 Hello and welcome back to the Belkanis Necro Hunt. Welcome to session four everybody It is a very exciting day. We return to the run-down ragged tavern Slash in that you guys were staying at Indie Edselt that Eris has lent you rooms thanks to Luna's reputation there and Luna when you when you awake you awake in the embrace of your partner Scorpio And he is just playing with your hair. It seems he's been awake for a little while Well, Luna sleeps like a fucking rock So she's resistant at first and fine. All right. All right. I'm up. I'm up Good because I've got a present for you Should I be concerned? No, no He gets up and he looks over to his pack and he starts rummaging through them I know you don't like anyone touching your swords I still think I have a scar from that time. I tried to sharpen yours as a favor Sorry about that. Oh, no. No, I understand. You know protective over your things. So instead I got something else for them Imported from the tropics. He tosses you a jar of some kind they apparently they apparently fight even bigger monsters over there and Need extra tools this one helps bring them to their knees Huh, what's it made of? Curious some kind of dragon's blood Strange alchemy not quite sure and you have just gotten Exhaustion oil. Oh fuck. Yeah. Holy shit. You can here. I'll copy this over to send it to you So it has five uses and as a bonus action You can apply this to your weapon and the next enemy damage by that weapon in the next minute We'll have disadvantage on all strength dexterity unconstitution saving throws for one minute. Oh hell, yeah She uh, she looks like at it for a second and she's just kind of like looking at the you know Looking at it and like taking in what it is Did he come back over to me or yeah, he did after he tossed it to you and packed up the rest of his bag Yeah, no, she's gonna give him a kiss Thank you. It's very thoughtful Probably gonna need it to um Gonna be outside of balcony sport us for about two weeks outside What for? We got hired for a very important job when I really can't talk about um Has to do with those Those people who've been going around the ones in the cloaks the spine Well do be careful and he sits next to you and just takes her hand You don't seem like the uh very friendly so Oh, no, they're not we already ran into them. Um there was Took a girl from Belkan is proper. We barely got there in time poor things Maybe nine seasons. She was young gods I think they're the same people that did what they that did what happened out there and They might have tempered with My father's team He clutches your hand a little bit tighter. Are you uh I won't lie to you luna. It's uh, it's not pretty Are you sure you want to go see it? absolutely I'm supposed to be looking after it That is true What happens? Can you at least I don't know prepare me beforehand? I think at best you see it for yourself, but um I don't think much can be salvaged Sorry I will accompany you She grips his hand Maybe a little too tight and then like releases it like the grip immediately realizing that oh man that might have hurt Yeah, you see him flinch a little bit Sorry, sorry Yeah I I mean I'd like the others to come but yeah Let's Let's talk about it downstairs. Yes Sounds good any starts to get dressed and the rest of you. How are you getting up? I am going to rise up from my bed and turn and stand Going over to the cabinet. I open it And I get my uniform the yellow overcoat and large yellow brimmed hat that I normally wear After putting on my vest and all of the other intricate things that no one ever sees because I have a giant yellow big thing on And then I'm going to go downstairs And I'm going to do my best To find a shower Yep, when you do, uh eris you can see that she's just uh lounging around in one of one of the chairs She seems to be playing cards with another tavern goer and uh, she sees you looking around Down the hallway to the right I nod and start going in that direction all right and you wash up with Icy cold water It is like any any colder and you feel as though you're being pelted by hail My face betrays no emotion In the meantime the other two Actually, you know what this is so icy cold I'm going to need a constitution saving throw from you That's awesome. Yes So I'm not going to advantage because of my cold dead heart. You know what sure why not Fantastic This is still going to be a very bad roll. Yeah You have a seven and you your face betrays no emotion But your shivering body wants to be dead Nice But uh, yeah the other two uh, rene and inoc how does your morning go? uh, I wake up uh, arm detached on the floor Probably a couple feet away from me because I probably passed out from um a very very unfortunate last night and Coming to slight headache And I get up And I begin to kind of just rummage and put everything on and I find the piece of paper that I made from last night And my heart sinks a little bit As I begin to read over I realized He did it again, and I'm very upset Motherfucker And as I begin to read the entirety of its inscription it does come back to me on how How it is all done And to practice I am going to cast Press the digitation on myself To clean myself up as much as I can And I reattach my arm I put everything on And I start heading down to the main uh to the main tavern area You can see that uh eris uh just finishes up playing some cards with the uh With the other tavern gore who leaves and bids her farewell And she looks to you would you like some breakfast? Uh, do you happen to have uh, I'm gonna regret this a big breakfast Mmm last thing I gave you something big you nearly pissed on my floor That's a big breakfast eggs hash brown Sausage another hash brown You've got raisins and bread Will that do? Yeah, that'll do. All right raisins and bread it is and she has a very like Tired of your shit looking on her face. She goes in back starts rummaging through Oh, this is a typical day for her. She is unfazed by most things Oh god I I choked down a fistful of raisins and Split the bread in half and just kind of keep it to myself at the side of water She does she does give you a little side of some kind of very uh Very orangey looking butter on the side as well Oh, what's that aged butter Best thing we got up here I I put some on the bread and take a bite. What does it taste like like? mold That's That's something else I It's tough environment need to be tough folk to live Boy, how do you that is a butter not very tough A right amount of pasteurization might assist in that She goes back to preparing some similar meals for the rest and renais. How does your morning go? Um renais has just started making her way down the stairs. She actually has her hair all tussled up She like has her makeup on she is pristine and ready for the day Unfortunately, there is not enough Coverage for the bags under her eyes She got up super early to make sure that she was ready and clean and good to go for whatever was happening today You are not catching this girl at her worst Can you give me a general charisma check? Good job. Okay We're gonna Oh Hello, oh, that was the same come out on your face fucking beat down the same what's your well your normal thing would be a plus four My normal thing's a plus four. Yeah, so that would be a 17 17 only 17. It's pretty good. You come on down the stairs and you can see eras is preparing She she hears the stomping and she looks up. All right I've got breakfast and she stops and she looks at you and She starts to fan herself a bit and look away. Got you some breakfast Oh, well, thank you so much. I really much appreciate that like as soon as she kind of like catches that she's immediately like Let's turn on the charm Let's go. Yes She turns her head and clearly try it's very clear on her face that she's trying not to look at you Renee will make her way over to the bar and just like sit She does like the the leg over leg and just like leans on the the bar just waiting Yep, and as you are on the bar. She says, um, we've got um special special, uh, reserve spotter if if you would like Oh, well, that sounds absolutely lovely. I would very much appreciate it If you wouldn't mind the hassle, of course Oh, no, no, no, no hassle. I just you know, it you've got a long journey on your hands I'm sure that you could use the extra energy Oh, you are far too kind. Thank you so much She she gives the slightest of non sarcastic smiles She'll give a little wink I'm doing that cat monkey pose right now Oh And about about this time everyone has finished, you know kind of getting ready and I'll arrive in the main Dining place of the tavern In the early morning about now I will request A warm tea. Yep. She, uh, eris gives pours you a cup It's some very typical herb and tea nothing special very very common commonly used Herbs and ingredients Not exactly something that you'll find in the capital, but it's the best we got Appreciate it I will take it And I will nurse it as it slowly warms my cold-blooded body I was going to die As a cold-blooded creature My body temperature is whatever is around me Oh, no We shouldn't have brought snake man here It's okay. It'll be fine. I believe in snake man Rene, it's just like no, we should have saved one of the warped bodies So we could have made you a pelt to wear I will survive by the smiles that my friends give me that's cheesiest. Fuck in your life Exactly that's the problem But overnight it's just like happily like munching on her like nicely buttered bread You can the the butter that she gave you the stick is like actual Stick that you would find in like the gross like a grocery store as opposed to like a lump of like weird Orangey green mix that she gave enok. Oh, this is so smooth. It tastes wonderful Oh good for you Are you having a hard time at pay enok? I suppose I told you not to drink that last night I told you you'd be regretting it in the morning. Please. Don't yell at me I'm this is not yelling That is so loud. Can you please just like He's no single hand on the floor Rene very much has like a very like childish grin on her face and there's this like look at her eyes of like I'm gonna do it I would suggest enok that you don't drink so often it leads to Unwanted results here take this and I will slide my hot tea to him. Oh I You could see a light warm smile under the Under the pain of a throbbing headache Thank you kindly Don't look at me like that it's just You cannot operate properly under a hangover And I pull out my ledger and I will look at it and I will not look at enok That is very true Also, it looks like your hair is a little bit out of place in tassel Like did you take any time to prepare yourself for this for the morning? Or did you just roll up down the stairs? This is all what you get What you see is what you get. I'm sorry I mean at least I'm clean. No, no, no come here. Like she's going to like style your hair Like you have to look presentable All right, I suppose See kind of leans back And takes off the hat It's all like you could see the random strands in every which direction the the pulled back ponytail and the long elongated sides All right, let's still and she will like sort of like tug at her little like who loves before like basically just Pulling his hair like out of the ponytail and just running her hands through his hair like getting it Situated in a way that'll actually look presentable. She's not walking around with a man who looks like Who looks like a hot mess? Uh-uh, not in this house It takes a village it does You know she will style it and throw like give him back the Uh, I guess the thread that he was like pulling the his hair back with In any case, thank you What is our next move here? I'm I defer to Luna considering it's your home Well I'd like to go see if there's anything that we can find at the grave site, but I kind of like look at Scorpio as I'm talking. It's not much left. It sounds like Anything that would be useful there Anything is better than nothing at all He he rubs your shoulder even if it's closure Oh, no, there's not going to be closure until I catch the person who did it. He tilts his head. All right fair enough I Can I get a read on these two because like To be quite honest Enoch as intelligent as he is. He's a fucking idiot. I have a question. Would it have Would it be like a reasonable assumption that me and Scorpio came down together? Yeah Okay, so there's that Unless you want to roll Enoch's complete social ineptitude. You can roll me an insight check if you'd like Do an Adaria You won't I mean to be fair you were busy with your hangover. So you had other shit you could have been focused on I mean, I just I'm just trying to read the room the best I can Well, you can role play that however you so wish unless you would like to roll for I mean if he's looking so dumbfounded, Renee is going to lean over like zeal those kind of partners, you know the I have no idea what that means Oh I stare my head raises up and I stare into the middle distance as I think Enoch doesn't know what sex is And you you would be right She just looks at him like they're together romantically Am I hearing this this probably because Renee is saying it loud enough to call Enoch out on a shit You can see Scorpio is very uncomfortable at the open come open talk about So anyway, we were going to go look at this graveyard. Yeah Oh, yes, please Save him before it's too late. Luna is gonna like kind of like lean her arm on his shoulder just you know playfully, but She kind of likes getting him flustered. So Would it be possible to insight this man? I I'm going over I like I have a theory but I'm trying to get a read off of him and how he feels about us going to The gravestone. You can give me an insight for that. Yeah, I know nothing Yeah, he looks a little bit uncomfortable generally It seems I I guess I don't even have to make that that role because my social ineptitude was Please save him before it's too late and I have to start explaining to him the belt and bees Okay, no, we're not going to do that. Please I'm going to stand up never mind. Never. I'm not even gonna try Uh, assume you've all finished breakfast. Yes Yeah, you've all you've all about finished by now And Renee will give like a little tip to the bartender and she does like a little, uh, wave with her fingers and Averting her eyes a bit You can give me an insight she's trying to hide it as she can Okay, please 14 she's a horrible actor. She's uh, it's like trying to wipe the tables, but the tables are clean And she's looking around she's like, oh look at that and just kind of like Running her hands across nothing How much was the breakfast? Oh, um It'll be on the house just like the rooms You know, I I don't need that much business. You know, it's this place doesn't require much upkeep Bed and breakfast thank you And you can see you can see her sneak a glance at Renee also, uh You know, you should try and talk to her and I'm going to uh, then move away from the bar She just uh, just kind of tapping the kind of clutching her fist looks like she's about to punch you Don't you have a mission you've got to go do Yeah, we're on our way. I'll see you when I'm back I I look I look at the the dragonborn lady and I'm all like Just looking back and just like yeah, no, they're saying I have no idea and I just begin to walk out I will step out and leave Scorpio follows the rest of the group Renee just looks very proud of herself I just kind of gives you a nudge you're gonna have that poor woman fainting Renee. Oh, no, that's the mission Oh Is that so oh Uh, and she just kind of like gives you like uh, like a little like a smirk Oh, no, no, not like that. Listen if I can get if I can get some away with not having to pay for shit Then that's even more fantastic. Oh, don't just don't do aris like that I'm not trying to you asked first. I was going to pay and then I put the money on the table and everything And then she said there was on the house. So I took it back Listen, I'm not trying to love. He'll give the one who asked All right. All right. Sure. Sure She looks like she's gone mad for you though. So watch out Oh, that is a common occurrence. It will be fun later tonight. I guess Yes, that is a mistake And worst case scenario if there's any problem I can melt her brain out her ears I would very bad Nathaniel is that he said this so many times before she's like you stop it Yeah, I'd rather you know You know Wait, what's happening? Nothing. Nothing's happening Enoch is perpetually confused today So, yeah, I guess you guys head towards the graveyard, yeah Yeah, all right. Yep. You and Scorpio both know the way you head there just out of memory and you can see a kind of rock stone pathway that leads to one large grave at the very end of the pathway you can see a tombstone of uh Vagrin Is that how you say it? Yes. Yes. Vagrin ice wind It's a map. It's gonna be a fight here. Don't say that And you can see various other tombstones completely turned to rubble cracked And you can see that his sarcophagus has been dug into and it is cracked and open Uh, as soon as I see that i'm taking off towards it. Yep that makes sense and uh You can see Scorpio kind of almost reach for your hand, but lets you go and we'll walk and follow along I was gonna say if he's just gonna stand there, Renee would have bapped him on the shoulder and then like Like We've been together long enough. He knows how to deal with me. Yeah That's fair. I'm gonna probably look at some of these other greats. He goes to you and he kind of uh wraps one hand around your left arm I'm sorry The sarcophagus is cracked open. Is there anything inside? As you look and you squint your eyes, uh You look closer There's no body Okay, Luna is she she's quiet for like Like probably the longest four seconds ever And then she's going to walk over to this tree and punch it as hard as she can Hmm, let me give me a strength check just to see how hard you punch that tree. How bad do I break my hand doing this? Strength check You punch a solid inch into the tree you hear a crack as the bark indents and the snow falls from its leaves And you can see uh, Scorpio is just kind of standing aside and giving you some Some very watery eyes It's giving you sympathetic look The worst thing about this is that we can't I can't tear apart the person who did this We have to bring them back alive, of course we have to bring them back alive I would like to if possible investigate the other Graves that are around here to see if they were destroyed just like how this was ransacked Or if they would just you know broke down from erosion. Yes, you can give me an investigation for that Can I get him the help action? Actually, you know what? I'm going to try something new What is your investigation score? My score is six six with a six Because uh with I'm trying a new thing Um, and you guys can give me feedback after the session's over I want to try a new thing Where some inconsequential roles where it's like oh, I rolled I just happened to roll low on this time or happened to roll high on this time on things that you can just take more time Anyway, I'm just going to take a hard score. Oh, this is a passive then. Yeah. Yeah In that case my roll roll my passive would be 21 because I have a six and then I also took observant as my feet which gives me a plus five to it Okay. Yes with that you scan over the rubble There was a battle that came that happened here There were there are pings of blades bludgeoning from very from clearly, you know blunt weapons And There was a fight that happened here. You can see skid marks. You can see remnants of footsteps have been covered by the snow and You find another book very similar to yours buried in the snow And how recent does it seem this battle was if there's any way I can try check well with a 21 Um, I would say you can tell this probably happened a week ago Uh, I will let you know If I recognize that a natural like 21 Constant passive scan may get annoying. So if at any point it becomes a bother just let me know and I'll pull back on it No, no, no, I that's why I'm trying this out. Yep with that said Uh, I'm going to take the book and I'll lift it up Uh, and I'm not trying to hide it in any way So if anybody like anybody would see me just pull it out from the wreckage Yep, and when you pull it out a few sheets of paper actually slip out of it I'll catch those real quick. Yep. You catch those A battle happened here about a week ago Obviously it was the necromancer. This book is just the same as the one that we found in the dungeon I hope you don't mind As I like I'll give Enoch a quick glance as I flip open the book and start to go through it Just don't be doing some Uncooth All right. Oh, you know me We're gonna look at Enoch and sarcastically do jazz hands as if she's casting his paddle like whoa I will be less ostentatious and just See what is in this I'm going to look at the uh the headstone here as it is broken. Yes. Yes, it is in in shambles It has cracked like down diagonally and you can see that there is some You know wording that you can make out in common, you know, it says, uh Vagrin of vagran ice wind and you know it says, uh Is you know his birth and death times Uh, if I may joe I'm gonna use another cantrip that I have I really want to use Uh, mending Mending okay I think mending has a size amount right about a foot, but I could piece it Together a little bit. Yeah a little bit Tiny pieces, but you probably gotta I would assume find them Yeah, you know the pieces of rubble are around Okay, so I'm just gonna Take the big chunks first and I'm gonna Hit it and you guys can see little gears almost as if they flow through acting like threads and a needle and they just kind of mend the stone back together in hopes that it will Repair it. It's a slow process But you piece by piece grabbing what debris that you can find that hasn't been buried by the snow or blown by the wind and it doesn't It it actually repairs it quite a bit to the point where at the top of the headstone kind of center at the Uh upper limit of its structure You can see that there is a carved in portrait that gives a passing resemblance to luna's echo and I kind of just Brush it over with my regular hand and It ain't perfect, but it'll do Imagine like luna was coming back like probably like brushing off It's a broken bark and splinters from her from her knuckles And then she's just kind of gonna walk over to where you are, you know Don't punch him don't punch him I'm not going to punch him too Punch him punch him Thank you It's the least that it's the most that can be done right now Thank you And she just kind of like traces her father's name carved into the uh Carved into the uh Stone Can you tell see any tracks that lead out? Maybe where this fight would have taken place or maybe where they would have run off to it's a week ago probably long gone, but Give me just a moment Uh As for the book Yes Was the was it just filled with spells or perhaps things that we were going to do that So you look in the book and it's filled with general spells and instructions However, the sheets of paper they use find are notably older Uh, you you look at one and you can see it's In very it's in some very very kind of worn out, but still legible handwriting And you got you see This will it show to players, please Hand out even if the god loves it is a handout there we go show to everyone You find two sheets of paper you find this one. Oh my god And if you if you cannot if you cannot read the script hand writing There is regular prints right beneath giving a description. I appreciate that I only write in cursive in real life. So I know how to read this pretty easily uh So looking at the two just to be safe this book right here Is it written in the same handwriting as these couple of notes? It is not you can see that it is some kind of copied uh print of some kind as if you know mass produced Yep, just making sure that this was in indeed a completely different page from a completely different book Uh and I will say While the book seems to be little more than a basic necromancer's handbook, which I will be keeping on me Uh these pages year 131 summer As I've taken up practice with this new school of magic Perhaps it will be good that I keep a record of my progress and findings I've managed to become proficient with a few of the simple spells So far it's ability to manipulate life forces of great utility Though it also seems to have quite strong and effective destructive capabilities as well Must keep a close eye on my fellow mages to make sure there is as little collateral damage as possible That is what's written normally However, it seems someone else got a hold of this and In a different script wrote Whoa car is this like your diary or something? Not only is this a complete invasion of privacy, but it's also Grammatically incorrect, which is perhaps even worse. There's also a drawing of three people It would appear to be a warrior or wizard and an archer with the title family portrait and then a heart I assume a child and more importantly, I assume one of the other Maharian Maharian Yeah, yeah, Maharian sisters Well, that's adorable And so the black vein queen used to actually be something decent for context the current year is 216 Oh god math that means that this was 15 years ago. Nope. No, no, no wait 216. Oh my god Yeah, no, that's a lot older somebody else do the math because I can't do it in my head right now This has been planned for a hot minute. Where's the calculator? Hit me up. Uh, god But I will say just a stall This seems to be the introduction of car a Maharian to necromancy 85 years ago 85 and it's dated 85 years ago So this was before the war Does that mean that that person was getting interested in this kind of magic early? Very much so It indicates that this was their Favorite not favorite. This was their preferred form of magic Before it was banned And given that they seem so happy now We can only assume that the extra writing and the drawings came afterwards And all three of them seem happy and alive Which means this is before Which indicates to me that car a Maharian did not Come across necromancy as a means of reviving their dead Abigail She was already No, I think it makes it a bit better. It means that we have what you could call a Reasonable suspicion if we have a conversation with car at some point. This will be very important to note Hmm anything it's good evidence to bring back Yes curious curious and curious I'm wondering why that was in that book there my Assumption and I'm only working on assumption here because it doesn't seem reasonable Is that either this was left here intentionally for us to find? or Perhaps car a Maharian was here I was coming to that conclusion Although if that was the answer And why leave the book behind Cara must have many different books But a book was left behind in the dungeon as well. Didn't you find that sitting in a box? I thought then they were probably storing it. Yes Yes, but leaving a single book in a single box with nothing else I don't know just a thought If I may be so bold I might be pressing a button here and I rather not try and Insight certain angers here, but That book could have been dropped here due to whatever fight was happening here and looking back at the grave I think somebody failed at something very nasty Oh succeeded at something too well What's more interesting we can only assume that the necromancer is one First because The necromancers weren't reported until now in second. There are no bodies here And who would like dead bodies? I just look back down at the empty grave Which means to me Well mages don't like to lose track of their things, especially something as important as a spell book. No, this is looking much more likely that Someone left this here But that's just a theory for now and I don't want to assume it as truth But now we should find those tracks Yeah, yeah, let's have a look around All right, so Yeah, uh, she just kind of like puts a hand on like short scorpion's shoulder for a minute Thanks for giving me a warning. I needed it. I like to join you on the rest of your journey But I've got one last job that I can't just quit unfortunately I'll try to meet you back in chester city. All right be safe You too kiss him on the cheek and it gives you a big hug his arms wrapped all the way from shoulder to shoulder Yeah, she hugs back Duh, it gives you a pleasant look picks up his pack starts heading back to the town And you guys start to follow the trails that nathaniel had found tracking them and you find what looked like deer tracks That are tracking blood as well They made a dead ride And as you follow them you see a decrepit deer with like massive chunks of its skin as if torn off and kind of decrepit and it's slowly walking into a wall as its Its pools are skidding across the snow pushing it into it Renee just like covers her like mouth a little bit and like closes her eyes. I'm just like Lynn is going to draw both their swords It does not seem to take Your presence into account and just continues to walk into the tree as if it's trying to go somewhere Can I put this thing out of its misery, please? Hold on. I draw I draw out objection. Hold on. Hold on before you do just wait wait wait Like Renee does not look comfortable at all, but she's just Hold on Oh, you said it looks like it's trying to go somewhere It does it looks like it's walking directly into A direction as as you follow the tracks it goes in a straight line That seems to be halted by a tree You can see that it doesn't seem to avoid any other obstructions as you are walking along No, you know no walking around any rocks or small hills I I have an idea. I don't know if it's going to work It's your idea I mean if it's trying to go somewhere, maybe there's just a place it can It it cannot reach at that point And it's not I don't believe it's illusionary but I can just go and check around the tree She just nods It might lead us somewhere. I'm just after we find out if it is the reason do whatever you want with it. Just Gonna look back at Enoch. Just try not to shoot me. All right Playfully mind you And uh, I got a good keena I'd hope so Um still with both swords drawn. I want to approach Okay, you approach and it continues to push itself against the tree moaning in a very gurgly voice Oh, I am I have my swords at the righty just in case this thing starts trying to attack me But I want to kind of start stepping around the tree I'm not taking my eyes off this thing or like I'm not putting turning my back to it You step around the tree and you follow through the trajectory trajectory not too far before you see kind of Downwards as you know, you guys are heading this way. You are starting to head down the mountain um You can see off in the distance That looks like Kind of populated with the trees a few humanoid figures As well as other trails of blood and other animal looking creatures other beasts Okay, well now that I see what this thing is going to i'm going to try and fucking put it down Please yep, uh, no role no role required You easily cut it down. So you're just gonna cut it. How do you kill it? Take off its head if I can Yeah, you I wanted you to do this swift emotion as possible. Yep. You hold up your sword you You strike it down chops off its head. It takes no force whatsoever. This this body is very very old Well, not very old, but you know, it's starting to to fall apart and it falls to the snow Um, I just kind of want to like, um gesture for everybody to come up I will walk up. Yep. Okay, and I will just point to show you uh even better fantastic I Understand I can't go on a complete rampage Please don't How many do you want to live? Um, I mean are the all of them walking in particular directions like No, it's the the creatures all have stopped and you can see that for each beast there is a humanoid except for one of them i.e. The one, you know the deer Oh No, I don't feel as an army and you can see you can see that there is an extra Let's see. How many are there? You can see that there are four humanoids and one humanoid that seems to be glowing a kind of translucent blue Oh no Oh, I'm uncomfortable And there are three beasts there that have stopped I suppose my question is Do you want to kill them all on a blind rage? Or would you prefer to be the executioner? As much as I want to say blind rage because I'm absolutely pissed Executioner is the smarter option. Let you talk to them first. Exactly. Everything is non-lethal as I can fantastic By the way, uh joe I am digging through the snow to find like two sizable rocks about the size of my hand Oh, you can find them pretty easily. That doesn't take too much effort. Yeah Just see me like It's moving a side snow left and right before I find two rocks in hand Yep, all right And I begin to focus on them What do you do? I am going to use magical tinkering Oh I can imbue a tiny non-magical object with the magical property of my choice Uh to which I can either do light six second long recorded message Uh emit a odor but non-verbal sound a static visual effect including up to five 25 words of text Hmm Nice and I am going to look towards Luna If you were to say 25 words What would you say? To who To these people Yes, 25 words inexact or less It's a little it's a little wonky. I'm trying it out Uh It wouldn't it'd be pretty simple. I bring up solution. That's all And all right I have these two I'd like to know how long I have to um how long the oil lasts on my sword because I'd like to apply it The oil lasts for one minute Okay Um Once I'm given the we're going I would like to apply that oil to my sword. Mm-hmm Okay, so Now that I have two rocks with the recorded messages I am going to intend to throw them when these guys move And I'm going to pretty much create A static image of Luna saying I am absolution All right, kind of as a way to distract which ones to To toss at yeah, I love that that does require you to get a little bit closer So I assume you approach to get within range I am going can I roll for sneak for that? You do not have to you are stealthy enough that you're pretty hard to see in this this kind of misty powdery snow And you are high up. Uh, you have the you have the high ground So it's going to be very difficult for them to see you without purposefully looking up The good news is that that's why I'm allowing you to hear a very uh familiar voice of bloodstride And he seems to be talking with the necromancers Very good. Very good. Well done. Amber Where's your subject? And you can see that he's speaking he's speaking through this Ethirical translucent blue form of himself. God damn it I know Don't fight him. I know I know I'll be outmatched. I just want to fight him. God damn it You can see that the the human there's a human girl that is quivering in the snow It should arrive any moment. It was a deer. I was I was able to get it before the wargs did. It will be here. I promise I don't feel bad Not even a little bit Nobody move watch see what happens And bloodstride just kind of folds his arms times ticking. You do want to join the spine of death. Do you not? Yes, bloodstride, of course. I I'm trying my best. I promise I was able to raise so many things the other day I promise And Enoch you have an opening. Do you take it? Do these guys move? No, they all seem to be waiting impatiently on this one human I'm waiting for my party members to move up. Oh, okay. Yeah, that is that is my signal During that pause then I'll look at Nathaniel and I'll give like it'll be like a gesture like Yeah, can I move? I would like to make some sort of role to see if there is any like Any visual chance that there's something else to learn here just to be safe. I don't know the role that would be What is your passive perception actually? What can you see and then and then actually I'll let you roll Or and if it's lower than your passive, we'll take your passive. Yes nice, uh You look it over you can see that the other necromancers are dressed in very similar robes as to the ones that you fought in the sewers And you can see the various different kinds of animals are regular prey of wargs You saw the deer before you can see that there is a hair a snow hair that you know Sometimes wargs will pick pick up if there's nothing bigger There is an owl bear which you do you know from your studies You know that sometimes owl bears can you know if they get singled out and overwhelmed by wargs It is a hearty meal for them And a wolf which you know if they're in rivaling territories wargs like to fight them and possibly eat them as well All food sources of wargs This is quite sophisticated if they're all different food sources of wargs than one or the wargs to eat But where a traveler switch the necromancers can then pick up in use that's actually A bit clever I'll like give the faintest smile as I appreciate the awful terribleness of this Renee just like very clever very clever now. I'd like to kill them Right, uh, keep them alive for now, but now's the time to move All right, and uh, Luna will start skulking forward. Okay while you do I'm going to bring you to a map a battle map and you're going to Uh, ignore the rat. I didn't have a token for a hair. Uh, just pretend that it is it is a hair And uh go ahead and situate yourself your you guys are coming from the bottom left of the map And I will say like about here's the limit to To prepare for this what I've been allowed to summon check a shadow dad or do you want me to Make all the preparations that you like and they will not lose their duration until the combat starts I've played divinity. I've played baltars gate three. I know how frustrating it is to put on bus and have them run out mid combat Yeah So, uh, I'm gonna go turn on my fan real quick I was gonna say can enok be a little closer A little closer And uh, yeah everyone say you know what buff you're doing and try to remember what it is that you did because I I got out of the same track. Oh, I'm not using this. I'm reading it. So just one sec. Okay making sure I am going to go ahead and preemptively um cast true site or true strike blah blah blah um What is the biggest creature here that I can see uh the owl bear I'm going to point at the owl bear um and Yeah Tell me what it do so that I can tell our fighty girl. Hey, so Watch out. So your first uh, luna Your first attack as well as renay your next attack on the owl bear Oh, I thought it was just for the person who I told you. No, never mind. Yeah. Yeah, that's how we did it The person who I tell yeah, I don't get the advantage luna you have advantage on the owl bear for your next attack And the owl bear This is a decrepit owl bear. So it has weakness to all physical attacks. Oh dang Oh, she just like points and goes. Oh, you're going to have a lot of fun with that one It does not like being hit. Have I ever fought have I ever fought an owl bear before? Yes, you have you thought you were the owl bear Oh, that's almost sad. You can tell that this one is no man. This is not this is Far beyond an owl bear in its prime. It is You know long past dead That's almost sad that that's what they decided to raise Uh, I would like to if possible See who which person is controlling the owl bear Uh, that would be the black dragonborn up here I hate to ruin your fun But if you could leave the owl bear alone, I can try to charm its controller Sure. Sure. I'm gonna have the owl bear go apeshits on everything else Listen, my my aim is to stop knocking these people out. That's what I'm going to be trying to do Yes, luna you cause panic I'll charm the owl bear Your grenade you cover me and dino can do what he would like René nods, you know, what would you like to do? I'm watching for the first movement from the party before I Toss these things over Uh more specifically luna coming in Yeah, they all seem ready at your command Combat will start when you start it Let me look at you and give a nod like she's ready It's a signal and I Take both stones and I throw them over Towards this area or uh One towards this area and one towards this area All right. Yep. You toss them and they activate their sending noise and they hear the voice of luna speak Yeah, I am And so that Yeah, is there anything else you would like to do the description is is that uh, It's a static image of luna with both swords almost as if getting ready to strike As the voice comes out, but it looks like she's exploding out of the snow I'm gonna say you can roll an intimidation Both of you roll an intimidation for that Can I do a strength-based intimidation you most certainly can yes So you can just give me a strength check I guess Christmas not all that great 15 Okay with that you startle them a little bit, but they turn to you enok And uh, you can see that bloodstry just rolls his eyes. Oh you again And I'm gonna need everyone to roll initiative I told you I hunt you down I'm bringing hell with me. Oh my god Here we go Let me just make sure that Delicious Chat may not be able to hear it that much because I'm trying to balance it so that it's not too loud. Holy shit Only in my initiatives do I roll high nowadays Now because you rolled a nat 20, you will always be first even if somebody rolls higher than you Okay, that's so nice. I like the music. Yeah, this music was made by the music reborn And they are the same person that I commissioned to make the crap guy theme It's very nice to have some of my original tracks that I made remastered and re-re-orchestrated Yeah, no, this is giving me like the cool vibes. I'm down enok. You go first. All right Did you do uh, I am Do do do I'm gonna go ahead and Banff out the wings And I'm just gonna do what what I did before that and then Action surge for my attacks Because I have nothing for bonus actions all right and Accent surging immediately Yeah right into the air and I am going to aim down sights towards I do want to get close enough just to make sure that I'm not doing too badly and I'm going to Oh god, should I shoot a monster or should I shoot a person? They're all monsters Yep, you're right. All right, uh this dude All right Shooting at the human show me the attack Yes, that's enough all right A land because you fire your gun at the human and it pierces through her shoulder And don't forget that I do an extra. I think it's four points Yeah, four points of additional radiant damage, so that'll be 14 damage. You see it singe on her robes just And yeah your second attack with your action surge Uh, no, that's all I can do. Well, you said you were gonna add that search, right? It was an action to bring the wings out Oh, that's right. That is right. Okay action to bring out the wings and then action to attack Just make it a bonus action. I really sounds like it should be to yeah Maybe we can talk about it later. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Nathaniel your turn Uh, fantastic. Also always waiting to my turn I checked because the the music reborn sounded like a very familiar name. He's the guy who did my witcher cover as well You guys in the chat can find the link to uh him as well as all the artists that have worked on the assets for this Using exclamation point part All right, I'm gonna have to be about Everyone who made the maps everyone who made the character portraits all that good stuff Give me just a couple of seconds. I need to check two things. Damn it Uh, and then ah damn it. All right Damn, damn, damn Oh, actually Uh, sorry. I'm measuring things out, which I probably should have done on somebody else's turn, but I I think it's click information. Don't mind that disregard. So I'm gonna move 30 feet over to this tree Okay, it's me. I am tree man I run over here and I activate operation yellow snow Oh god As I raise my I raise one hand Out and from my fingertips shoot multiple strands of pink energy as I connect with everyone else's minds And I cast mantle of inspiration So it's not really casting everyone can now use their reaction to God, I love that up to their speed if they would like to they do not provoke opportunity attacks Not that they would and also you gain five temporary hp. Thank you All right When beneath my wings as I go further up into the sky Okay, so technically uh 20 feet Yeah, because I don't want them to be out of range. I just want them I just want to be out of their range of spells Oh, shit So I'm out of echo dad range, but I'm literally summoning him on my next bonus action Can I just leave the token and save myself the trouble? Yeah, of course Thank you I will move. I believe right here. Is that enough? Yes, making sure. Thank god Okay, and then once I reach here, uh in the distraction. I am going to lock eyes with The enemy dragonborn and I'm going to lean my glasses down as I cast suggestion and say This battle is lost Fight for us Hmm, so this is actually a spell so I'm able to do this one sexy Oh, you can see him taking both hands up to his head and racking his mind And he fails to save he does as you command Oh god, I love Nathaniel And then I'm gonna use my last 20 movement. Goodbye This is my turn Luna. So Nathaniel you are behind partial cover. So you will have plus two to your ac Ray Luna your turn Okay, so I'm running at this at this fucker right here But as I am running up bonus action shadow dad right behind him Because I want that flank into flank Yep, you and I'll have plus two to your hits. Yep. Yep Uh, and we are bringing down retribution first with the oil I have taken two pieces off of it for both swords. Okay. Oh both swords. Okay. Nice. Yes. I put it on both swords Okay, yes 15 is enough and now this dragonborn as you slash into them uh They now I'm just gonna put a little potion icon. They are now exhausted by the oil all of their physical stats Uh, any roles that they make with their physical stats are now at disadvantage I just want to growl at them. So who which one of you desecrated that grave I am They all look a little terrified of you gone And where to get a reason And that is my turn. Next is the spine of death. No, I was like initiative tiny So, uh, this, uh Dragonborn Is simply going to hold up a hand to you and is going to cast cause fear On me. Oh, yep And you're gonna need to make a wisdom saving throw Oh, I'm not good at those Here we go My god, you are fine. This dragonborn is more afraid of you than you are of them And their hands are shaky and you are your your eyes seek blood after what they did to your father's grave I just crack my neck Imagine putting all of your all of your effort into casting a spell and it does nothing Instead this one is going to stick the wolf On to renae No How how close was that thing to the air? Let me control z. It was over here. Oh, no, it's out of the range Oh god, I'm squishy. No So it goes to bite at you renae But I'm squishy. Oh, hey, get me a two dog All right, I only had one wolf token It's no problem It just means that midnight is also one of the causes. Oh, no, that's even Renee you take six piercing damage from this wolf's bite and I'm gonna need you to make a constitution saving throw Oh, no, I don't like that Oh, okay Constitution saving throw. Yep It's coming to help you I promise Now you take an additional Three necrotic damage and you will take it next turn unless you make the save So I take it now and I'll get it each time then. Yes Okay, cool. Just wanted to be taking it at the end of your turn Sorry, at the yes at the end of your turns. Yes. Yes. Cool. Uh, this one commands the hair to Fruitlessly attack echo dad, but the hair has no combat abilities Hey And this one is not like the rabbit from mod if I thought unfortunate This dragonborn, uh, this human is about to cast something at unithennial until the dragonborn commands the, uh, Owl bear to tackle into her. Let's see It just like this huge she's about to cast something at unithennial You see her hands glow green until the owl bear gets on its hind legs and Flumps just like her into the snow. She is prone and close to death And you can you can see that, uh Uh Bloodstride is just hovering in the air legs crossed and watching this all go on. He's got a little smile on his face He's just watching how we do renais watching the learn He's watching the learn, isn't he? Smug bastard Only because I'm curious. I don't have the magic for it yet, but I don't fucking I'm I'm curious to know um Is whatever is being cast to bring him here like is it something that I can like Get rid of if I do something you can give me an arcana check to see if you would know, okay I mean, I don't have the spell for it yet. I wish I did but you know It'll it'll be helpful to know next time. This is familiar magic that you know is being cast remotely You could probably get rid of it. He's not here. He's not here, but I could get rid of it if I like hit it hard enough probably Okay Well It's not metal No, it's not Well, you can tell actually that uh the dragonborn and the elf they both were uh seemingly very usual breast plates Okay, well that helps me I'll just I'll focus on those boils Oh, I like this Yeah, and it's 60 feet. So Uh, I believe this guy Oh, they're both in my range. I could just pick one But unfortunately this guy's being controlled, so I won't focus on him. I'm gonna focus on this boy. All right. Yes Hello, sir. Um, you're you're you're you're getting a little hot there, sir You're getting a little hot there sir. All right, and that's not a save is it? Um, it is I believe oh, okay. Um, we'll choose manufacturer metal objects and metal Any creature and physical object takes two d8 fire damage when you cast it and until the spell ends You can use a bonus action on each of your subsequent turns to cause this damage again Okay, so yeah, no, it's it's not a save it's just that oh my god It's on you're on fire You can see that he's controlling the hair and he looks he looks like he's trying his best But you can see the the breastplate that he's wearing starts to glow up bright orange Ah, ah, and he takes he starts to burn you can see the sizzling underneath the arm Cool. Um, me too. So also, um I don't think unsettling words. That's a bonus action But I I know that my other spell is concentration So I don't think I can cast something else even if it's a bonus action If I'm doing a concentration spell. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you can only have one concentrated. That's my spell. Um You do have a decrepit boss fighting. Yeah, I don't mind the wall fighting me. I think I'll be fine All right, uh, if that is the end of your turn Focus on getting rid of as many of them as possible if that is the end of your turn You're gonna need to make another con save That's fine. I can do that You take another three damage as the wolf continues to embed its teeth in the arm and you feel the gross decrepit energy coming through it She's just not even focused like she is heavily focusing on the thing that is alive Like not totally disregarding the wolf is just like Key knock your turn. All right, uh I'm gonna do something that I know that I can do actually I am going to Basically power dive towards this individual She is prone and I am going to pull out the rapier from behind me and just Bring it down. All right that attack won't have advantage. All right Would would it also get flanking because owl bear is You know what it would Advantage with flanking Okay, so plus two whatever roll a nice. Hey, we only roll 20s in this house Nice, okay Yeah, you can see that she's trying to rise up. She's got anger on her face Stupid adventure. Huh, and you stab into her. She's dead She's dead and as a bonus action because I have the uh The firearm specialist If I have a finesse weapon in my hand, I can use my gun as a bonus action attack With no penalties Uh, let's see uh with a one-handed weapon You can use your bonus action to attack with the load of firearm with the light property You are holding which is my pistol and I am aiming at this dude Okay firing at the elf who is burning underneath his armor. All right See and this will be objection Okay, 16 a 16 unfortunately is not enough to pings off of the armor as hot as it is Yeah, I I literally come down stab and then spin around in the snow to throw out a bullet and it just All right X is Nathaniel you are nearly blasted if not thanks to your surrogate albear Yes, I understand these people are doing their jobs. They do not get a reward I'm gonna walk up over here Uh out in plain view, you know look over at bloodstride So this is too for oh then He he shrugs his shoulders and puts you know both hands in the air. Well You did ambush us very well and I have to give you props for that I can't imagine you didn't expect it. What do you think we are a library? I don't expect anything friend. I merely adapt yes Although as I hold out my hand and casually cast Dispel not dispel dissonant whispers on the wolf that renais Fighting I continue to speak to bloodstride as I here I go. Here you go The point is that it's gonna make him Get the spell description to help you. Yep. Just so I remember yep as I'm just casually pushing away at the wolf I continue speaking to bloodstride although I can't imagine that your parents named you lundstride What do you suppose your real name is? He he gives a little bit of a smile at that and doesn't say anything and the wolf is going to run away now Uh What was he Mcgloven running like already taken? Rene like is like holding her arm that like probably has a little bit of like black Yeah, that would prokken of attack of opportunity wouldn't it rene do you take it? No, if it's running away, I don't give a shit. Okay. Well, actually, no, it's undead. Never mind Yeah, it is an undead I don't give a shit rene actually does care very much So I don't think using My crossbow would actually stop my spell. So What it I don't think it would not. No, uh, the only way to stop concentration Is to use another concentration Show me my crossbow. All right. Show me. Yes that hits. Show me the damage. Oh technically. I was hit one night Uh, well, you took three damage. So, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you need to roll concentration. Yeah Thank you for reminding me. Shelby. Thank you Hi, that would be a constitution. Yes constitution. Oh god You just need to roll a 10. Okay You only took three damage, so So close you lost a concentration. I lost my concentration How did this happen? But when you when you fire into this decrepit world if you fire into it and it you hear a crunching sound As you knock off one of its decrepit legs and it falls apart dead Into the snow Yeah, these bodies are Falling apart good worth it Nathaniel was that your full turn talking to bloodstrikes everything I could do. All right. Awesome. Luna All right, Luna's gonna switch places with echo dad bonus action Uh, try and confuse this poor fucker. All right So echo dad is now facing him. Um, if I move here, I'm still I'm not leaving his Attack range, right? You are not Yeah, no, I'm going up to this fucker and I'm gonna try and hit him with the pommel of my sword to knock him out Just as his heat metal light goes away. It's like All right, give me the attack. Yep absolution time That's enough to break through the armor He has a sword of his own that tries to parry the blows, but you're able to catch a part of his arm very nice dirty and uh Yeah, the the oil only works for the first attack. So yeah. Yeah. Well, and I was I was going with the pommel anyway I'm trying to knock him out. I'm not trying to kill him. Yes. Okay. Yes. You hit him with some bludgeoning damage He's still up though. Okay, uh echo dad's going to emleash incarnation on this fucker. Okay. Okay. Oh dear Oh That is unfortunately not enough to go to swing the dragonborn dodges out of the way. Okay. Well, that's just my third Okay Next it's a spine of death and you can see that the elf that is currently battling you luna calls out to blood stride Master blood stride. No, we could use some assistance and the blood stride just sits there and shrugs his shoulders No, this is your time to prove yourself If you cannot handle some lowly adventurers Who's to say you can handle more of the trifling matters at hand? And you can see determination on the elves eyes And he nods and takes a sword and goes to try and swipe it at you luna AC 17 Well, unfortunately, he's a good. He's a good, uh, marshal as uh, he takes a swipe and Exhausts you with a quite a few heavy blows with his two-handed sword You take six damage Oh That's all my temp hp on Go Uh, just checking something and Nope This one Uh, the blue dragonborn sees Nathaniel And is going to Fire a ray of sickness at you is that so it is Here's where i'm realizing my next feat needs to be mage layer Oh and it easily hits you Oh, no Black green beam fires and passes through your chest And you feel as though you are about to collapse and you take Wait Does that provokes does that provoke sentinel because he's within five feet of me attacking Nathaniel? I think it would that is a ranged attack Hold on It's a ranged attack or an attack somebody else It says when a creature within five feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you It counts any attack. This is this is an attack. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah reaction Absolution fuck off Nine not enough unfortunately You go to chop almost at the hand of the dragonborn that fires out this beam But it is too swift and moves out of the way Nathaniel you take 11 Jesus You take 11 poison damage and you're also going to make a cone save Understood, uh, so he's going to hit me I'm going to like stack her back for a moment Press up at my chest where it hit me and then look back up completely unharmed What On the dragonborn's face you can see uh their jaw just like open And you can see the bloodstrikes smile widens and he claps very good We will have words later you and I And since you take no damage the uh, you don't have to roll for concentration Direct counter to necromancy I thought it was going to do necrotic damage. No, no poison damage. In fact, yep It's why it's such a garbage spell to take because almost like so much shit in the monster manual just has straight up immunity to poison Yeah, yep, and uh, you can see that the elf kind of bickers at the dragonborn. I told you that spell was useless And just then the dragonborn is going to the black dragonborn is going to command the owlbear to we start stomping ahead Towards the blue dragonborn and passes through the aetherical image of bloodstrike who like flickers a bit but goes right through it Damn it and is going to claw. Oh and it Claws the blue dragonborn and kills him Just like oh son of a Imagine you're fighting for your life. You cast a spell you hope it'll work. It does nothing Just put a gross green stain on my coat All right, that's the worst defense Nothing I do can actually hit this thing and it's irritating me I know it will make it happen and it's unfortunate. So for now I guess I'm just going to heck in I fucking recast heat metal Poor man's going to burn alive man He was going to anyway, trust me. Oh, yeah, probably but there you go Yeah, it's you burn it again and he's like And it starts to burn him once more. He is on the brink of death And I don't think it's till it's till my next bonus action bonus action where I can Add the extra and you can see as he is, you know burning up inside you see the body of the hair Fall to the to the snowy power. Yes It's well Good. You know each of the subsequent turns after so I can't use it on this extra bonus action, which is unfortunate Anything else? No, I can't do anything else. I mean if anything seeing the thing you'll get a fucking shot with something just one Yep, I can make it there Nice What what's wrong? I just I'm making sure you're okay Why wouldn't Toby? I don't know. I just saw them fucking shoot the green missile at you Making sure it wasn't very effective. Good. I am you fucking Pokemon You knock what is a Pokemon? Keeping these people alive though. I like a ranger but like different. We still have y'all so we'll make sure that one stays I am going to just float on over by blood stride And look i'm dead in the eye You know what I am right My of course as I raise up the gun towards the forehead of the ethereal I am the righteous hand of God And I fire at this dude Unfortunately not gonna be enough. You know what can I use my grit point? Go ahead I'm gonna make a dead eye shot, which will give me advantage Anything for Unfortunately, it is with the flurry of blows that this uh This elf is trading with Luna just out of happenstance moving out of the way of the bullet And uh blood stride just looks back to you. I'm sorry. Were you having a moment? I was hoping for I was praying for it. I know I wanted it to happen too The dragon boy ruined that in my bed Your concentration is still going on this dragonborn who's controlling the uh The the owl bear and you are completely fine From the green blast and take a few steps forward as I casually drop the suggestions spell look over to this man As he's like regaining his sensibilities. You've done a fantastic job. You've under arrest and I cast sleep on him Yeah As soon as you say that he's like what? And falls to the snowy powdery snow Actually, I'm not gonna put a skull there. I'm gonna put a sleeping man. There we go Nice. He slept. I imagine that you're going to disappear as soon as this fight is over But I would prefer if you didn't oh, no No, no, no not at all at first. I thought you were nuisance now. I find you very interesting yeah I like to think that we're very similar in that regard He smiles and shows his perfect teeth My face betrays no emotion and I end my turn I want to look at this elf Seems like you care a bit. I'll number it lay down your weapon now Give me an intimidation Uh at advantage. Oh Because he is technically on fire. He is on fire. He's you know, two people down blood strides not helping He's surrounded He's holding his sword gripping it intensely And then let's go without a second motion and looks defeat Defeat washes over his face and as he closes his eyes and holds his hands up You win. I want to shove him into the snow Just to be safe this thing He said things still up. Uh, it is. No, sorry. It's down Since he went this major. So yes, well done. You have just want to shove him to his knees Yep, you can easily do so. You just like kind of kick his leg and he falls down to his knee And uh, yep combat is over I I have a minor question blood stride and all the times that we've seen him. What does he look like? Funny you say that He looks you get a good look at him and although he has a blue tinge You can see he's draped in purple robes and wearing. Um, I'm gonna need everyone real quick to make a Actually, what is everyone's history score? Um, I got plus two. That's one. I got a three. I got a three. I believe I have a A I have a plus four Yeah, you just make it you recognize the skull this skull. You've read in books. This is the skull of a Stillborn so, you know Not even out of the womb stillborn to rask And you can see Bloodstride That guy looks so fucking cool And are done by our good friend the callie Callie Callie cannot draw not attractive characters. Like holy shit Can we link callie in the stream? Please? Yes. Uh, there is callie that glorious british Like bad ass. I love her. This is amazing. This man is a fuck mary kill all in one There we go And he smiles at you you can't quite get a good look at his eyes As they glisten under the shadow beneath the skull So what now? I don't know. What do you want to know? Why the fuck did you take my father's body? He puts one hand on his chest and kind of Uh Takes a few steps back a bit. Oh, I didn't do anything with your father's body. I am not here to play games Who was it that did? Well, I don't know when I arrived to find more subjects that place was destroyed when I got there I begin to glow much more intensely than before. Yeah, you may do an insight on that I also need to because this goes against something that I believed if that's all right Looking over his face. You can get a read that He probably doesn't have a reason to lie to you. He's protected. He's safe and he knows And he's smiling and he's giving the information as he sees fit If I can interject if it's all right, I don't want to ruin the moment Nonsense, there were no bodies left at the fight He puts both hands and shrugs. Well the spine of death is not the only home for necromancers There are so many that have not followed our way that simply walk along their own path who have not decided to join up And what is your way? What is it that you're doing this for? He smiles and he gestures over to the animals 80 years is a blink of an eye And yet the entire kingdom of balcony has changed so much in the absence of necromancy And he hovers a few feet forward closer to your face, Nathaniel Well necromancy has returned And it's time that the world made some room Renee's face is like really twisted into just like disgust I You can hear me rattling from how hard she's gripping the blades I am like a beacon right now. I am violently upset I will push my glasses up and I'm going to like look around the hologram that is bloodstride Where are you now? A safe place Any smiles? I suppose that's a matter of interpretation given your last safe place wasn't very safe Oh, I usually like to work out on the field, but I can't be at everywhere at once yet That's fair I guess my next question was Where are you leading? Where were you leading these people? Oh, I was not leading them anywhere You may have noticed this is a simple exercise Yes, but you are marching them somewhere even if it was aimlessly through the wilderness. This has to be an endpoint He smiles a bit. That is none of your concern. Now is it? He came out concerned when your meddling ended up causing a problem out here Ah, but I was not the one who instigated violence. Now was I? You did that all on your own No, but you are the one who's been instructing these people to be killing and raising animals and causing warg attacks As a matter of fact, you did instigate the violence. You're undead deer attacked us I turned towards Nathaniel a little twisted make a deception check. I'm giving him bardic inspiration And I'll smack him. Is that allowed noticeable? It will be noticeable Yeah, all right, here comes the deception. We're smarter than that Are you smarter than a bloodstribe? Are you smarter than a bloodstribe? It's very important that I get this reaction He he just shrugs his shoulders a bit and tilting his hands back and forth Well, these are new students and sometimes spells seem to go awry someone practicing Evocation may accidentally set a tree on fire or two That's fixable. You know it That is nowhere near the same Ah If you so wish to believe so You can always grow a new tree twisted bodies reviving the dead That's unnatural That's against the law At the very least I'd love to know Where Luna's body is you may not know but You're implied Well, it's technically Luna's because it's her dad Yeah, the dad isn't using his body anymore I don't know the fucking guy. It's Luna's body now Anyway, in any case, in any case, I'd like to know where Luna's body is you say that you didn't take it But if there are other necromantic cults I imagine you wouldn't want them around either. Oh, no, you misunderstand We are the premier. There are no other cults around and that word cult it's so vicious violent Like what you are As you wish to call us But no, they're simply individuals like you and me I cannot control the stranger on the side of the road who decides to rob a poor man of his wares And I cannot control a simple random person Who wishes to raise a body for whatever their means necessary You can certainly inculcate it out of someone though who already has the intent I suppose that is a flaw in your system then I think we have ample proof that it was the spine Who attacked that site No, and where is it? Miss Angel I look a little I mean, I'm just gesturing at the bodies around us like so let this in I look a little annoyed that I'm being prodded for information, but I'm going to pull out the book That we found at the campsite Immediately as the book comes up his smile vanishes to a frown of anger Oh, no, are you upset inside of your dungeon? He grunts And the visage of him There he goes Now I'm left with more questions and answers He didn't like this at all. I'm going to put the book back But why? I don't think he's lying when he says that his cult had nothing to do with it I think more importantly, there's someone another force at work I guess this answers the question If there was someone else that has these books that lost them Then the best place to catch them would be by hiding the book somewhere in plain sight That's where we found the first one the second one whether it was left for us or otherwise It may not be a calling card, but it's indicative of a third Force at work. It's also a massive target on our back Given his reaction. He's gonna come with a bigger force Good, I'll be there to meet him as I like she like cracks her neck again Now what are we doing with these two? I know I was going to say every day is like for now She's going to go ahead and start at least tying this one up And then maybe go and tie this one up But she's like adjusting her glove so that like the the Bite mark isn't visible anymore. She's just like, ah, it'll be fine. Just cover it up. It's fine I'll look over at Enoch I hope you don't mind I needed to gauge his reaction to see if his belief that they aren't Dangerous on their own was justified. He seemed genuine at least You Kind of seem you know turn his head over kind of Not to ignore but rather be disappointed Just let me know when what done with them Fair enough Renee when you go to tie up the the dragonborn. It is no problem. He is asleep, but he wakes up just as you finish Oh, good morning. Did you sleep well? What happened to bloodstride Bloodstride fucked off Unfortunately, he kind of saw that you guys were being little shits and not doing a good job. So he kind of abandoned you Berry said I'm so sorry he looks down and just looks a little frustrated and Everyone make a perception check Oh Don't you make me feel bad for this fucking I'm just wondering if bloodstride is actually nearby and this is this is a deliberate check versus the stat Yeah, I got a hole. Here we go Enoch my pass. Oh Enoch You are the only one who notices That both of them are holding a scroll behind their back and are casting it you have One action to perform Bullet in the head Of which one what they're gonna they're gonna pull this shit. Which one which one dragonborn or the elf That one or that one the elf is more Is closer towards a problem. I I can't just shoot through Nathaniel. I Do not have that level of viciousness Could I make the argument that despite my role my passive is a 19 Is your passive perception a 19? It is Then you see as well and you also have one action to perform fantastic hail mary. Let's charm a person Uh, uh, you know that was my first reaction hail mary. Let's charm a person. Okay. You fire it and you can see Okay, charm person So Enoch you fire it at the elf and right through the head And he falls over dead and drops his scroll quick quick draw and by the way, that was my last bullet Uh afterwards, yes, let me roll for the dragonborn to see if he gets joined Let's see if this works. Now. Let's see. I'm gonna be looking around for gold I'm whatever happens afterwards looking grave robbing. Okay Yep, I'll quickly bring my hand up. Why are you so nervous? You guys You guys literally just saw a cowboy like quick draw moment Shoot from the nice and unfortunately this dragonborn makes the save And quick brief motion he he gestures With the scroll quickly and casts blight on himself for the black vain queen Oh He shrivels up into skin and bone and dies Okay, I'm grabbing up that other scroll please. I like you also get a scroll of light luna Okay I Heath As I step over towards The elf and dragonborn I turn I turn towards her name. I have a quick question. I hope you don't mind me asking She's just got her eyes closed and like covering her mouth like Are you a little um By this Oh, I don't know what the devil the fuck gave you that's idea Hmm She's just kind of like does sort of like a big wide-hands motion like Gee, I don't fucking know I pick the elf up by the hair And just like kind of like wave it around a bit Oh Do you know that is Unsavory as I'm gonna absolutely respect So you guys are looting the bodies then Yes, okay So luna, um, you loot the body of the blue dragonborn, I guess Uh, I wasn't looting. I was going to give Nathaniel the uh the scroll. Ah, okay. Yes I'm looting. I'm gonna loot these two bodies. Okay. You loot them too and you do find uh A coin purse on the elf with five gold pieces and otherwise they have spell books You Hi, you can check to see if they have spell books And you can see that the blue dragonborn does have one It is pretty much identical to the first one that you found in the sewer. It's nothing special Uh, I tossed it over to Nathaniel that I uh, I ain't gonna I don't even want to bother with that I will Take the scroll grab the book Look through these two. Do they have spell books as well? The human has a spell book as well very once again a starter necromancy spell book Uh similar notes mass manufactured and the dragonborn does not have one Oh, also inok on the elf. You also find a great sword as that was what he was using and Nathaniel You find a spear on the dragonborn and they also both they also both have a breastplate I So these are mass produced so These aren't written by a specific person. Nope. No, it's like you can just find them just wherever they are unauthored And their covers have no markings Then why was bloodstride so upset? That he that we found a random book Unless he knew exactly what was in ours wait That note What if that was Cara's book that you found and that she was here without bloodstride snowing? Perhaps but if bloodstride didn't know then why would a random manufactured necromancy book bother him so much I don't know. Do you keep in mind that the page that you found it was like a page from a different book Was it sticking out though? It fell out when you picked it up Right, right. I mean, but when I showed it to bloodstride would he have seen the stuck out page Or would he have just seen a random book? Uh, well, I guess that depends on where you stuck the page That's fair So it's not a necessary what I'm saying is If I showed him you know that he got upset that the fact that you found a book At a place that he claimed he did not send any of his necromancers Yes, somebody went against orders. Maybe right. Oh, okay. No, I know I get it. You know, I get Yep, there are a few theories. Someone might have done that. That's a pretty strong theory, but more importantly Either way I am taking that great sword. It is going to be melted down into bullets I am incredibly frustrated that we do not have anyone to interrogate but What happened happened Sorry, I wasn't close enough to stop them I apologize that I was but failed Well, there's no use. No use crying about it. No, it's not going to change anything I think well, I think we got enough information at least We know these weren't the people that attacked but these we did take out some recruits my My question now Is these books I keep finding the same copy over and over Are they unique to the cult? Or Are they coming from other source or the sources Rene is going to slowly make way back um Well, I'm sure we can probably examine them If they attacked and there was a battle out here. I'm sure somebody had to hurt have hurt it back in town I can ask around Books always have authors Just because the name is not in there does not mean we can't find anyone who can produce the same kind of book The material from the paper the material of the cover Speaking of which I have a question actually this is just about the process of book manufacturing Exactly. Do they print spell books? You have to like write Right, you can't print them. You can't know you can't if you try to mass produce in this world This is something that you would know Spells need to be written on very specific spell paper, you know for them to work Uh, if you try to mass produce them, they're not going to work because you need a wizard to you know Actually imbue them with magic and such So we just have to find who was imbuing these fucking magic ass books So a specific person is writing these fucking books Yeah, we need like exactly everything has its author Can't we look at handwriting maybe see if we can determine if they're all penned by the same person I will open up I will open up the two that we just got and the third that we found at the the site and the fourth from the dungeon and I'm going to lay them out in the snow. Just like it's just right in front of me That is indeed exactly what they are. They all have the exact same handwriting Take out the paper you got from the other book And the paper's handwriting is unique Yes, that's what I checked that last time when I when I first got the paper I checked to see if if they were different handwritings. This is certainly coming from a different book Yeah, no, but scanning them over scanning them over like the few notes along with the little comment that you read Uh in the unique handwriting you can see that the notes on the certain spells Um have Very eerily similar parallels kind of very much like sure you can copy my work But change the changed parts of it so they don't look like they're copied Oh So it's a follower No, someone's following someone the person who wrote this note one of the sisters abigale or cara Is the same person that's writing all of the notes here They've penned themselves as cara maharian that we that we learned in the dungeon white Which means that certainly these books all come from the spine of death Which means certainly either bloodstride lied or more More reasonably He didn't know that somebody disobeyed him We're not gonna Get anywhere by just talking ourselves into circles. We should probably get back up to the town Trying to collect We're going to chester Yes No, I will say you guys are part way down the mountain. You can choose to go back up But that will take the rest of the day. Nope. We don't have the time for that Ain't nobody gets it All right There are two options we can keep going or we can go back and ask questions But I think we might have all the answers we need. We know this vine was here We know they stole your father the only question is who is giving orders besides bloodstride I don't know I want to know why they raised him I'm sure we'll figure it out Come on, whether it gets really dangerous at night. We should try to get off the mountain So which way you guys head to chester? I will bring map time map map time You guys are out there So are we going to maybe Yeah, it seems like it would be our next Ruga ruga ruga ruga ruga ruga ruga You travel along this path trying to find your way down It's a lot easier than finding your way up the mountain, especially since there is a paved road kind of made from footsteps and carriages that leads you the way down and you arrive kind of late ignore how this looks you arrive around late afternoon as the sun is setting to ruga wood Displaced pretty Oh It looks it looks to be a fairly small town with houses pretty spaced apart lots of cattle and farmland as well as You know random people Populating the grassy plains and you can see various people out and about going about their day trading chatting laughing Hey, this doesn't look like shit at all Let's just start done by let's just start done by you or the This art was done by angel It's beautiful like I keep I can't stop staring at the trees. The trees are really pretty Get in the chest Renee will probably like Tugging Nathaniel and just because it's like these are small houses like probably I don't know about any like Tavern or hotel or anything. This looks like a bunch of like bunch of people just hanging out together just being like if we need to Try to convince someone to let us stay the night we can play the lame dog excuse I haven't Gone and healed anything just yet. So she's just like Basically like I can live in like a little dog going. I need a place to live Uh, I suppose we can do traveling investigators If we need a place Well Does it look like there's any obvious like in or tavern or place of respite or is this just a bunch of houses? There is uh as you head further into the town there is one large building with a massive Claw painting kind of on It is the golden claw that is painted on a billboard atop of it And as you approach you do see kind of right out front along the road There seems to be several humanoids arguing one earth genasi who seems to be accompanied with a handful of other Folk who are wearing very similar looking ragged pieces of armor that is very make shift and Enoch you can looking at over you can tell this is shoddy craftsmanship at best They're not uniform. They are just Rushed lee pushed together put put together um And the earth genasi she needs she seems to be arguing with A fear bowl who is sitting in a wheelchair of some kind very heavy set built And you can see that she is missing both her legs capped with what looked like kind of copper Cats some kind they're arguing over something Can I say I love this inclusivity? Yes Yes If we get closer, can we make out what they're arguing about does this seem like a you know just uh Hey, you bumped into me spatters is something more. Yeah, they're not trying to hide it They're shouting and as you get closer you can hear that they're arguing over some kind of protection Uh, you know the the genasi is like but with so many necromancers going around You're going to need someone to fend for yourself and the uh the fear bowl just slams her arm on her armrest We don't need any protection from the likes of you And as you get closer you can see that um Uh, she's heavy built. Uh, she's got uh short graying hair scars all across her body She's missing both her legs. Um They've got brass caps And you can see that her left arm has a very dull rounded tip hook From the elbow down and she's sitting in a decked out wheelchair with various attachments gadgets machinery Most notably a mechanism that seems to be assigned to a large crossbow by one of its wheels That's amazing She's got a super wheelchair I love it Not to mess with her she is strapped Oh hell yeah So so it seems like this the genasi is trying to Sell some form of protection to to this woman and this woman is not having any of it. No, what it does not And while you get closer you see um a very tall muscular red dragonborn clad in some worn out yet fancy chainmail armor Bearing a massive sword on his back a few scars across his face He steps in says a few words that you can't quite hear in a low deep voice to the genasi The genasi seems to submit shaking their head with a smile And then they they start to leave from the way that you guys came And she gives you all a smug look and a little nod of greeting As she passes you by Just to be sure the dragonborn of the genasi were the ones that were complaining about They're there being necromancers about No, the They were discussing something about necromancers The genasi was saying that perhaps they could use protection and the fear bowl lady in the wheelchair was like We don't need your protection. You didn't quite hear what the dragonborn said I see Yeah, in that case. I'm going to give a knowing glance to rene And if I want all right No, let's take investigations Let's take all investigations. Right uh, and then I am going to take a few long steps forward in front of the the crowd as I don't She's going to mirror him in a sense like on the side when you take it when you take a few steps You recognize this dragonborn And he recognizes you and his eyes open and he smiles a bit but waits for you to approach I put my hands down immediately My eyes widen rene just looks over like, huh? Like she was about to do like a little bow saying and just goes, huh? My face goes stern What in the world are you doing here? Ah, he gives you a big large gesture with his arms and smiles Ah, the witch taker wizard has arrived in our quaint little town What a joyous occasion. What brings you here witch taker? I am on a job What in the world are you doing here? I'm simply helping out where I can you saw those Protectors as so they are called traveling in all the lands exploiting their defenselessness taking advantage of horrible situations in the kingdom I can't sit idly by and let that happen Can you as a matter of and my eye is like a get wider In a more stern face as a matter of fact you can Why are you not back in belconess? Well, how I know this person wait You don't know this person Wait, I'm so confused. He notices rene taken interest in this and he he kind of looks past Nathaniel and extends an arm out Lancel at your service. Nice to meet you all Pleasure so She's kind of like giving him like the bed for the day. She's like keeping the polite face But it's also looking at fucking Nathaniel like what I kind of just pull the tip of my hat down just a bit and Well, that's fancy and all I think y'all have your own business. I have business to attend to myself In the devil on the same business. What business do you have to attend? I'm assuming that he has a business with a bottle No, I imagine that he should have that business right now. Lancel, what in the world are you doing here? I just going around gallivanting. You're supposed to be in the city Well, I'm just getting all cooped up in there and and he gets interrupted by the fear bulk who rolls in in between you kind of like bumping into you And uh, she looks up to you Nathaniel. She's like belly height You look like garbage. Did you bathe in the mud and fight a giant with an overflowing bladder? Luna just busts out laughing Enoch breaks down laughing in the front of this building I feel like both Enoch and Luna are just on the ground from that Renee ironically enough is not thrown off by this That is some wee slapping good burns. You will not be doing any business in here until I learn of who you are I am the chief here It is very much a pleasure to meet you mom And she Renee will do like a sort of little bow and like reach out her hand and formally introduce herself She cocks one eyebrow and takes it very cautiously Juliana It is a pleasure to meet you Juliana. I apologize for the strange introduction to the list. Um There's a bit of familiarity if you cannot already tell but um, we'll just passing through and we're looking for a place to stay for the night That's all right. Well, I am hoping you are not looking for much supplies. We are very low right now We get plenty of coin from the royal guard buying up out of harvest, but my town cannot eat coin With the capital being closed import has been slow You may stay but you may not take much I appreciate I appreciate you letting us stay tonight I'm sure that is more than we can ask for I my eyes don't break from Lancel. I am sure that we are all getting ready to go to our intended destinations And he he's you can tell Just out of habit that he's try he's feigning a smile and confidence. You can tell he's fucking terrified That's he shouldn't be he better be I like Renee's like It seems like there's a lot to catch up here. Um, would you mind us taking a seat somewhere? Maybe in the tavern just to rest our legs for a bit She takes one lever and like Cranks it a few times and her seat starts to rise a few inches from her wheelchair up to you at eye height I am watching you strangers It will be very easy. I wear a big yellow coat Renee's kind of like looking over at him like she's never heard him this irritated like Holy shit, and she's just keeping a smile though. Just Then make sure to stay out of trouble as best we can She nods and pulls the the lever and Her wheelchair goes back to its original height and she points to you inoc specifically at your arm. You tomorrow I speak with you about that Oh What client I think that might be just your your your line of work inoc He leans over to the closest people to the closest person in person to him to whisper I'm not here on Doctorial business. I don't even have my equipment. I just I mean Luna was dying on the ground with you. So I'm going to assume it was her probably her Yeah I mean, what's the harm in a simple consultation then? I don't see why not I mean, it's a good way to make some coin. Yes, we're kind of running a bit low on that You look uncomfortable. Does tonight make better time? He would be delighted Come on, you need to do something besides drink tonight. All right I just uh all right I would love to have a wonderful conversation Mmm. Good. She says without a just continuing live to frown And she she pulls another lever and rolls away. Does she have art? She does not unfortunately Beats all of them. I'm sorry grip yak. I'm sorry Um, no, I stand this lady. I don't know her name, but I stand her I'm terrible. I'll forget it, but I stand it Juliana's out of sight like Renee's smile like Drops and she looks over at Lancel and Nathaniel just like Puts her hand like crosses her arms and just looks at the both of them Perhaps we could go in for a drink Oh, we're drinking now Linda's gonna pull out the bottle of red wine that she bought And hand it to you And Renee is gonna pull out her own red bottle of wine that she bought I bring my hand up absolutely not I pull out The rest of you a flask The rest of you go to the tavern. I will meet you there Lancel What for a brief moment. Can we talk in private? Yes, I wasn't actually planning on drinking. I'll follow you I want to kind of like nudge over to Renee Let them have to talk. I want to talk to you anyway And I just kind of like shake the The bottle that I'm holding like She just like she looks upset but She will just sigh And just say I expect you back then Just of course squints over at Lancel like who are you and how do you have this access? But No, no one else is allowed to be friends Hey joe with this in thought um With the with this brand new interaction Enoch thinks that he might need some stuff. Is there a local Blacksmith around? Yes, you are able to get some general supplies if you so wish and we can do that after Nathaniel's thing Okay All right, awesome. So Nathaniel and I hope the players will respect their characters not knowing any of this Oh my god, no Metagaming you you grab Lancel to the side to a quaint little tree uh, just kind of away from Hearing seeing eyes and hearing ears Young man, do you understand why you were supposed to stay inside of the city? I know I know but father I can do so much more in the field. It is because My job makes me a very dangerous person that danger invites dangerous people You I know You want to do Good things for the world. Believe me. I understand that That's what this is all about But every time you sneak off You get closer to people like them. I don't even know half of them Discovering who you're related to and if they figure that out Then you aren't just going to be going on small little adventures with your friends anymore No, you'll be thrust into the real world with real dangers And he pumps his fists a little bit in a little frustration And I'm ready for that and that's why I think we could make such a great team We can have the best of both worlds of what goes on in the city with all the books and your your lackeys And divide and conquer we can both do it together But not Yet you're too young and if something happened Ah What truthfully what are you doing here right now? Well, you saw the protectors I read a few notes that you were tracking them down and you're keeping an eye on them and I Saw that they had Targeted a few places. So I thought you've been going through my ledges Uh a tad Hand to face I sigh Listen father. I cannot sit idly by When I feel like I could do something, please just F at least just for today and tonight. I want to prove to you what I can do and He just takes a moment and takes a few steps back And if I can't then I will go back to the city And wait for your return alternative choice No matter what you go back to the city and you will await my return But I I cannot overlook the fact that you are here now And that now you have been seen by three people who are going to wonder who you are to me So You are simply a junior member Of the investigator of my investigation Understood He gives you a faux salute You will help For as long as we are here And then when I see fit you are going back to balconies. You are going back home And you will stay there and stop getting into trouble Give me a persuasion persuasion He looks down And kind of slumps to the ground crosses his legs a bit in a little sit and he thinks for quite a few moments Yes, father But until then Let's see what you can prove And he looks up and just the tiniest smile crosses his face I have made a positive impact on on this town here I can show you Very well lead the way he gets up and he leads you into the tavern Where the rest of you are and there is a party going on people are chanting and cheering and drinks are being passed out and uh, you can see that uh, there is a Uh warforged bartender who has various different prosthetics kind of extending out of his chest mixing drinks tossing them out kind of spinning around And uh, he he calls to you all hello, would you like to have a drink? uh I want to look at uh Nathaniel or not Nathaniel. Sorry Inak and renae, uh, and just give a nod and uh, put some gold down. I'll buy the first round Of course, by the way, my name is tap water and although we are low on supply I can spare you some cider or perhaps some a premier dairy our cattle makes the best of milk I hear milk and I immediately Throw down a gold coin Okay, okay, so i'm not paying for you then. Um renae, what was your like? Oh, I'll just uh stick with the alcohol I cannot deny this dairy delicacy dog Uh, how how much for two ciders? Oh, that will be a single gold piece, please And do keep in mind madam and he points to renae with your wine Uh in hand That although I can I can put that the way drinking of outside Uh things is permitted. I will have to kick you out if you cause trouble in my tavern I won't have to worry about that I do appreciate you letting us drink inside though. Very good She has like a little little half smile like politely. Yep. Thank you Is there I know you said it's like rowdy in here, but is there a couple seats maybe off to the side Yeah, there's a few seats open. You see that there's there's a small group having a good time And and as you take your seats Someone burst through a back door. You can see a sader burst through the back door and holding up Uh a few potion bottles. I've done it. I've made the perfect potion It'll strengthen even the here here here. Look try it out and you can see the entire tavern just grown Uh Oh, come on somebody try it out anyone anyone please. What is it meant to do? Oh They look to you and their eyes go wide and their mouth opens even wider with a big smile and they I'm glad you asked friend because this is mirth's grand potion of strength patent pending Before You've caught my interest Yes, and I've been brewing this thing for quite a long time and experimenting and oh my gosh. Is that a metal arm? And it's just like you know, you're so popular I have no idea why they they they slide next to you here here since you're missing a part of your arm Then it probably if it has side effects probably wouldn't harm you that much, right? There's a perfect test subject the eyes begin to glow and the gears begin to turn Merth like Merth's eyes notice this and they they see it and they're like, oh pretty Mr. Merth is it A guinea pig. Mr. Merth if if I could be so bought um Would you mind letting us perhaps a field commission like field uh test this edit Oh, of course. My own means first one's on the house and in fact Desperate for test subjects which and uh, they they lift up a little pouch Next to you inock Would you be willing to be paid guinea pigs? Um, I just I would love to help you but as my as I myself and my companions We are actually going to be leaving very soon But if we are allowed to text and with this we can actually write down everything that happens in that we can give you extremely detailed We can give you extremely detailed pictures drawings Crafts whatever you need and basically like I'm like I'm not going to test it on myself But I know plenty of people I'm about to go meet that I can I know I'm gonna say that's probably a persuasion because I don't know you might write down the I might just go like I don't think you're totally lying. I'm not lying. I'm just like maybe I will find somebody I don't know and I want to be paid You can physically see the upper body It's automatically at 28 because of my silver turn Eloquence by your silver tongue Critical failure silver tongue, but it goes from one to a 28 because I can't roll below 10 At this explanation Mertha, they just kind of like sit there thinking for a bit hand on their chin And then immediately pipe up. Okay, and hands hands you all of the potions you have and the money Uh, yes, you get yay Ten gold pieces And six of mirth's Patent pending strength potions Perfect Okay, so she will keep her like polite smile on and she'll be like, oh, thank you so very much I will make sure to take very detailed notes and I will make it back. He'll tell you all about it Yeah, yeah, and they continue to just kind of eyeball um Enoch's arm but trying to Make it look like they're not eyeballing it. They're failing. They're failing immensely Can I ask what exactly this passion is meant to do? Well, it's supposed to give you the strength and power to take on anything at any situation If you need to see with the eyes of a hawk only think it take a swig of the potion and it will Make you see for miles around all the way to the cliff's faces of the tallest mountain And I just say say you need to I don't know lift an entire house to move it somewhere else Uh, you can drink this and give you the strength of a five giants Very interesting. I would like to insight this please I take the last swig of my milk. I stand up Blacksmith Yep, you can insight that and you leave and you can see Uh, you can see that there's enthusiasm in every single word that they say I don't know if lune has ever been around salesman before because she's from the peaks So they is a saleswoman. So she's like, oh, yeah Yep, uh, they they seem to believe everything that they say I'm sure if you want to learn more about the arm, you can follow miss reenak where he is going I like Only if he'll allow I I've just only started doing alchemy and you know, you're your your your arm It seems like a maybe an advanced form of invention and alchemy and I very much would like to learn more ever Ever since juliana, um, you know made that wheelchair. I've taken a liking, but if you don't want to that's totally fine Oh, you'll see like he wants to learn She's like giving him puppy dog as I want you to go make a friend. Come on Blacksmith All right, you walk off to the blacksmith and uh, you see mirth, I do turn around and I look at mirth blacksmith Is that a yes? I think that's an invitation. I think that's a yes They just kind of like hop in place a little bit You can see that their their satyr like hooves are clacking on the wood floor And they kind of dust off their pants. Okay Good make myself presentable And they follow behind you every now and then just being like so you from around here Nope, I'm from balkanist least proper nice And making horribly awkward small talk Why can I only see fucking hippin from lord of the rings? The only proof for the brave and true comes from the green dragon Okay, as as enoch walks out you pass by uh, nathaniel and lancell just kind of like lancell just waves high Hello, good day Hello All right And I look at I look at nathaniel actually can I make an insight on these two to kind of gauge their relationship? that is well, I mean you Maybe I don't I don't know I will say he's allowed to gauge my Personality because it was weird how I walked off with this one random person Whether it's the relationship or not you can hold an insight what you will gauge Yeah relationship. I don't know how he could divine that but Nope, I have no idea who they are Some random dragonborn that he's talking to yeah Not my problem I'm very worried about uh About enoch talking to lancell. I do not want the stupid to transfer Don't let the stupid spread. Don't touch my child Also, if if he sees enoch while enoch is drunk it could cause problems Alcohol his alcoholism couldn't sue lancell could get the idea that that's what alcoholic people are like Many problems are in the world right now Best to keep them locked inside I say I do have I do have a quick question if me and rene would have a chance to chat before nathaniel and Yeah, you might with that. I'm fine with that Go ahead after because after enoch walks off, uh Luna's gonna turn to you rene and uh, she was being pretty playful before but her expressions is kind of Not quite It's got more serious, but it's still kind of you know laid back because you know luna I Are you all right? I guess it's the first thing you've been kind of Jumpy maybe maybe that's not the right word You seemed very upset at What happened in the mountain and it seems like it was a bit more than Just seeing animals being raised. Are you okay? I Don't really much care for necromancy. I've experienced it before and I would rather I usually she just like puts her glass down I know it's bad in it and I want to try and stop it as much as possible It just never sits well with me even after So much time she's Rubbing at the glass She puts a hand on your shoulder It's just it's gentle. It's kind of just you know comforting. I'm not gonna pry but if I don't know Bad memories come up You need to talk to someone especially with what we're doing That was open I don't really Keep it that much of a secret. I just tend to not really You know putting it up in everyday conversation like hey, I guess what's here is What is going on in my life? Just jazz hands is like at the table of like I'm for flare but not for That's much My father Performed necromancy I'm sorry Doesn't matter that much anymore. He's not around anyway dead or run off In prison I made sure of that Good She just nods When was this? If you don't mind my asking Ah Decades and change That way That's it After after that, I just I didn't want to see other people using it. So I kind of Pull myself into it Into stopping it. I guess Is that how you started working with Nathaniel? And she she nods like that that gets a little bit of like a smirk out of her Um, and she just goes Ah, yes. No, I hunted I hunted that motherfucker down You you hunted him Well hunted is really forceful. Um, I may have put myself in a proper situation to meet him Oh She just which is part of the reason why our lovely, um The god Which is why specifically Miss head of bergenist does not really care for me that much I may have been involved in a little bit of smuggling In a little bit of what? No, like my my audio cut out. I'm like I said smuggling Oh I'm sure you know by now that might not be the smartest choice. So I won't Oh, I don't know about it. I don't know about that. Maybe not necessarily the Most honorable, but it was one of the quickest. Could I arrive at this point? Oh, would you guys be okay with that? I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that. It seems like we've moved from the heavy more to them So how did you Yeah, it's perfectly fine. It's perfectly fine Yeah, no, I practically I practically was just walking up to him and telling him that I was going to be there working for him The how could you miss him? Look what he's wearing. Oh Chair I will sit down Begin to open my ledger and write in it and I will say It was actually a very interesting case I didn't expect it to all come down to one person. I thought that it was a third organization He made a lot of noise Well, technically it was the organization. I was just tapping lead you to them Yes, very thank you. You took a sweet time If I could interrupt real briefly when you did arrive inside as soon as you stepped in and uh, Lancel followed you in Nathaniel the almost the entire tavern uproars And he kind of does like a sheepish wave to everybody Oh Rene likes squints over at Lancel. He is so grounded That's all but that looks back at Nathaniel Oh, my face betrays no emotion No one is allowed to know Yeah, and he takes he takes a seat by you uh, Nathaniel and he he makes himself very very small Kind of legs tucked in arms kind of covering his belly shoulders hunched How old does he appear to be? Uh, he looks like young adult, but he is a large dragonborn He's very he's like he's clearly like a head and a half taller than Nathaniel. Is he drinking age? That's what I'm really asked. Yeah, he looks he looks drinking age, but very recently Uh, Luna's gonna kind of shake the uh, like a gesture to the wine bottle. Can I attempt it? Absolutely not He He weighs his hands dismissively. No, no, I'm I'm all right All right, Nathaniel, you really should look up from your book every now and then I wasn't speaking to you Oh, right Oh, I suppose introductions are in order Luna, Renee, this is Lancel. He's a junior investigator that was meant to remain in Belknis Oh Yes, I was very surprising to see him here And he is not allowed to drink Because as he is learning to be a proper investigator, he needs to keep his wits about him You can see that he he only looks down at the table But while I'm out in the field, although against orders, sir Uh, I was able to do quite a few things If I may Show you the whole tavern seems to be in an uproar with whatever you've done Yes, and he kind of like puts one hand on your shoulder Nathaniel And starts to point out various different people in the tavern. He points to a tiefling man That one over there. That's Henrik. He was having trouble putting out a fire and I was able to help him And that one over there. That's Priscilla She was under attack by some bandits that the defenders, I'm sure sent them But no, I was able to help them along with a few other folk and that one over there That one is Jasmine and She was Well attacked by the spine of death and I couldn't sit idly by and I fended off them off and tried my best And as he's speaking and your face staying as cold as it is Is you know, his tone starts to lower and lower and less excitement I will not change my my face, but I will cut him off saying and that was fantastic work. Well done His shoulders rise a little bit Very monotone voice. He gets credit. He does not get acceptance Oh, he's back you're that kind of a dad, huh? Okay. Renee is going to lean over to Lancel So when it should become a juniorlein investigate though Oh since the day I Quite a few years ago. Yeah, yes I'm insight checking the motherfucker Shit, she can't get through me but she can Tell me who you are. He's stuttering his words. He's trying It's as if he's looking around the room for a story Oh, he's looking around the room. He's avoiding eye contact He's scratching his head and Nathaniel is making him nervous I am going to interject Lancel you mentioned that one of these people was Involved with the spine of death that happens to be who I am here to investigate Tell me more about that Yes. Well, they were here about a week ago with a small army And someone was traveling in on their caravan and Was attacked by some undead I was able to fend them off But unfortunately I was not able to capture the perpetrator. They ran off you You fought them. I did And they saw your face He lowers his head again. Yes I sigh That is acceptable. You did good work Those people would have been harmed if you did not step in I only wish that I could have done more. No one was harmed, but They got away well Luckily for you I am here And I am looking for them myself So we can kill two birds with one stone We go find these necromancers And so long as they haven't gotten enough time to report back that a dragonborn has disrupted their operations We will be able to Not only deal with them here But possibly gain a stepping stone to The bigger operation You are in fact exactly what I needed at this time He looks up a little bit in surprise at you I betray no emotion. He's not getting anything from me Only very direct matter of fact words And with that in the meantime In the meantime Enoch you are traveling and being annoyed by mirth asking so many questions on the way to the blacksmith I want every single question answered Uh every single one like sincerely Yeah All right. So what do you want to know? Well, I want to know how all that stuff works. It can't just be normal magic, right? I don't think it ultimately is. I'm I do apologize for my Reason demeanor. I don't do well with a lot of people being a little bit too prior Oh, no, no worries It seems a lot of people in the town don't seem to enjoy my accompaniment. That's okay. I've gotten used to it And I look down to him I just recently found out how to do it Not that I'm relatively happy about the scenario in which it was achieved. I just It's complicated and magic is a I think magic at least from my perspective is a conduit Or at least An ungrasp with an ungrasp in force that you add a conduit to You see them when you say this they clap their hands and interrupts you That's exactly what I was thinking because the other day and they reach into their their pocket and pull out some Blueprints of their own and you can see that it's various different types of writing Experimenting some of them scratched out on various different kinds of potions and their implementation and In doing so I'm going to be really nice and I pull out the piece of paper to which started the idea of learning how to imbue magic to metal And I presented to him I came up with this sometime around last night Maybe we can trade notes. You see their eyes go wide and they take it and like With just like one smooth motion dropping their paper and slowly reaching for yours Oh, it's as if they have found a room full of treasure I They hold their trade notes We trade notes Not give them Oh, yes, of course here and mirtha mirth hands you their their sheet Handily and doesn't even just puts both their hands behind their back. It's just very proud of their paper and you look it over and Uh It's some amateur work, but it could have some merit if Given enough experiments and maybe a little bit of refining It is some various potions of strength, you know as they said and however There are some other ones that can enhance already existing pieces of machinery Most notably you see notes for juliana's A wheelchair looking over juliana looking over these blueprints Did you make her chair? Oh, no She did that herself, but I was thinking I could make some enhancements and looking at I I'm guessing that she would want to as well, but But also if I could learn a little bit more I could do So much more, you know, I I feel like if people would just give me a chance Like when you know, she offered to take the potions off my hands and test them out I look at him confidently them by the slight Oh them I look at them And I give a nice warm smile Well, you definitely got the smarts for it Their eyes start to water a little bit Yeah, I do don't I Well, let's go see the blacksmith. Perhaps we can pull out some materials and discuss things over a drink They pump their fists a little bit and you head to the blacksmith and what kind of supplies are you looking for? Uh, I am in need of uh some classical black powder and Uh, god I need Well, no, I need that steel that I got from that sword to be broken up Into small ingots for bullet making All right, and then also if they have any silver left over then I'll pay a gold for that Okay, so in order to break down the great sword Let's see So breaking down the great sword uh Is gonna take 15 gold pieces To melt it down and break it into ingots for you Uh, I'm gonna have to do it myself then. I don't have the money Uh And fine. I'll just At this you can see that uh Merth holds up one hand and kind of like taps taps a finger on your shoulder. Um, Perhaps I could help. I know a little bit of transmutation and you know, I've been doing some alchemy myself If you would like a hand I would love that kind of assistance Yes, and they pump their fists down a little and then turn around back to you and just regain composure with a big bright smile All right, well Whatever a black powder you might have on you all just uh, I got five gold pieces for that Blacksmith grunts, uh It's it's fairly cheap, you know black powder, uh like it's kind of residue from some other things and you know mages using fire magic and all that um You are able to get a small pouch of black powder Four Eight gold pieces Yeah, I can do that All right, I trade him the the gold for the black powder And I guess I'll have to do some bullet making tonight Oh, you can mind if I watch You know, juliana doesn't let me watch any of her inventions. I don't see why not. Oh Actually, I do have a meeting with her tonight Oh All right, thank you. Yeah, we'll do we'll do it first thing in the morning. How about that? A big smile beams Around their cheeks from ear to ear And you see them about to go in for a hug, but then they they they take their hands back and just kind of uh step back That would be good. Yes where I'm from the best source of Appreciation is a nice firm handshake extend my hand out Yeah Yes, of course and you go to grab it And it's it's a fairly hairy hand. You know the back of the hand's got quite a bit of you know, uh that Fawn hair and uh shake it. You see that their hands are rough like yours One that works I can tell A nice warm smile kind of crawls across the face again Well then To a meeting To a meeting I'll I'll see you in the in the tavern then very well and I uh tip my hat towards the blacksmith thank him for his time and uh his business and I return back to everyone with my uh Brand new apprentice apparently and about this time, uh, it starts to get late and start to become nightfall And people are exiting the tavern kind of bidding Land so farewell a few of them kind of pipe in and say a few you know nice comments back at him They're very friendly with him Uh, but he doesn't make too much small talk before kind of like Trying his best to Give you guys some space uh and Stealing glances at Nathaniel each time Meanwhile, I am just right We need to list out all of the things that are going to be a danger when we go on this journey Ruffians thugs poison ivy quicksand cannibals snakes the plague cat cannibals no I'm sorry, what no pointy teeth No What am I hurry hell are you talking about if I may if I may mr. Which take a there a few of those things. I don't think are prominent in belkanis You don't know that What if those things do you know about what's going on? I need to know one of the things that he listed do I know is not prominent in belkanis? There's probably not quicksand in belkanis as it is a a grassy land um There there there haven't been any recorded history of cannibalism at least not widespread Uh, perhaps maybe some random dude decided to eat a body one one time in a history book Uh Nathaniel Nathaniel Yes, are you thinking about the right country because most of belkanis is grassland quicksand does not happen in grassland And it is for that reason And it is for that reason that you are going to get sunk in quicksand and I am going to have to free you By this point, I feel like Renee has had like she has not been paying attention to how much she's been drinking and has had now the full bottle of wine I feel like luna's taken half of hers down. So we're just kind of like But that doesn't make you should know that we don't have quicksand But you shouldn't know that. Do you really just never leave the city? He'd know we do we do sometimes Apparently we do because she like gestures over to lancel apparently We got I I would not dare to Sipping in and hearing that I think that is blaspheme and offensive towards me and my beliefs What did I go out? As a god gods No Am I missing something? I don't know Absolutely not Lancel are you aware of the area in which you saw these necromancers? Uh, yes, it was uh Just a path leading north Uh on the way to stymor along the road, you know the usual trade route Looking at the red dragonborn He's uh, he waved. He waves very friendly at you and gives you a little smile my face Are you gonna say it? I can't Say it you coward You started it you gotta finish it My face is a little Is a little just like there's something going on like I am like I'm making that curious like squinting face You were so close to greatness god damn It's never gonna happen. I'm not stealing that from davi Listen, he can take my howdy at the beginning of game all the time, but yeah, I'm not taking his face Yeah, Rene is very much squinting at lancel just He is trying like every time he looks at you rene. He darts his eyes away knowing that you are staring at him so intently You want to know what that has nothing to do with me Like not even looking away from from lancel She's going to take the glass that luna has so kindly filled up for and continue drinking I am looking for This fear bold lady I'm looking for you'll she'll she'll arrive eventually Yeah, juliana time as Rene is staring at lancel and I like look between them right um perhaps now that we are currently winding down It would be a good time to tell a story Um, oh really? Oh, please. I love your stories nathan, you know Right, so um, but just funny story then uh long ago. I when I was still a junior investigator myself Uh as like motion to lancel Lancel starts just like rolls his eyes and just kind of Slumps down into his arms that are crossed on the table This was before I was the witch taker Uh, there was a man he killed an entire family and me and my father were tasked to Investigate this and and and we very quickly realized that it was just a specific man Now he was arrested and he was put on trial, but the uh The person Uh, the the the justice that was presiding over it was crooked and the man walked free So What happens, but the murderer Decides that because he is so free and nothing can touch him He then in the night sneaks into the justice's house and murders him Oh, no And then he and then the justice is gone and the man is arrested And it is a funny story riveting That's a like sipping sipping um fucking hilarious That's quite uh quite the punchline there. He don't happen to have any I don't know cheeryest stories for What no it's hilarious he He killed the man that let him walk free He and you you see the story of a man who murdered a family and then murdered a man The family's not the Like renais looks the most disinterested you've ever seen her You see uh that lancel kind of like rolling his hand a little bit You see the joke comes from the irony that this man let him loose and oh the humility that this very man that he let go Came to murder him. It's I it's ironic, isn't it? Exactly. Oh very ironic Absolutely He has some some like he's saying this with absolute like boredom You'll need less irony and more, you know just good riddance to both of them I slide over to lancel and I'm on I ask for renais squinting in a Daniel I'm gonna pull out my second to last gold coin Wait, have you been drinking please? Okay And I I slide over to lancel. All right, we don't drink when we're on missions. Don't wait She's like I'm just gonna re-scold renais glassing Renais just gonna down it at this point bash it on the table So I have I have an actual like legitimate question for you lancel and more of a biological situation Um, simply because I'm a little curious is how dragonborns come to be No, I There are thoughts that like some are born from eggs. Some are born naturally. So, you know Give me some insight. He cocks one eyebrow And he looks a little disgusted at you My arm my alarm is now a train Running through my brain You don't even know how normal people fuck. How would you ever expect to know about dragonborns? He kind of interrupts renais a little bit I have performed Many many times A birthing ceremony. What I'm saying is is that I don't know how dragonborns are birthed because I've never Seen one be birthed And he So he he he looks up a little bit and he looks a little confused at the question And all like his eyebrows narrow. He looks a little disgusted Why would you? And he as if a light bulb had appeared above his head Well, sir how dragonborns are created is that at the end of the rainbows I love you Listen son. I'm a doctor. I don't need you to be condescending No, but where I come from the great mighty lancel Hero of ruggerwood and a few of the other tavern goers. Hey kind of throw their glass up Have been created at the end of a rainbow and a conglomeration of heated gold And he looks to you Nathaniel with a big shitty eating grin I'm gonna say that's a little bit of metagaming there. I raise my eyebrows and I say Yes, that's correct. It's absolutely all entirely correct. Yes. I was born in A pile of heated gold created by an ancient dragon that flew around it He was in the most precious pieces of gold leftover after his Cave was taken over and completely plundered. This was all he had left And after a strong battle and a mighty show of force It was unfortunately taken down by mere mortals and it was dying breath. He breathed out the fire to create me I feel like he's lying well if you feel like he's lying then you feel like he's lying You yes, I do believe that I feel like that's like What adults tell kids that a stork came into the the patch and laid a baby or something That's what we should have told you when you were asking about me in school. I'm a man of science Well, uh, you're you're you are also a man of magic and he gestures over to your hand So believe what you wish But I have the witch taker to back up my claims Of course you'll do the witch taker is totally backing you up He leans back and puts both hands behind his head satisfied All right, well as interesting as it is You know what I got a meeting to attend to I will Finish up my milk and strangers Fancy Renee's lip twitches at the word strangers It is getting late So if I may he gets up and kind of pushes the table a little bit himself away from the table I do have a special Eddie looks at Nathaniel. I do have a special special cottage that has been Signed to me. So I will bid you all good night Good night, Lancel. Good night, Lancel. We will see each other in the morning It was an absolute pleasure He has fear in his eyes when he looks at you Renee. She's got like this very like She's she's smiling, but her nose is scrunching. She's down that entire bottle. Holy No, I down the bottom and the side outs. It's fine. Okay um It's it's it's fine. I think you might want to go lay down Oh, I'm no I'm going to go for a walk and now because I am well and I need to cool off I'm just gonna kind of trail after her. Yeah, as you say that you're actually stopped by uh tap water who steps up you can see he Has his back completely straight and he has two extra arms that are kind of It's almost like the arm has been cut down The center and is detached and is cleaning a cup and he gestures over to you Will you be staying the night in my tavern? I believe so At least that was Is still the plan Is that the plan we're following? I'm not sure which plans. Yes. I will buy the plan I will buy rooms for us. Of course Each of you and the inebriated woman Yes Of course, and that'll be uh four gold pieces to accompany everybody I will drop four gold in his hand. Yep Uh his hand his palm kind of like segments and you can see that there's a little coin slot that they all And you can see them roll up his arm I love warforge man. They're so cool. They're very cool Thank you and please do not throw up on my carpet. I cleaned that this morning I won't I promise I am very good with my alcohol She like packs the warforged on the cheek like there there my friend. It is fine I on missions that could have cost my life So I am very familiar with this feeling. Thank you. Luna. Could you please escort renee to her room? I will be up shortly. I'm taking a walk outside. I need to cool off in the nice night air She likes what's over there. Is that all right? Luna's just gonna lean over to you Nathan. You're all go walking with her and then I'll make sure she gets up to home Yes, please Uh, and then I'm going to look at tap tap water I wouldn't be able to borrow a bucket Without just in case just in case she needs it He his waist turns around with his torso still face you walks back behind the bar And picks up a bucket his waist twists again walks towards you Hands it to you Thank you for this extra cleanup Thank you so much. I'll like promise if there's any messes I'll take care of them And uh, I'm following after renee Oh, sometimes I question the customers that come into my tavern Once they leave Love dimes I question Once they leave I am going to give another gold to the uh to the warforged man. I'm gonna say Are you going to be busy tonight? No more busy than usual. I will be cleaning the tavern ready for the next day. Fantastic Fantastic when the elven lady who returns to her room, please Ensure that she does not sneak off in the night. Most likely she will try to use a window Interesting, of course, sir. I will I will make sure that they are barred And I give him a coin. Yep, and then I am going to go upstairs Giving renee and luna time to get a head start. I will go to my room I will take off my hat and I will neatly fold my large yellow coat And I will lay it on my bed I will take a sigh And then I am going to exit my room So that I can stealthily follow them Oh, shit Oh Right after enok as you sit in a secluded spot You do see that mirth enters and does not anticipate you as they they see you they Get excited a little bit But then you see that they they seem to remember something and then they just like And then just kind of wave at you and head up to their room I give him a A signal that you know, I appreciate seeing his presence And they give you a thumbs up and return and a smile and they head head upstairs And right behind them Just like boom bangs open the tavern door and you can see that it Is juliana in her wheelchair And she rolls on up to you And she goes tap water I want water Tap water, of course juliana here you go chief and hands her a cup You and she look she points at you with her non-hook arm Enoch Howdy We speak now I'm good at that Yeah, that she points to your arm. Where did you learn that? um years of training and design and passion and desire and I made it myself Hmm that does good work. She says still frown and you see that she's got a perpetual frown on her face Me she taps on her wheelchair. I invent this myself as well. I learned things gain experience Yeah, I mean you are outstanding honestly. Yeah Yes, I know I am outstanding Yes, you are There's a there's a song in the need I've said playing right now I want but I want to know How you learn specifics He kind of Pauses on that There is There is a part of me Who is far more better and sometimes when I Relinquish what I am on the forefront They come forward Ah typical deal with devil old news. I'm not interested in that So shame It's not a deal with the devil. It's It's a lot to do with what I have different names all one same thing More celestial But devil by different color. I suppose so Hmm Anyway, I I I know how it's done. I I just it Takes time to process. I mean I I have a lot of skills in engineering a lot of medical practice I think you're a you're a pretty swell gal and I Would love to know more about you Yes, I am great gal I am big game hunter invent this wheelchair take care of the town against necromancers and protectors But I like upgrades and I like to know If you help You do help. Yes You are adventurer. You come from outside town. You like pay. I have plenty coin to spare Well, I I certainly can't help at my current circumstance not immediately but And I want to not help that setir mirth With their inventions haywire Not understanding that very good Really really bad at inventing They are unreliable. I just think he might need a little bit of a Not inspiration, but rather a good teacher you know, I Things always blew up in my face when I started doing all this I it takes time to Make something and look what happened and she gestures over to your arm opportunity Failure is good time for opportunity Look look at me and she gestures over to Her wheelchair without losing leg. I not learn how great I am Enoch pauses on some thoughts there are Definitely certain perceptions within this profession I'd be more than happy to upgrade and put time towards your towards your wheelchair and And assist in this town to the best of my ability. I I have traveled belchness before but I also think that the more hands on deck The easier the work can be and Somebody who's just learning is also somebody that's willing to take opportunities And I think someone like you who was strong and Also very bright that I can see It would be an honor to help and also It would be very interesting to work with you Hmm good she just kind of uh Puts one fist on the table then it is agreement I think over what to do with mirth May have they learned even if dangerous and blow up an entire town in process If I may make one recommendation What try and find a way to make a workshop the much more not too isolated but definitely a place where If something does happen it can't negatively affect the rest of the community she scratches her chin a bit and Eyes kind of like her eyebrow raises And her frown becomes less of a frown that good idea equip everybody with great wheelchair You smart man Aggressive accessibility now give everyone multi-fire crossbow Yep That is exactly what I was thinking Give everyone the opportunity to be able to defend themselves. So that way the town could be properly defended Yes Good and she takes her glass of water and gulps it down in one swig It's about like the size of like an orc fist And you can see just a massive gulp go down her throat And she slams it on the table Good talk We talk more of some other time. You are traveler. I know you go around a lot. You come back here. We start That sounds like a mighty fine deal and I extend my metal arm out You You metal one then She takes it and you she she shakes it And uh Oh god, she's gonna pull it off She can try but it's not coming off until i'm unconscious She does not pull it off But she grips it if you could feel you could feel crushing weight Her grip is strong And she she lets go after nothing in this shake she lets go and gives and Gives you a farewell heads out of the bar And tap water walks over and hands you a key a room your companion paid for it Tap water What can I ask you a Personal question. No, of course not many do I love sharing What happens What happens if per se like you have increased blood pressure? When you meet someone but you don't dislike them Ah, I think uh That is called acquaintances or friendship if it is stronger I know I have made quite a few friends and although I don't have blood the same way that you do I do feel as though I am attached to them and I do want to do things without any benefit to myself but What if it's like I can't describe it Probably more than lack Oh god Oh goddess. Oh, no Uh, I think that is some feelings that you must search for yourself. Perhaps I could recommend a therapist He pulls over his hood and he begins to just think upon Feelings of what is A crush I will let you be here with your thoughts and he takes the empty glass And heads back to cleaning up the rest of the tavern How do you make all these s-tier level mpc show? It's amazing How do you do this? I love that. That's fantastic. Nathaniel. I love them. You tail along The girls that are heading outside while renais is drunk off her ass So Luna and renais you actually Would you guys like to do competing roles for this? Sure competing roles to see if you notice Nathaniel Yes, for days too drunk. I'm not gonna do it. I would like to Also, she's not paying attention. She does not care right now. How do you feel about it? I will be following them as long as Uh, I'm not gonna follow them for the entire time. I just want to try to see if I if they're going towards Where lancel is staying and if not, then I have a different thing in mind. Oh, are they? I have no idea renais just walking. She don't care where she's going. Probably not. Yeah, I'm not gonna imagine we just die and have to land on it. Like I don't care I just kind of imagine me. Uh, me and renais are going on a walk past like a couple like Passes of farmland or like cows or something. Yeah Yep, uh, in that case if you're going off into farmland, I don't know where the fuck that's going So that's that's its own business In that case Y'all let you guys do your thing I'm gonna ask around to see where the hero lancel is staying so you guys can do your thing. So yeah, luna and renais You're walking along the path kind of like as the sun has completely set it now But the the sky is still like a dim red luna is uh I think i'm gonna do it on the sky bird of one of my swords. I'm just gonna cast lights So that we have a light. Mm-hmm. Oh nice Uh And she's had a fair amount of alcohol, but luna carries her alcohol pretty well Uh, you on the other hand, she is like trying to make sure you're like not stumbling around You're walking in a decent straight line. You're not about to like break an ankle on a pothole And renais like walking fairly straight But like the one thing that you can definitely tell like how you can definitely tell she's drunk Her head is just bobbing side to side Like anything else you probably couldn't tell that much but her head just is not staying up So it's just lobbing side Are you sure you want to go on this walk? I mean don't get me wrong. I understand, you know Taverns are stuffy and you clearly have Some things that you need to you know, it's it's fine. I just I need to cool off I am getting irritated and I don't like it when I get tankly but What is that me so angry? She's I I do not like that man. I do not care for him The dragon way that it keeps She just like looks over to luna like no No, then why am I here? Why am I sticking around and I just I know I know I know I know I know It makes sense not to know There are so many things that I don't know and I totally understand it. I just Never seen that before Just the manual acting like that She's nods and she like this over like What What kind of mission is he on that's so important? Huh That he can't drink that he has to keep things. He's a terrible liar I don't even understand what he's doing Have you considered asking him yourself? He wouldn't tell me even if I asked Well Why don't we go find out? Oh, no She just Let's sound an exasperated sigh And it's just there's so many things that I have asked and he has not told me And it's been fine up to this point I mean, I've been mad before and it was but it was fine. I've never let it control my work like this Renee may I ask something? She just nods And uh, she's luna's like kind of putting her arm around your shoulder As we're walking because she's seeing you're kind of getting tis'd up Do you have anyone else in balcony? That you associate with She shakes her head You feel like her her hand kind of squeeze your shoulder gently and she kind of As we're walking talks you just kind of a little bit closer like half hug Do you think maybe you feel like you're being replaced? Instead of and maybe that's where these feelings are coming from this anger might be coming from Like you've Renee has always been like this like Prist like I am always in control. She looks like a like A 12 year old just got their toy taken away In the best in the best way of explaining it. She's just kind of like rubs her eyes I don't know Maybe these are feelings you should make aware to Nathaniel them because well outside looking in I don't think anybody can replace you You two bounce off of each other incredibly naturally But the way you two communicate is almost supernatural I don't think a bond like that can be broken Without you or him realizing it Perhaps this is just A misunderstanding of some kind Talk to him Tell him don't don't talk don't go to him demanding answers. Tell him how emotions you'll feel If you keep the focus on talking about yourself and Saying that this is how you feel it might Make him a bit more inclined to tell you or at least At least ease some of those fears She just Like takes a breath Okay, I I think that's a good idea I think I'll do it Yeah, just maybe tomorrow when you're not Drunk don't get me wrong. I understand that's absolutely tempting too, but I can tell you from Multiple experiences. It's not a good idea to bring those kind of feelings up when you're not uh Entirely in control of your emotions. No, you're right. Right. I was lying when I said I've been this drunk This is the worst I've ever been. This is the worst I kind of think it that I was I was just trying to Uh Just like a lightly pat being at Luna's arm is she saying this like trying to finish her sentences, but not just Now I I kind of figured that um, no offense, but you're kind of small and uh, you drink an entire bottle of wine It's fine. I'll be fine Yeah, yeah, I'm sure I'm sure you're going to be just fine Let's just Get get back If there's necromancers around I'd rather not have to fight them drunk No, you're like, oh, I've been drinking on the job And Luna just like Luna just hugs you. She's like, that's okay Oh no, he's going to think so. He's going to think so. No, I think he's more concerned with the amount you're drinking Not that you're drinking on the job. It's going to be okay. And she's like just patting your back like no, no, it's all right Okay, I think that's good. It's going to be clear. That's good. And uh, we head over to Nathaniel and about this time Probably around night time now good Enoch is having a time Yeah, Enoch is definitely having a time sitting in a corner table just like hands together in prayer just like Face deep in his hands like This wasn't a scene. I just heard you go just Anyway, okay. Yes Uh, I After asking around I assume I can figure out word in a fit not Daniel. That's me Lancelis thing. Yes easily and people point to In good high spirits where he's at Yes, you're able to find the cottage Where he supposedly stays at and you can see that there is a small little Uh, kind of various different crates and stuff outside What looks to be a old rundown? Uh What is it? Uh the thing the thing that uh Care not caravan Carriage carriage that's the one a real old rundown carriage with no roof Um Sitting outside it seems that that it's mostly been used as a make shift wheelbarrow To haul things you can see that there's very different bags and stuff Um, he's he's staying in a cottage He is yes I'm gonna do a once around the cottage so that I can see all of the entry points Uh, how easy is it to break inside of this thing? Yes, you can see that it's it's a pretty basic square home Uh With like a small little attached like extra point coming out you guess probably a bathroom some kind um various different windows, um It is a very humble living quarter the door out front, but all of the windows have curtain shut Okay, how many exits? uh See I'm making you come up with a crazy. I'm so sorry Uh six exits one door five windows The door uh Is it open or closed it is closed and presumably locked I see I'm going to walk up to the door I'm going to very gently try the handle to see if it is indeed locked. Yep. The handle doesn't turn any which way aside from a few centimeters Okay, I could knock on the door. Yep instead. I'm going to pick the lock And uh, it doesn't take too much your what's because uh, yeah, you don't I'm a Oh, do I not need to roll because you know, no, you don't need to roll You're able to just out of out of like eventual time even if you finaggle it a little bit Eventually you are able to unlock it Very simple and then I will Open the door You open the door and inside you see Lancel laying awake And he looks to the ceiling he is tossing a small ball in his hand And he doesn't take a glance at you At all at you coming in no reaction Father why is it that you always insist to do that? Don't you know privacy? I do but others might not did you hear me coming in? I did Good I take a step inside and I'll close the door when you're not in belganus anybody could potentially be a threat But as much as I Am aggravated that you did it You have done a lot of good here and it seems that everyone respects you greatly He stops playing with his ball and Turns from laying down to sitting on his bed I don't mean to be so stressed so strict, but you understand why I have to be right He turns his head to the side There are a lot of dangers in this world If I'm not prepared then the worst may happen And more importantly eventually you are going to take over my business And meaning you're going to inherit my problems There's nothing I can do about that And it's not even that you might not want to clearly you want to be an adventurer to save the world to help people meaning you have chosen your route inevitably it's going to lead to me He looks down it doesn't say anything but knots that's I'm not chastising you I'm reminding you Of the burden that you're going to have to face And I suppose going out on these excursions Is preparing you for that Event you you are getting worldly knowledge I And he looks about the room his tongue Twisting itself to avoid saying it before he manages to flatten it out He slowly raises his head and leans in from his seat I am proud of you And tears fill his eyes And he goes to wipe them with his arm Thank you, father But of course, I won't be proud of you if you manage to get yourself killed tomorrow You always have to ruin the moment. Yes, I will go back home No You're going on the journey with us His eyes widen what? Not the full journey But I don't know the layout as well as you do. I don't know the people you do So I'm going to need your help Are you capable of that? He stands up and Looks over to his sword sheathed in the corner and nods I am a witch taker Well then right now I'm off the clock. I don't have my outfit Garrosh yellow thing I'm not a witch taker I'm simply father And he smiles as his composure breaks and his straight back turns and Just he starts sobbing That said That said witch taker or not. You're not allowed to talk to that elf He wipes his tears a bit. It's nipple She seemed pretty upset Very nice person. You're simply not allowed to talk to her Not it's not because of anything you said or she said. Well, it is what she said. She is Very shrewd very cunning. She will get to the bottom of this immediately So for you for our own sake I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with you, but you aren't the best at lying Again not trying to be rude No, but she's very good at deciphering the truth. Of course not but Father This does not have to be decided upon soon if you need time but I am happy To be your son and I am proud of the things that we do but perhaps one day I would like to not hide it anymore Let us go on this journey I don't know what I am going to think after that, but It will be enough I am Quite exhausted after the day far I could get some rest. I think you need some as well So yes Thank you dad Yes Rest perhaps I have a lot to think about Thank you son He nods and a little smile perks up I'm gonna Open the door And as I just take a half step out of say, um Change your locks too easy to fix to Crack and then he closes the door And I think that's a good place to call tonight's session