably forget this even happened, so it's fine. Cheers. So he walks with you. Lifting you, you take Persia and Caprice through a lovely tour of the vineyards, and it looks wonderful, and it feels like when you see some of the kids running around, you get the sense that all of them are probably orphans. Um...

and you kind of stop to observe some of the training that's going on and kind of the unique techniques that you use yourself and you can see that this is obviously where she trained so you eventually run into Felix and Brother Reaper and he says "so my child"

Why have you come home? Oh, well, you know, it's been such a long time. I was just telling them this is where I broke your nose at one time, you remember. Yes, you did, you always liked it. It's always been grotesque, Sensei. Yeah, you were always cavalier with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I just, you know, I was traveling with a friend and I wanted to come back and see my old home. How have you been?

We've all been well. Did you find what you were looking for abroad? Like we thought we might. Well, you know, always searching, always looking. Very well. Well, it's good to see you. Did this satisfy your... You know, I just got here. Who's to say what satisfies looks?

You know, we were walking through the woods here and we encountered such trouble. Have you had any problems? Well, we've had some issues with giant and ogre attacks lately. They've been a bit more emboldened. Yeah. Coming into town all the way down? No, not in town. Just travelers on the road.

Do you know what an ettin is? Of course. Who doesn't know what an ettin is? Oh, yeah, no. And do you classify that as sort of like ogres or what have you? Well, no. Ogres, I mean, ettins will occasionally work with giants and cooperate with ogres and giants, but... Yeah. No, no, but we happened to confront one as we were entering. We stumbled across a

- That's so! You're lucky to have escaped with your lives! - I mean, to be completely honest, you see, he's a little bit of a wimp. - Mm-hmm, yeah. - Well, you all can handle yourselves, apparently. - Had some good brew on him, though! It was not a totally lost cause. - The giants and their ogres have been in these highlands for hundreds of years, and...

They've been far more active lately than I've seen in my entire time here. Beyond their argument. Sounds like some global ogre, you know? That's really meaningful. Any problems with the town folk? Anybody gone missing or anything like that? Everything seems to be...

I haven't heard of any reports of people going missing, no. Have you seen any signs of a dwarf gentleman that may look like me that may have passed through here at some point in the last few weeks? Exactly right. His name would have been Torvald Anvilheart.

Oh, is he a bloke that can barely speak common? It seems like he spoke common. I can understand half of what he said. He may have been a little drunk. Yeah, sounds like Dad. He sometimes chooses not to speak common just to fuck with people, so I apologize for that. But yeah, he's definitely a drunk. Well, I mean, he was in good company. He came seeking a visit.

He was made a very emotional plea and his love of Drake was so moving and the words, even though I could barely understand them, I granted him passives. I gave him a taste. I thought I almost knocked him dead how to the moon he was.

So you granted a drunk passage across your waterways? Yes. With no further questioning or any sort of... He stated his case and I was very happy to... He stated his case for his love of... To come visit with us for a while and have a sip of our beer.

How long did he stay here for? Oh, only for no more than an hour. He stayed here for an hour and you let him pass your waterways? What? I'm so confused. I thought it was a passage of like water, like a ferry?

It's a fair. So he was... Like a half hour ago. So... Okay. It's just like a little... It's like a little fairy. Yeah. They live out on like a... She's basically just saying that she can't believe that he was only here for an hour and he let her at the monastery. It seems like their vetting process is not that grand. Yeah, that's... Clearly it's not. So, okay. So you said he was a very emotional kind of fella. What was he... What was he rambling on about? You're listening to this, so...

Well, he just kept talking about how much he enjoyed our beer and how much he wished he could bring more with him. And I said, only monks of the monastery can take it.

can take these castles of Arrael outside of these walls other than the one day the festival of Mephwad. He was very disappointed in understanding and he went on his merry way. He said he had a very special contract job that he was doing. He could not be... He took some time. He said he was going to be tired but he could not delay any longer, so...

He was on his way. We had a very good conversation for that hour. He seemed like a good man, your father.

He appreciates a good drink, and I appreciate that. Yeah, but he also doesn't appreciate telling his family when he's off doing these jobs for so much time. Anyway, that's not important, but... Yeah, that's definitely a whole other thing that I'm not sanctioned to talk about. That's okay. That's all right. I'm just rambling. But how long ago would you say he was up? He was mentioning this to you. When did he set sail? He just...

Did he tell you his name was Torvald or did he kind of keep that secret?

No, he told me his name was Orval. I've honestly forgotten it until you mentioned it again. I'm with Herger. Yeah, we're all together. Listen, pal, I...

She's looking for her dad. All right? And if I were my dad, I would want to meet my daughter and have her know where I am and that she would be safe. Is there a question that you would ask? Is there any stone left unturned in this conversation? Or is it like... Said he was heading to the North Road?

Had to make it around the... the, uh... the Krovo Mountains? What did I fuckin' say that they were again? Kro-Kro-Krovo.

- So maybe like seven, 10 days ago, he took off saying that? - Yes, he did, yes. - Well, all right. That means we're maybe a week behind her, Jeff.

Yeah, it's promising for sure. And so he didn't mention he'd say he's business or anything like that? No, he didn't divulge more than very important. He seemed to take it almost as seriously as he did the beer that he came to see. Out of curiosity, did he seem intoxicated or did he feel a clear mind? Well, it's hard to say. We seem to be aware of his circumstances.

Enjoyed a good drink, but another thing that I wouldn't say was beyond reproach.

But remember, we are in Kirstein, so it's a low bar for intoxication. Yeah, no, that's definitely a consideration factor for sure. Well, if you happen to stumble upon him, if he's on his way back to Sirius, to Jona, which is where we're from, then please mention to him that his daughter and mom are looking for him and that we're really worried.

and that he should probably write home letting us know that he's okay but only if you see him or if any of your friends in here in Kirstein see him because I'm keeping an eye out not too many dwarves visit us beyond the feast day so I will keep an eye out I appreciate a good someone who appreciates family it's important I understand too many

So I wish you the best of luck. What did you mention? Some sort of day that dwarves come to visit Kirsten? Well, everyone comes to visit on the feast day of Lapoie. That's when we bring our special brew down to the town and...

All those outsiders make them drink and imbibe as much as they would enjoy. I've been away so long. When is the feast day? I've forgotten. Oh, it's a few months from now. We've already worked on the preparations.

So it sounds like dad wasn't coming down here specifically for the visa. No, no, it seems like he was moving on. That was a while ago. It seems like he immediately went to whatever it is the visa... In the Coral Mountains. Yeah, no. He's going around...

around them and you said he took the north road? The north road out of town, yes. How do you access this road? Is it pretty easy? Well, you would have passed it on the way coming here. So you're just rather than heading directly east to Kirstein, just head directly north and go through the highlands up around the mountains. I don't recommend passing through the mountains unless you're very

Very weathered and well-traveled. Did it sound like he was disregarding your instructions to go around the mountains? No, I think he was going around, so he seemed like that was his plan. Any word of advice for trekking through those treacherous places? Keep an eye out for ogres and giants, and hopefully you can kill them if any.

Descend upon you. An ettin. Sounds like you guys have an ettin problem. There are a few ettins here and there, but they're not as organized as the former. Yeah, well, you know, I really appreciate it that you share this information. And like I said, please keep in mind, if you see him, just pass that message on for me, if you don't mind. I will. Thanks. Yeah, thank you kindly, stranger. Appreciate it. Are you my child?

I was gonna say, once Brother Gruber seems to be done with the groom and walks away, I have a question for Lüfty, but I don't want to rush that, so I didn't know if... Lüfty, my child, how long have you been down for? Who's to say? Okay. I've been away so long, I would love to be a part of the monastery for a bit.

Do some training. You know. Well, if you'd like a refresher on your training, you may go and enjoy that. Absolutely. You're free to come and go as you please. You are a sister to yours. Well, I will get back to my important holy work.

And he returns to the bottom. Of course. Lufty, I'm sorry to bother you. Obviously, I'm from Korovakia, but I don't know much about Kirstein. If I were to say to you, the city, being this is a town, what city would come to mind? There are multiple cities. The biggest in Korovakia is Zenshan.

I guess my question is, what's the biggest, closest city to Kirsten? And I assume that Lufthu would have an answer to that. If somebody said the city, Lufthu would go, oh, of course, I would say this. You probably get a sense of Zentra would be like the closest. Which I've heard of Zentra. That's a name that I would know. That's what you said. Okay, right, exactly. That's what I'm saying. So you're telling me that Zentra is the...

is the closest city. Yeah, I guess. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it doesn't hurt to double check, so I appreciate that. What are you looking for? We're friends now! If it was in regards to me, I'd be happy to divulge it, but I don't want... I'm asking questions on Toa's behalf, and I would respect his privacy. Okay, okay.

Well, while I value your...

Proactivity. I assume it's because they have to watch our captive. You guys wrote the note, right? We sent a note back. But we didn't know that, that's what I'm saying. The note that came under the door, we have no idea how it got there, how she sent it to you. That was my whole concern, right? Is that clearly she sent a note to you guys without us knowing. And I don't know who delivered the note or how it got to you. And that's like super dangerous IMO, in my opinion, right? So my whole thing was cool. Like, hey, but if you don't want to tell us how it got there...

Fine. But that was like risky, right? Proactive, I appreciate it, but we're holding something that could be contagious and I just worry about how the note was delivered and... I know, I know your concern, but it is Kirstein. Everything is loosey-goosey. I'm just worried that no one's taking this as seriously as I am and I don't like to be that guy, but I... Perhaps you should be comforted by the fact that you are the most serious guy in Kirstein.

The note was probably delivered by carrier pigeon, if I would have to take it. Well, if it was by bird, then I suppose we're okay. No bird's as smart as my bird, but that's fine. Oh, I forgot you had a bird. But yeah, yeah, I suppose.

Yeah, well, you know, maybe we should make sure that all parcels are signed off by your bird first before we send them out. Hey, if you want. Well, no, I mean, I don't have control of her. It would be your call. But I think that might be a good idea. I'll be having it...

I just think if we're holding a certain someone hostage, more or less, until we see what happens to this person, we should be extra careful. That's all. That's all I'm saying. You know, hostage is a nasty word. He has not said, let me go, let me go. He said, I'm sorry. Until he turns and until we have to kill him, he's still a person with agency. We're doing our best to save this person. We don't want to just assume that he's no longer a person.

Otherwise, what's the point? We'd have killed him a long time ago. But he did not say let me go, so... You didn't say much of anything. We're looking out for his best interest. Exactly. So he's like, um... I don't think I'm ever going to understand you. That's fine. I'm going to do the best I can here. But it'll be okay. What time is it at this point?

Um, it's probably like mid-A- like probably 3-4. I- I prefer to not leave our companions alone in a cave. I agree! We only have one night from freedom. So I'm saying we go find them because they can't bring that- that- that potentially hazardous creature.

I have some, but I need it. Listen, I'm not about lavish things. I'm not about staying in inns, but I need the money for the things that I do, namely research. Well, where would you like to go, insisting? I'd like to go back to the cave and make sure that they're okay. Listen, Toa and I slept in caves for months. One more night isn't a big deal.

I don't like being in the king. How do you think your companion feels? You know, I try to think about her. I try to be compassionate, but it's also pretty nice to just, like, you know...

Not have to sleep with someone on top of me. I get to eat my food first. I don't have to think about, you know, what is Iris doing? What does Iris want? I'm not leaving Toa alone for another evening, so I'm going to start heading back home. Iris all of a sudden has this weird itch in her neck. Iris is like, Toa, is the food back?

A frog? The one with the letter. Oh, you mentioned the frog. No, I haven't seen any frogs with any letters. All right, well, let's keep it up. You need to stretch. And I get back to licking my butthole. Yeah. Wow.

She starts over-brewing. I mean, honestly, if you're a Tabaxi, holy hell, your roleplay is licking your own butthole. Yeah, basically. Listen, I'm heading back. I'm sure we can get the fairy back. I'm not leaving Toa alone, and Iris certainly doesn't want to be left alone, I'm sure. So I'm going to head back. I've got the information that I could get from here, and that's all there is to it. We need to move on.

So let's make our way back, but maybe just make a stop here, Ozil. Quick stop. We need to be back at the cave before nightfall. How much time? It's probably like three, four hours.

Do we want to figure out if there's any doctors in Kirstein that you could recommend maybe that could come with us and take a look at him? I spoke to the barkeep. I spoke to the monk. They don't really seem to have the science or technology. What, I know doctors in there? So you know that Brother Gruber has healing powers, I was going to say. Right, but we talked about it. It's simply a mistake. Other than that. Other than the monks. So here's the thing. The conversation that I had with him was that it was transmutation magic.

And I didn't want to be like, "Hey, we're gonna bring this diseased guy into your monastery, right?" So I personally, and this is meta out of character, would rather go back to the gang and tell Iris, especially because she seems the only one who has her head on straight, about what the deal is before we bring a diseased creature into Kirsten. I'm not gonna be like, "Hey, by the way, we captured this guy who has Beast Plate, which you've never even heard of, and we're just gonna walk him into your monastery."

Right? I mean, like, we did some recon. I got information that doesn't seem to be very helpful. So I want to share with what will be helpful with Toa and potentially what will be helpful to Iris. That's my plan. Without saying all of that, I'm heading back to Toa and Iris.

Understand that he's a powerful person But he didn't seem to know much about transport or he said he knew something about change mutation magic and that he would be on the lookout for This potential beast point. That was my whole Life why leave him on the lookout when we can just show him like haven't come with us maybe and take a look

Because I know that if Iris was here, one, I don't think, I don't know, I assume these monks don't often leave their monastery, and Iris would be appalled if we were to bring this potentially infected creature into Kirstine. We can't do that. So I think that we can spare maybe one more evening, reconvene with the group, and discuss what we do from there.

Listen, I know that I'm somebody who's basically said, fuck it all, I'll do what I want, but I hate to say it, but I trust Iris on this one. Yeah, I do too. I have no idea what I'm doing with this. Iris feels this weird itch on the back of her neck. She wants to grab Lucy to get her out of the problem. Are you really sure you don't need a little scratch? No, you're too drunk to touch me. Or maybe you're not drunk enough, knowing Lufty. Neither am I.

No, the frog's not here. Just paranoid, I guess. And honestly, if this particular subject...

or to perish or we would have to kill him, it wouldn't be that hard for us to find another and capture him. I mean, these things are everywhere. We've run into them non-stop since we've all met. I'm confident we could find another one, capture it, but I'm not just going to walk some half-beast man into Kirstein and get ripped apart by the locals. No, I'm just trying to figure out a meet-halfway sort of situation. Of course, of course, I completely understand. Okay.

Yeah, well I guess the best bet we have right now is meeting up with our friends. What do you think Capricci? What are we talking about? We're thinking about heading back to the cave. We think that Brother Gruber may potentially be able to help, but we can't walk someone with potential beast plague through the town up to the monastery

without raising a ton of alarm. Well, then how do we sneak them to town? That's what I'm saying. Let's get back to Toa and Iris. Let's discuss the situation. And there's anything stopping us from moving around the town? Besides being violently attacked and ripped apart at this potential beast man that would walk through the town, no. I think we will slam him off, will you?

We already have. I don't want this being a full-blown panic. No, let's wrap him like a burrito and we'll just walk him through town. Fine, but we need to get back to Toa and Iris first. We should probably also let him know that we're going to be doing that, Gruber.

Like, I feel like that would be kind of rude if we just strutted this plague. No, no, no. Let's let the important people know what we're doing, and then let's go find Toa and Iris. Okay, so are we going to tell Zuber? We should do it in reverse order. But, again... I also don't think that I should go back to Iris without something...

Pretty nice. Or she's going to be mad. So I'm going to get a shop. Listen, you have a few hours, but we need to get back. I don't want to be walking around outside of Crescent. Go shop around. Go and find some, like, treats or what have you. It's out of her purse, so I'm not really concerned. But, you know, treats are treats are treats. I have some clean underwear that might fit her.

That's kind of nice. Keep it as a backup. Persia, you're a sweet girl. I know. I'm literally picturing a tabaxi wearing underwear. It's the greatest mental image ever. Would you guys be upset if I just head back early and you guys do your shopping and do your thing and I'll just go meet with them and talk to them? Sure.

Well, if you want to go by yourself... Don't tell him what's up. I don't want to say you're a pain in the ass, but you're kind of a pain in the ass, and people in Kirsten don't wear, you know... Well, then it's best I leave the town, perhaps.

Maybe we can find him some clean underwear. I turn around and I go find good old ferryman. Okay, so we'll just say if you're all done, unless you're going to sit around. Herjit, were you able to find any clues regarding your dad here? Yeah, you were standing right next to me when we were sharing all of that. So, um...

We'll recap it afterwards. And so, the group, unless anyone would like to say... Well, it sounded like she wanted to do shopping in the town. I want to leave the town once we all get to the other side of the river. We'll just say, well, meet Conrad. Conrad takes you back. He lets you know that basically, because your mom was able to bring people over, and that's fine. And then...

You guys shop a bit and, uh, Felix and Ben stretch their legs. Yeah, I'm heading back to the cave. I'd like to hit one of the shops, like, closest to the water that might have some, like, fresh seafood or, like, something. We'll just say that, like, kind of close to the river there's a place that has, like, a lot of, like, fish and, like, fresh catches in the day. You're able to find some, like, delicious fish that can be wrapped up and brought back to the IRS. So I would purchase whatever that is.

I would say. We'll just say you probably spend like eight silver worth of fish and get a good, nice sampling of, of fish. And, um, uh,

Toa and Iris, you're kind of sitting and enjoying, just kind of sitting and waiting, watching Amos just kind of, still kind of in that fever dream state, but still kind of, it's kind of going from thrashing and kind of growling to kind of like this weird, as Felix turns the bend and joins you.

How are you guys holding up? Felix! You're back! I'm back, BT. Who can hear this guy? Well, alright, so we've got a little bit to talk about. And I think that we met with Brother Gruber, who I mentioned in my... That sounds disgusting. Yeah, well, I mean, he's an interesting fellow. It makes me think of like a large grub.

I appreciate your insight. Uh, just sharing. Yeah, no, I, thank you. Um, he's a human. He's a human, right? He's a big human, right? Okay. Yeah. No, he's a human. He's human. Uh, here's the thing. Uh,

Unfortunately, the questions that I had, he almost had nothing to help me, which is fine. I didn't really expect it. But here's the thing. He seems to have some sort of medicinal property. I told him about the dangers of Beast Plague and about how it seemed to be a transmutation thing. And he seemed...

relatively confident in the ability to be able to maybe take a look at something. But I don't necessarily, and I felt you when I thought about this, was... So you're the frog with the letter. I...

I'm not a frog. I don't have a letter. Sorry, sorry. My apologies. I misunderstood. I didn't want to march this man through Kirstein with Beast Plague. I felt that one, that would be stupid, and two, you'd say that was stupid. Obviously that would be stupid, but what's just as stupid is having a man that could potentially help the situation and coming back without him.

Well, they don't leave their monastery, more or less. Oh, so he told you he wouldn't come? Well, no, I didn't want to ask. I wanted to talk to you both first. Well, why don't we just take him in there? We can't march this man through the city. Couldn't you have just sent us a Twitter? We'll just roll him up like a burrito and carry him. I sent Beatrice back to you, and she didn't come back. I can't tell her to just come back. She was too far away. The distance was too far. Once I sent the letter... Does she eat frogs? Yes.

She doesn't need anything. Oh, well, that's good to know. She's more or less... She's just a magic thing. It would take a long time to explain. The point is... Yeah, I'm not grabbing her head right now. One, I had to give Toa a message, and two, I wanted to get your opinion on how we get this creature to the monk. I think that Lufti may be able to talk her way in, but if we try to walk this creature through Kirstein to the monastery, we will get torn to shreds. Well, I think the best idea would be to send your bird once...

find her to this grub. Well, Beatrice should be around here somewhere. I sent her back here to Toa and I do a little... She just seconds and she flaps down from the sky. Of course. Do you think that we should... You want to send a message to the monastery? To grub, yes.

We could do that. Um, uh, Lufty and Caprice and Hersha should be on their way back. Do... I just didn't know if we all wanted to reconvene first. Listen, I'm trying to not be so opposed to the group working together, okay? I'm trying here. I think that...

I would like the group to be here to vote, but then the problem is three of them could vote no, and then we vote yes, and then once again I'm overruled, and I really hate the way that feels. Honestly, we just need Lufty on our side. So if the two of us are on the side, that's two versus one if Toa will be against us, but he loves you, so that's three against nobody. So I think we should just vote for us. I think it's a pretty good idea, too. Oh, and then we have the drunk who will do it. But we just need Lufty's blessing, because she's going to be the one who has to walk this thing in there. Have you met her?

Yes? I'm telling you, we have to leave this blessing. Send him his message. All right, all right. I'll give that a friendship hug and then she can do anything else. I'll write a short letter to Gruber basically saying, Dear Brother Gruber, speaking of Beast Plague...

and your potential ability to assess the situation and potentially do something about it. We may have some samples and a subject for you to view. We need you either to meet us outside of town or okay us bringing the subject to the Monastery, signed Felix. Mention that we're afraid he may carry a curse and we don't want to infect the congregation. P.S. We're worried that he may carry a curse and we don't want the citizens of Karstein or the Monastery to be in danger.

Double Felix. But we don't know that we're all okay. We've been interacting with him for like days. P.S.S. My friend Toa mentions that we've all been interacting with him for days. Parentheses, I haven't touched him once. I refuse to. End parentheses. And we all seem to be okay. I forget what kind of magic detect magic is. Hold on. Sorry. It's not divination, is it?

It's detection. I've used detection magic to make sure that none of us have had any kind of... It's a long letter. Any kind of... Your penmanship is absolutely spectacular. Thank you. Any kind of transmutation magic on us... Give us a comma. Sorry, comma. This is everything that we know. I roll it up and I...

telepathically talk to Beatrice and I send her on her way. You hear a voice return back to you. Don't you know tweets are supposed to be 140 characters? 280 now! 2018, bitch! She grabs this massive roll letter and her tiny little feet and she's like...

And then she eventually takes off, kind of going a little bit slowly, and flaps off. And I just tap toe and say, when we have a few minutes, I've got some information for you. Oh, you do? All right. Look, it's completely fine if you want me to go away so you can have your little powwow. But I have to ask you something, and you have to promise that you're not going to make fun of me because I do not understand what you do. This bird that you have. Sure. Is she a real bird?

Well, again, without getting into the deep science of it all... Just to get to my question. Yes, she's very real. Can you just walk up to any animal and ask it to do a thing for you?

No, no, it's just Beatrice. So the frog that I gave that note to, or that I spoke to and asked to deliver a letter, is probably not going to deliver it. You gave a note to a frog? Well, I saw Toa do it, and Toa does not have any magical abilities, and I thought to myself, well, you're the Dark Lord's pharaoh, and you have magical abilities, so he can order a bird to deliver a letter to Felix, and you can order this frog to deliver a letter to Luke.

And so far, I've been sitting here for well over half a day, almost an entire day, and this stupid frog still has not come back out of the water. Now, I don't know much about you, and I certainly don't know too much about druids, but do you often commune with nature? Never. But if Toa can do it, why couldn't I do it? Well, Toa was able to do it because I told the bird to listen to Toa. But how did you tell the bird to listen to Toa? It's science and magic. If we become really great friends, you're sure? I'll do what I can.

I will tell you any time the military comes by, and you promise that someday you'll tell me how this bird works. Deal. Promise. Would I have caught any of them walking out? No. You get a little bit of... You guys shake hands, and...

So yeah, did you ever get her any clean underwear or anything like that? It was like a stamp. You got this, you can't come in.

Me too. Oh, thank you. Hi. Yes. What I have for you. Oh, hello. Who are you? I know. I've been gone for so long. I'm sorry. I didn't tell you who you are. Oh, you'll remember when I give you this fish.

Why on earth are you putting fish in front of my face? That's why I'm ready to get in the line. No, honestly, darling, I don't. I've had to fish every single night. What are you doing, tiefling? Oh, God. Insult it. You know that we're right by a waterfall. The only thing I've had to eat is the fish that I've had to fish from it.

If you were going into town, you were going to get me something nice. I'll put it on my shoulder. Don't waste it. And I'm going to use my feline agility to run over and grab it. Can you make an agility check for me? Acrobatics, actually, if you're proficient. I'm not proficient. Okay, so anyway. Fourteen. Fourteen. You sprint over all the limb, and you manage to barely grab onto the fish before it lands on the ground.

Don't be wasteful. What if somebody else might need this? You grab it, like, in the cat jiff. It's like... And you just grab the bitch and, like, Iris is, like, with the package of bits. I pull out my veal. No, no.

While this is happening, I want to sling a lot of salooftia and shove my clean underwear in her hands. Okay, you got a fistful of clean underwear. So with that, darling, I just want to let you know that this fish has disappointed me greatly. That's a real girl moment. That's great. To make up for it... Well, nothing's going to make up for it, but I spoke on your behalf, and I gave you the explanation to write...

On your behalf, to the grub man from the monastery. Ah, yeah. And to say that we wanted him to come and look at Furboy. Huh. Yes? Great, I'm so glad that we're in a chorus. Okay. I've seen two minutes of film. Darling, no problem. I'll entertain them. Caprice, can you play some music and entertain them? See? Problem solved. Entertain. Shake out the underwear that Hersha handed me and try them on. Hersha?

Luthi and myself. I said, I told the boys that I would entertain the group. And to do that, I'm asking you to entertain the group. Well, it's a matter of telling a story in order to, in order to entertain. Join me, join me. So we go to the side and Caprice is going to tell us a story. I tell them an elaborate and beautiful story with passion and drama and story.

sorrow and woe. And every time the crying parts, you see Luthi dabbing her eyes with Hersha's clean underwear. Okay. What's in the back? What is it? What's that story about? Oh, it's the story of a robotic man who travels to the plane in order to become one with humanity. And he's rejected at first, but slowly, as he makes friends with a child, he's able to eventually make

friends with the various villagers and become a hero of that town. And his sacrifice at the very conclusion of the story saves the town from utter disaster. Oh, AI, artificial intelligence. No, that's actually Iron Giant. Thank you. Come on! You hear the story about the being from a test. Super

The being from Mechanus, the plane of machines, and how he learned to love. And while this is happening, Helix and Choa manage to get away. You can see...

So listen, I was able to get a few moments alone with Brother Gruber and I asked him about the Wind Spirits and unfortunately he didn't know

anything about where you come from or these particular spirits. I didn't expect them to, honestly. But, apparently...

He described a man that looked a lot like you. Tall, seven feet, grey, covered in tattoos, but kind of angsty and mean and looking to fight. And they had to throw his ass out of the monastery because he was trying to cause a fight with the river guy and all this stuff and it was a mess. And honestly, look, I don't know many Goliaths, but it sounds like he's one of your people and you don't act anything like that. This guy sounds like an asshole.

And I too think he's an ace. So wait, you think there's somebody on this continent like you on a similar journey? Why didn't you tell me about this? Did I know that he was in Trigger? At all? I did, yes. You were basically following. Okay, that's what I thought. So would he have told me that?

Up to you, I guess. But like, is this a surprise to me that there's another goliath that looks like you walking around as Trigger? So I guess I'm trying to think what would we have specifically talked about this. I don't think I would have necessarily brought this

I don't know. What do you think? Probably, I mean, obviously it's up to you. My thing is kind of like, oh, well, you never asked. Right. Fair enough. My whole thing as far as our travel was that I basically told you everything. Right. Because you're the only person that I can trust. But if it's a, oh, you didn't ask kind of a situation, then maybe you never said. The point is, for now, at least out of characters, the first that I'm hearing about this, and I'm relaying your questions to the group,

brother Gruber, so it's up to you whether or not I've even known anything about him at all. Uh, well, you never asked, but yes, there is this... My apologies, I didn't think to. There's this guy who's a total dick, and he's from the Macaulay Islands as well. His name is, uh, he's a Kutu. Can you spell that for me? K-

M-A-K-U-T-U Makutu And uh... He's... He thinks that he's trying to solve the same issue that I am but he's obviously in my mind not the right person to do it and I think he's gonna cause more harm than good So is this like a... Then again I don't wanna assume your people and your cultures but is this a chosen one kind of a thing? Like...

What's going on here? I mean, are you... Is he going about it all wrong? Is that the idea? He's... In my mind, he's not remotely spiritual, right? This guy, he's a total myth head. He likes to beat up people and just beat them in farts. He cares nothing of the spirits. He just wants to come back and basically be the king of the chastity. He wants the renown. He wants the renown. What an asshole. And I think he will be...

I don't know, I just don't trust them, and... Here's the point. The rest of the gang was asking me what I was talking to Brother Groomer about, and I told them that I didn't feel comfortable giving them that information because I was speaking on your behalf. If you want to tell the rest of them, that's fine, but I told them that I couldn't talk about it because this was your info and I didn't want to share it. So I just want to let you know, they know that I talked to Brother Groomer about something.

but they don't know anything about this other goliath and I'm gonna leave it up to you to tell the rest of the group. Maybe I will one day. I think that... That's fine. It's not, you know, I think we'll probably eventually make it to, I assume you told me that, the city and all that stuff. Yes. So that's the idea is that he, I basically want to say, you know, I described the guy and that he said, you know, that he didn't say where he was going, I asked.

But he said he was going to this city, and in my mind, and in Lufty's mind, that's Zendra. And that's where we have to go anyway. That's where I studied. That's the best chance we have of looking up new information. And while that's basically the lion's den, right, where the military is, we gotta go there eventually anyway.

Alright, well I think we're both on the same page and we'll see if there are any means to be seen with the rest of you. Alright. Alright. Onward.

And that's the point where the sky opens up and the hero of this story jumps in and becomes not just a robot but also kind of a... A frog. Exactly right. I don't know what I missed, but okay, everyone's clapping, alright? I'm in. Good preachy, darling.

You're welcome for the entertainment. Yeah. Here's a gold coin for you. Oh, yeah, really? Thank you, appreciate it. So I'm taking a gold coin. That was really good. And I'm getting a gold coin. That was absolutely spectacular. Anytime I need to entertain anyone in the future, including yourself, I'll just pay you to do something. Well, it's...

having a bard. To be completely honest, I mean, I spend most of my time being a bard in a higher echelon. It's the top shelf of society, so it's really, you know, yeah, exactly right. Am I learning how to speak Caprice? A little bit, yeah. Perfect. I'm practicing. It was more understandable than what he normally talks. I like it. Great thing is when I don't understand it, I can just smile and nod like I do to most people. That's exactly right.

Also, I can't wear these glasses anymore. It's no longer like light enough. Right. So I can. So the real bard.

Can I walk over to the body of the... He's still kind of like... I'm just thrashing all about against... Do we get any... I let them know about the letter. You mentioned, she mentioned to Lufty the letter, but I let them know about the letter we sent with Beatrice to Brother Gruber, so you're aware. Oh.

You're aware of the group. I don't even know her. Do I get any sense of any language coming out of him at all? Are we getting even like apologies anymore or are we getting just nothing? Just the grunties. Oh, my pleasure.

That's a donkey. So I mean, you're a donkey. Arcana, let's go with 13. 13. I would say you are starting to catch it's mostly just grunts, but you're starting to catch the half words. Half like pieces of what you recognize to be like bits very broken abyssum.

Oh, man. What's he saying, Caprice? Listen, uh, heard ya. Is this anything like earlier where I accompanied you to meet that goat friend of yours and then it was just all downhill from there? Yeah, it's a little bit like that. Oh, well, fuck. I'll be honest, uh, you know, you know, what he's saying is he's saying, I apologize. You've heard that over the last 24 hours. You've heard that, right? Not from you, but yeah, I've heard it from you.

But from him, yeah, 100%. So he's been apologizing for some reason. I don't know what you did, but you might want to preemptively apologize. Anyway, I'm not going to get a bikini in a relationship with him. Go on.

Ignoring Toa, I say, no, no, no, 100%. He seems to be apologizing in his voice. That was what I was testing 24 hours ago. It's transforming and shifting into kind of an abyss-type operation. Oh, so that's like...

Not good. Well, the abyss is just full of demons and goobs, you know? But they're not like you. Goobs, you say? It's not a scientific term. Wait, hold on. It's like a bad goob? It's not good. I mean, I'm not yet meeting a good goob. Goobs are hardly never. Aren't you a good goob? I'm not a good goob. I'm just a recent writer. That was close, but as they say, no cigar. I want to show this is goobs. I hardly ever...

"Goobs, I hardly know her!" "Try there, big fella! Maybe next time!" "This isn't all the time! Everybody laughs!" Well, you know, Kerprey's three chiefs, I don't really know what to do with him. So maybe this'll help, and I pump five points of my Lay on Hands into him to try and do Lesser Restoration. 'Cause I don't think I would've seen her try to do it.

Oh, on the guy. Yeah. On Amos, okay. You get a U-pump, that's a restoration, and he seems to not have any kind of shit. Rich, can you get me another Amos? I'm still struggling.

Yeah, so that's all I had. I'll also have a orchard of some kind of relative... So like maybe a feisty orchard? Feisty or neutral or chaotic, whatever you want. Can you check for an unapologetic orchard? That's the best kind for preaching. Super angry. Kelsey finally knocked it over. I stacked my dice.

Yeah, with your cute butt. What are you asking me?

I wasn't saying... Well, I mean, I don't know. I don't really have... Is my weapon of warning suggesting anything to me? Is it going off as I'm right next to this guy? How does it work? I think it's just a matter of... We have to reread the nature of the weapon. Because it's just a matter of who's attacking you right now as opposed to mystery and whatnot. The weapon of... Pardon me. Wow, the green apple's good.

That's the tots ground. I thought it was my second one. But I guess you can have it. It's fine. It's a me. Whatever you say, Iris. It's a me, Mario. Okay. So, your order's going to basically wait to see if you hear any word from Ruber. I think the idea is that it's getting really... We were both genuinely investigating the dude and making sure that he's okay after this extended period of time of absence. Yeah.

Yeah, so he's looking real bad. He's no longer saying, "I apologize." He's kind of thrashing about, making Beastloid move. How similar to the original group of beasties that we defeated does he look? He's looking-- he looks like-- he's not like-- oh wait, his eyes are still closed.

and there's kind of some drool forming. The hair has covered his body, it's thick and dense now, but it's still not quite there. You can kind of sense that there's a slight difference. The horns aren't quite as protruding, and it's looking like he's on the edge. He's no longer forming words in common. - Who is here with me? - All of us. - Yeah, we're all in the cave. - Guys, look at this guy.

This is exactly what we fought 24 hours ago, but it took him many days in order to manifest in the way that we fought. 48 hours? I think maybe we're over 48. Maybe we're two and a half days. That's a remarkable fact. I think that we should keep knowing that. I appreciate that. I'll be sure to write it down. Thank you. Yes, exactly right.

So I think hopefully this Gruber guy can help. - Gruber? - Yeah, we sent word to Brother Gruber and I'm hoping that he will either come to see us or we bring the subject to him and maybe he can do something. But I don't want to, like Iris said, risk all of Kirstein to becoming infected.

I think you're probably right, but I agree with Iris, we have to try. At the end of the day, it's his town, and if he says, bring the infected wolf boy into our town, then I'll say, alright, fine. Just disregard what I asked. Sorry!

I'm however not going to walk him in there and be like, hello, surprise, here's a thing that might be infected and then be arrested by a bunch of people like, oh, how dare you bring this in here. We'll be ripped to shreds. So suppose that we sneak in there, though. Nope, not going to do it. We'd rather wait for permission from this grump man.

Well, you know, I would rather ask forgiveness and... And then personally, if the grub man says no, I don't want anything to do with it, then let's kill him. Agreed. I think we're in agreement. Well, let's just kill him now, because I'm thirsty.

Oh no, you're going to drink his blood. Who are you? No, but I want to go back to the town. You're welcome, dude. Yeah, that's fine. You could leave right now. Honestly, I would love to see this huge fucking giant of a man kill. I just want to see Iris talk to Toads again. Yeah. I just want to see you talk to Toads again.

See how you do it. I'm not sure what you mean. Talk to Toads? I'm not sure what a Toad is. Is it a former druid? A Toad? Felix, have you heard of this? Write it down in your book. I think she's saying Toad, not Toads. Toad. Toad.

Toad like a frog like one that you may have given the letter to I would never do something Oh, then my mistake. I apologize. Oh, she didn't do that. She didn't do that. No, I certainly have no knowledge of it. We start making our way so Right shortly after that Beatrice flaps back down. Oh to you lands on your finger and communicates to you telepathically

No letter. No letter. Wow. From Gomp for Talons. And her poor little bird feet. And she... Can you have talons if you let a bluebird? Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons. Talons.

patient at 10pm have someone meet him in the road so he can find where you are. Okay, so you're not going anywhere near the road because I'm worried for you in the military. I think that's fine and you know what? Again, I'm shocked that you and I are on the same page but one, Luthi said that he was never going to come down here and now he is, right? Luthi's also like

Drunk 98% of the time. And I found that most of the things that she says are not credible, those that are, are an accident. Or I've told them to her and she's just reiterating it verbatim. Is there any chance, Lufty, that this guy is gonna, is gonna, you know, send us down the river and basically ambush us to kill us all and this guy? Yes!

You're telling me he never leaves the monastery and now all of a sudden he's going down here to collect a pigeon himself? Well, I don't know. I haven't seen him in many years. Yeah, it's been a decade and I think that, you know, it's a very serious situation. He may be very concerned. I'd be concerned. I'm not saying I'm not surprised. I also don't think he's going to, like...

I want to turn the subject over to him, and I think that it would be best for him to take a look and give us, or at least give me some information, but I'm worried. I'm worried about... Can you infer, like, spies? Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I love this thing. Okay, so this is my answer. Totally. Because we've already documented it.

We will do the meeting at ten. Okay. Because I'm a cleric, so I can talk to him about healing things, which you won't understand, it's fine. I don't understand what you do. Um, and you put your little bird somewhere on Toa, because it will look like he's standing on a statue, right? Because Toa is grey.

I mean, the bird can hide amongst Toa's belongings. Oh, that's even better. That way Toa can talk and it doesn't look like I have a pet statue. So anyway, we'll be there and we'll talk to the gentleman. The bird can snoop. You can communicate with the bird, how can you do? I have to be within 100 feet, so I'll hide in the woods nearby. Perfect. You can hide with...

The rest of the gang. Sure. Keep these two quiet. I don't trust them. Keep these two quiet. You want me to be on the road? No, no. Hidden. We need to be hidden and ready to ambush. That's why. I'm so good at time. I thought we were meeting him on the road. They are going to meet him. We need to be extra careful about this. I'm going to meet him. You are not going to meet him. Why? Why?

His message didn't mean... Well, maybe it didn't hurt you to take Lutie along. The three of us can hide in the bush. We do not want to leave Felix alone in the woods by himself, but we also don't want him out on the road because he is wanted by the military.

So if the Militia comes, and he's out in the road, then he runs the risk of getting us all killed. So we need to keep him in the woods. But we also don't want him in the woods by himself, because should something else terrible come along, like another person turning into a wolf beast, we need people with that spit. Only about a hundred feet away, you can listen through Felix and his magical birdie, and we'll pass off. Oh, and you can keep the drunk. What?

But the drunk's definitely gonna give us away, no offense. Well, no, she's very crafty. I don't care about any of you. Perfect. Here's the only thing I ask. If you stay very quiet and you don't make any noise...

I will give you five gold pieces from my, from my plans. You wanna watch this? Hold on a second. And her massive form, she kind of like slips away into the shadows, almost like blends in immediately. And you can kind of see her form walking around through the brush and you don't hear a single sound. Drunk, can you come back to me please? Oh shit.

and she immediately just kind of sets into the light. God bless you, that's fantastic. I flip a gold piece up into the air and I whack it with my tail in her direction.

That is for that spectacular performance. Five gold pieces. She nags her dex check to catch it and she just like clucks it out of the air. Thank you kindly. I mean, they don't tell spooky stories about bugbears for nothing. The only thing that I ask is when you turn the subject over

Make sure you are very explicit with Brother Gruber that we get information back. I would like to continue doing my own research. Of course. I'll let him know that we are looking into a lead on... No, I said we go with him. You are coming with me. No, I think we should go with Gruber back to the monastery. I think we're going to, actually. What's the harm? I'll be with this guy. Once we decide that he is up to no harm, then maybe we all join. But I think initially, I think the spirit is fine. Who?

Brother Gruber. Why would you think that he is up to harm? I don't trust anyone. If you haven't learned this by now, I trust no one. Well, then maybe you should stay in the cave and we should go on the town. No, I'm going to hide and watch. If that is safe, then sorry. Agreed. It does us no harm to only have three of us here. To just make sure he doesn't roll up with the Korvacian army.

Alright, then the three of us, Beatrice will be on me, you- you- the rest of you hide, and then we'll just say, "Oh hey, the rest of us are meeting us shortly, we'll take the same road, they know which way we're going, and we'll- we'll all go together." Deal. I take- I take Beatrice- Except you. You'll stay out here, and wait for the Aeolian- I don't know any of those frickin' people in here trying to see me, I'm gonna be in the shadows. I take Beatrice off my shoulder, and I place Beatrice on Toa's shoulder.

And I'll take some of the tiny, compared to dried grass and fur, and I'll just kind of tuck her underneath so that she's comfortable. This is like a tiny little bluebird in a NASA van, just kind of tucked. Very gentle, though. And then, listen, we've only got very little time. 10pm is when he said he wanted to meet, so I'll go get into position with Caprice and Hersha, and we'll see what happens. And don't forget to ask about the...

The good shit. The what? The good shit. The good shit. As opposed to the bad shit. Okay. Well. Make a mental note, Caprice. Good luck. And she steps away and almost just disappears into the... That is a nifty trick, and I need to learn how to do it. Yeah, it would be quite cool if you know how to do that. It would be a great way to get away from you in a crowd. Yeah.

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And the three people all walk out into the room. One, two, three. By the way? The three of us. Iris, Tawa, and Beatrice. And I'm close enough where I can commune. And I'm deaf and dumb and blind. Okay, so you're watching from a little pouch in Toa's person. And it all seems quiet and

You kind of hear the roaring of the river not too far from you, that kind of rounds out a lot of any of the subtle ambient noise. And you then kind of start to see like a flickering light kind of coming around the bend. And you hear the shuffling of footsteps, sounds like, you know, barefoot or sandals. And from around the corner, you see three figures.

You see one in the middle is considerably larger than the other two. The two on either side seem to be younger female monks of Lüfti's order. And at the center is an incredibly rotund bald man with a huge orange pushy beard. And they're all holding lanterns as they walk down. And as you see,

As you see, each of the younger monks has a two small casks on either side of their head. And you can see that there's

the shape of Brother Gruber is huge. On his back is a huge barrel, and he basically just has, like, casts all over his body. And he's... Amazing. He's kind of just shuffling onwards, and he holds up the lantern as he sees just two of you, right? Three. Three. One, two, three. Yeah.

And then you're there, right? Luffy? Yes. Hold on, it's you. No, no, no. It is you, Phil. So he's never met us, but he's... He said, And that is you, my child. Very well. The note you sent seemed very urgent. I had a feeling your skinny friend wanted to speak more, but I'm not the kind to pry. Oh.

How bad is the situation? Tell her to grab the... Oh, rock. And I go back to the little clearing or wherever we were, and I'll grab him, and I'll carry Amos out. Okay, okay. And I will... Place yourself.

So, uh, you pull the branch out and you just step out and he's kind of thrashing around. Actually, make an athletic check to kind of see how you can resist his thrashing. Okay.

Okay, that's, yeah, funny. And so he's coming for Ash and you're able to, you see kind of Toa flexing his muscles, trying to keep this steady as quickly as possible, far enough away. And you see Brother Boober kind of pull up his lantern to get a look. Oh my, this, this is not good. Have you seen this before, Gollum? No.

I've seen creatures that look like this. I was not aware that first aid was human. Can you help him? I can see what I can do. First, do we know if it's contagious? In the letter that I wrote, it would have said that we did a little bit of research into that, and none of us had been...

you know, allegedly affected by transportation. I also add that I have touched him within the last 24 hours. You mentioned it was in the letter, right? Okay. And so he says, well, big man, would you help me out with his mouth, please? I'm going to give, I'm going to grab Toa's, like put my hand somewhere on him. Really? Muscles? Sorry. Okay.

Anubis, give him your guidance. And I'm going to give him guidance. Just in case. Open his mouth, you mean. How else am I going to try anything? As he kind of gestures to all of his cats that are all over him. Oh, you've brought it all with you. Hinks the cats, of course. I didn't put two together. So am I able to grab behind his head? Would my hand be big enough to get around my back? But like...

Like, just, like, pry his jaw open like this. I wouldn't say make another athletic shot. He's a tiny dude, and you're, like, a... Yeah! 22. Okay, yeah. So you are still holding on, and you just...

reach your massive hand and just kind of just force his jaw open like when your dog gets like uh what is that what is that and he grabs the cast and he

uncorks it, and he pulls out a funnel. And he's like, well, at home still? And pours it, or sticks it in his mouth. And with his cute, meaty fingers, he grabs the keg and pours it. And this...

strange liquid. It looks like a beer, but there's a very faint shimmer to it as it pours down into his throat. He shoves the funnel down even further so it goes straight. It comes sputtering. And as he's struggling, all of a sudden there's a stopping of it and almost as if his limbs lock up.

And the eyes are totally shut, and he's almost back into a fully catatonic state. And he... And then Gruber looks and says, Well, that should keep him stable for us now. Thank you, big man. Could you please remove your hand? The hand open that you see his mouth is just pried open here. Damn. And corks that one.

Kind of fastens it back on. And then he looks around and he gives him an examination and says, Well, I can try this one as well and see what I can do. He grabs the huge barrel off of his back and slams it down on the ground.

and he rips open the top and then there's, pulls like a little ladle off of it and he takes his funnel, places it in his mouth, scoops up. Okay...

down in. What? Somebody swallows it. Okay. So you rub his throat. Does that particular drink look different as well? Yes. This also seems to have a strange shimmer to it. And there's kind of like different slight hues to it. Varying shades of gold

and brown and kind of amber and all these... They all look like beer, but there's kind of this strange supernaturalness to them, almost. Something would remind you of, through Beatrice's eyes, the kind of shimmering effects of Iris's abilities. It kind of reminds you, obviously not the same flavor of Anubis or whatever, but as far as the general effect. Right, right, right. And...

He pours it and then he takes another big scoop and then he has another one. And then for good measure, he then takes another one off of his side and then he funnel, pours it in. And he sits and he watches. Well, there. All we can do is wait this point. I would recommend that

He'd be brought to the monastery and be put under 24-hour supervision. Well, you can't just take him to town. I mean, he looks a sight. You're looking at him. When I know, like, the kind of magic, like, could I guess that he was a worshipper of Gwakwad? I would say that that's pretty... I would say that without even making a check, you would probably get that sense.

So there's like some sort of divine magic at play. Yes, there is a divine magic at play, and how it's operating, he's doing it through Gru, but it's kind of in the sense that it's basically that he's a cleric. Oh. If you had to put a mechanical... A mechanical manatee. I cannot speak for what you've done, but La Croix is lucky to have a man of your caliber in the strength.

Well, thank you, young lady. Lady? I'm a tobacco guy. I've seen one or two, but usually your kind is more for trinkets and things, and they don't want to travel this far, at least as far as I've seen.

It's much too cold here. I say that every single year that I'm sick of it and I'm too old for London to move someplace warm. I never do, but... And if you ever find yourself in Negrit, you're welcome. With my kind. Maybe I shall retire. Sounds like a lovely place. I appreciate you. Are you a woman of the cloth as well? Him, I'm a worshipper of Anubis, the Lord of Judgment.

Oh. Death, well. I'm fortunate to have a god who just lets me drink as a form of worship. I can't imagine what a death god would do. But I... someone who is devout and clearly I can sense your aura, your divine aura, that you are the one who takes her calling very seriously.

And that's all that can be... that's all that we can be asked to do for the gods. Thank you for what you've done here today. It was in a communion with Anubis that he told me there was the possibility for something good to come of this if we did not smite him where he stood. I'm glad that I listened to my companion, as he found his way to you. Do you mind if we accompany you back to the monastery? Just in case anything happens, we'd like to support you in

Knocking him unconscious or worse if we need to. Toa is wonderful at carrying him. And Diamond actually set his hands strictly near him. Well, I was going to have my...

trainees carry this person but now that they've seen it are you girls okay they look absolutely ghostly horrified like we'll have the big fella oh I think I you look like a fella I saw earlier would you mind waiting for maybe a few minutes so the rest of our party can meet you they were on the way but they got tied up with something and picking up the crap no that would be fine and I'll just kind of look at Beatrice not really sure how to do it out of the bushes oh

Well, that's fortunate timing, I suppose. It's good to see you again, Brother Gruber. Hello, Felix. How are you? Good, just traipsing through the woods with my companions Persia and Caprice, who you met earlier. I did.

We're all here now. I'm glad you were to the courage to tell me what was on your mind. I know I'm not a traditional priest, but usually we're the kind of people you tell your problems to. I don't want you to think that I had anything to hide. It's just that we have reason to be extra careful at first, and I valued the opinion of Iris and Toa before we came back to you with the information.

I understand, and given what this creature or human, what it is and what it seems to be related to, I'm...

especially concerned. We're happy to accompany you back like they said, and if there's anything that I can do to help or anything you can teach me to help, I'm sure that Iris and I will both be interested in learning whatever you have to offer, and then be happy to offer our help. Well, I don't think we'll... I appreciate if you would help us going back to the monastery. Conrad will be waiting for us, and then we should be able to take it from here. Girls, you don't have to carry, but at least you can throw a tarp over it to teach him...

I don't know, something. I don't know. The same other goopa I remember left the town, basically. I'm on a tight ship. And the girls, like, the girls, as they step in the light, you get the sense that they're probably about 15, 16, and so they pull out this kind of large, like,

- Tarp. - Black tarp, and just throw it over the branch and be completely catatonic Amos. And it just looks like you're carrying a mediasided elk that's been wrapped up for you at the butcher. - Toy, did you need any help, Toy?

How's it feeling? You're getting pretty tired, so... If you wouldn't mind... Yeah, we've done this before. I can do it. Would you mind heading along without me? I'm going to step to the side and need to pray to my god for a few moments. Very quick, as a kitty, I can catch up. Sure, as long as you feel like you'll be okay. I will be just fine. Just don't be too long. And then I'm essentially just going to sneak off into the bushes, call for the firbolg,

and just kind of let her know like, Hey, we're going back. We know that you can't come with us, you know, stay here. You know, if there's anything you need, um, find a way to get ahold of us, but we'll communicate with you through Beatrice or check on you here, there. Um,

And then I'm going to pass her a couple more gold. Okay, so as soon as you say that, you don't really hear anything, but all of a sudden, right in front of you in the shadow, two golden eyes kind of open up. And she says, Okay, I'll be here. Don't forget to remind me about all the good shit. And then she catches the gold and says, I'll be here doing what I've been doing.

And I also, in the rough general direction, I throw one of the fish that Lufty had brought me. You can have this for dinner, darling. I'm eating like a civilized folk. And she starts, like, she can hear the...

It's like the only sound you can hear is she creeps off, it seems. And then I'm gonna feline agility as I can to get back to them and then like kind of whisper to each one of them individually letting them know what I was doing just to make sure Brother Gruber doesn't know we have a furball out in the forest. I would say that they're far enough ahead that that should be easy. Okay. So you make your way with Brother Gruber and the monks.

As you, the, as soon as they see Brother Groover, the second they realize that it's him, the sentries immediately start opening gates. And, without even a second glance. And you all walk through, make your way through the city. Even though it's probably 11 at this point, the town is actually pretty, you know, going, you remember, Lufty, that the town goes pretty late and everyone's at the various bars drinking and enjoying themselves.

And, you know, there's some people that may have gone a bit early to go work the fields or, you know, kind of walking or training the horses. But many, many people are out. And so you kind of walk through the rowdy streets, making your way uphill until you get that familiar path upwards through the apple trees. And as you make your way up, you see, with a lantern on one of the pilings, Conrad standing next to him.

And Brother Gruber stops and motions to both of you, Persia and Toa, says, I appreciate all that you all have done brings to my attention. I must pray and send word to some of my contacts who may be able to assist me in figuring what's going on. You may place him in the boat and we shall be able to take it from here.

No, Father Gruber, I have a question. Brother Gruber. My father was Father Gruber. He holds a straight face for like three seconds. Father Gruber was my father. That's classic Brother Gruber. Oh yeah, that's so weird.

Incredible. I'm so sorry. Brother Gruber. Now, my concern is that you've seen many creatures like this and that you were unaware until tonight that they were human at one point in their life. Which means that more than likely there are many, many people out there being turned into these creatures. Now, it looks like whatever ale or beer that you had on you, the blessings of Lord Wallard...

were able to halt that at bay. We will see. Potentially. It looks like it's at least done somewhat. Do you happen to have any kind of... I know that your alcohol is very sacred to you. My faith is very sacred to me. From one cleric to another, we more than likely will be venturing out into the...

I also don't want to step any bounds, but... Not at all. Is there any way that you could potentially teach...

Iris, to harness some of the skill that you've learned in incorporating Machinos. Only with Anubis's permission. Again, again, I don't... Listen, I don't pretend to understand your religion, and I don't pretend to understand yours, but I'm simply a man of science, you know, and I just... If there's knowledge to be imparted, then of course we both would like to learn. I would not begin to ask you for the secrets of your modesty. Of course, and I've never been so much...

for putting bodies back together, but I'm willing to learn. That is very ominous. However, it is with the utmost respect for your god and your beliefs in your monastery that I ask this of you.

Because if there is something nefarious going on in these lands, the last thing you want is for it to reach this town. And if we have the ability to at least save some out in the field, I would not be doing justice to my god into this life that I live if I were not asking. Agreed. He kind of thinks for a moment and nods and says, Well, if you will be staying in town for at least one more night, you've opened my eyes to...

To a threat that I had no idea was threatening my very people. You've done a good thing to put your lives on the line.

And for that I'm appreciative. I will put together a package of what I can do. As far as teaching you, you're a young cleric. I have no doubt that in time as you go through your own travels and adventures in life you'll be able to do what I can. Maybe not in the same way of having it turn into beer and wine and meat and the like. But I'm sure you will get there and I will not want to step on the toes of

of a death god at the very least. But I appreciate it and I will... where will you be staying? Where can I send the care package for your travels? Well, we've been staying just this one night with the Valiant's down and if they have room it's my favorite place to be. Tomorrow by noon I will have my monks deliver a

Package for you in case you run into us. Thank you so much, Brother Cooper. My thank you. And may the scales of judgment weigh in your favor. May you enjoy a good drink at some point. I sure need one.

Would you like some? I would love one. This is just regular beer here. I would love one. This one right here, you all look like you need a... Just knock back a quick joke. Yeah, yeah, so he calls everybody. It's been a long time. I lean over to Lufty and I say, maybe it's time to potentially pay up on your payment to a certain someone. I don't know what you mean. If I did know what you meant...

I'd say that I'm working on it and mind your own business. I put my head in my hands and just kind of, we have time, we have time. I have nothing left to say. Well, I can't say that I expected to run into such a motley crew at this point so far away from the festival day, but I can say that strange times have come upon us and dots are connecting in my brain as we speak.

Lufty, do you need me to assist you with your deal that you need? I wouldn't stop you if you wanted to roll some coin at the situation. Brother Gruber. Yes, Iris. I have asked a lot of you. Lufty here is my very best friend. She's traveled with me from Nekbet. She's kept me safe. And I've done my very best to keep her safe.

And I know that you're long history with her. I thank you for that, too. And I'm sure you know her well, far better than I do. And what I've learned is that she's a little reckless, a little careless, and she sometimes speaks out of turn. Well, that's my little Gertie. Gertie? Yeah.

That's her name. Did she not tell you? She did not, but I love it, darling. That's her name. Oh, wait, wait. Her real name is Gertie. Yeah, her name is Gertie. I don't know her name. She was very, very...

rebellious and she got very mad when she decided to start going by Lufty and that's why I called her but now that I realize you probably didn't know her name was Girly. That is hilarious. You know, it's like the second I get here I wish I had never thought. So, the thing is, I

We've come after one of the famous sisters of our order. You know, I haven't had a good laugh in months. I have never been more happy to offer my assistance to you than I am right now. Dirty. I'm sorry. Thank you so much for that information. So as you know how she is, we did not know upon coming here that we would be faced with this gentleman.

or that there would be anyone in town that would have the ability to handle it. And Lufdy may have made a deal with somebody who is capable of taking us, what's the name of that place? The Butcher's Block? The Butcher's Bluff. The Butcher's Bluff. Because apparently that is a place where people are being taken and turned into these creatures. We were being taken there in the hopes that we would be able to help stop this from happening.

The person who's willing to take us there is only willing to do it if we pay them. And this is Lufty, who said she would and could in how many casks? Two casks of your famous hair. Now I am one of just you.

I'm gonna levitate up into the forest. Wherever I am, I'm gonna go levitate. I'm just fucking out. I don't even need to look at her to know that under that beautiful blue skin of her, she's turning a bright crimson red. But she is in over her head. No.

Now that we see... Thank you, Hesha. She's turning purple. Now that we see the severity of this, I was against going in the first place. I now think that we need to go and we need to attempt to stop this. And I would not ask, because I am a huge proponent for rituals and for tradition. Is there any chance, I will throw the coin at you, is there any chance we could get two casks of your ale to be able to be shown to the space? Well...

Since this is all in the name of something good, I can include two casks of our special Laporte revelry. What a beautiful name.

in your care package. As a personal thank you for keeping little girly alive. I will make sure-- You hear groaning from the higher ground. You'll sit in the corner like, "Oh, don't you say little rain cloud, I'm not doing these things." A little piling rain cloud crying all the time. With all the guidance of the Lubus, I will make sure to keep her very close to heart and as safe as possible.

I appreciate that. I will make it free of casks. You are an absolute treasure. Well, hopefully Lapua agrees once I've finally kicked the bucket.

Well, if not, I'll make sure to put a good word in for you. Yeah, please do. I may be looking for another god after it all happens. I would never say that. Me and mine, everyone has a good time. On Hill of What? I literally wrote it down as oats and barley, grape and vine, blank, blank, blank, very fine. Because I missed most of it.

We're really not about prayer here. So hold on, my favorite part of this is that Derek's been asleep for like ten minutes. He's following the word of Black Ward. He's taking it seriously. Nope, I'm just gonna go with that. Um... Oh, I was gonna say, then I lean into Iris. I lean towards Iris and I say, you know, if we don't use...

All three of those barrels, maybe we could keep one for ourself, and maybe when we get a moment, we can kick back and try to relax a little. I think that was the implication, and I like where your head's at. Okay, well... Gertie, we're going to go now, darling. My sweet little rain cloud, please join us. Your friends are waiting, Gertie. Well, I appreciate all your help. Conrad! Conrad!

Let's go. And they

They all hop in a boat. So we're not going, we're not staying in the monastery. We have it from here, rest assured. Please, please let us know what you find. I'm very interested in the knowledge, and I'd like to be able to harness that knowledge to maybe help others. So document everything and let us know and send for us immediately if needed. And if it gets out of our control, don't worry. There will be very well-trained killing machines in that area.

In that room, at all hours of the day, I could kill it almost instantly. Alright, alright, just make sure you send for us immediately! One day, Lufty will be one of those little train-killing machines, but she never really was good at following directions. You're not a dad! No, that's true! I am a brother. I am your brother, and you are my sister. May you all enjoy the merriment of Lapuard.

"Farewell." And then Conrad gets in a boat with the two other monks. They're waving at you, they don't say anything, but B-Shit rows away. I'm not going to lie to you, I was absolutely shaking in my niggers

Thinking about asking him for those casts of air. You're a lot braver than I was, that's for sure. Well, if we didn't get it, we weren't going to solve this problem, so... Well, you know, to be honest, I thought Lufty would take care of it, and, you know, she's... No, you obviously haven't spent much time with Lufty. She's no twalk and no walk. It's been like three days, so you're right. Do you think that your friend, whose name I wrote down, Frida, may be able to get us a couple of rooms tonight since we're without...

I'm willing to pay, I'm just hoping we can get a good price. I'm hoping we can get a good price! Lufty darling, I won't call you girthy for at least the next 24 hours. We come down here and help us get to sleep. Everybody has to forget that that was ever said. That will never happen. Forget what? We can pretend-- Listen, I can stay up here forever and I can hold my breath too if you want me to do that. You'll starve to death. Okay, then we want food. Can you talk while holding your breath?

I don't know. I don't think so. Do you want to keep talking? I don't know. Well, you have a choice. Come down or never speak again. Can I talk and hold my breath? No. No! Can I talk and hold my breath? You can, but once you run out of breath, you're done. Really?

Lufty, did you know that 15 minutes can save you 50% on real service? Yes, I suppose I could talk like this forever until I needed to take a deep breath and I'm going to keep talking like this. But eventually I'm going to run out of air and I'm going to keep talking and talking and talking and talking. But I could do this for a pretty long time until I start to run out of air and all of a sudden now it's starting to get tough and I'm running out of breath and I can't really do it any longer and this is what's going to happen. Oh, Felix died and I... Experiment!

I'm a complete... Oh, Toa, you're right. You've been only here for so long. What's with us? I never thought that you'd know more about me than science. I know, right? It's my intelligence. I have to learn about this. I'm going to just step like three feet away from the group and walk towards the nearest inn and like whistle over my shoulder and not say a word. Okay. So you're not even going back to the rally in Salien? No.

No, I'm gonna walk towards the rhinestown, but I'm gonna descend away from the group and just be like... Okay, so you're looking up, pulling her feet on a little tiny cloud, kind of like slow falling down. I'll turn to Iris and I'll say, "I can lead us to where we were last night and I had a conversation with Frida and she seemed very amenable, so at the very least I assume she'll give us a good price. We can perhaps get a couple of rooms."

This would be wonderful. I think that maybe three rooms, so one for the couple, one for the other couple, and then one for me and you. If you prefer and we can all afford it, then we'll see what Frida will have available. I don't know how busy she is. But I'll at least lead the way since your companion is pouty.

And I just begin to walk off towards the Rallian Stallion. Okay. So you all make your way to the Rallian Stallion. We'll just say for the sake of brevity, you all check in. How much room is basically what I want to talk to Frida about? Because I actually care about my gold now. Okay. So fine.

You're the Red Rocks' owner, right?

Oh, come here darling, come here darling. Sweetheart, they told me. Oh, they call me the worst thing. Oh, they call you good. Don't even say it, I hate it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know you do. It is the worst.

I just want to sleep. Your name is Lufti. Exactly. Yes, I know. Anybody tell you different. No, no. I know you're Lufti. I'm so sorry. I just want to go to sleep. Okay. Could you drink for me? Maybe a little food. And maybe a little drink.

Do you have three rooms available for us? Three. Three rooms. I said we have three rooms, yes. I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons for damn near three years now, and I still don't know what one room is worth. So I ask you, Frida, not to overcharge us. Because now, all of a sudden, after three years, my gold means something to me, and it's not just something I throw in a sack with everyone else's gold. And you know, I've been DMing for three years, and I still don't know what the fucking name is. Hold on one second. I just don't want to get fleeced here. I'm a young wizard. Do you think I'm going to

No, no, you seem like a very trustworthy individual. I just think you might be in league with, I mean, Lufty here. And I don't want you siphoning gold to her. Hold on one second. Well, one gold piece is all right. Per room? Per room. Okay, so I got this one, and I flick her a gold coin. I appreciate it. The key, please. Two for you. Come on, let's get out of here. Come on.

I'm giving you a really close night, darling. You have that here. Here you go. Here's two for you. Thanks. So mad. Yeah, I got to repaid for it. It's fine. She takes the two coins.

It's okay darling, it's okay. You're looking. Don't plagiarize me, I just need a drink and I'll be fine. Okay, I'll get you a drink. Or maybe a sausage. Okay, I'll get you two sausages. It's okay. Look who's this. Darling, who's this? Who? This woman you're talking to. She has a big variety of style. Why don't you hug her?

She's like basically my mama. Not really. I'm really tired, Lucy. I want to go to bed. No, no, I need you to come with me. Darling. I can't go by myself. I've never been here. I can't go by myself.

Can I have some food brought to my room, please? We will bring the sausages up to your room, darling. I'll get some sweet chipotle. Okay, so I'll just, like, trudge upstairs and, like, drag her behind me. And... And she sobs. As that happens...

As that happens, I need, are you still downstairs? I guess they're the last two. Nate, can you both make rejection shots? Oh, God. Oh, my God. Toa and I are in our room kicking back. This is the first time we've had a room in months. Oh, my God. Five. One gold piece. I believe it's a 17.

What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. What. what.

And you go to your room. Toa and I are so happy! We have a

I had a room. I confessed until I said, hey, man, brother, I got to be honest with you. I stayed here the other night. It was great. But this is why I brought you back. We've got a room for the first time in months. This is amazing. Were you on the floor? Out of character. Were you on the floor the night before? Yes, probably I would have slept in the corner on the wood.

We should just share the bed, I don't even care! There are two beds, right? I know you're like, "You're nearly 12 feet tall, but it's fine!" We can just spoon, it's not a big deal, I don't even care! We both should experience the bed! This is great! First time in months!

Thank you for paying for this. I appreciate it. It's the least I could do. You spent the night in that cave by yourself. I didn't know what I was going to do without you. God, I haven't been apart from you for three months. Listen, I sit on the floor and I ritual. I still put an alarm on the door because I'm still worried, right? And I take 10 minutes, but then I'm like...

Tell me, this is great. We can relax for the first time. Yeah, what do we do? We just go to sleep. I can't let you have room service. We should order room service. You think they have ice cream sundaes? So then we run down the steps. Freya, do you have ice cream sundaes? What?

Are you sure there isn't inspiration in this game? You know what, yeah, both of you get inspiration. I'm like breaking the snaps as I roll that. Oh, Luffy was so much better than us. Luffy, take the inspiration. You get inspiration too. You get inspiration too. Oh my god, that was brilliant.

But the best part of all of this is that I'm like a normal human being away from everyone else. They all think that I'm like super serious and I'm like, yes! I smile and I'm like okay and relaxed. What a Sunday! Yeah, we can get some ice cream. Ice cream is not out.

How much is it? I'll pay for it. It's on me, Toa. Yeah, it's on me. Oh, man, you're just the best. We'll say that's four silver pieces. Oh, I can afford that. As long as I stay above a hundred. That'd be like two silver pieces. As long as I stay above a hundred gold pieces, I'm good to go. So both of you enjoy ice cream sundaes. Oh, this is the greatest thing I've ever eaten. We should get back to our room before the rest of the gang sees us. Oh, you're right.

I don't know why, but sure. I don't want people to think that I actually smile. So while this is happening in the room with, uh, with, uh, you know my name, bitch. I'm sorry.

Damn, we've just gone through some shit. Whoever. Lufty, Lufty, now that we're in the room together, I think you have something explaining to do. Okay. I didn't think you had any friends. Except for me, at least. That's kind of a harsh thing. No, I... I'm sorry, hold on. Let me try that again. I don't mean any offense, but I didn't think you had any friends outside of me. Yeah, I know, that's kind of stupid.

But I said it didn't mean any offense by it. Oh, I see what you're saying. Which means you're not allowed to be offended, right? Oh, yeah. No, I get what you're saying. You know,

Maybe they're not friends, they're just people that I've met here and there. You looked really close with that woman downstairs. She's kind of like... She looked like she liked you. Yeah, she's like a... You looked like you liked her. I did. Why? Because she's kind of like my mommy, you know? No. No? My mother doesn't talk to me like that. Oh. So imagine like if you had...

You don't get that excited when I walk into the room. Yeah, you know I don't. I thought you were supposed to be my friend. Yeah, I don't know how to describe this in a way that's not going to break your psyche. Well, I didn't think you could. I'm not going to try.

Oh my god, I'm so worried that you had another friend. Luffy, I am not kidding you. I was downstairs and I was like, oh my god, I think she has another friend. Oh, that makes me feel so happy. I'm ready to...

I am so ready for bed. I'm going to push the bed together. You can have the corner of the room over there and I'm going to sleep on the bed, okay? Yeah. You know? Oh, darling. You just rake and loosey that shit together and I'll be in the corner. Honestly, tonight, because you confirmed that, I'm so scared, because you confirmed that, you can leave the room tonight and it's fine if you wake me up. I know. I'm the best. Okay, good night now. Good night now, darling. I'm going to sneak out of the room. Please take inspiration.

This is definitely Rachel and Monica going on right now. I just want to say that right now. Yeah, so I'm gonna push the beds together and I'm gonna go to sleep. Okay. So, you all enjoy a long rest. Your first comfortable sleep in a long time. A very long time. Longer for some of you. You awake.

I'll say you probably maybe slept in a little bit because you were all kind of enjoying yourselves, kind of lounging about, and you knew that your care package was arriving about midday. And do you want to do anything in the morning? Personally, I just want to wait for the package and word from Brother Gruber, potentially a letter or some sort of scientific data. I'm just wanting information. That's all I'm looking for.

So I'm content to wait at the inn with Frida and wait and enjoy the time not being under a spell by goat men. In the morning, I'm going to wake up Lufdy probably earlier than she wants to be woken up. Looked up. Now that it's been confirmed you don't have any friends, I think it's important that we take our friendship to the next level.

I... you know, it's early, I haven't brushed my teeth... Yes, I know. I don't want to take... I'm talking to you, I can smell it. Oh, okay. Okay, so if you know, you know. Damn. What are you doing? Oh, so... uh, go ahead. So... Was that, like, physical attraction between us? Uh, no. Was that... is that the next level? I thought that we were just...

I thought that I would refer to you as my friend in public. That's great. Oh, let's do that. Okay. Okay. Okay, great. So in the future, so what I'm thinking is maybe friends don't let their friends sleep on the floor while they sleep on booth beds. Is that wrong? Is that right? He knows that the world is not a...

So, like, I don't really like this infection, but if maybe you slept at the foot of the bed. Like a dog. Oh my God, exactly. You know, exactly like that. Yeah. I mean, you're going. You are in my brain. Friendship. So I will push the beds together and then I will sleep mostly on 90% of the bed. I will sleep on the bottom portion of it, but at least you won't be on the floor.

Not very giving. Thank you. I will write you a poem and tell someone. And then the last thing I would like to give you is I have... No. Well, maybe not. What? But you promised she's not your friend. Who? That strange woman downstairs. Who's that? Oh my God, I love you. Okay, so here is this ring. I don't give away trinkets often.

And it's like, it's a beautiful, like one of my golden rings. I take it off of my finger. It's got like, you know, the Egyptian motif on it. This is for you. This is to show it for friends. Because friends can get each other. Which one? They're all too fat for this one. Oh, but she's only a little one. And it like falls off because it's like my cat's fingers are way bigger than hers. Completely bigger than hers. I'm like, what?

Don't bother you, don't suck it up! God, put it on the less fat finger. Now you have one legitimate threat, right? We don't have to have... Is this a front of me?

Guess what he said. I'm not going to say it again. I told you to put it on the one that was less fat, and I put it back on her tiny pinky pinky. I'll shove some, like, cotton in or something. Some, like, scratchy... This is making me very uncomfortable. I don't like talking about this. So, why don't you go downstairs and have breakfast? Okay. All right.

Let's go! So, you all make your way down, eventually getting joined to breakfast. That's fucking good. As you all convene, the party's all there. And you're all eating breakfast together, and maybe just kind of wait until noon. That's my plan. I just want to wait to see what Brother Gruber has for us, and honestly, I just want information about this poor creature.

And then from there, I'm ready to go to the Bluffs, I suppose, if that's the name of the place which I've forgotten because I'm... - But you're Bluff. - Yes, the Bluffs. Like I said, the Bluffs. I'm not completely insane. Yes.

So, you all enjoy the morning together, kind of feeling like you've accomplished something at least. You got Amos off of your hands, which is definitely a great boon. And a word arrives for you.

- Word arrives from you, someone at the bar, kinda, pretty busy, and it's actually the bar back that you had talked to, and said, "Oh, there's a package for you out front." And as you go to the front of the establishment to pick this up, you see that there are two crates of varying casks and bottles, and they're like,

And beside it, you see three decent-sized casks of Lockforge Revelry with that familiar, beautiful stamp of your monastery. How much do those casks weigh, roughly? Are these things huge? No, they're not huge. Small, small. Yeah, small, small casks. Yeah. So, I don't know, probably like a couple dozen pounds. I, uh...

I know that before we go through these care packages, which I think we should do, you know, for the fine comb, I think that we should give one of the casks to either Persia or Toa to carry, because I think at some point we'd like to enjoy it, and I don't have many. I'm not a big guy, so... You don't need to have to carry all three, because we can move them out to our friend's. Sure, of course, and for now I'd volunteer to carry one. It may slow me down a little, but I'm willing to put my back into it. How capable are you to carry two?

We'll probably manage if Hesia gets the other one. Mechanically, how does he encumber someone? I think we're going to have to carry four in total because we're going to have to ask that woman that's not Lufty's friend if we can purchase one from her. Oh, of the bad stuff. Yes, the bad stuff. But we shouldn't call it that because I think she might be a funnest as a clue. So yeah, we need to go through this. So three casks of the good stuff. And then two crates, which we haven't looked at yet. So you kind of look around...

And you get the sense, and on each of these is written a little note to describe what they are. And so you are given six revitalizing room, which is basically, what is it, greater healing potion? So we each have one healing potion, and now we each have one greater healing potion. Yeah, and it's just in the form of...

of a little small mini-cast that you can just shoot. And you, what was that? Just a regular healing potion? Yeah, Revitalizing Grow. Uh, no, you said the Revitalizing Grow was a greater healing. Yes, so it's whatever's... I gave you a regular one earlier. Greater's a step above regular. Yeah, that's my intention. Because greater is 4d4. And regular is 2d4, or something along those lines. I can't remember quite what it was. I believe it is. I think it's still your pen.

And you then get three, instead of these big barrels that are a little bit bigger, of the Paralyzing Brew, which you get to sense was what he used. We have to decide how to divvy that up. How many are there? Three of the Paralyzing. There's three Paralyzing, but there were six total Greater Healing Potions. So we each get one Greater Healing, we each have one regular healing from earlier, and there are three Paralyzing Brew so far.

And then... Thank you, Hellhound, gang. And there is one dispelling wheel. Oh. You get the sense that this is the large barrel that kept him in the back. Interesting. Well, if you want me to hang on to one of the paralyzing ones, I can. Otherwise, I don't think this dispelling one's going to be of much use for me. I think that...

for the three paralyzing you should take one i should take one pleasure should take one that's where the ones that seem to be capable of magic for the most part while i think that i can administer it i i'm not often in the thick of things if you would maybe we should give it to tom

I'd be okay with that. It seems the three of us, Toa, myself, and Iris, er, it's myself, Toa, myself, and Herrscher, tend to be in the middle of things. Agreed, agreed. And if you're okay with it, I think I would like to keep the Dispelling one, as I feel if we get to that point, more than likely my magic will be at use. As long as we're all in agreement in the use, then I have no problem with you holding onto it.

And I trust your judgment as well. I mean, you're someone who knows what you're doing. So I have one paralyzer. I'm going to remove the dispelling. I just wrote it all down. Yeah, I wrote what's not mine in my book. And I'm going to put them in D&D Beyond here. So the cool thing about D&D Beyond is you can add something and then you can change its name.

So you can add a greater healing potion. Yeah, I'm going to leave it as the original name because otherwise I'll be like, I won't remember. So whenever you gave us potions in Prime, I renamed them to what they were supposed to be just to keep it so I knew what they were. Revitalizing, yeah. That's fun. There was no other notes or information in the crates or anything? Oh, so there was a little note that was signed from Brother Goober.

and said is the patient seems to be, continues to be still. The patient seems to be still. No sign on whether my bruise had any effect of reversing its condition. No change, no change. We'll pray for the best. All right, well. Brother Gruber. Well, gang, I suppose we have some decisions to make here. We can...

We can wait and see if Brother Gruber reaches out again or we can meet up with our friend in the woods and head to the Bluffs. My vote is we don't really benefit from waiting around here provided that, and I don't think this, provided that Brother Gruber's not up to anything nefarious then we can leave town and head to the Bluffs but I know that there were some reservations amongst us regarding that move so I don't want to speak for the group. I'm trying to be a team player.

Well, I think at this point, that's what makes sense. Well, I think that, Felix, was there anything else we needed to do in Kirstein to find Marlow? I, unfortunately, I spoke to the monks and they have little to no contact with the military. And I've warned Brother Gruber of the dangers, but, you know, I didn't feel the need to ask specifically about...

my brother because I don't think they know anything. So I think our best bet is the Bluffs and then if we're looking for, you know, who we head to Zentra. As was originally the goal anyway, right? I mean, this is on the way. We figured we'd stop. I honestly, I think we got more out of this than I thought we would. Honestly. And I think Zentra is the ultimate goal. But we pass through the Bluffs, we see what we can find and, you know, with a stroke of luck, um,

Trying to look on the brighter side of things. There's a potential my brother's at the bluffs, you know, and I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna hope for the best and try to try to see the bright side of things I suppose all right. Well that sounds

It seems like a plan, and I'm ready to go and investigate, see what's going on with these blocks. So I suppose when we're all ready, no rush, we should find the bugbear. So of these things that we've distributed, there's three casks of the good gear. Two of which we are delivering. And one I will hold on to for safekeeping. But...

We need to find one more cask to take of just... We'll purchase it from Frida. I mean, I'm sure she's willing to sell it. That's fine. She's a merchant, like anyone else. I'm a girl. I can't carry so much, you know? If it's a Toa, he's enormous. We could have Toa take two. I would hesitate to. Have you looked at the seven-foot monster who I've been traveling with? Have you looked at this body?

- Five foot monster who followed us. - She looks like she could take a punch, that's all I'm gonna say. I believe you, she can carry a lot. She's a sturdy gal. - There is a chance that I got drunk and punched her in the face and she still stands up. - Oh, 100%, I'm just saying it would take several punches to down a gal like that. - That never happened.

I believe you, I'm just saying if I had to put money on it, it would be several large blows from Toa before that she fell to the ground. Don't forget to sell her underwear. Well, that's right there, Zul'ai. Wait a minute, Lufty, why do you have her underwear? She gave it to me. Why? Are you friends with her? I don't think so. Hold on, hold on. Do you want to...

Do you want to be friends with her? Do you want to be friends with her? I asked you the question. Do you want to be friends with her? Do you want to be friends with her? So you want her to have more than one friend than me? Okay, don't look. She's good to stay. That's true. I don't know if they'd like to hear you. Just, uh, stage whisper.

Do you want to be our friend? I want to be everybody's friend. She's all good sadly! Do you want to be one of three? Like, special girl group? Unicorn style. Like T and C! What the hell? Is that like, art style? Sure! Oh god, Ravens, please, I apologize for this. Sure.

I mean, sure, yeah. I thought we were friends. Well, we weren't, but we are now. We were, like, halfway to front. Yes, now. And now we can be full front. And I'll give you your underwear back. Could you not? Do you use them? I held on to them tightly. Do you know what's up? What? If you and I become better friends, she could be the new Liefdy. Oh!

I love this. You should definitely be our friend. Okay. Okay, first step. Are you wearing the ring on your... Put it on the fat finger. The left fat finger. All the fingers are fat fingers. That's not it. Dungeons and Dragons!

game of imagination where you can go slay beasts and win treasure or talk about things in fact.

and beer and ice cream because what does fantasy mean except for what comes out of your brain? Fat fingers! Can you please do jazz hands? Everybody show us your fat fingers and do jazz hands. I'm just trying to recenter here. Do I feel like Zentra is on the way to the Northern Road?

outside of... The Northern Road could take various ways. Generally, to get to pass the Corolla Mountains, which basically run almost from the coast all the way up, you would need to take that Northern Road to get to Zentra or really anywhere else in the continent.

So Zantra's on the way to where I need to go. It's a major hub. It's in the general direction. Is this a Krolva? Krolva. Not Adam Krolva? No, K-R-O-L-V-A. Krolva. This girl. I love the man shit. This is how Monica and Rachel are. I was literally thinking Monica, Rachel, Phoebe,

Joey Chandler. 5,000% Chandler. I quit! 5,000% Chandler. I'm Joey? You're Joey. I'm Joey. Caprice is literally like, how you doing? That's literally Caprice.

Yeah, that's true. I'm doing fine. And obviously Ross. Really? I don't know. We're going to have to end this game because none of that makes sense. We have to start every session. Anyway, Frida Frida has cast a normal beer for sale.

Should we choose? I think we should borrow a normal casket from Frida. Let's just talk to Frida, it's fine. Frida, can we please buy one of your blabber... speaking caprice? Of course you can! Of course you can! Ten gold pieces for a... a casket. Are we going to split this cost? Yee! How many gold pieces? Ten. There are six of us. I can spare like maybe two. How about each one of you gives me one gold piece and I'll pay for the rest?

- All right. - I mean, I'm okay with that. - That seems fair. That seems fair.

It's ten gold pieces. The whole thing? Yes, sir. Do I have to pay for it if I'm a new friend? What? If I got upgraded to friend, do I still have to pay for it? No, I'll just do it. Ten gold. Daddy's gonna take care of it. Daddy Joey over here.

Caprice, I appreciate your generosity. Thank you. I mean, honestly, I completely found this on the body of the creature that we all destroyed last night. Fair. You looted some corpse and found golden dintelis?

No, no, I gave you, I split it all up. Oh, okay, I just wanted to make sure. This is negative 10 out of the 28 that we gave you. Well then again, that's very generous of you and I appreciate it. Yes, it is very generous. Thank you, thank you. Forget about it. Done. Forget about it. Man, Joey over here, you know. Regular Joey. He's a regular Joey. So, uh, you, uh, so are you, will you be back soon? No, thank you.

- It's hard to say. - Smelly ox, smelly ox. - Touche, touche. - Hellhound gang, you can chat in the spring.

So, like, you know how they always say, like, you know, when you're DMing, it's like intentions, like epic dark fantasy beneath dark wings. And it's like reality fantasy fucking friends. I just want to say, I have tried so hard to be... I have tried so hard to be, like, the party pooper serious guy. And I'm just getting shit on left and right here, okay? I'm doing everything.

- I've done everything I can to ground this shit and I'm failing. - And Iris hasn't tried to? Come on. - Except that you show me and call me skinny serious guy and paranoid boy and whatever other shit you can come up with. - Paranoid boy. - Fucking Felix, he's a fricking stick in the mud. - Okay, anyway. So, Frida, oh my God.

Yeah, congratulations, you're now an elementary school teacher. Do you have an alcoholic beverage that you can have? I do. Do you want a Coke? We've got Coke and we've got seltzer. Oh, yeah. Ooh, I'd love a Diet Pepsi. Frida says, Ben? Can you hit me with a Coke? You went away for ten years. Even if it's ten years from now, I hope I see you again. You know that Lufthansa is blind in the wind?

That one's cold. And I hope he's fine with what you're looking for here. I just, again, I just wanted to say thank you. I appreciate your hospitality and Lufty's been great to us and Iris has been great to us as well.

You know, Zendra's not very far. We're looking to go to Zendra, so there's a very real possibility we come back through this way. Well, I hope I see you all again, and please, Iris, please take care of her. Oh, gentlemen, she's my best friend. Very good. I just got up, Clayton. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm her friend now. Well, you all look like very good friends. Like, you can handle your own, so I would say goodbye. Aww. Are the blocks on the way to Zentra? I mean, Zentra's pretty far from that. So, yes. You would have to... Like, yeah, basically, if you were going toward to Zentra, they would be

It sounds to me, if I'm guessing, not to, like, talk over the DM, because he obviously made the fucking world. There's probably multiple paths, right? And we can either take the dangerous path through the bluffs, or we can take, like, some main road, but we're gonna go to the fucking bluffs and some shit. I'll just... I'm worried that...

I'm not even gonna look over there. We've barely spent any time in this town, I'm just worried about leaving forever. Yeah, I'm not... Italian gentleman. I like the attention she's giving me, thinking that I'm going to leave forever, but I just got here. I don't want to leave forever. I don't think it has to be forever. Is there something you want to do while we're here? I don't know, we'll leave it down low.

I think that... I'm starting myself with your personal conversation, but... It's fine, it's fine. No, that's fine, you're from here. I think that, you know, we just got here, there's still a lot of... I think information we could potentially learn, at least with that mausoleum, with the Raven Queen in the middle, related to what I'm looking for. I... I... Listen, Billy. Why are I...

worship the Raven Queen I'm eerie around the... and gods forgive me, I'm eerie around the monastery just because

There's always the chance that there's Provacchian military there. I mean, that's the god that they worship as well. And while the military's presence hasn't been strong here, I've tried to stay away from the temples again. Gods forgive me. But you weren't, Brother Gruber. Well, I understand, but they don't... Brother Gruber doesn't... I just... I'm being extra careful. That's all. That's all. I'm just worried that if we... If I put myself in a position where the Raven Queen may be...

The Corvacan military may be there as well. That's all. That's all I'm saying. Sounds fun. I just think that you should tweet, the monastery is a safe space. I can't risk it. I value your opinion, but I'm not willing to risk it. And if that puts me... Risk it? Risk it. But if I find brisket, I'll let you know. That was really good.

So genuine. Oh, never mind. Hersha, you'll be the first to know if I find some brisket.

But I did say "risk it." Oh, okay. Thanks for clearing that up. Yeah, no, I'll let you know if that changes. But language is important, alright? You need to really be very, like, this... Articulate. I know. Listen, I pride myself in my... I know many languages. I don't know if you know this. I know a lot of languages. I probably know more languages than you.

But that's not a hero there, I suppose. Yeah, that's very braggy. Listen, I studied Zendra, so you may have heard of it. Art Flash, I am very smart. Hey, I am. Thank you. Thank you for that compliment. I appreciate it. I'm pretty intelligent. Like I said, a small-collar named Zendra, you may or may not have heard of. I don't know if you realize, he's been condescending. I'm a little young. No, I know what the word

means again I went to university the thing is I'm very blatant when I'm condescending of course of course loosely darling condescension he's not so open about it that's fine the point is there's no brisket at least yes ultimately we come full circle

There's no brisket. I'll let you know if there's any brisket. Yeah, you should. But in the meantime, I'm staying away from the Raven Queen temples. Which I think is a brilliant idea. I'm also staying away from the temples of the Raven Queen for my own specific reasons. It's for the best. Well, before we leave, do you mind if I just run by there to just kind of take a quick look around? That's fine. See if we see anything. Would you like to take Beatrice? Actually, no. I will come with you.

As long as we're not going to say no. No, no, just real quick, I just want to take a look around. See if I see any signs. I'll just summon Beatrice and again command over to Toa.

And I'll try to stay nearby, but I just... And again, I want to make this very... Gods be known, I want to make this very clear. I'm not avoiding the Raven Queen. I'm just avoiding the Kravakian military. That's all there is to it. I do want to point out, in case any of you missed it that were with me, that my dad's somewhere...

around the northern part. I imagine we have to go through Zentra to get there, but he took the northern road around the mountains. He's that far north? Yeah, he's about a week and a half to two weeks possibly ahead of us, but I just want to say, you know, like, I'm feeling it, you know, emotionally that you're missing your brother, but I'm also missing my dad, so the sooner we get on the road, the faster we can find both of them. Agreed. I

How long do you think it will take you to go to the temple? Just like an hour. That's it. What time is it now? Roughly, it's a morning, right? It's probably one at this point. Because you waited until noon for the thing. Well, listen, I'm... Let's make it 30. I know that the woods at night can be rough, but I'm willing to travel at night if all of you are. I don't want to put anyone out, but...

We either stay one more night and leave first thing tomorrow or we leave as soon as they're done at the temple. No, we can travel in the night. We've got Dakota. I agree. I think that's fine. I don't hate the idea of traveling through the evening.

I agree. I would much prefer to get the journey started sooner rather than later. I'm saying that if we're to never come back here, at least not for a long time, it would be a shame for me to not at least take a quick look. What is your interest in Ren? I just... Don't mind me asking. I know that she is a very powerful god in this country and continent, and I think that she...

is involved with death, is what I hear. Can you confirm that? I can confirm it. So, based on my own spirituality, I believe that there may be some kind of connection between that and the spirits in my home island chain.

Would there be anything that I could offer advice to them as far as like behavior or offerings when they approach the temple to not be like out of line or weird? Or anything I would know about it? Yeah, just anything. I mean like, you know, advice, offerings. I would say in this instance, it would just be kind of like just show a proper amount of reverence. Okay. Which they understand. Yeah. Um...

Looking at Toa, having just heard his conversation and the reference to the Raven Queen, do I see any... Looking at his tattoos, do I see any spiral shapes that would cause any bit of... Concern? Would make me think about anything? I would say that you've seen enough of Toa.

Oh yes I am. To notice that there are kind of spirally designs. But it doesn't seem to be the same style. Spirally designs for sure, but you don't seem to notice any kind of the shape that you are looking for in these tattoos. Thank you. So do you manage a quick even 15-20 minutes? I just wanted to go. I'd be happy to come with you. Anyone else want to come?

To where? No, but you're not in the ring. To the mausoleum in the middle of the road. You've got 28 minutes. Well, you said 30, so I'm going to take it. We used about two, so we need to... All right, let's hustle quickly. You make your way to the mausoleum at the center of the town. You kind of pass the hustle and bustle of the general town, and as you kind of make your way down the road towards the mausoleum...

People start to thin out a little bit. You occasionally see the one person walking around looking a little bit forlorn nearby, and you kind of see this large stone structure. Heavy and gloomy looking. It's kind of consistent with a lot of what you've seen in the country, but, you know, Kirstein has been a little bit different, a little bit more upbeat, and this definitely looks more like it's more of a recent addition to this chapter.

And you see on the large stone doors, there's that emblem of the Raven Queen. The familiar raven head. And you kind of look around and it's a large stone structure and kind of with a little patch of garden outside with some kind of like lilies and other flowers associated with that.

So, Mazalim, you can go in, right? Yeah, so I'll approach and just sort of silently and respectfully open the door and approach in. I'm going to kind of walk through...

briskly, as fast as I can, while still being respectful. And just keep an eye out for anything related to the Raven Queen in relation to other spirits or deities, or anything that would kind of spark my interest related to what I'm looking for. And I'm going to do something similarly, but I'm going to be specifically looking for any symbols that appear to have wings and a cross on them.

Okay, we can cut across. So, you all make your way through the...

You make your way through the temple. You see the final resting places. Variety of different families that have lived here. They seem like they're a good number of natives to Kirshdein, or families at least, who worship her. You find kind of small statues and effigies to the Raven Queen,

but this seems to be kind of, kind of towards the end at the very back, you find a small shrine. People, there's a little bowl where coins are offered. You see a few things that kind of have a black feather or a white lily or like. And you look around and there, besides kind of the occasional holy remnant effigies of the Raven Queen, you don't really get any kind of sense that this is

that there's anything showcasing anything beyond just general Raven Queen portion. More like, this is the new religion in town, we gotta build a mausoleum to it. It seems to be relatively new compared to probably some of the other ones that you would maybe encounter along your journey. And so...

So pretty vanilla. It's very vanilla, basic, boilerplate, entry-level Raven Queen. I guess it's entry-level normie Raven Queen. There's definitely a lot of levels. Yeah.

This place has a little new, it looks like it's sort of temple-layering. Wow. Do I have a part of the inspiration? And that's basically the gist of what you see. It's kind of, you're realizing, like, you know, you walk into, you think of a mausoleum, you're thinking of something kind of ancient thing, and this feels...

I mean, not that new, but compared to the worship and the culture of Lop Ward in this town, it seems relatively very new. Okay. So nothing suspicious, though? So nothing suspicious or connection. Really, this is like, you know, this is the Raven Queen, here is the Raven Queen. Nothing really elaborate. Not much that you can really discern about her, beyond that she's about death and she has Ravens. So we get the sense that basically they had to build this so that they don't get completely destroyed by...

Yeah, basically the same religion. You probably have the sense that this was built to appease the state government. And, you know, in order to be respectful of people who had been converted. Right. At some point in time. Okay, great. Cool. Okay. I'm good. So, you all go back and you join the party. And are you heading back to Amity? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, you...

You make your way back to your favorite little outcropping, and you see kind of down in the bushes, she is laying on her back, her arms folded, some straw in her mouth, her leg kind of crossed over. There are a bunch of remnants of fish, and you see a dead frog with its head bitten off.

Just have a letter. A few crawfish. I was just about to ask. I didn't write a letter. There's no letter. I'm going to ask her to bring one back. There's no letters there. Shucks. You see a turtle shell that's suspiciously empty. And she says, and you can see very clearly that the original cast that had been brought is completely empty.

And so she's just kind of laying there and as you turn the corner, she does, "Well, I hope you got everything covered. I feel like I'm finally sobering up, so I hope you got more for me." Yeah. Well, Jarmadee, I think we have you covered. Full payment. I'll take the two casts that I'm carrying and slap them down in front of her. Is that the memory? That is, darling. Two in full.

Well, you are folk of your word. We are. We hope that you are one of yours. I may be a lot of things. I may be a thief. Lovely. A cutthroat. Even better. Great. A sneak. Dashuazibis. A drunk, perhaps? A drunk? Well, that goes without saying. I mean, come on. But I am a bugbear of my word, because that's what we got is our word. So...

I will. And she grabs each one. She kind of ties up the good stuff. I just wanted to prove that we hit it. I'm happy to carry one or two. It's fine. Okay. So I'll put one back on my back. But she's taking one. She's taking the two revelries. Oh, she has the two revelries. So what am I carrying for her?

Uh, the regular one. So we have one revelry for ourselves. Oh, but she already took the other regular one. Yes. So she gets one more bad stuff, and we've got one more good stuff for ourselves. You were carrying one revelry and one regular. She's not getting those? No, so she's getting a regular one, and then the revelry is ours. So I don't give her what's with me. No, that's ours. Yours is ours, yeah. Well, okay. I hope you guys are all fine traveling out on the road.

Let's away. Let's away. Let's away. If you came out with...

The revelry alcohol and it wasn't even the vegetable! Two of them! What a story to tell your friends. What a story to tell all of my goblin friends who are probably dead. And you can tell the ghosts. Well, let's go! You win some, you lose some. So, she leads you. The journey is not easy.

You are marching at a decent pace. She tries to keep all of you on... Oh, let me adjust my music now that we're reading through this time. This is just really nice, considering how rough this is. It's your time, man. I fucked that up.

As soon as we start to head off, Capri starts to sing, Come, let's away. Come, let's away. Come, let's away. Yeah. That's all. Come, let's away with me. And so she guides you through. Rain starts picking up. It rains most of the time. It's cloudy. You rarely see the sun. It occasionally gets marshy and swampy, and the terrain gets treacherous. You're scrambling over rocks. Occasionally, you're like...

And she has to like kind of have you hide behind rocks in order to avoid like a stalking beast or something that's roaming the plains. And as you get closer, you probably spend about three days traveling. So long rest, you know, whatever. Three days. Hooray. And as you are kind of making your way around, you say, well, the bluff is...

Not much longer of a journey. I think we're almost there. And so she takes you closer and closer. And so you start to hear something off in the distance. And you hear the "dum, dum" as it echoes through the highlights. Caprice, shut up. And it sounds like the banging of war drums.

And as you get closer, there's a... Oh, this doesn't seem fucking good. And so she takes you closer and closer. And it gets louder. And as you're making your way closer to the bluff... There it is. And you can kind of see a rock formation that looks all... that is kind of peeking up almost into the mountains that seems to be in the shape of like a jagged hook. And you start to see... feel the ground start to shake.

as you start to see kind of shapes all throughout the hills and the mountains. Shapes that are small because they're far off, but of very large creatures. Fucking apes. Ogres and hill giants all marching, walking, heading north. You hear the loud banging of war drums of the ogres as they ride massive beasts.

And the hill giants, they stomp along, all marching with some kind of distinct purpose. And that is where we'll end the session. Holy hell, that's like a whole other thing. Wait, what direction are they marching? North. Zentra.

Fuck me. Ish. Zetra ish. Jeez. Your illegible script you've written down four things this entire session. You can loan me your damn pen. I only write down mechanical things. It might read. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Avantras podcast.

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