Meditative Maintenance

This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors in names, terminology, or attribution.

Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason. I'm the dutchmaster. Going around the table starting with Susan. Hello, I'm Susan Spanater. I'm Susan Spanator. My pronouns are she her. And I play Nytheria Rialith, the Elven Rogue assassin. And Ian. Hey, I'm Ian. My pronouns are he, him, and I play chimera, the Tifling Warlock. And Jasper. Hey, everybody. I am Jasper. Heim. I play Ruby, Pedigrew, the Half Fork, Gearslinger, Adept. And last and certainly not least, Jameson. Hi, my name is Jameson. I am currently at a gas station restroom, looking at the bench machine.

And I can't have a NY, trying to think about what I want, but I don't really want anything. So I think I'm just going to get back in the car and keep driving. Anyway, I play logger and crack more. He's a Dwarven Marshall. I thought you were referring to like in the men's restroom to vending machines. And I was like, first of all, you're at a bad restroom. I mean this weird rest stops, man. You don't want some ruffles while you're in there? That's why I heard you. I heard like the restroom. I might have said restroom. I met restop. but uh oh yeah no i didn't have anything talking in there but it's usually just started talking so it's a combination restroom restop it's like a pizza hot in middle america you can find ruffles and and doritos and shit in the bathroom they're just not usually in a vending machine like you're just yeah just not for sale you want some turritos uh no thank you I do like how these intros are starting to become a little bit of a narrative.

Like it's almost a spin-offs podcast. Like there's something going on here. It's a little welcome to nightville. I think it's exactly what I'm thinking of. It's like what is? So you have a good for a time, I think. So now you're in the rest of a stop. Where are you going and coming for? I don't know. I have to tune in next week. I will. I will. I'm going to read a story. You just add his stuff to your plate. All of the stuff you've already done together, too. I'm tempted. I'm tempted by the challenge. I would, I'm invested. It's a podcast within a podcast. For doing it.

Yeah. If we're doing it anyway, I guess we might as well, uh, wrap up some story points on this podcast. First. So, So last time, you guys sat down with the mayor of Estherholt, Corvin Hale, you hashed some things out, and we managed to check some boxes. We've closed a murder investigation. We've cleared your names for some things. The kids are safe. And you're staying overnight with a hope of getting to talk to the leader of the Minotaur that are currently visiting. But before we jump to the next day, this is kind of the first time that we haven't been so like, go, go, go.

Back in October, we split the group. And we've been trying to like get shit nailed down since then. And the beginning of this year has not been kind to our recording schedule. So for those who may have forgotten, all of the 22nd is fourth. Like that day you were split up, you were out in about, a lot of stuff happened. The 23rd mostly has seen you fighting for your lives or, you know, trying to try to find aura, you know, like tracking. You haven't had much of a chance to decompress or talk to each other. And there's pretty much a day in the calendar where none of you know what the others were doing unless you were in the room, which was rare.

So do you guys want to? to maybe celebrate, you know, closing the book on some of this complicated shit and, and, you know, enjoying yourselves for the night before we jump to the 24th. I mean, we're, yeah, we've been go, go, go, go, like you said, is there, I'm wondering what this place is like. Can you paint a picture of this mayor's residence? I know that he's got all of these papers and everything everywhere. But is this like a, it's just like a little compound? Is there like a, would there be a? like a fireplace or like a, you know, like a little sitting area or like a living room or someplace like that.

There'd be like gas chambers because like obviously, um, it's a little rare for like all of the minotaur to come visit. But they do get delegates from different cities trying to establish trade or, you know, someone needs, you know, food or, you know, wood or supplies or just skilled labor. So there are delegates from different cities, town, settlements that come here and they're put up in guest housing. So it would probably be a situation like that where it's not a massive place, but it's definitely large enough for, you know, four to eight of you.

And you guys have Oren Vetti. So, you know, there's separate. There's like a few different bedrooms and stuff. But like it's a fairly. decent living area. It's nice and cushy. It's kind of putting their best foot forward. It's like, oh, you could stay in the, you know, and you guys have definitely earned it. So, yeah, there'd be like a little fireplace. There'd be probably some, some cushy, like seating, leather couch, something like that. Probably not for the mandatory. They'd probably move that furniture out. But, you know, but for you guys, it's fine. Because it's leather?

Yeah, that was the joke. I don't know. I just, it's, you know. Yeah. None of my A game yet. I have to fully recover. I'll get better. I'm sorry. I'll learn from this. Well, I was thinking like because they'd ruin it or something. But then I was like, oh, wait, no. It might be because it's there's. This is terrible. It's in a big or something. Nothing makes you feel worse for a joke than someone going, because this. And you're like, oh, that didn't. Yeah. All right. Let's know. It has less. to do with your delivery of the joke and more of how my training is like processing information.

And is that worse than someone going, oh, that's funny. Oh, yeah. That's for me. That's clever. That's clever. It depends on who it's coming from. You know what I'm saying? Like his tone of voice. Like from Ian, I would genuinely feel it was like academic. Like he's like, oh, I could see where that would say. If it's a, if it can, it's from you, Susan, devastating. Because it's easy to laugh. If you're like, hmm, yeah. I'm going to jam this right in my temple. And Anywho, you got a nice cozy spot. It is the night of the 23rd of Doolin. And I'm just going to hand stuff over to you guys for a little bit before we push things forward and get back into the nitty gritty.

First thing I'll say is that Ruby has excused herself for just a minute. She's popped out. That's it. I think Carmar is with everyone, but he's definitely trying to. He's not being fussy, but he's trying to make sure that. Ora is comfortable. I think that's his, like, biggest thing right now. I think the two kids are, are, you know how like, kids are kind of go, go, go, and then they reach a limit where like it hits them all at once. Even teenagers. Like it's, you know, and Orr's like 15 vetties, you know, just a little bit older. So, like, I think it would be a thing of like flopping down to the catch.

It's just, oh, it kind of sums it up because it's not like aura slept and, you know, the night before. There would be like some, some meats and cheeses and stuff like that, like little churitory. So, you know, whatever in the cold box or whatever there'd be like, the first thing they would do is find snacks, then collapse onto the couch and just start eating. Okay. Kind of end to the world. If that's the case, then Kamira is around, but he's giving them space. I think Nythera would station up at, like, a desk or something, and take out every single one of her weapons.

Usually she'll, like, take one out and, like, do a wetstone to it. But there's, like, a series where she gets, okay, there's five. There's six. Wait, is she up to 14 daggers? Where did that one even come from? But she's taking them all out, lining them up, and then, like, meticulously, like, she is trying to focus on tasks right now and things she can handle. So that's where her mind is at. But it looks like she just has a shit ton of weapons in front of her. And she's meticulously taking care of them. I try and slip up my boomerang in there, like, just in the line of weapons.

She'll like in a way that it looks like it's supposed to be there. And then she'll eventually get to it and sharpen it for you. She forgot she even had that one. Who can keep count. Yeah, Logren's actually doing something similar. If there's like separate sleeping arrangements or something like that, he would have claimed his room pretty quickly. And as soon as everybody gets settled and looks like they're like sitting, he, trundles off to whatever room he's claimed. And he does the thing. So he's going to take off all of his armor and clean and repair that because it's taken the beating.

But he has his own methodical way of doing it. And it's going to take him about 40 minutes to get himself set up to do it. Right. Like he's got to get it all off. And he's got to go find a bucket and a brush and some soapy water. And he's got to go like he's just back and forth through the room the whole time. Like, he's going to And he's like talking to himself a little bit under his breath as he's going on there. He's walking into the next room and then trosh that down and then comes right back out. Like this is 40 minutes of him doing this. He's just completely in his own head.

Within that time, I'm being called out like this. We just bought, like, I've been waiting to get a new grill since we moved here. And like there was a Blackstone on sale. It's like, oh, my God. I know. It's fancy. Jesus Christ, there's a lot of set up for that. It's like, I've got to season this grill. It's just me talking to myself walking back and forth. Within that time, Ruby would come back. I'm hoping that it was at Percy. I think Percy was the mayor's assistant that they got her a couple of shots or something. Percy or whatever. She's just going to go try to see if she's just going to see if she's.

She can rustle up some liquor and some glasses. Can I just, you know, make friends with Percy basically to say, can I get some of the good stuff? Just something. Just something. Try to get a bottle and a couple of things like that. Yeah, it won't be hard. Like it, like again, your guests. And you, okay, you really took a thorn out of their paw. By solving this fucking murder thing. Like, it's really going to, you know, you know, open up that pressure valve. And hopefully there won't be a civil war because of this. But now that someone's been not only brought to justice, but, you know, they died.

Pretty final. There's no trial. There's no, you know, we could just close the book on it. So like, yeah, they'll set you up with. It's like, yeah, what do you want? Take the bottle. Go go. Awesome. Like you had to hear. Yeah. When she gets back in, she's just going to put all of those things down on whatever coffee table or whatever is there. and she's going to just pour drinks for everybody. Nothing crazy. It's just like a nice moment. Yeah, a couple of fingers. But that's it. Not like trying to get hammered, but just a celebration. This is the first moment that she's actually been around everybody where there wasn't something about to blow up or anything.

So she's going to put a couple of fingers worth the liquor into a glass. and she's going to bring it over to Nithera's area, her work area, and just hand it. And she's going to go around to everybody. She's going to put a little tiny, not even a fingerworth, but just like a little, the bottom of the glass for Ora and Vetti. Just to make them feel included. Yeah, that's all it is. You can even water it down so they feel like they're getting more. That's a good point. A bunch of ice. Yeah. But I imagine this is just a... It's kind of silent. Just drink for Nithera.

She'll come over to come here. Probably lost in thought, staring off at the fireplace or something. And just like taps him on the shoulder with the glass. And he's like, huh? Yeah, take it takes it. And then she does the same thing for a locker room. Wherever he is, she's going to find him and just say, stop. Stop. Here. Oh, yeah. You can just put it on the table right there. I'll get it. Nope. Take it. He's like sitting on the floor with all this stuff around. I'm just like, all right. Move this out of his lap. He's going to get up and he comes in over. He's like, thank you.

She's going to, she's going to like cheers. With the log room. She gives you a look because he's like, I just want, now you're going to watch me until you've seen me drink it. So he does like, right, he toast. He's like, all right, here. Okay. Thank you. And then he'll go like he's going to shoot it just to get it over it. But then he smells it. He's got, oh, this. And then he'll sip it. And it's like, okay, that's pretty good. Thank you. Good stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'll leave you alone, but been a heck of a couple of days. You can say that. Yeah. I'm trying to think of whether or not.

Ruby would just go. Logren needs some. time alone. She would poke at him even further. He's like almost leaning back towards what he's working on. And if she lingers, he's going to be like, do you want to sit on the bed or do you want to? I'll leave you. I'll leave you. I'll leave you. I just feel like we need to have a little bit of a reset at some point, not right now. But I feel like we need to get out of this place. I know you're feeling it too. I feel claustrophobic. I feel like it's all just close. I feel like it's all just closing in. There's just too much.

And I feel like now's our chance. Soon. I got to get some fresh air. Don't go too far. No, I mean out of the city. I don't mean, I'm not going anywhere. I'm about to sit down and drink. But I just feel like we're done here. Right. Soon. I wish we were. We got a little bit more. We got to take care of. But we're behind schedule. So we've got to get back on the road. That's my problem. I feel like we'd, We've got a ticking clock here. I know you know it. I'll leave you. Anyway, thanks. Genuinely. Yeah, and you'll be like, all right, Ruby, no worry. Then he closes the door.

While that's going on, Niterra's going up with chimera's boomering. And I'll like take up. Once she finishes it, she's going to go, and then get up from the table, like make a thing out of it. Like I'm pushing away from this task on to the next one and then walk it over to Kymir and ask him. I handing it to him. Oh, thank you. We thought you had died. Are you okay? Um, the short answer is no. I'm not okay. But I am alive. Or has been kind of like staring ahead at the fire. And then when you ask, are you okay? Just kind of like side eye. I'm not getting involved.

But how do you answer that? Like, go ahead. Thank you for asking. I don't know, Neithera. I don't know. I never know. And that's kind of how I like to hurdle through life. but this time it's more complicated. Is chimera sitting down, you think, like with his drink or whatever? Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can be sitting here standing. Okay, yeah. So, Nithira is actually going to crouch, so they're kind of like eye level. And then put like a tentative hand on his knee and say, I think maybe your patron. situation is getting to a point where we need to think about solutions.

I've been thinking about that a lot too. I tried to come up with my own solution, but that didn't turn out the way that I'd hoped. I was hoping to kind of sweeten the deal and have a talk with a bunch of signing a bunch of people up. And that turned into the whole thing at chrissal bits. Ruby is filtering through all of this. She's going to squeeze in next to chimera at some point. She's walking in. She's catching up on this conversation. So she wasn't there. But she's going to squeeze in next to you comfortably and take a sip. And then... He like puts an arm.

Yeah. puts an arm out. Yeah. She takes more of a drink. She's like, so you got into a fight? Kind of. I got into, I got into Colgoth is what I got into. That's what happened. Raise one eyebrow. Yeah. I was signing these people up for him. getting all these souls. And by the way, it was something that he said he needed. You remember that werewolf bite? That like ripped me half open. Well, he was doing something about that because I guess there was, you know, a third passenger inside here. And he like gestures to his whole body. And so he needed some oomph to help. help take care of that.

And when at some point, whatever power he was taking with that, I don't know if it overtook him. I don't know if it's something he did. I don't know if it's something that is a part of likeanthropy. I'm really not sure, but all of a sudden, I was every single impulse that I've ever had. And I wasn't in the driver's seat. And I was just as much a part of him as he was of me. And I was a demon. Like literally, a demon. Ruby's just locking eyes with Nithera. Again, she came in late on the conversation, but she's... You probably caught the gist of it. Oh, we're talking about grizzle bits.

Oh, okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Uh... Yeah. That doesn't sound sustainable, maybe. No. Not at all. It hurt a lot of people. It... I almost... Hurt Logrin. I almost killed. But aura. She'll kind of, again, not really getting involved just like hold up her glass. Just like, hi. Like this. And he, he like, he makes a gesture like he's not talking about her while she's in the room. He's inviting her to be a part of the conversation if she wants to be. but, you know, like a little like sub-nod, you know, like, yeah. And yeah, I lost control again. I lost control again. I couldn't do anything about it.

And I don't want it to happen again. However, Walgren did have the wherewithal to try and take the horn off my head. Which might be really useful. Yes. Yeah. And he gestures to it and his horn is like a little cut, like a big cut in it. So that could be useful. If we can find a way to make that work for us, that might be helpful. But we'd have to really come up with something because you can't. just tie me down. I can teleport. And it's very dangerous. I mean, the teleportation is cool, but it's super dangerous. I would like to see it. I couldn't say, I really want to see that happen, but I don't want you to get there to make it happen because that sounds pretty badass.

I mean, the one cool takeaway is I think I looked really hot, like extra hot. But here's the thing. You've lost control. before. I mean, we've lost control before. I mean, you always come back. Is this different? This was different. Way different. Never happened. And I don't know. This sounds to me like Colgoth took more liberty than he was due. Which sounds like a negotiation. Like a way you can negotiate a contract. Well, we'll see. I actually haven't heard from him since all of this happened. And the last thing that he said to me was he wanted me to find something here in this city for him.

I think I mentioned that at the church. I don't know what it is. I don't know how it benefits him. And I'm not really excited about that part of it. But I am very curious about what it is. And if it's something to do with Colgoth, it might be better that it's in our hands and not just hanging out in Estrahold. And probably best that we know what it is because it deals with Colgoth. And also, that would give more power on your side of the scale for negotiations. If that's something, because I don't think you want to lose control again. So. I really don't. And it's happened more than once now.

You know, I think it's because he's afraid of you. He's afraid of you. He's afraid of you. How you. make me feel. And how you've brought me in here without any judgment. That, I think, scares him. And the things that he's done recently are to try and isolate me from you. Because he wants me all to himself. Well, there's one thing he should have learned by now. There's nothing that will tear us apart. We'll fix this, whatever, if there needs fixing, and we'll make it to the other side. Come here, takes your hand, and he's like, see, I wish I could just, I wish he would understand that.

But I don't know. I don't know if I can get him to understand that. We know each other for a very long time. but I don't know if he can get there. I feel like there's a lot of things I've learned, being with Logrin, being with you, all the things we've been through. I don't know what the answer is, but I feel like if there's anybody who can find a way to make him get it, we can. might suck. You know, I've had a lot of things kind of shake my confidence in the last day, but that, Ruby, I feel very confident about it. Just say the word. And then she's going to pour more for everybody, including the kids.

Not a lot. This is not a drunk fest. But she's enjoying. in it. It's good stuff. Camar is going to turn to Nithera and pull her seat onto whatever we're at and just be like, what about you? Did you get what you needed to get out of all of this? Night Thera is going to take a big swig of her drink. I also might have lost control. Tell me more. This whole Zera thing hit me harder than I thought. Just the whole injustice of it and then the display and the mockery of it, It just grung so wrong that when I found out it was silver fox and how he was flaunting his serial killing.

Because that's what it was. I just, I had to get him and I had to take him out. So I'm sure you've seen the mask I carry. It's my moniker. Raven's breath. I became her. And I haven't been her in a long time. And I missed it? It was, I'm not, I'm sorry. It was really cool, but you kind of scared me. I don't mean for myself, but I was scared for myself, but I was scared for what, what it did to you in that moment. I wasn't prepared for it. It was cool. But it kind of blurred the lines of where you were and where you weren't. I know the feeling. Yeah. If Ruby wasn't there and like leaning over chimera, so like putting her arm around, Kimera and like squeezing Ruby's shoulder.

I want a picture of this, by the way, of that. Yeah. That would be nice. The three of us on like this. It's probably just not even a love seat. It's probably just a wider chair. We're all on it. But leaning over and squeezing Ruby's shoulder, if Ruby wasn't there, I don't know if I would have been able to gain back control. Well, that's one of the best things about Ruby. She's always going to be there. And we're always going to be there. So you don't got to worry about not being able to be pulled back. Yeah. Well, Ruby, I guess you're stuck with two monsters in the group now, I guess.

Saw we. Whatever I can do to ground, y'all. She just hold your hands. Oh, Ruby, I've got to tell you, since Loggins in the other room, the Gearheart. I know. I know. No, no, no, you don't know. No, you don't know. Because you go, well, can I? Can I go first? Yeah, please. Truly, you're not going to absolutely believe it. I don't think I understand it. It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. First of all, you know that the Gearheart's basically built around me. Like, I'm going to sit in that thing and it's going to be where all the things are where my arms go or my feet go.

It's kind of like me, right, in a way. Well, I know that thing inside and out. maybe even more so. You know how it got beat up? You know, whenever you got all here, and she's pointing at your wounds and whatever. I remember. Yeah, well, it got torn up. There was blood everywhere. The steering wheel wasn't even usable. I mean, I don't even know how we got it where it was supposed to go in the wagons. But in any case, remember, I went there the whole day. Well, okay, I kind of fixed it up. She's going to look over at Vetti. It has seen better days. And Vetti will be the one.

You won't even know this, Fetti, but it was a piece of crap when you got in there before you got in there. All right, anyway, she's pulling her thread back together. I went to go fix it up. It had already been fixed. It was like somebody had come over for several weeks and like completely redid the inside and made it all right. Except in weeks, it was, I mean, a few hours. When I got there, it was beautiful. I was kind of mad about it, actually. Why? Why? Slowly raise a hand. Ah. So the Gearheart drinks blood. I don't know if you know that or not. What? I mean.

So, okay. The whole thing with Chet, like us speeding there and everything. Obviously, he was, he was bleeding all over the place. But by the time we got there, there was nothing on the seats. And then the seats changed color. And then, yeah, no, I don't know why. But yeah, I thought it was just the material. I thought it was like a... It was really cool, though. She's pointing at Betty. She's like, that's exactly what happened. I don't know. I can't figure it out. It's got to have something to do with the forge core. It's like there's just like arcane energy or something, whatever it is.

It's just, it's really. It's that. Yeah, it's that. Anyway, I think I, I think I have an idea as to why. When I was in demon form, I was really attuned to all things kind of magical going on for a very brief moment. And that was the moment. that the gear heart came slamming into the wall. Through the wall, I should say. Fetty takes another sip, just kind of puts her eyes down. Ruby looks at Betty and she's just like, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. But the gear heart, oh man, how do I say this? I'm going to fuck this up. It's got a soul trapped in it.

It's got Jesse's soul. trapped in it. Oh. Oh. Yeah. The quick bolt. That we... Oh. And then disappeared. Mm-hmm. So he's in there somehow. Yes. Like, trapped. Like limbo. Do we all take a drink at the same time? Yeah. We all drink at the same. No. Ruby should at that point, and you're probably waiting for her. her to do it. And she's just staring piecing things together. Fettie would kind of be like, who's Jesse? Oh, yeah. Don't worry about it. They were kind of supposed to hang out. Yeah, they're getting though, did they? Wow. Don't worry about it. Just like everything, it didn't quite go according to plan.

Ruby would, I think she would stand up, not like out of panic, but she would stand up and kind of walk over to the fireplace, maybe pace back and forth a little bit. Like she's thinking about all the stuff that it's a violation, kind of, but almost a two-way violation. Like, did she violate this sacred soul that's inside this thing that is in her thing? That, like, it's a little confusing for her. Yeah. And Camara's going to be like, and it's not. because of anything you did, Ruby. I don't know how it happened. I mean, I kind of know how it happened. Yeah, but, you know, but it's not anything that you did.

Okay. It's got to be because of the adamantine. Or the core or something, like it's very strong. There's a lot of that stuff in there. It's all throughout. Like, it's not just, I know we got a big old anger to that stuff, but it's, it's infused, man. I mean, it's just... So maybe when we... And he's going to, like, whisper, like, so the kids can't kind of hear, like... Round him up. In the furnace. Oh, God. Oh, God. That's probably... I mean, I don't know how all of that works, but I'm sure that's how it got transferred or trapped or, like, mixed in somehow. Okay.

All right. Yeah, he's in there. Should we... That's what's drinking blood, I imagine. That's what's making it act atypical. Should we exercise the car? Well, wait, wait. I'm trying to give me a second. This is really bad. And maybe this is good. I mean, I would never have thought to make something with a soul in it. But I don't want his soul. I don't know. I got to sit down and then she's going to take another drink. It's pretty rough reminder for me. It's got to be honest. I'm not sure it's right. But it's... That explains everything. I mean, actually, it doesn't explain shit.

No. But... I'd be a way to... I don't know. I don't know. There may be a colonel of redemption in there that that might be. That might be, I might be interested in. There's nothing we can do about it tonight. I guess. But I'm just wondering if maybe we can talk to him. I don't know. I'm just throwing out ideas. Yeah. We got too many things on our plate right now. And if he's okay in there, right now and he's been in there for a little bit. Definitely not okay. Okay, that sounds great. All right. Okay. All right. Put it on the list. She's literally going to write it down on her list.

On to another subject over to Vetti, like, poign or less. Or quick thinking using the gear heart to get chat there. That was good. He probably only survived because of you. It's true. It's only because of you. Thank you. That's very nice. I think if I got another shot at it, I could drive it way better. But I do have notes about the handling. And that may be because of all the ghosts in it. But it was a little squarely around corners. Yeah, it does that a lot. It's actually, oh. Actually, can we talk? Well, let's talk because I want your notes. I want your feedback, please. not now later Also okay I was just sitting here thinking and I don't want to overstep because I know you and you and Colgoth have been together a long time but if you could get rid of him would you?

Because I might have an idea Yeah. I mean, it's going to be real quiet for a second, but when she says that she has an idea, he's going to raise an eyebrow at her as if to say, like, go on. Well, um, you said there's something he wants in the city, right? Mm-hmm. So, you know, we also like eat souls and stuff. I don't know if he does he eat them or like just kind of absorb them or... Um, absorb is probably a better word. Yeah. Well, okay. So if there's something he wants and there's a soul in the Gearhart anyway, we could probably get him to go anywhere in the city with the promise of giving him both of those things, right?

I mean, Jesse did sign up. Oh, I'm not saying we give him. No, no, no, no, no, no. I think that would probably be worse than getting stuck in a car, right? Like, that would, you know, demons got to be worse than car. Yeah. That depends on the deal you make. But just to clarify, you mean offer those things without giving them to get what exactly? Well, if we get him in an isolated spot, I mean, I met a vampire that does exorcism stuff. I don't know if it's within like her. skill level, but she's pretty old. She might be able to help. I don't know what happens when you get a demon out of you.

I don't know. It could be dangerous. I'm sure it's not so simple. But you need something from him physically. You said you needed horns, right? Yeah. Yes. A greater demon horn to be specific. I mean, if we got him out of you, That means we wouldn't have to hurt you to get it, and you wouldn't have to lose control again. That's true. There's two things I'm worried about, Vetti. One is we may need him for more than just horns. And two... And two... I don't really know what I would be without him. That's, that's a pretty big wrench. That's the, it's like, Vettie does not have the world weariness to, it's like, well, it's like, it's like, who fuck am I to tell you, you know what I mean?

It's, it's kind of, it's like, yeah, that's a big one. That's not. I don't. That's why he's so hesitant. He's like, I'm telling a kid this real heavy thing. But it's like, you're, you're an adult enough to know this part. Yeah. Yeah. But I like your plan. It's a good. It's a good plan. I got to know what's. this thing is first, though, before I offer it to Colgoth. I got to talk to him first, too. Who knows how that's going to go? But this vampire, who does exorcisms, is she the one who helped our boy chat? I don't think so. I mean, they have a lot of healers and stuff in the temple.

They're kind of used to caring for their own. But she's eccentric. I guess it's the way to put it. And Or would kind of chime in, she's weird as shit. Well, how do you feel about her aura? Because if she's a healer, if she can help, maybe we should go see her, you and I. And anyone else that wants to come, but. So Night Thera has been next to you on the couch and her arms around you from when she put her own for Ruby. She just left it there. And she's going to squeeze you a little bit and say, I may have done some research back in Aubrey. For if you were ever in a mindset to have a conversation like this.

What do you mean? I have a way of trapping a demon in a circle. And I just want you to know that this was only ever going to be if you asked first or if a conversation like this came up, it was never going to be forced on you. I appreciate that. The thing I'm mostly concerned of is Colgoth is not. just any demon. He's very powerful and very, very old. We may have done some research on him, too, and I believe this circle traps greater demons. Would be a heck of a fight, though. I don't think he'd let go. Real easy. No, he would not. if past behaviors are any indication.

I was about to say recent behavior in particular. Exactly so. I'll have to think about that. There's a lot to figure out there. Because again, yeah, that puts people in a lot of danger. And I don't know. I don't know how excited I am to do that again. So, so soon. Well, devil you know, right? Yeah. I've known him a long time. Drink. Yeah. I've known him a long time. finish the rest of it. She's going to stand back up, assuming she sat back down in her place. I'm going to bed and I'm going to snore. Hope that's okay. That's fine. We're used to it. Yeah, Vettio break off to and just on her way out, probably like, just kind of like mentioned. to Ruby.

It's like, oh, I got to show you tomorrow. Yeah, no, no, I got it. Yeah. And she's going to open up her notebook. And she's already started a section where it's like feedback for Gearheart, whatever. So she's, she's absolutely ready to get some, some details. Yeah, Kamera's just going to, come here. It's going to hang out. I think he's going to go and sit down next to aura. Yeah, she's not moving. Yeah. but just like sit next to her and in like a relaxed way. And just say, how are you doing? So she's had this drink, which I imagine it's just the smallest amount of alcohol poured over ice.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, and ice is just melting and just, you know, ice is just melting. not really paying attention to it that much. Pretty shitty. Yeah. That tracks. And she might wait for the room to clear out just a little bit. What's the longest he's ever going without talking to you? Or wanting something. Well, he always wants something. A couple of days, maybe. That's the thing about Colgoff is it's kind of a one-way communication. He shows up whenever he wants. Whether he wants something or not. Look, no one's going to tell you what to do or anything. but we just fed him a bunch of people.

And I don't think he's going to want to go back to the way things were, where it's kind of drips and drabs. Set a precedent, huh? Yeah, sorry about that. Not for you to worry about. And you don't ever have to worry about it. I'm still glad that you helped me. I still need it. She's going to stop looking at the fire and kind of like look you square in the eye. First time she's kind of like broken away and engaged in conversation. We all worry about it. Like, you can't pretend it's not happening. And we're invested. I know. And that's what keeps me around. You know, not a lot of people invested in chimera.

Had to kind of cheat and lie to get that. And here it just comes free. That's nice That means a lot And I want to Give that back as much as I can Because you mean a lot Ora She's going to kind of She's going to kind of lean over, put her head on your shoulder I'm not good at it, but I can teach you how to shoot a crossbow if that helps. That would help. It's not fire from your hands, but, you know, gets the job done. It's good to diversify, you know, I find, yeah, I would absolutely, absolutely take you up on lessons. That would be very good. I'd have helped on the roof too.

Could have taken a really cool shot? Taking Silver Fox down before I even had a hand on you. That would have been cool. She's going to go real quiet. Just kind of, you know, just... I'm just... I'm probably going to get some sleep. too, I think. Okay. Orah. We're gonna... take care of what you need. Okay? Just tell me what you need for this, to feel better and to feel safe. You don't have to tell me now. Get some sleep. Tell me in the morning. But whatever it is, I'm going to figure it out. to get it done. She's going to get up from the couch and kind of like give you a nod.

And, you know, she starts shuffling away. She puts the drink down, doesn't even like touch it. Which is an insult to any good alcohol. But that's fine. She's 15. It's fun. And she starts to shuffle away. And then like, she's behind the couch. And she stops. and she's going to lean over and whisper in her, because she doesn't want to advertise it, but like, I think I need to kill that fucking demon. And I think everyone will help you if you want it. Okay. She'll pat you on the shoulder and just kind of let you sit there. Yeah, and Khmera just, I think he just looks into the fire.

He probably takes her glass and finishes it. Watery. Yeah. Damn. Yeah, and just kind of like looks into the flames. And I think if this were like a movie, you could see the flame like in his eyes, like dancing and reflecting off of his jewelry and stuff like that. You could see in the fire like an image of him in demon form. Just kind of like ambiguously licking in the in the flames. If all Logren's doing is just fixing armor, we can move on to the next day if you like. Yeah, he's in there. He stays. There's the sound of him. doing stone work and clonking around on stuff, but he doesn't come back out.

That brings us to the 24th of Dool-in. Two whole days in four whole months. We're doing it. I want to pick things up with Loughran. I want you to kick the day off. I want you to kick the day off. How are you setting the tone here? You're... I imagine you're probably the person in the group that it's like, all right, we're burning daylight. We have a lot to do. Let's get going. That type of thing. Logger and kicks the door open. Right. His own? Like, just a star. Right off the hinges. No. He's kicks in. No, but he's very, he's very much dad up on a Saturday, right?

Like, there's no, like, we got to get to it. Right? There's work in. He's going to be raped. Right. So, but he's going to open the door. And he's going to be kind of moving around. He's trying to find where specifically ORA and Vettier. Like, did they would be? Yeah, they'd be hard. Yeah, they probably crashed together. There's not like six separate bedrooms. So, yeah, no, they probably crashed together. So they wouldn't be hard to find. And they would have probably been sleeping when you have. So, okay. So who's in? How many people are in bedrooms? Like, right? Like our Camira and Ruby sharing a room also?

Yeah, let's say there's three bedrooms. Three bedrooms. Okay. Can I roll to see how many people I wake up before I find them? Because he's going to do that thing where he goes around to each room and he's like, knock, knock, open the doors, or in here. All right. And then like, he's going to do that until he finds it, right? You know what? Give me a D3. Roll a D6. And on a five or six, you find them first. And, uh, all right. So five or six is Or in Vetti. Uh, one and two is Nithera. And then... Let's see if you roll a one or a two, you wake everyone up before you get to Vetti.

Okay. That's fair. I'm already awake. There's a four. So that's a two one and D3. What does that get me? So you wake up. So I, this is probably why, this is probably why you and I think usually crash at the same room. Because you're not going to wake her up. But you will wake up Ruby and chimera, which you usually do. And then it's, oh, sorry, wrong one. And then. Next room. Next room. Oh, he just didn't leave it open. Just leave it open. Please the door. Stop. Oh, man. Close the door. Close the door. It's exactly like this. He goes, knock, knock. Open. Is Orrinvet. in here.

No, all right. And then, don't, don't, dunk, dunk, down the hall. You don't find. Are you in full armor? No, no. He's just heavy for falls, you know? Unless the four boards are old in this building, it squeaks a lot. So he'll do the same thing, knock, knock, knock, knock, open. Or a vetty coming in my room. I got to talk to you about something. Traditionally. It's a talking to. It is not when when it's like I got to talk to you about something. It's like not only were we asleep. Now we're going to go get you to have for something. But. But. Or maybe you're in deep shit.

Come on. Let's go. It's like if I ask to speak to any one of you, hey, jump into a call with me real quick. Everyone thinks that like something dyer has happened, even though, I don't think that's ever happened in the 14 years we've known each other or so. So you'll hear groaning and just like, uh, and like they'll, they'll get up and follow you down the hallway. And they're getting ready to get you out, but like they know it's probably not serious, right? It's like, did you find out I didn't just wasted that alcohol last night? Like, did, did I dare tell you that I just did.

You left an entire sip of whiskey. I thought I covered your tracks. I'm sorry. I just knew. You watered that down. Actually, I mean, it's a small detail that they probably wouldn't notice. But Logrin's drink after the first sip with Ruby has gone on drunk the whole night. He didn't finish it. It's still sitting on his desk. But. when they walk into the room, 9th year. We'll hand everyone steaming hot mugs a coffee. I thought you're going to get them more booze. I'm like, what is that? Yes. I found your abandoned whiskey. It's in your coffee now. You're not because of something.

You eat your eggs from last night. Ew. Yeah. And so by the time they get in, I don't know how quick they are to follow him. Because like he does the thing where he likes from last night. Like, he wakes them up. He doesn't, he can't like flip on a light switch in their room. But he like whaps the doorframe a couple times. And then he, he storms off back to his room. And like I said, they'd follow you back. But it's not like skipping down the hallway. They're just, it's a lot of groaning. A lot of, a lot of zombie noises. Just, uh, partially we were tired and partially who wants to start their day off this way.

Nobody. This is what this is Logger's charm. So, yeah, he's in the room. He's not armored, obviously, but he's dressed. And Nethera is there, and she's dressed. Yeah, he's towel around his waist. I just wanted to ask. Just keep an open mind for a second. Nighthera will give you a cue real quick, like an eye thing and like raise an eyebrow. And the exchange is, do you want me here or do you want me to leave? Like that. He literally just kind of shrugs. He's like, yeah, if you want. Night there will sit down, get comfy. Not there, though. Too bad. Let to chisel there, just move it.

So all he does, when they come in, first he will, like, they get their coffee from Night Thera, and he's sitting there and he's got his own coffee. He's holding it with two hands. He's like, listen, we can't go anywhere all day to day. By we, I mean, us, and he'll point to him. him in Night Thera. I'd be like, Vetti, you gotta sneak out of here. I need you to go down to talk to chat and Paz and everybody there and just let him know what's going on. I don't want to leave him for a whole day. Like, your sneaky kid, right, just get out of here out the window or whatever it is.

That he'll look at Night Thera or whatever she taught you to do. Just do that. You calling her a sneaky kid, by the way, it'll light her face up. It's not. I don't know where the time she's still Alchemist bomb or whatever the hell it was. Oh, yeah. I'm very proud of that. That's your biggest ice ever. I don't think I'm embellishing it all by saying sneaky kid. I think I'm underselling it actually. So this is the opposite of a chat talk. This is like, oh, shit, I'm getting complimented. Wow. Okay. That's great. So he's like, all right, well, go ahead. Now it's like, oh, oh, oh, wow.

Okay. Yeah. I didn't. Like, finish your coffee, but then that was it. That's all. Yeah. You needed the both in here? Yeah. Yeah. He didn't give a job yet. Okay. Yeah, she'll, again, like, oh, no, I'm late. Like, it's kind of like, she'll just take off. She's a nervous person by nature. And it goes from getting a compliment to, shit, I've disappointed you. Like, like, yeah. There is definitely that pregnant pause of like 10 to 15 seconds where he's like, did you have any questions or? And then he's going to look to or and be like, listen, you told me that you had some leads for the remaining items that we need.

And it's been a little busy. We haven't been able to talk about it. So I need to hear about those. Okay. Okay. Okay. You know about my mom? We would have to... It's a trip. It's not going to be fun. That's the one... Yeah, that's the one where she's... She's like, oh, she's going to ask a lot of questions. Yes. And you said that she could specifically help with the dragon breath. Probably, yeah, and maybe a couple of other things if you need information. I mean, she was, is a stone sundor. She's just... Did you write to her? Yeah. Did she write back? I haven't got anything.

Okay. What about your other leads? Okay. He's got his ingredient list out to the paper. The paper is beat to shit at this point. Yeah. Okay. The demon horn, you guys are on that, whatever that's worth. I have some hookups in Brightport that I think could help. but they're going to want money. How much money? For which thing are we talking about? And she's got the list you gave. You gave her. It's like, oh, we need this, this, and this and this. So she's breaking. Actually, let me pull out my notes. Because I don't want to send you to the wrong place for the wrong thing.

This is eight months of the shit. I was gone. There's nothing here. I say right I'm sorry no no no I get my B names mixed up it's influenza B that's where you got to go we hate it there fight yeah fuck now just ask I thought I thought the vampire blood was either or with the wear with the wear creature teeth yes yes okay so we've got got the teeth. We have so many. We keep getting teeth. Actually, we have enough teeth. We need to stop. Yeah. So the list I have out of character real quick is a large top has a large emerald. We have those. Adamantine or we have a lot of that.

An orb of chaotic assault, which we do not have. Greater DNA horn. One leader of vampire blood, which is the either or with the war wolf slash where rat where creature teeth. And then the last thing is green dragon breath. Green dragon breath. Pernthases, powdered. Yeah. So, okay. I was right, by the way. Ha. Ha. Well, I have a hookup in Brightport that could probably get a green dragon breath if you don't want to visit my mom. But. And she kind of, It's like, huh, huh? But they're going to want money. And if you tell my mom what you're trying to do, she might just help you for free.

Maybe. Maybe. Why? Well, she's not exactly a fan of the way. The way things ended there. And she does not like living in Lockford. at all. And if maybe you promised her, like a seat on the council or some kind of voting power there, she might just help you out. She can be Kurt. Yeah, Lager makes a face when she's like promised her a seat. And he's like, mm. I got to think about that. And it's not because of the reason that you're thinking, it's because of the same thing I told, Vampire Lady, I'm not in a position to really promise that at all. Aren't you going to be in charge when this is all done?

Not quite. There's a lot of variables and the more promises I make between here and there, the more likely this is to fail. Okay. Look, I got a lead on the orb, but you're not going to like it. I could fill a lot of books. with things I don't like lately. Go ahead. So there's only two spots anywhere on the continent that I could find that might have one. Odyssea, which I don't know anything about Odyssea. I've never been. And she kind of looks over to Ninth era. It's like, it... Do you know anything about the weird clone elf magic people that live there? Um, pretentious, full of themselves.

Think they're holier and better than everyone. Sound fun. Okay. Well... The other option I have is worse. but it doesn't involve dealing with people. Langering fully does the, the, oh, no. Oh, yeah. Like, I don't, I don't see how that's worse. Okay, what's the second option? All right. So you got a promise to keep this under your hat. There are a couple of things. vampires living in the gloaming quarter that are pretty old. And they come from Uminero. And they're pretty sure that if you explore the ruins, you'll find one if you dig deep enough. But I have a list of reasons why that's a terrible idea.

But on the other hand, there might be some really cool stuff. Can I make a history check on both of those places? You absolutely can. I would love to make history check on both of those places. I'm going to do first. I'll do Ooman Euro first. Yep. So it's an 18. Women year. Obviously, the inciting incident for the eternal winter. And that city got knocked out of the sky. over a century ago. And I guarantee you, you are not the first people who might be thinking about looting the place. Rumor has it that anyone who tries to make it into the city, some somehow or some way dies.

And there's a list of reasons for that. One is magic poisoning. The crystal that was in the city, keeping it afloat, mostly shattered. And that magic has irradiated the area. It's a fallout situation now. So you'd have to find a way to contest with that. Then the city itself has defenses, and there's even rumors that not everyone died in the city when it crashed. There's all kinds of legends in lore. The longer this goes on without anybody pulling out something from the city, then it's like the Titanic. It's like, wow, man. Like, what could be down there?

What could be lost? So, there's huge risk, possible, huge reward. Like, set you up for life. Reward. Okay. Well, let's do Odysia. He's having an internal. Oh, hey. Identical. The same is. 18. I was just reading the book about that place. So. I can't wait. I can't wait. Okay. So where Uminero is a risk of life and limb, right? It is dangerous. It is isolated. It is mysterious. Odysseia is the opposite. These people's problems are pretty well documented. They will rope you in to. If you think Estherhold is bad, getting a favor from people in Odysia, it is pure give a mouse a cookie.

They will have you doing favors for them forever. And there's a few reasons why. So one, they're miserable. They, they, oh, God, I'm trying to think of how to explain this to somebody who just started listening. with Frostborn and has no idea. So here's, here's clip notes. The high else, the Eladron lived in Odysia for many years, got trapped, and they were sprung loose, and they ended up living in the desert city of Onocall. And they have grown, they have, they have changed. Whereas, this version of those exact same Alladron, are frozen in time. They don't age.

They can't mate. They can have sex, but they can't have kids. Nothing changes for them. So they kind of have this bit of pride, at least for the first century, of, oh, we're still connected to our roots. It's like listening to any Irish person from Boston. So insufferable. Or listening to a New Yorker tell you about a bodega. It's a corner store. It's not that special. Sorry, Jess. So my first thought was, yeah, but the cats. There's one actually, a half a block away. They have a new cat. Cats exist in other cities, I assure you. Bodega cats only exist. Never mind.

You got Boston. Are you going to get Florida in California next? Are you going to make another analogy? At least next on the hit list. But I make themselves. Yeah, that's actually not hard. It's not hard, too. L.A. and Florida. Right. Love it in fruit, I guess. Yeah. Now like NYC, no one's ever made fun for New York. So, yeah, it is very much, there are things that they can't do for themselves, so they do rope people in. And they have an incredible wealth of knowledge. And they, um, they, they, still invent things, they still create. They, it's just, they are sort of disconnected from everyone else because they are, they feel like their history and not the present, if that makes sense.

Or how sure are you that there's one of these and either of those places? I'm more sure about those two places than literally anywhere else. on the map. If that helps. It doesn't. No. Okay. Well, I don't know about Odyssea. I'm 90% sure. Based on who I talk to, that Uminiro has one. And if they don't have one in Odysia, they could probably create one for you. They sound real smart. Just kind of like pricks. It's terrible. Lagerine is at war with himself. It's on its face. Are you polling the room? Does Nithira have thoughts? Did she say insufferable out loud? Yeah.

Out loud. So here's the thing. Odysia is closer. There's relatively safe passage there, whereas Uminero is hundreds of miles away. And dangerous is all get out. Yeah. Yeah. It is on the way to Lockford. Or it is, Lockford is on the way to that. So it depends. Logrin looks at Nithera and he's like, maybe they're insufferable. But dealing with insufferable doesn't compromise the whole plan. If we all get killed trying to break into an oven euro, then it's over. Maybe we can spend a little time finding out what they value. Or maybe we finally do a heist. I don't know.

They value power and prestige. But it does seem the safer route. Fun facts about them. Whenever they all appeared, I got hundreds of contract requests. to kill the original versions of themselves. That sounds very confusing. Yeah, I was, that was my first retirement, too, so I don't even know how they got my information. And old, old contacts. He looks back at ORA, when you wrote to your mother, what did you tell her? You didn't tell her the plan, did you? She looks insulted. No. Why would I tell her that? I thought I was wondering the same thing that I'm just making sure.

Listen. So what did you tell her? I told her that I might be planning a visit. So you were in Aubrey and seemed to have cut yourself off from her. Not crying, but... How's your relationship there? It is almost the same level of pause when chimera is like, what am I without? It's like, uh, that's complicated. So. So. When we live together, she wasn't a very happy person. She's probably still not a very happy person because she hates where she lives. And she kind of took it out on me a little bit. And I kind of hated the bitch. And I left. And we wrote back and forth.

And we said a lot of things. But I didn't know if you were going to put. pull the trigger on this. I kind of just flowed to the idea that I might visit. And so far, I've taken her not responding as not, not open to the idea. Okay. All right. Well, first things first. It sounds like we got to go to Odysseia. We'll talk about it at breakfast. Oh, one other thing, or while you're, while you've been in town, you know anything about good, you know, medics, chemists, dealing in medicine, disease, anything like that. Just the vampires we've been hanging out with?

Like, what specifically? There's a disease affecting the burglal up north that we need to help. We told them we would help. help them cure it. I haven't really been able to get a jump on that yet, but I was hoping to ask somebody around here. Do you want me to talk to him? Please, yeah, if you know somebody who would be good. Yeah. Yeah, I think I got someone. I... I... She's weird. Is that okay? We're going to Odysseus. So bring it on. Okay. Like, hey, your funeral, that's fine. Like. The unspoken, the vampires, they're all weird. He doesn't. Unspoken, unspoken, unspoken.

Okay, okay. Okay, some of my best friends are. That chat guy, geez. So yeah, he goes, I'll take off before she disappoints you, by the way. She was like, all right, fight. Like just. Okay, good. All right. And he just kind of like, just like huffs and slumps a little bit and looks at night there. And he's like, well, I don't like any of it. But here we are. Well, if you thought we were embroiled in way too many schemes, here. And Esther, hope you're ready for Odysia. Well, we're going to approach Addisia a little different, I think. I think we've learned from this.

I just had like a flash forward to this scene right here, like 20 sessions later. We're more like a house war. What's the worst that could happen? It's like a game of throne situation. like. That's Jasper's next recap. 41 to 60 is all this. Yeah, it's like the 26 of Doolin. She doesn't get there with the dragons for six seasons. Like, it's Jesus Christ. Well, I hope that's true. But they have a way of involvement. involving you in their schemes, even when you try your hardest not to be involved. No, we need that orb, so I'm going to have to make do. And we'll get it.

You'll get it. I know you will. If anybody could set them straight, be you, Lovern. Oh. Let's not look at my track record in this town. Hey, we have a clean record. as far as everybody else thinks. Okay. It looks like a cheers him up a little bit. Yeah, that's a nice way to think about that. You know what? We fucked up a lot, but nobody knows that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he's content to let Camero and Ruby sleep. The kids are out of the house. We sent them on their errands. They don't need to be. here for the investigation that's ongoing today. So we have quiet grown-ups time.

No, not that kind of grown-ups time. I didn't think that until you said that now. I'm in face. No, I, okay. We've been in this call for three hours. It doesn't feel like it. No, right. No. So wait, is it 11 or should it be midnight usually? Did we go back an hour? No, we went forward an hour, didn't we? Wait, that was last night. That was last night, right? So how have we been in this call for three hours? It's 11 p.m. Right. We started at 9. That's two hours, baby. That's right. So why does this clock say three hours? The recording says three. What? Because she didn't change a clock?

I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Am I insane or stupid? Is this the jellyfish thing again? No. Now I think it's weird, yeah. Maybe it started at one hour. My. Now I want to know what was recorded before we sat down. So here's my time stamp. Mine says three hours, four, four minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Why? Are you talking about the very top? The recording clock. Yeah. This is mine. Oh. Oh. Now I'm worried that it. Now I'm worried that you want to stop the recording and like make sure we have this. Let's do that. Let's stop. Actually, you know what in case something happens.

I think that's a good time for us to stop for the night, guys. So that that's at least the key. Wonderful.