Hey there, pants people. Do me a favor. Leave
us a review wherever you're listening. And when
you're done, come back and enjoy the episode.
Radiant Citadel, I want to talk a bit about Saint
-Cityon. Or, more specifically, I want to talk
about Saint -Cityon City. Nowadays, Saint -Cityon
City is known mostly for the lively streets of
Fiesta Town, or the industrial powerhouse of
the Ironworks District. In truth, though, these
are recent additions to the city, only added
after the discovery of the Radiant Citadel. Initially,
the city was formed of only two of its current
four districts, the old estates and streets of
Los Cavallanes, as well as those that sit high
atop. of Papalotlon Hill. At the time, these
two pieces of the city were as one, but this
is far from the case now. Current tourists to
Sansatian can only enter the immaculate streets
of Papalotlon Hill under the most fortunate circumstances
to avoid the dangerous and near -abandoned old
city. Never fear, though, folks of the Concord,
for there is truly no limit to the entertainments
and delights to be found in Fiestatown. David,
I'm never going to be able to pronounce the name
of that hill. I'm going to trip on every single
word in this arc. I will not say that. A single
fucking time. I will say it differently every
single time. Let's work it out slowly. No. This
is where I'm standing. It's so hard because I
want to get pronunciations somewhat right without
being that guy who goes into any sort of French
restaurant or is a croissant. I want to not be
that guy. I mean, don't you love croissant? I
do love a good croissant. I don't want to be
here for this. It's going to be fun. There's
a lot of worlds in this setting, and they're
so cool. They're not worlds that were traditionally
explored in fantasy medium. The only issue with
that is that there's a lot of pronunciations
that I am very not used to as just a country
bumpkin from northern New Hampshire. You know
what? We're exploring this together. We're having
fun. You did this. I did. I did pick this adventure.
Yeah, it was your making. But you know what?
It's because it's an awesome adventure, and everyone
should play it. You hear that, pants people?
Play Rainian Citadel. It's so good. It really
is. I'm having fun. Hell yeah. It's a blast.
It's a blast. And just so interesting. Every
time you go to a new world, it's just something
new and exciting. Not the usual old, hey, look,
it's a little farm village in the middle of,
you know, fuck -a -wall canyon. There's giants
here. I don't know. There's goblins. I can pronounce
that one. It's exciting. Fuck -a -wall canyon.
Ah, boy. That one's fun to say. So this is really
exciting for us. We started this episode off,
you may have noticed, with a little ad swap.
That was the last episode we did that with, wasn't
it? Yeah. I don't know what's going on. We had
some vacation stuff. So we are recording this
before. Steven takes his two -week vacation.
We are going to put it out there. When he gets
back. Because by the time he gets back, there's
no time for recording, editing, all that jazz.
So we're in a pretty fun place. We're putting
this out. We're taking two weeks off. We're putting
out Babies and Broadsword. You already listened
to it. I'm sure you loved it. Thank you for loving
it so, so much. Yeah, Babies and Broadswords
was excellent. Oh, it's great. But yeah, so we're
talking from the distant past right now. Exactly.
This is tripping me out, man. We're trying to
get our timeline straight. But yes, the last
episode before Babies and Broadswords. started
off with a little ad swap. Um, and we're kind
of excited three weeks ago, three weeks ago.
Yeah. But now that, uh, the timeline continue
has caught up. We're finally excited to start
talking about some of these ad swaps and, um,
our new trailer that's enabling us to do them
and the little community that we're building
our new month old trailer. I suppose even today
as we record, it's, A couple weeks old now? Yeah,
it's a little bit. Yeah, I think so. I don't
remember. As always, Jeremy, well done. Yeah.
Oh, it's so good. I'm so rizzed up, excited.
I don't know. Partially because I had two and
a half, almost three and a half energy drinks
today. I threw the last one away because my heart
was not feeling it. Wait, you threw it away and
you didn't save it for tomorrow? It called to
me. It's dark fingers raised from the can beckoning
me forth to sip, sip, sip. So you sip, sip, sip
tomorrow? No, no, no, no. My weak form would
suckle upon the breasts of the drink today, and
then it would die. I'm still on two and a half,
so that's where this is coming from. All right.
But anyway, it's so exciting to me because we—
We got this new ad out. We're doing these ad
swaps. We're really getting there. And we started
this little thing. We're moving close to a year
now. We have all these episodes behind us, a
couple full arcs, moving into an arc that I am
unbelievably excited about. And I mean, everyone
here listening to this right now, on the day
this comes out, you're on the ground floor. You're
coming at the start. But I truly feel like this
is going to be big someday. This is going to
be the next big thing. Because... We're having
so much fun here. We started off having so much
fun here, and we're still, every time, we're
so excited to get in here and just record and
play this game. But to listen back to it, I love
it so much. I love this story so much. I want
to share it with everybody. Yeah, so much has
happened in one year, and this is still only
the beginning. Yeah. Just the beginning. Just
the beginning, but I agree. I am very proud of
what we're doing. Oh, absolutely. And I think
if we just keep showing up, having fun, and improving.
you know, good things may happen. And we're making
friends out there, friends with other podcasts,
just like us, just starting out and getting out
there. And it's so cool. Like everybody, we're
all, we're all connected here. You know, we all
want the same thing. We want to, we want to create
amazing stories and enjoy listening to amazing
stories. So man, you're an ad, check those guys
out because they're just like us. They're getting
out there. They're, they're putting their darkness,
putting the work in and they are loving every
second of it. I promise. Yeah. So, um, So speaking
of our little community and our new ad swaps,
if you guys have the time, we really hope that
you'd take a moment to check out our friends
over at Rolls of Redemption. They're another
D &D actual play, but they stream on Twitch Mondays
at 8 p .m. Nice. So if you'll give us a moment,
we're going to play you their trailer. And if
you like what you hear, please check them out.
Hell yeah. Do you like fire? Do you like hijinks?
Do you like poorly thought out fire -related
hijinks? Join the chaos at Roll the Redemption.
Every Monday on Twitch, we stream a D &D campaign
chock full of poor choices that often makes for
hilarious encounters. As we battle the undead,
try to outwit the politically corrupt, and fan
the flames of intraparty romance, you'll find
high -quality fun, absolutely terrible puns,
and exceptionally questionable planning. And
the fun doesn't stop there. Join our Discord
server where the roleplay continues all week
long and you can even scheme the party's demise
with the DM. So join us on Monday nights at 8
p .m. Eastern Time on twitch .tv slash Rolls
of Redemption and let us redeem your Monday one
roll at a time. Whoa! Sorry. Was that us coming
back from the trailer? Yeah. We're back. Hey,
guys, we're back. Whoa. How you doing? I'm so
glad I didn't drink that third energy drink.
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, so I was listening to the
news, and I was hearing the federal government
is going after those YouTubers, Logan Paul and
KSI, over their energy drink because it has too
much caffeine in it, and they're marketing it
to kids. Oh, my gosh. It has more caffeine than
Red Bull, more caffeine than whatever, but it
has less caffeine than Rockstar. Wait, okay,
how many milligrams are we talking about? What
are you trying to say? I'm trying to say that
the federal government is suing somebody for
making a drink with less caffeine. Investigating,
not suing. I mean, what's the milligrams here?
I don't know. I can look it up. Some real science
-y bullshit. Drink taste good, drink feel good.
It's all I care about. So instead of being that
guy who dives into Google and is like, oh, I'm
going to look it up. I'm going to look up Chow
Chibity instead. I'll say this. I'll say this.
Why don't you get your caffeine fix? You watch
yourself. From a small craft made to order D
&D themed coffee company called Homebrew Coffee
Co. Like we're drinking right now. Cheers. Sands,
David. What up? What a smooth transition. Yeah,
it was. It absolutely was. Is it as smooth as
that coffee? We're enjoying their Dragon Slayer,
a tart medium roast, and it is delicious. You're
missing out, David. I'm not. And it is tart.
It doesn't finish like sharp and bitter. Right,
right. It's more like the tartness on the center
of the back of your tongue. You know what? You
know what? Hand me one of those coffees. I'll
show you how this is done. If he spits it out,
he's going to spit it on his own computer. Oh,
that's true. All right. Let me preface by saying
this. I am anosmic. I have no sense of smell.
And so my tastes are a little fucked up. You
are going to dislike it. I'm going to hate it.
And I want you all to hear this. Hear my vehemence.
It's all real. Holy fuck. Oh, my God. I forgot.
Oh. Fucking. Make some noise for me. I gotta
go get a drink. I did not expect it to be that
intense. So those with adult tastes can visit
our friends at Homebrew Coffee Co. Oh my god.
How can something be that horrible? David, you
are an enigma. We should bring him whiskey next.
See how he does with that. I want to go home
now, too. All right, we're done. Let's unplug
everything. Holy shit. All right, what do you
think? Should we get down to things? Yeah, I'm
done torturing you. There is an amazing amount
of shit to get to. I will say that. Yeah, it's
your turn to torture us, I think. So, I think
it's about time we check back in on Zeb and Jules.
The one Zebulon fan out there just cheered. Fuck
you. I think there's like three or four. Okay.
So check yourself, man. Wow. Oh, boy. This is
going to be a weird arc, as you've probably already
figured out, anyone playing here, anyone listening,
because we have two different parties moving.
Right now, currently at different time frames.
So I'm going to back things up. We ended off
last time about 5 o 'clock in the morning as
Dresden and Crispin were entering the Fire Opal
Concord Jewel on their way to the port town that
Zebulon and Jules recently had left, which is
actually called Montanares. I don't think I ever
said the name of the town, but Montanares is
the name of the port town. But that was 5 o 'clock.
That was the morning. We're going to turn back
time because when we left off of Zebulon and
Jules, it was closer to 11 o 'clock p .m. the
night before. The night of day zero, as I'm calling
it. As we're moving up towards midnight, the
clock will tick on day one of this adventure.
Zebulon and Jules have just been infected by
a dangerous illness slash curse, Serenno. We
know this now. And now I'm going to put forth
some meta information because I think that in
some cases, having some meta information can
help inform the characters and make the story
more exciting. We are dealing with a series of
clocks in this arc. It's mostly going to be open
to you guys to determine how you want to handle
things, how you want to go about wherever you
go. You at this point have two parties that are
unaware of each other and what each other are
doing right now. One of these clocks is a more
natural one born in mechanics. It is Serenno.
it is going to kill you. Slowly but surely, it
is going to kill you if you do not find a way
around it. But there are other ones as well.
If you take too long to reach certain objectives,
if you play it too safe, things might happen.
But you're playing a dangerous game now because
if you play too reckless, well, you know me.
So, with that being said, you are in the desert.
Jules, You've just seen the poster showing Miskin.
The words, wanted dead. Make it very clear. He
is in terrible, terrible danger. Jean Franklin
mentions, as you're reading this, and you barely
hear it, that this was posted for four days ago.
There must be a number of hunters already here.
These illegal bounty hunters who, drawn by this
offer of 600 gold. At this point, Jules and Debulon
do not know who posted this. That information
is not on the poster at all. It just says the
name, description, and the act that they want.
So I have a question. How dare you? Yeah, what?
Let's say you're an illegal bounty hunter. Yeah.
You show up here. How do you know that? You kill
Miskin. Then what do you do? You stand there
in the town circle and raise your hand real high?
And say, hey. Hey, I did it. Hey, look at me.
I did it. That's a fair point. There's got to
be someone to report to, correct? Correct. You'd
think so. I mean, you don't know. Zebulon doesn't
know. So who's finding this poster and is answering
this call without any information? Is it bait?
There is one thing to consider. Say you're an
illegal bounty hunter. You'd likely be privy
to more information than any commenter about.
Those who would handle bounties, those who would
handle rewards, those who would handle the giving
of information, it is an illegal activity. And
so you're not going to see a poster and you're
not going to see, oh, man, this is from this
guy. You do this to get it. These are all the
agents involved because, hey, people high up
are going to shut you down. They're going to
follow up on all the information. You're in the
know. If you're a bounty hunter, you're in the
know. These two bounty hunters you were with
were probably in the know. They're corpses now.
Zebulon and Jules. You're not in the know. But
nobody saw anybody posting the posters anywhere?
These posters are likely something that... All
you know, when you got to town, these two shady
gentlemen moved away somewhere to somebody, you
imagine, in Manzanares, and came out with this.
There could be a contact there. Sure, yeah. That
makes sense. It's all underground information.
But I will say, I think you could imagine, at
least, that... There's likely this sort of same
sort of underground information to be found in
Sansation City as it is the center hub of everything
illegal and legal that happens on Sansation.
This is a pretty known world. This is a big world.
It's not quite the size of Tythos or what Tythos
was, but it is one of the most populous and industrious
and just generally like prominent worlds in the
Concord. I apologize for and retract my outburst.
What? What happened? Yeah. No, it makes sense.
Oh, okay. That's not a character. I'm surprised.
What? You're being nice? I've never seen this
behavior before. So what do you do? You know
you're about an hour away from the city itself.
An hour and a half away from the port. You could
turn back. If you go back to the Citadel, you
turn tail and go to Sholay. Or perhaps to your
family, Jules. Maybe powerful magics could help
save you. But you've got a picture of a child
in your hands. And time is ticking. Jules is
staring down at the picture, clenching his fist
with it in there, crumpling it. Very, very angry.
We need to find Mishkin. Mishkin? Zebulon stands
up and looks over Jules' shoulder. Not over his
shoulder. He's tall enough to look over his shoulder.
Peeks between his legs. Wow, so those guys, they
were here for Miskin? Looks like it. The 600
gold they were talking about? Absolute monsters.
How does Zebulon, like, feel? Like, physically?
Yeah, like, if you're sick with a cold, you feel
a little whatever. If you're sick with the flu,
really sucks. What does it feel like to have
Serenno? Right now, what it feels like, there
is a deep chill. deep in your bones it feels
like all the heat is slowly being siphoned from
your body you in your current form you don't
have anything like really warm to put over yourself
and i think you want that uh it's like standing
outside in a winter day in a t -shirt and just
that cold has seeped into your bones it started
off in your bones like cold from the inside out
on top of that you are exhausted and this poison
condition currently right now you do feel like
you have a full flu um your vision hazy Eyes
sort of watery, brow kind of sweating despite
the freezing cold within you. It's bad. You know
it's bad. How are we going to find Mishkin? Like
this? There is one detail of Sarah I do know.
During the days, the effects of it tend to lessen,
or almost wear off. But they compound at night.
It gets worse and worse. So, I mean... We've
got some daylight coming our way. We should...
Gotta make some progress. If Miskin knows I'm
here, he'll find us. Well, I mean, it makes sense
that we can go start in the city. It's where
we gotta go. Yeah, let's go. Yeah. And you press
on. There is one other issue to consider, too.
Now, because of Serino... Exhaustion is going
to be a big deal in this arc. You know, obviously.
You already have two stacks of it. That's negative
to all D20 rolls, essentially. And guess what?
Death saves are also D20 roll. Scary shit. This
apparently compounds. On top of that, you have
been active, actively traveling, engaged in a
dire and serious fight, doing a lot of, like,
mountaineering, climbing, just traveling. Ever
since waking up this morning at the Crystallion
in Auroral Town, that was this same day. You
were almost hitting midnight on this long day,
and you will need to find somewhere to sleep
soon, or you're going to be making rolls, potentially
accruing another level of exhaustion. And don't
forget, if you hit 10 levels of this, that's
permanent death. So, something else to consider.
As you move, there will become a time where I'm
going to ask you to make those rolls. The only
way to get exhaustion levels removed is taking
a long rest to remove one. So we definitely head
to the city, find a place to sleep. Hopefully
gather some information before. Let's see what
comes of it, huh? Yeah. Jules isn't going to
like to sleep. He's better than dying. Yeah,
I think he's at least smart enough to know he
still needs to. Right. Take us to San Sichuan
City. John Franklin sort of leading the way,
keeping an eye on you, like, looking back at
you kind of nervously, keeping an eye on the
front, eyes in the sky. The only one just, like,
fully functional, basically, just watching, watching
for the return of that thing. And as you move,
you sort of move over, like, we start rising
up a little bit, sort of almost like a long,
drawn -out hill. that as you hit the top of and
peak down, it starts to lower around you like
a canyon, slowly falling towards this great expanse,
the city. You can see under the moon's light,
these great stone walls roughly forming a triangle.
You see flickering lights line the streets of
most of the city. The area near the main gate
that you can see facing you now seems especially
bright, where the area farthest away is dead
dark. From the southern edge of this shape, you
can vaguely make out thick, dark stacks of smoke
drifting into the moonlight. In the center of
these walls, a high hill seems to rise up over
all else. Top of the few large structures is
your first look at Sandstown City. And you move
towards the main gate? Yep, head towards the
main gate. As you get close to the main gates,
you begin to hear... Music flooding out from
the city. And let me remind you, it is now about
midnight. Maybe a little after as you're moving
close to this. You see there's still lights all
over the place. You see people moving around
excitedly. There's a buzz of energy here despite
the late hour that even the Radiant Citadel does
not have this. You move forward. There's a few
guards outside the gate that honestly just very
cheerily wave you in. You join the party. I mean,
it's a blast over here. You see, despite this
late hour, just this buzz of excitement filling
the air, mingling with the haze that's falling
away from the great smokestacks that pool into
the sky from the works to the south. Here, as
you push in through this gate, you see a number
of locals and tourists munching on street snacks
and pointing towards great mountain images of
the mighty pig man advertising hog fight. Slogans
decorate these images like, oh my god, he'll
make them squeal. Or, who will enter the feeding
trough? Trough? Trow? Is that? Trough. Yeah,
okay, cool. Got it right. The air smells heavily
of spices here. You can see a number of stands
are just still open offering food to those who
have made the journey from Manzanares. In this
case, it's actually only you that are traveling
during this late hour. But a lot of folk are
still up and at them. You see crunchy tacos,
piles of fried corn chips, stews like hominy
of meat pozole. Which is like corn and meat pozole,
but better. It's a callback. It's a callback
joke. It's a sign says. Fast and upbeat music
drifts for a group of performers set in a small
stage along the road's edge. A number of passerbys
have stopped to dance before them. Drunken figures
stumble or are tossed from large gates of these
structures. You can hear these combined cheers
and groans coming from these very light doors
that reveal these to be the fabled San Sitian
Casino, as you'd think. People just stumbling
out very sadly, not a penny to the name left.
But amongst all this cheer, the people dancing
and laughing, there's something wrong. Something
that I think... Jules in particular is more privy
to, more sensitive to. Just like a feeling that
immediately strikes you, Jules. It's so idyllic
here. So perfect here at this gate, here in this
part of the city. A part where you're seeing
is relatively small compared to the whole. This
is where the tourists from other worlds will
see. This is all they might see. And it reminds
you of Cerule, of the high city, of how when
you entered the... The diamond, the sapphire.
When you came and docked in the Plaza of the
Traveler and you looked out, all you saw was
these great towers, immaculate, and this bustling
crowd of well -to -do folk. You'd never know
what lay beyond those towers. You'd never know.
It's interesting you brought that up because
as you were describing the scene that we saw,
when we first saw Sansation City, I was thinking
that Jules was looking at the... He was looking
past to where everything gets dark and not at
the front light spectacle. Hell yeah. I think
I might know what we need to do. Oh. Should we
play it out? I'm very curious here. Yeah, play
it out. Okay. So Zeb's looking around at all
this. I'd like to think that Zebulon has made
sort of the same conclusion that Jules had. Because
Zebulon has something in mind. Zebulon wants
to find more bounty hunters. And he knows that
he's not going to find them here. John, this
whole party thing, all this area, it seems...
It's amazing, isn't it? It's incredible. It seems...
Truly the remarkable city I thought it would
be. And so clean, too. Wonderful. Really safe.
I can't wait to stay here. Don't get too attached.
And right up your alley, I think... We're going
to have a good time here. Jules, I think you
and I should go further into the city. And John,
maybe you can stay around here and try to see
what you can come up with. We can cover more
ground that way. Wait, I'm confused. You mean
deep into Fiestatown, this sort of district where
the tourists go and play and have fun? No. How
much do you know about San Santillan City? We
want to go where the real people are. To answer
your question, nothing? You're speaking of Los
Gavilanes? The old city? Beyond all this? It's
dangerous there, they say. Yeah. I mean, I think
that's where we're going to find out some more
about, you know, the paper. All right. Well,
keep north and east. You'll find your way there
eventually, but maybe it's best I don't go. I
might attract some of the wrong sort of attention
there. But I can find us a room here. It's much
more comfortable. I'll find us all a place to
stay. My treat. You shouldn't be walking around
so much. We're just going to get a lay of the
land, and we'll be back soon. Because I don't
know how much more of this walking I can do.
So here's a tricky thing. It's after midnight
at this point. Yeah. If we need to rest for eight
hours, our good eight hours is coming up during
the day. If you were to rest now, you're up at
8 .30, and you are slowly encroaching on more
and more of that time that you're going to miss.
It's hard. If you come to blows, come to combat,
you're in a bad place. I feel like we still need
to rest before we go in. We're going to be adding
points of exhaustion. We're not recovered from
the last fight. Like I said, Jules doesn't want
to. That makes sense. And maybe even the scarier
part of the city will be safer during the day.
Jean, if it's on you, I'm not going to deny it.
Jean, if it's on you, I ain't saying no. Very
well. This is good. And whether I can get some
sort of doctor, some sort of physician to come
to see you. We can do something about this. We
should try to treat you while you rest. Yeah,
yeah, I guess it does make sense to get some
sleep before we go deeper. Good, good. As you're
moving in to find a place to sleep, I want to
direct both you guys to Roll20. Jean Franklin's
going to start giving you the lay of the land
about what this city really looks like, and I'm
going to, you know, I have a map I made, I want
to show this to you guys. I'll try to describe
it for everybody else as well, but you're looking
at a roughly triangular city. What do they call
a perfect triangle? What's that one? There's
a lot of different kinds of triangles. It's a
Triforce -style triangle. Yeah, you can't bring
me back to, like, sixth grade. That also doesn't
look like a perfect triangle. Roughly a triangle,
damn it. Dude, like, it's a really basic concept
and easy word that's on the tip of my brain.
Equilateral. Boom. I got it, Ryder. Yeah, it's
a boom triangle. You guys have just entered the
Jewel Gate. as he kind of described it as you're
going in, moving deeper into the tourist district
of San Sitian City. Roughly a third of the city
is Fiestatown, which is just loaded with inns,
casinos, places to eat, places to party, music
on every street corner. There's a number of stadiums
for these huge Lucha Libre matches. This is the
place people go because tourism is a huge part
of the economy here in San Sitian City. But it's
not the main part. Down to the south of this,
south of both districts, we see these great sort
of facilities, these ironworks factories, basically
just like smiths and refineries. There's a gate
to the south, too, that leads to these mines
loaded with ores, constantly being worked at,
that are always flowing into the ironworks, being
taken care of, processed, and then sent out of
world to... every other world. It is the main
reason San Sitian City and the whole world of
San Sitian is really on the map, as big as it
is, is the ironworks. I think Jean Valéry doesn't
know a lot about the history of them or what
they represent or anything about that. You'll
have to figure that out as you go. But that's
another roughly third of the city is this huge
district. Generally pretty well guarded and well
patrolled. Then you have the old city. Los Esquivadanes.
You see this is basically these used to be these
sort of larger estates that belong to the old
nobility and like, you know, rough streets kind
of in between them. That was the city's original
form. Now those streets and homes are, well,
I'm trying to think of the right word. They're
in a state of constant disrepair. They are chaotic.
Dilapidated. Yes, perfect. Got it. And this isn't
wholly known. And I think even John Franklin
doesn't know much about the old city, but we'll
just say that there's also a number of estates
there as well, once belonged to nobles, now overtaken
by various groups and gangs, and just filled
with, well, with the low folk. The folk that
you grew up with, Jules, in the latter half of
your youth. Folks like the Cherry Delights. It's
a sad story that you've heard time and time again.
It's just another flavor of that same oppression
that you felt on Tythos. There, the flavor was
miners and stone workers. Here, I guess you don't
really know. But you could guess, as you look
to the great stacks of smoke coming from the
south. You could guess. In the middle of all
of this is, and I'm going to try this again,
Papalotlon Hill. Papalotlon Hill. Let's do that.
Papalotlan Hill. It is this great hill that oversees
everything, never really leaving your sight,
and a number of pristine, huge manors resting
atop it, overlooking everyone. This is the seat
of government here, the seat of the Tresena,
who rule over the city and essentially the world,
and just a number of all the real big -name people.
This is where the money is. It's funny because
it's so small. I mean, every one of the other
districts is roughly a third of the city with
just maybe a 10 % or less of like the full bulk
of the city all gathered here. And yet it represents
everything. You look at the top of that hill
at those structures bathed in moonlight and the
vague darkness of night. And it probably reminds
you of leaving Tythos and looking up, up at the
Tower of Authority, up and knowing. And that
way you know that your mother was looking down.
Sean Franklin leads to a nice little inn slash
pub. A little tavern -y sort of space called
the... Hang on. Hang on. The Limp Cactus. The
Limp Cactus? Today, in the most random things
I've ever heard. Not the Crisp Cactus? That's
so much better. I said that, and now it's like,
what's the lore behind why this is a sad -sounding
place in a really happy... In a place that Jaune
would stoop to go to. Why would Jaune go to the
Limp Cactus? He goes there, and he looks at the
sign, and he says, No, no, that's not it. Nah,
this is dumb. It leads you down the road. And
you see this sad -looking blue neon cactus with
a sad face, just almost like the sign is watching
you go. As you move away. I'm on so many energy
drinks. Give me a name for an inn. The Inn. That
sucks. It's worse than the Limp Cactus. Maybe.
No, it's not. Sandy Hill Inn. That was an elementary
school in my hometown. I kind of like it. I like
it. You ass. It's funny, too, because you look
at these streets, and again, you're in the middle
of this desert, and I didn't really mention,
it's probably hard to even see, but like... Most
of the greenery here is also focused centrally
towards Papalotlan Hill. Spreading out from there
is a lot of just, like, still that same sort
of desert terrain. Kind of rough. And I think
you do see, like, maybe, like, there's a mound
building up towards this kind of nice -looking,
very tall, spire -like building, which just says
Sandy Hill. Oh, yes, this looks nice. Well, I
suppose I could foot the bill this time. Let's
get you guys comfortable. That's really generous.
I want the sweet. With a jacuzzi. I don't think
they have jacuzzis. Do they have fantasy jacuzzis?
Probably at the pale moonlight. I think you actually
see Jean -Franc kind of like smiles and I want
you guys to roll an insight check. Or perception,
both will work. Goodness. Because he sort of
turns away from you after that. And David, so
our exhaustion, we don't have a way to put that
on D &D Beyond. So we're just going to have to
remember it? Yes. Honestly, that's better because
I've got to compound it each night. It's going
to go away to a degree. Okay, what are we rolling?
What or what? Insight or perception. With a minus
two. God damn it, that's right. So eight for
Zebulon. Okay. That is a nine for Jules. Okay.
I have a plus two, so it evens out. Yeah, so
pretty bad. All you see is Jean -Ferland kind
of turns away from you for a second. You don't
see his face. You don't see what he does. He
just kind of turns back to you with a sort of
total smile. All right, then. Let's step inside.
You know what? Because the listeners didn't roll
a bad perception check or insight check, I want
to tell them what you guys didn't see. And it's
fun. What you guys didn't see was Jean -Ferland
turning away from you, pulling his... Very, very
small -looking wallet out of his office belt
and kind of opening it and just looking down
at it with some sort of somber disgust. Oh, no.
And then just kind of sighing a little bit, eyes
closed. Oh, shit. And then placing the smile
back on his face, he turns around like, yes,
yes, of course. Let's go inside. Now we can't
even offer to pay. Uh -oh. Now we can't even
offer to pay. So I just bear to tell you so you
know what you don't know. Well, now Jules is
just an asshole. We don't know. We don't know.
You have no idea. I want to try something real
fast. All right. Okay. Papalotl. Papalotl? Papalotl?
No, it's an N. Papalotl? I can say Papalotl.
I think that actually makes more sense. I don't
care. It's probably a silent L. It didn't work
as well as I thought. I would rather be a silent
L. It's a silent L now. Papalotl? Fuck, that
sounds good. I can't do it. That's how it's spelled.
Papalotian. He's going in the inn. Here, okay,
I'll just say, I'll just do this. Papalotian.
And now every time you say it, I'll just put...
I'll just put my voice in. So here you stand
beneath the tall hill around you. You see, just
ahead, you see... Papalotian. There's a second
for you to add that. I'm going to do it at least
once now. I wanted to set you up. God. Okay,
so I take it you move inside the inn? Yes, following
Jaune to our free room. I think Jaune kind of
powers ahead of you, just like very, almost too
excited, just opens the door, and you guys start
to move in. And I will say, actually, as this
is happening, you do hear... A slight commotion
from sort of the right of where you stand towards
where the edge of this building, where it kind
of turns a corner into like an alley that must
move into maybe another door behind it. You just
hear a voice like, hey, watch out! As someone
kind of almost stumbles out of the alley and
almost like runs into them. Sorry, sorry, sorry
about that. You see a figure that... looks towards
you in kind of like this commotion, this sort
of figure that's moving away from this building,
out of this alley, and just suddenly staring.
Eyes locked on you, mouth agape. And you, Jules,
recognize this figure. I was going to say, I
thought I recognized that voice. It may be a
voice I used during the first episode. Because
this is a figure that you had, when you were
leaving Sarul, when you were in the midst of
this sort of great storm that was just tearing
your world apart, you went into this little pub.
You went and you gathered these people around
you. You inspired them to leave. Yes. I did recognize
the voice. Yes. Yes. One of these people was
an old man with withered, curly, gray hair. A
man named Grindy. You could see he's still wearing
his way oversized, like, torn up hat. Very notably
that the left sleeve of his patchy jacket hangs
limp at his elbow, where you know he lost his
arm, or half his arm, in a masonry accident.
You know this is a man that you led out of Sarul,
and a lot of the folk there were replaced in
different worlds. Now you know where he was put.
His mouth just opened. He just breaks to a smile.
Prince Jules! Oh, Prince Jules! And he just runs
over to you and like, just like, tries to give
you a one -armed hug, almost stopping short because
he's moving towards the entrance of this place,
and there's a number of people around who kind
of look at him distastefully, and he sort of
shrinks back, almost like more towards the alley,
looking a little embarrassed. What was his name
again? Grindy. Grindy? Yeah, G -R -I -N -D -E.
Yeah, as this is happening, Jules looks and says,
Grindy! Oh my god, you made it! You made it!
And Jules is going to push through and open up
to go and give him a hug. Hell yeah. Oh my god,
you made it? One arm wraps around you. I did.
I got out. I'm here. I was brought here pretty
quickly. How the hell are you holding up? I'm
doing the service thing right now for this lovely
inn. Honestly, it's not so bad. Sometimes I feel
like losing the arm was a blessing. It keeps
me from having to go into, well, the works, as
they call it. South City. The works? Ah, the
iron works. Mostly owned by Marfil. It's... Jules,
it's bad here. We used to think this rule had
it worst of all, but it's bad here. But, but,
but, that's... I don't want to worry you. You,
you, you, you, you're a luminary. I saw you on,
on... The network. We all saw you. I can't believe
what you've been doing. Yeah, I'm Jules, okay?
Of course. Just Jules. You're Jules. And you're
out there now. And everyone's going to know you're
going to bring us into the light, Jules. We all
know it. And there's people here like you. And
he looks around very nervously. And I think he
pushes a little farther back towards the alley
and kind of with his one good hand waves you.
Why do you have to specify with his one good
hand? He knows he's armless. I just... Create
the image. He's just kind of like... Don't have
to kick him while he's down. Alright, yeah, Jules
goes. Jules, you're pushing away towards this
alley. Are you interested in this? No, that guy's
only got one hand. I'm not going to... Right?
Gross! He's inside. He's gone. Fuck you, John.
Jules, I'm going to... He points inside. Catch
up, okay? All right, I'll be ready. Okay, catch
up. Zebulon wants to go sit down. Jules is about
to die. As you move away, Jules, you move farther
away from the crowd, kind of around the corner
to this alley. You see a darkened space. There's
no one inside, but you do see kind of around
the back of this building, there is... Like,
yeah, it looks like another exit towards the
back, the servant exit. He just kind of, Jules,
there's a revolution building here. Real deal
stuff, like we could never really put together
in Sarul. They're, they're serious. I thought
you might be interested to know. I've, um, made
some of my own contributions, and look, I'm not
going to pressure you towards anything, but if
you're interested in talking to anybody, they
might, they might, Have use for a luminary. Your
ability to send messages, your ability to get
the word out. In the Old City, there are a number
of these estates. Each has sort of been taken
over by their own factions. And one of these
estates, Salazar, is called, named for the family
that had once controlled it. If you were to travel
there, head to the primary building, the central
structure. On the steps, you'll see a Novidado.
Likely reading. And remember the words, only
the dead are free. Okay? Okay. Okay. Jules, you
don't look good. You look tired. I'm fucking
exhausted. Some things never change, right? Nope.
Maybe I'll see you at Salazar. I gotta take care
of some business first. He just takes a long
moment to smell. You are very deviously opening
up your dice box. Right now. Oh, no, don't mind
my dice box. I was going to go play D &D later
with my friends. You didn't have to make it weird.
Do you remember my friends? The Delights, yes.
Have you seen any of them around? Here? Did they
get relocated here? No, no, I... No. I'm sure
I'd recognize them. They were always... The stars
of the low city. You haven't seen any food gone
missing or anything you can't explain? Not like
the old ways, no. Okay. Keep your ears out for
me, please. Will do. Absolutely, I will. Keep
my ears out. I'll ask my contacts. Maybe someone's
seen something. Thank you. I gotta get some sleep.
I got a big day tomorrow. But it was really,
really good to see you. and I'll see you again
soon. This old man just smiling, this wrinkled
smile, and you get the impression that a smile
like this has not touched his face in a long
time as he turns and moves away, skittering sort
of across the crowd, skittering to the next alley
he can go to, knowing in that way that the folk
of the low city know that they're just not wanted,
not wanted to be seen. Hey, Grindy. Hmm? Hold
your chin up. You be proud of who you are. I'm
proud of you. We'll have a lot to be proud of
soon, Jules. All of us. Fucking right. And you
see him just disappear into an alley into the
darkness, out of the moonlit streets. I think
there's a bit of a crowd almost like looking
at you. People, as you've kind of been standing
in one place, people are starting to recognize
you. There's some like whispers, but no one close
by, no one staying near enough. Yeah, Jules recognizes
that and then hurriedly goes into the door. Push
room again. And you step inside. And what follows
us will move through rather quickly. Why are
you dancing? It's not a dance party. Yeah, but
the music's dancey. Anyway, what happens next
will pass through. quite quickly because we have
a lot of stuff, a lot of content in this arc.
I don't want to hold up too, too much on little
things unless you guys have an interest in them.
So I'll ask you, is there anything you are interested
in pursuing in this night or would you rather
just zip -zop -zoop over it as you go into rest?
Well, it's more like early morning, but yeah,
I guess I'm most interested in getting our eight
hours so that we can wake up and still have some
daylight. Right. Yeah, Jules is thinking the
same thing. He just wants to get to sleep so
that morning can come quicker. Okay. You take
your eight hours, and we'll say it is 8 .30 upon
the time you awaken. We'll say you moved to the
city pretty fast to get to this point. I just
didn't spend a whole lot of time on this. During
the night, I think you have nice accommodations.
I think they're maybe almost sparser than you
would have thought. They're like some of the
lesser rooms here, and John Franklin sort of
embarrassed them. Oh, well, it looks like they
were out of the good ones, unfortunately. Can
I make another perception check on that? No,
give me an insight check, sure. Insight or perception?
Insight for this. Insight, okay. No. It was a
nine on the die minus two. Yeah, looks like they're
just out of the good rooms. God damn it. Probably
feel bad for John Franklin. You know he hates
sleeping in lesser rooms, but he... I know, this
isn't even a double mattress for you, John. I'm
sorry. Well, you know, I could go to other inns.
I thought about it, of course, but I'll suffer
through it. It's best that you guys get your
rest for now. Well, we really appreciate it.
I'm feeling a little better. I'm glad to hear
it. And this room is for you both. I'll have
my own place to sleep. Oh, we haven't... I thought
we already woke up. We haven't slept yet? I went
back the night before so I could do a little
thing with Jean Franklin. Hang on. Stay on the
voice. David here. That's what happened. Okay.
It's morning now. You guys have a room. Sean
Franklin kind of goes off to find somewhere else.
He apparently has his own room, as he always
does. No, he doesn't. Us as players knows he
doesn't. You guys have your beds. You sleep a
comfortable night. He promises in the morning
to find someone to talk to you guys, a physician
of some sort, if you're willing. But for now,
he knows you need to rest. So you go to sleep.
hard to sleep your bones just just so cold under
the covers and covers you probably get extra
blankets and you still feel so cold and that's
another thing too is like you've been moving
through the city pretty fast you realize there's
a good chance that some people here might start
to realize that you have serino and it's not
contagious jumping on you know made sure you
knew that but still a matter of concern for the
folks here so um but i think you hit the night
moving here the you know the sort of darkness
covering you uh and It sounds like in Fiesta
Town, it's pretty rare to see people with serenade.
You're well covered. But under the light of day,
you might be concerned that you could be seen
as people who are ill. Except when you wake up,
when day comes, when you finally drift off to
sleep, and when finally you open your eyes, that
cold is gone. You still feel sick right now.
You're still under the poison condition, actually.
But you have no exhaustion. Yeah, it's almost
like something was siphoning away heat from your
body and energy from your limbs and from your
mind, and that's just gone. That feeling is gone.
It's strange. Yes, but apparently it's going
to come back tonight and maybe even worse, but
for now you feel great. Zebulon immediately looks
over to Jules' bed to see if Jules is awake.
Oh yeah, Jules is already sitting on the side
of the bed. Let's go. Let's do it. Okay. Let
me ask this. Jean Franklin comes to your door
somewhat early, knocks on it. He looks pretty
tired as well. Well, you're awake. Good. Should
we get a doctor in here? I can find someone.
No, let's keep this quiet for right now. I mean,
they could help. What if they meet us back here
tonight? Maybe they can at least help us sleep.
We can go do stuff during the day. That sounds
good. I can do that. Someone we can trust, John.
Yes, I'll find somebody. If you're going to the
old city, I can stay here and get you set up.
That sounds good. And I got the room for two
nights, so I can make sure the room is in good
shape while you're gone. And I will say, Stephen,
as your sidekick, you can mark John Franklin
down for one level of exhaustion that you're
not aware of as a character. Oh, my God. I don't
think there is any place for me to mark exhaustion
down. I'll keep that in mind then. Yes, yes.
If you want to take a look around, be careful.
You look great, by the way. You look much better.
Well, honestly, part of my thinking was that
Jean would rest while we were gone. You know
what I mean? And he seemed excited at the prospect
of, oh, I'll watch your room for you. Right.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so you guys, I guess, push
out of the room and start heading away. Yeah.
He kind of waves you off and too quickly steps
inside the room and closes the door. Poor Jean.
He's so sweet, isn't he? You hit the streets.
And let's just make this quick. You are moving
to the north and to the east, following roads
that tend to get a little shabbier the farther
you go. You're still in Fiesta Town. Everything
is still great. Everything is still a party.
But quickly you start to really see the... cracks
in the facade. You see them in the figures that
kind of mingle amongst the crowd with a little
space around them. You see low, soot -covered
faces, burned hands, singed hair, eyes on the
ground, just moving into alleys and vanishing,
much like Grindy, much like rats scurrying from
a place where they know they are potentially
endangered. You see these more and more as you
get closer and closer to where this district
sort of falls off. You see guard patrols are
a little heavier at the sort of border between
districts, kind of looking at you nervously as
you move by, that you move with purpose and they
don't stop you. And then there are no guards.
There is just the low, the unfortunate, and there
are a lot of them. It becomes so obvious so quickly
that this, District you're moving into, these
streets so filled with people, tents and structures
that are like run down, but so many beds lining
them. This must be by far the most populous district
in the city. There are multiple families for
every building, and every time you pass one of
these great manors on their little hills, you
can see just like mobs of people just like in
every window, packed in every door, tents all
along the properties. And we're amongst the sea
of just the desperate, the low. Where do you
intend to move? Zebulon's looking for somebody
that looks like they could be dangerous. Maybe
somebody with a weapon. Very interesting. Okay.
Let me tell you this, then. You push into the
old city. You're sticking to the north or eastern
side, and maybe you take a road that goes from
there, pushing due south. Kind of lingering close
to the border of Fiesta Town. You see some rough
-looking gentlemen kind of like up ahead moving
down south. And as you get further and further
closer to the hill that sort of makes up the
center of the city to where, once again, there
are a guard, there are laws, there are rules.
There's an estate that stands there. And it might
seem interesting to you because this estate is...
It's not falling apart. It's actually in great
shape. You see a sign kind of pointing over a
gate that says Rosas. And you see this, like,
the manor's in great shape. A bunch of the wooden
stone of the main building is just new construction,
just all filling in these old weak points over
years and years of, you know, what may have been
misuse now taken over by new hands. You see this
offensive black iron that rims the property,
leaving only a single opening at the main gate.
And you do see a number of sort of rough looking
figures milling about, glaring at the passing
crowds. There's a sort of great gap between these
figures and everyone around. You see some folks
that you saw you were following nod and push
past them and move into the gate. And this is
a place where you might find figures that you're
looking for. Actually, real quick though, I do
need to do something. I want you to roll me,
I gave you this information, but I want you to
roll me an investigation check to see how long
this is going to take. Because time is important.
Okay, so we have no exhaustion, so it's just
straight up, right? Yes, no exhaustion, straight
up. No. Disadvantage. You're poisoned. You're
still poisoned. Oh, jeez. And I have a minus
two to investigation. Oh, my gosh, this is going
to be rough. Oh, shit. All right, so 12 was the
lowest roll. That's not bad. Not too shabby.
Oh, it takes you only an hour to like find this
place that maybe you ask around or you see like,
you know, some, like I say, some, some tough
looking guys that seem to create space around
them as they move. They're easy to spot here.
They're the biggest ones. They're the meanest
ones. They're the only ones who are really armed.
Um, and you begin to see what, what might be
like the criminal underbelly of this place. Okay.
So as these, uh, rough and tumble looking guys
are walking through, The crowd's partying around
them. Zebulon wants to come up next to them and,
hey, hey you. A man with just the biggest mustache
you've ever seen in your life. Just this absolutely
massive curled mustache over this sort of sneering
grin just looks down at you. He spits to the
side. What do you want? So here is where we have
to dive into something really fast. What is happening?
What is happening? So, Zebulon is a rogue, which
means he has certain things. And I'm thinking
that he got this particular skill while training
with his brother Arhalon. In order to uphold
justice, sometimes you need to learn about the
criminal underbelly. Okay. Zebulon wants to ask
this man about any... fresh hot bounties using
thieves can't oh shit that's so awesome that
is that is really cool oh yeah baby okay okay
um yeah okay okay you you so you do this thieves
can't tell me what do you think this looks like
i imagine i think it's like hand signals are
involved well i think i think it can be any number
of you know whether it's like written word and
symbols or hand symbols or I think there's even
just like a verbal component where it's like
speaking in code sort of it sounds like a normal
conversation it just apparently takes four times
longer to get your point across than it would
be if you just said hey tell me about any cool
new bounties on the street I'm here to collect
information on these cool new bounties this is
This is why I love them making this more open
because I never expected you to get in here so
quickly. Okay. But I absolutely love this. Okay.
And I think it only makes sense because not only
are you using Thieves' Cant and you're kind of
like singing things out, you're also kind of
a noted figure. And even people here probably
recognize Zebulon. And I think this is a very
interesting, very curious situation. We should
have disguised ourselves. Yeah, maybe. I think
I can do that. You say that. But this figure
kind of looks at you, follows up. He has this
kind of a twinkle in his eye. His smile kind
of widens. Go on in. Serapio will see you. There
may be something of interest to you. Yeah, I'm
definitely going to want to roll or try to roll
insight on this one. Okay. Can Jules get in on
that, too, even though he couldn't understand
really what happened? You are surprised this
guy just said, like, hey, come on in. Roll insight.
Yeah. With disadvantage. Yeah, it's still something.
Oh, that was good. If this roll shapes up, then
we might be all right. Nope, of course not. Three
minus three. Damn. Second roll from you was an
18. First roll was a nine. Damn. Yeah. This figure
just nods to a woman, a man on the other side
of the gate, just long, sleek black hair, lips
just down in this frown. Eyes cold watching you.
She just kind of moves wordlessly and gestures
you to follow her. And she moves up the path.
Do you follow? Jules just gives a nod. Shit.
All right. Yeah. Let's go into this criminal
stronghold and follow. You know, we deserve to
die. This crime mother, apparently. We deserve
to die. All right. All in. Okay. Here we go.
Remember earlier when David said, hey, if you're
too reckless, well, you know me. You know me.
Here it is. Here it is. You are moving up this
small hill past these lush rose gardens. Well
tended. Again, this is weirdly beautiful. Nothing
like anywhere else you've seen around here. It
feels like the kind of estate you should see
up on the hill, which right where you stand,
this is almost right at the base of the hill.
It just looms above you, almost like this one
estate knows it doesn't belong there, and yet
wants to. It just wants to. And so it feels like
an extension of this Papalotian hill, I don't
care. Papalotian. And yet, the dark figures that
mill about, glaring, the daggers flashing on
belts, it tells you this is not a good place.
But you follow her to the... main, very large
gate of this manor. And she's moving up towards
the door. And then she stops. And you stop because
you hear a commotion on the other side. Just
like a pounding of some sore. And a voice, no,
no, please, wait, please, please. And the door
bursts open. You see a figure comes rolling out,
tossed, cracking against the steps and rolling
down them right before you. As a number of Tufts
just stand in the doorway. Do not come back without
the money. But you're not looking at those Tufts.
You hear their voice, but you're looking down.
Down in the face. Very familiar. That, despite
the situation, despite being upside down on some
stairs, a little bit of blood running from a
crack, or a little, like, gash in their head,
see you, and they smile. And Ramin Rasool says,
What? Holy shit. What are you doing here? And
we'll call it there. See, when I don't do too
much like this, this, this, I gotta like create
gaps in my notes to make my life easier. Great
start, David. It's almost like you need a different
program for notes. Yeah, what do you have your
notes on? Notepad. That's all I know. Our D &D
career rests on notepad. All right. Actually,
you know what? This is actually a good thing.
This is a good thing because I forgot. Yes, it
is because now we have post -credit content.
I'm going to check the pronunciation of a word
because I'm going to fuck this word up. I've
already fucked up every other word. It's so hard.