Songwoven presents The Lanaya Expedition, a level-up, advanced fifth edition, actual play campaign.
Episode 27, Half Pace.
You can catch us live every Sunday at 8pm EST on twitch.tv slash Songwoven Show,
or watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube.
Thanks for listening.
And welcome back, oh my goodness, it's January, aka it's a new year!
Woo!
Happy New Year!
Let's go!
2024.
2024!
We are now dated this episode.
But Songwoven is timeless.
Maybe.
Potentially, question mark.
Hopefully.
And of course, raining in the new year, we have myself, the trend, and of course, the
people I'm being joined with, say hello Motley Adventurers!
Hello, Motley Adventurers!
We've been doing a lot of Blackguards stuff.
Blackguards recap.
Our minds been super hard on Blackguards, and you guys will find out why really soon.
But yeah, the first Songwoven of 2024, how's everyone feeling?
I'm gonna take notes, that's my New Year's resolution with JT's notebook, so that Jenny's
not the only note taker in the group.
Double notes.
Now we can cross reference, double notes.
I did not take very many notes last game, like look at this, that was last game, this
was trauma.
The notes were pain, pain and internal monologue of why, god, why.
People wrote words.
When we are living in negative degrees times half of us.
Yep.
Jenny and I are in the negatives, temperature wise.
Which is terrifying.
Luckily, Tim's got power back though this time.
Yeah.
Missed out last week, guys, because my power's been out for a whole day.
The day before, they've been working on it for a while, they closed down the streets.
In Philly we got one way streets, so it gets pretty packed.
They closed down the streets, and after a few hours before the show, they came up basically
to my door and they said, yeah, we gotta come back tomorrow.
I'm like, oh you gotta come back tomorrow?
It's like four o'clock.
No.
So yeah, had a whole night, cut it up with the dog, and waited for a whole day for the
power to come back.
You snuggled for warmth.
Couple of announcements.
So this is gonna be the only Song Wolven of January because your boy is gonna have a little
bit of how we say it, how do they say it in the Barbie world?
Of vacation?
Of a stay away?
In the Barbie world?
In the Barbie world, you know?
Barbies love vacation.
She's made of plastic, it's fantastic.
Vacation, Ken.
That's all I know.
But yeah, this is gonna be the only Song Wolven of January, and I believe it's gonna be during
the first few weeks of February will be dedicated to Vietnamese Tut.
It's T-E-Tay, but we call it Tut.
It is a lot of cool facts about this holiday.
Basically our Christmas, where we all give, where kids are given money in red envelopes.
However, unfortunately, I have fallen out of that range now.
So now I have to be giving.
You just tell all the kids, this is your future, by the way.
You're gonna have to...
Enjoy the money while you...
Enjoy it while it lasts, Ken.
It comes with a note.
Put this in a 401.
Everyone's M-O-1 shot.
We'll wait, we'll wait.
We need to recover from the last one.
I need like another 11 months to get rid of that trauma before we can do another one.
11 months is the perfect timing for that.
It is!
I'm back for Christmas next year!
Oh, Christmas part two.
When the wound heals, there you go.
You know, the axe forgets, but the tree remembers.
So the axe forgets, but Jeff's neck would remember.
Yeah.
And you're gonna forever remember that murder for your entire...
You're gonna be tonguing it up with your new groove.
Valentine's Day horror episode?
We just go horrify every...
Every cheerful holiday except Halloween.
Halloween is actually like very sweet.
Yeah.
Also a Halloween romance game.
That'd be cute.
That'd actually be adorable.
I'll do it.
Corpse Bride.
I don't know what I just said, but I've heard of that from somewhere.
Corpse Bride.
We'll be back though after Tim takes a much needed break to also see Jenny.
Yeah.
I'm going to see Jenny and I'm going to brutalize her depth perception of gravity.
Take that what you will.
What?
Nobody knows what that means.
Yeah.
Don't just stop.
Explaining it's probably not going to help, so just move on.
No, the explanation is that one time on Animal Crossing, I made my passport name Untossable
Brute, and he just finds that very offensive because he thinks I should be tossable, but
the truth is he can't toss me because he's too ticklish.
Why did I know that was going?
And if I tickle him, then he can't toss me.
So I'm an Untossable Brute.
I don't like that.
And Jenny is not a tosser.
I'm a big tosser.
All right.
And I promise you, I'm swearing to you right now, unto my entire future, by all divine
bloodlines, that there will be a day where you forget gravity.
Now I have to train to toss everyone here.
So for our first in-person session, I will toss every player.
Once again, the group impulse control here stepping in.
No.
How about no?
I just imagine Emma at the gym thinking, yeah, I'm going to be ready.
I'm going to go, here's Tim.
Take this, Tim.
And here's Tim.
Take this.
And here's Tim.
Take this.
And here's Tim.
Take this.
And here's Tim.
I'll be ready.
I'll see you try, Emma.
Yeah, but if we stand on each other's shoulders, you're a shorter bitch.
Are we going to be three kobolds in a coat?
Yeah.
The taller they are, the easier they are to topple over 10.
Anyway, with some 1v1 combat in real life.
Yeah, we'll lose.
The next one stream is going to be a judo contest between all of us for some reason.
That's the weird variety stream that we have.
The TTRPG stream where the players fight each other in the judo contest.
Yeah, that's why I was laughing so much.
He's a tosser.
A stupid or unpleasant person.
Yeah, I'm a tosser.
No, I said you're not a tosser.
No, I am a tosser. I toss people.
But you're not a tosser.
I'm very tosser.
Because you're not stupid and you are pleasant.
I agree with both statements.
I could toss.
Pleasantly.
This is what I deal with in the call before stream.
I hope you're aware.
It's pretty calm before the stream and then we get super amped.
As soon as we have minutes before we go live, the three of you just go feral.
Our conversation develops by the point when we're about to go live and then we're deep in conversation when we have to be like, OK, cut it off.
Well, a new potential game ideas were brought up.
And of course, I go into character creation mode, a.k.a. what's going to make JT cry the most when he's the mod.
We should do that as a theme for a game.
Oh, yeah.
We should all play what will make JT cry the most.
Good morning, Polar Knights.
It's really early for you.
Good morning.
By the way, I got to talk about my dream last night before we continue.
So for some reason, me and me and Jenny were like exploring like an underground ruin.
And like I had like we I had like an Indiana Jones hat on and she was like she also had like the same get up.
And we were like, OK, we're archaeologists.
And so that's the vibe I got.
It was like Uncharted.
And we we went in and then like a stone had talked to us.
We were approaching a door and it was like it was like one one guard always tells the truth and one guard always tells a lie.
And then like I I Googled the answer like on my phone during that as I was.
All right. We just got to go up and we just got to we just ask him this.
And so me and Jenny went up and it was the two guards were our friend Brandon from Brandon.
And it was you, Emma. You were one of the guards.
And we walked up getting already.
And then Brandon just goes, you have arrived.
And then Emma just goes, no, you didn't.
That checks out though.
That checks out though. Let's be honest with ourselves.
Let's all have fun dreams. I dream about work.
Oh, yeah, I am a playing a member of the groving card.
It's in character for me.
Thank you for waking up at two in the morning.
Thank you so much.
Like I guess we'll have a special screen screening for Polar one day.
I won't be up in a special screen for you.
We do. We do keep our vods up. Then you don't get to talk to us, which.
And we do have everything on YouTube, too. But then again, you don't get to talk to us.
So we got a random middle of the day stream.
So we got a stream like two p.m. Eastern time for you to watch us at eight p.m. your time.
I think. Is it six hours ahead? Is that how it goes?
I believe so. It's two a.m. right now.
So yeah, six hours. Yeah, six hours.
All right. Well, with all of that said, back to the journey,
he post is the recap in anticipation for my next thing.
Why don't we go ahead and give a recap of what happened last session?
Drama. Betrayal, betrayal, betrayal, betrayal, total trauma.
So what we were expecting, what we expected was a nice little planning session
that we could all the players could plan so that we could go into the city
to free the potential children at the theater.
But excuse me, more importantly, get the moon shards from the what was it called?
The wizard's refractory tower.
The place where the orbit of the arcane ambit. See, now I take notes and it's all changing.
So we that was the intention going into that episode was, OK, we're going to rest.
We're going to plan and we're going to find our way to get to the arcane ambit
to make sure that we can get the moon shards and stop the red moon
so that the venator doesn't wipe us, our corpses on the floor.
That didn't happen at all.
It was supposed to be a chill session.
It all, it all, it all went down south so quick.
I don't even know where to start.
Stop dancing.
So what happened is we were not allowed to listen while Kari confronted Dalmar
and was like, hey, if you help me take the moon shards, I can help with your magic sensitivity.
And Dalmar was like, fuck you.
And she was like, OK, wipes his memory.
Also, and then she went and we didn't know this at the time, but she went and got revenge
by killing Luan, the potion maker, good friend of Dalmar.
Also, Jenny and I weren't able to hear the conversation.
So we had no idea what was going on.
You were muted in stream and didn't know what was happening.
We had no idea. And Chat was sworn to secret, see, they did a good job.
And then after that, we've left off before with Delmyra as Cecilia's older sister, Delmyra,
an adventurer, had a natural projection of herself in Cecilia's tent.
And Cecilia and her were catching up a bit.
And Delmyra was like, hey, I can help you for like 24 hours, basically.
And you know, it seems like you're actually doing a pretty good job.
And so then I did the rest of my sleep.
And when we woke up, Jean-Claude sees that Delmyra is getting attacked by gargoyles,
which he doesn't know it's Delmyra yet because he doesn't know what she looks like.
And so he rushes in to help, finds out this is Delmyra.
And we all rush out eventually to help fight off the gargoyles.
And then Cecilia goes unconscious from a hit, I think a critical hit.
I don't remember really, a pretty good hit.
Because they all seem to be going for Delmyra and Cecilia specifically.
And then Kari walks up.
And when Jean-Claude tries to heal Cecilia, she prevents the healing with her reaction.
And declares that she's going to kill us in the name of Char.
You know, the enemy of me and my sister's goddess, Saloon.
So not good.
And so her and Dan-Laurent attack us.
And she nearly disintegrates Jean-Claude.
He barely succeeds with disadvantage.
The saving throw, which was really high.
And he has very unlikely to succeed.
It would have instantly killed him had it worked.
Back up character.
Yeah.
But so we have to fight them.
Kari seems to start having some sort of reaction to the magic since she does react to magic.
Well she got the moonshards too.
She got the moonshards for a second. Jean-Claude managed to get them back though.
And I think that's when she tried to disintegrate him.
So she starts having these reactions to magic and stuff like that.
And she seems to be taking more damage.
So we just focus her.
And when she gets low enough, a contingency spell goes off and her and Dan-Laurent teleport away.
And Dan-Laurent seems to be...
Dan-Laurent seems to be...
Yeah, like he doesn't really have much of a choice.
In doing this, he didn't seem happy to fight us.
But he had to and he's really strong.
And yeah, we barely were okay there.
Then that's when we found out Luan was dead.
Double crit that helped us out again.
Yeah, he rolled with advantage and got two natural 20s.
So we used our special roll.
And that's how we survived.
And here on Song of Women, we honor that shit.
And the damage was all doubled because she was taking double damage anyway.
So it was doubled three times.
Yep.
So it was a lot of damage.
She lost her arm, I think.
Ha ha!
And it was...
Leaky words of, know my pain, know my suffering were used when he cut it off.
And that's when the gargoyle started to dissipate.
We realized she'd sent the gargoyles.
I had healed her the previous day after she was tired from sending gargoyles on us the first time.
Never doing that again.
So that's fun.
No more healing innocent people.
They're all traitors!
Dragmire, please stop.
Oh!
No.
Wait, what did he say?
Was there a caretening will?
Ha ha ha!
Listen...
I wish.
Well, and then after that, I think all of the players slash characters just combusted.
At least mine did.
We found out Luan died.
And it's been longer than a minute so Cecilia can't resurrect her.
But we have more diamonds than just the one.
And so Delmyra was able to expend some of her power to be able to resurrect her.
Because Delmyra is a celestial warlock and has access to some resurrection spells as well.
And she's significantly higher level than us.
But she's feeling pretty rough because she's definitely overexerted herself as well.
We kind of argued for a bit.
Jean-Claude had tried to sacrifice himself for us to get out.
But then we didn't have to do that.
So he was upset about that.
But he went to go reconvene with.
I also smacked, or Jean-Claude smacked Delmar.
Because yet again, unfortunately, we didn't know what was going on.
And all we knew was that Kari and Delmar were like,
You shouldn't have done that! You should have done that!
And all that the players and characters saw was you, you, you.
And they were like, the fuck?
At the very end of the fight, he remembered what happened.
But it's sad.
And then Delmar is like, I'm going to earn my name back.
Like, very, very harrow, hero's journey moment.
But then, yeah, Jean-Claude snapped at Cecilia, which was not a good thing.
But yeah, that was a good point though.
It's like, Kari had modified Delmar's memories of when she confronted him.
So he would have known that she was suspicious, but he forgot.
She made him forget.
And he remembered after we defeated her.
It all came back to him.
And so we were suspicious of him about, like, if you knew, why didn't you do anything?
And he had to explain to us.
I didn't remember.
And then Jean-Claude received a premonition from Sylvie telling him that he needs to live.
Yeah.
He can't just sacrifice himself.
He can't keep sacrificing himself.
You gotta live. Come on.
Gotta live.
Cecilia got ranked around though because she got Jean-Claude coming at her from one angle,
saying, you need to take this more seriously.
No, he didn't snap her neck.
No, I read that in chat.
That's my worst nightmare.
No.
Jean-Claude was like, basically, cornered Cecilia and was like, you need to, like, when I give you an order,
you need to move and you need to go and like, what's going to happen if you're not there to take care of the moon charge?
You can't die. This is our mission. Blah, blah, blah.
And then right after that, we've got Delmyra who's like, Cecilia, I've got this. You go sit down. I can handle this.
So poor Cecilia is getting dragged all over the place.
Delmyra doesn't believe in Cecilia's ability to do this anymore.
But she did so good. It wasn't her fault.
So we have a lot of feelings.
To be fair, Delmyra got paralyzed really early in combat and I had to use my whole turn to rescue her.
So she can't really be judging me for going unconscious either.
So.
But yeah.
That recap is as much for us as for everyone else.
That was for us, guys.
It's been a bit for us to emotionally get back into, ah, yes.
Normally, I think we're out for a way. I think we're away for a while. We come back with high energy.
Like, yay, adventure!
Well, after the last sessions we've had, no.
There is no high energy.
The thing, I don't, yeah, I don't know if it's not. I think it's high. I think it's dread.
In a great way, in a grand way.
Yeah, dread. That's pretty good work.
In a very good way. Everything's fine.
All right.
With all of that said.
Are we ready for some D&D?
Let's go, baby.
Level up. A5E. Level up. A5E.
Level up. A5E.
I will not keep the beard. My face or hair grows in very patchy.
This is the only time it looks good.
We're going to live off that.
Delmyra.
Oh my wife says we level up.
No, you didn't.
I know.
No, you didn't.
There was that coupon on Twitter.
Two people sent me that.
A level up coupon?
Yeah, someone posted on Christmas, present this to your DM for a free level up.
And I saw Timmy liked the post. So.
He knows.
All right. Everyone.
Delmyra.
Hey, Mary.
They don't usually do that.
I got me pretty good.
Delmyra. The.
The darkness in your room is palpable.
The utter chill you feel throughout your body, you are quaking.
It's been.
What?
Weeks, months, you're not sure.
Time gets lost when the only thing that occupies your mind.
Are the events that just transpired.
There's a knock on the door.
Yeah.
My boy.
You hear your uncle.
Can I talk to you?
You know, you shouldn't be associating with me right now.
Please let me in.
Do what you want.
Your uncle opens the door.
And when where you're typically met with, especially his past few moments.
Scorn or.
Being looked down upon.
This is the first time you've seen your uncle who had come came back from his trip.
Still his pack on and everything as he just places it in a doorway.
He looks at you.
Mouth agape.
A small gasp.
Use your form.
A lot. You are a lot less unpolished.
Than you were before.
He walks up to you.
And he just goes.
Yeah.
Can you tell me what happened?
And we cut back.
Inside.
Of this cave.
It's been it's been weeks down here.
As you toil the way at the rocks with the even crest family.
It's all part of your trial.
Part of you.
Part of your.
Part of your demonstration of your abilities.
Your proof that one day you can lead set Golden Rock.
And I like the whispers.
You have made fantastic progress.
Laying laying down the works.
You are as organized as they come as skilled as learned.
As any Golden Rock worth their weight.
Tending to multiple I or I or veins a very precious material especially one that the royal family.
The royal family definitely prizes.
They have anti I or the material a very rare material.
Not typically found in these mountains.
They have anti magical properties.
You struck gold no even better you struck I or.
No doubt there is a cause for celebration in the past few days were spent chasing down that chasing that the thrill chasing all the veins and finding more and more but it's getting harder and harder every day.
There's a saying in set Golden Rock.
It's your mantra actually.
Bolder than the last.
Going deeper and deeper following where following where these following where these veins go.
No typical person no no sane adventure no no person who would have any concern for themselves would die further down in the deep cold in the damp.
But you're a Golden Rock.
You have to.
There comes a point as you are inside of this cavern exploring exploring its ranks fitting through multiple.
Says multiple points of anxiety having to squeeze through having to squeeze through rocks that that are very very few inches in between but just enough for you to fit your neck through squeeze on squeeze on through.
The even crest family, the father is more motivated but the others are less experienced, especially the youngest son.
But nonetheless, he comes through.
As you.
As you squeeze through this choke point.
Being introduced being introduced to a cacophony of cacophony of bats chirping in the distance.
Typically, you are greeted with the sight of pure, complete, utter darkness, which for you isn't too bad, knowing these knowing the darkness.
But something catches your eyes right away, because you are very sure that this is unexplored territory.
A vein.
A small streak.
It looks much like a rope.
Or a worm.
It glows and iridescent glow in the distance.
It is not a torch.
Fire.
Nothing to help someone see.
And as you kind of like touch your head to get a better look at it, making your way closer.
There is this irrevocably undeniable charged feeling in the air.
There is a feeling that swells in your heart.
It could be excitement.
But you're not one to get excited at the unknown nor does anyone really.
A voice calls out to you from behind.
Wait, sir.
Um, you look to see Malcolm even grasp the youngest son.
I'm not, uh, I'm not sure about this.
I know it's your first time, Malcolm.
I was nervous during mine as well.
You'll be fine.
Do you even, do you know what that is?
It doesn't look like any ore or rock vein I've seen before, but if it's something new,
the benefits for everyone here would be priceless.
Um, Gullge's the father.
He goes,
Sir Golden Rock.
Yes. May I have the honor?
Of Malcolm. It's his first trip.
Let's have the young one do the honors.
Oh no.
Gullge's he smiles widely at that because he likes that a lot more.
Um, God just looks to Malcolm.
You see Malcolm takes a sharp breath at your suggestion.
And Gall just goes, Look at you.
You're about to just right before you hit your maturity, you're gonna, you're gonna do something that no one of your age ever does.
Come on, go ahead.
I'm, uh, with you, Malcolm.
Okay.
Um, sure.
Just, um, you promise you're going to be behind me?
I promise.
I'll be right behind you.
And he'll place his left hand on Malcolm's back as a reassuring gesture.
He walks forward.
It's a slow track.
You Golden Rocks have your safety.
Never take one full step forward than the other when you're traveling in dark places.
Half pace, half pace, half pace.
As you get closer, you begin to hear,
you begin to hear things that you believe to be voices whispers.
No.
That could be, that could be the family behind you.
They are, they do talk amongst themselves a lot.
A powerful feeling swells in your chest.
As you inch forward,
Malcolm holds the pickaxe in his hand.
You see the light of the ore illuminate his face.
Wide open awe.
He just raises his peck at Crystal with both hands.
Adios.
Alright.
You ready?
Swing true and hard.
Thank you, Mr. Golden Rock, for this opportunity.
He winds back and he swings.
Sediment falls.
The crack widens a bit.
He swings true.
He's young.
He's young, but he's got good form.
The reoccurring thought you've had of this young man was that he had a bright future ahead of him.
And he swings again.
And again, and again, and again.
The crack, the crack widening.
The ore, the sediment of the ore falling off, it begins to grow more brilliant and bright.
It's like a, it's like a neon sort of like rainbow sort of like iridescent glow.
And then you see the colors inside begin to swell and begin to grow more erratic.
And with the next swing,
sound in the cave, all the ambiance becomes swallowed.
You feel the breath in your lungs leave.
You blink to see in front of you a large sediment.
Everything has blasted off of the wall.
A huge shockwave has taken over the room.
Your ears have become completely sunken in.
You have become deaf.
But despite the shockwave, despite this huge force blasting away from you, you are, you are still where you are.
As you look in front of you,
you see Malcolm pickaxe in hand attached to the, attached to the vein.
His pickaxe has been overcome with this absorbing light that traverses the pickaxe up the handle and has crept over his body.
You feel him, his shoulders tense as he's trying to yank himself away.
And he can't, the look of utter distress on his face, his mouth moving.
He's screaming.
Eventually, sound comes back to your ears.
There is this, there is this law, there is this loud,
it says loud static like sound emitting from the cracks as you see the cracks in the walls begin to grow wider, wider, wider.
As it continues, as it continues to exert energy blasting away, but you saying perfectly still,
you hear Malcolm.
Malcolm!
You hear him.
Say in his own voice, his voice becoming, his voice becoming distorted.
Just, Malcolm, get away from it!
Mo, coming from him again.
As you see the, as you see the lights begin to creep over his face, reaching his eyes, creeping into his ears.
He just go, he just goes,
How about help? Help, please.
Am I able to move at all?
You would be.
Your right hand moves.
He's going to try and pull Malcolm back, have him let go of the pickaxe, try and throw him behind.
Something to just get him away.
His, you hear as the struggles continue, his, his body, his voice, continues to say, Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm!
In all sort of different tones and inflections coming out of him.
And as you're desperately trying to pull and yank him away, the light that creeps over his body,
it snatches on to your left arm.
And then to your right.
As you are, as this, as this light touches you,
your memories begin to play directly in front of your eyes.
You see your birth. You see the first time you swung a pickaxe. You see your father lifting you, lifting you up and laughing, seeing his baby being born.
You see your uncle doing the same. Every trick your uncle has played on you.
Every time you've played on the, every time you've played with your fellow, with your fellow set members.
Every drink you've had, every food you've ate. Everything that has made Dalmar, Dalmar.
Plays in front of you in a flash.
And you hear mine.
You open your eyes again.
Unable to move your left, your left arm freed, but your right arm still holding on.
Completely enveloped in the in this light. You hear from behind.
You have your behind this Dalmar. That's my son.
Please.
And you look ahead of you, unable to discern what's going on as he has been completely enveloped in this light.
And then, before you know it, this force swells inside of your right arm. You feel muscle tear.
You see your arm begin to expand.
And then pain.
Complete, utter pain.
An explosion rocks you.
Keeps you out of your senses. You are flung off of the ground.
The next moment you remember waking up.
As you blink awake, surrounded by fallen rocks, miraculously by all accounts, you should be dead.
One of these fallen rocks should have fallen on you.
As you get up, a slow, stinging pain is felt where your right arm once were.
A stinging pain that turns into full, on, visceral pain.
As you let out a shout.
A voice from beyond where the rockstar calls out.
Someone there.
Maverick the Mother.
And I never crossed that U.
I can't see.
Where are my sons?
I don't know.
Please find my sons. I can't feel my legs.
You get up. Despite everything, your legs are so weak, your body is torn asunder, and there is something inside of you that sizzles, it cracks.
As you place a hand on top of a boulder to steady yourself, electricity pulsates from your hand, and it streaks along the boulder.
It surprises you, it gives you a jump, but the light from the lightning gives you a sight of one of the sons. It illuminates his face for a bright moment.
His mouth agape, eyes open looking at you. Dead.
Another one. Another one.
You saw where Malcolm once stood.
Blood splattered across the walls.
His father dead.
Where he stood.
I can't see.
Madam, I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
No.
You hear something light hit the ground.
Lightning slowly creeps out of the pores of your fingers, out of your chest.
It creeps behind your eyes.
It dances along the surface of your eyeballs.
And that's where everything goes black.
Damar, you are listening to the sounds of Luanne's steady breaths, sitting in the tent next to her.
She's alive. And it's her.
You look longingly at the, at your arm that you have now. A gift from a new companion at the time.
You can't just help but remember.
If you want.
Do you want to?
Do you want to monologue what Damar is thinking right now?
He's...
The easiest way to say it, and probably the nicest way to say it, is troubled mentally right now.
With seeing another person he had been trusted with dying in his care because he wasn't there, wasn't able to stop something.
It very nearly broke him.
But she's not dead.
She can heal both hands. Just grab one of hers, just grasp it.
Just like put his head against it and just under his breath mutter just endless prayers to any god who will listen.
Trying to atone for constant, constant pain brought to those he finds himself close to.
One day someone has to listen.
He's already cursed. What's the worst that could happen?
Jean Claude.
No!
Just the worst that could happen.
Nooooooooo!
I meant that as a transition into Jean Claude.
Nooooooooo!
It is I your god! You have prayed and I have answered.
Jean Claude.
Your oath, seemingly in your inner turmoil, has sought you out and
seemingly missed you something. It didn't explicitly told you.
But it's something you extrapolated from the hope.
From the bright colors and the hope that swells inside.
The growing of the brambles around you.
Jean Claude.
You are the seeker.
You must live.
Now, in this part of the forest out here, where the moon shines bright with crimson red,
I've already, before I've asked you how you were feeling. How Jean Claude was feeling.
Are you going to go back to camp now?
Yeah. I think he's gotta wipe any sign of tears away.
I didn't just cry in the forest by myself.
As you wipe the tears away, you begin to trek back towards camp.
Where Cecilia is situated at a point in the camp.
Watching over as Delmyra talks almost with a commander's gate.
Talks with Lee, looking in the map, getting caught up with everything.
If I remember correctly, Cecilia had, Delmyra told Cecilia to go rest, but she ended up going to try to help some of the people who were wounded by the gargoyles.
And I think maybe she, walking away from that area, maybe that's where she spots Jean Claude.
But then for some reason, it kind of looks like she almost hides for a second.
Like she's trying to go away and hide or something.
Oh no!
But then she changes her mind, and like you can probably very clearly see, she changes her mind and she'll go up to you.
Very uncomfortable dad vibes.
You know when a dad fucks up, I mean I don't know, I'm talking from personal experience, and they don't know how to talk about it,
so they just kind of like awkwardly, you know, hands on the hips, just kind of...
Exactly! Like just kind of looking around you, like looking anywhere but at, you know, the younger folk.
He'll clear his throat and go,
I'm sorry.
I just wanted to say I'm...I'm sorry.
You...
And at this point he'll, you know, drop the wall that he's put up and kneel down so that his hands are on his knees so he can be eye level with her.
And he said,
No. You did nothing wrong.
I just really wanted you to know I'm not trying to fail you or Sylvie.
And um, I just really don't want to do this alone.
He will take his hand, her hands and his, gently grasp him and goes,
You have never and will never fail me, Cecilia Iduint.
I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier.
It was more a comment on myself than it was ever on you.
And I realize that I need to be a little more careful with certain things.
So I am sorry for making you feel lesser than the wonderful spark that you are.
I just...
I know that something could happen. I mean something almost did happen.
I don't want you to think that
if I'm trying to help you,
that it's because I don't want to.
I don't care enough about what we're doing.
I just don't want to do it.
I don't want to do it without you.
And he will gently drop her hands to put his big, big furball cans on her shoulders,
gently squeeze them and goes,
And you won't.
You won't.
Because I now realize
I've got to keep me alive for you.
As much as I need to keep you alive for me.
They are linked, no?
She nods.
She, like you can probably see she was...
She's just with everything happening.
Not necessarily just this conversation, but everything happening.
She was holding back tears.
So she just hugs you.
Oh!
Oh yeah.
This is the first time I think she's hugged him.
Maybe another time, but...
I can't remember.
What?
I don't know.
What the two of you don't see?
Delmyra looking over from the map.
She observes for a moment.
She's always really bad at reading lips.
But she can get the gist.
Her eyes soften for a moment.
And when the two of you hug,
there's a smile.
As she looks back at the map, and the two of you can continue.
It's really funny because she was just about to say...
Please don't tell Delmyra.
He says as he's still holding her about the hug thing?
No, I just...
She really thinks that this is all a terrible idea.
Now she hasn't said it, I just...
He immediately pulls her back.
So that she's almost shaking her...
What do you mean?
Clearly this is an excellent idea.
You handled the situation with finesse.
I don't think that she thinks that.
And I understand.
I mean...
I would... if I were her, I'd be scared too.
Yes, well.
Feel is a part of bravery, is it not?
That's what Stellar said.
Ugh!
He rolls his eyes heavily.
And goes and extends his hand down to her and goes...
We shall show the world, Cecilia.
What you feel, Bug.
Lost in time.
And what the young girl of the stars can do.
Together.
She...
She kind of withdraws a little bit, but she's not arguing or anything.
He put his hand out.
So it's just lying there in the open air.
She's like, oh wait, I thought you were just gesturing.
No, that's okay.
She takes it.
I do have to shake.
Okay, I also need to go apologize to Delmar for punching him in the mouth.
To be fair, I was kind of... I mean, I wouldn't have done that, but I was very worried about him too.
Yes, but it was childish of me, Cecilia.
I need to think like a partner, right?
We are partners in crime. In moodshed crime.
Think.
And... how are you?
Are you okay?
Oh no.
I think you see him freeze.
He puts his hand on his hip and starts to go, of course I am.
No.
Nope.
I'm not.
And since we are partners, it is okay to say that.
But I will get better.
Well, um...
That's fair, she says.
He nods. He nods. He goes...
See? Yeah. So, are you okay? How are you?
Um...
I'm grateful you are honest with...
And...
I'm...
I don't think any of us are fine.
No. No. No. And, uh...
That is okay to not be okay.
Because we have to go back in there at some point, as he points back to the city's walls.
And I don't know who the fuck he's fighting there.
I... might have had an idea.
But I didn't want to say anything because I'm pretty sure you won't like the idea.
So maybe I should just wait or...
No, no! I'm approaching this from the mindset of a partner!
I'm not your uncle, I'm not your dad, I am your partner.
So, relay your plan to me, please. So that I may either shoot it down and or accept it.
It's...
Well, the more I think about it, the more it just seems risky and maybe...
Cecilia!
It's a moon shard that's controlling the robots, right?
We think...
Right!
I have more than one moon shard.
Wouldn't that be enough to potentially control them enough to get the moon shard?
He takes a finger to his curly hair and scratches it and goes...
But the moon shards are unpredictable, no? They're not...
Exactly.
Huh.
Well, we can ask Demira. She might have more information, perhaps?
But maybe, I just...
It was just an idea. I don't even know if it's...
Honestly, I didn't tell you this because I thought it would upset you and it probably will.
But I am kind of worried to use the moon shards right now in general because I took them out the other night.
And...
They were acting really strange.
Like, they talked to me a lot.
That's how I knew about the other moon shard and all that stuff I said.
And I told you I'd tell you later, but then everyone forgot.
And I was kind of grateful that everyone forgot.
And now I'm realizing I really needed to tell someone else, probably, because...
As she's seeing this, his eyes are just growing wider and wider and wider and he's...
But he's keeping his mouth shut and she's just seeing whites of his eyes staring down at her, not seeing anything!
This is the most horrified Yusin-san clip.
I haven't even gotten to the legend lore yet.
That's for later, another time.
He waits for her to continue.
They kind of...
Even just talking to them a bit, they kind of acted like how they do when I actively use them.
Except I didn't try to use them that time.
And then I heard them say, say, give me a turn, I want to feel.
And then I put them away because I really didn't like that.
May I see the moon shard box, please?
I'm not sure that's a good idea with everything.
I won't do anything, I just want to see it.
Okay, but be careful, they're really powerful right now.
Okay.
She gives it to him.
He's gonna hold up the box and go, listen here, you little fucks.
I don't know what kind of rebellion you are planning, but Cecilia Eidlewyn is not the one to fuck with.
I don't know what mind control bullshit you're up to, but you cut the shit.
You want to make it to the other side of the continent?
You shut the fuck up.
And he's kind of rattling.
You hear from the bag of hoarding, yeah, tell that bitch.
And if you keep saying weird shit, like give me a turn, let me have a try at feelings, I will let you know what feelings are.
I will show you feelings, you little pieces of debt.
I think you got your point across.
So she'll snatch it from him, I assume, before he can continue.
She's not bold enough to snatch it, she's just saying it.
Oh, then he'll keep going.
There are people who are like...
And Damar, you can hear this, you hear this little shit that you hear from the background.
Yeah, he's yelling at a small box, that's not suspicious at all.
He's holding the bag up.
He goes, got it.
And just drops it back in the box with disdain and disgust.
I think I got my point across.
Yeah, I think so too.
They will leave you alone for now.
Gentle head pat on Cecilia's head.
Real quick.
Are the moon sharks going to smack hand Jon Claude?
They'll hurt me.
Go ahead and just give me an intimidation shot.
My god.
Hi, I'm Jon Claude and I'm intimidating the moon.
I'm Jon Claude, welcome to Jackass.
Listen, you can fuck with anyone, but why do you fuck with Cecilia?
Weird shit happens.
That's why I turned my mic off.
So for intimidation, that's going to be a 15.
Okay, that's it, continue.
Do I hear the moon sharks cry?
Yeah, the moon sharks flip off Jon Claude.
They go, fuck you.
Open up the box to find out.
I don't want to, but I won't.
They're going to tell on you to saloon.
They're going to be like, he's sad.
And Saloon will be like, well, actually, good.
Bring Saloon into the conversation.
Maybe she should.
It's about time.
Saloon will be on your side.
She will.
It's about damn time.
I hope Jon Claude never meets Saloon because he won't refer to her as a god at all.
It's going to be bad.
It's going to be like an angry parent at parent teacher night.
What did my friend do wrong?
Explain to me why there is a D on her book out.
She is brilliant.
My child.
Strangely, this is actually kind of refreshing.
Closes the bag really tight.
No parent teacher conference yet.
Okay.
Now that I've put them in their place, as he points to the bag, I will go apologize to them now because we need him.
He was brilliant in combat and true to his world.
Although he didn't really know because he forgot but then he remembered.
But he did tell us that he remembered, which I appreciate.
I don't know how that works, but I'm going to just go with it because it's too hard for me to conceptualize.
Yeah, I don't think he would have lied about that.
And then if he were going to lie about that, I think he would have betrayed us.
So.
Plus, he wants the best for this town and this city.
Come and go.
Yeah.
Okay, let me go do this the man's way.
Rolls back his shoulders.
Pulls up his pants.
Over his bulging belly that slides back down.
Boing.
Cracks his back and he'll stride off.
As you stride over.
Dalmar.
You currently sit with Luanne for a bit.
She stirs in her sleep and she just goes, I have.
I have all these elephant carcasses, but the butcher refuses to process them.
She's sleeping.
That's when Jean Claude.
Opens up the flap.
With this music.
It was giving me marshmallow vibe.
I was thinking the exact same thing with the guitar intro.
You see.
Okay, wait for the violin to come in.
There we go.
Okay.
Because if it was that guitar intro, that would be a whole different entrance.
Do you, is it a tent?
What are they in?
I can't remember.
Oh yeah, a tent.
Right?
Yes.
Jean Claude doesn't.
It is a larger tent.
Can I knock on the tent?
I would say it's a larger tent that you can walk into.
It's one of those like really big overhead tents where they have like a bunch of like
actual beds on like stands in there.
Well, he's going to do this as a man, a man's man.
So he's going to knock on the tent door, which is just looks like someone punching a flap.
Dalmar, someone's punching the tent flap.
Eventually you see Dalmar's head pop out and you've seen Dalmar ragged, battle worn.
You haven't seen him emotionally worn.
And that's the face that greets you.
Welcome to the trauma.
I like to cause it.
Have you not noticed that?
Welcome to the trauma.
I like to cause it.
I love that.
I love that so much.
All of my characters are traumatic.
You thought I would be nice with the first character you ever saw of mine, but no, most of mine are like this.
So Jean Claude had been posturing hands on the hips, chest puffed out, ready to have his speech.
And then he sees this emotionally broken man creep out from the tent.
And he goes, he still has his hand on his hips, you know, very much striking a power pose.
But he leans in farther down and kind of whispers, it's now a bad time to talk.
It looks like it.
OK, good night.
I like to play with my food.
I starting with the fingers, the lips, the ears.
It sounds like you two are having some ketchup alone time.
I'm going to leave because I don't want to know what's going on in there.
We can talk, but we'll let her sleep.
And he awkwardly stands back up, dead body power pose and indicates to a quieter corner out of the tent.
Did that car just stand up as you exit the dump?
He's kind of disturbed by Luanne now.
He's always been unnerved by her, but now he's just outright disturbed.
But he doesn't say that he keeps it to himself.
That was all Tammy.
I had nothing to do with her.
So he will pull you aside and goes hands still on his hips, trying to make himself feel confident.
He goes, Mr. Golden Rock, Monsieur, it was very unmanly of me to strike at you in such a manner when I had no prior information to go off of.
And I jumped to many a conclusion.
I'm sure you can understand between us two menfolk that sometimes we make mistakes.
But what makes a man a man is his ability to admit to them.
And I am sorry for punching you square in the teeth, right in the mouth, almost wanted to go to the back of your head because I thought you betrayed us when you did not.
I got a character. I say what I want to say.
Do they know Delmar's whole thing about his last name and not being allowed to use it?
No, I know that. OK.
How would we know any of that?
Well, because you know, he's been very pointedly not using it until he wants to get the power behind it.
Cecilia now knows that he doesn't have his last name.
Jean-Claude, OK, that's going to change how I I wanted to punch you in the face for it.
But no, no, no, no, no, do it.
But it would have to be a ball shot because you're so short.
I will allow it. I will allow it.
I will allow it.
I was just going to have I was just going to ask Jean-Claude to kneel down and punch him in the face.
You could do that, too. You could do that, too. See how you phrase it and we'll see.
This is so weird hearing Emma try to imagine what a dad pose is.
You know what I mean?
Like the dad that's like when dads don't want to talk about hard stuff,
so they're just awkwardly shifting, you know, looking around.
Exactly what Tim's doing, right?
They're uncomfortable, so they're trying to find different things to do with their body.
That's what I think of his dad pose.
JC has more than two feet on him.
I think Jean-Claude's got like three and a half to four feet on him.
I think he's got like four feet on him.
I think it's like double down-horses height.
It's an image.
Yeah.
You are forgiven. It's...
It was an odd situation, non-normal circumstances.
If I had known, believe me, I would have told you immediately.
I cannot blame you for being suspicious of something like that.
Well, I can blame me because you've only been helpful to us.
And I should have trusted what I knew of your character as opposed to my fears in the moment.
We really sincerely appreciate all you have done to protect us.
And I hope you know that we want the safety of this town and village.
Not as much as you because you probably want it more, but we want it, you know, almost as equal.
Like you're up at the top and we are like right coasting beneath you, lifting you up.
Because, you know, it's not our village and our town, but we do care, you know, but I don't want to let you care more.
So it is like it's it's not equal, but it is supportive.
Oh, no, keep going. This is great.
It's just kind of like staring at John Todd. What's this guy on about? At the same time, I want him to keep going.
What's he cooking?
At the same time, he's letting them cook.
Choclid is low wisdom.
I've said this. No, actually, no, is he? Yeah.
What is he even saying?
He's got zero wisdom, guys. So he's just he's doing it again.
So do I.
It manifests in different ways.
Manifest different ways.
Essentially, we are working towards the same goal.
You would have no reason to harm us and nor would we to you.
And I hope we can continue that into the coming days to end whatever this may be.
And there's probably something I should make you aware of.
Nod's.
Your Cecilia. I have already told her.
I have no claim to the name Golden Rock.
So that's not your last name?
Not anymore.
So what's your last name?
I do not have one.
Would you like to borrow mine?
No.
Would you like to borrow Cecilia's?
I made a promise to the idol, both of them, that I would do what I could in my power to reclaim my name and put the weight of it behind them as thanks.
He scratches his head. So wait, you're claiming a name that you don't want, but you.
It is a long story.
You got it. You got it.
Whatever you want, Mr. G. Mr. Mr. D.
Little D.
Little Dalmari.
He's going to like motion for Jean-Claude to come closer to try and like get him to bend down some.
Yeah, what's up? Leads down.
Bull uppercut into his jaw.
Make him stop talking.
The bong.
He goes, oh, and that is how, yep, that's how men resolve things. That's right.
Guys to move his jaw around. Good one, bro.
You know, I was taught something once by an uncle of mine. It's a great life lesson.
You know, the bigger something is easier it is to make that thing fall and he's going to roundhouse kick the back of Jean-Claude's knee.
Your foot connects.
I think I think he's going to go down on one knee and goes, you little fuck out.
And at that he'll point to Dammar's face and go, but at least you're smiling now.
Ouch.
He screams.
Just hear it.
He's old.
Thanks, Dragmire.
Thank you for the gift. Thanks, everybody.
Yeah, Big D Energy. That's Delmar's new name.
Again, non-descript hurdle shell. I will throw at you.
As that moment takes in, Delmar, you...
Despite everything, despite everything that happened and the journey you had in your mind.
He's right.
There is a smile on your face.
As this moment passes in, Jean-Claude, you have to... you rub the back of your knee.
Damn. He hit hard.
All of a sudden, people hear commotion from the edge of the camp towards the city.
The start of the commotion, though, something in all of your brains kick up.
Because you hear the sound of children.
K4. K4 got the kids.
As you look... as everyone rushes over, you see the guards surrounding this.
As you see children funneling out from the path, and the moment they saw the adults, they started running directly towards them.
You see that they're running with reckless abandon. They're just completely sprinting eyes open wide.
They're full of fear, but they're out. All running down the path.
As you see, the guards immediately begin to take hold of them, look around, taking stock.
This sudden bewilderment from both parties as these two parties seemingly reunite.
There's crying from the children, tears of joy, fear.
Something strikes you, Dahmar. They've been in there for a while. How did they just get out?
Where's K4?
Yeah, I was going to ask, do I see K4 anywhere? I immediately look because I think of him.
You do not.
Wait, no, I'm going to go look farther, see if he's at the entrance.
You go look at the entrance?
Yeah.
Alright, we'll get to you in a bit.
As they're going around, and you see the children as you're making your way to the entrance, Jean-Claude,
the children, they're like crying, really hugging, just the nearest adult deeply, sobbing into their armor.
The man who had once argued against Lee earlier looks at Lee and just goes,
It's going to be off of my shoulders now. Someone's going to take these kids back.
That's right.
Yes.
How do they get away?
It doesn't matter. They're free. I'm going to take whatever I can get.
Lee, I'm going to take... I have to take these kids to safety.
Do what you will. I'm going to stay here.
You're a crazy bastard, Lee.
There's still people that need help.
He goes,
Take the only wacken.
And then the guy approaches and goes,
Alright, everyone.
He says,
Everyone, round up. Come on, kids. We're going to take you somewhere safe.
We're going to take you away from here.
Jean-Claude, as you make your way to the entrance,
You see a...
It doesn't take long.
It's arm dangling by a wire.
One of its eyes ripped out.
Part of its head is seemingly ripped.
Dragging with a foot.
The moment you see it, it collapses.
No, I run over.
Hello, gun.
Metal man down.
And he'll get down on his knees and goes,
K4, you did it.
Are they all safe?
Of course. They had you looking after them.
That's really nice.
Hold on there, buddy. We're going to get you a fixed up, okay?
You hear...
From Cecilia's...
From Cecilia Wodamara,
You hear a lot of the kids turning back and going,
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
There's an automaton.
He helped us. He needs help.
And the guards are like, no, we have to go.
Was it K4?
They said most of them called him dad?
Mm-hmm. He really needs help.
Okay. I'll help.
And the guards are like, trying to...
A lot of them gathering up there, touching like horses to the wagons and just trying to get everything ready to go.
K4 continues to talk to you, Jean-Claude.
He goes,
I felt something.
What did you feel, my friend?
I wanted to...
Protect them.
No matter what.
Even...
If I died.
I would do everything I can...
To protect them.
Are you sure you're made of metal? You've got quite a working heart in there.
It's getting quieter.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
Uh-uh-uh, not yet, my friend. Not yet.
Stay with me a bit longer.
Is this what you do?
For the people that you love?
That is exactly what you do for the people that you love.
It is a...
Wonderful and terrifying thing.
All in one.
But...
How will I know?
They will be happy.
How will I know that they're taken care of?
You have to fight.
To live another day.
Not just to go back to your...
Programming shrugs. Doesn't really know what he's talking about.
Not to follow what the gears tell you to do, but to do what this...
And he clink, clink, clink on where his, uh...
Metal chest is.
But your heart tells you to do.
Fight. Love.
Protect.
Thank you...
For telling me...
I have a heart.
You are caught for a moment as you see...
Cecilia...
You see her footsteps from behind.
And you see Cecilia approaching.
And...
As you look back towards Cecilia...
Cecilia as you approach...
Jean-Claude turns away the moment...
K4's eyes...
Go...
Dark.
Cecilia was hurrying to try to cast Mending.
I have Mending.
Roll an initiative.
Check for me.
Okay...
I'm not good at decks.
Sick.
You rush over.
You place your hand down, K4, and Jean-Claude, now you take notice as you look down.
He's...
He's gotten cold.
Cecilia, you press your hand against it.
And...
As the magic checks across...
You see some of the outer wounds begin...
Wounds, the outer cracks begin to repair.
But... no movement.
It... he doesn't come to.
I think Jean-Claude, just cause I don't... I've only worked with wood. I don't...
Can you restart it? Should we...
Is it like a clock? I don't know.
I don't know how to either.
Should we try?
It's not like...
It's not like us though, right? Someone could fix him... later, right?
No, no, but he is like us!
I mean, yeah, but also... but also not.
I don't understand.
Is there a mechanic here?
There's got to be, with this fucking city of working robots!
She looks to... his downmars there, right?
Did downmar follow? No.
Oh, he didn't? Okay, I thought he... he did.
She is...
It'll be okay, I think. I think he can be fixed. Just...
And his... his... he only knows how to treat, like, mortal flesh.
So, you see that, like, he goes for his axe and he's like,
If we were in the field and someone's heart stopped, we'd have to, like, act quick.
I know, I'm just saying it's not the same thing though, right?
I don't know, cause he talked like a person, Zizzily, and he was making sense, he has a heart, and he knows how to feel, so...
Shit, and he's just gonna sma... like, like CPR, like, bang, bang, bang, um, on the chest.
Oh yeah, you, um...
Fuck!
Aww...
Damnit...
Nothing happens.
Shit!
I'll cast, um...
She'll try to cast Mending on some more press, but she doesn't know anything about, like, technology, these things, so she doesn't know what's, like, beneficial.
It's hard. Um...
This is technology that's... this is, all this is beyond your understanding in the first place.
It's fixed on the outside, but...
There are some parts that have been completely destroyed.
But...
Um...
Probably they have sort of like a core inside of them that runs.
You attacked the one of the Watchmen before, you can... you get an idea.
But... whatever empowered this...
It's gone.
He got all the kids, Cecilia. Every single one of them.
We can bring him back to camp, and then when all this is done, someone will be able to fix.
Yeah.
Didn't we meet a girl on the road?
Oh, um... Nellie.
She could fix him, right?
Maybe.
Hmm.
Yeah. Something to keep in mind.
Jean-Claude?
Yes?
Give me a wisdom check with advantage.
Am I... what?
With advantage.
He's gonna need it, because as we said earlier today, it's zero.
That's your fault.
It's my fault! I did this to myself.
AHHHHH!
That's a four!
An advantage, everyone! That is a four and a five.
Alright, I'll save that to the end of the game then.
The end of today's session, or the game in general?
The end of today's session.
Oh, thank God! I can't wait that long.
Yeah, exactly, Drakma. As Jenny said, it manifests in different ways.
But there's something, Jean-Claude, that tugs at you.
I'm not talking about some external force or anything like that. I'm not talking about anything.
You feel like the situation...
You feel like it's familiar in some kind of way.
Like I feel like... well, I feel like... I think he immediately identifies as K4 and feels like he's a seeker like him.
But I don't think that's what you're kinting at.
No. But I'm going to have to leave it at that, because...
AHHHHH! Why can't I be smart?
But maybe later down the line.
Damn it.
Jean-Claude will realize.
Tell the chat we won't look. I won't look. I won't look. I won't look.
But I will.
I'm not looking.
Okay, anyways. You're carrying K4 back?
Yeah, well, hold on. We know that the sentiment towards the robots is not the most positive.
But this one's clearly not a threat, so...
But should we put him in the bag?
I don't feel fit. And I think that feels worse.
Okay, I'll carry him then.
I can help.
She holds like a dangling foot.
I am very strong. I have 16 strength.
There we go.
Um, Delmar, you watch as all the...
children are...
Most of the guards now, those that wanted to leave, are leaving with them.
And you see the children are like... they're equipped with like...
taking notice of the stock they have. They have like stuffed toys.
Some of them are patched worked with really shoddy, bad needlework.
And fixed up.
Um...
And as they're being carted away, they're going...
He goes like, who is that?
Um...
Oh no.
And...
The cart leaves.
Um, everyone gives... you see the guards as they leave, they give their salute.
Some of them come up to you, Delmar, personally.
Thank you. For everything.
Thank you for your service.
Take care. Be safe.
You too.
And they all begin to leave.
And the camp feels a lot emptier.
This is when you turn towards...
the entrance and you see...
Jean-Claude and Cecilia...
carrying...
a familiar...
looking automaton to you.
And Lee just goes...
Wait, hold on.
What exactly...
is why you bring it up here?
His name is K-4, aka the Prisoner.
They protected them, Lee.
He needs to be fixed.
And not necessarily immediately, I think.
Unless he does, but...
he's the one who was taking care of the kids.
Stretching the hydrant.
That...
that, um, sort of tenseness...
it reluctantly relaxes.
He just goes...
Well, if you're alright with it, then...
you can set it down somewhere.
They called him Dad, right? So...
those would be...
he, him, slash he, they pronouns.
Looks to Cecilia, the younger of the two, to make sure he's on the right course.
I mean, if we have a he, we were saying he, so...
Yeah, rather than it, you know what I mean.
Because he's got a howt.
Um...
looks at Dalmar.
I'm gonna call him how I see it.
Right.
He.
Thank you.
They called him Dad?
That means...
Well...
Means what? He was like a, like a nursery robot?
Well, those ones, they were...
they typically did help around.
They're hospices and such, mostly store owners, mostly store front managers, from what I know.
But, um...
Sorry, it's just a surprise to me, that's all. We've been up against them for a while now, and...
I can't tell you how many tried, how many of those that looked just like him, tried to...
shoot or cut me down.
They're...
all different. You probably don't see the ones who weren't, because...
they're scared too. I mean, he...
he had been sneaking for as long as this has been going on, it seems like sneaking,
trying to get food for the kids to keep them alive,
that he was going to be attacked by the other robots too.
Well, then we're going to have to...
get him all fixed up after all this is over.
Yeah, maybe give him like a, I think he would, you know, like an honorary badge or something.
Or like a statue. That's actually kind of weird.
He turns to Cecilia and he's like, what?
That's when you're dead, Cecilia! That's when you're gone!
I mean...
I think we can start with a badge.
But I don't know if that's actually just weird, if I only thought that because he's already metal,
but I don't want him to be a statue, I want us...
later, you know, one day maybe.
Maybe like we could know what, know what? Hold on, hold on, Cecilia.
Maybe he could be like a little doll, you know, since he's like, you know, a childcare dad kind of robot.
He could have an action figure.
He could have a little action figure for protecting the children.
Delmeera goes, I like the action figure idea.
Listen to Lee.
Give him a dad bod!
Lee just kind of like looks... looks around at you three and looks at Delmeera.
Delmeera has like actual hopeful eyes of an action figure.
He's like, why are you looking at me?
Because Lee's going to be the mayor of this new town with whatever's left.
No, that mean lady is going to come back and be like, actually, I'm here to be in charge again.
I'm the best.
Absolutely fucking not.
I'm going to kidnap her.
I'm just going to kidnap her.
But yeah, you can kill her too.
Goodness, guys.
She's going to be like being kept prisoner by the watchmen in like horrible conditions.
And we're going to all feel really bad or something.
I don't know. She gives off the 1% vibes.
She's the one person.
You can either have the moon shards or save your own townsperson.
And we're all immediately going to say, we'll take the moon shards.
Yeah.
She is the 1%.
The thing is, you give the players a villain.
You're going to have to work a lot because sometimes players are like, well, I can fix them.
Sometimes villains are hot.
If you give them a petty asshole, they will hate them forever.
I had a guard character in another game called Garyson.
Garyson Kim.
He's dead. Next game.
I hate him so much.
I can't wait till he dies.
In the grand scheme of things, he's barely a villain, but he's been such a petty asshole.
They fucking hate him.
He made a very strong first impression. He pushed my disabled friend, who was Emma's character.
Hold on. Petty asshole? Tim, he tried to kill my character.
Petty asshole.
Multiple times.
His name is Garyson. It almost sounds like Garyson.
He's like, yeah, we knew you didn't have to go back to the garrison, but his name is Garyson.
Garyson. Yeah.
Next time, all you have to do, Tim, is just have a character next time say, well, I don't like the unions.
And then we're off to the races.
I think we should pay more taxes than the wealthiest people since they get tax that ends up being more anyway.
So we should even it out.
Don't eat the rich. Thank them, guys. Come on.
It's your fault you're poor.
You've got to pull yourself up all your boots.
If he misses his dealings with capitalism, we want the villain dead.
It's very easy. We're very easy to have a villain.
You messed up my order and now I want you to pay for my meal and make it over.
Yep. Yep.
Those kinds of things would be like, bitch.
Anyway, I don't like I don't care about the guy who puts war crimes.
This guy who inconvenienced me and called me out.
I don't like the side. Yes.
I don't like the song world in the podcast.
We don't play games.
War crimes can be hot sometimes, but when you're an asshole to me, like if you just if you just push my friend, you are on the shit list.
My disabled friend, I will add.
That was a key detail.
Oh, Dennis.
Anyways, that that woman showed up for one scene and everyone was like, it's on site.
Yes, she is the one percent.
My notes are about her.
Director of Civil Prosperity, Mr.
Yeah, she can fuck right off and go somewhere else.
Director of Civil Prosperity.
I wanted to give her a title like, what makes you like what makes your skin crawl?
Because what does that even fucking mean?
Nothing. She makes sure that everyone's happy.
No, you don't.
So is it Mistral Affair?
Yes.
Bitch.
Sounds like a bitch.
I'll take Madam Withers over her any day.
All right.
I like that some Madam Withers are cool.
Odelia from Black Garth is a Madam Withers was a Madam Withers.
Yeah, it was.
And the cyborgs.
She was a Madam Withers.
Oh, boy.
She was a Madam Withers.
And also she was a chat.
We'll get back to the game eventually.
She was a part of a heavy metal band.
She used to do screamo.
But we'll get to that.
That's so cool.
Yeah.
She was a Madam Withers before.
We didn't know that.
You guys gotta talk to her sometimes.
I do, but you bring up words like moistaceous, and it makes me nervous.
All right.
Back on track.
So Delmeira just goes, well, that's a really fortunate turn of events after everything
that happened.
But it looks like we're going to have less people around.
Still, though, I like who we've got.
She points at the map.
She just goes, sis, Jean-Claude.
This right here, this is where...
This is the heart of the place, right?
She points at the place of the arcane ambit.
I point to Delmeira.
Who knows the city better than I do?
It is.
Okay.
So it's really dangerous.
Bunch of those watchmen types around.
Says, and you three fought them before, right?
So lay it out for me.
Not good, right?
Not good.
Got it.
But we have to get in here.
To get a good chance to stop everything.
Instead of, you know, one, two, one, two, think of us trying to go in this time as a
babin weave, like we want to avoid any form of contact.
You sound just like my friend.
Which friend?
Oh, like, um...
He's scared it's the bard, I think.
His head snaps to Cecilia.
She notices and goes, not a big fan of bards.
My uncle was a bard.
I twitch.
What was that, Delmeira?
My uncle was a bard.
Hands clenched at his sides.
Versus his lips.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
What are the most annoying people I know?
They're a bard.
I really like him.
He poisons the mind.
Points at Delmeira.
She gets it.
Is that what happened to you?
They do their little songs.
They make you think that there is, you know, joy to be had in creativity and out when that
is so far from the truth.
All right.
I'm connected with you on other things, but that part is, um, seems like it's something
for you.
So...
Anyways.
Yeah.
Um, Bob and Weave.
I don't know about that.
I, um... she's a lot more hesitant now than she was before everything happened.
But she is...
I, um...
I know that calm emotions works some of the time to keep the automatons from being angry
and attacking.
That's really good.
It's really good to know.
It really does seem like they're operating on, like, real human emotion, huh?
Yeah, like, they have...
They are.
They're having these emotions.
That makes everything a lot more complicated.
But the ones with the red eyes, Kefel never had the red eyes, he says to Cecilia.
The others did, right?
Um, I think he did, though, at...
I think he did, too.
Ah.
Well, there goes that.
It's just not that simple.
They're just...
They have different thoughts and reactions to their feelings.
And you can't just tell by looking at them, I guess.
The one that we have to be the most concerned about is the one who has labeled themselves,
or who we have come to know as the Venator.
Uh...
Yes, we were able to take out a watchman, but we...
Um...
I'm not sure if we will ever be able to approach the Venator, so...
We shouldn't try?
No.
But it'll hunt us down?
Because I think as soon as we go in it will try to hunt us down.
Distractions, perhaps?
Will be necessary?
Lee goes...
I was thinking I'd take up a horse and I'd start making my way around and...
Because it's the watchman we've got to worry about.
I got a pretty good idea of the place.
I know how to weave around and what roads are blocked and everything.
So I think it's best for me to do it, if I can get all of their attention.
You know?
But as for this Venator thing, I don't know how scared I should be of it, but...
I don't know if it's going to be as mindless as the watchman.
No, it isn't.
Domiura goes...
It's going to hunt you down?
I could take care of it.
No, I don't...
I don't think you can.
Sis...
I faced down worse things before.
I...
You don't know that, though.
You don't...
You haven't seen it.
Hold on.
The Venator only attacked the group...
Now, he's not saying this out loud, but because Jean-Claude was with them, right?
Yeah, it put you next on the list.
But then it targeted me first as the lowest hit points in the group.
But it was going after you, it was hunting you.
Tell him I'm going to make a perception check.
No!
Make sure I turn off advantage real quick.
That's a 21.
Ooh!
Did the temperature just change?
That breeze was cooler than the last one.
There was a slight quaver in the air on the edge of the forest, and you catch...
You're not sure how you didn't notice this because of how much you stood out the blanched white skin.
The pale, decrepit features.
No!
Motherfucker! No!
Walking...
He walks plainly through the brush.
Making no attempt at... making no attempt at stealth, but...
He's not actively stealthing, but he's just a hard guy to see.
The others don't seem to notice.
Oh, a 22 passive perception.
Cecilia, you noticed something.
Cecilia probably notices that Damar's attention has been grabbed, and he's tracking something across the field.
She's arguing with Damar, and then she looks...
So you two are the only ones that notice it.
Meanwhile, so here's what I'm saying.
I go off on one way to lead the Venator away from the tower, and those two go up the tower and get the moonshines.
All right, but what if it's like a headlock?
A lot of people take these behind.
People, shut up.
Who goes there?
Ay...
A breathy moment. As everyone turns, Jean-Claude, you take notice?
Oh, yag, my axe is out.
You little fucker!
But...
Your implements away...
There are heavier targets to go after.
The Venator will be occupied with me.
Rest assured.
Is it possible with this guy to roll insight?
Yeah, sure, go for it.
Eighteen.
He is intent. He has seen his intentions plainly.
He is my queried hunt.
Jean-Claude has put himself between Cecilia, and given last time, he tried to grab the moonshards offer.
There's a renewed vigor inside of you, Boucheron.
What do you get out of this?
You are heavier in different ways, and lighter than some others.
Okay, you just called me fat, that's fine. I'm going to let that pass and not think too much on that. I'm just a hefty boy.
Some ladies like a little meat on the bones.
Maro, haha.
I thought they had spotted you.
But you weren't just harming the... the automatons.
What are you doing?
Ensuring those who wish to take advantage of the power that lays in the heart of this place.
That they never get to it.
But hear me now, Idlewins.
You would do well to dispatch of the shards.
But look at all the destruction that's caused.
Dispatch them to you, I presume?
No.
Destroy them.
You have the means.
You...
Everyone here...
You are worthy of a grand...
...judgment.
Right now.
There are other endeavors to attend to.
And so, I have spoken.
And he turns and walks.
I don't care that he's our new ally. I don't like him.
I guess the only other time we saw him, he helped us too.
Did he?
Yeah.
I don't remember that.
He didn't try to take the moonshades or anything.
I think he was the one who he gave the necklace that Stellar had stolen back to us after we'd given it to those bandits unintentionally.
I completely blanked on that.
It's been over a year since we've done that.
It was October of 2022.
Jesus Christ.
Just from my own memory, Tim, is Mero the one Dalmar saw right before everything kicked off during the parade?
Yes.
Yeah.
He was basically like, some suspicious shit's happening here.
Some weird ass fucking shit.
He's not our ally, but if he's willing to distract the Venator, then I say we let him and we take that opportunity.
I look at Delmira.
Delmira has been looking at Mero, but she hasn't said anything.
You see that she's processing thoughts racing through her head.
Yeah, he said he knows you, Delmira, that he has a bone to peak.
But...
Nothing.
As he's...
Delmira just goes, he knows me.
He said you were the reason he came to us before.
This is from session three.
I remember that!
That was it.
I wrote Mero-lovania.
Come on.
No.
All I remember was Delmira sicked him on our ass.
That's all I remembered.
Wait, really?
Yes.
He...
He what?
Look, I'll tell you later, okay?
You might not get to tell me later. Can you tell me now?
It's a long story, okay?
Bullet points.
Bullet points. Okay.
Did a ritual.
What's up, friends?
Strong stout.
And...
Okay. I don't think I can do bullet points for this one.
But he's...
He used to be a sphinx.
Like Augustus.
Actually...
Yeah.
They were both part of the same sphinx.
They are pieces of the same sphinx?
Mero, what the fuck?
Why is Augustus so much nicer than Mero?
Well, because they inherited different parts of it. I know the whole thing, but it's really complicated to explain.
So you broke up these sphinx into little pieces with your ritual?
Well...
We were asked to.
By who?
She looks at your bag of holding.
Afius?
Yeah.
Okay.
Do they have my name?
Afius, we have to talk later.
That is never true.
Yes it is. Just tell now.
Here.
We'll keep talking about this later.
Because...
He's coming to help us.
At the very least we can work with the gifts we just got.
Well that explains a lot. It explains why Mero knows random shit about us.
She just blinks and goes...
Did he say anything else about me?
Why? Why are you worried about that?
I just don't know that...
The consequences of the ritual and everything...
I just don't know.
You better insight check your sister.
I'm going to roll so bad now though. I just have the feeling. Can I roll insight on that?
Yeah.
I don't think Jean-Claude would know her well enough to suspect anything.
I don't have proficiency so I don't have any expertise in it.
Okay.
Seven.
Would he be suspicious?
Cecilia clearly looked suspicious. That's why she asked why. Why are you worried about that?
The thing is, Cecilia, innately, she is withholding information.
Can I roll then?
Yeah, sure.
This is a little harder for you.
Yeah, because I don't know her.
When I'm trying to discern truths I do have proficiency.
So, we'll see.
Nope. I'm not even going to try. That's a five.
Jesus Christ. One four, two fives.
Good thing there's no combat today.
Hopefully.
You get to add your proficiency though so it's eight.
Yay!
Oh, the guy that voted. Apis is coming in for a try.
Really?
Let's go!
Apis is like, hmm.
But yeah, the both of you get the gist that like, yeah, it's not like anything that she's like...
She's not malicious.
She's not malicious. She's definitely withholding information that much is obvious, but it is the haste of the situation at hand right now that is currently leading to that.
So, uh...
Lee just goes, uh, Lee just goes,
Alright, well, I suppose we do have two distractions in place then.
I don't trust that man.
I don't think we should.
I saw him at the parade right before everything went to hell.
I don't know why he's back, but if he's willing to fight it, we let him.
We use the chance.
I think he was telling the truth about that much.
About stopping...
About stopping people from getting to whatever's at the center?
I wouldn't have done anything about it, but he's...
He's never done anything directly at me, but he's watered us off before.
None of us should be near the Venhatter though.
No.
Right.
So...
Well, I guess if he's allowing you to do it, then...
We have no choice.
We're in such a desperate state, we might as well.
But at least we know the children are safe.
One less thing to worry about, making our objective very clear.
And hopefully once the Shards are...
Do they know about the moon shards?
Not we.
Everyone else does.
You know, once we...
We do the thing that needs to be done, hopefully this will all stop.
I know that this is...
I know that this is a gamble, but...
Does anyone I could trust look at Cecilia, Dinda, Damira?
It's the Selenites.
Yeah, maybe we can add another time circle back around to the whole child thing.
Later time, of course, but like, fuck.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
I did have an idea, too.
I don't know if we'd need to even try it or if it would even work.
It's probably a bad idea.
I already told Jean-Claude.
But she looks at Lee, she goes...
She goes, I already have some of the Shards of the Moon.
That's a very big secret.
Wait.
You've had them?
I have some, not the one that's in the... controlling everything, that's completely different.
But...
I just had the thought, if this is one moon shard...
Doing all of this, controlling all of this...
Potentially making the...
Automatons fight...
Then maybe using the other moon shards could control them enough to let us through, if we need to.
Cecilia, Demir comes in.
That's... that's really risky.
That's why I said I don't think it's a good idea, but it's just, I just wanted to see what you thought.
We can't.
Alright?
It can be a last ditch, I felt, Cecilia. For sure, it is an option.
Just be aware of any points up to the sky with the red sky, or the moon.
That is a big problem we have with the shards.
I agree.
But I don't think we should count it out. We are...
If we don't get this child...
All of it just sounds risky. We saw what one did.
You see the others, especially in a place like this, and then Lee cuts and he just goes...
If it's a last ditch effort, we can't exactly predict these things.
Not while my sister...
It's dangerous. That's all I'm saying.
We have a good plan, we're capable.
Lee just goes, we barely have...
A plan, we're just guessing. We're gambling on a hope.
You can't just rule it out.
The mirror goes, no matter what.
You have to promise me, okay? Just don't put yourself in danger using those.
I won't.
Promise.
Oh no, the Adamatons!
The Venator!
Engine mode activated.
That was a great distraction, so I don't have to promise anything.
No way, you ain't running?
Yeah, she just kind of looks away.
Cecilia?
Sis?
I...
I'm not going to.
No, you...
I'm not...
You know what those things can do.
I do. And I'm not going to put myself in danger.
I'm not going to...
Not knowingly. Of course not.
Promise you're not going to bring those... bring those things out.
You're all I have left, okay? Just...
That's not true.
You're everything to me.
And I'm not going to...
I'm not going to do anything that I don't have to do to make sure everyone's safe.
Cecilia? And Lee just goes, we're going to have to hurry.
Give me one second, I need to talk to my sister.
I... I don't...
John Clough's not going to say anything, because this is really not his fucking place.
But he's just going to put a hand gently on Cecilia's shoulder.
That's all.
I'm going to go get the horse. The sooner we stop this, the better.
Down Mars, everything...
Are you ready?
Ready as I can be.
It's time we finish this.
Thank goodness you said that.
I...
I don't think we can do this without you.
Okay.
I'm going to gather my things.
We're going to head just...
We're going to start our way there.
Walks off.
The Delmar just looks at you, Cecilia.
She knew she was about to, probably, so she was already looking away.
You've been trusted with those.
What did you say?
You've been trusted with those.
I don't intend to use them.
Is that a deception check?
No.
Okay.
I mean, maybe barely, but she's not trying to lie.
She's been kind of clear, if I need to use them, I'm going to use them.
But she doesn't plan to, so it's not really a lie.
Okay.
Let's talk, just get ready then.
And there's everyone heading away to prepare.
As you all...
Go ahead.
I was just going to say before Jean-Claude walks off, he would lean down to Cecilia, squeeze her shoulder, and says,
I trust you, Patna.
Thank you.
Cecilia, as you make your ways away, Jean-Claude, a hand is placed on the side of your arm.
Hi!
I'm not really sneaky.
Who is it?
It's the mirror.
Hi, hello, hi.
What's up?
That's not good.
Anyways, I wanted to talk to you for a moment.
Should I get Cecilia?
No, it'll be quick.
Okay.
Jean-Claude, right?
Yes.
Thank you for everything.
I mean it.
I wish in the entire world right now, if I could push mountains aside, I would want to be with my sister.
But...
It's clear to me that she really looks up to you.
Thank you.
And...
I have a feeling you're doing this already.
But...
Please...
Protect her.
He's kind of shocked, because he did not expect a thank you.
He actually was expecting a scolding.
So I think you see a moment of his face register the thanks, and he slowly nods and says...
I will protect your sister...
With everything I have...
Because she is my friend.
And I will also...
Protect myself, since I am her friend.
I hope you can understand.
No.
You're completely right.
And the truth is...
I kind of saw myself a little bit in you.
And...
I'm very shocked by this conversation, this heart...
He was not expecting this at all!
I saw a little bit of myself in you.
But it looks like you've learned a lot faster than me.
It took me a while to learn that...
The best way...
To dedicate myself to other people was to live for them.
It's just silly that you don't know the amount of time I...
It would break her heart.
And...
I'm sure that if you...
If you think that dedicating your life...
And having it go away just for some other important cause will make everyone happy.
There's always a better way.
He'll put his...
Go ahead.
He'll put his hand on his shoulder.
And he gives her a look up and down.
Gets his face low and close to her.
Oh, okay.
Looking all around her and goes...
I see it now.
I see...
Who your sister has been bragging about...
For days and weeks on end.
Oh, she brags about me?
Incessantly.
I knew you were a brave adventurer.
I did not know about the bravery of your heart.
You are so strong.
And not with your magic.
But with your love.
People like us...
Our hearts...
They can't just beat.
They have to brag.
She holds out her hand.
Turns the hand grab.
You got this, Jean-Claude.
And so does your sister.
She is so strong.
I cannot wait for you to see.
All right.
Meet you out front.
I'm here to be off.
As everyone gets ready...
Damar, you take a stop by...
You take a stop by Luanne's tent.
Freaking Luanne.
She is completely gonged the fuck out.
She is sleeping like how babies do on their face.
But they're kind of like bent.
No!
Not the collapsed one!
No!
Luanne.
That just means it's good sleep.
Poor kid.
You see the chair that you sat in for a while?
You're going to go into danger.
Immeasurable danger.
Risky plan with a pickaxe in hand.
Magic. Immeasurable wild magic at the very center.
We...
As your uncle...
Kind of like has an arm around you.
He just goes...
It's all right, Damar.
You're fine now.
No.
You're going to get past this. You're really strong, okay?
I can talk to the others.
You already decided I'm going back in.
There's...there's nothing you can say that would make them do anything else.
I'll go talk to them right now.
The door...
Completely opens.
And you see his presence ever so heavy.
His boots clang against the ground. Golden strands bound his beard along with the orange.
It dictates his status within the set.
This dwarf walks in and just goes...
You're back.
And he goes...
Brother, I...leave.
Let me talk to my son.
Brother...
Go easy.
I was not talking to you.
Brother...
Listen...
Do you want to keep drawing breath?
Jesus...
Hold your breath...
And step out.
Your brother knows...I mean, your uncle knows...
This...is...important.
The heaviness of the situation. He gets up...
And one last look at you...
He leaves.
The door remains open as your father...
You're not looking at him, but you can feel his downcasted look at you.
He goes...Look at me, boy.
Look.
Yes, sir.
Alright. Now get up.
What the fuck are you doing sitting there?
You lost an arm. You still...you still whiffed up with the weight of that entire family.
Up.
Look at me.
I didn't tell you to look away, boy.
Yes, sir.
Fuck.
Rub me of the smiles...day you were born.
You are going to go back on there.
You're going to finish what you do. You're going to salvage all of this.
Because whatever little mishap happened down there...
You're going to go down there...
With another family.
Because it seems like you found something really valuable.
You're going to bring it back up here.
No.
Picks up a chair...throws it.
Direct...projectile throws it...directly at you.
Kill this man!
As it smashes against you, it splinters.
And it immediately gets in your face. Has a finger in your face.
Who the fuck do you think you're talking to, huh?
You sack of shit!
Fucking stupid cunt! Who the fuck do you think you are? Huh?
I need somebody to kill him. I need somebody to kill him. Somebody needs to kill him right now. Kill him. Please.
Look at me. He slaps you in the face, upwards. Look at me.
Oh my god!
Dalmar spits at his father's feet blood out of his mouth.
That's his dad.
Ryo's back punches you.
Oh my god! Someone stop him!
You want to send another family to their deaths.
You talk one more.
Or what?
I've already lost an arm. What else are you going to take from me?
You're going to lose your fucking name.
You're a golden rock, boy.
You're bolder than the last.
You are going to walk back down there.
You're going to disgrace his entire family if you keep sitting here and loping.
The only disgrace to this family is you.
He grabs you by the neck.
No, no, no, no!
You're not my son. You're nothing.
You see Dalmar's right shoulder move as if he was going to try and punch his dad.
There's no arm.
He's not used to being forced to be left-handed yet.
Pathetical whelp.
He grabs you by the hair, and he shoves it against the wall.
No!
The back of your head collides against the wall.
He stands up.
He turns around and he just goes,
Pack up his things. Keep him out of my fucking sight. Clean the room when he's gone.
He walks away, and he just goes,
Can't protect a fucking thing in his life. Stupid prick.
Okay.
And he shuts the door, and you hear him kicking walls outside.
And in his fury, he comes back. He just charges back in, and he continues to yell.
What the fuck? I hate this man.
You are caught in this terrible storm of abuses.
As the servants, as the maids, attempt to pack your things,
the man who is biologically your father continues to scream.
Blow after blow.
Oh my god.
Virgo or physical?
Verbal.
At that point, Dalmar is going to weakly pick himself up off the floor,
and without taking any of his belongings that have been packed or still out,
he is going to leave.
And that's right, leave. He follows you.
Oh my god, no, can you just kill him? Can someone kill him, please?
He follows you.
And he just goes, he just goes, look at this dower. Just fucker, still in my house.
Just goes, yeah, that's right, leave.
And as you open the door and you walk out into the rain, he continues.
He just goes, everyone look, everyone look.
Throw the face of a coward, a fucking worm.
Yes, everyone look. Everyone look.
Look at what the face, the head of the almighty set Golden Rock does to his own blood.
The moment you do that and he senses that, he just comes in with like a slap to the back of your head.
Stop, someone kill him, please.
And do you continue, despite the slap to the back, do you continue to say, to finish what you said?
You said absolutely, absolutely.
And as you get to the gate, he puts his foot on your back, he just shoves you.
I know Dalmar can do this since I can do it, but even with one hand, Dalmar is able to remove a ring from his index finger.
A simple golden ring at the crest of set Golden Rock.
And he will throw it into the mud.
Spit on the ring and leave, the only home he's known.
You leave in defiance.
That last motion of defiance, the throwing of the ring, the spitting on it.
Your dad saw it.
It enraged him, but didn't.
There wasn't any physical repercussions for it at all.
There was just quiet brewing scorn.
As he looks at you.
It's that one scorn look that the entire family has grown to fear.
When only his lip is quivering, his mouth is agape, and it's just those crazy wide open eyes.
When he looks at you.
Nonetheless, with your last act of defiance, and knowing that he saw it, you abandon your name and walk away with nothing but your clothes.
Your dad, you can't hear, but you can definitely hear his voice echoing throughout the mountains.
As he seemingly yells at the nearby people around him.
You can't protect people.
You are nothing.
Not his son.
All of that.
It always hurts when it comes from the person who is supposedly the one who to protect you.
The one who is supposed to love you without requisite.
Here you are now, looking over the pickaxe in your hand as you prepare for the journey ahead.
It's like you're going in deep all over again.
Take a point of inspiration.
You have a long night ahead of you.
You're not Dalmar Goldenrock anymore.
Cecilia, any thoughts as you're gathering your equipment and getting ready?
She's just, everything just feels kind of to her with her and Delmira, everything feels shaky to her, I think is all.
But nonetheless, it's just like how you started this journey.
It's shaky, but you have to.
There's a lot to do.
It's now the time to be brave.
This entire plan hinged on a hope that you had placed a good bit ago.
This has to work.
It has to.
Get a point of inspiration.
Jean Claude.
Do I get a point of inspiration?
No.
You can take one of my three.
Well rub it in my face, why don't you?
That talk with Delmira and understanding.
You realize that Captain Valathani's oath.
Couldn't have submitted to it.
All life.
I forget that oath was with her.
All life.
I was also like, what's he talking about?
All life must be preserved.
You're on your own and you're a seeker.
She's an ancient.
But.
The importance of lives have shifted and your priorities have changed over the past few hours.
The people that you love must live and you must be there to see them grow.
And for that you must live.
Yep.
Take a point of inspiration.
Yay.
As the three of you gather.
Armor if you're wearing it.
Weapon if you have them in your hand.
Delmira stands.
Hammer on her shoulder.
A nod to the three of you.
And Lee on a horse.
Lee goes.
Are you ready?
John Cloud looks to Cecilia to give the word.
She's not expecting to give the word so she doesn't do anything.
Not just you and eyebrows waggle.
As your eyebrow waggle Delmira goes.
Alright everyone.
He gently puts his hand out for her and points to Cecilia.
What's wrong?
Yeah what's up?
You know do the thing.
The thing?
Not you Delmira.
This is not your turn.
Her turn.
Do the thing Cecilia.
Do what thing?
Do you know the thing that you like charge it like you rally the troops and like the final whale before we go off.
Do the thing.
I.
I don't I don't really know what.
Lee goes.
We do have to hurry.
He goes come on do this inspiring thing.
Adventure thing.
I think we're good to go.
Good job.
A starting point.
Yeah well they all clap.
Delmira goes.
Alright everyone.
I forgot what I was gonna.
I was gonna do a rousing thing.
John Cloud gives a heavy side eye.
Let's mosey.
Nod.
And as the three of you march.
Towards.
Towards Vrexen.
With a renewed determination in your heart.
And hopefully a fuckload of luck on your side.
The last thing we see as we drift off.
The site.
Of a big bright red moon.
Over the large city.
The grand scheme of things these trees are dots.
I like shining in the darkness.
And that is where we're going to end.
Today's session.
Of the Naya Expedition.
Fuck me.
Thank you Tim but also fuck Tim.
That.
Every game.
What the fuck.
Yeah basically every game.
Delmar's dad is like on par with Brando.
You know what I mean like the feelings that like Brando evokes in you where you're like.
Yeah.
Pure emotional abuse.
I remember when Brando beat frickin had had Deacon beat Darryl like.
It was awful.
It was very much that like and I was like no no no.
And guess what happened to Brando.
He got he died.
So so is this guy.
So that's what happened.
I mean I would just say it is extremely gratifying to see the backstory we planned well before Delmar even showed up finally be fully show.
I don't work up to it.
You got it though.
I got it.
I hate that man.
Oh my gosh so skipping 21st and 28th stream dates and next will be fourth.
We're not 100% sure if we will be back on the fourth.
We're not 100% sure in the fourth and shaky on the 11th because I am driving down to Mississippi from from Pennsylvania.
They go see family.
So we're probably going to be driving the week before.
It's an it's 18 hours of driving.
Oh Jesus.
Oh it's fun.
Oh.
So we'll see and Tut of enemies Vietnamese Tut is on the 10th.
Happy to.
Is on the 10th.
Fourth might be more likely than the 11th.
Yeah.
But I have to like I said I have to go check in with people and and see when when's wanted and when are we going to go.
But yeah just just expect the next few dates to be kind of tentative.
But we'll make we'll make announcements in the in the server.
Keep an eye on the discord.
Because we're going into some crazy territory.
The end of this arc right.
And of the arc.
No I think we're just going to walk up and take the moon shard and call it done.
Yeah let's just call it a day.
Oh I don't think it's going to be that easy.
So the thing the wisdom thing I had you roll earlier.
Yeah what is that.
Trying to have Jean Claude realize that there's a sort of a theme going on when when you have like really strong emotions or like promises that kind of reverberate throughout the place.
K4 was touched inspired by Jean Claude's earlier thing about self sacrificing.
That's exactly what he did.
Did I did I tell him to do that.
No you didn't.
But they can sense the emotions.
You inspired him.
Remember.
So I inspired him to his death.
Our memories and our feelings.
Jesus Christ.
So it was a mirror of Jean Claude.
No I got him killed.
It was a level up by the way.
Level up which is a statement that is good in the future.
I don't want to have to go through Dalmar's level up process.
Why.
It is so complex with this character.
I want Jean Claude to stop having such strong fucking feelings.
This is the place to not do it.
That's it.
Getting you ready for the Feywild.
Getting you ready for it.
No.
Jean Claude.
No wonder Jean Claude struggled in the Feywild.
No you see what I mean.
He's got low fucking wisdom.
He's screwed from the get go.
And that would have been right after Sylvie went missing which is I mean anyone would
be a mess.
Yeah.
It's not fun.
Not a good time.
Gonna pick a fight with every blade of grass.
Literally like anything is a threat.
Anything is a threat.
And we'll be back in chat just laughing with everyone else as it happens.
Yeah you're gonna be safe.
You're gonna be nice and toasty watching us.
Well after that fucking dad beat down oh my god.
We planned that.
I knew it was coming too.
That was awful.
Just channeling you know the good old Vietnamese tradition.
No.
Tim.
Love you Tim.
JT sitting here like so proud though.
I will only I'm only writing supportive parents for all my PCs from here on out.
Supporting loving parents.
Supportive parents or even for my characters parents.
What are those?
Parents or precto figures.
Are the supportive you gonna get a supportive parents or a dad you really want to kill.
We have two of those so far.
I was gonna say wait that's very true.
That seems to go one way or the other.
Alright everyone.
Thank you so much for watching.
We'll see you next time.
Bye.
Whenever it is.
Bye.
Goodnight.
Thanks for watching.