You guys want to hear something funny, kind of
unique, not your typical D &D podcast? Then check
out a message from our friends at Wing Women
Podcast. Incoming message coming from the 588.
Good morning, recruits. Welcome to hell. This
is basic training. No one's supposed to die.
Wing Women is a semi -historical actual play
podcast. Have you pissed anyone off recently?
No one I can think of. While I run through the
blitted indexed list of people we've pissed off
in the last couple of days. They endure discrimination
from their male counterparts. All of your beds
have been carried out of the nurse's station
and placed in the middle of the jogging track.
I don't think it was Ivan. He's weak. Against
this bitter setting, our four motley heroines
gain the chance to experience queer joy, gender
euphoria, and equality for the first and perhaps
the only time in their lives. How obvious am
I being? See, I've kind of always thought that
there is a level to some of us in this barracks
that's visible. Have you been using the word
shenanigans? I've been experimenting. Where did
you learn that word? Until the next mission,
this is us signing off. The time of mountain
mania is approaching. May 1st through May 4th
at Burke Mountain Hotel and Conference Center
in Eastburg, Vermont. Get there, play games with
us, watch us play our game, and have fun with
games. Find out details at fantasypants .co.
What is less known, however, is that there's
a certain gloom in him that despises him even
more. One whose origins and story closely match
those of the Midnight Prince. And I am speaking,
of course, of the criminal, criminal entrepreneur,
Ron Riddle. Now, Ron Riddle was raised in the
streets of the Los Angeles Rural, which you now
know to have been a grim and sorry place. The
young Uante struggled for years on his own. There
were ever he needed to get by and get even. And
unlike Jules, Riddle had no cherry delights to
take care of him. He was alone, warmed only by
a seething hatred for the royals of Cerule and
their wayward son. Of course, when Tithos fell,
Ron Riddle was one of the lucky few from the
low sea to escape. Upon reaching the city of
El, he allegedly scammed his way onto the Concord
Jewel to Sosoko, seeking opportunity. After making
his way to the Dinsing Night Market, Ron Riddle
swiftly found dark work as a spirit dealer. And
it was going well for him, up until Jules the
Roach arrived in the market and was soon followed
by Sturgeman himself. Spooked away from his work,
Ron moved then to Sanctuary and found a promising
position as a bookie and ticket scalper for Lucha
Libre Battles. A position that crumbled when
again, Jules arrived on world and was soon followed
by Itosh and his celestial soldiers. I suppose
you're starting to see the pattern here. I mean,
Riddle certainly did. Nowadays, his current schemes
and location are unknown. There are some rumors
that he lives right here in the said L, and used
his old tricks to smuggle contraband clients
between worlds. So be wary. Any of you who happen
upon a U .N .T. clad in black leather armor and
a hooded overcoat, be doubly wary if this figure
draws a sleek and impressive blow dart to his
lips. And if you are Jules LaRoche, well, you
best be wary of steel. Fun fact, if you use a
magic wand to rearrange all the letters in the
name Ron Riddle, you get, I am Mr. Scaly Iguana!
Thank you, Horace! Nice. Yeah, a horse coming
in with a second spotlight, a gloominary spotlight.
A little spicy. It's nice and spicy. Fun little
sort of character dynamic with Jules. Similar
kind of world hopping, and you guys are always
messing it up. Jules is ready for that fight.
Bring it on. Well, I was thinking, I was like,
if this world goes horribly, we might need the
services of somebody like that. But if he's a
Jules hater, then I don't think that'll work
out. Nope. Yeah, just dress up. Changer. Or just
ditch Jules, you know? Yes, it's me, Blanche
Trudeau, and my friend here rules Jalosh. What?
You know? Maybe it'll come to that. But I mean,
what are the chances that things go badly on
this world? High. Really fucking high. Yeah.
Good point. Steven. About last week, you mentioned
you had a little banter topic you wanted to bring
up this week. I imagine you already forgot. No,
no, no. You haven't? Oh, damn. Okay. All right.
All right. Well, take it away then. So I often
get annoyed by, in fantasy, you know, there'll
be that like classic tavern scene. Somebody will
sit down and they'll be like, oh. We got nothing
but ale in here, blah, blah, blah, this and that.
And the guy's like, yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, I'll,
I'll just, I'll take a mead and people use the
word mead and ale like interchangeably and bugs
the crap out of me. I wanted to know if you guys
had any fantasy pet peeves. I don't, mead and
ale are the same thing to me. So I have no idea.
You're part of the problem. I'm part of the problem.
I've probably done that in this show. Mead is
closer to wine than it is to beer. It's made
out of honey. Well, listen to the beer nerd.
I'll defer this one to you guys because I've
not been playing along enough to have anything
piss me off like that yet. I'm actually in a
weird spot when it comes to tropes, right? Because
I genuinely love cliches. Like if we're talking
like the typical sort of cliches, you know, what
annoys a lot of people are just like the same
old, same old. But like to me, cliches are cliches
because they're perfected bits of story, right?
okay sure right so like there's a mentality of
a dragon quest fanboy right by the way so it's
it's kind of like what's been beaten into me
but there is one thing i really really do hate
in like a lot of and this is this applies a lot
more to modern anime than to like western fantasy
but i hate overpowered heroes right like i hate
those like oh i went into a fantasy world and
i'm already level 99 and nothing could challenge
me and it's like I don't understand how he can
have fun being like, oh yeah, this guy, he's
so strong, he can't even lose. And it's like,
that sounds so boring. And why are they watching?
Because this might surprise you to hear, but
I really love to watch heroes suffer. I love
to watch heroes struggle and go through hell.
I was going to say, I hate overpowered villains.
Oh, that sucks for you. Oh no, you're at the
wrong show. Oh yeah. I bet mead was also probably
super expensive and not just like something that
any common person would walk up to a bar and
drink. It's like honey, right? Yeah. Honey's
top tier ingredient. Yeah. Probably really expensive.
It's like honey mixed with beer. It's, it's,
you know, like beer or wine, but made with a
large portion of honey. Yeah. Same thing. This
is a weird night. This is a wild night because
tonight we're kind of celebrating here in the
studios. We've got a lot of new going on. In
the minor news, I've got a new computer. Thank
Atash. That piece of garbage is gone. That four
gig monstrosity now belongs to my wife. Our wonderful
benefactors and patrons, Reckless Brewing Company,
gave me a newer computer that I'm using for recording.
So thank you, Reckless. You made the show sound
better. Jeremy was going to strangle me if I
had one more like audio hiccup from my terrible.
Yes. If you hear any crackles in the last couple
episodes, pants people. Shit on David. Yes, honestly.
But as we usher in these new, we are also tonight.
celebrating and ushering out the old. Oh, yeah.
Mr. Jeremy Wolf, what's going on? You tell us.
Tell the world. This is the last night in our
original studio. This is our last night in Jeremy's
apartment. Actually. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Wolf's moving.
Uh -huh. Engaged, married, moving. Crazy series
of events. The bachelor pad is going away. Next
week, he's pregnant. But we're going. The studio's
gone. We got a new one at his new place. Yep.
You're going through hell the next week or two
to get all that set up. It's a lot of stuff.
The pants people love you for it. But we'll get
it. And this dude is going to be awesome. It's
going to be so cool. I'm so excited. And I'm
also so in a way sad to see like this. We've
been here. I mean, we start everything, not in
this room, but one room over, we started it all.
And then like two weeks later, we're like, hey,
this room is terrible. Let's move to this room.
And we're here. I've been like two years, you
know, two years in this room every week. I'm
yelling at you guys and you're crying, you know.
We kicked Jeremy out of the bigger of the two
bedrooms. Oh no, he did it himself. But it's
funnier to say. no, we can't do this in here.
No, we stopped using the, the smaller room. Jeremy
was sleeping in the smaller room. So we had the
larger room for the studio. Yeah. Selfless. So
selfless. Yeah. And now it's like half torn apart.
Um, our, our wall art and stuff is down. Yup.
Yeah. It's a, yeah, the walls are pretty barren
here. So if you hear some echoes, yeah, sorry.
You'll only have to deal with it for two episodes.
It's half a studio now. So yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah.
And then this, No, not this weekend. Sorry. Next
weekend. Don't say it. I'll puke. Well, as well,
as we're recording, as you're listening, it'll
be this weekend. We're going to mountain mania.
Oh gosh. Oh, live show. It's going to be awesome.
I think David just pooped his pants. He's not
nervous at all. What he said earlier was I'm
going to throw up in my pants. Do that too. Oh,
dog, dog, eat dog world. What? Yep. We're going
to get drunk tonight. We're celebrating. Leave
your dogs home when you go to Mountain Mania.
Are you dogs? No, hold on. No, go on, say it.
Are you dogs ready to have your day? Fuck, let's
do this thing. It's only the first episode, guys.
We open on a hazy swirl of vibrant purple lights.
That is the world we look upon now, the plain,
an immense, colorful nothingness that seems to
expand in every direction, eternal and unyielding.
Floating against this backdrop, we see the radiant
citadel, but not as it looks in our modern day.
We see the fossil that wraps around this diamond
is barren of any structures or life. The royal
diamond itself pulses with a dangerous red as
it sinks slowly into the maw of the keening gloom.
The dark cyclone looks to have half swallowed
the diamond already, greedily sucking in its
light. As you look upon all of this, a title
card appears. The Deep Ethereal. 251 years ago.
And we see a figure flying into this fray. A
brass dragon, beaten, exhausted, wings moving
with a pained limp. Xolay is so tiny compared
to the cosmic battle before her, yet she pushes
onwards. For nearly seven years, she has pushed
and pushed, and now, finally, she looks upon
Journey's end. Xolay circles the diamond, surprised
to find no pull from the storm below. It seems
to grip only at the diamond itself. Still, her
calm demeanor has been broken by panic. So much
hardship, so many sacrifices, and it seems she
may be too late. She moves in close to the diamond,
searching its facets, searching for... for...
there! Up against the edge of the black fossil,
there's an opening into the diamond. One that,
in our modern day, is covered by a set of giant
iron doors. Shirley dives into the opening, crashing
down into a long, crystalline hall. There's light
up ahead, some kind of vast, open space. She
moves towards it, stopping only when a figure
resolves itself in the opening ahead. A figure
that also sports wings and draconic features.
A figure formed of brilliant blue stone that
seems to hum with light melodic tones in the
sound of a storm. Hello, chosen one. Your voice,
Jolay, approaches. I have spoken to you once
before. through the sapphire on Tythos. Yes.
I am known as the Sapphire Wyvern, one of the
25 dawn incarnates that serve the great god that
is the soul of this structure, who you mortals
once called the Sunweaver. In your crude mortal
terms of thinking, you might consider us incarnates
to be his sworn knights. I was selected to greet
you here, alone, as to not overwhelm. Do you
still hold the gemstones, one for each of your
worlds, that have touched the chosen fragment?
I... I do. Then you have nearly fulfilled your
quest. This is good. History will remember your
efforts, chosen one. You have saved your world
and all worlds. I didn't do it alone. Many fail
to see this done. My husband, he waits outside
the rift with a few of our party that yet remain.
We should make haste for all of them. Show me
now what I must do to save our worlds. And to
that we just hear a dark laugh vibrate down this
crystal hall. A laugh that cracks like the peals
of thunder. You will find, dear chosen one, that
we fallen gods think very little of haste. There
is time yet to tell you of our history, of Shadrakhan,
the perfect paradise of the war that torn apart.
Come. This figure turns away, begins to move
back into the opening, into the light, and Sholay
begins to rush. Time! There is no time! The structure
is half consumed by that cyclone outside! Yes.
A failsafe, in case the worlds were not connected
soon enough. If consumed, the diamond seals will
break and the fragments of Shatrakhan will reunite.
This cannot happen, not yet. But we do have time.
Hurry not. I don't understand. Isn't that my
purpose here? To use this place to connect the
worlds so we may stand together? Yet, this activated
diamond will connect the fragments without fully
unifying them. A sort of unification, but with
shackles, safeguards. We cannot risk another
war. So, Jolie kind of is moving closer, wincing
in thought. It's a bridge of sorts. Yet, a bridge.
And as she moves up beside the sapphire wyvern,
the preserve opens up before her and beneath
her. We see the familiar amalgamation of climates
tied together beneath a diamond -rejected sky
of pulsing red. Vast mountains and deserts and
seas and arctic shores all blending together
in this one place, this one magical, beautiful
place. And Sholay stares in awe. I recognize
this place. Or pieces of it. It's all of the
worlds. Fragments from them conjoined. What?
Her eyes focus on something right down below
in the very center of this vast landscape. What
is that at the center? She points to this dome
-like amphitheater jutting out of the natural
landscape made of raw diamond. That is our destination.
where my kin await our coming, and where your
journey will find purpose and completion. Sholi
nods and unfurls her wings, ready to take flight,
ready to make that final leap, ready to see this
through. And the sapphire wyvern, fixed over
this long look, raises a single claw. A warning,
Sholi. My kin, once all has been explained, they
will ask only one thing of you. To touch the
command node of the auroral diamond. To attune
to it and to speak a word. Do not show haste
in this. Touch the node, but feel it. Explore.
Stop. Why are you laughing? How dare you? Node
is not a weird word. Come on. What the hell?
What do I do? What do I do? You're doing great.
Keep going. Damn it. This is intense, dude. You
were talking about exploring the node? This is
serious time for serious podcasters. Damn it.
Explore it. Stop. I can't. All right. I'm just
going to turn away. Get out of here. Plug your
ears. This isn't for you. It's for them. My real
friends, the listeners. Find the secrets they
will not likely share. This diamond is a bridge,
but one that connects more than just the fragments
of our world. Now, come. God damn it! You stop!
You didn't see it when you wrote this? No. I
wrote it like 30 minutes ago. I just finished
my shift. I was driving quick. I don't understand
why note is dirty. I didn't do this on purpose.
Why? And the two dragons take flight, launching
out over the Preserve of the Ancestors towards
the lone crystal amphitheater in the place that
would one day become known as Auroral Town. You
gonna laugh at that? Is that funny? No. Jesus
Christ. Oh my God. Okay. All right. You know
what? I'm getting you back for that. Because
the time for laughing is fully over. Wow. I'm
sorry if I ruined your thing. I feel like I'm
in sixth grade and I just can't stop laughing
at a fart joke or something. You wrote the word
node in a bunch of other spots. What do I do
now? Rewrite the whole fucking thing? Node is
a word. No, no, it's fine. Node is a great word.
I don't understand the wrong with... Google node.
It's everything that... God damn it. God damn
it. You must find the node and explore it. Now,
come. I say leave it all in. Oh my god. Wait,
there's more? Yeah, now they'll ruin your lives,
right? Oh, God, yeah. All right, let's do the
thing. Maybe. I have one question for you guys.
How many spell slots do you use? Do you use any
abilities? Anything that can help bump up this
number? I'm going to use a third -level spell
slot. Oh, holy shit. Wait, actually, before you
use anything, I will say this. I think it's important
that I note this, because you in the moment understand
the level of these fights. this one is not as
bad as the last. Oh. If the first was a two on
a skill five and the second was a four, this
might be a two or maybe a one. It's not as bad
as the first. Now, a low roll is still very bad
in its own way, but I'm not going to, yeah, it's
not. I'm still going to use a third level spell
slot. Okay. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah. Jules
can't. Okay. Oh shit. I just, it's. You can use
a Bardic, bump it up by five. Oh, that's right.
Yeah, I could. You're looking at 30 now. 30 added
to your roll. If you can get 40, that drops you
up to two tiers. Remember, every 20 is a tier
of me doing damage to you. I got all of my Bardic
back. Let's use one. Use one? 35. So roll a D100
plus 35. Let's see what happens. Oh, man. It's
a good thing we used some stuff. I got a 27.
Oh, wow. But that bumps you up to, what, 62,
right? Right. I think so. Did you say 35? 35.
So that's actually huge. Yeah. Wow. That Bardic
Inspiration was clutch. That netted you an extra.
Nice. Got you into the next tier. Nice. Hell
yeah. Okay. I knew it. I just, I could feel it.
I knew I was going to roll low. I'm going to
start making some rolls then. My brand new HP
that I just got back. I don't like the look on
that face. A couple crits. Get the fuck out.
Fuck. Just roll my straight bunch of 20s. Let
me break this down. Once again, Akiva and Blanche
are your frontliners? Yes. Okay. Damage has been
calculated. I'm just going to roll something
real quick. Panic. Jules, you become aware. of
yourself with a sickening lurch. The world around
you is a blur of motion. You notice immediately
that your hands are wrapped fiercely tight around
the rod of flying and you are speeding heedlessly
through the park only ten feet off the ground.
You find yourself veering towards the trunk of
a nearby tree. Roll a dex save. Oh god. It's
a ten. Ten, okay. With a ten. It's not a critical,
like you're able to sort of veer yourself a little
bit, but you still end up butting into the tree.
The rod itself takes the brunt of the force.
You get flying off it, start fleeing. Boom, boom,
rolling into grass, sliding onto like the stone
tile path. Pain shoots through you. Pain from
the five points of damage you take from this
fall, but also from the 15 points of damage that
you've taken earlier on. You notice that your
gaseous claws rip down your shoulders. God damn
it. Holy shit. That means I'm taking so much
more. So that's 20 total? Uh, that is 20 total.
Fuck. I'm gonna be down below half. Oh my god.
Now I didn't do the best job describing this
environment because last episode was a fever
dream. And I have essentially zero ability to
imagine things in terms of distance by yard or
foot. So I did some research. Alright? Looked
into it. Uh, and this is final. This park, the
Park of the Elders, is essentially a 200 foot
wide, 1 8th mile long walking trail. Whatever
ridiculous thing I said last week, just forget
about it. It is surrounded by a 20 -foot high
wall with a curving, overhanging roof. Two gates
are set into this wall at each end of the park,
one south gate and one north. There are memorial
plates set into the eastern and western walls,
lining the entire way down, like massive gilded
graves to those who were killed in Baraki the
Dragon's assault on the city. At the center of
the park, where you had stood... There's a 30
-foot -high statue of Queen Jinmi, the savior
of the city, and the one who slayed the dragon.
Now, three different paths push through the park.
Two line the wall memorials, and one cutting
through the center and leading to the statue
itself. Now, this park is filled with natural
beauty. We see great trees with curving trunks
and needle -like leaves that spread out at the
ends of branches like umbrellas hanging above
the pathways, assumedly grown through druidic
magic, as they look much older than the nine
years, you know, this park is. We also see many
sleek, large boulders set along the path, half
submerged in the well -manicured grass. It is
a place that holds a special message to the people
of Unido, that whatever may come to hurt this
city, it will recover, and it will become beautiful
again. I imagined that you entered the park from
the southern gate and moved along the central
path towards the statue. There, you moved to
the northern side of the statue, the way it's
facing, and proceeded to investigate. That's
when the mist swept over you. So it may be strange
to you, Jules, to see that you are hurtling at
blinding speed back towards the southern gate.
Why? Why? You wonder this as you go. Your charlotte
sprawled out on the path as you kind of get up.
And as you're kind of getting up, you look behind
you. And down that same path, you see Akio is
moving, pushing just a short ways behind you.
He sort of skids to a stop. Suddenly, it looks
around. His eyes fill with an urgent confusion.
And his heart, you can see in his eyes, it's
beating fast. Yours is beating fast. Like panic.
You see Akio looks bloodied as well. Large gashes
taken out of his back, a gnarly little scar down
his face. He has taken 15 points of damage. That's
not as bad as I expected. Chester stands with
his back to the statue, his crossbow in hand
and loaded. He's aimed at the space just in front
of you, Blanche, where a pile of stone is crumbling
and cracking into a fine gray dust. Chester is
a kind of... Holds this crossbow. He kind of
like almost like lets it fall limp and puts his
hand over his arm across his chest where you
see he's taken a solid rake and 15 points of
damage. Holy shit. Blanche, you actually came
out surprisingly well. Really? Only one. I think
you have like one gash probably down your lower
leg. Five points of damage is all you've taken
in this. Because you have really high AC. Okay.
Because I rolled a lot on you. Sure. And I actually
crit everybody else once at least. Oh my goodness.
Yeah. But you did not take anything. All right.
Well, I'm the frontliner, so at least she's in
good shape. That's not a bad thing. You're taking
this in. You immediately realize Jules and Akio
are gone. Chester's there beside you. You note
the new gigantic gouges and be five feet around,
carve the base of the statue and turn a few of
the boulders further away. And again, if you
look at them just the right way, they look to
be almost humanoid slash avian in shape. You
know, the piles of dust being kicked up in a
breeze that pushes through the park. And you
note the open spell book in your hand. Yeah,
that's the first thing Blanche is going to look
for. Turned again to a page of forgotten notes.
Give me a sleight of hand check. See what you
got down there. I'm debating using my last button.
Because sleight of hand is just straight dex,
right? Yeah. Unless you have, you know. Proficiency
in it. I don't okay screw it. Okay. I'll take
a little button boy. It's plus four for decks
I was excited over your glasses. He was already
drunk Okay, 16 for the first natural one on the
second so I'm sorry, 12, which makes 16. Well,
you got to roll at the same time, so you don't
feel like you wasted that button. I don't know
what you want me to do. I only have four sets
of dice here, so. 16's pretty good. That's good.
You look down at your notepad, and you see addendums
to the notes you already wrote, where under where
it says 10 tigers and W, you see four gargoyles,
stash statue, dash draconic. In you, there's
more written on to the words that were going
before. It now reads, I was a hero, celebrated
and loved. You forgot me. I did it all for fame.
I sacrificed all to be remembered. And below
that, it seems to cut out very hastily as you
went down, you scrawled out three letters. Strokes
that press deep enough into the page to nearly
tear through it. Letters that are huge, blanched.
Not like your typical writing. Like this is supposed
to scream out at you from the page. You're taking
this all in a second. And your heart sinks as
you see those three letters. K -U -N. Huh. Kun.
Like the start of Kun on June. And you remember
that he was supposed to meet you here in the
park. Whoa, dude. I'm getting goosebumps. Shit.
I'm getting goosebumps. Wow. Just rolled something.
Sorry. Jules is about 100 feet south of the statue.
Akio is 60 feet south. Blanche is 10 feet north
of it. And Chester is standing against it. What
do you do? What happened? Why are you flying?
Why are you moving? What happened that you can't
remember? Fuck. Fuck. I don't know. What happened,
Jules? Tell me. David, what happened? I don't
know. I mean, I know once Jules comes to his
senses, he's running back toward the middle.
Okay. He's going to go back to regroup. Akio
kind of looks around. Oh, what? Why am I running?
Where's Master Blanche? Master Blanche! Master
Blanche! Akio, this way! Oh, all right. You said
the park is just an eighth of a mile long, so
presumably anywhere in the park you can see the
other end. I mean, there's a lot of trees. kind
of blocking the way. But yeah, if you're staying
in the mill path and you look down, the statue
would block your way. So if you loop around to
the south end of the statue, you can look at
one end and look at the other end down the pathway.
It's hard to make out the other side paths as
well through all the trees and stones and flora,
but... I'd imagine that pretty quick off, we
would all regroup, you know, Blanche would turn,
Chester, where are the others? And they would
take their time to find each other. Hell yeah.
You all come together. The fuck was that? I...
Here, let me show you and show Jules what she
wrote. When I came to, it was just Chester and
I. Are you hurt? It looks like you're all a little
worse for wear. Yeah, I got hit pretty good.
You look all right. What? Thank you. Why would
we have decided that the best course of action
was for you, Jules, and you, Akio, to run? Yeah,
I don't like this. Jules, gotta stay close, man.
How is Psyche gonna protect you if you're running
away? No, no, no. Wait, what? The implication
is that whatever happened during the mist, we,
as a group, decided the best course of action
was for them to run. Was it so bad? I don't know.
I don't remember a fucking thing. Well, it seems
here that Kunon June is going to have some answering
to do. Do we... immediately confront him with
this information, we could spook him. He's been
helpful so far. I don't know what else to do
but just go and find him. Well, he was supposed
to meet us here. Yeah. So I guess... I think
where we left it was he was going to the castle.
We were going to come here first and then we
were going to go to the castle. And it was kind
of like a we'll meet you along the way sort of
thing. Yeah. You told him you were going here.
He set up so you could get into the guards and
he told you he'd try to meet you here. if not
at the palace, but he was getting information
on what's going on, telling them about the empowered
Gwishin, and you asked him to look into Baraki.
So maybe he has some information on that. I think
for now, we keep this mention of Kunan Jun by
the Gwishin to ourselves. I'm not going to go
so far as to say I don't trust Kunan Jun. I will
note this. In your book, the way you wrote it,
you were writing the dialogue from the Gwishin,
and it's like your hand cut. and just very quickly
wrote K -U -N, wrote Kun in very big letters.
It still doesn't mean... You can't decipher.
It's that hard thing of like you tried to write
a note and you don't know how you're going to
decipher your own... You don't remember the context.
Because I only rolled a 16. Jeez. Well, we don't
really have much options in terms of healing,
do we? Not really. Okay. I can use more spell
slots. I mean, if... If you guys don't need them
for now, then... Yeah, I'm at 32 of 56. All right.
I guess we can save them. It's up to you. I think
I'm okay for now. Let's continue on and see if
we can meet up with Kunan Jun. Maybe he's found
something that can help us put these puzzle pieces
together. Hell yeah. You guys are moving out
of the park, then? Out of the park. Okay. Yeah,
up to the palace. You begin to move down that
path to the southern gate. Every wisp of mist
has faded out. This place is once again so serene,
so beautiful. You're walking when maybe, like,
not far from where you crashed into that tree,
Jules. Just, like, two trees down from there,
just a few stone tiles down the path, the key
sort of stops abruptly. and begins to move off
the path, sort of sniffing at the ground. You
turn to see Akio's nose push into the bushes
at the base of a tree, and he kind of bites down
something and pulls it out. He's biting down
on the tip of a long orange feather attached
to a blue cap, the magistrate's cap. And he kind
of threw it over, just like, this is weird. And
as he kind of, like, speaks these words, as you
look at him, You watch. It's a drip of blood.
Fuck. Falls from the branch above and splashes
against his nose. Oh, no. Yeah. And you look
up to see a body hanging from the branches of
the tree, half concealed from the ground below
by the bed of needles that it rests upon. Jaws!
And Blanche will try to jump up into the tree
to get to him, I guess. Trying to see if she
can get there in time. Hell yeah. I don't know
if he's already dead. Can Jules help out? Hell
yeah. You have the rod, you can also fly up there.
Oh yeah. Blanche is trying to climb up the tree
and Jules is flying up. Jules gets there. 13.
Make it up. Low branches. You fly up, two of
you at the same time reach the top of this and
you look at the figure of Kun Anjun. Chest is...
entirely shredded and torn open, eyes clouded,
staring towards the sky, reflecting the endless
blue above. You start putting some pieces together.
He was supposed to meet you here. Probably in
the midst of that combat, you heard a scream.
Jules, the healer, took off. Akio to protect
him. But you forgot. And you see the figure before
you has entirely bled out. You also notice that...
He's holding two things in his outstretched hands
as if pulling these things and holding them out
was his last act of life. In one hand he holds
a small bag. Just a very simple thing. In the
other, a recording diamond. Whoa. I thought about
this the other day and I meant to say something
to you and I totally forgot. We have one of those.
Yeah, we do. Blanche will reach out and grab
the bag. You feel three very small things rattling
around inside. You open it? Yeah, once she's
back on the ground, Blanche and Jules will get
Kunon June down, lying on the ground, and then
she'll open the bag, hoping that's something
really good because this guy was the only reason
we got this far. You find three rings inside
the bag. Three rings that look very magical.
At a glance, there is power in these things.
I imagine that Jules grabbed the diamond, and
while Blanche is going through the bag, Jules
will hold the diamond up to his eye. You touch
the diamond, and you reach your mind into it,
and you feel a great number of recordings. You're
not peering at these, but feeling them, the impressions
of them as they blur past you. Kind of like the
mental thumbnails of videos you'd choose to skip
over over a phone. You know, it's like looking
over a phone camera. You just can see an impression
of what these videos are, but you don't need
to watch all of them through. They look to be
mostly self -recordings that have taken place
over the last few weeks. You get the impression
that Kun on June recorded himself reiterating
anything he thought to be important enough to
take note of. He'd probably fill the diamond,
re -watch it all, then write everything down.
Seems like his kind of jam. You blur past these
thumbnails, past Kunonjun's face before stuffy
chambers with long tables, wide spaces filled
with books, and images on the streets of Yanido
with a smiling Kunonjun posing beside gleeful
citizens. At the end of it all, though, you feel
something important. The last recordings. A long
one taken under an hour ago in the Sea of Dragons
and a shorter one just after. I say long, but
long... Honestly, they're both short. I earlier
notes that were different. The two short ones
taken just under an hour ago in the Sea of Dragons.
Do you want to watch these? Yeah. You open this
up and you hear record. And you see Kunon Jun's
face kind of facing, selfie style, looking into
it. The background is sort of a stuffy, again,
a stuffy chamber somewhere in the Seat of Dragons.
You recognize the architecture. And you can actually
catch, like, a door in the back closing as some
other, like, uniform magistrates are, like, leaving.
Looks like he's the last one in the room. I've
just met with a few other magistrates following
the second attack of the memory -stealing Guishin.
The city is in a state of emergency, though the
actual facts of the emergency have still been
kept secret from the outside world. People are
putting on a brave face, but the residents are
filled with dread. Spirit arbiters are all dealing
with the empowered Gwishin throughout the city.
My warning only confirmed what they've already
discovered, and it seems their ranks are overburdened
by this new threat. There'll be little help to
us as it stands. Ambassador Pastar has been kept
as in the dark as possible, but he is pushing
hard to bring Celestials in to relieve the situation.
I mean, so far the Queen's been against it, but...
The ambassador has also been firmly against the
leniency we have shown to Sholay and her party.
He has demanded, very inappropriately, that the
luminary guests be locked away for the protection
of themselves and others. He's even offered to
have his diva overseer do the job. Wildly, wildly
inappropriate, but his nation does represent
a vital trade deal to our world. I don't know
how long we'll hold them off, how long we'll
move freely. As mentioned before, there had been
two assaults, one near 9am and one at noon. The
second had three main locations impacted, the
Sea of Dragons, the Tiger District Construction
Zone, and the Park of the Elders. The first,
however, had four, including the main gate. So
the same place, three places both times, but
why not the gate? Why not? Why only at 9am? I
don't... No, I should mention something else,
too. Attempts to move Arhalon and Xena Brass
have revealed that they are tethered to the palace
somehow. Whatever ails them gets much worse.
life -threatening if they are moved at all. Perhaps
this is why Xolay circled back after that first
attack, when she tried to flee with them both.
Perhaps this is why she still remains in the
Seat of Dragons at all. And I think that's everything.
His eyes look directly into the camera. Did you
get all that, future me? I can't forget anything.
This city is relying on Jules, Blanche, Chester,
and Akio, and they are relying on me. On that
note, I have two more stops to make before I
go and meet them. a swallow, and then stop. And
that was the first recording. There's one more
after it. You want to watch it? Yeah. Record.
We see the diamond is moving down a long hall,
a series of steps into a darker, empty hall.
Based on the architecture, you'd think this is
still the seat of dragons, maybe somewhere beneath
the palace. We hear, I've been looking into Baraki
and I'm a bit confused. I mean, the records all
seem to match the story we know. He flew in and
laid waste to the Phoenix District out of nowhere.
He was stopped only when Queen Jeannie faced
him on her own. But that's the part I don't get.
It's the body. I can't find any record of the
body's disposal or collection. An adult dragon's
body isn't something that can be misplaced or
easily hidden. So what happened to Baraki? Was
he buried? Sent off world? Sold for magical artificery?
It's a little thing and it pokes a hole in the
official story that I just can't ignore. Blanche
will want to know this. Maybe he... Wasn't killed,
just repelled? I mean, the official story says
he was killed, yet I don't ever remember seeing
the body. I don't really remember the events
at all, to be honest. It's all oddly hazy. Though
there was one other little thing. Looking into
the matter of the corpse, I did find a record
of burial cost that resulted from Baraki's attack.
Everything seemed as expected, but there was
one niche little detail that stood out to me.
One coffin. A large coffin. Not dragon large,
but large by humanoid standards. Ten by six.
Anyways, this coffin was particularly expensive
and fully paid for by an outside party, one unnamed
in record. There was a burial cost written off,
too. And the receipt mentioned a vague location
of the single burial plot. Somewhere outside
the northern gate of the city, near to the new
construction of the Tiger District. Anyways,
I know that's not very helpful, but I have one
more thing I can do. I'm almost to the door to
the magistrate's treasury and... Well, I better
not record this next part. I'm afraid I may do
something inappropriate. Something wildly inappropriate.
But I'm starting to think it would be far more
inappropriate for me to let my new friends down.
And the camera turns to face him. Captures one
final, surprisingly confident smile. Stop. And
that's it. The final recording. The final words
of Magistrate Conan June. How dare you, sir.
How absolute dare you? You laughed at my cool
back story. Have him call us new friends. You
laughed when I said come. That's what you get.
Damn it. I'm screwed. Holy shit. Yeah. Okay.
You begin that ring or that bag of rings. Yeah.
I'll tell you. You probably need to roll. Probably
takes some time to, like, look at them to understand
more about them. Sure, take a couple minutes.
You just see one sleek and simplistic ring of
black metal edged by golden bands. One's a bronze
ring. Top of the set is a small emerald surrounding
a closed eye. And just a gold ring bearing a
fluorite stone. Do you want to roll? I guess
you can roll Arcana to see if you can get an
immediate sort of thing. It'll be kind of high,
unless you have, like, a spell. I don't know
if you have a tick match. No, I don't have any
of that. Identify, but let me put something pretty
high to get these. That's a... 19. 19. I'll go
with a 19. I'll give you two of them now. Another
one you need to, like, probably during a short
rest, figure it out. Let's see. I'll give you
the two that seem like they're the most obvious.
The sleek and simplistic black ring, I think,
is one that maybe you had on your own personal
shopping list. You're looking at the sort of
inscription on the inside, and you realize this
is something made. more or less four wizards,
is known as a ring of preparedness. Huh. Once
a day, the wearer of this ring, in Christ's attunement,
can re -prepare spells during a short rest. Ah.
It allows you to instantly memorize the necessary
gestures and incantations from your book that
would normally take you hours to do. That's excellent.
You also notice that the other ring, the one
with the eye, is a ring of X -ray vision. Oh,
very cool. You've heard of these things. You
know that when it activates, that eye is going
to open up and look way too real and freaky.
Hell yeah. Nice. While wearing this ring, you
can take a magic action. Oh, wait. That's the
new rules. You can take an action to gain X -ray
vision within a range of 30 feet for one minute.
Wow. To you, solid objects within that radius
appear transparent and don't prevent light from
passing through them. The vision can penetrate
one foot of stone, one inch of common wall, or
up to three feet of wood or dirt. Thicker substance
or a thin sheet of lead block the vision. Whenever
you use the ring again before taking a long rest,
you have to succeed in a DC 15 constitution saving
throw or gain one exhaustion level. Makes you
sick to use. It's like, it's a lot. But once
a day, you're fine at least. Or once, yeah, once
between long rest, you can do it without that
penalty. Shit. Well, I mean, I think Blanche
is going to take the Ring of Preparedness anyway.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. And the third ring, you don't
know. Yeah. Do you want to hang on to the X -ray
ring for now and we'll see what happens with
the... Oh, wait, can I have that? Can Jules roll
for the third ring? I'll allow it. Given his
history. I'll allow it. He's a magic boy. Yeah.
You're a magic boy too. Yeah, go ahead. Give
me your Kona as well. Speaking of Chester and
magic items... Yeah, guess what? What? Sorry,
go ahead. Is misdirection on? No, that's what
I was going to say. It's not. We're out of combat.
You don't need it. No, no. You said last episode,
I've got no excuse now. He said like three episodes
ago. Yeah. I've got no excuse now. Next time
you're in a combat, I'll put it up there. It
was on there, but you forgot the whole combat.
Arcana. Shit. That's only 17. You're only rolling
for one. I gave you two. You know what? Fine.
Fine. I'm generous today because I was pretty
mean. I'm going to be mean again in a minute.
God. The gold ring with a fluorite stone, you
know, is a ring of puzzler's wit. A ring enchanted
to sharpen the wearer's mind. I bet Zavar had
one of these that he'd utilize when he wanted
to get really into a certain project. You've
probably seen one before. This ring has three
charges and regains 1d4 minus one expended charges
daily at dawn. When you make an intelligence
check, you can expend one charge to grant yourself
advantage on the check. Nice. Okay. Bolsters
your mind, allows you to think more clearly,
expand your brainwaves. I don't know. Okay. That's
awesome. Nice. Three gifts. And it's one ring
slot each, right? Each one would be in a tune,
yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, does it make sense
to the chest where we get the x -ray? That's
actually not a bad idea. So I think Jules will...
Hey, buddy. He's actually kind of looking down,
I'll say. Like, almost like a joking note before,
he did so with eyes that look kind of hollow,
and he's just looking down at the body. But he
has this kind of static, frozen half -smile to
his lips that doesn't touch his eyes, that just
kind of stared down. Jules goes up to him, snaps
his fingers in front of his face. Oh, hey, sorry,
Jules. Oh, am I getting the Rex Hair Vision one?
Jeans is going to love it. Keep with it. Yeah,
no, I'm fine. Hey, I'm fine. Here. And Jules
will all flip like a coin off his thumb. He takes
it, just looks at the ring for a long moment,
then just, you know, I get it. People die. Just
shouldn't be our people, right? No. He puts the
ring on. People don't die. Not on our watch.
I realize the irony in that somebody just died.
Except for when they died on our watch. But realistically,
if I move the magic and it hits you, Jules, you
were right there. You were so close. You were
flying. You probably were like seconds away from
that healing touch. And you forgot. God damn
you, David. You hear footsteps moving on you
from down the path. You turn to see a familiar
blue dragonborn, very hulking form, one of the
guards that you spoke to at the gate to this
place, followed by a number of others. Their
immediate thoughts are so apparent as they just
rush towards you like, Where's the magistrate?
Where's the magistrate? And they freeze. Hands
up. All the guards behind stop and look down
in horror as they see the body that lies beneath
you. No, no, no, no, no! He went in. He said...
He demanded we stay outside. He didn't let us
follow. He said... You would protect him. The
luminaries would protect me. What happened? What
happened? We know just as much as you do. We
lost our memories as well. This... This needs
to be reported to the Queen. Her Majesty needs
to know. I think it's time you returned to the
palace as well. She's wondering what happened
to her honored guests. Send the report and turns
back. A woman in the back salutes, turns around
and full books it. A young elven woman's gone.
The guards kind of move in around you. The diamond
and the rings, are they out? I imagine you had
the forethought to like, if you want to keep
them to pocket them now. Yeah, I think now Blanche
has a diamond and Jules has a diamond. Yeah,
I think before that though, I think. Before Jules
gave Blanche the diamond, he put it to his...
Can you transfer between diamonds? Yes, yeah.
Oh, nice. And he transferred everything to his
diamond. Oh, cool, cool. Yeah. When I say everything,
I mean everything. That diamond's wiped now.
Okay. As for the rings, I think Blanche is wearing
the Ring of Preparedness. Okay. Oh, yeah. Jules
is wearing his. Chester's wearing his. You are
surrounded. The guards don't seem to immediately
note any of this stuff as being strange. They
wouldn't really know. you know, what sort of
equipment items a magistrate would carry necessarily
on them. Right. If they weren't missing. You
see, like, some are kind of moving in, rushing
out to grab a litter. They're trying to find
a way to, you know, honorably move this form.
We'll escort Kun Anjun back to the palace. Very
well. Imagine we let some time pass here. The
litter is brought back to cover the body. And
as pallbearers are taken, he's led back. Out
the southern gate, up the streets, a sullen parade
of guards follows you. You watch people stopping
and staring, which is wildly inappropriate here,
but they do it anyway. Staring in awe at this
procession until you reach the seat of dragons,
until you reach the throne room of the queen.
You're not allowed inside at first. The body's
brought in. There's hushed whispering. Another
form steps out, looks to you, almost nervously,
and then moves down the hall. Is it fetching
something? Not sure why later you are ushered
inside. A number of guards are standing behind
you. As you go in, you see Yungi is not in his
familiar place. The bodock table is still set
mid -game, but no form sits there. Just Queen
Jean Mie on her throne, looking as regal as ever.
But there's something dangerous in her eyes.
Do you bow? The guards do. Yeah, Blanche does,
just like she did before, like the guards do.
You, like, whipped your head around her. You
didn't last time. You're the question. Jules
will do a half bow with his head up, looking
at her. Chester looks to you. Mimics you almost
exactly. Akio again just flops down the floor.
I've been informed of the goings -ons. This is
a great tragedy. Kunon Jun was so promising.
To see him suffer such an accident is heartbreaking.
But it does lead me to some questions as to why
he was where he was and why you were... There
as well. I find your movements today to be highly
unusual. He took you into the Tiger District,
brought you into the tea shop in the Heitei District,
and now the Park of the Elders, which was, under
my command, shut down. Why were you taking such
an odd sightseeing tour, I wonder? He was suffering
in silence, but he needed help with the Gwishin.
The Gwishin? This is not... It seems Magistrate
Kunonjun did have his fault. He was certainly
lacking in his role as a guide. A shame, but
we shall remedy our mistakes now. There'll be
no more talk of Gwishins, no more moving around
the city, no more of this nonsense. You are going
to remain here as my guest, and you're going
to be safe. I will make sure your rooms are well
guarded, and we will offer you the best food
and drink we can. We're still alive, aren't we?
And my magistrate is not. Without our help, no
one will be safe. The rest of your magistrates,
any of us here on the palace... The rest of my
magistrates! She stands, and you see, like, the
guards almost, like, shuffle back. Uh -uh. Like,
shocked. The rest of my magistrates will handle
things themselves. What you are doing is highly
inappropriate, and if you want to foster any
relationship between me and your allies in the
Citadel, I think you will fall in line. You will
respect our traditions, our ways. You will enjoy
my hospitality, and you will stay here and relax.
I think we got to play along. I don't think we're
getting anywhere with her. No. My apologies,
Queen Jinmi. We are slow to learn your ways and
your customs. I hope to be better equipped the
next time we speak. Jules is about to say something
stupid. But when Blanche says that, he kind of
looks over, bites his tongue really fucking hard.
And doesn't say something stupid. At the corner,
you see Chester doing the same thing. It's like
a full follow the leader. After you make your
statement, the rest of you stay silent. The queen
sighs, nods, sits back down. I apologize for
my outburst. Now, there is one other remaining
problem. The remaining magistrates are quite
busy with their own affairs for now. But there
is another official that has kindly offered to
keep your party company while you relax here
in my palace. And she gestures, and you see one
of the guards steps up and moves the door, and
the door creaks open, and two figures step in,
one hulking form with great white wings and one
very small, frail form that steps in and says,
Atash once said there is no role more noble than
that of a shepherd granted control of a wayward
flock. Let me guide them to goodness. I'll just
let them fall in my steps. And we'll call it
there.