Hey fans people, it's Jeremy. You all kick ass.
That's all I wanted to say. Enjoy the show. Talking
on this show about the big people wandering around
our worlds. The luminaries, the leaders, the
legends. The commonality that a good portion
of these figures have is, well, spending time
at a particular academy of the magical arts.
Anissa Academy. Looming high over the city -state
of Anissa on Senza. This prestigious palace of
proficiency pursuing is populated by the most
precious and polished holds of potential in all
our worlds. Going far beyond the loss of simple
instruction or spell work, Anissa Kelly places
an emphasis on a wide, varied instruction. From
history to artificery to political theory to
the inner workings of monstrous wildlife. Even
now, the lofty future position of some of these
students in the school just boggles the mind.
We're talking Cesar's old Prince Carina of Nebo.
We're talking Asher Lagiatis, second son of Consul
Marcus Lagiatis of Delmira. We're talking Princess
Ji -Yun of the Dragon Clan, eldest daughter of
Queen Ji -Mi of Yanido. Just amazing. And who
can forget this academy was built and is helmed
by Kejo Kamal himself. The master of conjuration.
The master. The one who was the prolific magical
architect and the very founder of the Crystal
Network. I'm speaking to you now on. All I can
say is, with Kejo Kamal and his chosen faculty
instructing tomorrow's leaders, our future is
certainly looking bright. My god, Oren is a pro
at alliteration. How do I do that to myself?
That was impressive. I can't believe you did
it the first time. It's because honestly, I get
bored when I'm writing these and I just start
doing alliteration to make it more funny. I don't
know. It makes me laugh. Well done. I'll be typing
and just be like, and just go back to typing.
It's stupid. Let me ask you guys a question.
What? You feeling... Grabby? Feeling gobliny?
Grabby? Yeah, I'm feeling grabby. Feeling goblin
grabbity? Come here. Oh. Oh, goblin grab. You
know what time it is? Oh, oh. You want to ruin
that? Do it again. Take it to the top. No, I
think it was perfect. What time is it? You guys
ready to play? It's second episode time. It's
episode two. Episode two, baby. We're playing
some goblin grab. So everyone take a die of any
size, any die. Okay. Just whatever you want.
Don't grab the D100, though. That's... I got
to 100. You said any. Okay. I have to check with
Andrew because I was thinking about that. I was
like, okay, so David rolls a 70. I guess it's
fine. All right. So the rules. So we each roll
a die simultaneously. And it's any size die.
I guess that counts. It might count as D10. Stupid.
I'm just kidding. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter. So whatever the total is of the numbers
that we all roll, we add up. That's our target.
Okay. And then... Oh, I think we were supposed
to be... Hold on. I think it was supposed to
be a secret whatever die we grabbed. Oh, shoot.
Sorry, Andrew. We did it wrong. No, it's fine.
It's... No, you got to pick one of the... No,
I got one of mine. Okay, whatever. Fine. Loser.
Okay, so we roll them. We add it up. And the
total is our target number. Okay. And then we
each get to pick... any number of any size die
to try and match it. And it's Price is Right
rules. You go over, you lose. So whoever's closest
without going over wins the pot. I love that.
Wait, no, I don't use one of my die. Yeah, that's
the thing. Yeah, you don't want to bet. I mean,
at least not right now where Andrew gave us probably
literally at least a hundred die. Did you see
what I grabbed? No. It's a secret. Good. Cool.
You ready? Ready? Roll. Okay. I guess you're
going to know what die I got because I rolled
a 19. Three. Three? Five. Five. All right. So
now we get to pick our whatchamacallit. What's
the total? 21, 27? 26. 26. Ah, 25. No, 22, 25.
Yeah, never mind. You're right, 26. Math. Who
said 26? I read it. I still think it's 27. It's
27. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. All right. We got
this. Okay. So now. So any die you can choose.
Any amount of die you can choose. Yes. You can
choose. It's the same type of die. I don't think
it has to be the same type. Can I play as a knight?
Shut up. Secretly choosing any number of any
size die. Cool. Okay. All right. So I think it's
whatever. So Jeremy, why don't you grab die first?
And then roll them in your dice tower. See how
close you get to 27. Stand by. Am I going first?
I'm going to do all the same dice. I'm going
to do something fun here. We can either go at
the same time or however you want to do it. I
don't know. Let's go at the same time. A bunch
from here. Yeah, you got to take it out of the
chest, man. That's the game. All right, let me
hit the chest. I'm not looking at what you're
getting. Okay. David, don't look. You're not
supposed to know what he takes. Yeah. Clattery.
Click, clack, click. Uh -huh. That's a beautiful
sound. Can I put one Fullmetal Captain's die
in this block? I'm putting one Fullmetal Captain's
die. Yeah, I used one of my other die, too. And
one Zeela die. You guys want to say what you
picked before we roll or after we roll? No. All
right. I'm banking on something. Oh, no. It's
a lot of high numbers. I think I'm fucked. Yeah,
same. 29. Jesus. So, so close. They were rolled
really high. Dude, I got 43. Holy fuck. What
the hell did you do? How many dice did you roll?
I rolled 96. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Well,
I win. I rolled 19. Damn. I had a D20 and a D6.
Nice. Oh, gosh. Jerry's strategy was to hold
off while we goofed. No, I rolled. I rolled.
Three sixes, two fives, two fours, and I don't
remember what the other two were. I was like,
yeah, you guys are grabbing a lot of dice there.
5d8 and 1d6. Well, hang on. I got the pot. Oh,
sorry. I'm kidding. This is our community pot.
Dude, this is so many die. Fantasy pants. This
is so many die. All right, yeah. Please go check
out Andrew's game at Goblin Game Co. on Instagram.
Hopefully by now he's got his Kickstarter up
and running. If not... follow his page stay tuned
because i think it's coming i love that i love
the whole like it's like the old school trading
cards you know and you do a big duel and you
win like the big card at the end of it it's like
like winning the die is a cool feature i love
i love the gambling dice yeah it's truly it is
the perfect dice goblin game it gives you a reason
to use all the dice you're collecting folks pogs
man pogs this guy pogs yeah and his pogs Pogs.
Hey, if you missed out on playing Pogs, I...
I feel so sad for you, man. I think my brother
had Pogs. I don't know if he even had some. To
Jurassic Park! Pogs was the pinnacle of elementary
school gaming in the 90s. It was the pinnacle
of elementary school gaming. You sit out on the
playground on the basketball court. The whole
court was filled with a bunch of kids fucking
sitting down playing Pogs. Anyways, let's get
started. You know what we did a recess? Stepped
on mustard packets. Did we do that? And you're
mocking me for pogs. Some kid got hit in the
eye with mustard. Was it you? No, it wasn't me.
Holy shit. All right. Speaking of pogs, this
is going to be poggers. I mean, you could have
just rhymed it and said something about Akio
with dog. Speaking of pogs, let's check in on
our dogs. D -A -W -G -S. That's this party. That's
what we call them. I really miss my dogs, man.
I'll ask you to set the scene for me, because
I don't know. You have entered the city. We can
skip forward in time a little bit. I'm not interested
in you dawdling around here. If you want to take
a rest, you can take a rest. You made your checks
for each day, and this is part of that day. What
I want to know... is how and when you approach
the Academy proper. Am I supposed to see all
the people around it? Yeah. I'm seeing a bunch
of people. I'm seeing tokens down the hallway.
You may see that for now. Okay. Although I guess
you should probably have scouted first, but you
already mentioned you have a bat on the loose,
so I imagine your bat's going to do a sweep.
Oh, okay, okay. You kind of already seem like
you're edging that way. Well, we're not going
to that southern... The Academy is risen up,
kind of. And don't worry about that crowd. That
crowd's not there yet. We'll get to that crowd.
Ignore that crowd. The Academy is, as I mentioned
before, on this sort of like totally shaved down
peak of a mountain staying just behind the city
of Anissa. It is just this, I mean, kind of magical,
wondrous thing to look upon as you move through
the city. At the base of the mountain, there
are lifts, magical, that can carry you. There
are stairs carved in and up, switchbacking to
reach the top. There are bridges from the nearby
mountains that have their own access points that
will reach the top. There's many ways to access
the academy grounds without having to break out
the fly spell or the rod of flying that we all
know Stomp has. So I don't care how you got here.
I want to know what time it is. And how you want
to proceed. Are you staying the night and coming
in the day? Are you coming up at night? When
you reach the city, the sun had fallen. If you
pushed right through it, you'd be reaching the
academy somewhere around 9 o 'clock p .m. Before
we make any decisions, can you give us a micro
lore dump reminder as to what we know going into
this? You know. Nisa Academy is a prestigious
magical academy that teaches you all the arts.
It is heralded as being the birthing place of
the leaders of tomorrow. You know it is founded,
literally built from the ground up by and run
by one Kejo Kamal, the founder of the Crystal
Network, and someone who is intimately involved
with Atash and the Sapphire. One that was old
friends with... Ozen Yoshikatsu, who tried to
get Ozen on the fold, and he's the one that kind
of tipped Ozen off and brought him into what
eventually ended up being his death. You know
that Keijo Kamal has a code phrase. He founded
the network, and he knows a phrase you can use
to basically take it back. You'd have to use
the phrase deep within the networks. Like, it
wouldn't be something you could just keep, right?
Because when you get in there, when you do this
thing, likely you're going to cause a stir. But...
You'll have the chance to broadcast to the world
anything you want for whatever time you can hold
sort of the network headquarters. But you need
this code phrase. And only Kedro Kamal has it.
Okay. You know, he's somewhere within the confines
of the school. You know, the school is currently
closed down. It's closed down because of an Aurum
Vorax infestation. Weird little gold -eating
weasels. Yeah, they are eating away at all the
gilded ornamentation of the building. And so
the building had to be closed down for both reconstruction
and for extermination efforts. And you can assume
that there's probably a lot of people. I think
even from far away, you can see a number of tents,
clusters of tents in various locations, not close
necessarily to the actual main building, but
dotting the sort of grand grass laden school
grounds where you assume the exterminators and,
you know, construction workers are. Okay. Thank
you for the mini lore dump. Yeah. However, Jeremy.
Yes. I think we gave him a pass on Archipelago.
But are we really going to let Harald go by?
No, hang on. No, we're not. Don't do this to
me. Stop it. Fuck you. I thought I was the only
one there. I guess not. Harald. You're paying
for this. Thank you. Oh, my God. You're going
to. It's the better way of saying it. How dare
you, sir? What was the one that we fought about?
Fuck you. No, no, no. Shut up. I don't think
it was you that said it differently. Okay, that's
fine. I think I said it differently than the
two of you. Was it during like Babies and Broadswords
or something? It was so long ago. Point and laugh
at the loser. He said something different. No,
wasn't it like you said something different and
I'm like, no, I think that's wrong. That's not
the way you say it. I think it's this, but it
turns out I was wrong and you were right. Hold
on. It was the SpongeBob thing. SpongeBob was
related somehow. What? What? You said you learned
how to say conch. Conch. Conch, conch. Yeah,
that's both the same, yeah. Conch is for fools.
My fizz went to herald my presence. My coming.
Knock that smile off your face. Okay, oh my god.
Punch that ponytail to the front. Oh god. So
we... Jeremy, I'm getting the impression. What
are you doing? I'm getting the impression we
can't just walk in. Yeah. No, of course not.
I know, but it scares me to go at night, too.
Do you want to? Are you scouting? Do you want
to actually, like, you can take time to, like,
scout, have your bat check things out. Turbo's
definitely flying around. And I think if Turbo's
flying around, I think it's got to be dark out.
If it's, like, noon and this bat's flying around,
someone's going to be like, what the fuck is
a bat doing out here? Okay. Let's do this first.
You, let's say you're holding out somewhere nearby,
you know, some shaded spot, an alley, as Turbo
flies out, the rest of the party, Dresden, the
Keoghan, guarding as Blanche is fully kind of
becoming Turbo. You can hear and see, correct?
I'm pretty sure, yeah. Okay. I'm almost positive,
but yeah. Turbo flies out. I'd like you to make...
investigation checks before you make those there's
one thing that's very very obvious as turbo takes
the sky as it's like it's it's getting late but
it's not like late late late night yet we'll
say it's like it's at nine o 'clock you notice
there is a commotion of sorts at the front gate
uh number of guards you see like a very notable
torch lit uh you see looks like five guards and
one other figure are uh Moving up towards, again,
a different group of guards. Four guards. You
see kind of a mess. Two groups of guards coming
together? Yes. One group you see heading from,
it looks like they just arrived up the stairs
and moved up the academy grounds, heading towards
the main door of Nisa Academy. You see a small
group, five guards and one other figure. Guards
are in light flowing cerulean garb, wielding
long curved swords at their hips. They stand
at attention behind a man in a striking blue
coat of the same bright blue, embroidered by
braids and bands of gold. This man is young,
maybe 17 or 18. You see his dark skin with notably
sort of the big bright white teeth and a shaved
head, and the quartz lights kind of catching
it all, gleaming. He is gesturing wildly and
angrily, his every finger adorned with gold and
jewels that again gleam in the light. I don't
care what you say. I know Z is in there. You
think Kejo Kumal will get his favorite five out
of his sight? Even with the school closed? Of
course not. She did not return to Zing. I checked.
And besides, my rival Prince of Neba has also
been notably absent. Do you have an answer for
that? Prince Sembon, we... Kejo Kumal may have
gotten away with expelling me for distracting
her, but he will not stop me from seeing her.
He has no right! I am the crown prince of Anissa,
and Kajol Kamal will not bully me. He does not
hold the power here. Right? You see, this figure
turns around, the guards behind him, they kind
of shuffle. Your Majesty, if Kajol Kamal has
restricted all access, another speaks up, I don't
know that we have the authority to... Can we
perhaps receive a writ from the Empress? The
Empress is the authority of the Crown Prince
of Anissa, not enough. Shall I ask the faceless
prophet permission to enter? Or does Kedra Kamal
outrank her as well? Kedra Kamal is a nobody,
and I will not! You see, just like he, like,
stops breathing hard, all the faces around, the
guards on either side are horrified, silent.
I will. CZ. I'll return with whatever authority
I need to see her. And if I have to go to Atash
himself on the Sado, I will do so, and you will
all be sorry. And this prince kind of spins around
on his heel and marches away, the guards nervously
moving in tow. That's the obvious thing you notice.
Do you want to roll an investigation check to
learn more? Absolutely. Hell yeah. Can Dresden
get in on this? Uh, no. Unless you want to go
scout the grounds. This is only because... Oh,
this is turbo. It's not a crit, but it's a 19
on the die. Nice, nice. Yeah, 24. Oh, yeah. 24.
Okay. You note, as you spend some time watching,
that there are guards all around the premises,
and they are, you realize, truly guards. I spoke
guard before, but the garb they wear, the clothing
they wear, seems to be that of, again, like simple
exterminators or contractors here to fix the
school. They're not fixing anything, and no one
is stepping inside the building. No one's deleting
any kind of extermination efforts. They're just
standing at attention, moving around, looking
busy, and they're spread all around the perimeter,
very carefully trying to keep an eye on every
entrance. Every once in a while, you note the
turbo's ears, a sound of a boom, some kind of
explosion or sound of something inside the confines
of the building. But every time there's a loud
bang or any of this noise, any kind of ruckus,
the guards around just ignore it, stand at attention.
I think one time you might, turbo catches like
one person kind of looks back almost nervously
and a hand falls on their shoulder. You know
the rules. We ignore. Any sound? Perfect. Nice.
That's so perfect. Thank you. Don't be happy.
That's a bad sign. What's going on in there?
I don't know. Could have prepped the knock spell
or something. I don't know. I actually didn't,
but. You see there are many entrances inside.
There's one entrance to the southeast, six to
the northeast, kind of ringing around the upper
corner. There's the central sort of main entrance
where that commotion happened at the front. That
seems to be the most guarded, clearly. And there
look to be some other faculty entrances, one
to the southwest, one to the northwest. There
are ways in all around this school. The question
is, which one leads to where? Where would you
want to go? Wouldn't possibly know. Nope. But
I think I have a weird idea. Oh. Clearly you
know something's happening. This is, you know,
as you probably kind of already realized, this
is a ruse. The Aurum Borax, Bordegard mentioned,
is a creature that was extinct and suddenly they
just returned now. They're just back now. You
do see chewed metal. All around the place. Like,
there was something that had been eating away
at the metal around the school. You catch no
sign of these weasel -like creatures. Maybe they're
inside. Certainly no one's going in to deal with
them. How high is this school? It's a single
-story school standing about 30 feet high. Okay.
All the windows you see look to be entirely shut
off. Like, something has been closed. on the
inside of them in some form of security. I think
I mentioned before, this building is like made
of just like reinforced, like magically reinforced
mud and the windows be covered over by the same
actual, you see the impression of them, but no
actual like means in. What does Turbo see on
the roof then? The roof is, there's, you don't
see any access points, I suppose. You just kind
of see, you know, long, I think it would stand
like, probably like, you know, crenellations
along the edges, but a flat expanse across the
top. Anybody on top? Roll a die for me. Okay.
Roll luck die. What do you want? I don't know.
20. I'll say 15 or higher. There's nobody stationed
on the roof. No one thought that was necessary.
Okay. 18. There's nobody stationed on the roof.
Trouble is, how do we get to the roof? Dresden
can teleport with his echo up there, but I don't
know how anybody else can. Can he teleport with
them in the hole? But there's no access on the
roof, though. Yeah. Unless you can find a way
to make access. No, but that... But yeah, no,
no, no. I mean, you take all your items with
you, right? Or there's nobody up there. That
means we can get anywhere around the building
that we want to. True, true. At the very least.
Okay, I think we can pair... Well, let me give
you my idea first. Sure. And then you tell me
if we can make them kiss. Okay. Quick, quick
theology lesson, David. Yeah. What's the, what's
the name of this God? The faceless what? Faceless
prophet. Faceless prophet. Okay. You know, the
ancient prophet of Senza, her. bones are locked
in the tomb of the faceless uh it's kind of a
whole thing that like no one's supposed to know
what she has ever looked like she's supposed
to remain faceless to them it kind of what grants
her this mystique and this power you knowing
what you know might assume that this faceless
prophet was a dracon was one of these serpents
cool That hails from a very ancient time. Just
like the Shrine of Storms held the bones of the
great Sage Umizu, the great prophet of Senza
likely is being held in its own shrine. All right.
Plug your ears, David. Not really, but you want
to hear my crackpot idea? Yeah. I bet we can
talk this prince into, like, helping us with
a distraction. Blanche is already dressed up
as a follower of the Faceless Prophet. Huh. Ooh.
So here's what I'm imagining, and you tell me,
Jeremy, if you think it's a good idea or not.
As this prince is going down this winding path
away from the school, Blanche just stands in
the center of the path where they would have
to walk by her, and they engage in some sort
of conversation, and she tries to convince him
that we can help him. Okay. Okay. Want to try
it? Okay. Want to try it? Yeah. I like that better
than just trying to sneak in or brute force in.
Well, so I think we can do both. I think we can
use the hole to sneak us in, and I'm hoping that
we can talk this guy into providing a distraction
for us to actually get in. Yep. Yeah. I like
that a lot. All right. So Blanche is standing
solo. Their hands crossed in front of her in
the path as this attache rounds the corner. I'll
say you like watch the Turbo's eyes and you see
them get on one of those great sort of magical
lifts. And as it falls, you probably leave Turbo's
vision, move out to the street at the base of
the elevator where you know they have to pass
by you. It lands. Street's very clear here. Only,
you know, people going to and from the academy
are going to be in this sort of region. And no
one is currently. So as Prince Simbon, the name
you heard, and his retinue begin to move, they
suddenly stop. You see the guards all kind of
like take this sort of prayer pose and deference,
almost like putting their fingers in the shape
of a circle and holding to their chest and bowing
their heads. But Simbon simply steps over, faceless
one. You see very jockey, very like arrogant
air about him. He's very thick, muscle bound
up close. Blanche repeats the gesture and bows.
I'm here to answer your prayers, my lord. You,
you've heard. She told, what do you know? I know
only what the faceless prophet wishes me to know.
She has heard your plight. and has sent me to
help you. Take that, Kejo! I got the faceless
prophet on my side. I knew it! I'm sorry. Does
the letter Z mean anything to you? Z. Yeah, yeah,
Z. Songwen Z. She's my girlfriend. Look, I used
to go here, Tunisa Academy. You know, but Z's
one of Kejo's favorite five. They're the top
students, and he doesn't like anyone... talking
to them or distracting them, as he would say.
I wasn't the best student, but I was a prince.
But even that didn't save me when he saw that
me and Z were together, so he gave me the boot.
I got expelled. Then the school closed. Everyone
left. But I know, I know Z didn't leave. All
right? She's in there. The favorite five, they're
still in there. My rival prince Karina of Neba,
he's in there. I know this. Love is a powerful
emotion. I can see why the Faceless Prophet was
moved to help you. What can we do? Kejo's not
going to let anyone inside. He's got that place
locked down. I don't know. I don't know. What
I need is very simple. I need a distraction.
Distraction? If you give me enough time to set
up, and if you can get the guards away from a
door for only a few moments, By the blessing
of our faceless prophet, I can sneak inside and
find your Z for you. You see just this bright,
bright, wide smile. Just all teeth. Yeah, all
right. Yeah, no, anything, anything. What door?
You want to go staff entrance? You want to go
with a beast entrance? Supplies, kitchen, front?
What are you looking? And you realize this guy
has been here before. He knows. A lot more about
this location than you do. If you have any questions...
Yes. He's not, like, the brightest bushel of
beans over there, but... Well, Lord Simbon? Prince
Simbon. Prince Simbon? Sorry. I suppose... You
can come whenever you want. I suppose even I
have been blessed this day to meet someone with
knowledge of the building on the inside. I would
graciously take your suggestion for an entrance.
And perhaps even deign to ask you for a rough
layout. Ooh. Nice. Okay. I like that a lot. He
kind of scratches. Oh, it's been a minute, but...
Well, there's, of course, the main entrance hall.
That's kind of center in the south, right? And
then... I was getting north and east mixed up.
He holds up his two hands to make up the L's.
So, um... Never eat soggy wheat. Yeah, that's
the one. So the southeast side, that's the kitchens,
right? Entrance there, you go through, kitchens,
cafeteria. If you push northwards, you're going
to be reaching the dormitory area. Staff are
kind of fully focused on the east side. When
you get further in, you're going to see student
dorms. And to the north, that's going to be all
the faculty, right? Going around to the sort
of west side of the school, the northwest, that's
where they bring in magical beasts. You know,
sometimes they like to... do some combat training
or biology lessons or just taking a look at them.
I don't know. I think they just want to spend
money. But that's the main entrance they use
for those. And if you cut down into the sort
of southwest side, that's all the classrooms
and a lot of supplies for, you know, alchemical
and artificery sort of classes come in that entrance
there. That seems to be a safe place to enter.
There are a few guards there as well. No mythical
beasts to deal with. I think they're all in cages.
Still noisy, perhaps? Anything else, my lord,
or my prince, that you think we should know before
entering the building? No. Something about this
usually gets very grim. What do you know about
Kejo Kamal? I know he's probably some kind of
holy figure or something to you guys. Everyone
thinks he's some kind of holy figure, but what
do you really know about Kejo Kamal? Because
I was a student. I only know what the faithless
prophet has led me here to learn of him. Perhaps
you could shed some light. He's a maniac. His
ego is everything, and he's crazy, I think. I
mean, he's smart, sure. He knows damn near everything,
but they say when you get older, you get wiser.
You know, my dad and my grandpa, they're wise
rulers. I'll get there. But... Kejo Kamal. I
don't see wisdom in him. I never saw wisdom in
him. And his students, they worship him like
he's some kind of god. But when I look into his
eyes, have you ever gotten real close to a spider?
Scorpion looked at their eyes. It's just blank.
I've seen many devils in my service to the Faceless
Prophet. I wonder if you've seen any quite like
Kejo Kamal. Maybe I'm talking crazy, but he scares
me. That's all. He really, really scares me.
Where might he keep the students? Where might
he keep Z? They have their own room in the dormitory.
Makes them all sleep in the same spot together.
He wants them to be their own clique, you know?
They gotta hang out with each other and nobody
else. They gotta strengthen each other. He wants
them to be the brightest lights of the future,
whatever crap he sells. And Kejo's office itself,
is that in the north with the rest of the staff?
He's got a room there, like the rest of the staff,
yeah. He's the conjuration master. There's one
for every sort of art, except for necromancy,
of course. They don't get that dark, at least
not that I know of. If that's his office, I'm
not sure. He spends a lot of time in the school,
but to be honest, no one really knows where.
Some people say it's kind of rumored that he's
got secret spots there, you know? and who knows
what. Well... He built the place. I'll be sure
to keep my eyes out. If you see me traveling,
Prince Simbon, I won't look like myself. It might
not be myself. We of the Faceless Prophet have
many allies, many secretive allies. Of course,
of course, yeah. Yeah. I trust you'll help us
get in, and if you wish to see Z when we... Exit
the building. I hope you'll help us escape as
well. Is there a way you can signal me how long
you'll be in there? It's a big school. Pausing
to look at spell list. What? I didn't say that.
What'd you say? I didn't say that in character.
Wait a minute! He pulls off your hood. Ah! Guards!
Killer! Dresden from off somewhere. She didn't
say anything. Oh! We don't have the stones on
us, I don't think. This prince doesn't have the
stones. Perhaps, my prince, if we are blessed,
a bat may carry my message. A bat will herald
your return. Stop. Cut the mics. Stop. He's out
of control. I'm going to tell my friend Harold
on you. God. All right. So I don't think we want
to drag this out any further. I think we have
a pretty decent plan. Yeah. I would like to jump
to executing it. I want to do that. I love that.
I love that. Let's get in the scene. I think
Jeremy has the perfect idea. Put us in the hole.
Wrap it up in this little bag. Do the fucking
zoopty -doopty on the roof. That's the mechanical
term. Zoopty -doopty. Okay. Zoopty -doopty. And
then wait for the distraction to hop into that
southwestern door. Hell yeah. You find a quiet
corner where you kind of move in. Give me just
a stealth check with advantage there, Dresden,
because you have a means of moving up to the
roof very quickly, so you just got to move in
in the dark and just vanish. Sure. It's a good
thing I had advantage because the first one was
a natural one. Oh, my God. Could you imagine?
Oh, my God. Second was a 16. Hell yeah. With
a 16, you go to move in. The natural one, you're
moving in. You just brush over. There's a little
hole in the ground. You see a little badger thing
peep out, pop out. It's like, yeah! It tries
to nab at you, and you slip out of the way. A
little sound is made, and you see a guard. What's
going on over there? Spins around, and they just
see vapors of nothing as you're already on the
roof. Nice. Guard just kind of turns around,
and you're... Can I also retcon that as Blanche
and Dresden were debriefing, she instructed Akio
to don his armor? I don't know if Dresden wants
to yet or not. If Dresden does that, that stealth
check would not be... Oh, fair. Okay, fair. We
can don our armor on the roof. You can do that.
Or when you get inside or something. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. But Akio in the hole. And he's putting
his armor on. Sure. He's got no arms, so he's
kind of... I don't want to walk in the door or
something and be caught by surprise and be like,
no, you didn't don your armor. Yeah. From this
point forward, any second is go time. Yeah. Hell
yeah. So yes, Dresden does put on his armor once
they're on the roof. So you're looking at the
southwestern entrance, the one that leads into
the classes, the supplies entrance, and you see
there is only a singular guard. The guards around
are kind of far away. This one is stationed right
in front of the door, though, not even a pretense
of doing work, just full -on guarding, standing
around, you know, large, looks like a Sensen
figure. I think it's a dwarven man just kind
of hunkered down. Looking out one way, looking
out the other, you guys sort of creep up overhead
and peek down. And you see, in the light of his
torch, he kind of glances up, stiffens, as a
figure of Prince Simbon steps out. Hey there.
Who? You, you, you were at the front. We told
you we can't. Hold on, hold on. He puts his hands
up like, look, all that. I'm sorry about that.
Just, I got a quick message. I'd like you to
tell Z when you see her. Can I? It's a little
personal. So I'm going to tell you real quiet.
And the guard sort of puts a hand down on his
weapon, curved sword. He sort of eyes narrow
and Simba steps forward like, whoa, hey, I am
a prince. You don't want to put your hand on
your weapon in front of me, right? Guard looks
nervous. Does he want to do a few more steps?
I just wanted to tell her that I'll see her soon.
And you see, he just like, full -on tackles into
this guy who grabs around the neck with a stranglehold
and they both just go rolling off to the side
you see kind of in the darkness they're like
fighting they're making some kind of commotion
but like no one seems to be picking up on it
quite quite yet but you got to make a move you
drop down teleport right back down okay you're
in front of me you drop down you hear the strong
good go go go uh What's going on over there?
You hear guards in the corner. Door in front
of you. What do you do? I try to open it. Locked.
Oh, fuck me. Oh, come on. You think it's going
to lock the door? Yeah, I know. I'm mean. I know.
I'm mean. Hold on. Hey, we need battle music.
Wait. Hold on. Wait. Now it's this. Choke point.
That sounds good for a guy getting choked up
next to you. Fuck. So we don't really want them
to know that we went in is the problem. Yeah,
I'm trying to decide. We didn't really talk about
this. No. Is Blanche in the hole still? I think
so. I don't see why she would be out at this
moment. Yeah. You guys are pulled out on the
roof, I say. Everyone drops down. Oh, okay. Okay.
Well, the funny thing is I literally did not
prepare knock. You can break the door down. What
do you want to do here? I don't want to. That's
the thing. We don't want them to know we're in
there. Right. But the only thing that I could
potentially do to get this door down is something
like if you would allow me to use the dash action
to try and break it down. You can make an attack
on it. We can make an attack on it. You can do
either a strength check or an attack to kind
of like... Could I take the end of my war pick
and try to pick the lock? You could try to break
the lock. Is it magical? Is it a magical lock?
Or is it just the mechanical... Do you have a
means of telling? I don't think I do. I don't
have detect magic. You drop down. Time is ticking
away now. We're going to start counting it out.
You drop down. Do you want to take some time,
a second to read the door, see if you can give
me an arcana check or an investigation check
to get information? Is there a crack that Turbo
could fit through? No. This is a highly secure
location. Yeah, I'll take the time for an arcana
check then. 25. 25. 25 is fun. You're looking
at this door. The lock seems to be mundane. Was
this Arcana or Investigation? Arcana. Arcana,
perfect. The lock seems to be mundane. You just
need to, like, break it or unlock it. But as
you're taking a look at that, you realize something
strange. The lock is mundane, but the door itself
seems to have magical inscription weaving into,
like, the fibers of its wood. Fuck. You're not
sure what that means, but there is some magic
to this door. See, like, even Counterspell I
don't think would work here, though. Yeah, Dresden
has nothing but just Brute Force. So anything
apart from that is unblanched. I don't know that
I have anything but Brute Force in this instance
either. Hold on. Looking, looking, panicking,
looking. This is a tough spot you're in. What
are you doing? Come on! Simone's just wrestling
this guy. And the guards aren't even here. The
guards did not want to fuck with Kedra Kamal.
He came on his own. He ditched his whole retinue
to do this. Yeah, if Blanche doesn't have anything,
then Dresden's going to just try and attack the
lock with his pick. Go for it. Yeah, Blanche
is sitting there. She's got her fingers on her
temples, and she's looking at the door. She's
like, no time. Break the lock, Dresden. I'll
think of something. It's a 17. 17 will hit. Okay.
For nine. Nine points of damage is enough. The
lock caves in. You see, like, I think where you
said the lock is on the door, you just break
right through it. And, like, the entire, like,
sort of carved out portion of wood locks in is
just vacant as the lock goes back into the school.
For a brief second, everything is quiet and paused.
Dresden looks down at the broken lock. Looks
over to Blanche. Time's up. Do you know what
that says? Fuck. At this point, you don't need
to know. Because you're about to find out. Because
a very familiar to Dresden thing happens. Fuck.
As the door begins to rattle. Oh, come on. Oh,
come on. It comes to life to attack you. This
is the guy that made the Shrine of Storms defenses.
Come on. We're fighting the doors again. Oh,
my God. Classic door fight, Oni. Come on. Let's
do it. Let's do it. Oh, no. Guards charging around.
I almost prepped dimension door. Dimension door
would have been able to go inside, open the door.
This door is about to send you to a dimension
of pain, baby. God. Let me get the mouse up.
Let me get Simbon over here with his guy he's
choking out on the ground. either they're stumbled
over here you see they're like about uh 15 paces
south of the door they're just kind of uh rolling
around the ground simone's got just got him come
on come on uh what's that you guys on the map
this is so bad i feel like we did so much work
to actually get in and then we were like in front
of the door like oh wait a minute there's a door
here it's locked who do you think i am All right,
you guys can place yourselves where you want.
I'll move your tokens closer. Where are we? I
think we're right in front of the door, right?
Yeah. We just drop down. This map is so gigantic,
it's really hard to move across it. Yeah. I know,
it's big. There you go. Put you guys on. Yeah,
that's exactly where we're at. Let's roll for
initiative. Oh, God. Oh, God. Fuck. John's...
Ten for Blanche. 15 for Akio, though. Eight for
Dresden. 17 for Jean Franklin. Hell yeah. Okay.
Oh, wait a minute. I always forget Akio has advantage
on... Oh, that's better. 19 for Akio. Guards
are on their move. In one round, they're probably
going to be on top of you. Oh, great. Yeah. Oh,
my God. You have one round to clear this obstacle
and get inside. Thankfully, my door was a little
slow to activate. It rolled very bad initiative.
So this thing kind of shudders itself. And you
see, like, the hinges fall away. So they're meant
to just fall once the door kind of activates.
And it sort of rises up, kind of pushing itself
out of its spot and tries to go to swipe at Dresden.
But you've got the initiative on it. And it's
going to be Akio to start us off. Oh, what is
Akio going to do? I guess Akio is going to draw
Ichigenka and go for a hit on the door. 21 on
the first, 14 on the second. Okay. It's going
to hit on both, actually. 21 points of damage
on both hits. Holy shit. That's pretty huge,
okay? And that's it for Kyo. Okay, but there's
two attacks. I imagine you're just piercing.
He just has his weapon. He's trying to plunge
it right into the door. We're not trying to break
it down too bad. Splinters flying into the darkened
inside of the school, and the door kind of seems
to shrink down a fair bit. It's not crazy strong.
You guys are heroes. That's going to be Jean.
Take that, you stupid door! I can open you on
my own now. Oh, my God. So this is my first time
ever playing John Franklin. Oh, yeah. Bear with
me. Bear with me. He's going to go in with his
King Spear. Hell, yeah. Golden Spear of Kondor.
He gets two attacks, correct? Yes. Cool. Cool.
Oh, shit. That is only an 11 on the first hit.
Does not hit. Goes to hit. The doors are up.
Weaves out. Yeah. This is not what I'm used to
fighting. Second one is a 27. That will certainly
hit. Would it be stupid just to use a smite point
on this one? You have one round to get this thing
out of the way. Yeah. Okay. There'll be a notably
flash of light, but at this point, shit's happening.
So I have three numbers. Yeah. Smite slots equal
to the level, which John is nine. So I'm going
to expend three. Holy shit. Hell yeah. I want
to get this thing down and in. Dude, take that
door out. So that gives me, what, 3d8? That gives
you, yeah. 3d8 plus the regular 1d6 plus 4. All
right, so for just the regular, it's going to
be an 8. 8. Cool. And then 3d8. 3d8, maybe. And
you also did damage this thing when you used
your pick, too. Yep. That is another 22. It was
eight and two sevens. John tries to hit the door.
Rises up out of the way. And he braced himself
down low beneath it and hurls the spear upwards.
The door kind of moves over ahead of him. As
the spear tip strikes right into the center,
light flashes through every fiber of the wood
of the door. And you watch this thing just explode.
Oh, no. Yeah. Wait, does the door have to explode?
Yeah. Can't it just be like a dead door? Fine,
it can be a dead door. You're all really good.
I'll give you that. He hits it and he kind of
burns it out. It looks a little crispy. In the
dark you can't really see it It's like all the
inscription all the magic on the door is just
expunged in one clean blast of radio That's gonna
work out perfect. Yeah, the flash of light guards
are You see they're moving for it's dark where
you are the torch I think like there was one
torch but the guard was holding but it got put
out when he's being pressed by Simba on speaking
of Simba you kind of hear of like Go on, guys.
Go find her. Holy shit. At least nobody heard
him say that, I guess. Holy shit. Hell yeah.
What do you do? I don't know whose turn it is,
but the goal is to get inside ASAP and everyone
pulls the door back up and Blanche is going to
cast a spell when the door is in place. Honestly,
at this point, you beat the guy. You guys are
moving. You're casting a spell inside when the
door's in place, so you guys all slide in. You
get to hear Simbon just kind of, hey, ha, I broke
your stupid door and took this nerd out. Hey,
hey, yeah. And the guards are, Simbon, what are
you? You hear him scream as you guys move in.
Close the door behind you. What do you cast?
Arcane lock. Oh. I love that. Yeah. You fear.
And I think, like, a guard, did they just? And
someone just goes to, like, hit the door to open
it. No, it's secure. No one got in. Simba, what
is the meaning of this? You hear, like, screaming
outside. You hear, like... As the prince of Anissa
is dragged away into the night. Oh, my God. Dude,
what the fuck? And you are inside Anissa Academy.
Let's reveal some map. The, um, the password
on this door. It will last until the spell ends.
The password is, um... Justice Undying. Ooh,
super original. If that password is spoken within
five feet of the door, it will suppress the arcane
lock magic for one minute. Okay, Chesnan looks
back. Okay, Kuder, we're about ten feet away
because you just said it. Good call, actually.
That's pretty smart. Let me change the music
up. The darkened corridor hallway of a school
that has been shut down. No windows. Everything
goes quiet outside as whatever activity has been
moved away and you are standing in this place
in silence. A place that should be filled with
the chatter and laughter of students this first
hallway you're entering into uh basically just
kind of widens up i'll give you the i'll give
you a picture of the entire thing as you want
to look around but you'll see that it kind of
creeps up slightly to the north where it curves
into a long corridor with three doors two doors
uh ring around a another hallway expanse leading
to the south now you were told this is where
the classrooms are and a single door On the northern
side of the hallway as well. Opposite of that
corridor. So you're kind of standing at the top
of the edge of a T shape with doors on each arm
of the T and one on the top. Everything is deathly
silent in this school. You see... Like, like,
gilded ornamentation running along the walls.
You see floors where the dried mud of the floor
has been, like, carved in this intricate tile
pattern. It is beautiful in here. It is perfect.
The first thing we need to do is determine if
anybody's in any of these rooms. These classrooms,
I assume. Akio, with your... keen hearing and
smell you have advantage on perception checks
that rely on hearing and smell that's damn okay
yeah could you perceive at each of these doors
determine if anybody's inside i shall do so go
ahead and roll Thirteen. He moves to the first
door in the tea. First arm of the tea. Oil and
powder. Weird smells. He moves to the next door
to the north. Slight. Something strange. Not...
A person with something strange, pungent, magic,
and metal. Magic and metal. Perhaps one of those
animated robot god -bot things that we fought
before. You two think back to San Satyan. To
the armored guard of Itzman Del Prado. Dressed
in you and Jean, standing beside Ramin, nearly
overwhelmed by them. You remember an army of
them coming to strike at you. You remember certain
death. Could this be what Kejo's working on?
Is he creating more? He was there. He was on
Settlestone. He was speaking with Itzmin Del
Prado. And you know Atash made way with Itzmin's
research. Maybe. Maybe there's a way to find
out. What about the last door? Goes a sniff.
Also, can we see down that hall now that Akio
has passed it? Oh, yeah, I'll give you that.
I'll give you that hallway. Cool. You look down,
and the tea drops down a very long ways, about
70 feet. He appears down there. He goes to the
other door on the other side of the tea. Shakes
his head. Doesn't smell anything. And he stops.
I don't hear anything, Master Blanche. Just smell.
What do you smell, Akio? Nothing here, but...
And the guy just looks at the other door. Something
strange. So the first one was like oil, powder,
strange smells he couldn't really fully put his
finger on, and the other door was metal and magic.
Well, I think the metal and magic door seems...
A little too dangerous. The oil door could be
just a chemistry classroom. And the third where
he smelt nothing is both reassuring and concerning.
Well, soldier boy, which door shall we breach
first? It can't be nothing. Let's go to the far.
The last door where he smelt nothing? Yes. Okay.
Who opens the door? Either Blanche or Dresden.
I think Dresden will go. Okay. Blanche will be
in the space behind him. This interior door is
not locked. You push it open. You're looking
into a classroom. You see a nice, fine, like,
blue and gold -weaving carpet covers the floor.
You see there's, like, standing desks along the
edges of the room. You see charts along the walls
that Blanche, as you're kind of like looking
at them, you realize, you see like lifts that
would be used in enchantment spells and workings.
Looks to be some kind of standing classroom that's
focused on the enchantment school of magic. Okay.
If you were to guess at a glance, called motivational
posters. You can dominate. Blanche wants to put
on her. Eyes of minute seeing and just quickly
investigate the room. See if there are any hidden
passageways or something that might be overlooked
at a glance. Yeah, go ahead. I'll just tell you
in this case, you take your time. You see nothing.
Okay. Maybe in the first room where Kia smelt
the oil. Maybe there's something in there that
can help us disarm whatever lies beyond the metal
and magic door. And as Blanche looks at that
door, is it like you said before, where there's
no way that Turbo could squeeze under or around
the door or through a... I'm going to say no.
I'm going to say they're built to try to avoid,
you know... pests and critters moving through.
It's a very, very carefully constructed academy.
Even though they're under lock and key on the
guise of an infestation. Well, there's none here,
right? There's none here, yeah. That's not really
good. Mostly I don't want to say to the president
that you can just turbo into every single room.
Sure, fair. It's like, no. You open that door?
I'll cover you, Dresden. Yeah. You open into
a room filled with... what looks to be like tools
and supplies for the workings of artificery uh
like a lot of metal working tools and objects
there's like there's like these little uh sort
of heat metal platforms one might use to like
try to you know pulled out of this room potentially
to smith objects in some sort it makes metal
way more manageable you see just like bags of
various powders hanging. Actually, there's probably
one bag hanging that has some diamond dust that's
used in a lot of artificery and magical item
creation. If you want to take it, you can claim
300 golds worth of diamond dust. Ooh, yeah, baby.
Let's take that. You're taking your time and
looking through? Yes. You also would see, kind
of in the back, sort of off to one side, almost
like... I think it's almost like a part of the
wall that juts out just a little bit, and you
realize this part of the wall is actually some
kind of, like, case or stand. And it seems to
be almost like a lockbox inbuilt, just like the
dried, hardened mud, like everything, just this
gilded design around the top. You see there is
a slot for a keyhole. Blanche will try it anyways,
even though there's a keyhole. Locked. Can Dresden
roll an investigation? I will say you took your
time to look through the room. No key in this
room. You could try forcing it open if you want
to do something like that. Nah. I really wish
we had detect magic as a cantrip in this party.
You should have picked that. I don't know that
it was on my spell list. David put it on his
spell list. I think, Dresden, it might be smarter
for us to... continue down the hall before we...
Well, that was going to be my next thing. Like,
do we really need to go into every single room?
Probably not every single room. If one is, like,
sitting quite dangerous, like, right at the edge.
Right. I don't think it's... I mean, I think
we can use Akio's advantage at perception at
pretty much every door. Sure. And if we think
it's a dangerous room, maybe we don't go in right
away. Yep. So we start to walk down. Make it
real hard to give me an ending sting on this.
What if we just checked out everything that wasn't
exciting first? I'll think of something. Think
of the fly, David. Okay. Well, Akio goes up to
this door and does his advantage perception.
Eighteen. He looks to you. Stiffens. It's faint.
But magic. In metal. It's same. Perhaps dormant.
Why are we trusting the dog anyway? Perhaps just
pots. Because the dog has advantage, Sean. What
do you think, soldier boy? Fuck. Is it worth
the risk? It might give David a pretty cool ending.
We have to check it. You looking in? Dresden's
looking in. You're looking into an artificery
workshop. You see desks along the end with various
tools of metalwork and sort of inscribing all
set out. Hmm. You see he stiffens his fur, bristles.
Master Blanche! Master Blanche! Look at it! He
moves closer. You see tools are all around it
as if it's been, like, worked on. Someone was
messing with it. You see it's been cut, severed,
metal, broken. You see tools here that must have
severed it. Someone took this arm, this metal
armored arm. Broke it in this room and we're
tinkering with it for some strange reason. But
Blanche, that's not what phases you as you come
closer. As you really take a look at this thing.
No. What bothers you is that you know this arm.
You know this armor. Because it's Ozen's armor.
Oh no. And we'll call it there.