A Little Less Bright

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So go over to Kickstarter right now and back it if you haven't had a chance. There's a link in the description of this episode. Previously for Group C, after exploring some of Brightport and getting a taste for what big city living is, the team broke up and went to the various houses in Brightport to deliver the message from Own-A-Call. They finally visited House Dragonkeep, and not only found out that Tessia was alive, but was in hiding within the basement of the house. And that's where we're picking things up today. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves.

I'm Jameson, I'm the Dungeon Master, going around the table starting with Jasper. So I'm Jasper, I play Merrick, Ethelred, Human Cleric, and I'm a little bit sniffly today. And Zac. What's up, I'm Zac and I play Aveline Bates, the Human Fighter. And Ryan. Hey, I'm Ryan, I play Varys Alder, the Half-Elf Intern. And Bree. Hello there, I'm Brianna, I play Klara Urathdale, the Half-Drow Soldier. And Lisa. Hey, I'm Lisa and I play Elorath Beestinger, the Halfling Barbarian. And last and certainly not least is Jane. Hey, I'm Jane, I play Ephenu, the Gnome Bard. Alright, here's what we're gonna do.

It is the 25th of Faer'Yore, you are in the lovely city of Brightport. Now, Merrick is obviously in House Dragonkeep. Fat Tony, yeah, Anthony "Fat Tony" D'Amico is who I'm... Hey, how's it going, hey? Alright, I have a new idea for one-shots, really quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick aside. You DM and it's all normal except for you do an accent from The Simpsons each time. When are we going to get the money? So, what I want to ask is, the original idea was to all meet up at House Dragonkeep after you guys got done talking with the other leaders of Houses.

Would there be any stop-offs along the way? Let's start with Elrath and Clara. Would it be pretty much deliver the message and head back or would something distract you? Would there be anything that would kind of draw your eye? Shopping, interacting with people, anything like that? Because again, it's very rare for you guys to be in a town or city so far. You usually spend days on the road at a time and in a big city, it's like visiting New York, right? There's just all kinds of stuff that is meant to kind of draw your eye in. I feel like Elrath would probably want to check out some of the food vendors, to be honest.

I don't know about any of the other merchants or whatever, because she's not really into clothes or fashion, but like food? Yes, please. Ooh, okay. Ooh, this could be fun. Would you describe Elrath as a food adventurer, like someone who is into trying new things or it's like, "Oh, that's an interesting smell." Because again, Brightport is a real melting pot of cultures and there's stuff from all different continents and races and backgrounds and all this stuff and it kind of gets folded over into Brightport. So as you're walking down streets, you're going to smell all kinds of stuff, stuff that smells kind of sweet or spicy, savory, you know, "Oh, that's barbecue," that kind of thing.

Absolutely. I feel like she would eat, or at least I think she'd try anything at least once. And then if she smells like maybe food that she would associate with home or her background, she would try to hone in on that. Like stuff, like maybe if it's like minotaur cooking or something, she'd be like, "And there." Oh, I thought you meant eating minotaur. I was very... Elrath's a cannibal. I think she might draw the line at that. Okay. Is there, does Elrath have a favorite meal? I know Lisa's favorite meal. What's Lisa's favorite meal? Ham and beans and cornbread.

Oh, wow. Okay. That's pretty Kansas. All right. You're not wrong. It's like sweet cornbread too. I don't know. Is there like a special kind of food that like minotaurs like to eat all the time? Yeah. Like, I think that's a really good thing. Like, I think that's a really good thing. Like, I think that's a really good thing. Like, I think that's a really good thing. Like, I think that's a really good thing. Like, I think that's a really good thing. Like, the more tender and juicy you can make it, the better. There's like competitions for it. Oh, so like, oh, I just started salivating.

So if she could find that, she's gonna try and find that. And she's gonna try and drag Clara over to it and be like, "You have to eat this." Okay. Fun fact. There would be some drow home cooking too. Now, I don't know. Okay. Does Clara have a favorite meal? I think, all right. Anyone who's ever liked something that they know the rest of the world thinks is gross, like perhaps pineapple pizza. There is some joy in the fact that you like something that everyone else hates. So, Clara, if she sees that there's drow home cooking, first of all, she's in a really good mood still.

She's still like really excited and just like humming and being very upbeat. Well, she got some last night. Yeah. But if Elirath dragged her over to that food, she would look over to the drow and be like, "All right, let's trade." And then like hardcore handshake like, "Yeah." So let's see how well this boar is done. Because again, it's okay. Speaking as someone who grew up in the Northeast, that tri-state area of Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, I'm used to a certain level of pizza. And then I moved to the West and my empire crumbled. It's all gone. I've never heard of a margherita pizza until I moved here.

And it's the worst. So let's see. It caught me off guard. I don't know what I was expecting you to say. Let's see how well they cook their board here in Brightport. Maybe there's a transplant. That's what I'm hoping for. Like it's like, oh, I'm looking for a guy named Tony who grew up near Hackensack and he just moved to California to start a pizza business. So maybe you'll find a minotaur who's cooking boar here in Brightport. So give me a flat D10. This will grade this on a scale. Oh, now I'm afraid. Okay, here we go. Hey, that's an eight. So that's pretty damn tasty.

So you're gonna I'd say you'd hone in on a smell. It's like, oh, wow, that's there it is. There it is. Because you have to probably turn down some alleys, making rights and lefts. It's like I keep getting a whiff of something every once in a while. Smells like home. And then you just you make one last left and it's like, oh, there it is. Oh, do you smell that? That type of thing. Yeah. The chat. I'm going to eat after this. So much cold old miniature gang. Yes. So what would this be a thing that Clara would enjoy? I'd say so. Like, yeah, it's an eight. Yeah. I think here's the thing.

If you grow up switching, I imagine if you grow up switching between human and drow cuisine, you're pretty easy after that. It's like, I'll try anything. Give it. Right now. I'll show you how to get used to one or the other. So, yes, Clara kind of walked between worlds there. So it's not just underground cooking or just, you know, human cooking, that type of thing. What would be Clara's favorite meal? I feel like she would probably look for something that they don't have often in the above ground world. So like some sort of spider. Yeah. OK, well, that's what she'd be going for.

I think it's a little I'd say it's a little more rare than the boar. But there's a way to prepare Spider, think Alaskan king crab. That kind of thing. That's exactly what I wanted. OK, so you're what they'll do is they'll have them hanging up in certain certain street market type things. So like the little spider will be upside down and curled up and kind of be hanging by its by its feet. And it's not alive anymore, of course, but it was killed fresh that day. Well, I mean, yeah. How big is this spider type thing? I'm just just dog sized. I would say about the size of a medium sized dog.

They usually don't get Christ. It's a big my worst fucking nightmare. Yeah, it's a big spider. I quit DNR right. Lisa hates spiders. We learned that in Strahd. So I was like, of course, of course, it's spider. Yeah, I would say so. Like if you're cooking a large turkey for Thanksgiving, imagine that turkey has eight legs that are curled. Like it's it's like a big bowl. Get a fucking vomit. For to be served with this spider crab type deal. Is there like a mushroom butter dipping sauce? Well, the traditional way of serving it is to hollow out the thorax. And there's like a there's like a steaming bowl of something.

Sometimes it's soup. Sometimes it's usually there's some sort of fungi or mushroom in there and it's served piping hot. So the the thorax itself is hollowed out. Then this is made separate. Then it's poured into the thorax and you break off a leg and take out the tender meat inside and dip it in the middle. Hell yeah. You've done this before with an actual dog sized spider. Oh, yeah. You sold me on the thorax. Yeah. No, I'm actually into it. Yeah. You know what? I'm coming around. It's like a bread bowl that made of spiders. You lost me again. So like usually the mandibles are separated and it's kind of a garnish on the side, like they do something artistic with it or something like that.

But like no piece of the spider goes to waste. God, can little spiders be fried and they're called Friday's. Please. It's like you get like a like a little French, like a McDonald's French pie thing like on the side. Right. Well, there's two different kinds, right? There's the more traditional that there's like flat spiders and stuff like that, like water skimmer type bugs. And then there are the the ones that curl up and those are curly Fridays. Can I get some curly Fridays, please? It was ranch. Like as we're sitting down, I imagine that it seems like a meal you cannot carry.

So like, oh, yeah, this is. I feel like Clara would approach it almost like it's a challenge for Ella. OK, like she'd literally probably like, are you sure? Fuck, yes. And here's the thing. It depending on how much of the the bore you get, like it's not necessarily it's it's not like getting a burrito and walking and talking, it's it depends on how much you get of it. So if you're getting a big plate, you're sitting down. This thing is a spectacle. This is definitely it's it's you are making a meal out of this. You're you're sitting down. What I need you to do, Clara, is give me a flat D10.

Let's see how well they prepared this. How how much is this like home? Yeah. OK, so there was going to be there was going to be two choices here. This is going to be this was either going to be prepared by an actual drow person or someone who hands down this recipe and they're the supervise or a guy named Sully who doesn't give a shit. And he just like, I got some weird bugs. I'm going to fry it. So like this was definitely more tricky. The second one. This is definitely more traditional. This is what you were looking for. And it probably conjured a nice smell.

I'm picturing it being sweeter than you'd expect it to be. Kind of you'd expect this to have more of a bitter smell to it. But this is like, oh, that kind of it's almost a cinnamon type of smell. Weird. OK. Yeah. I'm here for it. I think. I imagine like we have the boar on the table already and then we also have the spider sitting right beside it. So it's like help yourself where we can both take from each. Yeah. Yes. No one wants to miss out on their favorite meal. No. But they want to share it with their friend. Also, we're getting to go bags, right? We're going to see this to my friends and not tell them what it is until after the fact.

Right. That's well, it's a little tough to not I think your friends would have to be they'd have to have a very low perception to to not figure out that this was a giant arachnid of some sort. That's fair. What if I got the curly friters? That would be different because those are usually batter dipped. What are those to go, please? OK, so how do you do you just like eat the whole thing? How? Clara will demonstrate like taking off a leg and like taking the skin off of it and then dunking that into the thorax area to get all the good shit on there. Good. And I know we're going to add this to Foley later, but I picture that red lobster like like splash.

Like you're oh, yeah, you got to crack into the leg and like, yeah, that's what I was thinking. I was picturing like when you eat like a crab leg and you like snap it with your hands and then pull it apart and you get the meat out. Yeah. Yeah. That but like bigger. Yes. Cool. I'm here for it, actually. Like it's like all claws. That's what it is. OK. Yes. She said it's weird little spider legs. OK. And Clara is going to show her that, like, if you grab a certain part of like the inside of the spider and then like pull on it like the legs still move. That's the worst thing you could do.

She would try and jump up, but then at the same time still want to eat. So she's like, OK, just going to keep eating. That was that was gross. So I want to I want to throw this out as an option. You can have a dish that is very well prepared in terms of like, OK, let's say you're eating Indian food that could be very well prepared. Yeah, I'm into it. I just ordered it on Seamless. Seamless was going to be in it. Yeah. Now, you know. But I mean, like, let's say you just don't care for Indian food. It could be very well prepared, but it just hits your taste buds a different way than someone else.

So just because you have a very good representation of roast boar and this the spider dish, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to dig it. So I was just wondering, like, it sounded like Clara was was pretty happy with the roast boar. Is Elrath happy with the spider dish? You know what I feel like she would be. I feel like she'd like be not. She's like, all right. I'm never one to back down from a challenge. I'd be like that thing. She's like, OK, OK, OK, OK. And she closes her eyes. She's like, oh, God damn, that's actually pretty good. And Clara is just going to light up because she's probably done this before with friends, particularly human friends.

So seeing someone actually enjoy it. Once again, I'm going to go back to the pineapple pizza analogy. If someone actually likes the thing you like, it's like, yay! Yes. So I feel like they'd be like, all right. And then just like cut everything in half and just like split sees like family style. I would imagine there is a there's there's there's a price discrepancy between the the the spider and the boar, because one of those is is way easier to obtain above ground. So it's probably like going out and getting really good sushi where it's like, that's not the same as burgers and fries, you know.

The family style comment just made me think of that. Oh, OK. I was like, I can pay for it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I was just something popped in my head. How about we catch up with Aveline, Efanny and Varus. Now, is there was it pretty much all business or is there something that catches your eye? I think Varus would just be following along. He'd probably finish his bread roll, tuck his other thumb behind his other backpack strap and just follow. I don't know. I feel like I feel like Aveline would kind of be all business right now. Just have just like the way things have been going.

It's it feels like it's more urgent than he thought it was. Just how like how they reacted to the news. So he's going back to go regroup with everyone because he's kind of confused. So you expected a much tamer reaction from Norhorn? Well, he he didn't expect that. Right. So it's different than what he thought it was. How about Efanny? I think Efanny's eyes would probably be very drawn to what I think you said, the like street vendors type things around. I think she'd probably be very drawn to those, especially if she's not really been in, you know, like town or city for a while.

But she'd also have that same feeling of, I suppose, urgency of going meeting back up, getting this kind of completed. And we've got various with us as well. So, yeah, she'd probably her eyes would wonder to them, but she'd probably be like, I suppose we best plow ahead and just carry on walking. Is there something that you feel like and I guess this is more directed toward Aveline and Efanny right this minute, but is there something you feel like there would be that either you would miss on the road or something you might run out of fast, something you might.

It's like, man, when we get to a town or city, I am so doing this. So Efanny, I think probably maybe new clothes. She probably hasn't had any new clothes in like forever. So that might she might be drawn to like fabrics and materials and that kind of thing. OK. Is that something is is is it something Efanny would have like maybe custom made or something like that? Or does does Efanny actually work with fabric? She probably does both like as and when she can afford like custom made and stuff. But the way she's been raised, she'd probably be able to make her own as well.

So she probably would eye up like fabrics and stuff as well. OK. So let's say for the most part, you guys you guys sound like it was pretty important to meet back up and you would probably be heading toward House Dragonkeep. So let's catch up with Merrick, because the entire time that Merrick was dealing with Cooper, the the the mad tiefling, I'd say that probably ate up some time and stuff like that. So by the time he got to House Dragonkeep, Avilene, Efanny and Varys are already kind of heading in that direction. So Merrick is in House Dragonkeep in this this this undergrad, this basement type area, and you've been led into the secure room with with Tessia and Gradic.

I would definitely say that after the initial like, oh, you know, you're safe and all that stuff, she would definitely stand up and and hug Merrick. It's it's it's probably very nice to see a friendly face. And she would offer you a seat. Oh, wow. Yeah, he would. So there's there's this element of shock for him, right? If you remember, it was a big roller coaster of emotions. Number one, there was the mad tiefling on the street. So he's a little bit shaken up about what the hell was that all about? Gets there. David's like, oh, sorry, everybody's dead, basically.

Then says, come on with me and then I get down there and it's like, oh, it's up and down and up and down and up and down. So he's a little bit shaken up and a little bit in shock about it all. So he'll just sort of, yeah, I'll take a seat. He's trying to take it all in. As he does that, though, he's going to be looking at Tessia's face, probably in his state, probably a little bit more. He would mean to because of the scar. Yeah. And it's relatively recent. So she's probably a little self-conscious about it, but she understands it's not like it like it draws the eye.

It's definitely. And after after a few moments, she would probably probably reach up to touch it just very briefly. And by this point, David would have closed the door and made sure that everything's secure again, just kind of give everybody a nod, like, hey, if you need anything. And he'd be he'd be outside. Yes. And eventually she would speak up. I'm sorry, David had to lie to you. I understand that that was probably quite jarring. Are you kidding that? I mean, yeah, it was a roller coaster of emotions in the last, I don't know, 10 minutes. This is the best roller coaster I've been on.

I, I, I honestly thought that you weren't going to be here. And by that, I mean, really not here. So don't apologize. I'm incredibly happy to see you. He's going to kind of his eyes are going to go back to the scar, honestly, and he's going to he's going to pull the chair a little bit closer to her, like, you know, he's going to get a little bit up in her face. He's going to tenderly like getting closer to her. And he's going to he's going to lift up his hand. He's not going to touch the scar. He's not going to touch her, but he's going to kind of like almost trace the scar in the air as he's sort of looking at it.

He's just going to look back in her. He's going to put his hand down and look back at her in the face to see who did this. Two things. When you move closer and it looks like you might you might touch that scar, Graddick is actually going to probably move to the side of you and just like keep an eye on things. Just just. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, just kind of like you could tell he like perks up a bit like, hey, hey, hey, that type of thing. And she might even she might even draw back just a tiny bit. And after after you ask, there was an attack on the house some time ago.

Things in the city have deteriorated since the last time you were here. It's gotten to the point where I'm honestly not sure what the next move would be. Merrick's going to say, first of all, he's going to acknowledge Graddick in the process of all of that. He's going to be like, no, I totally get it. I was I acknowledge that you're being very, very careful for her and he's not going to like wave it away like fuck off Graddick. Right. He said, no, no, no, I'm just basically whatever body language it is, it's like, hey, I'm just caring. Merrick's going to say, well, if they could get to you, then, yeah, it's deteriorated.

I can't imagine who would want to do this, but whatever the details are, we'll get into that if that's OK. I just want to be able to help. But my first thought, Merrick's going to sort of look around in their surroundings, in this in this basement room. Say I it doesn't strike me that right now, Dragon keeps a safe house, but but you're here. If somebody is going to look for you, it's going to be here, but you're hiding here. Is there anything that I can do somehow to get you out of here? So the second that you say that, Graddick's going to pipe up, right?

Like he's like this is the voice of reason, like that type of thing. He's going to kind of throw his hands up in the air. I've been trying to say that for like three weeks. Three weeks. You've been here for three weeks. Is that when the attack happened? So she's going that she's going to not dismissive, but kind of she's heard this argument probably a lot. And she's going to be a slight pause. And then I would say that things escalated to this point a few months ago. Graddick was in hiding in the city. And I was doing my best to protect him. However. It was no longer safe for him to be outside of this house.

Some of our employees ended up turning on us and. We were no longer in a position where we knew who to trust. And by this point, I would say that Graddick is kind of pacing back and forth. Because just like she's heard this argument, he's made this argument probably many times. And probably muttering under his breath, "Can't trust dirtbags." And she's going to cut him a look like, come on, like this. That's not that's not helping. That's not. It's not getting us out of the situation. Merrick's going to look at both of them back and forth and. He's going to lift up his hands like, I don't mean anything by this, but I just want to make sure that whatever body language that is, he's going to go.

David, like, eh? Can you trust David? Right. There would not be a moment's hesitation for Tessia where she would probably hold a probably hold a hand up to her heart. I would trust David with my life. I have trust David with my life. And even Graddick kind of like dismissively. Yeah, yeah, he's fine. OK. Well, I mean, I wouldn't expect anything else. Listen, we could get into the details, but a couple of things. Number one, the reason I'm so shocked is not that long ago, I came across an assassin. They were asking questions and they were asking questions about a lot of people.

I saw a list and your name was crossed off. So was our loves. That worried the shit out of me. What do you think that means? There would be a heavy sigh. My fear is that. Lauren wants to know exactly where we are at all times. I have a feeling that once she knows where we all are. That she has some sort of plan. I honestly can't tell you what that would be. So crossing you off the list means she's got you pinpointed. She's going to she's going to give a nod. So Marist is going to turn to Graddick and say, we've got to get her out of here. And again, like hands in the air.

That's what I've been saying. Yeah, yeah. OK, OK, OK. So they're on the same page. Marist is going to try to get his thoughts together. So, OK, there's too many things. OK, number one, I've got some new friends. He's going to be looking at Graddick as he says this, too. Like, I don't know. I don't have a plan, but we can make a plan. And I've got some friends, some new friends. You haven't met them. But I have a feeling that between some of us and all of us, we can help you out here. What I don't want to do is draw any attention. What I do like about this is that there's nobody that anybody knows that's connected to you.

We can make something happen. And he's going to just sort of like, you know, the right to Graddick. But with it's just with his hands like, you know. Right. I would say Graddick's going to get ready and raise his finger like he's got something to say. And there would be a knock at the door again, which I wouldn't say that Graddick would jump, but he's very much on alert. And he's going to spin around and look at the door. And David would probably walk in with Aveline, Efthony and Varus. And I would imagine when they got there, it was like, oh, yeah, Marek's here.

And once you mentioned Marek, it's like, all right, that type of thing. So he would have probably asked them some questions and they would have enough information about Marek or, you know, it's like, well, what's he wearing? That type of thing. That it would be it's like, all right, you guys are probably safe. Marek will stand up whenever the door knocks just to, you know, on high alert as well and sort of get into whatever stance he felt like was necessary to at least potentially protect somebody. Right. And whenever David walks in and he sees everybody, his shoulders, you know, he's going to relax a bit and he's going to turn to Tessia and just say, this is who I'm talking about.

At least he's going to look around and he's going to say, well, at least partly and then he's going to realize that there's somebody he's never seen before. And he's going to start to actually take a couple of steps forward and hold his hand out, like, hang on, hang on. Is this person supposed to be here? Right. And that's that's it. Like, he's going to be kind of going forward. He's going to be looking at Aveline and Efthony with like eyebrows raised like, whoa, what? Once you hold out your hand, Aveline says, he is with us. Hello. This is Varys. He wants to become an adventurer, so we let him stay with us.

And honestly, I have no idea what's going on. Like this whole time Varys is just behind him, like nodding his head very, very widely, like up a lot and then down a lot. Just like, yup. So just for a second, Marek is going to stop. He's going to close his eyes, pinch the top of his nose and then have a really, really big sigh. And he's going to come back up and he's going to say, this is great timing. This is great timing. He's going to reach his hand out and say, nice to meet you, Varys. Very pleasant. Oh, nice to meet you, too. He's going to extend his hand out, not taking account of like any body language or anything, just straight from what you said.

Yeah. Yeah. At that point, Marek is going to also very pleasantly, he's going to find whatever chair there is against a wall somewhere. He's going to point to it and say, hey Varys, why don't you have a seat? Oh, sure. Walk over and just have a seat. Yeah. And he's going to have a smile on his face as it happens. And as soon as Varys isn't looking at him anymore, the smile goes away. He turns back around and he's like, OK, this is what I'm talking about. And he's saying that to... Oh, sorry, to Teske and Grag. So like, oh, yeah, these are these are some of my friends.

Uh, Grag's going to be kind of livid about this entire situation. Yeah, you know what? Let's just let everybody in. Maybe there's some street vendors upstairs, some jugglers. Let them all in. How do you know that guy's not an assassin? I don't assassinate anybody. That's just what an assassin would say. Oh. Ef and he's going to lean in towards Grag a little bit conspiratorially and just quietly say, dude couldn't even find his way out of the city. I don't think you need to worry too much. OK, calm down. And he'll kind of like he'll kind of like fold his arms, just like but very much like kind of tapping a foot, like very much keeping an eye on Varys, but like he'll he'll quiet down about the situation.

Maric's just going to look at Grag and say, you know, I guess adventurers need interns too. Tessie is going to speak up. And she's going to she's going to sort of look away for just a moment. I've been in tough spots before in the city. Craddock is probably going to begin the pacing back and forth again. And he's probably in full, like, let's get the hell out of here mode. Like that. Like he's he is very much of the opinion where it's like, all right, time to cut and run. Let's get out of here. And after a bit, I would say that Clara and Elorath would have would have arrived at house Dragonkeep, too.

And they would have been ushered downstairs. Oh, hello. Right. So introductions all around, of course. You know, basically all this is sort of coming together as a here are the people I was talking about. And as it as people keep coming in, Maric's going to be looking at Grag and doing the shrug silently, like, right. We've got that. We've got to do this. Clara's but I just want to clarify, Clara's eating out of a greasy bag and it's little, little Friday's. She got she got a side of writers to go. She offers the group quietly, just like once. Does it say what it is?

Please let David say, ooh, Friday's. I don't mind if I do. It's a melting pot. I think Verus would just kind of wave by like wiggling his fingers, not even like a full wave, just like the wiggle finger thing. And then if you make your way around towards him, it's like, oh, yeah. And then just grab a small handful and then just start eating and his head's going to go back to pinballing back and forth between whoever's talking. Do we know him? That's Clara would probably give like an odd look, but not say anything, because clearly there's another conversation happening.

Like maybe he was in the house already, like maybe we just stumbled upon him. Yeah, I don't know her either. I don't know anyone here. So and obviously every time she's introduced to somebody, she she'll be very warm and gracious and welcome you into the house. Please have a seat. That type of thing. We'll try and get some food, some drink, that type of thing. Should offer her a Friday. So Merrick's just going to try to connect all the dots for people very quickly. Everybody, this is Tessia and this is Grattic. Tessia, Grattic, this is everybody that I've been adventuring with for some time.

That reminds me, I've got some news about own a call. It's really not important right now, but you might want to know about this soon. But Merrick's going to look at all of the all of the party and say, the thing is, Tessia runs Dragon Keep. The reason we're in a bunker in the bottom of the house is because things aren't safe right now in Brightport, from what I understand. And she's definitely not safe. Do you think that Clara would remember Tessia's name from the note? I, there were a lot of names on the note, but I would say we could probably we could probably roll forward if you wanted to.

OK, what would that be? So, OK, you got a pretty quick look at the note. I would say that. Give me a wisdom check. Oh, good. Perfect. It wouldn't have to be high. Oh, wait, that was a save. Save and check is the same thing, right? No. OK, where's my where's my oh, it's a plus one. I can't figure out how to roll this. I'm just going to roll a fly d20 and we'll add a one to it. OK, OK. Minus a one. So that was right. That's fine. OK, yeah. I'd say it would probably be familiar like that. Again, there were a lot of names on the on the list, but it'd probably be familiar to you.

Yeah. All right. That's probably just something to keep in the back of her head, but she might even kind of like give Merrick a bit of a look and be like, Tessia, huh? Jason, I got a question. Hit me. So with various living in Brightport, even being like a sheltered as he is, I'm sure he's heard news of stuff going on. Would he have heard news of like an attempted assassination or something or would this all have been kept pretty quiet? I think they would go out of their way to try and keep this pretty quiet. Like this is I'd say it's kind of like political intrigue where it's not broadcast in the papers, that type of thing.

But it's going on. So while you'd know some of the players, you wouldn't exactly know everything that's going on behind the scenes. OK, that will be all. So, OK, go ahead. I think at a certain point, Tessie would probably this is not her style. She likes everyone to sit down and calmly discuss things. So with Gratic pacing around and there are new people here, she would very much like to get everybody to sit down and just discuss the issue. Because she understands that it's dangerous and that things aren't getting better. And she would probably offer people food and stuff like that and then just probably try to catch everyone up.

For the past few months, things have been on a downward slope. Power shifted in Brightport drastically and Lauren. And then she would kind of gesture the Black Hand. Well, yeah, it's that. I don't know if you're from Brightport, you know the name. And if you're from out of town, there's a decent chance that you've heard. Like it depends on how have you heard people talking around town? Have you been paying attention, that type of thing? But yeah. And she would gesture. Again, the balance of power has shifted and the Black Hand has done everything within her power to undermine all of us.

I was employing people who needed a second chance. Grattach is in the background just like shaking his head. People who have had a rough go of things. People who have been to prison. And while most of them have turned out to be fine, upstanding individuals. It turns out a few were more appreciative of the gold she was offering. And one of them did this to me. And she's going to gesture to the scar. Grattach is seething, by the way. Since then, my daughter's been living here. Good. Sorry, that was me. No, no, no, no. She's currently away on business in Esterhold.

And most of the time I do have a personal bodyguard. But she unfortunately is away on business too. I will admit that this has been the most exposed I've felt in quite some time. And she's going to motion to Grattach because he's about to start yelling. And she's like, "Calm down." That being said, I do still feel that everything is going to return to normal eventually. It's just going to take some work. Do you have a plan to make things return to normal? And Clara's, like, her whole disposition is like, "I just met you." Right. But like, "I'm worried about you?" Right.

Because it sounds like you're in over your head. She's like, "No, Tessia." Right. And it's definitely one of those things if you looked around, it's like, "Well, you're hiding in the basement and you're worried about the assassins." Right. He clearly almost died. There's a very angry person behind me, very small and mad and like... Grattach's a gnome, right? Yeah. Okay. I wasn't sure if he was a gnome or halfling. I got confused for a second. No, he's a gnome. She's got this thing where she meets your eyes every time someone's speaking to you. And she's 100% listening.

Like, you could just tell. Like, when you're engaged in a conversation with somebody and they're not just waiting for you to stop speaking, they're very much taking in what you're saying and actually responding to you. I have tried diplomatic efforts with Lauren. Sadly, those have all fallen through. She is not interested in making friends within the city. And there's something off about her intelligence gathering. She seems to have eyes and ears everywhere in Brightport. That being said, I have been trying to work with the other two houses, and we're just waiting for the right time to launch a campaign.

Sadly, I don't see this ending without violence. And she's going to kind of look down at the end of the sentence like she's not a fan of violence. You can tell. So your plan is to kill the Black Hand? She's... Oh, man, she's trying to... Probably it would be a clearing of the throat. You could tell she's uncomfortable. She probably changes position in her chair. That was not my first thought, and I have done everything in my power to prevent that. I'm afraid that's not the direction that the other two houses would like to go in. I do believe there will be an attempt on her life eventually.

Clara's going to kind of like... There's a moment where it looks like she's literally holding back and then she's going to go, "Good." So, Clara says that out loud? Yes. Oh, boy. Tessia is going to look at Clara. Why in the world is that good? She's going to look guilty for like half a second and then kind of like put herself together. She is speaking with someone again. She does have that thing of like, I need to behave like a soldier in front of people who have power. So her hands might even go behind her back at like at ease position or something. My mother always taught me that if someone tries to kill you, you try to kill them back, ma'am.

Then she'll kind of bow her head a little bit. I'd say at that point, Tessia is going to stand up and approach Clara just a bit, not in a menacing fashion, more just... Again, it's that I'm completely 100% invested in this conversation. Clara will be scared. This is the second time I've had to play a character who's scared of Tessia. The first time was I married your son behind your back. So, I mean... Right. She would probably end up placing a hand on Clara's shoulder eventually. I understand that line of thinking. I do. And while it can be frustrating to speak with individuals who are only interested in power and will do anything to gain or retain that power, you shouldn't stoop to their level.

It's what separates us from the monsters. Grattic is fed up. Grattic at that point would probably approach Clara and kind of like... He's got this thing where he'll gesture to somebody, but just like it's like he's smacking an object. So probably like take the back of his hand and like tap Clara like on the thigh somewhere. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. She's got a point. What got us into this entire mess in the first place is because you hired ex-cons. You hired prisoners. You hired thugs. And then one of them tried to stab you. And you could tell like this has been boiling up for a long time.

And then he's probably going to continue to yell. And then you hired a personal nut job to watch your back all hours of the day. And you have no idea where she is. You saw what she did to people, right? Like you heard the stories and Tessia is going to nod. Not... It's not like Grattic doesn't have a point. It's just... She's trying to see the good in people. And while yes, let's say three quarters of the people that she hired on has, you know, they've been very... They've really appreciated a second chance or a third chance or whatever chance they're on.

And they're doing everything they can to earn an honest living. There have been some that took the easy way out. They took gold to spy on the house or to give information. You kind of get the sense that they're in a position now where they just don't exactly know who they can trust. She is going to sigh and probably sit back down in her chair. And you could tell that she's just kind of deep in thought. If there's a moment of silence, Aveline's going to speak up. He's going to say, "Is there a plan? Some sort of hope? He said you needed time. How much time are you talking about?" He's looking down as he says this.

So this is going to be the longest pause in this conversation, probably? What I would like to do is make one last attempt at diplomacy with Lauren. But there is a backup plan in case that falls through. We have been working with the law in Brightport. And while their power has been greatly diminished over the years, we do think that we could stave off any outwardly violent attempt to take over the city from Lauren. Merrick's going to jump in real quick. His head's going to go back a little bit like, "Ugh." He's going to go, "Tessia, Tessia." "I love you.

I love you to death. You are not that naive." Yeah, and she's been getting a lot of this recently. You get the feeling that just within this brief conversation, you get the feeling that she's probably had a lot of people pull her aside. It's like, "You should go. Get out of here. Run, run, run, run." That type of thing. And she's going to ever so slightly narrow her eyes and look at Merrick. I have someone looking into something for me that could buy us a great deal of time. I'd like to stay in the city until I hear back from her at least. Okay. So here's what my worry is right now.

Not for the long term. Not for how to make all this work. I know you've been thinking about this a lot longer than we have. But can we at least get you out of this house somewhere where nobody knows where you are, but still in Brightport? You can still make things happen, but what I don't want is for one night in the middle of the night, a bunch of assassins come into this house, ransack it, and find you. I'd rather them do that, and you're nowhere to be found. I think Varys is going to speak up just for a second. Varys, go right ahead. I think he's actually going to lean forward and hold his finger out.

Just a second. He's going to look over at Merrick. I'm sorry, but the only bad thing about it if we move is one slip up. She has eyes everywhere. Then they'll know where to go. At least here it's somewhat hidden. Okay, you're a paid intern now, okay? It's a fair point. Merrick's going to look around to everybody else. You think we have some collateral with Sleezy Pete? I mean, we did save his life. He does have rooms. Wow, okay. Yeah, Gratic is going to speak up. Oh, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You want us to hide in a public brothel. And a shitty one!

Hey, they were nice. Cora's going to look sad for a second. Like, fuck you, she was beautiful. But she is biting her lip to keep from laughing. And then maybe she'll hold up her hands. All right. Where are you sleeping right now, Tessia? Can we see? Maybe we can help fortify it. Would that make you feel better, Merrick? Gratic is going to continue to pace around. Yeah, yeah, where are you sleeping? Uh oh. And Tessia is going to kind of look down and you gather that it's probably this room. They probably have not left this room very often. Okay, okay. Merrick's going to acknowledge Clara.

Yes. Okay, that makes sense. That's one option is to fortify. He's going to drop down to Gratic's eye to eye level. It's really hard to do that without being pandering. I've done it a lot with Efthony. I guess I'll feel better. You don't want to bend at the waist. That's so much worse. He's going to get down, not like sit down cross-legged or something. He's going to sort of bend down with his knees bent. He's going to get down to Gratic's level. He's not condescending or anything like that. He's going to be like, "Come here, dude. Hang on." He takes off his shoes and puts them under his knees.

No. I'm sorry. I'm on mute now. I just got what you were saying. Processed after. Sorry. No, he's going to be like, "Gratic, Gratic." He's going to get down at his level. He's going to put his hand on Gratic's shoulder as long as Gratic allows him to do that. He's not going to whisper this. He's going to be saying it so everybody can hear it. He's definitely going to be saying it to Gratic. Who would ever, ever take a look for her there? [Sigh] This... He's going to take a breath. Because he understands that you're walking into this fresh. Right. I get what you're going for.

However, I've been playing that tune for two months. I got controlling interest in the Rusty Nipple and I said we could hide there. But does she leave? No. A minute... I'd say like a moment is going to go by. And he's going to look like something just dawned on him. Wait a second. And he's going to reach up and grab Merrick's shoulder just a bit and pull him even further down? I know what you can do. One of the things that's stopping us from acting is we don't know who to trust, right? Right. What if you ran background checks on everybody in this house? Find out shit about them.

And then we know who to place our trust in. Then we can make our next move. This is what interns are for, Gratic. Varus looks towards the wall. Like immediate left looks towards the wall. Not me. Just touches his nose. Yep. Not it. So, Gratic, that's not a bad idea. I get it. If we were to start doing background checks on everybody that works here, Jason, how roughly how many people would run this place? Oh, God. Is it on the order of dozens or on the order of like 12? You're probably looking at a good 60 to 70 people. Oh, wow. Shit. Yeah. There's yeah. The guards alone are.

And he's going to probably realize part with it. All right. Yeah. We don't want to bring no we just don't. If we did that, then what's it going to do? That's just that's just like putting a little arm bell up. Why are they doing background checks? What's going on? And he's it's like fine. Yeah. That's not that's not what I wanted to hear. But I get it. And I'd say another another minute or so is going to pass and he's going to look like he has another idea. All right. Just one. Look into one person for me, because I don't trust her and I don't think Tessia should trust her.

Merrick's going to look at Tessia. And kind of give the huh. What do you think? Tessie is going to speak up, kind of trying to cut this off, like headed off at the pass, that type of thing. Part of giving people second chances is not doubting them. It's not really a second chance if you're investigating them the entire time, is it? And she's looking at. She's looking at Grattic. I think after that, Tessie would probably try to change the subject. Like, like have a sandwich, that type of thing, being welcoming mom type type person. If Tessia goes to change the subject, Clara might jump on that for just a second because there's something that's been bugging her this entire time.

OK. So she's going to kind of look to Merrick and then Tessia and then Merrick and then Tessia and then go, did Merrick give you our message? Oh. Merrick's going to slap his forehead and groan. She wants to make sure she does a good job. Right. What did she do? What does Tessia say? Well, I mean, there would definitely be between Grattic and Tessie, there'd be like, that's the second time a message was mentioned. Like, yeah, yeah, what? Like, it can't be that important, that type of thing. But she'd definitely be inquisitive. And Clara probably do the thing where she like pushes Merrick with her eyes, like, go on, come on.

Yeah, Abilene holds his arms expectantly. It's probably not that big of a deal, especially since everything that's going on here is really, you know, really, really focused right now. We went to own a call, it turns out, all of us here. Well, most of us here. Beautiful place, haven't seen it. We're going to start like bouncing a little up and down, like, go on, go on, give her the scroll. Right, right, right. Merrick's going to sort of fish around and kind of hesitantly fine and just give her the scroll. You should probably read it. Clara's going to instantly relax as soon as the scrolls are in hand.

She's like, OK, we did it. That's right. Yay! Mission accomplished. Oh, boy. So Tessie's going to take a look at this. And there's that beat where someone's reading something and you're waiting for them to get to the crux of it. And a look is going to come over her face that says a lot, but mostly what it's saying is, are you shitting me? Graddick's going to pick up on that and wander, wander over to the side of Tessie's chair and kind of stand on his tippy toes and look over the arm of it and look at this scroll. Son of a bitch. And he's going to snap at Merrick.

Are you kidding me with this shit? Merrick's going to say, the dude was a prick. The dude was a complete prick. Clara's going to nod. Yeah. We're just the messengers, but I thought it was an opportunity to actually come back here. I'm glad I did. Graddick is infuriated. He's pacing back and forth, kind of mumbling half sentences to himself, most of them expletives. And I would say up to this point, Tessie has had, even though this is a really rough period, Tessie has had an aura of calm about her. But this is, this is probably a bridge too far. Oh, no. And she is going to very calmly and slowly roll the scroll up, stand up from her chair, walk over to the door and summon David.

And after David, after a moment, you hear him kind of walk down the hallway here and you'll hear them speak. And the only words she is going to say is, could you ready a carriage for me? Oh, what? Hey, we got around the city, guys. And she's like, David's going to be like, are you sure that's the best idea? And like, there's a look on her face that's like, no, seriously, get, get a carriage ready for me now. Like this. And David's going to kind of walk away hesitantly, just like, okay, probably because very rarely he has seen that look before. And it's the I'm not fucking around look, let's go now.

What time of day is this, by the way? I'd say this is like, by this point, maybe dusk. Okay. Maric's going to, this is going to be a whirlwind for a second. Maric's going to say, okay. He's going to point at Gratic and he's going to say, well, this is good news on one hand, right? On the other hand, you know what? We got to play this carefully, Tessia. We've got to make sure that if there are eyes and ears everywhere, this can't just be you racing out the door. First of all, and Maric's going to look around and he's going to questioningly say, we're coming with you?

And he's going to look really like, oh shit, did I just say that? That's what, that's also what Clara looks like. Weird. Oh shit, did he just say that? Abilene tilts his head. But only for a second and then she's going to look serious and kind of give like a small nod, like, well, you need protection. Right. And Maric's going to keep looking back at Gratic, to gauge the temperature. There's like a mixture of stuff, right? Because like he's infuriated with the assholes and Ona Kahl who would pull this shit now, and they're doing it on purpose. They're doing it because Tessia has been probably a little less involved in the day to day, and they may have even heard rumors that she's dead.

So they're pulling this shit now. They're doing it on purpose. So he's infuriated about that. He's pissed off about being stuck in this house. He's pissed off that they're all in danger. And he almost sees it like you guys, like it's kind of a blame the messenger thing. It's like, thanks for coming and making all this worse type of thing. Like there's probably a little bit of that. That being said, you do not get the impression that he is against leaving the city, but he will look. Oh, man, he will look at Marek at some point and kind of walk up to him. All right.

Firstly, I don't like going to that shithole desert town. I used to send people to the shithole desert town. Good call back, Gratic. Good call back. Love it. Deep cut. And he's going to hold up two of his little fingers. Two. If we go. And he's looking back to Tessie, it's like, are we seriously going? This will not be a pleasant trip. Marek's going to choke and go, oh, God. Oh, boy. You got that right, because they almost died in the desert. Oh, yeah. He doesn't know anything about that. No, that's. Can't be worse than last time. Yeah. And Tessie is going to take a deep breath and walk up to Marek.

Gratic's right. I need you to do something for me if you're willing to. And she's going to she's going to kind of like look a little despondent. If you're willing to do a favor for me when I can't. Really repay you at the moment. Marek's going to immediately wave his hand like in the like, your money's no good. We are going to go to own a call and she's. That's a statement of fact. It's like that's just what's happening. I'll speak to Jorvan personally. And I'm going to clear all of this up. And she is going to look at Gratic. Gratic. I would like you to get a few of your associates.

They're going to come with me. And Gratic's going to have a look at his face like, whoa, OK, wait, are you are you serious? Because what she's talking about are goons. Gratic knows goons. If there's one thing Gratic knows. It's surrounding himself with large individuals that are not afraid to rough people up. And she's going to kind of nod in an affirmative. We might need the extra protection. Oh, thank God. I think Clara actually said that, by the way, in character. Right. And she's going to she's she's wearing this dress and she's going to kind of like straighten things out.

I've been hiding in this house for too long and things are falling apart without me keeping a close eye on them. If I don't take care of the responsibilities I have. I'm basically already dead. That being said. Would you happen to be heading north by any chance? Merrick's going to just look around everybody. We were heading here. So we can head anywhere. Well, if you could deliver a message for me. There's someone in the town of Altmore I'd like you to meet up with. She obviously doesn't know that we'd be heading to own a call, but I'd like her to meet us there.

Graddick's going to roll his eyes like, you were on the right track and then you. And she's going to she is going to go over to this little desk next to her chair and write down a name and a location and let this let this ink dry really quickly and then roll it up and head to Merrick. We'll be leaving for own a call within the hour. I'm incredibly sorry to leave you like this, but I have to attend to this right away. You're of course welcome to stay in the house as long as you'd like and David would be more to more than happy to take care of you. Merrick, there's there's going to be no hint of Merrick.

Like pushing back on any of this at all, he recognizes, you know, Tessie and long enough to know. This is what's going to happen like this is if she's made the decisions and this is what's going to happen. He's not going to question those decisions. So he's going to take the note and just kind of sort of, you know, shake it in his hand and say. So you need this person to meet you in order to call. She was looking into something for me and I'm not sure if it was successful or not. But after she's completed that, yes, I would like her to meet us and on a call.

There's going to turn with he's holding up the scroll in his hand a little bit or the note, turn to Graddock and. He's going to say this is the person you were talking about. A big nod from Graddock. Yep. Merrick's just going to turn back to Tessie and say, we'll take care of it, but we're going to make sure you're safe. Fair? She basically does not have the time to argue about this anymore. So there'd be just the slightest hint of exasperation. That seems fair. Yes. OK, well, if you're leaving within the hour, I got to start cooking. He's going to he's going to turn to Elrath and say, I know I smell boar.

Do you have a doggy bag? Clara's going to offer him the friters immediately. No, to answer your question, but I can show you where to get some. Oh, OK. Merrick's going to do whatever he can to to try to whip something up in the kitchen. He'll say, you know, we'll have boar tomorrow. I just want to make sure you I just want to make sure that that you're comfortable on your way. So he's he's going to whatever he needs to do to say, you know, like, I'm going to ring for David. Like, I'm going to get his attention. Right. And he's not far. He's OK. He's really close by.

So Merrick's just going to like, OK, fine. We got a plan. This is the plan. He's going to look at everybody. Cool. Are we cool? Sure. Shrug. Shrug. Shrug. He's like, what else are we going to do? Clara's going to raise her hand. May I ask a question? That's to Tessa. To Merrick. You don't have to talk like that to Merrick. It seems very formal here. He's going to say, yeah, go right ahead. Who is that? And she's going to point to Merrick. Because she's been introduced to Tessa and to Grattik and to David. She has no idea who Veric is. Verus. Sorry. Verus is, except for the guy who's been eating spiders with her.

Right. Yeah. Oh, Veric's going to put on the slightly fake smiley face as soon as she says that. He's going to go, oh, this is Verus. He's our intern. And then he's going to get his stuff to go with David. Basically. Just like, Clara's just floored for a second and just blinks a few times. Like, oh, OK. It was like a mouthful of spiders of like, just still chewing of like, oh, yep, you're talking about me, like wide eyed. And then just kind of waved my hand a little bit as I continued chewing on spiders. LRS probably going to loud, what's an intern? Clara's going to like half shrug like, oh, I think he gets us coffee.

Oh, I think it's just I work for free. I don't know what an intern is. Shocker. That's what it is. All right. I'm imagining America's is down the hall a little bit already and he's going to hear that he's going to go, he's a paid intern. OK, I get paid. That's good. As far as I'm concerned, Mary Merrick is like headed to the kitchen. He's going to he's going to whip up some some like really like it sounds it sounds like a teenager thing, but like super nice grilled cheese type sandwiches with like a heartwarming garlic mix. Oh, like garlic butter mixed berry reduction inside and just a little taste of that with some very thinly sliced apples that have been caramelized.

Yeah, I would say I would say over the course of the next hour, they would be packing and a carriage would be ready and. They're probably packing up to say goodbye. There's some goons coming along for the ride, so there's probably a couple of carts like and Tessia is going to approach Merrick and probably grasp both of his hands, kind of like hold them tight and probably lean in and give Merrick a kiss on the cheek. Oh, well. Merrick will actually very respectfully do a very, very, very slight bow. She's it's not a whisper, but she's kind of speaking low.

Thank you for everything. Truly. Thank you for everything. You have no idea. And she would she would say goodbye to everyone, probably a little less. Heartfelt, just kind of like, yeah, yeah, goodbye, that type of thing. So if he if he's going to reach out and at least shake his hand or something like that, shake Merrick's hand. Merrick's going to to lean down again, kneel down again in a very respectfully doing so condescending to him. Right. She's like, keep her safe. I know you will. I have a question. Do you know who the Royals are? Oh, wow. Nice. Oh, good.

I love that. Hey, real quick, I know I just ruined your entire day, but I have a bone to pick with someone. This is very much like real quick before you go. I have a quick question. Right. Do you know who the Royals are? That is fucking hilarious. A plus, just thanks. He's it's going to catch him off guard like it's it's it just came so out of left field. Those assholes. Yeah. Why? Give me everything you've got right now. And he's going to go back over the desk and he's going to try to find something to write with. Right. And he's almost like there's there's just what's like, what do you think I have?

Like, do you think I carry books on them and shit like like but like he he eventually he's going to he's going to write down a couple of things. Yeah, that that that should get you started. Why? They pissed me off. That's all. No big deal. Yeah, he's going to he's going to kind of chuckle himself. Yeah, who haven't they pissed off? He's just going to shrug like, yeah, exactly. I'm going to find him. I very much he's got bigger fish to fries. All right. Good luck. Whatever. Thanks, Graddick. And actually, most going to say, hey, you stay safe. You very much get the impression that there's a small part of Tessia that understands how dangerous things are right now.

And she might be saying goodbye if things get, you know, that's like, hey, it's been a couple of years since I've seen you. Things have deteriorated since then. I might not see you again. Goodbye. That type of thing. And you even might get a little bit of that from Graddick, but he's much less tender about it. There might even be a beat and just. Yeah, we'll be fine. And he would probably look at the party. Good luck. You too. And he's going to climb up with Tessie's help into the carriage. Miracle hand over the bag of all the goodies that he's put together.

Oh. And with that, they are going to ride off into the night. Clara's going to give them a little salute as they go. So are you, where are you sleeping tonight? Just a quick question. Well, I mean, we have this giant mansion, so we should go back to Sleazy Pete's, right? Yes. Well, that's a question is, did we take all our stuff from Sleazy Pete's or did we leave some stuff there or? I'm not going to make it to the next one. Yeah, it's up to you guys. I mean, it's a brothel. I probably wouldn't have left my bag there. Yeah. I would imagine we probably all have all of our stuff.

Ooh. There's something I've been debating and now I think I'm just going to roll for it. Okay. All right. Okay. If it's over 10. No. Okay, never mind. Clara's over it. I wanted to see if she'd be like super attached to her new friend. Oh, Whisper? Yeah. I wanted to see if she'd be like super attached to be like, maybe I should go say hello. Okay. But nah. So just love them and leave them. I guess. Well, ain't it cool? Well, more like I understand she's a prostitute. Right. Don't get attached. Don't fall in love. Right. Yeah. It was going to be a thing of like, oh man, maybe I could save her.

No. Oh no. So it sounds like you're staying in house Dragonkeep then. Yeah. All right. Here's what I'd like to do. While you're in house Dragonkeep for the night, everything would be taken care of for you. Things would be taken care of for you. Everything would be taken care of for you. Things would be cleaned. Obviously, you have soft beds to lie in. You have rooms all to yourself. It's a big place. And David would be there for whatever you might need. Just kind of, it's a nice bit of respite from the road. Some hospitality. Is there anything you guys would like to do throughout the night?

Would there... Because you've had a lot dropped on you in the last 24 hours. Delivering this unwanted news in the city, finding out about Tessie and Gratik, some of you meeting them for the first time. Varus has been introduced to the party. I picture maybe having like a big family dinner type thing. But that's up to you guys. My first thought was, because this is still going to be evening, right? Where it's not like middle of the night. Right. When they're gone. I think Merrick's going to say, "Elerath, can you let me know where that boar that you found was?

Because I've got an idea. I think we've got a new person here and I think we need to make this special. Maybe I can make a big dinner." Oh yeah. If you want, we can go there and then you can get some for dinner and then I can get some just for me. We'll get two boar. One for the family and one for Elerath. Let's do it. I want Merrick to go out and do a shopping spree because this is the first time they've been in a comfortable place in a while. And make a big spread and even ask David to be part of the dinner if he wants to. Okay. But yeah, I want to go get some boar.

On the way out, Elerath will definitely just be like, "Oh my god, Merrick. You gotta go to this other stand that Clara took me to because they have a spider as big as me and we ate it." And she's gesturing with her hands the whole time and she's like, "And we ate it. And deadpan." Merrick's just gonna clap his hand on her back and just keep walking. That's nice. Like you want to stop at your old girl who's telling you a dream? Just like, "That's nice, sweetheart." Kind of. But honestly, there's a part of Merrick where he's actually just proud because remember, food is his thing and he's got a restaurant and all sorts of things.

He's gonna be just kind of proud that he tried something and that he actually found something that you really love that sounds utterly disgusting. So there's a place in the city called Slack Snacks that is run by a famous couple, Dahlia and Kremmik Slack. Now that would be a lovely female half-elf and a large bushy minotaur. And they have been running this place for years now. And what it is is this large cottage and you go in and what they do is they serve side dishes from around the world. That's where you would get things like fryders, you'd get tiefling fireballs, you would get all kinds of different stuff like that.

And essentially these are themed snacks, that type of thing. It's like, "Oh, these are delicacies in these different places." So that would probably be a great place to find a lot of different things. Like in our world, it would be like grabbing some fries and then like a kebab and then like different things like that where it's like, wow, that is drastically different and a falafel and like a taco. And it's like, wow, OK. Like it's kind of like a food court in a one stop shop. Love it. Yes. This is the most exciting thing that's happened on DNR so far.

So all of you are out buying food and this lovely little place, SlackSnacks, has their big thing is live, like live stuff. Like when you go to a fancy restaurant or grocery store and they have a lobster tank and you go, "I want that one! Steam them for me!" And then you get to see the light die in his eyes. No, not with piggies! Beautiful. Wow. Well, it's not so much for the piggies, but they have these they have these wire mesh wooden cages full of spiders where you just see like webbing and stuff like that. So they reach in and grab scoops of spiders.

And that's how they make the fryders because they're about the size. What, Lisa? So usually... They have to like put their hand over it so the spiders don't like run out. Well, usually what happens is there's it's almost like a lab setup type of thing. So Kremec, the big Minotaur guy, will reach his big mitt in there and then not really grab it because you don't want to kill the spiders yet. So he'll just kind of stick his hand in there wide like his hand is wide open and then pull back and there's spiders running up his arm. And they're about the size of like a baby tarantulas because you want to get you want to get them when they're young because they get that crunch.

Get them while they're young. That's their tagline. Exactly. So like they're skittering up his arm, but he don't you know, it's kind of in his fur and stuff. He's really bushy. It's the worst. And he's a really good natured Minotaur too, like kind of like happy to do it. Like he's just like he's like, I make these good like that type of thing. I love him. And Dally is more a customer person. It's a great commercial to be honest. It's really good. And he's more the chef. So while this is going on, I imagine that this is kind of a thing where the party's like, hey, let's have something special tonight is probably led by Merrick, honestly.

Let's have a nice family dinner to one get to know Varus to kind of discuss everything that's happened today and three kind of address our plan going forward. Probably this might be the last time we're in a city for a little bit. That type of thing. Is there anything anybody would like to do while these snacks are being procured? Yes, Efanny would like to try and talk to Avalon. But away from the group somewhat? I don't know where we could, if there's a somewhere private nearby. Again, it's kind of busy, so like it's one of those things where the the busyness and loudness kind of offer some anonymity where you just can slip back.

It's like, hey, come here. And it's just kind of a bustling thing because it's basically the dinnertime rush that 8, 9 p.m. in the evening. People are eating outside on tables and stuff. It's very like active and busy, vibrant. OK, well, she'll find somewhere, let's say somewhere appropriate, hopefully where she's not going to be in the way or where they're not going to be in the way. And just put her on the side and be like, hey, while while we're waiting for stuff, just wanted to talk to you a little bit. How are you doing? Are you doing OK? Well, I think our plans change kind of rapidly and we don't really plan things out, but it's been exciting, don't you think?

We're doing something amazing here. She's going to smile at that and nod her head and then say, yeah, it's been kind of crazy. It's been amazing and it's been kind of crazy. I've been thinking about this for a little while. I don't really know how to particularly say this, so I'm just I'm just going to say it. I need to go home. Home? Yeah, I've been away a lot longer than I really should have been. My aunt and uncle, they helped me go off to learn to be a bard, which I did. But then I've done so much more and a lot more than I meant to go do. And one thing has just led to another and to another and to another, which has been amazing.

But I don't think I can keep going. We keep finding ourselves in just more and more bizarre things and more and more dangerous things. And while it's amazing and we have made a difference, I hope you and I hope the others keep going. I hope you guys keep making a difference. I'm not sure I can do it anymore. I need to go home. I'm kind of needed there. Evelyn drops his head a bit and he's staring at his feet and he says, "And do you feel this is something you need to do on your own? I should stay and continue?" "As much as I would love you to come with me, I will miss you every day if you're not with me.

But I can't ask you to come with me and run a farm. That's not for you. You belong with these guys. You need them and they need you." "Athena, you were the first person to ever believe in me. If you believe I can stay and make a difference, I will try my best. And I will always remember what you've done for me. How you helped me along the way all these years, I will never forget. And I do think this is for the best. I know there are times out there things have gotten awful, even by my standards, awful. And I couldn't protect you. Maybe a life away from all this is the only thing that can.

I'll always support your decisions. You know that." I'll always smile a little at that and pat his arm. I appreciate that. Like I said, I think these guys need you. And I think you need them. And it would be very selfish of me to ask you to come away from that. Please know that you're always welcome to come and stay with me and I expect to be hearing from you guys, okay? In one form or another, I expect to be hearing from you. And she's like just like grinning at him a little bit, but like trying not to be upset. Glenn nods emphatically. And he says, "I think I know how you must feel right now.

Do you want me to break the news? Do you just want to slip away right now? It's your choice, but I think they'd all miss you. But I know this isn't really your thing." He'll kind of crack a smile, a rare smile. She'll smile back and she'll say, "One time or another, I probably would have just slipped away, but as much as that would be the easy thing to do, I don't think it's the right thing to do and I don't think it would be fair. So I guess I will talk to everyone. Maybe, I guess maybe after dinner." And she'll like grin at him and wink a little. Evelyn will say, "You've grown, Anthony.

I don't know if you would have said the same thing years ago. I'll leave it all up to you." Okay, I appreciate that. Then I guess at this point we try to slip back like nothing happened. Trying not to make a big deal of it right now. Wait for the right moment. And again, I would imagine it's not. If you've ever been out with a group of friends and it's kind of busy, you don't assume that it's always a heavy conversation or something like that. Plus, there's lots of stuff to see and do. It's not like you were all in a living room situation and pulled away.

Is there anything else anybody would want from either Slack Snacks or while you guys are out in Brightport before dinner? Well, for Marek, he's on a shopping trip, so he's definitely going to get some of the larger spiders. Like one or two of those. Definitely going to get a bunch of boar and some nuts, some fruits and a little some bread stuff. It's actually lovely in Brightport because there's a lot of fresh ingredients. And there's probably access because it's a port city. There's access to things that Marek normally wouldn't have access to. All kinds of meats, fish and all kinds of different stuff.

So you are not going to run out of options anytime soon. But let's fast forward into the evening here. You guys are going to get a chance to relax and have a nice dinner together. And I would imagine that there's quite a spread. I have a menu. Hit me. So the initial offering will be a toasted baguette with a spider, tomato and olive spread. So it's a bruschetta. For the first course, we'll have a spider bisque, which is a very blended, creamy soup with the spider really taking the place of like a crab or a lobster or something like that. The main dish will be a cinnamon boar boullionnés on tagliatelle.

That's going to be long, flat ribbons of pasta. And alongside that, a walnut and apple salad. And also alongside all of that is going to be just simple garlic and Parmesan rolls. They're going to be early on. Early on, there's going to be a rosé wine that everybody's going to be partaking. Once you get to the cinnamon boar boullionnés, we're going to move to a pinot noir. OK, let's let's step out of Theria for just a moment. I'm hungry. I ate cookies for breakfast. Everyone here is very hungry. I got to have one fourth of a crunch bar. Right. And Jasper, you live in Brooklyn, which means you could walk out your front door and get good pizza whenever you want.

Yeah. And I'm a little bit furious at you as a person for that. I get it. I get it. So, yeah. Fuck you. Yeah. And let's continue with the game. Well, can I also just to just to make sure that this is presented correctly in everybody's minds, these are large plates and the servings are just small enough to make you wish you hadn't more. Oh, you're the devil. OK, cool. I don't want to overdo it. I don't want to overdo your taste buds here. This is about savoring what you have. America's going to probably go into a little bit of his restauranteur type stuff where it's like, no, you fucking eat what you know.

There's no more. This is the amount you get. This is what's perfect. This is what's perfect. So let's say everyone is just not stuffed, but content. That's exactly right. You know that you're not. And even if maybe spiders not your thing, which, hey, you know what? I get it. When we go out to eat with friends and it's like, oh, let's eat Indian food. It's like, I don't know. Or Thai. It's like, I guess I'll get the chicken on a stick. I don't know what I'm getting. So like I'm, you know, you might pick things, certain things like I'm just going to fill up on bread, whatever.

You know that you're not going to get a meal like this for a while because you're going to be on the road. What would what would dinner conversation be like with this be kind of a light fare? Would you be talking about like, hey, everything's so screwed up in the city or or what? Like what would be the general atmosphere, do you think? Aveline would bring up several times about our direction and what we would like to do together. Just general conversation like do we have do you want to go deliver this missive now or like what do we want to like where are our hearts set?

If anybody has any thoughts about that. Who's it directed to? Can we see on the outside or is it something like we'd have to like break the seal and read? Oh, it's not sealed. It's very much. It's like, hey, look up this person and they'll be in this general area. Yeah, let's open it up and sort of roll it out and throw it in the middle of the table for everybody. OK. All right. So to the north, there's a small town called Altmore and Altmore is a pretty rustic town. It's just outside of Bandits Rest. They've had their their problems with criminals and stuff like that, either seeking refuge in town or sort of invading the town, stealing resources, that type of thing.

But they're also they also get some runoff from people from Uminyero. So there are mystics and mages, things like that, people who sell artifacts and trinkets. And the person you're looking for is a tiefling by the name of Diana Astroth. Oh, dear, oh, dear. How dare you, sir? That's amazing. Oh, my God. OK. And this is Diana Astroth tiefling general area, like within Altmore, right? Like, yeah, I'm at this place or, you know, that general pub or something. Holy shit. OK, awesome. OK, so the discussion is around, OK, we can do something like this. So Mary's just quickly going to say, listen, I I'm not trying to speak for the party.

I at all earlier about this taking the note from Tessia and letting her know we'll take care of it. I'm not trying to speak for everybody. I just know Tessia. But I know you just met her. But when she makes decisions, she makes decisions and it's for the best. I trust her with my life. I've trusted her with my life many, many times. If you could see your way fit to at least just let's get this message to somebody. I can do it alone. I'd rather you all come with me. But what do you think? Jason, how close I don't have the map on my laptop. How close is all more to Aubrey?

Like, are they close at all or they completely different? Oh, God, no. OK, completely. You'd have to cross the divide. All right. Then I feel like Clara wouldn't really have a strong opinion as long as they were still moving forward. Yeah. I would probably just shrug to just be like, OK, I mean, we came here to deliver a message. I guess we could go there. I've never been to all more. She doesn't really actually know how to pronounce it. That's a good point. That's a that's another letter. Yeah. You guys don't mind me tagging along. That'd be great. Oh, hey, you too.

Oh, sorry, very forgot you were here. Jumps like, oh, yeah. He's sitting at the table next to our table. By the way, Veras, kids table. Yeah. By the way, Veras, you you've got it lucky right now. The first day on the job, you meet the head of a house of Brightport. You've got a fantastic feast in front of you and you're going to be sleeping on the best bed you've probably ever slept on and ever will sleep on. So welcome aboard. Oh, yeah. This is the best day of my life. But thank you. And he kind of like pats his belly like that was good. So Anthony's kind of smiling at everybody's like conversation and little snippets.

And she looks around everyone and then she kind of particularly looks across at Merrick. And there is like there's a look like it's. It's hard for, you know, like kind of swallowing thing, like, I don't want to do this, but I've got to do kind of like I'm doing right now. She looks across at Merrick particularly and she says, I am. I need well, I need to talk to you guys. I, I. I can't come with you. I'm sorry. Oh, wait, what? You mean to all more. I need to go home. Put simply, I have people who need me. I've been gone a lot longer than I should have been.

I need to go home. At least I don't maybe for good, but at least maybe for a while. I need to go help them out. We. We keep doing amazing things, but we keep kind of bouncing from one thing to the next to the next and kind of more and more dangerous. And it's just it's made me realize I need I need to go home. I need to go be there for people who were there for me. I'm sorry. Where's home? Near Dernhollow. Kind of nod his head a little bit and just kind of look towards the center of the table. Merrick's going to look at Evelyn like with wide eyes, like, what the fuck?

Did you know about this kind of a thing? Evelyn looks some dead in his eyes and he says. Anthony has to do what she has to do. I knew about this and I think it's the right choice. And sooner or later. You'll realize it for you, for yourself. You know, just look down. So Merrick was felt like they started to have more of a connection and he was starting to feel like he could he could have a pal in a way. So it's going to probably hurt a little bit, but he's going to he's going to push back the chair, stand up and he's going to go over to Effany, wherever, wherever she is in the chair.

And he's just going to pull her chair out and he's going to pick her up and just give the biggest fucking hug. Squeezing. Effany will squeeze him right back and she's going to. While she's hugging him, she'll be just probably saying at least like five times in a row, I'm sorry, and if you I'm really sorry, but I have to I'm really sorry. Every time she says sorry, he's going to shake her like, stop it. Cut it out. Cut it out. He's going to keep hugging and he's going to sort of let her back down onto the chair and just go back and sit down and he's going to pour wine and he's going to get wine everywhere on everybody and everybody's everybody's glasses.

And he's just going to lift up a glass and say. To Effany. Clara will definitely join in. She's she looks like. Concerned and a little bit sad and she just kind of like locking eyes with Effany and she'll do the cheers and take a drink with everyone else. But then as soon as she sets the cup down, she's going to ask, how are you going to get to Durnhollow? Are you going to be OK? Oh, I'll find a way. There's there's probably a couple of people I can contact. I'll be fine. You're not going to go alone. No, I'm I've learnt my lesson. I know not to do that anymore.

Clara is going to kind of like give a little half smile and then nod, but then probably go a little quiet. Effany is going to look around everybody again and she's going to say. You guys are family to me, too. I want you to know that. And you're always welcome to stay with me if you need to. And I hope I hope to hear from you guys. And please stay safe, please. And she looks like she looks at everybody, but obviously she looks particularly at Evelyn and she and then she says, look out for each other. Evelyn looks at her and he says. I'll make you proud. Oh, you always do, my friend.

You always do. Oh, guys, I feel like that's a good time for us to stop for the evening. Oh, Jane. We're going to miss you, Jane. I'm going to miss you guys, too. Well, we'll send you recordings of all of the hour of bullshit talking that we had before the episodes just so you'll remember what you're missing. I send you all of the asmers of free drinking and you know, you're going to things that are sexual, but shouldn't be. Excellent. Don't be a stranger. You will forever be in our hearts as well. Thank you. I should have heard a hug. Jane in real life, too.

Yeah. Right. Just everybody hug their monitor group hug. Good lord. I really hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. It really sucks that Jane had to leave. We do wish her the very best. It's it's going to be weird playing in Group C without her. Unfortunately, time zones are really, really difficult on people, so if you see Jane in the Discord server, she's still going to be around on Twitter, all that stuff. Please hit her up. Let her know that you liked her stuff on the show and you're going to miss her because we all are. In the month of November, we're going to be doing a bunch of cool new stuff.

Obviously, the DM's the DM Tip Show is new and I'm still taking questions. There's a there's a little channel on our Discord server where people are popping in questions and I'm just getting to them one after another. Every two weeks, we post an episode of that in there. It's about 15 to 20 minutes long, depending on what the topic is. At least so far, there's only been two episodes. We're also starting a brand new group, two actually, but one will be debuting in November. That is a Patreon Therian Explorers group. They're going to be a group of monster hunters on Atheist, hunting down some real big nasty stuff.

Stuff you don't find on the mainland. A lot of homebrew, a lot of more more homebrew monsters, that type of thing. And I can't wait to just have something with a completely different flavor. That is cannon. That is that's going to be a thing that we're following on Patreon. It's not part of the main feed. It has nothing to do with the stories on the main feed. These are all new characters. They're not related in any way, but it does count towards the actual lore of Theria. So I'm hoping that's a nice compromise for people out there who don't want to support us on Patreon or can't afford to.

They're not missing anything from the main show. It has nothing to do with, say, Jadzia or Malkus or anything like that. So eventually, one day, hopefully you get a chance to listen to it and tell us what you think. If you are on a Patreon, thank you very much. We really appreciate that. At patreon.com/dandr, we're working on a bunch of new things, including the Vampire the Masquerade group that will probably debut in December-ish. We're still getting that group together and learning the rules. But the second I started reading the setting and the general makeup of the system, a story just kind of popped out of my head.

And I've been kind of jotting that down in the meantime. I can't wait to get started on that. So if you guys have suggestions, if you have something you want to see from us and you haven't heard it yet, please send us an email at dandrpodcast@gmail.com. That's dandrpodcast@gmail.com. And we'll get back to you as soon as possible. We just started doing GMTs again a little more regularly. I don't want to jinx it. But that's what we've been doing in the last few weeks. Buffy Breakdown is still a thing. Go check that out. And yeah, man, if you're bored and at work and you want to support our Patreon, please go check it out.

Because man, is there a lot of content to go through. Thank you guys very much. We'll see you next week with a brand new episode. And yeah, you have a great week.