What up, suckers? No, I'll set that over. Hey,
everybody, I bet you're really excited for the
next episode of Fantasy Pants. Well, it's not
coming. Ha! Gotcha, suckers, because it is the
year anniversary. Episode 50 is out right now.
50! Can you believe it? And next week, for our
anniversary of the first time we sent an episode
out to the public, to you guys, we're going to
a rec fair! Fucking Renaissance Fair! I'm so
excited. So we're going to take a week off. We're
going to take a little break because we deserve
it, damn it. So we're back. We're back next week.
It's going to be awesome. Enjoy episode 50 and
also enjoy this little trailer from our friend,
Hammer of the Gods. This is Dungeon Master Rick
here with Hammer of the Gods. Do you enjoy socially
awkward bards? I pull out 50 gold and I put it
in the guard's hand and say, can I go see the
snakes now? Dungeons and Dragons, and mildly
inappropriate humor. Haha, looks like Daniel's
our new DM. Hi, Daddy. Did you just call me Daddy?
I've been here for 10 seconds and we're already
jumping straight to Daddy. Alright. And epic
fantasy combined with alternate history and a
splash of Greek and other ancient mythologies
thrown in for flavor. Why do the other Olympians
avoid Dionysus? Because all he does is whine.
Ooh, I'm praying to death here just now. Then
you'll love Hammer of the Gods. You can find
us wherever you get your podcasts. And if you
really enjoy our show, you can support us on
Patreon at patreon .com slash ham pod. That's
H -A -M -M -P -O -D. Zebulon Black. His body
has been sent back to the Citadel. But he will
be collected by Speaker Cholet. She will oversee
preparations for a full funeral. And we will,
of course, be streaming that live when the time
comes. Zebulon lived as a hero. Died as a hero.
I will mourn for him for all my years. His light
burn bright and fast. I did not know him long
at all, but he saved me from a great, great darkness.
And if you knew him, if you really knew him,
you'd understand the true tragedy of his loss.
But I find that it helps me in these times to
remember that our 25 worlds are made of so many
good, brave folk. Heroes like Zebulon may fall
on their quests, but they'll never truly be gone,
not so long as there are others. waiting in the
wings, ready to carry on their will and finish
what they started. Hello, everyone. I am David
Monroe, your host for tonight's ceremony. Come
on. Come on. Tough crowd. Cheer. Yeah, all right.
Big crowd tonight. Big crowd tonight. So sexy.
Look at those eyes. Big crowd tonight. Are you
guys ready? Are you guys ready? Sure. For the
Fancy Pants biannual zippies. Wait, what? The
biannual zippies? Yeah, it's biannual. It's biannual
now. I'm lost. All right. I feel underdressed.
I got some awards here for some very, very talented
folk. And I want to get into it. You forgot the
zippies. Yeah, I did. I mentioned it to you today.
I forgot it still. I said we're doing more zippies.
It's right on red as our top number one bit.
People loved it. They asked for more. And damn
it, I'm going to deliver. I'm going to deliver
here right now with some awards for a couple
of great players. You guys ready for this? Ready
for this? I'm so ready. All right. It's my first
envelope here. All right. Flip envelope in my
hand. Okay. I should probably get some buttons
in my hand as well. Hang on. Okay. We start with
the perfect dramatic staging award, which goes
to... This envelope opens. I'll do that one.
It's better. Jeremy Wolf! Now, Jules giving into
his rage just led to such an incredibly thrilling
conclusion to our three -parter. I mean, that
build -up, the hands over eyes, the use of your
dark given powers in such a rage -fueled scene.
Oh, Jeremy Wolf, that was beautiful. Beautiful
character playing, and it led to some unforgettable
gaming. Just take this button, sir. Take this
button. Thank you. I'll take it. Beautiful man.
Absolutely. Wow, this is the first one in, like,
months. Now get more paper, because we've got
another one. This one was really impressive to
me. So here we go. The Character Focus Award
goes to Steven Rodriguez! Oh my goodness! I never
could have expected I would win anything. Now,
I don't know if you know why you win this one.
And it's actually really cool. So when I listened
back to Hero Time 3 before we sent it out, right?
I find myself wildly impressed by something that
you did. Something that I thought was really,
really cool. It may seem small, but it was a
true showcase into the mind of an incredible
role player. Ooh, incredible. Ooh. Hear that?
Incredible. When Zebulon died. Do I see you blushing?
When the moment happened, and you rolled that
one, and, like, that was a very dramatic moment.
And you could hear that sort of anguish, and
just the, oh, my God, it's a one. oh fuck and
there was like a 30 seconds 40 seconds where
you're recovering from that and then you jumped
to something so surprising and so delightful
you said shoelace is going to be so pissed because
you being the incredible fucking beast that you
are immediately jump into the mind of crispin
reacting to the moment instead of steven reacting
to the moment which i thought was actually really
cool i thought it was really cool crispin was
still alive and i was thinking oh shit not for
a long once dude It was great. It was such a
good way to, like, just jump from character.
Like, you realize what happened. You realize
what you lost. And 30 seconds, you understood.
But I still have a character here. I have to
play that. And I thought that was really awesome.
Take this button, sir. All right. Okay. All right.
Next up, the absolute heartbreaker award. There's
a button in here. I don't think I had a button
before. Yeah, that was because we mistakenly
took a button for the athletics check. Oh, right,
right, right. Listen to our debriefed to hear
that button get delivered. That's right. I was
there. I remember. Yeah, well, go listen to it
because you forgot. You forgot the zippies. I
forgot zippies too. The absolute heartbreaker
award goes to Jeremy motherfucking Wolf, everybody.
Heartbreak hearts? Thanks. Need I even explain?
Need I even explain why you're getting this award?
The song, the scene, the raw emotion. Take two
fucking buttons, you monster. Take two buttons.
Honestly. Tribute for Zeb is worth two buttons.
Just saying. Yeah. It was a lot of hard work.
Zeb would be proud. Yeah. We got one more award
here, folks. And what could that be? Oh, wow.
Of course. It's the amazing new character award.
It's going to. Give me a red. I wonder who has
a new character. I don't know. Who could it be?
There's so many people in this category. What
a mystery. This is so much anticipation. Open
it. Open it. Open it. It's Jeremy Wolf. Fuck
you. Tell us all about your new character, Jeremy.
What? Would you believe it? It's Steven Rodriguez.
We've been doing so much chatting about this
new PC, and I have to say that I absolutely love
the ideas that you've been bringing forth. I
am so excited, and I want you to take this a
button. Awesome. Thank you, David. Thank you.
You take that, sir. Are we at three a piece now?
We are both at three buttons a piece. This has
not happened since the first episode. So I had
an idea. I'm going to pitch to you all. All right.
We had talked about grabbing a whiteboard so
that we could take notes, especially during battles
and stuff like that. Yes. I think it might be
helpful, useful to have like a button in, button
out. Yep. Every episode count. So like, you know,
is this episode 50 we're recording or 51? Episode
50. So we'll have a 50 on the whiteboard. And
we'll have a mark for buttons in, a mark for
buttons out. So we can look up on the board,
and if it's been like four episodes since anybody
has used or given a button, we can all look at
that and be like, hey. Yes. So we're talking
about participation buttons now? You want participation
buttons? I mean, according to what you said today,
yes. We get buttons for participating. No, no.
I just think if we have a visual reminder, we
can all, on both sides, keep the button economy
moving. Accountability. You're saying all sides
and you're looking directly at me knowing that
the power is mine. Hey, hey, hey, hey. I can't
use buttons unless you give them to me. Welcome
to motherfucking capitalism. Yeah. Trickle down
my ass. I don't know if that. Yeah. All right.
I have all the buttons. I thought it was a cool
idea. 90 % of buttons. Yeah. One spot. Eat shit.
I like that idea. It's a good idea. Anyway, moving
on. Before we start, before we really, really
start. We got to do some chunk talk. You guys
want to get chunky in the pants? Wow. There's
so many surprises today. I'm high energy. Dude,
I got past holiday weekends. I'm going into the
easy part of the year. I'm high energy right
now. You are off the rails. I'm thrilled. I'm
thrilled. All right, all right, all right. Chunk
talk. You actually had some good ideas there
talking about the whiteboard, and we actually
had a little discussion on another sort of subject
that we could use to streamline combats, all
that. I think it's very important because looking
back at the entire show, but in particular these
last few episodes, we have a little problem,
and that problem is actually me. I think we should
make a change in how we run turn order. I think...
I no longer am allowed to have the power of controlling
and viewing that. Especially I love to have those
early, you know, the start of the fight where
it's like, oh yeah, and I go first. And then
you guys shiver in your boots and pee yourselves
every time. I love that, but we can't do that
because I'm going to forget Jules halfway through
and he'll miss two turns. We can't do that again.
We got to make sure. Or you forget that Jules
is there entirely and I come and kill you. Yeah,
it actually has happened once. That actually
literally happened once. So, how do you want
to do this? Who wants to be the new turn order
leader? Or do you want to just like have a whiteboard
where we can write this stuff down and just sort
of control, you know, just all view it? How do
you want to do this? I like the whiteboard. Okay.
Everyone's accountable? Well, I mean, I can handle
the whiteboard. I think if we have the whiteboard
right there on the closet door area. Okay. Well,
whatever happens, we'll say this. Or we could
just put it right there so we don't have to like
walk back and forth. Sure. Yeah, we can. Yeah,
whatever happens. We'll find a place. I have
one out there. More than me is going to know
the turn order. That's the big thing. More than
me has to know the turn order. Because I'm a
goof. I want clean combats. Alright, sounds like
a good change. Alright, cool. So we got that.
That's out of the way. Now we have more funny
chunk. Well, fun chunk. Not funny. Good stuff.
I don't like the chunk thing, man. We gotta have
chunk. There's chunk, baby. Mechanical chunk.
The words fun and chunk just don't sound good
together. You have a new character coming. We
can discuss starting gold and your starting items
if you want to discuss them when that comes up,
right? We can save some junk for later. Yeah,
a little chunk now, a little chunk later. Save
a little chunk for the drive home, baby. I always
say that. All right, so let's move on to first
things first. Zebulon's gold has gone to Jean
Franklin. As Zebulon's sidekick, he's holding
on to it. Does that just make sense? Zebulon
has a boatload of gold, I think. That's all with
Jaune now, and we're going to resolve that in
a little bit. I think he had like six platinum
or something like that. That's pretty good. Yeah.
Damn. He was stacked. And we also discussed item
distribution between the two groups that went
their separate ways. Before we get to that, though,
we have to add more items. There's so much going
on last time. I didn't want to break up the flow.
But you actually did gain some rewards from Moreno.
We can say these got delivered before the ceremony,
maybe after it, during the downtime, before we
actually picked up on that scene following the
song. But let's talk about what you actually
gained from your heroic endeavors and from the
sacrifice that was made. So, first of all, jewels.
There was an antidote to give from Moreno, which
actually is not a real thing. uh in dnd 5e but
i don't care it's such a fancy catch -all term
i just assumed it existed but it all kind of
falls under the umbrella of lesser restoration
which doesn't even have potions it just has like
scrolls it's stupid i don't like it there should
be a way to heal poison with a simple thing instead
just have the anti -toxin to stop it and those
exist And I'm keeping it. And you have one. Not
anymore because I took it. Hell yeah. You're
no longer in the poison condition. That part
of it is gone. And Serenade will come back to
bite you again. But that poison condition only
affects you on the initial gain. Only the exhaustion.
I still get it that night. Because basically
there's the sickness and there's the curse. The
curse is still lingering. It's much harder to
get rid of. But the sickness, gone. But that's
disadvantage gone. Yes. Gone. You're fully cured
of that. Sweet. Nice. Speaking of lesser restoration.
You gain two scrolls of it. These can only be
used if it's on your class spell list. And I
believe this is Jules, Crispin, and Ramin. Maybe
I actually didn't check wizard. So I'll double
check on that one. But a number of you can use
these. You could look it up. Just type in lesser
restoration. Now, these are basically going to
be able to heal paralyzed, poison, blindness,
deafness. So pretty big deal. Okay, looking into
it, not wizards. So just Jules, Crispin, and
Ramin can use these. But they bring it if you've
got two of them, and they can heal a number of
status effects. So hang on to that. You also
gain one potion of growth, which allows you to
cast basically like the ability to... Gosh, what's
the word? There's a weird spell name for it.
But basically, you can grow and do extra 1d4
damage, gain a bunch of extra weight, all that
stuff. You'll grow one size category. So if you're
medium, you'll be a large creature. Enlarge.
Enlarge reduce. So you can cast enlarge on yourself
with a potion of growth. They also bring out
a potion of greater healing, one of them, to
distribute amongst your groups here. I was just
bellyaching about the 100 gold piece price tag
on that. There's also one more thing they bring,
and this is something that I'm not going to get
whole into it, but basically they approach you
directly, Jules, and they deliver to you a treasure
of the old Moreno family that once ruled this
home back when the old city was, yeah, the old
city was San Simeon City back when this was kind
of a big deal. This is an actual rare artifact
and something that they've been holding onto
for a long, long time. Oh, dang. And they're
gifting it to you in honor of the sacrifices
that all of you made for... They're people in
need. You see it's a silver ring with a smiling
skull adorning the front. I want you to roll
an insight check, actually. It's only a six.
Okay. With your passive, all you know is while
they give it to you out of, like, gratitude,
there's something else behind that. You're going
to give it to me and I don't even know how to
use it? They will tell you what it is. This is
a ring of mind shielding. Oh. Let me describe
this. So while you wear this ring, you are immune
to magic that allows other creatures to read
your thoughts, determine whether you are lying,
know your alignment, or know your creature type.
Creatures can telepathically communicate with
you only if you allow it. You can use an action
to cause a ring to become invisible until you
use another action to make it visible. Until
you either remove the ring or die. So this ring,
you can wear it, no one knows you have it, and
it protects you from mental assault. And here's
a wild thing that I actually just saw. If you
die while wearing this ring, your soul enters
it unless it already houses a soul, and you can
remain in the ring or depart for the afterlife
up to your whim. As long as your soul is in the
ring, you can telepathically communicate with
any creature wearing it. What? A wearer can't
prevent this telepathic communication. Damn.
You can haunt somebody. I can haunt the shit
out of whoever kills me. Hey, so was Crispin
nearby to roll insight when that ring was gifted?
Go ahead. Okay. Nevermind. You're being weird
about it. Something was weird. I mean, I put
two and together this, this is a ring that protects
you from like external forces. And maybe word
has gotten around that some fucked up stuff happened
in that, in that, uh, that manner. But Hey, it
seems like a useful tool. Now, uh, we have a
lot of items here to sort of distribute and figure
out what you're going to do with. Let's do that.
Now top of the episode, let's figure out who's
getting what. And, uh, we'll go from there. Okay,
cool. Well, I mean. This is you guys. I can't
tell you what to do. The ring of mind shielding
should obviously go to Jules. Yeah. Okay. I mean,
do you want to split up the scrolls of Lester
restoration between Jules and Crispin? So we're
giving those, both the restorations are going
to Jules and Crispin. Yeah. One to Jules, one
to Crispin. Hell yeah. Ring to Jules. So then
that's just a potion of growth and a potion of
greater healing. Yes. Potion of growth sounds
like. Something Crispin would need. I don't know
about need, but it sounds like something that
at least a damage dealer, either Crispin or Dresden,
would make some crazy use from. That's true.
Dresden could be really dangerous with that.
I don't care. Who'd they go to? All right, and
roll it down. Tell the audience. The Potion of
Growth went to Dresden. Hell yeah, I like that.
Potion of Greater Healing, then. Let's roll a
die for it. Roll a die for it, I like that. I've
had this. Oh, the Peak of Minor Destiny, okay.
Or we could roll a die. I'm not, I'm not good
at making decisions. Here's the hard thing with
the pick. You have four characters right now.
So if you can decide which one of you gets, which
player gets it, then you decide which character.
Yeah. And I think it would be, it would be weird
for this new PC to come in and take a piece of
the loot. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. Cause this
is before this is when they're already distributing
it before you even get there. So roll a D four
and reroll fours. One can be Jules. Two can be
Crispin. Three can be Dresden. Okay. Here we
go. It's a four. It's a four again. Jesus. It's
a two. All right. That was Crispin. Okay. Two
more things real quick. Sending stones. I'm assuming
that the one that Zebulon had has now gone back
to Crispin, so Dresden and Crispin both have
a sending stone. Yes. So you can communicate.
The two groups can communicate with each other.
That's cool. Yeah, that'll be sweet. Great. I'd
also... like to point out that i think jules
picked up the uh the recording diamond yes on
the way out you have their diamond that group
has a diamond yes great okay um one more thing
all the debulons like you know magical stuff
i think would also go to jean franklin uh the
immovable rod it's in his hands but he would
offer it to whoever because it's a tool to help
get this done and Everyone right now is working
towards carrying on Zebulon's will to see this
mission succeed. Yeah, I mentioned earlier that
I really would like to have the immovable rod
go to Crispin. I think he could do some really
cool shit with that. I think your item should
probably go to one of Jeremy's characters, actually.
Come on, Jules is in mourning here. He needs
all the... Zeb also takes the rod. zeb also does
have the um the charisma amulet which i really
don't have any oh right um it gives you the auto
12 to charisma which could work on but um i feel
like oh we're name dropping oh shit yeah can
you believe that you can bleep that Actually,
I can. Yep, I can. It's so funny. They're going
to be just like, which could work on fuck, but.
Oh, I will give up the immovable rod, to be honest.
I forgot. Crispin has a six charisma. Wow. Oh.
You can have them both. They're both your items.
I know, but it just doesn't feel like. Why would
that feel bad? All right, fine. I'm going to
take all the toys. You earned and bought that
shit. I'm going to take all the toys. They're
your toys. You can have them. No one's fighting
with you about this. I just feel bad. I feel
greedy. I want to share with my friend Jeremy.
Your character died. It's okay to like. Question
though. Question though. Yeah. Did Zeb still
have the doll on him or did he give it to, he
gave it to one of the Cherry Delights, right?
Yeah, I'm going to take the doll too. I'm just
fucking kidding. If he still, I don't remember
if he gave it to like one of the Cherry Delights.
I don't recall him doing that. I think he has
it. If he didn't, Jules is going to take it.
Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Sorry, Crispin. No, no,
no, that's totally fine. I think that's a great
compromise. I think that's a fair trade. Steven
looks so angry. He's going to strangle you across
the table. He wanted that doll for Crispin. Everything
for Crispin. All right, I think that's everything,
right? Yeah, I'm just writing a couple things
down here. Great. As far as starting gold goes,
that comes up later, which means that right now,
I think we're ready to start. No, wait, one more
thing. It's a weird thing. You're about to head
into the desert, Jules. We can sell this next
time we meet up with these characters because
we're not going to focus on them for a bit. They're
on a long journey, but we're going to need to
talk about traveling rations and like water,
how much you took out with you. You know, you're
going out into the borderlands. We've really
gotten to this before, but we should make sure
you have like food for this potentially multi
-day, you know, journey. How much do I need to
spend to make sure that I have? Honestly, not
a lot. Pretty negligible amount. So I will say
let's resolve this off screen and just talk about
it and we'll get that figured out. Yeah. Cool.
That's fine. I just want to make sure it's out
there so people know that we're going to calculate
that, figure it out. We don't need to bog everyone
down. We don't have enough junk already. We can
afford to lose some junk. Minor confidence. It's
called the amulet of minor confidence. Chunky.
All right. So you guys want to get back into
the story? Yeah, I'll play. All right. All right.
Move from the chunk to the smooth. Jesus, I just
don't like it. I'm not done. Let's move back
in time once again. Let's move back to the previous
night, not long after Jules and Zebulon have
fallen asleep in the Sandy Hill Inn. They pan
away from the doors of the inn, out to the still
lively streets of Fiesta Town, where Jean Franklin
moves through these streets in the early hours
of the night. He looks frantic, desperate, as
he approaches a low building near the jewel gate
that opens onto the western borderlands. I don't
like this track as much as I thought I would.
Seemed good at first. Yeah, it took a pretty
dark turn. It's quite ominous. Look who's back.
Will this old track hold faithful? He approaches
a low building near the jewel gate that opens
onto the western borderland, facing the conquered
jewel port town of Manzanares. We see light shine
through the windows of this building, which is
made mostly of nondescript white painted walls.
There's a flag hanging above the door, revealing
25 colored stripes with a white envelope in the
middle. The emblem of the Concord World's Postal
Station. Standing just outside this building,
Jean Franklin shakes the last gold pieces from
his purse, grimacing as they fall into his palm.
He then pulls out a sheet of parchment, an ink
jar, and a quill from his pouch, kneels down
on the dirty pavement in the light of the nearby
windows, and frantically begins to write. We...
pinned down to the letter. As he holds it up,
finished. And we read. Dearest Ledoux, I have,
through no fault of my own, come into some financial
hardship during my excursion off -world. Normally
I'd be loath to request a donation from Father's
coffers, but I find myself engaged in important
work and require more funds immediately. Naturally,
it would be best if Father remained unaware of
my situation. He does worry ever so much for
me. You can send the gold, my usual allowance,
to Sanctian City. To an inn known as Sandy Hill.
Or, if after tomorrow, to an inn known as the
Limp Cactus. Kind of like, moves down the page
and then... I hereby... It's scribbled out. Your
role as... Scribbled out. I know we have our
differences and rarely ever see eye to eye, but...
Scribbled out. Please help me. I am in dire need.
My friends here will soon die without some assistance,
and I can't say that gold will help, but I will
do anything, try anything to save them. I will
even toss aside my pride before you. Your servant
in this, Jean Franklin Montelio, heir to House
Montelio, lord of the Nine Pools and bearer of
the banner of the Golden Bay, and proud sidekick
to Zebulon Black. As we... Look down at this
letter. We see the cobbles beneath just fade
away as we move in time, move in space to a different
world. And we see the letter now clutched in
older hands, green -skinned, toughened and calloused
as these fingers tighten on the page. We can
hear the sounds of rolling waves in the background.
Black screen. And we open again on Moreno, on
the interior of this manor -turned -church. as
a figure has appeared in the doorway sort of
beyond the sort of sicked out, the ill and lying
sleeping forms of the Sereno victims, various
robed peoples moving between them, administering
medicine, trying to keep them asleep, keep them
from getting any sicker. And sort of beyond this
and the light of this doorway, we see a darkened
silhouette. That's just appeared. That's just
spoken. What'd they say again? Remind the listeners.
There you are, tadpole. And Jean Franklin, who's
facing away from this, his eyes go wide, mouth
dropped, and he kind of turns his head to look
and turns immediately back towards Dresden and
Romaine. Just back straight, shoulders squared,
feet apart. Show no weakness or she'll smell
it like a shark smells blood. Okay? All right?
You understand? Okay. This is serious. All right.
He raises a spear, lets the banner kind of unfurl.
Again, you see the blackfish leaping against
the red sky above golden waters as he spins around
and just forms this tall pose, this hard salute
spear in the air. Sir, I'm surprised to hear
you, sir. See you here, sir. Did Father send
you to take me home? And he turns towards the
figure at the doorway, who I imagine now is moving
into the room. And I would love, love. A description
of this new character. All right, all right.
This new character, much like Jean Franklin,
is a tortle. Where Jean's skin is vibrant and
green, this character's skin is a little grayish,
faded with age. Unlike most tortles, she also
has a thin head of hair, white and gray and silver,
short, almost like a pixie, but shorter. And
I might say that turtles don't have hair, but
they're not usually aristocratic douchebags either.
So, hey, we're doing things fun in this world.
Sorry, keep going. My turtle has hair. Your turtle
has hair. I love it. She walks tall and straight
and unrigid, very flowing. Her movements all
have purpose. And she approaches Jaune and the
group, and she addresses Jaune. Now, I was not
sent by your father. I intercepted your message
to him. You intercepted it. So, so, Ledoux never
saw the letter. Father never saw the letter.
Neither saw the letter. I emptied my coffers
and came to offer you my aid. Sir, thank you.
Oh. And at this point, you're like, you're basically
staying right beside them. And Jean Franklin
just kind of turns back to Dresden. I mean, forgive
me, my new allies of the Save Jewels Committee.
I should make proper introductions. Save Jewels
Committee. I am Jean Franklin Montelio, heir
to House Montelio, future Lord of the Nine Pools
and bearer of the banner of the Golden Bay. And
this, this is Master of Defense, Blanche Trudeau.
Yes, it's a pleasure. She bows. But you should
call her sir. Right, sir. Call me what you're
comfortable saying, dear. Good to meet you, Blanche.
Likewise, sir. I thought you would have some
witty remark coming back from John Franklin with
him calling him Blanche, but okay. He's just
staring at Gabe, kind of looking back and forth.
He's too nervous to speak. John, I believe I
have some catching up to do with you. I'd like
to know the situation here. Yes, yes, sir. I
guess first we should talk about the money. I
should tell you, I have come to hold the remaining
coin belonging to my friend. We just... He looks
over towards the altar and maybe you don't understand
the significance of what he means, but maybe
you catch an idea of it. You know that lives
were in the balance. I could imagine even that
in her travels, Blanche would have seen something
on the Crystal Network and... Oh, yeah, of course.
She read Zebulon's name in the letter. Yeah.
And people will be talking about the ceremony
happening here. That's probably what led you
to this place. Yeah. She even reaches out and
puts a hand on Jon's shoulder. I am sorry for
your loss. I hope it is the last. I don't know
what to do now, sir. I have been lost for some
time. He was my guide. Him and Jules, who yet
stands to die from the demon's curse that affects
him. Serenno. There's so much to tell you, sir.
First, will you take this? The gold that I hold.
I cannot be trusted with it. I paid a ways ahead
of the pale moonlight on the Citadel, and I gave
almost all the rest to some families on God's
breath. I'd sent only days ago. I didn't think
I would need it. I was a fool. I would like you
to keep me in check for now. Keep the allowance
you have brought, and keep this. And he transfers
to Blanche all of Zebulon's gold. Nice, nice,
nice. Smooth. I will keep this for you. I will
keep this for you. Yeah, I don't know where I
got... I'm mixing up characters in different
games. It wasn't six platinum. That's a different
game. Zebulon had 91 gold. Okay. Yeah, it seemed
like a lot, but I wasn't doing mental calculations.
It was a totally different campaign that I was
even thinking of, so... Never mind. Cheater.
So money's transferred and he's just staying
tall. Sir, I don't know what you're planning.
If you want to return to the Golden Bay, to Noiri,
but there's still something I have to do here.
I came here, Jean, to keep you safe. And that's
what I intend to do. I thought you'd be mad at
me. I didn't finish my training. I just up and
left. You're not angry. I'm happy to have the
opportunity to continue your training. I promise,
sir. I promise I'll tell you everything. In time.
But right now, time is what we don't have. Yes,
yes, catch me up off screen. Sir, Jules is sick
and we have to move now. We must save my only
remaining friend, my new luminary, for whom I
have attached myself. Right, and he looks to
you, Dresden. As he says, like, Blanche turns
to Dresden. Ah, you're the luminary. Wait, what?
A misunderstanding has occurred. Wait, what?
No, no, no, no, no, no. We actually find ourselves
in a rare lack of luminaries in this little party.
Hope that's no trouble for us. But, well, where
do we proceed? We're to investigate the city.
There's a strange creature, a demon, that has
been making these people ill. We've gotten some
information that it may be the rulers of the
city, the Treznor, who are behind these attacks.
And all we know of this creature is it takes
the form of an owl. It can transform itself into
a larger, more demonic humanoid entity if it
needs to, but it could be attacking people in
secret throughout the city and into the borderlands
as well. It's bad here, sir. These people here,
and you've got gestures towards all the L in
the room, they're all victims. And every single
one of them will die before long. The rest only
serves to hold off the inevitable death that's
coming for them. But every night they grow weaker,
this demon is killing them. And it's here, in
the city. Uh, Dresden will kind of nudge over
to John Franklin. Salazar might be a good place
to start. Yes, that's right. Dance, she mentioned
it. Well, I'll follow your lead then. You in,
Blanche? I'd be... I'd be happy. Let's roll.
Let's kill an owl. Let's, uh... Kill an owl.
Okay. I can't talk with any personality in Dresden's
voice. And we see this newfound group, fully
together, moving out into the streets of Los
Cavalanes. We open back on these streets, and
we are moving towards Salazar. Now we've touched
on the three main estates that you're going to
see in the old city. We have Moreno, which is
the religious district. If you're leaving there
now, you've kind of befriended them. Rosas, ruled
by Serapio, the criminal sort of underbelly of
the city. And then somewhere between them and
to the north, sort of on the edge of the triangular
-shaped city, like up against the wall, there's
the larger Salazar estate. Seemingly innocuous,
just tenants for many, many, many lost and poor
souls. And yet, from what you've heard, Salazar
seems to hold a secret. And that's where you
are going. I think as you hit the streets, I
think there's sort of this natural dropping back.
Between Jean Franklin and Blanche. Something
that the tortle himself, the young tortle, seems
to be kind of pushing for, trying to find time
alone. And as a space is created between the
two sort of groups in this party, Jean turns
towards you, Blanche. Sir, can I speak with you
on a more personal matter? Well, yes, of course.
I don't want to get into all the nitty gritty
of it. Because it's not important here, but in
essence, I left home to preserve law and order.
To hold to my oaths. But I found my journey difficult.
Totals I have known aren't of particularly popular
peoples amongst the conquered worlds. I did not
realize how much that would factor into my attempts
to bring certain truths to light. I strove to
become a luminary then. To force myself into
the spotlight. In my desperation, I found myself
play -acting as a villain for a criminal agent.
When I first met my new allies, I nearly killed
them. I was going to heal them, of course, but
they did not know that. I did wrong. That's aggravated
assault, maybe even attempted murder. I broke
the law, sir, and they took me in anyways, mostly
out of necessity, but we soon found ourselves
involved in events that sentenced a murderer
to lives. in the Sky Prison. And I was so proud
of that. My nose poised so high in arrogance
that I didn't see the cruel irony lying at my
feet. Not until a later event, when Jules let
a goblin, another servant of that criminal agent,
go free after an attack. And I wanted him to
go free. Because I saw myself in him. Does...
Does that make me a terrible person, sir? Does
this change in the very pillars of my beliefs
make me weak? And he looks to you. Master defense,
Blanche. Cool, you had a long time to write that,
but that's fine, I'll just... Well, I'm not reading
my notes, that was off the top of my head. What
are you talking about? I hoped you would want
to talk about why you left home. And I'll leave
that up to you on your own time. As far as...
popularity of the tortle people, well, it kind
of goes hand in hand with what you're saying
and the changes you're seeing in yourself. We
can't control how others act and how others see
us, but we can control how we act, Tadpole. And
someday, your little tail will shrivel up and
your... Arms and legs will grow, and I'm seeing
that in you, John. Our world is not black and
white. You're starting to see in color. Holy
shit. Cheers to that. Hey. Cheers to that. We
have this little rule on our show we've had for
a while, right? Where we have buttons, and the
max is three. But in this arc, we have two separate
parties of two separate characters. So I'm going
to change... Just for now, the limit to five.
Oh, my goshness. And I'm giving you a button.
Take a button. Whoa. Oh, my goshness. I mean,
if there was ever a speech that was worthy of
a button, that was it. I'm excited to spend them.
Holy shit. I'm ready to spend them, baby. I think
John just looks down. He's kind of looking at
his hands. Seeing in color. Growing. Yes. I find
it odd that I still retain my oath -sworn powers
to uphold the principles of honor and law, but
maybe this explains it. Maybe having my sworn
oath be a contradiction that I didn't understand.
Maybe understanding is what I need. Maybe...
I don't know. I don't understand this oath still,
but I will seek to. I thought the two ideas so
connected, but I'm starting to see how opposing
they are. Honor's source lies in the hearts of
good... people, while law stems so often from
oppressive and corrupt. And I had been looking
to Zebulon and Jules to help me grow, to help
me determine the answer to this contradiction,
but they are both gone now. And I'm alone. Early
in our lives, Sean, we have a lot to learn. As
we grow, as you grow, you will too have things
to teach. I'm... Looking forward to learning
from you, John. He looks up at you and we see
this rare, total smile. I guess looks over at
you. I mentioned you're probably about the same
height. Yeah, yeah. I didn't picture Blanche
being any taller. And yeah, I think there's a
feeling of height difference. There's a feeling
of size difference as he just looks to you with
the absolute expression of a student. So happy
to learn. So happy to be heard. And I'm happy
to see that even through all this stress and
troubles, that we managed to keep decent posture.
We pan forward through like a small crowd to
another duo walking up the street. Now, I haven't
officially done this yet, but Dresden, I'm going
to assign you Ramin's stat block as a sidekick,
mechanical sidekick on D &D Beyond. Ooh, baby.
Ramin will be yours in this arc to control in
combats. Ramin, you're mine. What? I don't know
what to say. You had a good time. Oh, my God.
I think you two are walking up the street as
well. I think he's looking towards the very bold,
very quiet Dresden. It's kind of exciting. He
wants to start a conversation. He opens his mouth
and stops, turns away. So, Dresden, the weather
is fair. Is the weather not fair? I'd call it
a little fair, sure. Yes, yes, it's quite fair,
yes. Good. Common ground, it's so nice. to have
this. Well, now that you've, uh, made things
thoroughly awkward, sounds like there's something
you want to say. Oh, I just want to get to know
you. I, I, I, we've talked only briefly. Uh,
well, mostly I talked when we were waiting for
Serapio to, to invite us in for a meeting, but,
um... What do you want to know? If, uh, if Jules
trusts you, then I trust you. Huh. Huh. What's
your relationship with Jules? You... You seem
very close to him, but... We grew up together.
In very similar but different ways. That's very
vague. But mysterious. I like it. He's beaming.
He's so excited. He's thrilled to have a conversation.
You're a curious guy. Oh, yes. Yes. Very. Very
curious. And this world. I mean, there's so much
here to be... I didn't mean curious in that way.
Oh. But really, really, have you heard much about
San Satyan? The various magics here? No, I haven't
heard much. It's truly incredible. Think, think,
what are instructions given by dance? Where to
go to Salazar? To speak with an Olvidado? Do
you know much of the Olvidados? Absolutely nothing.
Oh, oh, oh. So, Ovidado is apparently a word
here that means forgotten. For they are forgotten
by death. That's the idea. So, the Night of the
Remembered is coming up. You know the Night of
the Remembered, correct? Right? You know that?
I've heard the term. You don't know? Oh, he's
thrilled. Like, shaking. How does one get forgotten
by death? What does that mean? This is good.
This is good. So... Tomorrow night marks the
start of this great event. The night of the remembered.
The souls of the dead family members and loved
ones return from the plains of the afterlife
during these next few nights. But you just said
they were forgotten. No, no. Some of them stay
afterwards, essentially getting a second life,
forgotten to be reclaimed by death. Those are
the Olvidottas we see in our everyday. Those
are the skeletal figures and some specters that
you'll see here and there around the world. They're
rare, but isn't that fascinating? Death. forget
someone. I mean, I was one of the rare few who
has come back from death, so to me this is, I
mean, it's like seeing myself and many people
here in this world. Isn't that cool? I don't
know. I'm trying to give Dresden some personality,
but I don't fucking know. All of a sudden he's
thrust into this. I just love the deadpan character
and the very excitable friendlier on me. It's
the best. It's just silly pairing. That's why
I love these two stuck together. Where I come
from, dead is dead. So I may have a thing or
two to learn here. It's amazing. Dance explained
a bit of it to me. Basically, the living will
leave gifts at decorative altars for their loved
ones. She called these ofrendas. Ofrendas, that's
right. This ritual activates some latent magic
in the city, which is apparently the work of
La Catrina, the deity or spirit they worship
back at Moreno. Her power lingers in this land,
and the souls of the dead will return to life
throughout the city for a few nights. They take
on either strange skeletal bodies, or in some
cases just become pure specters. I'll then explain
that the magic only works for those of Sansation
heritage. There's a... how do you say it? There's
a spark in their souls. A magic left by La Catrina
for the people long ago. Unfortunately, this
magic does not let the dead remember the afterlife
beyond the fugue plane. Which is a shame. When
I died, I only ever reached the fugue plane.
I never had a chance to reach the beckoning light.
Oh, but I'm glad to be alive. I am. I'm so glad.
Just curious for what the sun ever holds me beyond
that light. Aren't you curious about death? Aren't
you curious about all of it? I mean, I know dead
is dead, but is it? What lingers beyond? Don't
you wonder? Show me something different and maybe
I'll come around to it. But dead is dead. Oh,
tomorrow night you're in for the surprise of
your life then. And I say maybe at this point,
you're moving up towards the sort of estate of
Salazar. So we find ourselves outside Salazar.
We see a large looking estate covered in various
tents and small sort of wood frame buildings.
Look like they've been sort of roughly put up
by the locals here. Just this. It looks like
the actual older buildings here, the stonework
buildings, are much smaller than what you've
seen at Rosas and Moreno. But there are a lot
of them. Many different smaller homes dotting
this, like small villas dotting this larger,
sort of hilly expanse that takes up a good little
portion of Los Cavalanes. There's an obvious
sort of path moving in from the main street past
some gates that seems to snake up towards one
particular building, the largest of the lot.
and you just see people everywhere. You see no
sign here that this could be some sort of revolution
main base. I mean, everyone here just looks just
as weak, just as downtrodden as everyone else
you've seen throughout this city. You're sure
this is where we're meant to go, Tadpole? I think.
Dan said tell us, all right? Are we at the door?
You're at the gate moving in. Is there somebody
at the gate or at the door? At the main building.
At the main building. Okay. Up there. And Dresden
points to the main building. If you say so. It
doesn't seem to be... I was going to say something
mean. I agree. It does not seem to be. Let's
go. I was going to say there doesn't seem to
be much of value here. And I was like, that doesn't...
You just got here. How dare you? Lives are valuable.
You monster. All right. So we're all moving down
the path, passing these people, this sort of
central building getting larger and larger as
you get close until you reach the front. You
see a number of stone steps moving up towards
this large, dilapidated building, single story
but wide. And at the very top of the steps, as
it kind of moves into like an entrance hall,
you see a naked Olvidado. sitting at this sort
of door's edge and reading a book. See, it's
like a blackbound and very worn book. There's
colorful paints that seem to decorate the bones
of this figure. And they just flip through pages.
I think Dresden will push forward. I think the
second you move towards them, they turn their
head up to you. Slight creaking of bone as they
do, and their sort of eyeless holes stare deep
at you. Are you looking to die? Only the dead
are free. Figure nods. Come. And slowly gets
to their feet. Follow. And they move into the
building. Dresden starts moving up. Yeah, Blanche
is following behind. I'm also very proud that
I remembered that. Good job. I've been waiting
for it since the first time you said it. I stuck
it in my head. You move into the structure inside.
move down this sort of hallway, again, just lined
with people, move into a room, tucked to the
left and around a corner. As you step inside,
there's just a number of figures all around the
room covered in those, it's called a rebozo,
basically just like this real long blanket -like,
what's the word? Almost like a longer scarf.
But anyway, they're just kind of like huddled
in various corners. And I want you to do a perception
check as you enter this room. First Blanche roll.
Oh, yeah. I'll let you do the honors first. A
12. You said perception? Yes. 11 on the die,
plus one, 412. I'll say with a 12, you both immediately
catch that these figures look far less emaciated
than the others, and there's a bit of bulk underneath
these, like, rebozos, perhaps weapons. As they
don't look at you, they stare towards the ground,
but you get the impression they are keenly watching
you from the corners of their eyes, keenly listening
at every word you say, every sound you make.
And the Ovidado moves to the other side of the
room and reaches towards, it looks like an old
-looking sort of fireplace built in. And there's
a sound of, like, something unlatching as they
reach around to, like, some of the bricks and
a grinding of stone. As this fireplace essentially
pulls open, revealing a set of stairs moving
down beneath Salazar, beneath the grounds. Dude,
Blanche like just showed up and is like, all
right, Jean, I'm going to help you with whatever
it is that you're doing. So he takes her to essentially
like the slums into this house. And now there's
a creepy secret staircase. Men who are armed.
A full -ass skeleton. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, because
she doesn't know about the Elvidado. Well, I
mean, I don't know if she knows about the Elvidado,
but there is a whole lot of trust here. It's
awesome. The Elvidado turns back to you. I am
Rufina. It is good to meet you, hero of Moreno.
Hero of Nusserul, we've been expecting you. People
died. We're no heroes. More will die before this
ends. But when it does, when we stand upon the
hill, we will all be heroes. Paloma waits below.
And they start to walk out of the room. And you're
staring down those steps. You see the flickering
light of torchlight. from tunnels below. I think
without even a second thought, Dresden starts
walking down, and he doesn't even look back.
He's kind of expecting everybody else to follow.
Yeah, Blanche will wait for Jean and Ramin to
go, and she'll take up the rear. And then, yeah,
Jean and Ramin both boldly follow Dresden, and
as Blanche starts to move down those steps, the
light from above is... Gone as that fireplace
is replaced. The entrance once again hidden.
You stare down a long tunnel with various sort
of snaking paths. But it doesn't take you long
to realize where you must go for up ahead there's
a brighter light. A larger open chamber. You'd
imagine you're staring towards probably the very
center of this large estate. Center of the grounds
where beneath this hill. Something has been hidden.
Something has been waiting. Do you move down
the tunnel? Yeah, what's the light situation
like down here? Torchlight. Torchlight. You said
that. Yeah, just flickering torchlight. It's
not gray. I mean, it's not that you can see clearly.
Except for Dresden. He only has one eye. Rude.
He matter. If you lead, I'll follow, soldier
boy. Dresden just gives a... He turns back around
and keeps walking. Hell yeah. You move down the
tunnel towards this main room, and as it sort
of opens up before you as you reach it, you see
walls lined with weapons, armor, various people
on various sides training for combat. Somewhere
in the center of this, you hear a voice, a very
similar voice. Well, not to you, Blanche. And
not even to Jean Franklin, but definitely to
you, Dresden. Oh, God. Yes, that is the report
from Moreno. I came as soon as I could. I believe
I tried sending Jules this way. He may come.
They may be the ones to help us. He recognized
Grindy, and he is speaking with someone. You
see this bronze -skinned, elderly, dwarven woman.
who gives off this sort of strange impression
of both style and strength. Two white hairs spill
down from a wide -brimmed hat on her head. Her
upper body is wrapped in a pink rebozo, her lower
body covered by a sturdy leather skirt and heeled
boots. There's a deadly -looking dagger with
a curved hilt, shaped in the design of a gleaming
black scorpion tail, resting at her belt. And
she's just staring at Grindy, far -off expression
sort of rubbing at her chin. Then her eyes flicker
up. towards the group that has just moved in
through the entrance tunnel. I think her eyes
immediately fall to you, Dresden, and she beckons
you. Yeah, so you seem like the main character
here. Yeah. You're known is why. You're like
a person that they know of from the actual attack.
Jean Franklin was not there. Ramin was basically
uninvolved. Same with you, Blanche. So Dresden
will just take a couple steps forward silently.
You all can go. I'm not saying that you guys
can't. Yeah, I mean, Blanche is really just kind
of playing like second fiddle here. She's following
behind. So Dresden in the lead, Jean, Blanche,
and Armin kind of come up behind. You approach
this figure. Grindy turns. Master Dresden, it's
good to see you back. Jules, he told me a bit
about you back in the old days, and thank you
so much for everything you've done for us. I
sincerely hope. You're not done fighting for
us yet. This is Paloma. This is the leader of
the Sansatyan Rebellion. And he kind of, like,
sort of gestures to her and then almost sort
of shrinks back, giving space to this meeting.
Then you stare gruffly at each other, no one
saying the first words. I'm trying to think of
what to say. We need to know everything. I agree.
You do need to know everything, but you're going
to have to help us for that information. You
mind if I light up a smoke, honey? I don't give
a shit. She takes out a fat cigar, kind of offers
one to you as well, to anyone who's willing to
take. Blanche holds out her hand. That was awesome.
That was awesome. Paloma just nods, smiling.
She just walks right up. Lady, after my own heart,
please take. Light up. Blanche lights her cigar
up on the flame that Paloma provides. Yeah, just
got the flame out. Breeze it in. I can't say
I know half of you, but if you're part of this
group, then I think you'll be helpful for us.
So let's talk about how we're going to overthrow
the Trezina. And Blanche chokes on her smoke.
We'll call it there.