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If you've been holding out for any reason, what are you waiting for now? Go check out World Anvil.com today. Previously for Group C. After losing party members to a giant blue dragon on the continent of Kodai. And members of the group trying to scatter to avoid the same fate. The beast was eventually felled and the remaining party members met up with the royals. With the group now reconvened, their fate is ultimately up in the air. And that's where we pick things up today. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason, I'm the Dungeon Master.

Going around the table starting with Zachary. What's up, my name is Zach and I play Adoris Gold. The human endurance. Endurance. And Vri. Hello, my name is Brianna Marie and I play Clara Ross Dale, the half-Drow Fighter. And Mandy. Hi guys, this is Mandy and I play Nika, Daughter of Ander, the Elven Druid. I love that shit when someone says "I am blah of blah blah blah." Like I don't know what that is, it sounds so official. That's that's that's that you get this fantasy stamp. Boom. Like there you go. And Jasper. Hello, I'm Jasper. I play Maric Eltharid, Human Clairelock.

And Lisa. Hey, I'm Lisa and I play Elorath B. Singer, the Halfling Barbarian. And last and certainly not least, the birthday boy himself, Ryan. Hey-o. Hey everyone, I'm Ryan and I play Varys Alder, the Half-Elf Monk. Ryan is turning 53 years old today. Yep. Congratulations. Happy birthday. A very smooth skin for 53. Very young looking. Yes. Birthday, birthday, birthday. OK, there are some sessions where I sit down and I have tons of stuff planned out. But sometimes based on what happened the last session, I don't know where to start because there's lots of fires going and all of them seem very important.

We have Maric, who seemingly is just kind of wandering off into the desert in a direction. It wasn't in the direction of a boat. It wasn't in the direction of anything. It was just like, OK, bye. Like he just started wandering off. Sad, Incredible Hulk music playing, all that. Oh. And obviously, like before I jump back in, you've got the royals standing by who are essentially in a tough spot because they saw you guys. They wandered into the tail end of that clusterfuckery where you guys are fighting a dragon. And they want to help out and they don't want to just leave you in the middle of the desert.

On the other hand, they have a job to do and they're kind of in a, you know, a dangerous place, too. And they don't want to spend too much time out here. And you there's a lot, right? It feels like Ferris is pretty. Disenfranchised, let's say, at the moment. Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it. Yeah, OK. Clara had a fucking nuff, apparently, at the end of that session. Hashtag truth. I love you all. I love you, too. Behind the scenes, Jasper deleted our book, but there's no hard feelings. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'll do it again as soon as I can. I'll do it again.

I mean, that's another level of hate there, like to just delete it from the public stuff is one thing, but to delete it from public and your own personal backups. I mean, that's that's a whole nother. Well, I hate myself. I hate myself as well. Oh, OK. That's understood. He's been really gunning for that divorce. It's been it's been. I want no evidence. It's never happened. So let's do this, because all of this is super important. It feels like you guys were getting ready to pack up and move on here. And so, I mean, I can summarize what's happening with Ferris real quick.

Please do. And that may help give some sort of vision as to what's happening. Sure. So, I mean, we last left off with him just basically walking away from the party in the direction of the boat. He's going to keep going until he gets to the next tune and then he's just going to sit on top of the do. And then he's going to fall backwards onto his back and just stare up in the sky. And then after a couple of minutes, he's going to go digging through his pack and he's going to find out the journal that he bought and start going through all the notes that he wrote about.

Basically, I mean, his diary of when he started with the group, the meeting that they had, how everyone introduced themselves and everything. And he's just going to start reading there. So, I mean, the group would be able to see that he just didn't just walk far. Right. Yeah, he didn't get far. He went up to the nearest dune that was on the direction of the boat and he just stopped. Let's clarify something. Merrick, you're just walking like you just you're hiking off. Yeah, I mean, Clara let him have it and basically said, listen, all of anything that's happened, good or bad, especially bad, especially in this case, bad is because you got us here.

And if it weren't for you, this wouldn't have been the case. Right. And of course, I mean, Merrick's Merrick has a little bit of additional information about how things have gone. Sorry. I got a little coffee. Sorry. No, there's lots of pollen here these days because the weather's crazy. So the allergies are going crazy. Anyway, Merrick is he has a little bit of additional information, right, about what could have happened. But he sort of backed that up a day from, you know, with a demon, with demon help. Yeah, things could have been way worse. They could have all been dead already.

All of them, including Merrick. And he fixed all of that. But the truth of the matter is, is that no matter whether it's good or bad or whether Clara or the rest of them know. It's still true. The reason that they're all there is because of Merrick. And the reason that anything good or bad would have happened was because he got them to be there. And so he's just like, yeah, you're right. And his whole attack right now in his mind is, OK, maybe, maybe I just screw things up. Maybe I'm just not meant to to be the person that people are supposed to be doing something around, but maybe just doing stuff by himself, which is where he started right long ago.

So he's truly he's not trying to get sympathy. He's not trying to get somebody to walk after. He's not trying to be a drama queen or a king. He's simply saying, you know what, you're right. Maybe it's best. And he's just going to walk. And he's with intent. He's not angry. He's just going. Well, that was my that was my follow up questions. Like, is there a plan? This does. No. OK, no. This is sort of this is late, right? This is like middle of the night. Oh, yeah. At this point. Yeah. He's genuinely, genuinely realizing the equation is very simple, that somebody else could be thinking about all of the the ups and downs and all of the things to plan around.

He's thinking this. She's right. My friends that I cared about and that have plans with and wanted to, you know, dig in even further are dead. Others could die. And the thing that made all of this happen as a weird little impetus, the royals are actually literally standing right there in front of him, looking at him and everybody else. Right. It's like it could not be worse. And walking out into the desert is sort of like a you know what? This is my new life now. I'm going to walk up in the desert. I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm going to die in the next 30 minutes.

I'm going to find something else and leave the island and go off to another continent. I have no idea. It's completely open. There's no plan whatsoever. Okay. I think actually, you know what? Okay. Can I get, uh, let me get Clarn Ellorath, please. Right now to give me a perception check. Okay. Oh, I got a good zero on that. Mm hmm. Same. Almost a crit. Oh, there you go. So Ellorath is going to see Mav give Faye a look. Just like, just give me a second. And she's going to grab his arm. And do you ever see, not that there are a couple, but you ever see a couple have one of those silent arguments using just their facial expressions and eyes?

Ew, yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's so like... Jason and I also do that. Yeah. It's not fun. So like, it's just... It's not fun on any part to be in it or watching it. So he is going to, he's going to kind of get this placating, like, just give me a second. And she's going to give him a look that very clearly says, fuck him, let's go. Like very much like, come on. Like we have, you know, so he's, he's going to kind of like lean in and whisper something and just kind of back up with his hands up. One second, one second. And he's gonna, he's gonna do like a very light jog after Merrick here.

Is it like a quintessential white guy jog, please? I, yeah, I mean, like, part of it's because... Like he's crossing an intersection and there's a car waiting. Like, is it... Like that, like that, oh, I'm so sorry, like that type of thing. But I think that's mostly because it's like, it's kind of apologetic towards Faye. Like it's like, I know we're on a schedule. Like that type of thing. It's like if you ever had to run through a Walmart, it's kind of weird, but you have to go. That was my thing. I was like, that's me trying to cross in front of a car at Walmart.

Like, oh, sorry. Let me slightly increase my shuffle speed. Not actually picking the balls of my feet off the ground, but... I am 5% faster now, so you're welcome. This is as fast as I go because I hate cardio. Meanwhile, after a couple of seconds hovering over Varys is going to be this dwarf. Kind of like approaching him from behind so like he would lean over and be able to look down at Varys. Just kind of like, little man. Yeah. Can I ask what your plan is here? I don't know. And he's going to kind of squint for a second. You realize where you are, right?

He'll kind of like sit up and then kind of like turn around where he's still, like he's still basically sitting. He's just kind of turned where he's facing him. Yeah, I know exactly where we are. There's a dragon, there's a bunch of other stuff, elemental things on the other side. Death. That's where we are. He might even like, he might even sit down for a second. And he's gonna, he's got like, he's got a lot of, almost a Liefeld degree of pouches and stuff on him. And he's going to grab this, this old looking pipe and put it in his mouth and start sparking it up.

He's going to give a couple of those, that sucking in air goldfish thing. Gentlemen. Yep. So, I'm going to ask again. What's your plan? You're walking back to your boat, you're coming with us. What are you doing? Well, the other two don't want me there. Or I could walk through the death to go back to the boat alone. He'll kind of like turn and make eye contact. I don't know. And he's going to take another long drag off of this. Is your first fight? Basically, yes. But it went from, our first fight went from dragon. And he's going to take the pipe out of his mouth and kind of wave it dismissively.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Party fight. Yeah. And you want to know what it's about? And he's going to shuffle through this journal that he has in front of him. And he's going to show him a page. And on it from the third of Alta Ornn, an entry that he puts of... And then he points to one section about how the group was setting up camp, eating dinner, and they started talking about battle tactics. And it was brought up by Clara that we, if anyone makes the judgment call to run, we all should trust and follow. And he's basically reading it out for him. Someone made the comment that we should run.

I trusted and I followed through with that. And then now I'm getting called a child in SCUMM because I did exactly what the group agreed on. I think there'd be silence for a couple of seconds. And he ran from that and he's going to kind of motion back toward the dragon. Yeah. It was fine. And one instant later, we had one of our party turn to dust. And he'll shake his head. It's just like... Yeah, they can be nasty. But, uh... Where were you going? I guess the cat's out of the bad. How long have you been with him? With your group? Oh, been a little while now. We've been in some scrapes too.

Do you remember going through a Vecna cave? He's gonna raise his eyebrow while he's taking a drag. Uh huh. And the traps that you set up afterwards? A smile is gonna curl around his lips. And if everyone back down the dune, like in that little valley there, they're gonna hear this dwarf laugh in the distance. Like, "G'fall." Like... That's the funniest thing he's ever fucking heard. Alright, I just want to unmute for a second to say Evan's my favorite. He's a sweet cinnamon roll and I love him. And no harm shall ever come to him. Alright, goodbye. So, Varys isn't gonna understand anything about that.

He's gonna give him this look like, "What the hell?" You know that almost killed one of them, right? I wasn't with them at the time. I joined them after the fact. But that severely hurt them and almost killed one. And he's gonna wipe a tear away from his eye. And like, you know the end of laughter is like, "Oh, oh." Like that kind of like, it takes him a couple of seconds. "Oh, yeah." "Tart caught one in the shoulder." "Darts, really nasty. Don't tell anyone." "But he almost passed out." "He killed me if he knew I told you." "Yeah, yeah. No, that was a nasty bit of ruin." "Your group did pretty good if they got out of there." "Congrats." Well, they went all the way through.

They found your note. And I'll be quite honest, I don't have any beef. But that motivated them. Not only do they know where you're going, they know where you're supposed to go. And that's where we're going. "Can I tell you a story?" I guess. And I'll kind of like look down at the ground and kind of like kick some of the sand. Like, I don't know. Just, I'm done. So, the traps thing. We've been doing that for years. And the reasoning is pretty simple. We had to go through the traps. And we didn't want to deprive anyone else of the challenge. That's why some people choose to go out and adventure.

It's all about finding dangerous places. And he's going to kind of like motion around him. And bending it to your will. Conquering it. Before a prize. And the prize isn't just a note that says, "Ha ha, we beat you." Do you know how many ruins we delved into when there was nothing at the end of it? You're going off rumors. You don't know what's in there. Hell, anybody left alive that had any connection to the place is either lost or crazy or... Completely unreliable. Trust me. Yeah, I guess. We didn't know what we'd find when we got in there. Turns out Mav got a sword.

Good for him. But the odds are, usually, five or ten to one that you're going to walk out empty handed or dead. Yeah. I will tell you this. You're the first group that I've run into. That ever got through a dungeon we did. The same way we did. And found one of our notes. Yeah, I guess they're pretty talented. And he's going to take another... Like he's going to spark the pipe up again. So what do you do? I punch and stab things. I'm little. Fast. I don't hit hard. But I hit a lot. So... You and your group had a tiff. And you work well together. And you're just going to walk away.

No, that's why I sat down. Hmmm... He'll... He's going to have... Like he's going to pull the journal back. Because he probably just like... After he pointed it out and read it, he probably just dropped it there in the sand. He's going to pick it up, turn it back a couple pages. And point to another section. When I first joined the group... I... I've never left Brightport before. And so they were taking a chance of just letting me... Go with them. But one of the first questions... Was actually asked by Clara. And she asked if I was in it for the long haul. And I said 100% yes.

I'm not just going to walk away. But understand that you caught us bright as everything went to hell. And he's still taking drags off this thing. Oh, we didn't want to catch you at all. Oh, I know. We didn't either. We just... We just kind of happened by... Yeah. We were hoping that we could avoid you guys. Go around the whole thing. We wanted to get to the gate. Activate it. And leave a note. Same way that you guys did. And he's going to stand up and start brushing... Brushing the sand off of him. And you know that there's equal chance that... None of us are going to find nothing on this continent, right?

Yeah. I guess that's part of the challenge. And he'll kind of like look up and like meet him in the eye. And he'll give you a smile and kind of like... He's facing... He'll turn around and kind of face back where he came and pat you on the shoulder. That's a good lad. Come on. Get up. Alright. He'll stand up and brush himself off and start walking with him. And then as they're walking, probably after a couple of steps... Not making eye contact. Just trying to keep it like... Nobody else would know. For what it's worth, thank you. And again, just kind of like waving the pipe dismissively.

Like just... Not even words. Just like, "Eh, don't worry about it." Um... Let's get back to this cluster. Because what's left... So Mav walks away. Merrick walks away. So we got Clara and Elorath. We got Ardoras, Nika. And a screaming cat outside my door. Um... Hold on one second. Oh, I was like, "How?" Did I forget the royal... I was like, "Holy shit." That's where I first would have like, "They have a cat?" "Is there a Khajiit in this party?" And I am unaware... If they brought a cat to Death Central... Sounds like something I would do. [Laughter] Also, I'm really glad I was muted.

Because like halfway through your super serious conversation, Governor started hacking up a hairball. It was just like the whiniest little thing. And I was like, "I'm so glad I'm muted right now." Okay, I'm back. I don't know what he wants. He wants you to open the door so that he can stare at it. And not come in. He wanted to look me in the eyes, then scream at my face, then walk away. And it's like... I'm glad we had this talk. Now you know. Hey, boss. Everything's okay out here. That's basically his version of Twitter, you know? He added you. 730 in all is well! [Laughter] So, back here...

In... It's not camp, whatever. The big cluster of people. We got Elrath and Klar, we got Adoris, Nika, and... Faye. And she's gonna be standing there, kind of crossing her arms, like, quite... miffed, let's say, that they're not moving forward. They're just standing in the middle of this place. And she's gonna narrow her eyes at Klar. Ooh. Now, Faye... What does she, like, look like, though? Um... Does she look like a nice woman? No. Okay. No. No, she's a very, like, okay, I'll share the picture again. She's got a very "can I speak to your manager" look. She's...

Short with people she doesn't know, usually. Anything that is not in the pursuit of getting the job done is a waste, usually. And her main job is to kind of real Mav in. Mav is more of the show-off, the dreamer, or the pie-in-the-sky type of dude. And, um... Yeah, Faye's a little more, like, much more down-to-earth. Much more practicality. And now that I said it out loud, that sounds like me and Bree. Which is not how I want to paint Creeps. Yeah, I picked up on that too. Bree's not Faye. And I'm Bree's bitch, apparently. Bree's not Faye. It's fine. Uh... "Can I speak with your manager?" Faye is going to stare at Clara for a few moments.

And then say, "I know you." Ooh. Let's see, let's see. Now, how does she say that, like, "Oh, you seem familiar," or, like, in a kind of infamous type of way? She's not excited to see her. "You seem familiar." It's like, we've met, like, recently. Lumeniero, right? I think Clara is sitting in the sand in front of the two covered bodies. And she's, um... I think she's stacked some rocks in front of her. And she's kind of looking at those rocks, and she'll just... "Yup." Not even looking over at her. Like, "Yeah." "Did you follow us?" "We got here first." Thus, the dragon.

And she'll kind of, like, gesture to the corpse of the dragon, like, "Hada." "Yeah, and just, mmm." Is that the tone that you use? Kinda, yeah. Fantastic. Like, very tired, but, like, she is, you know, we're carrying off of the last episode. I can't suddenly change her general demeanor. No! She's upset. Right. She's gonna be a little short. Well, Faye's gonna be a little short. And she's going to re-cross her arms, like, after... It's like, "Did you follow?" She kind of, like, it's almost like a standoffish demeanor. And then, you know, heads to the dragon.

It's like, "Yeah, you've been doing a great job so far, it seems." When she says that, Ardoris, being Mav's good friend for a long time, she knows about Faye, and he knows, like, when Mav isn't here, this is a possibility. So, his job is to stall. So, he is going to go to Faye. He'll go right next to her, like, kind of blocking sight. And Clari's like, "Man! Ooh, Mav is sure taking out a little time." Good move. It's hot out here, don't you think? You'll start flexing like an idiot. It's a little hot out here, Faye, isn't it? Just like that. And to kind of just turn...

At this rate, we're gonna have to make camp here tonight. I don't think that's a problem. I mean, you know, once Mav comes back, we can get it all figured out. Help these good people get on their way. They've been through a lot, Faye. He kind of whispers that, like, mid-sitters. "They've been through a lot, let's just..." And she's gonna kind of lower her voice and talk into Ardoris. And do you think they're just going to give up? If they followed us all the way here, they're going after the same thing we are. And she probably hates doing this with Ardoris, because he is not Mav.

He's not good. He's gonna whisper, kind of like, "Do our their bodies our day." He's gonna, like, he's going to physically point at the bodies and at the dragon, but he's gonna whisper. He's gonna do hand motions, like, just getting smashed. He's gonna do a lot of that. Sorry. Oh my god. I love it, because the only reason you're getting away with that is because you were one of the people who got smashed. It's such a cool character trait. I love that he's so blunt and, like, can't read the room. He did the thumb over the neck thing, too. Yeah. But he is facing Faye, so it's not as egregious, but it's not great.

So time is going to tick by, like, minutes. Like, okay, there was the big yelling. That's how I'm going to refer to that scene. And... And then, like, things like 10, 15 minutes go by, right? How are Elorath and Clara feeling? Um... I think, like, once the bodies are kind of covered up and, like, people have gotten out of their face, Faye aside, I think at least for Elorath, she's gonna start, like, calming down instead of it just being, like, rage sadness. Oh. Now it's just, like, exhausted sadness with, like, simmering anger in the bottom, but, like, mostly just, like...

You know how, like, when you're, like, super, like, mad and then you're, like, you come down and you're like, "All right, I'm fine," and then you're just, like, exhausted? Oh, totally. That is kind of what it is. So just, like, she'll... Like, once, like, Varys kind of walked away and everybody was, like, allowing them, once, like, once they finished, she was probably just, like, sitting down in the sand with, like, her hands, like, over her knees and just, like, her head bowed, you know, on it. I think right about that time, Ebon's going to come walking back up and kind of...

I... There are very few people on this planet who could walk up to Faye and, like, nudge her in the ribs the way he... Like, it's aggressive, kind of, like, "Get a load of this!" And he's going to proceed to tell her all about you guys getting through that crypt with the traps and all that, and he's going to kind of present it to, like, "Ain't that a hoot?" Like, that type of thing. Argorius is going to cry laughing when he mentions the trap. He's going to be like, "Oh, no!" "They fell for that shit. Oh, my God. Hey, remember when..." "Oh, never mind.

Let's not talk about that." But Ebon will give a look over to Clara and Elorath. He's like, "Hey, congrats to you kids for getting through there." I love them so much. Like, it's hard sell. I do too. And I genuinely, like, I thought about it for a while. I don't think Clara really cares why they're here anymore. Like, they're here, you know? And she never had that much of a disdain for the royals. Like, that was kind of a... Even from the beginning, she was kind of like, "Oh, well, that fucking sucks. I'm kind of mad." But when it became Merrick's, like, thing.

White whale. White whale, exactly. That's when she was like, "Okay, I'll do everything I can to, like, help with that." Because, first of all, it's an adventure, and, you know, she got attached to the idea of being the first to do something. But now I don't think she cares as much, so... She'll kind of look up to Evan, and she looks exhausted. She's got damage. And give him a little, like, nod, and like... Such a tight smile, I don't even think it actually looks like a smile. Thanks. And then her eyes go back down to the rocks. Evan's not the type of person to leave well enough alone.

Right? Like, he's very... Like, that's his way of striking up a conversation, right? So, like, he's gonna hold out his hand to shit. Kind of walk over, like... Okay, do you know... Oh, Jesus, this is the best way I can describe it. You know that one Walking Dead gif? Where it's Carl standing there, and then it's like, "Carl!" Like, that one, like, he's crouching. Yeah, like, he keeps crouching down. Oh, that's the meme where, like, he tells a pun, and then he yells the pun louder at him. Okay, I do know that. For a second I was like, "I don't know fucking dick all about the Walking Dead." You know this, because it's been memed to hell and back.

But, like, that's gonna be him leaning down, like, on both... like, his hands on both knees. It's like, "Evan Kinter!" And he's gonna hold out a hand to shake. Who's he extended that out to? Clara first, but either one. A URL or a... just kind of like... Oh, wow. Okay, that's gonna work. I keep rolling for Clara because it's difficult. No, this is a tough time. Yeah. I think she'll gulp, like, and very visibly kind of pull herself together a little bit. And then offer him her hand. There we go. Clara Rothdale. And she'll get to her feet at that point, I think.

And he'll try to shake Elorath's hand, too. You might have to nudge her. But, like, if Clara nudge... Oh, he'll nudge. Oh, god. Okay. Did you mean Clara? Because Clara can nudge his foot. I did. I did, because I felt like she would be the one with her foot, like, "Hey, come on." Coral! She made a belt of watches. It was a waste of time, Coral. Could you imagine someone holding their hand out and, like, after, like, three seconds, you don't shake it, they nudge you to shake it? Yeah, no, he... No, I think Clara would nudge her first. Just, like, especially if, like, Elorath is doing the thing where, like, she's looking away, then Clara would give benefit to the doubt.

So, like, her... like, she was sitting on her butt and, like, her knees were up and then, like, her arms were on her knees like that, you know? So, if you nudge her, she'll look up and extend her hand. Uh, Elorath. Please. Pleasure to meet ya. She'll just look back down. Nod. Okay. I think Nika would step up. She's been handing out water to people just because... desert. And she'll see just how exhausted they look and then see Ebon bring back a very, you know, scraggled Varys. And just looks to Faye and to Ebon. Master Faye, Master Ebon, can we invite them to just stay?

I think it's getting late and we... I don't know how much further we can go, but we really should assist these people. The desert is very harsh. We can't just leave them be here. And the sands, the sands and the gods, they will provide to those who freely give to others. So they should be our guests, at least tonight, or at least until we can find a safe place for them. No very different reactions to that pitch. Um, Ebon is fine with it. Because in Ebon's eyes, it's like, shit, they passed the test. Yeah. I mean, they're like, they did the same thing we did.

Like, good for them. Like that, like, I hate to use this term. Ebon's very bootstraps. Like he's very, like, it's like, hey, you prove you could do what we do. And you didn't even get anything for it. That sucks. But that's life. Sure, you should be able to, you know, you already had a shitty run of it. Faye is less charitable. Can I get... Elrath, Clara, Ardor, Asnika, can I please get a perception check? Because she's going to mumble something under her breath. That was a performance, but the things are the same. But can I reroll it anyway? Sure. Yay, I did the wrong one.

So it's only fair. Slightly better. I'm glad we're not in combat this episode so far. My rolls are stuck. Except for that one. That one was good. Jesus. So Ardoris and Elrath are going to pick this up. She's going to mumble something. Why don't we just open a soup kitchen under her breath? Like it's, she's... You get the feeling she might be having a night. Like just like she's... When she says that, um, uh, Ardoris is probably right next to her. He's like, he's doing his whisper under his breath again. He's like, he has hands on his hips. He's like, "Ahh." And he's just going to whisper, "Oh, what the mad say about that?" I was like, Elrath's head would snap up.

Like, "What the fuck you say?" She won't actually say anything, but she's like, like you can tell she heard that. And he's just trying to plead their case. Like they die out here. Come on, it's just one night. Hey Jason. So we as a party know, or sorry, we meta-wise know that Clara rolled like super fucking high and basically knows exactly where the gates are, right? In character, does Clara know that she knows? Like, is she, does she have like information that like, oh, that's it? And perhaps the Royals don't have that information? Um, I would say Clara is damn sure.

Like she, she's like, that's our best bet. Like absolutely. Like all the other options were just like, yeah, that doesn't fit. Like this is this, this just has to be. But you also know you're not like in the region, but you're heading that way. So. Right. So they might already know. Right. It's one of those things. Like you don't know what information they were given or how, you know. So she'd probably hold that to her chest then cause she doesn't want to look foolish, but like, that would have been a good trump card, which is a phrase that is fucking ruined now.

But that's beside the point. Right. Ugh. Um, yeah. Uh, I don't know. I, um, nah, she'll just be quiet. Let Ardonis handle this. Sorry, Ardorus. He's so beautiful. I think Ardonis. I was going to say, now he's Ardonis forever. It's like, well. Well, he's bright and shining and like he's got beautiful golden hair. Like it really fits. You can see my confusion. Faye is going to turn around and just kind of not stomp off, but just like, just, just take a few steps away to get away from the situation. And when she does that, Ardorus realizes those few steps means the personal victory.

So he's going to breathe in. He's going to clap and say, spread his arms real wide and say, Avandra is finally on your side, friends. Blessed be you with good luck and fortune. Mwah. What the fuck? Probably not a good time. Yeah, that was in character. The fuck? And Nico will also clap and she's like, yes, as Adorus said, let us, let's make camps while we wait on Mav. And just she'll start busting around. Just like it has been decided. It's been decided. Um, how about we start praying soon too? Mav is going to catch up with Merrick a little while ago, but like, like timeline wise, um, he's going to catch up and just kind of approach gingerly because obviously that was unpleasant.

Like all of that. Hey, brother, where are you going? Where, where, where are you heading to? Merrick won't, um, he's not going to stop. He's just going to keep walking. But you know, just to be clear, he's not like stomping away. He's just walking into the desert. Right? So he's not like huffing and puffing and he's just walking. That's what makes it worse. Yeah, it's, it's very defeated. It's very, it's very just like blank, very neutral. So he'll keep walking. He's not going to ignore him by any means. Um, and he'll say, you know, I don't know that way. And he's just going to sort of squint and point and he's going to kind of point towards the, towards the stars a little bit, you know, like just that direction.

And he's going to, um, kind of like look off in the direction. Right, right. Okay. Um, I'm going to be straight with you here. You're going to die. There's nothing out there. This, this, this, that, that's it. It's just sand and more critters. Yep. More critters. He's going to keep walking. And I think he'd stand there for a second. Like, oh, this is, this might be a little worse than, cause like, like he figured, oh, you just need to be reminded that, you know, this is just, this, this, there's nothing out there. And then if you keep walking, knowing that it's certain death, it's like, oh, you're like terminally depressed or something.

That's not, that's not great. So he'll, he'll kind of do white guy jog again to catch up with Merrick. Look, man, you had a fight that, that that's going to happen. People have fights all the time. At least get back to dry land and just go about your life. Do, do something there. We, we got people, we could take you back to your boat. It'll be great. Just, just come on, come on. Merrick will stop. Not again, not aggressively, just kind of just slow down quickly, right? And then just stop. And then finally turn and look at Mav. It's really the first time that he's really come face to face with what he knows exactly who this is and what, what he represents.

But he knows that he doesn't know what he represents to Merrick. He's going to say, yeah, it's, it's just that I don't know if I really help anymore. Do you understand how that might feel? It's not about the fight. You're catching the tip of an iceberg here, buddy. He's going to look up and down Mav and sort of take him in a little bit from, from head to toe. And after a little bit of a beat, he's going to say, hey, nice sword. And he'll kind of instinctively reach down to the, to the hilt. Oh, you like that? Yeah. Yeah, I like that. It's one of a kind. We got it.

We got it not that long ago, actually, back on, back in Alara. It was a nasty bit of business, but, and he's going to, he's just kind of like he almost, okay. He almost says under his breath, it's like, we're the Royals. So. Right, right. Did you, how did you get past the pit trap in there? I think he would start to answer and then just kind of like narrow his eyes at Merrick. Yeah. You, you research your friend? Oh yeah, I was sort of damn near killed me, but I, but I get it. Yeah. Yeah. The, you're the Royals. I heard you. Your reputation, reputation precedes you for sure.

Listen, it's a pleasure meeting you. Listen, I don't, he's going to gesture back to all of that business and you know, all of that, the dragon and death and the rest of everybody. I'm not really helping. I brought everybody here on a, on a fool's errand. Right. And, and all I did was potentially make everything a lot worse. And he's going to get a little ominous. If this was a movie, there would be some, there would be some definite music, some cute music here. He's going to say, you know, I made everything worse for, definitely for these folks, maybe for a lot of others.

So listen, it was a pleasure. Truly. And I take care of everybody for me. I'm going to, I'm going to head off in that direction and he's going to look back up at the sky. And he's going to almost like he's picking like, Oh, I lost that star. Which one was it? Oh, there it is. And then he's going to continue to walk. Matt's going to roll his eyes at that point. Like, okay, now you're just being difficult. And this time he's not going to jog. He's going to, he's going to be moving in that direction, but kind of slower. So is that what this is all about, man? You got bent out of shape because we beat you to a ruin.

Come on. Do you know how many times it's happened to us? You know, it's not about, I don't think it's about you anymore. I thought it was. This is not about being bent out of shape about somebody getting a sword or setting a trap or being charming. He's going to, he's really going to gesture at the full, you know, nav, like from top to bottom. I've been out of shape about that at all. I can't compete with that kind of stuff. And I don't mean to. And he's going to relax. He's going to relax his position a bit, like just he was kind of getting a little standoffish.

And then he's going to. Look, you can be. You could be insanely talented in this field, but you know what I found out doing this for a living for years? Do you know what you need more than anything else? What's that? And he's going to kind of like use the back of his hand to tap you on the chest. Confidence. You need confidence. If you don't think you know what you're doing. It's all over the second you lose confidence in yourself, the second you lose confidence in the people around you, it's over. You might as well lay down in the dirt and die. Look, if you and your crew here got through all those traps, got to the end of it.

And that made you want to follow us. That just strengthen your resolve. Right. Sure. Yeah. You know, many people would have quit or turned on each other and just fell apart. How many adventuring groups we've outlasted. Yeah, that's that's a fair point. Mav. It's a very, very fair point. And so it's going to lean on you a little bit and like take his left hand and kind of put it on your shoulder. I get you disillusioned. I get things aren't going your way. And this place is a death trap. Well, trust us. We know all about it. Come on. Watering off in the desert to die ain't going to help anybody.

Eventually, it's going to make everyone back there feel terrible. And well, you're not going to feel anything. You're dead, but they're going to feel terrible. And everyone cools down eventually. I'm sure you guys will work it out. It'll be fine. I don't think you understand now, and I don't expect you to. You're not wrong. And yeah, if this were just a party spat, I get it. I'm not I'm not one for being dramatic. I'm not trying to make a point. I don't want somebody to run after me and grab me and tell me how it's going to be OK. That's not why I'm doing this.

Why I'm walking away is because. At this point, I've maybe done a lot of right things. I've done a lot of wrong things. Don't get me wrong, but I've done enough and I've been around and we're not just an adventuring party. There's a lot of history. All of us have a lot of history together and separate. This point, I feel like the only thing I can do to help save everything is to know exactly what the right thing to do is and then not do it. Does that make any sense? And I want to be clear, this is starting to not make sense. Right. Yeah, no. Well, I don't know how to help.

I don't know how to fix anything in the past. That's been my whole curse among many others. So. I don't know. I feel like maybe the best thing for me to do is just to go away. No, I do. I want to walk out in the desert and and just die. No, but I feel like I end up making the same problem for everybody else if I stick around and they all die. So, OK, maybe I do have a little flair for the dramatic. OK. But I don't know. It just feels like getting close to the end of something and then not really knowing what to do about it. And he's going to he's going to pull out this is going to reach his hand into a little pouch on his belt.

He's going to go. This is for you. And he's going to pull out a little crumpled piece of paper, kind of. And just hand it to mouth. And. It's going to stay on it. It's already been written courtesy of the quartermasters. I think about that time, various would be catching up. Sorry, I was muted. So as you're handing the note over, various will be in the distance just a little bit. And he's as soon as he sees you, he's starting to sprint and he's just kind of calling out a little bit. Merrick, Merrick, stop. Just one second. Like just to make sure he's not walking any further.

And as soon as he gets to you, he's going to like look up at you. Hold out a finger. Just shut up for one minute. And he's going to look down, open up his book and go to a page and shove it almost like when you have a three year old that wants you to look at something, particularly like a book and shoves it like right in your face where your nose is touching the pages. And that's what he's doing. And then he's going to like finish standing up from catching his breath. You made a promise. We all made a promise. Nobody is walking away. And the journals opened up to his entry about that first meeting, about that first dinner that they had.

They started asking all these questions. And then there's an actual separation, a physical separation of white space inside the journal about how we all agreed that we're in this for the long haul. And it's shoved two inches from his eyeballs. And they're cool. They're cool. Very much like that parent with a three year old because I know it. Well, we'll back up, grab the book, hold it, but back up a little bit to be able to look at it. And I'm imagining that in a desert, the moon and the stars, it's going to be probably bright enough to be able to make out some writing on some paper.

And he'll read it probably a couple of times over just to sort of get the context. He'll close it back up and hand it over to Veras. He's just like looking at you, just waiting for some sort of response. What do you want me to do, Veras? I hear you. I'm not. I don't know how to say it. And he's going to look back at Mav and I'm telling you, I don't want you to run after me. Veras, I don't want you to run after me. It's not I'm not trying to make a statement. I'm just not helping. In fact, I'm making it way, way, way worse. He's going to don't understand. Veras is going to open up the book and turn the page a couple of times and be like, what about there?

We sat down and you kept telling me stories about all the stuff that you've done. You were there at the center of the light, the column of light that showed it to the world. You were there. All these extra stories about the wild tree, talking trees. I don't get that. But you were there. The motivation behind getting us here, although some of that is questionable, but you did it. Maybe just next time we have to stop and think about it a little bit before we rush into it. But stupid stuff is going to happen. And you're going to be with us. I'm not leaving you.

Well, you're right. I've been around for a lot of stuff and I've been part of a lot of things. I didn't do the good things. I just happened to be part of the deal. But you were still there. Yeah, I was there. And for some reason, that seems to make me pretty valuable. That also makes you compassionate. No, you don't understand. I've seen a lot of stuff. I've been a lot of places. I've done a lot of things. I'm very valuable. And I don't want to be valuable. I don't know how to explain any of this. And this is not the time for this. Fine, fine, fine, fine. Let's go.

Let's go to the boat. Let's go back. Let's find. I need. And he's going to look down at his palm. And I don't know if you remember this. He's going to look down at his palm and he's got a like a like a cross, like an X or something, something that's been sort of pressed into his palm as a cut that that Jody from Uminiro put into his palm. That basically it was sort of like he's going to come back and he was like, I promise I'll come back. And she said, well, here's my guarantee that you're coming back. Now I'll know where you always are. And he's going to look down at that.

It means Jody to him. It means somebody might know something about something to help. And he's going to look down at that and he's going to go, fine, fine, fine. Let's let's go back. Let's let's go back to to Uminiro and and maybe we'll sort it all out there. To be honest, I'd rather do that. Because if you want to walk away, I'd rather you walk there than in this death trap. Great. Great. So you know what? Everything's going to be a death trap, Varus. Everything is going to be a death trap. Everything. Everything. The boat, the desert, Uminiro. He's going to slap you.

It's going to truly catch him off guard and he's going to stop. Listen, we don't need a decision now, but you're not going out here alone. Once we get back to the mainland, if you want to walk away, then that's fine. But not here. Merrick will just I mean, after the slap, he's not saying another word. He's listening to all that. He's blinking and he's just going to start walking back towards the rest of the group. He's not going to say a word and he's not going to his demeanor is very I have you ever been in such a dramatic tizzy in yourself? And you're just and you're certain you're just so right about everything and you're just you know what?

That's it. And you're going to go numb a little bit and just be like, I'm just going to go through the motions right now because I don't know what else to do. Yep. I'm not angry. It's just like totally almost like just too much static. You literally don't know what to do. Yeah, that's it. So he's just going to listen to what you said and he's going to walk back towards the group. And he's going to stand. He's going to stand in that same spot for a couple of seconds to like, make sure you're not psyching him out or anything. And then as you start to walk a little bit further, he's going to look over a map and just kind of shrug his shoulders.

I don't know, but we can't leave him here. And then he's going to walk past the map to follow. At this point, maps a little exasperated. But he'll he'll rejoin everyone. And at that point, he's going to call all of his people together like, all right, listen up. Come here. Come here. Come here. And they're going to kind of excuse themselves from this this big pile of people. And Matt's going to wait for everybody to to come on over. All right. I have no idea what the hell these people are doing. I think. I think we should make an offer, though. They're after the same thing we are.

Let's let them tackle on. Faze immediately going to bulk at that, by the way. And what follows is a very tense conversation, like if you were over with. If you were if you're hanging out with, you know, Clara and Varis and Merrick and Elorath and you're all you're standing over there, you're going to hear that couple's argument, that tense whisper fighting. Faye is very visibly upset. How would Nika and Ardorus feel about it? Sorry, go ahead. Nika, as soon as he's he says that we should offer, she's immediately just going to nod and say, yes, yes, they cannot survive out here.

We either have to bring them back to their boat or we have to have them join us. They will die out here. And Ardorus is going to put his big, strong arm around Nika like a big brother and say, she's absolutely right. Look at some of them. They have potential. Matt, you see it. You saw what they did out there. They wouldn't be a detriment. You never know. Plus, I kind of have an idea for these these lot. You trying to hear what that idea is, man? You interested? I think he's more concerned about Faye, just like. But but he would glance over and say, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What what what is it? I say. We take these these remaining people. We kind of, you know, see what they're about. They said, you know, they're trying to do the same thing as we are. Let's see if they're, you know, material, good adventurers, you know, I'm kind of interested. And to be clear, it's. So the royals are five people. But they have. They brought experts along, like Nika is an expert in getting through the desert and stuff like that, and obviously, Adoris has powers that like none of the royals have, so that could definitely come in handy. But they're not technically royals, right?

They're they're they're they're being hired. They're freelancers, that type of thing. So the more Adoris is like, yeah, one of us like that, that gets it. And me too. That type of thing. The more Mav is kind of like it's like nails on a chalkboard a little bit. Yeah. Like he's been nice, but like it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that type of thing. Like, oh, it's going to get worse. Actually, can I do a perception check or something? I want to see if I notice that. Sure. Nine, I think. Yeah, it's yeah, it's a little over that, but it's common, I'm sure. Good, good, good.

This is boiling up to something, I promise. Mav is going to turn around after a while. I'd say this is like five minutes of like that type of stuff. Like it's very like kind of. Yeah. Fe is not going to turn around with the rest of the party, but kind of hang back. And Mav is going to approach everybody here. And I don't imagine there's been a Kumbaya moment in the five minutes that. That the royals were speaking to each other. Oh, I'm sure it's silence. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like he's going to address everybody. So two options. We can get a party together and escort you back to your ship and you can just go.

That's fine. We're fine doing that. Or. And he's going to kind of like slap his hands together and like, like. You guys can see this out. Come with us. We'll find it together. You already proven you can get through traps. You already proven that you can you could probably keep up. You already come this far. I feel like Clara's been like, especially because they're all together. So she's been looking down at those rocks again for a while. But as he says that, like when he goes or you could come with us and finish this. I think her eyes are going to move up and even though she's still fucking bloody and beaten as hell.

There's going to kind of be a glimmer of hope behind all of it. And then she's going to look down to Ella Rath. She will probably look at you and have the same look like your God damn right. We have come too far. We have literally buried people. I'm not turning back now. And he's gonna like he's okay. He's gonna kind of look to everyone. I don't. Okay. I think that as soon as she gets the okay from Ella Rath, Clara would say, we'll go. But she, to be clear, she's only speaking for herself and Ella Rath. Right. Yeah. And I think like at this point, I think Nav would know that.

Like he understands like, boy, this is all fucked. Like he's so he's gonna he's gonna kind of raise his voice to make sure he has everyone's attention. So here's my pitch. Whatever we find, we split 50/50. If you're going to come with us, you're going to be responsible to pull your weight. But once it's all said and done. I'm comfortable with. And he has to swallow these words. Sharing in the glory. But. We're not joining up permanently. We go our separate ways after this. And if you want to break up, you don't want to be a group anymore. Fine. But why not finish the job?

We're going to split the glory, the credit. Again, nails on a chalkboard to him. Yeah. Very important to Clara. That is what I said. Right. We'll go. Merrick or various glances over at Merrick. And then over to Mav. Yeah, this party's sticking together. Mav's going to hold out his hand. Clara will shake it. Okay, I was about to say if Clara doesn't move forward, then. Yeah. No, no, Clara will. Clara will shake his hand. Like making sure to keep eye contact. Very firm soldier grip. Like fucking doing this. And he's kind of eyeing you up. Just just like taking you and he hasn't had a chance to talk to you too much.

But like, yeah. So the next time we sit down. Hey, checking in. Does he remember he hit on me or not? Like, that's just so common. Oh, that's absolutely common. That is. That's a small detail I wanted to establish now. Like, Faye remembers me. Yes. Oh, that's great. And he does not even to new and register. Not a blip. I love it. Okay. Anyway. No, give him time. He'll probably hit on you again. It'll be fine. So the next time we sit down, you are all going to try and finish this job. But I think it would be nice to know what we're walking into next time. So can I get one of you to roll a flat D 20 to see how the next leg of this journey is going to treat you?

Sure. Ryan's feeling birthday boy nine. Nine. That's not terrible. That's my favorite number. What's that? It's a good number. Fun fact. It is. Why? I don't know. I just like it. I like that it's like three threes and you know. Okay. So good amount of threes. It's the right amount. So I think that's a good time for us to stop for the evening, guys. And just remind everyone that I love you all. Yes. Same, same, same. Had awesome campfire scene set up, but next time, next time. Because we're going to be pushing through and I can't wait to show you what you've what you've been working toward.

I can't wait. Oh, I thought you were gonna be like, yeah, I can't wait to show you the next dragon buried in this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. At least we'll have more people. Yeah, that's true. All in this together. Not quite. Well, we're all together with our arms folded. We've all agreed to attend you his troops. I guess we have to work together. We're all in the same location. Everyone. At the very least. And in places. So I want to make it no. I did. I did another role. And I was like, okay, let's see how angry is Clara still like after everything that happened, and it came up a two.

So like, I think she crashed hard on that anger. And now she just kind of feels guilty and sad. Yes. Same. That's what I think is happening because it's like I wasn't sure yet. I wasn't sure she was going to be like quick to anger quick to cool or she was gonna be quick to anger slow to cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Paris is going to be talking to you. Yeah. We really hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. We'll be debuting a bunch of new T shirt designs later this week. Actually, we're going to start with one and then probably put out one or two each month. On top of that, obviously, you can go to Patreon dot com slash D A N D R to help support the show and keep the lights on around here.

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