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Zoran is too sick to GM. Baldrick's player takes the chair, Thurston finally plays Picturn Squelchfoot for real, and the session threads rust chickens and MILF jokes into something load-bearing: a Children of the Blaze encampment at the edge of the map, and the quiet groundwork for the arson about to come.
Website: https://www.narrativedeclaration.com
System: Pathfinder Second Edition
Creators and Guests
Host
Host
Guest
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What is Rotgrind - Narrative Declaration?
Five adventurers try to survive in this comedy filled Pathfinder Second Edition TTRPG campaign within the grim dark world of Tyne. Follow the show, get custom TTRPG content, and more at https://narrativedeclaration.com
Hi everybody, are you ready for another exciting episode of Rock Grind?
Hey goons. Freaks. Oh my head hurts now. Oh god damn it. Did you get a nice vocal warm-up in everybody?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Has everybody done their scales? Oh, Speaker walks into chat. Hey guys, I got a headache. I'm gonna take a whole bunch of headache medicine. Also Speaker.
Yeah, you know, I should have known better. I should have known better. You're like, you're like Germo laughing himself into a, you know, into like,
a conniption. Exactly. His headache medicine is just chewing on a bunch of drywall. That's true. We merely have to embrace the pain and burn in its fuel on our journey.
Hi guys. True. Odo, is this the part where you also want to take over? Shall I do this? Oh god. Oh fuck. We're a mess.
I'm just gonna do it. Just do it, Erndil. Hi. Hi everybody. I'm Erndil. I am the GM of this game.
Fuck you. As you well know, with my good co-host and co-GM, you know, subtitled, like, you know, subtext, you know, on-call GM over here.
I was waiting for you to say someone else's name. I was really waiting.
Yeah, welcome to Rotgrind today. Zoran is recovering from the disease that is apparently sweeping the fucking nation
because I've had people in California, Illinois, Texas, and also here in Maryland getting this horrendous throat headache fever death disease.
So, you know, he's probably not gonna be speaking at all today, which is fine, but he'll be here in spirit.
Please show the bear some love. He needs it because he's diseased currently.
Yeah, I'm sorry. I gave him Rotten 3.
He's blighted.
So, yeah, we're taking over for him on this scenario, and we will be continuing today, starting with our good blue...
Our good blue...
Our good blue?
Yeah.
Our good blue.
Odo, just fucking introduce yourself.
Why don't you do this all the time, Erndil? I don't get it.
Because I'm intentionally doing a bad job because that's funny.
It's the bit. It's the bit.
Call her the bit the way he's committed to.
Anyway, hello, I'm Odo.
Today I'm playing Vali, the sylph swashbuckler.
Tomorrow? Who knows?
You'll probably still be playing Odo unless you, you know, choose to eat glass.
In character, I mean.
Oh, yeah, yeah, it's crunchy.
No, don't do that.
Next up is our illustrious fellow in the world, Hulky Crow.
Thank you so much for that intro, Erndil.
Yes, that is indeed me.
I am Hulky Crow.
I will be once again reprising the role of the Kenrasu cleric, Rahua.
And as always, as one for the character, I'm going to be eating a succulent Chinese baked good.
He's done this every single episode.
I'm just not sure why you were telling me this doesn't happen.
Am I having a stroke?
Next up is your host and GM for the day, me, Erndil.
I'm playing as Baldrick, the human alchemist, a very character.
He's very powerful, I assure you of that.
Next is the fellow who could not be here last week, but is here now and is really great.
He's really great and he scares me, but not really.
Speaker D.
That's right.
I am defined by my absence.
I am defined by the void.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Speaker D.
I play J and I was, he's an android.
He's a magus.
You know him.
He's also very revolutionary and he has other character traits.
And oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, this is actually something worth talking about.
The dreaded squeaky chair is no more.
Yeah.
It was, it did not survive.
It's battle with me.
I finally confronted it after all these years and it shattered under my weight.
It did not win the battle against Speaker's ass.
It was, it failed this fight.
Yes.
You lost Erndil's car.
Now it's Cher.
Oh no, that, that motherfucker is still here.
Don't, don't, don't get it twisted.
You can still hear him when he chooses to make himself know.
Next up after that, we have, uh, Zoran the bear who never introduces himself.
But Zoran the bear is deadly, is deadly illness.
Apparently dying inside.
Hello, Zoran.
Zoran, Zoran, Zoran.
Please let him rest his voice.
Zoran, Zoran.
Don't talk.
Zoran, don't speak.
Don't speak.
I'll speak for you.
Oh no.
What's up idiots.
It's me, Zoran the bear.
You're all pawns to me.
You mean nothing to me.
I do remember when he said this.
Yeah.
Oh, a hundred percent.
A hundred percent.
It's like a normal bit.
Why are we acting like we're surprised?
Yeah.
What we need you to do, Chad, is we need you to collectively wrap your hands around Zoran's
torso, turn him upside down and squeeze until all the phlegm comes out.
Yeah.
If you could do that for us, we'd appreciate.
Up after that, the other really great player that is joining the game because I'm GMing
it is our illustrious game master, Thirst Unhillman.
Thank you.
That was not me fucking that up.
That was me coughing.
Thank you.
No, no, it's fine.
I'm very excited to join in on your session, Arndell.
I'm really looking forward for all of you to, you know, to meet my new character that
I'm going to be playing, Picturn Squelchfoot.
I look forward to being this character in the campaign officially now.
We know Picturn's been a bit of a guest here in the campaign, but I'm actually really excited
for Picturn to just, you know, become the newest member of the Rockride crew.
So, as you know, last episode, we introduced the concept of the MILFs, and this is why Picturn
is being involved, is because he is going to go on the MILF-slaying quest that we are setting
forward.
MILF-slaying?
Shh.
Oh, yeah.
Speaking of last session, what the fuck did you people do?
Okay.
Because I thought of them, Speaker.
What have you people done?
Just watch the episode.
No, I purposefully avoided watching the episode and only listened half, like, half to people
sort of explained maybe some.
What have you people done?
If you're only listening half to us, what the hell do you expect to learn?
Well, Speaker, if you're missing context for the episode, what you could do, much like
anybody else in the audience who's currently watching who has missed last episode, you
can watch us on Narrative Declaration's YouTube channel and catch up with all the funny shenanigans
from last week.
Well, that sounds great.
Okay, but is there anywhere I could go potentially to fund this project?
Anything I could do to help maybe get access to cool behind-the-scenes things?
Or maybe additional content?
If you can support them, you can't stop this.
You can support the show and our channels directly through our Patreon or, however, through
Black Market means and funding our current war effort in a hitherto unnamed third world
country.
That's awesome!
The third world country is the U.S.
I want to start my own proxy wars amongst other nations and make them all live and die
according to my whims.
Hey, guys!
Let's all say rock grind!
Let's not shill other people's Patreons.
There are better people for waging wars than us.
All right, all right.
Calm down, Patrick Bateman.
You can only be so based here.
All right.
We can support Blackwater PMC's Patreon another time.
Let's focus.
Sit over!
Thurston.
Sit over!
Thurston, where are we going today?
Oh, you're the GM.
I thought you had the recap ready.
No.
I got a recap.
I got a recap for you right here, motherfucker.
Oh, oh, stupid!
Oh, oh, god!
Oh, god!
Oh, god!
Oh, god!
Oh, god!
Oh, god!
Oh, god!
All right.
We can't believe it.
Previously on Rock Grind.
There we go.
Oh.
Our destined band of Chuckleflex dealt with the fallout of Gorgamunker's demise, with
Tannhauser going offline and Vali further succumbing to her rotten state.
They discovered Picturn's squelched foot, gazing off into the distance, only to uncover a crate belonging to the Medics Guild of Outset that had been cracked open and likely leaked raw rot into the ground.
Tashri, the member of Tashri, the member of the distant Sudden Earth Kaibu, re-approached the party after they had left them to deal with Gorgamunker alone.
And once they approached, they indicated and urged the party onwards into the Swamps of the Solitude after further discussion to go to the Sudden Earth Kaibu, where their leader might have some answers about their rotten state and how to resolve it.
The group traveled, eventually discovering the strange ruins of something known as a Zeskorin reality engine, which Vali and Rahua gazed into.
And as they gazed into it, Rahua found himself viewing some vision of a caravan under attack before he felt something run him through.
Vali failed that check with no apparent consequences, and there's no notes in my GM log about what would happen with that.
And then, finally, our group ran afoul of some rust chickens, Oren turned into a dinosaur, and then the MILFs, right?
That's about it, right?
Yep.
Correct.
I began a bit where I said, think of the MILFs and your rolls will be great, or something to that effect.
And we proved that that did work for a brief period of time.
And then we had to stick with the bit because we needed some insanity to go on to make things more entertaining.
And so we did that.
And now we're here.
Mm-hmm.
Now we are here.
So let's hop on over to our fancy map of the Solitude region, which has now been updated with some new hexadecimals.
Um, representing your journey through the Solitude so far.
Oh, yeah.
Um, having started off in the city of Outset, uh, you have traveled your way to Zabblezap's caravan,
uh, fought your way into a crashed perfectite siege engine in the form of a strange cube,
further carrying onwards, eventually finding a lake of acid filled with ghosts where you recovered a mysterious relic
after, you know, recovering a ring that allowed you to survive the effects of acid after defeating the-
the sawsaurer king in a magical grove.
Then heading to Site B where you slew the rotten form of Gorgamonger.
Then you later went on to see the Zaskoran reality engine, thanks to Jersh for letting us use their cool fan art of this.
Uh, and then further carried on, uh, on your journey towards the- the Sodnirth Kaibu off in this general direction to the west.
I'm kind of showing the map just to- to give you a sense of the progress and the paths you've taken here.
Um, as we begin today's session, um, we're gonna actually start off right where we left off,
with the last of the pharaoh raptors slain, and you sort of standing in his grove.
One thing, uh, that had happened near the end of last session is, um, Baldrick, as you'd been sort of running to-
to toss some bombs at one of these- these rust chickens, as they're known, uh, you've stumbled slightly on a corpse you'd found in the ground.
Um, yes.
Now that the- the- the pharaoh raptors have retreated away, uh, several of their corpses lining the ground here,
some of them even, like, filling the air with an almost metallic cooking tang.
Um, what are you all doing? At this point, there is also this- the winding of gears as
Tannhauser comes online, um, and Oren goes through a transmogrification back into his Strix-like form from that of a T-Rex.
Uh, uh, Baldrick is gonna check out the corpse of the person that he's stumbled over?
Yeah, absolutely. Um, so- so you sort of walk trudging through- through the swamp, the sort of, like,
slush, slush, slush sound as you approach, um, sort of rifling through, you can fa- you find, um, much to,
you know, your- your probable amusement is that this person was holding on to quite a few alchemical items.
Um, you see- three different alchemical items, um, on their person, um, and I'm just gonna get you to give me a
single crafting check for these, just to see how- how well you can identify them off the bat.
Sure, sure. Throwing out a crafting. Uh, alchemical savantik applicable here?
Yes, absolutely.
Okie doke. Throwing it.
Uh, great. Ooh!
Roll a nat one.
A nat one to open our session. All right, well, um, uh, you know what? All of these that you've found,
Baldrick, as you look at them, appear to be strange- strangely cobbled together, but, you know,
cobbled together, um, like elixirs of life.
Mm-hmm.
So, they're- they're great- they're great healing tools. Um, now, along with, um, along with that,
we- we would, however, have a, um, have a- have a- have a complication that would appear here.
Um, um, and as you're sort of- sort of looking through this, um, you get- something- something
flies out of the body that you're ransacking and hits you right over your visor, temporarily
causing you to go blind. Um, and, like, through the- through the light of the sun, it kind of shines
on this, and there's, like, up this advertisement that's blaring through at you. Um, you see the
words, like, silhouetted by the light on over this paper, mutton king, just- just covering your vision.
As this litter has- has- has hit your face.
Baldrick's going to grab the fucking thing and pull it off of his visor.
Yeah, you see- you see the- the trash wrapper of some establishment called mutton king. Um,
and you- you basically have to spend quite a bit of time. Thank you, uh, thank you,
actually, jurors for that complication of sponsored litter.
Terrific. Baldrick, whenever he gets that off, is going to be so annoyed
that he was originally going to inspect the life potions further, but since they've been cobbled
together and doesn't trust anyone else's handiwork, he's going to not draw attention to them.
Sure, um, so- so you've- you've kind of noticed these. You put those, uh, those away. You also
notice, um, though- so there's a total of, uh, as you kind of look through everything, there's, um,
five total potions in there. Uh, you also spot, uh, what appears to be a, um, like a- something
further from one of the bodies. Uh, it looks to be like a- an interesting s- like stick, um, not- not even
a stick, more like a branch. It's got a gnarled end that has, like, a gemstone clutched in it,
like a blue gemstone. And then between that and- and this- this body, um, is a book and a, um,
a small satchel that's just, like, pouring out gold into the- the swamp, but beside it.
All right. He'll grab the wand or staff or whatever it is. He'll grab the book and he'll
hoist the satchel up and start putting the gold back into it and just kind of show that off to
the party. He's not going to even bother with the potions because someone else cobbled them
together from what looks like garbage, so screw it. Okay, so you're just going to leave them there,
then. Unless someone wants to, you know, come over and, like, drink one as a guinea pig.
Yeah, fuck it, that sounds up my alley. Hey, my crafting check showed that they were bad,
so, you know. Make of that what you will. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to pick one up and just
sniff it, see if it's alcohol. Okay. Yeah. Um, it has a- it has, like, a strong tang to it as you- as
you- you sniff it. Um, are you going to take a little- little sip?
Um, I'm gonna- gonna kind of- kind of waft it. I'm gonna see what- what- what scents I identify
here. If it's not booze, then I'm not gonna drink it, but if I take- if I smell anything like it.
Yeah, you wanna- you wanna give me a little perception check? Yeah, just a little-
Yeah, I'd love to. Sweet! I like it. I would absolutely love to do that for you, Thirsten.
Oh, okay, 24. 24? Uh, you can tell that definitely three of these are- are similar to the- the- the,
like, life-restoring elixirs you've seen in the past, and are fairly common. Um, and you could,
like, maybe with a- like, another person taking a look at them, they might be able to identify the
quality of them. The other two are definitely not, um, uh, like- like drink- well, one of them's drinkable,
the other one is definitely not drinkable, and in fact looks to be more like alchemical,
um, fluids that have been bodged together. Uh, Baldrick's disdain of them being so much,
he didn't really even, like, inspect it too closely to note that this is, like,
some kind of catalyst? Um, of, like, if you were to toss it or whatnot, it might, uh, create effect.
Hmm. Well, I've got bad news.
Yeah?
It's not alcohol.
I could have told you that.
Well, I- I had to check. Listen, I'm out!
Anyway, this one smells like a health potion. We've done these before.
If you want to trust their handiwork, go right ahead for it. I'm not touching them.
Okay.
You gonna, uh, grab those three, uh, Volley?
Yeah, screw it.
Yeah, cool.
Add them to your inventory, because if you die, you die.
That is true. Well, now I've got Die Hard, so I get one more try.
It's true, it's true. I have moved those over. Uh, there is still the other unidentified
potion and then the, uh, the, the catalystic one as well.
All right. Um, what is this? Can I draw Tannhauser over to take a look at
the staff that I picked up, or the wand?
Yeah, it's more, more the size of a wand, absolutely.
Hey, Tannhauser.
Ah, it is good that you have come to take to me now, for I have just finished my systems update.
I should have been out for, what, two minutes?
Yeah, that was a bit more than two minutes. You were out for, like, almost a week.
Hmm. It's been 30 years, Tanny. No, it hasn't.
All of your friends are dead. Look.
They're not coming back to save you. The revolution failed.
Holy fuck. Just look at this wand in front of the ears.
I bet you did this. And I grab fucking Baldrick by the notes.
You did this. Get off of me.
I'll take a look at it. Distracted now.
Um, it's the dead jangling keys.
Exactly. All right, let's see what this is.
Um, should I roll Arcana?
Yeah, please.
Oh, well, if you asked me so nicely, I mean, how can I do it?
I would be a 23, good sir.
All right, a 23 is enough to identify this.
This is a wand. Um, this is a wand of crackling lightning.
Um, so what that is, is it's, um, it's a wood, like, basically, once per day, you can activate it to cast a spell.
Um, and you cast lightning bolt as a third level spell, but the spell's area is twice as wide.
So it's, like, rather than just like a, um, rather than just being a, like, a single line at 120 feet, it's two squares wide.
Um, and any creature that fails their save against it, um, is, uh, flat-footed for one round.
I'll move that into, uh, about the people's loot, and you can figure out what you want to do with it from there.
Most interesting.
This is some sort of long-reached magical carrying device.
It will shoot for the lightning bolt.
I recommend someone in the back line use it.
Perhaps you, Baldrick.
Hmm.
Wouldn't hurt to have a backup for a moment.
Now be wary.
Lightning bolts are well known for being relatively, uh, not the widest.
This shall have a wider area of effect, meaning that you must aim carefully to avoid electrocuting one of us.
Now, also, you probably need a spell caster to use this to know the right, like, activations and whatnot for it.
In that case, I'm probably best off giving this to one of you guys.
Hmm.
All right, fine.
Um, I'll...
I think Rahua should get the taser.
Rahua, zzzzt.
That would be the funniest option, yes.
Very well.
And I'll give Rahua the wand.
Okay.
Oh, thank you for the funny gift.
I will not put this to good use.
I know.
Right then.
It seems as if we have accomplished everything we wanted to do in this particular area.
Where to next?
Oh, we have to get to the Kaibu.
I'm going to add the gold to the people's loot, and I'll just read the book as we travel.
Uh, yeah.
So, as you start reading the book, even just skimming it, you realize it's a formula book for alchemical formula.
Interesting.
Baldrick is, uh, hesitant because this person clearly can only barely gobble together potions, but he'll read it anyway.
Yeah, um, it'll take a bit of time, but you can do that as you're traveling.
Tashi starts, like, following up as does Picturn, who picks up a bit of a toon.
Um, also, for the record, there were about 280-some-odd gold pieces in there, bringing the people's loot up to 600 gold now.
Oh, my gosh.
So, yeah, like, that was a lot of money to be on someone's satchel in here.
Um, I don't suppose this person...
Before we depart, Baldrick wants to investigate the corpse a little bit more in-depth.
Absolutely.
Like, I'm going to check it for, like, insignias or emblems or anything that might identify them.
I want two checks, please.
Maybe by their, like, clothing style.
I want a perception check and then a medicine check.
Okay, I'll give you a perpeption.
Perpeption?
Perpepsy?
Perpepsy.
A doctor perpepi.
Dr. Pepepy.
Dr. Pepe.
Rolling, and you'll get a 29.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, okay, okay.
Uh, and then give me the medicine check now as well, yeah.
Okay, Meddipson, that's going to be a 19.
A 19, okay.
Um...
I'm assuming you're not wanting me to resurrect them.
I think you should.
That would be funny.
I mean, we got a lot out of that in, uh, in good old war hams, I mean.
Uh, that's just because, you know, Reap could get away with that shit.
Yeah, there was a lot of payoff to that, too.
Um, okay, okay, okay.
Um, so let me just really quickly pull something up here.
Um, because you do, you do find, uh, a few things on here.
Um, I just want to give you a bit of a visual representation, and I need to load it into the thing because it's not there just yet.
Um, so as you're, as you are, you are sort of looking over, you, you do see a couple things.
One, um, the hands on this, um, this, this body have gloves, which you kind of, like, tear off.
And as you do so, you can see the hands actually, um, have a fair bit of blistering on them, uh, which you, you would immediately identify as the result of, like, alchemical, um, explosions.
Or probably fire is, is the most likely culprit of this, based on your, your medicine check.
Um, then, as you are, you are looking, um, you see tattooed on the wrist of this individual, um, in what also appears to be, like, an alchemical, like, acid etch tattoo, is a symbol you have seen before.
It is the symbol of Uncle Blaze.
Mmm, funny.
This, uh, sort of, kind of has, like, a wispy, uh, appearance with, like, a crook at the top.
This, this strange arcane, well, not arcane, but, like, primal rune that is displayed.
Hmm.
How old is this corpse?
Um, based on your medicine check, probably, like, a, maybe a couple days?
Hmm.
Uh, interesting.
It's a blue Uncle Blaze.
I think that's, uh, relevant to Mr. Lord's people.
That it would be, they are devout cultists of following Uncle Blaze.
Whether or not they are simply lackeys, peons, or...
I mean, I would assume they would be peons, based upon the fact that this one blew themselves up.
Maltric's just gonna nudge the corpse with his foot.
Reckon this one got lost.
Well, it's kind of interesting, too, because, you know, he had all these, uh, potion of pots on him, and all this money, and...
Well, that seems like a lot of money for someone to be having.
Yeah, and I'm willing to bet that this money was not necessarily sourced...
Sourced...
Hmm...
Fairly.
Or legally.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's awful.
What about, what about the book there you got?
I'm gonna skim through it some more.
It's just a, it seems to be an alchemical book.
It's a lot of formulas, and a lot of other notes that this person might have been taking here.
I'm gonna take a look at it as we go.
So, as you flip through it, uh, you find that it is a formula book, but, like, as you start flipping towards, like, just the back doing a skim, the back probably third of this, this tome is, has a cut in it through the pages, which is actually concealing a vial inside of the book.
Hmm.
Um, and this vial, like, has a, has a very different, um, appearance to what you've seen before.
It has a, almost a, first of all, it has, like, a cork, cork on it, and then inside it's this, like, almost brown-orange, um, gas that seems to be bubbling around.
I'm gonna do a crafting to identify that.
Sure.
Da-da-da, go.
I'll give you a 31.
31 is enough for you to, as you, as you start looking at it, realize that this is a, um, this is a magical, uh, consumable, but it is also using alchemical principles.
It's kind of a combination of magic and alchemy in that sense.
Um, it contains what you gather to be, from staring into it, an elemental creature.
Some kind of, like, fire elemental from the elemental churn that has been bottled into it.
Uh, you could toss this, this bottle, and it would explode in the area you toss it.
Like, two actions to toss it, then set it up.
Um, and then it would, like, create an elemental that, as long as you expended a little bit of, and exerted a little bit of guidance and control, uh, in a turn, you would, you would be able to control this, this elemental.
Hmm.
Baldrick's going to carefully get some of his, uh, some of the packing from his, well, from his, you know, satchels and pouches, and he's going to carefully wrap this thing up so it doesn't, you know, shatter randomly.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
And as you're, as you're sort of, like, going, going through this, um, you're, you're also able to, to do some skimming of the book, and inside the book you're able to, to tell that there are, um, a couple different, um, formula.
One, there is, um, there is the, the, like, formula for a greater smokestick.
There is a formula for a, um, lesser elixir of life.
Um, and then there is one final formula, which you start sort of, like, perusing through and trying, trying to get a better sense of, um, for a, another magical potion.
Um, which you would, you, you've heard of these things before.
They are a, a ration tonic, uh, greater ration tonic.
So these are essentially, like, they give you a week's worth of food and water and nourishment, uh, just by drinking it.
Interesting.
He'll pocket the book for now, and he'll inspect it more later, because we need to get a move on, and I see that Oren's going to be using learn a spell.
Yes.
To learn the scroll of Mossy Weapon.
Yes, and so Oren is kind of studying this ancient scroll as you're traveling as well, uh, learning the ability to cast Mossy Weapon, um, which, you know, is a first level, uh, primal spell.
And normally you wouldn't have to, to do, do it this way, but because this is an uncommon spell, it's some, like, ancient lore that's been lost.
You carry on your travels, um, Tashdi, they, they continue leading the way.
However, as, as this happens, um, oh, the rain is picking up.
And in fact, you hear the, the booming of thunder in the distance.
And as you are, you are carrying on, um, you notice that the sky is starting to clear, and you can see both the moon and the sort of strange glow of the rose wound off in the distance, which, you know, is, is, is that, that effect in the sky.
But then, there is also, to the west, uh, like, a black cloud that hangs in the air.
And as you see it, uh, you can see there's, like, crackles of lightning inside it.
The, the just most ominous storm clouds.
And though it's still far away, it almost seems as though the rain it's dispelling is falling on top of you, even though there are no clouds directly above you.
In fact, as you carry on for, like, another two hours after your encounter with the, the pharaoh raptors, you are getting pelted by this, uh, this rain.
Damn storms. Lovely weather we're having.
Yeah, Volley's got, like, her coat over her head, looking like a, like a wet dog.
I don't see why you're all complaining about this. This is quite nice, actually. Especially for the solitude.
I agree.
Who is just absorbing all the water? He's just growing.
Tree!
Why is he getting bigger?
I'm not getting that much bigger. I'm just rejuvenating.
When I was a young man, we used to celebrate when the sky cried.
Maybe we should make the best of it.
Who wants to make a little swimming pool?
In the, in the swamp?
Fine! You can just tell me what you really think about my idea.
No, no, Tan, you know what, let's go find, let's go find a puddle, and we're gonna, we're...
Okay. Alright.
Alright.
Alright, alright, let's, let's go, let's go find, we're gonna look around for a, for a, for a puddle.
There are many, there are many puddles. So many puddles right now.
I'm gonna look around for the most fun-looking puddle.
Okay, okay. Uh, how about everyone give me a perception check for, for finding a puddle?
Cool. I'm not helping with this. I don't need to find a puddle.
Funny, you don't get to come to our pool party then.
I'm not going into the, I'm not going into the stagnant water hulky crow.
I got a, I got a 20.
I got a 17.
Orin got a, I got a nat 20.
Whoa!
Orin and Rahua are the winners.
So, so as, this is appropriate, so as Vali and Tannhauser are looking, uh, are, are looking for the, the most metal pool, um,
Orin stares off into the distance, seeing the, the immense black clouds further off.
And Rahua, you have this moment of clarity as you, as you take a moment to look away from finding your puddles,
briefly to look over at it and realize that cloud is moving very fast.
Like, deceptively fast.
And if you're getting this much rain and effects from where you are, it's coming over you, and it is going to be, uh, a natural disaster above you.
Oh.
Oh.
Friends, I, I do not mean to rain on our parade here, but we should probably keep moving.
Tannhauser, with a 20, you also find a great puddle.
Look!
I get in, and I just am not listening at all, and I jump up and down.
It's like a car.
It's like, Vali's interest in life.
Yeah, Vali's gonna get in the puddle, too.
Splash at Tannhauser.
I'll splash at Vali.
Oh my god.
Rua, I assume, like, you're looking back at, like, the death cloud,
then back at, like, your two friends splashing.
Uh.
Yay!
Uh, friends, friends, we should probably get going.
We, oh, wouldn't this be better if I put my magic disc in there?
We could have, like, a little fountain.
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
Excellent idea, Picton.
I really cannot understate how great the situation might actually be.
We could play in a puddle another time.
It's not going to be good soon.
I know, I can't overstate how great the situation is.
Uh, okay, let me see.
I'm gonna roll a stealth and slip away from the party.
I hurt my throat for the...
Oh no.
I remember the scene.
I can't remember the...
I can't remember the...
lane of the gas station.
Oh, Zoolander.
Yeah.
Exactly what it's...
Oh my god.
Stagnant water fight.
Anyway, Baldrick's going to stealthily pull away from the party
and continue on towards where the Kaibu is quickly.
Okay, okay, so you, like, start making your way towards these, um,
these, like, woods to the northwest,
slightly continuing on, sort of, like, trudging through, uh, pictures.
Like, oh, is it really that bad?
The stagnant water party.
Yay!
Friends, there is going to be an absolute disaster above us
in a very short amount of time.
This storm is not natural.
It is moving far too fast.
We need to go.
Oh, shit.
Do you want to give me, uh, survival or nature?
Anyone who has it, whichever's higher.
I got you.
I got neither.
All right, survival coming at you.
Survival.
Uh, not great.
13.
26.
13.
Ooh.
Hey!
Oren survives.
Oren with the nat, the nat 20.
Um, so Tannhauser, like, believes the best solution is to play in the stagnant pool with a 13.
Um, he's, he's just having fun.
This is just a little rain.
You know what?
I'm going to re-roll that.
I'm going to hero point that shit.
Okay.
We have a nat 20!
Well, no, because here's the thing, here's the, no, because here's the thing.
If, if, if, if Thurston's saying, with a 13, Tannhauser thinks the best solution is to play in a puddle, and I also have a 13, I don't want that.
Then maybe, maybe your character is thinking, maybe I shouldn't have left that puddle party behind.
Um, okay, so with the, with the 22, all right, so with the 22, Baldrick, as you've kind of, like, rushed off from the rest of the party, uh, momentarily, you, you sort of have this pause and, like, look up and realize, um, this is, this is not, this is not going to be something you're going to just be able to trudge away from.
In fact, it's, it's hurtling towards you so fast now that your only option is to, like, try to construct some form of shelter, um, or just, like, basically hunker down and try to, try to weather this thing out, because there really isn't, there, there aren't many options here.
Okay, um, Oren, uh, sorry, one second, uh, Oren with the, the 37 has this, like, similar, uh, moment, and in fact, with that,
uh, can, can, can immediately recognize that your, your options here as far as, like, skills with which to maybe weather this, uh, would be something like crafting, survival, or athletics even, to just try to, like, construct enough of a barricade and, like, use trees and, and cover and your own equipment to try to, um, like, create enough of a, of a chance to, to hide from this, so to speak.
Now, all that being said, um, with, with, as, um, Zoran has mentioned in the chat, that following the expert, in this case, Oren is definitely an expert, um, with what is like, with, with what, what he is seeing,
and can, can certainly, basically grant all of you, like, a plus two bonus to any of the checks you're gonna make
to try to endure this, if you decide you need to endure the awful storm that's coming down on you.
Uh, looking back, having been conveyed the severity of the situation.
Damnation!
I don't think we wasted so much time playing in the puddle!
Why didn't anyone warn me?!
That's okay.
You only live once, Danny.
I'm going to harm you severely.
As soon as I get my hands on that cleric font, you are in so much trouble, mister.
And, uh, I almost said Zoran, uh, Tan Houser is going to, uh, start looking about.
Back in the waste, we needed to survive dust storms of over 80 miles per hour.
That was on a good day.
We need to build a fortification that can survive this water storm.
Orrin!
What do you know about surviving water storms?
I assume Orrin is just, like, grabbing necessary supplies and quickly trying to craft something.
All right.
That's a good idea.
Um, uh, and, uh, Tan Houser's-
Yes, uh, we should definitely be doing this.
Tashdi sort of pipes up.
We should definitely be building up a-
And, like, Tashdi's-
They've already sort of leaned down and begun, like, pulling out some of their own equipment to try to set up some kind of stable shelter from this.
Uh-
Is this a normal thing, Tashdi?
Does this happen a lot?
No.
Not with-
And, like, they look up-
Not with-
That thing.
That-
The-
The-
The-The-The-The Papa's domain doesn't-
Doesn't come here often.
Oh.
Well, I'm used to Papa Storm's domain.
Ha ha!
Oh, dear.
Uh, okay.
So, at that exact moment, hey, uh, Odoroshi Ryder, do you want to give me a reflex save?
Why?
Cause you must dodge the rain.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, uh...
But-
I can't-
No!
Why?
Ladies and gentlemen, nat one.
I-
I love-
Odoroshi Ryder did not activate their stamp.
No.
No.
It keeps happening!
It's my-
It's my-
It's my-
I have a plus 17!
One sec.
One sec.
Just give me a moment here.
Uh-huh.
Yeah?
All right.
Um, all right.
Uh, Vali, you'll take 59 points of electricity damage as you're like, I'm used to Papa Storm's
and a lightning bolt comes crashing out of the sky, skewering you through your rotten chest.
Um...
How much else do you have?
How much else do you have?
I'm at about a-
Uh, hold on.
Let me-
Let me take that.
Uh, do I just click the damage button?
No.
Ah.
Uh yoo yo yo yo yo-
You could just manually adjust it on your sheet.
That's okay.
Yeah.
That's okay.
It's all good, you know.
Um.
Oh.
Okay.
As that happens, now-
Now-
I'm at about a 22 out a 90.
That's good.
That's good.
Um, we, that was a, that was a save, so-
Um, you know, and that was a natural one, right?
So-
Oh, I complicate.
yeah exactly like oh it's great um right because we love we love complications here and we also
love making the the players suffer um great great great great um
oh gosh okay okay okay okay okay hostile god hostile god i'm gonna use this one uh here
uh that's positively abrahamic up in here that's just entitled you have failed me with failed all in
caps um you know which is from uh acolyte of pooksy thank you um the player character is
confronted by the ghostly specter real or imagined of a uh loved one that only they can see and the
specter uh proceeds to castigate you on how you have failed this person so what are you what
are you seeing after being struck by a lightning bolt volley um oh goodness yeah what what what
like as literally your life flashes before your eyes after being struck by a horrifying lightning
bolt from a horrifying death storm um what what figure do you see from your from your past or history
oh gosh uh volley would probably see her mother uh a tall sylph figure uh a sort of swarthy
looking individual with this uh carved uh white ivory peg leg um uh yeah
yeah and and and what what is your mother telling you uh probably uh castigating volley over
her inability to predict the storm you know we're the people of the wind how dare you
splish and splash around in a puddle i raised you to be a better captain than this
and uh to the rest of you volley gets skewered by a lightning bolt and slightly like tumbles back
that doesn't look good uh i'm going to quickly come to volley's side and just try to
shake her make sure she's still conscious yeah
okay papa storm i'm sorry i'm sorry mom i'm sorry papa storm
my god she's hallucinating mothers this is pat uh i'm going to uh cast resist energy on her okay um
so that's not going to do a whole lot this is the best i can do uh so for the next 10 minutes uh
you will subtract you have resistance 5 against electricity
thank god that'll actually be that's actually it's useful but it is very funny because it's like
volley is standing there smoking covered in char like a sim from the sims 3 who just got like set on
fire yes and and and then comes on the dairy bit and is like he just starts spraying her with like a hose
that's making her like electrically resistant it's like ah the rubber now now that i have properly
insulated volley um i'm going to just kind of pick her up who can heal this rua
uh i'm still okay i can do the best i can all right i'm going to put volley on the ground then
i'm going to start looking about are there trees in this area uh there are like a few stand stand
trees like desiccated dry ones you can see that tashti and orin are desperately trying to like
construct something with all of the gear and things like trees to give you some form of cover and shelter
from this yeah i'm going to uh aid uh because i actually know how to construct large wooden
structures okay crafting speciality um and so i'm going to be taking my weapon i'm going to be
carving down trees i'm going to be tying them together uh and i'm going to be trying to create
at least a solid walled structure that we can take shelter behind yeah give me a give me a um
the crafting check absolutely give yourself a plus two bonus from our dear friend uh orin who uh like
nailed the the perceiving this threat absolutely um i will give myself a plus two uh yeah and we just
have that here and then i'm also going to activate my nanite surge since this seems rather important
maybe maybe so just all all servos on full blast complete focus on this task okay
uh that's a 21 i will hear a point that okay
hero point you know point hero quest broke well that didn't go terribly much better um but 19 it's
still better than it could have ahead okay yeah you're like you're you're you're you're desperately
trying to get materials and like you're helping by getting materials but it like you're you're just
unable to to really
grasp exactly how to approach this because it's like build a house in the middle of a storm like
you're you're just like unable you're used to building like larger um you know structures not
quite in as as immediately pressing circumstances as you're in your friend has just been struck by
lightning tannhauser you're kind of looking around um yeah yeah seeing the situation is as it is can i
try one more thing okay um the storm is like almost on us right yeah like the the sky seems to get
particularly dark all right looking at this we don't have time find a sturdy tree tie yourself to it
right and i am going to be the last one to do this i'm going to take my climbing kit and i'm going
to try to reinforce um the most sturdy trees around us with some uh pittance uh and try to just make
what we have as good as possible knowing we're gonna get buffeted by rain but at least maybe if we tie
yourself down to a strong tree we might not get flown away into like i don't know a giant pit of
death or something okay okay okay cool cool cool um so volley you've been struck you were about to
administer some healing correct i am i was actually going to ask uh because it's normally i would do
this in combat uh if i was to use something that has a sustain up to one minute healing spell such as
i don't know positive attunement uh would assuming that the light does not get struck by lightning
get or have further damage uh would she just then take that uh healing effect over time or might be
permitted to cast um let me check here oh so so so you can sustain it so what that means is like you
can spend an action to sustain it for up to 10 rounds basically so just take an action from you to keep
sustaining the effect okay yeah i said the difference here since we're not in like action
economy state yeah like at this point like i just assume you're going to sustain it and then like be
a bit slower on other things of course so yeah with that in mind then rahua will go to the smoking
the smoking cartoonistic figure volley and slap her on the back and like cheer up it's not all that
bad this rain is still quite sorry mom oh yes like i'm i'm not your mom but look how nice the night
is isn't that wonderful and you just really you need to have a much more positive outlook here
anyways you you glow now what enroll and bolly will start glowing a a lambent yellow i'm having a
i'm having a hard time because i'm imagining the goddamn dark elf from the beginning of oblivion
also appearing in volley's vision just saying you're going to die here sylph you're going to die
uh baldrick um what are you doing uh baldrick's going to take the travelers any tool from the part
of the people's loot and he's going to begin to uh uh he's going to begin to use it to help pitch a more
secure resting accommodation in the shade of a larger tree that he can find hopefully
yeah do you want to give me a crafting check yeah sure whatever
yeah i'll boil you okay engage boil me do it do it up can i use seasoned for crafting food and drink no no
uh i'll give you a 32 oh yeah like like baldrick baldrick is just calm and composed during this
like he's a lot calmer now that he's not near the party yeah exactly like oh okay i'm gonna set this
up you know and as you're setting this up in fact you're able to give yourself a little bit of shelter
but that's when you notice um as you look back at your your group as you're sort of taking your your
final moments to set up what little shelter you can with your any tool um you you see that like
you know you you get a lay of what's going on like um oran and tashti are quickly setting up stuff
tannhauser's rushing around trying to help a bit frantically who is healing uh volley who's on the
ground and then in sort of just like the middle of the clearing is picturn who's waving his hands back
and forth as magical runes begin to dance on them is he summoning more lightning i hope so
but you like like you are you are arcane trained so like you know or a cult trained i don't think
unless you have a cultism uh you're not you're not quite uh up to speed on exactly what like what
picturn squilchfoot is doing listen whatever he's doing it'll probably cover them in like a giant bubble
of like waterproofing and that's fine they can have that baldrick wants to stay away from them for
right now because the last memory he has of this particular moment is volley and tannhauser sitting
in a stagnant pool and splashing around like a pair of ducks okay cool he needs he needs some time to
himself are you fucking kidding volley please no okay i want you to know i want you to look at the the
way that the current background is arranged right okay okay you'll notice i i just rolled a seven
sided dice okay i want you to know this is not me picking on you time for that resist energy give me
a reflex save you would love to
this chat lightning does strike twice
oh my god i saw the one and i almost shat luckily i have evasion so that is a critical success my friend
um well when you roll a success on a save that's a that's a success that was
watching lightning yeah i'm gonna hero point it okay okay oh my god no yes here we go here comes
the one let's do it i'm gonna shit my pants i'm gonna shit my pants go jack nicholson yes
sweet christ it's worse oh it's not a one though it's it's not a one it's not a one it's not a one
it's not a one it's not a one it's not a one it's not a one it's not a one
and there's just double damage yeah you'll take 24 this time it's like a second bolt comes crashing down
no no no remember thurston she'll only take 19 19. okay so i'm not down i am however at 2 hp
where is her healing thurston apply the healing healing i will allow you you uh it heals 1d8
immediately so you can give me 2d8 for the time that has passed yeah i thought so that's cool
volly could you please start drinking those potions
i'd love to now volly gets 11 back on oren's turn he would like to cast vital beak what what turn are we
in combat with no we're not we're not like i'm i'm trying to to do this very um very much like okay
some of you are trying to make shelters and someone you're getting real close you're getting real close
get lightning rod volley out of the out of the hang on a second i just want to do something here real
quick mm-hmm okay that would have been that would have been rahua next it would have been very okay
thank you thank you her and dill i appreciate i appreciate that you were rolling the dice that
that is a gm thing to do i appreciate it i'm glad i'm glad i could rub off on you there thurston i figured
it would be very fair if you got to you know you know if i didn't take the limelight so yeah it's true
carry on with with electrocuting volley yay yay all right so oren uh stops uh assisting with the the
the setup to to begin casting a beacon of of energy to to help heal um as this is going on tashti is
continuing uh their work um tirelessly trying to to like create shelter um and then picturn is now
like standing there continuing to speak and like wave and magically and can't um let's go to uh rahua
next and then we'll go to volley after what are you doing rahua if you already cast a first heal
and then your friend got struck by another bolt of lightning okay wow that's this is super unfortunate
for you volley could you could you possibly try and get struck by lightning less please doing my level
best okay laid down after the storm cloud rumbles in response to that
all right well
i guess we're going to cast a i'm gonna use my cleric pot and heal volley again okay yeah absolutely
all right what do we got you're fine i these are always so fucking confusing because i've got like
a bunch of heals in my spell sheet and then it's just clear fun it's there well he's gonna get that
sick-ass lightning scar that people get where it like fries their nerves oh god i guess i'm gonna spend
another action to cast or two actions to cast heal and then volley will get another 1d8 of healing on top
of that too because of positive two men i'm going to i'm going to throw this out here and it will get
odo to play much much you know more effectively odo if you die you get to play pick turn according
to gc rust in the chat boy picture oh everybody wants a bit of the squelch foot i'm gonna shove you into a
box he hated that all right here we go uh volley die less okay thank you uh and and um um if you
see chat there maybe you want to touch her in his shoulder yeah yeah i saw it a little extra for a
little extra for 4d10
rohua touches his shoulder thank you oren thank you that feels so nice
nice all right how much do i heal roll roll another 4d10 oh so i heal eight you said oh i
have a roll for you too because i'm just oh yeah oh that was from your positive energy yeah yeah oh i
see dealing one d8 positive damage okay so eight and a six okay reach to you to 27 that's much better i
can survive another lightning strike maybe uh volley what are you uh yeah there we go there we go
yeah there's some real healing from the real healer i'm gonna walk up to oren do the the the
spider verse scene where i put a hand on his shoulder hey hey oren hey oren
thanks for the healing dawn of war mission objective complete sound
okay nice
oh so tashi rolls well yeah tashi does it worse than you no no no i just don't have tashi's bonuses
factored in so oh right i rolled a natural 18 for tashi who uh does manage to uh to avoid the the
worst of a strike that smashes the tree above them um just as they're finishing up like some work on a
shelter um but the lightning bolt like seems to seems to strike towards the shelter as though focusing on
it rather than tosti it does singe tosti a bit but all of you can tell it seems as though like this
storm has some kind of malign intelligence um then we'll cut to tanhauser who's wrapping a rope around
his waist i believe last we left him off what are you doing tan and hauser is not wrapping a rope around
his waist he wants you know you help those that need the most help first um so instead uh have we found
a particularly sturdy looking tree uh yes that was just the one that was struck by lightning it's still
holding but it's like been damaged is there another particularly sturdy um not particularly in the
immediate area um though as as you're sort of looking around for this you do see picturn standing
there waving his hands around okay so we'll probably do this in this case i am just going to try
and grab rope and i'm going to try and tie everybody to this tree i'm going to call over
everyone come here this is our best way to survive the storm uh and uh whoever comes here i will tie to
the tree okay um who is who's going to get tied to the tree i feel like being tied to a stationary thing
is not good for me right now can we bury voli so she's having come here yeah
i have to succeed on one of these i swear to god can we can we just bury voli up to like her neck like
dexter's dad was that one time so she's just going
and then she's going to drown now she's a sylph no i i'm an air i'm an air sylph yeah that means you
have air i'm a sky bitch do sylphs really breathe air i mean as this happens picturn's incantations cease as
bursting forth from the ground is the cozy cabin that's a good idea too let's get in that
which big chicken runs into the cabin i'm just imagining tenhouser immediately 180-ing on his
plan here and he just uproots the tree alongside himself
i'm going to eat some cabbage just like that i was like no i shouldn't have tied myself to this
tree no the cabin wait i was very specific he was tying other people to jack so he could get in
the kitchen he just leaves
no one no one gets so i guess nobody i guess he was just tying rope to the tree he's like come on guys
tie yourself to this tree cabin beers everyone has a choice like yeah we gotta board up those windows
fine i guess all i guess i get the tree all to myself
speaker please make me a roll and see if you tie yourself to the tree all right should i off
does tannhauser obey his own nature is he a coward oh you're right oh god is he committed to the bit
a man chooses a slave obeys
oh god no i'm going to go into the cabin because no one no one uh tied themselves to the tree and
there's no reason to not go in the cabin like orin is calmly reinforcing the cabin as zorn has said in
chat he's used to this weather so it doesn't mind at all it's like the cracks with mud yeah
and baldrick is just watching all of this from afar in what is clearly like a trench i have i have
reinforced my position with my pup tent i am fucking keeping it real i am just hiding under here i'm
gonna have stew sit outside so i can collect this weird ass rain if it's just rain great if not that's
even better um the storm continues for quite some time uh once you manage to get inside of the the
cabin you are all protected um the the the blasts of lightning not doing anything damaging picture and
sort of like like reclining back and forth as he sits on one of the beds in there it's really like
stuffed with all of you inside the cabin it's not meant for this many people you know there's all
sorts of storms that used to go on and and uh i i do good in storm storms are good storms are good
i i like storm how about do y'all do y'all like storms you feeling storms right now you know usually
my people have the favor of papa storm but i think even god's abandoned me what why
i i i i turn my crispy head toward a picturn i don't know picturn why do you think
well um maybe it's uh maybe uh i i don't i don't you know maybe it's kind of like my my brother jim
a miss he had a he had a he had a a prize ha ha ha i don't like storms and he puts his hand in his
like little hands oh i pat his shoulder there there little guy we'll probably survive
i appreciate zoran making the cabin on stream oh no that was that was me i wanted to draw the
cabin but instead i got into the measurement tools now i just made a ray and a rectangle so you know
good it'll do
i don't want this to happen i don't want to
i don't know what's even happening with us
that is a very sort of like leans is is is he always like this is he okay he's just chatty
and he gets chattier when he's nervous
i don't want to talk about this right picture yeah yeah yeah i'm very i'm very uh that's not just
like you know i just i have so many family members and oh boy this is just stuff going on and like as
this is happening orin is continuing to just like board up and reinforce the structure no
you know and then then you know the only person who's really been honest to me he keeps shutting
off at random times why you leave me like that 10 000
picture and i know that you are very upset you are very emotional right now and this is
understandable would you like me to read you a story to calm you down
okay i love stories you know i have so many stories in my family you know there was there
was that time in the in the in the bake sale you know that that was the thing that happened the the
bake sale though yeah yeah and we'll get on the couch and i'll i'll comfort him and i'll put a hand
on his shoulder i'll open my book and i'll say the history of all hetero exact existing societies
is the history of class struggles freemen and slave patrician and plebeian lord and serve
guild master and journeyman in a word oppressor and oppressed stood in constant opposition and this
goes on for some time thurston he's reading he's reading marx's big book of marxism please help
what's this big book of marxism yes good okay
that's what it's called that will fill the air alongside the blistering wind and the crackling
of thunder wait we've we've summoned we've summoned six zoran yes oh that was hulky okay okay it was that
was me okay so for who i didn't go into the cabin okay okay i'm assuming he's the only person outside
right now yes and and baldrick who is in his like little shanty yes baldrick likes the way this sucks
yeah it's what's it's currently away from the madness for a moment i would like to
observe the storm because this is not a natural storm by any means it's definitely something
as we've no doubt seen that is made with ill intent can i seem kind of weird because of how
general this is can i detect magic and see if this is some kind of spell
okay yeah absolutely you want to uh give me a perception check sure
oh it was almost bad uh 32 you stare up now now detect magic has a range but i'm kind of flubbing
things because you know cool factors you're trying to like detect magical and energy currents that are
traveling in the world uh and looking up at this this pitch black cloud that rumbles with white
explosions at strange intervals and you stare into it and as you stand there uh your arboreal form
looking into it uh give me a reflex save oh yeah we're who i get closer to the storm to understand
how stormy it is begin flying absolutely i will
i'm gonna double checking if i get bonuses to reflexes because of my funny uh funny necklace
oh yes
i could have swore i got something like that
oh yeah yeah the the pendant of the people yes just double checking
the people the people the people mr perception the people no i think it's fine yeah not for this one
where can i i'm gonna hear a point that yeah that's uh that seems like a reasonable idea
i don't know you're the tech you can take the heat yeah
even if thurston max is out on you you'll still live
that doesn't matter okay 27. okay okay okay okay so that's still a fail but yeah
not a but it's not a critical fail like it would have been um yeah
um so as you stare up you you do detect magical energies and you can see that this this is a
like conduit of raw primal power um like the the magic that orange channels that you've you've seen
from druidic forces um this is like a raw untamed un untouched version of that and as if to punctuate
it and to punctuate your intrusion into its order a crackling bolt of lightning smashes into your
shoulder causing you to stagger back slightly rahua
well i guess i was asking for that but it rumbles in response
i rolled a rain rain go away come back another day thank you oren
so this is definitely magical in nature
now
i mean i'm grasping at straws here
sensing the horrible primal forces at play
rahua feels in a way a bit more tuned to
the chaos in that inimical to that's not the word i want to use i don't know how to speak today
there's a lot of chaos in the system that is lightning and storms there is no order it is raw
power untamed and unbound and in a way he feels some sort of kinship to that but with that being said
rahua is going to try and further manipulate the entropy within the system and try and cause the
storm to dissipate by adding so much entropy that the storm will just fizzle out and basically collapse
upon itself like a fire consuming a fire i'm gonna try and dispel magic
i just might as well okay okay yeah um all right so we haven't really done this before yet have we
um doing so doing some counteracting
all right all right all right i am okay so this will be oh gosh uh this will be a counteract check
um so you add your relevant um let's see here so you're doing dispel magic
and should i just hit the counteract button and just go for it yeah do it here we go
oh
fuck
happy with that uh i oh i have another hero point baller
uh i'll i don't know the last the last great hero point the last final hero point who will ever
have because he's dying right now oh yeah let's go 29 okay um so so you like you've
stare up into this storm and like okay for anyone who's who's listening to the show and like
uh we're actually searching dispel magic is a range of 120 feet fuck off this is cool
um so so rahua you're staring up into into the the the the great um the great storm that roils in the
sky um and in fact you can you can feel these sort of chaotic forces in there and then a bolt of
lightning comes skewering down and as the bolt comes towards you it comes within 120 feet of you
which allows you to dispel it because you know haha i got you um and you you you let off this effect
and at a point there is there is like the the bolt of lightning pauses in the air and shakes slightly
before recoiling back um and though you don't dispel a like a an immense primal force of this nature
you seem to dissuade it slightly and as the the lightning recoils back the cloud seems to stop
slightly and then begins to drift off even the rain seems to take on you haven't dispelled this storm
by no means this vast um almost cyclopean in size uh primal force just veers off as though
oh that's annoying and then twists
and the only witness to this cool thing was baldrick
rahua staring up at the at the cloud not gonna sugarcoat it to spell magic
this is not our fight for today we can do this another time
baldrick is seeing all this as he's putting stew out and planting his little feet in the dirt so he
can collect rain huh
probably should have tried that trick more than once
are are you in the immediate vicinity of the cabin urndale or no baldrick has set up his pump
tet and he is like a good like maybe 20 or 30 feet away okay yeah i didn't know if
rahua would have noticed him at all but yeah so having done what needed to be done rahua will go
back up to the cabin and walk inside it's like walking storm's done uh yeah you you walk in everyone
sort of like looks up or at least like pick turn and tashti look up and like somewhat shock surprise
see you with the still charring shoulder blast from where you took lighting uh and like you can see
that like pick turn has stopped paying attention to marx's book on marxism and it's like oh oh no
are you are you okay did orin part of the door oh shit
it's okay it won't stop rahua yeah jack nicholson shinings his way in you know um no no i assume the
door is is open so you you manage to like like pop your head in and yeah picture
and looks up sort of in shock
the storm is abating now friends we may wish to continue making headway lest we
run the risk of losing our quarry up ahead
what i thought that the storm would rage for hours
it seemed that the storm and i had a disagreement
it may come back later but it seems to have glutted its fill of misery on us for now
you
you calmed the storm
i wouldn't say calm so much as dissuaded it from continuing to bear hell and fury down upon us but
pardon in in a way i suppose you're just you're just like you're just like my brother stevens they
always said that when he tried the pipes that it would keep anything away
yes just like that weather is in the natural world is just as much a conduit for entropy as
any living being the planet lives breathes and acts of whims far more inscrutable than our own
i can't pretend to understand it but i think i see some sort of kinship towards it nevertheless it
shouldn't harry us for at least a little while so we should try and still get closer while we can i hope
everybody else is doing a bit better for who will try try and make what passes for a smile with his
very rictus grin tree if you can do that sort of thing to storms once we get out of here i think
i might have a job offer for you oh well wherever the wind blows i suppose huh i suppose how the
fuck did he do that well we might as well just take what we can get
okay yes but we're not far from the from the kaibu i just maybe uh
maybe one more rest and we'll be there okay so is everybody good
let us journey on take advantage of the miracle our friend has performed for us
yeah we should probably hustle
and uh with that i will sadly have to close my little red book before proceeding onwards yeah so
everyone's like like disengages from the cabin uh baldrick you you see this as the the storm has has
now sort of ended around you and you look up to see your companions all walking out of the cabin
preparing to continue on
fair enough he'll he'll pack up his stuff
he was ready to tough it out but i guess we're just gonna push through it
yeah makes sense i mean if we don't have to worry about
lightning obliterating us for now for now yeah knock on wood
punches rahua
um we owe him our fucking life right now bro
for who it takes a spell strike damage and dies
wow all right shall we uh shall we take a quick quick break yeah yeah you know what this is a good
opportunity for us to take a break and then we can come on back to uh yeah what yes
sounds the light continue whoa whoa we're back we're back hello back wow oh i just saw pika t's fan art
all right welcome back everybody hey thanks how's it going wow wow wow thurston yes
off well you survived the storm somehow somehow some way and uh you've continued moving on oh there's a
there's a fun little hex here look at that here's a here's a new hex
as you make your way and finally reach the kaibu all right
no okay so uh after after roughly another eight hours of journey um the the sun is
sort of sort of coming through hazy gray clouds that have overtaken the area after whatever that
monstrous storm was has blown off into the distance as you travel ahead you find a settlement of
structures they're standing atop ancient stones similar to the ones that you saw last session
uh the sort of just like stone platforms except these ones actually have um lodgings on them uh
there appear to be about a dozen huts and wooden structures uh you can give me a crafting check if
you're uh trained in it please uh crafting yeah crafting okay i'll give you my crafting i go to
i'll give you i'll give you mine yeah mine is not very impressive i was almost in that 20 23
28 yeah um so all of you would have enough knowledge to recognize that these structures are
intended to be easily dismantled and moved um so like just just the way that even like some of
these buildings like you see what appears to be like oh this is like a wood log structure but it's
actually set up in such a way that like the walls could be torn down and the wood could easily be
transferred and even some of the accoutrements and like leathers and like reptilian hides that are
being used to enhance the structures are also set up in a way that they could easily be removed
um as as you you you see this uh tanhauser with with your role you would also um note that the way
the structures look to to be right now is that they've probably been set up for a couple
months at this point so they're they're fairly settled in um but like they could easily still
be disassembled intended to be that way but these people have been here in this location for a bit
this isn't like oh they set up yesterday um and as you you kind of approach you see people milling
about there's a variety of different ancestries here but probably about two dozen people at least
that you're seeing uh some of which are humans some of them are churn touched which would be like
sylphs or you know ifrits that sort of thing uh you see some dwarves even all sort of just milling
about most of them are are in like leathers or hide uh clothing they they look up they seem to
take note of you know your your eclectic band and then they pause a bit when they see tashti and then just
slowly go back to their to their endeavors ah nomadic lodgings you haven't been here for more than a
few weeks ashti nods and they're they they look yes you have a good eye for that um the kaibu's
move between some of these these foundation areas when we can mostly so that we don't um over
over over harvest in an area or earn the ire of something like papa's storm
as we saw things like that events like that can be quite deadly
what are the origins of your people what brought you to this lifestyle
mostly where wanderers or people who have discarded civilization every everyone's story is
different in that regards i i came out here um at a younger age uh to to try to to find more about
my own uh earth-touched ancestry uh but everyone has their own stories there are some who are
are generational the uh the the elder uh and like tashti turns and they as they say elder and like they
look off to one of the uh not larger structures but one of the more like embellished structures
and an old human man walks out with a a balded head and white hair along his sides a kind of fine like
beard and braids going down a going down a cloak and this figure sort of like does a hunched walk towards you
ah hello there tashti who've you brought with you
tashi who have you
he pauses and he seems to just be taking in all of you um but like his eyes seem very fixed on folly
oh sorry uh i was i i tossed my hair i was struck by lightning
oh if i were a bit younger and you were a bit less rotten oh i like you
oh that is something you can tell at a glance now awesome also a very weird thing to say
sort of like waves the finger he's a lech
and then he gets starstruck again um this time his his his eyes are still towards voli's general
direction but not not on your face voli instead definitely focused on your your hip
he like cut like waddle like trudges forward a bit more
is that is that a is that a flask
what's in it is it alcohol oh well it used to be rum some of that please it i'm sorry man it used to be
rum but i've been out for a few days it's a lot of alcohol here it's and the stuff we make is
honestly it's piss shit oh damn it i was i was hoping that you would have alcohol
oh where are my manners hello i'm speak well i'm i'm not speaker athon is the best way everyone
calls me the elder though i'm not the speaker that's that's going to anyways hello hello who do
you speak for well the the the kaibu here this is the sodden earth kaibu i'm i'm assuming that
you were told about this yeah yeah we were we were informed pleasure to meet you my name's uh
voli this is my uh pleasure to meet you valley he's like gives a deep nod uh always a pleasure to meet a
fellow drunkard uh these this is my merry band of chuckle fucks rahua baldrick tanhauser orrin your band
okay the people's band of merry chuckle fucks why are you calling us it's a pleasure to meet you
oh you're a you're a something and he like points up and down to rahua
yes i did you eat the tree or did the tree eat you
ah more more column a than column b
strix we don't see many of uh many of you out out round these parts very good very good very good
side skip yeah orange throwing up yeah oh well now that okay okay and turns and you oh oh you you
have you have some some kind of mask thing going on um um and your hair is awful red that's the
interesting and you have goggles for eyes oh the things the the the the types of fashion outset gets
up to now i swear
tanhauser is sad everybody just shell shocked no he he just he is he's just like
and you oh oh go ahead tanhauser if i may ask you are the leader of this kaibu as its speaker yes
well yeah yes yeah that's that that's correct you know i'm i'm in the process of training the the
next speaker uh uh jedi uh is a adorable little child this is one of the cutest things you've ever
seen oh he you know he's really happy he likes his blocks right now he's in the block phase he has
like he's you know he plays with blocks all day he says cute catchphrases he's the most adorable little
child you've ever seen but currently he's in the russian gale kaibu and he's on loan and they're
in the far northeast so he's not around at all on loan yeah a little foreign exchange
oh oh we're exchanging children this is kaibu title forgive me i'm less than familiar
is this a hereditary title a cast no it's no what are you talking it's based on destiny
oh of course it is how do you determine destiny
well um not with those and he like points two fingers at your goggle eyes
you've got a it's more it's more like here and he pats around his his chest uh oh yeah right
around here tapping over his like heart briefly ah good good yes right there that's how you know
destiny intuition i see and is there a selection process oh oh yes yes you see what we do is every
year we send five of our children into the swamp and they go in single file lines and then what we
do is we leave them there for eight years and any of them who come back they're destined they're destined
i'd like to talk to you about other things now
she stares at you with this just like grandfatherly smile
look we're here for a particular reason before we get too wrapped up in the history of the kaibu and
your people all right oh i haven't told you anything i've just been fucking with you for a bit now
oh okay that is actually pretty good so why would i tell you about my culture when you come in here
immediately like i don't even know who you are come on in and get at least get some bad drinks come
on you too bucket head i want to hear what you have to say too and he turns and starts like waddle
walking towards his uh his hut well disgusting alcohol is still alcohol and i'm sure i've had worse
you're gonna you're gonna change your tune on that i uh i look at our stone skinned guide
was aif ashti who who has this just like like absolutely mortified expression on their face
was everything he just said a lie oh oh yes he's he's absolutely just except for jaji of course the the
the young speaker that that was true and and it's he is with another kaibu but that's a learning
process and we don't send our children into swamps to to live for eight years that's so stupid why
would he say that and like as if on cue hey as he goes into the hut all right go now i gotta teach
you how to make touch tea do you have any advice on how to make this man less irritating
don't don't make him angry what and he's teasing you but he's testing you
we just got here let's not try and change the locals to be something more palatable for us we don't
have to stay don't misunderstand me i'm not attempting to usurp cultural tradition i'm attempting to survive it
right oh best not to leave him waiting i'm going to go check in with some of the others here best of
luck oh thank you so much tashdy this is good this will be fine i like this fella i figure him and him
and i can talk up a storm you know oh no he's probably right all right quickly let's go before
picture makes it will uh not keep faith on waiting quickly let's kill picture again
come on come on let's get a move on okay okay okay so you go and you go into the in into the the
extended like wood hut lodging um where there there is like hot steaming drinks available for all of you
and there's no chairs here it's just sort of like um mats on the floor which athan sits down at ah
very good very very very good well well but so so okay i apologize i apologize i haven't been incredibly
nice to you but it's here i don't see people you're all so different and interesting ah yeah what what
brings you here i mean i i i could probably guess about five different guesses but please please tell
me look why don't we just get to the point of this we aren't exactly here on pleasure
all right he's nodding drinking so suffice it to say you can tell that
bali is obviously quite rotten he's going to jerk a thumb over towards bali
oh yes oh rotten just seeping with rot actually yeah she's not the worst of it he uh well well i
mean she is the worst of it excuse me she is the worst of it at the moment but he then points towards
orrin he's had a he's had a pretty bad go of it and aside from him we've all got something going
wrong with us with regards to the rot well looks over squinting briefly well definitely you two
definitely you two orrin and vali all right oh especially especially you oh you're so you're so
rotten i mean oh boy oh just one of god's funny little jokes oh no there's nothing funny about it
you're like two steps away from becoming whatever those things are that sometimes pop up and you
do not want to that oh it would have been one were it not for a great feat of effort
he's like taking the sip of his drink
we came this direction because we had heard word that we could possibly learn something from
the twank folk regarding this current condition of ours and well
we're here and we're hoping we can at least make ourselves useful in a way to pay for whatever
knowledge you want you can give us all right are you going to have some of the drink it's very
good i made it today i don't drink much volley i'm gonna i'm gonna try some yeah um so so you
like have like it's it's it's a thin but very like warming beverage it's it's like you you go to take it
like like like like like a drink but you realize it's more of a broth oh you also as you take the
like a sip of it you hear like a like a clinking sound from the bottom of of the the wooden cup you
have i'm gonna look inside kind of squint one eye in yeah um it's hard to tell because like the
like the cup itself is a dark wood and as you're as you're looking down into the bottom of it it sort of
like fills up a bit um you and you kind of like swish it around hearing something there's something
at the bottom of this that's like clinking together
drink up you're going to need it all of you probably especially you though oh so rotten i don't
even know how you get that yes yes i i'm aware i'm gonna okay i'll have gin yeah pick out the whatever's
inside it's hot but it's not like and you put pick out what appears to be like a chunk of a knuckle
bone yeah
let's uh is this for flavor oh absolutely all right who else is anyone else drinking this baldrick's still
waiting uh i'm going to examine my drink before i ingest it knowing this man is something of a
prankster yeah yeah it's the similar like exactly the same like kind of like a fairly clear liquid
with some sort of hue to it that's hard to tell because of the the dark color of the cup um as you're
sort of like shifting it about you you hear the jangling as well meanwhile like you hear slurping
from like picturn oh this is this this is fun what is he drinking any of it oh yeah he's been drinking
it like off and on the whole the whole time okay i can't help but notice a bone what creature did that
come from oh well well uh it's from uh it's from several creatures actually you could say well it's
also from one creature oh this is real good picture and says oh god oh oh there's like there's a lot of
little bone bits at the bottom is this like you collect them is this like a game you play here you
you put them in the bottom of some of your broth and then you you trade them and see if you can make
a hand or something um thurston may i roll a uh christ can i roll like a what is there any way i
could try to figure out like if i'm aware of what this is like i don't know something like a society
well or a crafting if you have like any kind of oh actually i do i will use yeah uh nature uh for
oran who is doing the same here checking the bone i'll i'll actually give me a nature check there oran
oh not not for oran not for oran with a natural one um
so so baldrick here you're taking a look at this and then like you start to click some things together
as this happens you all hear this like oh gosh let's see here like i i assume that in order to uh
to to like figure this out oran like tries to put a bit of the bone into his mouth to get a sense of
something you know and there's like this cackling coughing from poor oran um which you know that that's
uh that's a problem i'm trying to find a good a good skill off option here um oh yeah yeah yeah
okay here we're gonna go with uh this one from good old gc rust in our list which is shock and awe
which is um oran has no idea what this is um like kind of briefly chokes a bit on the uh
like a bone bone piece in an attempt and then just like is now fascinated by the old man who's like
continually rambling on this is a shock and awe so oran is essentially fascinated just by
everything else even after the coughing in the bone and is just taking everything in right now
um where can people submit their own complications thurston they can do so at our patreon at
patreon.com slash narrative declaration where you too can sign up and submit your complications which
wow when the players roll a natural one which happens more than we gave ourselves credit for
it's very true um baldrick with your check you're able to to recognize like some of this like first
of all it is it's a bone based broth but based on the type of bones you're like as you're like your
your helmeted gaze goes over the room like this is this is a very strange type like the only place
recently you've seen this many bones was a was a tree that you encountered uh baldrick is going to
place the bowl or cup of broth down and kind of lock his fingers as he looks towards uh as he looks
towards athon excuse me he's like smiling widely hmm would this happen to be bone broth oh yeah you've
got a keen sense of smell like i can't and eyesight i guess it's just osteogrove bone broth
what's that uh well oh
volly we've encountered one in case you didn't recall oh i wasn't there for that yeah that's right
volly wasn't there for but we we told her about it yeah well we drink for caltrops
the osteogrove is composed of many bones not limited to animal ones
oh oh are we drinking people might have been oh there aren't people anymore they're dead listen
i appreciate the hospitality i'm a little averse to partaking of my own people
yeah well you do it all the time anyways but but all right all right all right fine fine fine
but i apologize i was trying to be a nice host but apparently offering people broth not very good
uh broth composed of perhaps bones of humans is a little bit frowned upon outside of the cut
well hold on hold on if we don't want to be inhospitable to our guests this is so good delicious
rahua will fucking raise a a spoon followed up to his his gob and pour it in very clearly trickling
down the plant matter below his chin as you hear a unsettling i don't know how to describe this
sound because it's so fucking esoteric but the sound of groaning metal vast and intractable as
the soup bowl held to his core the the soup inside of the broth inside rather begins
snaking up like uh like an accretion disk around a black hole gets sucked into parts unknown
i i can't wait for just like my god used to make i can't wait for a
shp lovecraft's new book the soup in the stomach because that's what
uh he hasn't put that he hasn't put on anything in a couple years i hope he's okay yeah i know right
well um i thank you for drink consuming whatever whatever that was anyways all right so you're here
to help your friend very noble very very noble very all of us technically but yes well none of you are
rotten except for those two now yeah what what what there is some more to this story
well okay let's spit it out i mean i'm all all ears i i've got big ears that's part of the
thurston can i give him a truncated account of how we were selected by the gods more or less to do this
nonsense because because much as i would love to i am currently battling my own throat affliction
yeah yeah i i assume we like you know have have the the the recapping of certain events i'll tell
them about how we fell in the pool how we all came back technically how we all spawned there how
the gods pretty blatantly made it apparent to us that we were destined or chosen and the big fire
told us all about it too as did the murals and all the other funny stuff and every time they die they
come back somewhere else rottener interesting very interesting you see that what that tells me is a few
things one obviously oh you've been sponsored and based off where you're coming back
auntie drown likes you which kind of fits in given that you've come here very good very good she has
a sense of humor that one oh excellent he like seems to be chuckling at some like inside joke that only he
knows good good good oh she's brought us a gift good good good well all right
so
you need help with your your rotten condition that's that's the basis here it's clear you've been
given a sponsorship by our uh our great and and divine auntie drown this is good this is good but
but but like pauses and sort of looks over all of you again but there are certainly some other things here at play
your timing very very fortuitous we have a problem that maybe you could help us out with
sounds fine yes we expected to pay him for the service anyway
exactly good good good good now a few a few little little points one you've asked if we can help you with
your condition points to oran i can't help that at all well sorry my my my winged friend but
no can't help you you're you're you're too early and once once you kind of get the the seed in your
it's hard to to get out only really powerful powerful beings can do that but we might be able
to help you later on hold on to that you points to volley you well we have someone here who might be
be able to maybe wind back the clock a bit for you really oh oh yes yes yes yes just just a little
not a lot you see you're you're you're so rotten like look at you look look at how rotten i know i know
and so so so we have someone here who could maybe pull a little bit out i think we have all the
necessary reagents for it but maybe you can go see biana later and she can she can help you you know
for a cost of course we can't do everything as charity out here we need our money sometimes you
know we have to trade with the the the bug and other people to make sure it's all good zablo sap
that's the one yes yes now sorry for all that all the talking you know what i would say is
we can pull pull some of that rot out maybe and this isn't a guarantee this could go real sideways
real fast in fact has a chance to make it worse too so just just so you know but there is a being
who could help you powerful entity that lives in this swamp
who might might be able to fully remove the taint of the rats that sits in both of you my friends
it's a powerful powerful spirit that dwells in this swamp venerated by many
he stares at you
in
have you ever heard of cried animus
oh oh that checks out
wait what he puts his hand in his like he puts his head in his head oh my
God, you're such an idiot.
Crondanimus isn't real.
No. I know that.
Aww.
No. He will know of your
apostasy.
Sorry, sorry.
We have so many people who come
who come find our Kaibu and are like,
oh, do you all worship Crondanimus?
And it's like, no, no,
we don't. No, you broke
my heart for a moment because I thought you would be one
who would believe that too. Jeez.
The humans
somewhat lost when we're trifling
with a terminal condition.
Just as long as she's not running
headlong into combat or
risking her life in every
second turn, it's not like
it's terminal yet. We killed
a dragon outside of your
Kaibu.
What?
Yeah.
We tend to get in a lot of
trouble.
Oh.
It doesn't look like it's going to stop
anytime soon either, which is why
we're looking for a solution.
All right. All right.
All right. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine.
The entity who can
have
help your problems is
is the
is the servant of
is
is the servant of the
great balance as
ribious.
I'm going to I'm going to lean
over to Baldrick.
Is he fucking with us again?
Can I do a society?
We're going to
this would actually be a
nature
or religion check.
All right.
Someone else better for it.
Baldrick's going to lean to
Oren for nature.
Ruhua will also
roll for this one because
Ruhua is
surprisingly versed in
nature.
One of you guys make us
look smart.
I got you.
Don't worry about it.
With the
29,
the 20,
29.
Oh, sorry.
Oren with 26.
Ruhua with the 29.
So for the sake of
poor, poor
Oren's voice,
Ruhua,
you and
Oren would know
first of all that
Balanzaz is the
sort of
Druidic name
for Auntie Drown.
So when he's referring
to like
a servitor
of Balanzaz,
that's a servitor
of Auntie Drown.
The term
ribious
is a bit
different
and
it's obscure,
but ribious
is like a powerful
aquatic spirit
associated
with
Auntie Drown,
a kind of like
manifestation
on time
of
Auntie Drown's
presence
and like
a bequeathor
of gifts
and abilities.
Yes,
I am
familiar with
both of these
actually.
Balanzaz is the
more,
the proper name
for the vernacular
known as
Auntie Drown
and
ribious
happens to be
somewhat of an
avatar
or
bursar
of powers
related
to the deity
herself.
Aquatic spirit
of some kind
I add perhaps,
but
nonetheless
one blessed
with this deity's
powers
and able to
bestow them
upon others.
Ergo,
one might assume
that ribious
may be the person
we need
to
give this
divine
intervention
to the
both
of you.
That's a
very simple
explanation.
I like it.
Good.
High marks.
Oh,
you got a good
grade.
Oh,
okay.
I was,
yes,
my name is
not Mark,
but I'm glad
to hear I scored
well.
All right.
Now,
now,
again,
the timing
on all of
this,
very good.
You see,
our Kaibu,
we move
around,
as you've
seen,
we set
down on
these
foundations
which have
been here
since,
whoa,
since,
before the
people of
Outset
ever
dared
defy
the old
powers
and caused
all of
this
badness.
Now,
we move
between
these places
to settle
down,
and when
we do
so,
we have
agreements.
The reason
we go
to these
foundational
places
is because
he pauses
again.
Well,
Outset
and us
have a bit
of an
agreement
and we
keep some
of the
more nasty
gribblies
at bay
or keep
them informed
of the
goings-ons
here
or sometimes
send some
of our
members
into the
city
to help
out with
problems
like,
say,
the little
rotten
situation
you're
dealing
with.
In
exchange,
they send
us
supplies.
For our
Kaibu,
we take
some of
these
supplies.
You might
see them
around the
camp.
Yarna
keeps a
couple of
them.
But,
but,
the vast
majority of
those supplies
end up
going to
Ribius's
Grotto.
now,
there's
caravans.
They drop
off goods
and then
we have
some of
our
servants
take them
to the
grotto.
But,
recently,
these
caravans
have been
getting
attacked
by
hooligans.
fire-wielding
hooligans
think
they
worship
Gathrim,
but they
don't.
They're
on my
people's
land.
They need
to get
out of
here.
Aethon,
I have a
question about
these
hooligans.
Okay.
What was
the last
time you
had seen
them?
What
direction
from here,
roughly?
Oh,
well,
if I
were to
pull up
a map
like this.
He pulls
out his
fucking
map.
Yeah.
What's
this terrible
line?
Someone's
defaced it.
Oh,
that was
me.
I was
helping out.
Hi,
we haven't
met.
My name's
Picturn
Squelchfoot,
sir.
It's a
pleasure to
meet you.
You know,
I really
like all
your stories.
I feel
like you
and I
could get
off.
You know,
I had a
bit of a
well,
it was an
uncle who
used to
tell really
good stories
back home
and like
Aethon is
nodding.
Yeah,
this is
really told
some good
good stories,
you know,
about well,
there was
oh gosh,
the the
the fire
second
fire.
The baking
contest.
I've told you
about the
baking contest,
right?
About an hour
later,
we finally
get to
the map.
I like
I like
now that
you're like
this is an
endurance match
there,
see,
like we're
not going
to interrupt
it.
You're
going to
have to
just
you
told us
it is up
to us
to interrupt.
I can
listen to
this all
night long.
However,
there are
only so
many hours
in a day.
Holy shit.
There was
the car.
Okay,
good.
Very good.
All right.
you pull
out the
map as
like
like
Baldrick
you can
get
pointed
a
sort
of
looks
away
from
picture
and
looks
down
at the
map.
All right.
I see
you've
you've
kind
of
done
a bit
of a
let's
see
if
you've
gone
like
south
bridge.
Okay,
you've
done
sort
of
a
almost
like
a
stretched
out
you
here.
Oh,
you've
been
going
quite
away.
I
found
that
cube.
I
guess
you
helped
see
Oh,
the
old
the
old
pond
temple.
Oh,
the
other
the
first
house
church.
Oh,
you've
yeah,
the
pond
temple
is
the
buried
one
that
was
under
the
acid
lake.
The
lake's
no
longer
acid.
You're
welcome
for that
for
whatever
that's
worth.
Oh,
solving
a bunch
of
problems
here.
I
like
all
of
you
actually.
You've
got
gumption.
You're
coming
in here.
You're
doing
things.
I
like
it.
I
need
more
kids
like
you.
Oh,
and then
you went
to the
reality
engine
from
Zeskoran.
Wait,
what?
Yeah.
Right
right there.
Listen,
Tannhauser,
we have so
much stuff
on our
plate right
now.
I
understand
that there
is stuff
on your
plate,
but you
didn't
think
to
inform
the
cybernodecly
augmented
makus
that you
had found
a reality
engine.
You
were
offline
for
three
days.
Yes,
I
know,
but since
awakening,
I hadn't
heard a
word of
it.
We'll
need to
make that
a priority.
Yes,
I know
what a
reality
engine
is.
I
happen
to be
an
expert
on
Zeskoran
lore
and
machinery.
Yes,
we've
seen the
reality
engine,
and now
we're
here.
Where
on the
map
have you
last
seen
the
children
of
the
blaze?
Okay,
well,
you see
the line
that your
friend
squelch
turn,
pick
bum,
whatever,
he did
it here.
Yes,
so right
around where
you have
this ominous
don't go
here line,
that's where
we usually
meet up with
the caravan,
so they drop
off their
goods.
Now,
they've been
kind of
further out
here.
I would
guess
that's where
the travel
range,
but yeah,
the last
time we've
seen them
has been
around out
in this
area.
all right.
If we
go that
direction
and we
take care
of whatever
nonsense
Elort's
men,
the
children of
the
blaze,
whatever
the hell
they want
to call
themselves,
whatever
they may
be up
to,
and possibly
meet up
with the
mercenary
group we
sent out
that way
to figure
out what
the deal
was,
we'll
take care
of that.
How would
you like it
taken care of?
We could kill
them probably,
in all
likelihood,
or maybe
just ward
them off.
I just
don't want
our caravans
getting attacked.
You don't
have to
murder a
bunch of
people.
It's probably
how she
got so
rotten.
Listen,
if they
choose to
get murdered,
that's up
to them.
This guy's
really intense.
Have you
noticed that?
Oh,
yes,
I noticed.
Oh,
we've noticed.
That's just
part of Baldrick's
charm.
It's true.
He's very
charming.
I wish
you could
be more
calm,
Baldrick,
like me.
Baldrick is
prepared to
take a
sedative
for six
weeks.
Mom,
I'm going to
drill.
It's a
scorn reality
engine.
One sec,
Bob's pill
wakes up
six weeks
later.
No,
I'm not
going to
miss out
on Tan
Hauser's
story.
Are you
kidding me?
I want
to hear
why he's
so fucked
up.
Now
then.
Well,
okay,
regardless,
I'm just
saying,
I'm not
asking you
to murder
these people.
Now,
if murder
happens,
I understand.
I've done
my fair share
of murdering
in my time
too,
you know,
just like
one time
I was with
this elf
woman.
Oh,
she was
so good.
Let me
tell you,
elves,
they leave
you eventually,
but they have
some of the
best relationships
you'll ever
have in your
life.
Okay,
thank you.
Oh,
sorry,
so anyway,
so what I
was going to
say here
is,
um,
if you deal
with this
problem for
me,
then the
Kaibu,
then I
will show
you where
you have
to go
to meet
Ribius.
is Ribius
one of
yours?
I guess
that's like
asking,
you know,
oh,
if there's
a patron
saint of
the church
like your
first house,
does that
mean that
the saint
is one of
them?
Sometimes
kind of
not.
Ribius is,
well,
Ribius is
Ribius.
He's a
slow-talking
kind of
powerful entity.
We all
respect him.
I mean,
everyone outside
there,
they're in
complete
awesome.
I mean,
look at
me.
I've been
doing this
job as
speaker for
60 years
now.
So for
clarification,
Ribius is
not a
citizen of
this Kaibu
that falls
under your
jurisdiction.
Ribius is
more akin
to a
third-party
entity.
Ribius is
a house-sized
elemental.
So,
no,
he doesn't
fall under
my,
this,
he probably
wouldn't even
get out of
his grotto
anymore.
I suppose
you wouldn't
pay taxes
in that
state.
Probably
wouldn't,
no.
You would
be surprised
how many
people come
to join
a Kaibu
not to
pay taxes
anymore.
There's a
lot of
them.
Very
interesting.
I'm gonna,
I'm gonna keep
that one in
mind.
Why did
you kill,
why did
you kill
Mr.
Lord?
He tried
to make
me pay
taxes.
Understandable.
Yes.
Scam.
You're
out.
Very
well.
I believe
we have
our mission,
but before
we go,
I'd like
to ask
you a few
questions.
Okay.
Have you
become aware
of an
increased
excess
of rotten
activity?
Well,
you mean
presence of
the rod
out here?
I mean,
certainly,
it's been
off and
on,
but one
of the
Kaibu's
roles is
to combat
such things.
We keep
an eye
out for
it.
There are
younger
folks who
go out
and,
like,
Tasti,
I mean,
we didn't
know what
was going
on there.
I haven't
even really
had a chance
to talk
to Tasti
yet about
what was
going on
in the
forest
where
you had
but
your
vigilance
may add
more context
to something.
Our friend
Orin
once called
a dragon
his companion
and,
we have
reason to
believe,
possibly
agents of
Outset
brought that
dragon here
and experimented
on it
until it
became an
abomination
of rot.
Well,
one that's
really messed
up.
I don't
know anyone
out here
who would
do that
thing,
but there's
people from
the city
who come
out here
all the
time.
I mean,
when you've
got a
Zescoran
reality
engine in
your backyard,
people like
to come
snooping.
Zescoran
Yes,
about that.
How did
you manage
to obtain
a Zescoran
reality
engine?
Well,
okay,
so,
Outset
is the
oldest city
of time,
and so
people like
to try to
come and
conquer
Outset
all the
time.
So,
we have a
Zescoran
reality
engine.
I'm pretty
sure there's
the corpses
of at least
eight dragons
in here.
Big,
big,
big,
proper-sized
dragons.
There's a
Perfectite
siege tower
that you
saw right
over there.
I'm pretty
sure there's
at least
one
anarchite
deconstructor
somewhere out
here,
too.
There's all
sorts of
leftovers
from prior
sieges and
wars.
That's what
this place
is.
But,
oh,
oh,
oh,
oh,
oh,
the old
powers,
they just
gobble it
all up.
Nothing,
nothing lasts
forever in
the swamp.
The swamp
takes all.
That's why I
picked the
winning side.
I suppose
you have.
Now,
this reality
engine,
it's simply
one of the
many things
in the swamp.
Your
Kaibu doesn't
claim ownership.
No.
You just
let it sink
more and more
into the swamp
every year.
couple centuries
probably gone.
Excellent.
That was
my questions.
I believe
we should
move quickly
to tend
to this
situation
Elort
has placed
us in.
Are you
going to
help your
friend out
first?
Yes.
Of course
I am.
these things
are all
related.
We need
to stop
the caravans
in order
to gain
access to
Ribius,
yes?
Yes,
but you're
going to
take your
rotten
friend,
your very
rotten
friend,
like so
rotten,
you're
going to
take her
to
Bjarna
before you
go,
right?
Yes,
ideally.
Thank you.
We need
at least
some kind
of,
some kind
of stop
gap solution
in case
things go
south,
east of
here.
If things
get really
dicey with
the children
of the
blaze,
I'd rather
still be
able to
keep
swinging.
I can
come.
All right,
all right,
well,
you'll find
Bjarna's,
hers is at
the farthest
out from
the Kaibu.
She's kind
of a,
has mostly
like a
charred
wooden,
lots of
bones and
trinkets
there.
She's part
of the
Kaibu,
and we
all love
her,
but she's
a bit
of a
on her
own type,
so,
you know,
but she'll
help you
out.
She will
definitely
help you
out as
long as
you have
some
coins.
We have
plenty of
that.
Good.
I'll give
you some
equipment too
if you need,
you know,
if you need
a new bucket
or something.
I'm fine
with this
one,
thanks.
Oh,
I'm not
going to
upgrade
buckets?
Right?
Upgrading
buckets seems
like a
good idea.
I am
keeping
this one.
Fair enough.
Baldrick is
going to
just place
his cup
aside and
make for,
are we
in a
tent?
Like,
it's kind
of like a,
like,
it's not
a tent,
it's,
it's like
a halfway
yurt almost,
like it's got
wooden supports
and structuring
into it.
He's going
to make
for the
tent flap.
Bye!
I'll be
waiting outside.
When we're
ready to
move on,
let's hit
up this
healer.
I concur.
Agreed.
All right.
Okay,
so,
so,
Volley
and
Tannhauser
and Baldrick
and I'm
assuming
Orr
and Rahua,
are you
also departing
here?
Of course.
before leaving,
uh,
Rahua will
chime in.
Oh,
well,
if Tannhauser
is asking a
bunch of
questions too,
I would also
like to ask
a question
for you.
Oh,
you're the
one,
you're my
favorite,
yeah,
absolutely.
You're a
tree,
I'm going
to use
you for
kindling.
Oh,
I don't
know how
I feel
about that.
What is
your favorite
color?
What is
your favorite
flower?
Are you
susceptible
to any
diseases?
Are your
people going
to fall
in time?
I need
to know.
green,
rabblebush,
um,
susceptible
to disease
as well,
you know,
luckily that
elf lady
didn't have
any.
Um,
and are
my people
going to,
no,
my people
are doing
fine,
just as
long as
I,
just as
long as
between
you and
me,
little
Jedi gets
out of
his block
face.
I've
got to
train him
on everything
to be a
speaker
before I
die.
Of
course,
thank you
for being
so candid
with me,
I do
appreciate it.
Uh,
and Rohuo
will fish
from his,
his chest
of drawers,
aka his
chest,
uh,
some fertile
soil and
create,
what was
that,
the flower
he described,
a crackle
bush,
or?
Uh,
like,
I think it's
like a
rabble bush,
yeah.
A rabble bush,
yeah.
He'll create a
small flower
from,
uh,
the fertile
matter within
himself,
and,
in a shade
of green,
Lusgris
Frudent
Viridian.
Oh,
I like
that.
Put it
right over
here.
Thank you,
thank you,
no,
I like you,
I like you
a lot.
He,
like,
stares
into the
orb,
and he's,
in fact,
probably one
of the only
people you've
known who
stares at
the orb
rather than
stares
into your
eye.
of course,
of course,
just a small
trinket of our
appreciation,
and Rahua will
look over
towards the
flower,
he will
observe the
small display,
he'll get in
real close,
and whisper
something,
and I'll
expend a
fourth level
spell slot,
and I will
say no more.
Hello?
Okay,
okay,
okay.
Touch of
death!
shh,
no,
ominous,
ominous Rahua
is ominous,
um,
ominous,
oh,
I see what
you're doing,
uh,
okay,
okay,
okay.
I'm scared.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then you
walk out?
Very much like
it if Rahua
did not plant
C4,
tree 4,
if you will.
tree 4.
Rahua walks
out,
the bomb
has been
planted.
What?
The phantom
exterior.
Yeah,
as you walk
out,
you can see
now the
sun is
starting to
set,
there are
some,
like,
lights and
small torches
that are
being set up,
um,
all around the
the caibou,
but then
there's,
like,
a distant,
like,
a distant
structure.
This one
is,
um,
similar style
to,
to Athan's,
kind of a
yurt-like
half construct,
half,
half tent,
um,
that,
like,
has,
like,
has fires
around it,
but they
almost,
like,
glow a,
a greenish
flame.
perhaps worth
investigating
if we come
back here,
as we are
in a limited
time scale,
so we had
best see to
this healer
woman first.
Oh,
that is the
healer woman.
Oh,
good,
then we will
go there
and dunk.
All right,
Vali,
prepare to hold
your breath.
You must be
dunked in the
fire.
That must be
what he sent
us here for.
Oh,
wonderful,
wonderful.
I love being
set on fire.
Dunks your
head in the
fire like
the,
like you're
bobbing for
apples,
but you're
bobbing for
fire.
Pain.
Just shouts
pain.
That's the
Nexus
Scorrin
engine.
The
Scorrin
pain
engine.
True.
I'm gonna
draw that
one.
Don't
create the
torment
nexus.
I'm going
to create
the torment
nexus,
so we go
to the
torment
nexus.
We go
to the
doctor's
building.
Yeah,
so it,
like,
as you
approach,
there's
this,
like,
wind
gush
that causes
various,
like,
bone
charms to
jingle and
jangle,
like,
wind chimes
that have
been set up
made of
bones and
small scraps
of metal.
Then you
see that there
are these,
like,
sconces that
are put
outside that
have,
like,
a green
fire to
them,
almost like
a,
almost like a,
I don't know,
it's like a
goblin green,
let's use that
citadel paint,
color fire
that gives
off this
illumination
on the,
otherwise,
like,
darkened
black wood
of the,
of the hut.
Witchy.
All right,
I'm gonna,
I'm gonna
take point,
as I'm the
one dying,
and I'll,
I'll push
my way
inside.
Okay,
yeah,
you,
you,
you push in,
and this place
is cluttered.
It's full,
like,
it's a circular
structure,
but the interior
is,
like,
actually a
smaller circle
in the center
of the circle
of this,
because everything
else is just
stacks of
knickknacks,
trinkets,
bottled corpses,
like,
animal corpses,
all sorts of
just strange
things on display.
There's a,
like,
an assault
on your smell
as you walk
in here,
as,
like,
you,
you get a sense
of,
like,
alchemical,
taste in
your mouth,
but also
just,
like,
a rankness?
Like,
like,
spoiled meat?
Uh,
can I do a
crafting to figure
out if that is
some kind of
alchemical practice?
Yeah,
sure,
give me,
give me that,
um,
as you kind of,
like,
poke your head
into,
um,
as this is all
going on,
at the center
of the area,
there is,
like,
a wooden desk
that has been
set up,
and behind it
is a,
is,
like,
a hooded
figure,
like,
his hood
covers their face,
there's,
they're very,
like,
short and
stocky.
What's a 28
get me?
A 28
is enough
for you
to tell
that,
like,
what you're,
what you're
gathering here
is,
like,
the,
they're,
these are all
chemical preservatives,
and as you kind of
look around,
you get a sense,
like,
the,
the animal corpses
and stuff,
the smell of decay
is not coming
from them,
but is coming
from something else.
The animal corpses
have actually been
properly preserved.
Hmm.
Baldrick's going
to address
the figure
at the desk
and is just
going to call
out to them,
Controlled decay
or has something
gone off?
Oh,
something
has gone
off.
And,
uh,
the figure
raises up
their face
and what stares
at you
is like
a dwarven
woman's face
with half
of the side
of it
ripped open
and missing,
musculature
exposed,
like,
the skin
is,
like,
peeled and
torn
in some
areas.
This is,
this is a
zombie
who stares
at you.
Oh.
Oh.
Um,
to try not
to be rude,
Vali's gonna
do her best
not to make
a face.
Hello.
Hello.
I apologize.
Uh,
whatever for?
I do my best
for the
smells
of other
things.
Hmm.
Baldr's gonna
step in with
Vali to the,
uh,
undead dwarf
before us.
You
enter
my
home.
I
am
Bjarna.
Pleasure
to meet
you.
My name's
Vali.
This is
Baldrick.
Yeah.
Nice to
meet another
alchemist.
I only
use
basic
alchemy.
I am
more of
a practitioner
of
divine
sciences.
Hmm.
But
thank you
for
the
respect
you
show
me
and
that
you
do
not
run
away
in
fear.
And,
like,
you can
tell,
like,
her vocal
chords
just do
not work.
Like,
the way
she,
like,
says
things,
like,
just,
like,
comes out
and wheezes
and then,
like,
scratchings
of throats.
Like,
she,
like,
she
cannot
sound
natural.
Hmm.
We've
seen plenty
scarier.
Yeah,
we are
fine with
your presence.
Don't worry
about that.
Appreciate
it.
But
why
have
you
come
in here?
Did
Aethon
send
you
Yes,
Aethon
sent us
here.
Um,
we were
informed
that you're
a bit
of an
expert
in
reducing
rot
contamination.
I'm gonna
sit down
in front
of her
and kinda
pull my
eyelids
down.
I do
not have
the eyes
that old
Aethon
does,
but
I see
now
you are
afflicted.
I
have
some
tools
here.
I
can
perform
a
ritual,
but
it will
not
cure
you.
It
will
only
pull
some
of
this
back.
She says
the last
like it's
exerting
her to
say it,
but it's
very clear
that that's
just how
the vocal
chords
work.
Well,
buying time,
if that's
the best we
can do,
it's the best
we can
do.
I'll take
what I can
get at this
point.
Yeah,
Maldrick's
going to
pull out
the extra
bag of
cash that
we picked
up.
How much
are you
looking at?
One
moment.
and like
she pulls
out
she pulls
out an
instrument
that appears
to be
like a
silver
wand,
but the
end tip
of it has
like a
clump of
moss that
grows on
it.
And she's
like sort
of like
waving the
wand over
you,
Vali.
I must
see your
strength of
character.
All right.
What do I
need to do?
Just stand
there.
You're
lucky.
You have
a powerful
persona.
you,
you must
be destined.
Yes.
We have
gives like a
smile,
which is
really creepy
because like,
yeah,
half of the
side of her
face is just
raw muscle
exposed.
Oh,
um,
you have a
wonderful
smile.
Uh,
I,
I mean,
we have
been sponsored
by,
uh,
I believe
we were
informed
anti-drown.
but then
you have
a destiny.
I had
a destiny
once.
You were
sponsored?
Oh,
no,
no,
not lucky
like that.
I,
well,
like,
Bjarna shakes
her head.
But you're
lucky because
though you're
powerful,
you're still
in my
realm
of healing.
if you
were just
a little
bit more,
just a little
bit more
on your
journey,
then I
couldn't
do this
to you.
Uh,
well,
glad to
see that
we caught
it.
What do
I need
to do?
What do
you know
of nature
or the
occult?
Um,
well,
let's
see.
Olly
has,
uh,
occultism
zero
and
religion
zero.
Vali
just,
well,
um,
I know
how to
spell it.
I
see.
If you
knew,
it might
have made
the process
a little
bit easier,
but no
matter,
I'm sure
my skills
will be
up to
the task.
Uh,
Thurston,
yes?
Is this
going to
fall under
a
medicine?
No.
Okay.
In that
case,
Baldrick is
going to
think on
it a
little bit.
He's
going to
hold up
a finger.
Hold that
thought.
He's going
to step
out of
the yurt
for a
moment,
and he's
going to
try and
flag down
Orin.
Orin.
Going to
ask that
you, uh,
come here
for a bit.
We might
have need
of you.
I assume
you just
sort of
like pull
Orin in
with you
into the
yurt.
Yeah.
Um, and
like,
Bjarna
looks over.
Hmm.
Afflicted,
but I can't
help that
one.
No.
He can
try to
help you
with
volley.
like,
Oh,
no.
Bjarna
shakes
her head.
This
ritual is
too
personal.
Me and
the
afflicted.
The
afflicted is
the only
one who
can help
when I
begin.
Outside
help won't
matter here.
Maldrick's
going to
narrow his
eyes at
her.
Yep.
I see.
Sorry,
Orin.
Welcome to
Watch.
I would
take any
assistance
you could
give,
but
I'm
sorry.
I
I must
be the
one to
do it
since none
of you
know the
ritual.
Then we'll
wait here
and we'll
help if we
can.
I
will need
coins of
gold
to trade
for the
reagents
who use
the moss.
The moss.
The last
of the moss
we have.
We can
gather more
though,
but it
takes time.
The primal
moss doesn't
grow as
much as it
used to.
Hey,
Thurston.
Yeah.
I have the
capability of
creating a
moss bomb for
this purpose,
not for
attacking,
obviously.
Could I,
in theory,
synthesize
something similar
using my
butyr
agents?
So it's
like you
can't like
you know
use your
agents because
they're like
temporary
compounds and
such.
Yes,
but I
can craft.
You can,
you can,
you can
certainly
craft like
like realistic
moss.
So in a
long-term
situation,
you absolutely
could craft
for this,
but this isn't
something you
could do on
like a short
term.
This would
take like
days,
maybe weeks
of crafting
to get
like the
right amount.
Well,
how long are
we going to
be here?
depends like
okay,
let me,
let me
phrase that
a different
way.
Yeah.
Bjarna,
how long
will this
ritual take?
Remainder
of the
evening.
Right,
fine.
Noting that
Orin's going
to observe,
Orin will,
or,
you know,
Orin,
Baldrick will
acquiesce and
he'll just
retrieve and
count out 140
gold coins.
Who is going
to be watching
this ritual?
Baldrick
definitely is,
but we also
don't want to
crowd the
freaking tent,
so Ruhua will
as well.
Ruhua,
okay.
Tanny?
Tannhauser
could watch
and give
support,
but is there
anything else
more useful
he could be
doing because
Tannhauser,
well,
I mean,
I guess if
there's,
it's not
exactly an
arcane ritual,
is it?
Well,
you don't
know.
that's fair,
you know what,
in case it's
arcane,
I will watch
and see if
I can take
notes.
Is there a
way we can
all watch
without interfering
with this
space?
Absolutely,
like,
she has you
sort of,
like,
pull back,
and she
begins to
perform the
ritual,
which does
involve,
like,
burning
various rare
primal
moss and
other
constituent
components,
particularly
taking different
items from the
swamp,
again,
some of the
bones,
some of the
earth,
there's a
little bit of
this,
like,
strange fire,
there's metals,
all of this
is,
like,
weaved
together.
If you have
occultism,
you can give me a
check here,
or nature,
actually.
Nature or
occultism,
for those
observing.
Yag.
Yeah,
get on that,
because I don't
have either,
in an appreciable
amount.
Yep.
Oh,
look at that.
Oh,
stinky,
trying to,
okay.
Well,
the orange
28,
I'm not gonna,
oh,
well.
Okay,
I will also
reroll.
Hey.
He tried.
His best.
Oh,
my God.
I saw it on
that 19,
too.
Our rerolls have
been terrible
this session.
They have been
really bad
this session.
All of you
are watching.
The most
you're able
to observe
is that
this is a
nature-based
ritual that
does have
occult components,
and in fact
is probably
primarily
occult.
I'm gonna
reroll this one.
Oh,
okay.
Uh-oh.
I thought I was
out of hero points.
I have one more,
apparently.
Thank you,
whoever did that.
Do it.
Do it.
Do a tree.
Do a tree.
I'm gonna do a thing.
I'm gonna do a thing.
Do a tree.
Do a thing.
Eh,
no.
Okay.
Still better.
One better.
Enough for you to
recognize that,
like,
with proper training,
you definitely
could,
like,
have the potential
of learning this
ritual.
But,
this ritual
is,
is like
occult or
nature,
so you could
use either.
You'd have to be
an expert in
occultism in order
to cast it.
By the way,
this is the
purge rat ritual
that appears in our
character guide
that is available
for free
on our
nerddecoration.com
website there.
I'm shilling.
But,
as you're watching
this,
you're seeing
that Bjarna
is finally
taking,
like,
taking the
final steps.
And this goes on
for a few hours
of which,
like,
you know,
you have moss
applied to some
of the more
egregious areas
of your skin
where you can
almost feel
the crawling
underneath.
The whole time
volley,
as you're getting
tired,
you're kind of
hearing these,
like,
sounds in the
back of your
head.
These
whispers,
but they
seem to get
doused as
any time the
moss touches
you.
And then,
finally,
Bjarna is
going to roll
a d20,
and we're
going to see
how this
ritual goes
for you.
Let's see.
A ten.
A ten.
A dude!
A ten.
Bjarna
finishes
breathing
somewhat heavily
after the
exertion
of moving
around,
but again,
it comes out
as wheezing.
And you realize
the exertion's
not a physical
one,
it's actually
like a mental
manifestation.
of just
what she's
had to do
here.
And as
that happens,
you feel
slightly
less weighed
down,
Folly.
You feel
slightly
less burdened
by outside
influences.
Oh no,
she took
her leg
off.
And I
have just
taken you
down
to
Rotten
Tomb.
Yay!
We're back
where we were
before the
dragon fight.
Yeah,
as Bjarna
finishes this
and looks at
you,
and she
shakes her
head slightly,
that is all
I can do.
There's
no more
that can
be done.
To
remove
more
would
take
beyond
my
power.
Yeah,
Volly's
gonna sit
back up
and roll
her shoulders.
No,
you did
your best.
I feel
better.
How do
I look?
Am I still
pretty?
Are you
asking that
to Bjarna
or the
party?
I'll ask
that to
Bjarna.
Bjarna
gives like
a slight
smile and
just like
nods.
Okay,
turn around.
As you
turn around,
you're not
in the hut
anymore.
You find
yourself in
the swamp
and you
smell
fire and
smoke
and you
have
figures
running
around.
Something's
on fire.
There's
shadows.
Someone's
being shot
in the
back with
a flaming
crossbow bolt.
Another
person is
being stabbed
with what
is a
flaming
dagger.
You're
looking around.
There's
dozens of
figures.
You're
staring at
this massacre.
There's
several
carts on
the
muddy
path that
crisscrosses
through
puddles,
some of
which
these
puddles
have
face
down
bodies
and
some
of
those
bodies
having
crossbow
bolts
in their
back.
As you
look
around,
you see
off in the
distance
something
familiar.
And,
Vali,
you see,
standing there
looking at
this same
carnage
is
Rahua.
and you
see a
shadow
rush
behind
Rahua.
And then
as you
look,
it appears
momentarily
like the
shadow is
running
through
Rahua,
like through
his back.
And as
just as
it's about
to pass
through,
you're
looking at
your party
in
Bjarna's
Yurt.
Hey,
question.
Yeah?
Are there
any side
effects to
this?
Dizziness,
nausea,
I don't
know,
erections
lasting four
to six
hours?
Visions,
maybe?
There
should be
no visions
from this
only if
the rotted
tainted
your mind,
but this
would have
cleansed
that.
I look
over
Rahua.
Does he
look fine?
Yeah.
Still very much
agree?
I think
I saw
the children
of the,
why would
I be
seeing the
children
of the
blaze?
where'd
you see
them?
I,
it was
just,
it was
the swamp,
it was,
everything was
on fire,
and there
were corpses,
and something
rushed through
Rahua's
back.
Oh,
you saw
the vision
too.
What?
Wait,
wait,
wait,
wait,
huh?
You saw
that?
Yes,
when I
gazed
upon
the
reality
engine,
that is
what I
saw,
portent
of things
to come,
I believe,
or maybe
even an
alternate
set of
events,
perhaps?
Although,
with our
current
goings-on,
I reckon
it very
well,
it is more
likely than
the former
than the
latter,
that there
is something
coming,
reckoning,
with the
children ahead.
And that
is almost
exactly as
I had
seen it.
Okay.
The shadow
rushing
through me,
as if
fleeing.
Hmm.
Did you
see anything
happen to
you in this
vision?
Besides just
the shadow
passing through
you?
No,
that was
around the
time that
it had
ceased.
as the
caravan
was on
fire,
crates
overturned,
burning,
screaming.
Corpses,
it's a
massacre.
Yes.
You,
your caravan
isn't planning
on moving
anytime soon,
is it?
We
aren't
moving for
some time.
Wally,
this is the
caravan that
comes to
here.
Right.
And I
think with
that horrifying
vision of
things to
come,
that's what
we'll call
it.
Wow.
Wow.
We'll have
to call it
you get
two massacres
in your
campaign.
That's all
you get,
though,
is only
two.
I only
allow
two.
Only
two massacres
per campaign.
It's okay.
It will
be wonderful.
Yeah.
Well,
thank you
all for
coming to
another
exciting
episode of
Rot Grime.
Were you
muted?
We all forgot
that Zoran
was dead.
You simply
forgot that
Zoran is
ill.
We were
like,
ah,
that's it.
Oh,
yeah.
Oh,
yeah,
we have an
outro.
Of course,
we have an
outro.
Hokey,
you're doing
such a great
job.
Continue.
Yeah,
continue.
Please.
As always,
thank you all
for coming
down and
supporting us
here at
Narrative
Declaration.
You can
always find
us here at
this channel
every other
Saturday.
In fact,
every Saturday
now,
we have
Rot Goons
on alternating
Saturdays and
then occasionally
Abomination
Vaults on
Tuesdays.
You can also
support us over
at our
Patreon,
patreon.com
slash
Narrative
Declaration.
I think
there's
something going
out in
chat for
that.
Zoran knows
more about
that than
myself.
But you
can also
support us
over at
our YouTube
channel as
well.
Again,
links are
to be
below or
in chat.
But as
we have been
here,
I am
Hulky Crow.
I play
Ruhua.
You can find
me at the
usual places.
Next,
of course,
we have
the
gallivanting,
less rotten
swashbuckler,
Gali,
played by...
Yes,
the
slightly less
rotten
swashbuckler,
Gali,
played by
me,
Odo.
You can
find me
on Twitter
at
Odoroshi
Writer or
on our
Discord.
Yeah,
great session
today,
guys.
Feeling,
feeling fine,
feeling fresh
and dandy,
feeling like a
million dollars.
Well,
or more like
160 gold.
Well,
160 gold
shorter.
True.
But all the
more worth it.
And of course,
we have the
ever-pensive
calculating
mastermind of
the chuckle-fuckery
Baldrick,
played by...
Erndel,
you can meet me
at Twitter
at Erndelio
for now,
until eventually
that hell site
collapses in on
itself.
I'm also found
on the Discord
and on Tumblr,
too,
if you find me
there or wherever
the hell.
It doesn't really
matter.
But yeah,
fun stuff.
Up next,
we have the...
to the
yet-to-portally
displaced,
ever-forward-thinking
revolutionary
Tan Houser,
played by...
Yes,
played by me,
Speaker D,
of whom you can
find on Twitter
at
Super Snake Kick,
where I live
before the entire
boat is drank
by the ocean.
I also would
mention
on the subject
of these
TTRPGs,
if you ever
wanted to,
I don't know,
get into maybe
World of Darkness,
there is a
brand-new
video essay,
our very first
ever,
over on
Alphabuse's
channel,
presented,
narrated,
written by me,
your introduction
to the setting
of Hunter the
Parenting.
If you haven't
seen it,
check it out.
You might like
it,
I hope.
The video
revealed by
mental illness
to the whole
world.
That's right,
by channeling it
into a
productive energy.
In addition,
you know,
more news to
come relating
to World of
Darkness
very soon.
That's me,
though,
for now.
And a weird
turn of place
as well,
the ever-caring,
doting,
and perpetually
plagued by bad
luck and
misfortune,
but infinitely
more talented
and amazing
host,
Zorn the Bear,
I shouldn't
have said your
name,
I should have
let you
introduce yourself,
but you are
playing Oren.
I don't know
if you want
to say anything,
but.
Arguing,
ass.
I'm so sorry.
And of course,
as I will echo
the same sentiment
as chat,
please get well
soon,
get some rest.
I am not suited
to do this kind
of thing.
This is your
fucking baby.
But all the same,
we could not have
done this without
the amazing
constant story
writing wonderment
of our fan
favorite
Torchverse
slash GM,
Thurston Hillman.
Yeah,
if I let them
repair a level
of rot,
who knows
what I'm going
to do to them
next,
right?
Right?
Right now.
Thank you.
Hi,
you can find me
on Thurston
Hillman,
on call GM.
I'm on all the
things at
on call GM.
That includes
the Twitter.
That includes
the Twitches
where I sometimes
just play games
and chat about
stuff.
I'm in a CRPG
phase,
so doing that
up.
Otherwise,
lore,
lore,
lore,
lore,
lore,
lore,
lore.
I appreciate
all of your
love of lore
and using the
lore I'm out.
And otherwise,
yeah,
thanks all for
coming out.
Zora needs to
rest now and get
better and then
we'll be back
in two weeks
for some
exciting follow-up
to where we are
in the campaign.
Yeah.
Everyone say
goodbye now.
So long.
Farewell.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye,
everybody.
We will see you
soon.
Farewell.
We'll meet again.
Don't go
well.
Don't go
well.
But I know
we'll meet again.
Bye.
Alright,
that's it.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.