Your Mileage May Vary

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Hey, quick question for all you fantasy readers out there. Do you ever get tired of every book being about saving the whole world from some doom lord perched on a distant lava mountain? Like, sometimes you just kind of want to curl up in a fantasy world without feeling like you're rolling initiative on every single page. But that sounds like you, you might want to give this one a try. It's a book called The Inside Shop by Gilhass. Wait, my copy says Inside Shop. Yeah, that's what I said. But it sounds like you're saying inside shop. Oh, okay. Nope. I get it.

I get the confusion. It's in-side shop. Like, uh, like besides an in. You know, uh, in spelled I-N-N. You know, like a tavern. Cozy beds, bad ale, the whole deal. Inside meaning it's next to the inn. There's a whole thing. So, yeah, the inn side shop. It's a cozy lit RPG about a 14-year-old tinker named Ren, who runs a the shop at the crossroads. The shop literally levels up. Customers come through to stock up at the local dungeon and Wren, the shopkeeper, is just trying to get through his day without blowing something up. It's low stakes, cozy, funny, and it scratches that I just want to hang out in a fantasy world age.

You can grab the inside shop on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com. You can read it on Kindle Unlimited, and the audio book drops this march on Audible. So, if you want something that feels like taking a long rest instead of fighting another world ending boss. Check out the inside shop by Gil Hess. That's Gill with 1L. Hey, everybody, Jasper here. Welcome back to Frostborn, Arc 6 of Dungeons and Randomness. In this case, episode 31. First, we're halfway through December 2025. And until December 31st, we have a very rare sighting for DNR, an open casting call. Come join our gang.

Seriously, you. Details are on our Discord and a link is in our episode, description. There's also a short announcement about it in the main feed if you scroll back a couple of episodes. Please go check it out. We want you to be our new friend. Next up, if you're looking for a good place to start with DNR or with Frostborn, good news. There's a full recap of episodes 1 through 20 in our feed. It takes 40 hours of the Frostborn story and boils it down to a single hour. No small feed, but totally worth it. Scroll down in the feed right after episode 20 and you'll find it.

And please, if you love what we do here, and you love that recap, share it with a friend and help spread the word about DNR. Lastly, reminder that DNR uses level up advanced fifth edition from EN publishing as our gaming system. It springboards off of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition and makes our storytelling even richer. Code D-A-N-D-R gets you a discount. All right. Last time on Frostborn, buckle up. There was quite a bit. After days of stress, Bruce, Brue. broken gear and assuming the worst, we finally found the kids. Chet, Ora, Vetti, and Bazzie, and Baz.

Alive, dancing, and deeply unconcerned at Bonzo's Dark. Relief quickly gave way to exhaustion, and of course, Ruby overeating on spicy harpy knuckles. Bad news. Turns out, Chet actually died while we were gone. Surprise. Stabbed through the heart by a professional assassin? There's good news, bad news. A vampire intervened, so now, now. Now Chet's a thrall. Not dead, not undead, just on supernatural life support, with a count-down timer toward either full-blown vampirism or an actual funeral. All that's to be determined. Around the same time, one of Esther Holt's oldest vampires was murdered.

A crime no one seems interested in investigating. Possibly related, possibly not. Extra complicated because this dead vampire turns out to be Naira's recent lover. Esther Holt, it turns out to be Naira's recent lover. turns out, it's kind of rotting from underneath and doing a terrible job hiding it. The night ends quietly. Ruby and Chimera take a moment to just exist. Logren agrees to help Nithera dig into that murder. No plan solved, no mess is cleaned up, but everyone finally stops running long enough to breathe before the city makes its next move. Today, most of the group heads back into the gloaming quarter to meet up with the kids.

Logren does his thing, collecting allies like others collect stamps. Ruby takes some one-on-one time with the busted-up gear heart and finds a few surprises. Nithera puts on her detective hat and sharpens her daggers. And hey, looks like chimera may have a few new warlock prospects to ease his patron's demands if they don't kill him first. All yours, Jason Massey. Let's do that thing, where we go around the table and introduce ourselves up. Jason on the dungeon master, going around the table, starting with Jameson. I am Jameson. I am Jameson. I play a lot of Christina Aguilera or Brittany Jameson.

We have to. I like the Shakira fans because it just wiggle off on the side. Oh. Okay. Okay. That's basically you're saying you're a conscientious objector. Like you're... No, it's like saying in a Coke Pepsi War. I'm the R.C. Cola guy off on the side. For some reason, I got a fin. did comparing her to 6. She has to be at least Dr. Pepper. I was trying to give her third coli. I mean, the worst thing you could think to say about Shakir is her hips don't lie. And it's like, oh, that's pretty good. Like, that's it. But it's also the only thing I can think of. So like, I don't know if that's...

I don't know. Oh, we're... Do we want to start again? Are we... Absolutely not. Listeners, you have wandered into effectively a Venn diagram of behind the scenes. Yes. It is. And a starting the session. It's getting to the point where behind the scenes is mandatory now. You have to subscribe to the Patreon to hear it. So you can go to patreon.com slash d-a-n-d-R. And you can help support the show. And we talk about our 12-year-old selves a lot. And Eames famous, danced with Heath Ledger. Yeah. None of that is very important. It's very important. It did. All of that is complaining.

You can find out more for just a few dollars. All right. Jameson. Jameson. Lys behind Patriot. Exactly. All right. Jameson, go. Rush take. Hi, I'm Jameson. I play Logger and Craig Bourne. He's a Dwarven Marshall. And Susan. Hey, I'm Susan Spanater. My pronouns are she her. I'll be playing Nicera-Rialith, the Elven Rogue. I was going. I'm Ian. Hey, I'm Ian. Any pronouns are he, any? And I play chimera, the Teafling Warlock. And last and certainly not least, Jasper. Hello, I'm Jasper. He-him. I play Ruby Pedigrew, the half-org, Gearslinger, Adept. It is the 22nd of Doolin.

And it is morning. baby. Now, I don't know how early in the morning you guys are waking up, but I like to picture when you're not on the road. It's just, hey, you get up when you get up, right? Unless there's something pressing. And you're in town. You're kind of, you know, but I like to think it's like, hey, 8, 9 a.m. We're going to roll out of bed. We're going to go get a muffin and we're going to, you know. That's about right. I mean, Ruby likes to sleep 100,000 percent. It's really hard to wake up in the morning. But at some point, her stomach's going to start growling.

I know she's probably full on bonzo. But she'll want some coffee at least or something to wake her up. I think if there's like a pan shot, it's with the dawn, Logrin and ninth year are up. Busy cleaning weapons, armor, like doing stuff. And then pan over to the next room and snores. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Camara's storing and half off the bed. Like super, super flops around. Yeah. Yeah, he's a moving sleeper. Yeah. He's right. All of his place. I think Ruby's just a lot, like a rag doll. Like truly doesn't, doesn't move. And by the, when she wakes up in the morning, she has wrapped herself up in some sort of blanket cocoon that you'd have to take a knife to cut up.

Well, you're. meeting the kids on the other side of town at the church. Is there anything you wanted to do before that, though? Because that is as far west as you can go in town without leaving town. So. I mean, we'll see how this plays out. And we'll see what Loggeron would say about it. But I think if they're all kind of milling around, eventually all up, Ruby probably at some point would just go into Logron room and then. Like there's room like no no like knocking but just like it's where they live just walking into the to the common room. And at some point she would probably just.

Hey, you sure? Can I? Can I take a little bit of time with the gear heart? I know we've got stuff going on and last night was great. Thank you so much for paying for everything. If it's okay, I'd really like to get some down time with her. She just, I think she needs me. All right. You got to stop calling it to her. Then words me out a little bit. I can call her whatever you want me to, but. It's just weird. It's a box, you know? I don't like to give it a. I don't know. It just bugs me a little bit. Anyway, yeah, you got to clean it because I don't want to write in it with all that blood.

So. She would be looking for as much time as she can possibly get. And she would be grateful. I think she's been really tense in part of her brain about the gear heart just needing to be. Number one, checked up on. Number two, getting roadworthy, getting the blood out of it or whatever. But she's been calculating everything. She's got a lot of plans in her head already that she's ready to try to implement if she can. So I hate to split the party. So that's not what I'm trying to do for the for the show. However, I do think she would want that time. I love a good party split.

What's the problem with that? Classic. Logging's cognizant that Ruby's been distracted basically since the thing got damaged. Right. And so that's fine. And he'll say too, like, listen, don't start anything new. Just fix it. No, no. No, it just needs to get. I just got to get it back so that it's usable. So if we need to get out of here on short notice, and she's going to like point out the window just like Esther Holt. Like, we need to get out of here soon. Then I want to make sure we're ready. So if it's not broken, we're not taking it apart, right? No, no, no, no.

That's going to take me a two week to do something. I'm not going to do something like that. I just need to get it right. Ruby, focus. Yes or no. Absolutely. All right. I'll take it. Okay. That's fine. And I want to say while this conversation is happening, Naira walks over to Ruby and takes her scarf, which is a skew, and puts it around her properly and then like puts her hat on straight. And then like, because you probably just rolled out of bed and was like, I got to go do this. To be clear, she talked to Lagerin, but she really did. did not listen to Logrin.

He talked at. Is all she got from him. Which he noticed after the third attempt to get a clear answer. And then just went, okay, she's going to do what she wants. Well, Ruby's going to leave. We get the three of you guys left. Is there anything you want to do before catching a wagon to the other side of town? Or you guys want to walk. Absolutely not. I figured I'd ask. Our time would be double. Yes. Yes. It increases the odds of seeing weird stuff in town or hitting a, you know, a little event type of thing. It changes. Like, if you're in a car, like zipping down the road, like you're not going to run in any weird hitchhikers, you know?

Like, you're not going to run in any weird hitchhikers, you know? Like, you're not mingling with them. That's what I figured. Okay. I was not selling you on. He's armed and armored because first of all, we're going to be meeting these vampires apparently, the new buddies. Second of all, there's widow monster hunters afoot and somebody got murdered. So he's not taking any chances. Assassins and killers out all over the place here. Yeah, right? It's going on. Well, other than the ones that you're familiar. Right. But if I would, listen, if she wanted me dead, he'd be dead right now.

So you would have woken up dead. Somehow. Just sits up. Oh, that was it. Oh, look. Oh, she let me wake up. Oh, you know it. Well, you're going to catch a wagon here. And it's going to take you about 20 minutes to reach the other. side of town. It's relatively early, so you're going to avoid traffic. And along the way, can I get a roll from someone, just a flat D20? Any volunteer. I'll do it. Thank. I was going to do it. First of all of the night. So I'm not involved. She's your role. Oh, it's almost a 20. It was in a way. Yes. Plus five. So that's a two. All right. Okay.

Good. Just wanted to... Nighteera will fidget with her weapons and say to Kimira, not looking at him. The itinerary has an addition to it while we're in town. Oh, fun. What is it? looking at a dagger and putting it away and still not looking at chimera. Turns out the man I slept with, Sira, was the one who was murdered in the middle of the street. And no one's looking into it. And now she's going to look up at chimera. So I decided that we will look into it. Gotcha. What's in it for me? She's going to kick your shin. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Obviously, I owe you a big one.

And whatever I can do, we'll get it done. And we'll find whoever it is. And you get to do whatever you want. Yeah. I'm thinking that even if we bring this to whoever hands out justice, nothing will get done. I think I will be the one to hand it out this time. I can't think of a better person, honestly. And he's going to take your hand, grab it, and squeeze it and say, and I'm sorry, Neferra. That's not the way your evening should have ended. She's going to get stock still for just a moment, but then like you see a slight release. There's never like a true relax for a ninth year.

There's never a, you know, slouch and let go. But there's a slight release and she's going to squeeze your hand. Thank you. Looking forward to it. There's a version of me who would have just went on a murderous rampage through the town, so I figured I would let my... And then she's going to look over to Lager and then back to your friends. Help this time. Thank you for not doing a murderous rampage. Would have really slowed things down. Yeah, I didn't want to ruin your plans. there still may be murder, but you're aware now. Yeah, just the less rampages, all I'm saying.

And I really want to see that mask come on. This may be the occasion, but we need information first. And it seems no one in town is even looking into it. So, I think he may be that monster hunter has something, if not information. I could definitely find him in question. for you. And like a flashback of YouTube flirting. Yes, I think you could help. Oh, God, no. It's a night or twos, apparently. Logger and rolled an insight check to see if the driver was listening to us talking about murdering rancash. I like to think there's a little divider. It's like, Sh, like, yeah, it's fine.

He's not painted. And then he just goes back to it. It's a metaphor. So do you remember how you guys rolled a two earlier? We're not going to point fingers. It's just that kind of night. How I rolled it to? Well, I'll own it. It wasn't for. It's my two. It's my two. It's, it wasn't for killing. That's the problem. So it. I like consistency. And so far, that trope has been. Very consistent. The closer you get to a town, the worse your roles get. Just give me a fight in town and we'll see how the dice handle that. Be careful of what you ask. So you guys are, you guys are going to make it about about halfway.

And there is a block of like tenant housing. So these are buildings that are kind of like tight clumps built. on top of each other kind of haphazardly a bit. It's more low income. And as you guys are wrapping up this conversation, something is going to hit the top of this carriage and kind of like cave in a portion of it. So much so that the driver's going to stop instantly. And you're going to see a body roll off the side of it and land in the street. And there is a gaping wound in their neck. And they are just bleeding into the cold cobblestone. What the hell is going on in this city?

My theory is going to be. immediately jump out of the carriage. Look at the body for a second, but then look at where it possibly could have come from. You don't even need to check for this. So there is a balcony about four floors up. And you're going to see that monster hunter standing there leaning over the side. And if you look up, he's going to look down. That was me. Don't worry about it. And he's going to start climbing out onto the building and like sliding down as best he can until he gets to the bottom and just hits the street. And he's going to start reaching into his pocket as he approaches this body.

Well, that's one way to get my attention. By this point, a crowd is starting to guess. by the way. This is a big deal. It's not like, it's like, what the fuck? Like, that's a huge, you know. And he's going to take out some, a sprig of something, some, some kind of herb. He's going to approach the body and kind of make sure his glove is pulled on. You folks might stand back just for a second. I need to confront the body and kind of make sure his glove is pulled on. firm something. And he's going to put this little sprig into the pool of blood. And you're going to see it kind of spark and sizzle.

Huh? Found him. Ladies and gentlemen, that is your werewolf. You are all welcome. And a couple. So, okay, there's this weird thing that happens, where everyone's just like looking at each other. like one person starts a slow clap and like a bunch of people are just going to start applauding this guy because he's taking a bat like it's like okay I guess shit good job that blood did do weird stuff I guess like they're just going to start clapping for him I clap I clap I clap I do not Locker didn't get out of the cart. Wow. Okay. He's in the car. Well, you started by arguing with the driver about, no, you sit here.

I don't care about the roof. We're going to wait until with the traffic clear is. And we got to keep going. But then he just, he saw it was this guy. He was like, all right. Well, and he just sat there. He's especially going to look over. at Kymir. Just kind of like give him a little wink as he bows. And he's going to, he's going to grab a few coins from his pouch and go over to the driver. I am so sorry for the damage. Here, take this. Get it repaired. Get a paint job. It's on me. What do you pay him? Night Thier is going to roll her eyes and go into the cupboard of the lawn.

What did he pay? Can I get a look at it? Can you get a look at it? Can you do that? Give me a perception. He's not hiding it, but like, you know. Yeah, but it's coins changing hands. So that's a flat 13, ladies and gentlemen. Any bad at all. He hands him about 30 gold, which is quite a lot. In a world where, like, okay, 30 gold can get you a lot. And that would easily fix the damage of that. Because, you know, it's probably not going to be out of his. pocket anyway, but you know, he's, he gave him way more than he needed to for this. So it's a little bit of a flex.

Like, it wasn't like he handed him a hundred or something, but it, you know. Okay, he doesn't comment one way or the other. I just wanted to see. Yeah. It's a decent night at a pub, you know, for one person. Kimira is just, uh, Kamira is beaming. This is, this is fun. This is super fun. And this isn't just to double check. This isn't the werewolf that attacked us, right? This is a different where... Nope. This is just a guy. Like, it's just... So this is a dude. It's very... It's really random and strange. And... Yeah, no, it's just... I guess... I guess odd. It's just...

Like, there's no due process. Like, he just killed this guy. And then he tested it to make sure. Like, he was 99% sure. If you asked him, he's like, oh, I was very sure. But, you know, we have to check. Like, it's... Yeah, that's it. Impressive deduction. You checked after you killed him. I was already sure. I wouldn't kill without doing my investigation first. But people have a tendency to... to question my methods after the fact, and I just wanted to make sure that there was an audience. I like that you're thorough, and it seems like you always get your man.

I certainly do always get my man. Where are you going after this? Well, I need to get paid, but after that I'll have some coin burning a hole in my pocket. I don't know if it's on your way, but we're headed to the church. we could give you a lift if you're going that direction. You need an insight check. Roll one for Logrin, too, because he's in the car going, there's plenty of room in the car. Well, if you push up and like, there's a crumple bit. But like, you do it. Oh, no. Why can't I find my fucking skills? Oh, here we go. Okay. Insight, trained in that.

Let's go. Oh. 22. Damn. Okay. See, guys, that's a role. That's what you, that's what you got to do. It's not a competition. I'm sorry. So. But Ian's winning. So far. So far. He's. you're going to catch a look on his face. He has a pretty rock-solid demeanor. But just for a second, he's going to almost like wince. I'm all right. I prefer to hang on this end of town if that's okay with you. But this evening, if you find yourself on the east side, I'll be around. I might be. Huh, that's weird. I didn't think a monster hunter like you would be so skittish around vampires.

Well, I don't see vampires as monsters per se, but I've had a few clients stiff me. Vampires being your clients? Yes. Oh, I see. Awkward. I get it. Well, yeah. I might be around on the east side of town. Maybe you can find me. You seem to be good at that. And like, okay, he is going to, he's going to smile because now it's a game. Like, he's just nodding as like, oh, yeah, I'll find you. Okay. And you don't have to throw any more bodies on garages I'm in. You can just tap me on the shoulder or smile at me from across the street. I'll be able to pick you out. Well, I do like to stand out from the pack.

Get someone's attention. I love Susan's face. I got to start flirt with a pack. the cast members. I'm getting a reputation with my wife. Like it's getting to the point where Camero will go, I'm sure you do. And he'll get back in the, get back in the carriage, ducking under the big jam. Yeah. As you guys kind of saddle back up and you're going to start back down. you're going to hear people cheer as he's kind of whooping the crowd up into a frenzy. Guards kind of closing in. And he is very much about the, like, you'll hear him proudly say his name. And yeah, like everyone's kind of chanting like Silver Fox by the end of that.

Like he is really into the, the adulation. I might be meeting up with your favorite monster hunter later. And I can ask him about what went down. Is there anything specific you want to know? I just feel like he. I just feel like he's. He might have some information on it. Seeing as this was a proclamation against vampires, and he seems to be in the know of who is after quote unquote, monsters. Right. Gotcha. Yeah. Well, I'll see what I can find out. Let's get you up with Ruby. All righty. So you're going to get to where the gearhart's parked. And there's going to be a watchman who tells you, we've had a couple of people like looking, like trying to peek under the tarp.

We shoot them away. But really appreciate that. I'm not surprised at all. She's doing, by the way, she's in her element, right? So she's there. She's chit-ch-chatting, very confident. She's got her hand on her hip. And she's just like, yeah, no, I get it. I really appreciate your time. And, yeah, no, I mean, I'm happy to show you around too, but I really do appreciate that. She's just chit-chatting, but super ready. He's very much of, you can tell this guy's just a little spooked about it. Like, it's like, it seems unnatural. Like, his whole thing is horses, right?

So he's like brushing down a horse and everything. And the snow is melted in a circular pattern around that tarp. And he's just like, nah, I'm good, man. Like, I'm good. Kind of an older guy. He's like, I'm too old to learn the internet. I'm good. So he's just going to let you do your thing. But if you need anything, tools or whatever, let me know. Oh, actually. Yeah, let me get a list for you. I'll find you. He didn't expect you to take him up on that so quickly. Because it's like you have tools on you. You have like three tool belts. Like, okay, sure. Yeah, okay.

She's got more than that and it stuffed in Lagerens pack that he doesn't even know about and all kind of stuff. Right. So for sure. But she'll be move slower. Like, yeah, like it's. He's going to find out one day that she's been putting rocks in his backpack. He's going to be like, why am I so? My collection of iron wrenches. Yeah. So she would, I mean, I don't know if there's anything else here, but she would want to get straight to town. Like she would like a like a chef, she would have, she would unroll. You know, these these toolbox like cloth tool, you know, all the wrenches, all of the things, all of the things, all of the whatever, whatever she's got like the I, I, like, I, like, I wrote down so many things today thinking about what she's going to do.

The copper tong tweezers and the valve grip drivers, torque ribbons, like whatever it is, just junk. Like random stuff that doesn't really exist. But she's got every tool known to Theria, ready for this thing. So you have a couple of workbenchers set up. You have everything meticulously. There's only two kinds of people who do that. And that is very proud craftsman or interrogators. Like, those are the only two people in movies that line up tools like that. It's true. And you're going to whip this big tarp off of the Gearheart. And there's going to be a second while you're staring.

And it is immaculate, dent-free. Absolutely. Picture perfect. It looks like you're, It's been waxed. What? Absolutely. Pristine. It looks better than when you rolled it off the assembly line. Hey, hey, hey, she'll get his attention again. Wherever he's off to, the guy with the horse and. Still with the horse. Just brushing it down. It's like, yeah. Has somebody been here? Has somebody gotten under these? What's been happening here? You said you shoot people away, but clearly, there's been people messing with the gear heart. She's saying the name. She's trying to make sure he knows the name.

Branding, man. It's important. Right. She's gobsmacked. So she's trying to figure out what the hell is going on here. So this guy feels like you're about to accuse him of something. So he's going to stop rushing the horse. It's like, a friend, no one touched your thing. It's been under that tarp. I've shoot a couple of people away, but no one even knows it was parked there except for some guards. But it was it was beat up. There was blood. She's going to go look inside it real quick, too, because she hasn't been there yet. So she's going to take an even, a deeper look.

Is there blood inside? Is it a steering wheel? She's going to be glancing around and all the things that got messed up. So not only is there no blood. but it looks like there's a pulstery now for the seats. It is this beautiful red interior with what looks to be like fur headrests and stuff. Like, it's very nice. Right. But you definitely didn't put that there. So Ruby would be going through a lot of different. thoughts and a lot of different emotions and the think the I mean thoughts are just like what the why the hell what's going on she would be not threatening the the horse handler or anything but she would be acting angry with him not almost he would think why is she mad at me and she's just like I'm just mad like I'm not mad because emotionally she's like this I wanted to do this what about going to do with this? this and she's going to hold this sack of just gold.

And earlier before they left, I rolled a private roll for slide of hand. 16. I'm assuming that's good enough to take something from Loggern, right? Well, that's a dangerous precedent, but let's roll with it for now. It's she's not stealing from Logger. This is, this would, but she's totally stealing from Logren. Yeah. In any case, she just wanted to make sure she had. had enough to cover what was needed if she were going to be taking care of the gear hard and needed some additional supplies or something like that. She's not looking at it like I'm stealing from logging to do something that I shouldn't be doing.

However, now she's, her agency has been taken away from her. She's like, but this is exactly what I wanted. Are you sure nobody's been here? So he's going to, he's insistent. No, no one's touched. I swear. Yeah. She's going to now pull him into her little circle. She's been, it was ruined. It had been destroyed inside. There was blood. There was a were were wolf. I don't know if you heard about it. But anyway, things were destroyed. There was. She's going to look at the, at the steering wheel specifically. Is that in good shape? Everything. Well, it's gorgeous. She's going to point it.

That is it. That was bent all the hell. somebody's done this or something's happened. I don't know what to even think about this and I don't have anybody to talk to. All right, well, is there anybody else that's maybe been around when you've been asleep or anything else? Like, I just don't know what's going on here. Oh. She's just kind of flipping out. Well, I can. I can ask, but I've been here all night. All right. Fine. All right, I'll let you know if I need anything. I appreciate it. Sorry, I'm just, I get mad because I like things being the way I like them.

This is pretty great. All right, well, thanks. I'll get back to you in a second. She's going to go right inside the Gear Heart, and she's going to be checking. it all out. She wants to see if anything else has been done to this. Is it basically that this has been cleaned and polished and waxed and and all of that? Or is anything else that she didn't expect to be changed, changed? Other than the upholstery. I know that that's one you mentioned, but I think Susan's right. I think we need an investigation check. Let's do this. 15. So it's just it's obviously strange because you expected it to be beat up.

It's largely unchanged. The upholstery is new. It looks like someone came in and detailed it. Like it not only is everything, you know, you know, nothing is bent or broken or snapped or anything. like that. It's all polished and shiny. And someone came through with some armor all and really buffed it and stuff. Like even the outside of it is, you know, it looks like it's been clean. She's just, she'll just pause and be just like, I'll be damned. Hang on. She's going to go check the, at the forge core. She's going to go check it out and make sure that it's like, it's. in good shape as well.

Because if the forge core is not working, or if something seems a miss or off about that, then the gear heart's nothing. Give me another investigation check. 22. Oh, gorgeous. So you're going to... So to get to that, you have to push back one of the seats. And I imagine, you know how in every car there's. like that hump in the middle where there's like, I imagine that's one of those things you've got to like unscrew and like pop open and instantly you're going to feel warmth coming from this thing and there is inside there is a casing and inside that there's the forge core.

If that casing wasn't there, your skin would have melted off by now. Like it is it's important. So you're kind of like checking that casing and everything and it you know that the heat dissipates from it. very quickly. It's it's almost like a heat sink. So it's meant to stay relatively cool for what it is. There's not a scratch on it. So everything about that is it's like okay even even the screws and nuts and bolts have been tightened. Everything about this you know because you were noticing it's like I need to get some washers and some something to lock these down because as you were coming down the mountain you can hear. things loosen a little bit.

It's like, yeah, that was her. That was what she's been thinking in her head all this time. What she's been calculating and planning and she knows exactly the order of exactly how she wanted to be able to go about it. It's all leather straps and ratchets and put everything together. It is it's going to come loose, right? So now she has nothing to do. So she's going to come back out of the Gear Heart. Truly dumbfounded, like with a really confused look on her face. She's going to sigh. She's going to put her hand on her hip. Long silence. She's just thinking and thinking.

Well. I guess I'll just do some upgrades. I mean, all of her tools are out there. So she's like, well, I'm not, I mean, I came out here. So. So. Not going to waste the time. Not only is it fixed, but even if... Even if someone wanted to mess with this, right? Because it would have to be either one or two people to not be noticed. But even then, right, they'd make noise. This is like, I don't know, maybe two weeks worth of work total. Fixing it and you know what I mean? Yeah. So like, it doesn't make any sense. It would take a team of people and then that... who knows how to fix it.

They didn't even know what it was. So, you know, she's, she is genuinely, she's not just like over it. She's just compartmentalizing it. She's like, that is messed up. But it is what it is. So we'll figure that out later. I'll talk to the team about it and maybe we'll figure something out. But she's just going to try to take advantage of the time based on what's sitting there in front of her. And she's going to try to. get to town on it. I've got a whole list here, Jason. I've been thinking about today. Now, I'm not saying all this is to be as possible. Sure.

Yeah, no. I'm just like, damn. This is. This is her. She's got a whole list in her head. Number one, she wanted to make sure that there was a forge core housing that was like super secure. She's worried about the forge core. That's important, right? And she wants to make sure nobody gets hurt, that it's not missing anything up. Thinking about the mad king, the mad door guard king, she's like, let's make sure this thing's super housed. So that's just something she wants to make sure. It sounds like it's in good shape. So she was worried that it was rattling and about to fall out of there, but it's actually not.

One thing she wants to do is this is a rudimentary thing, right? This is wood, leather, maybe some burlap or something like that. that with some really strong ropes or whatever it is. She wants to be able to have a lever inside as she's sitting there, that she could pull back and forth. And it would do this back and forth across that front glass, like a wipe. Okay. Right. Okay. It's, it would be very rude. It's the kind of, I recently saw something on one of my feed, social feeds somewhere. Where it's like showing a video of people of people. people of somebody driving.

What do you call it when you do the cars and it's all muddy and whatever? Demolition Derby? Yeah. Yeah. So. And they've got this tape on their, their helmets that they just keep ripping the tape off. And it's like a stack of tape and they just pull it. Oh. And it's a really efficient way. It's really neat. So that made me think. You just want something to go and get, you know, whatever snow or blood coming out of the sky, whatever it might be. Sure. You know, so she can see. So that's number one. Another thing that she was thinking, that she's definitely thinking about, was the cushions in upholstery, which is already done.

So a couple of other things that she'd want to make sure is happening here. Number one, she wants to make sure that there's a lot of storage and places to be able to hook things. She's thinking about like a net on the ceiling inside where we can put storage and that kind of thing, just stuff. But more importantly, where people are sitting, she wants to make sure that everybody gets a little bit of a little bit of. a personalized armrest area type thing or maybe some stuff under their seats. This how this looks I don't know. But she wants night there to have some places for her daggers or for her oils.

She wants to have a little like maybe underneath the chimera seat, you know, like a little like a snack area for booze and and fun and whatever. Right? Just something. It's just something. And the same thing for Lagrin with his stone carving. You know, so he can sit back there and and. And it's like a little, it's like a little thing in the back seat where you pull it down and it's got the cup holders and a little tray. An activity table. It's an activity table. But I was thinking on the outside of this thing, imagine, imagine a van, like an 18 van, right?

You've got the runners on the side where you step up into the van. She wants to put, like, like a little thing that could fold down that you could stand on the side or stand on the back. She's just thinking about, you know, this thing gets going. You can have somebody stand out there and cast a fireball. That could be real cool. So we're getting little ninja turtles with it now. A little bit. Just a little bit. This is the crawl version of all of these things. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. To be clear. You didn't go full pizza thrower or something. Not yet. But one thing she would do as an upgrade is more like thinking of the future.

She's going to be spending whatever time she can have with this thing today, tomorrow, however long she gets. Putting in cables, levers, tubes, tubes, whatever is needed. And she's going to have a little panel next to where she's. She drives. It's going to have a bunch of little levers that she can pull up and down, up and down, up and down. She's going to have a bunch of labels all over these things. Some of them are going to work now. Some of them are going to maybe be there for later. But I have a list of labels if this is okay. Yeah, that's fine by me.

She's going to have the word spare. The word less. The word more. She's going to have one labeled hag. She's going to have one labeled we. W-H-E-E-E-E. She's going to have one that says Light them up. She's going to have another one right next to it. This says light them. It's different. She's going to have, yep, nope. She's also going to have one that says the long way. She's got a few things like that. I'm just trying to give you a sense of Ruby's brain here. That's it. It's sounding more and more like my desk. And that troubles me. Oh, there's one called Settletit.

That's different. Here's the thing. I don't want you to roll anything right now. But later, when we go to U.S. use some of this stuff. I will have you make an engineering role. I think that makes a lot of sense. Not for every single thing. No, no, no. I think it makes general sense because this isn't battle-worn yet. Nobody's tested these things out. She's thinking, I got this. I'm pretty sure I got this right. And then then let's see what happens. That gives us some room also to figure out some things that might actually make some sense to be in there. I did think of ejector seats. but I feel like maybe that's another day.

Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. Not now. Oh, but she would want to do things just normal, normal comfort type stuff. If there's the upholstery and there's cushions, she'd make sure that there was tubing from the forge core area that would allow for, you know, our feet would be warm in here, right? This is really a little bit more luxury cup holders, that kind of thing. So while you're working on all that, let's catch back up with the rest of the group here. And you're going to arrive in the gloaming quarter. They're going to let you out. And you're going to walk the rest of the way into the, you know, into the furthest portion of this area.

And there is a massive Gothic church. And it's the kind of place where you have to. It's almost like the rocky steps, like layers. and when you reach the top of it, there's going to be this massive archway, very angular, very, you know, gargoyles and stuff like that. So it is exactly whatever you're picturing. Yes. That. And with your passive perception, you're going to be able to hear people argue as you're approaching. It's very echoy, and it seems to be coming from the back. but there is a grouping of people. I'd say vigorously debating. Not shouting and arguing just, no, no, no, you don't understand.

Like, you know what I mean? Back and forth like that. And you're going to, so you're going to see the kids. They're going to be hanging out by the door waiting for you. But they are very much focused on that conversation going on there. So much so that they probably don't notice you coming. up behind them. Is it just them arguing with each other or they'd argue with somebody else? Well, the kids aren't arguing with anyone. They're watching this. It's taking place in the back of the church. Oh, okay. Yeah. So there's a group of adults, like, kind of, you know, back there.

It's very clear they have a, they have very passionate views. Nighteira's going to sneak up on Vetti in the style of. of their former training and just kind of like poker in the back to make her jump or something to make her remember the training. I imagine she jumps or something. Oh, yeah, but just I think she's so wrapped up in the conversation and like there's a bit of like pressure and tension with it. So the second it's like, oh, and like turns around and sees you and instantly like throws an arm around. you just keep it down a little bit. They're really getting into it.

Well, first off, I taught you better than that. And second, what are they arguing about? Well, she's going to, she's going to, she's going to kind of way for everybody to go outside. Come on out here, I'll fill you in. Just basics. We've only really been hanging out here a week, but. there's a little bit of tension on where to take the community. So once everyone's outside, there, you know, she's kind of kind of get into it. So there's two main schools of thought. Everyone seems to agree that they should get more say in town, some kind of vote, even if it's just a representative from the gloaming quarter.

But they don't exactly agree on who that should be or how they should go about doing that. The people we've kind of befriended and we're more connected to, they are pretty, I don't know, pretty reasonable. They think that they should have someone elected, that they should be able to do things like in. investigate murders of their own people. Really rational stuff we felt. And then the other half of the community is a little old school, I guess, you could say. And they're really, they're really of the opinion that they should either strike out on their own or own a third of the city.

Considering they've helped defend it so many times. And they kind of see the blood raining from the sky as a sign. And that's kind of what they're arguing about right now. And they have been arguing about it for at least a week. And you're living where these types of meetings occur? Well. So far, it's just been debates. I mean, the last place we live, we could have got murdered. So this has been kind of a step up. True. Just didn't realize how ingrained into the epicenter of this new community you're part of. And she's going to kind of like, she's going to lower her voice and just like she's going.

She's going to point over to chat. Well, I mean, no. They were nice enough to save them. And then we started helping out around here. and, you know. We kind of owe them. Where do you fall? What side? Well, we definitely agree they should get, you know, they should get to say in stuff. And there's two groups. The pale mercy are a lot of clerics and paladins that in life, that in life, follow the gods and everything, and they keep doing that even though they're technically dead. They're still healers, and a lot of them use their powers to help citizens even though it hurts them.

Like, holy magic burns. But they're still out there helping people if people will accept their help. People get spooked about it sometimes. The other group kind of wigs me out a I'll be honest. What's their moniker? They're the silent choir. They're really religious, but some old vampire god thing. And they're kind of... A lot of their beliefs, words like cleanse, purge, things like that come up. And it doesn't really help debate. It's more final, you know? Mm-hmm. Like, they're not bad people. It's just, you know, it... No, they're frustrated in a situation that has them oppressed.

Yeah. What's the name of the vampire god? Did you happen to catch that? Oh, man, hold on. I know this. I know this. It's like a... It's like one of those names from like a storybook. You tell to scare kids. I... Shrudevapeta. I don't think that's it. Less consonants. But it's something. It's something. It's something... It's something... It's... something quiet. Something... Not noisy? Something like that. You know? Can I make a religion check? Please. I keep thinking I have religion trained and I don't, but I'm going to do it anymore. I mean, it can't hurt. Eight. Eight.

Nothing jumped out at you. Yeah, like nothing. But like, you know, you go to different towns and cities. You spent a lot of time in Aubrey. It doesn't sound like any God that they would worship in Aubrey. Yeah, I feel like a vampire god would be particularly not talked about in Aubrey. So it's so not talked about that it's almost like if you decided to pursue it, you know they'd have knowledge about it in Aubrey. You absolutely know that there's a book or several somewhere in that city that would tell you everything you wanted to know. Yeah, it sounds like fan fiction to Lager.

They're just making up God now. 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 Bree 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.

Brie was telling me about an AU. She was reading, and it's like, well, Thor's in college. And like, that's stupid. Why would Thor need to go to college? And I just, I was disappointed in me. Just a little bit. It's like revulsion. Yeah. Well, it's just, it's not even. That's dumb. That's not how that way. It's, I'm sorry. You're right. Like what you like. I'm just being. Yeah. Who cares? I don't know. Right. It's like, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. So, yeah. Well, I was kind of like, he was kind of half listening to the first top of part. I rolled a stone cutting check on the church because he was kind of interested in that.

But it wasn't super high. He only got a 13. So he's like, that's pretty good. But that's about as far as we got. I think with a 13. Big high ceilings. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they got those acoustics just right. Not my style, though. But yeah, he's just kind of happening attention to to the stuff about the the fight. So which ones are the ones that were supposed to meet? Oh, well, um, so Mother Duskword is, is who you're going to be. That's who helped us out and say, Chet. Uh, she's really nice, um, seem to know a lot, but, um, the other group wants to talk to you too now that they knew you were coming, and that's kind of what they're arguing about today.

I don't like that, but all right. I'm real sorry. I didn't tell them about you. I think word just kind of got out. It's a big church, but a small place, you know? All right. Well, should we just go? I mean, I don't want to interrupt him, but I also kind of do want to interrupt them. Yeah, Tommy. We can just avoid all that. And she's going to start, you know, leading you guys in there. And as you're walking in, or is going to kind of grab Kimira's arm real quick. Hold up. Yes. And she's going to look around. and kind of like clock it just to wait to the rest of the party walks forward enough.

When did you want to meet with those, you know, the, the, the... Hmm. I mean... Soon, yeah, maybe... I have this thing, maybe tonight. But he could find me. Yeah. So like, I got two groups of people. Were you looking for people with potential or full-blown suckers? Oh, both is good. I figured, okay, the suckers is easier. So we can get them out of the way and, you know, people with potential might be a little bit of a harder sell, but... Yeah. That's good. I like that you're already like figuring them out. That's perfect. Well, the first group of guys wasn't very hard.

They're just looking for like love potions or something. They're just hard up horny dudes who want to like have powers, you know? They don't have a lot going on. Real easy. I figure there's like six or seven of them. You could sign them up like that. Yeah. And yeah, you know, they'll do. They'll do. As far as... The other group's going to be a little tougher. They're going to want to see some... They're going to want a demonstration, I think, before they sign anything. Oh, okay. Yeah, we can do that. It sounds like fun. How are you with violence? Like watching it, seeing it. it doesn't turn my stomach.

So, okay. A second group of guys? They're kind of a gang. Ah. I've been in this scenario. Okay, good. Okay, so they'll sign anything as long as you can get them some power. And then I just told him, you can't do anything in the city, you gotta go away. But that's it. Right. And they want to see if I can take them, right? Oh, I was just thinking you show him some glowy eyes demon stuff. That'll probably. They're real stupid. But if you want to fight them, we could do that too, I bet. If we don't have to, we don't have to. I'd rather just show off. No, no, no, no.

Hold on a second. What if I... Okay, hold on. I like this idea. So we get a few of them to step. You're not a big guy, but you can get your boyfriend, your demon, you know, whatever. And I could just kind of like buff you from the side. Between the two sources of luck, you'd probably be able to wipe the floor with two or three a minute of time. Well, he doesn't quite work like that, but I like where you're going, because that could be fun too. I mean, having you on the side doing a little buff, that could be good. Yeah, actually. That could be real good. Okay.

I'll start setting it up if you want. Yes. Yeah. We gotta do, we gotta have this chat, you know, and we'll come back. Yeah, set it up and let's go. Orah, ah, you make me so proud. She's no shit just gonna give you a big hug. I'm so excited. Okay. Do you have a... like a quota or something you get to meet? Like, for every third dip shit you sign up? Like, do you get a new power? Do you get like bigger horns? How does it work? I wish that's how it worked. No, I'm just... I wasn't racist, right? Like, do you... Do you think like measure success by horn size? How does that work?

No, don't worry about it. It's... That's... You're good. You're... We're not canceling you. Um... ...uh... ...what was I say? I got lost here. I got lost on the horn size thing. Beating up dummies. Yes. Yeah. Go do that. Yeah, I'm super proud of you. This is great. That's awesome. We're going to have a lot of fun. She is going to beeline almost, almost running out the door, but just beeline it out into the street. And just make a hard left turn and disappear down an alley. Oh, Camara is just like so, like this is so, this is makes him so happy. This is like, oh, my God.

They grow up so fast. It turns out. She's got an eye for this thing. Yeah. I take an initiative. She's like, it's awesome. So I got them divided into two categories. There's the simps and the violent guys. Like, that's the two. That's the two. Meanwhile, Feddy's going to walk you guys up. up to a big solid oak door and knock on it. And there's going to be a voice the other side. Please come in. Opening this up, there is a very plush office, like leather everywhere. And more importantly, it is dim. There's some candles, but it's a pretty dark room. As you would imagine, not a lot of use for. for Windows here.

And Vettie is going to kind of motion for you to go in. I mean, Logger and will go in first. Obligatory, I have dark vision. Also, I have double dark vision. I have double dark vision. I don't really do, actually. So I like that. Even flinchette. Like, it's just, keep it all dark for that. But all three of us like, okay. Whatever. The only difference is it's black and white. It's just monochrome. And it's like, all right. So save it on a candle budget. That's fine. You've seen the price of wax. You see here. It's a lantern oil. God damn. I can produce a little flame.

I can make a little flame in my hand. I can just like get a little light in the room. Do you strobe at different colors? So it's a little fun. I don't think I can make it different colors, unfortunately. But you get a few more souls under your belt? Oh, baby. Yeah. I do strobe in some shoe light flames. Basically. We're going to RGB this shit. Come here as a gamer. Yeah. Yeah. So inside here, You're going to see a woman that looks like she's in like her later 30s, maybe, early 40s. And wearing this dress with like really billowy sleeves. And it almost looks like kind of wizard cloaky type of thing.

But it is a very expensive looking outfit. Right. And looking around this room, it's like, okay, hold on. You got like a humidor in here too, probably. like it's very classy. There's booze that like decanters of things like it's been next to her like kind of standing off to the side is a rather grim looking man with a less impressive outfit. He's wearing full plate, but it looks like it's charred. Like it was in a fire at one point. Um, kind of crunchy looking and and yeah. but he's going to be eyeballing you, not stink eyeing you or anything, just kind of waiting to see.

But he's got a relaxed position, but you can see that his hand is right near the hilt of his blade. Like if he has to, he'd draw on you real quick. Like you get that impression. And the woman's just going to, please come right in. I mean, Lagerna will go, you know, fully into the room with, with, with the entourage. I feel like the three of us know how to move together as a group for this type of thing. It's just a matter of whether the kids fall in with it too. And he'll give Vetti a beat if she's going to make introductions. But if she doesn't, he's going to introduce himself.

So. Give me an insight check, please. Hmm. That I am trained at. Oh. Good thing. He's looking at the stone works still. That's fine. Yeah, that's a three for a total of six. Fetti kind of clams up, actually. She will, she'll start to say, it's like, this is the group I told you about, but like kind of trail off. Like she's... Yeah, so he probably gives it too long of a beat then because he's expecting her to continue. And then he just kind of like turns and looks at her. and then looks back and like, all right. Oh, well, my name is Lager and Gregborn. I heard you wanted to meet with us.

And he'll like pull like big stone gauntlet off of his hand and like, it depends. Is she within handshake reach or is she so like positioned herself so so that she is not physically reachable? You know what I mean? Like right? No, so she's standing behind the desk, but we'll walk out from, you know, as you walk into the room, she'll reposition. So it's not like a you come to me, fuck you. It's not. It's more I wasn't expecting you right this moment. So you get the, you get the impression that they were probably talking about something relative to them their plans or whatever.

Right. You don't get an idea of importance or scale. So she's going to. Yeah. She's going to reposition. Like if we are 20 yards away, he's not going to offer a handshake because that's awkward. But if she's. Of course. Yeah. Just standing there with a... Okay. So she will absolutely, you know, kind of close the distance and very gracefully, like, you know, very smooth hands. Just kind of slide into your grip. And very cool to the touch. It's like, oh, you're moisturized. Like, that's, you know. And she has an interesting gaze. Her eyes are this kind of steely blue. and she blinks minimally.

It's almost kind of a stare that, like, you get the idea, like, there's calculations going on. Like, I'm assessing you the entire time, right? But she's going to give you a warm smile. I very much appreciate you coming to see me. Happy to help. What can we do for you? Well. Would you all have a seat? I can pour you some drinks if you're interested. Please, yes. If we all go to sit or whatever, does that man with the plate armor also sit? Yeah. Okay. Niferra will mirror him to establish that. Oh, I know you're in bodyguard mode. I am also in bodyguard mode. Let's make these roles very clear between us.

Give me an insight check, please. Okay. How about a 21? Holy shit. 21's good. So this is going to be one of those things that's going to be missed by like 90% of people. But again, he's got his hand kind of resting down here. And there's going to be this almost imperceptively small, like, beginning of a smile, almost like a smirk. Just kind of like, all right, good, good, good, good. And that was my goal. I wanted it to just, we understand each other. Our roles in this situation, we both know what is happening. Yeah. So she'll pour some drinks if you, you know, if you're okay with that.

Not for the kids. The kids don't get drinks. Yeah, I mean, so he sits on whatever seat is indicated most appropriate for him to sit or the way things are, you know, positioned or whatever. It's kind of like soft couches and stuff. Yeah, which is a problem in bulky stone armor, but he's good enough at wearing it that it's not like, it's not like it goes up, the collar of it goes up to it. I imagine you kind of like, like you're like almost. He's being on the edge of it. Yeah. Like he keeps on the edge. Oh, yeah. But he has to lean the shield on the edge. I get a new for you.

Just kind of, you know, prop the shield up so it doesn't push the couch over because it's heavy, you know. God. So he's. We're finding more and more problems with this armor. I have never played a character with heavy armor before. And it is an obstacle. constant. It is obstructive. If this were like a hardcore diplomacy thing, it's like, I got to take a little off for looking silly. Like this is what's really. I mean, there's got to be a drawback to armor class of 25, right? I feel like this. Of course. Yeah. So. I appreciate you thinking about it. But he is, he is trained in heavy armor, though.

So as bulky as it is, he manages to not look like a fool. It's just a little cumbersome, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it is a little bit of a positioning thing. Camira is good. He's not going to stand. He'll sit as well. But I feel like we've done this kind of configuration. And he takes cues from Nythera as well. So he sits. But he makes sure to sit on the other side of Lagrin to sort of like flank. And he's not like relaxed sitting. He's, I mean, he, on his face, you would, you could never tell. But he's, you know, sitting upright. It's not standoffish, but it shows you're all taking it seriously.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And he will take a drink though. Oh, yeah. It's more. It's, it's early, but hey, free drink. Yeah, Loverin takes a drink. Yeah. This is good booze, too. This is like top shelf age. You know what I mean? Like not, not let's get plastered booze. This is we have much to discuss booze. You know what I mean? This is a big difference. doesn't let Ruby get. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She'll drink it too fast. Yeah. She's messing out. We went out to Red Robin earlier today. Right. Um, why you give me that look? Uh, like, any story that starts with that is going to be weird.

I know it. I know it. Well, look, we had to go to Walmart and it's like, hey, we got some really good news recently. Let's celebrate. You know, just get a nice burger. And Brie ordered a drink. And we find out the drink comes like, it's like, oh, it has vodka in it. What kind? Grey goose. Uh-oh. So the drink is like $17 for one drink. It's like, yeah, that had gray goose. And like, there's a big jump between Smearnoff and Greygoose, right? So like, and Bree found that out earlier today. She's like, I've never had Greygoose. It's like, was it good? It was delicious.

And it's like, that's the price of delicious. That's all. I didn't know they sold out of Con at Red Robin. Oh, yeah. They're really proud of it. They have a bunch of craft beer and stuff there, too. Huh. Okay. Is this place modeled like a vampire red Robin? This church? No. The church. When you sit down, they do say, Yum. No, it's weird. That's what the guy in the black house for. Yes. Any of. As, as, as, you know, these are, these are being poured. The kids are kind of hovering near the couch, but like they're not sitting. They're just kind of, you know, they're really hoping this doesn't go poorly, specifically, VETI, because it's like, hey, I, like, I vouched for both sides here. and I hope this works out and she's really excited for it to, you know.

And the woman's kind of kind of start after drinks ord. I'm Avalene Duskward and this is Sir Calder Thorne. And he's going to not say anything, but just kind of dip his head, you know, out of a sign of respect. I mean, dip back. We were told a little about about about certain plans you have to expand northward. And she's specifically keeping it vague. She's waiting for you to confirm before just, you know, rambling. I think he does more with his expression or anything. Like he doesn't act surprised, right? He's just sort of like, right? Mm-hmm. She's going to have a seat.

Like, one smooth motion, have a seat. on the couch. Well, I think we could be of some use to you. I understand what you're embarking on is potentially dangerous and probably overdue. We would like to offer our assistance if you would allow us a portion of the mountain. for our own, govern our own people, be a part of a community that allows us to embrace others. I want to say yes right away. I can't yet, because there's some things you need to understand. The first thing you need to understand is that while I'm sure that you and yours, would be very helpful in certain situations.

We are not taking this mountain by force. There will not be a fight. So we can have a conversation with that understanding about what you might be able to offer. I'm sure there's something. I don't doubt that. Secondly, is that I can't promise a place because that's not my decision. I'm getting the people in power out and installing somebody new. And I can't tell you what they are going to decide. But if you were to help, that goes a long way. And nobody I helped put in power would turn their nose up at that. I just need to understand that that's not something I can promise.

Almost immediately after you start going into it's not violent or not trying to... She's going to visibly relax, actually, and smile, listen to the rest of what you have to say. Well, firstly, I think that puts both of our minds at ease, and she's going to look up at the night over here, and he's going to nod. We abhor violence, and we don't want to take any potential new home by force. We think that it doesn't instill a lasting trust. in any community we would join. So the assistance we're offering is more protection and diplomacy, if we could be so bold.

Well, I just had an idea. I think this is going to work out great. And he kind of smiles because he's enjoying this drink. And he when they relax about the nonviolence thing, he does. You can't tell, but he does. Well, inside, the meaty bits in the inside the armor. He drops into the armor. He has to sort of use a funnel to get the drink. No, so he relaxes a little bit and he says, well, this timing might be excellent. Do you know about the door? We're aware of them. We've never had any meetings with them, but yes, they're in the mountains to the west. They're sitting on maybe the biggest deposit of Adamantine in the world.

I don't know. There's a lot of it there. They're just giving it away. We've been. may have also. Oh, man. There's a long story. I'm going to skip over some bits to the tone. There's a one through 20 episode recap that you can listen to. All right. Cliff's notes here. Cliff was a guy we met on the way back. He turned out to be a werewolf. So he, all right, I'll do it in character. So he kind of takes a minute to think about it, how he wants to approach it. And he goes, there's a new queen in power. Don't ask how. And we found out that the door gar, who have previously been wronged by the Stone Sunderers. and the minotor and the drow, who have all been previously wrong by the stone sunders, have been planning a war against the same mountain that we're trying to take.

So now, not only do we have what we're trying to do peacefully, but in doing so, we are preventing a war. And I need your help preventing that war. And the way that looks to me, and I'm open to ideas. And he kind of like includes the room with that, not the kids. They don't get to say. That is very happy, by the way, that this is going so well. Like, she's going to visibly relax and probably sit on the arm of one of these nice leather couches now. It's like, okay. That's a faux-paw. Instantly on the show, this. Oh, well. He was going so well. And he'll say, say, he'd be like, we bought four months time from the door gar to do what we need to do in the way that we want to do it.

We still need to meet with the Minotaur. We still need to meet with the drought. I don't know for sure that they will have the same level of patience. I need somebody here who can keep an eye. and make sure that they are waiting. We think we can do it in four months. If they get impatient and go early. Or if four months passes and we're not done yet. Or if we take the mountain and they decide to come anyway. That can't be allowed to happen. She's going to readjust a little bit. Not stiffen, but like, okay. Well, I admit to having a limited knowledge of Durgaar history, but what I do know would indicate that they have a very strong want to perhaps get some revenge on those dwarves in the mountain.

That's what I know too. but I also know, at least based on the conversation that we've had, that the queen would prefer not to have to destroy as much as they would need to destroy in order to take that mountain. Because I don't know if you've ever been to Stone Center, it's a fortress. They could take it. They would destroy it in the process. They would kill a lot of people. I would agree that can't be allowed to. to happen. And I think you can do it. And he's like, you know, collective view. I think you can do it without violence. I think that keeping an eye on them, maybe some light sabotage, if it was necessary, we may have taught them how to build tanks.

So that's going to be an issue. A tank. So a tank is. That's what I was going to say. And that's just what I'm calling it. It's like a big tank of beer, except inside of it as people. And it just weapons, man. No. I'm asking auto car because it's like an auto-automated carriage. We're still working on the name. You got it. Yeah. If you break it down, it's like, so it sounds like you taught them how to make rolling mobile fortresses. We basically taught them how to build a new class. of siege weapon. Yeah. And so like, that is now a concern is they might want to use those siege weapons.

That's going to be the first time that she doesn't say any of this out loud. But again, almost an imperceptible, like, kind of raising eye. It's like, are you dumb? Like, just kind of, just for a second. It's like, that's... So you gave these very admittedly vengeful A new form of siege weapon and then told him, but don't you use it? Like, it's an interesting. It's interesting. Go ahead. She's not going to say any of this, but mm-hmm. So she doesn't say it, so he can't refute it directly, but he'll just kind of be like, you should come see what we made though, because it's pretty, it's going to change. change a lot of things.

But in asking them not to use it, that's another ally, as long as they can do what they agreed to do. I think we can do what they agreed to do. I think we can help each other out. And I'm not expecting anything in return, but we would like some consideration down the line if you're in a position to offer that. I can offer you that at least. And I know things are tense here. If depending on how Stone's Sender works out, Once we're done, maybe we'll come help here. She's going to give it. She's going to give it. She's going to give this a couple of, you know, just a couple of beats.

We know you're new here, and we know you're new here, and we know that you probably have a lot of questions about our community. Recently, a tragedy has a tragedy has befallen our small corner of the world and as you could probably imagine, we would like to get to the bottom of it. I'm told you know about the murder. We do. I'm also told that you know we aren't allowed to investigate it in any way outside of our walls. We've heard that too. Is there any way that I could persuade you to investigate it for us on our behalf? We would compensate you. Give me a minute to think about it.

And she'd be very clear. It's like this is, this would be a personal favor to us and we would repay you. We are a little bit of a time. I did mention that we have four months, but we're making some repairs to her vehicle. So I'll tell you what. If you give us 24 hours, we'll do some investigative footwork. We'll see again tomorrow and we'll tell you what we found. She's going to stand up. And she's going to go over to a cabinet and open it. And she is going to take out what appears to be a wrapped bottle. And she is going to bring it over to you. And as she, like, uncovers, there's, like, there's some, probably some soft cloth around it, almost like a cotton type of thing.

But it is a bottle so old that the dust is almost ingrained. It's part of the glass, right? And she's got, give me a history check, please. I kind of want to whisper to Kymara because he has that earring. Now he don't have to steal it. That's a 16 on the history check. So this is a 270-year-old bottle of Dwarven ale. Now, this stuff gets better as it ages, and that's no offense. Dwarves rarely let... ale aged that long before they drink it. So this is either something that's been lost at time or, you know, this is a big deal as a gift. This is a huge, like, thank you.

Like, whether you find out anything or not, thank you for doing this. Oh, she gives to me before we get paid? Yes. Oh, okay. He stands up to accept it. They're not even allowed to leave out. Like, they're not allowed to look outside their walls at all. Like, you're the only. only people that have agreed to help them. Yeah, I mean, he stands up to accept it. Like, he treats it as kind of like, not solemn, but like he understands the gesture. Right. Yeah. So he takes it. And he kind of turns it around. And he just pops the cap. Oh, look. Oh, good. Yeah. Do you have any Coke?

I can mix this way? Yeah. That was gross. Calling your beard. Yeah. So he, I mean, he takes it and he kind of turns around his hands and he looks at it. And he says, all right, well, maybe we'll give you 48 hours if we need it. There are two small matters that still need to be contented with. one is Mr. Twinbein. And for a second, you're like, Mr. Twin Big. Oh, shit. Like, it, you know. Who came in? Oh. Mr. Mr. Mr. Schen. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah. And yeah, she's. We just call them the doofus. Yeah. Yeah. Don't see that. I don't. I don't. I don't. Just because he didn't want the cat. doesn't mean you like, wish harm upon the cat.

Like, it's just... But we are going to take the axe off the wall. Yes. We are going to leave the door open and just wish. So she's just going to, like, after he's like, who? I'm like, oh. He's a very important decision to make. And I've been told that you're somewhat of a mentor figure to him. It would mean quite a lot if you walked him through this decision. At least try to impart the gravity of it. It's not something to walk in too lightly. Logger will turn and give Chet a look. Not a year in trouble look, not a... I don't know. Just appointed like, and then that's it.

And he turns it. Okay. On the side of the couch, you're going to see her reach back. And then you're going to hear a click. And in front of you, there's a gap between the two couches. You're facing each other. A portion of the floor. is going to slide back and you're going to see descending stairs. My fear immediately gets in front of Logger. It's like there is a second group. Within this church. And normally I would not ask you to avoid them. But if I may be so bold, I don't believe that their methods align with yours. And if you would be so kind as to leave this way and not go back so that you could be so kind as to leave this way and not go back so that you could be flagged down by them, I would be personally grateful.

And she's, there's like a tinge of seriousness. Yeah, just like, look, if you want to get into it, we can. But take my word for it. They bad news. Yeah. So he just kind of looks down the good kind of like just appears around 9th era down the stairs and he looks at her and he says, it's the, the, what is that the choir? Yeah. Choir boys. Yes. Something. Yeah. Now, that's all right. I like you better. We'll take the stairs. Insight. What's down there? Is it shrubs with laser beams? No, no, no, no, just that. That's an 11. It was fine. Nothing about that. Like you, yeah, you're getting the sense that.

Like, so much has gone so well. Up until this point, this is the last hurdle to climb over. it's like, please don't meet with them. Like, it's worst case scenario. You agree with them. And now we have a problem. But the fact that you're averting violence, they are... It's kind of the difference. Man, I would be trivializing this so greatly, but I'm going to say it. It's kind of the difference back during the civil rights movement, but between like... a Martin Luther King and a Malcolm X, right? Both agree that change needs to take place. How they wish to go about that would be a little different.

So obviously, incredible amount of trivialization there. That's not, you know, I don't want to make light of it, but to give you an idea in real world context. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, if she didn't give us the booze, We probably would have turned around and gone the other way. Well, you're a dwarf. No, I'm just. Yeah, she knows. She knows the way to my heart. I have to sleep with her now. Sorry. We're going to need a minute. Get to get out of this armor. Honestly, just anyone bit Ian again. Like, I got it. I got to throw people off the trail. That's a... That's a...

Okay. I love with Logrin and women in leadership roles. Right. So can I? Okay. This is out of character, right? This is probably something Nithera would pick up on. But she definitely has a crush of this one. And she's called mother by a lot of because there's kind of a motherly thing. But there's a, there's a subsist. of people who would nickname her mommy. Definitely. Definitely. I don't know if Logren's that kind of person. I don't know. Oh, that's for Loggerne. That's for Longrin. Gotta get in the Logrin tier of the patron for that. Yeah, the Logrin tier. Different than the Legrin tier?

No, that's not that. That's a good. Yeah. Legren. Black. Anyway Yeah, so Loggern actually hands the beer bottle to For a camera to take. He's like, I'm going to break that. You got to hold it. Goes in his bag. I want that later, though. Better be full when I get it back. He'll be full with something. I should have been more specific. Well, just didn't have out now. Yeah. All right. So, yeah, so he'll, he, we agreed to go this way to avoid the other people. And so he will offer to to shake your hand again and be like, we'll be in touch. Yeah, he, she's going to stand up.

And, you know, again, shake your hand. And there's just a moment of like, like, holding your head. Seriously, thank you. It means so damn much that you're willing to even look into this. Whether you find it or not means a lot. Only because you asked, literally the only reason. Honestly, honestly, it wouldn't like it's, whether you already planned on it or not, I don't think it would matter to them. I think it would just, it's like, hey, that's even better. You cared before we asked you. Holy shit. Like, that's, you know what I mean? That probably score you more brownie points.

I'm okay with this number of brownie points. That's all. That's a good amount. It's more than I expected to walk away with. Yes, sorry. It sounds like we're descending the spooky vampire stairs. They don't turn into a slide as soon as we... They do, but when are you going to be back here, right? Like, it's... Just stone scraping against stone is... I'm going to use the shield. God. Yeah, that'd be such a horrendous noise. Just like, we... We... Yeah, you're going to... You're going to descend and it's going to take you down this path. They're going to be pre-lit torches as you go on here.

And you kind of get the sense that's like they were going to ask you to tip. Like this was, you know, that's nice of them. So like, and you're going to walk down these stairs and down this pathway. And you're going to hear that stone like that kind of slide over again. And that's going to close. And you're probably going to walk almost a quarter of a mile. And you're going to get to what appears to be a solid wall. but an unlit torch hanging off the side of it. And I, like, Nithir would definitely instantly pick up on this, but it's like, that's a lever.

You pull the lever. It opens up. And like, kind of harsh light is, like, it's noon, basically. So there's another set of steps leading up. And yeah, it just leads to the street. And as we're ascending. and now that we're away from any prying ears, hopefully, ninth year old will say to Logrin. Oh, that meeting reminded me. I haven't mentioned it yet, but I have contacts with the drowned nobility. Kind of my family. I dance with Heath Ledger. I don't know why I didn't mention that up until now, but like, I don't know why I waited 12 years to say that. Yeah. Lagerand kind of like double takes at ninth era.

He's like, what do you mean, they're your family, they're drowned nobility? I mean, they're your family, they're drowned nobility. I mean, they don't have the last name, Marilith, but my son married into Dronautil. nobility and I have 13, 14? I'll have to go over the family tree again, but a lot of grandchildren. Yeah, you showed me the family tree once. Okay. Uh... You do so much more. He like, he kind of stops in his hands on his hips and just kind of shakes his head. He's just kind of shakes his head. He's like, okay. Well, that does change things. But I mean, you tell me, is it better?

Are you landed? Do you have the title? My son does. I don't know. What the hell, Nithera? We got first chat and now Nithera. We're surrounded by royalty here. He points at ORA. That ORA is not with us. Never mind. No, no, no. Yes. Yeah, she's busy. Yeah. Sorrel, my son, he keeps track of all of this. He'll be able to get me the nearest context. All right, we're waiting to hear back from Brax about when we can talk to people. But maybe that does change things. If I know my son And I think I do He whoever he married into would have a lot of influence Out of character would I know where Like drown nobility would be based I mean they don't have a city or they do have a city They do it's underground though.

They're used to be three. They've expanded a bit, uh, mostly because they got a lot of refugees from above ground. All of a sudden, uh, well, underground started looking little sexy once, you know, things started freezing over quite a bit. That's probably why her son went down there. He's a, he was a diplomat and then met someone influential fellow love. Can you write a letter? Can you get us in touch with somebody? Yes. I just have to get in contact. contact with Sorrell to get the contact information. But yes, I can arrange it. This is walking and talking to.

Loggerne wants to get out of the gloaming district before we start planning our murder investigation. That's fair. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. And plus, like, if there's an entire cult of vampires that are trying to talk to us and now that we've agreed not to talk to, we need to get out of this district. So. Yeah, the good news is it's noon. So it's pretty light traffic-wise. That's true. That's pretty open here. They're pretty damn open. Yeah, a lot of businesses don't. I picture a lot of the businesses in the gloaming quarter to keep the same hours as like nerd locales, like hobby shops.

It's like we're open until at least two. And then like we're open into the night. Yeah. Yeah, most likely. Like, so, yeah, so. I think that anything else Logger wants to talk about has to wait until we leave this district. All right. Well, you're going to cross the... Hmm. Uh, Ian, do me favor. Roll a D-20 for me, please. You got it. Another dead body falls in the car. Oh, no. It's raining, man. They're all dead. Hallelujah. Oh,elujah. As you cross the threshold, you're leaving the you're leaving the the gloaming quarter here. Ora is going to kind of like see you all walk out and run up to chimera and and like grab him like grab his like the his robe up by a shoulder and pull down.

Okay. We have a slight problem. Don't panic. Okay. That makes me want to panic. That makes me want to panic. Okay, the sims are still in place. They're ready to go. But the gang I told you about are now trying to actively find you. And they're ready to do this whole trial by combat thing. They specifically said that if they can kill you, you are not worthy of getting their soul. I'm sorry. Is this kill me? It's audible enough. She's not. She's not whispering. So like, I think that like, as this is happening, like, all of this is new information, it's like, okay, hold on, we're going to get to the sims.

There are sims. But on top of that, like, there's a gang who wants to murder you now. But if you win, I guess you get their soul, what's happening? So there's a lot of information. A lot of stuff just came at Logrin. So, yeah. So Lagrin's kind of like watching. wide-eyed as or a exposites at Camera. And then before Camara says anything, he goes, or shut up, what are you talking about? She's going to, okay, she's going to be quiet, but it's like, do you want me to talk or what? Yes, on shut up. What are you talking about? Okay, well, we kind of had a side hustle thing going on, and it's going great, except.

One little snack. The ritual trial by combat. Well, it's not so much a ritual. They're just going to try to beat him to death. And if they can... The word ritual was the key part of the sentence that I just said. And death wasn't... That's the one that I'm kind of narrowing it on. Okay. Yes, there are some negatives, but... That's like eight or not. nine souls? I mean, you know? What were the ground rules that you set here? We're going to have to change some of that. I didn't really... Well, okay, I... What I told them and what they interpreted from it were very different, Kimer.

I'm sorry. They're dumb as hell. I told them that a few of them could fight you at a predetermined time, and they kind of took it. And then kind of made their own recipe out of it. So like, they're just going to find you. Specifically, they're going to try to jump you, I think. Ora shut up again. Camara, eight or nine souls. What is she talking about? Yeah. How many is he demanding now? It's something I'm working on. I just want to get ahead of the ball. There's one more thing you should probably know. Greg grips his nose between his fingers. So you remember how I told you I made 15,000 gold?

That is I took it from these guys. So I told him it would be super worth it for the powers. But now they're right. really insistent on trying to kill you because if they can, then your powers must not be very good. It's kind of a way for them to taste test. And she's like to make it up, basically, she's going to like take her backpack off and it's like, here, it's like a big old fucking sack of gold. That was definitely theirs. There's even blood spots and shit on it. Like this came from some grimy people. I turn to lager and I'm like, that's not something we talked about.

Well, hang on. Now I'm back on board again. Oh, okay. I told longer about it. Yeah, we should definitely take the money if your life is on the line. You can't hold it. Can't hold it. Can I get a perception check from? Actually, no. Let's go back to Ruby just for a second. Can I get a perception check, please? Oh, yeah. She's our known associate. Oof. 13's not. So you're back by the front gates relatively close, right? You're within. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you're going to hear. Right inside the gates, basically. Basically, yes. Like you're in the parking structure near.

Yeah. Yeah. You're going to hear some pretty big bells go off. And you're going to see a few guards run past you toward the front gates. And then there's a couple of stragglers. And they're beelining it for. Yeah, they're all right. So it seems like a team of guards are running toward the front gates. She'll for a moment, she'll notice it. And then just be like, I, it's not my business. and then her brain's going to catch up. God damn it. She's going to put whatever she was working in whatever wrench it was. She's going to put it down. Better safe than sorry.

And she's going to make her way around, not like running after them, but she'll, you know, carefully see what's going on here. And she'll get as close as she needs to. But she's going to be careful. So you're going to see many guards. So far, about 20. When there's only usually a few at the front gates, and those gates are now closed. And that's weird because it's noon. And you're going to see in the two guard towers above the main gate itself, people are looking down and they're like murmuring back and forth and it's like people that they're going to start to talk and what you're going to get from this is there is a minotaur army standing at the front gates of Asterholt.

And I think that's a great time for us to stop for the night. Cool. Very cool and good. You can see where I said we needed to decompress. session last time. And it's like, that will not be this. This is going to be a different flavor. Everything all at once. My God. How lies, enemies. You guys did great. This is good. This is good stuff. Oh, my God. Jesus. That was fun. James and you muted. I was good. He's like, just good. I'm just swearing at Jason that whole time. That's fine. We should get the minotors to fight the gang. Yes. My power is I've summoned minotors. I cast a summon the army of minotors.

That could be yours. Yeah. No, watch that. You're real power of friendship, guys. Thank you for your money. I cast a spell inside Brax's canon. Take a look. Okay. Oh, boy. My God. So much. Yeah. This is great. I love it. I could have went another three hours with shit. It feels a little bit like when you get through all of the different systems that a sandbox game is teaching you, and then it opens up to be like, Yes. Look at all these little markers on the mat with shit going off. You got to pick something. You know. Like when you first walk in, you. to like a town and then they all give you the side quest and it all starts appearing at once.

Yeah. Yeah. Like if you take too many things in fall out and they're all on the compass, so it's just like, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark. It's like, okay, hold on. Stop. Oh, the anxiety generator. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, there's a lot of stuff. Now it's going to matter where in the city in the city. you are and what time. I thought. I was like, okay, it's probably here at the end of the session. It'd be really funny if I just throw out this piece of information that's like, oh, we could deal with that later. But then like six more things have. I think the new mechanic we have to to implement is does this give loggerid an aneurysm?

Yeah. Like, there has to be some kind of stage. You've got aneurysm. You've got aneurysm. Twitches. Just how many I twitches is that. And you can use the booze to bring it down again. Yes. And quality of booze really brings it down. Yeah. So we started off with the zero because of the nice stuff in the meeting. I've got that nice bottle of beer because it just spiked. Yep. The second you cross the threshold out of the globe, it's like, it's like, bro, hey. Oh, shit. Like, you should be concerned. It's when you get to a new quest hub, man. You take all the quests and you're like, well.

Yes. Here we go. I love that like I, we would not have gotten to the other thing that just would have been a surprise. But because you split the party of and there's some, that's, that's, that's. There's so much. There's so much stuff. In the in the film of this, Ruby's got her, her, her, her, her, a rag of, you know, with oil all over it. And she's kind of mindlessly getting it off of her hands. And she kind of catches wind of what's happening. And then it just drops to the ground. Just black immediately. Yeah. What was going on with a Gierhardt, too? Like, what is that?

I was going to ask you guys. Like, what is it? Like, in a perfect world, what would you solve first? What thing would you wrap up first? Like, if you had the power to just go, man. And just mad, the gear heart. Because I really want to know. Yeah, I mean, I'm curious about that. Like, strategically, I think it's the murder. We got to figure out the murder. Yes. I mean, we gave them a timetable and a lot of kind of alliances depend on it and stuff. Realistically, that's the next task. But I'm most curious about the gear. That's the biggest mystery. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. That's the fun mystery. Yeah. Yeah. Forty-eight hours seems like a lot of time. time before you walked out of I wish I hadn't been so specific actually I got to stop doing that. It's twice now. As long as nothing goes wrong, I think 48 hours should be plenty of time. It's going to shock you guys, but I do that in real life too. I can probably get these 12 things done today. I do that too. It's like, give me till Monday. And then it's Tuesday. It's like, what? Like, I just totally. You wrote a book with me. You wrote two. Like, you know. Don't feel like. if I just kill all of the gang members.

Yeah, that's a gang war now. There's no way we're doing any kind of like ritual combat. It's just going to. It's just fighting in the streets, man. Oh, my God. It's a hot mess. The Lageren was about to turn around to talk to chat too. Oh, yes. And he just got bombarded with news, so we didn't even get a chance to do. He still has a month. He could wait. He's at the bottom. Yeah, he's on the bottom of art. I wanted to ask, too, like, I mean, it just wasn't the right time. It didn't feel. But it was like, so if you were going to reverse this, how would you do that?

And then I thought of it right at the end, but this might be a conversation for later. Would we benefit from investigating Zero's house during the day? You think? Oh, probably. That's a good idea. That's probably a good place to start. Yeah. You just go right back into the gloaming quarter. Second thought. It's crazy out here. You know what? The goodness is not much of that can touch us in here. So you know what? We're going to buy land in the clomin corner. We're all vampires now. Is there a staircase that leads out of the city? There's some back door. Oh, God.

Another one of those.