Civil Conversation

This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors in names, terminology, or attribution.

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And then let them make a toy just for you. Don't imagine your fantasy tonight. Make it a reality. (gentle music) - 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 Bree. - Hey guys, I'm Brianna, I play Santos, the Scion. - And Jasper. - Hello, this is Jasper. I play Merrick, Ethelred, Human Cleric. - And Mack. - Hi, I'm Mack and I play Colunne of Algiers, the Wild and Shaman. - And Eric. - Hello, this is Eric. I play Ordon, King Shield, Dwarven Knight. - So guys, last time on the show, you ended up pouring through a ton of these books in the library.

You actually found out a hell of a lot. You found out a lot about the seal, about the gods themselves, supposedly maybe something about these demons. There may or may not be a connection between the eladrin sealing away these gods and the rituals to release either the demons or the gods themselves, the time, the blood moon, all kinds of stuff. You guys found out a ton. Unfortunately, Corey got some bad news in the form of a raven that was intended for Una. But since Corey was wearing the bracer, the raven kind of settled with her and she decided to depart from the group.

Now, in exchange before she left, you guys got back the book she was carrying and she got to take the scroll, which may or may not be a sticking point with some members of the group later on, but we'll get into that. So how's about we pick up just a few minutes after Corey would leave this group? What would you all like to do? - What time is it, generally speaking? - Well, again, you guys have spent a hell of a lot of time in this library and it's not gonna be too much longer before it's gonna be dusk. You guys are gonna lose all your daylight completely.

- Are we getting? - Are we getting? I'm sorry, go ahead. - Oh, no, I was just saying the same thing, just like hmm. - Are we getting light from-- - Oh, no. No, no, no. - We're not getting light from outside, right? - No, no, no. The only light you have in here is the artificial light. It's like that pale blue magic glow from-- - It's just UV light. - Yes, it's like one flickering fluorescent bulb in the center of the library. - And it's just, yeah. - Okay. Well, I know Merrick would be reeling for a moment, like what just happened? I'd probably just feel gutted that his biggest connection to this whole thing, right, the whole, the gods and the seal and demons and it was kind of really Corey in a way because that was the only thing that he could latch onto as okay, if this is real, then this is really gonna affect you and everything else sort of like, I don't know, maybe this is real, maybe this isn't.

So I think he's kind of just recalibrating, probably just reeling and being quiet. Yeah, is anybody else-- - So like are we still researching or are we all just kind of sitting around the library? - I figure it was just a few minutes later and we're just like holy, what just happened? Like what the hell? - Yeah, I'd say it's pretty much, you know, Corey leaves, goes back down the hall, kind of turns the corner and then it's just the party. - Well, Santos and Ordon actually weren't even there for that conversation so I guess when they come back without Corey, Santos would ask where she went.

- Complicated but just take it for granted that she got a note, did they see that? - We saw the bird, yeah. - Okay, all right. - Made a spectacle. - The note was kind of specific and mentioned that there was a friend of ours that either is in danger or maybe thought that they would not even survive something that's going on. So Corey thought that was more important than whatever's happening for her or us right now and that's fair but unfortunate for us 'cause and I think Merrick would sort of trail off and like look, he's like he's looking in the distance like realizing holy shit, like she's actually gone.

What is gonna happen next? Like the whole story that's gonna unfold potentially, he might not ever see her again to see what happens. So yeah, so she's gone, she left the library, she's out and that's it. And then he's gonna take the books and sort of dump them on the table. Like these are ours, we've gotta find a way to carry these, find what's important and take them with us and we can't stay here any longer. We don't have any time. - Cool, has Corey been with you guys a long time? - Not terribly long but the connections made it seem like a lot longer, I'll just put it that way.

- Fair enough, you say we have to move on, where's your next step? - Shit, okay, so are we all on the same page about what's supposed to be happening here at least as far as I'm concerned and he's gonna point at Kaluna like, right? - Kaluna's gonna look up from messing with the Bracer and just sort of nod. Whatever we do next has to do with the seal and the seal has everything to do with this whole story I tried to tell you about, I don't know how clear I was but there are gods, there are demons, there are people that are gods that are trapped as gods but they don't know it and that's one thing and then there's the demons who could destroy absolutely everything by making their way into Theria and a demon army taking over absolutely everything.

- Basically all hell is about to break loose, literally, or not and he's gonna shake his head like, I'm not even sure I get it anymore but I know that I promise people to keep this going no matter how I felt about it and no matter what I thought about it and if this is important, then it's important, right? If this is about saving everybody, then this is about saving everybody so we've gotta figure out what to do with the seal, how to do it and I need your help, I guess, to figure out how to manage this. - Well, you said that the seal is on Kian, right?

Have you ever been there? - Jason, would Merrick have ever made his way to that or I mean, I'm sure he'd be familiar that it exists but-- - I can't think of a reason why. Like this is not a place people, like it's not a travel destination really. It's like Antarctica or something. It's like, yeah, I know it exists. There's no fucking reason to ever go there. - Exactly, yeah, I wouldn't expect it but I just wondered, he's traveled for 12 years or something. I would imagine that he's probably been to the far northern reaches of the mainland or something like that.

He'll say like, I've been as close as you can get without actually going but I've never been there. I don't think there's any good reason to go before now. It's not gonna be easy and I'm not even sure what we're supposed to do when we get there. I just know that we have fragments of information, everything's being put together and I think I need time to digest it, to process and make a plan. But I can't see how it involves anything other than going there and finding exactly where we're supposed to be at exactly the right time to make the exact right thing happen.

Frankly, I don't know what that exact right thing is. - Jason, could we do a roll to see who knows how much about this place? - Give me history. - That's how many I know. I know 26 many of things. Man, you guys don't know shit about your own continent. - This is Kian, this isn't their continent. - Okay, fine. - Yeah, lay off. - Yeah. (laughing) - The fuck? What did I do? - Nice, nice, nice. - So Kian is the northernmost continent in Theria. It is essentially, if the north land is bad, the north lands are bad on the mainland, and they are, it's essentially like ice, snow and everything.

Kian is bad for a ton of terrible reasons. First of all, it is almost completely uninhabitable. It is so cold that there are only a few select creatures that have been able to withstand it and actually tolerate it and thrive. And they are not things that you want to run into. There is no vegetation. Again, the only animals that you can slaughter for food are gonna put up a fight. There are only a couple, and Thanos would know this, there are only a couple of places, like kind of stop-gap measures, like little places you can stop, kind of inns. But they are very much a little, like a little speck in a sea of white.

They are the only two on the entire continent. And getting there is half the battle, just jagged rocks and ice and a terrible journey getting there, and then once you're there, it's a terrible journey getting anywhere on the continent. - Okay, quick clarifying question before role play. And this is where we need to actually perform the ritual, according to these books, right? - At the night of the blood moon. - Night of the blood moon at the seal on Kian. - All right, would that role let me know how long it would take to get there from where we are? - From where you are, Jesus.

So if you have your map open, which guessing you probably don't, but if you have your map open just- - I do, it's my backdrop, it's my wallpaper. - I'm sorry, man, not you. - God, what is up with everybody? Giving me a hard time tonight. - I'm sorry, I'm sorry. - Just kidding, kidding, go ahead. - There's a couple of different ways you could get there. Like from where you are, actually, you could, if you had a ship, you could depart from the northernmost part. Like if you went up toward Orash and just left from the northernmost part of the continent, the problem is you don't have a ship.

Brightport would be the next port city that you could probably get to and either charter a ship or purchase one or rent one something and maybe crew it and just start sailing north. The trip there is going to take probably over a week of solid sailing if you take it slow enough that you're not in any actual danger when you get there, because you're gonna have to move slowly around icebergs and such. But if you went back toward Brightport, that would be a few days travel on its own, three or four days travel. And then leaving from Brightport would probably be a solid week or so of sailing.

- Okay, so Thanos is gonna tell you all she knows about the continent we're going to. And then she'll say, if we don't need to be there until the blood moon, might be a good idea to get some more information and a guide before we even think about going up there. - I agree. Does anybody here have sailing as a skill? - I was on a boat once. - Yeah. - I've seen a boat that was upside down. - Gosh. - That's not the way we wanna be. What would sailing be? I'm assuming. - It's a mixture of skills. - Yeah. - That's group two. - We could probably manage all together.

We need a ship, we need a crew, and we need a guide, especially a guide. - Well, here's the thing. - 'Cause if we can't get to one of those ends, we will die. - You could crew a small ship, like a small ship. The problem with that is someone has to stay awake to sail it and there's a lot of things that go into it. The bonus of that is a smaller ship would be a little faster, right? 'Cause you're not hauling a bunch of stuff. You are gonna have to take provisions and things, but you are going to be able to outrun some larger ships. The problem is there are things in the ocean that could give you trouble and a smaller ship can be torn to pieces on a really, really bad day, like a nasty storm, something like that, or pirates.

That's a problem. - It's too fucking cold for pirates. - Well, you have to, not from Brightport. - You have to have ice pirates. - Fair. - If you're setting sail from Brightport, that's a problem. - Let's set off from Umineiro then. - That's another problem. - We're slightly closer. - The problem with Umineiro ships is as soon as they depart, they just plummet to the ground. - I'm assuming they have some people beneath the fucking city, like. - No, it's wasteland. There's a hole. - There's gotta be a port. - In Umineiro? - Of course. Not in Umineiro, but like outside of Umineiro.

- Dude, there's no way. - Greater Umineiro. - Why would you have a port city without a port? Why would you have a city on the edge of the ocean and no way to utilize that ocean? - Well, that's the thing. They used to, and then they segregated themselves from the continent. They don't consider themselves part of. - All right, fair enough. Still stupid. - Well, they have some issues. - I have a question about frozen wasteland survival. - What's inside me? - Would Kaluna's sap freeze? - No more than anyone's blood would freeze. - Just bring petrified wood. Pick them up and walk them around.

- I mean, Kaluna's gonna have to bundle up like anyone else. - I was just worried about, like, you know how, like, they have plants that you have to cover up with blankets? 'Cause otherwise they'll just fucking die. - Well, I think it would be nice for the role play and the canon of it, but it might not change anything. - Right, I mean, like, basically, unless you want to end up like Nicholson at the end of "The Shining," basically just bundle up. - That was a movie back- (laughing) - I don't think "The Shining" is. - Thank you for the clarification.

- Yeah, and you made no sense, thanks. - Whoa! - Okay. - Actually, I really liked that. I was just saying the thing the internet says. - The internet, Jesus. Okay, so, sounds like small ship would be dangerous and fast. A bigger ship would be less dangerous, but slower. - Well, small ship would be dangerous because pirates, but maybe a little bit safer considering, like, glaciers and icebergs and shit. - Right, okay, yeah. - Big ship. - Right? I would assume, right, Jason? - I mean, that's a pretty safe assumption. The perks of having, like, a larger ship would be, one, you can arm it better.

Like, you could actually have armaments, you'd have more provisions, you'd be prepared for more things to go wrong. The drawback to that is you'd need a crew to pilot it. You'd need people to man sales. You'd need people to take care of things in case they go wrong. 'Cause, again. - Are we talking about all of this in character right now, too, like, discussing the pros and cons and shit? - Why not? I don't, I don't. - Santos would probably say something along the lines of, like, okay, we take a small ship. If a big ship attacks us, we kill them all. Put the small ship on the big ship and keep going.

- That's pretty, I can't really argue with that logic. - At this, Orton's gonna kinda look at the ground and hesitantly ask, is there not any way then by sea to get there? - There are portals. - Could fly. We have a dragon on retainer. - Wait. Not only do we have a dragon on retainer, well, we do have a dragon on retainer, but that's probably not great for Amara. - You have a what? - Amara is an ice dragon, so. - Oh, wait, she's not-- - Santos knows all of this. - Yeah, true. Wait, is that, is she an ice dragon? - She's a white dragon. Right, she is? - That's true.

- Yeah. - Holy mother. - She'll be fine. - Holy mother of God. - She will, she will. We're farther up in the air, which means it'll be way colder. - Yeah. - So we might die, but I mean, if we bring a lot of blankets and just hunker down on top of our dragon, we might be okay. - Okay, the way I see it-- - We're gonna fire on Amara. Like, would that hurt too much? - Would that annoy her a little bit? - Okay, let's take a step back. - This is why we can't fire on her back. - Let's take a step back. Was the prospect of Amara brought up in character? - Merrick would have to bring her up.

- Yeah, it couldn't have been, because it was Santos saying that, so no. So no. - I mean, when Ordon asks if there's another way, it might occur to Merrick at that point. - Right, that's what I'm trying to figure out, 'cause I'm actually doing what Merrick would do. I'm like writing down the list of possibilities. So Ordon asked that, so it's like, okay, we can either go buy water, there are technically portals that would allow us to transport ourselves, or other magical means to transport ourselves, and he'll pat his bag or something like that. - Luna will make a face.

- Yeah. There are ways to transport yourself. - Now technically you have another power source. - Yep. Well, speaking of power sources, there are portals that exist, and we do have a power source, potentially, and also we could go by air. Those are the ways to get there, or swim, I mean, but it's still water, right? It's not gonna go very well, I'm pretty sure. - We could swim for a while, then freeze to death, and then float there. - Right, we could use whoever's alive at the end can use everybody else's raft. - Never let go. - Fantas is the smallest. - So we do have an option that would take us back to Brightport, and that's one, to find a ship.

Something small, might be dangerous, but might be quick. Something bigger would take a lot more resources, and probably not be something within our reach. At the same time, if we go back to Brightport, we do have Tessia to talk to. We have, and I know Ordon doesn't know, and-- - Fantas knows Tessia, but she doesn't know about the dragon. - Right, so, Tessia has resources that could potentially help us, and if not, she might have other resources that we don't even know about. She's a good friend, she's been very helpful in the past, and I know she's on our side.

So, no matter what it seems like, for me, we should take the time to get back to Brightport, because everything starts there, one way or the other, unless we just decide to swim, which, again, we're gonna fucking die within 10 minutes, so what's the point? Is everybody on board to go-- - Kaluna's going to perk up at the word go. (laughing) - To this continent? - You know how whenever you say, you wanna go on a walk to a dog, and they look towards the door and they're ready? That's what Kaluna's gonna do. - No, they don't do that. They do the little standing four steps in front of you, and every time you take a step, they take another two steps and look back.

That's what dogs do. - Kaluna is going to the door. - Are we going to the door? - Santos will cross her arms, and she looks a little bit perturbed, like her, sure, her brows are narrowed, and she's gonna look up at Merrick and say, "As long as you promise we come back "to the mainland at some point." - Listen, my whole goal is that we go, we take care of what we need to do, and that it's the right thing, and once that's done, we can come back to the mainland and live our lives. Everything would be fine, absolutely fine, if not better. So I promise you that that's my goal.

- Just remember, I'm here for a reason. - I know. - Okay. - I know. - And that's useful with it. - Yeah, I won't forget. Okay, unless anybody objects, I feel like everything we need starts in Brightport, and I think we need to make our way back. We found everything we could here, but before we go, I feel like, can we take one more glance through here? Is there anything else that might fill in any gaps that we need? Especially when it comes to the rituals that would have to happen at the seal, because that's gonna be our key. - Ordon at this point would like to point toward the closed door that they haven't yet explored.

- Merrick's gonna raise his eyebrows and be like, "Okay, let's go." - Colin will groan. - All right, approaching the door, are you just gonna walk through it, or? - Let's be careful and sort of look at the door for runes and weird shit, basically, but trying to be careful. - Okay, so do me a favor, everyone roll Perception. It's gonna be one of those knights. - These high rolls. - What are we rolling for? - Perception. - Ordon is fascinated by the stone he's standing on. - I didn't do very well. - Coluna threw their cape over his face. - See here, Coluna and Merrick.

Coluna and Merrick are gonna take in that. Of the doors and such around here, this is pretty nondescript. There's nothing crazy fancy about it. It's kinda like the one that led into this place where it just looked like a set of plain ass wooden double doors. There's nothing gaudy or nothing really awe-inspiring about it at all. Now, the door itself looks like you could just pretty much kick it down or just kind of plow through it or whatever you'd like to do. It does not appear as though it's really locked. It looks like maybe the knob is sticking a little bit.

It also doesn't appear as though it's being defended in any way. - Right. I think Merrick will sort of look around at everybody and he'll just like shrug and he'll just try. I don't know if it's a push door or a pull door, but whatever the opposite. - You don't wanna look silly doing the wrong one. - Okay, you know. - 'Cause then you can never go back to the bath library again. - Right. Can Merrick do a perception check to see if there's a pull or push sticker on the door anywhere? - No, but it does have that height labeling chart next to it. - Oh, right.

In case there's like a mugging or something. Merrick's just gonna be like, "Fuck it." And he's just gonna open the door. Not like, you know what I mean. I just open it slowly, not like, "Whoa!" Fucking doors, right? - You're not gonna Kramer it. - Yeah, exactly, right. - This door is gonna give a little bit of resistance. Like just kind of like a light jiggle of the knob and just kind of force it open. It does open inward. So after this kind of gets shoved open just a tiny bit, there is gonna be a creaking sound at this door. It doesn't sound like it's been opened in a long time.

And unlike the other doors in the place, it's got a little bit of wear on it. And in front of you is going to be a short hallway that appears to open up into this large circular room. There appears to be a lot of chairs lined up, like kind of like large, like comfier looking chairs. And what it looks like is this room was set up to maybe be a discussion parlor or a place where people might officially air grievances, like a council maybe to hold votes, something. It appears, it doesn't look like a casual sitting area. It looks like this was maybe a place that was more official than that.

It doesn't appear to be very large either, but Merrick and Kaluna are gonna see something off about it right away. And there appears to be writing all over the walls in here. It's all in the same handwriting. And as it goes on, it appears to be more and more, maybe abrupt nonsensical, that type of thing, just talking about what a tremendous mistake they've made. And it's going into detail about people dropping like flies, like people dying one by one. And this all appears to be written by one person. - Kaluna is going to walk backwards out of the room.

(chuckles) - Huh. - So there is writing on the wall and there's stuff going on. Is there anything, like Merrick's gonna sort of really scan through the writing at all. Is there anything that catches his eye as kind of important or something that might be a clue or a key to something? - Do me a favor, roll a perception check. - Ooh. - 30. - This, okay, it's very important to realize that this, so it's down the length of the hallway, all the way down, all the way around this large circular room all over the walls, up and down. And there's large writing and then there's like things filling in the smaller space.

There's very little free space left on the wall. So I'd imagine Merrick's just sort of pacing back and forth, just trying to kind of figure out like an origin point maybe or something. - Right, just yeah, trying to piece this together. Like where's the start of this? Is there a narrative? Is it like chronologic? What's going on? And trying to just really scan for something that might be key. - While there isn't a straight up narrative, it's not a story being told, it's pretty much, it's kind of the diary of a madman. It looks like someone like just venting to the walls.

Maybe trying to leave this as a warning originally, but as time went on, there's writing on top of writing. It's just, yeah, chronicling for no other reason than that's just what these people did. And you're gonna see phrases like, phrases about them opening that rift, phrases about the demons pouring in, touching one of them, disease spreading throughout their community and like little phrases like that, but much more kind of like interrupted telegraph messages. Like, you know, just very, very abrupt, like very shorthand, like fucking people are dying.

That kind of thing, just very, very short messages, but it's just like machine gun bursts everywhere. So the closest Merrick would be able to work out is that they did something terrible, maybe some experiment, maybe something that they found in research and wanted to test it out and opened some direct rift where these demons could pour through and then something terrible happened after that before they can contain it completely. - Okay, all right. Merrick will, as he's looking through things and around on the walls, he'll sort of piece that together, what you just said, you know, he'll piece that together and relay that back as he's looking like, okay, so this is, right, so this is, they did some experiments or something and this, you know, so that kind of thing.

- Toward the end of the hallway, there will be one section of the wall that mentions a couple of things that are a little more specific and phrases like insects and maggots, like that's going to be repeated over and over and over again. Like whatever, like they're going into description and it's describing whatever this is, it's insects and maggots, insects and maggots, like over and over again. - Insects and maggots. And the, I'm imagining that the only thing that Merrick would be thinking about is probably whatever he gathered from Jadzia in talking about Valnor.

So that would be his first go-to, like he'd be like, okay. I mean, especially since there's stuff about Valnor everywhere, right? This is like Valnor Central in the, you know. I don't think he would say anything about that. I don't think, he would just sort of get it. He'd be like, okay, maybe that's what that's about. Makes kind of sense. - And, so sorry to interrupt, go ahead. - No, no, that's basically, I'm just trying to, I'm actually feeling like Merrick now, like ugh, okay. - Yeah, this isn't good. - Do me one more favor, everyone, roll a perception check.

- Everything's fine, move along. - Here, I'll do another one. - Wait, you can do that? - No, yes, yes you can. - Yeah, sure, mm-hmm. - My second one was worse. - It's exactly the same actually. - Oh wow. - Oh, that was insight, you rolled insight. - And you rolled the wrong skill. - That's it, okay, same difference there. - Merrick, Kaluna, and Thanatos. This is gonna be one of those things that, as you get wrapped up in things, it's become such a constant that you barely notice it anymore but every once in a while there'll be a long silence or there'll be kind of this tension within the party where everyone's like studying something and that whistling from the other side of the library is just gonna be audible, just kind of echoing, just every once in a while.

Again, there's no rhythm to it or anything. It's not like a straight up melody. It's just almost like someone killing time or kind of haphazardly whistling a tune to themselves. There's no real actual cadence to it or anything and it'll just kind of start and stop intermittently. - So, okay, in this room, you said that there are chairs or seats? - Oh yeah. - Roughly how many? I'm trying to get an imagine, I'm sorry, trying to get an imagine. Trying to imagine how big this room is. Is it like a circle of a dozen seats or is it like-- - It actually appears as though there's enough seats for everyone that was living here.

- Okay, so when Merrick hears the whistling, he's gonna close his eyes and sort of squint them like ugh. He's gonna say, actually, here's a question before I do that. Is there anything else in this room other than these chairs? Is there anything to sort of go through or cabinets or-- - That appears to be it, just these chairs. That's why you would come to the conclusion that you did. It's like they're all facing each other. It looks like a conversation space. - Got it. Okay, Merrick's gonna look at Kaluna. Put his hand on their shoulder and he's gonna look at Ordon.

So he's getting everybody's attention a little bit. He's like, Ordon, check for secret passages. Can you do that? - Sure, I'm willing to give it a shot. - Great, Kaluna, see if there's anything else you can find out about these chairs and try to figure out if there's anything going on here. Than just can you look through this stuff on the wall and see if there's any other information you can get out of this that might help us. - Would that be an insight, Jason? - I would say it's more perception 'cause it's not really-- - All right, it's the same. - I ain't lyin'.

- Cool, I got one point more than the last time. What does that get me? (laughing) - That would be, I feel like that would be passive. - Yeah, I mean, it's more like you're actively studying is the only reason I-- - Okay, all right. - That's the only reason. - That's cool. - Being spoken to, that's different. Now if you get the audiobook version of What's on These Walls, right, Thanos is gonna pick up just one or two more things than Merrick did, but let's get to that in just one second. Ordon's gonna be looking for passages and such, right? - Correct. - Okay, could you do me a favor and roll a dungeoneering check for me?

(soft music) - Tasty. - From what Thanos would be able to gather, the same person who wrote all of this on the walls probably buried the rest of the people here and set up that bit over on the other side of the library with the scroll. - Cool, cool. So she'll probably just relay that and be like, this is the guy who buried all his friends and went crazy. - Real quick, 'cause this is part of my plan, while all that's happening, so nothing's changed for what they're doing, but so Merrick's sort of asking people to do stuff, he's gonna just, he's gonna turn around while everybody's kind of focused, and he's gonna go straight to the whistling.

He's gonna be like, fuck it. So if they turn around, Merrick's gonna be gone. - Okay. Do I need to roll to investigate the chairs? I don't know what I'm looking for. - That was an excuse. - Coluna's really just willing to do anything at this point, just to distract themselves from this hell. - Okay. Ordon's gonna be looking around this room and sort of checking all the nooks and crannies and stuff. And at a certain point, things are gonna feel colder in this room again. Right around where Ordon's standing. So Ordon would be a little like on the opposite side of this room.

It's not a huge room. It's just enough basically for all these chairs and stuff. It's a large enough space that everybody could fit in, but it's not a crazy decadent room. Everyone do me a favor, roll a perception that's in this room right now. - Where the fuck have you been, Numbers? - Oh my. - Hey, I didn't suck that time. - Aw, poor Ordon. - Can I get a five? I just want a five. (laughing) Let's see, Kaluna and Thanos. So I imagine a situation where Ordon is like really studying these nooks and crannies on the walls. Like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And then there's this stuff that's gonna be happening behind him.

Over on the opposite side of the room, kind of this is a big circle, so there's not really a corner to the room, but over on the other side, two figures are going to appear. (eerie music) And what it looks to be is Lindsay, the girl who had been leaving letters and stuff back and forth, and Joshua. This would be the same guy who was comforting her in the library and all that. And they are going to appear as though they're speaking to each other. And very, very calmly, almost like quietly, like they're whispering. And after a time, she is going to wipe a tear from her eye, and he is going to step in and kind of pull her close.

And they're gonna hug each other tightly for a while. And then Joshua is going to pull out a blade and stick it in her side. - Josh, hello. - And then very quickly cover her mouth with the other one. - What a dick. - Rude. - At least buy her a drink. - And he is going to gently guide her to the ground. - I feel like when the stabbing happens, Thanatos would run forward and legitimately try to tackle the ghost. - Obviously she's gonna go right through, and it's not really gonna stop anything that happened there. - When Thanatos moves, I think that would sort of snap Kaluna out of staring at shit, and they're going to sort of clutch their totem real quick, and they're going to start backing out.

Like they don't want to look away in case the ghosts do weird ghost shit, but they're definitely making their way out of the room. - Joshua's gonna be just sort of staring at this body for the longest. It looks really remorseful for lack of a better term, and eventually just both figures are gonna fade away. - Thanatos is gonna stand up. I assume she fell down. She's so dumb. - How aggressively was she like lunging? - Super aggressive, like all the way. Like completely forgot they weren't real. Probably hurt herself a little. - Will that be something she tries to hide?

- Probably just kind of like, it's only Kaluna looking, right? So it's kind of like, no offense, but you're Kaluna. I'm not embarrassed. - Kaluna doesn't give a shit. - Right, like I don't think you mind. - I would imagine Thanatos diving to the ground would be enough noise to like get Ordon to turn around. It's like, oh, like what the hell is going on behind me? Like that type of thing. But like he would miss the whole, like you diving at something. - Right, and then she kind of stand up, brush herself off and then spit on the ground like it was the ghost fault that she did that.

Like how dare you not be corporeal right now. That's very rude. - Did Kaluna find anything with the chairs? - They are pretty cherry chairs. They're very comfy looking. They're padded, which you, I mean, these are the only chairs in the entire place that look like padded. The rest of them are very library. - That he made from cherry trees because he said they were cherry chairs. - So they're cherry chairs. - Is there any gum underneath them? Did someone, some asshole just like, eh, do that thing? - No, not that you can spot. Nothing edible underneath the chairs.

- Did anyone carve their names with like? - Did anyone carve a dick into it? - This is not a public library folks, this is. - You never know Jason. But yeah, so as long as Kaluna didn't find anything of note, they're going to sort of, as soon as the ghosts are gone, they're going to like turn around to leave, like, nope. And then as they're turning, they're going to realize that Merrick's not there. And they're going to bounce for a couple of seconds as like panic sets in. And then they're going to fucking bolt to try and find him. - Cool, leave the 14 year old with the dwarf.

Nice. - Wow. - What's that? - Whoa, yeah. - Whoa. - What did he do? - His perception is like two, like he's not going to help me. - Oh, I thought you meant something else. - Okay, that's so much better. - Also all dwarves are pedophiles. That's where the beards come from. - That makes sense, that makes sense. - What? I don't even understand. - I don't know anymore. It was just a joke. It wasn't a good one claiming that. - Wooden introduces himself to the party. Also I'm legally obligated to tell you. - That's a good canon right there. - Hey, they never proved anything.

- It's not true. - You can't interview a body is what I'm saying. - DNA evidence hasn't been invented in failure yet. - That's too dark for a passing joke. Let's move on. - Number one, she had duct tape over her mouth so she couldn't have said anything. And number two, she was dead anyway. - Oh my God. What just happened? I don't know. I made a character shitty joke and this happened. - I think Ordon just became the darkest character in DNR history. - What if there was Darmok man? - Have you ever heard of a murder suicide but without the suicide? - And also with some bad touch first.

- And Darmok wasn't the character. He was an NPC. - He's not a character. He's not a PC. - Before everyone runs out of this room, my last question is you mentioned that back where I was, it was getting colder again. Is there air flow? Like, do I feel a breeze? - The best you could, I would say after, that depends on if the rest of the party tells you what just happened behind you, because I would say you'd catch the tail end of it. You would catch the two apparitions there. Now, if you were to put two and two together, that has happened every single time you have spotted one of these things.

- Okay. - How's about we catch up with Merrick? - I'm into it. - So Merrick's just making a beeline for this, right? - Yeah, he's basically fed up. He's been listening to this and he's been tuning it out, trying to tune it out, trying to focus on what needs to happen and trying to help lead this group and get out of here. And I think he's just like hit his snappy point, like, oh, okay, what? - So he's beelining. (laughing) - Okay, so back down this narrow hallway of books, back down to the mural and then hanging a right and back around the corner, do me a favor, roll a perception check.

- 29. - So coming back around, the entire, the interior here of this bubble, this barrier, is scorched, like burned. Everything within it is sort of marked with this sooty blackness and every creature beyond the tiefling is dead and charred. And this tiefling is pretty much exactly where you left him, just sort of appears to have regained his composure and is right back to just sort of stroking this barrier back and forth, just walking back and forth, up and down. Every once in a while, stepping, just sort of stepping on one of the corpses of these things and it just sort of breaks apart beneath his foot, just kind of ash.

- Ugh. Does he notice me at all? - He's not gonna notice you at first, no. Are you just walking right up to him? - Well, no, I think it would be a little bit cautious. I mean, it's not, I'm not just being brazen about like, what the fuck? It's a little bit more like, okay, what, what is it? Just something, but you know, being careful. I think he'd sort of peek around the corner, but confidently and see what he's up to, which is what you just described. And then if he felt like that Darmok wasn't seeing him or paying attention to him at all, then he would probably take a big deep breath and then stride right up to the edge of the bubble, right where he is.

- Okay. - And stare at him. And after a few seconds of that, he is going to stop, just kind of stop in his tracks and just level his eyes at you. Did you tell her? - Merrick is going to very deliberately try to control this conversation. And he's gonna ignore Darmok's question and he's gonna say, why are you here? - And he's going to, he's gonna sort of look around again, kind of like he has all the time in the world and maybe like he doesn't understand the question. And he's going to look around at this barrier and, because I can't leave yet. And then he's gonna hold a finger up, just kind of like to his own lips.

Soon though. So, every day, I get a little stronger. And soon, it won't be able to hold me anymore. And he is going to put, he's gonna put the same hand that he held up to his own, his own lips and sort of reflexively push against that barrier. - Jason, quick question. I'm coming from listening and also playing. And I want to make sure that I think this is right. Would Merrick have caught wind of what happened with group three in Darmok? I'm assuming this is the kind of thing that Una would have like a drink and then like talk about mutilating body parts and stuff like that.

But I mean, - I would imagine at some point, I would imagine at some point, like the topic would come up with this house and, 'cause it was mentioned several times that. - Right, I feel like in my mind, it feels like it would be the kind of thing that he kind of got the whole story eventually. - Yeah, you and Kalina were both there for the dig a hole period of group three. - That's true. - I would imagine it would come up, it's like, "Hey, why Jadzia are there so many bodies?" - Okay, all right. So with that in mind, again, Merrick's trying to really sort of hold himself and just try to control what he can control, which are just the questions he's asking and try to get Darmok to answer.

"Do you remember dying?" - He's going to look down and then after time, a long, long beat, he's going to look back up at Merrick. "I remember them attacking me in my own house." - "Yes, I remember dying." - "Do you remember who killed you?" - "She didn't mean to. They were a terrible influence on us." - "That's terrible influence on her. She just wasn't thinking clearly. That's why she kept me near her. She regretted what they made her do. I'm going to make it all better." - "Once I get free, I'll find her and we are going to be whole again." - "How will you get free, Darmok?

Is it Val'nor? Will he set you free? Will he help you get stronger?" - "There is going to be a clarity in his eyes that Merrick is going to witness for the first time. Like, just this, like he is snapped out of whatever stupor he's in. That fool couldn't contain me. He tried to use me. He tried to use me. She sold me to him, you know. He actually thought he could contain me." - "Where's Val'nor, Darmok?" - "There was a terrible explosion. It shook everything. And he's going to look up in Merrick's eyes and then kind of slam his palm against this barrier. I had to show them nothing was going to keep me from hurting.

Nothing was going to keep me from her ever again. And his left hand is going to erupt into flame for just a moment. And then the severed head of this demon is going to materialize in it. He's going to sort of be gripping it by the top. And it is just coated in small insects and larva, things like that, just sort of dripping off of it. And then he is going to just disdainfully toss it to the side. I can't get through here. This magic is very respectable. Very respectable. And then a slow smile is going to creep across his face. But I can be a little more patient.

I just needed some help. Soon. And he's going to look down again. What help, Darmok? What help did you need? What I am now comes with so much power. So much power. But there are limitations. I feel clearer. I can see things that I couldn't before, like a fog is slowly lifting. But I can't reach out and touch the things I see. That's why I needed the scion. Everyone wants something. And he is going to focus at Merrick. You would be surprised what people would sign away for the thing they want the most. And then again, almost as if he's snapping out of whatever stupor he's in.

I should go. This is a waste of time. You'll deliver the message we talked about earlier. I trust you. Merrick will ignore that. He's not going to acknowledge Darmok's requests. But he will start to turn away, like he's going to just walk away. But very quickly, he'll turn back around and say, you'll never find her, Darmok. And he's going to smile. He's going to look dead in his eyes and smile, mustering whatever confidence, even if it's just on the surface, that he could possibly have. You'll never find her, Darmok. I'll make sure you never find her. And you'll never be free.

Darmok is going to slam both of his palms against this barrier. [GONG] You can't stand in my way, you insignificant speck. And when he does that, this barrier is going to flex. I will take your loved ones from you. I will take where you live from you. I will take your skin from you. And he is going to lean against this barrier and whisper. And then I'll take your soul and keep it for all of eternity, very, very soon. And he is going to burst into flames and then vanish. Can I talk now? Damn it. Wait, wait, wait. What the fuck? Wait, wait, wait. I had something I wanted to do, and I'm so sad he's gone.

Fuck. God, I want to-- It's Sion. Wait, stop. God damn it. He's gone. I don't know what he can do. I know, but fuck. Burst into flames. He got the last word. He won. No, I don't want him to get the last-- I wanted the last word. Oh my god. It's not this Sion. This Sion hasn't done shit. It only merits if it burst into flames and disappear. He tries. He's like, ah! You guys, I was going to lean in and kiss the barrier. He probably would have kissed you back and made it weird. And then I was going to tell him we'll meet you at the seal. Damn it. So when does-- Well, good thing that didn't happen because he might not know about the seal.

I mean, there's a very low chance, but still. Right. And he'd be like, what seal? Let me go research. And he'd be like, fuck! Damn it. We'll meet you at the seal at exactly this location on this date. Oh, I mean-- OK, either there's a new Sion or Bree or Dagon. And probably not Dagon because we see what he does unless he's done something away from the rest of the group. I don't think Bree would either. There's got to be a new Sion on the field here. You might not be thinking deep enough. Just putting it out there, the witch has never been all that trustworthy.

And if she thinks that she has Bree and Darmok has the witch-- That could be a thing. Like, they could be in cahoots. Cahoots! Good thing we gave them the fucking resurrection skull. Shut up. [LAUGHTER] That sounded so loving. No, you shut up. Fuck yourself. You hang up first. Dude. I'm still waiting for Kaluna to show up. Yeah, Kaluna should show up first, at least. Oh, I would imagine this-- if Merrick was booking it there, pretty much just like West Wing walking, just double stepping there. He was maul walking. Yes, OK. Maul walking there. I picture the little hip fucking arm movements on the feet.

Exactly. Just a little power walk, just because if you run, your armor will make noise, and we'll all hear you leave. One, two, three, four, five, six, one, two-- I would imagine the party would get there just-- I'd say-- This is a real sport. Like Frisbee golf. We call it ultimate. I have a name for it, too. I just don't repeat it in polite company. Then why aren't you saying it now? Yeah. [LAUGHTER] First half of this conversation, talking about the firmness of dildos, I think. Fair enough. I would say the party would be getting there just a few seconds after the end of this exchange.

Well, I think it would be just Kaluna, because Kaluna booked it. Yeah, so I imagine Kaluna would just come bolting in, and they would sort of skitter to a halt. More of a slide, really. You know, like whenever-- like you don't have quite enough traction, so you just go vroom, and sort of probably run into Marek, because they underestimated or overestimated the distance. And they're going to just scream at him, and Elvin, where the fuck did you go? Marek's going to be shaking off what just happened a little bit. He's-- you know, he was putting up a lot of-- I don't know if it's bravado, but he certainly was trying to steal himself, even in the face of such creepy power.

So he might not immediately like turn to Kaluna and immediately started interacting. He'll be like, uh, have to sort of shake it off, and just turn to them and say, he's gone, and the whistling has stopped. And then he's going to turn, and as he walks away, he's going to like back down towards where he came from, like back towards the rest of the group. And he's going to sort of reach for Kaluna's hand, like to pull them along. Kaluna's going to sort of-- whenever he says that, they're going to sort of stand kind of slack-jawed, and like they're shaking, because they were panicking.

And they're going to sort of glance over to where Darmok was, sort of-- they just now realized it. And they're going to look back at him, and they're just-- they're seething. Like, you know that you get angry and you're so scared. And they're going to open their mouth to say something, but when he grabs their hand, they're just going to squeeze it tight and follow along. Merrick has a very angry look on his face right now, by the way. That's all. I wanted the last word. Yeah. I wanted to give him a curse. [LAUGHTER] It's true, though. It is true. I'm never going to get over this.

You're the only person in the history of Theria who has ever wanted to do Darmok a kiss. Send your fanfictions to him. Oh, I just wanted to piss him off. I just wanted to show him that he didn't give a shit. Can you imagine doing anything with Darmok with those fingernails? Like, ew. Ew. You could not have a good time. It's like when you see lesbian porn with long fingernails. You're like, no. Don't. Don't lie to me like that. Don't lie to me like that. Don't lie to me. Continue with your meaningful conversations. Oh, no. Just tell us when you're done. [LAUGHTER] The thing is, like, one time I saw one lady bring out a stiletto, and I was like, are you serious?

Oh, my god. I've heard of that. OK, go. Go. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So that's it. I mean, that Merrick's just walking. He's just trying to get back to the rest of the party. Basically, as far as he's concerned, he left everybody in that room. And then he's just heading back to the room. And then he comes into somebody in the way that's fine. Poluna's going to make noise because they're still shaking, and their leaves are going to rattle. Rattle rattle. [LAUGHTER] Ordon, are you still going to keep looking for secret passages? Because you found cold stuff, right?

No, I'm working my way out toward-- out looking for the rest of the group. Cool. Santos is probably-- she was just looking for more ghosts, to be honest, at this point. She wants to know what the fuck happens. She saw what happened. And we can pretty much put it all together now, but she wants to see if there's anything else. So she's not really looking for Merrick or Poluna or Ordon. She's just kind of angrily pacing around, like, come on, ghost. What the fuck? Well, let me ask a question. Would this be a rally-up thing, like a, hey, team, let's pull it in?

Or is Merrick just heading back to that room? What would the situation be here? The room is sort of-- is it in sort of sight of the big tables that we would sort of concur? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. I think he would just sort of make his way back. And if he sees any of the rest of the party, I think he would just make his way back to the tables. If he didn't see anyone, he would go back into the room. So I'm assuming he would be like just-- Obviously, it's pretty much everyone except Santos right now, because Ordon was kind of making his way out of the room.

Poluna obviously was looking for you. So it's pretty much everyone but Santos. OK, so I mean, I think he would just make his way back to the table sort of as the congregation place. And probably just go to where the books that he slammed down, like all the books that Corey gave him. And he would, I think, probably take a moment to sort of calibrate himself after just staring down Darmok for a couple of minutes and realizing his power. And I'm just imagining that he would have both of his hands on the table and sort of like hunched over the books like he's just got his eyes closed, like just taking a big deep breath.

Poluna would probably just sort of lean over, say, you OK? He's very powerful, Poluna. They're going to roll their eyes? They knew that. He's more powerful than we've ever even given him credit for, I think. He's something else now. He's not Darmok. Darmok could be killed. We've got to keep the seal intact. I know that. Or it's going to be very, very, very bad. So we have to go now. Poluna will grab a armful of books and start walking toward the door. Not really, but they'll sort of have that air of like, oh, thank fuck, we get to leave. So at this point, is it-- I'm trying to figure out whether we should stick around in the library because it is at least safe.

Question mark. Safe and out of the elements and out of the weather. We could leave the library and basically set up camp, but I feel like we're probably in the safest place we can find for the moment. Are you saying this out loud or are you musing? I'm musing, but it depends on who's around. Is Orden there, like hanging out? Well, since I was leaving there looking for the group, if you and Poluna showed up, that would be where I-- Okay, cool. So let's make that be something that Merrick said out loud. So it's like, okay, he said the stuff that he said to Poluna, and Orden, he's not keeping it a secret from Orden, but he's specifically speaking to Poluna about Darmok.

But I think a little bit more directed to Orden and sort of everybody. We need rest, and then we need to get out of here. I think we need to go to Brighton. I think we need to get out of here. I think we need to go to Brightport unless anybody has other ideas. But I think we're out of the elements, and we're at least-- we at least know the place enough to know that we're safe for the moment. There are some beds over there. That's exactly what I was going to say is-- Dead people beds. Poluna's going to stiffen up. Poluna's definitely going to stiffen up when they mention the beds, like, oh, fuck that.

Poluna, you know how you're super uncomfortable when you sleep where they die? You know how you're uncomfortable with everything about this place? Let's stay here overnight. Fall asleep. Just relax. Put up your legs. Let's go. The problem we face outside is-- Death. Death. But you remember the dragon we saw as we were making our way here? We're out in the elements, and we also don't know what's out there. At least we know what's in here, roughly. We're just going to go in the line, just like, ahhhhh. Like, they know that it's a good argument, but they don't like it.

Ordinal glanced around and mentioned that he wouldn't mind a little more time to look around while we're here, so spending the night sounds like a really good idea. We've got time. It's not like we have to fall asleep now, but I-- I mean, it-- I feel like we should at least take another glance around and get some rest, and then make our way to Brightport in the morning. I second that. Anybody else? Wait, where the hell is Thanos? [laughter] Kaluna's going to ignore the question and just pout and look on the verge of tears. Aww. Merrick's going to look at Ordon.

Ordon, Thanos? She left before I did. Shit. Why'd we even hire a babysitter at this? I pay good money, ugh. You are not worth the $7.50 an hour you demanded. [laughter] You're a teenager. Why do you even need that much money? Um, where would Thanos be? Yeah. She would have probably literally just started wandering. Like, anywhere they hadn't been yet is where she would go, because they've seen everything they could see where they've been. Hmm. So this is pretty much just wandering down random bookshelves and things like that, just sort of almost intentionally getting lost.

Almost, yeah. How... would you be doing this quietly? Or just sort of... No! No, okay. I didn't think so. Do me a favor and roll a perception check for me. Hey, it didn't suck. Wait, that was the wrong... that was nature. Can I keep the 12 and just add my proper... or should I roll again? Well, you can keep the 12 or go what's for in the mystery box. [snorts] I didn't want the mystery box. [laughter] Damn it! You should have kept the 12. Can I still keep the 12? I was just showing you my +14, seeing no doubt in my perception. Oh, please! Sounds legit. Sounds legit.

I know you well enough to know that if you would have rolled higher, you would have kept that higher. No, I wouldn't have. I would have been legit. So, wandering around in the endless stacks of this library, there aren't going to be any more... there doesn't seem to be any more apparitions. Fucking miles of books. Miles and miles of books. And, you know, to Thanos it all just seems to be repeats on repeats on repeats. Like, "Yes, demons. Yep. Got it." That kind of thing. Nothing's really going to stand out. You are going to hear the team... you can just kind of hear it murmuring, echoing in the background.

You can hear that they've met back up and they're talking, but you can't really make any of it out. It's all too echoey and distant. So, it's up to you if you want to keep pressing on, or if you want to head back. She'll press on a little bit further, but just one more. Just one more of whatever she just did, and then she'll turn around and go back. Alright. Do me a favor. Roll one more Perception check. That sucked less. That was actually pretty good. That sucked a hell of a lot less. So, Thanos is going to continue to kind of, you know, worm her way through these shelves, and just... it's just old book after old book after old book.

And eventually, she's going to make her way to the back of this particular set of stacks. And just kind of perusing, these books appear to be a little different than the ones in the vicinity. And a lot of them appear to be a little more finely protected. Like, they're all hardcover books, but there appear to be latches on them, and they're in these leather-bound things. Specifically one that kind of has this gold etching on it, and it appears to be a little more gaudy than the rest of them. It kind of stands out. That's the only reason that Thanos would notice it.

It still is a thick layer of dust, like every fucking book in this place. But this one appears to... It's like in old 90s cartoons, like when you can tell which book that the characters must grab. Yes! It's like, "Oh, that one's animated." So, that one's not part of the board. So yeah, that's going to be... that's going to definitely kind of stick out to Thanos. Well, Thanos will immediately grab it and take a look. There are latches on the side of it, but they're pretty easily undone. It's not a puzzle to solve or anything. It's just to make sure the book doesn't fly open.

So I'm assuming you're opening it. Oh, hell yeah. Okay. And she died. I was going to say, like this thing... It's probably booby-trapped. No. Thanos is so dumb. She is going to die. This book appears to be a companion to another book. Almost like it's written in tandem, like at first glance. And Thanos is going to look back at the shelf from where it came from, and it doesn't appear as though its mate is there. But it goes into great detail about this temple of Vecna that apparently is somewhere on Kien. But the thing is... And let me... Okay. What other languages does Thanos speak?

Oh, it's not going to be helpful at all. One second. It's not a helpful language. It is deep speech. Oh yeah, no. So this is written in Elven. And like thick... Luna! Yeah, thick, thick dialect of Elven. But there are pictures. There are, you know, and you do recognize like words like Kien and Vecna and things like that in the temple. But that's all that Thanos is really going to make out other than the strange way in which it's written. Cool. All right. Deep speech is never going to be helpful for me, is it? Never. Oh, it will... If the demons come back specifically.

Oh yeah. They seem like the kind of people you want to have a long conversation with. Okay, so Thanos will keep that book and kind of like look at the rest. Just make sure that none of them are interesting. And then she'll go back to the rest of the group. So Thanos is coming back to the party. Thanos is going to hand Kaluna the book because she knows Kaluna speaks Elven and it's going to be like no big fucking deal. She's going to be like, "Here. Take it." Kaluna's going to take it and they're just going to sort of stare at it. They're still really dejected because they don't want to be here anymore.

And they're going to start crying. Not like that like really bad like, "Oh no! Oh God! Something horribly wrong is happening!" crying. But just like that broken, just like, "I'm so tired. I want to leave. I don't want to read books." Just like that broken crying and they're just going to stare at the book. Merrick, I guess, would still be right there. He would put his hand on Kaluna's shoulder and sort of put himself sort of in front of them. And try to, you know, I'm just imagining Kaluna is looking down. So he'd put his head down to try to get, you know, the gaze, right?

And just a little bit longer, okay? I know it's tough, but this is maybe the most important thing we've ever done. Could you take a look? Kaluna will rub at their eyes a little bit and then they'll crack it open with just a, just like, [sigh] "What do their wildin' eyes see in this book?" Well, Kaluna's going to be thumbing through this and, again, it's the same as that last book that Kaluna was really leafing through. It seems as though there's a series of these books that are written in really, really old elven. And it's kind of written in such a way that it really beats around the bush and it almost feels like you're missing portions of sentences or something like that.

But the basic gist of it is that there is a Temple of Vecna on Kian. And do me a favor, Kaluna, could you roll an intelligence check for me? Oh, I don't know why I always get nervous whenever you ask me to roll these, because my intelligence is not bad. Mm-mm. Now it is. Except in this instance where you need it. God fucking, I can see ghosts for days. [laughter] All the ghosts, guys. Well, apparently there's a Temple of Vecna on Kian. And this book gives instructions on where to find it. Not only that, but apparently there is some artifact there. And it's very vague about this, but it has something to do with the demons.

Something about the bane of demon existence. Something. And it is very vague about what is actually in this temple. But the directions on how to get there are pretty explicit. I'm just imagining this like a Shakespearean play. Like the way it's written, just like, "God, there's so much bullshit. Why don't you speak English? Why?" And again, it just, it feels like there's portions of sentences missing. It feels like it skips ahead or something like that. And when you're reading it, it's like, "Okay, wait." It feels like you're in the middle of another sentence.

It just, sentence structure-wise, it's very strange. Yeah, Galunal will just sort of furrow their brow as they're reading it. Just like, "Oh my God, why do you suck?" And they'll just sort of cut it down to, it tells us where to go. And it says there's something at the temple. The temple of Vecna. Galunal will nod. So, here's a question. I'm trying to piece together things that I know we've learned as a player. So, do we have a sense of where the seal is, or just that it's on the continent? There was actually a book that pretty much describes where the seal is.

It's one of the books that you have. Okay, just making sure that there's the location of the seal, not just that it existed, and here's what to do when you get there. Okay, so we know where the seal is. Do we have an indication of where the temple is? Well, now we do. Where the two are in relation to each other? Yeah, that's what I'm going for. So, Merrick's like, "Okay, where do we need to go, and where should we go, and are they close enough to make a difference?" Would you like me to paint a picture here for you? Love it. I love it when you paint pictures.

The seal itself is located smack dab in the exact center of Kian. The temple of Vecna that's being described here is to the far left, near some mountains. So, that is going to be a trek. So, all the way to the west of the continent, that is where you're going to find the temple of Vecna. The center of the continent, that's where you're going to find the seal. And sort of staggered around on the east and west are two locations where you could actually stop and get. But they're days apart from each other. You know, probably a week on foot. And good luck getting a horse to travel anywhere in Kian without freezing to death.

Merrick would want to take one more pass, just whatever it takes for him to take one more pass, in any place that he feels like he hasn't really looked, or that he wants to look at again, or whatever, just to see if there's anything that could possibly catch his eye. And then, after that, I think he's just going to give up for finding any other information. Is that reasonable? And he's going to suggest that everybody does the same, right? Like, before we go to sleep, let's split up, try to find anything that looks of any importance, and then let's get some rest and get out of here.

Cool, cool. Calluna will not split up after someone decided to run off when they weren't paying attention. Talk to demon rapists! Like, wow. No names, though. Right. Merrick's going to say, "Calluna, you're with me." Aww. Calluna's going to flip in two birds. One flies out of their hair. Everyone do me a favor and roll a Perception check. There it is! Ooh. 34. That's a 32, friends. Uh, friends, that is a 17. [laughter] Listen, you got good luck last time. I sound like the important book, yeah. I have not seen a double-digit number all evening. Aww. That's true. Oh my god, it's true.

You know where you're going to shine? You're going to shine when you guys get out in the world and you start fighting stuff. That's when Ordon's going to shine. Yeah, it's so true. You just cursed me to die in our first combat. I'm on your side, buddy! Merrick stabs Ordon. [laughter] If we kill him now, he can't die to monsters later. Well, this turned fast. [laughter] I'm with Darmok now. He's my day. Right. We must open the seal. Kissy face. Hey, if he promises me the gods, you know. Here's the thing, guys. You could spend weeks, months in this place, soaking up every little bit of information.

It's just really tough to parse out what book could have something important. Like, think about how long it takes to read a book. Now, multiply that by thousands. On top of that, you're basically just sort of looking at spines and covers, or books that might look a little more important than others, or decorated important, or they're in a section that looks important, something like that. You're looking for a needle in a haystack. Now, there could very well be a wealth of knowledge on any number of topics involving the gods, demons, artifacts, all kinds of stuff hidden within this library.

The problem is the people who could really, really enlighten you about any of this have long since passed. Looking around this library for a final time, there aren't going to be any more books, or sections of the library that really stand out. It's just stack after stack after stack of book after book after book. So, I pose this to you guys. You could spend... I mean, we could fast forward by days, if you want, of you researching in this library. Or you can go ahead and get some sleep and then head out in the morning, like you talked about. I say, let's just get some sleep.

We've got quite a bit. It's really just a last-ditch, probably futile effort to just see if there's anything that stands out, if there's any corner that they haven't been in, just whatever. Are there any really cool pictures? Oh, in some of the books? Oh, yeah. Specifically, the sections on tieflings. Oh, man, did they do some stuff to tieflings. No, no, no. Well, hold on. Now that you mention it, there are... So, back where that mural is, you remember that whole section was about tieflings, right? So, you guys are going to find out a lot about this place's history, because those are pretty high-perception rules.

You would actually find some... I mean, there are some sections on what they did to tieflings for a long time. They thought they were demons incarnate, that they were at least connected to demons or cursed by demons. As time went on, it's like, well, those are demons, obviously. And then as facts sort of ran out and painted a picture that, oh, well, they're not demons. Well, then they're in cahoots with demons. Look at them. And then more and more time went by, and it's like, oh, that looks like that's not true either. Well, there and there, cursed by demons.

And then the last shred of evidence ran out, and it's like, oh. So, for a very long time, we've made a tremendous mistake. They would capture demons, what they thought were demons, and just tieflings, just regular tieflings roaming the streets. They would capture them, bring them back here, and interrogate them in an effort to chronicle, you know, what the demons' plans were, get an order, get some sort of, paint a picture of what demon structure was culture, what, you know, what, they're this unseen threat, like what, and got nothing. I mean, every once in a while, you'd get someone who would tell them anything.

They'd get the torture to stop. So they would take that as, you know, facts. And then time would go on, and there'd be something to disprove that. So they have scrapbooks, essentially chronicling every horrible mistake they've made, murdering and slaughtering and mutilating and torturing tieflings for the better part of, you know, two or three centuries. So that's a thing. So Kaluma's not sleeping tonight. I'm trying to think of titles of some of these books, like My Bad by Brother Joshua. My Bad. Two thousand atrocious crimes committed in the year of...

And several volumes. Volume one. OK, so that's OK. So in our sort of last ditch effort, we find a little bit more history about how awful this was, right? This atrocity. It's not just that, but they, before this was like a really secret society. These guys were not quite, some of the members of this society, and it always looks like it's been the same number. The numbers, like people would be swapped out or something as people have died or whatever, but they were not exactly quiet about what they thought, which may very well be how a lot of the rumors in Theria spread about tieflings.

So it wasn't just these guys doing things to specific tieflings, but that may have an impact on how society looked at tieflings as a whole. Did this, did they have a name? Did this... I don't want to call them a cult, because that's not quite it, but just... Well that's the thing, they never, they didn't put importance on themselves like that. It's a very, they tried to look at themselves, the keepers is the closest thing, but they looked at it as like, no, the job is more important than whatever we call ourselves. All of their, you know, just them researching, like finding a partner or love, none of that's important.

The important thing is, you know, getting every bit of information we can about demons. Because a lot of them thoroughly believe they would walk Theria one day, and we need to be prepared for that threat and all that stuff. Well, guess what? Not entirely wronged. Yeah, so picture like a doomsdayer, like building a bomb shelter, it's like "You'll see one day!" And then the apocalypse could happen, and then, you know, they got a big "I told you so" coming. But they died centuries ago. So I'm here in sleep. Alright, nap time. Yeah, let's do it. One thing for you, Jason.

Were any of these books written in Dwarven? No, not in Dwarven. A lot of them are in common. Every once in a while you'll find an Elven one. There are mentions of Dwarves though, specifically after the events with the Tieflings. It would appear as though the entire organization, there was kind of an internal investigation launched. And it was like "Okay, we need to really go over how we do things, because that was not the scientific way of doing that." Kind of a meeting that was like "Okay, I think we all learned a lot." And then kind of like the new marching orders were given out.

After that, there was kind of a pact made with Dwarves. Apparently you can see with the architecture around here, you can see... And then finally, at the very least, the headkeeper had some sort of relationship with whoever was running the Dwarves at the time. Because that's who sealed them away, ultimately. Okay. So you guys are bedding down for the night? Yeah, are we taking turns sleeping? Just to make sure nothing gets us? Yeah, I mean I think at least one person should be sort of on watch. Cool. At a time. Galuna will not sleep well. I would imagine that everyone's gonna kind of have one eye open while they sleep.

This may not be the most climactic time to stop, but I think it's a good time for us to stop for the night. Is there one thing I could do first? Sure, go ahead. On Santa's turn to watch, she is gonna try to go through Merrick's bag. *gasp* What? Yeah. You know what? That's a good time for us to stop for the night. There we go! We're gonna open the next session with... Santa's being a little shit. ...with the street rat. I picture Aladdin and I don't know why. The diamond in the rough. I steal only what I really want. Wanna-na-na. Hey everyone, Eric here and on behalf of everyone in group three, thanks for listening.

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