Chasing Barendur Session 11

He is a man who was about as pleasant as his name sounds. Thalin sought to preach to the man and tell him about the world of goodness and peace, and after hearing Thalin’s preaching, Tom was ready to die. But the adventurers managed to stoke his life, give him confidence that there was more, and so he continued on with them. At this stable, Thalin Giggins burned it, along with the help of the adventurers in a ritual to the sun god, Salundus. As it burned, Uldrich went in and performed a rite of Salundus, which he had learned of in one of his many temple explorations. While doing this, he was blessed with a new spell from the god. Around this time, Ipid started training to wield a great sword in one hand. As they continued, they found a temple that they needed to clear of necromancers. They fought many undead and slayed a necromancer within, and in it they rescued Rose Thorne, an adventuring witch who lives in the crooked crossroads, of some reputation. Somehow she had found herself trapped in the dungeon. She likes to lie and steal and do most things you’re not supposed to. She claimed to have been a lover of Thaling’s, and then disappeared into a portal. As she left, they went back to meet up with Blueberry and Pappy, who had been fishing. And unfortunately, this is where Pappy met his fate, being pulled into the river by a giant catfish and eaten. Now continuing onwards to the city of Drowning Wallace, when they get there, it is shrouded in fog. Fog so thick that when you walk the streets of the city it seems to be the darkest night. In the city they meet a fisherman salesman who sells fishing poles who have been getting stolen from him. He asks for their help, but they are too busy and cannot. They continue on to a tavern, and in this tavern they prepare for the wretched things of the city. Having rested there they go out the next day. While Tom stays and watches the horses, they go exploring through the city. They find many dark alleyways. They encounter a strange beast with glowing red eyes, and many times they see these wretched ghouls lurking in the alleyways. These ghouls have been haunting the city for thousands of years. They are vampires in a twisted, wretched form. Now from there they went deeper into the city towards the center, where they found the great library of Drowning Wallace, a library that extends a hundred floors above the ground and a hundred floors below, and inside they begin asking about the temple which they had come to seek. Within there they get disheartening news that it will take many weeks for them to receive information about the temple, so they set out to the market. In the market they find many things that they want to purchase, but it is scarcely populated. Lit by lanterns that cut through the fog, the market is the only busy place in the entire city. Leaving that, they head back to the tavern for the night. Resting, they go sneaking through the town in the morning. As they travel through the town, they go back to the fishermen. Only they find the fishermen who had been selling the poles had been torn to shred by ghouls. It seems they were a little too late. Following the trail of blood into the sewer, they go down into it, where they fight many ghouls. Encountering the sewer, Blueberry decides she is not meant to be an adventurer and goes back to the tavern. As they fight the ghouls, they hear the cries of a woman from deep within the sewers. Venturing in and fighting many, many ghouls, they rescue a woman by the name of Rose Thorne yet again. Bringing her back to the tavern, they discuss their quarry, and she has learned of it from someone in the library. She asks them to tell her when they find the temple, and then she drinks and drinks and leaves.

Corn is a tiefling lorebard. He tends to overdress a little, like he might come for money. Nobody’s really sure. He always has something to say and thinks he always knows what to do, but sometimes he gets it wrong. As mentioned previously, he does have a history with Elspeth, but he doesn’t talk about it much. So ask her. His picture’s in the general chat. That’s him. I’ll send Ipid, too. There we are. Where would I find my one? That’ll go all the way back. It should be on your DD Beyond page for your character. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ll get that in a minute. Now, Mars, please introduce your character. Okay, so I’m super nervous. I’m sorry, you guys. I play a Twilight Cleric. She’s just a high elf. Her name is Starling Dove. I got the idea from, you know, Clary Starling. So she is a Twilight Cleric of Severus. And so basically, her personality is very not really so much daydreamy. It’s just almost like she’s halfway here and halfway somewhere else at all times. She just seems very unreachable. You can talk to her, and you’re never quite sure if she’s listening or not. Good. That’s fine. I guess that’s who I’m playing. Fun. Excellent. Welcome. I’m sure the dynamic in this group is going to be great. Entering the tavern, having returned from your harrowing adventure in the temple, you see someone waiting for you. Is it Rose? It is. Okay. Of course it is. I bet we look really tired, too. She’s standing tomorrow. Is Seraphim with us? She is. Okay. She doesn’t have clothes yet, but she’s still with you. Oh, no. Darn reincarnation spells. Were we not able to get her anything, or is she still in her bandages or whatever? Basically, still in the wraps she reincarnated in. She has some covering, but not much to call clothing. Ipid covers her with his shield. Stand in there. You see Rose sitting at the bar talking with Tom. And when she goes quiet as you enter, no one in the bar dares breathe. Uh, hello. Hi, Rose. We’re back. Did you find the temple? We sure did. Yeah, and it found us. Did you tell me you found the temple? We’re telling you now. Just now. Yeah. She looks around at you. And what is this thing you found? Pointing at Seraphim. Oh, she was lying on the temple floor. We revived her. Technically modeled. Technically, not a lie. It’s corn. This is Elspeth, but she goes by Seraphim now. Looking back and forth between you, she is very confused. Not a few state you see from Rose. I don’t know how to explain it, but we took care of what needed to be taken care of. And this is us telling you that we found the temple. And horribly dangerous. Nearly death of us all. You wouldn’t. Yeah, I mean, Elspeth died, but, you know, she looks great now. Who’s Elspeth? Who’s this person you’re talking about? This is Seraphim. This is Seraphim. Sorry, I don’t mean to dead name you. My bad. Now, Mars, you are talking to Blueberry, a halfling with long pink hair, who has been trying to convince you to join her adventuring party. Blueberry has an adventuring party. Blueberry points over at you guys. Oh. Them, them, they’re the ones. Oh, us. Carling’s just been believing for like the last half hour that she’s just making up the whole thing. She’s just been very polite, nodding, and like, yeah, yeah, little one. I’m sure you have an adventuring party somewhere. And she just kind of like looks out with like a super vague expression, sees people. Them over there. That’s your adventuring party.
So, do we realize that Blueberry’s noticed, like, pointing us out, or are we just. You see a blueberry waving you over. Okay. Hold on. Rose, Thorne. Rose, can we put a pin in this? We’ll be right back. Blueberry needs us. We’ll get back to you. We’ll get right back to you. And I walk over to Blueberry, see what’s good. Hey, what’s up, Blueberry? Blueberry looks at you. I found an adventurer for you. Lying in the gutter. Oh, all of you. What? What do you? What? Okay. We were looking for an advent. Blueberry. I look over at. What was her name again? I’m sorry. Darling. Darling. I look over at Starling. I’m like, um, nice to meet you. Blueberry, what it what is she? Is she bothering you? What’s going on? Blueberry looks at her. Oh, no, I’m trying to hire her. Uh, for what exactly? Well, you’re seeming a little light on muscle now. I’m going to try not to take offense to that. Well, you’re a single dragon on our front line. It’s been rather hard on you, you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I really twisted my ankle back there. I’m not going to lie. I heard a bit. Well, Blueberry, we appreciate it. Blueberry, we appreciate it, but I mean, we would hate to get someone involved in all the BS, pardon my French, that we’re dealing with here. And if it turns to Starling. What is she told you? Not much, just that she has an adventuring party. And are you looking for an adventuring party? I guess I don’t have anything else to do if you’re paying. Hey. Sounds like you need someone. Well, we can cut you in for an equal share if it’s money you’re looking for. Sounds reasonable. What kind of jobs do you do? Oh, the very dangerous kind, mostly. Things that we honestly. Elvic reaches into his pack and pulls out a skull. Oh my gosh, I hate it. He’s a bad. Like, oh, yeah. This is all dirty. You get one-fourth of the treasure, but he gets all the skulls. It’s reasonable. Yeah, he’s a bit odd in that way. Honestly, everything that we’ve been doing has been fully up to us. Nobody’s really pushing us to do what we’re doing, but we’re this invested. And I mean, I care. I don’t know about these guys. They’re just kind of here too. Hey, do you guys care about this? Can I do an emotional check-in with you guys? I’m really worried about that, Celestia. I think we’ve got. Gorn cares, okay? Keep it down. Let’s not. You know what? Let’s go ahead and go ahead and pull up a table real quick. And let’s chat about exactly what’s going on. Pull up a table. The four of you sit down, then Blueberry follows. Tom and Rose also sit with you. Okay, so it’s two tables. We’ll push them together. Push them together. If it goes over to another table where there’s a party of three, but there’s four tables, and he’s just like, are you guys using this? Can we borrow this? He goes ahead and takes it over. So, nice to meet you. You said your name was, what again? I’m sorry? Darling. Starling. Oh. Pleasure to meet you. Pleasure to meet you. I’m Ipid. And I’ll let the other guys introduce themselves. Yeah, I’m Aldrich. Paladin, yeah. I guess in the Paladin of My God is. Oh my gosh. Oh, Bahamed. Dragon God of Justice. He saved me when I was really low. So, you know, paying him back the favor. And he’s helping me a lot, too. She just nods. That seems to satisfy her. Yeah, I’m Aldrich. Wizard. Kind of diviner, actually. I see the future. Or sometimes. Yeah, he does. Yeah. And that’s Scorn. They call me Scorn. No job too big, no detail too small. What else would we call you?
Scorn’s the only name you’ve ever heard for him. But he doesn’t say his name is Scorn. He says they call me Scorny. Oh, I see. We should probably introduce Tom a little bit. He helps us with our horses. He’s like an expert. Horse honestly, he’s the glue that’s been holding us together. He seems to be good at a lot of things, actually. He keeps surprising us. Yeah, more than he lets on. Isn’t that right, Tom? And he looks over at Tom, who I assume has a drink. As you look over to Tom, you see him deep. He’s already emptied three that are sitting in front of him. Oh, and he’s like just as an aside, he’s like 80, right? He’s 80. If you look at Tom, he is an old man, completely gray, about six and a half feet tall, with long limbs and a long beard. He looks huge for an eight-year-old. He’s a little old than anyone else, and could tell you anything about it if he wasn’t stone drunk. That lady over there, that’s Rose Thorne. Wherever you go, there she is. And trust me, that’s just what her face looks like. Ouch! She’s not being mean or anything like that. Right, Rose? Rose looks. No, I am mean. Oh, she is. I was just trying to. We should probably, you know, give ourselves a good first impression on the new person we’ve met who seems interested in helping us out here. Rose looks good. Impressions are for when you need something. I don’t need anything from anyone. Right. Okay. Again, sorry, Rose. And that’s pretty much our group. So where are you abouts from? What brings you here? To this creepy ass town? I think this town is quite comfortable. It always seems to be Twilight. Yeah, I guess that’s fair. If you’re into that, I don’t know. I feel like I haven’t been getting enough raise. It doesn’t look like Sterling gets any raise. She’s like super, like, almost sickly pale. Oh. So you’re looking for work. Are you like. Have you always been just an adventurer? Do you just pick up odd jobs? I mostly worked with the other wizards employed with Savarus that worship him. Oh, that is my primary position in life. I’ve taken care of them, healed them, and protected them. Oh, hoister far away from here. Got you. All right. Well, that’s cool. Pretty much what we’ve been up to is that we found ourselves in a situation where we might have found the workings of a cult that existed a long, long time ago trying to be started back up. This cult is seeking immortality in ways that aren’t good in any way at all, I would say. And there’s multiple temples related to this cult with various pieces of the goal of immortality. Goal of immortality. And we recently just got our second piece, hopefully away from the hands of anybody who would use them illegally. And I don’t know where we’re headed to next, guys, honestly. Wait. There’s. We’ve heard talk of another one of their temples. I think it’s east of here, if I recall correctly. Let me see. Is it the one that the blacksmith told us about? Yes, to the east across the mountains. Got you. What’s the hometown of that place? What’s that city called? Or state country? You want the country? Or the city. Yeah, I wrote down. I’m looking at the map, and I’m really wondering how that’s pronounced. Which one? The country of. It’s D-R-A-O-I-D-H-E-A-C-H-D. That’s got to be Gaelic. I don’t know. Maybe Welsh. I’m not sure. How do you pronounce that? Although that’s a good question. That’s a question for the DM because the easiest way to pronounce it is Droidik, and I’m not going to get on you about pronouncing it right. Droidic. Okay. Yeah, and I wrote down previously.
Alistair lost somewhere about there. Yes. Oh, that’s. Yeah. That’s our next location. We do have some unfinished business here in Drowning Wallace. We’ve been taking up odd jobs. I’m not going to lie to you. I will be honest. We have been getting paid by just doing jobs on the way to our main goals. We have found riches and artifacts that have helped us on our quest. But in regards to a payroll, we’re not really on a weekly payment schedule. But I don’t know. I feel like I’ve been up on my luck in regards to my finances since I’ve started hanging out with these guys. Oh, yeah, we’ve made a little money. What unfinished business do we have here? Really? I mean, in regards to things that we’ve kind of opened up, I don’t know if you guys still wanted to get information from the library. We never really found out what that thing down there was doing there, nor who it was talking to. I’m also very curious on why the hell the blacksmith even knew the entrance to this temple. Because we kind of didn’t ask any questions. Yeah, I think I want to go see that blacksmith. He knows stuff. He was talking to me, maybe, and Scorn. In the temple. Oh, yeah, he was spiritually vibing with y’all. Yeah, he notes that. Yeah, I heard his voice. It was really weird. So, yeah, we’re pretty much into some weird stuff. If that’s what you’re interested in, by all means. And your powers and skills are mainly focused in healing? In battle. Healing. That’s good too. It’d be very necessary. As much as we lick up our own wounds, we aren’t really the best in medicine, per se. Yeah. And much as I hate to say it, we might be better off getting out of this place as soon as possible. Why do you say that? Well, what I mean is that the cult is still going back to their old temples, and the longer we wait to get to the next one, the worse things are going to get. Yeah, I guess that’s right. I guess it’s fair, but like, I guess I’m just concerned on why that bone devil was there at all. By the looks of it, it didn’t seem like the cult wasn’t. Like, the cult wasn’t there when we got there. It seemed to be a different third party. Oh, unless he was connected with them. There’s no. I don’t. I couldn’t tell you if he was or wasn’t. And I remember from the recap, the Bone Devil, was it? Or something was talking to someone else, but we didn’t get those details. Yeah, the Bone Devil was speaking to somebody who either was there and left or like through their mind or something. I don’t know. Because right now we don’t really have the main objective goal pushing us where we want to go. So I’m just trying to. Also, Seraphim. So, like, your boss, patron, your ex-guy, whatever. Not like ex. Yeah. Former boss. Former boss. What was his name? La-La-La-Lactade? Lachakism? Lachakism. Ah, yeah. Do you think he’ll react to what we ended up doing down there in any way? Yes. He is obligated to. In what way? So, you might not know of this, but since I die and my will goes into effect. Okay. Of course. He’s going to be a little upset when he found out I had it rewritten last yesterday. Anyway, I’m going to need Scorn to go pick that up. Oh, pick what up? All my stuff. Wait, from his house? Well, someone has to. Yes, and Scorn is technically the legal inheritor. Oh, okay. Well, that should smooth the wheels a bit. Grease the wheels, I should say. Alright. Maybe first we should call you a tailor. She looks down. Probably. Rose, you wouldn’t happen to have any extra threads for Seraphim here, would you? Rose looks over at her. Oh, I don’t work with angel wings. Oh. I mean, you cut holes in the back or something. If any old sack will do, I do have something upstairs. Well, at least something for right now, so she’s not so open. Um.
So, Seraphim, so that entails us going back to the vampire’s manner? Yes, but I shouldn’t. Right, right. So, like, what definitely shouldn’t? Yeah, can’t we. So, is he going to just let us show up and be like, hey, this guy is actually the rightful owner of all this stuff? Can we just go ahead and grab it and be out of your hair? Well, you only need to collect the statement of inheritance. I don’t actually have any of my possessions there. They’re all in the crooked crossroads. Okay, then. And do you need that letter to get them back, or could we just go to Crossroads and get your stuff? No, we need that letter to get them back. Uh-huh. Okay. All right. I don’t want to go back there. And what do I tell your former patron? That I died? That I was torn to shreds by a bone demon in a temple. I mean, that is true. Well, if the truth will suffice, that’s always the best thing. If you’re lying to him, or if you’re telling the truth, so make sure you stick to the truth. I mean, it is true. You died. I’ve got three important points. Okay. I died. I was killed by a bone devil. And I’m dead. Okay. I think one and three. Actually, those are all. Yeah. I’ve got it. So, I’ll go over to the bartender. Get up, go over to the bar. Hey, is there any runners here that I could send out for a tailor? Pull a robe out of my bag. I just have a plain blue robe. I pull it out of my bag and just wrap it around her shoulders. I wrap it around her waist. Yeah, the wings kind of get in the way. Yeah, that’s true. She has wings. Perfect. That was really nice of you, Starling. Okay, yeah, that’s good. Thank you so much. So, if you’re interested in tagging along, we wouldn’t mind having you. Have you ever dealt with vampires? She smiles. She doesn’t say yes or no. Right, okay. I’m going to take that as a no, or maybe. I don’t know. So, how soon should we. What time of the day is it? Like, is it still foggy outside when we got out of the. As you go outside, the fog has cleared again. Ooh. Is the city busy? It is. It’s not as riotous as it was last time, but there are many people in the streets. Got you. And as you’re looking around, it seems like every window in the city is open. Huh? That’s nice. Guys, do you think that was our doing? Sticky with booze, but not too much drinking. Well, the sun is out, which I feel like is the best time than ever to go talk to a vampire who might not be too fond on seeing us. Yes. And we need to emphasize that we didn’t get Elspeth killed. No, we left. You know, we were with her, but we didn’t kill her. Oh, you’re right. He could interpret it as like, it’s our fault that she’s dead. Do you think he would care? She’s his ancestor. She’s his blood relative. Yeah. Descended from him. I think he would care. I don’t know how many generations removed, but yes. That’s still. Yeah, I guess you’re right. She’s family. All right. Okay. This is us hashing another plan on how to talk to this vampire before we go to his house again. Okay. Let’s assume that he’s the one that’s answering this door, because clearly Elsbeth, who is not with us anymore, was the one who answered the door before. We just say, unfortunately, we were traveling with Elsbeth. We got ourselves in a situation. She died, and we’re here to collect her will, who is this guy’s. It’s under his name now. And I point at you, Scorn. I can talk to him if you like. And he might be a little racist still, right? Well, vampires in this town, maybe everywhere, don’t like tieflings much. I mean, you’re a charmer. Doesn’t change the fact I’m a tiefling. Man, under the circumstances, it probably makes things worse. But yeah, I can talk to him. And plus, he saw everything she saw. That’s something that she kind of like let us know the other day without us knowing. So, if anything, he’s just caught up now, and he wouldn’t know it’s not our fault that she died. We did our best to save her. So, you know what? I’m confident in this. Let’s go talk to this vampire. Let’s get her things and let’s be done with this. Okay. Unless you guys need something else to do with the tavern, it’s ready to head over to the vampire.
Entire sector of the town. It’s just one thing Aldric was worried about. So he’ll send a message to Scorn, I believe. And there was a crystal dagger, he says. Who’s got that dagger? Yeah, who’s holding on to that? Indeed, who has it? Let me. I don’t remember my. Was it the Bone Devil that had it? I don’t actually remember who had it. Yeah, the Bone Devil. Yeah, and we took it from him. Okay. So I identified it. So you would have it. You would have it. So I’ll be messaging Scorn and saying, like, doesn’t Rose have some kind of interest in this? And I’ve got this dagger. But this is a message kind of to Scorn. Right. I can reply to that. Yes, and we need to be careful. I’ll send the same message to Ipid. Ipid, Rose was interested in that tempo. We have that dagger. I don’t know what to do. Ipid looks at Aldrich, wondering why he hears him, but his lips aren’t moving. And he’s like, oh, um. And he mentally responds, just hold on to it, man. We don’t have to be open about it yet. Just you’re okay, Aldric, don’t worry. Aldric’s sweating. No one knows why. No one knows why. Who did we give the chalice to back at the Crooked Crossroads? I can’t remember their name. That was the only session I wasn’t here for, so I couldn’t tell you. It’s like a guild or something. Was it a representative of a guild? Was that right? Representative of the Guild of Unwise Journeys. Yeah. Did they have someone here at the tavern? Yes. Kind of figured. Who would that be? Or do I know? You don’t know. But if you look around the tavern, you should be able to find someone you recognize. They were one who paid you. Oh, okay. Walking around the tavern. You see an old man sitting over a bowl of soup with his beard dripping in it. You see him slowly nodding back and forth as he sleeps. Okay. Um is that our guy? I don’t know. Does he have like any type of like clothing that might signify like a symbol of the guild of stupid travels or whatever it was called? Unwise journeys. Unwise. Unwise journeys. Like do they have like an insignia that would like represent them? They don’t, but he does have a small banner in front of him saying a representative of the guild of unwise journeys. Oh, okay. Yeah, I think that big banner might signify. Yeah, I think that’s him. Okay. Go have a word with him. Who’s going to have a word with him? Yeah. Well, we’ll follow him, Aldric. We’ll be with you. I’ll follow Scorn. Okay. So is this guy snoozing? Is that what’s going on here? He’s asleep. He’s sleeping in his soup. Okay. I don’t want to startle him. I’m just going to sit down and play a few bars on the loot. Not super loud, just enough to get his attention. See him nod back and forth and then look up at you. Good morning. Good morning. How’s the soup? Looks down, pulls his beard out of it. Good, I assume. A little cold. And may I inquire as to your name, sir? My name? I don’t know. Well, if you don’t know, I don’t know. Well, that might be a bit of a problem. But don’t worry about that. My name’s John. All right then. John, we’ve acquired something that may be of interest to the guild. Oh, you just told me. Oh. Are you all right? I’m a little tired. I can see that, yes. But I mean, aside from that, are you alright? He looks you deep in his eyes, and as you look at him, you see untold horrors he has experienced over decades of adventuring. Looks you deep in the eyes and says, No, I am not alright. I um I wanted to talk to you about something of interest to the guild. All right. What business do you have? Well, the cult of Baradur. They’re trying to achieve immortality. We found one of the things that they plan to use for this. Should I back in the crooked. Go ahead. I’m sorry, Aldric will message Scorn and say, should I bring out that dagger then? Not just yet. Okay. In the Crooked Crossroads, we turned over a chalice for safekeeping. I was wondering if you could arrange for safekeeping of another object. Oh, probably, but you’ll have to go to the Crooked Crossroads. It’s this big city away from here. Yes, I’m very familiar with it.
Okay, so that’s fine. We’ll just hang on to it until we get back there. And thank you for your time, sir. And Scorn does one of these towards Aldrich, and, you know, back. Yeah, we should go back to the table. You watch as the old man begins eating the soup again and slowly starts falling asleep. He can do that. That’s okay. Was anyone going to pay us for that temple run that we did? I don’t think so. No. When you guys come back to the table, Ibid’s talking Starling’s ear off, and he’s like, he’s like, Aldric is a little rough around the edges. I don’t know. I think he’s. He’s nice, but he has. Oh, hey, guys. How’d it go? What did he get? Hello. Oh, well, he says if we want to put it into safe storage like we did the chalice, we’d have to go back to the crooked crossroads. Ooh. Isn’t that on the way, though? It’s really out of our way. Oh, okay. Never mind. I mean, I don’t know how I feel about you guys having left the chalice with them anyway. I would have felt better off if we held on to the things. Like, do we even know if that chalice is safe right now? Let’s be honest. Well, we know that the Cambians who wanted it so badly are not going to get it. That’s good. We know it’s in another plane of existence. They might want the dagger as well. I don’t know. But that’s what I’m saying, though. If they find the location of where the dagger is, it’s going to be stuck in one location in the crooked crossroads. If it’s with us, we’re moving around all the time. Yeah, the thing is, we’re actually planning to go to one of their temples, and that’s not a good place for that dagger to be. If you know what I mean. Yeah, I guess that’s fair. It makes it potentially very easy for them to get it back. And actually, the dagger, because I identified it, what details do we know about that dagger? So this dagger has a few magical properties. If you gush someone with it, you can turn them into a ghoul. Well, that’s it. Aldrich’s going to keep that for sure. Oh, I only remembered this because I was re-listening to the episodes of the things we were listening to. I remembered this that we brought up that this cult believed that the best way to keep a dead thing alive is to give it like or something like that. That was like to give it an undying hunger or an unwavering hunger. Maybe that’s why this knife cuts, like the way it works is that you cut the stomach out of a corpse. Yes, it replaces the hunger of life. Well, those ghouls were plenty hungry. Well, then, where do we take this to? Because if we’re going to go all the way back to the crossroads, that’s going to be what? An additional. Like, that’s going to be like an additional week of travel if we go to the crossroads and then head over to Elsdere. Do you want to switch and the halfling take it back? We designate someone to take it back from your party. Oh, I guess you’re right. I mean, good thinking. I look over at Blueberry. I’m like, Blueberry, do you plan on sticking around with us any longer? Because you literally hired a replacement. Blueberry looks at you. You see her shuffling some papers. I’m going to take care of things on an administrative end now. Oh, okay. Well, we really appreciate the help. Would this fall under your duties? Well, actually, hold on. Is Rose still at our table? Yes. We’ll. I can do. I could do. Well. Rose, don’t you got somewhere to be or something to do? Me, you can check out that temple, you know? We told you about it. She looks at you. That’s a good idea. I think I should go check it out. Ooh. We cleared it out pretty well, right? There’s nothing she can really fuck with down there. Well, I don’t know if we got everything, but we got the one thing that we came for. Yeah, it should be clear. And honestly, we might have put an end to this whole ghoul issue that’s going around the city. So, yeah. You’re going to see a bunch of burning bodies, but we took care of it. She looks. You’re burning bodies. Yeah. So, oof. How do I explain this without bringing up the knife? It seems like they were doing.
Rituals down there, and the proper way to prevent the rituals that they were doing, which was taking a dead body and then turning it into a ghoul, was to burn the bodies that were down there. So we pretty much burned the supply that they were going to use, you know? So it shouldn’t be an issue anymore. At least in this part of the town. Because I think there might be ghouls all over. Yeah, I’m sure there’s more ghouls out there, but I don’t think the creation, I don’t think the creation of ghouls will continue. Yeah, I think we put a stop to that. Looking at you, she’s suspicious. But she looks back. I think I can go check it out. Yeah, if you look, and if also, if things get hairy down there, if we didn’t clear all the ghouls, you make sure you stay safe, okay? She smirks at you. Yes, I’ll stay safer than the ones you let die. That was unnecessary. He said under his breath. Scorn looks at Seraphim and winks. So does she leave? Yes, she gets up and walks halfway to the door and then steps through a portal. It’s okay, she does that. Yeah, it seems like everybody here has a cool way of traveling except us. Do you have a cool way of traveling, Starling? Oh, yeah, please tell us you do. Do you like make portals? Do you like transport places? You can fly. You can fly? But like not very often. Oh. We just walk. Oh, we have our horses. We have horses. Yeah. I’ll walk with you, no worries. Okay, that’s fine. But yeah, Blueberry, do you think you could head to the Crooked Crossroads where we left that chalice and then bring them this dagger we found? Blueberry looks. Yes, I can. And then she looks over at Scorn. I’ll also wait for you to get the paperwork so I can claim that inheritance for you. Oh, yeah. She can go ahead and go to the Click of Crossroads and just turn that in for you. Well, we could do that. Seraphim, is there anything in that inheritance of yours that we really, really need? She looks. I have a tavern there. No wonder. I have some clothes. I don’t know. Nothing important. Some gold. How much gold? Oh, 20 or 30,000. Okay. Alright then. Yeah. And then, like, Blueberry, you can meet us back up at Alzdair’s Loss after you do that, because that’s where we’re going to be heading to after we leave Drowning Wallace, anyway. She looks at you. I might stay in the crossroads a while. I have business to attend there. Oh, I mean, yeah, do whatever you need to do. You’re an adult, I think. Are you still uncertain if I’m an adult? You know, you’ve never told us your age. You look like a little girl. You ask for milk at the bar. You know, like, it’s just. But you kick ass, so I don’t. It confuses me, Blueberry. And honestly, don’t tell me. I don’t really need to know. I’m sure you’ll be able to handle yourself. Blueberry looks around at you and says, all right, well, I will go get taken care of things. You guys get back to me when you have the paperwork. Yeah. Alright then. Let’s go ahead and get that will. And do we want to give Blueberry the dagger? Yeah. Yeah, we’ll give it to her. Alright, so Ultricul message Ultric will message Blueberry and just say, I’m going to give you a dagger. It’s not going to hurt. And just keep it hidden. And whatever you do, don’t tell Rose about it. Oh, yeah, that’s true. And don’t tell Rose. She looks at you. I won’t tell that skank anything. Oh, my gosh! Oh, my. Oh, Blueberry. She looks over at Tom. He taught me that word. Tom, what the hell? See, this is also why I don’t think you’re an adult. What do you mean taught you the word skank? Common isn’t my first language. Oh my gosh. Just as I was beginning to look up and up towards Tom, he goes and does this. Aldric is disappointed with Tom. If it’s rubbing his temples. Um. Gosh. So I guess Aldric will kind of under the table kind of push the dagger towards towards Blueberry. There you go.
Aldric, you know, you look a lot more suspicious than you let no one. You see us, you somehow managed to sniff it. The whole dagger up her short sleeve. Okay. Wow, okay. How did you do that? She’s a warlock. Oh. I don’t know. I mean, maybe. Um. Alright, well, should we start heading over? Yeah, um, yeah, we can do that. Alright. Yep. Can we get a short rest while we’re in the tower? You can take a long rest if you want to. We could. I have not launched the forgery thing at all. Yeah. So that’s it. I’m doing some troubleshooting on that right now. Okay. Okay. There was an update a few days ago, and it has caused a lot of issues with that. So we’re not messing with that this session for right now? Not right now. Alright, cool. I have DD Beyon pulled up to look at my shit, though. I better do the same. So, yeah, let’s. Why do they keep logging me out of this? Come on. I’m going to take a short rest while we’re in the tavern. I’m going to take a long rest, dog. I need my spell slots back. Yeah, for spell slots, we need a long rest. I didn’t use a ton of spells down in that temple. Yeah, we’ll use four or five spells. Yeah, that’s good. I got plenty left. I mean, if he’s allowing us to take a long rest, just long rest. Oh, if you wish, yeah. Yeah, let’s do it. Cool. Whopping 53 HP. I’m so ready for this. What time of day did you say it was? Is it still fairly early? It’s about noon. Noon? Oh, good. Okay. So, yeah, we can rest up tonight and go take care of that other thing tomorrow, I guess. And this afternoon, Seraphim and I need to go shopping. Oh, okay. Always wanting to get new clothes, huh? Well, it’s for a good cause. Okay. Darling, do you need to have adventuring gear or are you good? I think I just need to check my spells tonight. Alright then. Scorn gets up and offers Seraphim a hand. He’s like, let’s go get you outfitted. She looks cheap. Oh, you’re saying this is bad? I don’t know if I’d travel in. She’s got a lot of clothes, and now you’re saying they’re terrible. Oh, I didn’t say that. It is a bit judgy, Scorn. I’m not going to lie. Oh, it’s okay. She does that. No, something to travel in. Good pair of boots. Some armor if you need it. Is Seraphim going to stick with us from now on? I guess that’s up to her. Yeah, it is. I think I might follow Blueberry after we finish this up. Oh, that works. That works too. Don’t seem so sad, Scorn. Oh, I guess I’ll just have to get in touch with her sometime in the future. Tom, Tom, you want to go with Blueberry? Tom, look at you guys. Oh, I think I’ll keep on the road with you guys for a little while. I just realized, yeah, you’re going to have to look after our horses. Yeah, man. Why are you trying to get rid of Tom? No, I’m just trying to tie up the Lucent’s. Just. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, I’m ready to go talk to, you know, the old man. Lachicism, Lachakism. Lachicism. Lachicism. That was it. Yeah. I can talk to him. As you walk through the streets, the air feels lighter. Who else coming along with me? I guess all of us, right? Okay. Good. Excellent. Yeah, we’re not going to let you go to the vampire place alone. I appreciate that. Of course. As you’re walking down the streets, you smell fresh bread being baked, fish being sold, and the air itself seems to move lightly with the wind. You hear humming of birds, and you hear the sounds of a busy city. This is almost nice when it’s like this. Yeah. Starling, I think the appeal of it being dark here kind of just went away. Sorry. No problem. As we’re walking, I would like to say, Starling, do you know how to repel undead? Are you good with dead? Are you good with dead people? Actually, I have not checked to see if I have to run undead, but let me just double-check real quick. I’m sorry. If you’re a cleric, you most likely do. Yeah, most likely. Aldrich, I don’t think anybody’s good with dead people. I think it’s just. I am? Well, I mean. No, I don’t mean it like. I mean, I don’t mean it. I mean, like, a literal sense. I am not good with dead people. They have no appreciation for music. Actually, I don’t believe the Twilight Clerk.
Has the option to channel turn on dead. Because that’s normally what a channel divinity. So, no, I don’t really have any experience with undead. That’s, I think, something you get as a cleric, not just from your, not from your subclass, but okay. Just wondering. Well, let me see. Channel Divinity. Turn on Dead. Turn on Dead. Yeah, Turn Undead’s part. Turn on Dead’s part of Channel Divinity. All clerics get it. Is it the new 2024 version, though? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I’m actually on 5e Tools here, but it says 2024 Players Handbook, page 70. Okay. So your channel divinity has a few. There’s the stuff it gets from the Twilight Domain, but it also always has Divine Spark and Turn Undead. Greece. It’s awesome. Thank you. Oh, just because recently we’ve been coming across a lot of undead, so that’s great that you might have some skills that could be useful here. Oh, yes. I’m sure I have you covered with whatever you need. Awesome. Yeah, sorry if you’ve been getting a lot of us today. I feel like this is a pretty rough first impression, but I trust. These guys are great. We’re great. Trying to watch each other’s backs. Isn’t that right? Aldric and Ipid slaps Aldric’s back a little too hard. Yeah. Been good so far. Yeah. You guys are great. That’s no problem at all, really. Nice. I had the impression she wouldn’t really. She’d probably be totally fine hanging out with just about anybody. Okay. There’s a ringing endorsement. Ipid’s going to take it very greatly, though. He’s going to be like, oh, nice. Scorns over here, like, well, of course we’re great. Okay. Yeah. Walking down the streets. Vendors are selling things. You see lots of fruits and vegetables from distant places. And as you’re going, you approach the vampire district, and there is a distinct shift. There are less people on the streets. None of the windows are open. It is quiet. Is this what it was like last time we were here? Yes. Oh, okay. I was just curious if this was just a matter of because of what we did. I don’t know what you’re talking about. We didn’t do anything. You’re right. You’re right. We didn’t do anything. That tavern was on fire when we found it. Oh, yeah, I guess we did that too. Where’s the tavern now? That was a little kerfuffle that happened a few days ago. I don’t know what’s going on with that tavern. I just know people were really happy that whatever happened to it happened. It’s a pile of ash and rubble now. That’s a shame. Totally not our fault. So yeah, let’s get where we’re going. This vampire, what is he like? Is he polite? Oh, I only know him by reputation. He’s been something of a defender of the city. They call him a general. Was he a general? Yeah. He’s currently a general of the army. And he takes the job rather seriously. He’s for the city. He sounds like a fine gentleman. Yeah. We haven’t met him personally yet, but I think his heart’s in the right place. I mean, vampires have hearts, Aldric. I mean, yeah, they have a soul too, I would say. They have personality, just because they’re technically not like mortals. You know? They’re just like you and I. The only thing is, we’re just a bit concerned simply because we were kind of mucking about in something that has to relate to his past. And I don’t know if that’s something he would appreciate or not. Gave the city its name, I think. Or something he did give the city its name. Yeah. Yeah, he drowned Wallace. Better Wallace than Ben, I guess. Very true. But yeah. I mean, if we do get a hold, if we’re able to talk to him today, we’ll see how he actually treats us. If he’ll appreciate it. Because he saw everything that we did while we were down in the dungeon. Because Seraphim, when she was alive as Elsbeth, beat her.
She was the patron of that vampire, and he was able to see everything that she saw. That was unspenned to us until we were down there. So, yeah, and we were trying to keep things under wraps because he does have a past with this dungeon, with this cult, and pretty much like he. It was like a failed conquest in trying to take over that dungeon, right? Yep. Last time he engaged with them, apparently he lost. Yeah, so it was hidden from the city this whole time, and you know, we went down there, and I mean, we took care of things. Um, so who knows? He might have taken that as, oh, thanks, guys. You guys took care of that. Or, you know, he might be like, think you’re better than me? I don’t know. Yeah, I’m just going to have to be very careful about that. Yeah. Anyway, are we there yet? As you approach the building, it looms tall. Its doors dark red. Does anybody still have holy water? Or is that. Or does that not matter anymore? I think it might just piss him off. I don’t know. You know what? Yeah, forget it. Should I leave it outside? I don’t have some. Oh, you have some. You could hold on to it. I mean, I feel like it’d be more suspicious if we put our things down out here instead of just going in as is. Yep. Do you want to knock Scorn since this is sort of like your will? Uh, yeah, I’ll knock. Okay. We got you back, man. You knock on the door. It echoes. And you hear a rumbling from inside. Oh, boy. The doors creak open, and you hear a low voice in the back of your skull commanding you to walk in. All of us are just him? Just Scorn. Okay, Scorn will. Scorn will enter, and he’ll be like waving behind him for them to, you know, come with him. Alright. As you enter, you are again reminded of the darkness in this house. The dark red carpets, the draping, looming curtains, and everything is polished. Step by step, it grows quieter, till eventually you’re standing in front of a man who stands taller than Ipid at almost eight feet tall. Oh my. Ipid puts his chest, pushes his chest out a bit. He stands in a military uniform. Are you here to collect? Yes, sir, we are. He looks at you. With my deepest condolences. The room gets quieter. The sound of the blood pulsing through your ears gets louder and louder, as all you can hear is your own body, and all you can see is the tall, dark vampire. He pulls out a paper, stabs himself in the wrist with a pen, and signs it in his own blood. Oh. Handing it to you, he says, You can leave now or never. I thank you, sir, and I will take my leave now. As you take steps out, the darkness of his presence grows larger, and you feel him stalking down your neck. Every breath you take gets louder and louder as you walk out of the building. Walk faster. Not so that it’s noticeable that I’m walking faster, but just speed up a bit without breaking into a run. Walk casual, whatever. Ipid takes the caboose. It’s like the caboose of the group, sort of just like trying kind of urging everyone to move a little quicker. Ultric’s right up front. Right up front. He’s getting over there. As you walk out, suddenly the weight is gone. The air is light again, and you hear the city around you. Guys, oh my gosh, his aura. Oh, yes. That felt. Wow, I haven’t felt something like that in a while. And Ipid, like, holds his chest. Well, let’s go back to the tavern. And what does it say? What did he write on it? Everything is normal. Was he supposed to?
He signed it. Was he supposed to? I would assume so. I mean, he stabbed. Otherwise, he, you know, stabbed himself in the wrist for no reason. I mean, well, that’s what I’m saying. It was, it was, it was, um, what’s her name? I keep forgetting her new name. Seraphim. Seraphim, yes. Oh, she, uh. It was Seraphim’s will, so why would he have to sign it? Um, could have been a provision in a will. It might have been because her old will, before she changed it, probably gave everything to him. So do you guys think he was angry with us? Did he give that vibe? Maybe a little angry. If he was seriously angry, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now. Yeah, I guess that’s fair. So he would be dead, right? Or worse. I mean, I don’t know. We’re some pretty powerful guys. If anything were to happen, I think we’d all be able to. I don’t think so. I am just going to be grateful. You know what? It’s always good to know your capabilities. I feel like that’s important. Yeah. Anything else we need to take our while we’re at town? How many days have we been in Drowning Wallace? Drowning Wallace? About a week, give or take a day. Seems about right. Aldric, yep. You feel something in the back of your mind, like wind through the trees as something whispers, Your spell is ready. Oh, that. We’ll look around. Aldric, are you okay? Uh, my spell is ready. What whatever that. What do you mean your spell is ready? Oh, um, he remembers the druid. Do you remember I told you that story? There was an old awakened tree that became a wizard, and it was finishing the spell book that Aldric had gotten from the troll. Yeah, it was the one night we left you unsupervised, and you went out and you found a tree man. Now he could tell everything about me and my past. And then he said he would make that spell for me. Or read the spell book or something. Yeah, he was going to do that for me. You gave him the book that you got from the troll bridge. Yeah, I need to get it. Yeah, he’s going to get a new spell for me. It’s apparently ready. It’s ready. Alright. Alright, yeah, let’s go ahead and take care of this. Come and see him. Do you want to come and see him? I mean, yeah, I mean, we’ve only heard about him with the stories you tell us, and he was able to make a scale model of Pappy out of wood without having seen what Pappy looks like. Yep, and it’s on my stuff. Pat Vistaff, I’ll show Starling. There’s a little shape of our former crew member, Pappy, on my staff. Sorry for your loss. Thank you. I don’t think he was sorry. As you’re walking away from the vampire’s building, Scorn, you feel something grasping your heart, and you feel something watching you. Oh. Turning around, you see Lakasism standing in a window. The only window that is open, watching. Oh, holy shit. Moving right along. Aldrich’s whistling. What a lovely day. I hope. I hope Scorn didn’t get himself what I think he got himself into. But we’re just going to keep moving along. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Not at all. That was me out of character saying that. But based on what just happened, I’m a little scared. I was totally a character. Scorn’s doing that walk faster thing again. Yeah, take us to this wood man, you know. Yeah, let’s go talk to your friend. He’s near the tavern, I believe. He’s not far from the tavern, so we’ll just go back there. Oh, that’s good. You are walking and you find a building across from the tavern. Its door is carved with leaves, and you remember walking through it. Yeah, and just to say, his name is lost, but he’s not lost. That’s something I want to emphasize. He’s not lost. But okay. He’s not lost, but he is lost. But he is lost. Well, the person in this store is lost, but they’re not lost. I’m just. You know what, Aldric? You take the lead in this champ. Sure. Sure, I’ll.
I’ll see the door. Can I have a look at the door and see if I can walk in? As you open the door, you see the awakened tree standing there. Oh, hello again. Hello. You have been long on the road. You have faced many perils. I mean, yeah, all of us have. How’s it going? Goes well. I’ve learned your spell. Excellent. Did you read the book and did you learn anything for yourself? I learned many things for myself. Strange magics. Wild and free. Perfect. These are my friends, Ipid, Scorn, and Starling. He looks around. This is Lost. Ipid, Scorn, Starling. Looks at Starling. I once had a nest of starlings in my beard. He strokes long moss growing off of his face. Are you ready for your spell? Uh yeah, it’s ready. Yeah, better yeah, yeah. Open your spell book. Alright. As you open your spellbook, there is a new spell written in it that you hadn’t put in there. Wow. This is great. Powerward kill, right? This was something I remember between it’s not no, I don’t remember. Its name is Blazing Briarheart. Blazing Briarheart, that’s a cool name. As you cast the spell, fire roots erupt from the ground to wrap around the target. Oh, yeah, it’s gonna it’s not dam. That’s what I was gonna say. It’s not damage and it’s not healing or something. It’s like gonna do something to someone that isn’t damaged. Yeah. No, it also does damage. Oh, it also does damage. Wow. So it wraps around the target. They make a constitution saving throw. If they fail, they take sixty six fire damage and are restrained. Damn. Wow. What level is that? Fourth. Wow. Amazing. Sounds cool. Well, thank you very much. Well, that’s not that’s not all. The spell goes on. They have to make the saving throw at the at the start of every one of its turns. If it fails, it takes another two D six fire damage, and it stays restrained. Once it succeeds, it’s no longer restrained and it doesn’t take the damage. While you have it restrained, you can take a bonus action to heal you or one of your allies for two D six. Kind of like using the fire from the spell, maybe? Something like that. So the fire that is burning whatever is wrapped in it will come around and heal whoever you choose. Within a range? Within thirty feet of you. And then when the target dies, it explodes. Then does that damage anyone around you? It does two D six fire damage. Everyone makes a dexterity saving throw within ten feet. This is like troll magic, guys. Yeah. It’s very complicated, guys. Looks like fire magic, which is right up your alley. Absolutely. I’m loving it. Kind of ironic how a tree man found this for you, you know? For a troll man? For a troll. Troll tree man. Troll tree man fire. That’s an excellent spell. This steals the strength of the troll. It burns the troll, and it kills the troll. This is the magic of a troll turned back on itself, bent and filled with flame. Appreciate that. This is great. Is there anything else I can do or we can do for you? Oh, not much. I think I’ll be packing up and leaving town. Why is that? I was here to deal with something, and it seems that it has been dealt with. He strokes his long moss beard, looking around at you. I’m sure we’ll meet again. I’m going to build a new shop grown from the ground up on the edge of the crooked crossroads. I’ll be sure to check it out, actually. Yeah. Looking at you all, he says. Beware what comes next. These cultists that you seek are dangerous folk, and there are wicked things in Alzdare lost. Um Aldric, did you tell him about what we were doing here? Oh, this was even before I knew we were gonna go there. Got you, got you, got you. Uh thank you, lost for the helpful tips.
That’s what I’m saying. He can see into our soul. Love looks at you. No. Some specialize in seeing the future, like this one, points at Aldric. But I know a different divination. I know the magic to see the past. Yeah. When I look at it, I can see everything that you have ever done. So, how in love were Scorn and Elsbeth? Like, did they really like each other? Oh! Why you gotta bring that up? That is water under the bridge. The bridge is burned. Scorn, I’m nosy. I want the goss, okay? I really want to, like. Okay. Looks at you. Looks at Scorn. I don’t deal in the frivolous affairs of mammals. What? Okay. Oh, yeah. Well, I’m not a mammal. Looks at you. Technically, he’s not. It’s true. Some secrets I don’t share. Oh. Well, that’s nice of you. That’s fair. If I told everyone secrets, more people would be coming after me than live in this city. That is fair. Are there any other people like this that are like you? Or are you like the only guy who’s really good at this? Of all I know, I am the only one. Wow, you’re cool. So, Ipid, if you really want to know, maybe you should try asking Seraphim because she loves talking about herself. Okay. Yeah. Um, well, we appreciate you helping our buddy Aldric. Um, anything else we need to do here? I reckon Aldric looks like what people used to look like when they bought video games and they came in actual packages and you like read the manual of the video game and you were excited about it. It actually belonged to you. It wasn’t a license. There you go. Yep, yep. He has that look on his face as he’s reading his spell book. You’re a kid. Yeah, you’re a kid in the backseat waiting to get home. You’re opening the disc. You’re like, oh man. Yeah. Alright, we’re going to take a 15-minute break here and then come back. Cool. Sounds good. I’m going to go harass my children. Sounds real good. Alright, I’ll see you guys in the next video. I’m going to move this quickly. I need a better chair. My back is killing me. Shalom. Hello. I’m going to catch up with you. Actually, I was going to make myself another drink, but I only put like a shot and a half in that, and I felt a little more than usual. Tequila is strong stuff. That’s the thing. I know that, but like, because tequila is my go-to liquor, but this is my first time trying. What did I buy? Casamigos? It was pretty good, though. You guys go to Costco? Yeah. I made a mistake today at Costco. Oh, no. What happened? There’s so many mistakes one can make in that store. That is true. You know how they started doing cookies instead of churros a while ago? Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah. The double chunk chocolate cookie. I ate an entire one of those cookies. Ooh. That was way too much. It’s like a thousand calories. They’re like this huge, dude. They’re like thick, too. It was like good for like the first half of eating it. And then after the second half, I felt like I had just eaten a whole stick of butter. Maybe like half of that cookie is fine. Yeah. But to eat it fully, oof. It’s a thick cookie. It’s a pretty good cookie, though. Ooh. I’ve had it. Every time I go to Costco, I’ll stop by the food court. And I’m never really like, oh, like, I know some people are like, oh, I always do the hot dog and co-combo or whatever. I like to get their fruit smoothie, and they recently added the strawberry banana one. And I am a sucker for a strawberry banana smoothie. My wife got the strawberry banana today. Did she like it or was she like the shit’s ass? Of course she liked it, yeah. Oh, okay. I have a friend on Discord who actually went to Costco and in one sitting ate a slice of pizza, a cookie, and a chicken bake. Man. Which I find insane. Like, that’s like. That’s like 700 calories each.
That doesn’t ever eat in a day. And he was like the skinniest guy, which I find hilarious. I don’t know if I could go a day on 700 calories. No, I mean, in that one meal, what he ate. So, like. Yeah. I gotcha. Like, what? It’s like 3,000 calories or whatever that was eating those three. Yeah. A lot of calories. A lot of calories. I’ve never been one to count calories simply because I don’t hate myself that much. Not yet, at least. I just never enjoyed mixing math and food. Those two things don’t go together in my mind. I was a lot heavier, like, last year, but I was just like, yeah, I probably should relax. Lost damn a lot of weight. I used to be pretty big. I have been gaining weight like crazy the last two years. I made a mistake. I got off my old migraine meds and started taking the shots instead. So, yeah, my old migraine meds, one of the side effects was they suppressed your appetite. So I was on this really large dose of appetite suppressants and then stopped taking that. Oh my God. You didn’t even wean off of it. You just stopped completely. Oh, it took me two years to get off of that stuff. I had to dial down the dosage really slowly. Because there’s some drugs you just don’t quit cold turkey. Yeah. When I started taking my antidepressants, and I’m like on a low dosage, I’m on like 50 for Zoloft. That suppressed my hunger a tad bit, but nothing too crazy. But it for sure has helped in regards to the weight loss thing. I’ve lost a whole other person. I used to be, I’ve actually lost 168 pounds. Oh, yeah. That sounds like a lot of work. A lot of work. Like calorie counting, but thank you. That’s impressive. The heaviest I was at, it was like 255. And being 5’5, that’s just, I’m like a ball. So now I’m at like 211 last time I checked. So, slowly but surely. I’m young. I really shouldn’t, you know, I gotta be more on top of that. But I’m always on top of my blood work and all, because that’s what I’m more nervous about. Like fatty liver, being a diabetic or whatever. I’m always so worried about that. But thankfully, I’ve been good on that end. Yeah, I’m just a good guy. I am. If I was at 0% body fat, we calculated it with the doctor. I would weigh 260 pounds. So right now I’m at, I’m not even at 25 body fat, and I’m at 300 pounds. And I’m like, man, I can’t lose too much. You look like a tall guy. Yeah, how tall are you? Six foot. Oh, well, yeah. Yep. So I’m the short one. Get this man in the league. My younger brother is seven. Really? Wow. Big ass, tall-ass family. What the hell? My tallest relative within recent history is like he’s like 7’8. Whoa. That’s like possible? Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It is. Oh, they’re poor back. My family is from Peru, and Peruvians are just short in general. So I’m 5’5. My dad’s like 5’6, 5’7. My mom’s shorter. My mom and sister are both shorter than me. It’s funny because my fiancé’s 5’8. So it’s a great laughing stock sometimes to certain people. But I’m like, hey. Hell yeah. Oh, you’re just on the basketball team for a while. That’s what you like. I knew for sure I was going to end up with a taller woman simply just because of my height. And it never really bothered me. In regards to my height, I’ve always been aware of it. So I’ve never gotten too crazy self-conscious about it. I found myself a short wife. She’s 5 feet. It’s pretty short. A little bit tall. I’m 5’5. So not too bad. In the middle. I tell people I’m 5’5, and they’re like, dude, for a guy, you’re short. And I’m like, yeah, I guess technically. Because I think, what? The average height for the average American is like 5’8 per men. Yeah. I’ll just start wearing like stilettos or something. Just get jacked. Just get super muscular. Yeah, that’s what my sister tells me. She’s like into weightlifting and shit. And she’s just like, dude, you know you’re short and you have to build for it. If you just hit the
A lot, you’ll be alright. I’m like, maybe, I don’t know. I lacked too much. I need more motivation to do shit like that. Actually, the shorter you are as a guy, the more impressive muscles look on you. Like, because your body is shorter, so it makes your muscles look really huge and really defined and pretty. Yeah, like, I can. I’ve been deadlifting 500 since I’ve been a teenager, and it still doesn’t look impressive. I gotta take a page out of Ipid’s book and get muscular. I’m living my fantasy, my male fantasy sick dream through my DD character. Being seven-foot, buff, a dragon. There you go. Don’t worry, my next character will probably be a dwarf. He’ll be more like me. My friends thought it was funny. I would always play dwarves. I just learned my lesson. I make sure my characters are fire-resistant. I always find the people who play shorter characters are the ones with the loudest personalities, which made a lot of sense for Pappy. And Blueberry, both of them. Yeah. Lots of interesting personality there. Yeah. Very cute. Here we go. There’s our Taiwanese king. Man, ever since I learned you lived in Taiwan, I found it really cool. Oh. Well, you end up in strange places in life. You kind of, anyway. So where were you born again? UK, Scotland. Oh, okay. Can hear it? Just by chance. Sorry? Can hear it in your accent for sure? Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely become more neutral over the years. Yeah, because how long have you been in Taiwan? About ten years. Prior to that, I was in London. I’m sorry. For what? I was working in London. After I graduated, I found a job with a big company, went to London to work, then met my wife in London, fell in love, and ran away to Taiwan. You should write a book. That’s adorable. Sounds amazing. It does. That’s pretty cool. Yeah. One day I’ll write a memoir. There we go. And then the middle of my life, I played DD with a bunch of people. It’s pretty great. Oh, man. All right, we’re going to pick up. Cool. Do you remember where you’re at? Where is it like a refresher? We were talking to Lost. Having some pretty introspective conversation, but I think we were just about to leave him. I think you’re right. And then what else do we have to take care of here in Drowning Wallace? We could check on those books. We still need to. I mean, we went to the library to look for books about the cult, but we found them without that. Yeah, but who knows? Maybe they have more. Maybe they have the rest of the temple locations and those information. Yeah, that’s. That’s possible. How long did they say that was going to take? I mean, a couple of weeks, but how long did this treat guy tell you these spells were going to take? Yeah, he told me it was a while as well. I’m going to safely assume Drowning Wallace with their time estimations are really bad. And things go faster when the sun is up. Ooh. I don’t know who said that, but yeah, that’s true. Yeah, we’re looking around to see who’s dead. Well, we could go back to the library and see if they’ve had any luck finding what we asked for. Yeah, plus I asked for some personal information that I personally would just like to check in on. Sure, sure. Yeah, me too. Yeah. So let’s head over to the library. And then after that, I think that’s pretty much it here in Drowning Wallace. Other than things we’re just not sure. Oh, the blacksmith. We could talk to him. I was just about to say. I don’t think we get much out of him. I don’t know, man. I just… I find it really weird on why he knew where the hell this temple was, how he was communicating to us while he was down there. He’s not just a blacksmith. Well, Aldric. Or Aldric. I’m sorry. Aldric scorn. Let’s just go to the library. Plus, we never got to visit your school, by the way. Don’t you, didn’t you, don’t you want to, you know, you’re an all-wheel.
I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t. I don’t. I’m an alumni. Yeah, I don’t think they would appreciate that. Okay, got you. Oh, yeah, because Ipid looks around. Yeah, because they’re racist. Oh, no. There was only one vampire at the school. Well, she was a half-vampire. She’s not anymore. Seraphin, but he’s talking about you. Yeah, but there were. Yeah. There were some folks. There were some folks there that weren’t crazy about me. I wasn’t one of the popular kids. Right, right. Um, yeah. I said we head over to the library. Okay. As you walk to the library, the closer you get, the how would I describe this properly? The less muscular people seem, the frailer they seem. The more people are wearing glasses. As you approach the library, finally getting there, you are seeing a storm of frail and sickly students that have not seen the light of sun in months. Do they resemble Aldric? A little bit, but Aldric stands out as one of the healthier looking. Ah. See, Aldric, this is why I say that you make sure you keep up with your meals. You can end up like these guys. Yeah, pick him up. Ipit’s been trying to make sure Aldric’s been getting his protein. Yeah, it was just those ghouls one time. They just. So is there like a crowd at the library, or is it just this section of town that’s just busy with a bunch of dweebs? This is just a busy part of town. Okay. All right. Let’s go inside. As you’re walking inside, you see the undead staff running with lively vigor. Where’s the fire? You see them going back and forth with stacks of books almost as tall as they are. You see one student step in the way of one and bumble into him as a pile of books fall and go scattered all over the place. Oh. The unfortunate student is sitting amidst the pile of books dazed, and the undead, uncaring, just begins picking them up as quickly as possible and continues on its way. Ipid walks up to the student and helps him up. The young man looks up at you. Oh, hello. Hey, you took a fall there. You are. You’re big. Yeah, thank you. I mean, not think. I mean, yeah, I am. You’re right there? You took a hard fall. Oh, I’ve taken harder falls. Got you. Hey, why is this place more hectic than the last time I came here? Is there like a book sale going on? Oh, the sun’s out. Right. What does that mean for this situation? Because the sun is out normally in other places, you see. Everything goes a bit faster around here when the sun comes out. And well, we got projects to attend to that need the sun, and we need them now. Oh. You go to the school here in town? I do, I do. Oh, yeah. Hey, we got one of your old students here. He graduated. What year? When did you graduate? How long ago did you graduate, Scorn? Oh, it was, you know, just last year, sometime. Oh, what? Yeah, yeah. What year are you on, buddy? Oh, this is my first year. Oh, man. Hey, if you need any cool tips and tricks from that school, I bet this guy’s got you hooked up. Ipet knowing nothing about Scorn’s school experience says that confidently. Looks at Scorn. Oh, good. Always good to meet an alumni. Nice to meet a new student. He’s like, oh, alright, well, I gotta get going. My project needs the sun, and it’s gonna start setting in who knows how long. Well, remember not to work too hard. Um is there anybody at the front desk? There are many people staffing the front desk. Okay. All right. You walk up. I’m like, hello. As you walk up to the desk, the many people looking back and forth between the undead are busy. And one turns to you. Uh, hi. Hello, what would you like to purchase? We’re not here to purchase. We’re here to just check up on some books that we requested a few days ago. Oh, so you’re not students. No, no, we’re not students here. We’re just regular library guests. I apologize. I’m going to have to take a break to take care of something real quick. You’re good. Go ahead.
It’s like, oh, here are just pieces of meat of the guinea pig. No, they serve it to you whole. No, no. Oh, my. What? What a great thing to come back to. Yeah. We’re talking about food. You ever eat a guinea pig, Lias? If you haven’t, do you want to? I’ll try a guinea pig. Hell yeah! Hell yeah! We’ll go to Peru, man. We’ll eat some guinea pig together. They serve him with a little Peruvian hat. I’m just letting you guys know we’re going to wrap up in about 30 minutes tonight. Oh, okay. Now, to get back into things, the librarian is looking at you. You said you have things on order? Yes. Several things, actually. Number one, I guess we didn’t really give them a name, did we? Like, be like, oh, yeah, this is for so-and-so. We have pickups for things regarding the Barador cult. Books about dreams, right, Aldric? Yep. Fortents of the future. Fortents of the future. And Ipid lowers his voice a little bit, sort of like just trying to talk directly to the librarian and be like any recent events popular enough to be written about in the past year or so about dragonborn soldiers. Is that everything? Anybody else ask for anything else? Because I think Blueberry did, but we don’t really. Yeah, I think we asked about Baradur if we didn’t mention that already. Yeah, that’s the first thing I said. But yeah, those were the three things we were looking for. Unfortunately, we have no news about a dragonborn. Ah. Okay. Most things in our library are of past events in the past decade or beyond. Oh, understood. But we do have something about the cult of Baradur. Gotcha. Do you have so is it ready for pickup? We can’t give you the book. Oh. But we have some information that you will find relevant, but we can give you no more than this. Uh, okay. There are temples located that have been found. An Alsdair lost, Falkirk, and Balatur. Any information on what’s in the temples? Only wretched attempts at immortality. Things that should never have been spoken of or attempted. So could you repeat those three locations again? It was Alsdairs Lost. Allsdairs Lost. In the mountains to the south of Falkirk, and underneath the city of Balater. Alsdair’s Lost, Balater, and I’m sorry, there’s one more. Falkirk. In the middle of the mountains near Falkirk. Ah. Okay. Well, that’s good. And Ipid writes down those locations as quick as he can. As far as your other request, we were unable to find anything specific regarding the omens. Given more time, we would have found something, but not yet. Ah. Yeah, well, we might be heading out of sound. We might be heading out of town soon in a bit anyway, so. Well, we’ll hold your poll request as long as needed. Okay. Are any names of any individuals coming up in those books? Like for the temples? No specific names. But there are rumors that these temples aren’t just attempts at immortality. Each of them seems to be an attempt to overthrow a specific god. Ooh. I wonder if the one that we dealt with had to deal with that. There was the mention of the blacksmith god in that temple. Yep. Yes. Oh, shit, you’re right. What was the first temple? Well, the first temple. What was the god of… That was the sun or something. Is that right? Salad. I don’t remember. I don’t know. Did it have a god at all? I don’t know. We don’t know, but I assume probably. Could we go talk to that blacksmith quickly? Yeah, I think now that I’ve made the connection in my head, we might. Thank you, sir. We really appreciate it. You guys have a good day. Seems like you guys got your hands full. Looks around. Looks at its hands. Not currently. The book called. Do we see it? Do they have it in their possession right now? They don’t have it. We see them right away. What he does have is a note with what he told you.
Written on it. You see, some books aren’t allowed past the lower floors. See? And this wasn’t covered, but to get to the lower floors, you have to purchase a pass to go down there and search for yourself. They are quite expensive. I wonder if any of these nerds paid for that. I’m just looking at my spells, thinking I could just cast greater invisibility and walk down there and probably pick up the book and walk out. If I could find it. It would be hard to find. It’s on one of a hundred floors underneath there. Yeah. Where the hell did Starling go? I mean, I don’t do it, but I was really considering it. Um yeah, let’s go um let’s go talk to that blacksmith. Yep. As you leave the library, you see more of the scrawny nerds stumbling around. Now you go to a much darker part of town. The buildings get smaller and more run down. Built out of planks that have been found in the gutters, you enter the slums. It is here, or as you’re walking through, you hear the ringing out of a hammer on an anvil with perfect rhythm. It was that way. Or still in that door. Yeah. Well, let’s go see him. Uh, did we ever get what his name was? No. Um hello, sir. I will follow your lead. As you walk up to the blacksmith, you don’t see the old man anymore, but you do see a middle-aged man with rippling muscles who stands tall and firm as he swings his massive hammer. He has a short trimmed beard and a shaved head, and he swings with a might that could smite a god. Hot. Um hello, sir. He looks at you. His voice low and thunderous. Hello. We meet again. Oh I get do we know you? I suppose he looks down at himself. I’m in better form than last time. Oh wait, hold on Same dude, okay. Are you the guy who gave us the key? Yes, I am. What did when you start when you get hot? What is this? I was able to reclaim my place. How come? Because what you did kicked the devil out of this out of his temple. You cleaned out the scourge. Oh, it wasn’t the devil. I could deal with the devil. It was that cursed thing points at Aldrich that you were carrying. That wretched thing, I can’t go near it. Oh shit, are we gave it to Blueberry? Oh, you’re right, you’re right. Okay. Be careful with such things. They are wicked and not over this world. They come from packs made with those who would see destruction sought through all. Are you a god? Some have called me, but I call myself a smith. Ah, the Smiths. Um I mean you spoke to scorn in the temple. You gave him a well not gave him a ring, but you knew about that ring. I did. I prepared it many years ago for that day. Were those dead bodies in there, so those skeletons, were those your team? They were my followers at a time. Oh wow, followers. And so the cult kicked you out pretty much? Yes. They perverted my temple and stole my domain. Wow. And well, I’m glad that we were able to help out. Would you happen to know anything about the bone devil that was down there? It was a wretched thing. It sought to take the artifact which you had gone to retrieve. It knew where it had come from and it knew what it could do. I would return as soon as that had left, but that devil it had plans to overthrow something something wretched and strong in the pits of hell. The thing it did not work alone. It has a master from deep in the pits. A master who would see all things overturned. Oh um wow. Do you think this master is sending anybody else to maybe these other temples? And second to that, do you know about this other temples? It seems like gods or people similar to gods like yourself are kind of being harassed out of their own places. I know the temple that you first
Entered the artifact which you first retrieved. They had killed that god alt. Well, that’s extremely disturbing. Though killed might not be proper. They scoured it from the past and the future, from all time and memory. Oh, wait, then how do you know about him? We should help it. And Starling’s right. It looks like it might be more of a thing that needs our help more than anything. Indeed. Any other any other thing you sh any words of advice in dealing with this kind of thing? Be prepared. It will challenge you in combat. I respect it, man. So you gonna head back to your temple? He looks around and gestures to the forge around him. Anywhere there is fire and iron is my temple now. Would you like your ring back? When Aldric says that, Scorn’s like, Oh, that’s right. Um, did you want this ring back?
It looks at that. Oh, that’s just a trick. You needed it more than I, and you still need it more than I do. Sounds good. I can’t remember. Did I give that ring to Aldrich? No? Okay. No, you just held on to it. Okay. Alright, Joe. Alright, guys. I think we should. I think that’s everything. We should head back to the tavern, give Blueberry everything, and take a long rest. Take a long rest, get back on the road, and let’s get this thing moving. We need to tell Tom we’re going on another trip. Yeah, Tom will be fine. He’ll tag right along. He’s up for it. Sure, he is. I’m sure he’s done being in that tavern. Aside from the drinking, I’m sure he wants to finally stretch his legs. Does he need help with the horses? The Smith gives you one final word of warning. If you go through the mountains, whether above or below, there be giants. Okay, I kind of wondered about that. It’s a rough country. Well, we’re rougher. Right, Scorn? I don’t want to make the giants angry, that’s all I can tell you. I mean, I mean, we don’t have to get anything angry, but I mean, we’ve gotten ourselves out of some pretty sticky situations. And plus, we got some. Yeah, a new friend here, right, Starling? You kick some giant’s ass if you need to. Right. Yeah. Yeah, see? She’s confident. He points at her. Excellent. Just looking at your finger like. Looking at what? Looking at the finger like I want to buy it. And if it slowly pulls away. Love it. As you begin walking back to the tavern, you hear the ringing of iron again. But now, quicker, more fervorous. Preparing for something that is coming. I feel like if we had a warrior in our like a like a fighter fighter. I know Paladin. I know. We have a warrior. I mean, I know. Look at that size of that sword. That’s true. I mean, like, Aldrich, Aldrich, I’m going to try not to take offense to that, but I feel like I’ve… I feel like I’ve earned my place to be considered the warrior of this group. I mean, you absolutely are. I’m just saying someone could have gotten close with that blacksmith god guy as a warrior. You know, I mean, you’re not going to get close to him. Do you know what I mean? You’ve got your Bahamut, is it? Bahamut. Yes, Bahamet. He knows how. Yeah, I mean, as a worshipper? Yeah, it’s like a follower. Oh, I see. Okay, yeah, I see. Like, as a warrior, warrior, kind of black. We would like the armor, who would like the general vibe of that guy. We don’t have Papy anymore. Maybe Pappy could have been that. Well, I’m sure he’s not completely out of our lives yet. I think we’re going to see him once again. But trust me, my God, he gives me the strength I need to keep on doing this shit every day. I mean, it’s worked so far, yeah. Do you talk to your god? We speak at night, not often, but at times I pray to him. I haven’t had a if it’s letting off more. Like, if it’s not, like, saying what the last time I had a long conversation with him probably was like three years ago. Um it was when I left home initially and um I was down on my luck and he saved me in a way. And I owe everything to him, really. That’s really great. Aldric, who is your god? Me? No, I don’t. I don’t have. She just has this very judgmental look on her face right now. No, no, I. He’s purely from the books. Yeah, knowledge is my thing. I want to find everything out. I want to know things. That’s all. See. And what about you? Aversus My God, the god of divination. Excellent. Have I I mean, I would have heard of that, right? Yes. But the player has not heard of it. Maybe that could be a next session thing, but yeah. I gotta pull him from Forgotten Realms and it was kind of a last minute thing and Eliza was like, yeah, you can do that. No, I was happy. Divination, you say. Maybe I would need to talk to you about that. I I’m quite interested in divination as well.
Maybe I can pick your brains to something. I’d be happy to help you. Awesome. Scorn, while we’re at it, what’s your. I am not beholden to any one god, but I know all of their songs. So, yeah, I can play accompaniment to any choir I wish. I know you can. Alright. You walk away and return to the tavern. And inside, you save Blueberry with the pack ready, sitting next to Seraphim, who is now in much better clothes. In contrast to the white wings and pale skin and golden eyes, she wears dark red robes. Um, Aldric, do you, or not Aldric, uh, Scorn, would you like a moment to say goodbye to Seraphim? Because it seems like she’s going to be going with Blueberry. Yes, that would be good. Yeah, of course, man. Um, uh, I look at like the rest of the group of like, let’s go ahead and um let’s go ahead and rearrange our things before we hit the road again and give him a moment. Um, Scorn holds up the will or the letter about the will. I don’t know which is it the actual will that I got? Yes. He says, I haven’t read this yet. No idea what’s in it. She looks at you, takes it from you. That’s okay. I’ll show it all to you when you’re next in the crossroads. I hope to see you there. I will look forward to it. Looks in the eyes that now glimmer with a golden light. I have stuff prepared there. Well, that sounds either very ominous or very promising. I’m not sure what you mean. When you go back to the crossroads, you’ll find my tavern. Its name is the Golden Dawn. Good name. A warning to vampires and a promise of my own rebirth. Well, I’m glad you’re still with us, or rather back with us. She winks at you, picks up her bag, and begins walking outside with Blueberry. Oh, I hear you’re going to be crossing the mountains. That’s the plan. Best of luck. And watch out for giants. Yeah, we’re going to need some luck. You see her grab Blueberry, picking her up, and then take off into the sky with her massive white wings. I don’t like my thing around here, do they? I don’t know about you, but I can teleport. Makes a bit of noise, but I can teleport. Now, what preparations would you like to make? I would. I kind of just said that to be like, give us another reason to step away while Scorn said goodbye. I think Aldrich would study his spell book and kind of get excited about using that fourth level spell, so he’s probably going to have that prepared next time. Alright. Yeah. Oh, um. I’m going to attune to that ring. Alright. If I haven’t already. And I’ll figure out what spells I’m putting in it before I take a rest. Alright. What does the ring do with the spells? I’m sorry. It’s a ring of spell story. It’ll hold up to five spell levels. So I’m going to put a couple of spells in it before I rest and get those slots back on the long rest. So then I’ve got all my spells and I’ve got the ring loaded. Just a question of what to put in it. I know what I’m going to put in it. And I’m going to make it. Yeah, sorry. I just wanted to tell you, Elias, that my spells are kind of wonky when I build a character. I didn’t select any of them, so I need to go back and do that. Oh, apologies. That’s alright. Honestly, it’s an ongoing process. I don’t expect it all to be perfect. There’s a lot of room because it’s a game. Never get too worried about something being wrong or you cast something when you don’t have it prepared or whatever. It’s still a game. Yeah, we’ve been pretty fly with rules in regards to concentration and certain roles and stuff like that. Oh, thank goodness. Yeah, Elias has never been like, well, actually. I used to, when I first was a DM, I would be really personickety about the rules. I’d be like, well, it has to be this way, and it’s exactly that. And eventually the rules start to get in the way. And part of me as the game master is recognizing when the rules need to be enforced and when it’s.
It’s okay to let them slide. Because if they’re never enforced, then the game falls apart. But if they’re also always enforced, it creates a lot of conflict when people don’t know what’s going on or when there’s an interaction that’s really complicated. And sometimes it’s easier and better to just say it’s going to play out this way than going through the actual rules as written description of what would happen. Yeah, totally agree. I used to have a DM and he was just like, he was just such a rules lawyer. It was uncomfortable. It’s been really great. I believe that the players should come first. The game should come second, and the rules should come last. Just the way Gaiaks intended, because he was like, he was always, I mean, it was a big proponent where he was like, it’s an outline, you know, do with it what you must. Yeah. Or, I don’t know, when I played first edition, that is a very different game. Like, first edition is more about being able to build a game than being able to play a game. There were so many rules that don’t. Like, you couldn’t take first edition and fifth edition and play them together. They’re completely different games. Anyways. I started with 2E. Yeah. My first system was 3.5. I’m a baby. I’m 5E for my first. I first played DD in 1980. Oh, yeah. You’ve been a long time. Yeah. Yeah, I’m ancient. I’ve got a lot of friends who started in the 70s, and they never let me forget it. They think I’m still a noob. Oh, my God. That’s great. All right. Well, we’re going to wrap up here, and I’ll see you guys next week. Thank you for playing with me, and message me if you need anything. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Elias. Great game. Nice meeting you too. Good morning. Good night. Good afternoon. Goodbye. Ciao. Have a good one. Ciao.