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.co. That's it. That's my opening. That's my
opening today. What the fuck? What the fuck was
that? Wait, are you serious? For real? Yeah,
for real. For real. Because I knew something
else. I knew something else today. I knew something
else. That's all I had to say. It was real pressing,
though. That was actually a breaking news alert
on the network. Wow. Da -ding, da -ding, da -ding,
da -ding, da -ding. But it sucks! And then, boom,
back to your regularly programmed content. Today.
I talked about this last week and I don't want
to go and take a bunch of time with it because
I have other things we're doing and I don't want
to dawdle so hard. It'd be slow everything down,
but I want to talk with the brass family. We
talked about this last time. Horace, Scalia,
Guana, way back when the discord asked the question,
Hey, what's going with the show lay sort of family
line. What's going with the brass family sort
of tree. And I want to do a little lore band
today and talk about that with you guys. Oh,
okay. If you have any questions, you know, if
you guys have any and put this out there, because
I think it's important to have refreshers because
I tend to just like say an off comment 2300 episodes
ago and then expect you to remember it. And I
know you don't. So let's talk about the Brass
family. Sholay. as you know, was the sort of
main pretender of this family, a full brass dragon
from the world of Ankaran Sangar, who's taken
on the surname Brass to better fit into the politics
of the popular species of the Citadel. There
might also be some influence from a certain man
in her past, who we'll talk about now, because
Sholay, spoiler alert, had relations with a human.
adventurer named Zebulon to have a half -dragon
child. A child that, at this point in the show,
I will say, is steeped in some mystery. From
what we've seen throughout all the events we've
seen up to this point, this figure does not exist
in records or memory. It's Min Del Prado had
notes about this scribbled in a rough hand. You
guys have mentioned, you've asked about this
child, but you're in character, and your character's
mind's almost blanked out the second you asked
it. Like, in moments of rare inspiration, you
remember something is wrong, but you can't quite
pin down what it is. Something has happened.
to you, to everyone. It was like slipping away
as they were remembering it. Exactly. It's very
strange. It's a very strange, like there's a
magic spell being cast and recast and recast
and shaped and changed all the time. It's strange.
But we can infer that this child had a relationship
with the brass half -dragon, Xena, also from
Anchor and Sengar. And they had a son. the half
dragon, Arholon Brass. Now, he has two halves,
make another half. I don't know. Kind of makes
sense to me, right? Wait, could you explain that
again? Yeah. So, a dragon, a human, makes a half
dragon. Yeah, sure. A half dragon, a half dragon,
makes a half dragon? I don't, yeah. Yeah, that
sounds right. Makes sense, right? That sounds
right. That's cool to me. Yeah. All right. So,
we're breaking logic now. Now, let's go into
weird semi, no, there's no logic here. It's just
weirdness now. Because... This mystery child
of Sholay's, it would seem, had a relationship
with another figure. And that would be the full
black dragon, Calypsania. Calypsania. Calypsania,
the current head. Thank you. Of the fractured
horn. Those who worship the dracon -turned -demon
Zomateshab. And this... birth this relationship
resulted in the nearly impossible birth the part
black part brass part human zebulon named after
his grandfather and due to the nature of this
parentage a chromatic animentalic uh zebulon
was born much smaller than typical with dual
dark scales and wings that could not support
flying also by this logic uh a full and a half
equals a half i don't care i don't care i'm making
shit up uh i also uh just you know typically
Half dragons typically live about double the
age of their non -dragon parent. I just kind
of said that half dragons live to be about 500
years, like half the age of a normal dragon,
which can go over 1 ,000. So Zebulon, had he
been played by someone competent, he might have
been 500 years old. Yeah, great. Yep. So, if
I'm being honest here, this lore, a lot of this
lore, resulted from me realizing that the description
we gave of Zebula in Episode 1 did not actually
match the profile of Brass Dragon, most notably
the horns. The description we gave actually fit
a black dragon's horns and the sort of matte
scales. All of it felt really fitting for that,
and so it kind of just... off in the universe
from there. We made it work. We made it work.
And honestly, you made some pretty interesting
lore, but that's, any questions? I want to give
a quick rundown because if you haven't figured
it out from everything that's been said in the
last episode and all the flashbacks we're doing
and all that, it's all coming up. It's important
now. It's important shit. I am very excited to
get into the, I mean, I know that we don't have
Zebulon anymore, but I'm really excited to get
into that sort of Zebulon lore. I can't wait
to figure out what's going on with Calypsoania.
Yeah. and Zebulon's father it's amazing like
it's so sad to not have Zebulon in the arc that
like a million years ago I designed for Zebulon
but like in a way it's so fine too because I
love that this character is echoed through the
story well after death but wouldn't it be so
fucking cool if Zebulon were here to be let's
bring Zebulon back yeah no never how many buttons
to bring Zebulon back how many fan buttons to
take to bring Zebulon back I don't think there's
a number no I don't think there's a number. It
wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be right. No.
But yeah, so that's the whole kind of breakdown
right there. Any questions, ask me in the Discord.
I'll answer them. Maybe I'll answer them next
episode. Thank you again, Horace, for bringing
this up in the first place. And actually, to
go off of this real quick, that was my little
lore rant. Now for a little bit of fun rant.
Because Horace asked me another question recently.
One I wanted to bring up to everybody here. Which
is... We do a lot of voices in this show. You
guys stick to the same voices a lot. He's curious.
Do your voices ever slip out in your modern day
and your common conversations? You're walking
around doing your thing. Do you ever just slip
into a voice accident? You say something like,
like you guys know if I ever say the word Chester,
I say it in the hard Chester. I can't say Chester.
That's so weird. I hate that. Please don't ever
say that again. I'll never do it again. I hate
it. It's Chester. And on top of that, John Franklin
is obviously my spicy bedtime voice. So there's
that. Yeah. I've heard it. Yeah, of course. Oh
yeah, you have. No, I can't say that happens
to me. Not yet, at least. You just go hard lisp
out of nowhere or nasally blanch, you know. I
don't think so. If I do, I've never noticed it.
You know, I like to make a funny voice sometimes
and say things in a silly way. But I don't know.
I'll pay attention to that now. Jules has come
out every once in a while, but not obviously
to where anybody would have really noticed it.
I'll just say a word and be like. Who said that?
Yeah. Do you ever drop a dress and then we get
real mad and you're just like, that's it, now
I'm angry, Jimmy. I'm going to cut you open,
yeah. Only when we're play fighting at work.
Yeah, yeah. I've heard that, yeah. Oh, hell yeah.
Well. Before we get going, though, I want to
talk about what we got today. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's
God today. Yes, of course, Steven. Wait, wait,
wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Technically, this
kind of came in a package to us, right? Technically.
We can do it. Mail time! Kind of, sort of, mail
time. It's a mail time, baby. It's a mail time,
baby. All right. So, like, super fast backstory.
I was trying to find a dice maker who we could
get fantasy pants dice made with someday. You
know, a D20. What? Right? watch out for that
and so i put a thing out on instagram i was like
hey uh tag new england dice makers i want to
i want to try to find somebody geographically
close to us and lo and behold somebody from the
town next over popped up and was like hey uh
i make dice uh turns out we we are sort of loosely
connected with this person we know like their
family sort of thing. I mean, it's a small town,
small area, blah, blah, blah. So I was like,
I was texting with Emily of stag moon studio.
And I was like, Hey, would it be weird if I like
bought some dice today? Like, do you want to
Either come here and meet me at work or I can
meet you somewhere in Littleton. And she was
like, yeah, I can come over around one o 'clock.
Showed up with a box full of dice. Hell yeah.
And we were like sitting there looking at it.
I was checking them all out. And we each scooped
a set for the three of us. We did. We did. Yeah.
So I've got this wicked cool. I actually didn't
ask her what this set was called. I just gave
her. uh dealer's choice i said you know whatever
you're proud of right now whatever you're super
stoked on and uh so i got this really cool light
blue set like translucent yeah it looks it looks
like you you captured a bit of the deep sea in
your your dye there and there's like gold threads
inside of it it's a it's a really really cool
set is a blessing right there look at that right
the golden bay that's perfect yeah i like it
because it could it could look oceanic for Blanche,
but it's also because of the gold in it and it
gives me sort of an ethereal feeling. It could
work for Salome as well. So that's why I picked
this set. Salome, a character we might see a
little bit of soon. A little bit. We'll see.
We'll see. Yeah, I got this, call it Goblin Mode
on the side. Check this out. It's so cool. You
said Stag Moon. That explains the two on the
D2 token is a pretty awesome little stag head
with a moon over the top. That's really cool.
Yeah, it's sort of light green, makes it some
brown, a little bit of almost like goldish coloring
here and there. It's very Goblin Mode -ish. I
like it. Yeah, really cool marbling. It's pretty
cool. Yeah, yeah. It feels just solid. This thing.
Hang on. You can hear it talking to me. It's
going to whisper. It's going to roll 20s. 20s
all night. It's what it says. Oh, I can't wait.
Yeah, sure. Sure. What do you got over there,
Jules? I got a really cool, it's like the base
is like a metallic gray, and it looks like blue
and purple, like metallic splatters. It does
look cool. I think it's called Ritual. Ritual
was the name of the set. It looks like almost
cyberpunk -y -ish. But, like, the numbers are,
like, the old, like, Norse style. Yeah. Yeah.
It's pretty cool. It looks very magical. Very
magical. Yeah. When I told Emily that you were
interested in that set, she was like, oh, yeah,
that's the last one of those. What? She's like,
I don't have that master anymore, blah, blah,
blah. Whoa, that's crazy. Yeah. I think Jeremy
got the last ritual set. And that is so perfect
for Jules. It is. The look is just. Yeah. It's
what I imagine his cloak looks like. You know
what I mean? Oh, yeah. Oh, yes, that's right.
New dice means... Keep it away from me. Keep
it away from me. Oh, it's the opposite of holy
water. Oh, yeah, I'm going to bless... I'm going
to bless it in the dice tower. Oh, there you
go. I'm sure there's a thing, but I'm not. I
need water from a prison toilet. Max security.
All right, let me do mine now. Okay, my dice
are soaked. All right, David, you're fucked.
I don't know. Mine whispered to me. My little
goblins whispered their sweet, sweet deals to
me. So we're going to roll these bad boys tonight?
Probably. Honestly, I know we're rolling at least
one of those, I think, tonight. Oh, baby. Before
we get to that, and I hope you're not tired of
these yet, because we've got a couple more. A
couple more what? A couple more scenes. Oh, these
are amazing. By the way, you. crushed it last
week. Sorry. Thank you. I realized that my music
wasn't plugged in, so I was reaching over awkwardly.
I was like, oh, crap. I'm on camera. Thank you.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. You guys, you guys
crushed it. No, dude, you carried last week.
That was amazing. Really, someone should have
given you a button, I think, for that. Yeah,
somebody should have. Oh, man, that speech, the
loose cannon speech. It was amazing. I used a
button. I'm not maxed right now. You can still
give me a button for that speech. Yeah, put loose
cannon in the new trailer. That's crazy. I mean,
dude. That became the title. That became the
title of the episode. And one might say that's
reward enough. Really fast, we've also got a
new pod dog in the studio. Yes, we do. Tokus,
champion of Valinor is here. And he's sprawled
out with his legs out like a frog. Did he fart?
Yeah, he probably farted. He is deadly. He's
deadly. I wouldn't know. He's having a good time.
I smell like a kitchen right now. He's just like
looking at my face. Having a party down there.
Yes, but yeah. Honestly, guys. Incredible episode.
You guys killed it. I'll be more receptive to
buttons in the future. Maybe. Who knows? Hopefully.
I hope. Hey. I'm going to remember this, David.
Perhaps you'll thaw this frozen heart someday.
I don't know. I take it back. You suck, Lassie.
We open on a scene of a... Black and white. We
see a white shore, ice covered by a fine powder
of snow, and the black waves of a vast sea that
crash against it. Rolling hills rise deeper inland,
and on top of one nearby, beneath the cold light
of the sun, we can see some ice -built dome structures
forming a small settlement. And over all of this,
a title card appears. 257 years. There's a sound
like a static buzz, a ripping, and a rush of
wind. A hole appears in the reality of this world
like a green haze, and we see shadows piling
out. Nine adventurers from Anchor and Sengar
looking rough, armor scorched, cloaks torn and
specked with dried blood. As they step out into
the falling snow, they begin to drop, breathing
hard and marveling at the crashing waves and
flakes falling from the sky. One of those humans,
Zebulon, is the last to step out, his blade in
hand. He spins around towards an open rift and
screams, Sholay! We're through! Come on! And
we see the hole in space warps, tearing again,
growing and growing as Sholay steps out in her
full draconic form. Her tail appears first, the
rest of her moving backwards. As her head breaks
free of the hole, we see she is spewing a gout
of flame into the abyss beyond. And as her flames
stop, as she pulls herself fully free of the
land of demons, the hall begins to shrink and
shrink. And Shirley takes a deep breath of winter
air. The one on the party shouts, drawing Blade
and turning back, Shirley, how many are left?
It's not closing fast enough. They'll come through.
And Zebulon speaks in answer, no, no, no, they're
bound forms. They're bound to the abyss. It's
much harder for them to pass through there than
it is for us. We should be safe. We should be
safe at last. The others let this sink in, and
the shadow of smiles begin to appear on their
faces. Not only is Ebulon's smile true, looking
all around, eyes filled with wonder. Is this
really another world? It's so strange. An entire
world of ice and snow. A river that stretches
to the horizon. Points to the ocean beside him.
This world is stranger even than the abyss. A
damn mite colder, too. Then you see this place
is somehow connected to Anchor and Sengar, Sholay.
Beside him, Sholay has shrunk down to her human
form, looking just as haggard as the rest now.
We shall see. She pulls a small bag from her
waist and begins to sift through its contents.
What are you doing there, Miss Sholay? Going
through my collection of gemstones. Now that
I've reached this world, another world of the
immaterial plane, I should be contacted. Why
so many stones? I thought the aliens... Spoke
to you through a turquoise. Just sighs. That
they did, on anchor in Sengar. That particular
type of stone is only connected to our world,
though. This world, however, is... Ha! There
it is. She pulls out a brownish -yellow stone
which seems to glow with some innate image. A
topaz. Jolay smiles. You do know your treasure,
yes, a topaz, which makes this... The world of
Lacunasic. Now hush, I must confer with the voice.
Strange, it's a different one this time. She
stops and she's listening for a long while. As
she kind of turns her attention towards a stone,
a voice recalls it from the crowd of heroes.
We've been noticed! Look! The man points to a
nearby hill where a small group of humanoids
gather outside of their ice -filled homes. Some
move down the hill towards the party, and in
the rush we see their fern -lined hoods fall
over their backs, revealing purple skin and horns
adorning their heads. Demons! Hold! Hold! Zebulon
shouts. They're not demons. Just tieflings. Probably
humans that lived too long near this abyssal
rift. We've evicted them at home, too. Don't
let your guard down, but don't be hostile either.
This is their home. They have plenty of reason
to be scared of us now. Let's not give them any
more. Affirmations sound all around, and the
group begins to calm. Except for Tolkis, champion
of Valinor, who's there, and he's not happy.
Zebulon turns to catch an approving nod from
Xole, and seems to finish with her communication
with the Topaz. She moves close to him, speaking
softly, words only for him. Come, let us greet
our neighbors in the material plane. We should
all rest and mourn those lost. It would also
be best to resupply and gather more allies before
our next stop. Zebion just scratches his head.
And, uh, what is our next stop? The... Plane
of Water. Ah. Well, shit. I'm almost afraid to
ask this, but this quest of yours is... Far from
over, isn't it? And Chewie just turns, gives
him one last kind of... Half -smile, her eyes
seem to glimmer with some innate mischief, and
she says, My dear human, our journey together
has only just begun. And we're back. Tulkus is
climbing on Jeremy. He's all over Jeremy. He
loves Jeremy. He's all over Jeremy. It's so funny.
Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. That was intense. That
was intense. I feel like I need a cigarette after
that. It'll hold him off. Let's open in the library
of the Seat of Dragons. Not far down the hall
from where that infirmary was, which, you know,
was like a, well, it probably was a servant's
quarters. Maybe this is somewhere they would
visit frequently in their off time. A place open
to guests as well, of course. Let me find you
here, Blanche, with a Keo. What are you doing
right now? as our camera sort of pans down the
ceiling, down rows of books on heightened sort
of balconies, down to maybe a base area where
you stand. Blanche is trying to find the shelves
that aren't visited frequently, maybe something
in the back of the library, sort of like the
banned books section. I'm also guessing that
if there is... If there's anything written about
these secrets or the secret secrets that they're
probably not even going to be out in the open.
Maybe they're behind a false painting or something
like that. She's checking for like secret doors
or something. That's pretty fun. That's pretty
fun. I will say that you are absolutely correct
that there would not be anything out in the open.
Sure. But I really like your thought here. Maybe,
I know they're not in the open, maybe there is
a secret door. Why don't you want me to do an
investigation check? Okay, she's wearing her
eyes of minute seeing. So I think that gives
her advantage on investigation, right? That would
give her advantage on this, yes. Because you're
kind of looking for any sort of creak in the
wall, anything that looks... 14. You don't see
anything. Damn. Which, maybe there is nothing.
Maybe there's nothing to see. There's a hope.
So what does it look like as you're searching?
Paint me a picture here, Mr. Rodriguez. Well,
she goes over to whichever bookshelves are the
dustiest. And I'm guessing that's maybe in either
a corner somewhere or the back part of the library.
So she's looking through these dusty... Achoo!
Ah, it's so dusty over here! Ruff! And she's
also looking around at the furniture, the wall
hangings, whatever. That's what she's investigating
to try to find anything hidden and secret. But
she's also trying to figure out, like we established
last session, she kind of had an idea that a
spell along the lines of protection from good
and evil. might help. She's trying to figure
out something more powerful. So if she's not
having luck finding secret books, then she's
flipping through the ones that are there. More
general. Arcana. Okay. Alright, you know what?
Give me an Arcana check. Let's say you do your
quick legs world look. You're looking in the
back. You know, probably some of the spells on
other books on magic are real dense stuff. They're
probably in with the dusty books. Not fun. No
pictures. Not rolling great so far. That's a
14 as well. You don't see anything, nothing that
really stands out to you. Maybe it's just, I
mean, this library, I will say this, as you're
going through, you see that there's not a lot
on magic in here. And there's surprisingly not
that much on like the deeper history of Yanito.
It's almost like this library was scrubbed clean
of anything that could be useful to you in this
moment. Maybe we see that you're over there and
you're looking through some of these back books.
And so you're not really out in the open. When
you hear the door to the library open again.
Blanche spins around to see, or looks towards
the door. You see wandering in is Magistrate
Conan June, followed by Jules LaRoche. I'll tell
you, Jules, immediately after your sort of meeting
with Shelley as you came out, the Magistrate
was a little worried about Blanche being unattended,
wanted to kind of, you know, wrap you guys up.
He was supposed to be the one to like... you
guys around, and maybe he didn't trust that young
Guy would not pester Blanche to annoyance, the
honored guest of Queen Jean Mee, and so he kind
of half -dragged you, like, we really should
go and make sure Blanche Trudeau is keeping well.
Yeah, we should. As you would have moved with
Kun on June, going down the halls, kind of letting
that last conversation with Sholay sort of resonate
through you. You're probably past the throne
room. You can hear doors closed. You can hear
the heightened voice of the ambassador, Omid
Pastar, who is complaining very openly about
Sholay and her, this wrathful, uncouth behavior
from a speaker. How strange, how wrong. But the
magistrate kind of urges you past as that's a
private matter between those two. I realized
also while you guys were talking that Blanche
doesn't know anything about the secrets of the
city and whatnot. So she was just looking for
magic books. Not looking for secret books. No,
you might know. Remember, I believe it was Young
Gi who told you to seek out the city's namesake.
Why is it called the City of Judgment? He also
warned you away that there are some secrets so
dangerous he does not want you to find. If you
are on the right track, you may become enemies.
Yeah, he said the magistrates know. Magistrates
know. Yep, that's right. Jules, after you would
have wandered past there, you would have moved
past the infirmary. I didn't say I walked past
there. Oh, shit. I'm kidding. Okay. Roll for
initiative. I was going to say, I really wanted
to say something, but no. That's his game. It's
not smart. It probably hits you in the eyes,
and then your magistrate just turns to you with
a very pleading, like, don't go in there face.
It's the queen and the ambassador. We don't want
to intrude on this. Half praying, like, no, no,
no, please, please. Chester's ready to go in
that door. Chester's stupid, but he's smart,
too. Chester's just stupid. You probably have
to drag him away. Oh, yeah, you know what? I'll
show him. Pull him away. You move past the infirmary,
and I imagine you want to... Do you want to step
in to see Arlon and Xena? No, but I think as
they walk past the doors, Jules will stop for
a brief moment, turn toward the door. and just
stand there for a beat. You probably are going
to, it's almost like he's going to go in, and
then he's stopped by somebody who, you know,
oh, Blanchard, oh yes, she went down the hall
to the library, followed the rushing dog of hers.
And so, you know, Blanchard's not here, Blanchard's
down the hall. Yeah, yeah. Hell yeah. Okay. And
so we are back in the scene. Jules moving into
the library, followed by, or Conan June leading
you in, Chester behind you. Blanch, you are kind
of hiding in the back. Do you come on out? Yeah,
Blanche walks around and, you know, starts talking
to Jules immediately. Jules, I saw Ahalan and
Xena. I believe there's an arcane solution, but
I can't quite put my finger on the spell. I came
here to see if I could find some clue, some hint
as to what could awaken them, but I've had no
luck as of yet. What was the word that Sholay
said? Gwishin. Gwishin. Can you remind me of
the exact sentence she said around that? Oh,
I believe she told you. Her mind was scrambled.
She could not speak of these matters, but urged
you to investigate the magistrates, to learn
of the Gwishin, and after that, to learn of the
Dragon Clan's lie. And only then, with those
two pieces, can you learn of the lie behind the
lie. and know what she has done. I pull Blanche
to the side. Actually, Conan Junester walks awkwardly
up to you guys. He pushes him back. Oh, I'm not.
Okay, yeah, that's fine. He explains all of that.
Not that I wouldn't want to intrude on a matter
that's not of my own. I am concerned about the
secrecy a little bit, but of course, no, I wouldn't
want to intrude. That would be inappropriate.
Give us a fucking second. No, wildly inappropriate.
I apologize. Jules explains all that. I'll pet
your dog. Do you have any idea? Have you heard
that word before? Gwishin. I haven't heard Gwishin.
I heard a new name myself. Yungi told me of Baraki,
who was a red dragon. He attacked the Phoenix
District some nine years ago. It's said that
the red dragon was killed single -handedly by
Queen Jingmi. I have a hard time believing that's
possible. If it is, then maybe part of these
secrets are some overpowering control over dragons.
Something here, something in this city isn't
letting the dragons behave properly. Right there
on the tail. Oh, right there. It's a sweet spot.
You got it. We can see that with Sholay today.
And maybe to a lesser extent with Ahalan and
Xena being half dragons, perhaps whatever's affecting
Xole is affecting them less. Wait, are there
any other dragons here? Oh yeah, did we see any
other? Yeah, are there any other dragons here?
Half dragons walking around or anything? I would
say you've seen no half dragons. You've seen
a lot of dragonborn, but they seem like they're
entirely, nothing weird's happened to them. Okay.
The queen's a dragonborn. There's a lot of dragonborn
guards. Dragonborn are really populous in this
world, actually. So can we talk about the difference
between a half -dragon and a dragonborn? Yes,
we can. Is there a mechanical difference? Mechanical
difference? I mean, half -dragons are... They're
far more dragon -blooded. They live longer. They
have wings. They are half of a dragon. Yeah,
they have wings and all that. They carry a lot
of a dragon's raw power. Dragonborns are more
like humans who are sort of almost like, it's
like a demon versus a tiefling, right? Tieflings
are more like humans changed and influenced by
tieflings. Dragonborn may be humanoids or humans
that have been sort of influenced by sort of
draconic magic and turned into this race of just
like more. you know, draconic looking humanoids,
but they're not, they don't carry nearly as much
of that sort of draconic ancestry and power except
for perhaps Queen Jean Mee, who apparently is
a descendant of Meriu, the dragon that founded
the city and apparently holds more power. That's
the story. I don't buy it. That's, that's what
I'm thinking. I don't think that she's descended
from a dragon. Um, so. We know that we need to
investigate what's happening to the dragons here,
and we need to do it while staying on Queen Jinmi's
good side and impressing her on top of that.
I might have blown it with Yun -Gi. I can try
again while playing Go, but I think I insulted
the queen's uncle I ruled pretty poorly last
episode. Oh, shit. But he did tell me to talk
to the magistrates. He told me that the magistrates
know the secrets, or at least a secret, that
everybody's so close -lipped around here. I don't
know how we're going to... Do you think you can
pull anything out of Kunanju? How has your relationship
developed in the time we've been separated? Not
a whole lot. Yeah, it was... Stephen knows that
you were mostly talking to Sholay, not... Mostly
talking to Sholay, and yeah, just kind of put
him in my periphery. But, I mean, he seems like
he wants to talk. So he seems very eager to talk,
but he's scared to. Kunanjun, could please, one
more, I just need to confer with my partner here,
and then we're going to rope you in on... Well,
no, I really have to go. I have to go. I figure
you guys are comfortable here. I was tasked by
the Queen to a different objective. I have to
investigate the Tiger District situation. So
if you guys are comfortable here, if you're chatting
and having a good time, just don't wander from
the palace. The Sea of Dragons will be okay,
right? I need a couple favors of you first. Oh,
well, then carry on. Carry on. I'll wait. Please
pet me more, okay? I've found that... The fastest
way to get somebody to trust you is to ask them
for a favor. I love this image of the scene so
much. It creates a bond quickly. All right. Maybe
I can help you with my plus ten persuasion. That's...
Yeah, hold on to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like
all of it. Kunan Jun. Oh, yeah, yeah. I pride
myself as a... a bit of an expert in the arcane,
and I believe that what's afflicting our friends
could be cured with a spell. I am trying to ascertain
what magics I could use, we could use, to help
revive them. Do you know of any books in this
library, in this city, any powerful mages who
could... Could help? You want to roll a check?
You see a war playing out. Kunon Jun wants somebody.
Eyes are going to go towards you. Look down,
look back up. Wants the help, but secrets, secrets
everywhere, right? Yeah. I can try to roll persuasion.
Anyone who will help action? Yeah, I'm trying
to think of what to say, though. We all got to
trust each other right now. Do you know why they
really sent us here, Kun Anjun? Well, I know
that Queen Jin Mi is, of course, some would say
that she's tied to the speaker for the ancestors
of, you know, our world. Of course, that is a...
Queen Jin Mi is part of it, but we are fixers.
And she motions to herself in jewels. Possibly
the best the Radiant Citadel has. We're here
to help. And if you won't cooperate, then I'm
not sure even we can fix what's going on here.
Roll a check. Either one of you can roll. You
can roll with advantage. I'll let Jules roll
it with your help, actually, if you want to.
Yeah, that would be ideal. You're both in on
this. You're both in on this scene. Yeah. If
there's a scene where one person has more rapport
with the character, I'll give it to them as the
rolling one, like with the handsome Jai. But
in this case, you both have built some rapport
here, so I think it makes sense for... Either
of you to roll it. First roll was a 10. All right.
Second roll was a 19. For 29. 29! Okay. Holy
shit. You say those last words, and you see the
magistrate kind of fixes you, and something interesting
enters his eyes, almost like a... You almost
see the light bulb going over his head, and he
gets this almost sly look. So you were telling
me that you are currently dissatisfied with my
experience in being your guide, which would mean
it would be quite remiss of me not to find a
way to acknowledge and address your dissatisfaction,
even if it means potentially skirting the edge
of something that could be maybe considered inappropriate.
Is that what you're saying? Yes. In a professional
manner, that's exactly what I'm saying. Sorry,
give me 30 minutes while I piece of shit loads
Discord so I can turn it off. This... Oh my god,
it won't even open. I hate this laptop. We're
just going to keep hearing Discord. I don't know.
I can't open it. I'm so angry. I'm so angry all
the time. It's going to open. Oh, there goes
my note. It's gone now. Alright. He just nods.
Well, you're asking about higher -level magic
users, those that are versed in the strange magics
of this world, perhaps magic unique to this world
that may or may not be affecting Xena and Arhalon
Brass, as well as Xole Brass, I assume. There
could be someone who might have access to these
magics. There are a type of people, the higher
-level magistrates, are known as spirit arbiters,
and they deal in unique, Occult rituals, and
I may or may not be a spirit arbiter in training.
Early phases, but I have some understanding of
some strange magics. And who's training you?
Oh, some of the higher level arbiters. Not one
in particular? Not one that would be at all interested
in skirting propriety in even speaking to you.
Whatever you might say, but I might be able to
help. Well, that's very honorable of you, magistrate.
That almost makes me look more nervous. I'm going
to place the feather on his hat. Perhaps it could
be worthwhile to... Of course, if you are not
satisfied with... my role as your host, uh, I
could offer to, uh, continue in the role until
I become satisfactory. And you could follow me
around while I conduct my own investigation.
So long as you absolutely promise not to pay
any attention at all to anything you see or that
I do, or that you hear, or that happens or, uh,
anything. Cool. You promised you're, you're,
you're getting it right. It's like, it's like,
yeah, yeah. Yeah. Jules turns to Blanche. Did
you hear anything just now? I'm simply impressed
with the morals of this man, and I believe he
will someday make a great... What's the higher
magistrate called? Spirit Arbiter. Spirit Arbiter.
I'm thinking someday he will make a fantastic
Spirit Arbiter. Is he like a big smile? Almost
like weirdly prideful, kind of kicks the ground
a little bit. You know... Queen Jean picked me
when I was very young so that she had a vision
that one day I would help save the city. Well,
I hope that we're here to help you do just that.
You know what I've always wanted to see since
we got here, Jules? What's that? The Tiger District.
Doesn't it look beautiful from the city? Looks
fantastic. Funny. I wonder if we'll... You know,
it actually happens I have a task of my own in
the Tiger District. It is quite beautiful. No
shit. Do you mind if we... What a coincidence.
Could we follow along? It would be wildly inappropriate,
I think, if I didn't take you along at this point.
I can assure you we will get up to trouble if
you leave us unattended. That's all I need to
hear. You are now duty -bound to take us to the
Tiger District. Then we should go. And we go.
We go. Yeah, we go. Hell yeah. And so you leave
the Seat of Dragons behind. When you arrived
in this world, it was early morning. I'd say
it was probably around 7, 8 o 'clock in the morning.
It took some time climbing up the hill through
the city, switchbacking up to reach the palace.
You've been here for a little while. I'm going
to say at this point in time, it's probably close
to maybe noon. As you're leaving this place behind,
as you're stepping back out into the streets
of the upper hill, upper city, as you move out
and you can look down, down this hill, down these
switchbacking streets and the roofs of buildings,
on citizens marching to and fro, on the gates
down below where it looks, you know, you see,
it's hard to make anything out, but you assume
at this point the bodies from this morning have
been cleared up. Traffic is moving in as normal.
Everything seems to have returned to some calm.
What time was that this morning? That was 9 o
'clock. Okay, so it's been about three hours.
It's been about three hours. You can see beyond
the gate fields and plains stretching out and
out and out with small copses of trees, you know,
sort of lush forest far in the distance. It is
a beautiful, beautiful world. And you turn from
that, turn uphill as you push through the...
The last of the district we're sitting in now,
which I believe this is the Herring District?
Shit, let me check. Okay, so it looks like the
Sea of Dragons, the way I kind of have this mapped
out, it's a little different because I wanted
to have a hill because it looked cooler if I
missed a couple down it. That's literally why
I changed the city of the map. So, Sea of Dragons
really sits on the line between... what would
be considered the Herring District and the Turtle
District. Now, that's kind of almost like, imagine
a vertical split in the upper part of the hill,
and half of it is one, half it's the other. Once
upon a time, there was the Phoenix District that
was kind of a lower part of, just below these
and kind of in the central part of the city.
That was... As you know, Wiped Out, even looking
down, you see a lot of new construction. You
see a lot of sort of gaps in construction. You
know, nine years has changed a lot, but there
was apparently somewhat of a massacre there.
And somewhere in the middle of that, there is
a sort of open green with a statue you can see.
That would be the Park of the Elders. As you
go lower and lower from there, you reach the
Haytay District, which is kind of your opening
with the lower district of the city, which a
lot of the trade is done in. But you're now turning
up. towards the top of the hill, towards the
Tiger District, which is being sort of built
into the forests at the hilltop. The Sea of Dragons
is quite close to this. You move past a few of
newer construction, you move past some guard
posts, you move to another gate in the wall,
this one a lot smaller, less guarded than the
lower one because it is far less used. As you're
going here, you see no passerbys really going
through the gate, no major trade or anything
like that, no farmers moving into the market.
It's just... wagons of supplies and wagons of
lumber coming in from the outside. This is where
everything is sort of in construction. Everything
is still being made. And Magistrate leads you
through. No words spoken. Just people see Magistrate
go by and they nod and turn away. He's obviously
up to some business and it's not any business
of theirs. Yeah, I think Blanche is trying to
stay inconspicuous. Because she doesn't want
to... I don't know if we're going someplace where
the magistrate shouldn't be taking us, but he's
just taking us because he's cooperating. So she
wants to stay quiet as a church mouse and not
draw attention to herself. There might be eyes
that look to you two, kind of a little confused,
and then they just see who's leading you and
they turn away, shrug, whatever. It's just like
if you act like you belong, people will think
you belong. So shoulders back, chest out, just
walking. Naturally. You're moving, moving. You
move out of the gates, through copes of trees
that have been cut down. The roots have been
pulled up, and you see larger areas where the
bases of buildings have been built. Very few
fully constructed yet. This is all very, very
new, very raw. You're going down this... What
will one day be a street, you assume, between
these sites? And as you're kind of reaching the
end of this, you kind of move out of the city
and start pushing. The top of the hill, from
the bottom of the hill, is east to west, right?
So the top is towards the west of where the Concord
Jewel was, where the gate was. So you're now
moving out the western gate to the top of the
hill and going south. And as you sort of move
to the south, you begin to hear shouting up ahead
in this district where you see another one of
these sort of... base is being constructed. You
know, a stone base kind of on this sort of somewhat
muddy soil terrain trying to build something
strong that can hold. You just hear someone just
like, Doc's nipples! What? What could possibly
go wrong now? What are you talking about? What
is your problem? What? Sorry, boss! Sorry, boss!
People just running away. You just hear, yeah,
like, something's happening over there. Yikes.
Did he just say Doc's nipples? Or Dog's nipples?
Who knows? Magistrate, did he just say dog's
nipples? I think ox nipples. Oh, ox nipples.
Going down soon. She's, um... She's excitable.
Let me handle the talking. In fact, remember,
no paying attention to anything that happens
from here on out at all. Great, cool. I'm sorry,
did you say something? Should we stay out of
sight? Are we... Well... Of course, if you're
out of sight, you could be causing trouble elsewhere,
which would not be great. Unfortunately, you'll
need to stand somewhere within hearing range
of everything that I'm saying and doing, but
you're going to promise not to hear anything,
so it's okay. Yes, understood. All right. Good.
Good. You're sort of moving down. You see, like,
some large, like, large muscled construction
worker bald head runs past you, weeping openly.
You see this very small framed woman, kind of
shorter, dark hair, kind of pulled back, dark
green eyes, tan skin. She's just kind of wearing
a construction apron, you know, just all the
tools, nails, everything kind of like loaded
under her belt. And it's just like probably heavier
than she is. Just like, oh, oh good, a magistrate.
Which is what I need right now. What in the tiger
-humping, goose -pissing could go wrong now?
What? What? What? What? Uh, LinkedIn soon. I
see everything's coming along swimmingly out
here. I, uh, was simply asked by the queen. I'll
get out of your way very soon. Just a big glare.
Really soon. Um, but I had a few questions. And
who are these? Hmm? Who was on my site that I
didn't request or give access to? Hmm? Hmm? Who
are you? Points to you, Blanche. Can you just
spell the name for me real fast? Hwang Jun Soon.
So that's H -W -A -N -G space J -U -N dash S
-O -O -N. We are simply here to observe and help
the magistrate in his day -to -day operations.
We are guests of the queen. Her eyes fall onto
your blade. Capable guests. How capable are you?
How can I help you? We've had some attacks. Tigers
in the area earlier today killed two of ours,
injured three more. Killed two! And Magic's just
kind of writing this down. I see. And this happened...
Would this have occurred, perhaps, at around
nine o 'clock this morning? A strange silence
between them, then. Yes. Yes, it did. Kunan Jun,
is this... Is this area, this district, large
enough to support a population of tigers? Are
they wild? Are they escaped, perhaps? He's, we
do have tigers in the forest around here, though
I don't think they, and Huntington soon sort
of interrupts, like, there are, there is a den
to the north of here. We're not allowed to construct
over there because they are dangerous. It's their
forbidden land. We don't go there. Hwang Jung
-soon, that man who ran off crying like a little
baby. Do you know where he's going? Probably
home to bed. I fired him. Would you do him the
kindness of not letting him travel alone? Kind
of almost like expression of, oh, shit. Like,
oh, right. Yes, of course. We probably should.
In whiteness. Begins to overtake you all. God
damn. Fuck hell. Let's change the music. Oh my
god. Do you use any spell slots? Yeah, I'll burn
a second level spell slot. Whoa, a second level?
Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah, I know. Hell
yeah, okay. Anything else going on here? Any
abilities? All out buttons. Not yet. I'm not
going to do that yet. I'm not desperate enough
for that. I'm going to see what the spell slot
does for me and take it from there, I think.
Yeah, I'll do a first level. First level? Yep.
Hell yeah. That's really good. Second level and
a first level. Nothing else. That will be plus
30 to your D100 roll. Okie dokie. 20 for the
second level, 10 for the first level. All right.
I like that. Any abilities you want to use? Any
misdirection casts? Anything like that? Might
add little bits for other things if you have
them. Bardic Inspiration, I can give you a plus
five on that. No. Okay. You have a plus 30. All
right, let's see what plus 30 gets us. Come on,
baby. 48 plus 30 is 78. I imagine it still stands
that Blanche and Akio are your frontliners? Correct.
Okay. 78, huh? Oh, just shy of 80. I know, but
it's way better than 48. A damn shame. Yeah.
God damn it. I should have used Broderick Inspiration.
Fuck. That would have given another plus five.
Fuck. I would have broke 80. The mist retreats.
Huang Junsun is gore before you. Splattered upon
your leg. Blood on your boots. No. Body torn
to pieces. This is what you see, Blanche, blinking.
Blinking through the pain. You are covered in
blood. Claw marks, gashes running down your body.
You have taken 25 points of damage. Holy shit.
We got a C+. We got a C+. What the fuck? Did
you say 25? This is worse than the first one.
What the fuck? And one of them was a crit. Oh
my god. You feel as though you took a critical
hit during the combat that just occurred. What
the fuck? Blanche, fuck. You feel a form huddling
behind you, the form of Magistrate Conan June,
and you realize the four of you have surrounded
the magistrate. You look to your side. Akio is
barely just kind of like standing there, sword
in hand, blood dripping from his muzzle, blood
dripping from his sword. He looks so weary, so
tired, wincing in his own pain. He's taken 24
points of damage. Oh my. Holy shit. You're doing
okay. Only eight points for you. You're taking
a nice little gash, but you're standing strong,
kind of holding, perhaps holding the Sturge sword
out again before your loot's in your hand this
time. I think just, you know, casting some magic
through it. You did cast the first level spell
slot, so yeah. Chester, beside you, misdirection,
locked and loaded. You see like an arrow shot.
It is puncturing out one of these sort of building
bases away from him. Chester's taken 16 points
of damage. He looks... A huge scratch is carved
right across him, another one down his back.
He's just kind of, shit, what the fuck? What
the fuck? You see tracks in the mud around you.
Tracks that look like animal tracks that were
not there before. Perhaps tiger tracks. We focus
for now on Blanche. Blanche blinking down at
the bloody body before her. And as you look at
this body blanch, your eyes lower, you realize
that one point of damage that you took is from
this cut of your arm. I mean, you wouldn't know
from the number wise, but you just, you realize
like some of what hurts is this fresh wound you
see on your sort of lower arm. Clean and concise.
Your quill is in your hand. This blood dripping
off its tip onto a blank page of your spell book.
It is your blood, you realize. From a cut you
may have made yourself, maybe before all this
started, you were ready to do something, to write
something. You had an idea because you have pretty
high intelligence. I'm giving you this. This
makes sense to me. This is a Blanche move. You
look down at the book in your hands and you see
that blood -ridden words. Follow that quill's
tip. And you want to know what those words say?
You know what they say? Yeah. Then tune in next
week. Fuck you! Goddamn.