Road Trip: Part 1

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

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Smith and The Bourne Identity comes a new film. It's your first job? I know what I'm doing. It's a little late for a crit change. Starring Matt Damon. Everybody in New England is after us. And Casey Affleck. Go, go, go, go, go! What are you doing? Taking notes. Taking notes on a criminal conspiracy. The Instigators, rated R. Streaming August 9th on Apple TV+. Let's go around the table and introduce everybody. I'm Jason. I'm the DM. Going around the table, we've got Danielle. Hi, I'm Danielle. I play a drow road named Trixie. And Eric. Hey, I'm Eric Tyson, whatever the fuck my name is.

I'm Galford-- Sorry. --and no Moorlach. [LAUGHTER] Tyson's my middle name, and lots of people call me that. And I've always kind of used that online. But-- I know. I know. It's just-- Alana calls me by my stupid first name and sort of the people at work. Because I hate my first name so much. I'm sorry. I've always hated my first name, dude. I had planned on changing it to Tyson at some point. I just never got around to it. You could have told me that like 20 years ago. [LAUGHTER] Hey, in 20 years, I'm going to change my name. Well, you guys never used my real name like in high school.

Anyways, I have too many nicknames. We all did. Yes. Speaking of which, James. Hi, I'm James. I play Dagon, the Eladrin scion. And Brian. Hey, guys, it's Brian. I play the Mulrune priest named Rheekus. And Alana. Hey, I'm Alana. I'm an elf named Braneth. And she's got waitress voice tonight. Sorry. I want to say I've got sexy flam, but no, it's nothing sexy about my voice today at all. That's what you get for shacking up with a tiefling. Horrible woman. You know-- Allegedly. That's a rumor. That's a vicious rumor. My client did not have sex with that tiefling. We got no emails that said they were disappointed, really.

So that's something. I thought there'd be more of those, but that didn't happen. So hey. We built that up to be like the second coming of Jesus. Because that's what we do. We say we're going to do one thing and then do another. That's what we do on DNR. OK, so to recap, you guys have accomplished some pretty big shit. You are now running one of the houses in Brightport, which means you control 33% of the trade decisions within the city. That also means that you have a steady flow of income. Now, depending on your decisions, throughout the next few sessions or going forward, that number is going to increase or decrease.

It all depends on what you'd like to do going forward. Who you hire, who you associate with, what deals you make, what you decide to trade in, and all those good things. So I guess we should pick up the next morning after you guys spent your first night in-- well, it's House Dragonkeep now, huh? I keep wanting to call House Darkspane. So you guys wake up, and I guess you're going to reconvene somewhere in the house? Where would you guys like to meet up? We could go to that dining room. Totally could. All of you are going to smell food cooking. So the staff has obviously been busy making some kind of breakfast for you guys.

I'm going to eat that breakfast. Valus is going to open the door to Baranath's room, and he's still kind of putting his armor on. Like, he obviously took some amount of clothing off the night before. But like, he's-- [LAUGHTER] Oh, well. I'll stop. He's getting his sword back on and everything like that. He's kind of suiting up, as it were. I guess-- is everyone coming down for breakfast? Sure, I thought we were eating breakfast. OK. Yeah, I'll get dressed and come down for breakfast. OK. So I guess we got a lot of stuff to talk about, eh? You guys have tons of decisions to make.

David's going to meet you all. Like, he's going to kind of enter the room after he sees that you've all kind of woken up, and you're getting your shit together. Good morning. Morning. Hey, good morning, David. Morning. How did you all sleep? Oh, I feel like I haven't slept in years until last night. Well, that's good to hear that you all have some rest. We have a lot of things to talk about. You said you had interest in setting up a meeting with the other houses. Well, is it-- am I right? I think you said that there's a meeting scheduled for about 10 days from now.

That's nine days now, but yes. OK. Yeah, I guess I've got to figure out how we're going to approach this meeting and exactly what we plan on discussing, how we're going to deal with these two other houses. Riek is in between shoveling bits of food into his mouth, just kind of looks up and says that we really need to make sure that we have everything clear and to the point. Like David had said before, they're going to smell blood in the water, and especially given the fact our numbers may not be the highest out of all the houses, we really need to make sure that they don't see us as an enemy, but more of an ally compared to how Theramak ran the house before.

Well, I think the revelations we found out about Carter will certainly help us in discussing with the other houses how to move forward. Is that a card we want to play right away? It may not be the first card we play out of our hand, but it might end up being a card that we get dealt, if you know what I'm saying. That was kind of a weird, deep thing. It's going to be something that I think in the long run we'll need to bring up. It will be valuable to bring up, because honestly, that's going to be the big thing, because we can definitely get overtaken real quick, just given the little bits of information we know about the other houses.

It's going to be real easy for us to lose our mind real quickly against them. Well, we just need to make them understand that there's threats out there that are much bigger than us, we should probably start with on a call, because if the ghouls continue to march, they'll be in Brightport in no time, if they got out of the city. Yeah, that's going to be a big problem. So I mean, how do we want to present ourselves to them? What do we have to offer them? Well, I mean, what we can offer them is if we're inconveniencing them, which we haven't, but we could propose it that way, that a percentage of our trade funds for a transition period may help placate them if they're motivated by greed.

Maybe we need to find out a bit more about what each house wants. We don't really know anything about them. Or maybe David can tell us. Yeah, if they want money, it's very easy. We could offer them a little bit of money, basically lay it out for them, and try and get them on board, that there are threats out there, that we've done them the favor of alerting them to, and proposing that United Brightport, after this transition period, defend itself. Yeah. David's going to speak up. I'm busy collecting all the information I can on the other houses. While I'm doing that, some basic questions, just to get us started.

What do you plan on trading in? Our main import-export has been herbs, potions, that sort of thing. Is that something you wish to continue, or do you wish to diversify, or cut that out entirely? I would say we continue. I mean, we need to keep the house running, as opposed to modifying the business, basically. If you have existing contacts, and it's business as usual, I think we can put our trust in you there. I don't know if I speak for the group. Well, it's been working so far. It makes sense to continue with that. I agree. I think there's obviously an economy for it.

Oh, there's quite an economy for it. That's never been a problem. Point number two, the house is obviously going to be going through some changes within the next couple of months. Would you like me to get some extra contractors in here, make some renovations, changes to the decor? Probably wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd be OK with that picture of Thermak taken down from the parlor. That we can handle today, actually. I'll get some of the staff on that. Could we get those bodies exhumed in that graveyard removed from the premises? It's a little disturbing. That will take longer.

But yes, we can, sure. Though I will tell you that in my experience, it's come in handy that we have an on-site graveyard. Well, we don't plan on running the house that way. Fair enough. Let me work on that. I'll get some people on that. Thank you. I think we also have the issue of Tella's body disappearing. I don't even know where to begin investigating that. Well, how confident are we that she was completely deceased after she transformed? I finished her off with the Shadow Claws, but Rikas hit her quite firmly in the brain with his hammer. If she was completely-- I mean, if her brain was destroyed, which is what we've seen-- beheading, burning, or destroying the brain of these ghouls is one way to put them down for good.

If we felt we dispatched her in the most appropriate way, then why do we need to find her body? Well, I mean, I'm confident she was dead, but I just find it really disconcerting that her body has disappeared. Well, there's lots of grave robbers in Brightport, and as we've seen with House Darkspane, lots of people doing strange experiments. So we don't have much use for her body, aside from any burial or sentimental value. If it was a grave robber, though, why would they take her body along with what possession she may have had still? Well, grave robbers usually like to take the body, and if they don't have to dig it up, bonus.

Maybe this is something we could delegate to David. I can definitely look into it. It's a common practice in the dregs to rob the dead. Was she wearing anything valuable? I think she had some armor. The clothing on her back, I think that was it. No, I'll look into it, and I'll see what I can find out. All right, thank you. The business of White Hedge, who is taking care of that? I think Valus was interested in making a trip to White Hedge. Yeah, Valus is going to step forward. And he's just kind of grabbing fistfuls of food and shoving it into the sack. And it's clear he's pretty much getting ready to leave.

OK, I'm going to get up and kind of side next to him and say, I hope you realize you're not going alone. What do you mean? This trip, I don't want you to make this trip alone. You don't have to go with me. I've been to White Hedge many times. I know, I know. I just don't feel right. With you doing this by yourself. He's kind of fumbly about it. Like he's just-- sure, I'll rent a wagon, and we'll be off right away. OK, good. It's settled then. Is it OK with the rest of you? Who's got the dice? I do. Can I borrow your dice? [LAUGHTER] Yeah, certainly. Who's got the chessboard?

I think I've got the chessboard. OK. We might play around with that. Well, first off, I'd like to use these dice. Luckily, David told us how they work. So I'd like to ask them a question and say, should we be concerned about what happened to Tala's body? And then I'll roll the dice. OK. It more reacts to-- like, you have to ask it almost a yes or no question. Is this a good or bad thing, that kind of thing? OK. If you could phrase it more in a-- yeah. Is Tala's missing body going to come back to haunt us in any way? So Galford casts these two-- they're D10s, so he casts them both.

And both of them come up raven talons, which is a bad sign. Well, there's our answer. I guess we do eventually need to find out what happened to it or burn it or destroy it entirely if it's the threat. OK. How often can I ask these dice a question? Once a day. I should have asked them if the tiefling and the elf will return. [LAUGHTER] I guess we won't know if the tiefling and the elf will return, but we'll see. Well, why wouldn't we return? We won't know unless we roll the dice. [LAUGHTER] So we'll let you know tomorrow. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] We'll let you know what your odds are when you're-- Are they fucking dead?

Roll the dice. [LAUGHTER] Double talons. All right, guys. Loot the room. We need a new elf. So Baoz is going to leave the room, and he's going to go find a wagon to rent to go to White Edge. I'm kind of-- I want to pull Galford aside for just a quick chat. Galford, I wonder if I could ask a favor of you. Make it quick, because I'd really like to get back to reading some of Theramax's things. Could I please have Katie's dagger? Why? Well, Valis and I are going into White Edge for house business, obviously. We want to find out more about why our incoming shipments are being sabotaged.

There's a bit of a personal trip about it as well. And we want to give Katie's dagger back to Katie's mother. Her mother lives in White Edge? Yeah. Very well. You can take it. But tell the tiefling to not let his bleeding heart, sentimental quest take too long. We've got pressing matters back here. And I'll hand it over. Thank you. If her family is not there or her parents happen to be already deceased, I'd like that back, though. Certainly. Dave is going to leave the room for a few minutes. And he's going to talk to the staff about hiring more contractors, things like that.

Is there anything you guys would like to do before I advance this just a little bit? Anything you guys want to talk about? I'm just going to head off towards the library and grab some more Theramax ledgers and head down to his former personal quarters. I'm assuming he has a desk. Yeah. OK. Yeah. I can afford a desk. Oh, yeah. I want to head downstairs and just talk to Amara and let her know what's going on. OK. Just to let her know that I'm going to be out of town for a short while, but that we'll be back soon and that I've got someone working on creating an exit for her so that she can get out of that room.

She seems really reassured by that. When you kind of go in, she's kind of curled up on the floor. There's more than enough room for her to kind of stretch out and be in that room. But you imagine it's kind of cramped. Just like that's her existence. Like that's just that one room, that one place. So it's got big high vaulted ceilings and stuff. But I mean, it's still a dragon. It's still cramped. And she's only getting bigger. So you know. But yeah, she seems really kind of reassured by that whole thing. Right. David's going to walk back in the room and-- Riku is still in there, right?

Yeah. OK. He's going to talk to Riku. I'm sending some people to Durn Hollow now. Again, am I just trying to get as many people as I can? Yeah. Within reason, obviously. We shouldn't spend our entire budget for whatever it's worth on it. But Durn Hollow is my home. And I know the people there. And I know the individuals that you'll be looking at. So I know that they are definitely trustworthy and hardworking. So if we can shoot for at least five or so, that would give us a good starting point. And it would definitely help speed up stuff around the house. All right.

I'll send someone right away. In the meantime, I've just got word that we've hired several local bar patrons. They're not the most trustworthy. But they will work for coin. And they can at least guard doors, windows, that sort of thing. Oh, speaking of coin, is there any petty cash hanging out that I could maybe grab before Valis and I head out of town? Sure, I can give you some per diem. How much did you need? I don't know. How much do I need? Just leave us enough for Chinese food. [LAUGHTER] Pay per view. So the way this works-- let me clue you guys in. The way this works is very much like a business.

The house is always generating some kind of income with trades. But you can't just walk in and take whatever is in the coffers. There has to be some legitimacy to it. You can't just take whatever you want. So you guys get what essentially boils down to is an allowance. And then beyond that, there is like petty cash and things like that you can tap into, especially if it's a business-related trip. You're heading into White Hedge to settle what happened to your shipment. I'm just thinking if I need to purchase supplies or buy us out of trouble or something, if I had a bit of money, I'd feel better if we had a little bit of money.

But I don't know how much to bring. I'll tell you what. This is a little much for the trip you're going on. But just in case you get into trouble, there's only two of you. And he hands you $3,000. OK. OK, thank you. There is the matter of our friend downstairs. We can install a door where she'll be able to leave the house. And that still leaves the problem of her being in the middle of the city loose. I know it's untimely. And I'll look at Baranath. I know it's untimely. And she's obviously been cooped up. And we made the promise to her that we're going to allow her to freely run through the city.

But unless we meet with the houses before this big trade meeting, I feel like we should probably wait and at least let the houses know or the town guard know that, hey, stuff has happened. And we are going to allow the dragon to run free. And she knows not to cause any trouble as long as she's not provoked. I feel like if we just loosely go, and you're free. Make sure you come back before the street lights turn on. I feel like if we just let her out now, something bad is going to happen. I think you're probably right that we need to at least notify the town guard or some kind of authority so that there isn't a city-wide freak out that she's loose.

The door is going to take some time to construct this. Right now, this isn't really an issue because she's still indoors. It's going to be a while before she's outside. But I do think you're right. And I think that's something we have to keep in mind. That would be something that we bring up with them during the meeting. Might be one of the first couple points to break the ice. Do you think you have some control over it? Over Amara, the dragon? Yes. I'm going to say control isn't quite the correct word. No one controls a being like that. For now, she's agreed to make this house her home.

And I promised her access to the outside in time. Could we not just create a space for her outside where the cemetery currently lies? That could be done. It's a large enough area. Again, the entire process is going to take some time. I can hire all the contractors we can get a hold of, but they only work at such a speed. I just don't think letting her roam the city is such a good idea either. It's also going to be troubling for the city to see us exhume many corpses. Maybe we should just be planting a garden over the cemetery. I think the movement of the graveyard might be something that we tailor towards the trade.

And I keep pushing a lot of that stuff back there. But if we-- this is-- and like David has said before, this is very much like a PR type of move where we really need to make calculated moves. Otherwise, people are going to get the wrong image. We really do want to change what this house was about before. And I feel like if we make the wrong move, we're going to get the wrong reaction from people. So I feel like maybe we might want to tailor the movement of the graveyard to a later time period when we've talked to people and allowed them to be aware of it so they don't just start seeing hundreds of bodies be moved.

Well, let's start with today. What would you like me to do today? I can hear Lana coughing, so maybe give her a minute. Sure, sure. You said there was a bunch of pictures of Thermac on the walls? Oh, yeah, the whole place is pretty much-- he's a pretty egotistical guy. Well, those can come down first. OK. Like basic decorating and stuff, just take that like, oh, there's a severed ram's head. And here's-- there's these stuffed tentacle things. I don't know what this is. It's a lot of just spooky-ooky shit. Anything that screams Thermac. OK. Burn. Gotcha. Yeah, I guess a good place to start would be, you know, it's a fresh coat of paint on this place.

And I guess getting the carpenters to work on a door for Amara. I'll get everything ready. We can start today. That shouldn't be a problem at all. All right. David, I would like a room reserved for meditation as well. How large a space would you need it? It doesn't have to be huge. Any bedroom or anything will suffice. That's not a problem at all. I'll set aside something today. Thank you. If anyone has anything for David to speak up now, or he's just going to go ahead and start taking care of some of this. I think I'm good. I think I've already left, so. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] Valis is back by the front door.

And you hear a wagon pull up, like, before he enters. So he's obviously found something to rent. And you guys are pretty much ready to go. Valis is going to walk back into the house. And he's kind of scanning the room. And it looks like he's looking for somebody. And he doesn't see them. And he's going to start walking towards the back of the house. And he is looking for Gelford. Oh, I'm going to kind of trot after him and say, hey, are we ready to go? Yes, I have to talk to the gnome real quick. In regards to that, I have something for you. I'll pull out the dagger and show it to Valis.

He kind of looks shocked, like, wow, OK, that was easy. He just gave it to you. Well, I asked him for it. And yeah, he gave it to me. All right, then, I guess we're on our way. And he kind of takes it from you and wraps it in this-- he's got, like, this piece of leather. And he's going to wrap it up and put it in his bag and head for the front door. OK, and I'll follow him. All right, so Baranath and Valis are taking off, making for the gates of Brightport. I am going to advance this unless anyone has anything they'd like to do. You had said that-- well, when we did a-- I don't know if it was an arcana check or something on Theramax room, maybe a perception check.

You had said that he had had a spell so that people couldn't see inside the house, or see inside at least his personal quarters. And he sort of had some other, like, security shit, basically, that he had cast on different areas of the house. I'd like to start digging in some books for that stuff. I want to see if I can get a little bit more magical security going. And if he's got any extra eyeballs, I would like to find them. A lot of the eyeballs were destroyed, but there's-- yeah, there's a couple still in the house. So basically, you're just looking to reverse engineer that whole cloaking the security spell.

And what are you looking to spread that throughout the entire house, or just-- Just Theramax quarters. OK. OK, cool. So you're looking into that. What's Riekha's doing? Riekha's is just going to be kind of like scanning, kind of almost touring the rest of the house and the portions he hasn't seen before. This is probably the first time in a long time he's felt like he has a home. So being on the road and doing everything with the group, he just wants to kind of, I don't know, reacquaint himself with the idea that this is somewhere that he can actually call home now.

OK. What about Trixie? I was going to do the same thing, just kind of walk around and look at everything. Just kind of get to know the place? Yep. Since we were busted up the front part, we might as well see what we haven't destroyed yet. [LAUGHTER] What about Dagon? Dagon is going to enjoy his breakfast. Feels a little settled right now, and he's done what he had to do in the library and all that. And yeah, he's just resting. So of the people you didn't kill, which is few, I mean, pretty much everything that had a pulse and got in your way, you murdered.

So of the people you didn't kill, there's a fully functional staff for this place. I mean, there's people who clean and cook and the whole nine. So I might suggest a shower or something like that. You can have your clothes cleaned. You can-- I mean, the whole thing. I mean, this is your place now to do with as you see fit. So get comfy. It's probably not a bad idea, because we probably all still reek of blood and gore and dungeon smell. Nature is my shower. [LAUGHTER] Which means you smell. Yeah. No, that was my subtle way of saying I smell. Right. I mean, let's just backtrack to where you guys were enslaved and on a call, a hot desert city where you professionally sweated, basically, for a week.

And then fighting your way through mobs of zombies and then escaping that. And yeah, so you smell. You all smell. So-- This is your subtle way of going, go take a shower. I'm throwing it out there. I did it for group one, too, just to-- So let's advance this like, let's say, half a day. So this would be evening time now. Everyone cool with that? Sure. OK. So Thales and Baranath are well on their way. You guys have spent some time getting to know the place and kind of stretching your legs. And there's a knocking on your front door, kind of frantic. OK. So that's for the remainder of the party, if anyone wants to answer that.

Of course, if you don't, there's a staff who will take care of it for you. I think the staff can get the door. I'm going to be near the staff, though, just because I'm curious. Like, I'm going to let the staff be there, but I'm just going to stand there and be like, who's at the door? So this elderly guy is going to answer the door for you. And you hear this kind of squeaky voice on the other side of it. And the elderly guy is going to look for one of you. And Rheekus would be the first guy he sees. There's a small gnome to see you? I'll approach the door, sighing deeply, and look at the gnome.

Grattic the Wanted is at your front door. And he looks fucking frantic. Like, he looks really frazzled, just kind of, hey, hey, can I come in real quick? Like, now? I'll look at the elderly gentleman and just ask him if he can grab somebody else to come to the door. And then I'll look over at Grattic and just kind of like lean my body on the door frame, just kind of blocking the view inside of the house and just be like, oh, so what's the problem there, Grattic? What's got you so frantic? You're killing me here. Seriously, you're not going to let me inside?

Can I come stalking in the room since I heard him or possibly heard him? Sure. OK. So I'm just standing there staring at him. So now a crowd is forming. And he's darting his eyes back and forth, constantly checking his back. Like, something is up with him. Grattic, Grattic, Grattic, I just can't-- that'd be rude. I mean, you don't let somebody in your house unless they either tell you they're coming beforehand or kind of state their business. So what's got your Jimmy saw rustled? Look, I know you think it's funny. And I know what you-- this little bit you're doing, it's great.

Seriously, I need to come inside. Then state your business. You guys screwed me over. And now I don't have any protection from Silverclaw. You know, I vaguely remember really needing to get out of a cage a while back. And I don't remember anyone helping me out. I vaguely remember giving you explosives, which-- and he kind of pans back to look at the front porch-- I see you've used. I don't see where the problem is. I just-- I don't see why I should feel sympathetic for you right now. You-- it's very difficult for me to forgive someone that put me in my group, in my party, into a position like you did.

He's going to make an athletics check to see if he can scurry past you, like between your legs or something. What is that against? That would be-- this is going to be against your reflex. So-- Oh. [LAUGHTER] Well, if it's any consolation, he's not very good at it. I was going to say Mr. Potato Face. Um, 11. [LAUGHTER] That's the first time that anyone has ever, like, gone against Rekis's reflex and actually lost. So he's going to try to scurry past your legs and just kind of bonk his head against your knees. Oh, for God's sakes, come on! Can I kind of squeeze past him and do a perception check for outside?

Sure, yeah. All right, so I got a plus 10. No, that's not me. Hold on. [LAUGHTER] I thought I had a 10. I was really excited. I have a 2. I'll still do it anyways. OK, that's significantly less, but still. I might be perceptive about something. This is the door. Shut up. It's a door. [LAUGHTER] Thanks, Cookie. It's your fault. That's an 8. Trixie looks outside and doesn't see anything that Grattic might be running from. She doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. There's passers by in the street and stuff. There's a couple of people giving a glance at who might be at House Darkseid's door, that kind of thing, but nothing seedy, nothing impendingly violent.

Where's Galford? Where is Galford? You tell me. Oh, OK, well, so I can enter at any time? Sure. All right. OK, so I'm just going to walk down-- Galford's going to walk down the hall and hear Grattic's voice and see that Trixie and Rikas are blocking the door and just call over and say, is that Grattic? Is Grattic at our door, Rikas? Yeah, he is, and apparently we screwed him over. Well, let him in. Why would we turn away one of our fair citizens of Brightport now that we have the power to help someone? Maybe we should be a good Samaritan for our fellow gnome.

Come on, Rikas, let him in. Rikas is going to look over at Galford and give him a really face, like you're going to be nice to this guy. And he'll look over at Trixie a little bit. And unless-- I mean, Trixie can obviously stand there, but Rikas isn't going to put much of a fight up. And just he'll go up to where his room was. And then, yeah, he'll just go up to his room and grab the lullaby and just kind of stand to the back as Grattic, assuming he walks in. Grattic doesn't walk in so much as just falls into the room and just like immediately spins around and shuts the door behind him and leans against it.

Thank god. I knew at least a gnome would have some kind of common decency. Of course. I mean, we've certainly had our differences, but you know, Brightport is our home now. So we need to have good relations with the other houses, I guess. I assume you know a little bit about what's happened within these walls. Yeah, I could take a guess. Yeah. OK, well-- You guys did what you always do. You came in, you smashed shit. Am I correct? We smashed a lot of shit. And what's left is now our shit. But would you like to come into the dining room and maybe have a glass of ale?

And you and I can have a chat. And he's looking around the room like really shifty-eyed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, further in the house. That's good. That's good. Let's keep away from the windows. All right, I'm going to shoot daggers at Galford and follow very closely behind Graddick. Graddick's going to follow. Graddick's going to follow Galford. This place looks like shit in the inside. Well, we're doing a little bit of remodeling. So I'm sure there'll be a picture of me hanging over the fireplace in no time. So anyways, let's both cut to the chase. Why are you here?

Why have you had a falling out with Silverclaw? Oh, well, that would be because of you. You remember how I said keep things subtle, keep things quiet, that kind of thing? I remember you telling us that the first day we entered the city. You're going to bring up the slavery thing again? I mean, really? We're not over this yet? You know, I agree with you, Graddick. I wanted this to be a stealth mission from the beginning. But I don't know, I got to give it to my comrades. It looks like smashing everything seems to be more lucrative than sneaking around. Although speaking of sneaking around, I think my drow friend is going to join us.

Trixie, are you going to join us as well, or is there anywhere else in the house you'd rather be? Oh, trust me, I'm not going anywhere. Very well. I'll join too. Yeah, you know, the smashing thing worked real great for you, for just you, actually. I helped you guys out. I gave you supplies to raid this-- God, what a shitty-- seriously, it's ugly in here. You really should fix this. But I gave you ammunition to come here. Silverclaw found out about it, and now I'm out, which means I have no more protection. You might be surprised to learn this, but I deal with lots of shady people.

Do tell. I may have been involved in some business dealings where they ended up on the short end of the stick. And now the only thing that was keeping them from killing me was Silverclaw. And now I'm not affiliated with a house, and that is a problem for us. I just want to roll insight on him. Good. Oh, shit, that's brownest. Hang on. 17. That seems on the level to you. You're not picking up anything. The "us" part of that sentence is a little suspicious, but other than that, it seems pretty much on the level. All right, Graddick, we're going through some transitions as well, and I'm sure there's going to be people out there that are going to want to kill us, too.

But why should we help you? Let me take a wild guess. You killed everyone. We have our steward, who's wonderful, by the way. Have you tried his potatoes? Breakfast, pancakes, fantastic. Soft beds. I have not. I'll be sure to get to that if I'm still alive. Look, you're going to need someone who can-- who already knows the ins and outs, right? Yes, we do. And actually-- You've already seen-- you've already seen what being on the-- how can I phrase this without drudging up the past? You've already seen what it's like to be on the opposite end of my expertise.

Now, imagine me working for you, with you, together, partners. You know, Graddick, actually, your name came up in conversation yesterday. We were talking about who would be someone resourceful and cunning and intelligent and crafty that would help us navigate the shark-filled waters of the politics and economy of Brightport. And your name came up in conversation. It really did. I won't lie to you. But then it was promptly shot down by every one of my comrades due to the fact that you're an untrustworthy, shady, double-crossing scumbag. But I don't know.

You do have your merits. Sell me some more, Graddick. What else can you do for us? Firstly, your partners sound like narrow-minded thinkers. I know. And his partners are standing right here. I'll cough a little, not so subtly, and look at them. It's no offense. It takes a gnome's mind to navigate the waters of Brightport, really. It's nothing particular about you two as people. Reek is just showing a different anger side. And I'll just look at Graddick and just say, answer his questions. And I won't toss you out the window. Look, here's the bottom line. I need protection.

You need guidance. It's an equal trade, 50-50. Hmm. We also need food for the dragon. And I think Reek is here would probably like to feed it you. But I agree with you in the sense that we do need some guidance. And describe the protection angle a little bit. What exactly do you need? Firstly, after you mention the dragon, he's going to kind of mumble himself, and you would leave the dragon alive. OK, look, as long as I'm affiliated with a house, no one can touch me. I'm-- well, I mean, not in the open. I mean, if I wander down the wrong dark alley, of course, I'm dead.

But no one can touch me out in the open, at least. Right now, everyone can touch me. And they will. It didn't take long for it to circulate that I am no longer affiliated with a house. As you said, I deal with shady people. I myself am pretty much a legitimate businessman. But I do deal with the less than admirable of Brightport. You give me the protection I need by just affiliating me with a house. Give me a meaningless title. I don't care. But I would advise you to take some of my guidance seriously. I have been affiliated with a house now for a while. I do know some of these people.

And it could help you out. You know, I agree. It's going to be a tough sell to my compatriots here. But Riku is tricksy. What do you think? Should we give Grattic a job interview that lasts only until the end of our first meeting with the other houses? We need all the information we can get above the law and below it and from all angles. He knows a lot about the houses. And he knows that we can very simply feed him to the dragon or throw him to his enemies that lay on the outside of these gates. We have 10 days for him to prove his worth to the house. And if he does, we can assign him a title, like grave digger, toilet plunger, filing clerk, something along those lines.

But if Grattic proves his worth up to the meetings, it may help us get past or at least live past these first few weeks. Do you really think it's going to be a selling point that we picked up someone that another house got rid of? You know, they're going to catch wind that we're interviewing him, so to speak. I mean, that's not going to play in our favor. And this guy's had us thrown into slavery. He gave us dynamite that we had to use to try to save ourselves. But he's thought he came and rescued us later. I'm willing to consider that he has intelligence to offer.

But this is ridiculous. Why would we even let him in the house at this point? All right, so how would you like to handle it? Would you like to throw him out on his own? Or shall we at least lock him up and see if he can tell us some intelligent morsels that earn him maybe his freedom? I think he's too valuable of an asset for us to let us go. I mean, coming from a gnome-- I'm not saying to throw him outside. I'm saying he is not to have free reign of the house. If he wants protection, that means he can sit in our dungeon. And he can help us when we need him, if that's the case.

But I'm not going to let him walk around this house. Rikas, what do you think? Rikas will look over at Galford, not even going to-- basically treating Graddock like he's invisible. And I'll look Galford straight in the eyes and say, I don't want him here. He put us into a position that none of us enjoyed. He mishandled us, and he went behind our back. And if we really want to change the way this house was run, putting him into a position where he had say, and even just putting him under our protection, it goes against what I feel this house is about. So let me put it down just frank for you.

You can do whatever you want. That's fine. But if he screws up, I'm not giving him one strike. I'm not giving him two. I'm not giving him three. If he screws up even the tiniest bit, we're going to have a problem. And it's not going to be something that we just mouth off to each other. We're going to have a problem. And it's not going to end in a good way for either of us. And I'll kind of walk out of the room. Well, Graddock, you heard my friend. It sounds like you're in. But unfortunately, until we can establish your worth to the house, that you may have to spend some time in the dungeon.

So I'll turn to Trixie and say, you know, I assure you, he's going to remain locked up. We'll try and get as much information as we can. What the hell's our steward's name again? David. From David when he returns. And we'll see if Graddock can prove his worth. But I assure you, he'll remain in the dungeon for now. Graddock's going to say, you're not locking me up. You wanted protection, didn't you? I don't see how being in a small room with bars is anything more than a shooting gallery. How are you even protecting this? Who the hell works for you at this point?

Does it matter? We killed everyone else. It doesn't look like you've got a lot of options. Basically, we feed you to the dragon. We let you leave and fend for yourself. Or you spend some time in the dungeon until we decide what would be best. Maybe we'll do some arena fighting out in the graveyard. He's going to kind of smile after a few minutes and think about it. And he's going to grab some bacon off a plate and just start noshing on it. Like, just-- like, he's thinking over the offer, but almost kind of settling back into his old Graddock routine. Like, he's not-- like, he's not worried about anything you just said.

Can I smack the bacon out of his hand? You can. OK. That's not his. He was offered some. Not by me. OK, fair enough. Firstly, that's rude. Secondly, I kind of had a feeling you guys would overplay your hand. Need I remind you that the people who would be after me would take great pleasure in harming people I'm associated with. Now, does that remind you of anybody that you may have met recently? That reminds me of the ashes that were in the basement. Hmm. In that case, we should just leave him outside. I'll go with it. Outside he goes. I don't want him in the house either.

Fine. Fine. I'll leave. I guess I'll just tell Tessia that our days are numbered at this point. We might as well just wrap up any affairs that we have and just get ready for our imminent demise. I'll see you folks later. He's going to stand up and start just boldly walking towards the front door. Dagon's going to come out of the corner. He's been standing there sort of listening to things. And he's going to suggest, why don't we make him earn it? Earn our protection. Earn his stay in his house. That was kind of what I thought. You know, Graddock is-- he is a valuable asset in Brightport whether you agree with his scruples or his methods.

And-- From what I've heard, he's a pretty shady guy, maybe not your best friend. But it sounds like he can find things, find information. Why don't we send him out to look for Tala? Yeah, that's an excellent idea. If he could find out what happened to her body, that might at least earn him room and board for a night or so. It's a start. What do you think, Tracy? He needs to bring back proof. Oh, of course. Just to say he found something. And even then, he's got to work way harder to get into the house. Absolutely. And I don't think any-- He can spend the night in the dungeon at first.

I don't think any decisions should be made until Valus and Baranath are back. You keep going to this dungeon thing. I feel like it would be just too tempting for you people if I were locked up to maybe let something happen to me. It just-- We're not like you, Gretic. Really? And he's looking around like-- We let you in, despite the fact that you made us slaves and made us fight for our lives more than once. Well, Tracy, you know, remember, he offered us money to do a job quietly. And we completely failed at that. Yes, we were sold into slavery. I mean, they chose to keep us alive.

And look at what Cermak has done. And he didn't let us out. That's true. But why would he have even had a-- what was in it for him? I mean, Gretic is who he is. And his allegiances are to the house. And essentially, he had to save his own skin. If we had completed our job as ordered and he betrayed us then, we maybe would have had a little bit more to be angry about. But I don't know. I think at this point, Gretic could be an asset. But like I say, he's got to earn his keep. We need a job interview from him before he proves his worth. He needs to find Tala first, and then we'll discuss it.

We can't do anything without Baraneth here anyways. Baraneth doesn't run this house. No, but she has say. She's just as much a part of our group as anyone else. Just because the elf can sing to the dragon doesn't mean we should put so much weight in what she says. As far as we know-- And you can talk shit. We're supposed to be OK with that? Well, as far as we know, she may not even return from her road trip with the tiefling. And we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But for now, he has time to go find Tala. And when he comes back with proof of where she is or what happened to her, then we'll discuss it further.

And that should be more than enough time for Baraneth to get back. Did you know that Baraneth and the tiefling are making their road trip to White Hedge to look after the affairs of our new house? But also, they're going to be delaying their return by visiting the family of Katie and Sil, who died in the arena, for some sort of, I don't know, sentimental reunion. You knew she had a bleeding heart, and there's nothing we can do about that. Her bleeding heart has saved us more than once. It also killed Tala, but that's another discussion altogether. Well, you know-- Wait, wait, wait.

Firstly, which one of you is Tala? The razor claw, the one that smacks people around. Oh, baby talk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember her. She's a real scream. I'm confused. She's dead, but walked away. What is this? She kind of turned into a zombie, and we kind of had to kill her. And then she wasn't there when we got back. So we need you to figure out what happened. You have anything more than that to go on, or just that? She may or may not eat you. I don't know. We don't know what happened to her. There's some blood streaks on the stairs you can look at. Fine. And I find you dead, missing friend, and I'm in.

No. We'll discuss where we go from there. OK, at the very least, can Tessia stay here the night, just to make sure nothing happens to my business partner? Tessia is more than welcome. We don't have a problem with her. Who's Tessia? That's Valus's mother. It says mommy. She's lovely. I'm sure she can help around the house. It's OK with me. In the meantime, what's to keep me from getting stabbed while I'm out and about? We haven't stabbed you yet. No, no, you're not really what I'm worried about, sweetie. Could you at least put the word out on the street that I'm affiliated some way, something.

Give me something. But we're not protecting you yet. Well, I mean, one of our doormen, I'm sure, could escort him for the evening. I mean, they are our patrons that we're barely paying as it is. Oh, you are fucking killing me. I'm OK with that. All right, fine. It's OK. I'll give them some some ledger that still has the dark Spain letterhead on it, and they can carry that. That's Gratic is under the protection of the house. And you can take one of our one of our guards, if they're sober enough to stand along with you for protection. I'm sure they have a weapon of some sort.

He's just glaring at you. Just I really hope you're enjoying this. I think we are. You know, I hate to see a fellow gnome in a precarious predicament, so let's establish our business relationship. You know, quid pro quo, you do something for us and we can wipe the slate clean eventually. But I think, like my eladrin friend said, it's an excellent start. He's just going to go. And he's going to he's going to start back towards the door. I'm actually going to pour him a little flag in of our ale or wine, whatever we have on the table at the moment, and just just offer to him as he's walking out.

And he's going to kind of hesitate for a second, just like you're really being a dick about this. You know that. But OK, fine. I love the drink. And he's he's going to take it from you. He is also going to scurry back to the kitchen very quickly and and grab some more bacon and start kind of scampering off towards the door. I still want to smack him again. Whenever he leaves, I'm going to follow him to the edge of the property. Yeah, and he's he's he's just kind of scurrying down the and the entire time he's just like looking left and right, looking left and right.

And he's going to make his way back to the filic read phone. I'd like to come up with some sort of gnome hand signals so him and I can communicate without the others not knowing what we're saying. There's got to be some type of gnome language that's like, you know, other ears can't can't hear little gnome lush. Yeah, we can do that. We can totally do that. Lush. Yeah. How's about we catch up with Baranath and Vallis? And so they've been on the road now for hours and hours, and they've made pretty good time. They're not they're they're still a ways away from White Hedge, but they're they've been on the road now for a while.

It's it's been largely silent, like Vallis hasn't really said a word. It's just kind of been a pleasant ride, like nothing. The weather's decent. I mean, nothing nothing's gone wrong yet. You haven't been attacked like that's that's almost kind of rare, actually, leaving Brightport. So that's that may be some of your work taking care of those, taking care of the bandits and things like that. The attacks have lessened a bit. Vallis is going to speak up after what could have been hours of silence. You know, you didn't have to come with me. Yeah, yeah, I know I didn't have to go with you.

Um, I don't know. I just thought it was best that you not be alone. I appreciate it. It's just this could be dangerous. I think I've demonstrated that I can hold my own. That's OK. That's that's fair enough. And then after after a few beats, I mean, you did kill me. And he kind of lets a couple of these go and you can you can see this smile creep across his face. What are you smiling about? Nothing, just I've never really been bested like that. I mean, you did knock me down a pit, but still. He's still a little like awkward, kind of fumbly, like with his words, like he's just kind of trying to find them.

So how did you end up in that place anyway? Well, let's just say I haven't made a lot of friends in Brightport. I was hired routinely by certain people to eliminate certain other people. Eventually, the captain of the guard there caught wind of it. And he and a few of his men imprisoned me one night. Hang on, hired? Who was your employer? He kind of looks down. Whoever would pay me, to be honest, mostly bar patrons, sleazy drag types. So you're telling me you're you're a hired assassin? Assassin puts too much emphasis on I murder things. That's that's what I'm good at.

OK. I thought you understood that. No, no, I mean, I do. I do. I understand it. So explain to me again, you were you were detained by by someone? Again, I have quite the reputation in Brightport. It didn't take long to build up one. I left the city for a while. And for a number of years, I traveled west, but eventually had to return. I honestly don't like living in Brightport or associating with anyone in it, especially Graddick. But that's my mother's business partner. So I have done one or two things for him as well. Regrettably, of course, but nonetheless.

Is that a lucrative business? I mean, killing for money? I don't possess many skills, as you can imagine. I pretty much killing is all I'm good at. I didn't have a lot of career opportunities. Does Tessia know? I'm sure she knows. I'm sure she's aware of what I do. It's protected her more than once. Especially after my brother left. I had to step in and make sure no harm came to her. Oh, it never occurred to me that you would have a brother. I don't anymore. He's dead. I see. So what were your dealings with Graddick? What were you doing for him? Well, he's a useful business partner as far as making the fawn lucrative.

But he did bring unwanted attention from people. He constantly ripped people off or made promises he couldn't fulfill. And then when the time came for retribution, I had to stand between him and whoever was the offended party. I understand. I'm just going to get quiet for a short while. I really don't know what else I can say to that. You guys are approaching the wagon that was attacked. And there is someone standing next to it with a torch. Real nervous looking fellow. This is your standard looking wagon covered. And it looks pretty nondescript. It doesn't look like anything that would be traveling with very valuable goods or anything.

The one thing you notice about it right away is it is coated in blood. Oh my. Yeah, like this, like a person exploded in it, like that kind of thing. It looks, yeah, this looks, this doesn't look like a bandit attack so much as like blood orgy or something. Like something happened horrible here. And the guy holding up the torch is just kind of like holding it up in the air trying to squint his eyes and see who's approaching. And Valis is going to halt the cart, the wagon. And I'm taking a guess, but that looks like our wagon. Your guess is as good as mine.

Do you want me to talk to him? Would you? And he's going to step down off the wagon and it's kind of this big thump when he hits the ground, just kind of like his, when his boots hit the ground, it's just kind of like pump pump, just these big ass boots. And so imagine this guy is standing here next to this wagon, which has obviously been just torn to shreds. And anybody who was inside it was attacked. And he's standing there next to this thing. And out of the darkness rides this giant demon, essentially. Oh, my. And he's going to approach this guy. Are you guarding this cart for any particular reason?

The guy's kind of like, you could see the torch like flickering as he's shaking. Like he's just this guy's not a fighter. I was supposed to wait for someone from House Darkspane? That would be us. What can you tell us about the attack? Nothing, really. I was just supposed to make sure no one came near the cart. I would really like to get out of here now, though. And Valus just kind of like motions his hand like, OK, go get out of here. This guy isn't even like he has no means of transportation. He is just going to streak back down the street in the opposite direction.

He's just going to run? He's just going to run like full force, like sprint, like gone running. And Valus is going to walk towards the cart, look around and then motion for Baranath to come closer to it. OK. Can I roll perception? You sure can. I would advise it. All right. 17. OK. There is no horse tied to this this cart anymore, though that could have been taken back to town or it doesn't look like there was anything violent done to the horse necessarily. Inside, around and even on top of this cart, there are bits of people scattered everywhere like this is like whatever happened here was fast and violent and yet damage was done.

Not only is the shipment gone, but everyone who was in this cart, there's no corpses. The the it's just bits of people like there's a finger, there's there's a bit of skin, there's there. I mean, lots of lots of blood, like just blood. I'm going to shudder and turn away and kind of breathe through the nausea. Valus does not turn away. Valus has just kind of got his head like in the cart, like moving stuff around, poking poking around. This does not look like bandits. I would have to agree with you on that. What what could tear people apart like this? Like like whose work is this?

Any number of people could have done it if they were looking to send a message. But if Crowley's right and no one knew about this shipment, then there's no reason to do that. On the other hand, many animals could have done this, though I don't see any distinct tracks. Unless you'd like to give a look. Tracking is not really my specialty. I guess I could roll nature. Yep. Would that help? That sure would. 17. OK. Judging by there there's there's claw marks, there's there's there's things all over this cart. And you do pick up a set of tracks, several distinct sets of tracks, actually.

And this looks to be the work of gnolls to you. Oh, boy. Um. Oh, shit. I don't think I've... What is it? This these are gnoll tracks. There are there are several sets of them. That could be trouble. If we got the jump on one or two of them, they wouldn't pose much problem. But if they got the jump on us and there are several, as you say, there are. That could be a problem. Oh. Um. I don't know what to do. Like, I don't I don't want to put us in any danger, but I mean, we're here to find out what happened to that shipment. We could at least find out where they drug it.

If we need to, we can get reinforcements if you're not comfortable. OK. I'm comfortable with that. Let's just keep. Let's just keep undercover. So the sets, the sets of tracks kind of leads into like a wooded area type of place, like the area around Whitehedge is actually like a lot of wide open spaces, kind of rolling hills, that type of thing. But there are little wooded areas here and there. And that definitely leads into like a like a thicket type of place. So while let's say Baranath and Valis are investigating that, let's let's jump back to House Darksbane here.

So hours pass. It's now late in the evening. So David's going to David's going to find you guys. Where would everyone be? I am up in the room I slept in. OK, wherever that is. I'm still I'm back reading like, you know, creepy arcane magic books and there are max quarters. OK, can I learn anything from these? Like, I mean, I'm going to study these pretty crazily without like selling my soul to any other deities. Oh, dude, the longer you study his journals and all that stuff, the more stuff you're going to pick out. OK, like it just like but I mean, can I learn powers or anything or any spells or is there anything that I'm actually going to benefit out of this level wise to like it might be an XP bump, something like that, but not a straight up.

I can't just hand you a power type of thing. I wanted to turn into like a big blood mage and kill everybody. We can make that happen, but that's going to be that. Yeah, that's that involves some stuff. That's that is some soul selling like, no, he's not going to be selling his soul, but he's definitely going to be reading all of the like, you know, the like how to cast more spells for dummies books and stuff like. So going through his journals and stuff, you there's something that keeps coming up, something he keeps calling the binding. And it'll be it comes up repeatedly in his journals and it'll be like he's talking about a process that like the further back you go, it's like, oh, the bindings coming.

I need to I need to prepare my body and blood. So this is something that he was the more you read about it, the more you the more you gather that that may have something to do with that that form he took downstairs when you fought him last. The whole blood mage thing, that whole. Yeah. But that is something that keeps coming up in these in these journals. David is going to find you and kind of poke his head into each one of your rooms here. Whenever you have a second, I have a progress report for everyone. Excellent. Let's reconvene to the dining room. Always to the dining room.

Well, I mean, there's lots of like bacon and beer, so. Yeah. They they have a steady stream of of of fried fixins. I'm there anyway. It's like jalapeno poppers and shit. It's awesome. Yeah. It's like a TGI Fridays down there. It's it's what's the Canadian equivalent to TGI Fridays? I don't know. Applebee's. OK. No, that's not quite TGI Friday. It's kind of. Didn't Applebee's go healthy? I don't go out. No, I think they still have all you can eat like ribs and shit, I think. Oh, OK. That's not healthy. OK, never mind. Yeah. He OK. So everyone's kind of convened in the dining room.

I have spoken to associates from each one of the houses. They are open to an unofficial meeting before the one that takes place in. And he's just kind of like thinking about it in about eight and a half days. If you would like to meet with them and speak about affairs, it would be completely off the record. That is up to you, of course. It's at your discretion. The freelance carpenters are at work, as you can see, and he's kind of pointing around. The pictures are gone. Anything that could be taken off the walls is gone. So the place is looking a bit bare, but at the same time, it's looking less creepy.

So that's that's a step up. On top of that, if there's anything you'd like me to do in the meantime, I understand this must be frustrating for you just sitting around the empty house. Do you know how long like a rough estimate of how long it would take before the house is up to presentable level? If you give us two more days, I can have new paint. Did you decide on a color scheme? Ricus doesn't know color schemes. Ricus, I don't think we should be worried about renovating the house. We've got an opportunity to meet with the other houses. How long are we going to wait for the tiefling and the elf to get back here before we meet with them?

I want to make sure that this house does not look anything and remind any of the people from the other houses of what it used to be. Then you're welcome to help the painters. In the meantime, we should deal with more pressing matters. Fine. David, does this house have some type of an armory? Should we procure more weapons for ourselves? You know, in the meantime before we have the manpower, we may have to do some defending ourselves if any type of a skirmish at our door breaks out. We feel fairly well equipped, but is there anything else in the walls of the house that would help us looking at our specific skill sets?

Well, as you can imagine, most of the defenses of House Darkspane were magic. Pretty much anyone who was a member of the house had at least some magical attunement. That has changed now. I have received word that within a week's time we can have our new friends from Durran Hollow here. That's a long time to wait with no real defense to the house, though. Thermac had some magical defenses up. I mean, we sensed them, we saw them when we invaded, I guess you should say. And I haven't had a lot of success duplicating them, but is there anyone that could assist me in translating this so that we could at least put up some magical defenses around the house?

I may know someone, yes, but it will cost us. I think that that's an expense that we could take. Do you agree? Rikus Trixie? Mm-hmm. Grattik? Under the table? No. I'm not sure. [laughter] Sennheide? I guess. I can get right on that. I should be able to have him here tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to suggest this, and it may sound insane. We could always contract Hammerhand. Would this be- Their whole living is protect, and their entire makeup is being honor-bound. If they get a contract, they carry out the contract, and there's no fear of a double cross.

That would, however, involve inviting them into the house. That's a very interesting scenario. Is this something that we could propose after the initial meeting? I think we may be able to glean what their attitudes are towards us after this informal meeting. If it looks like Hammerhand may be more accepting of our longer-term goals, which is maybe protecting the East, dealing with the threat of Onakal, if it exists, and talking about some of these revelations about Theramax ambitions, if the leaders of Hammerhand seem a little bit more welcome to our goals, would we be interested in contracting them then, or would we try to hire them underneath before even the meeting?

At least they would be honor-bound to defend us if the meeting went sour. They would be fighting themselves, but we would have defenses. That's completely up to you. The only thing I would suggest is that if you are trying to build the new house on this code of honor and open honesty, that hiring one of your potential rivals out from one another before you even have a chance to speak with the leaders may be a bit premature. Yeah, you're right. While it would be an interesting gambit, it's probably too great of a risk at this point. I think we should not wait for the elf and the tiefling to return.

We should meet with them soon. Does anyone agree? Why are you so anxious to do everything while they're gone? Well, because as you can see, conversations with the elf seem to delay things. There's always some type of a side agenda or a personal stake in the things that she does. Well, I commend her compassion and her dedication to this group, even after all we've been through. We're in a little bit of a larger world now that affects a lot more people, the people of Brightport as well. So if we have an opportunity to meet with the other houses, we maybe should start things moving.

I see your point. I don't like this idea. I still think we should wait for them. I mean, it's up to you what you're going to do, but I think it'd be a bad idea to not wait for them to come back. Ricus, what do you say? How long does it take to travel back from Durnhollow? It would take about a week round trip. A week round trip? And they only left yesterday? They left earlier today. Oh, right, right, right. We should just do what's best for the house at this point. Keep in mind, I sent our fastest riders. I'm doing everything possible to expedite this. Oh, they went to Whitehedge.

Pardon my geography. I meant how long to travel back from Whitehedge, not your trip to Durnhollow. Well, that all depends on how quickly they can resolve any conflict there. I don't really know who attacked our wagon, but if it's something quick and quiet they can take care of, they could be back as soon as two, three days from now. Shall we give them a day? At least we may hear back something from Gratic. We have our sort of newfound democracy in the house. I don't want to be speaking for all of us. Would it be, okay, if we're going to let anyone in our house, would it be wrong of us to spend, give them the two days maximum to get back and in that time make our house more presentable so we're not having anyone in a house that's not ready to be run?

It doesn't look like it's ready to be run. Well, we're not meeting with them in that. We're not letting them in our house. The meeting is going to be at a neutral point, I would assume. Is that right, Jason? Oh, that's up to you guys. The meeting could be wherever you like it to be. If you want it to be an open house type of deal, you can do that. No. No way. Fuck no. Do we have any information on how strong their houses are, like how many they have in each house? Well, for Silverclaw not really. The mock-up of their entire foundation is based on secrecy and lies and information and you can gather.

Hammerhand on the other hand is quite open about how many strong they are and you're looking at hundreds, many of which are in the field performing duties, but there are still quite a few within the city. If we meet with them beforehand, I don't want to do it in the house. That's just my big thing, is visually this is what represents us and if we're saying we're changing and while it may show that we have carpenters in here to change the wallpaper and stuff like that, I just don't feel like it conveys enough image of change to just say, "Hey, we're changing.

Come look at our house that has nobody but a house full of cooks." I support us meeting with them beforehand, but if we do, I feel like while it may not be completely safer, meeting at a neutral site might be the best bet. May I make a suggestion? Please do. If you're looking for... You said you were researching spells that would cloak, hide certain aspects of the house, correct? Yes, I've had a small amount of success, but nothing that could grant us the protection or illusion that we might need. While I can help with that, I can have the individual that can help with that tomorrow, I do have friends in Aubrey that specialize in talents, putting up barriers and they have expertise in healing in case someone would need it within the house.

So you're saying that in the meantime, we contract some more folks to just give us a little bit more protection magically? It would be another ride, it would take time, but again, if you were thinking the long haul, big picture, it would be very helpful. Dagon, what do you think? I'm thinking we meet on neutral ground. I'm sure you could use your bluffing skills to at least have them think that we have our house defended. We do legitimately have the dragon. While the elf seems to be the one that can manipulate it, at the very least, it may be able to defend us if we had to retreat into our home.

But I do prefer the idea of neutral ground. I think the inside of this house maybe displays more weakness right now than we want to. So what I'm hearing is you want to meet these people on neutral ground and you want to do that as soon as possible. I think so, yeah. So let's catch up with Baranath and Valus, actually. You guys are following these tracks, Baranath's tracking and Valus is just clutching a sword behind her. How would you like to... You guys are just sneaking through the woods here, just following these tracks, looking for where these gnolls are?

Just following tracks and maybe just trying to sneak a look at who we're dealing with. So this kind of opens up into a clearing. I want you to roll a stealth check. Oh my. Okay, stealth is plus five, so 23. 23, gorgeous. Actually, shit, Valus has got to make a stealth check too. That's a six. It's about as subtle as an elephant. Okay, that makes much more sense though. I was reading the wrong... Okay. Okay, so you guys are kind of... Well, one of you is being very stealthy and one of you is not. And let me load up the map, actually. You guys are entering in from this side here.

And you're getting the sense, you're looking around and there's many more tracks on the ground. So you're getting the sense that you're coming up on where they congregate. And as you're sneaking through, Valus kind of steps on a branch and it kind of... It's a big thick branch, it snaps loudly underneath him. And he just kind of gives this look like, "Fuck." Just kind of really just kind of cursing himself under his breath. And you both pause and wait and you don't hear anything but crickets and the distant call of something off in the background, maybe a wolf or something, off in the distance somewhere.

So if you would like to proceed, make another stealth check. Okay. 18. Okay. And he's going to do the same. Nine. I'm gonna look back at him and give him a look like, "Really? Really?" Just the way you read the number nine. And nine. So again, he's going to... So as you're sneaking and you're being all elven, stealthy, quiet, nothing, and he's coming up and he's gonna kick a rock and it's gonna hit a tree and something's gonna hit something's gonna fall out of the tree and he's just looking. And you give him a look and he's like, "Fucking sorry." He's looking at you and saying a lot with his eyes but not saying anything.

He's just, "Fuck." And now you're hearing movement. Oh, shit. You're hearing... And what it sounds like is... Imagine if there's a being that speaks almost entirely in growls. Just kind of a what? Like, "Rar!" Just kind of growling and kind of a high-pitched, kind of a screech almost. And it sounds like there's a pack of something up ahead talking to each other. It's like a pack of Justins. Completely unreasonable, dangerous, just a pack of them. Okay. So can I roll Perception on the area that I see? Please do. Okay. I accidentally rolled on something else. Okay, 19. 19.

Okay. Your vision is a little better than Valis's. And you look ahead and see a pack of these gnolls all kind of congregating around this pile of loot that they have. Now right now, you guys would be right about here-ish. Okay. Like, right in there. So you can just make them out. Like, you don't exactly see how many of them there are, but you're seeing that there's a pack of them. They all seem to be kind of distracted with whatever they're doing. Also around the camp. So there's this... Like, they got a campfire set up. So they're intelligent enough to use tools and fire and things like that.

So they're not just wild animals. They're half man, half like hyena. So picture again, the worst qualities of a man, like being able to not reason, but use tools and fire and weapons. And then that pack animal mentality that they would just rip shit apart. And as a testament to that, what they did was you see corpses, a couple of corpses kind of lining these rocks right around this area here. They are completely skinless. They have been flayed. And it looks as though they have, like, tanning racks where they have stretched the skin and they're letting it dry.

They had to do something with it, but they needed skin. And yeah, so pretty gruesome. Pretty awful. Oh shit. So you're reacting to this and Valis is going to kind of lean over without making too much noise. What do you see? Oh, there's a pack of gnolls. Jason, do I see any of our loot, like any of our stuff? Well, I mean, you didn't know what it looked like, but there are some chests and sacks like scattered about the area. So either they've been doing this for a while or that was the stuff in the wagon or, you know, either way, there's something scattered about the area.

It's definitely valuables. Okay. I think this is them. I think these are our men. I'm I don't know how I feel about proceeding with this. Like they flayed two people. How many of them are there? I think I see six. We could take six. As long as we get the drop on them, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Just stay close to me. And you're going to try to be quiet, right? I'm trying. It's not really my strong suit. Okay, let's go. So the object right now, you're just going to try and like sneak up right behind them and get an attack off, right? Yeah, okay. Okay, so you got this.

If you successfully sneak up on them, you're going to get a surprise round against these things. Okay. So go ahead and roll your final stealth roll here. 15. That's not fantastic. But is it enough? It will be just enough. Like that is the baseline of like, because these things aren't paying too much attention to their surroundings right now. They're kind of there. Yeah. So let's see what Valis gets. What's the going rate on elf skins? Oh, honey. Okay, that's that's a five. That's well below the baseline of what would be acceptable and stealthy. So what's going to happen here is that there's like this, this whole this whole field is kind of filled with like ragweed and stuff and Valis is going to let out this big awful sneeze.

And then immediately just like, again, just like, fucking just Oh, just like he's just pissed. So he's just got his sword at the ready. And what I want you to do, Alana is place your character like right here ish, like right there. And I'll pop Valis on the field. And you guys are going to roll initiative. This could be a real quick fight. I don't know. This could be if you have any attacks attack their charisma, because if they're obviously smart enough to use tools, their intelligence will be high enough. But I imagine if they're grunting, their ability to really have charisma is going to be low.

I'm just thinking logistically, if you have any attacks, that would be the best thing. Strategy wise, you have a few attacks that could actually make this go in your favor. I'm going to shut up now. I'm just thinking it's going to be awkward when you have to deliver like Valis's sword to test you when you get back. Get a fucking twofer off. Just delivering the souvenirs. I'm sorry, this is what's left. I gotta go. He died valiantly. I also saved his skin. If you want to. Baranath rolled a 23, Valis rolled a 22. And let's take a look at what the gnolls are working with.

Wow. OK, so two of them rolled higher than Baranath. So we're looking at gnoll farfang number one. Let's see here. OK, so they're going to hear Valis sneeze, obviously, and they're all just kind of turns like just kind of like just deep guttural growls like you just stumbled upon a pack of wolves, but kind of a higher pitch. Like imagine like a hyena. So these these particular gnolls have like crude looking bows and arrows. And they are going to whip them out and take a shot at Valis for sneezing. So that's D20 plus 15, 19 versus AC. That's going to miss Valis.

And it's going to like scamper this way real quick. Then we're going to get to the second farfang and it's going to do the same thing. 20. That's going to hit Valis. Let's see here. That is OK. That's 2D10 plus five. Jesus Christ, that's 21. Oh, shit. OK, well, that's going to reduce Valis to 39 hit points. Baranath, your turn. OK, um, minor action, shield of faith. All righty. Probably a really good idea. Yeah. Um, and for my standard action, I'm going to use against number one here, my Break the Spirit. OK. D20 plus nine. And it's a standard range 10, 12. That's going to miss.

God. We may have two character deaths today. This is... Wow. OK. Um, and that's that's all you're doing for... Um, that's all I've got left. Remember, shield of faith. Actually, let's mark these two with shield of faith. That is a good thing. Plus two to AC. Well, the rest of the party might not have to sit around too much before they get to make another action. If that makes you feel better. They won't be bored. Um, geez. No Claw Fighter number three. Let's see here. What's he going to do? He is going to move forward one, two, three, four. And he's going to make a claw attack against a Braneth.

So D20 plus 11, 17 versus AC. I miss. All right. So that does it for him. Valus takes a turn. OK. Something needs to be done. Valus is going to step in front of Braneth and use his Blade of Avernus against against the Claw Fighter here. And that is... Uh, Critmas. Oh, my. Jesus Christ. Come on. Um, wow. This is going to be this is going to get bad. One, two, three, four, five, six. And use his second movement to get close to. So that's Claw Fighter number one is going to use both his actions to get close to Braneth. Now there is there is a there's a note that looks different from every one of them.

Clearly like the alpha male. Yeah. And he's got he's got a rep in these parts. They call him Bloodfang. Just a big, tough, scrappy nodal. And he is going to spend both of his movements to get right up to Valus. And that'll bring up Farfang three. Actually right there. And he's going to make an attack against Valus. Twenty three will hit. Two D ten plus five. Oh, shit. Twenty damage to Valus. That will bring him down to 19 hit points. Oh wait. Yeah. Twenty three. Sorry. I was trying to remember the bonus AC that just hits him, though. Oh, wow. Claw Fighter two. He's going to use both of his movements to get right up to Valus and.

Fuck, that brings us back to the beginning theater order. Let's see. Yeah, this isn't great. Going to be honest. Let's see, he's going to move forward the first Farfang. Good Lord. And he's going to use his hand ax. The only good thing about that is that they aren't as proficient with the hand ax as they are with the bows that they seem to have trained in one thing. The bad news is he just rolled a twenty six. Which will hit that'll hit balance. So good news is that's less damage than what would normally come out of. That's two D six plus five, ten damage to Valus, which brings him down to nine.

This is going bad quick. Yes, yes it is. Second for let's see here. He's going to position himself right behind the other claw fighter and that'll be his turn and Baranath. OK. Shit, shit, shit. OK, a Bastion of Health on Valus and that's a minor action. He can spend a healing surge and regain additional hit points equal to my charisma modifier. And I think that's two. OK, awesome. That's fantastic. OK. And so that's seventeen health for Valus. So on this guy, number one here, I'm going to use my Sunburst, which is D twenty plus twelve. It's wisdom versus AC.

Eighteen. Eighteen will hit. OK, so it is one D eight plus six. Thirteen. Thirteen damage. Awesome. And he's bloodied, right? He is not bloodied. Oh, God damn it. Not quite. OK. Wait. Yeah. Thirteen damage. Not quite bloodied. Sorry. OK. Can I shift? You can. Oh, wow. That's too many numbers. Sorry. All right. So that does it for your turn. No Claw Fighter. Jeez. He is going to take a swing at. OK, he's going to take a swing at the Valus with his Claw attack. Jesus Christ, that's a twenty seven. That'll hit. That's twenty one damage. Jesus. OK, Valus is down to five hit points.

Fleeing is an option. Yeah, I think we're going to do that. Whose turn is it? Valus's turn. OK. What do I have in the I think I may have to use some kind of daily or something here. Like this is. Unfucking believable. All right. Firstly, let's let's do reckless assault. When Valus is bloody, he can make two attacks to at will attacks. So let's do this. Let me attack the wow, he is completely surrounded. Let me attack the. Yeah, that's a higher. OK, so let me attack with Blade of Avernus. And that will against Claw Fighter three thirty. Thank you. So that's going to hit.

And then let's do that again. Twenty seven. That'll hit. So I get to roll damage two separate times. To ten plus six. Fifteen and nineteen. Claw fighters dead. I haven't moved yet. Damn. Let me shift back one and pop an action point and do that again. Let me swing at the claw fighter one that you've already hit. Twenty plus thirteen once that'll hit and twice that damage twice. He's dead. So another one's dead. OK. So I my attack didn't hit, but do we still get five temporary points? Let me see what is the power zone again? Sunburst. Is that what I hit him with? Sunburst, I think.

So, yeah. The effect now the effect just takes place either way. So we both came five temporary points. So let's do that. Five hit points, which I desperately, desperately need. You guys can talk, you know. We're not. That's cool. Don't die. Sorry. I got this. What do you do with education? What is this going to go bad for? Not all at once. You told us we could talk. I'm watching funny cat videos. So bloodfang's just going to let out this cackle, which is going to let every ally of his within five squares shift two squares. Motherfuck. So they're all just kind of like closing, like closing the gap around you.

Us. Yeah, whatever. Fuck, no farfang. He is going to move down and take a shot at Baraneth with his bow. Twenty three against Risi. Oh, yes. OK. That is a bummer. Two D ten plus five. Thirteen damage. See, he's low rolling against you. Thirteen damage. So this this this like I imagine there's just made of bones and, you know, fragments of rocks and things like that. But this thing definitely grazes your arm or something like that. That's enough to do some damage. Claw fighter number two. He is going to shift forward and take a swing at Baraneth. Using his claw attack.

Twenty one AC misses. Does it seriously? Yeah. Oh, Timp AC. Yes, that's right. Yes. So that's embarrassing for this, Noel, and he's going to feel shame as a minor action. Lord farfang number one is going to take. He's going to attack you to Baraneth specifically with his bow and arrow. Thirty three. That's going to hit. Nineteen damage. And Thoril runs out of the bushes and saves them, revealing his lifelong love for Valus. Let's see, Farfang two is going to run up to Valus and take out his hand axe. And please miss. That's not a miss. Yeah, that's not great. Three damage.

Three damage. And that reduces Valus to five hit points. No, seven hit points. All right. Baraneth turn. Valus still has an action point. Okay. Oh, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. As a minor action or as an interrupt, he's going to use infernal wrath and Valus is going to hit that the one that just hit him with one D six plus seven damage. Not great, but something. Ten damage to that thing. Okay. That will bloody it. So go ahead. Sorry. Minor action. I'm going to use my healing word on Valus. And it's two D six additional hit points. Three. Oh, fuck. Isn't that like plus your charisma or something too?

I'm hoping. No, no, I don't think it is. Oh, okay. Well, okay. Well, not looking to give Taurus in the mouth. Three hit points for Valus. All right. He's he's back up to ten. I am going to grab his arm and look at him terrified and scream run. And I'm going to I'm going to run back. I'm going to get the hell out of there. Can I like grab him so he comes with me? You can. That's more of a strength thing. You can make a check. What is the check for that? I want to like, well, I mean, you could just use your attack to like grab him if you wanted to like to try and restrain him.

And like that. But I mean, like, yeah, that's I mean, you're not going to move anywhere with him. Like that's not going to happen. But what's my you telling? That's my capacity. How much can I carry? How much does he weigh? Not a Valus. I'm going to guess you're a frail elf form. You're going to carry a Valus. I'm not that frail. Valus is its own measurement of weight. That's yes, it's exactly one Valus in measure. Okay, my carrying capacity is 550 pounds. I don't think that's true. I'm doubting it. You telling him to run, though, I mean, like he got the message that you're going to back off.

Okay. Is he going to come with me? Well, okay. Here's the thing. Like he's surrounded. Like he can't exactly turn around and run. Yeah, he can. He's like an initiative. That's the thing, though. He'll take two opportunity attacks. He's literally turning his back on these guys who are right there. Excuse me. And just walk away. It's not going to happen like that. Plus he's looking at this as you're directly under fire if he turns his back and runs. If he's going to stand there and and absorb that, like every second they're beaten up on him, they're not beaten up on you.

I don't want the beating up on either of us. Oh, shit. Like you know enough about him to know he's probably not just going to turn and run. He's not the brightest when it comes to odds necessarily. Like he he doesn't seem like, oh, we got this. Like it's like this looks bad, but we're totally going to get this. That you're in the middle of a fucking field in the middle of like this forest where like where are you going to go? Like you're running through in the dark. They obviously know the layout better than you. I've got low light vision. We could go anywhere but here.

Well, he does, too. So yeah, I mean, like, yeah, it's not like you're going to it's not a Friday the 13th, but we were going to trip over some branches or something. But well, Valus might the way he fucking clumps around. Oh, gosh. Brian just asked about the horn of summoning that only works for party members. Fuck that idea. Well, no. Hey, Grasping at straws. I get it. Like, like you also have an action point. Should have taken that horse from Trixie or maybe the bomb. Yeah. Yeah, that's. Oh, gosh. That's totally I mean, like you got you got tricks like you got stuff and I mean, like you can attack and then you got a you got a.

Action point and then if you want, you can run. It's totally up to you. If you had the bomb, at least you guys could like, you know, set the explosive and then clutch it romantically as it blows you both up. Like Vasquez and aliens. God damn it. OK. Oh, what the fuck? OK. Against this asshole here, no claw fighter number two. I'm going to use my singing strike. It is a D 20 plus 12. 31 totally hits. Darn fucking right. My damage is one plus six, 13, 13 damage. That isn't quite enough to bloody him. I'm. God damn it. If you want, you can pop an action point completely up to you.

Yeah, I'm going to pop an action point. I'm going to hit him again with singing strike. Thirty one again. Totally hits. OK. And that's D plus six. Eleven. Eleven damage. That will that that'll get him down there like he's he's really hurt. OK, I've already used a minor, so I think I'm done. All right. Uh, Valis's turn. I still have I used both my action points, didn't I? Did I? I used one. Let me see. No, I got one. OK. All right. I'm debating on this, I could polish these two off right now. Do it, do it, do it, do it. I'm still very much bloodied, so I still get reckless assault.

OK, reckless assault. I'm going to use two melee attacks, two at will attacks here at I'm going to attack to the far thing first and then the claw fighter and cross your fingers. Sixteen against the far thing. So that is going to miss. Let me swing on. Oh, wait, which one? This one here. OK. Yeah, but I created the other one. Excellent. Which will definitely kill that one. Can I so as in a reaction, immediate reaction of a close first three, it's my death surge. A creature within three squares of you drops to zero hit points. It targets each enemy in the burst.

It's wisdom versus fortitude. And it's a D 20 plus nine. What's the first three? Wow. Yeah, that'll that'll hit. Twenty three. OK, so start with let's see here. Close range for the creature. OK, so start with start with far fang one twenty three. That'll hit. Then go to blood thing. Twelve. That that'll miss. And then far fang to seventeen seventeen. That'll miss. Damn it. So you hit one. So roll damage on that one. OK, so that is. D plus six, eleven, eleven damage. That is enough to bloody it. The effect is myself and each ally in the first get a plus two power bonus to attack rolls until the end of my next turn and gave five temporary hit points.

Love it. My showing favoritism towards you and Valis. I'm not sure. No, I actually love this right now. Say not getting the shit kicked out of them. Yeah, I kind of are because the old temp hit temp hit kind of erases the other one. Valis is just back up to five temp hit points instead of like he had two left. So he's up to 13. OK. All right. Valis is still got another. He's going to for his move. He's oh shit. That'll hurt her. Damn it. It's not going to work. OK. Jason to the square he teleports from. That'll hurt that river and he will not do that. You know what?

I'm just going to use blade of Avernus on reckless assault. Blade of Avernus on to hear twenty three. Hit seventeen will miss. So to D, let's see, to D plus two D, 10 plus five. No, no, no. Twelve, that will kill it. So right now it's. Baranath stands at thirty one hit points. Valis has 13 and you are in this clearing with three gnolls ruining, one of which is blood fang. Blood fangs turn. He is going to charge at Valis and he is going to use his flail. He's got this this kind of Morningstar looking weapon, but it's on a chain. So it's just this big flail. So he's like swinging it around his head and he's going to try and bring it down on Valis's face.

Twenty four versus AC, which will hit Valis. This is just two D, 10, 12 damage that reduces Valis to one hit point. God damn it. One hit point for Valis. Gnoll Farfang is going to position himself behind Baranath, but at a distance and he is going to fire an arrow at her. T6. Shit, yes. OK, that's two D, 10 plus five. Nine damage to Baranath. This is not looking too great. The other Farfang is going to do the same thing, the only remaining one. Wow, that's a 30 to Baranath. Yeah. Two D, 10 plus five. Fourteen. Jeez. So, this arrow is going to, this arrow is heading right for Baranath.

Valis is going to use Bodyguard and just step in front and eat this fucking arrow. Just eat it. Just shift it in front of her and eat this thing. So that reduces, that's fourteen damage to Valis. So Valis is down. He takes this thing and goes down. Baranath's turn. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. What do I do, what do I do? Shit. You have one remaining healing word. You have, oof, you're running out of dailies too. Oh, um, okay, minor action healing word on Valis. Okay, roll two D, six. Okay, eleven. Okay, Valis is going to, he's prone, but he's going to wake up and he's going to have eleven hit points.

Okay, um. So that's something. You still have, you still have plus two to your AC. Yeah. Wow, that is, this is kind of bleak. Oh, and I get a plus two power bonus to my attack rolls because of my last, um. Yes, you do. My last turn. Okay, so I'm going to use my Howl at Advance on, um, on Bloodfang. Standard action melee, it's one creature, it's strength versus AC. Okay, so it's D20 plus seven plus two for my power bonus. Twelve. No, okay, no, I'm going to pop Elven Accuracy. And Elven Accuracy lets me roll it again with a plus two on it. Twenty six. Very nice.

Twenty six will hit. Okay, um, so Howl at Advance, um, uh, the hit is, uh, two D8 plus one, uh, which is eleven. Um, one ally within five squares of me can teleport adjacent to him and make a melee basic attack against it as a free action. Um, in addition, they can also spend a healing surge. Oh, okay, so I'm guessing that, well, there's only one ally next to you. Yeah, so, um, I don't really need to teleport him, but, um, he can make a, uh, melee basic, um, and he can spend a healing surge. So let's say he teleports right behind Bloodfang. Okay. So that now you two are flanking Bloodfang.

Okay. So he fucking boom, lights go up, he's off, you know, he's off the ground on his feet and he's making an attack against Bloodfang. Uh, he's going to get plus two for flanking. Uh, let's see here. That's a D20 plus 15. If he misses this, then 32. Thank God. Um, two D10 plus five. Uh, that is 18 damage and that will bloody Bloodfang. Okay. Uh, let's see here. Excuse me, um, that's going to wrap up, uh, Brannith's turn. Um, fuck, fuck. Yes. Okay. Yes. Um, you know what? Okay. Uh, he's not next to B anymore. Okay. Um, uh, he is going to use Fire Step. Uh, he is going to teleport, uh, teleport up to five squares.

Uh, each creature adjacent to the square he teleports from or peers, uh, appears and takes five fire damage. Uh, 10 if Alice is bloodied. So okay. He is going to burst into flames and then vanish. As a result, uh, Bloodfang is going to take 10 damage. Um, and then he is going to reappear, uh, next to the, this Knoll over here. And he is going to use, uh, Reckless Assault, Plate of Avernus again, twice. 15 is going to miss. 20 is going to hit. And that was just barely, uh, 2d10 plus five, 15 will kill it. The only ones left in the field now are Bloodfang and, uh, this, this Farfang here.

So Bloodfang is going to take his turn. Uh, and he is going to whip his flail around and use that on Berana. Uh, 24 against your AC. Yeah, it'll hit. That's 2d10, nine damage to Beraneth. Hey, uh, that is going to wrap him up and, uh, Knoll Farfang is going to also take a shot at Beraneth with, uh, his arrow here. Um, with his bow that is. Wouldn't make much sense to just throw an arrow at her. Uh, d20 plus 15, Critmas. Yeah. Uh, he is going to charge forward as a result, uh, and that'll bring up Beraneth's turn. Um, okay, so I will use my Singing Strike, um, against the Knoll Farfang and it is d20 plus 12.

I'm going to add plus two because it was speedy that time. God damn it. Wow, that's a Critmas. Dean. Oh, um. I was going to say, what's the bonus if she actually, if she was using Singing Strike? Uh, it's a Critmas, so it misses anyway. Nevermind. Do I still get my effect? Uh, Singing Strike, if it, let's see here, I always forget this. You take some minus two penalty to attack rolls until the end of my next turn. Yes. Okay. Negative two to attack rolls. Yes, that does still go up. Okay. So do you want to shift or anything? No, can I use my, as a free action, I want to use my Hidden Strike.

Um, uh, the, uh, I, if I make a bluff check, um, if it exceeds his passive insight, um, they believe the attack came from somewhere else and I'm invisible until the start of my next turn. Sure. Okay. So my bluff is not high. My bluff is only a plus five, but I got to try, um, nineteen. That is higher than his passive. Okay. So, um, they treat me as invisible until the end of my next turn. They or he? Um, what does my power say? It says all creatures observing me. Okay. Well then, okay. To them, you are a ghost. Like you just vanished. Okay. Um, that's going to bring up Valus's turn.

This is bullshit. Let's end it. Uh, Valus is, uh, sheathing a sword and whipping up the kitten hunt. All right. It's just swinging this big fucking chained bear trap around. Um, D 20 plus 13. He's going to roll against a blood fang 17 versus reflex that will hit blood fangs reflex. Yes. Uh, two D eight plus 10, 19. This bear trap is just going to clamp down on this thing's neck. Uh, and a blood fangs going to go limp as he drags the body towards him. Um, seeing this, uh, the last remaining farfang, uh, is going to shit his pants and start running away. You ha you get an opportunity attack if you want.

Oh yeah. Can I do any attack or is it basic man? Yeah, it's basic. Um, okay. So my basic melee is D 20 plus seven, 11. Okay. So you're going to take a swing at him and miss, but he is just sprinting for the tree line. Like he's done. Like he's like he's, he's retreating. That's done. And that will take us out of combat. And uh, Alanna is going to go start drowning herself in whiskey. Oh my God. I thought we were going to, I honestly was like, do we need to like stop in the middle of this so Alanna can catch her breath? Cause I felt like she was about to die. Well, seriously, it sounded like you were losing your voice.

Like well, I kind of am, but um, no, I, I thought, I thought I was going to lose him. I thought one of us was going to go. That was a, that was insanely tense. That was, yeah, I didn't think that would be that bad. That was a lot of bad dice rolls. That was interesting. I'm going to pick myself up and march over to Valis and like, like just shove him in the chest and turn around and walk back towards the road. He's going to have this confused look on his face. Like what the fuck? And then after, after like a couple of beats, like he's just kind of in shock that you'd hit him after like after all that.

And he's going to kind of start double stepping to catch up to you. I think we should probably catch up with what's going on in Brightport. So at this point it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's nighttime. It's it's yeah, pretty much things are shut down. You do have your, your makeshift guards kind of standing watch at the doors and windows. So you got about 10 guys outside. Is there anything you guys want to do? Galford is actually going to quietly make his way to one of the exits and just sort of slip out into the yard and, you know, walk over to a couple of the makeshift guards and just say, gentlemen, you're doing a fine job.

If you happen to see another gnome come back, you know, kind of looks like me, but my, well, maybe he's a little shorter than I am. Come and get me first. He's, he's taking care of something for me and, you know, no need to alert the others. Just you know, maybe let me know somehow if he's, if you see him come back and I'll slip them, you know, 10 gold pieces between, you know, between the three or four of them kind of thing and just try and try and get across that this is on the down low basically. Should I diplomacy check that or are they going to want a little bit more money?

That's up to you. Like you can try and charm them. Like just kind of like if you want, like that's totally up to you. Okay. Well, these guys are in your employ anyway. Like, I mean, they're, you know, well, I'll just sort of say, you know, like, you know, appreciate your help and you know, it might be advantageous for you if you, you know, keep me informed of any other goings on around here. And that's an 11. So they're going to say, fuck you gnome and go up. These guys look a little derpy. Yeah. Not, I mean like the kind of guys that would be sitting around in a bar all day anyway to be hired in the first place that they don't really have many ambitions or they just kind of like sit around looking tough and it's like, Oh, this guy needs it.

So the, the, the, the, the guy's going to look at you, you're going to go through your spiel and everything. He's going to look at you. What's your name again? My name is Galford. If you see another short guy, another gnome, come get me first. There's more of this. If you talk to me first and I'll hand him another gold piece. And he kind of greedily like, yeah, give me that. Okay. Galfax. I'll make sure and let you know, as soon as some gnome comes. And he's like, he's trailing off as he's saying it. Like he can't remember the entire thing. Like it's, it's very much.

And the guy, the guy, one of the guys standing next to him is like, yeah, I got it. I bet that's fine. I'll remember. All right. So keep up the good work derply. Derply Gamgee. You're going to give me like a salute. Derply is canon. Tim and I are going to talk about it. I'm just saying. Derply is canon. Okay, Galfax. Anybody else want to do anything in Brightport? I'm good. No? I think I'm good too. So you guys are pretty much just bedding down for the night and just kind of retiring for the evening. And you are slightly less creepy rooms. Let's go back towards Whitehead.

And so Baranath kind of charged off. Yeah. Um. Um. I'm just, I'm so furious right now. And then I'm going to stop because I realized that I wanted to go back and see what stuff they took from us. This is going to catch up to you after you start turning back. You're a little quicker than him. And he's just kind of put his hand up. It looks like you're going to charge right past him. Like it's not even, like you're not even going to stop and pause. I'm not understanding why you're angry at me. What was that? Why? Why on earth are you doing, getting in front of Eros for me?

I could have lost you tonight. It was going to hit you. Yeah. And it hit you. I, why, why are you doing this for me? I'm just kind of, kind of look down and shake my head. I just, I don't understand. I don't know why you would risk your life and own a call to find me and use such a rare item to bring me back. We talked earlier. The only thing I've ever been good at is killing. The only kindness I had ever shown you up until that point was to not murder you. I'm listening, but I'm, I'm rummaging through the, like the camp of the, of the Knolls just to look for, look through their stuff to see what they took.

And I'll take a breath and I'm going to stop and I'll look at Phallus and... Do you remember how you told me last night that I remind you of someone? That's why you didn't hit me is because I remind you of someone. Honestly, you remind me of someone too. That's that's why I tried to help you. That's why I want to keep you in this world. You remind me of someone who is really good to me and someone that I haven't seen for a lot of years. If this person means that much to you, then you would understand why I stepped in front of the arrow. I'm expendable. If I were to die at the end of the day, it would be one less killer.

That's not, that's not what a life means to me. You're not expendable to me. So so before I ended up in the prison in, in Onacol before I met my, my unusual group of friends, um, I, I was basically a prisoner of a, of another respect. I had been sold to some lower level thug in some crime ring and made to do just the most awful, awful work. But for, for all it was, it could have been a lot worse. Had it not been for, um, another tiefling. His name was Morgan and when those thugs would come at me, if they ever tried to hurt me, he was, he was the only one who would step in front of them and coerce them to stop.

He was the only one who bothered to learn my name. When I was, so sorry. Um, while you're telling him this, like he's just got like his fist clenched, just like listening to it. Um, well, I was chained up overnight. He was the only one who would talk to me. Of all the people I was around, he was the only one with any kind of shred of humanity. You know, he was, he was the only one under the boss who didn't treat me like garbage, like like the slave that I was. And what happened to this Morgan? One night he just didn't come back. One night he was just gone.

I never ever got a chance to thank him. And then before I knew it, well, here I am. So yeah, so you, you remind me of him. How did you escape? It was very unusual. A team of adventurers came in. They took out the whole camp. They didn't even find me. It was some cosmic accident that I escaped. The people who enslaved you, did they all die? They're all dead. They're all gone. Um, yeah, the ringleader was known as Black Teeth. And you don't have to worry about him anymore. I'm going to say this and know that I don't say this lightly. I care about you. And I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that no harm comes to you.

If that involves stepping in front of a thousand arrows, that's what I'll do. I don't even know what to say. He's just going to take a step forward and just put his hands on your shoulders. And he's kind of waiting to see if, like, are you going to hit me? He's just kind of like, very tentative about it. And then very stiffly, he's going to lean in and he's going to kind of put his arms around you and hug you. Okay, and I'll hug him back. You can tell that's not a very practiced motion for Vels. It's very stiff, kind of Frankenstein-ish. Just like, "Rrrr, hug!" Just very, like, just maybe a little rougher than he needs to be with it.

Like, you know, just, yeah. And I think that's probably a good time to wrap things up for the evening, I guess? I think so. We got screaming babies and sick people and... He's not screaming, he's eating his feet. Okay, well then, here we go. As Dan will do, he will eat his feet. Yes, Dan is eating his feet. Don't you tell them that! Was he just doing like, om nom nom nom? Yes! Aw. Hi, Dan! I want to say hi. Hey, Dan. Your feet are delicious. (laughs)