Dead Wood

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

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Stay tuned after the show for an exclusive clip from one of our Patreon shows. Previously for Group B, after narrowly escaping the city of Donhurst and the Fang that reside within, the team decided to head west to the next nearest town of Durnhollow. Unfortunately, to get there they'll have to cross the Divide, an expanse of dangerous forests, rife with ambush spots and other potentially deadly threats. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason, I'm the Dungeon Master, going around the table starting with Ian.

Hey, I'm Ian, I play Kaldin Halec, the half-elf sorcerer, whole heart lover. You know, I thought with you going first that it would just be like, "No." I know, right? Right? I didn't bank on that at all. You know me. You know me. And Valerie. Hello, I am Valerie and I play Elena, the human fighter. And Karen. Hi, I'm Karen and I play Kali, the elven druid. And Alex. Hey, I'm Alex and I play Braelon, the halfling bard. And Jameson. Hi, this is Jameson and I am Larg and Encharg. [laughter] Yeah! And Jamie. Hi, I'm Jamie, I play Tatiana, the human rogue. Alright, let's pick things up.

You guys had a very long day on the 11th. Let's see if the 12th treats you guys any better. So let's pick things up in camp. So it is the 12th, I figure it's early morning, you guys are grabbing a bite to eat, you're doing regular camp stuff before you're picking up the trail and moving on. Is there anything anybody would like to do in camp before we have you guys roll for travel and get on the road here? I don't, I don't, Braelon wouldn't want to do anything. He'd just be happy that he got a full night's rest. So at some point after, you know, everybody's eating and starting to break camp and things like that, Larg would kind of stand up kind of suddenly from where he was and kind of clear his voice a little bit.

He's got a little book in his hands. He says, I just, I got something that I want to say. Yesterday was a really bad day. Maybe it was the worst day. I don't know. All I know is that we lost a whole city and a city is like, it's the most important thing to a goddess of civilization. It's the, well, Ellen used to say it was like a pinnacle. When I met you guys at the gate, I was coming back home from my first quest to tell them that I failed, but then I failed a bunch more. I left a lot of bodies yesterday that won't get laid to rest now because of me. Maybe worst of all, I lied to that smelly guy about the ham.

I swore an oath to never lie, but I got scared and that he was going to yell for help and I lied. And now the whole city's gone. I want to find the survivors, but if they're not in Durnhollow, I don't know where else they'll be. And I can't just run around looking. I know they're okay wherever they are because they're there with Ellen. I don't know what you guys were doing in Donhurst when I got there, but hearing you talk about the fang and the black hand, whoever that is, and how you even fought demons before on a boat one time, it sounds like you're the good guys and good guys fight bad guys.

And if you're going to fight bad guys, then I want to help. And then maybe Erathis will forgive me. And he'll kind of get embarrassed and say, "That's all. Thanks for listening." And he'll sit down really fast. Kaldin will come up to him and just say, "Thank you, Larg. I'm glad we ran into you. And I don't know what kind of guilt you've put on your shoulders, but a city isn't just a city. A city is its people, and as long as those people are still alive, then a city can still grow. I mean, look at Lockford. That place, several years ago, was nothing, and now it thrives again.

If they're our sons and daughters of Don Hurst, you're right. I'm sure they're safe, and we will help you find them." He'll just kind of nod and not really make eye contact, but thanks. Thank you. Kaldin will stick his hand out. Yeah, he'll take it. And he'll do that, like, go from handshake to the bro squeeze, you know? Yeah. Bro squeeze. Yeah. Yeah, he'll do that, and he'll make eye contact, and he'll kind of smile a little bit, and he'll be like, "Thanks. You guys helped a lot, and you didn't have to yesterday." So, what are we doing? Change of subject.

I would say the entire time you're having this conversation, and honestly, the whole night, you're going to hear the noises of this Drake struggling. It was probably, while you guys got some sleep, it was probably spotty, because every once in a while, this thing would be over here just going, "Yah!" Just making like strained, hissy kind of kimono dragon noises. That was a really good one. Sorry. Thank you. I was like, "Damn, I wonder what a Drake sounds like." That was pretty good. Thank you. I practice when I'm alone like a crazy person. That's fine. I feel like if you don't do it, if you don't practice when you're alone, you're not a real DM.

Well said. So this thing is just struggling against its restraints, and I would imagine it dawns on the entire party. Something's got to be done here, because it's not like this Drake is going to walk alongside you like you're taking it out for poops. It's not going to go along peacefully. I would like to try something if I can. I have the Charm Person spell, which obviously will not work on a non-humanoid, but I am a bard, and I play mus-acts across the world. I want to try and play a soothing song and try to approach the Drake, not too close, but get a little closer as I'm playing the song, and if he starts to relax, get closer than that.

Like inch by inch. Kind of do that food trick without food, just music. What if we also gave it food? We got some of that buck. That's why Braillem doesn't think the whole way through. He only thinks about one third of the plan. I was about to say, yeah, food would work better than music. This is very much a wild animal. Like a very wild animal. And it does not like being tied up. It doesn't like the situation. It only knows, basically, that this is wrong, and I need to get away. So are you approaching it with what? I'm guessing some of the buck? Yeah, we had that for breakfast, so yes.

I'll throw a little bit at him. Not at him, but towards his direction. Oh, he'd gobble it up right away, too. Okay. And then as he's eating, I'll try to associate playing my music or my voice with the food. Kind of like Pavlovian response. Okay. And then I would do a little more. Basically half my breakfast, I think I would give him. I don't eat much. Throw a little more and play some more music. So, okay. Let me break this down to you. There's basically nothing magically that you can do to just win this animal over. I would say over time, if you were to do this, maybe after like a couple of weeks, it would start to maybe calm down a bit because it's young.

It's young enough that you could possibly train it. I know it's going to take a long time. This is like capturing a feral cat or trying to get a straight kitten to trust you kind of deal. Right. Only it's like five feet long. Like a million times bigger and kicking you. Yeah, it's fine. Just so when he hears my music, he knows, or hears my voice, he doesn't think of the time that I helped kill his parents. He thinks of food. But not eating me. Like, buck. So let me ask another question. Is the plan to stay here or go out on the road and continue? Not to belabor the point, but I don't, I don't have a med.

I can't try talking to this Drake, can I? No. I don't think so. Okay. I think we should- I got nothing. I shoot it in the head. What did we just talk about? Picture this touching cedar. Oh my god, Karen. Braylin feeding it like, like muck chops and just like playing music and then Kaladin gets up, stretches, crossbow bolt of the head. I think we said we're going to head to darn hollow, didn't we? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That's looking at this map now, it makes me think why the hell did I even put that forward? Like, that's a scary- it's a short distance, but it's really scary because you're going between two forests essentially.

Right, but that's where potentially people could be, survivors could be, right? Well, you know, they didn't pass you from Lockford. Right, right. Yeah, that's a good point. And they're not going to go to Orash. Like, come on. Or hang out with the orcs. There was that castle. Yes, there is that castle. So we go to the castle and we're there. Okay, but yeah, I mean if they got through then they're probably, you know, yeah. I'm all on board for that plan. Wouldn't the best person to ask be Lark? Like, he knows Ellen and she's one of the ones who looks like she got out of here.

Yeah, it's as good a guess as any. You know what? Lark's going to try to track again. Lark's going to get down on all fours and look at the road. He's going to look real close at it and see. Yeah, I was about to say, give me... Well, the problem is this is a main road. Let's make it an F5. So you're going to see lots of foot traffic and horses and stuff like that. But it's really tough to tell how recent some of these are and everything. It's a main road. There's going to be lots of foot traffic and stuff. Would you guys like to... Would you like to roll to find out more about the divide?

The area you're about to cross? I guess, yeah. I mean, I don't see why not. The divide encompasses all the fours in between there too? Holy shit. Okay, yeah. Would that be history? Yep. My worst subject in school. Mine too, man. But not today! The one time I went to history class, Braylin got an A on his exam and then he left and realized he failed the class. Well, that is a crit. Let me tell you all about the divide. So the area between... it's a little further than that, but the area between Durnhollow and Donhurst is known as the Divide. It basically begins at the massive orc encampment to the north and stretches south.

The reason it's called the Divide is because while it's not guaranteed that you're going to get ambushed and stuff like that, it is a very dangerous portion of the main road to travel. There are ambushes of plenty from bandits and orcs alike. There's wildlife in the forest that loves to attack caravans and travelers. There are stories of people going mad in the forest and just roaming them. There will be stories of travelers coming out of the woods and there will be a caravan coming through or there will be adventurers, something like that. They'll see someone distressed and obviously just shivering alone and they'll pick this person up and then get stabbed because this person is just insane.

They've just gone crazy. There are all kinds of essentially ghost stories about the Deadwood and Pyre Forest, all that whole area. If you have a bad day traveling through the Divide, it usually means something catastrophic. If something goes poorly, it goes really poorly. That being said, people obviously have to cross through there all the time, so there are people who live to tell about it. There's a reason all these stories get circulated. Braelyn flexes his barbed muscles and tells everyone the details with a little bit of cliff notes, like a little bullet point stating "Let's not pick anyone up under any circumstances." He's going to look around, making sure everyone agrees with this statement.

Cauldin nods his head. Heavily nodding. Yes. But what if they're hungry? And then Braelyn's going to facepalm. No, Lark, did you hear the part about the people getting stabbed? Yeah, but what if it's like a kid? A kid can stab me pretty easily, Lark, so unless you can guarantee that you're going to watch this kid. What if it's a kid and they're hungry and we make sure that he doesn't have a knife? Then yes, Lark, I would agree with you, big guy. That's fine. You look satisfied. I'm going to pick it. Then Braelyn puts his pockets in his backpack really quickly and puts it in front of him.

He puts the backpack on backwards now. Oh, like you're in a strange neighborhood type of thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just saying, I know a lot of pickpockets in Brightport and most of them were kids. That's because they're hungry. Braelyn's going to shrug. That's fine. The one rule that I have, it's okay. We can maybe break it. That's fine. It's not like I know what I'm talking about. He's going to say this muttering to himself as he continues walking from the campsite. So what are you guys doing about this drake? Can I ask a question? Sure. Alright, how long before I can make, like if I spend some time with this drake and feed it this delicious elk, how long before I can roll another like animal handling check?

I'd say that you get one a day. Hi. So I had one yesterday, so I can roll one today? I'll let you. Can I cast Guidance on myself? It says it's just a one willing creature. Just gives me an extra d4. I'd say you're willing. Yeah. Okay. I am. I'm pretty willing. No, me. Okay. So I'm going to do it? Yeah? Okay. Fucking better be good. Fuck off. I didn't roll a d4. Dang it. I quit. Bye. Listeners at home, that was a crit miss. This is literally me taking my hair out. What does that look like? What's the... Paint this scene, Kara. Okay. So Tali is just like communing with it and like getting real close and she's hanging it.

Some elk and I imagine she just gets bit on the hand by this creature and she's just like, fine, that's it. And it pees on her. Yeah. Mark, Sarah. Yeah, this thing is not having it. It is acting up. It's thrashing. It's trying to gnaw at the tree it's tied to. It is just... Yeah. It is not a willing participant in any of this. You're making me feel really bad about it. That's... I mean, I'm just telling you what's happening. You're going to go worse. Kill it. That makes you feel way worse. I think if you guys are down, like we can set this thing free. I think it's going to be way too much, probably way too much trouble.

Especially if we're like trying to go into a city and stuff like we can maybe find another one, but... Well, we have to go to the mountains anyways to get some of these herbs. So we'll have more opportunities. Can we look for any of these herbs while we're around in this... while we're traveling? Oh, yeah, you could totally look for some stuff. Yeah. Okay. Okay, then yeah, I think Cauldin's going to see Callie get bit and peed on by this thing. Why you gotta add insult to injury? And he's gonna shake his head and just sort of like turn to the party and be like, this is too much of an encumbrance.

We won't be able to travel efficiently and certainly not to a town. I'm sure we can find another Drake on our way back once we make sure there's survivors. And then he'll just go to like the rope that it's on and make sure that everyone's a safe distance. And then he'll just like cut it and let it go free. And there's a second when the rope goes slack that it kind of scampers forward like it's going to attack the party. And then it just turns tail and skidaddles like it... Oh, yeah, it does a little bear charge. Yeah, it's like just back off, back off like that.

And then it just scampers away. I don't want to hurt anybody, man. Pulls a knife on us. So, bye-bye, Snickers 2, we'll miss you. Cannon, Snickers 2. Yeah, I look at Callie and say that. Well, now it's gonna die. Well, that probably, I'm not gonna lie to you, that probably just made your trip a lot easier. Just a lot. If I'm being honest, like I was thinking about it a little bit this week. I was like, how the fuck are we thinking about it? I was thinking about it. I was thinking that it was gonna just attract more adults. Oh, yeah. Good point. Every Drake within miles just comes from looking for us.

Cullen just takes a, Cullen will just reach over and make his, as Jameson so eloquently put it, a "frostetic arm." Oh. Just have that. Best pun. Well, it sounds like you guys ready to hit the road? No, but yes. Currently you guys are just hours outside of the city of Donhurst. It is the 12th of YesD and you are getting ready to head west toward Durren Hollow and go through the Divide. Let's see, Valerie. Huh? Alana, do me a favor. Give me a flat D20. Okay. You said it so shocked. Yes! Nice. It's a good roll. Beautiful. That's a 19, everybody at home. So, the day is beautiful.

There's a breeze outside again. A lovely springtime day. And you are going to see the two massive forests, you know, flanking the road on either side coming up. And I would say that all day you are going to travel with very little incident and you are going to reach to your right is the Deadwood. And the forest is a good distance away from the road itself. There's this beautiful river that is flowing. And you are going to hear that every once in a while the river gets kind of close to the road. You are going to hear just running water. Which, if you are an adventurer, is great.

Any body of water. Mm-hmm. We can drink. Are there herbs? Can we check for herbs? Yeah, if you guys want to run a survival check, something like that, just kind of check the area out. Should it be everybody or just one person? Basically, there would be one person kind of probably designated like herb scouter. That would probably be, I think it would be either Callie or Cauldron, right? Well, I'm trained, but I don't trust big guys. I'm pretty good, but I'm definitely, Cauldron is definitely looking for those herbs. Just because that's on his mind now. You know, like, well, let the Drake go, but maybe we can get something else.

Like a loss type of thing. Yeah. Alright, look for that silver lining. I like it. Survival, you said? Yeah. Can I work with him to do that? You sure can. Okay. Oh, good thing too. I'm so bitter. So, okay, here's what we're going to do. Next time one of you just roll with advantage, whatever. But, I pictured almost like, Kaladin's like picking up crab grass, like this. He's like picking up the mushrooms you're not supposed to pick. Callie's just like, no, no, no. And I'm like this. Oh yeah. So I'd say you'd find, you'd find a couple of things like some of the much more common herbs.

Obviously some of the stuff you're going to have to go to the mountains to get, because it's just, it's just where it grows and there's rarity and all that. Some of the stuff you're gonna, if you were gonna find it, you'd have to venture into the woods. It's more of a forest type of situation, but you're going to find a couple of things on the side of the road, like the more common stuff. Now, you're not in the forest proper yet, right? The road's gonna, you're going to get ready and cross this bridge on the next day. And that'll, that'll kind of take you into the forest proper.

So, I would say the day would conclude with you guys just, just, just kind of having a pleasant stroll along the, along the road. People would kind of pass you going the opposite way. Let me ask you a question. People who are passing, would you let them know about Donhurst? Oh. Are they going to, does it look like they're going to Donhurst? I mean, they're on this road. Yeah, they have to at least pass it. Oh, okay. Yeah, maybe I think we're like searching all their carts for eggs and stuff, called like peeking and everything. I mean, I feel like Brelin would kind of nudge Larg to do it.

Um, so yeah, I guess it depends on, on, on who it is, like what they look like. If it looks like merchants or something like that, he would definitely be like, "Um, Donhurst is closed." And you definitely, like, there'd be, there'd be travelers and, you know, other adventures, stuff like that. And I think if you put it like that, there's like the whole city, like that type of thing. Like, what do you mean it's closed? How is the city closed? And you'd have to probably explain it each time, like a little more in detail. Just like, oh, be careful, basically.

Just, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He would eventually get like a, sort of the company line down. So, just so you know, Donhurst is currently overrun with a criminal organization. Don't go there. Right. And I, I believe that probably a lot of the merchants, something like that, they would, they would kind of take this with a grain of salt, something like that. Just kind of like, "Uh huh, sure buddy. Okay." But they, they probably would keep an eye out for things that they normally wouldn't, thanks to your, thanks to your warning. I would imagine some of the adventurers would take this a bit more seriously.

Because you see stuff on the road. I mean, you guys know. So if someone tells you, "Hey, the city up ahead, don't, don't go there. Be careful of that." They would probably, they'd probably still check it out, but they would definitely be on their guard. So they would all thank you no matter what, even if they're just being polite. But I would say, that would, that would pretty much end your day of travel. It's, it's totally, totally just a pleasant day. Other than that. Wow. First one in a long time. Can I just really quickly, like while they were probably searching for herbs, can Tatiana just like jump into the stream and clean off?

Oh God, absolutely. Awesome. I would imagine, again, you guys are walking for 10 to 12 hours a day, right? I imagine you guys are taking a lunch break. You're, you gotta rest your feet every once in a while. You can walk for a couple hours and then just like, "Oh, hold on, hold on." So if there's a stream fairly nearby the road, I would imagine that everyone at some, some point in another, just like, especially you guys are kind of covered in fecal matter. So I would imagine, you know. I would say, like, Kaldin, Kaldin disrobes completely and jumps in the water.

Braelon follows. You gotta get the poop off of him. I think, probably, Braelon would probably, around a campfire, he would try and tell the story of like, Captain Dagon. That's the name of the story he'd tell. And about the time they crashed the boat and almost died. That is not the best first impression of Captain Dagon. Yeah, that's why he's telling the story. Oh. He's gonna like build them up, like, "Oh yeah, da da da," and then the middle part is like, "Oh, and then he crashed our boat." You should have seen the boat though. It was incredible Eladrin.

Oh my god. And he piloted it with his mind. With his mind. Mm-hmm, that's why we crashed into ice. Well, maybe he was, maybe he had something on his mind, who knows, but we made it, didn't we? Mm-hmm, yeah, and then it got rebuilt and they made it all nice. Well, a little nicer. That's a good boat. Oh, that's right. In fact, we're not far from Aubrey. Mm-mm. Remember that whirlpool that's up there somewhere? I wonder if that's still going around. Could be. I think we got a lot on our plate there, buddy. And Braelon's gonna kind of give him like this side-eye like, "Hey, shut up, that's our whirlpool, don't tell him about it." I think too, while they're sitting around, Colin would probably ask about Argh's quest.

Like what he was going on before he came back to Dawnhurst. Oh, he'll kind of look a little embarrassed for a second and be like, "Well, there's kind of a, I don't know, it's some kind of creature or a monster in the wilderness that was south of the city and they wanted me to find it. And I found it. Well, I saw it, but I couldn't, it was real fast, I couldn't catch it. So I was out there for a couple weeks. But I came back empty handed. What does it look like? It was like a big lizard, but it was like on two legs and with really big claws. It was like 20 feet tall.

It was really, it was pretty big. I just got a quick look at it. It was, I'm kind of glad I didn't catch it. Why were you sent on this quest? Was it causing problems for the city or? Well, I don't, I mean, you know, it's one of those things that people talk about, you know, the people who live on the farms outside of the town, you know, it would come and steal livestock. I don't really know. They just said that that's where it was and that's and then I should get it. You know, I had a whole other group that I found and they came with me. But after a couple weeks with nothing, they kind of kept going.

I stayed and I kept looking and didn't find it. Well, you know, didn't really find it. Oh, I see. Well, if we have any luck, maybe we'll return and pick off some of those fang while they're done, hey? I think that would be all right. It was pretty, I think it would have no trouble. Like I said, I'm glad I didn't catch it, honestly. And then do we need to like info dump it all? I don't know. What did we not tell the, well, we could tell Larb everything about like the demons and the bow here, you know, about the bow. I think while we have a moment and while we're sitting around a camp, like maybe we're talking about why we were in Donhurst.

The gate, the one at the on the I forget the name of the like the north continent, the ice one. Kion. Kion, thank you. Kion and the... Oh, we're going back that far. OK. There's something we were told, Larg, about like the dracolich and the basically monk who could re-snap his neck back into place and the second group. We told we told the rest of our party members, but not Larg. We met him and it was like, hey, what are you doing in my house? And we're like, what, your city? Yeah. So the whole time when they're kind of telling the story, Larg basically sits cross-legged with his chin in his hands, just like listening.

And Cauldron will be like, so, yeah, maybe maybe Arathas is really out there. And I don't think she would be looking unfavorably on you. I mean, you help if it wasn't for you. We wouldn't have made it out of the city alive at all. So that's got to count for something, right? He'll kind of nod like he hadn't thought about it like that. Kind of just kind of think like, yeah. Yeah. Thanks. What are we going to do now that Ripley's still alive? And he'll look over at Tatiana. I guess you saw that coming, didn't you? Oh, gosh. He's not putting you on blast. I'm not putting you on blast.

Yeah, as far as we know, he just like slipped away basically, right? And Tatiana did say that he always found a way. So I think she's just going to go with that. And she's just going to sort of like half smile at Cauldron and say, I tried to warn you guys. He's a slippery fucker. You did. You did. And you were right. Do you think he'll continue trying to find us even out here? Well, I was just going to ask a question. Kelly, did you tell us that he had something that was like that he was using to track basically with the dogs? Yeah, he had like a scarf or something.

Okay. Tatiana's just going to say, well, I mean, I guess it depends what he's using to track and whose it is. I know, or at least I think I didn't leave anything behind. I know I left something behind, but I would think that it would be picked up by now by an animal or carry on or something. Not by the fang. Tatiana realizes what Cauldron is talking about and looks to the ground. I was going to ask, do you think it's possible he like lifted something off one of us? We're in the room without us noticing. His hands are tied. Yeah, he's good, but he's not that good.

You know, it might be a good idea for me to start covering our tracks from here on out. Just in case they are tracking and are able to pick up on whatever scent from this scarf. And Brandon's going to look confused. You can do that? I mean, I think so. I can try. You know how they do in movies where like they take the branch and just... Tatiana's out there like brooming it. But yeah, I can do my best. I mean, I'm no expert in the field, but it wouldn't hurt, I don't think. Yeah, it's true. Would anyone else like to do anything while you guys are making camp for the evening and fires crackling?

You kind of hear wildlife in the distance. Woo hoo! Okay, we are going to fast forward to the next day. It is the 13th. Lucky 13th! So you're going to wake up and get back on the road. And I would say after six or seven hours of you traveling, you're going to reach a bridge. And this isn't anything huge. There's basically a small river flowing underneath of it. And this carries you over to where a lot of people technically start counting the divide as this dangerous place. It's like, "Okay, keep your head on the swivel," that type of thing. A lot of people will tell you, "Okay, as soon as you cross the bridge, that's when you've got to start worrying." You guys know that you should probably keep your head on the swivel all the time, just because sometimes you have a bad day.

After another hour or so, you still get another couple of hours of daylight, something like that. You're going to see this little gnome off to the side of the road with all of his belongings stretched out. He is just lounging by a campfire blowing into this flute. You can hear him long before you see him. It's one of those things everyone wants to know. It's like, "Do you hear that?" And it's like, "Do do do do do do do." Well, what the fuck? He's playing poorly. Maybe he's learning to play the flute, something like that. It's not like, "Wow, that lovely melody." It's like, "Do do do do do do." Like that.

It's terrible. It's a recorder. It's basically, yes. He's visibly upset by this. His eyes are closed. He's shuddering. What in the god's name is that fucking terrible noise? When he comes into view, it's going to be on your left-hand side. This little gnome is going to continue, his eyes shut, just continuing to blow into his little flute here terribly. And again, all his blowings are stretched out near this crackling fire. It's kind of a shaded area. He's going to open his eyes after a while. He's going to hear you. You're a little bit of a distance away. He's going to raise his flask to the group and just kind of nod.

Argh will wave. Brandon's going to look at Lark and say, "I know I told us not to pick anyone up or talk to anybody, but this cannot stand." He's going to march over to where the flute gnome is. Flute gnome? He's going to huff and puff his way like, "Geez." Like really upset. And when he gets to him, he's going to say, "Hi! How you doing?" He's going to stop. He's going to stop. Thank you for being immediately confrontational. I think he expected something different. He's still blowing into his flute. He's going to soften as you approach. He's probably just about to say, "Hi!" or something like that.

You can tell he reflexively jerks back. "Oh, that's a louder tone than I expected." "Uh, howdy." "That's a nice instrument you got there. Where'd you learn how to play?" "Oh, this old thing? Thank you. I've been trying to teach myself here and there. You know, nights are long." "It shows. Um, I'm Braylon by the way. What's your name, friend?" "Oh, uh, folks call me Decky." "Okay, Decky. Well, you're in luck because I'm a bard and I know how to play literally almost every instrument on the face of this planet." "And I can tell you right now, you got talent.

Obviously, Braylon is lying." "But he's trying to do anything he can to teach this guy, so he's going to say, 'Mind if I give you a quick lesson? Maybe some tips or tricks I can teach you so you play just a tiny bit better?'" "Well, that'd be mighty helpful. Thank you, stranger." "No, no, no problem." "He's going to start to brush. Again, he has all his belongings kind of scattered around. He's going to start gathering things up. And next to him, he's got a lot of these, um, he's got a little collection of flasks of alcohol." "And he's going to kind of pull that up.

He's also got, um, he's got something roasting over the fire. And it appears to be like a squirrel, something like that. Something small. Very small game." "Mm-hmm." "Braylon will try his best to show him how to play, uh, let's do a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the flute." "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? You know what I think? I think if you put on a little performance, I think it's one of those things he's, uh, he learns by seeing others." "Okay, I would show him." "So hit me with a performance check." "Oh boy, that's not good." "It's not your main instrument." "Would he have advantage?

Because it's like the bassist song you can play?" "I would say that just because he's so frustrated." "This is what happens." "I would say it's..." "I tried Alex, sorry." "He's just so frustrated, so it's like, 'huh, huh, huh, huh,' like it's to every once in a while. It's like, 'oh, no, no, I got it, I got it, I haven't played the flute in a while, I got it.' "But the deckie is really just kind of like, 'uh-huh, uh-huh, oh, that's the proper grip, okay, okay.' Like he's just kind of like soaking it up, like he's really thankful that you're a big time bard, stopping to help him out." "He's not being like, demeaning and sarcastic." "Oh, he's being, like, from your vantage point, he's being genuine." "Every nom I've met has been sarcastic to me, that's all I ask." "Oh, that's fair." "So after failing to teach him the lesson, I'm going to be very upset and disgusted with myself. I'm going to finish the song, like, 'deeep!' and just..." "Put the flute down, look at the flute, without looking, hand it back to deckie, practice that at least twice every day, you'll be great.

And then just wait for him to take it from my hand while still looking at the ground." "Um, and he'd take the flute back, 'hey, I really appreciate that, it's not every day someone would stop and teach little old me something like that, you're welcome to have a seat and share some squirrel and have a drink or two, your whole party if you want.'" "Bralyn's gonna nod, 'oh, that'd be nice, but we had breakfast already, look at the group and look back, well, maybe we'll take you up on the drink. What's the deal with all those, uh, those cool looking flassies out there?'" "Ah, well, it was a collection that used to belong to a friend of mine." "All of them belong to one person?" "He had a bit of a problem." "Bralyn's memories will flash back to when his mentor died and he's gonna be hitting all those different bars, so he's gonna be like, 'uh, yeah, that's understandable.'" "Um, yeah, I mean, I'm sure we'll, they won't mind, and I'm gonna wave them over, I'm gonna wave everybody over." "Can Tatiana roll an insight check?" "Sure." "Well." "He's got magic, he's cursing us all to roll threes!" "Wow, it's the night of the threes tonight." "It's the middle of nowhere, all this, it just is weird, okay, it's just weird." "Right, this is a trap, right?" "This is a trap, this is obvious, but I don't realize that, so, I'm too busy covering up our tracks." "Calden will get in and come up to Bralyn and be like, to the gnome and be like, 'well, that's pretty good, just a couple more practice sessions like that and you'll be better than my boy here,' which shouldn't be too hard." "Bralyn will look at Calden and mouth, 'I hate you.'" "Ah, you're too kind, seriously, I just play for fun, it's not for performance or anything, it's, uh, the night gets lonely, like I said." "Well, Decky, why are you out here all alone, where are you going?" "Well, reckon I'm heading to Brightport." "Oh, big city like that doesn't scare you at all?" "Eh, I've seen worse, I'm sure I can handle whatever Brightport throws at me." "Mmm, okay, sure, sure, if you don't mind me asking what kind of business you got there." "Oh, well, no business, I'm actually a leatherworker by trade, I'm looking to maybe find a new gig out east." "Well, I mean, Brightport's got plenty of real estate from what we saw there, that's actually my hometown, I'm born and raised." "Really?" "Got any tips?" "Uhhhh, if it feels like a bad situation, it's probably a bad situation." "Okay, and he's almost mentally jotting that down, like you've been so helpful thus far, it's like, alright, alright." "Uh, again, there's not much food, but everyone's welcome to a drink." "Where are you from originally, Decky?" "Uh, Winterhaven. I left there a few weeks back." "And you've been traveling all this time?" "Off and on.

I stopped in Aubrey for a little bit." "Did you see any big groups coming through here? Lots of people, maybe coming from the direction of Donhurst?" "Oh, yeah, a lot of foot traffic. I'd say, I don't know, a couple days ago, somewhere in there?" "Where did they go?" "Well, they were heading west." "Were they... what did they look like? Did they look tired? Did they look happy? What did they look like?" "I wouldn't say happy, but, you know, how happy could you be walking through the Divide, right?" "I just kind of stares at him." "And he's not... I wouldn't say that he's picking up, like, the desperation, like the 'tell me anything,' it's like, 'Oh, you know,' like, it's more anecdotal to him." "He's very cheerful, I don't like it." "Brahlin's gonna look at whatever drink he's offering.

I guess it's like, little cups, I'm assuming?" "Yeah, he'd probably have, like, there's some flasks and stuff like that, but he'd probably, like, start to pour drinks for everybody." "And he's gonna get to one, and then, like, oh, not that one, and put it aside." "But the rest of it he's going to be, like, freely offer." "Brahlin's gonna look at him when he doesn't, and he's like, 'Why not that one, Decky?'" "Oh, that's poison. You don't want that." "Well, and Brahlin's gonna look at, call them, 'Poison.'" "And then look back to Decky. So, what are you giving me, then?" "Well, this one's wine." "Okay." "And then he will drink it very slowly." "And he'll have some from the same container, just like, 'Cheers!' Like, he's very chipper." "Hmm.

This is not, like, Princess Bride, I hope. Where he's got, like, a tolerance to that poison, I forget what it's called." "Iocane powder." "Thank you, Iocane powder. So, Brahlin will drink it, put the cup back down." "Cullen will break out some of whatever we got to, I'm guessing probably, like, fresh jerky to, like, share around the thing." "Oh." "And then just kind of ask, as casually as he can, 'Why are you carrying poisons, poisons around? I thought you said you were a leather worker.'" "Oh, yeah, by trade. Killed my friend a few days back, though, so I kind of needed that.

He was much larger than me." "Brahlin drops the cup." "And he's, as soon as he sees that, 'You okay there, friend? You lost your grip?'" "Yeah, it happens after playing the flute for me sometimes." "Oh, yeah, you gotta work up your finger dexterity." "Mm-hmm, yeah, you got that right." "Brahlin is going to administer as best as he can a medicine check to himself, if possible." "Go right ahead!" "Okay... Oh!" "So I pictured, like, Brahlin's checking his own pulse and, like, just..." "Yeah, yeah, just like my pulse, like, putting, like, sniffing the cup that he dropped, like, kind of casually as Decky's talking, just like..." "Trying to smell the cup, uh, looking...

If I have, like, I have something to have, like, a little tiny, maybe a shard of a mirror or something to use to fix my hair, but, like, checking my tongue for different colors, like that." "Do I feel warm? Feel me, do I feel warm?" "Basically, yeah, as my check." "Whatever state he remembers." "Caldin's, like, putting his hand on, on your, like, the back of your neck, like, checking your temperature." "And Brahlin will say, 'Why didn't you kill your friend, Decky?'" "Oh, that's kind of a long story. Oh, boy. So, we were, uh, we lived in Winterhaven for years.

We go way back, and, uh, we got to Aubrey, right?" "And, and he's gonna start to tell the story, it's like, I'm sorry, I'm rambling on, you don't want to hear this. It's, it's really not a big deal." "Oh, but Decky, we certainly do. I love stories. And I'm gonna look very, like, cautious as he's telling it." "And by the way, the entire time you're checking your impulse, besides some WebMD-type stuff, where you start maybe talking yourself into symptoms, you don't feel any different." "Okay, that's a good start." "But it's like, oh, man, was that blotch on my tongue always there?

Was that, was that always there? Like, that type of thing." "Weren't I getting his birthmark?" "Ah, so, anyway, we, we take off from Aubrey, and already, he's been busting my chops, right? You know, you're on the road all day, and I'm trying to be upbeat, I'm trying to be, you know, optimistic, and just every day with the complaining, and then he starts cutting into my height." "I, I tell you, I don't have many pet peeves, but, whew, I, I think I just let it get to me a bit much. So, we're in the middle of the forest, and one night, I slip a paralytic into his drink, and I tie him to a tree and burn him.

It's, it's, it's just, I couldn't take it anymore, you know? But, uh, I, I say the past is the past, and the future's in front of you." "Mm-hmm, I can relate about the height thing, yeah." "And he's going to, he's going to lean forward, it's like, right? I, I mean, look, I'm just trying to live my life, and, and I'm, I'm not looking for, for, for any handouts or anything, but I, I mean, you know, enough is enough." "So, Jason, um, I'm gonna, I wanna go ahead and use that Divine Sense that I have, the, the Detect Evil sonar." "So, I don't know, I don't know if I need to describe, um, Larg's moral compass to see what's gonna show up on this, but he's gonna go ahead and send a, send off a ping." "So, what are you looking for specifically, just kind of that, that, that putting it out there Geiger counter sense of, like, um, uh, usually this is used to try and pick up, like, some sort of demonic activity or undead activity, something like that, something, something tangible, 'cause good and evil are kind of subjective." "Right, yeah, so, I mean, supernatural evil's easy, um, but I feel like, if this type of thing doesn't work on, like, a moral compass, then, then that's fine, but, um, if it does, then he'd be looking for, um, you know, murder.

As, as one of the type things that would be an indicator of evil. Like cold-blooded murder?" "Um, I, you would definitely be picking up an overwhelming, uh, an overwhelming sense, coming from the West, uh, like a lot of that. Like, if you're, if you're looking, like, 'cause again, the moral compass thing we don't do so much, but if you're looking up just, like, let's say, like, ill intent, like, there'd be a huge ping going off down, you know, I wouldn't say it picks it up on an individual level, it's not used for, like, uh, like a lie detector or something like that, but you'd definitely be picking something up coming from the forest where it's like, 'Oh, wow, I'm getting just a bad vibe coming from that way.'" "Oh, okay.

Well, that's gonna distract him then, 'cause, so he'll stop paying attention to the murderer gnome." "His name is Decky." "Decky the flute gnome." "His name's Deccato, but his friends call him Decky. All used to call him Decky." "No. His one friend. You don't call him nothing no more." "Uh, I think Braylon at this point would be like, 'Alright, Decky, well, it's been fun chatting with you, but we really gotta cover a lot of ground, so thanks for the drink. Really appreciate it and hope you find a good home for those, uh, uh, flasks in Brightport and wish you the best of luck in your leatherworking." "Well, thank you so much, friend.

I really appreciate the flute lesson, and, um, yeah, if you're ever in Brightport, look me up. And, uh, careful. Careful walking through the forest. It's, uh, it's dangerous." "Oh, yeah, so I've heard. And, uh, I guess, like, when we're safe enough distance away, I'm gonna, like, turn around and, like, wave 'Bye, Decky!'" "And he'd give you a big old, like, 'Wah-wah!'" "Yeah, and as we get, like, really, really far away, 'Sorry you killed your friend 'cause you're crazy.'" "Decky's a little hard of hearing, so it'd be like, 'What?' and then just..." "Nothing!" "Braylan looks at the group and says, 'I'm so sorry.'" "I got chills." "Tatiana's gonna sort of do her best Braylan impression and be like, 'When we get to the forest, don't talk to anybody, nobody, not even starving children.'" "No, no, no, and then he's gonna wave his finger.

I agree with Larg, we would talk to starving children once he gave them a good security pat-down." "I did a security assessment and that gnome... I'm gonna admit I failed because I thought that gnome would be harmless." "Oh, I thought you cleared him. I thought he was clear. You gave him the pat-down." "Yeah, my pat-down was a failure because he was one of the most dangerous things I think we've ever encountered so far." "Yeah." "Well, I guess that's what we have to look forward to and Cauldron's gonna like look ominously towards the forest." "Yeah, and Braylan will look back at Tatiana.

Another thing, technically we're not in the forest, so ha!" "Tatiana is just going to look up and roll her eyes." "I mean, there were two crimes going on there. He killed his friend and his flute playing, let's be honest." "Oh my god." "Braylan's gonna like rub his temples. If I didn't, I mean, I might have stabbed him myself." "You guys are gonna continue to march on and by the time it's dark and it's time to make camp, you are right on the edge of the tree line." "Basically where these trees are gonna start to kind of overgrow the road a little bit." "So this is a great time to make camp and, you know, pardon the expression, but get your affairs in order, like, you know, get ready." "Is there, just because I said that I wanted to sort of like cover our tracks, I know that we're on a main road so maybe that's not as realistic, but like when we make camp and stuff, when we're done with camp, is there any way that I could like make it look like we weren't at camp there at all?" "It's a little difficult to make it look like no one stopped, but you can definitely like cover tracks up and stuff like that.

Once you're on the main road, it's a little tough to track somebody on the main road." "Right." "Because there's so much foot traffic and stuff like that and, you know, weather washes stuff away too. So the main thing you got to worry about is when you go off the beaten path to make camp for the day, that's where you got to kind of cover up tracks." "Or if we like meet somebody significant on the road and somebody were to ask that person if they'd seen a group looking like us." "Well, I mean, I guess that's..." "Okay, look, both Alex and Braylin did not think about that, so yes." "So we go back and we kill Decky, I mean, it's our moral obligation, right, Lark?" "Just, ooh, sorry, one more thing, stab." "You have a good night now?" "That's why you're playing the flute so bad." "Oh, and I guess the murder." "Just before we make camp, I think Largo will send off one more ping of his Divine Sense since we're like right next to the forest." "Yeah, I'd say it's such a vague thing. Like if it's, you know, the undead or demonic presence, stuff like that, it's a lot easier to divine that type of thing." "Right." "You're just trying to divine intent, basically, and it's more like the hair on the back of your neck stands up, like you can tell it's like, ooh, this is kind of giving me the heebie-jeebies." "Okay, all right." "Hey, speaking of undead..." "Oh, I didn't forget about you." "What, are you saying I'm undead?" "No, no!" "Does Cauldron feel anything going on with the undead anymore, that like signal he was getting?" "Um, if I had to describe it, when you first had that vision, it's almost skull-splitting, right?

It's just, it's all this information being sort of downloaded into your brain at once. So you're getting visions and images and flashes constantly, almost like sonar going off, and there's just a thousand like ding-ding-ding-ding, like it's just going out." "And as the days are progressing, that's getting much, much less so. Like every day, it's one of those things you kind of get a vague vibe, like a presence, a sense of things, but it's definitely not as clear. It's like trying to remember a dream that you had after you had it. It's getting fuzzier and fuzzier." "Okay." "Is there anything in this forest, like any of that feeling, or is it even further out?" "There'd be a couple of minor blips, definitely, in the forest." "Okay." "Mostly it's just dead people, if I had to be straight up with you." "Okay, so it's like that kind of flavor of death?" "Yes, just getting a whiff of, like it stinks of death." "Okay, okay." "Kalden will share that with the party, though.

He'll probably just be like, 'I feel death here.'" "God, would you say it like that?" "Yeah, I think he would." "Holy shit, how would the party react to that?" "Bran will not." "Great, awesome." "Should we go?" "I mean, you heard Dekky for, even though he was deep in madness, there was a group of people that looked like they could have been survivors from Dawnhurst that went this way. And if they went through here, then they might have found shelter beyond these woods." "Would anyone like to do anything as you settle into camp on the 13th in the evening?" "Tatiana wants to take stock of her stuff." "Okay." "Specifically seeing if any scarves are missing." "I would say, for the most part, most of Tatiana's things are absolutely there. However, there may be one or two, like maybe articles of clothing like a bandana or something like that, just kind of like, 'Huh, where is that?'" "Where is that?" That type of thing." "Goddamnit." "Kay." "Okay, we are going to advance to the 14th.

It is... it's a foggy day today. Which is obviously taking an already scary situation, kind of cranking up the fear factor. Let's see. Who hasn't rolled today? Hmm, you know what? Tatiana." "Okay." "Give me a flat D20 roll." "Bam!" "14!" "That's not bad." "So, you guys are going to get on the road here most of the day, I'd say the first five hours or so, you're going to cross the threshold of these woods. And again, the forests kind of merge and overgrow bits and pieces of the main road here. So the main road basically cuts a path through the forest." "So, I want to say that as soon as we cross that threshold and it's now, you know, we're definitely in the woods, Larg basically, he puts his helmet back on.

Kind of like, you know, game time. And when Larg puts his helmet on, just for clarification, he puts it on sort of the top half of his head and then punches the top of his head to get it to kind of 'shoomf' down the rest of the way." "That's just always how he puts it on." "I was going to ask Larg a question very quickly, like knock on his leg, 'tat tat tat' hit the leg armor." "What?" "This is kind of embarrassing, but my legs are really sore. Do you mind if I, you know, ride on your shoulders?" "So, Larg will pick him up and carry him like under his arm like a pillow?" "No, not like this.

Not like this. I mean on your shoulders. I can be a good lookout, I promise. Just please don't carry me like this." "For like three or four steps and then let him sit on his shoulders." "Okay, perfect. As I am on Larg's shoulders, I would like to draw a funny face on the back of his helmet without him noticing." "I trust you to do it." "That was your first mistake, Larg." "Should have kept him as a pillow." "They're getting pillow-carried from now on, that's it." "What's the face? What's the face, Alex?" "It's Braille-Inn's best rendition of Larg, but like Larg looking like that animated...

"Do you know that SpongeBob meme where it's like he says the words that the first part says, but all messed up in like capital letters, lowercase letters?" "Yeah, the chicken..." "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of like a skewed, a realistically skewed Larg face on the back of the helmet as best as I can." "See you guys." "You guys are definitely in the woods now. And the problem is that you're probably not going to get out of the woods by nightfall. It's a tricky situation to be in." "So this fog is kind of creeping up to right about knee level, somewhere in there.

And it's definitely making you second guess a couple of steps. Like every once in a while you'll hit a patch of like soft ground. It's like, 'Oh, whoa, okay.' It's kind of tough to see the road." "After a while, I'd say another hour or two, coming up on the right, right-hand side of the road, probably a good like 40, 50 yards, away from the main road itself, you're going to see a tree that it looks like it's been burned severely. It's kind of tough to see. Like it's just a weird, it's an oddity. It's definitely not, it's not cause for alarm or anything like that, but it is one of those things that's like, 'Oh, that's peculiar.' Because it doesn't look like it's been struck by lightning because the tree would probably fall over or something like that.

This looks like it was set on fire at the base. And the fire eventually went out." "Hold on and look at Tatiana and say, 'Decky's friend.'" "Yeah, Tatiana is just going to sort of like, she's very uncomfortable right now and she's just going to sort of like shiver, like roll her shoulders back and sort of give like a little shudder." "So Larg will stop at the tree and take a closer look to see what remains." "Oh boy. So there's going to be burned sections of rope wrapped around the tree. The back portion of the rope is in better shape than anything making direct contact with all these flames.

And they're going to be wrapped around the skeletal figure that was wearing armor, no helmet or anything like that, but definitely it doesn't look like carrying a weapon, but they were definitely wearing like chainmail. And one of the peculiar things is let's say someone tied you to a tree and then set you on fire. Unless you were dead already, you would probably kick and struggle and try to get away. There are no markings on the ground that would indicate that this person struggled at all. And if you were to put two and two together, that's probably because the poison that was inflicted upon this person meant they couldn't move." "Oh, it is decky.

It is Chester Copperpot." "You should have killed that little gnome." "Now that doesn't mean they weren't conscious. They just couldn't move." "Oh, why do you have to make it worse?" "But there'd be no way for us to tell." "Well, I, I, I, here's the thing. The reason, actually, you know what Tatiana, give me a medicine check." "Mennethin... BAM!" "I'd say, um, the circles that Tatiana ran with, and being in Brightport for as long as Tatiana was, and having some roguish tendencies, she would probably know about at least mild forms of paralytics and things like that.

And yeah, if he could have, he died, he would have died screaming, but couldn't even do that. So Tatiana would know. I don't know about the rest of the group, but Tatiana would definitely know." "I don't think that she would share that information because she doesn't want to make the rest of her group uncomfortable." "Right." "Oh, gosh. And I think since Larg went up to the tree to sort of like look at this person first, Tatiana's gonna sort of sidle up next to him. And just sort of say, 'What a shitty way to go.'" "And, oh gosh, this is so bad. I think Tatiana would try to loot the body." "If you weren't gonna do what I was gonna do." "Yeah, I was gonna do that, because technically, if we're doing the wild maths and we're a guild, you've got some good loot already." "That's true." "This doesn't... sadly, the armor looks like it's been charred beyond use.

Near the body, it looks like maybe some cloth burned away. You are gonna find a couple of gold coins. Looks like maybe some gold fell out of his pocket, so you're gonna find like five gold coins." "Aw, man, there's six of us." "We gotta pay Callie back for the rooms." "True! Okay, she would give all five gold to Callie and be like, 'Alright, we're paid back. Here you go.'" "So, deck-eye gold goes to Callie." "Yep, and she'll just like wipe the ass off of her hands onto her legs onto her pants." "So, after that, Larg would kinda... well, he would've put Brailin down at that point, but he'd be like, 'I'm gonna need about an hour.' And start to remove the body from the tree and kinda basically do whatever he can for like a quick lay-it-to-rest type thing." "Like a little ceremony type thing." "Yeah, you know, just quick and dirty, but something." "Brailin would ask him what he's doing and kinda sketch it in his book as best he could." "Yeah, and he would kinda describe it, you know, whatever the steps of the ceremony are as he's doing it.

You know, we don't have time to dig a hole, so we pile rocks and that sort of thing." "Okay. He would write it all down." "The evil laughter!" "That would be... that would be terrible." "No!" "We have to share this, you have to share it." "I was just thinking about it and I said, 'What if that flute wasn't the gnomes, it was this burnt-up guys, and that's why he didn't know how to play it. He stole it from this guy.'" "And then Jason laughed evilly. Like it was true." "And I helped him learn how to play? Oh my god." "Well, you rolled a 3, I don't know if you know." "That was his spirit haunting my dice." "Ugh, chills." "Fuck off, Jason." "I'm shook." "You haven't confirmed or denied, but that's fucked up." "I feel like that was the equivalent of the smiley face emoji." "That laugh?" "Yeah." "I'm gonna make a little noise emoji, double smile." "I love when you guys piece things together on your own, I love that." "Well, on the bright side, if this guy does make it all the way to Brightport, maybe we'll find him there someday." "Good!" "I don't think that guy's gonna last too long in Brightport." "Or, you know, things turn around and he becomes like the Black Hand's number 3 or something." "Ugh, then he's gonna die." [Laughter] "It seems like her type." "So, anyway, you guys are gonna continue for the rest of the day, and it's gonna start to get dark." "You guys are smack dab in the middle of the Divide." "Forrest is gonna surround you on every side here, and I'm imagining that you're gonna make camp." "Now, the other option is to keep going, which, again, it's an option." "If we kept going, would we make it through the wood?" "It would be almost another day's travel to get out." "Yikes." "Okay, so we'd be going through the night and probably most of the morning." "I think it's better to be quiet in the woods than loud." "I think it's better to be quiet in the woods, you know?" "True, and I did roll a 14, which isn't bad." [Laughter] "I feel like Braylon would ask Callie, 'You're really good with nature.

What do you think is in these woods at night? What's nocturnal in here?'" "Everything." "Can I roll a nature check?" "You sure can!" "Kay. Good. I'm glad I was almost a 20." "I saw that." "Yep, yep, yep. But it isn't a 20. That's an 11." "So, obviously you can't... you can account for wildlife, right?" "And every once in a while you got your reports of troll activity, but it's pretty rare." "And the rare, rare, super rare hill giant that comes down from the mountain, like through the pyre forest that would come up from the south, but again, super rare." "Mostly what you'd have to look out for are things like orc ambushes, bandit ambushes, stuff like that." "Org ambushes, you say?

Never happened to me before." "It never has." "Oh no." "That's a callback, folks." "Oh shh." "To episode 6 of group 4." "Check out ARK 1 and donate to Patreon at DnER.com." "So you're making camp?" "Yes!" "I mean, I vote for camp unless other people want to..." "What I would tell you guys is that obviously wildlife, and then the orc ambushes and bandit ambushes, but I think she would probably say that it'd probably be safer just to lay low to avoid the ambushes, because those are, as far as, ambushes are usually set in one place." "Yeah, you're right. If we stick together, we'll be okay, and likely their ambushes will be from travelers moving, that kind of thing." "Though they have more advantage during the day anyway." "I was gonna say, Brelyn, I'm gonna look at Elena. Besides, any band that comes here, I'm sure Elena will be more than happy to teach them a lesson." "And kind of elbow her a little bit." "I know, right?

I was so confused, too." "Brelyn said, 'Elena, never mind, forget it. We're gonna die here.'" "I'm gonna say that between the fog and just everything going on, Elena's just somewhere else right now. It's just very distracted." "As you guys are sitting around this campfire, you're settled in for the evening, you're off the beaten path, you're kinda scoped out of place, and you're like, 'Okay, this is probably as safe a place as any in the forest to lay our heads down.'" "Yeah, I'm gonna say probably an hour or so after you make camp." "This fog is still, it's dissipated a little bit, but it's still about ankle level.

It's kinda thick." "And in the distance, you're gonna hear a woman scream. It's gonna sound desperate and frightened. Just probably running, scared." "Larg will jump to his feet and try to identify which direction it came from." "And it sounds like it's coming from the north, like a little deeper into the woods, but it can't be that far away because the scream sounded pretty clear." "So this isn't something like miles away. It sounds like this person is fairly close." "He's gonna go, oh no, he's gonna go running off." "Are we all asleep?" "Hold on, hold on, hold on." "I would say this is pretty early in the evening, right?

So you're on the road all day, and I'm imagining that first hour or two when you guys make camp, unless it's been a really rough day, most people are kind of sitting back. "And you're just kind of reading or writing or practicing an instrument or you're just talking about the day's events, something like that, you're eating. So I feel like everybody would be awake." "Okay, we don't probably hear the scream." "No, I would say everybody in the party heard the scream." "Yeah, when Larg heads off, Kaldin will be like, 'Larg, Larg!' And then when he sees Brelin go after him, he'll just roll his eyes at Tatiana and follow." "Tatiana will sort of like aggravatedly get up from her sitting position and be like, 'God damn it!' and she'll run after them as well." "Yeah, Elena's gonna draw her sword and run after them all." "Alright, so deeper into the woods you go." "Can we hear anything else other than the scream?" "That is the... obviously you're gonna hear the crackling of the fire and you're gonna hear the rustling of leaves every once in a while, but that's usually just attributed to wildlife.

If you ever camped in the woods, you're gonna hear things moving. It can be unnerving, but you probably learned to differentiate between the rustling of a small forest animal and say, 'Orcs running up on you.' You'd probably be able to tell the difference. This just sounded like you guys are at your campfire, you're relaxing, and then this terrified scream. And if you guys are taking off into the woods, I would say after another three or four minutes of just running, it is pitch black. And this fog is not helping matters. And then you're gonna hear that scream again, but it's much more abbreviated.

It's gonna sound like someone is screaming and then they stop, like abruptly. And it's much closer this time." "Yeah, luck doesn't slow down." "Nope, you're just gonna keep going?" "Keep going." "Do any of you have torches lit?" "I would assume I have one because I have no darkvision." "So you're not trying to trip over tree roots?" "Definitely not, because the tree roots are probably as big as me, so no." "I don't, because Cauldron does have darkvision." "Though he doesn't have fog vision." "Yeah, elves, what up?" "High five!" "Larg is actually gonna activate his sacred weapon, which means that his weapon glows and emits light for 20 feet." "Now you're just showing off Jamison." "Well, you use what you got." "That's cool." "So if you're just continuing into this and it's gonna sound, again, scream then like abrupt stop. As you approach the source, that again is a little bit further north, you're gonna hear gentle weeping.

And as you round this large tree, I'd say in between a few different trees here, you're going to see a woman lying on the ground, gently weeping. And I'd say the biggest standout is, one, you can see that there is some sort of head wound. Like, something hit her in the head. And it looks as though she tripped over some sort of tree root stone, something like that. The biggest thing is, she is completely nude." "Is Larg the first one to get there?" "Probably, yeah." "Do I have... Sorry, go ahead." "I was gonna say, the party's probably keeping up with Larg, but Larg was probably leading the charge." "Okay, so I just want to take a half second and make a perception check just kind of around whatever clearing she's in, just to see if whatever attacked her is still there." "Okay." "Oh my god!" "Hey, that could still be good!" "If we were looking for something different, could we roll a perception check?" "Like what?" "I'm looking for Tatiana with her background.

Would obviously think that this is suspicious, and is probably looking for them to be jumped right about now. So she's gonna be looking towards the wood for, like, other people." "Okay, so while Larg is looking probably behind this young lady that's like, 'What's chasing you?' you're looking around the party to see what might be getting the drop on the party." "Right." "Okay, do me a favor, give me a perception check." "Jesus!" "Wow!" "Yeah!" "So, Larg is going to be looking behind the... probably the first... it is a very peculiar sight that anybody would be naked in the middle of the woods, head injury, fallen, and just... it sounds like she is just utterly defeated. It sounds like it's just probably terrified?" "And looking behind her, seeing nothing." "I...

Tatiana kind of, like, pulling back, it's like, 'Okay, this is weird.' And just sort of assessing the area, the forest is going to be very quiet. Like, still. Stock still quiet." "Every once in a while you'll hear, like, an owl hoot, something like that, but in your general vicinity, the only thing you're seeing is this young lady on the ground." "So, Larg's going to move to it, and move... it... what a giveaway. He's going to move to her and give... and try to do lay-on-hands." "For the head injury?" "Yeah." "So, she is going to reflexively... the second she sees that light, you know, kind of like... you're in the middle of this dark forest and all of a sudden there's this bright-ass light." "He's going to be like, 'No, no, no, no, no, it's okay, it's okay.

I'm here to help, I'm going to help.'" "And, again, she is utterly terrified, but if you touch her head, that will seal the wound and heal her." "Okay." "And she's kind of just... she's just kind of like sitting here, like it is just... she is obviously completely floored by seeing the party's presence. Like, this is totally not expected." "And she is going to... again, just like start to kind of like stand up a little bit." "So, as she does, he's going to like, you know, kind of keep his hands out and be like, 'What were you running from? What attacked you?

It's okay.'" "I mean, she's going to raise a hand up to her head where the wound was and then kind of pull it back and, you know, look for blood. Like, she could feel like it doesn't hurt like it did before." "Mm-hmm." "I'm not sure what was chasing me. I woke up and I... my head was killing me and I thought I heard something behind me and I just... I just took off." "And she's still not exactly sure, like, what you guys are doing in the forest. So it's very... like she's very guarded. Like, she's obviously in a very vulnerable position." "Right. He's just... he's got his hands out.

It's like, 'We're here to help. It's okay. It's okay.'" "So, quick description. This lady appears to be in her later 20s, maybe early 30s, half-elf, obviously female, and petrified about this entire situation." "So he's going to pull off his cloak and wrap it around her?" "Yeah, she'll take that right away. Like, kind of... like, I'd say it's hesitant at first, but you've... you've already... you've already helped her wound. So if you were going to do something... attacky, like, you know what I mean?" "Yeah." "You probably would have done it already.

So she is... she's definitely going to take this and she looks... she looks like she's freezing." "Yeah, and unless somebody else wants to do something, he's going to start guiding her back toward the camp." "Calden will catch up, like, breathing hard, like..." "And, like, see all this stuff." "Look what I found." [Coughing] "So, when you come sprinting into the..." [Laughter] "Yeah, and he's, like, sweating and he's... it's not a good sight. He doesn't... it probably doesn't look imposing, but he's, like, rushing out and sweating and..." "Yeah, but in the dark forest, like, you hear, like, footsteps running toward you. I think her first... her first reaction would be, like, 'Holy shit,' like, and probably pull back a bit.

But then seeing, like, Calden, I don't think that, like... I don't think she'd be terrified. It would just be like..." "No." "That was not a great first impression, that type of thing. And she's gonna... she's gonna pause for a minute. I... I don't remember. And the realization of that... she's gonna look panic-stricken even further, that she can't remember her own name." "Uh... were you traveling with people? Did you come from a camp or something?" "And, um, you're gonna... you're gonna see her gears turning, like she's... she's, like, desperately clawing for information?" "I...

I just remember waking up here. I don't... I don't remember." "Okay... well... and Calden's gonna look at Larg as sort of, like, 'What the fuck?' But he's just gonna be, like... and look at Brelyn and, like, 'Well... let's at least get you warm. Come on.'" "And she would... kind of hesitantly go with the party, 'cause again, it's complete strangers. She doesn't even remember who she is, and it's all just this terrible thing. It's like waking up in the middle of a nightmare, but you just are living it. And she would... she would kind of reluctantly walk with the party, like, every once in a while, you know, stepping on something sharp and just kind of, like, drawing back and... and kind of finding, you know, the party finding your way back with this light.

And the second you get back to the campfire, obviously, most of your eyes are adjusting and stuff again, and she's gonna sit really close to it, 'cause she is shivering. Definitely still has this cloak wrapped around her." "Uh, Brelyn would use... without trying to appear like he's casting a spell, he's gonna, like, just try and play music, like, really low. Like, maybe just pretend he's trying to, like, fill the background, you know, with music. And he's gonna try and cast Detect Magic." "Okay." "I have to... for the duration, I sense the presence of magic within 30 feet of me.

I can see, like, a faint aura around any visible creature or object in the area that has met the magic, and I learn the school of magic, if any." "Um, so, obviously, Kaladin's gonna light up, and Larg would have, like, definitely some stuff going on, like, Callie would have some stuff, but, like, there is, uh, there's nothing coming off this young lady." "Hmm, no magic." "So she doesn't really have any magic inclination. She's not a mage or anything like that." "Okay, just checking, just checking. I'm gonna still play the song, but now the magic, I turn off. 'Cause I, it's concentration, so I just, I turn it off, I don't wanna see anymore." "Right." "And, uh, I would say that, like, she's just...

I'd say her body's probably covered in scratches and stuff like that. Like, she may have ran through, like, some briars or, um, sharp sticks, something like that. So it's, like, little scratches all over. Who knows how long she was running in the forest before you guys happened upon her." "I guess Cauldron will, like, once they're all settled and everything, Cauldron will say, 'I'm Cauldron,' and he'll gesture to Larg." "I'm Larg." "Everyone, introductions, just..." "Uh, Tatiana is probably gonna, like, spoon out some rations of food and walk it over to her and just say, 'I'm Tatiana,' and hand it over to her." "And, normally, when you're in a situation like this, the polite thing to do is reply with your name.

Obviously, frustratingly, she can't remember that. So it's more kind of a pleasant nod and this, this, uh, this partial smile, just kind of, like, being polite. But she would definitely take this bowl of food and just start scarfing it down. Like, she hasn't eaten in days type of, like, eating." "Mm, Braelyn would introduce himself. 'Hey, uh, I'm Braelyn. Nice to meet ya.' But he's keeping his distance. He's not gonna go up to her. He's gonna keep his distance." "Right. And, uh, I'd say after, like, just, again, polite nodding, but, like, scarfing down this food.

Um, probably either very hand-to-mouth, like, just, like, quickly, or dumping the bowl back into her mouth and, and just kind of, like, frantic chewing." "Uh, Cauldron will, after she's, like, eating a bunch of stuff, Cauldron will just be like, 'Um, what, what is the last thing you do remember?'" "Uh, she's gonna close her eyes. I, uh, I, I remember waking up and it was, it was almost completely dark. And I, I was just surrounded by trees. I didn't, I don't, the realization's gonna hit her. She still doesn't know where she is. Where am I?" "Uh, you're in the Divide.

We're just off the road. Uh, we've made camp. We're traveling east and heading west." "And, um, she's waiting for any of that to kind of, like, ring a bell or, or, or sound familiar." "I, I don't understand. I don't..." "Do you know what... Do you know what day it is? Do you know who the President is?" [Laughter] "She's just basically asking general questions to, like, 'Okay, what do you know?'" "Yeah, like, uh, yeah, Cauldron would be like, 'Uh, do you know the land that you're on?'" "And yeah, she would answer. It, it, it would, like, she basically understands where she is, but not how she got there, essentially.

Nothing that happened up until this point. Like, she understands, like, 'Why the hell would I be in the Divide?' Like, that's, that's, I would say, after you describe where you are, it's like, 'Why? Why am I here?' Like, that type of thing. 'I had a suicide. Why?' And that's, that's gonna start that, that, that fear cycle over again. Like, I don't, I don't understand why I'm here. I don't, I don't get it." "So, like, as everyone's been kind of questioning her, Callie has been digging through her stuff, and she's going to kind of cut everybody off from, because she sees she's getting a little frantic.

She's gonna hand her a set of extra clothing and be like, 'Here, these are probably a lot warmer.'" "She's gonna, she's gonna, like, accept them, like, right away." "Thank you so much. I, thank you." "And she would, she would get changed. Obviously, that's, that's kind of a relief." "Cullen will just kind of, like, look bewildered to the rest of the party and just be like, 'You're welcome to share our fire for tonight. We're continuing our travels in the morning, but at least for the time, nothing will attack you here. You're safe.'" "And then just sort of, like, look around and be like, 'I don't know.'" "Brennan will look at Cullen and give him the, like, the face, like, 'Really?

Really?'" "We discussed this, then." "She has no, she has got no nice." "He's gonna look at Lark and give him the same face." "And he'll kind of, as a way of explanation, not to anybody in particular, but we can, we can, we're going to Durran Hollow, we can take you there and, and we can maybe learn more." "She's gonna frantically shake the, nod her head yes." "I would very much like to get out of here, please. Thank you." "Okay, well, sleep if you can and then we'll leave in the morning." "And Lark is not going to sleep, at least not now. He's gonna actually take up watch while everybody, assuming everybody else goes to sleep." "Yeah, Cauldron will, we can, we can set up a watch.

I think that's exactly what Cauldron is thinking. Like, if Lark wants to take first, Cauldron will take second. He'll, he'll sort of like look at him, just like give him a nod, like wake me up." "Yeah, I always, I always assume when you guys sleep, there's a watch going on because that's probably just standard adventuring protocol." "Does anyone have, does anyone of us have the like, elven meditation? Or, Karen, do you have any?" "Um, Jason told me that was only Eladrin." "Yep." "Oh, okay." "So I have to also sleep." "There is rough, dude!" "Did you hear, did you hear in Karen's voice, um, Jason told me?" "Yeah." "I did hear that, Karen." "Well, you're not a mole anymore." "I don't care." "You could be a fox though.

That's not a race thing, but you know." "There's no magic hand. Now you're telling me Karen has to sleep the full eight hours? Oh my God." "No, but I'm only allowed to turn into one animal." "Oh, man." "I give up, I'm out." "It's hard mode, hard mode!" "An easy victory is not a victory." "That is true, that is true. And we've had a lot of regular victories, and one or two really good, hard victories." "You guys have been, you got, no one will be able to say that shit was handed to you." "Um, so in terms of like..." "We just got this free girl though." "That's true." "That's a, that's a mark, mark stop process." "I think in terms of like camp setup, Braylin would not be camping too close to where the girl is, but like, he wants to be somewhere where he can be far enough away to be considered safe, but still face her and give her like the really stern look as he's trying to fall asleep." "Right." "Ficious." "I think Callie would let her use her bedroll." "Aww." "And she'll sleep on the ground, because she's a druid, she don't care." "I, I, I don't know how close Larg and Callie would be to each other, but I think she'd try to find a space in between those two, and try to curl up." "I'd say her sleep is probably gonna be a little spotty, like every time there's a noise or something like that, she's just gonna like wake up with a start, that type of thing, but she's gonna try and get some sleep." "For the first hour she would see Braylin just staring at her." "Which is probably gonna be a little off-putting." "That's really good, she knows to stay away from me." "Katiana is sleeping as if she was a dragon hoarding all of her stuff." "So the opposite of Callie?" "Just to be safe.

I did, I gave her all my clothes, I gave her my bedroll, do you want my gold now?" "I just inherited five." "So you guys are going to take turns sleeping into the night until the 15th. I'd say that's a pretty good time for us to stop for the evening." "She didn't eat us, that's good." "Nope. Nope." "I didn't even learn her name." "She doesn't have a name." "I know!" "Ooh, we can name her!" "Snickers, not a pet!" "Well we need to call her something, Jason, what do you suggest?" "A human name? Like a person name?" "Hey person, you over there." "Head wound, Helen." "Wow, I love it." "I can't wait to pick this up, like seriously." "Oh my god, how many weirdos did we meet?

Two weirdos in one day?" "We're 0 for 2 on ignoring people." "Okay, admittedly the first one was-" "That's the guy that just ran into the woods." "My fault. Admittedly the first one was my fault, but I'm not taking the blame for this second one. I had nothing to do with this one." "You guys are super suspicious." "Well yeah, no, I'm not saying it's not just, I'm just saying it's just a fact." "Well the first nice person we met was a serial killer, so..." "Well okay, you only know he killed one person." "That's what we know of." "We know." "We felt comfortable enough to tell strangers about that one murder." "Yeah, but he was super good at it." "He was super good at it." "That's practice." "Yeah, he thought about it at least, like that was, uh..." "He's an interesting character." "Heralites and then burn like damn." "That was some..." "He made a height joke." "As we were leaving I kind of wanted to be like, 'See you later, shorty.'" "And then I'll die and I'll sleep." "That was super fun though." "It wasn't?" "I don't feel like we got, like, we didn't get tremendously far, but I thought it was really fun." "Yeah, it was a good one.

I mean, it's better, it feels better to have these kind of adventures than like, alright, you're on the run, everything's on fire." "Yeah, it feels good to have this kind of pace." Whew! We really hope that you enjoyed today's episode. Obviously, if you have anything that you'd like to give us in the way of constructive criticism, or a complaint, or anything, you can send an email to dandrpodcast@gmail.com. That's dandrpodcast@gmail.com. You can also leave a review for us on iTunes, obviously that helps us out a ton. The other thing that helps us out a ton is obviously we have a Patreon.

We have a Patreon.com/dandr. As I said at the top of the program, we post hours of content each and every single month. We do Living in Tharia, where we tackle a person, place, or thing, and we answer all of your questions. We're gearing up to, it looks like right now, there's a vote, but it looks like right now we're going to be talking about godly weapons. So, if you have questions about godly weapons, get them into us. We're going to be popping the big Q&A thing on the Discord server. We are Facebook paid, something like that, and you guys just ask away and we'll sit and answer every single one of them.

We also have character chats. This month we're talking to Jane. We've never done that before. Jane's pretty quiet, and I'm going to do my best to answer all questions you guys might have for Jane, and Efenny, and all that good stuff. We are also gearing up for another mini module thing, where it's a little one-shot that we run every other month, and I'm pulling a team together right now. I'm getting a bunch of notes together, and I want to do something that explores Therian. It's a completely different thing, and I'm really hoping people enjoy that. Obviously, too, there's a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff for every single episode, some longer than others.

We always post that on Patreon, too. There's a big shopping expedition coming next week, which was a little dry for the episode, but some people really love finding out what the teams buy, and I wanted to put all that in. And finally today, we just posted another episode of the Safe Haven Society last week, so here's a clip from that, and I hope you guys enjoy it. After everything has calmed down, Milo's going to kind of hang his head for a moment, and then push himself back up with his palm on the table. What a letdown. And he's going to go back to his chair and take a sip, but he's going to kind of give as a side-eye look.

Why are you so interested? You've seen enough fights in Brightport. Well, if I'm being perfectly honest with you, I've never actually been in a fight myself. It's always something that's fascinated me, though. Milo, his eyes are going to get really big, but like fake, sarcastic big, and he's going to lean forward. Really? You've never been in a fight? I wonder if he'd pick up on the circus. I don't know if he would, to be honest. Well, there's not much of an opportunity in Umineiro. It's not a real physical confrontation type of place. I'm not saying I want to be in a fight now.

Like, he'd sit there and think about it, and he's like, "I don't want to be in a fight." And if that guy were to walk up to me, I don't want to fight him, but I'm interested in watching other people do it. So if that sounds like something you'd like to listen to, or you just want to support the show, go to patreon.com/dandr. Obviously that is immensely helpful to us. It helps us keep the lights on, it helps us pay bills, and it helps us grow the show so we can do things like get character artwork done, we can get landscapes done. One of the big milestones is we want to start doing cities, we want to take votes.

What city are we going to get artwork done of first? I'd like to get detailed maps of all the cities, all that good stuff. Obviously we can't do that unless we hit certain things on Patreon because artwork is expensive. So thank you guys so much, we'll see you next week with a brand new episode. And again, if you have any comments, leave them here for us, or at dandrpodcast@gmail.com. Thank you guys, we'll see you next week.