Thank you. Storyteller Orin here. Folks, have
I got a story for y 'all this evening. Word's
just reached us that's on the Citadel of a particularly
exciting incident that occurred on the world
of Sub -Sunko. It seems that during its patrol
in the Valley of Zantini, Luminary Emon Wrath
happened upon a most terrible plot. A couple
from Zing, who I have asked to remain anonymous,
were being harassed by a couple of con artists
on the Densing Road. The couple had been accused
of releasing the stock of pangolins from the
villain's cart and were nearly forced to pay
in full for the loss of the creatures, who were
secretly hiding just off the path, trained to
return to their owners when called. It was then
that M. Rath happened upon the scene. He immediately
saw through the most heinous plot and revealed
the truth to the couple, as well as a few onlookers
that had been traveling to the market. In a rage,
the bandits attacked our hero. Heh, a foolish
move, as you know. Eamon Rath's zebra -blade
techniques made quick work of the villains, as
well as their giant pet pangolin. And while the
bandits were killed in the battle, Eamon Rath
allowed the pangolin to flee, a gesture that
the good folk of Simsonko will certainly appreciate.
In the end, justice was brought to the villains,
and peace to their potential victims, as well
as the poor souls that had to bear witness to
the scene. There's been some speculation that
Amon Arath had assistance in the fight, but I've
been informed that this is simply untrue. What?
I want to leave off with that just to get the
one. We assisted. Oh, did you? Who says we didn't
assist? Apparently not. I don't know. That's
not what the news said. Oh. He took you that
long? Yep. That son of a bitch. Gentlemen, how
you doing? Doing great. Miffed. It's been a long
time. Yeah, you caught me a little off guard
with that one. I'm getting back into it. It's
been a long time. Well, for us, not for the listeners.
For us. It's been a while. We've had a couple
of really relaxing weeks. Really relaxing. Good
times. We all had a great time. You guys had
a great time? I was going to say, screw you.
It was not relaxing or a great time. Absolutely
not. It was terrible. Jeremy and I were down
with COVID. First time we caught it. And it was
miserable. And I was on the couch for five days.
Out of commission. Yeah, totally. 100%. I don't
have to relate. I'm sure everybody knows what
it's like. I mean, I hope they don't. I hope
they don't. I don't wish that on anybody. Yeah.
Nope. Like all I, my only experience as far as
like knowing what you guys went through was being
in a video call with Steven and it sounded like
he was just gargling slugs. It was miserable.
I felt so bad. That was like a weekend. I was
like, I was feeling good at that point. Yeah.
We're after, we're, we're more than two weeks
now. We're like close to three weeks now. Feeling
a lot better. Still got a little tiny bit of
a cough. Sorry if I coughed during the app. That's
the magic of editing. Yeah. I'll try to cough
at convenient times for you. Yeah. Only cough
when I'm embarrassing myself. But here's to being
back in the room. Cheers. How many times did
you squeeze Emin Rath into that? Intro, David.
I think I had to do it three times. It's fun
to say. It is. It's fun to say, and it's stressful
to remember to say it every time. Yeah, a lot
of fun having Stomp. Stomp, if you're listening,
thank you. Oh, such a great time. Such a great
time. Awesome time. Yeah, we'll have him back
someday. Oh, hell yeah. Absolutely. And make
sure to check him out on his podcast. Sounds
like a Search and Rescue podcast. Sounds like
a Search and Rescue podcast. Yes, Slasher. I
could see the look in your eyes. You were like,
wait a minute. I was going to get it. I know.
This is going to take me three tries. That would
be super close on all of them. But I appreciate
it. But, yeah, we'll get him back because, man,
that was some fun energy last time. Yeah, and
all the people who have been following from that
universe, thank you. Welcome. Been seeing a lot
of people following us who also follow Slasher.
So, yeah, Stomp's been plugging us like crazy,
and it's been working. Really appreciate it.
That's what it's all about. You guys all rock.
Yeah, for sure. Thank you much. Well, boy, what
do you guys think? Are we just getting right
into it now? I don't remember how to play. I
know. Which one's this one? That's a... D100.
I can understand looking at some die and being
like, all right, this is an 8 or a 10. I just
picked up a random die and I was like, oh, I'm
just going to be funny. Well. I think it's time
to get right to it because we have not played
in too long. I'm excited. You're excited. I hope
they're excited. Let's do this thing. I want
to start us off somewhere a little weird this
time. I really hope all you listeners do that.
That started in my stomach and worked all the
way up my throat and into my mouth. I don't know.
I'm pretty sure all of us heard that on the headphones.
Steven fed us chili dogs three minutes ago. And
you're going to hate him for that as much as
we are. Yeah. If this mic picked up that stomach
noise like that, that's money well spent right
there. All right. We're going to open this episode
up inside this great open room. Darkness fills
this space. The walls and ceilings of the rooms
are completely enshrouded in black. The only
lights we see come in the form of flickering
candles set in a small circle and giving off
a dim glow of a deep red. And in this light,
we can see three things. First, we see the vague
outlines of massive pillars set near this display,
their heights obscured by the empty dark above.
Second, we can see a floor of ornate stone tiles,
covered in drawn magical symbols and inscriptions.
A pattern encircling the candles and the figure
that rests in their midst. And this is the third
thing we see. A human boy. He looks to be in
his early teens, though tall for his age. We
see sweat beating his forehead. We see his chest
moving with rapid, shaky breaths. We see teeth
gritted, eyes shut. We see Jules LaRoche. What
does Jules look like at 13 years of age, Jeremy?
Not a whole lot different than he does now. Doesn't
have his stylish pompadour just yet. He's basically
got a raggedy, dirty mop head. Bangs in his eyes
a little bit. Ripped up overalls. All right.
All right. Much to the dismay of his family.
When we see this figure, we zoom in on him. Zoom
in on Jules, on his face. And with him, we begin
to hear the whispers. The darkness is alive with
them. Many voices intermingling, flowing around
the room. A cyclone of manic gibberish. And one
voice cuts through the rest like a blade through
soft flesh. A deep, guttural growl, sonorous
and powerful. A king's voice. A monster's voice.
Open your eyes, boy. Look at me. You cannot hide
from me forever. One day you will look at me.
You will look at me. But Jules does not look.
Ever defiant, his eyes remain shut. He holds
himself just like this. He wills away the torrent
of whispers, the monsters in the dark. It isn't
easy. It's never easy. But Jules has had years
of practice. He sweats and breathes and trembles
and waits and waits and waits. And one by one,
the candles fizzle out. The red glow dies and
the voices with it. For a moment, Jules has plunged
into complete darkness. And then we see a crack
of light form somewhere ahead of his body. A
door opening into a brightly lit hall outside
this chamber. And as this radiance fills the
room, we can see walls of beautiful worked stone
and gems wrap around this vast chamber. Empty,
apart from the boy and the candles and rows of
thick pillars running their course down the room.
Two figures stand against the light of the doorway.
A woman and... No, no, only one figure stands
in the light. Only the woman. Yeah. A voice echoes
out from that direction, though. It's not a woman's
voice. Your progeny disappoints. Calypsania will
be expecting more. There's no character to the
voice. There's no... Wait, wait, wait. Was there
a voice? It doesn't matter. The woman moves gracefully
into the room. Her pace is near a glide. Her
steps unnoticeable beneath the hem of her dark
skirts. She is tall and slender, waves of shining
golden hair hang to the sides of her face like
curtains opening onto her cold, piercing eyes.
She is Cerise LaRoche, Queen of Cerule, sovereign
ruler of the world of Tithos. Jules' mother.
Queen Cerise moved up to her son and scowls down
in this prone form. Another failure. Her voice
is cold steel. There's no anger, no disappointment.
And then she speaks a command. A familiar command.
Look at me, Jules. Look at me. I don't wanna.
Why? Have I not given you everything, boy? Is
this such a price to pay? It's too much darkness.
Nothing could be worth that. My child. You don't
understand the darkness. That's why you feel
this way. Tell me. Look around you now at this
room. What do you see? I see nothing but evil.
You don't see it? I'm not playing, Jules. What
do you see? Neither am I. I don't want to do
this no more. You see walls, floors, a ceiling.
You see that you are trapped. When the darkness
falls around you, what do you see? Nothing. No
limits. No borders. You are free in the dark
like you cannot be in the light. There ain't
nothing in the dark. Nothing good. Nothing I
want. Why are you making me do this? Because
I want you to be free, my son. This is a prison!
It's a fucking prison! Very well. You will take
that tone with your mother. Fuck you! I'll never
be what you want me to be. I don't know why you
keep trying. Yes. Of course, because you aren't
good enough, right? Your tutors tell me time
and time again how you fail in every subject.
Even that prized loot I gave you. Your practice
has been subpar, I've heard. Terrible, actually,
was the... Yeah, I don't care about that. Good.
Because I think it's time we take that away.
I wanted you to feel free and happy in some way
so you could understand what that is to lose
in the light. But clearly you don't understand.
It's time I took a different approach to your
education. From henceforth, your loot will be
taken. No. Your tutors will be exchanged for
a harder breed. No, that's mine. That's mine.
You gave it to me. You gave it to me. She like...
crouches down, right down to the floor, right
down to your face. And though you're not looking
at her from the corner of her eye, you can see
the delighted smile crossing her. Her lips curving
up devilishly, and she just says, Oh, my child,
you're right about one thing. You're not free
yet. And until you understand, until you free
us all, you will do everything I say. Yeah, good
luck with that. She stands up, still smiling,
and turns back to the door of the room and just
says, Zavar, light the candles. I think it's
time we try again. No. And she moves away. A
hunchback man in a black cloak moves into the
room. With a new set of candles, he starts laying
down. You're just sitting on the floor watching.
Your mother turns back to you as the candles
light one by one. You will learn, child. You
will open your eyes. Never. And the door closes.
We're back. On some Sunco. There's something
I wanted to do. I want to get into this for every
world. And I didn't do it last time. So I want
to... Stephen's just staring out like... That
was pretty intense. Where are we right now? All
right. We're on some Sunco. And we're going to
know this because I got to do this for every
world. I did this for Tithos and like because
I'm just I'm just a big fan of movies, TV shows,
all that shit. I love camera angles in my brain.
Who doesn't? So we we cut to a scene from there,
basically just like staring down upon this valley,
the jagged mountain peaks surrounding it, this
lush forest. It's a couple farmlands way off
to the sides. A big clearing in the middle. And
a great road journeying from the clearing over
to another smaller clearing. The Concord Gem
Plaza. A good ways away. And we're going to kind
of look down at this scene. Camera sort of panning
around. All this luscious scenery. A title card
appears at the bottom of the screen. The Valley
of Zantini. And beneath that. The Ruby World.
Subsunko. And from there, we move down, down,
down into the forest towards this great road
between these two clearings. And we're almost
to the major clearing here where you see some
hustle and bustle, people putting up tents. We
see it from afar. We're not going to focus on
that because we're going to focus on a couple
of figures moving down this path. And when I
say a couple of figures, I guess I actually mean
more than 20, because there are 18 fucking pangolins
following these two idiots. Wait, weren't there
20? I think it was 20. It was 20, wasn't it?
The number 18 sounds familiar. I thought it was
20. You took one. I took one, Jamal. Was one,
was the 20th the mount, perhaps? In your haste
to escape. You stepped on one of the pangolins.
There's only 18 now. Whoa. I won't do that. That's
too mean. That is dark. One wandered off, you
know, having a good time somewhere. That's darker
than the opening scene that we just did. Nobody
wants to see a dead pangolin. I'm like 85 % sure
that there were 18 pangolins following. This
is vital. vital part of the story, and we need
to make sure we double down on this. I'm not
going to pause the show to check this out, but
you bet your ass we're going to figure this out
right when we're done recording. I want to get
every fucking gold piece. Email Steven with the
answer. So, 20 pangolins. 20 pangolins. Sure.
Alright, here we go. We see Zebulon in the head.
He's still got that feedback going, which is
like almost empty now. So, we actually, we should
talk about sort of sort of scale and where you
guys were at the time so when you had this combat
last session with with stomp uh you were about
one mile into your two and a half mile journey
to the valley uh at this point in time you are
you've been traveling for about a mile and a
half you are almost there almost free of the
forest and into overlooking this this well we'll
see So as you're moving along, your bag feed's
almost empty. You have pangolins crowding in
behind you. We see Zebulon, Chester, Jules, and
we don't see Eminem. About a half mile back,
at one point, mysteriously, you guys felt some
wind on your back, and you turn around, and he
was just gone. Just gone. Just gone. As mysterious
as the wind, that one. He stepped into the woods
to take a bio break. All you heard, like the
last thing you heard, the carry on the wind was
like a brief, and then he was just like, what?
What? He makes goat sounds. Oh, thank God. Oh,
that's right. Jesus. You can't say such a thing
about a man when he's not here to defend himself.
He turned around. He's like, go back there. And
then, it wasn't no more. You don't know where
he went. Where'd he go? I love how with negative
two intelligence, Zebulon mapped it out to perfectly
poke the right -sized hole in this feed bag to
run out a mile and a half later. You got luck.
What can I tell you? It's a lucky guy. Just enough
to barely have some feed going. I don't even
know what pangolins eat. Email Steven with the
answer. So, you guys are... The inbox is going
to be full. Just a few of you are moving up,
and you basically come to the crest of this hill
at the edge of this road here. You don't really
see what's beyond it, beyond just trees, jagged
mountain peaks, the sky above. Right now it's
about 2 .30 in the afternoon, so the sun is looming
high overhead. And as you move over to the top
of this hill, and you see the road kind of moving
downwards into this clearing down below, you
see this, like, massive sight of just like people
uh moving around building tents you hear like
hammers going people are like constructing new
uh new frames for tents and such in different
places and it's it's wild because you know this
happens every night and yeah it seems like as
you're watching you see some tents are already
set up but some are just like taking down stuff
and moving it somewhere else um it's the dancing
market a lot of these a lot of these stalls just
move around sometimes throughout the same night
they move multiple times um You can already,
you can hear, like, vaguely hear, like, chopping
of, like, you know, knives and cutting boards.
I mean, from right here, the acoustics are fantastic.
You're hearing, like, every sound. You're hearing,
like, the old sparks of conversation, people
yelling at other people. It all seems very jovial.
It's jovial yelling. It's just a good old time.
It's, you know, the workers having fun as they're
just getting ready for the night. That sounds
incredibly inefficient. If I was a small business
owner set up at this market and in the middle
of the night they were like, hey, you have to
move your stall because this is the dancing market.
I'd be pissed. And I'd never go back to this
market. It's like the... Do we want to support
this place now? It's like the Mad Hatter. Everyone
just step and doing nice and someone just walks
out. Change places! Just because. Okay, I guess
I don't need business for the next half hour.
I'll just move my whole thing. Dora's just like,
can I have five of them? No, no, no, sir. I have
to change places. Isn't you here? Find me later
if you can. Oh, my God. This is an outrage. Yeah,
it's whimsical. It's fun. Yeah, it's fantasy.
What's up with a fun, whimsical world? So what
do you do? You guys want to move down towards
this, or you want to just head back to... The
Radiant Seydel for some damn reason. Yeah, I
think we should just go back. Yeah, I thought
so. The way you guys... We have nothing else
to see here. Nothing to do. I've got my 20 pangolins.
That's reward enough. You joke, but this is how
every session has been so far. I'll bet you they'll
go for a good price on another world. Yeah, let's
go to... I don't know. Pick a world. David? David.
Where are we going next? Zing. Alright, we're
turning around. We're going to Zing. And we're
going to get rich. Yep. No, Zebulon's scanning,
looking for a stall that might purchase pangolins.
I mean, what am I looking for? Is Zebulon looking
for a zoo? So at this point in time, you wouldn't
really see a whole lot. You're high up and still
kind of a little far off. So you just start moving
down. You have that in mind. You're going to
look for a stall for these pangolins. Yes. All
right. A pet stall. So you're moving down this
way and, like, As you start getting close to
the market, as you're starting to make out figures,
make out faces of people vaguely ahead, you notice
your back feels very light. As you tuck on it,
you realize, well, you do have low intelligence.
Maybe you made that hole just a little too big.
Uh -oh. And you look back at a bunch of, like,
20 sets of beady eyes that are just staring at
you, staring at the empty bag, staring at you.
And then in this, like... torrent this rush they
all just go past you almost tripping you and
just start flooding down into the streets of
the market into the working stalls and you just
hear this uproarious cheer from all these people
as they just seem like this this i mean these
are sacred creatures in this world and suddenly
20 penguins just come charging down into their
setup this is this is an amazing omen you just
hear like ah it's a good omen penguins penguins
from the forest they've come to great houses
those those are you know what You know, I mean,
Zeb, this is quite a way to make an entrance.
Easy come, easy go. I mean, look at it this way.
They're gone, but, I mean, look how many people
just saw that, and you were there. Yeah, a few
workers are looking at you, and they're, like,
cheering you on, just like, the heralds of the
penguins! That's the one. Yeah! I'm sure that
they're all going to find homes with fencing
yards. It's going to be so good for them. And
people are running down, petting them. They're
climbing on people's shoulders. People are feeding
them. It just looks like you just breathe new
life into this day, which is already a very jovial,
happy day. It's a scene. It's a fun scene. And
your pangolin, Jamal, is still tucked on your
shoulder, actually, Jules. Yes. Oh, he's going
to stay there. I'm keeping him. And by the way,
that was a great way to get rid of all the pangolins.
Kudos. Julius, you owe me ten gold for that,
Pangolin. Literally. Ten gold apiece. Literally.
Let me read my notes to you. How about I give
you one cure wounds, and we'll call it square.
Deal. These are my actual sentence and my notes
highlighted right now. Pangolins rush off ahead
to join the cheering, laughing crowd, breaking
Steven's heart. And gaining Zebulon zero gold.
So, not even a lousy butt. All right, I'm going
to toss this up a gold piece. No, no, no, no.
Nah, take it. Oh, as you're watching this scene,
Chester kind of nudges you, Jules, and he's looking
up at the pangolin on your shoulder. He's like,
so, Jules, Ronson's been talking about how she
wanted a pet. Looks like we got her covered,
but... Yeah, we do. We got five more souvenirs
to get, huh? Well... Oh, shit, you're right.
You were thinking about that, right, Jules? Yeah.
Yeah. Tell you what. Yeah. I got your back here.
Okay. You cover everybody else. Okay. And leave
jeans to me. I can take your jeans. All right.
Yeah, yeah. Well, we gotta see what they got
here. I don't even know. I mean, look down there.
It's huge. It must have everything. Yeah, yeah,
you're right. I think they got something. This
campaign is going to be a real expensive video,
Jules. It's very true. But right now, as you
see, I think, do you guys move further down into
the sort of mass of people and the working folk?
Yeah, I'd say so. Keep moving forward. I think
as you kind of move down a few... people, like,
a half -orc and a tunic and a man next to him
sort of break away from the crowd and come, like,
jogging your way. They're smiling and waving.
They definitely have some... They're coming to
you with some intent, and they just, they step
forward, and you kind of put a hand up, like,
hold, travelers, hold. You're off -world, yes?
Yeah. Hey, we gotta say, this, uh, what is this?
Where did all these guys come from? Uh, well,
we decided to bring, uh, some fun and some joy
to Shipchenko to make our appearance on the luminary
scene. Well. What? This is our reveal party.
Just going to put it out there, huh? Well, that's
exciting stuff. You may just be Ria yet, but,
well, I'm afraid it's going to be a little harder
than that to win over a lot of these local folk.
Well, what'll win over the locals? Well, if you
heard of the market games. Yeah, we were hearing
about that on the way here. Yeah, yeah. What's
up with that? Well, next time they come around,
you guys can sign up. Fortunately, I think the
roster's full for tonight, but... Really? Oh,
yeah, yeah. We got a couple groups that already
came in and signed up for it. It's going to be
a big one. It's going to be exciting. Hey, stick
around, watch them, learn a thing or two, watch
some folks become Raya, and you can do the same,
huh? So what's that mean? Yeah, what's... Raya?
Rhea, it's our local term. Coals of the same
fire is the literal meaning. But it's basically,
you're one of us. A lot of our folk here, they'd
love to sponsor upcoming luminaries. Well, that
sounds perfect for us. They've got to be Rhea.
That's sort of the close deal. They've got to
be Rhea. We want folk who earn their way, who
become trusted members of our family here at
Dinsing. All right, well, when is the next Games?
Oh, about a month from now. Oh, shit. Huh. And
23 Pangolins doesn't secure us a spot? It's tough.
A group's already been set up here. Honestly,
a pretty famous former local kind of moved in
and wrote in a group already, so... Who's this
local? Her name's Rune Roussan. Oh. Yeah. Oh,
I see. Could you point us in that direction?
Well, that's going to be right in the center.
When we set up, I think you can make it out here
now. You see where there's a sort of center clearing
there. The tents are staying kind of far from
it. And there's three very large golden tents
there. Mm -hmm. Yeah. That's the game. So when
the time comes, we're all going to move into
the center. There are going to be projectors
showing what's going on inside the tents. Outside,
it's going to be exciting. Oh, you won't believe.
I'm not going to tell you right now. I'll let
you surprise what we've got coming on tonight
for the games. But it's something else. Well,
keep your eyes out. We're actually in Rune's
group. You? Oh, it's you. Oh, it's you. Oh, okay.
They should be expecting us. Uh, I... Yeah. Yeah.
So you're in Rune's... Which group? The former
one or the later one? Yep. Okay. He's right.
We gotta go sign up and figure out... Oh, yep.
Thanks for... Well, here's the thing. We're still
setting up, actually. We don't... Sorry, tourists
can't really come in yet. There's a lot going
on. So, are you like an official of the games?
No, no. I'm just a guy who sets up tents. Hmm,
yeah, yeah. So, if I wanted to speak to somebody
who's... Like an organizer? Deb, he's just doing
his job. Yeah. He's just doing his job. Yeah.
Great, great, great job. The tents look, I mean,
fantastic. I'll tell you what. When we're set
up, head over to Madam Culp's Silk. It's one
of the tents we'll have. Madam Culp tonight is
going to be the main organizer for the event
and actually the host of the third game. Silk?
Madam Culp. Culp. Madam Culp's Silk. She sells
silk. Oh. Yeah. That's a product, not a name.
That's the tent name. Sure. Yes. You got it.
All right. Great. Tent's made of silk? Knowing
her, you'd think so. Her prices. But, hey, it's
a good product. So, I hope you got loaded pockets,
gentlemen. If you do, you're about to have the
night of your lives. But, look, we got to set
up right around 6 o 'clock. The sun sinks. You're
going to see the mountains light up. Have you
seen this before? My fortune. The Laupop flowers?
Never. No, not yet. Oh, so the mountains around
us are loaded with these flowers, these laopop
flowers, and when the sun sets, they begin to
glow. You're going to watch the mountains almost
look like they're catching on fire. And when
that happens, that's the signal for us to light
up our little event here. I mean, you're going
to smell it, you're going to see it, it's going
to blow your minds. That's six. So, do you know
what the games are? Let's just say it's going
to be spicy. and soupy, and maybe even a little
silky. Hmm. That means nothing. I'm sorry. That's
nothing. That's quite confusing. That was a nothing
statement. Anyway, you'll find out. I'm going
to leave. Wait out here. Wait on the hill. I
don't care where you wait, but you got to wait
outside for now. Six o 'clock. All right? Okay.
See you at six. All right. You'll know when to
come. You'll see it. You'll feel it. You can
come on in with everybody else and have the night
of your lives. But I've got to get back to work
because I'm going to get kicked in the butt.
See you later. And he just turns around and runs.
And there's another guy with him that was also
there. Just goes, see you. And runs too. I forgot
there was a guy. Don't give me that look. Was
that important? No. Not even remotely. He was
the bad guy all along. I hope the listeners are
going to enjoy the rest of the episode. Just
us being bored on the outside. Yeah, so everyone
sits down and fiddles his thumbs. Yeah, let's
go have a picnic. You can do that. This is like
Skyrim. You can just set a time here. You can
just, you know, wait. Two and a half hours. Boom.
Oh, this is a two and a half hour episode now.
Okay. It's too bad, Jules, that my hour fortune
kind of skittered away. Yeah? Well, whose fault
was that? Well, I guess I miscalculated the size
of the hole in the feed bag. And they, uh...
It kind of lost interest with me. But, I mean,
to be fair, even if I got them all the way here,
it wouldn't have lasted until 6 o 'clock. That's
a good way of looking at it. That's true. Positivity,
man. All right, all right. I can dig it. Are
there other people out here waiting with us?
Not yet. You guys took a really early gem in,
basically. So, you know, I mentioned the last
episode. Two episodes ago, actually, that there's
a later gem coming in sort of in the evening,
somewhere close to like 4 o 'clock. That would
get here around just after opening. So you said
that there was one road, though, right? Yes,
one road, one main road leading to the dancing
market. And it was a crowded gem that we came
in on. We had to wait in line. So we're the only
ones that have to wait outside? Where did the
rest of the people go? So a lot of them actually
kind of hung out back there before taking their
travel. All the ones that took carts, a lot of
them were merchants that came down here. They
might be actually in there doing some pre -selling
to the market staff beforehand. But they're still
kind of part of the game. But still, so we're
still the only two off -worlders that are not
directly involved in the production of the market?
Hey look around you see like this 13 more people
coming out the trailer. Hey, what's going on?
We're late We had to pee for 20 minutes. All
right, let's go talk to them. It's a little more
realistic. I Mean a crowd definitely begins to
form over there even the merchants that had that
they're selling come stepping out They can't
really hang out forever and people begin to sit
around and like lay out, you know blankets to
like wait on and this is a lot of just like Hanging
out and lazing out on the hill just letting the
Sun beam down everybody, taking in the smells
of the forest and just the buzzing of the cicadas.
It's a good time. Did I say that wrong? You're
giving me a smile. No, no, no, no. All right.
I think that's fine. I think I would say it's
cicada, but I think cicada. Honestly, it sounds
beautiful. Yeah, I kind of like that version.
All right. Are there any cicadas nearby? I mean,
roll a perception check. All right, let me grab
my... What sound do they make? It's so relaxing.
It's better than expected. Time's up by a thousand.
You have the dulcet tones of the Insane Night
Market pre -open. There it is. Alright. So. You
guys are waiting out on this hill, just looking
down upon the market. As time goes by, more people
will join you. Bit by bit, not very many at this
point. After a time, it sort of stalls until
the next gem comes in. But you're watching down,
and you can see as this market starts to take
form. You see hundreds of these temporary stalls
and tents and vendor carts just fill this space.
You see that these shops surround those... Ava
mentioned three great golden tents resting in
a sunken plaza. And as you watch and wait, the
sun begins to sink. The sky burns with an evening
light, and even that fades away. And just around
six o 'clock, darkness overtakes the sky. Stars
light up above. And the mountains begin to glow.
You can see it, like these mountains just covered
in these shimmering lights all around, matching
the stars above, burning and beautiful. And as
you take this in, as the sun dips below the horizon,
the Dinsing Night Market also twinkles to life,
gradually igniting in a dazzling display. and
the smells of food carts filled with potstickers,
coconut desserts, spiced meats, sticky buns,
and more drift amid the bright bouquets of glowing
flowers and magical lights and the shapes of
vendors' wares and whimsical mascots. Crowds
of shoppers wander the stalls, drawn by the colors
and the smells and the music. It's, uh, what's
something else? Man, that's something else. That
sounded so beautiful. Oh, my God. His chest are
reading it all off. It's something else. So while
we've been sitting there, I think Zebulon's been
picking up little plants and some flowers, and
he's just kind of got like a handful of stuff
that he's been inspecting. Trying to find something
to take home with him. I don't think any flowers
are going to make the trip, though, because they're,
you know, perishable. Chester's sort of taking
that in, just like, what are you doing? Well,
I mean, I've never seen anything like this. I
mean, you have money, right? Like, you can just
buy stuff down there. Well, yeah, but, I mean,
look at this, um, look at this bug. Money can't
buy a bug. I mean, it probably can down there.
I mean, I imagine, eh. Hey, you've been quiet
up there, big guy. You all right? Yeah. Yeah.
Just taking it all in. Ever seen anything like
it, Chester? No, not in Tithos. All the people,
all the smiles. The smells. Yeah. Holy shit,
the smells. Oh, yeah. Are any of these flowers,
these, what are they called? The laupop flowers.
Laupop. They'd be farther up on the mountains.
Okay, they're not, like, close enough to... No.
Damn. They'll sell them in the market. Oh, yeah?
You can see some glowing amidst the market. Yeah,
you can see bouquets of them. There he goes.
Oh. Yeah. Look at the flowers. Look at the flowers.
That's so incredible. My God. It's 6 o 'clock.
It's coming alive. Let's go. Oh, my God. Look
at all those lights. You guys ever seen anything
like it? Last one there is a rotten toe. Hey.
Actually, are you sort of like starting to go
and move? Yeah. I think as you do, you hear Chester's
kind of, hey, Jules, as you kind of get up, Jules.
What's up? Speaking of lights, that lute of yours.
Yeah? Well, it's glowing. The fuck? Yeah. It
does that? What the hell? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I forgot
it does that. Totally knew that. Totally knew
that it was going to do that. Yeah, no, no, it's
got a little magic in it. It's nothing like too
powerful, you know. I specifically didn't want,
you know, that much power in something, you know.
Gets in the wrong hands, but, you know, just
something fun, just something flashy. It glows
the color of my moods, you know. Color your moods,
huh? Yeah. Right now it's looking kind of yellow.
What's that mean? Oh, that means I'm happy. Come
to think of it, I've never seen it glow that
color before. Huh. This is bringing something
out, man. This is good. I've been wondering.
I mean, I've heard you strumming it here and
there, tuning it, but can you actually play that
thing? Fuck yeah, I can play it. My parents never
knew. They knew I was good at it, and oh, it
would have been over for me. You hadn't tricked,
huh? Hell yeah. I studied privately, you know,
on my own, taught myself, and got pretty damn
good at it. From, like, way down the trail. Prove
it! Yeah, you know what? Prove it. All right.
No. All right. Let me see if I can even tune
this goddamn thing up. Hold on. It's so old.
Let's see. Nope. That ain't it. Nope. No. That
ain't it. Yeah. Oh, there it is. There it is.
Okay. All right. There it is. No. What about
this one? Let's try this. No. Down. I'm blown
away. I'm blown away right now, Jules. Shut up.
All right. All right. Down. Down. Okay. All right.
All right. Hold on. Let me try one thing here.
Ready? Let's check this. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah.
That was something else. That was a little embarrassing.
Yeah. All right. Hold on. Hold on. I think I
got it. Oh, wait. All right. There we go. I got
it. There's home base. Okay. All right. Let's
try this. That's something. That's notes. Okay.
Whoa. Okay. I think I got it back now. Okay.
I think I got it. All right, I'm starting to
feel it. Are you feeling it, Chester? I'm feeling
something. How about you, Zeb? You feeling it?
I can feel it! I can feel it! All right, that's
what I like to hear. You ready, Chester? I think
so. Let's go! Chester is that when the sun goes
down we get up and we do it all over again because
Jess still got it. Holy shit! Was that you, Josh?
Yeah. Dude, that was so fucking incredible. High
five. Oh my god. Steven's face was exactly what
I imagined it would be. That was wild. That was
wild. Surprise. And it kept getting better and
better. And better. Because I knew that you said
something like, oh yeah, there's a surprise here,
blah, blah, blah, whatnot, this and that. And
I've been in the dark for like three weeks. David
had some inkling, I think, of what was happening.
You knew exactly what was happening. I knew what
was happening. I threw you off. I was the fucking...
And so then you started the tuning, and I was
like, all right, cool. All right, this is fun.
Fun little bit. And then it just, like, exploded
into this incredible epic. Dude, that was epic.
Fellas, cheers to Jeremy. Hell yeah. Amazing.
Hell yeah. So that's what I was doing on that
week off, and then. That's why I couldn't do
anything else because I was very focused. You
did that with COVID? Hyper -focused. It was before
COVID. Oh, my God. Yeah, that's right. It was
the one week before. Oh, man. Wow. Jeremy. Take
these three buttons. Oh, yeah. Three buttons.
I will take three buttons. Well deserved. Well
deserved. This is my jar, right? Yeah. Yeah,
you take the button jar. You take the whole button
jar. You earned it. That was special. That was
special. I hope we see more of those. Wow. I
think so. Aye. I need more of those. I'm a goddamn
bard. We have to have more. We need more of those.
Oh, my gosh. Incredible. Incredible. Wow. How
do we follow that up? Yeah, I know. For real.
I brought chili dogs tonight. I know. I was shitting
my pants the whole time I was singing that. I
guess we're kind of even, right? Oh, man. So,
yeah, the song sort of begins to fade. Zebulon,
you're just frozen in your tracks looking back.
Chester's just staring up. Oh, my gosh. He looks
delighted, astonished. Like, he's blown away.
Just the biggest smile I've ever seen on Chester's
face. His big gap -toothed grin is, like, gleaming
in the lights. And you realize that it's, like,
weirdly quiet. And he looked down, and even down,
like, you know, towards the side in the market
that kind of took this in. You have a crowd of
people just... stopping and gawking um other
folk that were heading into the market on down
the road stop and gawk and like for a moment
here jules you are the center of everyone's attention
i'm gonna i'm gonna pull both zab and chester
in with me and little side hugs so we can all
three bask in everybody's views and as you guys
move in as you're like pulled inside you you
you hear the applause begin just slow clap and
a whistle and then and like they're going wild
and Zebulon this is the first time you've ever
really felt a crowd just it's not even for you
necessarily but but they're aiming towards you
and like you look up at Jules and you're like
bashing in this the light of this and Jules kind
of steps forward a little bit you want us in
the games You want us in the games? You want
us in? All right. What does the crowd say? All
right. Well, you tell them. You tell them you
want us in. All right. And you see people just,
like, start scooting around and moving back into
the market. And soon everything kind of begins
to move again. People are. resuming their activities,
but there's an air of cheeriness in the market
that it's higher than even before. People are
just dancing with their step, and as they move,
you can hear the tune being whistled here and
there, hummed over there. People are singing
the words wrong, because they only heard it once.
They don't quite understand them, so they're
singing the wrong words, but they are in it,
Jules. Me too. That's making my lute glow even
more. It's fucking golden yellow now. Just this
shining yellow. glow coming off of him, moves
towards the market, and we all move inside, and
what do you guys want to do first here? Well,
is there a way that I can gauge whether people
actually were able to get us into the games,
or is that something we're going to have to wait
for? You'll probably need to go to the center
where the tents are. Yeah. Or go talk to Matt
and Colt, one of the two. Can we kind of go back
just a tad and just say that at some point I
talked to somebody or I yelled out our names
to people that were passing by? so that they
know our names, so that they can go and talk
to people. Yeah, I kind of love the idea that
they don't, like, these guys out here, you gotta
put them in the game. The guy with the loot,
the guy with the loot. The loot guy, and the
little dude, and the other littler dude. I'm
just saying that as long as we can say that something
like that happened. Yeah, no, definitely. You
know your descriptions, at least, are out there.
I think it's almost funnier if your names aren't.
I dig it. I dig it. Jules, we gotta go see Madam,
uh, Silk. Madam Silk. Madam Culp, idiot. Uh.
She sells silk. Come on. Keep up. She's not very
polite. Keep up, Zed. She's not very polite.
But, uh, let's go to Cole. Madam Cole. Culp?
C -O -L -P? Yeah, how is it spelled? I don't
know. I'm Jester. I don't spell things. How did
you say Justin you're my sidekick I rely on you
shit like this He's like hey he's probably supposed
to be around how do you spell madam Culp? Oh,
it's okay. You won't be there you go see guys.
He asked people not me Yeah, you did you got
us the answer there you go see well shit. So
Chester. I'm speaking of the sidekick thing Did
you record any of that? Oh shit Jules? I'm sorry.
I didn't record it Can you do it again? Like,
right now? Nah, I'm out of energy. Darn it! Man,
a pool is low. He really had me going. I was
like, oh, shit. I was pulling the fake diamond
out of my fake pocket. All right, so you guys
are moving around to the tents. You're passing
some interesting places. I mean, you're going
around, you see, you know, there's like the Spicy
Brothers stall that has like these neon pepper
signs just hanging up above it. You see Vaz Lucky
Amulets, just like a shop that's like this charms
and curios all lining the shelves. You got like
necklaces hanging all around, like beads, like
almost like a bead curtain around the shop, but
they're all... holding a price tag, and you're
just moving around through all these stalls,
peeking around here and there, smelling the food,
hearing the music, and at one point you turn
a corner and you see a pretty large -looking
tent. Madam Culp's silk. You see basically just
like this tent is lined on the outside with a
bunch of luxurious silk garments kind of hanging
off of various mannequins. And you see there's
a large sort of sign there. It shows actually
some kind of worm, it looks like, lit up in neon
with a spray of neon silk shooting out from it.
And then it's open. Light's on. You guys want
to go in? Yes. As long as there are no stalls
between us and that stall that are selling the
Laopop flowers. Okay. If there are, Zebulon wants
to stop at that one first. I mean, I might even
get in on that, too. Yeah. All right. So you
guys are looking around. And actually, just a
short, a few tents before Madame Culp's, you
do see there is a tent that's purely illuminated
by the Laopop flowers, the bouquets that are
hanging all around it. And just, like, the flowers
are arranged in such a way at the top of the
tent to spell out Fies, P -H -I, Fies Flora.
Jules, the flowers. The flowers. No way. Jules,
Chester, flowers. No way. Let's go. Can we go
before we go to... Let's go take a look. Let's
go take a look. Before we go to Culp's. Yeah.
All right. You go in. You see a brown -skinned
human woman dressed up in just this real, really
overly colorful clothing. There's, like, bits
of Laopop petals sort of woven into the garment,
so her clothes are kind of alive, and she almost
dances and sways up to you and just... Oh my
gosh. Oh my gosh, it's you. You're the singer,
right? The bard from earlier? Oh, yeah. Yeah,
I've been all night. You know, I... Oh, wow.
I hope you come by. And I'm his friend. Yeah,
this is my friend, Zeb. Zebulon Black. And she
looks down and she goes, Oh, hi there, little
Zeb. How much? Do you like flowers, little guy?
Okay, that... I'll even say that's a little insulting.
That's a little insulting. Oh. Just a little
bit. I'm sorry, I, uh... No, it's okay. No, it's
okay. I'm a paying customer. Hey. No, are you
a... I'd like to be. I just assumed you were
a little young. Uh, because you're not a kobold.
You're a half -dragon. I can see that you were...
That's right. How old are you? Well, that's none
of your business now, is it? I'm sorry, little
fella. I didn't mean to be rude. Jules, I'm not
buying any flowers here. How tall is this lady?
I feel like this place has already changed Jules
because he is now feeling sorry for Zebulon and
wants to really just... Come on, dude. He's got
to get a win. Five foot three. Okay. So we're
around the same height. Yeah, but you're a half
dragon. I'm a little shorter. You're a little
half dragon. I mean, you are small for your kind.
Yeah, well, would a little guy carry around swords
like these and armor like this? He points down
to your armor, which is like this oversized leather
armor that looks ridiculous and hilarious on
you. Yeah, but it increases my armor class. Trust
me, this kid ain't no small kid. How about we
leave it at that? He ain't no small kid. Trust
me. Yeah, yeah, don't worry about that. He's
a little testy because he hasn't had a nap this
afternoon. So he's just pushing you away. So
you sell these flowers, huh? Were you talking
to yourself? Yeah. I thought you were going to
swap voices. I thought someone would mercifully
jump in so I wouldn't have to. You just asked
yourself, do you sell these flowers? I was trying
to get things back on the rails, damn it. That
just took them way off. You've punished me too
much. You monsters. Fine, yeah, get out of the
room. It's just me now. I'm going to talk to
me. Zebulon doesn't want to continue this conversation.
Zebulon feels insulted, to say the least. Why,
yes, I do sell these flowers. Are you interested
in the Laopop flowers from the mountains? Why,
yeah, I think we are interested in the Laopop
flowers from the mountains. All we do is... I
was interested in the Laopop flowers from the
mountains. Until you decided to call me a little
guy. All right, how much are they? How much are
they? Well, uh, tell you what. I... Obviously
insulted your friend there, and I really want
to... Well, I was very impressed earlier with
what you did. And also, you're the two that brought
the pangolins in, right? Yeah. At least you mean.
He brought them in. Oh, it was you. Oh, that's
so sweet. I didn't mind Rafi. And she points
down, you see there's a pangolin nestled in a
flower bed. That'll be ten gold. I'm selling
them for ten gold apiece. Zeb. We're getting
places. We're getting places. Tell you what.
I'll give you each a bouquet. for free. A gesture
of goodwill. Are we good? And she reaches way,
way, way, way down to you to shake your hand.
I, Stephen, the player, genuinely need a second
to think about this. Listeners, you can't see
this, but for about the last five minutes, the
player Stephen has been sitting with his elbow
on the table with This biggest excuse me pose.
I am feeling sassy. Very much into it. It's such
a Zebulon pose. You're like truly RPing in posture
right now. You look very pesky. I feel like in
the last 11 episodes, I can pretty quickly decide
how is Zebulon going to react to this. I'm having
a tough time right here. Okay, well, I guess
you don't want to shake hands. She pulls her
hand away. All right, all right. We'll take the
flowers and we'll get out of here. All right,
all right. All right, she gives each of us a
glowing bouquet. Come on, come on, come on. I
hope you have a pleasant evening. Oh, you too,
honey. Yeah. All right, I just pull Zeb and Chester
away. I liked her. Zebulon kicks the tent flap
on his way out. The tent flap. She was nice,
huh, Jules? Yeah, I think so. All right. So we're
on to Granny Silk, huh? Got to get in those games.
Relax, Zebulon. Hold on. You need to... And he's
just... Zebulon's like shaking it off. We're
on to bigger, better things. Let's go have fun.
Let's go have a little fun. Fine. You pull the
angry Zebulon away and move just a few stalls
down to where you see this glowing worm, this
glowing silkworm, over a tent just filled with
just shells and shells and shells and hangers
full of silk garments and curtains and whatever
other luxuries you'd get. Sheets? I don't know.
Does she have a hood and cloak? You do see a
nice hood and cloak. What's your favorite color
hood and cloak? Let's go blue and black. You
see blue and black. Oh, shit. Almost matches
your loot perfectly. It is beautiful. And it's
only 150 gold. Goddamn. Yeah. When Zebulon walks
in, he kind of adjusts his posture, puffs his
chest out, holds his arms out a little bit, puts
his chin up. He's Zeba. Why don't you go find
all those penguins? Well, I think they... pretty
well scattered around the night market here.
I was trying to get some money for one, and you
X -nayed on that. I defused a situation. I did
not feel like that situation was defused! I was
made fun of until we left! Whatever, I'll get
another cloak sometime later. Can I help you,
gentlemen? As you're kind of having this, like,
sort of brief spat uh you say look over and there's
this elderly uh sort of tan skin gnomish woman
uh with her gray hair sort of pulled up in this
almost spirally bun um wearing just a fine silk
garment and she's taking you in with her uh spectacled
eyes silk silk um i do so silk hello madam it's
cold colt hello madam colt yes that is my name
You aren't causing trouble in here, are you?
Are you here to buy or here to lollygag? We're
sent to you actually to see about joining these
games. We're actually here to compete. Oh, and
she takes a look at your loot. I have heard of
you a lot. I'm his friend. I understand you have
a desire to... Enter the games tonight. Yeah,
we were excited to join in. Well, Rune saved
a spot for us. Did he? He saved a spot for you.
That's the reason we're here. She pulls a ledger
out of her pocket. All right. And your names,
then? Trying to remember the Haringon's name
real hard. You know what? It's Ebulon. Oh. Oh.
Oh. And you must be Jules, then. Yeah, that's
me. Actually, yes, yes. I'm so sorry I didn't
realize it was you were the ones Rune had sent,
the first group. I'm going to do a quick aside
to Zeb. We're actually on there. What the fuck?
Well, yeah, he was going to send us here. Remember,
we stole the stuff. Oh, yeah, you're right. I
forget some things in previous episodes sometimes.
Thanks for the reminder. I have a low intelligence,
so I'm just going to pretend that you remember
the whole time. Oh, yeah, I remember. Oh, good.
Yeah, Rune sent this. Yeah, he did. Yeah. It's
weird that you said it that way. So, and she,
like, goes and, like, sort of knocks her up here.
Uh -huh, uh -huh. And you must be one of the
unknown extras that's coming in. And she points
to Chester. Uh, yeah, yeah, that's me. I'm Chester.
All right, Chester. I'll put your name down.
And the other? Has the... Is supposed to be a
team of four? Is on his way. Has the second group
arrived yet? Oh, no, not that I've seen. No,
no. Were there? I'm so embarrassed. I forgot.
I forgot the guy's name. What was it? Something
with a G or a J. Can you remind me? She gives
you this kind of like shrewd smile and says,
I'm not going to give you information on your
competition tonight, if that's what you're asking.
Well, I mean, they're... Friends of Rune's, aren't
they? The second group? I suppose. It is strange.
I don't know why Rune sent two different groups
to compete. You were scheduled some time ago,
but more recently he... Well, he paid quite a
fine to get a second group in last minute as
a competition. It's not normally done, but...
You must understand that it's going to be really
embarrassing when we see them again and we have
to say, Oh, hey, buddy. Hey. Friends? How's life?
How's your wife? I don't even remember their
names. It's gonna get real awkward real fast.
I'm just asking for a little help. Roll persuasion.
Ooh. Eight. A little help indeed. You will see
them when the time comes. I'm sure you'll find
them around. They are, uh... Well, a few of them
are quite famous. You'll know them by reputation,
but I still think I should keep my lips sealed
on the matter as the coordinator for the event.
You understand? This is very honorable of you.
Yes, it is. Are you going to buy anything? I
don't think we can afford anything. Her eyes
are kind of narrow. Do you have any keychains?
Little odd for a room to send you with no money
to the market. Rune's... Have you met Rune? Well,
he grew up here. He was a boy in the market.
I knew him as a child. Did you know him as a
cheapskate? You, she narrows her hours deeply.
I'd watch your tongue, half -dragon. Insulting
our family is no way to become rare in the market.
It's just our relationship, you know, we're jokers.
He... He calls me little guy. I call him cheapskate.
Big laughs. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. She's writing
something down in her notebook. Well, the games
are at 9, as you must know, in the center of
the center stalls. So if you would come down,
maybe at 8 .30, and we could get you prepped
up and ready. It's going to be a very large public
event. Quite the spectacle. You want to be on
your game for it. Game, right. And how... How
exactly should we prepare for? Well, just be
ready to wow the crowd. Whatever you need to
do. Look the part. And she kind of glances at
you, Jules. I mean, you're looking pretty ratty.
And kind of gives you like an eyebrow raise and
looks at Chester and gives him a double eyebrow
raise. Don't look at me. You got all this stuff
here, but the price is too damn high. What do
you expect me to do? Well. You got any seconds
that you sell at a discounted price? Something
that, I don't know, maybe the manufacturing wasn't
perfect. Yeah, where's the equivalent of a fantasy
thrift shop? She actually does kind of gesture,
well, if you go to the polar opposite side of
the market from here, you'll come across crazy
doona downs, cloaks, capes, and curtains. Cheap
and chipper. I hate the name. So when you're
getting insulted, we just leave. But when I'm
getting insulted, you and Chester really like
the lady, huh? I mean, we can... Do you like
her? I don't think she likes me, so... Thank
you for your hospitality. I'll be seeing you
later for the competition. 8 .30. I think you'll
particularly enjoy the third game, as it is mine
in creation. And it's a secret? Oh, yes. Okay.
See you there. We're going to go somewhere else.
And you guys leave the store? Yep. All right.
So you guys step out of the stall. You go back
into the hustle and bustle outside. As time's
been moving, I mean, like, this place is getting
more and more packed and crowded. You see more
pangolins running across the path and people
just, like, cheering every time. It's become
almost a game to just, like, see how many pangolins
you can count as they... as they wander around
the market. You actually do see, as you're leaving
Madame Culp's, you saw, like, in the corner,
there was one pangolin all nestled into a nest
of silk garments that just kind of, like, tore
off the wall and turned into something right
out of her sight line. He's chewing it up to
make a little nest. Yeah, he's... As pangolins
maybe do, who knows? Mysterious creatures. Science
has yet to discover. Nobody knows anything about
them. There's one panglologist listening to this.
It's just like, actually, oh, I ought to. Pangolins
roost in trees. Pangolins hang upside down like
possums. And bats. Yeah, and bats. I thought
you were going to go bats first. So pangolin
guano is very valuable. So you guys are... There
you go. We can make money then. Yeah. We could.
That's the real farm. No, I got it tomorrow.
We got endless amounts of money. So you guys
start moving away and you're walking down the
market square. Turn around a corner and faintly
from somewhere in the distance you just kind
of hear some kind of uproar. Just like... I told
you this is no way to sell seafood. If you knew
who I was and who my father was, you would understand
that I truly can claim the title of Prince of
Seafood. Thank you very much. And you know, and
just like you're screaming and you hear echoing
over from there. You just hear like, no, you
have a good night, madam. In fact, have a bad
night. I hope you slip on a fish and die. Who
comes up with that stuff? You hear, like, people,
ow, oh, ah. It's like a figure's pushing through
a crowd. You see a group of people close to you,
so they just get, like, pushed, you know, split
inside. So that's how it's here. It's Cleft and
Twain. Give me a second. Wait, what? That's what
you were trying to say? You see a group of people
gets pushed apart. There we go. This is Tortle.
I didn't really describe this guy. Let me actually
go a little into detail about him. You see this
turtle with vibrant green scales decorated with
flecks of yellow along his face and down the
back of his neck. You see there's a banner kind
of hanging off of his spear, actually. Like,
he's got this full metal spear and the turtle
tip of it has a banner hanging off of it. You
see it's a banner of a golden... It basically
kind of looks like these golden waves under a
red sky with a black silhouette of a leaping
fish. You see he's wearing this, like, red trousers
and, like, these red gold -trimmed sleeves that
are kind of connected by these, like, golden
chains, but no actual, like, clothing because,
you know, the shell sort of provides his main
armor. So just kind of whatever he can do to
cover his, you know, whatever's not covered by
the scales and armor already. As this turtle
pushes his way through the crowd and his sort
of blue eyes take you in, they narrow, and he
just smiles this haughty, confident smile, sort
of plunges his spear into the dirt, looking you
guys over and says, well, well, well, look what
we have here. And we'll call it there.