Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Take your seats, bring the house lights down, and please don’t silence your phones, you’ll need it for Theater of the Mindset!
TotM is a show combining collaborative, character driven storytelling in a modern high fantasy setting with audio drama production quality. A mixed table of mild mannered TTRPG players and unmanageable improvisers bring balanced humor seasoned with imbalanced results.
The mindset is brought to you by your kind and generous GM, Justin Gerardot and sound designer and composer, Nick Traeger.
Theater of the mind. Theater mind set. Of set. The
Nick (Herry):Last week on Faith and Fortune, the gang finally recovered from their first few days in Sharnwick. Sara with the help of Aminette saw a vision of the past where Otra Lochner summoned the revenant. Harry confronted Gustavo Reyes and received the deadline to bring the protest to a peaceful end. Lucan caught up with archon, Felix Rondolas and played friendly game of towers and flowers with sender Demerich of the local fortune. And if all that wasn't enough on their plate, their search for captain Lochner's house turned up a much larger mystery.
Nick (Herry):The custodian sangos, the keepers of the blood. We'll pick up right there in the basement.
Justin (GM):The three of you are still in the basement of captain Otrallachner. He has created a wall and room of conspiracies all centered on a group called Custodia Sanguis. He refers to them as the keepers of the blood. All of this gives you the feeling of someone who has been obsessed with a concept for a number of years. This is it feels as though he did not accomplish a lot in that time.
Justin (GM):The thing that he felt most sure of was that Isarn Halavard is absolutely a member of this group and not someone to be trusted. He is also confident that the goal of this group, which they have accomplished, was to replace the incarnate king of Venethar. To what end though, he does not fully understand. His understanding and depth does not go much further beyond that.
Nick (Herry):Harry wants to think back over the last hundred years or so. And looking at this nut job's red string, besides what he is positing, are there any other instances of all of these church people or whoever having shared goals in the public eye in sort of history? Basically, looking to confirm or deny that, like, this guy's either a nut job and this is the workings of a madman or, oh, actually, this tracks with how these organizations or people have acted in the last hundred years. Does that make sense?
Justin (GM):You're looking for other things that many people would have pointed to as suspicious Yeah. That he is maybe connecting to as one grander thing potentially?
Nick (Herry):Potentially. Or not even inherently suspicious, but just like, oh, yeah. They voted these ways or they have acted in these ways that corroborates this story.
Justin (GM):The most obvious vote and situation is the previous king who voted alongside the Wainwright, the god of death, and voted to not come to the aid of the urination. Sure. So just for a quick review, I'm gonna give you how that vote played out. Voting to save the tribe were the seat for the seat for Phelos, the god of music and revelry, and Ota, the goddess of community in the hearth. Vaz and Phelos almost always vote together.
Justin (GM):Phelos has a seat largely in part because of Vaz. Most songs and most tales are about adventurers, And so Phalos owes a lot. Phalos is the youngest, quote, unquote, the newest seat in the council of faith.
Steve (Luken):And I would say, Vaz gets something from Phalos too. And that's like those songs being out there
Nick (Herry):Yep.
Steve (Luken):Increases our notoriety, all that kind of stuff. Like Yep. It's a mutually beneficial relationship.
Justin (GM):Yep. Voting against saving the Steelmarrow tribe was the Wainwright, the god of death. Yerasinda, the goddess of motherhood and the sun. And then Atelene, the goddess of discipline, strength, and to the lesser degree, war. This then resulted in a tie, which the incarnate king broke the tie, siding with the three who voted against saving the Steelmarrow tribe.
Justin (GM):That was highly suspicious in because the incarnate king sided with the Wainwright, which had never happened before. This is then next to the quote from the Divine Codex, which says, with the knife of doubt at his throat, the immortal king shall be crowned by death. Behold, Banathar walks the edge of a blade.
Nick (Herry):What are the can I roll for or what are what are the historical readings of that text?
Justin (GM):Yeah. Go ahead and give me Yeah. A history sorry, a knowledge check.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. Sort sort of the, like I'm gonna use my Loreborn Oh, yeah. Well read as for advantage. Just kind of like with any ancient or old text, there's like a reading that's popular and there's readings that aren't. That is a 15 with hope.
Justin (GM):15 with hope? The phrase the immortal king in the Divine Codex is a catch all translation from several terms that all largely refer to one individual, the incarnate king. The individual words themselves can often be different. Mhmm. And all three of these quotes actually would be a direct translation to the word soul unending.
Justin (GM):And that really is a word that more frequently refers to who Theophilus Zimri, which is the name of his first incarnation
Nick (Herry):Mhmm.
Justin (GM):Who he was prior to being crowned. The implications here are that it seems as though they are attaching importance to his characteristic as a soul reborn and not a actual king. The first quote specifically refers to the people of the immortal king. Again, if you switch out immortal king and just put soul on ending Yeah. It could just refer to all of the people of Venethar.
Justin (GM):And so there seems to be if you go back to Custodia Sanguis, keepers of the blood, they seem to be leaning towards an interpretation that does not emphasize the immortal king as the important person, but the people who follow him as the important person or the important people.
Nick (Herry):Yeah.
Justin (GM):And so there seems to be a shift in translation here that they are emphasizing that also then results in a shift in who's the important person in all these prophecies against the nothing. Is it actually this person who is reborn over and over again who has instated themselves as a instated themselves as a king over this kingdom? Or is it the people that follow him and might be using him in some way?
Nick (Herry):Mhmm. Love it. And then on that 15, just for extra juice, do have I ever heard of custodial linguists, like, having two nerd professor parents or and one in
Justin (GM):history? It seems like with a 15, you have not. I'm trying to think if there's any other things that with a 15 that you might have.
Nick (Herry):I need to remember the names. I'm sure you guys wrote it down, but I sure didn't thinking that I would remember. You've got the sender from? Isarn. Land of the Lost.
Nick (Herry):Halavard. Sender Isarn Halavard. You've got both the kings.
Steve (Luken):Isar and Asher are the kings.
Nick (Herry):What other strings were going? Were there any more people involved?
Justin (GM):You have a string and question mark to an individual named Arcanist Hamish Collinsworth. This one's got a big question mark at it. It links to the ritual harmonization. The ritual harmonization is the way that the memories of the incarnate king's soul are kept in order. After so many lives being reborn over and over and over again, early on in his reincarnations, it was found that while these memories were retained each rebirth, the body's ability to keep them in order was deteriorating, resulting in a type of reincarnation dementia of sorts.
Justin (GM):And so working alongside being a talented sorcerer himself, the incarnate king worked alongside the Venetaran University of Arcane Arts to create this massive contraption that essentially allows them to, upon reaching age, to essentially order his memories before they can get out of control. It's not something that is a one and done situation. There is a pretty large ritual that happens when he comes of age, but it is not uncommon for him to revisit this periodically throughout his life, especially if he is reborn as an elf or something with a longer lifespan. He might have to visit a couple times. If he is reborn as a human or something with, like, 70 or 80 years, one and done type thing.
Justin (GM):But he'll if he lives to be 400 years old as he has done at several points in his reincarnation, he might have to visit a few times. But this Arcanist Hamish was the individual responsible for this most recent, responsible for Asher's ritual of harmonization. There is not an association connection here. There's just a big question mark of
Steve (Luken):Yeah.
Justin (GM):This guy should know something that's going on.
Nick (Herry):Yeah.
Justin (GM):If you're sorting memories and this guy's not it, whose memories are you sorting?
Nick (Herry):My last sort of as someone who like was around during all of this for at least Asher, who would in my brain be like, that I know would have to be implicated in this as far as like who I would have touched or seen. Obviously, it's like, oh, someone doing that spell. Like, obviously, there's some juice there. That's a person to talk to. Is there anyone else that I'm just like, this person has to be involved because they're involved in the transfer or involved in some portion of Asher becoming the king and inheriting stuff?
Nick (Herry):Who would I know that would be? Couldn't not know.
Justin (GM):Every time the king is reincarnated, just prior to his rebirth, his soul begins a transfer from one body to the As a part of that process, when he is essentially conceived in his next body, he will begin to have dreams from the perspective and view of his future mother. The individuals responsible for interpreting his dreams come from the priesthood of Irasinda, specifically because Irasinda is the goddess of the sun and she represents a strong pantheon of the celestial bodies. Irisinda's brothers are the gods of the moons. Gotcha. And so there are priests and priestesses in Irisindas who should have been translating these dreams and saying, oh, he's to be born here.
Nick (Herry):Here's the mother.
Justin (GM):Here's the mother. And someone in that process should have been flagging this person's to be born here. That is a red flag for if if someone is faking, replacing, doing something suspicious there.
Nick (Herry):Theoretically, had to have been faking because when that old king died, wasn't the king. If this is all true.
Justin (GM):That would be a very strong place to look is Yeah. You are responsible for the handoff of one body to the next.
Steve (Luken):Yeah.
Justin (GM):And there, every day when he wakes up, the incarnate king Right. Reports his dreams. And for most of his life, they are innocuous dreams. Yeah. But eventually, these priests and priestesses are trained to notice, oh, we have seen a farmhouse in Northern Venethar now for seven days in a row.
Justin (GM):This is a sign you are likely to die in the next ninety days and you will be reborn in this location. They will send out people there to find this person and then watch over them so that he can be reborn safely. Definitely a big flag there.
Shelby (Sahra):Sahra is staring at these walls and is doing the mental math in her head, and her eyes are getting bigger and bigger as she's realizing the reality of what they've just found, that it's so much bigger than what they first came in here to find. And her first thought is of Asher and worrying about his safety in this moment.
Justin (GM):Give me a instinct roll.
Shelby (Sahra):Oh gosh. I got a 12 hope, nine fear plus three. What's 12 plus nine plus three? 24. 24.
Nick (Herry):It's a big fucking roll.
Shelby (Sahra):I was like, I can't do that math in my head.
Steve (Luken):Three numbers and carrying, that is so much math.
Shelby (Sahra):I can't do it.
Justin (GM):That's a pretty big roll and with hope. Yeah. I think a couple of things jump out to you. If Asher and Esau were the previous the current incarnate we'll call him the false incarnate king for the purposes of Sitting brain now.
Nick (Herry):Sitting king.
Justin (GM):The sitting in the sitting king. There, you cannot assume any any level of participation in this one way or the other. They could be different for both of them. Their knowledge of this could be different. They could be pawns.
Justin (GM):They could be whole participants. And so to that end, Asher could be in active danger here. To what degree might Esau, the previous sitting king, have been forced into the decision to abandon the Steelmarrow tribe if he had been not if he had been blackmailed in some way, part of the incarnate king's strength comes from the fact that he is a sorcerer. And sorcerers in Sariel are extremely rare. Being truly just born with the ability to manipulate and utilize arcane magic is extremely rare.
Justin (GM):He is just able to do things that most people take years and years of study to do. You know for a fact that Asher and Isar are sorcerers. So something is going on there. They have you've seen Asher do magic
Steve (Luken):Mhmm.
Justin (GM):That he'd never studied for. Now studying magic, even when you have an innate skill, doesn't hurt.
Shelby (Sahra):Mhmm.
Justin (GM):And he did do that, but he was born being able to do magic. So he is not fully incapable, but there is definitely I think you cannot assume that they are not he is not in danger. Yeah. And then you also have to ask again the question of if he is not the immortal soul.
Shelby (Sahra):Who is?
Justin (GM):Who is and in what state is that person?
Nick (Herry):Yeah. And that just from a for a timeline ask, if Esau was the one that was the first, at least according to what we're seeing, when did the predecessor of Esau die? How how long ago was that that this started? Yes. Likely.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. Yeah.
Justin (GM):Esau was born in December. The previous incarnate king was Yearer Theophilus Zimri.
Shelby (Sahra):What was that year again?
Justin (GM):December. That's when they were born? That's when Esau was born. Yes. And that's when Yair died.
Justin (GM):What's the year now? The year currently is 1358.
Nick (Herry):It's been a hundred years since the swap happened. So either it's a very old person or an elf. Is still kicking and is technically the king, or it's gonna be real freaking messy and it's a few generations in.
Steve (Luken):Lucan is taking all of this in the same way Sara and and Harry are, And his initial reaction is just knee jerk. This can't this can't be anything. So, you know, he looks at you two, at Harry and Sara, and says, do we we don't believe any of this. Right? Like, this is just a guard in this middle of nowhere town.
Steve (Luken):This can't be true,
Nick (Herry):can it? It looks I mean, it looks like the writings of a madman. I'm probably gonna have to send Beanie over here to see if she can do a little more research on what would make this possible, if it is. We gotta regardless if it's true or not, we have to figure out how we prove that it's true or not true.
Shelby (Sahra):We can't deny the fact that that OtrA believed in this enough that he was willing to potentially sacrifice himself, which he ultimately did by accident. But he knew that that was a risk by performing this strong primal magic and using his own blood. So, honestly, Lucan, I don't not believe it.
Steve (Luken):I hear you both. I think we need we don't have much of a choice but to run this down. I guess for for me, how did this guy even know who Isar and Hallovan is? Right. Like
Nick (Herry):And what is a member of the Church of Baaz have to do with? But it's it's
Steve (Luken):So big leap from finding out who Isar in Halivand is to the king isn't the king. Well,
Nick (Herry):these are writings of a madman. That being said, from growing up with Asher, the only people that would have to be involved in this little swaparoo are dream readers and whoever the arcanist was that quote unquote transferred memories. I mean, that's that's not that big of a group to conspire. And then as far as who would want this, their boy, there was a a nice chunky split that happened on pernation vote. Sara, will you give me a knowledge roll?
Shelby (Sahra):Mhmm. That's a 23 with hope.
Nick (Herry):Jeez Louise. There's your dice.
Shelby (Sahra):There we go. There we go.
Justin (GM):The other group that Harry did not mention that would be an interesting one to include in the list of suspects are priests of the Wainwright themselves. They oversee the, like, last rights of an individual, and that would include the incarnate king. And so if they are there to ensure safe passage for the last vestigial portions of the incarnate king's soul from one body to the next, and they were present when Esau died, what was that experience?
Nick (Herry):Mhmm.
Justin (GM):Because if his soul was not the incarnate soul, what did they see? Yeah. What did they know? That would be the other group that you would want to investigate.
Shelby (Sahra):Great. I'm gonna keep that to my chest.
Nick (Herry):Well, first things are first. We have to solve one issue here in a small town.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What do
Nick (Herry):we think is enough evidence? Do we think this is a necessary piece of evidence to make sister Henle not a suspect? Is what did you guys find upstairs?
Shelby (Sahra):There were some books that he was reading upstairs. Can I run upstairs and look and see what books he was reading to see if any of that is relevant?
Justin (GM):Yeah. You check out the books. There are books about you you find some fairly innocuous books, a book, an autobiography by a more general, another sci fi book. Sure. Rune mancer book, about space travel.
Justin (GM):You also find a a book that is a you would consider it to be, like, in our world if a person who practices, like, witchcraft were to find a, like, pop astrology book
Shelby (Sahra):Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Nick (Herry):Would be
Justin (GM):like, this is bad.
Steve (Luken):Yeah.
Justin (GM):You find that equivalent for primal magic. Like, the pop bubblegum psycho like, psychology version of primal magic, that type of Primal magic for dummies? Yeah. Primal magic for dummies. Great.
Justin (GM):Primal one zero one, a girl's guide to primal magic.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay.
Justin (GM):That type of book is definitely
Shelby (Sahra):Primal magic for the teenage soul.
Steve (Luken):Yes. Primal
Justin (GM):magic for the teenage soul. You find, that. And then don't forget, you also found, the different plants in the background in the backyard.
Shelby (Sahra):I feel like I've got enough evidence, but, really, the ace in the hole would be the piece of paper that had the spell on it that ULTRA had at the end of my vision. And I don't know if that paper was with his body when he was found dead. I'm assuming I don't see it anywhere here.
Nick (Herry):You do not.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay.
Nick (Herry):Can I do an in check or something to be like to try and figure suss out if I need to share these writings of a madman to prove that he summoned a revenant or if we have enough between you guys
Steve (Luken):Physical evidence of
Nick (Herry):you guys fighting revenant and finding all of the spell components here and him having access to them after confiscating would be enough Yeah? To in order to at least, like, shut the lieutenant up at least a little bit.
Justin (GM):Yeah. Give me an instinct roll.
Nick (Herry):Can I help? Yeah. Can my well read history, culture, or politics of a place for advantage, Bert?
Justin (GM):He's giving you the help action.
Steve (Luken):I mean, do would you rather do yours than spend a hope? I don't care.
Nick (Herry):I don't have to spend a hope for that. I just have advantage for it. So if you don't wanna spend a hope,
Steve (Luken):that'd be what I would do.
Justin (GM):You're on
Steve (Luken):your fucking own.
Nick (Herry):That's not good. So it's an 11 with fear. Interesting.
Justin (GM):I think you have enough to legally bring charges to him and make him a suspect. I think what will trip you up is convincing the general population that this person that they trusted was, in fact, a person who was willing to summon a revenant against this person who exists on the other side of the country without
Nick (Herry):Without the basement.
Justin (GM):Without the basement. The basement paints him as, oh, yeah. This is a madman.
Nick (Herry):This is a full whole ass
Shelby (Sahra):Conspiracy theorist.
Steve (Luken):Yeah.
Justin (GM):Yeah. You have all of the right pieces. Your motive without the basement is your weak avenue. Sure. But again, you can definitely bring him up as a suspect now with the physical evidence that you have.
Nick (Herry):What do you think? I I communicate that to y'all Yeah. As far as how I think the average person's not gonna believe this basement.
Shelby (Sahra):I agree.
Steve (Luken):I agree.
Nick (Herry):So I think it's probably okay to use, but I don't wanna move.
Steve (Luken):Well, what happens when this breaks contain and it's not just the average person hears about the basement? You know, news travels, especially when there's something generally interesting, like this is a raving lunatic. Let's, again, play this out as the stuff in this basement is true. Somebody has an interest in maintaining this this fraud.
Nick (Herry):Sure.
Steve (Luken):And if word gets out that people are onto this fraud, you know, the the rats might go crawling back in their holes. Sure.
Nick (Herry):But I think the only thing is we're we sure are at the end of the the edge of the country, and there ain't a whole lot of news outlets that are gonna get pictures of this basement.
Steve (Luken):What if instead of saying, hey. Here's the leave the basement out of it. Yeah. Instead of saying, we believe he was trying to summon a revenant to kill Isar in Halavand, What if we left it at he was trying to summon a revenant to kill some someone? Yeah.
Steve (Luken):It went awry. We don't we can't say for sure
Nick (Herry):We know that he was the target list. Affair with someone, and that was not going well. Yeah. You try it. It'll at least slow down whatever's happened.
Steve (Luken):Because I I don't know a lot about Isarn, but he's not dumb. Yeah. And I think if word got to him, which I've already kind of, you know, put him on notice that there's been an attempt on him. But if he got more detail about what we saw in that basement, I worry that he you know, he's a lead right now. I don't want that lead to dry up before we have a chance to to start down that road.
Shelby (Sahra):Would we be able to seal up this basement?
Justin (GM):Oh, yeah. For the listeners at home, I've spent a fear.
Steve (Luken):Great.
Nick (Herry):We're not alone.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay. I think we need to seal up the basement, and I think we need to take the evidence of the book that we found about primal magic for beginners. We need to take the evidence of the candle making kit and the five holy plants of the Ur tribes that he used to summon the revenant, and I feel like that will be enough to at least officially make him a suspect in this.
Steve (Luken):Also, what time is it? Because we have a hard deadline for, you know, accomplishing the mission we were sent here for. Yeah. I look at my watch, and it is shortly after ten. Okay.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay.
Steve (Luken):Easy. Easy. I just didn't want look. If that fear was going to be actually you've been down here, and it's 01:00, and you're fucked now. I'd look.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. Fair enough.
Steve (Luken):I I just didn't want that to be the problem we deal with. Yeah. But for now, I think I think we've spent enough time down here. Yeah. Do we have a way to, like, take a record of all the stuff on the wall?
Shelby (Sahra):Or, like, take pictures or something?
Steve (Luken):Could you send down later and,
Nick (Herry):like Beanie just whether or not it's, like, preserving anything, I was going to have her, like, catalog information Yes. That's here so we can at least look at it once we're no longer here.
Shelby (Sahra):Great.
Justin (GM):On the other side of town, Mimi's nose, it just catalog something. A job. That's the fear. That's the fear.
Nick (Herry):Alright. Let's get out of here. We got a press conference to call for and figure some stuff out.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. I'll head up the stairs first.
Nick (Herry):Just, you
Steve (Luken):know, in case we've been discovered. Yep. Seems to make sense that the one who can do the punchy stuff goes first.
Shelby (Sahra):Great.
Justin (GM):You head up the stairs. You find his room. It's, again, pretty lacking in personality. It looks like this is a room that he occupies primarily to sleep in, and you find no evidence of anyone having been in here since in the last couple of days.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay. Alright. Then I'm following upstairs. And what do we do now, Harry?
Steve (Luken):Do you wanna go talk to some protesters?
Justin (GM):Is it time?
Nick (Herry):Yeah. Well, I'll I'll send Beanie down here and do a little cataloging of the basement. And then, yeah, I suppose we head head and talk to some protesters.
Steve (Luken):Let's go talk to the protesters.
Justin (GM):You are able to, like, notify Beanie, and she will go down. And I think there's a maybe a solid four minute conversation where she needs you to repeat what it is that you are down sending her down here to do.
Nick (Herry):Yeah.
Justin (GM):Do you give her any type of warning about what she's gonna be cataloging? I think
Nick (Herry):Harry just says, Beanie, I got a job for you. Oh, great. Yeah. We got yeah. It's a cataloging gig.
Nick (Herry):We got it Okay. Yeah. There's some there's some new information. It's very sensitive. Okay.
Nick (Herry):So it's between us. Can I trust you to
Justin (GM):know? Of course.
Nick (Herry):I know I can. But I gotta say I have to say it out loud. Okay. I give her the address and tell her about the trapdoor underneath the rug. Oh.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. It's an interesting
Justin (GM):Your use of trapdoor Yeah. Not just cellar door.
Nick (Herry):It's not a trap unless if you if you know about it. That's true.
Justin (GM):So let's refer to it as cellar door.
Nick (Herry):Sure. Mean, you'll see why I call it a trapdoor when you get there. But
Steve (Luken):Okay.
Nick (Herry):So what you're gonna need is basically, don't you don't need to move anything. You don't need to take anything. I just need you to, in your way, catalog all the information written in could be blood, could be feces, could be ink. I don't know. And I just need you to kind of, like, get as much information.
Nick (Herry):And then, once we get back home, we'll we'll sort of try and run down some leads on it.
Justin (GM):Senator Pinch, is this something we should notify the authorities about?
Nick (Herry):Not the authorities here in town, unfortunately.
Justin (GM):Understood. Should I bring, the black notebooks, or should I just go ahead and use the red binders for this?
Nick (Herry):We'll go black notebooks.
Justin (GM):Alright. Great. Thanks. Sounds easy.
Nick (Herry):Great. Thank you. Thank you, Bini.
Justin (GM):Thank you. The three of you head towards the where the caravan and the protesters are. Correct? You head out in that direction. There are is no clear sign of the guards or senator Reyes.
Justin (GM):At this point, you have it's now, I think, getting close to 11:00 after the conversation and moving to that portion of the town. But you can also feel some heightened tension in the air. People know that something is coming. The protesters are gathering ready to go. They have not recast the spell as of yet that will bind them to that space and then reinstigate the, sympathy magic.
Justin (GM):However, they are there. And you see that even more citizens have gathered from the town itself as well. It looks like most of them are, there for observation, but all of the same, individuals who had actively joined in the protest are also there. So in general, even more numbers are here than there were yesterday.
Nick (Herry):I haven't been here, so I don't know who any of these people are. So this is what I'm gonna walk behind you often.
Shelby (Sahra):That's that's fine. Are do we wanna, like, hold a press conference? Like, what are we what's our goal here?
Nick (Herry):We should have a chat with the the leaders here and let them know what we've got and what we're trying to do and see if we can bring peace around it.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay. Great. So we look around. Do we find Amira? Yep.
Justin (GM):Amira is there. So is Wayfinder Deeprock.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay.
Justin (GM):They appear to be talking.
Shelby (Sahra):Alright. So I'm going to approach them. Amira, do you have a second? Can we talk?
Justin (GM):Yeah. Is it something private?
Shelby (Sahra):A little bit. Do you mind?
Justin (GM):Oh, of course.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay.
Justin (GM):Wayfinder, Deep Rock kind of gestures and takes a step away.
Nick (Herry):Hello? Hello? Oh. Harry Pinch. How are doing?
Justin (GM):Nice to meet you, mister Pinch. Yeah. My name is Amir Rashad.
Nick (Herry):I've heard I've heard great things about what you're doing out here.
Justin (GM):Oh, thank you. Glad to hear the word is spreading.
Nick (Herry):Yep. Your door is getting out. People are people are starting to understand what's going on out here. So congratulations.
Justin (GM):Honestly, great to hear. I thank you. That actually means a lot to me.
Steve (Luken):You're welcome.
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah. So we found some information that we believe can paint who the real suspect is in this murder investigation.
Justin (GM):What do you mean by paint who the real suspect is?
Shelby (Sahra):Well, as you know, sister Henle has been the number one suspect. And we had that conversation with her yesterday and we no longer we we didn't believe that she was the real suspect, especially after our conversation with her. And we believe that we've figured out who really summoned that revenant.
Justin (GM):Oh, so you figured out who did it, not just who the suspect is?
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah. Well
Nick (Herry):Who we believed to have done
Shelby (Sahra):Who we believed to have done We
Steve (Luken):don't have badges or anything. You know, we aren't like the police here. So You're not guards.
Justin (GM):Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Steve (Luken):So, you know, when we say paint the suspect, we've investigated what we can. Yeah. But I don't think we are the ones who can, you know, say definitively how the author the authorities here are going to act on this information.
Justin (GM):Yeah. And I have news on that end too.
Nick (Herry):Oh. Oh. Yeah.
Justin (GM):Yeah. I mean, it doesn't look good. Sister Henle fled this not too long ago. Oh. Yeah.
Justin (GM):She fled into the woods. Looks pretty suspicious.
Shelby (Sahra):It does.
Nick (Herry):So There's that fear.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. She looked
Justin (GM):very upset. Okay. I assumed whatever conversation you all had with her last night spooked her, and so this morning she fled.
Nick (Herry):Just on foot? Yeah. Okay.
Justin (GM):I assume but you're now saying that you have another suspect?
Shelby (Sahra):Well, we have reason to believe that OtrA himself was involved in this. And if sister Henle has fled the scene, unfortunately, that seems extremely suspicious considering the nature of their relationship.
Justin (GM):Is sister Henel in danger?
Nick (Herry):I mean, there's a revenant in the woods from the last I heard.
Steve (Luken):That that revenant is still there. So, yes, she is in danger.
Shelby (Sahra):We found spell supplies and a beginner primal magic manual at Utrar's house, and we believe that Utrar was practicing magic and that he himself possibly summoned this revenant using his own blood.
Justin (GM):There's so many things wrong with what you just said.
Shelby (Sahra):Believe me.
Justin (GM):Know it doesn't to primal magic? What is this, like, some mass mass publishing company?
Shelby (Sahra):Basically. Yeah. Which is why he would have had to use so much blood magic.
Nick (Herry):Ugh. Well, we've got a few sides to this, or we've got a a few pieces here to to mister Deeprock, can you come back over here and we'll we'll talk with you as well. Let's get the Of course. Let's get the protest piece under conversation. Here's what I'm working on.
Nick (Herry):I'm senator Harry Pinch.
Justin (GM):Yeah. Nice to meet you. Yeah. Wayfinder Deep Rock.
Nick (Herry):Nice to meet you. I'm a I was sent here. We were sent here as a team to to effectively figure out what was going on and hopefully come to some variety of amicable means where we can get the salt moving and your guys word out and figure out what the next steps are. Here's what I can offer. Here's what I'm working on.
Nick (Herry):I've sent message back to the not only the king of NFR, but also my senate comrades in the circle of sand and the circle of gold as well as general Lautner suggesting strongly that your compatriots that have been locked up have been treated poorly. I don't know if you've heard the news, but there's a tussle in a cell last night with one of your friends. So I've strongly suggested, and I have no reason to believe that it won't be taken seriously, that lieutenant strike gets at least called off today, and hopefully, that leads to them being released shortly, which I know is one of you all's main priorities, which I understand and I can appreciate. The other piece is I've written up a resolution for a refugee program through Fresenium City where I actually do have some power. I can't get you guys a spot to live right here right now, but I can get you guys out and hopefully on the path to being safe.
Justin (GM):Give me a presence role. Deal.
Nick (Herry):I'm gonna use heart of a poet too. I can do it after. Which I did d four and I'll spend a hope. That'll be a 13 plus four. That's a 17 with fear.
Justin (GM):That all sounds very nice Sure. Senator Pinch.
Nick (Herry):Mhmm.
Justin (GM):I understand that things work through a system of requests and laws Sure. And policies here in Venator, and this is very likely the best that you can do. Yep. And I mean it when I say that we appreciate that. Yeah.
Justin (GM):But I also hope that you understand that that will take time. Absolutely. And that Resinium City is far from where my brothers and sisters in the Steelmarrow tribe Certainly. Are being taken advantage of and abused. And that any refuge that exists far from that border is only putting more and more distance that they would have to travel to get there.
Justin (GM):I hope that your plan includes some type of way that would alleviate that additional distance.
Nick (Herry):Progress takes time. I understand that. I understand you're trying to solve a problem now. That being said.
Justin (GM):A problem that has existed
Steve (Luken):Yes.
Justin (GM):For nearly fifty years.
Nick (Herry):But you Absolutely. But you and I are trying to solve it here and now. I understand.
Justin (GM):He looks over at the much younger, Amira.
Nick (Herry):Yeah.
Justin (GM):I understand. Yes. I am merely trying to give voice to the younger generations and people who are getting ready to take the reins of leadership. Absolutely. And I'm preparing you for the voices that they will be lifting up.
Justin (GM):I appreciate that. So I think we are in agreement here, and I'm just making sure that we are on the same page for these things.
Nick (Herry):I love it. All I can say, and I'll say this to you as well, Meera, it's a small door. I'm not claiming that this door is the doors we're trying to open today is the solve or the be all end all. But if you can get in the house, it's easier to get into other rooms, if that makes sense. So we're opening one small door in Resinium City that will offer potentially a lot more legality to not just live in Resinium City, but offer some citizenship past that if we can work together and continue progress.
Justin (GM):I am interested in finding out what these other rooms may look like.
Nick (Herry):Great. Thank you so much. Is there any way that I could figure out, maybe there's reaching out to Beanie, where we're at with strike and anything if that message got responded to? Yep. I think if you I probably touched base with her on the week here.
Nick (Herry):So I guess what what do I know from that?
Justin (GM):What are you asking about specifically?
Nick (Herry):So I had her send out that missive, you know, earlier this morning to them. So just kind of being like, did we get any response to my recommendations from the other senators circles and the king and general Wautner regarding Gustavo's lack of action and, lieutenant strikes, aggression, and, frankly, mismanagement. Or am I just bullshitting here?
Justin (GM):I you see the a light ping on your sending stone that is, like, specifically to beanies, like, tone. Senator Pinch?
Steve (Luken):Yeah. Hey. Hey. Hey. Where you at?
Nick (Herry):Have you made have you made it to the basement yet? What
Justin (GM):Yeah. Is going on down here?
Nick (Herry):I I did say it's a yeah. It's a trapdoor, but you know what it is.
Justin (GM):You told I I really should have brought the red binder.
Nick (Herry):Oh. Is the oh. Always forget I always forget which one's the
Justin (GM):What do you mean you forget? I did It's binders, which obviously can contain multiple like, I'm gonna wanna I want samples of some of this stuff. And so the binder will collect samples, and I can Sure. Like, put the Sure.
Nick (Herry):That's on me. That's hey. I apologize. That's
Justin (GM):on me. We can review it on the way back. Yes.
Nick (Herry):Like, stuff. We'll we'll yeah. Fine.
Justin (GM):I got a message from General Lautner, and it seems like what the general's going to have happen is they're going to have lieutenant Strike report to Residium City immediately to make a full in person report.
Nick (Herry):I love it.
Justin (GM):A waygate has been opened, and lieutenant Strike is ordered to make their way to the re Resinium City immediately.
Nick (Herry):Wonderful. Is there any word on who's, put in temporary charge of
Justin (GM):As of right now, it's senator Reyes. Great. Wonderful. What a treat. It's sometimes hard for me to understand sarcasm Sure.
Justin (GM):Over sending stone.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. No. This I mean, this is partially great. That's it's wonderful. Things are moving.
Nick (Herry):I appreciate it, Bini.
Justin (GM):Of course. I'm gonna go back to, did you notice in the far corner, there were just a bunch of, like, numbers repeating?
Nick (Herry):I know. That's why you're there. It's honestly fascinating. I'm so glad that it's fascinating, Bini.
Justin (GM):Great. I'm gonna get back at this. Yep. Turn every rock. Right.
Justin (GM):Wish I had my red binder.
Nick (Herry):Okay. Good news. Looks like, lieutenant Strike has been, at least temporarily relieved and is on their way to Resinium City to, be talked to by their boss, who I happen to have worked with in the past. Now we just need to work with, Gustavo on maybe just resolving this peacefully and letting the townsperson go and letting your folks go as well. So that'll be our next step.
Justin (GM):That is impressive, actually.
Nick (Herry):Sometimes you gotta call, bud. By
Justin (GM):the way, I don't know if Amira mentioned this. Sister Henle fled this morning.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. We gotta go to the woods.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. I just wanted to make sure you guys knew we were taking care of you before we
Steve (Luken):Can I pull some of the adventurers who have been on protect duty to come with us into the woods? You're more than welcome to try. Yeah. So Yeah. Next up, we're gonna go to the woods.
Steve (Luken):We gotta go
Shelby (Sahra):We have to.
Steve (Luken):Do anything we can to save sister Henle. I fly over to kind of the adventurers camp. You know, it's what we're midmorning. They're awake.
Justin (GM):Right? Are they there? I'm gonna spend a fear
Steve (Luken):Sure.
Justin (GM):Yeah. Uh-huh.
Nick (Herry):To not give us any help.
Justin (GM):Yeah. You arrive, and all of the adventurers have the Ba'az preordained quests Okay. Pre blessed quest sheets.
Nick (Herry):Oh, that's right. You told them not
Justin (GM):to That they
Nick (Herry):are anything but one. But they were told to I
Steve (Luken):told them not to escalate.
Justin (GM):And they are all they're all reading these things and they give you a wave. They're like, most of them are packing up and the leaders are reviewing these sheets. They give you a wave. Prelit. Good morning.
Justin (GM):Good good morning. We're we're on our way out. We've received a new round of orders. From who? From From Sender Demerick?
Justin (GM):From Sender Demerick. Awesome. Glad to hear. What are your new orders? Oh.
Justin (GM):There is a group of Kobolds that seem to have been given another More Kobold depopulation? Well, seems like they gave a recent group quite the run and we are now ordered to go provide additional support. All 14 of you? Yeah. It seems to be quite bad.
Steve (Luken):Well, hey, don't let me stand in the way of your written orders. But any of you, any of the 14, you know, before you head out, anyone feeling bold this morning?
Shelby (Sahra):Oh.
Justin (GM):Give me a presence check.
Steve (Luken):You know I will.
Justin (GM):I'm gonna need you. When I make
Steve (Luken):a presence roll, can spend a hope to add my strength to it, so I'm
Nick (Herry):definitely gonna do that. Can I also give the help action?
Justin (GM):Yes. Yeah. Okay. I am gonna need you to beat 20.
Steve (Luken):Okay. So I have plus two for my presence
Nick (Herry):Yep.
Steve (Luken):And plus three for my strength, that's plus five. Yep. Marking that hope. Plus an extra d six from Yep. Him.
Steve (Luken):Can I spend a second hope to also use an experience? Or is it Yeah. The cog Yep. That I'm also gonna do my Prelative Residia up, like Yep. Yep.
Steve (Luken):I plus two for that. So okay. Before we do this, I'm just going to add all my pluses up, which is plus two, two, three is seven. So I have a plus seven and the d six.
Nick (Herry):We've got a very scary afternoon morning and afternoon here. There's there's there's some big stuff going on. I'd like to offer my rally die to everyone in the party Yeah. Which is another d six if you need it.
Steve (Luken):Okay. So that is right now, I'm at a nine with fear, plus seven is 16, plus your d six.
Justin (GM):A d six for rally plus a d six.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. Do you wanna roll yours?
Nick (Herry):You go ahead.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. I'll do it. That is only a 17, but I'm going to use one of my paradise and get to a 21.
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah. Use those resources.
Justin (GM):Yeah. It's a 21
Steve (Luken):with fear. A lot of
Justin (GM):them kind of look around and look at the you can see that the monetary reward on this is disproportionate to the amount of work Sure. That they are doing. Sender Demerich here is making up the hard play against you.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. Of course, he is.
Justin (GM):And is basically like, would would you like some free money? Mhmm. And a vast majority of these adventurers are going to take the easy money
Shelby (Sahra):in this scenario. Yeah.
Justin (GM):You do see a group of three adventures kind of eye this. I you as a prelate of Baz and hear you say the feeling wanting to be bold. Yeah. And they hand the pre they say, are you saying that Boz is going to bless your missive as well? Absolutely.
Justin (GM):They will set this one aside.
Steve (Luken):Because I could I could do that. Like, yeah, you can do that. I am Blessing their Yep. Is something here. Absolutely.
Justin (GM):On behalf of Boaz for And, yeah, they will set their side. You will have three people who will join in your
Steve (Luken):venture into this woods. I also imagine a little bit, like, all 14 of these saw me come back from the woods pretty fucked up. Yeah. Yesterday. So like, I only want the ones who are, like I don't think any of them have illusions as to what they're signing up for
Justin (GM):Correct. Here. It's like And Harry's rally was literally
Steve (Luken):like This is
Justin (GM):This is gonna be scary.
Nick (Herry):Gonna be
Steve (Luken):fucked up. Yeah.
Nick (Herry):The other thing Harry, as we're walking away from all these other ones, like, have you boys ever been to the fortune in Resinium City? Might have some new opportunities in the big city. It's it's a it's you guys have a lovely quaint little fortune out here, but you boys won't be able to believe what you see in Resinium City.
Justin (GM):I heard that they've got a whole, like, ring in
Steve (Luken):it. Oh. Oh. Oh. We have two.
Nick (Herry):Gambling rings. Two? Just like within earshot of all the guys that said no. I'm just like, oh, these guys are just getting promotion on promotion on promotion.
Justin (GM):It's Tell
Steve (Luken):me, what are your names?
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah.
Steve (Luken):Look. Yes. Do I wanna be shitty to Justin and make him have more names? Yes. But also, I think Lucan is, like Absolutely.
Steve (Luken):Taking these guys into actual danger. Yeah. Wants to be actually inspirational and, like, to have them feel like they're doing this as part of the team.
Justin (GM):Yep. Dawson, Jace, and Frankie.
Steve (Luken):Dawson, Jace.
Nick (Herry):This year on the CW. Yeah. I'm real
Shelby (Sahra):Chase and Frank.
Steve (Luken):Oh, we're we're missing a Joey? Yeah. Dawson, Chase, Frankie, so glad to have you aboard. This is gonna be fun. Here's the mission.
Steve (Luken):We're gonna meet up with a couple friends of mine. We're gonna go into the woods. Someone has gone missing in there. We're gonna find her.
Justin (GM):Oh, that seems easy.
Steve (Luken):Full disclosure, there's also a revenant. I'm gonna strongly suggest you don't try and take on the revenant by yourself. Okay. Convinced. Yeah.
Steve (Luken):But why don't you come with me? Our group will, you know, come up with the game plan, and we're gonna
Justin (GM):make it happen. It looks like Dawson is some type of, like, barbarian. And Frankie, she is, like, this really, like, ripped fighter. And Jace is, like, a wizard. Yes.
Justin (GM):And Jace raises his hand and says, hey. Yeah. Hey. Neither of my friends here know what a Revenant is, but I do.
Steve (Luken):That's bad, man. That's real bad. Yeah. It is, but with teamwork and with Baz's good fortunes filing upon us, I I think we're gonna be we're gonna be successful. My friend, Tara, and I nearly took it out yesterday and it ran away.
Steve (Luken):With luck, it might still be, you know, weaker than it was when we found it. But, you know, keep your wits about you. I trust you to take care of of Dawson and Frankie and not let them take this threat too lightly.
Justin (GM):Oh oh, okay. I'll I'll do my best. You're a
Steve (Luken):project manager.
Justin (GM):This is a promotion.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. Sure is.
Justin (GM):Great. Alright.
Nick (Herry):Well just got way better, like, in 10 Well than
Steve (Luken):survive the revenue. That'll be
Shelby (Sahra):fine. Yeah.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. So I take them back. Okay. I think it's time for us to Yep.
Shelby (Sahra):I think so.
Steve (Luken):Go into the woods. Alright. Here's what I'm thinking, guys. Why don't I fly over the treetops and try and do recon that way, see what I can find? Mhmm.
Steve (Luken):If any of the five of you see sister Hennel or anything that gives you alarm, start yelling, and we will come to where the noise is and and, you know, take care of what we gotta take care of
Shelby (Sahra):here. Alright.
Steve (Luken):Does that sound like a plan?
Nick (Herry):Dawson, do you know how to make a pelican noise?
Justin (GM):It's like kinda like guttural. Right? Like Yeah. Great.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. That's the you got it in one.
Shelby (Sahra):Nailed it.
Nick (Herry):That's your code word.
Justin (GM):What wait. Sorry. What is it code for?
Nick (Herry):If we see a lady running
Justin (GM):Any lady running. Lady running.
Steve (Luken):Honestly, yeah. If you see
Nick (Herry):any lady running around the woods, yes, please. Absolutely. Or
Justin (GM):or a revenant. Or a revenant.
Nick (Herry):Either one of those two things.
Justin (GM):One co word, two things.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Either one seems important for us all to know.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. The lady we're looking for is in her late forties.
Justin (GM):Okay. Revenants, I'm I'm familiar with sister Henle.
Shelby (Sahra):Oh,
Steve (Luken):yeah. Yeah. Revenant's very dangerous. Sister Henle may be grouchier than the revenant. So Okay.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. Yeah. That's a Don't expect her to be friendly. Okay. I don't know.
Steve (Luken):Be nice to her. Okay.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. Deep Rock, if I'm coming, you are too. It's an old man's game night.
Justin (GM):I'm sorry. What?
Nick (Herry):Come on. We're gonna go find your friend. Bring a stick or something. You
Justin (GM):see, he reaches down into the sand, grabs a handful of sand, and as he picks it up, the sand just becomes like a rock.
Steve (Luken):Hell, yeah.
Justin (GM):And he just turns the sand into this maul.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. I knew you had it in you. Wait. Sorry.
Steve (Luken):Could he do that the whole time? Has he always been able to do that?
Shelby (Sahra):Dude, I don't know, man.
Steve (Luken):Can you do that? I don't know. Let me try.
Justin (GM):Give me an instinctual.
Shelby (Sahra):That is a 17 with fear.
Justin (GM):I love that I got
Nick (Herry):a fear.
Steve (Luken):When do we just start saying note with Justin asked this for
Justin (GM):a little bit? You are able to craft a what kind of weapon do you wanna make out of the sand?
Shelby (Sahra):I wanna make like a bow staff thing that I Yeah. Can like twirl Yeah. Like
Justin (GM):You make this really it's pretty simplistic. It's mostly this is the first time you've crafted a weapon out of sand.
Nick (Herry):So it's mostly
Shelby (Sahra):just a stick.
Justin (GM):Yeah. Yeah. It's it's just a really long but sturdy looking stick.
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah.
Justin (GM):I think there's probably a look of shotgun in your eyes as much as anyone else's. Yeah. You've got a stick now, and I've got another fear. This is a win win. The seven of you all begin to make your way into the sparsely populated woods.
Justin (GM):I think you are maybe moving a little more cautiously, but with the difference being today when you are going into the woods, it is daytime, which is a marked difference from the last time the two, of you, Lucan and Sara, went into the woods when it was night, making this a little less spooky. But this time, you know what awaits you in the woods. As you begin to make your way in there, at some point, Lucan, you said you wanted to fly?
Steve (Luken):Yeah. I'm flying up above, trying to cover more ground that way because, you know, we want to take out the Revenant, but we're I view this as a search mission as much as a hunt mission. Yes.
Justin (GM):You know? Go ahead and give me a presence roll.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. I am going to spend that hope to add my strength again. That is a 18 with fear. Stop. Look, no.
Steve (Luken):If you this is in the rules. If he runs out of fear tokens, he loses.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. We have to keep playing.
Justin (GM):You fly up and out into the the wooded area, and in the not so distant horizon, you see smoke. As you approach closer, you see sister Henle has lit a significant amount of brush on fire. The fire is kind of framing behind her and keeping the revenant from getting to her as she seems to be underneath. You can't quite see because she's underneath another, like, jut of rock. But you can see her form kneeling down over something with the burning brush behind her and the revenant almost like a predatory cat in a cage going back and forth over, back and forth in front of the fire trying to find a way inside.
Steve (Luken):I am going to then fly back to the team here, relay all that to you guys, and say to Sara specifically, Sara, do you know what she's doing? Is this like are you familiar with this kind of magic? Like, should we go help?
Shelby (Sahra):Let's find out. Okay. Can I do a knowledge check?
Steve (Luken):Yeah. Go ahead and give me a knowledge check.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay. That is a 17 with fear.
Justin (GM):If she is casting primal magic, it is likely to be extremely volatile with the combination of just being under duress. Generally, not an encouraged experience for any magical caster to be under duress. Well, that's I think what differentiates adventurers from arcanists and ritualists is how capable are you at casting magic under duress. Mhmm. She as a not fully trained ritualist will not be as good at casting magic under the pressure of a predatory revenant over her shoulder, probably why she has lit this fire Yeah.
Justin (GM):To keep the revenant at bay while she's doing something. But without any context, he has no and he has provided you no information.
Shelby (Sahra):Is there something that I know about revenants and fire that I understand specifically why the fire is keeping it away, or is it just, like, in general, it just doesn't wanna get near the fire?
Justin (GM):The four elements of water, air, earth, fire are kind of, like, the tenants, the four, like, pillars of primal magic.
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah.
Justin (GM):And they can be used to confuse or keep at bay or confound. So it's probably not a long term fix or anything like that. Mhmm. But for instance, putting running water between you and a creature is like a primal magic basic that will keep it at bay for a period of time. Hitting it with fire will can blind it, things like that.
Justin (GM):These are just primal magic basics. Very simple cantrip like magics that a ritualist will learn to keep themselves much like you grounded yourself. That is a tenant of earth magic that you have used from early years learning prime primal rituals. Yeah. Early things you learned while doing primal rituals.
Justin (GM):So that being said, probably talk clock is ticking on
Steve (Luken):that front.
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah. I don't know exactly what she's doing, but I know we don't have a lot of time. So we gotta get over there.
Justin (GM):Alright.
Steve (Luken):I think this is a spot where Lucan feels pretty like, this is the kind of thing Lucan is used to kinda
Justin (GM):Yeah.
Steve (Luken):Taking the lead on.
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah.
Steve (Luken):Everyone, follow me. I know which way we're going. I'm gonna stay in sight. Follow me. We'll get there.
Steve (Luken):We'll we'll take care of this.
Shelby (Sahra):And as Sara's walking, she's practicing practicing with with her her bow staff and she whacks herself a couple times while she's still getting the hang of it.
Steve (Luken):Lucan makes a mental note like, alright, well, of us are gonna keep working together. Maybe I should, like, try and help her out with the with weapons training a little bit when we get back to Rysinium City. Yeah. So I think we get there. I'm going to say, Sara, would you be willing to talk to sister Henle, see if there's anything we can avoid doing that's you know, like, figure out what she's doing, not just how we can help, but, like, how we can stay out of her way.
Steve (Luken):I do it myself, but I'm terrified of sister Henle. So we're gonna let you take the lead on that one. I'll do my best. Yeah.
Justin (GM):You all arrive, and not a ton has changed since you saw this situation last, Lucan. The fires are dying down a little bit. She is underneath this rock outcropping. You see that she has created a chalk circle, underneath and on the stone at her feet. It is maybe seven feet wide.
Justin (GM):There are candles at five of the corners. She has in her hands a book that is kind of hovering a few inches over her outstretched palm. She is encanting something in a language that only you would understand, Sara, and the rock that is in the circle itself seems to be deteriorating. And almost like water in a sink, you can see it goes down into the hole itself, and you can feel a wind behind you pulling you, not strong or anything, just almost like a light breeze moving towards the hole. And the smoke that is the revenant is all flowing towards that hole.
Justin (GM):She's doing something that seems to be pulling the revenant toward her and down into the hole. That's what you were able to tell in this moment. You see Dawson, Jace, and Frankie all draw their weapons. The wayfinder takes his weapon out as well. They are all ready to go if the spotlight is on you.
Shelby (Sahra):Zara's going to carefully get close enough to the circle so that sister Henle can hear me, but not close enough that I'm in immediate danger. I'm keeping a safe distance ish. And I kinda yell out to her, and I say, sister Henle, what are you doing?
Justin (GM):I have to put him back. I I have to. It's it's Otras rage. It's his anger. I I have
Steve (Luken):to get rid of it. He's a fucking fool, and when he summoned it, he didn't do it properly. It's just gonna keep feeding off of we have to put it back.
Justin (GM):It's never gonna go
Steve (Luken):away if we just fit it.
Shelby (Sahra):How can I help?
Justin (GM):She gestures to a spot on, like, kind of another triangular point on the ritual. You're gonna have to go through the fire to get to her though. So I'll need an agility reaction roll. Okay. So just two d four, hope and fear do not matter in this moment.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay.
Justin (GM):You're just trying to beat a 12. Okay.
Shelby (Sahra):That is a 16 with fear.
Justin (GM):You are able to make your way through the fire and, position yourself, across from her. Now that you are much closer to the actual magical circle itself, you can tell that she has kind of opened up a portal of some sort to this plane of primordial emotion. It is not the darkness that you previously perceived. It is just raw emotion emotion down there. Okay.
Justin (GM):And she you can feel yourself kind of all of the mixed feelings that you've had over the past day or so, kind of navigating all of these different areas are kind of broiling up inside of you, even just being near to this space. Go ahead and give me an instinct to roll, and you are trying to beat a 20. I got a 20 with hope.
Nick (Herry):Great. Wow.
Justin (GM):That will, move the countdown. A success with hope ticks it down by two, so it moves it from an eight to a six.
Shelby (Sahra):Nice.
Justin (GM):That is pulling the down into the space. So there are two things that must be accomplished in this moment. The must be weakened to the point that it can be fully taken into this other plane of raw emotion, and the ritual must be completed. Both must be accomplished for this encounter to be accomplished. So the countdown is tracking the ritual, and obviously, the HP of the monster is tracking its its status as weak.
Justin (GM):This is still a success, so the spotlight is on you all.
Nick (Herry):Is there anything else are the primal magic users the only ones that can help with the ritual?
Justin (GM):Anyone is going to be able to help with the It's going to be a matter of how Cool. That will change.
Steve (Luken):I am going to take a swing at weakening it. Yep. So I'm just going to dive bomb it and punch it with my knuckle blades. If I'm successful, I'm going to spend a hope to do more damage because I can do that when I'm flying.
Justin (GM):Okay. Dawson is going to provide you with the help action. He's going to kind of flank with you, so go ahead and add a d six to your
Steve (Luken):okay. +1 82326 with fear. Great. That is a hit. Yeah.
Steve (Luken):So I'm going to spend a hope, and I will do an extra d eight of damage here. That is going to be a yeah. That's going to be a 19 for the damage roll.
Justin (GM):I'm going to And I'm going
Steve (Luken):to also, just for proof I'm not cheating, using one of my paradise to get myself more hope.
Justin (GM):Okay. I'm going to use a feature on the demon Sorry. The revenant called my turn, which I previously used, where I spend a number of fear equal to the HP marked by the revenant to cause the attacker to mark the same number of HP. Yep. So I will spend two fear.
Justin (GM):You also take two
Steve (Luken):hits as I know how this one works. Thanks. It you
Justin (GM):fly by it and it takes the the hit glancing on the shoulder and uses the momentum to ravage your right wing with a claw. The spotlight, I believe, is still on me though because you rolled with fear. That was just a reaction. Yeah. I will then move to attack Harry.
Justin (GM):Why?
Nick (Herry):He's not even in the mix.
Shelby (Sahra):Poor Harry.
Nick (Herry):He's not even over there.
Steve (Luken):He's just a little guy.
Shelby (Sahra):He's a little guy.
Justin (GM):He's gonna close it on Harry. Okay. I only rolled a 10.
Nick (Herry):I think that is a miss. That is a miss.
Shelby (Sahra):Nice.
Justin (GM):Bitch. He bounced towards you and absolutely just just stuck. And yeah, you see, Jace gives you two thumbs up, Harry. Harry
Nick (Herry):is going to cast invisibility on himself. Great. I just need to beat a 10, which I do. I got to 12. Is that a fear hope thing?
Nick (Herry):I don't know what a reaction role is. If a spellcast role is a reaction role or an act I think it's probably an action role. Right? Yeah. So it's with hope either way, so go back yourself.
Nick (Herry):So I need to mark a stress to do that. Does anyone mind if I take just an immediate another action? I know that's not always the coolest thing in the world to do, I but
Steve (Luken):would love it if you did that.
Nick (Herry):Okay. While we're here and while I'm on a roll, Harry's gonna mark a stress to cast runic circle to create a temporary magic circle on the ground where you stand all adversaries within melee range or who enter melee range take two d 12 plus four magic damage and are knocked back to very close range. So it takes 19 damage from Harry basically you see Harry turns invisible and then what you don't see is Harry with his umbrella making little like dots and dashes in a circle around him and you just see a little like glowing
Steve (Luken):circle pop up and all of a
Nick (Herry):sudden, this revenant just like blasts back taking damage.
Justin (GM):Did you make an attack roll? Did I just not hear
Steve (Luken):it?
Nick (Herry):You don't have to. It's make Marcus stressed to create a temporary magic circle on the ground where you stand. All adversaries within melee range Oh. You just hit me Yep. Or who enter melee range take two d 12 plus four match Right.
Nick (Herry):Damage and are knocked back to very close range. Wow. So no longer in melee with me. And how much damage? 19.
Shelby (Sahra):Good job, Harry Pinch.
Nick (Herry):Go eat go eat shit, Revan.
Justin (GM):I will again use a reaction to yeah. There's no I will again use a reaction to spend a number of fear equal to the HP marked by the Revenant to cause the attacker to take the same number of HP.
Nick (Herry):How many is that? Two? Two. Cool.
Shelby (Sahra):I'm gonna Oh, you still have Fearland? Yep. I was like, you're you're out of fear.
Steve (Luken):No. You're good.
Nick (Herry):Cool. And I took two turns of whoever's Were you Hope again? Yes. I was.
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah.
Steve (Luken):Okay. So we get to keep going then? Yeah. How's that ritual coming?
Shelby (Sahra):Sara looks at sister Henle and I'm like, what do you need me to do? I'm just standing here. How can I help?
Justin (GM):She says, keep casting with me and she hands you a you are able to see into her book from where you are.
Steve (Luken):Okay.
Justin (GM):Great. So you can cast again in this moment and try to move the counter down.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay. Great. Let's do that then.
Steve (Luken):Could I direct Chase the wizard to help? Yes. He does magic stuff on it. Yep. So I yeah.
Steve (Luken):I look at Chase and say, Chase, help. Don't just stand there. Help with the ritual. Come on. On.
Justin (GM):He moves his two thumbs up from Harry over to you and makes his way over there. Go
Shelby (Sahra):ahead. Great.
Steve (Luken):So you'll get a d six.
Justin (GM):Yeah. I I will actually have him roll his own.
Steve (Luken):Oh, great. Okay. Yeah.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay. I'll
Steve (Luken):stay out of
Shelby (Sahra):it. Okay. And I'm going to spend a hope since I'm in a natural environment, I can gain plus two bonus on the roll. Let's see. And I'm gonna mark two stress to change it into hope instead of fear.
Steve (Luken):That's sick. That's so cool.
Nick (Herry):I love that I love that feature.
Justin (GM):That makes me very sad.
Shelby (Sahra):So 18 with hope.
Nick (Herry):I think
Justin (GM):I said did I say what the d c was?
Shelby (Sahra):Oh, and the d six as well.
Justin (GM):Can you roll the d six?
Shelby (Sahra):Yes. A three.
Justin (GM):Okay. So it's over 20. That was a success with Hope? Yes. So that, ticks it down another two.
Justin (GM):Okay. So it's now at four. And that was with Hope, so you guys may keep, keep going. Jace will roll, if that's okay with you all. Yeah.
Justin (GM):He rolls he has a plus four. Oh, he got a 10. That sucks. But he doesn't roll with hope of fear, so Yeah. His does not count towards anything.
Justin (GM):Yep. He just is trying to I'm trying my best, guys.
Steve (Luken):Hey. Just stick with it. You're doing great. You can
Nick (Herry):do it.
Steve (Luken):You can do it.
Justin (GM):The book very well. I can't see. It's upside down from where I am. It's upside down. I'm trying.
Justin (GM):I also don't speak. I am an Arcanist, But I'm trying my best. Keep at keep at it,
Shelby (Sahra):kid.
Justin (GM):I have blood. If it comes to that, I have blood. Blood's a round three thing.
Steve (Luken):Okay. Kind of a weird we all have blood. I'm I'm glad you do too.
Justin (GM):Great. I'm gonna spend a few to go. And I am going to I'm gonna Come on.
Steve (Luken):Me take another d 12.
Nick (Herry):Come on. Absolutely not.
Justin (GM):I'm going to go after Lucan. You're gonna you're gonna roll that with disadvantage. 16?
Steve (Luken):Yeah. Yeah. You got it. I
Justin (GM):rolled a classic damage roll from Justin the DM for a whopping. It's so low. Why can't I do this math?
Steve (Luken):Oh my god.
Nick (Herry):It's single digits. Oh, sorry.
Justin (GM):Four plus three. Seven damage.
Steve (Luken):That that's one HP for me. Truly.
Justin (GM):So it's one away four numbers
Steve (Luken):to get to that seven. So I trust minimum That's why the
Justin (GM):math is one away from minimum damage on this super scary bad bad monster. Yeah. I'm
Nick (Herry):done. Harry is going to use his make a scene as bard feature spend three hope to temporarily distract a target within close range giving them a negative two penalty to their difficulty. So here, Harry's just like whistling and making noise from invisibility. Just like noises in this dude's ear just trying to like distract him. So like The the revenant.
Nick (Herry):Running around him.
Justin (GM):The revenant, like a confused dog is looking around
Nick (Herry):Yep. Throwing little sticks and like nothing to do damage, but just enough to like Yeah. Where the fuck is this coming from?
Justin (GM):At this point, the revenant looks pretty like not its body is very much, like a cloud. It has lost a lot of its physical what was keeping it close and tight together is it's quite amorphous at this point. And, the amount of smoke trail that is leading over the fire and into the, pitch to the emotional plane is quite long at this point. So the spotlight goes for you.
Nick (Herry):Where are we at on the count? You are at four.
Steve (Luken):Okay. Thank you. While he's distracted
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah. Continue the ritual? Or
Nick (Herry):Okay. Get maybe get a hidden.
Steve (Luken):Get it.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay. Yes.
Nick (Herry):Because it's negative two, so you probably will Oh, yeah. Have a higher chance of success.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. So I'm going to dust myself off, start flying again and do another kind of swooping attack down. So this is a melee attack. That is only a 12. Do I have the help from my He will give
Justin (GM):you the help action. Is that to my A d six. Yep.
Steve (Luken):Oh, great. 18.
Justin (GM):Yes. That is a hit.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. So I'm gonna say, you know, Frankie just, like, loses an arrow and Right between, like, right between the eyes there. So that's a hit. I am going to again spend a hope to do some additional damage here, and that was with hope that time.
Justin (GM):Okay. That
Steve (Luken):is 16 plus $6.22
Justin (GM):on the damage. Nice. At this point, the revenant has lost all form that it had, and the smoke around Jace and Sara and sister Henle is a cloud of black mist. The revenant is itself completely lost its physical form. It just needs to be entirely taken down into the portal itself.
Justin (GM):You have you've defeated it from its physical form. It just needs to be vanquished into the space.
Steve (Luken):I fly back around and give Dawson a huge high five for that assist on
Justin (GM):the Thanks for
Steve (Luken):the blessing. And then I look at Saria and say, Saria, I think we're up to you now.
Shelby (Sahra):Yep. Okay. Yep. I'm gonna continue the ritual. And I'm gonna I'm gonna spin another hope to gain a plus two bonus.
Shelby (Sahra):So that's 19 with hope.
Justin (GM):That is a fail.
Nick (Herry):Do you have any other way to get one more point? Do have a rally die?
Steve (Luken):I have a rally
Nick (Herry):die. The d six. Yeah. The d six. Yep.
Nick (Herry):Which would get it. Alright. And one
Shelby (Sahra):a one. But I made it.
Justin (GM):That is a success with hope. So you are down to two at this point. You just need another success with hope would get you down to zero.
Shelby (Sahra):Mhmm.
Justin (GM):However, I'm going to spend a fear. The dark cloud is swirling around you. It is hard to see exactly what's happening. There are bolts of red rage lightning that are cracking almost like static electricity between your fingers as you feel again all of those emotions building up for the past couple of days. The wind is whipping around, and you see sister Henle lose her footing.
Justin (GM):She is going to fall into the pit Oh. If you do not intercede.
Nick (Herry):You have Can it just be her? It could be any of us.
Justin (GM):You are all too far away. You are on the other side of the fire.
Nick (Herry):What if I have something that can If you have far range.
Justin (GM):If you have something from far range
Nick (Herry):Yeah.
Justin (GM):Absolutely. You will have a difficulty to see because she is, like, obscured a little bit. Yeah. I physically intercession, she is the only one physically close enough.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay.
Justin (GM):If you have other ways to intercede, absolutely. Doing so may also put you in danger, though. Similar in the way that saving a drowning person without a floatie Right. Puts you in danger.
Steve (Luken):I can't get there. Do I see this starting
Justin (GM):to happen at least? Like, I notice this? I think you notice it. Again, your DC will be harder. I'm not saying like, physical intervention will anyone in danger.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. All I'm saying is I would like to turn my attention that way Yeah. Knowing I can't get there at this moment. But
Shelby (Sahra):I'm gonna scream,
Nick (Herry):help. Terry's going to cast Arcane Door. It's a spellcaster roll DC 13. I'll use my subtle spell experience.
Justin (GM):Before you roll this, if I remember correctly, spells like a dimension door style, like teleport in.
Nick (Herry):Yep.
Justin (GM):It is not creature can go through
Steve (Luken):it.
Justin (GM):Is it a you read read this description of the spell for me.
Nick (Herry):When you have no adversaries within melee range, make a spell cast roll 13. On a success, spend a hope to create a portal from where you are to a point within far range you can see. It closes once a creature has passed through it. Doesn't say which side that's passed through it.
Steve (Luken):Cut out. So it comes to me. Yep.
Justin (GM):All of that is true. A failure here
Nick (Herry):Yeah.
Justin (GM):Will be very bad.
Nick (Herry):Everybody good with me trying?
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah, man. Sure.
Nick (Herry):I'm gonna use my Rally die. Have to get a 13.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. I got I can I can throw you a plus two after we get the result if you need it? Plus, I'll get a
Nick (Herry):plus two from my experience. Yeah.
Justin (GM):You have the hope to spend for your experience.
Nick (Herry):Oh, yeah. I've got four left.
Steve (Luken):Yeah, man. Do the thing.
Nick (Herry):Does that feel okay to you
Justin (GM):everybody? Yep. I'd be mad if you didn't.
Nick (Herry):How does a fourteen sixteen with hope feel?
Justin (GM):Oh. What?
Nick (Herry):The spell cast is a 13.
Steve (Luken):Okay. Great.
Justin (GM):Wow. Yeah. Describe what this looks like.
Nick (Herry):So Harry see or hears Sarah hollering about something, sees sees sister Henle slipping and falling potentially into the thing, starts banging his quickly banging his umbrella to a rhythm to start making his runic door underneath where sister Hansel is standing so that she can come directly to where
Justin (GM):he is. The door opens up, and the direction of her fall does not quite have enough momentum yet. And she falls through your door before she falls into the pit, reappears where you are, and is not does not fall into the pit That's good. Around you. That is a success with hope.
Nick (Herry):Finish it up.
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah. Let's finish this ritual. Alright. And I'm gonna spend a hope to gain plus two.
Justin (GM):Sister Hannah lays it. She's like, you doing okay? Oh.
Nick (Herry):Hi. Senator Harry Bench. How are you?
Justin (GM):What a handsome man you are.
Steve (Luken):Thank you.
Shelby (Sahra):Alright. Oh. It was crazy. Success.
Justin (GM):Yeah. That why don't you describe what finishing this ritual looks like?
Shelby (Sahra):Just a a right beacon of light kind of shoots out of the hole, and there's, like, a screeching sound as all of the smoke turns into this, like, whirling tornado that gets sucked down like water going down a drain. And then there's, like, a blast of air that kind of pushes us all and blows our hair back, and then it's just silence.
Justin (GM):The rock that previously had fallen into the hole reappears sealing it shut. And the fire around you and the brush is still burning, but that is the only sound you hear as you have this ritual and vanquished the revenant back to the realm of emotion.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. Great job, everybody. Wow.
Nick (Herry):Yeah. Hell.
Steve (Luken):Great. Yeah.
Justin (GM):The four people that you brought with you were all like, wow. That was intense.
Steve (Luken):Went well. You guys alright? Is everybody okay?
Justin (GM):I feel good. Yeah. I also feel good.
Steve (Luken):Like that. I feel great. Dawson, Jace, Frankie, you guys good?
Justin (GM):Yeah. We're good. Yeah.
Steve (Luken):Nice work, everybody. Did you have fun? No. Was it better than depopulating Kobolds?
Justin (GM):I unknown?
Steve (Luken):Yeah. I guess you
Justin (GM):only have the context for one. Right? Yeah. Only have the context for one.
Steve (Luken):But you're gonna have some great stories to tell at the fortune later, aren't
Justin (GM):you? That's true. That's true. So, yeah, that was, crazy. Yeah.
Justin (GM):Wild.
Shelby (Sahra):I'm gonna look at sister Henle, and I'm gonna be like, okay. So OtrA made the revenant.
Justin (GM):I my plan, I thought that that might have been the case based on what you told me.
Shelby (Sahra):Did you know?
Justin (GM):No. Not until we had that conversation.
Shelby (Sahra):Why did you come out here by yourself?
Justin (GM):It was my he took those things from me. I felt I was the only one capable of of stopping it.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay. Are you okay?
Justin (GM):Bit of a bruised pride. Close call there, but this handsome young gentleman saved me. So all is well that ends well.
Shelby (Sahra):Sister Henle, you made yourself look really suspicious today when you ran off, and we've found physical evidence that ties OtrA to his own death. I'm worried about you. I'm worried that there's not enough to get you off as well.
Justin (GM):I everyone says don't care about what other people think. And then when you actually go through with that kind of philosophy, everyone gets upset.
Shelby (Sahra):The law.
Justin (GM):Oh, so there there are some things that we need to care about.
Steve (Luken):Yes.
Justin (GM):When you get to be my age, it you just don't care anymore.
Shelby (Sahra):Well, if you don't care, then that's on you. I agree. Okay.
Justin (GM):I'm fine with that. Okay. I'm innocent.
Shelby (Sahra):Okay.
Justin (GM):If there's any other things that I can help you though in terms of proving that innocence, I am happy to
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah. Sure. Help.
Justin (GM):Happy to help.
Shelby (Sahra):Sure. Yeah.
Justin (GM):Group of you all make your way back to civilization not far, and people have gathered kind of seeing this the smoke and have buckets of water at the ready. There's not enough brush to be considered of like a forest fire or anything like that. They are surprised to see you all. You have sister Henel. You see senator Reyes, with two guards there.
Justin (GM):He points to sister Henel and say, arrest this woman, please. They make way over to to arrest sister Henel.
Nick (Herry):There's a new suspect, Taro. In fact, we do believe that we found who actually cast a nice bill for a revenant and really fucked it up.
Justin (GM):He raises a hand to to stop them. As I said, senator Pinch, if you've have information to share, please. We are all interested in justice. So what what information do you have for us?
Nick (Herry):I'll look over to you two because you saw the revenant last night and kinda got the bulk of it.
Shelby (Sahra):We have reason to believe that Ultra himself acted alone in creating a revenant. The
Justin (GM):crowd.
Shelby (Sahra):We witnessed this revenant last night and were attacked by it. And it said the word kill. We have searched Otras house. We found evidence of primal magic in his home. He had the five holy herbs of the urination.
Shelby (Sahra):He had manuals on primal magic. He had candle making kits, and we have reason to believe that Uttar used his own blood in order to create a revenant. The only question remaining is why.
Nick (Herry):Harry looks at sister Henon. Sometimes secrets need to be told.
Justin (GM):I spurned him.
Nick (Herry):Harry looks at you. Harry winks. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah.
Justin (GM):I spurned him, and he thought he could take this, but I was ready. My protections kept me safe. This time,
Nick (Herry):a scorned lover tried to get back, had his partner who had was no longer interested, and he tried to use some magic magic that was a little over his head.
Justin (GM):I will not be tied down.
Nick (Herry):That's right. Independent woman.
Justin (GM):Give me a, purse presence check. You may have advantage on this
Nick (Herry):Yeah. For
Justin (GM):sure. Since that is mostly the truth.
Steve (Luken):All all of us?
Justin (GM):No. Just Alright.
Shelby (Sahra):12 plus four is 16
Justin (GM):with hope. That's a success with hope. The crowd starts to murmur and kinda shake their head up and down, and you see, that Gustavo gestures away the the guardsman away from sister Henle, who is kind of looking her at at senator Pinch, kind of like, is that is that what you wanted?
Nick (Herry):Yeah. It's great. Excellent.
Justin (GM):Excellent. Excellent. And she also then makes her way away from the crowd. She's like, I would rather not to speak in front of a crowd ever again for the rest of my life.
Steve (Luken):Yeah.
Justin (GM):And she has successfully kind
Nick (Herry):of faded into the background. Gustavo Harry would love to walk up towards Gustavo and loudly just exclaim, I'd like to thank on behalf of the king of Venethar and the Venetharan senate, Gustavo Reyes for all of the good work trying to come to a solution, with this murder case. Thanks so much, Gustavo.
Justin (GM):The crowd claps a little bit hesitantly at first because they're, like, trying to make the connections as to why he was about to arrest the wrong person and is now getting a lot of claps. 100%. But eventually, the people all clap along.
Nick (Herry):Just like, okay. Our guy is fine, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. He's I'm just trying to like, there's no villain here.
Nick (Herry):We're all good.
Justin (GM):As people are clapping up.
Nick (Herry):Like Yeah. Yeah. Hoping that he then, like Yeah. Releases people. Like, he's like, hey, man.
Nick (Herry):Just be the fucking hero. Let's be good. Yeah.
Justin (GM):As this clapping is happening, you see Beanie, in the back of the crowd. She has a a couple of black, notebooks that she has kind of obviously been writing in. She gives you a big thumbs up from where she's standing, and gives you a gesture back towards the the tavern and heads in that way. And kind of the rest of the next twenty to thirty minutes is answering a couple of questions to the guard, specifically about, Ultra's, like, motives and things like that, kinda cleaning up any, like, loose edges and threads on on these stories and kinda closing out your things with the people here in this crowd. Are there any other things that you all wanna do, here in this town?
Justin (GM):In the town?
Steve (Luken):Yeah. I have one thing I'd like to do. And as is tradition, when a serif makes a a state visit, you know, out to one of the other kinda outlying areas, I feel it's appropriate to just quickly swing by the fortune, thank sender Demric for his hospitality, and, you know, just wish him the best going forward. So I'm going to do that.
Justin (GM):You find sender Demric in his office. He is currently reviewing some type of financial report and also listening to a record quietly in the background. Pelameskar, how are you?
Steve (Luken):I'm doing I'm truly doing great. I'm about to be on my way out of town. Oh, so soon? Yeah. You know, duty calls back home.
Steve (Luken):As much as I would would love to stay, you know, weeks longer and and just discover all that this town has to offer, You know, the work's never done, as as you know Mhmm. In our church. But, again, I just wanted to come by. Thank you for your hospitality. It was great to meet you.
Steve (Luken):I'm I'm so glad we got to play Towers and Flowers, and I I look forward to a rematch someday.
Justin (GM):As do I. Maybe next time I won't take such an aggressive strategy.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. And best of luck with the the cobalt issues. I wonder if you guys are having some
Justin (GM):are these special cobalt? Or just the most they are quite the issue. They it seems as though no matter how many we send, it just never seems to go away.
Steve (Luken):It's such an elusive problem. Kobolds do have that reputation. They're
Justin (GM):They do. And they
Steve (Luken):they breed like Kobolds. They breed like Kobolds.
Justin (GM):That's where
Steve (Luken):the saying comes from. It it is. It really is. But best of luck here. Thank you.
Steve (Luken):I know you have the best interest of of this town at heart and, you know, I I know you'll continue to to work towards that end. One other thing. You know who else was a huge Towers and Flowers fan? We learned in our investigation. Ultra.
Justin (GM):Oh. The murder victim. The murder victim.
Steve (Luken):Yeah. In fact, what I've learned is that he might have some like antique Towers and Flowers sets in his house hidden away, if that's something that, you know, maybe your folks would like to look into. Just a thought. And then I turn and leave without, without disclosing more.
Shelby (Sahra):Sara would like to speak to Amira before she leaves.
Justin (GM):Amira is gathering her things and putting it into the wagon that she shares with her parents. Mhmm. She can agree to and says, oh, I'm I'm glad to see you're well, and thank you for saving sister Henel. I heard it was quite the ordeal.
Shelby (Sahra):Yeah. Listen, Amira, I meant what I said earlier about wanting to help. And I think that the two of us together could be a really powerful force for the earth nations.
Justin (GM):I was thinking about that, actually. I think that this would be better in your hands. And she hands you a vial that has that same smoke that linked them together that when you cross through allowed you to see Sethin's memory. Yeah. So with this, you will be able to revisit Sethin's memory or have others view Sethin's memory.
Justin (GM):And she says, as many people as I was able to show what was really happening, I think wherever the sands take you, it will likely involve more. Thank you. Show them.
Shelby (Sahra):You have my word. One more thing.
Justin (GM):Oh, yes.
Shelby (Sahra):You mentioned that you recognized my name. Did you ever know my mother, the chief of the Highland tribe?
Justin (GM):When you mentioned that your family was descended from the the chiefs, I knew who you're referring to. And I'm gonna spend a fear in this moment. The person who taught me the primal magic that I know told me a story of your mother once. Your mother lost herself to her magic. She became consumed by the spells and energies that she conjured.
Justin (GM):Your mother is an utterance. She is I'm I'm sorry to tell you this. I didn't I didn't I assumed you you knew?
Shelby (Sahra):No. I mean, I was sent away when I was like six years old and nobody ever told me anything that happened to her.
Justin (GM):She is no longer a person. She is as much primal magic as she is a soul.
Shelby (Sahra):So what does this mean? Does she is there a physical form left of her?
Justin (GM):When she chooses, when she has enough sanity left, she can. But most utterances phase in and out. They can travel to the far reaches of Sariel and other realms. I'm sorry, but your mother would be better off dead.
Shelby (Sahra):Well, thank you for telling me the truth. Nobody's ever done that for me before. So thank you.
Justin (GM):I wish I had better news.
Shelby (Sahra):A single tear kind of falls down and she doesn't want anybody to see, so she wipes it away quickly and takes a deep breath and turns around and walks back to, her friends.
End Credits:You've been listening to Faith and Fortune by Theater of the Mindset. Our actual players this season are Steve Edinger, Shelby Myers, Nick Traeger, and your kind and generous GM, Justin Girardeau. Audio engineering, post production, and scoring is done by Nick Traeger at Studio three six zero seven. If you're enjoying the show, you can help us grow with no capital investment by sharing it with a friend, following us on Instagram and Reddit, writing us a review on your favorite pod catcher, or you can ship in for coffee at our Patreon. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week on Theater of the Mindset.