Root RPG | Ep. 3 | Bloody Negotiations
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This is Mikey Gilder, and you're listening to Vagabond's Heart, a Dimwood tale. Here's what happened last time. As if we've uncovered a chamber and we can't go further. Some loggers went missing, I think they got wrapped up and...

by the giant spiders in the forest outside, but that's really fucking dangerous. Two of these massive spiders have skittered away, but there is one directly in front of you. Where the fuck am I alive? You all are something else. Mary here is our guide into the mine. Yeah. All the amateurs tell us to go left. The real secret is, are you paying attention, is to go right.

And then she starts walking left. I mean, again. Cavern. Up ahead, this building seems to be the remains of some sort of, is it a fortress? Is it a temple? You then see an arched doorway up ahead, and that's when you all see that faint glowing light. A tiny little flame flickering. It looks to be a large amulet. It's in the shape of

of a heart. All of these orange emery particles rush past you all into this heart-shaped medallion. Gosh, I think magic is real! In the center is this large statue of the Stoic Deer King. You remember Jericho mentioning the King of the Blazing Heart. An initial mural. You notice that there is an extra bit of care put onto four of these objects. The medallion around the neck, the crown atop his head,

The sword in one hand and the banner in the other. By the way, it looks like we've got one of the four things. I hope you have made my mind finally usable to advance my interest. As you see Mr. Y behind him with a knife in his back. You see Smiles spits up blood and tumbles forward off of the railing, landing hard onto the ground in front of you.

You are all standing, all four of you are standing in front of the wooden watchtower at the center of these mining operations as the bloodied corpse of Levi Smiles lay simply 20 feet from you.

The wound in his back, deep, and his previously pristine clothes stained with blood. A number of skinkertons armed with hand crossbows.

are flanking Mr. Y as he steps forward, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping the blood off of his blade. As he inspects it and tucks it into his pocket, he sheets the blade into his coat. And he looks down at all of you and he says, Well, my, oh, my.

What a tragic thing for Mr. Smiles to be murdered by vagabonds. Oh, my acorns. What have you done? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You son of a bitch. You killed him. What were you killing? Did I kill Mr. Smiles? Did I kill Mr. Smiles? And he turns to either side of the pinkerton, of these kinkertons. And it's every single session I'm going to do that. As he turns to either side and...

they all shake their head. There's absolutely no way you're pinning this on us. No way. He's trying to say we did it?

No, not today! You're gonna pay for your crimes! People are gonna know about this! Is he, like, up on the railing? Yeah, so he's up probably about two stories up, looking down on you. And then you now see as the skinkertons all pull out their hand-crossed bows and are all leveling them at you. Are they there? There are six. Three on either side. Okay.

We got ourselves in quite the predicament here, ladies and gentlemen. I don't really know how we're gonna see our way out of this one.

We have witnesses! How do you feel you're gonna pay everybody? How many people are there? Is Mary there? So, you see that Mary is there. Mary is just looking down at him, at the bloated corpse of Levi, as she is taking the opportunity to tear her mask off, and she is downing a bottle of whiskey, and she looks around and says...

Well, I don't know these guys. I'm just a drunk. I didn't see nothing. What are you going to do? Shoot us dead in the street? You think that you're just going to get away with this? I mean, people know we went in there. You're not going to get away with this. Can I figure out Mr. White? Yeah. So to figure it out, he's going to do one of those moves. And he's going to roll two d6 and we'll see what he gets.

And you're gonna roll cunning, I believe, correct? Charm. Charm, that's right. Nine. So, with a nine, unless someone wants to help you. Oh, hell yeah, I'm helping him. What does it cost? How are you gonna help him? One's exhaustion to help. Uh...

So let me think about this. You're trying to figure him out, so it's like an insight check. Yeah, basically. Okay, so what I'm going to do is after having said that, and I notice Grumly looking at Mr. Y a bit more intently, and I say...

I know this type. I know what he looks like, what they do, what their aims are. Look for it. Look for it. You've seen the pattern. You know what to look for. I'm looking for it even more now. And you succeed. What do I know about this guy? What do I take? One exhaustion. One exhaustion. I walk and read this guy up and down. I'm going to ask more questions now. What does...

What does this character intend to do? It might be obvious. You get to hold three, right? Yes, and I don't have to ask them right now. So I will answer, and I have to answer truthfully as the Game Master. So, Mr. Y intends to exploit the arrival of vagabonds in order to A, get vengeance on Smiles, who was sending him into a sure death trap.

and his morale shaken by your conversation, particularly Peggy's seed that she was sowing, he is now attempting to take over the operation, perhaps, with the backing of the Skinkertons.

He seems to have a pretty... He seems to be very smug, but he seems as if he's going to pin it on the vagabonds that rolled in as a very convenient excuse as to who would kill Mr. Smiles, especially ones that are allied with Selja and Alabaster. Um... What does he wish we'd do? He wishes that you would...

Mr. Y wishes that you would cooperate and be turned over to the Marquisate as a prize. However, Booker knows the type and knows that a sniveling weasel, literally, like this, would probably be open to other alternatives and has contingency plans as well that you as a group may be able to exploit. Um, how...

You can hold the last one if you want. Yeah, I'm going to hold the last one. Okay, so you're figuring him out. As he leans down and says, Now, I wouldn't want any more bloodshed to happen after poor Mr. Smiles met his untimely end, but I would ask that you join my associates here today.

down to the Marquis Zayt troops, so we can turn you in and I can tell them everything that happened.

Now, hold on right there. One second. You don't think for one minute that they're just going to accept that we murdered some guy. I mean, we have Lee Grumley in our party. Lee Grumley. Yeah. You would think that we haven't done any work for the Monkeys, eh? They know who we are. They're not going to believe that we killed Levi Smiles. Yeah, but it is. You've got to think about this a little bit more. That is orange and has the cat emblem on the front. You take us to the Monkeys, eh? They're going to know in a heartbeat that you're lying.

They're like best friends. It's like riding on his shirt. - I never believed they know my character. You can find Sheriff Beatrix, she could vouch for me.

He looks at it and he pulls out a separate handkerchief, the one that isn't stained with blood, and he taps the side of his mouth before reaching in and grabbing a flask and taking a little nick. And he sticks it back in his coat pocket as he then dabs the sides of his weaselly snout again. And he says...

Now, when was the last time you donned that filthy thing? And I don't know who you think you are, who Sheriff Beatrix is, but it is the Levi Smiles Mining Company that provides the iron ore for probably the weapon that you hold right now, Frank. And you think you're just going to take it all from the guy that built this company? Just by killing him? Yes, I've been...

Not trustful of Mr. Smiles for a long time, and anything I say now won't matter because you all are up shit's creek without a paddle. Hey, it's not exactly wrong. Um, alright, so let's just say for one minute here that we comply and you don't shoot us in the back as we go to the Marquis 8. Then what? Then they take you away and they hang you, I assume. Not today!

Surely there must be some other agreement we can come to before you just send us off to the gallops. Well, I believe that this entire mining company has my name on it. I'm the chief geologist. I am the one that is able to find the iron in the earth. Mr. Smiles likes to think that the earth spoke to him, but it was really me whispering into his ear.

What do you have to offer me? What? I appreciate your help. I assume that it is fine down in the mines, but either way, I suppose it does not matter, does it? We don't deal with your type. Backstabbers and double-crossers.

Can I get a sense of how this building is arranged? I lean into Grumman and I say, I do if they're coming. Hang us. Yes, we do, Grumman. We need to make sure that we stay alive. So it's a large structure. You get the sense that it is...

What's a good, like, if you play World of Warcraft, like the venture company, like tiered kind of wooden structures that have like offices kind of on either, on each floor. And then each of them has a balcony and then there's like a kind of a wraparound staircase going up. Is he on a balcony? Yeah, so he's on two balconies up. Yeah. Talking to us.

Do you think we should deal with him? I mean, I don't want to. He's clearly a scumbag, and he's probably gonna backstab us too, but I'm certainly not gonna march on to my own death here.

Why don't we get in to backstab one of his guys? I mean, which guy? I mean, he's kind of the top dog now. I didn't really see anybody belong except for those skittles. Any of the six crossbow... crossbowists? Crossbowmen? Yeah. Crossbowmen, that's the word. Do any of them... Are any of them the one that beat up Basil? What are they called? I would say that you definitely recognize that there is one. He's looking a little stiff.

And you can clearly... So he's not dead. He's not dead. And I'll say that you're able to look up and you get the sense that the other Skinkertons are kind of also giving him a bit of a side eye as well. Hear me out. So he's got six guys right now. At least. One of them's one of those jerks that's been not paying for them.

That's true. I'd recognize that face anywhere. And I'd really recognize the crossbow. Use math and get him on our side so he gives up that guy and instead he gets four of us. That's one for four. That's a business guy's deal, right? The only problem with that plan is that these skingatons, if you know anything about them, they work for nothing but coin and lots of it. And we, unfortunately, barely have two coins to rub together. Literally, I'll think I'll literally have no coins. What do we need coins for? I don't think they're that easily bought.

We don't have to go in. We just say, hey, Mr. Weasley Weaselman, we can just say, hey, if you turn that guy in because he's a real jerk, then the four of us will help you. That's one for four. And Peggy's smart as shit. Oh, I want to use my last one. How could I get Mr. Y to let us go?

And saying there is no way for you to do that is an acceptable response. Well, that would be an acceptable response. You're exactly right, but that is not the case in this situation. I would say that what Hazel is suggesting would be absolutely a way. If you can offer some kind of deal and have it instead pinned on the one Skinkerton, it seems, depending on your case...

he may be able, you may be able to come to some sort of arrangement. So in the context of this game, these are things that only Grumly knows unless he tells us, correct? Oh, yeah. Because it's like an insight check. This is a feeling that you get and we don't know, right? I'm sure that's meta knowledge, but feel free to tell me otherwise. I'll say that's probably accurate. Yeah. I think that plan will work. You think so? You're not just saying it? No, I think it will work, but we can't send this poor innocent man.

Innocent? You almost shot me in the face. You were there. You almost killed Basil. We're not going to frame one guy for the other guy's crime. Watch me. Mr. Y. Yes? I very, very, very much prefer not to die today or tomorrow or until I am resting comfortably in my bed someday many, many years from now. Me too. Is there any way that we could meet in your brand new lovely office that you've just now inherited and have a little bit of a discussion?

Now, what do you have to offer me at all? I'll need some sort of proof that you, that this claim, that you have something to offer me. Some sort of proof? I mean, surely we can come to some sort of agreement. Whether it be we do some work for you, as you see, we do some pretty good work. We get things done, that's what vagabonds do. Hey. Hey, Peggy.

She knows how to do all kinds of things. She got us into the mine and we didn't die. She is very creative. And she's got a very keen eye. She could probably double, triple what you're trying to do in there. It's at this point, I would say, whoever would like to make a persuaded NPC. Please do. Charm. Damn. I got ace.

six. You can assist me to pass with... Somebody can assist me to pass with repercussions. You help me out. If you're willing to take an exhaustion to help me out, then we get a pass. So on a seven... You don't have any boxes. Unless you've been tracking... I've been tracking it here, sorry. So that would be a seven, which says they aren't sure. The GM will tell you what I need to do to sway them. Okay. It's at this point that you'll remember...

that Peggy took a huge chunk of iron ore in the mine, and if you offer to give that to him, he may be able to just up-throw it.

Peggy, you are a genius. I can't believe I forgot about that. What my friend Peggy here is trying to say is that we found quite, quite the treasure down in the mine. And I know that the original agreement was that we get to keep whatever's in the mine. But we aren't that stingy, my friend. We are not that stingy. We might be able to show you something pretty, pretty sweet.

As Peggy pulls out the huge chunk of iron ore, he looks down at you in his little weaselly beady eyes and arrow, and he says, well, I suppose you are posing no threat to me at all. You can join me in my new office.

And he steps through the large double door at the top of the structure, and he says, "Come on up!" As you see that these skinkertons begin to walk down to then guide you up into his office. As they get to us, and I'm assuming they're pretty gruff, I'm gonna turn my pockets inside out and basically be like, "I don't have any weapons! See, I got nothing! I got nothing! Search me! Search me!"

They all search you. They take... They'll try to take your weapon. Are you sure about this? I'll give them over my weapons. You hand over your weapons. How about you, Hazel? You can have this here. I'll give him my dagger, but... I need this because I was walking around real tired and I'll lean on my staff. My

And they all, uh, they guide you up to his office. As you enter, you see, uh, this, uh, elaborate desk that says, uh, L smiles on it. And, uh, you see that the, the dirty boots stained in mud and soot, uh,

of Mr. Y are kicked up onto the desk as he's pouring, he takes his flask and throws it behind him as he pulls open the drawer and pulls out a bottle, massive bottle of absurdly expensive whiskey.

more expensive than anything you all have probably enjoyed. And he looks at the array of glasses on this little whiskey cart, and he just shrugs and starts to drink out of it as he places it down. And you see Mary is kind of shuffling in the back as she looks around like, well, I guess if I'm gonna fucking die here...

At least I would like a fuckin' drink of that. Hey, I'm pretty sure I remember you saying you didn't even know us. Well, I got mixed up in this. These lards were tryin' to fly away, and I face-planted, I beak-planted right into a fuckin' rock. And so then this scaly, ugly, mugged son of a bitch collected me, and now here I stand before you. Oh, you're really swift for us. Understand?

"Well, I don't think I have a fucking choice. Do I have a choice, Scaly? Do I have a choice, uglier Scaly?" And she points at the two of the lizards, and they all sneer at her and shake their heads as they pull up. They kind of press their crossbows even further in. "Without a doubt, I'll have a fucking drink of that." And Mr. Y looks up and shrugs, "Well, I suppose if

I'm going to hear a business proposition. We should do it in the appropriate style. And he pours out a glass for each of you and slides it over. Oh, my. That's a good idea. Here's to avoiding the gallows. Cheers. Well, I would hope that anything that you do propose is adequate. I would not count on avoiding the gallows. I am...

Still very connected. You don't stay with besides a very powerful cat for as long as I have without greeting a number of paws. Well, um, I think that on behalf of the group, we've got a lot to offer. And you've got a lot of work ahead of you. And you're gonna need a good team.

Oh, absolutely. As you've already seen the work that we can do, it wouldn't behoove you

to pin any kind of death on us and get us killed when we could use us to your advantage. And at this point, the massive sheet of iron is placed on the desk, and he looks at it, and he pulls out a strange spyglass-looking device, and he examines it, and

as he's looking at it. Now that is a sight to behold. And you're saying now that my miners can go in there, and they are my miners, that they can go into the mine and retrieve it without going mad. That's the idea. Well, we think...

But that's the case, right? I mean, we certainly haven't gone mad, at least last time I checked. Of course, now I'm in this situation where all I really wanted to do was go explore, but by all means, no, we're not crazy. And now it's Frank's does. Because of us, you're able to go with mine, all that, all that, all. So let me ask you this. Are you rich? You need someone to pin this unfortunate accident on, correct? Well, it's not going to be me. That is true. I would never suggest that, my friend.

So, in that case, um, as you know, you've inherited all of this lovely, lovely new things. You are a very rich man, my friend. I suppose I am. So these, uh, skinkatins, you know, one of them might be, uh, dispensable then. And I eye them all. All of the, uh...

All of the skinkertons are like suddenly taken aback as they're all like looking around and all of their eyes are kind of lingering more on Phil. Why'd you have to name him? I mean, I don't mean to overstep any boundaries here, but I take out a coin and I say, but if I had to pick and I flip a coin, it lands in my hand. How about that one? And I point to Phil.

And I give him a wink because I recognize the damn crossbow he's holding. As he looks at me, he seems very stiff. And I say, why me? Hey, hey, I didn't. And Mr. Y holds up his paw as he, and silence falls over the room. And now why would I trade one of these fine mercenaries for...

The four of you. Well, again, these gentlemen, they are, I assure you, there are more than just the ones that are in this room for one. And you get rid of him, you get the four of us. That's one less guy you gotta pay. I'm not working for this guy! Well, of course you're not working for him. He's not gonna pay us anything. He gets us for free. What do you mean by that, gets us for free? We are buying our lives back, Rumley.

Well, that doesn't mean he gets us, that means we get ourselves. Very good, my friend. You're a sharp one. Yeah. And what are you all going to do for me, then? If you are indeed going to be worth one of the Skinkertims? And I do think that I would be able to do whatever I wanted to any of these six fine lizards,

that flank me, and none of the others will tell, isn't that right? And they all look kind of nervously back and forth at each other. I still don't know if I can trust four lowly vagabonds. Well, of course you can! But that's what good faith is! Surely you're trying to expand this operation, correct? I will. Surely, not too far from here, is the Grizzle Palm Islands.

What lovely treasures might await in the Grizzlepaw Mountain range, my friend? You're the one with the eye, the nose, for the medal. The Grizzlepaw Mountains. I mean, it's just I'm no geologist, my friend. Not like the great Mr. Y, but I'm only spitballing here. Some might say stalling, but I like to think ad-libbing and proposing good ideas. There are lots of rocks in the Grizzlepaw Mountains.

And you like rocks, it seems. So there are lots of things you like up there.

That's right. And I bet there's probably some iron up there too. But the key thing to remember here is you've just inherited a whole job site and you can't just walk away from it now. So maybe you need a scouting group. And that is what we're really good at because we're great at moving around town to town. If you send some of these little lizard friends, they're just going to get edit or something.

Well, I suppose that is an interesting proposition. Now, I'd suppose that if I do want to expand, there are a number of clearings that the Smiles Mining Company could expand to. I do need additional ore. Grizzlepaw may indeed have that. Their denizens may be even more difficult to get beneath the boot.

being even farther on the edge of the Dimwood. It is something that Mr. Smiles had been attempting but had not been succeeding. Then there's the matter of shipment. The Riverfolk Company has been less than agreeable to our operations and has gouged our shipments up and down Old Town's River.

Now, if we could get something, if anywhere along that river, if you have connections there, I may be interested. I... My friend! You would not believe it, I do know the Otters very well. Now, is that so? Well, where I'm from is one of their main bases of operation. Sorry, sir? He's from Muckhead Creek. Oh! Yes, he is. Now, do you speak the Otters' language?

That's a great question, Game Master. I don't know what kind of language they speak. Clans. Oh, of course, yes. It's what they're saying. Where there's Mokhtar, there's clans. And if there are going, there's going to be increased iron ore mining, then there also may need to be some encouragement of the more established Marquisate in order to expand their operations as well.

further into the dim wood, connections there may help as well. Roughly what time is it?

Uh, it is like past sunset, so it's about evening now. The lantern light is flickering in this office. Well, Mr. Wise, sir, this is all very, very lovely. Very high-level overview. Lots of details. I'm sure we can hash them all out. But, as you may see, my friends and I are very beat up and worn out, and we would really love to just get a little bit of rest. And maybe some food and some nourishment. And then we can get right back out in the morning. What do you say?

So are you going to be my forward man? That's certainly what it sounds like! I think you're getting a real deal out of it. As long as you don't hurt Phil. I won't hurt Phil at all. As long as you don't have someone else hurt him. What the Marquis 8 does to any of these lizards is not up to me. I wash my hands of the situation. It's either you all swinging from that gallows,

Somebody. Well, it's not gonna be us, I can tell you that, Grumly. And all I'm asking is that we resume talks in the morning. I know that I think better after a good night's sleep. Make a persuasion. Not a persuasion. Uh, persuade an NPC. Basically persuasion. 12. 12? Okay. Uh, I will say he, uh, says, well, then I suppose you'll be staying and sleeping on premises.

I assumed you wouldn't have it any other way, Mr. Y. So... You can find dwellings in the first floor, reserved normally for guests that are from the Marquis Zayt overseeing the operations. But you must understand that the accommodations are still better than what you're used to. Oh, of course, and I promise you we won't make a sound. Very well, you will be watched. And, uh...

He nods at all of you and says, "G'night." As you're all led out, and as all the skin curtains are getting ready to lead you, you hear the voice call out from behind, "Now, Phil, please come back." And Phil looks very nervous as he steps back into the office. And you're all guided down to the first floor. There's a door with a number, a room with a row of beds on either side. That's where you get the cross and booker.

Beds on either side. And you are alone. You do get the sense that as the evening goes on, that you hear the footsteps and the shuffling and the shadows cast from underneath the door of the Skinkerton's garden. So what I would like to do, from an out-of-character perspective...

Whatever conversations that we have in the room are going to be very... Yeah, yeah. You don't have to. We'll just talk normally. Just talk normally. Or we're very deliberately... Yes. Or at least Booker's going to very deliberately talk very quietly. I would say that's fine. In the room. Before either of you say anything, just understand I did what we needed to do to survive. All right? All right.

Secondly, I planned on getting the hell out of here in the cover of darkness, but I should have realized that he was going to stick the bastards in front of our door. I'm still open to ideas. I don't intend on working for this fool, but I'm not going to die. Not today. No. So we do what we got to do, even if it means getting all the way to the Griswold Mountains and then making a break for it.

We need to help Phil. Do we? Fuck Phil. We're going to send some guy. He's not innocent. But we're going to let Mr. Watt get off scot-free. And this skinkerton to hang instead. You keep this in mind. You put a crossbow in Booker's face, Booker gets even. All right? And he was going to kill Paul Basil. Exactly. That guy's getting his comeuppance. Well, but not for this particular crime. It's not right. Well... I ain't worried about it.

What if... Do what you gotta do to survive. Live one more day. That's it. What if... What if the body just, like, disappeared into the river and floated away forevermore? What body? Mr. Smiles. Well, I guess... Well, one, it would determine on where they left him. I can't imagine that his body's just sitting up out on the throat. I should have thought that earlier. I was just really hungry, and he was talking a lot...

They must know that he's just going to disappear. Oh, he left town. Had a very successful mining company. Decided to leave. I mean, even if his body were to wash up downriver, what would that accomplish for us? I don't know. No body, no crime in the world. Unfortunately, I don't think it works that way, Hazel. We are very much in deep, deep shit. But I'm not exactly... I'm still not opposed to either just fleeing...

Which wouldn't put, uh, you know, Seljin in a great position, I must admit, but... Or we try to make a break for it as soon as we can. As soon as we get the hell away from this clib. I know it's not the most courageous thing, but we're severely outnumbered here. How many Skingertons roughly on the prep system do we think? There are six total, including Phil. You know that Phil, at the very least, was upstairs. That would be five. I'll say that... We heard any body-like thoughts? I would say whoever wants to read a tense situation...

This is very tense. I think that would count. A tense situation could probably get a sense of... It shouldn't be me. Well, it was your question. I figured unless you don't want it because of your stats. I can do it. I'm happy to do it. I'll do it on behalf of Grumly. Is that okay? Yeah, please. He said the question out loud, and I'll be like, let me read a tense situation.

Well, I got a seven. That is technically a pass. So you get one question here. Oh, what's the best way in out through the biggest threat? Yeah, I want to know what's my best way out. And I'll phrase the question in so much that out meaning with our lives intact. Like, how do we get out of this mess?

Whether it be through the cover of darkness, playing along as long as we can, whatever, right? I will say that there are, I guess that this is a GM, so I'm able to say whatever I want. Yeah. I would say that you are listening and you notice that there are two skinkertons that are stationed on the other side. You get the sense that if you're sneaky enough and quiet enough and either kill or take out the people, you may be able to sneak depending on how well you can get out.

You know that you have a drunk canary with you as well. That could be one way to do it, but it's very dark and you know that this mind has been abandoned and that Mr. Y is keeping others away because of what he's done. He doesn't want news word to get out yet that Mr. Smiles had died.

Or there's the alternative of trying to make some kind of arrangement. But you would understand that for Vagabonds, you know that the Skinkertons can be rough customers, but you've handled one before. There are multiple options here. Is there a window in the room?

Um, you look out and there's one very small window, it doesn't look like it can open, and it looks out-- Right, you can't fit wrong ones. It's-- yeah. It's out-- looking out onto the, uh, onto the camp, and you just see the-- the rows of buildings, and the flickering firelight down past the-- the mines, and pretty far away. Well, I'm still not opposed to sneaking out under the cover of darkness.

That being said, I'm not much of a fighter. And anything that we do is going to draw attention. Unless we can somehow deal with the Skinkertons out front. I think we smash our way out of here. It's pretty loud, Gromley. We can do it quietly, I'll be with you. There's only five of them left. Only five? What if we invite them in here and they can have some of the spoons that I found a while ago? Oh.

I didn't realize you were holding out on us. Well, you can have a little bit if I remember. I shouldn't. Very fair. I can have a little more. Can I have a little more of your cheeks? If you play your part, maybe. What part do I gotta play? I was in a school fucking play in sixth grade. You play the part of doing whatever we tell you to do. You saw what I did to Phil, right? You think I won't throw some drunk out under the bus?

Well, I don't think that'd be very hero-ly of you. Do I look like a hero to you? No, you look like a raccoon. Thank you. That got me.

That's a great idea. Invite them. Invite them inside for like a game of cards or something. Oh, yeah. You've got cards probably. Look at you. Well, I'm not exactly sure that the Pinkertons are anything about playing games, but what if one of our lovely party here were to get very, very ill? Why is everybody looking at me? I've got an idea. Let's invite them in with some balloons and some playing, and then...

Mary will get, I used to think, because that's what you do when you're scheming, and I'm learning, Mary will get real sick and then bend over and make a lot of noise, and then they'll go, oh no, what's wrong? And then when they turn their back, we'll just, boop, bump them right on the head. Gremlin's good at that. Leave that to me. I think that plan's perfect, minus all the gaming and boozing.

Those gentlemen are not going to be swayed by anything like that. I'm telling you, the only thing they want is money. Well, what if it's a game for money? What if it's a kind of poker game? And free moves. I didn't take that as a skill. Okay, what is your skill? There's a skill called Let's Play. Oh. You can play a game or some skill and, like, forget it. Yeah. And, like, try to, like, fuck it all. I have too many good abilities. I should have taken that instead of buffing my luck last time. Ugh.

Well, all the way. If you want to swap it out. No, no, no, no, no. Can you not play if you don't have that skill? Well, no, I just can't use the ability. Let's play. I can make some shit up. I just want to get them. If you want to get them in here, the best way to do it is help. Help. You know, the classic help. He's injured. She's injured. Not. Hey, do you want to come in and play games and drink? Because I mean, like, fuck off.

I'm gonna stand in the next to the door and you just figure out what we're doing. And I just want to like stand up and back against like the, as the door opens, that's when you block by the door and just wait there. All right. Well, are we all in agreement that this is the direction that we're going? It's like a shadow across the pug face. Are we all in agreement that this is the direction that we want to go in? Because once we make this choice, there's no going back.

Absolutely. What should I say? What should I do? Just look very, very concerned. Like this? Oh, no, Mary, why would you do this? No, no, stop, no, please. Oh, no. Make a trick in that PC roll.

While he's screaming, I'm gonna open the door. You gotta help us! Please! I got a five. Can I help you? Can only one person help? No. So if you each help, we make a seven. Oh, 100% help. Does an eight do you better than a seven? No. No. Okay. No, it's either gotta be seven or ten. Because I can help you too, but it doesn't matter. If you each help one, I get a seven. Okay. So I marked one exhaustion. Yeah, I'm gonna help you also. How are you guys helping?

I'm gonna just like pound the ground a little bit to make it sound like you're gonna beat up. That's good. I'm gonna open the door and go, oh my gosh, the whore! She's going crazy! Help us! Um, okay. And so you can choose one.

I would say, so if they, I would say they stumble and you gain a critical opportunity. That's what I was going to pick. It looks like they're coming into the room. I would like them to stumble and we get a critical. Anybody probably gets a critical opportunity. So I'm riding on the ground and then it takes a minute and you see Mary kind of blank and she said, Oh,

Oh, that's right, you stupid fucking... Are you a rodent? I don't even fucking care! I'm gonna pretend to hold her back. How dare you steal my fucking booze? She's crazy with booze lust and stuff. It's awful! Ah!

So just like screaming and rolling around again. And suddenly you hear the jangling of keys from outside through the cacophony of your act. And suddenly the door swings open and two skinkertons walk in. And as the door swings open, it bumps about halfway into Gromley's apartment.

Not all conceiving him. As they see, Mary is standing over you and she actually has like a huge knife drawn. It seems like she had somehow started a way.

Are they both in the room? Yeah, is the door still open? So the door is still open, and you see Booker on the ground as Mary is standing over him. Both Peggy and Hazel are looking very concerned, and then the door stops, and there's literally a quarter of rung laid covered by the door as you now are facing the down. So once they walk in, I'm going to shut the door as it would have happened to me, and I have that anime shadow. I know.

This big menacing, oaking beast behind the mirror. And I wanted to fucking just punch the guy in the back of the head. So critical opportunity is what? Critical opportunity is you have an opportunity to react, so they are distracted by this. So for the first guy, I would like to basically beat the shit out of him, attempting to not kill him, but hit him in a way where it would not. Is that sword to sword? Yeah.

Uh, let's see... What are the battle moves here? Engage sword to sword at close range, or I can grapple the enemy. You can just open them. I don't have the special. Oh, you don't have the thing. Just kidding. I would say that could be either grapple or engage sword to sword, whatever you want to do. I want to... I'm gonna engage sword to sword, okay? Because I don't know how much health these guys have. You're at close range. Boom!

11. 14. So I get to choose three. Holy shit. I'm gonna inflict serious harm, suffer little harm, and dismay my foe. Okay.

So, um, you see the anime shadow of Grumly as he leaps forward. The door slams shut and with a massive pug fist smashes into the back of the skull. You hear a lot of crack as the eyes roll back in the skinkerton as he falls down and you see the other one, uh,

fling around and out of surprise fires off a crossbow bolt slicing into you Grumly for one point of injury but as soon as he sees the sheer devastation with one blow that he did he's looking back he's looking very scared as soon as he fires off the crossbow at Grumly I'm going to just jump up and grapple him

Okay. Using my leather armor. Okay. I still have my armor on, right? Yes. So the arrow proof, ignore the first injury, I would suffer from an arrow in a scene. So it just takes off your armor and clatters to the ground. Is there a weapon move for grapple? Yes. That's probably not going to be very good for me.

I can grapple an enemy at intimate range. Roll with might. Come on! Oh, baby. There we go. It's unfortunately a nine. So on a seven to nine, we choose simultaneously. Continue making choices until someone disengages and dies. What I'm going to do is...

And grappling an enemy, oh, I guess we get to choose simultaneously. So let me know when you're ready, and we'll both say the same time. You leap up past Mary like, oh, fuck! And you knock a bit as Whiskey flies over and coats this one skinkerton as the bottle shatters. And you fly a raccoon attack. And you're like...

And grapple on, and he turns, and we're going to three, two, one. I strike a fast blow, inflicting injury. Yep. So they're both going to— Oh, you do that too? Okay. With my flexible, I get to mark an exhaustion to ignore the first choice. Okay, so you manage to— So I'll exchange the injury for exhaustion. Hits his armor, and you manage to do one injury to him. Yes. And as you're grappling, you punch him in the face. Okay.

as it hits his armor, it is not able to hit you, and you're still grappling. Question. Yes. Do we get our weapons back? No. No. Okay. I would like to just assist in any way I can if I can rough the guy up. Oh, so I guess we keep making choices. You keep making choices, right? Oh, yeah, keep going. I'm going to... I'm going to exploit weakness, mark exhaustion, and inflict two injury.

I'm like, I'm just like, like trying to wail on this guy. I'm like, I'm just like flailing. And he's going to strike a quick blow that is going to hit you for one injury. But however you use, you use your strength and you heat and you go, and you, uh, basically bite him a little, you bite him and he, and he, uh,

just the sudden uh he leaves an opportunity from the body and you use that opportunity to clock him right in the side of the head and his eyes roll back and collapses there's two unconscious skinkertons okay all right all right we gotta go we gotta go we can't stay here we gotta move we gotta get out we gotta get the hell out of camp all right we gotta find mr. wad

What? What do you mean, what? What do you mean we have to find Mr. Watt? We have to turn him in! Turn him in! He killed Mr. Smiles! No! No! Leave him! He's gonna kill more innocent people! We're gonna press the button! We have to get the fuck out of town right now! Come on! Not until I find Mr. Watt! I'm gonna open the door and try to drag him out the door. I'm gonna pick up one of the unconscious guys and just smack him until he wakes up. Okay.

- So you managed to find... - He's like smacking him and I'm digging in his pocket. - You find enough gold to all remove one decay. - Oh, that's okay. - And you also find a ring of keys. - I never have decay.

Is there any benefit to me finding gold if I don't have the cash? Yeah, you can. Well, we got a bag of coins. Oh. So you can add that to your bag of coins, I guess. Yeah, if you have the bag of coins, you can add it to that. We got that last session you weren't here. So the idea is that you can just like, you know, if you need to exchange a coin for something. I'm going to give myself a coin. Is that acceptable? Yeah. Okay.

That's fine. Okay, so I got a coin. So you do that and you find a ring of keys. Okay, and keys. Yeah. I'm gonna just keep smacking the guy until he, like, I'm trying to shake him out of it. So one is on the ground cold and a booker opens the door and the lizard is jostled awake as he looks at you. His eyes are kind of rolling around. I'm gonna say, you better be quiet and you better tell me where Mr. Wry is if you want to keep going off. Make Persuade an NPC. Okay.

Eight. Eight? Okay. Uh...

basically, oh, basically, sorry. Um, they aren't, so, uh, there's a bit of fear, persuading the PC, so yeah, they're not sure. So you see, you see the fear in his eyes as he looks around and you get the sense that, um, he is very nervous to go against Mr. Y, but if you gave him some kind of promise or, or, uh,

tell him that he's not going to... You're not going to have to worry about Mr. Wife and tell me where he is. Oh, my Lord. I'm going to put him away for the rest of his life. I'll let the Marquis Zake figure it out. Oh, when he gets out of his life. He backstabbed Mr. Smiles and the people need to know. He's going to say, he's up in the top office. Mr. Smiles has a bedchamber up there. I'm sure that's where he's staying. But there's more of us.

Where are they? Where are they positioned? How many more? There should be a ship. Four more of us, but I haven't seen Phil all night. Oh, no. All right, well, Grumly, there's no way I can convince you to get out of town.

Thank you. I'm going to knock him down if I can. I'll say it's easy enough to just... He's totally helpless. I'm going to take... Do they have rope on them? I want to tie them up with their own rope. They have actual, like, manacles, like in chains, not just, like, rope on their side.

Can we manacle them with their own, like, manacles? Yeah, I'll say that's very easy to do, as you've managed to manacle both of them. They're out cold. It looks like it's going to be hours before they're out. Do they only have crossbows? Yeah. All right, well, I didn't want it to come to this. I figured we'll get crossbows. Are you sure about this? Because there's no going back, and there's a very good chance that we're going to die going up against Mr. Y. The whole point of this was to get the hell out of town. We are going to get out of town, but not before we take care of this guy. You better take the other one, then.

Fine. Do you have a crossbow? Yeah. It'll be better on you. I got these. That's all I need. I don't see... Grand Clause?

Well, they're not literally crab claws, but I'm just trying to motion to my hands as in, "I don't need it, I don't need it!" You take it! We should go, though! Do you have extra ammo or anything that I can take? Yeah, there's a number of bolts. You have enough bolts. And just so I understand, the weapon move is target someone? Yes, I don't need to have that. No, if you wanted a quick shot or if you wanted whatever. You can't do that, but you can just target someone. Okay. You all take hand crossbows. Okay.

So let's go. All right, Bromley, lead the way. And I'm pretty roughed up. I'm disheveled and I'm bleeding a little bit. I want to, I guess, walk carefully as I can, but the second I see anybody, I'm just going to bum rush them and try to run at them. I'm going to lock the door as we leave with the keys. Okay. So...

But you go out and you lock someone. As you're entering, or as you're leaving, you hear that there is that the, that it's actually really loud. Even though there's a lot of commotion downstairs, you remember that sound of the slamming mining machine was echoing through everything. And it's automated and it's the technology of the Marquisate. And even though it's far down, it's automated or there's a handful of miners down there that are not

poking their nose into one's business. It is so loud, it's this cacophonous roaring. And you, however, hear the footsteps of three separate footsteps coming from the floor above you from the balcony. I hear that. They're coming. All right, girl, I'm going to lead the way, and I'm going to try to make a good shot at this thing. Okay, you...

Not so good. Are you okay? No, I'm very convinced we're going to die. I need everybody upstairs. Stay behind me. All right, of course. Okay, so you're not sneaking. You're just running up and just trying to bop, bop. Yeah, as quickly as I can. Okay. So as you run up, you just start booking it. And the whole lot of you are running up. And you see that there's this center...

the center office level, or the second level, as there's the wraparound balcony. You see that there's a... You see the shadow of a skinkerton being projected from behind, and you see two whip around as...

as they level their crossbows at you and they say, "Wait, what's going on?" What do you do? - I'm immediately going to try to fire at one of them. - Okay. - I'll target somebody. - Okay. - It says when you target a vulnerable foe at range. - Vulnerables meaning is it their, it's your both? - I'm just gonna try to fire as soon as he questions us. - Yep. - I need to roll very high because it's Vanessa and I get minus one.

Damn. It's a five. So I'm just, I'm going to miss. Okay. So you miss as you fire off and it flies off. You're not really used to having a crossbow. He returns fire and it actually pierces your shoulder. You take one injury as the crossbow, as he starts to reload. What are you guys doing? Uh, I went to, uh,

Run at him and I'm basically just going to run at him and try to elbow him in the face like you should shoulder him. Roll unengaged sword to sword, I guess, right? Nine. Okay. So I will inflict what is it? Sorry, sword to sword. I'm going to inflict serious harm.

You're inflicting serious harm, which would mean that's two injury for you. He...

He manages to-- you smash him up against the railing. He lets out a cough of blood, as if you're sick, and he cracks as his back snaps awkwardly against this railing. He looks incredibly rough. What are you doing, Hazel? I'm gonna shake my little chipmunk tail and go "Oh no!" and run backwards a little bit and try to use rope-a-dope. Okay. So when you evade and dodge your enemies so as to tire them out, you roll with Vanessa.

So I'm kind of like, I don't know. I'm like trying to get him to chase me. Okay. So you, the one that shot Booker, he's like, okay. And he's like, stand still. Okay. Um, while she's doing this, Oh boy. Uh,

That's not good. Four plus, so seven. And what does the move do? You got a seven? Yeah, on a hit. I forget, is that? Yes, on a nice hit. Oh, cool. So on a hit, I can mark one exhaustion to make them mark two. Oh. Oh.

That's actually really good. So I'm going to mark one exhaustion and he has to mark two. Seeing her do this and this guy's attention being drawn to her, I'm going to have been reloading and I'm going to fire at him. Okay. So he is focused and he's like, and he fires off. It's an eight. An eight. Okay.

So that is just a one. That's just all on a hit. I think it's one damage. Yep. Right. Where's the weapon moves? Yeah, I think it's just you roll finesse on a hit. You inflict injury. So our 10 plus you to shoot again. That's busted.

But yeah, he takes one. So as he is... Son of a bitch! He's exhausted. He's trying to aim and he's distracted. And he does manage to fire off a bolt, but because he's so exhausted, it just grazes you. You take one injury, Hazel.

as you're distracting, but however, as he's distracted, you all hear a gurgle as you're sprayed with blood as Booker's crossbow bolt flies through this skinkerton and he collapses off of the balcony. Uh, uh, Booker, uh, Gromley, what are you doing? Is he, is the guy that I knocked in still up? Yeah, he's still up. Okay, uh, I will, I'm just gonna try to hit him again. Okay.

Whoa! Oh, fuck. Max roll 50. Are you gonna try to kill him? No. Okay, so he looks like he's pulling out a blade as his crossbow falls to the ground, and he pulls out a blade, and he's trying to stab you, but you smash him in the face. And Gromli, however, as you do that, you feel a pain in the back of your shoulder, and

as the other Stinkerton appears from behind the corner and fires, and the crossbow bolt shoots you in the back. This is a new scene. No, it's the same scene. Okay, it's all the same scene. It's all the same scene. So, as it pierces in, take one injury. Um,

Um, my plate armor looks like that. Who's up? What is it? Who's still up? Uh, the one that had been walking away is now, he's seen one friend is dead from a crossbow bolt through the neck. The other one knocked out, but slumped over, falling down into the dirt below. Is he, like, aiming his crossbow? He's aiming his crossbow. He just shot Grumman. You see, it doesn't pierce the flesh, but it pierces through his plate armor, damaging it. Okay, I'm gonna rush forward with my staff and just try to knock him out.

Okay. Can I do that? Engage sword to sword, yeah. I can engage sword to sword. Yeah. Yeah, so... Oh, it's right here. Yeah, so I will just try to, like, whack the... Actually, I'm gonna... Oh, I can't disarm him. Yeah, I'll just try to hit him with my staff. I'll walk and stick. Oh, shit. 11 plus... Oh, I don't have any. Yeah, that's a success. It's a 10, because I've never hit one might. Oh, yeah, there you go. So you get to choose three. Okay. I inflict serious harm. I...

Impress my foe. And you shift your range to intimate your card. So that means you either jump closer and get like right up in his face or you actually like disengage and get back. I'm going to disengage and get back.

So you, like, jumped in, bopped in, and, like, bounced out. Okay. So, um... Oh, I was only supposed to pick one, right? Oh, no, no, I want a ten pick. So, um, as... As you see that this person is... As you smash in, and he looks incredibly weak, as you hear the cracking of bones, and he sees incredibly impressed, like, his eyes are wide, like, oh, not bad. And you manage to... You manage to, uh...

and you manage to dodge out of this strange blade that he has as he slips it forward, but you manage to avoid the injury, but you take one exhaustion as the act of leaping back. What happens when my exhaustion fills up?

If you are just too tired to do anything that would normally-- No, if you take an exhaustion after it's full. Yes, after it's full. So I have four exhaustion. Yeah. So that guy is now unconscious? No, he's still up. He's looking very wounded, though. What do you do? I'm gonna just take another shot. Okay. And try to finish him off here. Yep. Bingo, nine. Nine. So I inflict one-- Oh, no, it's a ten. I'm sorry. Ten. So I actually have to shoot him twice.

And you hang him as... Or no, no. You know what? Just for flavor points, you see the other hand crossbow and you pick up both and go, bang, bang! And one campaign. There will be no judgment, mercy, or redemption. Having seen him drop to the ground, though, I'm going to, like, hobble over to him and, like, throw the crossbow down and basically be like, I'll be better off with this. I don't want to pick up his knife that he cut out. Okay. Yeah.

Come on, Gromley, we gotta... I wanted two more, right? Wanted two more. Oh, no. There's only... There's only... What? I had one more, and it's Phil. Oh, Phil. I lost count. He's just Phil. I lost count. And he needs to die anyway, because if I'm gonna die for this, then he's gonna die for this. No, he's not gonna die. You son of a... Gromley! Go! Leave the way! And I wanna go and find Mr. Y.

As you're making your way through kind of gathering the things, you see that the door is cracked open to this office area. And you see a shiny glint of the lantern light. And you see a familiar sight as you see your greatsword propped up on the side of inside this room. But we don't hear anything coming from the room? No, you listen. You hear the slamming of the mining machine.

But in this office that's right there, you see your equipment in there. I will burst into the office and grab my sword

You burst in, you see a number of documents all over, you see a few crates and barrels, and you all see your knife, you see, you didn't give up anything, but your, the things that Peggy had given up from the tarantula, all that shit is all there in a crate, and you get your greatsword, Grumlight. Is he down here? Where is he? On the second floor, he's on the third floor. Oh, my bad, I made a mistake, I'm losing a lot of blood. Alright.

Are you all right? Are you good to keep going? Leaving the charge like this? I'm going to take a look around before we go out. I'm moving a little slower than the other two and just see if there's anything valuable in here that I can take. Yeah. I'll say that you take a little bit of time and you look around and you find that there is a number of... You find a silver pocket watch. You find...

You find a silver pocket watch, you find a set of beautiful survey instruments, all plated in this, maybe it's a beautiful gilded material. I'm going to notice Hazel taking time to do this, I'm going to walk over to her and say,

I need a minute to maybe bandage myself up a little bit here before we go on, but I noticed you eyeing some of these beautiful, beautiful things. Do you need help with that?

I'm happy to help you load it up. I still got a little bit of gumption left. So what I'd like to do is mark a decay if I could to try to patch myself up a little bit. You can do that. So I'll train a decay for an injury. That's fine. I have to. Is there anything I can do to get rid of exhaustion right now? Well, we're working on it. And then I want to help her find the most valuable shit in this room.

Like, we're talking, you know. Are you being stealthy, though? No. Okay. So you're just... You also have a potion.

Oh, snake oil. Yeah. You have snake oil from last time. Oh, I do. So if you have, does that clear it or? Two. It does two. Well, let's see if we can find something really, really valuable first. Yeah. We're looking for very valuable shit. Something very valuable. Okay. So as you're looking through, you find a set of just a very, very nice survey material. And as you're going through,

you take a little bit more time here as you're patching yourself up and scaling the room, not trying to be stealthy, that you are digging through these things. You see these things of soot and you see this cloth and you're not sure that you're going to... that it's anything. But then you decide to stick your little claws in there and you feel around and you feel something hard and smooth. And you look in and fold it up along with bits of pebbles and some scraps of iron. You see...

gold nuggets and you see three gems.

of this strange kind of orangey color, almost of the same color of the particles that you saw. Hazel! That's my girl! Nice find! I love this stuff! Mama always said that too much honey makes the balls sticky, but I think it's a good thing sometimes. I have to agree with you, my friend. You are very, very good at this. Do I feel a little less exhausted for finding something so valuable? How does that work? The better question is, did we steal something very valuable from a very powerful faction?

I would say yes. Then we both clear our Exhaustion Tricks. Yeah. Good? No. No? When I steal something valuable or important? So this would work. When you selfishly steal something valuable or important,

Well, Booker has one. Mine just says family after Hazel and I's love thing. It says... Oh, I thought you were talking about greed. When I help them fulfill their nature, we both clear our exhaustion tracks. So you both clear. You feel as soon as you find this valuable business in here. All right. Hi. So while they were doing that, I just would have kept going. Okay. I'm just looking for Mr. Y. We got to catch up with Grumlin. So while you're doing that, Grumlin. Coming.

And I'm going to break the... If the door's shut, I will break it down. The door's shut. I would say it's not hard to break down. Do you want to use crash and bash? Oh, yeah. Come on, baby. Unless it costs you. If I need to, I will. I would say it's a flimsy wooden door. It's locked, and you bash the door off. Yeah, if you don't mean to, you still crash and bash it. And the scene that you see...

is in

In front of you, you see that there is a small door in this office where you had a meeting with Mr. Y. And you see that the door is slightly open, and there's a flickering light off to the side. It's not flung open, it's cracked open, however. And you see the same office that had been Mr. Smiles, and you see that the placard with L. Smiles is on the ground. And you see that there's broken glass all over it.

the ground as the bottle of nice booze seems to have been smashed and it smells of thick alcohol and whiskey and you see a shape on the desk of

that is very slightly moving. And in the darkness, the slight flicker of the torchlight, or not torchlight, the lantern light, candle light, you see the shape as you approach of Phil beaten to almost a near bloody pulp. Barely hanging on it seems, but still on the desk. And you see that his hands and his legs are bound. And

as this is what you see. - Is he conscious? - He's barely moving. It's hard to tell. - I'm just gonna leave him and I wanna go into the closet that has the light flickering. - Okay, you open and you see a small bedroom and you see that there is a bottle

of whiskey that is almost towards the very bottom. And you see a shape in this very large bed, obviously built for the large cat that was Levi Smiles. As you see some movement in this bed and some fur, as you see the weasel shape, as he begins to stir, his eyes kind of flutter open. He seems to be very drunk. I want to...

Are there any manacles lying around? Not that you can immediately say. I am going to pick him up by the scruff and punch him in the face.

Okay. Not, like, hard enough to knock him out, but just to, like... Okay, I'll say you don't even need a roll for this. As you lean down and you grab him by the scruff and he's just out of it, he's drunk, and you manage to smash him in the face. You hear a loud crack as one of his teeth snaps off and flies across the room and clatters. And he's, like...

What the f-- what are you fucking doing here? Yes you are! What's your real name? I'm not telling you my name. What the fuck is your real name? And I want to hit him again. Make a persuasion check. What's your name, bitch? Seven. Seven. Okay, what does that do?

He's unsure. He looks at you and says, who wants to fucking know? And he spits blood in your face. You could probably... He seems to be very drunk and a little bit belligerent now. You may need to continue to beat him, threaten him, come up with some way in order to put the fear of Pug into him. The fear of dog. Fear of dog. Do you want to leave...

Yes, I want to live. I can kill you right here, right now! Do you want to die? Have we caught up yet? I will say not quite yet, because you had to basically... Well, yeah. We selfishly did what we had to do. Hopefully Grumly didn't notice. As he looks at you and he says, What are you going to do with me? I'm not going to kill you.

But I need you to confess that you were the one that killed Mr. Smiles! And I'll rip him out of bed and drag him into the office and sit him down at his desk and then pull out, I'm assuming he has like paper and a quill. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I need you to write a confession note right now and you sign it with your phone name! Holy shit! And I'm gonna be holding him on the back of his neck. Okay, make him another persuading NPC move. This is ballsy ass. And we're all gonna, we haven't died yet. It's pretty amazing. It's

Seven.

Seven. I'm going to punch him. Okay. Just to drive him away. I will say, you punch him again, and another tooth chips and flies out, and this seems to have done the trick. And at this point, Hazel and Booker, you walk in as Grumly is standing over a very drunk Mr. Y as he...

as he is signing.

As he's writing very kind of sloppily but trying to stay focused, his eyes are wide, his mouth is bloody. You see a bloodied, uh, uh, uh, Skinkerton Phil on the desk to the side. And his very angry pug is, uh, basically grabbing the back of his neck and forcing him to, to, to sign a confession. I'm gonna close the door behind us as we come in and say, "Gromley! Gromley! Are, are you alright?" "I'm fine!" "Huh?" "He's confessing." "Are, are you sure?"

I look at him and read what he's writing. You read what he's writing. It's a little bit difficult given the penmanship in his current state. But you see that he says, I, Wilbur Yates, murdered Levi Smiles on X date,

in order to X, Y, and Z, and I will cooperate with the appropriate authorities in order to spare my life. And then he does some kind of signature. And you see, he's like, "Do you have my seal?"

It's in there. It's in there. And he, like, points at the drawer. I rub the drawer completely out of the desk. It clatters. And you see wood splinters as Grumly rips it off. And you see that there is the... that gold seal of...

of smiles. But then you see that there is a very basic brown sealing wax as well, and you find a small seal, and he drops it on, he stamps it, and he slides it forward to you. And he says, "Are you done beating the shit out of me?" "Yes." "Hold on. Maybe."

What's the most valuable thing you've got in this room? It doesn't have to be yours, it can be Mr. Smiles. To be fair, I think we ought to clean them up. Just look around, where is Mr. Smiles' body? Oh, yeah, that too. But also any goodies. It's in the tool shed just down the ridge. That's not nice. Have I seen it before? Yeah, you guys passed a tool shed that had a bunch of equipment and actually right by that huge machine.

as you case the joint and you find a collection of very fine whiskeys. You find a nice set of cutlery and utensils, as well as silver cups and candlesticks.

But it does not seem to be... and then you find a satchel of gold on his person. It seems as if Smiles was not foolish enough to keep a lot of valuables in this office. And you get the sense that the gold that he had in his pocket, you actually see that there is the velvet symbol of the Smiles Mining Company on it. But it's a large satchel of gold. It's quite a knife.

All right, now, we got the confession. We got the seal. We got everything that you want, right, Brumley? Yes. Can we take this man to Selgin's place, keep him alive, maybe take this sorry son of a bitch with him, and I point to Phil, and, you know, keep everybody alive until we can clear our names. Sure, sure. Selgin might be pissed, but I don't know where else to take him. We don't know if they've even said words that we were the ones that did it. Turn them up.

Aye aye, Captain. Maybe we can just leave Phil here? He might die anywhere. No, we're not gonna leave Phil here. Look at him, he looks terrible! Ew, I think he's gonna jostle around through the town. He's gonna die. I'm gonna pull out a medicine kit and heal him up. Why does nobody remember this man who was shooting me straight in the chest? You... I remember. Thank you.

You do that, and you patch him up, he looks a little-- he's alive. Damn it! He's alive.

I think he's gotten a pretty good punishment, though. He's got his ass kicked twice now. Fine. He's got his ass kicked, and we were going to frame him for something he didn't do. It's the worst thing you could do to somebody. Well, he got around and he's got free for the other bad thing. Haven't you seen Les Miserables? That's the whole point of that show. I just pull out one of the chairs in the office and I kick my feet up on the desk and go, meh. Look, let's just take...

Mr. Roy, Mr. What do you say his name is? Wilbur? His name's Wilbur Yates. Mr. Yates, Wilbur. I think we're on first name basis now. Let's take Wilbur and take him to the authorities. Well, let's get him to the parole first.

It's late. It's very late. I don't necessarily want to be traveling through the woods doing a clearing with these people. I'm just saying, we should take him with us so, you know, if we run into any more of the Skinkertons, he can tell them to back off. Of course. We're taking everybody to the Pearl. Okay. Because Mr. Albast will know what to do. Okay.

We're going to take Mr. Smiles' corpse with us to the end of the poem? No, we're going to leave that in the tool shed. No, I'm not going to leave it in the tool shed. I'm not carrying a corpse. He's already dead, Graham. I'm carrying the corpse. Well, who's going to carry Mr. Wyatt? I'm carrying Mr. Wyatt. I've got two shoulders. All right, fine. I'll get Phil. Thank you.

Damn it! And I'll like, bend over and try to hoist up Phil on my shoulder. Yeah, he's a lighter lizard. He's a bit of a smaller gentleman. Yeah, alright. He managed to get Phil on your shoulders. Yep, yep. I don't know if you can hear me, buddy, but you're good pal Booker, so I suggest you straighten up.

And he's like, "Ehh, yeah, that's my booker, I remember." And he passes out. And I'll just kind of like drag him along, you know, and then set lead- like, like, like, grumbly lead us to the, to the tool shed and then the pearl, I guess. Yeah, I'm gonna throw, uh, Mr. Y over one shoulder, and then we go down to the tool shed, uh, and I'm gonna grab the body of Mr. Smiles, throw him over my other shoulder, and, uh, walk, I guess,

Somebody throw a cloak over me or something. That doesn't matter. There's nobody around. This place is a ghost town. As you go into the shed, you find the corpse flies covering him.

of Mr. Smiles as he flies over and then suddenly you see a shape emerge. You see a ragged looking brown furred fox with a leather hat as he is extending a large kind of tarp thing and he says, "I've been made at this fucking far. "Stick in my nose where it doesn't fucking belong. "Here, take this."

As he throws it to you, he's like, I didn't see fucking nothing. And he just goes back to tending the mining machine. My man. And as you now have a tarp able to kind of cover your shoulders and the bodies. Thank you. We should go quickly. All right. Thanks for your help, good sir. We'll see you around, maybe. Be well. I wouldn't count on it. Stay safe.

And we'll just take everybody home. And he continues to go back to the huge machine that is just boring into the earth, into the hills. And you manage to make your way through the streets. There's a number of skinkertons walking around, but they seem to pay no mind to the assistance from a stranger that you got. And you find your way to the Pearl.

As soon as you enter, it is so late at this point that it is probably the... That they've just kind of cleared out. There's just one slumped over drunk old rabbit in the side of the corner by the piano. And occasionally tapping his large foot to music that isn't playing as...

As you look around and you realize that Mary is no longer with you, the second that you all left, she fucking bolted. As, um... She looks pretty slick for a drunk one. Yeah, something like that. And, um, she immediately dipped, and the...

you, uh, enter and the loud commotion, you see, uh, that young, uh, Fox lab as, uh, you all, uh, crash through and you see a number, you see one of the girls that's, uh, walking around on the upper balcony. And, uh, you hear the boy call out, uh, boss, I'm just going to yell his name anyway, Selton. And, uh,

you wait a moment. And then you hear, what the fuck is going on down there? Uh, we fucked up a little bit. Uh,

Maybe we should come into your office all... Seven of us. Eight of us. Oh, seven. I can't count. The door flies open and you see in onesie pajamas and red pajamas, bleary-eyed with a nightcap on, a rough-looking badger as he sticks his head out and he walks over and he looks and he sees the skinkerton. He smiles. He sees Mr. Y and he's like...

What the fuck do you do? Get the fuck up here! Yeah, things... Did anyone see you come in here? Uh, no, well, the camp is pretty much dead, which, uh, things are changing around here, Mr. Alabaster. I'm sorry, but things are changing quite... I grumble and stop upstairs. And I'm gonna just kind of drag, uh... Jesus fucking crisp! Get up here! As he, uh, he ushers you up. And...

And the door slams behind you in his office. You see that there's a small candle by his bedside on the large office and combined bedroom that he has. As the door into the thoroughfare is cracked open in a nice breeze, as you bring in three bloodied individuals...

And he's, hold on, let me get, Dolly, get a tarp! And then she comes in and puts down a tarp, and you use the one that you had gotten from the fox, and you drop down the dead body of Mr. Smiles, and then the skink and the weasel are all laid out as well. Now, Mr. Alabaster, if I may, friend, I told you that we would get you a mine.

And this? Did you kill Smiles? No, no, no, now I can explain everything, but ultimately the question resides down to do you want to own and run the Smiles mining company?

How the fuck do you intend to explain this to the Marquis? He's like, well, Grumly, my good friend here, was able to... Please, Grumly, you explain. And we begin to tell him everything. I'll have to see you later. Confessed. We just tell him fucking everything. Not about the amulet, right? We cleared out the mine. When we got out of the mine, Smiles was dead. And Mr. Y did it. We were captured and about to be framed.

I tried to convince the group to run away and wrongly kill everyone. And then got Mr. Y to sign his confession. And these are the, I guess, the fruits of our labor.

And Seljin takes in the whole thing as he sits. He's kind of nodding, looking, and his eyes are going back and forth as he just almost automatically pulls out a drawer and pulls out a bottle of whiskey and pours it and puts it back. And he shakes his head and puts the glass down and pulls out the bottle and takes a huge swig. And he says...

Fucking vagabonds! Yeah, we-we-we-we made some tactical errors, I suppose. I-to be fair, like I said, I tried to talk our way out and just, you know, leave under the cover of darkness, but my friend Grumly here, he's awfully brawny. It was worth it. Despite all of these horrible wounds. Now don't get me fucking wrong, a knife in the back improves this motherfucker's character.

And he is a motherfucker that needed to die. And the fact that you brought a fucking stinker to my fucking joint. For what it's worth, I tried to get that guy killed. This guy was going to frame this guy. And I pointed at Mr. Y and then I pointed at Phil. Phil. Phil. He was going to frame him for killing Mr. Smiles. And I couldn't let that stand. But it was still much better than the four of us taking the fall.

That's right. We got out of it and we're going to get justice. So I need to know where the local authorities. Justice. Where's the Marquis 8 presence in his authorities? The Marquis 8? Now I had fucking visions. Smiles the fat cat of some fucking cousin or in-law, whatever the fuck he has back at New Felicians.

hearing about dear fucking cousin Levi's untimely fucking death, and then the cats descending with fucking locusts. But, amidst my visions of a camp burning to the fucking ground, I had a brilliant fucking idea. And it's thanks to you dumb motherfuckers. I think all of us, to be fair. What's your plan?

It was the agents of Seljin Alabaster, dear friend, dear friend of Levi Smiles, that put a right to this injustice. And his dear friend Levi would want Seljin to have those fucking mines. I'm sure if we looked hard enough we could find a deed. A deed? Some sort of, you know, representation of ownership. Did you thoroughly check that motherfucker?

Uh, which one? The fucking weasel. Uh, well, to be fair, Grumly roughed him up pretty good. Oh, I didn't look. I don't, I don't do this. Just search. Then yes. What are you guys doing? I'll just roughed him up. It was pretty hard to search his body while you were searching. All right. All right. Now he's allowed me out here. Oh, Hey everybody. Thanks for hanging out. Welcome. Welcome. Uh,

You pat down and you search him and you had just found the gold, which is very easily findable, it's immediately. But upon a thorough search, kept far more protected, you find a bloodstained roll of paper. And it seems to be a deed to all the various claims of the Smiles Mining Company. Well, a little bit of blood never invalidated one of these. ...

Where the fuck were all of you about three months ago? Well, I mean, you don't wanna know. That's a story. Do you think you hoopoe-heads can fucking stick to that? I can stick to whatever you want as long as I'm not ending up in the gallows. Do you promise that you'll treat all these miners better than he did? That you're not gonna send them in on suicide missions? I know a guy up at the fucking miner. He's a... I don't know shit about mining.

I know a guy that can run the entire fucking operation. A guy I trust. What's his name? What does he look like? He's not dead. Pardon me. This is like my Deadwood fan service. We've gotten everything we ever wanted out of a Deadwood ending. He's not dead. He's alive in my dreams.

Comstock Sink Shaft. He's an old brown fox. He was the one that got duped out of the mine that made all the hoopoos go fucking crazy. He was basically got, they threatened to kill him and his wife if he didn't sell his claim to Smiles. So he can run things, and you'll take good care of him? He's a good man. Not the smartest, but that's what I'm here for.

All right, I can live with that. All right. For what it's worth, though, not to really change the subject, but this is the son of a bitch that almost shot me in the face. And I wanted to, you know, cross-book her. But here he is, and Grumly convinced me to keep him alive, I suppose. So maybe you can set him on the straight and narrow. I know he's a stinkerton, but maybe not anymore. He's not getting framed in the Marwoks, as far as I'm concerned, so...

Just make sure he doesn't die. Make a persuasion roll. He's pretty beat up, but...

Now he's going to get a 12. Yeah. Damn it! He looks and he says, If any of you want to, you can interfere and give me minus two. He, a fucking skinkerton under the employ of Selgin Alabaston. Matt, trust me, I did everything I could to get the guy killed. Wouldn't that be a fucking ending?

Well, what's his fucking name? Phil, I guess. Something along those lines. Whatever, that's a stupid fucking name. He can change it up and he'll kill it. Phil, I guess you have a new line of fucking work. Now, I guess taking his life would have been a little extreme anyway. I was just angry, to be honest with you. I've called off a little. Don't just kill people for no reason. You've killed enough skinkertons tonight.

I've cut throats over less. Now, see? There's a man who gets it. I don't like to do that. Well, no, I'm certainly not a fighter. I mean, you've all seen me. I'm not a soldier. I'm not Grumley. I just, you know. And so, we are going to turn over this slimy fucking weasel to the authorities. And you will be welcome to accompany him.

accompany him to the Machizake? Yes. I don't trust these drunk fucking cat soldiers that they got working out in this fucking mining camp on the pissant hinterlands of the Dimmel. How far do we gotta take them? We'll connect with the fucking sheriff in the morning and we can take them to Warden. Can maybe we see the map?

Oh yeah, let's take a look at this map. So we're here, we're this little raccoon guy. Oh, so we gotta go right there. Oh, okay. Not too bad. Well, it is very late, and I apologize for waking you up in your establishment and bringing one dead body and two nearly dead bodies and, well, a whole lot of mess.

But you've been good to us, and we hope that, uh, you know, even though we fucked everything up, that, uh, you know, you got a little out of it. I got a whole line out of it, really. Just don't let any- don't ever tell anybody that book guy's intruder was worried. I told you we'd get you a mine. I just didn't tell you how many we'd get. Well, I thought I was fucking crazy for trusting vagabonds of all fucking people, but you all...

Did your end of the bargain. He goes to his desk and he pulls out the second half of your payment. As I take mine off the desk. As fucking agree. As I take mine off the desk, I'll look at him and say, well, yeah, I'd say it was dumb luck, but I'd be lying. We're very challenged is what he's saying. We're good at being vagabonds. Apparently fucking so.

And you even took care of the spooky mumbo jumbo in the fucking mine. You never told me how you fucking did that. Do I even want to know? Eh, it's one of those things that, uh... Better left unsaid. I'll let Comstock take a look at it. But just know, if you ever need us, you got friends. Well, as long as Seljan Alabaster draws fucking breath, you hoopoe heads have a place.

And booze is half price in the pearl. I find that very amenable. And there's nothing saying we won't come back. I have a feeling we might have to stop by here some other time. That's right. Have two rooms on the fucking house, because I'm feeling fucking jealous. So if we get a good night's sleep, or what's left of the evening...

You, we gotta find a good way to bind this guy up. And then we'll be on our way. I'll take care of him. Alright, and we'll deliver him safely tomorrow. I don't know how far of a journey that is, but we'll figure it out. Yeah, well, the sheriff ought to be able to take care of things. I'll be the fucking sheriff. Could I pose for a can of peaches before bed?

I'm awful hungry. So is fucking peaches with you. Yeah. Fine. Well, sometimes it's peaches and sometimes it's apples and sometimes it's cherries, depending on the season. But those peaches the other day were very good. Blueberries. Peaches and fucking cinnamon. Blackberries. Huzzah! You know, just as a way to really tie it all together. Well, it costs less than fucking whiskey. I'll drink the... I'll eat my peaches. I just have the best idea. I've got to write this down.

I'm going to put some of the juice into the whiskey. Now please get the fuck out of my bedroom. All right, all right, all right. I'm going to scribble that in my little notebook. I'll have a spot of tea if you've got it. Yeah, they'll get whatever you want downstairs. Welcome, Aaron Fox. There's a couple foxes in this campaign that they're dealing with. Dolly is a young fox. So Dolly rushes in and you start to see as...

Mr. Y is, uh, is kept in Selgen's office, but the, uh, see, like, Mr. Smiles' body is taken, uh, down out back, and then, um, the same room where, uh, ironically, the same room where Basil was being tended to from being roughed up by Phil and his henchmen, uh, Phil is then taken down to, uh, for his wounds to be tended to in full fucking narrative circle. Uh...

Are we in our room? Yeah, you're in your room. Well, Gromley, I appreciate you looking out for us, taking the charge, but please, please try not to get me killed. I'm just a simple raccoon looking to make his way in the world, especially amongst all the turmoil. I didn't ask for fighting. I didn't ask for any of this scrapping. I don't have any of this sword-swinging armor-wearing stuff you've got.

You did fine, you know I did. It was a right thing to do, Booker. It was a right thing to do. As I grab my side and wince a little bit. Fine, it was the right thing to do, I suppose, but...

It would have been dishonorable how we just left him. There would have been a great injustice had Phil been framed. There was nothing saying we couldn't come back. I was trying to buy us time. Do you realize that they're going to just shut us dead where we stood? And look who he is the same night and the whole thing's resolved. That's true. It's made things up. I think it would just be a nice thing to do that the next time you get into a justice rage, that's what I call when you go crazy, maybe just take a deep...

Humbly breath, and then hold it. And I'll puff my cheeks out real big. And then release. I'm not very good at deep breaths, frankly. LAUGHTER Oh, that's wonderful. Sorry. I'm sensitive. I know you've got problems with your breathing. I'm all right. I'm all right. It's why I'm always exhausted. It's not just this plate armour. It's a little short, hazel dress. LAUGHTER

I've got a short nose. What can I say? So, do any of us know if any of us have been to, what was it, Whippoorwalla? Whippoorwalla. Whippoorwalla. Have any of us ever been to Whippoorwalla? We've been to Whippoorwalla tons of times. This is where Peggy's workshop is. Okay. That was an in-character, out-of-character question for everyone at the table at the Game Master. That means the book is probably not leveling up tonight. I will say, for the purposes of this campaign, new things will be things that we haven't been to in the campaign.

Are you sure? Yes. Okay. Because, I mean, it's not like we're going to... It's not one of those things... I think the game is intended to be you're bouncing around, clearing and clearing, and I'm having it be a little bit more narrative. It's going to take us time, I assume, right? I mean... All right. So we've been...

We'll say, for the sake of Booker leveling up, it's a place that I haven't been to for a very long time. Yep, it's been a long time. We've been on the road, and poor Peggy hasn't been to a workshop. But it sounds like, you know, given the distance, it shouldn't be too terrible for us to make it there in a few days, perhaps. Let me consult the map again. And then when we get there, it'll be like home sweet home.

So I'll pull the map out. It's just this one path, this way. Now, again, out of character, in character conversation, I'm not necessarily sure how much time it takes to get from clearing to clearing, but I imagine we've got quite a haul ahead of us with a prisoner as well. Well, hopefully the sheriff can help us out and maybe... Oh, that's right. I keep forgetting about the sheriff. A company is on a journey or something. It's up to him. He's the lawman in this clearing. Well, we're certainly not going to pull him away from his duties, but you've got to ask, if he's the sheriff of this town, things have really gone to shit. Where the fuck has he been?

He probably doesn't have any power to do anything against smiles. Well, maybe now he can finally do his job. Well, hopefully he can. If we're going to sleep, I have several game questions I'd like to ask. Yeah. So the Skinkerton dagger that I picked up, that is a weapon that needs to be used in intimate range? Yes, I believe. I guess because my question is I can't sword to sword with it.

Yes, you can. Well, so that's my question, right? Is if I have a dagger, what is the weapon move? Because there's an age sword to sword, but one of the sword to sword things specifically says you can move to intimate range, and I didn't know if the dagger could only be used in intimate range. I think you can do close range. You can extend. Okay. So then I can't murder because I don't have murder, right? So dagger's intimate or close. Oh, yeah. Okay, good. So the idea, right, is that you have ranges, and so, like, let's say you're close...

if you just wanted to like walk up to a guy that's against you, you might have to like tempt fate to get into intimate. He's like on guard. So that's a way to get in there for free. But so you can kind of, I guess you can use it for both.

But I can't use my greatsword intimately. If somebody gets in my face, I can't swing the sword at them. Okay. So I need to find a way to back out. Second, and I'd like your opinion on this as the game master, the Yor equipment I started with, I've foregone two of them. I just basically took leather armor. Yeah. The mousefolk short sword says, range close, mousefolk steel. I can mark decay on the weapon. It's a sword to engage sword-to-sword combat with cunning instead of might, which obviously benefits the vagrant. Yeah.

Is there any way you would allow me to keep the Skinkerton Dagger and basically replace it for the Mousefolk short sword? You examine... Is that reasonable? You examine this make, and it actually seems to be that the standard issue were made by the Mousefolk. That it is from the steel forged from the iron that they harvested, but...

the Marquis, it's the classic sneaky hallmarks of the mice. And it is mouse folk. I don't want to be that guy and like... No, that's the whole point of this. But I'm trying to be creative. The whole point is that this is a conversation. Okay. And you're like, I'm thinking this. And as a GM, I'm like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. Or...

Uh, well, let's see. Because it didn't make sense for me to have a Mousefolk, Shortsword, and a Longbow as Booker. But if I could pick up a sweet Skinkerton Dagger and re-flavor it, I think that'd be kind of cool. Yeah, I think that's perfect. That's great. Yeah, cool. I have a question. Yeah. What was the second payment that he gave us?

Oh, so we received half before and half later. So this will be a satchel of coins for two. Okay. So you should have a bag of coins. That was at the end of the first session we got this. Yes. So then you get a second one. So now you get two more. Okay. Two more boxes. So in theory, you have a bag of coins that's for four decay. Right, yeah. So they're empty boxes if you haven't spent them. And then when you spend them, you mark them off.

And you can move them to your decay track if you want to like replenish your... Yeah, so if you simulate to go out and you're shopping for supplies, you can basically just dump all those and stock up and expend your coins. So if I had two from that first one, two from this, and then the one coin I picked up was a fifth decay, so I have five, like a stack of five decay? Is that how that works? Yes, sure. Yeah. Okay, cool. I need to like put all my equipment in one place. Cool.

Alright. Okay. So, you awake the next morning, you clear whatever exhaustion is needed for that sort of thing, whatever happens when you sleep. Oh, that's a great question. I thought you only, I think you only recover a certain number of exhaustions. Is it one per night?

But if I... When saving Phil, would that be my defender? You fucking saved everyone. When I defend someone who cannot defend themselves, Desire? Yes, 100%. You defended everybody. He was beaten from an inch from his leg by a maniac. And you convinced Booker not to stomp on his face. So, okay. We don't do drives now, right? We only give out at the end? At the very end. Is it at the very end? It's at the end of the series.

So drive is the level up, right? We've been doing it at the end of the session. I didn't know if you were supposed to do it at the end of the day. No, it's the end of the session. For the level up. Which either way makes sense, right? I mean, we've been doing it. I think it works well. I agree. Those rules are written wrong. Okay. Good to know. Okay. You awake. And you meet Seljin downstairs.

You see that Dolly's going in, there's a lot of bloody bandages that she's taking away, and... Nice. And Selwyn's like, "Ah, I guess Phil's gonna fucking live through the night!" Well, that's just an absolute miracle. I'm gonna probably have to give him another one more fucking sock for Basil, but...

Just don't kill him, please. No, he's an employee. He's really got the ice kick now, a lot. Just set him on the good and narrow, and I suppose it'll be all right. I am grateful for every fucking beating I've ever got. It builds character. Phil's going to have a lot of fucking character after this, huh? You're not wrong.

Just don't want it to, like, be resentful and then turn into a super evil skink. Under this man's watch, that won't happen. Okay, we'll just keep an eye out. I think I'll just threaten him with vagabonds coming back. Oh, that's fun. And we're only ever clearing away. Give or take. It'll be like a kid's tale, like, you never know when we're gonna pop up. That'll put the fear of dog into him. Yeah, yeah.

of Jesus Crisp. The fucking sheriff. Yeah, what about this guy? Where the hell's he been? He has a pension for cards. And it's been a little bit... Go on!

You alright there? I've never been better, my friend. And you know these fucking canine types. I didn't see the eyeballs just turn into like little money signs. What do you mean canine types? He's a fucking coyote. He's not as much of a bootlicker as you are, but he's... They find the... Breathe in and hold it and then sort it out. That's good. That's good, Connolly.

And with fucking... He's... I'm glad he fucking did, because if he poked his coyote fucking nose into too much of what Smiles was up to, he'd have a fucking skinkerton bolt through his eyes a long fucking time ago. He's a good man, as much as I hate the obnoxious son of a bitch. I feel like I can trust him. What I am not 100% sure I can trust is him getting...

And he points to the side and you see that tied up is Mr. Y. His cheeks are swollen. His eyes are kind of droopy. And he just looks totally beaten up. He's like, he's getting him across this dangerous fucking woodland path with all the eerie flying fucking around without an escort and getting him to the fucking, to the authorities, at least in War Wallop.

Yeah, well... A little bit more fucking civilization with those fucking frogs and toads. Give them to the fucking mayor. I don't give a shit. But as long as we get him to the Marquis Zake with his confession. The Marquis Zake, just none of these...

Drunks here. All right, all right, we will take him to Walla Walla. Because all of these have been had their palms fucking greased by who fucking knows. Could be this motherfucker. Said, oh, here, we'll take him. And they cut all your fucking throats. We're giving you, you and Sheriff Octavius. All right? Is that a coyote? Yeah.

Well, I can promise you one thing, is that no matter what happens, Grumly will die trying, or will succeed. I'm not dying, I'm just gonna try my luck. Well, I mean, he would die trying, trust me. He tried to yesterday. Well, you all fucking survived, and we all survived, and... One more day. Everything fucking worked out a lot fucking better than I was expecting.

So are you hoping that we're going to take off right this morning, or do we have a little bit of time to restock and refuel a little bit? I know there's not much here. Take as long as you fucking want. I'm staying here. I'm comfortable. You think, you know, you might be able to show me how to use this thing. I slapped the sinker and dagger on the... You mentioned you were pretty good with knives. I'm pretty fucking good with a knife. I'm not really a fighter, and I'm not looking to start, but things are pretty dangerous around here. You don't look like a fighter. I don't want to be stuck in a position where I'm, you know...

Flat-footed. If you want to take the morning, I can show you a few things. I'd appreciate that. Grumly, Hazel, Peggy, we got some time? We need to buy some supplies anyway. We're going to head out in midday. Yeah. I think that's fine. I appreciate it. I'll have my... I'll have someone fetch the sheriff at, uh... In the afternoon. It's going to be a several-day journey anyway. Sounds like a plan.

And so you all enjoy, stock up whatever you would like to. Seljin takes you out back behind the pearl, and he shows you a few sneaky moves with the dagger. You're actually-- for his age and his size, you're actually pretty surprised at how seemingly deft he is with his blade. I love that.

And he teaches you a few things. I enjoy that. Booker is impressed. So I have a hardy feature. I take one additional injury box and I max his five. Whenever time passes or you journey, you can clear one injury box automatically.

Time passed. How-- you were like, I guess once a day I do exhaustion and injury? Yeah. I mean, it's like short rest almost, right? We're taking time to like do whatever we want, that's time passing. Well, yeah, I guess, yeah. You know what I mean? I don't wanna be too broken, but we can talk about how we wanna define that. Just don't throw anything at us. And how can I get rid of my injury, I guess? I have to like-- Well, you could trade some of your coin for supplies to heal up, to bandage yourself. Okay.

You know what I mean? I'm sure there's multiple things we can do. See, it's two decay to get rid of one. So you could spend two coins, mark two decay on your satchel of coins to get first-day supplies or whatever, right? I mean, flavor however you want, however the game mastered. Describe what you're doing, basically, is the goal.

Is there anywhere in town where I could like sell off some of the scrap that I've picked up? You get the sense that you could probably find a buyer for some of it, but it might not be as much as in other places. Okay. I'm going to look around and not like my options in this town so much. So I'm going to take two of my decay and just buy a medical pack and patch myself up. You do it. You do it.

And is there any, like, overtime injury business? I think so. I don't recall off the top of my head, like, maybe in the town. I'll say, in this time, Dolly patches you up, and so everyone can just take an injury. Okay. As part of a reward. So we clear one free injury. Keep your decay, yeah. So we'll say one injury. So you keep your decay. If you want to do an additional one to get rid of another injury...

That's also fine. Um... Dolly, you spend some time with Dolly, whoever would like to, and they patch you up. You see Phil. He seems... He's beaten to a pulp. You see Mr. Y unloaded on this skink. Poor skink. I'm sorry. And he seems to be pretty grateful. Oh...

But he's alive, and, you know, shocking... A shock to him, a shock to Selgen, and a shock to the Game Master. Is he fucking coming to talk to us? No, he just... I'm just saying kind of what you see. He's grateful. He's not talking to you guys. He's not talking to me. He's not talking to you all. Thank God. You all get patched up a little bit, and then you all stock up on whatever you want to stock up on. And it's in the afternoon when...

When you all gather and you see an individual step into the saloon,

He is a coyote with these patches of brown and grayish tawny fur, and you see that he's wearing a black vest. There's two hand crossbows at his side. He's wearing a bright red sash around it. As his two ears point up through a broad, grim black hat,

And he steps forward and he looks and he points at Mr. Y, who's just been kind of standing up. And so like, now this is the weasel we're taking. And Selgen steps over and says, Ace! And he claps him on the shoulder and says, You do not let this fucking weasel out of your fucking sight until he is with the proper authorities. And these...

Fine associates are going to be with you the entire fucking time. They will tell the story of how I avenged Mr. Smiles' death. You've seen the body, your deputy's seen the body, everyone's seen the body. This is the motherfucker that killed him. That's the story. Follow their fucking lead, you understand?

And we have a signed confession as well. It has a seal and a signature on it. Sir, Sheriff, sir. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but this is Grumley. My name is Booker. I'm Hazel. I'm Grumley, sir. This is Peggy. It's a pleasure, sir. You can call me Ace. Pleasure. I tip my hat. That's a cool nickname. That's just my name, Ace Octavius. Oh, that's a really cool name then.

Well, it's the first time I've gotten that, but y'all don't look like you're from around here. Not even close. Where are you from, friend? I've lived here my whole life. The honest work, for the most part, working for the Marquis Zayt until... Smiles.

For that, it wasn't so bad. Well, we shouldn't waste any time. We have the corpse of Mr. Smiles. Should we bring that as well? Nah, we'll... Santa already sent a letter to the next of kin. Off in New Felicia. We'll see if they want us to send it back. Well, could you please keep it at your sheriff's building, whatever it is? That's where he is now. Oh, okay, great. I'm just making sure.

Deputies taking them. Keeping them company. Maybe I'll keep them coming until they start to stink. We may take them down to the creek to cool them off a bit. He had a lot of flies on him. It's kind of gross. I think storing them in the creek would be a good idea. I've seen dead bodies before, but not like dead dead. Like usually they're just like fresh dead and then I leave.

You've never seen a dead, like a dead body? Not like an old dead body. I'm not really a fan, to be honest with you. It's not the best. It's nice. It's good. I've seen it all. Well, let's get this criminal. You're going to help me carry him.

Tell Rod, well, can we, like, is he, can he walk, or is he still, like, fucked up? He's gonna need, he doesn't need to be carried, but he can. Yeah, yeah, so I'll, like, help him along the way and kind of force him along, but do I need to, like, move my shoulder? Uh, no, you just need to give him a shoulder and kind of force him around. And he stops at Mr. Y, and, uh, he, uh, unholsters a hand crossbow, and he says, you want this bolt through your head? All you gotta do is fucking move it away, I don't like it.

And he just holsters it again. Well, that'll do it. And you just see some terrified nodding. And with your assistance, you manage to collect him. And Selgen says, like, well, remember the fucking story. And you will have a place here at the fucking Pearl. You'll have a place here in Reckonoiter Ridge. Well, we thank you again for your hospitality. And of course, keeping us alive. Thank you for...

Having this all fall into my fucking lap. Well done, vagabonds. Godspeed. Thank you, Alabaster. Gives you a firm handshake, all of you, and says, You're a good man. Don't forget about us fucking hoopoes on the edge of the forest when you become legendary wanderers. Oh, dear lord, no. Ours will sing tales for fucking generations. The oar will die, but hopefully that. They'll sing of your terrible, painful fucking death. That could be the case.

Farewell from fucking Reconnoiter Ridge. You all increase your reputation by the denizens by three. Woo! Huzzah! Nice! As you begin to leave Reconnoiter Ridge. Do you have to fill the track or press over it? You need to fill. So five, then reset. So we all should be there, I believe. Plus one. Yes, so circle plus one instead of plus zero. Okay.

Can it ever fall below plus one again? Yes. So if you fill up these three, it drops from plus one. Oh, okay. Got it. So you fill both ways. Yeah, because I've got one one-way and two in the plus way. Yeah. All right. Can I steal your... How do I... So I had four before the one, so I was like here. If we got three, so I go what? Where does that put me? So you had four.

Okay, so you have three. So you have one, and then you circle one, and then you would clear it. And so now you have one, two. These two would be full. Oh, I see. So now I have to get all the way to two before it becomes two? Yeah, so they need to give you ten. Yeah, it takes a lot. And I have a feeling, just based on the way the game is going to flow, that it's going to be tough. It's going to be a lot very fluid. So now I have two in the plus one. Okay. Okay.

Yep. You, vagabonds, are joined with Sheriff Ace Octavius, heading toward Waldo. How will you make this path along the journey? What exhaustion are you going to expend as a group to travel and make your travel roll? Um, so we need at least a what to get? Like a ten? A ten is totally uninterrupted, timely fashion. I am happy to expend two exhaustion at least.

Um... Because each one we give is a +1. Uh, beyond 4. So it's -1 until you hit 4, 4 is 0, and then it's +1. Oh my god. Yeah. Alright, well, if we offer up a shitload, I can offer up 3. I think we just risk it. Holy fuck! Probably. I'd be willing to give 1.

Grumley, are you telling me you're not willing to give anything? Well, I'm already wearing this plate armor. I'm already at one. Me traveling anyway marks one anyway, so I'm at two just without even offering. Say no more, fam. I'll offer three. Hazel, offer one. That puts us at a zero.

"I could do one, but then I'd-" "No, no, no, no, please, please, we don't want you to overexert yourself." "Alright, well, I appreciate that, I'll get this guy home." He said with a very sarcastic face. "Poor Booker's already down to three exhaustion, that's okay, he doesn't find his friends!" "Booker didn't ask for this journey, but he's here nonetheless!" "Booker didn't want to almost die in Wreck-It-Order Ridge, but nonetheless he did almost die!" "That's right, he did."

Okay, so we've got a total of four, Game Master. Whoever would like to make the roll. Let Andy do it. Oh, goddammit. You're marking three. Watch, ladies and gentlemen, as the great Booker fails and whiffs. I need a... Give a flourish. Shasha! Can I do the Mayan? Fucking 12! That was pretty good. Natural 12. I told you, it's the flourish. Natural 12.

Alright, that was... Heart limiters, thank God. Unbelievable. I'm very lightheaded after that, I apologize. Don't pass out on us, we need you. Hashtag word. Hashtag word. You make your way along the trail, along the forest path, and you occasionally see, off into the forest on either side...

Up into the trees, the flapping of wings towards the territory of the Eyrie. You see the remnants occasionally of battle. Maybe marks of blood or some signs of a scuffle. But this is a very brisk battle.

journey. We'll say that you probably have to camp a couple times, takes a few days probably to get along the forest pathway. But yeah, let's do it. Give me the bath! Give me the bath! So we're like-- What's it called? Wortwallow? Wortwallow nothing.

Just War Wallow. So, you are along the path as you're with Ace Octavius and you can, you know, ask, you get to know him a little bit and whenever you want to ask him, you do. And you eventually see a clearing up ahead.

And as you get closer and closer to this clearing, you hear the roaring of the river, Old Tom's River, that splits the Dimwood in half. It's the primary source of travel for the Riverfolk Company that seems to dominate a lot of the traffic of shipping up and down. But you know that there's a lot of other denizens that live along these banks. And

And you eventually arrive to a-- the forest on either side kind of gives way to sparser trees. And as you start to see, swaths of marshland all around with tall grass, willow trees,

reeds blowing in the wind. As you see that directly ahead, a large clearing appears before you. Wartwall, a town built onto the river. As you see up ahead, a huge lake

on the southern edge of this town built onto the side. Massive lily pads stretching out onto the water. Huge reeds as you hear the buzzing of insects. And while it's marshy, it's not the oppressive swamp

of other clearance, potentially. As you hear not just the symphony of the insects, but also loud croaking. As you know that Wartmallow is home to many frogs and toads. And as you arrive at this with the sheriff and Mr. Y in tow,

You see a variety of structures. Strangewood in the architecture is very different from the rough and tumble mining town of Reckonoiter Ridge. You see houses built on stilts out onto the water, some built almost on floating on lily pads. And you also see...

streets and streets of quaint little mouse villages. As you know that this is a... I believe it's a mouse clearing. It is. You see the houses of mice. You see similar to... Similar to...

To every other clearing, there's houses in the trees built for the variety of birds. You see a stork flying by or a heron, maybe a whippoorwill. And you make your way through the streets as, rather than dirtied, worn miners, you see happy, healthy people.

If not a little bit poor individuals, mostly mice, but a good number of frogs and toads running around of all ages, men and women, small children running around. You pass a number of restaurants and bakeries. You smell delicious food.

mouse-baked goods drifting on the wind as you arrive. You get carried and through the air. And you see, once again, a heavy cat presence. Uh,

There are Marquisate soldiers with their bright orange taverns. So even though it's a mouse clearing, it is still Marquisate controlled? Yes. Okay. Yes. So the denizens are predominantly, just like how Reckon Order Rage was Fox's, this is predominantly a mouse clearing. Okay. And you see these soldiers, and rather than looking kind of like the shady...

the shady, almost kind of near mercenary style of soldiers. These seem to be the more standard Marquis de Warriors that you're used to. They're wearing their tabards that are a lot more cleanly, and you see you pass a recruitment center, you pass a field hospital, you see that there is a bit of off to the side, you hear the loud hammering of workshops.

as they work out on the docks and they seem to be crafting boats and other floating structures as you make your way to the center of town. And as you arrive, you see Sheriff Ace stops and says, "Well, so where do you want to turn in this

slimy fucking son of a bitch. Well, for what it's worth, uh, Mr. Alabaster said that maybe we find the mayor or something, but, but certainly there must be some sort of, uh, head, head Marquis eight that we can speak to and, uh, turn this gentleman over and, and, and, and never ever be associated with any of this ever again. I think the man would probably be a good spot. Unless do we know any kind of like a police station or whatever? You know that there is a constables, uh, constables office, uh,

that is prominently run by cats. I would say that Peggy is easily able to tell you that this is, that the mayor is a toad named Mayor Boghop. And

and he is a uh he's a he's a toad that's been installed by the uh by the marquis eight as someone who has proven to be loyal and useful and uh prides himself on the uh number of the amount of tax that he collects from his prosperous clearing um so i would uh what can i would i be able to ask peggy like

based on what you, like, based on what she knows, would she have an obvious, well, this is where, like, I would rather do this over that. Like, what she knows of the mayor, like,

Yeah, she would have some knowledge, right? Yeah, I mean, I think the most powerfully connected person would be the mayor, and the mayor would be able to help. And it might help to have a prize for the Marquise 8 to deliver to the mayor, and that could be... Well, you might even get back in good standing. That's right. I think that's a great idea. The mayor's very powerful. He has connections to the Marquise 8. So, Peggy, lead the way. No delay.

So, you see, you head to Town Hall, and this is a large extravagant structure that is built partially of wood, but also of mud and stone and out of these massive mushrooms that are growing out. You remember the dangerous mushroom that you encountered in the forest? These are very, they're large, but they're not poisonous at all, these massive toadstools.

as you see, it just says City Hall in this large sign. As you enter, you see a number of mice walking out and a handful of frogs, and you see that stationed on either side are armored cats. As you make your way in,

And with the—you are informed that a letter had been sent ahead of you to inform that someone with connection to the incident with Levi Smiles would be arriving at the clearing.

And you are sitting in the waiting room as this very small bug-eyed toad is sitting behind the desk. You see this large, extravagant, open door that says Mayor's Office. And you are sitting in this waiting room as the six of you are awkwardly sitting there. I am severely underdressed. Yes, you're all underdressed.

And you see this toad. He's like, the mayo will be with you shortly. I'm going to take out a little snack from my pack and just get crumbs all over the place. I'll turn to Mr. Y and I'll say, all right, Wilbur, you best be on your best behavior and keep your thoughts to yourself. You're here because of the actions that you did. Let's not forget that.

The crime doesn't pay. Now you think there is justice here? He's still kind of talking, his mouth is all swollen from being beaten still. Well, I'm not so sure about justice, but, you know, for how many days we spent walking through the woods, I never got the chance to ask you, what kind of asshole gets drunk after he locks up prisoners downstairs and thinks it's going to be okay? Someone who had it all.

Grumly beat the fuck out of you! Yes he did. Yes he did. I was not accounting for a pug of all fucking vile creatures. Easy now. Watch yourself. Anyone could have done it. Yeah, but especially Grumly, because he's like three times my size. Especially me. Yeah. I thought the only risk was all of you sneaking off these useless skinkertons. I should have known better.

I told Mr. Smiles never to trust them. And then you killed him. Yes, I did. Yes, I did. This is justice. And when I'm swinging from the gallows and doing a hangman's jig, will that give you solace? Will that help you sleep at night? It's not up to me whether they hang you or not. It's up to the mark he's ate. Yeah, but since you asked, I'll sleep better. Well, I'm glad I can give you pleasant dreams.

And not much longer as the toad says, oh, the male was seen now. And the door opens and

You see Sheriff Ace grab the scruff of Mr. Wise's neck and walk him forward and kind of shove him into the room. And as you enter, you see this beautiful office with a huge window that looks out onto the lake.

this massive sprawling lake with the beautiful marshlands on either side, large mushrooms popping up all throughout this marshland, and behind this elaborate desk, you see shells on every side with a variety of knickknacks and things, these gaudy gold things. You actually see a statue of

that's carved and crafted to be a very overly attractive version of this bloated toad creature. And in the flesh, you see probably who this person is supposed to be. You see behind a... dressed in purple fineries...

wearing huge jeweled rings on every one of his fingers. You see a golden chain going out of his pocket to her pocket watch. This slightly green, deep green skin with several warts and bulging eyes as you see Mayor Boghob. And he says, "Well, I received the letter."

Then, then be vagabonds. Bring him justice too, for Mr. Smiles, may he rest in peace. That's right, ma'am, Mr. Manson. Wowee, what an office! You must be doing pretty well for yourself, huh? And I want to try to figure him out. Okay. Uh, yeah, make a, uh, make a roll. What does it figure out as... Charm? Charm?

Oh, I don't have any charm. Why did I try to do that? Doesn't matter. What did you roll? I rolled a six. I will help and make it... Don't help me. Because even on a miss, I can still ask what the most valuable thing he's carrying. Asking the important thing. That he's carrying, at least on immediate, he's not carrying anything. You see that beside his desk, he has a cane with a gold topper on it in the shape of his head. And...

Of course he would. And you see that his rings are very valuable as well. The golden pocket watch might also be quite valuable. And he leans forward and says, well, I received the letter. And thank you. I am doing quite well. Thank you, darling. Yeah, I can tell. Mr. Mayor, sir, we've apprehended the perpetrator, the one that killed, that murdered Mr. Smiles and attempted to take over his entire company.

I have a signed confession right here. Let me see it. It's what we did in the Marquis' ape. I don't know. Sure. We did that. That is. That is. And he begins to read it. And you see Ace kind of shut him forward and says, like, listen to their story. They're the ones that brought this to justice. I'm just seeing it through.

that they're about to tell you is true. And I'll bring word to the relevant authorities, as is my jurisdiction in Reckon Order Ridge. And you see the mayor just reading. Yeah, it is. Fine. Sure, sure. As he's reading and says, well, that's good enough for me. Now, this is going to be quite the feather in my cap.

And what's the story here? Are you sure that you didn't murder Mr. Smiles? No, well... What are they doing sending vagabonds here? Well, more than sure. We have this written confession by the man himself. You've read it? It has a signature. It has a seal. It was not under duress, you know? Is this true, Mr. Weasel? We should... He leans and, uh...

Yeah, he sees all of you glaring, and there's some hesitation. And Mr. Wine nods and says, It is true. I murdered Levi Smiles. So to answer your question, the reason that Vagabonds would even deal with anything like this is because the man tried to pin it on us. So of course we've got to clear our names. That's right. And you'll give him a fair trial, of course, right?

Fair trial. This is all I need. Once his relatives find out what happened, then find out who did it, it'll be the hangman's jig for him. Well, thank you all very much. You have done me a great service. You have done the Marquis's aid a great service. I tell you that. Yes, we did. We brought justice to Mr. Smiles and to those workers. And so...

I suppose you'll be staying in town for a while. Well, we're certainly not gonna just, you know, mosey on through. We've been a long way and we need to rest. Yeah. And I've smelled a lot of things out there that I want to eat. And Booker, just don't- before we forget, let's just tell them about who owns Demons now. Oh yeah! Oh, of course. I apologize. There's been a lot going on the last few days, but our very, very good friend...

Seljin Alabasta, who also happened to be very, very good friends with the Mr. Levi Smiles, you know, may he rest in the treetops. The bottom line is that it turns out Mr. Levi Smiles left Seljin Alabasta everything. So he's running the mines now. So he's the one to know in Reckon Oil Ridge. He's a good man. He knows what he's doing and he's going to look out for the people and he's going to make sure that everybody's happy.

Well, can I entrust one of you to deliver a letter of recommendation from Old Mayor Boghop? Make sure I'm knowing the right people. Uh, you'd like us to deliver the letter back to Reckon Order Rich? Anyone who wouldn't mind, I would make it worth your while. Again, not to jump ahead, and as much as I like to make things worth my while, I think that the sheriff might be heading back that direction. What do you say, Ace? Yeah, I can take it. I'll take the letter.

And says, ooh, just give me one moment. And he shuffles around through his desk and pulls out a paper, and he pulls out this large quill, this gaudy purple quill, and he is just scrubbing. And he finishes it, and he swoops and swirls, seals it with purple wax, and hands it to the sheriff, and the sheriff takes it and says, I've done my duty here. This man I know will hang.

And the mayor leans forward and says, "Well, yes, he'll be lucky if he hangs, but that's not up for me to decide. I will have my very competent cat soldiers take care of him, and he'll be marched directly to New Felicia." I trust the Marquis will do the right thing in this case.

Of course. They always do the right thing, eh, Grumly?

In this case, yes. In this one case, they always do the right thing. In this one case, my friend Grumly is correct. They always do the right thing. And you know, I will tell you that you are a lifesaver. You are bringing a little ray of sunshine and hope after such a treacherous, terrible period for our town. Oh, you don't say. What?

Oh, yes. We had a shipment of taxes to the Marquis Zayt that just...

that we're missing and so we have to just pay up somehow and the townsfolk and especially me, I am bending over backwards to make sure that we are delivering what's owed. Oh, you're paying your fair share is what you're telling us. Absolutely. Or more than, more than. More than, no, I do not. I put the burden upon myself before I do it upon my people. Unbelievable. I mean, absolutely believable. Can I hear someone out? Yes. It's all charming.

Nine. Whoa. You're charming as fuck. I got two charm. Damn. I got two charm. Holy shit. Um...

I would like to know if he's telling the truth. No. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay, Rich. Probably need confirmation. Did Gromley actually need confirmation? Probably Richie didn't. Probably need confirmation. Terrible dragonflies. You know how it is. Wait, what? The dragonflies are the highway robbers?

Oh, well, the Highway of the Horrible, Monstrous, Fluttering Dragonfly out on the marsh. We were sending it down the river to... Is this something Booker would have heard of before? Or Peggy.

Well, I don't want to ask on her behalf. Okay. I would say that probably both Booker and Peggy would have heard of monstrous dragonfly, just like you would have thought of monstrous spider. So they're not as shocking as the barbarians. Correct. Okay. Right? You know that, like, they're a danger, and they're out in the forest, in the woodlands, you know, in the forest on the side of, like, the river and the lake. Oh. Of course. Monstrous dragonfly. Well, that's certainly a tale that is believable and is a thing that exists. I

I believe that's true. They made off with all of our tax. Every single gold piece, you said? That's what my men said. Terrible tragedy. They lost their lives. Wait. Well, why don't we just find the taxes for you, and then the people won't have to pay extra?

And you won't have to pay extra. Well, of course I will. No, we have it under control. Are you sure? No need. No need to worry. No, I insist, and we help with this. It's not right that all these poor folk have to pay extra just because a dragon flies some of their shipment. Well, I don't even know if it's still above water. Well, luckily we have someone that can swim. And we can always start by talking to your man. And he knows a few orders. Yes, I do.

Well, that'd be very helpful! I suppose I'll tell you where to go. Uh, give me an afternoon. Oh, of course. I've always wanted to be directed directly to my death. I intend to. I mean... I mean, I appreciate the help.

Yes, sir. We will be of very great help to you. Oh, yes. I swear it. And Book is very happy that we played our cards just like this, out in the open, for you to just, you know, slit our throats in our sleep. I would never do anything like that. I don't do think I employ the vile tactics of the eerie.

No, of course not. Absolutely not. And especially not the skinkertons all the way out here, away from Reckon Order Ridge. Oh, we don't employ skinkertons. No mercenaries. No, we are genuine approved by the Marquis Zate. Just the Marquis Zate. Those very, very trustful individuals. I am very, very trustful. They are the ones that allow me to look over this whole...

whole clearing with the benevolence of my toad heart. They said, "You know what? We don't need a cat in charge. You're a toad that knows how to play the game." And I used that relationship for all of the denizens. - So what you're saying is that because you work for the people and we are going to be here to help you work for the people, you're willing to let us stay somewhere for free?

I didn't say that. No, you did. You're going to take it upon yourself because that's the kind of person that you are. A self-sacrificial individual who will work for the people. Make a position. Uh, roll.

Oh, you deserve more. Persuade is with charm. I got a seven. So it says that they are, they aren't sure, but the GM will tell you what you need to sway them. If you can figure out a way where there's no witnesses here that he cares about. So if you can get a sense that you could like spread the word that he's a benevolent person and like make him look good and say that you're going to do that to the people, that would be a way that you would persuade them. So the bottom line is that I know that we can just stay at Peggy's workshop. I'm trying to squeeze those guys.

Right, I know that. I don't want it to seem like I'm a boy. Well, I mean, you know, at the end of the day, what's really important is that the people know who we're looking out for. And I know, personally, that if someone of great stature were to do something for us, well, I couldn't shut my raccoon mouth about who it was! Oh yeah, he's right. We want to shout it from the tree tops. And...

If they were to throw in some free booze and drink and, oh sorry, drink and food, especially food, these rabbit folks certainly know how to bake, then I really wouldn't even be able to, I would have to do nothing but say exactly who that generous individual was.

to anyone who is willing to listen. But! Then you can have people who don't want to. Those are just the musings of a vagabond raccoon. He's just a raccoon. I don't know if you've noticed, but if you look at him, I don't know if you can tell. I think the eye mask might have given it away. He looks just like a raccoon, he does.

So I suppose the ones that brought justice to Mr. Smiles might be good to have for morale as we collect additional taxes. Not me, of course, but the Marquis Zetas, as people have to give up with their possessions and the like.

I suppose if you spread the good word, it could help. And I'll put you up in the nicest hotel that we have. How about that? That sounds like an absolute deal. As long as you say it, tell everyone you meet that Mayor Boghawk has assisted in bringing justice to the slayer of Mr. Levi Smiles. Done. That's wonderful.

His slimy hand sticks to you. That is lovely. Yes, yes. That was a great handshake. Yes. Lovely.

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The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. So, as we said, do we have ourselves a deal? Yes, we have a deal. Now, uh, Rhodey, he will take you to the hotel and put you up with all the best accommodations. And the booze. Don't forget the booze. The booze, of course. We have egg. And food, of course. And you have tea. Just want the tea.

Yeah, whatever you want. Okay. This is, I know that we fall in our tough times, but old Mayor Boghop, he has what you need, friends. Friends, as long as you spread the good word that Mr. Mayor Boghop is looking out for the people. And we will not stop talking about it. Morale is very important here. You understand. Of course. You understand. Oh, yes. Mayor Boghop, my new best friend. Well, we will get right on that, sir. Thank you so much, sir.

Good afternoon. Good day. And with that, you see as four Marquis VIII soldiers, cats, heavily armored cats, walk in.

and they grab Mr. Y and start dragging him out along with you as you and Sheriff Ace are escorted out into the town square. And you get one last look at the weasel as he's being carried away, and he looks at all of you and says, "My blood is on your hands." "Ha! Thank you for the rain!"

As he says that, I just want to kind of tip my hat and say, well, I wish I could say that this wasn't the last I was going to see of you, but that would be a lie. And I just kind of like, you know, with a flourish.

Watch him go. And he is escorted away, and you all enjoy two reputation with the Marquis 8. Oh, shit. Turning in the murder of Levi Smiles. That puts me close. Yep. So...

One square away. You said two? Two. Two. I'm going to borrow one of your pencils. You got it. Pencil. You are escorted to the Windy Willow.

It is a large hotel that seems to be built into a large, thick willow tree. You see a beautiful sign of a willow tree blowing in the wind with a little boat on the river beneath it.

you enter, you are given two rooms of gratis. Free fucking gratis. And you are a full spread of food and booze that you like. Well, well, well, is this how the Marquis 8 lives on a daily basis? I finally feel like we may have arrived.

This is certainly nice. Nicer than anything we've been staying at for the last, like, six months. I could get used to this, and I fully intend to milk this mayor for all he's worth. Jesus. Are we in our room? Yes. You're in private. It's a real creep. Oh, yeah. We're going to squeeze him for every penny we can. I was real frustrated. I couldn't get anything off of him. And he's got a lot of stuff on him. Well, let's not steal from the guy. Or maybe we could. Steal him from everybody.

So that's the thing. He was saying that the taxes were gone missing from a dragonfly, but I don't think he was telling the truth. You know, Bromley, I don't think he was either. I don't think so.

I could sniff it out. Something about in a way is that weird luck, luck, toad stink. You know what I mean? You're getting better. You and I have been spending a lot of time together. You're starting to understand what it is. You know, this might have been why you were able to figure out that con I tried to pull on you. It's my nose. It's my nose. That's how I flavor my plus two charm. I'm, you know, you never cease to amaze me, my friend. And I'm glad to hear it.

But the bottom line is that we can get a little bit out of him every day that he gives us free stuff.

And at the end of the day, I feel like it all kind of evens out. Well... As long as he's not just taking the free stuff from someone else and then giving it to us. Oh, no, that's absolutely what's happening, Hazel. Oh, so now I feel bad. You should have said that. No, no, I feel bad. We're doing our part. We're earning our way. And at the end of the day, we're taking from the rich and we're giving to the poor. And I very clearly point to myself. I just would feel a lot better if I could, like...

Wrestle a couple of those rings off his knobby toad fingers. I'm nothing saying that you can't, except for the fact that you might do the, what do you say, the hangman's jig? You don't want to be doing that. I don't think you like to dance. No, no, neither does Booker. Okay. Well, maybe we can figure out what he did with all that money. Well, if...

So you mean he didn't just buy all those rings and put them on his own fingers? Well, I mean, there's a good chance that he did, but not necessarily with the missing shipment. If we really want to get to the bottom of this, and I'm going to tell you, I don't. Don't? No! Why? Are you kidding me? We're just far away out of a damn mining encampment. I almost died. I took a...

Damn crossbow bolted my shoulder! You seem fine now. I seem fine now, days later! And I still can't quite do this without hurting! Well don't do that then. Yeah, look at him, he looks fine, you look fine. Look at me, growl at me. I didn't sign up to get in fighting, we're not fighters! We're not fighting, we're just gonna find the gold. Yeah, we're just gonna find the gold and keep it for ourselves because fools are easily separated from the money.

Yeah, but I'll be there. Give it back. Give it back. Grumly, don't you even start with me. It's sort of like we find it and then we take like a finder's fee. We'll get paid. He would pay us. That's a great way to put it. It's 100% of what we find because we found it. It's ours. I saw like a lot of those, you know, little mousy people. They're running around. Oh, don't you tug at my heartstrings. Do you have a heart? No, no. Booker does not have a heart. My plan's failing. Yes.

I think we just wait and we see what the mayor says. And if he's like, oh, it's some really dangerous, dangerous suicide mission. I mean, we should be able to milk this for like a month, right? A full month, 30 full days of us just chilling here and enjoying the lovely, lovely food and booze for free. That's my plan.

Well, we'll see what he says. Thirty days is just about enough time for me to get sick of this place and move on to the next clinic. Well, I'm gonna need as soon as we can, Peggy, to patch up me armor and me sword and... Well, of course. I mean, look, I didn't forget. I didn't forget that Peggy lives here and her workshop is here, but look at what we're at. No offense, Peggy, but I certainly didn't expect you to put out like this. I mean, this is all the free food and booze we can eat.

And then we'll get to the workshop and we'll spend a lot of time there. It'll be lovely. But at the end of the day, I'm going to milk the mayor for all he's worth. Well, you can do that. I'm in it for the big payday. The big pay... What does that mean? It means finding wherever he took that gold to and getting it. Oh, and keeping it for ourselves. Most of it. Most of it. See, I like the way she thinks, Grumly. You could do a little bit better by working with Hazel.

We've got to make sure we're doing good for the people and good for ourselves. Good for the people? What's good for Booker is good for the people. That doesn't make any sense, Booker. Just think about it a little bit longer and we'll get back to that. Grumly, tell me a little bit more about what you want to do. I would like to have Peggy repair my armour and my sword. Good, good, because look at all these things in it.

All those spiders we killed, I'm totally wrecked. And you didn't say justice once, which means we're on the same page. And I want to get justice for these poor townsfolk. Damn it. Stealing taxes from these people. No, that was not the point of the damn it. Peggy, can we please go to the workshop?

And if you would like to go to the workshop and just... Or we can wait till next session. We'll wait till next session. But I'll say that Rudy, the small-toed gentleman that works for Mayor Boghop, fetches you, and it's with that that Ace has been joining you for a drink, and he's like, I'll stay the night, but I'm gonna sleep off this hangover and make my way back to Reckon Order Ridge. Hi, Mr. Ace. How do you wear that red...

Staying around your wife's. I find that it makes me a quicker draw. Huh. Is that how it works? I've never seen anybody else do that. You live a dangerous life. I used to. Killed a lot of men. Don't recommend them. Nah, I take that advice. Well, I'm going to go see if they've gotten any cards here. I want to make my way out. Be careful. That letter. Getting back to old...

Mr. Alabaster is important. Yeah, I'll be fine on the trail. I know how to stay out of the sights of those birds if without that fucking weasel weighing me down. If there's anything we can do for you, you let us know. Like I said to Alabaster, I mean to you too. You got friends only a few killings away. That's right. Sheriff, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for your help, sir. Ace is fine. And Ace, just try to keep some law and order in the town.

Reckonoita Ridge is a rough place, but I think with Seljan running things and that nice fox gentleman, which I believe is probably the one wanting the operation now, I think it can maybe turn over a new leaf. Well, we'll see. Maybe there's new life left yet, Reckonoita Ridge. I'm going to go find me some poker. Good luck. Take care.

He walks off. It's then that Rhodey comes in and he guides you out. And you see that as he takes you through the town square, it's the first time you've really seen it to its full extent, there is a huge fountain at the center with a huge statue that's spitting up water and it's carved into the shape of Mayor Boghoss. Oh, God.

And you see that it's made out of stone, but there are patches of metal on these gilded metal, all in this bloated form, still carved and...

and built to be a far more attractive, uh, visage of Mayor Boghop. But, uh, uh, he's standing there, uh, gloriously in the center of this, of this town, the statue. And, uh, with that, uh, Rhodey, uh, gives you directions to where the last, uh, shipment was, uh, the, the taxes, uh, making its way down the river. And, um,

And it's basically a point along on the far side of the lake into the swamp. Let me go to the map! Yeah. So, he thinks that we're... So we're here, currently. Yeah. We're this little raccoon guy, to our viewers. So it's down here somewhere? To the further closer to the... This way?

Uh, no. Up, up. Oh, he's going up the river, apologies. Oh. So he's going up the river here, yeah. Click-clock crossing. Oh, shit. So it's up here. So no, it's not up there, it's right out, it's going that way. It's basically on the edge of the, like, you know, past the edge of the clearing. North edge of the clearing, got it. So we'd have to go, like, up here. Yeah. And, uh, with that, uh...

As he hands this to you, as you're going through the town, you hear the wailing and the crying of mice, it sounds like. And you're like, no, please, please, it's all...

And you see kind of down an alley, an alleyway not too far from this lavish town square, little row of mice houses. As you see down one house at the end of the row, as a number of cat soldiers are standing, um,

standing outside and you see that they're filling up this cart with, uh, you see a large grandfather clock, uh, placed in. You see like a set, a box of like nice china that's being, uh, uh, put into the cart and it's a smattering of coins as you see a, uh, a cat with his dark gray fur and a, uh, and at its side, uh, this, uh,

A large, almost like a whip with nine tails on the end. Whipped up with a hood on. Helping, assisting, considerably larger than the other cats as they're just dragging in. And you hear the wailing of others. And they're like, please no! And then as you see the cat just smack this wailing mouse woman.

And are we walking directly past it? So you're not directly past it. So you're kind of towards, as you're sitting in the square, it's down the alley towards this room. Don't look at me like that. Oh, I'm looking at you. Don't look at me like that. I'm looking at you. Grimey, what's the matter?

See what's going on down there? No, no, no, Grumly, I don't see anything. We proceed. He's lying. He sees it. No, no. I see it. No. I take it in your belongings. Just because you're not looking at something doesn't mean you can't see it. You're just choosing not to see it. Grumly, it's none of our business what's going on down there.

All right. Look at her little mousy face. What do you want us to do about it? I just, she just is probably somebody's mama. Are we working for the Machi Zin? Are we not working for the Machi Zin? We are not working for the

We should make sure that they're not taking more taxes than they should. Maybe this is fair, maybe it's not, but we don't know until we ask. Who are you? Damn it, Grumman, come back! Damn it! And I'll chase after him. I'm going to follow behind him. You see the mouse woman, she's wearing a bonnet and she's crying and she's holding her cheek as she goes back, dejected, hanging her head. And you see peeking out the corner these two young mouse children.

all of these brown furred mice as the cats are loading up this cart. And you see that there are these two armored soldiers and the one with the large whip at the side has this large clipboard. And then with a pen checks off something as you approach. Time out. How big is this cat compared to our boy Gromley? Bigger. What?

That's a big cat. It's, um, you know, like a Russian blue? The NEDM cat? Like the big, thick, gray fur, like, thick boy? Is that bigger than a Maine Coon cat? Probably similar. Probably similar, but it's like a big, chunky... Maine Coon is like a small lynx. Yeah, no, no, this is like a big, chunky Russian blue cat. Well, yeah, a lynx is fucking huge. Oh.

Compared to a house cat, a mean coot is like a lynx. He's got the leather hood and the whip on the side. Now, now, now, now, Grumley. Hey, easy there, buddy. Come on. Come on. Hey. I would like to know why are you whipping these poor people? Yes, you're asking the very large gentleman why he's beating them so hard. Why are you getting into...

Now, now, now, my very, very large furry friend, what my good friend Grumly here means to say is that we're all being a little too hasty here. And I give him a very desperate smile.

How does that work? All I'm doing is I'm trusting fate to see me through. Hoping that Grumly doesn't get his ass handed to him by this very, very large cat. I would like to try to disarm him. Not disarm him physically, but charmingly disarm him. I'm trusting fate is what it is. That is a basic move called trusting fate. I roll with charm instead of luck, though. Okay.

Makes it real good. That is going to be an eight. An eight. Okay. Did you scrape by with that? Well, I mean, seven to nine is a pass. Oh, I thought it was. Sorry. No, no, no. Let me see what it... Well, what does it say? Trust me.

Yes. So on a hit, I scrape by and the GM will tell me what it costs. So it looks like he's going for his whip. And as you butter him up, he rolls his eyes and he removes his, his, his hand. Um,

But he glowers at you and says, You lot haven't obviously heard of the Cat of Nine Tails. Is that who you are? Is that like a storybook? Whatever the mayor told you doesn't matter to me. I work for the Marquisate. I'm from New Felicia. I've been sent to collect the taxes that failed to make their way where they should.

Now, you, I am remembering your face. Oh! Well, I must have... You are very lucky... Yeah. ...that I am not lunging forward at you right this second. Let me do your... I will snap you in two, Raccoon! No! Hold on! Hold on! Oh, please, Grumly, yeah, don't let them kill me. I said, the taxes that were missing, they will be recovered. There's no need to do this. These people have already paid their taxes, isn't that right, Miss Mouse Person?

Shut up, you! Look, she paid her taxes already. I don't care if she paid them already. I care if the taxes make their way to New Felicia. That's what I care for. Then give her three more days. I will be in town...

for the next few days collecting the rest of my list. And you see he turns his clipboard, and there is a number of families, dozens and dozens and dozens of families. So just so we're all on the same page, Mr. Scary Marquis Ape Person, if we could somehow reclaim the missing taxes, you wouldn't need to take these extra taxes. Is that correct? That is correct. And we have your work.

That's how taxes work. That's all I care about. I've been told to bring the taxes. What are owed to new Felicia? Three days. Three days I'll be in town. Right, Bromley? Three days. Three days. We'll get those taxes to you. Please stop what you're doing. I will have the mayor put you up in a nice hotel room with all the booze and food you can drink. We will? Yes. I ain't stopping.

No, you need to stop. They've only paid their taxes for this month and it was part of the shipping they got lost. And what he means is that why spend three days just wearing yourself out when you're just going to have to redistribute all the taxes? Very, very smart, Hazel. Because you're going to go and get ate up by a giant dragonfly.

Please. You think? You think that's what we're going to do? I have a list of what has been taken. You bring the taxes, we'll return it all. I'm continuing my job. Brumley, I think that means you need to be the way that it is right now, all right? We'll get all your possessions back, don't you worry. You better keep a good inventory, is all I'm saying. God, we're going to try and die, I guess.

Good luck. Yeah. Okay, on to the next one, which is just next door. Don't know what you're waiting for. As the cart gets wheeled next to, and then you see that there's cowering mice kind of peeking out from the next window, and you hear the bang on the door. Grumbly, a word over here.

And I point away, like, you know, away from the houses and the people, maybe off to the side a little bit. And I wait for him to approach. I will approach. I climb up on Grumly, like, on his shoulders. And I'm like, damn it, Grumly, son of a gun! And I'm hopping on him every single time! I swear we do this! Why, why, why, why do you make me do this?

I'm not making you do anything. You are. You are. You're putting us in the predicaments that we don't aim to be in. This worthless man is stopping these people from collecting taxes. Worthless man? Well, yeah, of course the man is worthless. He's not clearly in charge here. Did you hear the poor little mouse?

I heard the pulling of the mouth, but what do you want us to do about it? Well, you gotta just... It's terrible when they cry and then they bake and then the pies get over-salted because the tears go into the mix. So what? Now you think we're gonna... Are you gonna just ruin all the pies? We're gonna trade Sophie into the swamp and go face some giant dragonflies and hope that somehow we're gonna miraculously recover all of this gold. It might be an adventure. It might be an adventure? That's all you have to say? Wait.

We're going to get paid. I really don't like over salted pies. We're going to get paid. We're going to get paid. Is that all you ever say in a whole book? We're going to get paid. That is all I said. You think that's enough to get me to be in on it?

Well, you'd be right, yes. That is enough for me to be in on it, but I don't want to die. I can't enjoy the gold if I'm dead, Gromley. All I want is to retire somewhere on the river and enjoy a nice sunset with all of my gold amongst all this turmoil. How can I do that if I'm dead? You think one puny dragonfly is any match for us? One puny dragonfly? I'm single-handedly smited, Smote. Gromley, Gromley, Gromley, let me stop you right there. Have you ever seen a dragonfly?

They can't be that different from... from giant spiders and giant dragonflies, same idea. So you're just assuming there's only gonna be one? Or two? Or three? Two? We can handle it! There's four of us, we're all capable. I just look at Peggy and say, "This dumb son of a..." Okay, okay, okay, don't leave. There's no need for name calling. I... I am going back to our beautiful, beautiful hotel. And I am going to drink.

until I can't see straight. And then, and then, my friend, we'll have a conversation about dragonflies. And I stomp off towards the hotel. What's our partnership thing?

You saw... Oh, it's... Well, actually, it just says... So here's the question I have, right? It says, when you figure them out, you can always ask, are you telling the truth or are you going to miss? Okay, so you're figuring me out. Okay. But I feel like it shouldn't be that way because you saw through my con, right? And it doesn't make sense that all of a sudden that I would magically have insight into your brain. I would even say it would be both ways if you want. Okay. Please. Yes.

If you want to try to figure Booker out. I'm going to try to figure Booker out. Okay. Oh, for sure. Pretty good. That's a pass. So what would you like to... You get 13. You get three questions then? I get three questions. Go ahead. So you're already stomping away, but you just... Yeah, no, I'm just fine. We're having a conversation. It's good. So...

What does your character wish I would do? Booker wishes for once in your goddamn life you'd keep your flat-faced nose on other people's businesses, putting Booker into mortal danger. Okay. Squished at news. How could I get Booker to be at least amenable and go, would not fight against

The plan to get these taxes. Grumly would have to convince Booker that there is not a great risk of mortal danger. Otherwise, Booker's not opposed to doing the right thing. Booker's worried about needlessly throwing his life away. And then one more. What is Booker really, really feeling?

Booker's conflicted. Booker is very conflicted. Because, and I'm willing to give you more, he understands that there is injustice. He's not blind, right? But his nature is that he wants the easy score of the money. And even if that means not doing the right thing, it doesn't mean he's guiltless. Got it. If that helps. But Booker's going to go drink for now. I'll go on then.

Be that way! And I just kind of like wave my hat in the distance and I just keep going. You do that. What do you do? What should we do? What time is it? It's probably approaching sunset. Well, we would await word from the mayor, so...

We told him we'd give him the afternoon. I suppose we could just follow behind, give him some space. So that's not awkward, but we'll follow not too far behind. We'll let him get way far away, and then we'll go back. So yeah, you have the general just the last time the ferry was seen, or the riverboat was seen. Right.

Okay, and then you all make your way back to the hotel, bookers, drinking. What do you do with the rest of your day?

Wait, so we're not waiting word on the mayor? No, no, no. So, Rhodey came in. I just skipped it, basically. He says, he's like, kind of like, oh, it's here. That's the last time we saw it. Got it, got it. So, that's our information. That's your information. And so, it's a bend in the river. It's pretty treacherous that you know. That it's kind of marshy on all sides, but it's treacherous. The tree cover is thick. And you know there's things like giant beetles in the swamp, lampreys. Cool.

Um, massive dragonflies. Well, I know we got here a little late, which is why I started drinking, because if this is my last day in the Dimwood, I'm gonna make it a good one. We can head out in the morning, I suppose, if that's our course of action. If you like, I'll be good. If I would? What is that supposed to mean? I sound like a friend. Hazel.

What? You watch yourself. You just, you had a lot, that's all. Yeah, and I'm basically immune. Alright, you watch yourself. I'm my own self, alright? Are you winking at me? Are you seeing and taking me? No, I'm scowling at both of you. Oh, alright.

Well, I think that we can enjoy a nice, comfortable sleep tonight. Let's enjoy the room, get an early night, get lots of rest. And then in the morning... Be eaten by dragonflies. We should set out, maybe sit by Penny's workshop. You mispronounced be eaten by dragonflies. Kill some dragonflies.

You're gonna be fine, Booker! We're in no- you're gonna be in no danger, we might have to kill a dragonfly, they might be long gone. We just take a little boat, maybe you talk to some otter guy and be like, "Oh hey, remember me from way back when?" We take a boat out, Peggy goes and swims around, finds the missing boxes, she ties a rope, um... Do you honestly believe that I know all of the otters? Well, you say that you know otters, so I assume you know every otter that's on the river. At what point in time do you realize that half of the time I'm talking out of my ass?

That's a lot of track. I guess I... At least half the time I know that half the time you'll want to talk me out of your ass. Okay. So roughly a quarter at a time. Oh, great. Well, then I guess we'll see how this conversation with the artist goes tomorrow. I think it'll be fine. Oh, yeah. I think it'll be fine. I bet you do, Donley. Anyway, it'll be fine. It'll be real quick. We just pack your stuff around, find them, we pull them up with my muscles, and that'll be that.

That sounds very easy. Oh, very easy, very easy. They're mouse people. Yes. They did not form mouse people. I don't hear any more mouse crying. It makes me feel bad in my heart beating. Do you think anyone likes to hear that? Well, I don't know. The cat looks pretty pleased. That sadistic son of a bitch. Yeah. They threatened to snap me in two. They did. It was really rude. Oh, I'd like to see him try. He's a big cat, wasn't he?

I don't want to see him drive. What a... What a guy. He's not... I'm not going to let him be a match to these people for long. I hope you're right, Brumley. I hope you're right. All right, well, I should probably...

Sleep without my arm on for once. So I'm gonna like just get down to regular clothes for the first time in a long time. You do that. And get into a bed and I will pass out. Okay. I think I'm gonna take a little walk before bed. Walk off some of this food. I'm gonna sit here and have another drink or two and I'll find myself in bed sooner than later, I suppose.

So I want to walk out into like the town square area. How is there still a lot of people milling about? At this point, it's not that late into the evening. It's probably about like nine o'clock and there's a number of people making their way. Some people are

They might be fishermen heading back home or some people are making some last minute purchases at some of the stores that are just like trying to get that last purchase before they go to bed, before the stores all close. And yeah, so it's not super bustling, but people, you can see that a lot of the mice and the frogs are kind of sad and they're counting their coins that they have left if the cat and nine tails had hit their house. So they're trying to get the deals that they can. Yeah.

Okay. I want to sit on the edge of the fountain and just pull a snack out and wait for the crowd to disperse. Okay. You do that. And I'll say that the evening that... So you're continuing to drink? Yeah. I'm going to stay in the hotel room and basically just continue to consume and imbibe because it's rare that we have this much available to us until I'm ready to go to bed and pass out. I'm not doing anything...

So, uh, Grumly, you're, you're, you're, so you're drinking, uh, at the bar. Grumly, you're settling into bed in your normal clothes. It's, it's hard for you to immediately fall asleep. Um, as, as you wait, as you're sitting, you're pulling out a snack and you're waiting for the crowd to disperse. And as the clouds part, a nearly full moon, uh,

Almost illuminates this, uh, the city. And you see that, uh, there are these street lamps, uh, filled with these own bioluminescent, uh, uh, fireflies of some kind and, uh, bits of, of mushrooms that at night you, in the day they seem normal, but at night they are glowing. And there's this beautiful, uh,

a beautiful hue, colorful hue to this town at night. As you start to hear from a lot of the frog homes, this beautiful musical croaking. It's incredibly peaceful. And Grumly and Booker, you're into a drink and you're waiting and the crowd is dispersing. Grumly, you're trying to sleep. And then suddenly you hear a loud bell going off.

clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, and you're awoken immediately. And you see people immediately rushing to their homes. And you hear a loud bullfrog roar. Giddy!

Dragonfly! And bang, bang, bang, clang. And Grumly, you're able to just take a look out the window. Booker, you too. Hazel, you manage to see for a moment as a massive shadow shades almost the entire square. As you hear a loud cough and it's buzzing.

And you have a massive shape passes over you. And you see a dragonfly. You had seen giant spiders. This thing is at least twice the size of the giant spider that you had killed as it flies massive red eyes.

a moth filled with these horrible proboscises and mandibles dripping as it just buzzes over. People are cowering, looking up as the moon illuminates it, as it casts this silhouette, as it flies northward up the river. And that's where we'll end the session. Holy fuck. What a great fucking... Goddamn, man.

That was great! Let's do advancement. Who advanced? I think I advanced twice. So tell us. Tell us what you did and let's hear what the Game Master says. Up to Game Master, but Greed, you advance when you secure a series payday or treasure. I would say the gems. I think the getting paid would be a payday, yeah. Okay. And then Ambition, you advance when your reputation increases with affection, which happened a couple times. I don't know. I would say that only happens one time. Yeah.

Wow. So you can advance a maximum of twice, right? One for each of your drives. And what do I do for that again? So you can choose either a stat up to three. And in this game, there are three stats. There's charm, cunning, finesse, luck, or five, sorry. Charm, cunning, finesse, luck, and might.

You can choose one of your weapon skills, which are various kind of special weapon attacks. And then you can choose one of your regular kind of class moves. So... I can choose two. Do your generous ruling of Wunderlust. It's been a while. I have come to a new... Clearly, I haven't been doing it in a very long time. The question is thrills. Do you advance when you escape from certain death or incarceration?

I would say Booker, you were literally incarcerated. You were literally incarcerated. Alright, then I gain two levels, or two advancements. I also level up twice, I believe. I advance when I pursue and achieve justice for someone deeply wronged by another powerful denizen, and I advance when I uphold my sense of personal honor at great cost to yourself or your allies or Booker. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, fuck you. Thank you.

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