What you thought you knew

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

(coughing) - Peacocks. - This summer, during the biggest sporting event of the year, Peacock turns to two broadcasting legends for the Olympics coverage you can't find anywhere else. - Um, I think they mean us. - Oh, (beep) Um, (clears throat) - With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold. Olympic highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday, only on Peacock. (dramatic music) - You're the Marine? - Yeah, you're the ex-con. - Yeah, I did time, but you only gotta cast aspersions at me. - From the director of Mr. and Mrs.

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+. (coughing) (clearing throat) - Okay, sorry. - Leave that in. (laughing) - Hi there, my name is Jamie Richardson from Group Two and I play Cory Forestkeeper. I just wanted to give a quick shout out to rate us on iTunes.

All the rates count and they help us towards keeping our place as the number one D&D podcast. We also have video content on YouTube, go check us out on there. We've got tons of stuff from Jason's trip to Oregon. Give us a like on Facebook and why don't you check us out on Twitter @dnrpodcast. - So, last time we all had a chance to sit down before listeners began writing and sending me emails and asking why I just stopped with your story and decided never to play with you again. You took a trip back to Onakol to carve your way through the mini zombie apocalypse they had going on.

Three of you were bitten. Let me see if I can recall who. That would be Dagon, it would be Baranath and... - Gretta. - Gretta, thank you, yes. I can only remember the male version of Galford. So, three of you were bitten. You only had two vials of this cure left and it also appeared as though Norwin Hammerhand had been bitten and one of Ulanda's agents had been bitten. So, let's pick up, let's pick up right there. Actually, let me load up the map. So, all right, so. That is pretty much where we left off. - We're all confused without the howdy folks. - Oh yeah, damn, sorry, I should have done that.

That's something I usually do, but the coming all over people joke got me. - No introductions necessary after that. - Good, we didn't do introductions. I'm a fucking idiot. Let's do, let's, good God. I swear I'm out of it. I'm maybe ill, let's just, let's. Hi folks. (laughing) Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason, I'm the dungeon master, going around the table starting with Eric. - Hey, I'm Eric Tyson, I play Gretta, no more luck. - And Brian. - Hey guys, I'm Brian and I play the Mulrune Priest named Rickus. - And Danielle.

- Hi guys, this is Danielle. I play Trixie the Drow of Rogue. I'm not an assassin anymore. - I just realized this is the first time you've spoken the conversation. - Yeah, I know I was doing a little bit left out there, but you guys are having fun. - Danielle, I love you. I'm gonna hug you and June, I swear. - Uh huh, sure, whatever. (laughing) - Make you sleep out on the damn porch with the bugs, you're good. - That's why I got a goddamn cabin, 'cause I was gonna sleep out on the fucking porch. - You're missing out the porch, it's kinda fun. - I'll sleep out on the porch.

- Um, James. - This is really creepy, I'm sorry. - Hi. I'm on the porch right now. - Oh my. Don't sit on my puzzle, please. - I'll go now. Hey, it's James, I play Dagon in this game. - Boy, I don't know why I was upset about this. This is clearly going very well so far. Alanna. - Hi, I'm Alanna and I can never show my face in public ever again. And I'm an elf named Braneth. Hi, how's it going? - Who likes Hulk Hogan? - A lot, apparently. - A little bit too much, apparently. (laughing) - And Jamie Lee. - Hi, I'm Jamie Richardson. I will be playing Kori Forestkeeper, a goliath seeker.

- I realize no one else is calling you Jamie Lee, so I'm just gonna call you Jamie. - That's fine. - You would've let me, you're doing the Alanna thing, but you would've let me just totally fuck up your name for months, wouldn't you? - No, no, I usually go by either. It doesn't matter to me. - Well, that saves time. (laughing) So where I fucked up earlier and was describing what happened before we actually introduced ourselves. So that's pretty much where we're at right now. The first thing I guess we should tackle is these bites. How would you guys like to...

How would you guys like to assign who gets a cure and who doesn't and all that? - Okay, so yeah. I feel like I need to take one of these, you guys. - I'm kind of doing the breaststroke in a puddle of blood, so I'll at least need a heal check before I can contribute. - Okay, yeah, let's help you, because you're bleeding and dying. - I can do the heal check. - All right. - 26. - 26 will be fine, so Greta's gonna spend a healing surge and wounds will be sealed off and yeah, she'll be able to get her shit together a bit. Valus would absolutely want Brandon to take one of those.

- I just, like who are we taking care of here? Dagon, Dagon needs healing. - I do. - Greta needs healing. - I'm just gonna walk straight up to Dagon and hand him a vial and I'm gonna try to be subtle about it 'cause I think we have an audience. - A bit, yes. - In that case, can I do a perception check on what our friends there are checking out? - Please do, yeah. - Six, I still got blood in my eyes, sorry. (laughing) - Yeah, the dragon is a pretty big focus. Like a lot of the people who are in the arena right now let's just watch a dragon fight essentially.

Like they watched a metal album cover come to life and that's kind of a spectacle to see, firstly a dragon and then a dragon this size and then a dragon this size not attacking them. Like it seems to be your pet almost. So they're kind of checking that out but beyond that you don't really see anything. - Rikas will kind of walk up in front of just our group of people and just kind of stand there and then turn around to the party and go, you guys can decide what you wanna do. If you need my input, that's fine. But right now I just, we need to try to make this as not as obvious as possible because I just see them swarming us the minute they see that we have some sort of cure.

- Well, I mean, I don't know. Do you really see that happening? I mean, these people are our friends. - I'll motion to Baraneth and just say, Elf come over here, you Elf 'cause I don't remember your name 'cause the rod. - I'm gonna head right over to you and just I'm gonna kneel next to Greta. Just kind of check you over. - You need to talk to you and deal with the Hammerhand and Silverclaw folks. I need more than just a vial here and I'll kind of motion towards my tentacle arms and just bloody disgusting clothing. I have time, take those vials, but you need to, someone needs to talk to them 'cause I'm peeking around to see what Ulanda's doing.

- Well, okay. They have their own bit to deal with as well. Norhorn, okay, do me a favor, Baraneth, roll a perception check, please. - Okay, I'm on it. 30. - Okay, that's excellent. - Beautiful. - Norhorn doesn't look too phased by the bite actually. Like he appears to just, it's more of a nuisance than anything. There is blood trickling down his neck and it's more like, ah, just that, like a mosquito bite, just like, ah, whatever. Again, kind of fascinated by the dragon. Ulanda is talking to one of her, kind of talking to one of her agents and they fully acknowledged that one of theirs has been bitten.

And Ulanda is going to start walking towards the bitten party member of theirs. And she's gonna go ahead and draw a sword. And unless anyone does anything to stop her. - Oh gosh. I really want to intervene here. - I'm just gonna try and look at Baraneth and shake my head. - Okay, and I'll look back at you and just kind of freeze. - Rikas will just kind of like grit his teeth and noticeably just be like, I wanna step in, but he'll just kind of like turn his head a little bit. So the bitten agent is kind of like simultaneously clamping her hand, like over the bite wound and at the same time kind of staring at this dragon away from Ulanda.

Ulanda's going to take the sword and with one very smooth motion is going to lop her head off, just clean off. - Oh my God. - And first the head is going to kind of tumble off and fall to the ground. And then after a second, the body's gonna just buckle at the knees and then just tumble over. And no one on the silver claw side seems to be surprised by this. Like not at all, like that was to be expected. And Ulanda is gonna kind of wipe off her sword and then just kind of sheath it again. - I'm gonna look away and start hyperventilating. - It's a kinder fate than Tala got, you know, instead of suffering basically.

- Oh, like kinder fate? I'm, oh, that was just awful. - Well, you know, is she gonna do it again to the dwarf elf? Why don't you ask how Norhorn is? - I'm gonna kind of collect myself and go over and approach him. - Um, and ask him, please let me look at your wounds. Let me see if I can help you. - He's gonna kind of turn his head and let you look at it. Bah, ah, it's just a bite. - Um, heal check to help him out? - Sure. - 19. - 19 would be great. Yeah, 19 will kind of seal off the wound and he's very much still bitten, but he doesn't seem to be too worried about it.

- And this is, there's no mistake, this is a zombie bite, right? - Oh yeah, like, no other creatures in Anacol that would have bitten him, really. Like it's, yeah, this is, definitely something took a chunk out of him. Probably why they were dealing with the bulk of them in the city, like someone just got a lucky chomp down on him. - Um, I'm gonna look at him and tell him, I want to help you, my friend. We all need to go home. Um, I don't know, I don't know what to do. - He's gonna kind of peer around you and look at the party. I see some of you got bit as well.

- Yeah, um, yeah, we're in trouble ourselves. - Well, we mainly came here because we thought we were missing a big fight, which apparently we did. Thank you very much for inviting us, by the way. But I would imagine you have some of your own work to deal with, so I'll give you some privacy. Leave you to it. - Um, before you go, just, can you tell us the status of things outside the arena? Um, like, was it successful? Like, are we still surrounded by Walking Dead? - Oh, we got a good amount of them, Celine. It's mostly cleanup work now. Got the boys going through houses and alleys and streets, things like that, but I think we dealt with a lot of them.

That was mostly the one circle in the gate. - Um, both of you, and looking at him and looking at Ulanda, we're so grateful for your help in this fight. And I know you've suffered losses, and I'm so sorry for your losses. We couldn't have done this without working as a team. - They're both kind of shaking their head. It's kind of been taxing for everyone. They've lost more people than you, but then again, I mean, you know, they didn't have a dragon, so it's kind of a sticking point with them, but Norhone would have taken a lot better than Ulanda would.

Ulanda's kind of looking over your party, and specifically Greta. Greta just looks fucked up. Like, Greta is in pretty bad shape. I mean, if you can get past the bite and being coated in blood, and then you got tentacles and all kinds of other weird shit, so. She's just kind of looked at Baranath. We can settle up later. It appears you have members of your own party to dispatch. - Uh, yes, of course. - I'll give you some privacy then. - Thank you. - And they are going to take off back into the city. So. - I'm going to wave kind of sarcastically at Ulanda with one of my tentacles.

- I'm going to breathe again. - She will look at you disgusted. - I don't know what to do, you guys. I wanted to help him, but I. - I'll, Rikas is going to look at Baranath and just kind of give her an acknowledging nod and just say, he's tough. He's real tough. And he knows how to handle that kind of stuff. And right now we just got to focus on us. If he's a pretty, Norhorn's a pretty smart guy. I imagine he has resources that he can get out there. Right now we need to get anybody we can healed up walkable. We need to get back to the house. We obviously need to, I think Greta is going to, we're going to need to give her once over a little bit more formally where, and he'll just kind of look around, give her a formal look over where we're not in the middle of a desert.

And I think the best idea for us right now is to just go back to the house. - I, sorry, I just, I think we need to deal with just some healing first. Dagon, I think it's safe for you to take that potion now. - I'm going to, Dagon's going to look at Greta and just ask her if she's standing by her decision to refuse the cure. - Yes, I am. Rikas is right. Everyone needs to get back to Brightport. And if there's anything that can be done for me, maybe it can happen there. I don't know. But at the same time, I need a lot more than just healing. And I'll just kind of look down at my slimy fingers or lack thereof.

- I can't, I can't leave you here like this. I, okay, I gotta do something about this. And I'm going to go back to Greta and kneel next to her. And I would like to use my ritual of cure disease. - I'm going to look a little, a little bit disturbed because Braneth hasn't really done something like this before, so I'm, you know, after all the magical changes I've had lately, I'm kind of hoping she won't just like light me on fire or fuck something up. They're all growing on her head. - I know, I know you're frightened. Please trust me, please let me help you.

- I'm going to suggest Braneth take the cure before she starts. - Okay, I'm going to pull out the vial and I'm going to look at Dagon and I'm going to look at Valus. - Valus is very much encouraging you to take this thing. - Yeah, Dagon will nod and look at his own vial and just say, bottoms up, drink it back. - And I will drink. - All right. - And now we all have tentacles. - Hulk Hogan to the arena. - Tentacles hentai Hulk Hogan. - Zombie tentacle hentai. - Oh goodness. - Okay. - He's got the 24 inch pythons. - Well, just the one, but it's enough. - Yeah. - That's not going to die, is it?

That's going to be a persistent joke today? - We will have to fight him eventually because Alanna is like, she's like Rey from Ghostbusters. If she talks about something, she manifests it into existence like Doug. So eventually we're going to have to fight some tentacled monster with a giant penis. That's a rapist and that sounds like Hulk Hogan when he talks. So Jason, you might have to queue that up. - I doubt that's going to make it into canon. - I doubt it. - You never know. - Just work with the good. - Stay buff Marshmallow Man. - So your ritual, I forget.

How did we decide that that worked? - Okay. So cure disease is heal check minus the level of the disease. - Okay. Okay. If I roll zero or lower, the target dies. One through nine, damage is equal to the target's maximum hit points. 10 through 19, damage equal to one half. The target's maximum hit points, 20 to 29, damage equal to one quarter. And 30 or higher, no damage. - Well, it's a level nine disease. So it's physically impossible for you to kill him. - Okay. That's good. Okay. So I will rule just a regular heal check, right? - Just a regular heal check. - Okay. 26.

- 26, gorgeous. So 26 minus nine. So that's okay. How much damage would that be? That would be? - So that is, I've rolled a 17. So it's one half the target's maximum hit points. - Okay. So that smarts quite a bit. That's going to hurt Baranath for casting it. And it's going to hurt Greta for receiving it. So Greta just took 31 damage. - Has the health been reset since the practice fight? - It has not, but Greta's is the same. - Okay. Well you said it was going to hurt Baranath. - True. Very true. Everyone just take a rest then. 'Cause I don't recall what everyone's hit points were at the end of the fight three, four months ago.

- And done. - There you go. Okay. Gorgeous. So that's going to be 31 to Greta. And it's also going to cause Baranath some pain, but not like hit points damage. So every member of your party now that has been bitten has effectively been cured of the zombie virus. - Yes. - Did you tell me what you were doing? I'm still kind of confused. I guess, was there a flash of light or something or? - Oh no, I'm sorry. - I haven't seen you read this book a lot. So I think Greta's still like, what are you doing? Come here, I'm going to do this. Let me read this thing. You've never seen this book before.

- Just it's, this only hurt a little bit. I'm just kneeling over you and just praying, praying over you and reading from my ritual book and letting the mojo do its thing. - Okay. So you've told me that you're trying to cure the disease. - I don't know if I did. - Okay. - Sorry. - Cause otherwise it's just like, yay, Christianity. I'm still going to be a zombie. - It was kind of like, come here, I got to do this. And then you did something. - Let me read you this awesome poetry. It's super emo, but you'll feel better when you die. - Sorry, sorry. Yes. Are you, is, are you agreeable to letting me cure you?

- Yes. Just tell me what it does before you do it. - And I don't know how to explain this. This might hurt. - It'll hurt. - This, this could hurt. This could kill you. But I, I feel, I feel like I have to do this. I don't want you to become one of them. - What are you doing? - Dude, I'm curing your disease. - Tell me you're curing my disease. - Okay. I'm curing your disease. - Thank you. (laughing) - Oh God, I need some caffeine. - Well, I hope that this works. Do whatever you can. I'll look over at Valis and just say, if this doesn't work, you know what to do. - Valis is going to shake his head.

So I'm going to open my ritual book and, and read a little bit. And then I'm going to put my hands over you and, and close my eyes and, and read my ritual and pray. And it's going to take a little bit of time. And my role is good. And... - Shock delivered. - Shock delivered. Yes. (laughing) - I could edit this cleverly so that... - Oh God, I'm sorry. - It's okay. It's not a big deal. It's way too early in the evening to apologize for anything. Let's not do that. Let's just plow forward. - Well, I wasn't trying to, trying to be a bitch. I'm just kind of like, Greta's had a lot of magical changes lately.

So she would have been a little bit wary of what you were doing. And as far as she was concerned, if she didn't know she was going to be cured, it's still zombie mania running wild. So. - I, I, sorry. I shouldn't have to feel violated just to not be a zombie. - Thank you. - Okay. I want to, okay. Are we good? You're, she's cured? - Well, about 10 minutes go by. Cause it takes some time, but yeah, that, that, that she is effectively cured. - Okay. And I imagine I'm pretty exhausted at this point. - Oh yes. That's incredibly draining. That would pretty much, it would, it would all but knock Baranath out.

- Okay. - So this would be a thing if you're going down, Valus is going to kind of like try and support you a bit. - Okay. - You got the vapors. - Yeah. Being a cleric is a shitty thankless job. It really is. So yeah, Valus is going to try and like, like make sure that your head doesn't slam against the, the arena floor and stuff. Just, just try and kind of gently support you. - Okay. - Greta is kind of rolling over onto all fours to try and stand up cause she feels considerably better. Even, even if she's taken a bit of a hit, but she still kind of looks a little bit disappointed that she's, Bill has tentacle arms and obviously is in a bit of a brain fog.

But I'm back on my feet. - That's good. Cool. So Valus is actually going to address Greta. So what do you plan on doing? - About what? - And he kind of like, he kind of like motions towards your arms, just the whole tentacle situation, that. - Yeah, this, you make a really good point. And I can't even remember your name. So it's not just my arms, you know, looking around, it's, it's true. Right now I'm the last of Theramax monsters. And I still have this rod, but I just, I can feel it corrupting me. I still feel, I still feel sick, a little bit twisted and obviously changed.

I thought originally it would be for the better, but this, this power is far too unpredictable for me to control. And it's going to end up hurting more people in this group. And while I, I sense the urgency of what's happening back in Brightport and the other two houses don't know that Zann and Carter's on his way. I need to fix this. And I don't think I can do it in Brightport. - Well, where do you plan to go? - Well, I think the only place that can help me is, well, I need people that, I hate to admit this, but are more intelligent and stronger versed in magic than I am.

And that's probably, human euro would be the only place that could help me. And if I hurry now, I can intercept Norhorn. And with some of the change in my pocket, hire a Hammerhand mercenary to accompany me and see if I can get this fixed. I'm no good to you in my current state. I can fight, but I don't trust my mind. And the changes that happened during this last battle, I don't know if they're even over. I'm grateful that you've healed me, but I don't feel fixed. - I'm gonna get up as best I can to go over to Greta. You and I have quite the history. I really don't want you to leave, but I understand why.

I would fix you if I could, you know that, right? - I know you would. You'd probably kill yourself in the process, but I know you would try. And even the new lease on life that this rod has given me, it solved a lot of Galford's problems. And it's made me feel differently about my place in this world, but I can't enjoy that place if I'm changing or a monster or not in control. So while I still have all of my faculties, I should leave you and hopefully we'll see each other again. I can be new and improved. I hope I'll sort of look around at everybody else while I'm kind of shrugging.

- Riegus will step up to Greta and just kind of look her dead in the eyes and go, I know we haven't always seen eye to eye on everything, but I've never thought of you of anything less than a friend. And I've not had a lot of friends and I'm not really good with words. So I'll just say that I hope what you are leaving us for, you find and we're reunited down the road. - Riegus, you're too kind, but just, the only thing I got to say to you is just listen to your gut, go with it. You may not be a leader, Riegus, but you're a fighter and you need to keep fighting.

And I'll turn to Dagon. Eladrin, I made you a promise that we would help look, we would look for your people. And I hope to keep that promise. I feel that the answer to where they have gone may still lie in some of Theramax notes. If you have the time, try to pick up where I left off. If I can't remember, barely remember your names, I can't remember much that I've read or researched while I was there. So until I can remove this taint, I hope to kind of pass the responsibility of learning as much as we can onto the rest of you, especially Dagon or whoever your name is.

Shit, that's hard, it's like a fucking drinking game. You guy with the silver hair, I can't remember you. - Dagon will walk up to Greta and kind of crouch down and pat her on the head and just say, take care of yourself first and good luck to you. We'll see you another day. - I'm going to hug her really tight and kiss her face and say goodbye. - So I'll turn around and I'll kind of point at Trixie too and just say, Trixie, don't take any guff from the rest of them while I'm gone, especially not this guy and I'll point at Rikus, try and add some levity.

And then I'll turn and even though I'm still kind of soaked with blood and all sorts of crap, basically run for the exit of the arena and try to catch up with Hammerhand because if I can at least hire some type of a mercenary from Norhorn's crew, I've got somebody to accompany me in my slimy state to find someone somewhere in Tharia that can maybe fix me. - And with that, Greta leaves the party. - I just imagined Daughtry's home playing in the background. ♪ I'm coming home ♪ - And then there were four. - Oh goodness. - So many more of you can kill off before the...

(laughing) - And the true agenda comes out. - I saw a hashtag from DNR cast members saying, never trust the DM, that was hurtful. So I'm gonna earn that. - There you go. (laughing) Group three is finally caught on, eh? - I can only hit him so many times before. (laughing) - Oh goodness. - Well, it appears as though, I guess you guys are... Well, what would you like to do here? Now that Greta's left the party, we got... - I don't think there's anything else to do except go home. - I think we have a date with destiny. - Yeah. - So I'm guessing you are going to sidle up to Amara and get ready and try and ride her back to Brightport.

- I'm going to just give her a quick once over just to make sure she's okay after that fight. And tell her thank you for fighting so bravely. You've done a very big important thing today and it's time to go home. - Amara is very cosmetically damaged, a lot of claw marks, a lot of... She's just got this gorgeous white skin that's soiled with blood at the moment, just a lot of blood. - Can I roll a heal check for her? - You sure can. - All right, 33. - Okay, this will take a little more out of you than normal 'cause it's this huge dragon instead of someone got a cut on their arm or something like that.

- Would it benefit if I did one too? At all? - Yeah, I mean, you can assist each other or something like that. - Yeah, 'cause I have a plus 11 and I don't use that enough. Like would it do anything substantial if I... - It's just basically sealing all the cuts and that. There's nothing wrong with her other than some battle damage and stuff. - I'll do one anyway. - So yeah, that's, yeah, so Amara's healed up and you guys are gonna get ready and climb on her back. Pallas is gonna try to assist or anything getting up there 'cause she's still probably a bit weak.

- Yeah, I'm feeling pretty wobbly. - So, Pallas will kinda help her get there. And then he very kind of cautiously gets on the back of Amara, he's not one for heights and hates the thought of kind of soaring hundreds of feet above the ground. - I wanna try to reassure him. Just hang on to me, it'll be okay. - And he will definitely be doing that, kind of like someone on the back of a motorcycle, just kind of like, kind of clenched around Baranath. I'm imagining everyone else is jumping on. - All right. - Yep. - Let's do it. So, flying back to Brightport, who would like to make a perception check?

I mean, the entire party can, I suppose. - Sure. - One, two, three, roll. - 28. - 18. - 29. - Wow. - I'm perceptive as a donut hole. - 18's not bad. Danielle, if you wanna roll one too, you can. - I'm working on it. - Okay. - There we go. - 28. - 28. - There are clouds. - Thanks, guys. - This is a dragon. - So, kind of soaring back to Brightport, you see that same caravan that you passed, and they look to be probably a day out from Brightport. And again, educated guess, that's probably Carter, which gives you somewhere in the area of 24 hours to kind of prep yourselves whatever you'd wanna do before he got there, however you'd like to handle it.

So, coming back into Brightport is a little tricky for Amara. 'Cause while this is a big city, the streets are kind of a little more narrow than they need to be for her and crowded. So, she has to pretty much land in the same spot you guys took off in, and she has two options. One, she can kind of hover above the city and slow her descent down, but it will probably blow every single window out in a two block radius and blow people off the streets. And it's kind of like, kind of picture a helicopter hovering over, but this is just these huge gusts of wind instead of it being a steady, constant breeze.

- Well, I was gonna say it's a helicopter the size of Air Force One. - Right, it's like the shield helicopter landing downtown. It's like, that is a big thing. And it's, yeah, so her only other option is to slow herself down as much as possible and then kind of hit the ground running. - Can she land on the outskirts and then walk in? - Walk into the city from the outskirts? That is another option. - But, yeah. (laughing) - We already are passing over what we can probably assume are safe boundaries with having her fly in and out of the city already. - Where's the house?

Is it on the edge or is it right in the center of the town? - It would be away from most people, but still very much in the city. - Okay. - Yeah. So, I mean, it's up to you. You can, at the last minute, you can tell her, it's like, "Hey, let's land outside the city and just walk through the gates, I guess?" - Excuse me, where do I park my dragon? (laughing) - Yeah, I'd probably walk my dragon through town. - Well, you guys technically have before. - This kind of feels like it's a sitcom. - If she comes and tries to slow down as much as possible and has to do a running thing, do we have to make any sort of check to stay on her back?

- I would imagine the jolt would, yeah. - I might've just opened up an Easter egg that we didn't want to open up. - Well, now we do. - Thanks, Riggus. - You make a logical point. You make a logical point, man. I wasn't gonna make you, but I mean, it does kind of make sense. I would say that's an endurance check, just to hold onto her and make sure that you don't fall off. So, she would kind of be flying into the city and on the street that you live, like it would be kind of the back alley portion of it, because she's kind of come out of the back of it. She is going to try and slow down as much as possible, but she is very much going to kind of hit the ground running and it's gonna tear up the street a bit.

I'm not gonna lie. Someone's gonna have to fix this. Everyone please roll an endurance check. - An energy check. - An energy check. I'm an idiot. - I got a 20. - Hey! - I'm just gonna bail for sure. - I am the lowest one. - Very good. - Ooh, Brandon, I've crit that and Trixie, almost crit that. - Yeah, you guys are good. You're totally cool. You're hanging on. Ooh, wait. She rolled one for Valis. (laughing) - Oh, I thought you were gonna say something about me getting a 16. I'm like, ooh. - Now, earlier today, I was having a very bad dice roll day for Valis. So, let's see if...

(laughing) - See you later. - Arms away. - God damn it, Valis, come on. - He's just getting off to fix the road. (laughing) - Can I make an athletics check to grab him and bring him back onto the dragon before he falls? - Yeah, me too. - This would be, well, hold on. This would be a thing where you are- - We're gonna all have to grab him. - You're gonna all have to grab him. (laughing) - This would be, you're using all of your energy just to stay on. Like, you're hanging on for dear life. So, if you're letting go, you're kind of letting go. Like, the jostling of this would be massive.

Like, you're hitting the ground and you're flying, you're flying, and stop dead almost. That's what it's like. - So, no. - No, is what I'm saying. No, your options are no, or you can go with him. Like, those are kind of your options. - Oh, it's got you, buddy. - Maybe he wasn't ready for it. Maybe he didn't think about it. Maybe he just was closing his eyes real tight. Didn't think. But Valus, upon the first slam of Amara hitting the ground, is going to fly clean off the back of her. - I know he's gonna get hurt, but I can't help but laugh. - It's, it, Valus, dude, it's...

Now, the problem is that Amara's tail is flickering wildly behind her. So... Gonna essentially roll an attack against Valus's... I guess this would be versus reflex, considering... Oh, Jesus. - So sorry, Valus. - Valus is going to get struck by this tail. - Jesus. - Now, this... Let me paint a picture. This is like someone tossed a softball at someone and it was hit with an aluminum baseball bat. So Valus is going to kind of fly into the air, off the back of Amara, come down and get struck by her tail, absent-mindedly swinging behind her, as she's just trying to slow her slower descent into the city and not crush anything.

And Valus is going to get flicked clean across the street and against this cart that's just kind of like selling apples. So clean through this fucking cart. - Are we stopped yet? - Yes, you would have stopped by now. - Okay, jumping down, running, running, running back to check on him. - I will follow. - I will point and laugh. (laughing) - I really almost wouldn't blame you. - Smug son of a bitch. - Yeah, no, I'm just, I'm running right to him and just immediately just kind of like falling right next to him and saying, are you okay? Like, oh my gosh, like how much damage did he take?

- That was a significant, that was like half his hit points. Like that was a significant amount of damage. - Okay, heal check for Valus. - 27 will be fine. - So you're kind of heal him up a bit. He just, I would say more embarrassment. - I'm gonna just like be, like I'm still like over him, right, and just. - Right, yeah. - I'm just gonna hold his face and look straight at him and say, please don't ever do that to me again. I thought I lost you. - He's kind of like, he's kind of groaning, just like trying to like, like move a bit. And every time he does like apples, just keep falling off of him because he's kind of essentially been buried by them.

- They're gonna walk up to him and just say, a wise man might hold on tighter and I'll offer my hand to help him up. - I'll offer my hand too. That's what I was gonna do anyway. - He's gonna accept your hand and stand up. Like he's just like, he's kind of like cracking his back, just trying to get right again. - I had my eyes shut. He's gonna turn to Brandon. Thank you. That shouldn't have been necessary. - I know you're gonna hold on tighter next time. Let's calm. Oh, you poor guy. - How does such a beastly man have such a fear of heights? - Can we put in the budget to have Amara strapped to its seat belts?

- That comes up at the next budget meeting. - Yeah. That's under new business. - This is why you don't ride with your eyes closed kids. Public service announcement. - Safety violation. So David knows you're home. - I think the whole city knows we're home. - Yeah. Amara is going to, so this huge kind of fucking bunker you guys have, this huge dragon garage, essentially, you have built into the side of your house. It doesn't really have any doors, but Amara just kind of ducks in and kind of assumes her position back into that huge ass room that she was sitting.

David is gonna come find you immediately. He's gonna, I guess he'd speak to Baranath first. Hi, firstly, I'm glad to see that you're all well. Secondly, you do know that's gonna take quite a bit of explaining. And he's kind of pointing outside to the huge divots in the ground, the dragon size footprints in the street. - I'm, I don't know what to say. I'm just gonna shrug. - Not my problem. - I think we should install like a dragon landing pad somewhere. Like a helipad. - On the top of the house, there you go. - You know what I mean? Just come out of the top of our house and we'll never have this problem.

- I feel like I've just added to your list of problems to solve. - It's fine. I just had a talk with the captain of the guard, captain Warwick and I assured him that everything would be fine when it came to Amara. At least no one was hurt. - I realize this is, this, I know, I know this isn't, this isn't sustainable. We can't, she can't keep coming and going like this. She's gonna destroy the city. - We'll figure something out. And he kind of like puts a hand on your shoulder. Is everything all right? How did everything go in on a call? - As success is as much as we can.

I guess, just we, we did, we did what we set out to do and we, Silverclaw and Hammerhand helped us a great deal and not without taking some damage. Norhorn Hammerhand was bitten and I don't know what's gonna happen to him. But I think we've eliminated the threat as much as we can. - We've been working on manufacturing more of that cure, but it's going to take some time, I'm afraid. In the amount of time it would take him to get back and us to brew a new batch, it could be a week. - I don't know that he's gonna last a week, but I'm so grateful for your work and I urge you to work as fast as you can. 'Cause if anyone else has been bitten, I mean, we have to help them.

And more than that, we can't let this spread. We can't let this spread beyond on a call. - I'm sure that they have it well at hand by now. (sighs) And please give them my thanks. - I will the very next time I see them. We've had a couple of developments while you were away. - Developments? - Well, I did as you asked and I put the word out that you were looking for assistance. We had someone answer that call. You may wanna meet her. - All right. - It's an unusual case. - I think unusual is the name of our game most of the time. So, sure. - David is going to lead you guys into kind of the living area.

And kind of hanging out in this living area is this very large creature. - Should I roll perception? - I would. - All right. - Should I roll perception? - Can I roll perception? - I think everyone should at this point. - 16, yeah. - 12, you're tall. - Oh my God. - Wow, okay, well. - Got a crit mess on there. - Can we all re-roll perception? What's Valis' perception? Let me see if he can save the day. - Negative 14. - Who's closing their eyes now? - It's a three. - Who the hell is now? - He crits it. - 15. - I did know, well, yeah, okay, nevermind. Well, kind of hanging out in this room is this large pale creature.

You have never seen anything like her before, race-wise. She's approaching eight feet. - Oh wow. - So massive and looks to be pretty damn strong. And David is going to kind of like motion this, like kind of lean in to you guys. This is the situation I was talking about. Her name is Cory, she says. She's looking to help you out. And he kind of like motions the group to Cory and then Cory to the group. - I will approach her immediately and smile and extend my hand and say hello, my name's Baranath. Welcome to the house. - Cory is gonna stand up, watching her head and smile right back at Baranath and say thank you.

I heard word that you were looking for assistance around the city and was hoping you still had an opening in the house. - Word, yeah, absolutely. I'm sorry, I've never seen such a remarkable creature. Sorry, please, everyone introduce yourselves. - Rikus will walk up and extend his hand. Just say nod and say, Rikus. - She's gonna nod back and in response to Baranath, I could say the same about you. I haven't had much interaction with many races, so I'm seeing many new faces. - Dagon will walk up and extend his hand, say Dagon, Arkinscape. And what do they feed you where you come from?

- Cory's gonna let out a loud chuckle and say we eat pretty much what you eat, just in abundance. - Fascinating. - I'll walk over to her kind of smiling and looking up at her and then smile even bigger and go, hi, I'm Trixie. Where are you from? - I'm from a forest over by the Evergreen. I know that most from around here have heard of it. - Yeah, yeah, the Evergreen is, well, pretty much a famous home. What brings you all the way out east? - Well, where I have come from, I've seen a lot of adventures in my past going through the forest and whatnot. And I've always been sort of curious and decided one day that when my circumstances changed, I would take to the road.

Though it is hard out there on your own. - Well, you're certainly welcome company. We're rather a band of misfits ourselves. And I'm kind of looking around at our group and we tend to celebrate diversity. I'll warn you that we tend to find or create trouble wherever we go. But if you're interested in adventure, you've come to the right place. Oh, go on, hun. - Oh, I was gonna say, Kory is going to reach over to the table where she was sitting while waiting for you to return and pick up a piece of bacon and say, if this is what your house has to offer, you better fucking sign me up.

(all laughing) - And how's everybody feel about brunch? All right. - I was about to say, I'm not touching that. I'm not. - Roll it out. - Yep. - Autobots roll out. Okay. Wow. Wow. Kory's gonna ask if the dragon was, if hence the name Dragonkeep, if that dragon was actually yours, that made the ruckus. - That was our ruckus, yes. As much as anyone can own a dragon, yes. Mara is a part of this, a part of our family, if you will. - Mind you, I'm thinking we might have to find more appropriate digs for her. We've made a bit of a mess outside. Anyway, that said, I'm sorry that you've come into the house at kind of an odd time.

We're just back from on a call and turning back to the group. I think we have some things to talk about, no? - Yeah, and I'll look at Kory and just look at her and just go, you mentioned that you were kind of from the West Coast. If you don't mind me asking, how much knowledge do you have of what's kind of going on on the West Coast? - I was pretty secluded where I am from. I lived in the forest practically all my life, so I don't really know of much going on. I just know something's going on. Something is forcing people out. - He's gonna take a little bit of a sigh and just look at her and say, well, there's a very important, yeah, should I do any, like-- - It's up to you.

- I mean, I'm kind of going off of where Rikus is from a little bit, but would it be appropriate to do a history roll just so I'm not making up garbage out of my butt? - Well, no, I mean, you can roll a history roll. You would definitely know the cliff notes. Like you're from Durran Hollow. Like you will know the cliff notes like that, but yeah, depending on how deep you wanna go, yeah, roll a history check. - Okay. Not very deep. - Incredibly deep, so yeah, cliff notes. - But I'll just look at Kory and just go, there's a very important man that has made choices that the information's not clear, but he's gonna be coming to the house.

We saw him on the flight back pretty much tomorrow. And while we would love to give you a formal orientation to the house, it's very much, we're gonna be speeding up and trying to deal with this. And then I'll just look to the rest of the party and just say, how do we wanna handle this? What are we gonna say to him? Do we wanna try to prepare something? Are we just gonna see what his purpose is? - Well, I mean, as far as I understand, he's here, gonna be here looking for Thermac and Thermac's not here. I need to know from Valis if he still plans on leaving for Winterhaven.

So I'm gonna kind of pull him aside and ask him about that. - I'm going to have to take off soon, yes. - The girl should know that her family's dead, at least most of them. - I feel like with Greta leaving, with Cory joining us, there's so many things changing and I don't know if I can handle you leaving, but I don't know if I can go with you. - I absolutely decided that you really have to go. - I just, I understand what it's like to lose family and I would hate for her to find out accidentally or to go to White Hedge seeking out her sisters and finding that they've been dead for some time.

- I understand and please, please know that I think it's the right thing to do, it's the honorable thing to do. It's just that in the last few days, just so much has happened. I worry about you, I worry about you leaving. I've never been to Winterhaven, I could probably help you. - How close are they, like with, how close are you guys to us? Like how much are we hearing of this conversation? - I would imagine this is still your shot. - Yeah. - Okay, Riekis is kind of trying not to seem like he's been eavesdropping, but he's just kind of walk over and walk in between Valis and Baranath and just look at both of them and then look to Baranath and go.

I know it's probably bad that I've been listening, but this, and he's kind of like staring over his words 'cause he's not really good with trying to speak from the heart, but he'll look at Baranath and just go, we all have had to make choices that brought us to this house. We've all had to do things that we haven't wanted to or agreed on and I kind of look at Valis. Valis has to admit, is making a choice that he feels is right. And it just, I understand why you're so attached to him, but we have a party that was brought together under weird circumstances that we've stuck together and he'll just kind of bite his lip a little bit and just, he's stammering, kind of stuttering over his words and he'll just look at Baranath and go, I haven't had a family in years.

I haven't had the chance to call someone a family. I haven't had a chance to call someone a friend in years. And this is the closest that I've gotten. You and me are not too far off alike. We, none of us have had a lot of time to get to know each other. It's just kind of been boom, boom, boom, but me and you aren't too far alike. And I've had to make choices that I didn't want to, but I knew I needed to. And Valis is making a choice that he knows he needs to. You need to let him go. And do you, I was just going to keep going on, but if you want to interrupt, that's fine.

- No, no, please go on. - He's just going to kind of look and he's kind of rubbing his face now a little bit and he'll just look at Baranath, just trying to look as deep into her eyes as possible and just go, I never got to say goodbye to my mother because she didn't let me. If you, I know you want to leave with Valis. I know you want to go with him and I know you're attached to him because you see a greater destiny, but I'm not allowing you to say goodbye to me because I'm not letting you leave. You see a greater destiny with him. You see what future he has.

What about the future we have as a party? We don't know what's going on in the world, but we need to go out and try to find it because we are a group of people that have a common goal and we need to stick together. I just, it's difficult for me to watch people I care about and pain and I know you don't want Valis to go, but I don't, we need you here. I don't want you to go. - My bottom lip is kind of shuddering right now and I'm just gonna look at Rheegis and look at Valis and look at the rest of the party and say, okay, I'm not making any progress.

I'm not making any decisions right now and look at Valis and just say, please, just don't leave yet. Don't leave right now. - He kind of reaches out and puts his hand on your arm. We can talk later, it's fine. - Okay. To the rest of the party, can I ask you all to be honest with me, do you really feel like any of us belong here? - Where else will do I belong? That's what brought me here. - I don't mean together and I don't, I don't know what I mean. - Corey's a bit confused and is going to tilt her head and look at Braneth because she's not exactly sure what's going on with everyone right now.

So she's just gonna be listening intently. - There's, there is a lot of good in this world and there is a lot of wrong in this world and I want to be a part of the force for good but I don't feel like I can do that from this place, from this house. Am I the only one who feels this way? - Trixie will step forward and be like, you know, I think we have created a family, as Rikas would put it, we've created our own messed up, totally off the wall stupid family but this house doesn't make our family. Wherever you go, I'll go, this house is nothing to me as long as we stay together.

- Rikas will just kind of nod and just say that, yes, we do have a better purpose and the purpose is not in this city or this house. We need to go out and seek what our better purpose is. - Dagon. - I've never considered this house as a home. I have a house and a home in the south in Odysseia. Itune, much like you, have experienced, well, maybe on a larger scale, loss of family and I vowed not to return home until I have found my family. That is my purpose and that's what I set out to do. If you will help me, I will do my best to help you find what you're looking for.

But that definitely involves leaving this place. - I, everything that matters to me is in this room with me but it's not this house, it's not this place and I can't do what I need to do in a city of thieves. I think we should leave. - I think that's for the best. - Agreed. - I want to present an idea to you. Since we've arrived here, the staff here and David have all been very kind to us and looking at Valis and there's someone else who's been very, very kind to us and I wonder if this might be a home for her and I'm referring to Tessia Grimness. - You mean give her the house?

- I mean, yeah, yeah, give her the house. She's worked so hard and only owning half her business and sharing with the likes of Gratic. Do you think she could live in this place? I mean, she's obviously a good business woman. Do you think she could handle a third of the city? - Valis is kind of gobsmacked by that. Like just kind of, wow, that would greatly affect her. - It would greatly improve her life. - Does anyone object? - No objection. - Is Tessia here? - Yeah, she would be in the house. She would, yeah, she would be upstairs. So for those who don't remember since Gratic left, Tessia was kind of put into witness protection because all of Gratic's protection kind of dried up overnight and he just sort of left town.

Like he took a job and left town. Let's say, okay, so I would imagine you want to go get Tessia. - Yeah, like is David available to burn her down? - So, okay, let's say David goes and grabs Tessia and brings her to you. - Yeah. Tessia, all of us have been talking and we want to know how you would feel about taking over this house. - You mean looking after it while you're gone? - I mean owning this house. - You just give it to me? - Out of everyone we've encountered in our travels together, you've been the kindest, most gentle and generous person, most concerned and most compassionate and I can't think of anyone else that I would like to share this with, to give this to.

We've been talking and none of us really feels at home here, but you seem to fit in very well and being the business woman that you are, I'm sure that you could run a house of this size and I'm sure you could thrive here. - While you're talking, it's like she doesn't believe you. That's like winning the lottery twice. That's a huge, I mean, you're going from almost open poverty to oh, now you own a third of the city, here you go. Like that's huge. She's just gonna, her mouth's kind of like, her lips are quivering and she's just, you can see her tearing up.

She is just about to openly weep. - Please, please know what comes with the caveat. We might come asking for help from you in the future and I'm sure you certainly haven't seen the last of us. I really hope not because I would really love to see you again. - She is going to close the gap quickly between you and just throw her arms around you. - Oh, I'm gonna hug her back. - And like, as she's hugging, you can feel her kind of start to shake as she's like openly crying now. Like this is a big, big, big deal. Do we all wanna do a group hug? - Do it, absolutely.

Wait, I think Dagon's too cool for that. - Yeah, he'll shake her hand. - Yeah, Trixie would just smile and pat her on the back and say, "Good job." - Cory likes to hug. - I just imagine all of us like hugging together and then Cory like just wrapping herself around all of us, her arms reaching. - She barely knows any of you people, but she likes hugs. So she's just gonna come over and give a hug. - That's awesome. And when that's done, she's gonna kind of let go of the hug and then kind of wrap her arms around Valis. And he's just kind of, he's actually just gonna hug her, like just flat out hug her, which he normally doesn't.

It's usually more of like a pat on the shoulder, something like that, but like he's actually like openly, like openly hugging her. I wanna thank all of you so much. You have no idea what this means to me and I owe you all such a debt. Anything you ever need from me, please don't hesitate to call on me for it, okay? - Yeah, of course, of course. And we'll visit, we'll visit you as soon as we can. I don't know about you guys, but I'm really tired. - When do we expect to leave? - I'm guessing we should probably just rest up. We've kind of had a big day and we can just leave first thing in the morning, after waffles, of course.

- Of course. - Yeah. - We're gonna plus 15 for bacon, so. - It may be the last bacon we have for a while, so. - Do we have somewhere that Corey can sleep? - Well, probably push a couple of beds together or something like that. But yeah, yeah, there's definitely extra rooms. It's just, you're gonna need a pretty damn big bed. - So if- - I guess Theramax bed would do. Like Theramax had this big ass, yeah. - Let's just not mention who had that bed. - Yeah, I hope they change the sheets. - Oh! - Hey. - You know. - He was into some pretty sick shit. - I'm, yeah. - Ew.

- Is Amara coming with us? - That's a really good question. I- I- - If not, well, it's up to her what she wants to do. But Tessie would have to keep, look after her. If not, if she doesn't want to come. - Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, she's, I guess she's, she's always got a home here, but I mean, this isn't really the right place for a creature like her. - If she stayed here and we were in trouble down the road and used that horn, would she hear it? - I think it's only like a mile radius for that horn. - What if we blew the horn into a portal? (laughing) - Sorry.

- Somebody in the Overwatch is going to get really confused. Is that a horn I hear? - Okay. - I think it's best that we all probably sleep. - In regards to Amara, I, I, I think we have to leave the choice up to her. We can't, we can't force a creature like her to stay cooped up in, in a house like this, even with her, like her large dungeon. We just can't, I can't, I can't do that to her. - Well, let her, let us, you know, tell her her intentions and she can decide what she wants to do. - Yes, of course. Should we go talk to her now? - Mm-hmm. - Okay. Does she come in the house?

- Well, yeah, yeah, she's in, yeah, she's in that large kind of basement-ish area. - Cabinous area, yeah. - Yeah, that huge. - Yeah, I guess I'll go down and I'll tell her what's happening. - Kori is going to ask if she can come with you. She's never seen a creature quite so majestic. - By all means, please come down. I think she might be the only creature you meet who's bigger than you. And I mean that in the kindest possible way. Certainly. So I'll head down and walk that long corridor and enter into her space. - While you're doing that, Dagon is gonna go to Thermak's chamber and leaf through his notes to see if he can find anything about the portals.

- Ah, oh, good plan. - Gotcha. Amara is very much just kind of resting, just kind of like laying down, but kind of props herself up on all fours like after she sees you come in. - I'm gonna go up to her and just motion for Kori just to follow me. It's safe. She's not gonna hurt you. - Kori is just in awe of this creature. To her, it is probably one of the only larger creatures that she's ever seen in her time in Theria. So she's pretty impressed. - She's pretty amazing, huh? - Yes, oh my goodness, she is beautiful. Um, yeah, she's done more for us than we ever deserved.

I'm gonna miss not having her around. I'll go right up to Amara and touch her leg and touch her face and say, "How are you, my friend?" - She's gonna kind of like lean her head way down to meet you guys. I'm doing quite well, actually. It was nice to get out. - I need to tell you something. I need to tell you that the six of us are going to be leaving. We're not gonna be living at this house anymore, but I want to let you know that you always have a home here. But I don't want you to feel like you have to stay. I don't want you to feel like you're trapped here.

You can leave. You can leave if you want to. You're not anyone's prisoner and you're not anyone's pet. Do you understand? - I do. And though I'm sorry to see you go, I completely understand. But if I feel the need to go, I will do so. But for now, I'm actually quite comfortable. - We'll be leaving in the morning. - She's gonna kind of like, Amara's gonna kind of tilt her head towards Kori. And they just kind of lean, like lean way in. Like her gigantic head is like right in front of Kori. And she's gonna kind of draw in a breath through her nostrils. - She's sniffing you.

- Yeah, that would almost pull Kori towards her. Like the force of this is pretty. And they just kind of like exhale and do that a couple of times. Just like generally sniffing her, just all over. - Kori is jubilant at this and looks over at Braneth and says, she likes me. - If you were a dog, she'd be sniffing your butt. - Just watch out for that tail wagging. - Yeah. Amara, this is Kori, she's a friend. - And like Amara will kind of lean in very, like as gently as possible and just kind of like, kind of like try and nuzzle her nose against Kori. Just kind of like push against her a bit.

- Okay, and Kori is gonna look over at Braneth again, almost asking, she wants to ask, is it okay if I pet her? - I'll nod and say, yeah, go ahead. - She's gonna start to pet her, do a little scratch behind the ears. - And yeah, Amara's just gonna kind of like, do that a couple of times and then just kind of like lean back. - And I think I might cry because I can't bear the thought of not seeing her again. - Well, she'll still be at the house for now at least. - I'm just gonna stroke her face and say thank you for everything that you've done for us. I've never met anyone like you and I don't think I ever will again.

- I'll be here if you need me. If you're ever in trouble, just look for me and I'll try and find you. - Okay. And I'm gonna take a deep breath and turn and... - So you guys are getting ready to bed down for the night. - Yep. - Is there anything anyone wants to talk about before we kind of move forward here? - I was gonna offer to take Kori aside and kind of catch her up on everything that's happened. - That was nice. - So she's not completely in the dark. - I'm like, wait, we're going somewhere, what? - Like she just joined up and the whole part's like, yeah, fuck this house business.

- So orientation, yeah, that's out the window. - Yeah, you kind of walked in on a transition period. Sorry about that. - That's fine, when I took to the road, I expected adventure and being tied down to one place wasn't exactly in my plans anyway. - Is this something you kind of want to do off camera there, Trixie? - Well, I figured everyone needs to sleep. We don't need all of us to explain everything that's happened up until now. So I'd walk over to her and say, "Hey, if you're not tired yet," which I'm not, "would you like to come sit down "and I'll just kind of catch up on what's happened so far?" - Yeah, I would love that actually.

I have many questions for you. - Oh, you're gonna have even more after we're done. - Everyone else is pretty much getting ready for bed? - Yeah. - Yeah, I imagine Dagon will just be looking through notes all night. - Okay. (clears throat) - So, Valis is again gonna kind of follow Baranath to her room, 'cause that's kind of where he sleeps too. - Um, not quite the day, hey? - I've had better. - Ah, you fought so bravely. I, there are a number of times today where I thought I had lost you. - I understand that you can't come with me. I do. And I understand that you have a party to protect.

They, they look to you for guidance and they're going to need you. I also watched you almost die today. I couldn't bear the thought of losing you. And he's gonna kind of like take a step forward and just kind of put like his hand on your shoulder. - I'm starting to breathe heavy. - I need to do this. I loathe the thought of going to Winterhaven. But I need to do it. I need to get it out of the way and I'll come back. - I, I so, so very badly want to go with you. But you understand these people are like my family. You, you will come back to me. - You, you have a responsibility to them.

- I do. - And you've already done so much for myself and them and now my family. I want you to know that that means an incredible amount. She nearly had her business taken away years ago. And without Gretic's help, she would most likely be knee deep in poverty. - Everything I said was true. I mean, I meant it that she's so kind and she's, she's so generous. I, I want, I want this for her. - I would imagine that she would do great things and I hate to leave her behind as well, but she'll be in good hands. I, I would imagine David would take good care. - I think so.

I think you can be reassured that she'll be safer here, safer than, than living above her shop. Was there something else? - In case, in case something happens to me while I'm gone, I need you to know something. I love you, Baranath. (Baranath sighs) I'm gonna, I'm gonna step closer and, and put my hand on, on your face. My, my dear defender, my brave man, so strong, I, I don't have words to tell you what you mean to me. The way you've cared for me, the, the limitless kindness. You've put your life on the line for me more than once and no one in the world has ever been so good to me.

(Baranath sighs) Oh God. Oh, a thousand arrows. Um, I'm not the woman you believe me to be with this fight and this place. And I can't stay here and this journey that I'm on (Baranath sighs) Oh shit. This, this is not your path and this is not mine. And I can't follow where you go, Valus. I would take a thousand arrows, but I cannot say the words you want me to say. He's, he's going to break eye contact and just start to kind of like slowly look down. I see. I, I understand. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Um, he's going to start to pull away now. Um, I won't stop him.

- I think I should find somewhere else to sleep tonight. - Um, uh, okay. Um, I understand. - He is going to turn and walk out of the door. - Um, I'm going to fall onto my bed and cry into my pillow. - I'm sorry. - I'm going to fall onto my bed and cry into my pillow. - Before we pick up with, with the next morning here, how would you guys like to take a second and get a drink? - Sounds like a plan. - Yes. - Body break everybody. - That would be nice. (Baranath sighs) - It was rough. - I'll be back. (Baranath laughs) - Sorry, I kept hearing the blips from the- - I couldn't, I couldn't look at Skype.

I couldn't look at it. I was like, oh, I can't, I can't. - I got teleported into the body of a soap opera fan. 'Cause I seriously, Valis was like, I love you, Branath. And my first thought was, oh my God, tell him you love him too. Tell him you love him too. Just do it, do it, do it. - Oh God. I tr- do you realize for how many weeks I've been trying to like plan what I'm going to say to not sound like a horrible person? And I had none of it. I couldn't, I couldn't, I deleted everything. 'Cause I'm like, nope, nope, I'm an asshole. And that is just the way it is.

And yeah, somebody please come console me. - You know what's fun? - What's that? - They, listeners, 'cause we, we, Valis has already shown up on group three on the West Coast, but we've given no indication as to why. And people have even is like, was there a group two that was posted that I don't see? Or like what happened? And most of them automatically assume that something violent occurred. That Valis did something to someone and was like- - Exiled. - Exiled from the group or pushed out. Like that, that's what they figured. Like it was something to do with the zombie stuff.

Something to, no one has guessed that, that Berenith would project him in any way, shape or form. They just assume that it's going to happen. - Oh, I'm giddy. Like that was beautiful. - Holy moly. - Has anybody been tweeting? - I was tweeting earlier. - That was completely awful. That was so, so awful. - I loved every second of that scene. Like I feel like such a jerk. - Happens when you get, or you break up with somebody. That was the most beautiful, eloquent, like breaking up and separation I've ever heard. - I just hope he wasn't holding a ring behind his back.

- Oh God. - So where do we want to go? - I don't know. I've been looking at the map ever since I. - Yeah, I got it out here too. - You got options. - Pirates. - I'm kidding. - I'm kidding but not completely. - Let's get a boat and we'll stay on the boat. And I'm hesitant to give you guys anything with a name. Anything that's established with this is your boat. Well, I hate this boat. - We'll just sink it in a matter of minutes. - Um, do we want to go anywhere close? Like obviously we're going to probably stay away from like, human Euro, white hedge, on a call.

Do we want to go like how far east or far? Wow, my perception's off. How far west do we want to go? - I would go anywhere. - I think we need, we need something to head for. I was thinking we could head to like whatever dive in town and just try and do the street wise or whatever. See if we can hear what's going on. Maybe we can catch up on something. - Dive in what town? - In Brightport. I'm sure there's a dive in Brightport. - All of Brightport is a dive. - City of Thieves? - Yeah. - Brightport is a classy place. I don't think they'd have, they'd have that type of establishment.

- Like, like a, like you go down an alley and then there's like a door that heads down and then there's like just the roughest people drinking down there. There's not a place like that. - That sounds like all of Brightport. Actually, there's like a lot of Brightport. - We'll just like, we'll just walk outside and listen. - It's just filled with sketchy alleyways. - Yeah, I mean, there's, I mean, okay, let me present options to you guys 'cause you got 'em. You could do the, you could do the bar thing and just talk to local standup citizens and try and get like a job or some sort of, like some sort of lead on something.

Or there's, there's even like a posted board with jobs on it. But my thinking is that you don't really want to be tied to Brightport at all anymore. And taking jobs for people in Brightport means that you're going to have to come back to Brightport. So. - Right. - Let's get out of town. - The next morning, you guys would awake, I'm guessing fairly early 'cause you're looking to, you're looking to get out of town pretty soon. - Mm-hmm. - Valis would have already split. - Oh. - I figured. - Yeah, he was not, he was not gonna stick around for that. So, Valis would have left and you guys have a decision to make.

Now, thanks to the handy dandy map, you can kind of see your options here. Now, everyone in the party kind of has their own agenda. Dagon is obviously looking for the Aladrin, but there are kind of no leads on that at the moment. Trixie's kind of tetherless. I don't know if Trixie has an end goal in mind other than kind of. - Maybe. - Okay, nothing she wants to share right now. - Well, it's like she has an idea, but she doesn't have any, she doesn't have any reasons to do anything. Like, she doesn't have anyone in her life that is gonna, that is important enough to her besides the group that's gonna pull her away.

So she's trying, I guess she's trying to find her place. She's trying. - And then you got Rikus who, while he comes from Durinhollow, I don't know if he's necessarily ecstatic about revisiting Durinhollow. - Probably, that was probably the best way you could have put that. He knows he needs to at some point, but it's not necessarily something that he's like, I have to do this now. - Yeah. Kori seems pretty content to just travel the road and kind of get to know her new friends. And then there's Berenith who, other than just do good, like is there like a bigger sense of that?

Like is there-- - Well, Berenith is always keeping her ears open for leads to help find her brother. - Okay. - So that's, she essentially woke up in Durinhollow, got sold and that's been the last seven years, but yeah. - Nothing good happens in Durinhollow. - No, no. So I'm kind of like with Rikus is that like, I really don't want to go there, but that's the only like-- - It's like I could eat, but I don't necessarily have to eat right now kind of thing. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. - Right. - We could go there and burn stuff down. It could make you feel better.

- Someone may have beat you to the punch. The, do you realize how hard some listeners are probably yelling at their fucking iPods, like go to Durinhollow, that'd be so much fun. Like just to have you guys interact with people from Durinhollow, just throwing that out there. - I mean, it's pretty far. I mean, we could make that an end goal. That's fine. - Like get on a road that's in that direction. - Okay. - That's fine, but I mean. - Well, if let's say, let's say if, that is clean across the area. So let's say that you were to do that, which means you would essentially probably head on down to Whiteheadge and that would, you'd go from Whiteheadge to Lockford, past the Silverglade.

And if you want to roll history checks on any of this stuff, you let me know and I'll give you some more detailed information. - Yes. - Whiteheadge, Baranith has been to Whiteheadge. - I have been to Whiteheadge. - Been to Whiteheadge. - They have a good bar. - Yeah, I was about to say, you can tell them, it's like, you can tell them firsthand. It's like, well, they have a bit of a gnoll problem. - Been to a gnoll problem, a good weapons store, decent bar, yeah. - I've been to 17 history and Dagon's been pretty much everywhere. If you want me to roll. - Do it.

Wait, what are you rolling on? - Wow. - Whiteheadge. - Were you rolling on Whiteheadge or just in general? - Well, I don't know, I crit miss on that one. - Well, let's say Whiteheadge and then Brannon steps in and is like, "Uh, nevermind, I got this." - That's where I bumped my head that one time. - Jesus. - I'm sorry I broke that one. - And what else do we say? Lockfort? - Yep, there's Lockfort and the adjacent Silverglade. - Okay, Dagon, try not to crit that one. - No crit, hey, that's not a crit. - 23. So Lockfort is a fairly large town that them and Fairbay participate in something called the Great Hunt.

Now, normally this takes place in this huge, this huge portion of the area called Haunter's Bounty. It's, okay, Silverglade has a bit of a werewolf problem. - Hmm. - Oh my. - And so Fairbay and Lockfort participate in something, like a few times a year, they participate in something called the Great Hunt, which the bravest of souls kind of head into Highmantle or Silverglade and try and chase out these werewolves and slay them and bring them back to their respective towns. And the town that gathers the most werewolf corpses is kind of crowned the winner.

And it's kind of a point of pride between the two towns and they're also doing good by keeping the werewolf population down, so yeah. - That's neat. - All right. - Let's see what other disease we can get. - Yes. We're gonna go through like every affliction that we've ever encountered. (laughing) - Team infection. Let's do it. - Okay, so what else is down the road? - Well, going on from there, you're gonna go through Dragon's Reach if you continue towards Donhurst. Take a guess what's at Dragon's Reach. - A whole fluffy fucking teddy bear. - Kitten. - Yes. Tons of kittens, pits of kittens, kitten pits.

- Kitten pits. - You wanna avoid the kitten pits. - That actually sounds really sad and terrible. - Sorry about that. - Nope, nope, that's fine. Anybody, any thoughts yet? Do you guys wanna go that-a-way? - We can, yeah. - It's okay, if you were to go to Durn Hollow, it's a long and treacherous road. That's all I'm saying. But anywhere you pretty much wanna go in Theria, it's a long and treacherous road. So if you were to make your way to Donhurst, Donhurst has a bit of an orc problem. They are pretty much a walled city. They have walled themselves off in the community outside because the nearby orc encampment has given them nothing but trouble for many years.

If you were to make it past Donhurst, you'd be going through something called the Deadwood. The Deadwood has its name because it is one of the most perilous spots in the Divide. The Divide is the section of Theria that divides the East Coast and West Coast. What would normally be flyover country for something like the US is, if you could fly, you should fly. 'Cause going through the Deadwood is incredibly perilous and many, many, many, many, many, many, many people have been ambushed and killed there, be it by bandits or orcs or any number of things that would be looking to kind of get the jump on hapless, unsuspecting adventurers and take their shit.

And then on the other side of the Deadwood would be Durn Hollow. Durn Hollow, for those of you who don't know, is the Alabama of Theria. - You never get tired of that. - You should probably correct it so people in Alabama don't get angry. It's the stereotypical Alabama in Theria. So Alabama. (all laughing) I live in New Jersey, you can send your emails to me. So Durn Hollow has a history of talk fighting with humans, essentially, the Nuval have pretty much run things in Durn Hollow for a very long time. They are pretty much the town's main source of revenue.

And they enslave mostly non-human races because humans are, well, humans are fairly weak when it comes to straight up combat. Like you'd much rather get your hands on like a mole or a dragonborn or something like that, someone who's a little tougher made of sterner stuff. Humans can be wily, they can be good at certain things, but they're more all around fighters. It's like picking Mario in Super Mario Brothers 2. It's like, nah, whatever. So that would be your journey to Durn Hollow if you wanted to do that. But again, anywhere in Theria is yours. There's this desert city I could teach you about, like you could go check that out.

- I think I've had my fill of the desert. - I, yeah. I've had more. I have leftovers of the desert. - Why don't we just like, - Does Branneth have any clue where to start looking for her brother? - I'm essentially like, she essentially just woke up in Durn Hollow and was sold like to a mid-level thug. I have like no recollection of my life before that. I just, I had a note that, and someone called me sister and it was signed a name. And I can only assume that that name is my brother. So it's the only connection I have to my previous life. So Durn Hollow is where I started.

So that's the only place I can think of to go. - So there might be records there maybe of some sort of, - What I, the only thing I can think of is, is to get ahold of someone in the new vol and find out how I was acquired. But at the same time, I feel like I'm kind of putting myself at risk because I don't know what it means for a slave to show up in, or a former slave to show up in a slave city and be like, you know, why are you walking free? You're property, you know? Like, - We'll find out. - Which you've got us with you. - Yeah, well, and now I got my like super awesome, you know, force of extraordinary magnitude behind me.

So, - You've got an eight foot Goliath. I think you'll be, - I do, I know. Now I got Corey. I'm like, nobody will fuck with me now. So yeah. - You always have to have someone bigger than you by your side. - See, that's cause I'm a smart elf because yeah. - We're baraneth and the pussycats. - I was about to say anyone who wants to yell at, at baraneth, - Blame Corey cause, (laughing) - And the thing is though, is that we can hit down this road. If something else comes up that pulls us in another direction, I mean like there's, there's roads everywhere. - Exactly.

- I really hope we come across another, another gate like we saw in, on a call. Cause, - And that would be the other choice if you go back to on a call, but I don't think any of us want to go back there. - No, no. - I think Lockshade is probably the best direction to head to. - Yeah. - As weirdly as that sounds. - Not to mention there is tons of stuff going on, on the road. Like there's going to be constant diversions and things, but it's nothing you'd know about with a simple history check. It would be more like, oh, this just happened here. You just happened to be, yeah.

So things will be happening, but yeah, I, it's nothing I could, I would be metagaming the shit out of this if I told you about everything. - Well, yeah. Well, let's just head towards Durn Hollow and see what happens on the way. - Yeah, I like it. - Okay. - Deal. - All right. I'm going to say that that's probably a pretty good time for us to wrap things up for the night. - Oh, no smashing. - Nah, this one was going to be a talkie. - All right. - You will get your fill of smashing. Smashing new, new and terrifying things. - I like smashing things. - But first it looks like you guys are going to be going through White Hedge.

- Oh, yeah. - I don't know if you guys have any business there when you get there, but if not, you just keep going, but you'll be on the road for days. - Yeah. - That will be awesome. You get to, like, now we get to go visit new places and see new things. - Well, see, that's what I like because you get to like flesh out the worlds, like flesh out the map because for every, for every mark that's on the map with a name on it, I imagine there's like 10 little places that aren't, you know, it's like the tiny towns that are too tiny to fit on a map, you know?

- Oh, there's tons and tons of stuff. - Yeah. - That's great, that's what I've been waiting for. - Cool. - 'Cause I'm the guy with no life that has painted in every little bit of this map and people, you know, in each one of these cities and all, like, yeah, so yeah. - Thank you for having no life. - Thank you. - We appreciate that you have no life. No, I think it'd be great 'cause we can, like on our way we can still, like we're gonna keep our eyes out for Aladrin. You know, there's gotta be another gate somewhere 'cause unless it's a, you know, inter universe portal type thing, it must, there must be a connecting portal somewhere.

So that'd be really cool if we could explore stuff, figure out what that is. - That would be really nice. - Yeah. - That turned out pretty damn well. - Yay. - I like that. - Awesome. - And I know there was a lot of pressure on everyone for this episode. So I wanna congratulate you guys to, you know, now I can't wait, I cannot wait. I'm gonna be getting ahold of each of you individually and I'm gonna be dangling story stuff in front of each one of you. Every time you go to a new place or see a new thing, there's gonna be story stuff. So start thinking about your characters, start thinking about what you'd like them to accomplish or do or beyond get new cool weapons too.

I don't want that to be, it's like, I, not that, I mean, Danielle, you have a point. Like you have no ranged weapon whatsoever. - She's got a ranged attack. That's like what, a D20 plus 17. - Right, and no ranged weapon. - Like, yeah. (laughing) - I'm gonna pick up this rock. (laughing) - But if she picked up a rock, she'd be a D20 plus 17 with it. - But the damage would be like one D4. - That's what my damage is for my ranged basic attack. - Yeah, 'cause he has no ranged weapon. (laughing) - Throw my skull at him. (imitating explosion) - Oh, goodness. - Jamie, you did great for your first session.

- Yeah. - It was really fun. - Good job. - It was looking fun. - It's gonna be even better when you get to smashing. - I am super excited to get to Durn Hollow 'cause I feel like not even just our group, there's a shit ton of people that have attachments to Durn Hollow. 'Cause I know for a fact Jadzia is based, has a little bit out of Durn Hollow too. 'Cause we talked, me and her. Yeah, me and her talked about that. So like, holy shit, is Durn Hollow like the most racist and most significant city. - It's so weird, that little brothel, and I really didn't know, but like that little brothel has a lot of people's backstories and stuff tied to it. 'Cause both Una and Jadzia both had mothers that worked there essentially.

And they didn't know that they were doing that when they set it up. - That's cool. I don't know how I'm gonna-- - Yeah, we're definitely going there.