Salutations Traveler and welcome back to the Sea of Stars.
I'm Troll Toll and this is my bridge.
As always, I'm here to provide you two things.
Relative safety, very relative safety, and entertainment.
I am very impressed with how good you are getting at paying your fee, as it is already done.
So all you have to do is close your eyes and follow the sound of my voice.
We find ourselves in a massive port, covered in mist, with the ship sitting on mist, and everything being kind of misty.
There's a theme here.
And we find our party, talking to someone they know better than to talk to, for no other reason than because...
I mean, why not?
Let's get back to our story.
Looking for rooms? I want a potency room and a striking room.
Roll.
No. It's gone so poorly so far.
I'm missing two dice and I don't enjoy that.
That's a 14.
That's a 14. Okay, you don't see rooms.
But you do see someone you recognize.
Sitting in a corner, in a stall tucked out of the way, surrounded by his brook or baskets, is Jax.
I'll continue to look for rooms.
You continue to look for rooms, and then as you do, Jax waves at you guys and goes,
Hey! Hey, it's you guys! How you doing?
I ignore him.
Do not engage with that crazy demon man.
You can roll a will save if you want, but you need to roll a natural 20.
Roll a will save to... Okay.
All of us or...?
Yes, all of you.
Actually, just make these.
I don't roll a natural 20.
Okay. Yes.
I have some nice...
...rooms over here I might be able to part with.
Um... I'm not going to say this.
Okay.
I'm looking for a room unless they don't let me spend any money.
Or sign anything, or agree to anything.
Well, I'm finishing up here, so I'll come with you.
Seriously.
Alright. No money, no nothing. Alright. Okay.
He goes.
My favorite customers! Asario!
How you doing?
Jax.
And I don't remember your name, but you're looking for some rooms.
Why are you looking to get etched?
I'm okay. Thank you.
He goes. You don't want any.
No, I need some very badly.
But when I take out my sword, I say, this sword is quite valuable to me.
It's not valuable to anybody else, but it's valuable to me.
He looks ears over it.
And then I look at my shield and I go, this is a family heirloom.
I'm not willing to etch.
If I'm not just anyone.
Ha ha ha ha!
Let's skip the plunge of the shirt.
Let's skip the dance here, make peace. You know what I am.
Yes. I know you're not going to just take Renown.
Yes. I might not have to take any Renown at all.
I just gotta make a deal.
Right. That's what I'm afraid of. So I'm offering Renown.
Renown. Well, sure, we can make a deal for Renown.
What are you looking for exactly?
I'm looking for a potent serum and a striking room.
Potency rune and a striking rune.
Well, I can certainly do that for you, make peace.
It's only going to cost you a little bit though.
Okay. As long as you do a favor for me.
Do go on.
I can do the potency rune for just two tails.
As long as you owe me a small favor.
No. What's a small favor? Give me an example of a small favor.
A small favor might be going and, I don't know, catching me a fish.
What if the place you wanted me to catch a fish from was a place that had some kind of incredible religious or sentimental value?
If I were to be catching the fish, I would be doing some kind of damage.
I recognize that fact and I say no, I won't catch you the fish because that's not a small favor.
Would you agree to that?
Roll the potency.
I can't stand it. You can use your lore legal for that roll.
Yeah, I would do that. It's an 18.
18 on the dice or 18 total? 18 total.
Alright, so he goes...
That is a very interesting, interesting little story you have there, mate.
I think that...
You know what? How about this?
One potency rune, four tails, straight deal.
You can roll a check to see if you know what the value of that is.
Yeah, I'm going to roll a phrasal check on that.
So plus one potency rune.
That's...
Appraisal is a skill, right?
No, appraisal is not a skill.
Appraisal is something you do with...
Again, we are looking at path builder right now, folks, and we are looking at actions you can take.
I would say appraisal would be your perception.
Okay.
Or actually, I think that would be a knowledge check.
I agree with that.
For this, I'd say you can do...
I love crafting.
Yeah, we can do...
Society?
Arcane. Arcana.
Arcana?
Yep.
Arcana is a bit steep.
You think that that's a bit steep?
Jax, right?
Mm-hmm.
Jax.
No, thank you.
That's incredibly interesting. We await our next conversation with eager interest.
What if I said that this would give you extra potency?
Oh my, are you offering me demon-fedder riches?
With demons.
Now why would you want to do something like that?
Oh, no particular reason.
I can basically smell the eggs off you now.
No, I'm not one of them.
Sure.
He goes, I want you to understand something, make peace.
For me, calling me a devil or a demon would be like me calling you an ant.
Don't insult me, please.
I'll roll a something on that.
Knowledge religion?
Arcana. Or sorry, be a cult.
You can all roll if you want to. You probably wouldn't have any of these.
No idea.
That's pretty good. That's 25.
25.
18.
There are things that are present in the world that are not from the world.
Things like Natru would be an example.
There are things that people call them a lot of things.
The most common phrase for them are whores.
Or...
What's it called?
Whore. H-O-R-R-O-R.
Okay.
Whore.
Not whore.
There were questions there for me.
The most common word for them is whores.
Sometimes they're referred to as the others.
Or the outsiders.
Not much is known about them besides that.
But in your training with the Ironwood, you were taught that these are very dangerous beings.
They should be treated with very carefully.
You're also taught never to insult one.
So I look at them and I say, Jax, I apologize for my behavior.
I've been callous and I'm tired.
I will have to pass out the room, however, because I don't feel I fully understand the details of the exchange you're offering to me.
I wouldn't want to disrespect you by entering into a bargain without the full knowledge of it.
What about you two?
How about you, Jors?
Can I back up?
I'll leave you there to die.
I'll just give you a pat. Good job, buddy.
When he said...
You want a spicier temple room?
Or a temple sword?
When he said the devil sling, I perked up immediately.
Oh.
Yes.
Same deal.
Small favor, 80 or no.
And the potency rune that deals extra... that will hurt the devils more.
I take my time thinking about it.
Okay.
But I've already...
Roll a perception check?
Yeah.
Not great.
13.
Okay, yeah.
You get nothing.
Yeah.
I'm going to hesitantly agree to it.
Okay.
Because my desire to kill these things are...
One small favor and 80 or no.
He extends a hand.
Okay.
Do you shake it?
I do.
Okay, the second your hands touch, you feel power slam down on you.
I love your group!
Give me your sword.
I give him the sword.
When he etches something into it and touches it, it all of a sudden glows with a purplish,
reddish light.
You almost hear the sound of rushing water as he does, combined with the sound of screams.
He hands it back to you.
Take it like I'm holding something scary.
When you put your hands on it, you feel the power in that sword is strong.
Just to be...
And you note that your temple sword now has a plus one potency rune on it.
Okay.
That deals an extra plus two damage to...
Potency rune to attack.
Yes.
You mean it has an extra plus two to attack, or are you saying it does more damage?
Attack.
The striking runes do damage.
Yep, you're right.
So that is...
So what it does is...
Yeah, to attack, not to damage.
So you have an extra plus one to attack against everyone, and an extra plus three to attack
towards fiendish creatures, which includes devils, demons, and all that stuff.
Okay.
So you... okay.
Also make a note that this now does an extra one damage when you're attacking fiendish creatures.
You're listening to Risk and Reputation, a Sea of Stars story.
Cho'otol, I need to talk to you for a second.
Susan, you're back already, I see.
Yes, yes.
No trouble at all.
Just, you know, a little bit of arguing here and there, a little bit of resistance, but
nothing we couldn't take care of.
But I have something to talk to you about.
Everybody, this is Susan.
She's one of the technicians on the buses that transport heroes to other worlds.
What do you need, Susan?
Actually, wait.
What Susan needs after these ads.
I don't really appreciate being told to wait.
All the things I do for us here, and I think I deserve a little bit more respect than that.
Susan, you have all the respect you deserve.
I'm sorry I made you wait.
Now, what is it you need?
Well, I'm here to ask to go back again, if you must know.
I think it's been long enough, and I think I've paid my debt to society, and you know,
what I did was so small anyway, you should send me back.
Back, huh?
You paid your debt.
Ha ha ha ha.
Yeah, okay.
Just one minute, Trolltel.
I would like to speak.
Back to our story.
So make a note that you now have a sword that is plus one potency rune and a bane rune towards fiendish creatures.
Yes, sir.
Jax winks at you and goes, well, they got two of you now, two favors.
Just one more, and he looks at Makepeace.
I'm not in there.
I'm hiding behind a false one.
No, Makepeace looks back and just nods.
I hope you have a wonderful day, Jax.
Yes.
I've got to sift through your mind a little bit there, Makepeace, so I'm going to be honest with you.
And I'll have your love next time.
Till then.
Then he says in other Fasinky's voice, good on you, Makepeace.
He says that as you have turned to walk away.
I will falter for a second and then continue.
You all look back.
Hell no.
Do you either of you guys look back?
I'll look back.
I have no reason not to look back.
You guys are in for a penny, you might as well be in for a pound.
Stahl is gone.
I do a double take.
It's just, I hate when they do that.
Okay, so that was the room Stahl.
Do you want to continue looking for another room Stahl?
Makepeace would, yes.
Okay.
But at this point, he's significantly chilled.
If he sees a Stahl that looks like just what he wants, he probably would stop.
But he's a Stahl and he thinks for a second that Jax is involved.
He's like, Makepeace might leave the shifts right now.
At that point.
Because it does feel like, because Jax obviously made it personal.
He's taking an interest in us.
That means it would be in our interest to not be here.
So as you walk around, one of the things you know is that pretty much everybody here is super sketchy.
You're seeing undead, you're seeing hags, you're seeing types of creatures where you've done something to become that thing.
Or had something done to you.
And the things they're selling tend to be pretty sketchy.
Like the first hag whose name you never got, her shop, was probably the most wholesome one you've seen.
Most of the herbalist shops you're seeing around carry things that can be turned into poisons.
Things that would be illegal in other places.
You're also seeing a lot of drugs for sale.
What about, oh really?
Lots of them.
He got a big smile on his face.
I also want to do a perception roll followed by a lure of brothels.
Yep.
Can you do that?
At 20?
Yeah.
Oh my god.
What are you looking for?
A tasteful problem.
And also an armor.
That would have rooms.
An armor that would have rooms.
For your armor and shields.
You do see an armorer who has warded stuff displayed.
And you do very quickly, with Make Pieces Clat, or Practice Eye It, looking for these things, spot a brothel that looks trashy.
But you look at the girls that are out in front of it, and the young gentleman, and you're like, that's a front.
Trashy but classic.
You're just filling the cank.
Make Pieces says to Asari Alanthras, I need to make two stops.
Well, I might only need to make one stop.
But we'll see how much money is left over if we make two stops.
He pushes three tails into Thras's hand.
If you want to take it.
He says, just keep that.
I might need a lighter.
Okay, so I take it.
Holding three tails.
He walks over to the armorer first.
Okay.
Now you go over to the armor.
And I ask the armorer if he has any ability or runes I could use for when I take out, first of all, the perception on the armorer.
Okay.
Good.
21.
Okay.
Roll a more legal.
22.
23.
With a 23 and your 21, you notice under his hair, which is, he has very low cut bags, there is a mark on his forehead.
That mark is a signifier for wizards that have broken cardinal rules.
In this case, the rule he broke is that he did things that altered flesh without permission.
I walk up to his stall and I take my shoe off my back.
I kind of put it, like you're throwing me a lead on a little bit.
Tell me how we can enhance this.
He looks at the shield and looks around it.
I've been thinking about it.
Like maybe he's got like a bull rush.
I just feel like it could use more.
It's a family heirloom.
Yes.
Very nice.
Are you sure that that is an air zone?
It looks like you grew them yourself.
He's looking over your shield at your arms.
I say to him, no, I'm talking about my shield.
Oh, the shield.
Yes, I don't really do runes on shield, but I can sell you one if you'd like.
What do you have in chain now?
He turns towards his armor and he starts looking through it.
He goes, thing now, thing now.
Yes, I have some stuff.
How much are you looking to spend?
I can spend up to 10 tails.
10 tails, okay.
That's not a whole lot.
Not a whole lot of thaw, really.
I'll tell you what, if you have one that has just the potency and not the runes, I can take that.
He reaches up and he takes off an armor that's made of a strange leather.
He leavers down and goes, this right here can protect you from poison.
I perception check those fudge out of that leather.
Okay, roll.
Actually, I don't.
I said, where'd the leather come from?
Yes.
This leather is from the finest of dreads.
Persons.
This leather is not from a person.
Not anymore.
It depends on your definition of person.
I hate this place.
I hate everything about this place.
I promise you it is not human skin.
Mickey just spins around and walks away and looks at the brothel.
He was so excited about it, he's like, this is going to be more of the same shit.
I'm not going to get caught slipping here.
You will not catch me lacking.
Mickey is going to walk right back to Thross, hold out his hand, give me the one-hound.
I hand it back to him.
He puts it away and says, let's go find whatever we're looking for because I swear to God, I've got to get out of this place.
As you start walking away, a halfling walks up to you.
He's dressed in a blue shirt with a mark that has a sign that you recognize as the Abilcashy universal symbol for a messenger.
A mailman.
He walks up and he looks at a picture.
He looks at you.
Make these clover?
Yes.
Oh, good.
I have a package for you, sir.
How the hell did you get here?
Roll a perception check.
26.
Okay.
In that case, you notice the knife.
Yes, hidden under his coat.
I need everyone to roll initiative.
Do I get a surprise action?
No.
For the stuff roll?
No.
Okay.
But he doesn't have any.
You block his.
Yeah, gotcha.
Good luck with it.
22.
15.
30, 20.
Okay.
And then he is going to get a 30, 20 as well.
All right.
So you see the knife and as he reaches out to side, for you to side for something, his
hand drops down to the knife.
You see this.
Well, by perception, does he seem to be particularly strong?
He, you notice that the armor that the shirt he's wearing has a little bit of a shimmer
over it as if it's magical.
Okay.
The armor he's wearing is a shimmer over it.
So the uniform he's wearing has a shimmer over it as if it's magical.
Okay.
Because you notice the knife, you see runes on the blade of the knife.
It is a magical knife as well.
Okay.
And then I'm going to take out my shield.
As an action.
Using both hands of my shield, I'm going to bull rush him and attempt to knock him wrong.
Okay.
Trying to land on top of him.
Go on with that.
Actually, do you have that?
I was thinking of the athletics.
Do you have that feat?
I don't have that feat.
Yeah, I don't have that feat.
I can't use my weapon.
So if you had a feat, you would roll an attack roll for this to do it.
But since you don't have that feat, you're going to roll a straight athletics jack.
Yep.
What's a 26, Gabby?
A 26.
You are trying to hit him with it.
I'm going to say, what specifically are you trying to do?
You're just trying to knock him down?
I'm going to hit him on the shield.
Okay.
So you knock him to the ground prone, but he rolls out of the way as you come down.
I'm going to say that you are not prone, but that he is prone now.
Do I still have a third action?
Da da da.
You do.
I am going to draw my sword.
Okay.
That isn't action.
No, I'm not going to do that.
I want to, can I attempt to just smash him in the face with my shield?
Yep, you can make an attack while he's on the ground.
Do I get any kind of bonus because he's prone?
What's your, are you?
This is with an improvised weapon.
Yeah.
So.
I don't understand how I, I don't know if that's possible.
He has a minus two to his AC.
Gotcha.
What is your attack with an improvised weapon?
I don't know.
Okay.
No, I have a shield.
Yeah.
I was going to say, wasn't that one of your combat things?
Yeah.
And okay, cool.
So this is actually pretty easy to figure out.
So this is going to be an attack roll.
Yep.
And so he has a minus two to his AC.
I have no, I have no pluses to mine.
That's fine.
Prone just takes away from his, it doesn't add to yours.
Okay.
That's going to be a 14 to hit.
A 14 to hit?
Yes.
A 14 does not hit.
Okay.
So you go to smash him, he lands on the ground, or he rolls out of the way again.
That is Thross.
What is your perception?
Plus seven.
Plus seven, okay.
You go next.
Okay.
So there's, can I look around?
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, so I'll do a perception check to see if he's alone.
12 plus, so 19.
19.
You're pretty sure he's alone.
Okay.
Are you on top of him?
Okay.
I sit on him.
You try and sit on him?
Yeah.
Okay.
Roll a athletics check for grab.
Let's see.
17 plus eight.
24?
24, okay.
He is.
25.
You sit on him, he is sat apart.
Okay, and I just sit there.
Okay, so you lose your other turn, okay.
As you sit on top of him, he growls and goes, if y'all didn't get my way, you wouldn't have
had to be here.
He's going to make an attack on you.
26?
Oh, yeah.
What's your AC?
17.
17, okay.
Okay.
Lucky you.
Oh, I should have taken mountain stands.
Damn it.
So what does him sitting on him accomplish?
He's grappled.
He was grappled and prone.
But he's not restrained.
He's not restrained, no.
Oh, I should have restrained.
You could have tried to restrain him.
I wasn't thinking.
Yep.
You're a better man than me.
I would have said that I tried to restrain him.
I know, I'm supposed to play.
You're doing it the right way.
And two.
So that's going to be two, five, nine damage.
And I need you to make a fortitude save.
26.
26, okay.
And how much damage was it?
I'm sorry.
That was nine damage.
Nine?
You do not take the persistent bleed damage.
He's going to attack you again.
Yeah, it's a 28.
Yes.
Critical success.
Even with his subtraction of...
Oh yeah, he should have one too.
So, well, they both would have hit.
Yeah.
It's not a critical success though.
Okay.
Was this 26 a critical success?
No.
To sit on him?
No.
Okay.
Same thing.
That's going to be nine damage again.
Okay.
Yeah, because you have a 17.
So that would be...
Oh, you sat on him.
He attacked you, he attacked you.
He gets one more attack.
That is a nine.
No.
So that's a fail.
Okay.
Yeah, so that happens.
So he attacks you twice and just...
He rips out this very odd looking knife
and the third time you're open, push him away.
But yeah, he got you.
He got got.
That's not real.
It's your turn.
I will cast Magic Missile on him.
How does your Magic Missile manifest itself?
Ooh.
That's a really good question.
I haven't thought about that.
All right.
You're listening to Risk and Reputation, a Sea of Stars story.
Susan, you're not allowed to use your power here.
You know that.
It is against the rules.
Well, I think those rules are unfair, Trolltall.
And secondly, I think that if I have the ability to do it,
I should be allowed no matter what.
It's my prerogative.
No, Susan.
It...
We'll continue this after these ads.
Welcome back to the Sea of Stars.
And it's not your prerogative, Susan.
It's a cosmic rule that we agreed upon when we made our deal.
You know that.
Well, I feel like I made that deal under duress.
I mean, I was in a very stressful situation,
and I didn't see a way out, and I feel like you blackmailed me.
Then by all means, Susan, I can return you to your world,
and you can face justice for what you did.
That is quite unfair, Trolltall.
I really...
Back to our story!
So what is your, uh...
I think my Magic Missile...
There's so many aspects to her.
I think I'd like it to just be these, like, blinding,
like, lights that come out of her.
Okay.
Yeah, just this pure energy.
Um, and I'll use three.
So the first one will be four damage, I believe,
and then five,
and then two.
So...
Four, five, two.
I just waited.
Eleven damage, yeah.
Okay, that happens.
Is that all three of your turns, or is that...
That's three actions if I use all three missiles.
Okay.
And then each time you level up,
that gives you an extra missile per action, or how does that work?
No, it's just a level one spell.
Okay.
Oh, each...
Yeah, gotcha.
So each action I spend.
Okay, so that happens.
We are back up to make peace.
Um...
I'm going to, uh...
I'm gonna soften up a little bit.
Um, I'm gonna stop still within five of them, right?
Yep.
Draw my sword.
Action.
Spell strike.
Okay.
And that's it.
So I'm gonna attack the spell strike with a Galgy Claw.
Yep.
Okay, yep.
That room would have helped out.
Uh, that's gonna be, to hit is gonna be a seventeen.
Um, so he is prone and he is grappled, so that is going to hit.
Oh, awesome.
Uh, cool.
So that's gonna be...
Eight slashing damage plus...
Plus...
... six more...
And I'll just change up and do piercing damage too for that.
Okay.
Piercing damage.
Six more piercing damage.
So that's fourteen damage total.
Wow.
Okay, he's starting to look pretty messed up.
It is now, um, Mr. Thross's turn.
Oh, actually, give me one more forward to save, please.
Okay.
Eighteen.
Okay, uh, you're all set.
Go ahead and take your turn.
Um, seeing Maypiece strike with his sword, I'll just strike with mine, so I'll take it out and then, um, do Flurry of Blows.
Yep.
If you draw your sword, you do a Flurry of Blows.
And just, I want to clarify something real quick.
Yep.
Is this a plus nine now, with the room?
Uh...
Was it a plus eight before?
Yeah, what was used before?
Yes, it's a plus nine with the room.
Yes.
Okay.
So that's a twenty-six.
Twenty-six.
That hits.
Okay.
I'll just roll both attacks first and then do the damage.
Um, why can't I do math today?
Twenty-five.
Twenty-five also hits.
Okay.
So, uh, I'm going to take my turn.
Twenty-five also hits.
So that's one eight, one eight.
So six.
And ten, so sixteen.
Sixteen.
Wow.
And then, um, I'm just going to do Mountain Stance as my last action.
Okay.
Um, before you do Mountain Stance.
How many actions is Flurry of Blows?
One.
Wow.
Before you do Mountain Stance.
How do you want to take this man's life?
Damn it, not again!
I keep doing this, um, well, because I'm still sitting on him, technically.
Um, I'm just, I'm going to take my sword and just stab it between my legs.
You just sit on it and just...
Ah!
What the...
He sees this and he goes, he sees you get ready to go and he goes,
I am the legendary Starward Thatcher!
You can't do me like...
And he's dead.
I look up and I'm like, I hope you didn't need him for anything.
Yeah, that was pretty critical that you survived this.
No.
I put like eight for price.
I can heal him.
Okay.
Alright, so...
I get up.
Real quick.
Eight.
So eight people saw you.
Well, can Makepeace try to mitigate this?
Can I add this a little bit?
You don't want to?
Uh, Makepeace is going to say out loud,
Thross, I can't believe that you just murdered that assassin
that was trying to kill us here in broad daylight.
Okay, I'm going to have you make a...
We're going to say a base check for this is a 15.
Every step above, you can improve your challenge rating on this.
I cough and say, saved, not murdered.
I said what I said.
Roll your diplomacy check.
Roll performance.
Something else to do is in the future.
No, I don't trust you.
You need to call beforehand.
I can't.
Alright, that's a nine.
That's a nine.
Okay, that's a critical failure.
No, it's not.
It's just a failure.
So you don't change your thing at all,
but he was still a challenge rating three, so...
12, 13, 25, 13, 38 times three.
Or, sorry, 28 times eight.
Thross, you get an extra 18.
Okay.
How does his uncertified bad renown work?
His uncertified bad renown makes it so that when people deal with him,
he will get a little bit of a...
Basically, it changes his...
Kind of like the getting bad from fables.
But it doesn't affect the value of the...
And also, it's only basically going to be affected right here.
Otherwise, it's just renown.
That was 28 plus three or 28 plus eight?
For the renown.
28 times eight.
I got 224 for everyone.
Thank you.
And then 242 for the Thross.
Okay, but we have to cash it in for that to count.
Okay, I'll cast Heal.
Okay, as you're doing that, I'm going to take that knife out of that guy's hand.
Do you want to restrain him?
I'll gesture while I'm working on him.
You take the knife out of the guy's hand.
As you stabbed him repeatedly...
It can sound any worse, why don't you?
Also, you find that the armor he was wearing...
Or the clothes he was wearing was an illusion.
His armor...or after you kill him or knock him unconscious...
You notice that his clothes that made him look like a messenger
turned into a very interesting looking armor that Makepeace would recognize.
What does it look like?
He is wearing Ironwood Needle mail.
Could that armor fit me?
This is a halfling.
It might fit Thross.
Can you wear armor?
No.
He's a monk.
It's not resizable.
I really delicately take off the armor though.
Okay, as he said, they're bleeding out, you take off the armor?
Yeah, I said do not try to heal this man yet.
I'm going to take that armor off.
He's going to die.
Then he's going to die.
You're going to let him die?
I'm going to let him die over this.
Okay, you take his shirt off, that's going to be one.
It's two actions.
All right, so you're doffing his armor, so he's got...
How many times do you roll that dice?
It's for dramatic effects.
He's rolling dust saves.
I know about this, that's two rounds.
To take the armor off.
No, doffing takes like 10 minutes.
To rip armor off a person, you're just ripping their armor off.
Can I stabilize him while you do that?
Yeah, you can do that.
So we can then decide.
Yeah.
So roll a medicine check?
Yeah.
Because he's half on trust.
Keep in mind, it's every six seconds is a round.
I understand.
What are you?
19.
19, okay, that is enough to stabilize him.
Great, so he's still on confidence.
No, that just gives him one pass from the dust save.
Okay.
So he's currently at one level of dying right now.
So he needs to get up one more to be saved.
So I'm going to roll again.
I have a med kit, but yeah.
Okay, that was a critical failure.
Okay, I only have a 10.
So he is now at three stages or steps of dying.
I can assist in the healing.
Have you gotten a med kit yet?
He looked for one in the market.
I don't know if he entered.
No, I never looked for one in the market.
Yeah, so you don't have one yet.
How many saves have you made for this guy?
He has saved.
Once he has three failures.
How many rolls have you made?
Three.
I'm going to say that his clothes, I'm going to say that you have his shirt off right now.
His pants are almost off.
And everyone is now watching you.
I'm just sitting around talking to you.
He's got a full body of iron needle.
I take the shirt off and I ask you to heal him.
Okay.
Actually, so what would actually be for chain mail?
No, you wouldn't have chain mail pants.
So it would just be the shirt.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Okay.
So yeah, the shirt's off.
He is very close to death.
I promise to explain this another time.
You're the best.
I'll say if anyone's hurt, come close.
The thross is pretty whooped.
Oh yeah.
She's passing out healing spells.
So I use the full three actions and I will do, that will be 10 heal.
10?
10 damage healed.
And that will count, that's an area effect.
Oh, sweet.
So 30 feet.
I'm still sitting on him?
No.
So a big piece if you need to.
I'm fully healthy.
Okay.
The pride's a little hurt, baby.
It hasn't gone like I thought it would.
Is he back?
He looks around and sees all the crowd and everyone in the crowd just snaps.
Good job.
Good show.
Everyone take another 19 renown.
Okay.
I stole his shirt and knife and my...
He starts checking himself.
What's it...
My Jack in this box.
Okay, in Jack's box?
Yeah.
Okay, that is not a bag of holding to be clear.
It's big enough for a halfling's armor, isn't it?
Yeah, you could probably stuff it in there.
You can stuff it in there, that's fine.
Okay, yeah.
I want to do that because it can be locked.
Yep, you do that.
I lock it in my bag.
Okay.
That happens.
He looks up at you and goes, I will tell you nothing.
Nothing, you hear?
Unless you're going to pay me for it.
I don't think you're really in a position to bargain.
And I'll get behind him and just kind of tie his hands together.
So you roll him over and you start tying his hands.
So you have Thross get off of him so you can roll him over to tie his hands up.
Maybe you could help me grab one.
Yep.
I have a decent athletics, which I'm assuming I'm rolling.
I'm going to have you actually roll Fever-y for that.
That makes sense.
14.
Okay, you do that.
Nice.
Good job.
Thanks.
Roll Perception.
23.
8.
He gets out.
Asariel ties what looks like a knot.
You know how to tie these.
It looks good.
Thross, or not Thross, what did you roll?
19.
19, okay, not Thross.
Make peace for us people before.
You see him start flexing his wrists as Asariel's tying it and know exactly what he's doing.
I say to Asariel, I say to him, Asariel, he's going to get out of those.
In fact, we don't need to make this a long conversation, my friend.
You've failed.
The only difference is to kill you again and leave you dead.
Okay, so for the record, I was intended to give you the message after I stabbed you.
After I stabbed you of, sorry.
I was instructed to give the message after I stabbed you that the Vonisterians send their regards.
So that's who sent me.
It's not a secret.
Now you know.
Roll Perception on that to see if he's telling the truth.
Yep.
That's a 14.
As best you can tell he's telling the truth.
What do y'all think?
I think I want to know what that means.
Me too.
Oh, you think he's telling the truth is why I was asking you.
You have a lot of explaining to do, make peace.
Alright, so.
He has a lot of explaining to do.
Yeah, there's all these things about this person who can't even kill him.
Who is he to go and get stabbed?
I just shut up.
You'll just say that the Rosnir are not commenting on the, I presume, 2000 years of life.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, you can comment.
As this is happening, the whole crowd has broken up a little bit.
23.
23 for the perception.
You also feel he's telling the truth.
The whole crowd is breaking up.
It seems as though this is not an uncommon occurrence here.
And yeah, so he says that to you, make peace.
He goes, no, I swear, I was hired by the Volisterians to give you good stabbing.
And give you the good poison I stabbed your friend with that he managed to not get affected by, which is amazing.
Important distinction for me.
Were you required to stab me with that knife in particular?
Or could it be any knife?
I mean, that's my knife.
So could you stab me with any knife?
No.
Well, yeah, but it had to have the poison on it.
It had to have the poison. That was specific.
Yeah.
I was going to try to help you out.
I'll take one of the legs for you.
But you could tell me to stab me and give you the message.
Pity.
I mean, if you're willing to do that, I could still give you the poison and just tell you how to make the antidote.
And all would have gone well.
You know what?
I'll owe you a favor.
You'll get a favor from the famous stalwart Thatcher expert assassin.
You know, just saying.
Do you live here in the shifts or do you live in the city?
Roll a perception check.
Twenty one.
That is one.
That is 100 percent Abakashi accent.
He is from the south of Abakashi.
I mean, he could live anywhere right now.
Yeah. And roll a.
Yeah.
He goes, I live where I live.
I'd rather not say.
But if you need to get a hold of me, you just need to go find.
Go down south in Abakashi or anywhere and sit anywhere in Abakashi and sin.
And you just need to leave me a sign somewhere visible.
And one of my people will get back to me.
What's the sign?
He goes, well, I'm not getting myself untied right now because I don't want to get stabbed again.
But I've got a card that's magical in my pocket.
And as long as it's in Abakashi, I'll get it.
I understand.
Why don't you take that card out?
My hands are.
He wiggles around.
Yeah, sure.
There.
If you can't get out of that, you're not that big of an assassin.
He pulls his hands out and reaches into his pocket and takes out a card and hands it to you.
I'll take the card.
OK.
And I fish around my pack for my cutlery.
I hand him my steak knife.
And I say, this leg, your leg first.
Poison my leg.
We're both poisoned.
We both get amped up.
What do you say?
Ah, shit.
All right.
So he reaches back into his pouch and pulls out a small vial.
He goes, whenever you're using poisons, you always keep the antidote on you just in case
you get yourself with it.
So he takes out a another vial, puts it on it, and goes, boom.
He carefully just drips some of the poisons or some of the antidote onto the wound.
He goes, all right.
That was painful.
Are you ready?
Yes.
He puts some more of the poison on the plate.
And I want him to stab me in the leg.
He slams your leg.
Yeah.
He gets you in the leg.
Roll a four to two.
My friend, this is Iocaine powder.
I don't know if I made myself immune to it, but it is.
I'm rolling a four to two without the antidote?
First, yeah.
That's pretty good.
That's really good.
Twenty-five.
You feel the poison pulse through your body, and you realize it's one that you've experienced
before, because it's used heavily by the vargenzy.
In fact, you developed a bit of immunity to it.
Iocaine powder.
Yeah.
So, you are unaffected by the poison.
Wow.
As he goes through a mist or the antidote, I'm actually, don't worry about it.
I was more concerned before.
Roll perception.
That sounds good.
That's only 13.
13.
Okay, so you don't see it.
You guys can also roll perception if you want to.
Okay.
19.
22.
You see the vial open upside down, clearly empty.
I just keep it empty.
Yeah, it's not worth it at this point, right?
He looks at you and goes, all right, that is, all right, give me my card back.
No.
It's a fake, okay?
It was a fake.
A fake card?
Mm-hmm.
So, I'm confused.
Why shouldn't we kill you?
He rolls his eyes, reaches into the back of his pocket, and pulls out a card that looks
like a shining thing, which I'm handing to you.
That was a real good thing you did.
Now going to be paid and not hunted by very scary people.
So, I appreciate that.
And if you ever do need a favor, burn this.
I don't know where you are.
You got to stay there.
And how far you are from the ships, that's how long it's going to take me to get there.
Thanks.
So, you do live here?
Of course.
Where else would a famous assassin live?
You think I just hang out in Abacache?
He's got a point there.
He could use his favor now and get a lot of stuff done really quickly, I feel like.
What do you want to get done?
I want to find the person we need to find.
We'll call him H.
Mm-hmm.
There's another person that I need to find that I feel like you might be uniquely suited
to help with.
Alright.
I'm listening.
Do you still want me to burn the card?
Yes.
I can't.
I need to find a fireman.
What are you looking for here?
What am I looking for?
I have a scorching blast, but I'm not going to cast it for this.
First, before we do anything else, I need to understand that you're not going to tell
anybody about this, you will not deposit it and make it a secret.
I mean, fine.
No, I want you to swear to it.
I swear I will not do this thing.
No, I want you to swear.
Exactly.
Or legal.
Yep.
That's a dirty twenty.
Unless you have a way to do something that's magically binding, this is not going to be
effective.
You can promise not to, but that's about it.
We have to go back to the bank, do all sorts of stuff.
I'll tell him, you know what, go ahead.
I'll try to solve some of them out.
I'll burn the card when I need to.
Yes.
Fair enough.
Gets up and just scammers off.
I'm exhausted.
This has been a day.
Well, we've got a lot more day ahead of us.
If we just don't go back to that house with those children, that will be a success, I
feel like.
So let's continue on.
Yeah, we should avoid that.
Okay.
What are you guys adding?
I still need my healing kit.
That's true.
Yeah, maybe you should.
Can I look for that?
So yeah, just roll a perception and see if you can find someone selling them.
Okay.
Oh, not twenty.
Not twenty.
Nice.
Okay.
You actually, now that you're looking for it, find them all over the place.
Okay.
As you're walking by, you actually notice the woman that Asara bought her stuff from
has a couple in her shack.
And as you guys are walking by, she's got a wave stand.
How do you notice them there?
I feel like an idiot for not noticing them before.
I walk over and say, can I just buy one of those healing kits?
Yeah, sure.
Here, you're Asariel's friend, right?
Yes.
Here you go.
Keep her alive.
Okay.
Do I owe you?
That's nice.
Nope, you're straight.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
I put it in my backpack.
But if you ever do need anything, remember, old Baba's got what you need.
Thank you very much, Baba.
Okay.
And I walk away.
Yeah, so you head out.
Where are you guys heading?
Lady Square.
Yeah, I think so.
We do need to remember to go back to the bank eventually again.
That's fine, though.
Oh, you're healing stuff, right?
I have healing stuff.
Oh, you're right.
Yep.
So we're the...
You could have this.
All right.
So we're heading...
Has it been an hour?
No.
Okay.
Well, yes, it has been more than an hour, but...
So I need to find my group guy.
Yeah.
I'm not set.
Yeah, sorry.
Go ahead.
All right, so you head back to...
You guys head back to the atrium and you meet your group guy.
Group guy.
Bones walks up to you and goes, hey, sorry, I didn't know how much you wanted, so I just
got a bunch.
Here's 10 of them.
Ten of them, so...
That'd be 400...
400 right now in total.
Renowned.
All right, so what I have on me right now is...
I have 220 that I can part with now.
And I can give you another 200?
Yeah.
Okay.
I know, we just came into some, so...
So four...
Well, you can't spend that.
No.
No, no, no.
This is what I had.
What you had.
So you hand him 420 Renowned and he hands you...
I feel like I'm gonna be healing you a lot.
Yes.
So you're spending how much?
220.
She's spending 220, he's spending 200.
Yeah.
That gives us four, so you guys now have 10 of the Living Roots.
Okay, 10 Living Roots.
Great.
Okay.
Fabulous.
All right, let's go.
All right, and we are gonna head to...
Your debt is paid.
He nods and goes, oh man, that's a good one to get off my shoulders.
You know, when you first found me all those years ago and I was just a shambling corpse,
I appreciate you freeing me.
That was one heck of a favor.
Good deal now, too.
He nods off.
That is a good favor.
Bye, Bones.
And yeah, so are you guys heading to the Lazy Square now?
Yeah.
Okay.
Welcome back to the Sea of Stars.
Susan, I'm not gonna warn you again.
You need to stop trying to use your powers or I'll take your ability to speak.
Well, I never, Trolltel.
What I did was so small, so incredibly small.
You know what?
What Susan did after these ads.
Welcome back to the Sea of Stars.
And I think you should fast forward over this part because it's not fair and it's my private
business and that's not right.
Yeah, because telling them not to listen is gonna make them actually not listen.
Come on, Susan.
I can't stress enough that I feel like anyone would have done the same in my situation.
Susan, you shot up an entire fast food restaurant because your fries weren't quite hot enough.
Look, you go out to eat, you expect your fries to be hot.
It's what you're paying for and their job is not really that hard.
You know, Susan, part of you being here is you're supposed to learn something.
Now get back on your ship.
Please.
And if I don't?
Then I send you back to your world and you face justice.
Is that what you want, Susan?
Do you want to face murder charges?
Fine.
Bye, Susan.
Now back to our story.
Okay, so you have your living root.
You have your healing kit.
Make peace.
You're scared of all vendors.
I'm not scared of all vendors.
I'm just wary.
Of all vendors.
You should be wary of all.
You're in a place where normal people can't go and bad people can and they're selling things to you.
Be wary.
All right, so where are you guys heading?
I can tell you never bought drugs on the show.
It's just straight plants.
Just saying.
It's true.
Tom.
I think we're going to the ladies square.
Okay, so you guys head to the ladies square.
The path to the ladies square is very different than the path to the fort of whispers.
Instead of walking through hallways that slowly turn into open air like port district.
You proceed through a series of rooms that at first look like board rooms.
But eventually start turning into nicer and nicer old Victorian style rooms with like filigree on the windows.
Until you finally come to a door that is opened by a very interesting looking woman.
She is classically beautiful with a painted face, long blonde hair, wide blue eyes.
Try to make a note that on the way here.
I would have taken great pains to press myself into my most peacockish.
Sure, yeah, that happens.
Large blue eyes and the most notable thing about her is she has the figure of a Barbie.
She is unnaturally thin with almost comically large boobs that's held up in a bodice.
She's wearing like a Victorian hoop skirt and all that jazz.
Inside you hear what's the instrument called? The old harpsichord?
The thing before harpsichord. It sounds tinny.
Harpsichord sounds tinny.
You hear a harpsichord playing in the background.
And there are people moving and talking amongst themselves inside the room.
She looks between all of you and she says,
Why hello, welcome to the ladies solar darlings. Come in, come in.
Makepeace looks around and smiles.
He's putting out his most winsome self this time.
She looks at Makepeace and goes,
Well, military man, I don't even think you're going to have to get changed.
Well, I'll have to defer to your better judgment.
No, darling, you are just a charmer.
Okay, well you two are going to have to change your clothes a little bit.
Appearances and everything.
Do you have a place we could change?
She points to the side and there is a small room with rows upon rows upon rows of Victorian dresses.
Oh, awesome.
And doublets and top hats and things like that just everywhere.
She says, If you would just take whatever clothes you want,
just make sure you're stylish and you don't ruin the vibe, all right?
Well, thank you. You ready to go play dress up?
I guess. I've never worn anything else but monk's robes.
Come on, Makepeace. You can advise.
As you wish.
Okay, so you guys go and get changed.
Either you guys want to, you know what, never mind.
Do you want to explain the clothes you're picking out?
Nope.
I barely understand what clothes are.
Makepeace takes the lead for a dress and picks out some more for a dress.
Okay. That works.
That makes total sense.
He's our little man. He's going to be all dressed up.
So the fashion of the day, which is what Thross would be wearing,
would be long black-tailed coats, dress pants,
sharp shoes that are shined, and a top hat or a bowler.
I think Thross is more of a bowler man myself.
I'm inclined to agree.
Makepeace, are you going to change?
No, I'm not going to change.
I'm going to slightly alter my outfit a little bit and make it more roguish.
I felt like her thing was a little underhanded, honestly.
I might not even have to change.
Makepeace doesn't think that.
Okay.
So you guys get out there. When you say roguish, what do you mean?
Do you mean rakish or do you mean...?
I mean rakish, yeah.
So you're kind of opening up your...
Open the lapel a little bit, but make sure it's got a crisp fold instead of looking sloppy.
His hair will be down, with styles, very intricately.
To the point where you guys would be like,
what do you think about this? And Makepeace would be like, that was great.
Super nice.
Okay, so you guys...
He's weaving beads into his hair.
You guys come back up and the woman who greeted you walks up to you as well and goes,
everyone's looking good, darling.
My name's Selin and welcome to the Lady Sala.
If everyone could roll me a society check.
Yeah, lady.
Oh, God.
I'm going to use this before.
Yeah, same.
Got to use some bonus points here.
It's a D8, right?
Not 20.
No, 19 though.
Oh, he's looking sharp.
And...
16 for me.
Woohoo!
That is 16 plus 19.
Oh my gosh.
You used two of them?
No, my bonus is an eight.
I rolled an eight.
So that's 35.
I pull on the neck of chief that's around my neck and I'm like, this is so uncomfortable.
I got an eight.
Of course you did.
Oh my gosh.
A natural one.
I love that so much.
I love that for you, Ross.
So I'm very uncomfortable in my clothes.
What was your total?
16.
Okay, you guys walk up and Selin looks first at Thross and goes, ah, you did change, I guess.
Or sorry.
Ah, you did change, I guess.
He looks over at Asara and goes, you look mighty familiar.
Do I know you from somewhere, darling?
She goes that loud.
I do believe I used to frequent this space often.
Asario, pleasure to meet you.
Oh, well, Asario, you can wear whatever you want.
Thank you.
And you, ooh, sir.
She whips out a fan and starts fanning herself.
You didn't even have to change.
You're going to fit in just fine.
What's your name?
I go by the name Makepeace.
Makepeace, what a strong name.
Thank you.
She's just fanning herself and just being like, well, circumstance bonuses.
Plus four, minus four, plus two.
No, plus one.
That makes sense.
At least it's only minus four.
Basic, basic, eternal being.
She's not fashionable.
You just don't know what the times are.
You can stare all the time.
It's not her thing.
This was fashionable 2,000 years ago.
People loved this.
It's coming back.
Okay.
And then she goes, just real quick, Mr. Asario, obviously your dress is on the house.
Thank you for coming.
You are going to have to pay us two tails or 20 yarns to rent that, though, for the evening.
Okay.
Do you want to split it?
Yes.
Or something?
Because you just gave me a bunch of money.
I gave you all my money.
You gave me, I have seven left.
Once we get to a bank, we'll have more.
I cover this for Ros.
You went about the money and her eyes just locked on you.
She's just stretching herself.
How about this, Makepeace?
You give me a dance and I'll just forgive this man's rental fee.
What kind of dance?
A good one.
She winks.
I like the private ones.
Let's give it a try.
She goes, oh my.
Well, go ahead and get yourself some drinks and just mingle.
That's what we do here.
We talk and make connections.
When you leave, you'll have to pay a fee, just so you know, in a run out.
Yeah, you can do that.
What kind of fee?
For what?
Well, for using our services here, obviously.
This is the lady's court.
A woman walks up behind her and goes, yeah, this is, and he goes, yeah, this is the solo, this, you know, right before this, right?
We were a tavern and that was fun.
And now we are in these stupid dresses and they're not comfortable and I don't like it.
And the other woman looks over and goes, now listen, Sally, it's, sorry, now listen, Gav, it's going to be fine.
They're already kind of changing a little bit and I happen to like this style.
They start talking to each other and she'll be ignoring you now.
Should we go to the bank to get more money before we go in?
Because we're out.
I think I can go with both of you.
I can't sit.
I don't think they're going to be asking for it now when we leave anyways.
All right.
Everything about this place has been a trap.
Why do you think this would be different?
That's fair.
You're a million years old, yet Thross has more judgment than you do half the time.
He just keeps on getting killed.
Okay.
So you guys walk in.
What do you do first?
So you walk into a large sitting room.
There are lounging chairs all along the walls.
There are people sitting.
Everyone's talking to each other.
There are women of every variety wearing Victorian ball gowns.
Every now and then they'll see more of a sleep dinner party or dinner dress.
Cocktail dress?
Yeah, cocktail dress.
You see a couple of cocktail dresses, but not very many.
The walls are hung with large portraits.
The ceilings are all gilded and done up in white marble.
It looks like something out of, what's that?
Versailles?
What?
Oh, down-navy.
It's not quite Versailles.
It's the Victorian era.
So think like...
You don't need to explain it.
I think we can all see it.
It's a Victorian sitting room.
Up against one wall there is a bar with a gentleman there wearing something that doesn't really look...
It's kind of anachronistic because he's not wearing the Victorian-era stuff.
He's wearing a prohibition-era barber slash bartender's outfit.
He has a very, very broad bushy mustache.
Besides that, he has a pretty clean cut.
Make peace.
Roll a perception check.
19.
Let's do that.
24.
Let's do the dead ring here for the hunter.
I'm going to go see him before I see anyone else.
I offer to get a drink for Sardinian anthros.
Okay.
So you approach the bar.
What do you guys say to that?
Yes, please.
Sounds lovely.
Last time it didn't go well.
Would you like to drink something?
Something better than last time.
An ale, probably.
An ale.
Yes.
So a tea, okay.
I just pout.
Sorry.
I'm just kidding.
Something light.
I've got to keep my wits about me.
Like a lemonade?
Sure.
Like a straight lemonade?
Yeah.
Okay.
I'll be back.
Mingle.
You're listening to Risk and Reputation.
I see a star story.
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cultures of the various continents, cities, and cultures.
Furthermore, you get exclusive behind the scenes interviews with the cast.
It is quite worth it and we would very much appreciate it if you would subscribe.
All music for this episode was scored and produced by Basement Guy and Katrina Sheets.
We'd also like to thank our families for allowing us to do this thing.
Thanks everybody, we appreciate it.
Finally, we'd like to thank our cast.
Thomas, please give me a detailed description of every grain of sand in your world.
Allinger, Chris, I'm trying out my 17th set of dice now, it's still not working.
Mare as Grosscoindelba.
Katrina, sorry cat, I got nothing this time.
Sheets as Asario.
And Basement Guy as everyone else.
Plus me, Troto.
I'm not even gonna say it this time, you know what I'm thinking.
As always, it has been a pleasure leading you through the Sea of Stars.
Now get off my bridge.
It's the Sea of Stars, give us just a piece of your time.
The Sea of Stars, just a tiny piece of your mortal soul.
The Sea of Stars, just spin and spin our stories till they're done.
To fulfill your needs, we're here to cap in all our deeds.
We're kind of brave on questing side by side.
The Lunks and Elves and Crooks all know that stories aren't just books.
And if you can make them believe, you can say, create your queen.
It's the Sea of Stars, give us just a piece of your attention.
The Sea of Stars, just a tiny piece of your mortal soul.
The Sea of Stars, we'll spin and spin our stories till they're done.
We'll spin and spin our stories till they're told.
Told.
We'll spin and spin our stories till they're told.