Changing Gears

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Hey, everybody, Jasper here. Welcome back to Dungeons and Randomness, Arc 6 Frostborn. First, big, big news. For the first time in years, Dungeons and Randomness is opening our doors for a casting call. Details are on our Discord, and a link is in our episode description. There's even a short announcement in the main feed, so scroll on down and take a listen for details. We want new friends like you in the mix for more stories in Theria. You know you've been waiting for this for a very big. long time. Get off your butts and shoot us a note. Also, I know you love hearing my dulcet tones with that faint southern twang you can't quite place.

So good news. There's a full hour of me talking straight in our recap of episodes 1 through 20. No breaks, no cuts, just me walking through Frostborn's biggest moments and worse decisions. Scroll down in the feed right after episode 20 and you'll find it. Perfect for catching up, refreshing your memory or tricking a friend into finally starting the show. Help us spread the word about DNR. Also, really good news. Jameson Alcorn, also known as Logrin, has fully funded his story Lobstar on Kickstarter in just the first few hours. But he and the folks at very big comics aren't done.

Oh no. The first chapters funded, but the more we pitch in, the deeper the claws go, and the more story we get. Lobster is what happens when a main lobsterman becomes the chosen avatar of a lobster god and realizes The real monsters are the ones you find on Wall Street. It's myth, mayhem, and marine biology all rolled into one. Think Captain Planet, but if he worked the docks and had pincers. In any case, we're backing it. You should, too. Search Lobstar on Kickstarter or hit the link in our description. Okay, last couple of things. Our friends from Enclave are in the last few days of their latest Kickstarter.

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All right. Previously on Frostboard, After the Colgoth led murder of one of the Quick Bolt brothers, let's call it possession-based manslaughter, the group scrambled to clean up the aftermath. Chimera and Nithera erased the evidence the best they could, scrubbing, scheming, and feeding what was left of poor Jesse into the depths of the Dorgar Refinery. Yeah, it's exactly as bad as it sounds. Ruby, without even realizing it, helped cover the trail while Logrin kept the guards busy with drinks and small talk. By morning, the slate looked clean. spiritually filthy, sure, but clean enough to move on and never discuss again.

And word spread that a new battle-hardened queen was on her way to take the Doorgard throne. This time on Frostborn, Ruby and Lagerin turned necessity into invention. It's loud, brilliant, and maybe a little dangerous. A new queen eager for war takes her throne, and Lageren, well, he does what he always does. the kind of time that always comes with a cost. Take it away, Massey. Let's see. Let's do that thing. Where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason. I'm the duchamester. Going around the table. Starting with Ian. Hi. I'm eating. My pronouns are he, him, and I play chimera, the Teafling Warlock.

And Jasper. Hey, everybody. I am Jasper. I am he, him, play Ruby Pedigrew, Half-Oak, Gearslinger, adapt. I went down to the list. I checked, checkboxes. And Susan. Hi, I'm Susan. My pronouns are she her, and I will be playing Nicera-Riolyth, the Elven Rogue. And last and certainly not least, Jameson. I am Jameson. He him. I play Lager and Cragborn. He is a dwarven marshal. So everything's going great. Last time we sat down, we we cleaned up part of the mess in that there is now no body. Yes. There's still a missing human. Like, there's still a missing. That we're going to have to deal with.

But now, there's no body. There's no, you know, so the evidence mostly is gone. There is still a blood smear under a bed that Austin is sleeping on top of. Could have been anything. Yeah. Well, yeah. You got to believe in a world of magic, there's some DNA testing, right? Like, you got to be able to do something with that. I don't know. So here's what I'd like to do. I would love to fast forward to the 10th. That is when their investigation is going to wrap up. And that is when they're going to announce their new leader. And unless anybody has anything they want to do.

No. I will. I will say that Ruby is best. Eltsing off the walls. Like absolutely feeling like. Got to get out of here. Not even just because of being scared about something, but just losing her mind. That's this is probably ramping up over the last couple of days. Yeah. Like cabin fever. Kind of like I'm just got energy that I need. Yeah. I got you. She just needs to like run. She's probably hot. She's probably sick of it. She's like, she's, she grew up in a cold. world. She's probably just really. God, I just a little suffocating. Like, oh, just a little claustrophobic in here.

Because anybody else wants some air? That's kind of a thing. You know, Logring kind of treats it like he's like he's in a dorm room. Like he's very much treating it like he lives here now. Like he keeps asking the guards to bring him drinks and stuff. Yeah. They're probably, they're probably ready to see you guys go to. Like, you know. So. On the 10th, around midday, Real is going to come back to you guys and let you, just kind of knock on your door. And knowing you're probably cooped up, she's going to, she's actually going to bring a tray of snacks, which you don't do for people you're about to murder.

So you're probably innocent. You know, unless they just have a, you know, it's like, hey, eat up. They have a different way of doing things here. Last meal. I heard you want to playing crackers for your last meal. There you go. Last charcuttery board. Can I tell you? This is just a, okay. My wife, whom I love dearly, said she was going to make a sharkutory board. And she took several slices of American cheese. And then broke them up like this. Mm-hmm. And said finito. That is not. No judgment. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I thought I was being a snob, but that is missing.

Where's the cuter? Well, that's it. That's a cheese. That's a cheese board. That's not a charcutory. But, you know, we're splitting here. Right? Yeah. What was the board? Was it like a two-by-fifference? for she found in the page. That you ripped off a fence. It was cardboard. But like, I thought. And bonapete. And bonapete. Bonapete. She had like a hunk of bread. Like, you know, but like, I don't know. I thought you needed crackers or meat or something. There's like some carb. Some. Some. I'm not here to see. Jeez. Don't. Don't call it something fancy. Like, you know. Anyway.

I don't know why that was relevant. But it feels like a very very good thing to do though. Yeah, they're going to use. But they're split up. And like you can just take little. Yeah. They're in triangles or squares. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Yeah, because they care. You know, you're innocent. It's done at the table. It's done at the table. It's done at table. So they... By hand. Yeah, they... They unwrap those in front of you. Like, they, you know, they are fresh. So... So she'll knock on the door if you answer, Hello? How are you? All of you. How do you hold the up? Are there snacks?

Oh, yes. Please help yourself. Ruby's got it. She's already got it and turned around and is like, um, um, um, You didn't hear it, but she said thank you. Thank you. Um. And as you can probably guess you are you are free to go. She's basically like I'm it's it's apologetic. You know what I mean? Like it's like hey, I'm real sorry about all this, but we had to you know, there was a lot of discussion. But like now. And she's like, yeah, like, yes, please, if you'd like, like she's like, she's actually motioning to the door. Oh, he's like, well, wait, we came up here.

We didn't come here to fight your king. We came out. actually here for a couple of other things. So if we're clear, maybe we can set up some time. I don't know. Are you free? What are you doing later? Are you asking grow? No, it does. It does sound like, oh. No, no. I'm not saying she's not interested. I mean, you know, will they will be. They will be. No, no. No, wait a minute. No, I. I. Business. We had to do business. We came here for business. Oh, so you are interested. Okay. Nithera has in the time of knowing Labyrinth, in him, stare-daggers, many times. But this is perhaps the greatest of those times.

His eyes are like complete circles as he turns around and looks at her. So, Nytheir is probably a little cooped up too, and this is just, and this is just, just finally some entertainment. Yeah. Oh, Ruby's right next to chimera with the snacks. Like popcorn. Yeah. Yeah. We're just like... Yeah. Oh, so you don't want me to interfere. Got it. And then Chalene against the wall. We're here for Adamantine. And demand type adamantum. You know what? The metal. We want the metal. Sorry, he's flustered. I am now. Yes. I'm a little bit. This could just be Dwarven Riz. Like, I don't know.

Like, this could just be how. Now he is a little, like, his cheeks are a little rosy. Like, he's a little bit like, God damn, how did this happen? Honestly, she'll smile. And like, she'll kind of steer the conversation back to, to get you away from this, like, as a courtesy. She's rescuing me. Okay. Yeah. Obviously, we did not want to keep you here this long, but there was much discussion to be had. I did talk to those on the floor, and they can spare a complete bar of adamantine for you. Ruby's going to spit. I'd like a joke. Thank you. grab logger and shoulder.

Like just kind of like just waiting for something else to be said. Like, is that? Is that? I think that's it. Yeah. Well, yes, we'll take that. Thank you. Yes. And some of the, some of the exhaust as well. Is that free to take? The three of us are shaking our heads. No. Yeah. Yeah. I'm here. He said yes. I was actually a. to speak with you. That is poison. You know this, right? Oh, yeah, just like alcohol. No, no. Well, it's like quickly to go. No. Way worse. You know how many brain cells you killed? You know how many brain cells you killed? One off. I'm aware. Yes. And she'll just kind of just like move on. by.

Well, it's one of the eight-foot bars. We'll get it ready and you can take it with you. It's quite heavy, though. I'm afraid. You can handle transport, I imagine. Yeah, we got a sled. It'll be right. Who did it end up being if you don't mind me asking? Who's now in charge? Well, we're sending away for her now. She's... She... Okay, you can kind of see by the look on her face that, like, she's a little torn about it. Actually, give me an insight check. Give me, give me, give me, give me. You got it, you got it. Skills. I want to insight, too. Yeah, anybody can take a stab at it.

Oh, geez. God. Nope. Okay. She's really into Logren. That's all I'm getting. Did I get that? With that five? Yeah. Yeah. That's 28, baby. Oh. I got way lower it. You know what she had for breakfast. Yeah. She's really in the Logren. You know that. It's super. I mean, come on. I got. I rolled on a Chris say, well, I got helpful in through the use of subtle gestures or knowing looks, you clue in on one of your allies. You clue in one of your allies to your suspicions. Your ally may add half of your proficiency bonus rounded down to the next insight check against the same target.

Oh, okay. So I do like look over to log and then just kind of waggle my eyebrows up and down. Like, hmm, hmm? Free. Stover. And you kind of get that it wouldn't be her. It wouldn't be her. first choice. But obviously, that's probably what the three days was spent on was, you know, just arguing back and forth. Who's the bet? You know, a lot of that time was probably spent. It's like, hey, what the fuck happened under our nose back there? Like, there's just this river of arcane runoff that they were dipping into. So there was a lot of, hey, we need somebody who won't do something like that again.

And, you know, No, yeah, so a lot of, you know, sorry, God. You don't seem pleased about it. Am I picking up on that correctly? No, no, she's a bit more aggressive than I would have chosen for our next leader, but she's... She's... She's... She has a long military career and I... She'll do a wonderful job. Like, she's just kind of like... It's the bog standard, like, and we fully support our new, you know. When are you going to be here? She's a little cagey about that. We're not going to do anything. That was a one-time thing. Just... No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no. No. No. I'm sorry. It's not often that people leave the mountain and she left because she was forced into retirement. She did not like this and... That's one of the reasons I'm not exactly pleased to have her back. But she should be here in three days' time. Do you think she's going to respond negative to being retired? I think she already has responded negatively to being retired. Well, she's going to do something, or has she already done something? He was like, ways under the room, like, let's not talk in the door. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

At this point, it's like, okay, fine, you're not going to let this go. God, I wish you go back to hitting on me. So she comes back in and this is his favorite thing to talk about. Yeah. It's tea. So she'll walk in and shut the door. She led several battalions of our military. and she was very good at this, but she had a tendency to be overly aggressive when the situation didn't call for it. So she would be very interested in the Minotaur's plan down the hole. Oh, that plan's canceled. We called that off. We're going to have a whole new thing. The plans changed.

That's what I wanted to talk to her about. Thank the gods. Okay. What is your plan? It's complicated. So what we're going to do when we leave here, we need to. We're going to talk to the Minotaur and the drow. And we wanted to talk. Obviously, we came here to talk to the king about a better plan where there's no siege warfare. There's no mass carnage in the streets. And you get the mountain anyway. But we all kind of share it is the idea. That's the plan. It's more complicated than that. I'm just trying to give you the gist. Give me a persuasion roll. Can I, can I assist?

Yeah, actually, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Oh, 16. Yeah, well, that's 16. Yeah, you rolled a six, got a 16. That's not bad. She's a... So you could see on her face, it's like, like kind of scrunching up her face. Oh. It is a bit more beating around the bush, but less violent, for sure. Yeah, I mean, it'll take a little bit of time. I'll be honest. We were... We had this plan before we got here, and then we found out about the other plan. Uh, and I think this one is going to do better. A little bit worried about the aggressive new queen, though. It's a total possibility that she has changed, and I'm holding old grudges.

So just, could you write out this plan? And I could pitch it to her when she arrives? it might be a little better than the people who slayed our last king? She has a point. What if, what if rather than writing it down, we just have a more casual meeting about it? I mean, we can maybe give you something that you can take to her as a mark of good faith, and we can sit down all together. for like brunch or something. Hmm. Yeah, I do like brunch. Three days, though. She's like, ugh. That's kind of what she's getting at, too. It's like, I know you guys have things to do, so.

Oh, we're not going to wait for three days. We've got stuff to do. We'll come back, is what I'm saying. But... Oh, okay. Yeah, we'll come back. So we have some other people to talk to, so. and we have some other errands to run. And then we can come back or she can meet us somewhere. We have to meet, like I said, with the other leaders that we should all meet. And we could talk about it then. Let me grease the wheels, as it were. And I'll give you something in writing anyway, make it a little bit easier. Yes, please, do that. Shall we go get your radamante? Heck yeah.

Wait, what's her name? The new ruler. Sorry, I heard noodle rule. I know. I did too in my head. Who's the noodle ruler? Doodle ruler? It's Queen spaghetti. Oh, God. Illyria Iron Shade. Ooh. So Ruby's taken that down in a little notebook. She's always keeping a little notes. So quick Lord. Back on Athias, she kind of rose to the ranks. There wasn't a ton of fighting, but there was a period of time where they were leaving a mining company and getting ready to strike out on their own. They ended up going to Tlorra for a while. And she kind of inserted the Durgaar in between the Iraqa and the Aresar.

Just like, it's like, and now us, but only so that they can carve a path through the continent to get to the other side and then sail to Alara. That's where people had a problem. It's like, what the fuck? Like, we don't need to be involved in this. And her, her general thinking was, that's a big good training. We, like, we need this. So yeah. And yeah, when they got to Alara, it was kind of downhill from there because there were a lot more civilized towns and cities. And there was a week where they plowed through Fair Bay. And she would just take shit from people.

Not pillage, but it's like, hey, we need this for the war effort. Thanks. And it's like, who are you? What are you? Like, you're pale dwarves. What is this? So, yeah, they didn't make friends. With a history check with LaGrenaud, all this? Or is it, do you not need a history check? I, you definitely don't need a history check for the Olarra stuff. They, like, word gets around. Like, it's like, hey, do you remember when hundreds of those new dwarves walked through and just took our shit? Like, you know, the Athy stuff and the Toulor stuff, I'd need a history check for that.

Like a 15 or higher would get you, you know. Maybe this is the like the walk and talk on the way to the, to the metal. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you're going to 21. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you get. Yeah. You kind of get it. Okay. So as soon she says that name, Lagerin's demeanor changes. for the positive. He thinks this is an opportunity. He is interested in meeting this woman, definitely. Really? Interesting. And if it's a either reason? Yes. Okay. Fantastic. Fantastic. So she's going to set you up with one of these eight. It's going to need all of you. to carry this.

Back to the sled. And this thing is the smoothest piece of metal. It is this charcoal kind of... It's almost like it's been, like I think, mini painting, right? But it is beautiful. It catches the light in different ways. You can almost see this aura come off of it. That it is just the purest possible. version of this metal. So. How much would you say that this bar weighs if it takes all four of us to carry it? That's where math comes in. So I had to look up how much steel weighs, like a steel girder, and then kind of go from there because it's a denser metal than steel.

And I have it written down. Like, what did I? What did I write? Okay. So this weighs close to 900 pounds. So 900 pounds, we can't put that on the sled. The sled won't go. We need. We're going to need to hire, like, do they have like mules in something or a cart or something we can use? Like at Home Depot? Like you're just taking it out to the car? Like, well, no. We can buy a pair of mules and a cart. About time we got one anyway. Oh, I thought you were calling them mules to take it. I thought you were just being really disrespectful. Okay, got it. You got to go to play your best mules.

Well, you are. You better do some followers or something, aren't you? Yeah. Too bad. His whites aren't there at the entrance. Yeah. So we could, they could. I don't know if they'd have any livestock. A cart, sure. They could definitely, you know. They just pull carts themselves, usually. Well, it's usually just to get pieces of metal from one place to another, so they'll just pull it. But it's not meant to be pulled through the snow. It's meant to be pulled across a flat, a fat factory floor. So, yeah. Okay. That sounds to me like we're going to spend an extra day here while Logrin and Ruby work with Durgaard to basically engineer something that can carry this thing down the mountain.

Sure, that's fair. Because I don't deal with a lot of export is the problem. And he's lecturing them hard about that. But you guys really need a road. You guys could have all this figured out by now, like, what you need. or joists all the way down. Yeah. A million joists. Whatever this is... Who only has the L pieces for Legos, like, that sounds. You can... We can build anything. Whatever the answer here is, it's got to be some sort of innovation that Logron and Ruby have put together, where as it's being pulled on whatever wheels it's on, as you push down on it, it actually, because of the weight, it propels it forward, and then it comes back up, and then it propels it forward again.

And it's like, this is genius. Like, it's a perpetual motion, but it's like, it moves. Some kind of loco motion. Yeah, right. Motion. Oh, shit. And you probably have shocks, too, so not all the weight is on the. What is a real way, by the way, by the way? Two rails with just joists all the way down anymore. Yeah, and he'll lean heavily on the door guard's expertise too, because obviously they're accustomed to working with all of this. But we'll need a safe way to get. There's no way we're dragging this thing by hand down to hell. I need one of you to give me an engineering check.

I'm going to guess that's Ruby. I got you. Yeah. Anybody else trained? Can't assist? D4 plus one. Would you say? Logron. What's your name? Friends call me a log. Yeah. Log is what they call. Actually, that's growing on me. All right, never mind. So, yeah, your first big log really grows on you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really growing up. It's like our ninth penis joke tonight. I'm sorry. I especially apologize to Susan. I'm sorry. We're better than this. No, not really. Well. Hey, she showed us the cloud. It was her fault. That is true. You have lewd photos on your phone. It could just be a pair of scissors.

All right, I'm rolling a rends engineering check. All right, add a D4 plus one, please. Oh, at a D4 plus one. I'm going to do that afterwards. Okay. Well, how about that? Oh, my God. We invented a train. We have invented trains. Oh, my God. Max on everything. All right. So that's a... Heck. That's a 35. 35. We have blown these guys in my place. Holy shit. You quickly assess a structure finding a point of weakness that can either be exploited or repair to increase its stability. So I guess we'll just put that to... We'll add this as the flavor to... why this thing is working.

And in the meantime, as all of this is being put together, she's going to be pointing out constantly, there should be a joist right there. There should be a joist right there. There should be a choice right there. That brings a tear to Labyrinth. Yeah. He's so far. If you're... If you guys are comfortable, spending a week here. I'll give you a car. Okay. What? Okay. Let me explain. Okay. So, so motor carriages are a thing that has been worked on. They're unstable and unreliable. But that's because you didn't have. have people like the dirga are working on this shit where it's like, okay, well, we'll just build like a tank.

Like it's all like, you know what I'm saying? So they are going to build something very sturdy. It's not going to be the fastest, but it can climb mountains. Like there's going to with a 35. It's like a snow pile in front of it. Like a blade. Like. Yes. Like so, okay, I picture something where you can flip a switch and the wheels actually have spikes that come out of it that dig into the terrain. Again, it's not going to be fast. And it's going to devour fuel. You're basically making an H1 Hummer. But. Holy shit. Like, I. So Ruby would have had in her past in Brightport with the gnomes that she used to hang out with and the totter of the tricks of the trade. they would have dabbled in this kind of thing.

And by that, I mean, things that would move on a desk, like little things like that. And at some point, everybody would have probably just written it off. Like, this is, this is, nobody's going to ever need something like this. This is a waste of time and energy. Like, it's whatever, whatever, it's silly. It's, it's, but kids toys kind of a thing. And at some point in all of this, she would have said, we just need a little bit more time. And she would have been working with a door guard. And she knows like Scrank and Tomnus and whoever else, right? All these people, all these guards that she's met and all the people on the refinery floor.

Pinkle. Yeah, yeah, Scrimshaw. Carman. Fetomsch. All of them, right? They're all like. She's, yeah, they've all become a very good. Very good. That's the rest of the session. she would have gotten to know them probably because she's probably also it's cooped up she's probably taken this tour multiple times just like hey crank can we do it again you know just like whatever going on and on and on and on and she's gonna they're going to be working on this for as long as they can lagrin and ruby and she's going to have ideas she's going to be thinking about the stuff that gnomes taught her and things that she's been working on and stuff with the Vlasis bring boots and also they're just like.

She's putting all these things together. She's got the whole, the whole meme with all the numbers around her face. And she's going to get late. And she's going to say, can we just, I just need one more day. And this is going to happen a couple of times. And then another time. And at some point, it's just a matter of whether or not logging's like, yeah, fine. This is going somewhere. Or not. Absolutely going somewhere. Lahrin is going to allow it for sure. And during the whole time, like, he'll be talking to the duer gar. He'll be talking to our group, making sure that everybody's, you know, copacetic with the plan.

He's going to want to talk to Brax and Jesse, not Jesse. Which one's dead? Austin. Austin. Austin. He does that at least once. Be like, Jesse. Ah, awesome. Uh, awesome. Wait, no, I want to roll because that's a big mistake to make. If he actually does that, and we'll just a whiskey check. And this is a whole conversation. Like, what's that? How? What's going on there with that? And also with Brax. Like, oh, we'll get to it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right. 16 wisdom. I want to say I don't put my foot in my mouth that bad. Thank God. Okay. He stops himself. Yeah. But yeah.

So that's a conversation too. If we're staying week, are they staying with us? Because like Brax knows that we like he's a part of this as far as like us talking with with the larger conspirators now. Right. So is he not hanging around for it? Or is Austin hanging around for it? All that. All right. Let's tackle the car first. And so this is the first vehicle of its kind in Theria. Now, there have been, you know, semi-motorized vehicles, most of which are predominantly made of wood, like a reinforced, treated wood with some mechanical. parts and kind of fueled by magic.

And what's fascinating is you're dealing with a people who they're basically the Germans, right? Like they are they are all about precision and organization and, you know, getting the most out of things. They're, they're dwarven craftsmanship, but mostly with metals and. magically infused. So you're getting like this adamantine skeleton of a vehicle. And then they slowly build less heavy metals on top of it. So it is a freezing vehicle in the cold that you'll be mostly protected in inside. And it's powered by something called a forge core. Forge cores are basically backup generators for the forge.

If the flame goes out for some reason. These can be used in a contained environment. It's like uranium almost for them. So it outputs this extreme amount of heat that powers this vehicle, but it's encased, so it won't destroy you. You know what I mean? But you're basically sitting on top of this forge core. And it has to be recharged every once in a while, which takes a ton of magic. and it's going to be expensive, but we don't have charge stations yet. We're going to have to figure out some sort of, you know, economy for that and, and, you know, ecosystem.

But this is a vehicle that is warm inside. You got to give it a few minutes to heat up. But once it does, the hotter it gets, the faster it gets, and the more it can barrel through. It's up to you how hard you want to push it. But since there's never been any test, There are no safety standards. There's no seatbelts. There's no nothing. There's going to be things we figure out along the way. But this is one mean piece of tech. You have just created something that like you stand back and go, oh, I think we changed the game here a little bit. Yeah. So this is this.

Yeah. So at some point, Ruby's, by the way, hyper-focused on this, probably hasn't slept the whole week. Except for whenever she just passed out literally on the work. room floor. She's got grease everywhere. This is like this is like Kaley Firefly. Like this is just like nonstop, right? So something that I have mentioned before that powers her gauntlets, her wrist bolista and her Velocispring boots are what she calls the focal force springs. These are just little tiny who knows. I don't know what they are. But they're There's something that she has, she's pulled over the years.

For mechanically, those are exertion points. This is how she gets her key. Like, whatever it is. They're basically things that sort of they can fail, but they, she usually has a few charges and then they sort of peter out. Whatever the Dorgar have had to be able to work with. Maybe this arcane energy, maybe this like uranium type, whatever. She's taken that. And she's like, well, hang on. I could make a big one of those if I just had some of that stuff over there. And then she's working with them. And so this is like a, so that you called it a forge core makes a lot of sense for her to be like, okay, well, these are my focal force springs, but that's a forged core.

Okay, good. So at some point, nobody's going to be in there. And I imagine Logrin's going to probably come in and be like, how's it going, you know, kind of a thing. Mm-hmm. She's just going to be standing there staring at it with her arms folded, just looking at it. and probably calculating a lot of things. And she would just say, I think it's done. Hey folks, Jasper here. Sorry to interrupt everything. Listen, we want to connect with you. If you like what we do here, please consider joining our community on our Discord server. And if you want even more, please think about joining the DNR Patreon at patreon.com. slash d-a-n-d-r.

There you'll get behind-the-scenes looks, bonus games, Patreon groups with Jason and Bria at higher tiers, and so much more. There's even some big surprises coming down the path. Links to our Discord and Patreon in the show description. Now, just a couple of words from our sponsors, and then back to the show. I would imagine each day that he comes in to check. It looks more and more like us. thing, but like, there's no, there's no standard or terminology for the stuff that you're doing. Like, the first person to like see a car, it's like, uh, that's witchcraft, right?

That's got to be, you know, I imagine it feels like the first ironclad after nothing but wooden sailing ships, you know what I mean? Like the first steam powered iron hole that shouldn't be able to float, but does because science, you know, all that sort of thing. That's what it feels like, because that's what happened, right? Like, they invented the ironclad and navies around the world. We're like, oh, shit, that changes everything. Like, that's kind of what happened here, right? For sure. The one thing Logrin does, in between talking to people, because he is making sure, like, Jorgar happy, our party is happy, Brackson, not Jesse.

Austin. Austin. He wants to call him. Not Jesse. Just call him not Jesse. Hey, not Jesse. He's dead. Like, just like, I'm... He's dead. No, he's not. He left. I'm so sorry. So he's in between talking of people, though. He is going to not so much try to assist because Ruby's basically in a flow state for a week. But he is going to come in and document. And he'll probably put Camara and night there on this too to help. he wants basically schematics because he wants to be able to replicate it basically. Because if this whole mountain thing doesn't work out, we can start a business.

Ruby has tons of notes and sketches and diagrams. The only problem is that it's not organized. It would be like a stack. It would be like taking a thousand page book and all the pages are in with the wrong order. and you've got to figure it all out. The words are there. Yeah. So that's a little bit of what we do is we're going to try to organize this and collate it into not instructions per se, but schematics, you know. And yeah, you best believe the Durgaard doing the same thing. And it's, it is, I'm sure once it's completed, there's already, it's like, oh, man, we could have did this.

And I bet that. But again, all this has to be tested. There's no, like, they build this. And it's like, I don't know what this is going to do. Like, in theory, it should do this, this and this. It feels like one of those things where eventually like more and more of them are coming to see. Like it's the word getting out of this thing is being made. You see that shit Scrake was working on? And then like they're going to like come. It's like no. And then they go check it out. It's like that's neat. So that's where I would be right there. Kamera and Natharica be here.

You would stand here sort of overlooking everything. I call her the... I call her the gear heart. He just... He can't put a hand... Well, I guess he could reach. He puts a hand on her shoulder. He's like... This is good. He did a great kid. Can I sleep now? Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about that. You really need to sleep. You're not night there. Oh, my God. Okay. And... She would probably be asleep for maybe 16 hours or something. Yeah, he'll throw her literally over his shoulder and be like, all right. She's over the shoulder with just a thumbs up like wherever.

She's just like bouncing. I just rolled for something. And there's one addition I think the Durgaard would make because it's something that helps power there for. but it's going. It's like, okay, so what if you guys get stranded somewhere? All right. So one of those forge cores can keep you going for quite a while, depending on how hard you push this bad boy and how, you know, because on the bottom of it, almost think a steam roller the way the wheels are. They're not that long, but they're kind of like a big chunky wheels that stick to the ground and then they're meant to kind of plow.

That's exactly a bit. Right. And they've kind of attached a thing. Think solar charging. So this thing seeps magical energy out of the ground because there is some inherent magic in everything. But the further you are away from populated areas or areas where there isn't a lot of magical energy, the longer it takes. So you might be sitting there at a diner for a while watching that little percentage meter tick up. What if we park in front of that Fay Wild gate? Yeah. That's a good, like, that's a damn good spot. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. And I imagine to, you know, sort of bringing it back to Ruby, sorry, for a second, the, you know, so her focal force springs that she powers up her stuff with, She's got this sort of intuitive knowledge about how they can power down.

They run out. But then they can power back up. Like she's got some sense of that. So I guess I'm saying is none of this would be out of bounds. Like all of this is like she would have thought, how can we? Yeah, but how can we recharge it? Because these recharge and this is. I don't know. It would have been a part of the conversation. So that's awesome. Yeah. Loggeron would have expressed a lot of concerns. I don't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere. with this. You can't move it if it runs out. There's also the main concern, which is never let anything happen to that container that might allow the forge court to not be contained because you will all burn alive in a second.

Like, you'll just be gone, vaporized. The unleashing of that much energy in, you know, like... I hope that's in case an adamantite. That's where the skeleton started. It's like, look, if I were to use this, then. All right. Let's use the strongest metal we have. Now it's real fucking heavy. All right. Now they're trying to like figure out, you know. So that's probably the first couple of days. It's like, well, we can make it go. But what is it? What is it? What do we do? What cost? Yeah. Yeah. And I think that they're so. So okay, to replicate a vehicle like this, right now, it would cost, you know, a couple of hundred thousand gold.

It's like building your own Lamborghini. But that's because there's no, it's like, you can't just go buy a forge core for the most part. You have to like, you either have to go to Stone Sunder or right here and like they're not exactly giving them away. Then it's Adamantine, which is one of the rarest metals on the planet. Then it's having somebody who can actually build the thing and shape parts for it. You can't go buy. It's like, yeah, I need a gasket for it. It doesn't exist. So like, you have the knowledge now. But this was. Yeah. Lightning in a bottle.

Like this is a moment of the right people at the right time with the right down time with the right role. You know, with the right experience and the right whatever. Sort of. And the reason to do it. Which was we got to move this big huge ingot. Well, hell, there's build something around it that moves. The mother of invention. Right. So I'd imagine the ingot actually just slides into, like, it just fills a chamber into thing. It's like, yeah, sure. Look, it holds one ingot. And it's like, one. This feels overkill. I don't know. I wanted a wooden cart. Well, the problem is if it were like steel or iron, that'd be different.

But already, you're up to 900 pounds, just one ingot. And yeah. So. I want to see some art of this. I think we all need to sit down and like, what are we all imagining here? Yeah, this is very different, I'm sure. Yeah. It is a little flintstones. Yeah. So. Yeah. I guess the upside of us being here for a week doing this, it means we're still here when. That's right. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, okay. A few things are going to happen. happen during this week. And this is where, you know, so she's going to get here on the 14th, not the 13th. And there's a big welcoming ceremony and, you know, like Ruby might hear a little stuff.

It's like, people are being noisy why, but like not, you know, pretty much focusing it out. Shut up. And there's this ceremony to swear in and this is the first queen they've had in quite a long time. So, you know, that's that's another thing. So I don't. don't know if you're waiting to talk to her until your car's done or, you know, but the other thing that's going to happen is Austin is going to get arrested at a certain point. Because Jesse never comes back and he's starting to think that something happened, and they're just not telling him. So each day, he gets progressively more aggressive about it. and he'll, I think the day before he gets arrested, he'll come to you.

And just, like, he's still not back. And I don't know where he is. And they're not telling me anything. And someone's got to know something because I left the room, came back, and he was gone. I think you, like, you hear chimera just kind of like in the background, just like, That crazy son of a bitch, he actually did it. Go on, expound. And Camero will just kind of like look over it, Austin, and be like, you know, a couple nights ago, we were playing cards, and I was getting sick of losing to him. He's very good at cheating. And he kind of mentioned to me in a way that he knew a way out.

That when no one could see him, and he offered if I wanted to come. You know, we knew he was getting squirrely, and he kind of alluded to that he didn't. This wasn't his come. cup of tea, was kind of cracking under the pressure. I wanted to leave. Ask me if I wanted to go, I said, no, no, thank you. I'm right where I want to be. I've got people here who need me, you know. Asked him, you know, well, what about your brother? And he seemed to think that you could handle it. He seemed to think that he seemed to think that. He seemed to you were in your element a little bit.

And he was actually really, really proud of you. He said you could handle this kind of thing a lot better than he could. And he didn't want anyone to know. He said, don't tell anyone this, but... I actually really... really look up to my brother because of this. And here I am spilling the beans. So wherever he is, I'm sure he's safe. I'm sure he's waiting for you. I mean, the mountain is dangerous going out on your own, but he's got a ton of experience. So I'm sure he's fine. I am going to need. The mother All deception checks, please. All right. Please don't feel me now.

I'm not even looking. I'm not going to lick. Oh, my God. About 27. Is that better or worse for everyone? I don't know. I think the tension in the the room as chimera starts to tell this tale and continues to tell the tale and adds more detail and marked information. I think the tension in the room is so thick and everybody just kind of looks at not Jesse. And he's, Kimer is like walking around the room because he picks, like, this is the thing he picks up on immediately and it is not helping. So he's like, like, walking around the room and like, like, slap in Ruby on the back and just like massaging her a little bit and like coming over to Lagrin and just like giving him a little shoulder pat and it's just kind of like trying to like ease things up as he tells all this.

And I think he ends right in front of Austin. All right. None of that. None of that sounds like Jesse. I've never... I've never heard him say anything. Like striking out in his own or... The diplomacy wasn't for him, but... And there's going to be a moment where he kind of tenses up and he's looking at you. I don't have any reason to believe you to lie to me, though. So, you definitely could have said something the last week I've been walking around here looking for him and you knew he was gone. Did he say where he was going? To me? No. He just said he needed to get out of you.

I don't know what it is that he told me all of this. Maybe I just have that kind of face and maybe the heart confesses what it can't to the people that it cares about. Well, his insight ain't beaten your 27, even though he rolled a 17. But I do think there'd be a moment. You said he asked if you want to go with him. He didn't tell you where. Now where. He just asked me if I wanted to get out of here. All right. All right. Well. Wherever he is. I'm sure he's waiting for you. Maybe he's an Esther halt. Having a drink, playing some cards. I mean, that's where I'd be if I wasn't here.

Or Bonzo's. At that point, not with that as a cue, where are we? Where will we be? Is this, is this? You're in the lying quarter. That's where you are. They just renamed it. Are we? I kind of feel like we have to be in Jesse and Austin's room. Okay. I was going to have all this five feet away from a blood smear under the bed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Probably sitting on that. Somebody sitting on that bed. So it can't be moved. Night theater. Night theater is just like sitting. I was going to, I was going to have Ruby, uh, if she were working on. on something mechanical. Should to drop her tool box or something.

I've had to sort of distract everything at that point. When Bonzos was mentioned, but that's not going to happen here. Or it would be really out of place if she had a tool box that she just slammed on the ground. I don't know. I'm sorry. So never mind, never mind. But she will, maybe she would cough at Bonz's. It's a Pavlovian response now. Yeah, it is. It is. She just starts salivating. It's crazy. So then he won't, he won't blame the Durgaar, but he's just going to start packing up. Like there's no reason for him to be here. And now he's behind. He needs to find out where Jesse went.

What, you know, what the fuck? Why did he just split? He didn't leave a note, no, no, nothing. And that has never happened before. Ever. So, yeah, no, he's a bit panicked, you know, packing everything. everything up getting ready to just leave now. We'll check in with you later and ask our old. You get barely a grunt. Like just like I can't even think about that now. Whatever your plan was, but I don't even like, I can't think about money. I can't think about any of that. I and he's going to leave. He's just going to pack up and get out. Yeah, you definitely didn't stop for the second half of his pay.

So there is something that he's going to kind of internally note. So Jesse didn't take his things. Like there are things in the room that Jesse put away that he didn't take with him. And that's going to be like it again, he has no reason to think that you would lie to him. But at the same time, someone is. is not telling him the truth. Like someone somewhere. So yeah, he's going to hoof it. He's gone on the 14th. Question. Does he leave Jesse's stuff? Or does he take it with him? No, this was a thing he probably found in the room like a day or so ago, just looking around.

It's like, okay, so he didn't come back. And some of his things are missing. But it's like, okay, here's his favorite deck of cards. They're just in this drawer. Here's, you know, there's little things that he's just going to. It's like, yeah, every time we, it's like superstitious stuff. That's what you do when you unpack. And it's stuff that he knows. It's like he would not leave this behind unless he were threatened, maybe, where he was afraid of something or whatever. There was a point where he was like, hey, we should just pin everything on them. Maybe he got real paranoid about something.

But again, it's just very out of character. So, yeah. And then the 17th of Doolin is when they are going to finish the car. And Real would have told the new queen about this plan, at least the vagaries of it. Like, it's like, hey, that they're interested in this, this and this. They would like to meet with you if possible, considering you're still here. So it's going to be, you know, Real would come to you at one point. It's like, hey, if you're interested in meeting, there's an opening. Feel free. Go right ahead. But if you want more time, we can go now.

It's just like, yeah, come with me. Like, yeah, I'll take you there now. Oh, shit. All right. Guys, we're meeting the queen. Come on. You're muted, Susan. Should we grab Ruby or leave her to the project? If this is the day she finished, she's asleep. Oh, okay. Yeah, she's like. I thought that was within the week. Okay. Yeah, she would be. You would not be able to wake her up. That's fair. She might be dead. We better go on without her. Just check really quick. Still just fogging. Fogging. Okay, yeah, good. Yeah, yeah. A lot of story. Put a blanket. Put a blanket up over.

Oh, me. Glass of water. Yeah. Yep. So when you get here in... We want to bring Brax with us too. Sorry. I just want to have him... Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brax has just been like, like, bored. Just bored out of his fucking mind. Right. Like, you know, he's, you know. You know. Ruby would have enlisted him to help lift a bunch of stuff dirt for this thing. Like, lift up this. Lift up the back of this. car kind of a thing. He's the biggest person she knows right now that they could do that. He's basically just a old. The flashlight kind of thing. I think Kymir would have seen if he wanted to go and blow off a little steam since they're all cooped up in here.

Definitely would if at some point. Yeah. He knows it's like I can't leave yet because, you know. But yeah. So. Same chambers as before. though that room has been sealed and they're looking into it now. Like it's like when you walk in, there are people milling about everywhere. This woman is a personality. Like you get, you ever walk into a room and there's someone there and it's like, God damn, like there's just something of the commanding presence about them. She is a handsome woman, let's say. She is an older military leader scarred. A lot of facial scars down.

Like, something blew up near her. And she has a version of the crown on, but it is a plain iron thing. Like, it is very utilitarian, not decorative. And she usually just has it taken off. and sat like down next to her. And when you walk in, they're looking at a table that represents the entirety of the mountain. And they're pointing to different things. That's like, this is wasteful. We don't need this. We should take this. But you know, like there's, you're going to be shocked. She has more in her mind more of a focus on strengthening the military side of things and protecting what they have.

And then she's very interested, in speaking with Logren and the group here. So when you walk in, there's going to be a few moments where she's kind of like, friendly barking, like barking at people. It's like this here and then looking at this group and then specifically Logren. Yeah, when she sees us, Logrin bows, like not full 90 degree bow, but he definitely sign of respect. And she'll kind of head nod, basically. But it is for her a pretty big sign of respect. I heard you can handle yourself in a fight. That is true. My predecessor was a weak man, it turns out.

And you won't have that problem. problem with me. What is it you wanted to discuss? Well, we came here with one thing in mind, but as you can tell, things have kind of changed over the last few days. So we're hoping you can be as flexible as we've been able to be. And I think that we'll be able to determine that we have a lot of the same goals. She's not even going to speak. She's just going to be like, uh-huh, keep going like that, like a finger motion. Like, come on. Time is money. Let's go. Okay. So we found out on the way up here from our friend Brax that there is a movement being made to take stones underback.

We've been doing something similar. and we think that there's a way to do it. We know that there's a way to do it that's going to be a lot more bloodless and a lot smoother. And we'll save our strength for bigger fights to come. Because I have no doubt. I know your story. I know that you could take that mountain probably in a week. I have no doubt about that. I'm here to ask you not to. Because I have some. something better. She's, um, she, her stance is going to relax a little bit. And she'll kind of motion for everybody to sit down. There's wonderfully uncomfortable chairs for everybody.

Concord. They're not being bad people. You know, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're very lumbar support people. Yeah. I'm guessing you've heard stories about me, but I have no interest in killing thousands to take back that mountain. I can dig it without killing one. Answer me this question before we go any further. I have a reputation with my people for being crass and un-since me this question before we go any further. uncaring, when all I've ever wanted to do is strengthen our position on this continent. I need to know if you're in a similar situation, or if you're just betraying your people because you don't have a place there anymore.

Oh, I'm not betraying my people. They've been betrayed. I'm here to correct that. The Stone's under betrayed everybody. not just your people, not just my family. The Minotaur, the drow, the rest of the mountain. I could take it from them and from the people who took it from them. And by the end, everybody will thank me for it. This is all quite a story. How do you plan on doing such a thing? He kind of glances side to side of the rest of the group. with sort of a look like. I want to tell her. And so he just kind of like does an open gesture with his hands.

He said, we're in the middle of making. Assembling the pieces to build an artifact that will allow us to visit the dreams of the last stone sunder. And we will be able to compel her through nothing. Through no. trickery to abdicate the throne. This would be the comified child. Exactly. She's in a position where only we can get to her, but only if we can create the item we need to create. And only if we can actually get ourselves into her chamber. And I have a plan for all of this, and it will take time. And my concern, is that a military action. Wow. Very effective.

And satisfying? Sure, yeah. But again, let's put a pin in that. Because I'm not telling you not to attack anybody. And what would you have us do during this distractionary period? Do you know the burglal? She's going to nod like I'm not personally. We've definitely been keeping tabs. We've met them. Nice people. In a way. Outful, but go on. They're going to be an important part of this plan. I think with your support. The last I heard they were all sickly in the week. There's something else we're going to fix. You have quite the to-do of this. You're going to cure illness within a race, create art.

The facts, I'm guessing that's why you needed our medal. Mm-hmm. What is your time table for all of these miracles? I'm asking for four months. I'm asking for four months. You know me. Then you probably know our people's history and you know we've waited centuries. I do. I can give you four months. If you give me four months, and I do everything I said I can do, the door is to Stone's Under Rule open, and the door guard will be welcomed in. She's going to reach for this goblet, and you're going to be able to smell it as straight liquor. Like no wine, no nothing, and just like bang it back, like, drain the glass.

You know that we'll put us right in the middle of the harshest portion of winter. It's not a very advantageous position to be in if this doesn't all go according to plan. I can wait for it to blow over if you want. I haven't an idea that if you have four months to prepare, you'll be ready for it. You'll be ready for it. Your friend, the half-orke. I've taken the look at what they've helped create, and it's very interesting. Would you be opposed to us using it a modified version for our military, perhaps? On the condition that they are not used against Onesander, unless there's no other option.

These would be more defensive weapons as I see them, in case this coalition of races doesn't exactly go as you hoped. The Bougall aren't as trustworthy as you seem to think they are, at least, track record-wise. That's understandable. I totally understand. any skepticism there. They are allies of us. And I realize there's four of us, five of us. Sorry, Brax, standing here. But they are our allies. They owe us a favor. One more question before we move on. If everything just falls into place for you, and you make you make a question. take your artifact. We all work together.

What happens with the mountain once we take it? There will be a- Who gets it? Well, nobody, no, nobody one-one people doesn't get it. It's a mountain that has belonged to many over the years. And it should belong to many after this. It benefits you to have a foothold here and in Stone Sunder. Same for the Minotaur. Same for everybody else. The people who live there now have been limited by being exclusive. By inviting in more, Stone Sunder will have a power that can rival or rash. Give me a persuasion check. Oh, 21. 21. There was a time where I would have disagreed quite thoroughly with you, but I've seen first hand the benefits of working with outsiders with certain things, even just this week.

So I can agree to this. I'll give you four months. And if we don't hear from you in five, then we'll take matters into our own hands. Is that agreeable to you? That is agreeable. You will hear from me one way or another in four months. And I will offer you the designs for the gear heart as a gift. But what? The car, the thing we made. That name needs work. You can call it something else. I don't. She's asleep. She doesn't have an opinion. It's just a little touchy feeling for me. But... Sure, you can call it the box with wheels. I don't care. you can have. We'll give you the designs.

She is very much someone on a time table, and she's going to stand up. I mean, do you think, all right? It is agreed. And she's going to reach out her hand to shake. Yep, he'll stand up and he'll step across and shake her hand. You have quite the two list, and you have transportation. You're welcome to leave whenever you want. unless there's anything else. And she's kind of getting to the point where it's like, please don't let there be anything else. Like, I'm kind of like, I got shit. Yeah. No, you're busy. We'll get out of your way. Thank you so much. You'll be hearing again from us soon.

Good luck, Lockren. As you guys are leaving, Braxas almost kind of like, how did that go? Like, he's not exactly sure. Like, it's like, I didn't know we'd be waiting for months. Like, is that what you intended? Going in? That's a lot of waiting. Longer looks up and brags like, were you not listening? That went great. That's perfect. That's perfect. Well, your part, we can do that next. That's going to be quick. That's going to be quick. When can I talk to your boss? I'm going to guess you don't wish to go east. If it could be avoided. I can have him meet you in Esther holds.

It'll just take a week or so. What about the drought? I can't speak for them, but they seem to be everywhere. I don't think it'll be a problem to have them be. Yes, or hold. See what you can do. And we'll pull strings on our end. You want to ride home? Yeah, he'd be very much like, no. I know. That is a death trap. No. That is a... That is a... That is a... I don't want any fucking part of that. This is coming from a guy who, if I remember, holds a loose cannon literally and lets it explode in his hands. Because the cat is an enormous Roman candle. He doesn't sit on the cannon.

Like he points in it at other things, you guys are sitting on the cannon. Tell me he has never fired that cannon with it between his legs. Okay, I can't tell you that. I can't tell you that. it. Yeah. Susan, where are you going to say something? You, you addressed it. Yeah. Guys? I think that's a good time for us to stop for the night. We got, we're on the road after this. Like, literally. Literally, we're going to make roads. Yes, but to say, we're going to make roads. We're going to make them roads. You're going to make them roads. Big old couch on the front of this thing. to be great.

Some good roles tonight. Insanely good. Like. Thank God. Any of those had gone poorly.