Guidance

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(Coughing) (Cans clinking) Peacocks. This summer, during the biggest sporting event of the year, Peacock turns to two broadcasting legends for the Olympics coverage you can't find anywhere else. Um, I think they mean us. Oh, s**t. Um... (Clears throat) With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold. Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only on Peacock. Coming to Apple TV+ on August 9th. You're the Marine? Yeah, you're the ex-con. Yeah, I did time, but you only got to cast aspersions at me.

From the director of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity comes a new film. This your first job? I know what I'm doing. I'm a little late for a crit change. Starring Matt Damon. Everybody in New England is after us. And Casey Affleck. Go, go, go, go, go! What are you doing? Taking notes. Taking notes on a criminal conspiracy. The Instigators, rated R. Streaming August 9th on Apple TV+. Episode 126 of the DNR Podcast is brought to you today in part by GeekFuel. If you go to geekfuel.com/dandr, not only will you get a fantastic box of geeky goodness delivered directly to your door every single month, but you get a $10 gift just as a thank you for signing up through our link.

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We have been talking about Noble Knight now for months on this show. You guys know that we love them, you know that we've been telling you that they have tons and tons of products, over 50,000, and when I say that I am not exaggerating. We've been telling you about Magic the Gathering and all the rules books they have for all the editions of D&D, not just D&D but all the different kinds of RPGs out there in tabletop games, but they also have toys and movies, art books, PC software. Seriously, if you can't find it on their site, you aren't looking hard enough.

We ended up giving out a bunch of prizes at Theriathon and we've gotten some really awesome feedback from the people who won stuff. I sincerely want to thank you guys for checking them out. If you're getting ready for a game night, if you're getting ready to enhance the game night you already have and you just need that little something to kind of push things over the edge, go to nobleknight.com and check them out. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason, I'm the Dungeon Master, going around the table, starting with Jamie!

Hi, I'm Jamie, I was previously on group two, but now I'm on group three. I play Kori, Forest Keeper, and the Glide Seeker. And Mack! Hi, I'm Mack and I play Taluna Vulgaris, the Wildling Shaman. And Jasper. Hey, this is Jasper, I play Maric Epplerud, Human Cleric. And Bree. Hi, I'm Brianna, I play Judsy Grace, the Human Warlock. And I'm right in your ear. And Izzy! Hi, I'm Izzy and I play Una, the Half-Elf Paladin. So, guys, last time we sat down for a session, there was a bunch of stuff that happened, stuff with gods, stuff with demons, some people left their groups, some people went with other groups, some, well, one person.

I'm really bragging this up. But, we're going to pick things up just after everything with the witch. So, group three is, if I'm not mistaken, getting their things together and they're getting ready to head back to the dragon, right? Getting ready to pack up and head for Amara. Oh, yeah. I believe so, yes. Yes, okay. Do me a favor, everyone, roll a Perception check for me. Holy fuck, I actually did well, 23. Oh, man, 13. I got the reverse, I got 32. Yeah, with a +7, I did very well. Good lord, okay. Super distracted. Yeah, Maric got a crit 1, so. Yeah. He's just staring at his boots.

He's like, "Wait, so am I still a werewolf?" Seriously, he's probably freaking out inside his head. He's checking his arm hair to see if it's lengthened at all. Oh, my god, Valus did really well. Holy shawl. He's like, "Wait, is Maric still a werewolf?" Just eyeballing him the whole time. So, on your way through the swamp, you're going to notice that it takes a while for the sounds of the, the regular sounds of the swamp, wildlife, rustling, anything other than the squishing of your boots in this, in this kind of muck. It's going to take a while for those sounds to fade back in, but you are going to hear them.

And you're going to travel through the swamp for quite a while before it dawns on Jadtia, Khori, Una, yeah, Kaluna, and Valus, and Bree. Everyone but Maric, actually. That would have been a quicker way to say that. But everyone's going to notice, except for Maric, that you guys are having just a jaunt through the swamp. There's nothing, there's nothing bothering you. There is nothing, there's nothing attacking you. And it wouldn't take a very large leap of logic for you to piece together that the witch is probably assisting you in some way. Hours are going to go by, and you are, you're going to get to Amara.

So, everyone's going to saddle up on Amara. Do you have a favor? Roll one more Perception check before we get out of here. See, there's the Jadtia we all know and love. Well. And Valus. What the fuck? That's two crits for Valus. What's happening? Nice. That's craziness. And Bree. That's Bree. Okay. Every time she has to roll a Perception check, it's terrible. Let's see here. Valus, Kaluna, Una, Maric, and Khori. As you guys are saddling up and get ready to fly off, you are going to see the boat that the other group had parked off the side of the swamp here. And you're going to see them changing directions and getting underway on their journey.

They got to their ship a little while before you guys got to the dragon. Now that you're on the dragon, though, you're going to be moving much faster than they are. Let's just freeze them into a spot like Shackleton. So you're going to burn down the swamp and then freeze group two. That's the... Yeah. Fuck it. Who's my homies, man? Just the assholes. New group three, guys. New group three. All we want to do is get the other groups to just die, suffer. We don't care about Theria. So we're like group one now. Oh, God. Burn. Don't ever say that again. Everyone on the top is like, "Oh, too far there." I made a joke about putting a dick in a blender that got into a reception this morning.

I imagine that Kori immediately just waves like, "Hi, guys." Actually, I don't think she would take necessarily that approach. I think she'd probably hesitantly get on the dragon and just sort of take one last look at the ship as they're both more separating ways. That's sad. Yeah, she's got fucking real. Well, I think we all just get back on the dragon. Sorry. Go ahead, Jesper. No, totally. That was it. The next question is where are we going to head to? Are we going back to the house? Esther Holt? I imagine Esther Holt because that's where the library is.

We're going to have to do some research now on gods and junk, which I don't think Darmok would have much information on, but the church might. Yeah. It would be like, "Yeah, let's get Jadzid back to the house, settle them in, talk to Craig." We've got business out there. Okay. Just checking. So Jadzid probably has to tell the dragon where to go, huh? You know the drill. Here we go, guys. Holy shit. Wow. Make sure you parallel park. Solid. It's like a fucking corn. Ladies and gentlemen at home, that is a crit. Another crit on the table this evening. That makes me leery.

So you guys are going to take off flawlessly. This is going to be a very smooth ride. Ammar is going to know exactly where to go because Jadzia in flawless Draconic is going to communicate exactly where to go, what to do, how to land, everything. You know what's weird is that sometimes Jadzia will just forget an entire language for a while and really fuck it up, but then she'll know it amazingly well five seconds later. I'd like to think it's like, maybe it's like a single word means something drastically different. Oh, I thought you meant dive bomb into the city.

Like that kind of thing. It's like Japanese. It's like, oh, it kind of means scary or cute depending on whether or not you stretch that A sound. So yeah, that's that's that this is you you after a few hours you are going to arrive in Esterholt. You're gonna get the same reception that you always do when Ammar is flying in Esterholt, which is kind of shock and terror a little bit. The city has just been recently. You can get used to it fuckers. Not really. Just tell us. Ours is white. Start being racist, okay? Not stop, start. I mean, it's it's one of those things like holy shit, because I mean, some of the people in the city are going to be new each time, right?

There are travelers, there are merchants, there are all kinds of stuff and it's it's a huge deal to see no one tames dragons. That's not a thing. So it's they have had a lot of dragon. Yes, they really have. Esterholt had a rough go. PTSD is just an excuse for being a pussy. Come on. I thought the kid. I'm kidding. I'm so mean. Um, so Amara's gonna park herself in the back of I keep wanting to call it Darmach's house. It is not Darmach's house anymore. I like to imagine there's an exactly Amara shaped hole in the labyrinth just like where she has a place to put her little feet in like a place where.

Oh, yeah, that thing is just settles down into it. Like it's not completely flat. There's an Amara shaped hole. Yeah, it's like yellow labs when they like dig a huge fucking hole in the backyard. Or like when the cat does the little cat bread thing where they like become a little loaf of bread. Like I imagine Amara does that. She's like, yeah, I'm comfy now. So I would imagine everyone's going to disembark and hop off Amara. So right now it is the third day of Thorim, which is the next month of theory. You guys are you guys are done with Amara. It's like a winter, a spring month.

Actually, you just you're entering fall now and climate is going to start changing pretty rapidly. So I had a summer wedding. Good. Yeah. Do me a favor, roll a perception check. Stop making me roll things, Jason. My wrist hurts. I'm sorry. Everyone in the party is going to notice that a large majority of the wedding stuff has been cleaned up. Actually, this this whole backyard area looks to be immaculate. Obviously, the hedge mage is pretty much untouched because that's just where Amara is. There's no sense in sprucing that up considering a big fucking dragon is going to land in it and just kind of make it its bedding.

A lot of the a lot of the wedding stuff has been taken down and cleaned up. All the chairs have been removed. And it appears as though they've done some raking and some like it's the the area looks nice. None of this has been touched since, you know, since the old caretaker died. Like, not to bring it up, but yeah, nothing, no one doing anything. And he wasn't as spry as he used to be anyway. So yard work really wasn't his thing. Wait, is he going to come back too? Well, don't want to bring him back. If he ends the world with you, at least bring Jeffery back.

Who do you think Sheldon is? Oh my god, that would be adorable. And horrible. And horrible. I think Jeffery deserves his fucking rest, you know? It's true. Fair enough. But how about we should bring that we should bring the gods back so we get to go to whatever servant god heaven exists. The god of servants for assholes. You just get to order your former masters round as much as you want. So you guys are in the third day of Thorn right now, but it's just out of the cut. Like you're going to get back late, like late at night. You've been, you know, hours in transit between walking through the swamp and then flying and everything.

Yeah, it's been hours and hours. Bree's going to get ready and as soon as you guys arrive, she's just going to kind of slink off by herself. She's been very quiet ever since everything happened with the witch. Thallus is going to do the thing where you get, he's not even looking around. Like it's just like nothing, none of this is really registering. Just going to get off the dragon and just do the backcrack thing you do when you've been on a long journey, especially, you know, especially like if you're on like horseback, dragonback, whatever. You stretch, you do all that stuff.

What would the party like to do here? Probably need some rest, right? Like everybody's pretty, pretty exhausted. I think Una would try and be like, "Yo, Merrick, let's have a conversation." Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, I don't think it would take much of a perception check. I think Merrick looks probably kind of distraught and distracted and just torn up a little bit. He's just processing too much. Yeah, so yeah. Una would probably tap him on the shoulder and be like, "Hey, let's go have a chat." Just kind of try to take him away. Yeah, okay. Merrick's going to, you know, as Kaluna's getting off the dragon or whatever, he's just going to be like, you know, "I'll find you in a little bit.

I'm just going to talk with Una. Just, I'll find you." Kaluna's going to almost brush him off to sort of give him a nod, and they're going to turn around and find one of the shrubs that Amara sleeps on and just kind of yank a branch off and just start tearing it up like a dog chewing on a toy. With their mouth? Well, no. I mean, Kaluna will do it with their hands and their feet and just kind of like, rebet it, but you know, it's the same sort of idea. Gotcha. Okay. Uh, yeah, so I guess, I don't know, where should we go? The kitchen? Merrick would probably go straight to the kitchen.

That's just like the place to gravitate. That's, that's where you, that's where you have family discussions on a one-on-one basis. It's where shit gets sorted out. Sure is. Okay, yeah. Okay, so, um, and I'm assuming we have to roleplay the walk to the kitchen. So, once they get in the kitchen, Una would probably get like, close and lock the door behind them, just because like, this is a private conversation. And then just turn to Merrick and kind of like, fix him with a gaze. Kind of calculating, I guess, that's not how they word, but kind of sizing him up.

And just say, okay, what's eating at you? He's, uh, it's going to be clear he's trying to like, fish for his emotions, right? Like super deep. He's having a hard time articulating it all. He's gonna probably screw around with stuff that's in the kitchen, like on the, on the, the bench or whatever on the, on the counter and just like, fiddling with something while he's getting his thoughts together. But he's gonna just finally put everything down and turn to her and just be like, look, uh, a lot of stuff just happened. A lot of stuff. And I don't know how to, I don't know how to metabolize all of it.

I mean, there's stuff about me and I'm not even sure that I get it. There's stuff about you, there's stuff about Bree, there's stuff about the end of the world and there's stuff about a witch that I don't even know if I believe anything that just happened, but the thing that's eating me right now and that I need to talk to you about, it's, it's like you flipped. It's like, I mean, I'm not angry. I just don't understand. And I just need some help. You've been an inspiration to me at the same time you and I kind of went through a thing separately and realized kind of where we were in the world with the gods and what we believed.

And this witch who's arrogant and narcissistic and cryptic says a few words and it's like you, you flip the switch and you're back on board. And I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. But can you explain like what happened? I feel alone. The entire time, Merrick is saying this and it's going to be nodding, like she completely understands where he's coming from. And she'll say, look, I know it seems weird because for someone as faithful as I was to become as unfaithful as I was and you did at the same time, we bonded over that. And for me to, as you said, flip a switch, I realize it seems weird.

Here's my reasoning. First of all, I'm not as convinced as I may have portrayed in The Witch's Hut. I am convinced, but not maybe to the extent that I should. She probably knows that, but I'm pretty sure she is a god and it does not do to offend them. It's like this. She just made sense. The reason I didn't see anything when I died, the reason the world is so fucked up, there's so much imbalance. I know I haven't known any different, but my entire life I've been fighting, literally, as if it should be different. I don't think I would be doing that if it wasn't supposed to change somehow.

I think I would just be doing what the majority of people do in this world, survive, scrape by, kill other people, try and gain as much power, lose it and then die horribly. Everything we've seen, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing and you wouldn't be doing what you're doing. None of us would. We wouldn't have this strange driving force if this world wasn't meant to change somehow and not just through the good deeds of a few adventurers. It's supposed to be different and this is how. Wow. I've been very skeptical and I think I have good reasons to be, but when you put it that way, you never cease to be inspiring.

I feel that too. I just never knew what I was doing all this for. I don't know what I'm connected to. I've abandoned everything. I've abandoned friends. I've abandoned the world in a lot of ways, but I guess I feel it too. I want things to be different and it feels like it's supposed to be. I don't know. I don't know if that's bullshit. I don't know if it's just hopes and wishes and desires for the world to be a better place, but it sounds like if you're on board, I'm not going to abandon you and I'm not going to abandon any of our friends. I'm not going to fight it, but it just seems so odd.

It just seems so quick and now I think I'm fighting against it a little bit because now what do I do? Where does a monitor fit back into my life after I'd rejected it so hard that he could even exist? Is a monitor the person that sells apples down the street or the person that's in the grocery store every time I try to go make some nice meals for everybody? It's just frightening. I'm terrified, but maybe there's something there. I don't trust the witch, but I trust you. So, whatever we have to do about all of this, I'm on board and I don't want you to think anything different.

I'm just scared and I am inspired by you and I don't want to feel like there's a rift, there's a disconnection. That's all I'm saying, okay? Are we good? And it's going to grin like she's not even worried. Of course. Don't worry about being afraid or not trusting the witch. Suspicion is healthy. Questioning things is important. Fear is the only time you can actually be brave. We're good. We're going to figure this out. We're going to get the answers. Yeah, but if this is all real, if she's who she says she is, if the gods are in prison in bodies that they don't even realize, then what's also true is the end of the world's coming and there's a demon army.

And I mean, I just said I was terrified, but I think it goes beyond that, right? I don't know where to begin with any of that. The way I see it is if that's true and we choose not to do anything about it, we're going to fucking die. If it's true and we choose to do something about it, we might not die. If it's false and we go investigate it and it turns out to be false, then we don't die horribly and suddenly without any warning. And we go about our business and do our own thing. It's an important thing to check out. Yeah. And if it's going to happen, then we might as well try and do something about it because otherwise, seems very clear, the entire world is going to be destroyed.

Yeah. I'd rather be in the trenches with you and the rest of the group than waiting to see if something's really going to happen. So all right, you got me. I'm here. I want you focused for this. That's the only reason I called you in here. You seem agitated and on edge and this is going to be very intense and we're probably going to see some really fucked up shit and probably do some. And some of us will probably die and horrible things will happen. And you're kind of my go to guy here. All of your advice is excellent. Every time you chime in, you say something with more wisdom than I have ever seen anybody.

So I need you here and I need you to not be worrying about the gods or what's going to happen or the werewolf stuff. Yeah. About that. I don't think that's over. I. She hurt me. She did something to me. I've never felt such pain. I don't know if she cut it out of me and it's gone. I don't know if she just made a show of it, but I'd like to think it's gone, but it's complicated. You asked me a while back to be prepared, right? Be prepared for this to happen. And I don't know that I am because I don't know how to prepare for it. I mean, listen, I don't want to go on about it, but just just think about it.

Just just think about this. I spent years and years and years hating myself, right? That's all I did because of this thing inside me. And now if that part of me is truly gone, that's great, except I'm still sitting here just hating myself. Like that's so entrenched that I don't know how to get over it. But that's my bullshit and not yours. And I'm sorry. I'm not trying to dump anything on you. It's just if I'm not that, then who am I? And that's maybe easy for somebody else to say, but it isn't easy for me. But the truth is, I don't even know. I may very well still be a werewolf.

I have no idea. Uno's going to be kind of like her elbows on Little Island and like her fingertips pressed together, kind of like a like a villain almost. Just kind of like nodding and watching Mary. I should say, well, I'm I'm glad that you admit that's bullshit because it is. That's some bullshit. But we also have to test out this werewolf shit because I'm going to be assuming that it's dealt with. I'd like to think so. I mean, we can find out the next time we're in a fight, I guess. Why wait? And Uno's going to just bam, attack him. Do me a favor, roll an athletics check.

OK, yeah, please just don't be expecting it. He's not at all. I like the idea of Uno going up to Mary and be like, please don't be expecting this and Mary going, I won't. And then he turns around. Close your eyes. Stand on one foot. Put your head next to this doorknob. Actually, actually, that would that would be a good way to do it is to say, OK, listen, just Mary, just close your eyes for a second. Imagine that exactly because it's the two of you in a kitchen by yourselves door locked. And it's kind of a it's kind of a moment where Merrick's opening up and it's a really trusting kind of thing.

I don't think he would see the punch to the face coming. Oh, God. So this would not be this would be the last thing he would be expecting. So he's going to take this full bore in the head, just just punch in the face. Blam. And do me a favor, Merrick. Do me a favor, roll an endurance check for me. OK. Twenty five. Nothing is going to happen with Merrick. He's going to he's going to catch his footing because it almost knocks him down. But he is going to he's going to he's going to kind of catch himself and he's going to couple of seconds are going to go by.

And after the after the pain, you kind of get past that moment where you get punched in the face and it's like, fuck that hurt. But he's going to notice that normally he has to really compose himself because if he doesn't, the wolf happens. This time there's nothing. OK, so he's going to. He's going to do the the dazzled eyes, like sparkles, probably for a second, and then I'm sure there's some blood. And he's going to do the spit like the blood out of my teeth, kind of a thing, and just kind of just look at Una and just kind of nod his head like, OK, all right.

Like he's not going to even he's not going to be like, what the hell? He's just going to be like, awesome, great. Thanks. And it's kind of hanging outside. Go ahead. No, no. I think he's just going to start moving forward a little bit towards her. And it might look I imagine it might look like he's being aggressive for a second. But I think he's just going to put his like clap his hand on her shoulder and just start like, all right, let's go start to move out the kitchen towards the door. Una will have been like kind of like cagey, like hand on the hammerhill, like watching just to make sure.

But when he gets up and like looks OK, she'll probably like chill out a little bit. And when she when he puts her hand on her shoulder, she'll go, yeah, sorry, I just had to I just had to check and double check and then she'll knee him in the stomach. Do me a favor, roll an athletics check. Three. Sweet. That's a nine. I should really train my athletics more. I have insight trained and I don't know why. Could you diplomacy my pain? This one, Maric's armor is going to catch the brunt of this one. And he's ready for it. The second one. Yeah. The second one. He's like, all right.

All right. We got it. So, yeah, the second one is just going to be caught by most of his chestplate. It's yeah, that's going to that's going to catch a lot of the force of this one. Nice, though. Nice. In fact, he's just going to say that. Nice. She's going to look kind of apologetic, like, oh, I probably should try harder for that. Are you sure? It's gone. I. He's tired. I get you want to go to bed. Yeah, I'm exhausted. And you know what? That actually makes it worse. So he's going to spit some more blood out from the from the punch. I don't know if it's gone, but I don't feel anything.

I don't feel anything. And I know I just said I hate myself and this is part of me and whatever. But you know what? Just for a second, I'm going to listen to you. And I'm just I'm going to I'm just going to assume this is OK. And I'm happy. I'm just happy for the first time in a long time. I'm going to like revel in this just for a minute. So thanks. We'll wipe some blood away from below his nose or something. She'll just like grin like, I'm happy, but also sorry, I punched you in the face. He's not even going to acknowledge it. He doesn't care. And just open the door and just kind of shove him out of the hallway, like kind of like frat bro style.

It's like, yeah, buddy, just go rest, you know. Quick aside. Wouldn't it be funny if all that was bullshit and he wolfed out right there in the kitchen with just you and a locked door? Yeah, you were pretty confident about that. Yeah. Truly a fantasy. No, JK, guys, seriously. Especially that second time when you like barely hit him like bats when he wolf down. I just sneeze and it's like. No noises are scary. Like the one she just made. Yeah. I jumped a little. I'm not gonna lie. You can use that for free Folly work, whatever you want. OK, yeah. So I think I mean, if it's late enough, I think Merrick's going to probably just go try to find Kaluna.

Probably if Kaluna is not already in the room, you know, it'd be like, let's let's get some rest. Kaluna would still be outside sort of carrying up their stick that they got. And they're sort of going to move their head in Merrick's direction, but not really look at him. OK. And then they're going to look back at their stick and they're going to they're not going to move. Just keep tearing at the stick. OK. All right. Merrick's going to go ahead and deal with this. Merrick's going to come up to Kaluna and be like, hey, we've got to get some rest. Kaluna is going to just sort of stubbornly keep tearing at the stick.

And they're going to say, we can sleep out here. Merrick's going to do a very heavy sigh. And he's going to sit down next to Kaluna. And say, all right, what's up? They're going to sort of they're going to shrug sort of, you know, that sort of is wrong. I don't care. But then they're going to sort of relent because they know better. And they're going to say, we didn't do anything. What do you mean you didn't do anything? She was hurting you and we thought you were going to die and we didn't do anything. OK. No. So what she did was. We know what she did. Merrick, we know.

But we could have done something and we didn't. I get it. I do get it. I know exactly where you were and exactly what you were thinking. And all I can say is that's why you're my best friend. That's why you're always going to be here. But I will say this. I'm glad you didn't do anything because I think it's taken care of. I think it's gone. Kaluna is going to just let out a frustrated sigh. And they're just going to keep tearing at the stick and they're going to tear it like with more fervor now. Clearly just like, grrrrr. And they're going to say, you don't get it, though.

We we told you that we would keep you safe and we know it ended up being the good thing. We know it did. But we should have done something. We didn't. Sometimes keeping me safe might mean doing exactly what you did. It it. You didn't mess up. You gave the space for something to happen that was right. And so whatever you felt, maybe it was hesitance or confusion. I don't know what it was, but maybe it came from something deeper and you you knew that I needed it. So just think of it that way. It's not like you don't know me. And it's not like you don't know what I need and what I want.

You do. So I choose to see it that way. OK, maybe. Kaluna is going to let out another huff. All right. OK. OK. I tell you what. Come to the room. We've got to get some rest. And maybe it's time for lavender. Maybe. Maybe it's not time for Heather anymore. Kaluna is going to take a deep breath in through their nose, out through the mouth. And they're going to finally look over at Merrick. We'd rather sleep out here. You can you can go inside, but we'd rather. We've been inside too much. OK, Merrick will nod like very, very understanding and put a hand on Kaluna's shoulder.

He's going to say, OK, if you need me, you know where I am. And then he's going to just get up and head on inside. Kaluna is going to look up at Amara and they're going to switch to Elvin because they figure it doesn't matter anyway. And they're going to say, you probably don't understand us, but do you mind if we stay out here or should we go to the roof? And they're going to sort of gesture, sort of get their point across. At this point, Amara is kind of laying down, so her head's just sort of draped over the top of these bushes because it's kind of like a kind of like a pillow.

So it's just sort of her her huge like snout, like everything eyes forward is just kind of like draped over these these sets of bushes. So the only noise that Amara is going to make is just kind of this sniffling sound, just kind of a just just kind of that. But not really at Kaluna so much as just a noise, not even really looking at Kaluna, just kind of like eyes kind of half lidded, almost shut. Very much relaxing. Kaluna is going to sort of hesitantly just very much keeping their eyes on Amara's face. They're going to sort of set their stuff down far enough away that if they like moved or something, they wouldn't kick it.

And then they're going to sort of curl up close to Amara and they're going to sleep. Where would Jadzia be during all this? Jadzia would have gone upstairs with Valis into their room and like she's looking around the whole time. And I think that she probably made the connection that it was the same people who destroyed her house who probably fixed it up. But I think she would have guessed because they destroyed it last time. They kind of forgave her. And now it's nice. So, yeah, the whole place has been as you're going room to room, the whole place has been cleaned up.

There's like in well, the place had accumulated quite a bit of holes, just as many from outside influences as actual party members. I had no doors left, guys. There was a door to one bathroom and it was hanging off the hook. So it looks like someone showed up in force to clean this place up and make repairs and everything. Probably a whole bunch of people. And the issue there is that Jadzia already felt pretty fucking guilty about other shit. So then she gets home and she's like, "Oh, these people fixed off my house. I punched their leader in the face at one point trying to knock her out and failed.

I'm the worst person." So she's just gonna go upstairs and sit on her bed and wait for Valus to come in. And then once he does, she's gonna kind of gesture for him to come lie down so that she can cuddle because she wants to cuddle. Because she's sad. Yeah, he would right away. Like, yeah, he's been quiet, like stone silent the entire time. There's obviously a talk that needs to happen between the two of them, but I don't think either one of them would have it necessarily. So yeah, Valus would come to lie down next to Jadzia. So she would immediately climb up into his chest and get all cuddly and bullshit like that.

Okay, so she's gonna cuddle up and there's gonna be kind of like a few beats of silence where they're just kind of appreciating that they're "home." Little quotes around it. Because it's not really certain yet, like nothing's certain. And that's kind of something that's bothering her. And after that beat of silence, she's going to say, "It's never going to be over, is it?" There's going to be this long pause. Because Valus wants to say something comforting, but anything comforting would feel like a lie. So he's got his arm wrapped around her and everything and he's just...

In lieu of something comforting, he's just going to kind of squeeze her and just kind of make a grunting sound. But he's not going to say anything. That's so fucking sad, you realize, right? Like, what do you say? Like, it's... More silence for a bit, I would imagine. And then I think that at this point, Jadzia's just so exhausted that she's going to start crying a little bit. And she's going to ask, "Gos. Valus, what did I do?" And she's going to curl into him tighter and kind of hide her face because she's ashamed that she's crying. Again, he's going to squeeze even tighter.

Just like, he wants to do anything to make this better. There's no way you could have known. He's going to kind of try to, like, just kind of pick up her face and like, because he wants to look you in the eyes when he says this. "You should not feel bad about this." Jadzia's going to reach up and like, cup one of his hands in hers. "I should have known this would happen. I should have known that he's never going to stop." Firstly, we're not even sure if what she was saying was true. But, if it is, he died before. And we can kill him again. Jadzia will glance down at how many times.

And even if we do, something else will happen and then something else. "All I want to do is be with you. It feels like I'll never be able to do that. We promised this would be the last time, but this one's my fault." Do you think we should stay with him? "How selfish can I be to make them fight a war that I started? To try to ask our friends to save a world that I condemned?" There's only so much that you and I can do. If there's always going to be something, they're going to have to tackle things on their own eventually. Again, it's not like you knew what was going to happen and you made the deal anyway.

We don't even know how we'd fight them. Maybe there's a way we can help without actually having to follow them. Jadzia's going to start nodding along because he's saying, like, you know, he's making her promises that she really wants so badly that she's looking for a reason to say yes because all she wants is to stop. But she knows that she needs permission to at this point because of what she's done. In little quotes. So yeah, he's kind of telling her what she wants to hear, but it also makes sense coming from him. She's going to move away from looking at him and crawl back into his chest because she is just miserable and scared.

He would do that thing where you kind of put your head on top of someone else's, just like extra content, and it's like there's a limb that isn't making contact. Just whatever you can do to comfort someone and make them feel better. So after the head thing, just kind of cradling her. There's nothing we can really do about this tonight. We can talk with the group tomorrow and see if we can work something out. Jadzia will nod and then she'll take his hand and kind of like, you know, hold hands super tightly. And yeah, I think that's probably where the conversation would end because they're both just sad and quiet and shitty people who can't talk.

Because they're played by shitty people who can't talk. Unfortunately. So let's see, Una would be the only one. Okay, Una, do me a favor, roll a perception check. You're going to hear a pounding at the front door. Two in the fucking morning. Una will walk up to the front door, swing it open and go, "It's two in the fucking morning!" to whoever's there. Po is going to almost barge past you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just walk in without being invited. Just kind of walk in. And he's going to start looking around. Okay, did everyone make it back okay? Is everyone fine?

Yes, everyone's fine. And he's going to lean in and kind of squint his eyes and look at you. Are you sure? Uh, Una's just going to be kind of amused by like the amount of information she has to impart. And how insane 90% of it's going to sound. So you might want to sit down, buddy. Okay. Okay, you made it sound like it was a pretty heavy thing before you left. I'm just kind of surprised you're back so soon. Or, I mean, don't take this wrong at all. But Po's going to sit down, kind of like humoring you, like, "Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, you were going for like a day.

Like, go ahead, blow me away." Okay, so I'm just going to lay this down in pieces. Because if I try and tell the whole story, that poor excuse for a brain is going to explode. Okay? Like, she's obviously like, "Hey, I'm being humorous because what I have to tell you is fucked up." Right, and he's very much like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuck you, let's go." Just very, very much like you're either bullshitting him or you're blowing this out of proportion. Okay, so number one, everyone is not okay. Brie is dying, slowly and horribly, from what I understand. He's going to straighten up.

Like, that's not fucking funny. Like, he's going to, yeah, he's going to straighten up. His facial expression is going to change completely. And she's going to kind of like wince, like, "Yeah, that's a thing." But just keep going. Don't get too hung up on that because it turns out that the swamp witch is a god. Alvern, to be specific. Turns out the gods are trapped in human bodies on this world, and that's why there is so much fucked up shit and no heaven to go to. Also, Papa Krag is cored. So, yeah. Oh, and I forgot about the demon army that is going to invade the world and kill everyone in three months.

Oh, also, Brie is technically a key that we could use to open some sort of seal to destroy the entire world, but also conveniently release the gods. Poe is going to blink several times. Okay. This thing where you come riding in and top whatever news I have? Really getting old. Two, how much of that is actually true? Unfortunately... And now she's getting a little more sober, like, just because clearly trying to mask everything with humor is not working. I am pretty sure all of it is true. How long does Brie have? I don't know. I didn't... I didn't really want to talk about it.

I knew she was sick. I didn't... She hasn't talked about it with me at all. She's been avoiding it. I don't even think she's talked to Leor about it. Yeah, I can understand why. But I would like to deal with this god situation, get them all established so there's actually somewhere for her to go when she does. Can we, uh... Can we revisit the Craig thing, please? Yes. Swamp Witch is a god. She became aware of her godness somehow. Um... She identified Kord for me upon request, and that's Craig. Which, to be honest, makes a lot of sense. Not sure if we should tell him or not.

Do you... I mean, do you buy that? How does that even happen? I'm not super magically inclined, but it seems like it had something to do with the Eladrin. And they got all hubris-y and decided that they weren't comfortable with the gods being more powerful than them, so they trapped the gods. The witch is and was pretty fucking pissed about it, so she managed to, uh... Vanish them all. Except for a few. So that's why the Eladrin are so few and far between. I'm realizing that there's a lot of information and I didn't impart all of it my first time around.

Is there anything else? I think it'll come to me as we talk. Honestly, it's been... Oh, uh, fuck. Yeah, and Merrick is probably cured of his werewolfism. Oh, fuck. And we brought somebody home with us. A goliath by the name of Kori. Nice girl, quiet. Um, also a god. The Raven Queen. So that's fun. Okay. Met Kori? The god thing's new. Yep. Anyone else in the party of god? Not that we know of. How is she taking that? She seemed to take it pretty well. It seemed to make sense to her. Which I guess is actually pretty impressive considering the fucking Raven Queen. Uh, she's been quiet since.

I think she's processing. But obviously the god thing and releasing them is important to her. So she decided to come with our group because that's our focus more. You said you had news? Can we talk about that too? We, um, fixed up the house. Yeah, thanks. Seems a little inconsequential now. Is that it? This is a wedding gift. I'm gonna go talk to Kori. What? Okay, what happened with the other group? They left to go deal with their shit. Specifically Eladrin. Stuff, I believe. But wait, before you go, talk to Kori. Two quick things. Three things. Should we tell Krager or not?

I'm not doing it. Coward. Well, some of us launched a smear campaign against me while I wasn't around. To be fair, it was based on what I thought was the truth. Okay, you know I had to have a long talk with him while you were gone, right? I'm sure that was loving and fatherly. Yeah, it was a blast. I... My instinct is to tell him, because it's Craig, and he's basically my dad. But at the same time, the information might just endanger him. You know there's no way he's gonna believe you, right? That too. I'd rather just prove myself right by freeing him. How are you gonna do that again?

You mentioned something about killing everything. Yeah, that brings me to point number two. Uh... What are you gonna be doing here? I know this seems like I'm dodging your question. I'm gonna tie it back, I swear. Are you planning to stay here? Are you gonna establish yourself in Esterhold? What's your... thing? Technically I'm supposed to be in the Overwatch, but I'm not doing anything there currently. I'm actually waiting for a group we sent out over a week ago. They're supposed to check in. Okay. Well, here's the very basic plan of attack, I guess. We could kill the entire world using Bree to open this seal.

The Witch reasons that if everyone is destroyed and there are no bodies for the gods to skip to, then... they go to heaven. Seems kind of iffy logic, but apparently it would work. And what happens to us? She promised some sketchy resurrection bullshit, but I don't want to get into that. I've managed to convince her that a better way would be to send us. Out to find another way to do that without killing the entire world. So that's what we're going to try and do. If we don't complete that within three months, this demon army will probably kill the whole world because there are no gods to help balance them out.

Uh huh. Yes. Well, I can point you in a direction, but you're not going to like it. If you say Julie... I cannot say that if it would make you feel better, but she's the bookwormy one. She's the one you're going to want to talk to. Fuck. That was in character. Fully. If it makes you feel any better, she's the one who kind of spearheaded the "fix up the house" campaign thing. Maybe it's sibling rivalry, but no, it does not make me feel better. Fuck her. Yeah, whatever. Anyway, third thing, okay? Important third thing here. I want to leave Jadzia in Esterhold. She's probably not going to like that.

She might try and fight that. But I think she'd be safer here. And she could help us do research, all this stuff. I also... I would also like to leave Bree here. Because I know, I know, trust me, I get it, but she's kind of a magnet for god destruction. And I think she'd be safer. Okay. I'm going to guess she knows all about this key god/witch destruction stuff. She was there with you? Mm, yes. Do you really think she's going to want to stay here with us? I don't think she's going to want that at all. But... Did you ever try to make her do something she doesn't want to do?

Yes. How did that work out? I lived. Which is more than almost anyone else can say, I think. I'm just letting you know my intentions. I don't know if it's going to fucking happen. But if Bree stays here, if Jadzia stays here, I want you to keep an eye on them. Yeah, I mean, obviously, yeah, sure. But I don't know how you're going to pull that off. I mean, the Jadzia thing, I don't have any clue about. But yeah, Bree's not going to want to do that. That's unfortunate for her. But you can go find Kori. It's been a long fucking day. And I need to go to bed. Have fun trying to sleep.

And then she'll just fuck off. Let's see, where would Kori be? So I sort of pictured it as like, so they walk into Jadzia's house and Jadzia and Valis go upstairs and Merk and Una go into the kitchen and Kaluna goes outside and Kori's just sort of left in the foyer. It's like no one gave you the grand tour. So it's just you kind of floating around the back end of the house somewhere, maybe? Sort of like she would notice that she's alone and she doesn't really know where to go or what to do. So she's just gonna be like, "Go team!" Because she's used to a totally different dynamic.

And she stayed in Dharmak's quarters the last time she was here, so I assume that's probably where she would go, is up to the same room that she stayed in before. But the second she walks through the door, she's just gonna sort of close the door behind her and put her back up against the wood and just sort of slide down. And she's gonna break down and just start. Almost like if you've ever had an anxiety attack, it's like you are uncontrollably shaking and crying at the same time. And you just can't control it. And that's sort of where she's at right now.

So that's pretty much after the group splits off and does their thing. How long would you say that it takes for Corey to get control of that? Does she or is it just kind of an ongoing thing? I would say that it sort of simmers down and she'll probably head over to the desk and she'll start writing, but she's still shaking. Well considering that this is a big place, but the only other person on this floor right now is Poe. So I would say eventually Poe would kind of stumble upon Jasia. Or stumble upon Corey. And he would come into the room very quietly, because it's kind of a frantic thing, like searching room to room and then eventually it's like, "Oh, okay." But not wanting to bother you, he's gonna kind of knock on the wall.

There's no door there, so it's just kind of like knock knock. But again, very kind of sheepish. She'll just sort of instinctively wipe her face and look over and see that it's him and just be like, "Poe, I wasn't expecting you at this hour at all." "Yeah, I just wanted to check on everyone. Saw the dragon. I heard how things went. Sorry. I really don't know what to say here." So she'll start to sort of chuckle and just say, "I have no idea what to say either." Poe's gonna grab a chair, just like a wooden chair, and pull it closer to Corey. And then have a seat.

How long were you with the other group before you left? I was with them for a couple months. I can't even guess what you're going through with the whole God thing. What do you do with that? I have no idea. I don't even know how I should react right now. Should I be happy? Should I be sad? Should I be excited or scared? I literally don't know what to do. Okay, not to pry. Is there a reason you ditched your old group and came here? Is there a plan of attack? Is there something you're gonna do? In my old group, as you know, Dagon... And she's gonna sort of give him a look because she knows that they did not really get along.

As soon as you bring up his name, "Yep, I remember him." And she'll sort of acknowledge his look with like a, "Yeah, he can be that way." Yeah, Dagon's been looking for something for a very long time and our paths just separated where he needed to follow to find what he needed to find and I needed to come here to figure out what the hell to do. Doesn't Aralove worship the Raven Queen? You, I guess? She'll put her hands on her face and like very almost exasperated because she's starting to blush and it's embarrassing to her. Yeah, I think she does. Not really sure how to take that either.

Well, how did she take it? She seemed surprised, but at the same time not. I think maybe just her faith was so strong that she knew that the Raven Queen had to be out there somewhere, so... He's gonna reach out and put his hand on Kori's shoulder. Alright, well, we can deal with this somehow, I'm sure. Una filled me in on certain bits, but I mean if you're gonna get some kind of news, being a god isn't bad news, right? She'll sort of peek out from her hands, which are still on her face, and she'll just say, "God of death." And he's gonna look down, just break eye contact.

Well, could be dying. And then he's gonna look back up at her. She'll just laugh. And take her hands from her face. Yeah, it's weirdly amusing to her. So she'll just sort of chuckle it off because she's trying to seem strong in front of everybody else. And she'll take her hands away from her face and just put them back down at her sides and say, "Do you know who the de facto leader is in this group? I haven't quite been able to figure out who sort of determines what's going on." I know who the loudest one is. And he's gonna look at Kori like, you know. She'll just sort of nod and be like, "Okay, I just want to make sure I know who to talk to tomorrow.

I think we all just need some rest. Been a long day." Yeah, I'm getting that. He's gonna stand up and get ready and excuse himself. I know Dagon kind of called the shots on the other group and I get it. That's fine. He's been alive for 6,000 years or whatever. But, um, yeah, they vote on stuff here. So you don't have to worry about stepping on toes from what I've seen. Oh, okay. Yeah, Po would, again, just kind of one more reassuring, like, "It's gonna be alright." Kind of like shoulder touch type things. Just like that human contact thing. Right. Kori'll sort of put her head down and say, "Thank you for coming to see me.

It's nice to see a semi-familiar face." Just try and get some rest. And he's gonna go back the way he came, kind of toward the back of the house. Let's pick things up the next day. And so, still the third, but daytime now. So it's hours later and you guys have all caught a nap. And I don't know how restful it would be necessarily for you guys, but you've all at least attempted to lay down. Do me a favor, Una, roll a Perception check. This is gonna be an incredibly low check. Excellent, my favorite kind. Oh wow, that's actually really high. Okay. Immediately, Una's gonna wake up and realize that Bree never came to bed.

That is gonna be something, you know, obviously very apparent. It's also gonna dawn on her that the place has been fixed up, except for this room. So there's still quite a bit of destruction, actually, in this room. The rest of the house seems to have been fixed up, though, so this area was considered off-limits by someone. Yeah, I have no delusions about who that might fucking be. Una's gonna sniff like, "Yeah, that's what I fucking thought." 'Cause she knows. Clearly, this was her chance for Julie to apologize, and she apologized, but not all the way. 'Cause she a petty bitch.

She is really fucking petty. I mean, Una is too, but still. And she's gonna kinda like roll out of bed and go out into the house. Try and find Jadzia whenever she wanders in from wherever. So I'm guessing everyone's doing their wake-up routine, getting sorted out and everything. Being breakfast time, would this be a thing where Merrick would... I mean, I don't want to presume that's rude. No, no, no, no. This is a thing. He would have actually been up a little bit early to make sure that he beat everybody to the punch. And had been working on... I don't know if when they cleaned everything up and they fixed everything up, did they restock the kitchen in any way?

Would there be anything for me to be able to find in there? There's... Oh, yeah. The place has been, again, top to bottom cleaned, the kitchen's restocked, everything is... Great. Yeah, this place is as kind of a wedding gift. Okay, excellent. Well, there's gonna be, if possible, individual portions of like a yogurt and granola with berries and that sort of thing. So everybody gets a little bit of that. And then, of course, just tea. Very simple, but that's all. It's a light breakfast, that's good. You don't want to get bogged down. No, no, no. We don't know if we're gonna be running or not, you know?

Yeah. End of the world shit. That is so fucking thought out. Like, I like that a lot, actually. So while you're dishing this up, Bree would actually be in the kitchen. Not saying much, just kind of sitting on a stool, just kind of... Like, I picture a big island in the kitchen, like a food prep thing. And, yeah, just kind of hanging out quiet, just kind of watching you work, but not saying too damn much. Everyone else. I would imagine everyone is up and kind of congregating downstairs and kind of finding each other. Because there's a hell of a lot to discuss.

Yes. So, Phallus would trundle downstairs after Jadzia, just kind of, you know, yeah. Wait, what? What would he do downstairs? Trundle. Trundle? That's a word. First of all, I didn't know that was a word. Second of all, that's the most adorable word I've ever heard in my life. Trundle? It sounds like a Pokémon. Okay, like, I know it means like you mean it to be like moving like heavily. But the only times I've ever heard Trundle be referred to is like with a wheelbarrow or like, like a... Like a large object. Like a wagon, you know, like something with wheels.

Something cumbersome that moves cumbersome. That's Trundlebed. I just imagine someone like down the stairs in like a wheelbarrow. I don't know. It's also apparently a League of Legends character, but he's not adorable. So we're not in the content anymore. So yeah, everyone's kind of congregated here in the... I would imagine. So did Merrick like serve this out? Is it, is he still preparing it? That's a good question. I think he would have been up just early enough to be able to sort of get them all ready for people as they came down. They could grab one from the kitchen.

Right. So it's not like served in a different place. It's more like a, like a quick breakfast. Not a formal thing. Yeah, not at all. It's like, hey, by the way, oh, you're awake? Yeah. Grab yourself some, some granola and yogurt. And here's a spoon. There's like a little muffin and a container of milk like you get in school. There you go. Exactly. And, you know, sit wherever you want to. You don't have to talk to anybody, whatever. Valus would go into the kitchen then. Like if there's nothing served, like he... This is terrible. Valus almost expects there to be breakfast at this point.

Like there's, there should be a meal. And the fact that nothing, like... He doesn't smell... Where's my meal? He doesn't smell anything cooking. Like he almost assumed something's wrong. It's like, oh God, he wolfed out or something. Like something's wrong. Like he's conscious he should be cooking. Jesus. That's kind of... No, I get it. I get it. Like that's every morning. Like if something catastrophic hasn't happened, there's been, there's been a meal. I think Merrick would actually have made one, you know, I'm thinking of like, not, not bites. This is not like a tiny bit.

Just one tiny plate of bacon just for Valus. Exactly. Like, like there's a bunch of meat that Merrick just put together and like a very large bowl of yogurt and granola rather than like the cup version. When Kaluna comes in from outside, they're in the aspect of the ancients, by the way. They took that under advisement and they see that Valus gets a big bowl of meat or whatever. They're gonna, they're gonna kind of, I am jealously sort of take their yogurt elsewhere. I see you, jerk. Valus almost like a, like a prisoner eats his food would kind of like guard his plate with his arm.

Oh yeah, Kaluna's doing the same thing. Don't you touch my fucking meat. Just go, yeah, just, and he would definitely kind of glance over to, glance over to Merrick and just kind of like give him like kind of a half smile and now it's like, yeah, like just yeah. Merrick will actually just do a... I wanted to kill you earlier, I'm glad you made your bacon. No, no, no, so much, I mean, there's so much stuff that hasn't been said, but so much stuff that has clearly changed that changes the entire dynamic. Like I imagine they're both on very weird footing with each other, but Merrick just gives a thumbs up, like, gotcha.

Is there any beer and or wine and or liquor in the kitchen? Oh, there's liquor. Dude, it's morning. I don't give a fuck. I think Una would find, if there's no beer, then she'd probably go for like liquor, but find something alcoholic and try and steal a couple slices of Valis' bacon. I imagine, so Valis has his plate of meat, and everybody keeps walking by and just sort of like, like, as if it were the platter that everybody's supposed to take from. Right. I don't know what the assumption would be. I don't know what the assumption of the group would be that's like, oh, that's a platter for everyone and he's just on top of it, or that was clearly just a big meat plate for him.

But is this a stealthy thing? Is Una trying to stealthily like... It's kind of like one of those things where you're like, you know, like vocally so someone knows that you're trying to take something. Just kind of like reach your hand in there, like, so like make eye contact with him. Just be like, you got to stay slim for your new wife, like reaching for like the fatty bacon. Yeah, he's going to, he's going to stop eat like mid chew, just like stop, lock eyes with him and just kind of like narrow just don't think it through. She's gonna like keep like it's like it's like a chicken.

She's like keeps moving her hand in like eye contact. He's always going to recoil the plate like kind of like hug it towards his chest and then kind of shake. Just shake the plate just a tiny bit to kind of loosen a couple of strips of bacon toward her. But that is it. Like that is that is clearly it. Okay, she'll snatch this up and be like heart disease is rampant in tieflings. Just take it away. Wait, how good is medicine and Theria? That's a public service announcement. 20 years ago people were like, eat a tub of butter and it'll make you healthier but somehow Theria knows.

About heart disease. Anger is bad for your heart. This is an established thing. That he would be dead by now. Could Kaluna see this exchange? Um, roll perception. Everyone just wants those fucking bacon. Motherfuckers got the bacon. Kaluna hasn't had meat in ages. I would say that this would just escape Kaluna's perception like just. It was gonna be great. It was gonna be beautiful. And you rolled a 2. It's more a thing where it's like, alright fine just take that but quickly just no I don't want anybody to think that they could just have some of this. But yeah that that's kind of like it's it's a very quick silent exchange.

Like drugs. Yeah. Don't pay me pay Merrick. Then I'll pass you the bag. That's all I know about buying drugs by the way. I was about to say you said you really need knowledge about drugs. Can Kaluna throw berries at his head? Vengeance. That's fine. They didn't see the thing. But they know he has the bacon and they're jealous. It's like spitballs in the back of class type of thing. Just kind of. Yeah just like. Just fuck you. Just fuck him off the head and throw it. It's fine. He still gets to keep the bacon. It's fine. So everyone's everyone's here now everyone's together and you guys have had you know you're having some breakfast.

So after finishing her couple slices of bacon I imagine it's been kind of like not tense silence but that silence where everyone's eating and no one really wants to talk. Yeah. So Una will finish her bacon slices pretty fast and Jason can I have it for Ken what kind of alcohol was available? There's ale available if you're trying to drink light. Like that's. Yeah, ale. Thank you. Just so I know what kind of bottle swigs will be coming out of. Right. For my own mental picture. But then she'll kind of like turn her gaze on Jadzia and just kind of like wait for Jadzia to kind of finish eating and like.

Jadzia probably can't get any breakfast honestly. She probably just sit in there with like her arms wrapped around herself. She's not hungry. Okay. Then she'll just kind of look at Jadzia until Jadzia realizes that she's being stared at. Which I'm assuming is pretty fast. Do I have to roll perception? Go ahead and roll perception for me just to see how long it would take. It takes like 25 minutes. But no one says a word. 20. I noticed pretty fast. Fairly quickly. Yeah you're gonna you're gonna pick up there's a silence in the room like no one like yeah you can you can feel her eyes on you eventually.

Once Jadzia kind of like body languages that she recognizes that Una's staring at her. Body languages? I don't know. Gestures? I like it. I don't know. Gestures wouldn't be that weird. I don't know. Shifts her body in a way that indicates? What she'll probably do is she'd look up see that Jadzia's I see that Una's staring at her and then immediately look back down like oh this is awkward why are you staring at me? Um so then she'll say okay Jadzia I know you're probably not gonna like this but I'd like you to stay in Esterhold personally. I can't dictate what you do or don't do but I think you're gonna be safer and happier if you stay here.

You can help us with the knowledge that we need but as far as adventuring I think at least I'd be more comfortable if that part of your life was at an end. And she's gonna kind of like flick her eyes over to Vella's like yeah buddy come on back me up here. Does Vella have to react or is he just gonna keep eating bacon? He would he would eventually set the platter down. Eventually. It's empty. It's not it's not quite empty but it's like there's it's like oh fuck okay there's a heavy conversation I can't be shoving pork in my face the entire time. Could.

Could. Why not? What I do whenever heavy conversations crop up works for me. Dude I'm constantly shoving meat in my mouth. Aww yeah. So gonna set that down. And he's gonna sidle up next to next to Jadzia and eventually and he's you can tell he's turning it over in his head. He's gonna speak up and and look at Una. I agree. And then look back down at Jadzia. Jadzia is going to finally look up and she's got that kind of mousy shy look again like she hasn't had that in a while she's been pretty confident as of late but then hearing that about Dharmak has kind of made her revert a little bit.

And her eyes are gonna go from Thales to Una to Thales to Una. And she kind of knows like everyone knows that she wants to stay but she feels like she has to say that she has to say that she wants to go with them. And again like it's good to just have an excuse, and then she kind of slowly nods. If that's what you'd like. Of course I can. She's gonna kind of half smile, tuck her hair back. I still want to help, though. Do I have to perception to recognize like she clearly wants an excuse but also she feels bad or do I know Jadzia well enough by this point to just kind of...

So Una is going to be kind of taken aback, not like taken aback but uneasy by the fact that Jadzia seems so kind of like shy and like not as confident as she was. Just because it's like a sign that things aren't good. And she just kind of like fixed her gaze on Jadzia again and just kind of like kind of narrow her eyes like, okay, like there are unresolved things here. And she'll just say, look, clearly, you feel like this is somewhat your fault. I'm guessing. Because you're crazy fucking ex-husband. And selling his soul to the demon. Jadzia's gonna not even like no pause.

She's going to immediately nod. Actaeronis was right. I've made so many mistakes, but I've made so many stupid decisions. I could have, I might have destroyed the world because of them. As Jadzia continues talking, Una will be more and more irritated, not at what she's saying, but that she seems to believe what she's saying. And by the end, she'll be kind of gritting her teeth almost. Look, Actaeronis was a jackass. I'm sorry, but he was. You've made mistakes. I've made mistakes. He has made mistakes, undoubtedly. Probably more mistakes than we have, the fucking asshole.

But my point is, you've also saved us in innumerable times. You've made up for your mistakes. And things that you didn't know about, things you unknowingly caused, we've all done those. You trip over a stone and it lands in the wrong area in a path and someone's horse steps on it and throws a shoe and they fall off and break their arm and go back home and they can't pay for it and they get infected and they die. Shit happens, unintentionally. It's not your fault. We're gonna deal with this. You're gonna help us. Because you're undoubtedly the smartest person here.

And we really fucking need that. But I want you to stay where it's safe. Jadzia's going to slowly nod and when you call Actaeronis a jackass, she's gonna kind of half smile but also look over at Kori like, "Uh oh." And then she'll finally just kind of accept it. Like you can tell by the look on her face that she's accepting that it's okay. And then she'll take a piece of bacon. Yes! Two things. One, Valus wouldn't fight the taking of bacon from Jadzia for a second, obviously. Oh, I see how it is. Out of Jadzia's mouth. Come on. Thing number two is, what would Kori's reaction be to Una calling out Actaeronis?

I think because she's sort of alone, she would keep quiet but she'd just sort of start to shovel this granola into her face. I immediately imagine Kori with big puffed up cheeks full of granola. Like really crunchy chews too. Jadzia is probably going to bring up that they should go visit Julie and thank her for fixing up the house. Kori will pipe up if she's going to mention that at the table. And she'll just say, "We should probably also speak with Craig if we're headed in that direction." Una's going to look over at Kori. This is actually something that she thinks Kori has the best experience with.

You're the only one among us who is a god. Do you think we should tell Craig? I am hesitant to because he might not believe it and it might put him in danger if he knew. She will take a few seconds to sort of ponder this and she'll just say, "I think that being honest with the information we have is probably the best policy." And whatever he chooses to believe is his choice. So we can't determine how he's going to take it. But if we hide it from him, it will most certainly end badly. Una will nod like that makes sense to her. Kori has basically convinced her.

Not that it took much. I'm just going to scan the group. I'm assuming we're all settled in here. I just want to be sure that everyone is okay with chasing this god freedom thing. And that we all understand the risks and have a desire, an actual desire to do this. Bree would speak up. At this point she's kind of, again, just sitting on the stool. Not mopey or anything, just very quiet. We'd kind of pick at the granola here and there. But after Una asks, "Yeah, what would be our first move exactly?" Oh, fuck. So Una's going to bite her lip like, "Yeah, alright." Just kind of hesitant.

Your first move, not that I can tell you what to do, I think should be staying here. Because, and let me try and finish this, you are way too important to go dragging around to god knows where and fighting hell knows what. If we fail in whatever task we're trying to figure out if is even possible, this sounds shitty of me, but you're the backup plan. The instant you hesitate, like the little girl across your face and then you start telling her, "Well you're not going." Like the instant. She's going to tense up. And she's going to let you finish the sentence.

You can't be serious. Do you really think I'm going to sit here while you all go out and risk your lives and I just have to wait? No, you don't have to just wait and sit here. There are ways you can help that don't involve you getting killed and ruining the only backup plan that we have. Your life is really fucking valuable. Such as it is. She's going to add that kind of like as like a jab, kind of like, "You're dying motherfucker, you should have told me sooner." But like, more subtly than that. She's going to take a deep breath. And clear her throat. Like something's, it sounds like something's kind of caught in her throat almost.

Like what? We are going to need a crazy amount of information. And Jadzia, as intelligent and quick-witted as she is, is probably going to need help with that. And Valus, no offense, seems like your skills are better suited to protecting than research. He's going to, he's going to take that in. And he's not necessarily disagreeing. But almost under his breath, I'm not illiterate. I'm not saying you're illiterate, but I'm saying I've never seen you with a book in your hands. That's so mean. Just like, kind of a smile. Like she's not like, it's not like she's not straight mocking him.

She's like, "Eh, come on dude, be honest." Right, right. And it's like, you could tell he's, he would, okay, if this were a couple weeks ago, he would definitely pursue that. But it's like, "I have a bigger fish." Like he's just going to like, let it go. Like, he knows he can read. Like it's not, yeah. He knows he can read. He's like, he's showing himself. He's like, "You can read, buddy. It's fine. Don't." "I can read if I wanted to. I just don't want to." And it's, yeah, not even close to Jadzia's ability to research and like her ability to retain knowledge or, you know, just, you know, anything to do with the arcane.

But at the same time, the best, I mean, he can, he can, he's sat there fumbling through pages with her in the middle of the night. He's our Xander. He helps. Yes, exactly. Very good analogy. Donut boy. But then he has his really, his own episode and it wasn't very good, but at least he proved himself. So yeah, he's going to let that go. Bree is going to fold her arms and just kind of glare, just kind of glare at Una. Do me a favor, everyone, roll a perception check. I like that Merrick's probably just sitting there like, "Man, maybe I should have made pancakes instead." "Yeah, I should have made more bacon." He's immediately washing what everybody's done with.

Like he's just, "Are you done with that? Can I take that for you? Can I take that? Yeah, let me get that." He's just washing. Karina doesn't hand hers off because they think it's clean because they licked it clean. Goes to put it back in the cabinets. Merrick comes in afterwards, takes it back, and then the dish underneath it as well. It's just what we do. Yeah, everyone but Merrick is going to hear pounding at the front door. Hi. Yeah, I was going to say. Jadzia will get up and start to back out. "I'll leave this to you guys." And then she's going to go open the door.

So Jadzia's going to open the door, Poe's going to be the other side of it. And you can tell he was expecting someone else because he's almost in mid-strat. He almost walks in. I literally think this is the first time Jadzia's opened her own door. Yeah, I think so. We've been here for like ten episodes and this is the first time. So he almost walks kind of boldly in and just stops like, "Oh." Hi there, sailor. Morning. I was actually just looking for her. Good morning. Yes, she is in the kitchen. He's going to just kind of pattern the show. Thanks. He's very clearly in a hurry.

Okay, she'll just watch him walk by like, "Okay." And she'll follow him. Yeah, it's almost a jog. He is in quite a hurry. She's going to kind of half call out, "Is everything alright?" as she's following because nothing's usually alright. Yeah, he'll call back, "Nope." And just keep moving. Keep going forward. So he'll get to the kitchen and clearly there is some tension between Brie and Una right now. Like, clearly. And in the midst of them talking, Po is going to try and get Una's attention. Not jump in the middle of the conversation, but just, "Hey, psst," that kind of thing.

So Una, do me a favor, roll Perception. To Percept this, just keep on talking through him like, "Yeah." Yeah, I noticed. 29, right? Oh yeah. Yeah, she'll pick that up. So where were we in the conversation? I don't really... You're telling Brie to stay, she's just like, "Fuck that. That's kind of where you're at." Right. So Una will give Brie a look like, "This is not finished." Oh yeah, that would be a mutual exchange. And then just kind of like, with a really exasperated, like, "Oh my God, what the fuck is happening now?" Just kind of rake her eyes over Po and just say, "Good morning, Po." Morning.

Can I talk to you privately? Quickly? Now? Ish? Privately, we'll kind of weird her out, but she'll get up and go with Po wherever he goes. Give everyone a look in the room behind, like, "Y'all are gonna know about this as soon as I fucking find out. Don't worry." Okay, let me ask you a question. Did Jadzia rejoin everybody in the kitchen? Or is there a chance? I actually imagined she was standing behind Po when he said to join her in the hallway, so she's kind of just standing there awkwardly, like, "Should I go?" He's not gonna, like, shoo you away. Okay, then she'll stay.

As long as he's not, like, "Ah, here, she'll stick around." She's curious. Po's gonna launch right into it, the second the door swings shut behind Una. Okay, I take it you told her? Yes. How's she taking that? Uh, she hasn't killed me. Okay, um, I have a potential solution for that whole thing, but you're not gonna like it. Okay. You remember last night when I was telling you that I was waiting on word for a group we sent out, and they hadn't checked in? Yeah. We just got a raven. Okay. They're actually pinned down in Lockford right now, and they need help.

And honestly, I could use Bree right now. So Una's like, look at Po, like, "Are you fucking shitting me?" Um, and then she'll say, "Are you fucking shitting me?" No. The whole reason of her staying here is that she stays safe. I know about fucking Lockford, okay? She's not going there. Plus, every time she fights, every time she uses her powers, it seems like she gets weaker. So hell no, I'm not going to risk our plan B to a fucking town full of, for what I'm guessing, if they're pinned down there, werewolves. Look, I wouldn't suggest this if we have a ton of other options, but we don't.

It's going to take days for anyone from the Overwatch to get here, and then it's going to take even longer to get to Lockford. I can take a small battalion of paladins right now, we can head to Lockford, and come on, you and I both know that Bree can help out a ton there. The ravens are her responsibility just as much as mine, if not more. If she's not going to help you out, and she knows this is going on, she's just going to head out as soon as you're gone. Then you don't fucking tell her, okay? If she dies, and we fail, everyone, your precious group tied down in Lockford, the werewolves attacking Lockford, you, the ravens, the paladins, everyone in Overwatch, everyone, literally everyone, will die horribly by demons clawing their fucking brains out.

It's bigger than just you and your group. I'm sorry. I'm not going to lie to her. Look, whether she decides to help out or not, she's going to know. I can't just not tell her. Yeah, you can just, I know this is hard to comprehend, and I realize this is going to be a huge change of personality for you, but you can just do this thing where you don't open your fucking mouth. You're going to notice he swallows real hard after that, like there's something he wants to say and doesn't. Oh, I fucking bet. This isn't an argument. I'm telling you what's going to happen.

If you want to insist that she stays after that, be my guest. Go for it. But we started this project together. We've lost two groups to Lockford already, and we're going to lose a third if we don't do something. Not to mention what's going on in the town, because if it's as bad as they're saying, they may not have long to live. Any of them. They don't have long to live now. None of us do. I realize you're worried about them. I realize you're trying to protect your investment in the town of Lockford and in this group. If they're a good fucking group, they can do it.

I realize Bree is a massive leveler, even with werewolves. But also, if she gets infected or cursed or whatever the hell werewolves have going on with them, I probably know. If she dies, if she breaks herself so badly, she gets injured and dies. If anything happens to her, we are all fucked. Again, I get it. Clearly you don't. I'm guessing we're arguing so badly at this point. She already fucking knows. It's getting loud, I would imagine. It started in hushed tones and now it's just screaming back and forth at each other. Chelsea is just standing in the middle with her back against the wall like she won't see me.

She's not moving just in case it draws attention to her. Huh. Look. I don't care how good a group they are, they were just supposed to go there to recon. They're in way over their heads. They're asking for help, Una, and I don't have a ton of options. And I don't know what's going to happen in three months. I don't know how much of what you heard is true, but I know I have days to get to them, if that. It may already be too late and I'm going to do everything I can to save them. I figured I owe you enough to let you know. Are you fucking one of them? I... I get it, though.

Are you fucking kidding me? That's the only reason somebody would care so much about a group who's supposed to do some shit and can't handle it now. Believe it or not, Una, some of us give a shit about other people. Look, I spent a year in the Overwatch and the only ones who gave a shit about me were the Ravens. Specifically, Bree. I'm not going to lie to her. I'm not going to keep her out of the loop. If you want to try and stop me, go right ahead. But I'm not going to take a dive this time. Jadzia can tell that things are getting a little heated, so she's going to raise one of her hands, kind of, "Can I talk?" And then reach over and take Una's hand to get her attention.

Una will be like, clearly she's really pissed. Like, not at Jadzia, at Po. So when Jadzia takes your hand, she'll almost shrink away for a second, like an ant started crawling on you. But then she'll realize it's Jadzia and just close her eyes and grab her teeth. Ugh. Once she sees that Una notices, Jadzia will move closer. Bree won't be happy just sitting here and waiting. You know that. She'll leave either way. She'll go find someone who needs her. At least this way, I'll know where she is, right? Una will just stand really stiff, kind of internally, just raging.

But then she'll open her eyes and just glare at Po. Not acknowledging that Jadzia said that, but clearly having taken her words into account. Yeah, he'll be staring at Una the entire time, just kind of waiting to see if she's going to try and stop him. Fine. Fuck it. But if she dies, and we fail, the last thing I do, the last thing I do before demons rip my fucking eyeballs out with their forked fucking tongues, the last thing I do is make your life hell. Do you understand? Nothing happens to her. Una, if anything happens to her, I'll be dead right alongside of her.

You better fucking be, because I will find you. And then she's going to just kind of break away from Jadzia gently, because she's like, "No, thank you." And just kind of leave the area. Po is going to go into the kitchen and seek out Bree, make a beeline. And Bree's still waiting. She hears the yelling, and she's still waiting for Una to come back. She's like, "Oh, we're not fucking done this conversation." And then Po kind of intercepts her, and they're going to go over to the side and talk. Everyone else, what would you be doing here in the meantime?

Well, okay, what would Una do when she came back? I think she'd just come back into the room, grab her ale, and leave the room. She does not want to be in the vicinity of Po right now. What about everyone else? What would Merrick be doing? I think Merrick's been pretty quiet about this whole thing, because he's conflicted about the whole everything that needs to happen. So he's been kind of quiet, and then everything happened with Po and Bree and everything. So I think he'd just be kind of, I don't know what the word is, just concerned, I guess. About it.

I don't think he's doing anything specifically. I don't think he's trying to talk to anybody. He's just, he's, but that is where he is, in his head. So Po and Bree would have talked about it, and time is sort of above the essence. So they're going to get ready and start to get their things together here. Bree would seek Una out before leaving outright. So yeah, Bree knows that you didn't want her to go. Knows that you definitely don't want her to go to Lockford. And knows that you ended up not having a ton of say in the matter. And she's going to approach Una, and Po's going to be in tow.

Make it super uncomfortable. And that's, Po's back, like a ways back. He's giving this, he's back quite a bit. Because he knows you are none too happy with him right now. And Bree's going to, after a beat, say "You know where I'm going." So Una's just like, you know that thing where you're trying to either eat or drink so you don't have to talk to somebody? She's kind of doing that. So she'll just take a swig of beer and she's got so much beer in her mouth, she's like "Mmhmm." Purposefully doing it so she doesn't have to speak. Well, you know time's of the essence so we gotta ride now.

But, just be careful, okay? Una still has beer in her mouth, but she's going to roll her eyes as exaggeratedly as someone can. Just for emotional distance, for no other reason. And she's going to swallow really hard and say "Yeah, come back." She's going to reach out before you walk away, and unless you pull away, because it's not like she didn't expect this. She's going to try and stop your momentum and then step forward and try to give you a hug. That was my personal feelings on the matter. Yeah, whatever, Una wouldn't stop her. But like, over the hug, like, JAGGERS at fucking Poe.

Like, the angriest. Yeah, he's going to narrow his eyes back. Like, Poe's pissed off. Good. Fuck him. And after a couple seconds, like, Brie's going to squeeze tight and then after a couple seconds she's going to break the hug. She's going to reach into the pack that she carries. And she's going to produce this gauntlet. Kind of a bracer-like object. I want you to have this and put it on when you can. It'll help us keep in contact. Okay, Una will soften a little bit. She feels kind of bad that she's so angry, but also she's really angry. So it's kind of like, I want to be nice and give you a goodbye kiss and maybe a little present or some shit.

But also, I'm fucking furious. So she'll just kind of waver back and forth between being soft and just being like, yep, okay, thanks. See you later. And it's pretty clear that that's happening, just on her face. But after a while she'll settle with, might as well be soft, and she'll just take the gauntlet and look kind of sheepish. Thank you. Just don't do anything dumb. Don't let Poe do anything dumb. Please come back. I'm not going to do anything dumb. I can't vouch for Poe. In character, yeah. And she's going to lean up and kiss Una on the cheek. Oh, fuck that.

Again, she's... Yeah, again, she doesn't understand, like, how pissed off is she? Like, how far should I push this? For all of Jadzia and Valessi's cute cuddly shit, we make up for that with pure sexy. So if she's going in for a cheek kiss, Una will turn that shit into, god, deliciously sexy kissing. Okay. Poe's going to be horrendously uncomfortable. That is exactly what I was going for. Everyone within like 50 feet should just be like, Jesus fuck. So after this kissing stops, Brie's going to whisper in Una's ear, "You're not allowed to die again, okay?" Una will pull back and grin and salute all stupid formally, and just say, "Ma'am, yes ma'am!" Kind of like with the impression where it's like, "I can't fucking stop that, but I'll die," you know?

And she's going to kind of smile and give a half nod, and then glance back at Poe and start toward the door. Poe's going to refocus on Una and sort of glare, but just kind of give the bro-ish head nod thing, like, "Yeah, I'm fucking pissed, but don't die." Una will return that exactly. And he's going to turn and follow Brie out the door. So the rest of the party now has some things to discuss. Seems straight. Is Una going to rejoin people in the kitchen? Yeah, I guess she'd probably go back inside. Before she comes back, Kaluna would like to talk to Kory real quick.

Hi. Hey girl. I imagine Kaluna's just sort of going to watch everything transpire, just sort of passively like, "Huh, this is normal." And then they'll sort of look over at Kory, and they'll hop off of the counter that they were sitting on, I guess. And they'll sort of trundle over to Kory. And they'll look up at her. And they'll look kind of sheepish, because they aren't used to doing this at all. And they'll sort of scratch at their arm, just clearly very uncomfortable. And they'll say, "We're sorry for yesterday. We were rude, and it wasn't nice. We weren't lying, but it was a bad thing to say." And Kory will look down and just sort of be like, "That's fine.

I understand it was a very stressful day yesterday. We all had a lot going on." And she'll just sort of notice that Kaluna looks different. Just a little. Just a little bit. And she'll say, "You look different. Did you do something with your branches?" And Kaluna is going to look a little startled initially. Like, "Huh? Huh?" But then they'll look at Kory, just with wide eyes. You can practically see the anime sparkles in them. They look just delighted, because no one has ever asked before. And they're going to start hopping in place a little bit. Like, "Yeah!

Yeah, it's a thing! It's a thing that we do!" And they're going to sort of take a breath to sort of recompose themselves so they don't start babbling in a language that no one understands. And they're going to very slowly say, "Wilding change to do stuff." And they sort of look unsure as they go on. Like, they realize, "Oh, we don't have these words." And then they'll perk up again. "Yesterday, Merrick wanted us to keep him safe, so we were spiky and angry, and that's why we were rude. But today, Merrick said that we should calm down, so we're calm today.

We're calm." And they're going to sort of wave at the white leaves. She'll notice that Kaluna is getting very excited, and sort of get slightly excited with her, but almost like, "Oh, we're doing this! Okay! Yeah, jump in! Awesome!" And she'll say, "No, you look nice. That's really neat about Wilding. I've never actually met anybody of your kind before." Kaluna's going to sort of, "Yeah, yeah, we don't like other people much. We stay at home mostly. Yeah." And whenever they mention home, they kind of droop. It's not like, "Oh, home." Where's home? They're going to sort of, you know, they understand it's not a nice place, and they're going to kind of look to the side.

Kind of the silver glade. Kori will sort of be a bit hesitant. You know, like when you feel like you have to force a compliment. "Oh, no, I totally- great job there, buddy." Because she's been to the silver glade before and it was not a great experience. So that's all she'll say is, "Oh, wow, I've been there before." "We're so sorry. We're so sorry." They, you know, they clearly know it's a bad place. They're just like, "Oh, poor thing." And then they're going to sort of perk up again. "You went there and you didn't die?" And then they're going to sort of be like, "Yeah, nice." Very clearly impressed.

I was one of the lucky ones. And she just sort of looked down. "Koluna's going to droop again. Oh, sorry. If it makes you feel any better, we lost a lot of friends too." "I'm sorry." "We're used to it." "The area can be a tough place." When Una comes back in, so after the whole Koluna and Kori chat, and if Una's coming back in, Merrick's going to be kind of itching. So whenever Una gets back in, he's going to try to get everybody's attention and be like, "Okay, listen, we've got to boil this down and we've got to figure out something to do." "We're already running out of time.

Here's how I see it." "And I'm assuming everybody's paying attention to me, but I don't want to assume that too hard." "I feel like that's a fair assumption." "Okay. All right, here's the deal, everybody. He's exasperated. Not because anybody's doing anything wrong, just because he's... "Okay, we need a plan. We need a plan of action now. Okay, here's how I see it. I'm going to break it down and we've got to figure out something to do." "And we all need to do something. First of all, we have, according to the witch, and he's going to sort of roll his eyes as he says it, we have three months." "That gives us something like 90 days, roughly, to save Theria." "Let me tell you where I'm coming from with all this, just so everybody knows where I am." "I'm not...

I'm on board with whatever we need to do, but I'm not doing it to free any gods. That's not what I care about." "And he's going to look at Kori and kind of do a wince, like, 'Sorry, that's no offense.'" "It's not about freeing the gods for me. What it is, is about what I think is more important." "And that's stopping whatever hellish demon army is being put together and could ruin everything and all of life on Theria." "So that's my goal, and I think that's what our goal should be, too." "So what do we do today?" "And he's just looking around at everybody, like, 'We've got to have answers.

Everybody jump in.'" "So Una will look over at Jadzia and just say, 'Okay, I'm going to have to ask you to find out whatever you can, anything, even where we should go next.'" "And while you do that, however long that takes, she's going to just, like, this is causing her physical pain." "And she'll just kind of swing her eyes over to Merrick." "We have to go see Julie." "Yeah. Okay." "We might as well interrupt her breakfast. We're ready to go." "Does she like granola?" "She probably likes anything that is horrible." "You dig me?" "So Una has a not-so-veiled hatred of granola." "Exactly.

I was going to say, like, 'You making fun of my food that I made for her? Fine. Okay. Yeah, no, I get it.'" "Right. No, you get a plate of bacon too. That's it. From now on. Enjoy your bacon." "Is that a punishment? Because..." "I know." "She's like, 'I will, motherfucker!'" "See, from Merrick's point of view, he's still a vegetarian. From Merrick's point of view, he's like, 'I'm fine. You just get to eat gross meat.'" "Clog your arteries, asshole. I hope you don't like it." "Una cries in the corner." "Um, yeah, we gotta go to the temple, right?" "Right." "Okay, who's on research team?

Who's on temple deal with my shitty sister team?" "Yeah, we've got recon. We've got research. What's another R?" "Una will make a, just a bleh sound, but they'll go see Julie." "Uh, Merrick's gonna look at Cory and just sort of raise his eyebrows, like, 'Where do you want to be?'" "'Yes, this is for you on some level, for sure. I get that.'" "But it seems like we've got something bigger to take care of. And listen, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna mince words." "You know, Una, you said something about Actor Onus earlier, and yeah, maybe he's a jackass, maybe he's, I don't know." "But he did have a point." "There may be a very good reason the gods were imprisoned, and we don't know that." "But we do know that a bunch of demons making their way to Tharia wouldn't be a good thing no matter what." "So Cory, what do you want?

What do you want to do? Where do you want to be?" "She's gonna sort of look at her around the group and take everything in, and wherever I'm most useful is where I want to be." "The goal is to get this done, and I want to get it done as quickly as possible so that we have as much time as possible to try to save the Scions' life." "Jedzia, do you need help?" "Valus is going to look up like, 'I got this, I can read, god damn it!' Almost like he's invisible." "I'm positive Mera didn't mean it that way." "I'm gonna give you a few more word-ception checks." "Right! Oh, who's talking here?" "I took a drink of water right as you said, 'I can read,' and water just came bursting out of my nose." "Jedzia's gonna take his hand and be like, 'We've got it!' Like, very obviously, like, 'We both got it!' To feel like he's included." "And she knows he's smart, that's the difference, she knows he's smart, it just would be very pandering if she told other people he was smart." "Then it would come across as like a mom talking about her five year old slamming crayons up his nose, like, 'No, no, he's gifted, but you can't just say it.'" "And he's, it wouldn't, okay, this wouldn't be such a sore spot if it didn't come up earlier." "Like, literally, just a few moments ago, it's like, he's always gonna look at Mera and be like, 'Come on man, we just patched shit up, let's, come on.'" "Remember the bacon?" "Remember the bacon?" "So when Jadzia is like, 'We've got this,' she's like, 'Yeah, we did, just kind of, just kind of, yeah, just kind of like patter, you know, like, yeah, yeah.'" "Okay, well, then, uh, you come in with us." "And she'll look a little relieved, because she hates research, and she'll just say, 'Okay, that's, that's good,' because though my, I'm obviously, my allegiance is towards the mission, I mean, personally, I'd like to seek right when we talk to him." "Good.

Okay, well, let's pack it up." "Jadzia, do you need anything from anybody else to get started?" "Um, I don't think so, but if you could thank Julie for me for fixing the house, and then just get kind of, like, you can tell she wants to say, even though she's the one who fucked it up in the first place, but she's not going to." "Because it was nice, it was nice, regardless." "Definitely." "I'll invite her over for tea sometime after you guys leave, we don't have time right now. Go ahead." "Yeah, very clearly there were things fixed up that she didn't break." "Many, many Unadors." "Many Unadors. Yes, so.

So, you guys are off to the Temple of Kord." "Kaluna will pout the entire way, like a child, grumbling and yelling like, 'God, stupid Julie, I don't want to go, but we can't read this stupid bullshit.'" "What exactly did this Julie character do to you guys?" "Kaluna is going to sort of stiffen up, and kind of, 'Oh shit,' but then they're gonna sort of realize, 'Oh, that's not a problem anymore,' and they're gonna say, 'She tried to kill Merrick, and we're mad, still.'" "Oh my god. And we are trying to reason with this person?" "Well. Well. Kaluna clearly, like, 'She was justified.' You know, clearly that sort of thing." "Yeah.

Merrick's kind of over Kaluna's, like, behind, he's just kind of doing like the hand, the, like, across the neck, like, don't, just kind of don't go there, kind of like, 'yee yee yee yee.'" "Kaluna's gonna keep going." "Well, he was stressed, and you know, things happened. She was doing the right thing, but that's our job. Or, it was." "And they're gonna sort of, like, indicate the dagger on their chest, like, 'See? We're responsible.'" "Guys, you've got to stop letting Kaluna explain things." "I know, I love it." "It's the best." "There's no, there's absolutely no context for that whatsoever, what that dagger signifies, anything, like, it's still in its sheath." "I was no context for anything they said." "Right, so it's not even clear that it's a silver dagger, it's just like, 'See?' Like, it's like a four year old, it's like a four year old trying to tell a joke." "Yep." "That's literally what this is." "Marek's gonna, Marek's gonna sort of just, you know, put his hand on Kaluna's shoulder, and be like, 'That's right, that's right, exactly.' And he's gonna look at Kori and do like the wide eyes, like, 'Mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm.'" "Kaluna is going to pick up on this.

Kaluna's gonna be like, 'Hey, hey, we're not a child, Marek. We're not good with words, but we're not a child.'" "I think there's a perception check in there." "I think there's a perception check there." "Listen to me. I'm gonna be mad. 25." "Damn it." "Yeah, that's gonna pick up on you." "Fuck you. Fuck all y'all." "I'm 11, so shut the fuck up." "Exactly. That exactly. But Kaluna's gonna, you know, exactly what I said. 'Hey, we're not good with your words because they're stupid, but we're not a child.'" "No." "And we're not as old as you, but we're-" "Marek's gonna look slightly offended for a second, but then realize that it's not that old." "It's fine.

I'll explain. Julie's fine. Everything's-" "She's not fine." "It's okay." "She's mean. She's mean to Kuna too. We don't like her." "She may not be pleasant, but she has some information potentially. So that's all. It's fine. Everything's water under the bridge. Let's just take care of business." "We've got now less than three months. We have two months and however many days and a half. So let's just get it out of the way." [Kuna makes a funny noises] "Kura'll have sort of like a confused look on her face and she'll stop as they're walking towards the temple where the group keeps going, but she's like stopping to think." "She'll do like a little head scratch and then jog up to catch up." "I like that Una didn't chime in at all as to why." "I just imagine Una being so focused, like kind of gearing up for having to talk to Julie." "Kuna's gotta come with you guys." "She's angry in the corner like she's a fucking bitch.

Doesn't even need expectations." "That is exactly. She's like, Kuna is saying everything she thinks. She's like, okay, try and get yourself into a position where you can deal with this without killing her." "Walking meditation." "There's like smoothed out melted areas where her feet have touched. Just because she's hitting the ground so fucking hard." "You guys are going to reach the template cord after a bit. Do me a favor, everyone roll a perception check." "You guys are going to look around and see that there is a small grouping of paladins training up and doing their normal routine and Julie is not going to be hard to find at all." "She's going to lock eyes with Una and then the rest of the party and sort of stiffen, like straighten up the second that Una comes into view." "Kaluna's gonna place himself at Merrick's shoulder sort of like, 'Hey, punk.' And then they're gonna realize that they have Kory with them so they're going to sort of grab her wrist and try to maneuver her so that she's also standing behind Merrick and looking intimidating." "I have bouncers." "Kory will look at Kaluna's face and make like a little grrr face too." "Oh my god, can we roll an intimidate?

Can we?" "That is the best thing in the world, I am so happy." "Can I roll an intimidate, Jason?" "Please do, the two of you." "Yeah!" "Woooo!" "Oh, oh my god!" "Kaluna looks adorable, but Kory looks angry and confused." "Listen, listen." "You get some bonuses because you're like kind of helping each other." "Kaluna looks grumbly." "That's good, that's perfect. That's Kala- grumbly." "Kory's size aids her in her intimidate check because it's more strong silent type than grrr. Like it's not much more like a bouncer at a nightclub. Just like, you know not to fuck with them.

Because Kory's fucking huge. Kory's almost eight feet tall." "Kaluna's definitely doing like a 'Yeah, yeah, look at this, look at this.'" "Like a shitty gangster." "So yeah, again, Julie's straightening up. She's definitely a little under guard because of this. Because it looks like you have shit to discuss and in a forceful manner. And every time Una rolls up, there's always that thing floating around in the back that says 'Are we gonna fight? Are we gonna do this?' "Like so it's just kind of stiffened up but she's not going to go in the offensive or anything like that." "Okay." "And she's gonna wait till you start to close the gap.

And she'll tilt her head forward just a little bit. Warning?" "Um, Una will tilt her head forward too but a fraction, almost imperceptible fraction less. Like if somebody bowed to you and you're just like 'Mhm, yep, but not as low motherfucker.' "And then she's gonna straighten up and kind of pull herself up to like her full height." "Okay, look. I realize things have been pretty tense. But you graciously fixed up the house, which is much appreciated. Although, like for a second she's gonna say 'You neglected one room.' But then she realized like 'Nope, that's not gonna do anything.' And she kind of like bites her tongue." "I have something to tell you.

And we need your help." "She is going to, she's gonna fold her arms. And not in an aggressive way, just more like 'Okay, if you need my help, something's fucked up.' After she folds her arms, go on." "Jason, to avoid exposition dumping for like the third time, so can we just say perfect." "How much are you telling? Is it the full Monty? Like you're just telling, like Craig and the gods?" "Full Monty except Craig." "Yeah, I feel like it's more about the..." "So mostly Monty." "Mostly, you know, the gods are in human form. We need to release them. We need to figure out a way to do that.

Demons are coming back soon. We've got a time limit. But not Craig." "And she's taking all of this in. And that's a huge, like yeah, I'm guessing you're telling her that a bit more tactfully than you told Poe." "Yes." "Okay." "Una has her little speech down now." "Right. And she's gonna break the arm fold thing and start to rub the bridge of her nose." "Alright. Let's skip the part where we even entertain this for a minute and assume all this is true." "What do we intend to do about it?" "Whether or not it's true, it needs to be dealt with. The gods need to be released somehow.

That doesn't involve killing every single person. There's gotta be a way to do it, buried in some record somewhere. You are more academically inclined." "She's gonna say bookwormish." "So I felt like you'd be a good source." "She can feel your hesitance. One, because you're not insulting her and almost forcing yourself to kind of compliment her or admit that there's something you can't do that she can." "So there's just like, just the tiniest, tiniest smile kind of curling up around her lips. Just the tiniest. And it's gonna go away almost immediately." "I can look things up.

Do you have any leads whatsoever or should I just start pouring through everything?" "I don't think we have any leads, guys. Do we have any leads? Aladrin, I guess? Would that be a lead?" "I guess?" "That'd be new information." "Yeah." "We even had an Aladrin there and he didn't know." "And importantly, we don't know why they did that. Was there a good reason for it or not? I'm just saying." "Do you have a time frame? Was this around when the Aladrin disappeared?" "Before that. They disappeared when the swamp witch came into being and vanished them." "So wait a second.

We're dealing with someone who has the power to blink out an entire race." "I don't think she has the power to do it again. If she had the power to kill everyone, I think she would have. She doesn't have much patience and we don't have much time because in two months, some number of days, and a few hours, we are all going to be eaten alive by horrible fucking demons." "Give me a day. I'll pour through everything I can find and I should get something to you." "I'm just going to take a breath. It's hard for her to say thank you. Like she's going to really struggle with it.

I appreciate it. Very much. Juna or Kratos?" "She's going to respond with, 'It's fine. I just want to help out. He's down the hall.' And again, still tense. Still, yeah." "Okay, yeah. Una will turn on her heel like, 'That conversation is over.' Good. And just like, just zip away." "Kolona will trail behind everyone else and stick their tongue out at Julie as they walk away." "Yes." "Julie's going to narrow her eyes at Kolona, but not like there's true anger behind them. It's like, 'What the fuck is your problem?' There's more of that. In her eyes, you and her have no beef.

Her and Una she gets. You and her, it's like, 'Dude, what is your deal?' I don't-" "What's your name again?" "I can't help it. You're obsessed with me." "I haven't seen you before, haven't I?" "I can't invite you to my swim party. Because I think you're a lesbian." "I mean, girls are going to wear their swimsuits, and you're a lesbian." "That's how it works, right?" "But yeah, when Julie narrows her eyes, Kolona will sort of sneer back. 'Yeah, come at me, nerd.' Scrub lord." "That is not going to happen. Yeah, she's not- yeah." Down the hall, you're going to find Craig here.

He's pretty vocal, so he's not real hard to find. But he'll be back with a few other guys just showing him different things. And predominantly, the followers of Kord in this town are mostly dudes. But there are a few ladies in the back, but for the most part, they for whatever reason have been there much longer than the men. So they don't train with them. They help train the men. Julie and then two others specifically have outlived a lot of the followers of Kord in the area. Specifically after the events with Strahd. So yeah, Craig would be back here, and you'd be able to hear him yelling at a few of these guys well before you see him.

Okay, before we see him, Una will kind of slow down and touch Cori on the arm like, "Hey." And just kind of like, not take her side, but just kind of pull her around for a side conversation. If Cori is amenable to that, she could do whatever she wants. She's eight feet tall. She can just not have to move if she doesn't want to. No, she will. She'll just pull her aside and say, "Look, this is going to sound weird, and I'm going to come with you, but I feel like this information would be better coming from you." The god stuff at least. Because the witch told it to you, and you seemed to make sense to you, at least from where I was looking.

So maybe if you tell it to Craig, it'll make more sense to him than if I lay all this crazy, it does sound crazy, information on him. Does that make sense? Are you okay with that? I shall nod and just say, I'm fine with that. I'm not sure it really makes sense to me. I more like to think that I have hope that it could be true and that things could be better, not necessarily that I understand it all. But I'll try my best to explain it. Maybe that hope will come across better from you. But thank you, I appreciate it. Are you ready? Sure, yeah. Okay. Una will go over to Craig and ask to pull him aside.

As soon as he sees you, he's gonna kind of dismiss the kids in front of him, just like, "Yeah." Just like, send them on their way. And he'll whip around and he will hug the shit out of Una. Yeah, buddy. Yeah, return hug, Una. Yeah, he's gonna bring the hug after just a second. Po told me you made it back last night. I'm glad to see you're all safe. So she's gonna take a deep breath and just say it. Well, there's a lot more than that. And exposition dump? Tell him everything that's going on, minus the god stuff. And towards the end, she'll say, "But there's something that is going to be even more shocking that our friend Corey should probably tell you." And he's gonna look up at Corey.

They've had words before. He's met Corey and likes Corey. So just didn't hug anyone else in the party, but just like, "Oh, hey!" You can see it come across his face. He's like, "Oh, shit. Hey, how are ya?" And it's almost kind of a two-part thing. Like, "Oh, yeah, we talk, we share words." And then the second part is like, "How the fuck did I miss you?" Like, that kind of thing. Okay. Well, as soon as it gets turned over to Corey, she's gonna sort of recognize that Craig is giving her this welcome and say, "Is there somewhere that we can speak more privately?

Not so out in the open?" Sure. Follow me. And he's gonna lead you to his office, for lack of a better term. And it's a smaller room and everything, just with a, you know, books, desk, that kind of thing. More just a really quiet space. And there's a few chairs in the room and everything, but he would kind of point to one and then sit just across from you. Okay. As soon as he sits, Corey's just gonna dive right in. "Craig, I am about to tell you a lot of information, some of which you're probably not going to like or understand. And I'm really hoping that I can be as comforting to you as you were once to me." And she's sort of looking at him, trying to gauge his reaction because she's remembering how she reacted in private.

Right. And you, okay, so Corey's building this up quite a bit, so now he's kind of, "Alright." Well, I mean, it's a big fucking deal. I'm not just gonna be like, "Oh yeah, by the way, dude, you're kind of a god." It's not a big deal, it's whatever. Right, but like, of the perceivable things that you could tell somebody, in his mind, it's like, "Okay, did someone die? Did something happen?" Like, that's not even in the possible realm of things that could be brought up. So he's just kind of like, "I don't understand what could possibly be brought up. Please bring it." Like, he's had friends die and be brought back and legendary dragons and he almost died and all this.

So it's just like, "Sure, come on." But he's gonna start to be like, "Okay." And she's gonna sort of put her hands together and she's almost wringing her wrists a little bit because it's a little awkward to talk about. They have only met a few times before when Group Two saved him. When we went to speak with the witch, we got a lot of answers to a lot of questions. We also got information we weren't expecting. The gods are real. Your god is real. Kord is real. All of them are out there. How... how would you know that? You're just taking her word for it. It seemed... it seemed the likely explanation for why this world is so cruel.

It's... it's apparent to me that if the gods are real, they wouldn't just sit by and let what I've seen happen happen. There has to be a reason why there's been no intervention. And the witch said that the gods are trapped and there's much more. There's so much more. Theria could end because of a demon army that wants to kill us all. And we need to free the gods so that they can finally intervene and keep that from happening. Alright. Let's say that all this is true. And they are trapped. Where did she say they were? Most she didn't. We have no idea where most of the deities are.

We just know that they're here walking among us. It could be anybody. It could be the beggar down the street or the shopkeeper the next town over. It could be anyone. We were told that there were a few she knew of. Herself included. She goes by the name Alvarand. He's gonna narrow his eyes. Like, okay, you understand how completely insane this sounds. Does she pick up on that? I, yeah, it's pretty blatant. I would imagine she's definitely scanning his face just waiting to see how he takes this. Okay. I know how crazy this sounds. Like, I know how completely insane I must look right now.

But you had to be there. You had to see and hear what she said to all of us. I mean, you have to wonder sometimes why things happen. Why did Una die? Why do people die every day who do not deserve to die? I was there when she spoke to you the first time. Is that why she was telling you you were so special? She's gonna sort of look down because she hasn't quite yet said it out loud. She's heard it and it's been pretty apparent. But she's gonna look down and gather her courage and just say, yes, while we were there this last time, I found out why the witch thinks I am so special.

And she's gonna look up to make eye contact because she wants to really gauge his reaction for this. I am the Raven Queen. That sentence coming out of anyone's mouth is some Tier 7 homeless crazy. He's okay. He is very like he's very straight faced. Corey. Did she give you any proof? At all? That would make you believe her? Merrick is cured. And you believe she's telling the truth? I don't know whether or not she's been completely truthful. All I know is that the world is in a dire situation and I can only hope that it can get better. It couldn't get any worse than this.

Tell me what I can do to help. She's gonna sort of like shrug like, all right, here comes the fucking cherry. The most helpful thing that you can do right now is take in what I'm about to say to you. You're not done. Sadly, no, I am not. All right. I may be the Raven Queen, but there is another that the witch was able to illuminate, another God that she was able to tell us which skin they were wearing, essentially. Kord is here in this very city and you see him every day when you look in the mirror. He's gonna tense up and sort of sit up straight. All right.

That is absolutely ridiculous. Kori, gods don't almost die at the hands of dragons. Gods don't teeter on the edge of a cliff and dehydrate. Gods don't need a halfling to help hoist them up a mountain. You understand how ridiculous that sounds? To you it may, but to me, gods make miracles and what you just described is a miracle. All right, again. Let's work off of the assumption that what you're saying is true and that I'm Kord. That would be why Una didn't see anything when she died. She's just gonna nod. Does she know about this? Again, she's just gonna nod.

She feels like she said enough. Craig is going to just sort of slump forward and put, just kind of rub his face like really vigorously, just kind of like, "Oh, Jesus. What exactly am I supposed to do with that?" You can do with it whatever you want. I'm just letting you know that we have three months, three months to find all of the gods and tell them who they are. Try to find some sort of answers as to what we can do to fix the current situation we're in. And if you want to help with that, if you want to help save our world, I'm extending a hand. If you don't and you just want to go right back to what you're doing here in Esterhold, fixing the temple and praying to yourself, that's fine.

The choice is yours and I am not going to push you either way. You just needed to know the truth. He's gonna go quiet, because again, there's two ways to interpret this. Either that is the ravings of a madwoman or there's some validity to it. And he's, again, looking down, just, you can tell he's deep in thought. And then he's going to look up at Kori and hold out his hand. She will grab it and shake it as vigorously as when they first met. Guys, I think that's probably a good time for us to stop for the night. Damn. Considering Izzy's internet's dying. Aww.

She can't hear us, or now she can. I don't, she might be able to hear us now. Poor Izzy. Sorry, I can hear you. Hey, there we go. It's really, really sketchy though. Don't worry about it, we just wrapped up. Oh, perfect, okay. Yeah, that's plenty of time for a session. You guys, the next time we play, you guys are going to be on your way. You'll have some sort of, you'll have a lead and you'll be out there and doing it. I know that was a tough session to get through because it took us a while to sit down and then you kind of get rusty and like, yeah. But, uh, yeah, everyone did a really good job.

It was fun. I missed you guys. Yeah, that stunk, not being able to do it before now, but I know that was hard. I'm glad nature grows is a thing now. Totally. Well, you guys have a fantastic night and, uh, yeah, you guys go rest your voice. Feel better, Izzy. Yeah, feel better. Thanks. Thanks for the good enough session, guys. It was really good. Okay, guys, I'll talk to you later. Bye. Bye. Folks, if you like what you heard today or you've been a fan for a while, we would appreciate it if you go to our Patreon page and maybe consider supporting us at patreon.com/dandr It's how we make our living, it's how we continue to do this, and it's how we grow the show and do new stuff.

So thank you very much for your support and we hope you enjoyed today's episode. this episode.