Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 12 | The Enemy Within: Part 2
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Welcome to Legends of Avantris. I'm Capriccio DeSesto. You can call me Caprice and you're listening to Beneath Dark Wings. Here's what happened last time. - Are you all right? Is this Sentra? - Yes, this is Sentra. Weathered of golds, of fake gold and kind of pink sign. It says the queen bee waves an arm and says, well, this is it. - You bring us to a problem? - God bless you. - Oh, hey, welcome to the queen bee.

The main question I have, who, that hatch, the tunnel that goes in there, I mean, that, someone knew about it. We are lucky that we made it out of that labyrinth with our lives. We need to discuss why it was a labyrinth. Why Minotaurs? Why, who is the Horned King? Why the fire of the Ashen Moon?

Why devil? Why are devils and demons dealing with this? Why is that a trap? But he also mentioned the six eyes of the raven. You know that the high general's name is High General Virgil Zurn. Don't you want to know who his employer is? Well, if you know, absolutely. He was getting paid by the Weyland-Galestrom.

You all have... It is the morning. Revali has just gotten back with all of your forged papers to go about the city.

and he passes all of them out to you. And that's where we left off, right? Yeah. But we didn't long rest. We played cards into the night and then went to sleep, essentially, right? Because he was getting the papers in the morning. Show me your papers. So, you all have fake aliases.

Eliases. Oh no. Wait, are you giving them to us? Yes. Oh my god. What's happening? We're getting... We have to take Eliases. My name better be cool as fuck, Mike. Eliases? So, you've given me so many good names so far, Mike. If you fuck me now, I'm gonna be upset. Benedict Towerbottom. Yes!

- I'm okay with that one. - I'll let you decide when you get to me. - He just scribbles out all that hard work. - So Toa, you get papers for a gentleman named Siegbert Pinegrip. - How do I spell that? - S-I-E-G, Sieggrip, I guess.

Siegbert, but pine grip. How do you spell it? S-I-E-G-B-E-R-T and then pine grip. P-I-N-E grip? Yep. Pine grip. Oh, jeez. Caprice, you get Otfried, Frozen Bound. Otfried? Otfried. O-T-T-F-R-I-E-D. Otfried. Otfried.

- Frozen bao. - Frozen bao. - You can't be fried and frozen at the same time. - How do you spell bao, B-O-W? - B-O-U-G-H. - Audrey wants to go back to Germany. - Oh yeah. - Felix.

- May choose if he wants to. No, you get Albert Sunshot. - Sunshot? - Sunshot. - I'll take that. - Albert Sunshot. - I like Albert. - But deep down, I'll always be Benedict Powerbottom. - I'm gonna make sure that's on there. - Especially when I take the stage in the next big town. - I'm gonna write that out. - I'm still gonna write that out. - Powerbottom. - Albert Sunshot. - Yeah.

Albert Benedict, Sunshot Powerbomb. Iris. Iris, you get the alias of Hedwig Holisaur. Holisaur? S-O-A-R. Oh my god, I hate you. Hedwig Holisaur. These old families are like pinecrap.

Really, Hedwig? Yeah. I don't feel like that was not the general you wanted. So Hedwig is great. Being called a sore about it. Holy sore! Holy sore. Hedwig barf. Hedwig barf. Seed birth.

I thought your chance was with the S with the crowns and Z's. Uh, her job. You have Carla Moonwatcher. Ooh, Carla Moonwatcher. I like Carla. I'm a big fan. Watcher. Watcher. I'm a big fan of fairy tale.

And then finally, Lufty is Inga, I-N-G-E, Flat Arrow. Flat Arrow, ooh. Inga Flat Arrow. Inga Flat Arrow. Jerry Power Bottom. It's Benedict's, excuse me. No, it's Benedict. It's Benedict. Albert Benedict Power Bottom Sunshot III. Perfect. It's a family name. Arnold All? Yes. And...

Carla is right here, right? Yes. Carla Moonwatcher. You got me there. I guess that's right. And Revali says, and for the next day, for the next several days at the very least, at least when we're going between districts, I am Lubin Wheatstab. Ew. Lubin? Lubin, L-U-B-I-N. I didn't write down everybody's names, so I'm sorry. So can we do a Wheatstab?

- Lubin, I'll get this after your sandwich. - So one more time, can we just go rolling round the table and say our first names? - Yes. - So we got Lubin. - Lubin. - Hold on, so Lubin, okay. - Derek. - I'm Otfried. - Fried. - I am Albert. - Tela. - I am Siegbert, which is spelled with an S. Pinegrip. - Siegbert.

Sebert, yeah. S-I-E-G-B-E-R-T. Oh, shit. Hedwig. Hedwig. You. Inga. Inga. Flat Arrow. Inga. Yeah, I'm not remembering last names, but I'll go with that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then Carla. Carla. Carla. Car-Carlyle. Carlyle? Yeah! Gretchen and Carlyle. And do we have, like, stories or something? Is that part of the deal, or is it just the names and what else is on these papers? Just papers, right? A photo? Do we have pictures?

That's not a thing, right? No, no. I didn't take my pictures! It's not that magical. We're not that high magic. It's not a Harry Potter animated version of Caprice being like, Felix will be done so, man. Everybody be like, okay, yep, you're going right to central prison. So, obviously, there are no pictures. And so... Point of paper. If...

Anyone asks, we are looking to potentially move to Zentra. We are nobles that are potentially looking to move in and are just going to look at some of the local schools for children in the area.

Interesting. Hmm. And are we related? I guess we're not related. We're all... No, we're just... Okay. We're all friends. Do we all know each other? Yes. We come from money? We do. We will be going into Skyreach. We should have a month. All right. Ooh. That sounds like a fun place to go. So do we need to change your outfits? Oh, yeah. That's why I'm wearing this fancy, nice outfit with a long, billowy cape. Oh, that's really nice for you, Capricci, but a lot of us aren't.

Well, I mean, we could go buy some fine clothes for everybody. I think we're going to have to go somewhere else. Can we buy clothes once we get closer to the Skyreach District? I can pretend to wear fancy clothes. I can too, but only for about an hour. I don't know that I can afford fancy clothes right now. So maybe like some knockoff fancy clothes? What if I also get into not as fancy clothes and then we tell people that we're trying not to dress up?

Even though we are nobles and come from money, we don't want to get robbed. We don't want any questions. That seems easier. Is that easier? Ravali? I mean, Lubin? I appreciate you committing to the act. No problem. We should be able to find some knockoff replicas, maybe at some shop in the black market somewhere. I think that what we're wearing should be fine. I'm going to keep the cape. That's fine.

I feel like we are probably... We won't... As long as we can talk our way through the checkpoints, we should be fine. All right. This music is very intense. So good. So good. I trust you. Do we set out immediately? I mean, we've got a far way to go. We've got a far way to go, and I think that we should just

stake out the area and wait till nightfall and wait till it gets late and see if... see our plan of attack. Okay. Okay. So, I am going to lead the way. Everyone else just act natural. Well, just let me know when you need me. I...

I will not be able to take Thomas on this adventure. I can't be out all night without him. I have to wait for word from my father when he's sending someone to collect him in Dolly. Is it alright to just leave her, Thomas, with Dolly? There is not a chance that I would leave him unprotected.

Not until I know that I have someone from my father whom my father trusts to escort them out of the city. Not knowing what we know about the connection between this place and the missing children, the moment he's out of my sight, I risk someone taking him and him finding his way back into that baby furnace. Baby furnace sounds rough. So yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you.

I do honestly wish that I could accompany you, but I must wait for my... I sent him a message yesterday, and he said that he would let me know the moment he had someone that could come and collect the child. Remember, he does no way of contact. Yeah, that's why I contacted him the night prior and asked him what the plan was. He didn't say anything, so Iris is just going to wait.

I believe... No, you didn't ask him what the plan was. You said that people would be coming. Yeah, and I said I wanted to just kind of reiterate everything that was going on and find out what we needed to do. So I was insinuating that I wanted to find out what the next step was. So, I mean, at the end of the day, I still would have told him where I was staying, so I would just wait. Or do you want me to stay with you? No, not at all. I think you will be fine. I think we can't go without all of us. So do you want to contact him again?

Okay, that's a good idea, because he said that he was going to... That was part of the reason I contacted him last night. Well, he may have had more time to tell you who his contacts are here. Well, then if you're willing to go tomorrow, I would, but it takes a lot out of me to contact him, and I'm not willing to go on this adventure with you, with your lives on my hands, essentially, if I'm not prepared for it. I would much rather wait...

Is it possible that you could just... You really don't trust Dolly to watch the other characters? I'm not. Even though you're going to send him... I've got Brewster, too. She will have people that my father trusts. It's not like I'm just saying, okay, Dolly, take this child and here's a map to... Necabat, make your way. We'll be back, though. We'll be back. I mean, you could... Madame Delfina can defend herself and all of these women. They have Brewster, too. I completely understand that, but...

This child is my responsibility. Uh, Lubin, do we think that we can wait another day on this? I mean, how much more time... I feel like it's another day if we absolutely need it. I let my father know yesterday exactly where I was staying. He could easily, whatever contacts he has, there are priests all around Nekpet that have abilities far more powerful than mine. If he wants to communicate with me and he's ready to send the baby on its way, he would be able to find me and...

Retrieve Thomas. All I can do is let him know what I have and where I'm at. And at this point it's in his hands. But I would not be able to live with myself if I knew that this child was harmed because I was neglectful. I spent all of last night waking up every time he cried. Except for once, but it's because I forgot it was a child. I thought it was a cat. Not like a tabaxi, but like one of those creepy desert cats that mews in the middle of the night. Like a bald cat?

No, they're not bald. They have mangy hair and dirt sticks to it and things. So, we have our ability to speak to each other and I am very quick. So, should I hear from my father, I will meet up with you. I don't think we can... Should we just waste a whole nother day? And I'm not asking you to. Alright, then just catch up with us when you hear from him. Cap Lubin, would it be amenable to just have her catch up?

Well, I mean, we're going to be going very far. I think that what we can do is give it a few hours in the morning and wait to see if anyone arrives. Because we need to wait until night anyway. How long will it take us to travel across town? Perhaps if we could wait a few hours? I'm fine waiting to have an early lunch, and then we'll head out. All right.

If we're staying here, then, um, uh, Florine? Are you here, Florine? Are you guys just leaving? I thought we were in the brothel this whole time. You guys are in your room. Oh, oh, I will exit and I will look for Florine. Florine says, yeah, you got more gold? I think I already paid you silver, but I've got a few more silver. I've got some new song ideas I was hoping to run by you. You got a gold this time? Ah!

Yeah, what the fuck? Okay, let's go. Let's go. I'll spend a couple hours with Florine testing out some new ideas that I have musically and getting her action, seeing if I can get her to tap even though she's not enthusiastic about it. So you do that. Make a performance check while you're at it. My pleasure. I do not do well. That's going to be an 11.

And 11. So it's not great. It could be a lot better. I could not crack the code. God damn. Yeah, I mean, I've heard better at some of these local places. You know, don't beat yourself up, though. Yeah, personality. Thanks. Thanks. And so as soon as...

As you... You're kind of just waiting the day away. Some johns come in and out. They go out and meet with some of the girls. Brewster is there, he has coffee going for you basically all morning. And as it kind of gets towards the middle of the day, a woman appears.

And she seems to be dressed in full black. And she's wearing a full black and white, a collar that's very, very high up. She has a parasol beneath her arm and a large handbag.

Is this literally Mary Poppins? And she walks through the door and she kind of steps slowly through. And she looks around and I'm looking for a dolly. You can hear from Florine's room, a spoonful of sugar makes the blood sugar go up. No, nothing? That's crazy. Okay, what are you doing?

- I'm not-- - Where is Dali? - Hmm? - Where is Dali? - Dali is-- Dali seems to be with somebody right now. - Did we see-- - I'm just in the room. I'm in my room sipping coffee. I'm not-- I'm chilling. So I don't even know if I would see this person come in. - Whoever's in the common room. - Yeah. - Would Dali still be working after the conversation that I had with the lady at the house that she has a new position? - You know what? I would probably say no. So she would be in a room somewhere getting ready, I would say.

Who's in the common room? I'll be in the common room, I guess. I'm sure I will be. Are we having a beer? A morning beer? Is it night or morning? I forget. It's like afternoon. It's afternoon now. Or it's approaching in. Yeah, it's in the morning. Hiding in my room. I'll jump up and approach her and be like, Hey, dear. We know a dolly. What's your name? My name is Ingrid. Ingrid.

Ingrid Schultz. Pleasure to meet you. I am Herjia. I'm looking at her parasol in her hand. Does she look like she's wanting to shake hands or not? No. I will stick my hand out anyway and just... She looks down at it and looks back at you. Great. So I will let Dolly know that you're here. Are you here to escort her to Nekbet? I am here to escort her to... As far as I need to, yes.

Great. I will let Iris know and I'll just like... Back away slowly. And I'll go find Iris. I'm gonna do like a really exaggerated like kind of half a curtsy and then half a bow because I'm not quite sure what she's looking for and then back away with her show.

So I go, wherever Iris is, I go find her. I was literally sitting right next to you. Oh. Oh, I thought you were in the room. I thought you were in the room with, what's her name? No, I'm teaching Thomas that these women are not for him. Yeah. He's going to marry a beautiful tabaxi. Oh, great. Actually, this is Iris of the Sands right here with our little Tami.

He's our little ray of sunshine. I think Ingrid here was looking for you. When you said you were searching for a dolly, I thought you were actually referring to a toy, so I ignored you completely. I regret having done that, as that means you've had to speak to Herrscher, which I realize is very grating on one's nerves. I also regret that. Yes, I apologize. Damn. Did my father send you? The...

The high rector of my church sent me, who knows your father, yes. What is my father's name? Your father's name? What is his name? I don't remember. You don't know? I don't know. I don't remember it either.

I believe so, but I've never had to actually say it. She says it. It's last name is Ro. Well, no, now I have to know what it is. It's Faero. No, I'm pretty sure that you're right. That's great. Yeah, I don't know. Oh, that's Hersha's. That's why I can't find it. It's like Jasper of the Sands or some shit. Yes, it's Jasper. Oh, shit, I got it. I've only heard it once in my entire life. She looks at you and says...

The Pharaoh of Sarket, Jasper of the Sands. Lovely. I trust that you will make sure that both Dolly and Thomas will make it to Sarket. They will have the protection of myself and the Raven Queen. And they will also have the protection of Anubis. The more the merrier.

Well, I will escort you to Dolly. We will pack up Thomas's things. His tabaxi name is also Jasper of the Sands. He is a second in honor of my father.

But I prefer if you call him Thomas. He is a human, unlike myself, and I don't know how well those in Sekhet will take to him right away. I prefer if he goes by his human name. Dolly is a bit strange, but she has my protection, and she will also have a bit of coin from me, and I've provided her with clothing, so...

You should have no trouble there. When you arrive, please have my father send word that you've made it there properly and I would be happy to pay you for this. Very much appreciated. I believe your father arranged a donation to our church. Lovely. I will make sure that should I have the ability to, I will stop by and also provide a bit of coin in donation as well. All coin is appreciated for the work that we do.

I completely understand.

I thank you very much and if you'll follow me. And then I'll take them and say goodbye to Jasper and tell him like, don't you worry. Don't tell grandpappy that you are a Jasper. I have to make sure I tell him myself.

It might irritate him, but the name holds symbolism and I really want you to have it. Don't tell Lufdy, but she is your godmother. So, but don't tell her yet. I don't want to shock her. Dolly, you make sure that if he cries, you give him a little pat on the bum. That's what I've been doing. A light pat, not a hard one. He's a baby.

And you find a way to let me know if anything goes wrong, and make sure he does all of his lessons and he eats three times a day, and if he throws up, it is your fault. Okay. I think we're ready to go. And I'll give him, like, you know, a hug, and they'll go. And then I'll sit in the room and cry for, like, ten minutes before I head down. Before that happens, she looks at you and says, I can't believe this is happening so fast. I'm

Thank you so much. And she gives you a huge hug and kind of holds you, she's kind of crying in your fur a little bit. And Ingrid walks up and she says, there, there, child. The trip will be safe. We'll not be comfortable, but we'll be safe. And she'll like wait. Okay, time to go, child. And she kind of pries Dolly away.

And Dolly is very, very, very careful. I set up the baby Bjork on her so that she can firmly house the Thomas. And so they both walk downstairs. And as you're crying, you hear...

Dolly crying more with Madame Delphina and they're just you hear voices from outside and they're talking and there you can tell that they're they're saying goodbye and eventually the voices disappear as All of you just see this very tight prim and proper woman and you see kind of around her neck there is a clasp that has the head of a raven and she leads

She kind of holds out a gloved hand and Dolly takes it. And the three of them walk out and you hear Ingrid kind of lean down and says, "You'll never have to do any of that foul business ever again. Let's go." And the trio disappears. And then after like ten minutes of crying in the room, I'll come down.

Well, we are no longer burdened by an infant. Oh, is the tank engine gone then? I'm sorry, what? Uh, never mind. What is a tank engine? It's, uh, it's like a, uh, it's for brewing. You wouldn't know, you've never had to, it's a non-portant. That's a strange thing to say. No, the infant is gone. Yes, that's what I meant. What? What? I'm sorry? You are very, very strange. Well...

I think we'll be able to get there with plenty of time to spare. I'm glad we... I'm glad we left. If you still have the power to contact your father, feel free to let him know once we're done with all of this business. Sadly, today I do not. Ah, I see. Well... That's why we would have needed until tomorrow. I see. And then potentially a day after, as I would have been spent. I know how that is. Shall we? Are we making our way into the evening, then? To Skyreach? To Skyreach. To Skyreach!

To Skyreach! To Skyreach! I poke my head out of the hotel room holding a cup of coffee. To Skyreach? Oh! Come on, Felix, we're going. All right. To Skyreach! To Skyreach! To Skyrim 2, everybody! New campaign! Excited for Skyrim 2? I can't wait. So, you make your way through the city.

And as you're walking around, Revali has his hood up. And he looks around and takes the time. You walk for hours. And probably an hour and a half to get to the... So actually, where would you be? So you would be taking the... We're going to have to basically go around the entire city. That's why it takes so long to get around here. You can't just cut through. So...

I am going to suggest that we go through the Garrison Ball. And everyone just act natural. Won't they take us right through the Black Rose District? Which direction are we going?

I forgot about that. I mean, I don't even know. Wait, do they know what you look like, Helus? Yes! I would bet there's probably someone alive who still knows who I'm looking at. I would bet that there's a large number of people who are actively looking for this face. Well, if it takes less than an hour to get through the Black Rose District, then we can just do that. Yes, I could disguise myself long enough that we can make haste through the Black Rose District. And if we find one in mint condition, that could be like 20,000 or 30,000 gold.

You lost me. Black Rose is a very valuable... You know what? It's not important. Oh, okay. And if we refer to you by Sunshine, that's a pretty, like, gender-neutral name. We could always just turn you into a woman. Oh, well, my papers say Albert. I mean, I guess I could still be a woman. You could tell them your name was Alberta and that there was a mistake, but maybe that would... I think I'll just make myself look like a different man. But I appreciate the offer. It's a good idea. Why can't we just go around the other way? If we're going straight across. We'll go around the other way.

There are a few people that I've had run-ins with in the Conquest Ward. There are some bad people all over the place, but I think that if you're...

Okay.

I just think that it... I haven't explored all of this city, but if they're actively looking for deserters, especially one who knows what I know, no matter which way we go, we may end up with the fight on our hands. - Well, let's just please try to look inconspicuous. - I agree. I can do the best I can. - So, as you're basically walking up towards the Citadel, and you see now that there is actually a, basically a ring of a main road that goes around the entire thing.

And the gates are heavily closed. And it doesn't seem that anyone is passing in or out of the gates into the Citadel. But you see that there are gates, there are roads that go to gates to the surrounding districts. And so as you arrive to the point where you're basically at the crossroads, he says, I think that we should avoid as much risk as possible. And I think we should be fine. I trust so. Do you lead the way? To the Conquest Ward.

To the conquest ward. To the conquest ward. To the conquest ward? To the conquest ward. To the conquest ward. I'm sorry, where are we going again? To the conquest ward. Oh, unfortunate. It's the ward of conquest. Well don't most of you need to get fancy clothes?

I think Ravalli said that we'd be okay in what we're wearing. I look quite fancy as it is. Iris is very fancy. But Ravalli, I'm sorry, Lubin said that we'd be okay. I think all of you with Toa in disguise, he would be the only one that I would... No offense. No, that's exactly right. I'm glad I have this ring. Persia is our on-call handy person.

I love an uncle handy. Oh my god! To Skyreach!

To Skyritch! To Skyritch! I'm gonna transform into a Siebert Paundrep. Like the Sailor Moon, like, swirly transformation. I turn an all-white silhouette. I do a lot of these. You're welcome, please, in the background. And then I get big pot chops. That's amazing. And shrink half of them. Well, Siebert. That's awesome.

Great. And we just call you Bert, or do you prefer the whole thing? Bert is fine. In fact, I prefer it. Okay, Bert. Here we go. It looks like it scared you a little. Does anyone, I admit, I'm not a great actor. Does anyone want to do most of the talking for us?

I mean, I feel like you're looking at me a lot when you say that. I can help Capricci a little bit, but... I think Capricci do it. I mean...

I think Ot-Otter guy, Otfried Otters. Oh my god! You're butchering the fun part! Otfried should do it. Otfried or Otfried is fine. Yeah, no, I can walk us through one of these checkpoints. What do you do? You just go up and then you put your bags through the little conveyor and then you have to stand like this for a few minutes and then they just let you through, right?

They'll ask what we're doing for each district. What we're plan is to do in that district. So I'll say we're going to Skyreach through the districts that we plan on going through, but that we're not stopping for any purpose, that we're specifically going there to look at school. That sounds, that's perfect. I mean, the law of averages says I'll be getting a natural 20 at one point, so that's no problem. Yes, exactly right.

Let's go. And so you make your way through and then you see a large gate approaching as the massive wall that separates B7 Heavens. I'll have the rest of the map out and I'll be like looking around touristily. I'll be like up against him just being like, and like pointing at things and being excited. Okay, make a performance check at advantage. Ah, very nice.

And I'm wearing moderately fine clothes, better than what I was disguised as the day prior. Got it. I'm feeling very 23 about this performance. Okay. So as you do that, you see that there is a... that the large gate that you're approaching is ratcheted up. And there are... there's a line of soldiers on either side of the gate. And there is a gentleman fully uniformed.

And there's a large banner of Korovakiya hanging behind him. And he's standing there, certainly watching everyone that comes in. And you realize that there's a number of different people in order to kind of keep things going. But there does seem to be a bit of a line. The line gets shorter and shorter and shorter. And eventually, you arrive. You see the gentleman look at all of you.

And he says, "Papers, please?" Uh, yes, uh, all at once or just the one and one at a time? All at once is fine. Oh, okay, I get him in a stack. Here you go, sir. As I touch to hand him the papers, I'm gonna cast Guidance on him. Ooh! I'm actively looking absentmindedly around, not really making eye contact with the guy, just trying to be very nonchalant and like... Ooh, Guidance! You know, not draw attention to myself.

I've got my collar up and my hat, you know, pulled down, but not like, not covering my face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I'm kind of like looking around, admiring the sights and things like that. And what is your purpose in the Conquest Ward? This is the Conquest Ward, then, yes? It is. Apologies. It's first time for me. My name is Ott Fried. It's a pleasure to meet you. We're just passing through, trying to make our way up to Skyreach to take a look at some schools for children. Make a deception check. I'd say, yeah. Should I use the thing?

What did you roll? Well, I can't say. Because you also have Guidance. Oh, yes, and that means d4, right? It's only 1d4, but... It is 1d4, but it's... Let's play some D&D. You got a 1, didn't you? 12. 12. I just want to show you what this gentleman got for his insight. What was it? Natural 1. Natural 1. And he looks over all of you and says...

Very well, enjoy the ward. Appreciate it. Anything we should look out for? Say hi to the troll. Is that the name of an inn, or is that just in like a direction? Like, "Have a good day!" Oh, honey, you're so cute. Let's go. Okay. And you make your way through. And although you're only at the, um, just one tiny fraction of this whole district, you can kind of start to see the billowing smoke

rising up from all across this district. And you hear the clanging of anvils, the churning of wheels, and it sounds, and there's a bunch of people walking the streets, tools in their belts, faces covered in soot, large heavy leather aprons. And you get the sense that this is very much the center of industry in the city. And you make your way to the next checkpoint. And as the checkpoint arrives,

you... kind of the smell of the smoke and the soot in the industry heading behind you, or drifting behind you, you see the exact same setup. And it's probably been like a full hour just to get across to that, to the point that you're at now, to the second checkpoint, at the very least. And you see a woman this time.

very heavily uniform, very well decorated, number of medals, more so than the other soldiers. And she looks you up and down and says, papers. Yeah, no problem. Do you prefer them all on a stack? Like the last guy, you wanted them all. Oh yeah, okay, sure. I'm going to once again touch him and cast Guidance. He's looking through a

My name's Bert. I said. I'm just going to grab Patty. But that's not his full name. It's not his full name. Siegbert. Yes, I got my Bert. Just so you know. It's perfect. Oh my god. I can't. I can't. I turn to him and I give him a wink. Oh boy. And I give him inspiration. I need some help. And Bert, if you prefer Bert, what are you doing here?

I'm gonna grab her and kind of... Please excuse our friend here.

He's simple, you know, and he follows us around and he's very good and sweet-natured and it gives him, you know, purpose to feel like he has something to do in the group. He just feels like a protector. We're on our way to Skyreach looking for school children. I mean, a school of children. Oh my gosh! You took us one gate! One gate to fuck it all!

I am going to need a deception check at disadvantage.

Felix feeds the sweat previously. A natural 20. Yes! That's a three. You can use the roll. Use it. Use it. Thanks, Chad. But the best I could do at disadvantage would be a three still. Right. Because it's going to be... Well, you can change out that die. No, you would re-roll that die. So it would be a 20 and something else.

So it could be a 20 and a 20 if you got lucky. Right, so you can get as close to 20 as possible. Now it seems like the time. I agree. Yes!

- That's a 20. - My man. - I felt a tear. - Holy shit. - You are keeping secrets from the boss. - 20 plus one. - Oh yeah, deception 29. - She looks over and says, "Raven Queen's blessings upon you." And she hands back the papers. - Thank you kindly. - Felix, after she says, "Raven Queen blah blah blah blah blah," hands in pockets,

And like walks by real quick. And so you see Revali, who was also known as Reuben. His face is completely ghost white. And he kind of sidles up beside you and says, please, please talk before time again. Yeah, what the fuck was that? Buried?

I got near this and I wanted to fit in. I mean, I appreciate... I was trying to roleplay, I think they call it. I'm really trying to live the role of Bert. And while we're on the topic, maybe when we talk about our story, we don't say we're looking for school children. I just got fucked up because I thought I was supposed to do all that. I understand. Heed of the moment, I understand, but we just need to choose our words a little more carefully. School for children. Yes. That four is so important. LAUGHTER

Let me tell ya. You got it. Oh my god. Who knew? How many more of these goddamned dates do we have to go through? I think there's one or two more. And so as you make your way through the city, you hear the sound of bells. As you look down, you see Rose. And down...

peeking over these buildings, you see all sorts of different churches and chapels, and you see the symbol of the Raven Queen. What am I missing? - Lele said we're trying to find children to give us candy to.

And Beggin said, "Next gate." And he changed him. Barf's actually driving the white van. Oh, Jesus Christ. He's wearing Adidas and a white heater. Oh, man. Anyway, we're in the Flox route, so I don't need to describe-- I'm attempting to set the scene.

You hear the sound of bells, and you see these dark gray buildings rising out as far as you can see. You see chapels and churches and shrines. The figure of the Raven Queen. However, you do see the occasional small shrine or maybe small modest church to a number of other gods. So it's like a religious district. It is. But you see Peking over...

over the buildings in the center of this district these massive towers just totally covered with massive stone statues of ravens all along the side as you see a colossal cathedral at the center of the district with stained glass windows all just on it on nearly every inch through the show

and you see people walking around piously, you see people that are dressed in various vestments, and some seem to be a combination, some seem to be relatively simple, and others seem to be kind of almost combined with a military uniform, and with a high collar,

And with that... Wait, so these are actually military uniforms, like, individuals? Like, it seems like there's some vestments, there's some priests or priestesses that, like, are kind of... It's a military priest. This is not good. Are all the manifestations, the representations of the Raven Queen identical, or does it look like there are subtle different takes on how she looks and feels? Yeah.

So the latter, because I think... So the idea is that basically the Raven Queen is the predominant goddess of this entire country. And there are varying different ways in order to...

In order to basically serve the wretch. I was getting-- Basically, the whole idea is that basically that-- I think that maybe religion's actually-- Caprice is trying to get a sense of if there's like a known look and feel of the way that she appears at 12. Or if-- You have guidance. Everyone has-- oh yeah, I still have the guidance. I mean, there would be some sort of unified agreement, but I imagine there might be slight differences based on-- Yeah, so I don't mean like they don't agree.

with like her, they don't agree with like the depiction. They all know that she's a goddess of death, a goddess of fate, a goddess of winter, a goddess of secrets. - I was purely talking about like you mentioned that there were representation shrines, like statues of her. - Yes, yes. - And so if you go from one corner of statue to the next corner of statue, does the face look like wider or narrower depending on how like,

Just the physical representation of how she's appearing in these. There are very, very, very few statues that actually have a physical depiction. A lot of them are near your blank face or raven facade or whatever. And some kind of do have a depiction of a woman with elven features. And that is generally what you'll find. But there you get the sense that it's basically

which how connected to the military they are, how rich they are, how poor they are. There is, you know, there are varying different... I'm not sure if that's what Caprice is thinking about. It's like kind of versus like the little, the tiny, like little rickety wooden church versus the massive, you know, Vatican style things. Cool, thank you. And it seems to be very much, and it also seems to be a heavy residential area as well. And you see houses rising up and you once again come across another chapter.

Oh, let me do the talking guys. We'll lock up. And there is a gentleman, he seems to be a bit older than the two people that you come across. And he looks at you and kind of looks at the whole party and says, "Papers." I have them all right here for the seven of us. Here you go.

What's the district there by the way? I can't see it. Four Winds. That's what I thought. We're trying to move into the Four Winds. Which one were we in previously? I've heard it briefly. We were in the Flocks Roost. Yeah, we are in Flocks Roost trying to move into the Four Winds. And what business do you have in the Four Winds? It's not in the Four Winds. We're passing through to the Skyreach. We're looking for a school for our children. Make it a second check. Mm-hmm. Squirted quite carefully. Let's go with a 28.

And you're only stopping through in the four winds. Unless there's something you think we should check out, yeah, I mean, we pretty much headed straight to Skyreach. To Skyreach! To Skyreach! To Skyreach! To Skyreach. Very well. Thank you kindly.

Well, this one was a lot sooner. Not much farther to go. And he lets you pass. While we're walking the four winds, I just want to keep an eye out for anything that would feel familiar to me. Any goliaths, maybe, but also anything remotely related to actual wind stuff or animals or anything like that. And so, as you make your way through here, you actually realize that the general...

makeup of the crowd here is consistently very different than the other district that you've been in. You start to see a higher percentage of other races mixed in with the humans. You look around and you see several open-air markets, large stores with multiple levels. And... Rodec. Toa. You look around and you see that there are...

Toad deck. Toad deck. Toad deck. I like Roa. Roa. That's pretty good. Roa. You look around and while you don't...

You catch the glimpse of someone through the crowd who is tall with a very cleanly shaven head and it's gray and you think that might be a Goliath and then disappears from the crowd and but you also see a polished purple horns and you see a tiefling walking about and you see a number of various other races and you

Look around and you see this a creature walking through with a hood up that has round feathers.

coming out from within, these large yellow eyes, trying not to draw too much attention. And you see just a variety of people, and you see these shops, and there are... You're used to... You've been traveling through Cora Valkia and Striga more broadly for a long time now, and you're used to the general craftsmanship, but you're actually seeing a few bits and trinkets and decorations that are carved in an almost tribal style.

You see a large structure from beyond the buildings. It almost so seems to be in the center of this district, which is this large stone structure that is almost kind of gilded. And it looks like a massive bank as you make your way through. And so I don't know if Rhoda got a bank. It looks like a bank. It's Bert. Not Rhoda. Bert. I said Rhoda.

So you notice things of styles of craftsmanship from different parts of the world there as well. And some might be in the totemic style, but not quite. Does nothing remind you of home explicitly? You're just walking through the main road around the citadel. So the Goliath I might have heard, what might have been a Goliath could have been any Goliath. You know the Goliath that you're looking for has hair.

Oh, okay. So you didn't like visibly freak out where Toad would be like, hey buddy, you alright? Right, but seeing, I think I'd be surprised that there might be another Gliet period in Striga that's not me or...

Or anyone else? The man. The man. The dude. Does this feel like the most adultic English I've said so far? Yes. Absolutely. Any people that I can't say I love, I would just be like... Well, we're not finishing the session, guys. Are you all right? It might be Ernie. Ernie.

I'm the fucking Zerg head! My immortal nemesis! I saw him! He has yellow skin! And a big red nose! I saw him! I saw him! And I started running, I started touching people. No, no, Bert, no! Ernie has orange skin, right? She's thinking of Bert. Oh, I have the yellow skin. You have the yellow skin. I have the red skin.

You start running him over with your ice cream in your eyes. Who will look after my number ducky? This is getting nothing done! You gave it to me!

I randomly generated a bunch of shit.

Never again. I never again knew that voice was an option. We all have a center. We're intrigued, guys. Seriously intrigued. Let's all remember Dolly as a horrible child. It's true. I did say Bert's bees. I said Bert's and the bees and whispered it. I didn't think anyone else would hear it. Right next to a mic. Right next to a mic. It's true. All right.

Remember, our lives are at stake. To remember. He could easily get executed in like two seconds. There's a mad puppet on the loose. I do have a question for the DM. No more puppet talk. Are there any notes of Muradin religion being practiced here? Because I know you said it wasn't just one religion of the Raven Queen. There might have been multiple temples. I would say make a retroactive perception check. Okay.

Sorry, I just burped. That's going to smell really nasty. That's why, like, anytime you see me going like this, it's because I'm blowing burp up. I have a window over here. Yeah. I've just been blowing it into the table because I blow it straight out. Every time I do, I just turn and look at Kelsey. Great.

It's not a common problem. For the record, Leafy, I said mad puppet, which is a Muppet, okay? All right. 12 for perception. 12 for perception? One is like a Muppet. I'm sorry, Cody. I'll scare the crap.

Holy sores trying to hide in the trash and Fucking hated that guy. Yeah, are you such a Oscar? What's a little fucking trash? Yeah so

Anyway. It's episode 12. While you were looking around, you saw several other gods. You didn't see any gods in the Dwarven pantheon. Okay. You kind of saw majorly worshipped gods like, you know, Saluna and Lathander or Sylvanus or Sylvanus, however you pronounce it. It's kind of Sylvanus. Yeah. It is, yeah. Is it really? Yeah. Oh, jeez, is it a

- I thought that was a joke. - No, no. And an other highly Pelor, other highly worshiped gods. - I roll my eyes at the Pelor church. - Yeah. - So you're not in that ditch. - Got 'em. - And you eventually, you get to the checkpoint. You get to the checkpoint and there are no puppets. - I got history with them. - We're heading, we're going to Skyreach, guys. - To Skyreach. - To Skyreach. - Can you tell me how to get to Skyreach? -

Why? Hey, checkpoint! What do they say? Guys, this is the last one. We just have to not fuck this one up. I think we got this now. I mean, if we didn't fuck up that one time, I think that we're going to be alright this time. Come on. Everybody give me the shit. We know how this goes. Once again, I'm going to give him guidance. You see a woman...

who's guarding this. And she seems to be the most decorated of all the people that have come. And you see that the people that are heading from the Four Winds into this district are very well dressed. Some are entering in carriages and stagecoaches that are just incredibly gaudy and elegant in design with rich velvet curtains and just pristine stallions carrying them.

And you stop, and there's a very long line, and as you're making your way through, you get closer and closer, and one of the... The line that you're on is for this one particular woman scene that's very highly decorated. All of the different soldiers watching it, at the checkpoint, are all basically at the same station, it seems. And she...

Her hair is kind of pulled up into a very tight bun and she looks at the whole group. Thank you, Rich. Uh, stop it. As Mercer knows, he would be okay Mercer. I'm gonna be nose, okay Mercer. That was my, that was a deliberate thing, it's fine. And she turns to you. That's a good one. And I appreciate you having these ready. Absolutely, no problem, here you go. What is your business?

We're entering Skyrish to look at some schools for our children. I don't see any children. No, they're actually back home. We have nannies, caretakers, that kind of thing. Exceptional check. You have guidance. I'll need it. We got three of these bad boys. Yep. I'm going to go with 14. 14. Okay. So she looks at all of you and she says, these names seem to be very...

Local, and you do not seem to be local. Do they? I mean, we're not from around here. That's great. That's great news if we're going to potentially live here. Why are you moving here? It's one of the greatest cities in the world. We all respect the Raven Queen, and being closer to her heart in this country doesn't mean the world to us and to our children. Name a sweet contract. Me personally, I love the Raven Queen. Can't get enough of her.

Really, Karen. 27. 27. Wow. What was it? 27. Damn. That was good. She looks over all of you and says, There are very good schools in Skyreach. She hands you the papers. Do you have any recommendations? Never had children. I hear the schools are good. Thank you for your time.

You make your way through the gate. Through Skyreach. And you finally enter Skyreach. Yay! And this is a district of complete antithesis of where you spend most of your time, et cetera. Complete antithesis of the Seven Heavens. And as there are just...

and avenues just sprawling up and down with grand mansions and row houses that go up four, five, six stories that are just beautifully crafted and decorated. Everything seems to be

pristinely taken care of and just tons of gardens and walkways and you see that there's a bit that they're seeing as you make you're making your way through everyone around you is it gets back to kind of the predominantly human crowds that you're used to and as people are kind of giving you a side eye i would like everyone to make a group performance check oh

Great. It's been nice knowing everybody. Holy crap. Nice. Did you get a 120? You saw that? Mind-blowing. I see it. It was on one, and it rolled to 19. Oh, that's awesome. So I got a 21. 21? I got a 19. 19? Did you say performance? Yep. Ew, I got an 8. 8? I'll make up for that with a 28. 28? Perfect. 10. 10.

Okay, so the men in the group, actually Rolf and Rivali, actually do really well to kind of act like some nobles that they're supposed to be here. Still kind of acting inconspicuous, maybe except for Berk. I don't act like a noble, I am a noble. Yes, well, of course. And so for Iris, the DC also helps. The DC for Iris is lower in that order. Ooh.

Well, thanks, Mike. I wasn't expecting that. I was just being a shit lord. As Iris is, well, no, you're not a noble. You're royalty. Nobles are me. Literally, yeah. Wow. And so you're all acting to act. Iris comes naturally and Revali is struggling a little bit.

But you all seem to be mostly undisturbed and unmolested. Come on, Ravali, you gotta pretend like your pockets are heavy with coin. Why should I walk like this? Isn't that how everyone else is walking? I guess so. More stink up the butt. I grew up in a whorehouse. As he is...

- Is he bow-legged now? Like, what does that mean? - It's not natural. I apologize. And you are led through-- okay, follow me. I know we're there. They're primary printing offices. And he leads you through the streets. And you see around a bend, you get to a-- oh my god.

Not like an office park area, like a corporate area for the analog. Is there an analog I'm looking for? Maybe a plaza?

Business and environmental? A business, basically. It's like a business district. Yeah, there's a little business district, basically, that gets out of the residential area. And there seems to be offices, very fine shops, merchant quarters and the likes. You see several banks that seem to be far nicer than the ones that you would see in the Foreman's District. And...

You eventually see a large building up ahead made of very fine but deceptively simple brickwork. As you see a large wooden sign hanging above that says... Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot. Oh, the Weiland-Galestrom newspaper. Oh, fuck. And it says, Home of the Banner.

I don't know, the bear? The bear. Is that the name of the newspaper? The Zetra banner. It's called the Bruce banner. The Zetra banner. They also call it the Hulk. Motherfucker. And you see... A big newspaper. Large windows. The banner, sorry. The banner.

and as you look around you see that there's a few kind of like strips of cloth wrapping around and as you get closer there's some text on it and it says "Zentra's most trusted news source" and you start to see that the offices are open. We casually walk around as Revali guides you around and you see you look in through these large windows and it seems to be a two-story building and on the ground floor

you see these huge printing presses that are... the type seams that have all been set and that ink has been splayed across and they're just cranking it out in this huge assembly line. Nothing's automated, it's not fantastical magic business, but there's a huge row

rows and rows and rows and rows of individuals all lining up, just cranking out page after page after page, and then they all get sent over to the bindery as they're all getting bound. So it's like OG 1500s printing press style. Yes. Hey Lubin, it says this is the most trusted news source in Zentra. Is there any other news source in Zentra, or is it just sort of ironic in the way that that's... There are smaller...

publications. My understanding is that Gaelstrom has all of the sources. He gets all the scoops. He puts out the government-approved messaging. That's fair. Well, remind me to patronize only the smaller publications.

I will. Do we know the name of them? Maybe that would be helpful if you knew what they were called, Capricci. Can we really trust any of the news coming out of us? I would say probably not. Burt! That's Burt to you. Oh, you said Burt. Quiet, Burt. Back me up, Al. Wait, your name's... Burt! And I clicked and I go, there it is. We can both be Burt! Felix! Felix!

I was wondering how long it was going to take for you to realize that.

- I'm like, "Oh yes!" - Your big Bert. - Maybe I should be all doing this, 'cause then I can be Fred, and then you can be Wig, and then you can be Law, and you can be Goof. - I was thinking maybe we just keep the owl there so we don't get confused. - All right, I guess that's fair. - But if you wanna call me Little Bert, I guess that's okay. - Well, Little Bert, oh, owl, perhaps I'll call you both, depending on, I mean, depending on the moment.

I'll decide what to call you. Although if I call you Bert, I might get confused that I'm referring to myself. So I'll call you Alan Stitt. Don't let it get to your head there, Pete. Whatever comes naturally. This scratches my voice. How does anyone talk like this? I don't think anyone does. It can be a little tricky to hold up the note. Stay true. Bye.

Sorry. The fact that it took them that long to figure out that both of them were PAs. So I was waiting for somebody, I was waiting for one of the guard people to be like, Albert, and then me be like, oh yes, that's Albert, and this is regular Bert, and it never came up. So I was just waiting for somebody to mention it. That's amazing. Should we just walk into the front here, Lupin?

I think that's a good idea. Absolutely not. I don't think so. Well, if they're like perhaps a side alley and we can crawl onto the roof and then, you know, rappel down the side and bust into the window of some major meeting and then interrupt them and demand answers.

No, that seems like a terrible idea. Well, I'm just, I'm just spinballing here. We're just standing in the middle of this business district, looking around like a bunch of schlubs. Why don't we look nonchalant? And should we, it's not nighttime yet, is it? No. The sun is setting in the sky, and it looks like it's probably towards the end of the business day, and it looks like they are hard at work printing tomorrow morning's paper.

I mean, I'm happy to look nonchalant. How chalant are we? We're looking right now. I just feel like... Why don't we ask for a tour? Do you think they had tours here? Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, absolutely. I don't think they have. If anyone gets alerted to the fact that we're... that a bunch of strange people came in for a tour, if you want to risk that. That's a good point. Hmm. I think we just lay low and case that place until night time, and then we go in.

Is there a nearby bar where we could wait until night and then maybe we could go in and change the type before they print tomorrow's paper or whatever we desire? That sounds like kind of fun. We could put like a... well, we'll talk about that later. My preferred font is papyrus. I mean that makes perfect sense.

Very nice, Nikki. I've always been a kind of new Roman kind of guy. Wow. Definitely an impact. Bald and large. He hates papyrus. Anybody who hates, hates papyrus. But this is as bad as Comic Sans. But if the objective is that we're going to ruin the reputation of the newspaper, I feel like Comic Sans is the way to go. I don't think I'm supposed to ruin it. So, I guess...

I think that there may be value in sowing some chaos, but are we ready to jump to that conclusion yet? No, we're not. We're actually, we need to go talk to someone important. So how do we get from here to talking to someone important inside that building who might have the decision rights over...

how this paper is messaging and what it says to the masses. We also need to figure out who that man was that they employed and put on their payroll to do renovations on this barn. I think that's really why we're here. Shouldn't we just wait until nobody's there? Because the whole reason we're here is that they were paying for the tunnel that led to the horrible, drunken, anti-evil, demon, bold, blabbering thing. I mean, blabbering thing. LAUGHTER

Hey, Lubin, hey, god of the world, is there any justifiable reason why anyone would just be standing in the middle of this fucking district for no reason? There are people that are walking around and might be having a late lunch or a late dinner. Yeah, people are milling about. You see that there seems to be a much heavier guard presence. The soldiers are walking around. The internal police are walking around. They're not.

Yes, exactly. There are more of them. And they seem to not be paying you too much mind. I think the general idea is that if you manage to, especially in this district, you manage to get through with your papers and everything, that you are generally going to be fine. And so you occasionally get the occasional glance of a pair or more of guards.

- And members of the military police. - Well, let's go over to that street cart over there and grab some euros. And you know what I think we should do as we eat? Let's keep an eye out for someone who fits the description of the dude that you heard about in the first place that brought us here. - I think that's a great idea. - And if we see him, then maybe we can, you know, I don't know. - What do they look like?

He was bold, he hid a beard. He's apparently loud and obnoxious. Well, then he might be pretty easy to find. That's what I'm hoping for. What was the name of the girl that you were with? I didn't catch her name. I thought it would be best if we didn't trade names. Oh, that poor girl. His name was... Shade of Shame. Shade of Shame.

It's kind of a safety-- He had a bulb-- he was short, had a bulbous red nose, and was bald, and-- Yeah, I wrote that down. That's what I had. A bulbous red nose! I wrote that down. I'm like a real looker. Yeah, short, squat, balding, bulbous nose, spent a lot of money, he's a human. If there's street food, I will go and start to acquire some, and then I will look around for someone fitting the description of what Felix has told me. So there aren't only street foods, you know that there's a number of cafes and like,

higher end shops like that and bistros, that sort of thing. And I would say that this building is on some small square where you'd be able to look across from an outdoor table. It's getting a little chilly, but there's still outdoor seating. And you're able to-- would probably be able to just watch people come and go out of the-- - This place looks charming. I'm going to get myself some sky quiche. What do you guys think? - Sounds fantastic.

And it's called the Veneno Bistro. And you all manage to get some sky quiche. It's a lot of egg-based things. How did you know they'd have sky quiche? You know, as soon as you think of a pun, it's going to be somewhere. And you do that.

And you all enjoy, and you're all just kind of sitting there, sitting at some various tables, just kind of keeping an eye on things. And I'll just say the whole experience for the kind of place that you're in probably cost you 15 gold pieces.

It's pretty damn expensive. Wow. 15 gold. Per person? No, no, totally. Two at a piece. What? I just had Vata. That's like two a piece, basically. Two or three a piece. Yeah, three a piece. No, I'm kidding. As you do that, right before the day ends, you see a door, a small side door that no one's been going in and out of.

and you see a very well-dressed man step out of it. He is in a tawny three-piece suit, and he has a chain of a pocket watch that's going into his pocket, and he pulls it out, and he looks at it. Silver watch, beautiful.

closes it. You look at him and he has kind of this salt and pepper hair, super slipped to the side, and a thick mustache, and a tiny little V goatee. And he looks at it, and he looks around, closes the watch, and he leaves. Makes his way down the promenade, heading towards the citadel of the Queen's Conqueror. And as

And as you all wait, you start to see the workers from the press and the bindery start to clock out. You see men and women covered in ink, their hands completely, some of them completely black, or their hands covered in cuts and the like from the bindery, roughed up, and they all seem to be looking pretty rough as they are all kind of

clocking out and you see that as the door opens they're entering punch cards and eventually making their way out. The sun sets, the night goes on a little bit and then you see that the last oil lamp goes out at about 8:00 and you see one person walking out. As the door closes

Large chains are wrapped along through the handles of the entrance. The heavy padlock locked up and you see the person that leaves is squat, bulging, and turns around. He has a large bulbous nose and he seems to have a very kind of simple custodian outfit, booking outfit.

as he seems to have been there, kind of cleaning up after everybody, and then he's the last one to leave and locks up and he starts walking. Well, I, uh, don't know about you guys, but, uh, we can do some-- one of-- one of many things right now. I'm-- I'm kind of inclined to, uh, fade into nothingness, go and take his keys, and then we can let ourselves in with, like, you know, uh, whenever we want. How does that sound to everyone? Is it the guard that picks the guard? That's the-- that's the-- That's the dog guard! Well, he fits the description. I mean,

We might as well find out where he's going. Regardless, he has keys to me. Right, I agree. I do feel it's kind of weird that a guy that's selling weapons is the same key holder to a newspaper factory, but okay, we can go take his keys. Yeah, the guy selling weapons was a totally different guy.

Yeah. Wasn't that the guy that you were talking to? No, that was Reiner Softbreaker. No, that-- his dude. So, you actually didn't tell us anything about the guy that you talked to. Oh. So we don't know anything about him. I mean, I mentioned it. Yeah, yeah. You specifically mentioned Reiner, because I don't remember you ever mentioning his name. He mentioned that weapons weren't being sold. Yeah, I mentioned that I talked to the guy. We don't know anything about Reiner, though.

That-- Correct. Right? I'm just making sure we're all on the same page of what we know. He told you about a guy named Reiner Saltbreaker. Yes, he's a weapon seller. But-- and about his shop. But I don't think you told us any of that.

I thought you did. I thought you mentioned something. Is that the guy that... That's the guy that you massage and shit. That's his name? Yeah. I don't even remember that. It was Rayner. So, R-A-I-N? R-A-Y-N. So not Ryan. I would have told you what I wrote. I'm saving my time. That I talked to the guy. So just so I understand that, the guy that she was in the room with, his name is Rayner? Rayner, yes. And he owns a shop? Rina in mind. Yes. Okay.

He owns a blacksmithing shop, a weapon shop. That person is different than the description of the... Yes, of the newspaper guy.

- The newspaper guy. - The newspaper guy that we just saw who the young lady told me about. - True. - Yes. So the guy that we saw locking up the newspaper joint is the one that the young lady was describing to me. - Okay, so this guy doesn't have a bulbous nose? - No, that's that guy. - Okay, got it, sorry, I'm getting-- - Oh, welcome to the orange unicorn. - It's a lot of-- - We've gotten more information in this session than any session so far. - Yeah, I apologize for that. - No, that's okay. - Major cities. - Right, right.

If you guys have a better idea, that's fine, but I could just poke into the shadows and see if I could just boop boop that V-ring right there. Can you do anything like make him our friend and then we can get information from him? I mean, I can't just make people into friends. I can suggest actions to folk. I can kind of warm up to them, but immediately after I warm up to folks when I do it magically, they become quite hostile.

It's also getting kind of late, and I haven't really done any of the things that I can do. I can easily get in and out of the building if there's a window. So then why don't you worry about getting inside of the building? Why don't you go not capture him, but you could make yourself invisible and pretend to be like a disembodied voice.

and you could suggest to him to give us everything he knows, but mainly you, 'cause he'll be invisible, so he won't realize that anyone did it to him. He just thinks he's crazy. - I feel like I'm just gonna try for the keys first, and if he notices, then I can make a suggestion. - That's what I was gonna say.

I mean, you want-- I could question him, but... Is it-- it's getting dark? It's already dark. So, like, are there alleyways on either side of the building that you can, like, walk around the building? So yeah, there is an alleyway towards the back, and there's a larger kind of promenade around it, but there is an alleyway along the backside. I'm--

While you do that, I'm just going to go take a look at the building. I'm not going to do anything crazy. I just want to go see what the building looks like and if there are windows and things like that. Will Lubin join you? Because... Lubin, if you'd like to go with me, I might feel a little bit better about it. I would like to go with you as well, but just keep in mind my fault of trying to actually question him. I trust nobody but you to do it. Oh, I'll think about it. If you ladies would keep an eye out for us, just, you know, maybe give us a signal if you see anyone coming.

Yeah, make it make the sound of like a dying giraffe. What? It's like a... Whoa. God. What is a giraffe? Excuse you. If you hear a very large, loud, dwarven burp... That's a good point. I'll just burp. Yeah. Oh, that's fine. I mean, the thing is, it happens so often. What if it was just like a normal burp? I'm running out of time. I gotta follow this guy. Bye. All right, I'm gonna run up behind you. I mean, Al...

And I'm going to just look nonchalantly and then just follow very closely behind Felix. So you guys are all going together? I just want to go look at the actual building. No, we're not going together. I'm just going to basically protect Felix as he walks up to the building. So it's up to you guys what you'd like to do.

I just want to go take a look at the building. I've started following the guy. I am going to slink in the shadows behind him, staying about 60 feet away from him. Behind me? Okay, cool. Do I know that? No, probably not. Silcha? And for me it's-- Silcha. How big is the building?

The building is a very large two-story building. As you kind of looked in, the main floor, like the factory, had very high ceilings, and it seemed like there was a smaller second floor, but still very large. Like how high? I would say probably...

Probably 25 feet would be the height of the level, the height of the ceilings in the press room and the vine tree. I just want to go down between the buildings where it might be darker and see if I can like peer into a window. Just take a look. So you take a gander at the, into the window and it's basically kind of the gist of what you saw. It's very dark and you had seen it during daytime.

And you see the moon is kind of rising up and it's not full, it's probably waxing. And the... it's illuminating slightly, the presses, the huge vats of ink, the stacks and stacks and stacks of paper that are all getting ready to be twined up and sent in. You're not really sure how long you have before this is... before people actually start coming to start delivering papers and more.

And so you all look around and sort of see stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks of paper as well as this. As you kind of poke your way in, you do see, however, that it's not all just empty factory floor with presses and papers. That there's also seems to be a number of offices. Maybe where the writers sit? So in the room, in the room, there are places

It's just an open floor. It's an open factory floor. And the wall just appears to be a wall. And there are walls where there seem to be offices that you're not really sure where the reporters are. And you notice there is a stairwell that leads up to the second floor on the back side. I turn to Toa and Revali and say, "Alright, well that was basically all I wanted to see. If we need to, I can get an in and out of there." Okay.

Okay. You can just use your magic just to get us in? I haven't done it, but I've been studying it for a long time, and I think I can do it, yeah. I think we should get back to the room. Well, not all of us. That's just me. If we go in, we should all go in together. I agree. I'm just saying, if there's something... If we only need to get in and out for a second, we can't get the keys, I can go in and grab something and get out instantly. Okay. Very well. And, uh, let's see how Caprice and...

Yeah, agreed. Let's head back. And so, what were your stealth rolls? 15. 15? 18. 18. What were your stealth rolls, by the way? Oh, do we stealth? Yes. I have not rolled it. I mean, were you stealthing or were you just walking up? I guess you, yeah. I mean, I was totally stealthing. Yeah, yeah. I was attempting. Oh, God. I'm going

I'm gonna fucking die when I... And welcome Charizard. Oh, welcome Charizard. Oh, Charizard. Let us know. That's a clever name, I like it. I'm a Sam. I got a 22, surprisingly. Wow.

Oh, might be a 17. I think you're alright. I might be alright here, let me check. Oh dear. Oh wait, stealth. Sorry. 15. 15, okay. Yes, so basically that just was retroactive, that whole endeavor also rolled for a volley. And so, Iris, you are slinking through like a literal alley. Your kind of bright yellow eyes

reflecting just a slight moonlight and a nice warm glow from the street lamps. And a lamp lighter can already come and lit the lamps. And so it's dark, but there's still kind of this warmth coming out of a lot of the shops and residential areas. Thank you, Charla! Oh, thank you, Charla Zart! You're a

And remember, if we hit our follower goal, which is what, 800? Yeah. If we hit 800, a hefty, hefty, hefty getaway. We're 13 away. 13 away. And it's going to be done in chat, so you've got to be in chat when it happens. Keep watching. Keep watching. Got to be here. So, Iris, you are watching Caprice, and you're saying 100, you're matching his speed perfectly. He has no idea that you're behind him.

And Caprice, you are following this guy who's leaving. He has like a...

A heavy material of pants and it seemed to be covered in overalls. He has a dirty rag hanging out of his pocket and he just seems to be covered in all sorts of grime and he's kind of waddling away and he stops. He says he's heading towards this small restaurant on the side. I have two questions. Yes. Do I see a place where it would be, where I would feel comfortable turning invisible

and not being noticed by anybody? Or what was your cell phone? Do you remember your cell phone? 18. 18. I would say that you feel like you could probably duck behind the hedge of a park or something like that. And perhaps more important, do I see the keys or has he pocketed them somewhere?

He seems to have pocketed, but I would say that because you had just seen him lock up, you saw that he took the ring of keys and put it in the front overall pocket. Oh boy. The front of the front or the back of the back? The front of the front. Okay. Not as bad. Hmm. Hmm.

He seems to be not paying a whole lot of attention. Hamter. I'm going to just follow behind him. I'm not going to go totally insane and do something wacky crazy yet. I'm going to just in myself follow behind him. I'm hoping to see if he...

turns around. If he doesn't turn around in the next like five, ten minutes then I might take a more dramatic action but I want to see if he like stops at a bar or stops anywhere where he's turning off. So you see a small little cafe that's open probably close to closing that makes all sorts of like sandwiches or whatever and he starts to walk. He's about 15 feet away from the exit and there's this small little cafe that he

starting to alter. And he turns into it? He turns into it. And it doesn't look like he might sit down for whatever beverage or food he might enjoy? Yes, it does. So he at least, you see the door open and a bell rings and you see a large number of boards besides the counter and some seating areas there and there's all sorts of different sandwiches and that kind of thing and he stops in and the door shuts off.

I will walk in. Okay. And I will see if he's there at a table. You walk in and you see that he's at the counter and he's like, "Yeah, can I get aaaaaaaaaaa?" No!

Are you invisible right now, or are you just super like... No, I'm visible. So the bell rings. Normally, it seems to notice you as, besides the person is currently taking his order, he orders kind of just like a, you know, roast beast on some kind of, you know, simple bread, a simple cheap sandwich. And he sits there as they make it behind the counter, and then they finish it, they wrap it all up, and he takes it like, oh, thank you kindly. And then he walks over to a table, and he sits down, and he

- Does he appear to be alone? - He's alone. - I will order the exact same sandwich. And I will walk up to him and I will sit down in front of him. - Okay, I would say that sandwich would run you three swords. That's the sandwich that you're in. - That's three hookers of milking. - Three hookers of milking is how much this sandwich costs. - Three hookers of milking. - Five golden rings. - I'll sit down in front of him and we're like, listen, we don't have a lot of time.

He looks at you and blinks a few times. His face is like really flush. And as you realize, he's kind of stuffing his pocket where he normally probably would have put the keys, he's sticking the flask back in there. As his face is flush and his nose is all even more flush. He sits down and he blinks and he says, excuse me, friend?

Well, I know I don't look familiar to you right now, but it's because of a... Are there windows? Because I was 60 feet behind. Yes, there are windows. Would I be able to find a place outside where I can see them within 60 feet? I would say you could walk around the other side and then triangulate in this position. And you see Caprice. I'm just going to walk them and...

Do nothing. And you just look, act casual, and you look in. It's very well lit, and the windows aren't huge, but they're big enough that you're able to see Capricious sit down at his table. I'm keeping my voice low so that no one else at the table can hear. I see you enjoy the nip. I know myself that I very much enjoy the nip as well, because I am you. You see that, Felix?

- What are you doing? - I am you from the future. I'm here and we only have this evening in order to take care of business. You need to give me your keys back right away. - Do you look like a tiefling? - Otherwise, I do not look, I look like a tiefling. I'm just telling you this information. I know how I look. In order to prevent this from happening, you need to give me those keys right now and you need to just let me go do what I need to do. Otherwise, the timeline is gonna be totally screwed up and we will be forever cursed as a devil.

Well, Felix is prepared to die. He blinks a few times and he says, Well, you look way more handsome than I do. That doesn't sound so bad. Yes, but my penis has literally fallen off. Yes, but my penis has literally fallen off.

- Can you make a persuasion joke at disadvantage against a drunk guy? - Why don't you have some basketi? - Persuasion at disadvantage? - I can't even say it. - Bas-keti. - 18. - Incredible. - He blinks. - I can prove it if I have to, but we can't do it in here. - He reaches out. He's like, "I'm gonna need another drink!" - Oh, that's the result of the six of pentagrams.

I'll only do it for a moment. What are we gonna do? It's what I have to do. I'm here to just get the keys, please. Well, prove it then. Let's go. I'm taking my sandwich. Wait, no, you... Just... I look both ways, and then I very quickly disguise self to look exactly like him. And then I pop it back off, and I'm like, Do you understand the danger of us losing our penis? Yes.

This is fucking unreal. We don't have time now! The longer we've been here, the more of a risk there is to the timeline! Can you make it for space? Oh my god. 30. No! No!

Is that a nat 20? 18. He blinks and he like rubs his eyes. He's like, I need another one of these. I'm with you and I take a flip. Okay, what do I need to do? I don't want my peers to fall off. All you need to do is go back to bed. Not worry about it. I just need the key so that I can get back into the newspaper and correct this timeline. Oh, okay.

- Good luck, Wellington. - If all is well, you'll have the keys in the morning and nothing will have changed. And I thank you. - He looks down at his flask. - Have an extra sandwich on me. - On you. - And he sits down and he just grabs, he puts his flask back in, he double fists the sandwiches.

You caused irreparable mental damage to this poor person. I get to the door and I turn back and look at him and I'm just like, "You did the right thing." And then I leave. Wow! And you leave the establishment, keys in your possession.

And you start walking. I start to make my way. I don't know if I see Iris there, but I start to make my way back to the business district. I'm just going to continue to follow him. Okay. I would say you're not, what's your perception? My passive is 15. 15. You roll higher than that, right? I rolled 15. Yeah. So he would see you, right? I sort of do this, and then I, underneath my cape, just sort of give like a little key jangle, and then do one of these. And I'll follow along. Okay. Okay.

So you kind of make yourself aware and then Iris tails you as the two people with tails walk away and they head back to the cafe where everyone had been casing out the place. And I would say that you all arrive back at the same time. Okay. Well, I got the keys, everybody.

I think we're still inside at the bar. Yeah, I would have like kind of stayed at the table. How'd that go? Oh yeah, it went fine. I mean, I told the guy, uh, I explained our situation and just sort of like, he seemed very reasonable about the whole thing. He was willing to part with the keys very easily. You didn't tell him who we were? No, no, no. I just explained how important it was that we went into... No, I'm fine. I totally fucked with his friend.

Oh fuck, what did you do? You know, it's probably best if I didn't describe it to you in full, it was pretty fucked up. You used your spells and he told you exactly what was going on with the tunnel, right? No, no, I pretty much just used this guy's spells. What did he say about the tunnel?

I'm sorry? What did he say about building the tunnel for months? Nothing, I didn't ask him about that. All I wanted to do was get the keys. So... Felix told you before we left that he could get us inside the building. Alright, alright, alright. I thought he said that he could get himself inside the building, not all of us. Well, assuming that... He wasn't there when he said that. Okay.

Oh my god, I'm dying. Alright, alright, listen. I was only saying that if we had to get in and out for a second, I could do that. But if we have the keys, we can come and go as we want, like you mentioned. But I just want to make sure we know what we're doing before we go snooping around in someone's building in a very rich area of town where they will throw us in jail forever.

Can we try to track this guy? Like, is there anything we can... any kind of spells we can put on him? Just so that we can find him later tonight if we need to? This guy that I just stuck to? I mean, I know where his favorite sandwich is. He and I are very close now. I'm not too worried about finding him again. I worry that we're getting a little... We don't really have a plan at this point. Rivali, you got anything? Well, I guess we're using the keys to get in.

What are we looking for when we go in there? We have to find the place. I'm sure there's something on this tunnel. Just evidence. We're just looking for the next clue? I thought we were going to get inside the building and find out if this place was legitimately concerned about its issues or if it was being propaganda on purpose. All right. Well, then can we at least not try to go through the front door and see if that key works on maybe a different entrance? First, I just don't want to try to waltz right through the front door. I just want to remind everybody that this is the company that paid for the tunnel that connects the capital city to the horrible

- We haven't forgotten why we have to go inside. - Keep it down. - I mean, I'm burnt. - Are we all back at the inn now or? - No, we're standing across the street from the-- - Yeah, we're just yelling this in the middle of the street. - We're just having a full on meltdown in the middle of the road. - Ravalli looks at me and says, "I think,

Well, the fact that Gaelstrom left, we saw Gaelstrom leave. I'm pretty sure that was him. So you think that the building is completely empty? I think it is. But it's a matter of, I mean, we don't know what kind of security they have. We don't know if they're coming to deliver papers. But if all we have are the keys, we need to find some kind of evidence. We need to find some kind of clues. Well, let's try to just not go through the front door. Let's try to find a side or back entrance.

Everyone's gonna see us take the chains and hear us take the chains off the building. Didn't you guys just walk around the perimeter of the building? I just went down the alley to see if I could see inside the building. I didn't scope- the building's enormous. I didn't really have time to scope every side. Alright, well. Let's just- let's go. Let's take a look. Alright. And I'll follow closely behind. Okay.

So, you make your way around and you see that there are a number of keys on this key ring. And there's one that's a bit larger, but there's a few smaller ones. You arrive around to the side entrance on the left side of the building that had that smaller door where Gaelstrom had walked out. And you're standing there.

Listen, if we try the key here and if they've got some sort of security, we might need to like get out of here quick. Well, I kept my invisibility, so you guys are on your own. I'll try the first key. I want to stand within 10 feet of everyone now that I've seen that action is happening so that they can benefit from my aura of thickness. You, uh, with Persia radiating her aura of thickness, not just Moradin. It's not my finish!

I didn't even realize until this moment. It's not just Moradin's power, it's the thickness of the aura. And you try the first key and it doesn't work. Alright, I'll loop it back and then I'll try the next one. I'll try the big one first. The big one does not even fit the key walls. Oh, okay. Huh, that's interesting. I'm glad I got these keys. They could be... Anyways, I'll try the next one. That one does not work?

That one does. As you hear it and you hear the locking mechanism give way and it seems to be unlocked. I'll look at the key and try to memorize the actual nature of the teeth on it so that I can remember it in the future. Okay, you do. That's the one and then I'll let it jangle down with the rest of them and then put it in my pocket. You do that and you unlock it.

The door swings open to a very dark room, number of small windows, and it seems to be some kind of office.

- We did it guys. - It only took 10 hours. - Seven hours. - We did it. - We did it. - So, I'm just trying to get my shit off the map here. - I would say that with the reconnaissance that you all did,

you would have a full understanding of the layout. - This is the Zen format, if you wanna keep that. - I have to. - Keeping this hidden? - I have to keep all this shit hidden. - Come on in and I'll walk into the office. - I'll be directly behind Caprice. - Okay. So as you walk in, it seems as if you are in a writer's room. There are a large number of

There's three desks, and with a chair at each with paper strewn across it. Ink and quills, inks and quills all over the place. You see a lot of handwritten manuscripts and documents all written over in this small office. And you look right ahead and there's a door going out into the main room that you've used. And there seems to be a small closet off to the side as well. I'm gonna cast Darkvision on myself. Okay.

So you channel the power of your arcane magic and suddenly you can see as well as almost everybody here. Hold on. Should we get... Should someone go back and close the door and lock it? Well, how do we lock it from the inside? I don't know. I just feel like it looks kind of suspicious with it open right now. I kind of agree. Can anyone go around the door or lock it from the inside? Well, just check to see if the lock has a... There might just be like a bolt thing you can tear. No, no. It's two handles with chains running through it. That's the front door.

Isn't that what we're talking about? We tried to find a side entrance. We're in a side entrance. Yeah. This is the front door. We didn't want to just walk through the front door because it was all chained up and it would be loud and noisy in there. So we close the door and lock it. Yep. That seems okay. You do that. Big whoop. Now we can resume our regularly scheduled programming. You do that. You close and lock the door behind you. It's quietly locked. And you all look around and you're in the middle of what seems to be a writer's room.

- Well, let's start looking through these papers. I mean, we're not visible from the outside. - While everybody's looking, I'm just gonna walk up to this door and poke my head out into the-- - Okay. - See if it's locked. Yeah, I'm just peeking out. Is the door locked? I wanna see if this door was locked. - So you give it a quick test and it turns. It does not seem to be locked. - I'm just gonna kinda peek out and see if there's anybody in the rest of the newsroom. - You peek out and you see what seems to be a smaller office.

directly ahead, as well as a door, I should have drawn that as well, a door here to what seems to be a stairwell and a smaller corner office directly ahead of you. And you see that it seems to have windows all around, but they're all completely covered by curtains.

I'll help investigate. Is there any like filing cabinets or... In here? Yeah. Yeah, no, there's a good number of like documents and all sorts of different cabinets filled with all sorts of papers and you see all

What was the G guy's name that runs this?

Gaelstrom. Wylan Gaelstrom. Wylan Gaelstrom. Oh, so it's his, okay, the paper name is, full name is Wylan Gaelstrom. So that's like the owner. That's like Mr. Gaelstrom. Can I take a look around and see if I see like a fancy office that might be possible? Directly ahead was the fancy office. Oh, okay. Does it show Wylan Gaelstrom? I'm going to take 10 minutes to cast a tech magic on the front door of the office. Okay, you do that. While everybody's looking, I'm just going to ritually cast. So the rest of us will like just go through the office, the writer's office, see if we can find, at least I'll be looking for anything related to

Do you want to be looking for like invoices or like pay statements? Yeah, like anything related to, I'll be looking for anything related to either tunnels or like... Tunnels, the Clockwood Forest, the, what was the other band, the flyer that we saw in the post? Wasn't just, not trusting strangers.

Yeah, yeah, strangers. Any of the major stories that we know about that are circulating. Or anything related to bull demons, like anything that they might not publish but that they have personally. Yeah, I'd be looking for like, kind of like, sent in things. Like things that people have sent in to be covered. That may have been discarded.

- You see that there is a number of bins on the ground that have the, make an investigation check actually. - Can I help her? Actually, it's a great idea. - Investigation check, what's an advantage? - Who? - Who's he? - Who's he? - Who's he? - Who's he?

Ooh, I have a plus zero, so that's 16. So as you're looking around, you find some bins, and there are some fine scraps of formerly shredded documents or torn apart documents. And it seems as if you find a little bit, and you seem to be some kind of handwriting on it, you get the sense that maybe letters that had been sent in are just being scrapped. Ooh. Oh, Capricci, do you have that spell that...

I'm going to like... Put things together? Oh yeah, it'll take me about a minute, but let's just assemble these to paper and see if I can create... That's a great idea. I'm like really bad at puzzles, but you'll see me like... No, no, I love this shit. And I'll like sit down cross-legged on the floor. I got Herja next to me and I'm just like...

I'm trying to piece them together. - As she's doing that, I'm just actually casting Mending. - Yeah, she's putting it places and your thing is like moving it back around to where it actually is. - So just to clarify that it seems as if this has been emptied, but the janitor guy that you stole keys from seemed to have just forgotten, like he didn't fully get it.

- I thought he was a fancy guy. Who was the fancy guy we saw last week? - The fancy guy was the owner of the-- - That was Wyland Gaelstrom himself. - That was not who you went after, though. - No, I went after what apparently was the custodian who went to a whorehouse in the Whore's District and bragged about something with the-- - Got it, okay. - I should have asked him more questions, but I didn't understand what Toa was saying at the time.

So I can't mend these pieces of paper in to complete a message? You would not be able to. It's just like a little one or two scraps and that was it. The magic's not working. I don't think all the messages here, I'm sorry to say. I'll start looking through the other bins that maybe in your mind. At least it knows it's a, you know. Well, I'm going to look at what's on the surface of these desks. Do they look like in progress stories or completed stories? It looks like there were some that were in progress.

And I'll say that part of the investigation chat, you get a number of, you see that there are some full things that are written and you are seeing that there is editorializing. Things are, entire paragraphs are being scrapped out and that says basically,

You actually find a story, I would say, on the sound of drums that people have been hearing. Oh shit. Oh shit! You actually find one on the desk that has been completely scrapped out. And there is a note in very fine, fine penmanship that says, DK. DK.

Doesn't want this published. The DK or decay? And that's on the same... That's on, it seems as if, and this is also in the same handwriting as like crossouts and editor's notes and that kind of thing. Hmm. I wonder if I could use mending to undo notes to the original story.

- I'll try that. Can I use mending to remove the editorial-- - I would say that you were able to read the whole thing. It just scratched out a single line. - I appreciate that, but I would like to remove evidence that it was scratched out and decayed in the first place. - I would say that that would-- I don't know if that would be the case. - I think mending just basically reassembles things that have been broken apart. - There's a script spell I think you can do for that, but I don't remember what it is. - I'll think. - 10 minutes pass.

You finish your challenge, and you feel a glow of magic. I should be able to determine the school? It is abjuration. Protection magic. Okay. Yes, yes it is. Okay, then I'm gonna turn around. Let me just make sure real quick.

And that lasts for some time. Ten minutes, yeah. I'm gonna sweep, I'm gonna sweep, oh shit. Yeah, so first I'm gonna come back to the room and I'm gonna say, uh...

Caprice, there's another door over here, but there appears to be some sort of magic over it, some protection magic, so we need to be careful moving forward. I've got about ten minutes left of the spell, so I'm going to do a sweep of this floor, I'll check this room and just see if I can find anything else, but we need to be careful not to trip any alarms. Have you guys found anything?

Nothing too great at this point. I would just have you tread softly, all right? You sure you didn't find anything? I mean, there's some editorialization happening here, and there's some ripped up papers and stuff, but nothing that's damaged in the way that I was hoping. Can I... Yeah. Do you mind if I take it? Well, just hang on to the editorial maybe. Okay.

Okay, if you didn't think there was anything of value, it's fine. I'm leaving it right here on the desk. You know where to find it if you need to. Sure. And I'll just, while they're looking, I'm going to walk around this room, just a sweep, continuing to do my ten minutes of detect magic. And then I'm going to use the rest of the time to just walk up and down the aisles and look at these desks, I'm assuming. Are these printing machines? Those are all like the presses and the binders. Okay, well I'm going to just walk through them, walk along the outside and try to detect magic for ten minutes. You find abjuration at this door.

abjuration at the main door and you, yeah, and as you're getting back. Nothing from where we came in. From where you came in, abjuration. Oh, fuck. All right, guys, we may have made a boo-boo. I'm detecting some abjuration on the door that we came in as well. Yeah, what does that mean? I don't know this. Well, it's strange to me because we waltzed right in using the key and the magic is still there. That's because I just locked it.

So you think that the key somehow temporarily disabled the... I'm not much of an abjuration guy, but maybe you're right. I don't know. Let's make sure we proceed using only the keys. Maybe we can get into the nice office across the way then. I just don't want to risk it.

Well, think about it. I think the question honestly is your alarm spell, is that an abjuration spell? Because it's very possible that we triggered some kind of alarm and we're not even aware of it. I believe that it is, but I will double check for you. Well done. So Felix, does it look like this key also- Yes it is, it's level one abjuration. Well, that's actually a really great point. I just not really, this isn't really my specialty. I didn't even think about it. Does the key look like it's glowing too?

Nope. Not really, no. In that case, an ordinary key is more than likely not going to nullify a spell, so more than likely we triggered some kind of alarm. As soon as we say that, Revali looks at you and says, well, we need to get into this office, and he points at the name, and it says, uh, Gaelstrom. Well, if we've already triggered the alarm, we might as well just try all the keys and get in. Get in, get out, quick!

I run up to the door and I start trying the next key after the one that I used to open the outside. I'm gonna man this door here while they're doing it, just in case anyone tries to come through. So, you're keeping an eye out. You make a check out, please. Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. Not good with those.

Oh, actually I rolled pretty high. 18. 18? Okay, so you're just keeping an eye out at that door. So you are gonna try a key, you try the first key, and it works. You hear it unlock. Do you still detect magic on this? I try. Yeah, I just wave my hand. You wave your hand. Absorption. It's still there, but I mean, we've already tripped. Like Iris said, we've already tripped it. I appreciate that, but...

Dispel magic. I will dispel that magic. And as soon as you unlock it, you dispel that magic and then Felix, you feel the abjuration disappear. Oh, it works. Let's go. Yeah, I know. And then I walk in. Okay. You walk in to an office that is just beautiful.

rich mahogany furniture, a large desk, papers all around it, but perfectly neat in perfect piles. There is art on the walls. There is this sculpture of a beautiful naked woman. A sculpture? Yeah, a sculpture. And just like...

just kind of rising her arms up into the air and there is a very plush chair behind this desk and you see a metal plaque and beautiful elegant cursive that says Wyland Gaelstrup

I think we were in his office. Yeah, makes sense. I'm gonna continue to detect magic for the duration, see if there's anything else in here. You basically sweep the whole room and it seems like now with that Dispel Magic, there's nothing in the room that- What a weird guy. What'd he make of this statue? I don't know. Is it like a religious thing?

Nothing I've iris you guys are in this a statue of a woman a beautiful woman unless you're she's me Let me follow this in you're not looking at this right now. Oh, we're in a different Are we I mean are we done in the right? I would say that that's probably the most the general just I was staying with you guys I was yeah, I would say I would say that everybody's why don't we just say the group is Derek right now? Yeah Except for me. I'm at the door. Oh, okay. That's fine. You're many watch

Yeah, I would take a look at the statue and see if it looks like anything religious at all or if it just seems to be some kind of horny statue. I would say make a religion check. Doesn't have any horns. No, no, no, no. Starburst. No, I know nothing.

- John Snow. - You know nothing. - Seven. - Seven. And so it seems as if, it just seems like a uniform. - You didn't get any magic off that statue? - No, none, none. - You guys ever seen Indiana Jones? And I put my hands on the tits and kind of give it a push.

Just give it a push and nothing happens. That's not a reference we understand in this universe. Well, it was a whole show back in the- there was a- you know, it's- What is a show? Is that like a theater? Exactly. Like a play? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, a play is sort of the hoity-toity way of saying show. What he means to say is that the show is a redneck way of saying play. Yeah. And my neck is pretty red. You're a tiefling. Everything about you is red. We're wasting time. Is there a- does he have a desk?

Yeah, there's a very large mahogany desk. It's not magic. Try some keys. I'll help you go through it. See if it's unlocked. I'll try the drawers. I would say you try the drawers and...

Everything seemed to be locked. Nothing seemed to work. Even the keys are not working. I'm gonna come in and just sit in the chair and spin while they're like trying to do something. You sit in the chair and you're spinning around, spinning around. You know, I know how to use these tools, but I don't have any. The next time we go down to a shopping district, I swear to God, if no one reminds me that these tools exist and that I need to buy them, we're gonna have words for myself. You can use these tools? Yeah. And you don't have any? No.

Good thing I do. And Revali steps up. Caprice, I expected better of you. Damn. I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. I'm gonna kick my feet up on the desk and be like, what a man. That's like a... And he... My cast enemy is about. He swats your feet off and it's like excellent. And he crouches down and pulls out his ease tools.

And he starts to try to work on the first one. Well, if anyone can do it, he can. I give him Bardic Inspiration. And then while he's working, I'm actually going to summon Beatrice and telepathically tell her to just watch the back door with... Okay. Can I get an additional perception check for you? Yeah, sure. Who are you calling again? Beatrice. Beatrice. Okay. I gave him Bardic Inspiration for his Deep School. Oh, she should have managed.

I'm just whirling. Okay. So you see him pull out these long, slender tools, and he's like, well, there's... These are the kind of skills that you learn growing up in the Seven Heavens. Twelve. Twelve. Okay, so she flies up and she perches on Herge's shoulder and helps keep an eye out. And all of a sudden you hear a... And he's like, okay, I'm in the next one.

until six drawers on the desk are picked. And he pulls out and they're all just completely filled with paper. And he's like, I need, we need to go through this right now. Everyone take a drawer. I'm going to start like speed reading. Everyone do an investigation check. I'm going to grab, yeah. Take a...

- Hersha, can you give me one more perception roll, please? - Oh, baby, look at that. - Hell yeah. - You're efficient, right? - Yeah, I got a 25. - 25? - For investigation. - 20. - 20. - I got a 19, I think. Hold on, let me confirm here. - 15. Nine for perception, but does Beatrice affect me at all, or does she roll a separate roll? - I would say Beatrice will roll a separate perception. - Ooh, dream. - Beatrice. - One more perception for Beatrice. - Oh, sorry, my fault.

I got an 18. 14. Oh, sorry, she's advantage, she's advantage, she's advantage. 14. Got it. It's better than mine. Okay, so as you're all working your way through, you all find just kind of boring things, correspondence. Keep going with the theme. And everything seems to be kind of out of the ordinary.

Until you... You mean ordinary? See, everything seems ordinary. Until you find each of you a number of documents that seem to be written in a very chaotic, jagged script. Oh boy. Jesus. I'm looking after all the pages that look like chaotic. I throw them in. I could preach. Infernal Abyssal. Abyssal. Oh my god.

All of these seem to be the same script in the same hand. Guys, this is... But they're not the same... It's a different writing, right? They're all different. They're different letters. They're all at the very bottom of every single pile of paper. He said written in a whistle. What is it? He said written in a whistle. It's written in a whistle. This is apropos to say, but this is bullshit. Can you read it? I mean, I can, but what if we just took it and read it later when we have time? I agree. I agree. I agree. I think you were just...

We've already tripped an alarm. You'll know it's gone, though. That's fine. They already know people were in here. Fuck them. I agree. I agree. We take them and go. Revali, what do you think? I think that's the plan. Let's go. I put everything into my pack. All six drawers worth of papers right into my pack. Just the abyssal ones, right? Yeah.

- Empty the drawers. - Holy shit. - Okay. - That's a lot of paper, dude. - So I would say that's a lot to stuff. I would say you get the first ones. You're not gonna get, unless everyone's like shoving shit in, but like-- - Just take the abyssal. - So I would say-- - Fine, just the abyssal. I throw the rest on the ground. - Okay, it's scattered across. And as you make your way out of the door,

You hear glass shattering as all from throughout the Pretty Press workshop floor as a number of figures enter the building and fly in and land. They are all wearing hoods and metal and with the design of Ravens. I would like to use Phantom Caravan to get us all out.

I'm going to look out the door. Are they all together? - They are all-- - Can you show me where they're at? - I will show you exactly where they're at. - Thank you. - Oh, fuck. - Ooh, combat! - As they look, they repel, basically, as you see one at the head. - That was my idea.

- What? - Repelling, I really wanted to repell that. - One leaps in and it seems to be six of them have bows in their hand, long bows, with all these raven feathered arrows in their quivers. And one, however, seems to be holding a book. Seems to be holding a book and with a silver dagger. - I'm going to, in the very middle of them, put a 20 foot radius cube and cast Calm Emotions on all of them.

Which if they are aggressed towards us, they're no longer aggressed. If they fail, they're safe. I will do that. That's a charisma saving throw. So the cube is from you. No, I'm sorry. It's a sphere. 20 foot radius sphere. So it's a 20 foot radius, which means a 40 foot diameter. I think it's for each wave. So I want to put it there so it should be able to get at least most of that.

- Definitely most of them. - It's close. So if you put it here, you can basically get these guys, but not this one. - And that's fine. - Well, it's a sphere though, so the round-- - It's gonna be close on these guys, I don't know. - Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me place them actually where-- - Where's that thingy Andrew got you guys? - Yeah. - Oh yeah. - The ANWEE. - Oh, oh, oh, gotcha.

- I would say that they're-- - We can never go through a door without using the Earth. - I would say that they've gone in 15 feet on either side. I'm just trying to have a formation in this business. - 'Cause they would be at least organized. - That would be that. - So you could get three at once, I think. - You could either be them or them. - Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, right? - Hold on, it's 40. - It's 40 diameter. It's 20 radius.

So it's 20 in one half of the spoon. - Oh yeah. - Is this the business? - Yeah. - That's the business. - And you see all in black, black, grays, and silvers, billowing raven feather capes, and you see one at the center holding a book, polished black leather.

and a silver dagger. Oh, Jesus Christ. And his hands start to blow. I'm looking through the shades in the...

Because we're in the office. Yeah, I would say that basically as you're about to go, you hear that. So then, is that 20 feet? I don't know. No, that's way bigger than 20 foot radius. That's huge. Hold on, that's not. The smaller one should be 20 feet. This isn't 20, is this 20 feet? Yeah. No, that would be. No, I think that's 20 foot. I think that's a diameter, 20 foot diameter. That's 20 feet. That is exactly 20 feet.

Well, but can't you-- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, yeah. Yeah. Can't you get two people and then miss these four that way? I just won't cast it. Um, okay, so then, here's what I'm gonna say that I'm doing. When I hear the glass shatter, I'm immediately going to look through the blinds or whatever curtains are covering the windows, and I'm gonna see this description of the book in the dagger. Yes. I'm immediately gonna turn to the gang and say, "We need to get the fuck out of here right now!" And I'm going to cast Disguise Self on myself.

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Six of them. Raven Cloaks, as well as one, seems to be a caster of some kind. You see Felix say, "You need to get the fuck out of there right now." And he casts Disguise Self on himself. So now there's an old man, uh, there's an old man standing in front of you guys, and, but my voice is still Felix's voice. "That one! The one in the front! She's part of the Talon Guard! We have to go!"

No! What do you mean? Alright, well let's get the fuck out of here. Alright, that's fine. Let's go. Did you say we had a way to get out? No. Then, then I'm booking it. I'm booking it for the door. I'm literally running out of this door towards where Hershel is. Revali is going to put a, a, the back of his fist on your shoulder. He's, he's, he's sword's drawn. What are the chances that we are going to get out of here without killing all of them? We're not gonna fight. We can't fight this fight.

Here's a good point, can we really run away from them? They're gonna be eight times as fast as us! We can't take this out into the street. The door is locked, you asshole. We have the keys. No, it's not your turn. I have the keys. But the point is, we... Okay, fine. Did you run? Did you run? He stopped me. So you can feel free to... He's not actually stopping you. I'm telling you there's a good chance we all die here. Does anyone have any idea to get out of here? And then you see Revali's sheath and sword like, what are we gonna do here?

Is there a window in the room? Yes, there are windows in the room. Uh... Can we just break a window and just jump out? I suggest we try and run. I'm worried about getting caught in the street. Ravalli, do you have any idea if we kill them all here, can we go relatively... will we buy some time? He looks and says, well, his eyes are just darting back and forth. Didn't Homeheart give him a disappearance? I believe he said turn the music down. Oh, sorry, apologies, apologies. Thank you. How much did he give us?

I believe he gave three charges. I have one. Three charges of what? Dust of Disappearance. Let me see. I don't have any of my items. Again, that was when I didn't have my notes. I have one. I don't have one. I don't think I do either. I will say I took the other one, I believe. I believe we have three. I have one. I have one.

Yeah, I don't believe that I have one. I believe that we gave Felix one. Yeah, I feel like you guys... I think we wanted to give them to the people who would need to get out. I don't have my notes from last time. Is that in my book? We should use this. Let's do it. Well, I mean, I don't... If someone else needs to use this, I can escape. It's an AOA. Oh. Is it? Isn't it? Yes. I shuffle my pack. Get around.

And I throw it up into the air. - Herja, come on! - Am I allowed to move? - I would say-- - Oh, you were there? You never-- - Yeah, no, she's in there. - I'm the drummer with Beat Chris. - I mean, I would say I make everybody in the room invisible. So I'll throw it up. - Herja, use your dust! - No, no, I'll... - Oh, it's range touched, never mind. - All right.

Use Minor Illusion then. Can we go out that way? I use Minor Illusion to tell you that you are, um, that you need to run out into this office as quickly as possible because we're about to get out of here. Well, I wouldn't know that. I use Dust of Disappearance. Remind me how that works. And so everyone in ten feet of me becomes invisible for... Do we have to stay within... No, we don't have to stay. Just everybody around me, I use Dust. Give me four minutes. Sure.

Four minutes? That's not a lot of minutes. So you hear the chink as Toa reaches in his pack and you see Bert throw this mutton-chopped large human, chuck the dust down, and it boosh, and suddenly no one seems to appear to be in the room. And then you hear the shuffling of feet as you feel a kind of small body dart underneath you, and you hear a loud shatter as the window shatters beside you.

And there's now the window is broken to the outside. On this? On that side. On this side? Yep. I'm immediately just going to bound for it and like duck and roll, tuck and roll out it. Okay. Out into the street. Do I see them doing what they're doing or? You would have heard my voice be like, get into the office right now. Come on, let's go. We're breaking out. I guess it's whatever point of the initiative I would have done that.

- I will say, just for the sake of this, can you, you would, I would say, can you just sprint across, give me, actually roll a quick initiative. - Oh no. - That's good. Oh, I was like, where the fuck did that go?

and have advantage on initiative, just in case. So yeah, 20. - 20, okay. You're quick enough to act before both of them. If you're gonna cast invisibility, I need you to, or 'cause,

Toe is already done. Right. So if you're gonna cast Invisibility, you need to roll an additional. That means that I become visible because I am invisible? Why would I need to roll? Okay. No, 'cause, 'cause Hersia, we're trying to cast Invisibility. I didn't know if you were gonna try to make Hersia invisible. That's what we were... That is what I'm trying to do, so... Well, can you make both of you invisible then? Just cast it at a higher spell level?

That's how invisibility works. Yes, it is. And you would drop invisibility, do this, unless you do it at a higher level. It's my racial trait. So it's not like a part of my spell list, can I cast it at higher levels? Oh, interesting. So I can only make one person invisible with this. So I would say Toa will initiative.

- Who are you using my dice? - Uh, 18. - These are pretty light. - 18. So I would say then that with all the things that are happening, Herja, you would have had enough time to just bound across. However, these people see that their arrows are pointing at you and their bows are pointing at you and they're all reaching in to knock their bows, but you're able to just like dwarven fucking rush, bum rush.

They see this dwarf just sprint across and dive into the room and then Toa, you are all now invisible for four minutes.

- Okay. - Okay, great. Thank you, benevolent DM. - Yes, that was very kind. - Yes. - I would say that makes sense. And so you hear the glass shatter as immediately Revali hops out and what are you guys doing? - I'm out the window too. - I'll be the-- - We can't see each other, but as soon as the window breaks, I'm out. - We all, yeah, I'm-- - Okay. - I'm gonna help lift Herja out because she's

the shortest one of all of us. Okay. I'm gonna find out after her. Okay. I am going to need a stealth and a Groove stealth check. Okay. Is there anything I can do with this guy? Do we have advantage because we're invisible? Yes. Yes. Yes. I think it's better than that. Oh boy. We have advantage. I've got to, yeah. 15. That's important. Okay. 23. 15.

17. 13. 28. Freaking Echo. 28. Sorry, guys. Sorry for the Echo, guys. I apologize. We will resolve it, hopefully, for next time. We say that every time. I know, but I've tried so much.

We keep trying different things. And so you all start sprinting. So one more time, stealth, just a little more. 23. 15. 29. But also, as I'm leaving, I'm going to try to wait just a moment, and I'm going to try to toss a dust of choking into the room just to prevent the people who are going into that room as we're all leaving. Okay. I would say just make a straight death trap.

- Let's go with a 16. - 16, that's enough. So what's the radius of that? - It's going to be a 30 feet radius and I'll center it around the door. - Okay, so as that happens, you see a splash of dust fly through the window and poof, and the entire office fills with this horrible dust. And as you're all sprinting away behind you,

You hear a door open, and it radiates through the broken window behind you, and you hear... How does that work again? It's a DC 15 constitution saving throw, otherwise they begin sneezing uncontrollably and are incapacitated and suffocating. Oh, Jesus. That's awesome. And so you just hear a lot of... You hear a door open, and all of a sudden... And you hear...

A lot of sneezing, a lot of coughing, and a lot of choking. We're already dying. As you are all just dashing away. And you are running down through the streets of Skyreach. It is quiet. You are invisible. And as you are making your way, you are trying to go as quietly as you can.

And I would say with that group stealth check, you are able to get a very good, I guess, you know, your max speed, the lowest speed of any of them is 25. And so with sprinting and all of that, you're able to make a good distance away in four minutes. To make sure that we all don't scatter in different directions, I'm like very silently plucking a spring from my bow so that people have like, stay, stay, stay close. Boom, boom.

And I'll just stay by the sound. Okay. So I would say it's very obvious to hear that. And the footsteps are all kind of faint enough that you're able to kind of hear the patterning of seven of you running through the streets. As...

You all make your way and you hear Revali's voice call out, "Let's go to that park over there!" And you see a park as it's approaching probably three and a half minutes. And you see a park that has several lamps lit, but there is this nice small duck pond with some bushes where it gets pretty dark.

And, uh, are you gonna fall? Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. And so, uh, you are just sprinting through and you just all dive into just the collection of bushes around this pond. You hear, uh, kind of a low croak of the raven and the quacking of doxes as the noise kind of makes them scatter. But then it settles down and... Are we all here? Visibility drops. You see that all seven of you

Revali, do we have any place to even go tonight? Did we set up any kind of arrangements? Do you know anybody here?

To be quite honest, we probably need to get out of this district entirely. Exactly. They saw Herrscher and the fact that we did not kill them means they're going to go back to whoever they work for and they are going to say specifically, "Herrscher's not nondescript." They will be able to say exactly what she looks like and anyone that has seen us. Our papers now are no longer good.

They're no longer good maybe in the morning, but I think... No, they're no longer good, period. We could... They can't... They're choking on its knees in the back there. We can go to the checkpoint right now, make our way down to the... My point is that once we get out of here, they're worthless to us. I agree. I agree with that, too. And we can no longer be seen with her, period. Honestly, I don't know if any of us can be seen at all, because once someone mentions...

Oh yes, I saw her traveling with a tiefling and a strange human. They never saw the rest of us. We pass through every checkpoint. We pass through every single checkpoint. We go around the other way. The stupidest thing we could have done was run. I don't think you realize that we weren't killing those people. I don't think you realize that you don't know that. You don't know who that person was. You have no idea how much deep shit we're in right now. That was the Talon guard.

These are just random people! That's lovely, but I don't think you know the full extent of the situation we're in now. You don't even know anything about this country! And you think you know everything? No, but I know who those people were.

And I think that a little bit of humbling will do you well, Felix. I don't think either of us know anything about what you're talking about. This isn't about me being knowing anything. I'm more humble than anyone you know. You're so afraid to be found out that you're willing to risk the rest of our lives. Look, regardless of whether we could have killed them or not, it's done. We ran away. And my point is that we are now in a position where we have to figure out what we're going to do. I will give Hershey this ring.

And just for the rest of the time here she can disguise herself. That is not going to change the fact that come tomorrow the entire military will know exactly who's here. Because if you think those people at the checkpoints did not take notice of us, we had a tiefling, we had a very very not very well disguised genasi, and a tabaxi that is literally dressed like she comes from Nekbet. So the moment

The moment that they find out that we were traveling with the dwarf that they saw in that place, all of us have a target on our back. All of us. Welcome to the club. I think the best we can do is just get back. The best we can do is to get out of the city. We got our clues. Let's move.

Do we want to go back the way we came or do we want to go back around the other way? No, we have to go the other way! We have to go through the same checkpoints! Let's not give them, if it's the same guards, if they're still there, that gives them two chances to look at us and inspect us. We have to go around the other way. I mean, I agree, but at the same time we're also spreading information that wouldn't have been known the other way, where like... It's a coin flip in my mind. I may have a contact in the four winds. I can't guarantee it, but it's just one checkpoint. Do we want to get out of the city?

We may not be able to get back in. I think staying is death. I agree. I think we need to just get back and lay low and just read what's in these papers. Yeah, let's find a place where we can have this conversation. Out of the city or to the four winds? Four winds. Four winds. My vote is out of the city. My vote's the fully, if we get out of the city, how are we going to get back in? That is a problem for future Iris.

But quite honestly, my life is much more important than figuring out what the hell is going on in this city. No, we're gonna be able to do much more good staying inside the city. If we get out, we're done. What was the whole point of coming here? Are we gonna save these people? We should not have blown our cover. I agree. But it's still going on. Those are things that we need to think about before we do things like this. Why did we decide to go into this place? Why, once we realized, I literally told us that we had triggered an alarm.

Why then did we not decide, "Look, maybe we need to come back at a later date when we have a better plan?" If we are going to fuck things up, then we have to pay the consequences. And that may mean leaving the city. But at the end of the day, I'm not going to risk my life. I have to fulfill the mission that Anubis set out before me. And that does not mean dying in the city. My vote is the four wins, we find Revali's contact, and then we can leave if we need to. I agree. I think that's fine. That's my vote.

But I'm not leaving the city right now. How would we even leave the city if we were going to leave? Finally, we get to the main gate. There's just the one gate? The one gate and now in each district. There are eight gates. Okay, so there's a gate in each district. So if we wanted to, we could go to the Skyreach gate right now. But we could also just go to this checkpoint and find your contact. And then we can go out that gate if we need to. I think if we disguise Herrscher, we have a better chance. There's more possibilities if we just play this off. What time is it right now?

- I would say it's probably 10:11 at night. - So is it even normal for people to be coming in and out between districts at this time? I feel like that might just be suspicious as it is. - What if we end up looking like Dina and we're just going back home? - Sounds nice. - Yeah, that sounds nice. - Well, let's at least start heading towards the checkpoint. - Which one?

Why, if we... Four wins. Again, my vote is four wins. We have to agree what happens if we go to the checkpoint and they notice us and they know who we are, we have to have a game plan. I'm gonna start walking towards the four wins gate. If they notice us, we have to try to find a way out, but at this point, I think we need to go right now, I think we'll be fine, but that's just my vote. Yeah, I think we need to go now before the information gets to them. Can this guy just let us lay low for a few days?

- Do we figure out what our next plan is? - He owes me a favor, but I don't know if he's going to honor. - Well, he's going to have to, so let's go. - Oh yeah, he will, he will. - Let's go. - Okay, I assume we start just running. - Okay, so. - D&D. - I'm trying to, again, trying to stay in as middle as all of you trying to huddle together as possible. - Toa, give her the ring right now.

I can also cast disguise self. He's going to need an hour. Do that right now. All right. How far are we from the gate? Probably at least a 20 minute walk. All right. I reach out and I ask for your hand and I cast disguise self on you and make you look like a normal human woman. How tall are you? Five foot. I can make you six foot. Okay. Give or take. Within a foot. So I'll make you like five five. And as long as nobody inspects her too closely, you

You know, then she'd have to make some rolls. Not to be a nerd, but can you use the Sky Self on someone else? Yes, it's Willing Target. You make your self-- oh, wait, hold on. I am incorrect. It is not the same as... I know we used it earlier that way. I didn't want to ramp the time, but... Nacho Cheese! The news was good. No, okay, I guess I'm incorrect. I thought you could use it on a Willing creature. It'll take you an hour to attune to this.

Right? We don't have an hour. And honestly, if you do this and she looks like someone else, we only have the papers we were provided. If anyone at the borders recognize us, then we'll give you our screen. We just have to go. No, I think we have to go as is. I agree with that. Let's just go. Let's do it. I'll just put my hood up. Yeah, let's go. Let's go.

And so you all wind through about 20 minutes of quick, quick, quick walking. You all start to approach the checkpoint. Although the streets have emptied out for the most part. There's the occasional group of people having a late dinner or getting off of the business district a little bit later and kind of heading back. And you see, once again, that you get to the main road and you start heading towards the four winds.

and you see that checkpoint, the large military banners of Korovakia getting closer and closer as you see that the line is very short. The people ahead of you go on this large mercantile, probably a large merchant stage. - All right, everybody, you guys know the drill. - Before we get up there, do we want to go all the way back to the honeybee?

Because honestly, our papers are not going to work tomorrow, and that is the place in the city that has the least military presence. I don't want to be stuck in the middle of some other random sector of this town where military is present without the ability to go in and out of the checkpoints. Would we have a sense of how communications happen here if it's like...

like owl or magic or like, you know, like any kind of like, yeah. By Raven's word travel, probably by Raven and it flies around. Okay. Um, I would say that, uh, it's kind of difficult to sit to, to tell how long it would take for like the chat points to all be alerted. So, uh, I,

I think that that would be something that you've never been in, and no one here has been in a high-tech situation. So you have to use your judgment here. Let's try the first checkpoint, and after we get into the Four Winds, we can talk about going down into the Seven Heavens. Let's just be true. Maybe we just go as far as we can. Especially if Revali's contact doesn't make good, but...

We should at least check with this guy. All right, everybody, your papers. Before we approach, does it look tense? Like, does it look like there's, like the guards, are they shuffling around whispering in each other's ears? Or does it look kind of just like what it did earlier? Trying to get a sense of word got to them or not. Okay. So I would say make an insight check, please. Yeah. Yes, for sure.

- Yes, please, because I just got a four. - 19. - 19. You look around and it seems to be about business as usual. Seems about to be fairly tired. I would say, Felix, make a history check. - I think it's +5.

That's pretty high. I think I got a 24, but I will change. 27. You know that people in your... that you had encountered used silver raven figurines and animal messengers to send ravens up and around kind of

In order to kind of just communicate between camps or whatever. So, and you know that the it's not some special super fast Game of Thrones. No, we have time. So there is time. So... The travels... I'll share that with the group. Priority shipping. That they have these special things delivering messages, but they, you know, we have time. My concern is not this evening. My concern is that we will be stuck...

in one of these other areas tomorrow. - I agree, but I think at this point tonight, we need to get there and make a decision at that point. - I agree, I'm just saying, I think that our destination should not be this place that Revali wants to take us. - I would feel safe going all the way back, yes. - It should be the honeybee or whatever. - Yeah, I would feel safe. - Let's at least meet up with the contact if he'll have us. - Well, no, I think-- - No, I think that he could easily come and meet us in the honeybee or wherever we're staying. - Is that possible? - The queen's bee.

My point was being if we needed a place to lay low. I have a friend that has a shop here. I would prefer not to be stuck. I mean, you and Felix know this city best. Is there a chance that we can make it to the Seven Heavens tonight? It's just very far. It's a gamble either way. It's going to take hours. If we have an hour for a district, if they find out and they, I don't know if this is a thing they do, but what if they lock down all the districts and they don't allow travel through back and forth?

I think we need to get through and lay low for at least a few hours and see how it shakes out. And if there's trouble, we get the hell out of the city. If we lay low, the moment they get the information, there will be no more traveling back. This is not a lay low and then we'll go there later. If we choose to lay low, we are never getting back there. And that has to be something that you all understand. So the choice is yours to make, but you need to understand what that means for us.

We're in the Skyreach. We either stay here and we're locked here. Trying to get to Four Winds. Or we try to get to the Four... Or we try to get back to... Right. So we started in the slums here, the Seven Hammonds, spent most of the day basically traveling up here, got fucked, and so now we're trying to get here. I'm hoping that we've got all the clues that we need from this place, and there's no reason for us to come back to Skyreach. And do we really, like...

Thomas is safe, hopefully, and gone at this point. What do we have in the Seven Heavens beyond the bar? The fact that it is significantly less militarized, which means our chances of getting out and not being seen and not being apprehended are significantly higher in the slums than it is in the most prestigious zone of the entire city. Do you think here, where we were seen, it is going to be less patrolled than in the Seven Heavens?

We have to think clearly. I'm just worried about timing. We are quite literally going to be on wanted posters. Yeah. That the newspaper will be putting all over the city. Well, Herrscher will be on wanted posters.

No, the moment that they go back to one of the entry points we went in, one of them will speak and say, "Oh yes, I saw that dwarf. She was traveling with a very ill-disguised genossi, a red tiefling, a tabaxi-dressed Nekbeshin regalia, and two strange humans."

And at least the four of us will have our faces plastered everywhere. I think we should try to make it as far as we can. And if we're approaching a checkpoint and it looks kind of bad juju, don't approach because, you know, they might have had the... I don't know if you told me that, but if they've had a raven reach them at that point... I told everybody about the ravens. Okay, cool. Then we back out and we try to find somewhere to hide in the district as far as we can get. Or we try to make it for the exit. That's the problem. It'll be too late at that point.

I think we need to make the decision now. If we hit up my friend, or if we... Can you tell us more about your friend? He runs a magic item shop, the Afridi's Bottle. He used to work with my uncle, and I think that if I cash that ship, he'll let us stay at least for the month. Let us lay low maybe for a bit. I don't think the military's gonna come rough him up. He pays a lot of taxes. My vote stays.

But it's a matter of if we think we can get back, then we'll be the safest in the seven heavens. It's just a long trek. I'm willing to do whatever you guys think is best. I'm just telling you that's my vote. Well, how long did it take for us with haste to get to there? It was like 20 minutes. I thought it was an hour of each district. Oh, so when you guys were making through, it was basically like a full hour for each district. And we had a time difference. So it's going to be one, two, three hours. Yeah, three and a half, three and a half, four hours. That's the thing is the Raven's going to make it to. I'm worried it's not enough time.

They're gonna know while we're moving through the districts and we're gonna get locked somewhere at least where we don't have a So I'm assuming that we had 20 minutes roughly as we're walking and talking to you I would say you're walking and talking right now. Yeah, and we have roughly 20 minutes had 20 minutes total before we hit the checkpoint Yep, so that's my vote the rest of you can decide you voted for wins the four wins Worst case in we get to the four wins. We have a place to stay for the night We review this information that we now have and we can leave the city first thing in the morning. I

We can leave the city tonight. How are we gonna leave this first- I- we have to get out the gate. Well, maybe there's another tunnel. Exactly. There is no way that tunnel that we came through is the only one in the city. There's no way we'll be able to find another one. We don't know that! We have a pile of papers to look through. I agree. We can go through the same one! But how are we gonna get from the following seven heavens? I'm saying we go to the seventh heaven- we go to the seven heavens tonight. If that's where we'll be the safest- That's literally what I'm saying.

If we can try to make it... I'm willing to go with the group. I'm just telling you I vote. If you think we'll be the safest in the Seven Heavens, you were born in the city. I think we need to try now, because if we get locked down in the Four Winds and we're not as safe there, we're going to regret it. And I want to stay in the city. I'm confident we're going to make it to the Seven Heavens. This is a great plan. We're going to make this plan happen. Everyone ready to go? Yeah. You're a man of action. Let's do it. Let's go. The checkpoint is ahead.

I have the papers. Big smiles everybody! As the... No, no, look higher. We just looked at a bunch of fucking schools. Okay, weary smiles everybody. You see a bearded gentleman, very, very, very short hair, almost buzzed, as he looks at you and says: Papers! Here you go, I understand you like them all at once. I know I do. Late night for a group so large.

Yes, we got caught, you know, just eating and drinking. The food in Skyreach is really phenomenal. Have you tried the Skykeesh? Deception check. Everybody loves Skykeesh. Can I do the thing? Yes! Yes! Fuck it, do the thing. We have five of them. Fuck it, do the thing. Fuck it, do the thing. Yes! Thank you. Thank you! That's gonna be a 26. 26! That's a twist of fate. Thank you. He flips through and he says...

- I have tried the sky key, shit was all right. Enjoy your night. - You too, thanks. - I wanna look over my shoulder as we're passing the gate just to see if the gate's closed and he's just chilling standing there or if he's darted off to go alert someone or anything suspicious. - You look behind him and he's standing in alert. Another group comes up to enter and he's just taking papers.

Okay, I think we're safe. We should keep moving. As quickly as we can without being, you know, weird. Like grandma's at the mall. Let's just, you know, keep going. Attorney Felix, what's a mall? It's a type of weapon.

I know that, but these are grandmas at the mall. Would they be at a single weapon? All the grandmas at the mall. You know, I actually heard of a goblin ritual, goblinoid host, where they have combat, and then when one kills the other with a maul, everyone serves it. It's for the highest elder position. And they serve rats on sticks. It's horrific. God, I hate goblins. I've killed so many of them. Well, I think if you're not into it, but it can be quite fun.

We speedwalk as fast as we can. We learn something new every day. I would say in that time, it's a four hour pass, as in, Herge will be able to assume the rest. Oh yeah, I would immediately give him a two-er. And put my hood up, but now that we're in the Four Winds where there's sort of more general folk. Do we enjoy a short rest? I would say that you enjoy a short rest. I'm gonna like sort of crouch walk as quickly as I can. Okay. Just to make myself not as like seven foot- Crouch walk. Yep. Okay.

So, you make your way through and you find yourself in the... you're in the four winds. Yes, and we're making our way to the Phlox first. You make your way to another checkpoint. And... Kind of scoping out the guards before we get there. Yeah, I'll incite the guards as well. The music down is just me. Oh, Paula's got eyes.

Should we roll for that again? Yeah, roll for insight if you care to do that. 12. That'll be a... Wow, I can't alphabetize. 18 for terror. 18. You look and they seem to be in a similar state at attention, despite it being very late. All right, remember, we're tired and we just looked at a lot of schools that smell like children. All right, weary confidence, everybody, and I take everyone's papers and I take the lead. Here you are, sir.

You see a gentleman looks very nondescript. He seems to be a bit younger, I guess. And he looks over all of you and says, "Do you want our place?" Oh, we're coming down from Skyrim. Skyreach, sorry. Why are you here so late? What is your business? Well, we were looking at schools and we just got caught up in dinner, honestly. We're just trying to make our way down to, you know, our place of rest. Deception check.

Can I do the thing? Do the thing! He has to. He has to. This is so critical that we get through this. Much better. Oh, man. 27. Ooh, that's way better. 27. He looks through. What do you look like, by the way?

Herself. No, I gave you the ring. I attuned to the ring. We didn't decide if you decided to change yourself or not. I would have encouraged you to stay as her because we went through as her just in case. Yeah, that's what we had all talked about. If that was the agreed upon thing, I would have done that. So I still have the ring attuned on me, but I'm not using it. Yeah, I think you should be you until we sink the... Can I insight check him to see if he seems suspicious? Please do.

- Oh, it's a natural one. - Fuck, man. - Those dice are so good. - No, these dice roll really well now. - They do? - Yes, that's why I've been using them all the time. - You've gotten all the bad luck out of them. How is that possible? - Yeah, no, it's something. It's not gonna be fantastic. - It's very difficult to read. He seems like he's, I guess you could probably register that he's the kind of person who's young and newer at the job, so he takes it really seriously, and so he's fucking stonewalled. And so he's not giving away anything.

He hands it to you and I'm just gonna Seeing what her shit did the last time I'm gonna do a similar thing and kind of watch As we walk away to see it seems to do anything else. I don't know their insight. No Oh Jesus I wasn't more notes of this dumb in your clear. That doesn't mean anything a guide yourself 15 As you're walking you You

Clever. You see him turn to another person, and he kind of leans in and whispers, and then he listens as they respond. We are in Phloxverse. You enter Phloxverse, and you kind of hear the tolling of the bell as it is reaching early morning.

and some people are going to very late night worship, some people are coming back from very late night worship, and some people are heading back to their home from a long, long night out. And another hour or so, maybe a little bit less because you're hustling, you arrive to the other checkpoint. I'd like to take a quick look up into the sky and see if I see any, like,

particularly... Raveny ravens. Particularly like intense ravens look like they have a job to do. Ravens with a purpose. The rolling's so poor. I know! What's my deal? What did you tell- It doesn't- It fails. It's because I have a 40 chair. You look around and you just see ravens flying all over the place.

It's very difficult. It almost becomes like, you know, I think like getting nose blind to a smell or whatever. You hear the croaking of ravens and the flapping of winds above you so commonly that it just kind of is part of the city. Okay. As you look all around and you're not sure what are just the natural rooks in the ramparts that just live here or what are ones that are being flown all around and

They seem to be active the same amount at all times. Ket, you arrive at the entrance of the Conquest Ward. You see an older woman probably approaching, probably towards the end of her internment in the military, and she looks you up and down and says, "Jebus? I know it's late. We're sorry. We're just passing through. Thank you."

What business do you have? We're coming all the way down from Skyreach. Where are you going? We're heading down to the Seven Heavens. Why are you going there? I have family there and they're holding us up for the night. Deceptive check. Oh boy. That was quick. Got me! That was quick. I believe it. Let's go with a 19. Oh baby!

You make your way through the Conquest War, and this is kind of, it's actually probably been probably the most hustling and bustling, shockingly, for this late. As you hear the clanging of anvils, the bright forges going, it seems as if that there is nearly a constant shift here. Constant work to be done. And about an hour later, you arrive at the Seven Heavens.

- Is there a new checkpoint? - Oh, no checkpoint? - To the checkpoint two that's at the house. - Oh, okay. So same thing, are we gonna insight check the guard? - Yeah, let me take a look and see if they are on the alert. - Insight whoever would care to do it. - 16. - I'm getting this number one out of the way. I'll do a fixed insight. - Six insight, okay. - 24. - 24. You see them and they seem to be on high alert.

They seem to be on alert, like they normally are. They just seem to be kind of looking around. And as they're just looking around, it doesn't seem to be, like there's any kind of alarm going on, I would say. - So I still have the ring, right? 'Cause I'm still going through as what we talked about. - Yeah. - Yeah.

Just making that clear. So you do not have to ring. So I gave you back. He needs to look the way that he looked when we were playing. Once you guys, yeah, I would say that that's what you guys did. There was miscommunication out of character. I forgot about that. Thank you for saying that. Yes, there was miscommunication out of character. So I'm not attuned to the ring? Not yet. Okay, okay. That's fine. And so as the... Yes.

As you make your way, you see a... This one seems to be kind of like... Almost kind of like it's a five o'clock shadow. There's some dags under his eyes. He seems to be quite tired. You've gotten the sense that the Seven Heavens, people that watch that out, they're not as... Maybe not as well paid, or maybe they would go there if they've lost rank or lost standing. And it seems to be kind of just...

Going about their business. Hey, Booze. Hey, Wow. Where you coming from? All the way up from Skyreach. We're a little late. What took you so long? Well, we got caught up in drinking and the food up there is delicious. Don't mind, Noah. It's stuck down here. I'm sorry to hear that, friend. My family's down here and, you know... Is that why you're coming back here? Well, free room and board is one thing, but then the seven heavens? You know, you do what you want the way you can. I don't know anything you'd frown at. Is that for drinks?

Come on, baby. Do you have to? It's a natural one. You gotta do it. We would not have made it this far without our viewers tonight, so you might as well just do it. I have rolled 2-1-1. Yep. Wow. Wow. I'll take a Hurricane 22, please. Enjoy your night as a kid. Same to you.

- You make your way. - And then I'm gonna incite him again as well. - Incite, make that roll, girl. As you're walking in, he's gonna lean over to your face and be like, "You are a silver-tongued god." - Did you do that? - I don't know, but I did. - It just fell right back into its place. - 21. - 21. - 22. No, 21. - As you are making your way

you see, you kind of keep a lingering eye, and right as you are turning around a corner, you see, you, he's very far away, the checkpoint's very far away at this point. And then a wagon is coming through, very kind of rickety old wagon, and he's looking at the papers, and...

And as you're turning the corner, you see flapping of feathers. Uh-oh. And a raven lands on his shoulders. Oh, fuck. And leans in.

And then he's just like... And I'm going to cast Calm Emotions on him, so he is no longer... What's the range on that? You're really far away. Oh, I'm really far away? Yeah, I would say... Because I was... My intention was that I would be staying close enough that I would be able to cast that. Sorry. That's fine. I didn't think that we'd walk, like, really far. Yeah, no, I just imagined you'd kind of be lingering. So, yeah, my intention is to be... Do you know that it's cast? I guess I wouldn't know, but...

I mean it doesn't matter and it at least gets us out of there right? Yeah so it makes him um it makes them indifferent to us. Okay okay that's good. What's the rate on that? Uh 60 feet and it's a 20 foot um uh sphere so it would target uh

- It's humanoids. Each humanoid in the 25. - And for the record, Lone Guard, you are not allowed to spend bits on your own party when you're playing. - What's the DC? - It is a charisma saving throw. - I asked. - What's the DC? - 16. - 14. - So, I'm just doing that for the whole group.

As, uh, how long does it last? Um, it lasts for a minute. A minute. So just long enough for me to yell, you know, get the fuck out of here. So it lands, and you hear this, and then all of a sudden, you channel the power of Anubis, and kind of this almost faint shimmering, it's very difficult to tell unless you were looking for it, comes over the whole group.

and you kind of see a bit of alarm as the bird is kind of whispering in his ear, and then he just kind of goes back to checking the papers, and you tell everyone, and everyone, and you all make your way down. One more group stealth chat. Stealth chat.

That's not good. I got to a nine. Nine. Eight. Eleven. I get an eight. Eight. I immediately rip off the ring and give it to Hershey.

- Okay. - Can you do anything for an hour? - Just still, just stop looking at it. - Lefty. - I'm focusing on it. - Nine. Okay, I put it on. - Okay. - So now I'm starting to attune to it. - So you start to attune to it, and as you're just hurrying back, it's very late, a couple eyes kind of follow you in the street, but kind of people are like looking at this strange motley crew of people as you all make your way through the city.

and eventually turn a corner and make your way up into the queen bay. And actually no, I'm gonna walk that back a bit. When you get kind of towards the red candle district, Revali kind of pulls you all around the corner and says, how many more of those deaths of disappearance do we have? Two. We have at least two more, but usually has one and someone else has another. No, I can use them. I don't want to lead anyone back to the

I think that's fair. No, that's a great idea. But each one has several uses. Should we all spread out and go individually? So someone else has one. How do you mean? I'm saying let's duck into... He pulled you into his alley. And he says, like, if they see us pulling into an alley, let's use it and then we go in. Fine. No problem. So I'll drop it and I roll 2d4. 2d4.

We have eight minutes. Those are fucking great. Those are nice. Those are so nice. My crystal. The shapes are just really great. I really like those. The triangles, like, pick me off. Pick him off on the table. These are incredibly hard to find, too, in this color. Has anyone seen Kung Pao Enter the Fest? That's all I think about.

- I like them 'cause they're pyramids and I'm from Nickbeth. - That's true. - I wonder if they sell actual pyramid designs. Anyways, so it says, okay, everyone gather around. Who's using hands? - I'll use mine. - Okay, so her, you reach in your pack and you all go invisible and all walk through the red candle and they're easily making it eight minutes. Yeah, I would say Caprice is the twin king.

and make your way through, and no one notices you as the door opens into one of your rooms, and you all pile in, shut the door, and then it drops. I...

I tend to be an overconfident kind of tiefling, but I did not think we were going to be able to make it here. Well done, everybody. Good job. You did that. The fact that you just talked your way through all those gates. You just have to pick a story and you stick to it. And also, I don't know. Sometimes I've always been able to do that. Yeah, well, doesn't have to talk.

Yeah, I'm not going to talk to his bird. You just do all the talking forever from now on. I'm not going to say a word. It's all right. It's okay. I was just trying to help, but you just do all the helping. I don't think you should adopt that as a policy. I was able to work with you to make that ogre, that hill giant disappear that one time. That's true. I will occasionally need your help, and you shouldn't feel like you are diminished by this day. I suppose my ability to speak giant will come in handy every once in a while.

and i'm happy to assist when i can oh and being very tall and strong and that's right i can lift the gate because i'm so big uh so if we find any more any more big minotaur gates i could do that um i'm guessing that was not the last minotaur gate that we're gonna see i probably i wouldn't think so um well anyway i think you should start reading as quickly as you can yeah yeah i got some reading to do guys and i pull out a pair of but no i don't have anything uh yeah i have some reading to do um

I think we're okay in here. Like, is there any pressing dangers or are we comfortable sitting down? - I'm happy to take some time to cast some alarms and then make sure that we're safe here. - Yeah, and between your alarm and Dakota, I mean, I think,

So I'll take 10 minutes to virtually cast alarm on the door. Yeah, I'm going to have Dakota propped up against near the door, and I'll probably be sleeping right next to her, just uncomfortably leaning up against the side of the wall, just as close to the door as possible. Okay. I think we should all sleep in one room tonight. No, we don't have Thomas, so I think it's okay. Iris, is it going to be fine? That's fine, yeah. You can have a bed. I'll sleep on the ground. I'll sleep in a corner. Yeah, I'm fine in a corner as well. Yeah, neither do I.

*laughs*

Looking at you big fella, I don't think that would be too much of a difference. Alright, I'm just... I'm gonna stop whispering, I'm just a little on edge. Toa Banner. Banner, sorry. Felix, that's the closest we've come. We've been... We've hit some close run-ins, but that was... That was scary. You're telling me. Listen, I think we figure out... We let Caprice read these pages. We get some information.

And then I think we need to leave the city. I mean, unless something is revealed in these pages, I think that we have to... It's like Iris said, we can't stay here. We don't have a lot of time. Unless there's something in these pages that is a huge revelation, we're going to have to figure something out. Because it's only a matter of time before they not send one Talon guard, but they send a whole squad of Talon guards. So...

Caprice will let you read and I'm gonna sit here with bating breath to await what you've learned. And you guys really love to bait your breath, I'll tell ya. Yes. So, you are going to read through the documents. Mm-hmm. I'll start with the first page and I'll start with the... You, what you read is a series of letters written all in abyssal. And it seems to be a series of general correspondence and general orders.

You see one of the letters documents that the Legion has acquired both the Rotgut and the... Oh my god, what the fuck was the other one called? Rotgut and the... Bouldermall. Bouldermall. And the Bouldermall. Close. That the march will be long, but they will make a lot of noise and be hard to... hard to be stealth. Stealthy. That they need to do everything that they can. The banner needs to do everything that they can.

to spin the news in the other way. Everything is fine in the Clockwood. You have another one that says, the cult is amassing more members, recruiting more members within Zentra. This is a boom, but it comes with great risk. Oh, I would say it's signed. That was my next question. Yeah. Signed by the mouth of Baphomet.

The mouth of... Well, we're all just dead. Yep. That's nice, I like that. And... So it says that the... It says that the... The High General grows suspicious of me. Oh boy. As do the other eyes. This is fucking crazy. And it says of me as if it's from the perspective of the mouth of Baphomet, the person who's writing these letters. The handwriting is identical. Okay.

He grows suspicious of me and... He grows suspicious of me as well as... As do the other eyes. As do the other eyes. Insinuating he's one of the six-eyed ravens. Oh my god. Oh, good. Well, that's... Does it explicitly say the other eyes? Yes. This is so crazy. Holy fuck. We got the juice. We got the juice. This is a jackpot, baby. Seriously. Dear diary. Ha ha ha.

We got the juice. I will never understand why you do that. What? The putting the pen on the tip of your tongue thing. It's like a cliche thing when you have a pen to get it stuck. No, it was because of quills. Quills needed to be wetted before the ink to be written. It wasn't because of quills. Yeah, that's why Gricko would always do that even though he didn't know what it did. Yeah, no, it's because quills and calligraphy...

Was it a way of wetting the ink that was drying on your quill if you waited a long time between? I'll practice this when I get home and then get ink poisoning. It's like dark school.

I assumed it was pen. Richard was like, oh, he gets the ball in the ballpoint pen rolling. Well, I think it was probably like a trope that carried over from the quills. Like you see somebody like done on one TV, be like, oh, like licking a pen. Like, you know, I guess similarly, I assume it would like wet the fountain pen and get the ink flowing.

Maybe for fountains, but I'm pretty sure it's a quill thing. It doesn't matter. That's page two of however many. I'm trying to read all of these. There were six. Oh, six pages. One for each eye. I'm going to read page three. Page three is I've convinced Chumley that all is well. Not Chumley. The garrison can slow down their armaments. That

The word from the front is far more dire. This is pure insanity. Page four? Page four. Or do I get anything more out of three than that? That's the general jest. It gives like, general details. General details like that. And, uh, so page four, uh, has... I'm trying to find my place here.

And General Trumley is the Eye of Order. Correct. Cross Trumley, Military Order. God, I can't wait until the session's over. I've been wanting to say something for like hours. Furman has begun questioning me. Uh-oh. Furman, which one is that? Order of Denunction. And that is the Wrath. Yeah. One in? Yep. Furman has begun questioning me. He is close with the High General.

Time is running out, but the emissaries from the Nine Hells have given us an incredible boon. This is juicy. This is like wild. Yeah, holy shit. Page five. Oh, some more. There's two more. Two more? The construction is going well. The sacrifices have been going better. Shut up. Damn. Soon, Moloch will be able to...

to achieve physical form. Oh, that can't be good. It is then we will march upon the city. Well, that's interesting. I don't think I want it here anymore. I'm like, that's enough. Yeah, I just rip up page six.

The other one's like, "buy milk." In abyssal. The final one, or the final page. I'll never forget what you went through to me in the night. The final one. Buy milk, sugar, human sacrifices, check, check, check. More rope needed. The final letter. The southern labyrinth has been compromised. Oh. Oh. Baby. That's us, yo. We're in the south. That got there pretty quick, though. Yeah, a day. Two.

Fucking ravens. Time has run out. The emissaries are not pleased. Send word to the cult centers. Suppress anything of drums, of roars, of flames. Xurn is suspicious. I have but days. U-R-N? Z-U-R-N? Z-U-R-N.

It's the general. Z-U-R-N? Z-U-R-N. I have an umlaut because that's what Apple... Z-U-R-N's the high general. I had no idea. Take a look at that one. Yeah, great. I didn't know that. Once I receive... I'm not done. Oh, shit. Once I receive word... Xern will die. Jesus Christ. The attack will begin and Zentra will fall. Shit. I know you are a petty man.

but burn these. All of our correspondence. Fool! Near mortals. That's fantastic. I love that last line. There you go. Were these dated at all? No. They were not, okay. And they're all signed by the mouth of Baphomet. That is so badass. Have I ever heard that phrase or the word Baphomet before? I would say you don't even need to roll, you did not. Okay.

I, uh, finish reading in silence. I look around, is everyone still awake? Yeah, no. There's no one else. Phil's gonna be up for a week. Uh, hey guys? What is this? Uh, well, I think I've come up with sort of an order for these letters. And I'm going to read you a translation out loud so that you can make what you make of it, rather than my interpretation. Is that acceptable? It's gonna take a minute. Yes.

I communicate everything that I just communicated in order, as literally the translation as possible so that everyone has the information rather than through Caprice's lens. Okay. And uh, yeah, I... And then here we are at uh, Zentra will fall, and then he, the mouth of Bahamut over this guy is, he asks, he asks uh... What? It's a pop-up man. Yeah, that's what I said.

That's what I said. What's... Have you heard of Baphomet? Has anyone heard of it? Has anyone heard of Baphomet? Mm-mm. Do any of us need to roll for it? Has Derek heard of Baphomet? I would say Megan Arcona should be at a disadvantage. Very, very high, DC. That's gonna be...

Even worse. Yeah, I'm going to go with a nine on that dog. Nope. That's a nine from me, dog. That's a nine from me, dog. Yeah, I don't know who this Baphomet guy is. Baphomet? You know, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it in Abyssal. It's sort of like a... You know? That was impressive. Now that I've heard before. Yeah.

Oh, me personally. Duh. I love the fact that he didn't burn these letters. Thank God we got these letters before he took action on this final command from the mouth, because let me tell you, we don't have to worry about the newspaper guy at all. Whoever's been sending us letters, he's going to fuck that guy's day up. That's the end of him. All right.

I think that the eye that may be responsible for it, and this may be too on the nose, so just let me know how you feel about it, but I think it may be Diamante Cugiatta because he's the consultant for the spy network.

And if you think about mouths and passing secrets and all that, which is kind of his specialty, I feel like it's thematically very fitting for him to be potentially the one that's really stabbing all these folks in the back.

I suppose it makes sense if he's a secret steward. Though I do appreciate you trying to figure it out. It is not just to condemn a man before we have any proof. No, I'm just figuring out that by order of elimination, it's probably not Chumley or Furman because they're order and wrath and that leaves four more. Yeah, and we saw in the place it said DK does not want these things posted. Oh! DK!

- Thank you, I wasn't there. I wasn't there. - He's the eye of propaganda. Donkey Kong? - DK Master, yeah.

Who's Donkey Kong? Wait, so hold on. Back up. Where was the DK signings? When did that happen? It was in the editorials. It was in the, yeah, the things were like, like things had been sent in and were cropped out as DK does not want people. I tried so hard. Did you guys find anything? Did you guys find anything? How about that editorial? I didn't get a chance. I was trying to. Let's go. I was going to grab one of the things on the way out, but we went out the other direction. Well, I am proud that I just came up with my own story. As soon as you said DK, I was like, I know who it is. So fucked up. Order operation. But that, I mean, it's a little bit.

- We don't know. - I think, yeah. - Well, - Mikey. - Hm? - Wait, wait, so you said, you said you found

Something with the letters DK on it. Yeah, it was, you know, something, a news story. I don't know. I don't read. I don't like it. But it said something. So they were actively trying to suppress the news. Yes, they are just lying to people. I mean, DK has to be. It has to be Diamante. Of course, yeah. This is, but we thought it was the government this whole time. It is, I mean, it is the government. It's part of the government, but you're right. But my point is that it's not. They want to kill the head of the government.

it's not the government this is one guy they want to they want to use sir they want to use them and make zentra fall whatever that means maybe sacrifice everyone

They can't leave the city. We have to warn them. We do have to think about why they're trying to do what they're trying to do. But we've got two conversations to have here, which is what is the overarching plot here, given what we've experienced beyond the walls of this city? And also, what are we going to do inside these walls of this city, given the fact that perhaps the entire military force is about to come down on us like a silver hammer? So let me just, all the way back.

When we first started working together, I mentioned how I saw the Beast's plague was just an illusion, yada, yada, yada. Well, what I'm now concerned about, and this is just a theory, but if this is Diamante Pujada, if he has the Talon Guard working personally for him,

then that might explain why they are trying to actively convince people that Beast Plague is a thing. And at the time, this was months and months ago, they may not have had the power that they have now, the gift from the Horned Legion to actually turn people into beasts. And this could have been a setup for getting the Talon Guard to go in and essentially mass murder these people wholesale and kidnap these children.

Listen, I hate to admit it, but Toad, do you have the book? I look around. Yeah, the book. I rummage in my bag, and I pull out another bag, and I pull out, like, a wrapped thing. A bag and a bag and a bag? And then I pull, like, another wrapped thing that's, like, wrapped with it, and then inside that, I'll unwrap, and I'll pass the book. And I look at Captain Freewing, and I say, Captain Freewing, I'm sorry. And I lay out the black book with the Talon Guard symbol on it, and I pull out my silver dagger, and I lay it on the table.

He looks at it, and his eyes widen and he said, "I had a feeling." No wonder you were so fucking scared. I have done awful things, as I previously mentioned to Iris, and I'm trying to make up for it. I didn't know. I had no way of knowing, and all of this was just... It's been one mystery after another. And now all I want to do is help you stop this. But I'm worried that Kujata has all of the Talon Guard under his thumb.

And that would be very, very, very bad. Well... Would be very bad. Like Iris said, do we have proof? No, we don't. And that's the only thing that I'm going to pray for. Is that I'm wrong. I want to be wrong so badly. What? What did he make of all this? He... He... You've seen... You've been traveling with him for over a month at this point. Yeah, right. And you... You've seen him in various states and intense situations...

And you've never seen him as kind of lost? His eyes are kind of vacant? As he looks forward, and he hangs his head in his eye. Everything I thought was wrong. Is it a good thing if it's just one man? But how powerful must that man be to pull over one on the High General? On Xern? And who? Do you know what that man is capable of? I mean, how could we...

Do you know anyone who could give a message? We have these letters at least. They weren't burned. This might be our proof. We could even try to leak it to all the local other newspapers and if we had them all gang up against the one then maybe that would be proof enough to at least plant the seed. They'd be instantly murdered. They'd be crushed, yeah. We can't risk that. How can we get to one of the eyes? That's kind of my next thought is how can we get to them or...

Zurn? Would it be worth maybe contemplating me turning myself in? No, Felix, no, that's out of the question. No. You'd be executed on the spot. We can't let you do that. I mean, no offense, I think that they have bigger fish to fry. If this, from reading all of this, or from Caprice reading all of this, it sounds like they have their whatever you were a part of. Is it over? I hope so. That's a great question.

What about the Eye of Fate? Maybe you could talk to her as a religious to religious person. I was honestly thinking the same thing. Though Siket is very small in comparison to Zentra, I'm still a princess. And quite powerful. With that, also being a priestess of Anubis, I may be able to use that to speak to somebody. I can try, but I can't guarantee it.

Got it.

But wasn't he got off the board? But who sent her? He must have some kind of contact. She mentioned being part of... In the... She said she was a cross. She's quite close to Skyreach, actually. Memories rest. What if he knows one of the eyes? Well, I did tell her that I would make my way over there. My father is making a very large donation to them.

That on its own could be a way to get me to speak to them. Oh, thank God. I was really worried you guys were going to make me turn myself in. I know. Do not make me do that. No, if there is ever the question, never say that again. But I know I just said this. You never know. I said not to talk to the eyes. Well, to be fair, my father said not to. I think it was something along the lines. He said do not talk to the eyes. No.

No, actually, you didn't hear it because you're not in my head. You did reply it, didn't you? Yes, I know, but I've relayed it incorrectly. I've relayed it to him not to mess up their plans. So I think he really just doesn't want me going in there and being myself. So I want to go in and be a little more intelligent about the way I speak with them. Out of curiosity, does anyone know what dark prodigy might mean? In what context? Well, a prodigy is a young...

What's the word? Lufth-- no, you wouldn't know. A word that means, like, very good at something, and I don't know why it's-- cat's got my tongue. A young, talented person. Thank you. And so a dark one, I'm assuming, would be an evil one. One that was maybe born under a bad moon. Does that mean anything to you?

Dark prodigy? Can we drop the aliases? I'm sorry, I was just... Yeah, no, I apologize. Revali. No, I was in the mode of the day and I got used to it. I'm sorry. You feel like a little bit more of a luber. It was... I prefer Revali. I thought you preferred Freebird. You can call me Freewing. That's what I said. It was a name I chose myself and my mother gave me the name. Well, that's lovely.

heard of the dark prodigy the first time you relayed that information what happened in the labyrinth or the southern labyrinth yes and that it does imply that there are multiple labyrinths obviously that it does i've heard no sustain of a dark prodigy i spent my time the occasional dark magics giants and beasts and monstrosities has been my specialty do we life do we think that

I'm just gonna go out on a limb here. There are totally eight labyrinths, right? How would we know that? Why would there be eight labyrinths? Well, there's this other one, and then there'd be the one surrounding the city. I mean, it's a good guess. I'd say at the very least, there's four for the compass walls. What's a walls? You know, the thing...

You know, you know this. Are you talking about sadness? Woe? Yeah, well... Like woe is me. Now I'm feeling woe. Do you want me to get you a compass? Well, if you want to give me a present, I'll take it. Well, I don't want to, but if you're feeling saddened over not having a compass... I feel so sad, it's, oh, it's terrible. Genossi are strange. Yeah, they're temperamental, you have to keep us happy. I do not have to do any such thing. Well, not you, it's the royal you. Oh, you!

- I'm the royal you, look at that. - She's the royal you. - She has to keep her mouth open. - What's the royal you? Is that just her? - I think so. I never really talked about it. - It's nice to meet the royal you. - I have absolutely no idea what is happening in this conversation. I was just asking a simple question. I should know never to ask you anything at all. - Yeah. - That's true. - Here's my phone. That guy that you were giving the massage to, he worked

He was the one that let us know initially that he was slowing down production

in his weapons manufacturing thing. - Yeah, he says that the government did not want the weapons. - Well, obviously, because in the note it said that they were suppressing them. - Yeah, it's very-- - Well, he said that-- - So, in the letter, it's a challenge. - Damn it, Chun-Li. - He convinced Chun-Li, "Perhaps this guy, you give him a really good massage, like a really, really good massage, and maybe he can somehow give us up the chain." - Yeah, I kinda gave it my best shot, but you're welcome to die. - Do you even have an on-call handjob person? - Out of the way.

Yeah, I mean... Well, he has the skill with Mejri. I have the Mej-hands, bro. Somebody said something about being on call and something about handies. Yeah, I believe that we agreed that that was her, as well. Yeah, I just can't quite remember the phrasing. She doesn't have a safe word. I'm not sure what that means, but... I can't remember what the phrasing was. I think it's really the same jumps. It was on call. On call handy. I feel like for her, she would be a safe word with handy. On call handy, that's what it was. On call handy. She would just, like, hulk out on her hair. That's crazy. So,

Strength of 50. It would be like Blowjob Girl where she's like, you want it like...

You want it so dry. Like a desert in my mouth. Yes, it is. It was young Aaron. Kimmy Schmidt. Yes. On call handy Andy. Is there any chance you could have been getting? Well, it's been decided. How did we think of that earlier? On call handy Andy, Benedict Powerbomb.

However the moon strikes. Oh, boy. So. That's really a utility player. Do we know what the members of the Order look like? Or the, yeah. I don't think we do. The eyes. Are they people? They're humans, yeah. We have never seen, like, General Zurn being, like, a power figure. We have never seen, like, a sketch of him in, you know, like a. Oh, General Zurn. That's a great question. If all any of my time throughout the Academy, if I would have seen pictures of these people. I want both of you to make history checks at advantage.

Oh, hell yeah. Am I the other boat? Yep. I wasn't looking when you said that. It's going to be a 16. History? Roll. I got a 7. You have seen sketches of Zurn. Of Zurn, not the eyes. Not the eyes. Okay, that makes sense. Everyone, at least that has lived in Zentra for a time, knows what Zurn looks like. He is a man...

In about, probably about 60 years old. Tall. Never seen without his full military regalia. Long, white hair, the widow's peak, very angular features, sharp nose, strong jaw, and very dark piercing eyes. Persia, were you just asking the group if we...

I was going to ask you if, you know, kind of shot in the dark, I didn't really get to see him, but maybe that guy you're giving a foot massage to is Chumlee. I can't say I've personally ever seen what any of the eyes look like. You know, he's talking about weapons and production and all that stuff. Wouldn't you think that if Chumlee wanted to go to a brothel, he'd go to a better one than this? I mean, it's pretty looked down upon. He wouldn't be caught dead here, I would think. Well,

Well, he seemed kind of like not all that comfortable when we looked at him, right? He was kind of like shifting a little bit. Maybe he was specifically picking that one because people wouldn't expect him to be there. I'm just guessing here, but I'd also say that none of the eyes would be caught dead in any brothel. They might be completely cast out.

Oh, okay. Well, if they're... It's pretty looked down upon. I mean, the military people... They can probably have girls come to them. That could be true, too. I'm not going to assume. Well, maybe this guy just worked for Chumlee then. I don't know. I think, from everything I've heard, if we can call on a favor from the Pharaoh's Academy, that might be our best bet. Looking, trying to track down one of the most powerful... seven powerful people in the entire country. And some...

Slum brothel. Way more of a wild goose chase. And they could have women from all over the country and the world shipped in. These guys are probably in the Citadel, right? That is generally where they reside. And that's like the most secure place and the most secure city and the most secure continent in the world? City. Continent I would not agree with.

Probably one of the most secure places on the planet, yes. In all of Avengers. Well, why don't we just go in there? And then we can find one of them, and we'll be able to talk to them there. You are really not from around here, are you? Are you from around anywhere? Yeah, I've been singing about Galtica pretty much non-stop. Does Galtica have a king? No.

Oh, thanks for the song!

Leafy! Thank you, Mew, for gifting Leafy. Thank you. You guys are freaking awesome, man. That was awesome. Throw up your Hooters, Leafy. Last one of these was a gift. You guys are amazing. That sounded like when you win a... That was perfect. That sounded like a loot box. That was literally perfect. I wish I could do that. I know.

And then it has to go beautiful. Yeah. I like that, yeah.

- Well, it's a flop back down and you see what you get, right? - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - To answer your question, yeah, kinda. I mean, we don't have any reason to have any magical protections. We're not royalty, so we don't have any guards. You probably could walk in. I'll tell you this one time, this Aarakocra came in, he just kept saying, "Is it safe? Is it safe?" over and over. He was very drunk. We had to scoot him right out.

Oh god. Jesus. Aside from your strange Jericho-kra story, in most places it is not considered... It's considered very rude to just walk into somebody's home or to attempt to just find entry into a king or a lord's domain. I agree. So I would suggest that maybe a course of action, especially considering the dwarf,

is that we do not just walk straight in. We are going to need heavy protection. - I was proposing that we stealth right in, but that's a different-- - Have you heard her? She farts every time she steps. - If that is bad now, I got my cloak of elvenkind. - You mean since you started drinking milk? - The cloak just muffles it. - Wait, what does milk have to do with anything?

I believe that you are lactose intolerant. I tried to have this conversation with you and you said, no, I love cream. I grew up milking yaks or some strange furry beast. I think it was cowaboo. Wasn't that what you said? Whatever. It doesn't matter. And I tried to take it away from her. She wouldn't let me. So in the middle of the night, I cast purify food and drink and I turned it into water. And that's what she's been drinking ever since. And she's been far less flatulent. Oh.

I thought I couldn't even sleep in the same room as you, you'd kick me out. And now you know why. Well... I said it before, I'll say it again. Every day you learn something new. That should be the motto of the wizard, every day you learn something new. Yeah. Regardless of who's just farted, I'm at the foot and a half tall than everyone in this entire city.

It's not really a good idea. Like, how am I gonna sneak around like this? It'd seem sneakier if you just walked. We need some kind of diplomatic protection. I agree. That is what we're going to need. That would be lovely. We are going to need to be able to walk through this city

where this DK animal buddy, obviously because he has the stables, as it were, this buddy of the animals, will be unable to apprehend us, knowing full well that the High Commander expects us. That is what we're going to need. I'll probably still try to disguise my face, but... I think we should honestly give you a fake name as well.

I do like Benedict. I've got Albert. Albert might be compromised at this point. I believe Albert will be compromised. How do you feel about the name Benedict? I like Benedict. I like it. It sounds like... Oh. We don't have to use the last name. Do we need the last name? No, I think Benedict will be fine. We can call him Benny. Benny.

Yeah, we could. B-b-b-b-benny. B-b-b-benny, huh. B-b-b-benny. I'm sorry, I'm stuttering. I like, I like Benny. I'm tired. You're catching it from me, aren't you? I found this fez over here. Do you want to try it on? Is that a fez? A fez. Is that from the Beans of the Bears? Wow, I don't even know what a fez is. Is that a type of hat? I think it's a hat that they wear to Nick Beans. They come from your country.

Sure, I'm sure I've seen them around. So it sounds like- You all need to shut the fuck up. It sounds like we have the mouth of Baphomet to deal with. It sounds like our best force of action is Iris. Prepare in the morning what you need to. Reach out to your father and see if he is- You don't take orders from anybody. I'm not giving you an order. I told you this when we banded together. You're all free individuals.

Oh no, I wasn't talking, I was just saying it out loud. That's fine. It just sounds like to me that our best course of action is what had been suggested. I don't come from a free city like you, but I'm not going to tell anyone to do what they want to do, but it sounds like that's our best shot. He's going to be so mad at me for all of the favors I'm asking. If we fail at this, you're all invited to come back to Galtico. We can just say fuck it and be free forever. Is that a deal? If they don't march on Galtico.

- Second is Entrafloss. - Yeah, I was gonna say, or until the seals get broken and then we all die from that too. - Golda can handle itself, I'm not too worried about it. - It sounds like it, with all of your open door policies and the drunken Aarakocra stumbling into people's humble bones. - If you think they can-- - Sounds very secure. - They can take-- - Not having any form of leadership to make sure you're all protected, locks on your walls. - We don't take shit from nobody, all right? Not at the big Goodberry.

Didn't he just say this is the most heavily secured city in the entire country? In the entire world? And if they can bring this city down, you really think... You guys don't even have a king.

Yeah, exactly. No one to fool in the all-leaf shenanigans. That's true. That's the bunch of people playing highlands. Sounds like a flea-thinking society. And poker. Poker's nice. Yeah, I mean... Yeah, I mean, we could play a long game of flea while they get...

riding on the ocean. What is fleen? You've never heard about fleen? No, we don't play games in Nekobat. Oh, man, I could talk to you about fleen for hours. If we didn't have a more present conversation, I would tell you about fleen. Well, maybe on the next span of time when we're traveling for like months, you could just tell us about it. You don't know about fleen either? I'm the only one. Do I need to roll for knowledge of fleen? Nobody knows it.

Oh, okay. No, I don't know what fleem is. No one knows what it is. Does Mike even know what fleem is? Oh, that's amazing. What the fuck is fleem? It's a baseball. Oh, yeah. Oh, but fleem, duh. None of you know what fleem is. I start describing how there's a... Maybe it's maple fleem. That's incredible. I think...

- Everything's made clean. - Oh my god. - I think everyone needs some rest. - Yes, I agree. - I think we've seen a lot today. We almost died. - Captain, do you think maybe you and I could just get a cup of tea downstairs before we go to bed? I just have some questions for you. - Maybe for a few minutes, yeah. - It won't take long.

If you guys don't mind, we'll just be right back. I'm just gonna get a bit... Just don't tell Brucer that I'm gonna use his stuff. That's fucking insane. It's very late and I would like to... If you don't mind. It won't take a few... It won't take a few... You can... Don't wait up. I mean, I've alarmed the door. We should be... I'll just, like, nestle in on the floor. Okay. And, uh...

Everyone have a good night. I'll sleep in the corner again. Yeah, we'll be right back. Have a good night. Just leave me a spot on the floor, I guess. I'm just gonna lay down. Yeah, until it's bring me a beer, okay? I'll see what I can do. Please do not rest your body on my body. I'll make a bedroll next to her just be like, "Man, look at these keys."

You have no idea how fucked up that guy is gonna be in the morning when he realizes these keys are here. And his penis is still there. He's just gonna be dreading that for the rest of his life. What a crazy day. His short life. Not to mention the flatulence that he'll have after that second sandwich you gave him. Oh, is he also lactose intolerant? I imagine he's got something going on. He has a lot of carbs he just consumed. Exactly right. And...

As he leaves, let's go, Felix, he stops with his hand on his hand and he turns to you guys and he looks at you, Iris. He says, Iris, I don't want to endanger the safety of your people or your country, but any help would be appreciated. I'm going to talk to father in the morning. I don't mean a lot.

I cannot make him do what he will not... what he is not willing to do and he will not danger Sikhet, so... I would hope so. If he says that we may use his name to gain audience or his connections in Zentra, we shall. If he says that we cannot, then we will not.

And I will pretend not to be a princess. He sounds like a good man and a good leader. He's so cute. Good night. A hairball. Good night. And he walks out, and as everything has pretty much died down, there is one girl on duty, it's that girl Sapphire, and the room is empty. It's the last John, the last patron has left, and Brucer is long gone.

And so the bar has been shut down, it's been let's called. You see Revali going behind the bar, using his stuff. He puts on a kettle, puts it on the stove, and he pours two cups of tea. As he kind of turns, he sits down and grabs the cup and after he finishes letting it steep says, "What's up?" I know we've been going through a lot and if you don't want to answer these questions, I totally understand, but you mentioned growing up here in this brothel. I did. Did you know your mother?

I wish I did. I'm sorry to hear that. Did you know your father? No. Heard he was an elf. That's where I got these. Well, if it's any consolation, I knew my mother and it wasn't until my teens that I realized that she too was a prostitute. I don't know my dad. He turns and looks at you. There's a bit of shock on his face. He says, "How about that?" She used to tell me that he was a famous member of the Talent Garden. So I've basically devoted every minute of my life trying to become one. Is that true?

I doubt it. I mean, like everything else, we were just naive kids at the time. But not needless to say, it put me on the path that it did to protect my family and provide for my mother until she fell ill and protect my younger brother, Milo. Delphina told me many stories about my mother. Every single time it changes. Yeah. I have an idea of what she might be. That's all I need.

That's fair. I mean, my mother was a good woman. She tried to provide for me and my brother and it was fine. It's not every day you meet somebody who has a similar background. That's true. And hopefully you didn't have to grow up in a place like this. At least she kept it from you for a while. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't a legitimate brothel, but it was a rough part of town and we lived above a bar and, you know, how things go.

Could be worse. Yeah. I turned out fine, right? Yeah, well... I'm happy and kind of this really horrible forced fake smile. I mentioned before, I just... I hope at some point I can find peace. I really want to make up for the things that I've done. So do I. And we all will. Sorry about your mother. That's alright. Sorry about your brother. And I didn't mean to lie about being a part of the talent card. That's fine.

We all have a lot of shit we're all lying about. I'm sure your friends are doing the same. Eh, maybe not Toa or Hersha. I just don't want anyone to get hurt. Or Caprice. I'm not there. Especially Caprice. I just don't want these people to get hurt. And at this point, I've got no one but them, and I'm willing to lay my life down to stop whatever's going on. So am I. So we're all agreed, and I think everyone else is too. I appreciate you being honest with me.

I'm trying to start to pee. I'll raise my tea glass and finish off my tea and say well... One last tea party before we all die. Yeah, yeah, tea's not bad. Can't be worse. I'll drink it. Just don't tell Bruce. Yeah, of course. I'm gonna head back up and take your time and have a good night. You too, Felix. Sleep well. And you all enjoy a long rest. Morning comes and... I don't know, Iris, if you're taking sending or... Yeah. Okay.

Change it. Ch-ch-ch-ch-change it. This is the hardest part about being a cleric, is giving up spells. I can give you spells to clerics now. All of them. Forever. And I can give you an opportunity if you want to wake up a little early and prepare to spend sending and contact your father. Okay? So you, the son...

of the Korvokian morning hits you. It actually seems to be a lot brighter than the previous morning and many of the mornings beforehand. You kind of hear the same familiar croak, but actually a few chirping songbirds, which you wouldn't expect. And you awake bright and early. You look around. Everyone is completely passed out.

And she starts screaming at the top of her head. Oh, shit! You see... No, that's only reserved for the middle woman. The middle woman. And you see Rivali once again in his little corner, his arms folded tight, his knees tucked up. He's a little guy and he does not take up much space. You see the rest of the... Everyone's kind of passed out all in one room awkwardly, but this is the motley crew that you guys have in this moment.

Yeah, I'm just, I don't know, I'm basically going to say we have found ourselves in Zentra and we have discovered that there is someone who is part of the Eyes of the Raven who is trying to overthrow the city, who calls themselves the mouthpiece of Baphomet.

I almost said Bahamut. Baphomet. Vero Bahamut. And that we need to warn the commander. I know I was told not to get involved, but if we don't do anything now, Zentra will fall and this war may find itself raging on the shores of Nekbat. Tell me, please, please give me your guidance, father. Tell me how to deal with this. Ten minutes pass. You then hear a response.

It says, "I know I knew my... when Anubis called my daughter away... I knew... when Anubis called my daughter away to land so far away, I knew that this would be... these would be the stakes. Suppose it is a good thing I called in a favor."

Archbishop Aloysius Zacharias. Whoa, that's a name. Yeah. That was not randomly generated. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. How do you spell that? Aloysius, A-L-O-Y-I-S-I-O-U-S. Bishop is spelled B-I-S-H-O-P. Archbishop Aloysius Zacharias. Spell it again. Go from the top.

- A-L-O-Y-W-I? - A-L-O, yeah. Y-I-S-I-O-U-S, correct. - Just start with Roshas. - And then Zacharias is Z-A-C-H-A-R-I-U-S. - I'm just gonna-- - Zacharias. - Oh, A-S, apologies, A-S, not U-S. - It's Z-A-C-H, right? - Z-A-C-H-A-R-I-A-R-I-A-S.

-Aloysius Zacharias. -I just intentionally spelled it. -What a great name. -Yeah. -Thank you. -Aloysius Zacharias. -Aloysius Zacharias. -This is making girls go crazy. I couldn't do that right, but I tried. -Who has promised to arrange a meeting with Portia Paradisa. -Boom, baby. -He will be sending a representative to fetch you later today. Be well, my daughter.

And the Osiris and Anubis keep you safe. And that is where we'll end the session. Woo! Woo! Woo-wee! This has been... Daddy said Anubis! He loved me! And then we'll end the session. Yeah. This session was so fucking insane with how much we finally learned. Finally!

Yeah. Big payoff day. Huge payoff day. That was insane. Holy cow. We had a lot of info today. Yeah. And we also had a lot of just fucking around. It was a really good blend. Right. Right. And it was a severe, and we totally blew off. A severe one. Awesome.

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