Midwest Goodbye

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

You know, it's really saying something when Esther Holt feels like a safe haven. Hi, everybody, I'm Jasper. I play Ruby Pedigrew here on Dungeons and Randomness's sixth campaign we call Frostborn.

Welcome to episode 59. If you're new here, that means episode 60 is just around the corner, and that means another recap episode. We try to make those happen every 20 episodes or so to make sure you have as many ways to jump into what we do here as possible.

Just scroll down in the feed to find the first couple for Frostborn, easy-peasy. Guess that means I need to get busy on making a recap. Stay tuned.

Quick shout out to our friends over at E-N Publishing who make Level Up Advanced Fifth Edition, the system we use throughout Frostborn. It takes everything you already know about Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition and adds so much more around character and storytelling. We love it.

Code D-A-N-D-R get you a distance. Also, check out GM assistant. It turns your sessions into organized notes so there is no argument about that plus eight magical scimitar being cursed or whatever.

The same code, DA and DR works there too. All right. Last time on Frostborn, we put a pin in that copper mine knowing there's a pretty special arcane portal there and also something potentially alive, potentially imprisoned, and definitely massive.

We made friends with a bloodhawk we named Birdinand on the way back to Esther Holt and ended as we saw the gates of the city. Today, home sweet home, sort of. Esther Holt feels like a breath of fresh air and we get our bearings.

Also, no dilly-dallying for us, straight to Bonzo's dark. Also, we have kids to catch up with and hopefully find out some answers to all the threads we're holding on to. Wish us luck.

That's all for now. All yours, Jason.

We are just 300 and 38 days away from DragonCon 2027. So let's do that thing. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and it should do that thing.

ourselves. I'm Jason. I'm the dungeon master.

Going around the table starting with Jasper.

Hey, him. I play Ruby Pedigrew, the Half-Wark Gearslinger,

adept. And Susan.

Hi, I'm Susan Spanator. My pronouns are she, her, and I'll be playing ninthierle-rear-rylet, the Elven Rogue Assassin.

And Ian? I'm Ian. He-Him, Eni, and I'm playing chimera, the Teethling Warlock. And last and certainly not least, James.

This is Jameson. I play Lager and Cragorn. He's a Dwarven Marshall.

Guys, welcome back to Asterholt. That's a never late.

In a while. Yeah.

We're back. I did some calculations. So you guys departed on the 25th of Doolin. It is the 29th of Amada.

Whoa.

That's almost like a whole month. Right?

I feel like we told the kids we'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Yeah.

You did. You definitely did. But you told them that the first time, too.

We've had a couple days left of.

I think they're like, they're like, we're just going to keep ourselves busy. We're going to. Yeah. Oh, okay.

We may never see them.

First of all, everybody gave yourselves a long rest, just making sure that. we're all healed up from the road. The Gearheart's going to be limping into town for.

Yeah. Sure. Coming back, you know, hundreds of pounds heavier.

It's got speed holes now all over it. And it, and it's, it's slower. Like, it's not doing great. But, you know, now you're, now you're at the point in, like, the video game, but there's a workshop.

And you can, you can, you can do something. Uh, God. So when you get back, it's going to be mid afternoon.

And they're, they're going to see you. So, okay, you're parking the Gearheart in in town, like before in the city, right? Okay.

So same routine as before. They're, they're essentially going to, going to stop you. And, you know, it was a month ago, you left.

This looked different. It was more impressive last time, I think, visually. But they were, you know, there's like, oh, so they'll talk your ear off about it.

And then eventually gates open. You swing on in and you have your usual parking spot. And you guys said you wanted to go to silk sheets.

Yes. We deserve silk sheets.

I mean, Ruby has been talking. Yeah. Ruby has been talking about it. like, constantly talking about how they're going to silk sheets as if it were not even a question.

Oh, yeah. And I Thea is right there with you, just saying, okay, when we get there, I'm going to take a bath. I claim it first. Like,

we can each have a bath. Every room has a bath. That's what's so great about silk sheets.

Logrin and I usually have to take turns in our room. I know that you kids do something different. but I like my own bath time. So it's mine.

You're just a nice.

It's way more fun. Yeah. We've all seen it.

We've seen it all before. It don't matter.

Oh, it's not the body part. I just want, that's my alone time. That's my alone time. That's not your own time.

Who pours your drinks in your back?

I have a bottle.

The question stands.

I don't need to pour them when I have the bottle. Straight from the head.

Oh, party elf. I love it.

Two rooms. Just like before, right?

Very.

So. In fact, longer, it's going to get grumpy if they don't have the same two rooms.

No, the exact same deal. Yeah. It's like, okay.

Well.

Can we go for it?

Yes, please.

Morgan, because he goes up to the counter. I want my rooms back.

I'm a person by the counter's baffled. It's a different guy.

You never see me before? Give my rooms?

Give me D20, please. Let's let this be the thing that warms up the dice tonight. What the hell?

Good. Right, right where we left off.

Oh.

I thought I was going to be 18. 18.

So, they don't. That's a four. I know 20. They do not have your rooms. They have lesser rooms available.

Are they cheaper?

Or yes. Yes.

Yes, yes.

Or? Lesser rooms?

Well, you guys were in sweets last time if you were cool.

Yes.

They do have the mayoral suites, though.

Oh.

It's been a month.

When the guy starts to offer it, like, we've got these smaller rooms, they're cheaper and logger and perks up. And then he starts to say, or we have logger's like, I'm, blah, no.

Do you have two? Do you have two?

You got two? Two of them?

We have three of the mayoral sweets.

We don't need all three. We don't even need one. No, we can do. We can do one of the cheaper.

I need to bat time, though.

That's fine. We have to wait outside.

What's in the mayoral suite?

Okay, he was going to start and then Logger and kind of looked like he was going to slap him. So like he could reach. Well, the mayoral suites feature two king-sized beds.

Are jumbo baths, a shower. They have a complimentary bar. you could drink as much as you want.

He slaps down.

He slaps down 65 gold for the room.

Just so what?

Two in times.

That's enough.

We can share bed. Yeah, that's fine. That's okay.

That's a tradeoff for a complimentary bar. Can we?

What about one for one night? Maybe. Two rooms?

Fine. Ruby crosses her arms and goes to wherever the stairs are. She's ready.

I'm sorry about the luxury room I just got.

It's okay.

Oh, no. This is sounding like every family trip. This is true. Oh, God.

So you're going to give you, he's going to give you one of the special keys, like the big, like purple keychain type thing. So you don't lose it. And when you get up to the top floor, And you open the door, this thing is massive.

The only three rooms on this floor are the mayoral suites. Like, these things are sushi. The bar is loaded up, but it's not like, it's not top shelf liquor.

It is, it's smeared off. It's not gray goose. It's not, you know what I mean?

Like, it's not a plastic jug with the backwards are in Russian. But it, you know, it's, it's mid-ish tier. That's fine.

But it's all you can drink.

Yeah, I don't know anybody's complaining.

I'm just, you know, I get ingested like I'm running these businesses. And I'm more business and in-game than I am outside of game. So I don't know.

I just want to make sure everyone's happy. Make sure that sign the guest book. You know.

Night Thera will grab a bottle of red, whatever is on the counter, and then just go to the bathroom. and close the door.

That's a problem. That's like, oh, grandma's got a problem. She drank it on the toilet again.

She's going to go to your bath while having wine.

Ruby sits on the foot of the bed and then plops down and does basically like the bed, snow angel. You know, just she picks a bed.

Yeah.

Hi.

I find it. I find the cuck chair in the room.

That's one comes with two. It's a big role. There's one for each pet. Yeah.

It's one for each pet.

Is it really still a cuck chair when there's two? Because then you have a friend and it's less.

It's competitive. Competitive.

Well, I picked two. Yeah. I picture there's two different events going on and the cucks have to compare notes.

Like they're talking to each other about it gives some. Yeah. Like, you're talking to someone.

Well, it's part of the allure, like you were isolated in a lot.

alone. There is a lure in every way you could possibly imagine. And also they, maybe there's like a room divider they could bring in, you know.

Hucks right in. Uh, let us know. Like that's

let us know.

You're just trying to get everything right. We want to make sure everyone's represented.

You want to represent your culture.

Yeah.

We don't want to do you dirty.

Unless you like that. That's for someone else to do. Yeah.

That's for someone else. Yeah. That's a good.

I did some reading. And there is a little fine print for a certain ability one of you has. Kimira, did you know that when you have your own domicile, like your own home, or you've paid to be in one, your dog gets to be summoned for free and gets to hang out for the duration of your stay.

It is considered. It's considered like you're like, it's like you're playing Baldur's Gate 3. And it's like at your camp.

No, but you said he has to have his own domicile worker too, so it doesn't count. He can't know.

Unfortunately.

Unfortunately.

This is like vampires getting invited inside. I'm not sure what the legality is here. But like.

It's a gray area. We better not just in case. I'm just saying.

We don't want to be a great dog.

So like it's, you know.

We don't want to get in trouble.

If Oggren turns around, the dog just in the other cuck chair, suddenly, like, ugh.

Yeah.

Park. Park.

Boof.

I got it if you need your feet looked or anything. He likes to.

He really likes it. He can't be in the chair. Get down. Get down. Get down.

I can't even drink this. She puts her whiskey down. Oh, God. Looking at the dog.

He's going to take all our watches.

Oh, I thought you could steal your watches. I did.

That's what I'm pretty much. The night,

no, the night watching. Oh, yeah, he also took all of our watches to.

It's a weird hangout.

It's a little in his mouth. Yeah.

Son of a bitch.

These time pieces we definitely all

We invented them when we invented the car

Otherwise, what's going to be on the dash

Rolexes

I want of a kind watcher, oh no I want of a kind watch or no No

What's the What's the order of What are we trying to do? I know you're not trying to stay as long as you did the first time.

I mean, on the calendar, I don't know that we stayed that long. It just took a long time to.

It wasn't forever.

To suss out those two or three days, I think.

Yeah.

Well, I don't think you're trying to spend that many sessions.

No.

As you did before. Okay.

Ruby feels like she's home. I mean, there hasn't been a place that they've seen. stuck around and had that much connection to in a while. So she feels very familiar.

It's just in the car, really.

Yeah.

So, yeah, Loggerin will kind of put it forward that like, all right, you know, we're here. You said it was midday when we got there. So we're here.

Take a minute. Take a bath. He'll call tonight. Theory. Yeah, you go ahead and take a bath.

And the water's already running.

The water's already running. Yeah.

No answer, right?

Like,

it's a thing when you first. first check in a hotel. Everybody's going to take a couple of minutes, right? And then we're probably going to go do the Gloming Quarter and Bonzos and all that because we're not going to have the argument about it. So we're going to go to the Glombing Quarter.

I think there's a lot of people there that we want to talk to first anyway. So that seems like the logical first move. We'll go there for dinner and people will be up and out by then.

Yeah.

I think this is an afternoon of there's no urgency. I mean, there's lots of stuff that we want to do and can do and need to get going. But nothing's going to get happen, get done today. So I think there's a lot of, just a little bit of calm for a minute.

And probably want to talk about the box or at least like, keep our eyes open for getting that made. The new box, I mean, not the old box.

Oh, yeah. That's probably our most pressing issue. It's the second, is that it or the first?

I have the second that the gauntlet comes out.

Yeah.

Which is in like two days, three days?

Three.

We may not even need it to talk about it though. We can probably just say, hey, we've got it.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

We want you to keep it maybe.

Lagerin does during this down time, though, put a bottle of booze in the box.

Oh,

nice. Yes.

Like a, like a free, cheap ones.

Yeah. Just a nip. We're going to put it in there.

Sure. What happens? He's doing science.

I'm about to say, what are you hoping for? To clone the bottle or to make it stronger or bigger?

It's supposed to get bigger and stronger, right? So is it just... If you put a mid-boos in the box, does it get better or does it just get more? You know what I mean?

Sure. Sure. Sure.

It's like speeding up the aging process for like a finer alcohol. Or is it just more of what it is? That's what he wants to know. We'll start a business.

I'm glad we're doing. We're doing the work. I'm glad that we're doing that.

He's got a notebook out. Like, he's ready to go. He's marking the date and time and what he put in.

At this point, we probably should keep a journal, right? Because we put three things in there. They're coming out on different schedules.

I keep adding notes to the calendar. But if you're going to do this shit, you're going to have to add notes to the calendar. I'm going to.

I mean, yeah, he's got because he's got where you wrote down when the or was going to come out the second time, when the gaunt was going to come out. And then he goes, you know,

Sure.

But what is it? It's the 29th. He's like 29th.

One bottle, you know, describe like the ounces or whatever. And then we're going to see what comes out. He must know.

I think we could put the dog in there?

No.

We should try. I don't know if it's stick around for that long.

Oh, well.

I think it disappears.

There's something bad to happen to it.

Yeah. I think it disappears. appears really horribly in an existential crisis in like a minute.

Not while you're here. Not while we're here.

So if we wanted to stay like two weeks, then maybe we can. Maybe it comes out.

The longest it's ever been in existence.

Yeah.

Hey, do me favor. Everybody give me a D20 please.

Whatever is lowest.

We're going to do a thing. Okay.

But after a half hour, Nithea does come out. She doesn't like stay. for like four hours.

It's not due the intro, is it? Because we're well past that.

No, we've done that.

Whoa.

These roles.

Hey.

That guys.

We gotta have a roll off.

Let's see. Kymira 11. Ruby 2, Logrin 2, 9th era 5.

Well, I'm going to do Logrin because that's funnier. So this dog is going to warm up to logren. A lot.

No.

Similar to the way Pippin warmed up to real-life Jameson and Lerner warmed up to Mandy. Neither one of them wanted anything to do with it. But they're not in charge.

So this dog, it is going, it's going to stick kind of close to you. It's going to visibly relax around you. So it'll just like lay down.

Sometimes it'll press its chimera face up against you and kind of like, do some of this.

No.

Lig's not. Lagerin doesn't like any dog licking him. So he definitely does not like chimera face dog. When he does it, he's like, ah, no. Come here, get your dog. God damn.

Can you get me to animal handling, please?

Watch he pieces. This.

That would be a face.

He's like the dad who never wanted the dog and then he's the dog's best friend. Yeah. I have a plus his hero on animal handling. In a natural.

Oh, wow. Word.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

The story tells itself.

It really does. It's that dad doesn't want the dog energy, right? That's exactly the critical success table says.

Oh, my God.

It's number six. That's six.

Trust is hard earned and hard won. The creature you are currently handling gains the loyal property from the mount trades tables for the next 24 hours.

This dog loves you.

So within an hour, logging looks over at Kim here and he's like, this is my dog now. It's my dog.

You enjoy it because as soon as he dismisses, he forgets everything and he comes back all new.

He seems actually trouble with that. Like, oh, but all that works in for nothing.

I think. I want to say because of the crit, I think this might stay. Like, I want it to stay just because I want it to like, because this is the longest this dog's been around. So like,

it's forming.

I kind of. Yeah, I kind of want it to. So wait, there's a table here.

Magic with the power of love. I don't know.

Well, now we got to name him. God.

I was thinking Doug Mera.

Yeah, all right, I can't think of anything better than that. That's fine. Doug Mera.

Just fits. Look at his face. Look at that face.

It's horrifying.

It really is bad. And he's like, too, the dog is like, it's so bad. It's so bad.

You're just awfully.

God.

Yeah, son of a bitch, give me a 20. It gets a trait. We're unlocking a trait because isn't that crit? I love it.

How did you bond with my dog? That's how much? The dog chooses,

man. Another 20.

Oh, my God.

What?

The dog's in charge of the party now.

Yeah. It's forever attached to your side.

That's wild. Two-20s. Back to back.

Check this shit out. Watchful.

Steals your watches.

Dog Mera. It steals it. Yeah, it steals it.

Yeah. Dog Mera can stand watch and alert the party if it detects approaching creatures. While the dog is summoned, everyone gets a plus one to their passive perception.

We got to keep to start forever.

My dog does that for free. The dog has that trait in spades. Dog has too much of that, actually.

I like that the last few sessions, your roles have not been amazing, and tonight is winning.

A double Matt 20.

You just start cracking them out of the park.

On the least desirable thing. care.

Yeah. Best, you're in Bevolent. Like,

yeah.

That's kind of cool.

Yeah.

That's really cool, though.

Yeah.

Now we got to get art.

Oh, I'll email on. TV.

Just got it.

Yeah, just Photoshop. Camar his face on a stock photo.

Just going to just get a dog and just drag the cut, cut, page.

Yeah, I can do that. Never mind. I got a Photoshop. It's fine.

We got it. Keep madame on the important stuff.

Big tongue, you got to make the tongue hang out. Of course.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to get you a good night's sleep, everybody.

Well, we were going to go to dinner tonight.

Yeah.

Oh, do you want to do that tonight?

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. And let's do it.

That's true. Actually, it's best done at night. You're right.

You're right. Yeah. Okay.

Shit. Let's do it. Uh, so.

So that's clear on the other side of Esther Holt. You guys take off around dusk by the time you get there. The sunset and the gloaming quarter kind of, you know, comes up.

Are we going right for Bonzos?

Uncharacteristically, Ruby is taking in the calm, presumably calm Esther Holt, walking rather than riding, not stinking after weeks and weeks of being on the road. going to Bonzo's is definitely on her radar. But she's happy to slowly get there if that makes any sense. So it's just like not sightseeing exactly, but just ambling a little bit. She's not like dragging everybody there like a crazed person.

It's nice. This is a nice place. It makes me kind of sad because Odysseo could have this.

They could have this. And they choose not to. And he's kind of like fingering that little letter that he's got just in his coat pocket or something.

Oh, well.

I know that dinner is important and we do need food. But do we think the kids will be there or at the temple?

Well, based on last time we were here, we don't know where those kids are going to be. So I guess we'll just see him when we see him.

I think we'd love.

To be fair, it has been a month. Like, it's been a while.

Are they still at Bonzo? Is the question?

Are they still teenagers? Is the question? Yeah.

I'm they grown up right now.

Yeah.

So you're going to notice something after you kind of cross into the gloaming quarter. After a couple of minutes, you'll notice people kind of waiting to you. And it's the first couple of times, it's like, oh, that's nice.

They're friendly. They're talking to each other. and pointing and then like they'll wave like they're waving to a celebrity almost and there's a little reputation system built into the game it's it's one to five stars five being you're a mega celebrity right you have three stars in the gloaming quarter because you help deal with a goddamn assassin who was targeting vampires like that's true what a what a good way to get on somebody's good side and it's a small tight-knit community so like Yeah.

So you guys get discounts of things. You'll get recognized. There'll be things that happen behind the scenes. Basically, there might be interactions or quests that come up that normally wouldn't because people trust you more.

So congrats.

Well, they seems like they know us or something. Is it? Are we, do we kind of make a name for ourselves over here? Is that what's happening? And then she kind of goes kind of selling.

Is that a good thing?

Well, if we need their help in taking the mountain, I guess having a good reputation helps.

It's not terrible. You know what else it means?

Free drink.

Free appetizers.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Right. Yeah.

While we're walking through the gloaming quarter. either something we would have seen last time we were here or something. Logrin is actively looking this time for.

Because when we were here last time, in greater Esterhold, there was a blacksmith. That I remember Logron being dragged out because he got into an argument with him. Yes.

Is there a blacksmith in the glowing quarter? Is the one who likes us?

Yeah, they kind of have their own, you know. Well, first of all. It's really tough to find a blacksmith with the hours you're looking for.

Yeah. But yeah, no, they have they have artisans of their own. So there's a blacksmith.

There's, you know, there's actually. So the gloaming corps has kind of a reputation for being the island of misfit toys, basically. Because it's not just vampires.

It's people with poor sleep schedules. It's people who can't find work in the reputable parts of the city or they've burned bridges there. or something like that.

There's like Paladin school dropouts, that type of thing. They're just embarrassed and, you know, they want to start over. And that kind of goes with species or races that don't feel super welcome in the main portion of the city for whatever reason.

And there is, there's kind of a tag team here. Reputation-wise, and you might have seen them the first time around. There's a Vorek, which super rare here, right?

Big kind of almost, almost hippopotamus type creatures that are, you know, super stout, very, very, very, very honor-driven and loyal, naive to the point that's like, yeah, why would someone cheat in a fight? That would be, you know, no one would do that, that type of thing. So they often, when doing business, have a partner because they get cheated easily by people.

Because, you know, they don't lie. They're very, very. They're honest to a fault sometimes.

Sure, they're an easy mark for literally anyone.

Yes. This one has a TOS-Aff partner, which are the little PIPC and Dogs.

We can't go out. So.

You're right. Actually, you know what? Saying it out loud. You're already at your limit. I'm sorry.

Okay. He'll just kind of mark it for now. We don't need to stop on the way to dinner. But he does make a comment of better to go talk to those guys.

Cool. Wow. I feel at home here.

Yeah. We got a little like, got a little reputation. There's like misfits and dropouts.

Like, Cameras loving this place more and more.

Yeah, the glooming quarter almost feels like, like Esther Holt's one thing, but the glooming quarter is a different city altogether that it feels okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's kind of imploding and fighting and glumming quarters just like, this is nice little neighborhood.

Yeah,

like you could just breathe.

I like night people. Those are our kind of people.

Yeah, definitely.

I like appetizers.

Yeah, let's go. check up with free appetizers.

I assume they're free.

Well, you promised me free. They can't be. They can't be.

I will spare you the details of getting a seat and all that stuff. But eventually when someone comes to take your order, you're going to hear them run up to the table list as they recognize you. And so while you were gone, people got to eat.

So Vettig actually got a job here. Just because they're kind of wondering. They're right at the point where they're like, are they fucking coming back?

Like, do we? What do we do? Do we?

So she's got to run up the table, kind of wrap her hands around, wrap her arms around Ruby from the back. and then extend over and try to get nice era. Would you guys get back?

Like four hours ago.

We basically just got here, got cleaned up and came straight to you. I'm so glad you're here.

Do you work you now? As she hugs her.

Yeah, they've been really great and working here for like two and a half weeks. Something like that.

Oh my God.

It's just nice to have a little extra coin.

She's going to look at her free appetizers. I told you.

Yeah. Played.

She's like going to hear that. It's like, I don't think they're going to charge you at all. Honestly, they really like you here. They have a sandwich named after after Nithera.

Oh.

Oh.

Is it good?

I can't eat it. It's too spicy. But it's, it's, that's a T-Fling saying that. Yeah. Yeah,

wow.

I think the sandwich is just supposed to be dangerous. Like, it's just, it's like, it's one of the sandwiches that's a challenge. It's like, well, if you order it and finish it, it's free.

Oh, you get a T-shirt and a photo.

It's not that it's too much. It's just full of knives.

Spicy in that it causes you to bleed. Yeah. Yeah.

So preemptively, as you said, oh, we're going to maybe go to Bonzo's, I went ahead and just said, like, let me just brainstorm really quickly what Ruby would want to order if you saw it on the menu. Just for flavor. And one of them was very tiny grilled cheese sandwiches that are very spicy.

Oh.

Tiny.

You know those little tiny toasts? You know those little tiny hard toast that you can use for cheese? Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Those, but they're super ridiculously spicy. I don't know what made me think of that.

We mentioned knife faira and I should be immortalized somewhere. Yes. It does make you bleed. It's just not a front end. So like, you know, it, you know.

It's one of those ones with fine print under it, right? Sponsos does not take responsibility.

We're not responsible. Most of our clients are undead anyway, so.

If you have a working digestive tract, please avoid.

Yeah, that's the same disclaimer that comes with Nythira. So.

Yeah.

She's going to slide into the booth and just kind of put her, you know, put her stuff down. What are we doing? Like, she's got to kind of lower her voice.

Like, all right. What do we? Like, she quit.

Basically, she sat down and quit. Like,

she's longer. Nervous. Immediately.

Because he's like, you're nervous immediately. Don't you have stuff to do. Like you have tables.

What are you doing?

She's taking a 15.

She can take a break.

Yeah, give her a minute. God.

These things have an operation. They can't just take a break. They've got to check with somebody. Can we get some blood wine?

Yeah, I know. Exactly. Can we get some blood wine?

She's looking at the menu. She's like picking out whatever wine she can find in the blood wine. She's the one that she wants.

She doesn't know if it's just called. blood wine. Or if it's blood wine.

Yeah.

It doesn't

matter. It's theme restaurant shenanigans. It's mostly for the tourists.

There's a guy who brings it up, like it's, you know what I mean? It's borderline offensive. Yeah.

Nader will order the knife here. So I'll see I like that. Okay.

You've got to try

your sandwich. You have to try it.

Yeah.

100%.

While Vetty's there? Like, they're a handle spice. Just wondering.

I think she does pretty well with it. She's always like pushed her limits. So probably she's accumulated a tolerance over the 150 years. At first it was just punishing herself. And now it's just like I don't have taste buds anymore.

Mm-hmm.

Got it. Okay. Okay.

But while Betty's there, she will like fuss over her and like straightened out like apron and push her hair back and be like, okay, and how's Chet doing? Last time we saw him, he was in pretty rough condition. And the other, aura, Baz, how's Baz?

She immediately latches onto Baz. Oh, Baz got a job over at the Blacksmith.

A nine-year-old got a job.

He's got the body of a, well, I don't even know how old, but It makes sense. Like a hammer. Yeah.

I don't think adventureing's really for him. He kind of like, he's kind of nine. So he doesn't have the wherewithal of like me, you know?

Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Cut hair behind ear.

All right.

The other ear.

I was watching her tables get mad.

Like everything's relative.

They're like pushing her brain. head sticks. There is.

People doing that annoyed restaurant look around like.

Trying to make eye contact with her.

There is definitely one person doing the, yeah. Like a snapping thing.

Yeah, well, Larming does stand for that either. So you kind of look at me just one. Just one. Just one.

Okay. Hang on. I have some respect.

I just think that's really good at locking it out. has that hyper fixation of like, it's like, yeah, that doesn't exist right now.

Like, yeah, she should be doing her job, but also we're talking to her.

So don't be rude. Like,

don't be a big about it.

Ruby will just say, I got it. Ask all your questions. Ruby's going to go because she knows the menu like the back of her hand. She's going to go take care of whoever she can take care of. She's going to do whatever like the equivalent of picking up the coffee and

She's going to go pull a crook and like know the kitchen names for all the menus to.

Yeah.

I wouldn't put it past her to have it just somewhere locked away in her brain after looking at so many bonds as many is.

Yeah.

Can you do me a favor?

Sure.

On a scale of one to ten, how good are you at this? Give me a D10 plus two.

I'm just going to roll a D10 and then we're going to add a two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Five.

A average.

It's a five. It's more than I could do. I would go. Yeah, exactly.

Turn away to tables.

She would be like, I got this. And then she would get into it. And she realized there's a lot of stuff.

She doesn't know. She doesn't know how to put in the order or anything. But she certainly knows how to ask somebody in and to write it down and to go hand it to someone.

But it's about that.

Which table is table 14? Yeah.

That's where you get you.

I just realized I would fuck that job up. If you just had to jump in, oh my God.

Yeah.

Coffee. I could take coffee around and that's it.

So she's comfortable now. She's got her hands on the table. And it's like, yeah.

So Bass is working at the Blacksmith. He's been doing that for three weeks now. He's really good at it.

I think he likes it. He's kind of quiet, so it's tough to tell. But Vettie's going to hesitate before talking about ORA or chat.

ORA has been around. She's kind of been taking jobs for somebody, and she's been real cagey about it.

But you don't know who?

She comes back. I've been kind of busy. I do like 10-hour shifts here.

Like, it's pretty busy. But she seems happy doing it. And she always has lots of cash.

Like lots of money.

That's good.

And I kind of learned with her not to ask about things in her life.

Can you see where she goes?

She heads outside of the gloaming quarter. I know that.

Didn't we leave you guys with 15,000 gold?

Yeah. No, no further elaborations. Yes. Correct.

I like the get up and go attitude and you need work. Do you enjoy this? Do you enjoy doing this?

Do you like doing 10-hour shifts? Okay. Yeah. Boy the crap out of me.

No, I don't. I don't like this at all. But.

Well, I mean, yeah.

Well, I've never had a day job. before.

Why are you doing this? You don't have to keep doing it. I mean, you did it now.

Well,

you didn't have you didn't you just get it out.

Yeah, she's going to stop. Yeah, she's going to stop. It's a well, uh, well, they kind of had a help on a sign. I just, I kind of wanted to help.

I just, I kind of wanted to help. Like I didn't, I wasn't doing anything.

Why weren't you doing anything? I thought Mother Duskward was going to give you four jobs.

Yeah, I mean, cleaning.

That's what she gave you was cleaning.

Mostly, yeah, because of Chet, it's, and then she stops dead. Like, stops fucking dead. Like, just, it's like, so yeah, I got a job here. And it's, it's, it's kind of boring. But like, you know, it's tape.

Yeah. Is he still? Is he still a, is he still a, a, a spawn?

No. No.

Okay.

Is he a vampire?

Yeah. Like, just is very quietly, like, not. Um, he should be getting up any minute now if you want to go see him. Um,

so is he happy about that or what's the read on that?

Okay. Okay. Look, you have to, you can't tell him that I told you.

So just, okay. So, um, he had a decision to make and he put it off and put it off and put it off and he got real sick. And then he attacked somebody and tried to bite them.

But he hadn't turned. So it was just hunger for the sake of it. But he attacked somebody outside the gloaming quarter.

It's the problem. And we kind of needed to pull all our strings. to not have him get in trouble.

He didn't actually hurt anybody, so that was helpful. But we kind of had to pay a bribe to, you know.

Oh, your first bribe.

Yeah, it's expensive. It was a card. So it, you know, well, anyway, he's been adjusting.

It's been about six days. So, you know, he's happy as a stretch. But, you know, he's getting used to it.

Accepting.

I think so.

Why did he put it off for so long? Is he not doing okay?

You're going to laugh.

Probably.

Probably not.

He kept thinking you guys are going to be back any day and you'll be hitting the road. And I think he just thought there was going to be a way out of it. And he didn't. It's a big decision.

And he kind of felt like he'd screwed up a few things. So he didn't want to screw up something so big that would impact the rest of his life. So he put it off and put it off.

So screwed it up. But not making a decision.

Please don't tell him that.

Because I'm getting it out of my system now. So I don't joke at him. Okay, good.

We spent like a week telling him that it was the, that it was a bad. that isn't what happened.

Hey, folks, Jasper here. Sorry to interrupt everything. Listen, we want to connect with you.

If you like what we do here, please consider joining our community on our Discord server. And if you want even more, please think about joining the DNR Patreon at patreon.com slash D-A-N-D-R. There, you'll get behind-the-scenes looks, bonus games, Patreon groups with Jason and 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.

Longgren has to four times stop himself from saying something else. But then he's almost. She literally like pinches his lips shut.

It takes a long drink out of his water.

Whatever he's got, he finishes it. It's a ridiculous strong. It takes a full 90 seconds to get to the drink and start sitting.

Around the glass is strong. At some point, Ruby does come back. She was not there for most of this. So she missed out.

And she does have on not only like a black apron, but she has blood wine. She has five, one for Betty as well. She has a big platter, and she has the knife thera, the tiny little knife thera, um, grill cheese sandwiches.

Also, a few bowls of like pure pitch black. I guess the equivalent would be like pumpkin seeds with like spices all over them, like salt, like salty bar snack type stuff. And that's about it.

And she just throws it all around the table sheet. They're so nice. in the back to vetting.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. I, the staff's great.

God, you must love this place.

I just get it.

But Ruby sits back down. So she's done with whatever she was doing and tables be damned.

Who's your shift manager? Can you, can you point them out?

Ruby said, you're talking to me?

You're talking to me? My shift manager? I think it's that one over there.

Yeah, no. Like, just put it. They probably offered you a job at some point in back.

I just probably thought, I guess we hired her. I don't know.

Do we hire a half work?

Okay.

She's out of uniform.

I'm just an hour way around the menu.

Well, glad you all are we getting along. At least. Nice to hear that you're doing okay. We were worried about you.

We were kind of worried about you. You said it'd be like two weeks.

Took a while.

There's no road. They got rid of the road. It's just no road at all.

Turns out.

Yeah, I mean, no one goes to Odysseia.

Yeah, we got to rest.

You just say it matter of factly.

Yeah. Now we know why.

Yeah.

It's a right.

Why'd you get arrested?

Because we tried to enter the city?

It was confused.

They're terrible. Honestly, it wasn't terrible, but they were pretty terrible. The road was terrible too.

It was a lot of terrible stuff. Man, there's so much we haven't told you. Oh my God.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, okay. I was working with the blacksmith and I think I found a couple of ways to to improve the gear heart. So one, there's little storage racks we came up with and we can kind of hang them on the top.

Okay. Yeah. She's already has her notebook out and she's sketching it.

And she's, she's very much going to be like, like talking about the gear heart that was, not the gear heart that is. Any measurements are fucking forfeit. Uh, these, yeah. It's a different making model now.

Ruby's taking it in stride. She appreciates it. There's so much I want to do while we're here.

Just take a day and just like, like this, and she'll point at her notebook. So much, so much. Got to restock it too.

Yeah, do you think there's like blood stores in the gloaming quarter that they have? Maybe we could just use that to repair the...

Yeah.

It's going to be like a factory reset button, right? Like, hey, like, there are these modifications have gone out of hand, like, boom.

Just a button underneath it. You just have to hold it for 10 seconds.

Right.

So in Nithyr's mind, the entire mechanical part is just irrelevant. It's just throw blood on it. Fixes everything.

Yeah.

It has worked so far.

Yeah. I mean, that's what Nitheir is. No, it says blood.

The engineering, I have a zero. Or she has a one in. Whatever.

Blood? She knows a lot about.

She has a seven in.

Yeah.

Speaking of which, can you give me a constitution saving through please for your sandwich?

Yeah.

That's nice.

We're in a city. We're in a city. But it's seven.

Didn't you get, because you quit failed last time. Yeah, I have an inspiration. Do you want to use the inspiration? You're going to get another one anyway.

Yeah. I'll just get this another inspiration from this role.

Oh, God, it's like lucky. That's what I've done. Okay, cool.

Hey, the exact time.

Oh.

21.

We went from a seven total to a 21. So you're pretty much going to tank this, right? Like, first bit is like, ooh. And then I'm going to hit that dead zone on your tongue where you've destroyed any nerves.

And Nifer is putting them back like it's nothing. So if any of you guys see this, you might say, oh, it's probably not that bad.

I feel like Loggerner has learned better by this one.

I'm pretty sure Ruby would not have learned. I mean, this would have, there's no way Ruby wouldn't be trying to snack on all this stuff.

If Ruby tries, Feddy's going to reach out and grab her hand. No, don't do that.

No. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay.

For somebody to,

for someone to tell Ruby who probably snacks all the time and is grabbing candy and all kind of things, she would probably very easily pay attention to that. Like, okay, this must be not okay.

These are surprisingly good. They have a kick to them.

Can't try a bite?

Yeah.

Institutions saving through a place.

He is a T-Fling. Does that give him like advantage or something?

I did say that even T-flings find us to be hot, but let's see, it'll do half-fire damage if it's best.

We should take these for the road for cum.

Yeah.

Just, you know,

like a strife. Oh, my God.

That is a crit one.

I'm going to be nailed.

Hang on. Hang on. Okay.

All right.

I'm going to use my inspiration.

Do you actually have one?

Yeah, I did. I don't know where I got it from. I guess I was just holding on to it. Hey,

as long as you got it.

It's gone now. Yeah, I'm going to do that one. Do that one more time.

Yeah, that was a crit one. We don't want to do that.

Oh, my God.

What a dynamic dice roll tonight.

A weird night. Okay. So, again, a little kick up front and you're like, ooh. Like.

Hmm.

Ooh. Makes a mouth water.

The Torn is because cold golf like that is what it is.

That's it.

Yeah, you just hear in the back of his head. You just hear like, It spreads like warm. The cross in our face. Yeah.

Comer's having a thing. Let's just like that. Let's talk around.

No one mentioned.

Why did we get one room? That's good.

That's good.

Not that good. I mean, maybe it is. Pop's another in her mouth.

So Vettie's very much like she's gung ho. She's ready to get out of town. Like, okay, let's, do you want me to start packing stuff up?

Which, so above the table, Lodgrin is confused as fuck by that because he told them to like get these four kids job. They're off the, they're like retired, right? Like they're not adventurers. Yeah. Get them administrative. positions they live here now was what he left with so he is frustrated because he's like we had this conversation but he's not their kids yeah yeah they're kids he's not gonna bring it up right now so he's just like uh dodge it just not talked to you just like so yeah just like so anyway

just kind of you're like when's this girl gonna leave yeah you know her you know her

No, he's going to just be like, we got a few things to do in town. Nobody's going anywhere for a couple of days.

Yeah, plus the next thing we have to do is really boring. You're not going to want to come with us.

Give me persuasion check.

How about a deception tech? What about a deception check?

I got, I know what? I got persuasion. Hang on.

Oh. Well, if it's an outright lie. I mean,

yeah, because we anticipate everything we do is going to be hilarious.

I just meant that it's going to take a few days before we leave.

Sure. Okay. Do that.

All right. So.

You're having a hot hand tonight.

Oh, shit.

28. Oh, my God.

Damn.

Shit.

You have a D8 expertise day? In deception. Yeah, that makes sense.

Okay. And then persuasion. So both the lie and the truth are.

That's a 28. I'm here. Deception, 25 from Logrin persuasion.

We hit one. Two. Yeah. I'm like a fucking jab.

Cross. One of us can only tell the truth and the other can only laugh.

She'll kind of get bummed at. It's like, oh. Okay.

Yeah. So don't create your day job just yet. I need something to do.

I was going to say the opposite. It quit it now. Go find something else to do here. Yeah.

You're not happy. You can't do that to them. You've got to give them notice. They're friends. Ruby would look very hurt.

That's true.

I'm counting on you. He doesn't have any backup for this shift.

Oh, man. Derek's been. Derek's been solid.

He always,

he always tries to organize people's schedule. So they can just be time off. He has already. He's sick and stuff.

Yeah.

When Lagrin says that, we're already short tonight. Ruby's like, oh, my God. And she gets back up.

I got a foretop that I got a handle.

There's a party coming in and it's just like they only have so many people to handle it.

Bring mozzarella stick when you come back around.

She's thumbs up. It would not even looking at you.

Oh, maybe Fridayers if they're on the menu tonight. Special sauce. How special.

Betty is going to like reluctantly. It's like, all right. Okay. Like just kind of kind of sad, like get ready and go back to work and just just let me know before you get out of here, right? Like before you leave town, obviously, you know.

Of course.

For sure.

Okay.

Maybe we can find, maybe we can find something for you to do. That's better than this. You put in your two weeks and who knows?

And maybe on our next outing, we'll bring a raven so we keep in contact. Feels like that would be important.

Probably at this point. Because you guys always take it at least twice as long as you think it's going to take. It's, you know, one of you needs to buy a cell phone, honestly, at this point, like...

And why is it the old woman who thought of this first? I'm going to need the large button Raven.

I was about to say, though, you are, you are defaulting to Raven, which is the solution from 112 years ago. Like, that is the, it's like, yeah, we need to get a Nokia. And those things are forever. So we're fine.

Just your page, it'll be fine.

Hey, I've listened to the other groups and they're using Ravens. So I know they're still in service.

They are. They're like dial up internet was still around until 2024. Like, you know, like it, it, you know.

I just, I grabbed Nythera's hand and I go, we use scrolls of sending out that's well.

I thought we hated magic users.

Ooh. Okay.

Okay. Well, ouch. No,

I think, I thought that was the general vibe of, of,

This is a tidy, mostly mages. But yeah. Yeah.

You know, it's, it's, it's, adventures usually use them anyway. And if you're adventure, you're kind of, you know what I mean? If you're out in this world, beggars can't be choosers.

Like, like we joked last, last session, this is a crack team of people who don't know you need food on a vacation and don't know how to deal with animals in the wilderness.

So, you know.

Weird demon dogs. though we have on lock.

A healer? No. But we have what?

I got what I'm going to choose for. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. What do you guys want to do? Where are going?

Check on chat.

Well, I think don't we want to like go into the church and talk?

Oh, I thought chat was out of church.

He might be. Yeah.

He's very much at the church. He still got his vampire training wheels on and absolutely incident.

He used to hit his burning quota before they let him out.

If they let him out.

That's when he unlocks his cape, you know.

You have to earn your cape.

Yeah.

No, but they're very much keeping him there just be. It's like, hey, we're not saying you messed up. But it did cost everyone a lot of money. And until you get used to this, you know, unstoppable hunger within you. We're just kind of keep you here and get you used to it, you know?

Yeah, it sounds like we're going to the church. We've got a few people we want to talk to there.

Yeah.

Vamporical. Vamporical. Vamporical.

Vamporical.

Seraphene.

That's right. That's right.

Sarah Pina. Yeah, probably in Mother Jessica. We can do a... We can double up. They come together, right?

Who do you want to go see first? Because church is wide open, obviously. And when people see you, they're going to be... You might get a couple of handshakes or it's like, hey, it's them, that type of thing.

I mean...

We're still cool in here, right? That's good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Are they still... Do we still get the vibe that there is like... Feuding, like, feuding, like, feuding, like, feuding, like because last time we came here they were like split and they were like yelling. Yeah.

It's it's less tense but they're differing ideologies. You can yeah, there's there's definitely.

There's clicks going on.

Yeah, we got into it a little bit last time. But yeah, like yeah, there's there's there's tension but they're not yelling. about it. They're not, you know. So whatever happened, they got it somewhat out of their system while you were gone.

That's probably fine.

Yeah. That's probably good. What were the two names of those other groups? It was the something choir and the silent choir. The silent choir.

So a silent choir, if you need a a refresher. I do. Thank you.

Essentially. believes in an undead vampire, and that things were better under this vampire, the first vampire. And the signs are starting to line up that it's like, hey, this person might be coming back.

And like, maybe that would be better. Because this fucking sucks, kind of pointing around to their tiny portion of the city. And, you know, the stuff that was happening.

But after Silver Fox was killed, it kind of died down a little bit because there wasn't so much outside pressure on the gloaming quarter. And the pale mercy was the other side with Mother Duskwood. Yeah.

Gotcha. Thank you. Silent quiet. Pale mercy.

I feel like it. I feel like we would be going straight to chat, right? Or at least trying to see if we can find out where he is. Right? That would be first order of business.

Sure.

Yeah.

If you ask around, it'll probably take you two or three people before you find the person who knows every time you ask somebody, they go who? And then you describe him. It's like, oh. Like every time. Like it's funny.

He's well known too.

Just. It's like, oh, that's the reason we're not having a Christmas party this year. Yeah, he's in the basement.

Like, it's just like you're going to just point. Which is, is where seraphide is. That's where the work is that.

His vampire name is fuckhead. That's.

It's like his Native America's name is costly mistake. Um, so. Um, So if you go down to the basement here, um, Serafine's set up is still here, her table and everything like that. Everybody give me a perception check and everybody with a high perception that's passive, you can keep it. Just, just,

don't keep that.

Do I get the passive? Oh, that's with the dog around.

Yeah. Got to have the dog.

And this is chimera's first time down here.

Oh yeah, that's true. I got my eyes peeled. Passage perception 15.

Loggerns in the middle of telling everybody they got to keep their head on a swivel down here. There's a lot of weird shit. Just keep your eyes out. All right. He's like walking backwards talking to them.

Downstairs.

So, yeah, Logren 4. Ruby 15. Kimea with a passive 15 and 18 for a nice thing.

Passive. Passive. Well, three of you are going to kind of peer through the dark.

It's quite dark down here. There are torches and candles, but like it's dim. And in a corner, you're going to see Chet hunched over.

Like he's skulking, like sneaking. And at the table, Seraphine's going to be sitting there watching him. And like every once in a while, she'll kind of like squint her eyes.

And then, like, Chet will dart out. And he'll tackle a rat. Like, this is a practiced thing.

Like, he's had to, you know, and he just rips into this fucking thing. Like, there is, there's no sense of, not self, but there's no sense of decorum. No, no embarrassment.

Like, he's that hungry where it's just like, like, you know. And pharian vampires, they have both. two sets of fangs, one top, one bottom.

And he's just going to rip this thing in half and just kind of sink his teeth into it. And then after a couple of seconds, like, just kind of like fall back on his butt and just like, oh, okay, okay. Like kind of come back to his senses.

And Seraphne's watching him the entire time. That one was much better. You got him in one swing.

Getting good.

Just kind of waved to the party. Like, oh, God, do you? Do you? Okay.

Oh, wow. Uh, hey lady. How are you doing?

Chet is going to scramble to his feet and try to make it around the corner as fast as possible. He is deeply embarrassed that that is what you saw. Like, it's like, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

I couldn't be making a worse impression. With everybody. And of course, this is where you.

Yeah.

I mean, he has made such bad impressions already. It's really, really just one more.

I mean, to his credit, nobody's surprised.

No. He's surprised. Yeah.

In fact, good job.

Yeah. I'm sure there was one of his better attempts.

Yeah.

Don't need to be embarrassed about that. That was cool. That was kind of cool. That's good.

Yeah, he's going to slink away. Like, he's just going to get out of there. He can't face you like this. Like, he's got to change shirts or something. Like, just, it's, yeah.

Okay.

We'll let him get washed up.

Okay.

But my dear will say, it's good to see you up. Because last time he was like about to die. That was the last time she saw him.

So it's pretty rough. Yeah. Yeah. Before he leaves, he'll give like a, uh, and just like, like, kind of a partial wave. And just like, bye, like that type of thing.

We'll be back.

Yeah.

So, everybody, this is seraphene. Seraphene. This is Nithera.

This is chimera. You already know me and you know Lagerin from last time. But our friends haven't met you before.

Hi, charm.

Everybody. Yeah, this is Serafine. She's really cool. Look at her stuff. She's just pointing around at all of the junk.

I'm calling junk.

Ruby doesn't say that.

She said stuff.

I guess you already know about us as well, though, too, huh?

You had something interesting to say about chimera and a bridge.

Yeah. I wanted to ask you about that. We don't have to do it right this minute, but that is something I wanted to tickle your brain about.

Oh, please. Please sit down. And she'll offer everybody a seat. Please, I don't get many visitors.

Yeah, what's it?

How's Chad doing?

He's adjusting. It's a lot, especially if you're someone so young. Most people don't take to it.

And he's done rather well, living. Well, you know. And she'll kind of smile.

I'm teaching him how to get by on very little, because if he does leave, this place, he'll have to learn that skill.

It was kind of impressive, honestly. I've never seen anybody do something like that. It was kind of gross, but hey, listen, he's on his feet. Last time we saw him, he wasn't anywhere close to it.

Well, he's been at this for a few nights. It's going to take time, but he's already, he's showing growth. It took me quite a long time to get good at catching my own food, so I I think he has a lot of baggage.

Oh, yeah.

That was even before the whole vampire thing.

Oh, but, oh gosh. This is a drop in the bucket.

Anyway.

So I am friends. Like, yeah, just too. Moving on.

We all get a thousand yards and then, anyway.

Each one of us remembers a different incident with him.

You wanted to talk about your bridge death.

Yes. Well, I want to talk about how to avoid my bridge death. That's kind of what I want to figure out.

That's what I'm invested in. But before we get into that, we do have something else that we want to speak with you and see if we can understand some stuff. We've run into some writers in black.

There on some spooky horses. And they seem to be trying to collect a bunch of parts of someone, a skull, is what we know. And we've come across a piece of them, a part of them, a gaunt, their left hand.

We have it with us. It's secure and it's hidden. But we need to know about them.

We need to know why they're here. They've been hunting us. At least one of them has.

We need to know if they're going to keep coming, if everyone's safe here. And just generally what you know about them. And if we can use this thing against them.

This lady does not. get rigid or nervous very easily. But she will stiffen a little bit as you're describing this.

Because you're checking off little boxes for her. That's like, oh boy, okay, that's not great. You said you have this with you.

Ish.

More or less.

We know where it is. It's safe.

She is going to kind of like raise. her hand and you're going to hear the door at the top of the stairs kind of shut and then you're going to see this kind of this kind of hazy barrier go up around you kind of in a dome. Pardon the theatrics, but there are those within the church that would kill all of you to get that gauntlet.

And then she's going to, yeah, she's going to realize how horrible that sounds. It's like it's a small amount of people. It's a small amount of people.

Almost nobody.

Oh, I just didn't.

I should have even brought it up. I'm so sorry.

It's a 10%. One every 10. Yeah.

It's negligible. It's not even worth mentioning, actually.

And they wouldn't even kill all of you, maybe. Who knows?

Yeah. I'm good,

right? Because it's not on a bridge or anything. Like, I don't. be okay.

Let's come back to the bridge.

Okay. You're talking about the silent choir, though, aren't you? Is that who you mean?

I am really glad I put up that dampening field. You just set them by name. Okay.

Are we not supposed to do that? Can we... That's all we heard when we first came into this church was the silent choir and the pale mercy.

Yes, but you're accusing them of being murderers. It's, it's, it's, you know,

I was not accusing. I'm asking.

Let's all back up here. We just have a thing that we didn't mean to have. And in fact, we kind of thought about throwing it away.

And all we want to know is how to make sure that these things don't come near us. In fact, they don't come near you. They don't come near anybody we love or care about.

What do we do with it? I don't even care what it is. just what should we do?

My information on them is a bit limited. I've tried. I've tried meditating.

I've tried seeing it's difficult. It's I don't want to accuse anyone of anything, but it's like my vision's being blocked. And there are some in the church who believe that The silent choir isn't just ideologically differing from us, but actively sabotaging us.

In what way? Just your meditations?

I don't have any proof of that. But yes, I've never had trouble. I've never had trouble reaching out and seeing something, even if it's vague. but recently it's becoming increasingly difficult. Strangely enough, they really wanted Chatsworth.

Chettsworth? Oh. Yeah, she's going to look around at everybody. Oh, I mean, it's kind of an upgrade.

She's kind of like, sugar. It's like, no, no, no, it's very on. No.

Why would they want Chet?

It's worth.

The word. Oh. Remember, he's a noble technically.

Yeah, I know. Yeah.

He's got a middle name like Maximilian or Richard.

Probably have like three names.

A title.

A land holding title. A land holding title.

Well, they view them as disposable. And they can send him out in the world to get information. and if he dies, that would be fine to them. But they need someone who's like us. They need a vampire.

So many questions. Why do they need a vampire? Why can't they go themselves? What's the... Why is it so disposable and dangerous?

It's... There's a working theory. And I'm not privy to most of this, but there's a working theory that only vampires can communicate. with the riders themselves. And they're not sure enough that any one of them would risk their lives, but someone like Chatsworth, they would risk in a second. Oh.

For.

I feel like he can die on our watch, but not on somebody else's. I feel a little bit of little ownership about him now. That doesn't feel right.

That doesn't feel right regardless of who it is. Yuck. And they're here? The silent choir is here. Like, they're here in the church, right?

She's just going to point up like they're upstairs. Yeah.

Okay.

And why are they so interested in these black writers? What do they think they are?

They think they're harbingers. They think that that that and the blood rain a couple of months ago. They think it's all connected. That there's some.

We slaps, loggerin. The blood ring.

You hurt your hand.

Ow.

Honestly, most of us think that these are coincidences or a threat, but nothing global. It's, this isn't the first time we've heard stories of things like this over the years. This is a vampire fairy tale, to be honest.

But we've got it.

What are they exactly?

If they're real, and you say you ran into one?

No. Ran over one.

With your motorized carriage.

That's right.

It's really good for that, actually.

Actually, I'm really good at it.

Well, it could be better.

Oh, I'm working on it.

It needs more blood.

That's the problem.

There's your problem right there. Yeah,

like, I get fixed for you.

That's her solution to everything. These sandwiches would be good with a little sauce. May I suggest?

They used to be knights. There's a kingdom. Millennia ago.

That supposedly gave birth to the first vampire. If you want more information, I'm sure the silent choir has it,

But you don't?

To be honest, they've... They've hoarded information about this for many, many years now. Most of us aren't interested in what was. We're trying to forge a path to what will be.

Why is it so important to them? Like, why do they want to bring that back? How does that... What does that do for them?

Well, they're under the opinion that... The world as it is is insalbigible. It's not sustainable.

Most of it's frozen over, at least this continent. Dragons have taken over the northeast. They don't want us.

And even in a city like this, we're a minority. They're under the impression that if there were a vampire ruler, naturally, there'd be more opportunities for vampires.

So they want to do this whole...

End of the world. Yes.

End of the world again, just in favor for vampires. Oh, boy. Okay, I've got a question. If we could maybe find out if there's anybody blocking your visions, would that help you be able to tell me to stay alive?

Well, again, if it's being done, I could just be going insane. But I doubt it. If you find out someone is blocking me, that would give us some proof that they're being malicious.

Mother Duskward is of the opinion that we should be diplomatic. Take the high road. I offered to slit one of their throats, but she was very adamant that we can't do that.

Okay, so you don't. don't want us to do that. I didn't shine. Oh, okay. Because we can shine.

So she's going to like, she's going to reach out and just like touch the bubble. It's like, I didn't say that. Like, just kind of like they can't hear us. It's funny.

It sounds like it would be real bad if one of y'all did something like that. Is that what I'm hearing?

What would help you out? It would help me out.

It happened. I don't know.

You had a talk with Mother Duskward, didn't you? But you left in a way that no one could see you.

Yes.

Well, there's a very strong possibility that the silent choir doesn't know that you're allied. So if someone from the outside were to do something like this, it would most likely be seen as a neutral position, an unfortunate accident.

Well, we're good at unfortunate accident. So, I mean, no promises. But hey, here we are.

This is quite a large thing that I'd be asking you to do. And I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't tell you that it would be wildly dangerous, potentially. I should offer you some sort of reward for something like this. So name me a price.

Can you alter destiny?

All destiny is is a strong possibility of what will be. It's based on decisions you've made up in. until now.

It's knowing your destiny only helps solidify it in many ways. Your behavior gets more erratic trying to avoid it and you accidentally walk right into destiny's path. And she's going to stop. Like it's like, that was the clearest answer ever.

Like, yeah, you know what I mean?

Like, well, um, I don't know what we've walked into here. Uh, uh, I kind of feel like before we all agree to anything, right? She's going to look at Lagron and you're going to look at Nethera.

We may just need to settle in for just a few minutes at least. Check on Chad and see what we need to do here. But it's good to know where you stand.

It's good to know where others stand and it's good to know where we might be able to help or not. We appreciate that.

Yeah, she's going to knock. If you want to speak to chat, his room is in the back. He has a small cop that he's been sleeping on.

Just to be clear, the magic vampire ghost gone, what do you think we should do with it? I don't know. I don't know if we can destroy it. I don't think we should have it. Can I wear it?

The second you, you talk about where he's like, do not put that on your body. No, right.

I would never. No.

No. Nobody's ever wants. Nobody's wanted to do that.

Never had thought about it all the time.

I would cast it into the sea if you have the opportunity or throw it into a deep, dark hole. Most likely won't be able to destroy it, but...

We're good at that too. Yeah.

But let's see you did put it on.

Okay. Okay.

Hypothetically.

Again, my knowledge is theoretical. If you want more concrete knowledge, it would be with the silent choir. You could find out most of what you know, at least, it would be secondhand knowledge and not however many people has been passed down to with me.

Who are the most outspoken members of the silent choir?

Are you asking about their leader or?

If, per se, we wanted to get this information, who should we seek it out? Who do you think has accumulated the most? Or even where would it be stored?

That would be Dame Ordress. She's by far the most senior member. Knowledge Keeper. They have an impressive library with essentially one subject.

Just taking notes. Well, so we shouldn't under any circumstances where the conglitz, looking directly at chimera.

I would advise against it, but I'm of the mindset that it's better to be safe than sorry. If you're operating under the impression that you're going to die anyway, though, what do I know?

We did get on a bridge and he didn't die. Is it done? Is it over? Did we beat it?

I would know more if my magic were being blocked.

Okay. Broken record. I get it. Not the records exist in theory.

What's a record?

I don't know. I'll show you later. She made one.

Go it to me along with this scroll of sending.

Right. Fine. Well, we've taken up a lot of your time.

You've been very forthcoming, as you always are. Thank you so much. Maybe we should check on Chatsworth.

Yeah, and Serafine, just to ease your mind in my extensive experience, usually people who consider the possibility that they are insane usually aren't. They're usually too far gone to even consider that possibility.

It was lovely getting to meet you. And I hope you're alive next time I see you. Just like looking directly at Kybir.

Yeah. Yeah, me too. I like being alive.

I like being alive. I like being alive. I like being alive. I like being alive. I like that.

I like that. after a long pause will do that well and it'll just go stand out

tonight's a night of well time to be hitting the old dusty trail like you just

trying to get out of here like yeah because we got a lot of stops to make but none of them are so dire that there's like a hey we got to go like move move move so so it's like it's

it's weird for us to not feel that urgency so i feel like we are all all in character a little bit awkward too. Well, we don't have to go anyway. We don't have to say hi to chat right. And we can do it tomorrow.

It's like hanging up a phone. Yeah,

you know,

you ain't. Yeah.

So I'm going to be like, all right, well, I guess we'd better go say hi to rat catcher. Yeah.

Nice meeting you. Zerfine.

She'll hold her hand out. It's like excellent meeting you.

Can I, as people are walking away, I guess, towards Chet. Can I come visit you at some point? I have a couple questions for you. Later, nothing for anybody else.

There's any time you want.

Thanks. Bye, lady.

Camera will take her hand to and he doesn't break eye contact with her the whole time. He just takes it and looks at her. He gives her a nod. and he takes out a tarot card, and it's the tarot card of death from his pack, and he puts it, I hold it out in front of her, and then flips it over. So it's face down and slides it to her.

While she has your hand, right, she'll kind of lean in, so she's just talking to you. I would be wary about inviting a third into your relationship.

I think there already is one. I may have lost track at this point. Do you mean in the future? Or do you mean right now?

She's still being friendly, but she's kind of giving you a look like, don't bullshit me. Like, I know. It's like, I'm speaking of the phylactory.

That's what I was afraid of. Thank you. I'll keep that close to my heart.

There are things worse than death. And that's one of them.

I did make a, I did make kind of a deal, though. And I aim to make good on it. I want to.

Well, I wish you all the luck in the world.

Let me see about clearing up that mind of years.

Who's knocking on Chet's door?

R-ron's ready to do it.

Knock-knock-knock-knock-in on Chet's door. Oh, good. Okay.

There's one of the underhanded, boom-b-bomb

Oh, my God. The landlord? The landlord? Jesus, Chris! Oh!

He gets the best results. Try it.

He's, you're gonna, it's a small room. It's like a closet. It's like a, it's like a, like a, like a larder or something like that.

You know what I mean? Like it's, yeah, this is where he keep the potatoes back of the day. When we ate potatoes.

So they're going to, you know, like he's, he's going to run over and open the door. And like he's, he's like dusting off this shirt. Hey.

like trying to act like

Did you see that guy? Yeah.

Weird with the rod.

That's up,

right? We gotta get rid of that guy.

It's that guy. Hey, buddy.

Where have you guys been?

A long road. Well, there was no road, but there on a long, not road.

A long horrible not road.

Yeah, don't go to Addisian. I can't recommend it.

You can come in and sit on the cot if you want. That's, you know,

don't like. There's no. He's like, no. Thank you. We couldn't all fit in there anyway.

Yeah.

You'd like one at a time.

I don't want to.

Yeah. Yeah. Like one of you has definitely got to hang out in the doorway. Like it's a real dorm room situation. I think of those college parties.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, you probably have questions.

No, we talked to Vetti. We think we know what's going on.

He's going to. Oh, man. He's going to be like, like, fuck. Like just.

Because of the people you could have talked to, Fettie's going to give the most, first of all, detailed explanation. And probably the most honest. Like, when she said, don't tell him, I told you, they've known each other for a while.

He knows that you, like, whatever the worst version of the truth is, that's the version you got.

That's working out for you. That's a working out for you.

It's weird. Honestly, I thought I'd hate the taste, but that's not the problem. I don't, I'm not a fan of killing animals. So that's not great. But I can't, you know, people, I can't, you know.

No, you can't. Oh, here. Out of one of her little pouches, or whatever containers on her on her vest. She has a couple of those Knife Thera sandwiches in a napkin. Just brought it to him.

I have purposefully not eaten these. It's not because I can't eat food. This isn't food. That's going to like.

These were mine. That's why I gave him to you. I don't know.

There's more. There's more. Nithea grabs on and pops in her mouth.

I couldn't. I couldn't. So it's whoever wants.

We all share a bathroom. Stop it.

Yeah.

I'm fine.

It's less food and more challenge. It's more of like an activity to do than food to eat.

It's a bonding experience.

I've been eating food that fights me back as I try to eat it. And that's still better than those sandwiches.

Fine here. She just hands up to my favorite.

Thank you.

Well, it's good that you're up. Last time I saw you, you weren't doing so hot. I'm not saying you feeling so great right now, but at least you're up and around.

Yeah, I'm feeling better. I just kind of dawned on me. I can't really go home again like this. So I don't know.

Why not?

He's going to look at you and just kind of gesture to his face and like how pale he is and everything. It's like I'm a monster.

No.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

You're not. You're a child.

My family? Oh, that's going to like, it's going to burn like fucking holy water. He's just going to like, please don't call me that.

Thank you. You're chat. Would they not like you? Like this?

My father might have me killed if he found out that I was this now.

Then why would you go back? Why would you go back? If that's the way they felt about you, why would you go back regardless of what you were?

I...

Sounds awful. Fuck them.

You didn't want to go back anyway. When we were on our way here, You said you didn't want to go back.

Yeah. I'm saying it's not an option anymore ever. I didn't know what a few years.

You know what I mean? Down the road. Now it's permanent.

It's not permanent. Listen, it's not permanent. I mean, this is permanent.

He like points to all of. That's permanent. That's locked in.

That ain't coming out.

But I know exactly how it feels when it feels like it's permanent. And I'm telling you that it's not. So you got a long time now.

You get a lot longer than you had before. Things are going to change. What feels permanent now, give it 20, 30 years.

Things change.

I think they will give like a solemn, like a green nod in the back.

That's actually going to mean a lot. Uh, because what? He was expecting to be made fun of.

little. And like, instead, like, that's, that's really sweet. Like, he's going to, like, thank, thank you.

Um, uh, so what are, what are you? What's the plan? What are you doing?

Like, kind of changing the subject pretty quickly.

Yeah. And I think we'll let it. But a logger room just be like, we're, we're sorting some things out.

Listen, I'm, apparently, there's ears everywhere. So all I'm going to say is don't take any jobs from anybody that would send you out your own because they're probably going to send you out to die. Just something I heard.

I'm making things up. What am I talking about?

Hold on.

That's just good advice.

Someone you live with is trying to.

Wink. Wink.

I know I'm not popular, but I don't.

I own day, ache, take. And.

Well, I have been told that I can only stay here for a while I'm a while until I'm, you know, trained, I guess, for lack of a better term, until I get used to to being hungry and dealing with that.

You could only stay here in the temple, or? Or did they mean Esther hole?

I think they met the temple. Like it's like, holy shit, did they mean? I got to live the city.

You leave the lake. I'm going to get out of here. Like, it's just that's, it's going to dawn on it.

It's like, I know they don't like me, but they don't need the city. They don't have jurisdiction over the whole city. But if he can't stay in the gloaming quarter, I don't know.

But like he, I think the temple, I'm pretty sure. I'll ask.

Yeah. Because why are they training you to go live outside the city? That's what? Just told us.

Oh, well, I think they're maybe hedging their bets because I tried to bite someone who was a guard. And I didn't. And it wouldn't matter anyway. Because it just, I was human and I just would have been bit them. But he didn't like it. So.

Who hasn't attacked a guard in the city? I know we have.

Allegedly.

Did you buy a half-dick?

No. No. There's honestly a bit of them that's like, is that a gay joke or something? Like, what is that? Like, what?

Clogging is not elaborate. Let's have to. You don't buy a heftic.

I. I, yeah, they've been nice enough to, to, to, to, to take care of me. Well, Serafine has. And as long as I stay in the basement, it's fine for now. But it's one of those things where I've got to start thinking, you know, long-term. But really, really long-term.

Well, you've got time. No rush.

And the trick is not to think about how long.

Well, I got it down to two weeks right now. And then, you know, kind of take it from there.

That's a good start.

I think we're in another situation where it's like,

I'm going to say, it is really good to see you up. I was really worried about you. I know you had an impossible choice thrust on you. It's really good to see you pushing here.

Thanks. I know I did. It didn't make it easy on you guys. And I appreciate you putting up with me.

Well, now you're gonna be around for a lot longer, knowing everybody for a very long time. She's just ribbon him. She's being ridiculous. But you're here.

Well.

It's like,

well. Glad you're alive, kid. And he'll give him a pat on the shoulder. We got some things to take care of, but we'll see around. around again.

Yeah. Let me know if you, you know, meet me for, you know, anything.

We just might.

Guys, I think it's a good time for us to stop with the evening. Because if I have to do one, we're awkward, goodbye.

We have to find Nora. We have to find Nora.

The entire conversation with Baz is just skipping right to the awkward good box. Yeah.

That's all offered.

Well,

you're not.

You ever approach somebody and start a conversation and immediately realize you have nothing to say to each other.

Every co-worker I've ever run into after I stop working.

Yeah. Anything you meet somebody outside the context of where you know that come.

Oh, we don't have to touch to you. Shit.

I don't get so excited like a fucking golden retrieval when I see a face, I reckon. nice.

Well, if you remember their name, you get excited because it's like, fuck, they're not going to get me with that. I know their name. Oh, wait, I don't want to talk to you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.