How Chimera Got His Groove Back

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Hey, everybody. This is Jasper. Welcome back to Dungeons and Randomness. We are knee-deep into Frostborn now, but if you're fashionably late, no problem. We released a recap not long ago that compresses 40 hours of bad choices into one. Great, if you're catching up, refreshing your memory, or just want to hear what panic sounds like at double speed. Even better, it's great and convincing a friend to finally listen to Dungeons and Randomness. So please share it around if you're able. Word of mouth is our favorite kind of magic. The link, it's great and convincing a friend to finally listen to Dungeons and Randomness.

So please share it around if you're able. Word of mouth is our favorite kind of magic. The link. The link, the is in the episode description. And listen, every good tale needs strong allies. E.N. Publishing keeps hours alive with level up advanced fifth edition, a system that deepens your characters and makes every role tell a story. Use code D-A-N-D-R for a discount. On the other hand, Enclave, a diceless T-TRP we also love, ditched rolling entirely and somehow made it even more intense. 10 pages of rules, 15 minutes to build a character, and endless room for chaos.

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Turns out the door guard they were sent to, the same ones we were planning on talking to, are acting strange, mind-controlled strange. In other news, Chimera waved off his tiff with his patron Colgoth, saying, he's totally fine, which is how you know he absolutely wasn't. Then our new buddies, Jesse and Austin Quickbolt, showed up early to validate some of that bad news. The Dorgar King is not acting like himself. You could almost hear Lager frowning. So this time on Frostborn, a mountain full of busy Dorgar, chimera breathing in the good stuff, and whatever you do, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Take it away, Jason. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and injurice ourselves. I'm the dungeon master going around the table, starting with Ian. Oh, I'm Ian. He and many. I'm playing Camero, the two-ling war. Very nice, very nice. and Jasper. Hey, him. I play Ruby Pedigrew, the Halfork Gearslinger Adept. Could have been sexier and Susan. Hey, I'm Susan. She hurt. I'll be playing ninth year of Rylith, the Elven Rogue. Very nice, very nice. And last and certainly not least sexy, Jameson. Hi. everybody still does it for me still does it for me yeah keep going don't stop slower I'm James then I almost I play large that was a very large thing to do I play log and Craigborn the Dwarven Marshall James and voices always get me of her driving on your like for half the trip and it just cracks me up.

You're easy. Just be sad, you know. There's no like it matters. I want an AI companion that is Eeyore. Like I want it to be my my artwork. Oh my God. Right. Like I'm talking to AI, honestly. That would be pretty good. I just want like, like, uh, Seor or a companion that or something. I can put it on the calendar, but it's not like it matters. Like, you know, I don't know, like just... They're not going to show. Why don't want to have my inner voice on the way? I think it'll make me want to counter it. Right, like, now it's like, no, I gotta, man, I gotta be better than that.

Like, I'm gonna cheer, I don't know. I'm really thinking about it. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We're back to an eight-person party. Thank God. So we've got you four. We've got two Minotaur's, two cowboys, and you're all heading to the Black Rock Mountains. You're basically there, but you're about to... You're about to get to an entrance. But I wanted to ask you to the Black Rock Mountains. You're... you guys. A couple of things before we get there. One, how are you looking to do this? No, say that out loud. Say it out loud. Yes, I love it. I was muted. I didn't want to interrupt.

We have two cowboys and we have two cowboys. And we have two cowboys. It's pretty great. It's very good. Name of the episode. Yeah, there we go. That's very innocent. Go ahead and slot it in. No, because, yeah, lock it in now before it gets worse. Actually, can we make the title go ahead and slot it in? Can we do that? What we can't do is just keep enabling me to make my bad dad jokes into episode titles. Because I just keep doing it. Watch that be the thing that cracks the algorithm. Like that's like, oh, wow, dad jokes. I didn't know. We need a sufficiently dad jokes and then that's all.

So my question to you is how do you is how do you want to go about doing this? You're going in with the assumption that their leader, Hagrel, is under some sort of duress or mind control or just not themselves. You've never met this person before. And you have a lot to talk about with their attack on Stone Sunder, kind of stepping on yours. It's basically who gets to market first with their idea, right? And you don't want to be the Zoon. You want to be the iPod. So I mean, we should all strive to be the Zoon. It was awesome. But, you know, how are you going to go about this?

Like, what's, what? In a perfect world, how does this go for you? I mean, in a perfect world, there's no mind control involved. We walk up and we have a nice dinner and we... Yes, yes, it's fair. And it's not cold out. They give us money. Yeah. A foot roll. No role necessary. Yeah. We're best friends. Yeah. Realistically, based on the information we had, I don't think that Logrin is going in with specific expectations. I think this is a very wait and see. Like, who knows? These two guys might be playing us, right? They might be full of shit. The fact that two groups have now come and said that they were acting strange is probably have an argument against that.

Yeah, if the quick holds did it first, I can understand why you might think they're unreliable narrators. Yeah. But also, Logren's a planner, and he's not. It isn't lost on him that they could absolutely be hiring these two Minotor to help play a con right now or something. Like, could be literally anything. He wants to see for himself, I guess is the point. And then we'll go there. At some point, along this, along the way, Ruby would have just been, having been with Logger for such a long time, if this plan coming together and sort of maybe for a while, I kind of always imagined Ruby was kind of a sounding board. for Lager and putting these pieces together, even if maybe she wasn't the architect of it.

So she kind of checks in with them. I think she would have said something along the lines of, like, this is the last chance. Before we even get there, if this could all be a set up, but if the door gar are off, we don't have to poke at it. It might not be the right thing to do. It feels cursed. And she kind of give him a little bit of a, like, are you sure about this kind of a thing? But she would point out, on the other hand, Think of what you've accomplished already. Think about this. You got the Brugall orcs on one side. You've got maybe the Durga on the other if this all plays out right.

And then you've got the Minotaurs right there. I mean, this isn't just like changing the story. This is changing history. You've always said that's what you wanted to do. So I don't know. I'm nervous about it. But I wanted to be that voice of reason. No, we don't have anything yet. until it's done. We certainly don't have these guys. And he'll kind of like jot a thumb over at the two minotaur, whatever they're doing right now, picking their noses. I'm just excited and nervous, though. That's where she's coming from. Like, she's both. She thinks it's a bad idea and maybe the best idea ever.

Well, if it's as bad as they're saying it is, then we help them and maybe they help us back. We'll see. Hope so. I've got a clarifying question too. Please. But the information that we've gotten, this is just I can't remember it. Sure. Well, but is it that all the Durgaar are sort of like acting weird in under this thing? Or is it sort of like Theoden King, you know, fucked up mind. And he sort of like. Yeah. And then that's getting disseminated across the entire. of this culture. From what? So from the stories that you're hearing from the two parties, they're only mentioning Hagrel being, you know, off.

So unless something changes, it seems like it's, it's trickle down, right? It's, you know, so he's still in charge, still issuing orders. But the plan has changed. The script has changed, right? Gotcha, thank you. So as you get close to the mountain, there is the main entrance. And so, okay, Austin's going to pull you aside and kind of duck down on this hilltop. So there's this little little plateau. And then if you march down a couple more miles, you can see this massive set of double doors. They look like they're made of titanium, like the big, thick blast doors.

And he's going to kind of motion for you guys, just like, come over here. And I assume you do. Yeah. Yeah. We all silently move over there. No. You know what? We're already gone. We're headed back to Estherhole. We didn't tell it. I imagine we crouched down to. Whatever he's doing, we'll sort of mimic and use him as the guide. So Austin's going to point down into that valley. All right. So there's our main entrance. Now, we can just walk in, get clearance, remember, buddy, and probably be all right. But we got a couple of unknowns, like, what's wrong with Hagrel and isn't contagious?

Or we could sneak in a side entrance that they don't know about and take our chances that way. but if they catch us without clearance, you're going to be plenty pissed off. I want you to look at me and ask again if you think we should sneak anywhere. Yeah. Okay. He's just... And then he points into the two minutes or... We're not sneaking anywhere. Hmm. That's a fair point. All right. Let me ask you a question. What do you mean contagious? I don't know what the hell it is. Could be a disease, could be mind flares, could be... Mind fliers, could be... Shit, I don't know.

I don't want it. I know that. Well, you already talked to him. I didn't touch him. How do you know? You don't know. already have it. Yeah, wouldn't you in there? Briefly, yeah. He's got... It's like, all right, all right. Stop. When you see him, you'll get it. It's not a... It's not subtle. Hell, the... And he's going to kind of like stifle. He's like, how the minotaur noticed it. That's a good point. All right, well, everybody just cover your nose and mouth, I guess. And like pull a scarf up over. Masked. Yeah, pretty mask up. We're going to shop and in the grocery store.

We need to wipe down the water millins. I'm just regaining hit points. Don't mind me. Ooh, I need to do that. Did we have a long rest? Yeah, we should have a long rest. Is this after like a sleep or are we? Yeah, there's yes. So there'd be a long rest after. Okay. This is after the flats. They're still with us though, right? We still, we kept the... I mean, they're in the back. They're hanging out until... So it tells me different or fails to check. Points all the way back and they're not sticking anywhere. They're not sticking anywhere. They're really far back. I don't really loud of boots.

And we're not. sneak in anywhere. This is the least sneaky group. They're not used to. They're used to hanging out with different folks, I think. I think we could send my theory in, but only for one of them all dead. Oh, I gained all my charges for that thing. But I've spent two. So these things don't try to kill us. Appreciate that. You're welcome. Every morning. That's a concentration or anything, is it? No, it's not concentration. I just got to spend the charges. Okay. And you got a cat, you already cast a control. Yeah. Raised dead. Animate dead. Animate dead.

Ruby has, by the way, one of them is carrying some of her pack. It's just stuff that she has. She just co-opted them. Yeah. I think or would too, honestly. I'm near Max to kill. Pretty good idea. Yeah. Longer, you want your shield. The white has the shield. No, he's not. Give that back. Sorry, Jason, go ahead. No, no, no. So, descending into that valley, you're going to spot four guards. hanging out front. And they have this little side, almost like a, not a shack, but it's built into the rock. And it's something you're going to notice about Dwergar architecture is it's very function over form.

They're almost the inverse of dwarves in a lot of ways. Very heavy magic users. they don't live to create. They create to live, right? They're like beaten down content creators. It's just, it's like, yeah, it's like it's a box, keeps us dry and warm. So it'll almost be like this obsidian looking boxy structure. Like a couple of them are going to start shuffling out as they see you coming. And these guys are kind of, they almost look, they almost look like these whites. In a way, in that their skin's very cool toned, either a light blue or like a light, light, purple, that type of thing.

Like they drowned or something, like dark lips. But other than that, look like dwarves. Yeah, so longer like mutter something under his breath and dwarf and belt, and felt like, good God. I'm just kind of like... I'm a member of the architecture. Not kind of just all of it, like the state of these guys. Holy hell. Yeah, just like, ugh. And then immediately, like, put on the face and, like, wave his hand. And be like, uh, we're here in peace. We're just looking to, we want to talk to, uh, to Hagrel. So, again, these guys aren't very flowery. Something you have to understand.

And I, you did do like a history check on Duergaard stuff. And you would know this much. Like, this is a race, a species that has been beaten down. So it kind of goes some way to explaining their views on creating and stuff like that. Very few of their items are, like their armor isn't very decorated. There's it totally, it's quality. It does its job. But they're not, you know, fitting gold inlays into, you know, They're not doing house sigils and all that crap. So when you roll up in your dwarven society, they would look like, you know, generic soldier number three.

They'd be red shirts. You know, you don't. You don't give a shit. Like you don't. Where's your pride, man? You know, that, that thing. And they don't have pride in there. They don't have anything to look back on in their history and go, look at that. We did that. They've been imprisoned for over a century and then working off a debt for almost another century. So, yeah. Yeah. They're at the grocery store and crox and pajama pants. Got it. A little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're getting stoned on a Tuesday at noon. Like, yeah. Every opportunity is an opportunity. It's been a long week, yeah.

So, walking forward, he's got this spear out going to plant it. Is he expecting you? Should be. But no. I don't understand. That's okay. We can talk directly to him if that's easier for you. And he's going to look at the party. And I suppose all of you want to come in. Yes. Well, he wasn't expecting all of us, but he was expecting some of us. We've just all decided to come at the same time. We have delegates from Ebony Harbor and Fort Frostborn here to talk and negotiate trade. The Ebony Harbor boys were here earlier. I don't recognize this fort you speak of.

It must be tiny. It's pretty new. You wouldn't have heard of it. He's... This guy's gonna look at your armor and just like, it's, give me an insight check, please. I'm trained in that. Yeah, 12. So 12. Yeah. So you're gonna notice, kind of the dwarf. of an eye roll just looking at your stuff and just be like, yeah, like, it's, it's a ridiculous material to make armor out of and it's, it's very, they would call you common dwarfs. Like it's like it's the basic bitch of there. There is nothing common about this armor. You're the pumpkin spice of a droves. Because it's very, okay, very, very, very, very, very.

Because it's very, Their view of dwarves is... Dwarves are all about coulda, not shoulda. Right? It's like, can we do this? Let's see. And it's like, can we make armor completely out of stone? It's like, yep, you can. That is grossly not practical. Like, how do you... Have you crossed a bridge yet? Like, how the fuck does that work? Like, they're just very... Like, you kill a horse. Like, they're just very practical people. So they're looking at you like... Don't want to be like me by the end of it. It's fine. This is what trendsetters look like. They'll be asking for some.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it translated in character. Logrin is completely unapologetic about the way he looks. Like he doesn't want to be smug. He doesn't want to swagger in here like a stone sunder. But he is 100% unobligate. apologetically common dwarf Kragborn. Right. Representative of himself and his people. Right. And what about those? And it kind of raises his eyebrows at the two zombies in the back of the party that appeared to just be idle animationing behind. Just kind of like, you know, they cannot come in. You know, that's fine. I'm not actually going to argue that they're under control, but I'm not going to try to convince you.

They are kind of creepy. She's going to look at Nitha. I get it, but can we stop? I feel like it's going to last another two days. And if I stop, then there are a problem. And you at least put a leash on them or something, like where... Tether. What if I just send them over there? Go to the other side of the valley and stand and wait for my command. They're literally going to just start marching off. Ruby's grabbing stuff constantly. Like, nope, I've got to take that. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. They're very literal. Just like walking, like, you're taking the backpack off of them.

They're just content. They're not fighting it. They're just like, yeah. They're just going to start trudging out into the wind and ice and snow and just like, you'll lose sight of them eventually because like the powdery snowdrifts and stuff are just, they're just out there. I didn't say go far, just other side stay. They're gone. That's fine. I want them. So in the group home front, I want them. So in the group home front, I want them, the two zombies just walk by at some point in the background. Like months from now, don't even be like just a quick description and don't pay second attention to it.

And they see it in the distance or something. Just happening in the distance while they're talking or something. The wandering whites, they're their whole legend. They get to the shore. It's got to be based on. It's got to be based on their intelligence, right? Which is almost nothing. But like, hey. hey, attack that, come here, stand it. You know, simple commands, absolutely. But anything more than a sentence. And they're just, they'll just do it to the best of their ability. You know, it's just, yeah, like, guess. What's a valid? What's the other side of the vow?

I don't know. Like, let's just. I love that. That's great. Ruby, grab my stuff too. She's out of breath. She's like, God, they're fast. They're actually way faster and I thought they would be. Well, we are used to all all green speed. That's true. Anything over five is. Anyway. Tell them if they get buried in the snow to get themselves out. We'll lose track of them. Are you worried they're going to die, Camero? I'm worried we can't find them again. I got my stuff. I don't think they're going to stop. I hope them to, but I don't think they will. Can we focus? Can you guys play?

Oh, hey. Goodbye, Shuffles. Goodbye, Moni. You did just kind of let two wild dogs back out into the, into the, it's like, well, they'll stop when they hit something. I don't know. Like a room. I told them to stop. I don't know. Yeah. Local hag torn apart by two whites. Right. Innocent woman swears revenge against a victory. I'm using all of her magical powers in the dust of hell, yes. These doors are going to crack open. And yeah, they're going to. So you could see that these things are like three inches thick. Like they are massive. And there's a team of, there's a team of Durgaar on the other side just like pushing this giant wheel around Conan style.

And it is, it is. It is pushing up and kind of pushing snow to the side. And there's like, you can go in. Thank you. Make sure not to interrupt anyone's work. Logger will make a point to like, it's, well, he doesn't make it a point. It just kind of happens with that I'm thinking about it. But he is looking and like passively judging all of the stonework that he sees here. Like he's like, I like, I like how that. works it's ugly as shit but like in it's all in his face he doesn't say a thing and he's not doing you consciously but he is evaluating everything I think the best way I could put it right there's all kinds of little accent pieces even in apartments that you wouldn't notice until they're gone like curved ledges or baseboard trim or or something like that now imagine it's just flat, stark white.

Like, this is the wall. This is where the wall ends. This is the door. This is, you know. Yeah. So when you're walking in, it's like, okay, there's another set of smaller doors, kind of an airlock thing. And you walk in and it's just these are the stairs. They are this like perfect angles. Like, shizzled into the rock and smooth like perfect angles like perfect angles. and it just, it looks like dwarves designed a prison. Because it's just, it's like there are lights, there are torches every 10 feet. And they, like, it's, it's creepily symmetrical. Like it was designed by AI.

And it's just weird. It's, it's almost vertigo inducing in that it's like, this doesn't look like a person did it. It's too. Yeah, too perfect is kind of surreal in a way. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, there's also something to be admired in the precision of it. So he kind of focuses on that too. But logging will lead the way unless any, either of the guides tries to get out in front of him. He couldn't stop them if you wanted to. But. So for the most part, they're going to just let you go, assuming, you know, like the Minotaur would have been a concern. if they hadn't already previously visited.

So they're pretty much, they don't know what was talked about up there. So it's like, I don't know, they're back to talk about details or whatever. I'm in charge of this door. That's all I know. So way above my pay grid. So you walk in and this massive area, it opens way up, and it looks like this is transportation for storage. So there are carts back and forth. for rock and coal. And there's smaller storage areas for gems and ore and just all kinds of stuff. But it is meticulously like spreadsheet organized. Everything is labeled. Everything is. So they get their shit together when it comes to, you know, here's exactly what we have.

You know, I've labeled it. I've updated the spreadsheet and everyone knows. It's not pretty at all. You couldn't tell which one of them worked on this. So it's, you know, pretty plain. But it would take you probably 20 minutes to walk through this giant hallway and get to the end of it. It's the entire time. You're able to look and see it's like, damn, okay, that's... They got copper, all right? You know, and the next section here is just another... like you're going to feel heat before you get to the next. There's kind of a square portal like door. And as you get close to it, it's going to open on its own.

But it's very, you could tell that there's gears operating it. So it's, and it's, there's like some sort of magical sensor that it's like, oh, living people are coming. So if you did take the undead in here, there's a chance it would have closed on them. Not, you know what I mean? Just as a, you know, it's like, oh, it's like, oh, No living thing. It would have been funny. It would have been hilarious. Very funny. A little embarrassing, but pretty funny. So there are just blast furnaces in this massive sphere, right? It is just heat, heat, heat. It is, the temperature shoots up at least 50, 60, 70 degrees.

It's hot as while you're dressed in all the stuff that you'd be. be dressed in. Especially stone armor. Stone picks up. You're... If you stated this room, you'd basically be living in a kiln. Like, it would be... You'd be pottery. Like, it would be bad. I've never had to roll for heat exhaustion, but... Yeah. It's pretty nice. Just got a hydrate. That's all. As he takes a drink of brown liquor. Oh. Minnes are not having a good time, by the way. They're, they're, like, they're already pretty furry, so they just, like, they just do not like the heat. Oh, Kamira is loving it.

Just soaking it on. One more button, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. One more down. Mm-hmm. Balmy. It feels good. Oh, yeah, Ruby's undoing buckles and, like, just to. like get something like in there like oh my god she probably hasn't felt heat like this probably i don't even know when like oh yeah yeah yeah i mean indoors plus yeah yeah are we in hell oh my god that's you organized for hell isn't bad actually i thought this was your hell You'd be surprised. I'm just saying. It's pretty organized. So there are there are furnaces stacked up next to each other, right? And there are workers just pulling square plates out of molds, just plate after plate after plate that they use.

They use these same molds for armor for building materials for it. So it is it is just, it is just. It is a factory. And then they have these massive blast furnaces working on something else. But... Actually, you know what? This is perfect. Logrin. Give me... What, man, how would I... How would I... Give me... I guess give me a perception check. I think this would work. But it's smell-based. Okay. Mm-hmm. I don't know if you have anything for smells, but... No, I don't. That would be funny. He is perception. That would be cool. Definitely be perception. Yeah. 11. Okay, 11.

So, you've been around production of this kind in your life before. You know what smelting iron smells like. You know what crafting steels like. smells like. You're going to catch a whiff of something. It's definitely an or or like, uh, uh, like refining or and you've never smelled it before. But it's got a richness to it. If you can imagine like this, this like balmy, metallic earthiness that it's almost like someone, a Somalier, like, you know, kind of like sniffing wine. It's like, mm, okay, I'm getting undertones of, And you know, there's almost a thing in your head where you can smell and just go, oh, okay, that's a rare valuable or.

I just know because I've never smelled it before. And you've been around it your entire life. So like you'd know. Yeah, he probably picks up on it. And he's not going to say anything, but he'll like crane his neck. He'll like look up and around and see if he can spot. Just have curiosity because it's interesting. With an 11, I can give him. give you a direction, but you're probably not going to spot it from here. You can, you kind of follow. It's like, it's like, there's a food cart. Like, you kind of like, you kind of pick up on it a bit, but it's not, it's like churros.

It's over tacos. Oh, their food situation is dire here. It is, it's like Robocop. They just eat a protein-based gruel that is, it is, yeah, they are, they are, they are, they are, they are, they are, they are, It's like, all right, I have 15 minutes for lunch. This is what I will eat. I have all the nutrients I need. Let's get back to work. It's got a little like square oat things in it. Right. Oh, they just eat like MREs. Like that's all they. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Seasoning for. Yeah. Yeah. Get real floury. Uh. So Austin's going to sidle up to you. So straight ahead is where we can find Agrile.

But if you wanted to walk around a little bit, you might want to go to the right. So without breaking stride, he'll just kind of turn and look at Austin. Why was just the right? You're looking for ore, right? That's part of it, yeah. I could show you where the ore is. High end, shit. All right, let's have a look at that first, I guess. Is anybody like... looking at us inside this building, inside this mountain rather, now that we're in here. I know the guards like had questions, but it's two humans, two minotaur, the wrong kind of dwarf and deep thing working an elf, right?

So. I, so normally, normally with outlogger in here, I think this would get a glance. Like it would be like, huh, but. this is very almost like Japanese culture. This is salary man culture where it's like, hey, that's not my business. My business is to do this. And I'm here. So they have people watching over productivity. Not like slave drivers. They're not there with whips. But they're there to keep count. And it's like, hey, Jeff, what's wrong? You're not keeping up. Is everything okay? They're compassionate. But it's like, you're compassionate. But it's like, you need to get. it faster now.

We need to make this much every hour or, you know, it's like an Amazon warehouse. So they're very much set on productivity. Now, the fact that you're here makes people uneasy. You're walking through the mountain and I know for a fact, some of them are thinking, are you going to try and take our fucking mountain again? Like, we moved cross country. And are you, like, there's a, it's so like, the foreman has to go over. It's like, Jeff, come on, man. Let him, you know, like, that's upper management. Like, we're going to just trust upper management and let them sort it out.

And, you know, like that type of thing. Meanwhile, Logger is like, maybe I'll just take this mountain. Is it not bad? I did it. New plan, guys. Yeah, that's fine. So we'll sort of, logger will stop and he'll, like, turn. Like, he can't walk. he'll stop and turn as much as he can in his armor and he'll be like listen, we're going to go check out the adamantine first and then we're going to go talk to Haggraw. Let's see what they got. So this is going to take you to the right. Go ahead, sorry. I was just going to ask how much adamantine do we need? Like I know we wanted to bring back a lot so that we could make a little money too but there was a pound inch that you needed yeah we there was a number in the sheet I don't know if I have a 10,000 gold pieces worth or 25 pounds 25 pounds okay so it could be something that we could like walk out with that's got to be 25 pounds that's a refined or like it can't just have bunches of rock and shit in there so yeah yeah yeah yeah so yeah yeah so yeah so Okay.

It's a lot. It's a lot. Wow. You'll say, though, it's going to be cool. It's going to be so cool. That's just for the case, honestly. It's just like half the package, it's real nice. Yeah, just never further box away as well. Yeah. It's a nice box. So, that smell. it's going to get real strong as you're around the corner and you're, you know, you're good. So this place, you've been the Dwarven City for wow. Iron Forge. Yeah. Yeah. Same kind of design for their film. Well, get cool, Ian. So same kind of design for, or were you a hoardy. Oh. So same kind of design for their, they're, they're central. forge, basically.

So the center of it is a big hole and you can feel heat coming up where there's some sort of lava down there. And they're channeling that up into the furnaces and then, you know, so the entire place is one big circle. And as you go to the right, there are special furnaces. And you're going to feel that the temp go up another 10, 20 degrees. Like as you get closer, like it is like, it is like, These minots are uncomfortable. They're stepping back for a bit. And like Jesse and Austin are both like sweating at this point, just kind of dabbing it. And as you get next to, not next to, but like near one of these machines, you're going to, you're going to watch a liquid pour out.

And picture boiling hot, like metallic miniature paint. Where there's this metallic sheen, but there's this. blue current of magic that runs through it. And they're pouring it into these long ingots. And as it spills into this thing, you're going to see this haze of heat and arcane energy kind of shimmering off of it. And you can see ones that have cooled next to it. That arcane energy still shimmers through it, even though it's a solid ink and the thing looks like it probably weighs hundreds of pounds. It's like a six-foot ingot, and it is massive. That one's too big, where do they make the little ones?

Where are they made the little ones? Uh, is... Is there a sense? Or is... is what you're describing something that would feel like, that right? Like something's wrong here? Or is it more like that's really cool? Like they're doing something amazing. I think it's more like if I were to walk into like a Michelin Star Chef's kitchen and I've watched to make food. It's like I don't know if that's right. Like I don't know. Like I assume. Okay. Like it's like you're an expert. Like I don't know what that thing is, but you just I just made a good halibut. Like I don't know.

I don't know. They deflated a turkey, I guess. Yeah. You de-heard it? It's now, yeah, it's like astronaut food, but a turkey. So, like, I think it's more that where you're looking at it. It's like they look like they know what they're doing. They're very organized. They're very organized. I assume that's, you know, there's nothing about it except for the fact that it's one of the one of the rarests on the planet being refined. That would be weird. That's the thing that's like, God, damn, like, you know. Would it be possible to make an engineering check just to be like that's, oh, yeah, that's how you were fine Adamantium, you know.

Sure. That's kind of what I said. I said am to adamantium, adamantium, whatever. Oh. I did it. I finally said. That's next door. That's the dwarf weapon X program. That's what we're working on. Dwarf Wolverine. I was heading to the same place. I was going to say, is this right or wrong? And with any, would Ruby with engineering at all, would she be able to sort of, like, this is pretty, this is tight, you know, like, or this is weird, like something's Yeah. Give me an arcane check. Oh. Ooh. Ooh. Give me an archa check. Anybody who's trained in it and loggerne give me a an engineering check, please.

Oh, my God. Okay. Ah. Well, five, engineering. I think you'd look at this and it's like, I mean, it's working. Like, I don't know how I would have been a problem. Yeah. Actually, yeah, that would make more sense for you, would that. Let's do you. Just thinking. Yeah. It would. And I'm just assessing exits and how many people are present and the best way to take care of any problems that may arise. Give me a perception check, please. How's the peritur? Doing an ocular pet town. 24 engineering for Ruby. 13 for night there. We got her into another town. That's the problem.

It's a good. I mean, it's average. I'm allowed to be average. It is. It is. We don't expect you to be average. You've set a bar. That's true. The world just doesn't actively involve stabbing something. It's just not especially. Why do I even try? Maybe if you slit a dwarf's throat while looking around, the blood would help lubricate the role. I don't know. The arterial spray just gives you more. Right. Let's just say the hypothetical. We're in that world. This is the hypothetical. No. No. No. That's a six. Never one. Okay. But you can't take it. That's the thing. Yeah. Yeah.

That's true. So I think obviously, okay, Ruby doesn't have any experience with forges or blacksmithing or, I mean, maybe mild. Yeah. Mine. Yeah. I need this cog to fit in a certain. So like, you know, but this is industrial. This is big, you know, crazy stuff. So. I think you'd look at it and you'd understand how these pieces fit together and how it's, you know, and you would look at a raw material and be able to go, oh my God, do you know what you can make with that? Do you know? And what this mineral does is essentially fuse arcane energy with the, you know, the strength and reliability of metals.

So in, if you could find someone to wield it, imagine, imagine like a paladin or a cleric decked out in mythrull chain nail or, or, sorry, Adamantite chain mail. And they'd be nigh indestructible. And it would greatly increase their magical output, too. Like, crazy shit you could do. With just one of those six-foot, like, ingots? You're talking hundreds of thousands of gold for it to come pre-refined and, oh, my God. You could retire. But yeah, that's what you'd get. There's another thing. And Chimer is going to pick this up with a 15 for Arcana. These guys, magically speaking are breathing in asbestos every day.

So the arcane energy that has leached into the ground thanks to Aruthemar, that's some toxic shit if you're just boiling it alive and refining it. So long-term exposure to this stuff, it's not a shortness of breath they're going to die thing. But you can get something called arcane poisoning. And it can affect your temperament, your mood. It can affect the way you channel magic. If you couldn't channel magic before, you might randomly be able to do it now. And long, long-term exposure can, you know, outright mutate you into something else. That would be some sort of, you know, arcane spawn almost.

Like, it's nasty. And this is because of the adamantine? Or this is because of the Arruthamar. This is the adamantine. I mean, yes, it is. So that is what calls, you know, adamantine to be such a thing, right? There might have been a little bits of it. But, you know, it's like, it's like creating diamonds. Usually that would take so many centuries and millennia. And this is just like, it's been a century. Here you go. Here's a whole mountain full of weird shit. Mm-hmm. And you know this would take years, right? This isn't, you know, this isn't something that it's like, everybody get out like now, but you're right.

You'd probably be thinking it's like, hey, we shouldn't hang out too long. Like that type of thing, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a magic. Okay. Okay. Can I, is there any like, I don't know. I don't know if I don't know if. chimera would know this, but is there any like telltale sign I could see or detect in any of these dwarves? I guess what I'm interested in is if I can see something in them, is it going to show up in Hagrel? Like is that going to be an explanation? Oh, like a dog sniffing out cancer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it part of this poisoning, like what's affecting him in some way?

Right. Uh, that's interesting. Do you know what? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I wouldn't say that that's something you'd be able to detect with your power set normally. However, you're going to hear a voice in your ear. And it's faint because he's not materializing because you're in a situation where that might get you beaten to death. So he's just kind of, he's not a, he's like, hey, I don't want you to get beaten to death, but, uh, you know, if you get a little closer to one of those machines, you can get a really good high from one of those. It would give you a better taste of what you're looking for, and I can help you see it in others.

Hmm. It would feel so good. Kind of real husky, raspy at the end. Yeah. How... How high is it gonna make me? Am I still gonna be able to function? I wanna have fun, but I wanna be able to speak. I'm sure it wouldn't know. affect you that much. It'll probably just amp up my gifts to you and you'll feel real loose. I won't let you make a fool of yourself, baby. You never do. Hey everybody, Jasper here. Sorry for interrupting. If you're enjoying what we do here at Dungeons and Randomness, consider joining our community. First, our Discord is, where the real parties at.

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So now I know, right? I hate me. That's how he roped back in. It's like, baby, I just get so mad sometimes. Don't know. Yeah. Yeah, Kamir is going to saddle up near one of these things and maybe do the thing where it's like shuffle, shuffle, and then like touch, like, touches Pinky to one of, you know, something like that, like real. Real discreet. So, okay. So these machines, picture it like this. There is a large tub, like a large metal shoot that's being loaded up with. adamantite ore. At the end of it, you get adamantine. In the middle, they're they're, they're, they're, they're, heating it to an extreme, like, you know, like you die instantly if you came in, but it's also filtering out all the unpure magics, right?

So there's a vent on the side for every few seconds it kind of fills up and then vents out. So there's almost this gaseous hot blast of magic. Your free basing magic is what you'd be doing. Yeah. Yep. Yep. 100%. Yeah. I'm going to stand in that cloud a little bit and just, uh... And you're noticing that all the work is like, okay, the workers are going to look towards you. Like, at first, it's like, yeah, they're taking a tour. Whatever. They're not interfering. Like, you'd have to be insane to try. First of all, you're not running with one of these ingots. It takes several of us to lift it.

And then like, once you get it, Where are you going? That type of thing. So they're probably thinking it's like, yeah, they've probably never seen Adamantine before. And they got a little bit of pride in them about that. But instead of going for that, you're moving towards the back of the machinery and they're just kind of like, like, why are you getting close to that vent? You probably shouldn't. Can I get a constitution saving throw, please? Oh, yeah, you can. So the heat probably isn't a problem. Oh, shit. Okay, that's a seven. It was, that was almost an 18, but the street continues.

Well, so okay. While the party's talking about the adamantine, I imagine, right? So, he's talking about the adamantine, I imagine, right? So, he has no use for this. stuff but knows you're after it. So it's like, all right, there you go. And he's looking to get the other half of his money. So he can't, he can't give you the introduction and the leg up like he was going to give you. So he's kind of hoping it's like, what, the other stuff? Come on. Like that type of thing. And it's been rhythmic in the background. Like every like 10, 15 seconds to stuff. This this huge huff.

And then it's, it's very. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's filtered away. But Kimir standing in between the port and the filter. So it's just blam. It just hotboxes them for a moment with magic. And you're going to, like, it is going to taint your eyes. Like the whites of your eyes are going to be the sparkling purple. Like it, you are very, like, if people know what to look for, you're so fucking visibly high. So. Oh. Yeah. And you've never felt this good before in your life. When I say good, I mean, like, you can taste the air. Like you feel like you have all the time in the world to process information.

But, you know, everything's moving at the same speed. You just feel like you're thinking so much faster. You're feeling everything out. You can see magical oras in others. And you're kind of look around and, you're kind of look around. Like, some of these, you know, some of these Duregar have more of this polluted magic in them than others. But nothing lethal. Nothing. It's just trace amounts. Like, they must have a great constitution. So you're like, oh, I'm not. But I know what to look for. You kind of know what it looks like in the body. Okay. Gotcha. You feel like, you feel like you could. burn this place to the ground with your power.

It's like you feel like you can grip some of this ore and smelt it yourself. Just like the raw power you have. And what it's going to do is, oh, angel dust in this. So mechanically, you're going to roll all of your saving checks with an advantage. Any damage you do is going to be tripled. and your attacks automatically get an expertise die before, before calculating anything. The drawback is you have to get some of this out of you periodically, or it will devour your body hole. So you're going to just feel like, you're just going to feel like it's like, I just got to vent out just like, just like, just like you're just going to feel like that.

You're just going to feel like that you're just sitting there like talk. It's like, uh-huh, uh-huh. You just feel like you just got to cast a spell of some sort. And it has to be, you know. Also, last thing, you do not use spell slots during this period. Oh my God. How do I bottle this? Let's go fuck some shit up. I don't know what. You're playing. It's a heist now. make a new mountain. If you wanted to bottle this, you could. Like, there is a way. What? How? Well. I don't see any drawbacks. Let's do it. So, okay. So, okay. If you wanted to, your patron would allow you to kind of magically bottle this, like literally bottle this.

So the way it would work was you'd have to be like standing over it, uncork it, and it just shotguns into you. So let's say you all climb to do a tent and just like, like it would do the same thing. It'd be just as potent. As long as chimery. still with, you know, his patron. Otherwise. Mm-hmm. Gotcha. That bottle would probably just melt down. Yeah, I'm, I'll definitely do that. I get in that cloud and I'm like, and just it's like like a Zolli move, you know, where the camera moves in. It zooms out at the same time and just like, We get a couple of Requiem for a dream, quick cuts of like the pupil dilating and like cells expanding.

It goes real Dario or Gento for a little bit. Yeah, there's colors everywhere, kaleidoscopes. And he's like, oh my, that is good stuff. Colgoth, by the way, is just in the background. and so like it's just like a long moan. Like you feel his grip loosen on you. It's like, good boy, good boy. Like he's just, he's fine for a while. Like this will last you. Like he may even forget about the 48 hour thing. He's not. But like you for a minute you're like like like I even think that feels like it's like that's that much of a pickle guys. Let's just fucking kill someone and just you know, I'm going to bust this out right now.

Like, let's just... It's not... It doesn't affect their morals. It's just, it's like, someone's going to fuck with us, right? Like, some bad guys got to be around here. We could just find them. Just, you know, they can't all be good. Yeah, we moan the else who's seeing this. Like... I mean, so if those doors are going to close again, seconds later, Ruby would come over and... And she's seen chimera high, basically, on everything, different times, different things. So she's going to know, whoa, okay, he's, he went from nothing to all of a sudden, you know, he had edibles a lot.

And it was a long time ago and now it just kicked in kind of a thing. She's going to gently though, I think, again, probably has done this before. before, just put her hand in his hand and, Hey friend, you're glowing like a lantern. Yeah. Why don't you, we sit down before you float off, huh? We'll come over here and she'll just pull him to the side. Oh, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, I need a, I need a bottle or something. I need a. Yep, nope, I got you. I got you. I got you. She's gonna hand in like three little bottles that she, like, she pulls it out, whatever. Okay.

By the way, she's, at this point, she has all of her straps. She's got like just a white tank top. It's like sweat everywhere. Like just boiling. Glistening. Yes, but she's, but she'll give it just like whatever. Yeah, like I'll just do. Even if he asked for like, I need a frog and a, you know, and I have some fingernails. She would try to find something and say, here's your frog. Here's your frog. She would just do whatever it was just to get him over to have him sit down and just take care of him for a minute. So she had him a couple little vials. Okay. So we get before she pulls him over he's gonna stand in that cloud and just like you just one second would help you like it's like okay so normally this would never work it's like bottling a fart but like okay so he's going to enchant these so that they're they're small like potion vials but they'll unleash it that'll fill like a 30 foot cube of this, you know, super powering.

Yeah, this no drawback juice. So, of course. I should also mention, so okay, the mechanic where you have to just get it out of you. So at first, it'll just be uncomfortable. Then you're going to take like one D4 damage every 10 minutes and then they'll climb and stuff like that. But like, you'll also visibly be able to see signs of like, "Okay, okay. You know? And the last thing is your spells no longer differ between friend and foe. Like it's just creature. Everything. Okay. Very destructive. Just don't miss. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But oh my god, the damn.

You're gonna... Oh, God. Okay. Yeah. So we get about like three vials of this. Colgoth helps and then I go and sit down with Ruby be like I feel amazing. I feel great. Are you fine or you chimera fine? Because those are different. Oh, I am. Are they different? If you elaborate. Are you fine or are you about five seconds for passing out? Oh, gotcha. No, I'm fine. More than fine. I'm more than fine. I'm the next level of five. Kimera plus plus. I got you. She's going to try to, she's going to hand over some water, whatever she's got to be for him to be able to drink.

And she's going to kind of just get Naira's. Oh, sorry. Yeah, exactly. Just the trust. Okay. Thank you for the water. Yes. Okay. All right. I got you. She's looking at it. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We'll just ride this one out. But first, we have to be presentable, Kyira. Oh, yeah. No, I'm good. Point me in a direction. I'll present away. I got him. She's just melding to everybody. She's like, I got him. So she's locking arms with him. I got you. I'm in good hands. It's fine. Yep. You're all right. Every once in a while just like jump up and down like just kind of like it feels like you could punch gods like you you feel like it's like I can handle anything right now wow like yeah so These Durgar are going to look at you as you shout and scream.

Everyone's like, what the fuck is that? Like, they're not big on big outbursts of emotion and joy. Like, so they're kind of, yeah. Yeah. Ruby. They're kind of like, you should probably be dead after. Yeah. Huffing that's tough. Like that. Ruby's just, Ruby's melving a little bit whispering to people. Anybody's looking. She's kind of like, thank you for having us. No, he's fine. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So much for having us. Thank you for inviting us in your home. They're kind of like kind of just, you know, making it be, you should demystifying it a little bit.

Austin's kind of like pulling Logrin's sleeves. It's like, okay, this is getting weird. We should get out of here. They're going to start looking. Yeah. Logron, I rolled an inside check not for what Camarie is doing because Logring took one look and was like, nope. And then, um, but he's, what, he would have. But he doesn't want is for the quick bolt specifically to find a reason to leave before he's ready for them to leave. So if they look like their eye in the exits, then it's going to find reasons to be like, no, I need you here for this next part. I think they'd be aware of where the exits are.

They'd be doing the ninth hero, just kind of looking around. It's like, and that's where we came in. And if that doesn't work out over here, like, just kind of, I mean, that's good to know, yeah. Especially when he's jumping up and down shouting, like, it's like, okay, uh, right. So, guards are posted around and they're going to look, uh, that they're going to look, uh, that, that, they're going to look. After the shouting, they're just going to like, kind of like, kind of Loggin, lock eyes with one of them and just does a slow nod up and down. Thank you for having us.

Thank you. Loggerne goes, I'm coming for your mountain. No, no. So I think that after a quick tour of this place, and we've had enough opportunity to get into trouble, I'll be like, all right, let's go see this guy. Ruby's drenched with sweat. She's like, just get out of here as soon as we can. God, get. Just make this right. So there are in this, like, anti-chamber, that's whatever you would call it, specifically, a lot of the flooring is graded, like big, thick grates. But that heat just kind of boils up. from the bottom. And it's just like, you're going to notice the temp cool off immediately as you cross the threshold into the next section here.

And there's a bunch of long hallways. You're, you're going to see living quarters. You're going to see eating quarters. And it's nothing. Like, the living quarters aren't decorated in any way. Every bunk looks like the same as the next bunk. Every room that you find looks the same. Like, it's all just very very very very very very It's an office space where no one's allowed to decorate. And you're going to get to... After about another 20 minutes of walking, you're going to get to a set of large double doors. And Austin's going to lean back against the wall.

You're going to have to go through there. Then you're practically there with him. And he's kind of looking to you like, what are you going to do, Chief? Like, what's up? Yeah, he'll kind of pause at the door and he'll turn around, make sure everybody's still part of the group. Nobody's wandered off in anywhere. And as long as that's the case, he'll sort of clap Austin on the shoulder, be like, all right, let's go then. And he'll push the doors open. when you go up to the doors he's he's gonna come in hold on hold on a second um what exactly you expect in us to do here because he didn't seem like he was really in the mood to schmooze well it's good I'm not really here to smoos either so you know I'm gonna go talk to him And then when we're done, we are just a guide.

So there's a way back too, right? Yeah. I could just wait for you here. Look, we're getting paid, right? That's all I want to know. Yeah. All right. Is that what you're worried about? All right. You know where the money is. It's with me. So just follow me. And then I will give you money when you're done. That's what I do. Ruby would say. Yeah, that's what she does. Whenever you tell, I think there's an instinct with, you know, guys like the quick bolts where it's like, oh, the money's with me. It's like, and how easy is it to kill you? Fine. Like, just, you know, not.

How easy is it to kill you? And then you look right behind them to where ninth year is glaring. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Constantly, it's like, well, he's in a kinder egg. And two minutes or probably back him up. And it's like, oh, fuck it. No. No. And the guy in the back who looks like he wants to light somebody on fire. So. That guy's twitching a lot. Just like flicking a flame in his hand. He's rolling a flame like a coin around his name. Yeah. I do. So, okay. I do think, I do think, I think one of, one of the Minotaur. would probably lean over at one point. Do you think I can get some of that?

I would love to try. The huffing stuff. Oh, yeah, no, it's good stuff. Uh, uh... I pay you. Well, they've got it for free just in the other room there. All you got to do is just go by that vent and just breathe it in. They don't even stop you. Yeah, they're cool with it. I don't know if they're cool with it. They're not cool with it. They're definitely cool with it. No, they're definitely don't want you to do it. Listen, maybe... But they won't stop you. They didn't stop you. No. Listen, maybe on the way out. Maybe on the way out. You could just like take a quick little glance over.

But can we just focus for a minute? It's already 20 minutes away. I was on the way out. Did everybody who wants to be high? I think he was working up the courage to be like, is that cool? Like, can I get some of that? Did you get? Like, is that just for magic people? Or like, like, like, You look like that was a lot. Like, it looks pretty cool. Yeah. No, it is. And you will have fun. And you look like a tough person. I think you can handle it. Even if magic isn't your thing, I think you're going to like it. And, yeah, he's like you can see the excitement. It's like, okay, let's get this done.

So we can. All right, all right. Like, he's giving the horns. Give him the horns, baby. Lagerin is staring at the two of you. It's like at the front of the group just turned around and just like, Are you done? This is, this is, this is it, this is like, it's like, it's like, okay, we got to meet with some investors for our small business. And the day of the big meetings, someone just is so coked out of their gourd. Like you could tell. Yeah. And you're just like, oh, God. Like you have to be part of this meeting. But I don't think you're ready for this pre-season.

Kamira, when he catches Logger in looking, he's just kind of like, he's like, takes a deep breath and like, does some buttons up and like, pass a mill and tart on the on the chest. Yeah, like, we'll get it. Don't worry. And just like, " Okay. And then you don't notice, but one of the buttons is like in the wrong hole. So it's like. Let the shirt. Wabberjacked. Yeah. I got him. She's looking at floggering. Like she's being really sincere. I got him. I got him. I got him. Dozer is like you seem super cool now. Like he's used to people kind of tampering down those instincts.

So he'll be behind you like arms on your shoulders. Like loose it up. Like you're good. Like you're... Because he feels like you're... You're charismatic. Like, you're good at talking. Like, you're good with words. Like, you'll probably get this like, like that. Like, we're... We're not very charismatic. So he's going to hide, literally stand behind you and just like, be your hype man. Like, that's what he's thinking now. Doors are going to open. And there is a slightly more impressive room here. And it's, it's a throne room. Like it, it, like it's, but it's not, it's not like, oh, I'm king.

I look at me, that type of thing. It's, it's still very functional. There's, there's places for like, you can actually. So, okay. When you walk in, give me, give me a perception, please. Er, buddy. Irrbadi, er, buddy, okay. 16. Oh, no. Oh, my God. Oh, no, the worst ones are noticing things. Okay, well, okay. Logrin 3, Nysheera 6, Ruby 16, chimera 16. So, I think Ruby would be checking out. the fact that this room is completely modular. You can see seams in the floor and the walls where they can fold away and something must be behind them and under them. And like, the room can maybe change purpose or at least furnisher or something.

Like, it's very like, okay, that's real cool. Like, you know, you can see that there are these, um, these like, cube-shaped, she's, that must be housing gears and machinery and stuff like that. So you're kind of like, all right, okay, you're doing that. Chimer is going to notice there's a war table in the room with plans for an attack on Stone Sunder. And can I get a wisdom saving throw, please? From whom? Yes. Uh, chimera, specific. Okay. Yes, give me one sec, wisdom saving throw, please. Thank you. I just wanted to put it in. I'm just making sure I remember.

You said that his saving throws are... With advantage, yeah. With advantage. Okay. Okay. 26. Excellent. Okay. So put a pin in that for a minute. You are going to see a Dwergar that that looks a bit more dressed up compared to everybody. and is wearing a crown and just kind of sitting on the throne, staring off into the middle distance, with these white eyes, completely white. And as you walk in, he's just going to slowly turn his head toward the door and look at you and does not blink, does not speak, just looks at you. Yeah, Logan's going to immediately just under his breath, probably Night Theory is next to him.

He's going to go, oh, that's not right. I thought something might be wrong. But he'll start into the room. Sorry, go ahead. No, no, no. It's just because they're going to lean down to chimera. His eyes were not white before. That's new. That's a new. Still creepy. Does Camere notice anything magical? Because he could see aura, magical oras. I was just going to ask that. Yeah. Thank you, Susan. Give me an arcana check with advantage, please. Oh, right. Because God damn, you got some arcana in you right now. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, 18. There we go. All right. So, man. you're going to look and...

Where... Okay. You're going to look and see that there is no... None of that magical poisoning in this being. But you're also going to notice... That it is a being made of pure magic. Like, this isn't a person. This is some sort of construct or something magical made, some allusion, some something. Like this isn't, this is not a person. Oh, okay. Gotcha. I'm gonna, uh, I'm gonna, uh, he's turned around and look, look to us. Um, I'm just gonna tap Logger in on. the back and just kind of go. That's not him. And so Logren's going to do like a double check like look to Lou to Ruby and look to camera back and be like, is he super high or is that advice?

You know what? That's a fair. That's a fair question. shit so she'll she'll genuinely um i'm actually not sure so she's going to grab chimera and pull him just a little bit gently towards him and she's going to hold hold his head and she's going to say what do you mean that's not him she's looking for just she reads she's trying to read him as chimera or read him as chimera or read him as chimera who's high trying to sort of distinguish the two. An illusion. She's not squeezing your head. She's just, she's just, she's just got you gently. He just did that on a song.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Could you squeeze my head? That's high. You sure? You're sure. Yeah. This isn't the, she's going to point back to the door. Well, it's because of the. of that, but it's not. No. She's gonna look back to Logren and she's gonna say, I think it's advice. Huh. Is there anybody else in this room? Are there guards? Like, is there anybody else? No. That's even fucking weirder. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Here's the leader of our people. We trust you. Like, it's, you. Like, it's, you. Yeah. It's weird. Were there guards outside this store? Further down the hallway?

Yes. Further down the hallway, my God. This, like, okay, you wouldn't, okay, in Winter Haven or Aubrey, you would not be able to get this close to just a town leader, someone on a council, without there being someone present. This is insane. Especially for people who have been fucked over it. These guys are like the Native Americans of Theria. Like, they would be defensive. of Al-Siders, especially a dwarf. Can I get one more Arcana check from you? Please, Camero? Just regular or with advantage? Oh, no, with advantage. Oh, gotcha, okay. All Arcanas with advantage right now, baby.

Ooh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That's not incredible, but just a enough. Like, just enough. So you remember when I had you roll a wisdom saving through? And you rolled phenomenally. Okay. So there is there is a spell cast with rooms in this room right now that is supposed to temper a magical perception so that people won't notice what you noticed. Moreover, the longer you stand in this room, you're going to... You're going to notice some other things. Remember how I said that this room's modular? You're going to be able... So you're going to see that essentially you're looking at a being with no organs.

It is pure magic, and it's kind of a basic haze of magic. Whereas, if you looked... at like Ruby or, you know, someone like that, you'd be able to see. It's almost like they drank contrast and you could see the magic flowing through them. It's concentrated in areas. It's not just free flowing. You will see a, the brightest aura of magic you've ever seen beyond the wall that impersonator is sitting in front of. Hmm. And it looks like they are. are, it looks like there are frantically pacing and, and, manic, maybe. Gotcha. Um. Um. Okay. Okay. It is about that time that this, you know, king. whatever you want to call, you know, uh, uh, foe haggrel.

Is, is, is watching you the entire time. Can I help you with something? Lagerun's going to ignore it because it's not a real person. And he's going to turn around. Well, for me, but he'll actually do the, like a finger. He'll be like, right on. He'll be like, right on. You don't turn around. And he'll look to basically the whole group. He's not going to pick somebody out, but hopefully there's a volunteer. But I need two of you to go back, get a couple of guards into this room. Because whatever happens next, we need somebody to witness it. Okay. Austin is going to speak up.

What are you about to do? About to solve their problem. And they need to see me doing it. All right. And he's going to, like, elbow jessy. They're going to go. Like, they're not going to wait for confirmation. They're going to go. And Logger will nod to night there, like, unspoken. Go with them, please. Nighteer will and she'll zip past them because I'll do cutting action to make a bonus action dash and then double dash. She's fucking books it down the hall right in front of them. They say, we'll go. And then I'm not there's already back with cards. Yeah. Nothing personal kid.

Because really, I Essentially, Night Theory doesn't want to leave you guys alone with a potential danger. So as soon as she could get them and be back. Yeah. And you don't want to wait for them to Mosey or potentially just not come back. Or just piece out. You can take that. It's like, no, no, no, no, we'll go. And they meant go. Well, like, they don't want that type of thing. So. Yeah. And they don't. know what you know right now. Like they kind of, it's like, that's not. It's like, how do you fucking know that? Like it's to them, you just walked in. We're incredibly rude to the king.

And then go get guards. It's like, oh, he's going to shoot that man. Like, okay, let's see the yeah. Yeah, I was like, oh, fuck, okay. So if this goes south, we could say, I try to get guards. I tried to tell you guys. Like that's like that's plausible deniability. Ruby's been tracking, Ruby's been tracking chimera, you know, ever since, you know, ever since, Like, are you sure? Are you sure? She's still tracking chimera. She's just trying to see what's going on. Because this is not, this is not a normal. Like, he's kind of just off his gourd kind of a thing.

This is kind of like, no, there's something. There's something deeper going on here. He's, he's heightened, not just high. And she's still tracking him like basically looking him straight in the eyes, watching his facial features. And after you notice, whatever you're noticing, you know, sort of through this wall and sort of feeling of it. What do you know? What do you know, chimera? She's trying to get your attention to because I feel like you're, if your senses are all heightened, it's like you're everywhere, just like, just like, yeah, I think I almost feel like a little beautiful mind like, you know what I mean?

Like it's oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, she's a what do you? What do you know? Kind of what do you know? Like how do you know? I know. Like sensory. Yeah. I know that there's. someone behind that wall. And Ruby, do you see all of the tracks on the floor here? Yeah, I clocked it when we came in. What are you thinking? Do you want to help me find a way to see if we can move these around? Hell yeah, I do. She's, by the way, the whole time, she's rubbing his hand. It's like something to keep him Like, you know what I mean? Like just physical, physical, physical, physical.

I would say every once in a while, you're going to feel like a third party stroking your hand just a little bit. Where Colgolf is so out of it that it's just, it's like, it's like, oh, you just like sensory, just like, oh, touch. So every once in a while, it's like, and you. Like, it's, yeah. She's, she's aware of it. She is ignoring it for now because she is there for. Not trying to comfort you. That's fine. That's got to be a first too, right? That's got to be a first. You can't. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, yeah, Loggering will approach. Because he's going to go back to just like kind of humoring this for a second while, while things are in motion.

So he'll approach a little bit closer. Be like, and he'll step a little bit closer. and he'll make it sort of a... Some form of a bow, not overly formal, but like... Say, name is Logger and Cragborn of Stone's Under. Um... And the entire time he's been sitting there patiently waiting, not like a king would at fucking all. Like that... This wouldn't fly. If you needed one more reason, not... think this is right. Uh, and he's going to reply in a way that again, it almost makes you feel uncomfortable in its politeness. It is nice to meet you, Loughran. Like it's like, nope, they wouldn't do that.

Like you're, nope. Yeah, he glances over at the battle plans on the table. Yeah. To take Stone Center. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because he didn't say he's from Aubrey. He's never done that. He said he's from Stone Sunder. He said, we're here to help you solve a problem. What problem would that be? And now he'll gesture to the table. You'll say, I want that mountain to. And I think we can help each other. long paul's like there's a script loading somewhere like it's like okay in case of this like because this thing only knows so much how so like it's kind of batting the ball down but it's like okay maybe that'll maybe I'll get more information okay go And he, so he wants to draw this out.

First of all, he wants to make sure everybody's back in the room because three people left and we're supposed to, and whoever have many guards they're going to get. So he starts to walk around the table a little bit. What can, based on what's on the table, like, what can logger and figure out about what, like, what's laid out? What's the plan here, you know? So, so it's, it's, the minute where it gave you a very simple explanation. right. And there must have been some kind of discussion. Because this is something, it looks like this is something that the Dwergar wanted in the first place.

And the Minotaur and drought would be convenient allies. But then there's the, okay, then who gets it? Like, is it, you know, one of those things because, I mean, technically it was, it's the Minotaur's. And, you know, there's a big mess. But you can see figurines carved out like Minotor, like, drow. And there is like the beginnings of a plan here. And one of the, you can see something written out where it's like, okay, well, the drought would be able to attack from underneath and then behind. The Minotaur would just be battering gates and going through the front entrance.

And there is a plan to flood the place with lava somehow. Like, they are like to maybe have that giant furnace malfunction. And while they're trying to fix it, burning alive, that's when, you know, so they're... It's very Game of Thrones season 8, where it's like, well, we'll just fucking take the dragon in and burn the goddamn place down. Like, fuck it. Like, it's very that, you know. Yeah, so he'll walk around. His goal is to walk around this table in a way that's like, if this were a real person, they might react in a, hey, don't touch my miniatures type way.

Right. Like back old. Any sane person? Those are very expensive. Please don't do that. It took me 10 hours to paint each of those. Please don't. Yeah. So. So he'll glance. up at him and he's clearly not reacting to it in any meaningful ways. And he'll look at it at the table again. And he'll be like, this is a real messy plan. There's a lot of destruction. Even if you don't care about the amount of people who would die, you destroy half the mountain trying to take it. Is this what you came up with? He's just not going to answer that question. And do you have a better plan?

I do. I also think that you have a better plan. I'd like to know what it is. Because this isn't it. Can I get Ruby to give me an engineering check, please? Sure thing. Can I get Nythera to give me an athletics check please? You're so due. You're so due. Negative one. How? Not strong. Very dexterous. Got it. Do you want a cartwheel instead? Like you just fucking flipped down all the way. I mean, wouldn't it be a dex-faced? She's fast. That's what she's using. Yeah, go get her macrobatics. That's jumping and leaping. It's fine. I'm not strong, but I'm fast. Yeah, well, I didn't come up with these rules.

If what I was with a dex modifier, that's what we're. We talked to a rest. Yeah, you know what? Yes, we can do that. Let's do athletics with it. Because this is your cardio. Fine. This isn't you lifting a rock. Yes. Your cardio. I need it. Damn it. All right. You're not on fire tonight. You rolled a three. That's a five. But I'm still moving 90 feet every turn. That's true. Okay, look. Maybe not finding the guards. Maybe you just couldn't find. Maybe you ran right past. If you rolled a 26 just now, you would have told me that should influence how fast you go. I mean, regardless, the rules say it's 90 feet a turn.

And how long is it? That is the rules. Right. Okay. So that's six to six to ten seconds, right? And if it's 20 minutes back that way and we could do that math if you want to go by those rules, I don't think that would be who of you, but let's let's do this. 20 minutes back? Holy shit. Sorry. Oh yeah. No. That's, that's, was... They're all the way back at the furnace? Because it was 20 minutes when the furnace. Okay. Sorry. Not the... Yeah. Sorry. Not the nearest guard, I guess if you wanted to... Yeah. So, okay. I'll... I'll do this. That's a five. I wasn't... I wasn't...

Yeah, I wasn't trying to keep you out for like, you know, a bunch of time. But it... Like, it's probably going a little slower than you like. I would say, it's not based on your movement. It's you going... Hey, we have a situation. and we need and the common guards are like, oh, we were told not to go in there. And it's like, it's like they're almost going to be like they were chastised. Like they were like, oh, I don't think he would like that. Too bad. You're coming with. Why aren't you moving? Well, the charts is. Like, they're very like, you know, it's like, oh, the Warriors game doesn't, you know.

And maybe this is where the athletic comes in. She tries to grab them, but much like Loggerid, they just don't move when she grabs them. Yeah. So there is a caster. And you could tell she's a caster because she has these bands around her arms that are, it looks like they might be made of Adamantine. Because you're going to see like that that that that mild blue light kind of channeling through them. And she's going to wander up and almost push one of the guards aside. What do you mean? There's something wrong with your leader. I don't know what. I don't have information.

She's going to stop you mid-sentence. It's like, let's go and push you. Like, and she's going to yell at the guards. Follow me now. Like, no bullshit. Like, fuck you. Let's go. And as you guys are like running back, she's not going to be as fast as you. I don't know. You rolled a five. She leases. Come on. She wears heels. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. I'm joking. I'm joking. No, she does. No, she does not. Do not. She's like, baby. She's like bayoneta up in there. Oh, yeah. And you're younger. You don't insult my character design. She wears practical leather shoes. I almost made it a point.

It's like, yeah, you get your heels stuck in that grading back there. That was the thing. But I think you'd kill me and I don't want that. I don't want that smoke. So on the way back. So on the way back, like, you're jogging. And she's going to most. over and kind of real. And you can tell it's like, oh, that's your name. I, there's something wrong. And there's something being wrong now. And no one wants to investigate it. And like she's fully, it's like, bucket thank you for doing something. Nythera, and his glowing white eyes didn't tip you off? And she'll look at you like, that part, it's new.

Like, I just thought he was drowsy or... Something. Well, if you look at him today, there's something clearly wrong. Can you guys move any faster? And she... Like, she is doing a decent job of keeping up either, but she's not armored. They are. And she's like, you have much longer, Lex. Check your picture. Like, just... Just I'll walk, then. And you're going to get back to this door and open it just in time for for Ruby to find a lever. Oh, yeah, 19. 19 was one of a roll. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't forget. I did. Would you like to pull this lever? Well, tell me what? what Ruby would think with a good thing to do.

Is she like, let's see what this does. Is it feel like a good idea? So this definitely controls the wall. And it looks like this one controls the wall behind the throne. Got it. I mean, if she feels like that's the case, Kymer is saying there's somebody behind there, she's just going to do the math really quickly. And she's not going to get consensus. She's not going to try to talk to Lagerin about it. She's going to be like, screw it. And she's just going to pull. There's a whole tension and urgency happening that everybody's picking up on. She's just going to, she's just going to manage it.

Yeah. It's pretty, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, as soon as you flip this lever, that's, that hologram. the imposter, whatever, is going to start to dematerialize, but it looks like he's tearing. Like, there's some sort of physical aspect being held together with magic. And the second, he's just going to just be gone. And that throne is going to sink into the ground, and that wall is going to start to separate. Now, the second. The second these people walk in, And Real is kind of see that. There's a moment where it's like, what the fuck did you do? Like getting upset.

And then as those double doors open, there's going to be this flowing liquid. And what it looks like, as it fills into the channels around the room, it looks like pure arcane runoff. And just imagine how you're a sticking this piece in it. I can't get any higher. That sounds like quitter talk. That is. Yeah. Your heart's still beating. You can get higher. So. You're going to see. the real hackerel. And he's kind of leaned over this troth of this liquid. And his hands are immersed in it. You're going to see this aura coding him, especially chimera, like off the charts, like SuperSayan 4.

He's got this and he's just going to like let it drizzle upon him as he pulls it out. And he's going to hear these, the wall itself open and turn around. And he looks like a mad dog. Just turn around. And there's so much arcane energy flowing through him that it's coming out of his eyes. And it's smoldering. Like it's burning his eyes. And he's just going to be looking. I said, I do not want to be interrupted. Just screaming and you're going to feel the force of his breath as he screams. And I think it's a good time for us to stop for the night. Oh. No. No. How do we get him?

I knew it's coming when I was like, damn it. No. Oh. Damn, man. That was fucking cool. That was fucking cool. Yeah, it was. That's a... TV show Clifhanger for the... Like, okay, what... Okay, I can't wait for Wednesday night or whatever. Can we play next? When do we play? Oh, Saturday. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's Saturday? I love that. I got to look at this schedule. I mean, that should be fine. That should be fine. That should be fine. That's this one. I agree to it. You have. There was a big time. A lot of, there were a lot of DETs that got thrown around. There were.

There were. There were. There were.