All the Cards

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

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

Um, I think they mean us. Oh, s***. Um... [clears throat] With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold. Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only on Peacock. Ark 3, episode 1 of the DNR podcast is brought to you today by the lovely folks over at Patreon. We are right now, currently at Dragon Con and we are filming everything we can to give you guys a behind the scenes look at what it's like to go to the Con if you couldn't go. We'll be posting that stuff throughout the month of September and probably into October so swing by patreon.com/d8ndr to find out more.

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 for the first time in Ark 3. Let's start with Susan. Hey, I'm Susan and I'll be playing Madeline Ryoin, the human cleric. And Kelsey. I'm Kelsey and I'll be playing Aster, the elf archer. Uh, and Xavier. Hi, I'm Xavier and I will be... Oh, dammit! [laughter] And I will be playing Donovan Vai, the human fighter. Thank you. Alright guys, let's pack it in. We're done. [laughter] We only have one shot at this. And Michael. Hey, I'm Michael and I play Amvin, the half-elf wizard.

And James. Hey, it's James. I play Ezno Masocha, the half-elf rogue. And Rob. Hey, I'm Rob. I play Ubo, the half-orc druid of the mountain. Alright guys. Pushing back my keyboard. And I'm breaking out my brand new, big-ass, five-star notebook. Rob gave me a complete seal of approval for it. He said it was the... [laughter] He said it's the finest paper. It's amazing quality. Mahogany of paper. It's the mahogany of paper. Yeah, it's a rich... It's got a good smell, he said. And I'm using a Bic pen to write with, so I think I'm ready for arc three. [laughter] You just sat there and you thought to yourself, "What's the first thing I should do in arc three?" And the answer was hurt Rob. [laughter] Causing literal pain. [laughter] Go ahead, tell me about the legal pad you're using for... [laughter] It's a spiral notebook.

No. At DragonCon you can educate me. You can bring some samples, maybe. We'll see if you're deserving at this point. [laughter] Brutalizing me on the recording, the very first thing. [sigh] When we last left off, guys, you were in the city of Donhurst and Donhurst has some issues, but you knew that going in. You didn't really know the extent of these issues, but it's definitely... You got a vampire problem in Donhurst. And you spoke with a lovely young man named Ripley, who is a recently turned vampire, and you found out that a lot of his gang has also recently turned vampires.

And you decided to take it up with a person called the Countess, who lives on this beautiful hilltop castle overlooking the city, and who hasn't really been a massive problem for the city up until now, but it appears as though this collection of vampires has taken up residence. They've decided that the city's empty, so why not take it? It's theirs now. And you are on your way up to that hilltop castle to speak with her, and we talked about this in the behind-the-scenes, but I'm not exactly sure what to barter for or how to go about this, but I guess at least hear her side of the story?

Yes. At the very least, yeah. Okay. Yep. So when we last left off, it's storming outside. It's pretty heavy rain, and there's a long march. Okay, I'm sorry. No. This occurred to Maddie along the way. You could see this realization moment come over her, and she's going to say to Ripley, "One moment. I need to take care of something," and then she's going to grab Masoka and take him off if there's an alley on the side or something? So you want to do this before you're leaving the city proper. Yeah, or somewhere where she could pull him off to the side. Right. Okay.

Yeah. And Ripley would probably be a little annoyed because it's raining, and it's icky. It's uncomfortable. But he would just kind of like, "Fine," and kind of fold his arms impatiently off to the side and wait for you. Maddie will make an apologetic look like, "Eh," and then just pull Masoka aside, and then she'll just say to him, "You need to get undressed." Uh... Mm. Maddie, I hardly think this is the time for something like that. No, you need to. What is... Get changed. Okay, I'm not following you. What are you wearing? Um... My armor. You're wearing the armor that we found in the cart meant for the Countess.

Yeah. I think she... If we want to start off on the right foot, I don't think she would like seeing you in it. Okay... Look, look, and then she's going to put a hand on his cheek. I'm just worried. I don't want her to get upset with you. Okay, okay. That makes sense. I just really like this hood. Just get changed, please. Would Masoka still have his previous leather armor? I mean, I wouldn't imagine that you tossed it away, right? Because adventurers are resourceful people. I like to think that you're used to hand-me-down garbs and stitching the holes out of things, just trying to keep them going another day.

So I would imagine you'd probably just put it in your backpack, right? Okay. All right. Okay, he'll swap. Better keep the new stuff in his backpack. What's everyone else doing while Masoka's getting changed here? I'm shielding myself from the rain with my shield, giving a smug look at Ripley. I'm trying to prepare my questions for the Countess. How far high up are we at this point? It's really not a crazy elevation, but where the castle begins, it's probably a good, I don't know, 1,500 feet, 2,000 feet above the city proper. Yeah, Astor's probably trying to make out as much as they can through the rain and darkness, which is not that successful, I imagine, but there's not really much else to do other than just stand there getting raked on.

Well, from the city you can actually see, you can get a pretty good glimpse of the castle proper. They do not make buildings like this anymore, to be honest. You can tell that this either belonged to some noble or lord, maybe, something like that. It doesn't look like it was a military installation of any kind. This looks a little more homey. Picture, essentially, a huge mansion with ramparts and stuff. It's very gothic looking. And every once in a while, this storm lightning will strike and light up the sky, and you can really see the outline of it, the silhouette, and it is imposing as hell.

This is the worst weather to be heading into. It's like, "Oh man, this is real horror movie stuff. This isn't great." Yeah, just a little bit. The vampires have been pretty welcoming so far. So, once Masoka gets changed, I would imagine you guys are starting back up here, and you get out of the city proper, and again, winding up this path, and you're leaving those city walls, and there'd be Fang members all over, kind of scattered, hanging out by the city walls and stuff. And then every once in a while, you'd see one or two on the path leading up to this huge gothic estate.

And they would always give a nod, or you'd see them lean over and check you guys out, something like, "Oh, okay, that's really strange." You're going to get to a point, though, again, like 45 minutes in, where you are nearing the top. And this path is going to widen quite a bit, and there's this wrought iron fencing surrounding this huge manor. And you're going to see cages. The cages have tops, but they are definitely outdoors, and you are going to see several Fang members crammed into these cages. Or I guess I should say former Fang members. And there are a lot of proper Fang members, the vampires, standing guard over them.

And when they see you guys coming, they're going to start hollering for you to help them, to get them out of these cages. Ubo will sidle up next to Mattie and keep his voice real low, so hopefully no one around can really hear him talking to her. But basically, yeah, he gets up beside her and says, "Is it okay if we destroy this vampire?" It seems like this wouldn't be the time with-- It seems she has too many forces around us, Ubo. If we were to attack her, I don't think we'd make it out. So she's very strong, but it is okay to destroy her. Not like the other vampires in the other town.

Let's judge her character first. Let's see what she's made of. Ubo looks back over at the cages and says, "I think I am done judging." That's a hard point to argue, too. Yeah, I know. I will not attack unless someone else signals. Okay. That sounds like a plan, but we also have to be able to get out. So let's keep that in mind, okay? Ubo just nods and keeps looking over at the caged suffering Fang members. Mattie will do the same, too, as soon as the conversation's done. Nod and then look at the cages. Yeah, Donovan's gonna point at him and look at Ripley and go, "What's all this about now?" Well, a lot of us.

We got moved up the ranks. We got to change. Some of us. We had to draw the short straws. We all gotta eat, you know. How's it decided? He's gonna look to everyone else. "Well, I told him that there was a lottery. I just picked the ones I didn't like." And he's gonna give everybody a wave like, "Come on, I'll take you to the castle. Let's go." Was that decision up to you entirely? You can tell he's trying not to dodge questions, right? But he's trying to just like, "Look, I try not to talk about this in front of the guys because, well, I am the mayor." I see.

And as mayor, will you ensure that we won't become the next ones in cages? Madam, you wound me. I thought you were here for a friendly visit. Alright, I've heard enough. Let's just go get information out of that old hag and let's get the hell out of here. Did you say that out loud? Yeah. Okay. Several Fang members are going to stop what they're doing. You could tell that they were chatting or something like that. Probably a little bit away from the cages. They're not taking glee in the fact that their former compatriots are locked up, but they're not going out of their way to sympathize with them either.

And they're gonna stop and they're gonna look up. And Ripley's going to pause. You really might want to watch that kind of talk. Sure thing, mayor. And he's gonna give you a forced smile. And he's going to give the welcoming motion toward, "Okay, through the fence, let's go." And you're gonna see these huge double doors on this porch. You'd have to walk up a good five or six steps. And it is honestly for as bad a rap as the Countess gets, and as bad as you would figure someone like that would live, this castle is in immaculate condition. It's honestly a little weird unless she has groundskeepers or handy people fixing stuff up.

It should not be in this good shape. But yeah, there are these gorgeous columns on either side of the porch here holding up the structure above so that you can bang your feet off, get dry, that type of thing. Or at least shake off a little bit like dogs. Do I sense any magic or arcane coming from any of that? Good lord, give me an Arcana check. Let's see what Anven will be sensing coming up to this castle. Alright. Oh, Hamina Hamina. Excellent first roll. That's 25 for everybody at home. If reaching out feelers in Theria works like Geiger counter for magic, Anven would just be getting huge spikes coming from everywhere.

There is a weird, weird vibe coming off of this place. Like there's not any one source of magic that you would say is coming off of something like, "Oh, that artifact," or, "Oh, this gate," or, "Oh, this person has a lot of magical attention." It's all over. If you were looking at Google Maps type of thing, there'd just be like, "Bup bup bup bup." There'd be little red dots everywhere. So I'll saddle up next to Donovan and Matt where we are walking. I feel there's a lot of arcane magic everywhere. Be on your toes. Watch where you step. Be careful. Alright, got it.

Thanks, man. I think though, it's Countess. She knows how to live though. Question. Yes. On our way through the yard with these cages and that, I'd like to try and tell how many cages there are, which ones have the big guys, and how easy do the locks look. Okay. So when you say big guys, are you talking about inside or outside? Like if anyone in the cage appears to be built or is bigger, point being if something were to happen, then he would try to let them out first. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Give me a Perception check. Okay. 18. 18. 18. Yeah, I saw that. So I imagine this is you just kind of scanning the area, taking it all in while you're walking through this little courtyard.

So there are several cages and they look to be kind of makeshift, almost like shark cages the way they're built. They're very vertical. It's not a very humane way to keep your food, I guess is the best way to put this. The people in here are packed in. So it looks to be that there are six cages lined up and there are at least seven people crammed into each one. They cannot all lay down, basically. That's where we're at. Like they are really jammed in there like sardines. These locks don't appear to be incredibly tough. Kind of giving them a quick once over.

There's nothing about them that looks particularly difficult to crack. Like you figure if you got a couple of seconds with them, you could probably get these open. Perfect. And the cages in the middle seem to have the most, I guess, able-bodied, the most fit people. They're all fairly fit, but some of them look to be real drunks or drug addicts, and they're not exactly getting their fix right now. So some of them appear to be more worse for wear, and some of them have bite marks. Bite mark doesn't necessarily mean will be turned at all. Exactly. In all likelihood, this may be a person who they tried to turn and couldn't.

So they just figured, "Oh, well, you're just a blood bag now," and they put them in a cage. Okay. Perfect. Good info. So leading you up to these double doors, the doors are going to open, seemingly by themselves. And Ripley is going to walk up onto the porch here and kind of shake off. He's got this ratty mane going on, and the rain is not helping that look. He kind of looks like a rat. And he's going to gesture into the house. "All right, this is where I leave you." As we all just stare blankly. Yeah, the other one kind of raises his arm and does the backhand wave, just like, "Yeah, go, go, go." He's going to point into the house, and you can definitely see inside here.

It's fairly well lit. It looks clean. A lot of people, I guess, would be expecting this dusty cobweb-infested manor, but it's, again, just like the outside, it looks like it's fairly well kept up with. And there are these massive pillars, this huge open area when you walk in. Big high ceilings, and you're going to notice this huge balcony. And leading up to that are these gorgeous stairs, crazy wide. It takes up the entire back wall. "All right, you're going to climb up two floors, and you'll know where to go." And he's going to nod to the party. "Good luck." "We'll be fine." And I start walking.

"There's kind of a place for you to wipe your feet and dry off a bit here. Could everyone give me a perception check, please?" "Oh, wow. Okay. All right." "Yeah." "Aw." "Well, okay. Okay, so, Anvin and Mattie are distracted a bit by all this. Like, maybe they have some water in their eyes or something. They're like, 'Oh, just...'" "And Anvin's wearing glasses. And if you wear glasses in the rain, that's a nightmare. So, everyone else is going to take in this beautiful house. And there's artwork, and the place is very, very decorated. A lot of scenic oil painting type things.

And maybe surprisingly, I'm not sure how you guys think about it, but there's a lot of daytime landscape shots. Big open valleys for the sun's rising or this gorgeous ocean type of scenery where ships are cresting over the horizon. You can tell that this room, this big open foyer type of thing, is just a place to... it's almost like an art gallery. And on the side of the wall, there is a massive fireplace. And as you walk in, the doors are going to close behind you gently. They're not going to slam shut or anything. And this fireplace is going to come to life.

And it is incredibly inviting. I would imagine after being stuck in the cold rain, and as the thunder claps outside, it's muffled, and you can kind of get attuned to being indoors again. I am going to say Donovan and Astor are going to make out something faint. It sounds like somewhere in this place, there's music playing. It sounds like an organ, like some cello in there. It's beautiful, but it does not sound like it's... it sounds like a live presence. There are people, like many people, playing music somewhere. I just want to describe how Donovan is feeling right now.

Coming in after Ripley left, he looks around, not breaking up with the party, walking next to Amven. But he's just jubilating, smiling. This is probably the most beautiful room he's ever been in. This is exactly what he's been looking for for a long time. He's just taking in all the paintings, the fireplace, the stairs, the high ceilings, and everything. And then he hears the music too. Does it sound like it's coming from upstairs, where we're headed? Yeah, if you had to put money on it, it definitely sounds like... if you can give it a second, it's like, "Hey, do you guys hear that?" And you're listening.

This sounds like it's probably a couple floors up. Alright, so he's almost walking and turning on the spot at the same time, looking at everything. And he'll get ahead of Amven a bit, and he'll just wave at Amven and the rest of the group, like, "Alright guys, come on, let's go. She's probably waiting for us." And he kind of hurries up the pace a bit. Yeah, I want to say walking into all of this opulence and stuff, that Aster looks very uncomfortable with all of this, more so than... I don't know if the party's probably never seen them, just this level of just...

Even outside of the cages and stuff, there's definitely... they weren't happy about it, they were pretty... a bit of darkness there, but this is just like, they just feel very out of place, and that's definitely showing. They're just kind of gonna follow along with the rest of them, but just kind of a bit... not quite nervous, but definitely... this is uncomfortable. Donovan will notice that, and he'll go back down a few stairs and kind of like, grab Aster by the shoulders, and go like, "Come on, you're here to protect us. Let's go." I don't think anyone here really needs protecting, but okay.

I'd say Mistoka's taking everything in, looking at everything that's just so expensive, and as they're walking, but he's just running his hand over whatever's within arms, just like, touching and admiring the... I think he would even make a comment to Donovan, like, "If this thing goes south and we come up on top, this is our house." Amven finishes cleaning his glasses with a cloth, but that's gone. I wonder if the magic is connected to her, and if this would still be like this if she isn't. But let's not plan on taking anyone down while inside their home.

Let's be cautious first. Pity. Ubo keeps walking. Yeah, powers like Maddy's sure would be handy right now. Funny you should say that, because I think Maddy was just making a silent prayer over her holy symbol real quick. Just, yeah, just let the light keep us safe or something like that. Sheesh, I hope that worked. I wish that worked for me. Sounds so easy when you do it. So, as you walk in here and kind of really explore this space, it's gonna dawn on you, maybe, maybe Aster would think of it first, but no one lives like this. Like, this is almost cartoonish.

Like, there might be three or four people on the planet that have this much space and this many possessions, this kind of home. This is eerie. I think most people would be gravely uncomfortable if they were handed all this at once. They just wouldn't know what to do with it. And your voices are going to carry and echo, bounce off the room and come back to you. That's massive. You're going to notice that there's food prepared. Not a banquet or anything, but there are sort of makeshift sandwiches or things to make sandwiches, like a platter of meats and cheeses, and they are arranged on this table with wine.

Did we arrive in a room or is this just like in the hall? It's like a think of it as kind of a grand hall type of thing. So there's a long dining table set up. It's somewhat near that fireplace area. Yeah, I'm not trusting that. Ubo keeps walking. Do I feel any concentration of magic from this or like any weirdness? I guess I could maybe try to see if this just appeared, like conjuration kind of thing or trying to find some like, okay, why is there food here? Vampires don't eat food. Where did this come from? Like, trying to get a gauge on it. Is it on the level, basically?

Yeah. Well, to answer your question, if you were to kind of inspect this, check it out, it's real. Like, it's not an illusion to start off with. And it definitely, this looks prepared, like someone was expecting you, maybe? Oh, that's unsettling. Can I tell how long it's been out? This looks to be pretty damn fresh. Like, maybe it was put out an hour or two ago. Okay. Well, it would be rude to turn that down. It's like, how hungry would we be right now? I mean, you tell me, it is in the evening. I'm not hungry, I'm thirsty. And just grabs a cup of wine. Doesn't drink it yet, but he'll be walking around with it.

Sure. If there's like a turkey or something there, Misoka would probably grab like a turkey leg and start munching on it. But you know that any of this could be laced with something, right? I do. Sorry, Misoka. Can't argue with my stomach. Alright. Asta just has their arms crossed and they're just kind of like, they still look very uncomfortable, but they also look a bit angry. They're just kind of like glaring at this immense amount of food. Is it from like a waste perspective? Like, it's like, are you shitting me with this? Yeah, yeah. Like, this is just like the icing on the cake.

They're not like this. They're a bit pissed off at this point. Ah, I got you. I go up to Maddie. Pay special attention to Misoka. Just be careful. Yeah. I will. Can you hear that? I mean, I guess, okay. Is Amphan whispering this or is it just like this guy? He'd be like walking up and kind of like leaning in like, can you just extra watch? We'll find out if there's anything wrong with this food. Just in case we need to make an exit, keep an eye on him. Why do I wish I had a way to find out if everything I ate in my life was poison? And then continue with Donovan, who I assume is already trekking this way or is it for I don't know if we stopped or what we're doing as a group.

Now Donovan's like floating, like being dragged by musical notes coming from upstairs. It's like a cartoon. I want to know if the food is actually good. He's eating it. Is it legit? Like it tastes like it should. Oh, yeah. No, this is so this might be the best meat you've ever had in your life. Like this is succulent and juicy and seasoned to perfection. Like there's some seasoning here and it's like, what is that? That's delicious. Like that is. Whoo. Then he's going to like between bites, be like, oh, you guys, you got to try this. This is so good. We'll go grab a bite of this.

No. You don't know what you're missing. He's going to grab another turkey leg. So he's double fisting turkey legs now. Roll for turkey. You got to run for it. Corrosus thing I've ever heard. Yeah. You know, it's not even the it's not even the poison is the tryptophan. You got to watch out for it. He's not eating 17 turkeys. I know. Anyway, if you're going up these stairs, there's there are details in the construction of this place that if you're going up the banister, there are beautiful edgings. And I guess Aster would notice these as very elven. It's very delicate and ornate that it's going all the way up the banister on the side, wraps around and starts going up the next level.

And this place is so decadent. It's each time you get to a new level and like if you got to the second floor, there's a different vibe. The second floor seems to be mostly like a bedroom area. So there are multiple rooms on either side of this hallway here. And there are the candles lit and you can very easily find your way. It's almost funneling you up to the next level. If it's one of those things where if you wanted to stay here, it looks like there's plenty of room. It's also dawning on you that you're not seeing any Fang members in this house. You're not seeing any of them there and they might not be allowed in here.

Yeah, I believe that. Keep your best outside. Do you guys want to keep going? Yes. Yep. That music is definitely going to get stronger, by the way. You can hear it much more clearly once you get to the second level. And as you walk down this long hallway past all these rooms, there's another staircase. This one's more of a spiral deal. And when you get to the third level, that music is still muffled, but very distinct. And it's a tune that you could really kind of like sway to dance, maybe waltz to something like that. It's very, very lifting. It's a sweeping sound.

It's not depressing or gloomy. It's very kind of upbeat, almost like there's some sort of dance or something going on. And you would see another long hallway. And there are suits of armor decorating the halls and torches leading all the way down to a very large set of double doors. This entire area looks to be a little less furnished, a little more cold, a little stonier up here. Whereas you could tell that there were like a wallpaper or something leading up to this area. It was lit a little more warmly, whereas this is a little harsher. The torchlight is sort of dancing off of the walls, kind of gives it a colder castle feel up here.

Yet the place is warm. Like you warmed up right away when you came in, which if you have traveled anywhere and have been rained on. And I think a lot of establishments even ends in towns that are a little drafty. They're a little, you know, people come in, people leave. And every time they do that, there's a cold wind that kind of whips through and it gets in your bones. This, beyond your clothing being wet, like you feel OK, like you're pretty warm. What would you guys like to do? Go back for seconds. Thirds? Yeah, there's no real reason to linger for too long.

Nobody touch any armor. And I would keep pressing on towards the double doors. Before we actually go, because this is right before we're going, I'd actually like to up the stairway. Is there any other way into the rooms or is it just like go up to the top and just goes to the double doors? It just goes to the double doors on the third floor. Great. Can I take out my spool of thread and put it through on the top of the stairs to detect if anyone trips that? Oh, like an alarm? Yeah. Oh, sure. Just some protection. Is there a garbage can around? Oh, no, he's going to put it in one of the suits of armor, isn't he?

I wouldn't say that there's... I don't know that they expected anybody to be tossing out chicken bones and stuff. I would say the best you'd find is like silver tray service things, maybe for like tea or something like that. Okay. On these tables lining the wall. So you may find like one or two of those, but yeah, probably no trash cans. Okay. Then as he finishes up one of these turkey legs, he's just going to kind of like, you know, casually walk by a suit of armor. Like, you know, just reach and pop up the mask and dump a turkey bone down into the suit.

Fantastic. So, okay. Would you be doing this in a way that you're just like, "Let me just do..." Okay. Like, okay. You ever watch someone leave like a Target or a Walmart and they crumple up their receipt and they try to do it all like stealthily, but they drop it? Are you trying to do it like that? No, but I get the picture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But are you just like, "Hey, everybody go ahead and do that?" Yeah, exactly that. Okay. As you do that, everyone is going to hear this rattling as the bone ricochets back and forth inside this nearly empty suit of armor.

So it's going to be like, "Ting, ting, ting." As it hits like the leg portion and kind of reverberates. And I would say, it's not like a deafening. It's not like loud, but it's loud enough for everyone to go, "What?" Like, I think it's one of those things. Maybe everyone's on edge a bit. Like, they don't trust this situation. Yeah, Astra is going to actually kind of like laugh, like very suddenly just kind of like startle, just like, but this is still very amusing. But... Mattie will probably laugh too. Like, oh, like, really? This is what happens in this moment?

Like we're all thinking we're about to die? Yeah. Just like completely just like breaks the ice. I finish tying my alarm. I look up. What the? Ubo just kind of stays in the zone. He's on like high alert. You guys want Masoka to do all the talking? I think it's only fair. Yes. That's the type of content I signed up for. I mean, this isn't DRP, so. And one of the intelligent people should do it. Yeah, maybe we should figure that out because it shouldn't be Ubo. It shouldn't be Masoka. It's probably gonna be Donnie. The rest of you are probably all fair. I feel like Donnie and Anvin were seem to express their intention of talking.

Yeah, I was thinking we would pair up. Yeah, I'm thinking about you. As I established in the Discord, the only thing that Ubo wants to say to the Countess is, you'll get the steak and you'll like it. Yeah, you'll probably get the chance. It's very good. And Masoka will give her the bone. And that's when Kelsey left. That's the best reaction I could have hoped for. You're the one who wrote the best meat you've ever had in your mouth. That's fair, actually. I don't think you get to have the high ground anymore. I was like, whoa. That kills the safe, huh? That's great.

I'll look at Donovan. Are you ready for this? Yeah, let's go. Let's go tell her what we think. And then he's going to grab, if he's strong enough, he's going to grab both door handles and kind of like push it forward at the same time or pull them towards him. If it's a push or pull situation. I hope I don't do the wrong one so it's not embarrassing. You know what? Maybe they swing both ways. I like where arc three is going. I think I found the title of the episode. So they do swing outward toward you. So just turning both handles, pulling out. Again, they're not like stone doors or anything.

They're just they're very nice doors. So they got a little bit of weight to them. And something you're going to notice and maybe only occurs to you at the last minute, but there are no windows in this hallway like none. So it's got kind of a not a dank dungeon feel, but it's got a it's got a real mood lighting to it. Again, the the fire flickering off the walls and all that stuff. And then you turn these handles and open one. This wave of music is going to hit you. And you're going to notice that there are these immensely tall windows open as the as the storm is still going on outside.

That light is going to flicker every once in a while. And there are there are these little fires everywhere in this massive room. There is a full band playing on the far side of the room in the back. And they have to be a good, you know, 50, 60 feet away, something like that. And they all look very well, give me a perception check, everyone. So Astor, Maddy, Masoka are all going to take this in and everyone else gets like below 13 or so. So so you guys are going to see these that this group of people and they're all playing these instruments beautifully.

And they're all dressed up. They're they're either wearing suits or dresses or something like that. They're very they're very prim and proper. But there's something off about their features. They they're incredibly pale and gaunt, almost almost ghoulish looking. And they are beautifully just just just weaving these instruments and just just just just gorgeous soundtrack. And you're going to notice two lone figures dancing now near the band itself. You're going to see a child looks to be a human boy. Very pale, very almost disconnected from the situation and sitting on these stairs leading up to the band itself.

The two lone figures dancing. I want to say dancing may not be the right word for one of them. Trying to keep up would be the right term. There is a gorgeous elven woman in a bright white dress, long, dark hair, elegantly swinging this half elf man around, basically. And this half of men is stumbling, trying to keep up with her. And she is graciously waltzing with him and he is stumbling and kind of just barely standing. And most of you are going to notice there is blood trickling down this man's neck. This woman is going to make eye contact with the party.

And she is going to stop and drop this man. This man is going to fall flat on his back and kind of roll over to the side and start kind of fumbling, weakly clawing at the stone ground beneath him and maybe move an inch or two, just trying to pull himself. And she is going to hold up a hand. And this music is going to stop dead. And the only sound that you're going to hear for just a couple of seconds is that man feebly trying to pull himself groaning. And she's going to take a step toward the party. I was expecting company tonight. I'm the Countess. And I said, when you guys laid idols on her, we do have artwork, so I can share this with everybody.

Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Okay. So, okay. Oh, God. All right. So it's Donnie's dream girl right there. All right. So coming in, we just like the pep talk with Amven. And then you see like the guy falling with blood and then doesn't kind of like walks in with like some intention. And he goes like, all right, madam, we've got a few things to talk about. Hi, I'm Donovan. This is my party. And he kind of like, like, slack jawed, like, tries to like come up with the next sentence, kind of like, like said, I'm in and kind of like motions like say something. Hi, we come on behalf of Winterhaven.

And I look back at Donovan and give him a smirk. Is struggling guy on the floor still struggling? Oh, absolutely. Ubo legit just casts healing word across the room. Interesting. Okay. So that dude's going to heal a D4 plus four. Okay, give it to me. Oh, okay. Five. Take that five. So he's still he's still laying there, but that that wound is going to close up on him and he is going to stabilize at the very least and probably, probably lay there for a moment, collecting himself. And by the way, when he casts that healing word, Ubo just like dead stares the countess while he does it, like he's looking at the countess and casting the spell at the dude.

Yeah, it's a it's a bit of a spectacle, right? You know, your hand glows, you're you know, it's it's it's not stealthy when you cast spells. So yeah, he's he is going to stop struggling and probably maybe roll over and sit up a little bit and lean against one of these pillars. And she's going to look at Ubo. Thank you so much. And she's going to hold a hand out to Anven. It's an absolute pleasure to meet all of you. As in like the take her hand kind of thing. Oh, yes. Oh, OK. Very elegant. Well trained in this. Anven replies in kind. You hold your hand out so she can kiss it?

No, no, I mean, I do the right thing. No, I want to be tough dog here. OK. Kissing protocol gets real confused and you guys just make out with each other. Talk about diplomacy. Yeah, that's the practice made. So he actually takes he has how far away is she from the group at the moment? She took a step toward you guys. So you you yeah, the gap is pretty close. You're not screaming back and forth in this big hall. OK, well, Anven approaches and. Does the right to blame and thing very even though he's like, well, this could get me killed, but. There's a lot of things I could say.

This is the least worst thing that could happen. So he kisses her hand and we never had a name for us. This is my party. We come up with a name on the spot. We could use a random name generator. What do you want to hide? Oh, man. I mean, would I have to like make it up on the spot? I'll give you an option. OK. I love this. You could just go, oh, this is my party and that's fine. You could also make up a name right on the spot. And that would be good, too. It would kind of signify that you're you're a group, right? You have you have an allegiance to each other or.

You could tell me to open up this little random name generator I have right now, and that would be that would be a simulation of the first name that pops into Anven's head because he wants to come off like, you know, it's a cave in and I'll give you a plus two to your diplomacy checks. Oh, God. Guys, I really want to do that. Yeah, I don't. I think we can't not. Or your other option is just like it would only be to her. So, yeah, I mean, you've seen the room or the cello blood hair. Where are you? Candle. Tortures. No, we're the trinket armors. We are the dawn of a thousand stakes.

Actually, go like scented. Yeah. Oh, blade the movie. All right, roll that table. Don't be extorted for a bonus, you guys. Come on. I believe in the cards. How about this? I'll take a vote in the chat. OK, use those features. Sorry, Rob. Yeah, I know how this is going, but I need to be on the record as saying. But it needs to. We are a diplomatic society, so I want to be on record saying this is going to be great. Yeah, so I'm all about this. Give me a checkmark if you agree and an X if you don't. How do I do it? There we go. Yeah. Let it know. I know that I'm on the record is rejecting the buffoonery name.

In character, single. Just set the tone and it's going to just be clown bait here. We don't own it. Sorry. Did you miss everything else that's happened so far? Yeah. OK, clown bait. OK, here's what I'd like. Here's what I'd like you to do. I want three of you to do me a favor. And roll a D10 each. Now I'm going to pick three. Mattie, give me a D10. OK. OK. Nine. Nine. OK. You know what? Xavier, give me a D10. Excellent. And finally, Michael, give me a D10. All right. Oh, no. Three. OK, I'm putting this together now. Just know. Own it. Is it the number of times that he clicks the generate button?

Mine was ready. The fearless titans. Oh, yeah. Tough. Tough. It's hacky, but effective. Sounds like a DC group. It does. Yeah, it's like a T group. Yeah, wait for next arc or where fearless titans go. You do that. Oh, don't do that. I expected that to go worse. That's actually like that's that's not bad. It's a mediocre name, but it does not embarrass us. It's no big turtle boys. Big turtle boys. Deep cut. All right. All right. We are the fearless titans. What? Yeah, yeah. I'm just going to let like let like. They're going to whisper over to to Maddy. Just did we discuss this?

I miss a vote. Yeah. He has a confused look on her face to like. I know. The Donovan steps in like, that's right, we're the fearless titans. It's like, oh, yeah, we are expecting like we're amping your mill and the boys. I'm ample and then the boys. And Madam Countess, we're we won't take too much of your time. We're just we're just here to ask a few questions about Donners. We're here from Winter Haven and we don't want to bother you for too long. So you do present a unified front here. And as silly as some of you may think the name sounds like, OK, well, you're a team.

You're you're you're here representing Winter Haven. OK. She is going to gracefully extend an arm and ask you all to sit this really large table. There are two sides of it and she's going to start to walk toward the head of it and sit down. And she she before she sits down, she asks everyone, just take a seat. Is it a rectangle table or a round table? It's rectangular. And I will. I'm depending if I want to sit on the opposite side as a power play or just anywhere. Oh, that's a negotiation. If you if so. Wait, so you're going to sit on like the up, like facing her as like the other.

If you do that, Ubo will stand beside you with his arms crossed. Oh, OK, I'm doing it. Ubo takes up his position, standing beside you with his arms crossed. And like because the cellos have stopped, he's got his arms crossed. He's holding his quarterstaff in one hand and like there's a leather wrap around the middle of it. And so in like the quiet of the room, after everyone sits, you hear his grip like tighten against the leather. You hear that little like sound. Oh, nice. I'm digging this. I want artwork of this. Nice. Yeah, while we still have the whole party.

So Donovan will sit next to Anvin and he'll place the wine cup he took that somehow he's still holding it, opening both doors. Video game physics. It's fine. Yeah, put in my inventory and he'll kind of like sit next to Anvin, but kind of like a little more laid back than Ubo on the other side of Anvin. I kind of like just not stare at the countess, but kind of like just trying to meet her gaze as much as possible. And Anvin looks like trying to be that this is how serious diplomats act. They're they're not you know, this is the right thing to do. So he's going by his playbook if there is even one.

But he's this is what's going to do what he can. What was helping a lot. It's a presence thing. Exactly. Command the room. That was the book I read, right? First up, command the room. If you reach an awkward silence, Ubo crack his neck. Oh, nice. Oh, man. You know what? I'm going to have you I'm going to have you roll for neck cracking if we do some intimidation and get a bonus. Don't roll a crack point. You know, Ubo goes limp. Yeah, we don't hear the sound and you just fall asleep. Ubo's legs give out. That's it. Oh, my God. It turned out he had an undiagnosed spine disorder all his life.

Bonitis. Let's get back on that countess tension. OK. She is going to. There is wine. In a bottle. Sitting in the center of the table again, this is not a ridiculously like a Wayne Manor stupid long table. It's it's it's comfortable enough for all of you to have a conversation, but you are a bit of a distance away from her. Probably eight, nine feet, something like that. And there is a red liquid in in her cup and she is going to drink from it. We've had quite a few visitors over the last couple of weeks. You said you're from Winterhaven. Correct. I would imagine they're all quite concerned.

There was a lot of questions about this city. We were tasked to find that out. She's going to give this smile. I'm assuming you've met the mayor. We have. He's an absolute idiot, isn't he? I'm glad we can agree on that. Yeah, I'm glad you said it first. And again, she's going to take another sip and set the cup down. And that's about the time that this child is going to come running up to the table and and stand just behind her chair. Her chair's got this high back. A lot of these the two seats on the end primarily, but all of them have high backs to them.

So he's going to kind of creep up here a little bit and just kind of peek around the countess's chair at everyone. Well, he does serve a purpose right now, but he's a tremendous dullard. I can't defend that. And she's going to gesture to Anven specifically. You said you have questions. I do. So does my friend here, Donovan. And we have a few and one of them is, what is your intentions with this city? I intend to live here like I always have. Well, there was from what we had reports of demonic activity, and before that you were here from reports and there was no larger reach desired.

Now seems like the city is under your control. Well, I think that's I think that's only fair, don't you? Do you have anything to do with what happened there and why everyone died? She's going to bring a hand up to her chest. That's positively insulting. I would never harm the populace of Donhurst. I've always had a deep love for this city. So would you be open for any survivors to return to the city unharmed? She's going to reach out. And that boy is still kind of like peeking out, but she's going to reach back for his hand and pull him forward just a little bit.

This is Eric. Eric, say hello to everyone. And he's going to kind of nod and try to slip back just a little bit. Like he's terrified of you guys, it seems. Donovan will kind of like smile and raise an eyebrow. Oh, hi, Eric. It's good to meet you. I want to look and see if does he look full flesh color? Does he look pale? Oh, he's pale. I always wanted children of my own. But with my condition, it's difficult. Ironically, it's only after I turned Eric that I realized I despise children. And she's going to shoo him away a little bit. I guess that brings me back to my question of what is your intention with the city?

Well, while I admit that the Fang and she's she's going to say that name as disrespectfully as possible, there's an eye roll in the pronunciation. They're not exactly the most intelligent or noble of creatures. But again, they do serve a purpose. And I think it's time that I left the castle walls from time to time. I would like to eventually stroll through the city. If the people of Donhurst wish to return. They're more than welcome to. But they will be living under my rule now. And I'll pass my laws down to the mayor. And he can deliver them to them. Why would you make sure that those that did return weren't, how should I put it, mistreated by a certain mayor's ability to lead?

Again, a smile is going to creep across her face because it's very obvious what you're asking. If you're asking if any harm is going to come to some of the citizens returning, of course it is. But it's nothing that I myself have it signed off on. And she's going to get a stern look on her face. No one under my command is going to harm anyone. Unless I tell them to. Well, that's great to hear. You know, if you rule over the city, you're going to have to deal with your neighboring cities. There will be people crossing the road next to yours. You're going to have to engage with the people going back and forth through the continent.

You know, you won't live in a vacuum, so how do you how do you intend to interact with Winter Haven and Aubrey and Durn Hollow? The fields are you going to tend to the crops that the town used to? Are you going to where are you going to do with the city? I feel it would be unbelievably cruel to let this entire city go to waste. People's lives are attached to it, and I'm sure the survivors would love to come back to their homes, their farms, their shops. I would never stand in the way of that. I intend to run the city. Just as it had been run before. Albeit with a lower population for now.

How about sustainability? Seeing those in the cage, how will you maintain those that have returned? Sounds like you have a way to maintain yourself without a truly renewable food source that doesn't harm. She's going to lean back a bit and take another sip. I'll admit we're in a bit of transitional period right now. I can quite definitely control my appetite. And while I'll admit there was a stray Don Hurst citizen who would come to the castle and disappear from the populace, it wasn't often enough that I would incur the wrath of the townsfolk. Of course, we do have a lot of mouths to feed now, and I've had to discipline some of my new children.

They lack the self-control that an older vampire might have. Rest assured, I'm doing everything in my power to make sure that our food source doesn't run dry. And she is staring unblinkingly at Anven as she's saying this. Trying to keep eye contact, but I'm pretty sure it's like, because she's like ancient, right? Or very old, it seems. She's very old. So it's that like constant, like stare down. Would you mind if I asked you a question? By all means. She's going to swivel her head over to Donovan. Are you wearing the Kirkland Saunders armor? Wow. I can't believe someone recognized it.

Yes. Yes, I'm in fact wearing the Kirkland Saunders armor. He looks over at Maddie. We're both from Aubrey. So, you know, we're open to the idea of living in society with vampires. We're open to what you have to say. I must say, I was very surprised to hear that. Aubrey, I mean, they've had a, shall we say, definitive stance on my kind for a very long time. It seemed like overnight they were allowing them to live within their city walls. Donovan looks over at Maddie because he doesn't have the part of the story. When the monsters, and she'll make a quotation, show that they aren't that, and that they have sense and want to live among the populace and give us cause to believe that they will live within the parameters of society, we gave them that chance.

And they have continuously proven that they were able to do so. She's going to kind of give this wry smile. Well, you'd be surprised at how mannerly someone could be when they're not being hunted. Yes. I honestly count them among my friends. Jonathan and Selena are good friends of mine. Well, that's very good to hear. I'm hoping you and I can become wonderful friends as well. I hope that we could reach that point as well. But she's been eyeing the child. Ah. Just like sidelong glances. Yeah, I kind of wanted to say, like, just for the record, I found out she turned a child.

Ahsoka's been very uncomfortable, kind of squirming, like wants to do something, but knows they probably can't, which just makes him even more angry. She's going to look at Ubo, but addressing the party, I'm sensing some tension, which, all things considered, is to be expected. But I'm wondering what I can do to assuage your fears. What message could I have you bring back to the people of Winterhaven that would help you put all of this behind you? Is she asking Ubo or just asking the group? She's making eye contact with Ubo, but she's definitely speaking to everyone.

Yeah, because Ubo just continues to watch her, basically, like she's... What I want to say, like... Like he's guarding a prison. Wow. Just mean mugging her? Yeah. I don't know if words, anything you say, can prove your intention more than what action would. I think more time, dialogue, and lack of malice or... And as I look over at the... Is the man asleep or just on the other side, just laying there? Probably panting a little bit, like just drained. Or treatment of the people would have to be taken into consideration. It's not something that can be defined in one day, in one conversation, in one meal.

And he'll, like... When he says meal, he punctuates it. Right. She's going to pause, and she's going to look over at the man who's slumped against the pillar. And she's going to glance outside. I must say, this is becoming frustrating. I'm attempting to be diplomatic with you, but rest assured this is happening. I've made a decision on this matter, and I'm getting the vague impression from your party that you feel as though you get to sign off on this. Now, I could be jumping to conclusions, so please, correct me if I'm wrong. You are the one holding the power here.

I'm just trying to create a form of communication, as Donovan here said earlier. There are other cities, places that want to make sure there are tried routes and be able to create a path between the continent. And we just all want to make sure we know if we're welcome or not. And we have no intention to cause any problem right now. She's going to take another sip. Well, I'll have you know that you are always welcome in my city. I would even be willing to sign some papers to that effect as a show of good faith. And I would let you know my full terms to allow the people of Donhurst and all travelers to visit the city.

Would that help? I think it would be a very good start in our trust for both of us. There's not a part of you, any of you, and she's going to look at the table. That feels bad for him. And she'll point over to the man slumped against the pillar. Is there? You wanted to know what you could do to show us sign good faith for us to trust you more? Let him leave with us. You wish to take him with you. May I ask why? It's not to pride, but I'm a little confused. I just want to see if your food source runs low. If you're willing to, you know, make good on your terms and let some people leave, some people live.

Masoka's gonna walk up beside Donovan and tap him on the shoulder and just whisper into his ear, "Ask her for the kid." Did friends leave with us? She doesn't like him anyway. He can grow up in Aubrey. Or what about Eric then? You seem to dislike him. You could take him off your hands. Let me see if I understand this. I've welcomed you into my city and my home. We speak with each other diplomatically. I offer you my assurance that only a small handful of people will have harm come to them. And you doubt me and ask for my son? And she's squinting at the party at this point.

This is the closest I would say that she's come to looking upset. I'd say it's more of we or her. You said that you weren't, once you turned little Eric there, that you were not as fond as children. But with Aubrey trying to welcome vampires as well, it thought it would be a boon for you. If we have misread this... You know what, I was out of line. I don't know what took over me. Definitely not. I'm going to scratch that one. I'll let Amvin do the talking. Amvin looks so pretty. Masoka's going to look pissed at Donovan. As much as he wants to protest, he knows he can't do anything, but he's going to leave the room.

He's going to storm out of there. And she'll give a glance to Masoka as he does that, but she won't stop him or anything. And again, this is still, when I say the closest she's been to looking upset, it's the tone of voice. She's still very reserved, I would say. And she would stand and think for a moment. While she's thinking, I lean over to Donovan. Sometimes it's okay to push. It's so we know we don't get walked over. We can do this together. Astor isn't going to move, but when Masoka gets up and leaves, they're just eyeing the door. Like, oh, we can leave.

We can just go. Maybe that's the clue here. Is that comforting? They don't know if they got up and left too. Would that make things worse or not? They're just very, very not happy with any of this and want to be gone. She is standing at this point and walking around, and you can hear her shoes kind of click, click, click on this stone floor when there's a trail of carpet. But when she steps off of that. I am willing to sacrifice for my city. The boy is my property, but I will allow him to leave with you if he so chooses. And she's walking around away from the child at this point and over to the man who is slumped near this pillar.

And she's going to trace her fingers through his hair, almost like petting a dog. And then she's going to lean down and grab him by the back of the neck with her left hand and lift him clean into the air. And she's going to squeeze. And you're going to hear a crack. And she's going to toss the body 15 feet across the room and have it laying next to the table you're all sitting at. You can take him with you, too. I'm guessing he took more than half his health and damage. OK. Well, that's what I had. For the record, we're all afraid of dying here? Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. And. It's probably a good thing that Soka didn't see that. Yeah. Well, she's done it. The kid would have been just rage. So where's the child in the room? I would say he's hovering a few feet behind where she was sitting at the head of the table. So he's keeping an eye on the party at this point and not. OK, give me a perception check. Eight. OK. Donovan, can you give me an insight? Yes. Oh, shit. OK, so Maddy would see where this kid is standing, but probably not get a good look at him because, I mean, there's a there's something going on over here. Donovan's going to notice when when she says you can take when you can take the kid and you can take Eric.

This kid's going to look hurt. Probably a little misty eyed. I'm done when I was kind of like lean towards him and say. And you don't have to if you don't want to. Give me a persuasion check. Oh, 26. This poor kid, he's going. You could see that he's trying to mouth words, but he's a little broken up and he's just going to solemnly nod at Donovan like, yeah, I'll go with you. Hey, it's OK, bud. The countess is going to walk toward the table and place her hands on the side of it and lean over. The people of Donhurst have one month to move back. Five percent of the populace would deliver themselves to my manor and never be seen in the city again.

That is the tax for living in the new Donhurst. Well, make sure to relay the information and writes down the terms in his book that he's going to stand up at this point and say to she's going to give it like a little bow. Thank you, Madam Countess, for allowing us the courtesy to your home. And then she'll she's been like eyeing the door to she's like, oh, man, we're so good by himself in a city full of vampires. Did he trip my alarm? Did he leave? Or was he just outside the road? There's no way. Well, OK. Normally I would say there'd be a check or something, but you watched him put it up.

If you trip over that. Good lord. I don't. But I don't think he left the building. He just did you go down the stairs, basically, because when they come back out, he's going to be like, what? Right. Right. Right. So, yeah, Donovan is going to fireman carry the body that's on the ground. I take it you're all leaving. Absolutely. OK. And then stands up. Appreciate your time. I will have this delivered and we will continue more discussions if it's not with me. But there are there could be more discussions in the future that I wish to keep this conversation open. And she'll give a very slight nod to the head and close her eyes.

And then she's going to walk away from the table and move to one of these very large windows and just almost disconnectedly stare out into the night. I will turn around and watch my back as I leave. And if if the kid isn't following, I would try to guide him to come with us. I think he would stick close to Donovan. But there'd be a couple of times where he would pause like he's OK. This incredibly sad, like he's waiting for this woman to stop him and she never does. She doesn't even acknowledge. I don't worry. Welcome visit often. We'll introduce you to Jonathan and the other one.

That's racist. Yes. Yes. I didn't say the other one. I said Selena the first time. Yeah. Yeah. OK. It's just trying to reassure him and like, yeah, I'm going to stick with him. And he would walk out with Donnie and the group. And if you all leave this room, the doors will close behind you. And very gently, you're going to hear that music pick back up again. But it's not a jaunty dancing waltz type of tune. It's much more brooding. Diplomacy is a game of compromise. I guess we're just making our way through the house back toward the entrance to leave. Yep. I would say yeah.

And it seems like you guys are maybe hoofing it out, like you're moving fairly quickly. Yes. I would just say that when they come out of the room, Soka would start like, you know, like storming up towards Donovan. But then notice he's got the kid holding his hand and he would just stop, like catch himself and just be like, thank you. To be clear, Donovan not only has this kid's hand, but he also has a dead man's body draped around his neck like a scarf. Yeah, he doesn't care about that. OK. I just wanted to paint a picture. Then he'll come up to Donnie and just be like, oh, OK, thank you for coming through.

That means a lot to me. Yeah, don't worry about it. OK, I don't want to really talk about it right now. We should just get out of here. Yeah, I don't either. I just go like if we storm out of the place as we walk by the things that are there and the people in the cages with the body on my shoulder, isn't that a kid holding my hand? I'll just tell the thing like, I hope you fuckers enjoy your city. OK, these guys are true dirtbags, so you might even hear some snickering coming from like that weird, like, who did that? Like that kind of thing. Like it's somewhere.

But I'm going to give you guys an option if you want. We can go just a little bit longer because you don't have to go back through the city. There's a way down these hilltops that will lead you back to the main road, if you'd like. Yeah, I don't think we're going to camp out in the city. OK, I kind of figured you didn't want to stay at the local inn. You didn't want to hang out. I think we're good. Kind of wanted to open one of those cages, but I don't want to get caught doing it either. Well, I get the feeling we're going to come back eventually and you're going to get to wear that armor when we do.

Yeah. Let's pick things up an hour later. That rain is going to let up a bit. It's drizzling and stuff like that, but it's those big, ploppy raindrops that you hear hitting leaves above the canopy. So it's like, it's that kind of rain that threatens to pick back up or completely stop within a few minutes. And you don't really know which is which. And as you trek along, your muddling boots are just going to almost get stuck a couple of inches in the mud. And then it's a real rhythmic like, "quack, quack, quack, quack, quack." And you guys are about an hour away now.

At what point would one of you turn to the other and just start launching into a conversation about what just happened? Is it a... do you figure there'd be a strong silence after the fact where you're all just thinking about it? Or would you all be itching to just like, "what the fuck was that?" Yeah, Donovan definitely is itching to talk about it. OK, so... Yeah, I think we just want to get away from any prying ears. Everyone's in thought, but open for conversation. So Ubo has a thing to say, but he can't say it to everyone. He actually specifically kind of tries to nudge Maddie far away from Erik, the little kid.

And so once they're kind of far away from where Erik might be able to hear, he says to her, "do you see now why they all have to die? They all become like that." And he points back toward the Countess's manor. "Someday, we are supposed to die. And they cheat it. And they eat us like fruit to sustain that life. They get bored. They have time forever. Nothing keeps them happy forever." Ubo, we can't say they're all the same. Because if you're saying when beings get old, then why aren't the elves like that? Or the eladrin? Or if you're saying that one race based upon what they eat or how they behave is evil, then the same could have been said of orcs.

They were perceived as evil beings for a very long time. But then we came to understand that just because they were different, they weren't inherently evil. We have to give them a chance to prove their worth. Yes, the Countess is evil. But that doesn't mean all vampires are. Are you going to look at that child and say that child is evil? Ubo looks at the child and looks back at Maddie. "I know that looks like a child." And he just lets that hang. He just stops there. You have to be willing to let people show their worth. You can't just judge them for what you perceive them to be.

Ubo just grumbles and looks away. Maddie will put a hand on his shoulder though and squeeze, so like, we're still cool, but this is an ongoing conversation. While they're having that conversation, the Astor's just gonna start talking. Just sort of speaking up. Hey, so, do any of you guys know how to take care of a vampire kid? Which, by the way, do we even know how old it is? A kid might actually be older than this, which is kind of weird when you think about it. We can't just ask him. The Astor's fine, it's fine. I'll ask him. Is anything fine anymore? Because that was definitely not fine.

All of that. We're all alive somehow, so I guess that's a good thing. Yeah, let's start with that. It's a little early to get frazzled. Let's keep walking a bit and then we can decompress. Eric, how old are you? There's gonna be a silence, because... There is a lot, right? Like, this kid wasn't wanted by the person who killed him to have him. And it gets worse. Right now he's being talked about like a problem, right? And there's gonna be a pause and he's gonna kind of speak up. I'm ten. Oh, you're all grown up. He'll give like this forced smile. My name's not Eric.

He'll get to eye level. He'll get on one knee. What's your name then? It's Clifford. Clifford Turner. Does your mom know a lot of Erics? There is a hard swallow for this kid. My mom's dead. I'm sorry. What did you think of the Countess? Let's not decompress or get into the heavy stuff right now. He doesn't deal with children much. He's gonna look back toward the castle. Let's just go. Yeah, right. Just before we go, I'll just be a minute. And he props the body down on the ground that he's holding. And he starts digging a hole just to get that over with. I was wondering if you were gonna take him all the way back to Winterhaven.

Do we know this person? Does he have a wallet? Do we know it's Trent? We don't. Well, this guy has got a... kind of a moppy head of sandy brown hair. Dressed like one of the Fang members. There's scarring around his neck where he's been bitten multiple times. And if you were a betting man, you would say that she let him heal just enough to replenish her Capri Sun and bite him again. Yeah. Here lies a poor bastard. He's gonna... I guess while other people are talking, he's gonna do that in the back. Tell Clifford to go talk with Masoka. And he'll do like a... just a quiet, quick, like... handmade DIY prayer for the guy without mentioning a monitor, really.

Just like... I guess... go back to the earth and fertilize some... go fertilize some good grapes. The end. Very like, go on, get out of here. Be one with something. I don't know. I don't know. It's not your A game. No. Could I get one of you to do me a favor and roll a flat T20? Who won it? Yeah, I was gonna say, who wants to do it? There it is. There it is. A key seven. Oh, I'm sorry. I clicked that. I didn't do that. That is a seven. As you're speaking, again, you're outside of the city of Donhurst. You're to the east of it, actually, right now, the southeast. And that rain is gonna taper off to the point where there's just a drop or two every minute, something like that.

The group is gonna hear something. You're gonna hear what sounds like running. And it's really easy to pick this up because it is muddy and just terrible out. And something is running toward the party. Desperate. Clawing. It sounds like it's running on all fours. And out of the bushes. A man is going to stumble and just trip, fall, eat shit, just blam right in front of the party. And not even for a second stop. And this person is absolutely coated in grime, smells like a sewer. And his dreadlocks are just coated. In dirt and grime. And he is going to grab Mattie at the waist and just like with a pleading look in his eye.

You gotta get me out of here. And I think that is a good time for us to stop for the evening. Dude, we're stacking up the NPCs. Yeah! Oh, it got dark. Congratulations, guys! Woof. Woof. Does everyone know who that is except for me? I think so. It's Trent. Oh, okay. There's a lovely young gentleman who hit on members of the Group B party. And he's a member of the Fang, or was, but... You get the sense that he's a dopey kid who probably got roped up and shit? We're going to queer IMs and everybody's going to love Trent. Stick with us, Trent. That was great. I had a lot of fun.

That was... What a tone setter. Glad you got out of there. Coming dark. How did that turn out in your heads versus what actually happened? I'm curious. I thought she was going to take one of us as, "Oh, well, you can't all leave." Yeah, I'm letting you leave, but not all of you. I felt like we would be more confronting her, or being more abrasive. I felt I was going to be more snarky, stuff like that, or Ubo was going to be more defiant. I kind of feel like we all got scared. Yeah, I was afraid that other party members were going to do us. I'm like, "Oh, no, this is going to go so badly." I heavy gulped many times during this conversation.

Oh my God, she was like, "You want to take my child?" I was like, "Why the fuck did I say that?" If you said that she turned a child, I've never been more angry at an NPC. What are we supposed to do with this kid? He's never going to grow up. I love it. Now we're like, "Okay, do we go east where we wanted to go, or do we go back to Aubrey?" I know. Now we have to give this, "Hey, here's these rules that are stupid as shit." I guess we go back to Aubrey, we drop. Hey, go back, but 5% of you. Just send the minotaurs. Just tell them there's a city for them.

Oh, geez. Well, they got more blood for individual. We're going to clean up the place in no time. This is a hard decision. We can save Carter too if we go back to our west. We've got tons of green quests. Honestly, this felt almost similar to the Malkus proposal system. Where it's like, "Hey, let's make a deal." I'm like, "Well, I want to try to be serious about this, but I also don't want to get everybody killed." Oh my god. Yeah, we're going to fast forward 17 years and it's going to be the least- The child's going to chatter and we're going to travel through time.

That's not on us. It's going to be the toughest bully. Okay, so if we told her no, then she would have just killed us and done it anyway. Yeah. I want that. This woman doesn't really have a choice here. She's interesting in that it's- I love that she tells you in no one's- "No, this is happening." "I don't care what your opinion is. You can deliver a message. That's cool." I could tell how happy you were to finally be playing her. We could hear it. The scene where the door is open and she's dancing, the music I was playing just picked up. I was just smiling because it was too good and it was welling up as you were talking.

I can't wait for the edit for this episode just for that scene. It was so Curse of Strahd. It was so good. There's a happy coincidence that we got artwork for her before this episode. We're just going down the list getting stuff done. But seeing some of these characters, I see them in my head and for the first time it's like, "Holy shit. I get to show these off. That's really cool." It's been so many years that you don't realize it until- Do you want to see her all vamped out? Yes. She's been open on my table the whole game and I'm just staring at her the whole game.

I was trying to roleplay hardcore. She's staring at my eyes. I was staring at the eyes in the picture. I was just trying to go all in and channel it as much as possible. She looks so nice in the picture. She seemed kind of hoo-jeez. I'm glad we didn't see that. I'm glad we didn't get to that part. And that's why I didn't speak. [laughter] Masoko's a real MVP. We're not throwing a turkey leg at her. There was a brief moment where I almost said "lightning bolt" when she broke that dude's neck. [groans] I had my turn on dead and righteous flame or whatever up.

My two strongest attacks against vampires. I might need these. I was calculating if we break one of the windows can we get out of there? Let's see, we're three stories up. What are our chances? I was looking at my spells too. I noted which ones would be least effective to most effective. I want to come back. I want us to come back at some point and continue that story point. We might have to have a crossover for that with every group. And I recruit an army. Level 17. Right at this moment, all Ubo wants to do is let's not get on some sort of low stakes academic kind of quest.

Ubo needs to kill something evil so badly instead of just being kicked around and exploited by something evil. Because that's happened twice now in his recent history. Well I gotta imagine that that's a real hard thing for him to reconcile too. If you guys walk away from this castle and then you're like, "Well, anyway, this farmhouse needs attention." I gotta imagine that's gotta be... We know that this chick exists now. We've met her. It's a tangible threat. We know what she's gonna do. What are we gonna do about it? Yeah, Ubo wants to live to train to be strong enough to kill her right now.

Well, if Ubo wants to kill something evil, I think the party probably needs to at some point after have a discussion about, "Okay, what are we doing now?" There are some interesting things, I think, with what we said before in the past that we could go to. Can we research what the greatest vampire killing weapon in all of Theria is and go searching for that? I think it's the big, the round glowing Christmas ornament. "Hey, look, we're going to go to the next robbery." And when Ubo and Maddy were talking, literally the same thing was recognized. I was thinking, "Yeah, we're not strong enough.

We need to get stronger." And so then it was that pull of, "Ooh, I want to go back to Uminyiro and see if I can get stronger." Yeah, Uminyiro, take care of some business in Brightport, level up some, do some grinding. And kill those wild boars. Yeah, exactly. Feral hogs. Classic is about to come, sorry. You know, it's interesting. I know you're joking and stuff like that, but during that conversation, I didn't get the feeling that it was a meta decision where you're like, "Oh, we're not a high enough level." I get the feeling that you just felt, I don't even know if it was outnumbered because I don't know if you were looking at the fang as a legit threat.

No. No. Not really. I don't think compared to her, they're even a consideration. I mean, yeah, they're definitely, we are technically outnumbered, but it doesn't even matter at that point kind of thing. Right. I was going to say, just from a meta point, I have a spell that could probably take them all out if they were next to me. Damn. Because Destroy Undead at level 5 gets rid of low level vampires. Oh, yeah, you could probably blade up some vampires at that point because they're definitely spawns. Like, less than spawns, some of them. Yeah. I think it's, in my head, I was like, "Well, I don't really have an indication of whether or not we're strong enough to take her." It was such a hard decision and I feel like the story projected her strength and so I judged it based on that.

Yeah. And that's the thing on my end, I don't want to, like, okay, I didn't want you to walk through the door and she's casting crazy high level spells. Yeah. She's a bat and she's, yeah, like, it's her confidence and the way she carries herself that you get that it's like, okay, she thinks she's strong. Like, I mean, I don't know if I want to risk it, that type of thing. At least that's what I was going for. And it worked. And even just like how she was living to prove that she has all of that. And the fact that like, like, like, like, Dawnhurst, like an entire city couldn't do anything about her for how, how many years?

Like, it's just kind of like, and also I was thinking, so, so like, because we kind of mentioned it at the beginning, like, we don't know, like, what got rid of like the demons and stuff and we saw the demon body. So for all we know, like, she could have done that or something. Oh, God. Like, oh, man. Take over the city. I was actually, I did write all my questions and I wanted to like, replay, like, ahead of time because I wanted to like, think about things I specifically wanted answers to. The top one is, were you responsible for removing the demons was when I was coming back to.

But it just didn't play out because I felt better. And again, depending on how much you trust her, because she's like, well, I didn't do it. Like, that's like, it's, and again, almost like it's genuine on her and it's like, that's, that's, that's hurtful. Why would you say that to me? Of course I didn't do it. But like, of course that's something you think. Yeah, I just wanted things to like, kick off the conversation and just play into it. And then the strength of like, the magic keeping the place pristine on top of whatever she's doing. And then just like all this fear that she has, it's like, I didn't want any of the questions to be demanding.

You guys did amazing in that regard of like, walking that razor's edge of what we need to have you be responsible for things and tell us but we're not in a position to demand. Except for your son. I demand your son. That's all I did not see that coming and that was a hard one. It's like, how would she react to that? Like, that's, that's weird. Yeah, just show it like goes show you that Donovan like just, you'll just roll with whatever Masocha is telling him. Yeah. I'm just trying not to let everyone die. I kind of happy it turned out good. Yeah, yeah, I mean, for now.

Yeah. We're telling the people of Donhurst not to come home right? Like we're telling you. We tell them what the deal is. I mean, it's kind of like, Oh, yeah, it's time to bring back the disease in the city. I mean, like, you know, know what I mean? Let me go by the trebuchet. Oh, yes. I do like the Minotaur idea though. I mean, we're gonna win something. If we plan on pursuing that. Yeah, I mean, it's just a suggestion we can give to the Winter Haven Council. Hey, you could you could tell the Minotaur they have a place they can go. I don't care. Yeah, maybe we don't want a whole bunch of Minotaurs or Vampires running around.

I'm getting a feeling they might not turn. I have a feeling they'd be slaughtered though. Well, I mean, how rude. genocide is not a good way to keep a good food source around. Come on. You gotta have a breeding stock. That is a cold disconnect too for them. Like, well, okay, for the Fang. You got to imagine that it was put to them that it's like, Oh, yeah, we can't turn all of you. Like, some of you and they they went with it. But from her perspective, she knew that going in the way she talked about the kid. It's like, yeah, that's my property. Like I own that child.

Like, that's mine. And it's so. It's so disconnected and cold and terrible. Like it's that's the monstrous part to me. Like, it's not. Yeah, she was very cold and calculated, which actually gets my comfort zone. So that was so much. So much. I want to know so much more about her obsession with Eric's deal with that. What? I am so happy we didn't talk about the armor at all. I'm surprised the Kirkland armor came up. Yeah, I was expecting that. Yeah, I kind of wanted to go explore that route, but I kind of like added my sentence with another conversation thread.

So that stopped there. But like, yeah, it goes to show she's super old. Do you want to know a fun fact? Yeah. She knew Kirkland. Oh, that's cool. Manifolius goes to Soloram. Oh, fuck. Kelsey, what were you saying? I feel like you got your hand out. The whole like the history with her and Batana and everything, too, is just like there's a lot going on with her that. So, so, so interesting. Yeah. So now I'm thinking, oh, that's super powerful battery thing. I wonder if that could help. Maybe next time when we come back, we can throw all the insults we wanted her.

Come back with guns. Guys, let's invent guns. Wooden bullets. Evan, Evan Gates, drop it. Guns. Research this. Well, fire a projectile. I'm, I'm excited that we got past that. The uncertainty of it all, like what's going to happen? How you guys get? And now I want to get to like, how are you guys going to deal with this? Like, what's the, like, I feel like the next episode is you guys, you guys are pointing to the horizon. It's like, we're going to do this. Now let's find some action, but waited to like do that. This whole arc is just going to be training montage for us.

As far as far as the kid Clifford, I think from a soca, it's like, that's going to be, it's going to have to take precedence or not precedence, but like, that's his priority right now. Like, just how he grew up, right? He doesn't want to see any child suffer. So, yeah, yeah, I think he's gonna, he's gonna have to bring the kid back to Aubrey. Yeah, I think we have to go back to Elise Aubrey first before we do anything else. But yeah. Yeah. I also, I also, I get the sense of this arc, we're going to see some sort of breaking point with Ubo where like, he's got to compromise.

Compromises have been made. Yeah, and it's getting to the point where it's like, all right. We need, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of that going on, like, what just happened is kind of fortuitous because had he not made so many mistakes in rapid succession, he would not be as careful as he is right now. Right. I get the feeling that if that explosion didn't take place, that scene with the Countess would have went completely different. Yeah, like, he's, he's, he's still repressing a lot of personal brokenness. And yeah, like, he needs a win, but he, he's gonna try to do it far less carefully than is his nature or far more carefully than is his nature.

So yeah, it's, he's, he's really following everyone else's lead and just like, looking for a way to make it work. He's growing. Character development. Yeah, he's experiencing challenges. Let's put it that way. I loved it though, when you were like standing behind and doing the like muscle. That was awesome. That was kind of all he could do. He knows, I mean, he tried to talk to the demon and that didn't work. And so he knows all he's good for is like brute force or like show of show of strength. So he's just kind of sticking to his sticking to his strengths.

Speaking of uncertainty. The poor group B gets to find out what the hell is going to happen on funday finally. It's been a long summer for them. More Jamison and Alex. Well guys, I'm going to let you go. This was a fantastic session. Good job. I can't wait to listen to it. It almost started off with. I want more artwork of her like I just like I'm so anxious to explore this character just that the image of her picking just clean picking up a guy and breaking his neck. Just just. Wasn't expecting that. That was so good to like, Oh, gave her the choice between both and she went the other way around.

He gave us a kid to kill the other dude. So good. I think it'd be awesome to see like her hand like on the table and like us sitting at the table with a bow behind like that artwork would be awesome. Yeah, just just modify the cover for the setting book and put. All right, guys, I'm gonna let you go. Thanks, everybody. Have a fantastic night. Thank you. Man, we really hope you guys enjoyed the kickoff to arc three. It's been a ton of effort and a lot of work right now. I'm editing this and recording in the same room as Bree who's over there. And at 6am, we'll be on a flight to Dragon Con.

So you're hearing this on the second Thank you very much for listening, and hopefully either you had a great time at Dragon Con, or you're having a great time, or you're going to have a great time with us next year. And as you can see, right at the beginning of the show, we are recording everything video, audio panels, all the stuff we're doing plus the regular Patreon stuff that we do each and every month at patreon.com/dandr. So we really hope you guys go check that out if you haven't in a while because we've added some stuff we just did our first DM workshop, and that was actually a blast those are probably gonna run about two hours or so.

I'm in a discord channel with people and then once a month we sit down and essentially run through some problems with them and see what we can fix on the fly and give them suggestions for future games. And that's all I've got to say about that. As I said, we'll be posting all of our panels from Dragon Con. And we're going to try to record Jameson's. I'm not sure if we'll be able to we got a couple of conflicts but there will be more panels than ever this year, including our live game which will just be on Twitch and up for everybody so we'll see you guys next week please drop us an email at dandrpodcast@gmail.com.

We hope you guys enjoyed that and if you have any questions or comments about the new arc. Always swing by our discord, our Reddit, or wherever you can get ahold of us. Check it out, and let us know how we're doing we'll see you next week with a group B.