The Eye of the Storm

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Hey, everybody. Jasper here, as always, I play Ruby Pedigrew here on Dungeons and Randomness is Frostborn, our 6th campaign in almost 15 years of doing what we do. So, welcome to episode 36. Quick housekeeping. Ark 6 started not quite a year ago, and there's lots of stuff to catch up on. The great news is there's an hour-long recap of episodes 1 through 20 in our feed to help you get caught up or just listen again to remind you of all of our bad decisions. Just scroll down right after episode 20. and you'll find it. We're also closing in on the next recap covering episodes 21 through 40 coming out in just a few weeks.

Listen, if you enjoy what we do, please share these recaps. It's honestly one of the best ways to help us grow. Couple of quick shout-outs before we get started. We use level-up advanced fifth edition from E&P publishing as our gaming system. It takes a very familiar Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition and adds some serious character building and tons of flavor that well really suits our storytelling. You can grab a discount for all the level of A5E stuff with code D-A-N-D-R. Also, check out GM assistant. It's, well, an assistant that helps you manage all the complicated nonsense at your gaming tables with session summaries and itemized lists of all the arcane thing above your players stumble upon.

Link is in the episode description. And yep, D-A-N-D-R works there too. All right, let's get back to it. Last time on Frostborn, at the exact moment Esther Hall-Eld, couldn't handle one more crisis. Vetti, who had never driven anything like the Gearheart and had only learned of his existence minutes before, took off in it with a poisoned and bleeding chet in a desperate search for help. This, of course, turned an already tense city into a living obstacle course. And somewhere close to the vampire-filled gloaming quarter, Vetti accidentally drove the machine through the wall of grizzle bits, fireworks and all, straight into Lagrin's brutal fight, with where demon chimera.

Chimera cratered the basement and blacked out. Oro was buried in the wreckage. Meanwhile, Ruby publicly maneuvered Thane Silver Fox into fleeing into the city. Nithera chose restraint over assassination. And aside from all that structural damage, emotional fallout, and several near deaths, everything was basically fine. In today's episode, the fighting finally stops. Everybody gets a long rest. Ruby and Nithera tear off to find their friends while Logran finally gets to talk calmly with Chimera. You know, now that he's not 11 feet tall and powered by some weirdo demon likeanthropy, something, something.

Man, I don't know about you, but I love Logran giving somebody a talking to. I also love Jason saying, let's do that thing where we go around the table. So, you know, go for it, Jason. Let's do that thing. Where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason on the dungeon master. Go around the table. Starting with the always centered, the calm, the peaceful jasper. Oh, oh, that's me. Hey, him. I play Ruby Pedagroo, the half-org, gear slinger, adept. Ian? Hi, I'm Ian. He-Him, Eni, and I play chimera, the Tifling Warlock slash weird demon aspects. And Jameson.

Hi, I'm Jameson. I'm in the kitchen of a Denny's currently. I hear him. I play Loggerin. Craig-Borne. He's a Dwar. He's a Dwarf. I forget. We're still doing that. 12 of bits. It just keeps coming up. I will never drop a bit. And last and certainly not least, Susan. Hi, I'm Susan Spanator. My pronouns are she her. And I'll be playing Nythera Rialith, the Elvin, Rogue, Assassin, totally sane. So, uh, man. Guys, I'm, I'm, I'm, I usually don't share all the trials and tribulations getting an episode in the can. But holy shit, this month has not been conducive to recording.

And most of that is because of Jasper. But I think you should. No, no, no, no, no. Keep piling it on. No, I want you to. No, I want it. No, I want it. I want it. No, no. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that out of a man on the edge and you live pretty close. So like, let's just... You're going to wake up with a horsehead in your bed. Honestly, I'll appreciate that you drove three and a half hours. It's like, yeah. Thanks, man. Hey, guys, I'm here. Brought your horse head. I kind of calm down along the way. Anyway, the horsehead is attached to a life horse.

So, nice to have a horse. It's just a minute drive radius of Jasper's in danger. Everybody else is probably far. Yeah. Oh, man. Anywho. Oh, man. Here's what we're going to do. I thought long and hard about this because we have a lot to get to. And I thought we would start with everybody giving me a D20. And whoever rolls the highest, we're going to start with them. Okay. Yes, I knew it was coming. Well, I knew it was going to. Yeah. But you rolled the highest. I'm sticking with the roll. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. You can't say you didn't have time to prepare. That's all like.

We cut to Kamira. We cut away. So we're in the basement of grizzle bits. There is a hole in the wall. A large portion of the first floor bar has now caved in. On the two of you below. You are laying on top of Logren. you have by this point reverted to your normal form. One of your horns has this massive chip in it, but you, you know, you are back to normal. You are unconscious. And judging by our roles, and judging by our roles, Logrin is not unconscious. He is very much... He's awake and alert just underneath a bunch of rubble and you and stone armor. So it's probably going to have to be some heft.

So describe that to me, sir. Like what... I guess, have you calmed down? Or are you getting a horse head? So I think... I think that the way I'm imagining is that with Camer being unconscious, any magical effect he's having on Logren's state would probably dissipate. But yeah. Yeah. So I think it's one of those things where it's like all this noise, chaos, cars crashing through walls, stairways being obliterated, fighting, fireballs, it's nuts. And then suddenly with that last explosion, it's just quiet. like bored or the occasional like bored like tumbling down something like yeah and then like getting like 40 60 seconds and then like some rubble stirs underneath camera and then a little bit more and then a little bit more and then eventually like logger and climbs out right like he just kind of like shoves camera to one side, like, rolls him off of him.

Yeah. And he kind of sits up and he, he's not okay, obviously, but he's himself again. So he takes a moment and he looks around. Do I see the extent of the damage immediately? Is there anything I need to light check for? I mean, I would imagine that you had a pretty bad case. a tunnel vision, like you were very driven and focused on your anger. And now that's those blinders are coming off, right? It's quiet again. You can hear people in the streets panicking and running and stuff like that in the distance. You hear like a car, I guess, is the best way to describe it.

Just like screech around. After all that's gone, you know, you have to chimera off. And you're just kind of like taking all this in. So I imagine that the sights, the smells of everything. It's just kind of overwhelming for a second when you're like, oh, God, okay. So the bar is trashed. Gone. And give me a perception check just to see how much of this you're taking in it wants. Does not have to be high. 14. Okay. Yeah. So you're going to be able to see up into the bar. You'll see like the first floor. There's a big gaping hole. I'd say the blast that chimera let off, there's probably like a 15 foot like circular, like a radius.

And part of that has collapsed on two. to aura and you'll be able to see that like she's where the doorway was. So she's like about 10 feet up. You'll see her arm sticking out and she is not moving. Okay. So the first thing he's going to do, he looks around. He takes all this in and it's sort of like all, like the ringing in his ears dies down and the everything comes into focus. And so the first thing he's going to do as he kind of like hauls himself up out of this rubble is he's going to roll chimera back over and like take his chin between in his hand to like check him and see if he's like first of all is he awake.

Second of all is he camera, you know, or is he still transformed and he's not transformed, right? No, he is fully him again. Like he's. To put it in layman's terms, he's went from twunk to twink. Like, just he's much smaller now. Oh, good, he's a twink. Okay. Yeah. Why is that T-shirt not already? You're a twig. It's not working on it. So he will, he's got, he's got. So throughout all of this, he is not going to take his eye or if not his eye, then physical contact off of Camera. Like literally, you're not leaving my sights for a second during, even as we stagger our way out of this.

So as he starts to look for another way out of here, and I imagine there's like a bulkhead staircase or something back up to the street. But maybe there's not. Well, there's also a huge, God damn hole in the wall. Was that? Okay. I imagine that being like high up. Is it not? Is it? No, no. Um, so the way, you know how old-timey street? Well, you're from Boston. They, like, any street, any, any city where they, they build on top of shit, you'll, you'll have weird streets that are like a 45-degree angle. So like there's a basement entrance here. And then when you go up to regular street level, there's the first floor.

Yeah. I grew up a house like that. It was, it was a four house from the from the street. and then it was two stories from the back. It's fucking weird. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. So he will basically, while he's kind of looked like tromping through this rubble, like it's deep snow. And then like kind of dragging Kimmer by the collar behind him, he'll see that exit and be like, all right, well. And he'll hoist him up over his shoulder. And so his immediate goal is to go out and around to the front of the building and see if he can find a way. to dig ora out. And if he sees any paladin between here and there, he's going to call for them to help.

Law enforcement is pretty busy all over the city, right this minute, but there's a slim chance. So let's do this. Give me, give me a D20 on an 18, 19 or 20, there's going to be some paladins nearby. Or maybe city guard, but like, 14. So you're going to look around and you're going to see where things have been smashed because the Gearheart ripped through here and then you're going to hear the bells in the distance towards the city center. And you're going to get the feeling like there's nobody on the street right now where you are. There are people peering out their windows or there.

You can you can We see commotion near the gates of the gloaming district. And you're getting the sense that back toward the main city gates, there's some commotion. So you just like, okay. Imagine fire trucks are just everywhere. You know what I mean? Yeah. So if he doesn't see anybody, he's just going to go in the front door of this place. And start seeing if he can pick his way through the rubble to get to aura. I thought a lot about how to handle this. And I didn't want to do something where I just say she is alive or dead. Because I feel like that isn't in keeping with the spirit of what we do.

So I'm going to roll damage. And we're going to... We're going to do this together right now. So the good news is she wasn't damaged beforehand. The bad news is she has 17 total hit points. She was never a tanky young woman. So what I think would be fair is that each of you roll a D12. And that is the damage that we're going to. I think that should be the equivalent of someone dropping most of a house on you. I'm good at D12s. But I'll roll a one. Holy shit. Okay. That's good. One from Jameson, six from Ian, nine from Susan. Nine from Susan. And a one from Jasper.

So that's not going to be enough to kill her. obviously she is hurt and out. But you're going to have to get like masonry off of, off of her. And like the, you know, there's joists everywhere and you're going to have to shred them to get in there. And, uh, sorry. I just know someone works in construction. It's like, I don't think you guys know what a choice is. I'm swatting Joyce out of my hair. you know. So digging through this. You're, I mean, like, she's completely lip and and bloodied and battered. Half of her face has just been absolutely smashed where this. essentially boards and brick just sandwiched her.

So her arm was hanging out toward the basement, like inside. And like her head is kind of trapped in between these bricks. So like her face is already swelling from where like that happened. So you're going to pull her out and, you know, she does have a pulse. But like she's not doing well. I do have two healing posts. So I'm going to give her one. Okay. Yeah. So this is going to be God. So this is one of those things where like whenever you have to, whenever you have to give a healing potion to someone who is unconscious, if they've just been knocked for a loop, let's say, like someone punches them and knocks them out.

It's like, oh, God, you're just going to dribble. So I imagine it's whatever, the fantasy equivalent of like a shot of a shot of a shot of a shot of a, you know, it's like, oh, God, you're just going to dri adrenaline and you know what I mean? It's it's almost tricking the body into being heels. So when you're doing like one D4 health, it's like getting an energy drink in you. And it's like, okay, I got a second wind. I got this like she'll probably be out for a little while, but like not dying and out. You know what I mean? I just need her face to not look like that.

Lageryn's like, oh God, poor potion. It's just rub it into the skin. Yeah, so he will, I'll just roll the potion just to do it, just to use it. That'll be a healing. Yeah. Okay. So his, what he's trying to do is he will basically have one of them over each of his shoulders now that he's pretty sure he won't kill aura by moving her, right? And he will go back out to the street and he will find a paladin. or a healer of some kind. To the point where like amidst the chaos and stuff, he's flat out calling for somebody. Like, I need a healer. Yeah. And it, yeah, this is going to be, uh, it's just a matter of when, right?

So. If possible. He looks, he's looking for half dick. Okay. Well, hold that thought. Let's jump on the other side of town here. So Thane is gone. He took some guards. He went away. He's looking for a fictional werewolf that does not exist, probably, and he will not find. But that leaves that leaves Nythera and Ruby alone. Is Ruby? Okay. Actually, is Nythera, you know, back now and taking up the mask and like talking to or? Did she just like ditch and like is on the hunt again? Nythira last week, she had like rolled a successful stealth. So she can't be seen by anybody.

Yeah. But in that shadowed Alclove is when these wits, Spurs really start to Christiano. She's going to rip off her mask. And it's almost like she collapses in on herself and like puts all her weight against the wall. Because essentially she's taking three levels of mental strife. That's the level she got to. So let's put that in context because I think fatigue is much easier for people to understand. Mm-hmm. So in a5-e, we don't use exhaustion. We have broken, we like I wrote it, but like, we use a system where strife and fatigue are two separate things.

Your mind and body are different. And we go up to seven. Seven is you're dead. Whether it be strife or fatigue. So like marching all day through the snow and it's your second or third consecutive day and you're not eating and you're dead. Like a three in fatigue is I am absolutely. I am exhausted and I need to sleep tomorrow. If I don't like I'm useless guys, but you know, you can force march, you can you can keep going. But I think that's much easier to understand. Three strife is I put that up there with like a panic attack or something, right? Like that's got to be.

Yeah. Yeah. Because it's so mechanically it breaks down to disadvantage in. WISdom charisma checks. disadvantage on concentration checks and can only take one bonus action or one action each turn. Can't do both. Yeah. So it's just like. Completely overwhelmed. Like your, your bandwidth is next. So, yeah. So I imagine this is like a cinematic scene that Christendo builds, this whispers, kill him, kill him, kill him, kill, him, kill him, just overwhelming. And her vision goes pen prick white and she rips it off. And it's just like a flash of white in that like 10-9. light as she like collapses against the wall and then just all she hears for just for her it seems like moments but it might even be like Ruby catches up with her and finds her it's like maybe even a minute is all she's hearing is that ring seeing white and her own so I almost I'm I'm a most picture that like that, that, that, that, Omaha Beach saving Private Ryan thing where it's, it's like, you can hear your heartbeat in your ears and like it's, it's like this pounding stuffy, like.

Yeah, yeah. And for her, even, she might even hear like the whispers may have turned into like screams for her embodying like the, like, this is the reason why she doesn't wear it anymore because it brings back all of this. Genuinely, I don't think it'd be hard for Ruby to find her. Yeah, I think if Nythera were hiding, that's a different story. She was. But then she collapses. Right. I think, given their history and everything like that, I think Ruby would be like, okay, this is where I'm going to look for Nithera. If she's going to disappear, this is where she's going to head, if she wanted to be found at some point or whatever.

I feel like, again, sort of that cinematic moment, if it's like, you know, that tenitis and that white, I can't see anything. It's almost like tunnel vision. And you can't really hear anything. You would hear all of a sudden kind of like that muffle like, oh, hello. Hello. And whatever it would be, you would see the silhouette of Ruby and she would be sort of reaching down to sort of pull you up. not yank you out of where you're you are, but just to get you on your feet, knowing that you both can't stay there. There's too much going on. There's too much.

Nobody needs to see us. This is not good. We've got to get out of this place. So she would lift you up. She would, hey lady, let's get some rest, you and me. And all she would do is not. not even talking. She would arm around her, lifting her up. She would make her way back to silk sheets to the end, to the hotel where they're staying. No, no. And getting her bearings back but still hold arms. Very heavily supported on Ruby. No, chat. We've got to make sure he's okay. Stane is gone, right? Zane, he's gone. Yeah, I'll get. Give you all the details. Number one, things gone.

Number two. Chet's gone too. No doubt about it. I'll explain. He died? No, no, no, no. He's, bet he's taken care of him. I'm pretty sure it's poison. We got a, I got a mystery that he had an answer. So again, Ruby is, she doesn't know what's going on, but she's pieced it together. Enough to know. No doubt. Vettie took the Gereheart. She heard it leave. There is no way that they could in their state. Because Ruby also has some strife going on in her head. There's no way that like, let's go find the gear heart. Let's run down the streets and do this. She's being very pragmatic.

She's like, you know what? If the Gheart's gone, if Vettie's crashed it, if Chet and Vettie are dead and an explosion, there's literally nothing we can do. do about it right now. There's something more important to handle. So she's going to wave it away and say that he's got him. She's going to, she's getting some help. We'll, we'll catch up with him. But right now we've got to rest. And she's just deflecting, deflecting, deflecting, and trying to get you there. We got to. We got to get log in the notebook. He could handle things. There's a fight club with chimera.

Fight club with Crimea. I don't want to know about a fight club. with chimera. This is the last thing that we need on our list right now. I'm sure it's fine. What we have to do right now is get back to where we can be found. And she's going to continue to go back to soak sheets and try to get you there and set you up. Her whole goal is to get you up into that room and then figure things out. In her mind, she's thinking not. We need to get back over to the grizzle bits. She's not thinking of anything. She doesn't care or know anything about it. And as far as she knows, you're just making up words.

Oh, and like from Nithier's point of you, too, like, she's disadvantaged on concentration checks. She doesn't do spells. So I'm translating that to she's scattered. Like, what about what about Baz? Yeah. He was with us, right? Yeah. They're all going to be fine. We just have to get some. We've got to hunker down. We'll take care of it. I'll catch up with everybody. I got to get you. I got to get you some rest. And she's going to check and make sure that that mask is not in your hand. Oh, it's clenched in there. Again, I'm thinking of like a, I don't know. Think of whatever analogy you want to.

But she's taking care of Nythera and she's going to get the mask. She's not going to yank it away. She's going to jerk it out of your hand. She's going to pull your fingers off of it in a very gentle way. I got you. I got it. And she'll hook it to you. She'll hook it to your belt. As you take it out of her hand, she'll have like this moment of clarity coming back to herself. And she's going to give like a very like eye to eye look. And it's just very sudden. I didn't. I didn't hurt anyone I wasn't meant to, right? Not at all. Only person got hurt? Well, a little bit of thing, but mostly you.

Yeah. Well, that's going to... Where is he? Yeah. Well, that's a story. He's chasing a werewolf that doesn't exist. Anyway... Oh, yeah. I did that. Yeah, you did. I need... Thanks for that. I need some rest. You need some rest. And she's going to take care. She's just going to super gentle. She's now being the mother to you that you've continued to beat her. And as a scene like fades away, night there's going to be like, yeah, like, came here ever had this gang like lined up and they were fighting each other? I gristle bits of all. Sure, grandma. Okay. Yeah. All right.

Just seen fades. Yeah. Yeah. She's not going to. She's not paying attention to that because there is no way in the world. that she would think that Lagrin and Chimera don't have things tackled. Oh, yeah. This is... If you were to place bets, surely, everything can't be on fire at once. Yeah. The worst thing in the world is the Gearheart was taken in night and this stuff happened with Nithera, but that's... We invented carjacking. That was the... Right. That was the worst thing. Well, she's just about to invent. locks. I have. So the city's obviously, you know, end to end, it's miles, right?

So I would have bet you are closest to the, the hotel. Like it would be a little bit of a hike, but it would be like we're going to the room and just phase first into a bed sleeping. Right. Um, but, oh, okay. So two down. All right. We did it. Okay. We're so close. That's true. I do want to be clear. Like, Ruby is She's not leaving Nithera alone. I mean, she's taking care of Nithera, like sitting at the bedside kind of a thing. And she'll probably at some point just pass the fuck out. Yeah. I don't think anybody thought you were ditching her. Yeah. At some point, Nithera might even like in her. her like scattered state like just pull ruby in and like just start like like petting her like she wants the mother you even though she knows that she can't like it's just and you'll come back to them like wrapped up around each other and belly it's really cute that's adorable I wish you're gay take pictures so cute on the other end of the city.

I do not see a reality where you probably don't just go to the gloaming quarter because you're so close, right? You could see the gates from where you are. You're looking for a healer. That's the, that's probably the closest one you're going to find because like you, there's a big crowd. And you're going to see the gear heart. And well, it looks abandoned. Go ahead. please i don't know that i would go to the gloving quarter not right away oh okay um so first of all logron goes out to try to find somebody and then stops and goes ah shit and he goes back into the building and he gets his shield and all of his weapons because he literally he dropped his gun he dropped his shield he dropped all of his weapon both of his hand axes and his hammer were left in different place so he's like he props them both up against a pole and he goes digging around and throw up until he finds everything Like climb up on the wall to get the hand axe that like a minute right one he might he might not get that's fine he's like I look now it's gone all right I need new handbags but the other thing he does is he has decided that he doesn't want just a healer he specifically needs to find haptic so he will gear back up throw the two unconscious people back over his shoulders and he is going out looking for haptic I don't really.

I was thinking about that. It's like, would you stick around if you were like, if you had an opportunity to run for that situation? But I think he would be close by. I don't think he would be able to get like within a block, right? Right around the time a car crashes through and fireworks go off. It's like, I got to leave. This is fucked up. Like, this is crazy. But I don't think he would be too far away. So if you're carrying both ORA and Kimir on your shoulders. And my God, your walking speed must be, what, five feet by now? Like, you're so over. It's probably 10 feet by now, yeah.

Yeah, okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to sell you short. Like, it, you know. It's literally double, Jason. Come on. Yeah. So if he sees you, like just kind of stunned. Yeah. And so in Lagrin for what it's worth also is unhurt. He's fine. He looks like shit, right? He's covered in soot and he probably has rubble all in his armor, which is not comfortable. And, you know, and there's blood from who knows who, probably a lot of it from aura, some of it from chimera. Some char marks. He has that mark. that chimera put in his armor. He didn't press like his hand or claw or something against his armor.

So he's all messed up. Yeah. He profitoed you. Yeah. So he doesn't look good. Even though he's actually unhurt, like he didn't take a hit point of damage. But as soon as he locks eyes with half dick, he's going to just like he'll call over to him, like across however many people the way he is. He said, you and I need to talk right now. Again, I think I'd be stunned. Are they dead? No, but they might be come with me. Man, a lot's happened to this young man today. So, okay, he's just gonna follow you. And to, like, trying not to ask a hundred questions right yeah you kind of get you kind of get the idea he's has a he has a reputation for that so as soon as we get into like the nearest alley I would go like a little bit down the alley not the same one we're in God that one's seen enough he will time for a new alley yeah it's time for a new alley he will carefully set down or propped up against a wall and then carefully sit down came here up against the wall and then he will reach over and just grasp whatever he can grasp on half dick right around the chest and just pull him down to his level be like listen I don't really want to get into why you were doing the pit fight I don't really care but you and I both now have a problem do we agree yeah kind of drops off pretense of like oh I'm I'm I'm overwhelmed and it's it's kind of like a Almost like a slap him in the face focused.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. So here's what happened. We were all attacked by something else. There's a nice little underground brawl going on. You weren't even aware of it until after this happened. Something else came in. Tor a couple of poor idiots to shreds. Almost got these two. Almost got me. Look at me. And that's what happened. Nobody has to know you were there. Nobody has to know anything else. Okay, but what the hell could have done all this? What do we tell people? There's been werewolves all over the city. You think anybody's going to buy that? Do you want to go in there and look?

Maybe one of those gang idiots was a werewolf. Maybe you knew about it, and that's why you were there. You can take credit for it, honestly. I, okay. You're going to kind of see in his eyes. It's like, oh, shit. That could be a big feather in my cap. But at the same time, it feels real bad about all this. Are you sure? Because this is a huge fucking mess. It's a huge mess. And in order for it to not destroy your career and everything I'm trying to do, it needs to go away. And that means there was a werewolf that got away. All right. My house isn't too far from here.

Well, my mom's house. Miss Mrs. Haftick. Sorry. I'm sorry. That was below the bell. I shouldn't have that. I'm under a little bit of stress right now. That's his mother. I said Mrs. You did. You said that. You did. Um. The I can. I can heal her no problem. I think. But. But. What are we doing with? I'll deal with him. Yeah, he's got zero like humor in his face. Like he is as stony, he has his armor and he just says, I'll deal with him. Oh, boy. So he's, um, haptic's not a huge guy, right? Uh, but he'll pick a borer so that you don't have to. to carry two people. And maybe we can get you up to like, I don't know, 11 feet of movement, something like that.

I think we can round up to a cool 12. Yeah. Oh, shit. Okay. So I would like to fast forward to the 23rd of Tulun, if that's okay with everybody. Oh, my God. Thank you. I wanted to go potion shopping. Can I go potion shopping? We need to buy that goddamn silver. That's true. Oh, my God, that was the longest day that's ever occurred in theory. We didn't know? Yeah. It's the new long roar. Oh, my God. Okay. Okay. How many levels did we gain from yesterday? I have a lot. I got that in real life. How many years did we age in real time? By the way, not for nothing. Halfdick's name's Barnaby.

Like if that, you know, if that helps. Yeah, that's even worse because that sounds like a goppy cop. So is this Jesse or Austin? I swear to God, Susan. I Justin Haftick. Justin Joustic Josting. Oh, Justin half dick. I've lost them forever. All right. I want to start in the hotel. I want to start in silk sheets. I imagine you guys just sleep for 16 hours. Like just a good, good old snor fest. You wake up at like 10 a.m. Somewhere in there, which is kind of late for adventures. But when you're in the city, it's usually like, hey, I'm not on the clock. Like, I'm going to take some time off.

So eventually, you guys both wake up. up. Probably slept in your clothes. You, you, you. Mouth probably super dry. Just like, uh-huh. Like that good drool sleep where you wake up and just like, like the corner of your mouth is all gross. Crossy. Yeah. That good, good sleep. That night will sleep. That night will sleep. 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 at patreon.com slash D-A-N-D-R.

There you'll get behind-the-scenes looks, bonus games, Patreon groups with Jason and Brea at higher tiers, and so much more. There's even some big surprises coming down the path. Links to our Discord and Patreon in the show description. Now, just a couple of words from our sponsors. And then back to the show. I'm, I, you paint me a picture. I want to know. Like how, so okay. To you, it's like, hey, we still, we could still get continental breakfast. Everything's fine. God, I looked at my watch. And all the temperatures are in single digits. And I hate this place so much.

Sorry. Ruby would typically just keep sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. But this was a special moment in time. So I think she would wake up. Nathira's in Lagerint's bed because you're snoring and annoyed the fuck out of her. So Ruby would get her bearings for a second. And first thing, like, oh, God, I get some coffee. God, I hope it's not too late. And then she would put a couple things together. She would go straight over to Nethera. And she'd sit down and she'd say, hey, hey, until you looked at her. Mm-hmm. You okay? It's probably a jolt. And you, Ruby would probably clock it too, that her hand goes to where her tagger is.

And then she stops herself. Yeah, she would notice it and not stop you. She wouldn't be like, oh, no, please don't. She'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, get it out of your system, kind of a thing. What day is it? It's the 23rd. This would be the greatest gag to just have I got you, babe, like, Storia on the podcast. I don't know. We did that podcast. Yeah. Yeah. We lived it. It's the 22nd. Everybody, there's a tournament that's about to start. I don't know. That's going to be great. Yeah. She would have a little bit of an urgency with it. She's, hey, you okay?

You feeling all right? Yes. Much better. Pats herself. Make sure everything's where it should be. You're good. And then like shakes her head. The kids. We have to check on the kids. Yeah. We're going to check on the kids. the kids. That's fine. There's a lot of things on our list right now. First thing I thought of was coffee. That's not what I'm thinking right now. Do you want to know what I'm thinking? Where's the gear heart? Where's Logren? Where's Kamera? It's late. That doesn't sound right to me. Yeah. Let's go. We got to go. We got to go find them. Well, let's check your room first. because maybe Langer and just didn't want to share her bed with me.

Yeah. She'd run over real quick to see, assuming that nobody's in there, which they're not. Yeah, they're not there. Let's grab some coffee and go. We got to find them. That ain't right. That ain't right. Yeah. Last, they were at the Gristlet. So that's where they were. All coffee in hand takes it from some guy who's holding it up this way. And it's like walking. With a dagger, you know, like, I'll stab you. Sorry. Thank you. I'm not going to lock up. Double timing it across the city. You're going to close in on like that round about where the gloaming is. That's where Grizzle bits is.

And you're going to see. the utter destruction. This place has been fucked. And you're going to see a lot of paladins swarming the place. I feel like we would skirt that enough that we are not getting in the thick of it, but doing whatever we can to sort of see what's happening. Maybe one on the edge who's like keeping roof raff away, and I'd be like, oh my God, what happened? Oh, my God. Sorry. There you. You can worship one guy. It's fine. No, no fear. If it's theirs, it's even better. Like, if you're, if it's ter? Uh, boy. So, this person's going to be, yeah, like, the equivalent of making sure you don't cross the yellow. type of thing.

Yeah. Apparently we had and they're kind of kind of like lower. We had a werewolf. Attack and Grizzle bits is never going to be the same. Were there any injuries or dare I say casualties? It looks like several. People were torn to shreds. I... We haven't seen anything like this in the city. I genuinely don't know what... And if someone's going to holler for him, it's like, hey! Like, it's obviously someone half dick adjacent, basically that that is on the outskirts, like some initiate or something like that. And then you're going to see half a dick adjacent. in the swarm, like in the inner circle, like looking around like, um, like every once in a while, someone, uh, much older is going to come up and kind of like, like pat him on the back.

It's like, good job. Like, excellent work. Like that type of thing. Which is really weird considering the last time, uh, that you saw him. He was not getting that level of respect. Yeah. Would I have, would Nythera have clocked that halfdick? was in the fighting ring. My fear was only there for like five minutes. You know what? Give me a wisdom saving throw. Okay. You had a lot going on that day. Yeah, true. Ruby would not have had any. She would not have even known him, right? 12. Mm-hmm. Maybe he like, he looks familiar. Oh, whatever. Well, hearing of that... Casualties.

You're at 12. You're... Well, thank you for keeping the area safe. I just... I had friends in the area. They were on their way past here, so I just want to make sure was... were any of the casualties, maybe a dwarf. or a teafling? And they're going to, you're laying on kind of thick. So they're going to kind of sneak back. We definitely found a teafling. Yeah. But they were in a couple of different pieces. So we found blood as far as on the first floor. Most of it was in the basement. But we're still looking. We think that there's a couple of bodies that are missing. they get yelled at again and it's like okay I'm coming like that type of thing.

So Nightdira had stolen two coffees from this guy. She's going to hand one of them to Valadin. I like to think you stole one then came back and took the one he report after. Yes. Thank you very much. That one is not strong enough. Oh. Turning to Ruby. there was a chiefling of Yeah. Ruby's already trying to make her way in to see if she can get past anyone to She's she's pale. Yeah, ninth year will start scoping out surrounding areas for like trails or Yeah, to be clear, Ruby's not like jumping into the middle of everything. She's looking strategic. strategically, like, how can I get in there to see if I can look and identify anything?

And I'm going to make sure my friends are not in there. Can Ruby give me a perception check, please? Sure can. Yeah. Give me it with an expertise, die. Oh, I can take my disadvantage off now. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Get everybody. Give yourself a long rest. Get all that strife off. I'm still level too. I got two more days of sleeping. Oh my God. What a crit. How about a crit? Oh, I'm going to roll on that crit success table just for flavor. Quick observer. Even the smallest movements catcher eye, you have advantage on your next perception check. Great. Nice. Okay. Take it.

You might as well have like witcher vision or. I can see Ruby going into this. Like, this is not happening. And then she will be laser focused. Yeah. Pattern recognition. And yes, that is of the utmost importance. Find out if your friends are alive. However, you're going to see a trail of destruction. And to realize. Oh. I miss the gear hard. Like just this is smash. And you're going to follow this. It's like, okay, well, they definitely went. You're going to see scrapes along the wall on either side of that narrow alleyway. And it's like, well, that's, okay, I see that.

And then look at all these burn marks from where all my goddamn fireworks went off. I got to restock all that. Do you know how hard it is to find fireworks? And then like, you're going to see that's like, that's probably how the wall caved in. And then you're going to follow it and see. that it leads right into the gloaming quarter. Like you're going to see. Yeah. Okay, good. So without knowing any information and trying to piece things together, hoping for the best that Lagron and Camero weren't killed in the middle of all of this werewolf attack, that for the moment, she's not, she's just, maybe there was a werewolf attack.

As far as, you know, we've just seen a werewolf with his head on fire. So who knows? She would head back to Nithera and she'd be. Or whatever, whenever she could see her, she'd be like, come with me. Like, come with me. Because she would think, okay, maybe this is nothing to do with Loggerna and Chimer. Maybe they got the gear heart for some reason. Maybe there or, you know, like maybe they caught up with the kids, like something. Right. And I can totally see like just trying to take myself out of knowing what actually happened. Like maybe Logrin and Chimera were running out and Vetti. like, tried, tried to pull over to get them and happen to like crash here.

Best case scenario, Logrin started driving the gear heart because he's probably got a little bit of a, he could probably do it if he had to. And maybe they've highted it into someplace safe, which I think they would probably think Ruby would at least think the gloaming quarter. Like, that's where we're going to have, we're going to be our safest. That's probably where that he would take chat. That makes the most sense too. So basically she's following whatever track she can to see where that gear heart went. I want to cut to Barnaby's mom's house. Barnaby went to work.

I'm sorry, who? I don't know this name. Yeah, this is a new. It's a valiant effort, though. I do like it. I'm trying to reframe the narrative. And it's never going to stick. And that's fine. You can't introduce the character as half dick and then walk it back. It's never going to. You don't. But Barnaby's mom is a good name. Although, to be fair, like for whatever happened after the fade away last night, Logrin does switch to calling him Barnaby. Okay. Because he needs his kid on his side. He's, he's. That's fair. Yeah. Can he? Yeah. That's fair. Okay. Okay. But he does say, Mrs.

Haftick. Absolutely. So he's going to leave you that night, the night before. I got to dip back into the 22nd for just a second. Guys, don't, don't panic. Don't panic. So he's going to leave you. It's like, hey, mom, could you take care of the, you know, and it's like this, this is Ethel. She's going to, she's going to take care of you and all that. and like she is going to leave ORA in, um, uh, in like her bedroom. Like just like kind of a, it's like, okay, she can get some rest there. She looks beat up. She, you know, but you and your friend can can sleep in Barnaby's old room.

Like that, you know, that he uses it on occasion. He usually, he usually sleeps in the city with all of his recruit friends. but now if you'd like, you can drop your friend off and get some rest. So that night, paint me a picture here. Like, what do you do with chimera? Camara gets literally tied to the bed. Okay. Camara wakes up tied to the bed with ripped up bed sheets. Okay. And that's pretty much it. Like, Logrin will sleep like he's. He's in a hospital chair next to it. Next to like the bed. He's like this sitting up. And he will sleep basically at a station next to Camara tied to the bed.

Okay. Uh, Ian, do me a favor. First of all, unmute. I want to hear. I want to hear every, everything. I don't want you to be muted. Get out of there with that. Secondly, give me Constitution saving through a please. Okay. Round two. Here we go. Yeah. Oh, no. Good thing on tied down. Oh, oh. Wow. You're dead. Classically, a good number, I think, in D&D is a one. Yeah. So, uh, roll a one for a total of three. So, um, Lodgren's going to wake up many hours later. Like, when it's right around nine or so, the light, uh, there's kind of an alleyway. So the light eventually kind of reaches your eyes.

And you just kind of like, you're, you're sleeping in your armor. You're this, whatever chair you're sitting is creaking underneath of you because of how, you know what I mean? It's like if a grown man sits in wicker, like, you know what I mean? Like I don't trust a wicker. I don't know what I'm Quaker caught astray just then. I don't know. Just imagine him trying to ease himself into like the most frail old lady chair. Rocking chair. Yeah. It's like, there's yarn next to it. You just like, it's a rocking chair, but it doesn't rock evenly. It doesn't rock evenly.

So, yeah. And you're going to look over. And you're going to see. time, having what appears to be the best fucking sleep anyone's ever had. He looks so pleasant and relaxed and carefree. I'm happy for him. Good. It's a very happy. Yeah, I mean, Logrin has, he will. He will wait as long as it takes. Like, I'll put, I'll do a mess. check on him and make sure he's not in a coma if I heard but otherwise he'll wait it out it's like oh shit I should have gotten him at a little attention last night oh no he's gone of his gone in the night oh shit okay it's a four message well it beats his three so he's still alive like he's just like yeah it's like opens his eyelid like well he's still got eyes I guess So I think he's fine.

So I get like, okay, if you're here for a while, right, he is eventually going to wake up. And it's probably when like his, okay. So to paint a picture, this isn't like the Hulk, right? Where Hulk eventually becomes banner again and like beyond some ripped jorts. Like, you know, he's okay. this is incredibly taxing on on the bottom. Like, like, Kimere's not a small guy, but definitely, you know, like, it's very taxing and exhausting. So like, he's kind of sleeping and off. So eventually he is going to, like, go to roll over or something and be conscious enough to go.

Uh-huh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Like, just knowing that he's restrained. And then then wake up enough to go, oh, Oh, shit. And kind of like some of last night comes flushing, flashing back to him. So you're going to kind of see him like wriggle a bit. And then, yeah, kind of look around panicked. And when you look at Logrin, he's just sort of, like, he kind of does that thing where he just like, rubs his hand over his face to like wake up a little bit, which you've seen him do before. And he just kind of leans forward in the chair and he's just watching you. Yeah, and I think I don't think Kimira is panicked Because let's be honest This isn't the first time he's woken up tied to a bed But yeah, I think, but I mean, I think he clocks that And I think he looks over, sees Loggerin, moving And I think the first thing that he says is Where's ORA?

She's safe. Is she okay? She's alive. And you'll see just like, he'll just like rest his head back on the, on the pillow. And take a deep breath. How are you? about that long of her pause and he goes, I'm fine. You look okay. You look tired. Where are we? right now. We are staying somewhere where we can lay low while this blows over. Not bad, huh? There's a lot of bodies we got to account for. Are we going to have to leave quickly? Right now, come here. I need to understand who we is. It's just me. But there's a lot that I don't have answers for. I need to see ORA.

I need to see ORA. Can you untie me? In time. I'm not ready yet. Listen, I'm not going to pretend like I understand. You've got... You've got bit by a werewolf. You've got that parasite in your head. It's not just you. in there. I can't pretend to know what that's like. And I knew that when I hired you. But you assured me at the time that there would be no conflict that you were focused. And I got to tell you, I'm having a hard time seeing that. Yeah. I... I see that. And... When I told you that at the time, I meant it. But... something... Things different. Some things changed that I don't have full control over.

And I was trying to get control of that. Who was in control when you talked those idiots down into that? was that you? Oh, that was me. A hundred percent me. So you were in control when you were Nora arranged a blood tournament? Yes. See, that's the part that I'm struggling with. Well, if it helps, I had a good reason. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm having a hard time believing that. Okay, I hear you. What do you? What do you need me to do moving forward? And he kind of like shifts in his chair a little bit. He rubs his beard and he thinks about it. I think your problem is that you think too small, Camara.

The man that I hired, the man who swindled me and got away with it for a little while. He's got a lot of talent. More than just the magic you get from the other guy. That's the guy I hired. That's the guy I wanted with me. But you think too small. You were a circus performer. You could have been running a town. It's all short term. You could change it so much and you settle for swindling six idiots out of their souls in a basement, but bad bar. And maybe you don't want to do anything great. Maybe you're just working for me for fun. I don't know. It's none of my business.

You don't have to do great things if you don't want to do. But I'm not going to let you settle for easy. And what I see you're doing now is the easy way. I'm not going to allow it. It's not going to happen again. We're not taking the easy way out. I hear you. I think I understand. But nothing that I do. But nothing that I do, nothing that I've been doing has been easy. and I know that you see something in me and that's why I wanted to be a part of this because no one has really seen that. in me before. But... I gotta ask you, Logrin. Some of the stuff that you said in that basement.

I mean, I wasn't all there. You know, but I was present for it. and It really made me feel disposable. Like you just could take a part of me and leave the rest. And I already got a man in my life who uses me. I don't need another. When this started, maybe you were. Maybe all of you were. Because I hired you. It's a job. The only part of you that I would leave behind is him. Because I'll be honest. If I didn't think this was worth it, I wouldn't be here right now. That'd be it. I'd turn you over. I'd have turned you over yesterday. That'd be it. Would have been easy.

But we're not doing easy. I don't believe in it. If you were disposable, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You work for me. Not for him. but that means you get my loyalty to. And that's why I couldn't let you leave that basement yesterday. Hmm. Yeah. I know that. Well, I know that now. I know that now. But... You really didn't hold back. That shotgun hurt. Well, I mean, you were really big, so... And... And... Why... Why... why... Why go after my horn? I mean, I'm going to be honest. I'm not an expert, but it looked, it looked exactly like the one on the wall in Aubrey.

I think you became a greater demon. And whatever you did to me, I couldn't stop myself from trying to take it. Oh. That is interesting. I didn't even think of that. I'm not sure how much I was thinking either. Fuck. I hate when you make me be honest. Logrin. You have my word. And you have my loyalty as well. The hard thing that I need to do is renegotiate. And that's gonna be difficult. That's what I was trying to get those souls for. So that I could have something to bring to the table and say, okay, you've already got what you want. We need to set some boundaries.

And then everything happened. And I don't know everything that happened. I don't know if Kogov lost control, or if that's what he wanted to do, or if it was a compliment. of those things. I can't tell you that part. I can't tell you... I'm still in this 100%. And I'm sorry for... My part in it. I'm sorry for... hurting you and I'm really sorry for hurting aura. Orra is another matter. What do you mean? I don't know what to do about aura. And maybe you do. I don't know. You two were feeding off of each other in a way that I don't care for. So maybe we can turn that around.

Maybe she needs to stop. I don't know. But she's the Stone's under. I can't talk to her. Can I give you some advice? Mm-hmm. ORA is finding what she's good at. And we should support her. doing that. And she's gonna fuck up. That's what kids do. And you have to let them. And when they come back, bruised, broken, ashamed. You embrace them. That group? They don't have you. You know? Fetty is Fettie and Baz is young and it sure as hell isn't chat. But aura... They look at ORA and she, she helps them. Whether they know it or not, I don't know if she's figured that out yet.

But she could be that group's you. I think that's how you talk to her about it. Listen, kids are trouble. I get that. But when kids are trouble, they steal a horse. They right on walls. They don't confugs into a blood tournament. And it could be, maybe there's an extra influence there that I don't understand. Maybe you two fix this together. Reprioritize. I don't know. But I'll talk to her. We will. We will. I should. I should talk to ORA. I don't know what I'm. I'm gonna say yet other than I'm very sorry, but I'll talk with her. You know, those kids don't do is they don't take down whole mountains and kingdoms.

We're all outliers, Ogren, all of us. We're on the fringe. Maybe that's why we get along so well. Maybe. All right. Well, we are in Half Dix bedroom. Got it. His mom's home. Mrs. Haftick. She prefers. She prefers Edith. Noted. The logger will stand up and he is very creaky when he does. Like rubble falls out of his armor. He's like, there's a lot of like, you know, bones popping. Sleeping in a chair is uncomfortable. And he will start to untie camere. Or is sleeping. and Edith's room across the hall. If you want to go talk to her, maybe I'll get Edith to make us some coffee or something.

I don't know. I'll go see her. Ruby, Nythera, anything? I haven't heard a word. I'm sure they're fine. Uh, once he's free, Camero, like, put, sort of like put his hand on the, on the claw marks that he put on Loughran's armor. And he'll just like, like, put his hand on there. I'm sorry, Loughran. We only have right now. And right now. right now, I know you're here to help me. I'm sorry that I'm sorry that I couldn't help you. You will. He kind of gives his hand a pat on his armor. And he'll move to open the door. Right about the time you guys are, you're kind of wrapping up.

And you're kind of wrapping up and you're going to hear motion downstairs. And it's someone kind of authoritatively knocking on the front door. And while her name was Ethel, Edith is good. Edith is great, too. So let's just go with that. That's okay if Lagrin has it wrong. That's fine. That's the thing. It is Ethel, but he's just like, I don't care. I don't care. I just found out. I just found out my son. It's called Half Dick. So I'll take Edith. Edith is good. It's actually your middle name. I'm actually. Edith. I'm going to hear. I'm on there. And it almost looks like a wanted poster or or something like that.

And she's looking at over if you guys are like coming downstairs or like a yeah. Yeah. So Loggeron will tromp down these stairs very slowly because they do not sound like they can support his weight. And you'd suck at sneaking out of the house at night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Goom. Yeah. And yeah, he'll talk to to what's her face while Camara goes and talks to Or. He's just, hey, you, you, you, with the face, here. E, let's just go with E. Let's just go with E. Let's just. Um, at, uh, you, uh, you're, your friends up. Is he all right? He'll be right. He just needs a little time.

Thank you, by the way. Something happened to the sheets, by the way, they're all ripped up. I don't know. Oh. Oh. Well. Oh. Oh, man. He has horns and claws. He must have done it in his sleep. I don't know. He gets night terrors. He gets really scared. So. I've never had a teethling sleep over before. I didn't know that. That must be so ex-in to live like that. It's not a race thing. Don't make it a race thing here. Here's a couple. It's him specifically. He gives her a couple of goals for ruining a set of sheets and for like, you know, making breakfast, which he's looking for now because he expects that she made breakfast.

And he's looking around. I. It's like, because I'm an old woman. I got to make you for. fucking breakfast. Like, this isn't a B and me. Like, there's shit here. There's pineapple upside down cake. He's not, he's not commenting on breakfast. He just gives her coins for like, hey, thanks for helping us out. Sorry about your sheets. Here's a couple coins. What's that? What's in your hand? What do I give you? Oh, well, apparently. The city's just going to hell over. There's a werewolf infestation. It says here that this young monster hunter is a unilateral power in the city.

Apparently, the infestation is so bad that the mayor himself is just overnight. Apparently, you're not supposed to get in this young man's way, but I don't leave the house much anyway, so should be fine. Have you seen anything? Monstrous, I guess, is the word? I definitely have, yeah. You're better off staying inside for a couple days. This used to be such a nice city, honestly. At first, it was the vampires and then this, and it's just, it's, yeah. I, when I was younger, there just weren't so many races living together. And now it's, it's, it's, it's just, I promise you that that's not what it is.

You got to, you got to steer away from that. Well, it's just, first the sheets and then this. And it's just, I, that's the data I have to work with. Maybe you should get out of the house more. on second thought, get out there. Mingle. You get to know your neighbors. Yeah. Bonzo's dark. Great place to meet people. It's too dark for me, honestly. It's too dark for me, honestly. It's too dark. It's a little too late. It's a little too rough. I don't know if I like Ethelith anymore. She's back to Mrs. Halftake. That's what it is. She's acting. Yeah. If she hears, she'll like she'll hear a couple of knocks upstairs while Kamir is, you know, trying to talk to Orra.

If you're looking for the young lady, she left about an hour ago. She was very upset. Camar. She's not here. We got to go find her. Oh, God. Did she say where she went? I think she was mostly confused. She didn't know where she was. And she seemed very panicked. She was mentioning something about a monster, and she kept covering her face quite a bit. I don't know anything more than that. I'm sorry. That's all right. You did your best. Ruby and Nithera are. are going to follow these tracks into the gloaming quarter, back to the church. And you're going to see where it looks like this vehicle came to a stop kind of suddenly, like the brakes were slammed on.

And judging by all the devastation you're seeing and how deep the tread marks were, she got this baby going quite a good pace, like, faster than you've seen it. So the good news is what you did worked. Like, it worked great. It's going great. You are going to find the occasional part, like a bit of metal here or like, you know, busted tail light type action. You know, it's... Then what it looks like is the vehicle was pushed behind the church. No one wanted to drive it after it got here. And I think that's a good time for us to stop for the night. I'm so sorry, Jasper.

I'm so sorry. Totally fine. We're going to pick up with it. I swear. That's perfect. It's perfect. Okay. Oh, my God. Fucking good job, guys. Oh, my God. That was rad. Way to go, Jameson. That was rad. That was good stuff. I mean, everybody. Well, three of us kind of just were chilling most of the, most of this. But like, yeah. Like, it's worth it. That's what we've been waiting on is. Yeah. Something. some not even resolution but just it's the 23rd that's the best we can hope for sometimes that's it just can't be set on the 22nd get ready for the second longest day and then 23rd of doing step 8 says like I gotta make amends it's 9 a.m and we have found the gear heart