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The Naturolls is your seat at the table for a Daggerheart TTRPG actual play. Listen in as a group of friends from around the world tells campfire stories (and puns) in The Shatterlands, a once-divided kingdom whose 100 years of peace is unexpectedly ended by a dangerous threat.
[Music] Alright, so welcome back to another session of our dagger heart campaign. If you are listening to this in the future, who today is going to be the very first session of one of our other GMs running one of our other campfire stories. So, Teacha is going to be taking over, telling a different story that is branching off of our main character stories. And I'll actually get to play the character that I've created. So, are we ready? As we're going to be, I guess. Everybody has now completed a long rest and a level up. And we come back to the campfire with our companions back together, recalling adventures since past. Would anybody like to share their feelings or thoughts? Anything at all with their adventurers as the around the campfire before we begin? Has Maaz already mentioned what the story is going to be about at the campfire? Not exactly. OK, I was going to say because Sal, who's been telling the story this far would kind of just Slink back into the shadows a little bit just a little bit away from the campfire like still sitting there, but like in a darker place Just because that's kind of where Sal positions Yeah Skulkily skulkily indeed skulkily skulking into the shadows. Yeah, exactly No, I mean he's kind of been like he's kind of been more Present around the campfire than maybe you all are used to because he's been telling the story So like picture he's got the the black robe and kind of pulls the hood up a little bit Kind of taking taking himself out of the spotlight a bit All right, anybody else want to anybody jump in and share or? Bring up anything around the fire as Maz is gonna start to kind of recount Where we are picking up. Yeah, so Sal can't say a lot because he has not been here for Anything well, he's been telling the story. So I guess he has been there, but yeah, he could pick up a completely different memory true anyway Certainly not required right because if we're ready, I could certainly just roll right on it. I'm ready All right, I don't know Let's do it A memory of Padre's potatoes comes to mind as we roast a potato over the fire on an open spit. The smell of salt and smoke from the roasting potato is especially strong, like great meals from dead eyes, saloon, and Kraken's Harbor. The crackling fire fills the air as the weight of the last adventure settles in on everyone. As the fire crackles like the embers of Skyland itself and everyone recounts the chaos left behind in their wake. the disappearance of the wizard and finding the very power that powers Skyland itself, the group settles into a silence. For just a moment, something seemingly stirs in the fire, but then just as quickly fades away. It was as though the wizard was perhaps looking back at us over the distance, but then fades. Isn't it something, as one recounts these tales, it can feel different coming from one person as opposed to another? Do you remember when I went missing? I don't know exactly what happened when you all woke from that long rest, and I realize I don't think you've filled me in on that part of the tail till we were back together again, now. The fire dims and then brightens up, pulsing just like a heart beating. The pitter patter of the potato roasting over the fire is reminiscent of our new friend Asal, who came to us just as I disappeared. And now we start back where we left off, outside of the dungeon completing a long rest, yet as if guided by unseen currents, all roads lead to Kraken's Harbor. The group arrives in Kraken's Harbor because I totally retconned the note from the last session. And it said that Maz was somehow perhaps in Kraken's Harbor because I realized I totally mixed that one up in the rush of the last session. And as we arrive to in Kraken's Harbor, just as reference here, we'll take a look at our map, which should be jumping up for everybody now. We arrive in Kraken's Harbor and we see a bustling seaside, right? sea-sine settlement with ships being worked on, others preparing for trade and everyday people going about their business. Some ships are small, others grand with some buildings about. As people walk around, you hear some talk of great drink at the Dead Eye Saloon while others talk trading of goods. Yet some seem to cower as they walk by looking towards the storage house to the north. And especially a large ship to the west catches your eye as an impressive vessel seeming to prepare to launch. Most others look like ordinary trading ships. There is much to see and do here in Krakens Harbor where some journeys begin and others end. For some, it is a great place of opportunity. While for others, it is simply a place to disappear. Something that we do know, though, is masks spent a lot of time here. So, just while you're figuring out the World 20 stuff, just to be sure, we woke up, well, They woke up from that long rest and then we all moved together to Kraken's Harbor to follow the trail of Maz. Is that correct? Yes. So that's where I totally just retconning the note slightly and it says that the note seemed to suggest that Maz had gone off to Kraken's Harbor. Still don't follow me there. There's something that I must do. And that is the context that you were left with. But we also know that Maz spent a lot of time in Kraken's Harbor, so this all makes sense. What would you like to do? You mentioned the large storing house. Is that to the north, you said? And people appear to be cowering going that direction? Yes. More so, they're cowering as they kind of walk by. I mean, you're all experienced bunch of adventurers, right? You know, I certainly don't think you need a role to kind of take in the scene, right? used to getting to lay the land and you know, you kind of get it as soon as you, you know, hop off the ship that did bring you there. Can I, so I would like to like seeing what, can I easily approach someone who seems to be looking apprehensively at the warehouse to the north? Can I approach something like, is that easy to do? Like, is it just like, hey, there's a people walking all over the place. Yeah. like just somebody who looks marginally friendly and just say, "Hi, what's going on?" I've been here for a bit and I've seen people look, they don't look like the building, the warehouse is a good place, is everything okay? - The person gives you a blank stare and then continues to walk. - I turn back around and drug. - Friendly bunch, Ariel says. - And the person as they continue to walk, they kind of, you know, slow down a little bit and turn back around and then say, I wouldn't ask questions about that place. And then continues walking. - I kind of like, Sal kind of half calls out like, like not really trying to be heard by the guy, but just like, but that makes me more interested to know. We don't know. I don't know this place. I don't, I don't know where should we begin? And Sal's kind of shy, I guess, with the, with this new group of people who he has been following for a bit. So yeah, he's kind of shy with them, but also he's kind of like interested in what's happening because the energy of the people who all seem so scared of something is very interesting to him. Yriel, did you ever come to visit Maz here? Aerial or frantically checks notes. I was just thinking you could ask the GM if there was anything you remember. You can also just improv it. I would say this is a great place where a few would like to, you know, improve it certainly by all means, you know, do so because full disclosure, I don't think we fleshed any of that out. So it's the world's oyster. Right. Crack it down. World's oyster. We've had a lot of things in the beginning, you know, where like everybody sort of made their own option. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Yriel ran into Maz and Kraken's Harbor. That was about to get into a bit of trouble. So you have been here. - Yeah, so is Sal. I actually totally forgot about that. Sal remembers visiting Maz. Actually, I don't know how that makes sense if I supposedly just met the party. I'll have to think about that. But anyway, Sal remembers getting into a competition with somebody back in the day to see who could steal someone's coin purse. And Maz actually, as usual, caught an injury in the midst of that competition. And just because I'm making stuff up right now, I'll say that's how Sal started following the group. Sal recognized Maz at the 100-year peace celebration and started deciding, maybe I should keep an eye on them. They seem like something's going on. Okay, and let me clarify the larger story. We got out of the dungeon, we took our rest, we woke up, there was a note from Maz saying she was going to Kraken's Harbor. Yes, and don't follow. And also, and don't follow. But we're here. So the first thing we did was follow. follow. Okay. Just clarifying. And Sal decided to push past his shyness and join us there. Yeah, so when you woke up that morning, Sal would have been there. Like he had been just full disclosure about previous things that have been set in the story. Like Sal's been been following you guys since the hundred year peace, like he was in the woods. He was he was kind of watching you guys. And when he saw Maz leave, he he kind of like approached thinking that it was a moment that he could help. And so when you guys woke up and read the note, Sal would have been there and been like, Hey, hey, guys. I've been following you a bit and I think, not like that, not like weird following you, but like, I was looking for something good that I could do and you all look like you intended to help. And I thought that maybe if I joined that I could help And I didn't know when to approach. But then I saw your friend leave and. I thought maybe that I could. Help help you find her. Do you know her? I don't I don't know that I know her. I I have. We've. Spent time together. We I'm I'm not proud of it. But we stole from people together at Kraken's Harbor back in the day. And I mean, even that aside, I know that she had good intentions. We never stole from people who didn't have more than their share. You think that Maz could have gotten somebody angry back in Kraken's Harbor? Like maybe she stole from the wrong person. Well, I don't know if it means anything because and Sal kind of gestures to his his cloak, which is like a hooded cloak. It's black with gold lining and stuff. I don't know that it means anything, but. Hey, Maaz left with someone or someone's. They were they were wearing dark robes and cloaks. I I don't know who they were, but. You see one person in a cloak and it's like cool cloak. You see a group and you're like, that's that's not as good. That there was a group of them. There was there was a group of them in in in cloaks. I was I was hiding like I do. And that's just what I saw. And I thought that if you woke up and your friend was gone, you might need to know that. Yeah, did she appear to be leaving willingly or it was it was really dark. It didn't look like. It didn't it didn't look violent. I don't know. That fairy can get herself into trouble alone in a locked room. I met her with a sleeping bear. And she was just just about to get. Odd. probably pinching something she shouldn't have or poking. You never know with her. And I helped her out and we became friends. And so yeah, I've been to Kraken's Harbor on my travels on my wonders. And this is where I met Maz. It's her homeland. She will certainly know her way around here. But also, if she spent a lot of time here, maybe we could talk to people and describe her, see if they could give us any information. So, are anybody working the of docs that, you know, like is it people checking who's arriving or checking shipping stuff like that? Is anybody here we could talk to? Also, do we see like a lot of other fairies around here? Or is she fairly unique? Fairyly. Fairyly. Oh boy. You see folks from all walks of life here, right? You definitely, you see some fairies, you see daemons, you see orcs. I mean, it is a bustling hub where you get the sense that really you can encounter anybody, rich, poor, et cetera. So again, still plenty of people around if you want to try to talk to somebody else or go, you know, go on explore. You just got to, you know, take your pick and, you know, because the people are very different, you know, some people might know stuff, other people might not. - What's this building directly to our north? Like, I know the greenhouse. - You don't know. - Okay. Can I, the door is open. Am I able to peek in? I mean, I don't know if the door is supposed to be open, but it looks like- - Yeah, you're like an agile, you know, kind of sneaky type. Yeah, you can peek in. - All right, can I look in and see what I see? Yeah, should be open. You can click it. Okay. You can just open it. It is pitch, pitch black in here on my way. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Sorry. This is a mechanics thing and let's uh, there's okay. What am I so I'm in a I'm looking around and I seem to be in a room there. It looks like is that is that an orc behind the desk? Mm hmm. Yeah. You just walk in. You see a looks like, um, you know, just kind of like a store of some sort or actually not really a store so much as a maybe like a check in check out. It seems like more clerical work here. You're not going to be buying a lot of different goods. You see papers on the desk, papers on the shelves, table in the front of you, some sort of doorway going to a back room. The person in front of you looks busy, but affable, professional. No, like he's working. Would you say it's very well organized? That's the only thing I'd say. So kind of waves a hand. What do frogs have? What are rabbits have? I don't know. A hand, I guess. So kind of waves a hand. It's a webbed feet. Webbed foot. There you go. So Sal waves a webbed foot. Does. Hi. Can. Are you able to help with something? No, hello. Can I can I help you? I hope so. Um, we're we're looking for a friend. I realize this is a little bit weird and. I'm sure that you don't. Well, maybe you do, but I imagine you're not necessarily dealing in lost people very often. But. We're looking for a friend, Maz. She's a she's a fairy. She's got wings. Usually probably getting injured or caught. Is that is that ring any bells? Oh, sir, some people come here to disappear and crackens harbor. Say my name is Jordan. Jordan play I'll say I'm one of the doc masters here. I'll say but I'm not the only one on shift so Many people come and go and I've seen some fairies about but I I'm not sure if I You know remember remember that name but just in the last couple of weeks. I've seen some fairies. Yeah Okay Is there I kind of turn to the party like is there anything we can Anyway, I don't know, Maz, very well. Is there any other way we can tell Jorgen? Is Jorgen, right? Is there any other way we can tell Jorgen how, kind of, is there anything we can say? Any-- -Code aerial pops in, dark hair, pointy ears. Talks about her toe all the time. -Cause we have Boga churned into-- -Ooh. a mask to demonstrate what she looks like. That would be a mazing. No, no, no anymore. I'm out. All right, let's say are we are we tempting that one? What are we doing? Yeah, they're they're Boga. So that would be your uncanny disguise? Um, yes, yes. And kind of scars that is well cash. And. One decent. Okay, cool. Oh, my goodness. Oh, um, oh, few minutes. I don't think so. I am. Well, it looks like you have a few minutes to prepare. You can mark a stress to down the facade of any humanoid. You can picture clearly in your mind, right? So I mean, if you mark a stress, you know. So you don't have to roll any dice. Stop me. Sorry, no. Former GM, that's not... You don't have to roll anything, right? He doesn't mark a stress. Sounds good to me. Yeah. Yeah, cool. Are you doing it? But indeed, I'm gonna duck him behind one of these crates up here. It's like, give me a few minutes. I don't want to get my head up. - Puts her cloak out at the beach when you hold your towel for somebody to change behind. That's what she's doing, her bogey. just splashing her face with water and it's creating kind of a form around her. Well, this is happening. Sal is just kind of like. So anything weird going on here? And I didn't mean to interrupt you again. But you can go ahead. No, no, good. So good. So Sal is Sal is asking Jorgen. Is there anything anything you know you're here a lot? If you notice anything funny while we're waiting for Bogey to. Do the uncanny disguise? Well, I mean, I'll tell you that every day brings something new. You know, I hear people coming in speaking of the tide callers. I hear some people just coming in trying to get more coin. I'll tell you though that everyone can always use some more coin these days. I'll say, I think times are tough, but you know, you don't know what's going to walk in that door in any given day. Can I look behind me as you says that just in case timing wise there's something walking in the door? Mm-hmm Sal knows a little bit about dramatic timing, so he just checked So I If I have a moment like while bogus doing that I would just say that did you say the tide callers? Hi, yes, you've never heard of the tide callers my friend can't say that I have I'll tell you that I've never seen him myself, but there's talks of them all over Kraken's Harbor their Legend has it that there are swarms of electric eels that prowl the waters outside of Kraken's Harbor and No one that I ever know and has seen them in person, but yet everyone keeps talking about them Supposedly there are some of the reasons that some of our ships disappear on the way out If Sal would communicate this to anybody who didn't hear by the way like any any of this conversation if somebody's not listening Because they're doing other things that would pass that on Yes, if you want to, you know, hear more about it, if you ever work your way over to Dead Eye Saloon, you can talk to three-toed Teddy. I wasn't saying that's how he ended up with three toes. Sal goes toes. Aerial squints. Toes, huh? I'm surprised that came up. Well, I promise Sal's going to stop breaking the fourth wall here in a second. behind. So, Lana, she hears a like a small like done. Done. And she steps steps out from behind the barrel. With the wings are slightly too large and the eyes slightly too far apart, But more or less get the impression. But more or less looks like Maz. The thought master behind the counter, Jorgen, you see him kind of slap his hand down on the table and he says, "Nope, never seen that one before." But as you kind of look, again, you're adventurers and especially Sal obviously in there, a sort of scoundrel type, you know, is ensure that that this man's, you know, being honest. I was going to ask, can I do I believe him? Oh, I mean, I think that's your initial sense, you know, but, you know, this guy, you get the sense that he's a, you know, savvy business type. You know, he he also is here a lot. He you just imagine he probably knows a lot of things. OK. Oh, he knows a lot. I think he wants money. I toss a handful of gold onto the table and I say, now do you remember anything? Without even looking down, you see Jordan just slip it right under the table and you just hear like clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink cl I remember her coming through, "Yes, yes, exactly. That's perfect." It was just in the last few days, I remember seeing that one. Not sure exactly when, but she did pass through these parts. And did she say where she was headed or who she was with? Much like many others here, she did not say where she was headed, but I did see who she was with. And? It was with all these folks and, you know, kind of these cloaks and, you know, hoods and we've been seeing more of those folks around these parts lately. I see them walking about and I'll be honest, that's where I stop asking questions because they carry weapons and anytime folks approach them, it seems to not end well for them. But I will tell you that I do see them moving in and out of some of the houses here. like they, you know, have started to take a particular interest here in Kraken's harbor, especially up north of the harbor. Up north, by the way, Harris? Yes, but I would, please don't make me say much more because I do not want to cross those folks. I don't know who they are or what they're here for, but that is who I saw Mass with. Thank you for your help. And he kind of just like shakes the little thing. You're like, at any time, shaking the money around. Is there any anything about the cloaks that we would recognize? I mean, a lot of people wear cloaks. Is there any anything that we could recognize? I don't want to make you. Over extend your generosity. Is there any way we would know them if we would see them other than where's a cloak? Because many of us wear cloaks as well. They usually run at least a few people at a time. I've never seen them alone. You'll see them usually moving more at night than during the day. And they're almost always armed. And, you know, I've I think I've seen some sort of symbol on the cloak before, but I'll be honest, I'm not sure what. I've never gotten close enough, and I try not to get that near them when I can help it. And anytime they've come in here, they make it clear that I'm to not ask any questions. Thank you for your help. We will. Make sure anything we do does not. Point back to you. I appreciate it. I appreciate that too. Good sir and but wait a second. You see that guy over there. Can he can can can that one turn into anything else? Can she do something else with that with that cool magic over there? Can she turn into something that could could we turn into like I get like, what else can we do over there? - Humanoid, a very small dragon maybe. Why, why are you asking? - I'll tell you what, and he gets the bucket out again and shakes it a little bit like, if you ever need to make some coin, I know some places that'll pay good money to see tricks like that, so feel free to come on back here any time you want. Is there is there any dark areas in this room near me like a shadow? You know, I mean, it's inside. There are some windows, you know, but yeah, another. You know, there's there's, you know, a couple, you know, in the corners, the light doesn't reach there quite as well. OK. Um, Sal will. Sal will tell Boga, hey, can you can you try to try? Just keep him busy. Just keep him distracted. And Sal is going to actually is it bright daylight outside? Yes, it is smack dab in the middle of the day. It is bright out. It is like noon. Sal is small and is going to find where the sun's positioned and then find where Svetlana is and then go to the opposite side of Svetlana. And Sal is going to use shadow stepper. When you step into the shadow cast by another creature or object or into an area of darkness, Marcus stressed to disappear from where you are and reappear inside any other shadow within far range. And Sal is going to use that and is going to step in to the shadow of this back room like appear underneath the desk and just kind of very quietly search around to see if there's any more information. I'm not planning on taking anything. I'm just looking for any clues. Yeah. Can you make a sorry, this is the part that will be bad at for it. No, we'll do I believe it'd be instinct. Is this I'm right? Instinct role? Yeah, to perceive stuff. Is that what you mean? Yeah. Oh, baby. No, I cannot see anything. That is that's an eight. We're glad to know that the dice stay constant. Yeah. Whether fear we're not being as with your party member as the experience adventurer, you are. You look around the room and, you know, there's seems like standard, kind of like papers, business stuff. You see a desk, there's chairs, there's books on the shelf with like great titles, like, you know, you know, ships, ship arrivals for year 2025. Like, it's like, it's, it's not anything especially exciting. But good old Jordan, the doc master very quickly is like, Hey, where did that other one go? And then, you know, you continue to look around the room, but you don't, you know, don't see too much. There are certainly papers on the desk where if you wanted to, you know, keep looking, you know, you could try, but nothing, Nothing jumps out to you. Tell is going to tell. Oh, go ahead. You might make some noise if you keep looking though at this point, right? Because you know. I was going to be trying to distract, uh, Joe again, but asking, so what about this business opportunity? Uh, what places are you speaking of? What people do you know? Well, I'll, I'll tell you right now that there's plenty of people. Um, and actually can you make a, let's do that. make a, trying to charm presence role. Okay. Oh, baby. Okay. That is a 22 with fear. I would say, okay, yep, yep. All right. He's, he's, and he's in the conversation. He's in it. He's his attention towards Boga. He's like, "Well, I'll tell you that there's people going through this place all the time. You never know who you're going to meet. There's people trying to start new businesses and new ventures and just here in town. We can end up at the saloon. I'm sure you could find that work on a ship where some of these rich folks coming through, you never know what they'll pay money for." And then he's going back and forth, starts going with Boga. And he's obviously deep into this conversation. He quickly forgot about Sal and his that kind of disappearance just as easily. Boca leans on the desk, like looking into his eyes, like, so tell me more about this place and they're just going to keep, keep up with us. I love kind of watches Boca fascinating because he's never seen her actually make eye contact with people before. He's like tilting his head and kind of looking between the orc and the rivet. Yeah. Well, while this is happening, the eyes are inside of a head. Right. No, it's not how does that work? Sal is going to shadow step back out and then kind of like pop, pop his head in the door. Did you say something to me? Sorry, I was. Looking at something else. Jordan looks over, breaks talking with Boga for just a second, like, "Ah, so you are still in here, huh?" Oh, sorry. Yeah, I thought I heard somebody outside, so it's nothing. Don't worry about it. Yeah, okay. And then he goes back to Boga, saying, "Hey, so anytime you want to come on by, let me know. There's plenty of opportunities here throughout Kraken's Harbor. You got to be Careful, be safe, but there's always room for opportunity for anybody with an entrepreneurial spirit. I think they're all in there. I've just been outside kind of like watching the comings and goings. Have I noticed anybody in cloaks walking by and say, been inside? Oh, definitely. Like in groups of people or just individuals? Definitely. Definitely groups. Okay. And did I get this since they're headed north? Um, yeah, I mean, again, it's bright daylight. Uh, you definitely saw some of them walking, you know, towards the north. Again, your experience adventurer, you saw, you know, some folks there, you know, it's not, it's not necessarily as clear if they're, they're people that you recognize. Um, but, um, but definitely, yeah. I'm just continuing to focus on them and trying to discern if there's anything out of the ordinary. Um, while the others are still inside. Sal is gonna, is gonna thank Jordan again. Thank you for your time. And as he walks out, just kind of tell Hilo, I could have gotten Svetlana's money back. I know I could have. And just kind of walk back out. And, and Hilo kind of looks at Sal confused as to why. Did they want to get the money back, but doesn't actually like say anything until they're actually out. And then once they're a little further away asks, do you think Svetlana would have wanted that? I don't know. I don't know that he gave us answers, commensurate with the money that he required, but seemed honest enough. That's why I didn't attempt to take it. Bogo still talking to the jogging is like, "Well, thank you. This has been most informative. I will I hope to see you in a couple of days, maybe. But in the meantime, do you know anywhere we could stay? Any inns and taverns? Where would you recommend?" Well, there's but one great tavern in town. And I'll tell you, the Dead Eye Saloon is the place where I'd be going for for a drink. I don't know what you enjoy to drink, but I'll tell you what, that Storm's Mercy is quite a cocktail. I'll say I couldn't recommend it enough. And if you want someplace to stay, usually most people, because we don't have a lot of room for fancy hotels or inns over here, they usually just rent out a spot on one of the ships docked at the harbor. You can talk to anybody who has some space on there, and they'll usually rent it out for a day or two. Well, thank you. I'll see I'll see you there, maybe. Anytime I say. Yes, when I'm off, when I'm off shifts, he waves as he kind of walks out, I, I certainly swing by myself, you know, I'm on and off every other day. So enjoy your time here in Kraken's Arbor and be safe. Once bogey is out the door, It's kind of swings open. So I'm just to the left. The disguise drops like a puddle forms. She's like kind of standing there sweating like. That was very good. Boga, you did wonderful. I think so. Moves over and gathers everybody kind of outside and. Well, well, Boga was. entertaining. I checked out your Jorgans back room. And it's it's I didn't find anything interesting. Oh, my. It's an uninteresting back room. While you go, we're inside. I did take a look out here and I did see several groups of people with dark cloaks like Sal had mentioned to me. And they all appeared to be moving north. So I think since they're mostly going around at night, I wonder if we should go and find the stakeout area where we can watch them and figure out where they're going. What do you all think? I think we should hit up the dead island first, I think. How many hours do we have until we assume it's night? How high in the sky is the sun? I guess you don't have to give me an exact answer. It's pretty high in the sky, but let's just say it's the time of year where sunsets early. Getting towards, we're not an area where it gets particularly cold, but the day still shifts. You still have quite a few hours. You could certainly kill some time going, you know, either exploring if you want to, you know, walk your way There and kind of work your way through this area of Kraken's Harbor to get the dead eye Or I could certainly just kind of, you know, pull you right over to the the saloon. There's, you know, things I'd like to be here or pop on over. I'd like to look around a bit see if there is there just kind of Sal is very used to watching is there any anything Anything around that like from where we're standing catches my eye. That's like that's something of interest. Like is there any people who seem to be doing anything suspicious right now? Anything I can see. Give me an instinct role. OK. Lot better. Wow. That is 22 with hope. There we go. Yeah, there you go. Take a hope. And I definitely, you know, you definitely see some folks, you see, you know, you know, one person kind of, you know, walking along and he has a particular kind of outfit on showing him, honestly, it looks almost piratey, right, is black, a little better term, right? He has, you know, a sort of hat, he has a sort of regalia. But when you look at him, he appears to be a little bit down or a little bit worn. So it had seen better days. So you assume that while this person has some sort of prestige or was on some sort of ship, perhaps not so much anymore, but he's sort of sauntering along the dock there. And looking out, especially that ship over towards the west, and then kind of working his way forward. And you get the sense this guy probably knows the area fairly well seems to know something about that ship Can I sneak up behind him? I? Mean yeah, you could uh do a Witch ship hold on sorry I can identify it Okay, so Ariel was thinking Jorgen told us to find accommodations on a ship and Could the aerial Engage the guy in conversation while Sal is trying to Sneak around behind him Yeah, no, certainly him any seas right there and you know, you can walk right up to him certainly talk with him and Then so how about that? Let's make that Would that be a group role? Could I do that as a group role? I don't know if that makes sense. You're in charge. No, yeah, I'm actually, you know what I'm kind of thinking? I'm not thinking a group role. I am actually thinking, well, I'm thinking Uriel, you could certainly start talking to him and then maybe Stowell can roll a, I guess it'd be Presence to deceive and you could do it with advantage. Quick question. I'm just saying I have just added the tactician ability as a domain card. It says when you help an ally, they can add one of your experience to their role as well. When making a tag team role, you can roll a d20 for hope instead of d12. Holy smokes. That is a thing. That is a thing. Also, to be clear, as a rogue, if no one can see me to begin with, I'm just hidden. He just didn't. He just, he just gone. So, unless someone was looking at me, I figure I would look around and then I would just be hidden. Oh, actually, you know what? I couldn't move up to him that way though, because I would no longer be hidden because I moved. So yes, I would be attempting the sneak. So. Well, okay, so let's combine those things together. I love this. Let's do help an ally. So you can add one of Uriel's experiences if you want. What's-- is it crepsicular? Crepsicular. That's like more active at dawn and dusk. So in the middle of the day, that does not really help. OK. What big ears you have is like keen senses. I like that. Let's go with that one. So let's get a presence roll. And for, um, Sal and you're going to get a plus two on top of that. And I don't know exactly how the tag team role works. I gotta be honest. I'm looking it up right now. I'm trying to. I just know I get to use a bigger die. That's yeah. Yeah. No, but I'm just like, um, I can only find one thing. Yeah. Sorry. Here we go. That's what she did. One time per session you could spend, says three hope to initiate a tag team role with another PC. When you do, you work with a chosen partner to describe how they could bind their actions, separate action role. I didn't realize it had a hope cost. I've only got two. Yeah. Okay. I was going to say I also don't have enough hope to do that. I can give you both hope, I think. I mean, I was going to let you do it anyway just because I like where this is going. So like, you know. I can exchange my prayer diet to give you guys hope. I have two ones and a two. Just give it to Ariel because only one person has to spend that for a tag team. Yeah. And I have two from long rest. So. So you just need one or yes? OK, one one one one. All right. So what what Sal was originally planning on doing was just kind of like popping up behind the guy and startling him a little bit to get to see what would happen if he was a little caught off balance. Yeah. But seeing Uriel step in and kind of like play that distraction while Uriel is having a conversation, I picture Sal kind of looking through his stuff, like just kind of going through the pockets, going through the if there's a bag or a satchel of any kind. That sort of thing. So yeah, no, do it. And then so that I'm going to tell you I've rolled 21 with hope. Yeah. Yeah. I he you have his attention, if that's what you mean. Yeah, definitely grabbed his attention and I guess because it says so, Sal, can you give me give me your 2D12s as well? Let's see. Am I going for presence or finesse since I'm trying to hide in things? I just want to check. See, it's funny because I was thinking presence because I feel like deceive kind of deceive hide. So yeah, let's do presence because I feel like the goal is you don't want him to know what's happening, right? And am I using plus two? Yes. Okay. I got plus two, so I had 13 with hope. Yeah, so, yeah, that works. I feel like that works because it's like we're tag team, meaning the presence to keep him distracted. Okay, so yeah, I'm just kind of looking for... I don't know, this guy seems like he knows what's going on. I'm curious to see, does he have anything that would make me suspicious in his pockets? does he does he have I'm not I'm not attempting to rob this guy. But I'm looking for as a person who seems to know the lay of the land. Does this person have any answers or any paths to answers on him? So like ship logs for like what if maybe if Maz was on a ship or anything really. So anything Intel is good Intel. Yeah, Intel is a good word. Thank you. So two things are starting to happen, right? So Uriel grabs this person's attention and starts, you know, speaking with him. And immediately you start to learn that his name is Captain Elric Reigns. Captain Elric Reigns starts always saying, "Yes." And as you start to talk to him, he's like, "Ah, I used to be the captain of that vessel over there." And he kind of glances over towards that ship over towards the west. But now it is my no longer, it is for Captain Damir Bloodwake. The vessel's called the Ashen Crown. And he starts to talk a little bit about that to your real while Sal simultaneously is trying to see what can be uncovered. Again, not necessarily stealing, but if there's anything of use. And so as you kind of go through, You do see a piece of kind of like ledger, right? It's like paper with like lines on it. You definitely see like, looks like maybe names. You see some things kind of scribbled or crossed out. You can't quite see everything else, right? It's still kind of like in his pocket. It's partially obscured, right? Kind of hanging in there. You know, at this point, you know, given your experience, you could easily, you know, grab it if you chose. Okay. Snags it. Captain Elvrick continues, you know, talking. "Do you really?" "Yes." Well, I'll tell you that you got to be careful when you drink and gamble because that was one of the worst decisions of my life. And again, gestures over to the vessel, describing how he lost it in a card game with Damir Bloodwick. And then you get the paper. And then as you snatch the paper, I'm assuming you kind of start to take some steps back because he's obviously engaged in conversation. You can see he's a little bit more animated. And as you unfurl the paper, open it up, you can see that on it is a... It seems like a list of names. And on the list of names, you see that some of them are crossed out. It says, "Rick's crossed out, says Sora crossed out, says Garrick crossed out, and then it has Maz not crossed out. And then at the very bottom of the paper, all it says is sacrament prepared. That's it. From behind the captain, I kind of make eye contact with Uriel and hold up the piece of paper and and then back up back off. And then. Yeah, I just kind of back off back to the rest of the group. And. While Uriel is still having the conversation or wrapping up or whatever, kind of show the rest of the group like, hey, I don't know a lot, but. This doesn't seem good. And I show him like the names crossed out. I show him as his name. show them sacrament prepared and just kind of like I hand the piece of paper around. So. -Svetlana, when she looks at this, does she notice any sorts of like symbols or anything that would reflect that this is like a religious like document? -Oh, definitely. -Okay. And does she recognize any of those symbols as belonging to a particular like sect or religion? Yeah. Yeah. I would say yes. I would say in particular, you do notice as Spetlana takes a look at it, it is a bit off-putting and startling because, um, of firsts, you actually see a knife in one little snippet, right? It was kind of like obscured, like a little bit dirty, right? Cause it's a little bit like kind of frayed and whole thing. It actually looks like maybe it was dirty. It could even be burnt. I don't know. Like something like that, right? Cause it's, you know, worn and then you believe that's what it is, like a knife. But then also on there, you see something that looks sort of like a sun, but within the sun, it looks sort of like off-putting. It feels familiar to you, but it is not what you would quite expect. So do I get the sense that this is like a symbology for like a core, but it has been like the word. Perverted. Yeah, perverted or yeah. Give me a knowledgeable. It's well with fear. Do. Can I help with that role at all? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I know the roles already done. Can I tell you what you like to do? Um, Bogart's gonna just like tug on the back of, um, Svetlana's cloak, like, and Jester's like, "Show me, show me." And she puts it down for Bogart to see. And Bogart tries to see if she recognizes anything herself from, you know, stuff she's tried or seen in the world. Give me an instinct role. So close. Oh my God. I was, I got an 11 and a 10 on the dice. I know. So that's 24 with fear. As Boga also takes a look at it, you see Boga sort of, she starts to reach out, right? Because Svetlana is holding it, correct? So as Boga goes over to touch it, you rolled with fear, right? Yeah. Okay. You get a distinct sense that there was something magical about this and Boga kind of continues to reach towards it. And then Boga makes just contact with it and there's like a shimmer like goes right across the top. And then it just kind of turns to like embers as though it just like burned in a fire then it's gone. Can uh... Whoops. So we can look at your hands and say, "Oh, I did that." Can Sal try to collect the ashes and put them back in the captain's like thatchill? I mean, I gotta be honest, you're outside. It's the harbor. It is, you know, there's typically a breeze. That is, that's, no, that is, I will have to draw the GM line there. No, that is a fruitless fruitless effort on that one. Actually, I would say it kind of falls through the fingertips. And I mean, you're on a dock, so it actually just goes like right through and starts to like fall through to the water. So I'll still try. He's like, Then I was going to have you roll so I can maybe have you like stub your toe on something, but we'll leave that for another time. We'll leave that for another time. That's not for now. It's an obsession is what it is. How to change. Yeah. Meanwhile, right? Captain Elric is, you know, still talking and as Captain Elric continues the talk, you notice that to Uriel, he can just go on and on. This guy is just like a talk. In Uriel's head, she's wondering, "Is this even true? How long ago did this happen?" She gets the sense that he's probably drunk right now. He seems to drink a lot. He's got that look where you could tell he's not just weathered from time and age, but he's run down at this point. You know, he does definitely have a build that suggests at one point he was, you know, strong and and you know kind of like with it But those, you know days have, you know long since past and so he's you know, you get the sense He's probably you know drowning himself and not not in the water on a on a regular, you know basis and but he He seems to be you know somewhat knowledgeable about this, you know area well, okay aerial recognizing the type of a person who will go on as long as somebody will continue to listen, gently interjects that they need to make arrangements for accommodations while they're staying in Kraken's harbor. But she would be happy to buy him a drink later at the tavern if he wants to make his way there now. I'll tell you that, you know, man, those days on the ship, they just, you know, the one rolls into the next and you just never know what you are going to get. And those are some of the best days of my life. And those, those will be fondly remembered times and you never know what you have till it's gone. And, oh, man, I, you head over to the tavern and I'll meet you there in a little bit, buddy. I'm sorry. Wait, what? What? What? What? What are you saying? What? We're going to the tavern. I just have to pop over here quickly and then we can continue our conversation with some cold drinks. Oh, the tavern. I'll tell you that the tavern, you know, have you been there yet? Have you heard of the Storm's Mercy? I'd love to hear more about it later. Maybe go over and get me one. Yeah, well, I'll need to see what kind of money I can scrounge up here on the dock, but I'll be heading over there soon enough. You know, there's going to be music there later tonight. I'll just say the the singer of of one of the the best local bands is going to be over playing later today. You realize like on the verge of saying who's that and then realizes that that will continue the conversation. You need to mark a stress at this point. No, no, no, I'm kidding. Go ahead. But seems appropriate, honestly. So the real just kind of starts moving away. And that's that's great. That's great. We'll see them and you at the tavern a little later. As Yeriel walks away, you just hear him continuing to go on the singer from the rusty sales. He's going to be playing there tonight. He's got the best loot and it's he just keeps talking. There's nobody actually there. And, you know, he seems to not even really notice and then, you know, it continues to gaze out, you know, at the the ocean as a, you know, your real makes your way off. Is there is there anybody on the the big ship right now? Like are there people milling about doing that sort of thing? Like I'm curious if we can learn anything more about the ship before it's so it's a little bit far away, you know, but, um, And looking around again as the hustle and bustle things, there's lots of people around granted. I only put a handful of things on the map as you guys could see because I just wanted some points of interest. You definitely do see one person who is sort of at the, I guess you'd call it the plank, the walkway, getting onto the ship for sure, seeming to be on the lookout and kind of guarding that as it is. Maybe not guarding it, but keeping an eye on obviously who's coming and going. But you see activity there, like swabbing the poop deck and cleaning the ship. And they're, you know, fixing the, you know, checking the sales, you know, tying ropes, untying ropes. You do see some supplies kind of coming, you know, on and off the ship, you know, further west past it. You see there's a big kind of like warehouse where they're working on a brand new ship. You definitely, yeah, you see lots of, lots of kind of like activity. I mean, it's a large ship, right? So there's, they've got to have a crew. You can't, can't make that happen with only a few people. off the bats, Fetlana is stepping off of the dock and onto this more sturdy wooden, I guess it's still part of the dock, but not part of the like part that's swaying in the water. And she says like, Like right here? Yeah, I have four stomachs and three of them are very upset right now. And so she kind of gets gets herself off of the swaying dock. So the last thing I wanted to ask about the boat was, anybody cloaks moving in and off, on and off the boat that we can see? Or is that not happening with the boat? - Not that you can see, no. Looks like no cloaks. - Sounds good. - Yep, seems like standard sailors, kind of what you'd expect, like, "Argh, I mean, like, you know, just picture the generic kind of, you know." - Got it. - I was gonna check with the rest of the party, like, "What are you doing?" What are we doing now? We've got a few things to check out. What do we want to do? Euryl wants to check out the ship since we're here in the area. It's clearly the most noticeable. It's way bigger than any other vessel, the docks. So it seems like a big deal. I think Sal would move over down this, call this a pier. I don't even know. Sal would move down the opposite side. - Yeah, I mean, yeah, a dock or a pier. I'd probably call it a dock, but. - Okay, I just wasn't sure if the whole thing was a dock, if calling one particular piece a dock was confusing, but there's no right answer that I'm looking for. I was just curious. So Sal would move down here and kind of see the people towards the end of the dock, kind of remain out of sight and just see if they're talking about anything or if there's anything he can pick up on. Nothing of note. I mean, you hear some people kind of mentioning and kind of like gazing towards the ship and the Ashen crown and just really admiring it. It's impressive, right? It's a large vessel. It appears to be well maintained. A lot of activity happening right there. You actually see some kids at the very end right there. Those are tokens that are supposed to be kids anyhow. The ones carrying a cute little kitty cat, right? They're both children. And they're looking at it just like, wow, like look how big it is. And you kind of can overhear that happening. I mean, like, you know, the little girl is sitting there specifically like, man, I want to be the captain ship like that one day. And you know, it's cute, right? It's cool. I mean, these kids seem to be a little bit more weathered, just like Kraken's Harbor itself. And, you know, I think it might warm your heart a little bit, you know, kind of seeing their excitement looking at it. Meanwhile, behind or further to the west, you can see that there's, you know, a ship under construction, not actively so right now, but you can see that they've been working at it. And you don't see anybody of a particular note in the immediate vicinity other than the usual hustle and bustle that you've been seeing throughout. The girl holding the cat at the very end of the dock. Do I get the feeling that that cat is safe? Do I believe that that cat is going to stay out of the water? - Or roll for initiative, everybody. (laughing) Yes, the cat is extremely safe. She loves that cat and nothing will happen to it. - Okay, I was just making sure she wasn't like in danger. Like a wave is gonna come like take the cat away with that sort of thing. I wasn't like necessarily-- - Oh, do I study? Oh, I thought the cat was about to turn and eat everybody. (laughing) - With a ship of this size, right? I mean, the dock is well safe of not certainly sitting in the water, right? It's not like a floating dock. So this one, you certainly, yeah, very safe, very sturdy. If I tried to walk... The dry dock there, this one. Yes, that's lower than the one that Sal's on right now though. This Sal's is elevated a bit further up. Gotcha. Okay. If I tried to walk across this, actually, I'm going to just rather than ask that, I'm I'm gonna try to like start making my way across this little plank towards the ship. - Eriell and Pazu, nearby, close behind. - Svetlana is just looking out to make sure nobody's watching them. And she's just standing there watching. - How, tell me about your approach. What does it look like? Sal's in the lead, right? And that you guys are behind? Okay. - Sal would just kind of like, Sal would take on the attitude of the kids at the end of the duck and he's just kind of like, I mean, he's a ribbit. So his eyes are already pretty big, but like he's got wide eyes, mouth open and little like frog tongue is just kind of like, he can't control it very much when his mouth is hung open. So it's just kind of like flopped out a little bit and just kind of in that awe sort of moment, he's, he's just walking across the game plank, like not, not, not really attempting much of anything, just trying to get onto the ship and just kind of, this is crazy. Wow. Yeah. The person right there, it's, his name is a very sturdy looking dwarf, particularly large, right size. His name is a very sturdy looking dwarf, is that what you're saying? Yes, yes. No, no, no, no. He is a very sturdy looking dwarf. particular size. Looks over at you says, "Nesa, how can I help you?" Hi, I was just, I, this is a little bit embarrassing because I don't know, you're not supposed to be impressed by anything when you're older, but like this is a amazing ship. We've, I just got here and everybody is talking about the Ashen Crown and it's until I got right here. I don't know if I knew how big. It's, this is impressive. - I'll say that's right, sir. This is the biggest ship in all of Kraken's Hava. I'll say I'll tell you that we can hold more people, more goods than anything else coming in and out. I'll say we take great pride in this vessel. We keep her in tip-top shape. They cap in Damir, Bloodwake, and I. We oversee this vessel. And it's always out for rent, for service. We provide services in a wide variety of areas, but, you know, we don't just let anyone walk on this ship, especially right now while we're getting her ready for the potcha. Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't tell kind of looks down at his feet. I didn't even just my feet just kind of carried me here, if I'm honest with you. You wouldn't be the first one there. So I say, I know a lot of people are enamored by the look of this vessel. It's really impressive. Do you do good work, my regards? I get that. Good job. You don't need to hear good job from me. I'm just a random guy. Look at this place. I appreciate that, sir. And I'll tell you what, if you're interested in any of our services, you don't have to take it straight to the captain. I wasn't saying I'm here to oversee, but he makes all the choices in regards to this vessel. Is he on the boat? I'd love to-- I mean, honestly, I'd love to shake the hand of somebody who can manage something of this size. No, sir. I'll say he's out and about in Krakenshaber right now. I was going to say he had a number of stops to go by. So I was going to say you could find him about. He's a large daemon man who, you know, very tall, loves to smoke, wearing a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful hat. Love that hat. Wish I had that hat. How can I get a hat like that? Anyway, sorry. You know, you can't miss him whenever you go by. Red skin, I'll say he's got a particular look, but I'll tell you, if you find him, make sure you approach him and, you know, with the utmost respect. I'll say just like this vessel, he expects that, but he treats everyone fair and is willing to help out anybody who's willing to, you know, pay the right price. Ariel looks over the top of Sal and says I'm gonna speak to him. What was his name? The captain? Yes The captain of this fine vessel is Demir Bloodwake captain of the Ashen crown blood wake Asher there's no Ashen crown Ashen crown I'll tell you there's no final captain in all of Kraken's Harbor or anywhere that I've been oh Oh, thank you. Thank you. So you sell kind of turns leave and then turns back to you. Where are you guys headed now? Just you mentioned your services are available and I'm just if we need them, where can we expect the ship to head? Our last time that I was talking to the captain, I believe we'll be going to the endless forest next. Tells us how it kind of perks up a bit. All right. All right. And then thank you. Thank you for. This is how it looks at his sword. For not poking me with that. I just just wanted to look at your ship and I appreciate it. I appreciate the fine conversation. Good, sir. I'll say him as he does this, right? You kind of get the sense, right? Like you guys were just kind of casually walking on there and like this dude was utterly unperturbed by it. Like he didn't feel like he even had to flex. That's how confident he is in himself, right? like he has a pistol on one side, he's got a sword on the other side. It doesn't bother him for a second. But you could kind of get the sense that this man will treat you how you would like to be sort of treated at that two-way street. If wood could glimmer, this ship would be shining. I mean, it is in great shape. So actually something kind of like dawns on him and he's he shuffles back to the the gangplank and said, uh, That was incredibly rude of me. I'm sorry. I'm my name is Sal. I appreciate You answering my questions and just he sticks his hand out and it's like really Drippy because he's a he's a ribbit. So he kind of like brushes it off on his cloak and does it again Jasper puts his hand out says nice to meet nice to meet you Sal. I'm Jasper Callaway And then he kind of pulls his hand away and he looks at it. He doesn't even wipe it on his shirt. He's like, "I don't worry about that. Don't bother me now." And I live on the wall to my friend. Sell, sell's kind of like, "Aww." And Mosey's on. And you can see Jasper kind of, you know, steps off the plank ever so slightly, you know, still obviously there, you know, making sure no one monitoring who's kind of going on and off. But, you know, he's not, you know, blocking it directly. Okay. All right, Ariel is, I guess, walking off looking for a big red captain. Big red captain in a very nice hat. Gorgeous hat. Gorgeous. Can Sal pop back into Jorgans place for a second and just be like, I was looking for a really nice hat. Anywhere around here I could buy like, is there a is there a habidashery? Is that what is that the place that sells hats? I actually don't know. A habidashery would be a place that sells hats. And so, yes, so I would ask Jordan for a habidashery. Jordan, what do you sound like? I'm sorry, sir. I don't I don't know anything like that. I don't think we have a habidashery here. I think that, you know, you'd probably have to go out of the harbor to find something like that. So tips. So you see this bald spot right here? I'll say I should probably get one myself. You can go help me out. I appreciate it. So so it takes a note to hats. OK. So kind of sales curiosity has been just a third one. It'll be a hat trick. Thank you. So you think about it? Sal's curiosity has kind of been satisfied. So he just kind of like steps back to the group and well, cool ship. But I didn't really learn anything. I mean, if we need to get somewhere seems like the Ashen's crown could be away. And I don't know where we're headed though, because we don't know anything more about my as other than. Maz's sacrament wasn't prepared or was? - You know, as you guys are talking, you know, you kind of see the ship in the background, some of your eyes linger on the ship. And, you know, it seems like, you know, it's not ready to go right now, but they're definitely making progress, right? You see that they loaded a bunch of cargo, you see some of it stacked, you know, even on the top level of the ship. And you just get the sense that they're probably about done with that step. I think we need to find the captain before they leave because the captain got the ship from that piratey guy. And he had a document with Maz's name on it. I think that they might be connected in some way. And I'm worried that if we let this captain leave, then we'll never know what his connection with Tamaz was. Should we go and try to find him at the Dedi Saloon? I kind of wanted to look at the warehouse that people kept mentioning. Yeah, we can do that too. Is this the warehouse right by us? Most of us. Yeah. Is there any way to look in without opening the door? What do you think they have windows on the ground? So come on. Yeah. Upon first glance, I mean, you just see doors. You do not see open windows. There is no easy way to take a look inside. Can I try to open this front door quietly? Go. Certainly again. Okay. Does it do I roll for something or is it just open or not just right? Oh, gotcha, like in rule 20. You're like a, you're a deving type, right? If I click on the door, nothing happens. It just wiggles. Yeah, definitely locked, very locked. Got it. Like it is locked and you do you have the sense because your experience of these things that it is locked tight. Like you see now as you tried it, there's not just the handle. There's multiple locks. I pick them. You could, you could attempt. But seeing seeing the the person ending over there at the main doorway, Hilo points out that there are doors on the sides since he's walked around here a little bit while they were talking. OK. And and says maybe not the one that everyone can see from the front. OK. Not Hilo. Sal will stop like pulling out his little lockpick set. Put some back away and then goes to Hilo. I try this door. Yes, I'm a make a would it be a. I guess what a finesse role, right? Tinker. That'd be that sounds right. Yeah, sounds good to me. Am I rolling to pick the lock or just attempting to open the door quietly? Or what am I? Svetlana will be like guarding him as well and like blocking him from view of the people in the in the pier. Am I rolling to lock pick or just attempt to open the door? One of my. Just did you drive the door yet? I clicked on it and it just wiggles at me. Yeah, it's definitely very locked as well. Can I attempt to pick the lock? Give her shot. OK, I'm going to use pick and pull my rogue ability that gives me advantage to pick the lock. Mm hmm. They're 20 with fear. Oh, you start to, you're working the lock. You know, you've got a lot of experience with these. You feel like little kind of like click, click, click, like sort of the little things that indicate that you're actually getting somewhere. And all of a sudden it's like, and it turns over, you go to open the door and there's another damn lock. You only got one of them. It's got to be a deadbolt behind because and you can't even see it, right? Then as you do that All of a sudden you hear You know person behind you. Hey Hey guys, I wouldn't do that if I were you Turn around ghost As you turn around you see, you know, it's you know a human person, right? It's a man, you know, relatively young, indistinct, doesn't seem to carry any sort of air about them indicating anything that says that they're particularly special. But what the first thing that strikes you is that there's a look of concern on their face above, you know, everything else. And then as you look towards them, the person says, "Have you seen who's going in and out of this place?" I've heard rumors that those people and cloaks and hoods come in and out of this place. I don't know if I'd want to go in there if I were you. Do you know what they're doing? What's this? Do you know? What is this for? I'm not sure, but last time I saw a group of these hooded figures go in, I brought somebody with them and I never saw them come out. Who did they bring in? What did the person look like? Sorry, it was at night. I couldn't really see. But I'll tell you that when I saw them go in, there was a knife on their cloak as they went inside. They were carrying torches and I just get the sense of dread as I walk by. I've lived here all my life and I would not want to find what's on the other side of that door. So we'll put his lockpick kit back in the, back in kind of his satchel. Think the random person? You're welcome. I'll say please be safe. I'll say my name is Cass. And if there's ever anything I could do to help, please let me know. But I must go. I'll say I have to go back to my ship, to my work. And then you see Cass kind of like, you know, scurry off, you know, hurriedly, kind of sort of like keeping his head down a little bit. Looking around shoulder over shoulder, you know, obviously very alarmed and nervous. Where do we see casco? Is casco into the ashen crown? Nope, soft down towards the dock towards one of the smaller ships. Okay. Well What do you think what should we do you can't get in I Might be able to try again, but it seems like Whatever is locked in here is wanted to be hidden. I mean, I really feel like Maz could be in there and I don't want to leave knowing that she could be in there being tortured or goodness knows what. But I could maybe use the other side of my axe to try to knock this bolt out of the door. That's holding it in. It might make some sound, but we could pretend we're having some sort of bar fight or something. If somebody comes to to investigate, we can just say, I pushed you into the door and it broke. Yes, no. Well, being the newest one in the party kind of like looks looks around, waits for answers for from the others. We could try talking to more people in the area to see if we can get any more information about what's going on. Yes, we could try the tavern. That seems like a good place to talk to people. Yes. And tavern is like up this way. You'd actually say tavern. Yeah, it's not on the map, but basically you walk down this way and then, you know, I'll bring you on over. Be sure to tavern. Okay. The light field. I mean, as you guys, you know, are looking around again, the Ashen crown catches your eye again and you don't see all of them, but some of the sails, they start to fully unfurl. So again, just, you know, preparing for, you know, the voyage again, yeah, doesn't seem like it's not leaving right now, but you get the sense that, you know, certainly on its way to prepare. But we don't see the captain. No, definitely no captain. Okay, because I was looking for the captain also. If I kind of like sneak around the docks here, like even the way, like all the way around this ship that's still being built, that sort of thing, do I see a red daemon in a fancy hat? Do I see, like if I'm looking all around or? No, no red daemon in fancy hat. over there. There's a person, you know, standing at the very end of the dock as you walked your way over that way. But anything interesting about that person? It looks like, you know, person kind of looking out at the water. You don't see anything that jumps out. Can I approach him for a second and just ask him if he's, oh, is it is a guy asking me if he's okay? Yep. Yeah. Um, beautiful, beautiful day. Huh? I couldn't agree more. Let's say I love to come out here and listen to the waves and watch the water. So there's no place quite like Kraken's Harbor out there. Yeah, it's. It's not what I'm used to, but I think there's. I think there's something beautiful about that, seeing things that you've. Not often seen. Or maybe in your case. seeing things that you see often. I think there's beauty in both. I think the goal is to see things you see often in a new way. And if you can see them for what they are each day, that's what makes life worth living. He's not disengaged from the conversation, but you can tell that this is something that he really enjoys. And this is calm, I'm kind of peaceful for him. And, you know, he engaged in the conversation just as easily as happy to sit there and kind of watch the water and enjoy the scenery. So I'll kind of watch as the water with him for a little bit. And then when it feels like there's been a moment between like just a quiet moment kind of saunters back off. All right. To the tavern then. Yeah. Behind you. I am totally thirsty. [LAUGHTER] Because you're not entirely sure you've ever seen him actually drink. No. All right. So as you guys walk towards the, yeah, the dead eye saloon, I mean, it looks pretty much like a dive, right? Like it certainly is sturdy, but it is the opposite of the ashen crown and pretty much every way you could imagine. This place is not well kept. There are just little tidbits falling off here and there. Again, still looks dirty, but they're not going for looks. You see main entrance directly in front of you. There are some windows at various places. You see some folks milling about going in and out. As the day continues to progress, it seems like it doesn't matter what time it is. They'd be people drinking, going in and out and going in here to have a good time. From here, I leave it up to the players. What kind of door is it? I love pauses outside listening to see if there's someone singing or telling stories from within. like you can kind of like hear you can't make out what's actually being said. But there's clearly some sort of music sounds like some sort of string instrument that they're, you know, playing you know, something like that. But Lana has kind of snuck over to the window and would like motion to her her fellow teammates and say I think I see the daemon and they are He has red skin and he has horns. So I think that might be the captain Well, let's let's not all go in at once and draw attention who would like to enter first. What kind of doors are they? Just, you know, two double doors in front of you. Double doors. That's how I'm going to be honest. They they they're you can easily open them. I mean, no, I'm just going to ban adventurers. You can handle us. Are they saloon doors? This is important to my oh, no, no, they're not saloon doors. No, no, they're just the two two doors. You can push them, you know, they're, you know, you can kind of see through the middle there. They don't meet super well. So there's like a little crack that you could certainly peek through. You were so inclined and, you know, Certainly the smells of a dive bar are coming on through, which is certainly some sort of mixture of yeasty beverages, such as beer or even wine. It's probably not the cleanest place you've ever seen or been to, but yeah, no. This isn't Burial's first time in a dive bar. It may not even be her first time in this one. Memory's a little hazy. That's what bars typically do to you. Yeah. Yeah. Happy to head on in and scope the place out. I think Svetlana will follow behind but not like super closely. And she'll kind of be stumbling like she is already somewhat intoxicated. And she kind of stumbles across the room, sits down in one place, gets up, kind of, you know, meandering around. And I think eventually she'll end up sitting next to the daemon at the bar and just be like, can I get a water, please? The bartender notices her stumbling on in and says, "Hello there, honey. Seems like you've already had quite a day. Say no problem. I'll get you some water." And gets a jug that, clean enough, not perfectly so, pours it into a glass that, again, clean enough. I would say not so much dirty as obviously has seen a lot of usage. You keep it clean as you can, but over time, it just looks a little bit worn, kind of like slides on in front of you. There you go. Don't worry about it at all. Leave the bottle. Yeah. [Laughter] And she slides the whole jug on over and then, you know, sort of goes back and continues, you know, serving the various patrons at the bar. She doesn't really blink an eye. I mean, this is not the first time she's seen or, you know, service somebody who's obviously Looks looks to her to be new created. Sorry, buddy, I lost the drinking game and I mean, I talk about gambling, right? Oh, any experience with that? And you're talking to the the Damon next to you? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, every now and then, you know, you have too many. Oh, I don't put anybody over the ads and you hear like a And he lights up like a very fat cigar, like pretty much like right in front of your face, like takes a big puff and kind of blows it in the air. Not at you, not trying to be rude or anything, but you can tell this is something that he enjoys. There's a very, very large pint in front of this guy right now and says, you know, well, I hope it was worth it. And his voice is kind of like shows that he's obviously been a smoker for like, you know, like a long while. And you can see that he pops on this cigar, like with such effortlessness that he doesn't even need to think about it. And, you know, looks over and says, well, you should probably keep drinking that water then, huh? Yes. And then she like chugs the water from the bottle and it's like dripping down her face, like just trying to get as much water as possible. I would assume she's pretty good at this because, you know, she's had hard days where, you know, she's had to chug water to, you know, not dehydrate. So she's pretty good at it. And he looks over, he's like, there you go, atta girl. I'll say I'm surprised somebody like you can't hold their, their, their booze a little bit better, huh? Somebody your size. You should see the other guy. Hey, I know that well because you know when you look over towards this dayman, I mean he is also an imposing figure even for a Svetlana because Svetlana is already quite tall, but this this guy You're hunched over He's at least as tall if not taller like he is an imposing figure not intimidating though not certainly trying to exert anything over somebody but um, you know just a large large being um He goes back to puffing on his cigar, takes a sip of his pint, and you can see him looking over towards the bartenders. Hey, Maria, we got any of those potatoes back there? Potatoes, that's the cure for any hangover. I'll tell you what, you should try these things. I know that everyone likes to talk about, you know, the drinks in this place. They want to talk about the, if I can remember the name myself, because I made it up. I need to look at my notes. This is embarrassing. Oh, God. Why can't I find it? The blue. No. The drink. Yeah. Oh, I'm blanking. -Storm. -Storm myth is an M word, right? -Storm's Mercy. -Storm's Mercy. I know this place is known for the Storm's Mercy. But I'll tell you what, you can get the best dead saloon baked potato. Man, you haven't had it until you had it. And Maria, could we get two of those please? Thank you, friends. And he kind of like, you know, just taps her on the shoulder very gently. And then Maria says, looks over and you hear her say, "Is that all, Demir?" He says, "Yeah, it'll be all for right now. I appreciate it." And you see her kind of, you know, go towards the back and you assume that she's probably going to, you know, go put her in order, you know, get the food somehow. So how long have you been around here? I'll tell you that this is the place. My, you know, if I could have a home base, this would be it. I'll say I'm actually the, I'm a lowly, you know, captain of a little ship and, you know, I just kind of go where the tides take me. And right now, I'm, you know, here waiting to sail off on my next, you know, journey. And for right now, I'm just trying to relax before the ship is ready. And once all that's done, we'll be heading on off. So what brings you to Dead Eye Saloon? Well, mostly the water. I had this bad, bad game of drinking with my friends. And well, they kind of passed out. So I said I would come to the bar and get some water. This this year is just for me. I'll get them some stuff later. But I've I've been here for a few hours. We just talked right down the the way. I are you from the Archduke? Is that your vessel? Making up a vessel. Yeah. No, no, my my little ship is it's actually called the Ashen Crown. I was going to say we're very proud of her. She's not much to show, but she she gets us where we need to go. The Ashen Crown, that big vessel out there is yours? Well, you know, I won. She's been mine for some time now and, you know, she gets me where I need to go and I don't like to... I don't like to gloat, you know. I know that she's an imposing figure out there, but she's a great ship and honestly, if it wasn't for the crew, it wouldn't be as good. the crew is even better than the ship. - Wow. And how did you come by such a vessel like that with such a great crew and a young person like yourself? - Well, you know how we started off by saying, you know, I gotta be careful of those gambling games. I'll tell you that one person did not do well. When I came here, even as a, you know, a young person that I got engaged in this very saloon in a game of poker one night. And as the evening went on, my opponent at the time, God's bless him kept drinking and drinking. And for me, I did not. As the night went on, the bets just got higher and higher. And eventually that's how she became mine. I ended up winning that with just two pair, Ace High. - She does a slow clap for him. Amazing. Quite a success story you have there. I can't believe. Did you know the guy that you took the ship off of? - No, no, didn't know him well at all. I only knew him from around these parts by word of mouth. I got started here as just the ship's hand and was helping out and was first mate on a number of smaller vessels. And I came to get to know him though And you'll probably see him wandering around these parts. And if you ever find him, you'll never stop hearing from him. Yeah, I think my friend might have met him down by the docks earlier. I think I know who you're talking about. Ah, I just see him. He's got a big, you know, big hat. Yeah. Y'all say it doesn't matter what kind of time of day you, uh, you find him. He's probably drowning himself again, not in the water. Yeah. Poor poor fella. he kind of wish you could do something for him. Does he seem to be like hanging around at the wrong crowd or something? I mean, he didn't seem like he was doing too well. He floats from place to place and it's actually a sad story as could be told. Once he lost that vessel, he tried to get himself back on his feet, but he found himself at the bottom of a bottle instead. He's been a beggar ever since then. And, uh, you know, I throw him some coin here and there, but lost. The only place it goes is back to the bar. And, uh, I wish we could do more for him. And we've tried giving him a couple of opportunities. And each time, you know, he, he ends up gambling it away. And, uh, you know, it's a shame. That is a shame. Speaking of, uh, coin, um, what kind of trains are you doing around here? What's, what's the best, uh, way to make coin for a ship man like yourself? It depends on whatever comes my way. I do pretty much any work that pays well and is on the right side of the law. And I'll tell you that whether it's a straight escort, shipping cargo, I know I've done any number of jobs over the years and I look for what's going to pay well and keep my ship on the ocean because I feel like spending too much time on the land it weakens my crew. I don't think we do are strong when we spend too much time on the land. Yeah, I can see that about you. You seem like a very straightforward person. Um, speaking of the escorts that you do, um, say, you wouldn't have happened to been carrying a ferry from, uh, Skyland recently here, have you? No, not recently. Actually, my most recent mission was a simple escort mission. I was bringing some merchant's goods right here from Kraken's Harbor, through Silent Bay going over to Cogsburg. That's what you just came from there? That's where you're headed? That was my last job. Then from Cogsburg, I came back here. From Cogsburg, you say? Mm-hmm. And what did that entail, if you don't mind me asking? Of course, it's highly personal. That's fine. No, I'll tell you. That was actually one of the toughest jobs I've had in a while. It was a simple escort mission, but all of a sudden, My crew were out on the water, were going through Silent Bay, and a dark mist started coming over the water out of nowhere, never seen anything like it. Then seemingly out of nowhere, it was like these people came right out of the water. The next thing I know, my ship was being boarded by folks in hoods and cloaks, never seen anything like it. And even worse, one of my crew members at the time, Mateus, he has out the helm, he started turning into the black mist. And I'll tell you, right then and there, I grabbed my sword and stuck them through it because I knew that that guy was no longer on my side. So the mist, it turned him? I'm not sure, or I thought myself, honestly, I just thought he was a turncoat. I think the whole thing was a ruse. He was one of my newer crew members. And then as these others came onto my ship, I saw hooded figures as they came up on. It was a knife symbol right on their cloaks. Ever since then, I've seen them start to overcome the docks more and more ever since that job. As I came back, I see them around more and more frequently. Not the jagged knife, surely? Oh, that jagged knife? I'll tell you, that's exactly what it was. I don't care to cross them again, but at that night, after my crew and I fought off the the rest of them. We actually saw a wizard right there on our ship. He was demanding the cargo that we had. We didn't even know what was inside. Oh my goodness. What did you do? Did you give it to him? As he demanded the cargo, I was able to... By that point, we had gotten most of the jagged knife sub-dude. We had killed a number of them. Most of them were out of the way. And made the demand and then as I pulled the trigger he poof disappeared right in front of my eyes. I've never seen anything like it. That's an incredible story. Yeah, and I'll tell you that ever since then. I got him back. I keep seeing more of these folks around and around and to be honest, I think there's got to be something going on inside the town. Yeah, I was kind of thinking not as well. Just looking around at the docks, I saw a lot of people in these cloaks just wandering up north. Hey, you wouldn't happen to know what that warehouse is being used for, right? Have you looked at that warehouse? Have you gone inside? No, I haven't. I was just curious. It has this kind of mysterious aura to it. And, you know, I've only been here for a few hours, so I wasn't sure. People seem to be scared of it, but it's just wood. Only the most experienced fighters should be interested in going that way, because I'll tell you what, that's a dangerous place. How so, my friend? As night falls and as it gets later in the day, I only see more and more folks going in and out. And the folks that I see going in are not the good sort. See cargo moving in and out, but always under the cover of darkness. And it is the jagged knife. I know it mostly from whispers. I have not been in there myself, but after that experience I had on the water, I'd do anything to get back at them. Yeah, I bet you would. Say, you're not the experience fighter yourself, are you? Oh, I try to stay on the other side of the law these days. I don't worry myself with fighting. I defended myself when needed. But I'll tell you what, are you interested in trying to go after the jagged knife? Why do you ask of them? Uh, I had a friend who, um, well, to tell you the truth, I think she was kidnapped. Um, I came here just, you know, a few hours ago hoping to define some trace of her, but, uh, no luck so far. I feel like these Dragonknife people might be art of this somehow. I don't know. I'm just trying to piece it all together, really. But yes, if I had to, if blows came to blows, I'd be willing to fight for her. I don't see them in the kidnapping games often. I always thought it was more of a profit making scheme. But I'll tell you that I think things have been changing lately. I've seen shifts and changes around town and, you know, new things popping up. New things are so. Well, when I look around, sometimes I see these little symbols popping up on different buildings. And, you know, that weren't there before. And it's, you know, strange. I've seen that jagged knife symbol, but these ones are new. They wouldn't happen to be suns, would they? How'd you know? I just had a sneaking suspicion. I've seen this strange symbol. It's got a sun and some... It just feels off somehow. It reminds me actually of core, but... But not. I don't know if... How to explain myself, really, but... There's something wrong about it. There's some sort of religious activity that's linked to these jagged knife people. And I don't really know what it is. Have you investigated at all? Oh, no, no. I try not to get involved too much. I try to keep my head down and stay focused on the business. And I focus on what is mine and don't get involved in others' business. But the one thing that I won't stand for is when people come after my own and given my experience. I certainly wouldn't, wouldn't hesitate, would love to see somebody take care of those who have done me wrong here. Oh, Bogey, you're here. I thought you were passed out in the other room. I was going to bring you some water. I'm okay. I drank the, I mistook the plant pot for a jug, a jug of plant water. Oh, okay. What's going on? Oh, this is my new friend, Demir. He's actually the captain of that vessel we saw out there. That big one. I forget what it's called at the moment, but yeah, he's the captain. Said he wanted it in a game, but we were just talking about the jagged knife and how they seem to have a presence here in this town and how they actually took over this guy's ship on his way here. That's that's not good. Yeah, not good at all. But he also said he's been seeing these sun symbols around town, sort of like the one we saw in that. Piece of paper, the one that burst into flames. Yes, I remember it. Yeah, that one. Then the bartender glances over at Boga. I was like, "Hey there, could I get anything for you, hon?" -Bluetana just looks nervous and shies away behind Svetlana. -Aw, it's okay, honey. Sure, sure, I'll get you a water as well and grabs the not clean jug and not clean glass and pours it over there again. I don't know why pours like this, apparently. But yeah, of course, slides the water on in front of Boga. Say, Dimir, how much longer do you have here at the port? When are you leaving? I'd imagine my ship should be ready sometime in the next few hours. I was gonna say we were hanging out here for a while, getting all the cargo, which was delayed, getting into her for our next trip. And once I'm done here, I'm going to walk my way back over to the vessel. And that way we can get on. Say, in those few hours, would you be interested in checking out the warehouse with me if I can give you my honor that I would help you fight these jagged knife people? And then Maria comes over and just hands over like two plates with like the most gorgeous baked potato you've ever seen in your life. It's just like the perfect size. It's not giant, right? But just enough, absolutely steaming. It's got all various toppings, little bits of savory meat on top, some sauce that vaguely reminiscent of butter. You don't know exactly what it is, but the smell is just spot on. To make sure stomach grumble, she says, "Here And you know, actually, Damir drops a couple of coins on the counter. Say, there you go. Hunt, keep the rest there, Maria. And then Maria goes back on over. And so I'll try to steal Svetlana's potato. I was going to say that she already has a little approach. Approaches and is like, is that potatoes? I smell. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What is it? What would it be? Be a you got to get a role for that one, buddy. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I'm thinking it's got to be a. I guess what would it be? Probably presents. Finesse. Finesse. OK, I also have a note that I've gotten my knife out to cut it in half to share with Bokeh. So. Hey, there's that. Hold on. You get your finesse roll there, buddy. Come on. Yeah, I'm rolling. I'm rolling. Get the math rocks, baby. That's a 21 with feet. I know, sorry, 22 with fear. OK, 22 with fear. OK, so it's that. I think the role against him so that I can hold on to the potato. I mean, so I mean, 20, that's pretty good. I mean, that's pretty I was going for like a 10. I mean, you guys are in a bar just sitting there eating food. I mean, it's not like super hard to like snatch. Also, to be clear, this this steel is just Sal's tongue. Just. Yeah. So Sal's tongue just like me goes grabs the potato, pulls it back and like it just goes like And just like it's kind of like a cork in a bottle like going to his mouth, right? It makes a sound. Then all of a sudden he go. And he spits it back out again because it's so steaming hot. I was just going to say because he rolled the fear. He rolled the fear. So you burn your tongue, take two stress. No. And then I imagine Sal still like, oh, that was a very hot, but good potato. And Maria, you know, sort of gives like a side eye. kind of just like lasted off like, you know, and you see your run back and run back to the back, comes back to the front and just pops one more guy says, don't worry about honey. And just hands you guys one more says, I've known Damir for years. I was going to say this guy, I'll say I'm willing to give you guys one more on the house just for him. You're so sweet, my dear. So I was going to eat it off, eat the one off the floor, by the way. Like once once it cools a little bit, like worth it. But when I will cut it in half, actually cut it in thirds and give a little piece to Uriel and a little piece to Boga. Oh, bless your heart. I'm going to need my own plate. Well, this will tide you over until the next one cooks. These are some of my friends' acquaintances, that one. Still getting to know him, but he just stole my food. So he's back down the ladder. But. So self is high with a really full mouth. But back to the question at hand. Have you thought about it? Some would you be interested in joining us if we. If we are on the same mission? Well, I'll tell you what. Well, I don't want to do it. I can help you get into that warehouse if you're interested. Sorry, storage house. And how do you propose we do that? Well, that place, if you try it, it's locked up tight. No, they keep those doors bolted at almost all times. You say almost like there is a time that they're not unlocked. Well, there's times where they're not all bolted. They're still locked, but I'll tell you what helps. And you see him kind of pull back. He's got this gorgeous large, 'cause this is a large Damon Wright jacket. And he goes and you see this kind of like pocket on the inside and he reaches in and then he kind of like filters around for it. And he's like, "Wait, what? "Where is it?" And he goes, "Oh, hold on." And then if you look, there's a hat on the bar right now. He's left the hat on the bar. And there's a shiny, shiny skeleton looking key. And at the very end of it, there's like a little circle. And within it, there's something that, you know, to your eye looks like a knife, but somebody else's eye maybe not. If you have that, I can tell you when to get in, when you can get in. - Where did you procure something like this? Well, let's just say I have my ways. That's something I'd keep for myself. I've been coming into Kraken's Harbor for a long time now, and we build up different relationships and get to know the folks around. And you've got to be careful if you don't want to get caught. Do I get the sense that this looks like Maz's skeleton key? No. OK. So you can help us get in, but you're not willing to go in with us. Yes, let's just say I'd like to stay out of the jagged knife if I can avoid it. However, if you want to go in and you can show me that you've gone in, perhaps we could make some sort of deal. I'm interested. What kind of deal? Is there anything that the captain of a small vessel like me could provide for all of you? Anything that you think could help? So, go for potatoes? More potatoes! Ariel moves away a little bit to leave them to their conversation and flags the bartender to order one of those potatoes. And also asks while she's there, if they've seen the old Captain Elric Reigns around. You're asking the bartender? Yes. Maria takes the order, you know, runs to the back real quick. You see her run back, kind of come out. I mean, she's got this down, right? Like clockwork, like she'd been doing this for years and says, "Oh, Elric, no, no, we don't usually see him till a little later, then we can't get rid of him." That's sweet, sweet man. Thank you. Thank you, Maria. I'll say no problem. Sam, what brings you over to Kraken's Harbor? Business. I'll say, "Oh, business?" I wasn't saying, "Are you here for the ships? You here to try to find work?" We're actually looking for an old friend. I mean, she's not old. I'm old. She's not. Oh, well, I'll tell you what. I've been around here a long time. Is there anything I could do to help? I know a lot of people come in and out. Uh, Safari by the name of Maz. Maz? I know Maz. Is that a good thing? Oh, of course. Maz and I have known each other for years. Oh. Same here, same. She's a bit of a rapscallion. Always getting into trouble. Have you seen her recently? Oh, I'll tell you what, yeah. She was in here just not a few days ago. She say where she was off to next by any chance? I'll tell you what, I'm trying to remember. I'm not sure that she was saying, "Hmm." She didn't say exactly where she was going. I knew that she was here because she said she had something to do. I saw her come in with some folks that, "Ooh, I don't actually want to talk about." But then when I, you know, heard her talking with some folks around, she was... she didn't say she was going there, but she was asking about, "Uh, oh, what was that place?" "Oh, I can't remember." Hmm. But what about these people? What, were they shady? Did she seem like she wanted to be with them? Well, you know, with Maz it can be hard to tell sometimes. I think she was with them, I guess what I'd say is because she had to be. I'm not sure that she wanted to. I felt that she was, I don't know if I could say safe. Okay. But I'll tell you, then you see Maria kind of like glance towards the far back corner of the bar, kind of over this way. It's like, I think somehow she was with some folks, maybe with that guy, kind of looks over there, but please don't tell anybody that I said that. Of course, of course I wouldn't. I appreciate your help. Is that Maz as a dear friend? - Oh yeah. Oh for sure, I'll tell you what. That, you know, with Maz, you never know what you're gonna get. And you know, I'll be honest that years ago, Maz actually would help me smuggle things around throughout Kraken's Harbor. And I'll tell you, she did it 'cause she needed to get by. but she always wanted to help out anybody who needed help and I think she does really have a good heart. - Yeah, she's a good being. - Yeah, well, I hope you enjoy your Dead Saloon baked potato and let me know if I could get you guys anything else. - Will do, thanks so much for your help. - Of course. - Ariel didn't mean to actually interrupt the other conversation I was just trying to get. Oh, no, no. I doubt it. I'm glad you had that conversation. Could Sal hear that from where he's sitting, or is this guy playing the, is that a lute? Maybe. [Sing-song] Yeah, it's like, I mean, he's playing music. Yeah. He's sitting by the piano, but he's playing lute. Could Sal hear the conversation Uriel just had? Yeah, yeah, no. And it's not particularly crowded right now. It's getting later in the day. We've been talking for a while, exploring. You can kind of look outside and you see it looks like the sun is beginning to set and it's getting to that point of what would you call more twilight, right? So like it's days progressing. And some more people are filtering in, but it's not bumping just yet. Is this the person that Mario was talking about? Yes. in the back corner. Okay, okay. And that's actually, you know, you didn't notice them all on the way in. As a matter of fact, it was sort of like a darker, you know, kind of corner, but, you know, now she pointed it out, and now you notice, but she didn't notice on the way in. Okay, gonna take my potato and make my way over to this table, you know, like I was just looking for a place to sit and eat my potato and naturally, Pazoo, rolled up in the corner behind me. See if anything catches my interest while I am enjoying my big potato. So are you trying to like look and see if anything catches your interest or you're just kind of casually glancing like give me a sense? Yeah, I'm trying to keep it on the download just just kind of seeing what's back here while I have you know I'm focused on the potato mostly. Okay. Mostly potato. Could you give me an instinct role? Sure. A 16 with fear. So you look over and you see this guy who very quickly to you appears to be capable of maybe some not nice things. You get the sense that he's he's got a short sword. Definitely armed. You feel like you see perhaps like another dagger in his boots, like he's rather well armed. And his eyes kind of like, you know, linger on, you know, different folks in your group as they kind of came in and you see him particularly interested in the conversation between Svetlana and Captain Demir. You don't know that he can necessarily hear everything that's happening, but certainly he's watching. And, you know, you get the sense that he's keeping an eye on you guys and he kind of gives you like side-eye towards you. And you think he kind of knows that you're also watching him at the moment. Ilo came in separately and pointedly hasn't talked to anybody else and is kind of hanging over here on the other side of the bar listening into conversations and casually, you know, ordering something quietly and just trying to listen in. So he hasn't actually peered at this person over here and trying to figure out what's going on. But when anyone of his partners kind of look his way, he gives a very subtle shake of the head, you know, to not include him in their discussions just yet, as he's trying to, you know, scope things out. Maria the bartender kind of goes over and goes, - Hey there, honey. How are you doing today? Is there anything I could get for you? - What do you recommend? - Well, I'll be honest. I'm not sure what a clank would like to drink from the bar, but I'll be happy to get you anything if we have it. - Hello's eyebrow twists up kind of like really, and motions towards the guy playing music over there. Whatever he would have would be fine. - Oh, sure, sure. I'll say no problems. Give me one second. - You see, Maria kind of go over back towards the middle of the main spot of the bar. And when I say this thing is like put together like Jesus machine, like, you know, just like grabbing things from here and there. Like it's almost as though she has an extra arm And you see her talking to the patrons over here towards the left hand of the side of the bar. She's just chit-chatting a little bit, like, "Hey, how you doing? Oh, how's it going?" Things like that. And just mixing this thing in front of you, shakes it up, glasses in front. She's pouring it in. And then she walks back over to Hilo and just goes, slides it over the counter, goes, "Here you go, honey. Enjoy your storms, Mercy." And he kind of wafts it in front of his nose, dips a finger in it, and then sets it back down. And just for a little flavor, it's a very bright blue, the cocktail. The mug looks cracked, but nothing's leaking. It has black sea salt on the rim. Fancy looking. Actually uses his finger to get the salt off. Or he's going to drink from because, you know, salt water isn't good for clanks. So he's a little careful with that. And then takes a sip. What do you think? Hmm. And he sets it back down. I'm glad you like it, honey. I'll say that'll just be two gold pieces, please. Uh, he, he, he puts down three. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And you see her kind of go back towards like the middle. She's got like a jar kind of like under the counter. You're like, clink, clink, clink, clink. Put it right in there. And then, you know, it goes back to again, you know, working. If Sal moves down like in front of the musician and kind of back towards these stairs, does anybody look at him? Nope. Everyone's chit-chatting at the bar. And musicians playing. People kind of focused on that. the guy in the far corner, you know, still kind of focused more on the rest of the party, doesn't notice Sal. And, you know, was more taken aback because the person in that corner noticed Uriel peeking at him. Okay. Can I, if I, if Sal starts to move up these stairs, do I, anybody stop me? Nope. Okay. What's through this door? What am I looking at? So, you kind of go back and it just looks like the back of a, you know, the back of a bar or restaurant. There's any number of, you know, doors and things like that. And you know, it looks pretty standard. You assume there's got to be kitchen back there. Full disclosure, this actually doesn't have like a proper kitchen. There should be. So, let's just use, you know, our imagination. Where did you get the potatoes from? But the kitchen is on the lower floor. Oh, thank you. There. Yes. Yes. That's what I was thinking. Perfect. No, no, see, so there is a... An ocean nightmare. But could... Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, because all the doors should be... Some of the doors should be closed for sure. But certainly, you don't really see anybody, although you do... Yeah, it just looks like some hallways, some extra rooms. You're not sure what's back there. Gotcha. Come back down and cells actually going to go out the door. And then sneak. And pure in through this window at this guy, just little frog eyes, just peeking in through the window. At this guy, at this guy, this guy, this guy. Are you looking for anything in particular? I'm just it's more like keeping and keeping an eye out more. or if he does anything, I'm nearby, that sort of thing. As a ribbit, your eyes are kind of always out. There you go. He does not take any notice of Sal, you know, looking in the window, looking at him. He's more focused on what's happening in the bar. Is the window open or closed, by the way? It should be open. If it's not open, it should be. And then all of a sudden, Maria kind of walks back over towards where Captain Damir is. Then she sees, you know, Uriel off in the corner is like, "Hey, hey, hon. I remember what Maz was telling me." [C] Uriel clenches her teeth to not flinch with Maria yelling across the bar about Maz. Be right there. [D] Boga slightly spills the Juggal War. I just stuck a endless forest. What would she be doing there? Did I hear that? I assume since I'm like, literally right next to them. Yeah, she's she's not trying to be discreet. She doesn't think this is a private conversation. You know, she's just chit-chatting like she was any other patron. And how long ago was that, Maria? Oh, I'm sorry. The days they just blend together. I feel like sometime, maybe in the last few days, maybe the last couple of weeks. I'm so sorry, hon. I wish I had a, you know, could could nail it down, but I'm not sure. I don't see much daylight in this place, you know. Oh, no worries, no worries. Thanks for the info all the same. Slipper, gold piece. Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate it, hun. The potatoes are incredible. I'll tell you what, it's one of our best things here. I can't get enough of them myself. I'm going to go finish that now. Hey, Damir, you wouldn't happen to be going to the Endless Forest, would you? Well, actually, that's my next destination. I'll say the cargo I've got right now. It's a pretty standard job, but I'll be bringing it over and heading on, dropping it off at a port over at the Endless Forest. Yeah, that's actually where I'm off to next. Do you haven't been doing any dealings with these folks in Cloaks? No, you couldn't pay me enough money, I'll tell you. There's nothing I don't like, nothing I hate more than those who live on, you know, it's one thing to smuggle some goods, right? It's another thing to take another's life. Agreed. And say you wouldn't have any room on your voyage to take us there as well, would you, if we were to need to come along? We could pay our way. It is a big ship. I'll tell you, there's something I think I'd like more than money. Is that for us to go into the warehouse? Well, if I had any guess, I bet you there'd be something very valuable within that warehouse. So, what you're saying is, if we go into this warehouse, you'll guarantee we can have a quick escape off of this harbor? As my ship gets ready, we're almost there. I believe we could probably hold off long enough if you so choose. It's a very good deal. Okay, hold that thought. And I'll talk with my friends. And I assume you'll be around here for a few more minutes at least. Yes, yes. I still have. He holds up his very large pint glass. There's a good glug left in the bottom there. He's still puffing on that cigar. It's so fat that you probably smoked that thing for hours. He indicates that he's still going to have some time. Yeah. Thanks for the conversation, my friends. And the potato. I'm feeling a lot better already. And I hop off the stool and I make my way over to this chair over here because out of the corner of my eye, I saw a sun symbol on the ground. So I'm just going to sit there. I'm not going to look at it directly, but I'm going to sit here with the intention of kind of investigating that symbol that I see on the ground. Can you roll for... Instinct. That is 11 plus 8, 19 plus 1 plus 20 with hope. Yeah, take a hope and it is... First, again, you get the impression of kind of warmth within your chest because it reminds you of that symbol of core that is so deeply meaningful for yourself. But then it just as rapidly changes to a sense of foreboding as you sort of see these sort of perverted version of it, right, that it is kind of twisted. It's almost hard to put the words, but there's something off about the entire thing. And then you're not sure if it's real or not, but as you look at it, it's like there's just So shimmer or glow as you glance at it, but it just as quickly fades away. And there's actually slight burns around it, as though it was actually on fire at some point. But it's hard to place. OK. I would look around the room and try to make eye contact with anybody else who is-- like maybe a Boga or Sal or Uriel to just kind of like call them to me or, you know, say that there's something interesting over here. And we'll see if Boga knows this. Hey, sorry, you can, yeah, you can roll. I'm sorry. I picture Boga sitting on the bar stool and she's little legs. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Taking her heels against the. So you would do an instinct role, Boga? Oh, look at me. Fool. Okay, that's 16 with fear. So you, because right, you were rolling to see if you noticed Svetlana kind of looking around, right? Oh, you definitely notice. You see that she's kind of trying to like do like the like thing with her eyeballs of like come over here, right? And then as you do so, you do see this person in the corner kind of get up and start to walk across towards where Svetlana is. I'd like to, so I would like to climb through the window. Easy enough. Just I mean, just just kind of so I would like to kind of move like right here and hide behind the table. OK. Did I see what the symbol was drawn in? Was it like burned into the wood or is it? like placed onto the wood with like marker, you know, what have you. It, no, yeah, it looks like it was actually like burned into the wood. Like it could have been that somebody carved it and then it was burned or it was just like burned. It's not, you know, totally clear, but there's definitely like an actual like indentation, you know, in the wood. Slyly, I'm just going to like take my axe out and have it like resting on the ground on that symbol. And I'm going to like make a little notch in the symbol, like just kind of carve through it. So you're trying to break the symbol? Yeah, essentially. I can, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, no, no, no. So as as you put your axe down right into the symbol and kind of like break the line, are you looking directly at it? You kind of doing it like kind of without people noticing. I'm trying to do it without people noticing. So I don't think I'd be looking at it. - So you're like looking over in like the opposite direction, right? You kind of take your hand and, you know, put it back beside you. And then all of a sudden you see more feel than see, but it just like a, and it's just like you get the sense that there was a slight bit of heat coming from that area. And then it just rapidly dissipates. And you think in the corner of your eye, you might have seen like a slight glow. Then you see this individual just kind of walk past, you know, and kind of goes backwards behind the the bar. Can I attempt to follow him stealthily? Sure. I need to roll anything. Yeah, let's I mean, you're a stealthy guy, but let's I think we should roll for them. Let's do a sneaky one. I guess in presence, Vanessa. I think it's. - Right, finesse. - Yeah, finesse has hide. - Yeah, it says hide, yeah. Trying to bring yours up. What do you have on what's your modifier? - Plus three for finesse. That's my maintenance stat. I would like to use my experience. I like to spend a hope and use my experience. No one really sees me. - Hit it? Yeah? - Okay, spend a hope. - Give you another plus two? - Plus three for this experience. - So you got plus six. - I do have plus six and that is a 19 with fear. Oh baby, you sneaky, sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. You are a sneaky, sneaky. I mean, there is no pitter-patter on these feet this time, buddy. - I also, yeah, I was gonna say, I also, because I'm wild born, I move silently anyway. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Oh, and I have advantage, actually. Hold on, let me add a few more numbers. - I mean, you already got it, but sure, let's do it. I love it. - Yeah, that's a 22 now. Perfect. - That's a 22. All right, so like you really sneaky, sneaky. So like so much so that like it's actually incredible because this is like Maria's second home. And so much so that she doesn't even really see what's actually going ahead and happening back here. She's just going about her business. And typically, if somebody is gonna be moving about, she at least knows. Like earlier, she knew he walked up there. She didn't really think about it. She didn't pay no mind. This time though, doesn't even know. - Did I get the sense that the guy was coming towards me And then when I carved through the thing, he then changed direction or was he always going to the back room? He was coming towards you and then changed direction. You don't know why. Do I... Where did I... Where did Sal see him go? No, Sal, by the time Sal got back there, didn't see exactly where he went. You're just assuming kind of in one of the back rooms back here somewhere. Can I contract that door? Look inside. I mean, are you just just open in it? Just open the door, see what happens. Just open the door, see what happens. I love that for you. I mean, I had a really good stealth role, so I figured that's still an effect, right? I have to roll again. I can roll again if I need to. No, you just want to open it. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. This is how we roll. Did they see me? Not yet. Oh, gosh, I will. You had a good stealth role. Close it, Oregon. OK. It's a good thing it was a good stealth role, I'm just saying, like it was a good stuff role. OK. Just so how are you? How are you walking away? Oh, I'm just kind of. Moving at my my normal silent pace, just back to the stairs. That's it. Cool. Okay. I like that. It's a good plan. If I sneak a look at the symbol on the ground, is it still there? It's just no longer glowing or does it look like it's changed? No, it's still there. It looks more or less the same, almost carved into the wood with kind of like the burnt marks around it. But then you distinctly see where it was broken and there's no shimmer or anything like that, nothing suggesting that, you know, it's magical in any way. know. I'll stand up and I'll go over to Boga and I'll say Boga. I think there was a symbol over there. And I made a mark through it because it seemed magical. And I was worried that maybe it was some sort of, I don't know, a token that somebody can use to travel here. And I remembered that the a wizard was like kind of poofing everywhere. And I don't know, just I had this strange foreboding sense when I looked at it and I carved through it. I hope that's okay. I thought maybe I didn't want the wizard to come here and I didn't know if that's how he was getting around. But it's that same symbol that was on the paper, I think. So you love to sing without knowing what it did. I just, I can't explain it. It was a foreboding feeling in my chest. You know that feeling that you had in the dungeon? It was like that. I just knew it was bad. Concerning. I mean, you can go look at it now if you want, but. The symbol. It's from the symbol. What did you say? Was it from the symbol? Were you sure? Was it the symbol of core? Was the feeling coming from the symbol? Was it causing it? Or was it... Disappearance? No, it's still there. But it was shimmery and magical before, and now it has nothing. It's just carved into the wood, and it has burn marks around it. Like the wood had been burned. - I'm gonna go and see if I recognize what's happening. So I recognize what the burn marks might be from. - Okay, you can roll for knowledge. knowledge, knowledge. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, yeah, it says, you know, recall, analyze, comprehend. Totally. That is a six with fear. Six with fear. Yeah, so, no, no, the answer is no. You don't know much of anything about this. It doesn't seemingly ring a bell. And then, on top of that, you see that somebody accidentally knocks over your glass at the bar and your water spills everywhere. - Oh, book's knocked. - So, Ariel, close enough to overhear the conversation. Trying to understand. In fact, you recognized it as "Core's symbol"? It's like a sun, but it's not. It has something inside of it, which is corrupting it. It's like somebody perverted the core symbol. I see. And it gave off almost literally a bad vibe. Yes, it was very foreboding. Okay. You see Captain Damir sort of walk towards the whole group and he approaches Svetlana in particular because that's what he's talked to the most. He says, "Well, let me know what you'd like to do, but I'll hand you off the key. Please return it to me one way or the other. I'll be waiting on my ship." "As these riddles three." Then he leaves the bar. You see him walk out the door. You're assuming he's going back to the ship. Sal is still watching the door that he opened and hoping, like, watching to see if anybody passes in his eye line that he can kind of like get their attention, but he doesn't want to make any noise. So. Well, Pazoo has exceptional hearing. If you were to start Pazoo, he'd probably pay attention. I think due to what Sal saw inside the door, he's not willing to risk any noise at the moment. So he's kind of like, he kind of like goes a little bit down the stairs, uh, where he can still see the door and kind of like maybe waves at Pazoo, that sort of thing, just kind of like trying to get Pazoo's attention or something like that. And then goes back to being within sight of the door. And it's always in Pazoo's line of sight and Pazoo recognizing something. It's a little off, sort of nudges the aerial and they silently commune and aerial moves over toward the staircase with Pazoo. So goes on the stairs just enough to be maybe out of earshot of doors. like there's there's a bunch of armed armed guys behind that door. The one in the corner that started moving towards Fetlana. I don't know what it means. I don't know if we should barge in or leave it alone. But. Were they wearing cloaks? I only look. Yes. Yes. Yes. - Yeah, that falls from above. Weren't you just in there earlier, Saul? I thought I saw you go by while I was getting my potato. - I walked, I didn't go into any rooms, but this time I opened the door and there was a lot of them. By the way, he's talking really quietly. I'm just not wanting to whisper into a mic. So he, there, whisper, whisper. There's a lot of them and I don't know why they were watching, but... Do you know how many? Five? Maybe? I think it's five. I feel like I saw five. This is where Toko would pipe in saying, "One for everybody, let's go." Right. Okay, so Azu is here just out of the way. I'm going to back up and relay the information to Svetlana that Sal can continue quietly watching the door. Yeah. You think we should go in there, Yriel? Maria the bartender told me that that strange man who was sitting in the corner was involved with the people that Maz was with. And Sal tells me through divine intervention that the people in the room are wearing the dark cloaks, and that's where he went. So that's a yes. I think we should go chat with them. I will kind of motion Toboga to follow along. So she will come with us and go back to the stairwell. cells positioned outside of the door and kind of pointing at it. Okay. Aerial and Pazoo will quietly make their way upstairs. What do we do? Do I... Do you think you can open the door without them noticing? I can try. How light or dark is this hallway? It looks pretty dark, but I want to see if that's correct. Yeah, no. I mean, it's, you know, again, it's the bar's a dive. I mean, there's some light coming in, but it's not particularly bright. But as you are standing outside the door, you actually just start to hear the handle slowly turn from the inside. Okay. The table that I saw inside the door? How tall is it? I don't know. Knee height, three feet, two feet. Room enough for me underneath. How tall is the rabbit? Oh, man, I don't remember how tall Sal is. Roughly. If I was like laying, if I was on all fours, that sort of thing. Yeah. OK. As soon as the door opens, Sal is going to shadow step underneath the door, underneath the table. The door is going to open. Sal is going to be underneath the table in the room. So OK, I like that. That's great. Yeah. So do you have to do anything for that one? I think you do, right? Does Margaret stress? OK. So now you're under the table, though, to be clear. Yes. And after I shadow step, which is going from darkness to darkness, I am hidden. So no one, even if they even if they move into line of sight with me, no one sees me until I move or act. OK. So here you screen. This guy's steps out of the door. Close it. Well, shit. I was trying to be out of the line of sight of the door, but not far enough. Hey, what brings you back here? Uh, looking for the water closet? There's no water closet back here. I'll say get out of my way and go back to the bar. What gives you the right to tell me where to go? I don't think you know who you're talking to. Well, no. I don't. Correct. Yeah. So he actually, and even as you say that, he starts to like walk forward, like essentially already like kind of shoving, you know, not actually like shoving you, but like putting his arm up kind of like, he's just kind of like moving on. And then he starts to see Svetlana daining in the stairwell, kind of stops for a second just at the sheer size of her because Svetlana is large. And how tall Svetlana again? Like what, like seven? Okay. Yeah. kind of, you know, looks are up and down and, you know, sizes are up, essentially, like, you know. Since, uh, now, I've, Ariel's moved up behind the guy and he's a little bit blocked in there. She asked, "Did you want to tell us who you are?" You know, he looks over and, you know, says my name's Sable, but I don't take orders from you or anybody else in here. So I recommend that all of you just get out of my way and go on with your business. So Atlanta punches her hand to the wall, like blocking his way, and says, "Okay, well, who do you take orders from then?" You actually, so sorry, that's intimidation, right? Yeah. Let's do a... Got him. What would that be? Probably a present. Yeah, a present. Presence roll. It could be strength, I guess, but probably presence. Do presence. That was so close to a critical success. 12 and 11. So, 23 with hope. With hope. Take a hope. You see his, like, resolve just like crack for like a second. And you actually understand that like, "Sure, this guy may know people, but he ain't no threat for you." And then he fixes his face essentially, right? And it's like, "You don't want to know." And then you see him, he starts to walk forward, hesitates, stops, and then waits to see what you'll do next, knowing that he can't actually push his way past you in any way, shape, or form. the axe, very large axe that you have at your side, right? - I'm thinking that if you want to get out of here, you're gonna have to answer some questions first. How does that sound? - Duh, duh, you hear him kind of like getting like nervous and he takes a couple, you know, steps back, bumping into, I'm guessing, Uriel, who seems to be closing in with Pazzo. - Yes. - Okay. kind of takes steps back towards the other, you know, kind of corner and definitely going to try to trip him if he went down the stairs. Oh, yeah. Well, he backs towards the corner instead. And, and then you, he obviously now the fear is starting to kind of like, you know, settle in, you know, he, he is armed, he, but given the folks that are surrounding him, you can tell that you're seasoned, you're adventurer, still feeling intimidated from, you know, Svetlana. And, you know, kind of just sort of with trying to be intimidating, it says, "You'll regret that. You don't want to know. I don't want to tell you." Just tell us this then. Where's Maz? I don't know any masks. I don't do anything with that. Okay? I just stay here. I just watch people. I just keep an eye on everybody. That's not what I do. She was here with you. Our sources tell us that you were with her before she disappeared. So many people come and go. I don't pay any mind. I'm just here to watch those who come into the bar. And that's it. That's all they tell me. Watch people to come into the bar. What are you looking for? And then he has just the newcomers, the people that they want. They just give me the descriptions and I tell them if they're here. And did you tell them that we were here? No. No, I haven't seen anybody. I haven't seen anyone. Please, please just let me go. If I tell you anything, they won't let me live. Do I believe him that he hasn't told anybody? You haven't seen him with anybody, right? You haven't seen him leave the bar. He's been there since you've been there. So, you know, to your knowledge, I mean, it looks like, you know, he hasn't been able to leave to go inform anybody that you're there. And what was that symbol downstairs? I know you know the one I'm talking about. They don't tell me anything about that. I just know it's theirs. That's their symbol. I don't know what they're doing with it. I just know that they take things and they take people. And that's all I get. And you do this for a coin? Yes, of course. They're making a living in Krakens Harbor. It's tough. So I never had any coin. Say there's not that many well-paying jobs in the area, in the whole harbor. And I try, but this is the best I was able to do. What do you think, Yeriel? Do you think he's telling the truth? What? Do you want to roll? Yeah. I was thinking like... Intimidate. What do you mean? Like you want to intimidate? Yeah. Um, you know, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, presence here. Well, that's an 11 with hope. So take a hope. And I'm going to talk big, be like, I bet we can make him tell us some more. And you you get the sense that, you know, he he's he seems to be telling you the things that he knows. I mean, he puts on this air that he is kind of like large and in charge, but you're less confident than when you initially saw him that he is as important as he may make himself seem. Are the four people in the room with you? Yeah, you just hear like kind of like talking. I mean, and you hear folks speaking about, you know, mostly like business transactions, like things kind of like that, you know, like we're, you know, shifting kind of like these goods from here to here that, you know, there's a shipment coming in of, I don't know, let's say gold, jewels, things like that coming in. And what they're doing is trying to intercept that and and keep it for themselves. - Hmm. - Yep. - Have you been off Kraken's Harbor lately, or have you been here in this bar for a while? - No, no, all I do is I stay here, this is it. I don't say I don't leave Kraken's Harbor for anything. I want as little to do with that as possible. I get my coin and that's it. - And you don't remember seeing a ferry come through here. by the name of Mass. I don't know any names, but a fairy, maybe? Yes? Yes. I think so? I think? I'm not totally sure. You don't know who it was? Oh, it was soon. Soon, recently. No, I don't know. Oh. Recently. Like in the last few days or today? Oh, I think-- oh, no. No, I think. No, not today. Not today. I think in the last few days. Yes, yes, yes. And what can you tell us about the warehouse? Oh, they never let me in there either. I don't know what they keep in there other than goods, but I get the sense that it is a dangerous place to be. They guard it so closely. You know how many men go in. And stay in there and. Basically, do you know how many men will be in there if we if we try to go in there? No. Oh, gosh, I don't know. I see I know men go in and out, but I don't know how many stay. I don't know what time of day. Well, I just, they don't, they don't tell me that part. I meet up and they just tell me to keep an eye out and that is it. Well, if the intel you've told us is good, you won't see us again. But if it's bad, who, who we know where to find. What are you talking to in the room? Well, because that's, please don't tell them I told you, but that's them. That's the jagged knife. Look over to Svetlana and be like, Sal's in there. He's in the room. He's turned. Yes. He went in and I backed out to be out of line of sight. Why didn't you tell me? Fast. Svetlana, I don't know if I have any. I have 50 foot of rope in my pack. Can I like tie this guy up and like tie him to the banister or something? Oh, totally, totally. You're so... Yeah. You're over six feet tall. You are strong. This guy is now at this point intimidated, scared. Yeah, definitely. All right. I will do that and I will say, we don't plan to hurt you, but I can't risk you telling anybody that we're here. I'll tie him to the banister. And I'll ask Ariel, which room did you say he was in? It's this one over here next to Pazoo. I'm going to move to Pazoo and I will be on either side of the door. You really wanted to go in first? I'm worried about going in there without Hilo. I mean, we haven't talked to him since we got here. I feel like we need to send him a message that this is where we'll be. unless when I was downstairs that I get a sense that Hilo saw us come up here. Uh, Hilo did notice that you, whoops, that you have been gone for a little bit and started edging up towards the stairs on that other side. Um, yeah. So he's actually walked up the stairs and hasn't kind of come through yet, but is like listening at the door or trying to see if he could hear the sounds of struggles further on. Would Bogot where I have seen that, that Hilo had kind of inched. that way. I think Boga might have because Boga and I kind of went after everybody. Yeah. Boga, did you see Hilo? I, I, Boga's just like, looks at you and it's like points frantically with the, up the stairs. Okay. I think we do need to go in. I'll follow your lead, Ariel. Oh, okay. And I have my axe ready. Yeah. Meanwhile, as you approach the door, it starts to slowly open from the inside. Oh. I think my axe is ready for whoever like appears out. Door opens. Shh. (laughing) - There's more of them, right? So this first guy is probably just so wacky. - She said collateral damage. Nobody will miss him. - So Svetlana, are you attacking this person that does you open the door? 'Cause I believe you opened the door first? - Yes. So I threw my axe and it was not a great roll, but I got a six, so plus three, that's nine with fear. - Oh, your axe just, you throw it and it just like right past his head and just like misses him as he opens the door. And you see this look of like shock on his face. And just kind of like, oh crap, did not expect to see a, you know, giant was a fur ball, right? for both. I guess he opens the door and you know that look of shock kind of like passes by and then he kind of like you know sort of comes to and after that you know happens he goes ahead and let me there. Give me because now I'm like now I need to figure out how combat works from my end. Would you actually here's a question because Michael's more jammy than me at this point still. Would you consider these guys all in close range? I mean, based on the if the size of the room is it's very small. Yes, I would say everybody is close. OK, so really after that, this guy shock of surprise comes up on his face and then all of a sudden you see the other two kind of like whoop and like look over at the door and all three of them. get up and simultaneously you see them kind of like bring their swords back and one slashes down, one's trying to like jab forward, one's trying to slash from the other side and all three of them try to attack you at the same time. Okay. What's your, let me see, what's your evasion? Seven. Seven. Okay. And so from there, all three of them, I mean, I guess because they got together after that surprise, they all land just solidly. One gets, you know, your side slashing from your shoulder kind of downward, one jab straightforward, going right into your armor. One gets you from the right side, each one of them dealing damage. And each one does seven damage individually for 21 damage total. Okay. Once per short rest, I can mark a stress to make an adversary re-roll an attack against me or an ally within very close range. So is that just one of them though, or is that all of them? Yes, it's just one. I think, did you just roll once for all three of them though? Or did you roll three times? I think that's what I did. I rolled once. Okay. So one check. So do I reroll once for one of them or is one reroll all of them? That's your your call GM. I I don't know. I would say if the rules guide you to roll once for all of them to attack at the same time, then if you reroll, it would be rerolling for all of them, I think. Good. I'll take it. I'll take it. Well, apparently they thought that they had it and then whiffed it all three of them. Um, miserably, absolutely miserably. I mean, like you almost like laugh a little bit because it's like they just hit straight air and they're directly in front of you. And it's kind of comical at that point. And you just kind of like brush it off a little bit. Like, come on. Yeah. Like you guys could do a little bit better. Um, aerial points and pin covers for, for grin. Um, and then, um, I, uh, I turn it back over to the players. Sal seeing everyone descend on Svetlana all at once like this is going to use his strong back ribbit legs and leap up into the air out from under the table. And as he does that, he spins and the cloak that has the gold lining, something seems to shift with the gold lining. And as he's spinning, there is individual blades that begin forming on the edge of his cloak. And as he jumps and spins, Sal casts Rain of Blades, which is going to attack... It says everyone in very close range. I'm hoping that's everybody in the room. I'll call that very close range. Do you want to know, like, the giant thing that you're attacking? Don't care. Just attack it. Just attack it. I'll know about him when he's dead. Yep, we'll find out later. Yeah. And as Sal does that, because he's popping from out of cover, if I hit, I get sneak attack. Is that advantage, right? No, sneak attack is extra damage. So sneak attack, sneak attack, whenever you make an attack while you are hidden or while an ally is in melee with your target, add a D6 to your damage roll. When you use sneak attack, you can also spend any number of hope before the attack roll. Then if the attack is successful, also add a number of D6 equal to the hope spent. So I'll also add spend another hope. I had to spend hope to cast a Rain of Blades. I'll spend another hope to add an extra D6 if I hit. If that is OK with you, Mr. GM. I'm in. OK, please hit because I'm I am in danger. If this goes poorly, This goes poorly. It's not great. Hey, uh, how do you feel about two sevens? I would probably just ask you how you would, uh, how you would like to do this because this may be a very quick fight. OK, because I immediately get 18 plus my two D sixes. This is not if it hits everybody. I mean, I guess it does because it's a critical success. So I'm I'm calling this for everybody. OK, so I like everybody's getting hit. OK, yes. OK, I was going to hit. So I immediately get 16 to 18 damage. Plus I roll my 2D8s plus I roll my 2D6s. So let me let me do some math here a second. OK, so. Math them rocks, baby. Oh, oh, wait, that's the wrong dice that that does. OK, hold on. I can go back. She is OK. Hold on. Still still mathing math is hard. That is thirty nine damage to each of them. Thirty nine damage. Yes, yes, it is. Also, it's very graceful and beautiful. You see this little little ribbit, leap up just a beautiful pirouette of danger. The best, my favorite part about this is that half the party can't see it. So we're just going to be like, yeah, sure. Uh huh. Beth Lana's gonna get in her jaw is just like dropping. Just like, I mean, like, I'm, I'm just like, how, how would you like to destroy three of these lackeys? I, none of them are facing me because they're all attempting to like attack Svetlana. So I picture Sal's aim with the blades is essentially facing away. And if from Svetlana's perspective, all of a sudden, just a spectral blade juts out through each of their faces. And then I'll throw the face. Right. Yeah. Just like right through kind of like the eye line, like straight through. And then they all just they all just fall over. I like that. I like that. Yeah. Boom. Boom. Yeah. Boom. Done. So then how I mean, you're definitely hurting. Definitely hurting the big guy. He's still up, but what does it look like? That one is just kind of like that. That blade is just goes straight into the gut, like a gut shot. And Sal kind of lands with his flourish and then just like. Looks up at this giant guy. Yeah, there goes. I was looking for the big X. I was like, why can't I mark these guys as the big X? So they're dead. I had to find it. So boom, yeah, there you go. So that big guy like just takes that gut shot and hunches over clearly, you know, hurt and that that definitely did some, you know, did some damage. And so immediately this character turns around giant kind of like hulking sort of more orc like figure. And goes to. Yeah, just takes that club, giant club and takes a swing and just, you know, sidewards because, you know, Saul, Sal kind of like jumping up in the air and is ready to kind of like pop Sal like a baseball with the baseball bat and whiffs it completely whiffs it. Oh, my God, not even close. Like I rolled the two. I rolled the two. So he the giant guy didn't notice my grace. I don't think when I did that jump. Nope. And so much, much like the previous move, I think it's kind of like a dance, like we're in a little bit locked into a tango of sorts. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, it was it was bad. It was very bad. And no, got absolutely wrecked with that and turned it back over to players. I love here's the noises and like opens the store and tries to go in to help out. Aerial is passing by all these corpses, you know, making it make it our way through and looks looks a little bit impressed, you know, kind of kind of eyeballs style. Nice work. Uh, and then we'll move to attack this. That's a 22 with fear. So, the giant kind of orc figure, sort of like Roars, and Rage, that he just completely whiffed that smack against Sal, turns and sees Uriel coming out. What was the role again? It's 22 with fear. 22 with fear. And, you know, takes the, yeah, honestly gets nailed. Not the quickest moving figure, you know, used to being able to take some hits and kind of like keep going. And as you're using short swords, right? A broad sword. A broad sword, sorry. Yeah. Takes the slice, gets it directly in the side. And as it hits the, you know, work in the side, he grabs the sword by the blade, you know, kind of pulls it out and shoves, you know, your back, you know, slightly. Obviously, the room's not very big, but just kind of moves there a little bit further towards the door. But that hits, that hits. It's a seven damage. Seven damage. All right. So yeah, it takes a hit. He is, he ain't looking good. He's sort of hunched over, is definitely, you know, struggling to keep going. And Patsu moves forward and it's not like he lands on Iriel exactly, but it's a stepping stone in a leaping maneuver to also attack the big guy. So it's flying through the air, catching down with giant claws. And how giant they actually are? Giant enough. That's a 23 with fear. Oh, wait. My last one was fear. It was supposed to be your turn. That's okay. Um, and, uh, so again, not, not the best at dodging, uh, that one, you know, the Or kind of like looks up and just sees this cat coming at his face and the cat just lands like right on his face and starts to dig the claws in ready to slash like just like kind of like if you saw like in the old cartoons where a cat like gets onto a couch and digs them in and just kind of slides down. I'm picturing that right now like but with this orc's face. And yeah, you roll for damage. Six. Six. Yeah, no. Definitely, this orc is angry but struggling to stay up, but then goes ahead and turns towards the thing that the orc thinks it could hit, which is the biggest thing in the room, naturally Svetlana, because knowing that the swing against Sal was not successful, Uriel a little bit lower, takes that club and again winds up for a hit. And I believe that's going to land. I got a, what's your elevation again? Seven. Oh, it lands maybe. Right in the side with a nice club just like almost like swinging a little bit upwards. So like, Svetlana kind of like is up in the air a bit as it, you know, lands. And I don't have enough of these nice though so that is 18 damage that is my major damage threshold great mean is your major yeah well my yeah wait is it is it the last the number before severe so my minor damage says nine my major damage is 20 and then it has severe damage. So is it over 20 is severe and less than 20 is major? Right. Between between the two numbers is major past the. Yes. Yeah. Um, so that's major damage. And I think 18, that would be a lot of armor slots to get it down. Oh, it'd be three. I'm just going to take two HP. Mm hmm. Okay. I mean, it looks like Svetlana was definitely hurt. I feel like, you know, kind of grabbing her side, maybe, you know, like a obviously, you know, took some, you know, potential internal damage there and then I You know turn her back over to the players. Sal's gonna move behind That was basically it right now, I'm gonna let us see what other people do but Sal is moving behind the the ogre and when he does so he becomes Svetlana would be probably angry getting hit by this guy. So, you know, she kind of clenches and closes in on herself and then, you know, gathers her strength to pull her axe from behind her back again and just like, yeets it at him. And she puts her knee on the ground just kind of, you know, afterwards, recovering strength. That is a really bad rule. Five plus three, eight with fear. Much like we began, this one just whiffs right past even incredibly because this this orc is giant, right? But somehow right by the orc almost as a look of surprise on his face. like, you missed me, like of all people. And, you know, this time goes towards all that he had damaged. Svetlana now had swung one way, now gets ready to essentially swing around the other way, trying to close a little bit of space and go right for Uriel. Again, swinging that massive club. And this thing, I mean, after a couple of practice swings, this guy is ready to get it because it just connects perfectly. I hit a 17, which I believe should hit, right? Because Evasion is 14. Oh, hang on. Okay. I'm just checking all of the things that I can do. Now please. I almost forgot to clear my stress and take my hope from my crit. That was a very satisfying first attack to ever have on this character. I mean, I gotta be honest, I didn't plan on this being like a big epic battle, but I thought it would be a little bit more than what it was after. But that opener kinda. It's pretty amazing. Yes, that's a hit. Okay, so good. So swinging, you know, against the Vitellana was like, boom, that way. And then it kind of just comes down diagonally the opposite direction, slamming into, you know, Uriel and doing. She's I. OK, that was horrible rolling, but I got only just a 13 damage. Only. Yep. I rolled three. I rolled straight ones, straight ones. But I'm little. True. Sure, sure. Svedlana is still on the ground in front of Uriel, and she sticks her shield out right at the last second using the "I am your shield." She will take the damage instead. Social Marcus stress to stand in the way, which I'll roll my d6 to maybe not Marcus stress. I do have to Marcus stress. I reduced the damage by three because that's my strength trait. So it's down to 10. Yeah. And then I will use an armor slot. Excellent. So I love that. So, so Svetlana puts up that shield and it's like right and kind of like like bounces back a little bit and right. Yeah. Just exactly like a gong. And New York is almost kind of like, you know, sort of taking it back. And did you roll with Sorry, I rolled that one. They're right. So, okay, go ahead and go turn it back to the players as the orc is kind of like, like, almost picture a little like Warner Brothers cartoon where like they're going to. He's also reverberating. Yeah. Sal, his cloak is still like smoking from the from the blades and he reaches in and pulls out his returning blade and throws it at the orc at the back of his head who is in melee with someone else. So once again, I get sneak attack. So that's a 12 with fear. Oh, baby, try your, does that mean you get advantage or anything though? No, it means I do more, I do more damage if I hit. you tried it and even though this thing is right in front of you actually the reverberation thing makes it a little harder to hit because he's a little wobbly and You just take that swing and it you know it does not connect and you rolled with fear. I did I didn't need it perfect so as He kind of hears that right behind him turns, you know right on around and You know centers on the the rivet, you know behind them and you know again same thing I mean, at this point, this creature is just angry. It is hurt. It is still struggling to stay up, but is able to somehow muster the strength to just go from a top down and just swing that club. And at this point, totally misses the ribbit directly behind him and just slams into the ground. Things kind of shaking a bit. - All right. Also point of order, I think my returning blade based on the name returns to me after the throw. So. Oh yeah. Yeah. Doesn't matter, but flavor. Mm hmm. Back to the players. Um, Hylos doesn't see any of this. And here's hearing all the sounds and is quickly making his way over. And is there somebody here that Pazuzon? Is that what I'm seeing? No, Pazu. I mean, on the on roll 20, Pazu is on top of here. Right. There's a right. That's, that's the one guy that's left, right? Right. Yes. Okay. He's like looking around and like, wait, what? He basically just walks forward and, uh, without really, you know, waiting. Just stabs with his right beer at this thing. This doesn't seem like the thing to do for a 13 with fear. Goes narrowly right by the side, right through almost. It was so close. Mouche, right. And Ogre quickly. Would you roll with again? Here. Here. Ogre quickly turns back around and just takes a swing right at high low and I'll tell you does that baseball swing that landed on Svetlana because that seems to be the one and it connects Right with the side. I got an 18 Oof. Yeah, I believe that does it right and then we got Hits dealing some a nice chunk of damage with 23 Yeah. Yeah. I can reduce that by one with my perioditis, give me two. No, not one won't do a lot, but I can do... Actually, is 16... So 16 is my severe damage, is that... That's three HP. Right, no. Is it equal to 16 or 16 or over 16? -Meets it, beats it again. -Meets it, beats it. Okay. So the other one won't do it. I'm just going to go ahead and mark three armor slots. If you do take HP, I can always heal you, but I can't heal your armor slots just so you know. I've got some healing stuff to do, so. And I hand it back to the players. So I'll move into the darkness again in the back corner, behind the ogre. How many enemies are left in that room? One. One. One angry ogre. The one who took all the... You can't tell. Who took all the... ...the third one you piled on top. A lot of damage at once and then we have not hit since. See, I'm telling you, I'm like, he looks really hurt and then everyone keeps whiffing. I guess. Um, actually, we could, um, positing our hero, we can attack. So, we're trying to whittle him down. Do you want to try something, Aris? Uh, I want to try to use Shadowbind. He Try Stickman Place. The spell cast roll, which is my instinct. That's... 11 and 8 plus 3. Oh. That's 22 with fear on the shadow bind. 22 with fear? Yeah. Oh, this guy is angry and ticked off, but suddenly is actually like almost like confused. Like you could see the question mark almost pop up above his head of just like, Because he can't move and the rage seems to drive him to try to pull away from it, but suddenly That's it. He can't go anywhere. He is more or less stuck in place. He's trying to swing his club around with But but not connecting with anybody at the at the moment See little chains on the shadow just kind of restraining him Mm-hmm, and then I'll do it back to the players. I like that though because he was just restrained He's kind of enraged. I you know open for the players. They want to take another another swing it up before I go Do we want to do anything I'll poke him with my broadsword Or are we going for information or for death at this point from the poker Yeah left. I don't know. I don't know what. Okay. Speak actually. We still have the guy. You still have the guy tied up in the, in the hallway. So. Oh, that's, that's right. I forgot about him. I'm not sure he knows anything. Yeah. He doesn't, he doesn't seem like he's going to talk, but it's up to you. He's like a platypus. He doesn't do much. Okay. So that's the minute to, um, heal herself a little. Um, she uses some of her hope. and kind of is crouched inward. And you see like a little glow on her chest as she's trying to like heal internally. As Svetlana does that, suddenly there is a kind of glow in the room. He's like a fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff area, but it's kind of hard to tell in the middle of the ogre swinging his stuff around, you know, it's because he's he's decked. He's swinging like his club around like he's like angry, but you definitely sense a glow coming from at some point in the room. But it's hard to place where in the heat of the moment. Did you hit with the sword, Uriel? What was the? I didn't get that far. I got distracted looking to see what ogre speak. I mean, the over is about to swing at somebody. Oh, oh, just, just like what? What? What is that? Quickly, it's double fives. Double fives. Oh, I mean, I just got to say, then that obviously means the only thing I need from you there, Uriel, is. How bad is it? How good is it? I mean, depending on you look at it, just, you know, tell me, tell me what you want. Yeah. It only does five damage. Wait, what? Five? Five damage, right? You did five damage? Did you double it? Oh, do I double it? No. For crits, you automatically get your maximum dice and then you roll your dice and add it, plus all your modifiers. Oh. There's no way it's five. Okay. So, what I rolled was 2d8 and it was five. Okay, so it's 16 plus five 16 plus five. Yes. Okay. It's a little more damage Approximately 21 it's it's a little bit more damage and If you need me to reiterate, how would you like to do that because it's dead? I mean, I just don't know how you would like it to be dead Well, you know, I poked it material walks up and just like actually what I kind of love to think about is just like just casually walks up and just goes just like a little poke and then the thing just drops. But it's a loud drop. It's like a boom, right? Because this is a large creature, right? And just falls over and you hear like a... And that's it. Dead. Very dead. >>Svetlana is still kind of on the ground from when she was healing and she kind of looks underneath the table to see if she can see if there's a symbol there. >>There's not a symbol under the table. >>All right, she's going to crawl around the room. Can we maybe help Svetlana heal or ask why she's crawling around the room? Because I just, I put it on the floor but... What's on the floor? What are you doing? The sun symbol. Can I give you a potion? No, I don't need a potion. I'm only a little bit hurt but it just, it feels better when I'm on the ground. Okay. Um, Svelana, give me a, um, an instinct roll. That is nine with fear. I'm not rolling good today. Yeah, so you're crawling from underneath the table, but obviously you're not small. And so you kind of like go to get up and you just like, you like smack the back of your head. - Yeah, that's weird. - And then as you get up, you smack the back of your head and then you kind of get up and then because you're rubbing your head, it kind of causes you to look upwards. And then you see almost the same symbol that you saw out in the bar. - Almost? - Just slightly, yeah. Basically, I mean, how about this? When I say almost, meaning that like, they essentially try to do the same thing, but whenever you do something, it's not perfect, right? So it is for all intents and purposes the same symbol. and slightly, you know, kind of shimmery. And you guys very much beat our ogre friend as well as some of these lackeys. - Okay. - Not bad as ogre. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Eryol waves to Boga to come into the room 'cause it's safe now. And says Svetlana's trying to figure out the symbol. - Yeah, Boga, I'm sorry I destroyed the last one before you could look at it, But there's another one here. If you want to climb on my shoulders, maybe you can investigate it up closer. - As we will move up at the room. - Be very careful about touching it, by the way, Boga. And I'm holding her on my shoulders. - And noted. But I was gonna wave her hand kind of close to the symbol, see if she can feel anything coming off of it. Give me an instinct role. Okay. So that is a funny tooth with fear. You get a strong feeling of magic and then also a sense of kind of the light that core brings something you felt from Svetlana before, but then just as quickly as that, you know, feeling hits you. It's like smack, then you get this sense of darkness and dread like not in your head, but like deep within your body and then poof, it goes away. I recoil quite sharply. I just kind of hold my hand. It's like fire. Massage it. Yeah. Did you feel it too, Boga? It's bomb. And now he's shocked. Yeah, now you see why I immediately wanted to destroy the other one. Hmm. But it was actually going to just going to put a finger to it now. To try to like to to separate it or to. What are you trying to do with it? Um, touching it really just. Is it like, is it a symbol like burned in to the... Yeah, yeah. It's like it has like burn marks around it. It's like it's like either burned in. It looks like it was actually potentially they're carved in there burnt or made with fire. It's kind of hard to tell, but definitely there's like an it's not so much as like drawn on as like an impression in. Can I try and kind of push some of my magic into it? You can try. Let's do a... I mean, I guess a presence roll. Let's see where this goes. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Persons is plus two. That's a 20. 20 with fear. Again, I do get fear rolls. Yeah, you know, you you you push back you kind of try to drive some sort of magical sense or feeling into it And all it does is just push right back at you so much so that you actually kind of like because Svetlana is holding you up, correct? Mm-hmm. You actually just like tumble backwards and fall like off of her it actually like presses you back and you fall on the ground Svetlana noting that you know the last time she healed herself it It made a light in the room. She would be looking up at the symbol and then also like call the power of core to heal herself for one more hit point And watching the symbol to see what it does Same thing It it blows it glows or Arrows like is it supposed to do that? Um, it's, it must be connected to the power of core somehow. Um, I don't know much more than that, but I've never seen something like this before. I don't think have I, have I in my religious studies, like seen the works, like where symbols are used to harness the power of core. Um, give me a knowledge roll. And again, the bad roles continue with fear. No. Just no. I was trying to get some nuance like something else, something to Fija. And just no. Nope. Okay. That's it. I would say that this is probably a fine stopping point because there's definitely some more things to explore and kind of crack into harbor. And then I've got some ideas for where I was already kind of thinking to go next. And so I think, certainly, this is a fine stopping point. Okay. The captain's not going to leave on his ship without us if we stop here today, right? Like he's not going to sail away before next session. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Remember, the captain said that he is hoping to get that key back from you one way or the other, which means that perhaps you just return it to him and say thank you but no thanks or perhaps you do what he asks and that's how you return it. You know, he was looking for, you know, remember or I'd imagine remember what he was hoping for, right? So. Can I get something off of these three people like the symbols of the jagged knife to take back to him to tell him like I dispatched these three people? Find out next time. Certainly. I mean, that's easy enough. They're all they're all very dead. They're very dead. If you want to, you know, you can either take that if you want to roll for a little something extra, we can do that and be the kind of last thing we do before we wrap up. But could we start next session with looting the bodies? So we can also do that now. I like that too. OK, let's do that. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. Oh, my God. Good work, HF. How do you feel? Yeah, that was really good. Um, pretty good, pretty good. [Music]