Benny:tests.
Benny:No.
Benny:Greetings.
Argyle:I almost cracked Josh's code.
Benny:Good.
Benny:Good.
Benny:Level 3.
Argyle:earlier, but then I've since seen error my ways.
Benny:Oh, no.
Argyle:Is correct.
Benny:I haven't even tried, I mean, I saw that I think the first thing that he sent with it or one of the recent ones.
Benny:Was just taking the index of some part of the input.
Benny:Hello.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Nice haircut.
Johnny:Thank you.
Argyle:I cracked Josh's cipher.
Argyle:Only something.
Gamemaster:I'm sorry?
Argyle:Josh had helped me out with the last bit.
Gamemaster:I don't know how you would have.
Argyle:I didn't realize the subscript.
Gamemaster:So... It happens.
Argyle:No, I should have.
Argyle:So a couple... I should have been able to do it.
Argyle:Because I was like, what's that 9 for?
Argyle:And then I should have realized, oh, I get it now.
Gamemaster:Do I sound reasonable, by the way?
Gamemaster:I changed up how my mic is processed.
Argyle:You look like you're in Destiny right now.
Benny:You're also in a different location.
Gamemaster:This background's from Control, actually, if you're familiar with the game.
Gamemaster:I have that interpreter in there, and I'm starting to run out of string manipulation stuff I can do to spell out some variant of today or tomorrow.
Gamemaster:But, you know, it's fine.
Gamemaster:What kind of pens?
Benny:I got my new pens delivered today.
Argyle:Are they Japanese?
Benny:I didn't realize that.
Benny:I just asked an AI, what's the best pen?
Benny:And they gave me two recommendations, so I bought them.
Benny:No, but I like 0.5 millimeter pens, which are the smallest that you can buy in store.
Johnny:Small pen.
Benny:And then I went on the websites of pens, and I found smaller.
Benny:So this is a 0.38 and a 0.4.
Gamemaster:Doesn't G2 have like a standard 0.3?
Benny:It's like a Pilot G2?
Gamemaster:Does it not?
Gamemaster:Yeah, does it not?
Benny:I could check.
Benny:Because I got the Pilot Hi-Tech C. So this is my brand loyalty.
Argyle:so yes yeah i like ugly pen
Benny:And then I have a Uni-ball Signo 0.38.
Gamemaster:Yeah, G2 does make a 0.38.
Gamemaster:I mean, you're wrong for wanting an ultra-fine pen.
Benny:I found them.
Johnny:Thank you.
Benny:They're so nice.
Gamemaster:I don't know why you wouldn't want a thicker pen so that you can see what you're writing.
Benny:I started joining Penn's subreddits.
Gamemaster:Bye, Tanner.
Benny:And people are like, this is too small.
Benny:And I try to look at like, what about the 0.1 millimeter?
Benny:I feel like this is too small and scratchy.
Benny:And I'm like, I don't know.
Benny:I'll go one step down and see how I feel.
Benny:And I'm writing with these, and they're fantastic.
Argyle:you
Anzu:So you're becoming a pen elitist?
Benny:I'm going to.
Benny:It's my new way to just look up stuff.
Gamemaster:But, like, a ball pen elitist, not even a fountain pen elitist, which is the standard elitist pen of choice?
Benny:That seems like overkill.
Gamemaster:You feel like you would be the kind of person who would enjoy those, like, titanium pencils that last forever?
Gamemaster:What's your opinion on those?
Benny:What do you mean last forever?
Gamemaster:There's a kind of pencil that...
Argyle:He's intrigued.
Argyle:Do you see that intrigued?
Gamemaster:Like, when you write on something, you never have to sharpen it or anything like that because it's literally metal that you're scratching onto it.
Gamemaster:It works underwater in case that's something that you need.
Gamemaster:Let me see.
Gamemaster:I think it's titanium.
Johnny:There's a lot of water around.
Gamemaster:One second.
Benny:Because I know of titanium casings.
Benny:I've been looking at those.
Benny:Actually, I bought a brass.
Benny:I have a brass one here.
Benny:But this is one that erases.
Benny:Part of the reason I went to others is because erasable pens are only good if you're in a reasonably controlled climate.
Benny:Otherwise, the ink starts getting fucked with because that's how they erase this kind of pen ink.
Anzu:love this picture of Benny.
Anzu:It's so funny that he's a kid.
Argyle:Josh made a custom one for Argyle.
Gamemaster:It's a child.
Johnny:All right, we're fighting snakes.
Gamemaster:We don't have to fight snakes.
Benny:I see it.
Benny:Everlasting pencil.
Johnny:No.
Gamemaster:Something like that.
Gamemaster:I don't remember what it's actually made out of.
Gamemaster:Sorry?
Gamemaster:I took the photos of the people who gave me them, and I ran them through AI so that they were all stylistically similar.
Argyle:He made a custom photo for Argyle.
Argyle:I'm not offended.
Argyle:Yeah, no.
Gamemaster:If you don't like the image that you have, it can be changed.
Gamemaster:I put zero effort into it, so it's super easy to fix.
Argyle:I'm just happy didn't make him a lizard.
Gamemaster:I know now that he's not a lizard, okay?
Gamemaster:It's not crazy that I thought he was a lizard for a little bit.
Johnny:Jorge's character sort of looks like if Encyclopedia Brown grew up to be Jorge's character.
Gamemaster:In my defense.
Benny:you
Argyle:Does
Argyle:He looks like a young boy band member.
Argyle:Like a Rolling Stones guy.
Gamemaster:I actually... So that is the third attempt I had at trying to get the AI to convert your image that you gave me into a... First of all, what's up with Google Docs not letting you just download an image?
Argyle:I don't know.
Argyle:I had to screenshot it.
Argyle:It's bullshit.
Gamemaster:I downloaded it as a web page, and then in the source files, like, it packaged the image, and then I could copy it out of it.
Argyle:That's crazy.
Gamemaster:Regardless, for whatever reason, it thought that the image that you gave me is of, like, some wearied, like, beaten-down middle-aged man.
Anzu:It is crazy.
Gamemaster:that looked cool, but I didn't think was what you were going for with your character.
Gamemaster:So I had to keep asking it to make it younger, and it refused.
Gamemaster:And so eventually, I guess I wore it down, and this is the younger that I got.
Gamemaster:So your options were old man, middle-aged man, or somebody who clearly is still just barely an adult.
Gamemaster:Just left childhood.
Anzu:He's up and coming.
Argyle:Yeah.
Anzu:He looks kind of like one of my past coworkers.
Gamemaster:Let me see if I have the copy of the... That is your past coworker.
Argyle:Yeah.
Anzu:It's actually a little creepy.
Gamemaster:He's here now.
Argyle:Can you share the downloaded photo so that everyone else can see the original Google one?
Gamemaster:Sure, one second.
Gamemaster:Okay, so this is the image that Jorge gave me.
Gamemaster:And then this was the... This is how it originally styled it.
Johnny:That's so scary.
Gamemaster:And like... Yeah, this is Argyle aged up.
Benny:No, no, it was specifically
Argyle:Can you actually send it to that?
Argyle:Can you send it to that?
Anzu:This is what he's going to look like in 50 years.
Argyle:Can you send it to the old man?
Argyle:I'd much rather look at that.
Anzu:Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Gamemaster:Would you prefer the old man one?
Gamemaster:I can do that.
Gamemaster:I have that.
Anzu:Changing a photo mid-session did crash everything last time.
Gamemaster:Sure.
Gamemaster:No, it's solved.
Gamemaster:I fixed that problem.
Gamemaster:I have a thermometer in the closet now.
Gamemaster:It was 100 degrees Fahrenheit last time when the hard drive died, so that's not happening anymore.
Argyle:Thank you.
Johnny:Okay.
Gamemaster:It's fine.
Benny:Well, to be fair, it died with the previous picture of Benny, which Josh has tactically avoided putting on his computer by putting it through a different...
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Gamemaster:So, what's funny is when I recovered Foundry off of that hard drive, that image was there and it was corrupted.
Gamemaster:It died mid-copy.
Gamemaster:I'm actually fairly certain that what happened is the process of writing it onto that hard drive from my computer is what hit the, like, broken sector on the hard drive and caused the whole thing to crash.
Argyle:Amen.
Gamemaster:But it's fine.
Gamemaster:Everything's alright.
Johnny:Man, Anzu looks terrifying.
Gamemaster:I'm gonna...
Argyle:Yeah, Mindbird.
Johnny:Mindbird!
Johnny:He does look like Mindbird.
Benny:If it makes you feel any better, the picture or Edan, the PNG, if I set it exactly to one third of my screen on my Super Ultra Wide, it makes the screen bug the fuck out.
Argyle:Yeah.
Benny:I'll take a video.
Gamemaster:I mean, it's like an 100 meg image, which is fun, because that was after compressing it.
Gamemaster:But it is a little concerning that your screen bugs out just from loading it.
Anzu:Now, Josh, how difficult would it be to get Anzu in a checkered button-down and suspenders?
Gamemaster:I could definitely ask it to do that.
Gamemaster:I don't know.
Gamemaster:I don't know how friendly it is to burn person comma also in checkered button down in suspenders, but I'm more than happy to try for you.
Argyle:What are you using to generate the images?
Anzu:It wants the bird person to be in a cloak, I understand.
Gamemaster:Chat GPT.
Argyle:I don't even work for Gemini anymore.
Argyle:I don't care.
Johnny:ChatGPT made the original one.
Gamemaster:Would you care if you still did?
Gamemaster:Okay, so...
Argyle:No.
Argyle:But I will say ChatGPT, since we use it at work, I found it is worse than Gemini for coding.
Gamemaster:What is... I use neither for coding, so it's not a problem.
Gamemaster:What is going on with your monitor, Mike?
Benny:That's what happens when I put Idan in that.
Anzu:That really interesting.
Benny:Any other third, the first third, the middle third, fine.
Benny:The right third, it tries to kill me.
Argyle:you you
Anzu:Fascinating.
Gamemaster:I get it.
Gamemaster:Stop looking at that.
Gamemaster:Don't look at it over there.
Gamemaster:Either look at the map straight on.
Gamemaster:It can't go in the periphery.
Gamemaster:That's illegal.
Gamemaster:I get it.
Johnny:It's really the exact same image with the halo.
Gamemaster:It's fine.
Gamemaster:So I'll go for the checkered shirt, whatever.
Gamemaster:I mean, that image is almost what you sent me, Noah.
Gamemaster:The only change is he has a halo now.
Gamemaster:If you don't like the halo, I can get rid of it.
Argyle:Bailey.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Gamemaster:And then, Mike, I don't know if that's what you wanted for Benny, but that's what it gave me when I gave... Well, for everybody else, I will...
Gamemaster:Upload the image that Mike gave me.
Argyle:Bailey.
Argyle:You want to see something funny?
Argyle:What my character looks like?
Benny:So it crashes everyone's computers.
Gamemaster:Yeah, so it crashes everybody's computers.
Gamemaster:So that's the representation pre-stylized.
Argyle:This is the thing.
Johnny:Oh, that's pretty good.
Benny:That works.
Gamemaster:It just made him old and angry.
Argyle:I love it.
Gamemaster:I don't know why it did that.
Argyle:He used to look like a boy band, but now he looks like that.
Johnny:He just looks grumpy.
Johnny:It looks like he does nothing but scream.
Argyle:He looks like he died back to life.
Benny:Now he looks like a despair Wojack.
Gamemaster:He's so grumpy now.
Johnny:It looks like he's crying all day every day.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Listen, if Jorge prefers that one, then that's his character.
Gamemaster:That's fine.
Argyle:I think it's way funnier in context for everything Argyle's doing.
Gamemaster:Hmm.
Argyle:This is what happens when you attack his Mr. Whiskers.
Gamemaster:Oh.
Benny:my face when they're out of uh myrrh cigarettes or whatever the i've seen quite a bit
Gamemaster:Do you guys want to see something creepy?
Anzu:Uh-oh.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:So I got annoyed that Discord's voice cancellation, whatever stuff, doesn't really work well for me with my mic.
Gamemaster:It captures a bunch of stuff in the background and I have to manually adjust it all the time.
Gamemaster:So I switched over.
Gamemaster:NVIDIA offers their NVIDIA Broadcast, which does similar stuff.
Gamemaster:But it also has stuff for the picture, which is why I have a virtual background now.
Gamemaster:But I was looking through the options, and one of the options is this one.
Johnny:Okay.
Gamemaster:I'm not looking at the camera right now.
Gamemaster:I have, it's like AI involved to make it look like I'm looking at the camera at all times.
Argyle:Oh, it's one of those.
Benny:That's so fucked up.
Gamemaster:It's so weird.
Anzu:Ooh.
Anzu:Ooh.
Gamemaster:I don't know why this is an option.
Gamemaster:I don't know who wants this.
Gamemaster:I'm just looking at my screen right now.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:It's for work meetings.
Argyle:It's for work meetings that they can't tell if you're looking at other screens or on a phone.
Anzu:I don't like it.
Gamemaster:But this is, it's creepy looking, isn't it?
Benny:Yeah.
Benny:Apparently they also can't tell if your eyes are properly aligned and you don't have a neurological disorder that makes them fucking do this sometimes.
Johnny:It doesn't look like you're about to pass out.
Argyle:Well, they're not going to call you on it.
Gamemaster:Okay, is there... Can I break it?
Gamemaster:What happens if I look this way?
Gamemaster:Okay, so there is some limit at which point that it, uh... And then it locks on.
Argyle:That's not going to work.
Benny:If it has drift, it feels worse.
Benny:If it picks the midpoint between where you're looking and staring at the camera...
Gamemaster:It's so bad!
Anzu:I don't like when it gets confused.
Gamemaster:It does!
Gamemaster:I don't...
Argyle:You look like a... You look like a...
Argyle:You look like a Silicon Valley CEO.
Gamemaster:I hate it so much.
Johnny:Oh god.
Gamemaster:I don't know why it's an option.
Argyle:What are your thoughts on balance here?
Gamemaster:It's gross.
Argyle:Do you think we should create more wearable technology?
Gamemaster:I dislike it.
Gamemaster:There are a bunch of... Listen, when I'm like that, I have my AI pin on.
Gamemaster:I'm fully humane.
Gamemaster:I'm full in.
Argyle:One of the startups I interviewed, they actually just launched their wearable.
Argyle:And those people actually were very nice.
Gamemaster:Not humane, which I believe doesn't exist anymore.
Argyle:Yeah, no.
Johnny:And now they put AI in printers, I think.
Gamemaster:Why would I want... I have a virtual ring light now, apparently.
Benny:Can we have a vote?
Argyle:This is the...
Argyle:These are the company.
Argyle:The CEO is actually, they're really, they're really nice.
Gamemaster:Sandbar?
Argyle:And I like the people.
Argyle:I was like, I just can't work for a word.
Argyle:I don't believe in the mission.
Benny:I would like to propose an alternate image that shows up
Benny:Every five minutes, a 1D10 is rolled, and on a 1, Anzu's picture is swapped with this one.
Anzu:Jeez.
Gamemaster:What?
Anzu:That's messed up.
Anzu:That's really messed up.
Argyle:That's fucked up.
Johnny:Oh, no.
Johnny:Oh, no.
Anzu:I don't think, I'm not sure he's.
Benny:Gemini is so extra.
Argyle:Argyle wouldn't even say that.
Benny:Gemini added potatoes and fucking... I just asked for a rotisserie chicken.
Gamemaster:Yeah, but you need to have sides with the rotisserie chicken.
Johnny:Why does it look like... Why is it the patron saint of rotisserie chickens, though?
Benny:It's so good.
Benny:Why is it what?
Benny:That's so good.
Anzu:And why does it have my rendered fat dripping down?
Johnny:Why is it the patron saint... Got to there.
Gamemaster:To season the potatoes.
Gamemaster:What do you mean?
Gamemaster:Oh, this is fun.
Benny:That's so fucked up.
Gamemaster:There was an update to Foundry, and now I can do this.
Argyle:Ace for the win, huh?
Anzu:Did it just roll?
Gamemaster:I can roll.
Anzu:No.
Gamemaster:I can click a button and it just rolls a secret perception check for all of you.
Johnny:Ooh.
Benny:It's not really that secret.
Benny:I can see it.
Gamemaster:Well, I revealed it.
Gamemaster:I hit it four times.
Benny:Oh.
Johnny:And Othello did not roll well.
Gamemaster:No.
Anzu:I think he's got a plus 6.
Anzu:It's pretty bad.
Gamemaster:I'm sorry.
Gamemaster:I don't know when I'd ever use this.
Gamemaster:I feel like I'd ask you guys to make perception checks.
Gamemaster:I don't like the whole secret roll thing in Pathfinder because I feel like that's less fun.
Gamemaster:With the exception specifically of Augury, or whatever it's called in this one.
Argyle:I think I'd like the game setting of Pathfinder, but there's a couple of things Pathfinder does that I think is just too annoying, trying to be too balanced.
Gamemaster:Because that's funny to me.
Argyle:There's a couple of one of those skill feats where there's stuff like the secret rolls.
Argyle:It's okay.
Argyle:People can know or optimize.
Gamemaster:I mean...
Gamemaster:Secret rules are also a thing in D&D that we never played with, but that is a rule in 5e.
Argyle:No, no, I know D&D does this too, but I mean, like, I forget what's that level 15 legendary skill that you can get in Pathfinder where it's like, if you pass this DC 17 check, you can get a plus two on performance checks to military personnel, things like that.
Argyle:It's like, all right, guys.
Argyle:Come on, it's okay.
Gamemaster:They would rather be underwhelming than overwhelming, you know?
Gamemaster:Especially given that Pathfinder 1 used to go the other way, and you could get ridiculous things from high rolls at high levels to the point that it's game-breaking.
Gamemaster:There are all kinds of guides online for 3.5e and for Pathfinder 1e for, like...
Argyle:I still think it's a good game.
Anzu:you
Gamemaster:how to become god where like completely rules is written if you multi-class into these certain classes and stuff you can get infinite wishes uh and infinite time stops all in the same turn and it's like well i i get why they're not true they're trying to avoid it this time maybe they swung a little bit too far the other way but
Argyle:I do think there's a good amount of classes that just feel more underwhelming than others.
Gamemaster:You guys are particularly good at finding the niches that output the maximum possible damage in a scenario, which is totally fine, but I don't know is the objective player that they're designing the game around necessarily.
Argyle:Yes.
Johnny:It is very funny playing 5e Dungeons & Dragons with regular people, and you roll up with the most optimized character anyone's ever seen, and they're like, yeah, I'm a bard, but I have a 14 charisma because it's role-playing.
Johnny:Like, that's wrong.
Johnny:That's the wrong choice.
Anzu:Noah, you should have seen how much damage Jorge was outputting in the one shot I ran at my house last summer.
Argyle:I was a mounted hobgoblin paladin.
Gamemaster:Is that the... He had like a horse in that one shot to like maximize... Yeah.
Argyle:I didn't do the stork lot because I was like, that's unprofessional.
Gamemaster:Like the coffee lock?
Argyle:That is unprofessional.
Argyle:Yeah, or any of those locks.
Gamemaster:The 2024 edition explicitly makes coffee locks not viable, which I think is funny, because it can't possibly have been an actual problem.
Argyle:Oh, that's good.
Benny:No!
Gamemaster:It's funny to read the post on Reddit about how if you do this, you could become super overpowered.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:I don't know if anybody has ever actually tried to do the coffee lock in whatever.
Argyle:Adventuring League?
Argyle:I don't know.
Gamemaster:Well, then the DM just says, no, you have to sleep.
Johnny:Sleep.
Argyle:Um...
Anzu:I also think a lot about how we are far outside of the norm for many reasons, including the fact that we've made it to level 20 more than once.
Gamemaster:you know
Argyle:That's true.
Anzu:You see these builds, and it's like, at level 18, you're absolutely busted.
Anzu:And it's like, okay, maybe 20 people are going to have that and make it that far in a campaign.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Do you guys like the Investigator class in Pathfinder?
Johnny:I think it's fun.
Johnny:I think there's certain builds you can do with it.
Johnny:If you have a familiar and a big gun, then it gets pretty crazy.
Anzu:Fascinating.
Argyle:Have you guys seen the show Psych?
Benny:no harrelson
Argyle:Do you know the medical examiner, Woody?
Argyle:Thanks, Woody.
Argyle:The weird one.
Argyle:I found out you could become a medical examiner investigator.
Argyle:And it is, I think, would be such a... If you guys do a one-shot, I know what character I'll play.
Argyle:A medic investigator.
Gamemaster:Discombobulate?
Argyle:It's just really weird.
Johnny:I like that the entire class is just that one scene from the Robert Downey Jr.
Johnny:Sherlock Holmes.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Yeah.
Johnny:Yep.
Argyle:Yeah.
Johnny:The entire class is just that one scene.
Johnny:I think we did a one-shot where I was an investigator and I had a familiar with a big gun.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Argyle:I don't... I wish the class did more... Though.
Argyle:Like, did more damage or something.
Argyle:I don't know.
Johnny:And I did, like...
Johnny:150 points of damage in one shot at one point yeah
Gamemaster:They're a crit fishy class in the same way that the gunslinger is.
Gamemaster:The only difference being that they can see if they crit before they actually do the attack, which is handy.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:The difficult part is then figuring out what to do if you don't crit the attack.
Gamemaster:But it's possible.
Gamemaster:One could figure that out.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:I really think it just takes a little bit to come online, and you probably want to... I know multiclassing isn't a thing, but archetype lean on another class to expand the options available to you in combat.
Argyle:I got a...
Benny:I look forward to it.
Argyle:mean build working where it's an I think it's an elven archer it's the eldritch archer and then you go elf and then you go wizard so you can just pack on a bunch of spells into a three action damage thing and it's very mean
Gamemaster:So how do we feel about playing some Pathfinder?
Johnny:Let's kill snakes.
Benny:I can do it.
Anzu:Yeah.
Gamemaster:You don't have to kill the snakes.
Gamemaster:You could die to the snakes.
Johnny:Let's kill snakes.
Anzu:Well, they kind of decided... Can you actually rename them to Aggressive Serpent?
Argyle:We try talking.
Anzu:Because they did not really take to diplomacy at all.
Anzu:Or maybe Trigger Happy Serpent?
Benny:How about this?
Benny:How about we don't fight the snakes on one condition?
Benny:They supply Benny with a crushing rune.
Gamemaster:They don't have hands.
Benny:They're dead.
Benny:That won't deter us.
Gamemaster:Oh, okay.
Johnny:Totally innocent serpent.
Johnny:I feel like that's not true.
Argyle:This is our Kyle.
Argyle:Why are the serpents attacking us?
Argyle:Did they see me?
Johnny:These are three very different characters.
Gamemaster:Do we want to, Pathfinder, fight a snake or two, perhaps?
Johnny:Oh my god.
Johnny:Yes.
Johnny:Let's fight snakes.
Benny:Yes.
Gamemaster:Before we fight snakes, does somebody want to do a recap of last session so we know why we're fighting snakes?
Benny:Yes.
Argyle:very much.
Benny:I have my notes.
Gamemaster:Mike sounds like he's volunteering.
Benny:All right.
Benny:So according to my notes, we were meeting whiskers.
Benny:We go to this mart.
Benny:We have a very nice conversation.
Benny:with a raw honey hydroponics woman, because people who grow things in their attic, it's hydroponics, whether it is or not.
Gamemaster:Okay, sure.
Benny:She says she'll keep Anaïs.
Benny:She actually legitimately tests us to see if we are Zorbon by asking us if we support the Zorbon.
Benny:We pass the test.
Benny:We fist bump her.
Benny:Some people buy honey.
Benny:Benny suggests that she expand her business horizontally into honey candy.
Gamemaster:Honey candy.
Gamemaster:Horizontally.
Benny:And she agrees to give Benny 50% of the royalties.
Johnny:Well.
Gamemaster:She does not do that.
Benny:We go into the manhole.
Benny:Upon entrance, we smell blood, but not in a good way.
Argyle:powerfully hold.
Benny:There's a lot of blood.
Benny:It's crazy.
Benny:There's so much blood.
Benny:There is several small monkeys running around and a bunch of wizards on some Wizard of Oz shit.
Benny:And then we kill everyone except for one of the monkeys, which we instruct to go tell everyone of our deeds.
Benny:We search everywhere.
Benny:There's no bodies.
Benny:A lot of blood, like I said earlier.
Benny:There's no one hiding.
Benny:Anyone that was hiding was turned into blood and disappeared.
Benny:But unfortunately for them, we were able to figure out that actually they went down the river.
Johnny:you
Benny:So we're a smart bunch.
Benny:Clearly rivers only go one place.
Benny:And so we take the river.
Benny:We have our own Gene Wilder horrific boat in tunnel scene.
Benny:We get to a waterfall.
Benny:People are saying it goes down and it don't go down.
Benny:It goes down.
Benny:We eventually jump off the boat onto a lip.
Benny:People almost die.
Benny:We take a dumbwaiter down for like 15 minutes.
Johnny:Thank you.
Benny:And then we run into these serpents.
Benny:Let's see.
Benny:Did I miss anything?
Argyle:Just say one quick thing.
Benny:We got oil of unlife.
Benny:I don't know why these guys had it on them.
Benny:Maybe they were thirsty.
Benny:And then some mythic toxin molars, which are not hard candy.
Benny:Don't eat them.
Gamemaster:Specifically mythotoxin, like one word.
Benny:Mythotoxin.
Gamemaster:It's an actual item, so if you wanted to look at the stat block or whatever.
Benny:Sure.
Argyle:I just wanted to say, I originally toyed with the idea internally that we should take the bodies of the priests on the boat, so when we found whiskers, we could then go up topside and give it to the detectives.
Argyle:Then I realized that would have been the most gross landing ever if that was on a boat that fell down.
Argyle:It would have been terrible.
Gamemaster:I mean, I don't know how long it takes to hit terminal velocity, but you're about two miles below the surface right now, so I think you would have hit that at that point.
Johnny:Thank you.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:And I think a corpse doesn't do particularly well hitting anything at terminal velocity.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:But it's fine.
Gamemaster:Didn't take it.
Gamemaster:Anyway, that was a good and concise recap.
Gamemaster:We left off last session with all of you kind of following the path at the base of this waterfall, deep in the quiet below the area underneath Hallia and most of Calaria.
Gamemaster:You were interrogated by these snakes.
Gamemaster:You attempted to stealth.
Gamemaster:The stealthing did not work.
Gamemaster:And then you were interrogated by these snakes, and you did not pass whatever test they were looking for.
Gamemaster:So they're going to try and eat you.
Gamemaster:And so we begin with anybody who isn't currently at https://btl.iridi.cc.oready.cc, please navigate there at your pleasure.
Gamemaster:And we will begin combat.
Gamemaster:At the top of the initiative order is Anzu.
Anzu:Yeah.
Anzu:First thing I want to do is recall knowledge.
Gamemaster:On the totally innocent serpent?
Anzu:If I may.
Anzu:On a snake.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Anzu:Yeah.
Gamemaster:It's going to be a nature DC, because these are snakes.
Gamemaster:And snakes are from nature.
Johnny:Nature snakes.
Anzu:Indeed.
Anzu:Oh, that's so tough.
Anzu:It was almost the 17, you guys.
Anzu:I don't think I learned anything.
Gamemaster:Yet with an 8, you know that these are snakes.
Anzu:Great.
Anzu:That is really good.
Gamemaster:Yeah, I'm sorry you don't learn much else besides that.
Johnny:Nature snakes.
Anzu:I'm going to cast on the totally innocent serpent Phantom Pain.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Anzu:He can make a will save.
Gamemaster:He will attempt this.
Gamemaster:Let's see.
Gamemaster:Uh, he fails.
Johnny:It's a good spell.
Anzu:That's so sick.
Anzu:OK, so I'm going to do some damage.
Anzu:Six points of mental damage.
Gamemaster:Mental damage, absolutely.
Anzu:he's going to take 1d4 persistent mental damage and be sickened 1.
Benny:Okay.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Anzu:And then, with my third action, I'm going to step behind my allies.
Gamemaster:Alrighty.
Gamemaster:I don't know if snakes have gag reflexes, so I don't think you can throw up.
Gamemaster:Anything else you'd like to do?
Anzu:Well, stride behind my allies.
Gamemaster:OK.
Anzu:That's it.
Gamemaster:It is Serpent 2's turn.
Johnny:hmm hmm
Gamemaster:He's like a snake.
Gamemaster:So it's not like he can cast magic or anything like that.
Gamemaster:So instead, he is going to spend... Oh, that's so weird.
Gamemaster:As I drag it around, it tells me how many actions it'll take to move now with the action symbol.
Anzu:Yeah, I just saw that too.
Anzu:Very interesting.
Gamemaster:This is only one action.
Gamemaster:He'll go over here.
Gamemaster:So that's one action.
Gamemaster:And then he's going to...
Gamemaster:Spine rake you?
Gamemaster:Yeah, I think he's gonna spine rake you.
Johnny:Yes.
Argyle:You don't have regular 16.
Gamemaster:I would love it if Argyle and Johnny could do me a favor and make that reflex save, please.
Gamemaster:Against his spine rake.
Gamemaster:Okay, when I said make, I didn't mean succeed.
Anzu:Let's go.
Anzu:All right.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Does this do anything, then?
Anzu:No, he's a pacifist.
Gamemaster:Each creature... It's a basic reflex.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:So this will do half damage to Johnny.
Gamemaster:Um... You're going to take seven points of slashing damage.
Argyle:glimpse of redemption.
Johnny:Oh, my gosh.
Argyle:I don't know how to use that.
Johnny:Oh.
Gamemaster:Um... What does Glooms of Redemption do?
Gamemaster:Glooms of Redemption... Um...
Gamemaster:Yeah, I think the ally will be unharmed by triggering damage.
Gamemaster:It does not want to be enfeebled.
Johnny:I take it back.
Argyle:Why smooth?
Gamemaster:And that is all three actions.
Argyle:As he goes to swipe him, I hold up a holy symbol, and I start to guilt him.
Gamemaster:And you repel the snake just from the holy symbol.
Gamemaster:It doesn't even know what the holy symbol is, it just doesn't like the vibe of it.
Gamemaster:Alright, I don't know.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:I don't like to strike.
Argyle:Noooo!
Johnny:These fucking snakes.
Anzu:That's so tough.
Gamemaster:Yeah, unfortunately a 14 does miss.
Argyle:Make a second strike.
Argyle:This motherfucker.
Argyle:Don't laugh at it.
Argyle:The problem was, I was holding the holy symbol, and it was just hard to get the axe in the right hand.
Gamemaster:I'm sorry.
Gamemaster:It's a bit slippery.
Gamemaster:It's a slippery snake.
Gamemaster:It's a really slippery snake.
Benny:I'm a snake.
Johnny:What is happening?
Gamemaster:That makes sense.
Gamemaster:You were going lefty for a little bit just because you were holding up the... Okay.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:When I get going, I'm like...
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:It is the totally innocent serpent's turn.
Johnny:Good.
Gamemaster:What does Sickened actually do to it?
Gamemaster:Oh, that's just a straight minus one to all things it does.
Argyle:that's thanks don't have to agree but
Gamemaster:Okay, it's going to attempt to, like, wretch and cure itself if it's Sickened, because that's... Yeah, this is a magic snake.
Gamemaster:It's actually not a magic... It's, like, explicitly not a magic snake.
Gamemaster:Okay, one second.
Johnny:That's a good spell, wow.
Gamemaster:Okay, so it has a really good fort, but it still rolled poorly.
Gamemaster:What was the DC?
Gamemaster:It rolled a 15 on the fort save to save against it.
Gamemaster:I think your DC is higher than that, isn't it?
Anzu:My DC is 18.
Argyle:The.
Gamemaster:Okay, so that was a waste of time.
Gamemaster:It's going to spend another action to do a water spout.
Johnny:Snakes in the corner like .
Benny:Bad idea.
Gamemaster:I think it would want to shoot the waterspout at Anzu, but Anzu ran and hid behind Benny, so it's going to do the waterspout at Benny instead.
Johnny:Hello, Benjamin.
Benny:You don't want to see Benny when he's angry.
Gamemaster:I critically succeeded, unfortunately, on my waterspout attack.
Anzu:Oh my god.
Benny:Oh boy.
Benny:I can't take it.
Johnny:Benjamin.
Gamemaster:Okay, so we're going to... Why do you not have damage?
Gamemaster:It doesn't have a damage button.
Benny:Benny doesn't take damage.
Gamemaster:What is the damage of this attack?
Argyle:There's no damage.
Johnny:What is this?
Gamemaster:It... Okay, one second.
Argyle:It's just water.
Gamemaster:I have to look up the stat block.
Benny:I gave you his backstory, right?
Anzu:Part of his backstory.
Benny:Yes.
Gamemaster:What is... What is the actual name of this?
Argyle:He actually is an expert at water gun fights, so he specifically doesn't take damage from water sports.
Gamemaster:Oh, okay.
Benny:He's an expert at water gunning.
Benny:He's so dense that he just stands there and the water rushes over him.
Anzu:you you
Argyle:All the other kids were annoyed.
Gamemaster:Where do you even...
Gamemaster:I apologize.
Gamemaster:I'm trying to figure out where I actually got the stat block for this creature so I can figure out what it does.
Gamemaster:Is it you?
Argyle:Have you tried searching Waterspout?
Gamemaster:No, it's definitely not you.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Where does this come from?
Benny:What a spout.
Gamemaster:One second.
Gamemaster:What is the source of this thing?
Johnny:Oh.
Gamemaster:This is from... Oh, of course it is.
Gamemaster:It's from Grahoon's Gorge.
Gamemaster:Pathfinder Society Quest 3.
Gamemaster:I'm just gonna... Okay, that's fine.
Argyle:Thank you.
Gamemaster:I know what this is.
Gamemaster:I don't know how to do... Pretend this is bludgeoning.
Gamemaster:That was atrocious.
Johnny:Oh.
Gamemaster:Nine points of bludgeoning damage, Benny.
Gamemaster:Oh, sorry.
Gamemaster:I meant to double that.
Gamemaster:Eighteen points of bludgeoning damage.
Gamemaster:And then you also have to make this third save against the algae in the ballast organs around its neck.
Benny:disgusting perfect they're gonna
Gamemaster:I'm sorry.
Gamemaster:You succeed.
Gamemaster:So you are not poisoned.
Gamemaster:by the phototropic algae.
Johnny:Hmm.
Argyle:We can do the next round.
Gamemaster:So that was two actions.
Gamemaster:I guess it'll spend its third action to just follow up and try and hit you with another water spout.
Gamemaster:I rolled way worse that time.
Gamemaster:It misses.
Gamemaster:So it's Benny's turn.
Gamemaster:Oh, right, sorry.
Gamemaster:I apologize.
Gamemaster:It's taking persistent mental damage.
Gamemaster:So it'll take three points of mental damage, and then it'll roll a save, and it does succeed on the save.
Gamemaster:So it's no longer mentally being damaged.
Anzu:No, never mind.
Gamemaster:Yes?
Johnny:I don't think it is because it just says if a recoverer is being sickened.
Anzu:It says, I think this is just an addendum.
Benny:I see.
Argyle:Okay.
Gamemaster:If it recovers from being sickened, then the persistent damage ends.
Gamemaster:I don't know if it's true the other way around, though.
Anzu:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Yeah, I assume that's what you were about to call out.
Anzu:Yeah, so he's still sickened, but he won't take any more mental.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Anzu:Very well.
Gamemaster:Depending, it's your turn.
Benny:It is Benny's turn.
Benny:Let's see, Benny is going to.
Benny:I select myself.
Benny:Is this a good spot?
Benny:Is this a good spot?
Benny:I don't know where.
Benny:I feel like we have better.
Benny:Actually, I can go all the way up.
Argyle:I do have to be able to heal you, though.
Benny:Well, I actually have to move through his space.
Benny:I guess it's still the same.
Benny:Does this get flanking or no?
Gamemaster:That would get flanking with Argalia.
Benny:yes well we'll worry about that when we get there uh so this is uh the poly tool or as the french say this is part of double slice by the way hit him with it max damage
Johnny:I got a healing spell.
Argyle:Alright, well, bang him up.
Anzu:I have heard that, actually.
Gamemaster:They definitely don't say it like that.
Anzu:Nice.
Gamemaster:Oh, okay, sure.
Gamemaster:That does hit.
Anzu:Nice.
Gamemaster:Good damage.
Gamemaster:10 points of bludgeoning.
Anzu:We love that.
Benny:This is the pick.
Gamemaster:What does a polytool look like?
Benny:Oh, wait.
Benny:Poly tool isn't supposed to go first.
Benny:We'll just do that with the pick.
Gamemaster:What do you think a polytool looks like?
Benny:It's the same mod.
Benny:I think a poly tool looks like one of those thick.
Johnny:Swiss Army knife.
Argyle:That's what I thought.
Benny:Well, it's like a Swiss Army knife, but it's like bigger.
Benny:It's like baton shaped.
Gamemaster:Oh, it is baton shaped.
Benny:yeah that was do i just do damage with the with the pick instead because i was supposed to be the pick the order unfortunately does matter perfect pick damage polytool damage
Johnny:It's just a Swiss Army knife.
Gamemaster:Sure.
Gamemaster:OK, so I've undone the damage from the poly tool.
Johnny:Swiss Army knife on a club.
Gamemaster:I have applied the pick damage.
Gamemaster:Polytool does hit.
Johnny:Oh that's really cool.
Gamemaster:Did you apply map to that?
Gamemaster:Oh, wait, no, you don't need to.
Gamemaster:From your slice?
Benny:That's why the order matters.
Benny:Yeah, if the second one's agile, which is six.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Of course.
Gamemaster:Another six points of damage.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Anything else on your turn?
Argyle:Oh.
Benny:No.
Gamemaster:Alrighty, then we will move on to Johnny.
Johnny:Yeah, I will pull out my two fans that are my entire personality.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Johnny:I'll start flapping them around and I will do a lingering composition.
Johnny:Let me performance check.
Johnny:Perform.
Johnny:Is that a crit?
Gamemaster:Nice.
Gamemaster:DC is standard DC of your level, right?
Gamemaster:Which is 16 right now.
Johnny:Mm-hmm.
Gamemaster:So, yes.
Johnny:A critical success.
Johnny:Nice.
Johnny:So this will last for three rounds when I cast Courageous Anthem.
Gamemaster:Four.
Johnny:Oh.
Gamemaster:It'll last for four rounds.
Gamemaster:That's a crit.
Argyle:Yeah, four.
Johnny:And I will shout out Haikyuu to Snake in Water.
Johnny:They want to fight us so bad, but they don't got legs.
Johnny:That is... They don't got legs.
Anzu:Actual facts.
Gamemaster:That is true.
Gamemaster:They don't got legs.
Gamemaster:They is snakes.
Johnny:They don't got legs.
Johnny:And then I will... Yeah, I'll try.
Johnny:I'll do a distracting performance because Benny is injured.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Johnny:Actually, no, because Argyle's going next.
Johnny:This guy's off guard to them either way.
Johnny:Yeah, I'll do it for Benny because he's injured.
Johnny:Distracting performance.
Gamemaster:If you click that, oh, yeah.
Johnny:I will create a diversion.
Johnny:Maybe it will let me.
Johnny:It will not let me create a diversion with performance.
Johnny:So I'll just roll performance.
Gamemaster:That's silly.
Gamemaster:I'll figure that out later.
Gamemaster:Add to the list.
Gamemaster:Just roll a performance check.
Johnny:Excellent.
Johnny:So he, and by he, I mean Benny, is sneaking.
Gamemaster:How did you know that was a success?
Johnny:Oh, is that not?
Gamemaster:I mean, you're right, but how did you know?
Gamemaster:Oh, yeah, no, it's against the perception, DC, of this pacifistic serpent.
Johnny:Oh, I'm so sorry because I was still on the standard DC.
Johnny:I forgot this against it.
Gamemaster:But that is a success.
Johnny:Oh, great.
Gamemaster:So... He is hidden.
Johnny:Then Benny is hidden.
Johnny:I have to check something for demagogues calling.
Johnny:No, it's when you critically succeed.
Argyle:about that i was just clicking that oh oh yeah
Johnny:It's when I critically succeed, not regularly succeed.
Johnny:Bummer.
Johnny:Third action.
Johnny:Third action, I will cast Soothe on Benny.
Benny:sure soothed
Johnny:You are soothed.
Gamemaster:Soothed.
Argyle:Get saved, numbnuts.
Argyle:Get saved, losers.
Gamemaster:And it's your turn.
Johnny:Oh, yo, get saved, numbnuts, at this child.
Anzu:Okay.
Anzu:I'm going to unleash my psyche.
Anzu:And then I'm going to amp a telekinetic rend and send an explosion of energy around each of them.
Argyle:Mindburner.
Gamemaster:Ooh!
Johnny:He's doing it.
Johnny:Mind bird.
Johnny:Oh.
Gamemaster:This bird, his mind, it's unleashed.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Anzu:They can make this fort save.
Gamemaster:So they both have to make that fort save, right?
Gamemaster:Alrighty.
Gamemaster:That's a critical failure because I rolled a 1.
Gamemaster:And a critical success because I rolled a 20.
Anzu:You win some, you lose some, so... I roll.
Gamemaster:It giveth and it taketh away.
Anzu:So... The pacifist takes 18.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Johnny:Wow.
Gamemaster:Double that damage.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:He is bloodied.
Gamemaster:Nothing happens when he's bloodied, but it has happened.
Gamemaster:You are beating up that snake.
Gamemaster:It's a snake, so it's like normal red blood coming out in the cuts and stuff that you're making on it, but it doesn't look happy about it.
Anzu:Now I'm going to... And let me change my target location.
Anzu:I'm going to target the pacifist.
Anzu:And we're going to send a psi burst his way.
Anzu:I don't know how to do this, Josh, but because this is a mind shift action, I can replace its damage with mental and replace its save with will.
Anzu:And I'd like to.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Johnny:I have a question.
Gamemaster:I... Yes.
Johnny:On Tanner's thing, it says for the distant grasp, if it's amped, a creature that critically fails is also stunned one.
Johnny:So a pacifistic snake can be stunned one.
Anzu:Pacifist will save.
Gamemaster:That's a good point.
Gamemaster:He's stunned.
Gamemaster:Okay, so I will roll a... Which is this against?
Gamemaster:The pacifistic serpent?
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:I'm just going to roll.
Gamemaster:Oh, its modifier is the same.
Gamemaster:So it's going to say reflex, but this was a will save.
Anzu:Great.
Gamemaster:I critically succeeded.
Gamemaster:I'm sorry.
Anzu:Well, my save is an 18, isn't it?
Gamemaster:Yeah, but I rolled a 20.
Anzu:Oh, okay.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Gamemaster:I've been rolling very well.
Anzu:I would like not to deal any damage in that case.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Your wish is granted.
Johnny:Mine bird!
Anzu:Am I allowed to do that again?
Gamemaster:Um, you have spent how many actions so far?
Gamemaster:Telekinetic rent was one.
Anzu:And then a psi burst.
Benny:Oh yeah.
Gamemaster:Uh... I feel like you can only do it once, but I don't see anything that says that.
Anzu:I don't see any of these traits that would make me only be able to psi burst once.
Argyle:Bye.
Anzu:Wait, let me just read psi burst.
Anzu:Oh, yeah.
Anzu:No, frequency once per round.
Gamemaster:Yeah?
Gamemaster:Oh, yes, yes, of course.
Anzu:So I'm not going to do that.
Gamemaster:It would be very funny, because that does mean that you can stand there and just do three sidebursts on someone.
Anzu:I mean, they're not very scary.
Gamemaster:No.
Anzu:I'm going to calculate threats with my final action.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:You gained the Calculate Threats effect.
Argyle:Bye.
Anzu:I did it.
Gamemaster:Now it is the Pacifistic Serpent's turn.
Gamemaster:It stunned one.
Gamemaster:It loses the stunned effect and only has two actions.
Gamemaster:Two actions is enough for it to do its spine rake, though, which is always fun.
Anzu:Sorry, guys.
Anzu:I tried.
Gamemaster:So it knows that if it moves, it'll get attacked, so it's just not going to do that.
Anzu:I also have one.
Argyle:Oof.
Argyle:I'll take the earphone.
Gamemaster:Tell me before I roll damage.
Johnny:mind i have one more i mean no but i'll keep it
Argyle:No, I really shouldn't, huh?
Benny:Oh, my God.
Argyle:I'll take the earphone.
Argyle:Do you have any more soothes, Noah?
Argyle:Yeah, I'll take the earphone.
Argyle:All right.
Argyle:I'll take the earphone.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Benny:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Is everybody happy with what they currently have?
Benny:Yeah, I'll keep it.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Anzu:Yeah.
Anzu:Happy is an interesting word choice there.
Gamemaster:Alright.
Gamemaster:Is everybody content to not change it?
Gamemaster:13 points of damage doubled to 26 for Argyle.
Gamemaster:As this snake does some spine ricks.
Argyle:I glimpse of redemption it for our boy Jack.
Johnny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:Okay, I... I think he is going to take the enfeebled one instead of the...
Argyle:I'm going to do the one that he's enfeebled.
Argyle:I forget which one that is.
Argyle:So he's enfeebled.
Gamemaster:Yeah, okay.
Argyle:Jack is resistance.
Gamemaster:So you're going to get four less points of damage from that.
Gamemaster:So instead of 13, take nine.
Gamemaster:And then he is enfeebled to two until the end of its next turn.
Johnny:uh wait doesn't it does it have a reaction i thought wasn't it stunned
Argyle:You can just take that.
Argyle:It's a great question.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:That was two actions.
Gamemaster:And then for its third, I guess it'll just attempt to, what?
Anzu:Oh yeah, it's done.
Anzu:It's third action.
Gamemaster:Oh, absolutely, correct.
Gamemaster:It does nothing.
Gamemaster:It's Argyle's turn.
Anzu:Shout out to Noah for reading my spells.
Argyle:If I do a risky surgery and it causes me to go unconscious, does the surgery stop?
Gamemaster:Well.
Gamemaster:You fall unconscious.
Gamemaster:You do not complete the surgery.
Gamemaster:That is the whole point.
Gamemaster:You don't, like, self-resuscitate afterwards.
Johnny:Gosh, he has the epinephrine, and the damage is him stabbing the epinephrine in, but then it releases and brings him back.
Benny:No, no.
Argyle:Okay.
Argyle:I wasn't sure if it was risky, but, like, then it's registered.
Benny:You...
Gamemaster:Yeah, unfortunately he needs to hit the plunger, and if the damage is from stabbing himself, then nobody's hitting the plunger.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:to start where's the mythic thing again where's the mythic thing again i want to remove that yeah
Benny:No, no, no.
Benny:He has one of the paddles already on his chest.
Benny:He has a knife in one hand and he has the other panel in this hand.
Benny:So he stabs himself and it falls.
Gamemaster:He dropped it.
Gamemaster:Okay, yeah.
Johnny:thing a Rube Goldberg machine.
Benny:It's like that one.
Gamemaster:What?
Gamemaster:If you right-click on the result, there should be a reroll with Mythic Point option.
Anzu:like the box in chat.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Argyle:So, that's 15, but that's a crit fail.
Gamemaster:I'm so sorry, that was worse.
Argyle:All right, well, that's unfortunate.
Argyle:I will attempt to strike him.
Benny:It's like that one Final Destination movie.
Johnny:Oh, gosh.
Argyle:I feel like Josh is going to use dice against us.
Gamemaster:The update changed how probability works so that the DM rolls higher.
Gamemaster:That's a true thing that happened.
Johnny:Oh, no.
Anzu:Crazy.
Argyle:Give me one second.
Gamemaster:Is that the end of your turn?
Argyle:I still have one.
Argyle:No, I saw a row left.
Argyle:I don't see an action.
Argyle:Sorry, just trying to find it.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Oh, he's laying on hands.
Argyle:I thought it was just a flat D6.
Argyle:Yeah, so I'm just going to read.
Gamemaster:Yeah, click the roll healing button and I think it'll just roll six.
Argyle:Yes.
Johnny:Oh.
Gamemaster:Alrighty.
Gamemaster:Now I can move on to the other serpent.
Argyle:Yes.
Gamemaster:Okay, this serpent is going to attempt to retch again.
Gamemaster:He succeeds this time.
Gamemaster:He's no longer sickened.
Argyle:Was the serpent weak at all from being enfeebled?
Anzu:But they did take an action, right?
Gamemaster:Correct.
Gamemaster:What?
Argyle:Was the serpent's AC hindered from being infeasible?
Gamemaster:Yes.
Benny:you
Argyle:Okay.
Gamemaster:Yeah, you still missed.
Johnny:Okay.
Argyle:I'm just asking.
Argyle:It doesn't show me.
Gamemaster:Enfeebled is applied and it just takes that into effect automatically with the AC.
Argyle:I can't click see what's on, like, applied anymore on them.
Argyle:At least, I don't think so.
Gamemaster:What do you mean anymore?
Gamemaster:You never should have been able to.
Gamemaster:You shouldn't be able to see... You see things that modifies your rolls.
Anzu:I think we can only see our... Well, yes, we can see on its icon, but I don't think it ever showed in chat.
Argyle:I used to be able to see if they had status effects.
Gamemaster:You shouldn't see things that modify its stats.
Argyle:Oh, well, I will hand on it right now.
Gamemaster:Either way.
Gamemaster:What?
Johnny:Oh, no.
Benny:Thank you.
Argyle:Like I see.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Right.
Argyle:Gotcha.
Argyle:Gotcha.
Argyle:Because I assumed that one of those was off.
Argyle:Doesn't seem one was off guard.
Argyle:There was no fee.
Gamemaster:No.
Gamemaster:The serpent is going to spend one action to move closer to you guys over here.
Gamemaster:And then it'll follow up with a spine rake, which allows it to move, and it just
Anzu:Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Anzu:Hold on.
Anzu:Wasn't the retching an action?
Gamemaster:Yes.
Anzu:So that's two actions.
Gamemaster:There's movement involved in the spine rake.
Gamemaster:I've just never done it because you guys are surrounding it and I don't want to take a toxic opportunity.
Argyle:you
Gamemaster:But now it's going to happen anyway.
Anzu:Just trying to protect myself.
Anzu:Do your thing.
Gamemaster:I understand.
Gamemaster:I get it.
Gamemaster:I'm still going to try and murder you.
Gamemaster:But the spine rake does have movement built into it, which is why it's two actions.
Anzu:Holy crap.
Johnny:Oh, it's so cool.
Anzu:Excuse me.
Johnny:Oh God.
Johnny:Thank you.
Benny:Oh, I forgot the button.
Anzu:Jeez, good thing I calculated threats.
Anzu:Holy moly.
Gamemaster:Why is he sideways now?
Argyle:It just felt like it looked better.
Anzu:Don't get it twisted.
Benny:Was it like page up and page down?
Benny:What rotates?
Gamemaster:If I hold shift and I scroll, it rotates it.
Benny:Ah, right.
Gamemaster:But I didn't do that.
Gamemaster:I don't know why it rotated.
Gamemaster:Weird.
Johnny:Thank you.
Anzu:That's so tough.
Gamemaster:And that's going to be nine points of slashing damage halved for Argyle.
Argyle:I will also protect Johnny, so he will have to be in feeble before... No, it went before me.
Gamemaster:Do you have a second reaction to use on that?
Gamemaster:Oh, right.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:You're totally right.
Gamemaster:Yeah, this guy will get enfeebled too.
Gamemaster:And Johnny will take another four off of that.
Johnny:Snarl.
Gamemaster:You can assign the enfeeble to these guys, right?
Gamemaster:I don't know if I got the permissions right for that.
Gamemaster:You can.
Gamemaster:Awesome.
Gamemaster:Benny!
Gamemaster:It's your turn.
Benny:Let's see.
Benny:Benny is going to... Not grimace.
Benny:What's a very aggressive, angry look?
Anzu:Mirror.
Gamemaster:Which is probably a goofy thing on a nine-year-old.
Benny:Scowl.
Benny:Benny is going to scowl at the pacifist serpent and say... It might be.
Benny:And he's going to say, I don't like you.
Benny:and he is going to attempt to where wait why can't i change this modifier i'm trying to change the circumstance bonus modifier i could change this before to be a plus two from my yes
Gamemaster:What are you trying to do?
Gamemaster:To do what?
Johnny:Okay.
Gamemaster:From what?
Gamemaster:Oh, sure.
Gamemaster:Sure, sure, sure.
Gamemaster:I don't have a mystified version of it to apply to you.
Benny:That's cool.
Benny:Just add a status and then a circumstance.
Gamemaster:So... Okay.
Gamemaster:That works.
Benny:Please, please.
Benny:Success.
Benny:He's frightened one.
Johnny:Nice.
Gamemaster:He is frightened one.
Gamemaster:Oh, he's frightened and enfeebled.
Benny:And then very, very upsetting.
Argyle:and i'll start
Johnny:The snakes.
Johnny:The snakes got nothing.
Benny:And then it is.
Gamemaster:I don't know.
Gamemaster:If I were a Giant snake, I wouldn't be scared of a nine-year-old.
Gamemaster:But this guy is.
Anzu:This is a very scary nine-year-old.
Anzu:And an incredibly masculine grip strength.
Gamemaster:I mean, it is.
Gamemaster:This nine-year-old has multiple firearms and pickaxes and a police baton with a knife in it.
Gamemaster:Yeah, that hits.
Benny:I'm uh what even was that was a 13 uh I'm gonna reroll with I'm gonna reroll with mythic yeah oh eliminated
Argyle:You know, they say one of the best indicators of living long is a strong grip strength.
Argyle:So this immortal nine year old child is going to be immortal.
Johnny:Terrifying.
Gamemaster:How long have you been nine?
Gamemaster:Sorry, yes, re-roll.
Gamemaster:Nice.
Johnny:Ooh, that was cool.
Benny:Oh wait, fuck.
Benny:I gotta... There's more damage, because he's below half HP, so add four to that.
Gamemaster:He is bloodied.
Gamemaster:Oh, I meant to add that.
Gamemaster:Okay, sure.
Gamemaster:I can do that.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:20 points of damage.
Benny:No, I do have that.
Benny:I just forgot to select it.
Gamemaster:What is that?
Gamemaster:Oh, that did good.
Argyle:Thank you.
Benny:And with Benny's final action on this turn, he will...
Gamemaster:Okay.
Benny:have a bolt of lightning jump from the hole that it created on the pacifistic serpent and jump to Benny and heal him for 10 hit points.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Johnny:Oh, it's me.
Gamemaster:Normal nine-year-old activities.
Anzu:That's sick.
Benny:Oh, and Benny's eyes glowed when he yelled at the guy and then... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Gamemaster:Johnny, it's your turn.
Gamemaster:Right.
Gamemaster:Eye shenanigans.
Argyle:Thank you.
Benny:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Yes.
Johnny:Excellent.
Johnny:I will look back at this child just 1v1ing the Giant snake and be like, he's got it.
Johnny:And then I will cast Soothe on Dr. Argyle.
Johnny:You're soothed.
Argyle:Dr. Cross, but yes.
Johnny:Dr. Cross.
Johnny:I will...
Johnny:Yeah, that's... I don't have a lot of stuff here.
Johnny:I'll do that as... I'll flourish that, so it's one action.
Johnny:Second action, I'll look at this snake and I'll just yell, you have no legs!
Johnny:And try and demoralize it.
Gamemaster:Really hurtful and a little ableist of you to point that out, but sure.
Argyle:How much do I heal?
Johnny:This is...
Argyle:Thank you.
Johnny:Oh, sorry.
Johnny:I didn't roll healing.
Johnny:I don't think that... 13.
Benny:Good.
Argyle:Better than I asked.
Gamemaster:I picked up the die to throw it around and now it's stuck to my cursor.
Johnny:I don't think it's 15.
Johnny:Oh, it was against its wit.
Gamemaster:Sorry, what is that against that performance check?
Johnny:I think it's Will DC, because that was to demoralize it.
Gamemaster:That will fail.
Johnny:Then I will just yell, and try and hit it with my fighting fan.
Johnny:I just kind of whap it.
Gamemaster:Okay, hit it with your fighting fan.
Benny:is it like one of those like paper fans like bad snake
Johnny:I just whap it a little bit.
Johnny:It doesn't work.
Gamemaster:It unfortunately doesn't seem particularly perturbed by your Fighting Fan.
Gamemaster:Which brings us to Anzu, who's no longer calculating threats, I'm sorry.
Anzu:Oh, he's calculating.
Johnny:Thank you.
Anzu:I think we do another amped telekinetic rend on the two of them.
Anzu:Oh, we'll send that out there.
Argyle:Cats.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Let's make this fort save.
Gamemaster:That is a failure and a success.
Gamemaster:Oh.
Gamemaster:The one that failed is the one that's almost dead.
Anzu:I guess that's...
Anzu:12 points of damage.
Benny:Yeah.
Gamemaster:That is... That is enough to kill the pacifistic pacifistic serpent.
Argyle:podcast.
Gamemaster:Alright.
Gamemaster:I had to double check to see that this attack is lethal.
Gamemaster:It is.
Gamemaster:So he is dead.
Anzu:The air around him compresses and lacerations appear on him.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:And you've kept all of the blood that was inside of his body is now out of his body, and unfortunately that is a requirement for living.
Johnny:That was a deep hole, Mike.
Gamemaster:So the snake collapses to the ground.
Benny:And Benny's the scary one.
Benny:This guy just compressed air until this thing exploded.
Benny:And Benny's the scary one.
Gamemaster:Sometimes you use your mind to blow up a snake, okay?
Argyle:you
Gamemaster:That's normal activity.
Benny:He's the guy from Accepted.
Benny:But you got the reference?
Anzu:And we'll send a Psiburst to the other guy.
Anzu:I'm pretty sure that's a fail.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Benny:Are you the only one?
Johnny:Take a reference.
Gamemaster:I don't know what you're talking about.
Gamemaster:14, which I believe fails.
Anzu:I guess you didn't click my basic reflex in the...
Gamemaster:I did.
Gamemaster:I don't know why it didn't.
Argyle:Get him.
Argyle:He always makes fun of me for not clicking things.
Gamemaster:But I did.
Benny:Max damage.
Argyle:Yeah, sure you do.
Johnny:Nice.
Anzu:Oh, it just doesn't show.
Gamemaster:Yeah, it just doesn't apply.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Anzu:Interesting.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Anzu:Take five points of damage.
Gamemaster:I know that's... Absolutely.
Gamemaster:He does take five points of damage and is worse off for it.
Gamemaster:Anything else you'd like to do?
Anzu:And I'll calculate threats.
Anzu:He did take half damage from the thing, right?
Gamemaster:From the... Yes!
Anzu:From my rend.
Gamemaster:From the other one.
Gamemaster:Yes.
Anzu:I'll calculate threats again.
Gamemaster:And while you do that, Argyle, it's your turn.
Argyle:Yes.
Argyle:Our guy will treat wounds riskily.
Benny:somebody die.
Benny:Dice.
Argyle:Dope.
Gamemaster:Nice.
Argyle:Well, I was a max damage.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:All right, dope.
Gamemaster:A max damage risky surgery is a little unfortunate.
Argyle:um yeah okay and then google cool nice strike all right and you know i'm gonna mythic that i just got a mythic from uh succeeding on the other one
Gamemaster:Strike the snake.
Gamemaster:He is still in feeble.
Gamemaster:That does unfortunately miss.
Johnny:you
Gamemaster:That hits.
Argyle:So I did the surgery strike and then I had my other strike.
Gamemaster:Good roll on the damage.
Gamemaster:15 points.
Gamemaster:He is bloody, and he's not looking good.
Gamemaster:He is writhing, which is something that snakes normally do, but you can tell this is in pain.
Johnny:thank you
Anzu:Thank you.
Gamemaster:He dodges this one.
Argyle:They have high ACs.
Gamemaster:I'm just letting you know in advance.
Benny:Oh, I don't know.
Gamemaster:I told you he dodges this one.
Argyle:Fuck these snakes.
Argyle:And, uh, yeah.
Argyle:My time.
Gamemaster:It's his turn.
Johnny:Uncool snake.
Gamemaster:He's going to try and bite your head off, I think.
Gamemaster:You keep attacking him.
Gamemaster:Everybody keeps attacking him for no reason other than that he's trying to eat you.
Johnny:Got attacked first.
Gamemaster:Which is terribly rude.
Gamemaster:But then I rolled poorly, so I don't think he does it.
Gamemaster:Great.
Argyle:No, they can only hit me with saves.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Johnny:Big AC.
Gamemaster:He doesn't actually have many options to do, and I didn't roll to get the Spinarak back, so I'm just going to try and eat you again.
Gamemaster:And then after that, I'm going to try and eat you a third time.
Gamemaster:We'll see if any of these work.
Gamemaster:Oh, that one hit.
Argyle:No!
Argyle:This has been rigged.
Gamemaster:That one missed.
Argyle:It's rigged by the big snake lobby.
Gamemaster:Big snake.
Gamemaster:I'm definitely in the pockets of Big Snake, that's true.
Gamemaster:11 points of piercing damage as it bites your shoulder.
Argyle:the first hit our guys take another campaign the apc
Gamemaster:And that's crazy.
Gamemaster:That's the end of its turn.
Gamemaster:It's no longer enfeebled, but it is Benny's turn.
Benny:Benny will look down at his once eager pick that is no longer eager to kill, and he'll give it a little shake, and he will shift eminence and put a little pep back in it so it does all of the fun stuff it does and I can heal from it again.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Benny:And then Benny will make his way all the way over to the serpent.
Benny:And then Benny will attempt...
Benny:uh he's now flanked then he will attempt an intimidating strike uh one to move oh right i can't do that uh let's do a normal strike
Gamemaster:He is flanked, yes.
Gamemaster:Go for it.
Gamemaster:Do you have the actions for that?
Gamemaster:One action to move, one action to shift imminence.
Johnny:you you
Gamemaster:Normal strike.
Benny:With the pick.
Benny:Oh, I forgot to.
Argyle:Yes.
Anzu:Bye.
Gamemaster:Yeah, I mean, that's a crit.
Benny:Will this work if I just hit critical here?
Gamemaster:Yaby.
Benny:It does.
Benny:Hell yes.
Benny:Boom, boom, boom.
Gamemaster:Because you have a fatal d10.
Benny:Plus this.
Gamemaster:36!
Benny:Well, no, no, no.
Benny:I was thinking about the plus three for Barrow's Edge.
Benny:High damage rolls.
Gamemaster:That's enough to kill it outright.
Johnny:Play the second server.
Gamemaster:Disappointed that he didn't get the kill on the mind-exploded snake earlier, he walks over to this snake and pickaxes it to death.
Anzu:Let's go.
Argyle:Thank you.
Gamemaster:And you slay the second serpent.
Benny:The last action Benny used was striking.
Gamemaster:Yes.
Benny:So I am going to use Drink of My Foes again and heal for 18 points.
Benny:Or how much was it?
Gamemaster:That works.
Benny:Yeah, 18 points.
Benny:Benny's at max HP.
Johnny:I'm going to look.
Anzu:Using that off of a crit is sick.
Gamemaster:Also, Jorge... It's wild.
Johnny:That's cool.
Argyle:That's only if it's strength-based AC stuff, I'm guessing.
Gamemaster:I figured out why Enfeeble doesn't affect the AC.
Gamemaster:That's why it wasn't showing up in the other thing.
Argyle:Right?
Gamemaster:Yeah, this guy's AC wasn't based off of strength, so...
Argyle:Or is it full stop?
Argyle:Oh, yeah.
Argyle:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Argyle:Okay, that makes sense.
Johnny:Hey.
Gamemaster:But can you see the flat-footed on Mike's?
Gamemaster:Does that show up in your UI?
Argyle:I didn't see flat-footed when I was striking them.
Argyle:I only saw the enfeebled.
Johnny:Yes.
Argyle:Which is why, yeah.
Benny:I do see it.
Benny:Yeah.
Gamemaster:By the way, murdered a snake, drank of its blood, and you guys are now in this underground clearing with the corpses of two lurking serpents at your feet?
Argyle:Doesn't hurt.
Argyle:Can someone that's good at it skin some of them?
Argyle:I'd like to make some shields or clothing out of it.
Anzu:I actually would like to kind of look for any bits of them that might be useful, maybe alchemically.
Anzu:I don't know what kind of check it is to do these things, but...
Gamemaster:Traditionally, that would be a survival check.
Johnny:I'll, uh, I'll go step back, gents.
Johnny:This is where, uh, survivalist Johnny Skyfall will roll up my, roll up the sleeves of my denim jacket, roll up my bell-bottom jeans.
Argyle:Can I, wait, do we level up?
Gamemaster:Yes, you do.
Gamemaster:You've leveled up.
Benny:That's what it feels like.
Gamemaster:No.
Johnny:I use my fan to scrape the skin off.
Argyle:Is there a way I can level myself up?
Gamemaster:What did you want to do that requires leveling up?
Argyle:I'll just use my, I'll roll out of my path.
Gamemaster:Yeah, unfortunately you guys aren't leveled currently in Foundry because we needed your level 2 characters to complete this fight.
Argyle:I wasn't sure if he pre-did it and then unloaded us.
Argyle:That would have been a lot of work.
Gamemaster:What are you doing?
Argyle:I was going to do a medicine check.
Johnny:Josh, I got a 21 for snake stuff.
Gamemaster:Yeah, 21's fine.
Gamemaster:You can... Like...
Gamemaster:You can definitely take off a good chunk of the snakeskin.
Gamemaster:Really the limiting factor here is it's unwieldy.
Gamemaster:It doesn't like fold down onto itself.
Gamemaster:So you have this hunk of snakeskin.
Gamemaster:So you have a question of how much are you willing to try and take with you?
Gamemaster:Like what is the amount that you're going for?
Johnny:Okay, well, I want enough to make snakeskin leather trousers and then whatever else everybody else wants.
Gamemaster:Okay, we're starting off with as much snake skin as would fully cover your legs.
Johnny:Yeah, like snakeskin tights.
Argyle:Okay.
Gamemaster:Where are you planning on keeping that?
Johnny:That's logistical questions.
Johnny:We don't need to worry about that.
Gamemaster:No, I am worrying about that.
Gamemaster:Where are you planning on keeping this leather skin?
Johnny:My pockets.
Benny:The leather skin... I don't know if...
Gamemaster:Your pockets do not fit enough leather to make pants out of.
Gamemaster:I'm sorry.
Gamemaster:Like, I think you could probably roll it up and stick it in a backpack, but it would fill a backpack.
Johnny:Okay, then I'll just do whatever.
Anzu:And they didn't spit any poison at us.
Gamemaster:You know what?
Argyle:Thank you.
Gamemaster:I will say that you can take a very thin bit of the skills off.
Gamemaster:You won't get any mechanical benefit from it, but you can have enough there to make completely mundane snakeskin pants, if you like.
Johnny:Not everyone is.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Anzu:It was just water.
Anzu:I'm wondering if there's any glands or...
Gamemaster:Yeah, it was... No, it was water with poisonous algae inside of it.
Benny:Not a big poisonous algae guy.
Anzu:I don't know if I really have a use for that.
Gamemaster:So if you want, you could get some of the poisonous algae.
Anzu:That's all right.
Gamemaster:Some people aren't.
Gamemaster:It's a personal preference kind of thing.
Argyle:Oh.
Gamemaster:You're just rolling stuff.
Argyle:Uh, so the first, so... 13 goes to Johnny?
Benny:He's doing pretty well too.
Argyle:13?
Johnny:With 13 hit points?
Johnny:Nice.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Uh, that's unfortunate.
Argyle:Uh... Oh, and so you only get, uh, you only get 9.
Anzu:Nine is all I needed.
Anzu:I assume you're spending time going around healing everyone?
Argyle:Cool, cool, cool.
Argyle:All right.
Argyle:Yeah, I'll take 30 minutes.
Gamemaster:Okay, so... So you guys are sitting in this cavern, just like on the floor, doing a little bit of healing?
Anzu:All right, so I can refocus in that time as well.
Johnny:Yeah, me too.
Anzu:I guess so.
Argyle:Unless y'all don't want to heal, we can just unscrap all that.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Can I have somebody... Steam...
Benny:Can Benny get a snakeskin poncho?
Benny:It's a very simple fabric setup.
Gamemaster:Yeah, same deal I'm making with Johnny.
Gamemaster:If you want it to be thin enough for you to have the material required to make a full poncho, but doesn't actually take up 100% of the storage space that you have on your person, it won't impart any, like, mechanical benefit.
Benny:That's fine.
Benny:Then he'll take it.
Johnny:Thank you.
Argyle:What mechanical benefit do we get if we decide to not do that?
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Then, yeah.
Gamemaster:You might be able to make a shield.
Gamemaster:out of it, which might have some benefit to it.
Gamemaster:I don't know if you would know what that is.
Gamemaster:But you would know that if you wanted the chance for a mechanical benefit, you need the full thick skin and not just the top layer, which takes up space.
Argyle:I get enough to get a shield.
Argyle:I'll do that.
Argyle:I'll forfeit the rest of my space.
Gamemaster:Okay, sure.
Argyle:So yeah.
Argyle:We don't have to rest in this camera if you guys don't want to, but if you do, I would like 40 minutes.
Johnny:I mean, I'm not going anywhere.
Benny:Sure.
Argyle:All right.
Gamemaster:Okay, somebody roll a d100 for me, then.
Benny:Yay!
Argyle:I will refocus as well with that extra 10 minutes.
Johnny:I will also refocus also as well.
Gamemaster:I have also refocused.
Benny:6d6.
Benny:I tweeted something horrible today.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Went off of the funny number, so, you know.
Gamemaster:Too bad.
Argyle:All right.
Gamemaster:Related to that... I'm disappointed.
Benny:If it was 6-7, would you have Gen Alpha crowd the tunnel and just bother us?
Gamemaster:No.
Gamemaster:No, unfortunately nothing special was keyed off of that specific number.
Anzu:Now, Gwyneth is trying to tell me that 41 is also a funny number now, and I just don't understand these kids.
Gamemaster:I'm sorry.
Benny:No.
Benny:That I don't know about.
Johnny:Are these numbers fine?
Gamemaster:You're just being lied to.
Anzu:That's what I thought.
Johnny:I don't get it.
Gamemaster:Not that I would have any in knowledge, so it's entirely possible that an old man yelling at clouds.
Anzu:No, I actually respect your input.
Gamemaster:That's good.
Gamemaster:Thanks.
Argyle:All right.
Johnny:Jorge, are you still rolling stuff over there?
Argyle:Now I'm all good.
Johnny:Okay.
Argyle:How about you guys?
Johnny:Anyone else rolling stuff?
Benny:No.
Anzu:No, I'm good.
Anzu:I feel I'm focused.
Anzu:And whoa.
Gamemaster:Wild.
Anzu:Did you guys both just roll the same?
Argyle:I hope that's a good thing.
Anzu:That's kind of crazy.
Johnny:I don't know about that.
Argyle:Let's get the move on, I guess.
Johnny:But we are level three now, right?
Johnny:Nice.
Gamemaster:You're level three now.
Johnny:Guys, I don't know about you, but getting beat up by those snakes, I feel pretty good right now.
Anzu:Whoa.
Benny:I hope there's more.
Johnny:I don't.
Gamemaster:More snakes.
Johnny:But I like the enthusiasm.
Benny:Benny is spotless after the fight.
Benny:He is totally like, yeah, I mean, that was nice.
Argyle:Alright, let's go.
Benny:He did what?
Gamemaster:Benny takes one step and four more snakes rise out of the water.
Benny:Double the fun!
Johnny:Oh, God.
Anzu:Yeah, we continue deeper.
Anzu:We got to find what the heck they're doing down here.
Johnny:Onwards.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:This, like... Excuse me.
Gamemaster:This walkway that you see between the puddles of water where the snakes were jaychilling and all is a little bottomed down.
Gamemaster:Like, it's used as a walkway from people that took the same lift that you did descending down in here.
Gamemaster:So it kind of delineates a path that you could take further into this underground cave area.
Gamemaster:So...
Gamemaster:I take it you guys are going to follow the same marching order that you were doing before?
Gamemaster:Okay.
Argyle:What was the check?
Benny:I believe he is.
Gamemaster:So I would like whoever's in front to make a perception check as you continue following the path.
Johnny:make your water in front of these
Gamemaster:No, like, navigational check required since this is a tread area, but to see what's going on.
Gamemaster:Perception.
Argyle:Perception.
Argyle:Who's leading it?
Argyle:Johnny?
Argyle:Oh, I'm doing it?
Anzu:I think it's you.
Gamemaster:Whoever's in front?
Argyle:Alright.
Argyle:I'm just double checking.
Anzu:Well, no, just because I thought you were in front.
Argyle:yeah all right so 11.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:With an 11, as you all proceed further into the cave, there is one thing you do still notice.
Gamemaster:After you make it out of this particular clearing and the cave kind of shrinks down a little bit, closes in on itself, there is a very noticeable...
Gamemaster:feeling as you walk through a barrier, almost.
Gamemaster:You feel all of the hairs on your skin raise.
Gamemaster:You get goosebumps.
Gamemaster:This is a very clear sign that you have walked into a Fane.
Gamemaster:you have entered an area that is controlled by a heart of some kind.
Gamemaster:But there's no immediate change that occurs.
Gamemaster:You're still in a cave system.
Gamemaster:But you can see that about 100 feet ahead of you is the end of this tunnel as it appears to open up into a larger, more open cavern.
Benny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:As you do, I think the first thing that...
Johnny:you
Gamemaster:strikes you as out of place is a feeling of wind in this underground area coming from the entrance of the cave that you're walking towards, as if the area you're walking out onto is windy in some way.
Gamemaster:And as you come out, as you exit the cave into what is the Thane proper,
Gamemaster:It is a very jarring sensation to have effectively left the cave, because you are, despite being miles underground, it appears that you have just walked onto a plane.
Gamemaster:Like a grassy plain.
Gamemaster:The ground directly in front of you has this dark, dark greenish-bluish grass growing out of it.
Gamemaster:The sky above you has a... Oh shoot, what is it?
Gamemaster:I think it's a moon.
Gamemaster:One second.
Gamemaster:This is my fault for not remembering this.
Gamemaster:Because I'm dumb!
Benny:you
Gamemaster:I lied.
Gamemaster:It's a thunderstorm.
Gamemaster:Directly overhead is, and you would understand it as an artificial sky because you are underground.
Gamemaster:It obviously isn't the real sky.
Gamemaster:But there is this deep, dark gathering of storm clouds in the interior of this cavern.
Gamemaster:with flashes of red happening inside of the clouds.
Anzu:you
Gamemaster:And in the very center of this weird internal grassy plain is like a manor, a mansion of some kind, a large house made out of wood, two stories tall, maybe a little bit taller.
Gamemaster:It looks like there's an angled roof on one side.
Gamemaster:There are windows in the front.
Gamemaster:The curtains are drawn on the windows, but you can see lights flickering on the inside, which would imply occupancy of some kind.
Gamemaster:There is a front porch, and coming off of that porch is a pathway that leads straight to you.
Gamemaster:But in addition, there is the porch wrapped around the back of the house.
Gamemaster:And you can see it almost turns into a dock on the side of the house that attaches to a river coming from elsewhere in this open cavern area that you gather is connected to the flow of water that you guys followed to get here.
Gamemaster:With the perception check that we got looking around, it doesn't look like there's anybody else in this clearing.
Benny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:You don't see anybody moving around.
Gamemaster:It doesn't look like there's... Like, the river is very slowly at this point moving along.
Gamemaster:It seems to have calmed down from where you exited before continuing past further to the other side of the clearing.
Gamemaster:It's just like a Victorian-style manor about two miles underground.
Anzu:And we haven't seen any blood in this whole cave system, right?
Gamemaster:No, this whole cavern you saw no blood at all.
Gamemaster:Although you would know that the people who were transporting it might have taken the boat route and would have followed the river instead of taking the footpath that you did.
Anzu:Over the waterfall?
Johnny:Crazy.
Anzu:Oh, was there a thing for that?
Anzu:Okay.
Anzu:Jeez.
Anzu:Someone has been hard at work developing things down here and I do not like it.
Johnny:This is scary.
Johnny:Josh, does red lightning, is that a symbol we've seen before?
Benny:Yeah, Anzu, can you do some sort of mind feelers and see if, I don't know, the devil lives in there?
Gamemaster:Roll a religion check.
Benny:The snakes were easy, but I don't know if I want to die right now.
Johnny:Can I forego my religion role to just help him and aid?
Argyle:Can I make a religion check as well?
Argyle:To see if I have... If I suspect, you know... Yeah, judge stuff.
Gamemaster:Yeah, you can aid them.
Johnny:I will use my new feat, Uplifting Overture.
Benny:Can I roll a check to fuck with theirs?
Gamemaster:Which does?
Argyle:I'm going to re-roll that.
Gamemaster:Yeah, you want to see if you can reduce their value?
Benny:Never mind.
Benny:But I think enough damage has been done.
Gamemaster:Inverse aid.
Gamemaster:I would like to roll a hinder check.
Argyle:Plus this plus 8.
Argyle:So.
Johnny:Josh, I put uplifting overture in the... Oh, I got a 30 to aid.
Gamemaster:Absolutely, when you... Okay.
Gamemaster:When you later use the aid action, you can roll performance, which is already something you can do.
Gamemaster:And if you fail, you just succeed instead.
Gamemaster:Great.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:That's wild.
Gamemaster:You get a cantrip that just makes it so that you can aid, and if you fail, you don't?
Johnny:Oh, sorry.
Gamemaster:Yeah, that's a critical success.
Johnny:There's a 34.
Gamemaster:Still a critical success.
Gamemaster:You can't super critical success.
Gamemaster:I believe you're, what are you, an expert in performance?
Argyle:So it's actually 27.
Johnny:Mm hmm.
Gamemaster:You get two to whatever you roll, Jorge.
Gamemaster:27.
Argyle:I forgot to add the mythic stuff.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:First things first.
Gamemaster:Red lightning in the clouds is the divine presence of the pulse.
Gamemaster:one of the outer gods, god of doctors and necromancers.
Gamemaster:It does not strike you as backstory-related.
Gamemaster:It doesn't look familiar to what you're asking, I think, Jorge.
Gamemaster:That doesn't mean it's not.
Gamemaster:It just means it's not familiar to you.
Gamemaster:The house itself is, like...
Gamemaster:Well-to-do.
Anzu:you
Gamemaster:It looks relatively well-maintained, honestly, if out of place here.
Gamemaster:But you gather it's a manifestation of the Fane instead of, you know, like, necessarily just its own thing.
Gamemaster:But yeah, no, I think the only hints you get with the religion check looking around are this area has the presence of the pulse.
Argyle:is uh what's the level based dc now
Gamemaster:Yes.
Johnny:Sorry, this is an unrelated question for Bard stuff.
Johnny:For aid, you said that I could already use performance.
Johnny:Is that?
Gamemaster:I thought you had a feat that let you do that.
Gamemaster:Was I mistaken?
Johnny:Not for aid stuff.
Johnny:For aid, you have to normally use the same skill.
Gamemaster:Oh.
Gamemaster:Okay, then.
Gamemaster:Sorry, you just have to use the cantrip and it lets you do that.
Johnny:Okay, I just wanted to clarify to make sure I wasn't taking that for no reason.
Gamemaster:I just kind of assumed that everything you can do, you can choose to substitute in a performance instead of whatever the actual check is.
Johnny:A lot of the time.
Anzu:If I perform a stealthy dance, then I don't need to roll a stealth check.
Argyle:you
Gamemaster:I think you would need to describe to me how you envision a dance being stealthy.
Johnny:It's just us doing the dance, the Sugar Plum Fairies.
Gamemaster:But maybe.
Gamemaster:That is true.
Anzu:I feel like ballet, you're very light on your feet.
Gamemaster:That's a good point.
Gamemaster:Yes, of course.
Gamemaster:But sneakily.
Gamemaster:Very sneaky.
Gamemaster:I just saw the Mindbird image that you sent, Noah.
Anzu:Yeah, see, she's not making any noise in this gif.
Gamemaster:I don't hear anything, so you are right.
Benny:Have to is a strong phrase.
Anzu:I think we have to probably approach the house.
Johnny:Fellas, are we, is everyone at 100%?
Argyle:You guys want to go into that?
Benny:And I would know I'm a strong child.
Johnny:I mean, I know we're sort of on a time schedule, but I don't know.
Johnny:Do we think they're already dead?
Johnny:Do we think an eight-hour break would, do we think an eight-hour break to gather our resources would, yeah.
Argyle:He's going to die if we wait eight hours.
Johnny:All right, I just, I wanted to put it out there just to be sure.
Johnny:All right, let's go.
Benny:i think they're already dead i think they're dead because they don't need him to be alive do they need to be alive for that i thought they just put the the little devil echidnas little scary little echidnas in them and they just rummage around in the body
Argyle:You think they lost that amount of blood and didn't survive?
Argyle:Mr. Whiskers is a fighter.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Unless they're planning to sacrifice them here.
Argyle:That's one reason they might be.
Anzu:I don't know if we know enough about the rituals to really make a determination.
Gamemaster:You guys unfortunately didn't, like, try to find out much information about the ritual itself in your time on the surface, so... You rolled well while you were physically there to try and reverse engineer what happened.
Argyle:well to figure out the augers well i'll go first
Gamemaster:You did no further research once you had left.
Johnny:Perfect on that.
Benny:Well, if Anzu wants to go in, he can go in first.
Anzu:I puff out my feathers.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Anzu:I bring my feathers back to normal size.
Benny:Just knock on the door.
Benny:Pretend we're Jehovah's Witness.
Argyle:Wait, so question about fans.
Argyle:Do they immediately, like, does the heart immediately know everyone in the fan is there?
Gamemaster:Roll a religion or an occultism check.
Anzu:I'll roll a cultism about that.
Johnny:I will give an uplifting overture and aid him.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Johnny:It's awesome.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:Roll a performance check.
Argyle:All right, I'm just going to receive this back to Matt.
Gamemaster:You're just farming mythic points, Jorge, is what's happening.
Argyle:Yeah, a lot.
Anzu:Am I getting a plus two from Johnny's 33?
Gamemaster:You are.
Anzu:That's crazy.
Gamemaster:That's just... This is going to be the 5e guidance, is what it's going to be.
Anzu:Jesus Christ.
Gamemaster:It's almost identical.
Gamemaster:Is the 15 with the plus 2?
Anzu:I rolled a natural two.
Anzu:It is.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Okay, with a 15, what you know is it depends on the nature of the heart.
Argyle:Do you guys want to go in those things?
Gamemaster:Some hearts have the ability to identify things within its fame.
Gamemaster:Other hearts don't.
Gamemaster:And that's all the info you got on that.
Anzu:It's a strong maybe, guys.
Anzu:It's a strong maybe.
Johnny:all right do we think yeah should we do a loop first and then and then
Benny:I mean, we're here.
Benny:Sure.
Anzu:Either that or we circle around back and see what's going on behind the house.
Benny:Check out the river.
Argyle:I think if we're going to go in, we should go in strong.
Argyle:If we go around, we might fight some stuff.
Anzu:Do you think we should push before they can fully get ready for us?
Benny:Let him know we're here.
Argyle:I think we should conserve strength if we're going to go in.
Johnny:Anzu, if you had to quantify how much spell power you had left, how many spell slots do you have left?
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Anzu:Well, I assume we didn't regain any, so I used one first level of my two, and I've now gained one second level, and I have my focus points.
Johnny:Okay.
Anzu:So I'm down one spell slot, basically.
Johnny:Okay.
Johnny:I got two level twos, and my other stuff doesn't do damage.
Johnny:So I'm out of level ones.
Johnny:But soothe is one of my signature spells, so I can cast at level two.
Argyle:And Anzu, you can cast a suit.
Anzu:Yeah, also signature, so I could do it with either my first or second.
Johnny:Cool.
Argyle:All right, let's go in.
Benny:Stealthing.
Gamemaster:You're just walking up to the front door?
Argyle:Are there any other doors?
Gamemaster:I... I mean... Okay.
Benny:Stealthing.
Gamemaster:You are being stealthy and walking up to the front door?
Gamemaster:Okay, roll stealth checks.
Anzu:Yeah.
Johnny:We're in an open field.
Benny:We're doing front?
Benny:Yeah, front.
Benny:Why not?
Benny:What's the worst thing you can ever do?
Benny:A front door.
Gamemaster:You guys are rolling some.
Anzu:Mine is really, really bad.
Anzu:But I don't really think it's going to matter.
Gamemaster:Don't worry, everyone else's is also bad.
Anzu:So...
Gamemaster:You are walking along the only paved path in this open clearing towards the house, with nothing in between you and the home itself.
Johnny:It's off.
Gamemaster:So it's not like there's a lot to hide behind in the first place.
Gamemaster:but for anybody watching from inside the house, they would see darkness, and then a flash of red, and the four of you hunched over in the open, and then the flash goes away and it's dark again, and then another flash and you're all 30 feet closer.
Gamemaster:At this point, you guys have made it to the porch.
Argyle:Maybe we should go and just report this to the authorities.
Johnny:We're already here.
Johnny:I'll look at Argyle.
Johnny:I'll take him by the lapels.
Johnny:Come on, Argyle.
Johnny:It's time to be a hero.
Johnny:Slap him a little bit.
Benny:Can't argue with violence.
Argyle:Unless the worst is going to happen, I'm going to die again.
Argyle:You know, we'll be fine.
Johnny:Again.
Johnny:He said again.
Argyle:I go to try to open the door.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:You just walk up and you try to open the door.
Benny:I'm just wondering if I'm the only one that hasn't died.
Argyle:I go to... No, you don't want to open the door.
Argyle:Yeah, I've died before.
Johnny:We're going to talk about this later.
Argyle:Do you really want to talk about that now?
Argyle:I don't even know if you're alive.
Benny:Anzu, have you died before?
Johnny:Wait, raise your hand here if you've died before.
Johnny:Put that hand up.
Anzu:Most people don't really recover from that.
Johnny:We'll talk about this afterwards.
Johnny:Let's open the door.
Argyle:if you consider us people, but anyway.
Johnny:What do you mean by you people?
Johnny:Anyway, open the door.
Gamemaster:You going to open the door?
Argyle:Should we, should we open this?
Argyle:Just, you know, yeah, let's open the door.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Johnny:The 18.
Gamemaster:The door is locked.
Gamemaster:You go, you turn the doorknob, it turns, and then you go to push open the door and there's a deadbolt in place.
Gamemaster:So it just kind of shakes a little bit.
Argyle:just so we found a really powerful beast in the sewers that killed people but left no bodies with necromancers who be killed who are burying under the city to hide from all the authorities and gods and we're just walking up to their faint mansion and just going in
Benny:Yeah, Argyle, we're not very smart.
Benny:And then Benny will reach for the door again.
Benny:But stop before he...
Anzu:I resonate.
Gamemaster:There's... Oh yeah, you can resonate.
Johnny:I hold up my fans.
Gamemaster:No.
Gamemaster:Just the four of you.
Gamemaster:There is a click as the deadbolt in the door is undone.
Gamemaster:And the doorknob turns.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:And the door gets pulled inward.
Gamemaster:Roll a perception check.
Benny:Who?
Benny:Two?
Gamemaster:Well, the two of you, I think it has to be Argyle and Benny because you were the two that were futzing with the door.
Benny:Two.
Benny:Two more.
Gamemaster:Also, make reflex saves.
Benny:Perception.
Benny:Oh, we're perceiving.
Argyle:Quick question.
Benny:Benny's distracted by the fans.
Argyle:Is this a damaging effect?
Argyle:Because I get to add a modifier.
Gamemaster:what specifically what uh on what uh what is what does bulwark give you the armor oh gotcha gotcha gotcha uh no
Benny:Oh, I think I have bulwark.
Argyle:Bold work.
Argyle:Add bold work.
Argyle:Yeah, I got 19 for my.
Anzu:Is it just the two of them making the reflex?
Gamemaster:Yeah, they were the two in front, because they were the ones trying to play around with the doorknob.
Anzu:That's so sick.
Benny:20 for the reflexive.
Johnny:Peace.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:So what did we get, a 20 and a 21 for the reflex saves?
Gamemaster:And perception?
Argyle:Perceiving.
Benny:Oh, I get a 10.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:Okay, so Benny's a little bit startled as the door is pulled open.
Gamemaster:Argyle gets the first look.
Gamemaster:The door is opened, and on the other end is a maybe like five and a half foot tall skeleton.
Gamemaster:Like, no skin on the face, just complete skull.
Gamemaster:Two red glowing eyes deep in the sockets.
Gamemaster:The jaw of it is kind of cracked in the middle and not fully hanging on, so it's kind of limp a little bit.
Gamemaster:It is wearing a three-piece suit.
Argyle:You know.
Gamemaster:and it has a small cloth, like, on one arm, held up against it, and it says, Oh, hello.
Gamemaster:Are you the guests Master Grayson mentioned would be arriving today?
Gamemaster:Please, out of the wind!
Johnny:I will strut on in with my fans.
Gamemaster:And it steps back, and it gestures into the house.
Benny:Benny will walk in.
Argyle:Everyone wanted to go in now before.
Argyle:Now we're getting invited.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:Do all four of you enter?
Benny:Benny taking the lead knowing that Johnny at least has a 50-50 shot of saying whatever in a social situation and us getting out alive will follow him in.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Benny:He is one for two in saying whatever in a social situation and no one getting hurt.
Gamemaster:The only one I don't have confirmation on entering is Anzu.
Gamemaster:Are you walking in?
Anzu:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anzu:Sorry.
Gamemaster:Okay, all four of you walk in, and he does close the door behind you and click the deadbolt in place.
Anzu:Yeah.
Gamemaster:It says, of course, I will lead you all to the waiting room, if you like.
Gamemaster:And he will start walking into... You see that you've entered a...
Gamemaster:Pretty large foyer.
Gamemaster:Black and White checkered floors.
Gamemaster:Marble walls.
Gamemaster:There are pedestals with various pieces of art by the looks of it.
Gamemaster:Art is questionable, because on close inspection, what look to be vases and sculptures and the like are made out of this matte...
Gamemaster:white substance.
Gamemaster:It's not quite stone-looking, some other hard substance.
Gamemaster:There are doors leading to the left, right, and straight forward in this area, as well as two large staircases that appear to head up to a second floor.
Gamemaster:And this skeleton briskly clacks along the floor towards the...
Gamemaster:door to the right, and gestures for all of you to follow.
Gamemaster:In a Dicken, there are, what you can see, it looks like three other people just in this foyer.
Gamemaster:People's the wrong term.
Gamemaster:Spirits is more like three ghostly-looking figures.
Gamemaster:Upper torso is that of translucent humanoids.
Benny:you
Gamemaster:One's a human, one's an elf.
Gamemaster:One is a dwarf.
Gamemaster:They've all got this greenish hue to them.
Gamemaster:They are see-through.
Gamemaster:Their bottom half kind of tapers off into a point.
Gamemaster:These are ghosts in maid uniforms.
Gamemaster:Look like they're going about cleaning the place.
Gamemaster:Yes.
Anzu:Do they by any chance have ethereal, ghostly tinfoil hats on their heads?
Gamemaster:They are not wearing tinfoil hats on their heads, I am sorry to say.
Argyle:happening real soon.
Gamemaster:the skeleton will open the door heading to the right to the east wing of this manor and then you see that you enter into a hallway and he takes it further in and opens up another door which leads into a kind of smoking room a lounge type area there are couches and stuff about and he gestures for all of you to enter yes
Anzu:Uh...
Anzu:Just because it's hard for Tanner to remember exactly the path that you're describing, Anzu wants to keep a mental note of our path so that he knows how to get back to the door.
Gamemaster:Sure.
Gamemaster:Do I have a way of drawing this?
Gamemaster:I don't have a map.
Gamemaster:Let's see if I can paint this.
Anzu:You don't have to.
Anzu:I just...
Anzu:I just want it to be noted that Anzu is keeping... Ooh.
Gamemaster:I'm going to see if it's feasible.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Johnny:Hello.
Anzu:Can I do that?
Gamemaster:So... This is the... God, writing with a mouse is hard.
Argyle:Why, when you said four?
Anzu:That did not do what I wanted it to do at all.
Gamemaster:Door this way.
Gamemaster:Door that way.
Gamemaster:This is the entrance.
Gamemaster:And then you took this hallway that leads here and then into this room over here, which is the lounge.
Johnny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:This is atrocious.
Gamemaster:You went that way, if that makes sense.
Benny:Okay.
Anzu:Excellent.
Gamemaster:I wish I had.
Gamemaster:This is the one time in my life I have ever wanted a Wacom tablet so that I could just draw it out with a pen and paper.
Gamemaster:If I still had my Surface from, like, sophomore year, I'd be doing it.
Gamemaster:Either way, you're led into that hallway and into this lounge, and he opens the door into this area and gestures for all of you to enter.
Anzu:Thank you very much.
Anzu:And when can we expect Master Grayson?
Gamemaster:he waits for all of you to enter into this room and then he says, Master Grayson is currently out on business, but he will return as soon as he is able.
Gamemaster:For now, make yourselves comfortable.
Gamemaster:I am a sane, the majordomo here.
Gamemaster:If you need anything, on, and he gestures to a coffee table in this room, there's a small bell present.
Gamemaster:He says, if you ring that, our footman Syrin will come and tend to any needs you might have while you're waiting.
Gamemaster:We are producing some canapes, if you would like.
Gamemaster:Those will be out in a few moments.
Argyle:Just so that my, just because I know my friends might not know what that is.
Argyle:What's a canapé?
Gamemaster:Small food to nosh on while you wait.
Argyle:Yes, yes, yes.
Argyle:And I look over to a bed and I go, see.
Benny:I'll remember that one.
Gamemaster:The skeleton is completely unfazed by the nine-year-old.
Gamemaster:And once all of you are in, he will nod, he will exit, and he will close the door behind him.
Gamemaster:Roll a perception check to look around in the room you're currently in.
Benny:Two.
Gamemaster:I'll do two, but it can be any two.
Johnny:and 18 to perceive.
Argyle:I'll let some others roll.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Benny:Benny shall roll his perception.
Benny:Also an 18.
Argyle:When my compatriots are done looking around, I'm going to ring the bell.
Gamemaster:Okay, with an 18, you have been led into a smoking parlor.
Gamemaster:There are some seats set up in the center.
Gamemaster:There's this deep red velvet couch and love seat set around a coffee table.
Gamemaster:There are windows that look like they look back out towards the front that currently have these similar deep red satin curtains pulled in front of them.
Gamemaster:There are lanterns, sorry, not lanterns, candles spread throughout the room.
Gamemaster:The candles are what look to be humanoid skulls with, like, wax on top, with a wick placed on top that are lit.
Gamemaster:There is a small, what looks to be like a kind of trophy case on one wall.
Gamemaster:with a number of little trophies and medals and stuff placed in front of it.
Gamemaster:There is a few mounted heads on the walls between the velvet area.
Gamemaster:Some of them are of animals you're familiar with.
Gamemaster:There's one that looks like, if anybody would have come across it, a tiger.
Gamemaster:There is one of a deer.
Gamemaster:And there is one of a dwarf, by the looks of it, cut from here up.
Gamemaster:stuffed and mounted on the wall.
Gamemaster:It's kind of warm in here, you know, like maybe 85-ish degrees.
Gamemaster:There is a... it looks like this place is like central air.
Benny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:There are vents on the floors pumping out pretty warm air.
Gamemaster:Not like cookie warm, but higher than would normally be comfortable for people to hang out in.
Gamemaster:What else is in this room?
Gamemaster:I think that's all of the important bits.
Johnny:Bye.
Gamemaster:There's only one exit coming out of this area, and that is the door that you had entered from.
Gamemaster:Oh, there's a small liquor cabinet as well next to the drawer with the medals and stuff.
Anzu:Now, I would like to cast Detect Magic.
Benny:you
Anzu:We are of low level, so all that I get is the presence of magic, though I can ignore the magic of myself and my allies.
Gamemaster:You are within the presence of magic.
Anzu:My question... Okay.
Anzu:My question, and I don't know if Anzu would know this answer since he's not used this spell much yet, is...
Anzu:Does the fact that we're just in a Fane mean this will always proc?
Gamemaster:No.
Gamemaster:No, that would render the spell, unfortunately, very useless.
Gamemaster:Fanes do not inherently trigger detect magic.
Anzu:Nice.
Gamemaster:Especially given that you can tell if you're in a Fane just normally when you walk into it.
Gamemaster:It's not like a secret that one is within a Fane.
Argyle:I will ring a bell.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:You ring the bell, or more accurately, you shake the bell, and no sound comes out.
Gamemaster:And you look inside, and you see that there is no tongue on the inside of the bell, nothing to actually hit the outside.
Gamemaster:But still, after a moment, there is a knock on the door, and then the door opens, and a... Well, the first thing that hits you is the stench.
Gamemaster:A rotting ghoul...
Gamemaster:wearing a little bellhop uniform, opens the door and groans, How may I help?
Argyle:Hello, what is your name?
Gamemaster:Syrin the footman.
Argyle:Syrin.
Argyle:Can I get a shield and a battleaxe?
Gamemaster:No.
Johnny:Syrin, Syrin, listen.
Anzu:Thank you.
Argyle:Can I get any shield?
Gamemaster:no you guys can roll the privacy check
Argyle:I thought you guys could help me with anything I wanted.
Johnny:We were told you would give us anything we wanted.
Argyle:I'm asking for a magical shield.
Johnny:Are you going directly against what that nice big skeleton majordomo said?
Johnny:I would love to roll this check.
Argyle:Thank you.
Anzu:This is crazy.
Anzu:You guys are nuts.
Anzu:Just let him bring us some appetizers.
Johnny:I got a pretty terrible...
Gamemaster:Funny, too.
Gamemaster:He'll say, I guess I can ask around.
Gamemaster:Anything else?
Argyle:Yeah, just like some of those little appetizers or something.
Gamemaster:I'll be right up.
Benny:Yeah, can I get some hard candies and a crushing rune?
Anzu:Thank you.
Gamemaster:I'll ask the chef if he has crushing runes in stock.
Johnny:Oh, also, what's the estimated time on when Master Grayson's going to be back?
Benny:Perfect.
Gamemaster:I don't know.
Johnny:Can you ask that, too?
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Johnny:Thanks.
Argyle:Thank you.
Gamemaster:Let me close the door.
Gamemaster:It heads off in search of a shield?
Argyle:And an axe, battle axe.
Gamemaster:Sure.
Benny:And a crushing rune and hard candies.
Gamemaster:Right.
Gamemaster:Right.
Argyle:Alright, that's not realistic, but maybe we can get a shield.
Argyle:There's gotta be something.
Johnny:Seems like that kind of place.
Anzu:There's gotta be a shield mounted on the wall somewhere.
Argyle:I'm not asking for a fortress shield.
Johnny:That kind of place doesn't have a loose axe.
Benny:Yeah, that would be unreasonable.
Argyle:That's a specific shield.
Argyle:They tell me no one here has an axe and a shield.
Argyle:Come on.
Gamemaster:You know, what kind of place doesn't just have a loose axe?
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Maybe a hatchet splitting some firewood.
Argyle:There's something they can put together.
Gamemaster:Are you guys waiting around for Syrin to come back?
Argyle:They were a great host.
Argyle:Hey guys, should we be waiting?
Argyle:What if we're not the guest Grayson expected?
Johnny:I genuinely... I mean, we could sneak out and try and just kind of boop, boop, boop around.
Benny:Do they have a guest list?
Anzu:We should have asked him what the list of expected guests was so we could make sure there weren't any spelling errors.
Benny:So here's... Yeah, I think either we are the guests, and for some reason he knew we'd be here, maybe because he saw us coming in the tunnel or whatever.
Benny:Or we're not on the guest list and we're being tricked to just sort of sitting in this room before they come in and kill us all.
Johnny:I'm gonna try the door.
Johnny:Does it open?
Gamemaster:Mm-hmm.
Gamemaster:Door's open.
Anzu:Is it the only door in this room?
Gamemaster:The only entry and exit points in this particular room are the door back into that hallway or, like, the windows.
Argyle:um
Anzu:We can see outside.
Gamemaster:Yeah, you can see outside.
Gamemaster:You, like, have to peel back a pretty heavy curtain, but you can see the exterior of the house.
Gamemaster:You're at the front of the house right now.
Anzu:Is the window open?
Anzu:Does the window open?
Gamemaster:Is the window open or does the window open?
Gamemaster:It has a latch, so you presume yes.
Anzu:Guys, I kind of want to send Othello out to be outside.
Anzu:But do we think that trying to open this window is going to disturb people?
Benny:Well, I mean, we're not trying to send the bird outside.
Johnny:Yeah.
Benny:They come in.
Benny:What are you doing with the window?
Benny:Oh, we're getting some air.
Benny:It is hot in here.
Argyle:I ring the bell again.
Gamemaster:You ring the bell again?
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:After another moment, the door opens again and Syrin shows up holding a shield, no battle axe, as well as a platter of what looked to be small eggs and blankets.
Johnny:Ooh.
Argyle:Thank you.
Gamemaster:He sets it down.
Gamemaster:He says, I had to take this shield off of a wall.
Argyle:Was there any, like, one-handed swords or hatchets or something next to it?
Gamemaster:No.
Argyle:We'll keep Anaïs out for that, if there is any.
Gamemaster:He reaches into his skull and pulls out one of his eyes.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Argyle:Sorry, just keep a lookout.
Argyle:Can you open that window for us?
Argyle:And I just...
Gamemaster:He looks out the window and he says, no.
Anzu:Thank you.
Johnny:Please?
Gamemaster:No.
Argyle:Why not?
Gamemaster:And he walks out the door and closes it.
Argyle:All right.
Gamemaster:The shield that he gave you is decorative.
Gamemaster:The metal is far too flimsy to be used as an actual shield.
Argyle:That's fine.
Argyle:I don't have any weapon to swing with it anyway, so I'll just put up my...
Anzu:No, come on.
Anzu:It can block a single attack before breaking.
Anzu:Don't be cheeky with us, Josh.
Gamemaster:it will block an attack in that the attack will hit the shield before it hits you, but it will hit you too.
Gamemaster:It is not meant for combat.
Anzu:All right, well, he made me kind of terrified to open the window, so...
Johnny:All right, so should we just, like, sneak out?
Johnny:I'm in favor of sneaking out and seeing what's going on in the house, because we were never told we weren't allowed to do that.
Johnny:Also, can't be a proper place.
Benny:Let me know if there's a crushing rune in any of these.
Johnny:Everywhere in Raelion had a loose axe.
Johnny:So, you know, not even a real house, basically.
Argyle:yeah fairly messed up yeah um how's this food yeah how's the food look
Anzu:Yeah I guess we go.
Anzu:I also haven't eaten one.
Johnny:All right, everyone have a pig in a blanket, and then we'll fuel up and get going.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:You eat a pig in a blanket?
Gamemaster:Roll a will check.
Johnny:Oh, no.
Benny:I mimed it, so I must ask.
Gamemaster:Yep.
Benny:Actually, I guess we'll find out.
Argyle:I did not eat one.
Argyle:My question was, how does it look?
Benny:Where's my will?
Argyle:It was not...
Gamemaster:It looks pretty good.
Johnny:Mine was.
Gamemaster:It's still steaming a little bit.
Gamemaster:It looks like the phyllo dough looks pretty nice.
Gamemaster:You can see a little bit of what looks to be some kind of whole mustard that's been put on the inside.
Gamemaster:It looks pretty good.
Gamemaster:$15.22.
Gamemaster:You both eat the pig in the blanket, and it's pretty tasty.
Benny:nice these are pretty good you guys should have some oh you might be right anyways
Anzu:Thank you.
Johnny:All right, let's go.
Argyle:I don't trust... I believe that they taste good.
Argyle:I just feel like this is rotten food.
Argyle:Personally.
Johnny:I open the door.
Gamemaster:Okay, door opens.
Johnny:Great.
Argyle:Anyone outside?
Johnny:I look out the door.
Argyle:Is Syrin there?
Gamemaster:Directly outside?
Gamemaster:No.
Argyle:How does he kill you so fast?
Johnny:Creep down.
Gamemaster:So you are in this hallway.
Gamemaster:You know that if you head left from when you directly exit, that'll take you back to the main foyer.
Gamemaster:Right across the way is another door.
Gamemaster:And then there is, if you head further to the right, there is one more door that heads up the end hallway.
Gamemaster:Nobody else is in this hallway except for you right now.
Johnny:Creep towards the right, see what's further down.
Argyle:But are we stealthing or are we going to walk around like we don't see a problem walking around?
Benny:I think we should walk around without a problem.
Johnny:Yeah, we're never told they had to stay.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Argyle:Yeah, so not stealth, just like... Yeah.
Gamemaster:Very... You're being nonchalant.
Gamemaster:Sure.
Gamemaster:You guys nonchalantly walk down the hallway to the end of the hallway is where that door is.
Gamemaster:More of that, like, weird sculptures set out on, like, pedestals and the like.
Gamemaster:There is one art piece as you pass by.
Gamemaster:It's just kind of a lot of red.
Gamemaster:Very abstract.
Argyle:It's blood.
Gamemaster:Door's on the end of the hallway.
Gamemaster:You open it, it's closed.
Johnny:Wait, can I look at the picture and like try and unfocus my eyes and see if an image suddenly appears?
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:No, I think the only thing you'd get out of it is the medium is interesting.
Gamemaster:It's clearly painted on canvas, but they must have used a really thick paint because the brush strokes are actually protruding out of the canvas a little bit.
Gamemaster:I mean, there was clearly effort put into it.
Johnny:If I sniff it, does it smell a little bit like iron?
Gamemaster:Roll a medicine check.
Anzu:Blood.
Benny:Why is it a medicine check and not a crafting check?
Johnny:Well.
Gamemaster:Whatever material they used to paint this is long-dried.
Gamemaster:The only thing you get the scent of is aging canvas.
Johnny:Art.
Benny:We continue.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Door on the end of the hallway.
Gamemaster:Heavy-looking wooden door, same as all the other doors around here.
Gamemaster:The knobs here are crystal, which is a little classy.
Gamemaster:But unfortunately, it doesn't give you a way to see into the other side.
Gamemaster:So either you're opening it or you're leaving.
Argyle:Do we knock?
Johnny:I will, oh yeah.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:You knock.
Gamemaster:Can I get a perception check from... It sounds like Anzu's at the back of the line right now.
Gamemaster:So Anzu, I'd love if you could make a perception check.
Anzu:Okay.
Anzu:I got a 15.
Gamemaster:Okay, you are startled a little bit as you feel a rush of air behind you, and a human, a ghost, translucent, wearing a butler's uniform practically appears behind you and says, can I help any of you?
Argyle:Yeah, you're just walking around.
Johnny:And where exactly is the Western Hall so we know to avoid it?
Argyle:That's fine, right?
Gamemaster:Of course, any part of the manor is available for you to enter, except for the doorway to the basement in the Western Hall.
Anzu:Thank you.
Gamemaster:You are currently in the Eastern Hall.
Gamemaster:If you head across the foyer, you'd go to the Western Hall.
Johnny:Excellent.
Johnny:Thank you.
Johnny:So what's your name?
Gamemaster:My name is Salo Murn.
Argyle:Do you like Syrin?
Gamemaster:I am one of the butlers employed at this fine manor.
Johnny:Thank you.
Johnny:What's this door right here?
Gamemaster:That door leads to the Billiard Room.
Johnny:Oh, billiards.
Argyle:What was the name of the other butler that we worked with?
Gamemaster:Who?
Argyle:Syrin.
Gamemaster:Oh, Syrin the Footman?
Argyle:Yeah, Syrin.
Gamemaster:He's a little slow, but he's a pleasant chap.
Benny:yeah and then he'll then he'll gesture towards Anzu
Argyle:Hey, it was interesting.
Argyle:I was just asking if you have any shields or axes.
Argyle:Oh, that's okay.
Gamemaster:I believe we have a decorative shield in the dining room.
Argyle:I left that in the other room.
Gamemaster:The master isn't really one for physical weapons, especially older weapons.
Gamemaster:He's always been more of the arcane type.
Gamemaster:You know how they are.
Argyle:Hmm.
Argyle:Hmm.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:So, unfortunately, no weapons.
Argyle:I look over at our buddies and I'm just like, yes.
Gamemaster:I'm sorry, I didn't catch that.
Gamemaster:All right, I'm going to return to my duties.
Gamemaster:You don't need to knock on any of the doors.
Gamemaster:We're fine being interrupted.
Gamemaster:Enjoy your stay while you wait for Master Grayson.
Argyle:Do you have an ETA when you might get back?
Gamemaster:And... Unfortunately, the Master does not tell us of his plans in advance, so we know to be prepared for whenever he returns.
Johnny:But like.
Anzu:Did he leave you with a specific guest list of who he was expecting today?
Gamemaster:He left earlier today.
Gamemaster:Sorry.
Gamemaster:I imagine he did, but he would have left that with the same, the majordomo, the one who you met when you first entered.
Gamemaster:Why, are you expecting others?
Johnny:No, my name has a couple different spellings and so does a couple of odd spellings.
Johnny:Want to make sure they were right.
Gamemaster:Oh, well, we weren't planning on writing your name down anywhere that you would read it, so I think it's okay if it's misspelled.
Johnny:It's like a personal thing, though.
Johnny:It's sort of a persona thing.
Johnny:I don't like my name.
Johnny:Because if you misspell my name, and then you talk to someone else, and then they hear my work, and they think it's spelled wrong, and it gets around, and then I can go somewhere and say, oh, it's me.
Johnny:And they're like, no, it's not.
Johnny:You can't even spell your name right.
Johnny:It's sort of a... Maybe I will.
Anzu:ending but first to the billiard room
Gamemaster:Well, I'm afraid you'll have to take that up with majordomo a saint.
Gamemaster:I'll be off.
Gamemaster:And she kind of just melts into the floor.
Argyle:Is there any way we can contact them?
Argyle:Okay.
Johnny:I look at the others.
Benny:Yes.
Johnny:Billion room.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:So you open the door into the room on the end of the hallway, and it is as the ghost described.
Gamemaster:It is a billiard room.
Gamemaster:Decorated kind of similarly to the smoking room that you were just in, less velvet.
Gamemaster:It's still egregiously warm in here, but the centerpiece of this room is a green felt billiard table in the center of the room.
Gamemaster:They're already set up for somebody to play a series of billiard balls.
Gamemaster:They're not as shiny as you would expect billiard balls to be.
Gamemaster:They've got a bit more of a matte finish than you would normally expect.
Gamemaster:Same with the cues.
Gamemaster:They don't look like they're made out of wood.
Benny:Bone check.
Argyle:Hey, Steven's bone.
Gamemaster:I'll pull a medicine check.
Gamemaster:Check for bone.
Argyle:Gosh, don't worry.
Gamemaster:11, definitely both.
Argyle:Take me tonight.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Benny:So are we going to play around?
Benny:Are we going to?
Benny:Head to the wash.
Benny:I feel like we could talk to more of the people that work here.
Benny:Ask what's going on with the place.
Argyle:Do you guys want to talk to the guy with the guest list?
Benny:We could try.
Johnny:yeah yeah can we just kind of jog around a little bit open doors look inside
Argyle:All right, let's keep walking around.
Argyle:Let's go to the other places.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:The other room in this wing is a kind of parlor area.
Gamemaster:There's kind of a big leather couch in this one, and it looks to be some bookshelves.
Gamemaster:Not much else of note.
Anzu:Do the books have a general theme to them?
Gamemaster:Looking through them...
Johnny:do they they follow like specific course like calarian politicians or something
Gamemaster:Some of them are like... A lot of them are non-fiction.
Gamemaster:A lot of them look to be like biographies.
Gamemaster:That seems to be the general structure here.
Anzu:Hmm.
Gamemaster:Nothing that stands out to you as arcane or anything like that.
Gamemaster:It just seems mostly to be like biographies, histories, that kind of stuff.
Anzu:We're still trained in lore, right?
Gamemaster:Not that you can tell.
Gamemaster:Nothing that stands out immediately.
Gamemaster:If you like, you can roll... I guess we'll make this... I'm going to make it an Arcana check as a stand-in for general intelligence.
Benny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:Or Academia or Ledger Lore I think would fit there.
Anzu:How does that work?
Anzu:Didn't we have some rule?
Gamemaster:I think it's at, like, level six that it pumps up.
Gamemaster:One second.
Anzu:to Expert?
Gamemaster:Yeah, you guys all have the additional lore trait for whatever lore you get from your background.
Gamemaster:Oh, no, it's at third level.
Gamemaster:At third level, you become an expert.
Gamemaster:So you are an expert now in your lore of choice.
Anzu:Is there something we can do on Path Builder so that that, like...
Johnny:I will- I will aid him!
Gamemaster:You might be able to give yourself the additional lore feat.
Gamemaster:I don't know, because I have literally...
Gamemaster:Like, I don't know if I've ever done any of that in Pathbuilder.
Gamemaster:I use it so infrequently.
Anzu:I'm just going to give my... It's plus 2, right?
Anzu:Going up from trained to expert.
Gamemaster:Yes.
Gamemaster:Yes.
Benny:you you
Anzu:I'll make an academia lore check.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:Sure.
Anzu:I got a 20 fun.
Anzu:Oh, no.
Gamemaster:Hmm.
Anzu:I think that might have reduced my check.
Johnny:Because we're true.
Gamemaster:Yeah, critical failure gives you a minus one, so you got a 20.
Gamemaster:No, it doesn't seem like there are any particular... It doesn't seem like it's following a particular structure.
Anzu:Mm-hmm.
Gamemaster:I think the only thing that would stand out to you from a 20 is that the biographies are all relatively recent, like within the past century or so, maybe a little earlier than that.
Gamemaster:It's not like some great history of malaria or anything like that.
Gamemaster:If you return back into the foyer, there are now two people that it looks like are cleaning up two of the ghosts.
Gamemaster:Neither of them you've seen before.
Gamemaster:And there is the door that you would know goes to the west wing, as well as a door that appears to head further back into the manor, and staircases that go up to the second floor.
Anzu:So many fun options.
Johnny:Should we do back area and then staircases, then West Wing?
Benny:See if it's falling off.
Anzu:I think definitely back should be next, yeah.
Johnny:Back area.
Gamemaster:You go into the back of this foyer area.
Gamemaster:It has not fallen off.
Gamemaster:It instead opens up into a long dining room.
Benny:Oof.
Gamemaster:In the center of the dining room is this extended long wooden table.
Gamemaster:A number of ornately velvet-covered chairs are set around it.
Anzu:Thank you.
Gamemaster:There are place settings out in front, but no meals or anything like that have been served.
Gamemaster:It doesn't look like they're currently serving a meal at this time.
Gamemaster:There are more of those interesting abstract paintings on the side.
Gamemaster:There are some ashtrays set up around railings on the wall.
Gamemaster:There is a door that heads left from this dining room, and there is a door that heads further back into the mansion.
Gamemaster:It is also quite hot in here.
Benny:Hmm.
Benny:Okay.
Benny:Stairs.
Gamemaster:You're heading back into the foyer and up the stairs.
Johnny:Yeah.
Benny:Yeah.
Benny:Well, I mean, was there any other door in the dining room?
Benny:It was just dining room.
Gamemaster:There's the door you entered from, there's a door to the left out of the dining room, and there's a door further back into the house.
Benny:One on the left.
Johnny:Cool.
Johnny:Door to the left in the dining room.
Gamemaster:This door is a swinging door.
Gamemaster:It doesn't close.
Gamemaster:It looks like you can just push it either direction.
Gamemaster:Passing through it, you have entered into a kitchen.
Gamemaster:There are a number of cooking stations set up.
Gamemaster:It looks like there are four different undead frantically moving about inside of this kitchen.
Gamemaster:All of them are wearing a ghostly equivalent of a chef's apron.
Gamemaster:One of them has a big puffy white hat that you gather is the main chef.
Gamemaster:He is a ghostly-looking...
Johnny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:lizard folk, who is currently tasting a soup of some kind, a stock, boiling in this big stock pot.
Gamemaster:Looking around, I think the only things that would really catch your eyes, other than the cleanliness of this area, cleanliness and modernness, it looks like they're using a gas stove, like this place is plumbed for natural gas.
Gamemaster:But there is also a herb and butchery drying area off to the back, towards the back of the house.
Gamemaster:They have some garlic drying up there.
Gamemaster:They have some herbs hung from the ceiling drying up there.
Gamemaster:And there are huge slabs of some humanoid hooked on the ceiling to let the blood drain into a basket to prepare it for cooking.
Johnny:some human he would i uh turn to the side and does it look like they're uh look like they're using the meat from whatever they're drying to make those pigs in a blanket
Anzu:Humanoid.
Gamemaster:Humanoid, yes.
Anzu:Skinned.
Gamemaster:Yes, of course.
Gamemaster:Skinned and cut at the bottom so that the blood can all drain out.
Argyle:Okay.
Gamemaster:They're following all the proper health cooking safety techniques.
Gamemaster:Sorry.
Gamemaster:Because they're drying it, so they couldn't possibly be using that.
Gamemaster:Unfortunately, they've already cooked the pigs in the blanket, so you wouldn't know what meat they used.
Gamemaster:I mean, you could ask.
Gamemaster:But, yes.
Argyle:Is there only one body in here?
Gamemaster:In here right now, yes.
Gamemaster:It looks like one body that's been cut in half and set to dry.
Argyle:So, I got a good look at Mr. Whiskers.
Argyle:I'm gonna take a look to see if this, like... If I guess it might be him.
Gamemaster:You can roll a perception check.
Argyle:Medicine or something.
Gamemaster:It's been skinned, so you can't go off of facial features or anything like that.
Argyle:I was trying to do it more of, like, a, uh...
Argyle:kinesiology point of view as, like, a medicine person to be, like, a Catholic.
Gamemaster:You can try a medicine check.
Gamemaster:It's difficult to identify somebody once the skin has been removed and they have been cut in half and the blood has been drained out of the body.
Argyle:I don't expect good things.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Never mind.
Gamemaster:Yeah, with a 15... So, on Færrin specifically, everything started out human, and then magic showed up and they differentiated them, so you would know that humanoids look mostly the same on the inside.
Argyle:I wasn't sure if I could at least discern, like, I don't, so, are races different?
Argyle:Did Convergent Evolution, you take the skin off, everything looks the same?
Argyle:Or is it a... Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
Argyle:So that also makes sense, because that's why I thought it might be easier to tell, but never mind.
Argyle:I got it.
Gamemaster:Yeah, no, it's not like catfolk have different organ arrangements or anything like that.
Argyle:Yeah, yeah.
Gamemaster:It's basically the same innards and then slightly different outards.
Argyle:Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
Argyle:So yeah, that's it.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Gamemaster:The chefs in here are cooking up a meal.
Gamemaster:They pay you guys no mind as you walk in.
Gamemaster:In this room, there is, as you've entered, there's the door that you enter that goes back towards the dining room, and it looks like...
Gamemaster:Excuse me, there's a door that heads left, which you would know directionally would be towards the west wing.
Johnny:Should we go back out and go into that back door in the dining room?
Benny:Sure.
Gamemaster:If you like, you can head out the back door.
Gamemaster:Doing so will bring you into a greenhouse, by the looks of it.
Gamemaster:You didn't get a view of the back of the manor because you guys approached directly from the front, but it appears the entire back section of this home is an enclosed glass-covered greenhouse.
Gamemaster:There are a number of fruit trees growing in here.
Gamemaster:There are some plants, like potted plants, set up along the wall.
Gamemaster:There is an irrigation and sprinkler system when they go along the ceiling.
Gamemaster:Can I get a nature check?
Anzu:Nature.
Anzu:I think that's me.
Gamemaster:Text option.
Benny:Oh, natural.
Anzu:Okay.
Anzu:Nature is plus six now.
Argyle:Being an ingredient householder, this sucks when we're out of food that's made.
Johnny:you
Argyle:I just found some frozen thing I had from a while ago.
Anzu:Got a 25.
Gamemaster:A 25.
Gamemaster:OK.
Gamemaster:Some of these...
Gamemaster:Some of these you recognize.
Gamemaster:There are a few that look to be orange trees, which you know are native to Tormeré in the south.
Gamemaster:They need warmer conditions to grow.
Gamemaster:Some of these aren't fruits that are familiar to you.
Argyle:you
Gamemaster:With the 25, I think the interesting bits that you look at there are the trees that are growing these fruits don't appear to have bark.
Gamemaster:The surface looks almost soft.
Gamemaster:It's got this plain whitish looking smooth texture to the trunks.
Gamemaster:And the fruits are these juicy looking large berries almost.
Gamemaster:Like if you took an apricot or a peach, but then you made it deep red and translucent colored.
Anzu:Do you guys mind if I pick one of these fruits?
Benny:Go for it.
Argyle:Did we... Did any of us try to recognize the name Damien?
Argyle:Is it Grayson?
Gamemaster:Grayson.
Anzu:Grayson.
Gamemaster:No, none of you have tried to recognize the name Grayson.
Argyle:What type of check would that be?
Gamemaster:Society check.
Argyle:Let's get Good Society.
Anzu:Oh.
Anzu:I guess I should do that.
Johnny:I will assist because I have this feat and I gotta use it.
Johnny:I think you get a plus two tenor, I'm assuming.
Argyle:And I will make another Society's point.
Anzu:31.
Anzu:Wow.
Anzu:Can I take a plus 2 because it is 31?
Gamemaster:So what are you at, 17?
Gamemaster:Oh no, you haven't rolled yet.
Gamemaster:27!
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Johnny:They said guidance couldn't be the same in this system.
Gamemaster:It's crazy that you recreated Guidance.
Johnny:I've done damage once this entire campaign, but I can do this.
Gamemaster:Wild.
Argyle:I think it's stronger than guidance.
Johnny:Plus two.
Johnny:The math.
Argyle:Well, for right now.
Argyle:Yeah.
Anzu:It's crazy.
Gamemaster:You would know that the Graysons are the founding family and current operating family of Amber Call, which is a health insurance organization in Calaria.
Gamemaster:A relatively popular one.
Gamemaster:It is the premium, expensive, high-quality org that the rich and famous use for their health insurance.
Gamemaster:They're famous because if you have a higher-level plan with Amber Call and your body registers as being injured in some way, they have operatives that will break into any dangerous situation that you're in to retrieve you.
Anzu:Now, you are saying amber space call and not saying Embercall without a space or anything like that.
Benny:Well, this makes sense then.
Gamemaster:Yes.
Gamemaster:Correct.
Johnny:That was crazy.
Gamemaster:A-M-B-E-R space C-A-L-L Yes.
Argyle:Seems really obvious now that we know about both.
Anzu:Excellent.
Anzu:Oh, guys.
Anzu:It just occurred to me that this guy's family owns that big insurance company.
Johnny:Really?
Johnny:Is it?
Anzu:Yeah, the Grayson's.
Johnny:I don't have health insurance.
Johnny:I don't have health insurance.
Johnny:It kind of seems like a scam, but does it seem like, is it public knowledge that he's a necromancer?
Gamemaster:No.
Johnny:Oh.
Anzu:To be honest with you, I'm not even entirely sure who this particular Grayson is.
Argyle:also is necromancy bad in this setting or is it kind of like eh
Anzu:I've heard of the family.
Gamemaster:I mean, it's not exactly like start a crusade.
Gamemaster:There are a lot of ethical concerns with it that make it not super popular.
Gamemaster:the fine line there is the eternal pulse is the outer god whose domain includes medicine and necromancy because those are very close to each other and so the medicine is very like you know people enjoy being advanced at medicine and saving lives and stuff
Anzu:Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.
Anzu:Yeah, no doubt.
Benny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:It just becomes a question of, you know, at what point have you stopped healing the person and you've started raising the person from the dead?
Gamemaster:And then, you know, if you bring them back, who's to say that all of them made it back and that some of them wasn't what you put them in there?
Gamemaster:And so really the big concern becomes, how do I know that if I am revived from the dead, I'm me and not just a puppet of you?
Gamemaster:And so usually necromancy is kind of like stuck to the realm of academia in polite society.
Benny:Cool.
Johnny:um you
Benny:Lots of pulse stuff going on.
Benny:Lots of death.
Benny:So these guys are keeping the rich alive via necromancy and they take bodies of other people to do it.
Argyle:Aren't you a worshipper of the pulse?
Benny:Uh-huh.
Benny:At least in part.
Argyle:Do you believe in necromancy?
Argyle:Do you think it's a good thing?
Benny:uh i mean it's like 50 50. i think the pursuit of i think the pursuit of ever life is good i think once you start compromising others in the pursuit of ever life then you have an issue
Argyle:Are you a fan of necromancy?
Anzu:That's a really philosophical question to be asking a child.
Gamemaster:Thank you.
Argyle:So, do you think it's a... Are you supportive of it?
Argyle:Like friends and family?
Argyle:and by ever life do you think um is that one of those things where you're like you get really old and withered become like a lich or is it more of like you're stuck at like the ripe age of like nine or something
Johnny:you
Benny:Some people might be stuck at nine.
Gamemaster:I will note, for those of you that are members of Belvedere, there are liches in Belvedere that are just higher-ranking members of the faculty.
Gamemaster:Lichdom itself is not inherently evil in this setting.
Gamemaster:It just becomes a question of, did you ethically become a lich?
Gamemaster:You know?
Anzu:Right, now where do they source their souls to maintain their life force?
Gamemaster:Exactly.
Johnny:It does seem vaguely sketchy that this dude runs an insurance company and is living deep underground with an entire staff of skellies.
Gamemaster:you
Johnny:I want to know what's in that.
Argyle:Yeah.
Anzu:Now, Josh, building on that, are there known ways of ethically being a lich?
Gamemaster:So the way Belvedere does it is it purchases the rights to the souls of death row prisoners from other countries and uses those as sustaining forces.
Gamemaster:There's a morality thing in there.
Gamemaster:It's not just inherently like that's good, but that's at the very least in Austrene, it's not illegal to do.
Anzu:Fascinating.
Gamemaster:In Calaria, it's legal to sell it.
Argyle:And you just do that.
Gamemaster:It's not legal to purchase it.
Johnny:Interesting.
Anzu:OK.
Anzu:Can I use my telekinetic hand to bring myself one of those interesting fruits?
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:You pluck one of the fruits off of the tree.
Anzu:All right, and can you just give me a brief visual description again?
Gamemaster:It is like a nectarine, but the skin is translucent and the interior is this deep red.
Argyle:I don't think you can say like a nectar.
Anzu:Thank you.
Johnny:you you
Gamemaster:It's the same shape as a nectarine.
Gamemaster:It's the same shape and size as a nectarine.
Argyle:What about an apricot?
Argyle:Or some lemons or mushrooms?
Gamemaster:Those are the same shape and size, so yeah.
Gamemaster:Nectarines are the ones with hair, right?
Benny:That's Kiwis.
Benny:Neck drains might also have hair.
Gamemaster:No.
Gamemaster:No, no, no, no.
Argyle:Beaches.
Gamemaster:Is it a peach?
Gamemaster:Peach is the one that has, like, faint hair?
Gamemaster:Okay, that's what I was going for.
Argyle:I know peach have fuzz.
Gamemaster:This fruit does have fuzz.
Benny:Root by the fuzz.
Argyle:Nectarines do, yeah.
Gamemaster:Either way, it's slightly smaller than baseball size.
Argyle:Some of them do.
Argyle:Doesn't matter.
Gamemaster:It's got a little bit of fuzz.
Gamemaster:The skin is translucent.
Gamemaster:The interior is this deep red.
Gamemaster:You can tell from your telekinetic hand that it's a little squishy.
Argyle:Look at Johnny.
Benny:Thank you.
Argyle:Hey, do you want to eat this too?
Johnny:You know, I'm feeling a little quaint.
Argyle:You want some blood to wash down your humanoid meat?
Argyle:I can't.
Johnny:Hey, listen, guy.
Johnny:Johnny's at a loss for words for the first time since you have met him and turns around and walks out of the room.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:You're back in the dining room.
Johnny:I kick a chair.
Gamemaster:That chair's pretty sturdy.
Gamemaster:It just kind of moves over.
Gamemaster:It doesn't topple over immediately.
Johnny:I jump on one foot and clutch my foot, yelling, ow, ow, ow.
Johnny:I look over at Anzu.
Johnny:I'm not really a fighter.
Johnny:This didn't work out.
Anzu:Well, you've got many talents, so that's quite alright.
Benny:How about a stair climber?
Argyle:Let's go with so we're in the 4 year.
Gamemaster:You are currently in the dining room.
Argyle:My God.
Anzu:Yeah, I think probably we should go upstairs.
Benny:Upstairs.
Benny:Upstairs.
Johnny:I look over to Argos.
Benny:Then he shall lead upstairs.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Benny leads upstairs.
Johnny:We're going up.
Johnny:I'll say, I got it.
Johnny:It was a blood orange.
Gamemaster:What did you do with the fruit, by the way?
Anzu:Um, I brought it like to myself and I'm just like pocketing it for the time being.
Gamemaster:I'm running out of canvas area, so this is going to be the second floor.
Gamemaster:You head up.
Gamemaster:It's like two double-sided staircases.
Gamemaster:that wrap around the edges of the room and head up to a balcony on the second floor that is the same shape as the first floor.
Gamemaster:And second.
Gamemaster:Like before, there is a door to the left, up, and to the right.
Johnny:Oh doors.
Benny:Left door again.
Gamemaster:Sure, you have never been in the left door on the first floor.
Gamemaster:You didn't go in the west wing.
Gamemaster:But the west wing of the house on the second floor is a single large room that is a... Shoot, what are they called?
Gamemaster:A conservatory?
Gamemaster:Like a piano room.
Gamemaster:It's a music room of some kind.
Gamemaster:There's a large grand piano on the other side of the room from where you enter.
Gamemaster:There are bookshelves on the side that look like they have sheet music and the like set up.
Gamemaster:There's an area on the wall where it looks like they've hung up a number of string instruments.
Gamemaster:I could get a perception check from walking in this room if you like.
Johnny:16.
Benny:Benward shall perceive.
Johnny:I'll use my same roll, but with barred stuff instead.
Argyle:I look over at Anzu.
Gamemaster:Oh, actually, I can, because you're a bard, you can also make a performance check here.
Argyle:Do you think they ate whiskers?
Anzu:I don't know.
Johnny:It was a 7.
Johnny:It'd be... What was my performance level?
Johnny:Oh, God.
Johnny:It'd be 18 instead.
Gamemaster:18 instead.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:What was the highest we got from that?
Benny:19 for bunny's perception
Gamemaster:19.
Gamemaster:Yeah, nothing, I don't think any of you have any particular expertise then in these specific instruments and the like.
Gamemaster:It's a relatively open space.
Argyle:you
Gamemaster:There are windows like on one side of the wall that look out to the western half of the Zimmer cavern.
Gamemaster:Nothing stands out to you as particularly important.
Gamemaster:The only real constant as you head throughout the house is that it is warm in these rooms.
Johnny:Is there any of these instruments look particularly fine?
Gamemaster:All of them look well-crafted.
Gamemaster:These are not cheap instruments.
Gamemaster:Unfortunately, your rolls weren't high enough to identify materials and the like here, but they all look well-crafted.
Gamemaster:You would imagine that they sound well as well.
Johnny:All right.
Benny:Next room.
Johnny:I'll grab like a lute or something, sling it over my back.
Johnny:Let's go.
Argyle:All right, guys.
Anzu:Argo, I think it'd be a pretty quick turnaround to have already eaten some of the members of the resistance.
Argyle:Okay, so does it look like there's no one around that we can see, right?
Gamemaster:In here, no.
Gamemaster:There are... You have passed... There were people in the kitchen preparing a meal.
Gamemaster:There are two ghostly maids in the foyer area.
Gamemaster:It looks like dusting some of the area around there.
Gamemaster:And you know that the footman is somewhere, as well as the other butler you found and the majordomo.
Gamemaster:You have not seen them in your adventures yet.
Argyle:So, realistically, we assume this was connected to the Zorbon meeting, right?
Johnny:you
Anzu:Well, I don't know if them attacking the Resistance was coincidence.
Benny:Thank you.
Anzu:You know, there were just people around and they needed people, or if they had a particular ill will against the Resistance.
Argyle:But it's probably related because there were undead cleric people over there, right?
Anzu:Yeah, well, they seem to be looking for something, yeah.
Argyle:so grayson might have been the individual that uh was the monster in there now what maybe but what do we get out of chatting about this man
Anzu:Oh, you think he himself went in there and tore things up?
Johnny:I don't think we get anything.
Johnny:I think we get stuff out of whatever's in the basement.
Anzu:Right.
Benny:Yeah, we should actually probably just go there now.
Benny:The more time that we kill, the more likely Grayson's to come back.
Argyle:Just a sec.
Argyle:Yeah, so let's do that.
Johnny:All right.
Argyle:Do we sneak in?
Argyle:So the foyer has two people dusting.
Gamemaster:Hmm.
Argyle:Do you think we can get them to a different room so we can sneak into the west wing?
Argyle:Or do we just charge them?
Anzu:Yeah, why don't we accidentally make a mess?
Benny:Do you still have that big black hair?
Benny:See if you can order some soup.
Johnny:Give that bell.
Benny:Look, I need everyone.
Benny:Even the manager.
Benny:The manager needs to come over here right now.
Johnny:Be the vendor of the house.
Benny:Please.
Argyle:Or can we just walk?
Benny:Please get the manager over here.
Argyle:We're just not supposed to go into the basement that's in the west hall.
Benny:He's looking at Benny in the back.
Benny:Please get the manager.
Argyle:We can still go to the west.
Gamemaster:Right.
Argyle:Yeah, let's just walk over to the west and see what's even there.
Gamemaster:Okay, you guys head back down the stairs into the West Hall.
Gamemaster:There is a door at the end of the hallway, and a door that looks like it heads kind of close to the front again.
Gamemaster:This one has the... This door right here has a heavy-looking padlock on the front.
Argyle:You know what I also just realized?
Benny:You guys want me to take a look at this log?
Argyle:The guests you might be expecting might be the people we market.
Johnny:As we're doing this, I'm going to, with my little, my brand new lute, I'll just strum a little bit and cast a musical accompaniment.
Gamemaster:Does that do something?
Argyle:All right.
Johnny:It gives me a status bonus to performance checks.
Gamemaster:Or, of course.
Argyle:All right, Benny, you're up.
Benny:The old Benster up again.
Benny:Can I try to pick the lock?
Johnny:You've got this, Benny.
Benny:Is it pickable?
Gamemaster:You can try to thievery check.
Johnny:I will aid him.
Benny:AT recheck.
Johnny:Musical accompaniment gets me.
Johnny:Ooh.
Anzu:Does aid give you a status or circumstance bonus?
Johnny:Aid gives.
Johnny:That's a great question.
Benny:Like status.
Johnny:I think it's circumstance.
Benny:I don't know.
Johnny:Yeah, it's circumstance.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Anzu:All right, well, then I'm going to cast guidance and give him a plus one status bonus.
Gamemaster:Okay, absolutely.
Gamemaster:So you have a plus one circumstance and a plus one status from your guidance.
Johnny:So I think a 19 is just a plus one circumstance.
Benny:Nice.
Benny:18.
Gamemaster:Okay, with an 18, you put the picks in and start turning them around.
Gamemaster:You feel... Well, that's actually interesting.
Gamemaster:Normally when you're picking a lock, you move the lock pick and you can feel tumblers that you push up and down.
Gamemaster:But weirdly enough, as soon as you put the pick in, it's almost like the lock bites down on the pick.
Argyle:Do not use a toilet around here.
Gamemaster:You can pull the pick out, but it does not seem pickable.
Benny:I think this is pickable, guys.
Johnny:I bet you a lot of money that majordomo has the key to this.
Johnny:Should we head back upstairs and check one of those rooms that we did not check?
Anzu:unless we could find like his office or something upstairs that we missed and maybe it's in the office.
Benny:We'll start rifling.
Gamemaster:Maybe.
Anzu:All right, Josh.
Argyle:Does the lock look like we could break it?
Gamemaster:Certainly not quietly.
Benny:Does Benny have anything weird that he can put his head through a door?
Johnny:Just put your head straight through the door.
Argyle:Are we looking around for the office?
Anzu:Yeah, I think we go back upstairs and see what the middle room there is supposed to be.
Johnny:The spell.
Anzu:Oh, sugar.
Gamemaster:It's a hallway.
Gamemaster:It does that.
Anzu:It goes on forever.
Benny:grotesque the door left door left door oh no no way
Gamemaster:It does not go on forever.
Gamemaster:There is a door at the end of the hallway.
Gamemaster:There's a window up at the top that looks out to the fruit trees.
Gamemaster:And there's a door over here.
Johnny:Left door.
Anzu:Left.
Johnny:Left door.
Gamemaster:It's another hallway.
Gamemaster:I'm sorry.
Anzu:Oh my gosh.
Argyle:you
Benny:Where's the next door, Josh?
Gamemaster:Left and right off of this hallway.
Benny:Left door, left door, left door.
Johnny:Left door.
Gamemaster:You open this up, and it looks like a well-furnished bedroom.
Gamemaster:You don't see any immediate personal marks here.
Gamemaster:You gather that this is a guest room of some kind.
Anzu:What's underneath the bed?
Benny:We can try right door.
Johnny:Door across the hall.
Anzu:I got a 16.
Gamemaster:Roll a perception check.
Benny:Bones!
Benny:The devil.
Johnny:A dust bunny.
Gamemaster:You stick your head under the bed to look at what's underneath, and there is a...
Gamemaster:There's a vent in the floor that is part of the heating, and it belches out hot air as you peek underneath.
Gamemaster:So you just kind of get like a burst of uncomfortably warm air.
Anzu:Oof.
Johnny:Oh, do we think we could take this into the basement?
Gamemaster:Other than that, nothing else.
Johnny:Oh, it's like a little, it's like a, okay.
Gamemaster:To clarify, the vent is like this big.
Gamemaster:It's for air.
Johnny:It's like a little register and everything.
Benny:does anyone hear a shrink afraid i'll run into a rad and tussle
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Johnny:So that's a no, we can't take it to the basement.
Gamemaster:If you have a way to shrink, perhaps.
Gamemaster:But as you are right now, no.
Anzu:No, I have a bird, but birds and vents, I don't know.
Argyle:And.
Johnny:door across the hall yeah
Gamemaster:Sorry, you said you're checking the door across the hall?
Benny:Yeah.
Gamemaster:It's another guest bedroom.
Benny:Okay, we go right door in long haul.
Gamemaster:Right door in Long Hall.
Anzu:Right door in Long Hall.
Benny:Right door, long haul.
Anzu:We're in this for the long haul.
Gamemaster:This is another bedroom, but it is much larger than the previous ones.
Gamemaster:This appears to be the master bedroom.
Johnny:you
Argyle:Oh, there's a key in here.
Gamemaster:You can see that there is a much larger round bed pushed up against one of the walls.
Gamemaster:There is what appears to be a writing desk pushed against one corner of the wall near the bed.
Gamemaster:There are a number of bookshelves here as well, stacked high with books.
Gamemaster:There is another shelf that appears to have a number of...
Gamemaster:components of some kind, some alchemical, some magical, some medicinal, a number of various organic components.
Gamemaster:There's a mirror on the ceiling.
Anzu:Oh.
Benny:Thank you.
Johnny:What?
Gamemaster:There's a big painting along the right wall of...
Gamemaster:who you imagine to be Master Grayson.
Gamemaster:It is this 30s-looking human male...
Gamemaster:The way that the painting is set up, he's sat in a large golden velvet chair.
Gamemaster:In one hand, he's holding what looks to be some kind of scalpel.
Gamemaster:A scalpel up like this, and then in the other hand, there is a skull.
Gamemaster:For a perception check, if you look around as well.
Gamemaster:24, OK.
Johnny:13.
Benny:I'll roll one.
Benny:24.
Benny:Yeah.
Gamemaster:What do I want to do here?
Gamemaster:I want to make another roll here specifically for the 24.
Gamemaster:Can you make a crafting check for me?
Gamemaster:I don't think that's Benny's strong suit, but I'd still appreciate it.
Benny:13.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:With the 24 perception as you walk into the room and look around, I think the...
Gamemaster:The most significant thing that would stand out to you is as you're walking around this room, your footsteps have a slightly heavier thud on the right wall, on the wall closer to the front of the house.
Gamemaster:I don't know how, like, Benny would interpret that, but he would notice it.
Argyle:So you might be able to cut down into the basement.
Benny:Well, one of them's... The opposite side is hollow, so not on the front.
Argyle:Oh, yeah.
Benny:The opposite side's hollow, because it's... They're less heavy, so you're not hitting something that's, like, dense.
Benny:Can any of you see through walls?
Anzu:No.
Benny:Even Mr. Mind?
Argyle:Not yet.
Anzu:No.
Anzu:I do want to know what kind of, if there's anything interesting among his alchemical components.
Benny:Uh...
Gamemaster:Roll an occultism or a medicine check.
Benny:Can Benny specifically look around for trapdoor switches?
Gamemaster:Yeah, that's another perception check to do that.
Anzu:I received a 28.
Anzu:Yes, indeed.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:A 28 on the occultism check, I assume.
Gamemaster:Okay, looking through, a number of these components are magical components that I don't know if you would necessarily be directly familiar with, but are interesting to you in that they are on the rarer side.
Gamemaster:Not because they're, like, they are rare because it is illegal to acquire them, not because the material itself is necessarily, like, difficult.
Gamemaster:You see things like...
Gamemaster:what looks to be a jar of preserved eyeballs floating around taken from some humanoid.
Gamemaster:There are a number of, like, a series of scales from perhaps a dragon of some kind.
Benny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:Not attached to leather or anything like that, just floating in some aqueous solution.
Gamemaster:Notably, of value, you find a number of small gemstones, all totaling up to about 200 cult pieces worth of them.
Gamemaster:Which, with that occultism check, you would recognize as primary components in the Raise Dead spell.
Anzu:And.
Gamemaster:Some kind of liver.
Gamemaster:Some kinds of incense.
Gamemaster:You're pretty sure there's something that you would recognize as a narcotic of some kind.
Gamemaster:This strange red sand-like substance.
Gamemaster:What did we get for the perception check looking for secrets and stuff?
Benny:eight fumble the old book lever
Gamemaster:Okay.
Johnny:Can I investigate the books in the bookshelf?
Argyle:Can someone else roll?
Gamemaster:Unfortunately, no secrets found.
Argyle:Can someone else roll?
Johnny:See what's going on over there?
Gamemaster:Sure.
Argyle:No one's looked for a key, right?
Argyle:Specifically.
Johnny:Not yet.
Anzu:No, I think we should check through the desk.
Gamemaster:Not specifically.
Anzu:Right, there was a desk?
Argyle:Yeah, can I?
Argyle:Look specifically for a key.
Gamemaster:Well, there is... Let me just... Let me see if I can...
Gamemaster:That's how I zoom.
Gamemaster:OK.
Gamemaster:Bed.
Argyle:Maya 22 is just with her.
Gamemaster:Desk.
Gamemaster:Bookshelf.
Johnny:I got a 17 for books.
Benny:you
Gamemaster:Bookshelf.
Gamemaster:Supply shelf.
Gamemaster:Little lounge chair.
Gamemaster:What did we get for the perception checks?
Argyle:Got a 22 for keep.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:With the 22 rifling around, looking at the desks and stuff, you do not find a key in this room just lying around.
Gamemaster:With the 17 for books, some of the books are interesting.
Gamemaster:There are a number that look to detail necromantic rituals and the like.
Gamemaster:There are a few that are the equivalent of Grey's Anatomy, like modern anatomical books and the like.
Gamemaster:Nothing that strikes you as a secret lever or something like that, if that's what you're looking for.
Gamemaster:It happens.
Johnny:There's something else in this room, but I think we've hit a dead end.
Johnny:Come on.
Benny:I mean, I don't know if Benny is able to use his eyeballs for the remainder.
Gamemaster:At this point, you guys have spent about an hour wandering around the house.
Benny:Yay.
Gamemaster:Can I have somebody roll a d100 for me?
Anzu:oh boy jesus
Benny:I'm going to decide our fate.
Benny:Four.
Johnny:That's good, right?
Gamemaster:Okay.
Johnny:You want you on the lower.
Benny:We want him at the extremes.
Benny:We want Josh to have to bring up a monster block that has 400 abilities and 800 hit points.
Gamemaster:What do you guys do?
Argyle:Back downstairs.
Argyle:Should we ask to see the... Okay.
Johnny:There's there's 1 more area in this upstairs that we checked out.
Argyle:Let's go over there then.
Benny:Did Anzu palm the gems?
Anzu:I haven't taken anything yet.
Anzu:I've been thinking about it.
Benny:Do you?
Benny:We're on our way out.
Anzu:I would consult and say, like, it would go a long way.
Benny:Listen.
Johnny:I say do it.
Benny:I'm not a thief, but 200 gold pieces of gems is 200 gold pieces of gems.
Benny:Crushing is 50 gold pieces.
Johnny:I say do it.
Anzu:I guess we'll take the gems.
Benny:Listen.
Benny:Listen to the criminal.
Benny:Yes.
Argyle:Argyle looks disappointed.
Johnny:Johnny looks the opposite.
Argyle:Not enough to stop you, but he looks disappointed.
Gamemaster:Then mark down that you have 200 gold pieces worth of gems.
Gamemaster:If you're taking them.
Anzu:I will do just that.
Gamemaster:They're all in like a little mason jar.
Johnny:Mason Jaro gems.
Benny:I've also marked it down.
Benny:Downstairs or whatever.
Benny:There's another area in the top room.
Benny:Top dog.
Gamemaster:There is a door on the second floor to the right that you haven't visited, and besides the padlocked door, there's also a door at the end of the hallway in the west hall over here that you haven't investigated.
Gamemaster:If you're looking to explore the whole manor.
Benny:Sorry, was there anything else on the second floor or no?
Gamemaster:Yes, right there.
Anzu:Thank you.
Benny:Okay, we'll do that one.
Gamemaster:What?
Gamemaster:If you look over there, that is an office by the looks of it.
Gamemaster:There is a big desk situated directly across from the door.
Gamemaster:There are a number of papers stacked on top of it.
Gamemaster:What looks to be a fountain pen of some kind in an inkwell to the side.
Gamemaster:Behind the desk and on the right side
Gamemaster:The side facing the back of the manor are a number of bookshelves.
Gamemaster:The left side, the side facing the front of the manor, there are floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the plain, currently covered by curtains.
Gamemaster:All of the windows you've come across so far, except in the greenhouse, have been covered by these heavy curtains.
Johnny:So that's interesting.
Anzu:Almost got a rifle through that desk.
Benny:Who's a rifler?
Argyle:I can do it.
Benny:Benny can rifle.
Benny:Go for it.
Argyle:Oh.
Argyle:I will hear a point line since I have three.
Benny:Good golly.
Benny:Benny will also rifle through it, seeing you struggle.
Gamemaster:You don't have three hero points because you spent the hero point there, so you don't get a hero point as well.
Benny:Then roll the same thing.
Argyle:I still have three hero points.
Benny:Well, actually the same thing, but not a fumble.
Argyle:Oh, so if you spend a hero point and then you roll a one on the second one, you can't go get one?
Anzu:Thank you.
Gamemaster:I guess you do?
Gamemaster:The concern is that you couldn't re-roll it.
Gamemaster:That's fine.
Gamemaster:Sure.
Gamemaster:You still have three hero points.
Argyle:Yeah, I thought the ruling was I'm not allowed to reroll with that hero point, but I do get one.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Gamemaster:That's fair.
Gamemaster:You get... Rifling through the desk, you both got 16s.
Gamemaster:One of you fumbled, one of you got a regular 16.
Gamemaster:Either way, there are a lot of papers here.
Gamemaster:They look to be... I mean, by the looks of it, they are like medical reports.
Argyle:Thank you.
Gamemaster:Like charts of patients.
Benny:Okay.
Gamemaster:But with that rule, looking through the cabinets and stuff like that, you don't find a key just hanging out.
Johnny:i think we have to break into that downstairs area i mean we could just pop up floorboards if we really want to be loud so i don't think we did that
Anzu:There's something... What do we do about the different footsteps in the master bedroom?
Benny:Shall we check the...
Benny:We can check under the bed in the master bedroom.
Argyle:Is that on the second floor?
Benny:Is the bed in the dead area or the residence?
Gamemaster:So you would feel the heavier thuds of the footsteps are kind of in this area.
Benny:I guess I could mean that stuff could be hidden in the heavier area or stuff is not in the...
Benny:non-heavy area like either there's a cavity in that one side so wait the the bed is the the circle all the way on the right he says up against the wall so under the bed there would be not the heavy area can benny check under the bed
Argyle:and
Gamemaster:It's this circle.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Correct.
Gamemaster:If you like, you can go back to the master bedroom and look under the bed.
Gamemaster:Roll a perception check.
Johnny:I will aid young Benjamin.
Benny:Aided by his young ward.
Benny:Aiding his young ward.
Johnny:Aiding his young ward, plus two.
Gamemaster:Nice.
Gamemaster:Plus two.
Benny:Sure.
Benny:16.
Benny:Everything's a 16.
Gamemaster:Yeah, the dice are not with you guys today.
Gamemaster:Yeah, looking under the bed, not much except for dust, unfortunately.
Gamemaster:Can I also, at this point, it's probably been about another 15 minutes, can I get another D100 roll this time?
Gamemaster:Plus 10.
Benny:80.
Anzu:So we do want to roll low.
Johnny:N. I think we gotta... I think we gotta just bust in downstairs.
Anzu:Ooh.
Gamemaster:OK.
Johnny:I don't think we're gonna find the key.
Benny:Sure.
Benny:Do we want to check out the other door on the West Wing?
Argyle:Okay.
Benny:Or do we just want to head down there and just... Just take a peek.
Johnny:Check it out real fast.
Johnny:I mean, since we'll be down there, we can check it out real fast, then...
Anzu:Just peek through the West Hall door.
Anzu:All right, Josh, we're going all the way downstairs.
Benny:West Aldor.
Gamemaster:OK, absolutely.
Anzu:God, this has been just awful.
Gamemaster:You go all the way back over to the West Hall.
Johnny:Bad rolls today.
Johnny:All over.
Johnny:Yeah.
Gamemaster:You're looking at the one door you guys haven't looked at in this place.
Argyle:Hmm.
Gamemaster:You pop the door open.
Johnny:It's a toilet.
Gamemaster:You do bump into a ghost.
Gamemaster:This is the first time you've found a ghost in one of the rooms that you've opened, who is currently, it looks like, sleeping?
Gamemaster:These are servants' quarters that you've bumped into.
Gamemaster:There are a number of bunk beds, like bunk cots.
Gamemaster:Some areas for keeping possessions and stuff, like wardrobes and chests and the like.
Argyle:Can I roll the presentation?
Johnny:Does it look like everyone's?
Gamemaster:You can roll a perception check if you like.
Johnny:Come on, come on.
Anzu:Crazy.
Anzu:Crazy.
Benny:Benny, roll a perceptive check.
Benny:Woo!
Benny:Let's go!
Benny:We're dying in here.
Benny:Nothing.
Johnny:What is happening?
Benny:We see nothing, Josh.
Benny:We see nothing, and actually our eyeballs fall out.
Gamemaster:You guys are so talented.
Johnny:What is it?
Gamemaster:Yeah, no, I mean, there's not a lot of interest in this room.
Gamemaster:It's servant's quarters.
Gamemaster:Looking around, nothing stands out to you as particularly significant.
Benny:all right anyone meaning one or does this mean we all make we all make crafting checks oh
Gamemaster:As a Hail Mary, can I get a crafting check from anyone who would like to?
Anzu:Okay.
Gamemaster:Crafting or one perception check.
Gamemaster:Either works.
Anzu:I'm going to make a crafting check.
Johnny:I'm aiding Tanner.
Gamemaster:No, no, no, no.
Gamemaster:I will accept one crafting check from the party and one perception check, and that's it.
Argyle:like a presumption oh
Johnny:That's a 31.
Anzu:Alright, well, that's a good Hail Mary for you.
Gamemaster:What do we get?
Anzu:Someone had to roll something good eventually.
Anzu:Technically, I just got a 31 crit.
Gamemaster:Nice.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:31 crit.
Gamemaster:You guys have explored every inch of this manor that you can.
Anzu:Indeed.
Gamemaster:There is... There is a gaping hole in the floor plan of the manor that you guys have been walking around.
Gamemaster:And I think, like, Anzu, it sounds like, has been tracking that and knows...
Benny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:There's something funky.
Gamemaster:You are missing a bit of the floor plan here.
Gamemaster:The question is, how would you get there?
Gamemaster:And I think Anzu probably thinks that the only entrances that make sense are either from the dining room, from the master bedroom, or from the office.
Gamemaster:So there must be some way into that part of the house from one of those three areas that you didn't see.
Anzu:Well, I totally agree.
Gamemaster:Like, I understand.
Gamemaster:So I think what happens here is with the crit and having explored the house, I will allow you to go back and investigate one of those areas that you think might have it, and you will have a plus four circumstance bonus.
Argyle:Don't get below 100.
Gamemaster:And if you can't find anything after searching back through it, then you can't find anything.
Anzu:Yeah, I mean... Oh my god.
Gamemaster:But also, before that happens, I need a D100 with a plus 20.
Johnny:Oh, God.
Benny:I'm going for 200.
Anzu:We're so screwed.
Argyle:Get below 100.
Johnny:I mean, it's got to be somewhere in the master bedroom.
Benny:61.
Anzu:Oh my god.
Anzu:Thank god.
Anzu:I feel like that's good.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Argyle:All right, let's go to the next question.
Anzu:It's definitely something to do with the floorboards in the bedroom or the wall or there's something going on in the bedroom and I just can't
Anzu:We looked for trapdoor.
Anzu:Well, we looked poorly for everything.
Anzu:It was the problem.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Johnny:Yeah.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Let me take a look at it.
Anzu:Anzu brings everyone to the bedroom, and it's like, guys, there is something going on in here.
Anzu:There has to be.
Anzu:I mean, listen to these floorboards.
Anzu:And he puts his hands on that wall that faces the gap in the floor plan.
Anzu:And like, something's going on back here.
Argyle:I got to hear a point, which is what I'm offering.
Gamemaster:It's a perception check.
Gamemaster:You have a plus four circumstance bonus to whoever makes it.
Anzu:I don't want to do it.
Anzu:I'm not the perception guy.
Johnny:Okay, Ben.
Johnny:Okay, you do it.
Johnny:I'll aid you.
Johnny:You have a hero point.
Gamemaster:Aid gives you a circumstance bonus?
Johnny:Yes.
Johnny:Oh, is it plus four circumstance you said?
Johnny:Well, I got nothing.
Gamemaster:Yep.
Benny:Oh!
Gamemaster:Nice.
Anzu:We roll enough times.
Johnny:Come back around.
Anzu:Eventually it has to work.
Gamemaster:Yeah, you know, law of large numbers.
Gamemaster:Eventually you'll get there.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Argyle:you
Gamemaster:Navigating your way through this house, scouring every part of it until you've built this clear picture that results in a mechanical bonus that it turns out you don't even need at that point.
Gamemaster:Yeah, no, the big painting of Grayson is on hinges.
Gamemaster:There's like a little latch you can find and you can pull it back.
Gamemaster:And there is a doorway behind the painting that heads into an interior room.
Anzu:I'm pissed.
Benny:Why does it not copy the GIF when I copy?
Anzu:That's supposed to be a gif, isn't it?
Johnny:We go into the secret room.
Benny:I hate that so much.
Argyle:It looks like he's pooping.
Gamemaster:That's the face one makes when they find a secret door.
Gamemaster:You go into the secret room.
Benny:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Anzu:God, I hate that we just had to get spoon fed that.
Gamemaster:I apologize.
Anzu:That's so irritating.
Gamemaster:It's, you know, sometimes the dice just go that way.
Gamemaster:And it's also possible if you rolled poorly on either of those two checks that you just wouldn't have found it.
Gamemaster:That said, I do need a d100 roll plus 30.
Benny:I'm going for 130 here.
Johnny:Oh, God.
Anzu:We're cooked.
Johnny:Oh, no.
Benny:52.
Argyle:Let's go.
Anzu:Oh my god, we are some lucky sons of bitches.
Argyle:Let's go.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Anzu:Holy crap.
Argyle:Let's go.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:You pull back the painting and you see the interior is a two-story public study.
Gamemaster:Sorry, private study, not a public study.
Gamemaster:That would be weird to have in a secret room in your underground manor.
Johnny:wait josh as we all go in can we swing the thing shut again
Gamemaster:Yeah, there's an interior door handle.
Gamemaster:This thing is meant to be opened and closed as a door.
Gamemaster:So you can close it back up again, no problem.
Gamemaster:You find yourselves in... So you've entered into a top balcony of this small private study library type area.
Gamemaster:There are a number of bookshelves surrounding the balcony that you're on.
Gamemaster:There is a staircase that heads down to the first floor.
Gamemaster:The...
Gamemaster:First floor that you're looking down on from the balcony has two things of interest.
Gamemaster:First is another what looks to be a large desk with a small journal on top of it, currently shut, like a moleskin type deal.
Gamemaster:And directly in front of the desk, the floor is this nice wooden floor that has burned into it this...
Gamemaster:seven-ish foot diameter some kind of runic like magic circle there has been like physically gouged out of the wood with some hot implement forming the pattern of the circle and then in the grooves that have been formed is
Gamemaster:this dark black liquid that appears to be dried blood that has come out of the corpse that is set up in the center of this magic circle.
Gamemaster:There are no people here.
Johnny:Do we recognize him?
Anzu:Oh, geez.
Anzu:Well, yeah, that's true.
Anzu:Do we know who the person is?
Anzu:And then...
Gamemaster:This, I'll take a perception check for it to see if you can identify who it is.
Argyle:We'd like to check.
Johnny:27.
Johnny:We're coming back around.
Gamemaster:27.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:With a 27, yeah, you definitely can.
Gamemaster:It's the upper torso of a catfolk.
Gamemaster:Black and White mottled fur.
Gamemaster:You would recognize this as once whiskers.
Anzu:That's so tough.
Johnny:As I'm examining the body, I'll look up at my friends, take my sunglasses off, which I've been wearing this entire time.
Johnny:A single tear falls down.
Argyle:Thank you.
Johnny:This man has to die.
Anzu:Why him?
Anzu:Josh, what can I discern about this runic circle?
Gamemaster:I'd love an occultism check.
Anzu:Yeah, that sounds about right.
Benny:Okay.
Johnny:I guess it's a plus one.
Anzu:We're so back.
Gamemaster:Why did you wait until now to start holding well?
Anzu:We're so back.
Anzu:Just when we thought it was over.
Anzu:Not because we've done it before.
Gamemaster:With a 29th.
Gamemaster:Yeah, you are actually pretty familiar with this.
Gamemaster:It is slightly different construction.
Gamemaster:It's clear... No.
Gamemaster:Although maybe.
Gamemaster:I don't know your backstory.
Gamemaster:Um...
Gamemaster:This is actually, like, branching off of what we were talking about earlier, this would be the ritual circle used to pull the life force out of something in order to sustain some form of lichdom or the like.
Benny:Thank you.
Johnny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:What is interesting, the weird bits of construction that you would be able to figure out from your high occultism role is the construction that you would be familiar with, the one that is distributed in Belvedere.
Gamemaster:The significant part of it is that it uses the life force of a living creature.
Gamemaster:This is different.
Gamemaster:This almost seems to squeeze out any remnant energy out of an existing corpse.
Argyle:So we should skip out on.
Gamemaster:It is less efficient, but it doesn't need a live sample to use.
Johnny:Oh, geez.
Johnny:I think we should maybe...
Anzu:Wait, whoa, whoa.
Anzu:We got to check out this journal.
Gamemaster:I would also note, sorry, with that, you would understand this as a high-level ritual.
Gamemaster:I mean, I think that was implied, but just to make it explicit, it's not something that you could do right now, or people of your level.
Argyle:So let's grab evidence and get the fuck out.
Gamemaster:Yes.
Johnny:When you say high level, do you mean like a third level ritual or like a ninth level ritual?
Gamemaster:Somewhere in the middle.
Johnny:Not great.
Johnny:We should run.
Argyle:Alright, let's grab all the evidence we can and just go.
Johnny:Grab everything.
Argyle:It's the book and whatever things over here.
Johnny:Yeah, I'm just gonna start grabbing stuff, putting them on my backpack.
Gamemaster:Okay, just random books off the shelves.
Johnny:Anything that looks important.
Gamemaster:Okay, sure.
Argyle:Wasn't there a journal here?
Argyle:Or... Okay, cool.
Anzu:Yeah, I'm going to take... For sure, grabbing the journal.
Gamemaster:There is.
Gamemaster:There's like a small moleskin on the desk.
Gamemaster:You can grab that if you like.
Anzu:For sure.
Johnny:Yeah, opening the desk if there's drawers, just opening things up, rifling through.
Argyle:Is there any, like, necklace or something on Whiskers or something that's identifiable for him?
Gamemaster:No, Whiskers was a homeless man.
Argyle:I know.
Argyle:I don't know if he had, like, a signature, like, I don't know, leather choker.
Gamemaster:He did not.
Gamemaster:He was already wearing rags before something ripped him in half.
Gamemaster:This is literally just the upper half of Whiskers.
Argyle:Try to take Whiskers?
Argyle:No, that's crazy.
Benny:That's crazy.
Argyle:Alright, let's go.
Gamemaster:So, you guys have grabbed stuff off of the shelves, you've grabbed the book, you've grabbed what looks important to you.
Gamemaster:Can I get a D100 plus 40, please?
Johnny:We gotta bust out of here.
Benny:Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Argyle:Alright, we're... Can he Hero Pointers?
Anzu:It's over.
Anzu:It's never been more over.
Johnny:Come on.
Benny:81.
Argyle:Oh!
Gamemaster:Okay.
Argyle:Oh!
Argyle:Oh, we're right!
Anzu:We're so back.
Johnny:We're so... Anything that looks important, just take it.
Anzu:We've never been more back.
Gamemaster:Yeah, okay.
Argyle:And we're going.
Johnny:Are there any other doors?
Argyle:We're going.
Gamemaster:And then what are you doing?
Johnny:Are there any other doors in this room?
Gamemaster:In this room?
Gamemaster:No, it's just the one entrance that you took behind the painting in the master bedroom.
Johnny:Uh...
Argyle:Yeah, we go back, we close, and we dip.
Johnny:Yeah.
Benny:Yep.
Argyle:Wait, was there any... Wait, we're in the puddle.
Gamemaster:When you say dip, what do you mean?
Anzu:Like going out the front door kind of tip?
Benny:Yeah.
Argyle:Yeah, was there any more valuable stuff in the master bedroom besides the tools?
Gamemaster:With the perception checks that you guys made, you found all of the valuables that you think you could find.
Argyle:All right, let's try to go out the front door if it works.
Argyle:Wait, how did we go out?
Argyle:Wasn't there a garden or something?
Argyle:How do we get the trees?
Anzu:There's like a garden in the back.
Gamemaster:The back has an interior greenhouse.
Gamemaster:It is enclosed, if that was the question.
Argyle:Yeah, so I guess we're going to try the front door and hope it works.
Gamemaster:You guys walk down to the foyer, and then... You know it's deadbolted, so you undo the deadbolt and try and leave.
Benny:Yeah.
Argyle:Yeah.
Anzu:Thank you.
Gamemaster:Deadbolt opens.
Argyle:Open the door.
Gamemaster:Door opens.
Benny:We walk out.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:You guys just walk out the front door.
Johnny:You said there was a dock?
Gamemaster:Yeah, so you would know that there's a dock that attaches to the river that you had originally taken down to get here.
Johnny:But it only goes... We didn't get, like... This is the endpoint.
Johnny:This is the terminal.
Gamemaster:No, the path of the river continues further to the other edge of the cavern.
Gamemaster:The water continues in that direction.
Anzu:I don't want to go deeper.
Anzu:You want to go deeper?
Anzu:I think yes.
Johnny:I was hoping we can get back.
Argyle:No, let's just start.
Argyle:Let's just take the elevator back up.
Benny:Mm-hmm.
Gamemaster:Okay, you guys want to walk along the path headed up through the cavern past the snakes towards the elevator?
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:I don't know if walk's the right word, but I would like to go down that path, yeah.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:Are you being stealthy?
Argyle:I think we're running, right?
Gamemaster:Okay, if you're running, that's fine.
Johnny:Yeah, I was...
Gamemaster:You're running.
Gamemaster:You start running.
Gamemaster:I need, as you guys have exited the house and start running back up the cavern, somebody to roll a d100 plus... What was the last one?
Gamemaster:50 or 40?
Argyle:At 40.
Benny:65.
Johnny:You got it.
Gamemaster:So, plus 50.
Argyle:Oh, no.
Anzu:Come on, Mike.
Anzu:Let's absolutely.
Argyle:We run.
Gamemaster:Whoa!
Gamemaster:Oh my god!
Argyle:We run.
Gamemaster:Absolutely!
Gamemaster:You guys sprint out of the house, run through the cavern, jump over the corpses of the snakes that you left there, and the elevator is still at the bottom where you left it.
Argyle:We run.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:So you can, if you like, all squeeze in, hit the button, and feel it ascend.
Argyle:Yes.
Argyle:And then.
Gamemaster:D100 plus 60 as you spend 15 minutes on the elevator as it ascends from this point.
Johnny:God.
Anzu:Can he have one more miracle?
Benny:92.
Anzu:Probably not.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:The elevator ascends up to the top of the cliff face.
Gamemaster:You are now at that landing pad that you had originally come from.
Gamemaster:There's the lip that heads back towards the river that goes down into the hole, and there's a ladder that goes up towards what you would know to be another pumping sewage treatment area in the sewers.
Argyle:Yeah, we got to take the ladder up.
Johnny:That ladder?
Benny:The letter.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Gamemaster:In what order?
Johnny:Alphabetical.
Argyle:I can go first.
Benny:Alphabetical.
Argyle:Yeah.
Anzu:I don't know if I agree with you.
Johnny:No.
Johnny:Sure.
Gamemaster:Benny.
Argyle:Thank you.
Benny:Johnny.
Gamemaster:Is that what you're doing?
Gamemaster:Oh, right.
Benny:Oh, yeah.
Johnny:semi-alphabetical.
Benny:One of the strong ones first.
Gamemaster:Semi-alphabetical.
Benny:Argyle's a good fit.
Gamemaster:Okay, so Argyle can go first if that's what you're doing.
Gamemaster:All right, Argyle, you lead the way, heading up the ladder.
Gamemaster:Two, there is, Anzu had told you that there is a hatch at the top that you have to turn and prop open.
Gamemaster:Roll a perception check.
Argyle:really stack these up there yeah uh perception check 27 correct all right let's go let's just get up did you start going start booking it out
Gamemaster:27 crit, absolutely.
Gamemaster:You just peek out the edge as you push open the hatch a little bit so that you can see what's in the area around you.
Gamemaster:And as best you can tell, there's no one there.
Johnny:Yeah.
Benny:Yeah.
Gamemaster:Absolutely.
Gamemaster:There's like a stairway that leads to the manhole cover that exits out onto the streets of Widdershins.
Gamemaster:You guys emerge back out into the daylight.
Gamemaster:Daylight.
Gamemaster:It's still pouring rain.
Gamemaster:of Widdershins, of Hallia.
Gamemaster:You have left the sewers.
Gamemaster:You get a few weird looks from people who are going about their day as you all four emerge from the sewers.
Gamemaster:You need to get a little bit of your bearings.
Gamemaster:You are maybe a half a mile away from the market where you originally descended, so you have to walk back to get to your car.
Gamemaster:But you can do so.
Gamemaster:As best you can tell...
Gamemaster:Miraculously, nobody seems to be following you as you emerge back out into the light of day.
Anzu:We're going home.
Argyle:Just get in our cars.
Gamemaster:You guys... Okay.
Argyle:Do we just drive immediately?
Argyle:I think we drive immediately to this detective's office.
Argyle:No, detective's office, right?
Anzu:Oh!
Gamemaster:Oh.
Anzu:Okay, okay.
Argyle:Do you guys want to get jumped at home?
Johnny:Police office?
Argyle:I'd much rather get jumped in the fake Vatican.
Anzu:No, no, you're right.
Gamemaster:Okay, so you hop in the car and you're going where?
Gamemaster:Oh, okay, sure.
Anzu:Detective Brooks.
Johnny:Wait, when we're in the car, can we investigate all the stuff that we got?
Gamemaster:The Aurideon.
Gamemaster:Sure.
Gamemaster:No perception check at this point necessary, because you can read through it at your leisure as you drive back to the Aurideon.
Benny:you
Argyle:As we drive.
Gamemaster:Okay, so most of the books and stuff that you just grabbed off of the shelves are interesting in an academic sense.
Gamemaster:They are magical theory.
Gamemaster:I don't know if you would be able to understand necessarily if they're like cutting edge, but they're definitely...
Gamemaster:interesting and necromantic applications.
Gamemaster:These are all books on necromancy and the like.
Gamemaster:Some of them are more history of, like, here's how we figured out, like, here are the tests of how we figured out this particular ritual.
Gamemaster:Here are just, like, instruction manuals and the like.
Gamemaster:I think of note is that they are all for ritual processes and not, like, normal spellcasting.
Benny:you you
Gamemaster:These are for more in-depth activities instead of, like, for battle, if that makes sense.
Johnny:you
Gamemaster:The Moleskine is a journal.
Gamemaster:Flipping through, it appears to be a log kept by, in very neat handwriting, Grayson.
Gamemaster:Are you just reading through it to figure out what's inside of it?
Gamemaster:Because you can take the time to do that, so there's no need to flip through for just the spark notes, if that makes sense.
Johnny:Yeah, it feels that we went down into the tunnels for one thing and found a whole adventure.
Gamemaster:Yeah, so I think you're probably, as you read through it, the first thing you get is, I don't know if this is at all related to the other stuff that we were doing.
Gamemaster:Because reading through most of the stuff, through the majority of the book, are, first of all, insidious, interesting things that are...
Argyle:I'm going to record it to stop.
Gamemaster:A lot of this journal is specifically Grayson's experimentation on replacing pieces of the psyche of a person.
Gamemaster:Specifically looking at keeping personality intact while changing motivation centers, if that makes sense.
Argyle:What's a spy network?
Gamemaster:And I think, can I get a society or diplomacy check?
Johnny:I can definitely... I will diplomize.
Gamemaster:Up to two people can roll that, if you like.
Gamemaster:I assume we're laying this to people in the car.
Anzu:Make a society.
Johnny:25 to diplomize.
Anzu:Oh, geez.
Anzu:15 society.
Gamemaster:The DC isn't pretty hard.
Benny:Thank you.
Gamemaster:I think the connection you would make here is Whiskers was talking about this mysterious entity called the Zorbon controlling people, and he has been kidnapped by somebody who is doing experimentation on changing...
Gamemaster:like, the motivations and stuff of people, and you gather that the connection there is Whiskers somehow stumbled onto something related to this and, you know, made the connection somehow there.
Gamemaster:That said, something of note as you get to the end is one entry piques your mind, because...
Gamemaster:It is less a documentation of this experimentation that he's trying.
Gamemaster:And a complaint, really.
Gamemaster:Specifically, the second-to-last entry in the journal from, like, two days ago says, I think that idiot deer is two-timing, because I know his people are setting up radar dishes even after we promised him all that we promised him.
Gamemaster:I'm going to need to shut him up.
Gamemaster:The passage after that, the very last passage, says two inquisitors were sniffing around base B, so I think we're going to have to pack up and move somewhere else.
Gamemaster:That's dated for earlier today.
Johnny:Oh.
Gamemaster:And that's all of the info that you can pick out of the journal.
Gamemaster:Around this time, you guys, you've passed the checkpoint to get into the Aurideon.
Gamemaster:You drive back over to Rook's Crossing, where the Magical Crimes Convox is.
Gamemaster:You park in your free parking spot, and you are welcome to go into the Convox and find Detective Brooks.
Benny:Now wait.
Argyle:And hopefully he's not compromised.
Gamemaster:I think we will probably pick this up next session.
Johnny:The swing in rolls was crazy.
Gamemaster:I am so fucking surprised that Grayson did not come back that entire time.
Gamemaster:That is ridiculous.
Anzu:That would not have been good for us.
Gamemaster:I don't understand.
Gamemaster:You all collectively rolled like 12 for two hours straight, and then decided to roll only 30s.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Roll.
Argyle:Can you roll that?
Argyle:Can you do the plot thing to see how we roll?
Gamemaster:Uh, yeah, one second.
Gamemaster:Let's see if it works.
Johnny:Like 4, 4, 4, 4, 420.
Benny:I don't know if we want to... I don't know.
Gamemaster:I haven't tested it since I recovered the hard drive, so... Is that the syntax?
Argyle:Answer.
Gamemaster:Is this the syntax?
Gamemaster:I apologize.
Benny:Do we want to turn this evidence in?
Benny:This seems more like a...
Benny:I guess it depends if Tywelwyn is supplying bodies or they're part of the same... Well, this guy doesn't like the radar dishes.
Johnny:I don't know if they're part of the same thing, but it seems like they're.
Benny:We don't like the radar dishes.
Argyle:That means...
Gamemaster:You guys all rolled below average except Tanner.
Anzu:I turned everything around.
Anzu:It is so tough going from being the perception guy to then watching all of these incredibly low perception rolls.
Johnny:Yes.
Anzu:And I know you guys have good modifiers, and it's just like, oh my god, what's happening?
Benny:I think you got beat more times than you should have on perception by the wizard.
Gamemaster:Oh.
Anzu:It happened on occasion.
Gamemaster:I could tell, like, with the big gap in the floor plan, you guys wandering around, and I knew you just wanted to go there, but unfortunately the rolls, like, did not open it up for you.
Benny:Okay.
Argyle:No.
Anzu:I wonder if... I didn't know visually that the painting was on that wall.
Anzu:I don't know if that would have clued me in to be like, I'm going to check the painting.
Anzu:Because you could say that in retrospect.
Anzu:Anyway.
Anzu:Anyway.
Gamemaster:You guys are learning stuff about something that may or may not be related to what you're currently doing.
Benny:Man.
Johnny:I mean, it's at least tangentially related to what's going on.
Argyle:Well, yeah, so... So he was... And he said inspectors are poking around Point B, so I'm guessing that's the other site that this guy was investigating.
Johnny:Now we just got to go kill Tywelwyn rematch.
Anzu:you you
Gamemaster:He said Inquisitors were poking around, point B.
Johnny:Is that...
Argyle:Inquisitors are different, right?
Argyle:We should know what that is, or...
Gamemaster:You would know Inquisitors are the equivalent of the iridescent churches like Spec Ops.
Benny:Hmm.
Argyle:But he does know what radar dishes are.
Johnny:we already know that Tywelwyn on the move so maybe so something related i think we got to go find Tywelwyn
Argyle:So even if he's not the Embercall and he's only the Amber Call, he, you know, he knows about the Embercall.
Gamemaster:I just think that's fun.
Anzu:It would be really unoriginal of him to have created the whole thing and be like, what do I call this?
Anzu:I'm going to make people hear.
Anzu:But I don't want people to know it's me, so I can't call it Amber Call.
Johnny:Well, the Embercall is all about burning stuff.
Johnny:The amber call is all about preserving stuff.
Johnny:Like an amber.
Johnny:I've seen Jurassic Park.
Argyle:Okay.
Benny:I just want to know what's wrong with the radar dishes.
Benny:What are these groups' ends?
Benny:What are they working together on?
Anzu:Well, I mean, so this guy is trying to spread some kind of influence.
Gamemaster:Thank you.
Anzu:And then whether it's him or not working with the Embercall, you've got Tywelwyn using the radar dishes.
Anzu:Tywelwyn and Embercall using the radar dishes to also spread influence.
Anzu:Are they taking it farther than Grayson would like them to?
Johnny:Yeah.
Anzu:Is probably the question there.
Benny:That could be.
Benny:I mean, at least we didn't see any augury.
Johnny:Yeah, this was a...
Anzu:I mean, we didn't make it to the basement still, right?
Anzu:Because we came in from the second floor, and it looked like it was two stories.
Gamemaster:Correct.
Benny:Oh, yeah.
Gamemaster:You did not make it into the basement.
Anzu:But I wasn't sticking around any longer.
Gamemaster:The basement remained locked.
Anzu:That man would have murdered us and we would have rejuvenated his lich soul.
Argyle:it's been really awesome except that that one although oh they're not nice
Johnny:Yeah, the second we got in there and you were like, it's a high-level ritual, it went from being like, hmm, maybe we should skedaddle to, we gotta go right now.
Johnny:I had flashbacks to the Lich from the first campaign and the Slime Ranch.
Johnny:Yeah, the bad one.
Gamemaster:Have you guys met a nice lich before?
Gamemaster:Right, right, right.
Argyle:Yeah.
Johnny:Yeah, Allmonk.
Anzu:Weren't there
Benny:yeah at the school the duke sends his regards
Gamemaster:In the, yes, the Dean on floor 11.
Argyle:I thought you were about to drop.
Argyle:No, no, no.
Argyle:He was an awful guy.
Gamemaster:Yeah, I mean, Dahl was a lich and he was kind of rude.
Gamemaster:So I don't know if that's who you're referring to.
Argyle:Okay.
Gamemaster:That's fair.
Johnny:Well, him and Rodak were in a relationship, though, so we don't want to talk bad about him.
Argyle:No.
Gamemaster:Grayson is secretly dull.
Gamemaster:That's the plot twist.
Gamemaster:It was hot because there was a false hydra just kind of breathing down your necks the whole time.
Argyle:laughing laughing
Benny:That would be fucked up.
Benny:Don't even joke about that.
Benny:That would be so funny.
Benny:That's the equivalent to making a bunch of money in the US and then retiring to Thailand and running a... I don't know.
Johnny:Good morning.
Benny:You bring American milkshakes and you just run a milkshake shop.
Benny:Seriously, he's just like, I bring my necromantic talents to the commerce world.
Gamemaster:No.
Benny:Instead of taking over entire continents, I sell immortality at a great price.
Gamemaster:I mean... The last you saw him, he was on a cruise ship.
Benny:That's true.
Gamemaster:So, you know, maybe he just kind of really liked the environment there.
Johnny:on cruise the real reduction of what he did on the cruise ship yeah maybe that might work
Benny:He is full retired.
Benny:He's spending months in tropical climates.
Gamemaster:Yeah, you guys never met the heart, to your knowledge.
Benny:He's on a cruise ship.
Benny:He's drinking heavily.
Benny:His kids are off to college.
Benny:That's true.
Anzu:Probably the actual heart was in the basement.
Gamemaster:Although you managed not to make the people in the house aggressive to you.
Argyle:which is probably good.
Gamemaster:So I think that's a pro.
Benny:I didn't realize that was an eminent option.
Gamemaster:A possibility.
Gamemaster:No, the ghosts, the ghoul, and the skeleton all could have become aggressive if certain things had happened.
Benny:I thought they were just sort of
Benny:I thought they had to be nice to us by default.
Johnny:But we escaped unscathed.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Argyle:That's much better.
Johnny:And we're level three for when we fight Tywelwyn next time
Gamemaster:I should have added a ghoul crocodile.
Gamemaster:That would have been fun.
Gamemaster:It can smell humanoid corpses up to a mile away.
Gamemaster:Sorry, in water.
Anzu:Whoa.
Benny:Okay.
Gamemaster:It can smell humanoid corpses in water up to a mile away.
Benny:A bit better.
Benny:You know, shark can sense blood from a mile away.
Benny:What?
Benny:That's got to be so uncomfortable knowing any time there's blood within a mile of you, you just are always like, ah, there's something near me.
Gamemaster:I just googled, sorry, I searched in Archives of Netha's ghoul, and some of them make sense.
Gamemaster:Like, I'll buy a profane ghoul, or a ghoul antipaladin.
Gamemaster:But then there's a barnacle ghoul, which is a ghoul with barnacles on it, and it's more dangerous than a regular ghoul.
Johnny:In case we're in water.
Gamemaster:The barnacles make it stronger.
Argyle:Well, you know.
Gamemaster:So, you gotta watch out.
Benny:Barnacles blow up when they're bloodied.
Benny:Obviously, don't tell me if you want to throw a barnacle ghoul at us.
Gamemaster:I'm not... Full disclosure, I have no current plans to throw a barnacle ghoul at you.
Gamemaster:But it does have a swim speed of 20 feet.
Benny:Ooh.
Gamemaster:That's not bad.
Benny:Putting that rotting body to work.
Gamemaster:That's the barnacles.
Gamemaster:Oh, I lied.
Gamemaster:It has a swim speed of 40 feet.
Gamemaster:It has a step speed of 20 feet in water.
Benny:Oh.
Benny:Don't throw those at us.
Gamemaster:I can... Don't throw a...
Benny:That's 40 feet.
Benny:What was it?
Benny:Is it a water ghoul?
Gamemaster:A barnacle ghoul?
Gamemaster:Uh-huh.
Benny:Barnacle ghoul.
Benny:It's just a dude covered in barnacles.
Benny:He can swim 40 feet per move action and a step is 20.
Benny:He just goes with the flow.
Benny:Is it a once per turn type thing?
Gamemaster:He nimble swims.
Gamemaster:He swims up to 20 feet and doesn't trigger reactions.
Johnny:uh oh
Gamemaster:Nope.
Benny:Oh, it's just an action.
Benny:That's fine.
Gamemaster:He can also fill your lungs.
Benny:I do that so I don't need him to.
Gamemaster:I've seen, like, the green text floating around of, like, why in D&D can't you just do create water in somebody's lungs and kill them that way?
Gamemaster:And I guess Paizo's answer to that was, we're gonna make a ghoul with barnacles on him that can do that.
Gamemaster:That's a thing he could do.
Gamemaster:He could create water in your lungs.
Benny:I feel like.
Gamemaster:That's fun.
Benny:A small stipulation to create water fixes that, but if it's not there, it's not there.
Benny:If you're just like, you cannot create water inside of a living being.
Benny:And then as soon as you get swallowed by a whale, you're like, we're going to become dehydrated and die from lack of water because we can't create water inside.
Gamemaster:They do specify in Pathfinder that create water is created in the cup of your hands, so you can't do that in somebody's lungs.
Johnny:and stop working.
Gamemaster:But 5e just specifies in an area within 5 feet.
Benny:Well, you can just, like... Roll to drink the water.
Gamemaster:Well, then you're just feeding them water.
Gamemaster:Create water, I suppose.
Gamemaster:But, you know.
Gamemaster:Either way.
Benny:Oh, you crit failed.
Argyle:Yeah.
Benny:You just cough a bit.
Gamemaster:If no one drinks it after one day, it evaporates.
Benny:You have to, like, retch on your next turn to get the water out of your lungs.
Johnny:Like that one snake.
Gamemaster:Which is true of regular water as well.
Gamemaster:So... Do we want to play next week?
Johnny:Yeah.
Benny:I think I'll be on a flight next week.
Anzu:I think yes.
Gamemaster:Yeah?
Gamemaster:Do you have a prod to play?
Gamemaster:Does that... Oh.
Gamemaster:The whole week?
Benny:No, Monday.
Benny:Yes.
Gamemaster:Okay.
Anzu:Going somewhere for Thanksgiving.
Gamemaster:Are you... Oh, shoot.
Gamemaster:Next week is Thanksgiving.
Gamemaster:We might have to take a rain check then, because I would have said later in the week, but later in the week is Thanksgiving.
Argyle:Yeah.
Argyle:Yeah.
Gamemaster:So... I...
Argyle:We could play on Saturday.
Argyle:Unless you guys are people with actual lives.
Argyle:Bailey's leaving for a trip, so I have a bunch of time.
Argyle:So I don't have to leave.
Anzu:This guy.
Anzu:The wife is away and he's got nothing to do.
Gamemaster:I, unfortunately, will not be able to play this weekend.
Johnny:I don't know.
Benny:Yeah.
Argyle:Oh, you got something to do on a Saturday?
Argyle:What a loser.
Gamemaster:I'm sorry.
Gamemaster:You guys could all play together.
Gamemaster:It's possible to play D&D without me present.
Argyle:No, then other people have to offer them if they have lives on Saturdays.
Benny:Without me present.
Benny:Unfortunately.
Gamemaster:Don't pirate me, Mike.
Gamemaster:Alright, then I guess I'll see y'all not next week, but the week after for a follow-up.
Argyle:Yeah.
Benny:in those weeks sure pre-order
Argyle:Quick thing.
Johnny:in those
Argyle:This is mostly for Long Island boys.
Argyle:You guys should get a Briar Mears pie.
Argyle:They're delicious.
Argyle:You can pre-order them.
Anzu:Hmm.
Argyle:You will have to drive to Riverwood.
Gamemaster:I'm just... Pie is just not as good as cake.
Argyle:But they're good.
Argyle:No, you can... Okay.
Gamemaster:Also, it's fine.
Gamemaster:It's... Fruit should not be cooked.
Argyle:Their blueberry cream?
Argyle:Life-changing.
Argyle:No, no!
Gamemaster:You're ruining the fruit by cooking it.
Argyle:Is it cooked?
Johnny:I'm with Josh on this one, actually.
Johnny:It's a crime.
Argyle:Their blueberry one, is it cooked?
Johnny:What?
Gamemaster:Oh, so you're... I'm sorry.
Gamemaster:You're just eating loose blueberries?
Gamemaster:That's not a pie.
Johnny:That's awesome.
Gamemaster:That's just you're eating blueberries.
Johnny:Hey.
Benny:There's cream.
Argyle:Okay, it's slightly cooked, but it tastes like it's not cooked.
Johnny:I love that.
Gamemaster:But they definitely do cook the blueberry pie.
Anzu:Probably they cook it, yeah.
Johnny:Did they cook the crust?
Argyle:You need to try this pot.
Johnny:It's just raw crust with blueberries.
Argyle:You need to try this pot.
Argyle:No, there's cream.
Gamemaster:And cream.
Argyle:There's a nice cream.
Gamemaster:But I could do that at home.
Gamemaster:I have a bowl.
Gamemaster:I have a ready one.
Gamemaster:I have blueberries.
Gamemaster:I don't actually have any of those things.
Gamemaster:I have a bowl.
Gamemaster:But I could get those things.
Gamemaster:And then, you know.
Argyle:You can also get those things in Riverhead.
Argyle:All pretty simple.
Gamemaster:I'm not driving all the way out to Riverhead.
Gamemaster:I appreciate the intent, though.
Anzu:Yeah, that's a hike.
Anzu:And I'm closer than Josh, and it's still a hike.
Argyle:I do it because I... I do it because I take the Færrin.
Argyle:Orient point.
Anzu:Well, yeah.
Gamemaster:Oh, well, I'll just take the Færrin then.
Gamemaster:From my parents' house to Briarmir Farms is
Anzu:Also, isn't Bailey's family much closer to Riverhead than the rest of us?
Johnny:It's a very long island.
Argyle:It's still, like, 40 minutes one way.
Anzu:Listen, Noah, when they call it a long island, they are not joking.
Argyle:Long Island's very long.
Argyle:They're not.
Argyle:Yeah, yeah.
Anzu:It's going to be an hour, right?
Gamemaster:Yeah, it's an hour drive.
Anzu:Maybe not at this time of night, but... Oh, boy.
Gamemaster:It's an hour drive at this time of night.
Johnny:If you go right now, you can get there by midnight.
Johnny:A little after midnight.
Gamemaster:If I wanted to depart at 11 a.m.
Gamemaster:on a Saturday, let's see, what does it say?
Gamemaster:Where is it?
Gamemaster:Google says it'd be about an hour and a half.
Gamemaster:Both ways.
Gamemaster:For a pie.
Benny:You could get two pies, Josh.
Johnny:Really good time.
Anzu:For a guy that prefers cake...
Argyle:Well, we should just get a hotel near it so you can pray.
Johnny:It's a really good bye.
Gamemaster:Right.
Gamemaster:Listen, it's very nice out there on the island.
Gamemaster:There are vineyards, there are farms.
Gamemaster:It's a lovely time.
Gamemaster:I'm not planning a vacation for the weekend for one day.
Benny:You could get two pies.
Gamemaster:That's true.
Gamemaster:I could get two pies.
Gamemaster:You're right.
Gamemaster:It would actually be a waste not to get more than one pie.
Argyle:What's funny is everyone I've had, like, tried this pie.
Johnny:Thank you.
Argyle:Everyone's like, I've never... I haven't even eaten pie before, apparently, because this thing is such a different tier.
Gamemaster:Listen, the pie's obviously good if they get people to drive out to the middle of nowhere on the island.
Gamemaster:But still...
Gamemaster:I'm not doing it.
Argyle:I think someone made a clone, so you can try me.
Gamemaster:Do you think I can Uber Eats it?
Benny:You're gonna get a plastic bag filled with fucking crumbled blueberry pie.
Gamemaster:Do you think there will be an Uber driver who will drive it an hour and a half?
Argyle:Well, this was fun balls.
Benny:You're just gonna throw it at your door and it's gonna splatter.
Gamemaster:Well, y'all have a good Thanksgiving.
Johnny:Happy Thanksgiving.
Benny:Happy Thanksgiving.
Gamemaster:Yeah.
Johnny:See you in a couple of weeks.
Gamemaster:Give some packs.
Anzu:I shall.
Benny:Thanks.
Argyle:Yes.
Johnny:Thanks.
Anzu:Bye.
Benny:Peace.
Gamemaster:Bye.