On the Verge

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Going around the table, starting with Kat. - Hi, I'm Kat Charlie and I play Thi, the changing thief. - And Roni. - Hi, I'm Knight Commander Macaroni and I play Kaluna Vulgarius, Wilding Shaman. - And Brie. - Hi, I'm Brianna Richardson. I play Judzia Grace, the Human Warlock. - And Izzy. - Hi, I'm Izzy and I play Una, the half-elf Paladin. - Okay, last time, you guys fought a troll in the arena and you made pretty quick work of it, honestly. There are some groups that weren't so lucky, so congratulations on that. So okay then, let's skip ahead to the evening.

So again, it's fairly quiet in the city. It could be a lot worse, no riots, nothing too terrible, but walking through the city, you're gonna get, there are a lot of people who recognize some of you, specifically Una Fee and Jadzia. Now, Valis is gonna get shitty looks too, but that's for a different reason. The three of you are getting shitty looks because you are defectors, you are your traitors. There's a lot of people in the city who are just exceedingly disappointed in you. You weren't there, in a lot of their heads, some of them didn't know that you had defected and they saw you back in the city and you're just mingling with the people who took over.

That's a pretty big slap in the face. Those are the people who somehow missed the fact that they were advertising you as still with the city. That was their saving face option and none of you actually were told about the clone situation yet. - I was just about to ask, did we ever hear of it? - No, that's something that Liara's kind of been holding back on because it's a really weird thing to approach somebody about. It's like, oh, you had doppelgangers, did you know? So-- - That's the way I murdered you. - Yeah, so that's something that's-- - Are they visibly giving us shitty looks?

- Oh yeah. - Like we can tell? - Oh God, yeah. You wouldn't even need a perception check. There are some people, it's the kind of thing where you're walking down the street and there are people who just whisper, it's like, look at these fuckers. You can just, you can see the hatred on their face. - Okay, Una's gonna flip off every single person who looks at her even with the tiniest little glimmer of hatred. (laughing) - Like a vicious glimmer. - Like a full-on, it's like fuck you. - Not like a just like, a little finger, like a full-on like bam, like full arm extension.

- You're, okay, so that's gonna get the reaction of, like you see two people try to whisper and they're trying to be kinda cool about it, like they're not, but they think they're being stealthy. It's like, hey, look at this fucking, and then just, you know, middle finger, it's like, hey, oh, fuck you. Like they're, but they're not vocalizing it because they know you could rip them a new asshole. You guys are trained soldiers, at the least. You guys are trained soldiers. You were, you were, you were the Crimson Shield. Like you are, you were kind of vaulted as these heroes of the city, you're expert fighters, blah, blah, blah.

Plus, most people just watch you murder a troll in the arena with very little effort. You almost tied its hands behind its back and spanked it bare bottom in the arena, like in front of everybody. They're not gonna fight you, but at the same time, they are not happy with your presence. And again, Valis is getting dirty looks for a completely different reason. Kaluna, they are not happy with Kaluna, but just because she's different. And I would say this is half of the people in the city. There are people who won't give you guys a second look. Either they didn't know, they didn't know who you were, or they, at least by sight, they might know you by name, but they're not going to, some people are okay with the fact that new people have taken over.

They're okay, they weren't racists to begin with. They just lived in the city and wanted to be at peace. But there are a lot of people who are not happy with the new regime and you guys specifically. So, okay, I would imagine you guys are getting some rest after this whole troll situation. You're sort of decompressing for the night. Let's see here, okay, so Jadzia and Valis are sort of bedding down for the night. - I don't think Jadzia would really, there's obviously a topic that needs to be discussed, but I don't think she would reach it, but she would probably start off by talking about something completely different.

So yeah, she'd probably just be like, "Wow, they were giving us some dirty looks. Isn't it great that Oona can flip them off all the time?" 'Cause that whole time she was keeping her head down, like trying to avoid it. - Valis is gonna pull Jadzia aside and just motion to the bed. Have a seat for a minute. Jadzia will nod and sit down. - We need to talk. - About what? She's saying it in that way like she kind of fucking knows. - Right. You realize each time we get into a situation like we did with the troll, something could happen to you, right? - Well, something could happen to you too.

She's gonna kind of like half smile and be like, we keep getting into those kind of stupid situations, but it happens. - When do you think we're gonna actually address your soul? - Jadzia is kind of, she's going to unhook her father's cloak and kind of let it fall off onto the bed and shrug. Like almost trying to like change the subject, but she knows she can't and he wouldn't let her. I know you're worried, but there hasn't been a good time for the dragon. And then now Overwatch is completely different and there hasn't been a good time. - At this point, we're finding reasons not to pursue this.

We landed in Esterhold. You wanted to make changes, we did that. Then it was about getting the dragon to help the paladin. We did that. Now we're in the city. And for some reason we're helping them reform it. Where does it end? - When do we actually help you get your soul back? - Well, what would you want me to do? - Have you talked to anybody else about this? - Jadzia's gonna shake her head. You're the only living person who knows. And then she's gonna kind of play with her father's cloak with her fingers. - Valus is gonna sit down next to her and sort of drape his left arm around her.

Just kind of pull her close. 'Cause he realizes he's coming off as accusatory and that's not, he's just frustrated, but he's not great at expressing himself. So it's coming off as more of an inquisition and that's not what he's going for. So he's gonna pull Jadzia close. You understand that I'm just worried about you, right? I understand that you wanted to keep this secret and I understand why. Maybe it's time to at least tell the paladin about it. - At first Jadzia's going to nod, like when he says that he's just worried about her and she's gonna kind of bring her hand up to clasp over his hand, which is like three fingers, 'cause his hand's almost bigger than hers.

But then when he mentions Una, she's gonna kind of sink down a little bit and like visibly kind of break, like just a little bit, like she just looks very sad and far away. How can I burden her with this when... everything she's going through? And then even if I could, how could I tell a friend that I sold my soul? - Honestly, maybe she could use the distraction. She seems fairly self-involved. - Jadzia's going to nod and be like, after dying, I think she has the right to be at least a little. - So he's gonna sort of let Jadzia go and stand up. If you don't want to tell her, you don't have to.

But we need to do something about this, and soon. Have you really taken a second to think about how many of us have died? I mean, in just the very short time that you've been together as a group, before I even got there. - Jadzia's gonna take a moment, because it's kind of sticking in that she's actually probably the only one in the most immediate group who hasn't died. - Yeah. - She doesn't know about Kaluna's past or anything, but like, and then she's going to nod, and she's going to wrap one arm around Valus and hug him back. Okay, I'll tell her tonight.

- He's gonna hug you back and just, he's gonna drop it. Like you can see it on his face, he's like, okay, as long as we're doing something about it, he'll drop it, so he's gonna let it go. - All right, then Jadzia will probably throw back on her cloak and go and look for Una. - Where would Fi be? - Fi would be wandering around the castle, looking, seeing if he can find any secrets. - Wandering around, and there are still guards posted, there are still, and for the most part, you guys have free reign. This obviously isn't like Jadzia's home though, where you have absolute free reign and you can just poke and prod at everything.

Wandering around, you're gonna run into Liara. Now, would you say that it's extremely obvious that Fi is just openly like looking for shit, or is it more like, oh, I'm taking the tour, that kind of thing? - I would say for somebody who doesn't know Fi, it would just be like, oh yeah, you know, he's probably just wandering around, having an interest in a couple of things, but Liara probably knows Fi a bit better than most people, so yeah, she'll probably clock on that he's looking for stuff. - Okay, so Liara's gonna approach Fi. Do you have a second?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Why don't you follow me? - Okay. - Liara's gonna start to walk down towards the lower levels of the castle here, and beyond the ground floor in sort of this sub-basement area and on the way, she's gonna tell Fi, I want you to brace yourself here, but I'm gonna show you something, and this may be a bit of a shock to you. - I'm presuming it's a bad something? - It's always a bad something. - It always is. - Liara's gonna lead Fi down into this, this sort of sub-basement, obviously a laboratory here. This is obviously, they were doing some experimentation, and this is something that every once in a while you'd hear a whispered rumor about, especially within the Crimson Shield, because you guys ascended to a level where you would start to hear about some of the higher-up stuff, but again, absolutely nothing concrete.

You had no proof of any of this going on, but there was always kind of a, oh, they're working on something. They're gonna, they're, you know. And Liara's gonna lead you into one specific room where it would appear as though there are many, many bodies lined up that have been covered with sheets. - Okay, so yeah, so what, how, how, like, is it obvious how many bodies there are? - Doing a quick count in the room, it looks to be in the higher teens. - Okay, Vy's gonna walk over to the sheets and just like, kinda indicate, as in, I presume it's this, this is what you wanted to show me.

- Yeah, the whole dead body thing isn't new, but it looks like there were a large amount of changelings. - Changelings? In the Overwatch or brought in to the Overwatch? - We're thinking some of them were brought in, and again, I'm still sifting through reports on all of this, but we're thinking a good amount of them lived in the city, to be honest. It was probably a similar situation to you. I mean, I'm not presuming anything. I don't know your story, but I'm guessing you at least knew you were changeling for a while, and you continue to live here. - When I discovered that I was a changeling, it was shortly before we met you.

I had only known for a few days that I was a changeling. Any changelings that were living in the Overwatch that knew that they were changelings, I don't see why they would stick around. It's suicide to stick around in the Overwatch if you're a changeling. - You gotta realize a lot of people didn't have access to leaving like you guys did. Getting past the front gate wasn't exactly a simple procedure if you're a citizen. They didn't want people in or out, unless you had clearance, so I imagine a lot of people just stayed and tried to keep it a secret.

- That's understandable. Yeah, V's gonna look at the line of bodies under the chute again and lift up the corner to have a look at the closest body. - Do me a favor, roll a perception check. - Oh, crit one. I don't even see the body. - What body? V's gonna take this body in, and the one major thing that stands out about this is a good portion of the body looks to have been mid-change. The body's obviously cold dead. The portion of it that has shape-shifted appears to look like Marcus Sanna, but it's sort of a half-assed rendering, and it's only, this particular changeling only got about halfway and is dead.

- Okay, so yeah, seeing that V is gonna look very concerned and then just go and take the material off of all of them just so he can see all of the bodies. - Do me a favor, roll a perception check. - 17, that's better than a crit one. - Yeah. These run the gamut. Some of them appear to be closer than the half-assed rendering of Marcus, but they run the gamut from the original Crimson Shield, Gavin, Una, Fi, and Jadzia specifically. It would appear as though that they were trying to duplicate the original Crimson Shield, at least appearance-wise. It would also appear as though these changelings did not do this willingly.

- Yeah, so after standing there for a few seconds, in pure shock, V's gonna just say, this is disgusting. I can't believe, I can't believe anyone would, I don't even know what they were trying to accomplish. - Well, I can fill you in on that. Liora's gonna take a seat on one of these tables nearby, just sort of lean against it. - It looks like they were trying to save face. They didn't want their new stars to be labeled defectors. Now, I'm sure they planned on killing you, but they wanted the benefit of you still being in the city. And the only way, I guess, they saw to do that was to make new versions of you.

It gets worse. They actually pulled it off. You remember the group I was telling you about, the one you fought with in-- - Yeah, yeah. - Well, when we finally got to Carter, there were versions of you and Una and Jadzia and even Gavin. I mean, they look spot on, they look just like you. And to be honest, if I hadn't just come from Esterhold, I might have thought they were you. I don't quite know how to react to that. Surely, it would be smarter just to say, we made a mistake and leave it at that. But going through all of this effort and going against everything that the city has stood for, it's like being human, as soon as I found out that I was a changeling, I feared for my safety if that information should get out into the hands of somebody who would be likely to pass the information further up.

Luckily, that didn't make it into the wrong hands as far as I know. But yeah, this is very disturbing. - I don't think they were just trying to copy you, though. I think there was a test run. I think they were planning on, I don't know, honestly. I don't know what the end goal was, but if I know them at all, I'm sure they were gonna use it for something a bit more damaging to the resistance than just copy a few of you. - Could be something to do with Maucis, I don't know, but. - Maucis? - I don't know, I'm trying to think like Carter on this one. I really don't know what the hell he was thinking, but I don't know, if he could use it to make the people here more afraid, then I'm sure that's something they were working on.

- Definitely. Has there been any notes or details regarding these test subjects found, or who they were before they were experimented on? - None that we've found so far. We're still combing through everything. You understand I'm almost doing it single-handedly. I don't want too many other people to get their hands on this, you know. - I totally understand. If you wanted me to help with some of this stuff, it's of interest to me, so. - Yeah, I kinda figured. That's why I pulled you aside first. I'm gonna tell the rest of the party about it, obviously, but it's a little changeling thing.

- Thank you, I very much appreciate that. - Not a problem. We go back upstairs, I'll show you what I found so far. - Lead the way. - So where would Una be? - Probably hanging out in the pub. - Okay. So that would be the Warrens, which you guys would, that's a previous hangout spot for the Crimson Shield. - Reminiscing about our two weeks. - Remember that time you and Fi tried to kill each other? - Great. - We should do that again sometime. - You can grab me and we can do it. - You probably need to be drunk first though. - Yeah, one of our friends committed suicide.

Okay, anyway. - Good times. - If we can find any more clones, we could get them to fight. - I wonder which one of us is tougher. Let's find out without actually hurting ourselves. - Do they have a wooden cord scale and cord fury? (laughing) - So Jadzia would probably know where Una is hanging out. - Fair enough, probably. What is Una doing before, like as Jadzia is like walking in? - Shots. - Anyone in the park who is not giving her dirty looks, she's drinking heavily with. - Okay. There is a drink in Theria, cleverly nicknamed the Splitter, it's short for skull splitter and it is orcish in origin and that is the strongest drink that humans can pretty much imbibe and it's soldiers drink it a lot as sort of a testament, like look how tough I am.

That produces the worst hangover you could possibly imagine. At a certain point, I will have Una roll an endurance check. (laughing) - Okay, that sounds like fun. I mean, yeah, why not? - Okay. But Jadzia, yeah. - Is it like a drink or like do you drink multiple of it? - Oh, it's something you drink in shots. You drink in small amounts at a time. - Okay, perfect. - Yeah. - Shot, shot, shot, shot, shots. (laughing) - Okay, Jadzia will like peek in and wait until Una is, she has drinking buddies, but she's gonna wait until like those buddies are kind of like looking in another direction or talking about something else and then she'll approach.

Be like, hey. - Una's gonna order Jadzia a shot. - Of the same stuff? - Yeah, like Jadzia, drink with me. - You realize my endurance is like three, right? - So is mine. - Actually, Jadzia's endurance is-- - Actually, I might have better endurance than you. - I have really low endurance. - That would be hilarious. - I literally have three endurance. (laughing) - Jadzia's I think is nine. - Let me go double check. Endurance, nine to 11. Jadzia actually will, even though she hasn't drank since like, since the last time we were here actually, but she will actually take the drink and kind of push back.

And then she does look extremely awkward and she'll ask Una if she has a minute. - Anything for you, of course. Let's go. - She already drunk? (laughing) - Little bit. - Getting there. - I feel like she's probably had a couple of these before. - Okay, so where would we go? Like to Una's bedroom maybe, or? - That is an option, yeah, that would be a private, like there are tons of places in the castle that you can get some privacy. You could, well okay, Jadzia wouldn't want to have this conversation walking around town. - Yeah, no, probably not. - Okay, well I guess you could go back to Una's room.

- That sound good, Una? - Yeah, sounds good. - Do you want to try to get me in bed now that you've gotten me nice and drunk? (laughing) - Did Jadzia drink? - Yeah, she did toss back the shot. - Okay, do me a favor, roll an endurance check. - Una hasn't had to do hers yet. - She will, don't worry. - Okay, endurance. How'd it go? I can't see it. - 20. - Hey, 20. - 20, Jadzia's gonna hold her liquor pretty well. - How many of these would you say that Una has had? - Probably like three, including the one she drank with Jadzia. - Okay, well do me a favor, roll an endurance check with a negative three.

- That already is mine. - That's a flashy 20. - Okay, I'm just gonna take the negative three from it. Did it roll? - Yeah, so that's an eight. Una's slightly sloshed here. Una's a little tipsy. So that's, I mean, you play that however you want, but yeah, she is getting there. She is on her way to Hammered. - Sweet. Okay, so I guess they're walking back to the castle where they're sleeping? - Yes. - Okay, while they're walking then, Una will be like, Jadzia, where are we going? (laughs) Jadzia's like, because she didn't get drunk like Izzy, which isn't fair, she's gonna still be super awkward.

She's gonna be like, I'd like to speak to you somewhere private. Let's go to your room, 'cause my room has a tiefling in it. - It's not a tiefling. Una's like whispering, but like not whispering. She thinks she's whispering, but it's actually like, is it about the tiefling? - Jadzia's just gonna shake her head and be like, no, it's not about Valis. - Right, Valis. - So I guess as soon as they get back into Una's room, Jadzia will make sure the door's closed and kind of lead her to bed, 'cause now she's kind of being like, second thoughts about this now.

Does she even remember when she wakes up? But then it also kind of makes it easier. - Una will like realize that Jadzia's like, gonna say something kind of serious, and so she'll do that thing that drunk people do when they try and pretend that they're like, they have their shit together. You know, like they try and like sit up straight and like open their eyes more. - They do their thing, they clear their throat. - I'm good to drive, I'm good to drive. - Exactly. - Yep, kind of slap themselves. - I'm just buzzed, officer. - Seems to be trouble. - Again, Jadzia's just super awkward, so she's going to start by like kind of easing into the conversation.

She's just gonna be like, so how are you holding up? - The walls are moving a little bit, but otherwise I'm fine. - Jadzia will nod and then like rub the back of her neck and be like, what about the cord thing? - Fuck 'em. I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm fine. She's gonna like keep on like putting her hand out, like as if she's gonna pet Jadzia, like reassuringly and like kind of miss a couple times before she gets the right shoulder. - Oh, what about, what about Bree? Are you still upset with her? - I don't know. Not many lesbians around to choose from, so you gotta pick the good ones, I guess.

- Well, Jadzia just learned something. Oh, Jadzia's gonna go. - What did she just learn? - Who knew? - You never openly said it. - Oh God. - You have never openly said that to Jadzia. - Yeah. - Jadzia had a feeling like you guys were friends, like maybe even special friends, but she never knew. - Special friends. - She's the one who creepily watched you guys through the door and broke the plate. - Right. - That was an accident. Delicious, delicious accident. - So Jadzia's just gonna blink a few times and be like, "Oh, wait, were you, were you too?" And then she's almost gonna like do a gesture with hands, but then she stops like immediately like, "Nope." First of all, the gesture I was gonna use wouldn't work for lesbians, also.

Actually, she will do that. She'll like put her two fingers together and kind of rub them like, "Mm, kiss him." - Is she actually making hand gestures? - Yeah. - Oh God. - Like awkwardly like, "Yeah." Like do you remember that scene from Tangled where he collects ceramic unicorns and then they go, "Ping." - I didn't watch that movie. - Well, anyone at home who has watched that movie knows what I'm talking about. And it's kind of like that where she's like, "Eh." Just kind of taps her fingers together like, "Is that, were you two a thing?" And then Una's gonna like kind of like make a face and more like, and then put her hands together so that the palms are touching and just like furiously squeeze her hands together.

- See, Chazia's not gonna know if that's like emotional or sexual or what the fuck you guys are doing. She's a little bit frightened. Una could be into some weird shit. She's gonna tuck her hair back and like sit down like a little bit enjoying this now. This makes her feel better. Okay, I'm not the only one with secrets. What about now? - Well, she kind of brought me back to life which put a bit of a damper on our relationship, you might say. - Chazia's gonna interject and be like, "Wouldn't you be being dead, put more of a damper on that?" - You're being clever and I don't like it.

Emotions are more important than actual whether or not you're alive. She hurt my feelings by bringing me back to life. - Don't tell her I said this. - Chazia's just gonna kind of like, it's not funny anymore so she's gonna just sigh and nod. - It's not funny. - Draca Una's a downer, Jesus. (laughing) - Well, maybe being brought back isn't the worst thing. I mean, she was brought back. He seems to be doing okay. - I'm not really angry that I'm alive again. I am just angry that me being alive means that now I know how useless the first 25 years were. - I mean, maybe Kord doesn't exist, I'm not sure.

Maybe, like I said, maybe you just couldn't remember when you woke up and it was wiped. I don't, I think there are worse things than nothingness and I think that you saved a lot of people in those 25 years. So whether or not Kord exists, those people are still alive because of you. - That's true, thank you. But also, that doesn't fix the fact that I don't wanna smash my face in debris anymore. - So that was-- - In a sexy way. - Okay, so it was a thing you guys did, all right. (laughing) Smash, okay. Whatever floats your boat. Seems a little violent. - It's this ink area.

- I don't know anymore. - Seems a little violent. - I just love the assessment. It's like, all right, well. - Okay. I did wanna talk to you and maybe now is not the best time, but I'm worried if I don't talk to you now, I won't talk to you at all. - You can always talk to me. - I know. - What's going on? What's happening? Is the tiefling? - No, it's not Valis. I need to confess a secret I've been hiding. It's not quite as, it's darker than the secret I just discovered at least. - Well, look, it's okay. Half tiefling babies are fine now these days. (laughing) If you don't, well, I know a lady.

- Judsy's gonna shake her head. And it's not that either. I let you and V and everyone else believe that I received my powers through studying, just like most magic users do. Even Gavin was able to. And then she's gonna kind of like pause because she didn't realize that she had been thinking about Gavin, but because they had been there, she had been with some practice. But I never had the aptitude for that. Obviously I can study and understand what I'm reading, but I didn't have the power inside of me at first. And I won't try to defend myself this time.

When I told Valis this, I told him a lot of stories, but that was just to taper his judgment. And I can't do that with you. - What's going on? - I made a deal with the demon. And my soul isn't mine right now. If I were to fall to a dragon, no one I love would be able to bring me back like they brought you back, Una. So you gave your soul to a demon for your powers. - Right. - If we go fuck this demon up and you get your soul back, but you lose your powers. - Maybe. Jason, do I know that? - You, that's something you wouldn't know. - Okay, then she will say exactly that.

Like I'm unsure. I think I'd, at this point, I think I'd rather have my soul than my powers. - Perfect. That's not a problem. - We go, we fuck kill a demon. Demons can't be that hard, right? You have one demon, you have a demon, and it's a piece of shit. So. - Like the more Una talks, like the less awkward Jodzia looks, like she did not expect such a like, well, who the fuck cares kind of reaction. Like she smiles a little bit. - Why didn't you tell us? Is it 'cause you thought we would judge you for not being smart, but you're still smart? - Jodzia is actually going to laugh in character at that.

Well, to be fair, up until about a week ago, you were kind of God-fearing, and good God-fearing people don't make friends with people who made deals with demons. - That is some bullshit. A, you could tell me anything at any time, and I would always accept it like a sister. B, B. - B's have stingers. - They're not nice. - No. - You know that that is not how cords work. Demons, fuck 'em. It's not bad that you made a deal. People do shittier things for power, hands down, no problem. We're gonna fucking kill the demon, and it's gonna be wonderful. And don't you ever feel judged again.

- Jodzia's gonna smile and thank you, and she's gonna hug Una with one arm, and be like, thank God I got her out of there before she killed herself. - I've been gesturing at the computer like a drunk person would be. - I've actually heard it. Like, there are times where I'm picturing you waving your hand, like, no, no, no. As she's pulling away, though, she's going to, her smile's gonna fade a little bit, and she's like, may I ask you one more favor? If it contains drinking anymore, no. - No, it's not that. When the time comes, whatever I have to do with that demon, I think I have to do it alone.

And I hope you understand that, after what happened with the warforged, but I know Valus won't. Do you understand? - No. You wanna fight the demon alone? - I'm going to try to make a deal with it. A new deal. - That kind of fucked you up this first time. - Jodzia's going to kind of like half smile and point to her helm, be like, this time it won't be my soul. - Can we be in a room in case things go bad? Do they have rooms in hell? - Like, she's gonna start shaking her head, like, no. No, no, no. Valus almost died last time, just from using blood magic. I don't know what's gonna happen when I summon whatever it is.

I just need you to make sure that he doesn't follow me. - But what if I wanna follow you too? 'Cause a demon doesn't seem like a thing that you should face on your own, no offense. - Face it alone the first time. I think I can try to get through this without fighting it. I think it would be dangerous to try to fight it. - So much more fun. - I thought you were gonna stop trying to be brave all the time. - Just because. - Just to get kind of like, not sure, and maybe. Just very lightly, 'cause she doesn't want Una to fall over from it. - She's like, "Wah." - Whoops, sorry.

- Una's gonna like put her finger on Jodzia's forehead, like, shh, but like missing her mouth. Just because fucking I hate my God does not mean I'm not a brave, badass bitch like before. I wanna fight some demons, hm? - How about we work on summoning it first? - You might wanna talk to your boyfriend, boyfriend, and tell him not to do the same shit he did last time. Did you try that, or did you just not listen? - I haven't, we haven't really spoken about what happened. - Do you guys speak, or just make out? (laughs) - He hasn't brought it up, probably because he doesn't want me to feel bad.

I don't bring it up because I feel bad. - Right, well, you should probably talk to him about that, because otherwise he's gonna keep doing that shit, and being all protective and disgusting. So you might wanna like clear out with him, be like, "Hey, don't follow me into the pits of hell." Potentially. - The last time I tried to get someone to go against their nature, you ended up dying. - But it was fine! - Jodzia's just gonna shrug you. Do you think I should tell the others about it? - Yeah, of course. Fee's not gonna give a shit, Marek, fuck, Kaluna. - Tiffany's going to nod, be like, "Okay, I'll tell them tomorrow morning.

"I would like to go to Brightport to study "on how to deal with all of this. "I would hope that you would like to come with us. "We have a dragon!" - Yeah, we flew here on the dragon, remember? I was there. I'm surprised you remember, Saul. - That's not how alcohol works, Jazia. - I don't know, it doesn't affect me very often. For some reason. - But yeah, let's go to Brightport and you can do your studies and we can buy some shit. They've got stores. What do you wear to hell? Is there some sort of dress code? - I think it's formal, yes. - Black. - Semi-formal.

- Semi-formal. Business casual. - Thalas can get me a little corsage. Tootsie's gonna stand up and be like, "You, you should sleep." - You should sleep. - Well. - Una's gonna flop over on her side and fall asleep. Jazia will put a blanket over her and then leave. - Is Una just in full armor? Okay. - Jazia's not gonna take it off. She's gonna put the blanket over the armor. Have a good night. - Oh, the hangover. - Drunk Una is the best Una. Like 90% of that was just me trying to come up with what to say because Drunk Una was so funny, I forgot. (laughing) - Well, let's pick up the next day here.

Everyone would be bedding down for the evening and getting ready to retire. The next day, well, okay, what would Kaluna be doing throughout the night? - Kaluna probably would have tried to get to the roof. - Okay, that is doable. - And they would have, they don't like being indoors. So, you know, open sky, fresh air, probably nice weather. - Lightning, actually. - Kaluna gets fried on the roof. (laughing) - Okay, so Kaluna's chilling on the roof. The rest of the party are in beds. Some of them probably more comfortable than others. So let's pick up the next day here.

So is Jadzia going to pull the party together and do that first or are you just sort of waiting to see where the day takes you? - She probably wouldn't say it first. Like if someone else has something they wanted to do that day, then she's be like, okay, we'll wait until after that. - All right, so let's assemble the party here. Let's say that after, okay, let's, so I would imagine Fi slept pretty well and you know, Jadzia, Valis, Kaluna would come down off the roof. I would imagine after the sun rises. - Never. - Okay. - Stay on the roof forever. - Kaluna's a roof person now.

They're roof people. Una, Una's gonna feel like, Una's gonna feel like an ogre has its mitts wrapped around her skull and is just gently squeezing. She's gonna try to stand up and the room is just going to keep shifting and sort of spinning. - Oh, the spins. - Yeah, she is not, she is not doing well and she is going to be quite nauseous and on top of that, she is going to have a splitting migraine. - I really hope we don't have to fight today, guys. I'm gonna be the grumpiest fucker. - Fi, Una, rematch. - Fi gently blows in her direction. (laughing) - Hey, Una.

Just like, gets right next to her and shouts in her ear. - Una, I guess, will like get up, wash her face, like wobble downstairs, trying to move as little as possible. - So let's say that there's sort of a private room that the party has to offer themselves. It's not really a living room. It's more of a large office, which during the war was actually more of a war room. So there's a few chairs and it's fairly comfortable. Some reading material books, things like that, but the party is pretty much just using it as a way to plan out their day and catch up with each other and things of that nature.

I would imagine the party is pretty much assembled except for Una and she would definitely be the slowest moving one today. - She's on her way, she's going. - Yeah, right. So she would come shuffling into this room. Everyone roll perception, please. - Crit one. - Thank God. - How is this, crit one today? - Hold up, hold up. I can't get to my character sheets. - I got his hand. - Holy shit, 33. - Jeez, okay. - She's still a bit shaken from the events of last night. - Kaluna has seen a lot of drunkards in their time. - Walking through the forest on their way home, just peeing.

- Okay, so Valis got a 19. So seated in the room, it would be Fi, Valis, Jadcia, Kaluna, and then Una comes stumbling in. So Fi and Valis are, oh no, I'm sorry, Kaluna and Valis are gonna notice the rough shape that Una's stumbling into the room with. Now, the Valis, it's gonna be pretty obvious that she's fucking, that's a hangover. And he's gonna give just the slightest shaking of his head, like this, this, Jesus, like just more disappointed than anything. - Shouldn't Jadcia get a plus 'cause she was there? - Well, no, I mean, she would know that Una's pretty hungover, but the extent of it.

- All right. - So yeah, from Valis's perspective, it's more like, okay, I wanna get started on this, and okay, you're showing up fucking hungover, awesome. What would Kaluna's take on this be? You'd definitely see how fucked up Una looks, but would Kaluna know about the effect of alcohol on a human body? - I imagine just because of like healery training. - Okay. - And would probably go into mom mode and like offer some water and just whatever they have on them to help. - Una will take the water and like look at Kaluna like she's giving her like the nectar of the gods, like just like a mouth, like.

- Kaluna will nod and just sort of pat Una on the shoulder. - Do I notice the look that- - Palace. - Roll a perception, but take a negative two on that one, just 'cause your current state. - Okay, I don't know how to do the negative, so just yeah, we'll do it. - Yeah, just shave it off, yeah. - What'd I get? - 20, you got a 23, so yeah, you are gonna notice. - She's gonna narrow her eyes at Valis, like don't give me that shit. And then like kinda wince at like the sound of her own voice. - Valis is gonna narrow his eyes right back and then very quickly elevate his voice, so like just to get this booming kind of, just to spite Una.

- Kaluna will cut him a look like, hey. - Did he not actually end up shouting? - He, the first word, the so, like he's obviously, it was more like, so what are we gonna do today? But it was very much like he wanted to punctuate that for just to hurt Una basically. - Can I just roll a straight intimidate check tell Valus to shut the fuck up. Yep, you can also do that. Okay, let me do that. Like it. Oh, Jesus. What I get, what I get? Is that a crit? Yep. That's a 37. That's a crit. Okay. Excellent. Umm, Una's just gonna like stare directly into Valus's eyes and be like "Shut.

The. Fuck. Up." Valus is gonna have the smallest little smile creep across his face. I just crit it. You can't smile. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Relax. You're getting you're getting what you want, but he knows it hurt you. That's the only reason. Like that's the that's the only reason. And he is going to he's gonna clam up, but he definitely knows that got to you. It pissed you off. That's all that's all he wanted. Piece of shit. Did I notice? Well, no, I oh, yeah, you you would have noticed this exchange. Yeah, this is a pretty, pretty blatant exchange.

Huh. Just is gonna kind of like, oh, him like, come on. I imagine that she did tell Valus everything that happened as soon as she like, got back to the room. So she's like, come on, she was being nice last night. Don't be mean. But that's pretty much all she'll do. And Valus will just kind of look over and just kind of like grumble a little bit and just kind of fold his arms just kind of a fine. Major. Does Una say that? Yes. I didn't mean for her to. Yes. Okay. He's just gonna mumble drunkard like under his breath. Pouty little shit. I will turn this Overwatch around.

I will turn this castle around. Don't test me. And Valus is going to turn to Jancia. For those of us who can hold our liquor, what are we supposed to be doing today? Pussy with piece of shit. He also didn't even have any liquor. Could he have those liquor? I'm actually curious because Una can't. Valus's endurance is higher than Una's. Okay, fair enough. There's anyone who's higher than I. I kind of want to see drunk Valus now though. I want drunk Valus and drunk Una to sing like drinking songs in a pub somewhere. Oh, I hate you. Jancia is just gonna kind of like shrug and look around.

Anyone have any plans? Valus is not so subtly like staring at Jancia like come on. Like he's not so subtly like he does not want this to be left up to the group where yeah, actually there's another dangerous thing we could go do to him. Una will like step kind of close to the table and be like, we're going to Brightport. That's the plan. And like kind of like shudder like she's about to throw up a little bit. Just the thought of like riding on the dragon. Ooh, maybe we should wait and check. She's like, fuck. I don't think Amara would like getting thrown up a pond.

She'll bring a bag. Someone can roll, anybody can roll a nature check, a nature or history check actually to find out what Una has done to herself. The effects of which, how long this lasts. Let me use the one thing I got. History. Let's go. 25. 25. Okay. So knowing what she was imbibing, because Jancia had some too. The hangover from drinking this particular orcish beverage can last up to three days. Is it the kind that you can cure by drinking? Temporarily, yes. The problem is each, you know, like let's say each day that you, okay, you can't be an alcoholic that drinks, you know, the skull splitter.

Like you can't because you'll fucking die. That it will ruin your insides. So every day that you keep this going, you are going to get a negative to stats and the inevitable hangover is going to be so much worse. That is definitely something Jancia is going to know. I mean, like, could I, could I slowly bring myself down to like vodka and then like rum and like beer? Well, the problem is any other alcohol that you drink that isn't that is going to make you extremely nauseous. Would, could I maybe like roll a heal check to see if Kaluna knows about the the thing you do, the drink that gets rid of hangovers and see if that would work?

You sure can. Yay. Hopefully you can't hear the fireworks. 31. 31. Yes, Kaluna would definitely know about that. And it mitigates some of it. It isn't this isn't like this isn't like getting drunk on rum or ale or something like that. This is this is a pretty nasty beverage. Your body basically has to detox. So that will that will that will lessen it. That will definitely help. You just need to go get your hands on some. Kaluna would share that information. Maybe as a quiet suggestion, like, hey, we could get you some of that stuff, man. Hey, friend. Yes. Um, I'm gonna like look at Kaluna and just like nod like, yeah.

Would Fi want to relay to the party anything? Yeah. Is is Liara in the room? Or is she off doing queen queen queen things? Liara would not be in the room currently. No, neither would Brie. Okay. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So Fi Fi Fi is going to look at everyone and say. Well, I don't think that this conversation is entirely appropriate for the breakfast table. I think it's something that that that you all need to know. Um, well, well, we was away and defecting. Um, it seemed that the Overwatch, uh, found some changelands and was trying to uh, was trying to keep them that looked like us in the city.

Um, Liara presumes that it's to save face. Um, so that it's not like, oh, look, our elite team has has defected. So, um, but they have been, they've been experimented on and they're not in a, in an, in, in an attractive way. Well, uh, at this point, when is going to throw up, she'll try and make it to a corner or, or valis, whichever one's closer. Oh, do me a favor, roll fly at the 20. Let's try to be nice about it. Oh, to see if I throw up my lungs. Well, I'm going to see how, how violent this is. But I get, I always have like eight different fucking screens.

I know. Oh, I got a 17. Okay. So this is going to be fairly discreet as discreet as someone's standing up. Like, excuse me, just pardon me. Clear a path. Um, yeah, when is going to stand up, adjourn herself in the room, um, and just sort of vomit into a fern. Um, just a lovely little potted plant across the, across the way here. Um, Valis is just going to shake his head looking at this. Just it just, just coming for you. Fucker. He's going to sort of relay a look to Jetz. He's like, she is useless right now. What are we even supposed to do with her? Um, Judsy will stand up and go to and kind of like rub on his back.

So she is in full armor, so she probably can't even feel that shit. Hold her hair back. Yes. You're pretty, pretty golden hair. She'll hold back while she vomits. Like a true friend. Judsy is going to ask if any of the other changelings are still even alive anymore. I, I presume not. Um, there was, there was 15 bodies that Liara showed me. Uh, she didn't mention of any, any survivors. That's fucked up, man. So this isn't pressing. No, but it is something that should be looked into. Um, and then Velas is going to glance back over to Jetzia. Judsy is going to kind of like shrink under his gaze.

Like she, she is not a born leader clearly. So like telling anyone to do anything would be a problem for her, but to tell four different people like, no, we're going here to work on my thing, like it almost makes her feel selfish, even though like she knows that it needs to be done. Um, but she'll kind of like tuck a thing of hair behind her ear. And I, um, I, I do, I would like to tell you something. Um, Una and I spoke last night. I'm not sure if she remembers, but she's going to kind of look over. Okay. From the fern. From then over the fern. Wiping her mouth, I'm good.

Holding a single finger. And she's going to kind of like pause for a minute just to kind of regain her thoughts because how do you say this to like a room full of people? I, it's rather important that we go to Brightport sooner rather than later. There's some things I need to take care of. Would Fi or Kalina have, uh, any objection to that? Uh, no. Nope. Valis is going to stand up and, and, and, uh, approach Jadzia. She's no good to us right now. And he's gonna, he's gonna just motion his head towards, uh, Una. Do I realize that this is happening? I mean, you could hear it.

Who are you talking about? Fucking Tiefling? She's like the redneck right now. Okay. At the Tiefling crack. Um, he's, he's, he's gonna kind of snap to like, what, what? Like just cause that's the first time race has ever come off. Like between, uh, between, between Una and, and Valis. That's the first time like there was no, there was no need for it. It's more of a shock. It's not like she's not being racist. She just knows that it's like a trigger for him. So she's right on it. Cause she's an asshole. She's not being racist. She's just being racist. Yeah. Um, he's going to kind of cock his head a bit and, and, and just like, fuck, did you just say like that kind of look?

Kaluna is going to take a really big step backwards to get out of the way. Uh, so Valis is just locking, locking his, his, his stare right on Una. But, but still speaking to Jadzia. Like I said, she's no good to us right now. We should wait. Give it a couple of days. That's as long as she can get from getting, long as she can keep from getting hammered again, we should be fine to take off for bright port soon. Pussy. Yeah, honestly, this is like in between little, like little vomits. Um, Valis is going to lean down to Jadzia and whisper, could you please shut her up?

Did I hear it? Okay. Let's, let's roll a perception check to see if you would have heard him whisper. Please, dear God. Let me just open the 18 tabs that it takes. I know this is so cumbersome. Okay. What'd I get guys? 34. You got a crit. Even with a negative two. Yeah. I do hear that like drunk people, like when you're hung over, all the noises are louder, so it kind of makes sense. That's what TV tells me about being hung over. I don't know shit about actually being hung over. So I crit, so I heard, I heard, I heard him get ready to breathe to say those whispers.

You might as well have been leaning down, whispering them in my ear. With his lips, like against my lube. Yeah. I wanted to hear that noise. That was it. Sort of gently caressing the ear lube. I mean, like I was going to fake a vomit noise, but I could honestly just do one. That's look, I'm trying to get you to be a method actress here. I'm trying to, do you need something for like the folly? Cause like, yeah, I'm not sure I can get the right effect of a potted fern being vomited into though. What would, what would Una's reaction be? That's a hearing this.

She's going to you shut up. And she's going to like, kind of like try and stand up a little bit, like, you know, kind of wobbly, but like getting there she's, she's emptied her stomach for the most part. So she's feeling a little better. Um, and she'll say, look, let's go now. Let's let's go. We can get to Brightport. I can rest there. It's fine. Let's just fucking go. Why are we waiting? Valis apparently, you know how important this is, so why the fuck are you stalling for time? Because if we stay here, we're safe. Once we get out of the road, anything can happen and you're useless.

We're on a fucking dragon. Have you ever fallen off a dragon? You have. Have you? Yes. [Laughing] That was the best. Yes. [Laughing] I can see his face. Like I could see his face saying that. Like, Valis' face. It's great. Anyway. I'm gonna eat. Um. Josiah keeps like trying to interject by the way, like she keeps putting her finger up like, uh, uh, um, um, and like you guys are just fighting back and forth so quickly. She has no moment to like interject. We're going to be fine. We have ropes and shit we can tie ourselves onto the dragon with. Did you try and ride a dragon without any sort of support?

You dumb piece of shit. Valis is going to close the gap between, between the two of them. That's you will also stay back. No. Um, and, and, and Valis is going to lean down towards Una. Cause again, kind of towers over. If you care about her at all, just wait. Take two days, get your shit together. And then we can take off. Nothing's going to happen here in the city. Una's just gonna go, I can handle my shit. And then she's going to vomit straight into his face. God damn it! I knew that the second he said like, he leans down. I was like, damn it Jason. She's not even going to try and aim away.

She's not even going to try and aim away. We're a quality show guy. There are plenty of other bodily functions we can get into, Matt. Roll the poop. Ew. So this is okay. Phallus is kind of going to freak out a little bit here. He's going to take a step back and just angrily swipe at his own face to get... This is just abysmal, honestly. Let's have Phallus roll an athletics check. Did he have his mouth open? No, he would have just been hovering over it. It's bad enough. It was in the chat. It was in the chat that I laughed. Can we... 20 versus Eunos Fortitude. I don't think that makes it.

I don't know where things are. One second, I do. Fortitude. Her Fortitude is 24. Okay, so that's not going to... He has Una in his eyes. It's not going to knock her over. He is going to reach out and shove Una. That is not going to knock her over, though. Can Jadzu kind of come in and... Shit, are there napkins in the room? Well, there are... I mean... Papers. I mean, there are... We are in the kitchen area where we eat, so I assume in a nice castle there would be napkins on the table. Well, see, the thing is, this is like breakfast time. So there would be sort of like a tea service set out, and this is really welcoming, so I mean, there could be a towel.

Alright, Jadzu will take that towel and pour some water on half of it, because I'm sure there's a glass of water nearby, and run over and try to wipe off his face. Jesus Christ. Valus is going to reach for the hilt of the silver dagger he's carrying on his waist now. Can Jadzu put her hand on that? Like, if Jadzu noticed, she will put her hand on top of Valus's hand and is about to grab that. But not in an accusatory way, because she totally gets it. Like, this is really hard to defend, Una. He's not going to resist. He's definitely, but he is still very much locked on Una.

Una's going to wipe her mouth, the back of her hand, just like grinning horribly. Like, the kind of grim where it's like, "I'm in so much pain, but that was awesome!" And she's going to turn to Kaluna and be like, "Kaluna, let's find the dragon." Kaluna is going to bolt for the door like, "Okay, let's do this! Let's get out of this room." Okay, Una will totter out with Kaluna. Are you letting people know that you're getting ready to leave? Ha ha, Una has that sentimental theme well hung over. Sweet! Wait, what? Are you letting people know that you're leaving the city, or are you just taking off?

I mean, I guess the others would have to gather their shit, so yeah, we're taking our time. We're saying, "Goodbye, citizens of Overdale." Are they Overdale again? They're not Overdale yet, no. Kind of baby steps towards that. Fuck it, let's just call them Watchdale. Just change their whole name. That's an amalgamation of this awkward sounding... Did Liara give Fi any paperwork or details on the Changelings last night? Oh yeah, she would have given you any information that she had. Okeydokey, cool. Is the entire party assembled, or is this a thing where separately you're getting together?

Or you're just getting your things ready? Like packing and such? I mean, Una would have packed before coming downstairs because she figured, like, we're gonna go today. Immediately, sort of thing. So she'd be packed, but I don't know about everyone else. I imagine John Zia has to, like, decide what goes in her bag and what stays, because at this point she's collected so many books and, like, her father's stuff. So she has to try and make it all fit, so she's probably in her room still packing up. Yeah, Valis would assist in carrying anything. But he'd carry the whole fucking trunk if you thought it was necessary.

Like, he would try to grab whatever he could and do the heavy lifting for Jatzia. What about Fi and Kaluna? I don't think Kaluna would have ever unpacked. Fi does not have a lot to pack, but yeah, he probably wouldn't have really got much out either. Okay, so getting this... this would not be... yeah, this wouldn't be too hard. So Liara is going to approach... is going to approach Fi. You guys taking off? Yeah, we... we need... we need to do some stuff in Brightport for Jatzia. Is there anything I can help with? Not that I know of. Well, she's going to hold out her... her hand to... to Fi and just... just sort of offer a shake.

Again, I... I'm going to try and find out as much as I can about the changeling mess and, believe me, I'm going to be cleaning up messes here for quite some time, I think. But if you find yourself coming back through here, please let me know and I'll tell you what I've learned since. I will do. I hope that you... you find some... some good news in there as well. She's going to just sort of pat Fi on the shoulder and... and turn and get back to her business, because she is quite busy. Bri is going to be looking for Una here. Now, is this something where Una would be actively avoiding her or just... just sort of a get the fuck away from me or... what would her reaction be to... to seeing her?

I mean, Una wouldn't really be avoiding. That's not really her... her style. Right. So she'd just be kind of going up about her business, like not... like looking for her, not... but not avoiding, you know. So Bri would... Bri would approach Una. You have a second? Keep... shh... keep your voice down. And that's the first time it's going to dull on her. It's like, okay, so let's see what... she would... let's see, perception check wise. Twenty-four, yeah, she would pick up and it's like, okay, okay. Do... do you have a second? She's going to lower her voice.

Una will like nod very slowly and gently, so like not move her head very much. You're leaving the city? Yeah, we're going to... we're going to Brightport to... she's going to like pinch her head, like fuck, like the words hurt, to take care of something for Jadzia. Oh, okay. I think I'm going to stay behind. There's... there's a couple of things I want to do here. I... I want to help Leora and Po and they have their work cut out for them, so I... I think I'd be more use here. I can't stand surprised. If you find your way back through and you want to... you want to talk, then I'll...

I'll probably be around, but yeah. She's going to... she's going to reach up almost... she... she... it looks like she's going to try and put her hand on your shoulder or something and then just kind of think better of it and just be really awkward about the entire thing. She doesn't exactly know how to... Yeah, I'm just going to roll her eyes when she's like, if you want to have a talk or something, and then like visibly wince because the act of rolling her eyes has hurt. Look, if you... if you want to talk, if you want to have some feels, just do that now.

Don't... if you want to say something, just spit it right out because something's going to come out of me, I swear. And she's going to like... a little bit. She's going to reflexively just like arch her back, like back up just a bit. It's like, okay, I... okay. I honestly don't know how to make it up to you. I've been thinking about it and I don't... I don't know what I could ever do to... to make up for the fact that you didn't see anything. I don't... I don't know how to make that up to you. I'm sorry doesn't seem to cover it. And it's not like it's a problem we could fight.

So... I don't know. What do you want me to do here? Look, it's not your fault you didn't know. I understand that. It is, however, going to take me a while to forgive you because even though I understand that you meant no harm, I'm still really fucking pissed. She's... she's going to break eye contact and look down, kind of at her boots while you're... while you're saying that. She knows that already, but it's the reinforcement of it. No, don't get sheepish. Okay? Don't fucking wilt, okay? This is going to be fine eventually. You just need to understand and acknowledge how angry it makes me.

And it'll be fine, I swear. Don't do that thing where you get all meek, though, because that's not validating at all. She's going to nod her head slowly. Alright. Just take care of yourself, okay? And keep an eye on Jadzia. I don't know what you... I don't know what you're doing, but I have a feeling it's important. Pretty fucking important. But it'll be fine. I have no doubts about that. And if we lose anyone, it'll be the tiefling, thank god. So... Her eyes are going to go wide. Like, wait, what? We're just not even going to, like, not even get in there. Just wow on.

And we'll come back when it's all done and help do whatever needs to be done around here. But this is pretty urgent, obviously. Again, just take care of yourselves and I wish you luck. And Bree's going to get ready and turn to walk away. And then stop. And then turn around to Una. Hold out your hand. Una's going to hold out a hand? And she's going to step closer and grab Una's hand from the bottom and then reach into her pocket. And then take out this small necklace. It's pendant with a red gem in it and place it in Una's hand. I don't know where the other one of these went, but I used to have two.

I want you to hold on to it. Do I know that this is the thing that she had? The thing? Oh yeah. Okay. Just humor me, okay? I'm guessing that I'm going to just recognize it. I don't need to roll a perception or anything, right? No, no. This is pretty recognizable. Una's going to look at it pretty, like, astonished. And then just kind of nod. Really slowly again so she's not moving her head too fast. And just say, "I'll keep it safe for you." She's going to give this little half-smile and then turn and walk away. And Una will turn and throw up. Okay. To the dragon?

I'm starting to wonder the semantics of how much Una's stomach can fucking hold. Yeah, really. Do you just keep eating in between scenes? Is it just like that gross, like, it's just water? Yeah. Oh god, that's the worst. Gross. I mean, I'm trying, I want Una to just be happy and fun and good, but at the same time it's like, if this is really that bad of a hangover, it's probably the kind where you just start throwing up bile, you know? Gross. I mean, hey, I'm guessing. So, you're summoning Amara? Yes. I have it, but does Una have it? Una would have it. Una. You do that thing.

The horn? Oh fuck. God, let out Amara. No, she's gonna, she'll take the horn out and then pass it to Fi. Yeah, that's not gonna negate the noise. Yeah. And then she's gonna clap her hands over her ears. Can we talk about this, like, maybe stay in a few days thing again? No. You're on step one and it's already proving Valus right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just go. Just do it. Yeah, Fi, well, Fi's gonna look at Una and is like, "Really? Really?" She's gonna just like, clamp her hands even tighter over her ears and just like nod really slowly. And just kinda like, like hunch over on the ground.

She's like protecting her ears. Can Kaluna add their hands to Una's hands? Fi is gonna walk like five, ten feet away from Una and just like blow the horn away from Una. Hold on. I love that this horn that is going to rock this valley, that is that you sent the dragon into the mountains far, far away, that you know it's going to summon the dragon. Walking five feet is going to negate the effect on Una. No, no, no. It's not to negate the effect on Una. It's to make sure he's not in a splash zone. Oh. Okay, that's pretty smart. Can I clarify that Kaluna is like to the side covering her.

No, you're right in front of her and you're not allowed to move. Looking her dead in the eye just like, "It's okay." It's okay. Is Valus still visibly upset about what happened? Like, is still kind of feral? Fuck yes, Valus is still visibly upset. Every time that she makes a spectacle of herself like, "Oh, like covering her," it's just like he's gonna like, just this bitch. Just kinda, just kinda just like shake his head. Just fucking hope. I'm gonna kill him at some point. It's gonna happen. Oh, he would love to stab you. No. Please don't do any of this. Flashbacks.

So this horn is going to sound. The, there's a reverberation. There is, there, like it's sort of, you can feel it in the ground and you can, you can feel it in all of you. It's just, this, this, this, this, this big noise that goes off. Oona does have, you know, hands covering, covering her ears, but it's still going to, it's still gonna kind of jar her head. Like the vibration of it is still... Can we take up that hand over here? When do I get to drink that? Well, you can drink it. Like I said, it's going to, it's gonna take some of the edge off, but that is not...

Now, if you were just up all night drinking ale or something like that, it's a, it's a pretty common... Okay, that's like having a migraine and taking an aspirin. Okay. It'll, you know what I mean? It kind of takes some of the edge off, but it's not, it's not a caliber. Yeah, no, I get it, I get it, but taking the edge off is fine. Yeah, so it's not that you are not, you are not as bad off as you were. So Amara is, after a couple of seconds, Amara is going to start to fly toward your direction, filling up the sky pretty, pretty intimidatingly if you, if you didn't know who Amara was.

And she is going to sort of splash down and land directly in front of you guys. There's a nice, there's a nice distance. But the impact on the ground is going to, I would imagine that's going to bother Una a bit more than the horn would have. But there's really no way around that one. Actually, let's roll a check here to see. What am I rolling? Roll an Endurance check. Fucking hell. 19. Okay, so that's not too bad. Okay. That's not too bad. So maybe this cure is, maybe that, maybe that, maybe that potion's working a little bit. So Amara's going to land in front of you all and I would imagine you're all saddling up.

Una will like tie herself onto the dragon. Thallus is going to, he's going to want to go last and he's sitting toward the back. I would like to also be, well, should we put Una in the back? Because with the momentum. Yeah, Una should be. Oh yeah, you don't want to be downwind. Exactly. So Jodzia will point that out as Thallus is climbing up to go to the back. Be like, no, no, no, honey. Come on. It's going to take him a second to realize what you're talking about. In front of the puke machine. And he does not want to make a show of this. Actually, I'm going to have him roll a Stealth check.

Hold on a second. He's so good at that too. Whoa! Crit. Whoa. Sorry, I actually screamed because he just crit a stealth roll, which has never happened before. No one sees him move onto the dragon. On the, so on this, he is going to, he's going to very gingerly start to tie himself to this dragon. But definitely not make a show of it. He is very, very much trying to, would that beat Una's passive perception? I don't think it would actually. Oh god. I know she has really good passive perception. It might be exactly the same. Passive perception is 24. Yes! Oh wait, the roll always beats it.

Fuck. Yeah. So that is just going to beat Una's passive perception so she's not going to notice it. She's tying herself on. Yeah, but. Una's going to like, kind of like, I guess they're already on the dragon stick. Hey Jadzia, can you ask her to fly a little slow? Jadzia will. And because she's speaking Draconic, she's literally just going to say like, there's someone hungover on the back if you could go a little bit slowly. Like she's not going to mince words with the dragon, probably because she mostly can't. Right. It's pretty literal. Do you mean, she's like Drax. 17.

Diplomacy of 17. Amara's going to mostly pick that up. Amara's going to go, okay, cool. Like she's going to mostly pick that up. Everyone's on the dragon, everyone's ready to go? Yep. Okay, so Amara's going to gingerly take, there's plenty of field, so she's going to be able to have a nice running start and it's a really smooth takeoff. And she is going to start to make her way east. Now, this is skipping over mountains and stuff, this is just flying through, almost just taking the road. Which would be fairly, fairly quick. Flying over the mountains can be a little dangerous because eventually you're going to encounter other dragons.

Unless you are telling her specifically to take those routes, she's going to avoid it. I'm going to let her avoid those as much as she'd like. Okay. In her brief time being able to fly around, that is something she has noticed. That mountains can bring dragons, dragons sometimes bring a fight. Well, is it like stray cats where like when you let one stray cat out it'll be attacked by all the other cats? Well, the thing that Amara has to her advantage is she is fucking huge. But she has had red dragons swarm her before. Aw, poor baby. The thing that she can do that they can't is freeze them in midair and have them plummet and shatter on the ground.

Well, not a baby. Not a baby. Everyone roll a perception check for me please. 23. No! 23! God damn it. Let's see here, that would be, okay, Valus, Jadzia, and Fi are going to notice. You don't really have much else to do while you're on the back of the dragon. So you're just keeping an eye on the paths. In order to make it a little easier on Una, Amara is flying a little low. Not buzzing anyone, but the high altitude and clouds and stuff probably wouldn't help. So just sort of taking it slow, coasting along. And looking down, Valus, Jadzia, and Fi are going to see a very disheveled looking Marek.

Sort of hobbling along the path. This would be outside, definitely outside of Esterhold, heading through the mountain pass toward the city of Overwatch. Fi would definitely be like, "Is that Marek?" And Kaluna is just immediately going to be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what, what, what, what?" And sort of really try to find him. Once he points it out, do we all kind of see it? Yeah, I would imagine that you're looking down and you're focused. I'd imagine they'd be pointing. Valus wouldn't necessarily be trying to get people to stop and pick him up. Then it would be like, "Jadzia, Jadzia, tell her to bank.

We have to go see Marek." Tell her to bank? Bank when you turn, you bank to the right or bank to the left. No, I've never heard that used to fly. You've never heard that expression? No, never once in my life. Tell Elora to go to the bank. We're going to make a deposit. Really? It's a bank. I didn't think that was like Bird's Bank. I didn't think that was just a specific piloting term. It's like anything relating to flying. Yeah, no, I know. I'm not the one who said I didn't know. Thank you, honey. Now I know. And I'll take that knowledge with me into the future.

Alright, Amara, bank. Diplomacy. For the record, I am distinctly not going to point at Marek, because I'm worried the dragon's going to think I want it to attack if I crit miss. So I'm literally just saying, "Hey, could you land?" Like, not even referencing the man we were all pointing at. Eight. Amara's going to pick up some urgency. Wait, wait, wait. Izzy's next to me. I get a nine. That's true. Nine, sorry. Amara's going to pick up some urgency in Jadcia's voice. And Amara's going to bank really, really sharply and start to rocket towards the ground. Do I have to roll an endurance check?

Yeah, I will. This could be hilarious. This is a stream of vomit. Amara starts spelling something out in the sky. I get a 11. That's actually not bad. It's better than I expected. Yeah, 11 is pretty rough. So this is going to affect Una in a negative fashion. A lot, actually. Una's probably going to be very, very queasy. So Amara is going to just plummet out of the sky. It's not a huge descent, because again, she was flying fairly low. Marek. Yes? How would Marek react to seeing a giant white dragon sort of make a beeline for Marek? Like, descend directly toward him?

Like, it would look sort of like an attack pattern almost. Right. Leaving a trail of vomit. I think the vomit would give it away. No, I think... So he's pieced all of this together, right? He's tracked the party. He knew that they were finding a dragon. Would he have seen a bunch of dragons? Would this have been odd for him? Because I think if so, he would have pieced it together. Do me a favor, roll a nature check. 30. Okay. Yeah, Marek would know that white dragons are not... they're not indicative of these parts of Theria. That's much more a Northlands type of thing.

And the description that you were given of Amara, it's a giant white dragon. So you would probably know what was... Yeah, I think... Still frightening. Yeah, I was gonna say, I think Marek would be like, "I bet this is... these are my friends." But maybe not. Let me just kind of make sure. Like, he'd be a little skeptical, but I think he'd be... he'd piece it together. Okay, so Amara is going to... Amara is going to set down in a field, sort of off to the side of the road. Very much an attention grabber. So any passersby are going to probably shit themselves, which is going to be a continued problem with Amara, I would imagine.

I'm imagining the party's gonna hop off, or at least some of the members of the party. As Amara is landing... you know how, like, whenever you get close to your house in the car, you, like, unbuckle your seatbelt because you know you're getting off? That's basically what Kaluna has done. You probably shouldn't do that while you're landing on a dragon, though, because, like, in your car you're inside a thing. Not like as we're going down, but sort of like as the setting down is happening, sort of like start scrambling to untie the rope to get off the dragon.

Okay. And then... Do a Valus and, like, fly into the nearest fruit cart. And so then they'll, um, they'll sort of not, probably not very gracefully slide off of Amara and start just bounding towards Merrick. And they'll, um, they'll stop just short of, like, ramming into him, and they look very, very excited to see him, but then they'll sort of catch themselves and shuffle backwards a bit and sort of lower their head. Kind of like a dog is like, "Oh, oh, I did a bad thing." Hmm. I mean, as, as everybody's landing, I think Merrick would be beaming and be trying to move towards them, but giving enough space, of course, for Amara to land properly.

But he would be like, "Ugh, this, uh, this was a good stroke of luck." So upon seeing Kaluna, he would, he would still be beaming and he would, he would reach out to try to hug her, basically, just to grab her like, "Yes!" "Them." "Them. Damn it." "He's been in the woods for a week. I mean, give him a break." "He lost all his sense of pronouns." "They're woods, they're gender binaries." "That's true." So, um, as soon as Kaluna saw, like, that the arms were wide open. Sorry. But, um, when, when Kaluna saw the invite for the hug, they would swoop down and sort of like pick Merrick up as much as they could and sort of give him a really tight hug and do that spinny thing that people do when they're really excited.

He'll go with, he'll even help her do it. Yeah. He actually, the thing about, so Merrick has been convinced that Kaluna is, is going to be extremely, extremely mad with him for having left. So he's just going to be elated that she's not about to yell at him for anything. So he's just going to just, just hug her and smile. That's, and he's just waiting for everybody to get around. Una will definitely jump off the dragon or not jump, slide gently off the dragon and approach Merrick and Kaluna whenever their celebratory hugging is done. Merrick, as soon as Una, as soon as Una is coming up towards Merrick, he's going to point at her and say, "I have something for you." She's going to like put a hand over her mouth a little bit and just say, "Is it a bucket?" No, he's going to say, "You look like death.

No, I've got a message for you and I've got something to talk to you about, but, but whenever you're ready, whenever you kind of get your shit together." She's like come up to him and like, can I clap him on the shoulder? Like a, you know, like a welcome back sort of thing, but kind of stay like arms length away and just say, "I am so hungover." Yeah, Merrick, Merrick's just going to nod and he's just, he's elated. He's elated to see Una and he's elated to see Kaluna. He's, look, I'm sorry I left you. I had something very Merrick to do, something about my past and, and I have, I've had some revelations.

So, yeah, I can't wait to tell everybody about stuff. Does Merrick have a horse or is he just walking? That's a good question. This would, he would just be walking. Okay. That's good because otherwise it'd be like, "Did she want to eat that?" I guess. Una will just like kind of gesture to the dragon and say like, "Well, we're on our way to Brightport if you want to come with us and explain what's, why, where you've been." Yeah, no, don't worry. All right, first and foremost, I don't know anything that's happened. So I'm assuming there's no Strahd? It's a long story.

Yeah. Merrick, do me a favor, roll a perception check. All right, she's black. 23. Couple things Merrick's going to notice. Una's hands appear to be both scarred and blacked out with ink. Another thing that Merrick is going to notice is the large tiefling still sitting on the dragon. You ever see the stereotypical hillbilly drunk in a bar eyeballing the guy he thinks might be gay? Kind of that. Wait, that depends. Is that guy like straight or is he looking to examine? Oh no, yeah, no. Okay. I'm talking like stereotypical hillbilly, like you came to wrong bar, boy, that kind of thing.

Because there's two ways of looking for gay people on the bar. Yeah, no, totally. No, totally. Valus just sitting there like, "Hey, hostel." Hey, yeah, Valus is giving you a pretty intensely dirty look from the dragon, still seated. So Merrick's got a lot of things going through his head right this second. So he's, as he notices the tattoos aren't there, he's, his face is just going to go sort of stoic and his eyes are going to blink frantically. Like, I don't, like that wasn't what he expected at all. He's going to kind of, he's going to notice Valus.

He's going to keep looking at the tattoos and sort of try to, he's trying to do some math. Like what's, what happened here? And he's going to give Valus a very deep nod. Like not acknowledging that there's any sort of anger or hatred or weird look. He's just going to be like, you know, sort of very respectful nod at Valus. Is Jazzy still in the dragon? I figured she's like about to get down, but she wants to see if Jasper's just going to jump on and then they're going to continue. Right. So it's kind of like, you know, you pull up to the curb and you're like, "Get in bitch, we're going shopping." Valus is going to lean over to Jazzy.

This is why we should have waited. Why? I'm assuming he's coming with us. Jazzy is going to like nod probably. Weren't we planning on knocking in any fights anyway? And what if he loses control of himself? So far he's only done that in battle. He's just going to have this little grumble underneath of his, just like he doesn't want to argue about it, but he is, like it's a new wrinkle. He just doesn't want to fight in front of the kids like we're in the car. Wait until we get home. Yeah, very much just her rumpf, just that. She's going to like squeeze his hand and then she'll get off the dragon since no one else is jumping back on.

Go ahead. 15. Yeah, we didn't pick that one up. Something else to mention about Merrick is that he has, well, I don't know if this, maybe this is a perception check, but at least from Merrick's point of view, he feels so much more calm and together than he did from the last time that they actually saw him. I got a crick, guys. I jokingly did a perception roll because I was like, well, I'm going to suck at it anyway. I might as well just roll that perception. It was just, I crick. I saw that, guys. I totally saw that. You know everything about Merrick ever.

So Merrick looks calm and put together, just ambling down the road, just walking. So everyone is going to climb back aboard, back aboard Amara. Could, while, once they're all buckled in and stuff, but before they've taken off, can Judzio kind of let Valus know, he seems different as she's climbing in so that no one can hear her, but to try to reassure him. Again, just kind of a harrumpf. And he's going to kind of cast his eyes back toward Merrick just to sort of take him in after. So to Judzi it's very much like, yeah, whatever, I don't care. But then after they get seated, he's going to take a look, just kind of steal a glance back just to sort of assess for himself to see if he looks any different.

And you guys are going to get ready and take off for Brightport. So nothing is going to get in your way, obviously, because you're on Amara. It's going to take a little bit longer than it normally would because her instructions were, hey, maybe take it a little slow. So that's... Instructions she immediately forgot when I asked her to land. Amara's like a goldfish. It seems, it seemed important. It's like to her it was like, hey, stop now. It's like, okay. Like it was, it was like that's how it was communicated to her. So she is going to get ready and ascend back into the air, very smooth, very, very calm and make her way back to Brightport.

So hours on this dragon. It's going to be nighttime. It's going to be, it's going to be dusk at the very least when you come swooping into Brightport. And the typical response of Amara swooping, it's always worse at night is the problem. She tries, she learned this very on, she always tries to be back to the house before nightfall because she doesn't light up the night sky at all. Big white dragon. So if, you know, if she comes swooping out of the night sky, it terrifies people even more so than during the day. So she is going to swoop out of the night sky and land near House Dragon's Keep and sort of duck to let everybody, let everybody off before she starts to shimmy back into the house.

That's just going to say thank you and Draconic. Draconic. Draconic? Draconic. Anyway. However. Thank you. I'm not going to make you roll for that. Thank god. I was like, don't make me insult your mother or something. Yeah, no, no, no, no. That's it's two words. And she's going to she's going to nuzzle Jadzi a bit. Aw, thanks baby. Jadzi is going to pet her a little bit. She's not scared anymore. She likes Amara now. David is going to meet you. Is going to meet you here in the house. You always tell when Amara is back in town like, you know, it does not it does not take a high perception check because there's lots of noise.

And he's going to sort of motion with his hands to greet the party to welcome him in. Thanks. We'll shake his hand and introduce herself. And vomit on him. Restraining herself, you know. He's going to he's going to give this, you know, sort of a sort of a like a not quite a head nod, not quite a bow, just sort of something in between. It's a it's a gesture of respect, though. She's going to just kind of like look around, like kind of shift you out of it. Do you have anything for a splitter hangover? His his eyes are going to widen ever so slightly. Come with me.

I may be able to help. Fantastic. He's going to give me like Therian myth. Therian equivalent to method. Yeah. So so David's going to take Una away and he may be able to actually help her out. The rest of the party. What is the rest of the party want to do here? It's like no one else is like between Jadzia and the library. Jadzia would probably start heading to the library. All right. Valis is going to pretty much keep lockstep with with with Jadzia. It's called caring for somebody. It's called love, Izzy. Wouldn't know what that feels like. We have something that Voldemort will never have.

Actually, friendship. But, you know, still, you know, whatever love is a form of friendship. Friendship is a form of love. Details. Whatever. So Merrick hasn't been here, by the way. He's he's kind of just following the rest of the herd here. Taluna would give him the worst tour ever, but really enthusiastically. This is the room where there was food one time. He'll he'll just go along with it. That's this fantastic. Absolutely wonderful. All the while, though, he's trying to figure out where the kitchen is, just sort of, you know, looking in different directions to see which way that probably would exist.

Because I think he's going to he's going to probably want to to get in there at some point. I'd like to specify that Kaluna is walking. You know, that weird thing that dogs do when they're really excited so they don't walk quite right. They just sort of like step on themselves. Basically what they're doing. This kitchen is going to be massive. Eventually, Merrick is going to find it. It's a huge kitchen. They have the works there. I mean, like they it's it's meant to prepare huge meals. So this is this is basically a restaurant style kitchen. It's huge. Yeah, he's going to tremble at that.

Whatever he says. Visibly like, why? I don't. He's just going to be nodding, like looking around, nodding. Yes. Do you need a change of pants? It's more like he needs a handkerchief, like to dry his tears. I totally thought you needed a handkerchief for something else. Blow his nose. Excuse me. I need to leave for a minute. Let me just. Jasper's in dad mode, guys. Well, then he would know what I'm talking about. Get it because the babies. Whenever whenever it is done with David and his hangover care, she'll go find Merrick. Well, let's get to that. David is going to they're going to duck into a side room here.

And there's there's a lot of a lot of little vials of liquid. And this is sort of a repository for for it for different potions. And it's it's sort of not an obscure area of the house. It's very much tucked to the side, though. OK, I'm going to offer you something and I want you to know that it may help you out, but there is a chance that there's a slight side effect. What side effect? Narcolepsy. How slight? About 20 percent. What is it? Well, there's a local gnome that runs a shop down the street. You know, fuck that. I don't trust gnomes. So he gets part way into the explanation and just like, nope.

I was like, thank you for your help. Fucking gnomes, though, man. He nods. He doesn't even trust me. I know. So she'll just like pat him on the shoulder and go find Merrick. Yeah, fuck that. I'm not I'm not taking any gnome shit. Also, Una with narcolepsy would suck so many dicks. And with my luck, I know I would get it. It wasn't permanent. I wouldn't have done that. I don't trust you either. I run the gnome. Sorry, that was bad, except, you know, gnomes. You still owe someone a date with Eri. I'm just letting you know. Yeah, it's fine to flirt with them. Just see an extra like bonus to your diplomacy.

But is he a gnome or a halfling? Oh, see, there you go. Yeah, that's just saying that reinforces that. You never said you would go on the date alone. Just say triple date. Bring everyone. Do you really want Valis and Jassy to accompany you? Oh, my God. That would be an amazing character journal. Can we do that? That's awesome. Let's do it. That that could be just one character journal episode where we tackle that one event from four different. There's only it's amazing already. Just like, oh, my God. Yes. Like the restaurant. I don't even ask you. Don't worry, I got it.

We're doing that. I just wrote it down. It's on our to do list. Thank you. That's that's the thing that's going to happen at some point. Thank you. Tell the listeners. You're welcome for me. OK, can I go find Merrick? Sure. Have you. Oh, by the way, have you. I know the answers. No, you haven't heard the character journal yet, have you? No. It's really fucking fun when you get to do them. It's just writing a regular character journal, but now you're acting it out by yourself. Also, Jodzi had talked about you behind your back. She fucking hates you. That was the two actually did come.

Actually, it was nice kind of you ruined that. But yeah. Call me the paladin. OK, that's what he that's what he does. There's only one person he would call by name. OK. So meeting back up with Merrick. Right. I don't think he would stick around in the kitchen. So he would be wherever the wherever the sitting area would be, I guess. I'm sure there are several, but oh, there's a there's a there's a gorgeous one. David would probably direct you direct you all to the nice little sitting area. Does anyone want anything to eat? Merrick's going to lift his hand up like, no, thank you.

Thank you. And look at Una questioningly like food. Like that, just like the like mental image of food is like it's going to make her like, but she says some water would be fantastic. Yeah, Merrick will will have two fingers up like, yeah, two, two, please. David's going to disappear and go get some water. So let's I would imagine I would imagine Una and Merrick would and Kaluna would probably have some catching up to do here. Yeah, absolutely. Anybody the best. Where's Fi? Yeah, Fi, Fi would be going over the the information that he got from Liara because like the the night before he he he he probably wouldn't have really kind of looked at it in too much depth.

Una will just kind of like lean over and Merrick and be like, so, yeah, I mean, tell me everything. Yeah, OK. I have waited for so long to be able to talk to you about this. It feels like weeks. It's only been like two days. But OK, first, I'm looking at he's looking at both Una and Kaluna. And maybe this is more for Kaluna, but he's he's trying to make sure that everybody can get the message. I'm sorry that I left in such a hurry. I I had something I had to do and I had to do it then. And I I talked to Mr. Brake and he said, you got the parcels. I I hope you understand.

Kaluna will nod. Great. That was easy. Una will just say, I hope you sorted out what you needed to sort out. Yeah, I did. And way more. OK, so two things. The first one's about me and the second one's about you. All right. The first thing. Wait a minute. What happened? Merrick's going to point at her tattoos and her fists. Look, that's a long story. You should probably tell yours before I tell mine. OK. Merrick's again, Merrick's been putting some math together and maybe he doesn't know quite what's going on, but he's very intrigued because he feels like there's a connection to what he's about to talk about.

OK, so listen, since I met you and it's it's been weeks and the entire group, you don't understand how important everybody's been to me. But but I need you to understand you're the one person I've met, Una, who whenever you walk into the room, you bring your God into the room. It feels like court is there. That's you embody everything about your deity. And you understand this more than anybody. And I need your counsel about this. Merrick is going to be super. He's going to be stumbling over his words about all of these things. He's just trying to dump everything out of his brain.

But he's also super excited. He doesn't seem to be scared or or agitated. He's just going to look at Una and say, look, everything's changed. Let me start at the beginning. I told you a long time ago, I'm from the firehalls, right? I I've been away from the firehalls for well over a decade. I've been wandering alone back in the firehalls. I was put in charge of a sanctuary. I was I had a congregation. We call them flocks. And for lack of a better term, I was a zealot. I was very young, but they saw promise in me. I ended up picking a fight with some fire giants, which was a bad idea.

It was for the glory of a monitor. At least that's how it felt to me. And I wanted to prove that hope and the sun and everything would would always win. It was a bad idea in the first few moments. Most of the flock fell and I blacked out and I woke up naked and bloodied back in the sanctuary. I don't know how long I had been out and everyone was dead, even the women and the children. So the reason I'm telling you is this. I fucked off that day. I left. I don't know what happened. All I know is I let everybody into battle and then all of a sudden I led everybody to their deaths.

That was not good. So I completely fled and I left for the mainland. And from that point forward, I thought a monitor had cursed me. That's why I'm the monster that you know that I can be. So I've been wandering and wandering and wandering and wandering. Thinking that a monitor had cursed me. So anyway, I went off in Fair Bay because I'm sick of it. I'm trying to get back in the good graces of a monitor. I've always for over a decade, like I said, trying to get him to look at me just to see me and to lift this curse. But it all changed. Listen, it's a long story, but here's the deal.

I don't think he's there. I don't think he ever was. I don't think he cursed me. I think I'm the one who killed my flock and I never wanted to face that. It seems obvious now, but I think I was always the werewolf way before I left the fire isles. And I just didn't want to see that. So listen, I tried to talk to a monitor. I finally renounced him. I told him I didn't want anything from him anymore. And yet I could still heal myself and I still had powers. I got into some fights in the forest. It wasn't a big deal, but I could still do what I normally do. The kind of stuff we do.

I've seen you float into a room with electricity and wind carrying you. That kind of stuff. But there wasn't a God behind me. A monitor wasn't there. I don't know. I just. Am I crazy? No, no, that's it. And he's just going to stop. Like he doesn't know what else to say. The entire time he's talking in his eyes, you just get like wider and wider and wider because basically everything he's saying he went through, she's just recently gone through. And she's going to like put a hand up to her mouth. But this time it's not to stop her from throwing up. It's like she's honestly shocked.

And she's going to look over at him and say, well, here's my story. We had Strahd attack the town. Not really attack, but land and be very threatening. And so I decided that as a paladin of Kord, there is no greater act of bravery than to fight the dragon. So I summoned all the paladins of the Temple of Kord along with Craig Mason. And we went out of town. The dragon flew ahead of us and we found it in Odessia and we fought it and everyone died, including myself, leaving just Bree behind who finished off the dragon. Obviously, they brought me back. Bree fought with Julie, the last remaining person of authority at the Temple of Kord, and forced her to resurrect me.

I have been looking forward to meeting Kord since I was a little girl. It was all I had lived for. It's why I fought that dragon. And when I died, there was nothing. I died screaming at the dragon to kill me. And I had fought a legendary dragon. I knocked its eye out with Kord's legendary weapon, and he apparently didn't see fit to summon me to heaven. So I'm pretty fucking sure that there's just nothing out there. I don't... It wasn't like blacking out. It wasn't falling asleep and waking up. It was nothing. I was... I know. I saw nothing. I remember nothingness.

And guess what? I renounced him and I still have all my powers. I feel stronger. I think you're right. I think there is nothing out there. I don't think there are gods. Merrick is going to just fall back in his chair. Like, all the tension is gone. Like, fuck. And he's just going to say, "This is fucking fantastic. You died? And you don't think Kord is there?" Yeah, that's the gist of it. Yeah. I'm so glad you died, Una. I'm so glad you died. I'm not crazy. Una, are none of them there? How do we do what we do? I mean, I've seen you heal. I've healed. I've blinked enemies in and out of existence.

Where does that come from? Is it us? Is it something inside us? I don't even know. I don't even know what to think. I mean, it's been only a couple days since I came back from the dead. It seems like it's only been a couple days for you since you renounced Emonitor. But I do have the sense that it is just us. Besides the fact that I am egregiously hungover, I do feel stronger. I feel more in touch with the power that I thought was given to me by Kord. When I was renouncing my god, I told Julie that they had just taken in a child that had power and seen that power and encouraged that power.

But it was mine all along. I'm sure of it. Merrick's just going to be beaming at this point. It's going to lock in so many things that he's just been wandering around for the last few days trying to sort out. It's just going to start making sense. And he's just going to say, "This isn't just for you and me. This is something we need to tell others or do something about, but I don't know what that is." I don't know. But this is not the end of this. We don't just realize, "Oh, it's just us," and then carry on allowing ourselves to be symbols. That's why I burned and blacked out all my tattoos.

They will not use me as a symbol for Kord anymore. I want to be the opposite. The first time I met you, your tattoos entranced me because I thought I was losing my own faith because I thought I wasn't good enough for a monitor. And I saw you, and I thought, "That's what I want to be. I want to be as close to my god as you are." But now it makes sense. Something you said reminds me about the second thing I wanted to tell you. I talked to Julie. So after Fair Bay, I went to the Hymantle Forest. I came back to Fair Bay and realized there's no way that I'm going to be able to meet you guys in Brightport.

I was just way far behind. So I figured, "Well, I'll just go back to the House of Grace. I'll just go back to Esterhold." I saw that somebody had been there. Somebody had made tea. And he's going to glance at Kaluno. So I figured you had been there, but that you had left. So where else would I go but the temple? So I went to the temple, and Julie was there. And she was not nice to me. She didn't want to tell me anything about what had gone on. She was very terse, and I didn't feel like I had done anything to deserve it. I didn't know what was going on. But she told me that you guys headed west, and she said she had a message for you, and now it's making sense.

She said a very few words, "This isn't over, and you are not welcome here." I think she meant that to be intimidating, but that's just humorous. Pathetic. She's a fucking paladin of court. She should know how to intimidate better. I left within minutes, so we didn't talk. But now it's starting to make sense. Anyway, that's my story, and I'm very interested and intrigued to know yours. So thanks. I'm glad you're back. I am too. It has not been the same without you. I'll make us breakfast in the morning. Hey, but watch out for Valus. For someone who's gone through so much fucking racism, apparently, he's pretty goddamn intolerant.

And he's very suspicious of you. Oh, I know. And, listen, and Merrick's gonna turn to Kaluna and say, "Listen, I know I asked you to give Valus the dagger that I had given you, and I want to explain. Kaluna, I realized I gave you that dagger. It's a silver dagger, because I know what I am. And I know that if I were to turn into the werewolf, that that's at least some insurance against me. And I wanted you to have that in case you needed it. But Kaluna, I realized you are the person that I trust to defend me the most. I've never met anybody else that would be that person.

But when I met Valus, and I realized how much he hates what I am, I realized I trust him more than anybody to kill me if it needed to be done. So that's why I wanted him to have the dagger. And I want him to keep it. Kaluna is going to look sort of almost blank faced, but there's an edge of anger to it. And this whole time they've been sort of listening to Merrick, very attentive, very much like, "Oh man, cool." But as soon as he says those things, they're going to become visibly sort of upset. And they'll say, "If you think that for a second, we would let you suffer the horrors that the wolf can unleash, then you don't know us, Merrick." Merrick's going to nod, clearly very touched.

But he's also going to say, "But if I could hurt you, then I want to make sure that there's someone in the way, always." Kaluna's going to smile at him and then sort of take on a really grumpy mother look and say, "What did you fight in the forest?" A bear and a pack of wolves. Kind of ironic, honestly. They are not going to laugh. And they're going to punch him in the shoulder. It's probably going to be the shoulder that he lost a lot of blood out of. It's going to wince pretty hardcore, but it's going to be the brother-sister-aww-you kind of a moment.

You dickbag. I'm going to kill you. I have a girthy dagger now. I can kill you. Una's going to get up and start to leave the room, but right before she's going to lay her hand on Merrick's shoulder and say, "Look, I don't want to interfere with your wishes, but I have to side with Kaluna there. I know you trust Valus to kill you should you turn on anyone, but to be honest, he might just kill you because..." Fair. Fair point. I don't trust him. The only thing I know for sure is that he will do anything to keep Jadzia safe. And though my love for Jadzia is beyond any other familial bond I've ever had in my life, that can go too far.

And he can go too far, and does. Kaluna is going to draw the girthy dagger and sort of try to do that intimidating thing where you just sort of look at it. And they'll say, "If he tries to get through us, we'll have to return the favor that he did us back in Fair Bay." And we'll narrow her eyes and say, "What did he do in Fair Bay?" We got into a fight because he's an asshole. Agreed. And he stabbed us three times. He stabbed you? He nearly- nearly- bluh-bluh-bluh. He nearly killed her. We're fine now though. More than ready to kick his ass. Kaluna's the best.

Una will pat Kaluna on the shoulder really hard like, "Yeah, buddy." And then just wander out of the room and leave him. Yeah, I think Merrick's gonna go try to find David in the water after talking so much. Yeah, where the fuck is that? He got lost. It's a big point. Shittiest waiter. I assumed that he just sort of slipped it in mid-conversation. No tip. David is not a waiter. He's not getting a tip. I know that. I think it's fun that Kaluna said all that. And they've been, like, every time, Valus has been like, "Mmm." They've been like, "Oh no. Oh no." Fie, do me a favor and roll a perception check. 24. 24.

So the entire time this is going on, Fie is in a different room, sort of poring over all these documents. And each one of these is what would appear to be a handwritten record of each and every person that the Overwatch was experimenting on in this way. These all appear to be changelings. There are 21 of them in total, and that accounts for the 15 that were in the room, the four that were active body cards for Carter. What it doesn't account for is a couple of others. The names are listed, but the bodies aren't present. It also doesn't go into a great deal of detail about what the experiment was on each one of them.

And you're guessing that there may be some sort of bulk journal, or some much more broad record of what they were actually attempting to do with all of that. But each one of these individual records is whether this was a success or failure. Seven of them would be qualified as a success, and the 15 were obviously failures. So the list is... the information is just kind of like name turning into Gavin success, or part success, or failed. Just stuff like that. Yeah, I'm sorry, six of them. So yeah, six of them would be successes, and the 15 were horrendous failures actually, and you saw that first hand.

Okay, so does it list who the six successes were turned into? Yes. No, it doesn't list that. It just... these are more jotted notes. You get the sense that this is more for record keeping than anything. That someone was keeping a very detailed record of this particular experiment. And that may be back at the castle somewhere, it may be on the person who was keeping the record, but these are just more ledgers. It's like sort of a checklist. Each one of these bits of parchment are... this is their name, this is who they were within the city, and then whether this succeeded or failed.

Okay, was there a wide selection of various different jobs, or was it like, "Oh, all of these were military and there was a couple who just did shop work?" or stuff like that? Very few of them were military, actually. Only about four of them. And those four were successes. A couple on top of that were successes, they just had local jobs, it would appear. One of them was just... literally they just swept up in a bar. That was their job. Yeah. So it doesn't necessarily... it doesn't seem to mean anything where they came from or what their job was. This was just constitution, endurance, this is just the makeup of a person, it would seem.

Yeah. Would Thi have known any from the military? Not these four individuals, no. Though the Crimson Shield was kind of sequestered. Yeah, he just flipped through the documents a few times and then kind of realised that there isn't anything that would be fantastically helpful to him, and just kind of... yeah, just kind of like, far them away and... yeah, it's like, "Well, there isn't really anything that I can do with these from where I am." And just like, make a mental note to kind of either get in contact with Liara or try and find an opportunity to go back to the Overwatch to find more information.

Alright. How about we catch up with Jadzia? So there is a huge library in this house. Sexy. It's filled with some darker tomes. There's a lot of occult. There's a lot of information about blood magic and demons and pretty much... this is a candy store for Jadzia. So I'm imagining what Jadzia would be looking for is information on summoning a greater demon. Right. Maybe even doing the Buffy thing of flipping through books that would sort of tie in with that and just try and find a picture of the thing that she talked to. Yes, exactly. Okay. Do me a favour and roll a perception check.

Any other check. Come on. Okay. Twenty-two! Hey! That was the audience. Twenty-two is actually pretty decent. And Jadzia is going to start to... she has a stack of books. So there are these big comfy leather chairs and that seems to be sort of a running theme in people with big, big, big, big libraries that they just... I mean there's a nice fireplace in this room. So, Phallus would set right to work in gathering any books that Jadzia may need. So this is like a power study session for Jadzia. It's like he'll light a fireplace, he'll get it all ready, he'll just make sure that she's comfortable so she can do the actual studying and he's going to grab every book off the shelf that he thinks could pertain to this demon situation.

And Jadzia is going to start to plow through these books one after the other, just sort of skimming them and looking for anything that could be of use. And she's going to get probably four or five books deep and Tessia is going to poke her head into the room. And she's going to say, "David told me you were here. I figured I'd find you here." John C. Hill will just kind of like smile and give like a little wave. "Can I call you mom yet? I mean I know it's Laura." "Well we have to roleplay all those wedding plans then." "Can you make Val a sacred family for Sam's little account?" [laughter] Because that was great.

She's going to approach Jadzia and sit down next to her. "Is there something I can help you with or were you just having fun poking around?" Shit. First instinct is to lie but I know she won't fall for it. She's got a pretty high passive insight and perception. Jadzia will kind of look over to Valis for like clearly asking for help at this point. Because she can't tell his mom this stuff. Right. Valis is going to, well let's see if he picks up on that. Hold up. He's been rolling really hot all day. Let's see if he picks up on it. Come on honey. He's going to see that she's floundering but not exactly.

He's not exactly going to pick up on what he should say necessarily. But he is definitely going to see that Jadzia is floundering and he's going to step in. "We're just here to research some things. We shouldn't be too terribly long." And that's not a lie. And Tessie's going to look up at him and just sort of, she realizes that something more is going on. But she doesn't want to pry. And she's going to turn back toward Jadzia. "Well in any event, it's nice to see you back here. If there's anything I can help you with, please don't hesitate in getting in contact with me.

You do know that this house previously belonged to an archmage?" "Yeah, I've heard." "You seem to have an affinity for magic. I thought that maybe there'd be a few things here that you'd be interested in." "I've, um, what was the name of the house before it became Dragon's Keep? Sorry." "Darksbane." "I've heard of House Darksbane in the past. I know what sort of dealings they were involved in. It's an interesting area of study." "She's going to smile to herself. Well, I'll leave you to your reading. If there's anything you need again, I'm normally right down the hall." "Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you, Miss Grimnitz. Can you be our new flow? Her old one died. Wait, wait, don't be our new flow!" [laughter] "As moms go, she's had a great run so far." "She's been doing really well for herself." "Before leaving the room, she's going to turn back and sort of stop in the doorway and just kind of take in the scene. Like you two in the room together. And she looks just for a moment to sort of be lost in thought, and then she's going to just turn and leave the room. And I think that's probably a good time for us to stop for the evening." "Sweet." "Um, do we all hate this fucking table?" "Yeah." "Oh yeah." "A little bit." "It takes like nine steps to roll a single play." "It's terrible for just roleplay, but combat would be excruciating." "I think it's totally fine for roleplay because if you just have your character sheet open, you can just click a button and it's fine." "I didn't have my character sheet.

I had to type out everything, every single time. I didn't like it. And it was mean to me. It gave me bad rolls." "It gave me the best perception rolls of my life, actually." "Yeah, I noticed that." "Yeah, actually, Valus rolled crazy high on everything. He created a stealth check on this table. I'm kind of sad to see it go, but..." "Well, let's get the piece of shit." "I think if it was like completely set up, like where..." "Yeah, let's keep this table. Look at his fucking endurance. We'll never get caught by werewolves again." "Yeah, this is..." "Do you know, I mean, just the initiative tracker is the most cumbersome thing." "Oh my god, the initiative is the worst." "Holy shit, is it terrible." "Oh my god, I hate it.

I hate it so much." "I want to set it on fire." "Everything about this table." "So we're gonna try to work on getting this table. I guess that'll be the big project this week." "Awesome. I'm so sorry." "Well, the new table, okay, just playing around, me and Bree did play around with the new table, the fantasy grounds one." "That's a really good table." "I like that I can change the color of my dice." "It's as close to the other, it's basically the same as the other table we've been using for three years, it's just more features." "It's actually not bad.

We just need to get it to work." "Yay!" "So we'll work on that." "I think we'll be fine with the Mac." [Laughing] So having this list, this list of names that Phee's been given, it's occurred to them he's never really taken the time to really pour through each and every one of them name by name and see if he maybe remembers somebody or recognizes one of them just after a cursory glance. "Okay, let's go ahead." "Okay, let's have a look at these names." "Okay, so we've got Ben Majowitz, Andrew Martin, James Malloy, Chris McDaniel, AJ Moore, Eric Reynolds, Simon Walker, Armon Fuston, Jesper Wick, Keith Corville, Carol Cowart, John Smith, Garren McGee, Kenneth Choate, G.C. Joplin, G.C.

Joe, Dustin Baker, Dean, Pat Palf, Paul Bennett, Mike May, and Lucas Kotz. "I don't know any of those."