Hello and welcome to Roll Bravely, a Pathfinder
second edition live play tabletop role -playing
game podcast. I am your game master, Charles
Reno. Before we get started, let's introduce
the table. Hey everybody, my name is Kenny. I
play Amaris. I am a Nephilim, Peafling, Ranger,
and I don't remember other things. He has amnesia.
That's a character trait. Oh, yeah. Oh, I forgot
about that. Am I going now? Sure. Yeah, you go.
Why not? Oh, I think somewhere along the way,
we decided on camera order, except for Wesley.
And I'm not really sure why, but I think we just
went back. I think we reverted back to the original
order. I was just trying to. The original order
from five months ago. Yeah. After a two -minute
break coming off hot. I'm Taldir. I am also a
Nephilim. And a Nephilim Liberator. And we've
played this game very recently, which is why
this information is just coming so quick and
fast. Big Fast. I'm Sammy. I play Taz. He's a
goblin. Oh, my name is Zach. My character's name
is Taldeer. My name is Michelle. I play Wesley
Nixon, who is an elf damn fair investigator.
She just finished her first Western book, so
now she's wearing a bolo tie. Nice. I like that
she got in the middle of the heist. She finished
reading the book in the middle of the heist and
the battle. It's kind of like a meta television
move that Wesley has wardrobe changes in the
middle of action. I like it. I'm here for it.
Oh, that's fantastic. As others have pointed
out, we took a somewhat extended break to have
a little summer vacation or whatever. And I thought
that with a month off, it would be the perfect
time to really like dig into the rules, really
figure stuff out. And so, of course, I did none
of that. I opened Demiplane twice, maybe. And
yeah, so we are going to see how that goes for
all of us today. But as I have been admonished
for my. Less than adequate recapping skills to
set the table a little bit for people listening
and coming back, including us, frankly. When
we last left off, the party had decided to infiltrate
Ember's headquarter building in order to locate
evidence regarding an accident at mining site
616. They quickly made their way to the top floor.
the executive office level, broke into a safe,
chased off the last remaining employee, stole
some weapons, bought some ghosts, found some
maps, and did a bunch of other little stuff.
I think that's a pretty concise summary. Anybody
want to add anything, point anything else out?
Yeah, I would just like to point out that you
made it sound like we forced our way in, but
in reality, we came up with a fucking grand heist.
To get in. Yeah. We strolled in that bitch. You
know what I mean? Yeah. We played him. Also,
is that an Uncrustable Sammy? Hell yeah. Yes,
sir. We're actually heisting this place. And
we didn't chase off the employee. We used our
heist cover to, you know, get them out of our
way. We swindled them. Yeah. You know what I
mean? Duped. They've been had. Five minutes ago,
nobody remembered anything. It just took being
able to prove me wrong to bring everything back
to the surface. The fastest way to get to the
right answer is to post the wrong one online.
Everybody knows that. Also, this isn't really
like a heist because the heist, you know, you
walk away with money. We're just looking for
a fucking document, basically. Yeah, true. Did
we find it? Did we find it? I posted all the
notes I had. Oh, no, no, no, no. We were supposed
to either... There's a basement. We either have
to go down to the basement or... Basement was
one way we could enter. That was an option for
entering. We could have gone down the forge shaft
into the basement to get in here. Don't you start
talking dirty. But yeah, I mean, well, we still
have not searched the room that the ghosts were
in. Like we opened the door. The ghosts assaulted
us. We haven't actually searched this last room
yet. And I can't remember if we've searched this
other. There is a pile of scrolls in there. Yeah.
Like so many. Don't look at these scrolls. Don't
look at these. Don't look at these documents,
you know. Yeah. They just have them all piled
right there. Yeah. Also, it's possible we already
have the information. I don't know that we've
actually taken the time to read the documents
that we have acquired so far. I think we're just
trying to get as much stuff as we can, get out,
and then we'll talk to the mayor slash the incompetent
spymaster and get their take. You know, was he
incompetent or did he just tell us that he didn't
know shit to make sure that we got all the information?
He was like, I don't know anything, and then
winked at us. He's like, you know, the best way
to get intel is to tell them that you have none,
and that that's your sole job. Yeah. I like to
think he was incompetent. But that's my brother,
I think. I think there's a difference between
the characters I play and me. Yeah, we all like
to think that. Just keep it in mind when you're
way in judgment. Yes, so I believe you guys located
the armory. You found the weapons there, which
I don't believe anybody took. They were mostly
ordinary. However, you did find a fulmination
fang, which is a dagger, a weapon. Inside the
director of research and development's office,
you found an alchemical recipe. I think that
was all you guys pulled out of there. You guys
also searched the vault where you got a hundred
gold pieces, a black pearl necklace, a rune shield
family dagger. The deed to mine seven is currently
not filled in as well as the over masters personal
journal. And I believe. That is it. We can just
fill in the deed with our names. We've actually
just heisted an entire mine from these people.
That's insane. We beat the game. Done. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, mining sites. Remember, this is a
little like thinking like Prospector, like California,
you know, the gold rush kind of like these. Mountains
and hillsides have been carved up into mining
plots to be surveyed and excavated, but you're
not really certain if there's infrastructure
in place, if it's even a valuable site, but you
do have the deed, so. Oh, have the turntables
have churned. Nice. So then, yeah, we'll go into
the ghost room, or Taldeer will go into the ghost
room and roll Perception to search. through these
fucking shits. I'm going to cautiously approach
the door, but not go in there because there were
ghosts in there. Like a sane person. Go ahead
and give me that roll, Taldir. And I'm also keeping
my eye on Wesley. We're back at it, baby. A 12
total? Yep. You look around and you see, again,
kind of said it last time, but we'll reset the
stage. The room is somewhat small, crowded with
maps, other rolled kind of scrolls. There's a
desk kind of in the north that's covered in like
surveyors tools and a bunch of pieces of scrap
paper. A couple of maps that are being worked
on. You kind of look around. through it but you
realize that like this isn't really your strong
suit you don't really know what you're looking
at there's a lot of stuff here and it's probably
important but can't pick through anything meaningful
with a 12 then I am just gonna start putting
absolutely everything I can get my hands on in
this sack like as fast as possible we can always
review it later okay yeah All right. So, yeah,
you start cramming stuff just into your pack.
What's everybody else doing during this time?
I'm just at the door pointing like, oh, don't
miss that. Grab that, too. I'm trying to walk
normally, but I feel like I'm walking like the
guy on Men in Black. You know, when he's like,
everything's fine. Ghosts. I'm going to... Sorry,
I'm going to walk down to... I don't know if
we went through this room. I don't think so.
And it looks like it's open. So I'm just going
to walk over here and then peek into the room.
And I... Yeah, I just want to see what I see.
I want to see what I see. You know what I mean?
Yeah, you peek into the door and you see a large,
spacious office, a finely carved desk against
the southern window. There is a notebook. atop
it uh kind of edge of some furniture to the west
but you can't really make much else out there's
it looks to be some shelving directly to the
west from you kind of against that northern wall
uh but from the outside that's about all you're
gonna pick up okay i will while everyone's doing
everything else over there i just want to walk
over here and peek out the windows that are here
and see what's happening outside okay yeah you
peek out and outside of the window is the courtyard
where you entered and you can kind of see against
the gate like the huddled group of employees
who evacuated the building a couple of blacksmiths
most of them look office workers in kind of suits
and other fine clothing You can also see that
now about a half hour maybe has passed since
you guys came in the building and have started
your search. You see that there's like a retinue
of like dwarven guards, heavy armor and things
like that that you did not see earlier. A half
hour? Are they like approaching? They're kind
of like just in like a formation kind of aligned
right there by the gate. Okay. I feel like we've
been in here for like five minutes tops. You
know, searching takes time. Wesley had to crack
a bunch of locks that nobody else could do. He
had to carry an old man down. Yeah, we had to
escort an old man downstairs and tell him to
fuck off, you know? Walk an old man, yeah. I
suppose I'll defer to God. Wesley just hears
a voice in her head that's like, Where's your
beard? No, no beard. I just want to look crazy.
Yeah. Does someone else also want to investigate
this room of documents? Perhaps I'm going to.
I'll do that. You say that out louder. Zach says
that out loud yeah just putting it out there
wondering if anybody wants to then I'm good I'm
just going to stand in this doorway utilize some
of the investigative skills an investigator perhaps
I can't I'm too blocked right now I got a ghost
in me talking to me Yeah, if Taldea looks like
he's handling it okay and isn't asking for help,
then I'm going to assume that he's handling it.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think he knows he needs
help. I think he's just putting everything in
the fucking box. He doesn't know that he rolled
12 perception. Zach's just using everybody's
title against them today. Well, as a ranger,
I'm going to keep my range from that room and
stay the fuck out here. And as an investigator,
I'm going to investigate the ghost inside me.
can i can i actually do that can i figure out
what the fuck is inside me yeah i mean uh you
kind of like feel this other consciousness like
butting up against yours and there is this kind
of like intermingling of minds you can feel it
almost like searching through your memories and
like pulling back from certain things. And as
you kind of like reach out to it, you are also
able to kind of like see aspects of its life.
Uh, go ahead and roll something. Give me, give
me a roll. What do you, what are you really good
at? Let's call it perception. I'm good at using
my hero point. Okay. Let's use my left hand.
OK, still not good. We'll do perception because
that's the best one I got. So I got 16. OK, yeah.
16 perception. I would say, yeah, you kind of
like reach back and you can kind of see like
these flashes of living in kind of this hovel
that's been set up. The town still very young
at that point. Kind of like flashes forward to
the home being kind of like built up and expanded.
The idea that like he's going to go blame this
mining site. It continues to move to the point
that he's sort of standing in an office with
another dwarf going over this document. And you
just feel this like sense of pride and ownership.
It continues to move forward. You kind of like
feel the wear and tear, the restlessness, the
kind of like sore muscles of like a hard day
of work, sitting down at the table. Disappointment,
dissatisfaction. You move forward again. There's
a sense of mourning, of loss. There's a sense
of anger. You move forward. Once more. And you're
on a table. You kind of feel these restraints.
You've resigned yourself to this fate. But there
is terror. In those final moments. You try to
like. Shout. To. Remove. Your consent. To change
your mind. To reverse course. On this path you
have taken. But there is no time. You can feel.
The essence of your own soul. Being pulled out
of you. And as you experience this. Wesley you
yourself. Feel the threat. Of losing. Your spirit.
Your life essence. To this pit. And you pull
back. And you can almost feel. Him. Kind of like
glumly. Looking at you, you can almost see his
face, although he is still within you. There
is this aspect of like the mind's eye that where
you two meet. And he's just kind of shaking his
head. And sort of. Fades into the background.
And for a moment, you think you might be gone.
But there's this overwhelming sense of sadness
and burden that remains. Go ahead and roll a
will save. Oh, for fuck's sake. Where's the will?
Nine plus seven. Sixteen. Sixteen. No. Fast math.
You feel as he's like threatened with expulsion
and return to this. that he has been imprisoned
within. He grasps onto whatever material your
soul is made of and adheres to it. He will not
release you, but you remain in control of your
body. Out of curiosity, is that like... Can I
see if I notice... Like, what's going on in her
face? Like, I'm guessing that there's some kind
of look of internal struggle. Is that something
I would be able to help with, will -wise? Or
no? Roll a perception check. You just see me
look terrified, then cry. I'm going through a
bunch of emotions. 17 plus 7, 24. Ooh. 24, yeah.
There's something obviously going on with Wesley.
Just, I think, as she mentioned earlier, the
walk's not quite right. They're very, like, introspective
turned into herself I probably should have done
this earlier I might have and just forgot can
I roll a religion check to see if cause like
I watched the ghost go into her so like I know
she's like possessed currently uh can I roll
a religion check to see if that's like what that
means mechanically like yeah you did during the
combat and it failed but I'll say Because we're
sort of post -combat, I'll let you take one more
crack at it in like a, you know, calm and collected
environment where you're not trying to just like
recall all the information you have as quickly
as you can. Sure. Okay, cool. Thank you. I don't
fucking know anything, man. Eleven. You know
what? Actually, I'm going to hear a point out.
Fucking Christ. And I'm going to use a different
die. And I'm going to burp, apparently. Sorry.
You've got a lot of edits to do on this one,
Sammy. You don't have to edit out a fart. You
do have to edit out a conversation about a fart.
You don't have to edit that out. Natty18 on that
one, though, for a 23. Natty18 for a 23. Yeah,
I think you would understand that until... The
ghost is expelled. This is going to be a persistent
problem. The other way, with a 23, more than
a 20, you could destroy the room that is anchoring
the ghost to this plane of existence. Now, what
that does to the ghost, you're not entirely sure.
You could just destroy three friends, though.
I have two questions. about them one is this
like a mechanical like possession thing like
is this like a thing in pathfinder then there
are like are there specific i don't know holy
spells and shit that wouldn't like i'm not necessarily
would i know what spells would actually remove
it but like do i know if these are things that
can be cured basically like if we went and found
a cleric who had sufficient power or something
Yeah, I would say that you would probably know
that that certainly is a possibility. Also that
I've kind of mechanically augmented the creature
a little bit just for game purposes. But basically
every hour or so, Wesley will be able to reattempt
to remove the spirit or the spirit can attempt
to take over her, you know, possess her body
fully. That will just be an ongoing struggle
between them until the spirit is either Wesley
is able to eject it through the force of her
will or it is exercised in some other manner.
OK, cool. And then next question, destroy the
room that's binding it. Can I roll another perception
check specifically looking for that within this
room? Yeah, go ahead. Would that be a regular
attack or is that like you have to destroy it
with a religion check or something? I would say...
What was your roll? Another natty 18, actually,
for another 23 perception. Okay, yeah. You see
this assortment of runes along the ground. They're
kind of carved from the stone and inlaid with
kind of a crystalline glass -like filling that...
It's sort of softly glowing. You notice that
there are several of them that maintain their
glow, whereas the others kind of burnt out as
the ghosts were destroyed and dissipated. Great.
I will take my hammer and start crushing them.
Yeah, okay. As you destroy these runes, you won't
even roll on it. I mean, you could sit here all
day and just make attacks. That's fine. Wesley,
you feel that spirit like try to grasp onto you.
And as it does, its hands or whatever it is using
to incorporate itself into your form, begin to
just like go soft, like watery and begin to melt
away from it. And in the final moments, you kind
of see as its form becomes formless and begins
to kind of like droop. and melt away from you.
There's just this forlorn look on its face that
then it kind of like turns its head down and
just evaporates to shadow. And your mind is once
more your own. I'm going to smack Wesley in the
face trying to expel the ghost. Go ahead and
roll an attack. Oh, it was a four. Yeah, so you
kind of, like, reach out to, like, Stryker, and
in that moment, Wesley, like, your senses come
back to you, and you just kind of, like, your
head back out of the way. One last question,
Charles, on these runes. You said they're, like,
encased in something, but are they, like, movable?
Like, could I... One of the ones that's not glowing
as much. Could I like take it intact so that
we like can give it to the fucking Dr. Bartleby
or whatever and be like, this seems to be ghost
stuff. Bert and Otto, just like that. Yeah, just
like that. Excuse me. I believe these are ghost
runes. I have something to say. It's interesting.
The ghost. You could attempt it if you have some
kind of crafting stonework. It's almost like
liquid glass was poured directly into these carvings,
so there is some bonding there. They don't just
pick up, but you could carefully remove them
if you have some kind of... I'm not going to
take the time to carefully remove them. I'm smashing
them. I will gather up some of the pieces of
them, though. Like the smashed ones. Yeah, as
you smash them and the globions to fade, you
do pick up some of the remnants. There are probably
a couple that you could maybe reconstruct. Cool.
Can I walk past... Oh, go ahead, sorry. Can I
walk past Zemris, but then put my foot out behind
him and push him? So he like trips over my leg
as I walk into that room. Sure. Roll an attack.
Also, it's happening. You're officially becoming
Xamaras. I completely forgot your name. I just
read. What would that be? Is it going to be an
attack? What's my... Hold on. Trip is an athletics
check. Yeah, so just your whatever you rolled
plus your athletics. Okay, 13. 13 total. What's
your... Oh, I think it would be contested though,
right? So, Kenny, you would roll your... Yes,
I think it's just Fortitude DC, I believe. Fortitude
DC. Not a roll. What's your Fortitude DC, Kenny?
Or Amaris? Oh, reflex DC. So reflex save plus
10. Oh yeah, 19. Get the fuck out of here. Dang.
I got a look in the face kind of like hang on,
you look like you're just kind of being pissy
and not possessed anymore. I'm not possessed.
I'm not. Why didn't you say anything? I feel
like it would be excessively hard to tell all
the eye shifts and creepy things. Yeah, but when
she was possessed, she was doing fucking one
eye, one fang and shit. She's blinking like a
frog. I do imagine like maybe just like some
features kind of like rolled over. It's like
your eyes always so dark and baggy. I would like
to investigate this room as like, while all that's
happening, just to kind of like open some drawers
and just, if it looks important, I'll grab it.
And if not, I'll just be basically like, yeah,
there's nothing in here. Okay. Go ahead and roll
a, what did we decide? Perception check. Yeah.
Damn. Okay. Okay. Not good. Not good, guys. Not
good. Seven. Seven. You're kind of looking through
it as you don't seem like a guy with a real eye
for business. No. You see, it looks like a bunch
of boring bullshit. I'm just like, ugh. Papers
everywhere. I would say like, yeah, it's not
a critical fail. So you would see that there
is a like there's a letter on the desk that he
was working on when the evacuation took place.
It's a request to Human Resources Policy Compliance
Division. And it basically is asking for support
regarding Hilda Onyx Fist and requesting. Immediate
aid within 72 hours. Yeah, we already got that
letter. Have you already been in this room? Yeah,
the room at the end of the hall. Okay. Oh, that's
right. Because Kenny did have the notes. Yeah.
Just to remind everybody, in the room, you did
find a map of the mining sites with site 616
circled. So you do have its location. You did
find a vial of like violet sand. That's kind
of got like a faint glow itself. And you've got
an application for deed of land to mining site
44. And it is in the name of Luis Valle de la
Venda. Oh, that's right. You said it's an application.
All right. Before you said partial. Yeah, it's
a partially executed deed. Sorry. Okay, first
of all, leave it to a lawyer to have shit like
partially executed deeds in his homebrew setting.
And also an HR compliance letter. You know, things
go through official channels. I feel like we
signed that form, didn't we, when we first started
playing this game? But yeah, so. Unless someone
else is going to go through this room, I think
Taldeer's going to be like, we should, you know,
try to... We've been in here a minute, guys.
We should try to keep appearances. I'm going
to go back into the room with everybody. I didn't
see Wesley get possessed, so nothing's happened,
right? I was going to walk up to everybody. I'm
like, there's armored dwarves outside. They weren't
there when we showed up, so that's just something,
you know. You know what I mean? Yep, yep, yep,
yep, yep, yep, yep. Wait, so did we... Do you
know if they're on all sides? Sorry. They're
at the main entrance, basically. I don't remember
how many there were, but they're there. And I
have a feeling that we might not... We're going
to have trouble leaving, I suppose. I think.
Didn't you have a failsafe get out of here the
other night? Hell yeah. And then I have my, because
I think I did put charges, right? Yeah, where
that, where those barrels of gunpowder at. So
I'm just going to start like slowly raising my
hand up with like the charge. No, not yet, not
yet. Or we could, like most of the stuff we've
pilfered. It's like pretty small stuff. Like
we don't have any big things. We could just like
throw it over the back wall and then still pretend
to be firefighters and walk out. I can swallow
it. The fucking nerd. He's just called stealing
pilfering. Well, I mean, the thing is, is if
they go inside without letting us leave, we either
have to fight or that's good. I mean, they're
going to come in and see that shit's missing.
Yeah, fuck it. Let's blow it up. Let's go out
the back, get a rope on the wall, blow it up,
and then, you know. Or we could just blow up
and run past, you know, because it's going to
be a big boom. It's going to be a big boom. Yeah,
I think we should blow it up. And then we just
run out while there's body parts flying everywhere.
We keep up the firefighter. Oh, shit. No, we're
trying to help. Oh, we got to go back and get
reinforcements for this. Oh, no. It's so much
bigger than we thought. Downstairs, there's what,
a fireplace? We didn't really look on the first
floor because we immediately shot upstairs. Well,
because there's nothing on the first floor. Well,
yeah, no, I know. So what I'm saying is we can
set off the explosion. Or you can kind of have
it ready to go. Yeah, I'm going to go three,
two, one. And then it blows up. We don't go outside
until after it blows up. Maybe we wait like a
second or two after. And then we run through
the smoke and everything. We're just like, fuck.
You know? Okay. I mean. All right. Taz runs downstairs.
Taldeer will also go downstairs. I'll go after.
Taz. This is going to go so poorly. So you guys
are leaving the top floor and returning to kind
of the lobby floor area, but nothing has happened
yet, right? You guys are just... Correct. No,
Taz has a huge smile on his face. Taz is pumped.
Taz is ready. You guys descend back to the first
floor. I'll move the map, but it's not... There's
nobody... down there when you arrive. It's still
empty. Enough for your reference. Again, there
is two right next to you where you descended
the stairs. There's this trap door to the basement.
Directly to the south is the doorway leading
out of the building. There are no other obvious
exit points. Let me check the basement door for
traps, please. Okay, go ahead. Oh. I have a dice.
Eleven. Seems cool. Seems cool. Seems cool. I'm
going to tell everybody. You guys want to check
it out? Taz is at the front door already. Personally,
I feel like there's not... I don't think we're
going to find anything downstairs. Like, I think
it's just a forge. I was going to say, also,
we should have a lookout because there's still
those two locked rooms or four that we didn't
enter, right? No, we cleared all the rooms down
here, too. The doors aren't open here. The only
room you didn't really, like, clear and examine,
you opened the door to and there was, like, an
automaton. Warning you that the room was subject
to attorney -client privilege and you would be
functionally destroyed if you tried to enter.
Right. A ghoul. A ghoul. Taz puts his goggles
on. I'm stuck in a wall. My safety goggles. All
right. I want Wesley to fix her blouse. Make
sure the ruffles are at the bottom of the...
What are we? Firefighters. Her firefighter outfit.
Make sure my collar is out. I'm going to ask
you that and I'll be like, oh, your polo tie
is out. Does it look good? Put it back in. Thank
you for noticing. Oh, yeah. You're right. I like
that Wesley's got a ruffled shirt on with a firefighter
outfit over it with just a fucking bolo tie hanging
at the top. Stick it out. That's fantastic. I'm
going to look at Wesley and be like, oh, I like
your tie. And then I'm going to activate the
bomb. Okay, so you activate the bomb. Now I...
Frankly, in a thousand years, never thought we
would get here. I don't know why I didn't think
that. This is the obvious conclusion of every
Dungeons & Dragons slash Pathfinder game I've
ever been a part of. Yes. I'm trying to guess
the reasonable estimate on igniting thousands
of pounds of gunpowder. We're in the stone walls,
baby. We're right. I think everybody roll. Everybody
roll a fortitude save. Hell yeah. Yes. Don't
fuck it up. Tall deer. Anybody strong enough
to carry him? 18. Same. I got an 18 also, but
plus seven. Oh. Weaklings. My rolls are stuck
today. 26. Give it to us, Taldir. 15. 15 total?
Not bad. Not bad. It's a good thing you have
a plus 12 to that. Yeah. 15 total. The natural
three. So you just hear. Well, I have a plus
eight. Oh, plus eight. Oh, sure. Incredible boom.
And you feel the room shake around you. You can
hear the walls creak and crack. Screams of terror
come from outside. You can feel the heat from
the fire as it just rushes past your skin. Everybody
manages to more or less stay on their feet and
avoid taking damage as the front door, this large
steel door. crumples and splinters and just blows
in uh there is like smoke and ash filling the
space at this point as you can see from where
you stand or are probably now maybe like kind
of leaned against the wall outside is just a
scene of chaos and misery There are charred corpses
with just smoke rising off of them. People running
around in these guards were wearing like heavy
plate armor. Some of them have like wood shrapnel
in their bodies. They are literally just white
hot as they are like cooking themselves inside
the suits of armor that they're wearing, desperately
clawing at them, trying to remove them from their
body. You see some other people that are just
like cradling like half burned heads, like hair
on fire. It is looks like somebody blew up thousands
of pounds of gunpowder outside. Did we just become
a terrorist? I'm going to turn back to Wesley,
so I'm just going to like elbow her and be like,
he loves doing this shit. Come on, let's go.
I'm going to turn back and look at the group
and kind of go like. That's a cringe face for
the people who can't see his face. Mommy! We
need to get the fuck out of here. I'll take your
child to work day! Of all the days! So I'm going
to grab, like, kind of yank on Wesley, start
running, and I'm going to kind of push Teldir
from behind. We're going to start fucking moving.
Yeah, let's get the fuck out of here. Yeah, you
guys go ahead and roll. I know you're not really
being stealthy, but just try to like, you know,
hide your face or whatever. We're trying to tiptoe
out of here. 19. What are we doing? Yeah. 6 plus
13. Can I roll performance instead? You know,
Given that you are in disguise and not trying
to be stealthy, I'll allow it since that's probably
the more appropriate role anyway. I'll do the
same. I got 19. 15 total. 15 total. 10 total.
Okay. As you are. What about Amaris? I had a
19. Okay. I thought I heard, but I couldn't remember.
Yeah. As you guys like descend the steps, just.
billowing clouds of smoke around you you make
your way across the grounds and you see like
there are a few people who appear to have been
lucky enough to avoid serious injury but they
are fleeing the scene paying you no mind on the
ground you see the old form of the dwarven overmaster
just completely hairless covered in burns the
like tries to pick himself up and you see his
right arm just disintegrate into ash as he raises
his body and he kind of like falls back down
and turns to you and the left side of his face
completely burned off you can see like his cheekbones
his teeth his tongue is like blackened on the
edge his eyeball has popped that is an empty
bloody eye socket and he just like takes one
moment to kind of like take Taz in and then his
eyes closes and he like collapses completely
against him. And we see Jerry Barnborn among
the destroyed as well. Yes. You guys sneak out
of the gate. Hang on, hang on, hang on. Before
that happens, how many people are around that
supervisor guy? It's really hard to tell. There
are, in terms of like alive people, almost no
one. There are mangled body parts, destroyed
corpses. I'm going to try to pick up some shrapnel,
wood shrapnel, and go try to finish the job to
make sure. Okay. All right. We don't need anybody
fucking half Two -Face fucking chasing us down.
Okay. You're not even going to roll on this.
I mean, he is unconscious on the ground. You
pick up a piece of wood and just stab him in
the neck or whatever. Oh, my God. It's just you
fucking terminator chasing us down. You hear
a fucking gurgle like as he chokes on his own
blood and dies. Oh, no, he's not going to make
it, guys. Keep moving. Oh, no. Oh, no. sounds
dead that's got to keep an eye out for amorous
he had like daggers and shit and he chose to
end this old man with a piece of wood it's well
yeah i didn't i wanted it to look natural well
that's natural he died of natural causes wood
spear to the neck It's weird. His head's chopped
off in the explosion. All right. So as Amaris
kind of like finishes this guy off, you guys
move past the outer gate. You can see the guards
out there have been knocked unconscious from
the, like, what are they called? The concussive
force of the explosion. And standing just beyond
the guard tower, running up to you, you see he's
just, Jerry is like, Teldia. Oh, I thought you
might be a goner. So worried about you. Come
on, this way. We've got to escape. Gary, I'm
so happy you made it. Come on, let's go. Escape?
Jerry, you're a firefighter. Get in there and
help them. Right, but in this day and age, it's
mostly running away from fires. Jerry, help them.
Get in there. We'll go get reinforcements. Jerry,
you stay. You're the only one I can trust to
do this. Right, right. Okay, so I'll let the
others know. Taldee Stronghammer is on the way
with reinforcements, and I will go help who I
can. Yep, sounds good. What happened here, by
the way? I don't... It was a gas leak. Yeah.
One of the sparks must have made it into the
gunpowder. Also, I said that sounds good. Don't
use my name, Jerry. Don't ever say my fucking
name. Sorry, Mr. Stronghammer. Nope. I know.
You said it again. You keep his name out of your
mouth. I screamed from way across the room. Keep
your wife's name out of your fucking mouth. Right.
Didn't know you were married and I didn't know
you were the wife. I apologize for my assumptions.
I could be looking at Tess like, I didn't know
that. That's crazy. Good for him. You're a very
lucky husband, Mr. Nixon. I'm going to. Right.
Reinforcements. I'm on the way. On the job. You
can trust me. Totally competent. Never fucked
anything up in my whole life. This will go. Perfectly
smooth. That's a weird thing to just say and
run away, right? When he's running away, I get
my bow. Should I? Should I, guys? On one hand,
it's like, I think we should be fine. But on
the other hand, we're kind of just being like,
GM, hope you don't make this character so stupid
that you unravel our entire plan for no reason.
I mean, we can't just turn into murder hobos.
Yeah. Well, I mean, we're ready. No, those people
deserve it. No. No, they deserved it. They had
information. Yeah. Oh, hi, puppy. Just see a
dwarven child crawl out, its legs completely
blown from its spine. Oh, no. Trying to make
it out of the gate. It didn't have a beard anyway.
Just don't look at it. Don't look at it. I guess
I should say. For the record, no imaginary children
were injured in the destruction of this imaginary
corporate office. A corporate office with thousands
of pounds of gunpowder outside. Look, these dwarves.
This is real pre -industrial revolution. Practices
aren't great. They don't have a lot of quality
controls. I'm looking at the map. The area that
we said was gunpowder is literally 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9 barrels. And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, plus 6, 15 crates of gunpowder. Jesus.
Okay. And how many pounds per crate slash barrel?
Because you said thousands. And there's 24 containers
total. So 500 pounds per? 200 pounds each? I
mean, how big are the barrels? Because, I mean,
a barrel full of powder would be heavy as fuck.
I'd say probably 300 to 500 pounds. No shit.
Let's say it's 2 ,000 pounds of gunpowder that
you just blew up next to a crowd and get back
in the building. I can't get... Sam, you seem
to know Roll20 pretty well. Do you know how to
get the active map out of a folder? I put all
the maps for this office in its own folders so
that it just didn't clutter the page. But now
I can't move the active map out. I have never
made folders. Like in World 20, so I'm not sure
where that... I don't know where you're struggling
there. That is probably smart. I would continue
that practice. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. No actual
imaginary children hurt, but probably two...
Two real ones. I was so mad at you guys, I went
out and slapped my kids. Maybe 30 to 40 dwarves
just dead or seriously injured as part of this
explosion, but you do make it beyond the wall.
Jerry runs off to find help. What are you guys
doing now? There is panic and pandemonium as
people beyond the wall Probably didn't suffer
much. Maybe some knocked down from like the Cacusa
force. You don't see a ton of injured people
around, but definitely a lot of commotion. Back
to the inn. Yeah, so we're just getting the fuck
out. All right. Go to the Winchester and have
a pint until the whole thing blows over. Should
we go to the mayor? we should no no definitely
we should wait till the heat dies down a bit
and we should also like stash our firefighter
uniforms uh like on the way back to the end yeah
so there was i mean i just read something right
now i've done that before i'm saying that because
i was like you said barrels so i googled like
how much i mean like standard barrel like a like
a wine barrel i mean like a standard like barrel
is like 55 gallons yeah and it's basically saying
that they can weigh up to now i'm getting different
things it's a lot this is just trying to say
a lot i mean have you ever gotten i assume the
weight's not all that different by volume like
you bought like a keg of Bud Light for a high
school party like that thing's gotta be well
powder you can like fucking pack that shit yeah
I don't actually buy alcohol for high schoolers
Charles that's weird well when you get to high
school you might so that's illegal you can't
buy kegs as a high schooler Charles that's actually
against the wall Well, against the law and can't
do it are different things. Found out. Says a
lawyer. Turns out you can do a whole bunch of
things that are against the law. That's why we
have laws. If they were impossible, we really
wouldn't need to protect against them. Don't
buy children alcohol. Go back to the end? Yeah,
I would say you guys make your way through the
streets. As you leave the epicenter of the explosion,
it becomes more... Just more curiosity and almost
an excited kind of energy rolling through the
rest of this quarter as you leave kind of the...
Wait. Wait, are we covered in soot? And we're
just going to walk to the inn and be like, whoa,
I wonder what's going on over there. We got to
ditch our overclothes, like the firefighter uniforms.
We got to ditch them preferably before we're
out of the confusion range, basically. We need
to get rid of our clothes and then we need to
get rid of the stash of stuff in separate locations.
No stash of stuff. We can just, it's all small
stuff just in our bags. Like I think that's fine,
but we do need to get rid of the clothes. I mean,
Taldeer's bag just has a dozen surveyors maps
poking out of it. We're not poking out. I'll
push them down. Okay. I guess you're not worried
about crumpling them. You're not a fair enough.
Yeah. So what are you going to do? You're going
to ditch the overclothes. I don't think we need
to like roll for that unless you're going to
try to do something like particularly different
with them. But you're just kind of like dropping
them in an alley or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
This is New York. You can't just leave your trash
on the street. Alright, so you're able to ditch
the overclothes. You make your way out of the
Ember District back toward the inn. And cleaning
ourselves while we're doing that to make sure
we're just not covered in soot. We can be covered
in soot though. I don't think it matters that
much. We could have been... Like in a trash bin
or something. People who were not in the explosion
could still be covered in soot. It's a mining
town. People are dirty all the time. True. I'm
gonna make myself dirtier. I like the idea that
Taz is like trying to wipe the soot off and it's
just like wiping grease on or something. Okay,
so once you return to the end you see the innkeeper
you like enter and she like approaches you kind
of hurriedly and she's like oh miss shantae i
i'm so glad that no harm came to you and your
friends are all right i was worried that you
may have been may have been stuck in the damage
worried why what happened i well i mean you're
covered in soot and uh i assumed you were near
the explosion and That's what that was? We were
checking out some mines, actually. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. We've been out of town all morning. An
explosion happened. That's crazy. Well, you were
new to town. Many people stop in to acquire,
you know, claims or deeds to the mining locations.
I just was worried maybe you had gone to purchase
a plot, but no, I'm sorry for assuming. I'm glad
you're safe. Have you had any lunch? You hungry?
Yeah, I could eat. We could eat. Looks around.
I'm starving. Okay, well, I'll fetch some food.
I believe your cousin left a message for you,
Stronghammer. Cool, cool, cool. Yeah. Bring that
out, too. Okay. And she goes off to the kitchen.
Yeah. Returns sometime later, leaves kind of
stew for each of you at the table, a couple of
pints of ale or whatever. And she hands you like
a small rolled note on like From a scrap of paper.
I open it and read it. Well, last time I assumed
you were going to do that. You were like, I'm
not taking time to read shit. When we're in the
middle of a heist, I'm not taking time to read
it. But when we're fucking sitting in the inn
post heist. Yeah, I'll read the fucking paper.
Yeah, you. Rita, you've traveled some ground
in this time. It's probably taken you 45 minutes
to an hour to make your way from the Ember office
to the inn. It's not a small city, a lot of confusion,
a lot of crowds. So in that time, you kind of
let you sit. You open the note. You open the
note and it just says, interesting approach.
Not the tactic I would have chosen. We should
talk tonight. Yeah, is it signed fucking Scythe
of the Night? No, we're of nothing. No signature.
Yeah, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with
that note. Like, I can't respond to him, obviously.
Not yet. It's not a text message. not at the
moment actually no I will destroy it though actually
like I'll crumple it and like burn it with a
candle or rip it up or something or other but
I will destroy yeah I imagine there's like a
candle in the center of the table and you dip
the note into it it catches fire and watch it
burn away I'll be like that's pretty badass dude
and I'll let them know there's no crows Chaucer
wants to meet tonight. Who? The scythe of the
night. The guy who claimed to be the master of
spies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my brother. Here?
Was there details of where to meet him? No, you
burn their notes. So now you don't know. No,
but I remember we specifically set up a time
to meet with him like previously, like a time
and place. Meet where? Just we fade away and
fade back in on a young man writing a note. And
he's just like, I hope he meets both sides. No,
yeah, there was no. meeting information necessarily
included yeah but he'll find us i'm sure yeah
he's like the master of everything or spies and
stuff he knows where he knows we're here yeah
surely he must he must know something as the
master of spies i also like the fact that you
guys just brutally barbecued 40 people and are
sitting down eating a bowl of soup. Yeah, that's
what he did last time. So it makes sense. The
reason I just have barbecue on the mind. Some
brisket. Yeah. How are you guys going to proceed
from here? I'm going to rest and a fucking beat.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we could rest. I ordered ribs.
Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah, go ahead and roll
up. Do that in the room. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not out here, not out here, not out here. So
I'm going to finish up my food and... Drink my
stuff. Can I go over all of the maps that were
in Taldur's bag? 25. Okay. You begin sorting
through the maps and a lot of them look like
things that don't appear to be particularly valuable.
You do see a couple more maps that have Site
616 still present on them. It looks like they
were in the process of removing them from all
the maps, but as you do continue to move through
it, 26? That's a critical success, yeah. You
do see one older map that appears to be partially
filled in. It's incomplete. It looks to be perhaps
hundreds of years old, it has one site in particular
that jumps out to you labeled Dunqazir. Dunqazir.
Good question. It just, it seems like the map
is being built. toward it to ascertain the location
of this site. All the other information looking
on the map seems to be topographical, like environmental.
It's not like it doesn't include other mine sites
or really cities. It just includes this one,
looks to be a city perhaps in its iconography.
Some kind of important site for the dwarves.
And it's just labeled Duncazier. Think about
how much XP we got if we really blew up 40 people.
Like 40 kills worth of XP. This was so much gold
on the floor too. That's at least a level up.
Yeah. I am not going to reward that that way.
You feel like you could approximate it pretty
well. It looks like they were getting close,
but it is not entirely certain. It appears to
be a map copied from a remnant and the attempt
has been made to fill it in like kind of around
that remnant. As old as it is, it's a reference
map to an even older map. Do I know? Do you share
that? By looking at the map where Denkazir is?
I think Taldir is gonna say we should keep that
like when we share our information with the Chaucer
and everybody like we should not tell them about
that map and we should keep that map back um
and then yeah Taldir will now actually spend
some time going through all the other documents
that he's still like reading them reading anything
else that Basically just reading everything we
got. Yeah, I'll give you the highlights. We don't
have to go through each individual document since
you kind of collect them all and brought them
together. There's a note. Probably no longer
important. You found from the site director,
the old man who you ushered out. after everyone
else had already left, who is angry at the Overmaster
for subsuming his authority and is attempting
to write to various people looking for evidence
of the Overmaster's wrongdoing or misconduct
that he might be able to use against him. There
is another note that you recovered from the director
of R &D in his room. It's on ember letterhead.
There's prosperity through profit and the body
of it basically says our first intuition that
some release of toxic gas was involved proved
somewhat accurate, though it did not originate
from mining activities. The speed and dispersion
of the incidents of the incident spread indicates
the toxin was airborne in nature, but its emanation
cannot be traced to any recent breaks in the
earth. In fact, whatever caused. The incident
cannot be detected now at all. This indicates
a high likelihood of intentional sabotage. Of
all the dwarves working in the mine that day,
only three are currently unaccounted for. And
it lists Thralessi Onyxfist, Hilda Onyxfist,
and Basir Blackrock. We suggest locating the
individuals to determine whether they played
a part in the events inquired about. Additionally,
we are returning several of the bodies to King
Runethaen, where the Royal Academy of Physicians
will investigate the matter further. And there's
sort of some more along that line, but nothing
that really strikes you as particularly important.
From the journal, as you flip through the Overmaster's
journal, there's a note that just says, Hilda
went too far with this one. I can't say what
game she was playing. but it doesn't matter anymore.
Her operation was a disaster and ended her play
for my chair. She was released, of course, but
if she thinks that accounts are settled, she's
in for a surprise. Even if I wanted to, her association
with Thorn leaves her as a loose end. And there's
a lot of other, like, kind of policy notes and
invoices and accounting notes, but... Nothing
else that seems to be directly related to the
incident you are investigating. Okay, cool. And
so do we get the sense that the R &D note refers
to mining site 616? I would say that that seems
likely. It's not... Explicitly named, but you
haven't heard of another mining incident. Okay,
and then also the HR note also made reference
to Hilda Onyx Fist. What was that again? Yeah,
so it's basically a letter requesting assistance
from Human Resources Policy Compliance Division
and requesting that a unit should be Sent to
basically support the issues with Hilda Onyx
Fist within 72 hours, if possible. It was dated
today, but left unsigned. Okay, and so presumably
the... They're asking for backup to find Hilda
Onyx Fist, who has been missing since the incident
at... Site 616 is my guess. And then you also
mentioned a second Onyx Fist name was missing
since the incident at 616. Yes. Trelese. Trelese.
And then Basir Blackrock, right? Okay. I mean,
And it doesn't seem like there's anything else
relevant in all of the documents that we were
able to find? Not to this particular event. Mostly
it seems to be, again, internal policy drafts,
maybe some records of meetings, things like that,
but nothing that really relates directly to the
investigation. Okay, cool. Then I suppose we'll
rest.