 You guys, uh, arrive in the humble town of Versailly, south of the Verden Hills, a place of visits rather than long stays. Hacking away at the precious gems of its rocky terrain on our mineral farmers, bringing in the day's bounty of re-growing rocks and oars, courtesy of the Life Tree. The melodies of distant hammers are accompanied by the backing of rumbling carts returning to deposit their newfound potential wealth to the larger Prophets to the West. While those who know how to survive outside of a major city make their pay providing to those travelers who cannot. And I am going to bring you into the town map because I have one that I made myself. Here you are. You will find yourselves in the top right with your new cart. It's so cute and tiny. Yes, it is a very small town, very tight-knit. The population is very small, and you can see that any larger amount of people that are here probably are not locals. And also, for the chat, a fun little update. We now have a cart sheet. Look at it. This is the cart, as provided by... Another overly sexy NPC, courtesy of Joe Kent. Oh, we're working on this one. Look at those curds. The cart, as provided by Lord Tiero, Nicholas Tiero of Trevisetta to assist the pilgrims in their journey. And we got our two horses. Yeah, you got your two horses. Butterscotch and efficiency. Butterscotch and efficiency. Is this a hamlet? In some ways, yes. I guess you could call it that. Does it have a church? Not that you can tell. Give me a perception check, actually. Secret underground church. Alright, let's...perception. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Did it work? Looking around, you can see that there is no designated prayer area at all. Maybe people practice privately within their homes if there is any religious practice here at all. But no designated building specifically for it, from what you can tell. I'm glad we stopped into Satya instead of this place. There's nothing here. I'm curious about that well though. I want to go back. Here we come. You guys can explore exactly whatever it is you want. I think... Joe, did we get the name of Koryak? Was the name of the guy who wanted us to give it to his family? Yeah, we should ask around about it. Yeah, you did not get a name, actually. I think I'll just... I'm going to head bring the horses over to the tavern and maybe see if I can find us a place to stay if that's necessary. And I'll maybe ask around if you guys want to come with me or go look around. We'll just find...we can meet back up if you want. Did you know that that is one of the 48 wells in all of Alinti? What? That seems highly unlikely. Should we go in too? Based on what? What have you estimated it based on? I have a friend who's really passionate about wells they've been counting for a while. Fritz had a question. I'm not sure if you should go in twos. I mean, we can all go together. We don't have to split up. I don't know if there's anything anyone wants to take care of. I have the carving on me. Yes, Koryak did not provide us the name of his relatives, but in a town this small I imagine it will not be difficult to locate them. Yeah, the information you would know is he wanted to give it to his little brother and meet with his mom and dad. Yes. I just figured it might be easier to start with the tavern since we might have to stop there anyway. And I don't want to just knock on everyone's doors until they...that seems like a waste of energy. The tavern seems like a good place to start. They do have a tavern. You can see that there's one right here. It has a little sign with a little bedding. It is the largest building. It has multiple windows. You can guess that it's probably the tavern. Yeah, let's go to the tavern. Yeah, let's go to the tavern. It's 8 AM on a Tuesday. Let's get crunk. And you bind up the horses and park the cart by some stables by the tavern as well. As you walk inside, you can see there's very few people. You can see that there is a very tall, tiefling man. Very lanky, dressed in some expensive yet dirty looking robes. But with well-kempt, medium-length hair, a broken horn and a jeweled neckpiece. And as he sees you walk in, he gives a cordial bow to greet you and speaks with a very soft, airy voice. Ah, greetings, traveler. I am Isaac, a mayor of Viscerli. Welcome to our humble little town. What brings you so far off the main road? Here you may see the portrait of him. Hey! Ooh! Oh! Interesting. Are both my lord? Guys, he looks fine. I didn't say anything. He's fine. I'm just breathing heavily. That's all. It's a pleasure to meet you, almighty mayor. Oh, mighty. Why, thank you. We're looking for, I think, a grandma. Is that right? He looks over the buck. No, no, no. We're looking for the family of Koryak, the dragonborn. We battled him briefly in Sacha, in a friendly way, of course. And he requested that we transmit something to his loved ones out in this region. Oh, a dragonborn? Well, there is one dragonborn resident. Her name is Peria, and she's the town's local tinkerer. She keeps things up and running and helps out any traveling mineral farmers coming to and from Pelutrios. Excellent. Is there a chance, I don't know how long we're going to be here, but could we maybe put some rooms on lay-away in case that becomes necessary? I mean, I guess we didn't discuss. I'll look around at my computers. I know we didn't discuss staying here for nothing. Oh, of course. We have plenty of rooms open, as there's always need of people staying here overnight sometimes. We have very few residents who stay here much longer than a few nights, so we have recently expanded our inn. So there's definitely going to be room for you. Question, Dianne. I don't know if I'm misremembering, but wasn't one of his family members a painter? I have notes about this, actually. He wanted us to commission a painting of his mom and brother to, I think, bring back to him. No, not anyone specifically. He just was like, hey, can you get someone to paint a portrait and send it back? Yeah. We have plenty of people coming from Pelutrios, and that place is full of the arts. I'm sure you could find somebody nearby. Asking around, they might actually be hacking away at some of the minerals. It makes for a very beautiful pigment sometimes. Intriguing. So do you run the town and also this tavern, or is you just filling in for somebody? In a sense, I am designated mayor, but honestly, this place, it's more like a family. We don't often trade coin with each other, only with those who come outside and have need to trade things with us, really. Oftentimes, I try to provide what I can for the locals, and they do the same for me. We take care of each other. Yeah, good, good. Well, we're gonna just go... Thank you for your assistance. Thank you for your assistance, or see you again. He gives a smile and a little bow. You okay, Buck? Yeah. No, yeah, I'm just... No, no, no, sorry. You just... Very golden eyes, I just happen to notice. Layra, do you notice the surprising amount of metal people walking around here? Um, had I noticed that? You do see a few warforged around, specifically ones working at the kind of ore deposits and crystal deposits that you see kind of further south at the town. They do seem as though they are self-aware. They talk and chat and take breaks every now and then. Your guess is they, just as the mayor said, are probably from Politrios as well, which, if you remember from the previous session, has a large warforged population. Right, and that's also the place with all the artists that we want to talk to, so... Well, perhaps we can impose upon one of them to acquire the portrait that Koriak requested. Can I imagine that's possible? This is just an interesting town, I feel like there's something a-lending here. Also, slight retcon, the mayor would have given you directions to the Tinkerer's house, which would have been over here. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The one with the turd organs. The one with the little anvil on it, and the... Yes, good. The wind director thingy. They know science. Weather vane? Weather, yeah, sure. The vany weather. Okay. We're going to walk past the well, where did you want to look at the well when we walked past it? I am going to look in this well. You're going to look in that well. How are you looking in that well? What are you looking for? All the gold coins that everyone puts in there. Long way down, friend. I can climb. A perception for me. I'm begging you, please don't jump into the well. Oh, I'm sure we can retrieve him. We do, we'll get there. You squint your eyes and peer down into the well. You do see something glistening at the bottom. It seems as though... Like water, perhaps? It seems as though... Not just a liquid glisten. It's very distinct. Perhaps something of value down there. That's fascinating. You can also tell that it is a 40-foot way down. Okay. I gave you my coat. What am I holding? My fancy coat. Not even a rope? We have a rope. We have a rope, yeah. There was a rope in the toilet. Okay, I do have a rope. Okay. All right, buck, hold this. I really think this is a bad idea. We just got here and you're going to jump into the well. Here I go. Oh, no. You jump down into the well as your voice echoes. Voice echoes throughout the stone walls around you. And you can see that a few civilians at the side are giving you a strange eye as like, what the heck are they doing? I'm standing totally apart. I'm going to make an acrobatics check to see if I do a little fancy flip. Okay. Oh my gosh. Well, one of those was a crit. One of them was a crit. I don't know why I rolled twice. Chat can't see it. Sorry. He's the first one. The roll is blocked by the level. He rolled a 19 on the first perception, a 21 on the second one. And a not 20 on the acrobatics, which went to a 26. You're going to really impress whatever fish are living in there. I will say with that mission possible thing, I would have actually asked for an acrobatics, but with that acrobatics, actually, I would say that you make it kind of down to the very bottom where you find the ground water without hurting yourself. Luckily. All right. And you can see that at the bottom, there are a few coins sitting. Has have been tossed in probably for wishes, probably by mistake. Okay. Yeah. I cast press the digitation to do like a little like chime music just that congratulates me for performing that way. And then I'll grab a couple of coins. Okay. You're going to grab a couple of coins. Make me a wisdom save. Yes. Yes. I'll save and throw. Oh wow. 19. I can't be stopped. How is your wisdom so good? Boss, boss, boss, boss. You just jumped out of well. I know how to tell people what to do. You reach out at the coins. You grab them up and as soon as your hand touches one, you hear a voice kind of echoing in your mind. Oh Lord. Oh, now that's very interesting. And that's all you hear before you have collected about 15 gold pieces worth of coins. It's very interestingly worth it. Buck, pull me out of here right now, please. I'm assuming I can hear him. Yeah. I start making it down like twice. All right. All right. I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it. I scramble up like a blue belly lizard. Okay. You make it up before the end of the rope. I didn't have to hold the rope at all. It was a security. I take my coat back. Oh, yeah. Justin, just a routine well inspection, everybody. Just don't mind us. Did you have fun? There's definitely no ghosts down there. Well, that's good to confirm. Word, when you reach for the coat from Fritz, Fritz, you see that his hand, his little claw, for a brief moment flashes as if it were made of gold. As if the entirety of his scales had shimmered in the sun for a brief moment. I got the mightiest touch. Give me my coat, please. Sure. Sorry. It's just a bit dazzled there for a second. I am pretty ornate. All right. I'm going to look for the person we actually came here to find. Good luck to whatever situation we're just got himself into. So yeah, you can follow the directions down to the Tinker's house. And you can see kind of hammering away at a few things. You can see that there is a dragonborn there. A white dragonborn who bears a striking resemblance to Koriak. You can see that they've got white scales with red tipped horns and a red tipped nose kind of spike as well, just like Koriak. I'm excited. I'm excited. I imagine I'm doing my little hops in my place. I'm about to deliver something. Finally, it's been so long. Is it Visily? I think Visily is the name of the town. I don't think we got the name of the person. You didn't get the name? No. My bad. Would you be related to...? And you can see the dragonborn turn to you. And she's... Feeling her character portrait. Yes! She speaks up. And she says, Koriak. Pully dragonborn, red tipped pointies like mine. Yes. Quite similar, yes. Oh. Hmm. And why would he be interested in a dragonborn such as I? Oh boy. He has a delivery for you. Was it for the... Yes. Okay. Stab a check. For me? Yeah, from none. You would happen to be related to him, correct? Yes, we just established that. I guess in some ways, yes. Hey, could you sign down on this piece of paper and I have a piece of delivery for you? Very well. And she kind of takes a quill and signs the sheet of paper that the delivery has been made. May I inquire the nature of your relationship to him? He said he had family here, but was not particularly specific. Yes. He would. Well, I guess he used to call me his brother at some point. Um, period. It's nice to finally be in contact. Huh, yes. I'm just a bit taken aback as all. It's just I've not heard from him and God knows how long. He left home last decade to try and become a pilgrim and after waiting and waiting for him to come, he never returned. He never wrote, he never sent word. He never even replied to any of the males, ma and pa and I sent him. Well, he has been working quite hard in an attempt to become a pilgrim. As to the rest of it, I'm afraid I can't speak to it. I doubt that would have affected anything in the previous decade. Regardless, he did express a desire to acquire a portrait he specified of his mother and brother to bring back. I assume you are going to be, you are intended to be the subject of that as well. Oh, and she just kind of looks at the little figure that you gave her. Well, the thing is, everything's so different now. Everything's kind of moved on without him. Yes. I've transitioned. I've got a new job. Mum and dad have decided to retire and travel and all those friends who used to live here. I don't even know where they went. It's just, everything's changed. I don't even know, think I know him anymore. And I don't really resent him for any of it really. Things happen and I'd want to presume what troubles he's been through. I just, he's not really in my life anymore, you know? And now he sends me something that really tells me that he doesn't know me anymore. What do I do with that? Somebody else take a tag in, tag in! I don't have anything to do with this. Well, this car was when I was a child and he referred to me as his brother. And I guess in some ways I was at one point. So he isn't aware that you are now his sister. I see the difficulty. I presume not. He also is probably not aware that mum and dad are not here anymore. No, he seemed rather confident that we could find them here. Well, I mean, and I don't mean to be presumptuous here, but at least it seems like, although perhaps he's going about it a little bit too late, he is trying to make some sort of effort to retain contact. I mean, this tells us that in some way he's thinking about you. She just kind of scratches her head a little bit, but should I? I don't know. I've just sort of moved on without him. I suppose it's entirely your own decision. But if you do have something that you'd like us to convey back to him, we can certainly do that. She takes a seat down on her anvil and puts down what she was tinkering with, and she just looks to you all, you're the pilgrims, aren't you? Yes. That'd be us. So he's going to spend another 10 years over in that island then? Yeah, probably, but that does seem to be kind of how he's chosen to live his life in presuming a similar vein to yourself. I mean, did you ever, you said you tried to keep in contact with him? I, but I presumed he was too busy, but 10 years. But it's not right now. Clearly they're doing a bad job. Well, perhaps you can take it all, take it up with the Lord of Politrios. I'm sure he'd be happy to fix up their mailing system. They're always working on something new. But what do you, I don't know, what would you do, pilgrims? Family, that's not family anymore. I mean, what do you call that? Someone who just doesn't return your messages or maybe miss them and it's just kind of out of your life now. Well, if they're not asking anything from you, I'd say they're their own people now. I mean, what family is changes over time. You know, you're able to make your own family and I trust that he's got his own. So it is a bit confusing that now he's trying to contact you. I mean, maybe he feels alone. I wouldn't know. It's possible that his loss to us in the qualification round caused him to reevaluate certain priorities, but I obviously can't speak to that with certainty. I wouldn't say that a cry for help at this point, you know, 10 years later is very appropriate. Well, look, I mean, it makes perfect sense to me that someone would want to go out and forge their own path. But at the end of the day, things, I think you can get so far removed so into yourself that you kind of forget, you know, the reason that you left some of the things behind and so much time can kind of recontextualize what at least was important. And however small it may be, this might be a step he's taken after realizing that maybe being a pilgrim isn't in the cards and I'm sure he's trying to reach back to make good with someone that he lost touch with. You know, I think my honest opinion would be that clearly you're a different person than you were back then. And I'd imagine he is too. And if he's trying to meet you on a new level as a new person, then the least you can do for him is meet him there and just see where it goes. She smiles a little bit at that. Well, he's all but a stranger now to me, but it seems as though you seem to know a little bit about this reconnecting business. I just have estimates, I have guesses. I'll take your word for it pilgrims. After all, you did come all this way at his behest. She kind of holds the figure close to her chest and pockets it. Thank you. Perhaps I will. Didn't you want like a painting or something? I think a painting at this point probably wouldn't do justice to the communicate. I mean, maybe if you're not willing to go and see him because it appears you're busy, Fritz here could deliver a letter or something. And I am a fantastic artist. I want to add actually, I think this would be a really good opportunity to introduce yourself. I mean, hey, what big brother doesn't want our little sister to do on? I know. I'm so happy to find out I have a sister. Yes, I believe as I understand it, it is in the nature of relationships to change over time and though contact can be lost, it can also be. Yes, of course. And though contact can be lost, it can also be re-established. Neither of you are the same as you will remember each other, but I suppose lacking the intervening ten years of context, it could be an exciting rediscovery. And memories suck anyway. Yes, I suppose that is also a fact. Mind does fail me sometimes. You can be my little sister. Excuse me? Well, I appreciate the offer. What exactly is this Koriak do now? Last I heard he was doing in the mercenary business. He's been helping out in the fields. Yeah, he and I kind of worked together for a week. Is that a common thing in your field of work? What? Are you asking me? Yeah, I'm asking fuck. About what? Working in the fields? Like in your literal field of work. Is everyone there just like mercenaries? Were you making a pun? I don't really understand you. I realized I made a pun and then I built off it, but the question still stands. Is everyone out there just really proficient with throwing knives and stuff? Look, no. Did I ask the wrong person? The farmers are deadly. Genuinely. I have and I recognize, and I'm sure the three of you recognize that I have a set of skills that is helpful in fighting others, but there's good honest work to be made in every town and that just happened to be where I have fallen and where Koriak has fallen, where perhaps maybe what we would have aspired to didn't really work out and so we work in the field. It's good honest work that keeps you honest and you can make a living that way and that's what Koriak was doing at least to my knowledge. We're talking about so much. My best friend Koriak. That was really nice. Well, if he is doing farm work, as you say, then I guess there is more that I need to learn of him as well. Hmm. All right. Pilgrims. He said he wanted to play a portrait. I do have one that illustrates my blueprints. I will have them perhaps tomorrow if you'll still be around for that. Yes, I believe we can arrange that. Yeah. Very well then. You're a winner. Thank you for helping me reconnect. The hard work has yet to come. Best of luck. Well, if there's anything else, I do provide services. I saw that you came in on that cart over there. You can fix it up if you like, and you can see that there are services that she can provide. Cart reinforcement, crystal enhancement, lantern of true sight, and things, just materials she sells as well, including viscerally crystals, and gravitan wrenches. Lantern of true sight would be so cool. How much money do we all have? I have like 163 gold. Oh my god, what a mouth. I don't spend it on things. I think I might have given all my money to someone else. I don't know what you're talking about. I think you gave some to Buck. I have some. I have 143 written down on my paper. Okay, all right. We're like halfway there. How am I poor? We can get the crystal enhancement. I have a broken establishment word. Oh yeah. She sees you guys fiddling with your coin. Well, if you can't afford it, then perhaps I can give you a discount for a task for a task. Favor for a favor. Oh, what sort of favor? Well, our local protection, as it were. Man by the name of grumble. That's just what we call them. We don't know his actual name. Has been having trouble with keeping the patrol around the town, keeping it protected. We have our own private means of protecting ourselves with an invention he made, actually, a bunch of sentries made from the crystals we mine here. But he's been losing some, and if it eats in too much, we'll have to eat into our reserves for more protection. But I don't know the details of it. If you want, you can talk with him. Maybe do us a little bit of a favor. We could possibly give you a discount on the lodging as well. Well, we're going to be here anyway. So, I mean, where can we find this grumble? She just kind of looks over the corner of her house and points over to a fear-bulk man, kind of short burly with a massive beard that's very unkempt. And he seems to be exchanging very few words to a lizard folk who is talking his ear off and he's just kind of grumping. So, we're supposed to talk to this man. Yeah, he gets his point across, trust me. Very well. And thank you again. Of course. We'll see you tomorrow. Yes. Shall we ski-daddle? And you walk on over to the fear-bulk man, named Grumble. So, you walk on over to a fear-bulk man. He's very burly, unkempt facial hair, as described. Scars and bruises all across his arms and a massive shovel in his hand and two kind of just rocks of crystals at his flanks. And next to him is a very ornate-looking lizard folk woman who is just just talking his ear off and you just hear a lot of unkind words his way, we'll say. Before she storms off and seems to go pester somebody else and you see the man known as Grumble. I think he's planning to have a perfect portrait. No visible facial features. Just how I like him. It's the dad from Cladi with the chance of meatballs. It's also the dad from... Oh God, what was that? It's got the fish boys in it. You know the one. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, that one. Siletzio Bruno. Yeah, Luca. Yeah, Luca. Thank you. Yes, that's the one. Specific genre of dad. He sees you approach and just gives a simple gruff. A pleasure to meet you, sir. We're going to need to use real words at some point, everybody. Oh, sorry. I think we had a question for you, my friend. Question? Yes, we were directed your way. We were informed that perhaps you were in need of some assistance with some crystal automatons that were going missing. Centuries patrol the area. Webouts. Round the place. Most of the time, Peria fixes them up again if they get smashed. But some of them smash too good. Too regularly. Don't know why. Running out of disposable crystals. Too busy fixing things myself to divide my time. Got some... So they're being damaged by something. Not just damaged. Destroyed. I see. Not uncommon. Works out there. Blot sometimes. But these, too destroyed. Do you know where they are most commonly being so thoroughly devastated? He marks down a kind of route that he sends them on patrol around your map. And he just like whistles. And you can see the crystal rocks. They're kind of like boulders at his side. Just start to roll down the route. Not hover. Roll. Leaving behind a little trail and bumps and kind of occasionally bumping into each other. Loose track. Follow them. Thank you. I suppose we shall do that. Get this done. I'll give you some special. Actually get it fixed. Give you some extra special. I can't wait. Alright, shall we follow those rocks? Yeah. Okay. And this will be I like this town. A skill challenge. The investigation of the crystal sentries. Oh boy. And if everyone could select their token and give me an initiative real quick. Oh boy. Okay. I'm getting the hang of this. Remembering the buttons. Yeah. Did mine roll? No. Here is my initiative hiding. Here we go. Oh. Right. That's where it's hiding. Wonderful. What a great initiative. Okay. It's good to have a wide spread. We're covering our bases. But yes, you begin your investigation of the mysterious bashings of the crystal sentries that protect viscerally. You know the path, so you can use that information to your advantage. You know that it keeps getting destroyed in generally a similar area every single time. Kind of halfway through the patrol route at the furthest part of the town. But that's all you got. Buck. How do you wish to... Also, with five successes, you will find enough clues not to know exactly what happened, but enough clues that you could possibly maybe piece them together and find out maybe the path of what has happened. But with three failures, you will perhaps be left with less information. You won't... It is going to be... So success, I'm going to give you information. Failure, I'm not going to give you information, basically. Got it. Can I... I want to use investigation, even though I'm not very good at it, but I would like to maybe use one of the uses, or maybe even all of the uses, of my magic awareness feet for being a wild path. Ah, magic awareness, may I see it? Yeah, let me see if I can... So that I may be reminded of the details. That's magic awareness. You know the location of any spells or magic items within 60 feet of you that isn't behind total cover. When you set the spell, you learn the school of magic it belongs to, you can use this feature. Okay, you know that there's actually around here, including the shovel that Grumble has, seems to be magical. There is a wand on the... the lizard folk lady. Just look... This is what you would glean from walking around the town as I presume you're doing. Well, yeah, so I think how it works is it kind of just sends out like a pulse, like a radar. Like I don't... It's not like constantly active. So what I was going to do is get into... Go to a place where like, maybe if there's something weird I can... While I'm investigating, I can maybe use some pulses of that. I have three per long rest to try and maybe glean a little bit information. I'm sorry. Is the first part of this challenge just following those rocks? Or is that part chill? That part's chill. That's just information. Okay. He's like giving you... He's showing where the rocks go so you know the route. I see. Oh, I thought we were going... You're saying that we can investigate around the town? Yeah, any way you so wish to find clues. Just the information that you have is that the route of which the rocks take on their patrol and where they have been banishing. I see, okay. I would say... I wanted to know where they've been getting wrecked. I suggest... They seem to be getting wrecked about three-fourths of the way down... No, halfway down the route where they would be the furthest from Viserli and near the main road to Politrios. Gotcha. So basically that part of the route isn't visible on the map we're currently seeing. No. I'm assuming. Okay, cool. Just abstract theater of the mind. I would like to go to that location and then use my pulse and also just kind of generally look around. Ah, okay. So no skill check for this one because I feel like this magical awareness thing would just tell you this information. And you find... You do find a magic item, specifically a magic component. You see kind of in the area, you see almost like it's buried in the dirt. Somebody wanted to hide this thing. There's a magical component. It looks to be a small rock of amber color and encased inside of the kind of crystalline rock is a single long eyelash. And I will count that as a success because you just found the information. We found a spell component for something. That's way too specific. That feels like it's useful. Yeah. Oh, I don't know if I have enough spells. You don't have to use spells. No, it's more like there are spell components, but I don't know if I would be from... If I could make some kind of check, but my arcana is really low, so I don't know if I would be able to be like, hey, wait a minute. If I would know the spell that this highly specific component would be used for, I'm just looking through my spell for what the components are. Okay, well then Fritz, it's your turn. I would like to go down to... Just to make sure it's kind of down here-ish off to the side, right? I would like to go down here and could I use my investigation to ask if people have seen, like, it happen and to describe it if so. Would that be investigation? I wonder. I don't know if that would be investigation. I think that would be more like just a general charisma check. All right. Just talking with people. So, role charisma? Because I don't think that would be a persuasion. They'd happily give out the information. Well, they're more than happy. So I'm just kind of asking if they've seen it and if so to explain, like, what they saw and how it happened. They do know that somehow, like people talking around, you get eyewitnesses that have been saying that every time they go around- the patrol sentries, the sentry crystals go around that area that they suspiciously get essentially vaporized there is a loud banging noise, like, massively loud not as if it was done with any physical object. It must have been done with something magical. That is what everyone believes. Everyone also is gossiping and saying that they really, really don't like the lizard folk lady that's just around and has been- that's just general gossip. Oh, okay. Ooh, juicy. We don't like her. We don't like the Karen. Are there- like, how much- this is like a really little small town like in a just place with a rosy little figure. Very small. How, like, how many just animals are around have been acclimated to the presence of the town and the people. Ooh. You could probably find the odd, like, woodpecker here and there. There are quite a few birds. Not a lot of like, ground scampering because people walk around a lot and have been hitting the ground a lot. Maybe a few burrowers every now and then as there are, you know, caves and stuff. Cool. I think I'd like to range out a little bit. Basically where, like, however far I need to get from the route that the automatons take to get near something that is an animal that might have seen it and I would like to cast Speak with Animals. We can do that on your turn. Oh no, I'm so sorry. I forgot my initiative is so shit. That's okay. But Fritz, we're going to count that as a success. You learn that whatever has been breaking them has been something magical and powerfully magical that has been breaking them. Not a natural occurrence of some kind. Perhaps some foul play. Word. I'll go ahead and make an arcana check to try and figure out what that is a spell component for. All right, let's see, recall that information. Dude, I cannot. Honestly, that could be anything. It's certainly a spell component that you've seen in some houses. Can I reiterate the gossip, by the way? Did I reiterate that to them? Oh yeah, you can. You can share that information with the party. My gossip buddy. My gossip buddy. I got some juicy for you. What's going on? You see the dragon lady who's shouting earlier? People don't really like her for some reason. Is that the one that we just talked to or the one from earlier? This is the lizard lady. We didn't really talk to her. The dragon lady is good. The lizard lady is the one that nobody likes. Oh my god. Oh good. But yeah, that's going to be one failure and two successes. Three more successes. You'll get all the information, two more failures and you will be left with the information you have. No. It's orange and there's an eyelash. I think it might be fireball because you can see a fireball and you look at the world through your eyelashes. That doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about fireball to dispute it. Okay, Leira, so you wish to find some animals, yes? Yeah, yeah. I would love to do that and then I would like to cast Speak with Animals and have a little chat. That's okay. Okay. What's going about the lizard lady? Speak with animals. I'm going to make that. What are you asking specifically? Well, let's see. Speak with animals. How long is it? For the last 10 minutes, I can ask a bunch of things. Admittedly, it does depend on how smart the animals are. Mostly just like anything weird been happening out here. Notice anything. I've heard there's been a lot of scary noises. You see anything about that? Yeah, so the animals do confirm the scary noises keep happening just about every week or so they seem to happen. Every week or so. Every week or so. Not consistently a week, but on average, once a week. And they seem to coincide with very specific footfalls as well that the animals say it's always the same footsteps every single time. Footsteps? Do they sound like they... Go on. Well, I was going to ask if they sounded like they belong to a biped or a quadruped or something else. Definitely biped. Big like you, they say. All right, probably a person. Doesn't narrow it down very much, but good to know. Roughly once a week a biped wanders around out here makes a lot of noise and does something very, very loud to those automatons. Yeah. But they say whenever anyone like some of the birds fly up to see where the noise came from there's nobody there. I'm going to say that's going to be success number three. Oh, goodie. I was going to ask if any of them had an exceptionally good sense of smell, but I can do that myself. Fuck. Back to you. Um, can I... Can I get an idea of like what's going on with like these crystals? Like, I'm confused about like the crystals and the warforged like the relationship to one another. I think that might have something to do with it because they keep putting crystals in. Can I just like do some general research gathering about like the crystals? Yeah, if you want to roll me like intelligence, just a straight intelligence. Oh, yeah, sure. Because that's what I presume is research gathering. Oh my God. No, that's a save, not a check. It doesn't matter. What's your bonus? Oh, it's the bonus. It's minus one. It's minus one. Well, you know that these crystals probably can be used for some kind of magic. You can see that the the crystal sentries that are rolling around that grumble has sent out are made of the same material as the crystals from these veins and ores. Word has like the amber thing like in his mouth and I'm like licking on a crystal. We're trying to like it discern what's going on with peace. Something magical happening. The Pildons of Sachi. These crystals don't taste very good. Sure, like us. So that is going to be two failures. Organics. Fritz, your turn. So it's something magical. Um, no one is around when it happens and people really don't like that lizard for some reason. Did they give me a reason or just say they don't like them? Uh, I would say you can make me another charisma check. Actually, no charisma check needed. People don't like her. People don't like her. No charisma check needed. This is just general information. They say that she visits regularly trying to sell something. Um, but specifically to Grumble, but Grumble doesn't want to buy it. Hmm. Hmm. Do I smell a protection racket? More detail what specifically she's trying to sell. If that's okay. Yeah. Uh, when you ask him, he just gruffs. Soldiers. Soldiers. Merks. Paid out. Travis said a business woman. Don't like her. Travis said. Not Travis said it again. You're telling me the bad guy empire continues to be bad. Was that my my turn? It was not. It was not your turn. That's information that can freely be given. Just by asking. Where is she? She is over here. Uh-huh. I would lose you on over and be like, words in the book. You provide protection. Hmm. I would say this is going to be your skill challenge for your turn and that's a persuasion because she is not disinclined to talk to you. Did you say words on the book? Words on the block. I'm, I'm joking. No, I'm not. Fuck. What word in the book do you want? There's spare time. There's nobody's business, but there are. No. She simply turns up her nose, the other way. I do not fraternize with commoners. Hit her friends. No. Commoner. And that is going to be the end of the skill challenge because that is three failures. And that is the information you get from the, the information that you would glean from skill challenging stuff. Good work everybody. So does this mean that I'm actually just out and about by myself and everyone else is hanging out in the town square? More or less. Perfect. I have no idea. We failed the skill challenge. I'm still talking to the birds. Word and I are examining our rocks. Yeah. We're licking these rocks. We're trying to figure out what's going on. But yes, this is the information that you are given. So the biped, big or very big. It's very hard to glean from a squirrel where everything is big. Word, maybe we should go and find, oh Fritz, there you are. The smell. She's gross or real gross. Have you guys seen Layra? I don't know where she is. I don't know. I was just really interested in this rock. I couldn't get anything. Yeah. Let's go find Layra. Just full Disney princess. She's still shouting. Layra! Layra! Oh no. Layra! Well, all the birds are flying away now. Look, a bunch of birds. She must be over there. I'll race you to Layra. I'm tiny. That's not fair. Actually, I'm pretty fast. Wait, I can pick you up. Come on, let's go. Yes. I have the mobile feet. I rush. It's a race between the bigs and the smalls. How exciting. You know what? Am I about to be petty in this? Think about it. Don't do it. We blew the skill challenge me as well. What else is going to happen this session? Probably nothing. Don't drop me. You're okay. Where is it? I'm losing my spells. Where is it? What do you mean your spells? What are you going to do? That's not fair. You're not allowed to use these spells. Real quick, would I have been able to ask when the last time some of these things were destroyed was? Like, you know what? Yeah, I would say you can add the information you gather from asking that both from the animals and from grumble is that the last time one of these was destroyed was two days ago. Okay. Very recently. Very recently. Smells could still be lingering. Maybe. I just want an excuse to turn into a panther again, but we can wait. It's fine. Oh, I do. I do have this. What if I just... Long stride. Burn a spell slot to beat Buck in a race. Where the hell badly do you want to beat this? I've never wanted anything more. I'm ahead of you. If there's a bit where you will commit. I'm long striding. I'm committing to the bit. So you guys like rush past me like... So let's actually do the math here. So this bumps up your base speed to 40, yeah? Yeah. And you can dash and bonus accent dash. Yes. That's 120 feet around. 120 feet per six seconds. Buck. Is there anything you can do? I thought I was carrying one. I can go 50 feet. Because I have mobile and because I'm a barbarian. So I have 50 feet normal. And you can dash and bump it up to 100. But you can't bonus action dash. No. You can action dash, which bumps it to 100. Let me just see if anything in my wild... Rage or my wild... Oh my God. You're gonna take my abilities too. I'm running the throwing route. At least one of my thing lets me teleport. I guess I could rage and attempt to do that. Where is the... The rage will only last for six seconds though. Because you're not going to attack anything. Well, I could attack something. We're never getting invited back to this town. Shoot me down. I also have one that would slow you down. I'm not going to rage. I will just be outrun. I will be outrun by word. Do we find Lara? Yes, I would say we find her. We're having a very serious conversation with a card. And she's like, oh yes, interesting. And then it immediately flaps away as the rumbling of the earth comes by. And you can see the three companions. Oh, I see. Word comes through a bush and stops. And then buck stumbles in after and falls over on top of it. I take it your investigation was productive? I win all though. I won. Lara, I was quicker. Out of breath. Interesting. You guys are unfit. Maybe a little bit. But I am mentally sound. I carried you half the way. Exactly. So I've been discussing things with the locals. It seems as though roughly once a week, the automatons in this area are destroyed by an invisible biped, creating a loud noise. I haven't been able to glean further details. Cardinals are not known for their observational skills, but they are very dedicated to the cause of justice, which is always nice to see. Word and I found a rock. Yeah, there was like this one rock that was really cool. And then I found this other rock that was pretty interesting. And yeah, I see. That was a rude lady. Excellent work everybody. My feelings. That was a rude lady. Can I? It's a long shot. My arcana is really bad. Is there a chance I've seen the spell component before? It's so specific. Let me see. I'm going to look at the Druid's spell list actually. Yes. If it's a spell Druids could learn, you might know. Give a quick glance to the barbarian spell list and see if I knew the spell. This, yeah. The only spell I know is hit things. It's a cantrip and I can do it as many times as I want. Well, not as many times as I want. I want to be doing it a lot more, but I can only do it a couple times. It is the barbarian's nature to try to be angrier than he is. Let's see here. Oh, I'm excited. This is cool. No, it is not a spell Druids can learn. And there's absolutely no chance I'd have looked at anyone else's spell components at any point. You know what? Because I would have had to deal with wizards. If you want, you can give me one last arcana check. I'll give it a shot. I can't fail the skill challenge more than we already have. All right, let's see where we're at. How about a four? You don't know shit. It's covered in cobalt spit. All right, you can have this back. Well, Lyra, you know what's a little fishy? Lizard lady, very rude. No. They provide protection and keeps trying to sell protection to a buddy over there. Hmm. Sounds like she would have a vested interest in reducing the already extant protection of this town. Be warned though, she doesn't talk to you and there's quotation marks. Commoners. Interesting. The commoners do all the work for her. Yes, well. Fritz, did you tell her that we're pilgrims? Why would I? I don't have to explain myself to someone like her. I'm not saying that you have to. That seems to be helpful to our cause most of the town. I don't want to speak to her. Sorry, I'm pounding. No. We don't have to talk to her. The most recent attack was only two days ago. It seems unlikely that they would strike again so soon, which is unfortunate for us, because it means we might need to stake the place out longer than we wanted to in order to find anything out. But... Do you think that's the best course of action to stake out the place? Well, I wouldn't say that. I think the best course of action would be to get back on the road. However, I'm not in the habit of leaving people in distress if I can help it. We could ask her and use the fact that we pilgrims need protection. She might listen. It would be nice to kind of shove it in her face. I'm not certain that's the wisest course of action, but I suppose in absence of other leads we could attempt. False? This is an interesting dilemma. I don't know what course of action we should take, but I think, you know, everywhere we visit we should find a way to make a name for ourselves. Ah, I see. Because it seems like whatever this fucking Trevor Seta place is, is really trying to kind of undermine just the whole reputation of everything that we're doing. So if we can, you know, have a little reputation, not even just for ourselves, but for our vocation everywhere, I think that's a good idea. Understandable. Sorry, I actually don't know what to do. No, that's a good insight. Of course, the additional modifications to the cart would be very helpful in the future. Considering the things we are liable to encounter out in the wastes. Well, we're not going to solve it. I mean, I don't think we're going to be able to do much more today. We could always try to. We're going to have to head back eventually anyway. I'd say we could go back and try to... I think it would be cool if we could get like those fancy shiny lights on the front of the cart before we figured this out, so that way it like shines wards them off or something. Because it happens every night no matter what. Excuse me? Does it happen every night? One of the upgrades, no? Was it every night or every week? You're talking about the upgrade to our... Yeah, the thing that the fancy light that shines. Would that deter magic? I don't know. Doesn't that happen at night? Am I wrong? It does typically happen at night. I suspect the better solution would be to stake the place out, but... We can do that, though. The cart upgrades are promising. I especially find that Lantern of Truesite would be extremely valuable. Truesite is a very difficult ability to acquire otherwise. And we would not want to be caught on wares in the waste, but... What does Truesite do? You can see invisible things. Um... Did... DM did grumble or anyone say were they taking the crystals out of these things? No, they are made of crystal. Just imagine a boulder, but it being slightly transparent and, you know, blue crystal-like and rolling around, those are the sentries. So it gets smashed to pieces and it can't be repaired because it's in bits? Yeah, it's in like little tiny, you know, dusty bits, which is beyond repair. Okay. Someone doesn't like... Are those crystals, the sentries, are made out of the same ones that are being mined in the area? Yes, and grumble has mentioned that they could make more, because they're going to have to eat into the reserves. Okay. So do you think... I mean, I notice that Pyreo is selling some of those crystals. Do we want to try and see if those crystals react to the... We could buy some shards and see if they react to anything out there. I didn't think of that until just now, but... Oh, some form of magical experimentation? I'm not entirely sure we're equipped for that, but... No, I just mean like maybe if these sentries are rolling around that there's something that doesn't lack the crystal shards and we could kind of use the crystal shards to draw out whatever it is. Possibly, but considering it's... Yeah, we could set up like a trap or something. Well, certainly we're going to set up a trap at some point, but because it's only happening once a week, roughly, that makes me think that whatever's reacting isn't just posted up out there waiting for something to happen. I think it's somebody going out invisibly and making an effort to destroy these things loudly and with this spell component that I cannot identify. I think it's a fly up hole. It certainly could be. Let's go back and see, because I think we still haven't explored the lizard lady that Fritz was talking about and maybe she'd be more responsive if it was all of us. Or perhaps simply the only one of us who's good at talking to people in this context, Buck. Anyway, so you guys are going to go talk to the lizard folk, yes? You guys might be a strong phrase. I've been doing so much socializing this session. Don't make me talk to the scary lady. So, Buck, you go up... You're talking to squirrels. Squirrels are great conversationalists. You go up to this very ornately dressed lizard folk woman who is adjusting her pearl necklace while seemingly talking down to this dwarf who sees you behind her and he just kind of like giving you face signals like, please help me. I'll take my hat off and just kind of hold it and then I'll just tap on her shoulder. Pardon me, man. She immediately jumps and just like, oh, how dare you sneak up on a Duchess of House! That's done! What are you doing here? What business have you? Duchess of House, what was that Don't mind me. I'm ten feet back. Yes, yes. And you see the lizard folk lady, which I will show the portrait of now. I'll do like a little bow. That's a lizard, alright. Give me a performance check. Oh, I bet it's going to be great. While he's bowing, I'm going to use my a mage... Oh my God! She looks like such an easy mark. I'm sorry. You're going to pick her pocket. She's definitely a spellcaster. Buck, you do a little bow and she just like, oh, do you call that a greeting? And word, I'm going to need you to give me a sleight of hand check. There we go. You sneak into her pockets with your mage hand and you pull out the same amber stone that was found when investigating the patrol route. So she does know Fireball. Well, that... I'll keep that to myself for now. I'm sorry it's been a while since I've been in the presence of someone with such high standing of yourself. And Prey, why must I give you the time of day? Please hurry up, speaking. Well, we are the Pilgrims... Um... Good work, Buck. We are the Pilgrims and we were told that there was a woman here of house bast hand that would be in need of our services. Oh, the Pilgrims from that wash town of such a use. Well, yes, everyone could use of my services. I'm going to be staring daggers out there. We... We just thought it would be prudent of us passing through on our journey to make your acquaintance and inquire as to if there's anything the Pilgrims of such... Well, the Pilgrims of Elinthe can do to help. Pilgrims of Elinthe not quite yet, no? We're halfway there. We're on our way. Well... So say it to you who's been nowhere. Excuse me, young man. I have been all across Elinthe and you do well to watch your tongue. I am the Duchess of House Bast Hand and I've travelled here to bless this poor little town that is in desperate need of well-formed protection authority and I aim to give it to them. Otherwise, they are subject to the dangers of the wilds, the brigands, the blot. I'm here to save them even if it is from themselves. How generous of you. Very noble. And so you require assistance as well? You require the need of my protection, of my guild? Well, let's not get hasty. We haven't exactly heard the most glowing reviews from the locals. Well, that's because they haven't been blessed with their presence yet. If only they would take the generous trial that I've given them. They would see how efficient the military of House Bast Hand can be. The trial? Yes, of course. For the small fee of us taking over this town for a little bit of time they can simply see, you know, without further charge, of course. And that's very original. I have a question. We are not none of us from this part of the world. What exactly, you mentioned some threats that this town faces in particular. What were those again? Yes, of course. The wilds, the warrants that patrol the place, the blot. I'll have you know that, yes, of course, in fact, my house military, the defensive might of House Bast Hand, we have single-handedly held off the overwhelming flight of blot from the borders of old Diocia. If not for us, the kingdom would have been overrun by those nasty things. So you're welcome. I'm amazed that you have manpower to spare, then, if the situation is truly so dire. Well, of course. Yeah, you know, looking around I don't see any buildings collapsing or blot roaming around right now, so I think this blaze might be fine. Those stinky little crystals can protect you for long. Just look how much they have been stumbling and breaking over time. This one looks this one looks fine. Well, it's only a matter of time. See, I hear that they have been breaking down irreparable. You must be a remarkably patient woman to put up with such a town for so long. Why, of course, it's only a matter of time before they are consumed by the wilds and I, the generous woman that I am, would love to see that happen to such a place with such potential. What sort of potential would that be? No, the crystals, of course. They are used in Politriosis most advanced inventions and industry. Why, I believe that Lord Nicholas Toreo, the man he can put them to better use than any of the people have been putting here. What do you use it for? Stumbling around like boulders using them for irrigation. Lord Nicholas has larger plans. And has Nicholas he sends you here? Oh, no. He did not send me here. I'm here of my own volition. I go where I please. But surely he knows you're here acting on his behalf. I'm not here on his behalf. No, I'm here on my own house best hand, the business that I own. Ah. Well, he would be very pleased to hear about your presence. I'm quite sure. We actually just spoke to him recently. He gifted us this lovely card. She looks over at the cart. Lord Nicholas gave you that. Nailed it. Why, yes. Well, it is absolutely garish. The color is off. And you still something that someone graciously gave to us. Um, you would insult Lord Nicholas in front of us. Isn't that blasphemy? I blasphemy. I have no time for this. And she picks up her dress and just starts walking off nose pointed towards the sky. Good work team. Where's she going? She walks off kind of direct in the direction towards the main road where those things are getting ambushed. Maybe. So that I feel like wasn't very helpful. On the contrary. I think that was extremely helpful. That was so fun teasing her. Buck, do you remember this tasty stone I was chewing on a minute ago? Yes. I just got a second one and you'll never believe where it came from. Oh no. That ladies pocket. And I hold up both of them and I clink them together like eyeballs. Yes, eyeballs. Notorious for their clinking. You can see that they are of different shaped rocks but inside the transparent amber like crystals that they are, there are individual eyelashes of very, very similar length. Might as well being identical. It's so obviously a spell component. So it's clear that she is somehow involved in this. I think we've got enough for a motive for trying to break these things. And she's cast in some kind of fancy magic rock spell. Yes. Something loud but clearly not visually striking or the birds would have noticed. It's almost like she's invisible. Well that part I was assuming. Oh really? Oh. You think that's what this rock is for? Probably not. But you never know. Actually, could we like now that it's like wait could it be for invisibility? You've got so many pieces together. This is the casting component for invisibility. It is. It is. Oh thank goodness. Okay so the loud noise is unrelated to the amber. Yes. Thunder clap probably. Yeah. She could have like broken it with another spell. Yeah. Alright. Good working team. So if she's becoming invisible, clearly she has some kind of motive to do this but we don't have anything concrete. My goodness. That lantern of true sight would be so useful in dealing with the situation. We could just beat her up really, really bad. I believe that would be unwise. At least without provocation, plausible deniability, stuff like that. We're taking the legal route. Alright. Didn't you? Well if she is in good with Lord Nicholas, we wouldn't exactly want the first word of our exploits to be that we beat up one of his friends. Yeah, she also has an army it sounds like. I'm not trying to make this an international incident. I don't see any army around here. But. What if we wore masks? And did what? Beat her up. Beat her up. Okay, that's what I thought you were going to say. I don't know that beating up a woman of a rich woman who owns an army is a smart idea. I don't know how to say this. We could do a little bit sneaky. The first thing we should do is inform the mayor and at least grumble. Well, that's what I'm saying. The mayor, she's got to have somewhere to stay which most likely is the inn, right? The mayor might let us, you know, snoop around a bit if she knows she's up to no good. That is possible. You know, this is a little embarrassing but I do have a scroll of invisibility and I'm reading right here that it uses these things. Well, I suppose it's alright that you didn't read the fine print before. Let's tell grumble and maybe tell the mayor and then we'll kind of maybe see if we can get a little bit more information once they know that or see what their thoughts are. It is definitely strange she's going invisible. We don't know if it's her yet, but we'll see. Yes, I suppose we should go to grumble first. Shall we talk with grumble then? Yeah, let's do it. You can see that he is kind of fixing up another one of the crystal bolder sentries and just making sure that it's all good and well and just kind of padding it, letting it roll off and he sees you come back. Hello. We've done a little investigation. The exact mechanism is still unknown but we have reason to believe that what's her name again? I wasn't paying attention. Lady Baz Tan is perhaps at least indirectly responsible for the destruction of the automata. We found a spell component identical to one belonging to her at the scene of the crime. Always suspected she had something to do with it. No hard proof. This is unfortunately true. What now? Then again I suppose if the assailant is invisible we can't possibly be held accountable for beating said assailant up without knowing that she's such an esteemed lady. Hmm. What she's caught me at? That would almost certainly resolve the problem rather cleanly. Unfortunately we might need to stake the area out for rather longer than we'd planned. Hmm. I got an idea. You think she really had something to do with it? I'll help out. I'll make a big sentry. Some you can't ignore. Some kind of a threat. I like it. You can't even just not fire it. Anyway I started blasting. Is that a serious proposal? Oh yeah let's give word of it. How many of our plants have been put word in something at the end of the day? Let him do whatever he does in there. That was not a serious proposal but will not propose to put word into the sentry. But will word propose? Hmm. Do you want to be inside of the explosion? Not particularly not. But I would like to cause one. I have two gemstones out there. I would like to cause one. They're for snacking. I agree with the plan. I think making some sort of honeypot situation where we can try to draw her in and try to catch her in red handed makes a lot of sense. Very well. I'll have some ready tonight. I'm posing a threat to her business. Excellent. Looking forward to it. Just like me. And we can figure out how we're going to shadow it without being very very obvious in the process. Oh. You think maybe we could rent the lamp out? Rent the witch? The lamp on the lamp? We could rent it for just this once and then we'll get the favor. Get it a little bit cheaper and then we can buy it. That's pure real. Yeah, it could be worth checking for sure. We've got to see her do it and if she's invisible, we can't see her. Do you guys wish to propose this to pure real then? No objections here. I'm going to need a persuasion check with advantage from whoever so wishes. Can I give it a shot? Let's not do me. Get in there, boy. Okay, never mind. I lied. I am apparently a riz master. Let's see if you crit. Advantage too. Just in case you crit. With a 20, with a soft 20, Pyrrha is completely on board with the plan. And she just agrees? Well, if you're willing to put that gross lady out of our town, then all the better. I'd be willing to lend it, at least for a night. She's been coming here every so often and she's not the first time someone from Trevor Setter has been wanting to up and repurpose this place for their own means. We've been mostly staying independent often, getting supplies here and there from Politrios, which is pretty self-sustaining, but Trevor Setter, they only see profit in this place. Yes, you do have a rather desirable set of natural resources here. Yes. Unfortunately, we've caused the sin of trying to use it to better ourselves rather than trying to make petty coin. Of course. So, for the lantern, I assume for the purposes of stealth, we don't want it installed on the cart if we can help it. All right, she can give you a mobile lantern of true sight. That would be pretty nifty. What do we have to pay up front to rent the bad boy? With the 20 persuasion, she's gonna lend it to you for the night. Wow. Only ask that you bring her to justice if she really is the one doing all of this. If not, perhaps all you've done for us, I can maybe give a little bit for this count. Not too much. Of course. We'll run a business after all. All right, let's see. So, what's the plan, gang? What are we thinking? I guess stake out the area. We could, like, wait, because we know the path that it's going to be following. Oh wait, do you still have that line with a bell on because we won't be able to see her at first. So, if she trips it, then we'll definitely be able to see her with the lamp. That would be a good idea. I'm also considering, just in terms of how much we can stealth so she doesn't get suspicious. Some of us are stealthier than others. It sounds like there's gonna be a large noise that we would hear and be able to go and, like, investigate. There are trees around. You could hide in the tree. I could hide in the tree. I can be a wild animal, so I'm not super worried about me. I don't think we're all that bad at stealth. Yeah, you're a very stealthy crew. Heck yeah. Except for me, but that's a wild change before, baby. Yeah, that's a wild change. Plus zero. I'm proficient in stealth. I think word probably is. Fritz, I don't know how your dexterity is. I'm very athletic. Fair enough. Well, he's gonna get it ready, so maybe we could go to the corner or something until then. Should we let the mayor what mischief we're up to, maybe? We should probably tell the mayor. I feel like us catching her and then it'd be like, yeah, we totally caught her red-handed. It would be good to have other people witnessing. Let them know that we might be causing a bit of a commotion. Just a scosh. You go inside, you see Mayor Isaac is just kind of putting things up for the night. He's placing the chairs back on the tables and such. Any sees who come in? Hello. Is there a lot I can do for you? Who would like to explain? Yeah, so here's the deal. We just decided to stay maybe the night and we just thought we'd let you know that we're trying to solve the whole broken century issue. It seems like that's been an issue for the town and so we thought we'd use our resources to look into it while we're here. On the off chance that we should have to... There's a woman here Lucia Baz Tan. Yes, the business lady. We sort of suspect, I don't know if this is what you guys want me to say. No, yes. We're sort of suspicious that she might be involved with the disappearance or destruction of some of these centuries and so just tonight I mean it wouldn't be an issue if we were to sort of stake out the path of any centuries just to make sure everything is on the up and up. Give me a persuasion check. Perhaps you can do what you believe is best but I don't know that I condone your actions Lady Lucia is a very powerful woman from a place far beyond our jurisdiction. I would not want to cause an incident between the provinces. Whatever happens here is under jurisdiction of Politrios and I wouldn't want to cause tension between them. If things were to go wrong and it turns out it isn't true and you have the wrong woman I worry about the fate of this town. Well we're not going to be just... We're just watching. We're not trying to cast accusations out just yet we just wanted to make you aware of our findings. Our intention is simply to observe the path of the automaton. Ensure it isn't attacked and if it is to act in its defense against whoever or whatever may be causing the issue. Very well you may do as you wish I cannot truly stop you just please be careful Of course If anything happens it's on us not you. You can blame the pilgrims. Overzealous pilgrims. Do be wary of those Travis Eddins. They like to believe themselves true owners of Alente. When things go wrong they like to see themselves as not heard truth sayers if only their words were heated and when things do go well they see themselves as prophets. Charming Verily You have a good night pilgrims. There will be warm beds when you return. Thank you. DM I have a question. Do all Tieflings have golden eyes? No. I don't think so. Do I accidentally made the two Tieflings you've met so far have golden eyes? Yes. I think he was wondering if it was an X in law. Talindra had does and so I just didn't know if that was... I'm wondering if it doesn't sound... I'm now talking to you it doesn't sound like that was a purposeful choice so it doesn't really matter. You may interpret that however you wish. Hey bro you've got the same eyes as my ex-wife you wanna hang out? You got my ex-wife You live long enough. You look like my the old R&D You can see the same eyes of different people. I see her eyes wherever I go I can't escape them. Oh boy. Alright. That's a very funny buck situation. Sorry it's just you have my ex-wife's eyes. You guys are gonna stake out the route and I have a map prepared and by prepared I mean recycled from previous night. So there is the crystal sentry that is going to be rolling along the routes and you may position yourselves how you so wish there are trees around a pond and a ledge of elevation over here. Alright who wants the lantern of true sight? Are you guys all in a different tree? Hold on I haven't placed myself anywhere yet I'm figuring it out. Who's the fastest? Really like me carrying you word. Oh yeah. Alright let me just check my list of wild shape options. Do you want the lantern then? Cause you're gonna have to Oh do you want to set up some like string and bells? Yeah I'm gonna have a deja vu. The town is down south and this is on the kind of outskirts close to the road and the route the sentry takes is like this. And usually they shatter around here. In that case I would like to post up just scooch over to this other tree. Heck yeah. I'll stay in the tree I'm in. I'm sorry buck. It's fine you guys wanted to be. Yay. Okay ding ding. Alright. And you guys are going to wait in this position then? Let me just check the rules. It is I haven't considered that I would say that this thing is because of its expense it's always on. How visible is it? Like I would say in that case the lantern only works on things it shines on. Okay. So by covering the light yeah. But I think that showing it obviously if you have it lit when we're trying to sneak up on the person it's gonna kind of show where you are. So I'm gonna need stealth checks from every single one of you. Oh boy hold on. Let me just see. Wait never mind that was an 18. I didn't realize I have good stealth. I forgot I was stealthy. I would like to be a panther for this. I'm just gonna use my wild shape and that means I get a plus two dex so I'm gonna roll my stealth and then we just add plus two if that's okay. Okay. Last time we tried rolling from the panther character sheet it didn't work. Alright. Oh come on. Alright that's a nine I guess. You're also an animal though. I am. I'm just chilling in a tree. This is a completely legitimate place for panthers to hang out. In this area? I don't know. Probably. Currently I guess. You're gonna tell this panther it doesn't belong here? Okay so you guys stake it out. The sentry rolls over tumbling and pushing aside rocks and making a dent in the path that it travels as it's approaching and approaching the path and the location of where all the other ones crumble and then right before it hits the spot you hear the bell ring. Ding-di-li-li-ling-ling-ling. Ding-di-li-ling-ling-ling. Done my turn. And you light it up, and you see, it's Mayor Isaac. Mayor Isaac! This is a Scooby-Doo episode. I can't believe it wasn't the incredibly obvious one. And? What does he do, what happens? Is he invisible, or? He... Did you shine the light immediately? Along the line of the string. Well, I guess he you light him up and you can see him. Oh Come on Actually, you know what I'm gonna say he was visible before the lantern because you were probably keeping an eye on the bell Then he you see that he was not invisible and He sees you kind of light the light he holds up his hands and you can see he's very frightened. Oh Oh Cover the lantern again He comes over to the tree. We told him we were doing the stake. Yeah, I I I'm just scared for my town What if oh What if what Lady Lucia says is right The plot is always a threat and a potential and maybe we could use the extra assistance And you're gonna fight it alone Exactly we we could use her help. I Do you all right, I'm gonna keep an eye on the automaton while they're having this little fight. Yeah while you're discussing It's gonna be Your plan was to stake out to see plot on your own. Do you have a death wish? No, I would never want to come out and see the plot. I I Came to interfere with your stake out Thanks, mr. Mayor Sorry, we did roll very badly. Your plan did not instill confidence in me. I just I understand but please don't put yourself in danger I Would if it were for the savior of my and bang a loud boom happens and Lera you see The Sentry Shatter Into wow that was quick. Well, it's a good thing word wasn't in there the lantern Can I can I actually jump down to like? Cover my wings to make sure he's not hit by shrapnel. Yes, you do actually Fritz I'm gonna need you to make a dexterity saving throw. Yeah, as well as Lera and word buck. You're far away Heck, yeah, all right out on top again. Oh my goodness All right, this is fortunately gonna be another plus two from my my panther self. So let me just ha cha Could I? Roll even a little bit. Okay. Okay, so that's actually a 15. Okay, so you're the only one who takes the full damage Which is for you take for piercing damage the rest of you take two okay, and you cover the mayor and shine the lights and you can see Just as suspected it was the lizard folk Lucia who is holding her wand out and And she notices the lights and oh, have we all rolled initiative yet? You may roll initiative now Yeah I forget do I Sort of initiative bonus from being a panther at the moment. It is your dex bonus. Yeah, perfect Okay, so I'm gonna roll this and then it's gonna be that plus two. Oh Come on, can I roll above a ten, please? I'm sorry. I'm stealing all your rolls today. So it's actually a seven. There we go That is going to be Teen Why does it keep rolling twice? It's just it's really teasing you boot a boot and The mayor will go on Lucia's turn buck You're up first. You see Lucia caught red-handed or in this case green-handed I mean am I supposed to just hit her with my hammer? I don't know what the plan is We want to we want to capture her so she can be held for justice or something Good idea. I will get Come down the tree and I have enough. I definitely have enough to like go over to her I would just like to go off and maybe like Can I go up to her and like maybe hold my action to try and grapple her if she tries to run away? Okay, yeah, you may do so If she tries to run away Yeah, and then I'll end my turn. Okay next is Lucia and the mayor's turn and Lucia is going to do a whisk of her wand and cast misty Step oh Dang, she's going to vanish up to the high ground Cannot win and again and then she starts running. No As you hear the pitter-patter Of her feet Running through the grass stop moving and I'm gonna say she is Let's see Missy step is a bonus action so She's she will be 60 feet out if someone can reach 60 feet plus however much distance it is to Like the edge of the map You can't I would say you can reach up to melee range with her So 60 plus 35 so yeah for you that would be 95 I Can make that if I well I can make that if I turn yeah on my turn But she is booking it she has missy stepped and dashed Fritz 65 feet from me right now Carry me I'll get to work. You want me to throw you again? Yes Sparkles in his eyes. Okay. I'm going along with this. How far can I move again? Well, I can also use misty step. Is that I also have misty stuff We all have misty stuff Up to 30 feet actually if I get the right range thing, I think I might have something similar maybe all right I'm gonna go my max distance of 30 feet I'm just behind buck Come with me word. I am carrying you I Guess I've just got to chuck you Give me an athletics check and that's how far rounded down you will throw word 15 feet 15 feet head start You latch on like a 3d platformer latching on to a ledge Going tears of the kingdom. Yes. Yes quick use a send Can I do something kind of sneaky and I'm wondering if this is a bit weird Can I use gust of wind to push him up the hill? Maybe Let's see. Can you remind me what gust of wind does put it in the chat? It's actually in your spells now since I fixed your sheet. Yeah Yeah Each creature that starts its turn in the line must succeed on a strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet away from you in a Direction following the line. I up to fail. Yeah, you can choose to fail Okay. Yeah, so yeah, I could also fail. Good night. It's just it's a short leg It's just five. I am all right. It's five feet high I would say you're in the air so he's already like up so you get pushed another 15 feet word the flying flying It's it's a line so I would also be pushed. Yes, you would So I'm actually if you look at all of our turn order, I am moving at a horrifying Yeah, I'll be pushed. Yeah So as over two kettled into the ledge. All right Yeah, exactly and that's another spell slot right word the flying cobalt You fly 30 feet being pushed by fritz Forward with like a jaunty land onto the grass Ising flying cobalt. That's all I've ever wanted to be There's a second time word has flown. No third. I'm losing track third looks like this word has flown Is it me turn yep She's 60 feet away, I think that still leaves me within five feet of her once I get up there. Oh, yeah Yeah, like yeah easy, so I won't be within attack range. That's also my well I can do a bonus action to get there. So I'll do that and then I will Huck some negotiation at her. Oh, oh, you're gonna hit a I keep throwing it and I never and it never lands Believe it or not 11 is enough. She's not wearing. Oh my goodness. Yes. Oh, no Unconscious she's also panting and just like You should have done more Pilates Can I hit her with like the hilt of it? Yeah, we can choose to make Yeah, you you can choose. Yeah, like the hilt and you pop her is he oh, and Damage, but she is actually just knocked out cold from that one hit. Oh boy Who can move a hundred miles an hour So we know the new strap. I throw you My scales are like hot to the touch We got the fastball special down pad. Oh This is great. I don't need to stop being a panther Alright, cool. I'm probably negotiating so my my My plan to use misty step and summon beast and none of that matters. I just get to stay a cat. This is awesome Yeah, all right, so word I presume you drag her back to the party. Yeah exhaustively Steering over the little rocks Mayor Isaac comes up as well and he looks incredibly impressed. Ah I I'm sorry it out to do problems. I Just hold the concern. I started to believe her words and I'm sorry. We'll look at her actions instead. I See that's okay, and also look at ours because they were really cool Indeed you have people to protect and when people are being shady you get worried with all the blood attacks recently, I just She I'm gonna change back more blood attacks. What what's been going on there? Yes, well, they've been happening more frequently of late more to the West near old Diocia, which is to be expected But even even so oh I believe that's where we're headed next at least direction wise. Yes, and I do pray for your safety Hmm What shall we do with our new captive? This was a crime. She was committing right like she was destroying the property of other people Specifically designed to protect the town. I mean like this is bad stuff And we do have multiple witnesses here Yes, indeed if you give me a moment, I will give a sending to an officiate of Poletrius perhaps they can come here tomorrow morning and pick her up excellent Thank you again pilgrims. I won't see you back at town Should we go back with him to make sure nothing bad happens? We should probably put some ice on that I feel like she's gonna make a fuss if it makes a bruise Yeah, you know what she's already everybody else's problem we can lessen that Out of curiosity are there any big enough chunks from the Automaton to salvage or is it just vaporized basically it is vaporized to like sand Wow, you can see like in it as well in the center of it You can see a small black marble almost like a plain marble, but when you pick it up It feels as though it's got the weight of like a like a sword Interesting, I'll keep that Yeah, so what's that heavy black marble to your inventory? Wow, is it Christmas already? Best magic item I'll carry this woman. I guess back to town. I can tie her up All right, she is out. She's very unconscious and it's probably not going to escape from me So we can I will see if they have like a holding cell or something when we get back to town, but I think I can manage I Suspect their holding cell is going to be the most uncomfortable room in the in We can make it more uncomfortable I don't know if that's necessary. Let's just get back to town. Let's go back to town All right, you go back to town bring her in and yes, indeed. It is just a room in the in they do bind her They use some of the crystals To kind of make some makeshift manacles to keep her in clasps I do not have a nighttime map for this unfortunately, but you can imagine And so she does awaken at some point during the night Do you wish to interrogate her at all or are you just gonna leave her to to the mayors? Oh? That feels like a really awkward conversation. I don't want to deal with her right now. I Don't really know She's there's something going oh, did we take her wand? You I would assume that you did that you disarmed her of any potential Just like weapons on her so what kind of wand is it? You can see that it is just a typical casting component. You can see that there is an emblem on it of house Baz tan of which I have yet to make yet, but will be relevant And I will give you a link cast her this the wand doesn't have charges No, it is simply a catalyst in which to cast like a Focus like a focus essentially, but it is manufactured by the the the wonderful company known as house best and that for all your casting needs That you have heard of it is it is certainly a brand Yeah, I don't I don't really think I want to like interrogate. I think I want to get some food Oh We're supposed to eat every day We are so party it up downstairs Yeah, and there is some food laid out courtesy of the mayor and If you wish to do anything and chat and hang out you're pretty much the only ones in the tavern For active in the tavern this late in the night Everybody else is probably head off to bed if you so wish to do anything, but otherwise the night is yours Did you say that we were getting a discount on the room like do you know how much how much is the rooms? Are we each getting individual rooms or in fact the mayor feels such? Sorrow and then apologies to you that he is opted to give you the rooms for free as an apology For his doubt of your plan and possibly almost completely messing it up Yeah, genuinely And we all get our own we all get our own rooms Yep, you get your own room if you so wish fancy. Yeah, and you may take a long rest resetting all of your Yeah We're winning D&D Indeed But I guess there's nothing else you guys want to do with the lady. You're just gonna wait for the official to come in Yeah, it's really best when not really the police I don't think we feel the need to gloat and I don't think we expect her to have information we particularly want But yeah early in the morning once everyone is up you do see two friends come visit you in the tavern it is grumble and Peria Grumble just like it goes up to you, you know by whatever table you're sitting at and he just goes mm-hmm Thanks Sorry save the bigger tunnel on a little bit more Oh, yeah your reward and he hands you two items for not only Investigating which he would have given you a solidary reward, but for solving the mystery Yeah, the small reward you get what's called a push wand Which I will put into the chat now It is a little wand with a the similar crystal fashioned into a kind of donut shape That's incredibly dangerous We could just push people off cliffs like yeah, I hope we don't have any encounters where falling is an instant lose condition No, that'd be such a shame and the big reward another invention of his is a one of the crystals fashioned into a necklace The gem of blades Oh, that's rad Who takes the most damage? Yeah, we should give that to the barbarian I think It'll do even less damage Because he reduces damage already. That's right And someone else wants it because they're risk because it reduces damage. Wait. Does it reduce damage? So it doesn't reduce damage No, it is dealt after your barbarian ability Yes, I'm saying oh, I see. Yeah, yeah If someone else wants it, that's fine. I mean They both require attunement What has gotten very close to be a couple of times Admittedly this wouldn't stop him from taking damage. It would just make the person regret it. Yeah, you know what? I'm all about making people regret things. I'll take I feel like you've cost some bomb on them the most though And do you just someone want the push one specifically the push one's awesome It doesn't really feel like my thing Honestly your mobility fritz it would make sense for you to have it Yeah between that and the wind wall and stuff Also, can I show grumble the heavy black marble and be like god do you we found this in the ruin? Of the automaton. Are you do you know what this is? Hmm? He takes it look like lifts it above his head so that it can catch on the light Black marble use useful spell component powerful spellie. Oh Grab interesting gravity sinkhole What That is evidence Interesting very dangerous He hands it back to you a phone Thank you. I'm so confused And you can see Peria also comes to congratulate you and thank you and She looks to you word so I believe that I O you to keep that lantern that I lent you then I Would love that. I don't like it when people are invisible other than me We certainly have to pay for that though. I mean, it's not fair. Otherwise If you'd like to pay for it I'd part with it for a hundred gold pieces for all the work you've done for our town that sounds extremely reasonable Yes, thank you. Of course. I'll just take that out of my inventory You guys can spot my rations next time. It's fine. You'd like I can mount it on to your car Yeah, let's make it that little lantern. It's on the cart. Yeah that little I wonder if it was predestined Certainly influenced the design Yeah, I think probably all of these services are somewhat already visually influenced They just get a different color this time And this will set me up the town also that Graviton wrench is awesome. Also. Oh, yeah, my little delivery girl and she goes over to Fritz. Oh and She hands over What looks to be a tiny little like automaton like Figure the figure that you've handed her made of wood carving. She's fashioned into a little Robo doll And You can see she also hands you a little like about one foot by one foot portrait I Commission this with one of the artists that we hear earlier yesterday. They happen to be in town, so You may give this to my brother and you can see that it is her holding the little automaton just like posing for the painting A good start to getting to re-know each other again I'm just excited to deliver. Yeah And for simplicity sake Fritz I will say that you can hand it to probably some of the informants that you may know in Politrios because you've delivered all over there's probably some you can give it to I'm not gonna make you go back to Nuba sky Yeah Awesome. All right. Fantastic. Now Piriah heads off to mount the lantern onto your cart and Just as Planned the official that the mayor said would come into town heads. You can hear kind of a ringing of the doorbell Just right on cue as expected at time and you can see that it is an arachakra of striking Characteristics Put your guesses maybe and you can see that coin you can see A man that has very peculiarly looking features Striking resemblance to someone you've seen before he looks like he's got black feathers with bright green accents and is wearing a long Brown coat and carrying with him a large leather briefcase and as he walks in and you all look To see who had just walked in he immediately stops. Oh At your notice Hmm And he's he looks directly at Fritz. Oh Wait a minute And he just Almost stumbles a little bit and puts one hand to his mouth kind of clutching into a fist Hello there say Lin is that you Who are you oh I Well, it's a small kingdom. Um You've grown you I've grown Who I'm going to say this one's like who are you staring at for sorry? I didn't expect You don't know who I am but dozen might He gives a little bow. I'm I'm I'm a Strapio Biskier is I am your birth father What what and we're gonna end the session there Okay, I'm glad I didn't say hot as soon as the image popped up. I was too struck by the look like