Hey, fans people. It's Jeremy. You all kick ass.
That's all I wanted to say. Enjoy the show. of
the artistic edge of their craft. The shanties
of Rihanna, the performance of Diva Luma, the
forgework of the mage smith, the carpentry of
the fall men. I could go on and on and on. So,
it probably isn't surprising to hear that there
is a painter luminary as well. Though, this might
not be the sort of painter you're thinking of.
No, no, this painter uses only one color, one
pigment, and that is blood. That's right, you
know him, you love him. Well, at least you love
to fear him. It's Uthys Hilltucker, the luminary
known as the Paintbrush. Hailing from the Hilltucker
Goliath clan or more, Uthys is a towering, terrifying
figure. He is named for his very singular weapon,
a massive glaive, the butt end of which forms
into the bristles of a paintbrush, ever crusted
with the blood of the fallen. Using this tool,
Uthys is able to channel the magic of his ancestors
with ancient giants and more. Fresh blood spilled
with the blade of his glaive. When these runes
come to life on the battlefield, well, then the
horrors really begin. One example, and a favorite
of Uth's, is a runing symbol that conjures flaming
shackles that lock onto its foes, binding them
and burning their flesh. Given this, it's no
surprise that Uth is specialized in bounty hunting,
especially hunting those famed fiendish figures
that we now know as gloomilaries. Though some
people, not me, mind if you listen to Oothis,
but some other people would call Oothis a gloominary
as well for the fear he inspires in the public.
Personally, I respect the paintbrush. I really
do. It's just that I don't want to meet him anywhere
outside of my nightmares. Thank you, Andrew!
Holy shit. Third gloominary! in the mix or luminary.
Oh, shit. I didn't say gluminary. Hey, he's coming
for you. No, fuck. No, no. Look up behind you.
It's a paintbrush. That was dark. Yeah. Painting
in David's blood. Yeah. Ooh, listen to that crack.
Nice crack, Steven. Yeah, nice. It's a pants
on that crack. Man, I haven't been here in a
while. Yeah, we didn't record last week. That's
right. That's right. We couldn't get together.
I kind of forgot how to do this. Speaking of
last week, I gotta say, thank you to Hunter and
to DJ Donnie Dubs for those awesome voice work
you put in the episode. Bringing your sort of
luminaries into the fold in a pretty cool way.
Yeah, that was awesome. That was fun. It was
a lot of fun. It was fun recording it. I just
sat back and listened. Yeah. And thank you, David,
for your creativity and coming up with something
that you wanted to do anyways that would enable
me to make my Christmas plans come true. Well,
hell yeah. It was a good time. Did all your dreams
come true, Steven? All of them. Every single
one. Nice. But now I'm like, how do I do this
again? I don't know what to do with my hands.
We roll number rocks. Okay. Math rocks. You point
at me when it's my turn to roll. Okay. Oh my
gosh. Point. I hope you remember what happened
many sessions ago, because we are doing that
weird flip -flop thing. We're running two arcs
at once. Before we get into the arcs, before
we get into it, before we roll those math rocks,
I believe there's a box right there on the table.
There is. And if I'm correct, this box is also
an Andrew gift. It is. So you know what that
means? It's a paintbrush. Wait, no. Oh, shit,
shit. No, that's what it is. That's what it is.
Mail time! Oh! God, I love a good mail time.
Yeah. Oh, God, he got the knife out. Got the
knife out. Oh, the stuff of nightmares. Dude,
even in my normal day -to -day life, that is
referred to as the murder knife. Yeah, look at
the way he just slides it like a throat. I don't
know. Wow. Yeah. Dude, you are dark tonight.
No, that's even... I actually didn't even...
get all the tape the first time, so. He's coming
back for seconds. Oh, the sick man. Read me.
Okay, so the flap opens to a read me. Give me
that. Oh, I have a thing. Give me that. I have
a thing. I'm reading that. From Andrew that I
was supposed to read. Let me check to see if
it's as we're opening, before we're opening.
I want to be. Wait, how many things are we reading?
I got this thing, I got that thing. Oh, look
at this paper. It's cool paper. What the hell?
It looks so old -time with scorched edges. Okay,
mine says read after opening. Okay, so I read
mine now first? Yeah, I think. Okay, all right.
Now, I read somewhere I have to read something
that's in a goblin voice. Is it this? Probably.
All right. I think so. Hello. Hey, guys. I was
traipsing through the woods and stumbled upon
an evil druid lair. Took some loot on the way
out. I thought it was just an overgrown box.
Imagine a shot of it. I got when I learned...
Shit, sorry, I'm not good at reading in this
cockney accent. Imagine the shock I got to learn
that there was a lightning vine trap. As it's
season had given, I thought I'd pass on the loot
to you. I peeked inside, saw some green parchment
with writing on it, top of a pile of gems. Didn't
read too closely, drew with curses and all that.
But the box seems a bit too heavy for just a
bunch of gems, don't you think? And happy and
stressed for all day season, aye. From Andrew,
I think. Or maybe just from a goblin. Who knows?
Huh. Well? Well, well, well. Shall we dig deeper?
That was fun. What is in the druid grove? What's
going on over here? I don't know. Get that box.
Open that box more. Color me curious. Open it
faster. There's a lot of packaging. Is there
another read me over? No, there's no more. Okay.
Whoa. That is a box inside a box. Whoa. Whoa.
I hear clickety -clacks. Can you hold that? I
just want to make sure that I'm leaving it in
line. A lot of clickety -clacks. I think it's
just that. I just want to knock my mic stand
over. Oh, my gosh. That was a really heavy box
drop. I don't know. Are you sure? Dude, there's
a lot of packaging material in there. Okay, gotcha.
It was very safely shipped. Oh, man. What is
in that thing? It's clacking so hard. I don't
even know where to start. It feels like Christmas
all over again. Oh, gosh. There's more layers.
It's like an onion. All the way to the bottom
and there's nothing. It's just like, where are
the cracks? It's just the rattling of packaging
material. How many layers? Andrew, you mad man.
Oh, I see a sign. Oh, there's the chest. We're
getting there. That's the druidic chest. Yeah.
Yeah. A lightning trap was endured for this.
Holy shit. Oh, we didn't check for traps. Wait,
we didn't check for traps. It could be a mimic.
It could be a mimic. Oh, God. Oh, I got a sweet
mimic pen for Christmas, by the way. Okay. Is
that sound on perception? All right. We're seeing
a, looks like a classic, you know, treasure chest.
That is a slicking chest. And it looks like some
lightning painted over it. I think somebody else
should open this. I feel like I opened the rest
of it. That's cool. I'll pull the... Oh, yeah.
Holy shit. Pull that. I'm lifting it. I'm lifting
it. Oh, my goodness. I know what this is. I know
what this is, too. We've just received our own
copy of Goblin Grab. Or maybe, like, the first
copy of Goblin Grab from Goblin Game Company
at Goblin Game Co. Yeah, check him out on Instagram.
We've seen this coming down the pipeline. This
is... That's so many dice. This is insane. Holy
shit, dude. This is a lot of dice. Whoa. Maybe
a gross of dice. Yeah. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh. What, what, what? And these are the... Oh,
those are forged dice? The... Holy shit. Okay,
hold on, hold on, hold on. I gotta read Andrew's
thing, though. Hold iron. Oh, my gosh. They're
so sick, dude. What is this? What the fuck? Oh,
it's like thunder in my tower. The treasures
at the bottom are my first prototypes of big
hand -forged D6s. Damn. One for each of you.
Fingers crossed they fit in the dice towers from
the captain. I think mine does. Oh, they do.
They shake the tower. They're so badass. Oh,
my gosh. I forgot I had my sticker in there.
Oh, that's so cool. I love it. They utilize notch
lines for the numbers, but it works so well.
Oh, dude. Okay, hold on. Let me keep reading.
I would be surprised if there's a full set of
anything in there. Oh, sorry. I missed a sentence.
The rest of the shiny math rocks are for you
to split at random slash blindly. Dude. I'd be
surprised if there's anything in there. I gave
it a good mix. I thought it might be easier to
wager these than it would be to potentially split
up any of the beautiful dice sets the lovely
pants people have got you. As well, the rule
card can be taken to Reckless on Neuro Knights.
Actually, that's a great idea, yeah. Have fun
taking each other's dice. Oh, and may your skylights
be bright and joyous. Hell yeah. I have an idea.
I have a fun idea. What's that? Let's spread
this out a little bit. At the beginning of next
step, play a round of Goblin Grab. Okay. Sound
cool? I'm in. Yeah. I'm in. Sweet. Hell yeah.
Yeah. Thank you, Andrew. This is phenomenal.
Thank you again, Andrew. Oh, my gosh. This is
absolutely phenomenal. I'm trying to get to the
bottom of this. I love this. Hand -forged dice
are insane. Yeah. Incredibly cool. I love this.
It looks like the kind that you could throw in
a ghost to kill it. Cold iron die. You can take
six ghosts. But, yeah. Next episode, listen to
us play a round of Andrew's really cool game.
But please do go check him out at Goblin Game
Co. I know he's on Instagram. I'm going to guess
he's on other places as well. I think he's starting
a Kickstarter soon, or at least he's threatened
to. So super stoked to see that and support that.
Hell yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Oh, man. Well, I am
pumped to play me some Goblin Grab next step.
You know what else I'm pumped for? You know what
else I'm pumped for, gentlemen? What else am
you pumped for? Getting the ball rolling on Sensa.
Oh, that's right. We're doing the other arc now.
You want us to do what's going on with Jules
and Salome and the gang? Well, too bad. It's
time to go back to Blanche. Hey, that means we
get a map now, right? You're gonna regret that.
When you see what Rochelle and I have cooked
up for you, idiots, you're gonna cry. Dude, this
is going to be insane. I can launch World 20,
right? We good? Yeah, you're good. Before we
can get to any map, before we can get to anything,
any scene, any kind of environment, we must escape
from the darkness. For our party find themselves
within the confines of a portable hole, wrapped
up and placed neatly in a briefcase which is
being carried through citadel customs, you assume.
Some kind of, uh, just moving through to another
world. You cannot be seen. And you don't know
how long you're going to be in the darkness.
i've been thinking about this i've wanted to
have fun with this for a while because this plan
was crazy this plan was brilliant but could go
so wrong and thankfully the handy haversack you
guys have is with jewels because if one of you
guys had a uh uh if you went over the portal
with a bag of holding or handy haversack i believe
it just like teleports you into the astral plane
and you die yeah it does some weird stuff it's
the whole last paragraph but yeah Jules has a
handy haversack, so you don't need to worry about
that. What you do need to worry about is suffocation.
Now, as you... We zoom in on our four heroes,
all resting at the bottom of this hole, waiting
in the darkness for anything. And you know you
can get yourself out of here. It's a pretty small
strength check to push your way out, but what
if you do it too soon? What if you do it out
in the open? Beauregard, as soon as it's clear,
is going to let you out of here, right? So if
you do it early, there will be consequences.
According to the rules, a creature can hold its
breath for a number of minutes equal to one plus
its constitution modifier. Now, the only creatures
that need to worry about this are Dresden and
Akio. Dresden, what is your constitution modifier?
It is a plus two. So you have three minutes.
You can hold your breath. I'm going to give you
a free 13 minutes. You have 10 minutes of air.
And the turtles don't use air. And I figured
the way this is working is turtles each get to
take a deep breath, go in, give you guys that
breath when your first round runs out. Therefore,
you have 10 minutes free air, an extra breath
to carry you for the next. You run three minutes,
so you're almost suffocating. They, boom, give
you the air. And then you have three minutes
with no backup oxygen supply. That's it. When
a creature runs out of breath or is choking,
it can survive for a number of rounds equal to
its con mod. Minimum one round. The next turn,
it drops to zero hit points and is dying. It
cannot regain hit points or restabilize until
it can breathe again. So, we'll move in 13 minutes
into this play, this scheme. 13 minutes, you
have waited. You have Dresden and Akio both kind
of held your breath so long until you couldn't
anymore, and then your allies leaned in for a
very provocative breath -sharing kiss. Who kissed
who? I have to know. Did Jean kiss that dog?
Did Jean kiss that dog? Sure, yeah. Oh, no! You
think Blanche is going to give up the opportunity
to lock lips with Soldier Boy? Oh, hell yeah!
Okay. Breath is shared. And now, as these gulps
of fresh air come in, I want to start making
luck rolls, pure D20 fortune rolls, to see how
long it takes Beauregard to get to a safe place.
Can I do odds and evens on my new D6? No. I'm
sorry. It's not that. Not that kind of fortune.
It's a lot more stacked in my favor. And I want
you to roll it in my table, and I don't want
you to see what you roll. Because you don't know
in the darkness what's happening outside. Only
I know what's happening outside. But you may
roll the die to determine. Actually, you can
use your die. Each die roll represents one minute.
If after three die rolls, you are not freed,
two of the party will begin to suffocate. You're
sick. Don't you know it. Now, roll your die.
Do we get to know anything about? No. It was
cracked. It fell out and onto my computer. They
got cracked. All right. Tick. Tock. Breath is
running out. Roll again. Fuck. Getting so light.
hard to keep yourself awake. Roll again. Look
at his eyes. Look at his twisted, twisted eyes.
A third minute dwindles down. Your oxygen is
gone. Dresden, Akio, there's nothing left. You
feel your eyes Watering, everything going blurry.
The darkness all around you comes cloying in.
Blanche and Jean just watch helplessly as you
are suffocating. Oh, this is the... Breath has
already been shared. Next time, the next roll,
they'll go unconscious. Do you want to do anything?
Or do you want to take one more chance? So, Jeremy,
so you know it's a DC 10 strength roll to just...
Bust out of the hole. But if you do it too early,
it's a problem. You could be seconds away. You
could be seconds away. Do you want to make one
more roll? One more roll? Or do you want to try
to burst out now? After this, they go unconscious.
It's going to be a lot harder to resolve the
situation. They won't die right away, but they
will go unconscious if you fail this. What are
you doing? You rolling? You rolling? I think
we need to try to hold out for a few more seconds.
Yeah. Yeah. Don't bother. You passed on the last
one. I just wanted to make you sweat. You sick
fuck. Because as you go to wait that next minute,
with a nat 20 on your last roll. Oh, my God.
Nice. Nice. Light. Boom. Oxygen pours in above
the hole is reopened above you. And you may all
climb free. Wow. All right. Okay. In the nick
of time, Beauregard. Sorry. It was tricky to
get away from the public eye. The second the
air hits you, you feel air that is dry and hot.
I think you can look up to the top of the hole
and all you see is the top of a tent flap with
a bright light sort of beating in, sort of faded
from behind Beauregard. It's 10 feet down, right?
I think he just tossed a rope down to you or
something, right? Can you just get out of that?
I think it... Was it five feet? Did you just
plump out? Yeah, any creature inside the open
portable hole can exit the hole by climbing out
of it. Okay, so it's like you reach into the
darkness on the side and your hands almost sink
in. It's almost like this weird ethereal moss,
but it holds your weight and you just sort of
all climb up out into this tent. You see Beauregard
kind of... shuffles over to like the open sort
of entrance flap. And you look around, you see
it looks like some kind of storage tent, just
like crates and such around you filled with various
kind of exotic fruits and dried meats and such.
But it looks like for whatever reason, no one
is here. Your entrance here must've been unnoted.
And Beauregard opens the tent, just a tiny flap
to let you all look out upon the city state of
Neba. You can hear, I think right now, as you
pair out the sound of the amber Concord Jewel
sort of vanishing just outside. You see this
plaza that you're kind of into, the plaza of
the jewel that you're nestled right beside, opens
onto a bustling bazaar. Just this massive, massive
market city of tents and stalls stretching far
out until it touches the rising structures of
the city true. You can barely make out the buildings
as the tents... reach out to them. You hear cheers
rising from anything you can barely see in the
corner of this great stadium that rests just
beside the plaza. You can hear the thundering
of racehorses somewhere sort of within there,
just echoing out. And from the slight glimpse
you're given now, you see there's a true melting
pot of people from all the worlds here in this
bazaar, the vast majority of whom look to be
tourists. Behind the stalls are true -born sensins
that you see are primarily dark -skinned human,
dwarves, and elves with tightly coiled black
hair. I will say, though tourists are not a strange
sight here in Neba, far from it, turtles are
rarely seen outside of Noari. Only two very notable
ones have been. You've crossed your first hurdle
in getting off the citadel, but now you need
to reach the city -state of Anissa. which is
some ways away from here, and you kinda gotta
do it unnoticed. Beauregard closes the flap and
turns to regard you. So, we made it here upon
the world of Senza. Now the true test. How do
we escape the city? I have purchased this tent,
let us say, for the eve. No one will come to
bother us. I can promise you that. We could hold
out till night and then make a move in the dark,
but we need to find a way to disguise you yet.
Any ideas? What is the... What are the clothing
like of the locals? Like, you said it's like...
You said it's... Sandy, right? Yeah, dry, loose
flowing garb from what you've seen. So like would
Blanche and Jean be able to throw on like these
big sort of flowing cloaks? I'm thinking like
a Roman sort of tunic. Yeah, all right. I could
do something like that, yeah. I imagine there's
like this, you probably can see a few people
out there maybe like wearing, you know what?
I like this. I'm gonna give you something on
this. There is, in this world, I think it was
talked about by Beauregard before, a being known
as the Faceless Prophet. I think as you peek
out, you might see one or two figures that go
around, and they have their heads fully covered.
They're just long, flowing. Have you ever heard
of the game Journey? I don't think so. There's
a very particular style of clothing. Anyway,
never mind that. But I just imagine these long
flowing garbs that kind of cover the head as
well. There's almost crowned hood and mask that
you see a few maybe religious sorts are wearing.
People maybe like prophets of the faceless prophet
or followers of her teachings. So through the
small hole in the flap. Blanche will point them
out to Beauregard. Jean and I can dress like
those folks you see over there. Speaking of Jean,
he's just like drinking from his canteen and
spitting it. I can't believe I kissed that dog.
Gross. Thank you, Jean. It was a delightful kiss.
But I do wish I could have kissed Master Blanche.
Soldier boy, you took my breath away. Damn. Take
a button. I like that. That was good. Yeah. Call
me after this is all over. Oh, shit. My Dresden
voice is a little off because I'm still coming
off being sick. It's not fully back yet. Well,
I think that should be. That should be a last
resort. Jean and I can stay in the portable hall
for quite a while. Over an hour. That's true.
Oh. That's right. Damn. Shit. We should only
need to come out if there's an emergency. You
just need about once every hour to get one gulp
of air and you can go back in. Yeah. Sir, how
long are we going to sit in there? It's not comfortable.
There's no cushions. Fine. You're right. You're
right. We get things at stake, dog. I didn't
do anything. Are there any cushions around here
in this tent? Something comfortable? You know,
you look over and you see there's like, I think
there's one crate that has like nice sort of
blankets that could be bound up and used to make
your journey a lot more comfortable. Yeah, because
I think it says... Grand sort of flowing patterns,
red and gold and gray sort of mingled. It says
no matter what's in the hole, It weighs next
to nothing. Damn. That's... Yeah, so you can
just throw more things in there. Yeah, that's
pretty sweet. They get lavish. There's food in
this tent, as said before. You can throw some
food down there. Sweet. And hopefully there's
some sort of clothing that Jean and I can don,
or will we need to leave for that? Roll a little
check for me. Straight luck check. Natural one.
No. No, nothing in here that's remotely usable.
You will be going without. Well, we can send
somebody out who fits in a little better to our
market stall, secure some clothing for Jean and
I. Beauregard, once we get in the hall and start
to leave the city, how long do you think it'll
take until it's safe for us to emerge? The city
states of sense are spread far and wide, but
once you leave the bazaar, it should be easy
to find opportunities to get out if you travel
mostly at night. You will need to be careful
still. Very careful. Will you help us leave the
city, or do we part here? I could... give you
some tools to help on your quest, but I do have
some work to help oversee on the Citadel. I will
return here to offer you passage home if I can.
All right, soldier boy. I guess we're on our
own. Will you and Akio be able to secure some
clothing for Jean and I? Of course. I think Dresden
will take off his armor a little bit, so he has
a little more, you know. Hell yeah. Like, maybe,
like, brown pantaloons and, like, a, you know,
beige -colored shirt, just really unassuming.
Doesn't stick out in the crowd. Yeah, exactly.
So I think he'll put it in the hole. Hell yeah.
And I think Borger can also help you in, like,
finding some stuff, too, for now. He just isn't
going with you when you leave. Sure. Maybe, like...
We see a moment of the two of you, Keo kind of
standing by the door to sort of stay guard, Blanche
and Jean kind of holding out inside the tent
and maybe getting behind some crates in case
somebody peeks in, and Beauregard and Dresden
stepping out into the crowd outside. Yeah. Hell
yeah. Oh, wait. Hey, just for shits and giggles,
I'm supposed to be rolling for Dresden for Grown
Up Beard. Oh, my God. Yes, please. Please. Oh,
I'm just saying this could add to the disguise.
Oh, my gosh. This is what we want. A beard. Yeah.
It's like every day. So we roll 100 times. Honestly,
we'll just roll once. It's so good. Because it's
fun. Oh, it's just a 50 % chance. Okay. Thank
goodness. Okay. D20. D20. Come on. I want beard
dressed. What are we doing? What are we doing?
One through. Do you want a beard or not? I don't
know. One through ten? One through ten is beard.
Okay. All right. Damn. Thirteen. Shit. No beard
for you. Damn. I love that we're not really paying
attention to that. We're just whipping it out
when it's fun. Or when it's relevant, I guess.
We have to roll for, like, months otherwise.
Yeah, exactly. As long as I remember to do it
in these times. I'm okay with it. Yeah. We have
a few more nights to go to even reach the next
city, so we have a few more roles to make. Sweet.
Which is very fun. Sweet. So, no, he does not
have a full beard. Big, sexy beard. Sad. I'm
not going to make this a hard thing for you.
If you're just going out in this scenario where
you're kind of already getting rid of some of
your stuff, you're... Notable Dresden, but you're
not one of the most notable luminaries. And without
your armor and kind of like trying to cover yourself
a bit, roll for me one more luck check. If you
roll a one or a two, you have a problem. But
right now it's so crowded, I don't think you
are going to have as much of a problem here.
On a d20? Yep. Okay. That's an eight. Okay. You...
move out Beauregard kind of leading you around
and you find uh some clothing maybe like do you
want to aim for I'll ask you Steve do you want
to aim for like the more like religious garb
of like the the followers of the faceless prophet
that would totally cover you you're still going
to have a very weird lumpy shape so it's not
the best thing or do you want to get like just
general something to cover your face is a hood
or or you know kind of like a scarf or No, I
think the religious garb is fine, and I'm thinking
that we can maybe find something like a basket
or something to carry that sort of makes our
shells look more like a burden that we're carrying.
Oh, good idea. Yeah. Okay. I like that. So we'll
say maybe an hour passes. You got here, I think
it must be around 3 .30 now, and Dresden and
Beauregard return with... whatever provisions
you need to sneakily escape the city. You could
choose to travel now during the day, or you could
wait. And actually, I'll say one other thing
Beauregard brings is a map of Senza. And I'd
like you to look at roll 20 now. Aha. I've already
been looking at roll 20. I said it was okay to
launch. I know. You said it was okay. It's not
that important, Matt. You're looking over this
map. You see that Anissa is probably around two
days' travel from the city -state of Neva that
you're in now. Okay. Roughly 60 miles on a well
-maintained, well -traversed road. Now, if you're
looking to travel quick, now in the open, that's
what you're looking at, two days' travel. If
you want to keep yourselves undercover... You're
looking at close to three full days or nights
on the road. Because these states, like he said,
they tend to stretch and spread out far along
the roads between their sort of main hubs. And
there will be little privacy on your travels
unless you purposefully wait until late to make
your move. So it's 3 .30 now. You could choose
to take off, start moving, but there will be
risks. I mean, either way, there's going to be
risks. Sure. And I'll actually mechanically break
down what these risks are. Thank goodness, now
you're speaking my language. I might allow performance
in the case of what you're doing to blend in,
or stealth, your choice. But when you, if you
were to choose to take the two -day route, I
will need you to make two separate checks, one
for each day, and they'll be made at disadvantage
against a luck roll that I'm going to roll. Likewise,
if you choose the long route, three days, you're
going to make three separate checks, one for
each day, but they'll all be made with advantage
against... three luck rolls. So more checks for
the longer, slower journey, but more likely they
will succeed. But I'll allow performance or stealth
because either you're trying to stay unseen or
you're trying to blend in. I think performance
fits the blending in feel. You want to look like
you're carrying a heavy burden? You got to act
your heart out, sir. Would we gain anything anywhere
if we left at night? Yes, that's where the three
-day journey would kind of kick in. You have
to wait until night to make a move, and that's
going to cost you time. Okay, okay. In three
weeks, the worlds will end. Yeah, it's such a
toss -up for me. Okay. If you want to wait until
night, then let's just do that. Because for me,
I can't decide what I think is the best move.
I like the idea of the two -day thing. I don't
know what the trouble is going to look like.
You know, if it's just some nosy neighbor on
the road or... You don't know. It'll be a big
risk to leave now, Dresden. Would you be more
comfortable if we waited until night and took
the three -day route? Until we get out of the
city, Sean and I will be in the hall. Most of
our security will be your responsibility. I want
to make sure whatever we do, you're perfectly
comfortable with. I just realized, not to break
up the scene, but given the time, maybe this
adds context that matters. Not sure. You would
hear a kind of somewhat of a commotion outside,
a quiet commotion, a lot of hushed whisperings.
And Beauregard kind of peeks his head out. And
he looks kind of around the corner. And you remember
where he's looking, Dresden, when you stepped
up before, there was this large kind of gilded
projector screen in that direction. This is just
great sort of gilded frame standing above the
bazaar that showed the crystal network. Beauregard
pops back in and he looks like his fishy face
paler and clammier than you're used to seeing
it and kind of, oh shit, shit. And he sort of
moves over to the wall and he pokes a little
hole in that direction so you guys can like,
maybe a few of them so you guys can look out
and see. Do you want to see what he's referring
to? What he's looking at? Yeah, Blanche will
put her eye up to a pinhole. You look out and
see a crowd surrounding that screen, looking
up. And you see Storyteller Rune is talking with
a banner hanging beneath, just kind of a moving
sort of news illusory banner that says, Storm
Giants Assault Calipang. Hush murmurs just surround
this. As all eyes are fixed on the screen, no
one's looking towards you. You can hear people
just, how is that possible? Shouldn't the party
have seen this? Storm giants. This is Ozen, right?
It has to be. The worlds can't take any more
of this. Ardosh has to do something. Goddamned
incarnates. We all know they're pulling these
strings. You know that the other party, who have
just at this point in time arrived on Calipang,
are facing some great danger of their own. I
think when Dresden realizes this, he will turn
to Blanche. We go now. Blanche solemnly nods
her head. I'm sure they're fine, you know. Jules
can take care of himself. We don't stop. Jean,
get in the hole. No, all right. Very well, sir.
Into the hole we go. Dives in. Blanche dives
in. As you're kind of, before it gets folded
up, Beauregard looks down to you. Well, I shall
be off. Good luck. Your mission is given by show
layers of paramount purpose. Blanche! Show Franklin!
Dresden! What the fuck was that face? And dog.
Hey. That dog has a name. Good luck. He leaves.
You can go bother somebody else now. Wait, do
we know how long until he comes back? He knows
you're going to be taking a couple days on the
road, so you assume he'll come back in a couple
days. Okay. He didn't need to give you information.
He's a mysterious character, that Beauregard.
All right, all right. Are you going to get the
impression he'll find you? Cool, cool. He's good
at that. He is a spy. He's a spy after all. Okay.
The hole, I imagine, is closed up, and you're
just carrying it. It looks like a little cloth
now, a black cloth, and your friends are in it.
It's like rolled up under his arm, like a small
rug or something. It's almost like a little...
No, Justin's got a little pack, and it looks
like a little sleeping bag rolled up. Oh, dude,
yes. I think it's really small, basically, but
you know what? Yeah, it's a little tiny. Yeah,
it hangs up on the bottom of the bag. I like
that a lot. Hell yeah. inside is filled with
cushions. John got to work. It's like all these
blankets are just like wrapped around various
like softer items and makes for a very comfortable
kind of, you know, lounge outside. I have to
ask, do you think, is Akita going full armor
too or are you putting his armor away? No, I
think we're putting his armor away. There's only
one armored Akita in all of the world. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Then he's just going to go out and
he kind of looks to you like, I am going to not
speak. So I can look like a dog. Good boy. Wolf.
Bark. This is good. Good boy. Yes. And you step
out into the bazaar. The crowd of nervous people
are starting to kind of move away. And you begin
to sort of move with them. stepping through the
bazaar, stepping through the crowded streets,
moving past the grand stadium and the tromping
of hooves, past various open -air theaters as
you're seeing dancers on stages and plays going
on, and you're just moving and moving towards
the proper city. pushing through the tall, mud,
sort of reinforced, hardened, like, mud -made
structures and out the sort of reinforced, hardened,
mud -made gates and into the streets between
the long, winding road between Neba and Anissa
into the desert with the sandy, dry air billows
your... Yes, what kind of garments do you wear
under your armor there, Dresden? Like, pale brown
pantaloons. Hell yeah. beige baggy shirt. Hell
yeah. I think amphitheater was the word you were
looking for, by the way. That's the one. Yeah.
Idiot. We see just a man and his dog on a solitary
road. But once every hour, you must find a place
safe to stop. Open it up. Let your allies breathe.
Probably not exactly an hour. You probably want
to go a little early each time so that you know
they aren't suffocating. Oh, no. You felt that.
No, no. Yeah, no. I'm fucking around with them.
I'm waiting until the last five seconds. Well,
hold on, Jeremy. Maybe we need to do a little
strategizing because my initial thought was to
just be in the hole. Just to get out. To get
out of the city. Oh. And then from the city to
the... And you guys got dressed in the hole.
Be dressed in. I'll say in one hour, you're just
getting out of the city proper. Perfect. And
I think that's probably when you just come on
out. Let's make the day one stealth check now.
Okay. Is it for the whole party? Yes. We're going
to take an average from the party. Oh, God. Oh,
so all four of us do a stealth check? Stealth
or performance. Hold on. Hold on. So you want
us to roll eight die and take the average? Yep.
Boom. Dude. Okay. Hold on. So I already had disadvantage
for stealth. Yeah. But then I realized I'm not
wearing my fucking armor. No, you're good. So
disadvantage just from the, but not minus two
on that as well. Okay. Hold on. This is insane.
What am I going to do? What am I going to do?
I can do a luck roll instead, but this is a little
more fair. I mean, we could simplify it. How
do you want to simplify it? Half the number of
rolls. You want to not roll this advantage? No.
You chose this path. Okay. So let me do Akio's
roll. Hold on. What is his? What did you roll
for guys then? 11. It was a 20. It was a dirty
20 on the second one. Damn it. Nine for Akio.
Okay. Far right of 10. 13 for planche. Okay.
And Jean. Do I have Jean? Yeah. Do I? I think
he's in your sidekick, right? No. Is he? Extras.
Is he? When did they get Jean? When did they
get Jean? I didn't know I got Jean. Yeah. This
is news to me. You forgot about me. This is news
to me. Okay, cool. I'm pretty sure he's a zero
in that. Yeah, zero. Cool. Not a stealthy guy.
10. 10. Okay. So I think we're above average.
We're above 10. Average looks to be 11. Did we
talk about this earlier and I'm just forgetting?
It was many episodes ago. Okay. It was before
we started this arc. No, we haven't. Okay, that
makes sense. Okay. You remove yourself from the
hole. You find a quiet spot made behind a building
where there seems like no one's really loitering.
It's a safe... shadowed area where you drop the
hole, open it. You guys climb out very close
to the end of your hour. I imagine you're fully
dressed in your sort of garb with your baskets
and you don't think you see any prying eyes.
Cool. And so we push on. Get to stepping. You
move down the long winding trail and like Beauregard
said it's kind of like the city seems to shrink
alongside you the buildings get smaller and smaller
as you move further out into sort of like open
uh desert plains and by the end of the first
day you reach a point where the buildings have
mostly entirely fallen off And you are just on
a long trail, maybe like inns and rest stops,
just places of comfort for travelers on a long
road are all you really see, dotting the way
along with just various farms and cattle ranches.
But you move until you reach the end of your
first night. You could keep pushing on into the
next day and not rest. If you do, there will
be exhaustion checks. Your call. I don't think
it's worth the exhaustion. Hell yeah. Camping
or going to an inn. We only go into a whole thing
for it. If you go into an inn, you can easily
just go in and take your disguise off in your
room. Sure. Or get in the hole and go into an
inn and get out of the... Yeah. I don't know.
If it makes no difference... It'll just cost
you two silver per. Even still, that's minimal.
I think just the image of us camping is really
cool. Yeah. Desert camping. I like that. Desert
camping. And as night falls, if you pay close
enough attention, you'll see Turbo, the bat,
flying over our campsite. That's so cool. Kind
of keeping an eye on things. That's so rad. Hell
yeah. That's a bat sound. So we find this spot
behind these two towering boulders. We've got
a little campfire set up. That's better. And
then he flies into the camera and boom. Dresden
grabs Turbo and throws him over the top of the
fire. Oh my god. Dinner. I'll kill you! Boom.
Shot of a bright sunny sky. Another day of travel
as you once again hit the road. Let's make your
stealth checks now. Last day of it and you'll
reach Anissa. 11 for Akio. 13 for Dresden. Son
of a... You know what? You suck. 7 for Blanche.
3 for Jean. Okay. What's that average? You said
it was 11, 7, 3... 13. Dresden had 13. I think
it's six. Were they mental braiding? Lord. No.
No. Because the three was the only one that was
under seven. Oh, right. Yeah, you're right. We're
doing that calculator -y guy here. It looks like
you should be writing these down. You know, maybe.
Wait, were you just doing the average based in
your head the last time? The last one was easy.
The last one was easy. It's an easy average.
Use a calculator, please. All right, I'll use
a calculator. It's like school. Show your work.
8 .5. We round down to 8 because he gets picked
on me. Oh, dude. No, 0 .5 and higher is rounding
up. No, we round down. 0 .5 is rounding up. You
picked on me. Oh, my God. You're going to learn.
All right. If it makes the difference, then we'll
have a conversation. Okay. You are traveling
your second day on the road, and you're moving,
and eventually, once again, like, you start to
see buildings dotting the roadside. You start
to see mountains rising up beside you, the desert
broken up by just these great stone cliffs. And
as you look at these cliffs, you notice there
is, like, mining scaffolding just covering the
mountains along the road, all sort of just, you
know, well fully sort of staffed. Dresden, you
know. that a good number of low -city refugees
from Cerule ended up here working as gold miners.
They are always looking to bring in more. A rough
and dangerous job with a precious, covetous resource
you gather is handed off to boundless coffers
of the Empire, and you are left with a mere pittance
for your constant suffrage. A tale as old as
time and seemingly universal throughout all the
conquered worlds and your experiences. In other
life, had you ingested something pulled from
the streets and taken into the Laroche Guard
as you were, You might now be in the depths of
one of those mining shafts, wielding a pick in
a very different way. There's been some talk
on the network, you know, about creating a guild
-backed support system to advocate for the greater
respect and earnings of those sentient that work
with gold. An Aurum guild, it's been called.
There's naturally been a hefty pushback from
the Empress and her chosen rulers over three
city -states. But you know, Atash himself has
spoken in strong support of the guild. He is
all about it. Another strange, kind of contradictory
behavior towards the way you've come to know
him. But you're pushing past this, through this
sort of mining -heavy area. And as you push just
a bit farther to the north, you begin to see
the city -state of Anissa building out of these
gold -laden mountains. The wooding scaffolding
given way to brick -lined roads and raised homes
of foremen and gold merchants. The valley between
the slopes quickly becoming cramped with tightly
packed yet extravagant structures all carved
from dried mud. You see the towers of a palace
in the midst of this that rise high enough to
overtake the low mountains that border the city.
There's an impression here of a city that, realizing
it could not infringe comfortably into these
steep slopes, decided instead to build itself
taller and tighter together. While it doesn't
stretch itself out as far as its sister Neba,
it seems all the more impressive for the ambition
and for the cost of a city built where it likely
shouldn't be. But as you're taking this in, you
see looming behind and above it all, resting
upon the top of a lone small mountain that serves
the northern border to the city, is Anissa Academy.
You can see where the mountain's peak has been
shaved away to create a flat expanse. The ground
here has been worked by magic to create a verdant
open garden in this desert to serve as the campus.
At its center, the sprawling single -story structure
of the academy itself. The exterior walls carved
intricately of rich brown mud and decorated with
bands of gleaming gold. It has to be around 500
feet wide, much wider than any of the structures
that stand in the city below. And there is an
intention here. The academy built to stand out,
flat and wide, standing above a city built in
opposition to this architectural design. The
heavy use of gold in its frame causing it to
gleam in the bright sun. The sinking sun at this
point, I should say. A palace of academia standing
above the true royal palaces of Anissa. The palace
of those students that will seize the future
of the conquered world in their grips. And the
palace of Kejo Kamal, who may very well see himself
as higher. and the very empress herself. As you're
taking all this in, I think you see a family
is crossing the road, kind of moving towards
you. A family of halflings. Dad's going, whoa,
hey there, sonny. Hey, slow down. It's been snowing
out there. Hey, whoa. And a little boy comes
running past you. And I think, like, kind of
laughing. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Boom, full bumps
into Jaune. And falls back. I think Jean kind
of almost recoils. Yeah, what? His mask slips
just a little bit. And the boy kind of is looking
up towards him. And kind of mouth drops. Head
sort of cocks. And as you look to face this boy,
you realize he's holding something up to his
eye. A recording diamond. And you see he kind
of just stumbles. back to his feet and just goes
running back to his father. Um. You want to do
some? God damn it. Oh, sorry about that. Sorry
about that. My boy gets a little excited. First
time on Senso is all. Hold on. Who has, do we
have a recording diamond on us? That's what I
was, I thought we did. I thought we did. Who
does have it? I thought we did. No, no, no. I
think our party has two, don't we? Yeah. All
together? Yeah. Because we took the one from
Rune at first. I thought we got another one at
some point. Was it in the temple? Maybe I'm wrong.
I mean, if we only have one, then Jules definitely
has it. I don't know if you kept it, but you
did at least temporarily, you might have kept
it, have Magistrate Kunonjun. Okay. Well, let's
say this. Okay. But Chesta has one of them, because
I'm mean. That's fine. I don't even think I need
the diamond. Let's not do the diamond right now.
As the boy turns to run back, Blanche is going
to cast sleep on him. This is an interesting
play. What are the components for sleep? Because
you're being watched, and you'll need to be very
careful if it is. Yeah, it's verbal and somatic.
How do you want to do this without being noted?
The father's a little ways away. We'll say he's
about... 20 feet away, the boy ran ahead, and
he's kind of hurrying over like, oh, shoot, oh,
I'm coming, uh -oh. He sees the boy sort of falling
down and kind of looking at you as he's kind
of standing up. He's, you know, moving your way.
You just see like, you know, fair hair, fair
skinned, just like a little halfling guy with
a big mustache. He just looks like a typical
dad, old dad belly. Hold up. What? Hold up. What
do you got? I've got the ring of obscuring. You're
going to fog cloud? Oh, Fog Cloud, why do you
do this? I think we can get away cleaner. Okay.
I think we can get away cleaner. I'm so curious
what you're going to do here. So how far away
is the father? 20 feet. He's moving towards you.
Not like running, but kind of like a hushed jog.
Uh -oh. Okay. I mean, the verbal, I think, is
hopefully sort of easy. She can do it quietly
under her breath. The somatic hopefully gets
lost in her robes. She's going to start to move
towards the boy and cast it. Okay. Roll me a
stealth check. Fuck. Button. All right. I'll
take it. I'll take it. Nice. I just, I don't
know. Still not great. 13. But if it wasn't for
the button, it would have been worse. You cast
the spell. The boy who has 100 HP does not fall
asleep. You see, he kind of starts to... He is
also a Mazir Drakon. He starts to stand up, and
you just kind of see his eyes go a little tired.
And he falls back. Little diamond plinks out
of his hand and into the sandal on the side of
the road. And the dad comes, oh, shoot, shoot.
Oh, hopefully, hopefully. Nope, nope, nope, nope.
Neil, Neil. I'm sorry about Neil. Blanche runs
over. It's okay. I can help. And she gets down
and she shakes the boy awake and she grabs the
recording diamond. And you tell me if this is
stupid, but my plan is to do something like,
oh, you don't want to delete these precious moments.
You delete the, you're like viewing it. Okay,
I think this is cool. I like this a lot. You're
like, yeah, yeah. You have to kind of put emphasis
on the word delete as you're kind of, you sort
of grab it and you're kind of opening your eyes
to that scene very quickly as the boy's kind
of fussing over his boy and he kind of picks
him up in one arm and he's kind of flustered
looking around. He doesn't see that you're holding
the diamond. He's looking on the ground for it.
And you have that moment to say that, holding
it out loud. And you see that scene. Vanished.
Nice. And you hand it back. Oh, oh, oh, thank
you. It must have been the hot sun. Yeah, boy.
Take a sip of this and Blanche will pull out
a water skin. And he kind of wakes up a little
bit. Oh, you hear that? This is a follower of
the faceless prophet, son. Neil, this is a...
Well, thank you. And may the prophet be... Benevolent
always? I'm sorry, I don't know your customs.
No, you, you, perfectly. You executed that perfectly.
Here, and she'll hand the boy a ration. Have
you broken the fast this morning? Uh, uh, uh,
no, um, thank you. Kind of grabs it and snacks
and, oh, we're going to spoil it. Oh, it's fine,
it's fine. Well, thank you so much. That, that
must have been it. Must have been, must have
been. Well, we'll be on our way. Sorry to bother
you. The dad kind of. Hefts his boy up on his
shoulders and kind of moves back and you see
like there's another little girl and a female
halfling all kind of like rushing in from behind
somewhere going to meet and he kind of turns
and they all go back together. Blanche waves
at their backs as they're at distance. Blessed
day. And you feel like you've cleared what could
have been a very bad situation. Feel like? You
feel like. Feel like you got, I mean, hey, you
know. That was smooth as fuck. It was pretty
smooth. Good. Shit. Good shit. And you move on.
Yeah. A sign of relief. That was close. Hell
yeah. Keep that pin down, Jean. Sorry, sir. Sorry.
Tighten it up. And so you move. Desert sky is
vibrant pink as the sun sinks into the mountains
to the west. Ahead the tall towers of the city
-states of Anissa, and beyond them your true
goal, Anissa Academy. You have been fortunate
thus far in your journey, and more than that,
you have been clever. But when it comes to breaking
into the most prestigious magical academy in
the world, I have to wonder, will cleverness
be enough? Guess we'll find out next time. Because
we'll call it there!