Worth Saving

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With your help, we can end the homeless fantasy beast private situation in America. Thank you for your time. [♪] 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 Ian. Hi, I'm Ian Duncan, I play Kaldin Halek, a half-elf sorcerer. And James! Hey, it's James, I play Dagon the Ladron Sion. And Alex. Hey, I'm Alex, and I play Braelon, the half-lain bard. And Xavier! Hello, I'm Xavier, and I play Actaronis, the revenant cleric. And Susan. Hey, I'm Susan, I play Heirlove Grimnest, the tiefling invoker.

So guys, last time you wrapped up everything in the cave, you were chasing down some vampires, well, one vampire, that sort of eluded your grasp. You decided that it was a little too dangerous to keep skulking around those caves after activating a trap. You weren't exactly sure what else was in there, so you decided to cut your losses, head back toward town after exploring the living area of this cave, and it looked like you would stumble across where the vampires sort of lay their head down. You took some things like some old letters and things like that after searching the place, went back to town and let Father White and Alexandra know what had happened.

You had also brought back a body that looked like it belonged to a town member. And Alexandra told you about someone that they didn't get a chance to save. There were no bite marks on the body, so it looked like it had kind of been sort of laid to rest there. After that, you sort of chilled out for the rest of the day. You ended up drinking. Brelin specifically did some heavy drinking and didn't hold his liquor extremely well. You guys got to talking. Actaronis ended up splitting off from the rest of the party and flipped out a little bit on the second floor in the room.

And after you guys had a heart to heart, he ended up removing his armor. Shortly after that, you hear the alarm bells outside and the town is apparently under attack. There are vampires. What would you guys like to do right now? I would like to ask a question, Jason. Hit me. How fucked up am I right now? You were falling off of furniture the last time we spoke. You were... There's going to be a slight penalty. I was going to ask mechanically how that was going to work. You just explained to me. Yes. We're talking like a negative three to attack. Instant regret.

Okay. Yeah, it was only like ten minutes ago. Cauldin gave him some water. I don't want to put words in your mouth. I'm imagining Actaronis is putting his armor back on? I don't think I have time for that. Because it takes like five or ten minutes to put an armor back on. Yeah. So he would probably look around the room, grab some of the winter furs or coats that they brought. Just like put it on top of him so he hides most of it. Call his buddy if he can and then just put the now kind of bent helmet on. Just enough to hide his shame and then storm out. Didn't we just get the waist off?

Yeah, he still got his pants. Maybe we could do just the breastplate. Because that seems like the most vital area to get back on. Yeah, but like in the moment, like in the heat of the action. Oh yeah, still take a little bit of a look. Like if you're hearing like "vampire" it would be like, "alright, go go go, we need to get out and just grab." If I can't find like furs or a coat, I'd just grab sheets from the bed. Well imagine you still guys, you guys still have your winter gear and everything. Because it ain't getting any warmer where you're about to travel.

Yeah. I don't imagine you guys would have kind of shed all that. So like I imagine you have enough to wrap your face and head in like a big cloak and all that stuff. It would look a little peculiar in Aubrey because it's not that cold here, but it wouldn't be, I don't think they'd be caring about that right this second. No exactly, just going for a hateful eight look. [Laughter] Does Acta Rona still have the orb? He sure does. Oh yeah. Alright. I hope it doesn't need to reload, man. Who needs armor? Anywho, storm out. To the town square. I drunkenly follow.

I'll grab him by like the shoulder or something. Thank you. Yeah, Cauldin I'll help you sort of help him stabilize, get him out there. So rushing downstairs, everyone's going to leave this establishment. Everyone do me a favor, roll a perception check. Oh. Ian, we got the same thing and I rolled a four and you rolled a seventeen. I did really bad. These rolls make sense based on level of drunkness. Yeah, I mean because even mine without the minus three is already shit. With the minus three. Even worse. Oh good lord. Cauldin had been drinking too, was it heavily?

Uh no. I don't remember anyone drinking as heavily as Braelyn did. Yeah. Braelyn doesn't remember anyone drinking at all. Well we had done endurance rolls, I think we all did. Yeah, that's right. I don't remember it being, like penalty wise I don't remember anyone but Braelyn getting kind of hit by that. Okay. Acteron, Dagon, Cauldin, and Aralove leaving this establishment. One male is one female. There is a drow in front, the other two appear to be human. They will all have weapons drawn and Alexandra is already squaring off with them telling them to put their weapons down.

And most of the rest of the town appears to be just sort of running for cover. Because when those, when those, when those spells go off normally that's a sign of some sort of full scale attack or something like that. The last time that happened here people were getting picked off and, you know, drug away. So a lot of people are running inside, closing doors, locking them, that type of thing. Alright, so they're not actively, they're not fighting right now. No. They're kind of at a standoff. Yeah, I guess like rushing there. Not, not like charging them but really like running there as soon as I can basically.

But not like screaming "ahhh" and charging. What about the rest of you guys? Brelin would definitely be following Aetronis and his drunken stupor be like "yeah let's go!" And just like kind of puffing up his chest and trying to get away from I assume Airlove and Cauldron are grabbing his shoulders. So he's kind of trying, he's like squirming, he's like "let's do it! Let's go!" And he's like moving from side to side. His eyes are closed so he's not aware he's not walking anywhere he's just moving. Yeah, I picture Airlove and Cauldron are holding you in place like "nuh-uh." Yeah, Cauldron is trying to do, sort of like holding him back like he's more of a danger than he actually is.

Trying to like make it look like they don't want this halfling running at them rather than trying to keep him from following them. Oh it's for their benefit that you're not letting him go. Right, right. Brelin appreciates it a lot. The male drow that's in the lead appears to be the exact same one that slipped away from you guys before. He's going to be the first to raise his weapon outward and drop it. And the two vampires that are next to him are going to follow suit. And that drow is going to get down on his knees, followed by the other two, and put his hands behind his head.

Oh shit! That was unexpected. And he is staring straight ahead the entire time looking directly at the party. Alright, are we there yet? Oh yeah, you're right there. Okay cool. Alright. Oh boy. Okay so, yeah. I'll just rest on his clave. Like not ready to fight, just standing over them. I'm going to take a look at the party before I say anything. Just make sure everyone's seeing this. And just ask, what is going on here? Are they asking the answer to the vampires? The vampires. Well I guess the vampires and Alexandra. Alexandra's just going to say, "They just walked into town." And she's going to start looking around.

I don't see any others. This male drow, looking directly at Actaronis. We're done. We surrender. There's nothing left for us here. We're going to bid in sight. Oh good idea. I have an e. Nice. In classic air love fashion, she is going to... Oh god damn it. Nice. She is going to really listen intently to what this drow is saying. And there is a defeated quality in his voice. You can tell he's just choking on these words as he's saying it. And that leads you to believe that he is 100% telling the truth. They just give up. There's nothing left for them to do. I'm making the biggest pouty face.

Susan is not air love. She'll look to Actaronis and say, "I believe he's telling the truth." How many more of you are there? Out there? In the caves? He's going to look from air love back to Actaronis. Everything you see here is what remains. Why come here? Why didn't you run? We're tired of running. Do you know how many we've lost in the last three months? It was hoped by striking a deal with you people that we could... It doesn't matter. You got what you wanted. Do whatever it is you want to us, but end it. Can you live a life without ever taking another? Without feeding on people ever again?

That's what most of us had been doing. Most of us survived on wildlife. There were only a small percentage of us that fed on humans. I'll admit to betraying you. I'll admit to committing something terrible. But if truly you can spend the rest of your existence as you say you have been, then I have no quarrel with you. He's kind of clenching his jaw as he's saying that. You have no quarrel with us. You murdered our entire clan. This is all that remains. You've taken everything from us. Actaronis is going to stay motionless and look down. Brelin wants to try and squirm away from his friends who are holding him back.

He wants to rush to the front if possible to where Actaronis is. I don't know if I got a roll for that or not. Kaldum won't hold him back. I think Aeril of Grip would slacken as the vampire keeps talking. She's like, "Oh." You know, like shock and disgust with herself. Okay. Brelin's going to drunken master walk his way to the side of Actaronis and look at the vampire. I guess it says he's kneeling. We're practically the same height, right, Jason? Pretty much, yeah. So he's going to look at the vampire and in his drunken stupor he's going to say, "We took it from you." That's funny.

You bit those people. Those right there. I'm going to point to the ones behind him. They had lives before they were vampires. Am I wrong? He's going to hiccup. "If anything, we did you all a justice, gave you something you're all too afraid of or that you had taken from you. We gave your friends death, a gift you will never receive. Not willingly, anyways. So get the hell out of here. Before my buddy over here decides to unload one more time." And then he's going to walk, kind of backpedal a little bit and almost trip and then kind of catch himself and make himself play it off a little bit.

"Um, this trial's going to speak up. I've bitten no one. We took these people in. They had no home. They can't live in a town like this. We gave them refuge." Living in a cave doesn't sound like refuge to me. It sounds like living like an animal. He's going to look down. The other two are... They're avoiding eye contact a lot. "So after all of this, you won't even give us the satisfaction of killing us and ending this." Grelin's going to look at Actaronis, kind of... His head's kind of moving a little bit with the drunken stupor that's overcoming him. Look back at the vampires.

"It's your call, big guy." "No. No, it's theirs." And he's going to look at the trial. "Is this truly what you want? You've been hiding all your life. Is this what you're telling us now?" And he'll take a step closer. "I did what I did because I didn't quite know about what was going on. I was filled with a bloodlust for your kind. I still am, but now I know. I know more. If you're tired of hiding, isn't there a way you can show maniacs like myself that you're not just any beasts? Surely there's a way you can change the stigma." He's going to look at Alexandra.

"Were these vampires hiding because they were pursued all their life?" "Is it true what they're saying? Did you attack them first in the cave?" "I thought we told her that." "I mean, it's one thing to kind of like, 'We attacked them first.' The way the vampires are painting is like you completely slaughtered them." She's trying to make sure that it's like, 'Is that true?' before... Yeah, Alexandra's going to take a step just in front of Aralab. She's going to say, 'I have.' And Cullen's going to say from the bag, 'We did what we had to do to fell Doben.'" "We did what we had to do based upon prejudices, based upon snap judgments.

We slaughtered them based upon what we thought we knew. This guilt will eat me alive for what we did, and I deserve that. Alexandra, if you have any kindness in you, you should take these vampires in." "Is that what you want?" And Cauldron is going to look towards the vampires. "Is release from the sun death?" The drow's going to look back toward the other two vampires with him. "We have nowhere else to go. We have no family." Cauldron is going to reply, "I don't think any of us here can guarantee you family, but this town has many healers. If you wish this curse to be lifted from you, I'm sure we can arrange to have that happen." And he's going to look to Alexandra.

She's going to look at Cauldron like, "Why the fuck would you promise that? We don't have that." "Surely there's a way." That's right up there. "If you guys want dragon for dinner, I'm sure that this town can..." It's like, "Uh..." "I know of this guy in Esterhole. I'm sure he can help you out." "I could talk with Father White. I'm... Do you think they would have stuck to the pact if you didn't do what you did?" "No. And why would you want to let these vampires into your town? The same vampires you've been guarding your town from day in and day out?" "I'm not saying I want to let them in.

I'm just... If they came here willingly to surrender, then maybe there's something we could work out with them. We were already going to bargain with them." Actor Alice is going to look at the vampires, convince this town that you're better than what we thought of you, convince the world. "And what would you have us do? You've hunted us like animals, and then reprimand us for acting like animals." Brelan's going to speak up. "That's right!" So is that hype man? "Yeah." Alexandra's going to speak up. "Let us take you into custody. Let us put you away until we can talk this over.

And we'll try to offer you some kind of fair deal." And the drow is going to look back to the others. They're going to give a very brief kind of glance at each other and just nod. And the drow is going to stand up and kind of offer out his wrists to be cuffed. Alexandra's going to step forward. She does have a pair of shackles, but obviously not three. Can you watch the other two and help me take them to the cell? "Of course." He's going to ask the ones with the shackles, "Can you turn into mist like the others?" And he's going to... What I'm saying is, if you don't need those, we'll just...

Yeah, he's almost going to look at Hector and it's like, "You racist. We don't all do that." "I'm trying to learn." Right, exactly. He's kind of with an eye roll. No. "I can't do that." Insight. This could be a plan for them to get in there and then mist out and then kill the whole town. You're going to have to open your heart a little bit, I think. Go ahead. Give me an insight check. 35. Wow. "You're in love." "You've just been airloved." [Laughter] There's going to be a lot of snark in that response. Just very like, "Dude, really?" "Come on." That would lead Arelove to believe that's a...

No, probably not. Almost as if he were insulted you asked. I'm pretty sure Dagon looked to me because I'm usually the one that can get that and then I'll just shake my head, "No, Adam." Like, "No." "You can't do that." What qualifies a vampire to be able to turn into mist? Probably age and power, right? A long time ago I posted an article, essentially vampires sort of work with generations. There's a first generation vampire and if they bite someone they become a second generation vampire and on and on and on. It is very fucking old and any old vampire lord or someone who is a little closer to the older vampires, they end up getting a lot more power, a lot more influence, even up to and including mind control, that kind of thing.

A lot of the stock standard vampires you're going to see are like fifth, sixth, seventh generation vampires. They're basically just faster, stronger versions of people that happen to feed off of other people sometimes. The bad ones. Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes. Jason. Sometimes. Let's do a thing. Actor Onus. Yes sir. Oh Jesus Christ. Don't go, oh. Don't go, oh. Actor Onus is going to reach for his glaive and start to trudge forward toward this drow in a menacing fashion. Everyone in the party do me a favor, roll for exception. Can we stop him? That's what we're, that's what we're...

Ech. That's a 16 minus a 3. Okay. Erolove. Yep, Erolove and Dagon are going to notice this the second he goes to reach for the glaive. I'm going to stand out in front of him. Sort of block his path to the vampire. I was just going to say, I do that thing where I'm like, put your hand on someone's forearm and be like, what are you doing? That kind of look. Here's something that Dagon and Erolove are going to notice. That it appears as though Actor Onus, his movements are very, very jerky. Like he doesn't want to do this. Where is the orb? It would be on Actor Onus's person.

Can I use far hand to take it out of, like, is it in his hand or? I believe it's in his pack. Yeah, that would be correct. Target one object that weighs 20 pounds or less and isn't carried by another creature. Noooooo. Well, if it's in a... It's technically being carried. I think that is in there specifically to prevent someone from just stealing from another character. Okay, can I just rip his bag off his back? Uh, you... yes, go right ahead. Let's do... Maybe like... Give me an athletics check. And if it's 24 or higher, I'm going to say yes. Oh man. Because I would say that Actor Onus would try to stop that as a...

As some sort of measure to protect the orb. Okay, I pretty much have to roll a crit here. No. Do me a favor, Actor Onus, roll a saving throw. Just a flat saving throw. Okay, good. Yahoo. The second that Dagon goes to reach for the bag and Erolove is asking "What are you doing?" Actor Onus is going to stop dead in his tracks and sort of start to snap out of this. What would he do after that? Probably shake his head, realize that he's holding his glaive now. Probably surmise what just happened. And he's going to breathe out, relax his shoulders a bit and say "It's out of Dagon." Well, he seemed to be trusting these vampires a lot more now.

Well, okay, with a little hint of thanks for standing in my way. I have no trust for these vampires. I am, however, concerned about your actions. They are quite clearly not your own. Thanks to you, I regained control. Maybe for the time being, at least, we should escort the vampires to the cell and you should return to the inn. That's wise. Reylen's going to walk up to Actor Onus. Yeah, I got him. Let's go. You should take Reylen with you. He's going to pick up Reylen and head for the inn. I'm going to be shocked. Okay, and just give up. So the second that Actor Onus would have reached for his glaive, the vampire would have backed up.

And Alexander would sort of step in front and just kind of like... The scene was under control really quickly, but it's kind of like, "Is your friend okay?" That kind of like, "What are you doing?" And then after that plays out, she would whisper over to Dagon, just kind of like move, still keeping the vampires in full view, "Is your friend all right?" He's not himself. Was Alexander there when he took the orb? Yeah. Yeah, okay. I think the orb is perhaps a little too dominating on him. You do know what the orb does, do you not? I've read about it. If that's true, then you need to get that away from him.

Because that's only going to get worse. I understand that he doesn't have any love for the vampires, and I... Trust me, I more than sympathize with that. But I promise them a fair trial at the very least, and I at least need to talk this over with Father White before we move forward. Of course. And trust me, I'll be getting that orb out of his hands. All right, let's deal with the vampires and get them to a cell. Who would be going with... Alexander here? Me. Okay. Are we all taking them to the thing? Yeah, it's just escorting these. Just making sure that they don't try to assault anyone or try anything funny, essentially.

Oh, okay. Can we discuss this really quickly? As a real-life team, human beings, not characters? Oh, okay. I was going to say, because you get on after Ona's shoulder. You guys realize I should not be the only one going with the holy warrior over here? Yeah, yeah. I'm in no condition to do anything. I still think that it should be one per vampire, so Alexandra means someone else. Cauldron will go. Okay. In that case, they're going to follow actor Ona's. And that makes sense, because you're the closest with actor Ona's. Alright, so Dagon is going to go with actor Ona's and Brelin, and the rest of the team is going to escort Alexandra and take these vampires into custody officially.

So, these vampires are going to go very willingly. They're not trying to resist, they're not trying to fight back in any way. They've pretty much all but accepted their fate. They were willing to die just a few moments ago, so them being taken into custody isn't a huge difference. And after the cell door kind of shuts, because they don't have a very large holding area or anything like that. Mostly it's just for, you know, in case someone gets, some rowdy drunk happens through or something like that. They don't have a big military force. They don't really even have guards beyond Alexandra anymore.

So, they essentially only have a couple of cells, almost more of a sheriff's office situation. So, they're going to lock the three of them in this cell, leaving the other one vacant. And it's sizable enough that they can all be in there without it, you know, being too cramped or crowded. And they're going to go have a seat as soon as they're locked in, because they kind of, they're figuring they're there for the duration. And the second they're locked away, Alexandria is going to sort of motion for you to kind of get away from the cell and talk to her.

Step back with her. Me too. If it's true what they're saying, and that's the last of their forces in those caves, then we have a chance to do something here that I never thought I'd see in my lifetime, to be honest. We could end this. The town would no longer be under attack. It would be over. It's true. You could release them from the curse of their vampirism by ending their existence. However, I don't know if we really know if these are all the vampires that have been attacking this town. And are we certain that these three vampires attacked the town before?

She's going to shake her head, no. And actually, I was thinking of suggesting to Father White that we offer them a place to live. Here in your town? Here in Aubrey. Some of these people used to be... a few that we've killed used to be residents. They're not mindless. If we could show that we could work with them, then if there were more out there, maybe we could just get ahead of this. We've been fighting them since I was too young to remember. And before that, we're not getting anywhere. You mean to end this not by ending their lives, but by ending the conflict between you.

Am I correct? That's what I'm suggesting. Do you recognize any of the vampires here that we're holding tonight? No. Might they have any family or relatives here in this town? I was going to talk to them about it. I hate to say it, but it's entirely possible. If not here, they may know someone nearby. If what he was saying is true, and they actually offered asylum to vampires that were turned elsewhere, they could be coming from miles away. Caves have been infested for decades. But if I suggest this and they turn on us, it could be an absolute disaster. Sheldon is going to look to Erolove and then look to Alexandria and say, "Either way, I don't think it's a decision we make tonight.

But if that's something that you think should be brought up, if that's the resolution that you think is best, perhaps we propose that in the morning." And should you decide to take them in? There are more people in this town than there are vampires. I know you're the only one trained to fight them. Perhaps more training could be given. So should they turn on you, which I don't believe they will, but should they turn on you, you'll be capable of fighting back. That was the original deal, if I am not mistaken. We would fight with them alongside to defeat Adobe, and in exchange, this town would help feed them in a way that is not harmful, and they would offer protection.

If that deal is still on the table, then maybe that's the way that they can contribute. I don't know if the original deal is still on the table, given what happened, but if we can give them some place to live that isn't a cave, being as how there's only three of them, we may be able to work in some sort of trial basis. Again, I can't make this decision. It would be up to Father White, but I'll talk to him about it. I appreciate you being honest. And Cullen's gonna give just a little head nod to her. I don't think there's gonna be any more excitement tonight.

I can keep an eye on things here. If you don't need any help, then should we go and see how Actaronis is doing? Check in on your friend. He might need your help. I believe that would be best. And she's gonna just sort of pat Heirlove's shoulder as you're walking away, like, "Thank you very much." She would turn and go take a seat in this building. Heirlove would nod back to her as she does the shoulder pat. Let's catch up with Actaronis, Dagon, and Braelyn. What would be going on with you guys? I would say by now you'd get back to the inn, and what would be the next step here?

Actaronis would probably just head for his room and place a bed back the right way and put Braelyn on it, and then start cleaning up his mess. Dagon will follow him and grab a cloth or something like that and drape it over his hands and show it to Actaronis and say, "Okay, put it here." You mean the orb, right? Of course I mean the orb. It's under control. It's difficult. It's not perfect yet, but I'm... You were worse and worse, and you were clearly not yourself back there. I think it's time we give it back. I was not myself right this instant with the vampires, but back in the cave, I was being more than myself.

I was in full control of what I was doing. I believe you. I don't doubt that for a second, but if there's even a chance that something like this is going to happen, don't you think we just shouldn't go there? I won't deny that this orb has great power, and I'm sure it could help us. It only wants to destroy the undead. It'll never bring harm to you. But at what cost to yourself? Is this really where you want to go? Dagon, this orb... it may very well be the key to remembering who I really am. Remembering what happened in the last moments of Onakal. I can't just let it go.

Not now. I'm so close. If you want to remember Onakal, then we will go to Onakal. I don't think you need the orb for that. And I don't think it's healthy for you. Dagon, everyone I know is dead now. But if I can remember, then I'll be able to see their faces. They'll still be alive. If I can just... remember. I understand. Believe me. More than anyone, I understand. But this isn't the way to do it. Give me one more chance. I'll step away from the town for as long as the armors are being made. Then we'll leave. If we ever encounter any type of undead in the future, we won't have this dilemma.

If we encounter ghouls again, it won't be an issue. I realize our errors from today. Because I didn't know these people. But if I just step away for a moment, I won't interfere. It's not... It's not eliminating the undead that I'm worried about. You understand? It's you. It's you losing yourself to this orb. That's what concerns me. He's going to take his helmet off again. And he's going to say, "I've already lost myself once. I won't permit it to happen again. Give me one more chance." Okay. I trust you. But if this happens again, please promise me that you'll give it up.

I will do my best, but I don't think it'll let you. Let's see when we get there. Let's cross that bridge when it's necessary. Is that a threat from the orb? No. Do me a favor. Both of you roll a perception check. Is Braley passed out? Yeah, he's been saying in the chat, "Wink me, wink me." I thought I was asleep. That's why I thought he put me in the bed. I was like, "I'm definitely asleep." Okay. I didn't know if it was like, "Oh, little guy's tuckered out." I didn't know if that was a thing. I'm going to take twofold because I know there's a lot of tension with those two, so I don't want to get involved.

And secondly, it just makes sense because I've drank a lot. Okay. As you're wrapping up this conversation, you are both going to notice that Actaeronus' pack is going to begin to glow. It's not good for his case. I'm going to take that pack. After I return to my home planet. And there's going to be kind of a low hum. It's going to start almost inaudibly. And then as the conversation sort of winds to a close, it's just going to be this low, kind of like, drumming hum. And that glow is going to be kind of hard to miss by the end of the conversation. I would say that by this point, Kaladin and Erolove would be back.

They'd probably be walking into the room just as that's happening. Is this thing's about to take off? Kaladin's going to walk in and look to Actaeronus and then look immediately to Dagon and say, "Is everything all right in here?" I think so. He's going to look at the orb. Let's let it do this for a little while. Can we glean whether this is a reaction directly from the conversation? Like, does the orb hate me? It's really tough to tell motivation, but it started right around the time Actaeronus was pouring his heart about it. Just like, "Oh, this could help me get memories back or discover." It started right about that time.

Let's try to entice you. Can I throw a blanket over it? Well, it's in his pack. It's not exposed or anything like that, but it would definitely be easy to see the glow coming out of the pack. It's like someone left a flashlight on, but way more bright. Well, are you going to pick up your new friend? He's going to hand you over his glaive and the scar blade in its sheath. He's like, "If you trust me enough to go get it, I trust you won't let me near those." He'll nod. Both that he trusts and that, "Go ahead and do what you gotta do." He looks around and he'll nod and he'll go reach for the orb.

You're going to grab this with your hands just to clarify? Yes. The second Actaronis takes this orb in his hands, a familiar sight is going to strike the group as Actaronis' body is going to go completely rigid. The orb is going to glow and there is going to be light shooting from Actaronis' eyes again. It's almost as if his spine is being flexed. He looks like he is in a tremendous amount of pain, just like before. To Actaronis this is going to be a split second, but he is no longer standing in this inn with the party. He is backing on a call and the city is going to be instantly familiar to him.

He is going to feel the cool night air on his skin and he is going to see two very familiar compatriots. It looks as though they are patrolling, something like that. They are walking the streets on a call. It's night. There are not too many people around. He is going to notice that his two friends are coughing pretty uncontrollably. Again, it's kind of a dream state. Time is kind of passing strangely. Actaronis is going to realize that he is also coughing, trying to comfort his friends, trying to get them to just breathe, but it's this painful chest rattling cough.

The only thing he is going to be able to taste in his mouth is this bitter iron taste. He is going to gasp for air and be able to just get enough oxygen in him to stay conscious, but constantly just this deep rattling cough. As his two friends start to go down he is going to try to support one of them, but he is also going to go down. He is going to let loose a few more really deep, nasty, liquidy coughs and then everything is going to fade to black. He is going to snap out of it and come back in this inn. To the rest of the party, about eight and a half minutes have gone by.

I think Araniv would turn to Dagon frantically and say, "What were you speaking about before? What led to this?" I asked Actaronis to give me the orb, to take it back and give it up, but he's convinced me otherwise. He's asked for another chance and he spoke of one a call. Stacey, would Actaronis screaming have woken me up? Was that a lot of noise? Was it even screaming I should say? It's not screaming, it's just pretty much just every... he just clenches up. He's flexing every muscle in his body. Okay, so it wouldn't have made that much noise. There's a lot of light though.

Is there anything we can do for him? I guess the equivalent of putting a wallet in his mouth? Don't put my tongue on my cheek. After they have this conversation, can Cauldron turn to Dagon and say, "Can you help me with him?" and sort of lay him down? Or is he unapproachable? Well, he's not going to move from his spot, but the second this stops... Have you ever done the thing where you clench your muscle for a really long time or something like that? He would pretty much fall down. I mean, that would be... he would be spent. Someone would need to either catch him or pick him up or something.

Well, before that, sorry. I just wanted... After Dagon said that he wanted to find more visions of Onakol, Erelove's still frantic and little like... Because she's worried about him, she's going to be like, "Doesn't this prove that it has intelligence? That this orb is manipulating him? He speaks of wanting visions of Onakol and then offers them up. This orb is clearly dangerous." I know it is. I know it is. And I've tried to ask him to give it up, but he's not having it. He thinks it's going to help him remember the past and... I know it's... He asks for visions of the past and it delivers them.

One second it's taking over his body, the next second it's offering up what he wants. Don't you see how this is going to lead to this orb completely taking him over? It offers him the thing he desires and then it takes him over. I know, I know. But this is what he wants and who are we to deny him that? All we can do is be there when we realize that it is taking over and stop it. If you can convince him otherwise, please go for it. But he's not listening to me. I'm just concerned. And then I guess that's when we would be done. So, Actonus would snap out of this and again it would be a thing where all of his muscles go slack at once and the light would stop just seconds before that so it would be a pretty clear indication to everybody.

It's like, "Okay, he's done." This happened once before in the field so you kind of know what to expect. Is he still standing? Unless you have something more specific. As his muscles relax, he just falls on his knees and catches himself with his hands. He's just going to pound the ground with a fist in the hand that's not holding the orb. He's just going to say, "I couldn't save them." Of course not. And he's going to stand up and tuck the orb away. He looks around at everybody. Was I out for a long time again? Long enough. Does it hurt? Is it really worth it?

Does it hurt, Jason? It's not pleasant, no. Why is that what he's going to say then? It's not pleasant, but it is worth it, yes. I feel like I'm getting closer. Jason? Does Dagon know what Theramark did? I don't want to call. Hmm. Let's think back here. I don't know if anyone ever told me. I can't think of a conversation. Group 2 wasn't super sharey back in the day. I was there when we went back to eradicate the city, but I don't know why. And old Dagon wasn't too about asking questions. Nope. You know what? Roll a saving throw. Okay. If it was higher, they would have talked about it at some point.

Nope. Damn. Well, that's his fitting, though. I would say Brailin woke up when Actaronis pounded the ground. I think that's a loud enough noise for him to wake up. But he's not going to shoot up. He's just going to lift his head up and open one eye as much as he can and then put his head back down. The thing Theramark did, that is what Actaronis went through. Or do we know? Yeah, it is. Okay. I wish I had some insight for him, but I don't. It's okay. I didn't describe what happened. And anyone who did, he's dead now. So, I'm so sorry. I guess Cullen could ask Actaronis, what does it show you?

So far it's shown me the night of the tournament back in Onakal. If I could just remember what date it was on, it could help us trace back the memory. But it's shown me what I was doing on that night patrolling the streets. Then it feels like we got sick. I remember we started coughing at some point. It increased rapidly. It became worse and worse. And I tried to get them back at the estate, but we couldn't get there in time. And I collapsed as well. All I can remember is the taste and smell of blood and ash. Iron in my mouth. I need more. Is this a memory or a glimpse of the future?

It feels like a memory. I know I've been there. I'm sure of it. The faces of Amulus and Sahar, my cousin and niece, they're clear as if I've never forgotten them before. Actaronis, doesn't it seem convenient that one moment you're speaking of wanting visions of Onakal, then the next the orb offers them up? Doesn't this seem like clear manipulation to you? No. To me it seems it wants to prove me that it can bring back those memories. After taking control of your body? After having my friends try to take it away from me. I think it wants to convince me not to let it go.

And I see your point, but trust me, these images are so vivid. They have to be true. I'm not questioning if they're true. It just seems like this orb is offering what you desire in order for you to keep it so it can do what it desires. By controlling you. If it helps me, I'm willing to help it out. But I won't let it control me and take over. All it takes is one misfortune and you cannot take it back. If it controls you and does what it wills and you cannot stop it, what then? What if it does attack one of us? What if it attacks an ally? Then he's going to take a step closer to our love.

Then you must do what, as an invoker of the Raven Queen, you must do. Protect your friends from me and get rid of this one undead corpse in front of you. I trust you will do that. But you aren't just an undead corpse. You're my friend. Wouldn't you want to prevent me from killing a friend by releasing this orb now? Our love, I can't. If I'm lost to the orb, then I'm your friend no longer. But I need this. I just don't want misfortune to befall you. This comes from a place of friendship, know that, actor Onus. But I don't believe you should keep this orb. Regardless of what visions it offers up.

I will, eventually. I told Dagon I would return it to the church. I will at some point, it belongs to them. But I won't do it just right now. I'm sorry, but my mind is set. If your mind is set, then there's nothing I could do. But please, keep in mind my concern and all of our concerns for you. If it puts you in danger, I will stop. It might be too late then. You're right. There's nothing you can do to change my mind, I'm afraid. Then I will keep a watch on you, as I know you would do for me. And he's gonna nod. Actor Onus, the tournament you mentioned. As I sit here thinking, I believe I can give you a rough timeline on when that occurred.

I'm listening. Our former party members, long before you were here, they were part of that tournament. In fact, Valus was part of that tournament as well. Valus, yes, the groom. The butcher of Brightport. I remember him. You do. And I remember you asking me if you knew who he was. I remembered him after I asked. A few days later, it unlocked a few other memories, which is why the memories from the orbs seem correct. Before coming in contact with the orb, I managed to remember a few things. I know I was a huge fan of the butcher of Brightport. He was an amazing fighter.

I've seen a lot of his matches. But I don't think he knew me at that time. Yes, at that time. From what I've heard, I put that tournament a couple months ago. Does that seem right to you? It must have been only a week or so or two before I met you then. I don't know what you had in mind as far as when this all happened, but I hope that gives you some perspective. I don't know. If we all fell to a sickness, then there's nothing really we could have done. But also being not really that long ago, I'm sure there's something there. I'm sure there's something you could find to answer more questions for you.

And again, I'm just going to say, I don't think you need the orb to do that. But I'll just leave it at that. Then let's make a deal. Because time is of the essence. Let's accomplish the task at hand. And then when we can get to Onakol, and I don't need the orb to remember, then I'll get rid of it. Are demons undead? They're not, are they? I bet they use undead. I don't think you'd have access to that information. Let's go to the library! Damn. There is a little girl here who's a repository of everything. Of all knowledge. What was her name? The one who dropped the book.

And I Spider-Man caught it. You did. Kaldun's going to say, speaking of deals, Alexandria has safely put away the vampires. However, she has proposed that she would like to possibly bring them into the fold of Aubrey. Is she crazy? No, I didn't say that. But Dagon would just be like, "What?" Um... They don't... Sorry, go ahead. Why would she even consider this? I think because she longs to put an end to the conflict between them. And not in the way that they had come into town proposing to have their lives be ended, but to have them brought back. To have them be a part of the community.

There are so few of them. And they might have relatives here in town, and if not, have relatives nearby. She sees it as a potential way to stop the violence that has been happening here for years. You know, at this point, I don't even want to get involved anymore. If that's what she wants to do, then that's fine. But I think we have a world to save. And I think we should get some sleep, and I think we should move on as quickly as we can. Maybe the service that we've rendered this town could somehow expedite Artemis' services for us. That way we could be done with this place.

I agree. Let's pay him a visit tomorrow, and let's get some well-deserved rest. And I'll split Brailin back in his own bed. Whose bed is he in? I'm in Hector Rose's bed. So you guys are getting some sleep? Yes. I want to know if everyone goes to sleep, can Brailin wake up in the middle of the night? Because he was listening to the conversation. I guess, yeah. Why? I want to sneak into the room and get the orb, but I don't think it's safe in his hands. Ooh. I like you. So let's do a thing. Let's say middle of the night. Somewhere in there. This is before dawn. Group's getting some rest.

Brailin is going to wake up. Now, the objective, if I'm to understand, is to try to sneak over to actor Onus' pack and get the orb. Correct. Okay. I'm assuming actor Onus wouldn't be sleeping with the orb clutched in his hands or something like that. No. I hope not. Damn, that's even more reason to steal it. Not yet. Later. Later episodes. Okay. So I think it's time for a little skill check challenge. How's that sound? Woo! These are my least favorite. Yay! What I'm looking for here is three successes before three failures. So what I'm going to have you do is I'm going to have you roll a stealth check just to kick things off.

Let's see how quiet you're going to creep over to this pack. So before I start, you can probably already see what I'm doing. Do I have my full eight hours or no? Or four, is it six hours? I would say you'd have enough to get an extended rest. Nice. You're coming back. Brailin, if you become the orb's new champion, I'm going to be so pissed. That's not the historical goals to get away from all of us. So before he wakes up, or when he's getting up, I want to use Gwyn's The Future. Because this is technically a non-combat encounter, right? Yes. Yep. I'm going to use it as the first one.

That's awful. Oh no. Come on. That's nice. A little better. Keep going. Okay. Give me the twelve. Give me the twelve. Two, twelve, and one. Everyone at home. Yeah, Brailin sees the different outcomes and all but one, actor Onus wakes up and gets really mad at him. They're all bad. Every future, every different outcome, he's like, "Oh, this is not going to end well." But he still goes for it. So, stealth check, right? Stealth check, yes. Alright, here we go. Jesus. Well, right away. You're still drunk. Time out. I think I have something for when I roll a one, being a halfling.

I think that's when... I think it's in combat? If something targets you, I think you get second chance. Yeah, I think if someone hits you or... I think there might be another thing with one. No, I'm thinking a fifth edition. No, you're right. Oh, no. Oh, shit. Alright, I'm going to use the twelve. Okay. Great start. [laughs] Bralin is going to start to sneak across the floor here. And there's some creaky old floorboards that sort of... they make noise. And you don't notice it so much until you are trying to avoid detection. Normally, it's just kind of one of those things like, "Eh, floorboards correct." But you don't really think about it.

Moving across this floor, though, it becomes very noticeable. Holy shit, every board in this entire... this place is just being held together with glue, I think. And Bralin is going to start to move across this floor and instantly hit... Hit a particular floorboard that's like, "Errrr." And I would imagine Bralin is going to stop dead. Yep. We're going to count that as one failure. Oh, even with the twelve. [laughs] Okay, what's the next one for me, sir? Give me one more stealth check. Oh, god in heaven. Yes. Perhaps learning from his mistakes. Bralin is going to go just a bit slower, but his footfalls are going to be much lighter.

And he is going to make it all the way across this floor to Actoronus' bed. We're going to count that as a success. One and one so far. This is very nerve-wracking. Do me a favor. Give me a perception check. This doesn't count for the thing. I just want to... Oh, okay. Oh, man, of course, perception. That's not the worst I've done. No. After glancing around, you're going to see Actoronus' pack. Sitting at the foot of his bed. This is sort of where a military storage box, like a footlocker, would be. Okay. Now, do me a favor. Give me a thievery check. To see if you can open this bag without rustling stuff around.

No! [laughs] Just throwing shit out of the bag. I'm still a little drunk, guys. Still a little drunk. Braylon's going to motion over to this bag and perhaps, just figuring that the flap is just loose and not affixed to anything, he's just going to aggressively grab the top of the flap and just jerk it up. But instead, the entire... it's sort of tied. So the entire bag is just going to go boom-blop-blop and just sort of like he's going to pick the bag up aggressively and shake it by mistake. And that's going to be two failures. Oh, boy. Don't like daddy.

That's what I was picturing. Stupid game. And actor Onus is just kind of going... I'm just kind of like... still sleeping, but you almost did it there. Do me a favor. Give me another thievery check. Oh! Oh, yes! Are we... are you... no, let's pause. I need to pause real quick. Dragon Age, pause. Let me check all my players real quick. [laughs] In your skill check challenge, Mr. Massey, do you count successes as two successes as in the rulebook, or is this homebrewed Jason Massey? This is homebrewed. A success is just a success. Oh, damn it. Okay. How many successes and how many failures can he have?

Three and three, so he's two and three right now. I'm tired. I'm dead even right now. So it all comes down to this next one. Oh, god damn it. Come on, Braylin. You can do it. [laughs] He's not encouraging you. That's a lie. [laughs] Oh, man. Why don't you sing a song to make yourself better? It doesn't work like that sometimes. Well, I don't have anything that helps me quite. It doesn't work like that sometimes. It's all my stuff is like helping everybody else with talking to people. And then there's nothing about making anyone extra sneaky. Nothing like that.

If you don't want to get caught, I can teleport you to me in like another room. You're all in on this? I just imagine everyone's watching him except Dr. Onus. Just quietly. Here we go. Braylin is going to deftly unloop the tie that fastens Dr. Onus' bag together and lift the flap dead silently. I mean, like an expert thief. And the orb is going to be sitting right there. Right on top. And it's going to give off this faint glow the second the flap is opened. Would you like to grab the orb? Here's the thing. Alex, the player knows, "Hey man, don't fucking touch that." Braylin, the halfling, has no idea.

He hasn't really been paying attention. All he knows is that he thinks it has a connection to Dr. Onus. Plus, he was listening to when it said, when Airload was yelling at Dr. Onus, "It's going to show him his desires and dah dah dah." And he kind of actually wants to see if that's true. So he's going to grab it with his bare hands. Alrighty. The second that Braylin touches this orb, there's going to be this blinding flash. And Braylin is going to stumble for just a second. And sort of, just kind of bump the edge of Dr. Onus' bed. Now, Dr. Onus' weapon is going to be laying against the edge of the bed here.

And it's going to cause his weapon to tip over. And start to fall to the ground. Braylin, do me a favor. Roll an Acrobatics check. Finally! Hold on a second. On a 20 or higher, you're going to pass. 19 or lower, you're going to fail. It all comes down to this. If you pass, you are going to leap for this and catch it and make no sound. If you fail, it's going to clatter to the ground and wake Dr. Onus up. I'll wake up the whole damn animal. Well yeah, probably. So go right ahead. Roll an Acrobatics check for me. A moment like this! Hats off. You never get to pass these!

Acrobatics, I have it okay, but whenever it counts for Acrobatics, like Craig, I almost die. So temporarily, it's going to startle Braylin. And he's going to bump Dr. Onus' bed just a touch. And his weapon is going to start to fall over and Braylin is going to see this and sort of leap forward for it. And catch it behind the back and land on one foot and just stand there for just a second like, "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit." Just waiting to see if anything happens. Acton is not going to wake up and Braylin is going to have possession to this orb now.

You have passed the skill check challenge, sir. Oh, I hate those. That's some Jack and Chan drunken master shit right there. I guess I would want to leave the inn with the orb and head for Father...wasn't Father White? I'd want to go to wherever...either he sleeps at the church or whatever house he lives in. So you're just flat out leaving the inn and going right in the middle of the night. Yes, I do not want this thing in our group anymore. Oh my, okay. Wow. Congratulations, Braylin. I will have your fine skill challenge. Exetior is still my friend. Yeah. Yeah, we are.

Oh no. No, that's cool. Keep going. I like this. Oh wow, okay. So Braylin's going to get to the door of the church here and obviously it's never really locked or anything. It's a church. Is Braylin just walking in just like, "Hot potato, get...just kind of..." Well, I assume I put it in my pack because I don't want to carry that thing outside like, "Hey, look what I got." So he's going to put it in his pack and he's going to walk through the church and if it's open all hours, of course he's going to go inside. But not rush inside. Normally open the door, close it behind him.

Walk very slowly too because his head kind of hurts from being broke still. And he's going to go to the nearest acolyte or priest and ask for Father White. Well, okay. Here's the interesting thing. Everyone appears to be...this place appears to be pretty much deserted except for Clarissa, the young lady who ran up to you with the book the other day. Yeah, Mary Jane. Got it. And she's going to see you walk in and kind of light up. It looked like she was pretty tired. She was just sort of heading to book the entire time watching you walk in and then just recognizing you like, "Oh, just kind of perk up." Is there something we can do?

Yeah. I was wondering if Father White's around. I got to talk to him about some pretty important adventure stuff. Well, Alexandra came in pretty early. They're in a meeting right now. Is it something really urgent? I could go get them? Oh! I'm just going to kind of glance to my pack. Yeah, it's actually like I would say priority one if we're assigning priorities here. Oh, yeah. No. Okay. And she's going to kind of get flustered like, "Oh, I'm wasting your time. I'm so sorry." Okay. I'll go get them right away. Right away. Just stay right here? Okay. No problem. So she's going to disappear and a few minutes are going to go by.

And this place is pretty, pretty silent. And after a few minutes, Father White is going to round a corner here. And do me a favor. Roll a Perception check. These never end well. Only got one good one. See? I told you. Oh, just pick it. You've got all the good rolls you're going to get for the night. For the rest of the game probably. Or for the next two games. Well, Father White's going to look absolutely exhausted, but Braylon's not going to notice that. No. And almost halfway yawning. Can I help you, Braylon? Well, Father White, yes you can. He's going to kind of bend down a little.

He doesn't have to bend up, but he's going to take his pack off. And get a cloth this time. Because it didn't do what he wanted it to do the first time. So he's going to get a cloth and wrap it around the orb and grab it and then flip it open so he sees what he's giving him. And then close, like cover it back up again. And hand it off and say, "I'm here to return the loner weapon you gave us." And he's going to realize what you're doing. Are you quite sure about this? Oh, am I quite sure? Let me tell you this, Father. This thing nearly made my friends fight each other over something that could have possibly or could not have possibly happened.

I don't want it to push them any further. We have other stuff we have to do. I would beg to say bigger things than getting involved in some genocidal blood war with vampires. Which, by the way, I'm completely okay with us doing. We're discussing the matter now. That's good. That's good. Regardless, I need to give this thing back. For future reference, I don't think anyone else besides Actor Onus could even have the gusto to carry this thing. Seeing what it was going to do to him and eventually drive him to, I feel like there's not a single other soul on this planet that could probably wield it.

Alex mentioned something about your friend. Is he alright? Well, considering I stole it from right under his nose, yeah, he's alright. Sleeping peacefully. You see, he wasn't going to give this thing back willingly. And I just wanted to let you know that because he's the type of person who would ever do that. I mean, I've only known him for a couple of weeks, maybe a month at the most, but I know what's in his heart. And this thing was definitely corroding it. You believe the artifact had a hold on your friend? It started to get one, yeah. He almost, well, from what I can remember, most of my evening, I don't know if you noticed, but I was celebrating with the rest of the team.

And from what I could see through my blurred vision, it looked like he was about to step in front of one of the captive vampires and end him right there without a second thought. He's going to reach out and, still keeping this thing wrapped, just like, "Okay, well I'm not touching it." Like, just kind of a, you know, "Then we'll be sure to put it away." Yes, that is probably the best idea. You mentioned something about a meeting. What's going on in there? Is everything alright? We're discussing the vampire situation. I want to say for the record that we are more than thankful for the effort you've put in here.

Of course, of course. I mean, I wouldn't like a world where there was no Aubrey, right? Or, it was, it's a nice town, right? It's nice to have a bunch of healers here and you guys took us in welcomingly. There's only one other place that I felt like that and that was Fairbay. You've mentioned a couple of times now that you and your party are pressed for time. That you have some large event you need to tend to. Is there anything we can do here that could aid you with that? It's funny you should mention it actually because Hectoronus was very adamant about us getting you guys ready.

But, I mean, so far I think we've got everything in line. I mean, as long as you can help us out with Artemis keeping his end of the bargain and talking as little as possible because I don't really much care for the man. And possibly getting things done faster. I mean, I'm not a blacksmith or a repairman so I don't know how long those things are going to take. But also just be sure to train your clerics and your acolytes. Make them the best that they can be. I mean, this town has a lot of potential and its clergy seem on top of the ball if you can hold off vampires for that long.

We're actually in talks with the people of Durnhollow. We're supposed to get some new trainees from the Overwatch. Oh nice. Well, I've been to Durnhollow maybe a few times. Can't say much for the forms of entertainment they have but I can say that most of the guards that I do remember there seem pretty intimidating. Hopefully the trainees are just as intimidating. They keep crime down. You mentioned Mr. Peck. He has a not so sterling reputation here. When did he promise your new armor? Oh, I don't much remember because he kind of played some mind games with me and made me consider myself and my existence.

It's a long story. I won't bore you with it. He gave us the typical sales pitch. A couple weeks, maybe a month. Honestly, we don't have that kind of time. If I'm to understand, he's fixing your ship too. Yeah, we finagled a deal if you would. But again, he said that's going to take more time also. He said he had some friends who were ship repairmen or repairmen but again, can you really trust the guy? I'll speak with Alexandra. She'll go have a word with Mr. Peck. We'll see if we can speed up this timetable for you. Thanks. I really appreciate that father. Thank you very much.

That's another thing my buddies and I were kind of curious about. We didn't know about the vampire problems until we got here and that kind of sidetracked us. Got our minds off things too. But you got some weird stuff going on with your nature, right? I mean, it seemed like that river coming from the bay north seemed like there was something in the water there. Is that something you're familiar with? How do you mean? There was like a whirlpool or something and the water was flowing the wrong direction. I'm not familiar with anything but I could ask around.

I don't leave the town too often. Okay, well yeah, I mean if you have the time I know that you guys are busy. What with undead captives and all. But yeah, let us know. We'll be in town for a little while. And thanks again for letting us borrow your little toy there. I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble. Speeding up this repair is the least we can do for all of the effort. Thanks. We appreciate it. And if you need anything else, we'll be in town. Also, in fact, the Rhonos does come around looking for it. Don't give it to them. You're certain of this? 100%. Alright.

We'll lock it away until the time comes that we might need it. I really hope that you and I don't have to see that day. Because I can't think of a single situation when that thing will help out again. He's gonna kind of nod gravely like, "Okay, wow, that's alright." Okay. Fray, lentil, finger guns. And then leave. And I'll go to Actoronas' room and I'll wait for him to wake up. Oh god. Unless you wake him, a couple of hours are gonna pass here. And just about the time that dawn is going to start to rear its head. Sunlight's gonna start to pour into the window here.

I would say the party is going to start to wake up, get its stuff together, and Actoronas would be waking up for the morning. Hi. He's yawning happily. So he does run to the orb for a hit. So for some unknown reason I go right for the church and ask for my orb back. Are you in my room, Brely? Yeah, I'm sitting in it and whatever chair you didn't break, I'm sitting in. Alright, so on the floor. No, kidding. Yes, and? Are we all in the same room? I would say it was split up, like a couple of you rooming together, so maybe spread out over three rooms. Okay. I was gonna say, because I would have just been meditating, so there's a good chance I probably would have seen this thing happen.

But I probably wouldn't have stopped it either. Just open one eye while you're sitting, crossing on the ground, saying "hmm?" Go ahead. So I guess this is the first night Actoronas sleeps without his armor. Oh lord, he's really comfortable though. He's gonna turn around and see Brelyn and kind of like a grubby half-smile, gonna say "oh, feeling better this morning?" Yeah, actually I'm feeling a lot better. I need to talk to you about something. Go ahead. Look, I know you and I, we've gotten pretty close, man. I mean, I consider you one of my most trusted friends.

And I haven't had one of those in a long time. Well, me too, Brelyn. I appreciate you saying that. That's what's gonna make this next part really hard. I was awake last night, and I heard everyone arguing with you about the orb. Don't bother reaching for it. I returned it. And I told Father White that you are not to touch it. That no one is to touch it. Not after what I saw. What did you see? I saw the same thing I saw the first time you used it. Your physical body in an excruciatingly painful shape. Your face and your helmet socket light up with the brightest light I've ever seen in my entire life.

I couldn't bear to see you do it again and see what it was doing to you when you spoke to us, when you talked about finding out what happened on a call, your past. I mean, I guess I've been running away from my past, and I'm thankful no one's really asked about it when I signed up. So I can't imagine what it's like to not remember your past, but I do know that it's not worth the price that thing is making you pay, or would have made you pay. You were in danger of hurting us, like Doronas. You almost killed that vampire out there. They had surrendered.

You would have been the exact same thing you didn't want to become. He's gonna move the sheets aside. He's got PJs on, so it's fine. He's gonna stand up and walk closer to Brelin and then kneel down to be at the same eye level, kind of with really furrowed eyebrows. And he's gonna relax them, and he's gonna extend a hand, and he's gonna say, "Hold on, hold on. You really are a true friend, Brelin. Although you should have asked, it touches me deeply that you would go the extra length of breaking into my room and steal from me to keep me safe." Well, you know, I thought I should propel halfling stereotypes.

It's the first time in my life I've actually done something that most people accuse halflings of doing. And I do mean that I truly believe it would have hurt you, possibly even killed you. Again, I guess. You are a good friend, but I will be getting the orb back, Brelin. And he's gonna smirk. I will see if Father White has anything to say against it. And I'll take it to him. I guess, no disrespect, but he may be a little wiser on the matter. And again, thank you, but I'll go get it back. And he's gonna stand up and start wearing his huge furs. Brelin's gonna hop off the chair.

Look, man. I've seen a lot of things in my travels. I've seen people who have lost something, and I've seen what happens to them, and the distance they'll go to get it back, or attempt to get it back. This is Sterea, Actaronis. You can't get something back. You can't get anything for free. There's always a price. And if you're willing to pay with your life, then I can't stop you. But I can at least stall you for as long as possible. He's gonna give you a nod, but he's gonna take his stuff, and then he's gonna walk out the door and close it. Not slam it, but close it vigorously.

Just leave. Brelin's gonna say "damn it" under his breath. What about the rest of the party here? Who's in the room? I would say it was just those two in the room. Dagon would be around, like out and about. Kaldin and Erolove would also be awake. Okay, so we wouldn't have really seen this or heard this, right? You'd hear the door close. Again, not aggressively, but yeah. You'd just see Actaronis leaving. Okay. We don't know that the orb was taken. We don't know where Actaronis is going, so I guess we're just getting ready for the day. No, yeah, because as far as Dagon left it, he asked Actaronis to return it.

He said "no, give me another chance." He agreed to that, so that was that. I think I'm ready to go check on the armor. I think Brelin would get some food first and then meet up with everybody. Did they have continental breakfast at this inn? I didn't mean to imply that I was leaving the inn necessarily to go right away to the church, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just waiting for like... No, it was a serious problem. We have to go there right now. So would the group be meeting up for the day then, just to kind of do the group thing? Yeah, I would assume.

Probably, yeah. I would go downstairs and pay for the damage, probably, first things. That would be appreciated. Although, you have risked your life for the town. So they'd probably even look past that. "Oh, Mr. Actaronis, thank you for not destroying everything. Really appreciate it." That kind of thing. Thanks for leaving one chair. Appreciate it. Nah, that won't do. I'd give whatever's too much for the damage. Whatever's too much? I remember, I don't know how money works. So 10,000 gold. Now I get what you're saying. I'll ask Dagon for a loan. Or Braelyn. Oh, no, no.

Well, I sent off half my monies already, so... You flushed down my weed. It did. For your own good. So you guys are getting together for the day. You're grabbing a little breakfast. You're getting your stuff together. Doing your morning stretch. Well, yeah. I mean... Last night, Dagon kind of left off. I'm like, "We need to get going. We need to get back on track." So he'd probably grab something to eat or whatever, but he'd probably head right over to Artemis' shop. I'd hang out with Dagon, because Actaronis left a bad taste in my mouth. So I have to hang out with somebody else now.

Hey-o! Aralim would not go to see Artemis. That is other people's problem. He would be hurt. [laughter] Because he thinks he nailed it. He thinks, like, "Yeah." He could keep on thinking that. I'm not going. Actaronis thinks he nailed it, too. So insane there's a chance. So let's head on over to the trusty blade. Let's go talk to Artemis. So we got Dagon and Braelyn, right? So the shop would be... I think Kalden would come along. Kalden would come along as well. Alright, so... Dagon, Braelyn, Kalvin. Okay. The shop would be pretty much just opening for the day, officially.

So walking in, it isn't like it's going to be locked or anything like that. It's daylight now. Walking in, you would see Artemis behind the counter, and the dragon scales would be out. Now, there's like a little workbench behind the counter. Not the actual counter. He wouldn't keep that stuff just sitting there. But behind the thing, there'd be like a workbench, and he would already be getting to work. And the second he'd hear the door, he'd turn around. Hey. How many days have passed since we dropped off the scales? Only a couple. Okay. So he sighs. Okay. Well, I'm glad you're so happy to see us.

Look, man, I'm moving as fast as I can. I already got Alexandra coming over here telling me that I'm trying to stall and keep you guys here. That is a hurtful insinuation, you know? I think Brailin at this point would nudge Dagon on the leg. I'll tell you about that later. And then let them continue talking to you. Okay. Alright, Artemis, realistically, how many days is this going to take? We don't have time. The armor. I could maybe, if I worked day and night, fingers to the bone, maybe a week. We don't have a week. Okay. What about the ship? Please tell me you've made progress there.

Well, here's the thing. Apparently, my friends aren't trustworthy enough, if you can believe that. So they're actually sending a bunch of grunts from the town up with Rusty to expedite, I was told. Help carry stuff, hammer, that sort of thing. So your ship could probably be seaworthy again in eight or nine days. We don't have eight or nine days. Did we let him in on... We didn't tell him what we're doing. No. Okay. Hell nah. So I'm going to choke back from mentioning anything. Look, man, I get you're in a rush. I do. And at this point, I want you to go away. No offense.

None taken. But I can only move so fast. There's lots of little intricate things going on with this armor. It takes little hands. It also takes time. Just to clarify, that tiefling lady you came in with, she's going with you or staying or... She's with us. Don't worry about her, okay? Okay. Okay. Just a question. Is there anything we can do to further expedite this? Captain Dagon. Yeah. This might not be the best suggestion, but we do have three able bodies sitting in a cell who might be willing to prove themselves. Grelin's going to be like, "Oh, yeah." Maybe.

We don't know if they're handy. I mean, I guess we could ask. It'd be a good way for them to prove themselves, right? I mean, they're trying to get back into re-established society. We'll have to be here anyway for as long as the armor can take, as expedited as that can be, and he's going to look at Artemis. But we could perhaps oversee them helping repairs on the ship. I was going to say, "And they could be our night crew, right? Because they can't really be out in the daytime." He's going to say this out loud without realizing Artemis is listening, obviously.

"Artemis is going to speak up. Yeah, yeah, whatever, man. Whatever. Hey, you got real tiny hands." And he's going to be looking at Brelin. He's going to look back. "Ha!" I mean, if you really want this to go any faster, you could lend a hand? A little tiny baby hand? He's going to audibly growl. No, give him jazz hands. He's going to grit his teeth, close his eyes, and start counting to three. And I guess at three he's going to look back at Artemis. "What would you need me to do?" Or there's lots of tiny little rivets and things like that. "You know I'm not insulting you, right?

Like, this is... that's a gift. That's a gift you got, them little tiny hands. It's really intricate work." Brelin's going to leap onto the counter and yell at him, "Look, asshole! I have a gift. I play music. Really good fucking music, okay? I don't need you to tell me about how good tiny hands are, how important they are. It's been a really rough 48 hours. I'm telling you I'll help you. Stop talking about my hands and tell me what I have to do." And he's going to raise his hands, and he's going to lean over to Dagon. "Your friend's got a little person complex." Grumble, grumble, grumble.

"Alright. You stay here with me. I'll tell you what you can do, and I'll see if I can teach you a few things. How's that sound?" He's going to have a forced smile. "Sounds like fun, Artemis. Let's get started." Brelin. Oh, god. Brelin. To Dagon. Or to Tarkaldan. Yeah. Think of it as learning a new song. Okay. I mean, honestly, I haven't really learned a new one in a while. And learning something new would be fun, I guess. I hope you know I don't usually take on apprentices, so this is pretty important. Brelin's going to close his eyes, look up at the ceiling, and just mouthfuck me.

He's going to make a disgusted sound and say, "Alright, boss. Show me what I need to do." Guys, I think that's a good time for us to stop for today. What we're going to do next time is... Montage. That's kind of what I'm going by. We may advance time day by day, and I'll just let you know what would be happening in town every day so that you guys don't have to roleplay the entire time. We need to desperately jump ahead. I did want to say something to Artemis before we finish, though. I was just waiting for everybody to have their turn, so I don't know if you want to splice that in.

Oh, I didn't know if you were there. Sorry, I... Sorry, I only won. Yeah. I could do that during the week, next game. Okay. Cool. I did want to tell Dagon and Kaladin about the orb, too, to make sure that since I'm going to be here working with fucking Artemis, that they got to watch out like, "Hey, he's going to go talk to Father White again." He'll do anything for another hit. Yeah, he needs that hit, man. He's feening, man. I still don't scratch his neck. Awful. Awful. Oh, wow. So yeah, next time what we're going to do is... First of all, there will be no tech difficulties.

I have willed it to happen. I put it out there in the universe. I haven't had a long session with you guys in a while. And I know we get started kind of late, but we have to, so next time, no tech difficulties. That's what I'm proposing. Absolutely. Well, now we know... I really am. I'm going to look into getting another computer. I'm going to try. Don't be surprised if you see some money going into that paper. No. That's all I'm saying. Hey, all I'm saying is if you hit up everybody for a little bit... I don't think you're right doing that. Okay, then I'll do it.

Okay, I'm going to do it right now. We're keeping the float, man. That's what we're doing. My Canadian money is worthless, but... Okay, that's true. The only thing I'm worried about is the hard drive and losing that, because there's obviously mounds of recording and all the assets. Everything I've ever done for DNR is pretty much... I need to back up everything, and I'm just worried about that. That's it. Do you have an external hard drive? I have one. I need to prep it and start loading up the arch. Remember that one computer I gave you where the parts were just a scoung?

So before that hard drive failed, I took stuff out of it and put it on my external. And then I put it on the computer I have now. And it worked. The transfer was easy. Transferring was very simple. Yeah, that's basically what I'm going to have to do. I'm going to have to take a day and just back everything up. So just in case things go down, that'll be the silver lining. Because, dude, we have a mound of back recordings and all that stuff. You probably need a 20 terabyte extra hard drive. Dude, I have hundreds of gigs of shit. I think at most, maybe not even a 1 terabyte, I think you'll be okay.

Because technically everything that's on your hard drive right now does not equal 1 terabyte. Right, exactly. But I mean, yeah, that's fine. The rest of the stuff is backed up on Dropbox and other places. So it'll be okay. There's a cloud. But yeah, I gotta back up all the stuff from recently. Xavier, I'm still your friend. Yeah, me too. I'm glad that didn't... I pictured Xavier just like, "This motherfucker." I'm glad it didn't. You're not coming to Canada in the summer anymore. You can't stay here. And I'm still your friend too, right? Because I yelled at you.

No, that's fine. So everybody yelled at him. It's fine. I hope it's fine. I got really cool with everything that happened. I just wasn't expecting not to have DeOrb at the end of the session. Right. So it's really interesting. I had plans. I'm the one who's pissed off, Alex. It's kind of like relief that we're gonna spend the whole week possibly with not DeOrb in my hand, so the vampires are gonna be getting new jobs and not being harassed by DeOrb. You're just shouting racial epithets at them. I did call them animals. I felt really bad about that. You were drunk.

That's fine. I'm trying to say that I was like, "Ohhh." Filthy moonbacks taking our Aubrey jobs. At night when no one else is working and everyone's here. Nobody wants those jobs. The boat repairs in the north? Yeah, the night boat repairs. Night boat repairs in the north where it's fucking cold and our boat hit rocks and shit. Oh, vampires doing the jobs no one else will do. What's our timeline? Right now it is the 8th of Thorim, so... What we're gonna do... We got like two months? We still have to go to Brightport, right? We have a long journey. Oh, you guys have a long journey, and there may be a revelation coming up on a G3 session to tell you what the ex...

Did you? I heard that whatever's out in the public when G4... No, you're about to get a hard date when the next Blood Moon is. Spoiler, it's less than three months. No! We've already spent two weeks. You can't say it or read it. It's permanent. You can't change time. Hasn't it been more than two weeks? No, it hasn't been more than two weeks. But if it's another week until... We might have to leave the armor. I was thinking the same thing, but I don't want to. We can't leave the boat. We need the boat. Well, yeah, the boat's kind of integral. He can ship it to us, right?

But Amazon... We need the ship too, and it's going to take eight to nine days anyway. It's a Theory of Time account. The armor is going to get done first, right? And then the boat's out. How are refugee vampires going to fix a boat? We've got three vampires. Is that helping anyway? Well, you might see as time moves in the next... What I'm going to be doing is... The ninth of Thor, the tenth of Thor, is there anything anybody wants to do? And I'm going to describe the events as they flow by. Oh, cool. It's like a video game when you make choices, and it's like, "Okay, the day's over.

Here's what happened." Yeah, pretty much. Okay, so, Braylon's working on armor. I'll be training people. Kaladin will probably be working on the boat, since he's good with ice. And Doron is going to be trying to get the orb. Yeah, just like every day there's a different, like, sneaking in scene. Like, Wile E. Coyote style. Was anyone else ready to kill those vampires when they surrendered? Yeah, I was so ready to kill them. Not me, no. I'm so in Fallout mode that I was ready to just cut their heads off. Fallout mode? Yes. ♪ Gonna have a montage ♪ Oh, man. I was listening while we were talking to Xavier, and we were having a heart-to-heart.

There's the soundtrack for that show. What's it called? The Forgotten? The Forgotten? Yeah, it's the show. But there's a song on there called "A Promise" or something. And it's the song they use for that mashup, have you seen, where it's like Obi-Wan Kenobi from the old Star Wars movies remembering Anakin's gun. Oh, the leftovers. The leftovers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was listening to that song as we were talking to get in the mood. That's cool. So we're gonna go for the night, and then the next time we sit down, we're gonna get rolling again. It's been fun in Aubrey, but it's probably time that you guys...

Yeah. That was really amazing. Thank you, everyone. That was cool. That was fun. So let's book another date right away on the page. And I'm gonna start to load up a hard drive, I think. I've already had a couple of sessions where it was really bumpy. G1 was really bumpy like this, and I can't... I know it's just shit failing. I've milked this for years. I need to get on it. So yeah, I'm gonna figure that out. You guys just worry about your next session, and you guys have a great night. You too. Thanks. Bye. Hey DNR listeners, Susan Spinnator here. So do you like what we do here?

Hell yeah you do. Since you love the shit out of us, how about you go to iTunes and give us a five star rating? You should also check out our website, dandrpodcast.com. From there you can find our wiki and our really awesome forums. Last but not least, you should totally check out our Patreon at patreon.com/dandr. If you donate just like a few dollars a month, you get access to a bunch of really cool content. And you help keep the lights on. That's awesome, right? Why wouldn't you donate? Anyhow, thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed the episode.