Above it All

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

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If you don't feel like prepping anything, perfect! Let patreon.com/ensider do the work for you. Without further ado, let's get on with the show. Previously for Group C, after meeting their newest companion Iris in the town of Aldmor, the group decided to head north, continuing their journey for knowledge in the city of Uminyero. Once there, they intend to find out what is exactly up with Elorath's flail, how to cure lycanthropy if there is a way, and generally just find knowledge about the demons. And that's where we're going to pick things up today.

Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason, I'm the Dungeon Master. Going around the table starting with Zach. What's up, my name is Zach and I play Evelyn Bates, the human fighter. And Brie. Hi guys, I'm Brianna Marie and I play Clara Urofdale, the half-Drow fighter. And Ryan. Hey, I'm Ryan, I play Varys Alder, the half-elf monk. And Mandy. Hi guys, this is Mandy and I play Iris, the human cleric. And Jasper. Hello, this is Jasper, I play Merrick Ethelred, also human cleric. And here to tell us all about the Royal Water Conference of Greater Wichita is Lisa.

Hey, what's up everybody, I'm Lisa, I play Elorath Beestinger, the halfling barbarian water nerd. Love ya. If you want to find out more about the... That is an absolutely real thing and we discovered that today and explored it thoroughly in the behind the scenes. So have fun with that. I wish I could. Aw. Maybe next year. Guys, let's uh... The last time we sat down was pretty harrowing. And I would imagine that you probably kept hauling ass for a while just to get away from the storm and continue. And you probably settled down for the evening. What I would like to do is a bit of an experiment.

I'm going to give you guys a choice. Now, normally what we do is every couple of days we roll to see how weather and the roads and all that stuff are going to treat you guys. You are five days outside of the city of Uminyara. You're heading north. If you wake up the next morning, it is the fifth of Alta Ornn. What I'm going to do is give you a choice. We can kind of breeze along a little bit and move travel time to just kind of make it a little quicker. And we'll do one roll. One roll. For those five days. But the roll is with disadvantage. Or we could just move.

Just standardly. Ah. Oh. Ah, fuck you. I feel like, you know, I feel like I'm going to defer this to the person who had the funniest first reaction, which was Jasper. No, that's the only reaction. That's not fair. So you were the funniest. It's true. Ah, that sucks though. I also feel like you'd be the one most tempted. I am. That's the problem. That's why I wasn't being so vocal. Here's the problem that I'm seeing. So listener, one thing that you might want to know is that we use an online sort of table, right? That we're using to roll dice and that sort of thing.

And so earlier, we all just end up sort of haphazardly and sort of mindlessly rolling dice as we're sort of chatting and getting our games going. And so I clicked, for the first time, I clicked disadvantage and rolled and I got like a one. Like I really crit, like total fail. So I'm really nervous to do it again. I don't want to do it. Some listeners out there would say, well, you got your one out of the way. Some listeners may be right. Okay. I can't you can't I can't make this decision. This is this is everybody else. Well, I'll roll. I'll roll. But it's got to be everybody's got to decide whether that's this what they want to do.

We have a vote in the chat. So I say do it the good old American way. Oh, yeah, we do. All right. And I have a question. Shouldn't shouldn't the X be a disadvantage or check the disadvantage? I was trying to get the vote that I kept feeling so never minding. OK, X is we take the disadvantage in because very said so. How do you make an X twice? Oh, with three and one right now. Three, four and one against. Who's left me and Lisa. Oh, OK. So it would be we have five days to get there or five or five days away, roughly. Yep. One roll. So just one. So we could go we could go straight to a hero.

Yep. In an instant. It's almost like fast travel. Oh, oh, wait, you got put like that. So what happens if you roll poorly then like, well, poor things happen. Then we're is it just going to be like a here's what happened to you? It depends on how you got dysentery. There are more tornadoes. Bad and tornadoes that give you dysentery is those are the worst kind of tornadoes. Tummy tornadoes. OK, OK, OK, here's the problem. What if we tie? Then we'll roll for it. OK. Oh, you know what? I want to see if we roll. I'm feeling lucky. Oh, right. One roll. Democracy, ladies and gentlemen.

Democracy. That is one roll, everybody. So here's what we're going to do. First time we've ever done this. And again, this is an effort to speed things up, because normally if you've got five, six, seven days of travel, that's probably at least a couple of sessions. And, you know, I'm for the sake of the listener, you guys just went through a harrowing experience on the road. So, Jasper, do me a favor. Roll a flat D20 with disadvantage. Advantage, you said? Disadvantage. Old ears I got. All right, everybody, please don't hurt me. Oh, my God, I'm really scared.

I'm honestly frightened to do this. All right. All right. Here we go. Wait, wait, wait. What do I have to roll? What do I have to roll? Oh, it's a flat D20 with disadvantage. Yeah, yeah. But what's the number that I got to hit for everything to be done? Twenty. Twenty. You get it? Totes, fine. OK, here's the difference. If you're rolling, so the road you're on, you're kind of in a place where either you're going to have a pretty good time. Most of this chart is going to be stunningly mediocre, like, oh, you broke your wheel, came off, you got to fix it. Or this this area has some poor drainage.

So it's like, oh, you got to work your way through this muck so someone might have to get out of the cart and help push and, you know, stuff like that. So it'll be stuff that slows you down, stuff that's very unpleasant, nothing lethal until you get to like, I'd say, six and below. Five and below, you said. OK, fine. Seven and below is where... six and below. So as long as you don't roll a six or below, you're fine. OK, all right. OK, we're going to be fine. We're going to be fine. This is 20 numbers. Yeah. Twice, you know, minus six of which are fine. OK, right.

Here we go. OK, everybody ready? All right. OK. All right. I'm ready. I'm going to do it. I'm doing it now. Where do you do it? Do you want to? OK. Yeah. 12. Totally respectable. Totally fine. You know, maybe a chipped tooth. Yeah. So it's yeah. I mean, like there might have been a couple of days where hunting was a little lean or something like that. But even like with a 12, you're fine. It's it's nothing you guys haven't seen before. It's really, really common. You're you're super nervous. I don't know. I'm so I was super nervous about that. I mean, it's a big role, right?

I'm you could tell I'm playtesting new mechanics for arc three. Just kind of like just testing things. It's like, hey, how do we speed things up without getting without making travel trivial? Because we don't want to do that. OK, this is fair and difficult and OK, cool. So we're already through Uminiro. We're basically at this point at the gates at the gates. Right. With a 12. I'm saying. Well, let me ask you a question. During this journey north, what have you told the group about Uminiro? Because it's just been you who's been to Uminiro before, right? I guess that's true.

Is there anybody else? Nobody else has been to Uminiro. I mean, it would have been. Yeah, Merrick would. Because Merrick, Uminiro is a spectacle and it's not a spectacle like like on a call. Right. Not like spectacle like Las Vegas spectacle. It's a it's a beautiful, wonderful, magical, awe inspiring place. You know, with its flaws, certainly and certainly historically. But I think Merrick would would be really speaking highly of like, you guys aren't going to believe this. Like, it's amazing. It's just just seeing it is exceptional. And the stuff that's there and then talk about the the history, what he's had with it and the kind of stuff that they found and the important stuff.

But I'll I'll leave this with a little bit more context. So Merrick has had a history with Uminiro and also maybe a little bit of a relationship that he started going on with somebody there. So he has a lot of really, really fond feelings for Uminiro, even though he has some personal heart, heartache. So all of this is coming through. It's almost like he's kind of overdoing it a little bit and talking about how much he loves it. Because of regret and all of that. While you're talking about Uminiro, Avlin will ask, just passingly. Is the city safe? Is there anything we need to watch out for?

The city is incredibly safe. In fact, you'll find out when we're there. You're not allowed to take anything with you when you transport yourself into the city. That could be a weapon. So it's kind of a rule. I have to leave my sword. Yeah, you're going to have to leave your sword and he's going to sort of shake his his mace, right? He's going to be like, yeah. That makes me feel less safe. I don't like using my bare hands. Well, I can help you out there. Fair. But but like, what? Where do you leave them? How do you know nobody's going to take it? Because she's she's like holding this very protectively.

Well, I mean, you'll find out, but this thing never leaves my side. This is like the most important thing in my life. He's going to be looking at his mace. I never let this thing go, but it's OK. I've done this a couple of times and you get used to it. It's really a safe place. He's going to be really, really as reassuring as he could possibly be. You'll see. Elorath would probably like pull Marig off to the side like later and she'd probably like whisper it because she doesn't really want anybody to know. But at the same time, it's like not a huge deal.

But she'll be like, do you remember in the temple when like. This glowed. Red. And she's going to hold her flail. Yeah, I remember that. That's never happened before. I want to know why it does that. And I want to take it up there to find out. I get it. I get it. I've got some things of my own I want to find out about. Here's the good news. If we go through the right motions, we can get to the hero. It's not as though the weapons aren't accessible. Right. All we have to do is ask the right person for the right things. And as long as they can bring it safely to where we are, that's not a problem.

I'm sure it's not an issue. I promise. This is a good place. They've had their issues and maybe I have to, but it's a good place. OK, I just. I'm not worried about having a fight without it. I just I like it and I don't want it. I don't want to not have it. Tell you what, let's make it priority. As soon as we get inside. Whether you've got your weapon or not, we'll make sure that we find the right person to talk to. And believe me, these people want to know just as much about what you've got as you do. That's kind of the good thing about this place. Well, like we have a we have like a job to do.

I know it's not like priority, but like I figure while we're here with all the the real smart people with all the magic and stuff, and maybe they could just look at it. Let's make it a priority. In fact, there's no reason why we can't all do a bunch of different things at the same time. We don't have to stick together. Here's the good news about this place. It's safe. There's a lot of smart people who know a lot of things more than I do or you do or any of us do. And they want to know as much as they can possibly know. So it's really not a problem. I promise this is going to be good.

OK. Thanks. What was I going to say? Shit. Don't remember. It's OK. All good. So in total, you guys have been on the road for about six, six and a half days, something like that. And finally, you are going to you're going to see this way before you actually get to this this this dais, this landing pad beneath the city. But looking up into the sky and seeing a city that blots out the sun from certain angles. That's got to be I mean, that's just got to be crazy, right? That's really fucking cool. I really want to know what Evelyn is thinking or doing. It's America.

I'm I'm thinking America wonders if you're floating right. Oh, God. Yeah, like it. Maybe even like sketched it or something like like it's going to look like this. You don't even get it like this doesn't do it justice. But Evelyn doesn't understand magic. So he's extremely apprehensive at the moment. He's not like a scared puppy or anything. He's just he's eyeing the city weird. If he could say hi to the whole city, that's what he'd be doing. Yeah, if you don't trust magic. This is yeah, this is the wrong place to be. How could you trust magic? It's all gobbledygook.

Oh, these kids today. Exactly. Jesus Christ. There's one thing I want to do over this the span of these six or so days that we've been traveling before we get into Uminyero real quick. At least maybe a few times. Right. Not like consistently paranoid about it. But America is one of the couple of people who saw that that black horse with a white mane and somebody spot looking at us at some point long ago, like days ago. I kind of want him to it's not like, OK, everybody, we need to get together and not look in the same direction. It's just more like just something he does every once in a while.

It's just checking to see if he sees any of that, sees anybody or anything following or just even wondering if if it's if it was just a coincidence or a fluke or random. He's just going to check. Yeah. Do me a favor. Give me perception. Do you do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do perception? Here we go with the bandage, you say? OK. Oh, wow. Oh, that's a six six. OK, so now we don't know just now you're fine. Everything looks good. All good. Love it. So if you approach this place, you're you're going to be riding for a while. There's kind of a winding road.

And eventually the way that the sun's positioned right now, there's this huge, shady area beneath the city. And there's this large, circular dais with lots of magical inscriptions and things like that doesn't appear to be in any language. It does appear to be symbols that are linked to certain spells. Now, next to this large circular area off to the side, there are several chests. And there's essentially a notice posted next to the chests that are telling you, OK, no weapons can come into Uminero. Just unload everything that you have here and then place your hand on top of the chest and no one will be able to access them until you get back.

Any weapons that attempt that you are attempting to bring into the city will be destroyed when you travel. And if you look just a bit north, you'll see a port. You'd have to you'd have to ride a bit further. But you could see a few different ships docked there. So Merrick is going to point out the port and he's going to say that's our goal right there. Sorry, add a character. Would that be that wouldn't be Butcher's Bay because that would kind of be probably along the coast that we just traveled, correct? Right. OK, sorry. Yeah. So this is more let me see if I can find the exact area.

So this would be if you're looking at the map, excuse me, it would be pretty much to the very north of where the land juts out. Oh, OK. Sorry. No, not at all. Ask those questions. So are you guys going in? Yeah, but before we go in, Merrick's going to point at the chests and for Elrath, right, and be like, you know, like this is it. And he's going to kind of just reassure, just trying to reassure a little bit like this is this is it. This is cool. She'd be like very apprehensive because like I can't remember a time when she was like willingly separated from her flail for longer than maybe like a couple of hours if they were visiting somebody.

But even then, she usually carries it with her. So she'd be like, OK, and just like kind of like tentatively put it in there along with her other weapons, just like if you say so. Merrick will make sure that he puts his mace in the same chest, like alongside it, basically to say like, you know, like, no, it's cool. It'll be fun. She appreciates that. Averland walks up to a chest and he has like this face, like so unfarted, and he's just reluctantly kind of grunts and he puts his sword in and he pulls out his shield and he stops and looks at Merrick and points at the shield.

I would assume that a shield could be used sort of as a bludgeoning weapon, that it would be basically anything like that, right? Like it's not like pretty much. Yeah, just yeah, Merrick would shrug like, yeah, everything, dude. Merrick's going to pull it out like his machete and like his, I'm just kidding, he doesn't. He's going to put all of his daggers, his like twelve, thirteen daggers. He's going to put everything into the. No, he's basically just like, that's it, guys, it's the only way up. Averland puts his shield in and he puts one finger on the chest as like, like it's a hot stove.

Does that work? Say it again? It's, there'll be a little glow in the company, and what that basically is doing is it's attuning itself to you. So picture it like a padlock, like it's a mystical padlock. And you're going to the gym and you're leaving your wallet in the locker. So his padlock's going to need all his whole palm in order to work. It usually does, yeah. He slowly presses his whole palm onto the chest until it glows completely. Everyone else? Yep. Varus would be throwing his spear and then all the darts and he would just kind of do it to where, just open up the chest and almost toss it in and close it haphazardly.

Like he's not attached to this at all. Yeah, Iris too is just like, "Oh yeah, put my weapons in, I don't care." Just places them in there, puts her shield in there and then locks it. It's like, "Hey, this is kind of neat." And they also have a couple of people on the ground basically, almost like kind of greeters, that type of thing, but if someone comes to the city and they have horses, carriage, something like that, they kind of take care of these animals while you're in the city. And the distant... could someone give me a perception check actually?

Sure. Okay, that's pretty good. So in the distance near the dock you're going to see four ships of varying size and quality. One of the largest ships, you're going to see people loading crates into it and you're going to... it's very faint, but you're going to hear a lot of activity, like people, you know, "To the left, look out!" Like that type of thing, just like shouting orders and it looks like either this boat is taking stock somewhere or they're gearing up for a big trip, something like that. You said just one of those is doing that. The largest one, yeah.

The other ones do not appear to have as much activity. Real quick, so I just rolled perception. I can roll again if you want me to, no problem. I want to see if... does Merrick recognize anything about any of those ships from this distance at all? Like would he recognize anything or be familiar with anything? I wouldn't say so. I think you'd have to get a lot closer to make out more detail. Like you wouldn't see a name or anything from here. Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Okay. Okey dokey. Into the city? Let's go... What day is it, by the way? It is the 10th of Alta Orn.

Thank you. No problem. So if you guys pile onto this circular structure, after a few moments, the inner circles of this are going to start to light up with this faint blue glow and spread outward until it reaches the outer rim. And you are going to be engulfed in light. Like it's a slow warm up and then all of a sudden, almost like a laser cannon shoots off into the sky and when the light dissipates, you are going to be inside a building. And for some people, that is incredibly disorienting. One, because of the light and two, it's basically you blink and you're in a different place.

So it's kind of, you know, you're outdoors, you hear seagulls, you hear and then all of a sudden, you're indoors and you're hearing people bustle around and move. If you look around, you are in sort of a circular room. It's much bigger than the little landing pad that you're on. But it's like a little welcoming area with, you know, little couches and chairs. Everything's very nicely furnished. And there's a podium, almost like if you're going to like the Cheesecake Factory, and it's like, oh, I'm checking in and they'll talk to you. And there is an elderly balding human standing there.

And once the light dissipates, he's going to welcome you all to Uminera. While he teleported, Avlin, being very surprised, ends up like falling on his butt mid, like as we land. Like he wasn't expecting it. So he gets really disorientated. He starts to turn around and just offer a hand to kind of pull you back up. He takes it. And he would approach the group and he would show a lot of concern if you do, if like you fall down, he's like, oh, no, like that type of like he didn't expect that. The teleporter does take some getting used to. Some people find it, well, dizzying.

My name is Tamlin. Can I help you with anything today? I think Merrick being more comfortable, having probably stayed in Uminera a while. He wouldn't know Tamlin, right? Like you guys would probably have, you would have spoken. OK. Probably a few times. OK. All right. So Merrick would clear his throat and reach out his hand. Tamlin? And he is going to he's got these he's got these tiny glasses that sit on the edge of his nose. Oh, he's a designer. He's yes. And he is going to squint his eyes because the way you said that, it's like, oh, that sounds like you know me.

And he's going to squint. Ah, Mr. Ethelred, I didn't recognize you at first. Did you do something with your mustache? Always Tamlin, always. Listen, I've got a group of friends. We all have a lot of different things to ask about. We need some help. And it's good to see you. That's excellent to see you again, Mr. Ethelred. Anything I can help with, please. I think at this point, it's it's a matter of well, here in character, Merrick would say, thank you, sir. We'll we'll sort of get our bearings for a moment and then we'll sort out maybe who we need to be able to talk to.

Maybe you can help us find the right places and people. Sound good? Absolutely. I'll be right here at my podium should you need me. Merrick will sort of give a quick nod and a little bit of a like a respectful bow. Not not a bow to the ground, but just sort of like a nod, head nod. And then suggest that we all sort of get out of the middle of the way of the teleport area and sort of find the couches or chairs to be able to sort of set ourselves up and get our shit together, basically. So in this room, like I said, there's sort of these red velvety chairs and couches and stuff like that.

And the reason for this is if you're waiting for someone and you're leaving or something, you could just kind of sit here and read a magazine, that type of thing. There are also a set of double doors that sort of swing in and out. And did you say you were leaving the room or you just hanging out here for a minute? Just basically, I was just thinking of like shuffling us off to whatever sort of area for, I don't like like a coffee table area. Basically, so we could sort of get our bearings and talk about, OK, who needs to talk to who and how do we need to do this and what's our priority?

Right, just to make a checklist. This room, like I said, is actually pretty large. It's almost a lounge type of thing. So if you picture this large circular room, it's pretty, pretty big when you when you get there. Picture a large empty restaurant type of thing. And then the ceilings are 11 or 12 feet high. It's a very large column. So if you guys have a seat and make yourself comfortable, Tamlin would be like 20, 25 feet away. Like he's not eavesdropping or anything. Got it. OK, so. All right, everybody, this is Uminiro. There's a lot to see and do, and it's actually pretty nice.

And honestly, I know we've got some stuff to take care of, but you've got to go to some of the viewing rooms while you're here. It's just it's worth seeing the rest of the world from up here. This is amazing. Are we going to just all kind of go our separate way and meet later? Is there a hotel we should be at or in, I guess, that we should converge at? That's a good question. That's not a character. That's Jason. Jasper. So I'm kind of going just Merrick knows Uminiro to some degree, but I don't know Uminiro to some degree. So let's do this. Let's do this.

So picture again. Picture this place. It's all about information, right? So it's almost like if you stop at a gas station in the middle of Arizona, it's like, oh, you can get maps and you can you know. So there would be little pamphlets and like a you are here type of map thing. And it's set up for you to be able to find your way. It's a massive city with tons. It's very, very layered, because obviously they only have so much room to build outward. They have to build upward. So that's what they've done. So it's just layer on top of layer on top of layer. It's stunning, really.

But if you were to look at this brochure, it essentially reads like, you know, come see the sights, that type of thing. So as you're flipping through, there are numerous hotels to stay at. Now, with Uminiro, you are it's a double edged sword. It's the safest city in all of Theria. You will never be attacked by a monster here. The picture like Jurassic Park is a terrible example. But that just happened bad there. Yeah, nothing ever happened. Like it's pitched that way, though, right? Like this is a this is the perfect theme park, that type of thing. So Uminiro is pitched as the perfect city.

It's completely set up and dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. You are safe from the prying eyes of the world here. You can rest assured that, you know, there no one's going to mug you or steal from you or assault you. It's all very, very safe and secure. That being said, the price goes up a bit when you visit Uminiro and you're staying like there's no hotel in Uminiro that would be under three stars. I'll put it that way. Like if you're an adventurer and you're trying to save money, Uminiro is probably not the best bet. That being said, there are there are hairdressers and spas.

There's one called the Feathered Follicle, which is it's it's this all encompassing, all servicing spa area where you could go and just get pampered. That's that's just what you do there. There's a tavern slash fine liqueur shop called the Moonlit Willow. Qubert's Quills is a place that is completely dedicated. Rob would love it. Rob Wiesahan would love this place because it's completely dedicated to journals and scrolling and adventurers out on the go who want to keep detailed, extensive notes and all kinds of stuff. The name for Feat is the bakery where you can get they almost exclusively cater to adventures who like to have the comfort of red that stays soft for weeks.

Like it doesn't go bad. It's like it's it's magically preserved to kind of stand the test of time. And of course, there are two very popular restaurants in Uminiro. They're run by two brothers. They are competing, but it's a friendly competition. They just have a disagreement about how you should eat. One is a strict vegan. The other one is essentially just a carnivore. The vegan brother, of course, runs Apple Kadabra, which is a fine vegan eatery. This is my favorite city we've ever been in. The brother that tends to be a carnivore runs Alakaham. And that is...

You know what the worst part is? I know this because it's in the setting book and I still was really excited to hear you say it out loud. This is unbelievable. Wow. Well. Wait, this leads me to questions like this. Does Abracadabra and Alakazam are those actual spells in Feria? No, but that is like, OK, picture it much like it would be in children's storybooks, that type of thing, because it's the it's the catch all like, "zippity zap!" like of magic, that type of thing. Like, it's it's it's something kids would shout because like, oh, I don't know magic, but that's the shorthand for magic spells when you're a child.

So you would know like zippity zap is a spell in Feria, though. Absolutely a deadly one. Don't repeat that around here. They'll kick you out. They'll be like, "Get out of here. Dangerous." I guess the first thing to decide is who's going where and doing what. We need to look at the demons. Did Elarath kind of like tell everybody about the mace thing or is that just a her-meric thing? I feel like once she was like reassured that they might at some point she'll probably like just bring it up, just be like, you know, like, hey, I want to ask a question about my flail.

So just kind of like generic, like, right. So she'll be like, we need to research the demons. We need to bring Elarath's flail up here. And is there anything else? And she's going to really side-eye Merrick. Like you said personal things, sir. Which is interesting because he's got a couple of different things, one of which he's avoiding and the other one he's curious about. You know which one she's staring at you for, but. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I've got a, we got something to talk to somebody about. But I'll figure that out on my own. And I have a couple of things I would like to look into also.

So. Mysterious. Yeah. Something about something about Vecna. You're asking her directly? Yeah, Merrick's saying that. Did he put Vecna in quotes like an asshole? Yeah, a little bit. He's just being an asshole, but he is being a little bit like, oh, about Vecna. And you just kind of looks at him with just kind of a very small smile and just, you could say that. Yes. The attention of like a Thanksgiving dinner with parents. This is great. No, it's not that. He's not like, oh, fucking Vecna bullshit. He's just like, oh, Yeah, Aunt Grace, tell me more about Jesus.

Just. Oh, your Vecna stuff. Yeah. So demons flail Merrick's secret and Iris's secret, and she's going to say it just like that, like, all right, don't Frodo. All right. Keep your secrets. Okay, Merrick is going to reach his hand out and touch Clara on the arm and he's going to say, I have a lycanthropic issue that I'd like to have someone look at. That sounds like a dirty thing. It sounds like a turn your head and cough situation. That's that's how that's how this is coming across to him. So he's it might as well him being saying he might as well be saying something for him.

He's like, if you have to know it's erectile dysfunction issues like that kind of opposite of something. Yeah, it's the same kind of feeling. Okay, fine. I mean, it's a thing, but okay. All right. I'm going to move and talk to somebody. Okay, it's fair. That's why we're here. Kind of if you've been a werewolf for more than four hours, consider. Brother, brother. All right. Well, I'm going to everybody want to everybody want to go do the personal stuff first, we can look into the flail, the werewolf stuff. And then we beat together. Split up. Yeah, because I think we are kind of a time crunch.

Because those guys are loading up that ship presumably right now. Yeah, we got the Royals to deal with. Anyone who wants to research demons say aye, and she's going to raise her hand because as far as Clara is concerned, like that's their reason for being here. Yeah, and Merrick's going to raise his hand to. Elarath, you have your flail. Does anyone want to go with Elarath? She's organizing this like a preschool teacher who's like, okay guys, Betty up. Elarath should probably raise her hand like, that's me. Varys would go with you. Go raise his hand. Right.

Merrick, you have your lycotropic issue. Yeah, but I'm going to do the demons first. Let's make sure we get that taken care of. Then I believe there's something else on your plate, but we'll get to that. And Iris, you were going to, she's not giving you time. Yeah, that's, I'm saying, Iris, I assume temple of Vecna of some sort. Yeah, I'll be around. I'll just meet you guys at the end of the day and we can all converge. Where are we going to meet up? Alakaham. Sounds good. Applecadabra sounds better to me. Oh, Alakaham. They're very close to each other. Fine.

Meet you at the restaurants. Meet at the junction of... I imagine that Merrick has had a lot of food at the Applecadabra. I would imagine, yeah. I bet you're friends with the owner. Oh God, yeah. There's probably DNA of his cooking that's sort of seeped into the... Oh, I thought you were going a different way. His DNA is all over Applecadabra. Like every wall, every restroom, like all the bathrooms. It's like a Pollock painting. It's just... The bathroom. Oh my God. Welcome to DNR everybody. Hope this is your first episode. Don't say you spread your DNA into things.

I feel like that's pretty good. I feel like I'm only half at fault. The safest city in Therian, my ass. I did this. That's why Applecadabra uses sneeze guards now. They're way lower than you'd expect. He's banned. He's banned. He can't go back in. Oh goodness. So I hope you get to explore every shop and nook and cranny of the city. But it sounds like... So are you approaching Tamlin with like, "Hey, we need to go here and..." Yeah. Like what's the quickest way? So, okay. Oh boy. For a lot of this, what you're looking for is the research level. The research level is essentially in the basement of Uminero.

And what it is, is corridor after corridor after corridor of these huge book stacks. Like, people have gotten lost in this place. It is cavernous. We're talking miles of books. So that's probably what, like, if you're looking for, you know, demon research and stuff like that, and what they do is they have a head researcher. And that person is essentially there to guide you where you need to go. Like they're a walking dewey decimal system. Like they just know where things are. Do you... Okay, so you were given a name, if you recall. I told you. For the demon thing or for the lycanthropic issues?

The lycanthropic issues. Yes, she has a letter. Yeah. Hang on. I can get to my notes if you can tell me. I'll just tell you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was more or less like, do you remember? Because I was going to tell you. Anyway. Ermine Halbeck. That's right. Yeah, is the person you're looking for. Halbeck sounds familiar. Do we know a Halbeck? Maybe. I don't know. Is it because it sounds like Golbuk? Yes. Yes, that's Braelyn's last name. Not related to Braelyn, I assure you. Aww. That'd be a weird gnome naming convention. It's like all of you have the same last name, like Nurse Joyce.

Um, Braelyn is not a gnome. Oh, he's going to be so mad at me. I meant half-claim. Yeah. This is going up. He's going mad. That sound clip is going up right after this. No, Alex, I'm sorry. Let's post that in the basement after this. Yeah, that's going right now. Everybody knows. I don't know that one. Shut up, Alexa. [laughter] Oh, Alexa. Alexa, silence. Jesus, that sounds dark. [laughter] You will speak when spoken to, Alexa. [laughter] Okay. Alright, so, Erwin Halbach, we need to ask directions to his place and his deal. We need to explain the flail situation so that Tamlyn can get it up here.

Uh, yeah, I think she would just probably just be like, "I need to talk to somebody about weapons." Wow. [laughter] Well, 'cause she doesn't want to like, tell everybody, 'cause it's still new to her, so she's just like, "Ah." So, okay. Picture Tamlyn like, oh boy. Let's say you're navigating a website, and you're, like Steam. Let's say you're on Steam, and you're like, "Alright, let's narrow this down. I'm looking for shooters. Oh, Jesus, okay. Now I'm looking for shooters released." So basically, if you say "weapons," he's gonna go, "Oh, okay, enchanting, foraging?" Like, he's going to list off a bunch of different options.

Like, what about them? Glowing. [laughter] Can Merrick, can Merrick would try to help narrow down a little bit? [laughter] Um, enchanted. Mm-hmm. And then he's going to ask you a series of questions. It's like, well, how often does this happen? Almost like it's a checkup for your, for your, for your flail. Like, it's like, ooh, has, has, has it been doing this long? Ooh, okay. Uh-huh. Yeah, I mean, basically all she has to tell him is like, "Uh, it's happened one time." [laughter] And then he would probably ask you, is like, "Was this in a combat situation?

Was this just you're sitting around having drinks?" Uh, I mean, like, she'd let him know, just like, "Uh, I was swinging against somebody." [laughter] Okay. And it did it, and it hasn't done it since, and I don't know what it is. So he's going to ask you the most insulting question. Oh, God, okay. Which is the equivalent of asking an adventure, have you tried turning it off and turning it on again? Yes! Okay. And it's essentially, it's like, "Has your weapon been out of your sight for any length of time? Has, you know, does anyone, has anyone else had access to your weapon?" Not until right now.

She's still not happy about it, though it's down there. Right. So he's going to, he's going to be jotting things down the entire time. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And he's going to, he's going to, it's like, "Oh, I think our weapons research department can handle this." So he is going to write out essentially like a hall pass. Yay! And he is going to magically stamp this thing with his thumb, and it is going to, there's a very, very pale blue glow to it, and he is going to hand that to Ella Rath, and just hand that to the head researcher, and they will be able to access your weapon and take a look at it and tell you more about it.

I thought only I could access it. And he's, this is, it's like, "Well, normally, yes, but this is a very special case. You'll be right there, I assure you." Okay. She was like, "That was almost accused, really. You lied to me!" Right. Okay. Yeah, for everything else, he would give you, he would give you directions to things. If you, okay, are you asking about Ermin? Merrick? Wait, yes, yes, definitely. No, for, yes, he'll be like, "I," he'll have the letter that Poe gave him, and he'll be like, "I gotta talk to this guy," and he's just going to point. And he is going to, he's going to pause for just a second.

Oh, I'm very sorry to be the one to tell you this, but he died six months ago. Okay, that was just me and Jason. Was there a specific reason you were looking for? Um, Merrick is going to, so through all of that, Merrick is going to be very, very, very quiet. He's just going to be not staring aggressively, but he's just going to be blankly staring at Tamlin. And again, not aggressively, but almost just very passively, he's going to, the letter that he was pointing at, the name, he's just going to slowly sort of crumple-fold it into his fist. And he's going to put it back into his tunic.

Like, it's going to be kind of crump-crushed, basically. And he's going to say, "No, no, it's not an issue." I feel like Clara would interject with, "Has anyone taken over his research? Do you know if he had any assistants, any helpers, anyone in the same field?" And he would start thumbing through this large, he's got like this large tome in front of him. "Oh, well, you could speak with Jodie. She's quite familiar with Erwin's work. Maybe she could be of more assistance to you. I know she has all of his books." She's going to smile at Merrick and do like a little nod, like, "See, huh?" Merrick is not going to respond in a happy way.

He's just going to say, "Yeah, fine, sure." Oh, wow. Clara's going to give him a little pat on the back and nod and be like, "We'd like directions to her as well. Thank you." And he would kind of beam ear to ear because Tamlin loves cutting travel time off of, because it's a big city. So he's like, "Well, that's actually our head researcher, so this is great. We could just kill three or four birds with one stone." Like, bam. And he would write out another Hall Passy type thing, and it essentially lets you skip the line. Nice. Because he could sense that you were so distraught.

By the way- Best pass for being sad. You guys at home couldn't see it, but the chat turned on me so quick. I called you a bully. Oh, that was so mean. That was like a cat string situation that you just put him through. No, I get it. That's cool. I see you dragon con. Yeah, by the way, thanks for doing a bunch of stuff for the Kickstarter prep. That's really cool. Yeah, Jasper, it's really helpful. Thank you. Oh. Wow. He's just gonna send banners covered in dicks. Yeah, yeah. Just wait. There you go. Just wait. I mean, we could always revert to my stick figure drawings.

Like, we could do that. Yeah, maybe you should. Maybe you should. Maybe that's all you'll get. Maybe that's all you'll be able to use. Tim's setting book, and it's just like a drawing. He's just setting book on it. It's not even a rectangle. It's just like... It's all done with the pencil tool because he doesn't realize you can make shapes with the little tracker. Now who's mean? This joke just turned bad. This did. Jesus. Okay, so it sounds like research is the first place you guys are hitting. Yeah. Okay, so... Good lord. Okay, so if you... He's gonna hand you the rest of the stuff.

Wait. Sorry, real quick. Um, because it was joked about in the chat, but it's really mean not to acknowledge it. Where is Avalon going? Uh, it's funny you should ask that. I was waiting for the opportune moment because I was waiting for everyone to, like, split up. Okay. So I don't know when that... Are we splitting up now? No, all right. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't think we actually legitimately forgot about you. That's what I thought. We were gonna, like, leave this room, essentially, and yeah, so... Okay, cool, cool. So, um... If you walk through these double doors, again, it's that they just kind of, like, swing outward.

It's like a restaurant type of thing. Uh, you will walk into this massive, uh, massive opening. It is... It looks like it's hundreds of feet high, maybe. Um, this massive dome shape where there are multiple levels of stuff going on and there seems to be, uh, hallways and corridors going out in every direction. No matter where you turn, something is happening. There are people selling things. There are people, uh, essentially advertising for shows and, uh, classes you can take and all kinds of stuff. Uh, it is exceedingly easy to get lost here if you don't know where you're going.

That's why they have that area in the front with Tamlin, so that you can essentially not just be completely overwhelmed stepping off the teleporter. [laughs] So, if you guys were to head to the west, uh, and, uh, start to make your way down, you will eventually, after about 15, 20 minutes or so, uh, you will eventually reach the research floor. And if you were to travel, uh, down this, this long hallway, uh, stepping through this big set of double doors, there's going to be a rather large desk, uh, and there is, uh, there's a woman sitting behind it and she's going to look up as soon as the door is open because it doesn't, you know, that doesn't happen all that often. And, uh, she's going to see the group walking in and she's going to, uh, start to tidy up her desk a little bit.

Can I, can I help you? Um, hi, yes. We are actually here for two things, so I don't want to make this confused, but we were hoping to visit Jodie and also do some private research of our own. Oh, I'm Jodie. Jodie Rydling. Oh, hi, Jodie. I don't know why Clara has, like, such a retail voice right now. [laughter] It's the lack of swords. Yeah. Really looking forward, by the way, to the new season of Lack of Swords. Cannot wait to see how Lack of Swords is. [laughter] I don't know, it's been kind of boring so far. I think it's going to be pretty peaceful. Yeah.

She's going to look to Merrick and then to Jodie and then back to Merrick, like, "You got this, buddy?" And it feels a lot like when I'm trying to cheer Jason up, by the way. I, I noticed that earlier. Right? You want to get your pulp, little Mac? You want to- Look, see? Not all is lost. Want to go get a burrito? [laughter] You have no idea how much that was this morning. There's a reason we had Chipotle over earlier. There's a reason I suggested it. Because the house was full of dog poop. Nice. I needed to cheer Jason up after we cleaned up after the pets who ruined the house this morning. [laughter] Anyway, does Merrick want Chipotle?

Uh, actually, um, out of, so, side note from all of this. Can somebody remind me exactly what we need to be able to tackle when it comes to the demon stuff? What are we, what are we looking to do? What's our goal? We are trying to sever a connection between a demon and a human. If I recall correctly, is that right? Yes. Yay! I did it. Yes, I did it. Because the black hand's the problem. Can somebody tell me- Yeah. Right, right, right, right, right. Okay, thank you. Uh, so Merrick's gonna say, "Yeah, let's-" Yes. He's gonna be appreciatively say, "Okay, yes." But let's take care of what we need to take care of first.

Uh, demons. Okay, that's it. Bye, everybody. Yeah, just- Uh... Real quick, uh, can you guys hear that? No. Okay, the cat's purring. In his sleep. Which is fucking adorable, but also very loud. Nope, can't hear. Okay, good. So yeah, Merrick just says, "Demons." Blank face at this poor girl. Uh, what about them? And then Clara will, um, "clarify." Oh no. Ehh? Stop trying to make fetch happen. "Clarify" has happened. It's caught on. With you. Put on a shirt. Anyway, she'll "clarify." We are specifically looking for a way to perhaps end a deal with a demon or sever the connection.

Um, and she's gonna- she's gonna kinda perk up. Ooh. Okay, but that's a- an extensive topic, but I'm sure we could start digging in. Any more information you can give would be extremely helpful. Clara's gonna bite her lip not sure how much she's supposed to be allowed to say and kinda defer to Merrick on that point. Um... Merrick is going to, having had some experience with Uminiro, not with Jodie, um, but he's gonna- he's just gonna say, "Basically, this whole place is a secure zone. You can say anything here." And he's gonna look at Jodie, right? "We're safe.

What information we give you, we kind of expect this to be, you know, kept secret." Right? And she's- like, that's- to her, that just goes without saying. Well, yeah, of course. Oh, right. Were you given any slips from Tamlin? Oh, yeah, Clara will nod and pass her the- the magic slip. Uh, and- and she's going to take this fantastic- give me one second. And she's going to race behind her desk and- and sort of tack that up, um, so that she has access to it. All right, um, if you could follow me, we could start making our way to the section with demon knowledge, and you could tell me a bit more.

And she's gonna stop for just a moment and look at Iris. Fy'kna. Why, yes. Hello, nice to meet you. Oh, and she's going to kind of snap out of it. Jodie. Ah, I'm Iris, and moves to shake her hand. Can I- can we talk later? And she's going to- Yeah, just- she's going- it's- you could tell it's a thing where she's distracted by it, like, huh. Um, but doesn't- doesn't pursue it. It's like, oh, you kind of caught me staring and like that type of thing and nice to meet you. And then, yeah. There is a platform, and she is going to ask everyone to step onto this platform.

It is essentially- there are even guardrails around it and stuff. And it's set up next to one of these longer bookcases. And she would kind of- she would kind of wave everybody on- come on, come on. Okay. Who are you? Evelyn holds onto the rails. Yeah, that's a good idea, because the second you step in and the little guardrail here, she's going to shut it. And there's something that kind of looks like a console. And she's going to place her hand on it, and there's going to be this faint blue light. And this thing's going to take off. And on the floor, you're going to see a lit pathway, and it's going to zip in and out of these bookshelves and sort of careen around corners at hard right angles.

It's disorienting. Evelyn's knees give out. Uh, and- This poor boy, he just keeps falling down. It's very scary. So she's going to ask again, are there any extra details you could tell me? So this is Jasper speaking, not Merrick. Jasper doesn't remember shit about what we're supposed to be talking about. Yeah, I'm sorry. I just don't remember things. Okay. If you want, I could take the lead. Yes, please. Okay, I'll tell you what, it's cool. And Merrick still looks very smart, and no one's questioning his abilities. I could roll for smart. Yes, I have to. You got really high smart.

After the whole, like, it's confidential thing, Clara will just fill her in and basically say, well, we're here on the behalf of House Dragonkeep. Apparently, there are some issues with someone by the name of the Black Hand who may or may not be in bed with a demon. And she is- she's almost mentally jotting this down, you could tell. When you say in bed with, how do you mean? That is something I don't believe we know. Jason, do we know? I mean, you don't know much. Okay, I didn't think so. Back in the character. Yeah, we assume there's some sort of deal.

We don't know. We don't believe she's a warlock. We have very little idea. Have you observed this person using any ill-gotten magics? Or are there any details on the type of demon she may have made a pact with? Well, outside of a dream from a mage I've never met, Clara's gonna shake her head. It's mostly just rumors, but, substantiated rumors. And you can tell she's desperately trying to, like, help you. It's like, that's not a lot to go on, but- This is basically like going into a library and saying, I like this one blue book. It has a blue cover. Blue one.

But eventually this, uh, this apparatus is going to stop. Uh, a bit more gracefully than you figured it would, being how it took corners. But it's going to slow down and she is going to hop out. And this area is not as well lit as you'd probably like it to be. The lighting is very dim and sparse, but you can still see. It's just, you know. Um, and she's going to start staring at this particular bookshelf and just, it's like, okay, where do we start? Where do we start? And she's probably going to zone out like this for two or three minutes. Something like that.

And then she's just going to go to the shelf and start grabbing books. Three, four, five, six in a clip and then just kind of start handing them off to people. Like, hold that. Hold these. Hold this. And all said and done, she's going to grab 12 books from the shelf, which is essentially just sort of carpet bombing the area for potential knowledge. And she's going to climb back aboard this apparatus. Okay, this is going to be a good start and I'm just going to ask you questions and we'll try to narrow this down. Oh, all right. Sounds good. So this thing's going to start back up and, you know, a few minutes later, you're going to be back at the head research desk and she's going to dump these books out.

And what I'd like, I get, wow, geez. So you were told some things by Grattic and Tessia, but you don't have a ton of rock solid knowledge to go on. So I guess what we're going to do here is we can roll a wisdom check just to kind of see bits and pieces of rumors you might have picked up. Does that sound fair? Yeah. I was wondering if Iris might know more than the rest of us because she's spoken with Diana. Oh, that's actually a good point. That's kind of why I mentioned it's your show earlier. Maybe I was trying to sort of pawn it off, but I thought actually maybe that was a thing, but maybe it isn't.

Sorry. But maybe it is. Would she know? Maybe it's not. I mean, if you guys were looking things up in the library, Iris would have to be pretty, I just either zoned out or completely disinterested to not know some things. She probably wasn't completely disinterested. She probably was half zoning out though. So she might know a lot. Give me a wisdom check. Okay. Oh, that was terrible. It's not great. That plus seven really came in handy. So nine. So there's going to be bits and pieces of things you're going to know, like the Black Hand has access to information that she should not have.

Like even the most plugged in people should not know. It's almost like she's clairvoyant sometimes. And you're going to be able to feed bits and pieces of information. And with that, this researcher is going to be able to narrow your search down, narrow the scope down to four or five demons or types of demons. And then from there, she's going to ask questions like, has she ever shown any untold physical force? Is she the type of person? In the midst of this, you're probably going to mention, she's not a good guy. Why is she not a good guy? Was she done?

Is it threats? Is it outright physical violence? Is it this and this? And she's going to use that to narrow the scope even further. You know that she hasn't been rampaging through Brightport. That's not it. So it's probably it's it's probably more of a informational pact, something like that. And what she's going to do is she is essentially going to jot down some notes here about the types of demons that would make pacts that are one long term, what they might want, all that. And the underlying thing you're going to pretty much pick up from all this is that any demon willing to make a long term pact with a mortal is probably looking for something pretty huge.

And the ultimate goal for most of these demons is freedom, freedom and or power. And if they can get both, that's awesome. And there's always an end game. There's if if she is engaged in some sort of long term deal pact, whatever, the end goal is to get this demon free. That's almost always what what a demon like that would be after. And it's probably not going to be through sacrifice or anything like that, or it would have happened already. So the next step essentially is for this researcher to look through and see what items could help free a demon, like what items, rituals, all that good stuff.

And she's kind of going to be like, OK, that's a big job that maybe maybe give me a day. Day. Do we have a day? If there's any chance I could stay and help, maybe that would speed things up. And she wouldn't reject the help. And then Clara is going to elbow Merrick in the side. Oh, to prompt him? Yes. So like we're sort of like, OK, so we've got a plan for that. You're going to help now. Next topic. A werewolf. So Merrick's going to take a hint, take the hint. But but pivot and he's going to and he's going to say, actually, while we're on the topic of demon freeing.

Do you know anything offhand about parasitic demons, demons that are maybe there, but you don't want them to be? She's going to furrow up her out with that. Um. A little I need more details. What if you had a he's going to completely cut her off. What if you had, I don't know, a demon or something that kind of was like riding along inside you and you didn't want it to be there? Oh, Clara is giving him a look. So is Iris. Like, what? At this point, Jodie's giving you a look. Yeah, he's just looking straight at Jodie. Yeah. Picture the entire group staring at Merrick right now.

Yeah. She's going so OK, Jodie is going to slowly close the book that she was looking at the entire time, keeping eye contact with Merrick. OK. Hypothetically. If someone. Did have a voice in their head that could be a demon. He's going to be nodding. Mm hmm. That person should absolutely get that taken care of as soon as possible. Perfect. Who should I talk to, Jodie? If hypothetically that were something that someone would want to talk to someone about. And Jodie's going to look around like. Are you fucking with me right now? Like it's like that. It's at that point, like it's like, OK.

Yeah, he's not breaking gaze, right? He's staring. Well. Hypothetically, and she's she's very like her eyes are really wide and she's very much she's very much exaggerating the flow of her speech. Someone in a position of power in Uminero would have to be very careful about how they treat that person. And. There would have to be some trust, some confidentiality. Let's say that person were to go and tell someone else. That researcher or someone of in the position of power could be implicated. And she's unblinking, looking at Merrick. Merrick is going to actually say, I don't know what you're saying.

I should have muted a long time ago. No, you're fine. She's going to lean in. Can you keep a secret? I he's going to lean in and he's going to say, I have several. I am a werewolf. She is going to she's going to look around and she's going to push Merrick back against one of these bookshelves. And she's going to start to grab Merrick's face and sort of like tilt his head back and forth, like checking your glands, that type of thing. Hmm. OK, OK. How long have you heard this voice? When did it start? What does it want? Interestingly, Merrick is feeling guilty for sidetracking things that are important.

He just wanted a little info. But all of a sudden this has become center stage. But as all of this is happening, all I was trying to imply is that a demon is living in my head. I don't understand why this is such a big deal. He just wanted to see if there was somebody else he should talk to or a book he could look at or something like that. And all of a sudden he's like now he's in the dentist chair. He's simply as she's doing all of this, he's going to be fumbling into one of his little his little bags on his belt and he's going to pull out the little idol that he found long, long, long ago.

And he's just going to sort of like lift that up so that she'll catch it in her eyes. In Merrick's head, a voice is going to chime in. This is a very bad idea, Merrick. I'm ignoring you and have been for a while. And the last thing you're going to hear it say is, you'll see. Fuck. Her eyes are going to light up when she sees this. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Is this legit? He's going to put it back in his back in his pouch. You know, like just wanted her to see it. He's putting it back away. He's still in exploratory mode. But you're not screwing with me here, right?

That's that's legitimate. Like that's that's one of the idols. It's hypothetical. I'm just looking for information about what someone would need to do to make the voice go away. OK, she's she's going to start pacing back and forth kind of aggressively. Well, who? OK, from a research standpoint, this is amazing. It's like a gold mine. I. OK. OK, I need to study you just all over. I need I need to know everything that's going on inside your head. Are you having any physical results? Did it ask? Did it ask you to do anything? Merrick is going to. Look over to the rest of the group.

While he's being cornered a little bit. You know, this is something we can talk about. Maybe after we find out a little bit more information, he's going to point back at Clara. You know, we we've kind of got a job to do here, honestly. But I'm interested. Maybe we can talk. Maybe we can talk. He's backing away from this a little bit. Right. And she's latched on like a pit bull. You're damn right. We're going to talk. OK, OK, OK. I have interns. Interns can help me. I will I I will quadruple efforts to get this demon thing. By the way, you didn't really give me much info, but I'm going to do my best and we're going to figure it out.

But you and she's going to point to Merrick. You can't go anywhere. You can't leave the city. Just please. Just I'm begging. Let me look into this. He's he's clamming up a little bit and he's just going to say. I guess you need to get to work. He's going to sort of look at Clara and and Jodie like, I guess you need to maybe maybe get busy, right? Right, right, right. Yeah. Wait. OK, one more thing. Just one more thing. I need your permission. Would you mind if I gave you a once over? No, just he's going to look very quizzically at that. Just to see if there's any negative effects that this thing might be having on you that you might not know about.

You might feel fine. It could be eating away at you on the inside. And in Merrick's head, I'm not. I love him. So interestingly, so Merrick is feeling a little bit. He's going to feel a little bit in the middle. He's going to feel a little bit like he's not really sure who to listen to right this second. He's his reaction to Jodie asking if she can do the once over. He's going to be he's going to say, what does it take to do a once over? She's going to go behind. She's going to go behind her desk and sort of like dig through piles of stuff. There's papers all over and things.

And she's going to grab this this flat disk. It's about about the size of a softball. And she's going to place it against Merrick's chest. It only takes a second. This won't hurt. As she's doing it, though, as she's doing it, he's going to he's going to back away from from her touching him. OK. Because I imagine he's kind of getting a little stressed out. Oh, I mean, I'm just just legitimately I imagine this is he's he's going to be feeling a little caught. And it's probably going to go I don't mean he's going to like wolf out immediately, but he's going to be very, very sensitive to like, hey, hang on.

I'm please don't fuck with me. Please don't fuck with me. But, you know, he'll he'll eventually let you know, he'll calm his shit down and let her do whatever's going to happen. OK. If ever give me a flat D4 just to. So she's going to place this against Merrick's chest and these glowing blue tendrils, you can't really feel them, but they're basically tendrils of light are going to sort of reach out from this thing. And magically speaking, they're going to sort of flap around all over and sort of wrap around body parts and things like that. But again, you're not going to feel it.

And it's going to stop what it's doing and she's going to pull it back and then look at this thing. And she's going to get a strange look that comes over her and she's going to step back a good three or four paces. Oh, OK, I'm I'm I'm I'm going to get to work. You should go and. Come back later. OK. Merrick's just kind of numbly. OK. And. He's going to turn he's going to change the subject completely. He's going to look at Elrath and say, hey, what about your flail? Oh, I got one of them notes, too, and she's kind of like shake it. I need to talk to somebody about my flail.

And OK, could you do me a favor? Roll perception. Sure. Nope. There we go. Oh, OK. Hey, good lord. Gorgeous. She's going. She is going to keep an eye on Merrick the entire time and gingerly reach out to take this from you. She is clearly avoiding him. And kind of pull back real quick with it and take a look. Oh, yeah, I can have someone get to work on that right away. This is just identifying, right? Yes, because I don't know what it's doing and it just started doing it. Do you want us to remove it if we find out what's going on? No. I think it helped her last time, so she's like, no, I'm good.

And again, she's looking at Merrick the entire time she's speaking with Elrath. OK, well, I will get to work on all of this and she's going. Oh, go ahead. That Clara is going to say that without looking up from the book, she's already started doing a research. If I were a werewolf, is there a way to get rid of that? Merrick's going to Merrick's going to close his eyes. He's going to close his eyes and just kind of his chin's going to go up a little bit like he's almost looking up to the ceiling, but his eyes are closed. He's just going to let out a very, very, very.

Meditative sigh like. OK, long pause. And after like it takes her like 15 seconds to even look up from the book she was reading and then she's going to clarify, clarify. I said if. She is going. To. Take a deep breath. You're the most problematic people she's had to do. This is her best day. She's never had a better day. So. So, you know. We had a tip. OK. Well, that's. Somewhat comforting. I mean, at least he told you that. There are stories of that going very poorly. I was going to have to tell someone and. I mean. Have it taken care of. We might need to get on the same page.

How do you mean? Who are you talking about? Are you talking about Ermin? We heard he was dead. No, I'm talking about and she's going to like stop him and look over to Merrick. Merrick's got his hand up already. He's like me, me. And then she's going to she's going to look at Merrick. It's no offense. You seem really nice. I just don't want to die. You seem like the worst person to have a demon in your head as well. Then she's going to stop. OK. Can I ask who you people are? You have a cleric who apparently worships Vecna. You have demon werewolf guy. Enchanted weapons.

You don't know where they came from. I mean. This is a lot of problems for regular people to have is all. Problems? We are the weirdos, Mr. My name is Aveline. No! Thank you, Seth. His knees are a little shaky. He walks up. And she's she's going to shake Aveline's hand. You've been the least problematic one. You're fine. Thank you. He doesn't get to hear that often. Let him have this. Elarath is probably just going to look at like Varus or whoever is standing next to her and be like, what did I do? I'm just not used to that. Cora is going to kind of give a half smile.

I know it's a lot. Is there anything you know about that research? Yeah, I. I studied under him for a while. I I'm pretty familiar with his books and I could take a look at it for you. She's going to look up to Merrick just like, see, I should have just fucking asked. Merrick's going to go ahead. So. You. You're cursed with lycanthropy and you have a demon inside of you? Yeah, Merrick, about that. Merrick's going to say, listen, between the demon. So for a second it seemed like you didn't have anything to say after that? I have nothing to defend myself with.

Sorry. Fine. I've got lycanthropy. I've got hypothetically he's going to look at Jodie, a demon inside my head. And you know what? And he's going to be getting frustrated here. This is going to be a D4. It's not even the thing I'm most concerned about while I'm in Uminyiro. Do you understand? So, OK, Jodie is going to start. OK, OK, let's let's maybe take a breath. Actually, Merrick's going to say, you know what? That's a good idea. I'll be back. I'll be back. OK. And he's going to respectfully but clearly need to take a break. He's going to leave the research level.

And at least for his goal, unless something else happens here, his goal is to go back to find Tamlin at the very at the entrance. OK, so let's catch up with Merrick in just a minute. Everyone else. Jodie would probably would probably ask the group after he leaves. Is he going to be OK? Does he lose his cool like that often? It's been a very long day. And then she's going to kind of look to the rest of the group. Should I go after him? Well, if you're reading books, we'll go get him. OK. Jodie, thank you for being so patient. Of course, I'm I'm I'm still very interested in all of this, I guess.

It's a lot to take on all at once, but I'll see what I can do. I'll get all of the interns down here. In the meantime, here, hold on, hold on. And she's going to dig through her stuff and produce a coupon for the spa. Maybe, maybe take your friend there and he could relax a little. That is a good idea. Avalon, she's going to pass the tickets to him. Go to the spa with Merrick. OK, do I go now? Get Merrick first. All right, I starts to leave and like as soon as he as soon as he gets towards like wherever the exit of his room is, he's going to stop at the exit.

Look back at everyone. He's going to point a direction. Unassured of where to go. Oh, no. Can Ferris run after him real quick? Yes. Maybe like Clara even kind of gives like a little nod, like go with them. All of you go. So, OK, Clara staying behind, everybody else is going to go catch up with Merrick. So here's what I want to do. Well, Iris wants to, as soon as everybody leaves and Clara is in the books, actually wants to talk to Jodie one more time. OK. Should we do that now? Sure. OK. So she just kind of double checks that everybody's either gone or, you know, not paying attention anymore and just kind of goes to the side.

And she's smiling a bit less because she doesn't like having it insinuated that her being a cleric of Vecna is a problem. So she's a bit colder now, whereas she was kind of like, oh, this person's interested. No, she's no, she's not. Hi, Jodie. I have a question. Where... Wow, that voice. Sorry. Go ahead. I feel like you're going to speak to my manager. Where can I find some information on Undead? And she's going to... You can catch her just briefly looking down at your pendant. Well, in what capacity? Well, any would be fine, but specifically the creation of.

So necromancy. Yes. And she's going to write out directions. That should get you where you need to go. Thank you. And then she'll just walk off. It is cold. I like... She's not... You just got to educate, man. So let's catch up. So it's Elorath, Varys, Avalon. They're going to catch up with Merrick after a bit. Hey, Merrick, wait. Just slow down a little bit. Merrick, for the record, is not fuming or like freaking out or anything. He's just beelining it towards back to where Tamlin was. So he's going to stop and turn around. He's not going to be like, what? He's going to be like, yeah, hey, yep.

We got a ticket for the spa. Merrick is going to put a step forward, getting very close to Varys. He's going to put his hand on his shoulder. And he's going to say, The spa is fucking great. This is not what I expected at all. I think like almost a sign of relief is going to go across his face, because he probably expected you to go like still be at least a hint of upset. And this is not that at all. He's focused. He's going to point over at Avalon. You have the ticket still, right? Yes. And he checks the pocket. They're not in that pocket. He looks around. Then eventually he finds them in a different pocket and he says, How many tickets do we get, by the way?

This is like a group. Think of it as like a Groupon. Oh. This is for us, Merrick. We're supposed to go all together. Avalon. Yes. Do you remember our spa adventure with Sleazy Pete? Merrick. I don't think that's something I'll ever forget. And he's going to lean forward. He's going to say, After this, you will forget. But we've got something to do first. What's on your mind, Merrick? We need to find out what the Royals are up to. And to do that, we need to find out what's happening with their ship. And we need to find out what we can do to either slow them down or speed things up for us.

So, follow me. Could you do me a favor? Could you roll a flat d10 for me? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Please. Four. Thank you. God dang it. So, in Merrick's head, as you guys are walking further away from this room, That lady is crazy. You're a right to leave her behind. So is this now as we're making our way towards Tamlin? Yeah, like as you get, yeah, you're out of that long hallway, you're kind of heading back. Lots of corners, like rights and lefts. Yeah, I think you said maybe 15 minutes or so of the research level. So, he's gonna mutter under his breath back.

Merrick's just gonna say, "convince me." Because let me explain. Right now, Merrick hasn't suggested to a single person, or out loud, or even really anything, that he could even consider getting rid of Barak. Right. Barak. God damn it. I miss Barak. I do too, I can't help but say it. Don't get rid of me, Merrick. So, however, this is the opportunity. This is the place to be able to do something like that. So, Merrick has an advantage, at least that's what he feels. Basically, he's got him over a barrel. Like, "Hey, listen, you got something for me? Basically, it's on you.

Not me, I can just take care of this. You're a specimen. You're a research paper." And there'd be a beat. "What would you like me to do?" And again, he's sort of muttering this. He doesn't want anybody to hear him speaking. I'm not actually even sure if we've really discussed it. Can Merrick think? Has Merrick ever tried? I don't know. I don't think that Merrick's ever actually tried to think a conversation with him. I think he's always said it out loud. But I think at this point, maybe he would even try it. He's just going to think directed towards Barrick and say, "Hang on, let me think of the perfect thing to say.

This is going to take a second. It's going to be perfect though." Take your time. It's not going to be perfect, but he's going to say, "Just give me a reason not to get you cut out of me. A good reason." And he's going to think it. He's testing this out to see if it's a communication channel. "Ah, I was wondering why you were speaking out loud all this time. Well, let me give you an example. Have I ever done anything to you or for you?" "Without your permission." He's just going to think, "No." "Now, think back to the researcher. She couldn't wait to dissect you, crack you open, see what's floating around." He's honestly, he's going to not even respond to it.

He's just going to keep going to Tamlin. He's just dropping it. "So again, lots of rights and lefts and stuff like this. As you're turning a corner, someone else is turning the corner at the same time. It's just bad timing. You're going to run into them. This person, Tiefling, who's got just a rocking goatee, a flared mustache combo going on. Oh, brother, you're right there?" Merrick's going to give the once over. It's going to feel creepy. "Yeah, all good. You OK?" And he's going to, he's got some people behind him and they're going to round the corner. They kind of stand out and he is going to, he's going to put a hand on Merrick's shoulder.

Kind of a little like, you could tell this person is very quickly intimate. "Yeah, yeah, I'm perfectly fine. You take care of yourself, brother." Who's behind him? "Well, behind the Tiefling, there is a female human. There's a Goliath, a dwarf and a Minotaur." Yeah, OK. All right. And I think that's a pretty good time for us to stop for the evening. God dang it. Oh, my God. I feel bad for Jodie. I feel bad for everybody. I want to go to the spa. This worked out so well, you guys skipped all that time and just got to him in here. This is working so much better.

But look where we left off. Oh, my God. Oh, I could keep going for another two hours like this. Also, Elle asked me to let her know when we are winding down so she could make dinner. Did you? I told her I'm not good at predicting it. It always surprises me. I'd ask Jason. Then you ended it. Tell her it would be another couple of hours. Yeah, we have time. I'll keep going. What? Do you know? Do you know when we get to pick this up, guys? Fariathon! Fariathon! Oh, my God, yes! Fariathon 2019, if you're out there listening. It'll be that'll be when we pick this up and honestly, if things play out, it might be your last episode of this arc.

Really? I don't know. It depends. I don't want to promise anything. Interesting. When's Theriathon? It's in July. What is it? Isn't it April 20th? Is that my penalty for earlier? Yep. It's April 20th. Oh, right, right, right, right. Yeah, no problem. Yeah, it's fine. It's just a potentially life changing event for us. No, it's no big deal. No, it's just... Wow. I love you guys. This was great. Oh, man. And I thought she was like into the Vekta thing, but now she's now she's being mean. You got to talk. No, well, here's the thing. You got to talk. There was a lot to lay on her all at once.

Mm hmm. She might, yeah, virus might cool off and go back to her. But the moment she's like, oh, oh, oh. Well, OK, there are forbidden. You got to also look at it from a clinical standpoint. There are magics that are forbidden in Uleo. So like necromancy is never looked at positively by most of the populace. What? To be fair, it's not like you buck the stereotype or anything. Right. Yeah. You immediately went to her and were like, so how do you raise the dead? That's true. Yeah, true. No knowledge is bad. I'm just saying you could have started with anything. How to grow bigger crops or how you went right for necromancy.

I mean, might as well. She's already got the thing. Oh, so you're doing like a serif. They already hate us. So I might as well play a blue stereotype thing. Yeah. Fair enough. Worked out for Valis for a few years, too. Oh, man. I'm so excited. That was good. I still want to keep going. I know. So, so it's the beginning of March. It's going to be a month and a half. Yep. No me gusta. I'm sorry. I we can't physically. Here's the thing. We can't physically do any more sessions or the listeners won't be caught up with what's going to be happening live. That sounds like it's a listener's problem.

Just jump into the middle of a story they haven't heard. Do we need listeners? Do we need one? Let's predict what happens to Theriathon and we'll play a session next week. That happens takes place after. There you go. Yeah. We have beat all of the Royals in hand to hand combat. Oh, God. This is OK. Oh, I can't I can't wait for this. Whoo. Good Lord. OK, guys, that is going to do it for us until Theriathon. That's April 20th at noon Eastern on our Twitch channel. You can find a link to the event in this very episode description. We'll be back next Monday just to kind of go over what's going to be happening in Theriathon.

But that's it for main episodes. We really hope that you guys can join us that Saturday, April 20th noon Eastern to hang out. Hopefully maybe back to Kickstarter. Even a dollar seriously helps us get a little closer to our goal and get your name in the book. That's right. For a dollar. What else is in the Kickstarter? Well, you're going to have to come on by the website or hang out with us and find out. We're going to be revealing everything in a Instagram livestream, I believe. You can find out more information about that on our Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and all that good stuff.

We truly appreciate you guys and your support. It has been amazing, especially on Patreon. The feedback has been incredible. We really use that to help shape what we do. And I think you guys are really going to enjoy Theriathon. We're giving away a prize. Someone has solved the mystery. It's done. It's over. We have a winner. And I really hope you guys can swing on by it here and that. We're going to be recording three main episodes at Theriathon. That's right. Three. We got a Group B, a Group C, and something special for the prime time spot. Again, guys, visit dandrpodcast@gmail.com.

Send us an email. We really appreciate that. Of course, the website, too, if you want to find out the schedule for everything that day. There will be more information there. We'll see you next week for just a quick preview of Theriathon. And then it's time for the big dig, guys. It's so close. Show up to Theriathon and get you guys a preview of the book. It's several, several pages long. And I think you guys are going to like what we're previewing. See you guys next week. Until then, take care.