 Now, I'm going to ask if you guys would like to continue. So like, you're all kind of still on your separate ways. And I assume at least for a little while, you guys still want to continue doing the initiative thing of like, going about your individual business. Last time. Yeah, until we all end up, like, in the same spot. Yeah. Okey-dokey. Yeah. All right. So yes, we're going to roll initiative once again. Okay, so first up, Renee, where are you going? You're going to Umlem's? Yeah, I'm going to Umlem's. Yeah. Oh, wait, wait, no, you were. You were. I was like, no, I was. Pots and pots and pots. Sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. That's me. That's me being the kid, the consenting player and going, oh, yeah, I guess I was going there and not remembering. No, that was my bad. Yes. Why risk, girl? I got you. Let me bring you all your goods. Yes. You head back to virus and with along with the the trader person who follows you as well with the ingredients. And let me just find virus. I actually added the potions that she has now. Yay. So if you look down at the bottom, if you scroll down, you can see the various types of potions that she sells. I forgot how. Fantastic. She was. Oh my God. Well, first off, I'm probably going to just walk in with all the goods. Yeah, you walk in. Yeah, you walk in with the provider and she looks at it. Oh, thank goodness who took care of the scalpers. Thank you so much. And the the provider just kind of like throws a bunch of the ingredients on the on the counter. And he's like, next time, give me a better route, would you? And she goes, of course, of course, and hands him a little pouch of gold. And you, madam, you will get a special discount. First three purchases, half off. Oh, well, thank you so very much. I appreciate that. Oh, this is so, so wonderful. She's just like, then they're going, oh, yeah, but also in the back of her head, she's like, I'm the best around that's going to ever keep me down. This is why I need to be doing this stuff more often anyway. You can see that there are another thing, potions of banana. So that's a new thing added. In case you wanted to refresh your spell slots, you know, during. Oh my God. Oh, I thought you said potions of banana. No, no, no, no. I'm sorry. There are no potions of banana here. There's only potions of banana. Sorry. I'm calling it. I'm calling it a potion of banana now. It's a banana. It's a banana. Potion of banana anyway. Well, I could get a greater one if you would like because I trust your calculating and trust you to just like add and subtract your gold amounts, you can just like choose when it's not your turn what you would like to buy. I would appreciate that just because like I might take some time to like look over it. We can do that then. Perfection. In the meantime, let's say after you were done buying your potions, what else do you want to do? Well, that's all I really needed to do. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, I might like look over at Scorpio, who has joined me like with my like bags of supplies and just be like, so what do you want to do? Do you want to go running with 10 to 11? Or do you want to go like one round? What is your game plan? Well, I do think it would be nice to meet up with her. If you'd like, you can take a long. I heard she's going to meet up with an angry old dwarf. Oh, that she is she going to deal with the dwarf in a certain way? Or is she going to try and actually like, you know, not use her sword? She he scratches his chin a little bit. You know, I could never tell sometimes. Would you like me to go? Mind if I tag along? That I don't give a shit. Sure. All right. And he starts to decide this is one of the yeah. She's like as they're walking. She's like, besides this is going to be one of those steady days I'm pretty much going to assume. We just got a lot of of well, extra shenanigans and I'm betting anything that Mr. Mr. I don't like to socialize. It's going to be in his room all day. Might be very much appreciate your company with me. I usually have to do this all by myself. Of course. Yeah. I'll leave the way. I've had a run in with the old coup a few times and he starts to lead you to oom lens. Yeah, she's just jazzed. Next, Enoch, after your after you've done kind of paying your respects to your mother, where would you what would you have done? Most likely, Serene would have returned to the church. I would have gone back with her because I am interested in what was left over via the designs that she had. Yes, what's he a Torah had? OK, yes. Yes, you can see that she has various different blueprints, designs and some unfinished constructions as well. You see that there are a few things for Modrons. You do see that there is a design for an automatic auto targeting kind of cannon of some kind. OK, mom. All right. And various other just like unfinished and scratched out. You can see that the more recent sheets of paper have scribblings and scratching that it looks like the designs were initially finished, but you can't make out what they are because of the scribbling and scratching tearing like as if just like they were ruined, they were once finished, but they're now ruined. But yes, you do find Modrons and the auto targeting cannon. Kind of look over these, put like one hand over my eye. I look over to Serene. What does that look to you? Well, um, that's. Wait, which one are you showing her? Uh, the the cannon, the cannon. Oh, yeah, looks like a seat unit. Yes. And I kind of pulled the design closer to my eye. But it looks like a fire in him. I'm not just it's odd. I pull out the design for the Modron and. Currently, like inspecting all the designs and kind of flipping through them. Would you like to give me an investigation? Yeah, actually, give me your investigation stat rather than a role. I mean, plus two. Just plus two. OK. Looking through it, you think you can probably salvage some some of the designs of these for your new design as it is from what Altar said, unfinished. Altar must confer. And I kind of like do like a mental scan of all these designs, just like you can see kind of provide him an image. When you look over the scratched out designs, you feel a sharp pain in your eye and you can hear Altar screaming in agony as if he's in pain. And then the pain stops for a bit. All right, this is not me thinking too hard, but if you're going to throw a fit. At least warn me. Those were mine and she was. OK. Listen, like I said. You need to bring yourself down to a little bit more of a human level before you start acting so high and mighty. Look at this. He's just beginning to show more and more of the designs. The sharp pain goes through your head again. Make a wisdom safe. OK. 20 20. The sharp pain rings through, but you're all able to hold your composure. As you can see, flashes in your mind, memories that aren't yours, hands that aren't yours, fiddling with constructs, pushing things around, putting things together. But yes, you you see flashes of memories in your brain as Altar screams in agony yet again. You can see these hands that aren't yours, both fleshy human hands that are writing, drawing these designs at those same hands, scratching them out, tearing them up, throwing them across the room. And I'm looking at Altar. I know it's anger inducing. Isn't it? What are you getting at? I think you're scared. You see a vision of Altar in a bright, white, blinding light in front of you as the entire church just kind of falls apart around you. And you are standing on a singular spinning gear as he stands before you. Don't think you understand me, boy. You are scared. I know you are, because that's what survival dictates, isn't it? You sit in here, talk to me about how you are doing your best to keep us alive. Survival dictates scared. And you're afraid. So what are you afraid of? He charges towards you and flies through into you, fists forward. And you feel a punch into your chest before it's blocked. And he is pushed back by some sort of unknown barrier. What he tries to push through once again. And you can see that the symbol of Erythus stops him as your vision fades and you wake up on the floor of Serene kind of fanning you with her sleeves. Enoch, are you OK? How many jury members are still around? Ah, strewn about the city. Renounce their titles. I'm the only one left. Any materials? A few. Yes, I'll go get them. Without hesitation, she gets up, goes into the back room and pulls out what there where there is various different metals, woods and few tools, wires, springs and gears, as usual. We need more. This is all we have. Anything else you need could possibly be found in the market. And he pulls out what coinage he still has left and takes her hand. We need metal and we need wood, real good wood. You can find that. Head out and bring it back to me. How much money do you give her? As much as I have left, and that is eight pieces of gold, eight gold pieces. Amazing. All right, you hand her. You got because because nobody gives you gold. Well, it's a big city. There's plenty of jobs that you could take. But yeah, you hand her the gold pieces and she looks a little concerned and holds the pouch tight. I'll try to see what I can find. And before she leaves, I grab her hands once again. Don't worry about me. There are. A lot of problems going on. You know, and I've lived in Chester City for quite a long time. I know. Also, I wanted to acknowledge something back at the gravesite. You see that she avert her gaze to you. I know by providence of the gods, there are certain means that allow you to do what you thought you could have done. And to be honest. Well, I detest its nature, the magic for what it is. I think what you did was right and what was kind. She turns to you and you can see her eyes start to water up. And she discovers her mouth with her other hand. It brings her closer. Don't ever take your soul for what you think I want versus what I need. She she shakes her head. No, no, not at all. I there are changes coming to Belkanis, you know. And I want to help those changes happen. Without bloodshed. And she just looks to all the empty chairs in the church without more violence. Good. You remind me a lot of a friend I made this along the way for all intense purposes. If my mother died with her secrets, let that be her secrets. She takes a moment to consider this nods. She seems a little bit unsure of herself. I'll go get your things. Thank you. She heads out of the church. And what are you going to do in the meantime? Looking over the plans once more. Dead for 17 years. Always ready to take me to school. See what you got, old lady. And he claps his hands together and he goes to the back of the workshop. Hardware mode. Hardware mode. OK, we will return to hardware mode. Yeah, as next is Nathaniel and Nathaniel as you are studying. And, you know, you've sent Cyril and Julius on their way. You hear about a little while later, you hear a knock at the door and a familiar voice. Mr. Gainsby, I have finished your task. Just one moment. I'm going to scoop up all my things, throw it in the drawer, go to the door. Look through the people. If there is one, I don't believe there is. Well, there's right here is a hobgoblin. I'm going to like open up the door ever so slightly just so that you can only see my eye. Yeah, you can see that he's got some folded garments in bright yellow with a hat on top. It took a little while. You said you didn't want to see a single stage out of place. And I tried my best. And as best I could, I looked it over, making sure. Not a single stage out of place. I slowly creep open the door. Very good. And what of the other two? They should have went to you before they left. Yes, they did. They said they were going to investigate a little bit more, learn about the protectors and what what. Right, yes, the protectors. In fact, if I remember correctly, I wanted to accompany them. They have gone now. Oh, did you? May I send a message of sending? Yes, please let them know that I would like to seek an audience with the protectors and audience who said they are very dangerous. Do you know the extent of their plans? I look right at Raheer. He takes a few steps back as if he was like punched in the stomach. Yes, sir. Right away, sir. Right. Oh, and Raheer, I say, as I like unfold the coat and look it over. Yes, Mr. Gainsby. I roll investigation. Is there a stitch out of place? Your investigation is eight. You can see that the entire thing is pristine, except for a single tiny little weave at the tip of your hat that was cut off by Thorne. That is just put the wrong direction. Bastard. Oh, no, this kid's going to die. I look at your entire character. So I do a once over on all of my clothing and without looking at him and I say, you did a perfect job right here. You can see that he lets out like 10 times the breath of his lungs. Yes, Mr. Gainsby. I go into my room before he says that. He's not he does not get to respond to my wife. Yeah. OK, and you're going to wait for the other two again. So my hope is that he will send a sending to them, right? Then they will respond to it and I will know where to meet up with them. Yes, OK. I don't have to wait inside of this room anymore. Yeah, I do. Right. I remember last session that like I had said, hey, take me with you. But if I remembered incorrectly, that's fine. We'll just. Yeah. Well, if you did, then it's good to remind me because my memories fog is well. Yes, he would have sent a sending and he would have told you where to meet up. And the certain directions. And you would know now the a secret passage to the long abandoned, long, no longer in commission, Warforged Factory of Chester City. Oh, boy. Oh, all right. So here's what I'm going to do. And you are free to meet with both Cyril and Julius at any point that you find convenient. I am going to gather all of my things. So all of the necromancy information that is staying on my person is going under in back into my like secret pouch in my coat. And then I'm going to have her here, if possible, send another sending to Renee to have her meet me with the robots in the robot place. OK, yes. And he will do so. Renee, you now know the directions to the now abandoned Warforged Factory of Chester City. And I'm going to do I know what time are you going there? Like ASAP ASAP. That's my intention. It was OK. Well, as soon as I heard like that, is like Nathaniel needs you probably immediately just like a little bit like change a plan. If you want to go meet your love, I have three obligations, unfortunately work. Oh, all right, then I wish you the best of luck. And you I don't know how she's going to react to anything. It's a little bit touchy at the moment. Just give her a lot of love, especially. Oh, and not to mention, since you're going to see her before I do, she like pulls out the potion that she bought because I have decided what I wanted to buy. And it's the potion of oil affinity. Ah, the affinity oil. Good, good. Yeah, because that's going to be one of the half price things I get. So I would like could you could you send that with my love to Luna? Could you get that? I don't mean for you to be an errand boy, but I am now an errand girl. So well, I'm out of a job and errands were all I was good for before. So it's like I never even left work. Perfect. I will make sure to let you and Luna know well where we can be convenient. OK, yes. So you will part with Scorpio, who heads back with how many. How many did you buy? Did you just buy one? I only bought one. I put it in the chat. So I bought one oil affinity. I got two greater healings and then I also got the oil of slipperiness and a basic man, a man of spell. Awesome. Nathaniel, since it's still your turn, is there anything else you do on the way? Or if you would like, you can simply meet the other three at the abandoned war force factory now. How interesting that there are three of them. Well, because we're Ney and now I know I know I understand. When I arrive there, I will be very confused in the. So here is a small question then in order for me to do something with my turn other than this, right, unless you would like me to just do this because this is going to take a while. And that could be my turn. Like I'm fine with Renee doubling up on me. That's perfectly fine with me. Is the church because there were two churches in here of of fuck the the God. So there yeah, there are. There's the church of the Eternal. There's the Temple of the Eternals, which is a commercial, you know, temple for various different gods. Yes. And the Church of Arithas, which is very run down, kind of tucked into a corner of the city. Right. And the Temple of the Eternals are the ones that potentially caused Enoch's mother to die somehow. I guess you'll have to find out. Right. Well, that's some of the rumors that you've heard from the two investigating is like some of the people at the Temple of the Eternals have accused Enoch's mother of being a heretic. Possession, yeah. And possession, yeah. Right. OK, are either of those churches on the way to here to where I'm going? Yes, the Temple of the Eternals is on the way. Fantastic. I would love to pay a short visit. OK, yes, you do. And you see that out front, you are greeted by a warforged and he kind of lets you in. Hello, welcome to the Temple of the Eternals. Would you like to pay forth for your sins? No, my sins are going to go unpaid, I'm afraid. Well, would you like to pay tribute to some of the Eternals online? Online, on the lineup, rather not online, like Internet, online or choice of words on my part. What? Oh, yes, good. We just use my fairy. Can you log into for your sins, sir? Can you prove you are not a warforged? The dialogue sound as you're like connecting to your sins on space line. As a matter of fact, I am not on official business, luckily for you. But I was wondering if you would direct me towards a higher ranking member of this church. I would like to speak to someone of authority. And he just like leans his head on his fist. Well, you can talk to me. I don't see why you have to go talk to anybody who's higher up. My eyebrow twitch is just for a moment. What would you like to know, sir? You I apologize. We haven't been properly introduced. My name is Nathaniel Gainesby. What's yours? Hmm, I'm Corvin. And I suppose that you operate this place very well, Corvin. Can you just get to the point, sir? I've got a very busy day. My face betrays no emotions that I am having a lot of it right now. Right. I believe that I would like to pray now. Thank you. I think I can do this on my own very well. That'll be five gold pieces. Five gold. Very well. Hand him the gold. OK, you hand him the gold. He opens the door to let you inside. And you can see that it is a very, very ornate interior with long halls leading to various different gods and pantheons. And each one is attended to by an employee who is seems to be taking prayer and, you know, saying what sounds like very routine chance and prayers to these people before taking pouches of gold from them and letting them inside. Jeez, I mumbled something under my breath along the lines of perhaps I will come back here and visual business to investigate this place for robbery. And then I will walk inside. Hey, walk inside and you can see that there one attendee comes up to you and speaks up. Hello, good sir. Are you are you here to pay tribute to your gods and such? Oh, of course I am. Yes. But before I do that, I was wondering if I could speak to somebody of a higher authority. I'm a priest here. My name is Rendham. Nice to meet you. He extends a hand. Oh, very good. I will shake it. Yeah, you see, it's a very firm, soft handshake. You can see that he moisturizes well. Well, I think I can find my way around here when it comes to finding my own personal gods. But a friend of mine, very close and personal to me, was worshipping a different God that I had never heard of before, despite having come to this church very many times. I believe the name of the God was Arathis. Oh, yes, Arathis. Well, the segment of Arathis split off many years ago, formed their own church down the way, not got a lot of funding, unfortunately. Yes, that is unfortunate. Well, if you would like to pay tribute to you can go down that way. But I assume if you wanted to, you would have went there already. Any reason you come here instead? Well, I had heard that the church had split off and I was wondering what could have caused such a thing. You see, it's a bit of a difficult thing. Having a friend that worships a religion that doesn't go to the same church, we have to very often separate and I would much rather not have to do that. Not to think that you're going to somehow be reconvening in the future. But I am curious as to how the split happened in the first place. I'm going to need you to make a combination of religion and persuasion. Oh, good. All right. Persuasion. You need you need religion and persuasion because you need to show that you are truly a religious man. God, I am not, though. I'm so not. No, just leaning really close. I am a man of God, hallelujah. OK, so one person goes to somebody other than me. Great. I don't think we worry about that. Persuasion, I basically came in here and said, yes, I would like to worship a god. How do you do, fellow priest? He had to fail somewhere. He had to fail somewhere. Boy, do I love Jesus and his commandments. We get the crackers in the wine, am I right? So don't worry, we can read some of those poems. You can see that he looks you up and down at you trying to convince him that you are a religious man and you wish to pay tribute. And he he gives you like a head tilt of like, aha. Well, good sir. It if you well know your history about it seems like you don't about good Lord of Building and Progress Eurythus is that a long time ago, a priestess by the name of Ciotoro was a bit of a heretic around these parts. She started spouting nonsense, belittling the other gods and then decided to split off on her own. And what could have caused that if the churches were together for so long? Well, I just told you, heresy, she had communes with other worldly beings, not following to the letter of the Temple of Eternals. Communes with other worldly beings. He mean gods, well, her God specifically, but other worshipers of Arathis, they did not have this problem. Listen, sir, if you are not here to pay tribute, there's not much I can do for you. I'm going to take a very deep sigh. And I'm going to hold up. I'm I'm not going to hold up anything I'm going to say. What do I have to give you? Well, running such a temple does require upkeep. So perhaps a little bit of coin could help. And he just kind of looking around, just kind of rubbing his hips a little bit, making sure nobody's looking. Yes, I understand a coin. I find I want to take ten gold out of my pocket and put it in his hand. I'm going to say, here, use this to buy some bread that doesn't taste like cardboard. He leans, he leans in. He pockets the coin and leans in. I heard that in order to strengthen the Church of Arathis, she communed with a celestial being after fighting with one of her own priests. He was also communing with the same celestial. And after their fight, took to him. Took to him. Which one? The one she was fighting with, another priest of Arathis. They didn't agree after they moved to Balcanus, wanted to run things differently. And so it seemed the celestial took to the priest instead. And afterwards, after the big argument and she split off, he was never heard of again. Me think she killed him. Yes, and what was the name of this priest? His name was Thurm, T-H-Y-R-M Thurm. Yeah, I can really feel a Y in there. Travelled here and found of the Church of Arathis along with Seatora, along with a few others as well. But it seems they've been spread around the kingdom. And was there any particular thing that Thurm and Seatora did that enabled this communication with Ahaya being? He holds out his hand expectantly. I'll give you ten gold, that at least goes for three questions. Give me a persuasion. Damn it! I don't know, sir. Those windows do need a bit of washing. Yes, they do. And I'm going to give him another gold. Fine. Well, from what I have gathered, it seemed that Thurm's methods were a little bit extreme, very evangelical, black and white. You are either with him or you were against him. That doesn't explain how he was able to contact other beings. Ah. On that front, I think that's even all the gold in the world won't get that information because I don't know it. These methods, were they documented somewhere? Can't say they are. It's all hearsay rumors. Any documentation has been thrown out. They don't want us to acknowledge that sort of past. These are bad mark on the Church of the Eternals. Do you think that the other churches would have such documentation themselves then? Not sure. You best look for yourself. Very well. All right. And this is going a little bit over time. So I'm going to say, what is the next one to say? Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for your help. No, thank you for your patronage, sir. I hope you find the light of your gods. And I. Oh, certainly. And I hope to find that light myself. I will step out of this. Okay, all place. Next is Luna. Hi, you. You find your way. So you're going to Umlem's. Yeah. Yes, I have a message to deliver. You walk into Umlem's smithery. You can see that it's a small humble place just like fit in between two larger buildings. You can see that there is one person as you walk in that seems to be finishing a transaction nods at him. It looks like a tree folk of some kind. Umlem just thanks them. Takes their coin, hands them a very fancy looking sword. They bid you a do as they walk around you through the door and you can see Umlem a very old looking dwarf with splotches around his face, wrinkles about and on the eye patch. Let me show art of him. There he is. Look at this man. Look at this guy. He's been doing some shit. He sees you walk in and immediately like without skipping a beat. Took you long enough to get here. I'm sorry. You're the girl that helped my daughter is a little girl. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yes, I am. She wouldn't stop writing to me when you see her. Could you tell her to stop writing to me? Wow. I actually came to deliver the message she gave me that was asking you to write to her more. She tilts his head back like almost like 90 degrees up into the sky. All right. Fine. We'll finally get her to stop. I do appreciate it though. Make so happy and make sure that I still have grandchildren. Your grandchildren are lovely. Of course. In fact, I'm so grateful. If you would like, I've got a few customers lined up, but if you want, you could have one of my services on the house. Oh, the token of gratitude for helping my family. Oh, thank you. You don't have to really. I was happy to. I was happy to help. And I'm happy to lend this one. At least you and me have got nothing else to do in this body workshop. Well, I may come by later then. I have a different blade I might have you work on. If that's all right with you. Very well. I'm so sorry to ask this. Does the name Vajran Icewind bring any bells to you? Hmm. Can't say it does. Sorry. Was he around during the war? Yes. He was my father. Actually, he's a veteran. Just trying to track down. I'm trying to see who might have been in his platoon. That's all. Don't mind me. And I'm going to look over this. Yeah. You can see also you can see all the different services that he's got. He doesn't sell a lot of weapons. He sells just the basic ones, but he does do a lot of upgrading and such. Yeah. No, I'm looking at these. I'm looking at these these enchantments. He's going on. And you can do the same thing as Kami. I'll say that retroactively. We can pick what you paid for and bought. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I would have just been prepaying like pre establishing the service because I would have wanted it done on absolution if possible. Yes, we can do that. And that is my main sword. While browsing around, you also see a portrait kind of in a similar style to the one that you saw in. Gosh, I forgot her name. Helio. Helio. Helio. And you can see that is a portrait of Abigail hung up on the wall. This is the Viscount sister. He looks over. Oh, yeah. I was in their platoon. Oh, I see. I see. Your daughter also had a portrait of the three sisters. Oh, I fought alongside them. Can I ask something? Go ahead. What happened to Abigail? He leans down in a seat. And you can see that he's got a peg leg as he takes a seat kind of around the counter. By all means, you don't have to tell me if you do not wish to. No, no, no. I think it's something most of the kingdom should hear. Considered. Okay. And she'll like lean herself up against the counter or something to listen. I got to know him. The sisters. Sandrell was ever the leader, followed orders, protected her allies. Good woman. Kara, too. She was always nose deep in her books, always learning. She even played a small part in contributing to the general for intel on the enemies. And Abigail. She was a little shit. She was playing pranks on the other soldiers once filled the sergeants practice sword with she's of slime so that they'd splash their sparring partners during training. She was my favorite. Reckless girl got her bloody ear cut off from a blade dance. And I think that's why the kingdom don't like to talk much about it. She was all and she was in all our hearts. And after she died, left a rift between the sisters. A lot of people like to contribute that to why the kingdom is the way it is now. What with the net command says going around the constant strife. All because of those sisters. You'll never see people speaking about it out loud. But a lot of people like to attribute this to Sean drill as well. What if it happened to Kara? She left. Don't much really knows. Considering the spine of death, I think a lot of us can put pieces together. But nobody really knows. She left the kingdom. She was a prominent necromancer during the war, but I had one to make accusations. I see. Thank you. I'm sorry to take up so much of your time. No, no. He gets up from his chair just kind of taking both arms to pick up. We should get back to writing that note then. I hate the mail. So you'll be back then. Come with some friends. I know you adventure a lot. You like to go around with your parties. Potentially, yes. Before we leave the city at least. I'm having a sort of mind looked at. And it's the one I'd prefer you to work on. Very well. Thank you. And if you like, I can pass that message along to Helios to maybe write a bit less. Please do as much as I sometimes do write letters. She's always wants to meet better in person. Hearing is a better reason that you don't go see her. I just want her to leave her to her own devices. She's been under my wing far too long. She needs to find her own path. I think she's found that already. Two incredibly bright children. Perhaps she just wants to see her father again. He looks down a bit. Some old habits will stay habits. Whatever it's worth, I do plan. I will be making fairly routine trips to that area. So should you ever need anything delivered? Just let me know. You talked about you a lot, but I never really wrote your name. Luna Icewind. Luna Icewind. Well, thanks for paying me a visit, Luna. Of course. Of course. Anytime. And she'll like give her like a pleasant nod and start to head out. He pulls out a sheet of paper and you can see him grumbling as he starts to write. Luna looks maybe just a little bit too proud of herself with that. And as you exit out, you can see that Scorpio meets you just in time as well. Oh, Luna, finished already. I was just delivering a message. He would notice that absolution is not on my back, which is incredibly unusual. He does notice. And you can see that on his face, he's actively trying to avoid the topic. I, uh, having something looked at. So thought I'd come back later to actually have some work on my blades done. All right. That's good. Well, but you come from West Renee. I thought Renee worked with you. I think she got some sort of message from your, uh, bright yellow friend. You seem to like to work together a lot. Yes. They're a, they're an interesting team. Um, well, I have something I have to do, um, regarding, uh, tracking down. What the hell is his name? Clayton. Clayton Clayton. Yeah. I've got a job then. Uh, exchange of services. I'm having my father's sword looked at, um, by forgetting it in Sage Annabelle. Um, regardless, I think this is a good time to stop practicing working together. Don't you think? I think so. Yes. I'll come along then. Of course. Of course. Come on. Yeah. I'm going to start to do your first task together. Whoa. And, uh, because the task is going to take a little bit longer than you have, I'm going to go to Renee if that's okay. That's all good. All good. All right. Renee. I assume that you are going to meet up with Nathaniel and the two others. Yeah. Yes. This was my plan all along to double up on somebody else's turn. Haha. Okay. And yes, you meet up at a very vacant part of the city. You can see you had to go through like several shady alleyways and kind of climb through some debris where there are no people, no guards, no, no one. And you can see that there is a massive lump of debris with a human and a tiefling there and Nathaniel as well. I'm going to say Nathaniel. You wait, actually Nathaniel, were you going there or were you going to the church of Erethans? No, I was going here. I told everybody to come here. I'm not going to make them wait. Oh, okay. That would be unbecoming of me. Thanks Nathaniel. Yep, yep. And you can reach there and you can see that the two are sitting on what looked to be some innocuous piles of debris. Oh, you two again. And you can see that the human just like lifts up both arms and kind of like a karate motion. Careful, lady. We've learned a lot of things. And then you can the tiefling interrupts and just puts his hand over his face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We work for you now. She just has a hand on her hip like raising an eyebrow at the poor human just being like, oh, she's just like, oh, I'm really scared now. I'm downright terrified. Wow, very impressive. So I'm guessing that you are both here for the same reason that I am. I can only assume. Yeah, boss. Are you there? I'm going to like arrive just now. I will like kind of with a bit of hurry in my step as if I was annoyed by something recently and I will show up and I'll say, I apologize for my lateness. I had to come to Jesus moment. Who the fuck did you need Jesus for? Not for much. I don't know if Jesus is in this world. I had to come to what? What the fuck is Jesus? I had to come to our facsimile of Jesus moment fantasy facsimile. Oh boy. Anyway. So why exactly do you need this? I had to come to Frodo. I had to come to Frodo moment. Come to Frodo moment. I follow this. Share it alone. Anyway, anyway, yes. You see that Julius kind of lifts a hand to greet you. Hey boss. Right. I'm going to not take shake his hand. I don't know what relationship he thinks. No, he's just wave like a little greet wave. Oh, okay. I will nod back to him. The protectors are aware that we're arriving or are we going to surprise them? No. The protectors? Yes, they're in the city. Oh yeah, I know they're in the city. I just stopped one of them from robbing someone. You did? Yes. In order to get the witch decals a really nice discount. Speaking of, she pulls out one of the greater potions and gives it over to him. I'm going to take it and look back at her. This is going to be awkward. That's what I'm expecting, honestly. Put this into my pocket. I've had stranger mornings. Right. I'm going to need to do most of the talking. I've been preparing this for a little while. I will need you to back my play. It's going to be a little bit strange. Oh, well, I never said that they're meeting here. I just know that they're planning something and that they've been covering it up. Zero? Yeah, sure. It's like, man. And they both start to dig through the debris and you can see that there is a hidden hatch under it all. Oh, well, so classy. You have taken us to their secret base. Not exactly. This is the abandoned Warforge factory that they plan to do something. Something. You've taken us to their current operations under. A secret thing that they are doing in a place understood. This still works for us. In that case, I think that I will defer to you, Julius. You seem to have a very good idea of these things. What do you mean? I mean, I would like you to lead the way. She like leans over to Julius. This is the moment where you show you're not going to fuck up and actually take your own initiative time. You can see that Zero is chuckling under his breath and Julius shoots him daggers as a dagger like stare. And Julius just... I don't know why you're laughing, Zero. I didn't ask you to show initiative yet. And that Renee can't help but have a little like knife cat smile like. Oh, man. And Julius just opens the latch. It creaks open. You can see there's a stairway down. Come on in. Oh, perfect. Going down into a little duck tunnel. It's very often. I know. And I'll motion for Zero and Julius to go forward first. Yep. They go in and Zero just... His voice echoes throughout this very metal kind of stairwell. Well, look on the right side, boss. If we betray you, you could just always mind spike us again. And Julius just kind of baps him on the shoulder. What? He could. You're not really... Honey, you need to actually... When the tech initiative thing actually happens to you, you might want to start with actually having the ability to like, have the confidence to do it fast. Just showing my faith, man. I appreciate that. But also, holy shit, calm down. Yes, I won't lie. I put you two together because you had previous experienced working as friends. Which means you would probably work together onward from that. I'm beginning to realize that perhaps you should work a day job. I would like that after this is all over. Ooh. Oh, don't you worry. Nothing bad will happen to you so long as you follow my orders. He just like creaks his head back. And he has looked like he just stared death in the face. And they lead you down the stairwell. And you can see that it leads far, far down. Kind of like a very long flight of stairs before you see a massive vertical hole like an entire football field across. And it leads like a vertical silo all the way straight down with various different catwalks and rails and steam pipes and different kind of like pools of molten metal that are glowing. Currently. Yes. What do you think they're trying to make? I imagine war for which that's what this place was built for originally during the war. They wanted to use robots to fight necromancers. It's harder to pick them back up. Then why have they started? Are they trying to raise their own army? Do you think anyone is down at the bottom? I'm in this giant saddle. I'm just going to do a big scan. Yes. Give me your passive perception. 20. 20. You can look around. This place has been recently used. But from the looks of it, checking out the various like kind of wear and tear on the stuff. It has only been slightly tampered with so far. No one's actually activated the place just yet. But it's just kind of you can tell from the methods and things that are on whoever was here has been messing with stuff to make sure that it still works. Right. But I don't think anybody has. Nope. Doesn't seem like there's a sign that anybody's here right now. No, the only echoing that you hear is the echo of the low rumble of molten metal. So what would you like to do? Well, given that none of them are here right now, we can't just actually talk to them. But even if we don't know why they want this place, the fact of the matter is that they do, which means it is within our best interest to make sure that they can't do that until we have a conversation. So let's go through these machines and see if we can't find integral pieces of them to take back home with us just for the time being. I will say one thing, boss. Julia speaks up. This sort of stuff. It's way too high concept for the protectors. They're usually small, small jobs, you know. This sort of stuff. It takes way more planning than any of us could put together. Any of us? Well, I mean, what I used to be with them. Right. Is there anyone you particularly with wealth with? Not that I know of. It's just very strange out of left field. We usually do small jobs with low stakes. Not a lot to lose. Say again, Renee. Like stealing a supply cart? Yeah, like stealing a supply cart. Are you sure that these are the protectors in charge of this place then? I know for certain, because I saw the lead coming in here. Earth Janasi girl. What's her name? Castelia? Yeah, her. Oh, merde. She like turns over to the thing. That is who I saw earlier this morning. Do you think you can find her again? Hmm. Not impossible, but definitely not the easiest. You can send her, correct? Yes. Well, like I said, let's find important pieces of this machine, or these machines, and then have a conversation with them later. All right. I'm gonna start snooping around. Okay, start snooping around. Are you gonna salvage various different parts and pieces then? Snooper's gonna snoop. My goal is to find pieces that look valuable slash rare. Something that if I take it out, the machine's not working, and it's probably really hard to find another piece of work. Okay. Investigation? Yeah, probably investigation. Yeah, yeah. You can give me an investigation for that. Okay. Looking around, checking the pieces, you can see that there are various different kind of power sources in the chest of these various warforged that you take out. You get three warforged power sources. I actually, that would be a, actually, it wouldn't be a 23, because, no it wouldn't. That's a 23, because my passive investigation from observant makes my, my, like, minimum roll higher. Oh, shit. You said investigation? Yes, that's correct. Okay, yeah. Then, yeah, you can get three, we're going to call them warforged souls, because that is what they're called, nomenclaturely. They're not literally souls, but that's what powers up the warforged. Okay. They're little small kind of orb, metal orbs that have a dim arcane glow to them. And these are things that if someone tried to operate this machine. Without it, it would not start. Yeah, these things would be missed, certainly, though. Very good. Oh, I love that. Yep. And you can see that there are kind of along this path that you have gone, this catwalk, where you can see below you as well, the various, like, layers of catwalks. You can see that there are rows of worn down and broken and unfinished warforged as well. Just husks, not barely even, barely even, uh, puppets. Tell me, see, see it real. Do you ever think it's very interesting how when you look at the lifeless warforged around here, it's hard to tell whether they are dead bodies, or bodies waiting to become alive. Ah! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Julie, what's he mean by that? What do you mean by that, sir? Well, warforged are not people. They don't grow normally. Well, they are people, but not initially. They start out as machines, and then once stirred, they are machines once more. It's very interesting how you can never tell one from the other. You can see his eyes are just darting back and forth, kind of like between Julius and you. He does not know how to comprehend this, or what to take from this. In any case, we have what we came here for. Once we leave this place, I will have you cast ascending so that we can tell them where we want to meet. And then we can finally have this conversation that I've been dying to have. Do you want to meet with the protectors? Yes, that was what the whole point of this was. All right. Well, I guess me and Cyril can stake out the place. Wait for them to come here. You can go do your business in the meantime. If you want to put yourselves at risk, but now that we have these things, I imagine they're going to want them back. And once they get a message in their brain telling them exactly where to, they'll arrive. I'm sure. That's true. I just wanted to make sure maybe we could mitigate some of the damage. She's not going to be happy when she sees you've been tampering with her plans. Wonder if she wants to wreck this place even more that's her prerogative. We're not using it. We're just preventing her from using it. All right. After you. All right. Right before we leave, just as we're going. I know I wasn't like I've rolled to like look around the place, but is there any chance that they have left behind any like information as to what they're trying to do here? I'm going to take your your investigation, your passive investigation that you can tell that they are absolutely trying to start the Warforged Factory to create Warforged intent is going to be another thing that you can't tell unless you talk with them. No problem. That's not a big deal. But you can tell for sure they're trying to restart the factory. In that case, fantastic. We can leave this factory once we are far enough away. I can tell Renee to meet us or I would like for them to meet us at the fuck. I can't remember the inn I'm staying at. The unwritten shores. Yes, I'm going to say there. And but I am going to say the room number across from mine. Okay. So yeah, Renee, what what message do you send to Castilea? Before I send it, I want Nathaniel. What exactly is your crazy plan here? Oh, I'm going to what is the problem? I'm going to deal with two birds with one stone. The spine of death has been a very big issue for us. And I would like to get more information about them. In addition, the protectors have been less than agreeable since we've met them. You said the least? My hope is that I can negotiate some sort of agreement between us to have them investigate the spine of death for us while we remain in Chester City. And then whether they return with information or die, we have solved the problem. So you want us to stay here another day? If need be. Or we continue on towards our eventual goal of dealing with the black vanged queen. But regardless, we'll have more information coming out of it. Or we will at least have the protectors gone. All right. I don't really know how this will go, but I trust you. Very good. Okay, Renee, what is your sending message? Darling Castilla. My boss and I collected something from your little pet project. If you want it. Meet us at room, whatever room it is that's across from Nathaniel. Um, look at the name again at the unwritten shores. You got three words left. Bye tonight. Kisses. You hear. You hear. You hear a voice back. Uh, balls to that. I'm going to do this with or without whatever it is you did. Oh, so your little plan is that he has a little bit of a snag. She doesn't give a fuck. I'm sorry. She doesn't give a fuck. She said she's going to go through with her plan, whether or not she has with whatever it is that was in the world for Jelia. So we might be on a little bit of a time crunch now. Sorry, this was the sending effectively. In the pocket of people like me down on their leg. You see, I take the war for that you're trying to fall. Anyway, she's going where? Did she say anything more other than are doing this with or without you? Yep. What'd she say? Oh, no, sorry. Sorry. As in no, she didn't say anything more. She said, false to that. Oh, I'm going through with my plan. Okay. Yeah. So she's like, I, she didn't say anything other than that. She just said she's going through with it with or not. She had the things necessary. And did she have you? Did she have some plan with you? No. And then I'm not exactly sure what her plan is in that case. How many are you willing to send another spell? It would not make me happy, but I can. Never mind. Are you sure? Damn it. Can't ask Cyril and Julius to Cyril Julius. Do you know where we're here is? Uh, yeah, I could probably send a send in to him. Wait, you can send to people. Yeah, of course. That became a necromancer I could cast. I blink twice. I mean, for my necromancer, he holds up two hands, you know, before you hide me, you know, all that stuff. You think they would bring on someone who couldn't cast any spells? Don't stop, stop incriminating yourself. Sorry. Yeah. I'm going to look. Right. The sending spell. Does it actually let you know who is sending the message? They can hear your voice. That's how she knows it doesn't mean because we've already had the conversation before. That's how it works. Damn it. Julius, do you remember the very angry woman that was with us? Uh. She had two swords. Oh. Just leave the shirt. Shut off her biceps. What about her? I need you to tell her to get to the cowboy and come to the old abandoned war forged. How? As soon as she can. Angry cowboy? Apparently, there is going to be a very big problem here very soon. You got it, boss. If possible, I would like you to disguise your voice as best you can. Hopefully she does not remember you. But there is no guarantee of that. And then I would like the two of you to lay low for a while. You are both going to be very much wanted by these two people. And I do not have the time to explain that. They just both look at each other and just like nod. With the knowledge that their life is now in your hands. Of course, once we're gone, you do not, you no longer need to worry. And you can go back to right here for any information. So lay low for one day. All right, boss. Okay, Enoch. So you're tinkering away. You're crafting your next invention. Yeah. Yes. My next two inventions actually. Two inventions. Okay. Yeah. One for my art of art, the one for my gunslinger. Okay. So because I've been planning this. All right. Okay. And while you are, you are slightly interrupted by someone entering the door and you hear heavy footsteps, not the same ones as Serene. And looking up. Who does he see? You see a tree folk of some kind who kind of stops in his tracks. I'll show it to you. And he just stops and holds up both hands. I'm sorry. Was I interrupting something? Actually, no, perfect timing. Can you come over here for a second? I need you to lift this. All right. Okay. Then he comes on around and helps you with your, some of your tasks. It makes things a lot easier, at least on the physical part of it. All right. Lift, lift with your knees, with your knees. Okay. Are you Enoch Solomon? I am. And I slide some of the amber under this piece of metal. It's like, okay. Down, down, down, down, down, down. Are those barcite beets? Used to be. All right. What do you want? You see that his face scrunches up a little bit at that. Well, I heard that you are coming into town recently. And I've been keeping track of some of the things you've done around the kingdom. And I think you could be of good help for me. He extends a handout. He's looking around the workshop. A bit busy. Well, whenever you have a chance, and he extends a handout, Magnus. I'm an adventure like you traveling around doing tasks. Okay. I guess you don't take his hand then. No. No. He just sits there awkwardly. I don't know who you are. And he scratches the back of his head a little bit. Okay. Maybe a bit forward. Have you ever heard of the protectors? I take two steps back. Somewhere around, I don't know, five feet. Actually, yes, I have. And I pull out objection. He lifts both hands. Oh. I'm not a part of them, I promise. Insight. Go ahead. For once, me and Enoch are on the exact same wavelength. 19. You see him. He's holding both his hands up. He seems pretty genuine. And it seems like you can tell from his intent that he is looking to work with you on something. You can see that he doesn't look hostile at all. The only weapon he has is a single sword on his side, but he has extended his arms far beyond. And you could easily outgun him if he reaches for it. So, by the way, I'm just down to like a straight sleeve of a shirt if he could see what is ever under all of this. Right, right. He would notice the large scar where the metal and the arm attach as well as like multiple different like wounds up and down his arms and along his collar. Okay. I have heard that they are running amok in Chester City and that I, having looking into you and your friends, know that you might want something that I know in return. Context, I need context. It is to my knowledge that you are traveling with the witch taker, Nathaniel Gainesby. Is that right? Kind of skeevy, snake-lack, or a yellow outfit, bit of a bitch. And I know that some of his tactics are underhanded and I would like to bring it to the light. Oh, God. Oh, divine providence it is. And he holsters the gun. He still keeps his hands up. He looks at him and wait. Well, I can't ask for something if I don't give something. It's kind of the fair trade around here I suppose. Which is why I want you to assist me. Why is it that you believe that Nathaniel Gainesby is such a dangerous man? I have reason to believe that he has employed necromancers. Okay, to be more specific on that kind of nature, I would have taken more preference to sending necromancers to their death. He finds it more profitable to send them to the guard. And if what you're saying is somewhere along that line. That make a lot of fucking sense. He tilts his head a little bit at the at the mention of sending them to their death. I did not think I was going to work with a vigilante executioner. Listen, when you do what I do on the border, there's a lot of... Listen, I'm just along a certain different kind of cut. What I'm trying to say is that I've never taken much preference to certain people that have made active and very terrifying advances on this country. Like executing people without a fair trial and he just kind of squints his eyes at you and starts to lower his hands a little bit. What I do is nasty business, I understand. I see, and perhaps you are just as dangerous as he might be. Well, to be more accurate, things are starting to fall along different lines nowadays. Listen, I've been dealing with a lot more than just necromancers. I'm also dealing with a lot of personal issues. So if I can end up working those out, perhaps just maybe just perhaps I might be able to help. He lowers his arms now down to his size and he's completely relaxed his stature. I don't think I do want to work with you anymore. Well, listen, if that's not something that you want to do, I'm understandable. I'm just not in the mood for killing anybody right now. He squints his head at that. I'm not in the mood to kill necromancers right now, honestly. Well, if you are in... Do you feel better? Well, if you are ever in the mood to stopping some bandits from running amok... He hands you a kind of runic stone. Here is a sending stone. Oh, fantastic. I've never actually seen one of these before. I have some information on him. And if you help me, perhaps I can help you. After you help me deal with the protectors, I can give you the dirt on Nathaniel gains me. But we have to talk about this whole... Just kind of like lifts a finger up and down issues. Trust me. I got a parasite. It's like, you know, working it out. He just holds up one hand. I don't think I want to know. Good. What's your name again? Magnus. Magnus. Good. All right. Nice to meet you, Magnus. He would so kindly leave me to the rest of my work. And I will get back to you before the end of the day. Very well. Fantastic. And he pockets the stone. And he goes back to hammering out the rest of the metal and lathing and also creating his maker's mark. Okay. He leads the church and, you know, right beside him. You just hear a familiar voice. Hello. Can I give you the good word of Arithas? No, thanks. Oh, okay. And Serene walks on in. I got the best I could. It seemed like you had a bunch of metal on you already, so I got some wood. You can see Serene has got a very sizable plank of wood. It's about like almost as big as her. And maybe like a foot in diameter. And two feet in width. Oh, good. And the sake of a lot of other things. Let's see how good your hands are. And he shows her the design for the buttstock. Oh, I haven't made anything in many, many years. I don't know if I have much help. And he he walks over. Hey, it's okay. You know, we got plenty of wood here and whatever mistakes get made. No, I mean my I just. Please. Promise me she just puts both her hands on on your shoulders. Know that I am following in the great builder. And then whatever I do is in her name. I see. And she slowly starts to take off her silk gloves. And you can see black veins leading from her fingertips up her hands. I have never raised. I've never raised. But I have. Tabel. All in the name of the great builder, I promise. And I do want to help you. And he grabs hold of both the hands. And he brings them close. I've seen those who've. Had better intentions. Like you. Is this what my mother fought for? She looks. She avert her gaze. You can always answer me honestly. If you were her truest confidant, is she doing this because she knew that this was the change that needed to come? She she nods. They called her a heretic because she took in many. That no one else would. Including me. Grabs hold of the hands just a little bit tighter but not violent. I made a promise. We are to carry on her work. She looks to you and you see tears rolling down her cheeks. Yes. We're going to do good work. We need to know how to. Only understand this and holding up the hands. But also. How to work around it. We can grow. And that is a very recent revelation I've made. And why I'm so confident and why what I am going to make. Will change the nature of things. You hear you hear altar speak up. In a. Quiet shout as if he's trying to shout as loud as possible but it's as. Spurs in the back of your mind as if he's being blocked out by something. No we cannot. Her hands have been tainted. We'll find a way around it. Always. That is what we do. Name of the builder we build. Around. We make the foundations. We grow stronger. Magic just reinforces but. It's what we make with these hands. And he grabs her gloves and he puts them back on hers. We make with these. And make us better. Stronger. She smiles at you. Yeah, but I do kind of need to take these off. I can't really work with these. Oh, fair enough. Pulls it back up. I'm almost done but the. I just need a few more pieces to be put together. So he begins to show the last of the designs. It's not too far off. Okay, she is going to assist you in this and real quick. Give me a crafting check with advantage. Serene helping you out. Mainly because my crafting ability is my sleight of hand so. Okay, show me the sleight of hand then. But the 15 you work away hammering away molding pieces carving out wood. But something. Is deliberately sabotaging you. Alter. Meanwhile. Next on the list. Is going to be Luna since I'm I love to Renee and Nathaniel together. I hope that's okay. Oh, okay. And Luna you get a message. From. An unfamiliar voice. Hello. My name is right here. I am an employee of the witch taker Nathaniel gains be. I might understand that you are Luna. He has to. Jesus Christ. He has to cast two now. Imagine if you said. He has to know who it is to cast the spell. Ah. She was walking and having a pleasant conversation and then just stops because this voice just ended her brain. Yes. And who are you and what the hell does Nathaniel want? You can you see that Scorpio stop. What is. Oh no, are you being advertised to. No. No, I think that I'm not trying to call me. He just had to use the most annoying voice person ever. To do it. Yeah. Be careful about giving out your name in the future. Lots of people trying to sell things. Oh God. No, I haven't. I haven't had to deal with that yet. What are you doing? Marketing. I'd like to talk to you about the standard warranty. Okay. Yeah. No, no, never, never, ever. Okay. He wants you to meet him at the unwritten shores. I will meet him after. I will meet him after my jokes today. Point of order. I, if I remember correctly, I asked to meet everybody at the warehouse because. Oh shit. Yes. The protector is going there. Yeah. Either way, my, my, my response is the same. I'm on a job. I will be there when I'm done. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Great. Oh. Rub it for temples. So yes, you had the directions that were given to you to find Creighton along the way. I will basically be explaining this much. I don't know if this is a soul job. It's more just a persuading job. But so useful because apparently this person is doing what sounds like not so good things instead of helping the people of justice city. I'm not really sure what to expect. We should just be careful. Yes. It might be a good, there's a lot of help that needs going around. And you can see that Scorpio just looks around. You can see that there are a few homeless people just like as you walk by just living on the streets, asking for alms. Is now I want to know, is this a recent spike in homelessness in Chester? Or is this always been how it's been? You can give me a, what's your history score? Not great. But I've been here for a while. It's plus one. Well, having been familiar with the town, you would know that this has been a regular occurrence that, you know, there's a lot, you know, for as big of a city with the riches. There's, you know, for every rich merchant that has made it in Chester city, there are about 20 were struggling. Certainly not sure there's much anything about the city that can change the way it's thought. It's always been that way. It's terrible, but that's how it is. You reach the address as given to you. And it is a quite little place, just a very humble looking kind of apartment, kind of in between some other buildings. It is an apartment room. Let's see how you try to list my partner for the first day. And she'll kind of nudge him with her elbow before I guess we go up to knock on the door. Of course, my lady. You knock and you hear kind of a muffled coming and a very young looking fire Genasi opens the door sees well dressed. Oh, how dare you? They're adorable. Why is he so fucking hot? And this was made by Kami. It's because he's a fire Genasi. Okay, that explains everything. Thank you. And he creaks the door open a little bit. You can see his entire head. Good day. Yes. Hello. Are you the new neighbors here? I've been cooking up some tea. It's a special blend. I made myself. Come on in. I'm sorry. We're not neighbors. We're messengers. Oh, I don't get much messages. Who from? Oh, you can see that his smile just fades like almost instantly. Oh, Sage Annabelle. Yeah. What did she say? She wants you to return. He starts to creak the door like closer to close a little bit. I don't want to. I. Can I insight this to see if there if it's. Dislike towards Sage Annabelle or it is something something a bit more. Sus, you can get. Yeah, give me an insight. That's a 12. You look him up and down and you can see that there's concern on his face. And he can tell that you're looking over him. Listen, Miss Annabelle. She's all right. I can't be too big and a hope for the people of Chester, but I can't do what she does. I mean, I can quite easily. In fact, but every day hour after hour of creating the king needs you to identify an artifact creating a new adventure and needs this curse lifted creating help this person. This one needs a spell. This building needs mending day in and day out. I'm tired of it. Luna's expression that was kind of, you know, business friendly. It's often still one of like understanding, like I can understand that. Is there anything you want me to take back as a message then for her? You can tell her that I'd like to start living for me. May I ask what you moved to doing then? If you're not if you're not pursuing divination. Making tea. Would you like some? Sure. I've been growing my own herbs here. Come in, come in. And he leads you in and it's quite little place there. There's a bookshelf on the side with various different types of books. Scorpio walks in with an impressive whistle, you know, like he's like, oh, this place is right. Spiffy. And he hands you. You can see that there is a pot kind of over a fire with various different ingredients on a shelf that has been, you know, mixed up, mixed and all this stuff. They're like pots and bottles on a table kind of just messy about. But the rest of the place looks clean and pristine. So does this seem like potion brewing? Does it seem like alchemy? No, this is looks like it's not any sort of alchemy or anything. This is just tea. Oh, this is delightful. Yeah. One of the royal family had me brew up something for them because they were having a bad day. They had to give some sort of speech and I thought, what's fun? I want to keep doing that. And he looks down to his own cup. He hands you both you and Scorpio one. Thank you. It's a special blend. I'm working on. She'll try it. You taste it. And it's a little on the, it's a little on the dull side. It tastes like it's missing something. It is sweet and nice and tasty, but it's missing something, some kind of tang. Can I ask what you blended with this? Well, just because I enjoy it. I'm enjoying it. I mean, what did you blend? What is the blend? Oh, various herbs and something I got from a funny looking goblin. Found him in the market the other day. What was this goblin's name? Oh, I didn't quite catch it. He was a funny little fella. I think I may know who this goblin is. I might have run into him before and definitely just proper. Oh, if you have, could you tell him to find more of those herbs? They're a right good ingredient. I think I can. Where in the market did you see him? Was he just wandering around to see if I stole? He's got a soul and he just gives you the general directions. You know where to find this goblin now. Wonderful. Wonderful. That's going to be shenanigans later. I want to, I'm so sorry to ask. I know that you know I understand no longer wishing to work a job that you find dull. But I'm trying to get something looked at professionally. And Annabelle is doing it now, but should she not be able to? Would there be anything I'd be able to pay you to maybe have a second to look? He just looks down at his cup and his shoulder slump a bit. You can, it's perfectly fine to say no to me. I'm not asking, I know this is not your business. This is more someone reaching out for help myself than asking you to identify something meaningless that I found in a treasure trove. This is something very personal to me. Perhaps at a different time I would have taken you up on that offer. But I already swore off I want to start doing things for myself. Well, if you ever do decide to sell this tea blend I do I do reconchess the city quite a bit. I'd love to get some. What's one finger to his chin? That is a thought. You probably open a fairly impressive tea stall. But I do need to fix this blend up first. It's not quite there. It needs something bright. Takes out a notepad out of his jacket and writes it down. Something acidic. Some sort of acid. Orange or citrus maybe. Citrus fruit. Ask the market for lemons. Well, I don't want to take up any more of your time. I'm sorry that we came to you under these circumstances. I do hope the next time I see you can be a bit less of a quarter of there. Miss? Yes? I want to thank you for not insisting. So many people nowadays telling me what I should be. It's nice to find someone who accepts me. I... Everyone deserves to follow what their own passion is. Never do you should be stuck doing something they don't want to do. Your choices are your own and you make who you are. You can see he has a big grin. From ear to ear, barring of bright smile. We won't take up any more of your time. Thank you for the tea. It was lovely. Of course. Be sure to make sure that Sage Annabelle hears your message loud and clear. He just has a softer smile though. Thank you. I hope to see you again. He leads you out the door. And Scorpio looks at you. Wow. I really thought you were going to, I don't know, push them into submission or something. I think when you mentioned before that you didn't know how much longer you could be hunting, it made me do a bit of thinking myself. I'm not really sure how much longer I can keep doing this either. He takes her hand. Whatever it is you end up doing. I'll be there with you. I'm not sure. I'm glad you'll be there. Someone's going to have to catch you when you stumble. And save you from wargs probably. Oh, that again. We're back to the wizard tower to Sage Annabelle. And as you walk in, you can see that the entire room from the organization of it has gone to a mess. There's papers strewn about the place, books on the floor. And you just hear rustling and rumbling and just like shouting, oh no, you get back here. You see just like sliding across the room. You see Sage Annabelle holding on to your sword as it just like drags her around the room. Hi there, I'm a little bit busy just trying to divine the sword. I'd like to help grab it. Yep, you can give actually at your presence as you move closer to the sword, it stops. And she just like flumps to the floor with it. I don't know what you did to get this thing. But it has given me so much trouble. I could tell you the story but it's long and complicated. I would just like to know were you able to convince my student. No, your student made it very clear that they no longer want to devote their life to this and that they want to live for themselves and they have every right to. So pay whatever price I need to to have the sword looked at without. Give me a charisma check real quick. Oh, that's going to be wonderful. Oh. You present this philosophy that Creighton had to her and you can see that she squints her eyes and stops that kind of little. Does he have any idea how much he could. I think he does. He just doesn't care if he's not happy. She lowers her shoulders a bit. Isn't everybody entitled to that? He lowers her shoulders and stops mid-sentence and just looks off into the distance. You're right. He's been in this tower far too long. Here's your sword. That'll be five gold pieces. Now what I did learn is that whatever is divine in this thing is part of a hole and that hole includes you. There is something akin to the Raven Queen attached to this sword and the source of it is not in itself, but it's user. That makes sense. Makes a lot of sense actually. And I was able to divine that should the user be completely separated, i.e. death, this sword is no more than a regular sword. So if I were to die, this is just a sword again. Exactly. I don't suppose you've managed to find anything that was akin to a spirit inside of it? Not a no soul, no further enchantments. That's fine. Whatever it is that you've got, darlin', you'll just have to go find a proper priestess. No, I'll have to wait. Thank you. Of course. If you ever want to come here for any services that don't involve a flyin' angry sword, I'll gladly sell you some of my wares. Thank you. And I am sorry. All of this acting up with this blade is new. So I'm sorry about that next time. If I ever need anything looked at, I won't leave. Well, if you'll excuse me, I've got a lot of Menden to do. Right, right. And I want to just... I actually walked away. I just want to leave like an extra gold on her desk. Like, I'm sorry. I apologize. And then I will head to the... I believe the order of the gear is where Enoch is. At the Church of Herathas. Yep. You are able to find where that is. And that is going to lead us to Enoch. Enoch, your design, this thing, is from the outside and the untrained eye finished. Complete. It looks like it could function, but you know something's broken with it. Something's off and Alter has messed with it. He has sabotaged your design. Serene, can I get a moment alone? Of course, Enoch. And she puts her gloves back on and heads outside. And I begin to look around for something flat. A piece of metal, like small and circular, almost coin-like. Yeah, you can probably find a sheet pretty easily. And I take this stamp and I stamp it on one side. Ah. And I tuck this metallic piece of coin under my thumb and finger. And I draw out objection. Okay. Alter. What is it? Oh, you look me in the eye. And I'm staring across the table, almost like trying to project him across. You see his visage there, staring you back. We've often talked about the ground rules of what happens around here. But I need to make something absolutely and dangerously clear. I tuck the coin in further. Do you know the difference between a king and a horse? And I'm not talking about the understandable things. Like one's an animal or one's a man. Spit it out. It's based off of instinct. One makes decisive action and the other leads the other into battle. Where do you think you stand? Are you a horse or are you a king? I guess you'll find out soon enough. And his visage disappears. Nope. Nope. I force him there. All right. Give me a wisdom check. He needs to stay. We're having this talk. Yep. You keep them there. No. I'm done talking to you. No, because I'm not done talking to you. My instinct tells me to do what is right. What is necessary. Your instinct tells you to survive. That is what an animal does. You are a horse. I am the king around here and I will prove that point. And I draw objection towards my forehead. Oh, shit. You can see a slight smile across his across his face. Just like your mother. And by the time this coin drops to the floor, that decision better be made. And I flip the coin into the air. Pause the coin. I'm going to need you to roll into intimidation. Could I do that with advantage, please? Sorry, but no. With a nine, you flip up the coin. It falls to the ground and you can see Alter's face flash a moment. It's now a face you don't recognize. It's not you. It's someone else. There he is. And the coin dings on the floor and he mouths the word do it. As the door creaks open, Luna steps in. You see, Enoch, that he's made what looks like a rifle. I'm a bit busy. Don't care. We've been summoned by a banana friend. Oh, a good time. Is Scorpius still with me? Yep, he is. Cool. And he just looks good. God, so what is that? And he just eyeballs the weapon that you have now crafted, Enoch. Oh, I thought you were pointing towards the machine in the back. I mean, never mind. It's just missing one piece and I can't go anywhere until this is done. Well, we have to go now. You can come back and finish this. This is important. It's part of the job. Please. He pulls out the sending stone and puts it on the table. Just give me one more attempt. We don't have that time. You know, we have to go. It's just one piece. Is it going to take more than five seconds? I sure as hell hope not. Okay, Enoch, what are you? What are you trying to do? I am going to try and maneuver whatever this last piece, whatever it is that has been sabotaged and fix it. Okay. I'm going to require a sleight of hand DC 23. Oh, God, Aaron, please. All right. Against all odds, you complete your invention. Congratulations. You've made your rifle. Oh, God. You may add the gavel into your inventory. You thumb in a small, tiny piece, the coin that you had, and you hear a click and it's fixed. And he pulls it up and he takes it over to the stamp and he puts the maker's mark on the side plate before closing it up and looking at his event, his two new inventions, by the way, because one is strictly artificial. You just build that. Right. Oh, by the way, I have a friend. I want y'all to meet. You could introduce us some other time. We do not have time, Enoch. Come on. Let's go. Move your ass and I'm going to start pushing him. I whistle towards my robot and have him come with me. All right. You made a little robot? Yeah. He looks like a corgi with wings. That's adorable. No, I'm pushing. I'm still pushing him. Okay. Luna, you bring Enoch and finally the party is back together at the entrance of the abandoned Warforged factory. Cool. That took you a few moments longer than I expected. I'm sorry. This one was dragging his feet. Oh, okay. On the way there. What the hell? Listen, it's a big, big, big, big story and there's a lot of things and a lot of pieces, but I would love to hear later because we're in a little bit of an emergency right now and nothing a fun, happy, go lucky kind of way. So it's a good thing I brought an extra sword then. Okay. Yes, it is. Very good. You brought your extra sword. By the way, I want you all to meet Kuro and I'd point towards my mechanical dog. Enoch, can we do this later, please? Actually, now is a good time. This is an important thing. What is this dog? He's my mechanical servant. I made it. This is Kuro. Say hi, Kuro. Yes. Yep. The mechanical dog just waves. It's a little paw. Well, I suppose that was important. No. What's going on? What happened? Let me explain. So there was a bit of a problem earlier today. Scorpio, you remember that wonderful lady that we met earlier who was trying to steal supplies? Oh, the scalper. It's a protector. Yes. The Janasi lady. Protectors. Yes. We're running to her again. Yes. That's not the end of the story. That's a short part of it. Listen, they are planning something and we don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's going to happen soon and it's not going to involve part of their plan because fortunately we found that beforehand. But when I tried to start negotiating with her, she just said, fuck it, I'm going to do my shit anyway. So we're in a bit of a pickle because we don't know where we are or what they're planning. Okay. The only thing you need to tell me, do I actually get to fight these people this time? That depends on what we find when we find them. We don't know what their plan is. That's the problem. We're trying to find them. In a perfect world, we would be able to talk to them. Well, I do think that's going to do to that. Now you've said you ran into them earlier, so... We can try one more time. Time is the charm. I think that they would like to hear what we have to say. However, unfortunately right now... I'm predigitating a red cross on both sides of Kuro, by the way. Right. For now? For now, I believe that they are going to be here in this warehouse. Underneath us, there is a warehouse construction silo that they have been trying to renovate in order to create their own wall forged. Although for what purpose I do not understand, it cannot be good to have your own personal army. At least not for that one too. So hopefully we'll be able to stop them from whatever they're planning here, but we don't... I'm honestly sort of worried. I don't even know if they're going to come here. That is another issue. We don't know exactly where she is going to strike. She said that she was going to push forward with her plan. How immediately do we need this information because I might know someone. And yes, so I'm invoking my... I might know a guy. She's very soon considering that she seemed very pissed when she responded to me. Well, I... Me and Scorpio have dabbled away in the cedar places in the city a few times, and I have someone that I talked to for information. My not-be-cheap whispers are hard to bite, but having two people as persuasive as yourselves might be able to get the price lowered a bit. Scorpio steps up. Is this the entrance to the factory? Yes. Well, perhaps we could divide and conquer. You could go out there. I could stake out this place. Make sure nobody makes it in without getting through me first. Insight this man. Yeah, go ahead. Where's my fucking character sheet? Give me that fucking thing. Go to character sheet. Go to find her and say... Where's the thing? Give me the thing! Insight this man. We only rolled 20s in this house. Yeah? You rolled that one. You can tell he's just as concerned about this as you, and he... he can't... He doesn't really understand the extent, but he understands the urgency of it. And he's trying his best to lend his own abilities to help you out in whatever way that he feels that he can. Very well. In that case, you can remain here and defend the place. Is there anyone else that you would like to keep with you? He just eyeballs the robocorgie a bit, but trying not to look like he's looking at it. Come on, you can pet him. You can pet him, man. He won't bite. Very much. Could I... I just... You know, we'd like to just... He... Just... Someone to keep me company, you know? I'll make sure there's not a scratch on him. I'll protect him with my life. He's taking very good care of the rock so far, so... You... You can take care of a rock. You... I just made this. Look at him. He holds up both his hands. Inspired. If it's too much, no worries. I can hold up off a bunch of bandits on my own. I... Can't just rush me out of a workshop in order to go to a meeting. Jesus Christ. Hold on. I might know somebody to holding up the sending stone. They said they might have some benefit to help us with the protectors. They came and talked to me earlier today, and I was just like, All right, I'll talk to you later. They said they would help you with the protectors? Fantastic. They would help me with the protector problem as well as various other things. Listen, I'm sure we... Well, good. Maybe they could help me guard this place. Fantastic. We should call them immediately. Yes, because I'd rather not leave you here alone. You're perfectly capable, and I know that. But I also know these people are incredibly underhanded, and I'd rather you not be used to keep us from kicking their ass. Very well. I'll be sure to save some for you as well. No. I just need to make sure you're safe, all right? All right. Stay with them. I'm gonna invoke divine intervention and say, No, no more splitting the party. No more splitting party. And Luna just squints at you like, No, you're not. Absolutely not. I'll stay with him. All three other characters. No. No. Absolutely not. You are not. You are not infecting him. If you're the only one who knows who... If you're the only one who knows who this guy is, then maybe we're going to have to all meet him together. Allies, we are wasting time, but before we go, I need to give you one of these, and I'm gonna reach into my pocket, and I'm gonna pull out the Warforged souls. Oh. Yeah, I forgot to grab this. What the fuck did you get those? We literally just told you we were in the Warforged area. These are essential to making them. Long story short. These are the souls of Warforged. They are essential to operating the machines down there. And I am certain the protectors will want them back. I am going to keep one. Renee, and we'll have another. Luna. Take it gladly. Take the third. Guard these things with your life, because the protectors will take yours before they take it. Oh, no. I'll take this before they even begin to take mine, and I'll put it in my bag. I can only imagine one place to be extremely unreachable, and I take off my hat, and I put it there, and I put my hat back on. He did not give Enoch one. You didn't give Enoch one. I did not give Enoch one. I thought you said Enoch. You take the other. No. Renee and Luna. No. But I will turn to Enoch, and I will say, and Enoch, for you. I believe I have information regarding your mother's death. He puts his hand up in front of Nathaniel. I've already committed myself to the idea of letting her die with her secrets, okay? Well, then I suppose that my afternoon has been for nothing. Truly a waste of time. But what have you committed yourself to about your father? There's a blank stare. Samuel? Right. I'm not certain, but I think I know. Well, if you're not very interested in hearing it, then I'm going to turn to Luna and call over. All right. I'm going to say you guys head off in that direction, and we're going to call the session there. All right. Okay. For now. Party's back together, guys. It's fine. Finally. We did it.