Hey fellow D &D and TTRPG nerds, this is Kayla
Lundgren from the Potions & Pokery podcast. Myself
and my co -host Keisha are just two gal pals
who like to hang out and have casual conversations
about Dungeons & Dragons and other TTRPGs. Our
show is loosely formatted, but we like to talk
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occasional live play. We interview guests from
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where we make things up on the fly together.
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We love having you and we love doing this. Let's
go! The misplaced people of Tithos. This feeling
we have must certainly be equaled by the speaker
of that fallen world, Cirilla LaRoche. Now, Speaker
Cirilla is not one to be crippled by her own
grief. Though her dealings with the speaker is
another world. She has already found new homes
for about half of the refugees of Cirilla. That's
right, half. On particular note is her dealing
with the speaker Fortuno Infante of Saint -Etienne.
Working together, the two of them swiftly brought
over a hundred lost souls into the welcoming
arms. All right, you're strolling down the street.
Okay. You're walking down the street. Okay. It's
New York. I don't care. It's raining. A light
rain, a comfortable rain. You don't have an umbrella
though, because you went outside. You're an idiot.
Strolling down the street and a man walks up
to you. Okay. He walks up to you. Well to do
fella, kind of sketchy, kind of shady, but it
looks, looks relatively well to do. Um, which
is why you're less surprised when he, when he,
when he comes up and he says, Hey, I have my
pocket right now, an envelope with $1 million
and I'm going to give it to you. But you need
to tell me right now what you're going to spend
it on, and it has to be frivolous. What do you
tell them? Well, define frivolous. Frivolous.
Like what? No, no, I'll give it to charity because
I'm such a good Steven. No, Steven, don't give
me your bullshit today. I mean, does it have
to be frivolous? Does it have to be one thing?
I don't care. Ask the man. He says yes, one thing.
What are you doing with it? A million dollars.
But you've got to waste it. I mean, vacations?
Yeah. Where vacation? Everywhere. Give me some
shit. Give me some content. I mean, I was going
to say, like, buy a house. Well, that doesn't
sound very frivolous, though. That's not frivolous
at all. That's what's frivolous. He's taking
his money back. What about a timeshare? Is that
frivolous enough? That's just wasting money at
that point. That's the point of the exercise.
Dude, even his eyebrows raised, he's like, oh,
shit, you're serious. You're really into wasting
money. All right, Steven, let's roll for initiative.
A timeshare on, hmm. Okay. Definitely an island.
Okay. But not tropical island. I'm like, I'm
not a huge beach fan. A timeshare somewhere in
Greenland. Beaches are the worst. Like an island
off like. The Italian coast, maybe? Is that a
thing? That sounds fun. That doesn't sound frivolous.
That sounds fun. No, it's still a timeshare.
It's frivolous as hell. Thank you. Yeah, that's
what I'm going for. I'm trying to... Buying a
house like a responsible adult. I'm trying to
break the rules here. Yes. Almost. Well, you're
not quite yet. Or G's like... No. I was going
to say collectibles, but that's... I guess depending
on what the collectible is, like a million dollars
worth of Pokemon cards. So, yeah. That's pretty
good. That's pretty good. Yeah, like is this
something like spending it something that we
wouldn't actually fucking use? Because then it's
not frivolous. If we're going to use it and we're
going to love it, then it's not frivolous. I
will tell you my answer. Okay. Because this is
easy for me. Because if this hypothetical situation
happens to me in real life, it will take me 0
.01 seconds to answer this man and get that money.
He's going to buy a cat mansion. What? No. I
have a dream, gentlemen. I have a dream. I've
had it my whole life. Someday I'll see it through.
I would buy a full suit of plate mail armor.
Ornate as hell. Gems inlaid. I'd get a sword.
I would be a full -on knight in shining armor.
You could probably do that for like four digits.
Yeah, well, a million dollar armor. How sweet
would that be? Full platinum. I don't care. Diamond
encrusted. Diamond encrusted. You can't break
that shit. Anyway. Huh. That's my good answer,
and that's your answers. So actually, in Manchester,
a city not far from here, they have a full combat
league where you wear plate armor and you full
-on fight people with swords. That sounds awesome.
It sounds terrifying. Yeah, it sounds terrifying.
Yeah. Well, how do you win? Beat a person in
single combat. I don't know. It's probably similar
rules as MMA or boxing or something like that.
Okay. Never watched either, but okay. Well, but
I mean, you're at least familiar enough with
you hit guy, judge says, hey, that guy hit that
guy more than that guy hit that guy. You get
this point. There you go. Or you get knocked
out, I guess. Fight to the death. Medieval plateware.
Mail. That's the one. Well, let's look into it.
Let's go to Manchester and fight each other.
I'm not fighting Steven. No offense, Jeremy.
You look tough. But Steven just looks like he's
made of bricks. Oh, see, them's fighting words.
We're going to fight now. Oh, no, I don't want
to fight you either. We're going to fight now.
You're like up to the ceiling. Yeah. You're two
stories tall. Yeah. Oh, no. Who do I get to fight?
Nobody. I'm not fighting anyone. I'm a pudgy
nerd. I'm out of here. All right. All right.
Enough of your goofery. Let's go fight Jessenth.
Serious time. Let's fight Jessenth. But first,
before we fight Jessenth, actually, real quick,
real quick little announcement because it's pretty
cool. I don't want to, I don't know how far we're
going to go into talking about this, but me and
Mr. Wolf here had a little adventure over this
last weekend. Yes, we did. We had a little guest
appearance on a different show. I thought it
was awesome. I had such a great time. It was
a blast. Of course, Stephen would be there. Stephen
had all sorts of shit going on. Otherwise, we
would have had him there too. But in the future,
if there is a future of guest appearances, we'll
get Stephen in there as well. What can we talk
about? Stephen, you know this stuff. I was just
about to say you're hyping this up, but you have
not yet said where this guest appearance was
and who it was with. I'm the hype and you're
the info. Let me hype. Boom, bam, exciting stuff.
Get ready. Holy, okay, and go. Take it away.
Why are you looking at me, Steven? So Jason from
Evenfooting Games approached us and asked if
we would want to play with him and his crew on
a Babies and Broadswords adventure path called
Hundred Acre Heist. Yeah! It is a Winnie the
Pooh -themed Babies and Broadswords adventure.
And unfortunately, I couldn't play, but you two
guys stepped in. And played as, I understand,
Owl and Eeyore. Fuck yeah. Oh, yeah. David as
Owl, Jeremy as Eeyore. Uh -huh. Super, super
cool. Let me say, Owl is... the perfect character
for me. That's what I told Steven. If you follow
Winnie the Pooh at all, you know that Owl's whole
deal is he's seen as the brilliant one. In actuality,
he's just really imaginative. So people will
come to him and they'll be like, Owl, what's
this note say? And he'll read the note wrong
and be like, oh, clearly the flugelhof has kidnapped
Christopher Robin. It's a large creature with
blue hair and everyone's just kind of like, my
goodness, it must be true. And it's like, he's
seen as brilliant because he's just really over
imaginative, which is my entire life story. So
I love it. I just connect with that silly old
bird. I can't believe that nobody wanted to play
poo. Because if I was there, I would have wanted
to play poo. We all knew you were the poo. Yeah.
Well, hopefully, like you said, if there is a
next time, I can be there. And maybe, maybe I'll
play Winnie the Pooh. He puts up a stink about
nobody playing Winnie the Pooh. And then he says,
maybe he'll play Winnie the Pooh. I don't want
to like, I'm not going to be like, oh yeah, I.
I have to play Winnie the Pooh. That's right.
I would like to if it's available. Case in point.
That sounded like Winnie the Pooh. Pretty good.
It's pretty good. Give me a tumbly rumbly. What's
a tumbly rumbly? If you have to ask, then. All
right. Let's move on. You just watched the movie
like three days ago. Let's move on. Yep. Very,
very disappointing. You guys want to do some
scary shit? No. Yeah. I'm ready. I'm ready to
get scaredied. I was talking this up to you guys
throughout the week, and at a certain point I
was kind of pressing towards you, a point that
I kind of want everyone to sort of share in,
which is this is not a traditional combat. This
is a hostage situation. That's what you're potentially
moving into. And if you approach this like a
traditional combat, things might not go well,
because let's face it. You're not just fantasy
warriors wielding your swords, cutting down baddies.
You're motherfucking superheroes. Now let's see
what you guys can do. We're going to start off
in Serapio's office. We'll cut the explanation
as the large pussy mustache man starts just dropping
all this towards you, telling you everything.
I'll tell you this. New Cerule. That is the name
of a crumbling manor that stands at the edge
of the Moreno estate. It's a new name. It was
only chosen recently after the refugees of Cerule
were delivered to Saint -Étienne by Cirilla.
The Moreno estate basically gifted them this
one small part of their property, this one crumbling
manor, and that is where they've generally stayed,
banded together. About 20 minutes ago, Jessenth
Kellig and his retinue, still wearing nondescript
clothing, still blending in to a degree, looking
like any mercenaries from off -world, showed
up and took hostages, screaming out, demanding
Jules LaRoche and Dresden Kellig be delivered
to them. He set a time limit. One hour. But news
didn't travel to this side of... Los Cabellones
for about 20 minutes. You're on the other side
at Rosas from the Moreno estate. It took time.
Getting back there will take time. If you were
to leave right now, if you want to interfere
with this, you'll have about 20 minutes before
that deadline hits. Time is 1030. This delivery,
the information was just delivered, and the room
has dropped into silence. Go with the plan? Yeah,
let's see what... What it looks like when we
get there, I suppose. I mean, at least for the
start of the plan. Yeah. With where we are and
who we're with. Well, let's play it out. Yeah.
Let's get going first, at least. Yeah. Well,
that's what I mean. Yeah. I think everybody is
kind of going to look to Dresden and Jules. Yeah.
You know, surprised. Jules, what do we do? We're
with Serapio? Yes. He looks... Visibly, at first
he was sort of shaking him at the news, but as
it's kind of settled, he looks more and more
almost agitated, like annoyed. Dresden looks
to Serapio. You were looking for some help? Yes,
but there's no time for this. There's no time.
We need to act quickly, or else this opportunity
will be gone. You help us, we'll help you. He
bites his lip. We need men. We need power. Who
is this man? This Jacinthe Kellig? It's the name
they've been saying. Who is he? Someone who should
have died a long time ago. Who is he connected
to? I... The LaRoche family. He flickers his
eyes to Jules. Nods. No. I cannot help you. My
hands are tied in this, you'd understand. I have
connections too. Hiring. Jules Roche has one
thing, but I cannot stand directly in their way.
They will know, and I will be... No. I have too
much to do. This must be yours to clean. But
we need to split this. We cannot do this. Hogfight's
opening bout starts at noon. The battle itself
should begin around one, and I need you there,
ready to go before then. Looks like you might
be on your own then. This is the only option
right now. You came to me. You came to me. There's
something you need. Yes, you were looking for
work. He kind of looks up. They said you were
looking for a bounty. Looks at you, Zebulon.
If you want my help with anything, if you want
this job, see this matter done, but see it done
quickly and get back here. We may, we may just
make it in time. It'll get done a lot quicker
if we have your help. This man is also my brother,
and he's gone rogue. We're at a point now where
the LaRoche family would rather see him dead,
too. Give me your poison roll. He's here going
rogue. That's a 14. I can't. I can't take the
risk. Well, then it sounds to me like we're done
here. For now. Christian gets up and walks out.
Yeah, Jules. Dresden, we don't even say another
word. We just turn around and go. But you can't...
Zebion looks to the guy with the big mustache.
I mean, you look like a pretty strong dude. I
mean, just come punch somebody. They know I work
for Serapio. We... we serve our own agenda here.
Our own revolution. And we cannot be caught out
of guard. Well... I am sorry. You didn't make
any friends here today. And Zeb grabs Ramin by
the shoulder and starts to follow everybody else
out. Ramin's just in a daze, having heard this,
like, eyes wide. No, no, no. You guys push out
into the hall. You just see Serapio's glare as
the door cuts him off from you. And you are led
through the manor. I think as we're being led
through, Jules leans over to Ramin. and says,
Hey, Ramin. Yes? Is Dance anywhere around here
right now? No. Serapio, he mentioned Hulk fight.
I don't know what he wanted from you there, but
Dance is about to go into a match. A match that's
very important to her. Against the Mighty Pig
Man. It's a huge event, a great spectacle. Hell,
I imagine all the guards are pulled far towards
that. No one will get here in time. No one. Well,
I mean, I don't know. We just have to... We have
to worry about our own stuff right now. You...
I was told you have Serino. Yes? He's just looking
at you right now, Jules, because Zebulon hasn't
mentioned that you have it. Jules gives a silent
nod. Oh, yeah. Big time Serino. Most people don't
know that Serino consists of two concurrent forms.
A curse. And a physical illness. The curse trains
your energy and heat each night. And it gets
stronger every night that goes by. But the physical
illness... It causes uncomfortable symptoms,
but it doesn't... It won't kill you. Looking
at you, Jules, I assume you're still under the
effects of the latter. And I might have something
to help you. Is there something you can get out
of the way? Because we have to go now. It's something
I have with me now. I... Oh, God. Let me explain
this. Ramin either has 0, 1, or 2 antidotes on
him. If you roll under 25, he does not have any.
25 to 75, he has 1. 75 to 100, he has 2. All
right, Jeremy. You want to roll this bad boy?
Oh, man. I so wanted to find a way to use this
thing. I was just going to give you two. And
I was like, no, it's so much more fun to do this.
Oh, my God. You were just going to give us two?
I want to be nice. Oh, my God. I want to be nice.
You wanted to be nice. So then you made us roll
to maybe have a 25 % chance of getting the two
that you were just going to give us. You know,
my women's a real ass. All right. Here goes.
All right. All right. First ever. Fantasy Pants
D100. Oh, man. Here we go. Give me a button,
I'll give you an advantage on this. That's still
only a 50 -50. Yeah, yeah. Come on. He's just
being an ass at this point. Waste your button.
Stupid. Okay, what were the numbers that you
said? Which roll? What were the numbers? Oh,
gosh. We got a 41, so we get one dose. 41, okay.
God damn it. He pulls out a single antidote and
holds it out to you. And you know that the poisoned
condition that you are under and that Zebulon
is under... will be cured by this. The second
you see it, you realize what it is. It is the
very thing that Zebulon thought he had. It was
just an anti -toxin. I love how my own fuck -up
is what screws us here. It's so good. In fact,
as he reaches out, I'd like you to roll me, both
of you, a perception or an insight check on Ramin.
All four of us? Damn it. We'll get seven jewels
for now because you guys are directly talking
to him. Is that perception or what? Or insight.
Or insight. And this is all happening while you
guys are moving, by the way. You're pushing down
the steps, down to the rose gardens, down to
the gate as he's chatting and polling and this
is happening. It was a two minus one. That is
a dirty 20. Dirty 20. Okay. I love that because
as he reaches out to you, Jules, with the antidote,
you notice his hand is shaking. And as you go
to take it, you look at Ramin and you're seeing
it now for the first time. These symptoms that
you're feeling, he's feeling them too. Ramin
has serenone. You don't know how far along he
is. And you know that he's been holding this
antidote and purposely not taking it so he can
give it to somebody else. You're a dick. But
he's holding it towards you. I think everybody
here knows what Jules is going to do. He saw
it. He knows it. It's a matter of life and death.
So taking this dose, what mechanically is it
going to do for whatever character has it? It'll
cure your poison condition, which is a disadvantage
on all attack rolls. I think it's attacks, and
I think it's everything but saving throws. You
said all D20 rolls. I'm pretty sure you said
all D20 rolls. Exhaustion takes away from all
D20 rolls. Poison, I believe, is just attacks
and checks. Saving throws, you're okay on. Okay.
That would include death saves, thankfully. God
damn it. Jules isn't going to take it. Jules.
Not when he notices it. You see this. Jules isn't
reaching out. This is hovering there. This has
been a long pause. It was like shifting eyes
side to side. Dude, it's intense. Your people
are in danger, and you're not at 100%. Okay.
Jules will take it. Jules will take the vial.
But he's going to put it in his pocket. Ramin
just looks at that. You are weakened. You need
to be at full strength. Ramin will figure this
out together. And he gives him a nod that he's
hoping is clear enough to let him know that Jules
knows. Ramin's looking into your eyes, and at
first he looks confused, and then a certainty
just sets in. And he kind of just smiles and,
like, wipes sweat from his brow as he's moving.
Just too much sweat. Together. Okay. I will help
however I can, but I don't have much left in
me today. I've been at work since early, helping
the victims. How many days? Only two. Okay. Yeah,
somebody's going to have to take it before the
fight. Right. Right. So you guys move? Yes. Okay.
So wait, we were at Rosa's and we're heading
towards Salazar? You were at Rosa's and you're
heading towards Moreno. So you look and see it's
the opposite side, opposite corner, basically.
The opposite corner of that third of the triangle.
So Moreno is essentially resting at one corner
of the triangle. And Rosa's is essentially sitting
right at the center hill in the very middle of
the triangle. So yeah, you are, it's about 20
minutes just full running through, passing by
people. There is, Definitely panic in the street.
People whispering. People moving to the side.
Some people are rushing to find anyone that can
help. Please, please, please. Screaming in the
background. But you are dead bolting down the
streets towards Moreno. Ramin helping to lead
the way. Crispin and Dresden, you've been there.
You know where it is. You know the way. Okay.
I also want to paint one more thing real quick.
We talked about you guys getting some clothes.
Very minor thing, but just for my visual, I like
the idea of this. You guys grabbed some clothes
from the old city as you were on your way in
to kind of blend in more. And I was thinking
about this, and I think like a large sort of
a style or fashion that's really caught on in
Saint -Etienne are like ponchos. So I love the
idea of those sort of Western -style ponchos
covering over your armor as you're like moving.
Very man with a name. Yeah, it's super cool.
Especially Crispin with his red bandana. Oh,
man, yes. That's a good look. It's such a good
look. So cool. So you guys are cruising down.
How do you want to approach? You move to the
city about 20 minutes past, and you see the estate
on the fringe. You see it looks like a two -story
building. You do see crumbling walls. You see
that the building kind of almost like a great
sea. The letter wraps around this open courtyard.
There are like two main ways into the courtyard
itself. And I think even from a distance you
can see that, like, there's a figure standing
in the middle of the courtyard just before this
sort of fountain behind him waiting and holding
another figure before him. You see the glint
of steel as a blade is held towards the other's
neck. You see Jessin. Hold on. He doesn't see
you. You're in crowds. Okay. I'm just letting
you know what's open and visible. He's yelling.
He's screaming out into the sky as you come,
like, where are you? Where are you? And you see
that. There's a sort of wide open entrance, you
know, the sort of mouth of the sea going dead
in. There's also kind of an overhanging entrance.
You can move around to the north side of this
structure and cut straight in if you want to
get to Jessenth. But you don't see anybody else.
And that in itself is scary. We should locate
the hostages. From what you can see from afar,
I'm going to put you on a map. Now, the first
thing you're going to notice is that Rochelle
has outdone herself with this one. Look at this.
Absolutely gorgeous matter. Look at this. We
can only see a pinch of it right now. That's
true. I can see more. Everything I see is amazing.
You guys see. a fair bit you can see the open
courtyard you can see the sort of structures
of the uh the stone um kind of building around
it that northern entrance you see going in there's
actually kind of an overhang a second floor is
fully connected above that um but the main opening
there is is totally like so this kind of lays
out the entire perimeter of the building itself
Yeah, I'll give you that. Okay. And people wouldn't
know it. Rummy could even tell you, there's a
door in the back. There's a door you can go through
or down to the south side of the building. But
I don't know where there's guards. I don't know.
We need eyes in there. I should go. I should
go look. I think there's a brief pause from Jules.
And then he's going to turn to Zeb, reach in
his pocket, pull out the vial. Pull out the vial.
Hold his hand out to Zeb. And he's looking for
a handshake and a grasp with both hands. Yeah.
Zeb reaches both hands out. And as they clasp,
Jules is going to give him the vial and cast
invisibility. Oh, baby. I forgot you had that.
Oh, shit. Invisibility. That's pretty good. All
right. Zeb invisible. Oh, shit. That's pretty
good. So maybe you even see the. The vial, just
for shits and giggles. Floating. Well, anything
on your person is invisible. I know, but it sounds
cool. Okay, we'll roll with that. Yes, Steven.
That's how it happened. Get out of here with
your cheating. You cheater. Or okay, okay. The
invisibility starts center mass, and it starts
working out. So his trunk is invisible first,
and then his hand is still visible, and he tips
it up. And just as it's... The last drops are
coming out. His hand and the bottle turn invisible.
Ooh. Hell yeah. Then just for funsies, Zeb's...
Jules. It's hero time, Zeb. You got this. Is
he going to be okay on his own? He's going to
be good. I trust him with my life. I'm pretty
sneaky, so I wouldn't worry about it, Mr. Dubois.
Okay. Then... Which direction, David, did Ramin
say that back door was? So there's two actual
back entrances, basically. There's one. So if
you're looking at this sort of open mouth of
this C, and imagine a backward C. So the open
mouth is to the west, correct? Yes. Now to the
south of this opening, this sort of open plaza,
there is a door leading in. And to the east of
it, on the sort of upper side of this building,
there's a door leading in. Are there any ground
-level windows? Ooh, good question. Oh. Rochelle,
did you draw any ground -level windows? I don't
see any. Ah, fuck. As long as I know. It's funner.
Ah, fuck. It's what? It's funner. It's what?
Don't you stop me. Say it one more time. Say
it one more time. It's more fun. Any windows
on the doors, at least? Can I see through? No,
just hard oak. Great. Awesome. Excellent. Let's
make this hard for you, huh? You should know
there's also doors. Yeah, you know what? I'll
say if you're asking about windows and doors,
I will say there is. One door does have an open
sort of window sort of grate in the front of
it. It is in the courtyard. Of course. With Jessenth.
Of course. Okay, great. I kind of didn't count
that because walking by there is, well, it's
crazy. But invisibility means you can hide anywhere.
Yep. How about this? How about double movement
speed? Zebulon does a circle around the... The
building here. Okay. You see both doors. You
see the entrance to the courtyard. You see that
there are windows into the doors that are in
the courtyard, but you need to sneak past Justin
to get to them as he's just still standing there,
still screaming out. You can't get a good view
at the second floor unless you want to climb
up. I can give you a quick image of that on the
map, what you do see of it. We fucked up. It's
purely this. What do you mean we fucked up? You
don't have the stone. I mean... He hasn't done
anything yet. Because you kind of need the stone.
Yeah. The stone would be smart. But it's once
a day. Yeah. So use it wisely. If you look at
when you're going around, you see it's like a
floor. So Sebulon has not moved yet. Okay. You're
just discussing where he's going to move. Yeah.
He's basically just sneaking around to get the
layout and then come back. Oh. Okay. After Dresden,
no, sorry, not Dresden. After Crispin asks if
he's going to be okay, he's still concerned.
He's looking around. If you're still here, why
don't you take this? And he holds out the stone
of far speech that he has. And does everyone
take it? Sorry, I was over there. I could hear
you a little bit. Look at us. And the stone turns
invisible in his hand. Thanks. How do I use this
thing? And then Crispin explains how to use it.
I love this. I love this so much. All right,
let's do a 50 -50. Why don't you flip that guitar
pick for us, the pick of Minor Destiny. Heads
will go north door. Tails will go the southern
door. Before you do that, let me tell you one
more thing that may be of interest to you. I
mentioned before, a lot of crumbling masonry.
You could, on the second floor, basically, to
the northern... uh edge of the sea's mouth the
there's a full room that the stone walls have
just fully collapsed it's basically so 20 feet
up where this or 15 feet up or so where the first
story ends you see just like an open second story
area which likely has more ways in from there
oh There's also similar like a corner of a building
on the other side has also crumbled There's like
a so almost like a window in to be like, you
know 10 feet across So it's like it's another
entrance could take but that's pretty visible.
Are we supposed to see that dude? What dude the
dude on the second floor? You know what? Yeah,
I'm half of this you would make him out as you
go in mind you do you see there is a cultist
The one of those robed peep figures He does not
clock you until you kind of make your move, but
you're being careful. You're looking around and
you saw so invisible Good point. What's that
over there? You see he's just standing there
watching Jesseth down below. Looks like he probably
has a role in this as well. Okay. So Zebulon
has the Stone of Farspeech. He's invisible. He's
done a quick loop around to sort of investigate.
So he comes back. Hold on. So if he tells us
what's all there, do we get the fog removed?
You get the fog removed. What he revealed is
what I already showed you. Just the outside of
the building. Okay. go in yet there's um there's
somebody on the second floor right up right up
there just behind that crumbling wall um we can't
see him from here but he can see down uh to jesson
so um be careful i'm gonna i'm gonna climb up
here and i'm gonna go in through those crumbling
walls over there pointing to the second floor
on the other side the northern side of the sea
Who's that pointing to? Because we can't see
him pointing. Okay. So good. Drawing lines in
the sand. Second story. Second story. The southern
part behind the... See that flower box over there?
Dead flowers. I'm just giving you shit. All right.
As you're saying this, I will say, I mean, from
the courtyard nearby, maybe you're around the
corner from it, you can hear, 10 minutes! Ten
minutes, Jules! Ten minutes, and they all die!
All right, do we want to stick with the plan
with regard to Crispin? I don't really see what
we'll gain. I just want to see what he will say.
It's Jules and Dresden's show, so everyone's
going to kind of follow their lead. Okay. I'm
going to say once this starts, I'm going to put
you in initiative. You can skip turns if you
want. to let people kind of keep going, but this
is a complex situation. Okay. Given that Dresden's
brain is probably a little more tactical than
Jules would. Military man. Yeah. He's going to
turn to Crispin and say, You stay close, but
out of sight. He wants us. Let's see what he
does first. All right. Crispin puts his back
up against the wall. Yeah, and by... I guess
by stay close but stay out of sight, he means
just stay outside the door, but out of sight.
I'll wait here until I hear your call. Okay.
Everyone's taking positions? Zebulon, you're
moving to basically the wall of the first story
that you can climb up to that full open room
in the second story? Yes. Okay. Is that on the
north side of the mouth of the sea? Jules, are
you and Dresden making any moves? No, we're just
walking in. You're walking into the courtyard?
Holy shit. What's Ramin doing? Ramin's under
the poison condition. Ramin is pretty burnt out
on spells. It's up to you what he wants to do.
He can help in some ways, but he's looking to
you. So we'll just sideline him? Yeah. Maybe,
yeah. Just have him around the corner just so
he's not even seen as we're going in there. We
don't want to give them any indication that there's
anybody else with us. Okay. For the sake of ease,
I'd like you, Jeremy, to roll advantage when
you roll initiative. And both Jules and Dresden
will take that initiative point. Because you
guys are going together. Wait, say that again.
Okay, stop. Wait, what? So we roll initiative.
Go ahead and roll for both your characters, and
then both of them can take the higher. Both of
them get advantage. They both get the higher
initiative because I want them both to be together.
You're doing one roll. Oh, I see, I see. Because
you guys are going in together, it just makes
more sense for you to play both your characters
at once, if that's cool with you. Yep. Okay.
You guys move in. Start walking into the plaza.
Crispin and Ramin around the corner. waiting
for their moment, Zebulon getting ready, hands
on stone, to climb up invisible. Everyone roll
for initiative. So, do we have the exhaustion
rolls right now? No, not during the day. Okay.
And only Jules is poisoned. All right, that's
a 16 for Zeb. Ooh, and just a 8 for Crispin.
So that is a 13 for Jules and a 15 for Dresden.
You both will go on a 15. Oh, yeah, that's right.
Yeah. Another thing to note before we start this,
you guys waited in the waiting room for Serapio
for over an hour last session. That means you
can take a short rest again if you want for Crispin
and Dresden. That's very generous. Yeah, I realized
that upon re -listing. I was like, oh, yeah,
you guys should take a short rest. Yes, yes.
Ooh, I've only got one hit die left, though.
Shit. I have got all four. Oh, no, that's Jules.
Yeah, I'm going Dresden, though, because Jules
is already full. Let's see. All right. Got nine
back. That puts me almost at max. Now, when this
starts, it's going to be kind of a looser combat.
I'm going to cut turn ends if there's more narrative
point to cut them, because... What's kind of
happening here is Zebulon's moving around while
you guys are walking in, kind of distracting
Jessenth, kind of fulfilling what he needs. So
I'm not going to be like, okay, do your action
because this might not be an action every turn
that you can do. So your role is most likely
going to be keeping him talking. You're talking
to Jeremy? Talking to Jeremy. Sorry. Yes. Zebulon,
as this is happening, I'll cut to you. You'll
be moving through. Be aware of ready to actions.
You can assume mechanically. that a lot of my
guys have them. That if something triggers the
raid action, they will perform an action that
will supersede yours. If they see anything funny,
things go south. And with that, we're going to
start with you, Zebulon. All right, excellent.
Let's see how many rolls I can flub here. Oh,
man. There's one bit of information I forgot
to give you in the beginning that might be important.
Okay, it sounds very important. And that is that
there were... 13 hostages taken. Okay. You know
the number. They know. They did a count after
everyone left in all the panic. And wasn't a
guy here by the time you reach this point. People
in the streets knew. 13. There are 13 here. Okay.
Can we say, since that was supposed to happen,
that we all are aware that there's 13? You're
all aware. All aware. I mean, I guess since we
just walked in, we're probably fucking aware
of it. Yeah. Fully everyone knows. Okay. Okay.
All right. Ready to climb that wall. masonry
is loose um but like i mean like loose as ours
like you know not there are points that could
fall out when you touch it but it's also misshapen
to a point where it's not super hard to find
handholds it's gonna be athletics check to climb
i'm not gonna make a huge one yeah okay you can
fly out there with your little wings it's just
a nine okay you begin to climb and you're about
halfway up we'll say when Your hand grabs something
loose. It rumbles down. You are only about halfway
at this point. You're like hanging off by one
hand and you hear a voice above say, what was
that? Who's there? Directly above? Directly above.
Oh, nice. And you hear footsteps moving or maybe
they can't move yet, but you hear like someone's.
beginning to move towards that direction on the
sort of upper landing there that you're working
towards. Okay, so while invisible, I can still
take the hide action, right? Absolutely, you
can. Okay, then I'm going to use, goodness, what's
it called? Cunning action to bonus action hide.
Yeah, and the thing with invisibility is you
can hide anywhere. That's the main benefit of
it. So, okay, so you just, like, you're hanging,
and you're kind of still, like, you're clawing
at some of the stuff, and you hear someone coming,
and you just hole up. Go still. Go silent. Hell
yeah. Anything else you want to do this turn?
You can also... Let's say that your movement
was the climb. You can ready an action with your
main action if you want. No, I can't think of
anything that I'd do, so no. Okay. So you're
hanging about seven feet short of the upper ledge.
Already things going. Yeah. A little south. I
guess if Zebulon gets attacked, he will... No,
that's all right. Let's just continue on. Okay.
That's Jules and Dresden. I also just tell you,
they can act in whatever order you please during
your turn. You step out and you begin to move
down the mouth of the sea towards the fountain,
towards the figure of Jesenth Kelleg. His back
up against it, sword drawn to... God, what was
his name? What was his name? Grindy. Grindy,
thank you so much. Grindy's throat. Grindy's
eyes go... wide. Dresden's smile grows cheek
to cheek. No, no, no, no, you can't. Jules, no,
you mustn't. Let us die. You carry our hopes.
Shut up. They're here. That's all that matters.
It ends now. As we walk through the door, Jules
says, Well, we're here. And then Dresden says,
What happened to you, brother? What? What happened
to you? What happened to me? How have you fallen
so far? Fallen? You call this falling? I have
risen. Look at this pathetic wealth. What do
you think the LaRoche family is going to do to
you after this? Look at this creature in my hands.
Barely even alive. Money. Money is everything.
Power is everything. I was one of them. You were
one of them too. All of us. You will have none
after today. You're wrong. They will thank me.
They will thank me for taking you in, traitor.
And you, the child that ran away, they will worship
me for what I'm going to do to you today. And
I will never, ever need to sink low into the
detritus of this filth again. I'm going to cut
the talking, the dialogue, for that turn right
there. I'll tell you when we're done. But if
you have any actions you want to perform, anything
like that, feel free. Otherwise, we'll move on
to Crispin and Zeb. Can I just say one more thing?
Yeah. Send me away. So what do you think the
family's going to do when you bring in the dead
body of their son, of their pride and joy, their
precious chosen one? What do you think waits
for you? All right. I'll resolve that on Justin's
turn. Okay. I like that. Moving on. Oh. Immediately
after, it's Jessen's turn. Okay. Well, that works.
The blade sort of tightens on Grindy's neck.
Run, run. It's okay to run. Shut up, chosen one.
Perhaps Cerise has plans for him, but no matter.
When he's gone, those plans will end. Cirilla
and Samuel, they'll protect me. They want him
dead. They want him gone. How about this? Since
you're so interested in protecting him, I'll
kill you first, brother, and let him watch. Next
up, a bunch of people you don't see, and then
Crispin. Oh my goodness. Yeah, being out here,
there's really not a lot that Crispin can do,
so... Rabbit, Crispin, what's the plan? Ramin's
right next to you, kind of whispering. Do we
go around back? Do we do something? The plan
for you is to stay and watch. Should things go
poorly, we'll need someone to request some backup.
As for my part, Crispin wild shapes into a dire
coyote. Oh, shit. I'm just doing that because
he's got nothing else to do. It lasts for an
hour, and if he needs to react, he can. He can
just jump in nice and quick. Okay. And that's,
I think, going to be the end of his turn. All
right. Full -on dire coyote at the ready around
the corner, waiting, pause, silently touching
down on cobblestone. That's so cool. Yeah. Zebulon
above you, you hear someone walking, and you
see a cloaked and hooded figure peek over the
side, looking right down towards you. Did you
roll a stealth check last time when you hid?
No, I just said that I was going to use a bonus
action to hide. Give me a stealth check. Plus
eight for Zeb, so hopefully this goes well. Try
a side. If invisibility by rules does not give
advantage, I looked into this, do you think we
should house rule that it does? I don't know
if it gets one of the players. If invisibility
gives advantage on stealth checks. By rules,
as written, it actually doesn't. It just allows
you to hide anywhere because it doesn't make
you quieter. The idea is if you're moving, you're
still making sounds. I really think that it should,
but I also... I don't know. If that's the rule,
then that's the rule, I guess. That's a tough
one. Because I also think it should, too. I'm
surprised that that's the rule, that being invisible
doesn't give you even a bonus, a plus two or
whatever. You know what I mean? But I'm fine
with it. You know what? In our home games, when
we're not sure about doing advantage on something,
I love the idea of bonuses. A bonus is a plus
two. Bonuses and minuses. It's a house rule we've
been using. How about invisibility gives you
a bonus to stealth rolls? Okay. I think it's
a good medium ground. It's not as powerful as
advantage. Sure. So it's not going to throw.
power levels, mechanics out the window, but it
should still give you a little benefit that I
think would be nice. So take a plus two on this
roll. Okay, that's great. Sweet. So then that's
a plus 10 overall for Zeb. Let's see what we
get. It was a 10, so a dirty 20. Okay, and I'm
going to contest that. These cat dice are weird.
Took me a minute to figure out what was on the
die. Figure looks down. Eyes fall on you. Sweep
past. And the hood figure's gone. You hear footsteps
moving away. Oh, okay. Great. On the other side,
the bottom of the mouth of the sea, where there's
a small sort of open doorway into the side of
this building, you hear and maybe even kind of
feel movement coming up behind you, Jules and
Dresden, from the second floor, as you see...
Like I mentioned before, one of these figures
is up there. But you see that smiling under the
hood, they grab somebody and yank them out into
view. Knife flashes, and they have a second hostage
at the ready. They are silent. But the figure
they're holding is not silent. Hey, hey, what
are you doing? Hey. Hang on. What's the voice?
Hang on. What's the voice? Give me a second.
Give me a second. Give me a second. Yeah, I was
going to say, I don't recognize that voice. Give
me a second. Shit. I had it earlier. Hey Jules,
it's me. It's yeah. All right. I think it's like
this. Hey, it's me Jamal. Remember Jamal? Remember
Jamal? From way back when I voiced him one time
and made up a name on the fly. Remember this
guy? He's cool. Anyway. Oh, if that's a penguin,
I don't give a shit. Those are expensive. You
see this teenage boy just yanked out, rough cloth,
maybe having some pangolin -esque features. I'm
so sore. Different Jamal. Different Jamal. Hey,
Jules, Jules, hey, don't listen to Grindy, all
right? We don't want to die. We don't want to
die. It's okay. You know, we appreciate your
sacrifice, all right? Okay, okay. As the knife
is being held to him, you see this figure is
above, staring down at you. And Jessen just grins
all the wider and back to Zebulon. Okey -dokey.
Then, uh... It seems like the footprints, the
footsteps went away. Zebulon will continue to
climb to the top of the wall here. So I'm going
to assume you're using movement to climb, stealth
action to keep yourself, or hide action to keep
yourself going quietly? Yes. Perfect. You know
someone's up there? Oh, so when you said I heard
steps moving away, you didn't mean like away,
like off of that? Farther back. Yeah, basically
it sounds like they were farther back. You heard
no doors, anything like that. Sure, sure. So
likely someone's still up there. This is tense.
I'm, like, sweating. Oh, my God. This is so tense.
Yeah. I just feel like if they're going to have
somebody up here, they're probably going to have
somebody at every door. And if I open a door,
then I'm expecting something bad to happen. Okay.
All right. Let's roll with it. Let's keep climbing.
That's a two on the die. Oh, my gosh. That's
a two on the die. Let me... So before we continue
your turn, let me just tell you what happens
immediately. This figure moves away. You hear
footsteps padding away. And just as you kind
of breathe a sigh of relief, the single hand
you still have, your one -handed that's gone
limp after the masonry fell away and you tried
to hide yourself, go still, that stone also falls.
And you slide back down. That's the sound of
you falling, I guess. You slide back down and
land. It's not as loud as the previous rock falling,
but you have fallen off the wall. Sure. But you
got some information. You know someone's up there.
You know it's one of these hooded figures that
you... I'm sure you've traded information. Crispin
may have told you about these guys. They're scary.
They're the real threats. Right. Maybe I'll do...
Maybe... Maybe this time, since I'm on the ground,
I'll use my cunning action to dash around the
corner here. Okay. That'll get me. And if you're
using dash, you didn't use your movement to that
climb. You just fell. You can take another movement
action if you want to go. Sure, yes. Is David,
if I ping this, is that the door back there?
That is the door, yes. Okay. All right, sure.
Then I will do another 30 feet moving towards
that door. Zebulon moving quickly, swiftly. I
mean, you're down. Your cunning action is to
move again. You're also stealthing with an action.
So you're basically, you're still hiding, right?
You're still kind of keeping quiet? Yes. Do I
have that ability? Yes. Okay, yeah. So double
move is, okay, that's my action to double move
and my cunning action to hide. Okay. So you loop
around. You pass by the northern opening. Eyes
look down as you see Jules and Dresden standing
before Jessinth. He's looking eager. You know
your time is limited and you've already wasted
so much, so much precious time. And you, they
vanish behind the wall as you push towards the
back. All right. That's you, Jeremy. That's yous.
Use guys. It's use guys. Use fellas. Also, just
throwing the reminder about what we had talked
about. I'm going to keep reminding it so you
don't forget. Okay. So what's your endgame here?
How do we know that once you kill us, that you're
actually going to let these people go? I'm afraid
you're just going to have to trust me. So step
forward. You're first. Let me explain how this
is going to work. You're going to move closer
to me, say 10 feet, and then my associate above,
gestures to the hooded man that's holding Jamal,
he's going to hold you in place with magic, and
you're going to let him. Mechanically, you can
choose to fail a saving throw. What is being
offered here is that you could pick up... He's
going to use hold person on you, and he expects
you to purposely fail the saving throw for hold
person. How does that sound, brother? Are you
ready to die for these people like a fool? At
least I'll die with some honor. Something you
clearly have none of. Keep talking, but step
forward. I'll ask you now, do you step forward?
Just for the visuals, you are currently about
25 feet away from Justin, so you'll be moving
about 15 feet. Closer to him. Ten feet away from
Grindy in his arms. If you do as he requests.
You're on your own, Dresden. If it makes you
feel any better. I have no idea what Zebulon's
going to do next turn either. This is terrifying.
And we got two sheets to pour over for these
decisions. So, they're both there, right? Who's
they? Jules and Dresden. Like, I can take actions
with both of them. Yes, you may choose whoever
you want to go first. They're freely yours to
pick between. They could intermingle their turns.
You could take a Jules action, a Dresden action.
You can do whatever you want with them. I'm doing
some weird rules for this combat because it's
a weird kind of combat. I want to have fun with
it. Just going to have to go with your gut. Dresden
walks out. It's either that or blow this whole
shit up. Yeah. You move forward 10 feet and you
stand at the ready. Okay. Yeah. In fact, it's
because you moved into place and this was a preset
plan. I'm going to use my ready to action with
the guy above, and I'm going to cast hold person
on Dresden. That was a ready to action. We could
have gone for him. That was part of the check
is to see what he was kind of preparing. You
see the knife drops. He's focused wholly on you.
The second you step into place, as you have heard
Justin speaking, he was getting ready for this,
and I need you to make a wisdom saving throw.
Or fail it on purpose. Or fail a wisdom saving
throw. That's going to be your choice. It's a
fail either way. That was an eight. So tell me
narratively. Does Dresden fail on purpose? Or
did he, at the last moment, want to try to resist?
Knowing. Knowing what this means. He failed on
purpose. Holy shit. And then... Let me give you
another bit of information. Okay. You already
saw that the cultist up top, this was his focus.
He has lowered the weapon. Jamal kind of shuffles
off to the side nervously as his figure feels
like it's already won. As this magic is cast.
If you chose to fail, Dresden is paralyzed. Locked
into place. But when this happens, you can see
that Jessenth is also just slightly lowering
his sword. getting ready to make a move on him.
Now, I will say this, just to kind of clarify,
because I wanted to make sure mechanics -wise
this all is out there. Justin's still, until
his turn, his raid action is going to be killing
Grindy. But I will say, even with your passive
insight, it's pretty obvious that Justin is going
to let Grindy go on his turn, which is next,
and go for Dresden. You can ready an action,
do something then. But right now, Grindy's still
in danger. That's the scary part here. You can
ready it. I can ready it. Yeah, that's a great
idea. I'm ready in action. Ready in action. Okay.
Yeah. All right, so it'll cost you a reaction,
but you can do a full action on... Yep. And this
is with Jules? Yes. So Jules, what's happening
with Jules right now? Just to get the picture.
So Dresden Marshall or Dresden's body locks into
place. Jules, you're seeing this. He's just staring
at Justin. Justin's smiling at you. When you're
done, I just don't want this to pass by. A tidbit
before Dresden's turn ends is all. Okay. Yeah,
I think at this point Dresden's turn is done.
You might want to consider readying an action
for the condition of when or if the hold person
drops. Can I do that? What are you planning?
Can I do that? What are you planning? Well, I
mean, if it were to happen, I don't really, we
really don't have a plan. Yeah, you can do that.
But if Dresden was to realize that the spell
has been broken. Yes. If Dresden can move. Yes.
That's a set thing. It's like, if Dresden can
move, he will do blank. Yes. Oh, if I can do
that, absolutely. Okay. Oh, fucking yeah. All
right. So Dresden's turn is over. He's readied.
And on Jules's turn, he's just staring down Jessenth,
and he readies an action. Okay. If Jessenth moves
forward, then this. Jessen's eyes go wide. His
ratty grin grows. He takes his hand, just throws
Grin to the side, like, out of here, filth! You've
served your purpose! And he, sword out, charges
towards his brother. I'm gonna take your other
eye, brother! Before I take your head! And he
moves. He moves in to take an automatic critical
hit on you. Two, actually. For you are. Oh, that's
right. I forgot he's kind of a badass. Underhold
person. Okay. But he moved, which means you get
to make your action now as he's charging in.
Jules Misty steps behind Jessen. Oh, shit. And
immediately grabs his throw from behind. Huh.
Well, can he grab? He Misty stepped. He Misty
stepped. Right. That's a move. Oh, fuck. Can
he grab? Can he grab him? It's not his turn anymore.
I'll double check. Although we'll check, but
I want to meet you on this. So we know, Jeremy,
that two of the guards are accounted for. Yes.
One is up here on the second floor. The other
one is on the other side on the second floor.
We know that there are three or four other guards.
I think there's four. Okay. So we know that they're
all with the hostages. You can assume. Probably
one on each door and two with the hostages. Here's
where we're going to do this. We're so boned.
Here's where we're going to do this. Give us
your bonage, David. Normally, I think it looks
like you can use one action, so Misty Step would
be that action. But I'm going to give you two
different paths here. Three different paths,
actually. Path number one. We go by rules as
written. You appear behind him. Jessenth reacts
to you, but maybe still goes for Dresden. The
helpless Dresden. Path number two. You give me
a button. Jessenth is surprised. and whips around
to attack Jules instead. Who will not be automatically
crit? Option three. You give me two buttons,
and I'll let you go for a grab with an athletics
contest. Because this sounds cool. That's fair,
and it's pretty obvious to me which one we should
choose. You got me second -guessing. To me, I
think it's obvious for one button. What was the
one button again? Justin is going to turn around
and attack you instead. Now, let me recontextualize
the scene. Before you make this choice, this
is a massive choice. No buttons. I'm going to
critically hit Dresden twice. That might just
be the end of Dresden -Kellig. One button. You
don't need to tell me this. I'm well aware of
the gravity of the situation. I'm going to hit
you twice. And you have very little HP. That
could be the end of Jules LaRoche. Two buttons
and you have a chance, a chance, a slight chance
to battle, to do an Athletics contest against
someone that's stronger than you, almost certainly.
Crispin Dubois is a dire coyote, hiding around
the corner, waiting, prowling, soft pause on
stone. Zebulon, having failed his first attempt
inside, is weaving around the building to find
a second. The hostages that you see have been
dropped, but there are so many more that you
don't see. You don't know what's going to happen
to them. This is a boiling pot. It is about to
go down, and I want to hear your decision, but
not right now, because we're going to call it
there. Oh, fuck. Testicles, testicles, testicles,
testicles, testicles, testicles, testicles, testicles,
tickles, tickles, tickle me Elmo. Yeah, yeah.
Tickle the testicles. Fuck, he's recording. God
damn it. Yeah, post credits. Got him. We're going
testicles with the post credits. Shit.