Welcome, Wagon!

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Howdy folks and welcome back to Frostborn! Before we dive into today's episode, we've got a couple of exciting updates for you. First things first, of course, Theriathon right around the corner! On Saturday, April 26th, we are going to be live from noon to midnight eastern with a full day of back-to-back one-shots. You'll get to meet other characters stationed in Fort Frostborn and yes, everything you see will be canon. These stories are part of a bigger arc that will ripple out into the main show. Think of Theriathon as your first glimpse into the wider world we're currently building.

And because it lands on the third Saturday this month, it will be taking the spot of extended rest for April. We are also teaming up with GM Assistant, a super handy tool for GMs and players alike. It's perfect for keeping campaign notes organized, searchable, and easy to update. If you want to try it out for yourself, visit the link in the description and use code DANDR to get 15% off your first purchase. Now, a quick note about this specific episode. It opens with the party's very first level up. If you're not looking at the mechanical stuff, feel free to skip ahead to about 25 minutes in.

But, we recommend sticking around. You'll get insight on why each player made the choices they did and it'll give you a better sense of what to expect when combat breaks out later on. Alright, that's everything. Let's get into it. Welcome back to Frostborn. Oooooooh, 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 Susan. Hi, I'm Susan. I'll be playing my dear Rylus, the Elven- Is that me? Is that how I sound? I just, it caught me. It was like a bug. I just- And Jimmy Jam Jamison.

Thank you for your service. I don't know why. You're very welcome. At ease. Hi, I'm Jamison. I play the Logran. He's a Dwarven Marshal. You ever just say things just because you're passionate about those intrusive thoughts? It's like, gotta share this. Jasper. Hey everybody, I'm Jasper. I play Ruby Pettigrew, the half-orc gear slinger adept. And last and certainly not least, Ian. Hey, I'm Ian. My pronouns are he/him/any, and I am Chimaera's intrusive thoughts. Chimaera, the utiefling warlock. Let's go. You know what I want to do? I kind of want to do like a fight club thing.

And just, everyone's looking at me real. Just ride with me, ride with me. Hold on. In every episode, I want to inter-splice one frame of the video version with one of Ian's thirst traps. Just one. Just like, you know what I mean? Like, just like him holding up a shirt. Yeah! Look at those arms! Look at that! He got it for you. Yeah, like he's joking, but not really. I feel like Ian should just do that more often anyway. Just do it. This is my way of encouraging. Guys, as I promised last episode, it's time to level up. Now, what we're going to do, it's something we really haven't done before.

We want you guys, the listeners, the audience, to come with us and watch these characters grow, like stat by stat. It's only level two, but we're going to do this, cut it down a little bit, boom! It's at the front of the episode and it'll be in the notes for everybody. So, I think we should start with our glorious leader. Okay. You left off, you know. It sounded like you were mid-sentence. Yeah. I was going to say, it's like, you know, and then it turns out I should have finished it. Sorry. That's okay. We got there. So, I will be taking a second level of Marshal.

And at level two, I only have a couple of decisions to make. The only thing that changes is I pick up one Lesson of War and two Combat Maneuvers. So, what would you like to do first? I'm ready to go. I got it all picked up. Give me those combat traditions, the two of them. All right. So, the first one we're going to take is called... Let me find it. I wrote it down and then I lost it. It is... Where did it go? It's in reactions. There we go. First one, so I have to pick two traditions that I know. The first one is going to be called Sanguine Knot and the second is called Mirror's Glint.

I couldn't find any description of what the traditions like vibe is. I had to kind of just read through the abilities to get an understanding of it. Oh, I can read them for you if you'd like. That's okay. I already picked my stuff. It's fine. Okay. Okay. We're cutting this down. You're not holding it back. It's up to you. I picked stuff that the whole tree looks like they fit him pretty well. So, I'm pretty comfortable with my picks here. So, in Sanguine Knot, there is a first degree ability called Shoulder Check, which after a creature within your reach makes a melee attack against an ally, you can use your reaction to make an athletics check.

Basically, I bump it back 10 feet and I can follow it. It doesn't provoke attacks for opportunity, but if somebody gets too close and attacks an ally, I can move them away and I think that's it. That reminds me of a video game and I just want to plug it. We're not affiliated with them, but I'd like to be. They're really cool. You ever play a game called Fights in Tight Spaces? Yes. Well, I know of it. I've never played it and I know of it. Okay. So, it's a roguelike card game where you play a secret agent and you have different fighting styles and the entire thing is you're being attacked from all sides and you get to move and shove and kick and it's about controlling the battlefield.

Well, they just released a sequel called Knights in Tight Spaces and it's totally medieval. Now, there's wizards and shit and it's fucking amazing. Just throwing it out there. It's also the name of my favorite erotic fiction, Knights in Tight Spaces. I love that tag on Archive of Our Own. [laughter] My second ability from the Mirror's Glint tradition is called Warning Strike. So, what that does is another first degree ability when a hostile creature that I can see moves out of my reach. I can make a melee weapon attack as a reaction to make its movement zero and say, "No, you don't." Wow.

Yep. Could you do me a big favor? Mm-hmm. Could you give me a d10 and we're rolling for hit points? Yes. Here we go. Right now you have a max of 11. Oh, I'm sorry. That's a total of 19 now, baby. Ooh. Eight. I do, as a dwarf, get plus one hit point per level. Did you factor that in? Oh, it will do that for us. Oh, it did? Perfect. Okay. It will do it, yes. Lessons of War. You get one. Yes. My Lesson of War. Team Tactics, which is when more than one creature takes the help action to aid an ally, each additional creature helping adds a plus one bonus to the check. So basically, if we all do a thing, we get an even bigger bonus than what bonus we would normally get.

Nice. Love it. The table acts absolutely did the math. So you're up to 20 hit points now, my friend. Oh, big 20 at level two. Not bad for... That's pretty good. ...ten constitution. And that's me done. Okay. Who's feeling it? Who's next? I can go. Let's do it. Okay. So I get quite a few things. Yay, Rogue. I'm not sure the order prompts you, Jason, but I get I can change my skill trick every level. And I want to see how our group works together and our strengths and weaknesses. I would like to change out Hide in the Shadows for Scout Leader, which basically everybody...

I could give someone else my stealth roll if we're doing a group stealth. Wow. Okay. Looking at you, Logran. But Captain, 15 feet? You want to... That's very funny. If you give Logran your stealth roll, like he's Spider-Man crawling across the wall now. Well, we share it. So we both... Like if I roll 20, we both get it. That means you're carrying him is what it means. It's under your arm like luggage. I picture it's like curling where you're just brushing the things he would be stepping on out of the way so he goes further. Okay, let's do this. Give me a D8 for your hit points and you would get a plus one because of your con.

Okay. Okay. All right. Well, four. All right. That's okay. I'm up to 13. Combat traditions. You get two. Biting Zephyr, Mist in Shade or Rapid Current. So I will not be taking Biting Zephyr. I will be doing Mist in Shade and Rapid Current. And then I'll be taking two maneuvers from Mist in Shade this time. Got it. Okay. Combat tactic? I will be taking Carver. Carver? Ooh. Nice. Which gives me an extra D6 for sneak attack. Dang. At level two? Yeah, I know, right? Death in Boots. Are those getting bigger? Yeah, they do. Yeah. You had a little poison to that. You got yourself a stew going.

I know. And then I get my cunning actions at level two. So disengage, dash, hide. Cunty action. Yeah. Golly. Okay. Shit. I think that's it. Well, I need my two maneuvers. Oh, it didn't automatically add them. Okay. I got you. I need Deceptive Stance. So with Deceptive Stance, I can hide my facial expressions so no one could read me during battle. And then I get expertise dies on deception and sleight of hand. And deception is important because I could lie and dip my dagger in poison and no one would know I did it. We're getting broken at level two. I can't wait to see level eight.

My Theorem's expression, though, is it's not it's really just you're going to die. Yeah. Like a happiness, like a little glee. She doesn't have to lie to you. I'm going to kill you. I figured it was her. I just... I just didn't expect poison. The second one will be Perplexing Flurry. So I basically just get an extra attack that no one sees coming. Jesus Christ. Oh, my God. The jump from level one to level two is such... It's so cool. It's good. I dig A5e because I can like obviously the more you guys grow, the more interesting combats I can put together. And it's like, you know, it's Legos.

Deadly Legos. Ian. Yes. Prepare for the getting broken at level two. Prepare to be underwhelmed. Oh, you play a warlock? You're a warlock. Like we, you know, it's like how Canada is always a decade behind us in trends. It's like, well, level three and four, he'll start coming around. Coming up. What would be coming up? Yeah. It's still good in regular 5e warlock. Yeah. Very true. I've been digging it a lot. And so I don't get a lot of choices, but the choices I do get are going to be very Kolkoth coded. They're very Kolkoth themed, which I really, really like. So I'm going to take another level in warlock, Natch, Natch.

And I get an additional I get another spell point and I get an additional spell. And the spell that I would like to take is Arcane Riposte, because, you know, Kolkoth may not be the best guy. Maybe he's kind of problematic, but he does want Chimera to stay alive, you know, maybe for selfish reasons. But, you know, whatever, I can fix it. But he does want Chimera to stay alive. So if, you know, if he gets hit, then there is some magic that comes out and strikes back, you know, for Arcane Riposte. It's a level one spell. Gotcha, baby. Slide it on now. Awesome.

Thank you. Thank you. The other thing I get is an Eldritch Invocation. And some of these are kind of sexy. Some of them are locked beyond levels that I don't have or abilities that I don't have. But the one that I'm going to take again, very Kolkoth coded is Armor of Shadows. And that is going to give me permanent mage armor for forever, which sounds really cool. But it's it's 13 plus your Dex mod. So it and my Dex mod is minus two. So it really only gives me a plus one to armor right now. Oh, but I will take it because even a plus one, I will take maybe that doesn't factor in your negative, right?

Like that's not for the spell. Like it doesn't take away. It's not as well, it's not a spell. It's just like a permanent it's like a permanent spell. But I I think that it does because it says 13 plus your Dex mod and my Dex mod is in the negative. Oh, well, we need to we need to find you a like a little Dex boost, a little fast slippies. Maybe get your Dex up. That's some that's some some old fashioned adventure and that's cave dwelling or something like we'll get you we'll get you up there. Mm hmm. Oh, God. And your secrets of the Arcana. Yes. So this one not Kolkoth coded this one.

This is I'm kind of interested about. It's all you. Yeah. This one is I'm going to take. It's called Portance and Portals. And both. Yeah. Yeah. Potent potable for 200, please. No, it's kind of it's kind of neat because it's something like. Yeah, you automatically know when you are within one mile of a portal or gateway, even if it is inactive or malfunctioning, but not destroyed. And it gives me advantage on checks to locate this and an expertise die to make it activate or open it or stabilize it. Baby, it's been a century since since the fast travels come.

It's come a long way. I'm sure you'll come come across something out there. Yeah, I don't know how like how practical it's going to be, but I think in theory, like that seems like something that could be really cool. So maybe you're investing in portal futures. Exactly. Yeah. Could you do me a big old favor? Yes. Give me a date for your hit points. You got it. Plus two. Somehow you have. Wow. OK, sure. I forgot to add in plus two. Sorry. No, I got you. I can do that math. That's you know what? That sounded way more standoffish than I wanted it to. It sounded like I couldn't do the math.

It felt right. It felt right. Jasper. All righty. Definitely taking another level in Adept. Which unlocks a few things for Ruby. I've got my exertion points, which are like, you know, key or energy points. So now I can do the like the flurry of blows and long steps, depth of the wind and all that kind of stuff. She's got names for all these things, by the way, that have nothing to do with that. She's got all of her gadget stuff. But I am I've got two combat maneuvers to take and then a couple of extra things. I've got two traditions here. Rapid currents. I'm going to take charge.

Charge basically means if I have a straight line to a person, a foe, I can do I can do a 30 foot charge and make a weapon. I'm sorry, a melee attack, like a punch if I want to. Oh, and it doesn't take away from my regular movement. So it's an extra 30. Holy shit. That's pretty good. OK, so. Yeah. So there's one. You good for that one so far? Got it ticked off, baby. Fantastic. Second one is this is very themed specifically to Ruby. So her other tradition is very specific to her background. But she's she's in biting Zephyr. She's taking double shot. Double shot means that I can take whatever ranged weapon I have.

I can use two missiles instead of one in on a hit. I deal an additional weapon damage die. So she's going to be upgrading her Rispalista basically is what it comes down to. OK. Can I just hats off to this table? Because it naturally shows you the stuff that you would have within your category. But there's a little plus button that just says, hey, here's all the traditions if you want to pick. And it's so thank you. Just thank you for your service, Foundry. I just want to hear something. Oh, man. Something interesting, because she has the steam forged culture, she actually gets another combat maneuver from any tradition that she has pulled from in her history in some way.

So she got another one. Yep. It's coming to take. Catch your breath. Catch your breath is an it's a bonus action. She basically is roughly she can get it like a hit die back so she could take it. She could bow out for a second and heal herself really quickly. That's really cool. That means everybody else. You can heal your you know, like I got I'm good. Take care of yourselves kind of a thing. So those are the combat maneuvers. Like I said, she can do flurry. She can do the long step patient defense, which is just adept stuff. But she also gets as part of her leveling up in adept, she gets what's called a practice technique.

So she takes adept speed, which will give her plus 10 movement for her base movement. That's where all the movement went. OK, that's why Lager didn't get any. That's why he's like movement. Lager is like, I like her. Yeah, she moves fast. OK, she can do what I can't do. That's important. Yep. I'm here. I need somebody over there. So what's so cool is that over the levels, there adept speed is sort of like step one. And then there's a few other ones that add up. And by the time like in many, many, many, many levels, she'll be able to be like 5000 feet per. Not really.

Really quickly, another thing is going back through my steam forged culture. One thing that I need to do on the sheet is to give her proficiency in engineering, which I don't think was originally there. If you don't mind clicking some buttons, she gets very much mine. So you have proficiency in engineering. Oh, I did. Oh, that was a note I had written myself a long time ago. Maybe I maybe I had not gotten it there. All right. Great. It's all good. Done. It's good to keep track. That's it. I have to object. None of the maneuvers I picked her on my character sheet.

It does not work. So I don't know. I'm sorry. I ticked them off. It should have added. I will go back and do that manually. I slighted it is targeted. You're right. They want to say anything, but I did have that courage. We need to get some hit points for you, Jasper. That is so true. D8 plus two. Lucky is seven. Take a seven. All right. Every time you guys level, I could throw so much more cool shit at you. I can't wait. I get some really interesting combat like the comets can become puzzles. It's so cool. I can't wait anyway. I got a question before we move on. How do I get this please?

Armor of shadows to go. It doesn't seem like it's going because my AC hasn't changed. Check the effects tab. The second from the settings one. Yeah, that's what I was looking at. Like a toggle there. No. Oh, wait. Hold on. And I'm wondering if it's because I'm wearing armor. My worry is that the table is adding it correctly and taking the negative two from your decks as the bonus. Well, it should be, but it then it should be it should still be like plus one to what I have currently. Oh, wait. Hold on. I got this. I got this baby. So it has to be dragged manually.

I see that. OK. That should do it. Yeah, that did. Whatever you did. I fiddled with it. On air to its upper body. It's fine. Can you fiddle with my combat maneuvers? Because they're not there. One of them is OK. OK. Thank you. Just fiddle. Thank you, Jason. I'll fiddle. No, no problem. You know what we're going to do? This is what we're going to do. Give me the maneuvers again. And we'll just drag and drop them manually and then we'll make sure logrins is there to amazing charge and double shot. Oh, there you go. Thank you so much. But if kills maneuvers, what were yours?

Jameson, a shoulder check and warning strike. OK. Well, I see him. Thank you. Perfect. Susan, I didn't fuck yours up. Mine's good. You like me? Clearly, I have a favorite. We know. Don't worry, that'll fade if she keeps leveling up like this. And I get 15 more things. It's like, oh, God, I'll just add on myself. It's fine. Nowhere. The Tarrasque sneak attack. Oh, fuck. And you're rolling 10 D 20s now. OK, well, let me check this mouth. She's right. All right, guys. Ready? Yes. Ready? I'm feeling so good. By this point, you guys, you have a daily routine. It's been a couple of days since our orcish friends, you know, dipped.

And you guys had had a bit of an attack here with the with the kobolds. That problem might be solved for now. They might just basically you're at a point where they're either going to lose their they're either going to leave you alone because you were too big a threat or they're going to come back with more. And you're kind of waiting to see that there's some things you could do to repel them a bit. Just it's a get out of here. And I mean, but they only they're not going to get Dragonborn to come back here and harass you. Is that you know what I mean?

It's too you're too small. It's like, well, don't pick don't fuck with them. Like it's basically that's what they would be told. Now, you're still waiting for your reinforcements for for people to get here. And you're kind of thinking, OK, well, we were ready to leave. We were traveling fairly light. And some of these people are probably loaded up to brave the wilderness here. So the more we do to get this place ready for them, the better we'll be when they get here. But they can't be that far behind by now. So what we're going to do is we're going to pick up.

On the eighth of all to earn. So in that time, just to kind of summarize, because I think like we would have definitely taken that body down off the wall. Yes. I would insist. Yeah. It's a good, good thing for the orcs. Maybe not as good for other people who want to come visit. Sure. I think we would have done our best to we're probably not like hauling stones back up to build a wall between the four of us, but we're shoring up our defenses as best we can. Maybe scouting the immediate area a little bit, but I don't know that there's really much not much more than that.

Like, I feel like that's enough work for for an extra two days here. The only other thing is nice. You're after the battle after we finally got our shit together. She turned to Ruby and be like, we're starting to spar. Every morning. And like pointing at her, like with her whole hand, like I'm doing on camera like this is happening. So two things Ruby will think with soon as you say something like that is, first of all, it sounds like a threat from the era. So she's going to for about a split second, she's going to feel like, oh, this is it. This is my time.

And then the second thing she'll think is that she really doesn't have a choice if Thera tells her to do something and then she'll calm down. She'll figure it out. So, yeah, no, of course. Yeah. None of that sounded like a request that sounded like a premonition at best like that. Yeah. No, but but in all honesty, she'll feel she'll feel really good about that. She'll feel really maybe not even taken under the wing, but a little bit of that. But also maybe maybe I could show her a thing or two like she just kind of feels really warm about it. And like just behind the curtain a little bit, nice.

You're almost died like twice during that battle to cobalt. That's not how she's going to go to history. So she's like, I got to keep I got to get my game better. And then also and then like long term, like we both have the same maneuver, rapid current. So it makes sense that we're training together. So that's how we're picking up those same moves. I love it. Yeah. How do you how do you envision that? Is it just like you didn't take the kobolds seriously as a threat and they just kind of or was it just kind of chaos of like there's a bunch of dogs and there's a grim bull and there's these orcs just visited and that, you know, I think it's partly like we weren't prepared enough.

We should be honoring more like, why did I let them let me sleep here when that wall was still fucking down? I know, like logically, we could have got the whole wall back up. But like, night there. Sure. We have to be better. And then the true part of it, like the nugget that she's not even going to look at or think about is, am I getting too old? Oh, no. Well, yeah. What's the thing about that? So how does that look? You guys. So, OK. I knowing what I know about these characters so far, I feel like Ruby would have almost not a lax, not a lax approach to sparring, but more of a oh, let me show you this thing.

Let me show you that I'm really excited for this. And I I'm going to guess that night. Theora's version of sparring isn't so light and jovial. Probably at first it would be like at least I have mentioned it. Well, I guess it depends on the rules, but it'd be like night. Theora is taking this very seriously. And so it'd be like, oh, let me show you this. And then night here would take advantage of you, like putting your arm out to like show the gadget. And she'd like lock it and pull you down and be like, you you have to stay alert. Like and then like hold your arm behind your back and then do that thing where it's like in battle, no one's going to stop to look.

And then like. Throw her down or whatever, back up and be like, OK, let's start over. So Ruby's going to really enjoy it because she's learning like true sparring techniques in a lot of ways. And I think that's going to that that fits with leveling up and with with sort of gaining some knowledge. But at the same time, also, she's clocking. She's she's I mean, she's flat out ADHD. Right. So she is truly she's thinking of a lot of things at once. So she's she's taking that in. But at the same time, she's thinking, OK, what didn't go right on that thing? Because that could have made this thing happen and go a little bit faster.

I'm going to have to get on that one later because the microflanges are never going to get in place. So she's she's doing a couple of things at once. So she's leveling herself up and she's taking up stuff from you. And she's she's upgrading even in her mind. She's already planning 15 steps ahead next time she gets to get her, you know, her toolbox out. And I think there's probably a moment, too, because our stats are pretty comparable and yours are like a little bit better and like decks and stuff and strength. So there'll probably be a few moments where you get the better of night here.

And then that's when it like she's not all cold, hard edges. There is like the soft, nuggety center. So it would be like a moment where you get the better of her and then she would have her hands on her knees and like her hand up, like catching your breath. And like, show me how you did that. She just last thing here, she will. Any time Ruby ever got the better of night there, she would always say something like, oh, yeah, that was the ratchet plates or or, you know, the you know, the spring jacks. Yeah, that was that. She'll never take the credit. She'll always make it be something about her her gadget.

And then it'd be like, OK, do it again. Show me. And then like night there would stand back and watch and learn from Ruby to. The first time you guys do this. Grimble is going to race over to Chimera and just like start tugging on on his his like cloak or whatever. It's like, hey, hey, hey, they're fighting. Do something. They're fighting like panic. No, it's fake fighting. No, no, it's they are practicing. Do you know what practicing is? Practice fight. No one's actually hurting. They're trying to get better. No real. No real. Right. Do you want to try? He won't even acknowledge you after that.

He's going to like a thousand yard stare, go back to what they were doing and then sit down and watch the two of you. Half not believing it's like I've never seen anybody fake fight before. This is weird. But more than that, like slowly but surely he's going to get real into it and just like like maybe pick up a sharpened rock or something and like kind of pretend he's also fighting like just just fascinated by the idea of like, wait, you can fight. No one has to get hurt. That's awesome. Like this is really cool. Like I don't think he gets the fact that you're doing it to train for a real fight.

I think it's more just like, oh, it's like dogs play fight. Oh, this is cool. I didn't know. I know you guys did that. That's pretty cool. Like just. Yeah. It's like for him watching pro wrestling, like he's really into like it's like, oh, who's going to win this time? Like it's he's into the story. So, so far this four, we've got most of our walls kind of up into it all needs fixing. But for the most part, the four of you aren't here to do that. You're here to start laying the groundwork for future trading and, you know, finding items on your list eventually everything you need to know this place can look after itself when you're gone.

So you're waiting for that, that initial influx of people that all have, you know, stakes here so that we can start building this up. The cool thing is I hinted last time that the audience can help and we're working on that system right now. And it might be done by the time people hear this. I'm not sure. But they can play games and everything on the discord server and then use their gold to purchase things you guys are going to need like stone and wood and metal and all kinds of stuff you're going to need to build things like a blacksmith and a bunkhouse and extra defenses and things like that.

So quite literally, while you guys are doing nothing, the audience is helping you guys buff this fort and build on to it. Every time you come back something new will be happening. Please help us. Have you seen this place? The word shithole has been bandied about quite a bit. Decorate it. Ooh, make it all cool like a Skyrim home when you walk in and you just like... Collect every book we find in the world. And read it, watch back. In the bookshelf. We need a Nazim. I'm going to have to... You get to the cloud district very often. We need Zach and I like just to...

Just to foosurowdive him over the walls. Jameson, I'm sorry. No, that's okay. I was just gonna say, well, a lot of like downtime of activities going on. The one thing that Lagrin does is he will go around to this fort and he doesn't really have like we don't have the manpower to really like build anything right now with all the stone that's around and everything. Not much. But he is he does have a piece of charcoal and he's going around making like surveyors marks on the building and everything. And he's basically, you know, going around and be like, well, you need that.

He writes the word joists a lot. You know, he's just like... He's leaving instructions essentially everywhere for like, all right, well, here's what you got to do here. You got to get a banister and you got to set this up over here. And, you know, so that's what he's doing. A lot of his downtime when he's not with the group or if they're off sparring and doing whatever. He's over at like, where'd he get off to? Oh, he's over there. He wrote joists on the wall again. I don't know if you're specifically referencing it. But that is a Carlin bit from the little David years like the the old record that is definitely just okay.

I'm not doing it to reference it. But yeah, 100% No, but like 100% just I'm just saying like, I love you. And you're appreciated. That's all. That's all I wanted to say. Little David years. Yeah. Yeah, no, he's doing that. He's absolutely going around doing that just to himself. He's like muttering under his breath and he's having a hell of a time honestly. There better be one dwarf or person who understands construction who shows up otherwise. What the fuck is a joist? Well, the first couple he actually wrote in dwarf and then he had to scuff him out and write him again in common just to be like, I know he's gonna get this.

Can I actually before I ask for that one more thing, one more like little little playful thing. You've highlighted some stuffs on your map. And thanks to Daniel of Daniel's maps, we do have a an updated version of our our map. I'll upload it for our overworld real quick. And we could start mapping things out that you might want to go check out. We could just start like popping it up on there. There's no token in the scene that gives me the visibility of the area. Fear is the mind killer. There's no token in my scene. No token in my scene. Hey, while that's loading, one thing one thing Ruby would probably get Chimera to help with during this past couple of days is just collecting wood, not like chopping it and like doing a perfect job of it, but just collecting a bunch of kindling and wood, knowing that people are going to be coming here.

Oh, right. Kind of prepping for them to be like, we've got a fire pit. We've got everything ready to go. But this is going to hurt. And if not for them, then for us, you know, I'll I'll help you if you help me with a little something small. Well, that's that's oh, sorry. Something average. Always a catch. That's not a big catch. I just need you know, the thing that we scooped up out of the water. I just need help. The poison. Yeah, the poison. I just need help drying it out and making sure that it's safe because when it's not poison, Ruby, it can be a lot of fun.

She's going to stare at you for a lot longer than she should before saying something completely expressionless. And she's going to say two things. I'm in. But number two, this has got his name all over it. Well, I mean, he knows how to have a good time and what else can we do here? And he like gestures around to the barren wasteland. Yeah. Other than collecting wood. Fair enough. She's going to pause to really quickly start picking up a couple of extra branches or something. She's going to stop and she turned back. You ever think about it? What what life would be like if you just walked away?

I mean, there is no life without him. And those kind of contracts are very difficult to break. I got to imagine that's what you see in your head. It's like an automatic overlay where it's like coming in the background. Ruby is very well aware that any question she asks, Kolgoth hears and anything you're thinking about the answer, he's going to know. And she's just going to say, don't give me that. He's part of me. Crap. Parasites get removed. Yeah, but he's not a parasite. I mean, he's the reason I can walk into a room and know what people want. He's the reason I can do the things I can do.

She's going to put her hand on your shoulder and say he's the reason for a lot of things about you. That doesn't mean I want him around. I mean, he's as much a part of me as I am, and it's been that way for a very long time. She's going to squeeze and just say, I know I just want you to be safe. Appreciate it, and I won't let him cause you any trouble or any of us here any trouble. Don't worry. You're safe as well. I'll make damn sure. She just turns, not in a huffy way. She just turns and just drops it. She's made her point. And come here, just kind of like breeze and kind of like he's thinking about Kolgoth and just like, you're making this difficult.

She really is. He's going to interpret that as like, she is making this difficult. She's trying to separate us. Right there on the map, I have highlighted with a little red circle. That's where that cave is. Let me know if you guys can see these things now. Is it can we things to it? Are we can we only see like a tiny square or is that just me? Yes. Oh, OK. Yeah, I see a four actually a four square grid in a circle. Oh, there we go. Oh, I should see a bit more. Got you. There you go. Perfect. A little snowflake is the fort. Yeah, that's cool. OK. And that's the thing.

Can we pop a long rest, too? Is that something that we would be able to do? You absolutely can. It's been two days. Shit. Yeah. You know what else? Let me give you. The new dedicated map for the fort. Let's do that. This one can be, you know, like updated on the fly. I just needed the right pieces for it. Here we go. The this looks more intact than you don't have doors or anything yet, but I put them there as a it's a show of good faith. Like they will be there. They're at least upright, right? Didn't the Mozog help us like fitly push them up? Yeah. You know, I mean, they're they're you know, it's it's it's very Hancock construction right now.

It's kind of leaning against each other and everything, but they're there. They're there. Can I? Get a perception check from each one of you, please. Yeah, absolutely. A little perception. Seventeen. What are you doing? He's he's he's he's working. Literally staring at walls. You're going to need to get to which pair are just making. Yeah, he's got it. He's got his his his tools out. Yeah, he's measuring. I like to think Logran's the kind. He's very dad about it. We're halfway through making notes. He just starts making some of the improvements himself. It's like, are you just going to screw it up?

Like he just starts doing it. I got one of these back home. Often the distance to the northeast. It is just about dusk. And you're going to see a signal flare go off into the sky. And it is going to trail off and just just kind of, you know. And nine times out of 10, that means there's some kind of trouble. And it's usually used by caravans to signal for help when they know there's going to be trouble or there currently is trouble. And it's it's kind of a desperate, you know, please anybody in the area come help type of thing. All the ships at sea. Gotcha.

Signaled the wrong people. You could absolutely choose to just ignore it. I just wanted to let you know it's out there. Yeah, beautiful, isn't it? Just look it up like it's like firework. Gribble's going to love it. Bright colors. Every once in a while, by the way, grimble is going to approach night era with a sharpened rock and just, you know, dogs do that like playful stance thing. It's like, like just trying to get you to play with him off and on. And this might get stabbed. Yeah, absolutely. But he doesn't know that. I mean, he earned himself a few points by keeping the mug safe and keeping her coffee in the mug.

So he's doing pretty good. Those dogs are well cared for. That's a little bit below the mug for night era. Yes, but I think if the dogs were constantly barking and shit, it would be. But like he's over there, like brushing them out and stuff like that's that's his horse stable. That's, you know. I think like at first night, the arrow would like jump back like the first time it happens, but then it would progress to ignore. And then like the fourth or fifth time he does it, she'll like grab his wrist and be like, you want it here, like correcting his stance.

So teaching him how to like. Yeah. OK. OK. God, grimble might level up one day. Oh, my God. I think it's like and one XP, just like. And it's like little things to like, oh, you shall push his back leg out because he didn't put his weight on it. You're going to fall. Put this one down. And it'll probably take a couple of times where he's just like, don't hit me like he's he's terrified that you're just going to like. But then like he is like, OK, like he like ecstatic that you're teaching him like all smiles. But again, big toothy like grin and it's off putting, but like not eventually.

Eventually you kind of get it's like that's just you know what I mean? That's how he shows joy. You're like he's just, you know, that's grimble. Ruby is exactly, by the way, the kind of person that you can imagine would always give dogs way more treats slightly in the background. Yeah. Like, why? Why is why is their stomach so messed up? They must be getting a lot of treats. I don't know who's giving all the treats and not me. She's absolutely whatever sort of candy stash she's been having in her bag. She's been taking little pieces, not even whole things, but just crumbs, little pinches of stuff, not giving them to grimble because she knows very well that he would then glom onto her.

But she keeps leaving that little piece over where the little where that where you make the coffee, where you make the little kitchen area, whatever it might be. Sure. He'll just continue to find little treats there every once in a while. We're going to have a fat grumble. I mean, these are crumbs, but but she's like, oh, he'll find it. Yeah, it teaches him to be self-reliant. He has avoided logran, by the way, just to just to make that clear. If he walks past logran, he'll kind of put his head down like his eyes will still be cast up. But it's kind of a sign of like respect slash fear.

Just like, I don't want to make any big noises. He'll he'll he'll kind of like tiptoe past him. And then just after he's like five feet away, he'll just return back to normal because it's he he thinks everyone in the world has solid snake cone vision. So like, the second facing it's like, all right, no exclamation marks. We're good. Let's go. Yeah, and logran is never outright mean to grumble. But he also will not acknowledge. Just ignores him completely. I think it's best for both of us. That's worse for him. That is absolutely worse for him. It like, like a toddler, even negative attention is attention.

And you're giving him not the attention and that is frustrating and he can't figure you out. And he is just avoiding you. Everyone else seems to be fine. But yeah. You're going to hear the beating of hoof prints and it sounds a little far away. If you listen, it sounds like they're heading north. It sounds like they're coming from the south and it sounds like four or five horses galloping full speed. This is probably 10 minutes after that flare goes off. So it's it can be reasoned, I think, by just about everybody that they're there. They're going after that flare.

Now, why they'd be going that way is either to help or they sense weakness like sharks smelling blood in the water. They are heading that way and it is it'll be nightfall before they get there. So first, give me your breast. Yeah, Ruby's going to I'm sure at this point she's she's got some way of sort of jumping up up towards those walls, maybe like kind of like like cat like like you've seen people put stuff on walls for cats to be. Yeah. Right. So there's stuff like that. So she's going to try to go up and see if she can look over the wall, just kind of to scout it out a little bit, just see if she could see anything about the what's galloping, what's where are they coming from anything about them?

Do they look menacing? Do they look? What are they wearing armor? Wearing Wraith? It's like, not our problem. Not my circus, not my monkeys. And these these guys. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Right with me. Hold on. These guys are put together sharp dressers right that you know that they look like they're wearing polished silver and gold armor, big bulky pieces to they look like full on heralds like like Paladin writers like true paragons like these guys like the kind of stuff you'd see in storybooks and shit but these guys are just out here. Riding around like that which means either they see no combat whatsoever, or they're so good it looks like they don't see combat ever.

So they are writing full bore to the north. Can I get a go please please please please. I was gonna say do they have any noticeable assemblage on them, like we are paladins of blah blah blah. From this distance it's a little tough to see actual, you know, like, tabard icons or city, but the armor itself is pretty distinct so if you give me a little history check, and you get a you get a 16 or higher, I'll tell you about them. 11. Do you shout down, do you ask, it's like, hey. Yeah, honestly yeah at some point she's gonna be like, got some fancy armor somebody's on some horses or something.

I don't know who they are. Red. She's excited it's exciting. Anybody who's trained in history hit me. Oh no. You're having a day. And by the way, where are they are they headed way past us like they wouldn't notice us are they coming like right up to the front door right now they're there. They probably see the lights on at this point you guys probably have a fire going like most nights because, you know, with no walls or a reliable door to keep things out, you got to be able to, you know, plus it's fucking cold so you know it by now you probably have a little system of like burlap. coverings and tents and stuff but it's, you know, so they would definitely see you but they're, they're, they're racing north like they are clearly going after the, the signal flare.

If Ruby is excited then Khaimera is excited, because that because whenever she's excited, he gets excited and plus there's nothing to do, so it's like well she's excited to she's like whoa red like she's. Yeah, yeah and so he's not he's not about to like climb up the wall or anything or like go up in those things but he'll like crack the door a little bit and like poke his head out and like watch him right by or something, just because he wants to. Sure. Cool look at it. Night theoril will go up there with Ruby just to be like, are they coming near us?

What's happening? Yeah, I, they definitely got close enough that you can hear it but that's not saying much because, you know, snowy ground like this that the sound just kind of carries a little more especially when it's when it's calm. Technically, Ulta Ornn, you're in the middle of summer, so this is the nicest it's gonna get around here. It's gonna get worse later, but right now, it's nice. How, roughly speaking, how is there any sort of estimate for how far away that that signal flare would have been? Would it be like this is going to take all night to get there?

I can't you might have already said this is it like a few minutes away? Is it an hour a walk away? You know, kind of a thing like what kind of effort? Nighttime slows you down. Yeah, you know, it would be. Yeah, it's probably a good four or five hours away. It's, it's, it's, it's a few miles out there. It's not crazy far, but, you know, I can understand. Well, we're safe and warm, safe-ish and warm here. You know, like. Craigborn says, I don't know why I use his last name. Craigborn says, Me Grimlock. He says, well, we're safe-ish and warm here. And it's all the way out there.

They can find us if they need us. The writers don't look like bandits or anything, or if they are, they're some of the best looking bandits I've ever seen. They're fancy. You guys starting a fan club? What's going on? Logrin, look around. There's nothing else to see. And you've been staring and muttering at walls for two days. Somebody's got to do it. I swear. In game, Logrin hasn't had a good role since finding that cave. And I like to think every once in a while, he's like, I found the cave. Like, just like you guys haven't been there yet. But it's like, well, it's there.

I found it. Like, it's just like every once in a while, like there is a thing. I don't know. Ruby's going to, Logrin is going to sort of speak up and basically the message is, eh, doesn't feel worth it. Right. She's going to take that to heart and just kind of look disappointed, kind of give a little pout look on her face. She's going to hop back down, down to the ground and it's going to be as if she kind of moved on. She's going to be like, OK, well, that's done. Which he'll recognize and then he'll go, all right, well, we're going to hit the road soon.

When we get to town, we'll ask around. We'll see if anybody knows who they are. She perks up and then she's just kind of over it, I think. Where are you going? That is an excellent leading question, Jason, because I have a question for you. So Logrin knows that the current king of Stonesunder, Nimar Stonesunder, is currently not king because she's in a coma. Queen. He is. Yeah. Well, I didn't know if it was one of those things where it's like king no matter what. Yeah. Like, yeah, it's just, yeah, we got a name for it. It's, you know, we have a word for that as queen.

Yeah. And there's somebody else on the throne whose name is Nokal, Nokal, Nokal, Nokals, Nokals, Nokals, Nokal. Nokal Grimhorn is currently on the throne. Now, what Logrin also knows is that aside from Nimar Stonesunder, all the rest of the Stonesunders in that mountain have been exiled. And you told me away from the table that Logrin would have found out through his contact in the mountain where at least three of those Stonesunders would be. Yes. May I know that information now, please? Yes. Yes, you can. Good, sir. Let me mark those on your overworld map.

Yeah. Zooming out. Well, maybe they're right next door. Maybe that was them. Or they sent up the signal flare and now they're dead. Did they look like a bunch of fucking traitors? You should have said they look like assholes and losers. I'm guessing that's Ebony Harbor. Aubrey. Oh, yeah. That's because this map is black for me. Is it not supposed to be? Yes, she just knows the map. Oh, OK. Yeah. Here's you know what? For the purposes of this, I'll take that off. Fine. I mean, we've kind of copy edit this book, so I've looked at this map like 800 million times. I'm not your favorite again.

That's why. Dang it. Demoted. I had my shot shot my shot. I missed it. Outdone by Susan. The for the most part, there's a couple of things that are being changed, little little tweaks and stuff, but this is a pretty accurate representation. The divide is way more divided. And there is you don't exactly know who is where, but you know that they through your contacts, it's like, yeah, here's their last known whereabouts. Right. So there's one in Ebony Harbor, one in Aubrey, one in Doomhurst. And one at Fair Bay. Now, these places are a lot different than the last time.

I mean, fucking Doomhurst should give you a pretty good idea of what's what. Do you want a little rundown of each one of these places, what you'd know historically with a little history check? I'd love that. Yeah. Let's let's play a fun little game. Let's say that you guys came together and each one of you gets to make a history check on each one of these places. I think it's fun. It's fun. Let's do it. That's the randomness part. Yeah. I do have my lesson of war that allows me to give us an additional plus one for each additional person who's helping so we can get bonuses.

You know what? I'll count it for this. Let's do it. So what's that? A plus three? Yeah, plus three for the three helpers, I would say. Yeah. OK, so let's start with Logrin. Pick a place. This is what you'll know about it. Well, it makes the most sense in with his history that he would know about the one from Aubrey. So let's go with that one. All right. Give me a history check. Good, sir. All right. So natively, he's got a plus two. I'm going to add an additional three. Here we go. OK, it's a 15. OK, so. Aubrey, a little history about the city currently, like leading up to this.

Aubrey was always a very religious town. It has grown into a zealotous city, like exceedingly. So a long time ago, around a century ish, there was a vampire problem in Donhurst. We had a bunch of refugees pour out from that city and most of them ended up in Aubrey and through a protracted campaign, a lot of people in Aubrey kind of turned on vampires. They even had three living in the city at the time. There was a lot of back and forth and it was pretty much deemed that they're soulless killers. And yeah, a lot happened. There's a write up for it, but essentially that set them on a path of anything demonic, warlocks, vampires, blood mages, all that needs to go.

And it is a city of righteousness, heralds and, you know, purity priests and all that stuff. So excellent place to get healing, but they're essentially a religious police state type of thing. Like they're very, very pious, not fun to party with. City's super clean, though. If you go there, there's some things you should know. Don't break the law. Don't do it. Just don't do it. Be mindful, respectful. Every town guard is a paladin. Every single one. Worship different gods. But yeah, so just, you know, as long as you keep your nose clean, you're fine. Second you break the law, you're dead.

Wow. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah. So yeah, Lagren has up until about 20 years ago, he did grow up essentially in Aubrey, born in Stonesunder, but he grew up in Audrey Aubrey. So he spent a good 60 years there. Was the Stonesunder who was exiled? No, he wouldn't have been there the whole time because he wouldn't have been exiled until pretty recently. Right. Yeah. Okay. Do I know anything about that? You said I wouldn't know necessarily who was there, but I wouldn't know anything about the circumstances of like, oh, there's an exiled monarch living in Aubrey, you know.

So what we're gonna do is after you guys get your your details on these cities, I'm going to give you the who's that Pokemon of each city. So it's like, hey, they're like, here's the names. And when you run into them, you'll you'll go, oh, shit, that one's here. OK, cool. That works. Ian. Pick a city, baby. I am going to pick a fair bay. Fair Bay, give me a history check. You got it. Let's go. Decent. So Fair Bay. Oh, plus three. Yes, there's 13. Yeah. So Fair Bay has had a record of being a really nice place to live for a long time, but in the past century, they've gotten some modern conveniences because they they're so south that while the cold weather did affect them and certain crops, it wasn't the.

It wasn't the absolute culture shock that it was in the north. So, you know, summer right now, it's probably somewhere around 45 to 55 degrees. It's downright pleasant. You know what I'm saying? So they were able to kind of adjust a little more slowly than everyone else. But their city grew exponentially because it was just it's the Florida of Laura. Right. It's just a nice place to go that isn't too out of the way. Ona calls like the resort city, but this is like it's like, hey, man, this kind of nice school district, like the weather's decent. On top of that, it is very kind to those who build and make things, you know, be it people who worship the God of creation, be people who are crafters are for anything you make with your hands artists.

They're very welcoming because they because it was just nicer there. They could kind of focus on, hey, we need to make sure that there's something to live for. Right. We need to make sure. So there there were statue carvers and mural painters and things like that, where the rest of the world is like, I'm dying. It is very cold. I would like one fish, please. Just anything. Just so they were able to help out neighboring towns and cities early on because they're they're, you know, fishing export and stuff never went away. Like they could still they could still catch them straight out of, you know.

Yeah. So it's still a very nice place to go. It is a little more expensive to live there because it's so nice. Jasper. Oh, man. I mean, this is hard. I mean, I'll go for I'm going to go for Ebony Harbor. OK, give me a history check, please. That's a that's an 11. Well, over the last century, the minotaurs abandoned their leaning tower. They just gave up on that and essentially gave up on getting their home back in stone sunder because it just became there were bigger fish to fry after the great the long roar. So they had already kind of started putting down ties in Ebony Harbor, helping out and stuff.

They started as hired labor, but they just melded with the town since fishing was the big thing in Ebony Harbor. That entire portion of the city froze over. So they started building these large, almost oil derrick like things that would drill through the ice each day and like they would essentially deep sea dive for fish like they would keep keep that up. So there is a tremendous source of meat coming from Ebony Harbor and kind of flowing out eastward like they've made quite a living on that. And next to Brightport, it's probably one of the most industrious places to be.

It is, you know, there's Dave. Brightport really doesn't care where the power comes, so it's almost coal powered. There's big, thick plumes of black smoke belching out of Brightport and Ebony Harbor has kind of found a way to make it a bit more eco friendly. You know, because they have a lot of strength to help keep things going, even when it gets tremendously cold. Minotaur are great in the cold, like they're fine. So it stands to reason that there'd be a stone sunder up there just helping to keep the machines running. Susan, there's only one thing left.

There's Doomhurst. I'm not going to roll. That's fine. That is fine. Go in blind. 18. 18. I've been keeping a tab on it for some reason. Halfway across the world from where I live. I think once you change the city's name to Doomhurst, there is a it's like, let's keep an eye on those guys. Like, you know, someone grows a little mustache. You keep an eye on them. So Doomhurst. There was a vampire problem in Donhurst a long, long time ago, and for a while it seemed to get better, but people were very slow to move back. The city's population at its peak after the vampire problem was about a quarter of what it used to be.

Just because, you know, there was a fear of the unknown. The city was pretty thrashed. And around 40 years ago, the city went dark overnight. Not just communication wise, quite literally dark. There was a shroud of shadow. Over the city, almost almost like the dome over Winterhaven. Anyone who has ventured in has not come out again, except for one person. This person appears to have aged 20 years after being in the city for about 25 minutes. They came out a babbling stuttering mess. And all they kept saying were the teeth in the dark. That's the only thing of any, you know, cogent thought that could be coaxed out of them.

Oh, so we're writing that one off, right? Yeah, Stonesunder went there? Like, was it him that was, or them? No. Okay. Well, just because they're there doesn't mean they're in the city, but in that location, that general. Okay. Okay. So, you know, it could be in the hills outside of it or something. Just, yeah. Okay. Well, that sounds fun. So I think that, you know, that evening, around the fire, eating dinner, whatever, whatever we got, rations. Langer has been thinking a lot. He's moved on from Joyce. You know, there's a lull in the conversation. And he just kind of like, he's looking at the fire and he just goes, I really hate to say it, but I think we need to go to Aubrey.

I thought you said it was off limits. I'm just looking at our options. Fair Bay is a distance. We're not going to Doomhurst. Good to have any harbor, but still a hike. Aubrey's right here. We need answers sooner than we can afford to wait. I'd love to go to Fair Bay. Sounds great. But it'll take weeks. Fair Bay will be difficult to find someone. I don't think we should go there. If we want someone from Fair Bay, they'll be hiding amongst there. We should draw them out. I think that'll be the better move. A lot of people there. It's a destination. Huge. You think it'd be hard to find them there?

Yes. That's why I think it'd be easier to get them to come to us. Well. But there's money there. Now he's thinking like he's kind of like working it through. There's money there. I hate to say this, but Aubrey's along the way. It's on the way. Not like this place is livable yet, so I mean, I'll go wherever you want to. I'm just thinking. And then she's going to kind of point with her thumb over at Chimera. Probably not going to take too kindly to him. Oh, well, he doesn't want to get me killed, so I think he'll behave. You just might not be the kind of person they like to let through the gates, let's just say.

True. I mean, I can always put on a disguise. Like the way you think. Well, we go to Aubrey. I'm not me either. Not till we find who we're looking for. A lot of conversations that I don't want to have today or anytime soon. So we go there, we go quiet, we find who we need to find and we get back out. We don't need to do any extracurricular things there. You get on the road, we'll get down to Fair Bay, a little bit of money down there. I think we can do some checks and things off our list. Should we come up with like a different name for you? Gragborn's a name in Aubrey.

I don't want to use it. What about Grimble? No, not gonna offer it. Yes. Like you're a will smile or smirk when you say that. Grimble will peek his head up. Like he just hears his name and so he'll waddle over to the fire. Although, we did meet at Grimble Huff. That's true. Right. Winter Haven. Yeah. I mean for that matter. I think I could do an okay sentiment. Yeah, I was gonna say it. For that matter, I mean, who's to say you're not him? Mm-hmm. Do you want a birth certificate? I can make one. Jason, they don't check for birth certificates, do they? No. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Look, here's the thing. Aubrey's a nice city until you run afoul of the law or you say something blasphemey or something like that. As long as you're, you know, like as long as you keep your nose clean, you're fine. It's a nice place to live. It's just we've got... Sorry. Yeah, do we know definitively if like tieflings are a problem there? Tieflings are not. Tieflings by default are not a problem. You whip out some warlock shit or show you have a demon sitting on your shoulders? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gotcha. Okay. They will help you with that. Just thinking we have, you know, sure, it's a nice place until you run afoul of the law, but we've got a world famous assassin.

We've got a warlock. We have a dwarf who used to live there who's trying to pretend he doesn't live there. And then Ruby who knows what she'll steal. Nothing wrong with being a half-orc. You know, just again, it's not a race thing. It's a religious thing. It's just what she might do. I mean, as long as I don't put on the mask, no one knows who I am. I think none of you guys have done anything recently that would get you unwanted posters. No, no. Unless you do something in the city to get people to start looking at you, on the surface it should be fine. So here's what I'd like to do.

We'll head out tomorrow. Shouldn't take us too long to get there. Best behavior in town. We don't need the trouble. We find them, talk to them, heads down, we get out. We can find the other things we need somewhere else. We're not doing it there. Nythera steps forward a little bit. What about them and then gestures to the eight sled dogs in the grim bull? There's people coming. They can take over. That's why I left all the marks. We're not going to take the dogs? I've named all of them. Do you know how to drive sled dogs? They just pull it, right? And you yell?

I think that's what the last guy thought too. He did yell and they did pull it. I was yelling a lot. Come here. I'm not chasing you across the tundra, all right? All right, fair enough. Goodbye, ember and smoke and cinder. Hey, grimble, guess what? You got a job. See those dogs? Those are your dogs. You keep them here. You keep them alive. Me dog? Your dogs. Those are your dogs. He's ecstatic. They stay here though. He's... So the most grimble will do with these is... The fort's not huge, but to get from one end to the other, he will take a dog and ride it across. The fort.

Constantly doing that. Fair. Too if I was that small and weak. Just like, it's the most majestic he ever looks. Like he's just like riding atop a steed, but like, you know, bobble headed, you know. So yeah, he'll just keep doing what he's doing. And to him, it's kind of like, I'm the man of the house while everyone's away. Grimble runs the show. Like, you know. Chimera, maybe you should leave a note somewhere. For who? About the dogs and the bat. And she points to grimble for our companions that will be coming. Oh, yes. Right. Good idea. I will do that. And I, Thera, I think you should...

The next time we're back here, if we ever find our way back here, you should bring grimble some candy. How loudly do you say that? Very quietly. I lean in. Okay. Ruby's been covering that. That's Ruby's job. Ruby's completely like, you noticed. She thought she was completely getting away with that. Let's take a long rest. And at first light, on the ninth of Alta Orn, you're going to hear noise, lots of noise. And it's going to be yelling and horses and commotion. And the dogs are going to start getting like, raising their, their, their, their, you know, dander about it.

Like just kind of, you know, like getting defensive. They've gotten quite comfortable here. And now they're, you know, they're being given treats constantly. So, you know, grimble has also gotten quite comfortable here. He's been given treats constantly. So, and if you poke your heads outside, you are going to see a small caravan of people driving straight up. Like they are beeline in it for this fort. It's very wagon train. It's very Oregon Trail. Like people have packed all kinds of stuff to make a new life out here. And they're being flanked by five dudes in gold and silver armor with these big, deep crimson capes fluttering behind them.

These motherfuckers look majestic. Like they are puffed up chests and riding very straight, very proper posture. And they're riding up here to the fort ahead of what one of them is riding ahead of this little wagon train. And he's going to kind of sternly wrap his big fist against one of the doors and the door is going to kind of like, like just kind of like caddy-corner almost fall down. Like just your log inside. Don't knock on it. It's not stable. We just got that. We just got that stood up. That's a show door. It's not load bearing. Hello in there. Ruby, Nythera immediately, she's going to get to one side, like up against in case somebody were to come in, in case there were some sort of attack to make.

Yeah, Nythera will like get into a stealth position. Logger will look at Kamira and be like, do you want to talk your way through this or do you want me to? He's kind of. Yeah, Kamira will nod and be like, I got this. I'll take care of this. Yes, who is it? He's seeing through the door as it's like leaning in. I know, he's the most... This is the most crack house behavior. OK. I'm with the Evadon Riders. I have a caravan. They say they're supposed to meet someone here, though it appears dubious at best. Who am I speaking to? I look back at Logger and I'm like, are these the people that we that are supposed to be here?

Are these the ones? If they hired these riders, they did not run it past us. Gotcha. Just a sec. Let me check and see if you're on the list. Door leaning back. It's an exclusive club. Door falls over. It's just a bunch of dogs and a goblin standing in here. Scatter like copper. The list is Kamira just eating some beef jerky or something. Yeah, yeah. Just like taking a pause, cross, cross, cross his legs back one, take a bite. I'm sorry, we don't have you on it. We weren't expecting anyone. What was your name again? Austin Everdon of the Everdon Riders of Esterholt.

He's saying it like you should fucking know who I am. Right. Yeah. History check. Please. Oh, all of you heard it. He's not quiet. Yeah. We're yelling through the door. God, Jamison, this campaign has not been kind to you so far. Listen, my mind's on other things. Austin Everdon. Ruby's going to have with an 18. If this is more local lore for Esterholt, but some people took Aubrey stance as being the most, you know, it's like these are where the elite go to train. These are where the best heralds, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But Aubrey's not communal. They are very focused on their city and that is it.

They are not about missionary work. They're not you know, that it's their their customs pretty much dictate. It's like, hey, it's a big, nasty world. It takes everything we have to guard our city. So the Everdon riders are 12 total. But essentially, this guy is their leader and their entire thing is we are the best heralds in the biz. And they they kind of patrol the central portion of Elara up and down and help those who need it. So when that signal flare went up, it stands to reason that they went up there and helped. Kind of full of themselves, but on the up and up, as far as as far as you know, you know, it's like, hey, no, they they they help you out.

They just, you know, kind of stick in the mud. Gotcha. So if Ruby recognizes this, realizes this, she's going to she's going to relax and she's going to kind of like do a little bit of a hand wave, like it's fine. It's fine. I got this. You know, like it's OK. She's just going to sort of step in, not to take over the conversation, but just sort of to chime in, de-escalate the confusion or the the hesitance. Just sure. Hey, why don't you just tell them to pull up beside maybe round back? Round back of what? Well. Round there, she's just going to arm vaguely arm wave into a certain hand through the hole.

Yes. OK, I have to say, have you opened the door or are you just like gesturing behind? Fantastic. That's where we get drop offs for deliveries. You're a long way from Esterholt. I am. May I ask who I'm speaking to? Oh, Chimera. Of. Of Fort Frostborn. It was formerly Fort Shithole. So you may not have it's not maybe not updated for you. We changed the name yesterday. Yeah. But we're really not expecting a caravan. And I'm sure it's hard to tell, but we're not able to take on anyone. They said they're on their way from Winterhaven. Oh, Winterhaven. Yes. Come on in.

Yeah, door goes right up. He's been able to see everything. Yeah, I really have. There's no way. Yeah, like there's a hundred holes in that door. Like there's no way he can't like. Just waiting. All he wanted to do was make sure these people weren't going to get ambushed by the seediest individuals he's ever spoken to. If you do. I do. I do. I do. And then I go I I look at him and I and I smile very warmly and I go, welcome to Fort Frostborn. Please wipe your feet. The guys the guys super like he's he's trying to be upstanding and nice, but like you change the name of this fort too early.

So. He'll he'll get off of his horse here and just kind of like have a look around, just making sure that. Is that a goblin? Yes, he's our stable master and kennel keeper. Very he leans in, very helpful to have a goblin around. You should get one. I'm quite all right, thank you. I'm sure it's fine for you. It's a little bit of condescension in there. It's like I'm not I have actual like squire. Yeah, yeah. Well, this caravan ran into a bit of trouble. Last night, and I just wanted to make sure still looking around, looking at every rotten piece of timber and fucking like.

I just wanted to make sure that they were in good hands. There should be some joists there. Yeah, look at the writing. It's all we got it. Don't worry. All right. All right. Was everyone on the dwarves were good at construction? I've been here three days. You think I built this? You seem to take pride in it is all I just wanted to make sure. Can I startle him from wherever I was hiding? I'm not behind him. Can I startle him? This is the moment to do it, too, because you can see you see you see Lager and starting to do that things like. I'm going to be. Just lunches for him, but in 15 feet increments, like.

I'm coming to get you. No way I'll get him. So from some shadowy alcove he hasn't seen, probably like from where the door was leaning and be like, sure. Night there, like pops out right behind him and goes, Well, your business is done here, right? Give me an intimidation check. T. Wait, do I have anything for intimidation? I get automatic 20s. It's a skill trick I get next time, but. OK. Oh, no, I can't help you in this situation. Oh, yes. Jesus Christ. 19 will do it. So there's that. OK, there is. Can I please just I want to read like do it my tone differently.

So from nowhere, my fear is right behind them. Your business is concluded here now, right? Man, that's that's a little customer service in their ship. Little bit of P is coming out right now. I think. OK, Patton Oswalt does a great bit. About when you're startled by something. That you feel as though you shouldn't be like a moth or something like that. So for a split second, it's like. This old woman just get the shit out of me, but there's something about your presence or tone that's just off putting, just. So he will kind of reflexively like kind of like almost reach for his weapon and then see it's like.

I was going to stab this old woman like just like there's a bit of him that's like, you know what I mean? He doesn't know that, you know. So, yes, well, if you people need any help or a decorator. Please make sure to send for us. How do we send for you? Ruby would chime in. Well, we'll be patrolling the area for the next week and then we'll be moving further west. If this caravan of people can't help you, I don't imagine you'll be cut out for this kind of lifestyle, but. We'll see what they can do for you. Appreciate your effort and thank you for your service.

Yeah! Just. God damn it. Gorgeous. I could see it. I could see it bubbling up in your throat as you were getting ready. That's like, do it, do it, do it, do it. I want to record it. Bring it home. That's how you say it. He turns and each one of us is doing like a salute. Fully like tongue in cheek, like, all right, pal. There's the door. Yeah, he's going to be, he's just going to feel like it's all right. Okay. He's used to kind of being like. Fawned over a bit. It's like, first of all, don't you know who I am? Yeah, I'm sure the it sucks here tactic is definitely working out for him in most races.

Yeah, I think if he didn't get instant gratitude, he goes right into what a shithole. Like just kind of, you know what I mean? Like if you were, if you were both like, Oh, thank you for saying, you know what I mean? Like, I think he would have been more like, Oh, just doing my duty, but because he didn't get that, you know. He, he's going to get back on his horse and again, just kind of give the whole place a looking over and then just like you can see a mud or something and just. Just shake his head with disdain and ride off. And a few moments later, this caravan is going to kind of pull up to the doors.

He did not tell them to go to the back as like a last ditch. Fuck you guys. I don't know. But yeah, you're going to hear a lot of noise outside as these guys start disembarking, stretching their legs, just like, Oh, like, you know, these are weary adventures and they've been on the road now for at least four or five days. I kind of chat them up and see like what happened, like just what kind of went down. Why did, you know, is everyone okay? Kind of thing. Just kind of like find what the scuttlebutt is. Oh, so, okay. Well, I don't know. So there's this there's a middle aged human who is stretched like he did, like his back is obviously killing him.

Right. And if he sees you, he sees you coming, he'll, he'll kind of wave it down. I fella. Just like big boisterous kind of like maybe a little too touchy, like in a way where he'll like clasp your hand and then just like bring you in for a hug. It's like, oh, we're hugging like it's like, yeah, very friendly, very, you know, probably I haven't seen other people in five days type of, you know. Yeah. Chimaera, welcome to Fort Frostborn. I hope the journey was okay. Name's Docksa. Thanks. We ran into a bit of trouble down the road. Some kind of landmines blew the axle straight off one of the cats.

Landmines? Sounds awful. Cobalt shit. It was a tempted ambush, but I think someone killed them all. We had a couple of kobolds come over, try and, you know, take a squat here in the fort for a little bit. Be warned, if you're if you're coming here to build up and stuff, there may be more of them. They can be trouble. Yeah, fucking nuisance. Well, there's enough of us here. They probably won't, probably won't trouble us too much. That's Aeris. And there's going to be this big female vorac, like towers over over Docksa. Just just huge. And she is easily lifting like a couple of hundred pounds of shit.

Like there's just it looks like she's like lifting whole like trunks of rebar and shit and like moving them in there and just very kindly. It's like, hello. Like very just like, you know, Ruby was walking. She's going to go out and just start trying to help people get stuff off. She's not going to even worry about introductions or anything. She's just going to be, yeah, throw it this way. And she's going to see that happen and pick the vorac picking up something. All right, then. And she's just going to keep moving on because she's not going to be able to help there.

But she's but she's helping people get stuff off the caravan. So vorac, they were introduced way back in arc four, but we never really got a chance to have any on the show. And they're they're incredibly honor bound creatures, so much so that they're a bit naive. They they would never kick anybody when they're down. They would never stab anybody in the back. And they're shocked to see someone else do it like appalled, like pearl clutching. It's like that's not fair, though. Like they're very like they they have a sense of what the world should be and they are very much be the change you wish the world would be.

And anybody who takes the low road is like, we can't do that, though. Like it's like very like, you know. So she getting into the fort like this, this these giant double doors are like hanging off your doors broken. Like kind of in a way that she's like, I didn't break it, like just just being like, it wasn't me. I'm sorry. Well, hopefully you're here to help us fix that, right? I'm I do fix things. I absolutely can help. I could start with the doors. Great. Gonna need doors. We all need doors, right? To feel safe, to feel warm, to have each other's back. She's going to hold her hand out.

I'm Eris. I'm Chimera. A pleasure. And she's going to blush a little bit, like just kind of it's like, oh, how gentlemanly, like, you know, like she hangs out with Docs a lot and he's not. He's not that like he's he's a little brash, like, you know, he spends a lot of his time sitting at the front of a goddamn wagon with the winds blowing in his face. So, you know, he's a little less refined. We've got some great dogs. We have a great. Stable or kennel master. His name is Grimble. I lean in real close. He likes candy. Who doesn't? Right. You're going to love it here.

And I'm sure you're going to make this place incredible. Could you do me a favor? Can you give me a strength saving throw? Fuck me. Well, we save the sled if that's the angle you're taking. Like what the. I think I'm here to shags this way across the prairies. It's the far. Yeah. It turns out diplomatically, it's an ace. And I might have to use it again. So it this it. So she it's it's very much like just patting you on the back, but because she's so much bigger than you. It nearly knocks you clean off your feet. That's true. You like. Yeah. Oh, I make them strong where they where you come from.

I get it. I am so sorry. Are you OK? You know what? It's it's nothing I can't handle. You can make it up to me, though, later. Ruby is tracking all of this. She's going to be picking something up. She's going to simply lean back and she's going to go like this. And then she's going to keep on doing whatever she's doing. And you and then come here, sees this, and he just turns back and he goes, maybe much later. She's a little confused by that statement, but like it's. OK, yeah, whatever you need. I. Yeah. OK. She's going to hear Doxa yelling outside. OK, I got to get back to work, but just you're OK, right?

Don't fall. I am. Thank you so much, Aris. Welcome. There are people streaming in and it looks to be about twenty five or thirty in total. There's waves of acknowledgement. There are some people who paid, obviously, to be here. That was my question. Yeah. Is this are these the people we collected funds from to start this whole thing? OK, so we do. Oh, that's who it is. OK. All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You will recognize. Yeah. And some of their family members and stuff like that. So you get, you know, it. You can pick out the ones who paid pretty quickly because they're looking around and going.

Oh, huh. No, no. Right sides as bad as the left. OK. They're kind of taking it in and and they're talking to family members like, how much did we fucking pay to be like for the privilege of coming out here? So no one is outright like, hey, can we talk for a minute? But you can tell it's like we just rode for most of a week. In the blistering cold, and the only thing that's probably keeping them from full on writing is exhaustion. So. Yeah, I don't know how you wish to handle that. Lagram is going to actually handle that because he can he can see that that there's a little bit of like ill will in like the we were the ones who were trusted to make this deal.

And there are some people who maybe look like they feel they've been screwed a little bit. Right. Which not unfair, but we're going to try to spin it. I mean, you guys felt like that when you walked up. So like, yeah, we did all get screwed. But we're not going to admit that because that would be to admit, you know, a shortcoming. So we're going to logon going to hop up on like an apple crate or whatever. And he's just going to like clap his hands once, which is a sort of a big sound. Right. And he's just like, all right, I just need to raise attention real quick if I can get everybody over here.

And he'll wait the requisite amount of time. People will filter in and like, yeah, you hear that the slow gathering of a mob, the grumbling. You know, you have for you, you can see the beginning. It's like, oh, we got a good foundation for a mob here, guys. Very tired, frustrated people just like, you know, that, you know, yeah. Hey, help me with this. Ruby's going to get Chimera and she's grabbed the other side of Logran's shield and drag it over. And she's going to try to get it to be right in front of him and below him. Oh, like a podium almost. Like a little pulpit.

Yeah. We do a little press digitation. It's got a little glow to it now. Here we go. All right. I think that's a help action, isn't it? I I'm going to add an expertise die to the persuasion check. You're going to probably have to roll. Now, my lessons of war says that's also a plus two, though. I can look any pluses you can get. For the roles you've been taking so far in this campaign. I mean, listen, if I get a plus two and a D four, I'm probably going to roll a six anyway. I think you're due. I think you're due for a home run. So. All right. Well, let's not let's not set me up too much.

So he'll wait for everybody to gather. It looks like everybody's around. Sure. It's just going to be like, all right, listen. We've been here a couple of days. Obviously, there's a lot of work to be done. We've got eyes. We saw the same things you saw. It's worse, actually. Three days ago. You should have seen it. We're doing all right. Considering now, the good news is foundations real strong. All right. Joyce, like you wouldn't believe. They go all the way up. Foundations there with all the with everything in this place is seeing it actually should be in a lot worse shape.

It's not too bad. We got the door up not that long ago. So that's where we're starting. We're at the foundation of this entire adventure. If it was handed to us, it wouldn't be worth it. Right. We're not some some dawn rider, something. We're going to do this from scratch. We're going to do it from nothing. And we're going to take pride in that work. So it's going to take a little bit. And I hope everybody here is prepared for that. Obviously, shelters, the first thing we got. And then after that, really, you guys go wild. We're leaving tomorrow. So I hope you guys have an awesome time.

And I'm going to I'm going to wish you the best. We'll be back in a few weeks. How many pluses? Yes. Just clapping. Yes. So you're going to hear that mumbling again, like they're leaving the shithole, like just you're going to hear it like that, that constant kind of give me. Well, you know, you want trade coming here, right? You want to start filling some some some pockets. You got to start getting some wagons heading out this way. That's what we're going to do, which is not a bluff. That's partly true. No. Give me that persuasion check. Put all the pluses you can in that basket.

That was three quarters of a hell of a speech in that ending, man. Right. Right at the very end, Ruby has found her way into that crowd and she starts climbing in. Time era claps. Ruby's going to start clapping, too. She's going to say what he said makes sense. I'd subscribe to his newsletter. Exactly. Here's leaning against the wall. No. Hey, yeah. Oh, seven. I don't want to fucking log on. You wrote the max on that, like you took every. Yeah. OK, so that's a twenty seven. What? You know what it is? It's very much as I'm leaving this in your hands now. This is I know I trust you all.

You've got this. We're going to be back soon. We're going to start a business. We got this. We're going to all be rich together. You know, yeah, I think the information comes at them so quickly that again, three quarters of a hell of a speech. It's like watching a Stephen King miniseries. You know what I mean? It's like, man, that's three quarters of hell. Fuck, it's aliens again. Like it's always you know what I mean? So you get you get up there and then the rest of the information comes in so fast that they're like, yeah, leaving. And by the time you're already like stuffing shirts into a bag and you're ready to go.

So like, I think it's like, oh, God, we're just so tired and there's nowhere to sleep tonight. Really. At least there's walls, there's kind of doors. And, you know, like, honestly, you know, you probably you probably get aris already. Just like trying to hang it back on a hinge and like, you know, you have people looking around. It's like, well, might as well fix this door while I'm here. It'll get there. It's just that's a bitter pill to swallow to be on the road, to leave the safety of a city like Winterhaven for five days. You almost get ambushed, you know, and then get here.

And it's like, fuck, that was my life savings. That was everything I had. I remember we did that a couple of days ago. Right. Right. So it's not even sympathy. It's just memory. You know, I remember what that felt like. I remember fucking Tuesday. Grimble would walk up to each and every person and shake their hand. And then after he shook their hand, he'd take his sharpened rock and like, just like try to which the first three people to God. Just able master can cut me like, you know, maybe like he's testing each one of them and, you know, like aerosol stop and like, like, just like play with them like like a cocker spaniel.

And he'll just get a kick out of kind of like run around in the circle then to the next person like shake hands. You know. Good job, Grimble. Don't let him fool you. He's actually pretty good with the dogs. Please, please don't cast him out. I get it. I understand. He gets two strips of bacon a morning. Guys, I think it's a fine time for us to stop for the night. I guess we're venturing out on the grand quest next time. Oh, my goodness. Oh, a lot to do. Yeah. Aubrey, here we come. Oh, man. So behind the scenes, I told the group I was like, Bagram never wants to go to Aubrey.

Here we go. So first up. Fun. I'm going to get you a list of four stone sunders and their likelihood of being able to like who's more credible in that because there's always like, all right, this one and then, you know, so. I will get you a list of crag borns in Aubrey. That's where they are. I will do a Nythera style family tree that is a fifth the size. I appreciate it because I'll need it for like the next set. You. You. You.