A Lucky Break

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(CLINKING) Peacocks. 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. 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. This your first job? I know what I'm doing. I'm 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+. Howdy everyone. Welcome to our second posting from Theoryathon 2019. We are buzzing through the Kickstarter right now. We're in the back half and we have been completely funded. Thank you guys so much. Again, we just want to remind you guys that it is happening.

There is a link in the description. If you haven't got your free 60+ page preview, grab it. That's pretty much what the book is going to look like. We are beyond excited. Every time we unlock a stretch goal, the book gets a little bit bigger. We're adding a little something different to it. And we're hoping to get that goal as high as possible. So thank you guys. For just one dollar you get your name in the book. It's immortalized in there forever. It'll never be taken out. So yeah, share that link as much as possible. This is a Group C episode. Everyone who played at Theoryathon really knocked it out of the park.

And it is completely admirable because it's all live. So if you haven't had a chance to hear this, or if you'd like to hear it with a bit more polished audio, and music, and all that good stuff, then this is for you. Thank you guys so much. I'll see you at the end of the episode to let you know what else is going on at the offices of D&R. 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 Jasper. Hello, I'm Jasper. I play Maric Ephraed, human cleric/werewolf/demon-possessed something.

And Ryan. Hey everyone, this is Ryan. I play Varys Alder, the half-elf monk intern. And Zach. What's up, my name is Zach and I play Aveline Bates, the human fighter. And Marie. Hello there, I'm Brianna Marie and I play Clara Uroff Dale, the half-drow fighter. And Lisa. Hey, I'm Lisa and I play Eloraf B. Singer, the halfling barbarian. And Mandy. Hi guys, this is Mandy and I play Iris Hawker, the human cleric of Vecna that has done nothing wrong. Ever, and does not deserve to be called evil. I know, not an enemy, no, mmm-mmm. Looking at you, Ian. Despite how evil her eyebrows look.

Just the eyebrows. Your beautiful eyebrows. Well-toured, what do you call it? There. There. Yeah. Well-touled. Well-touled eyebrows. Yes. Well-oiled. Speaking of well-touled eyebrows and characters, yeah, if you look at the preview of this book, there's some amazing artwork and I would completely date that artwork of Iris. [laughter] I mean, I would too, so. She is pretty beautiful, yeah. I mean evil, definitely evil. Not possible. I don't care, I could not care less. Absolutely evil, yeah. [laughter] I'm so sad. Well, when last we left off, most of the party was heading out with Merrick.

And it seemed like Merrick could just kind of use some air, get out and maybe see the sights a little bit, get out of that stuffy. Oh, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. If I can clarify, Merrick had a very specific place he was going. He, not to derail this, but just to let you know, he was on his way directly to go to Tamlin, effectively the concierge of Uminiro. Yes. Directly. Oh, he didn't want air, he wanted a very specific thing. Oh, well, you did end up running into a group. Literally, you guys bumped into each other. And they could have been nicer about it, but you ran into a tiefling, a human, a dwarf, and then a couple of larger folks in the back with a goliath and minotaur.

The hallway's a little cramped because of this. They're all just kind of walking in a pack. So running into each other was kind of an inevitability. You were just going to do that. So the tiefling, again, kind of bumps into you and is instantly not, I wouldn't say apologetic, but it's like, oh, hey, brother, careful. You all right? Like just very, just like, oh, hey, you're all right, kind of dusting your shoulders off type of thing. Oh. So I know what's going on, but Merrick would immediately just be like, yeah, sorry, excuse me, excuse me. I think it would, I'm assuming it would hit him.

Is there any sort of role that I would need to take for that? Or I think he would be- Give me wisdom. Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, give me wisdom. Because I don't think it would take a lot because this is a pretty peculiar party. Like it's a very particular set of people, right? Oh, six. Never mind. Yeah. Yeah, so Merrick's very distracted. He's not thinking. Yeah, fair enough. I mean, here's how I would put it too is he's kind of obsessed with the whole royal situation. And he's also got the whole demon thing, the whole werewolf thing. And he's actually very driven right now.

He's thinking about the royals and the whole that thing, almost to the point where he can't even see them when they're right in front of his face. He's on a mission, right? Oh, wow. I guess I got to ask, what about everybody else hanging out with Merrick here? Would they have told everybody what the royals were made out of as a party? Because wasn't it just Merrick and them that were doing the info gathering? I believe at one point Iris just sort of recapped because they were making a lot of noise in Aldmoor. Right. They're a very loud group. So I don't think it would be a huge stretch to piece that together.

But again, if you want, you could do a wisdom check. I'm pretty sure Elorath is great at wisdom. I've been here. I'd be better than Merrick. Oh, she's neutral. That's actually not so bad. Just flat zero. Oh, it's intelligence. Why not? God, I love you, Elorath. Can Evelyn also try? Yeah, please. Because he's behind Merrick. Oh, wow. Aw, you and Merrick have been hanging out a lot. Okay, I guess I got to roll something then. Oh, there we go. Oh, there he goes. Someone. Oh, my God. He's the only one who knows. I help back with Jodie, right? That's true. Okay, cool. I just want to double check.

Yeah. So, okay. I would say Elorath and Varys would definitely piece this together. It would be a pretty quick, like, just, it would be, it's like, wait, tiefling, human, goliath. I'd say the goliath and minotaur got to stick out, right? Because you see tieflings and humans and dwarves everywhere. The goliath and the minotaur are like, okay, wow, that's, what are the odds of two of them traveling in the same, like, it's got to be them, right? I thought the minotaur wasn't part of the royals. Yeah. Wasn't it goliath, human, tiefling, dwarf? Oh, the minotaur's there.

Mmm, suspicious. I'm going to add that. I'm with you. Judgment. Do you know what it is? It's a stealth minotaur. It's, this minotaur is an assassin. So when he puts his hood up on his cape, like, you just can't see him. Oh, okay. He blends in with tapestries and shit. Like he just... Tapestries. Actually, minotaur thinks that's what happens. So it's like, put it up and it's like, they can't see me. It's Drax. Oh, right. Yeah, exactly. See, I was picturing him like Kronk from the Emperor's New Groove where he's just like against the wall. [Singing] God, he's even got his own theme song.

Oh, man. So, yeah. For those of you who don't know, this group is called the Royals. They are a fairly, a fairly well-known group of adventurers. And they're not just adventurers. They're, they're not really adventurers for hire because they've, they've gained enough local fame and power. That they basically just go after things that they might want. They're pretty much gloryhounds. They are very much in, in it to make a name for themselves. So they're looking for lost artifacts. They're looking for ancient abandoned ships that maybe sunk off the coast or whatever.

They want to be able to say, "Oh, we're the ones who did that." And they've made a career basically off of doing jobs that other people just could not accomplish. So they looked around and it's like, "Oh, how long has that been there?" And it's still undiscovered or it's still lost. Well, we're going to go be the ones to, to dig it up or find it. They are in Uminero because they're prepping for their next journey. And Iris, I believe was the one who told you that they were, they were essentially bragging about it in, in Altmore. They're very loud and boisterous people.

And they're essentially very work hard, play hard. So when they're on the clock, they're exceedingly good at what they do. They're also kind of dicks about it because... I was going to say, you've left out some pretty important things. I'm getting to it. So the way Group C knows about the Royals is because... How do we know about the Royals? Well, you, you went spelunking in a tomb dedicated to Vecna. And there is, there was a, there was an ancient lost sword there called the Finger of Vecna, which should have been in a beautiful velvet padded box at the end of this trap ladened, terrible rotting tomb.

Now you dealt with all the traps and you dealt with all the rot and you dealt with the mummies and the skeletons and all that. And you got the box, but there's no sword in it. But there was a note telling you, oh man, better luck next time. The Royals, like they signed it and everything, they're dicks. But to them, to them, it's like a friendly competition with other adventurers. I don't think you guys see it that way. Well, friendly if you're setting the traps back up. Right. That's what I was going to say. Number one and number two, I don't want to, does this sound like the group C and this particular party has the same feeling that Merrick does.

Merrick just simply, it's just like, okay, it's on. I don't even care. It didn't even exist. It's basically, you know, when you go to a store and you've got the little, the stuff that's right up next to the register and you're like, oh, impulse buy. It's that same feeling of like, oh, I didn't know this existed. Now we're mortal enemies and I'm going to make sure, not I'm not going to kill them or anything, but just they aren't going to get away with whatever they want to do next. Like this is now my new mission. Gotcha. Okay. That makes sense. Does it? Does it really?

I mean, to me, it makes sense. I could see both sides of it. You both have good points. So getting back to the moment at hand, you guys are, they're traveling back toward the library. You guys are leaving the library and you guys bump into each other. Avalon and Merrick would not put two and two together. It would just be like, oh, whatever. It's yeah, no problem. Sorry. Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry. What? Sorry. Excuse me. Like as we're moving by each other. Oh, okay. I thought- Not you. I'm so used to you telling me to shut up. I'm just, I'm ready for it. Now, Elorath and, uh, Elorath and Varus would, would instantly know.

It's like, um, they're the people we've been looking for. Not actively necessarily, but you're definitely keeping an eye out for them. Yeah. So, so Varus would immediately just go like, uh, I'm sorry, and then put his hands on the back of Merrick and just like, oh, we need to keep going. Keep going, right? Yeah. Just keep going right around the corner. Yeah. Yep. Let's keep going. Like he's just gonna, he's, he's gonna feel like, yeah, yeah, of course. Like, what a bunch of bullshit. Let's just keep going. Let's move. Um, Elorath would probably stand there like pointing at their backs like, and look at the party like, um, no.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Come here. Come Elorath. Come on. Don't, I'm coming. Nope. Nope. Come on. Nope. You're pointing down at his feet. Come on. Yes, I agree. Oh, son. Okay. So I feel like they would stand there for just a, just a couple of seconds and here's, okay. Their leader is this tiefling fellow. I don't want to call him egotistical, but after he runs into you, he almost thinks he's going to have to sign an autograph or something. That's how, that's, it's like, yes, it is me. Like it's kind of that, like it's, it's, it, so if you guys are acting as if you don't know who they are, there's going to be a moment where it's like, really?

Oh, okay. That's fine. Like, it's not, he's not angry or anything. He's just, he's a little shocked that you don't know who they are. It's, it's, I mean, you must not get out much is, is what he's thinking. So he's going to kind of give a little finger guns and, and, and be on his way. Oh, I hate him. Let's just say I'm really glad that Merrick doesn't know this is happening because I think it would become worse. Can I ask a totally out of character question? Are there barriers to this floating city as in like a dome of sorts? How do you mean? Like to keep people from falling off?

Yes. No. Cool. No. Totally out of character, not warranted at all. I mean, there are, there are viewing portals and things like that where you can go there set up for it, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's different. But like, other than like a little, maybe what, waist high railing? Well, okay. The city's not, the city has been kind of retrofitted so that you'd have to do some work to get to the quote unquote outdoors and throw somebody off if that's what you're after. I mean, I'm not saying that. That's a stretch, geez. I'm just saying like, not you, but an enterprising and perhaps opportunistic adventurer who might want to.

I'm just saying it's not like a floating snow globe with like a literal dome atop. No, no, no, no, no, no. Boy, I almost made a Saint Elsewhere reference and no one was going to get that. Oh, I'm with you though. Yeah? Okay. Yeah. There is just the imagination of an autistic child. Oh, such a Saint Elsewhere. Well, I am aware of that. Wikipedia exists, Nancy. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Okay. Okay. Well, if Varys is going to be like, nope, no, no, nope. She's not so thrilled about the pointing at his feet kind of thing. Like, come here boy. And I'm like, oh no, I don't like that.

But I feel like... Yeah, that was more of like the last straw of like, no, no, we're not doing this right now. Come over here. It's like, not a child. Just short. Wow. Can I say, so this, since we played, since we played last, I've been assuming that Merrick would realize that this, that these were the royals. Yeah. And this changes everything for me. This is great. I love it. Within a second too. That was, wow. Prize. So let's continue on with you guys and then we'll catch up with the royals and we'll catch up with the research center and everything like that.

But you're heading back towards Tamlin, who is essentially, when you arrive in Uminyuro, there's kind of this foyer and it's like a greeting center. That's where you get pamphlets and maps and stuff like that. And he's basically there to just answer questions. And you are on your way back there. Is, would Varus explain why he wanted everyone to keep moving? So he would act like nothing's wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong. Probably just give like a little like, so I picture Elorath kind of falling behind and then at one point he just looks back and like puts his finger over his lips and just, no, it's okay.

And then as soon as they get outside of like the research center area, he's going to stop Merrick and then put his hands on each shoulder. The royals are here. Like very super serious. Merrick's just going to look straight in Varus's face, very, no emotion at all. You saw the royals. Yes. Yeah, I was going to say Elorath will be like, we just ran into them. And like gesture angrily back down the hallway. Wait, what do you mean? Varus is going to turn over to Elorath and be like, well, I didn't want anything to happen there. So we, I want to make sure that nothing's going to happen.

Well, but we're here to find them. Here to find them, yes. Here to start something, no. Well, you are here. I'm confused. Where did you see them? The people that we bumped into, like right down the hallway when we first went to leave. That was them. You didn't notice the minotaur and the goliath? They're huge. I thought we were rushing because the spall tickets expire soon. Oh, honey. Merrick, his eyes are going to blink a few times. Like he's processing. Gears are going in his brain. He's probably a little overwhelmed. He's going to, here's what he's going to be thinking.

First of all, wait a minute. We just bumped, those were the royals? Hang on. I'm so blind to what I need to get done here in my mind that I, so he's starting to get pissed and I'm going to actually preemptively say this is going to stress him out a little bit. Is it now? I mean, I don't want to do that to everybody, but I think, yeah. But you did that to everybody. I did. But imagine, like it's like, well, the royals, we just bumped into the royals and I just, hang on, hang the fuck on. I imagine that his heart's going to start pounding at least a little bit.

To the spa. Hurry. Well, everybody at home, that means that I'm going to have to ask you to roll a d4 that counts as built up stress, and it's going to eat away at essentially a health bar that when depleted turns you into a werewolf. Basically, that's how werewolves work in Theria. You get stressed out and you just lose control. So I have your number of total stress points. Obviously, I can't tell you that, but you know I have. I do. I do. And you know, you can all have it in the Adventurer's Guide to Theria Volume 1 Preview because the mechanics of lycanthropy and that health system are there.

Here's the d4. Oh, wow. Okay, so let's shave off three of those points. Man, it's really comfy down here in the library. Okay, so this is definitely going to, his heart's going to be pounding a little bit, like just the rush of adrenaline, just thinking that his whole aspect of, I mean, it's like silly, but it's silly and vindictiveness, right? But it's, he's taking it very seriously. Just the rush of adrenaline is going to get to him a little bit, and he's going to, he's going to try to shake it off. Okay, wait, you know what? We knew they were going to be close.

We knew that they were on their way to where they're going and we want to try to head them off in the past. That's not completely surprising. Okay, okay, that's fine. That's fine. It's not like we need to talk to them. That's not the point. But we definitely know that we're starting the race at the same time as of right this second. So we don't have much time to lose. True. How about that spa? What? Don't you want to get like your sword from him? Or I guess not your, but you know what I'm, you know, the sword. The sword. Oh, it is his sword. Okay. Are we close to that sort of front area where there's like, there's like, I imagine it's kind of like a cafe, right?

There's like chairs, seats that you can sort of like get your bearings, check the map out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I imagine kind of the setup of like a food court. Yeah. Where there's just tables everywhere and it's basically, Uminir is such a big place that it's essentially like, okay, let's, let's plan out our route. Kind of like going to Disneyland, right? So it's, you got your pamphlets and your maps. It's like, okay, I want to go visit the wand district because I need a new wand. And it's, that makes it sound like Harry Potter. It's really not. So while you'd be in this area, there are people kind of hawking their wares and in Uminiro knowledge is something that can be sold, right?

So you have people who are conjuring flames in the background. It's all very contained. It's not, they're not just like whipping flames out of a crowd, but they're, they're kind of juggling fire or they're, you know, casting frost into the air to kind of show off that type of thing. So it's, it's very carnival barker. Wherever there's a place where we could all sit, just like sort of huddle up a little bit and, and in a corner or, you know, up against the wall somewhere. So it's not like in the middle of the food court, but like in the side of the food court, right?

Marist is just going to gesture like, like let's, let's regroup. Hang on. We got to, there's a lot of things going on right now. And the last thing I need right now are a lot of loose ends. He's going to, he's going to, I think, visibly look a little bit like he's flustered and trying to manage it. So everybody, I don't think, I think just passive perception, people would be able to tell that. Okay. So presuming that we were able to find a place to sort of huddle up, sit down for a second, he's going to look at everybody and say, okay, let's, let's level set.

Let's get grounded. He's going to look at Varus. He's going to say, okay, I've hyped this up. I, I may exaggerate. I want to be clear. The sword isn't mine. They didn't steal it from me. But what they did do was take it after we came close to death a couple of times. And that was our reward. Let's put it that way. That's how we could have seen it. And we opened it up. And there's a note from the Royals. Varus, here's the worst part. This place was filled with traps. They set the traps back when they left. And you put that together with the smugness of the people that evidently we just bumped into.

I feel like even on principle, they owe somebody something. So the sword, it's fine. The sword kicked it off. But it's not about the sword. It's about those gates. It's about whatever they want next. I really want to get them to not have it. I want to take it from them first. Is that? Does that make sense? Yeah. You lied to me? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Varus. He's going to put his hand on Varus's knee and lean forward. No, there's no lying going on. I'm not trying to lie to you. In fact, I'm trying to be clear now. I'm trying to make sure it's super clear that these are people who don't deserve the things they get all the time.

And we deserve to let them not get what they want. Am I making any? Oh, Varus. He's just going to look really. Yeah, that that makes sense. But I don't get why you would need to lie to me. I mean, is that what an intern's for? And he's going to like look over to Avalon. Oh, and it's scratching his head. Merrick's going to look at Elrath. She's going to have like her in panic. She's going to have her arms folded over her chest and she's going to be like, OK, so I don't know if it was like a lie so much as like he didn't correct you. No, he flat out told me. But like, no, what?

He he just told me it's in my notes that that's what he told me. Oh, because I'm sitting here kind of thinking like the same thing as you, where it's like I want to punch him in their faces and get that sword back. But like, I guess I see where you're coming from there. But like, no, I don't even know what an intern is, to be honest with you. So I don't think that's your role, though. Merrick's going to be shaking his head like, no, no, no, that's not an intern's role. Where are we supposed to be meeting up? What do you mean? Wasn't like later today we were supposed to have dinner or something?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What's what's the name of that place? Was it? Well, there are two places that you could go and I guess it I guess from a dietary standpoint, it all depends on preference. So there is a vegan restaurant and there's something more catered to meat eaters. So there's apple cadaver and alica ham. OK, sorry. OK, so if we want to just kind of like. OK, so I kind of thought like I'm all for the gates, she's like her hands are on the table because she's trying to find the word so hard, just like I am right now, because she's not she has a history of not being very good with words.

So she's trying real hard. OK, I kind of thought we were after like the sword and a punch him in the face for like almost killing us and stuff with that temple. And then also to like the gate and the ship and stuff. So I guess we just are going to focus on maybe more of like the gate and the ship and stuff and not so much the sword. America's got a look broken at like devastatedly like like you. She's she's not like trying to be like angry about it. She's just like trying to recalibrate. If that makes any sense. She's like, OK. Oh, no. Here's just going to stand up.

I'll meet you guys at dinner. And he's going to walk away. Barrick's not even going to try to stop him, honestly. But Barrick's going to look really, really bad, like feels really bad. This is this is exactly what you can imagine, like being caught up in your own whatever for a long time and kind of just expecting everybody to be doing whatever and just kind of going along with it and just being excited and then realizing that it's you've been kind of. It's all been about you. Hmm. Hey, I don't mean to ruin the moment. Do it. Merrick, could you do me a favor?

Give me another stress die roll. Oh, no, I did this to you. No, no, no. Eric did this to himself. Oh, Jesus, stop rolling three. I'm trying. Oh, boy. At this point, I'm going to say that Merrick feels it, right? Like Merrick is pretty visibly stressed, like you could like it's probably that fingers on his temples type of thing or like rubbing the bridge of his nose like, oh, my God, like that. That like it's it's building up. And honestly, when most people do that, it's not a big deal. I guess knowing what you know about Merrick, it's probably slightly a bigger deal.

Mm hmm. If that's happening, Evelyn's going to put his hand on Merrick's shoulder and he's going to say. It's all right, Merrick, everything's going to be OK. Lying isn't that bad a big deal. Oh, my God. There are worse things like death and destruction. You didn't do any of those things, so. Varys will be OK. OK, well, I'm going to go get him referring to Varys, but like just so we're clear, like I don't think you were lying. OK, so try not to worry about that. I think he just had a wrong impression. And I think we all maybe weren't on the same page. OK, so I'm going to go get him and we'll meet you at that ham place.

Merrick's going to get Alakaham. Alakaham. Ham. OK. And I don't know if she could even say that. Ham. I'll go get him if you're OK. And I think it's OK. Merrick's going to, Merrick's going to lean forward again. He's being super sincere. Elrath, I didn't mean to. But I think I did lie to him. It wasn't a lie lie, but making it be about me and about what I wanted and kind of just not given all the details, especially to somebody like Varys who. This isn't his world. This isn't what he's used to. That might as well have been a flat out lie. And I. That ain't that ain't good.

So I owe him a big apology. Don't make don't sugarcoat it and don't try to make me feel better about it. I. He didn't deserve that. She's not good with her feelings, but she's going to like grab your hand and she's going to squeeze it like, hey. I know you didn't mean to to do that. OK, we're good. I think he'll be good. I think, like you just said, he's a baby for for this. And she's going to kind of gesture into the air like all this. I think he'll be OK. I don't think you were bad. OK. He's going to he's soaking it in. He's not ignoring it or dismissing it, but he's not going to reply to that specifically.

He's just going to he's going to he's going to look at Evelyn. He's going to nod his head a little bit and then look at Evelyn and say. Maybe those maybe those spa coupons might be useful. What do you think? I agree. You should definitely lead the way. I'm going to I'm going to meet you there. Elrath, are you going to you going to take part of this? I'm going to go after him, make sure he's OK, because like he's on his own. I don't know if he's ever been on his own. Yeah. This is not the place to be on your own in a way. Oh, OK. I did. I'll meet you at the spa.

And if I don't see you at the spa, I'll see you at Alakaham. How's that? She'll like pat your hand like there, there. OK, I'm going to take a break. Let's let's go back to the library for a second because we're scattering and I love splitting the party. But let's first go back to the library. So we have Clara and Iris and Jody. Right. So Jody's this researcher. She's you just kind of dropped a lot of paperwork on her desk. So she is in the midst of looking into Elrath's flail and digging into all this new demon lore and knowledge and stuff. And just trying to just trying to help facilitate you guys.

Did you I can't remember. Did you give her a timetable? I know you said it was not urgent, but it was kind of. If you could get this done sooner rather than later, that'd be great. I remember talking about it only from the sense of we wanted to catch up with the royals or at least Merrick did and make sure that we weren't behind. But but there was no I don't think there was any other specific thing mentioned that I remember. OK, so. I would say that Jody would hop back on her desk here and she's probably picking up that flail and looking at it just because that's a physical item.

And she could probably at the very least look look at it and see if there's anything innately magical about it or enchanted or something like that based on what. Two years. Oh, yeah. It's been a long time. So long. For those of you who don't know, Elarath's flail started to glow like two or three real time years ago. And I essentially told Lisa, yeah, yeah, we'll get to it. And it's 2019. So maybe. Yeah, yeah. And it all started with like a conversation not too long after I joined. You're like, there might be something up with your flail, but we'll see the next time you roll a nat 20.

And then it took two years to roll a nat 20. It did. You had a I wouldn't say a bad run of luck. Just not a great run of luck. It was just a slow burn. Now I'm like, yes. Yes. So pumped. Looking into that, how would what would Iris and Clara be doing in here? Would there be something engaging for you to talk about or is it just maybe helping with research where you can? I think Iris received directions to a specific spot, so she probably just went, bye, and went to go look. Oh, just totally bailed. Yeah, just went later. Okay. Claire's probably just doing her best to help.

Okay. So, so I would say, I feel like I should say this in the stream, there is an error on the Kickstarter page and I'm about to cry, but the Sage image is wrong. It says that you get an art print, you don't get an art print with the Sage image, but the sidebar is correct. I'm downloading Gip now to fix it. I'm so glad I found out two seconds before it was my turn to speak in the show, but I'm trying to fix it now. I'm sorry. Dude, forget about it. You're fine. We'll take care of it later. It's fine. When you pledge to the tier, it's labeled there. It's all fine.

Yeah. So I would say about five minutes after everyone else leaves, a group is going to come walking into this research library and they kind of walk in. Do you remember Lord of the Rings when Aragorn pushes both doors? Everyone's seen it a thousand times. There's gifs of it. Yes. Okay, so it's very that. So this tiefling in front is going to push both doors open and kind of strut in with his crew. Completely unnecessary. You don't need to do that. Just open the door and walk in. But yeah, very, very, ugh, just like, I've arrived, that type of thing. Not crazy dickish.

Not loud necessarily, but just the guy's got a presence about him. And he is going to walk right up to Jodie and his crew's kind of behind him and just walk up. And he's going to lean down and whisper something in her ear because she's going to stand up the second he walks in. And she is going to nod, "Yeah, give me one second. I have all your stuff ready to go." And she is going to walk over to the shelf and grab what appears to be just bundles of paper and scrolls and stuff like that. It's all bound up to kind of form this nice little package. And she is going to drop that on the table in front of him.

I think everything you need is right there. Again, I can't thank you enough for your generous donation. It's really going to help us out. Thank you. And I would say this tiefling is only going to respond with kind of a wink and a nod like, "Oh, no problem. No problem." That type of thing. Because his words are very much, "Oh, hey, yeah, not a big deal." But he's almost giving off like the head nod and his hands are almost like, "Yeah, yeah, keep heaping on that praise." So Iris is in the back researching. Mm-hmm. Clara is probably, you said, still helping out with research.

So still up there somewhere. Yeah. What should be to this group? Does Clara remember what Iris said about... Give me a wisdom check. ...the loyals? I'd love to if... There we go. You probably shouldn't run GIMP on a laptop with everything else. Yeah, that's fair. I'm trying not to freak out about it. I really am. Seriously, it's fine. Literally two seconds before you were like, "We're going back to the library." I had all that time to fix it. That's when I saw that I got tagged on Discord. It's fine. Everything's fine. Like cutting back to the library, by the way, you fucked up everything, you dumb piece of shit.

Or... How about that, huh? Or... There's a minor mistake and it's fixable. Completely. So a wisdom check, you say? I did. Unlike me, because I'm not very wise. Oh, shut up. Is a wisdom check a save or... No, it's a check. Okay, where are the checks? On the left hand side. Okay, I'm just gonna double click this and see if it happens. Jesus. Whoa! Ooh. That made me feel better. So I giggled like a cartoon character. Good God. Good God. Yeah, so Clara's definitely gonna, definitely gonna know who these people are. I would say instantly. As soon as they walk in again, they stick out like a sore thumb, but they're not trying to hide, now are they?

Right. So... Yeah, Clara would know instantly exactly who they are. Um... Okay. Since she's paying attention, could she also maybe notice anything about the packet that was handed to them a moment ago? You know what, give me a little perception check. Oh... Perception. Clara's not perceptive. But she is! She's slightly, little bit... I would say that you did the very least know that this appears to be, uh, this appears to be a hell of a lot of research material. So you do know what they're after. And the Royals are essentially, uh, to catch everybody up who might not remember their motivations or whatever, or if you're new, the Royals are out to be the first people in the world to hear that alarm go off.

I'm so sorry, I meant to turn that off, I already gave Sammy his kill, I've ruined everything. Let's just cancel the kickstart. You know what, let's do Theory-a-Thon next week. Next week? Honestly, I feel like at this point we should just give it a take too. Cut our losses. Yeah, I saw a cloud earlier too, so like, let's just postpone the whole thing. Um, so guys, I'm sorry, my cat almost died two weeks ago and now I have to give him pills twice a day. Ugh. Do you feel bad now? Selfish cat is what it is. Yeah, it's basically, real attention horror, let me tell you.

Um, no. So, Jesus, where the hell, oh yeah, so you would know that this is a hell of a lot of research material and essentially what the Royals are trying to do is connect the gates. And there are several of these things scattered throughout the world on different continents. Groups over the years, at least on the show, have found two on Elara, one on each side of the continent. And when these are powered up correctly, which is pretty damn difficult to do, they allow you to teleport from one gate to another, saving you weeks, maybe even months of travel, depending on where you're going.

The problem is, no one can really power these up. That knowledge has just kind of been lost to time. So, if the Royals were to be able to pull this off and just connect all the gates and have them on, Which they won't, but yeah, okay. I mean, if you guys were to stop them, or if they just failed their mission, that's kind of ultimate bragging rights, right? It's like, oh man, it's like, okay, let's say, like, okay, the airplane. Everyone knows who invented the airplane, because it's kind of a big deal. Like, it's like, oh yeah, that's how I'm able to travel coast to coast in like six hours.

That's pretty cool. Like, that's who they want to be. It's like every time someone uses a gate, every time someone safely travels from one place to another, it doesn't have to cross dangerous, deserted forests where they could get ambushed, or a pack of wolves might descend on them, or orcs or something like that. They want to be the ones responsible for that. They want to be infinitely thanked. So, I don't think it would take Clara a lot of brainpower to deduce, it's like, oh, that's probably shit tons of information that they're using. Right. About the gates, probably.

So, what do they do after they get this information? Are they sticking around, or...? Well, his crew are kind of hanging behind him. This guy's definitely leaning up against this desk, maybe not flirting, but he's definitely got an air about him that he's in no hurry. Like, he's just kind of hanging out. And he'd probably look over to you at some point and give the little head nod. There is a human behind him, and she seems a little disconnected from the rest of everything that's going on. She's very much assessing threats, I guess you could say. And she kind of has her head on a swivel, so she's looked Clara up and down a couple of times now.

Oh, hey baby. Not in a "hey baby" way. Well, hold on at first. "Are you going to be a problem" way. And I hate to say it, but Clara has probably gotten this enough to know that it's probably because she's a drow? Probably just... And again, she's not outwardly violent or angry. It's more just kind of keeping an eye on you. It's like, I've heard about your kind. A little bit. Tiny bit. You know what? I was going to have sex with you. No, I'm not. So there. That's a punishment I use all the time, by the way. I use it to win arguments around the... You know what? No sex.

And then I win the argument. Yeah, exactly. Can... I'm trying to figure out what Clara would do. She wants to know what's in that packet. I mean, you could just take it from them. I mean, I could. I mean, just beat them all up. I mean, they're making enough of a spectacle of themselves that I don't think it would be too suspicious for Clara to try to get a closer look. Not like, lean over and be like, "Hey guys, let me see your packet." But like, kind of... How far away are they? Oh, they're pretty damn close. I'd say they're within like five feet of you. Okay, could I just like peek over?

You know, like when you're looking at someone else's computer screen, just like... So cheating. Yeah. Okay. So that would be like an athletics, right? So, okay, there's a couple of different ways we could do this. We could do it more of a subterfugee way where you're trying to get close and take a look. Like if you're striking up a conversation. Or you could just try to like do the old sly like stretch and like, and just kind of steal a look. What if I did a backflip first? I then I think all eyes would be on you and it would make whatever else you're going to do very difficult.

That's fair. I guess maybe she could like go up to Jodie and kind of be like, "Hey, where's that book we were looking for a second ago? Did you find it?" Peek. Gotcha. Okay. Do me a favor. Give me a bluff check. Give me a little like... not bluff. Jesus Christ, we're in fifth edition. But yeah, give me a little subterfugee here. Give me a roll. Wait, subterfugee? No, no, no. I'm sorry. That's not what I'm asking for. That's what you're doing. Give me a deception. There we go. You're using subterfugee is what I'm saying. Sure it's not athletics. I'm rolling, I swear.

I'm pretty sure. That is a 16. So that's pretty damn good. So Jodie would probably be fairly engaged with this gentleman. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm looking into it. They came here first and asked for all of this and they gave a very generous donation. So I just wanted to help them out. And she is going to pat her hand on that stack. The problem is what looks to be wrapped up in here. There's a book, there's a couple of scrolls, there's stuff. Nothing on the outside of it that would be super useful, sadly. You'd have to either wrestle it away from them, but if you had some time to kind of sift through the stack a bit, you'd probably get a lot of info.

Two questions. Number one, you said that the tiefling wasn't flirting with Jodie, right? I wouldn't call it flirting. I think he's too conceited. He's assuming that she's flirting with him. Yeah, a little bit. Like, too inwardly involved to be outwardly engaging. Okay, Clara's going to chat up the group. Okay. Well, you said that so reluctantly. Yeah, Clara's not really a talker. She's not a subterfuger, if you will, despite what some people might think based on her drow-ness. Sorry, dark elf-ness. We're on the show, we can use drow, it's fine. Okay, cool, cool.

So she'll kind of look the tiefling up and down and be like, "That's quite a lot of research you have there." Do you mind if I ask what it's about? He's going to adjust his position so that he's kind of caddy-corner to the table, kind of leaning on it, and face Clara. "What's your name?" And he's going to hold a hand out. Now, the human behind him is going to narrow her eyes and take a half step towards this tiefling. Just a half step, just kind of like... Clara's going to meet the human girl's eyes as she offers her hand, which is still gloved, but her her face mask is down because they're inside.

Clara. He is going to take your hand and just gently shake it, not kiss it or anything like that. Thank God. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, that's not the kind of guy he is. Name's Mav. Short for Maverick. Yeah, that's the kind of guy he is. Of course it is. I love him so much. It's really easy to love NPCs when you're not the one stalking someone. I do that all the time. Like, Travis is one of my fav- no, not Travis, Trent. Trent's cat. One of my favorite characters. That's probably because he's never shown up on our show. Oh, man. Yeah. Hmm. Okay. So I feel like Clara's getting a feel for this guy, right?

Like... I don't think... He's not a subtle gentleman. No, he's not trying to hide anything about who he is. Like, he's very... Yeah. And he has that air about him, like, I'm already important. Yeah. So I think Clara's going to narrow her eyes for a second and be like, "I feel like I've heard that name before." He is going to kind of close his eyes and it's like, "Mm-hmm. I wouldn't be surprised." Oh, I felt the boner. Oh, no. Yeah, it's there. I wouldn't be surprised. This is Faye, and he's going to motion back towards his human compatriot. And he's going to point down the list here.

That's Tark, pointing at the goliath. That's Ebon. And there's this little dwarf guy who could not be less concerned with what's happening here. Just kind of staring off. You can tell he does not give a shit about this place. Very not. Very not interested. And then point to the female minotaur in the back. That's Glory. You probably know us as the royals. And he's going to instantly hold up his hands. I know. I know. It's really not a big deal. We're just like you guys. Oh, man, Clara is just going to do everything in her power to keep her face like...stone smile.

Just like, "Yeah, uh-huh." Would you say that that's something she has to fight? Like it's like there's like she's going against her better instincts here. Like she's definitely putting up a front. You know what? Jasper admitted to being stressed earlier with Marek. I have to admit, yes. Okay. So I'm not going to ask you to roll every time. But when I feel we've reached the breaking point, I'm going to ask for a deception roll. Okay. Alright. Um... That's right. I have heard of the royals. You have amassed quite a reputation. You know, a reputation. Yeah, it doesn't...yep.

Oh, we're dancing in the half-truths now, are we? Yep. I don't technically have to roll, right? Ew. Don't. I hand them a paintbrush or something similar so that they may do things with it. Gross. So yeah, he's again kind of like nod his head along. "Forgive me, but you look like an adventurer yourself. I don't mean to presume." Aw, that's gonna kind of be like, "Aw, that's kind of nice," but then she remembers who he is and is like, "Ew." Because Clara has not been an adventurer for very long, so that makes her feel kind of good. Like, "Oh. Um, yes, I'm actually here with a party, a group of friends of mine.

What are you researching then? Is this your next big adventure?" He is going to kind of raise a finger up to his lips, and he's going to lean in to Clara. "We're gonna be making a little trip off-continent, but don't tell anyone." And he is totally gonna lean back and give little finger guns. A little wink. A little winky face. Man, if he were on any other group and I weren't the one talking to him, I would love this man. "Oh my goodness, off-continent, where are you going?" She's gonna lean against the table and try to use her Feminine Wilds. Oh, give me that deception check.

Her Feminine Wilds. For anyone who's new, Clara is coded head to toe in clothing. Oh man, showing off some ankle. You harlot. Unbutton the first six buttons of your hundred button boots. Shouldn't you have rolled Animal Handling? Oh, burn. Sick. I love it. Thirteen. You know what, I would say, here's the thing, that's probably good enough for Mav. I feel like a four would have been good enough. Right, but like he's so... Yeah, like, okay. Faye is going to step in and put a hand on Mav's shoulder. "We should be going now." Very "Can I speak to your manager?" Very like, you could tell she's probably...

She's probably the one to remind this guy what their schedule is and any... Oh no, she is Brianna. She's colder than a Brianna, I would say. Wow, that takes skill. And he is going to almost mid-sentence, he was probably like, "Oh, well, yeah, you're right. We should probably get going." And he's going to grab this packet of materials here from the desk and first say thank you to Jodie. And then kind of motion to Clara, "If you're floating around out front when we get ready to take off soon, I'd be more than happy to show you around our ship." Go ahead.

Well, okay. If he were to stop there, that would almost sound like, "Hey, we could go back to my place." But he does not stop there. Maybe you could get yourself one when you've been around the block a few times. It's much more braggy than, "Hey, let's go have sex." It's, "He just wants to show off the cool thing he has." Oh my god. Clara's eyes are going to light up at that. Probably not for the reasons he thinks. Oh, you're leaving soon? When are you taking off? He's going to look back to Faye. And Faye's going to give an eye roll. "No later than tomorrow morning.

I'd like to leave tonight." She's going to give Faye another smile and then look back to Mav. Short for Maverick, you know. Short for Maverick? And just give a little half smile. "Maybe I'll see you then." And of course, of course, little finger guns, little winky face. When you smile at Faye, she is going to... Okay, imagine she rolled a 1 on deception. So she'll give you that clenched smile like, "Mm-hmm." Like that smile. It's not a smile, really. It's a "Fuck you?" masked with a smile. And, uh, Jesus. So she is going to get ready and start trying to hurry people out of here.

And they're going to turn and walk away. Can I just really quick, how do you be that racist with your group of people? Like, come on. I mean, here's the thing. Like, you can compare it to real world stuff. Let's not let's not dance on that minefield. Fair enough. But I mean, like, maybe she hasn't met many cool drow. Maybe they've come up against drow that they fought before. Or maybe it could have just been a bad experience or whatever. But she's like, "Yeah, goliaths are cool. Dwarves are cool. Minotaurs get those tieflings cool. But you." Like, it's just like, maybe she hasn't even had one of the "Oh, you're one of the good ones" type of experiences yet.

Like, she's just really out there. Goodness. Goodness gracious. What a bitch. Anyway. We all kind of split up a bit. So it appears as though Varys walked off and Elorath is trailing behind to catch up with him. And I believe Aveline followed Elorath? He wasn't told to, so he just kind of stood there. I thought he was going to the spa with Marek. Oh, he was going to, but Marek said he wanted to be alone. So Aveline just was like, everyone split off. Oh, okay. Oh, fantastic. Yeah, Marek will meet you guys at the spa. And if not there, then at Alakaham. Okay, fantastic.

Even better. So we got a completely split party, which means I potentially get to do some really fun things. So first off, Marek, I need you to roll a flat d20 for me. I need to see the percentage chance basically of something happening. Okie dokie. Here we go. Alright. Oh, good. Okay. Aveline, could you do me the same? Totally. Thank you. Perfect, perfect, perfect. And finally, Varys. Oh, that was almost a 20. So close. Not quite though. Okay, let's catch up with Varys. So Varys is, he did, okay, I don't want to say walked away in a huff, almost stormed out, just very, I need to be alone.

That type of thing. Everyone needs to be alone. Yeah, he needs to think a little bit. Yeah, Elorath is going to give chase. And how would Elorath approach Varys? Um, sorry, I'm trying to think. I think like, if he didn't get too far in like that minute or so until she started chasing him, I think she'd probably just be like, you know, "Hey, wait up, hang on." Sorry, it's hard to kind of yell at her voice like that. Because what I want to do is like put it in a higher pitch so it carries but she doesn't really have a higher pitch. So she's like, "Wait for me!" And it's just really nice.

I'm melting! So that should probably just, you know, call out his name if, if she can and try to not approach him aggressively, but she'd be like, "Hey, hey, you know, you okay?" Hey, hey, Elorath. Yeah, I'm fine. I don't know. I'm on my way to one of the viewing ports. You want to join? Do they have them for like littles? Because yes. Yeah, we'll find them. She's also very interested like on the railing thing. I just want that out there. Yeah, we'll find something. Sure. Let's go look. And then it would probably be like super quiet, kind of like awkward quietness between the two of them as they start to find one of these viewing ports.

And I'm guessing that they would be able to find something. Oh, God, yeah, they're kind of scattered everywhere, depending on what view you're after. So one of the nicest ones is actually fairly close to where Tamlin is. So if you were to hang a left, there are almost these pods that you can walk out onto, and you're sort of suspended over nothing. It's completely enclosed in glass. It's reinforced, but you can actually look over the continent of Elorath. So you can see a lot of the Upper East Coast. So below you, you can see waves crashing against rocks and you can like it is a beautiful, beautiful setting.

It's just you're really, really high up. Okay, so he wouldn't even hesitate. He would just walk straight over top of it and then just starts looking down, not even out into everything, just looking down as if like, you know, right before we came just looking at the viewing deck, probably a little bit more silence. And then he'll finally speak up. Does Merrick do this a lot? No, no, it's just been like, okay, so I forget, did we do like a data dump with Varys when he joined about like the sloth fever and being in... Yeah, so that was where like Merrick took me aside and it was just the two of us.

Okay. And so he gave me the data dump there. Okay, so she'll probably just be like, okay, so ever since we kind of left, like on a call, you know, we've just been kind of like not... The only mission we really had was like to deliver a message after I was like sick and stuff. So I don't know if like it was meant to be like a lie per se. I just think that we, you know, having a goal got real excited, you know, and so it kind of became like a thing. Yeah, but there's so much information to persuade me. Why go that far to make a lie? I don't know. As far as like it, the lying part.

Most of it was based around this sword, that it was his sword, and that's where it all stemmed from. And then you guys went chasing them and then, you know, found that the traps were set up, but everything was based around this sword. And then now it's not anything to do with the sword. It's more about the Royals being a dick. Okay, because like for me it was... But you weren't there. Okay, so like for me, that's kind of what it's always been about is them being kind of like a dick. And the sword for me was like down here. And she's going to kind of like gesture.

Move her hand down. But you weren't there. So I guess when he was telling you, it became more of like the sword up here and less about the people, right? Yeah. No, I get that. It's just everything was so centered around this sword and that they stole the sword from him. The sword was his. And that's not at all what it was. I mean, it's been a big part of it, though. So it's not like he was lying about that. I think there was just more, you know, but like maybe he thought that like, oh, this one bit will be enough to do it. Yeah, I could see that. It just seems like he's trying to manipulate me.

Oh, I didn't think about that. But I mean, does this is this his thing? Is this what he does? No, no, I just think I think when he used because like we picked him up in a restaurant and he'd been there for like two years and I think that he might be like used to being like a leader. So like maybe that was part of it. And he's just like he gets like real excited about stuff. So like, no, I don't think he's trying to manipulate anybody. I just think he's got his priorities that are a little different than maybe mine or like the whole group. OK. No, that makes sense.

I get it. I don't know. I think I just need to think about it a little bit. OK. Can I hang with you or do you want me to leave? No, no, stay here. I mean, this is amazing. Yeah, it's weird being this tall and she's like staring at the floor. She's like, I don't see things from up here very often. Well, I mean, this I don't think any of us do really. Did I tell you I got to ride a mammoth once? I was so tall. She's like got her arms spread out in her head. Where was a mammoth at? How long ago was this? Oh, my God. It was right before we got to the city and his name was Biggin and she's going to tell him the whole story about it.

OK. I think that's where like the camera can kind of peel back as we're just going to different stories. Can I? OK, Avalon, I need to ask a question and please tell me yes. Did Avalon just sit in this food court area? OK, so so he's in the food court area, right? And everyone split off and Merrick said meet you at the spa. So he's thinking I have to get to the spa. So he's going to sit down on like a bench or something for like 10 minutes. Then he's going to get up, start walking around and asking people where the spa is. Gotcha. OK. And I would imagine there'd be almost like the the you are here maps that you'd see in malls and stuff like that, because the city's a little just just it's huge and it's so easy to get turned around.

So while Avalon is asking around, an elderly man is going to walk up to Avalon, human, really old, like probably in his 80s hunched over. And he is going to grab Avalon by the hand. You. What's your name? My name is Avalon. Good, good. Come with me. And he is going to start walking in a different direction with Avalon. Avalon wholeheartedly thinks he knows exactly what his situation is and he's going to the spa. OK. And as he's walking away, you just hear like, I have free tickets to the spa. And this this old man. Is only kind of half listening to you. What?

Free tickets to the spa. He is going to stop. And he is going to be very hardcore examining Avalon like, OK, like old timey doctor, like opening your eyes, you're like peeling back your eyelids with his he's like looking into your eyes. Are you damaged, young man? I don't think so. Nothing's tried to kill me lately. Good, good. I can't use you if you're damaged. All right. I can deal with this. Come with me. I always wanted to help. He is going to keep dragging you then. So, Marek. Let's catch up with Marek. We're going to be doing a lot of hopping back and forth now, I could tell.

So, Avalon's been kidnapped. We'll get back to that. Jesus. This is just to clarify, I do think that this is when we all learn like, shit, Avalon needs special attention. Yeah, this is lost toddler in the mall stuff. We're like, it used to be Ethan's job and we haven't, we don't know yet who is supposed to take over, you know, and it was going to happen. But now I'm sad. There's so many things right now. Aww. So let's let's catch up with with dear sweet Marek here. How's Marek feeling? Because you kind of got a lot dropped on you when Varus left. Yeah, I honestly think not to back up on any of the points for werewolf stuff.

It's less stress and more he just feels really bad. He realizes he's going through that whole process of like, wow, I was being super selfish and or and you know, like Varus said a minute ago about being, you know, is he manipulating me? I think Marek is thinking that same thing. Like was I was I manipulating? Did I mean to? I wasn't meaning to do it. But I guess I kind of was just cutting to the chase and giving the story that I thought would be the easiest to tell. But oh, man, maybe that is manipulative. Maybe that's the definition of me. Like that kind of thought.

Like he's just going around in circles around that. So he's just feeling bad. That said, he's he's not he's he's he's dealing with that in the back of his head, but he's still on a mission. He's actually not he's not just wandering around to get his breath. He's just like, I'm going to take care of this on my own real quick. He's got a task he wants to do. OK, and that's heading back to Tamlin. Yeah, he's he's really needs to get to Tamlin. OK, so it's going to take you a little bit like 10 minutes or so. But yeah, you're back to the the original foyer looking thing that that half circle where the teleporter is.

Is Tamlin around with his tiny glasses? Tamlin's always around. Tamlin's at that front podium ready to greet people. So he's probably actually just wrapping up with a lovely couple stopping in to Uminero. And he would he would turn around and see Merrick and and say, oh, how are you doing? Hi, Tamlin. Actually, question for you, Jason. Just knowing, you know, there's a lot of history of Merrick knowing Tamlin and having lived for a while in Uminero, etc. Is he would he be able to speak frankly with Tamlin and feel like he's kind of got a buddy or is it is it still a very professional type relationship?

He's a very professional guy. But like, OK, are you more inferring he might tell somebody about your stuff? No, I mean more like could does Merrick need to how do I put it like. OK, like there's a there's a person who who is at the front desk of a building and you can't get in unless you like give your ID to get in the building. But like if you go in every day and it's like, you know, the kind of person they're like, you go on ahead, you know, don't worry about it. And you can help. How's your how's your family doing? That kind of relationship? Absolutely.

Yeah, definitely that kind of camaraderie where he would like he would ask like he'd probably know one or two things about your personal life. He'd always ask like, you know, he knows you like sports. It's like, oh, the human Euro Raiders did really well. OK, I'm just trying to see if it was if it was worth him. Basically, there's two ways to go about it for him. But anyway, let's get back to Tamlin. He's going to say, hey, Tamlin. Listen, time is of the essence right now for a lot of reasons. I really need your help. And I I you know me well enough, I wouldn't ask you to make it a priority if it didn't matter.

And I'll definitely make sure that, you know, I owe you one. I need some something from you. I'm going to find out a ledger of the ships that are in the port right now and the captains of each of those ships. And is that something that you would be able to get for me pretty quickly? I think. Do you know what? I feel like that's probably not necessarily confidential information, but definitely out. It's not it's a regular. Right. Like it's like, oh, I need manifests for everything, that type of thing. And I think he I think he would be very clear. Well, I can't tell you what's on those ships, of course.

Absolutely. I'm there's a whole story here, Tamlin. The the big issue is that I'm trying to find some transportation and I want to see if there's anybody that I might already know or anything familiar that's in the port. I don't want to know what anybody's carrying. I'm simply just wanting to find a ride. I think he would completely understand after that. And he would tell you, I'll get right on it. Don't even worry about it. Kind of like a wink and a nod. It's like, don't worry, I got you. Cool. And actually, before you go, Tamlin. There's are you familiar with the Royals?

He's just he's going to lean forward a little bit and it's going to be like, yeah, yeah, I bet you are. But you familiar with the Royals? He would totally like, oh, sure. Yeah. What's your read on them? Give me a scale of one to 10 on how much you think they're great people. He's getting to the this is the familiarity that I'm looking for here, if there is any. It's more like like, what do you think about the Royals, dude? For real? Like, you know what I'm going to do? Here's what I'm going to do. So obviously he interacted with the Royals when they came in.

I'm going to roll a flat d20. The higher the number, the better the Royals treated Tamlin. The lower the number, the more disregard and kind of flippantly they like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And kind of brushed him off. Yeah, it's his last recent interaction with them. Like, how good was that? Exactly. So let's let's do that. Low roll, low roll. Am I doing it? You're doing it. You're doing it. Oh, my God. I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, oh, my God. OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK. Uh, yeah. So let's play this out real quick. So, you know, Tamlin, how do you feel about the Royals?

So Tamlin's a guy who kind of prides himself on his professional stance and the way he carries himself. But he definitely would lean in. He'd lean into Merrick. And he probably doesn't use foul language. But if he did, he would definitely get close to Merrick. So no one is like, let me tell you about this fucking guy. Like just very it's like, oh, let me dish. Let me tell you all about it. It's like and he would probably tell you, it's like, oh, yeah, we got a bunch of stuff together for him and he just kind of expected it like they did. And he's I think he would describe it as like, I don't know if he knew he was being rude, but he was being very rude.

OK, OK, good. This is exactly oh my God, it's perfect. OK. Merrick is is going to I don't know what the setup is like exactly. I know that there are a lot of people around, but I know we're getting closer, right? You know, like we're sort of under the. Yeah, I think he has like a little like a like a little concierge post. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A front desk situation. I'm going to go around this kind of like to the side. So he's kind of pulling him away from in other words, he's occupying Tamlin. Right. And he's kind of pulling off to the side a little bit so that they can whisper a bit.

Right. He's going to say, listen, Tamlin, I you are of everyone I've ever met in human euro and pretty much everywhere else. You are a consummate professional. And I want to give you that credit right now. Also, I need to ask a favor and you tell me if there's anything that can be done about it. These assholes want to do something. You know what they do, right? And they go around and they make the name for themselves and they're awful people when they when they do it. Clearly, I really just want them to take a hit. Just one hit. I just want them to feel what it is like to just swing in this right.

Right now, they're headed somewhere to go do a thing that's going to make them the biggest name for generations. People are going to be talking about them. I don't want that to happen. And I just. I need to slow them down. That's all I don't wish them any ill will. Physically, but I definitely want them to fail just once. This one's a big one. And now's our chance. Now, Dylan, I know you've got strings, and again, I would never ask anything if it weren't the most important thing ever this ever happened. But how can we slow them down? And I get the feeling they're going to be taken off from the port pretty soon.

OK, here's the problem. He agrees with you. He likes you. And I would say he's. He's at a crossroads. He wants to help his buddy, Merrick, out. And you've been nothing but nice. I imagine you tip during holidays, that type of thing like you. Oh, my God. You remember his birthday? Oh, you know, if I if if Merrick comes in and he had a dozen donuts, he'd stop to him first and say, pick your pick the one you want on the way to work. You know, that kind of thing. So here's what I want to do. One, this will help. This will help make Tamlin's decision a little easier or a little harder.

I want you to roll a d20 with a plus five modifier to see how well you've treated him. Oh, I like sometimes you're busy. Sometimes you just don't think sometimes. But yeah, this is with a plus five modifier. Trying to focus on not not stressing out or something like that to be a little bit of rust or something. Oh, man. If this goes super low, I'm going to be so disappointed. OK, here we go. But even if it's super low, it's still better. Wait, that was a minus minus five. I hit the wrong. It's a 16. It's a 16. OK, do you want me to roll again or do you mean to leave?

No, OK, no, no, you're fine. Sixteen is great. Again, you were competing with a one. Like if you wrote a one, it's still a six. And it's like, well, you treat me less shitty than he does. Sixteen times nicer. That's a good point. Yes, that's 16 times. Yeah. So here's the problem. He's he's got a reputation and like he doesn't want to muck things up too much. So I need you to do me a favor and I need you to roll a persuasion check. However, because of how nice you treated him over the years, I want you to do it with advantage. OK, I'm doing it. Wolf, oof, a nine.

We dropped the one. OK, that's fair. OK, this is like him. Mary's clearly desperate and clearly also knows that it's ridiculous what he's asking. And he's saying like, paperwork, bureaucracy, I don't anything like just something to slow them down. What are they going to get to the fireworks factory? Exactly. He's going to pull Merrick in extra close, right? He's going to whisper in Merrick's ear. Well, they've never actually paid their their port charges. I suppose I could hold them up for a day or two. Oh, America is like getting super excited. If he had a tail, it would be wagging.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm sure that probably takes a while to get fixed, especially when it has to be probably approved paperwork in triplicate, all kind of things. They won't be too happy about this, though. And he's going to look at him and be like, do you care? Basically referring to the one, the role of the one. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's going to kind of glance over to the side like, like he's going to catch shit for it. But at like at the same time, it's like, fuck them. He is also. He is going to kind of, I said, give you the finger. He's going to give you an index finger, like, hold on one second.

And he's going to write, he's going to write some stuff down. And he's going to hand you a list of the boats, the ships currently docked at the Uminyur port below. And he's going to hand that to you and just kind of give you like a, OK, scoot, get out of here before I get in trouble, like that type of thing. Maric is going to do the he's going to put his hands like like a prayer hands emoji, and he's going to be like, Timlin, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is going to come back to you tenfold. So he's he's going to just get a very understanding nod, just like that.

So if this helps you, awesome. To him, it's a Tuesday. Like it's very like it's like, yeah, I mean, I guess we could hold them up like I normally wouldn't do that because there's no reason to. But if this means that much to you, awesome. So before we jump away from Maric, there are four ships currently docked. Now, the ships in Theria are classified in six different sizes. There are very small fishing fishing boats which can range all the way down to like dinghies, basically up to, you know, two, three, four passenger very, very small boats. They're just meant to go out a certain ways and fish.

I would not try to to do an intercontinental trek in one of those. There are keel boats, which are a little bigger, sailing ships, which are exactly what they sound like, long ships, warships, which are massive, and herc ships, which are essentially star destroyers. Like, like get that out of your mind. You're probably it depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking to buy a ship, probably buy a ship. You're looking for something in the fishing tequila boat range, but you might be able to hitch a ride on a sailing ship. But you'd have to find somebody who's going the exact way you are or hire them to go that way.

That's most likely that that's the that's the goal right now is to try to find someone that we could convince to go or hire them to go or whatever might be necessary. OK, let me write some stuff down here. Yeah, it's not like we have any money, but I swear to God, I have a plan. I that's not a desperate but sure. I swear. I swear to God. Just give me five more days to come up with the money. So there are four ships docked. There's a so, OK, the sailing ships. These are the largest ships that they have currently docked. And obviously the splendid superior, which is the royal ship.

It's it's pretty damn. It's it's pretty damn big. It's pretty damn kind of opulent. The glittering prize, which is another big gilded type of boat, like big, you know. And we have a keel boat called the Reclaimer and a fishing boat called the Half Chub. That one, please. I would like that one. I want to make that one our boat. I'd like to ride the half chub. All right. That one, please. Jasper. Jasper. Yeah, definitely. I mean, that one. That one. It's good luck. You get a sixth sense telling you to go for the half chub. OK, I'm mentally connected to the party. Are are any of these other than the splendid superior is is Merrick?

He's going to glance at the list here. Is he familiar with any of those at all? Like names or like anything or any captain's names or anything like that? No, not really. But there would be captains listed next to them. So what's OK? Basically. The smaller the boat, the cheaper it is and the greater the chances you'd be able to barter, maybe borrowing it or buying it off of somebody. The bigger sailing ships, you're going to have to have tens of thousands of gold to even attempt purchasing. And obviously, the splendid superior is not for sale. All right. OK.

OK, that helps. How about we sit with that information and we catch up with the rest of the party here? Amen. OK, so I want to jump back. Boom. I'm going to jump back to Clara and Iris, please. What are you guys up to in the library here? I feel like as soon as the royals took off, Clara probably went to Iris to tell her that we need to wrap things up and go find Merrick. OK. Because she wants to let Merrick know as soon as possible that she's aware that the royals are taking off tonight. She doesn't have a sixth sense and does not know that he already took care of that.

OK, so Iris was kind of looking over the stuff and when she hears somebody coming, she kind of covers it a little. I don't know what she got if she actually got any books, but if she got a book, she probably is just like, oh, and just kind of half covers it. You know, nonchalantly and just like, oh, OK. Do you know if we can borrow books from here? OK, two things. Number one, hurtful. I thought we were friends. I thought we were partners. Number two, and I don't want to be vulgar, but I imagine the way she hides it is like she just leans over and I've seen her art and you've seen her art.

Yes. Don't look at the books. Look at the boobs. I mean, yeah, that would work. Well, OK. To refresh everybody's memory, Iris was looking into necromancy. Yeah, I thought you were going to say to refresh everyone's memory, Iris is stacked. Oh, yes. That too. Well, that's what I thought he was going to say. Just an astounding wreck. That's I believe that's the scientific term. That's the second one on the show between her and Corey. Damn. Yeah. Yeah. Corey wasn't evil. Oh, she's not. Corey didn't look as evil. I just want to paint a picture. You look OK. Iris looks the way Iris does.

Researching necromancy and then slyly hiding what she found when a party member approaches. You're not helping your case. Really not. I just want to show her boobs. Just like, oh, Clara will appreciate these. Oh, again. Was there was there a hand? Yeah. Was there like a hand gesture that goes with the oh, like Jeff. No, not Jeff. Wait, what's the price is right. Oh, oh, look at this. The boob window. Yes. This is right. Has a boob window. I mean, she just the just shows changed a lot. Oh, yeah. OK. The circle around the boobs. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, that.

Good. Good. It's very power girl. OK, so we know that now. Jason, she doesn't have a symbol yet. Shut up. Oh, my God. OK, so here's what I'd like to do. Just for just for just for shits and giggles. Let's do this. Iris, I'd like you to roll a flat D20. The higher the number, the more juicy the book that you found. You're still talking about the boobs. OK, well, we already that's a that's a 20. We got we got all that squared away. D20. D20. Juicy book. That's not a juicy book. That's not that's not a very juicy book. So I would say it's probably like it's like when you when you check out a book and there's a couple of paragraphs like, oh, I didn't know that.

But there's a lot of information, you know, already. And you're kind of like you're kind of going over old stuff. So, yeah, then she just kind of, yeah, covers it with her boobs and then just like, oh, we have to go. She kind of looks longingly at the section and then just kind of nudges it to the side. It's like, Jodie, we'll put it away later. And then, OK, let's let's go. Wow. She's not your mom. Dick move. Yeah, that's a dick move. So when she wanders down corridor 837 and sees a book on the site, it's like, wow, you could- well, fine, I guess. OK, so, yeah, I guess Jodie will take care of it.

Jeez. She's rude. You could tell that Iris never worked in the service industry. Yeah, you're really backing up this whole evil thing. I bet she doesn't tip either. All right. All right. So we're going to get ready and bring the party back together in just a moment. But I think- before she leaves, Clara is going to talk to Judy and be like, hey, thank you so much. I'm going to come back for any information you can find. I just have to go talk to my party real quick. You mean Jodie? Jodie, who did I say? Judy. Did I say Judy? You said Judy. Ah, like the judge. No, Jodie.

Just because she's still- the priority is still finishing the thing that she started. Clara is very much not the type to drop something that has only been half done. Like, she wants to finish that task. But this is time sensitive, or at least she thinks it is. So. Totally. So. I think we should catch up with Avalon before we get back to piecing this party together, because this is very interesting. So this elderly gentleman. Yes. Walks with Avalon for quite some time. I'd say about 15 minutes. Oh, wow. And you ascend a few flights of stairs and stuff, and he is going to eventually bring out this iron key and undo an old timey door lock.

Like, we're talking like, you know, Curse of Strahd style, like old timey haunted skeleton key type things. And he's going to push open this big, heavy wooden door. Alright, come on in. This whole time, Avalon's been pretty passive, but he's been past mentioning things about the spa and his tickets. I'm pretty sure he's being ignored. He follows the instructions because he doesn't know the city at all. He could be going straight towards this spa, so he's just kind of hopeful. So. What you're going to give me a give me a perception check. Let me let me let me tell you what you see here.

No problem. Not much. Yeah. So there are papers scattered everywhere, but this loosely, I don't even know if Avalon would know what this is, basically, but this looks like a place where someone was doing research, I guess, to Avalon. So this guy would start brushing off papers, and there'd be a wooden chair set up in the middle of this place. Kind of a circular room. There's winding shelves where there's tons of books and stuff like that. There's a ladder to scoot up and down. And again, this guy's kind of hunched over, so he's he's moving things. He's like, give me a minute, give me a minute.

And he's brushing things aside. And he's going to slap the big wooden chair. All right. All right. Have a seat. All right. We were walking for a long time. Sorry about that. I don't have the prime research laboratory, like some of the Archmages, and he's kind of waving his hands up in the air like, ooh, like that. And as you sit down, he is going to adjust this, this metallic half-helmet thing, and he's going to rest that on Avalon's head. All right. Is that is that too cold? No. All right. Good, good. All right. And he is going to lean down and start to wrap these leather wrist cuffs around Avalon's wrists and arms.

As he's doing that, he's like, Avalon says, I can't move well. No, no, trust me, you're going to thank me in just a moment. Have I told you about my research? We're very close to a breakthrough. I'm telling you, those old fuddy duddies will wish they'd listen to me when we break on through to the other side. And he's going to kind of slap Avalon on the cheek. I can't thank you enough for volunteering, by the way. The last spy, I went to, was nothing like this. And he's, at this point, I think he's half listening to Avalon. Yeah, we're just like completely on different pages.

Right, you're reading from different scripts here? All right. Darius, by the way, sorry, I should have introduced myself. My name is Avalon. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So he's going to do up your legs and tie them to the chair. It's almost like an electric chair, actually, if you had to visualize something in real life. All right, now give me a moment to prepare everything. And he is going to walk over to this desk and in one sweeping motion, knock a shit ton of stacked papers over. And they're going to flutter back and forth to the ground and make a big kerfuffle here.

Now, if my calculations are correct, we're going to use your life energy to tap into an alternate reality. What do you mean? Which part? Like he's got, like he's, he's, he's assuming you don't know anything about what he's talking about. Well, that's a great assumption. Avalon's loss on the part where this might not be a spall. That part is, that part is certain. Are you not going to massage my back? Afterwards, if you really need me to. Sure, it's the least I can do for your help. Oh, OK. I can describe the experiment if you need me to. An experiment? Yes. So, they canceled the funding on my research, but I continued.

I persevered, Avalon. What we're going to do is we are going to use you as a channel, a homing device, as a tie to this reality and use your life energy to focus. And he is going to, he's going to move to the side here and he's going to slap this, this, this metallic, it looks like a, like a, like a door arch kind of, but sloppily built. And that should open up a doorway into a world similar to ours. But look that, that, that we can explore once we get there. But first, you, Avalon, are going to be the key. It will cause slight discomfort. I should warn you, blah, blah, blah.

But this, this is for the exploration of a new realm. You, you could be written about in history books, Avalon. History books. You know what? I'm really starting to believe this isn't a spa. No, the spa is clear across the city. Oh. This is my laboratory. I'm sorry. I think I should leave. I don't think I belong here. You, you, you can't leave, Avalon. We're, we're, we're ready. We're ready to start this, this. I won't take a moment of your time. More than what I need. Five minutes, I'm sure. All right. I'm going to prepare and, and, and get ready to get this started.

He is going to walk over to this doorway and kind of turn his back to Avalon. Now, I think Avalon knows enough to know that nothing good is about to happen to him. Starting to get that feeling. Yeah, yeah. Um, Avalon's no dummy. What would you like to do? Um, how tight are these leather straps? Pretty tight. Can I make like a strength or... Yeah, you can. So here's what I'm going to have you do. These, uh, these straps essentially have a, have a breaking point. Now, if you choose to struggle, you might not break up the first time, but you could break out eventually.

So if you were to struggle and say fail, am I to assume that you're going to continue to struggle? Yes. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. So do me a favor. Give me a strength check. Come on, Avalon. So you're going to, uh, you're going to just like wriggle, just, I don't know what Avalon's wriggling sounds are. Give me, give me a taste. Okay. That's hot. Okay. Good, good, good. Okay. So you're, you're wriggling and eventually he's going to turn around. Oh, stop struggling. It'll be fine. Again, mild discomfort. Are you ready? I don't think so. That's fine. I'm ready.

And he's going to, he is going to, uh, get ready and whip out this rod and point it at Avalon. More specifically pointed at Avalon's head. And he is going to start to channel magic and zap Avalon. Now, when he said mild discomfort, what he meant was pain. A whole bunch of it. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to roll damage on Avalon again and again and again and again and again until something happens with this experiment. Are you ready? Yep. Okay. Well, bam, let's do that. Seven damage to Avalon. Holy shit. That was more damage than what I expected. But yeah, that's, that's what we're rocking.

So seven damage to Avalon. Let's, let's keep it going. So give me another, give me, um, you can, you can do strength or athletics, whatever you feel more comfortable with it. Whatever you think you're gonna have more luck with. What kind of like, what is this rod emitting like a electrical type? I would say, yeah, it's like a faint blue glow followed by, uh, probably, um, you ever see like Tesla coils, that type of thing? Yes. So I picture it arcing over and over like, and then there'd be a break. And he's, what he's trying to do is get it to arc from your skull over to this doorway.

So he's, he's trying to like whip this energy over and over again. And he keeps like, ah, sorry. Almost like he's like, that's what he's very bad at this. It would, it would appear. God, strength. Oh, 11. Okay. Okay. That's not too bad. The good news is this pain is going to motivate Avalon. So you will break out eventually or die. So we're gonna, we're gonna figure it out. Uh, more damage to Avalon. Five damage. Uh, so gee, golly. Um, do you wanna, do you wanna try and break out again? Yes. I'm so curious if this is actually gonna, you know, if I get zapped enough times or something.

I am too. Actually, I need to roll for that. So here's, here's something we're gonna get. So I'm gonna roll a d10 on a seven or higher. Something's going to happen. Anything lower than that? And he just keeps missing. Does that sound good? Yes. Okay, here we go. Oh, so close. Zapping me. So he's going to be very reassured. I am so sorry. My eyes are not what they used to be. I will get this though. Um, get me another strength check. Okay. From now on, every time you roll a strength check, we're going to add a modifier to it. And we're going to start with a plus three and build up every time you take damage.

Gotcha. Does that sound fine? Yes. So zap, zap. Another six damage to Avalon. At this point, you're going to start to smell burning hair in here. It's very unpleasant. It washes locks. It's... You have had a total of 18 damage done to you. And you only have 36 health. So this is, this is hurting Avalon at this point. Let's see if he gets this to arc. Oh, he's getting worse. So he's going to clean miss and hit his desk. God damns the gods. I will get this. I swear I've done it before. Do me a favor. Strength check with a plus three. 15. 15. 15. You are going to break your right hand free.

It's actually going to snap off the wooden arm. So the wooden arms just kind of attached to your, your forearm now, almost like it's a weapon tied to you. So at this point, Avalon's been zapped very viciously. Yes. And now his, his mindset is going to go from, this was a nice old man helping me have to be my best behavior to old school Avalon where this is a fight for survival. Oh God, no. Well, actually let me zap you one more time. Oh, please, please do. Another five damage. So yes, he's not stopping while you're doing this. Sit still. Continue. I'm so sorry.

So have one arm free. Is it easier to like unlatch everything? Absolutely. It's, it's, it's just minor action, but bam, if you're doing it. Then I quickly unlatch everything and take the helmet off. And then, Avalon's going to stare at this old man. He's going to start like huffing. He's going to start growling and breathing heavy, more heavy. He's going to look at the door. And look at the old man. He's very angry. So he's going to kind of roll personal little d20. You absolutely can. Could you explain the d20 to us? Of course, if it's above a 10, I'm going to rush at the old man.

I'm going to beat him to death. If it's below a 10, I'm just going to try to run out the door and escape. Good, good, good, good. Oh shit. Avalon charges blindly at this old man. And he is going to, as you're taking the helmet off, No, don't do that. You're ruining the experiment. And right about the, yeah, right about the point where you're rushing him. I don't, I don't know what you're going to do when you get to him, but he's definitely going to get to, Oh God, like very, like very startled. Avalon's like, yeah, he's very wide-eyed. He's going to try to pounce on the old man.

I mean, he's in his eighties. You're a fit young man. I don't see this being a problem. You got him. He's going to get on top of him and start choking the life out of him. Shit. Okay. Okay. Again, this is an elderly researcher. So I have to ask you something. Yes. Would there be a point where Avalon, I mean, he's aware of what he's doing, but would there be a point where Avalon would question what he's doing or is that just like a switch that's flipped? Oh, it is like, it is like a nightlight. It is now on. He's not, he had ever since he broke the strap, he hasn't said a word.

He's just been growling and he's kind of like frothing at the mouth. Oh, okay. His eyes are wide. There's no one around him to tell him to stop. And if you remember the old school Avalon where he just didn't feel anything, this is a little different because now he actually feared for his life because he was kind of caged. Yeah. And now he's uncaged and he just, he just wants it to stop and he's not thinking clearly at all. So gotcha. Well, how about we catch up with the rest of the party and we're going to check back in on Avalon in just a little bit. I would say at a certain point, everyone else would have met up for dinner.

Hey, Alec, hey. Do we need a break? Do we need to... One ton, ton. Do we need to maybe run to the bathroom and grab a drink? We can. I have one question before we do. Sure. I've lost all sense of time about what time of day this is. So, for example, around what time of day would the royals have gotten the packet from Jodie? I would say that's around like noonish or one somewhere in there. All said and done, you guys are probably meeting up for dinner. It's probably an early dinner, like five, five thirty somewhere in there. Because if there's any way, because Merrick's been off on his own like everybody else in, in, I'm whatever, I'm group C4 at this point or whatever.

Sure, very explosive. After finding out everything he can about the ships and everything from Tamlin, he would want to, he's going to go, not beeline, but he's going to make his way back to Jodie because he has a question for Jodie before he would meet up with everybody else for dinner. Sure. We can take a break. What would the question have been? Say it again? What would the question have been? Oh, the question is, well, basically, he's going to go to Jodie and he's going to say, well, let's see, let's play it out. Is Jodie available? Is Jodie there? Can Jodie see him?

Yeah, totally. He is going to, well, first of all, what would Jodie do seeing Merrick come in knowing everything she knows? Well, she'd be very excited because she wants to research this demon stuff, she wants to ask you a thousand questions, but yeah, she kind of gets the sense she spooked you off earlier. Yeah. So Merrick is going to come in and he's going to be very gentle as he opens the door and make sure that she sees him from a distance, you know, like, hi. He's going to say, listen, I'm sorry for earlier. I know, listen, if you can imagine, this is a lot of stuff to carry around with me and, you know, it can make it pretty uncomfortable.

I don't want to make anything bad for anybody, but I apologize for, you know, for just storming off a little bit. But I know you probably have a lot of questions and I bet I could sit here for a few months and just let you poke and prod and probably find out some stuff. So I imagine there's probably some excitement on your end about the kind of things you might be able to learn. I don't think we have that kind of time right now, though. And with that in mind, I have a couple of questions for you. Yeah, she would be completely sympathetic, by the way, and she really wants to help out.

She's also checking you out the entire time. Like, like she'd probably say something like, yeah, that must be really stressful. But as she's saying that, she's like checking for signs of werewolfism. Like, just like, it's like, did you have that much stubble before? Like that type of thing. He's going to be completely self-aware and also very sympathetic to what she, you know, he's going to probably, I don't know if there's like a chair he can sort of pull up close to hers and he's going to act very like, I'm just going to sit, you know, relax, calm down a little bit, whatever.

He's going to make sure that it's very clear that she doesn't have to worry about anything. But he's also going to be very aware that she's like checking out him and sort of doing research as they're talking. He's going to say, listen, we have a task to take care of. And thank you, by the way, for all your help for our group so far. And I kind of want to make a little bit of a deal with you, sort of a win-win type thing. We need to be able to travel from here, from Uminyera, from the port. We have some pretty, what's the word I'm looking for, pretty lofty goals for being able to get to another continent to find out some interesting information about some interesting stuff that would be very important to all of Theria.

I'm wondering if you're familiar with a group called the Royals. Remember, he knows nothing about. Yeah. And she would kind of perk up like, oh, I'm working with them. Yeah. Merrick's going to be surprised that I'm working with them. OK, interesting. OK, so then if you're working with them, you may know or not what they're looking for. He's going to he's leading. He doesn't want to be too he's not going to dump it all out at her, but he's going to be like, you are you you know where they're headed? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There'd be like a gentle nod like I sure do.

OK, you may also know that the Royals aren't necessarily the most pleasant of people to be around sometimes. Maybe that's my opinion. Oh, I mean, they've been they've been nothing but nice to me. OK. Yeah. No, that makes sense. OK. All right. Listen. There's a long story here, but the bottom line is. Kind of want to cut them off at the pass. It's just a friendly rivalry. But here's the deal. We need to get ahead of them. And get where they want to go a little bit before they do. And that's on us. The question I have is. How do we make that happen when we don't really have any money to get a ship or etc?

So here's the deal I want to offer you. Number one. We'd like to be and now, of course, this is to the rest of the group. I know America is saying this for everybody else. You will pay for this later. We want to be. Official. Researchers for human Euro under your auspices. We would like to offer our services in return to things. Number one, I'm sure you have funding, grant money, something like that that could help you send researchers out into the world. And I'm telling you, if this is what they're really doing, this is important stuff. I'm sure this would be important for your budgets.

And he's just he's going to keep rolling through it. He's watching her, but he's going to keep rolling. And if there's any way you can front load us to get where we want to go. As soon as we're done, I swear I will come back to you and you can take as long as you need and find out everything you want to find out. Remember, what this means for me is that I have to live with what I'm living with until that happens. And that's no big that's that's no small request. What do you think? This is actually really interesting. And there's a lot. I guess there'd be a lot going into this decision.

She is absolutely interested in Merrick as a subject. You're a lycanthrope with a demon attached to him. You have a lot of ailments, but special fun ailments like this stuff that would be really nice to write about. You also raise a good point that if she had someone out in the wild working for her, that could help raise some clout with her in the city. And there's an airplane. Intheria? It's just buzzing around the city. Dragons sound like propeller airplanes. I can't hear anything. That's fine. So, yeah, she's intrigued by this. So what I want you to do is I want you to roll a persuasion check with advantage, because I think you have enough on your side bringing this to the table.

That you have a pretty good chance of convincing her to bite on this. Okay, this is his first try because he can do he can keep going, but this is his first try. Yeah, but this is basically how the whole idea is hitting her like. All right, how about that? That's pretty fucking good. How about a how about a 20? I think I'll take that 20. Okay, so she is going to. Okay, so check this out because you rolled so well. Well, that is an intriguing offer. And I would absolutely love to study you. But maybe your group can help me. If, let's say, just throwing it out there.

Let's say maybe you did beat the Royals to the punch and you did find what they were looking for. And you brought me back exclusive information that I could publish. Yeah, Merrick is like, Yes, that's the point. Yep, absolutely. That's exactly what I'm saying. You know, we did just recently come into some money. There was a sizable donation made. Maybe I could fund your trip. Thank you very, very much. Merrick, I mean, Merrick's getting it again, tail wagging. He's a little bit not knowing even how to respond to it, other than just like, yes, whatever. Whatever you need is yours.

Whatever we find. Is yours from a research point of view, and we just need help getting there and whatever you can do to make that happen. I know it's a little ridiculous. I know it's out of the blue. But I'll do whatever you need. When it's all said and done. And he's going to sort of gesture to himself, like, you know, study this. He's going to point it as crotch in particular. You see me? Yeah, exactly. No, he's just like, you know, whatever you whatever it is you people do, just do it. You know, like, I don't care. I will I will make that happen if you can make this happen for us.

This came off way more sexual than it's not what it meant to be. I know. Yes, she is going to here's what she's going to do. First of all, she's going to say. You know that this can't get out right. If if if this got out, it would ruin my reputation. But if you brought back something that I could publish, something I could I could be the first to talk about, then it wouldn't matter. That that would be canceled out. I am confident you can do this confidence. I am fueled right now on the on the on the idea that those assholes would be watching us win. So, yeah, I'm perfectly confident.

I'm telling you, the good news here is this. Everything goes as planned. You get everything you want and more right. Everything doesn't go as planned. We lose. We you never hear from us again. Whatever. There's nothing on you. It doesn't look bad. We're not doing something in your name. We're simply going to do it for you. She's going to do three things. One, she is going to go to her desk. And she is going to grab a small package that is tucked away in a drawer. And she's going to grab a sealed letter. She's going to bring both to Merrick. She is going to drop those off with Merrick and she's going to say that's for your friend.

It's about her flail. I found out some really interesting things she might want to know. And then she's going to hand the package over to Merrick. There is 10000 gold in this pouch. If you can get me what you're promising to get me. It'll be worth 10 times that. Merrick is absolutely going to look. Poker faced. And and say that should that should cover most of it. We definitely need a couple more. He's going to truly he's going to act a little bit like, no, that's that's good. It was kind of based on the stuff we're giving you was kind of hoping for a little bit more.

But he's not going to say that he's going to say this is great. This really helps get things started. There's a couple of things that we would need to make sure that we had complete success. One. Now I lost my train of thought. Damn it. I'm guessing it's about the research. Well, that's the thing is that he doesn't know about the research that was handed over. He doesn't know about that. So he can't say that. But he would he would say if there's anything you can do to give us a leg up on it. That's number one. Like, is there any do you have any any details, any way to be able to figure out exactly what we're doing, a way to get ahead of the game to to something to make it easier?

And then number two, anything you can do to make the journey a little bit easier? I mean, he's going to sort of gesture up and around like as though he's gesturing about human hero. It's like, I know this place has a lot of stuff. Maybe there's something that can make our journey a little less inhospitable, especially if we're headed someplace we've never been before. And he's going to kind of he's going to grin. He's going to do the he's going to do the emoji. That's the the wide open eyes. But with the grin. He's just pushing. He's like he really is. He's trying to see as much as he's going to squeeze out of this.

You know what? Give me give me another persuasion check, not with advantage at this time, because at this point when someone hands you ten thousand gold. He's not acting also, by the way, he's not like this is bullshit. He's acting like, great. Well, if you've got ten thousand, then you must have fifteen. All right. Nineteen. How about that? Would that work at all in any way? That's pretty good. God damn it. Well, I did keep copies of everything I gave the royals. I could give you copies of that. And I might have a couple of other things. So I just said fuck.

And Merrick's actually going to say that to you. Fuck. Good. Yes. OK. But I'm going to need some reassurance that you're not just going to run off. What reassurance do you need and you can have it? She she's going to hold out her hand like she's going to to shake your hand. He's going to reach out his hand as well. She is going to tightly clasp her hand around yours and then bring up her left hand and kind of like hug Merrick's hand with hers. And there is going to be a faint kind of purplish glow and Merrick's hand is going to sting. And she's going to let it go.

And there'll be this little this this little cross, like plus sign type of thing in in Merrick's palm. Almost like it was tattooed there. What's this? Yeah, sorry. And she's going to she's she's instantly going to know. It's like, yeah, you have you have questions. That'll let me know if anything happens to you. And it will also roughly let me know where you're going. If you screw me on this, I will send people after you. He's he's not going to feel he's not going to act defensive at all about it. He's going to say, number one, not going to screw you on this.

This is genuine. And frankly, I need some of the help and it pushes it off for me. So you're going to see me again no matter what. And number two, I'm kind of I'll be honest with you. It's kind of nice to know somebody else is watching out, even from it, even if it's from a distance. So. Yeah, thanks. And she's kind of she's very much like, OK, then like very, you know, because this is a lot of trust. So, yeah. And she is going to she's going to motion to her desk. I'm going to get back to work and everything will be dropped off with your weapons when you leave.

All right. He's going to say, Jodie, you are the best, and he's actually going to reach in for a hug. And she'll she'll very quickly like, OK, yeah, but she's she's pretty worried about this entire situation. He's trying to do everything he can to make it seem very genuine because he knows that she's worried. He's getting really stressed. Can I roll a d4? I'm just kidding. Books make me stressed. Did I tell you? OK, so, OK, he's going to end that. And as he's walking out, he's going to he's going to go now back. He's going to go to Alakaham and try to meet everybody.

He's going to turn around. He's going to say, if there's anything else you need. It's yours. And he's going to turn around. And as he starts to open the door to leave the library, he's specifically going to be talking to the demon in his head. And he's and he's going to say, you happy? The demon's been really quiet. So Barak Barak has been very. Now I got you got me doing. I know. That's OK. Barak has been very quiet this entire time because you kind of snap at him sometimes when he talks to you. Oh, yeah, we're not friends. No, but he wants to be your friend.

And as you're as you're walking out and you ask, he's going to say, I'm ecstatic. And scene. So, Avalon, you have just strangled an old man. I would say he would put up a fight for a while, a weak struggle, and you probably the way you are, the way you have your hands wrapped around his throat, you're probably also pinning his arms a little bit. I'm pinning his arms with my knees to make it so futile. Oh, God. Yeah. So he's he's very he's got like T-Rex arms that he's trying to like grab at Avalon's thighs. And it's just not like that struggle would not last very long.

I'd say within the course of about 15 to 25 seconds, his struggling ceases and he makes some ungodly noises. It's not like this. It's not like the strangling where like you're trying to like make them stop breathing. I'm trying to dislocate his neck. Oh, God. You know what? Give me an athletics check. 13 is enough to break an old man's neck. So, yeah, they're experienced. So it would take a while, but first he's going to stop breathing. Then you're going to hear like a pop, like a dislocated bone type of thing. And that's going to be it for him. He's done.

That's that. That's a wrap on Darius. And as soon as you hear the pop, it's like the switch is off for Avlin, he realized what he's done. And he just does that thing where you just just kind of back up and he looks around and. He's going to sit in the fetal position since he's alone now for like a few minutes. Trying to think of anything. Just try to get his mind together. He's in a lot of pain, searing headache. He's going to look at the old man clearly dead. Does this does this laboratory look deserted? Like not too many people come up here. This looks like an old man squatting den, basically.

It's he's very much a hoarder of research and stuff, so it's it looks very lived in. So after like a few minutes of rocking, Avlin is going to kind of calm down and he's going to have that old school, steely look on his face. And he's going to start to start to start rationalizing how to get out of this. And he's going to remember the old man had a key to open the door, he's going to look for the key. Oh, my God. Yeah, you'll find it on him like it's in his it's in his robes. I'm going to look around again, is there like somewhere nice and like obscure, I could just like stuff this old man in.

Oh, my God. Right now, he's like he's like an animal trying to hide his poop. Oh, dude. OK, you know what? Here's what I want to do. I want you to do me a favor and roll a d10 on a scale of one to 10. Let's see how many big objects you'd be able to stuff this body and go ahead. It's the fourth one, right? Yeah, the UFO looking one. Gotcha. Oh, there's a huge chest in the corner of this room. We're talking like like if you have a freezer that's like you have it for just extended meat storage type of thing like that big. This is a big chest. He's going to open the big chest.

Is there anything inside it? Lots of it looks like lots of personal possessions, like there's little bits of jewelry and stuff like that. Probably pictures of his kids. Nothing big. I was going to scoop all that out and throw it to the side. He's going to drag the old man by his ankle. Fold his legs in to his body, in his chest, in his arms as well, and try to stuff them in the chest and slam it. He's going to look around for I don't know if he can find a convenient key for the chest, if it's like a lockable chest. But you know what? Let's let's see. First of all, give me a perception check.

And it's got Sopranos dark, but you know, we're here now. You are here. I'm going to say you will not find a key for this. OK, then he's going to. Is it like a is this just one big room or is it like a bathroom or something? This is more like one big room. There's like there's like a little place to wash up and stuff like that. He's probably got like a chamber pot thing rocking. I'm going to drag the chest to the chamber pot or like around it just so it's not in the room and noticeable. Then I'm going to, uh, I was going to take a key. This is not me. He's going to take the key.

How big is this key, by the way? It's it's a pretty good size. Like I'd say it's like six inches long, something like that. Like it's it's it's pretty sizable for for a key. But I shouldn't eat it. I wouldn't. Gotcha. So, Aveline's going to close. He's going to close. You know what? Before he walks out, he's he's going to get an idea. He's going to start taking some more papers that are already going to ground. It's like throw everything to make it look like a giant mess. Like he got raided or something. Yeah, sure. He's going to close the door and lock it up with the key.

He's going to take the key and start and just like just to get out down the stairs. He's still, you know, killing someone doesn't make you know where you are, like, you know, know the area. So he's still kind of lost. Right, right. But he's going to try to go back to where he was. OK, I need you to do something for me and I need you to describe. How good. And I normally wouldn't ask a player this, but I feel like you're going to be honest with me because it's Aveline. How good do you feel Aveline would be at hiding what he's attempting? Like, would he be visibly frazzled or would he just be Stone Cold serial killer and.

He would be visibly frazzled, but he would try to go Stone Cold serial killer because he's been in that mode before. He knows what it's like to like be emotionless and just try to think everything out. But he's just like it's like he had a relapse, like a total relapse, like when he was choking out the guy, it was like all his feelings at once just went into killing this guy. Ethony leaving him just having to be like kind of someone he's not someone who's more reformed and civilized. That's just all it's like alcoholic just got just got on a binge for a second.

Then he comes back to it. He knows he made a mistake. He knows, like, he shouldn't be killing someone, especially in a city like this, because he's just so civilized and he's afraid that no matter what he does, they're going to find out it was him. So he's just kind of like doing as much as he can. So he doesn't it doesn't look great, but. Like he doesn't have a better idea than like the big chest, right? Right. Yeah, no, I get that. I don't know how good it would look in like the chamber pot, like next to the chamber pot, but like he's just putting it out of sight, out of mind.

Okay. Do me a favor. Give me a deception check. Okay, so that's a 13. Now, I have to do this. I'm going to get ready and and roll up just a just a blind flat D20. This old man did not have a lot of friends and his laboratory was kind of tucked away. So here's what's going to happen. As long as I don't roll a five or below. No one's going to notice Avalon walking out of this place. Are you ready? I'm ready. I'm ready. All I have to do is roll a six and above. Or do you want to roll it? You know what? You got it. You're the master of your own. Okay, I'll do it. Here we go.

Here we go. Thirteen. Avalon is going to stuff this old man in a chest. He's going to toss papers around. He is going to lock up after himself and he is going to walk away clean. Later. The group is going to meet up. At Alakaham, but I think that's a pretty good time for us to stop for today. Oh my God. Evelyn, you're such a good boy. Thank you. It's our fault. We did this. We should have paid attention. Effany trusted us and we didn't pay attention. It's our fault. Every time a toddler gets lost in the mall, this is exactly what happens. They strangle an old man and snap his neck and toss him into a big chest.

I'll be honest with you. The phrase, "Okay, so Avalon stuffs the man in the chest," was not a phrase I was expecting to hear on Supercon. No. Wow. My favorite was like, "Yeah, a thirteen is good enough." Yeah. It's not long enough to snap an old man's neck. I mean, he has brittle bones and he's not struggling. Oh, I can't wait for the foley in this one. Oh God. Oh no. Oh my God. Wow. Hello, Chat. How are you? Hey, Chat. Hi, everybody out there. How was that? Hey, guys. This is crazy. So I have a question. You guys like murder? Was that our finale or was that... do we have one more?

No, you got one more because there's a few things. I was thinking if you had left it with Avalon like fetal position in that room, that would have been finale worthy. But like, yeah. No, because it's very... I... there's a few things. We had you guys roll for things earlier today and I just did not get a chance to get to everyone because the party was so divided. But, yeah. Lisa, you're going to get some flail info. Hell yeah. Flail info. I was so excited. It's flinfo. Flinfo. When you said that, I just went, yes. So again, thank you guys for listening to this.

You can see where we are rapidly approaching the end of arc two. We got a lot of cool surprises for the end. And I really think you guys are going to dig arc three. We're going to be tweaking a couple of things. We took some suggestions and yeah, we'll get into that a little bit later. But again, Kickstarter. Again, we have just a couple of weeks left. Less than a couple of weeks left actually. So if you could share that link with your friends. If you could bid one dollar, that's all we're asking. It helps us immensely. So thank you guys. We'll see you next week with another episode where we did a very special group at the end of Theriathon.

People seem to like it. Things are going to be happening as a result of that. So awesome. And then after that we got a group A and we still got an extended rest to round up the month. So good lord. A lot of things happening in May. We'll see you next week with a brand new episode. Thank you guys so much. and everyone have a fantastic week.