Autumn in Hieron: Holiday Special 01: I Don’t Know What’s in That Box
Transcribed by Francis @gportentosa & Dylan @daxleopard ~0:45:00
& Adela @aredhel__ ~1:15:30 - 1:47:16 & finished by Ishkhan
* an asterisk indicates pronouns a player is no longer using; in this case, Jack now goes by they/them pronouns
[map] [investigation documents]
❦
Keith: Don't say, uh— Don't even say pratfalls, 'cause I just will do it. And I—
[Jack laughs]
Ali: I don't know what that means.
Keith: And I'll get hurt and it'll be a whole thing.
Jack: [whispering] What's—
Art: You don't wanna end up like Andy Dick, Keith.
Jack: [whispering] What's—
Keith: No.
Ali: Is that another, like—
Dre: What's a pratfall?
Keith: Nobody—
Ali: Yeah, what is that?
Keith: Oh, this is like, a prat— like, like— AAAH! [shouts, as if surprised] [crashing noises]
Dre: Oh, okay. [laughs]
Ali: [laughing] That's fantastic.
Dre: Okay, perfect.
Ali: You okay?
Keith: Yeah, I'm okay.
Ali: Okay.
Art: That's, that is it.
Jack: [laughing] Can you do it again?
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: No, don't.
Keith: No, I'm not gonna do it again. Listen, I'd have to be some sort of idiot to do that TWICE IN A ROW! [crashing noises]
[The audio fades out for the intro.]
❦
[Autumn Not Winter begins playing.]
Austin: The week in Hieron is broken down into seven days. Today is Sunday. Sunday is, of course, named for the sun in the sky, which gives us the light we need to do our work. And then, of course, there's Tesday, named for Samothes, formerly Samotes, who put the sun in the sky and then gave us its fire and made from it tools, so that we could do our work.
And then Olday, from Samol, who donates his body and blood to be worked on. Followed by Tineday, for Samotine, who shields us while we work and trade and think and play and sleep. Ontday, for Samonta, once called Severea by the old people, who blows the wind into our sails so that we may trade our work. Oteday, for Samote, now known as Samot, who taught us how to work, and how to relax when the work is done.
Finally, there is Kinday, for Del and Bri, our twin moons who whisper love to us as we drift off to sleep. Kinday, of course, was originally the name the middle clans gave to the weekly day of reckoning.
[Music ends.]
Austin:
Intro: Though recent findings complicate matters, it was long believed that this was a day in which families executed any rulebreakers inside of their own clan and decided who would count as kin for the week to come.
But today, it's Sunday. And not just any Sunday, it's the Sunday, the Long Day, the Day of the High Sun. Once a year, sometime in the final month of the year, the sun offers its light to us for twenty full hours. No one knows exactly when it will be, though by mid—year the cloudwatchers are consistently able to narrow it down to one specific week.
For the week before the week, people across Velas—in fact, across the whole region of Hieron—prepare for the festival. Special dishes are made. Everyone puts together their holiday outfits. Distant family members travel to Velas to spend the holiday with their metropolitan relatives. On the Day of High Sun, everyone celebrates life, love, family, relaxation, and creativity; the things we work for all year.
Some celebrate the day privately among their closest kin, sitting on their roofs with a glass of a cooled cocktail. Others celebrate en masse, with parades, competitions, and tons of other joyful activities. There's lots of color, fashion, interesting signage, singing. Everything is bright, to take advantage of the light the High Sun offers. And there's lots of hats, because it is very hot.
And when the Long Day, the Day of High Sun ends, the week resets. That day, whatever day it was before, becomes the new Sunday and we move on from there. The days get shorter, much shorter, in the months that follow. The light dims. And though things never really get cold—remember, it hasn't snowed in Velas since before the Erasure—the weather after the Long Day is more temperate. Perfect for harvesting.
It is now the second to last day of the Week of Sun, the week that the Day of High Sun will come in. As is the custom, the children of Velas have elected one of their own each night who will wait, eyes blurry and hopeful, for the sun to rise early. Today it is little Danielle Hightown, yawning, being lulled to sleep by the distant crashing of waves against the coastline. She's so tired. But she's also proud to have the chance to announce to the city that the celebration should begin. And she's also hopeful it will be Sunday if only so that she knows that school will be cancelled.
And as luck has it, it is. Sunday is here. She sees the sun cresting over the hills to the east and she hops down from her rooftop stool. She runs down the stairs of the empty building and out into the streets. It is the day of High Sun. We can put aside our tools for the day, celebrate our joys and our loves. Little Danielle, little Dani, does not understand it all in words, really, but she understands the spirit of the holiday as well as anyone. So she takes to the streets, screaming with a child's bellow, a voice we all had once but which most of us have cut from our throats in our old cynicism.
"The sun is here!" she yells. "Get up, get up, get up! The sun is here!"
She runs through the twisting corridors of the mostly empty Sun District, down the main thoroughfare of the Fish District, even up to the gates of the Gardens, where Velas's rich and powerful live. She vibrates with joy and enthusiasm. She's never been to the Garden district. Well, not that she remembers, anyway. But on today's holiday the gates open for her so that she may go in and deliver her message.
And they'll stay open all day, too. There will be festivities here in the Gardens for everyone, from the wealthiest city noble to the struggling field hand. She is so excited shouting her message that she feels the need for another lap of the whole city. She'll run back down the market streets and through the docks, and she'll shout the news from the beach to the temples of Samothes, and she'll run out of Velas. She'll reach the sun itself and welcome it with her glowing smile.
And it's in the fields where she sees the body. Hung to a board in the wheat, like a scarecrow of flesh. And she screams a more familiar scream now, one none of us ever lose.
It is not the only crime that night. Across town, there is a prison break. Velas's only prison is in the heart of the nest of abandoned buildings which makes up the northern half of the Sun District. Therat Saal, young prince of one of Ordenna's richest mining families, had been locked up for theft. Though he stands by his claim that one of Velas's counselors simply locked him away to cover up the scandalous affair that he'd been carrying out with the counselor's son.
Three dead guards, a broken wall. Rumor is Therat rests comfortable in the Ordennan embassy just off the coast waiting to be brought back home to Ordenna.
Meanwhile, it was Fantasmo's great luck that he woke up in time to see a figure leaving his window. But his misfortune that he was only able to rip a strange cloak from the thief's back. One side of it is a simple grey wool and the other shimmers into nothingness in the night. It's not magical in nature, he checked for that. But the cloth made the thief nearly invisible in the night. And after going through his things, he realized that the book of life which you all recovered from the top of the tower of Eventide was missing.
By the time the sun would normally be rising, around the sixth hour of the day, the bird had been sent. The Golden Lance had been called. Not quite mercenaries, but not quite real police either, they represent an extraterritorial force of justice. A group that regular law enforcers hate as much as everybody else seems to love. And on a day like today, keeping people happy is priority number one.
When Lancer Victoria Solomon arrives—long brown coat, wide—brimmed hat, strange weapon at her side—the town falls into ease. She is as always joined by her partner, the mousy Dr. Gloria Lake. It's only about an hour before Solomon and Lake find out from the locals who here can be trusted, who should be deputized. The Golden Lance has its own investigators, its own soldiers, but the best of them—and Solomon and Lake are the best of them—trust locals to help them solve the terrible crimes that they've been called in to deal with. This is partially what makes them so well—loved by the people. The other thing that makes them so well—loved is how they can drop a target at 100 paces with a blast of strange magical energy.
In any case, it turns out that you're the ones who can be trusted. You're the ones who should be deputized. It's 11 a.m. The sun is beating down on you. It's already an especially hot day. Temperatures have been rising all week, along with the excitement and tension of folks waiting for the holiday to begin. In fact, if you had time to check them, records would show that this is the hottest day since the records started being kept. You have twelve hours. Can you solve the murder? Can you solve the case of the Sunday slaying?
Austin: So tonight we're gonna do something different. We've known for a while that I've been cooking this up. Part of the problem with running a game with six people, or even five people, as we learned in the first few games, is it's hard to make sure everyone has enough attention and it's easy for things to get out of order. So as always, our agenda today is to portray a fantastic world, to fill the characters' lives with adventure, and to play to find out what happens. But tonight we have another directive too: to learn the who-what-where-when-why and how of this killing.
I've basically mashed together Dungeon World with another game that I'm sort of infatuated with: Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. After all, what's more festive than solving a murder case? This is all original content. I haven't lifted anything from Consulting Detective except a great deal of inspiration, some broad game mechanics… But I've still kind of like, put a Dungeon World spin on it, a Friends at the Table spin on it.
Here's how it's gonna work: tonight's game is turn—based. On each turn, you as an individual will decide where you're going to carry out your investigation. Each turn represents an hour of game time. After the last turn, Victoria Solomon and Gloria Lake will gather you all together and ask you a series of questions about the case, including who did the crime and what their motive was. How will you figure this out? Well, let me link you…to…this document…in Skype! I should have done this earlier. That should work, that should be a document for everybody. Okay.
So, in front of you all, you have a map of Velas, with locations marked with a letter and a number. Each letter and number combination has a certain location associated with it, which you can now see on the "Velas in brief" locations page. You'll always be able to find something interesting, though not something necessarily useful, at a location. But, the more of you that go, there’s a greater chance that you'll find something really juicy. And I’ll explain how that’s gonna work later.
Keep in mind, if you’re all grouped up, you’ll be able to cover distance less quickly, and time is of the essence. The Velasian Guard and the Golden Lance have the town on lockdown, but once it is nighttime, once midnight hits, someone clever enough could definitely slip away. Plus, while it won’t happen constantly, sometimes people will change where they are depending on what time it is in the day and what’s happening in town.
You can go anywhere inside of the district you’re currently in in a single turn. So if you’re at a place right now at 11, you can go to anywhere else in that same district by 12. At the 12 o’clock—like, that’s one turn. But, to get to a new district: to go, say, from the Sun District into the Fish District, you need to stop at the gate first. So it’s effectively a kind of a checkpoint or a road bump. You’ll have to figure out yourselves how you want to manage that. There’s a good chance too that the guards at those gates will have heard something useful, so like, it’s not a complete loss. Also, for this purpose, for this rule, the Sun District and the Fields District count as one, otherwise you just like, would never fuck around with the Sun District.
Gloria Lake has also provided you, you’ll see, with the names of potentially relevant individuals. Velas has obviously a ton more people than the thirty I’ve listed here, but these are the ones that maybe might have something to add to the case or could be suspects [Art laughs softly] or could be witnesses. This info—
[Art laughs]
Austin: Yeah? This—
Art: These are great names!
Austin: Those are—most, most of these names—
Keith: How many of these are name generator names and how many of them are real?
Austin: None! None of these are name generator names. Most of them are Jack names. I enlisted Jack to— I was like Jack, just give me thirty names, like don’t—I’m not gonna tell you anything about the characters, just gimme thirty names.
[Ali laughs]
Art: Well then ‘Sid Half-Off’ is a work of genius.
Austin: I changed that! Sid, his— That was Sid something else and I added the Half-Off. In fact he was some— What was he, Jack, do you remember?
Jack: Uhhh, he was…
Austin: It was a good name, but I needed him to do something different and I was like, oh, I know what to do.
Jack: [laughs] His name originally was… Sill Let-Them-Go.
Austin: Right. And I was like hmm, that’s good, that’s good for a guy who would let some people go, or make people—
[Ali and Keith laugh]
Austin: This guy, this guy, he’s a Half-Off! He’s a Sid. I did, I tinkered with some of these.
Jack: Also, I mean, I can’t help but notice that Morbash is on this list.
Austin: Yeah, that’s weird, huh?
Ali: Oh!
Austin: Yeah, that’s a thing, isn’t it?
Jack: Oooh.
Austin: Morbash, for people listening who may have forgotten, is one of the archivists who was out looking for Jack’s head—looking for Lem’s head, a few game sessions ago. A bunch of game sessions ago now. So—
Jack: He’s like—yeah.
Austin: This info is derived from the Velasian council’s census data, which is: one, not super up to date; and two, can’t really, even if it was super up to date, account for where someone will necessarily be in any given moment. But it’s something, it’s a start. You also have, under that, the schedule of events for the day, holiday events. Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective gives players really rad like, little newspaper sheets, of the Times, with like a ton of info, and I couldn’t do that. One, because that’s a lot more work than I had time to do. Two, because we’ve already established in Friends at the Table episode number 11 that Velas doesn’t have newspapers or broadsheets, and like, I gotta be on my canon game. I gotta get my canon game right. So, I still wanna—
Keith: You didn’t even have to say that you didn’t have time for it, you just could have said that second thing.
Austin: I know, but, my dude I would have done it if I had time. I would have made it work. Still, I wanted to have something that gave you a little something extra that really communicates the feeling of the day. Plus, you never know, maybe there is something in there that will help you out. So! First turn. Unless anyone has any objections, I think it makes sense that everyone starts at the scene of the crime, which is at point E-2. After that you can decide who goes where, or who goes with who.
Jack: Oh, we should also say that like, I assume all of this is going to be made available to people who are listening to this to see.
Austin: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. We’ll link all the stuff.
Art: And, what— It’s 2 in the morning?
Austin: It’s 11 a.m.
Art: 11 a.m.
Austin: You can see, just underneath the— If you scroll down, I have a big 11 a.m. 11A.
Jack: And we have until 11P.
Austin: You have until 11P. I don’t know what those stand for yet.
Jack: Okay.
Austin: I, like, I didn’t just wanna do ante and post meridian ‘cause like, fantasy game, so I just went with A and P.
[Jack laughs]
Austin: We’ll figure it out later.
Art: Is— Oh, are— Is that— Did someone put in “just say noon ya arse” or is that one of your notes?
Austin: That was one of my notes! Also, this holiday schedule has been grafitti’d.
Art: Okay.
[Jack and Ali laugh]
Austin: People don’t necessarily love the high and mighty tone that the Church of Samothes has sometimes. This was written by the Church of Samothes.
Art: Well, they can bite me.
Austin: Yeah. So, last thing, keep in mind, and this is gonna be kind of hard to think through maybe, but the certain NPCs might respond differently to certain player characters. So keep that in mind when you go places. So for instance, yes, Lem going to meet Morbash will be different than other people.
[Ali and Art laugh]
Austin: Not wildly different, the same core information is still going to be resolved, and this is never going to come down to—
Jack: Yeah, I’d get the information, and then he'd arrest me.
Austin: Maybe. Alright, well, like, so here's the thing. One thing I'll say is, right now you've been all given this kind of like, brown badge with the Golden Lance on it that gives you some temporary sort of protection and authority. The people in the city—
Keith: Do we have diplomatic immunity?
Austin: Basically.
Keith: Alright!
Austin: So, does everybody want to start at the scene of the crime?
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Keith: How are we decide—
Dre: So excited.
Keith: Are we just gonna do a roll to see who goes…like, the turn order?
Jack: Oh—
Austin: We can do that, but first—
Jack: Also…
Austin: Go ahead. What's up, Jack?
Jack: If this is at all similar to Consulting Detective, which we know it is a bit, it might be an idea for someone to take notes.
Art: I have my digital notepad open.
Austin: Do you mean your laptop? Is that what you mean?
[Ali laughs]
Art: Yeah. My laptop's open. That's what we're doing this on.
Austin: Okay, great. So, here's how this is gonna work. Whenever you go to a place, you do an investigation roll. One person does the investigation roll. The roll is 2d6 plus the number of other people you've brought. So the maximum in this game will be plus four. If you get a 10+... Okay, if you get a 7-9… Alright, if you fail, I'm still gonna give you something. It might just be interesting. It probably will just be interesting. Chances are it won't be super useful, though there are some things I'll be like, "Oh no, you're not gonna miss this." Like in this case, you're gonna know what the murder weapon is. I'm not gonna be like, "Well you guys are just idiots!"
[Ali laughs]
Austin: "You don't know it was… You see the thing that was in his back!" Right? But if you roll a 7 or 9, you… Every player at the location, on a 7 to 9, can ask me one question which I have to answer truthfully. I might ask you how you learn that information, like how you deduced it or how you beat it out of somebody or how you, you know, overheard it or something. But like, I'll give you the information.
Some example questions, so you can think about this, is like, "Does this person seem like they know more, and if so, what do they know?" "How long ago did X thing happen?" "Could Person X have gotten from point A to point B in an hour or two?" "What is the relationship between Person A or Person B, or between Organization A and Organization B," or even, "Does this person know this other person?" "Was this person in a fight recently?" "Is this person armed? If so, with what?" Like, any sort of question.
Some questions might require knowledge that you don't have, in which case I'll tell you where in town you can go to get that knowledge, but mostly like, ask the questions you're not immediately sure how you'd know, we'll work it out. Someone at the table will be like, "Oh, you could have figured it out by blah blah blah." You're also still your characters, so deduction is not the only tool that you have. Like, Hadrian should be asking me if things are evil. He should feel free to do that. That will work, you know? If you know Lem wants to play a song to do one of his things, that song is gonna succeed. I'm not gonna make anybody roll for their abilities tonight, they're just gonna work.
Jack: Fero is inevitably going to be an animal for at least 75% of the time.
Austin: At least.
[Ali and Dre laugh]
Austin: And if you get a 10 or plus on the roll—
Keith: I'll be a little tiny bird and try to crawl in someone's pocket.
Austin: If you get a ten or above—
Art: What's the most detective-y animal?
Dre: [crosstalk] Everyone's gonna have so many visions!
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah what is—an owl? Owls are smart, right?
Jack: An owl.
Dre: No, it'd be a mouse!
Keith: [crosstalk] No, owl—
Ali: [crosstalk] No, it has to be like those detective dogs!
Austin: Mm, mmhm.
Jack: Oh, that's true. A bloodhound, maybe.
Dre: Oh, turn into a bloodhound, yeah! A big, droopy bloodhound.
Ali: Oh, you'll hang out with Kodiak!
Keith: That would— that's up to Austin whether or not he considers that a farm animal.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: I think a blo— Yeah, a bloodhound is a farm animal! Yeah!
Keith: Sure.
Austin: Could be a bloodhound.
Ali: It's like, a shepherd dog? Sure.
Art: Yeah, it pulls the ploughs.
Keith: Alright.
[Austin laughs]
Dre: You could be like a coonhound?
Austin: Alright. So. Uh, who wants to make this first roll?
[pause]
Art: I'll do it.
Austin: Alright, 2d6 plus 4, since you're all here.
Keith: Do it, Art.
Dre: Do it!
Art: Hold on… [typing] Whoops! Uh…eleven!
Dre: Hey!
Austin: Oh you didn't add— Okay, I see. I got really worried for a second, I was like, “Uh oh! How did he only—”
[Dre and Ali laugh]
Dre: That started poorly!
Austin: So, you leave the gates of Velas. [thump] One second, I just dropped my tea. Everything's fine.
Keith: What kind of tea is it?
Austin: It's like a, it's like a lemon ginger.
Keith: Okay.
Ali: Ohhh.
Austin: It's good. Um.
Keith: A hot tea?
Austin: Yeah, it's a hot tea. My throat is a mess. I'm a mess. Um.
Keith: You're a slime baby.
Austin: There it is.
Ali: [laughing] You did it!
Austin: Keith has been sitting on slime baby for at least twenty minutes.
[Keith laughs]
Austin: As you leave the Sun District behind you— So again, for people listening who don't remember this, Velas is, from east to west, set up into kind of four districts. The fields, then the Sun District, which is the majority of the kind of rubble and old abandoned houses of the old Velas, that’s mostly abandoned. Plus the church of Samothes and the recent growth around that temple. Then the fish district which is kind of the, you know, working class, upper middle class—or, lower middle class through upper middle class district, and then the Garden district which is so fancy. So fancy!
Um, so they're going out into the fields. Waves of wheat glow under the sun. This goes on for quite some time in every direction, or quite some distance in every direction before the wheat gives way to hills. And then, in the far distance to the southeast you see the small town of Velasinha, which is a sort of baby village attached to Velas. It's where the poorest of the poor actually live, they don't even live in the city. They are like, dirt farmers, you know? They are— They succeed only because they’re on the road to Velas. There's nothing of worth there.
But here, as you move through the main gates and out to the scene of the crime, you see in the wheat: blood. And then, a body, up on a beam. It is, to the horror of Lem, Fero, and Hella, Gregalos. The man who sent you on your journey southward so long ago.
Ali: [quietly] Aw.
Austin: You immediately have one realisation. One is that he would not have been discovered if not for a fluke. Little Danielle happened to run out here because she felt the joy of Samothes in her heart. But most children wouldn't have. And because it is a day of rest, no one would be in the fields today. No one would see this. Someone from a distance, from the tower, might think, “Oh, it's a simple scarecrow.” But when Danielle saw it up close, running through the fields, she knew what it was immediately. And part of that is because of the stench.
Keith: [whispers] Fuckin' Greggy got it!
Austin: Yeah, rough. Rough.
Ali: Greggy!
Austin: Another thing that makes you realise is—or makes you wonder, I guess, is: if that's the case, was that intentional? Was it intentional that the body was left here, in the fields, on Son Day, so that no one would find it? And if so, how does that line up with the fact that no one knows when the day of High Sun is, they just know what week it is. Um, and then finally, since you rolled so well, you do notice a few extra important clues. One of— At least one of these you would have found anyway. One, there is a large, strange, black hook in Gregalos' back.
Jack: Oh! Is that— I think we found the murder weapon!
[Keith laughs]
Austin: Maybe. Um, it might be—
Dre: Let's not jump to conclusions here.
Austin: It might be a fishing— It might be like a fishing hook, is what you think? It has that shape, but it's very big. Two, you find a small, round piece of cork board with a big grinning deer on it. It's kind of hideous. Three, you find a strange splinter of a deep red—brown wood. Fero, Lem, and Hella, you recognise it. It's the box that you brought back to Greggy. I don't know what's in that box! We're gonna find that out in another game, one day.
[Jack and Ali laugh]
Keith: Shit. So we have seen Greggy between...
Austin: Yes. You did—
Keith: Alright, cool.
Austin: You showed him, you gave him the box—
Jack: So there's a splinter...
Keith: I was—
Austin: You recognise— You would recognise that wood anywhere. You don't know wha—
Keith: I was—
Austin: I can't tell you. I know— I think I know why!
[Ali laughs]
Keith: Okay. It's fine, you don't have to— No. I was scared that we hadn't seen Greggy since we ditched his tower shit.
Austin: No, you saw him, you gave him a thing— I don't know what thing is!
[Keith laughs]
Austin: Again, I have in mind like this Pulp Fiction situation where like, you open the box and it glows gold and he's like, “Yeah, okay.” Closes it, and puts it away.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Like, that's, um. And, this is the one that you get because you rolled really well, you find just a little— I don't know who finds it, I don't know what makes the most sense. Maybe it makes the most sense that Fero finds it.
Keith: Mmhm? I'm pretty cool.
Austin: What animal are you when you’re out here? Are you a bloodhound right now?
Keith: I'm a bloodhound, yeah. I'm a bloodhound right now.
Austin: You pick up the smell of—
Keith: I'm sniffing around! [sniffing]
Austin: —of a little bit, a little bit of that halfling pipeweed. Is just on the ground.
Jack: It's marijuana, isn't it?
Austin: Well, it's fantasy marijuana. There's like an apostrophe in the middle.
Ali: It's onion face, or whatever?
Dre: [crosstalk] That whacky-tobacky.
Austin: [crosstalk] Right, mari—juana.
Art: Is marijuana— Would— Oh, nevermind.
Dre: Wait wait wait wait wait—
[Keith laughs]
Art: How high did Tolkien ever get that they have that…
Austin: Yeah dog, weed is way in—is way all over Lord of the Rings.
Art: [crosstalk] Where does it come from, did they have it back then?
Dre: [crosstalk] Oh yeah. Yeah.
Art: That's not a— That's not a new world crop, it's not like the tomato?
Dre: No.
Austin: Oh, maybe?
Dre: Like...Bilbo is the original like, Snoop Dogg, in that they smoke weed every day.
Jack: [crosstalk]Tolkien, of course, famously pre-tomato.
Keith: Wait— [laughs]
Austin: Right. It's true. So, you each get a question.
Jack: So we got a—
Dre: [crosstalk] Is uh, is Fero in dog form, hanging out with my dog?
Austin: Presumably.
Keith: Well I can talk to your dog.
Dre: Yeah, I have a dog.
Keith: I can talk to your dog and tell you what it's saying.
Dre: Oh, shit!
Keith: I can talk to him.
Keith (as Fero): What's up? 'Sup, Kodiak? [pause] He says "'Sup."
[Dre, Ali, and Jack laugh]
Austin: Great. Beautiful. Perfect. So what are your questions? You each get one question that I have to answer truthfully.
Jack: Wait, so. This doesn't count as my question. We've got a black hook.
Austin: Yes.
Jack: We've got a cork circle with a drawing of deer on it?
Austin: Yes.
Jack: And we've got a splinter from the MacGuffin box.
Austin: A grinning deer. And a splinter from the MacGuffin box. And the scrap of weed.
Jack: Oh yeah.
Keith: Does the grinning deer have like, human teeth?
Austin: Is this your question?
Keith: No.
[Ali and Austin laugh]
Austin: Um, yeah I think it does.
Dre: Nice! Good save!
Austin: I think it does, I think it does have big, human teeth. Yes. I'll clarify—
Keith: That's creepy as shit.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: It's like a cartoon-ish deer. It's not like a realistic rendering of a...
Austin: [laughs] Right, exactly, with just dentures in.
Dre: [noise imitating a realistic deer with dentures in]
Keith: I don't know which one's scarier. I think the second one. You said— Austin said it was kind of terrifying.
Austin: Yeah!
Jack: So, I mean— Who's going first? Should we set an order up?
Austin: It's totally up to you.
Jack: Like a turn order?
Austin: Totally up to you.
Keith: Um, right now I've got, counter-clockwise— Wait no, who asked the first question?
Austin: No one's asked any questions.
Art: No one's asked any questions yet.
Ali: No one's asked any—
Jack: No one.
Keith: Oh, Jack asked not-a-question, then I asked not-a-question.
Austin: Right.
Dre: So we each get one question, right?
Austin: Yes.
Keith: So, Austin, just to clarify. The way this works is that I'm gonna ask you a question, and then you're going to have me describe how I'm finding this out? In the scene?
Austin: It depends— Yeah. Yeah. And I might answer— I might give you the answer and then just for colour say, “Oh, well how did you figure that out?” You know? And then, if you come up with it, that's great, if somebody else at the table has a suggestion, that's great. You get to decide how it is.
Keith: Okay. Um, I wanna know...I wanna know how long the body was up there before...
Austin: Good call.
Keith: Um, Danielle found it.
Austin: It was there for two hours. How do you— How does a bloodhound put that together?
Keith: I'm like, super good bloodhound nose dude!
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Okay. I guess “this blood is X hours old,” basically.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Okay. That's fair. So yeah, 2A is when it was put up there.
[pause]
Art: Oh! [mumbles] Nevermind. I don't know. [???] 0:28:25
Austin: Yeah?
Keith: What? Wait, I didn't understand a single word you just said.
Art: Uh the— I didn't quite get when sunrise and sunset were on the—
Austin: Sunrise today was at 4A. Today.
Art: And it would set at 12P.
Austin: It will set at— No, it will set at 12A. The next 12A.
Art: 12A?
Austin: Yeah, the next 12A. It's about to become 12P.
Art: Right…
Austin: At midnight! It will be at midnight.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Is when the sun will set. Tonight.
Dre: Are we…are we equating that the time when the body was placed there is also time of death? Like, are those the same thing?
Austin: I'm not doing that, no.
Dre: Okay. So what did—
Jack: I mean, you could ask that question.
Dre: What did Keith just ask? How long the body has been in this particular place?
Austin: [crosstalk] He asked how long the body has been in— Yeah. Uh huh.
Dre: Okay.
[pause]
Art: Um.
Austin: [snaps fingers] Sorry, I forgot one thing.
Jack: Okay— No, go ahead.
Art: I have a question that I think—
Austin: Go ahead.
Art: —can do two things.
Austin: Yep.
Art: Uh, was— Was the body— Was this person murdered here?
Austin: No. How— Let me go back to both Dre and you. How— What sort of clues would you be looking for? How would you deduce that? The answer is no, he was not killed here.
Art: I mean, I know how—I know how that's done, I don't know if Hadrian has this kind of knowledge.
Austin: You know, whatever.
Art: So I'll just start talking it out and you can… But like, this is— If you kill someone with a hook?
Austin: Yeah.
Art: They're gonna bleed a lot.
Austin: Yeah. And there's not that much blood here.
Art: And I think the way you figure it out is like, if there's just like, if there's just blood everywhere, they were probably killed here, but if it's just a little bit they were probably brought here. Or like, “Oh, there's the bloody drag mark.”
Austin: Right. Yeah.
Dre: I mean, that's Hadrian's martial prowess, right?
[Austin laughs]
Dre: Like you recognise types of wounds and stuff like that.
[Ali laughs]
Art: Sure.
Jack: Yeah—
Art: I've seen— I've seen people die.
Dre: [crosstalk] Because you've inflicted them or seen them inflicted.
Austin: Mmhm!
Art: I've seen people die, I know how much blood comes out of a person when they get punctured to death.
Dre: Right!
Austin: Right. Dre, how do you figure out—or how does Throndir figure out, rather, that he wasn't killed here? Or, that he wasn't—
Dre: Oh, shit.
Austin: He wasn't killed uh, at 4. Was that your question?
Dre: Yeah. Uh, it wasn't going to be but it can be, because the other question I was thinking of just got answered by Art's question.
Austin: Wait, I thought that was your question. I thought we determined when the actual time of death was. I thought you asked—
Dre: No, I was just clarifying—
Keith: That was my question.
Art: [crosstalk] It was Keith— Keith asked.
Austin: [crosstalk] Oh, okay. Okay, I see.
Dre: Yeah. But no, I think asking the time of death is a good one, so I'll use that as my question.
Austin: But we— I gave that. I thought I gave that to Keith. I'm now very confused.
Keith: Yeah, no. I already did that one. You can ask a whole new thing.
Ali: No—
Dre: Okay. Keith—
Ali: You said—
Jack: No, you gave— Keith asked when—how long the body was up there for.
Austin: Right, and I said since—
Ali: And that was—
Austin: Since 4.
Dre: Yep!
Austin: And I said that's—
Art: 2.
Austin: Oh did I say— okay. The body's up there since two. Right, right. Sorry. Yes. Yes yes yes.
Dre: Right. And then I asked—right.
Keith: [crosstalk] No no no, because my— The solution was— I was like, “Oh, I can smell how old the dead blood is.” So, the—
Austin: [crosstalk] Right. Yes. Right, right, right. Yes.
Keith: So it's not how long it's been up there, it's how long it's been dead for.
Austin: Well no, 'cause this blood—this blood got here then, I guess. Right? I'm just gonna— Let's just say that those are the two questions that get asked. One, he was killed at like 1:30. He's here at like 2. It's not like, a big time discrepancy, we're not talking about a day or something.
Keith: Got it.
Austin: Alright, Ali and...Jack. Hella and Lem.
Art: Wait, so what do we think Dre's— What? What was Dre's question, what was the answer?
Austin: The two questions were, “Was he killed here? Was Gregalos killed here?”
Art: Okay.
Austin: And “When was he killed?” Those are— I'm counting as the two questions.
Jack: [crosstalk] I'm writing this down as well, so we've— I've got it on paper.
Austin: [crosstalk] Good. That's good. Good.
Dre: Alright, so we've got time of death of 1:30 a.m., and he was dragged to this field and set up at 2 a.m.
Austin: Right.
Keith: Yeah.
Art: I feel like we wasted a question there, but.
Dre: It's…it's fine. We're confident from Art examining the body as well, that the person wasn't murdered here and probably not with this hook.
Art: I don't know that it's probably not this hook.
Jack: [crosstalk] Uh, no, we—probably not this hook, it's just not here.
Austin: [crosstalk] I didn't say anything about this hook. I just said not here.
Art: But the hook was…
Dre: That's true.
Art: It was the— It wasn't here. Unless it's—yeah. Unless it's a weird magical...
Austin: [crosstalk] There are other wounds—
Ali: [crosstalk] I mean—yeah.
Austin: There are additional wounds on the body that make it seem as if it was cut into with this hook more than once, is what I'll say. That said… I can't tell you if… That's it. I can't tell you if it's like, “Oh, and therefore the hook did the killing.” You know?
Dre: Unless we ask it directly.
Austin: Right, but even then—
Art: [crosstalk] Well the hook didn’t do it, someone—a person held that hook.
Austin: [crosstalk] [laughs] Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, you could ask him directly. You could.
Dre: [crosstalk] My direct question was going to be— My direct question was going to be “Is the hook the murder weapon?”
Austin: Someone else can ask that if they want to.
Dre: Yeah.
[pause]
Jack: Ali?
Ali: Um, well I was gonna ask if there were any other wounds? And that was just answered?
Austin: Well I gave you that, but that’s one of those things that’s like, okay, that’s pretty obvious. I should just give you that there are other wounds, you know?
Ali: I guess yeah, was the hook the murder weapon? That’d be good to know.
Austin: I don’t think— I don’t— I think the answer is…I know what the answer is. Sorry. The answer is no, and I think the reason you can tell that—and sometimes I’m just gonna give you this so we can keep moving—is that none of the wounds… One, none of these wounds are like, to a vital organ directly. Someone would eventually have bled out from this, for sure. Like, left to hang. But they didn’t bleed out here and they seem like they were already, like…just none of these wounds are fatal wounds. So…and the time of death between wherever it happened and here is only thirty minutes so it’s not like he was hung out to bleed out somewhere twelve hours ago, and then brought out here, do you know what I mean? So— But, at the same time, those wounds probably didn’t help. Is what I’ll say.
Jack: Right.
Dre: Aw, man. Greggy got tortured.
Jack: I mean being poked by a hook—
Austin: Not good.
Jack: Not good for anybody.
Austin: Not—no.
Keith: I’ve been fishing. It’s not good.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Ugh, yeah. It’s the worst.
Jack: Um, I’m gonna ask the…uh, the deer circle. Is it a signifier of a place or—
Austin: You know.
Jack: What does that signify?
Austin: You know it. It’s the— It’s a coaster from The Laughing Deer. Or The Laughing Buck, rather. Which is the inn that you met Greggy at, back all that time ago.
Art: Oh, no.
Jack: Cool.
Ali: [sighs] Oh boy!
Austin: No? What’s up?
Art: We didn’t— We did— We missed a big piece of information.
Austin: Yeah?
Art: Yeah, who—who is this guy?
Austin: I said it. I said that.
Art: Oh, right. He’s the guy from—
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: [crosstalk] He’s Greggy.
Ali: [crosstalk] Yeah, he’s Greggy.
Jack: [crosstalk] It’s Gregalos.
Art: He’s their guy, not ours.
Keith: Yeah, we know Greggy.
Austin: [laughs] That is the biggest piece of information, it’s true.
Jack: Hang on, wait a second—
Keith: Yeah, if nobody asks, “Who’s this guy?”
[Ali and Austin laugh]
Art: It’s because Austin told us it was Greggy. I’s even in my notes, I don’t know what my problem is.
Dre: Greggy’s an elf, right?
Austin: Yes.
Art: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah, Greggy is an elf guy with a—this kind of all I can remember about him— He had a distinctive ring.
Keith: He was enigmatic.
Jack: And— He was very enigmatic, and he wanted us to go and… He just wanted us to go to the quest.
Austin: And get you—and bring you back...
Jack: And bring back a book.
Austin: A book.
Jack: That was there.
Keith: He struck us as nice.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: We also know that he was hiding something from us.
Austin: You do.
Ali: Yeah, but.
Art: Before we move on, what here is evil?
Dre: Who isn’t?
Austin: Hella.
[Austin, Dre, and Keith laugh]
Keith: That’s fuckin’, that’s still funny.
Austin: Presumably!
Dre: [sings Mario death music]
Austin: Presumably! Maybe, this could be one of those things that we retcon! Maybe Hella’s a good girl by now! Maybe she’s a goodie!
Ali: [crosstalk] We’ll—yeah, ah...we’ll see. We’ll see!
Austin: Hey cat. There’s a cat on the screen right now. Um, so now what? Now where are you going? New round.
Art: That’s it? Only—only had—
Austin: That is it.
Art: That—It’s not an evil ward, it’s not, it’s not—
Jack: So the—
Austin: No, no.
[Keith laughs]
Dre: Not an evil hook?
Jack: The order I wrote down was Keith, Art, Ali, me.
Austin: Andrew...was like mixed in there? Too?
Dre: Whoa.
Jack: Oh! I’m sorry!
Dre: I think I was—
Jack: I’ve got a migraine [pronounced me-grain]. [laughs]
Ali: Oh my god! [laughs]
[Jack laughs]
Austin: Query—a me-grain? Does that? Is that an actual pronunciation? Okay.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: That’s good.
Dre: No it’s this new uh, Nintendo thing? I don’t know if you’ve heard about it, but it sounds pretty exciting.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: They did a Nintendo Express about it this morning.
Art: Yeah you get some wood, you put it on your Wii-U gamepad.
[Dre laughs]
Art: And you get all sorts of stuff in your game.
[Jack laughs]
Art: But be careful, they are not making a lot of the Animal Crossing one.
Ali: Oh my god.
Jack: I’m sorry.
Austin: I would buy a wooden Animal Crossing amiibo. I would. It’s true. Anyway, continue. Continue. Let’s go. Who’s going where? You’re allowed to talk about this. This isn’t like a blind situation.
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Keith: Um, well there’s three different districts.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Well, there’s four, but two of them count as one.
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Keith: And there’s five of—there’s five of us. I think that maybe we should try splitting up into two groups of two and, uh, and—
Dre: One lone ranger?
Keith: And two lone ran— Yeah, one lone ranger.
[Austin laughs]
Dre: There’s five.
Keith: So two groups of lone ranger—two pairs of lone rangers, and then one single gunman?
Austin: Right, right.
Dre: Mmhm. A Roland Gibbons.
Keith: Mmhm. Um, so—
Art: It’s weird though, because like, none of us are like specifically...good at being solo here, right?
Austin: Yeah, but, I wanna be clear—
Dre: No.
Keith: No one is more— Yeah, no one is more equipped than anyone else to be solo.
Austin: Uh… Is that true? Remember that you have access to all of your abilities.
Ali: Yeah.
Art: Yeah, but like some of— I mean, I don’t know about everyone else.
Austin: Yeah.
Art: But some of my abilities are less good here.
Austin: Yes. Yeah, absolutely.
Dre: Well like—
Keith: Maybe Jack is probably best to— Lem is probably—
Jack: I’d be okay solo, I think.
Dre: But it depends on where we’re sending somebody, like—
Jack: I’ve got a lot of...charisma rolls.
Dre: Like we send someone to the Ordennan Embassy, like, Ali would be good solo there.
Austin: Right.
Ali: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah. Maybe this is something we can work out as and when we need.
Austin: Well we’re going, right? This is it, this is the spot.
Jack: Yeah I know, but I mean like, in specific—yeah, yeah.
Austin: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I see what you’re saying. Right. I think the question was what about district breaking up? ‘Cause...because of the having to stop at the gates? Someone— I think the discussion was—
Keith: Yeah. It’s probably best to go to a district and then not have to leave that district.
Austin: Right. Also one of the advantages of being part of the Golden Lance is that at the end of each turn, you can exchange information. Everybody has all the information at the end of the turn.
Jack: Okay.
Austin: That just seems fair. Otherwise it’s—
Keith: Ooh! If I transform into a bird can I fly over the gates and not have to spend the hour with the guards?
Austin: Yeah!
Ali: Of course.
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Keith: Sweet!
[Ali laughs]
Austin: ‘Cause like it’s not the gates, the gates aren’t the problem.
Keith: Right.
Austin: The problem is mad people are in the streets.
Keith: Right, okay.
Austin: The problem is just it takes forever to get everywhere. But yeah, if you can just—
Jack: Oh! But in doing so, Keith wouldn’t get any information from the guards.
Austin: Correct.
Keith: That’s true. Well, I could just fly up to a guard and transform into a dude!
Ali: Oh, brother.
Austin: Right, but then you may as— Okay.
Dre: Then they freak the fuck out, Keith!
[Austin laughs]
Keith: [laughs] They’d be fine! This is like a place I’ve been!
Dre: Also, wait wait wait— This is not the first time we are all meeting, right? Like this is after whenever like—
Austin: No. Wait, but no—
Keith: We just met you.
Austin: Yeah but wait, did you guys just—
Austin: No no no—
Art: [crosstalk] This all happened— We talked about this, didn’t we?
Austin: [crosstalk] Right, but Throndir hasn’t met— I guess you introduced him?
Art: He wouldn’t be part of the reunification the rest of us had?
Keith: We— Yeah, we would have previously met him, maybe.
Austin: Yeah, maybe you brought him to like the meet and greet. Like the meetup, like the—
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Yeah, yeah.
Art: Yeah, it’s better to handwave that than not.
Dre: We already had like, the awkward happy hour conversations…
Keith: Does—
Dre: But is this the first time I’ve seen Fero turn into a dog? Because if it is.
Dre (as Throndir): What the fuck?
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Probably.
Keith: And then I transform back into a person.
Keith (as Fero): Pretty cool, right?
Keith: Does Dre’s dog count as a +1 on the rolls?
Austin: No.
Dre: No.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: But you can use that dog as the rationale for how you figured something out.
Dre: [baby talk voice] He is a good boy! He is a good boy.
Austin: Also he is a good boy. That is true.
[Dre laughs]
Art: So here’s— There’s two events that are going to be happening now.
Keith: [petulantly] I’m supposed to be the good boy.
Art: That could affect us.
Jack: Oh, right.
Art: We’re gonna have the kites at the North Beach are going on...basically all afternoon. Most of the afternoon. But the parade is about to start. And the parade might like, draw people. So a lot of the people on our list might not be where they’re supposed to be, because they might have gone to see the parade.
Austin: Uh, there’s a third one that you’re missing, I just want to make sure you caught.
Jack: This is also our last chance to see the sermon.
Austin: Right. Yes.
Art: Right. Oh, I thought when we got there, it would be noon.
Jack: At the temple of Samothes.
Austin: You’ll catch the end of it.
Art: Okay.
Austin: I have a thing written for that.
Art: Okay, well then that’s where I think I have to go.
Austin: Sure.
Ali: [laughs] You were hired as a detective, but you’re like, “No guys, I gotta—”
Dre: I gotta go.
Ali: I gotta see the end of this real quick.
Art: Well no, Lucius might have information and I think that I’m the best person to talk to Lucius.
Ali: That’s fair. Okay.
Art: Also, he might comment on my fancy festival day gear, which none of you did.
[pause]
Keith (as Fero): You look really nice.
Art (as Hadrian): Thank you.
Austin: Alright, so.
Jack: So the temple of Samothes is—
Austin: S-1.
Jack: I’m just checking the thing.
Austin: Right in the middle of the Sun District.
Jack: Ah right, okay. So. You could just get there in one.
Art: Right. And I— And like, there’s other stuff in this district, I could hang out here for a little bit. Some of these people I’m not sure why I’d want to talk to, but I’m sure that will come up.
Dre: Yeah. Should we—
Austin: Yeah, you guys should be thinking about that right now. You should be thinking about “Okay, who do I wanna talk to about this stuff?” That’s where you should be starting.
Dre: Should we check out the prison? Like to see if the prison break was...related to any of this?
Jack: [crosstalk] Oh there was the prison break!
Art: Yeah, probably.
Jack: Yeah, I don’t have a problem with that.
Keith: Um.
Dre: I can go to that if someone wants to go with.
Art: Was this Bottom of the Flounder where you met him?
Jack: No, that was The Laughing Buck.
Austin: Laughing Buck is the...something, one of the Fs.
Jack: F-2.
Art: Um…
Jack: I would like to go to The Laughing Buck. Um.
Austin: Okay. So you’re gonna go to the gates first, then. You’re gonna go to F-7. On your way to the—
Keith: Uh, I would like to go—
Jack: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’ll aim for fish.
Austin: Okay. [laughs]
Keith: Okay so we’ve got— Who is— Who’s in Garden?
Austin: No one is in Garden. Garden’s far.
Keith: No one’s in Garden.
Austin: Garden— You’re gonna need two turns to get to Garden. Unless you’re, unless you’re—
Keith: Am I gonna need two turns?
Austin: No.
Keith: I’m gonna go to Garden.
Austin: Okay.
Jack: Wh— To do what?
Austin: Good question.
[Ali laughs]
Keith: To…
[Ali laughs]
Keith: To go to the farthest thing and save a turn. And figure out what—
Austin: That’s a fair move.
Dre: Why!
Jack: Yeah, but. You need to— No! You— I mean, can do that? Like, we don’t have much time. We need to specifically go to a place with the intention of doing a thing or seeing a person—
Austin: Because if you get there— You’re not saving a turn, you can just get there the next turn. There’s not a saved turn for you in this case.
Jack: Yeah.
Keith: No I just meant that bec—like, hey guys, don’t worry about Garden, it’s far. Don’t even fuck with that, I’ll fuck with that.
Austin: Right, you can—
Jack: Okay. So find a place—
Dre: But here’s the thing, if we split up we’re losing a roll bonus.
Austin: Yes. But if you stay together you’re losing time.
Art: Well the prison is— The prison is also in the Sun District.
Austin: Yes. Correct
Art: So that’s useful.
[pause]
Austin: Yes.
Jack: I mean...Hadrian.
Art: Yo.
Jack: Uh... Well, you’re going to— So essentially, uh…
Art: I can be talked out of this, but—
Jack: Throndir might be going to the prison, which is in…
Art: Also in the Sun District.
Dre: In F-6.
Keith: I’ll— Fuck it, I’ll go with Throndir to the prison.
Austin: Okay, so two at the prison…
Jack: Okay. Uh…
Austin: I gotta get— We gotta get…
Jack: Hadrian’s going…
Art: I’m going to the temple. [pause] Although, like, I was going to do the temple, then I was gonna do the prison the next turn? I don’t know if you guys want to save it for the +1 bonus. If there’s like another thing you want to do for a turn.
Austin: I forgot a really important thing! I just remembered! Really important!
Keith: What’s up.
Austin: If you ever go to a place where you think that there is more information, you can kill a turn. You can waste an extra turn and I’ll give you everything that’s there. Just by like, “I’m gonna be extra thorough. I’m just gonna say here, this is the spot.”
Dre: Yeah, keep poking around.
Austin: I will tell you ahead of time if there is anything extra there. I’m not a jerk.
Keith: Okay. And if we roll a ten or above, that’s not a—
Dre: [quietly] Austin Walker, not a jerk.
Austin: Right, if you roll a ten or above, right. But there are places where like, you’ll get that nine and there isn’t anything for the ten. Not every place is connected to this murder. This is a city. You know? There are dead ends.
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Keith: Okay.
Jack: Alright, so… Hadrian is going to the sermon.
Austin and Art: Mmhm.
Jack: Yeah?
Art: And—and again, the turn after could do…
Art: And again, the turn after could do the prison if people want. If people have something else and would like the plus one at the prison.
Dre: Well, what else do we have here?
Jack: We could go any—
Dre: I think the big things are, event—wise there's the sermon, and then place—wise there's the prison, and to me the Laughing Buck would also be a good place to go early. Because then you could be like, “Hey, was Greggy here? Did you see him meet with anyone, talk to anyone, do anything weird? Was he acting funny?” Et cetera, et cetera.
Art: I can also make a—
Keith: [crosstalk] Was he doing his classic Greggy schmooze?
Dre: Just Law & Order the shit out of that place.
Art: [crosstalk] I can make a case for South Net. Because it has Sam Shook, the district gate guard, who could be useful because he might have seen comings and goings. This is, again, close to the scene. You know, if someone dragged a body, they might have had to like— Someone might have been like, push a cart through there in the middle of the night, right? He might remember that?
[Ali laughs]
Art: There's also Mitta Par, the snow elf. Sketched on the side, "New to town." And it might not be a bad idea one to have our snow elf check out the snow elf. Although—
Dre: Or would it be the worst idea—
Ali: Yeah, that actually…
Dre: —to have your snow elf meet their snow elf, Art.
Art: I don't know— Why is she here? Like, you didn't leave because you were having a great time.
Dre: [crosstalk] Austin, do I know her? Does that name sound familiar to Throndir?
[pause]
Art, Keith, and Jack: Austin, you’re muted.
Austin: Yeah, the name does sound familiar.
Dre: What do I know about her?
Austin: She, like you, has not been aging the way the other elves were.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: So she's like, she’s part of the clique, you know?
Dre: Okay. Well—
Art: And y'all are good at some stuff that might be good for murder—noticing.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Yeah. We got that tracking stuff down.
Art: You're like elite murder—noticers.
Jack: Alright. So. A lot of these— Like, a lot of doors are gonna open once we start making moves, so I think like, the important thing for us to do is make a move, and then we can actually start. 'Cause…we gotta solve this murder.
Austin: Yup.
Keith: Greggy would be proud if we did.
Ali: [sadly] Mm.
Jack: So I'm gonna go to the gate into Fish.
Austin: Okay. You're going just to the gate, okay. And Hella?
Jack: I mean, I want to go to the pub, but I can't.
Austin: [crosstalk] Right, but you have to start at the gate. Yup… I'm giving you tokens right now. I'm giving you Scrabble pieces to represent you. You can click and drag yourselves. You should be able to, the ones who are out there. So you should be "F," Fero. You should be "H," Hadrian. I don't know what I'm going to do with Hella yet. I did this bad. I didn't think this through.
Ali: [crosstalk] I could have a “V.”
Austin: Oh, right.
Dre: [crosstalk] She could be “A”, or “E.”
Ali: I could be “V.”
Austin: That's a bad one, wait, I have to get rid of this…ugly…
Ali: So Hadrian is heading to the sermon. Lem is heading to the…inn, right now.
Austin: Well, he's going to the gate, and then the inn. Right.
Ali: And then the inn.
Austin: Yup.
Ali: And then whoever goes with Hadrian is going to go to the prison afterwards?
Art: No, that was just an idea. That doesn't have to be the idea.
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, I don’t think that happened.
Art: I was just pitching that, like, “Hey, we could save the prison.”
Dre: [crosstalk] I think starting with the South Net might not be a bad idea, though.
[pause]
Austin: Make your decision.
Art: My advice should not be considered binding, I guess is my… [laughs]
Austin: Yeah, that's fair.
Keith: Dre, you and I, we're going to the prison? Still? Then?
Austin: That's what it sounds like.
Keith: Okay.
Dre: Well, here's the other thing. We could also go to North Net, because that's where the Velas—
Austin: [crosstalk] That is the prison.
Dre: Oh, okay.
Austin: And the North Net is also the prison.
Dre: Okay, well, let’s I guess— Yeah, let's do that.
Austin: Okay. Who am I missing? We're missing…Hella. Where's Hella going?
Ali: I'm gonna tag along with Lem.
Austin: Okay. Sounds good.
Ali (as Hella): Hi.
Jack (as Lem): Hey, Hella.
Austin: Let's start with Hadrian. Go ahead and give me your investigation roll. [to Ali] Also you should have this “V.” I'll just do it over there, but then…[clicking] There. So you go ahead, Hadrian. 2d6.
[pause]
Art: Not as good.
Austin: Bad, even. Bad roll.
Dre: Question.
Austin: Yeah?
Dre: If we fail a roll do we get EXP?
Ali: Ehh?
Austin: [sighs]
Art: EXP that we don't get to spend until…
[Ali and Keith laugh]
Austin: We bank it?
Keith: This would create a horrible time loop.
Austin: But what if we bank it? For when you actually get here in the story, and then you get to collect this EXP?
Ali: That would be so cool.
Austin: Let's do that. Let's bank this EXP.
Keith: Sure.
Art: How do I mark this on my sheet?
Austin: You don't. I'll do it, I'll do it.
Ali: You mark it in your head.
Austin: Right. [typing]
Keith: Mark it in your heart.
Austin: Right. Alright. So, you go to the temple.
Art: There's some good stuff we could do with a failed roll here.
Austin: But remember, so the thing here is you're gonna get the basic level of info and I'm not— This is where it's different from Dungeon World, is I'm not here to complicate your lives tonight in that same way. We just don't have the time to do that and solve the murder, do you know what I mean?
Art: Sure.
Austin: That said, I might still play with it here and there. So.
The temple is in full swing. There are services. Prelate Lucius, who is like your direct boss, is finishing up his morning sermon right this very moment. He's lecturing on the sacrifice that Samothes made for Hieron. His booming voice is clear and his eyes are bright. He is a true believer.
He tells his parishioners that Samothes could have used his tools to be a tyrant but instead he built us bridges, and gave us our own tools to build with. He didn't only defend us, but he made us weapons so that we might defend ourselves from injustice and evil—which are both, he reminds us, very real and very material forces in the world.
After he's done, the place takes a short break before launching into a series of other religious festivities. A passion play, the parade starts to get kickin’ off, and lots of like one—on—one meetings between church officials and locals.
That's what you get.
[pause]
Art: Great.
Austin: You can still use any of your abilities but, yeah.
Art: Yeah, what here is evil?
[pause]
Jack: [loudly] Prelate Lucius.
Austin: [crosstalk] Prelate Lucius.
Dre: Yes!
Ali: Really?
Dre: Perfect.
Austin: Mmhm. Yeah.
Ali: Man…
Keith: [sarcastically] But he's a true believer!
Austin: He sure is.
Keith: He's an evil believer.
Ali: Man…
Austin: He is a true believer.
Jack: He's a true bel—evil—er.
Keith: [crosstalk] You've never tried to detect evil on your boss before?
Ali: [crosstalk] That’s some shit.
Austin: No, he has.
Keith: [crosstalk] That's like, the first thing I'd do.
Austin: He definitely has.
Keith: Oh okay, so you—okay.
Art: [crosstalk] And this is new?
Austin: This is new.
Ali: [gasps]
Keith: Oh, boy.
Ali: [gasps] [laughs]
Art: The important thing is, my religion isn't secretly evil.
Jack: [crosstalk] I'm gonna write his name down in caps.
Austin: [to Art] You don't know that! Let's not jump to any conclusions.
Keith: [crosstalk] It still might be.
Austin: Right.
Art: Well, I never ping as evil.
Austin: You never ping yourself.
Jack: I love the fact that because we're in like a semi—fantasy world, we can be detectives and genuinely and sincerely write down in our notebook "Person is evil," as just like a—
[Ali and Austin laugh]
Keith: As an absolute fact.
Jack: [crosstalk] Imagine if Sherlock Holmes did that. “Yeah. Moriarty is evil."
Austin: Great.
Jack: “I'm done!”
Art: Can I cast a spell?
Austin: Sure.
Art: Just a rote, nothing fancy. Could I get Guidance?
Austin: Sure. How's that work again? It's a symbol?
Art: Yeah.
Austin: A symbol appears?
Art: Symbol appears… Hold on, I have it written down, it's just oddly not coming up.
Austin: Yeah… What's your prayer? Are you just like, "Samothes, guide me"? Is that basically what you're doing? Or do you have a more specific question than that?
Art: [crosstalk] Oh right, it's not in my section.
Austin: Right, it's a cleric spell.
Art: “The symbol of your deity appears before you and gestures toward the direction or course of action your deity would have you take, then disappears. The message is through gesture only. Your communication through this spell is severely limited.”
Dre: This didn't work so well for you last time, Art.
Art: I failed the roll last time.
Austin: [crosstalk] But he failed it. This time everything succeeds. A beam of light catches the holy symbol that's made in stained glass at the front of the church. And it points at the door out. He's telling you to leave.
Art: Sure. Um. Okay. I mean, I don't quickly leave. You know, I feel like that would look weird.
Keith: You meander to the exit?
Art: I do, I do—
Keith: [crosstalk] "Okay, Samothes."
[Austin laughs]
Art: I do holy gestures and I, you know… Maybe I make small talk toward the exit, like, "Hi, good to see you," shake some hands. But I'm exiting.
Dre: Drop a gold coin in the offering.
Art: Right. I'm not being rude, but I'm going.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Alright. Let's do the roll for Lem and Hella.
[pause]
Austin: Just plus one, but that's okay. Same result. You're only adding one per person who's with you.
Jack: Ohh, oh I see. Okay.
Austin: So. You're at the gate. You’re at the gate. Okay. Sam Shook is there. He's on duty right now and he's kind of a jolly, round— He's just like a rotund guard. Like, you can imagine that type of character in your head.
He's at work today on a holiday, obviously he's working the gate, but he doesn't seem to mind that so much. He kind of nods and smiles to everyone who walks by. He tells you everything he knows. He saw— He says he saw lots of motion the night before, but his job was to stay in one place. He says:
Austin (as Sam Shook): I saw that snow elf lady moving north towards the prison. I saw one of them rats headin’ towards the Gardens. I saw a junkie— My apologies, a man of faith, moving towards the church.
Art: Did he say junkies?
Ali: Yeah, excuse me…
Jack: What's he mean by rat?
Austin: You know… and this is not a question that you—hm. Wait, maybe it is. Is this your question?
[pause]
Jack: Uh…
Austin: Or you could just ask him to clarify. You would just be able to ask him to clarify. He clarifies.
Austin (as Sam Shook): Oh, you know, them rat folks? Down by the sea. They do what needs to be doin’ sometimes and, uh…not moral folks, I'll say.
Austin: They are effectively— I think Hadrian knows this best 'cause he's the one who's lived here the longest. They're basically a Thieves’ Guild. And he can communicate that to you at the end of the turn.
Jack: And where were they headed?
Austin: Towards the Garden District.
Keith: So this isn't like a race of rat people that he called not moral?
Austin: No. Correct.
[Ali and Keith laugh]
Art: It also isn't his weird slang for poor people, which is what I thought.
Ali: Yeah, same.
Austin: It can be both. You know.
Dre: Who is this character they're talking to?
Austin: This is Sam Shook.
Keith: The guard.
Ali: [crosstalk] Sam Shook.
Austin: Yes. Who is not, in fact, in the South Net right now. Again, that data is not live. That might be where he lives, but he's at work right now.
Dre: Sure, sure, sure.
Austin: You guys both have a question though, since you rolled a…
Jack: Yeah. Yeah, um… He's a guardsman right?
Jack (as Lem): If you were out investigating this, as a man of the law, what would you recommend doing?
Ali: [laughs] Of course he would ask that.
Dre: Horrible.
Austin: He puts his hand on your shoulder.
Austin (as Sam Shook): Well boy, I'm a real professional. I would uh, start—
Dre: [laughs] That means he's definitely not a professional.
Austin (as Sam Shook): I would start at the scene of the crime. You find the murder weapon, you find the murderer. Who has the murder weapon? Solved it.
[Ali, Keith, and Jack laugh]
Art: You know where they put the best police, is guarding stationary points.
Jack (as Lem): Cheers, Sam.
[Austin laughs]
Jack (as Lem): Thanks. Thanks.
Austin: That character slipped real bad from Matthew McConaughey to Riff Raff. And, I'm not upset about that.
[Ali and Jack laugh]
Keith: Are you trying to say that Matthew McConaughey isn't kind of Riff Raff?
Dre: [crosstalk] [Matthew McConaughey accent] Well, alrigh'.
[Austin laughs]
Dre: [Matthew McConaughey accent] Alright, alright.
Ali: Oh, boy.
Austin: Alright, what are we— What's Hella's question? And again, it doesn't have to be a question to him, like, a literal question. It can just be a question to me, like…
Jack: Oh yeah.
Austin: That's okay, it was still adorable. It was still really good. It's a good character moment. That's why I have that in there. That's not in Sherlock Holmes obviously, right? In Consulting Detective it's just like, “Here is what you find.” There are no rolls, you just get this info. But here I wanted to spice it up and give you a chance to have some characterization.
Ali: Jack, is there like a second thing that you would want to ask, since we're a pair?
Jack: Um…
Keith: "What else would you do?"
[Ali, Austin, and Jack laugh]
Dre: “Could you please build on that advice you just gave to my partner?”
Austin: To be fair, I wanna be clear, I don't know that he gave you bad advice. Right, like what he's basically saying is, investigate the murder weapon further. Where did that murder weapon come from.
Art: [crosstalk] Yeah, it's good advice. He's just a big dummy.
Austin: He's just a guard, you know, he's not Victoria Solomon or Dr. Gloria Lake.
Keith: Yeah, the Golden Lance people would have given him this nice badge and hat.
Austin: [laughs] Right. Yeah, you got a hat, sure. Why not.
Dre: Man.
Jack: If you're listening to this and you're a kind drawing person, I'd really like to see what a Golden Lance badge looks like.
Austin: [laughs] If you're a drawing person.
Dre: Or Throndir in a cowboy hat, I would also like that too.
Austin: Yeah, like, let me put a—
Jack: Hella, what about, “Has anybody sneaked through this outpost recently?”
Ali: Yeah. Or like— Or a general like, “Has there been any trouble here today?”
Art: No, I think you don't want to ask him. I think you just want to ask the universe if anyone sneaked through here.
Austin: Yeah, right, exactly.
Ali: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah, I’m asking the universe.
Austin: Okay, let me think. This is the Fish gate, this is going between… Yes. Okay. Let me see if I can…figure out a—hm. 'Cause people have, I'm just trying to figure out is there any way you would ever be able to know that.
Jack: Like, looking for—
Austin: Right, but then— So I can answer the question like, “Yes,” but that's a way different question than, “Yes, and they're this person.” Do you know what I mean? So yes, someone has snuck through here for sure. I don't know that it's possible for you to have, like, I don't know—
Keith: To know that it's the person that we're looking for and not just some other rascal?
Austin: Right. You know. Because he just gave you all the information that he just has, right, which is: there was a rat guy who went towards the Garden District, there was the snow elf who went in the north from here, which means in the—towards the prison.
Jack: [crosstalk] Towards the prison.
Austin: And then a junkie, quote unquote, was going east from here.
Keith: [whispers] I just had a really good idea.
Austin: So yeah, I don't think I can— I think that that's just a dead end, which is like, this happens, you know? Okay.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Good question, though. As you get more information, you'll be able to ask that question in other places and maybe have a better shot. You know?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Alright, let's go up to the prison. Gimme that— Who's rolling?
Art: Sorry, I had a—
Keith: I'll roll.
Dre: Go for it Keith. I believe in you.
Keith: I believe in me too.
[pause] [clicking]
Keith: Wh—wha—
Austin: Wow.
Keith: Wha—what just happened?
Austin: Wow.
Ali: Wait—
Austin: You got a bad roll, buddy.
Keith: [crosstalk] You can't— It's like my Roll20 just flipped out on me.
Austin: Oh, did it not go through? I saw that roll, I saw it with my eyes! I saw what it was.
Dre: I don't—
Keith: Well, did it go? Is it gone?
Austin: It's gone. It was 'cause I was messing with this text field, I think. Go ahead and reroll.
Keith: After I reroll can you tell me what it was?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Aw man, it was like a 12 wasn't it.
Austin: [crosstalk] You're so lucky. It was a 4.
[Ali laughs]
Keith: Aw man. I still don't see it. I still don't see my roll.
Austin: Well you just got—
Dre: I still don't see it either.
Austin: You got an 11 just now.
Jack: Nah, I don't see it.
Austin: You got a 9 plus 2 is an 11.
Keith: Awesome.
Austin: Wait, let's make sure your rolls are—
Keith: Plus one. Plus one is ten.
Austin: Oh right, plus one is ten. Which is good enough. Why are your rolls not working?
Keith: I don't know.
Austin: Get your—
Keith: I'm gonna refresh—
Austin: Yeah, refresh, and then give me another roll.
Keith: [crosstalk] "WebGL has hit a snag, reload." Okay, so it was just WebGL crashed on me.
Austin: Did you— I have a question, Keith. Did you desaturate your bedroom just now? Why do you look like you're in black and white to me suddenly? [laughs] There is some yellow. There is some yellow back there, okay.
Dre: Keith, why do you suddenly look like a ghost character on Supernatural?
Keith: I'm a pale boy!
Ali: He's a pale boy.
[Dre laughs]
Ali: I have a light up thing on my desk, but it's the R2D2 thing that is so loud, so I'm really jealous that you're able to do that.
Keith: Oh, mine is a Stormtrooper.
Austin: Alright, so… You guys are at the North Net. I'm just gonna take that roll for Keith. Keith, do another roll just to make sure it works once you load back in, but—
Keith: Okay.
Austin: The prison here is awkwardly knitted together from a number of converted abandoned buildings with patchwork walls and hastily constructed metal fences connecting one wing, quote unquote, to another.
You expect to find Locke Samuels here, who is one of the prison guards. Instead, you find prison guard Locke and prison guard Samuels, who are two grating, whiny, attached—at—the—hip guards who don't know much from much. They finish each other's sentences.
Keith: [crosstalk] Oh, they sound great.
Austin: And they aren't good sentences to finish. It's amazing to you that more prisoners haven't escaped their grasp. Okay, I see— I saw a roll. It's just not going through.
Keith: Okay. Yeah, I rolled and then WebGL crashed again.
Austin: Alright, you can’t— Turn off the 3-D dice for yourself. Or maybe I can do it. I think I just turned off 3-D dice.
Dre: Wait, there's 3-D dice?
Keith: [crosstalk] For everyone?
Art: Yeah, I never had 3-D dice.
Austin: Okay, then maybe Keith has it on by himself. It's in the settings. It's in the settings bar.
Dre: Oh yeah, there's “Enable 3-D Dice,” right there.
Austin: Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, these, this—
Art: [crosstalk] Apparently it makes things crash.
Austin: These two guards are Walter and Perry, is the thing. So, they're very much— They try to recount the events of what happened last night. So:
Austin (as Locke and Samuels): It all happened so fast, she was amazing.
Austin: And they explain to you that a strange looking elf—they don't have any other words for her but that—
Dre: [crosstalk] Snow elf.
Austin: —showed up, killed three guards like it was not a big deal, with a collection of daggers and a bow, and then blew up a side of the wall to make a hole into Therat Saal's cell. Therat Saal, again, is the kind of boy prince of a rich Ordennan family. At which point they escaped.
Art: [high-pitched voice] "Oh my god Samuels I was so scared for you."
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Keith: [high-pitched voice] “I’ve never seen so much blood.”
[Dre laughs]
Austin: There it is. I knew if I just gave them the fuel, they would run with it.
[Ali and Dre laugh]
Austin: So, questions. You have two questions. The big facts there: weird explosive black powder residue, she's that snow elf. You can put that together. There's that one other snow elf here. Weird.
Keith: Right. Yeah.
Austin: In fact, wait, actually—
Art: [crosstalk] Everyone keep an eye on Throndir. Where was he?
Austin: [crosstalk] Right, they do:
Austin (as Locke and Samuels): Are you, are you one of them?
Austin: Like they're very— They are asking you inappropriate questions.
Dre: [crosstalk] “Oh, oh, one of those people, huh?”
Keith: [crosstalk] [high-pitched voice] "Can you show us the powder?"
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Austin: Oh boy.
Art: [high-pitched voice] "We promise not to use it."
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Keith: [high-pitched voice] "Tell 'em we promise."
Austin: [laughs] Okay. [laughs loudly]
Jack: In case you didn't know about the very niche reference we're making in this podcast—
Austin: Oh no, I'm terrified of what I just did to my Audacity, oh no— Okay, go ahead.
Jack: There is an animated television show called Home Movies that is essentially the StreamFriends mascot.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: And there are characters named Walter and Perry who are amazing.
Dre: Boy…
Jack: Locke and Samuels.
Austin: Jack's character name for that was just Locke Samuels, and I was like, “Hm, that sounds like two names to me.” Alright, so questions from Throndir and from Fero.
Dre: Is making a move— Does that count as my question?
Austin: [crosstalk] No, that is not— No, you can make a move.
Dre: Okay, can I do Hunt and Track and see if I can see where she went to after blowing up the wall?
Austin: [crosstalk] She definitely— She went northwest from here.
Dre: Northwest. So towards the Fish District?
Austin: Yes, but also towards—
Dre: Ish?
Austin: Yes. Like, as the crow flies, yes.
Dre: Yeah, okay.
Art: I'm a big dummy.
Austin: Yeah?
Art: We can reconcile it later, but I had a moment just now.
Austin: Did you not ask a question?
Art: No, I forgot I could speak to dead people.
Austin: Oh, can you do that now?
Ali: What?
Dre: Motherfuck…
Jack: Oh… Well, you can go back to the crime scene.
Keith: [crosstalk] That dead body's still there.
Austin: Yeah, you can go back. Let's get Fero's question.
Dre: I also realized I should have Hunted and Tracked like, around that body too.
Austin: Yeah, that's fair.
Keith: I mean we got, we rolled—
Austin: Yeah yeah, but those abilities would have given you more for sure.
Keith: Yeah yeah, no.
Austin: Talking to the dead guy would definitely help.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Woulda helped.
Keith: It would super help!
Art: [crosstalk] "Hey man, who killed you?"
Keith: [crosstalk] Art, you have to do that like, right away. Like you have to… you should—when you— When the light tells you, like "Hey, you should leave," you should be like, “Oh yeah, I should leave and talk to fucking dead people!”
[Ali, Jack, and Dre laugh]
Keith: “That's what I—that's what I [unintelligible @ 1:08:45]* to the dead body! Thanks, Samothes!”
[Ali laughs]
Art: It's a Sun Day miracle.
Keith: “Forgot I could solve this!”
Austin: It's a Sun Day miracle, yeah.
Art: Look, Pushing Daisies doesn't exist in this universe so I don't even know how I would have even gotten the idea.
Keith: Uh…
Dre: Bzzt. [the Pushing Daisies bringing-someone-back-to-life noise]
Keith: Do I know what that explosive black powder is? Like, have I seen that before? Is that a thing that I know about?
Austin: [crosstalk] No. This is not a thing you know about.
Dre: Hey. Have I seen it before?
Austin: Um. You've seen— You’ve definitely heard it, that time. That time that all that explosion stuff happened?
Dre: [crosstalk] Oh. Yeah. Uh-huh. ‘Kay. Got it. Yeah.
Austin: [crosstalk] You definitely heard it, so I think you know what it is. You know that it's like a goblin situation, that it's like—
Dre: Yup.
Austin: You know.
Keith: Um.
Dre: Backstory. Should I tell them?
Austin: No.
Dre: Okay.
Keith: Okay, so—
Austin:That's a hot teaser for that future episode.
Dre: That is a hot teaser.
Keith: So this is some goblin shit.
Austin: This is— Well, yeah. Yes and no. The snow elves and the goblins have some complicated situations going on. We'll get to that in future episodes.
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: Or, past episodes.
Austin: Well no, because we're putting this out like, tomorrow. Or Tuesday.
Keith: I know. No, but it's also, all that stuff takes place before.
[Jack laughs]
Austin: Right, yeah.
Keith: I'm talk—
Austin: [loudly] What's your question?
Keith: My question is— [laughing] You're right, it's very late.
Austin: [laughs] It's getting there. We're on turn one.
Keith: I wanna know if I can tell— I wanna look and see if I can tell where they went from… I wanna be a bloodhound, look and see if I can tell where they went from here.
Austin: That's literally the question Throndir asked.
Keith: What?
Austin: Using his actual dog.
Keith: [crosstalk] Did I totally space out?
Austin: Yeah, he used his dog to do that.
Keith: I used— I wanted to just, like, follow Kodiak around.
Dre: [crosstalk] And my Hunt and Track skills [unintelligible @ 1:10:25]*. I got some skills here.
Keith: What was I doing when you answered that?
Austin: [crosstalk] Maybe we shouldn't have put the animal people together. That was a mistake. Maybe you should have split that one up.
Ali: Yeah.
Dre (as Throndir): What's your favorite tree, Fero?
Keith: I wanna ask… Where do I… All of my questions have to do with where these two people went. Or where the prince went.
Austin: You can forfeit your question, certainly.
Keith: Is there someone in town that has access to this black powder?
Austin: Not that you— Uh, yeah. Sure, yeah. You would think that if that black powder came from somewhere here, it's probably from Dr. K. Miranne, the alchemist at the Sinking Star's Curios, Decoctions, and Antiques.
Art: That's also a great name, just—
Keith: That is a great name. It's fantastic. The whole thing is good.
Austin: Also, yeah. That was a real partnership, I think, between Jack and I. Dr. K. Miranne is Jack's. And so is the Sinking Star's, and I was like, “What is that? Okay. It’s this.” Alright, so yeah, that's who you think would have access to something like this, if she didn't bring it herself. Alright, next round.
Dre: Wait, do I not get a question?
Austin: [frustrated] Dog, hmm… Oh! Right, that was your ability! That was your ability and not your question!
Dre: [crosstalk] 'Cause I used an ability!
Austin: Right!
Dre: Yeah!
Austin: I keep forgetting! Yes.
Dre: “Dog” yourself, Austin. Jeez!
Austin: [laughs] Well, I was talking about your dog, obviously! Yeah. So what's your question?
Dre: Oh fuck, well now that I've said that I don't know.
[Austin laughs]
Ali: Oh lord.
Keith: Listen, it's hard to have questions about shit!
Austin: [crosstalk] It is, it is.
Keith: We don't know anything yet.
Austin: Listen, sometimes you're gonna go to a place and get that roll and be like, “Okay, I don't know.” It's not imperative. Like I gave you everything that I have prewritten for this zone, right? At this point anyway. That said, if you ask me a thing that prompts me, I will totally give you more that's not directly observable there.
Dre: Right. I mean, I have a question that I would ask the universe, but I don't know if I could justify getting a lot out of it besides a yes or no answer.
Austin: What's the question?
Dre: Is the prison break related to the murder?
Austin: Let me think if you could answer that.
Dre: The closest thing I could think of is that maybe Throndir goes around to ask like, prisoners or like, ask people around about the prince's kind of like—you know, what do people know about him, what are his connections?
Austin: Yeah. They don't think so. Everyone here thinks that this was an escape attempt. That he was being broken out of prison by the Ordennan…like, not military but an Ordennan agent or something, so that—
Art: [crosstalk] Secret police?
Austin: Yeah, basically. That's what people think. I'm not saying that that's true, and I don't think you have the info to tell that that's true or not.
Dre: [crosstalk] Yeah, we don't have enough info.
Austin: [crosstalk] But that's what people think for sure. Okay, that's the questions. That's the questions?
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: That's the questions.
Dre: Yes.
Austin: So, now it is 1. It is 1P.
Art: So no one thinks it's a waste of my time to go and ask three questions of the dead body, right? Everyone thinks that makes sense?
Dre: [crosstalk] No, you should totally do that.
Keith: Totally do that.
Ali: Yeah, you should do that.
Keith: Do that like right now.
Austin: [crosstalk] Especially 'cause you're still in the Sun District right?
Art: Right. But no one needs to come with me, right? There's no new investigation roll?
Austin: No, you can just— I mean— Yeah, there's no new investigation roll, no. 'Cause there's nothing else there for you to roll for. You just go there and use that ability. So go ahead and drag yourself there. Everyone else—
Art: [crosstalk] And there's nobody else…
Austin: —decide where you wanna go.
[pause]
Jack: I'm still gonna go to Grinning Buck.
Austin: You should be able to drag your tile there.
Jack: Oh, yeah, no, I was just saying. [laughs]
Austin: At this point, the first parade— So people who haven't seen this because it's a podcast and that you haven't gone to the website to look at this document [click for link] yet, at 12 PM the Sun's Peak Parade begins at the Temple of Samothes.
It says here, "This rolicking parade comes alive to celebrate the hard work of Velas's many craftsmen, laborers, fishers, and other petty—folk! Come see the farcical floats, displays, and musical performances." And it is a 6 hour long parade.
Art: [crosstalk] That's too long.
Austin: It's not really a parade in the traditional sense. It's a walking party, is what this is.
Austin: This is like—
Dre: [crosstalk] Oh, man. So it's like some New Orleans stuff.
Austin: This is like some New Orleans stuff. This is like that Hannibal Buress bit [link here, @4:00] about how you can throw yourself a party in New Orleans. Which is a great bit. Go Google that. It's like, you know, open bottle laws. You're allowed to walk around, you're allowed to be drunk in public. But mostly like, people do this are nice about it, like there's no— This isn't like a drunk asshole party.
Art: [crosstalk] This isn't SantaCon?
Austin: This is not SantaCon, no.
Austin: Alright so, Hadrian’s back in the crime scene, Fero is… hoverin’?
Keith: I dragged myself to the Rosemarrow Emporium!
Austin: Oh, did you cover it up?
Keith: Um.
Austin: You did, I’m just gonna move you—
Keith: I mean I can—
Dre: Wait… wait wait wait wait—
Austin: Yes?
Dre: Can I maybe— Keith.
Austin: Mmhm.
Keith: Yes.
Dre: Maybe you want to use your bird powers so you can instantly go to that alchemical place, for two reasons.
Keith: Okay.
Dre: One, because we know—or we think that if she got this from in town, that’s the person who would give it to her. Two, Throndir knows that she left the prison going northwest, and that alchemy shop is northwest of the prison.
Keith: Okay. I can do that.
Austin: What do you want from Rosemarrow?
Keith: Um… I remember the smell of the halfling pipe stuff.
Austin: Mmhm.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: That’s totally— Those are both solid leads, I’ll say as the GM. Um, the other thing I do want to say is…
Keith: I can do both and I don’t feel like either is time sensitive?
Austin: Right. Right. Oh! The other thing I wanted to say was, there is one other place that I just remembered that you would think maybe this could be tied to, which is, you know that Ordenna is famous for its, like, warships with cannons? Which isn’t the same as this, but like, black powder is certainly involved. Right, like—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: They’re not famous for blowing holes in things with like, local explosives, but there’s a chance. Um, so that—
Keith: That someone could have been like, “Ooh, I know this other black powder stuff, I bet I can use this Ordenna stuff for a similar thing.”
Austin: Or that this is Ordenna coming to break this dude out, using their black powder stuff, you know? Like that certainly helps fuel the belief of the other prisoners, and the guards, you know? Okay. So… Hella, where are you going?
Ali: Um… I think I’m gonna continue with Lem to the Laughing Buck—
Austin: Okay. That is—
Ali: I was considering going to the rat’s den but, you know—
Austin: Yeah. That’s fair. Um, let’s start there. Let’s start at the… Let’s start at the Laughing Buck. Um, who wants to—
Ali: Or maybe go with Hadrian first ‘cause Jack stepped away?
Austin: Oh did Jack step away? Oh okay, I didn’t realize.
Keith: He* went to the bathroom.
Austin: Okay. Alright, yeah, let’s go with Hadrian. Hadrian, you wanna ask this guy some questions?
Art: I do.
Austin: Good call.
Art: I just wanna— I just wanna read the ability, just so we’re all on the same page?
Austin: Mmhm.
Art: “A corpse converses with you briefly. It’ll answer any three questions you pose to it to the best of the knowledge it had in life, and the knowledge it gained in death.” [pause] So, uh… I think the first question, and this is a big one:
Art (as Hadrian): Who killed you?
Austin (as the corpse): A sad man.
[Dre, Keith and Ali laugh]
Jack: I arrived— I picked just the right time.
[Keith and Ali laugh]
Jack: [laughs] In this, a detective story— [speaks over laughter] I put my headphones on to hear Art asking the corpse who killed it.
Keith: I imagine him like, near the corpse, like, hunched over, like—
[Ali and Austin laugh]
Keith: “Who— who killed y—” [dissolves into laughter]
Austin: Wait, here’s a question: did you guys, like, take evidence?
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Did you have the murder weapon? To investig— Like, what— Did you just leave all of that there?
Keith: Um…
Dre: I think we should take the hook?
Ali: Well no, I mean—
Jack: Grab the murder weapon!
Ali: Wouldn’t like the official detective people have taken that?
Austin: No, it’s—
Keith: You’re the official detective people.
Austin: You are the official detective people.
Ali: Ohhh. Not like—
Keith: There’s no one but us.
Dre: We’re the FBI.
Austin: [crosstalk] No, y’all are— Right—
Ali: Okay.
Austin: You’re like— You’ve been deputized basically to solve this case, and if you can’t, then, like…things could get brutal, is what I’ll say. Like, they will be more— They want you to solve it because you’re from here and you’ll like, talk to people nicely, and you’ll be like, cool. And if they go in, they’re famous for killing folk. And like, they don’t want to kill folk, don’t make ‘em kill folk.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: But they’ll kill folk to get the answer.
Ali: Sure.
Austin: You know?
Ali: But we— We’re not, like, turning in evidence to them, like—
Austin: No!
Ali: We’re not—okay.
Austin: No. I mean like, they’ll take it at the end, if you’re like—when you’re presenting your case, basically.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: But like, having it would be a good idea, is what I’ll say. Hadrian. He says:
Austin (as the corpse): A sad man killed me. A stranger.
Dre: [crosstalk] Well that’s not a name.
Austin (as the corpse): I don’t know his face. But he was...deeply troubled. And I know that he… I know that though he ruined something great and noble, he had nothing but good intentions in his heart.
Keith: [stage whispers] It’s fucking— It’s Calhoun.
Ali: No it isn’t! [dissolves into laughter] Oh my god, what if it was?
Art: I think it’s Lucius, but—
[Ali laughs]
Art: I don’t know how famous Lucius is.
Austin: Good question.
Art: Is it like if the archbishop of New York killed a guy? Like I think a lot of people know who that is—
Austin: [crosstalk] Probably.
Art: —but not everyone.
Austin: But not everyone, yes. That would be like—yeah. Exactly. Yeah, I don’t know who that guy is, shit.
Ali: Then ask him like, “Hey, are you religious?’
[Austin laughs]
Ali: “Let me tell you about Samothes for a little bit.”
Dre: “Wait, before—before you stab me—”
[Ali laughs]
Dre: “What do you— What do you believe in?”
Austin: Art, be careful not to destroy this corpse, before you’re done asking quest— Okay?
Art: Um—
Austin: I’m just saying, I’m still mad at you for killing that skeleton bro in the first game.
Ali: [sad noise of agreement]
Keith: [loudly] Oh my god, me too!
[Jack laughs]
Art: Um, one, this guy can only talk ‘cause I’m lettin’ him.
[Jack, Keith, and Dre laugh]
Dre: This guy, fucking— [laughs]
Austin: When you put it that way.
Art: I’m the boss of this guy now.
Dre: This went from like, a Law & Order questioning to like Wire episode questioning—
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Art: Um… Mo-ther-fucker.
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Dre: Fuuuck.
Art: Two more questions, two more questions. Um—
Austin: Do you want to come—and come back— Do you want to go to somebody else while you’re thinking about these questions?
Art: Yeah, cause this feels really big.
Austin: Yeah yeah yeah, let’s move on, let’s go to— Let’s go— Now can we go to— Is Jack back?
Ali: Yeah.
Art: There he* is.
Austin: Lem and— Lem and—
Dre: Jack Attack.
Austin: Yeah, Jack Attack, Lem and Hella—
Keith: Did you say lemon?
Austin: Lemon— yeah. Lem— Lemon. Hella. Yep.
Keith: [laughs] Is Lem short for Lemon??
Austin: Oh my god, is Lem short for Lemon?
Jack: Nooo—
[Ali and Keith laugh]
Austin: Has anyone ever called you their little lemon?
Ali: Uhhh. [laughs]
Austin: Okay. Go ahead and give me a roll, whoever’s there.
[Jack laughs]
Austin: One person. It doesn’t— So 2d6 plus 1.
Jack: Ahhh.
Dre: [quietly] Lemon King.
[Keith, Austin, and Ali laugh]
Austin: Oh, dice! Eleven!
Ali: Ooooh.
Austin: Alright—
Jack: Eleven.
Dre: Wow, rolls like a king.
Austin: So you’ve been here—you’ve been here before— Do kings roll well? Okay, you’ve been here before.
[Keith laughs]
Austin: At the Laughing Buck pub accommodations. Warm woods, fire roaring, which like, on a day like today, is a terrible thing. This place is dead. No one wants to be in a place this warm. Really this hot. But restarting the fire would be such a hassle that Frank DiPazzo, the place’s owner, can’t really afford to put it out. Because he needs it to cook with later.
I don’t know if you— I don’t know if you guys saw, but Frank DiPazzo, if you look at the events thing— At the ‘Food of Velas’ event, at the Laughing Buck at 7 p.m., 7P, “Everyone knows the Day of High Sun isn’t complete without some Velasian specialties. Make sure to try Frankie D’s famous ham and goose ice...stew.”
Dre: Yo, Throndir’s gonna be there, ‘cause he loves him some food.
Austin: He loves iced goose stew? Yeah?
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Hey man, he’s never had it, so he’s gonna put it in his mouth.
Austin: It’s true, it’s true.
Ali: A hot day and some iced stew.
Austin: Um, when you come in, you explain what you’re— You don’t even need to, right, like you come and you’re wearing the badge, and he knows you immediately. And he says— Oh, Lem, you’ve stayed here before. You both were here, you were here when you met Greg, right?
Keith: [whispers] This is where it all started.
Austin: He says:
Austin (as Frank DiPazzo): I’ll take you up.
Austin: And he—again, no one is in here. He slowly walks up the stairs and he opens the door to Gregalos’ room. It’s warm, like the rest of the place. It’s carpeted. It’s packed with books and little trinkets. You imagine this must be what Fantasmo’s room looks like, if you’ve ever gone there.
You notice immediately that the room has already been tossed and looked through. Someone else was here. It’s hard to tell, but there may have been a struggle here. There is a metal cup on the ground with wine spilled out on the carpet. And you notice a couple of strange, like, scorch marks, up on the walls behind him and above him. It’s kind of clear just from your time spent with Fantasmo, that’s like what happens when a magic missile goes bad, or magic in general. Like, oh, it just got knocked away— Something happened.
Um, speaking of Fantasmo, and this is your eleven, this is your plus 10. You spend some time pouring through the writing that has been left around, the notebooks and stuff. And you find one notebook that has the symbol that he had on his ring. There’s kind of three vertical lines, each of a different height, which symbolized three towers, and you knew— As I’ve said before, a while ago now, so to remind you— That seem to be inspired by an ancient group that was in the University before the Erasure. And you see a notebook with that symbol on it. And you flip through it and you realize that Gregalos was in a group of sorts called the Disciples of Fantasmo. They are dedicated, the writing says, “to bringing the world the peace we all need to pursue our truest selves.”
[pause]
Keith: That’s gotta be a different Fantasmo.
Ali: Yeah— It’s a different— [laughs]
Keith: [laughs] It’s a different Fantas— Maybe like a common surname.
[Ali and Keith laugh]
Austin: Since he’s not here, actually—
Dre: Hey—
Austin: I just realized since Nick’s not here… You find evidence—you find lecture notes. This guy, twenty five years ago, was a student of Fantasmo’s. You find, like, essays that Fantasmo marked.
Dre: Yeah, don’t—
Dre (as Throndir): Don’t hate on my elf bro.
Ali: Hella’s just kind of rolled her eyes. [laughs]
Keith: Fantasmo is like, just kind of like, the weirdest professor.
Jack: Um, there’s a note—
Austin: He is! I’ve had lots of long talks with Nick about exactly how Fantasmo does work.
Jack: There’s a, ah, there’s a note on the—
Austin: Mmhm?
Jack: Uh, schedule. Did I— Am I making this up? No it’s not, it’s in the— It’s in the Velasian Central Authority Census file. Um…and next to “Qoqa Sterral - Fish District Representative - Grand Veranda,” it just says “Fantasmo” and then three question marks.
Austin: [crosstalk] Those are notes left by Dr. Maria Lake.
Jack: Okay, alright, cool.
Austin: No, she just made that—
Jack: [crosstalk] But we didn’t know why she wrote that specific word.
Austin: She just was like, “Here. Here you go.”
Jack: Okay. Cool. Uh…she’s also noticed that Therat Saal, Ordennan guest— Oh yeah, probably in the Embassy, yeah, we could know that. Okay. Uh, Hella. Do we get any questions?
Austin: You rolled the thing.
Jack: ‘Cause we rolled the thing.
Ali: Um—
Jack: Hella, do you have any questions?
Ali: I have a question but I don’t know how we would know it?
Austin: Pitch it— Pitch it to me.
Ali: Was anything, like, stolen?
Austin: Yeah! Absolutely. Um… You notice that there a couple of— There are, like— So he has a bunch of books that are alphabetized, and there’s like a big chunk that are missing, that— Like, you know, they were up on a bookshelf, and now there’s like a bunch that are fallen over. And there’s a bunch in the middle that are just gone. I think they probably start with E. There’s like—in the middle of— Somewhere between F and H let’s say, there’s just like a big group missing. Also, you know, the box is missing. The box isn’t here either. So that splinter of wood that you found at his body, who knows where that came from. Like maybe it got broken off into his— In fact, here’s what I’ll say—
Keith: Probably needed some shit to carry those books.
Austin: You— No, you find—you find the broken hinge of that box, on the ground.
Ali: Okay—
Austin: So that—
Ali: So we find another piece of it.
Austin: Yeah, exactly. Someone has it—
Keith: So someone wanted this box but didn’t want to take care of it.
Austin: Well, maybe they struggled over it, who knows?
Keith: Right, yeah. [pause] Take care of your shit, is what I’m saying.
Austin: Mmhm.
[Dre laughs]
Jack: Has Gregalos hidden anything in the room? And I do this by just turning the room upside down.
Austin: That’s a good question.
Keith: I didn’t know that you had that power.
Austin: [laughs] It's one of those new songs, yeah. It's one of his new songs.
Jack: Yeah, there’s magic.
Austin: Um. Yeah! You find his ring. Oh no, you— yeah! You find his ring, which you’ve since given back to him. It was hidden—
Ali: [crosstalk] Ohhh!
Keith: [crosstalk] Oh I don’t have that ring?
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I was going to use that ring next turn!
Austin: Well, you don’t have it anymore, because—
Keith: I know!
Austin: Yeah, he gave you his ring that day.
Jack: [crosstalk] Oh, did he give us his ring?
Austin: Yeah, and when you came back—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: —you gave it back to him.
Ali: Ohh, got it.
Austin: ‘Cause it was like your free ticket.
Ali: We should hold onto that.
Jack: Can I—
Austin: Well, now you have it. Sure. Take it.
Jack: Can I take the ring please?
Art: It’s probably worth less [unintelligible @ 1:30:02]* dead guy’s.
Keith: [crosstalk] I was gonna— I was gonna take the ring to the Thieves’ Guild and fuckin’ make some noise.
Ali: [crosstalk] No, that ring has a lot of power, we’re hanging onto that. We’re having that for the rest of the game.
Art: But I don’t know that the ring has literal power. It might have symbolic— Like, it might be— It’s like a marker, not like a magic pay-for-things ring.
[Austin laughs]
Ali: But it implies we have connections.
Keith: [crosstalk] Yeah, but functionally it kind of is.
Art: But if the guy whose symbol it is, is—
Austin: Don’t worry about it. We’ll see how—
Ali: We’ll talk about it when we come to that bridge.
Austin: [crosstalk] We’ll talk about it in six months when this game picks up.
Ali: Right. [laughs]
Austin: Right, let’s move on to— Do you have another—do you have another question, Hadrian? We’ll bounce back in between each thing. [laughs]
Art: I mean yeah, the question I have is the question that they kind of found the answer to, but it’s—
Austin: Which is…
Art (as Hadrian): Why were you killed?
Austin: I think he… Ah, ah— he says:
Austin (as the corpse): I was killed for the knowledge that I had and what I might do with it. I had to be stopped. And someone needed the power that I had so that they could do what they willed.
Austin: Alright let’s go to Throndir.
Art: What— Oh— Mm.
Austin: You’ll get another question.
Art: No, that question was unnecessarily vague.
Austin: What do you mean? You mean the answer or the…?
Art: Yeah, the answer was— I, I don’t know.
Austin: No, he gave— He gave you what he knew.
Art: “Had to be stopped” is so subjective.
Austin: They believed that he had to be stopped.
Art: He didn’t believe he had to be stopped.
Austin: No!
Art: Okay.
Austin: No. Yeah. Throndir.
Dre: Um, yeah, Throndir’s gonna go to—
Austin: Gimme that roll. You’re at the South Net.
Dre: —the South Net, to see if he can find his elf lady.
Austin: Mmhm?
Dre: Just regular 2d6 right?
Austin: Yep.
Dre: 7.
Austin: Okay, 7’s alright. 7’s okay.
Dre: Mmhm?
Austin: Especially ‘cause you’re who you are. You—
Dre: Whoa.
Austin: It comes in the— Someone else rolling a 7 here wouldn’t get what you’re about to get here, is what I’ll say.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: This is— This is that coming into play. Alright. So, the Sun District is this like this weird twisting mess of roads. It’s like a collection of arteries, you know, like a pathological thing where the arteries have all woven themselves together. Roads cross back and forth in a very confusing way.
So it’s almost—it’s almost pure luck that you catch sight of her—a thin, bald woman in a long cloak with the hood up. In this terrible, terrible heat, she’s covered in layers of wool, so it’s hard not to see her. And it’s clear that’s she’s trying to hide her identity, but in a way that only a new person at this, or someone who’s played too many Assassin’s Creed games maybe would? “I’ll put my hood up, don’t worry about it.”
[Dre laughs]
Austin: So you start to move in—
Dre: Just jumping into random haybales—
[Austin laughs]
Keith: You’ve got a beak on your head.
Austin: [laughs] You start—
[Keith laughs]
Austin: You start to move in but as soon as you do, she sees you and your Golden Lance badge, and she takes off in a sprint. You chase her down and tackle her. She can’t get away. As soon as you tackle her she says:
Austin (as elf woman): I didn’t do anything, let me go!
Austin: And normally she would be tight-lipped, but because she sees you she says,
Austin (as elf woman): Throndir? What are you doing here?
Austin: And you exchange some pleasantries of a sort. Like you stand up, like “Oh, hey.”
Dre (as Throndir): Yo, ‘sup.
Austin: And she explains that she was hired by a man with a booming voice and bright eyes to break Therat out of prison. No one in town will talk to her, no one in town will hire her, she says. She was starving.
Keith: [whispers] That’s your boss, dog. Not you, Dre.
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: [whispers] But yeah— But Art—
Dre: Yeah. That’s, that’s, yeah.
Keith: [whispers] That’s Art’s boss.
[pause]
Keith: [whispers] He’s eeevil, man.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: I don’t know if you stopped to let Keith do his bit or if you’re like, prompting me or something.
Austin: No, no, I was prompting you. Do you have a question here? And also, what are you doing with her?
Dre: Um…
Austin: You could turn her in, you could let her go. I think this is a—
Dre: Oh. Oh boy.
Austin: This is a left or right trigger moment.
Dre: [laughs] Um… I think I— I don’t— hmm. Hmm. Because, like, the cop move would be to take her in. But like, the snow elf move is—
Austin: Right.
Dre: Especially since we have a shared heritage of sorts, in more ways than one, it’s to say:
Dre (as Throndir): I’m not gonna take you in, but where can I find you if I need to ask you something else?
Austin: She nods, and gives you directions to her place, and they seem honest. I should also note that yeah, her features— You know, for those of us who were paying attention to the like, the deep canon of the snow elves and the goblins, her features are extra goblinoid, for a snow elf? Like, she’s bald, like most of the goblins are, her ears are a little bit longer and a little bit more pointy, her face comes down to a sharper angle and is a little bit flatter overall. Um, so, that’s just a— That’s a little fun fact. Alright, so yeah, she goes off.
Dre: Wait, wait—
Austin: Was that your question? That wasn’t your question.
Dre: I didn’t— no. No.
Austin: What was your question?
Dre: Uh, my question is, why did this person hire her to break this guy out of prison?
Austin: [coughs] Excuse me.
Dre: What does this person stand to gain from breaking the boy prince out of prison?
Austin: She doesn’t know. And I don’t just mean that she says she doesn’t know, you know she doesn’t know.
Dre: She doesn’t know.
Austin: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Like, she tries, she says like:
Austin (as elf woman): I don’t know. Maybe they’re friends, maybe they’re—
Austin: She’s so not part of the culture here. Um, there’s a point at which you ask her— You say like— You kind of like, try to figure out how much she knows, and at one point she asks if Ordenna is that weird water land place. Like—
[Dre laughs]
Austin: She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know.
Dre: Yeah, yeah. She’s where Throndir was, like, however long ago.
Austin: Right. Yeah, like she just got here, you know what I mean? You can kind of deduce or guess that she fled Auniq, the town of the snow elves, when that shit went down that no one who’s hearing this will have heard yet. They might be about to hear it, like next week or something, but.
Dre: Yeah. Um.
Keith: Teaser! It’s a teaser.
Dre: Before we part, um, Throndir gives her…
Austin: [quietly] Them digits.
Keith: [quietly] A high five.
Dre: I don’t know how much money I’ll have, right, because this is like—future part—
Austin: But you give her some cash.
Dre: Yeah, I give her some money.
Austin: Okay.
Dre: And you and I can discuss how much of that comes out whenever we—whenever I get that money.
Austin: Sounds good. [laughs] Alright, ah… Hadrian’s third question, then Fero.
Keith: Don’t re-egg your chickens before they’re—
Austin: Ha—
Keith: —something.
Austin: Yep! Don’t re-egg your hitchens— Your hitchens! [laughs] Before they’re dockens.
[Keith laughs]
Austin: That’s it.
Keith: Don’t re-egg your hitchen.
Austin: Alright, what’s—
Keith: Do not!
Austin: What’s your third question, Hadrian?
Art: Oh, I’m really torn, I don’t know if I want to know where or with what. ‘Cause they’re both decent questions.
Austin: Mmhm.
Keith: I’ve—
Jack: Oh, could you also take my weapon please?
Art: [crosstalk] I thought we determined we had it.
Austin: Wait, you have it. You have it now. It doesn’t matter if you did before or not, now you do.
Jack: Okay, cool.
Austin: And you can deliver that, it doesn’t matter, you can pass that around freely—
Jack: Who has it?
Austin: —to whoever needs it instantly, I’m not—
Keith: How about where?
Jack: Great.
Austin: Yeah, exactly.
Jack: Just throw it over the gates.
Austin: Again, I think the Golden Lance have basically little messenger boys that are able to quickly run through town way faster than grown people can.
Keith: They’ve got tiny Joseph Gordon Levitts.
Austin: Right. Exactly.
Ali: Oh my god.
Dre: Just parkouring everywhere.
Austin: Yes. Yes. So third question, or we can go to Fero—
Keith: Meeting older Bruce Willises.
Art: Um…
[Keith laughs]
Art: Ahhh, what—
Art (as Hadrian): What were you killed with?
Austin: He says:
Austin (as the corpse): I was poisoned.
Austin: The— Hm. He says:
Austin (as the corpse): And being cut didn’t help either. I was too weak to defend myself and I couldn’t defend myself against that thing the way I thought I could. Partially because of the poison, and partially because of what it was made from.
Art: That…thing…
Austin: The hook, he’s talking about the hook.
Art: Oh. Not a golem?
Austin: [crosstalk] But you know, he just got stabbed a bunch. No, not a golem. Good reach: not a golem. Fero!
Art: I mean we could find a golem, they’re hard to hide.
[Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin: Gollum did it, actually, the character—
Jack: Did a golem do it?
Austin: He was here. Sorry, I have to add that to the list of characters… Gollum, duh duh duh duh duh. Okay. Fero. Gimme that roll.
Keith: Yes.
Austin: Gimme that hot roll.
Dre: Where did Fero end up going?
Keith: Hot roll incomin’.
Dre: Oh the—
Keith: Hot roll!
Austin: Yeah, he’s at the Rosemarrow Stands.
Dre: He went to his dealer, okay.
Jack: Hotbox!
Keith: Yeah. Not a good roll.
Austin: That’s a bad roll!
Keith: That’s a bad roll.
Dre: Aw man, your dealer knows you’re a nark, he ain’t gonna show up.
Austin: He does, he recognizes you. He knows you left. He left too though, so there’s a little bit of something there.
Keith: Yeah. We left for different reasons apparently, though.
Austin: Right like, he—
Keith: He’s like, “I gotta open a shop, to get by.”
Austin: Right, so Rosemarrow sends tons of food, handmade craft goods, and other quote unquote “halfling specialties” up to Velas.
Keith: Mmhm.
Austin: And each stand here— There’s a bunch of stands out, kind of— This is the marketplace near the temple, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: The kind of, what’s the word I’m looking for? The— Whatever, you know what I mean. It’s—
Keith: This is where Jesus flips the tables.
Austin: [crosstalk] This is where Jesus flips the tables?, right. But behind each merchant is Sid Half-Off. He tells you that business is booming, and that Big Sun Day, or whatever might be a holy day for the Velasians, but for Rosemarrow it’s Holy Shit Day, as in, “Holy shit! Look at these profits.”
[Keith and Dre laugh]
Austin: Um, he’s like a— He’s like a real good scumbag, you know? You get that feeling from him that like, he knows some shit because—
Dre: He’s a big slime baby.
Austin: Yeah, he’s a big slime baby. Because he’s basically here to profit directly off of this holy day, that he doesn’t give a fuck about.
Keith: And he—he’s a halfling?
Austin: He’s— You know him. He was like, from Rosemarrow—
Keith: Oh, okay.
Austin: —when you were from Rosemarrow.
Keith: Ohhh okay. So this guy’s not like, “This guy left our cool-ass culture but he’s—”
Austin: He left for different reasons, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And because of that—
Keith: But he’s a scumbag, how attached could he be to—
Austin: He respects a man who’s out for his own, is the thing.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: That’s where your ideologies kind of overlap. So I guess what I’ll— Did you want to ask him a question, is basically…?
Keith: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: What did you want to ask?
Keith: I want to ask him, like, if any weirdos came in here and bought some halfling pipe—pipe tobacco? Pipeweed.
Austin: Pipeweed, yeah.
Keith: Dope.
Keith (as Fero): Hey did any fucking weirdos come in here to buy some dope?
Jack: [unintelligible @ 1:42:10] smoke it like a cigarette.
Austin (as Sid Half-off): We sell all sorts of things, what type?
Keith (as Fero): There’s maybe... Booming voice, bright eyes…
Austin: You have it right? Do you have a little bit?
Keith: Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.
Austin: You can just give him the bit. He kinda holds it up and like:
Austin (as Sid Half-off): Ah, Halfling Green. Yeah, yeah, there’s a man who lives on this stuff. Guy named Jericho. Couple months ago, you know, he came in for a taste, and one thing led to another. Good customer, good customer, good man.
Keith (as Fero): Anybody more recently?
Austin (as Sid Half-off): I mean, we sell the stuff all day every day, you know.
[Ali laughs]
Austin (as Sid Half-off): We have got to get paid.
Keith: Uh... I mean, can I just keep talking to this guy?
Austin: I mean I think that’s—that’s kind of the limit. Like, he doesn’t know anything else—
Keith: Alright.
Austin: The dude who he has for you, who like, buys a lot of this stuff— And it’s a specific—it’s a specific—not brand, what’s the word I’m looking for?
Ali: Strain.
Keith: Strain?
Art: Variety?
Austin: Strain of it that you showed him is Halfling Green, of the—
Keith: It’s a specific strain of [chronic]. [1:43:11]*
Austin: Yeah, exactly. The specific strain of that sticky icky, of that fragrant branch of yore, is—
[Keith laughs]
Austin: —Halfling Green.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: And Jericho— He just knows him as— He probably calls him Jerry, actually.
Keith: Jerry.
Austin (as Sid Half-off): The boy Jerry comes in every now and then.
Keith: Fuckin’ Jerr.
Austin: So that’s all he has. Alright!
Jack: Alright.
Austin: That’s a round. Keith, take EXP. I got it, I’ll write you down. So far you’re the only one that’s getting EXP this session. No, Hadrian failed a roll!
Keith: Oh, no, Dre.
Austin: Did Dre fail one too?
Keith: Oh, is he— okay.
Dre: No, no.
Keith: I thought that—okay. Maybe they just—okay.
Austin: [typing] Fero gets one.
Dre: Looks like, I think next turn the three of us—me, Hadrian, and Fero—should go break the walls down on this Jericho.
Art: Yeah, I was gonna try to like—
Keith: I think—
Art: Try to like—
Jack: Good pun, a Jericho-based pun—
Art: —get in good with those—with those wall people.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: Wait, what were you going to do?
[Keith laughs]
Austin: About wall people? I missed that joke.
[Keith laughs]
Austin: I missed the comedy joke.
Keith: It’s the fuckin’ biblical Jericho and they—
Austin: Right.
Keith: —fuckin’ marched around the wall— Yeah, so, and then Art is also a wall person? I don’t know why Art is a wall person, but.
Austin: Oh, Hadrian’s Wall, right, got it.
Jack: Cause he’s Hadrian!
Keith: Okay right, yeah, right, right.
Austin: Good jokes.
Jack: Come on.
[Dre laughs]
Art: Yeah, the best jokes are the ones—
Keith: I knew that it came in somehow and I trusted that Art knew that it was funny.
Art: —that need to be explained for like thirty seconds.
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: I think uh… I don’t know, I’m feeling this Thieves’ Guild, cause we’ve got this— Well, we’ve got weird weapons, we’ve got poison, we’ve got shady people going through gates.
Austin: Mmhm?
Keith: We’ve got people who, you know, thieves’ got eyes everywhere.
Austin: Remember, Fero can get to that thieves’ guild in a turn, Hadrian and Throndir can’t. They have to go through the gate still.
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: Well—
Keith: Lem, you can get there in a turn too—
Austin: [crosstalk] But Lem and Hella can both get there in a turn.
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: Lem has that ring. You should go down there and hold that ring—that hot ring power—
[Ali laughs]
Art: But I can get to— I can get to Jericho this turn. I can get to Sunshine Lodge in this turn.
Dre: [crosstalk] So could I.
Keith: Yeah, so you two should go to Jerry.
Dre: Yeah let’s team up. Let’s have the reunion tour, Hadrian.
Ali: Someone should definitely go to Jerry, someone should definitely go to…the thieves’ place—
Dre: We’ve still got that alchemist lady.
Ali: But yeah the alchemist who was our third—
Jack: I’m kind of—
Ali: Yeah, that was my idea—
Jack: I’m tempted to go to the alchemist.
Dre: Good call, and the black powder.
Ali: But I feel like Hella should go to the thieves’ place? ‘Cause she can rough someone up if she needs to. [laughs]
Dre: Yeah, punch the shit out of some thieves.
Art: ‘Cause she’s a, yeah.
Ali: Or at least intimidate someone.
Art: [crosstalk] Or just be like, “Hey I’m evil too, give me some poison—”
Keith: Can you get to the Thieves’ Guild in one turn?
Art: —Also tell me who you gave this poison to.”
[Ali and Austin laugh]
Keith: Okay, yeah. Okay. Alright so, I’m gonna— What number is Thieves’ Guild?
Austin: F-8.
Keith: F-8?
Austin: Mmhm.
Ali: So me and you are gonna go there? And you don’t have to use a turn to do that.
Keith: No. I’m fast!
Ali: Yeah!
Keith: So fast!
Art: Just a cheetah running through the streets.
Ali (as Hella): Hey Fero, what’s up?
Jack: Um, I’m gonna go to the alchemist’s—
Austin: F-10 I think?
Jack: —which is at… F…
Austin: If it’s not F-10 then I’ve goofed. Then I goofed it somehow.
Ali: No, it’s F-10.
Austin: Okay. And then—
Jack: Cool.
Austin: Hadrian and Throndir are gonna go to…?
Art: S-4.
Austin: 2, I think? 4?
Art: The Sunshine Lodgings.
Austin: Oh, Throndir— yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Okay. Dre isn’t back yet so let’s start—
Ali: No, he’s here.
Dre: [crosstalk] I’m back.
Austin: Oh, he’s back. Who wants to go first? Does anybody really wanna go first? Mmhm?
Jack: I mean this could be useful to us because it could actually, like, inform the next questions we ask.
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, let’s go ahead and start with—
Jack: So, I vote… Jericho is my vote?
Austin: Good plan. Alright. Go ahead and give me a roll.
Art: I've already gotten EXP. I don't know if you wanna....
[Austin and Keith laugh]
Ali: Well, if one person fails the roll, both people get the EXP, right? [laughs]
Austin: No.
Ali: ‘Cause we don't both roll?
Austin: I don't think so.
Ali: Man! [laughs]
Austin: I hadn't thought about that.
Keith: I don't think so either. That was a good sneak though.
Austin: That was a good sneak. Sneaky little sneak.
Keith: That was a good sneak.
Ali: I'm just sayin'.
Art: I mean, I'll do it. I already have the command.
Dre: Yeah, do it. Do it. You're, do. Yeah, see? Boom!
Keith: Nice.
Austin: Alright. So the Sunshine Lodgings are—
Jack: He rolled an eleven.
Austin: They're the center of the new Sun District's population boom. Again, if you look at the map you can see there's all these little houses right around the Temple of Samothes. These cramped apartments were built by cheap halfling labor.
Hadrian, do you remember back in like, the first game where it was just your crew? The first Fantasmo, Hadrian, Throndir game? And you convinced those halflings— Or maybe it was even before that. It was the first game, when you convinced those halflings to move in? You were like— You had to preach to them and then promise to give them something for them to move in?
Art: Yeah.
Austin: They were then used to build the Sunshine Lodgings. It's strange, because Velas has a lot of empty space, so most people have lots of room to live in, right? Like, there's lots of good mid-level housing for people because there's such a low population. But these places are cramped and the only reason that you can think of for people to live here is to live this close to the temple.
Art: Okay. Which is great.
Austin: [crosstalk] Jericho is nowhere to be found. Yeah.
Dre: Fuck!
Austin: Jericho is nowhere to be found. But the…
Jack: And that is a thing that you stole from Sherlock Holmes.
Austin: [crosstalk] What's that?
Jack: In Sherlock— Not stole but like in Sherlock Holmes that happens all the time. You go to like, workplaces and they're like, “No, no, sorry.”
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, but his house is there. His apartment is there, so they can break in. Using the rights given to them by the Golden Lance.
Dre: [crosstalk] Oh, we're gonna break in.
[Jack laughs]
Austin: I imagine this is a nice sequence of Throndir like, "Oh, I can pick locks!" And then like tinkering, and then Hadrian's just like, "Yeah, okay."
Dre: [crosstalk] Hadrian's like “ka-khoom.”
[Ali, Jack, and Keith laugh]
Austin: Yeah, exactly. This place is a mess. It reeks. Old food, bad pipeweed. Jericho's belongings are all over the place. The one thing that is clean and ordered though, is a small windowsill shrine to Samothes. From that window he can look down onto the front of the temple.
And just under that view he's crafted carefully a little wooden sun resting on a base. It's detailed, and a little strange. There's concentric circles running across its body, up and down the sun, and there are these really neat flat flares that have been slotted into place around it.
And nearby you find his little woodworking knife with some recent kind of sawdust and kind of debris from—detritus from doing this work. So he's been here in the last couple of days presumably. At the very least.
Some other things. There's a fish on the wall, and underneath it you find a broken model of a fishing ship. There's a tiny plaque that reads, "The Sweet Fragments, Captain Michaud."
You also find, on a side table, a drink ticket for the Bottom o’ the Flounder, which is an inn near here, an inn and pub. It says, “Good for one (1) holiday cocktail during the fireworks.” And because you rolled so—
Dre: [crosstalk] What's the name of that pub?
Austin: The Bottom o’ the Flounder. It's underneath the like, weird oblong shape that makes up the center of the Sun District.
Dre: Okay.
Art: [crosstalk] The fireworks is too late. By the time the fireworks come around, we're toast.
Jack: [crosstalk] What is the bottom of a flounder?
Austin: What were you saying, Jack?
[pause]
Jack: I'm just curious as to what the bottom of a flounder is.
Austin: [crosstalk] Well in this case, I mean, so a flounder is a fish.
Keith: [crosstalk] Butthole. A flounder butt.
Austin: Well. Maybe. Yes.
Keith: Flounder buttholes, where it poops from.
Dre: [crosstalk] Its tum-tum. Its tum-tum.
Austin: They call this middle section here—they call that the Flounder. The people who live near here.
Dre: I could see that, yeah.
Austin: You see it? And so S-2 is the pub, and it's at the bottom.
Ali: Ohhh.
Austin: Of the Flounder.
Dre: Got it.
Austin: One other thing— It's not a— Well, it's complicated.
Jack: So it's not its tum-tum.
Austin: Flounder are weird. I used to go flounder fishing, it was weird. So, the last thing that you notice is a trash can.
Keith: [laughs] That was not enough information. “Flounders are weird, trust me. End of story.”
Dre: [crosstalk] No, keep going. Austin, keep going. Critical path.
Austin: Inside the trash can, you find soot and ashes. He's been burning things recently. You take a whiff of it and it smells like that too.
One thing didn't make it into the can, though. It's a crumpled piece of paper. You open it up and it's a caricature sketch of Jericho—Jerry—and a young man, maybe a teenage boy, and they're fishing together. It's like one of those like, bad caricatures that you get at a boardwalk, do you know what I'm talking about? Vaguely?
Keith: Those are so bad.
Austin: They're so bad. The facial features of the young man are similar to Jericho. And underneath it says, "Jericho and Bishop. Go get the big one, boys!" And the artist's signature says “Espanarde.”
Keith: That's a good name.
Austin: He is the…
Jack: He's the illusionist.
Austin: [laughs] He is the…
Art: [crosstalk] Espanarde the Great and Eclectic.
Jack: [crosstalk] He's doing the kites.
Austin: And then, his job title is "Illusionist." In quotes.
Dre: What was the name of the captain on the ship model? Does it matter?
Austin: Yeah, it's Captain Michaud. M-I-C-H-A-U-D.
Jack: Michaud.
Austin: Of the Sweet Fragments.
Jack: Of the Sweet Fragments.
Keith: [crosstalk] I'm gonna write all of this down.
Art: [crosstalk] Oh, Sweet Fragments is the name of the boat. I thought it was like, intentionally fragments.
Keith: I just want to say that I thought of a new nickname for Dre and it's Captain Dre-hab.
Dre: I'm good with that. I'm super good with that.
[Keith laughs]
Austin: Roll it out. We gotta roll it out.
Dre: Okay. Art, do you have any questions?
Austin: Yeah, you both get a question.
Dre: Before we do questions, re-describe that statue for me again?
Austin: It's a sun. It's a wooden sun with concentric circles around it, almost as if it’s been, like, sliced is what it looks like, do you know what I mean, kind of?
Dre: Yup.
Austin: Yeah, it's a sphere with like, yeah. And then just, in interesting places, sun flares around it. Like, really embellished. It's very pretty. He's good with his hands.
Dre: [crosstalk] Any of that triggering my Kindrali sense?
Austin: No.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: No, I— That's a good pool. Um. It's interesting, so yeah why not? Figures like this were definitely used in the worship of early sun gods, before they were called Samothes. And before they had a unified name at all, right? Like, one tribe would worship them as X and then one would worship it as Y. But over time the sun became a unifying symbol for all of the humans in the world.
Dre: So this guy is not like a fly-by-night— Like, for him to have this kind of knowledge he would have to be very deep into Samothes.
Austin: [sighs] It's debatable. Yeah. I think what you get from it is that he— It's not the equivalent of knowing the history of the— It's not like apocrypha necessarily, right? Like, this sort of symbol carried on forever. But it does show a sort of devotion to Samothes that is deep and real. Like you said, he isn't a fly-by-night. He isn't only going to church on Sunday.
Dre: Right.
Austin: On the Sun Day.
Jack: Is there any, I mean…
Austin: Wait, you're not— Are you there? No, you're not there.
Jack: [crosstalk] No, I'm not asking the question. Are we allowed to discuss this, or…?
Austin: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, sure. I thought you were asking me a question about the space, sorry.
Jack: Like…might it be interesting to investigate any possible connections that this dude has with the prelate? Because we know that the prelate's evil and we know this is someone who is—
Austin: [laughs] Good detectives.
Jack: [crosstalk] Who is maybe not necessarily got it all together, but is very very very devoted. And we know there's been a murder by somebody who is very very troubled, and possibly like, trying to draw lines between those three things might be interesting.
Art: I mean, I'm particularly not interested in tying this to the prelate, but you know, whatever.
Dre: Well, wouldn't you be, though?
Keith: You should be very upset that you— This guy's evil now.
Dre: Yeah, you should be because you just—
Keith: [crosstalk] You should want to take care of that business.
Dre: [crosstalk] —felt like, “Holy shit, this guy is evil all of a sudden.”
Art: I mean, I'm disturbed.
Keith: Well, ‘cause, where's— Well, you gotta ask yourself, Hadrian, where’s your—
Dre: [crosstalk] Fucking Hadrian, come on man!
Keith: —where’s your loyalty? Is it to Samothes or is it to the church?
Art: Let's—
Dre: It's the same thing.
Art: Let's find out what— Let's get to the end of this before we figure out what it is.
Keith: [crosstalk] [to Dre] Is it?
Art: Lucius has always been kind to me.
Jack: [crosstalk] Austin kind of hinted at this earlier I think when he was talking about the cannon. Like, we could play entirely as our characters here. Like, you could—
Austin: Yes.
Jack: You could do something that was very Hadrian-y and maybe not necessarily for the good of investigation gang. Like, that's on the table.
Austin: [crosstalk] Right, yes.
Art: I mean, Hadrian wants to know the truth, but he very much wants that truth to be something else.
Austin: Right, right. So think about what that might mean for decisions he makes when he's asked, “Hey, what happened here?”
Art: Sure.
Austin: What I'm saying here is, y'all can lie. And have that on your conscience.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Um. So, questions.
Art: [crosstalk] What here is— While we're still using powers, what here is evil?
Austin: Does your evil sense pick up stuff? I don't remember.
Art: Um…
Austin: And also, I don't think anything here is evil anyway. Nothing here is evil.
Art: Should we get this definition anyway?
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, it doesn't matter. Even if stuff counts, it's not evil. Nothing here is evil. So we'll jump over that bridge when there's something evil.
Art: Okay. The question is what. And the GM will tell you honestly. Not who.
Austin: Yeah, that's fair. Nothing here is evil.
Art: Okay. Questions, questions. If you have one, Dre, go. I'm thinking.
Dre: How is Jericho connected to Lucius?
Austin: [sighs] You find in one of his drawers a diary that reveals that he has been seeking personal kind of, counsel from Lucius for a few months now. It looks like from around the time you all—not Throndir, but everybody else—went to the Isle of Eventide. Back when you went there.
Jack: [crosstalk] This is very suspicious.
Austin: Around that time of the year he started going to the prelate for personal counsel. And since then— He's never really clear what exactly that counsel is, necessarily? Or like, it's kind of vague. It's kind of like: “He's helping me work through my issues. The prelate today told me that I didn't have to bear any weight of my loss, that it wasn't my fault, but I can't believe him.”
And a week ago you find an entry that says—the word—um, what's the—absolution. “The prelate talked to me today of absolution.
Austin: “That maybe I had sinned and maybe there was something I could do to fix me—”
Jack: [crosstalk] Yo, the prelate—
Austin: “—in the eyes of Samothes.”
Keith: [whispers] Oh shit.
Jack: The prelate has just like, manipulated this dude into murdering a man.
Dre: Maybe.
Ali: It's bad stuff!
Art: [crosstalk] Or he's providing run of the mill spiritual guidance.
[Jack and Ali laugh]
Dre: Or, Jericho could also be related to the prison break-out in some way too.
Keith: I think that— And hold on here—
[pause]
[Ali laughs]
Art: I mean. Jericho didn't do this, right? We don't think that a halfling stabbed a—
Austin: Jericho's not— Jericho's a man. Jericho's a human.
Dre: He's a man.
Art: Oh. Whoops.
Jack: [crosstalk] And yeah, I mean—
Austin: Yeah, it's fine.
Keith: And whether he was a halfling, he's gonna be a man.
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, halfling can kill people too.
Dre: [crosstalk] He's suspect number one.
Keith: [crosstalk] Yeah, I'm a fuckin’ halfling, what are you talking about?
Dre: He is suspect number one in my mind. I don't think he's a good suspect, but he's the best suspect we have right now.
Jack: [crosstalk] Yeah. Absolutely.
Keith: I think— Here's what— Okay. I remembered what I was gonna say. So. We know that: prelate, evil. Prelate, not usually evil. Looks like he's manipulating this dude. I wanna know who or what turned this not-evil dude evil. That's probably the guy we're looking for.
Ali: Right.
Dre: Yeah, probably. That's the puppet-master. Art, do you have any questions?
Art: Yes, but I'd like to preface my question with a short monologue about the nature of evil.
[Jack, Ali, and Keith laugh]
Dre: Pulling a fuckin’ Art over there, aren’t you?
Austin: Wouldn't have it any other way.
Ali: Hadrian knows good evil people.
Art: These books are bad news. Trusting people with these books is hard. I was sent with Fantasmo because we don't trust him with that book. Like, the idea that someone would be like, “This book is trouble. We can't let people have 'em,” and then act on that doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad person. My question is—
Austin: [crosstalk] Right, he knows Hella.
Art: Does Jericho have access to poison?
[pause]
Austin: Yeah. I don't think you find a bottle here. But it's… Two things come to mind. One, is that, as someone who, um… One is that someone who did a lot of weird— You know he used to be a fisher, right? So he's like—he does lots of weird stuff with animals. He has access to people who do lots of fishing and lots of like, dealing with fish and treating them and cutting them up, and—
Jack: [crosstalk] Dealing with fish.
Austin: There's stuff there. Dealing with fish. But two, yeah, like, in a way everybody has access to poison. It doesn't make him an especially good suspect, necessarily? But because he works in the job that he did, he definitely would have at some point met with someone who could have provided the sort of thing that, like—a numbing agent, right? Like, “Oh, yeah, you know, I busted my arm on the fishing nets, I'm gonna go up to the doctor and get something to numb the pain so we can go back out tomorrow.” And, you know, most poisons—most things that help you can also hurt you real bad in the right dosage.
Jack: Yeah. And I mean—
Art: [crosstalk] The Tylenol dilemma.
Jack: This poison, specifically we know that it— Greggy was alive for a period of time after having ingested this poison. We know it weakened him before it killed him.
Art: Right, and the person who killed him was a troubled person. I think Jericho qualifies as that.
Dre: Yeah, he has some sort of—
Art: [crosstalk] He's probably not the only troubled person in Velas. Like, let's not be like, “Well, this guy had problems, it was him.” Like.
Keith: It also said that he was part of some— What was that line? Part of a thing?
Austin: He was part of the fishing crew, the Shining Fragments, is that right? Is that what I said it was?
Jack: [crosstalk] The Sweet Fragments.
Keith: No no no, the line from Greggy, who was like, “He was a sad man and he was part of a thing, and…”
Dre: Yeah.
Jack: When, yeah—
Austin: I don't remember that part.
Dre: [crosstalk] Noble but had good intentions. That stands out to me too.
Austin: Yeah, that's, yeah.
Jack: Yeah. He ruined something great, but he had nothing but good intentions.
Keith: Okay.
[pause]
Art: Before we move on from this scene-let… I struggle to overuse this power, but I would like to use the Guidance spell.
[pause]
Austin: The…sun in the corner begins to spin. It lifts in the air and aligns itself perfectly with the temple behind you. Kind of like, hovering over the temple.
Jack: Isn't that just where he was ushered out of before?
Dre: Yeah, but we didn't know about Jericho.
Art: I mean, but Samothes did.
Dre: Can I also Hunt and Track as we're leaving, to see if I can figure out where Jericho went to?
Austin: Um. [sighs] I think it's tough here. This place is a mess.
Dre: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and plus you're tracking through a city that's just full of fucking everyone.
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, yeah exactly. Like, you're up like four levels high and stuff. So no, you can't do that.
Dre: That's fair.
Austin: Do you have a question? Did you have a question? Did you already ask your question?
Dre: I did. I did indeed.
Austin: Okay. Alright.
Dre: Yo, Jericho's got a dead kid! That's what I think.
Austin: Lem, or Fero and Hella?
Jack: Um. I've been. I've done. I was—
Austin: No, no, you're at the alchemist's place. You haven't done that yet.
Jack: [crosstalk] Oh! Yeah, sorry. I thought that was—
Dre: Oh yeah.
Austin: Yeah. That's fine.
Jack: Okay. I'll do my roll.
Austin: Yeah, do your roll and I'll get my stuff ready.
Jack: Plus 1… 8.
[pause]
Dre: Nice, good roll.
Jack: You've muted yourself again, Austin.
Austin: Good roll! Good roll! Good answer!
[Ali and Dre laugh]
Keith: Good roll. Very good roll.
Austin: Doing a Family Feud bit.
Dre: Oh, yeah. [laughs]
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Austin: Alright. This place— Strangely, you walk into it and the second you do it feels like there's not even a holiday anymore, as the good Dr. K. Miranne doesn't actually seem to know what day it is at all. He's a large muscular man with a long brown coat, who is standing at the table. Like, the counter table, working on a detailed little piece of doll furniture.
This place is filled with a million weird things. Bubbling bottles and little—again, little trinkets and tchotchkes. This is like your dream place, Lem. Like, you just love this place, there's so many cool things here. He says:
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Well, how can I help you?
Austin: He has a deeper voice, he's a big dude.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): [deeper voice] How can I help you?
Austin: Here, there isn't anything here. But if you have a thing, or you wanna ask a thing, or if you wanna present a thing—
Jack: [crosstalk] Oh right, okay.
Austin: —he can give you something.
Jack: Okay. And for the purposes of this, we essentially have all the stuff.
Austin: Yeah, just go for it.
Jack: Okay. Cool, right.
Jack (as Lem): Do you sell poison?
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Well, you know, uh, define poison. We got a lot of things here.
[Dre laughs]
Jack (as Lem): If I wanted to kill somebody…
Austin (as Dr. Miranne): All my papers, all of my papers—
Keith: That's the biggest yes I've ever heard!
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): All of my papers are in order. The council has sent their people after me. I ain't doing nothing illegal here.
Jack (as Lem): Okay yeah, no, no!
Dre: Oh, man.
Jack (as Lem): Ah, it's fine, it's cool, I'm—
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): I see the Lance, I know what you are.
Jack (as Lem): Uh, I'm… It's a costume.
Dre: You need to go SVU Ice-T on this guy, Jack.
[Ali and Dre laugh]
Jack (as Lem): It's just a costume. Uh…
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Oh, is it that holiday?
Jack (as Lem): Yeah.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): I knew something was comin’ up.
Jack (as Lem): Yeah, no, uh… I got some, uh… I got some ferrets that need killing.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Nice.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): I could help you with that.
Dre: Nice.
Jack (as Lem): What can you— What would you—
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): [crosstalk] I can definitely help you with that.
Jack (as Lem): What could you give me to kill ferrets?
[pause]
[Ali laughs]
Keith: How big are the ferrets?
Dre: A dagger.
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Well, how many ferrets are we talkin’ about here?
Jack (as Lem): Uh, we're talking—
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): [crosstalk] 'Cause if you got a bunch of them, what you gotta— Gotta bunch of them, what you gotta do is you gotta take this—
Austin: He like, turns around and starts going through like shelves, and puts down a big sack cloth and opens it, and there's definitely that black powder. And like, smells sulfury and like, dangerous.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): You know, just drop this in there.
Keith: And it's got a little weasel with an X over it on it.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Just drop this in their little hole.
[Keith and Ali laugh]
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Light a candle, toss the candle in—make sure it's a candle you don't care for very much, you're not getting that candle back. Whole thing goes boom, no big deal.
Art: Who has candles he doesn't care for?
Dre: [crosstalk] Hey. Hey. Hey. Wait, wait, I wanna point out that that person just threw down a bunch of explosive black powder in front of Jack.
Austin: [crosstalk] He's fine!
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): But if you only got one or two little ones— Depends. Well, how good are you with a bow?
Jack (as Lem): Uh, I—
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Ah, you don't look too good with a bow.
Jack (as Lem): No.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Ah, so what you wanna do.
Dre: [crosstalk] You know a guy. You know a guy.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): You wanna put out some bait. Ferrets eat all sorts of things. Ferrets eat people. But also, just—I can give you ferret bait, and then you can stack that with, with, uh…
Austin: And he does the same thing, turns around. And he puts down some other stuff.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): The ferret poison will take care of them right away. Don't worry, won’t harm people.
[pause]
Jack (as Lem): Thank you for your information.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): [crosstalk] So which is it?
[Ali and Austin laugh]
Jack (as Lem): Uh… I…
Austin: You can be more direct here. As the GM, I'm gonna let you know, you have a thing.
Keith: [crosstalk] Ferrets [unintelligible @ 2:11:15]* be gone.
Austin: You have a thing that you can ask him to look into. I guess you didn't explicitly say you took it, but I'm just assuming that you took things from all of these crime scenes.
Jack: Did you say there was a bottle? Or there wasn't?
Austin: There wasn't a bottle. There was a glass of wine that was spilled over.
Jack: Oh, man.
Austin: There was a iron glass that had fallen over.
Jack: Yeah. Is there still wine in it? Like, have I been carrying this?
Austin: Yeah, sure.
Jack: Okay. I can—
Austin: Well I, you know, it's a little—
Keith: Put some plastic wrap over it.
Jack: I take it to this guy and I'm like:
Jack (as Lem): Yeah, man, you sound like the sort of person who is not fond of ferrets. If I wanted to kill some ferrets with this, do you think I'd be on the right track? Like, grade my ferret-killing.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Let me take a look.
Austin: And he, like—
Jack: Oh, no.
Ali: Oh no! [laughs]
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): That's—that's dead—that's deadly. One second.
Austin: And he, like:
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): I don—this is real bad.
[Keith laughs]
Austin: And he goes through and he pulls some stuff down…
Keith: [crosstalk] This guy, is the best.
Austin: …starts mixing it.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Dr. K got a remedy, don't worry. Don't worry, Dr. K—
Keith: [crosstalk] [unintelligible @ 2:12:21]* pirates.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Dr. K can take care of this, don't worry about it.
Austin: And he mixes some things up, and he drinks it and he offers it to you.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): You too. You should drink this too, just in case.
Jack (as Lem): Yeah, okay, cool. I'll drink, I'll drink it.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): This is a… This is an interesting poison. This is an interesting concoction. Tenses up the muscles, makes it hard to move. And then it keeps tensin’, and then it keeps tensin’, and then it keeps tensin’, and then all you need is a little pop. Just a little bit. And the whole thing just [explosion noise]. Just, [explosion noise].
[Keith laughs]
Dre: Like a fish hook.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Just a little pop.
Dre: And then goes the weasel.
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): I mean, if you were gonna kill a ferret, there are easier ways.
Keith: [crosstalk] When it pops what does it go, Austin?
[Dre and Jack laughs]
Austin: [explosion noise]
Jack (as Lem): Do you know where I could get more of this? 'Cause I…have—
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): How much you got? I mean, I got it— I could make you some.
Jack (as Lem): Oh, right. D'you think there are other people in the city who could also make you some? I mean, I got to look for my competitive prices, you know, I’m…
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Nah, I think I'm the only man in town who makes something like this.
Jack (as Lem): Alright.
Dre: You should ask if Jericho came and bought some of that stuff!
Ali: [laughs] Yeah, I'm surprised that wasn't question one!
[Dre laughs]
Jack: Okay, new question.
Jack (as Lem): What's your least favorite thing about ferrets?
[Ali and Austin laugh]
Dre: [sighs]
Austin: You can't do this, Lem!
Ali: [laughs] Why did we send Lem all alone?
Jack: [crosstalk] No, no, like—
Austin: [laughs] That was a mistake! He needs a leash.
Dre: Lem is the worst cop. Lem is the worst cop.
Jack: Uh, no, uh, like:
Jack (as Lem): Did you— Has anybody come in and bought this stuff from you recently?
Austin (as Dr. K. Miranne): Yeah, one of them rat boys. You know, but they're in and out. They need all sorts of stuff. They take care of business. And they pay real good.
Jack: Okay. Um… Can I ask him one more thing or d’you wanna move on?
Austin: I think we're gonna count that whole thing as a question.
Jack: Okay.
Austin: Right?
[Ali laughs]
Austin: I think that whole exchange was…
[Keith laughs]
Austin: I think it's fair to say you got a question with that roll. Okay. Fero and Hella. Speaking of the rats.
Keith: Hey, we're at the rats.
Austin: You're at the rats.
Ali: [crosstalk] Did we—
Keith: Which one of us wants to roll?
Austin: That's a good question.
Ali: Can I roll? Is it okay if I do?
Keith: Go for it.
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, please do. At this point you can hear the parade really rolling through the streets, too. Like, it's in the Fish District now. Everyone is having a blast. Not a literal explosive blast, but like a blast. Alright.
[Ali laughs]
Keith: They could have been, though.
Austin: So you go into this place. This is by the docks. This is near where you— It's not at the same place, but it's near where you picked up Calhoun that time to go on a boat party.
And the area down here by the docks is like, really interesting because… [sighs] There's a clear divide between different types of laborers. If you are kind of above the line—if you're not just some schmuck on a ship, you have off today and you're just like, carousing up and down the docks, and up and down the shore here. But if you're like, new on the boat, then you're still doing boat stuff today. And it's shitty and you hate it.
Dre: Like a boat party?
Austin: No boat party, that's what I'm saying. There are no boat parties today. All of the parties are land parties ‘cause the boats are still workin’. You go in and you see Grey. Grey Rasmussen, who is a—
Keith: What's his last name?
Austin: Rasmussen?
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Who is a kind of confusing dude. He has, like— He's lanky, but in a way that makes him look tough and not weak. He's sinewy and like, a little gross physically speaking. That's unfair, I don't wanna say that, that's mean. I'm not trying to be shitty to this boy.
Ali: [crosstalk] Yeah, I was gonna say, he's like Smeagol, like he's—
Austin: No, he's like Voldo. I have Voldo in mind from Soul Calibur.
Ali: Okay. [laughs]
Austin: Who's like kind of a, ehh, like…
Dre: [crosstalk] Is he dressed like Voldo? [laughs]
Austin: No, in fact— He in fact has on— This is the thing that's the weirdest. He's tall and he's lanky, but he's muscle-y, and they don't really make clothes for that? So all of his shirts and stuff stop a little too early. His pants aren't—like, a little too baggy but also a little too short.
Keith: [crosstalk] Interesting choice that he decided to go too short instead of too big.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah. Well, you know, this—
Keith: Wear a fucking belt, dude, come on.
Austin: Those of you who have lived in Velas for a while know what this place is. It's sort of a clearing house for odd jobs and acquisitions. Like, maybe you've lost your favorite ring and it fell onto some noble's finger, they'll help you get it back. Or like, maybe you need to send a message to that pesky landlord of yours. These guys are really good at sending messages. It's a musty room, and it's their room.
Keith: Do they have like, carrier pigeons? Is that how they're sending the message? Is it?
Austin: They've used carrier pigeons for things.
Keith: Do you—
Ali: (as Hella): [crosstalk] Fero, it’s fine, don’t worry about it.
Austin: Sometimes a bunch of carrier pigeons show up, it's a mess. It's a musty room, but it's their room. And so you—
Keith: Probably 'cause of all the carrier pigeons.
Austin: All the carrier pigeons. All the other dudes that are there, the dudes and ladies, are all like— This is like, their spot.
Dre: [crosstalk] This is why we're only on turn three.
Austin: Right. So you move cautiously. They won't attack you because you have that Golden Lance thing going on, but like, don't provoke them either.
Keith: Okay. I can't like, walk down the street and [tongue-sticking-out noise].
Austin: [crosstalk] There is… You can ask questions here, but there is no— Uh. Alright. Tell me how you do this. How do you wanna get information from him?
Keith: I mentioned getting that ring back from Lem.
Austin: Right, you did. Yeah. Okay.
Keith: I am… I am gonna— I'm showing that ring. I'm looking for a person that seems like they’re the— like, “Oh, that's the dude.”
Austin: It's clearly that dude who I just described. You know it's him.
Keith: [crosstalk] It's Stretch?
Austin: Yeah, it's Stretch. It's Grey.
Keith: Okay. So. I'm showing Stretch the ring.
Austin: Alright.
Keith: And I wanna know—
Austin: This isn't your question, this is just me kind of saying, “Hey, how do you go about this?”
Keith: Oh, okay. Yeah. And I guess I'm just…
Austin: You're just talking to him, basically?
Keith: So I can engage this guy without asking him a question question?
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, just real quick. Just what's your tone like? The ring is the thing that you're doing. That's the thing that I'm counting as like, “Oh, this is how he's getting him to open up.” That's fine.
Keith: Yeah, yeah. I guess I'm being cautious still.
Austin: Okay. So you, kind of—
Keith: I'm being cautious with this dude.
Austin: He kind of nods when he sees the ring and he says,
Austin (as Grey Rasmussen): Ah, you with the dead man, then. Mm. Shame about that. Shame about that.
Keith: Oh, this guy helped.
Austin: He like, is cleaning his teeth a little bit.
Austin (as Grey Rasmussen): You know, a real professional helped take care of that one. And uh, a real professional could have taken care of someone else that night too but didn't. A real professional went in and took what he needed and went on with his life without hurting a fly.
Austin: He is being super vague and weird and you don't understand what he's talking about.
Keith: Okay. Um. [laughs] Can I:
Keith (as Fero): Hey, you're being super vague and weird, what are you talking about?
Austin: It takes— Okay, it takes you a while, and then at some point he slips into like, into basically—
Keith: [crosstalk] This is what I—
Austin: —Cockney rhyming slang? To like, brag to his boys about what he did? But between the two of you, you're able to— Like, in front of you, to rub it in your face. And you break it, you break the code at some point, and realize what he's saying, but you don't let on that he knows. Or that you know about him.
Keith: Right. What it sounds like is that he went in there and could have killed Fantasmo too?
Austin: Yes. Absolutely.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: He stole the book from Fantasmo, and didn't kill Fantasmo. Who you haven't seen, by the way.
Keith: Right.
Austin: And also—
Keith: [crosstalk] But we know that he's been here 'cause we had his…yeah.
Austin: Right. But also, is definitely saying that he helped deal with Gregalos. "Deal with."
Keith: Okay, right.
Austin: It’s fair to say—
Keith:
Keith (as Fero): Listen, buddy.
Austin: Oh, boy.
Ali: Mmm. Can I like, put— I'm putting my hand on his shoulder.
Austin: [crosstalk] Yes, yes, yes you can.
Ali: [laughs] And just like:
Ali (as Hella): No, that's alright, you don't have to— Nope.
Austin: Okay, so here's what you know from this. You know, this is the dude who robbed Fantasmo, and this is the dude who put the poison in the glass.
Keith: Right.
Austin: That's what you know from this guy. You can ask questions. I'm trying not to slip into full roleplay because it takes so much time. And it's great, I love it, but we are a little bit on time.
Keith: [crosstalk] Yeah, yeah. Right. I want— I— What I want from this guy— I want to communicate that I—that this is—that he's not the person that I'm looking to get in trouble, and that I wanna know who put him up to this.
Ali: [crosstalk] Yeah. Who hired you, pretty much.
Austin: Sure… He says,
Austin (as Grey Rasmussen): Couple of them orc boys. Paid me real well. You know the sort. Books and whatnot.
Dre: [crosstalk] [whispers] This goes deep!
Jack: The only orcs in town are Archivists. Or at least the only orcs on the—
Austin: Yeah that's true, yes.
Jack: The only orcs on our—yeah.
Austin: There are—yes. Yes.
Jack: And me.
Austin: And you.
Ali: [quietly] Orc boys…
Keith: Well, you're not not an Archivist.
Dre: [crosstalk] [whispers] Lem did it.
Jack: I'm a ex-Archivist.
Austin: It's complicated for sure.
Keith: Ali, what's your— What d’you got?
Ali: Do we wanna ask him if the church was involved, or do we think that he's not gonna know that? Do we wanna see if— [clears throat]
Keith: We've got the orcs now as a lead.
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: And there's definitely something going on with the church.
Jack: [crosstalk] Well, Jericho, if we ask [about Jericho]. [2:23:09]*
Keith: [crosstalk] So unless…
Ali: No…
Keith: Unless there's some crazy coincidence where the archivists wanted Greggy dead and poisoned him, and the church wanted him dead and convinced him, and then there was this horrible—
Ali: [crosstalk] Yeah, they worked together. [laughs]
Keith: —comedy of errors where they accidentally worked together. Like, all this poor guy who was set up had to do was go in there and pop! [explosion noise]
[Austin and Jack laugh]
Keith: And then— [laughs] Not knowing he had already been poisoned.
Jack: [crosstalk] He just goed in there and poked him. He just, you know…
Keith: What I'm saying is, I don't think it would hurt to ask about the connection to the church and Jericho.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: So you are trying to figure that out. He has no idea. All he knows is he was paid by them orc boys. No connection to the church as far as he knows. In fact, he kind of scoffs at the idea, that them church folk could ever harm a fly. He has some words that are not pleasant about them and their capabilities, let's say.
Dre: Yeah. He hasn't met Hadrian.
Austin: Right. Right.
Ali: For sure.
Dre: Hadrian's pretty good at murdering people.
Keith: Hadrian'll kill whatever skeleton that you want—
Austin: That's your two questions? That’s your two questions?
Dre: Any moves?
Austin: Yeah any moves before we move?
Keith: I don't have any useful moves.
Ali: [crosstalk] All my moves are strong boy moves, unless I start asking my sword stuff which…I'm keeping in my back pocket
Dre: [crosstalk] Punch that dude!
Keith: I could— I mean, like, I could turn into a cougar and intimidate the shit out of this guy.
Austin: [crosstalk] You got it, you got their junk. You got what they got, you know?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I gave you a little more, even, because Fantasmo isn't here. We have to try to figure out how to do that junk. So, you step out of— What's the full name of this place?
Jack: Oh…
Austin: The Rats, uh… The Rats… [thinking] duh duh duh duh duh. What's a good name? The Rats Burrow Hard Drinks & Hostelry. And you hear a clap of thunder in the distance. And I think this is about the same time—this is all of you finishing your investigations in your places. And you step outside, and what was once bright, shiny day has gotten a little overcast.
[Eve’s Light Parade begins playing.]
Austin: It's still bright. The sun is still almost magically cutting a hole in through the clouds. But—and for most of you this is the first time you've ever seen it—snow starts falling from the sky.
For those of you who went to the Mark of the Erasure, you dealt with snow before and you understand what it is, but for the rest of you this is literally the first time in your lives that you've seen anything like this. And it's the same for everyone else in Velas. And to have it happen on such a holy day…
This isn't a flurry. This isn't a small sprinkling of snow. Quickly this becomes a blizzard. The paraders run inside as quickly as they can.
It's good for some people. The Laughing Buck is finally filled with folks to eat and drink. But for most people, they're troubled in a way that they can't really put into words. You can't even imagine what it's like out on the beaches.
But the sun keeps shining.
[Music fades out.]
❦