 So you are all at the edge of town standing between the dense buildings of Satya and its open, grassy farmland hills. You have just escaped a sudden, moderate storm of blot, one not often seen this far east in the kingdom. Many of the crowd that was audience to your bout out in the farmlands are nearby. None of them seem to be physically injured thanks to your assistance in escorting them to safety. Plenty are emotionally distressed, however, including a few of the other contestants as well. You can see that Jaday, I can actually show you her portrait by itself now since the party has split up. Oh yes. Here it be. Oh, we're split up? Well, not you guys. They're party because they lost. Oh, okay. Oh yeah, she has big, getting too old for this vibes. And she is, I think, the granddaughter of the dragon? The niece. The niece. Yeah, she's the niece of Elias, where do you go? And she has, just a quick reminder, last time she has done this five times, so 50 years. So she's getting pretty up there. And you can see she's tending to civilians while also kind of restlessly looking back at the hills, kind of longing to assist her uncle. You can see that she is very tense. Yeah, if nobody looks injured, I want to go back to where the dragon is. You want to go back? I do. I'm not going to make this decision just by myself, but I'm just like, I want to make sure that my mentor is okay, and I want to make sure that the dragon is okay, regardless of whether this may or may not be a good decision. Well, last you saw the dragon, he flew up into the sky. That's a good start. And your mentor, you don't quite know where she might be. Perhaps you could have, do you have a sending spell? No, no, I do not. You know she probably wasn't anywhere nearby the tournament, as loud noises kind of turn her off from focusing. So she probably would not be anywhere nearby. Great. But I think I'm just feeling kind of bad about the situation. You can still, if everyone else is on board, you can still opt to try and go back out into the fields. Is everything good where we're at? Like we've gotten everybody too safety, or are we just still in the process of getting people? No, everyone is too safety. Everyone's just kind of on edge, watching out, waiting. You can hear the distant roars and infrequent silhouette of Elias fighting the blot in the hills. However it starts, it has kind of slowed down a bit. You get the feeling that maybe he has cleaned up a lot of the blot in the time that you have been escorting civilians. I think we can probably trust him to take care of the rest of the situation. We should get going. By get going, do you mean leave on this quest? I mean, we still got to get the heart before we move on. Get going forward with progressing the quest. So we got to find out where the heart is. Well, you wouldn't know that Elias has the heart. It is his quote on the board. He is in possession of it. That my mistake for not being clear on that, maybe I should have put in a little bit more. I wasn't sure he carried it, or if he had a little chance. Well, I don't think we exactly know what the heart is. Yes, so it's a closely kept secret what the quote on quote heart is. But it is common knowledge that the dragon has it. Only the dragon really knows what it is. That way, you know, so that nobody can sneak in and steal it because they don't know what it is. And potentially pose a threat to Querencia, the Light Tree. I think we should probably head over to his niece, who is within the visible distance. Yeah, she's kind of like helping you with the crowd as well. Like she's around checking in on everyone while occasionally glancing over. So you've done this before. What's her next step? Looks down at you and she just kind of looks back over at Elias. Well, the next step is usually you'll have to go to the dragon's temple and undergo some sort of trial. But it seems you can't do that now that he's out fighting the blot. I just hope that he's all right. So do we wait? Unfortunately, it appears. And she looks over and just on cue, you can see Elias kind of flying over. You can see he's a little bit wounded and a little bit of drips of blot on him. But he lands and back into his normal Seder form. He lands in front of a very relieved crowd that gives him some claps and thankful cheers. And he's just kind of brushing himself off of it. And Jade goes in and gives him a big ol' hug. And she says, that was probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen you do, uncle. And honestly, I don't think I'd ever say that for quite a while. And he laughs a bit and looks out to the crowd. Oh, it's well now, child. It's not much more than a bit of a drizzle. I'm happy to see that nobody is harmed thanks to the officials as well as all of the contestants. And he points out to you guys as well as all the other ones who may have not made it to the final bout. I do a little bow. I want to use my last bomb of the summer court, D6, to heal him. You may. Thank you. This one I don't think is touch. I can just do it to anyone I see. I'm not going to get close. You go up and heal him and he just kind of pats you on the shoulder a little bit. Thank you, child. That feels much better. He stretches a little bit. You can see some of the wounds on him close. But I apologize that we had not much time to celebrate before that little kerfuffle. But perhaps now is a good time as any to congratulate you again, pilgrims, on your victory. And I thank you for keeping the good people of Satya safe. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a sweet tooth to sate and an itchy jacket to remove. Your time to face me at the temple will be any time of your choice starting tomorrow when you're ready. For now you may rest, be merry, enjoy yourselves. For it may be a while before you can do so again on such an important quest. There goes for all of you. Happy Pilgrims Day, everyone. And he yells that out to everyone. Everyone starts to disperse. All right, we going about... Excuse me, I think I got punched in the gut at some point. Y'all right? That'll be okay. Are we going to the same tavern or are we going our separate ways and meeting up tomorrow? Well, I gotta settle up to school, I think, with somebody. But I've been down for meeting up at the same tavern. I mean, we're gonna be spending quite a bit of time with one another. Couldn't hurt to start. What time of day is it right now? It is kind of noonish about now. Okay, so we could go our separate ways and reconvene at the tavern around dinnertime? I'm all right with that. Is there a specific tavern? Like, is there like one tavern? There is. Can I suggest a tavern? As a matter of fact, I can show you the various locales on the map via special icons that I made. Da-da-da-da! Whoa! Whoa! I'm so excited. So, as you can see, there is the tavern as marked by the little tankard at the bottom left. There is the blacksmith on the far left next to the blacksmith is the markets. At the bottom there is the cathedral, if you wish to go do prayer. To the bottom, kind of more to the right is the docks where you can see ships going in and out. The farms are to the far right that are currently kind of sectioned off due to blot cleanup right now. Some officials have headed that way with weapons and mages as well, magic prepped. There's a library, kind of a center of the piece of art. The official city hall at the top left there where the big building next to the bell tower is where the lord of Satya sleeps. And then far, far beyond the farms is the dragon's temple where Elias has tasked you to go there tomorrow. Rest up today. Hmm. However, before you guys do go your separate ways, Elias just kind of draws you all in. Just like, come here, come. I get uncomfortably close to him. I do the exact opposite. I get middling close to him. All right, we've got our marching order established. Good work everybody. Good. Well, now that we have some time for a bit more intimate conversation, perhaps we can have a little chat. Is there anything I can do to assist these four new pilgrims of Satya? It's been quite a while since the last time we had a full team of new members without a single veteran. And as much as I'm sure Jidae has a myriad of pieces of advice to help you, she unfortunately won't be with you the whole journey, like she was with the others before you. But nonetheless, she and I are happy to help to assist in any way we can. And also, I wanted to give you this, a cut of the winnings. There seems to be a lot of gambling and betting around and I thought it would only fair that a cut be given to the winners. And he hands out a big old gold piece to divide amongst you a hundred gold pieces. All right. So that's 25 each. I would like to know what route we take and if you have a map or like a compass or something. Yes, of course. Well, most people here. He reaches into his backpack and he calls over a mage who is just like he asked for a map. And he opens it for you. This is the map of a linty. And he kind of points around. Well, here we are here in Satya, a small little town on the island of Lost Hogea. And usually the first place that satians go is Nuba Sky right over there. That will likely be your first location. But where you go from there, whether it be north to the magical city of Aguna, or the inventor's palace of Pelletrios, that will be up to you. I'm sorry, I was staring at the map and not listening. He said, odds are most likely your first stop is going to be Nuba Sky because you're going to have to pass through there no matter what to get to the other towns. But you can either head north to the magical city of Aguna or the kind of inventors haven of Pelletrios. Or if you wish to somehow go past both of those and just head straight for Treveseta, you can. It's just most likely the first location you're going to go is Nuba Sky. Sounds reasonable. And just so I understand, it has always been our task to go to every place. I thought everywhere had their own champion team. Nope, always been such. Oh boy, OK. This is a slightly bigger quest than I expected. Yes, yes, of course. But the bigger the quest, the more knowledge you can gain. It's always nice to check in with what the other provinces have been up to. Knowledge, that's what matters to me. I lean over just to buck, that's not true. I could tell that very specifically about you that that wasn't exactly what you were going for. I think we're probably going to get a lot of renown running around there. Let's make sure we leave everywhere better or much, much worse than when we found it. Dragon, do you have any idea what sort of threats we're likely to face along the way? Well, there are the odd bandits of ours, especially as you get more inland. But most things are at peace here in Elinthe, luckily. Of course, there are always unruly characters around. The biggest threat is most likely the wilderness as you get closer to Querencia, as some of the magical creatures there are so protective of their territory that they may attack indiscriminately. Understandably so, the place is their home and we try to respect them as best we can. So long as you pose no threat to them, they should not pose any threat to you. The biggest threat, of course, might be the blot itself. As you head further inland, especially in Treveseta, the blot can get a bit more dense over there. I see. So we'll pick their last. I am always a fan of going down, usually in the ground, but I guess we could go to the little magic place down there, if I got that right. Very well. As you see fit, this is your journey, not mine. Oh, we could flip, like, a coin with a bunch of sides on it. Ooh, I like that idea. Doesn't a coin usually only have two sides? Well, we gotta go. We're going north or south. We could pick, you know, we could do that. We can flip a coin like a bunch of times. A bunch of times? Thank you very much for your time, Dragon. I think we're out of useful questions right now. Very well. If you have any more, I'm sure my niece will be happy to oblige. Of course. All right. Well then, I am going to walk. I've done enough flying for now. I'm going to go browse the markets for maybe something a bit more comfortable than he's just scratching at his jerkin a little bit more. What's wrong with his jerk? Why is he so itchy? He doesn't like wool. He's allergic. Compliment. When you're his age, everything is uncomfortable. Except for pajamas. I want to live in pajamas. I wanted to settle up with Tarellon, but he might end up at the tavern that we go to anyway, so I can handle that just at any point. I'm sure we'll run into him somewhere. I think we should grab some equipment, mostly just food and water. That's a good idea. To the general store? This is the market. The market. Yes, the general. All right. You guys are heading to the general markets first, right? Or is it the tavern first? I think market first and then tavern dinner. All right. You head over to the markets. Is there anything you're looking for in particular? Well, food and water is a good idea. Travel rations. Oh, okay. Do we know, Joe, how long it takes to travel, say, between one city or another? At least roughly. Oh, she asked the dragon! That might have been a good question to ask the dragon. Dang it! I can say that you asked. Satya from Nuba Sky will take a few hours of ship travel. Usually people just consider it the whole day because by the time you get there, it's going to be night. From Nuba Sky to Peletrios, it's probably going to be two and a half days. Peletrios to Treveseta is like three and a half. Nuba Sky to Aguna is three and a half. I think the longest trek between each city is about three and a half days. So we're kind of fine already. Well, as long as we restock in our different cities. So we're kind of fine here for now. I would like to find and acquire illegally an extra water skin. Illegally? Yes. Let's see. Let me see how much a water skin is. Do we have anybody in this group who's charismatic? It's too silly. The no-face party. Kinda. Plus two, what am I doing? How would you like to go about kind of searching the area for people who may be dealing with underground trading? Oh, no, I'm just going to look for someone who's selling it and use my make-in. Oh, okay. It's not black market. No, not black market. I feel it. Like a griffin skin, water skin. Okay, so all right. Give me a stealth and sleight of hand check. Please, please give us a stealth. I hope I fail. All right, 11. It's above a commoner, or I think that meets a commoner. And an 11 sleight of hand. Is the RNG okay today? No. It really likes 11. Are those two fours? You have plus seven? Yeah, I rolled two fours. Of all the things I prepared, I didn't prepare my dice. So I'm going to roll to see if they notice you. Fancy man has real physical dice this time. All right, so they see you kind of whistling around trying to not stand out and your mage hand creeping up and one of the merchants just takes a rolled up newspaper and bats it. And they point to you, like with the eyes pointing two fingers to their eyes, two fingers at you. I shrug, put my hands in my pockets, and walk away very casually. And as you're browsing, you are called upon, someone laughing at this act by Satya's most famous, probably infamous, is a more apt term. Merchant Dario, a Kenku dressed in some very fanciful wear from Treveseta who has pedaled like his store is his life. And from your experience with him, he would sell his own grandma if it made a pretty penny. He kind of laughs and kind of calls out to you, another bad day at work, is it? And let me show you a little bit of him. There he is. I would love to see what this guy looks like. Oh, he's beautiful. I thought I was riding high today. I found these cables now ready. Oh, my God. While we're dealing with this, I would like to purchase the water skin. It's not looking. Thank you. You may. Are you having a good day at work? Oh, a wonderful day at work, especially as the winners of the tournament coming to my store, as you are coming to my store. Yes, it humbles me so that you would come visit my presser stand and you may grace it with your presence. Well, I do hope my goods can be of good enough quality for your ilk nut that now that you're tasked with probably the most important quest in the land, and it gives a wide all-smirk. I just completely deadpan like sunken eyes just staring at this guy, kind of staring through him. Yup. We're definitely here to visit you. Oh. You got anything unique today? Oh, yes, of course. He stretches his arms out to show his wares, and you can see what he is selling. He also sells general goods, but I put in the little thing the more specific items that he is selling, specifically like the blank scrolls, a fancy coin, an arcane dial. So wait, do other people have more than just the 25 gold we just received? No, but you could. No, you'd have to pull it together. I don't know, communit. Oh. Ah. Maybe I shouldn't have thought that water skin. This coin here, this is a coin you're selling? Yes, it is. A very fanciful coin. And you're selling the coin for how much? 50 gold pieces. This is just a regular coin. No, of course not. It can't be used to trade. Look at it, it's a face. You can't even see the picture of the dragon on it anymore. You cannot trade with this coin, but it has its own unique purpose. See, it makes your luck extreme. Whether that be good or bad, well that's the draw, isn't it? I want the coin. Of course you want the coin. Can I roll insight on his BS? You most certainly can. Okay, I want to have Fritz laugh and go, oh really? And I want to roll insight to see what I find out. How do I roll this again? Like that. Okay. What's happening today? That's 3-11s in a row. I'm a bit worried. I'm on 11. That means you rolled a 7, not a 4. He just rolls his hands a bit as a so-so. And it seems as though whatever it is, ulterior motive he's got, he really, really wants you to buy his stuff. He just really wants us to buy it, not that. I can see your mind, my wares, intently. And that possibly wants to buy it, yes? Well, I turn around to, oh gosh, hey Fritz, you remember when we were playing cards, I think it was maybe a month ago, and you got up and I said, I would pay you back, and eventually I'm sort of waiting to come into a little bit of money right now, and I would really, if you could spare 15 gold, I would really, really appreciate it, and I can pay you back double in the future, I promise. Oh yeah, he's totally good for it. Word? Not now. I'm not talking to you word, I'm talking to Fritz. Fuck. I've known you for a while. You know this, right? Don't, you don't need to pay me back, just buy me a beer next time. And I'm gonna give 15 gold over to him. I lean in and I whisper to Buck, I'm gonna take advantage of that. How are you, how are you doing that? I wanna know the logistics when you are about knee-high on him. I whisper, you know what, I have, you know, every time I'm whispering to him, I'm casting message. Word, I told you not to get into my head. I will take the, just this time don't use it on a sweet tooth, alright? Hey, alright, alright, I understand. Your head's too empty for me not to get into. I will, can I like, I don't wanna like, ruffle Fritz's hair, but I like Pat Fritz, I like Pat Fritz on the head, and greedily take the 15 gold, and that should give me, that is all my gold I would like to use on buying the all or nothing coin. Alright, you hand it over, and he flicks the coin over to you, it rings in the air, and as you catch it, you may add the all or nothing coin. What it does is, whenever you roll anything that involves a D20, you may instead opt to make it a coin flip, which means it will either be a nat one, or a nat 20. Whoa! And how many times can I use this throughout the, I mean a gambler character surge, so I don't, how many, how many times can I use it? You may use it indefinitely. You may use it three times per long rest. Okay. This is so cool. Three times per long rest. Now, can I make it, so I have to do that before I know the results of- Yes, you have to, you have to claim- So rather than, okay, I see. You have to claim that you are going to flip a coin on the thing that you're doing, whether it be attacking, making a saving throw, making a skill check, anything that involves a D20. Either a nat 20 or a nat one. The fan artists are going to have a friggin' field day with the symbolism of this coin. How this works is instead you'll just roll a D2, and if it's a two, it's a nat 20. If it's a one, it's a nat one. This is incredible. And as he's pocketing the gold, he just kind of like lazily looks to the side. Oh, by the way, I heard the blot paid you all a visit today. Horrible coincidence, isn't it? What a terrible thing to befall, what should have been such a joyous day in our Lutotown's history, but what are we if not merely pieces in the uncaring game of fate, hm? Damn, can I try an instruction? You most certainly can. I want to know, thank you. I want to know if he knows more than he's letting on. Why did I choose insight? I only have plus two. Wait, I'm just bad with people. That's fine, actually. What's happening today? Oh no, it sure is quite a coincidence, isn't it? It sure is, isn't it? Boy, howdy, what a coincidence that was. Okay, cool, fantastic. Wait, oh, I was going to open the mind. And he, I think I'll take it. I'm just trying to slip the water skin into words pack without him noticing. He wouldn't notice you trying to discern something from him and he just puts one kind of hand to his chest. Oh, you don't think I would have anything to do with that? Would you? Oh, you think so little of me. I didn't think that until now. The last time I checked you haven't paid your merchant's fees at the dock yet. He leans in and cocks one eyebrow up at you and just like, well I certainly wouldn't know anything about that. Of course he wouldn't. I'll take your stupid piece of paper but I'm not paying that much. And I point to the blank scroll, the cantrip one. The cantrip one, hmm. Well, I'm not usually one to pot for gold but tell you what, what if you do me a favor and then I can do you one back? I could cut the price in half if you would perform a little errand for me. I can do a little jig but errands are going to cost you a little extra. I see we are at an impasse then. What's the errand? Yeah, what is it? He kind of puts one finger to his cheek. There's been a traveling merchant and outsider of sorts that's visited this town. He's a disheveled tobacco man who's been making a ruckus and he's quite the wild card and has been distracting customers with his brash yelling all morning. Makes them all antsy and difficult to haggle with. He won't be staying for long, says he'll be out by the end of the day but if you can convince him to make an early departure so the market can go back to its predictable normal self, I'd be happy to give you that special bonus you're looking for. I think we can manage that but I'm going to bring it down to four gold. This is a pretty hefty tax. Give me a persuasion. Okay. Oh, there we go, finally. We're going higher now. He crosses his arms, five gold. Four. Give me one more persuasion. Okay, he already said he was going to bring it down to half. You have brought it down. Five gold is already pretty severe. Oh, baby. He kind of waves his hand in a horizontal motion. Five is the lowest I'm going. You can take it or leave it. Fine, but if there's some stuff and that guy's cart goes missing and he blames you, that's on you. Well, he rolls up the scroll and hands it over to you with the open hand expecting five gold. Hmm. I give him four and then I stare at him for a second and then I drop one more on the ground in front of him. Oh, boy. He waves his finger around to Mage Hand it up to himself. Okay, cool. I will put that in my inventory. It's like evil charismatic word. It's not even that charismatic. All right, let's go find the other merchant. I'll be awaiting. If only that man would sell the feather oil he uses. I want to look as pristine as that. I can't believe he gave us the scroll before we even did the thing he asked us to do. Yeah, we can kind of just leave. I think it's all used to this lucky coin that I got. I'm so excited. I'm going to regret giving you that 15 on I. What are you talking about? So you guys going to look for that other merchant or are you just going to say fuck it, I got the scroll? I'm going to look for the other merchant. We'll check it out. It shouldn't be hard to find. So you follow Dario's directions and find yourselves kind of in the central area of the markets where something of a crowd has formed. Not for anything in particular. It just seems a bit more lively than usual and in the center of it all true to his description a disheveled tobacco man with messy fur, jagged whiskers and a loud cackling voice. He seems to be making trade with a few people before they seem to depart with a few items in their arms and looking kind of a look on their face of Bill Wilderman as if they had just bought something as a joke rather than as a potential useful item. And the tobacco man notices you all kind of approached kind of openly since nobody else is coming and he waves you over and shouts out the name is no tail nice to meet you what can I do you for? Wow. When you said disheveled I was not prepared. For an actual rat man. I was expecting Gus the theater cat over here. Before we begin our business I have an offer for you. I have in my hand and I pull out of a little tube on my back a scroll that you can put spells on. Is that right? Ten gold. Well I'm not really in the business for buying but thanks. I don't like this guy. Well, well come on. Is there anything you want to buy? I'm looking through the list. So he's got his own stock of items. You can read what they are kind of down at the bottom. Are you from around here? Oh no, I'm bracelet. Wait, sorry, what's up Fritz? Sympathy bracelet. Yeah, anyway he's like no sir I ain't from now from around here no sorry but what a mighty fine place this is what with the tourney you all got going great for tourism business I'll tell you. Can I get the tattoo pack? The tattoo pack? Yes you most certainly can. Magical tattoos value pack. Oh hell yeah, yeah I'm buying that. Take one gold from me. I'm gonna be like that give it to me now and I give him a coin. I'm like give me give me give me give me. He takes it, he bites it a little bit with one of his few teeth he has remaining and he pockets it and gives you a big smile and he looks back at you buck. Oh is it really that obvious that I'm not from around here? Um well it's just actually it's kind of a not too big of a town and I think someone like yourself we probably would have recognized prior to right now. Well I guess that's true y'all gotta tighten it down here. It's real nice though I like it. Right um I'm like looking down at word and I guess also at Lara um you guys agreed to do this thing not me. Yeah that's a good point. Um I will open up the fake scroll like I'm looking at a map or not the fake scroll the empty one and I'm going to like kind of mumble to myself and turn around and while I'm doing that I'm gonna try and snag the ring of certainty with an invisible mage hand. Give me a sleight of hand check. If I immediately start talking to this man can I give him, oh never mind I wanted to give him advantage but a dirty 20 is really good. My god you stole this man blind if he wasn't already partly. Um fuck you can add the ring of certainty to your inventory. What does that actually do? Here I'll write it in I'll copy and paste it. Yes. As a bonus action you may know the DC to complete a task and what the outcome of passing or failing that task will be can be used once per long rest. Wow. That's beautiful. That's pretty good. I'm just gonna make that a magic item really quick. I'm going to ask um so where are you planning on traveling to next? Probably to the other provinces I hear this is a good place about later in the day once everyone closes up shop but I do plan to make the most of it I'll be selling a new few things on my way out tomorrow as well if you want to catch a refresh stock. Interesting. Is there any possible reason you would leave sooner? Uh he give me a charisma check just straight charisma. Why would you do this to me? I don't know what I'm doing we just agreed for the discount. Oh hello. He just kind of um looks at you oh I see what you're doing and I think it's great only that you suck at it but that's okay. Thank you. I really appreciate the recognition of the effort. And don't worry I ain't mad but you're asking that on behalf of that old stink over there ain't ya? Yeah. Yeah he's not much fun he seems like he loves to talk till he gets someone else who talks as much as he does I think he could do with a little bit more listening personally. I would agree profoundly. I was gonna say do you buy a haps drink? Do you buy what? Do you buy haps drink? Do you drink? Uh he nods his head like very jubilantly woo yeah. You're a bit of a deal maker right? How about I make a deal with you? You leave early and I give you the coins to buy a drink at the pub. Oh I got enough coin for that don't worry. Yeah but it's brought from someone else. Give me a persuasion check. Let me do persuasion. Can I go grab a burger from a food vendor so I can a food vendor so I can eat my burgers? You most certainly can. There are burgers now we've canonized burgers. Yes I listen if Final Fantasy can have burgers so can we. It's just a beef sandwich. You've never been to the canon burger stand that's the name of it it's the canon burger. I don't tend to come down this far. From a bomb factory. He shakes his head a little bit you can see he was thinking about it for a long time but he shakes his head kind of shakes him almost out of a trance listen I'll give you this one for free because I like you adventurers you bring in the coin but I'll tell you what a cat's got to make some coins so I can't quite leave but what I can do is pretend I'm heading out till y'all got your favor done with old bushy feathers then once he's dropped his little act I can get back to sailing like nothing happened I'm down with it it's not going to be our fault if you come back Exactly Do the thing we... You know what it's fine Yeah but we can go confirm and then have fake evidence of this guy going down the street Exactly If he's willing to snuff out the competition through 30 tricks I think it's only fair we give him a taste of his own medicine I completely agree Oh no there's two of them This guy is... Yeah he never said anything about us stopping him from returning Alright He sounds like a good plan Alright Well then I'll walk my way out of here and he starts to pack up a few of his things and whistles really badly he can't whistle and starts to walk deliberately past Dario on his way out of the city and you can see Dario starts to beam a little bit kind of with joy a little bit and a little bit of relief Can we just give him like a thumbs up and then not go talk to him We do the exact same whistle and like all of us in the other direction Alright Who here can actually whistle I guess I'm a bird Who has a relatively good performance Yeah probably the bird We're all close too Oh yeah that would make sense Alright Where else do you guys wish to go or do? I was just going to look for Tarellyn because I wanted to Yes I don't know where I would think of who would normally find him Tarellyn you know he usually does hang out at the tavern sometimes because that's where most people gather and that's where he makes a lot of his deals he's kind of a loner kind of person not loner as in he is alone but he gives out loans and such and the tavern is usually the nice meeting place Yeah so we could I mean if that's the case I'm good with throwing at the tavern Try to find him there if we're going there anyway Yeah Fritz Do you want to check in with your people at the docks first I have been a bit worried I don't want to I don't want to doubt them I know they're strong but it is either way We're probably going to need a ride too Yeah And they would probably appreciate knowing that you're all right and one and stuff If we die not enough would happen I'm too strong for that one But sure Let's go say hi to them I miss them Alright Alright we're going to the docks then Yeah So we head on over to the docks going down the road and people jubilantly drinking and having a good time cheering and a few of them kind of say hi to you and cheer for you as you walk by knowing that you are now the champions of Sachia as news travels very fast in a tightly knit town like this You head on down and as you get within vision of a lot of the privateers, sailors and such at the docks they all kind of cheer at you WAAAY and you can see Dozen kind of runs up to you all as well and he goes to give you a big old back crunching hug Fritz Aww Oi I knew you had it in you What I say crew that they slaughtered make it I and they are like AHHHH and he kind of elbows you a little bit and winks even better few Dozen pieces on you as well Got a mighty payout Which speaking of which I think it only fair that I share some of these earnings with you and he hands you over five gold pieces Oh What's this for? A little bit of your share of winning me a big old pot Aww you bet on me That's enough for one of each of us This is very efficient He looks to you word No, sorry We helped So what brings you to the dox you ain't heading out to maybe tomorrow or the next day You know I'm a bit of a sapa mist you guys and we're here for a bit of a drink WAAAY We got a bit of rum sitting around Come on crew and they all kind of hand you a few drinks as well Go snap You may take The word is a likely Take or not take whatever you wish Yeah don't take too many they will drink you I will abstain Do you have any ale We got a few pieces of ale here He calls over someone who hands you a bottle It's still corked because they've all preferred the sugary goodness Okay Hold on to it Oh okay you're just going to hold on to the bottle of ale Can I cheers with him? I'm very slow Sipping the rum even though that's probably the worst possible way to experience rum Can I do a little cheers with him when we neck it together? Yeah you can do little cheers, little songs There are a few shanties that you know that you sing along with them and you can see that the rest of the crew are like clapping along as you're dancing Oh where's Siva? Oh the little cat she's around here somewhere FURBALL He calls out And you can see a little shadow show up like the silhouette of something small walk up and just brush it's back against you I just want to pick him up and I'm just like hold him and I'm like oh I love him Just purrs without changing expression at all I just put him up on my shoulder Yeah he's just purring kind of on your shoulder and kneading you ever so slightly The pricks of the claws are a little bit uncomfortable but you know it's out of love He's making biscuits Making biscuits I want to put him up on my shoulder Yeah he sits there for a little while Well this is just adorable So what's your plan now? You've got to go fight the dragon or something We've got to go fight the dragon Is it a trial of some sort? It is yes Yeah he didn't really tell us what to do but he told us to show up at his temple tomorrow I've never been privy to what goes on behind closed doors would always like to know what happens in there seemingly apparently they like to keep secrets so as to keep the place safe I don't know how that would keep the place safe but I like to try trust the old bugger That is the purpose of doors Aye that's true And what are you lot doing in the meantime just having a nice time relaxing now that you're champs More or less getting a little antsy to be completely honest Hopefully not too antsy Elbow to you like leans down to elbow you word You might have a few fans following you now I look around frantically You can see that there are a few people like giving whispers and glancing away once their eyes meet yours I beam They deserve me Just be careful there's not a lot of you to go around Oh wow The hell's that supposed to mean Aye come on now There's more of me than you can handle right here and I gesture to my two foot forward body He lifts two hands in the in the woe pose like oh my apologies lad I seems I was mistaken Underestimating me is a pretty big problem but I like you because you like the guy who flies Cheers to that he holds out his mug to you I lift up my bottle and I clink it without uncorking it and I put it back in my bag I have no idea how to participate in this conversation so instead I would like to wild-shape into a small cat You wild-shape Just put the rum down and go hang out with the kitten for a while You wild-shape into a small cat Well the kitten is on Fritz's shoulder Do you wish to join them? I'm just gonna sit down and kind of look up until she puts the kitten down I'll say that I notice and I'm like oh yeah I know what you're trying to do and I give you your friend Just a little nod Hang out with the kitten This is like the equivalent of like when you're at the party and you're hanging out with the person's pet instead Yeah But it's more efficient I don't know which one of you ate my pet mouse but I know it was one of the other You can see Seafar just looks at you with a dead face and meows I knew it And you play around a little bit and it's a nice pleasant time Yeah Friends Oh this is incredible As the day goes there's a little bit, let's see Yeah, with your combined average passive perception Buck, you actually notice someone familiar who's not in his usual spot It's a little, it's a scrawny, drowman who's trying not to be seen Walking into an alleyway He seems to be following a couple of other folks talking at them but checking his corners very badly I'll lean down to a word I'm gonna go check with Terrell and I think I just saw him pass by Give me a backup Normally I would say no but do you wanna join along and just be quiet or is that something you're not capable of? I can try very hard I appreciate the effort And I start walking ahead of you Fritz, we're gonna step out for a second we'll be right back enjoy your found family we'll be back That cat found my rat And then I'll go out and try and figure out where Terrellan is I do wanna, I guess I'm not trying to be sneaky necessarily but like, cause I do wanna talk to him but I'm confused as to why he's acting suspicious Right, right, okay You see Terrellan as you follow him into the alleyway you see him, he seems to be pleading with some adventuring folk and his gestures seem to portray something of like a panic, unlike his usual composed self Some of the words exchanged before some words are exchanged before the adventurer seemed to dismiss him and walk away and he's reaching out asking for something but they don't seem to pay him much mind and he scans the area since you're not being stealthy he notices you and starts to run Towards or away Away from you Like he's trying to escape Should we go catch him? I look down at word and is it, Lara are you with us as well? Yeah I'm with you guys I'm still in a cat form I have no idea what my stats are in this I share a knowing look with word and then I grab Lara in cat form and run after him Honestly this is highly efficient I'm not gonna complain I'm gonna say yeah since they would have seen him while they're outside the alley and then you would have seen them dart in Oh cool, my wild shape recovers, that's nice I guess I'll be like, oh sorry dozen and I'm like I quickly dart over and I'm like, oh no what's going on You're gonna fly along with Alright, so are you trying to catch up with Tarellon? I don't, what is everyone doing? Are we all running or what are we doing? We're running Well luck is running and carrying me Which I find I'm not running, I'm technically skittering Oh yes, yes Do you want me to carry you? You're below a certain size class the vertical changes This is the first time I've run after someone that I owe money but I need to figure out what's going on here because I knew Dean to settle up with him so I'm gonna try and run after him I'm gonna need you to run and catch up with him and athletics check Sure You're good at those, right? Allegedly Allegedly With my dash can I use acrobatics instead? You may actually Okay Eleven Eleven I forgot to use the ring or the coin, dang it That's okay So you're running and dashing and he's just like pushing things over on the alleyway to slow you down and it does so I'll say poi fritz rather, if you would like to catch up you can roll your acrobatics or athletics to try and catch up When I start to see him throwing things down Oh, okay, I see what's going on Yeah, you can see how well you can fly Yeah, you fly handily over them under them darting around and you tackle him to the ground I'm gonna hold this man down with my claws Good luck Yes Hey Congrats on the tournament win All's well, that ends well Good job Why are you running? Why are you running? And the rest of you catch up thanks to fritz tackling him to the ground as well and he's holding both hands up No reason Just thought I'd get in some cardio You know Sorry I don't know what that running was about but What was the running about? Well That's a funny thing you say, Buck I was just running to go pay your winnings That's it Your winnings from the money You bet on yourself for the tournament Well done Well done, by the way Your debt's cleared All done I think he bet against us The debt's cleared, huh? Is there something, Terrell, that you feel as though you need to share with me about exactly what was going on with this situation? He kind of puts two hands up Listen, or whatever it is I promise you it's in your best interest if you let me go and do not get involved because I have people I have to answer to and honestly they are way scary than I am and you know I think it's just in our best interest if you just forget this all happened and go about your merry way on your little pilgrimage, hm? I don't even know what happened that we're supposed to be forgetting I think you bet against us I've tea you've been fair enough to me most of the time that I've interacted with you I'm sure if you had anything that you wanted to say you'd say it and well I can't argue with my debt being settled, which is what I wanted to do in the first place, so Fritz, you can let the drought go now I'm gonna turn back so I can talk Are you in trouble? Um, oh no Troubles, no but um Buck, you can put me down but thank you Oh, sorry I put you down You're just unrelated, you wouldn't happen to have a thousand gold pieces on you, would you? Not in my entire life Correct me if I'm wrong, Tarellen I don't deal with money very much but that sounds like you are in fact in trouble T, what'd you put out there for to get you in $1,000 straight? I make What's a dollar? Dollar, I mean gold pieces It's a colloquialism from my home country I may have put your money on the other team winning because I wasn't so sure you would and as you started to rise through the tournament well I started to get scared at my chances um and then I lost them Oops And who oh boy and who is it that you lost this money to? Um well it's uh the people I answer to it's the um they're called the Underthrown Society and I couldn't afford to enter your debt so I had to borrow it from them uh the money you owed me is also theirs and now I don't know what to do come on please you have to help me please they'll strip me of my silk they'll take my house so if I'm to be clear Joe is the money that is my debt now uh this under what is the name of this society? the Underthrown Society do they have my debt now or is my debt paid off for I just want to make sure I'm understanding the situation correctly so basically the original debt that you owed to Tarellon was actually like wasn't his money it was money that he borrowed from someone else so Tarellon is in trouble yes which means eventually directly in trouble fuck is no you are not directly in trouble I'm not directly in trouble unless Tarellon says you out or something but why would he do that he seems like such a stand up guy he seems like a straight yeah he's a he's a oh gosh um just look at his expression yeah I don't have we can all check our pockets but I don't think we have a thousand gold betweens all of us I don't even have a copper piece I have no money I lost a lot to help him up this dude's in distress I'm not holding you down dust him off a little bit yeah honestly and all the trouble with the weatherwitch and the um I'm meeting with them is tomorrow and we have a weatherwitch whoop I didn't say that I said does she control the blot no no when they describe the blot as a weather phenomenon that does sound like the sort of thing that a weatherwitch might possibly have some sort of yeah they would have known about that I know a thing or two about meteorology and if we have a witch no okay I just know that's what it's called I read it in like a scrap of a book oh that makes sense Tee what can we do to help I don't I don't know how to help in this situation ah ah ah you're good with words you're good with talking people over you convince me right my meeting with them is tomorrow they're coming they're coming to satcha if you come with me maybe you can talk it over with them please anything uh is the weatherwitch being there yes back up to the weatherwitch please yeah um well he just puts his hands behind his back I may have panicked and asked a weatherwitch to make the blot happen so that to buy me a little bit more time so as to delay the tournament so I could get a little bit more money okay I'm putting this man back down can I roll for that I'm sorry I panicked I didn't know what to do I made sure that she'd make it small so no one would get hurt I just I was desperate and I needed time to make a plan you summoned the blot after the tournament was completed I thought it would happen before she was slow this is her fault where is this weatherwitch um she was in town early it's like oh man weeks ago I don't know she could be gone by now out to who knows where look I understand what it's like to be desperate and putting yourself in a bad situation and you're being a good enough friend to me so I can at the very least maybe come with you to make sure you don't get worked over too bad when this meeting happens just to see if I can square things up I don't want to put the rest of you in on this if you don't want to help but maybe is this something that you think we can get done is it in the morning in the afternoon it's in the morning I'm so sorry that it's going to eat into your pilgrimage but I'm so so grateful thank you so much they'll be meeting here and he pulls out a piece of parchment and writes a address on it it's one of the houses in the presidential area sort of an off the books area for a lot of underground meetings as word you would know like this is a very familiar house oh yeah to be completely clear if this interferes at all with our meeting with the dragon in the temple we're not going okay I think it might be after I kind of also I don't think we have anything to benefit I want to see his ass be off to the trouble he just closed I'm going to be honest with you I'm ready to see you on your ass again Fritz I would never deny you one of life's simple pleasures he just slumps his shoulders I throw a punch at him but I have a negative one in strength so it doesn't do anything I'm dead off I'm sure he's a bit he's going to be very scared of claws now why are you dead why are you so very very dead no you're not oh yes you are look not helping friends we we got to come back we mean we're the champions of Sasha right we got to help the little people and eventually we got to come back to this town and I think T has been very good to me in terms of being a bookie so maybe it's time we start out this whole champions thing with helping somebody out I do like having connections I'd like to point out he purposefully summoned a ray of blood in the populated area yeah but if he can do that he can do it again but for us why would we want that we're not doing that under any circumstances I just want to see karma he claps his hands together as like a kind of begging it was all controlled I promise no one would have gotten hurt the dragon got hurt if we won that yeah well perhaps um I don't know maybe the witch overtuned it you couldn't even control when the blood storm happened and you think you can say with certainty that nobody would have gotten hurt he just looks down in shame alright you might want to start apologizing alright I think first he'll apologize to the loan shark people with a couple of punches to the face and then he can go around looking like that apologizing to everyone who's live he risked do I have to oh yes tomorrow morning now I'm excited we have something to gain can I jump up and down with you like yeah I will jump yeah like hold hands spin in a circle this is extremely cute well on the bright side maybe today will kill me before the under thrown does we'll um yeah maybe we'll just see you in the morning how about that alright I'll hand him my rum be like you're gonna need this more than I do he chugs the whole rest of it you still have the rum yeah I only took a sip and then the one you had on the floor he just left it there you pinned him down with one hand with the other one holding the tank he chugs the rest of what's left and just like can I get up now oh I yeah you can get back up yeah not on top of him anymore alright I mean I was on top of him then I got off then I went back again and then we danced around he just hopefully not on top of him he just sighs a bit looks up to the sky oh quarencia help me and he walks forward on his way to the city hall presumably you guys I would say around now probably like mid to late afternoon or early evening okay is there anything else you wish to do on your day off before you go encounter the dragon tomorrow or possibly go and encounter the underthrowing society is anybody here pious pious? like do we want to go to the church or like the library no that you know these are optional locations they're just all places you can be in places that are available you don't have to go to all of them my mentor I do but I don't want to tow the whole group there and I also don't know where she is I've sort of towed us all into helping out a guy who we probably shouldn't help so if you wanted to go say goodbye to your mentor I mean I'll probably see her whenever we split up for like to go to sleep and I also genuinely have no idea where she would be right now probably cleaning up blot but I don't want to assume I'm good with my underground gang they know that pumpkins are bigger and don't take all the chickens so I trust them with me leaving whenever incredible well then I guess now is your chance to just towards Satya as players if you so wish or you could call it in for the day as well go to the tavern I'll vote tavern yeah I'm okay with the tavern I'll vote tavern can I give you a tattoo what kind of tattoo I'm gonna hold them out and be like you pick and I've got like a selection that I brought what's the selection there's one with a dragon on there's one that has she has I would say it's whatever whatever you want because I didn't put a lot of thought on I know I'm just like I'm missing random stuff here yeah it's whatever you want that's on there that you'd probably find on a temporary tattoo sheet it's probably on there it's wrong with a my little pony on it corn yeah yeah okay the word is gonna take the dragon one and like tear off the little wings and then put both the wings on the back of his neck ooh I guess I'll like dip my hand in the ocean water and I like slap yeah you should warn me that's very cold toughen up you got tattoos now I'm a man now looks great word I am the boss yeah do you have like letters that we can write the boss on him or no these are just symbols sadly it doesn't have like a like a like a letter she didn't get the alphabet yeah it doesn't have two S's we'd have to it would just be Bose one might be a five yeah yeah oh my goodness so we'll go to the tavern I guess yeah let's do the tavern drink, drink, drink, drink so you head on in to the sweet nectar to see that it is bustling and joyous many drinking and cheering and whooping and shouting while music is being played in celebratory fashion once the crowd notices you all enter you're greeted with a roaring cheer of several people several people run up to hand you full tankards of ale expecting you to chug them I'm gonna stop chugging all right if you want any extras they're just gonna be piling up next to me I'm sipping from whichever one I got handed first since you're gonna chug take her to like half my body weight since you're gonna chug them Fritz I'm gonna need you to make a constitution save to see if you hold down your liquor yep I gathered okay let's go where is my con oh gosh Fritz okay 14 let's go okay you hold it down and you kind of belch a little bit and you can feel like it's almost rushing up to kind of escape but you hold it down you thrust up your mug and everyone else cheers yay I'm done for tonight and in the center of the crowds is the wench persimmons a warforge dressed in a fanciful frilly red dress dancing about and kicking as she's tosses drinks to the patrons all of which seem to be on the house to celebrate the tournament's end she notices you all and extends a hand to anyone who will take it there she is aww she looks great it's awesome oh god who can dance does she frequent here I forgot she is basically the owner essentially okay your dress looks lovely today and I like tried to twirl her well thank you and well done adventurers happy to know the winners have come to celebrate at my tavern this day and she's just kind of throwing her dress back and forth yeah we were gonna go to the other one persimmons do you have anything non-alcoholic that's a little sweet that I could have she kind of turns her back a little bit and lifts one shoulder oh don't be a coward come on why don't you have some fun you know me it's maybe some other time but I'll be good with something non-alcoholic for now alright then a little bit of juice for the big man and she calls on over to and hands kind of stretches her arm out to hand you a mug it's just some lemon some lemon juice some lemonade okay those are two very different stuff sorry that's different lemonade sorry something sweet ay something for the what ale's yeah and it's like it's a delicious Arnold poem oh I would love that I'm gonna I'll take a seat somewhere and pull out my deck of cards and see if I can find someone and I'll kind of riffle through see if I can find someone to play a game with you're gonna look for someone to play you do not like playing with me I don't like playing with word you don't like playing with word no I almost always cheat I don't think I know how to play but I think I do not want to be sitting at the bar and just having random people talking to me so I'm gonna come over and try to learn can I try to rally some of the like I'm guessing like others they're in there but like oh like to gamble like come have fun yeah you most certainly can it doesn't take much effort at all because everyone you're the center of attention right now you guys are the champions of Satya everyone's very excited to hang out with you oh god you can see a few people ante up including one that tries to because they see their boss one of your lackeys were there yeah her name is Claudio yeah her name is what you can see you can see at the top there that's her name and she incredible she kind of sits beside you and it's very excited and looks at Buck I know you don't let the boss ante in but can I have a play sure Layra was the first to sit down so Layra what's your game you want to play poker piquette canasta king's corner knockout laugh and lie down gongzu jinn rummy four of a kind pharaoh phantan crates you and chase the ace charlemagne what are we playing push rummy snip snap Claudio is very good there's more slapjack solitaire spades Claudio is very good at blackjack I say as I like get behind you and like tap your shoulder yes blackjack sounds she looks back at you am I boss oh yeah I am I am I'm real good at blackjack it's a favorite game it's my favorite game no one ever wants to play king's corner laugh because you don't teach anyone how to play you just offer it up yes speaking of teaching how to play it's easy you just gotta get to 21 I'll be the bank of course if everyone wants to ante in you make a little bit I'll turn these cards over and then if you do better than me if you win everybody plays against me as the bank right okay here I'll show you by taking some of these other people's money and then I'll there's 50 gold in the pot oh my goodness yeah so can I do you want me to play the banker here Joe um so I can because you everyone plays everyone plays against the the bank and the bank shows their first card first so like if I were to do that the first card everyone would see would be a 2 I see but then so everyone knows I have a 2 I have another card underneath that no one knows what it is I watched I watched you draw it and I will be using a message to tell Claudio what you got I'm cheating yeah okay cheating she'll hold the 5 for now but I'll hang on to that made up fantasy game yeah so Claudio is not going to get a 17 she's actually going to get a 14 so Claudio's 14 anybody who else is playing who else is playing I guess I'm playing if you want okay so you've got you've got 12 actually because that 11 would be a face card a 2 is just a 2 right the 2 is just a 2 yeah so that's so you'd be at a 16 yeah 11 yeah 15 16 that's not a great stay but I'll I'll have to stand on that stay on a 16 Layra you want to hit or stay I'd like to hit sorry I'm trying to find it so you get 12 so you would roll 12's not a great place to be how do I move them all you guys are doing that I just want to be done so for Simmons I'm like yeah you want to dance you want to dance with for Simmons yeah I want to twirl them around I love that jazz and normally we'd be playing with a shoe of enough cards to where he likes to be tall we would have like around five decks worth but word for yours I'll draw for you ooh so you're at a 16 Layra do you want to hit or stay I'm sitting at 15 Claudio is also playing Claudio needs cards oh here I'm not allowed to play oh you're not allowed to play oh that's right yeah I'm cheating that would have been a 2 for Layra yeah no I'm going to hit 15 I mean if they already have a higher one than me I lose nothing by hitting I assume wait did you just go over me did I I think I'm at a 17 no Layra would have gone Layra would have gone for it so Layra was at a 17 okay I'm going to have to take a hit then you're going to hit you and Layra aren't playing against one another you're just both of you are just playing against me so you can stay on a 16 and you still have a chance of beating me you play against the house on blackjack I'll stay 16 is not a good draw alright then it goes to the house to draw so here's my first draw so I have a I have a 9 so I have to draw again 13 I have a 13 I have to draw again 15 13 15 I'm not beating anybody so I do have to draw one more time and I lost so everyone else everyone else wins alright because the house lost everyone just basically gets their money back and I'm going to say I'm going to say no more because this is we're playing a different game thank you for indulging us Chad we're playing a different game now the game is called opposed skill checks start roll and performance alright but word was there any way you wish to influence that game at all um yeah I was just using message but if we just beat the house then we don't make money I guess that's fine um because everybody beat the house I'm pretty sure I don't know how that works actually you can win you can still make out with money if you beat it's just not going to be like I mean depends on how much you bet like per hand so you can still you know what you would still beat the house it's weird because I'm not the house I'm like a regular person you guys make one gold piece how about that hooray you guys make one gold piece back because um you beat the house but everyone was too scared to ante up too much money but alright totally worth it otherwise fantastic and Buck is having a great time that everyone's doing this by the way playing cards this is fun while you guys are having a great time meanwhile uh you can see in the corner of the room there's one familiar face that's smashed face just like full of alcohol it's Kip Kip the fairy that uh took the lost card oh Kip and she is drinking her I've already been on the table huh if I walked up to the table I'd be under the table uh yeah I can't do anything I already blew my shot she is not like me I will like sit at the bar and occasionally glance over to her that's it I yeah okay yeah I'll do it the only person who looks like she wants to be here even less than me yeah I'll just sort of make friends and take one of the many drinks that was handed to me that I haven't touched yet with me mm-hmm you go up to her and she just like like turns her neck while she's like the rest of her torso is just laying on the table and just turns her neck to look up at you she's what do you want you don't seem to want to be here and yet you are here because this that's interesting to me this place is the only place where I could feel like today can be a dream a bad stupid forgettable dream there will be other journeys to the tree mm-hmm she just kind of puts turns her head to look the other way not at you that's what you sound like that probably has more to do with how drunk you are than anything on my part whatever the tournament's over I've got nothing to say to you you won there's nothing else that needs to be talked congratulations thank you why are you so upset by this turn of events she slams one of her empty mugs on the table I work so hard to get here I've had to bleed and cry and sweat and struggle oh, so much to make it this far only to be outdone by you and you and she points to the others you see the the tavern is getting a little bit uncomfortable and quiet and they're just kind of trying to not pay her any mind freaking special treatment as you got from the mighty Shimea I bet interesting I confess to not know very much about you or the hardships you may have struggled but you know this isn't an honor right it's a vital responsibility we take this on because the land will die and nobody seems to recognize the true weight of this endeavor I thought perhaps you were acting this way because you actually understood what we were trying to do here that you understood the weight and that this partying wasn't wasn't the point but it seems I overestimated you she just like looks around for a second you can see she's trying to grasp your words thang whatever interesting it wasn't about the tree I just sure whatever it's important and all that but I just she just like takes one fist to her forehead I just wanted to do something right there are many opportunities to do the right thing I'm sure you'll have other chances she points but look at you all you all get this attention and congratulations and all the cool connections that you'll get that will help you all in the rest of your lives sure it's a duty you gotta do it the tree needs to be flourishing or whatever but what about all that comes after you'll be celebrated look at your day everyone loves her yes that sounds like a bit of a nightmare to be completely honest is fame what you're after I don't know she puts one hand on her cheek maybe I believe you have a lot of time to find out what it is you want but I would not recommend starting with something like this if you're not sure yet also you should really go home and sleep this off this cannot possibly be healthy for you you are very small she puts both hands on the table to lift herself up and she has to stand on the chair to meet your eyes and she like almost stumbles back but then balances herself back up and she points like her finger up like close to you like almost shushing you I'm gonna do that but not because you told me to excellent and she is going to lift one leg and fall on her face on the floor cool I'm going to I'm going to do my last first level cure wounds as I help her up discreetly she stumbles a little bit and she tries to push you off but she clearly doesn't have the energy and she keeps her balance and she's like I'm good I'm good of course you are and she's just going to walk out of the tavern get home safe now whatever she just kind of pushes open the door and you just hear as she's walking out a few people like you see you hear a few grumbling voices and she's like what are you looking at interesting and you can see another familiar face in the tavern speaks up kind of leans on over it's Koryak the dragonborn hey hey don't pay her no mind she's been through it a bit yeah I mean we did kind of fill her with air I think I thought there were pretty good shots personally I mean the good ones were how are you doing I'm doing alright I'll have to tend a little bit to the farm one of the farm hands wasn't able to go clean up unfortunately but then do you know Buck I've seen him around a few times hey how's it going he just kind of nods his head it's good it's good to see you I guess interesting and how's that little goblin who didn't get to do anything the whole time where's he he went to go study up in the library I think a sudden blot interference got him in a right tizzy he's just trying to figure out what happened and all that doesn't make too much sense really what happened yeah no idea how that happened that was a unusual phenomenon I feel like someone's going to own up to causing it pretty soon here though he takes a little sip of his mug completely unaware of what you're talking about and he looks to you gosh, names Leira and he just raises his mug I do want to thank you to talking her out of here it's a good friend of mine and we don't have many fave folk here so she can sometimes feel like an outsider nice to see that somebody else is looking out for a good interest yes I hoped that was what I was doing I didn't know if it worked thank you oh no, she might be a bit prickly right now but she's going to thank you later whether she wants to admit it or not interesting I'm just kind of I'm trying to be as unnoticed as she was in this corner just like taking up residence at this table he seems to read that pretty well and he's just like well, it's good to see you again and good fighting out there and it gives a little bow and leaves you to your devices thank you and our vices let's go and otherwise it's mostly a pleasant night is there anything else specific you guys wish to do here I want to just go up to Layra just like sit by her really quick and I'll take the one do I get one gold piece or no I would say yeah, why not I'll take it and I'll I'll put it down in front of Layra and I'll say it's no small thing to hit it big on the first time if you've ever played a game before it's a blessing from Lady Luck so you can just take that keep it as part of your I guess a memento to that experience thank you very much Buck it was interesting I'm not sure I yet understand why you like this so much you're going to get used to it I'll teach you some other games once you find one that you're really good at you got to worry less about it and we'll figure it out we're going to have plenty of time on the road with one another I assume certainly I forgot that part I'm going to stow that gold piece somewhere that isn't my giant pile of 25 gold pieces so it's separate special coin it's special coin well you enjoy your corner you can go cut in with Fritz I think and then I'll that's what I'm here for you can see Persimmons extends her hand to you as well actually no you'll cut in just join the dancing and she's just kind of making small talk with you back and forth kind of like if you ever find any interesting souvenirs in the other prominence I would happily add them to my collection you are going to get me a gift aren't you she's asking that a buck yes oh you're getting chatted up well you know I don't really consider myself much of a collector of things but I'll try my best if I find anything to bring you something back shiny sparkly that sort of thing she just kind of like does one hand little fan oh thank you darling you know just the right things for me right right Fritz do you want to cut in with Fritz and dance with her I think she puts one hand on her chest oh buck darling I'm hurt there's plenty I'm sorry there's plenty of dancing to be had so I'll come back to dance with you later I know what later means and she just kind of turns her dress a little bit and like like turns it so aggressively that it like flips up to gently pat you on the face like not to hurt her anything but it's a very freely dress that's a very freely dress thank you excuse me and I'll walk away I'll go dance with someone else you didn't like her tension when it's not bad it's just I no it is that I didn't like her attention I think it's just better if we just focus gotta keep focus for the trip you're a cruel icy hot fuck and I'll just dance with them it's the tavern of awkward conversations tonight yeah I'll be awkward if you're socially unaware just keep dancing I've had enough I think attention my entire life so I'm good is that mostly what you're doing before the end of the night then before you call it and turn it in I I'm good words gonna finish like maybe a full pint and then think heavily about dancing but by the time he's ready like the floor is cleared out another time you can see that Claudio also bids you good night and she's like good night boss good night Claudio you're done good and then I'd like to think that the money I got earlier I would have divided so I will give her like three silver pieces I'll spend it wisely boss I know you will remember pumpkin so bigger alright say hi to Lyra I'm gonna miss her foot rubs alright so yeah you guys head to sleep it's a pleasant night it's a pleasant sleep is there anyone who has any have any like nighttime rituals they like to do or anything like that by the way you're giving rooms on the house as well at the end oh nice because I don't have any money this is our town that we live in though right oh if you have houses you can go back to your houses as well but I kind of assume that wherever Shamiah yeah rooms at the end are offered and Lyra I assume you're going home wherever that may be yeah wherever I kind of assume that wherever Shamiah crashes I have like like a cot and that's just kind of the situation for as long as she's been raising me you do go I was gonna, is it okay if I turn to you Lyra and I offer I've been like you want to crash at my my shop uh thank you I think I should discuss what happened today with Shamiah but thank you that happened I forgot I drank it all the way it's been a very long day hasn't it but yes I really do appreciate the offer but I'll offer out the hand to the others too now that I know where the blood storm is the others in case they don't have a place to stay yeah all right I appreciate it I'm gonna stay at the inn I'm gonna stay at the inn are there any like silver candle holders or anything in the drawers like a yeah there are a few are there any like steel you're like utensils or coasters that I could take even though I don't need them nah I'll pawn them off at the next place where does a talking cobalt he can do whatever he wants I want to steal yeah oh yeah exactly I thought of that earlier in the game actually all right you get a miscellaneous few items you get a candlestick holder it seems to be made of some cheap metal though like brass you do I mean the pillows are extra fluffy there's some bedsheets that you could probably stuff into a pack or something slippers those are probably the most valuable item in there is complimentary slippers okay slippers and then I'm gonna like squeeze the pillow out the window and then go around outside to get it awesome all right she knows my reputation yeah she knows all right so in the meantime though um Leira you go back to your little it's kind of like a tree house but not up in a tree it's like a ground tree house somewhere off to the side maybe around here like in this direction outside of the towns usual boundaries and you do see as you walk in you do see Shamiah seems to be performing some kind of augury with some plants some incense and her eyes are closed and as she is sitting in a meditative position and she notices you come in welcome home child I imagine that your celebration was fruitful yeah yeah yes it was it was extremely uncomfortable I'm glad we're going to be leaving soon yes people can be very scary but you will have to deal with more of them as you go out much as I just spiced that their company present company not included of course it will be something that you will have to learn to attune yourself to it is for the benefit of the entire realm as it were yes I suppose if it's for the realm I might be able to and if you are to convince some of the lords stubborn as they are you will have to learn how to talk with people yes that I'll certainly do my best I know you will child that voice reminds me of Adelaide's sister from over the garden wall the slaughter bring me the bell oh sheesh the blot storm today it it wasn't natural I figured as much I don't I haven't found out who but a weather which was commissioned to create it interesting I knew it was artificial but I didn't think it was concert but by any mere mortal that would explain a lot of things yes the damage wasn't too bad was it not that I could see I did help clean up a little bit but all is well simply a minor storm that seemed to create a few bits here and there the blot that we encountered were not incredibly strong nor were there pure blot which was my confusion at the time it seemed to be a combination of whatever blot substance was able to gather combined with the usual phenomenon we have water, wind, grass I see whoever this witch is she does have to seem to have some sort of supply of blot which is incredibly distressing one does not simply keep them in jars to be stored on shelves no hopefully we hear more of her as we travel I would very much like to stop her from ever doing this again that is a good note is there all else you need of me child no certainly not I'll leave you to it and child before you head to bed well done thank you, thanks she nods you too yep, fantastic, alright she goes back to her Audrey and you head to your room you have a sleep, a little sleep I have a sleep and the next morning comes dawn breaks and the bright morning sun shines into each of your respective windows waking you up what is your morning routines each of you do you have a question yeah I gotta make you think about what your character does who's going first I know what I want to do I want to get up and I want to say a little prayer to lady luck to see how the day is going to go and can I flip my special coin you may, this will not this will not eat into your uses but I assume you're just flipping it just to see how your day is going to go I want to see if it's a good or if it's a bad roll me a D2 alright 1 D2 today's going to be a real good day today's going to be a real good day heyo I say a little prayer for a little luck I know how the day is going to go so I got a little confidence in me I'm going to go try not to make too hard of eye contact with persimmons I'm going to get my breakfast alright you get your breakfast and you can see that as persimmons sees you come down she's going to be like good morning as you just walk past her without a note whoop I don't want to be mean but I'm just trying to not have too much ouch friend zone friend zone persimmons yeah for my morning routine I definitely make sure all my clothes are clean I have like a little brush that cleans the sort of lions mane on my coat so I do like the one two three one two three all the way throughout it and then you know I shove the pillow out the window the candelabra I put everything in my bag and then I will just head downstairs ah you're already up you excited to watch a guy get his butt kicked I figure they probably are only going to take like a finger or two right as long as we just make sure they don't kill him it should be good yeah it should be fine you know as long as he is able to do basically but you know eat at least soft foods you'd be fine I just worry about him I've seen people get roughed up way worse for way less and so I think we're doing him a solid here it's going to pay off we can step in with it yeah we're the champions what are they going to do to us as we're walking I'll say to word um I know it's been a while since we've worked quote unquote together but I just want to make sure there's nothing I don't think I've heard of this under under thrown society before you've not had any sort of you've not had any sort of hiccups or negative experiences on your end since the last time we worked together either then new to us in the whole area or they are somehow more secretive than me and that is alerting in either direction right well I don't like this well at the very least we might be able to figure out some more about him which will help you out I imagine information actually is pretty valuable when it pertains to the safety of my people well let's just go back pretending like we hadn't worked together in the past and then we'll go from there I'd like to forget about that job too right and then I don't say anything and we just keep walking till we find I guess Fritz or Lera head to the location I guess we're heading to the location of where uh Tarellin is yeah Tarellin would actually be waiting right outside the tavern like just kind of you can see he's tapping his foot just like impatiently and he's like oh good you're here alright I was hoping let's just get this over with and after that we gotta head out because we're sort of in a on a rush we gotta get to the dragon of course of course thank you again for helping me with this very much don't oversell it I'm trying my best to keep the rest of them along on this cool as a cucumber I've never heard that before this guy thinks he's a main character so badly it's gonna be fun to watch him get the main character treated so what's Fritz's morning like I just kind of come down and grab some water and I see everyone's heading out so I quickly like brush myself off and I rush out to help we're off now he's like oh of course oh so cute the sobering toast watering bread the true main character just because I'm a bud you think I'm gonna eat bread sorry that was profiling we're so sorry yeah that was I will check my biases oh boy check our privileges Leira what's your morning like I think I've been awake since like dawn basically you know if I'm standard like brush teeth probably eat something I do a little cantrip just to see what the weather's gonna be like today which is the first thing that's listed on it as a thing that it can do which I think is extremely cute and then I head towards the tavern but not in the tavern until I see people leaving so I'm just kind of gonna hang out like away from there kind of out in the you know in the more naturey area around there sort of keeping an eye on it until it's time to go yeah so you guys are with Tarellen then and yeah sure I want to be smirking at him I'm like to a sort of just back alley house that's just out of the way not one you would visit it looks kind of run down somewhat destroyed there has been no upkeep the wood has kind of been molded over there's dust everywhere and the furniture is falling apart it looks like it used to be some kind of merchant stall and he walks in and he's just like alright this is the place that they should be meeting us in just a few minutes yeah sorry I'm just a bit nervous did you have a chance to case this place before we came here um how so well I'm absolutely certain they wouldn't just send you here to kill you or something I'm not so sure most people who deal with the underthrown often are not heard from nor have told the tale and that usually keeps us in check um but if things all go to plan in the best case scenario you all probably have nothing to do with this so you won't get wrapped in all you can ever do is help me hmm I guess we'll wait then I mean we can do a little perceptioning see if there's anything I'd like to hide behind something can I get into a position DM can I use magic awareness it is a feature from the wild magic I can I don't know if this is how you share it as an action you like to open my okay at the end of your next turn you know the location of any spell or magic item within 60 feet that isn't behind total cover yes I just want to um just want to make sure there's no traps or anything magical or otherwise while just sort of focus my energy I'll keep my hand on my deck and just listen to see if I can hear anything any sort of magic word was there something else you wanted to do as well oh yeah I was just going to find like a barrel or a box or something hide in if there's no one yes you can hide in it give me a stealth check as well just to see how well with advantage as far as you can tell there's another round to see you go in there and oh that's right I'm just going to do a double we'll take the 16 okay 60 yeah make yourself hidden in like a little pile of debris that you see on the side awesome I like hang up my jacket before I do and buck as you are aware of magic let me see what school you are aware of something let me see what school it's that doesn't bode well for us maybe there's just a helpful magic item in here it's a little mouse that gives it tells the future and it's very nice and it does a dance I would love a little mouse little mouse friend little mouse dance I'm the little mouse that tells the future you guys are going to okay luckily you see that it is something in the building like kind of towards the back end wall so it's not something that's going to close you in it's not going to trap you in the building whatever it is this is a conjuration spell in a small point on the floor right row hmm uh maybe you can come check this out I don't really know much about magic but this here and all like points of the area like it's it's just like a pinpointed like area that I'm aware of yes kind of like it's almost just like as big as a floor mat hmm there's something going on I don't know if you can and I'll step on to the I got some luck on my side I'll step on to it step onto it and it glows and it glows into a circle and you would recognize it this is a teleportation circle and it's about to activate step out of the circle right now I step out of the I'm sorry I step out of the step out of the circle and in its place ports in three figures two of them seem to be heavily armored and kind of obscuring their face and one of them is one that you recognize though not in the position that they are in here it is the priest of the cathedral is a turtle named Omar and you know him as the priest of the cathedral not the head of an underground society ah did we just perhaps learn something that we weren't supposed to know and he Torellen is just as surprised as you guys are and Omar just speaks up ah I wasn't expecting guests hello fuck fritz word layra wait you can see me yes I can see you there is a very good hiding spot thank you it was the best one I could find I think it could do some work and Omar is flanked by some heavily cut to heavily large heavily armored they're in like full plate on their face it's completely covered now then Torellen I think you owe us a bit of money I had the option to get heat metal today and I didn't what am I doing and Torellen he's just um struggling to find words oh um yes I'm right here I well and father as a title of course mm-hmm um I wasn't expecting you to be the top of this and well you see there's a funny thing about that um you see the tournament um they didn't divvy out the money in the proper amount and buck you've got the whole story you were there right what happened buck right what would happen here's the thing father and I'll take my hammer uh big blind and I'll just kind of like place it down um uh like just kind of leaning on it ever so slightly I've been in this sort of situation before and you gotta understand that broken men can't pay debts so my hope is that whatever T has gotten himself into is we can maybe prolong whatever use some good will to prolong the time that he would need to make good on an admittedly poor investment give me a persuasion check okay persuasion ah do I use the coin now do you use the coin I'm gonna use the coin what would your character do use the coin you flip the coin behind your back as you're saying this oh that's gonna be a nat 20 and I don't add any I won't add anything I don't have a plus zero to charisma if it matters yep and I'm not 20s of 20 and he just shakes his head he takes off his hat a bit and puts it on his chest ah that is deeply deeply oh you have my apologies my boy I understand and he nods a little bit and he walks slowly up to Tarellin his armored guards to his side don't move an inch at all he puts one hand on his shoulder I understand how hard it can be but we do have to make some rules here so I will let you off easy you have to leave Satya and all your belongings and never come back Tarellin just drops to his knees oh that's thank you father he's tearing up a little bit I will thank you for your generosity I think we're done here then boys and he turns around and the other two teleport away and he walks up to you Buck and puts one hand on your shoulder you have a guard on you I can tell that but here in Satya we have an order at things any unscrupulous types who want to do unscrupulous things they can't stick around if they can't hold up their end of the bargain see it's how we keep things orderly around here so I appreciate you sticking your neck out for him I like you but you got to be careful next time you get wrapped up in something like this I appreciate the advice father me in my compatriots are just about to head out from satya for a little as you are probably aware of course you got your pilgrimage and you have my thanks I do hope you the best of luck on your pilgrimage and please do pay the cathedral a visit love visitors to... especially if you wish to absolve yourself of and he looks over at Tarellin sin uh right well I'll see you in church then I guess I will see you in church good day everyone and he walks back to the teleportation circle a flash of light he's gone is the portal Tarellin you dumbass rule number one never hit the church don't touch it don't go near it give him like ten cents a day I didn't know father Omar was the head of oh I feel like I'm missing some important politics here yeah no I would not be alive right now if I went in there and stole ten cents do not steal money from higher powers nope well it looks like we're all going to be on some type of journey so Tarellin you may want to start on that as quickly as they've allowed you to do and we have a dragon that we have to talk to and I don't I think I'd rather deal with that right now that would be ideal happy pilgrimage and he's just sitting there just taking in the weight of the thing that he has to do now enjoy your banishment and I run up and I like hit him but I still can't I can't do any damage just cobalt punch him that might be what it feels like but it looks like I'm trying to do a one punch man punch does nothing word is such a more interesting character in his head I'm going to lean down and pat Tarellin on the shoulder and be like scorched earth is excellent fertilizer for new growth and then I'm going to leave because I don't care about this he shrugs his shoulders like a sort of I'll take what I can get new start it is I want to hand him a temporary tattoo like here a little butterfly what is it and I like pat him on the head I'm giving him the unicorn one yay yay he just has a big old frown on his face like I went through all the shit and all I got was a stinking tattoo and that is going to be the story of Tarellin well done and as you guys start to take so you guys are heading to the temple then you don't want to do any more preparations before there's nothing else I need you take the road we're heading towards the temple in the distance to begin your journey as draconic pilgrims and that I think is going to be a good place to call it today that was fun yeah it was very awkward for half of it the physical pain of the social conversation I'm sorry