Family Ties

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Let's do that thing where we get ready to go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason, I'm the Dungeon Master going around the table, starting with Bree. Hi guys, I'm Brianna, and I play Jadzia Grace, the Human Warlock. And Jasper. Hey, this is Jasper, I play Merrick, Ethelred, Human Cleric. And Mack. Hi, I'm Mack and I play Caluna Volgares, the Wildling Shaman. And Izzy. Hi, I'm Izzy and I play Una, the Half-Elf Paladin. Guys, last time on the show, man, a lot happened last time on the show actually. You started kind of interrogating Julie, more just to find out where the books were.

She told you that they were back at the temple. In the midst of that, you tried to knock Julie out and just kind of clunked her on the head. The stress of banishing Amara caused Merrick to wolf out in the basement with Caluna, Jadzia, and Julie. You guys freed Julie and escaped, sealing him away, then joining the rest of the party to go fight dragons that were currently burning down Esterholt. Julie and the paladins helped you guys fight them off along with Seraph. Caluna went back to engage Merrick. Merrick had escaped the dungeon area of the mansion and squared off with Caluna for just a moment, managing to get a hold of himself instead of viciously mauling them.

The rest of you managed to beat back the dragons just as Amara freed herself from the dimensional plane there, killing a couple of dragons in transit over Esterholt. Afterward, Seraph almost murdered Julie in front of you. You did manage to talk him down, but he made it pretty clear that that is not something that's going to go away. And that he does not want you to get in the way a second time. How's about we pick up pretty much directly after that? Julie has walked away, Seraph has walked away, the party is in the center of Esterholt. The paladins have gotten to work trying to put out some of these fires.

Most of it is under control. Caluna and Merrick would be back at the mansion. What would you guys like to do? Wow. That's a lot of stuff going on. I think we... I'm not sure who to deal with first, Seraph or Julie. I think if everything is actually under control, like if Jodzia sees that, she would follow Julie because she wants her books back. So if you want Una to follow Seraph, then we can cover two birds with one stone. Or two stones, technically. Okay, what do you guys want to do about Seraph? Read your dad. Don't worry about the "it's your dad, you should make this choice" sort of like "it's up to Una, she'll murder him." I'll have her do that, I don't care.

I mean, he's a complete ruthless wild card. There's no way that we're going to end up trusting him. I mean, I don't think he would ever suggest he's trustworthy. Yeah, there's no future that I see where this is a good thing that he's alive. He wants to rule Esterholt. So does Julie. We need someone to rule Esterholt who's not going to fuck it all up, like the previous mayor did. She's still the mayor. I don't see... well, she's going to be the former mayor. Very soon she'll be former. But I don't see Seraph being that. Yeah, I don't see him being someone who's going to do something.

He's just a guy. Yeah, I hesitate thinking about just getting rid of him just because he's a bad dude. We either have to have a good reason to do it, like he's attacking us. But, you know what I mean, we can't just go up and squeeze through. There's no way in which we can be like, "Hey, dude, you're going to have to be in exile because we don't want you here." He'll be like, "Haha! No!" We'd really appreciate it if you would just take over a different city. That would be great. That would be great. Well, I mean, that is a possibility that we could just sort of be very honest and upfront about it and be like, "Look, you can't be here anymore." And if he vaults at that and if he wants to fight about it, then it becomes a duel, right?

It's sort of like, "Okay, well then fine, maybe you'll die in this." But I don't know if we can manipulate him is what I guess I'm saying. We kind of have to just be upfront with it. Yeah, we just have to ask him what he's doing here and tell him if it's not okay that it's not okay. And if that leads to murder, I mean, from then on, whatever. Just like real life, you know. How about we go deal with Julie as a group and then go deal with Serif as a group because I want there to be the maximum number of people there when we deal with Serif. That's true.

Because if it was just two or three of us, he might very well murder several of those people. Yeah. So, okay, here's one other thing is, if I remember correctly, and Jason told me if this is true, but effectively Julie said, "Go get the books and bring the books back." So we don't have to go follow up with Julie as long as we trust that she's sort of repaying the favor for us saving or for you for saving her life. Giving the books back is not repayment of the favor. Well, okay, what I guess I mean is we can trust her in the moment to be like, "Paladins, go get the books and bring them back and take them back to the mansion." And as long as we trust that in this moment, we don't really need to follow her.

We can. Let's do Serif first. I feel like he's more of a wild card. And then Julie. Because Julie, she'll probably be dealing with the books for now, right? Yeah, she didn't run away. She composed herself and she's going back to the temple and the books are going to be brought back to the place. And if we need to go talk to Julie or if somebody wants to go deal with that, she'll be there tomorrow. That's not probably a big deal. That's true. Serif might go try to kill Julie right now on the way back to the temple. And also, Merrick and Caluna are not ready to go deal with Serif right now.

No. Oh shit. Fuck. You know what I mean? They don't even know anything's going on. So it's not like, "Hey, can you guys stop that? Merrick, why are you bawling? And could you come out here and help me please?" Why are you crying? I don't trust anyone in this fucking city except my party mates. Seriously. Where is... Okay, so Julie left to go back in the middle of the city to go back to the temple or whatever, just sort of striding off. What did Serif do specifically? Is he headed back to the mansion? Is he going back to his hideout? What's happening? He just walked off.

He never expressed a... That's what I mean. Do we have any sense of where he went? We can find him. He's not hard-guarded. Locate. Except for the whole teleportation thing. Well, he's not hiding from you. It's the thing that he wanted to. But let's go back to the mansion and gather our troops and see how everyone's doing. I don't think Una even knows what happened with Merrick. He's just not here. You can put two and two together. I doubt there's even been time to think about the fact that he wasn't standing there too. That's true. Dragons. That's kind of a... Okay, let's start there.

Okay. Una will look around and notice that Merrick is not there. And then cast a really anxious look at everyone. Where's Merrick? Do you fall? Valus would look over at Jadzia. Do you want to tell her? Jadzia will just... She's kind of looking at Julie. Not gonna lie. Her priorities are a little bit fucked. But then she's gonna turn back to the party and be like, "We need to go back to the mansion." Merrick turned. He's in the basement. Kalluna went to go deal with him while we fought the dragons. Holy hell. Okay, yeah, let's go. Then we go. Una will start sprinting back towards the mansion.

Not wasting any fucking time. So getting back to the mansion. Valus would want to take the lead on this one just because he wouldn't want... Well, first of all, obviously he wouldn't want Jadzia to get viciously mauled or something. But even Una, he wouldn't want that to happen. How romantic. He's genuinely concerned about Kalluna. So he would... Let's see what he would see. If anything. Thirteen. Good job, Valus. Just popping his head in, looking around. He wouldn't see anything, but he also wouldn't hear anything. No sounds of something being clawed or rendered or breathing.

Anything like that. No movement. Where would Kalluna and Merrick be right now? In that hallway still? I mean, if this is the same moment, I don't think unless Kalluna would have done something to change this, I feel like Merrick would just be kind of broken and crying and just exhausted and ashamed and all of those things all at once. Yeah, Kalluna wouldn't make Merrick move. They would just sort of sit there and hug him real tight and just sort of wait for him to feel better. So depending on how long it took for them to get back, they'd probably still be there.

This would be moments later. This would be just minutes. Yeah, this wouldn't be that long. So yeah, Valus will walk in and... Do you guys want to roll a Perception check? Twenty-two. Oh yeah, both of you would hear... You'd both hear Merrick at the very least at the end of this hallway. And it's very clearly human. It's not... It's not werewolf Merrick. Oh, okay. Yeah. Una would go running in her hearing that just to make sure like he's not wounded or something. Same. Jodzia's first instinct is if Merrick's crying, Kalluna's probably dead. Yeah. So she's running and once she sees that they're both standing, she's gonna be much more...

I think Merrick's curled. Yeah. Sitting upright. Yeah, not dead. I think as soon as Kalluna heard them running, I assumed they would hear. They would sort of whip their head back and just sort of tense up, obviously expecting like, "Oh god, someone's here to kill us." But then they'd see Una and Jadzia and be like, "Okay." I hate for Merrick to not really have much to do or say right now, but I really think his whole... He would just be completely dazed and... What happens to his clothes? They fall off. Yeah, so he's... They fall off? They're kind of... Oh wait, they're strip away.

Yeah, they're breakaway strippers armor, essentially. Yeah, okay. There's straps and stuff that just sort of... Una will go down to the basement and go collect his armor, because I'm assuming he's just lying there naked. Pretty much. Again, curled, so modesty. There's a little butt, but it's fine. It's PG-13 butt. Yeah. Exactly. Very tasteful, like in the room. So tasteful. What if the perception checks for Una and Jadzia were high enough that they could see that everything was... That what had gone down? But Ballas' was so low that he actually thought that something intimate was happening with Kaluna.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. It's just deep regret afterwards. Bark burn. Jasper's coated in sap. Oh, didn't we establish that sap is... I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It would be pollen, Jason. Sorry. I'm sorry. He's just bright yellow. Yeah. Bees all over him. Car wash. Yeah, he's broken right now. I mean, I don't think... I honestly think that he would be... This is the last straw for him in a lot of ways. Like, this is something that he felt like he was more in control of, and this broke him. I don't think he would have the words. Ballas would move to the end of the hallway and sort of look at the door that Merrick came from that's completely shredded.

And then he would look down at the desk that was in front of it, kind of knocked over, and that's a lot of force to get through that, and then just look down at him and see that Kaluna's hunched over. He would probably try to be somewhat reassuring, just maybe put a hand on Kaluna's shoulder, something like that. Kaluna would sort of jump like, "Oh God!" But then they'd realize nothing bad is happening, so then they'd sort of relax again, but they're clearly not okay. Jodzia's just gonna be standing in the door, and she's not sure what to do with herself at first, but then after a moment of just collecting no blood, no whatever, Kaluna, no offense, I don't know if you bleed blood.

None of that. So she's gonna come over and sit down next to Merrick and put her arm around his shoulder very slowly. It's fine, everything's fine. When Una comes back with the armor, she'll just kind of put it down next to him. She's like, "Don't worry, okay? We're gonna get you cured. This is the last time. This is the last fucking time." I think that Merrick's face would go from being basically soft and hurt to... I think it would be inspiring, just in that moment. That was exactly what he needed to hear, and his face would just get solid and steel-eyed and kind of like staring off into space, but kind of nodding like, "Yeah, no, you're right, you're right." He would be acknowledging, of course, Jedzia and everything as well for being kind, but I think he would just start to grab the armor, but not with very much modesty.

I don't think the shame would be there anymore. I think he'd be like, "Okay, that's it. That's enough." I mean, you're with a lesbian, a couple, and a tree. Jedzia's immediately like, "Oh shit." She just turns her head away and covers her eyes. Even Valus would be like, "Hey!" and look away for just a second. His animal was over just the eyes. Stiff upper lip type. "Alright, compose myself. Get the armor." And just start putting things back on and just try to regain composure and confidence. I mean, it's clear that it's a veneer, but there you go. Okay, cool.

I'm surprised at how well he recovered. So Una would just nod like, "Alright, okay. Jedzia, those books about werewolf stuff, can you find them when the paladins bring them?" Jedzia will just nod. If she's gonna get a little bit bitter, if there's in one piece. Merrick would at that look at Jedzia too and kind of nod. I mean, again, he's trying to sort of fake it till he makes it for a moment, but he would say to Jedzia, "I need your help, desperately. That can't happen again. I can't be that monster." If there was a cure, Darmok had access to it, I'm sure of it.

He would have kept it in one of his notebooks. We'll find it. "Just tell me what I need to do." I think he would turn to Kaluna as well and say, "Would you have killed me if I had tried to get past you?" Kaluna's going to, um, they're just sort of awkwardly standing there, and they're clearly trying to play off what they're doing as crossing their arms, but they're more hugging themselves instead. And sort of, um, they're like leaves are rustling because they're shaking. And they're going to look at Merrick and just give him a nod. He's going to put his hand on their shoulder and just stare at Kaluna for a few moments, and then he's going to whip his head over to Valus and say, "Do you mind if she keeps the dagger?" He's going to hold his hand up and just like, "No, not at all.

That's fine." He wasn't even going to ask for it back. I mean, at this point, Merrick, I think he realizes that he can trust Kaluna to do what he wanted Valus to do, if need be. So I think that's the moment that he's having. That's basically it. I think he's going to try to shake it off. He's desperately needing help, and I think he realizes everybody's willing to help. He just doesn't know where to move forward, or how to move forward. Uh, Valus would actually speak up. I imagine there's kind of a tense silence in the hallway here. Merrick's dressed by now, right?

Oh yeah, I mean, this was all sort of, I imagine this was a very awkward silence. Merrick's kind of composing himself, and then everybody's kind of standing around not knowing exactly what to do. And Merrick's got a lot of shame, and everybody else is a little bit weirded out, and then finally, yeah. You know, after he's all dressed and composed and everything. Do you actually think that there's a cure for this? Honestly, no. The only cure I've ever been able to think about for this is death. As have you. But if anybody can find something, it would be her, and he'll nod to Jadzia.

Can I do an arcana check just to see if I know if there is a cure? Because it's a curse, there's got to be a cure. Um... do you have a favor? Not like the cure, but like why not? Right, oh yeah, no, I know. Um, yeah, go ahead. Either that or history. My arcana is +17, so I'm just gonna... I figured you were rolling arcana. 26. It seems to Jadzia that there'd be... that there's something she heard, maybe something tangentially related to it. Just lycanthropy in general, but it was probably just something she saw skimming for something else. Like she is probably poured through a majority of those books.

At the very least, when looking for the demon that she was after, or you know, I mean, just cursory knowledge of Darmox. Darmox spells and inner workings and such. Okay, then Jadzia will just nod and be like, "If it exists, there's a cure." Kind of fucked up thinking, but you know, she just wants to be helpful. You don't want to say to the person, "Well, you're on the brink." Probably not, no. Yeah. At about this point, everyone's gonna hear a knock come from the front door. Oona will jump. Oona will go to answer the door. I know where this is going. On the other side of this door, Julie's gonna be standing there with two paladins.

Each one of these paladins are both holding a large stack of books, and there is a chest behind them with more books. Julie's gonna expect Oona to answer the door, but even still, you can see her kind of stiffen a bit. I wanted to make sure that they all got here intact. Oh, I'm so angry at her. Oona will call over her shoulder and say, "Jadzia, your books are here." And then she'll snap her face back to Julie's and just say, "How thoughtful of you to make sure the looted fucking possessions come back okay. Come on in, we need to talk." Jadzia's gonna come right down the hallway, lifting up her skirt.

At a cursory glance, how much survive? What should I roll to figure out? Do me a favor, roll a perception. 13. 13? Wow. You have the same perception as Valis. Wow, okay. We are not a perceptive couple. We only have eyes for each other. I was gonna say the same thing. I wasn't even proud of that one. That was gross. Let's move on. At a glance, they look to be intact. No tattered pages. No, they're not burned or scarred in any way. They look to be in the same condition as when they left. Like, what percentage? Is this all of them? Is it for real, like all the books over there?

Because it was a big library. It was a big library. No, see, what they did was they destroyed a lot of... The destroyed books was more to send a message. A lot of the ones that were destroyed were something you could get another copy of. Darmok's personal works, Darmok's journals, anything related to blood magic, anything that could be used for evil, let's say, was confiscated. Not destroyed. Okay, so when Jensia realizes that, like, with her great perception of 13, she's gonna kind of smile and just put her hands on one of the stacks of books they're holding.

And very genuinely, "Thank you so much." And then she's gonna look up at Julie and kind of knock on her own head. And she's gonna be like, "Sorry about..." and tap her head twice. She's just gonna nod. Just kind of like, "Yeah, don't worry about it." She's gonna look at both of these paladins, take the books into the library, and unless the party stops them, they're going to walk further into the house and start to put these books back. Go right ahead. Fix the fucking shelves while you're at it. They will, actually. They're not just going to stack them into the library, they're gonna start to fix the mess.

You can tell that there was a conversation that took place before they got there. "Sorry, Mrs. Grace." Like, kick in the dirt, look at their shoes. "Shucks." "That was our tennis ball that went through your window." "That was our fists that went through your windows." So, is, uh, is... Merrick's up there, right? Like, there's no reason he needed to stay behind when that came up. He's hanging back a little bit, but he's gonna watch them walk by him, kind of like, just stare at them. Not menacingly, but just stare at them, and then he's gonna look at everybody and say, "I'm gonna try to find a way to make tea." Jason, is there any way-- I know the kitchen was sort of ransacked-- is there any way that he would be able to put something in there?

They didn't take teabags and stuff. Yeah, they didn't take... yeah. There's... Some way to make fire and water and... Absolutely. There's totally... yeah. They didn't... Again, it was more to send a message. It was more just like, break some shit. Like, throw... you know, it was more, you fucked with the wrong person, that kind of thing. And it was pure, impotent rage is the reason it happened. Okay, so Merrick's gonna announce that he's gonna try to drum up some tea, um, if you'd like to invite Julie in. Kalluna would follow him and definitely just stare Julie down, just... and sort of walk like a cat.

You know how they get all grumpy and they walk all stiff and stuff, and they move pretty slow? Merrick's gonna walk behind Kalluna and pick off a few leaves of stuff as he's trying to come up with something to make for tea. Yeah, Una will open the door and kind of gesture for Julie to come into the... parlor? Yeah, it's like a big living room type of area. Yeah, okay. She's really stiff. Like, you can tell... she's half expecting a fight. 'Cause that's happened a couple times now, when you guys have tried to talk. But after the dragon thing, she at least kind of feels like there's an understanding enough that you could start a conversation.

But yeah, very, very stiff. But she'll step in and close the door behind her. I guess Una will lead her to a couch or something? Just say, "Okay, fucking relax, first thing. I've already trounced you twice. We're not gonna bother with that bullshit again. This is talking, okay?" She's gonna stiffen immediately. "You trounced me with your party's help. Don't bite." Okay, okay, okay. Una's gonna roll her eyes like she doesn't give a shit. She's like, "Trounced nonetheless. Sit down, okay? Calm down." She's gonna, again, just... she wants to... you can tell there's equal effort on her side not to continue that line of thought.

But she will sort of loosen up after a second and sit down. Very slowly, kind of stiff still, but yeah, she's gonna sit down. Is there a place where Jodzia can kind of lean against a wall and hear what's happening in the library while also being a part of this conversation? The way the house is set up, there's kind of a hallway in between the living room area and the library itself. So you could sort of chill out in between, or you can just try to listen really intently from the library. I'll be in like the in-between place. Because the library is probably gonna be okay.

I'm not so sure about Una and Julie being in the same room. Well, listen, as soon as Merrick has some tea ready, he's coming right back out. Valus would probably hang on in that room. I don't think he would leave. Nothing with these two... previous track record indicates that this is gonna go anywhere but a fistfight. I swear I'll play nice, guys. I swear. Okay, Una's just gonna like... None of us believe you. No one believes you. I believe you think that. That's all you need to believe. Believe that I'm trying to be nice. As soon as she's kind of like sit square in front of Julie, like really casually seated, like she's not like sitting up really hell straight or anything like that.

She's just kind of like elbows on knees just kind of like staring into Julie's eyes very intently. And she'll say, "Okay, look. You're smart. Ish. You're brave. Ish. And you're stubborn as fuck. All of those I can appreciate. You're a great person to delegate to, but you're a bad leader. You have to have realized that by now." Every time you say "ish," she is going to reflexively tense just a bit. You can kind of see her grinding her teeth a little. And then the insinu- not even the insinuation, you're flat out telling her she's a bad leader. Again, very, very, very tight.

Okay. She's not saying anything, so Una will just keep talking. Is she gonna say something? It's taking her a bit. Like you can tell she's doing a thing where you count to ten kind of in your head and... "Alright. Firstly, you have to appreciate the situation I've been put in. Craig is gone and we were missing many paladins. Then I had to deal with you. You were pretty much the spokesperson for the temple. And then you come back telling everyone Kord doesn't exist. You trash the place and then leave. And on top of that, I have to deal with Seraph, and a mayor who is absolutely no good at her job." At the last point, Una's gonna kinda like grin a little bit.

Okay, yeah. First, totally agree on that. She needs to be- no. No power for her. No. She can't handle this shit. "I realize that I put you in a shitty position. And I'm sorry. But honestly, when I died, I saw nothing. And I realize that you have issues with that, but for me, I know I was brave enough to earn... heaven. I know it. If it existed, I would have gone there. So it was kind of a shock coming back when that's all I saw. I'm sorry about trashing the temple, I'm sorry about making a show of it. Couldn't really help myself. Seraph is my father, if you hadn't figured that out by him threatening you and me using my mother as leverage.

But I can't control him, and he needs to be dealt with. But not by you. You can't continue to lead the way you have." "That's where you and I disagree. I wanted to talk to you about that, too. How long have you known that he was your father?" "Is everyone just watching this happen?" "Yeah, Alice is, definitely. He's not saying shit." "This is better than soaps." "Please chime in. Please, if anything interesting catches your opinions or something." "These are my stories. These are like my stories." "In a couple more seconds, I would say that Merrick would be back with tea." "Is there any possible way that he could scrounge up anything else that would crack us?" "There's food.

They didn't take your food." "I thought they kind of just trashed everything." "It's more like throwing the pots and pans around." "It's also been a while since we've been there, too." "It's not like there's a lot of bread products there, because that wouldn't keep very well." "Something dried. Dried nuts. I mean, dried fruits and nuts and things like that." "Meats and stuff like that, yeah." "Well, whatever he can put together that sort of seems like a nice platter, like a cheese plate of some sort." "Merrick is so cute." "The place used to be stocked a little more like Jeffrey used to kind of..." "Whatever would be the poor man's version of that." "No, he'll sort of come in and, like he's Wade's staff, and just sort of serve the tea and put the stuff down and make sure that everybody gestures towards it." "Please help yourself.

Very, very sweetly to Julie as well, because he probably has a slight apology for maybe wolfing out in front of her after shackling." "She is very intensely staring at Una, but she's gonna side-eye Merrick for just a second and nod toward him like, 'Thanks.'" "Una would obviously follow him out and just, again, stare Julie down. Like they don't know what she's going to do when they're scared." "Merrick will try to reassure Coluna just with whatever he can do, just a hand on the back or something like that." "But he's gonna try to sit down and, while not getting in the middle of the conversation, he's going to be part of it, or part of the deal, if possible." "Good, thank god. So Una's gonna, like, not answer Julie's question instantly.

Just kind of, she's gonna sit down, she's gonna pour tea for everyone." "And then she'll look up at Julie with like the steaming cup, mug, teacup? I don't know how fancy this is." "Steaming receptacle with leverage. Steaming teacup in. And just kind of look over it and say, 'I've guessed he was my father for a couple weeks. I've known solidly for maybe a few days.'" "I'll make a deal with you. You tell me everything that you know about him, and your relationship with him, and I'll tell you something that I've only told Craig before." "That seems like a pretty shitty deal." "It ties in directly with Seraph." "Una's gonna look over at Merrick like, 'Should I even be buying this shit?' Not say that, but give him that look." "Right.

Merrick, I don't know how to, there is a look for this, I just don't know quite what it is, but the look is sort of like, 'I don't know, I mean, what's the harm?' And I think, 'I don't know if Merrick should say anything out loud.' "Yeah, no, Merrick will say, 'We can't trust him anyway, Una. It's not like we have anything to protect him from. He can protect himself.'" "Um, Una will, I think her reluctance stems more from, she doesn't want to tell Julie anything personal about her, because it's something you can use, you know? Less than like, she cares what happens to Seraph." "Um, I should look over at Julie and say, 'Okay, you first.'" "She's gonna give a half-smile like, 'Of course, me first.' Like, she didn't think you'd actually, you know, start off.

You're not much of a sharer. You don't come off like that." "Shocker!" "You're gonna see her visibly straighten up and tense a bit." "I came to the temple when I was seventeen. Seraph and my mother were close years ago. It didn't last, but she was a bounty hunter in White Hedge, and they were mutually friendly, at least when Seraph needed help tracking someone down." "Saraf and his sister worked together before they were affiliated with the house in Brightport." "One day, my mother decided that she was going to try and take Winya in, and then she's gonna pause for a second.

That was Seraph's sister. There was quite a large bounty on her head, and to be honest, we could have used the money." "She, of course, fought back and tried to kill my mother, and my mother was able to get to her blade first." "Saraf and her had a falling out after that. We took off for Esther Holt, and Seraph followed us." "He ended up murdering her before we got here. I managed to get away and get to the temple. Her and Craig knew each other, and that was where we were supposed to hide. I have lived there ever since." "That's the reason Seraph is here, and he's not going to stop until one of us is dead.

I don't intend on that being me." "Oh, God. Ugh. Ugh." "I'm kind of astonished you didn't notice the similarities in your personalities before now." "I mean, I did, but I thought it was just kind of like a paladin thing, you know?" "Have you noticed any other paladin act like that?" "Wait, who's older?" "She's older." "Dad liked my mom better." "He did. He didn't kill her." "A low bar." "Dude, if he was to kill his own child, the standard is not set very high." "So, okay, so I think Merrick would just be staring at Una like, 'Huh. Huh. That's it.'" "Huh." "Interesting.

That is very interesting." "From that vibe, Jason, could it, like, I got the vibe when you were talking. Would it have gotten the vibe that it's like, 'Oh, this is probably my sister.'" "Can I roll an insight check?" "I don't have to roll insight or anything like that." "I think Una would have a pretty good idea. The way she danced around it, we were close, that kind of thing, but didn't come right out and say it." "Because I don't think she's necessarily proud of it, for one, because it's Seraph, and two, because you." "Okay." "Let's see if Valus picks up on this.

This is just the worst." "See if Charles Zio picks up on it." "Go right ahead." "You don't, but the rest of the party would." "You can't take just a fucking clue." "I'm really worried about my books. I'm just like, 'Jesus Christ, Maric.'" "Yeah, Maric's like, he knows exactly what position they were in whenever she was conceived." "It's very, very..." "Holy shit, Valus rolled a 27." "Holy shit." "Yay!" "Yay, clearly match." "Yay." "So Maric, Valus, and Una would pick up that there's a very strong possibility that Una, Seraph, and Julie are related." "Jesus Christ, Seraph's just not rapid." "Well, they were years apart." "Oh, that's true, yeah. How old is Julie?" "Julie's 29." "Okay, so she's like four years apart." "Mm-hmm." "Fuck." "There's some weird taboo about killing your siblings, so that's unfortunate." Glancing around the room, Una will look at everyone just to see who picked up on this and just kind of meet Maric in Valus's eyes like, "Fuck." And then she'll look back to Julie and just let out the most exasperated sigh.

"Okay." "So you had a role in killing his sister, and for that, he wants to kill one of his children." "My mother had a role in killing his sister. Again, I can't really describe to you how tight things were financially." "We didn't have a lot of choice, and they had spoken up." "I'm not judging you, okay?" "I don't care what situation you were in when you had to make that happen. It's fine." "This doesn't mean we have to deal with Seraph, and it's not going to be pleasant." "I'm not going to turn you over to get him off my back." "As much as I wish I could." "I'm going to let you turn me over." "I could have it." Again, still very, very, just every once in a while, she just kind of roll her shoulders a bit and recompose herself.

Because she's trying so hard to be diplomatic in this situation. "Fuck what I do, guys." "So Julie, what do you want? What do you want to do here? Do you want to have Seraph all to yourself? Are you here looking for help?" "Firstly. And she's going to look great at Una. Let's stick to the bargain and you tell me everything you know about him." Okay, I mean I guess she spilled the beans, I will say. Una's going to roll her eyes like fucking hell. Okay, I know he and my mother were very involved for quite a while. Seems like they were pretty serious. He was climbing the ranks in Silverclaw.

When she got pregnant, she didn't want to deal with that crazy assassin bullshit, so she made him leave. Apparently he still cares about her a great deal. She's dead. He worked for Silverclaw and then staged some sort of coup where he brought a lot of the initiates to Esterhold to set up his weird little cult here. We met him briefly when he threatened us, and apparently recruited one of our party members to join Silverclaw. Kind of. He says he's a representative for them still, but he's not. They want his head. We were actually sent here to kill him, but I decided maybe not.

Now it's her turn to let out an exasperated sigh. Alright, so that is your actual father. So that's going to complicate things. It's very rude of you, Una. Oh, pardon me for having a biological fucking parent. I know I seem like the fucking demigod spawn of Kord, but not. She didn't say that. Okay, I was about to say. That would cause some fucking tension. Merrick chokes on his tea and spits it out a little. Look, I don't know if you really have more than a morbid fascination with being related to him. I don't care. He's my father too, and I feel nothing for him.

The man killed my mother and stole our life away. And I rebuilt in a completely new city, and he's taking that too. And I am not going to watch this city slide any further than it already has. I will kill that man. Una's gonna, like, when she says I'm not gonna let this city slide, Una's just gonna sit up and plop her fucking tea down on the little saucer. Still holding it very delicately, of course. But angrily. And just lean in and say, "Slide? You are the one who fucking pushed it down! You're the one pulling the fucking paladins around the city like a goddamn gang looting houses for weird personal vendettas that have nothing to do with the actual temple." We looted your house, and that's after you assaulted me and left the city with two weapons of Kord that you have no right to have.

By the way, thanks for calling in the dragons. Can Jodzia come in real quick? Yeah. Jodzia would walk in and say, "No, you looted my house." And she's gonna glare at both of you, like, "Both of you calm the fuck down." Can I write a Plumsie check for that one? Um, do so, please, yes. I kind of want it to be a moment of, like, "Mama's home. Shut the fuck up, 'cause you both came out of control." But my Plumsie's plus seven, so we'll see. Yeah, it feels a little bit like Tessie. You get a plus one, I think. I get a plus one against you? Yeah. I rolled on the table and it was eighteen.

And then I rolled on the fucking thing and it was one. Okay. So I guess that really wouldn't... I don't know if that would... I shouldn't have insisted I should have rolled. I should have just walked in. It's an excellent point. Hold on. It's an excellent point, but okay. In terms of a Plumsie check, I don't feel like that's going to resolve any of Julie's anger, but at the same time she is not angry at Jadzia. She would... That's kind of my point. It's like, "No, you looted my house." Right. And that's... I think she would still keep her tone of voice just still angry.

Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It's not like your group left us a lot of choice. I don't understand that. That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make any sense. Yeah. It simply doesn't make any sense. Are you bringing that up to her? Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. What choice was it to show these... the new young recruits, the new young paladins that pettiness and whatever vendetta you have or just revenge that you could just come into whoever house... whose ever house you want to and loot it? I'm not saying that Uuna didn't trash something or that everybody here is a saint.

That's not in question. But the pettiness? Is that courageous? Is that what you're teaching? I tried to talk to her. I let it slide the fact that her friend threatened to murder me unless I brought her back. I tried to forget her assault on the temple and her destruction of everything in it. And I tried to let it slide that she assaulted me in front of my men. But keeping those weapons is a direct affront to the temple and everything we stand for. And you know that. I was devoted to Kord more than anyone I have ever met in my life. Possibly even Craig. Although he and Kord were basically the same person so I can't really argue with that.

But I was the most strong in my belief. The most intense. And although I no longer have that belief, I still understand the fundamental tenets of our fucking religion. There is no one currently alive whom I have met who is worthy to have these weapons. I'm not saying I am. But there is nobody else. If you had these weapons, I don't know what the fuck would happen. Take care of the city. Slaughter people who didn't agree with you. I don't know. But you can't be trusted with them. The mayor can't be trusted with them. Serif, for god's sake, cannot be trusted with anything.

She's going to absolutely nod in agreement with the last two. Like, yeah, no. God, no. These weapons are not meant to be locked up in the temple safe, hidden away, or under glass for people to worship. That's not how they were meant to be. That's not how they were built to act. They have to be out in the world. So they are. And until I can find somebody who I think is worthy to wield these weapons, I can't turn them over. Also, the hammer is really fucking cool. And I kick ass with it. Miracle, non, like, hardcore. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not fair. She's going to give a tiny little smile at that last line.

Please understand I'm not asking for them because I want to wield one. And you have to understand how it looks when you're palling around with Serif. I was more than a little worried that he would end up with one of those weapons. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Definitely not a sharpest Serif. But I'm not that fucking dumb. Alright. Firstly, and she's going to look over to Jadzia, I apologize about your house. We're going to fix the damage and restore it to what it was. Secondly, I'm willing to table the weapon discussion for now. But we need to do something about Serif.

Jadzia is going to nod. I do not have any good feelings regarding this house. But if the knowledge that that man collected can save people, and she's going to kind of look over at Merrick like, fucking obviously, then that's what it should be used for. That was all I was angry about. We're good. She would kind of give like a little solemn nod over to Jadzia and say okay, because you could tell it was kind of bothering her. Una will look back at Julie and take a deep breath like, oh god, this is going to be a pain in the ass. But you're right, we have to deal with him.

You come with me and met the group and we'll go talk to him. We'll try and figure something out. Don't bring your paladins. Your paladins. Do you do that? Do you? Quietly under my breath, but definitely so she can hear a little bit. Oh, I don't want to derail negotiations because you're making progress. But yeah, that okay. This wouldn't be an exchange without a little bit of fist fighting. Come on. Right. Hey guys, don't worry, I'm going to try. I did. I told you. I'm being so as a bloke. You didn't try at all. I did. Merrick had told me not to bite. Merrick's going to intervene and just quickly see if Julie needs more tea.

She's going to, she's still glaring at Una. She's going to hold her hand up. No thanks. She's going to stand up and again roll her shoulders again, just kind of trying to compose herself. I'm going to have a few of my men come to the mansion and start to repair some of the damage. The rest of them are going to be out in the city helping out where they can. I hope you noticed that none of Seraph's men were present in the fight with the dragons. I'm not surprised that thieves and assassins don't want to face down against dragons. Obviously not. Though they had no problem intervening when you and I were fighting.

The dragons weren't really Seraph's problem. I'm pretty sure he came along to fight them because I wanted him to. He would have killed you so many times. Don't forget that I saved your fucking life. You don't think he's tried before? He would have succeeded this time. We wouldn't have been in that situation if we weren't fighting the dragons to begin with. The ones you called into the city. I'll remind you. I didn't know they were fucking out there. I thought we were calling our giant frost dragon. She's going to get ready and raise her voice again and then just visibly just...

Alright. Let's table that for later too. There's no reason fucking discussing it. Who does this really upset? This isn't my fucking fault. I didn't know. Maric's going to just try to be a voice of reason for a moment to try to give Una something else to focus on for a second. He's just going to look at both of them. Listen. Seraph is an opportunist. If it weren't the dragons it would have been something else. Okay? Julie's going to speak up. But it was the dragons. Let's not glaze over that. And it's not like Una doesn't have a history of charging into things before understanding what's going on.

What did I charge into? It's not like I saw a cloud of dragons up there and was like, "Oh, I want those down fucking here." Oh, I don't know. Let's talk about Strahd. That was different. That was a legendary dragon. You would have done that if you had balls. Can Maric- Oh god. Maric's going to scream something whenever you let him- Okay. She is going to take a step forward and get nose to nose with Una. How tall is she? You are slightly taller than her. Yes. There is a thin line between courage and absolute stupidity. And again, I'll remind you that leading Strahd away from the city was the plan.

Following him and fighting him was not. You led Craig and those men to their death. You got to come back and they didn't. Never forget that. Oh man, I don't want to have to kill my sister. Jesus Christ, come on. Just all I need is for Maric to be- Go ahead, Maric. He's going to walk up. I know they're nose to nose. He's a good bit shorter than both of them, I think. He's going to basically be in a little triangle with them. He's going to get as close to them as they are to each other, even though they're facing each other. And he's going to- it's going to be like one of those- it would be a scream, but it's kind of like gritted teeth.

And he's going to say as loudly as he can with his gritted teeth, "This is stressing me out." Oh. That's awesome. That's a good one. That's fucking good. That's great because that's what Maric wanted to do. Do me a favor, roll a diplomacy check, add a plus two to that because there is clear and present evidence. Would that be intimidate? Well, actually, you know what, if you want to roll an intimidate? Which everyone's tired, Jasper. No, it's- he's trying to help them. He's legitimately getting stressed. So this is diplomacy for him. He's not trying to piss anybody off.

That's what I figured, but I- Okay, I'm going to roll diplomacy. That would be intimidating. Here we go. Oh yeah. Yeah. And he's not going to move. Yeah. Julie's still going to be staring at Una, but- but not- she's not going to continue to yell. Una will look down at Maric, like, genuinely concerned, like, "Oh, oh buddy, like, no, no, no, no, no, don't- no more wolf." And she'll just kind of like put a hand on his shoulder, just like kind of like gently like rub his shoulder a little bit. And just say, "Okay, okay, okay. I'm going to fucking kill her, but that's okay." He's just going to stare at Una in her face like, like, "Don't do it." She's- she's backing down, like she's- she's backing away.

And he's- and he's doing the same thing to Julie too. Like, enough. And Chauncey is in the background just looking as proud as she can. Because that was beautiful. Julie is going to- she's going to lower her voice and kind of lean into Una. You are going to do something about the werewolf thing, right? Yeah, we're working on that. Kind of rude that you asked me, but alright. Would Kaluna have heard that? Um, roll her perception. We kind of needed those books. Yeah, it would have been dealt with a lot sooner if she hadn't fucking looted the place. Me? Um, no.

Not that time. Not with a 20. You know what? You know what? It's fine. They're stressed out. They're not paying attention. Should we- should we, like, wait till tomorrow? I'm not sure if we want to give him that time. Like, he could- he's an assassin. Like, they do shit at night a lot. Yeah. If it does get messy, we're going to need all the fucking power we can get, though, you know? Because he's hard to take down. Like, you see him fucking slaughter those dragons. Yeah. That's the problem. That's a- that is a double-edged sword. That is a great power to have on your side, not such a good one to have against you.

Yeah. Um. I'm not sure that he would, like, assassinate- just, if we have maybe Julie stay here, or maybe we'll go to an inn, or- Is this place livable? Like, can we stay here for a night? Oh, yeah. It's still, yeah. Like, they didn't, like, gouge the beds and shit. Like, they just, you know. So maybe if we, like, protect her? I mean, the temple is- the temple is probably- I mean, she's been there for a long time, and Seraph has had a lot of opportunity, and the temple's probably a pretty safe place for her. Actually, probably safer than the mansion. It's not like- I mean, this isn't the middle of the night, and we need to sneak her off to somewhere or anything like that.

It's just more like- I don't know. Seems like the temple might be just the best place for her. The best place for her. Okay, I mean. Like, I'm a little nervous about sending her off. Not that, like, I personally care, really, but- Although, she's not that valuable to us, really. You're thinking it'd be convenient if you did kill her, aren't you? That's what you're thinking right now, you evil cunt. That is exactly what I'm thinking. I'm not gonna try to make it happen. I could hear it in your voice, like, "Well, you know, it wouldn't be that bad." I'm gonna try one less, like, blood pool that I have to mop up myself.

She's a paladin of Kord. She was formidable against Una. I'm sure she'll be fine on her own. And presumably it's in the middle of the day, right? Like, it's light outside. Also, her and Seraph have been in the same town for a while. Yeah. Let's just send her back, then. Fuck it. He's had opportunities, and he has minions who could have taken care of it, too. He's looking for a way to do this that makes sense for him, I guess. I don't know. But it's not like she needs super protection all of a sudden. Yeah. Okay. And honestly, he could have killed her just a little while ago.

He could have done it. That's true. I don't know why the fuck he didn't, but whatever. Ugh. Stop making noises, you fucking cunt. Okay. Maybe I should have muted for that. Whatever. Yeah. I'm the evil one. You just said it would be okay if this woman died. But that's okay. I'm the evil one. You are! Una will just look over at Julie and say, "Alright. We'll go deal with this. Go back to the temple. We'll meet you there in the morning." Alright. She's gonna straighten up and get ready and take off. She's gonna tell her men to stay behind and start repairing things, and she'll be sending some more.

Shortly. Partly because she wants to make sure that nothing happens to the party in the middle of the night. And she's gonna be ready and take off. Uh, Kaluna needs to talk to Merrick. Okay. Aw, this is gonna be gross. Okay. So later this evening... actually, you know what? Phallus might wanna... Okay. So, go ahead. Later this evening, the group is... The house is starting to get back together. The paladins are picking stuff up. You know, just sort of wandering the halls, making sure everything is straightening up tables and not much they can do about that basement door.

But they can pick up all the books and all that stuff. So the house is looking at least cleaner. That's good news. Sweet. Um, so we talked about this briefly, but in this time, do you guys wanna be going through the books and looking for werewolf stuff? 'Cause Jadzia previously has done research, but I feel like we should help her. Kaluna can't, so... That's true. Damn. I'll be doing it. Cool. Yeah, I mean, Merrick would... Yeah, definitely. Merrick would ask if there's anything that... basically he's just looking for anything that he can do to help. Like, Jadzia, just tell me what to do.

Do I need to skim through books or do you want me to leave you alone or... I don't know how to help. I can make you tea? Jadzia would accept the tea, but then be like, "It's cool. I got it. Go ahead." He would hover and slightly dote because he knows how much everybody's trying to help him. This isn't something that he's used to doing. I mean, don't forget, he hasn't really had friends for well over a decade, intentionally, 'cause he didn't want to put anybody into a bad position. So he's kind of humbled and ashamed and doesn't feel very good about the fact that he is kind of having to rely on everybody else 'cause he doesn't know what else to do.

It's a tough position for him, emotionally. Okay. I was just going to say, Uno will find Merrick at some point and try and talk to him if he's available. Yeah, I mean, I think he'd be milling around a little bit, just maybe trying to help clean up in the kitchen area or stuff like that. Okay, cool. So Uno is kind of leaning against a counter and kind of awkward. This is a little bit more personal than she's going to want to, you know, not super comfortable, that sort of thing. But she'll say, "So we should probably talk about the history of this werewolf stuff." Whatever Merrick's doing, he'll just sort of put the pot down or whatever, the pot.

Merrick's smoking pretty hardcore. He's got a mellow out. He's making brownies. He's making brownies. Whatever he's dealing with, he'll just sort of put it on the counter and turn and face her. Like, "Yeah, you want to know something from me?" Yeah. How do you get the curse? What happened in the forest? Just, I guess, all the information that you have that you know for sure is useful information. I really don't know much, and I can tell you what I've told you before, which is I thought for years and years and years that a monitor was making this happen, that he had cursed me to make me this werewolf creature monster that can pop out every once in a while.

I thought he was punishing me for something that I had done just because I had hubris, because I was not as faithful as I needed to be or that I had not proved myself or whatever it was. I assumed that he was punishing me. He had cursed me. And now, after coming back from the high mantle, when I saw you, I told you I don't think that's what happened at all. I think I've been kind of intentionally not replaying my history, intentionally not wanting to see what I had done. I don't think he had anything to do with it, because number one, I don't think he's even there.

But honestly, I think I had been the werewolf for a lot longer than I realized that I was. And that means that I don't think it was a curse, or if it was, it was something that I wasn't familiar with. I don't know anything about that. I just think I was the werewolf a lot longer than I realized, or way before I knew it. So I don't know. Was I bitten? Was I poisoned with werewolfism? I don't know how it would work. But I don't know. I don't have any answers. What happened to me in the fire isles, I realize now, is I'm the one who wolfed out, and I'm the one who killed the people that I was close to.

And I left that, and I blocked it out. And I blamed Monitore for it the whole time. But I don't know how it happened. I wish I knew more. How many people have you killed as a wolf? I can tell you, now that I remember what I did in the fire isles, we're talking scores. Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of people. Do you feel any guilt about that? Do I feel any guilt about that? It crushes me. All the day. All days. Every day. You do realize it shouldn't. I know you can't really help how you feel, but that's not how that works. It's not... It's technically your fault because I guess you were there.

But it's like any other wild animal coming in somewhere and killing people. It has nothing to do with you. And once this is gone, once we deal with this, you're probably going to have to face that full on. And I want to make sure you're going to be okay with that. Merrick would look down at his hands, and sort of hold them up a little bit, looking at his hands a little bit, remembering just what happened in the basement. And I guess he would just nod. I guess he would just... This is a time for reflection. I don't think he's prepared at all. But he's going to have to go through it.

So yeah, and that's what he would say. I mean, I'm not prepared for this in any way. But I know that there's the only thing that I can even conceive of doing is making this go away. That won't take care of anything that I've done in the past. It won't bring anybody back. It won't make me not responsible for all the deaths that I've caused. But it will make the thing go away. And I hate that thing more than anything. So I don't... I'm going to be honest with you. I don't think that there's absolutely any way that this is going to happen. The only way that I'm ever going to be cured of this is if I throw myself off of a cliff.

But if there's a chance, I just want it to be gone. I want to be able to be a real... just a real person. I don't know why you're being so fatalist about this. You're with a group of your best friends, and I call myself that. I would consider us best friends, who have taken on dragons, hordes of armies, giant Titanous warforged. We've trekked across the continent multiple times. We have a giant frost dragon that we ride around with. There's no way this is not going to work. If there's any group of people who can make this work, it's us. The lengths we have gone to to protect and help our friends go beyond most things normal people experience in a lifetime.

It's going to be fine. We're going to get rid of it. And when we do, I want to make sure that you're prepared to deal with this guilt. Because it's not your fault, and you're going to have to realize that. Merrick's going to nod at sort of the truths you're giving him. I mean, he does appreciate the friends that he has finally. He'll say, "Listen, I'll make a deal with you. If you can find a way, and I don't think there is one, but if you can find a way to help me with this, then I promise you that I will be prepared when the time comes to deal with it myself." I mean, he's made an agreement.

If you can help, then he'll prepare himself for it, and that's the least he can do. But he's going to say, "Hey, thanks. For real. I'm not used to asking people for help, and I appreciate that all of you and you care enough to do it. Also, I'm sorry about your hair." I'm just going to look slightly disgusted at the mushiness that's coming out of Merrick. Not like truly like, "Ugh, God, stop," but just kind of like, "Ugh, super uncomfortable here." But then when he apologizes about her hair, she'll give him a big grin and just kind of run her hand through a mohawk and say, "Honestly, I kind of like it, even if my dad thinks it's stupid." That makes it better.

That's what dads are for. They're supposed to hate your haircuts. With that in mind, can I, just for the night before tomorrow, can I borrow your hammer? I have something I want to do. I promise it'll be in good hands. It's not going anywhere. It'll look kind of like a surprise, but not untrustworthy or suspicious or anything like that. So she'll kind of give him a confused look and just say, "All right, I trust you," and she'll take it off her and put it on the table and then just kind of like, give him a side eye, "What are you up to?" and leave the room.

Yeah, Fury's going to make kind of a resounding thud putting it on the table. It's got some heft to it. I know Kaluna wants to talk to Merrick, but how about we space this out? Let's catch up with Jadzi really quick. Before we do that, I need to roll. That was very complicated for a minute there, because it was like, "Before we do that, let's do this. Before we do that, let's do this. And before that, let's do this." Let's catch up with Vallis and Jasia. Eleven boners. That's beautiful. For everyone at home, Jason rolled an eleven. Una said, "Roll for Vallis boners." Eleven.

Eleven boners. That's a lot of boners for such a short... Are they stacked? Because I can't imagine any of them staying in the proper place unless they were stacked at that point. I can imagine four boners sitting where a boner should be after that. Yeah, but they're all over the place, right? All over his body. What? What just comes out of his elbow? Why is this happening? Right, that's what I was thinking. He just keeps losing the boner and then just... Like he gets distracted by something. He's flipping through books, he's thinking about Jasia, then he's like, "Oh, that's horrific." Loss a boner.

Okay. Boners. We're back, guys. Okay. Cool. Jasia, do me a favor. Roll an arcana check. Okay. Let's hope this works out, guys. I want to fix Merrick. Twenty-two? I'll just stay up all night until I figure it out later. So, a little bit of time has passed. I would imagine Jasia got to work pretty much immediately after the library was in a state where she could sit down and start grabbing books and sort of leave through here. She is not finding any information about an actual cure. At least nothing tangible that she could point to and say, "This is what we need.

These are the things we're going to need and I could do this." What she will find is information about another blood mage. As you know, Darmok was not the only game in town when it came to blood mages. Well, he was literally the only game in Esterhold. But there are others out there that were equally as powerful, if not more so, than him. He is going to mention someone just outside of Donhurst. But someone who gets even more mentions than that is a witch that lives in the swamp. There was, if you remember, a ritual that was performed by Darmok on Fi that removed the vampirism from Jasia and sort of exchanged it.

There is something kind of alluded to in the books that sort of says that there is a similar process that could be done for lycanthropy, but something a bit more final. There's really, it doesn't go into a lot of detail beyond that, but it's kind of hard to follow Darmok's reading because he was so fucked in the head, I want to say, that his writing is very scatterbrained, very tough. He would speak in riddles sometimes, or there's obviously a train of thought that's very hard for a regular sane person to follow in as he's writing. It's kind of tough, but what you're gathering is that that spell might be beyond, it may have been beyond him.

But he did surmise that that witch might have been able to pull that off. So I guess I'll take that information and be kind of annoyed that if Darmok couldn't do it, there's probably no way I'm going to be able to do it. But the witch is a good lead, so she'll kind of close the books. How long would it take her to find this information? How late into the night is it? I would say that if you started, because it was middle of the day when you got started, I would say six, seven hours of solid reading, just leaving through, leaving through. If you're closing up the books, like, Valus would be stone quiet this entire time because he doesn't want to bother you.

The most he would do is go get you some food or drink or something like that, but not say a word. But if you're closing up the books, he would kind of clear his throat and just make sure that you're not in the middle of something. She'll look up and give a little half smile, tuck her hair back, almost apologetically like she knows it's boring for him, but there's not much she can do about it. And then just nod. Yeah, I'm done. Can I ask you a question? Of course. Where exactly does this end? Don't get me wrong. I want to help with this. I feel like we owe it to them.

But when can we stop? Jodzia's smile is actually going to get a little bit wider because she's been wanting to talk about this for a while, but she didn't want to be the one who broached the subject, and she's going to hold the book that she had been reading up to her chest and step a little bit closer. Soon. I...you're right, we owe them this much. They've done so much for us, for me, that I want to make sure that we repay them. I'm also done with this life. I want us to have a life. And we've cheated death enough. This will be the last of it. After Merrick is cured, I'll talk to you, Una, and the rest.

I didn't want to mention it, but I kept waiting for a clean break. I don't think that's going to happen. It's always something. I was hoping the same thing. I was hoping that eventually everything would just be finished and we'd be able to say goodbye without feeling this immense guilt, but I guess we're just going to have to face their wrath. And she's going to kind of have Cath laugh. She doesn't actually think they're going to be angry. Valus would put his hands on her shoulders and just kind of pull her close. I take it you found something. And then, Jensia is going to nod and put her hand on top of his.

We're going on another trip. The curse is too much for me to handle, which is saying something, considering. But there are others who might be able to help us. Actually, how much do I know about the witch? Can I roll a history check? About her personality and shit. 21. 21. Not a lot is publicized about her personality. There's more air when people speak about her. It's usually in hushed tones. It's usually remarking about how powerful she supposedly is. There are a few people in Theria who have witnessed anything she's actually done and walked away. So there's this real thick air of mystery about her.

Who exactly she is, why does she live where she lives, why do people go to her. And the fact that she's a really powerful blood mage does not help with that, because blood mages don't have a good rap to begin with, and really powerful ones tend to be either really crazy or into some really dark stuff. Are there rumors that she's crazy? Crazy is not the word that people use when describing her. Good, because I was thinking the one thing I could use to convince Valus to go is, "Hey, she's not as crazy as Tarmoc." Yeah, it's more eerily calm. I think that she'll be easier to deal with than the blood mages we've met in the past.

And after that, Fenn will talk to them. And she's gonna kinda look up for confirmation, like, if that's okay. If that's what he wants. Alright. You should probably tell the others what you found. Isn't it like 2am? Oh, I don't think anybody's really sleeping. How about we catch up with Kaluna? You said Kaluna wanted to talk to Merrick? Yeah, but would Merrick want to do his thing first? What thing would that be? The hammer thing. The hammer thing. Well, I mean, okay, so let me get a good idea here. Roughly what time is this? This would be a little after midnight, really.

I think at this point, Merrick would have been retired to the room and sort of dealing with the thing he wants to deal with, which I haven't explained yet. I mean, it would be a good enough time for Kaluna to talk to him if that's what you're talking about. Unless you wanted to do it in a particular place. No, no. It was just timing. I don't wanna do this. It's gonna be gross and emotional. I don't like it. Oh, I get all your goodbyes and nice stuff out of the way. Oh my god. Should I tell you what Merrick is trying to do while this is happening, I imagine?

Like, while there's a conversation going on? With a hammer. No, what I wanna do is... Alright, this is ridiculous, but it's just an idea I had. Here's the deal. So, on Kord's Fury, there's a handle, right? Like a grippy leather-bound thing to hold onto, right? To hold this. It's kind of decorated with jewels and stuff. Okay, cool. What I would like to be able to do is take the hair that Merrick kept whenever he cut Una's hair. He kept a bunch of it. He wrapped it up a little bit and kept it, not knowing what to do with it. I want him to re-wrap the handle tighter, you know, just sort of like re-do the handle a little bit, and put her hair and tightly wrap it around into the handle so that it's part of the leather strapping and that it's just part of the grip of that handle.

Um, we could do that, sure. I feel like that would be something with the little knowledge that he has with his breakaway armor and strapping and that kind of thing that he would, you know, with enough care and attention, he'd be able to do it. Sure, yeah. Totally. Okay, cool. So that's what he's gonna be sitting there basically doing. It's basically him sitting there sewing or knitting, but that's the actual action that he's doing, is with the hammer. While Kaluna, you know, if Kaluna starts to talk to him, that's what he'd be up to. [laughs] Okay. So, um, Kaluna would probably just be sitting there and just sort of watching Merrick do his thing, just sort of clearly zoned out.

And um, and just sort of out of the blue, they'd be like, "Are you okay?" Merrick will, with Kaluna, there's no point in trying to, you know, put on airs or anything. I think he would just sort of drop his hands a little bit and drop what he's working on slightly. He'd be like, "Yes, I mean, I guess. What am I supposed to do? I just have to deal with it, right?" Kaluna's gonna give him a weak sort of wobbly smile and they'll say, "We're not okay either." And um, they'll sort of pause for a moment, sort of gathering their thoughts. And gross emotional bullshit.

Okay. They'll say, "When we learned growing up that Wildin are never alone because we always have each other. And when you left us back in Fair Bay, we were there with Valis and Jadzia and V and Pig. But we didn't, we felt like we were all alone. And when we got to Brightport and you weren't there, it was, it hurt. Something was missing and we couldn't fix it. It was wrong. We were alone. And we don't know if we can do that again, Merrick. Merrick's gonna put down everything that he's working with. And he's gonna, is Kaluna like sitting on the floor kind of or on the bed?

I figured that's where he was as well, just sort of as a workspace. He's gonna sort of shuffle over and just be right in front of Kaluna. Maybe like knees to knees, you know, like a, like a, like cross-legged. I, first of all, I shouldn't have done that. Not without letting you know of anyone. I guess I have a lot to learn from the Wildin. And it's not, it's not just that you never are alone, but that you never should be. It took me a long time to learn that. And I think I'm only learning that now. Now that I've met you and now that we've met our new friends.

So, Kaluna, I'll never leave you again. That's a promise I'll make you right now. How's that? Kaluna's gonna give him another sort of weak smile and then they'll sort of, they'll drop it again and they'll say, we, we don't know, we know we're not good at common. You know too. And maybe, maybe there's a different word. We know, we know you taught us that this word is used for families and for people like Jadzi and Thales. But we love you Merrick. I'm gonna hug him. I imagine, I don't think after, especially after the day that they've had, I cannot imagine for a second that Merrick's not just gonna sort of burst into tears, like happy good stuff tears.

And, and he'll just hug Kaluna and, and, and he'll say, I love you too. I'll never leave. Okay? Okay. Aww. That was so good! So Jadzi is going to, are you going to call the rest of the party together and let everybody know what's going on? Are you just going to find Merrick or how, how would you like to do this? So it is still super late and Jadzi wouldn't want to wake anyone up even if there's a low chance that anyone's actually sleeping. So she'll kind of like sneak around and whoever she finds first, she'll be like, hey, so whoever would I find first?

Uh, I know. I know you probably didn't do much sleeping so she's probably just drifting around the house. Like where is everybody? Do me a favor, roll a perception check. Just roll a perception check to see what's going on here. This is the middle of the night. Merrick's definitely- Holy fuck! Okay. Um, you're gonna find, you're gonna find Una pretty, pretty quickly. She's not exactly the quiet type. You're going to, you're gonna, you're gonna hear, welcome to the hallway, you're gonna hear Merrick and Kaluna talking. So you're gonna know that everyone's up.

Okay. Well, in that case, what a fucking waste of a crit. God damn it. You might get another. You don't know. You might have a hot hand. A crit missed the diplomacy check earlier. That could have really been in handy. Anyway, anyway. Things worked out? Sure. Makes me mad when I waste good points. Oh, I know. So she'll kind of gather everyone together then and be like, okay, team meeting in the, wherever we have team meetings. The parlor, I guess. The parlor? Yeah. Okay. So once everyone's in the room together, she'll like set down her book. She's not going to open it because no point in bothering showing everyone where she found this information.

Um, Merrick? Yep. He's definitely, he's visibly nervous. I honestly, I don't think that I have enough power to break the curse, but very quickly, but because she doesn't want you to get heartbroken, I do think I know of someone who is. Una and I have actually been there before. There's a witch in the swamp who is extremely powerful. If anyone would know how to break this curse, it would be her. So that's where we'll go. And she'll say it like it's the most obvious thing ever. Like, no, no, no objections. Let's go. Una will clap Merrick on the back like, fuck yeah.

And then she'll spit. So she'll clap on the back like, okay, we're going. After we know it's a seraph shit, we're going. I think he would, he would let out a, it's like he's been holding his breath now for several minutes probably and just collapse his body just a little bit. Like, Oh my God. Like you, you actually found something that could help me. I, I don't even know what to say. I'm just, I'm grateful for that. Even if it, even if it doesn't work, I'm, you don't know how grateful I am for all, all that you've done. Thank you. Chelsea is going to like smile just a little bit and be like, it will work.

Merrick knocks. What's that? And then she'll just go, we should, we should all probably sleep because no one has. Yeah. Should be. I can't believe it. I assumed it would take days or weeks for you to find something or research or I just, I don't know what to say, but yeah, we need some sleep. Don't underestimate me. Never, never, never, never. As Una's leaving the room, she's going to look back at Merrick in mouth. Told you so. She's going to stick her tongue out. Merrick will do the, do the across the room head nod like sup. Fuck yeah. So let's pick things up the next day guys.

Next day as the party's getting ready, you're going to hear a knock on the front door and that would be Julie. And as you requested, she didn't bring any more, any more paladins. It's just her. Is Seraph what you guys are after right now? Yes. He needs to be confronted. He's too much of a loose cannon for us to be able to allow him to be here. So the party as a whole is going to go find him? Why are you asking these questions? I just want to be thorough, Iz. Yeah, fucking right. Before we do anything, Kalluna's going to change to the Aspect of the Ancients because I forgot last time.

How does that manifest itself? Uh, like with the party notice like a demeanor change like before. Oh yeah. Um, it's both physical and sort of behavioral. So the Aspect of the Ancients is the original one where Kalluna's all white and glowy and shit and sort of more calm and collected as much as Kalluna can be. Just for, for, uh, curiosity, um, does this happen in front of everyone? Is this, is this like a moment change where it's like, whoosh? I, I imagine since it has to happen during a rest, it would be sort of like a, like a during, like while everyone's sleeping.

Gotcha. So you, the next day it's like you've, you've, the Aspect has- Is this something like they'll notice like blossoms or something on you or something like physically? No, no, it's just, um, each Aspect looks different. Like, uh, Aspect of the Ancients is, uh, white leaves and white eyes. Uh, Defender is black eyes and normal leaves. And then, uh, the, uh, Hunter, Stalker, whatever. Something that has to do with being sneaky is, um, like camouflage pattern sort of skin like dappled with different colors and green eyes. So it's definitely something the party would notice.

Yeah. Okay. Oh yeah. Maybe. Like wow, Kalluna, you look really nice this morning. Hi. You look fantastic. Resplendent, even. Did you do your hair differently? Yeah. I'm so glad you noticed. One more thing. Okay. If we're about to take off to go somewhere, um, Merrick's going to leave for a second and come back with Una's hammer. And I imagine you would see that's like, what's that? Um, so Una's gonna kind of like look at it and she doesn't immediately recognize it as her hair because you know, it just looks like her hair is like white silver. So it just kind of looks like a ribbon, I guess.

Um, so she's kind of like hesitate to touch it almost like what if you fucked it up? Um, and just kind of reach out for it tentatively and say, what is that? Um, you remember what I cut off of you, right? Uh, Una's just gonna, her face is just going to split into a giant grin. Do you think, you know, if there were cord somewhere out there, do you think he'd mind? Do me a favor, roll perception party, please. Julie's just losing her shit. Hey, 18. That's better than usual. 29. 31. 27. Wow, fucking hell. Good job, Valis. Um, Merrick, Merrick, Kalluna, Una, and Valis are going to notice that.

I did so much better than usual. I'm so sorry. Well, here's, I'll describe what everyone's going to see up until a point. Everyone's going to see Julie fold her arms. And she's going to start to look impatient. What the rest of the party, except for Jazzy, is going to notice, she is visibly upset that you have decorated this weapon. That you have changed it or altered it in any way. And she is very definitely upset. The more Merrick goes into a description about it being Una's hair and everything, she is quite visibly upset that it's something personal of Una's that's decorating this weapon.

Kalluna will stick their tongue out at her. Is it white too? I don't know. For canon, Kalluna. I imagine it's more of like an orange-y color because their blood is sap and mouths are red because of blood, so. There you go guys, that's for posterity. Is it bad that mouths are red because of blood? I just pictured people with giant bloody mouths. Is it bad that I thought I'm a tongue full of maple syrup? You know what's really fucked up? Usually I dream really, like, if I have a nightmare it's really based in reality. Last night at the end of my nightmare I was eating my own teeth for some reason.

Like, it's so fucked up. That is really common apparently. That is, it means you feel like you have no control over your life. Oh, okay then. Weird. Also if you see a black person in your dreams it means that you're afraid of theft according to a 1950s dream book that I have. Jesus Christ! And if a Negro shows up in your dreams? They actually have the word Negro. Jesus Christ! Okay, so Julie's visibly upset. Una will take the hammer from Merrick, just like super happy. You can tell this has really pleased her. And she'll like, you know, sling it on her back and then just wrap him up in a giant hug.

He's just gonna say, while he's being hugged, "Let him take it away from you now." She's gonna squeeze him, like, super tight when he says that. He's just gonna beam. He's just beaming. Aw, yes, I'm so happy. Julie's gonna speak up. So, Seraph! Una will look over her shoulder at Julie and just be like, "We were having a moment!" You were. Cunt! That was in character. Fine. Fine. Matters at hand. Did Julie snap in a Z formation when she was there? Okay, let's head out then. If we can't have nice fucking things. That was in character. Do me a favor. Roll a streetwise check.

Okay. Una would sort of know through the grapevine where Seraph is currently. And he is in an abandoned alleyway. After the destruction the dragons caused, there is sort of a portion of the downtown area carved out. Fire spread a bit and they were put out, thankfully. Not too many people were actually hurt. The problem was dealt with pretty swiftly. And not too much destruction was caused. Relatively speaking. Seraph is actually holed up in an abandoned alley with some of his men. How would you guys like to approach him? I actually want to be walking next to Julie so that if there is any resemblance between us...

I know there probably wouldn't be because Una looks mostly like her mom and God knows what Julie looks like. Julie is actually a bit shorter than Una. Much darker hair, whereas Una's is bright white basically, silvery. Hers is darker. She actually takes after her mother. So there is almost no resemblance between the two of them. Okay, fuck that idea then. But you're not... You're not going to be telling him anything he doesn't know in terms of... you know what I mean? Yeah, I'm sure he knows, but I just want to imply that I also know. With the fact that you two are walking together, he's going to know something's up.

He might not know exactly what, but he'll know something's up. We could probably put two and two together. Okay, then yeah, I guess we should just approach openly. Nobody get your hands on your weapons or anything, right? Oh yeah, I mean this is at least at first blush, this is a diplomatic conversation, right? It's not going to go well. We don't want this to end in a fight. It will, but we don't want it to. Well, we don't know that. There is a reality where this all works out. *laughter* It's the funniest fucking joke I've heard all week. Multiverse theory suggests that... yes, indeed.

There is a theoretical dimension where none of the shit's fucked up. Alright then, you are going to approach Seraph and his men in this alley alone. Seraph is going to look up from what he's doing. Seraph is going to cock his head to the side just a little bit when he sees the two of you standing together and that Julie is with the party. But the fact that there are no paladins escorting you, he's going to give the slightest of smiles and step forward. Is there something I can do for you? Be gentle. I'm just going to grab Julie's shoulder and pull her forward a little bit and be like, "Look, Dad!

I found my sister!" Julie is going to visibly tense. And her hand is going to reach for the hilt of her sword but not draw it. And she is locked. And she will clamp her hands down her shoulder, or her hand, I guess, like squeeze it. Like, "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope." She is locked eyes with Seraph and Seraph's looking dead at her. So you two have been talking. How delightful. You don't sound so delighted. I'm going to repeat. Is there something I can do for you? Psst, guys. What can he do for us? We want him to leave, right? That's the goal? Yeah, but what's the reason behind that?

It's not going to convince him anyway. So the reason is we want the city to be peaceful and not crime-ridden and we don't trust you and you're terrifying. Right. And you can teleport and shit. And your hair is stupid. I mean, I think, you know, there's been a lot of shit going down. The dragons, everything that's gone on, distraught even before that. It's time to rebuild Esterholt. And it's clear that, I mean, even going back to, shit, I want to say Cedric but it's not Cedric. Cecil. Cecil, thank you. Is this funny? Because I know somebody named Cedric that I keep calling Cecil.

He's an entertainer. God damn it. Breathe. Just get out. You know what? Just leave. Just leave. He, even going back to that, it's clear that this place needed some cleaning up. It's also clear that we were tasked, even if we don't give a shit about Mayor Keller, we were tasked very early on with trying to help clean up this city. And you know what? We have to at least try to honor that. And that means getting rid of anybody who we feel like is going to mess the city up. Right? I mean, that's my take. I mean, say however you feel like you need to. Yeah, that's 100 percent, yeah.

So, Oodle will kind of like try and get Seraph to kind of look at her. Just kind of like, "Hey, I'm being completely honest here. This city has had enough shit." The scumbags who ran it before, Mayor Keller's complete incompetence, the decimation of the Temple of Kord, somewhat on my fault there. It's too much. We just fought the dragons. Most of the city has been at least somewhat damaged. I know that you want to control the city as your own. But honestly, the city and this group aren't really up for that. Also, you're not exactly trustworthy. He's going to lean back a little bit, sort of relaxed for you guys approaching him and asking him to leave.

You kind of have a posse formed up. Correct me if I'm wrong. Weren't you responsible for the dragons in the first place? Look, I'm not saying I didn't fuck up. But my fuck-ups are unintentional, okay? I'm not seeking to run this city into some sort of crazy criminal underground, okay? Is that what you think I'm doing here? 90% of the evidence would suggest that, kind of, yeah. Give us a reason to think otherwise. Do you know why I left Brightport? No. It became clear that no matter how high in the ranks I climbed Silverclaw, I would never lead. That was unacceptable.

I was never going to get the power I needed to achieve my goal. Brightport is a cesspool. It's poverty-stricken, and what few scraps remain, people fight and kill each other over. Esterhold, on the other hand, enjoys wealth that most of the mainland will never know. Have you noticed how many people like me live here? Drow, tieflings, even dwarves? This city is predominantly human, because they have no interest in people like me. I find that to be unfair. Wait, guys, since when is Esterhold hell a racist? Yeah. I thought that was Overwatch. Wait, what's going on?

Is he not racist? It is primarily human, I get that. But I don't think we've been walking around with a tree and tiefling. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like he's got beef with it. No offense, Kalina. Or Vallas. He might be trying to pull on our fucking heartstrings too. Yeah, I think he's trying to be like, "Come on, he's playing with our hearts." I'm accepted, nobody loves me. The only person other than Julie that you're talking to right now that's human is me. And me. Hi. You're human? Yeah, I'm the only one who followed the rules when we became Overwatch characters.

Oh, right. Actually, I would say the only person who's human in our party is actually Jadzia. Yeah, that's true. A werewolf. He's half human. I'm half human. That's true. She's the only one that is purely human. Yeah, that's a good point. Considering that Julie and I are the only humans you're speaking to right now, you're kind of preaching to the wrong choir. Oh, I'm not looking for your acceptance in the matter. This is happening one way or the other. I'm just letting you know what my intentions are. The Paladins don't belong in this city. They're going to rule through brute force and courage.

And we all saw where that got you. And he's going to look over to Una. This was the Paladin city before you got here. They were the only ones doing any good. You came in with your criminals and tried to get rid of the criminals. That's not gonna...that's not how this is gonna work. You need to leave. If you recall, we were invited. Saying that you were invited by Mayor Keller is probably the lowest possible thing. Being invited by Mayor Keller is like having an invitation to a coronation by a 12-year-old beggar. It's a very low bar for an invitation, let's be honest.

I don't want to insult you, but she has absolutely no authority and she doesn't know what the fuck she's doing. Do me a favor, roll a perception check. This is when he poisons all of us from a distance with his eyes. 18. You're gonna notice the slightest smile curl up around his lips. That is one thing we do agree on. But it's been taken care of. Oh fuck, he killed Keller. Whatever. We are gonna fucking do that. We don't have to deal with that, I guess. One last fucking problem for us to solve. God damn it. We were all worried about Julie getting homesick. Now the only obstacle that stands in my way.

And he's going to level his gaze at Julie. And she is going to start, in the same breath, she is going to start to draw her sword. God, what an idiot! Not fully, just like, just start to take it. And Seraph is going to reach for his dagger, but neither one of them are going to fully draw their weapon. Is you. And the only reason I remember that is because I want to do this. Jodzia is going to sit a little bit straighter and go, "Is us." Real quick, can I do a perception check to see if there are any assassins on the roofs? Please do. Yes, the answer is yes.

Heh! Thirty-six. Oh, ho ho ho ho ho. Kaluna's are birthdays. There are currently, within sight, five people standing behind Seraph. Those are the only ones that you see in the area. Okay, Kaluna, you see them. Do you think you can get the jump on them and do something? Aren't they the ones that- I know you have area of effect stuff. She's talking about the ones who are with Seraph in the alley. Yeah. So there are none hidden elsewhere. There's none that Kaluna sees. Okay, it was a nineteen. There are going to be six. She rolled a nineteen. That's almost a crit.

Right. Oh, I didn't see it. So it stands to reason that there are none hidden. Unless they're really good trained assassins or something. Okay. I'm shaking. Julie's going to speak up. Fucking Julie. Look. We both know that you'd kill me if you had the chance. That's not going to happen today. You need to leave. This is not going to end well for you. Ugh. I'm just going to smack her on the back of the head and be like, "Julie, you're a bargaining chip, not a fucking diplomat." You actually hit her? Physically? Like a gentle sibling hit. You know, just kind of like a smack in their pointy a little.

You're talking to Jeez and Justin was his sibling. Okay. Like a normal sibling hit. Oh, okay. I was like, "You knocked a tooth out of her head. Okay. Oh, that's..." She's going to snap over to Una. Don't touch me again. Then stop saying silly shit. Look, one way or another this ends. Right now. He leaves or I kill him. Take your fucking hand off your fucking weapon, Julie. Ah, Seraph is going to smile. Watching you two kind of bicker. But not say anything. Just kind of taking the sight in. I'm hoping maybe this is inspiring some feel-real feelings in him. Um, we'll see.

Ah, Julie is staring daggers at Una. And she has yet to take her hand off the hilt of her weapon. Una's going to give her a look, like just between the two of them. Like one of those looks where it's like, "I know I sound jokey, but seriously." Like one of those super intense, like, "I'm not fucking around here" looks. She's going to slowly return the weapon all the way back until it's completely she. And then fucking intensely, slowly take her hand off the hilt of her weapon. Never breaking eye contact with Una. Una will like drag her eyes away from Julie and look at Seraph like, "And now it's your turn?" Seraph is going to remove the dagger from the sheath.

And just kind of hold it in his hands like he's playing with it. It's not in a threatening manner. Okay. Seraph, regardless of why you're here, to purge the city of racism or whatever, to kill a child of yours whom kind of was associated with the death of your sister, but not really, I don't know why you're actually here. I don't really take anything you're saying as the truth. But you can't control the city. And I understand that we're in your way. And I really, really don't want to kill my last remaining parent in the world. Please. Do me a favor, roll a diplomacy check.

Okay. Do I get any pluses for Jadzia's awesome comment? I'm afraid not. Okay, do I get any pluses for getting Julie to take her fucking hand off her weapon? I'll give you a plus one for that. Sweet. No! So 19? I rolled one accidentally before and it was so much higher. Oh no! This is the fucking worst feeling. No! God, that was horrible. Still playing with this dagger in his hand. He has the tip of it pressed against his index finger, kind of twirling it. And he's going to step forward. Firstly. And then he's going to use the dagger as a pointer and point at Julie.

Her mother was a common lying whore. Secondly, this city needs to be cleansed. There was a criminal element long before I got here. And all I'm looking to do is even the scale a bit. We're not going to drive out humans. We just want a larger piece of the pie. God. Okay. Before Julie can do anything fucking stupid, Una's going to put a hand on her arm like, "Nope, nope, nope. Don't respond to the whore." Kind of in a more comforting than would normally be associated with Una. Not like a kind of gripping her arm to prevent it from going anywhere, but more of like a, "It's chill, man.

He's just trying to get her eyes out of you." Yeah, and she would have tensed up a bit, so you can kind of feel that. She kind of did a thing where you rub your thumb a little bit over someone. You don't rub their whole arm, you just kind of move your back and forth. And you say, "Look, Seraph, whenever anyone fucking preaches about cleansing, the only thing that happens is the area gets dirtier. Mostly with blood. Okay? There's no settling a score. You don't need to kill anyone to get a bigger piece of the pie. That's some bullshit. And it's also some crazy bullshit.

And if you do that sort of thing, we are going to have to fight you. And you might kill some of us. You might kill me. You might kill Julie, which apparently you've always wanted to do. Pretty fucked up, considering that's your child, but whatever. What I mean is there are going to be casualties. Big ones. But you'll die. In the end, you will die. You can't kill every single one of us. And if you try, it's going to end badly for you. And I don't want it to, because I genuinely feel affection for you. Do me a favor, roll a diplomacy check. Not risking any shit this time.

No! What the fuck is this?! I heard something get knocked over. Bye. See ya. That's fine. Why is this so bad?! A 19 isn't bad. I rolled a 1 and then I rolled a 2. It's not great. Somebody else do this. I don't want it anymore. And then Merrick leaps up and goes, "Yeah, I agree." Roll. Yeah, what'd she say? Did someone fart mid-speech or something? This is so bad. I gotta get her in the front. I'm gonna go get a beer. I'll be back. Are you serious? I'm about to leave. I'll be right back. Seraph would listen very patiently, very calmly. Two weeks ago, our lovely mayor was making a deal with the Overwatch before Carter fell.

How do you think that would have worked out for this city? You know, my invitation for you to join me was quite sincere. We could do a lot of good here. Some force will be needed. And no offense, but I've seen you fight. You are quite good, if a bit clumsy. You don't want to fight me on this. And he's getting very close now. It would not end well for you. Okay. It's probably our last shot, guys. So, she'll say, "I was raised by the Temple of Kord from the age I was eight. You weren't there to pick me up when Mom died, so that's where I ended up being. As a result, even if my faith is gone, I don't really fear death.

Threatening me isn't really going to get you anywhere, except that my party, my friends, will kill you if you do that. Now look, I understand you're frustrated. I get it. I do. What you're talking about doing is basically the entire history of Tharia. People scrapping for power, left, right, and center. Racial divisions. Factions. Horrible wars. Genocide. Slaughter. Maybe refraining from that, and going somewhere like Overwatch, where they are doing that through political channels, where they are integrating through politics and not violence. Maybe that's the place for you, not Esterholt.

Mayor Keller, vicious, stupid bitch that she was, is gone. Thank you, I guess. It's going to get better, and maybe someday, when you're more trustworthy, when you've kind of moved away from this crazy, crazy violence, you can come back, but you can't be here with the goals that you have. Find power in something else. Do me a favor. Watch me get a three, guys. Oh, fuck. Okay, I'm just going to close my eyes. I can't fucking look. Twenty-five? That's not bad, that's not bad. Seraph is very close to both Una and Julie. Still playing with this dagger. You're a lot like her, you know.

I loved her very much. And since you remind me so much of her, I have a fondness for you as well. That being said, I am not leaving this city. I am not letting you take what I have worked so hard for. He's going to use this dagger again as a pointer, but this time making contact with Julie's armor. He's going to run the tip of the blade over where Una etched her name into it. You're going to hear this metallic screech as it drags down Julie's armor, every once in a while hitting the little thud of the etchings where Una's name was. Killing her is the icing on that cake.

I am truly sorry for what I have to do to you. And he is going to get ready and pull the dagger back, grip the hilt, and try to drive it into Julie's chest. Does he have to roll for that shit? Yes he does. Is Julie close enough for me to use the force field? Oh yeah, you're standing right next to each other. That would be enough to hit Julie. As soon as Una sees him stab at that, she will use the necklace? I'm not sure how she uses it, but I guess put her hand up to the sapphires or some shit? And pull Julie close to her. So this faint blue field of energy is going to sort of pop out after Una does that.

And it's going to prevent Seraph from actually making contact with Julie's armor. So what should have been a blow that penetrated her chest is now sort of deflected harmlessly. And then the field is going to drop away almost immediately. What's his reaction? Seraph is going to, again, cock his head and look at Una. And he looks annoyed more than anything. His men are going to leap up and kind of get right behind him, kind of waiting for his move on this one. Do we have one more shot? Go right ahead. Guys, what's the plan here? We have one more shot of whatever.

Intimidate diplomacy? I don't know. What do you guys... What the fuck do we do? Cry. Merrick could get right up front and just tell him that he's stressing him out. That's an intimidate. I don't think that would work as well. No, no, no. If you wolf out, then you're just going to hurt us, which is fine with Seraph. Yeah, I have a history in very alleyways in Esterhold. Things aren't good. Yeah, also, if we can avoid that, that'd be great. He's super cool. I'm not going to want that. My chances of getting an above 10 roll are pretty good, considering I've done so horribly.

That sounds like a gambler in Vegas. I do, guys. Yeah, I kind of am. That's how I feel. I would be terrible at gambling. Unless we want to just jump straight into a fight. At this point, I don't think we'll be able to convince him to leave, but there might be a chance to convince him to work with Julie. Or is that more slim? I don't know. No, I think that's a good point. He does want to kill her deliciously, you know? That's what I was thinking, but then, it depends which he wants more. Killing her, which he did admit was just icing. Or the city. If he could still get the city, he might put up with her.

What if we offer him Julie? He's already kind of got her if he decides to attack, so that's not going to work. Hang on. Long term thinking about this, what version of future Esterhold with Seraph in any sort of power would be a good place? That wouldn't turn into the next opposite Overwatch or something. Good point. There's no future where he's going to be like, "You know, that was a really rough start, but I really made this place a really great place for people to visit." But when you think that way... So as soon as the force field goes down and Seraph's men come forward, Una will kind of look at Seraph with just utter defeat and exasperation.

Like, "How could you fucking do this?" And she'll say, "You don't fucking get it. You are choosing power. Tenuous. Temporary. And potentially not even real power over your children, over your family. There's no reason to have power unless it's to protect the people you love, to build something. You're slaughtering your family to save nobody, to build a place you think might be better for people of your race. Maybe we're the last thing you have. You're the last thing we have. Are you really going to do this?" Do me a favor, roll a diplomacy check. No! He is.

He is going to do this. Okay, let's get ready. Let's go, guys. Get your powers up. Let's go. I honestly can't believe that. Wow. Okay. I rolled a three. I rolled a one, two, and three during this whole fucking thing. So I'm basically going to go home and slit my wrists out. Sorry. Okay. So fucking angry. I'm going to mute. I'm sorry. It was so good, too. Okay. Plus ten for maybe I'm going to commit suicide if this doesn't go well. Oh, don't put that on me. So, Seraph has to recoil after the attack because the immediate thought in his head is, "Okay, now I'm open to a counterattack." And he wasn't ready for that.

So he's going to recoil and have the dagger ready, and then you start to talk. And he's going to relax a bit. And he's going to take in everything that you say. And then he's going to stab me in the eyeball. And he is going to step back up to Una. Dagger's still drawn. I don't think you realize how much pain it would cause me to see you die. I have watched you most of your life. I'm invested, which is more than I can say for her. I never wanted any harm to come to you. Because I know that's what your mother would want. You are choosing to do this. We all get a choice, Una.

You've just picked the wrong side. And for what I'm trying to do, I would kill a hundred of you to get. Everyone do me a favor, roll a perception check. Is he crying? Watch me roll like a fucking crit. 19! Are you shitting me? Jason, I'm going to kill someone! I'm sorry. I'm so angry. My eyes are literally tearing up. I'm sorry. Una and Kaluna, you're going to notice an expression on Seraph's face that you haven't seen on it yet. That is actual regret. It would hurt him very much to have to kill you. But that also means that he means every word of what he's saying.

And he has every intention of killing you right now. Merrick, Kaluna, Jadzia, Una, and Vallas are going to hear a voice coming from behind the party at the other end of this alley. And the voice is going to shout into the alleyway, "That's enough!" [Screaming] Daddy's home! Better daddy. Poor dad. The party turning around to see this, you're going to see Craig Mason standing with a troop of paladins at the other end of this alleyway. And he's going to start to march into the alleyway with them, completely blocking off any escape, at least on foot, through this place.

He has his longsword drawn, and he is very much staring down Seraph. And he's going to get to where Una and Julia are standing. And he's going to give the briefest glance to Una. And then focus right back on Seraph. "Leave." And he's going to use his longsword to point toward the other end of this alleyway. "When I say leave, I mean the city. Now." And he has a tone of voice that neither Una nor Julia has ever heard. And Seraph is going to take in the sight of this fleet of paladins. The party. Una, Julia, and Craig. And then he's going to glance back at the five men he has in this alley.

And he is going to place his dagger back in its sheath. And he is going to look at Una. And before he takes his leave, he is going to lean into her. "You have disappointed me so thoroughly today." And she'll lean in and touch him on the shoulder, very tenderly, like a child touching their father. And just say, "That's probably a good thing." He is going to shake his head just a bit. And then he is going to look at Julia. "I'll be in touch." And both he and his men are going to leave this alleyway and disappear around the corner. As soon as Seraph disappears around the corner and the last of his men, Craig is going to slam his longsword back in its scabbard and wrap his arms around both Julia and Una.

Una will visibly burst into tears. Oh, yeah, he's crying. Yeah. And squeeze him like a fucker. After a few moments of this, he's going to let you both go and he's going to kind of wipe the tears away. "I was told you died." Una is going to like, like that thing where you're trying to get your shit together. You're like, like that, you know, that weird tension in your throat. You feel like, like word squeeze past it. And just go, "I did. I thought you died too." Almost. "I'm so sorry." "I got out lucky. I feel like we have some catching up to do." Just one second.

And Una is going to bend down, take a knee and offer him up a chord scale. And he's going to be taken aback a little bit. And then he'll reach down and take it very respectfully from her. And as soon as he takes it, he's just, "Get up. Stand up." And we'll stand up. The one who was using this is he... And you can tell he doesn't, he basically has, "Is he dead? Like, is that why I'm getting this back?" He's going to shake her head and she's, he left, but it didn't belong with where he was going. And he's going to look over the rest of the party. "Is everyone else okay?" "We are now." [laughs] "The city looks interesting.

Can I ask how that happened?" "Uh, dragons?" Yeah, out of nowhere. Dragons. "Um, and he's looking at all of you while you're telling him this. Maybe we should get somewhere a little more comfortable." "Let's go back to the mansion?" Yeah, Merrick perks up at all that. He's ready to host. [laughs] "Guys, I think that's a pretty good time for us to stop for the night." "It was like 30 seconds." "We didn't die!" "Oh my god, I'm sweaty as shit." "I know it's super late on the East Coast." "I was sleeping when I took a sleeping pill because I thought we'd be done soon." "I know, that's another thing.

I was like, every minute that this sticks on..." "We're still gonna do the crossover next episode though, right?" "That's the plan." "Fuck yeah!" "Oh boy." "I'll start organizing on Monday." "Guys, this was actually a fucking blast." "This was awesome." "We're just knocking him out of the fucking park lately." "You guys did tremendously well." "Just to make sure I understand it, our relationship with Serif was over because of all those roles, right?" "You only let Craig come in and help because it's so late." "Oh no, that was gonna happen either way." "Oh, awesome." "If there was a fight, timeline-wise, that's just what was gonna happen." "The soup." "The roles, yeah, your relationship with him, the roles, that was for that, basically." "Well, that's what I thought, so we're done, we'll have to fight him eventually." "Yeah, that's not gonna be repaired." "The way he sees it, you chose a side." "I was so ready for dailies. I have dailies for dames." "I feel like you told that joke last time, but it's cool." "I think I did." "But it's okay because it breaks tension." "I honestly forgot that I made the joke." "You guys did really, really well." "That was fucking fantastic, I am so excited for next time." "That was a great session, next one's gonna be fucking great, I am so excited." "Oh, this crossover, guys, this, oh my god, I am so excited for it." "I'm gonna schedule a shoot soon." - Thank you, it was a--