Something Bigger

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[clink] [clink] Pickaxe! Coming to Apple TV+ on August 9th. You're the Marine? Yeah, you're the ex-con. Yeah, I did time, but you don't gotta cast aspersions at me. From the director of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity comes a new film. It's your first job? I know what I'm doing. I'm a little late for a crit change. Starring Matt Damon. Everybody in New England is after us. And Casey Affleck. Go, go, go, go, go! What are you doing? Taking notes. Taking notes on a criminal conspiracy. The Instigators, rated R. Streaming August 9th on Apple TV+. This summer, during the biggest sporting event of the year, Peacock turns to two broadcasting legends for the Olympics coverage you can't find anywhere else.

Um, I think they mean us. Oh, s***. Um... [clears throat] With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold. Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only on Peacock. Ark 2, episode 51 of the DNR podcast is brought to you today by the Pub Crawl Anthology. This is it folks, it's wrapping up. It's already funded. Go check it out because Tuesday is the last day you'll have a chance to back this project. Jameson and a bunch of different artists and writers come together to create a comic book anthology.

We've been talking about it for a month. It is fantastic and I really want you guys to get a chance to get a copy of it for yourselves. Check out the link in the description to find out more. Let's do that thing where we go around the table to introduce ourselves. I'm Jason, I'm the Dungeon Master. Going around the table, starting with Rob. Hey, I'm Rob, I'm playing Ubo, the half-orc druid of the mountain. And Kelsey. I'm Kelsey and I play Aster, the elven archer. And Xavier. Hey, I'm Xavier, I'm playing Donovan, the human paladin. Just kidding, I'm a fighter. [laughter] And Michael.

Hey, I'm Michael and I play Amven, the half-elf wizard. And James. Hey, it's James, I play Masoka, the half-elf rogue. And last and certainly not least, Susan, who just got married yesterday. Hi Susan! Hi! Why are you even here? [laughter] What else would I be doing? But I'm Susan and I play Madison, the human cleric. And Xavier. [laughter] Oh boy. You're a regular character, aren't you? It does. It is incredibly kind of you to show up today, but it does set a bar. If someone cancels a session, make it! [laughter] It's not like it's on my wedding day. That's true. [laughter] Alright.

Guys. Aubrey. Things have changed. Things have been moving forward. What I'd like to do today is I would like to pick up on the 12th of Faerieor. Now, we closed the session out with you guys doing a few things around town. Most notably, I would say, is Masoka stealing, putting his talents to good use, and getting paid for it handsomely. Mm-hmm. I think you have the most coin out of anyone in this group. Excellent. My first question is, did you tell the group about your late night activities, or is this a completely secret affair? Oh, this is between Masoka and Artemis.

Okay, good. Did you bunk with anyone? Artemis. [laughter] I'm just curious if anyone notices Lee even coming back. That's, that's, that's, yeah. Well, I mean, he's a sneaky guy. He could get back in. You know what? [laughter] You could set up traps, you could alert the guard, it doesn't matter. [laughter] He's getting that ring. Do me a favor. Boy. What I'd like you to do is roll a stealth check for me, just to see if maybe, unless it's really low, I'm gonna say the party doesn't even notice. Like, you just slip down in the middle of the night. Okay. There's no reason to keep watch.

Oh yeah, you're fine. Oh geez. I'm stealthy. Masoka is the knight. My second question would be to Amven. So I told you last time we were sitting here, we didn't delve into it too much, but I did tell you that you picked up two new bits of information about the gates. We can either go into that now, or we can go into that later. Totally up to you. We can do it a little later. Okay. I'll put a little... everyone be like, "Let me know. Let's have the audience just... Tease that audience. ...at the edge of their seat. Yeah. So we're picking up on the 12th here. Obviously, again, time is of the essence.

I know you guys gotta get going. Don Hurst awaits. But there's a lot to take in here. You guys are, Maddie and Amven specifically, are revisiting Aubrey after a while for Maddie. It's been less time, but still, there's just been so much. What would you guys like to kick the day off doing? Well, the rest of the day, the previous day, the 11th, Maddie probably would have arranged to meet Father White today, and then get any letters from her sister. Okay. Just because she was in town, so... Yeah. But that's what she would have done, and then in the morning, I think Maddie, first thing, would go and grab Amven and have some flowers with her.

Oh. Amven needs to pick up some flowers. Nope, Maddie already has flowers. Oh, there are flowers. Awesome. Yeah. You're always thinking ahead. Always have. I figure she could grab some from the temple. And then Maddie would grab him first thing in the morning, probably as the sun's rising, and take him to where his mother's buried. And as they're walking there, are you ready? Are you ready to see her? Yeah. I was definitely not ready back then. Couldn't even think about it. Curious to see where they decided to leave her to rest. I made sure she was in a spot that got the most sunlight.

Thank you. No problem. And, uh, Jason, uh, where would this be in town? Well, you know what, let's roll a flat D20. One is just a ditch. Let's, no, um... Wait, what? No, no, no, I'm just kidding. I would not let that happen. I'll just roll a one. Are we rolling to see how much disrepair the cemetery is in? I, here's the thing, in a town like Aubrey, you got groundskeepers. I'm, I'm, I... The most that you'd have is some crabgrass or something here and there, but you don't have like broken, broken headstones or, uh, or anything like that. They keep pretty good care of stuff here.

So this would probably be in a spot, uh, maybe off to itself just a little bit, but there'd probably be a very nice headstone. There would be, um, maybe like a beam of sunlight coming in between some tree branches, that type of thing, where if you catch it at sunlight, it's, it's just... It's really nice. It's, it's really beautiful. And Maddie would have maintained it up until she left, but that was eight months ago, so... Hopefully someone else did. So I guess we like turn a corner and I pointed out to him and I say to Amven, she's, she's right there.

Do you want me to go with you? And she'll hand the flowers to Amven, or do you want me to stay back here? No, you can come with. You've known me longer than anyone else. I appreciate it. No problem. And then she'll take them by the hand and lead them towards the grave. So I'm in front and I go over and I lean down, put the flowers down. Didn't want to leave. I did want to leave, actually, but the whole time I left when I was running away, I just wanted to make you proud. Still going to do that. I know I never had to prove anything to you. I've been trying to prove myself and him.

But now I'll prove to everyone. And then I get up and go back to Maddie and just stare there for a little bit. Maddie will just be silent the entire time, but there for you as long as you need. She won't hurry up and leave or anything. And since you know me pretty well, you'll see that I've got like I've still got like you could probably over here. I wasn't speaking too quiet since you were close by. But there's a lot of like anger in the voice. Like I'm angry about the whole situation of how everything happened and my fists are clenched. But thank you for taking care of her.

No, no problem. She was a wonderful woman, and that's the least she deserved. She deserves so much more. I'm sorry you lost her so young. Yeah. I blame myself, you know. For what? There's absolutely nothing you could have done. If I didn't cast that spell. She would have never gone out. You. You can't blame yourself for the actions of others. It was an accident. It wasn't. It's not like you did it purposefully. You didn't. It was beyond your control. It's not your fault, Anvin. Yeah. I know. It's hard, you know. I know. And then Maddie will hug him because I'm pretty sure he's looking like sad.

Oh, yeah. Is that like angry sad? Yeah. Anvin, she would be so proud of you. She always has been. Yes, she has. You know, she even before I cast that spell, she knew I could go anywhere. She knew I wanted to go to Munyiro, even though the town hated that idea. I just don't want to lose you. Yeah, but you did it. And now look at you. I've seen you cast a lightning bolt. Sometimes. Sometimes. Sometimes I need a better stick. But yeah. Smile and we start walking away. Yeah. And scene. So I know you wanted to see Father White, but I wanted to check in with the rest of the group.

Yes. Two things occur to me. One, it must be. I know the life of adventurers kind of calls for them to get up early in the morning. But man, traveling with a paladin or cleric of a monitor has got to get a little annoying because they are up at dawn every day. They just take the last watch, honestly. Right. OK. OK. I didn't know if it was like, oh, there's this really cool thing at 5 a.m. I need to show it to you. No. No, Jason. So, Donovan, Ubo, Aster, Misoka, what would you guys be doing? Well, getting up, like unless Kirkland is trying to get me to get up earlier, I would probably sleep in a little bit.

And after that, there's actually something that's weighing heavy on Donovan's conscience. And that thing is all Claudius is hide, swaying, swaying real heavy on him. Thousands of pounds, of course. And he's thinking, we got to get rid of that thing. We got to get some coin. It's cumbersome. We don't need it. Why are we still carrying it in our backpacks? Like heaped in the corner of one of the rooms. Yeah, it's just everywhere. So he'd probably go see Aster and Ubo and ask them what their their thoughts on it would be. It's skin. Do what you want with it. Do you need any more trophies or are we clear to do what we want with it?

Yeah. Do you think it'd make good armor or anything or should we just see if anyone wants a big old bear pelt? I mean, old Claudius was kind of a local celeb, right? So here's what I'm thinking. If we bring him to the other inn that we didn't go to, the popular one, maybe they'd like to get their numbers bigger. Maybe they'd like a little, you know, tourist attraction. Come see the height of the legendary old Claudius. And then we can just like leave our names here. Here are them. The local folk heroes who defeated them. We leave our autograph sign it like sign here.

We take a cut from the tavern owners and we're on our way. Everyone wins. That seems like a good way to show people we are strong. Yeah, right. You have the best ideas, Donovan. Thank you, Aster. So what are you thinking? Like just the head or the whole? I mean, I guess you could bring the whole thing over and see what they want. Yeah, let's bring the whole thing and then we'll see how high their ceilings are. Wait, we're going to an inn, right? Yeah, but the non-vampire one. Okay, that's what I needed to know. I got your back. Oobonons. So for what it's worth, we haven't woken up with any bite marks or anything.

Exactly. So the much more popular bar in town is called the Silver Flagon. That's been around for a couple of decades now. It's got a rich history with the town and it's not run by vampires. So those patrons who are a little more suspicious of the trio in town pretty much exclusively go to the Flagon. So if you're walking in, you're going to hear beautiful flute music being played and the little chime over the door is going to signal. And there's a couple of patrons who look up from their ale and they're going to kind of give a glance to the doorway. How are you transporting this bear?

Because old Claudius was a big dire bear. Are you just like floating in like a Chinese dragon underneath it? I was just thinking about that. Okay. I mean, I don't know. I would probably leave it outside and then go inside and announce the business proposition and then say I got a little something in your driveway. Donovan is going to pass up on the chance for a big dramatic entrance. You know what? I'm going to leave it ahead. All three of us, we should we should all walk in. It's not just mine. Oh, yeah. So, okay, you guys. So again, this is Aster, Uvo and Donovan, right?

I guess we didn't wake up Misoka. I guess not. Misoka was up late. He was. He had other plans anyway. He's a sleepy boy. I'm going to catch up with Misoka in just a minute. So walking in, there is a bald man with a big handlebar mustache behind the counter here, and then he's kind of like mopping up after someone spill. And if you are, I'm guessing you're approaching the bar to talk to this man. Yes. Okay. And kind of just like, no, I'm not going to slam the head on the bar. Not just yet. Oh, so you did bring it. Okay. You did bring it up. Yeah. Okay. Canonically.

Okay. So you are going to get stares from the other patrons, because I would imagine, okay, a dire bear is huge. So as you walk in, like this massive bear head. Yeah, I guess it's pretty big. Yeah. And then it's just going to keep going. Like it's a like a magician scarf trick or it just keeps it like more bear just keep entering the tavern. So. Ubo Ubo notices the patrons like kind of given us the look and just looks over at the patrons and matter of factly says, we are strong. We killed this and then pounds his chest once. Donovan will glance at the people and then look at Ubo again and say, Ubo, can you tell these people what this is?

This is old Claudius. Dangerous bear. Terrorized things for many years. The patrons again, there's only like a half dozen people in here, but they're going to start to you're going to get the the little murmur murmur murmur that type of thing. It's like, oh, wow. And they're going to a couple of them are going to get up and move over to to the bear pelt and just checking it out. Like it's like, is this manufactured? You guys for real? That type of thing. You may touch it. You can tell that we are not lying because there is way too much bear. And they're going to they're going to check it out.

And one of the people are going to they're going to look over to the bald gentleman behind the counter and just kind of give him a nod like, yeah, man, this checks out. The bald guy is going to approach, kind of lift the bar up on the one side and just kind of move around and check out the bear. Well, this is pretty impressive, I got to say. Well, thank you, my kind friend. What's your name? Name's Morgan Osgood. Morgan, it's nice to meet you. I'm Donovan. This is Esther and this is Ubo. And he's going to he's going to flick the towel he was using to mop up this bar over his shoulder and he's going to reach out and give you a big like one of those big wrist handshakes.

Oh, yeah, for sure. So my friends and myself, we've encountered the beast on our way here. And if you don't mind, could you serve my friends refreshments? Well, we'll choose a little fresh water. We're still exhausted from that fight, but I've got a business proposition for you. Should we just drop it on the ground for now? Oh, yeah. And he's going to could you get my friends to drink? It's like, oh, of course, of course. And if you ask me, it's like, just sit that in the corner for now. We move out three tables. Takes up a fourth of the bar. And he's going to he's going to get you guys some beverages.

And he's looking you he's he's looking you guys over. Well, I would expect you to be far more lumped up tangling with old Claudius, but you all seem pretty good. Again, just like check in, check in like under your chin is like any cuts, any bruises, any abrasions. Well, there was six of us in total. Of course, we can take all the credit. But so we managed to give him a pretty decent fight. And here we are. Yep. No one died, though. It did come a bit close. You mentioned a business arrangement. How would you like to add another sign to your establishment saying, come see the legendary old Claudius, the world famous, gigantic moon sized bear?

That'd be a pretty large sign, but I like the way you think. And you know what? I got to say thank you for supporting the only bar in town and not going over to the. Now we went there to don't worry about it. We support the whole of Aubrey. I do not. They do. I do not. And Morgan's going to look at Ubo. Thank you, good sir. You don't drink blood, do you? And he's he's going to spit on the ground. Hell, no, I don't. Actually, I've been following those dirty vampiric bloodsuckers for years. Some of the town trusts him, but not old Morgan. Ubo kind of perks up at this.

Like, are you going to give me a reason that I could actually like go get him? He's like waiting for an excuse, kind of. He's like, oh, oh? Astor's going to give Donovan a bit of a sign like, uh, yeah. Like, are you sure you want to keep going with this whole give this guy the bear thing? Yeah, he's kind of like. I was told not to hit the vampires here, but if we were not here, vampires would be hit. So I OK, I imagine while Astor and Donovan are exchanging looks, Morgan is all in with Ubo now. It's like, oh, did we just become best friends? Yes. Like they they are.

Oh, believe me, brother, if we had our way and he's going to kind of look around the bar a little bit. Oh, oh, they wouldn't be living in town. I'll tell you that. Ubo nods, yeah. Well, you have some friends at the Temple of Emonitor who have been working very, very hard to keep, you know, ordering a decency of peace around here and be be ashamed to make all that effort go to waste. Yeah, yeah. Well, we follow the law, of course, but people really forgot quickly that, well, what was it, 200 years we were under attack by their kind? Yeah, I heard about that.

Wasn't there, though. So I'm not really into the municipal politics around here. I'm really just here to ask you if you want to take this hide. And if yes, then you can take it and we'll we'll discuss payment. But then we'll be on our way. Otherwise, we'll take it to the other taverns, I guess. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm sure we could work out some kind of agreement. Oh, yes, of course. Give me a second. Let me see how much petty cash we have. And he goes and like looks around for looks at his cash. Ubo turns to Donovan and goes, You know, orcs have different opinions in politics, too, but all orcs have opinion that vampires are bad.

Well, I kind of had that opinion, too, before we got in the city. But I'll tell you, Ubo, after going to that end, it changed a bit. When you get to know people, you know. Are we sure we want to give the bear to this guy? I mean, if it's really going to promote business that much. I feel kind of bad. I don't know, unless he turns old Claudius into a bigot icon. I don't know. Old Claudius, the vampire eating bear. Oh, that does sound marketable. As long as you bring him for as much as we can get. I mean, yeah, for sure. We're going to suck him dry. Ubo scowls.

Well, Morgan's going to come back with a pouch. All right. Well, I'm not the owner, per se, but I do have a certain amount of sway. Wait, if you're not the owner, then who is? Yeah. We're not from around here. Just kind of curious. And he's going to kind of look around. Well, she's not here at the moment, but I can offer you 200 gold. I mean, that seems like a fairly nice offer, but I would like to talk with actual owner just to make sure she actually wants it here and everything. I mean, because if we can find somewhere else, if we need to, I wouldn't want to just leave you with a big old heap of bear flesh to explain.

That's true. And 200 gold pieces empty as well. And he's not going to look insulted, but just, this happens every time I tell people I'm not the owner. Look, Ginny's out of town. She will be back, though. She trusts me implicitly to run this establishment in her stead. So you said it was pretty crowded, right? There's like a half a dozen. It's the middle of the day. He's talking pretty well. I just want to see if anyone makes a facial reaction in response to that. I'm not sure what role that would be to see if that's like, like trying to see if people are giving him the look like, "Yeah, you say this all the time, but we know that's not true" kind of thing.

Just trying to gauge what the townspeople might think of this statement. If that makes any sense. No, I mean, I wouldn't. You know what? Give me an insight check. Okay. Yeah. Skills. That's what that is. Okay, that's not that bad. Okay. Well, no, that didn't roll. That did not roll. No. What was it? I'll believe you. Well, let me see. Okay, well. It was a 14. Let's take the 14. Thank you. You're very nice. You're going to see honestly, it's quite the opposite where you're going to see you're going to see a few people like shake their head like, "Oh, no, no, no, no." Not not like a mob where they're like, "Yeah, it's more just like, you know, that's the, you know." Okay.

Just just wanted to make sure. Okay. All right. Well, I'm just thinking that this is going to stay. This is going to be a permanent exhibition, you know, and there's a residual with that. Like the amount of people per year that's going to increase and come here. I feel like if we just get 200 flat, that's not a good investment on our part. And for $200, honestly, I think it might be more of an eternal slumber kind of deal. It's more of a Shelbyville thing. And by gum it put them on the map. Ubo pipes up immediately says, "You take it to that other place and I will throw it in a ditch." All right, my business partner and I have a disagreement.

I'll tell you what. It's a bear corpse, guys. For $300 it's all yours and we give you our autographs. He's going to be kind of like... his hand spread so like his thumb and fingers are kind of like brushing his handlebar mustache down, kind of flares out at the bottom, kind of scraggly. You know what? I think I could make that work. You sound like a reasonable fella. That's what I've been trying to tell people! Never works when you tell that to people. He is going to... he's going to motion to the other patrons. It's like, "All right, cough it up, cough it up, come on!" Oh, wait, wait, is he collecting money from...

Yes, this is like, "All right, all hands on deck." "Hold on, that's not how it works. You'll get to have them pay to see the bear later, but now I'm going to need Ginny's money." Oh, okay, I see what you're saying. And yeah, he would hand over the pouch right away. So that's $200 and then he would even empty out his personal pockets. Oh, okay. I was just trying to have him spend the establishment's money first. Try to make him do a bad business move. Try to make him get in trouble so he gets fired. So you're trying to set this up for residuals, but then you're trying to sink the place that you're trying to get the residuals from?

Well, he's just this one guy. Just Morgan. Get him fired. Ah, okay. Maybe, possibly. So with that, they would hand over 300 gold, and I guess you could just leave old Claudius in the corner there and they'll deal with it. Yeah, bye old Claudius. Yep. It was nice. We're splitting that six ways, I guess. What are we signing? Excellent question. So is it something they could frame and put over the ball? Yeah, I was thinking like some frame parchment or something like that. Something modern like that. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate your patronage. Again. This will be something that puts us back on the map.

Yeah, we'll have to come back and see it once it's all ready for display. Yeah, can't wait. And for any of your shopping concerns, if you need materials or whatever, make sure you shop by the trusty blade. Alright, I'm out. I'm Jonathan, and this is my favorite shop in the Citadel. (Laughter) That's exactly what I was thinking of. Oh my God. Okay. 300 gold. Ubo doesn't really have a signature, so he probably more like puts his thumb in whatever ink they have and like sticks his thumb to the paper. Like kind of gives a thumbprint and if someone else wants to write Ubo, you decide it.

I was waiting for a whole handprint for you. That's, yeah. That was his first instinct and then he kind of understood like there's only so much space. Oh yeah, like big hands and then like tiny things like around it. Also, that's like a month's supply of ink. No! Yeah, he gets expensive. I can palm a basketball. Hey, Masoka. Yes. What you doing? Waking up a little late. Ah. He's not a morning person. So like I would imagine Masoka kind of rolls over like the sun is coming through the window and realizes, "Oh, no one's here." Yeah, he looks at the sun and goes...

Oh, you're gonna fit, right? I imagine him sort of... he's got some thoughts going on in his head, so he's probably like twirling that ring in his finger. In his fingers. Thinking about Matty, thinking about, you know, the temple and that. And I think he would come to the decision to go check out the temple of the monitor. Because he wants to see the other side of the monitor, you know, from where he grew up and see what's going on there. Hmm. Okay. Is there a specific thing you're looking to do there or just kind of walk around? He... you know, all he knows is what he's heard from Matty, which he trusts, of course.

But, you know, when he grew up in the monitor's light, it was basically hell for him. So he wants to go to this temple and just see sort of, you know, the daily ongoings, just see what the temple's like, what's there. And again, this is a very... it's pretty spacious, very well lit, lots of big windows and stuff. And you would probably be greeted the second you walk in. Okay. Basically asking, it's like, is there some service you need provided? Are you okay? Do you need anything? And then if not, they would probably leave you and assuming you want to pray or just need time to think or whatever.

Yeah, I think he may come back to that, but I think he just wants to kind of explore a little bit. Okay. I would say after maybe 20 or 30 minutes, Matty would arrive. Was Amven coming with Matty to the temple? Yeah, he's curious about the same things. Father Wright was there the whole time. Granted, he just stayed in the library and hung out with Clarissa. He kept the pulse of, you know, when you need to be polite and do the right things. Right. I mean, it's up to you guys, but I would say that Matty and Amven would see Mazoka. Unless Mazoka's hiding. Not hiding, just trying to visually learn, as that's what he does, right?

If he's staking out of place or something, he just knows how to look around and take in all the points of interest, that sort of thing. Right. And this is a vastly different experience, I would say, than the orphanage. Yes. It's clean and well lit and the people are friendly. Yeah, completely different than where Mazoka grew up. Mm hmm. So would Matty and Amven approach Mazoka or just make their way to Father White? We'd see him, ignore him, walk the other way. Excellent. Sounds about right. Give him the finger and keep going. I feel like we'd be walking and be like, "Hey, isn't that Mazoka?" Oh, yeah.

Mazoka. Well, actually, Matty would be somber because she's probably going to go see Father White. So, um, oh, Mazoka? What are you doing here? Oh, hi, Matty. Amven. To be honest, this is not the usual place I kind of hang out, but, you know, you told me before about a monitor and how nice it actually is compared to what I knew. So, you know, I kind of wanted to see it for myself and try to make some sense of something. Matty gets a small smile on her face and, well, I'm going to meet with someone real fast, but then I could show you around the temple afterwards.

Sure. Sure. Yeah, that'd be great. And thank you for coming to check it out. I know that where you grew up probably made you not want to be anywhere near a temple of a monitor, so thank you. Yeah, I mean, you're right. I mean, I wouldn't have, but, you know, I trust you. Thanks, Mazoka. Well, I have an appointment to keep, so I'll be right back. Matty probably didn't tell anybody what she has to do this morning. So this would just be Matty going in? Yeah. And, well, I mean, Anve would know because he was there, but- Okay. And Ubo, but that's it. She probably would have told everyone else because she's already laid a lot of drama on everyone else this week.

So I'm not sure if Ambin would come with her. Do you want me to, or do you want to do this on your own? I totally understand if you want to. I'm not sure how many people could be in there with him. Maybe stay with Mazoka? Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Not like that, but- But like that. Totally like that. A lot of shiny stuff. Watch the art, please. So if you go to the back of the temple, and there are some stairs that lead up to like a half-floor, almost a second-floor type of thing, there would be a room, and obviously you would have been- you know where to go, and people would have been prepped about this ahead of time.

And if you knocked on the door, someone would answer, a male half-elf would answer, and say, "You must be Matty." Yes. And your name? My name is Kiel. Nice to meet you, Kiel. Are you the one taking care of Angus? And he's gonna kind of solemnly nod his head. I am. I will warn you that this is not one of his better days. I'm prepared. Thank you for letting me see him. Of course. And he's gonna back away from the door and obviously gesture for you to come on in. And he's going to close the door behind you and walk you around the corner where a bed is set up, this big kind of fluffy bed.

And Angus is laying there, but he does not look well. Either he's sleeping or unconscious at the moment. They're very, very pale. This is probably one of the first times, if not the first time, that he's really sort of showing his age. Because while the guy was old, he always kind of had a pep in his step. Like he was, you know, there's a lot of responsibilities running the temple and being kind of the religious center of the town. And he was always up for dealing with that. But this is, in short, not the same Angus that Matty would be used to. I'm guessing there's like a chair next to his bed.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's like a table with a rag and cool water. Like you could tell that Kiel is kind of constantly dampening the cloth, toweling him down, that type of thing. Mm-hmm. Matty will actually take the cloth, dip it in the water, got to sit next to him and start wiping his brow, like, you know, doing that patting thing on the brow and just looking at him for a little while. And then she'll put it down and take his hand in both of hers and just stare at him for a little bit longer, probably a few minutes, just seeing if there's any like movement or anything.

If not, Matty will just start speaking. I know that we all have to return to the light, but you're leaving too soon. I am. Before you go, I just wanted to thank you for everything. Thank you for saving both Eda and I for getting us from the slavers and during hollow. You made sure that we lived our best life and that was all thanks to you. I, I just wanted to thank you for making sure that all my days were filled with light. You will never know how much you mean to me. And I am so sad to see you go. And then she'll lift his hand and kiss the back of it. Two things.

One, I would imagine Kiel would have excused himself just immediately. Just, hey, I get this is a somber moment. I'm going to give you a few minutes and kind of duck away. And two, I don't imagine there would be any response from Father White. Just... Yeah. Which makes it all the tougher. Like, it's not... It's not a tremendous sense of closure. But still some. Some. Yes. Probably just Mattie would sit there just for a few minutes, as much time as she could get, and then like reverently put his hand down and place it like gently and make sure it's in a comfortable spot and then lean over and kiss his forehead.

And then I say to him as she's leaning back up and I will always have you in my heart and then probably leave. Does anyone have anything else that they would like to do in town today? Well, I think when Mattie left, Masoka would turn to Amvin. Because is he aware he's been here before, right? Yeah. So... But not in the temple. I hung out with Mattie a lot. Right. OK, so. So, Amvin, you know this place, right? Is there anything like important that I should do here? I just don't feel comfortable talking to the people who work here because they just remind me of bad stuff.

Wow. What do you feel like you need to do? I understand you don't want to talk to some of these people and I get that. They weren't exactly at my... I wasn't exactly their fan either. But, I mean, you want to talk to Mattie? You want to talk to me? You want to just like go somewhere and just hang out? Well, I'm trying to get a new perspective on the monitor, right? So, is there something I can do right here that might show me a different side? You're trying to find a sign? It sounds like you're looking for a sign. Well, see where I grew up? It was this place called the monitor's light and there was just no light there at all.

You know, it was dark and people were mean and I was treated like crap and that's all I knew of the monitor. Mattie tells me it's this beautiful thing and I just haven't seen it yet. I mean, I trust what she's saying, but I want to see something here. Do you understand? I do, actually. I mean, generally, I think we see it every... Well, if we're not sleeping, we see it every morning. It's the appreciation of life. That's what I get from hanging out with Mattie. And through that, it's through a monitor. Appreciation of life. Do you... and he's going to say this very quietly because he doesn't want anyone else here to hear.

Do you believe in this? In a monitor or the gods in general? All of that. The monitor, the others, I mean... I just don't know how so much bad stuff could happen, you know, under the watchful eye of not one but many gods. Well, I'm one of those people that usually has to see it to believe it. I was for a very long time. In fact, my last book was proving if we were more important and if we just put our belief in something and it was really just our bonds that made us stronger. But a few years ago, that changed. Power is completely different. We're all... everything is different, yet still the same.

I think people can be inherently just shitty people under a flag of something that's right and good. And I think that's... you get that anywhere. And if you don't have people that can stand up to it, you can turn anything that's good into something horrible. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's just what happened, right? All I had to believe in was myself. Same, actually. But I think there's some good here. I think... I think that monitor is... if he's not here, then... I don't know. I mean, I'm not as excited as The Sunrise is Maddie, but it's definitely made our group better.

And if that comes from a monitor, then great. I'm probably not the holiest person to talk to about this since I'd rather prove it than have faith, but I'm trying. But it's definitely worth finding out and researching. Or at least looking into, giving it a try, and not letting a bad pass clouding maybe a truth that's just hidden from a bad time. Right. Yeah, yeah. I think there may be something now that I'm seeing that maybe I should do. Yeah? Is there anywhere in here that maybe I could go on the off chance that I could get as close to a monitor as I could, as I can?

Jason, would I have anything that I've learned from Maddie? Because I feel like Ammon's basically a proxy of just hanging out with Maddie all the time. Right. So he's like total like, "I'd say go to a book." But it's like, "I don't want to go to that, my go-to thing." Because he knows that's not right. Why? So he's searching through what Maddie would have said. Like, "This is where I feel, you know, like in the morning when I was like..." Yeah, yeah. Right. I would say there are a couple of different options. So there's- there are certain things that make people feel better in the temple, obviously.

Things like confession and trying to make amends. It's not just admitting that you've done bad things or what you've done. It's trying to make amends to the community for the things that you've done. Right? So there's like an equal and opposite type thing. So obviously, if you stole bread, then it's like, "Well, you know what? Volunteer at the soup kitchen." Something like that. Help, you know, that type of thing. Help feed the hungry. Something like that. If it's murder, then that's a whole other thing. But there's something like that. Or there's like a dedicated prayer room, stuff like that for people like searching the deeper self, that type of thing.

And you can actually work side by side with clerics and things like that if you have questions. It's almost like an intensified version of school. Right? And we can even do like a city activity thing if you wanted to, where you can get some hardcore prayer going on. I'd like relay those to Ahsoka. And then I think the only other thing would be that chamber with all the sun that goes through the, I guess the pews and that's the main area. I'm trying to think of where that was. I'd say depending on your time scale, I don't know if you want to do that. You can help out with the city.

You can help one of these guys out. You can do some works. Or I heard that the temple is a pretty cool room where the light comes in. It shines. Supposed to be like as if a monitor is shining down on you. I think that's one of the things I've heard her say. Might be a good place to start and see if you feel anything there. I don't know exactly what you're, if you're just wanting to feel like something is there or if you're wanting to take an action. I like that. I think I want to go. Can I talk to a monitor? I think you could pray. Can I speak to your manager?

That would be fantastic. I mean, is that a thing? I don't want to do a helping because I get in trouble. You probably noticed. I never prayed before, but I could try. We could start our way there. Maybe that's when Maddie shows up. I love it. I'm like, Hey Maddie, I need your help. Maddie will come up. See them like fumbling like, I don't know. I don't know how to research this. Maybe Maddie walks, like hears them as she's walking up saying, can I talk to a monitor? Maddie will walk up. What are you doing? What do you need? I was asking Amven if there's somewhere I can go in the temple to talk or to feel the real light.

Okay. I know exactly where you should go. And then she'll take him to her favorite room. The one that she showed Ubo, the one, the main part with the light coming through. Eyemouth. Thank you. And then Maddie will probably like sit down in one of the front pews. I don't think there's service or anything going on right now. And sit down in the front pew and like pat the seat next to her. Sit with me. Okay. Okay. Okay. See the light shining through the window and feel the warmth on your skin. That's a monitor. Have you ever been in a really dark place in your life and you just feel like you don't have any will to go on.

But yet you did that hope for a brighter future. Yeah, more than you'd know. That hope, that light. That's a monitor to me. I know it's different for everyone, but that's it for me. When I was a slave and broken and beaten and in a cart dragged halfway across the continent, I didn't, I didn't think there was any light. I didn't, I didn't have any hope. But then, then this church found me. They didn't, they didn't want anything from me. They didn't say I had to stay. They just wanted me to be okay. Me and my sister. And that, that's what this means to me. And this light coming through the window.

Every day the sun rises. It's a new day. You have hope with every sunrise. And I'm not trying to convert you, Masocha. I'm not trying to say this is what you have to believe in but you asked what a monitor is and or where he is or if you could talk to him but this, this is, this is a monitor for me. Okay, yeah. Um, I like this. I mean I told you what a monitor was for me and, you know, I just sort of used to wake up hoping I was, I was still alive right. And Mattie's face is going to clench while you're talking but okay go ahead. Oh, I'm so sorry. You know every day was has been a challenge and a fight and you know when I, when we talked, since I met you.

You kind of showed me that maybe there's a little bit more. And I don't feel forced to be here. And I know what that feels like. But this is, this is nice. This is something I never, I never had before. And I like I was talking to him and like I, I don't know what to believe. Right. Because there's just so much bad but I know there's good here. Anyway. And I, I think maybe I found something that I need to do at some point to put this behind me, to put that that stuff behind me I need to, I need to get a monitors lights shut down for good. Yes. Or get it new management.

Maddie's like, see that, or like every time you mentioned monitors like Maddie like so angry. I can't do that alone, though, because there's some. There's some guys that really scare me. If you can believe that. But would you help me do that. Maddie will take one of his hands. Of course, I. Yes, I would definitely go with you. Thank you. I would very much like to see this place. And it's kind of like a glint in her eye, like, you know, the angry glint. Yeah, I can tell it offends her deeply. Yeah, I was going to. You know, we had we had a chance to go back to brightport earlier, but I.

Weird enough as it is that it was it was way harder then and I just, you know, I kind of freaked out, but I think being here is maybe strengthened me a bit. Plus, I got all you guys. I got I got you. Oh, oh, I am. I have I have something for you. I almost forgot. Well, OK. And he will pull out the the ring he got. I I wanted to give this to you. You know, thanks. For being you and for showing me. A better side, and hopefully this will help protect you. It's. It helps with. I forget the name. I don't. He does. No, it's been necrotic things, but it's good to help you.

Masochi, you didn't have to get this and it clearly looks expensive, right, Jason? Oh, yeah. OK, you didn't have to get this. How how could you even have afforded this? I have means and I will I promise you I did not steal this ring. I didn't think you did, but. Are you are you sure? No, I'm just. No, you didn't you didn't have to do this, Masochi. This is too much. No, no, no, no. Please. I mean, other than Donnie, I really had no. I haven't had anyone to to give anything to. I mean, him, it's just lending gold or whatever. But I just wanted to give you something special.

That is so sweet. Are you sure this looks very nice? No, it's put put it on. Let me see. OK, she'll put it on. See, it looks great on you. It doesn't even fit my fingers like, you know, it's yeah, it's yours. Well, thank you. And then Maddie will hug Masochi. And Amven's right there listening to all this. Don't worry, I pulled out a booklet ages ago. I'm good. Because he's feeling kind of confident and comfortable where he is, you'll just say, you know, if if we weren't in a temple right now, if it was OK with you, I might I might give you a kiss. Maddie will smile and then kiss him.

Well, yeah. And then seen because this is weird. You know, somebody else, your turn. Yes. Sue said you just got married. Oh, my God, we were in a temple. This is pretend people. And I leave that up to the listeners. Thank you. Yes. And I rolled for it. So it was all random. And the role again, I could tell you guys the average for any was like 20 rolls. The average was 18. Good Lord. Random rolls. OK, I can't decide if that makes it like better for Masochi or like, yeah, she she kissed you, but I mean, basically roll the dice. Like the traction works. You don't know who you're attracted to.

I mean, it's fate. That's how I would put it. There you go. There you go. There it is. That's there it is. That's how it worked with Elle. She literally pulled out a die and just rolled. And I was like, OK, I'm going to have to go explain this to my wife. Yeah, so I'm going to pitch something to you and you can say nah or yeah. Would you guys say that you kind of spent a decent majority of the day here in the temple, like exposing Masochi to kind of, you know, ideas and concepts of a monitor and maybe there's some prayer, maybe speaking to other clergy members, something like that.

I don't want to convert him. No, but that sounded like something he wanted to get into. So like, I'm just asking. And I know we wanted to leave. Everyone was right. I don't know what would require a conversion per se. It'd be more of like his willingness to look to new ideas and and accept what's going on here. Right. And that's kind of what I was more going for, because it sounded like he was looking for something like show me the good side of this thing that I've been exposed to before that has brought me nothing but pain. So show me the good version of that.

Yeah. Maybe we'd spend like an hour or two here, because I know we did want to set out on the road. So maybe just sowing the ground and all that stuff. And this is more time being flip floppy type of thing. Like what? Yeah. OK, here's what I'd like you to do. Masochi, I'm going to ask for a couple of rolls from you. OK. Do me a favor. Give me a religious check, religion check there. OK. It's not a negative, so let's go. OK. Oh, son of a bitch. Almost a click. Holy shit. I'm born again. Wow. OK. That's huge. And I'll tell you why in just a little bit. Also, do me a favor and give me a charisma save.

Charisma save. Yes. OK. Oh. Interesting. One more roll from you. Can I get a d20? Just a flat d20. Oh, no. That's a three, ladies and gentlemen. This is very interesting. Let's come back to that. I feel like my avatar picture right now. That is very, very interesting. Something's going to hurt bad. OK. So. I did this. I was being respectful. I think you got to say that for everybody at home. I was muted. Sorry. But yeah, so I have to say that my monitor is going to curse you. You were macking in his temple and not good with that. There's a big sign. You rolled high on the religion roll, which means the monitor has paid attention to you, but rolled low on everything else, which means he hates you.

So this is the only conclusion. That was before the kiss. It's like, get a load of this, a monitor. Yeah. There's no way in hell he was going to push me out of your way. OK. Just imagine sitting in there. They get done kissing and then a monitor on the other side. Am I interrupting? Arms crossed, tapping his foot. Maddie, what are you doing? Like a dad waiting for her. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody else, while this is going on. So we're like midday right now, and I would imagine everyone's kind of getting ready to move on. You probably know. You probably get the feeling.

It's like, OK, we know what time it is. We got to get ready. What is everyone else doing? Is there anything, any errands you guys want to run? You've made a little coin. You've oh, by the way, did you split that money? I guess we would when we meet with everyone. But like everybody, it was three hundred. We all get fifty. Yeah. Everybody give yourself fifty gold. All right. OK. All right. So that's good. That's good coin for the road. Three hundred gold is never going to hurt you. The only thing I wanted to check for was can we purchase like tents? Do we not have tents?

I don't think we do. I think we have bed rolls. Well, you get like bed rolls and stuff like that. So yeah, tents are a thing. You can totally purchase tents. I totally want to make sure we have tents because if we're going across just just to make our nights a little bit easier. Yeah, tents are like two people. Let's get three and let's put them in the cart. Yeah. We have a cart now. Yeah, dude. So take six gold. Yeah. If you're getting three tents. So let me. OK. Six each. No, no, a tent is two gold. So let me. So, OK, these are not great tents. These are more it's more to keep bugs off of you and stuff like that.

They're not I wouldn't say they're like waterproof and, you know, they're not like camping tents that you'd get nowadays. It's more like literally two stakes in the ground, fabric draped in the shape of a triangle type of thing. Yeah, that's perfect. Yeah. So keeps the wind out. Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, it's meant to keep the worst of stuff off of you. For you to be nice. Yeah. And don't forget, you got yourself two facts a coming. Yes. Yes, yes. So as you guys are getting ready to meet up here, let's talk about what. Masukha did in the temple. Yeah. I don't know what to do.

I mean what Masukha did. No, not not that. Not that kissin. That's fine. I'm talking about. While he was wandering kind of thing or what? You know, just like maybe here's the thing. This is crazy. So let's get into that. You rolled the maximum currently that you can roll on the religious service table. Hmm. Your God may have spoken to you today. Oh. You swear that you heard a holy voice mingle with your thoughts. So here's what's here's what's going to happen. I would say shortly after the kiss, you're going to hear. You're going to hear a voice speaking directly to you Masukha, you know, this voice is speaking to you and it's kind of a and it's it's this is internal.

Thing, right? It's not it's not like someone speaking to you and you turn around like, oh, it's not like the voice and Donovan's head currently. This is more a feeling that washes over you. And this is it's something about maybe it was the kiss. Maybe it's you sitting in the temple. Maybe it's you being exposed to this whole new side of a monitor. But there's going to be this kind of inner glow that fills Masukha. And it is going to be clear as day to Masukha that a monitor themself is speaking to you that taking down that orphanage is absolutely the right thing to do.

Oh, cool. And there's a little bit more. Oh, that's where the battle is going. Well. Here's the thing. Father White's illness. May not just be bad luck. He may have been poisoned. What exactly is going to be told to Masukha again in his head is that. This terrible fate that has befallen Angus is due to a division forming in the temple. But. This voice is also going to sort of calm and reassure Masukha that it is already being not dealt with, but it's already someone is already trying to fix this. But he feels that Masukha should know. Like, this is how deep this connection goes with it, just just.

This is just kind of like the perfect storm, right? Right place, right time, right energy in the air, all of this. So this is all just sort of going to wash over Masukha. As he sits here with Mattie. How would Masukha react? I think he would take it quite literally, like he would honestly believe because he was told this is the room. Of any room. That he could communicate with a monitor. And he's here and the monitor is talking to him. He's got this feeling of a monitor talking to him. I think he would accept that. You know, sort of be a little bit in awe of it, I guess, but like not surprised.

And if he feels he's allowed to. I think he would tell Mattie and Ambon that he's there. Does he get the feeling that it's not something he has to keep to himself? No, nothing like that. No. Okay. So he'll turn to them. I guess he'll kind of get this... He'll probably sort of stare off for a second while he's absorbing all this. I don't know what it would look like to them, but then he would just suddenly turn to Mattie. I... Have you ever spoken with a monitor? Like, for real? Like, for real, real? I... I feel his presence, but no, I don't. I've never heard his voice.

Because... He... He just spoke to me. I'm not kidding. I mean, I've... I may have done some things and heard things before, but this is not like that. This is real. Like I said. And he spoke to me... Just now. Um... And you said this was the room, right? I... Yes, this is where I... This is where I go to be closer, but really, he just talked to you? I... Maybe this sounds crazy, but... I just had this feeling, this... It was a little overwhelming, and he told me... That absolutely, I need to go back to Brightport and take care of... A monitor's light. This is amazing.

I can't believe he spoke to you. Not knowing the second part. Evan closes his book and... Wants to see if he can determine if there's any magic around Ahsoka. Like, influence. Um, give me an Arcana check, I guess. I don't expect to find anything here. He's a freaking scientist. He's a skeptic. He doesn't believe Ahsoka at all. It's about faith, Anthan. I don't have that chapter. You're not gonna pick anything up? Nothing that would say that there'd be something influencing Ahsoka, or that there'd be something in the air? Nothing like that. My second move is like, inside, to be like, "He's not just trying to get on her good side." Oh!

Okay, so yeah, I knew that was coming. So does he notice that Anvin's going, "Yeah, sure, buddy." Well first it's like, "Wait, is he okay? Magic check." And then it's like, "Wait, wait." Oh, then you go full big brother. Wait a minute, exactly. Ah, gotcha, gotcha. Do you wanna roll that insight? I kinda want to. Let's do it. Oh, so... You're rolling hot. You're a believer. Dude, that's a 24, Jesus. At the very least, Ahsoka is 1000%. Like, he's not... he believes this. Like, up and down. Does Ahsoka kinda catch on that Abin's like, you know... Uh, would there be like a look or something that accompanies this, would you say?

Well, the first one is the like, concerned magic check. Then it's the, "Wait, let's get the like..." "Is this just a thing for Maddy?" And then it's like, "Wait, no, you're telling the truth." And it's just like, rising... Like, "Wait, is this either a research opportunity or like, back at my friend and just chill?" Just got that conflicted look. Okay, so... I'll say Ahsoka kinda catches wind with that and he'll turn to Abin. Um... No, no, listen, uh... I know what you're thinking, but, you know, we spoke earlier and uh... You know, I asked you about the believing thing and that, and you know, we were on the same page.

And this is different. And uh... Yeah, I have no motivations right now. I don't need them. I believe you, I do. Uh, I've... Just never really met anyone saying they talked to or heard a god. Well, up until today I had my doubts. And this is very weird for me. But, uh, Maddy, there's something else. What? What else did he say? Um... So excited. It's... It's about your friend there. Um... About Father White. But... Um... He's sick. But... It might not have been... Natural. You know, someone might have done that to him. So when you say Father White, Maddy's gonna have like a crestfallen look on her face, like, "Oh, this might be bad." And then when you say it's not natural, then she's gonna start to like, angry.

What? Yes... I'm really sorry. It's something about, uh... The temple, there's some kind of division. And, um... But, but someone's doing something, uh... To fix it. I just, I don't know who. Uh, but I will help you. I will help you figure this out. Someone put... Father White in that position. The way I just saw him, someone did that to him. I'm so sorry, Maddy. And Maddy's kinda loud, so... If anybody's around... Yeah... She might be getting herself in trouble, but... Look, I swear that's what I heard, and I... I have no reason to make that up, right? I mean, I'm...

I'm sorry, like... We can figure this out, though. Would Maddy know of any divisions in the church before she left? Not really? I mean... Maddy wasn't in the upper echelon, so to speak, but... There was nothing that jumped out. People disagree, but nothing that jumped out that, uh... Things were bad. Like, there was an actual division. I don't want to slow the party down anymore. And that will cross Maddy's mind, too. Like, "Oh, we have something we have to do. Who can handle this?" And then she'll... Like, march out of the temple. And then she'll go to Clarissa.

That's exactly where I wanted to go. I was thinking the same thing. Well, you know where to find her. My favorite place. So let's say you do find Clarissa in the library, reading, as she does. What would be the pitch here? Maddy has no... No tact? Yeah, no tact. Slam her hand on the table. Okay, so let's say she's reading, and that scares the shit out of her. Yes. Okay. So there's that jump 10 feet in the air thing, and it's like, "Oh, um, hi, Maddy?" Someone poisoned Father White. Blank stare. That's... that's not possible. Someone did, and put him in where he is now.

I... trying to get a grip on herself. She's gonna, like, look up to the sky. Emon puts his hand on Maddy's shoulder. Do you want me to? No. Okay. Thank you, Ampen. Clarissa, yeah, someone poisoned him, and I can't be here to fix it, so you need to. She's gonna shut the book that she was reading, and she's gonna get real close to Maddy and Ampen. How do you even know that? I'm only pausing because I'm trying to debate if I'm gonna say Monitore told us or told Misoka. Right, I was waiting for you to just start looking up. Yeah. Um... Should I say us or Misoka? Maybe he would just step forward?

Okay. Okay. Okay. Um... hi. I... Okay, I'm just gonna say it. Ammonitore told me directly over in the temple. Take it as you will, but I am confident that it is the truth. Oh boy. Do a test. Do a test me. Just do something and get this man help. She's going to... Okay, this is all coming very much out of left field, and she's going to be very just kind of like flabbergasted. I don't even know where I would begin to test you about that. Then just take it in good faith. He needs help, and we need to figure out who did this. Now. You don't have to trust him, trust me.

Trust that I trust him. Like... Looking at her pleadingly. She's going to take a deep breath. Okay, I'll... And again, looking around the library... I... If that's true, I don't even know who I could go to with something like this. Okay. I'm going to talk to Alex about it, and maybe she'll know something, but... That's it. Don't tell anyone else. Okay? Then Maddie's going to get a deer-ned like look. Oh... I may or may not have... said it a little loud... in the temple. And then she's going to look totally sheepish. Clarissa doesn't get... She doesn't get blamey very often.

But I'd say for the briefest of seconds... There's kind of that "You did what? Well, come on!" Like, just for a second. It's okay. I'm sure no one heard. The important thing is we just act natural. I'm going to go talk to Alex, like I always do, and no one's going to think anything of it. In the meantime, maybe you guys should get on your way, just in case. Yeah. And then Maddie's going to take her by the hands. Thank you. I'm... I'm sorry to throw this on you and then leave, but I have a mission, and thank you. She's going to give your hands a squeeze. We'll get to the bottom of this, okay?

Thank you. And she's going to try to force a smile. Just, this is a lot. Like, this is all just like, wow. Because if this is true, boy, that's some shockwaves. And then... Yeah. Clarissa, if we make it to Uminero, I will also look in the vaults and the libraries to see if there's anything... There. If there's any knowledge that isn't here, I would imagine it would be either there or... And we could find some way to correspond. And she's going to nod her head, yeah. But you could tell, like, she's just, her brain's moving a million miles a second. Yeah. And she's going to kind of give one last squeeze and excuse herself, and you can kind of tell if she's trying to act natural as she, as she sort of scampers away.

It's that thing of like, take five normal steps, then... All right. And let's say the party meets up and everybody... Okay, obviously, a bear gate is now settled. That's good. Money has exchanged hands. There were tents purchased. Beyond that, I don't know how much you guys would tell each other. That's up to you guys. The kiss is getting told to everyone, right? That's got to be... I don't kiss and tell. Yeah, Matti doesn't either. But Anvin was there. Anvin? Like a tent? No, like, it's that same big brother thing, right? You either be the douchey big brother or the cool big brother, and I'm being the cool big brother.

Yeah, definitely out of respect for Matti, Misoka would say nothing. But you guys do not get to share a tent. No. Fair enough. Matti is fuming a little bit, but present. She's in the moment, but very clearly full of some sort of energy. But she won't say anything. She's like, "Okay, well, are we all set?" I still can't believe you got this much money for that bear. Oh, we could have gotten more. I actually... I'm actually not proud of myself. Well, you should have gotten more. You know this. Minimum 1000. Yeah, that's your rule. I know. It's great, Matt. When you have to give up 80% of your cut, you got to look after yourself. 200 is measly, but 1000 minimum.

I guess you're right. Next time, I got to kill another one of these bears for you. With 1000, I'm pretty sure we could just buy the whole town. Yeah, well, speaking of buying stuff, a Matti. And he'll grab the Warhammer from... He was resting on the cart. And he'll toss it, like Thor-like. Just throwing it with the massive part staying upright while the shaft stays vertical. Just so you catch it like Thor yourself. Ooh, I hope she does. And she does. I'm not going to roll for it. She does. Yeah, no, you do. Courtesy of the trusty blade, the Temple of Emonthor's official sponsor.

It's a gift. This is... just going to look at everybody. This is too much. A ring and now this? Well, this is... you asked me to train you. I'm not going to train you with crap. So, in battle, I'd hold off using it until you get intimate with it. But your real training starts today. Thank you, Donovan. Oh, don't mention it. This hammer is beautiful. It's pretty nice. This... you got it from the trusty blade from Artemis? From Artemis, yeah, you know him. Yeah. Well, I guess we could set out. This is amazing, Donovan. And then she'll give you a hug. She's very much a hugger.

She's a lot like me in that sense. So, give you a hug. Yeah, he hugs back and he goes, "Oh, nice ring you got there." Actually, she wears gloves because she wields a mace, so... Yeah, and I didn't say that just because there's diseases in this game, but she always wears gloves because of the mace. She doesn't want those calluses. Well, just in case. Yes. So, Maddie made out like a bandit in this game. I know. Yeah. Wow. Hey, Misoka, one more thing. Yes. Due to your... you know, you're touched by God today, so to speak. Give yourself some inspiration. Ooh. Ooh. Yes.

To close out today's session, I would like to do two things. One, how's about we go over the two facts that Amven found out about the gate? Ooh. Yeah, I think we've held off long enough. I'm down. So, this is a ton of cross-referencing from the notes that you found in the White Raven Cave, old books, journals written about single testing with the gates themselves, theories, all that stuff. But, Amven was able to draw two conclusions based on everything that he found. Number one, a power source for the gates was created, but never tested. Apparently, the Dragon Soul elves in the Silver Glade were said to be working on something for quite some time, and they were pretty adamant that they produced a power source that could not only power the gates, but do it over and over again.

There's essentially some sort of charge that each one of them has, and without fail, it's said, they could be used to power it. It's a one-time travel thing, and you can do it, and you don't have to worry about your skin being flayed off. Number two, it was theorized that the Eladrin were also working on something, not to be outdone. Their solution to the whole gates thing was to try and come up with a permanent power source that would open all of the gates simultaneously, connecting them like a bullet train, something like that, so that they would just be open all the time and ready to use for everyone.

This is kind of their contribution to the world, like "don't forget who did this for you" type of thing. It's going to be in Odysseus somewhere, if it were perfected or finished. Now the only reason that this is more than a rumor was that there was an observer there watching this research, and what she called it was, I quote, "mad with power." That was basically how she described this research. Like, just caution to the wind, we can do anything, fuck everyone. Like, that type of... like, after you've imprisoned the gods, where do you draw the line, really?

Right? So this was the height of Eladrin's... just... they can do anything with magic. So these would be two things that Anvin would know about. Two potential leads to maybe power up these gates and use them. Those are some pretty awesome notes, because this power could be used for more than just gates. Well, of course they could. Alright. So that's why Anvin kept opening his book today, because he kept thinking about this. Right, and you obviously do have things to do, but after that... Yeah. I know, it's up to you guys. One more thing before we go. Let's roll a flat d20 and see how the journey is going to treat you.

I would like it from Ubo. We haven't had a lot from Ubo today, so I want... we're going to put everything on Ubo. What's the luck of the journey going to be? Well, yeah. Ubo's okay. Ubo's doing fine. He had a few choice comments about vampires. I feel like he made his mark. Yeah. Oh, totally. That, batting 1000. Yeah. But anyway. Alright, here you go. Boom. That's real bad. Alright, batting like 10. Well, I was going to get those gates, but now I'm going to be dead, so... Well, that's a three. Shit. Okay, well... Eh, we're due for some shit. We had a talkie session. We're due for a challenge.

You did. You had a couple of talkie sessions. Maybe it's good that Masoka got in good with him on a tour, because you might be meeting him soon. So... Let's write that down. Guys, I think that's a good time for us to stop for the evening, and we will pick things up with the journey to Durrenhollow, or at least the first leg of that, and... Boy, there's a lot going on right now. So we're not going to make it? Is that what you're saying? No, I don't know. I mean, you got... I don't know. Well, it looks like it's time for Group A to move on, but in the meantime, we have tons of stuff that we're working on right now.

If you don't follow our newsletter and stuff like that, we're working on two separate Patreon games at once now. We were doing Patreon one-shots in the form of Curse of Strahd. That didn't end too well. So now we're doing two new things. One, there's a group of explorers hunting monsters on Atheist, and they are playing tonight, actually, as I record this, Sunday the 11th. So they're doing that. That'll be on our Patreon at patreon.com/danddr later this month. We're also working on a Vampire the Masquerade game that'll probably be up next month. We are also getting ready to publish a living in theory all about the continent of Atheist.

You guys asked over 60 questions, almost 70? And we sat for nearly two hours just answering questions about flora and fauna there, history, different people, cultures, all that stuff. And that'll be going up in just a couple of days. If you don't know what our Patreon's all about at patreon.com/danddr, essentially each month we cram it to the gills with all kinds of extra content, starting at just $1. You can go check that out. In the dollar tier you get things like DM tips, and there's a newsletter where every couple of weeks we break down what's going on at the DNR offices, what we're trying to work on, and we get your feedback, we get you to vote on things, and you get to kind of help shape our content.

So we're really appreciative of that and your support and all of your input, honestly, because we're no good at reading minds. We're kind of terrible at it. So we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Seriously, thank you guys from the bottom of my heart. If there's anything you want to give us feedback about or let us know what you're thinking, you can go to danddrpodcast@gmail.com, send us an email, and we would be very appreciative of that. Also, if you want to swing by iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and give us a review, that is also super helpful.

So thank you guys. We'll see you next week with a brand new episode. We are past the halfway point in this arc, and things are going to start getting crazy from here on out, so keep listening. And make sure to listen to the entire episode all the way to the end because there's going to be some post-credits things coming up. Thank you guys. We'll see you later.