Branching Paths | Critical Role Campaign 4, Episode 5 Part 2

Transcript

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Speaker 2 Hello again. It's Brennan Lee Mulligan and you're listening to part two of this episode of Critical Role.
If you haven't checked out part one yet, pause this now and head over there first.

Speaker 2 What are you doing?

Speaker 2 Otherwise, let's jump right back into this adventure and the world of Araman.

Speaker 2 How do you play this game, folks? We are back and live.

Speaker 2 Literally, how? The book doesn't tell me what I should say from moment to moment.

Speaker 2 Adventure, you're on one. Help, help, help.

Speaker 2 Last we left off, someone was one shy of failing a skill check, but I'm getting a note from the judges. We're actually going to allow, because guidance can be cast on any willing creature.

Speaker 2 Is Catechan Veil a willing creature?

Speaker 2 Right in between the oils. A little guys,

Speaker 2 which no role necessary that gets you to the difficulty class of 20, which you were trying to hit which which isn't enough to give you anybody stone cold but it's enough to rule out some options uh following the tracks from here you've got wolfrick sniffing out in the rain uh in the early morning light um

Speaker 2 i will

Speaker 2 i will allow there's a couple different roads that that they could have taken here uh

Speaker 2 and i will say that

Speaker 2 there's effectively two that you're able to rule out right away.

Speaker 2 The main road that diverges out from the Dvalmar Pass, right? So the Dvalmar Pass is the big pass that runs east from Dolmatyar.

Speaker 2 That road, you know, doesn't lead to Gourmalay, doesn't lead to

Speaker 2 Timony, the realm, the kingdom of Timony.

Speaker 2 You would be looking for probably

Speaker 2 two

Speaker 2 different

Speaker 2 roads or highways that go north. One of them is the Pilgrim's Road, which is this ancient dwarven road that goes over the mountaintops to some ancient holy sites.

Speaker 2 That place has been largely abandoned since the Goddess of the Forge was defeated. There's not a lot of pilgrims running around anymore.

Speaker 2 Then there's the King's Highway. That's the main road that leads to Timmins Rock, which is the capital city of Timani.

Speaker 2 That is the fastest road to where you're going.

Speaker 2 It's a big old highway, it stretches off of the Devalmar Pass. You know,

Speaker 2 it would peel off probably like two miles outside of town. That road would split.

Speaker 2 Does it have Pizza Hut expresses and stuff? Yeah, it has like a shell. You can grab some different

Speaker 2 KFC and Taco Bell the same.

Speaker 2 You go in and you're like, Baskin Robins Taco Bell, wait,

Speaker 2 this is a one-two punch people are asking for?

Speaker 2 Okay, if you say so.

Speaker 9 So we followed the tracks to the point to where we're assuming this rain is going to wash them away. These are our two options.

Speaker 2 I think you're two options. You follow the tracks long enough and you go, okay.

Speaker 2 Sid was running on foot.

Speaker 2 Casimir and his gang were in carriages, were horses and carriages, which means that, yeah, they're faster, but the horses would have been faster, but they're not going with horses, they're going with

Speaker 2 Sid's carriage was left behind. He couldn't fly right.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So, you in your head go, well, they're not going to abandon their carriages.

Speaker 2 There's no way, like, this is you on that 20 survival going, like, no way they go to the Pilgrim's Road with their carriages, even if they're chasing Sid.

Speaker 2 And, and also, Sid probably doesn't even know about that Pilgrim's Road. You know about it because you've been traveling a lot, right? But Sid's been a city slicker for like 12 years, right?

Speaker 2 So you're able to rule out the Pilgrim's Road as

Speaker 2 an option. Basically, you're left with the King's Highway.

Speaker 2 Or

Speaker 2 there is

Speaker 2 a forest, the Dahopshini Wood, which is a

Speaker 2 big alpine, kind of like... almost like a conifer pine rainforest.
It's like cool and misty and rainy there almost all the time.

Speaker 2 There are a lot of like vines and other plants there. It's like a cold weather high altitude rainforest.

Speaker 2 I don't handle cold weather very far.

Speaker 2 So on a 20, I can't give you tracks dead to rights, but I think that you are left with these. You rule out a lot of options quickly.
And you go, there's the highway,

Speaker 2 which the carriages would have traveled on. So at minimum,

Speaker 2 Casimir would have gone in that direction.

Speaker 2 If you travel in that direction,

Speaker 2 you'll be traveling on a big open road, which will be fast. But also, I think on a 20, you know, that's the road that anyone who is pursuing you guys would probably take that road as well.

Speaker 2 It doesn't mean that they'll be as fast as you or travel as lightly as you.

Speaker 2 And then there is the forest, which normally would slow people down. It would not slow you down.

Speaker 2 If Casimir went that way,

Speaker 2 if Casimir basically made a choice that was, oh my god, they're definitely right behind me.

Speaker 2 I have to go somewhere that the carriages can't follow me. You mean Sid? Sorry, Sid.
Yes, if Sid had to make that choice, that he would have been like, let me go somewhere that carriages won't follow.

Speaker 9 And are these two paths sort of like all roads lead to Rome kind of situation?

Speaker 2 Oh, okay. Yeah.
So, okay.

Speaker 2 Both of them would head towards Gourmet Lay. It's basically, do you want to take the paths?

Speaker 2 I think on that 20, basically, it is

Speaker 2 dealer's choice between off the road and the dangers that that involves, but where at least nobody who's pursuing you will be able to move at your same pace?

Speaker 2 Or do you take the King's Highway, the dangers that both paths have danger to them? The dangers of the King's Highway will be

Speaker 2 anyone pursuing you will be able to keep a pace with you. But also you'll definitely have more opportunities to

Speaker 2 have other ways of tracking. People will have seen people.
There will be towns, there will be inns and taverns and things like that.

Speaker 9 I think immediately Wolfrig starts to rip off into the forest path, and I just go and I hold him back.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 9 I turn to the group and I go,

Speaker 9 Well,

Speaker 2 I don't have a dog in this race, except for that one.

Speaker 2 Which way do we go?

Speaker 2 Are you a man of the wilds?

Speaker 2 I will be fine in any scenario.

Speaker 2 I think I would prefer the highway. I mean, it feels like we would

Speaker 2 make better time, and possibly there could be inns or taverns where we could find a nice warm bed to rest our heads at the end of the afternoons and maybe have a nice

Speaker 2 home-cooked meal, a nice soup.

Speaker 10 Love soup.

Speaker 10 I will say that if we go to a place that favors more people, we need to get a story straight as to why we are with someone who your family tried to murder.

Speaker 2 So, my pitch

Speaker 10 is that we figure out a story because we are still very much of the candescent creed, or else the candescent creed is very much against us.

Speaker 2 Of course, of course, yes, yes. Well, I mean, this is our

Speaker 2 protector, our assigned servant, our

Speaker 2 protector, right? I made the pledge towards you, but I also am not going to keep you from making horrible choices yourself. If you go on this road, as you are, you will stand out.

Speaker 10 Well, I think that that's a good story. If you're okay playing that role, we can say that we have

Speaker 10 taken to the road to proselytize.

Speaker 2 Spread the good word, yes.

Speaker 2 Visit a stronghold south of here?

Speaker 10 Sid would have taken to Hapshini, right?

Speaker 10 It depends.

Speaker 2 If he was being pursued, he would not have taken the road. Right.

Speaker 10 Maybe we can catch Sid before they do and

Speaker 2 help him out. Was he being pursued?

Speaker 10 Did anyone know of his of course he was being pursued by Kazimir?

Speaker 2 I was sort of late to this whole conversation and didn't... I don't really know who Kazimir is.

Speaker 2 We will make up any disadvantage that you put on us with our skill and expertise, but we have a decision to make. We have to decide if finding Casimir is the priority above Cid.

Speaker 9 While they're all discussing these ins and outs, uh, what time of day is it?

Speaker 2 You've been traveling, you're now far enough outside of the city that uh

Speaker 2 the sky is getting gray with sunlight as the heavy rains come down.

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 2 give me a perception check.

Speaker 2 For time of day.

Speaker 2 I am

Speaker 2 so good.

Speaker 2 The sun is in sky. Is in sky.
It must be super cloudy because that was a six, maybe.

Speaker 2 Looking out, I mean, you guys have already, you know, Teor, you were rescued from the bowels of a warlock's dungeon earlier today. Cadigan, you've been up since this morning.

Speaker 2 All of you have been traveling through the night. Shadows still hurt.

Speaker 2 If you guys were to engage in

Speaker 2 a full day's travel right now, there'd probably be some constitution saving throws for exhaustion and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 Because you've been going hard. But on that sixth perception, I think you sort of peer off.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you see the beginning of the King's Highway heading up north to Timini up there. And then you see the forest.

Speaker 9 I'm sort of thinking of

Speaker 9 the deep forest at night.

Speaker 9 And I think if there's anything in Cadogan's mind, if there's anything frightening, it's not highwaymen. It's what's in the forest when the sun goes down.

Speaker 9 So while I might naturally go that way, I would say.

Speaker 2 Sun's coming up. Sun's coming up.
Oh, someone's coming up. Someone's coming up.
Oh, someone's coming up.

Speaker 10 It's hard to tell.

Speaker 2 I know you. I rolled a six.

Speaker 2 It's hard to tell because you can't tell what time it is.

Speaker 2 Oh, okay.

Speaker 10 We are here to help each other, and so we'll go whichever way, whoever you are determined to find. Your pretty white outfits are gonna get really dirty, though.

Speaker 2 And I'm here to keep you alive.

Speaker 2 Thank you. I hope it won't come to that, and I don't foresee it will.

Speaker 2 I mean, we're just going to find your brother, and he'll be there, and there'll be a happy reunion of some sort, and then we can deal with my issue.

Speaker 2 These people you saved me from, that bisected my shadow. Do you think they will not turn the world upside down looking for you and you?

Speaker 10 They will, and that's why we have to be really, really convincing that you're a good leader.

Speaker 2 I am a good leader. Yep.

Speaker 2 Time is very precious. We should use the cover of the jungle, even if it compromises your

Speaker 2 comforts.

Speaker 2 This is tricky. So you're both for the jungle? Yeah.
And obviously we're two votes for the highway, so I guess it's up to you then.

Speaker 10 No, I'm. Okay.

Speaker 2 Well, now that I know that the sun is coming up

Speaker 2 with my keen perception. Ah, horizon, line of sight.

Speaker 2 Range your eyes, which I don't think I've said to this point.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'll just.

Speaker 2 The hawk screams in here.

Speaker 2 Yes, the sun is up.

Speaker 2 I'll just start.

Speaker 2 He's an absolutely unparalleled wilderness man.

Speaker 2 It's night, no morning.

Speaker 2 Oh, this is gonna be rough.

Speaker 9 Caddig is just going to start kicking a rock into the woods and walking into the woods.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 10 I'd like to take a little demon snooze on this horse

Speaker 2 as we trot along.

Speaker 2 Taking a snooze on the horse will prove impossible. Impossible? Yes.

Speaker 11 Okay.

Speaker 2 Sleeping on a moving horse will prove impossible. Okay.

Speaker 2 Shit.

Speaker 10 We're going to have to camp out soon, though. Okay, that's totally fine.
What day day of the week is it? Lunier, Chasser, Victoire, Fourgier?

Speaker 2 Gold too. Merlot, Savior.
Martian Dier, Mussel Air.

Speaker 2 What day of the week is it?

Speaker 2 I would say that the day of the week it is. Well, we haven't even established what day of the week it is.
When would they kill Theazi Fang? Probably on a day of the day of the week.

Speaker 2 Is it Forgier yet?

Speaker 2 It's Forgier somewhere, baby.

Speaker 2 Today is, I would say today is Smith's Day's Day

Speaker 2 Something else we should be aware of these

Speaker 2 these jungles are a different

Speaker 2 it's a different terrain but also Sid understands the difference between leading a trail leaving a trail to find

Speaker 2 and leaving a message for those that know what to look for

Speaker 2 Speed will not be necessary in the beginning. Oh, so we're just looking for clues and signs then? Potentially.
Also, things that lead to death.

Speaker 2 Alright, I can keep my eyes open for those things.

Speaker 10 I'm here to help. I'm here to help you.
We're gonna try to keep a low profile. That's the plan.
You look like you can totally do that.

Speaker 2 Absolutely. You should cover yourself with mud and shit as soon as possible.
Well, I'll use this cloak. That should probably do that.
We should do that.

Speaker 2 We should do that. Listen to her.

Speaker 10 The second we get off this horse, I'm taking it.

Speaker 2 I'm rolling her out of the mushroom.

Speaker 2 Very well.

Speaker 2 As you guys

Speaker 2 sort of

Speaker 2 air to the side of probably the forest is the wise way for us to go,

Speaker 2 you are looking at

Speaker 2 your steeds, your horses.

Speaker 2 They will be, you'll be able to travel with them through the forest, but you'll have to take a slow pace.

Speaker 2 Unless, of course, you want to leave them tied up at a hitchpost outside an inn somewhere and

Speaker 2 head out on foot.

Speaker 2 I already did.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm on foot. Cool.

Speaker 2 This will be hard then.

Speaker 2 I was flying around.

Speaker 2 Are we dismounting for real Z's? You could trot slow, but I mean.

Speaker 2 Your horse might.

Speaker 10 Yeah,

Speaker 10 I dismount and I put my knee up.

Speaker 10 I get my hand.

Speaker 2 Oh, thank you. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 Thank you.

Speaker 2 Really good. Really good.

Speaker 2 We just leave the horses here. What are we...

Speaker 10 We're going to tie them up. Take them, tie them up somewhere.

Speaker 2 But won't they get lonely? That's not even inn. Oh.
Will they get lonely? Well, yeah, I mean, they're...

Speaker 10 They'll get dead.

Speaker 2 Tie them at an inn.

Speaker 10 You have money.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 Are there inns nearby? Yeah.

Speaker 10 I mean, we're at a crossroads, of course.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 you guys are not too far. I think it's pretty effortless to find a place to tie up the horses and leave word here with an innkeep as you make your way into the forest.

Speaker 2 Also smart to say that your travel plans take you in the opposite direction, the next day of which we are going. Excellent.
Of course. Yes, let's do that.

Speaker 2 Lovely. As you approach an inn early in the morning,

Speaker 2 you hear a voice nearby.

Speaker 2 God damn it.

Speaker 2 Exactly.

Speaker 2 I'll say that, yeah, you guys are preparing. You're getting your boots done up like Tayor and Katigan, Thimble, all you guys have done, like deep woods adventuring.
Jerry, you're from

Speaker 2 demon realms. But if you've ever been to a big rainforest before, I think you're looking at like these beautiful gold brocade slippers that Wickham is wearing.

Speaker 10 And you know, it's hard because you do have to stay in that.

Speaker 2 Of course.

Speaker 2 That's all I brought. Yeah.

Speaker 2 As you walk the four horses up to this sort of roadside inn, and again, it's very populated around here. You're only a few miles outside of a major city.

Speaker 2 But it's early, early light. You hear a voice from up on high call out and go like, hey there, friend.

Speaker 2 You're leaving your horses behind. I'm sorry, could you enunciate just a little bit better? Up above you, swinging,

Speaker 2 you see, swinging from a gibbet, which is one of the sort of like steel birdcage things. You see that there is a

Speaker 10 that's what's on Crocs.

Speaker 2 What's that? Gibbet? Gibbet. That's what they put on Crocs.
That's true. It's the name for the back thing of Crocs.
No, it's for the little thing. That's called Crocs.

Speaker 2 Shoes have like this little plastic bullshit thing. You'll learn, you'll learn in a couple years.

Speaker 2 You'll get it. Gotcha.

Speaker 2 Understood. So not that.

Speaker 2 High fantasy. High fantasy.

Speaker 2 You see,

Speaker 2 it is a cylindrical cage that criminals are kept in as they hang from kind of a gallows.

Speaker 2 And you see that there is a broad, thick-necked, sort of orcish-looking man, but also has like a thick braided beard.

Speaker 2 It looks a little bit squat, pretty short.

Speaker 2 Looks out to you. His legs are sort of hanging out of the gibbet.
He goes, Hey there, friend. This is the prisoner, Target? Yeah.
Oh,

Speaker 2 may the light reach you, friend. How are you this morning? It can't be.
I'm all right.

Speaker 2 You want me to wake up the inn? Are you staying at the inn for the night? We have business with the inn.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry, are you the concierge?

Speaker 2 In a manner of speaking.

Speaker 2 Oh.

Speaker 2 Well, excellent. I suppose ding ding ding.
Yes, we'd like to have some service here. Yes, that's splendid.

Speaker 2 That's splendid. Well, so you'd like some service, eh?

Speaker 2 We'd like a place to tie up these horses for.

Speaker 2 You see that he reaches over, the gibbet next to him has a full skeleton in it. He reaches over, pulls out a sort of femur bone to reach and push the post of the gallows to start swinging himself.

Speaker 2 Pug a bell, bug a bell, fucking a bell.

Speaker 2 And he sort of gets a good whack, twirls around, and thunks his cage into the corner of the inn that you can see, makes like a thump against the wall and he says, wake up, customers!

Speaker 2 Thank you so much. Well, you're a kind and lovely gentleman.
And may I

Speaker 2 be ever so bold as to say, if you are a fan of the service I have provided, a crust of bread would go a long way.

Speaker 2 I don't don't have any bread, but

Speaker 2 you know what? I have

Speaker 2 it's a symbol of the candescent cream.

Speaker 10 We've got fruit leather.

Speaker 2 Oh, or that.

Speaker 2 You see, he says, says, whoa,

Speaker 2 I think I'll take a little bit of the fruit leather, but I am interested in seeing your symbol of the candidate cream. Well, we give these out at ceremonies and stuff.

Speaker 2 He looks up at you and takes it and goes,

Speaker 2 Thimble.

Speaker 2 Wait, do I know?

Speaker 2 Give me a history check.

Speaker 2 God.

Speaker 2 Ten.

Speaker 2 Ten, you definitely recognize this guy.

Speaker 2 He's spent some time in Dolmachyar, but he comes and goes.

Speaker 2 You think his first name is Abelang?

Speaker 2 Abelang?

Speaker 2 There you go. What the fuck did you do? You got caught? I got caught.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How long have you been in here? How long have I been in here?

Speaker 2 Couldn't be more than a fortnight. But people are generous.

Speaker 10 Well, you're so charming.

Speaker 2 Ah, that's very kind of you to say.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we knocked over a

Speaker 2 caboose of a caravan bound for Timani and

Speaker 2 took some.

Speaker 2 You see, he looks at the Candessa Creed and he says,

Speaker 2 helped ourselves to some of the light.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 I don't mean to say that by means of offense. I'm a fan of your family's work.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much. See?

Speaker 2 Our name carries great honor and weight around here.

Speaker 2 Your name?

Speaker 2 What's your name, friend?

Speaker 2 What the fuck are you doing?

Speaker 10 Can I just say

Speaker 2 I'm so hungry? I'm stubbed.

Speaker 10 Would you like some fruit leather? I'd love some.

Speaker 10 You said that you helped yourself to some of the, and I just whipped some delicious-looking fruit leather out, my guy. Thank you.

Speaker 10 You said that you're a fan of the Candescent Creed.

Speaker 2 May the light do as he said.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I agree. I'm an aspirant also, so same

Speaker 10 wavelength.

Speaker 2 Lovely.

Speaker 2 So you're a devotee? I am. Is that made challenging? Vis-a-vis.

Speaker 2 Oh, my being a demon? Yeah.

Speaker 10 No, it's super easy, actually. Um, this guy, he is helping me out so good.
And may the beam reach you.

Speaker 2 And I feel and you're Mr. Condessa.

Speaker 2 I'm

Speaker 2 Nick

Speaker 2 Halevar. He's Nick.
She says, Nick Halevar, you're a member of the Hale-Var family.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 2 Wow. Yes.
Come on, Rockefeller.

Speaker 2 Give me.

Speaker 2 Also, give me a deception.

Speaker 2 Natural 20. Tell me! Hello! Susie says,

Speaker 2 Nicholas Halo. That's me.
Splendid. Yes.
Well,

Speaker 2 it's a pleasure. May I ask why are you depositing such fine steeds here at the Black Heron? We're going on a little bit of a journey with my friends here into the wilderness.

Speaker 2 In that way, we're going that far

Speaker 2 sorry i'm so sorry um

Speaker 10 we're friends with thimble

Speaker 10 she is escorting us uh we're going on an adventure and we're going on an adventure and

Speaker 10 we we are here doing r d basically to

Speaker 10 spread the word and just i'm so glad that you already have found the beam um thimble's showing us around because uh truffle hunting we're going truffle hunting.

Speaker 2 No, we're gonna talk about truffles. You and Nick Halevar with Thimble are going truffle hunting in the Dahopshini Wood.

Speaker 10 It's part of the itinerary. Splendid.
How much do I trust Abs?

Speaker 2 Give me an insight check. Fucking zero.

Speaker 11 I mean, maybe we work together.

Speaker 2 Oh.

Speaker 10 What was that?

Speaker 2 Nope. God, I broke my fucking check.

Speaker 10 What is this? An insight?

Speaker 2 Insight. 10.

Speaker 2 I I mean,

Speaker 2 you don't know this guy that well.

Speaker 10 Yeah, trouble hunting is gonna be swell. Splendid.
How long are you gonna be in here for?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 I've been told that I'm to remain in this gibbet until I am in the same condition as my silent friend. And he gestures at the skeleton next to him.
Hmm.

Speaker 11 That's a long time. You want help getting out?

Speaker 2 I would be delighted for help getting out. Can I look at the lock?

Speaker 2 You take one look at it. Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 It is extremely.

Speaker 2 It's the whole thing that makes it impossible to pick is that it's 15 feet in the air and he doesn't have any tools.

Speaker 9 Who are the cops around here?

Speaker 9 What are the enforcers that would have put him in this trade?

Speaker 2 Well, it sounds like this guy got grabbed by the Halo Vars themselves. It sounds like the same shit that's happening everywhere.
Okay. You know, he looks around and says,

Speaker 2 I uh, we

Speaker 2 knocked over that caravan the night after we we heard that they had grabbed the Aussie.

Speaker 2 If you're out here, I have to assume that he's made his way out from the jail.

Speaker 2 I am very sorry.

Speaker 2 There is very little warmth or comfort amongst thieves.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 such that it was, it was always a pleasure to do business with Mr. Fang.

Speaker 2 Um

Speaker 2 I would love to be sprung from here.

Speaker 9 From this guy's position, uh

Speaker 9 elevated at these crossroads, does it look like he has a view of the Forest Inn and the King's Highway?

Speaker 9 Does it look like, I mean, if he's awake and he's checking shit out, does it look like he sees things?

Speaker 8 All he would have to do is sit here and watch.

Speaker 2 And you can see,

Speaker 2 as charming and glib as he is being, you can see the beginnings of a swelling in his legs from where they press into the iron bars.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he's motivated. Yeah, look.

Speaker 2 Just to be sure.

Speaker 10 I get you out of here.

Speaker 10 You see anyone, we went that way.

Speaker 2 Yeah?

Speaker 2 He nods and says,

Speaker 2 all I know is that Nick Halevar and his companions had to go find some truffles. And I'll say this as well.
If you give me a running, or, as the case may be, a hobbling head start,

Speaker 2 I actually won't see which way you go.

Speaker 10 I'm going to try to get him out.

Speaker 2 Go ahead and give me a thieves tools.

Speaker 10 All right. I like wiggle into the lock and like look around and see.

Speaker 2 As we see Demo doing that, Kat and I will sort of involuntarily spread out in like opposite directions. You just create

Speaker 2 a scanning for sure.

Speaker 10 What am I? What do I do here? I don't know.

Speaker 2 This is

Speaker 2 diesel.

Speaker 2 You can give me a sleight of hand for this one. Sleight of hand? Yeah.
Okay.

Speaker 2 21.

Speaker 2 Thimble.

Speaker 2 Removing a set, which for you are almost like small like staves. They're like strapped across your back, almost like camping gear.
You whip out these prongs and

Speaker 2 in the lock. Yeah, just it's it's you get your get your hands in there and pry it open and you hear k chunk as this thick heavy hanging lock

Speaker 2 just falls limp and partially open, hanging by its hook that is now separated from the rest of the lock.

Speaker 10 You hear my wings. Oh sick.

Speaker 2 You see Abelang

Speaker 2 just reaches a hand through, pulls the undone lock out of the little clasp,

Speaker 2 moves the door open, and just

Speaker 2 forward, badly hurting. You can see his legs are fully numb.
He's lost sensation in his legs. Falls.
He is going to take two points of falling damage as he hits the ground.

Speaker 2 You see the door opens as an older orcish woman in a bonnet and a nightgown opens the door, having responded to him waking up the inn and goes, good morning, is it?

Speaker 2 Never mind. And she closes the door and falls back inside.

Speaker 2 Abiligne's just sitting on his ass on the ground.

Speaker 10 Did you see anyone that looked like him while you were hanging?

Speaker 2 Call odds or evens.

Speaker 10 Evens.

Speaker 2 Fine. You see, he looks at you and he goes,

Speaker 2 looks like him?

Speaker 2 Can't say as I did. No.
Alright.

Speaker 2 Why? No reason.

Speaker 2 He turns around, says...

Speaker 2 Can I ask, who are you looking for?

Speaker 2 People who betrayed pass.

Speaker 2 He turns around and says,

Speaker 2 I didn't see

Speaker 2 any lionfolk coming through this way.

Speaker 2 But I did see a number of carriages head up the King's Highway.

Speaker 2 They were moving with some mounted guards that bore the symbol of House Taconis.

Speaker 2 And there were some riding in the driver's seat of the carriages that wore crow feathers in their cloaks.

Speaker 2 They tarried. The reason I remember them is they tarried here a long time.

Speaker 2 I can't be quite certain. It seemed as though, he shrugs,

Speaker 2 It seems as though they were confused about where to go.

Speaker 2 Got it.

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Speaker 10 Abeling, can I ask something of you?

Speaker 2 Of course, you give me a food leather.

Speaker 2 It's good. It is.
It's good.

Speaker 10 If you happen to see any representative of the Candescent Creed, will you make sure that they know that it was

Speaker 10 Nicander Halovar that put you in there and be very unclear as to who got you out?

Speaker 2 If I am detained by a member of the Candescent Creed, I am to tell them that it was under the order of Nicander Halovar.

Speaker 10 Yes.

Speaker 2 that I was placed under arrest and leave ambiguous how I was freed from my position here.

Speaker 2 And as he's rattling off that story, an ominous lion folk shadow sort of appears over his shoulder and puts a hand on it and a warm light comes out from under it and I'll use Leon hands to put five hit points, hopefully down into his

Speaker 2 seized up leg and I'll put a gold coin in his pocket.

Speaker 2 Feeling his legs return to him,

Speaker 2 go ahead and give me persuasion with advantage.

Speaker 9 While she's rolling, Catagin leans over to Tayor and says, You changed in the old days, you know.

Speaker 2 What? 16. 20.
Nat 20.

Speaker 2 That's all you need. And they leave.
And I take the gold coin back.

Speaker 2 You're right. That's what you got.
I forgot to myself.

Speaker 2 He, on a nat 20 persuasion, you heal him that gold coin. You look and he says...

Speaker 2 I hope never to be taken into the custody of the Candescent Creed again. But in my line of work, certain risks must be undertaken.

Speaker 2 I shall make certain

Speaker 2 that

Speaker 2 any mention of Lord Nicander or other Hale of ours

Speaker 2 are concurrent with the fact that

Speaker 2 they have only ever acted in the height of their family's propriety. No one

Speaker 2 doing anything untoward at all.

Speaker 10 Thank you for understanding. And I smack Wick right on the ass to get him to stand up straight.
We have a very strict disciplinarian here,

Speaker 10 and that's all of our understanding.

Speaker 2 He smiles and nods.

Speaker 2 He looks out, and you see, on that nap 20, he smiles, looking at all of you, and you can see just you've freed him, you've healed him, you've given him a gold coin. This is a banner mourning.

Speaker 2 Beats some breadcrumbs.

Speaker 2 Should we invite him along with us?

Speaker 2 Maybe. You see, you see, Avilan looks at you and goes, and just says,

Speaker 2 If you

Speaker 2 You see, he says...

Speaker 2 He says, if you are headed up the King's Highway,

Speaker 2 then

Speaker 2 he says, if you are to head up the King's Highway,

Speaker 2 you can use my name at the fiddle and drum. I don't know if that's where you're headed, but they'll give you...
a place to stay for a night if you're in need of rest. Somebody write that down.

Speaker 2 And he says, and if you are headed elsewhere into the wilderness for truffle hunting,

Speaker 2 up on the ridge on the other side of Dahopshini, you may notice a small dwelling place, an observatory or lookout tower.

Speaker 2 The gentleman who lives there,

Speaker 2 Ulbid,

Speaker 2 is a friend who I have

Speaker 2 imposed on sometimes. He's a bit of an eccentric.
He is an arcanist and he studies the weather and other things like that.

Speaker 2 but he is a a small very remote dwelling place if you need a friendly place to rest you see he looks around at some degree of haggardness amongst the group here and says which you may but um he uh he says

Speaker 2 i

Speaker 2 am always made more comfortable to be in the company of liars and you see he nods his head and uh turns around and says by the way these horses

Speaker 2 for anybody?

Speaker 2 Sure.

Speaker 2 There we go. He unties them quickly, gets on one

Speaker 2 and rides off.

Speaker 2 And takes off four horses Richard. His day really turned around.
Great day for that guy.

Speaker 2 Pays to no thimble.

Speaker 2 Great. And also on that Nat 20, you guys actually have a little bit more than you have information about at least what was happening with Casimir

Speaker 2 and a little bit of

Speaker 2 something up your sleeve for both of the directions you were considering.

Speaker 2 The sun is rising, however, and there is a broken lock and an unsprung gibbet here. We should get out of here.
Sure. Sure, yes.

Speaker 2 Which way are we going?

Speaker 2 Let's go. Let's go.

Speaker 2 Was your brother a woodsman? Yes.

Speaker 2 More than more than a street traveler, and he would know better.

Speaker 10 Were we aware, had we pieced it together that

Speaker 10 Zakones were working with the crows?

Speaker 2 I don't think you had. I mean, or not.
Yeah, I don't think you had at this point. So you knew that someone had paid, like, you knew that

Speaker 2 there's no way someone could have given a crook like Casimir Gavendale the deed to us.

Speaker 10 We knew he was selling it to someone, but we didn't know who it was to.

Speaker 2 We didn't know who it was. Like, who has the ability to give a street criminal from Dolmakyar land and title somewhere, like it's candy? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Just for sabotaging Theazi's escape.

Speaker 2 Fuck.

Speaker 2 We left Octus.

Speaker 2 He's gonna be in danger.

Speaker 2 I'm sure Hal will take care of him.

Speaker 2 Hal knows people.

Speaker 2 Right?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 10 I sent him off with Julian. It.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 10 He was young but capable.

Speaker 2 He can take care of himself, right?

Speaker 2 You have to.

Speaker 2 We gotta go after Sid.

Speaker 2 Can I just say that was great back there. We were just bouncing off.
You were horrible. You did so outrageous.

Speaker 10 You did so good.

Speaker 2 You changed one letter in the middle.

Speaker 10 Can I just have a little

Speaker 10 walk and talk?

Speaker 2 We're walking and talking. You're walking.

Speaker 2 So you guys are headed for the woods, right? You're headed for the wilderness. Great.
You head off, Wolfrick, sort of bounding and leaping.

Speaker 2 And as you do,

Speaker 2 as you begin to head towards the wood, the day becomes a little bit brighter as you get farther away from the storm,

Speaker 2 arriving out into the wilderness, I'd love a just for staying on track, I'd love another survival check. We can do the same roll we did before.

Speaker 2 Let's diverse this.

Speaker 2 Or you can guide me.

Speaker 2 What?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 10 we should definitely both roll.

Speaker 2 Correct. This is a group chat.
Yeah. Uh-huh.
I'm going to guide you.

Speaker 2 She's been rolling really well.

Speaker 10 I know, I know. Just super great.

Speaker 2 What do you brought to us? It's almost like history. A man of the woods.
Ten!

Speaker 2 Well, this sounds better than me.

Speaker 2 Are you remembering that Wolfrick is helping you? Oh, I get the advantage.

Speaker 2 Oh my god, I'm not remembering.

Speaker 2 Slightly better. 15.
15. Okay.

Speaker 2 15 keeps your bearings. You are traveling.

Speaker 2 You are traveling through the woods. The day gets brighter as you get further away from the storms traveling along.

Speaker 2 Heading through the Dahopshini Wood, there's still a, you know, there's still a lot of mist hanging in the air. The sunlight comes up.

Speaker 2 And on that 15,

Speaker 2 as you guys are traveling through,

Speaker 2 let me ask if you are, A, you're traveling pace, if you are traveling fast at a normal speed or slow.

Speaker 2 You'll obviously cover more ground the faster you go, but you start to accumulate disadvantages, such as disadvantage on survival checks, disadvantages on things like stealth checks, and also, are you covering your tracks as you go?

Speaker 2 Are you anything like that as you are traveling?

Speaker 2 What is

Speaker 2 what sort of pains are you taking?

Speaker 2 I would say one thing, that at least Sid would be wise enough to keep somewhat of a visual distance with the road from the cover of the foliage, so that if you hear something, you can stop, cover, retreat, attack, do whatever you need to do.

Speaker 2 So I would be looking for signs of Sid as we move, and I think Kat would be...

Speaker 9 Well, we also have the assumption now that he's not being directly pursued so maybe time is not quite as urgent if there's a separation so I would say

Speaker 8 medium pace and keep our cover our tracks the best we can.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 2 and I could do that from the rear if you're at the front. I could just say I'll throw it out there.
If we wanted to keep a faster pace, I have means of blessing our

Speaker 2 blessing us and making us

Speaker 2 such as

Speaker 2 faith imbues me with powers and I can I can pass them along to to you.

Speaker 2 Yes. Just a little boost here and there.
That's all.

Speaker 2 But, but, I trust you, you are definitely the more survivalist, rugged types.

Speaker 10 Let's just gloss over the part where he still thinks that it is his faith that is giving him powers.

Speaker 2 Do we need to move faster?

Speaker 10 And I'm swishing. I'm swishing my tail as I walk behind both of us.

Speaker 2 To like cover our tracks or just for.

Speaker 10 I mean, we're only as fast as our slowest person, so.

Speaker 2 Who's that?

Speaker 2 I don't. It's me.
How many days' head start do they have? Do we know?

Speaker 2 You guys, they left the day before you.

Speaker 2 About one day's head start. Yeah.

Speaker 2 First 48. Yeah, a lot of ground.
We're on the ground every day.

Speaker 9 Do her tail swishes look like they're covering anything or do they look like tail swishes?

Speaker 2 I have to say that.

Speaker 2 At a normal.

Speaker 2 uh uh i'm going to need a group stealth check moving at a normal pace okay all of you will be rolling with disadvantage on stealth

Speaker 2 i don't like normal stealth normal stealth disadvantage

Speaker 2 uh i'm going to great uh get rid of my disadvantage lovely oh lovely

Speaker 2 yes

Speaker 2 what do we get for stealth here

Speaker 2 11 11 5 5 21 21 disadvantage 8 21 11 21 15.

Speaker 2 Okay, 21, 15. Dirty, 20, and natural 20.
Oh, yay!

Speaker 2 20, 21, and 15. That means actually your median roll is a 15.
So I will say, with the tail sweeping and all of that,

Speaker 2 it is actually, well, we got pretty low rolls over here. So I think the two candescents, it's like

Speaker 2 five. Like, in other words, it's like

Speaker 2 you're looking at the tail sweeping and you're like, so you've disguised footprints with a broad sweeping motion going straight into the woods.

Speaker 2 Caddigan's movie, like not touching the leaves, perspiration undisturbed, blending into foliage, and there's just one problem.

Speaker 2 That's the type of animal that leaves that kind of

Speaker 2 thing. This guy literally glows.
It's tough.

Speaker 2 But I think that as you guys are traveling, it's really that the three of you just bring yourselves to areas that...

Speaker 2 won't slow your travel too much and will be impossible to leave tracks on.

Speaker 2 If you're traveling on smooth rock, if you're traveling on boulders and stuff like that, you're going to leave less tracks than if you're traveling in soft earth, disturbing foliage, you know, anything like that.

Speaker 2 So, uh, peeling off through the wilderness as fast as you can. Uh, you keep your guidance, and I will ask for

Speaker 2 uh

Speaker 2 we'll see if we get lucky here. Give me one more survivalism check in this first day of travel.
Don't want to opt out of this one just to like, yeah, no, I'm gonna try.

Speaker 10 What the difference does it make?

Speaker 2 Maybe a success for you. One more survival.
It's pick it picking up Casimir's tracks, if they even exist here, would be finding tracks in the middle of the woods that you've stone cold lost.

Speaker 2 Is another DC-25. So it's next to impossible, but it's a free roll.

Speaker 11 Guide me.

Speaker 2 What?

Speaker 2 Guide me. You have to guide how it works.
I guide it myself.

Speaker 2 It's 14, 16.

Speaker 2 With the help?

Speaker 9 Did you guide yourself? I did not use the help. 16, it's...

Speaker 2 Oh, wait, I'm gonna yo.

Speaker 11 I did guide yourself.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 9 It's 20, 15, that's actually 21, but it's impossible.

Speaker 2 Okay, wait, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 11 Okay, wait. Here's the thing.

Speaker 10 I rolled 23, and I have a bardic inspiration that I haven't used yet.

Speaker 10 Okay.

Speaker 2 From Hal. That's true.
Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 What number? Is that a six or an eight?

Speaker 2 Is that a six or an eight?

Speaker 2 From Hal, I believe it's a D6. Was it? So it's a D6.

Speaker 2 So when you have a 23, you're going to get it anyway, I think. You might, right? No, you can roll a one, it's going to be a 24.

Speaker 2 I'm rolling a six or

Speaker 2 all you gotta do is not fuck it up completely.

Speaker 10 Just don't roll a one, right? If I don't roll a one, I'm gonna go ahead and do it.

Speaker 2 The brain doesn't hear negatives, just say roll a four.

Speaker 2 Bubba booy, pop a booy. You can do it.
Yeah,

Speaker 2 you're gonna. Are you so good? Three.
I rolled a three.

Speaker 2 You're redeemed.

Speaker 2 Um, uh,

Speaker 2 you're good at you're good at remembering stuff. Unbelievable.
Um, uh, you see, uh,

Speaker 2 on a 23 survival, you are looking around all the time. You're a little higher than a 23.
There's 26.

Speaker 2 26.

Speaker 2 26. On a 26 survival.

Speaker 2 On a 26 survival, I think that you

Speaker 2 are, as you're traveling, you're also feeding yourself off the lamp, which for Catigan is an easy prospect to keep you guys fed and watered.

Speaker 2 It's just your first day of travel as well, but you can feel if you, you're getting to the point where it's going to be be a level of exhaustion if you don't find somewhere to rest.

Speaker 2 On 23, I think, or so 26, you look down and see

Speaker 2 that

Speaker 2 there are a small series of

Speaker 2 cupped little clovers, each clover with four leaves holding a little drop of dew. And as you look down at this area,

Speaker 2 you get a sudden sense that there is someone very close by in the water. And on a 26 survival,

Speaker 2 looking at the tall shapes all around you, you see just under the surface of the water

Speaker 2 is a fairy

Speaker 2 hiding absolutely stock still,

Speaker 2 who makes eye contact with you on a 26 and goes,

Speaker 2 Are you in danger?

Speaker 2 No, not right now. Okay.

Speaker 2 You see that what you are looking at is a naiad, a little water. She is a fairy.

Speaker 2 She is a,

Speaker 2 or yes, also called a Nixie sometimes.

Speaker 2 It's a little spring or brook fairy. She's probably about seven inches tall, so almost twice as tall as you, but but still quite tiny compared to everybody else.

Speaker 2 And you see her standing in this little rainforesty brook, this like well spring of water coming up.

Speaker 2 And she's hiding hiding just under where the burbul kind of creates that it's like casting light in all directions. So it's like a good hiding spot.
But you see she just looks terrified.

Speaker 2 And you see on that 26, she goes,

Speaker 2 not twice in 24 hours. This is so crazy.

Speaker 2 Wait.

Speaker 2 Who did you see?

Speaker 2 You see, she looks around, sees you lean close, and she looks up, almost not trusting, and reaches up and grabs your wrists and pulls through the water with her and gets her mouth close to your face and goes, whoo-hoo, and covers your head in a little bubble underwater.

Speaker 2 I'm Brook Meadow. Are you in danger? Those tall people, I can, I, I know, I know trees here that will kill them.

Speaker 10 Great, but I don't need them dead just yet.

Speaker 10 No, um, they're actually friends. I know it's weird, they're big people that are, that are helping.

Speaker 2 Okay, okay.

Speaker 10 You said 24 hours, who did you see?

Speaker 2 You see, she looks up at Teor and says,

Speaker 2 a lion. Uh, uh,

Speaker 2 yeah, came back uh,

Speaker 2 in Golden Light last

Speaker 2 afternoon.

Speaker 2 He was

Speaker 2 struggling through the woods. He was

Speaker 2 headed north from here. But he,

Speaker 2 yes, tall, jet black fur, black mane, amber eyes. Yeah.

Speaker 10 Did he seem injured? Was that? You said he was struggling. Did he seem hurt?

Speaker 10 I couldn't tell. He looked frightened.
Okay.

Speaker 10 Okay.

Speaker 2 I'll be right back.

Speaker 10 Okay. Stay here.

Speaker 2 She goes, are you going to tell them about...

Speaker 2 She is making an insight check into you. I'm not going to tell him about you.
Oblivious to this, I'm going to dip in a chalice into the water nearby. Nearby.
Just get a sip of water for myself.

Speaker 2 No. Yummy angel blood.
That would make you feel so good.

Speaker 2 Oh, it's hot. Yeah, it is hot.

Speaker 2 Have you been carrying that this whole time? I packed it for the road, yes.

Speaker 2 Um, you see, uh,

Speaker 2 you see that she looks up and says, Um, okay.

Speaker 11 Okay, I trust you. I'm Thimble.

Speaker 2 I'm Brooke Meadow. Hi.
Hi.

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 2 I, uh,

Speaker 2 are you...

Speaker 2 Are you looking for Hawthorne's Glade or no?

Speaker 2 No No, but what it wa- no?

Speaker 10 Where's Hawthorne's Glade?

Speaker 2 Doesn't yeah, I'm looking for it. I mean, I'm looking for it.
You didn't even mention it.

Speaker 10 I mean, I'm looking. I've been looking for it for a while.

Speaker 2 Give me deception.

Speaker 2 What? Next one's what I need!

Speaker 2 There it is!

Speaker 2 She says, um, she says, okay, you are looking for Hawthorne. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you can't, you can't bring bring big people there. Oh, no, good, huh? Okay.
I'm gonna ditch them.

Speaker 2 Ditch them, good? I hate them. Yeah.
Um, you see, she goes, she goes, uh, okay, uh, Author's, you're, you're on the right track. It's deep in the forest.

Speaker 2 It's about another day, it's like another day or two north of here. And, um, it's at the very edge.
It's deep in the woods before the, um,

Speaker 2 before the imaginary line.

Speaker 10 Do I have any idea what she's talking about?

Speaker 2 You know, big people, they look at a forest and they're like, there's an imaginary line through there.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 of course I know. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So it's like that, with surround there.
Okay. It's safe because they don't do that.
Nobody goes by the way.

Speaker 9 And then Frick starts sniffing around at all the little petals like over them in the near vicinity.

Speaker 2 See, Profeto goes, Oh, come here, come here. Um,

Speaker 2 you see, you see, she goes, she goes, But yeah, I saw him. He came through here.
Okay, great. Um,

Speaker 2 do you need anything?

Speaker 2 No, I'm I'm I'm good. I'm stationed here for a little while longer for people like you.

Speaker 11 Thank you.

Speaker 2 You got it? Um, it'll be safe there. Just

Speaker 2 the magic around it is strong, but

Speaker 2 they can't get in, but they know something's there. So just be really careful, because there are

Speaker 2 there are dead things in the woods.

Speaker 2 Just try to get somewhere safe before night.

Speaker 10 How far away is the ridge, do you know? There's like a lookout tower, uh, uh, a little.

Speaker 2 Oh, but it's a big person up there. Yeah.
Do you know how far away that is? Only a few hours. Uh, and you get there faster if you ditch them.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Great.

Speaker 2 Great. Be safe.
You too. And let anyone else know that

Speaker 2 there's safety. Oh, um, I'm gonna look and see.
Uh,

Speaker 10 I pull out a button.

Speaker 2 She starts crying. Is this for me? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 it's wonderful. Yeah, you're welcome.
You could use it like a plate. Yeah.
And then the holes could be where sauce comes out. It could be a hat.

Speaker 2 It could be a hat.

Speaker 2 You see, she grabs your hands and just goes,

Speaker 2 we're gonna make it. We're gonna make it.
And she smiles and goes back down into the well and leaves you to emerge.

Speaker 10 I wish that I had heard that cute ass exchange. But instead, I'm just telling Halovar, hey,

Speaker 2 I would never ask you,

Speaker 2 your

Speaker 10 radiance, to compromise your beliefs or to tell a lie. I know that you don't do that.
I really can't. Can I say,

Speaker 10 as a demon, I can impart a little wisdom and I can field these questions for you. What I need you to do, if you're okay with it, and really, this is your idea.

Speaker 10 Do you remember your friend Hal?

Speaker 10 Yes, of course. Gifted actor.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 10 So he trained me. You are playing a part

Speaker 10 of a very strict authoritarian that is going around and acting on behalf of your family. All right.
That's what you're doing.

Speaker 2 All right. So I am a Halo Var.
I'm just out for blood. No.
Out for black. No, no, no, no.
Out to find tracks.

Speaker 10 You are doing exactly what your family is asking of you, which is to spread the good word.

Speaker 10 And if you have to protect yourself along the way from people who work against the candescent creed, then you are doing that.

Speaker 10 That's the part.

Speaker 10 All right. You don't need to lie, and you don't need to do anything you don't want.

Speaker 2 It's a performance.

Speaker 11 What happened in there? Where would you go?

Speaker 2 Underwater. Oh.

Speaker 10 I found some

Speaker 2 fur.

Speaker 2 Some... Some fur?

Speaker 10 Yeah, some black fur.

Speaker 2 Sids.

Speaker 10 Oh! He was this way.

Speaker 10 It was stressed fur, though. He looked like...
It seemed like he might have been stressed.

Speaker 2 The fur was stressed? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Did you have it?

Speaker 10 Oh, it was water. It was waterlogged.

Speaker 2 You left it under the water.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 10 But

Speaker 10 it was stressed, and it was heading north.

Speaker 2 I just kind of share a glance. Cat.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 You want to give me insight and deception?

Speaker 2 We can make it mechanical if we want.

Speaker 2 Do I hear any of this? Sure. Yeah.

Speaker 12 Listen, guys.

Speaker 10 16.

Speaker 2 16. Can we double roll again? Yeah, you need to think.

Speaker 2 If you can tell, it's like bullshit. I want to see how chunk of black fur.

Speaker 2 What'd you get for insight? 17. 17.
You're fine. Great.
Sateor. I think you see.
I do. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Stressed fur. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 10 I can tell when you're stressed.

Speaker 2 Yeah, mm. What does my fur look like when it is stressed?

Speaker 10 Uh, extra. You can't tell because you're not as close to it as I am.
So big.

Speaker 2 You're closer to my fur than.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I can see it better. You smell stronger from my angle, too.

Speaker 2 Now you're getting personal. Well, we should definitely go in the direction of

Speaker 2 the fur that was stressed. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Thank you for this. You're welcome.
And please thank whoever.

Speaker 10 Also, the fur told me that

Speaker 10 that lookout tower is only a few hours away.

Speaker 2 You got that from fur.

Speaker 10 I'm really talented. Wow.

Speaker 2 Retalu. Thimbley's full of surprises.

Speaker 2 Let's go. Yeah.

Speaker 10 Would I have known Hawthorne's Glade? Is that in the same direction that we're heading right now?

Speaker 2 Okay. Yeah.
She pointed north, heading in the same direction.

Speaker 2 As you guys strike out further into the woods, so with the confirmation that Sid did come through here, that you're on the track for at least one of the people that you're pursuing, you continue on.

Speaker 2 So the question is: do you strike out for Hawthorne's Glade or do you make for this lookout post on the ridge?

Speaker 2 You are about the border of Timmini, it is about 50 miles away, and you can travel going at the pace that you're going.

Speaker 2 Normally, a person would be crawling through these woods, but with Cadogan, you're able to keep up at top speed. So you can travel about 24 miles.
Yeah, dog. Nice.
Let's go, baby. Woo!

Speaker 2 I'm from the woods.

Speaker 9 Would we assume any opening or safe space that the glade would be a place where we could rest?

Speaker 2 Yeah. I think the issue with the glade is you don't know exactly where it is.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 10 non-fairy folk are allowed in.

Speaker 2 She

Speaker 2 knows. She said it was safe.
She said it was safe.

Speaker 2 Which is a big ass no.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 10 I don't think big people are allowed there.

Speaker 9 I don't know. The fur didn't tell us that, though, right?

Speaker 2 And also, have you heard of Brookmeadow before?

Speaker 2 Brook Meadow Meadow, the Little Fairy, the Little Nicky. Oh, Brook Meadow? Oh, that was the name.
I'm so sorry. Hawthorne's Glade.
Hawthorne's Glade. Sorry.

Speaker 2 Have I heard of Hawthorne's Glade?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Give me an Arcana check. Or actually, give me history or investigation, whichever one you prefer.

Speaker 11 21.

Speaker 2 You have heard of Hawthorne's Glade. Hawthorne's Glade is

Speaker 2 a name that you've heard referred to. You didn't know it was a specific place because there's people that talk about different rumors of it being in different places.

Speaker 2 Maybe that's one of the defenses of it, is that people say it's in different directions. But you know that Hawthorne's Glade is of a type of place that is really

Speaker 2 wonderfully and tragically common, which is after the doors of fairy closed, a lot of fairies had to find places to be safe.

Speaker 2 And so

Speaker 2 you would imagine that Hothorn's glade deep in a rainforest like this, far away from a road, far away from anything else, is probably a place where fairies are being told to gather to stay safe.

Speaker 2 And of course, you can stay safe from big folk, but you also understand that there's a bit of a...

Speaker 2 The issue with that is

Speaker 2 big folk are dangerous, but also big folk

Speaker 2 do what they need to do to repel the undead.

Speaker 2 And so you're sort of picking your poison in a way.

Speaker 2 You're sort of going, do we go to the wilderness where like we're not near civilization, but then we do we contend with what the struggles there might be? Wait for Great Valley.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 Hawthorne's Glade. You don't know exactly where it is, but you would know that

Speaker 2 it is.

Speaker 2 It's unclear whether, like, if you bring Big Folk there,

Speaker 2 you don't think it's going to be something as severe as like kill on site. Like, you know what I mean? It's not going to be, it's not going to be like Big Folk,

Speaker 2 like, it's going to be, it will be maybe something that

Speaker 2 gets you in a lot of trouble. Or, you know what I mean? Like, it could be something like that.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 um,

Speaker 2 the question is: do you gun it for that place that you know will have probably like a lot of relative safety and information that was in the direction Sid was going in, or do you take this detour to this lookout tower, which is definitely within striking distance and has the capability for rest, but it's off your path?

Speaker 10 What do you think?

Speaker 10 How long is a short rest?

Speaker 10 Is it like a disco nap, like a 30-minute snooze? It's an hour.

Speaker 2 An hour

Speaker 2 getting a little

Speaker 10 I mean, the lookout tower is only a few hours away.

Speaker 2 Okay, I'm just so cranky.

Speaker 2 Oh, you don't you won't like her when she's cranky. No, go

Speaker 2 certainly go to the tower and rest.

Speaker 2 But if this place is a resource for you, or perhaps for us in a time of need,

Speaker 2 that would be good to cement.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 I've been living among the big folk for

Speaker 2 a long time.

Speaker 2 This one's your call.

Speaker 2 Well, fuck.

Speaker 10 I don't know where it is exactly. We could be wandering around.

Speaker 2 To the tower, then. The rest will do wonders for our minds as well as our hearts.
Makes no sense. Yeah.

Speaker 10 We got an expert of the woods here.

Speaker 10 You can get us there, right?

Speaker 2 Your dog and your dog? No. You can do it.

Speaker 2 absolutely yeah

Speaker 2 i believe him

Speaker 2 the rich

Speaker 2 okay

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Speaker 5 Visit your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

Speaker 2 You make your way for the ridge.

Speaker 2 Go ahead and give me one last survival check to make our way in our next stage this.

Speaker 2 Here's a DC-15.

Speaker 2 19. Lovely.

Speaker 2 24.

Speaker 2 After all, we might be running from the ridge. 24.
We don't know.

Speaker 2 This could be a big fucking trap. Lovely.

Speaker 2 Pulling up, you travel through the rainforest. And now that you,

Speaker 2 I think you found signs that Sid is traveling here. You talked to Abelang.
You got this, like, this byword of a place that you can go for some safety and some rest.

Speaker 2 All of a sudden, I think, after the horrors, everything that happened in Dolmakyar, there's a certain degree of, oh, you get off of the vortices of power, and all of of a sudden you're finding regular people who are just trying to live a life and are probably helpful and good.

Speaker 2 And you are moving through this space like

Speaker 2 through the rainforest. It's beautiful here.

Speaker 2 You see that, you know, stretching up on a limb up above you, you see there's some like striped forest cat that sort of yawns and spreads a pair of feathered wings off its back and

Speaker 2 flies off into the forest.

Speaker 10 Do you know him?

Speaker 2 No, we don't. I'm sorry.
We don't all know each other. Okay,

Speaker 2 as you look up,

Speaker 2 you see, there are vines with these sort of hanging, beautiful yellow flowers that sort of jay. The vine hangs down, and the flowers curl back up and around and catch rain water in them.

Speaker 2 And you can see that there are small hummingbirds, iridescent colors that are bathing in the flowers.

Speaker 2 And as you begin to move up, you get higher from this sort of saddle that the rainforest is in, getting back up in altitude.

Speaker 2 Honestly, you cover like 80% of the distance in 90 minutes, and the next three hours of your trip are just getting up the ridge. Like, getting away out.

Speaker 2 Uh, Wick, I'm gonna need you to give me a constitution.

Speaker 2 Actually, we need everybody here to give me a constitution saving throw. Oh, boy, difficulties 10.

Speaker 2 Come and save

Speaker 2 18. 17.
17, great. 18, lovely.
Come and save. 15.
15. 17.
17. 10 on the die.
10 on the dot. Nobody takes the level of exhaustion.
You guys have all been here before.

Speaker 2 Give me one more with disadvantage for your slippers.

Speaker 2 Natural 20.

Speaker 2 I did save with disadvantage, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 Again.

Speaker 2 15. 15.

Speaker 2 Man, these slippers are out of control. They're very finely made.
They honestly were terrible.

Speaker 2 As you look, you've been walking through so much moss in this like very like wet rainforest that they're actually kind of cleaner than when they started. You know, you got off the muddy highway.

Speaker 2 They look phenomenal.

Speaker 2 As you

Speaker 2 look up on the top of the ridge, you begin to see this sort of squat little structure.

Speaker 2 You can see that it's very much, it's made of stone, which is pretty impressive, but it's got a big conical sort of thatched roof. It looks very lopsided.
It's not an easy place to build.

Speaker 2 So the effort that went into building it was not perfect. and it's sort of been this imperfect little hovel or hutch.

Speaker 2 Coming out of the thrall of the thatched roof is an enormous brass telescope that is looking up towards the sky. You see that there is a yard that has some guinea fowl around it.

Speaker 2 The guinea fowl are very stressfully just pecking at like seeds and some feed right around a cliff's edge that just drops like 85 feet straight down.

Speaker 2 You see, there's a goat tied up on a rope. It's one of these things that you see very like hermity-eccentric people that just have

Speaker 2 so much stuff out in the yard. It's like a cart, and something's getting fixed, and this is a shed, and I'm using the shed to build this other shed.
That shed's not done yet.

Speaker 2 You know, like all of the life. Scrap metal art.
Scrap metal art, yes.

Speaker 2 And you do see, actually, Tyrion, as you approach, that there is some sort of art that is around, or like arcane sculpture almost uh and you guys look up uh and you see that there is a banner this beautiful banner that is very tattered looks like it's been up for a long long time and it has these words in hand-painted block letters that say something in gnomish i don't know if anyone here speaks gnomish or not um

Speaker 2 uh but you look up and see this beautiful uh colorful banner you see that there are small little like wooden, almost like milk crates that are packed with straw

Speaker 2 on either side of the door that have a number of well-wrapped, these little conical things. I'll need anyone here to give me a DC-10 arcana check to see if they know what these are.

Speaker 2 16. 16.

Speaker 2 Thimble,

Speaker 2 these are fireworks.

Speaker 2 They're small, decorated. They look almost like party poppers, but they're sort of gathered and clustered out here.

Speaker 2 You see, they look a little bit like water damaged or other stuff like that, hanging in these little milk crates.

Speaker 2 As you approach, you see that one of the main goat that's tied up turns to look at you. Are you guys approaching stealthily or no?

Speaker 2 I think once we're within sight of it, yeah, because we're

Speaker 2 hackles up, right, just in case.

Speaker 2 Go ahead and give me a group stealth check.

Speaker 2 Oh my god.

Speaker 2 Seven here. Seven here.
Six. Six.
Ten. Ten.
Natural one. Natural one.
Twelve. Okay.

Speaker 2 As you all approach,

Speaker 2 as you all approach, you see that there is. Ooh, fireworks.

Speaker 2 Ooh, fireworks.

Speaker 2 You pass by something, thimble. And the second,

Speaker 2 I actually think

Speaker 2 anyone who wants to give me a perception check. Stealth check has failed for sure.
Give me your perception check. For sure.

Speaker 2 Pretty good. 16.

Speaker 2 17.

Speaker 2 As you pass by, on a 17-perception Tierney, you suddenly smell something sizzling. A boulder nearby you has wire tied around it.

Speaker 2 It's very hard to notice things like this because there's just so much junk everywhere.

Speaker 2 Tied around a boulder is a piece of copper wire that is affixing a cold iron nail to the back of a boulder. And you see that nail turns red hot.

Speaker 2 And you see that the goat swivels around to look right at you as you're approaching and goes,

Speaker 10 something's happening.

Speaker 2 The goat turns to look at you.

Speaker 10 I'm going to fly straight up.

Speaker 2 You fly straight up. The goat...

Speaker 2 On its rope, and it's got about like a 20, 25 foot length of rope, it walks over to the side of the fast roof of the cottage. And the cottage is totally circular.

Speaker 2 Walks up,

Speaker 2 walks straight up the mortar wall magically, appears to have the ability to walk up a vertical surface, gets up to the top, and you see it rears up and hits something under the straw, and you can hear a non-magical

Speaker 2 of some kind of horn attached to a bag in the roof that it does as some kind of alarm. It goes,

Speaker 2 and you hear

Speaker 2 chickens sort of come out of the front door.

Speaker 2 As a much older, gnomish man walks out,

Speaker 2 deep brown skin,

Speaker 2 eyebrows that look like hats made of fur, just huge, just

Speaker 2 fucking intense,

Speaker 2 very look, adorable spherical nose, long white mustache. He comes out and goes, hello,

Speaker 2 hello!

Speaker 2 Travelers! Oh, I see you've triggered my alarm for demons.

Speaker 2 Oh, shit.

Speaker 10 I am so sorry.

Speaker 2 That's quite alright. You don't seem to be killing me.
No, no, not my intent at all. Could, but won't.
Thank you.

Speaker 10 We are friends of Abelang.

Speaker 2 Friends of Abelang? How? Well, that old scamp is responsible for all of this. And he points to a couple of enormous barrels of chicken feed.
You just see that are like...

Speaker 2 He's like way the fuck out here in the boonies. Good man.
He says, I'm always happy to help him.

Speaker 2 It's always possible to take this little old telescope and peer on down to see what's going on on the highways and byways.

Speaker 2 Helpful for smugglers. I'm confessing to being a criminal.
Why am I doing that?

Speaker 2 Welcome.

Speaker 2 I'm...

Speaker 2 You're among like-minded people. It's important to be honest, especially when you are engaged in crime.
It is important to be honest. You're totally right.
I feel the same way.

Speaker 2 What may I call you, Fine Soul? You may call me Wick Halevar. I am here on a mission from my family, and I'm doing nothing wrong.
Splendid. Thank you.

Speaker 2 And your name, Madeline.

Speaker 10 Hi, my name is Tierney. I hold out a...

Speaker 2 Enchantag.

Speaker 2 It gives you a kiss on the hand. I'm Obidmorn,

Speaker 2 and I'm a friend of Aberlang's. Welcome.

Speaker 2 It's a good thing you got here. What time is it getting to be afternoon? Not safe to be out in the forest when the sun goes down.

Speaker 2 Cat always knows the time. That's what they call me, Mr.
Time Guy.

Speaker 2 Do they call you Mr. Time Guy?

Speaker 10 No, that's his name. That's his name to all of us.

Speaker 2 We don't know each other. Just out of conscience.
Can I sort of palm a little thing on my belt and use Channel Divinity just to put out a 60-foot vibe of Fae Celestial Undead around me?

Speaker 2 You get Fiend off of Tyranny. You get Fae off of Thimble,

Speaker 2 and you do not receive anything undead. You get a couple of pings off of magical items and stuff that's around it.
It looks like the defenses this guy has set up in his own home.

Speaker 2 But nothing else that would worry or concern you here.

Speaker 2 He says, well, a friend of Aberlang is a friend of mine. Lord knows I'd be high and dry without his help.
So by all means, please.

Speaker 2 How do you know uh Mr. Howell?

Speaker 10 Uh, we freed him from a gibbet.

Speaker 2 I'm very glad you did. Now, he is enough of a fast talker that I wouldn't be surprised if he was able to last a couple months or years up there, but the legs would go eventually.

Speaker 2 Well, uh, by all means, it's it's not uh three-star accommodations by any means, but I don't. I don't mean to be in imposition.
We uh simply need somewhere to rest before we're on our way.

Speaker 10 Say from the

Speaker 10 undead?

Speaker 8 Yes.

Speaker 2 All of the deadfall traps are reset, so anything that would come up that was that was undead would, you know, we'd have a rock fall or something.

Speaker 9 You're never really safe from the undead, and I'm

Speaker 9 half naked in the creek that runs by.

Speaker 2 Just like starting to walk.

Speaker 9 No, like washing myself in the creek that feeds the land.

Speaker 2 um you see he looks out and says ah the bathing creek

Speaker 2 that's our drink

Speaker 2 i've got a cat's too

Speaker 2 you see um you see he looks out and you see he says oh you've brought a wolf with you oh yeah he's good uh he's currently chasing your grouse around but not in a murdery way just in kind of a playful way you see he goes he goes well all right be careful careful around those grouse.

Speaker 2 There's a false ledge on the other side of the cliff, and they often evade predators by going there and just falling over the edge. Wow.

Speaker 2 Wolfrick runs right back.

Speaker 2 Until the water. Cool.
I'll put out some fresh straw for you all.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 your business is your own, but if there's any help I can be, feel free to ask. And you see, he goes inside and says, Everyone, come in.
I'm sorry that it's not.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 my friend Thimble, you'll have an easy time in here. For everyone else, I'm afraid he'll have to stoop down a little bit.
Um,

Speaker 2 and uh you see he goes in, and indeed, it's not like, you know, it's it's a larger cottage for him, but all of you still have to kind of get all the way down onto your knee to get through the door.

Speaker 2 Uh, but within it's large enough, and the the dome comes up that if you're not standing next to the wall, you can actually stand up at your full height inside. Um,

Speaker 2 you see that he puts out some straw and things like that. You see, it's all one big room.

Speaker 2 There's a central pillar, which is a small, like wooden spiral staircase, which is just sort of planks spiraling up the pole in the center that goes up to this like platform that you can see clearly has the observatory and stuff.

Speaker 2 Down here, you see, there's a bunch of beds that are all made. The beds are all too small for all of you, but he puts out some straw on the floor and he starts to get blankets.
And you see that he

Speaker 2 goes over to get some actually like big folk-sized blankets from nearby

Speaker 2 and says,

Speaker 2 Does porridge sound nice? It's most of what I have.

Speaker 10 Porridge is great. Sounds so nice.
Thank you. Do you have anything? No,

Speaker 10 that's so nice.

Speaker 2 We love charity. Thank you.
We do. We love charity.
And only a few mouths.

Speaker 2 We will stay outside and aid in the defense of your home in any way that we can. Oh,

Speaker 2 that's very, very nice. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 Might I inquire?

Speaker 2 You said telescope. Do you stare into the the heavens with it?

Speaker 2 I stare into the clouds with it. We're close enough to the storm rack that it's been challenging to get any good views of the stars.
But we had a nice sunny day today, didn't we?

Speaker 2 It it tends to pierce through the clouds, the sun does, but once it cools off, we tend to get a lot of fog and mist. But the clouds are actually what I'm studying.
Oh,

Speaker 2 how so?

Speaker 2 I've been,

Speaker 2 I study the movements of the clouds and the weather

Speaker 2 to determine if the barrow del of the storm rack

Speaker 2 is diminishing or remaining the same or getting worse. And

Speaker 2 cool.

Speaker 2 It's getting worse.

Speaker 2 But that's only one man's opinion.

Speaker 10 Do you ever use your telescope to spy on people looking windows?

Speaker 2 I do not know. I would do that.
No, not windows. But the roads.
Yes, the roads.

Speaker 10 What's the craziest thing you've seen? Have you you seen anything lately?

Speaker 2 What's the strangest thing I saw? Ooh, there was a tree fall that separated a wagon at the end of a,

Speaker 2 actually, a Hale of Ar family

Speaker 2 gathering. And the wagon was separated, and I think some bandits came out of the woods to

Speaker 2 knock it over. Yeah, yeah.
The old tree falls.

Speaker 10 But you don't ever like watch people kiss?

Speaker 10 Do you ever watch people kiss?

Speaker 2 Oh, that's so kind. I am a widower and I am.
I'm. I've promised.
So. Oh, that's so sweet.
You were in love? I was.

Speaker 2 I still am. What was her name? Josabi.

Speaker 10 Jasavi?

Speaker 2 She was my wife

Speaker 2 for many, many years.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I think of her every day. Jasavi.

Speaker 9 Kagam now is going to walk outside and go

Speaker 9 take a look out on the top.

Speaker 8 Yeah, take a shit off the top of the tower.

Speaker 2 He's a man of the wilderness. He's not rude.

Speaker 2 He's going to go just scan the perimeter outside.

Speaker 10 I'm going to fly all around the house just looking at all of the trash keys, all of the little things, looking at the windowsills, looking at the telescope, looking at all everything.

Speaker 2 You take it all in. It's...
Give me an investigation check if you'd be so kind. And do so with advantage because you're spending plenty of time doing it.

Speaker 10 That is a 20.

Speaker 2 You're looking all around.

Speaker 2 As you look in the upstairs area, you see that it's his work area, but there's also what looks like a beautiful green and gold toy chest that you see is just brimming with small little, I say mechanical, but it really is sort of like

Speaker 2 little wooden clappers and like rolling animals there's like deer and and goats that have like little wheels for legs and things like that I get on one of them and use my wings to push it forward like

Speaker 2 a beautiful chest of toys and you see that there are

Speaker 2 you you're looking around and you also see that there are a lot of

Speaker 2 like it's pretty packed with furniture downstairs and upstairs as well and there's a lot of things that are like armoires or wardrobes or chests and things like that that are

Speaker 2 pushed to the side and sealed up and kind of stacked on each other and and look sort of like cared for. He gets a big thing of porridge going and saying, so

Speaker 2 again, your business is your own, but you're headed through the Dopshiny, yes?

Speaker 2 Yes, we're trying to find

Speaker 2 another lion folk

Speaker 2 with darker, stressed-out fur. I don't know if you spied any from your from your telescope.
Oh, it's quite hard to see into the woods itself if that's where he was traveling through. I think so.

Speaker 2 That's not sure.

Speaker 2 But headed for uh headed for for Timony, headed for head of the north. Yes, yes, right? Yes.
We're allowed to say that, yes.

Speaker 2 Um

Speaker 2 on the road though, we said it.

Speaker 10 Did you see a large caravan of carriages,

Speaker 2 crows, feathers?

Speaker 2 I had taken a look the day before last.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it would have been around then. And yes, there were carriages.

Speaker 2 A caravan with some Taconis

Speaker 2 gods. Yeah, that might have been them.
Yes, they were making their way up north along the King's Way.

Speaker 10 How far had they gotten

Speaker 2 from what you could see? Well, they had headed up. He says, he says,

Speaker 2 we have a few little hours of light left. You wouldn't mind giving me a hand, would you?

Speaker 2 You see, and he walks up the little spiral staircase to go up and get his telescope and says, Might be wise to take a look. We'll see.

Speaker 10 I'll fly and land on his shoulder.

Speaker 2 He says, ooh, thank you, my friend.

Speaker 2 And he'll go ahead and take the help action from you.

Speaker 2 I don't trust any of this shit.

Speaker 2 It's so wholesome.

Speaker 2 I'm so suspicious. He's just a nice man.
With fireworks in the front yard? What are those for?

Speaker 2 Entertaining bodies. Entertaining children.

Speaker 2 Wear the bodies.

Speaker 2 You see, he looks out

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 as he swivels the telescope around, he looks out and says,

Speaker 2 looking through and says,

Speaker 2 all right,

Speaker 2 well

Speaker 2 they it's possible there's there's about a half a day's trek that's actually on the other side of a

Speaker 2 ridge of peaks that I wouldn't be able to see from here.

Speaker 2 It's very likely if they're traveling at a normal pace that they would be behind that. But if they're headed north

Speaker 2 It's very possible that you see he sort of swivel the telescope again looking out. He goes hmm

Speaker 2 king's banners. That's interesting.

Speaker 10 Can I look into the telescope? And

Speaker 10 I don't think I can see anything.

Speaker 2 You see that there are.

Speaker 2 You look out, and you see he focuses in, focuses, focuses in. And you see, it's so, even through this massive brass telescope, it's so distant.
Just these little ants on a road line.

Speaker 2 And it's sort of the thing that even a minor swivel of the telescope in his hands makes everything blurry.

Speaker 2 And some of you are looking at a rock that's like you can see the fucking microscopic structure.

Speaker 2 But then you look at your back and you just see this little waving set of banners that are just like three little red dots on a white field and you see he says the hounds of timini that'll be uh the looks like the king's banner um what direction are they heading

Speaker 2 give them a minute and we'll see um

Speaker 2 you see that uh he looks out and says

Speaker 2 you're uh looking for a single lionfoot but uh taking some interest interest in the comings and goings of wagons and carriages and things like that.

Speaker 10 Weird, huh?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 I just

Speaker 2 quite enjoy

Speaker 2 a woman possessed of ambition

Speaker 2 and cunning. And that,

Speaker 2 well, I like anyone who's keeping track of who's coming and who's going.

Speaker 2 I do as well I do up here.

Speaker 2 And you see that he looks out and says,

Speaker 2 south. Headed on the road south.
Great.

Speaker 10 Maybe by the time we leave, we'll be able to spot the other carriages coming out the other side of the ridge.

Speaker 2 I would think so. If you get out bright and early after resting for the night, you'll...

Speaker 2 If you're traveling with seasoned

Speaker 2 rangers and

Speaker 2 those that know the wilderness,

Speaker 2 obviously it's faster to travel by road, but the road takes a winding path and the forest goes straight through if you're headed for Timini.

Speaker 2 Great.

Speaker 10 Who are the toys for?

Speaker 10 Well,

Speaker 2 they are

Speaker 2 for,

Speaker 2 I suppose, my grandchildren, should I ever be lucky enough to get any.

Speaker 2 But they were my daughters.

Speaker 2 And they still are, but they, you know, being grown, they seem to have very little use for them.

Speaker 10 You uh you get visitors very often?

Speaker 2 Yes, you know, from smugglers and ne'er-do-wells, and from some wonderful venerated druids of the old path who uh are working with on st

Speaker 2 uh what I what I really do is study the barrowdale, wink, wink. Uh that's my my uh but I moonlight as a criminal, so um

Speaker 2 but uh

Speaker 2 no, I don't get too many

Speaker 2 been quiet for for

Speaker 2 quite some time.

Speaker 10 Did I notice any metal toys up there? Were they all just...

Speaker 2 Were they wooden? I think you. You see a couple...
You think you see a couple little metallic ones? Yeah, there's like a little...

Speaker 10 Can I look...

Speaker 10 Are there any metal... They were for his daughter, but are there any metal, like, toy soldiers?

Speaker 2 Um...

Speaker 2 Uh...

Speaker 2 You...

Speaker 2 On the other 20 investigation check, right? Um...

Speaker 2 Uh...

Speaker 2 You see

Speaker 2 that, uh, looking over, there actually are some metal toy soldiers, but they're kept separately from the other toys. They're kept all in a drawer of a desk.

Speaker 2 You see, like, a little drawer that has some, like, little spears of some metallic-looking tin soldiers. Yeah.

Speaker 10 Um, hey, Albert, do you have any, um, I'm gonna fly down and like kind of clutter through them. Looking.
I wanna look for a little toy soldier sword.

Speaker 2 Uh, yes. Oh, start looking for tiny.
He says, he says, you're looking for a

Speaker 2 toy soldier's.

Speaker 10 Well, I'm looking for and I pull out my needles.

Speaker 10 You know, I couldn't even cut off a guy's balls with these.

Speaker 2 Well, they're pins. Yeah.

Speaker 10 Good for stabbing, not so much for slicing.

Speaker 2 Are you in are you in need of some weaponry?

Speaker 10 Got any little things?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 you are quite weary with the travel of a long day. You see, he comes back down to the rest of you, except for Cadogan, who's outside.
As he comes down, he says, He says, uh, you are quite weary.

Speaker 2 You're in need of porridge and some rest. But if you are in need of some

Speaker 2 toy weaponry, I might be able to help you. My daughters, when they were young, were

Speaker 2 how do I put this?

Speaker 2 Maniacs.

Speaker 2 They were fearsome and they wished for

Speaker 2 glory and combat, so their minds were ever fixated on the toys of war.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 such it was that as a doting father, I must needs supply them.

Speaker 2 So, if you're looking for some toy weaponry that packs a little bit more of a wallop, I'd be excited to see what I can rustle up for. I would love that.

Speaker 2 Very well. Well, dinner's served.

Speaker 2 I'll go get your companion from out there. Maybe he's bathing in the creek again.
He did that so fast after arriving.

Speaker 2 I don't think he said hello. Hello.

Speaker 2 You see. Always looking out for our undead.

Speaker 9 Is there any, as I was sort of peering out, is there anything to be concerned about in the media, in the media area?

Speaker 2 Does this feel like a safe space as he sort of looks the perimeter over?

Speaker 2 Yeah, give me whatever skill check you want to associate with that. And if you want to use magic about it, you can as well.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Pretty good. Ooh, 17.

Speaker 2 17, got it.

Speaker 2 On a 17,

Speaker 2 you're way high up on the ridge.

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 you're kind of giving this place a B plus in your head.

Speaker 2 You know, like, as you're looking out, but as you see he puts some bowls of porridge out in front of the four of you, for you, you see he puts a, what looks is an egg cup filled with

Speaker 2 porridge.

Speaker 2 You see, he walks out to see you and says, um, my

Speaker 2 very kindly friend, dinner is served, and if you'd like, I can try to supply some some

Speaker 2 beef tack or some venison for your

Speaker 2 lupine friend.

Speaker 2 And you see, you'd have to downgrade your B-plus as he goes and lights a little beacon lantern on top of his,

Speaker 2 that's like hanging from the roof that's visible from the forest below, which just sort of is announcing the presence of this place up on the ridge.

Speaker 2 I'd appreciate it. Hmm? I'd appreciate the food.
Thank you. Of course, right inside.

Speaker 2 I'll be right here. And you see that he goes out and takes out a small satchel.
And you see, he goes up to the banner, the gnomish banner hanging over the house.

Speaker 2 And you see that he's brushing the fireworks. And he goes in and starts to set about the banner.
And you can see that he gets out a small, just sees like the tiniest little tear.

Speaker 2 And you see he starts stitching a little tear in the banner overhead as you walk into the house.

Speaker 10 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 11 You don't think he was like letting people know that we were here.

Speaker 10 No, he's just a nice guy.

Speaker 2 That's true. I don't love it.

Speaker 10 If anybody's keeping an eye on him, if he does it every night, it might be weird if he doesn't.

Speaker 2 But you're so good.

Speaker 2 God.

Speaker 10 We're so lucky. It's so crazy.

Speaker 2 What do we talk about? Oh, you're right. Discussing this.

Speaker 10 He's gonna give me a sword.

Speaker 2 He has his daughter's

Speaker 2 toys still, and he uses this telescope to spy on the king's road and also to study clouds.

Speaker 10 Yes, I'm crouching and I'm just shoveling gruel.

Speaker 2 I'm not touching

Speaker 2 the last time I had food or drink. I ended up on a hook.

Speaker 10 You're gonna be hungry.

Speaker 2 I'm gonna grab the... I'll be fine.

Speaker 9 I'll grab the venison straps and kind of look.

Speaker 2 We're pretty high up, right?

Speaker 9 Are we in the tower space? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 9 Wolfrick's still down there, and I'm just gonna look down to him and throw the venison down.

Speaker 9 He's gonna scoop it up and just sort of look at him and nod my head, and he's just gonna disappear off into the forest.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Wolfrick does? Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Takes off.

Speaker 2 You guys finish up your dinner. And some of you guys have been asking for a rest for a while.

Speaker 2 Some of us have. Yeah, some of us have.

Speaker 2 But this is potentially, like, as the sun is setting, you guys see that, like,

Speaker 2 there is every possibility for actually, like, a long rest here, fully getting your hit points and abilities and everything like that back. That's nice.

Speaker 2 With that, with Wolfrick gone,

Speaker 2 you... Does anyone else do anything before settling down?

Speaker 10 I take my blanket and I just settle it at the foot of Wick's bed and I curl up like a cat there at the feet.

Speaker 2 I'll take off my cloak and sort of just drape it on her so she has a little extra warmth and I'll curl up as best I can.

Speaker 10 It's not that different. It's pretty.

Speaker 10 We're doing the same stuff.

Speaker 2 Yes, I mean

Speaker 2 so far, everyone we've met has been helpful, nice, honest.

Speaker 2 This sweet man,

Speaker 2 the criminal.

Speaker 2 I would have assumed that a criminal would be horrible, but he helped us a great deal. And then

Speaker 2 Thimble found this piece of stressful fur

Speaker 2 in the forest that was extremely knowledgeable somehow.

Speaker 2 I mean, we've had good fortune, but I think it's because we have positive spirits, we have honesty on our side, and I've been thinking, oh, this nonsense with my my family.

Speaker 2 It's what the scripture said from the Ember et Hernalis, chapter 10. And ye shall be tested, the blind priest said, through lies and dimness.

Speaker 2 Even your kin will turn against you, but the light will bear the truth.

Speaker 2 This is some sort of test,

Speaker 2 and we will come through it.

Speaker 10 Yes.

Speaker 10 Everyone is here to help us, and you just keep your chin up and keep on doing what you're doing. And it's going to be great.
And we're gonna have a really good time

Speaker 2 well okay good night all right i think uh cat and i would uh take up old habits and probably take watch rotation even even though we're in this house with the fences and everything else it just we're still being pursued

Speaker 10 100 yeah i'm gonna find a little uh bit of fabric and fold it. Are the windows here curved or are they straight?

Speaker 2 I think the windows here

Speaker 2 such that there are windows. There's only one downstairs, and then there's one upstairs, and then the big telescope sort of like that swivels up through, like, has that opening in the roof.

Speaker 2 Um, but it has a straight windowsill, yeah. Okay, I'll

Speaker 10 take my fabric up to the high window, okay, and set it up to make a little bed on the windowsill.

Speaker 2 Um, you get a lovely little bed on the windowsill,

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 this is

Speaker 2 the last time you were asleep was on Theazzi's chest.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 10 I'm just gonna stay awake for a long time, my knees up to my chin, looking out.

Speaker 10 Um

Speaker 2 Wick, as you drift off to sleep, sleeping for the first time in your life on straw on the floor. Uh, Tyranny, you curled up at the foot of this like straw mattress.
Uh, Thimble, you look out

Speaker 2 in the distance.

Speaker 2 Teor and Cadogan, you guys are taking watch. Each of you guys give me a perception check.

Speaker 2 And who's taking first watch and who's taking second?

Speaker 2 I'll take second. Okay.

Speaker 2 16. 16.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Can I?

Speaker 2 Can I... I know this is weird.

Speaker 9 Can I take this at disadvantage? Sure.

Speaker 9 Because at some point

Speaker 9 on our shift, I got into that toy box and I pulled out a doll.

Speaker 2 Just a doll.

Speaker 9 Yeah. And to take with me, I feel weird about taking it to the watch, but during my watch, I am just sort of

Speaker 9 distracted by this doll and I'm playing with it. And I'm not at my best.
Yeah. So can I take this at disadvantage?

Speaker 2 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 You might not need it.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Perception? Perception.

Speaker 2 Still not bad.

Speaker 9 Even distracted, it's a 10. 10.

Speaker 2 For that second watch,

Speaker 2 you,

Speaker 2 I think...

Speaker 2 Well, we'll talk about the first watch first. Teyor, you're up.
Where are you up keeping watch?

Speaker 2 I would be outside of the house. Door to the front cracked, so I could hear just fine.
But I think it would be

Speaker 2 perimeter walk. It wouldn't be a stationary

Speaker 2 watch. It would just be checking all of walking around, pausing, listening, sniffing the air, all that sorts of stuff, looking for light in the dark.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And you got a 16. 16.

Speaker 2 I think in that first watch,

Speaker 2 you look out, you see Thimble in the upper window, just sort of looking out the window, having a hard time getting to sleep. In that earlier part of the night,

Speaker 2 you

Speaker 2 see

Speaker 2 that

Speaker 2 one last time,

Speaker 2 the little old gnomish man walks out,

Speaker 2 walks out of his front door, looks over at you,

Speaker 2 and sort of

Speaker 2 acknowledges that you're out here patrolling.

Speaker 2 And you see, goes over, he's like, sort of final things he's doing is he like ushers the little hens back into a coop that he locks up as it's getting dark.

Speaker 2 And you see he goes over one last time and

Speaker 2 reflexively, you can see that he's like agitated. He goes over, adjusts the banner again, and looks at the little hanging light, goes

Speaker 2 and fixes it so the candle's a little more straight, like in the little hanging beacon lantern.

Speaker 2 Looks at it, looks out at the valley, looks at it.

Speaker 2 I don't mean to pry. Um, I do not read

Speaker 2 Nomish?

Speaker 2 Oh, uh, well, uh, not at all. No, it's hardly the

Speaker 2 language of the world. Um,

Speaker 2 the yes, it's Nomish writing. Um, it seems well tended to.
I could I pry and ask what it says.

Speaker 2 Well, it says, Welcome home. Welcome home

Speaker 2 for your daughters?

Speaker 2 Yes,

Speaker 2 For all three of them.

Speaker 2 For

Speaker 2 you see, he looks out and goes,

Speaker 2 how dare you?

Speaker 2 This is trauma, right?

Speaker 2 Years of trauma covered to the surface.

Speaker 2 You look at him and see,

Speaker 2 you see, he says,

Speaker 2 Sarabelle, Demuriel, and Elena Del.

Speaker 10 Who was the second one?

Speaker 2 De Muriel.

Speaker 2 Arabelle?

Speaker 2 Arabelle's last? Sarabelle. Sarabel.
Oh, that was the first.

Speaker 2 Sarabel, De Muriel, and Alanadel. Alanadel.

Speaker 2 Ray?

Speaker 2 Yep. Alana Del Rey.
Yep.

Speaker 2 She's not going back.

Speaker 2 You see that he

Speaker 2 looks at

Speaker 2 you and says,

Speaker 2 yes,

Speaker 2 the writing says, welcome home.

Speaker 2 And the exclamation mark you can find to either side of the door. And you see he points at the fireworks

Speaker 2 in the crates.

Speaker 2 How long has it been since you last saw your three daughters?

Speaker 2 Well

Speaker 2 it's been about

Speaker 2 15 years

Speaker 2 two months

Speaker 2 17 days

Speaker 2 you love them very much I can tell

Speaker 2 Thank you for sharing your home with us. It is a rare thing to put faith in someone who values the efforts of those that have lost

Speaker 2 near and dear to themselves as well.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 my brother is who we are searching for.

Speaker 2 My kin

Speaker 2 there is

Speaker 2 no

Speaker 2 distance

Speaker 2 too great for family.

Speaker 2 I have often thought if I would travel from this place

Speaker 2 in search of them

Speaker 2 with my terrible back and awful knees.

Speaker 2 But then the thought of not being here if they were to return and need me

Speaker 2 If Gisabi were here, here, it would be very different.

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 2 I sort of

Speaker 2 had prepared in my mind

Speaker 2 how I would weather

Speaker 2 knowing

Speaker 2 that something

Speaker 2 awful had happened.

Speaker 2 Do you know what I mean? That that

Speaker 2 if I knew

Speaker 2 that they were not coming home

Speaker 2 if I knew that they were not coming home

Speaker 2 but every day

Speaker 2 the hope diminishes but does not vanish. And therefore we have to keep the banner tended to, because the thought that maybe

Speaker 2 tossed aside by storms or

Speaker 2 left somewhere else, that one of them might come home and not find it welcome, I cannot bear.

Speaker 2 I reach into a pouch on my hip and pull out my banner in a hand.

Speaker 2 I know exactly what you mean.

Speaker 2 He walks up and reaches up at his full height to pat your mighty forearm.

Speaker 2 He goes,

Speaker 2 My daughters would have loved you.

Speaker 2 They heard the cry.

Speaker 2 The falcon's cry stretches far and wide. Oh, yes.

Speaker 2 That's why I kept those

Speaker 2 terrible tin soldiers in a drawer.

Speaker 2 I don't know why I let them play with them.

Speaker 2 But then again.

Speaker 2 Isn't that what you want?

Speaker 2 Brave young girls go out and

Speaker 2 face the problems of the world head-on

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 Yes, it is.

Speaker 2 You inspired those

Speaker 2 closest to you to go out and make change.

Speaker 2 I will tell you that as we go from this place,

Speaker 2 if any of our ears catch word of the names you have taught us this night,

Speaker 2 we will be sure that they know that their father is waiting for them and that the visit is long overdue.

Speaker 2 Oh, that's very kind.

Speaker 2 I'll be ready.

Speaker 2 And you see that

Speaker 2 he pats you again

Speaker 2 and looks out and goes,

Speaker 2 We'll get you all rested up

Speaker 2 and packed on your way.

Speaker 2 I appreciate you asking and

Speaker 2 for not thinking me crazy

Speaker 2 for having kept it up for these long years. Who would think such a thing?

Speaker 2 For outward appearances. Well,

Speaker 2 you go a little bad in the mountains, but it's a mad world. So.

Speaker 2 And you see that he walks inside,

Speaker 2 and at the end of that watch,

Speaker 2 I think, Cadogan,

Speaker 2 you awake

Speaker 2 looking at this doll

Speaker 2 as the sun rises

Speaker 2 and you are still

Speaker 2 waiting.

Speaker 2 Give me one last perception check, if you'd be so kind.

Speaker 2 18.

Speaker 2 As the dawn

Speaker 2 creeps in

Speaker 2 the last moments of night down in the forest, on that 18,

Speaker 2 you feel like you can hear something far away,

Speaker 2 like a whisper on the wind or a moan.

Speaker 2 Suspicion creeps up your spine that this may be

Speaker 2 the last warm place before you head into true danger.

Speaker 2 There are things down there in the forest looking for light and warmth.

Speaker 9 I took my watch on the highest point of the house. And instead of patrolling like Teor would on the grounds I was glassing like you were hunting just sort of looking everywhere

Speaker 9 distracted by this doll that I've been turning over in my hands and it's you know tattered old wood

Speaker 9 and as I've been holding it and watching I sort of it's beautifully carved in the front and I turn it over

Speaker 9 and sort of slide the the back of the cloth down at the end of the watch as the sun comes up and you can just see

Speaker 2 rot

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 9 termite ridden portions of it and the entire hollow back of this doll has been eaten out from years of

Speaker 9 being set aside and forgotten

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 9 he looks at it one last time and just

Speaker 2 hucks it off

Speaker 9 the edge of that drop behind the chicken coop

Speaker 9 and heads back inside to wake everyone up at the end of watch.

Speaker 2 The next day has arisen as you go to wake everybody up.

Speaker 10 I am up.

Speaker 10 I am up and I am crouched on Wick's chest.

Speaker 2 Double on my chest. Does that explain sleep paralysis?

Speaker 2 And then go, don't move, don't move, don't move. You can't fucking move.
You can't move. You can't move.
You can't move. What's up? What's up? Good morning.

Speaker 2 Oh.

Speaker 2 Hello.

Speaker 10 Why?

Speaker 10 You can move now.

Speaker 2 Sleep the bells.

Speaker 2 I was having a horrible dream. No, uh, had to sleep.
Terribly. I'm itchy.
I think I'm allergic to hay.

Speaker 2 I slept like two hours

Speaker 2 that I've already ready for the day.

Speaker 10 Yes.

Speaker 2 There it is. It begins anew.

Speaker 2 Invoke thy banner.

Speaker 2 And ring the bells.

Speaker 2 And that's all for this episode

Speaker 2 of critical role.

Speaker 2 We'll see you next week in a base

Speaker 2 episode.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 That's the most frightening thing.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God. I need a gear as soon as we're out of here.

Speaker 2 Oh my god. What is that? Is that Tide Pod 2? I have no idea.
You don't know where it's from?

Speaker 2 I'm sure it's probably that. I don't know.

Speaker 2 He never reveals his source name.

Speaker 2 He never reveals his source name. I love it.
Oh my God. Yes, I believe that that is from the sequel to the Tide Pod CEO sketch.
Shot in deep lockdown. Unbelievable.
Well, and again,

Speaker 2 marvelous.

Speaker 2 Incredible. That really threw me for a loop.

Speaker 2 But not so much of a loop that I'm not going to say, is it Thursday?

Speaker 2 Thanks for listening to this episode of Critical Role. If you're enjoying this story, consider leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice.

Speaker 2 We're always looking for new critters to share our adventures with, and your review may help a new batch of wayward souls find their way to Araman, Xandria, and beyond.

Speaker 2 Or if you want to hear what the cast discussed after the episode, head to beacon.tv and check out our exclusive show, Critical Role Cooldown.

Speaker 2 You'll be right there at the table immediately after we say, is it Thursday yet? And experience our cast's post-show reactions. We'll see you next time.

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Branching Paths | Critical Role Campaign 4, Episode 5 Part 2

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