SPRING IN HIERON 06: SOMETHING YOU’VE PRACTICED
Transcriber: Cole
(Recap)
Jack (as Lem): Hello? Can you hear me?
Keith (as Fero): No.
Jack (as Lem): Oh my god. Fero?
Keith (as Fero): No. No.
[Ali and Austin laugh quietly]
[Jack de Quidt’s “Something” begin playing]
Jack: Uh, and Lem just starts running up there. Running up the riverbank towards Fero.
[Sylvia laughs]
Austin: Hey, Fero, can you um, read me your bond with Lem King real quick?
Keith: [laughs] I hate Lem King.
Jack (as Lem): Fero, it’s been… it’s been ages! [Austin laughs]
Keith (as Fero): Yeah. Yeah, it’s been years and years.
Austin: Oh, lord. Alright.
[Music plays out to the end]
Austin: Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast focused on critical world-building, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. I am your host, Austin Walker. Joining me today, Jack de Quidt.
Jack: Hi there. You can find me on twitter @notquitereal, and buy any of the music featured on the show at notquitereal.bandcamp.com.
Austin: Keith Carberry.
Keith: Uh, my name is Keith J. Carberry. You can find me on twitter @kei… @keithjcarberry. Uh, and you find the Let’s Plays that I do at youtube.com/runbutton. It’s Run Button’s 7th anniversary.
Austin: Jesus.
Keith: Next week.
Sylvia: Wow.
Keith: So…
Austin: Are you doing anything special?
Keith: Um, we’re gonna do a stream. I actually thought that it was today, but we got the dates wrong.
Austin: Oh boy.
Keith: Um, so, we’re gonna do something.
Austin: Close one.
Keith: We’re gonna do a stream next Sunday, uh, which is the 18th. I don’t know if this’ll be up, and then we’re gonna put it up on youtube on the 19th.
Austin: This will be up. Yes.
Keith: Ok, akright. Great. That’s what I thought. So, Runbutton stream on the 18th. We’re gonna put it up on the 19th which is the actual anniversary. Uh, if you’ve never listened or watched Runbutton, you should check it out. And if you have and you like it, you should tell someone else to check it out.
Austin: Ali Acampora.
Ali: Um, hi. You can find me @ali_west on twitter. And you can find Friends at the Table @friends_table.
Austin: Andrew Lee Swan.
Dre: Hey, you can find me on Twitter @swandre3000.
Austin: Art Martinez-Tebbel.
Art: Hey, you can find me on Twitter @atebbel, and if we ever decide to record another episode, um, there’s One Song Only. The next episode we do record will be the Pickle Ye episode. [Ali, Sylvia, and Dre laugh]
Austin: I hate this.
Art: Um, so look for that.
Austin: Pickle Rick #1 fan, Janine Hawkins is here.
Janine: [long pause, Art laughs] I don’t even… I’m not… Uh. [Austin and Art laugh hard] I’m @bleatingheart on Twitter. The things he said are lies. [Ali, Austin, and Keith laugh hard]
Austin: And Sylvia[1] Clare.
Sylvia: Agh, Morty! [Austin laughs] You can find me @captaintrash on Twitter. I also have a podcast called Emojidrome, it’s on iTunes and GooglePlay.
Austin: Fuck, you can find me on twitter…
Art: [interrupting] Do you think that pickle construction demands to be a one syllable name?
Austin: Yeah.
Art: Ok.
Austin: You can’t be Pickle Sylvia really, right? It doesn’t really.
Sylvia: Yeah, it doesn’t.
Keith: I don’t think that the people that are really into the Pickle Rick are that picky…
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: … about the constructions.
Sylvia: Not that pickle-y either, huh? [Ali laughs]
Janine: I don’t like Pickle Rick.
Austin: You know what? I think if it was Pickle Rickle, people would still love it.
Dre: [overlapping] I hate this.
Austin: In fact, I think Pickle Rickle is funnier. And…
Art: [overlapping] That’s like an ice cream flavor.
Janine: Someone has that tattoo, too though. You didn’t come up with that. That’s already… Someone’s…
Austin: Wait, does someone have…?
Janine: Someone calls their spouse that for sure.
Austin: Ughh.
Art: Eww.
Austin: I hate it.
Dre: Uh uh.
Janine: [overlapping] This is the world we live in.
Keith: [overlapping] I bet there’s someone that’s really into… I bet there’s someone who’s really into Rick and Morty whose name is Richard, and they don’t go by Rick, and so they call themselves Pickle Richard.
Austin: Oh definitely. Almost certainly. Um, god. Why did I do a search for this? [laughs] Ok.
Art: For Pickle Richard? [Art, Austin, and Janine laugh]
Austin: Yeah, that’s totally it. Uh, the… I’m Austin Walker. You can find me @austin_walker. You can find the show @friends_table on Twitter. You can support the show, as always, by going to friendsatthetable.cash. Um, we’ve been doing a lot of great patreon-only stuff recently. If you’re super curious about the direction this season is going, I definitely suggest subscribing over on Patreon. For $5+ members, you can see me do drawing maps, which is a live show… or I guess you can see the archived drawing maps. For $15, you can watch it live.
But for 5, you get the archive of me doing a bunch of prep. So, like, if you want to see the fronts I’ve designed for this season, you can watch me come up with them live. Um, for people who don’t know what a front is, in Dungeon World, fronts are like, the collection of grim portents and impending dooms and all the different dangers that the party will face both at the grand campaign scale and at the more immediate adventure scale. So, take a look at that if that’s something, you’re interested in. That’s friendsatthetable.cash.
Today we are continuing, finally, our game of Dungeon World, by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel. My agenda is to portray a fantastic world. To fill the character’s lives with adventure. And to play to find out what happens. And the thing I want to know what happens first here is, what’s up with sword party meeting Fero in the fields, outside of the castle walls. Let’s zoom back in there. Fero and Lem, I think, are the first 2 there. I’m guessing Adaire, Hadrian, and Hella, are you following Lem?
Ali: Yeah.
Art: Are we like, mooring the boat?
Austin: Yeah, I think you’ve taken care…
Art: Do we need this boat again?
Austin: I’m not gonna take this boat from you. The boat is safe.
Ali: Yeah.
Art: Well, that would take some time. That would generate some Lem/Fero time.
Austin: Sure, some private time? Sure.
Art: Yeah.
Keith (as Fero): Everyone else is at the university, so you can… it’s right over there.
Jack (as Lem): Why aren’t you… Why? Are you not at the university?
Keith (as Fero): No, I got sick of it.
Jack (as Lem): Can we stay here for a bit? Like, just until my friends catch up.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, yeah. You can stand here and wait for everyone else to catch up. Yeah. [pause]
Jack (as Lem): So, uh, [pause] it’s been… It’s been a while.
Keith (as Fero): Uh huh. [pause] Yeah. It’s been what? Like 7 years or 8 years? 9 years… how many years?
Jack (as Lem): Um… it’s kind of hard for me to say. I was in a sword. Um, what’s been good for… What’s been good with you?
Keith (as Fero): Uh, what’s been good with me? Um… I took a really long walk. And hung out with uh… Samol for a while.
Jack (as Lem): Oh, I met him, too.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, he’s… He’s a nice guy.
Jack (as Lem): Yeah, he gave me a… he gave me a violin.
Keith (as Fero): Oh. Wait, I thought you already had a violin.
Jack (as Lem): It got destroyed.
Keith (as Fero): [pause] Rough.
Jack (as Lem): [pause] Yep. Pretty much.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Jack (as Lem): So, we’re just sort of waiting for Hella and Hadrian and Adaire. They’re down there somewhere. I think they’re doing something with the boat.
Austin: [jokingly speaking as Lem] ‘I just walked away.’
Keith (as Fero): [shouting] What are you guys… What are you guys doing over there!?
Art (as Hadrian): [shouting] We’re mooring the boat!
Keith (as Fero): [shouting] You’re luring the boat?!
Art (as Hadrian): [shouting] No, the bo… we gotta keep the boat on the shore!
Jack (as Lem): No, they said mooring.
Keith (as Fero): Mooring?
Jack (as Lem): They’re mooring the boat.
Keith (as Fero): What do you… How..? [shouting] Like anchor?
Jack (as Lem): Yeah, kind of like that.
Art (as Hadrian): [shouting] Kind of, but to the.. To the side, not to the bottom!
Keith (as Fero): [shouting] Ok! Do you need help over there?
Austin: Ugh.
Art (as Hadrian): [shouting] I think we’re done! There’s 3 people!
Janine (as Adaire): Can you wait 5 minutes to have this conversation?
Austin: Adaire, how’s it going? Welcome home.
Janine: [sighs] Yeah.
Keith (as Fero): Um, so how was the sword? [long pause]
Jack (as Lem): Uh…
Keith (as Fero): Lem!
Jack (as Lem): It… no. I’m here. I’m just thinking. I’m just thinking.
Keith (as Fero): Ok, ok. Nevermind. Yeah.
Jack (as Lem): Um… not great, really. Not… not fantastic in there.
Keith (as Fero): Red Jack said it was fantastic in there.
Jack (as Lem): Well, you know. He’s always struck me as someone who…
Jack: Actually, have I ever met Red Jack?
Austin: Un un. No.
Jack: No. I know who he is, presumably.
Austin: Yeah, I’m sure you read about him inside of the sword.
Jack: Oh yeah. Right, so the answer is like,
Jack (as Lem): You met Red Jack?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, he’s at the university. It’s down that way, if you wanna…
Jack (as Lem): Oh my god.
Keith (as Fero): ...meet him.
Jack (as Lem): Well, there’s time for… there’s time for that later, I’m sure. Um… No, it was bad in there, Fero. Uh…
Keith (as Fero): What a bummer.
Jack (as Lem): It seems like, good for everybody but like, none of us really kind of…
Keith (as Fero): It didn’t click?
Jack (as Lem): It didn’t really click… I mean, Hella seemed to have an ok time. She built a boat. Um…
Keith (as Fero): Oh, she built a boat? Is that the boat that she built?
Jack (as Lem): I think… I think so. I don’t.. I don’t know.
Keith (as Fero): [shouting] Hella! Did you build that?! [Ali laughs]
Jack (as Lem): Oh…
Ali (as Hella): [shouting] Yeah! It’s great!
Keith (as Fero): [shouting] Lem said you built it, and I didn’t believe him! But that’s pretty cool!
Ali: I think Hella’s coming up the hill at this point.
Jack (as Lem): Hi, Hella.
Art: You don’t like the yelling bit?
Ali: I think she’s like,
Ali (as Hella): Fero! What’s up man?
Jack (as Lem): It’s Fero.
Keith (as Fero): Hey yeah.
Ali (as Hella): What are you… What’s up? Hey!
Keith (as Fero): I’m just camp… uh, camping.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Ali (as Hella): Ok.
Jack (as Lem): Just for like, the night?
Keith (as Fero): No, I live out here.
Ali (as Hella): Oh.
Jack (as Lem): Oh.
Ali (as Hella): You don’t live… there’s like, a building over there.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah. It sucks.
Janine (as Adaire): That’s fair.
Ali (as Hella): [overlapping] I hear that.
Jack (as Lem): Do you want us to stay with you?
Keith (as Fero): Um… you should at least go check it out first before making any decisions like that.
Ali (as Hella): Well, what sucks about it?
Jack (as Lem): [overlapping] Why does it… yeah.
Keith (as Fero): Wait, what?
Ali (as Hella): What sucks about it?
Keith (as Fero): Uh, I showed up and everybody was like, ‘Oh, hey. It’s Fero.’ And then they were like, ‘now you have to decide who dies.’ And I was like… I hate deciding that, and I want to live out here instead.
Art (as Hadrian): They made you decide who dies?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah! Like, immediately. Like in the first year.
Jack (as Lem): Are you some kind of like, executioner?
Keith (as Fero): No. [laughs] No, they… they said… I showed up and they said, ‘look at all this food we have.’ And I said, ‘great, let’s have everybody have food.’ And then, everyone ate. And then they were like, ‘now we don’t have enough food. Who do you think should not have food and should starve.’ And I said, ‘I hate it.’ And I’ll help you, you know, hunt and find fuel and medicine, but I’m… I don’t want to be part of this deciding who’s dying.
Ali (as Hella): Alright.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah. So, I left. I’m still… I’m like, you know… I didn’t leave leave.
Art (as Hadrian): I mean, you left.
Keith (as Fero): I… Well, I still go help, but I’m not… I don’t make up… I don’t make decisions anymore.
Art (as Hadrian): And they made you sleep out here for that?
Keith (as Fero): No, I off… I chose that.
Art (as Hadrian): Hmm…
Janine (as Adaire): Why don’t you just pick people you don’t like?
Austin: [quietly laughs] Fuck.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, see. That’s… That’s, I think, the implied… the implied cruelty there. Is that I might pick someone because I don’t like them.
Janine (as Adaire): Yeah, I guess that makes sense.
Ali (as Hella): So, things are pretty bad, huh?
Jack (as Lem): [overlapping Ali] Adaire opened… yeah.
Ali (as Hella): Ok, well… I kind of want to go see who’s starving. So, this has been great.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of people that… that you all know in there. That I’m sure would like to say hi if they’re not too busy starving.
Art (as Hadrian): How many people are starving?
Keith (as Fero): Like thousands of people.
Jack (as Lem): Oh my god.
Art (as Hadrian): Oh my god, what?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, thousands and thousands of people have already starved or left. And there’s still thousands of people…
Art (as Hadrian): I don’t think you can hunt them out of this.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah. Right?
Jack (as Lem): Do you have farms?
Keith (as Fero): It’s a bad… the whole thing, top to bottom… do we have? We have like, an underground garden, yeah.
Jack (as Lem): Oh my god.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah. It’s like, from top to bottom, it’s a whole… it’s a mess. The whole idea is a mess. It can’t… It’s a construction that obviously was not made to support that many people.
Ali (as Hella): Hm. Well, I’m gonna go check it out.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, I recommend going to check it out.
Ali (as Hella): Ok. You’re good here?
Jack (as Lem): Yeah.
Keith (as Fero): I’m good. Yeah.
Ali (as Hella): Ok.
Jack (as Lem): You don’t need us to get you anything? I’m sure we have some stuff on the boat.
Keith (as Fero): I don’t eat. I don’t need to eat.
Ali (as Hella): Hmm.
Jack (as Lem): I forgot about that. It has been 7 and a half years.
Keith (as Fero): It’s been, yeah. At least.
Jack (as Lem): At least.
Ali (as Hella): Wait, it’s been 4 years.
Jack (as Lem): It... They… This confused me, as well. I think something weird happened.
Janine (as Adaire): Oh, just one thing.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, one weird thing happened, and I know that it has been at least 8 years.
Ali (as Hella): Yikes. Uh…
Keith (as Fero): Did you guys not have 8 years of the same time I had 8 years in?
Jack (as Lem): No.
Keith (as Fero): Wow.
Ali (as Hella): Considering it’s been 8 years, my desire to go into that building is so much higher. Uh, so Fero, it’s been great. [Austin and Jack laugh] Would love to hang out.
Keith (as Fero): Cool.
Ali (as Hella): Uh, you’re just… you’re out here. You got this camp.
Keith (as Fero): Yep. You can find me.
Ali (as Hella): Right here?
Keith (as Fero): Yep.
Ali (as Hella): Alright. See ya later, bro!
Keith (as Fero): I might… I might… I might move like, if I’m you know, want to be downwind or something, but I’ll… you’ll be able to see me.
Ali (as Hella): Leave a note.
Keith (as Fero): Oh, sure I’ll leave a note with an arrow.
Ali (as Hella): Turn into a… oh, shit. Can you still turn into a bird?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, of course.
Ali (as Hella): Oh, then just turn into a bird.
Keith (as Fero): No, I… I can. But I probably won’t.
Ali (as Hella): Oh, ok.
Keith (as Fero): Might turn into a different thing. I can do that now. I can turn.. I can make up… I can like imagine myself into a new kind of thing. So, I might make a new kind of bird. But that’s a lot of effort.
Janine (as Adaire): That’s extremely dope.
Ali (as Hella): I’m just gonna go.
Art: I was just gonna say this conversation stopped being interesting to me. [Austin and Ali laugh quietly]
Keith (as Fero): Do you wanna stay? Do you wanna… Hey, watch this!
Sylvia: [quietly] Oh no.
Keith (as Fero): And I turn into the wholetaur.
Austin: Do you want to give me a roll for that?
Keith: A roll for that? Ok.
Austin: Yeah. Should just be able to click the word now. Cause we have new, good sheets.
Keith: We do have really good sheets.
Jack: I’ve seen fanart of this, but I really want Keith to describe it.
Austin: Oh yeah. [Ali and Janine laugh] Alright, yeah. You do it. You got a 7.
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur): Hi. Hello
Austin: And you can just hit… just so you know, Keith…
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: ...you can hit this… for everybody, you can literally the word shapeshifter. You can hit the name of your move, and it will roll it.
Keith: Oh.
Austin: And it will like… I’m gonna click it real quick, and you’re gonna see… It straight up…
Keith: It says everything.
Janine: Oh.
Austin: Wow, I got the same number you did. Yeah.
Keith: Excellent.
Austin: Yeah, it’s great. It writes out all of the things.
Keith: That’s awesome.
Austin: It tells you like, ‘Ok, on this one, you’re only gonna hold 3 or hold 1 cause you got a 7. It’s very good. Anyway…
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur): Hello.
Janine: So, just to be clear you’re...
Austin: [overlapping] Describe…
Janine: …in the… a… yeah, please. Yes.
Austin: Please describe what you are for people who maybe don’t know.
Keith: I… Ok. I’m a wholetaur. I am a hor… or also known as a fulltaur. Ah, what you’re seeing is a man riding a horse. There’s a saddle. He’s maybe got a bag. Maybe he doesn’t. But actually, it’s just a horse, and the man is a kind of talking, uh, decoy to make you think that there’s a person here, and not just a horse. Um, so he has sort of limited communication abilities, and that’s kind about it.
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur): Hello.
Janine: Adaire looks less impressed than she did when he said he could just transform into random stuff.
Art (as Hadrian): This is disturbing.
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur): Brillant weather we’re having. [Austin laughs]
Ali (as Hella): Wait, you’re just a guy?
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur): What a nice weather we’re having.
Janine (as Adaire): Yeah, it’s just a guy on a horse.
Jack (as Lem): Can you… can you get off…?
Janine (as Adaire): He doesn’t have like, 6 heads or anything.
Art (as Hadrian): Are you doing this voice, or is this what it always sounds like?
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur): Hi. Yes.
Art (as Hadrian): I asked an ‘or’ question, and you answered yes… [Austin and Sylvia laugh]
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur):You… You asked an ‘or’ question. Yes.
Janine (as Adaire): Does something about this...
Ali (as Hella): [overlapping Janine] I’m going to the university.
Janine (as Adaire): Does something about this process like, limit his… Is that like a Fe… Is Fer… If we talk to the horse, would the horse speak normally?
Jack (as Lem): Hello?
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur):Hello! Yes.
Jack (as Lem): No, it doesn’t.
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur):How are you today?
Jack (as Lem): [overlapping Keith] It doesn’t speak normally. No, it’s just the man. I think it… I think it’s just the man who talks.
Janine (as Adaire): This is weird.
Jack (as Lem): Yeah, is Hella just like…
Art (as Hadrian): [overlapping Jack] It’s also weird that it’s like, a bass-ier voice, right?
Austin: [laughs] Well, it’s like a human up there, right?
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur): Hi. Yes. It’s a human up here.
Art (as Hadrian): But we don’t sound like that.
Austin: Hmm… That’s actually really funny.
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur): It’s me. It’s a human up here. How are you?
Austin: Great.
Janine (as Adaire): I think he’s just fucking with us. We should probably go. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Keith (as Fero wholetaur/fulltaur): Good day now. [Austin and Sylvia laugh] Safe travels.
Austin: Great. Good. Only this way… So, yeah, y’all walk on towards… towards the wall. And I think there’s like, a guard doing a patrol on the, one of the outer ramparts who looks down, and she’s like,
Austin (as guard): Who are you? Identify yourselves. Halt!
Ali: Um, I guess I’m in front cause I left the conversation.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. [Keith laughs]
Ali (as Hella): It’s Hella. Hella Varal.
Austin: And I think there’s just like a moment where she’s like, she’s about to say she doesn’t know who that is, and then like, it clicks into place. And she’s like,
Austin (as Guard): By the gods! Come in! Hurry! Hurry, hurry!
Austin: And then she just like, sprints away. Um, and you can hear her shouting. She’s like, shouting for her captain to tell her that you’ve arrived.
Ali: Oh. Damn.
Austin: Uh, and you can kind of immediately hear a lot of activity in the middle of the night in the… in the Last University. Ephrim and Throndir, you were woken up. Or maybe you’re already awake. I don’t know what your deal is. Are you all awake right now? It’s like, middle of the night.
Dre: I think I’m awake, yeah.
Austin: Alright, well you can hear this commotion before it even gets to you then. And the news hits very quickly. The… the sword party has arrived. And they’re being brought in through one of the gates. Um, they haven’t met anybody that they recognize quite yet, I don’t think. And I think like, Uklan Tel is asleep. Everyone else is asleep. Like, everyone else is... So, it’s like, kind of like, the guard is welcoming people in. Um, so yeah. You’re up. You can start heading that way. Ephrim, what about you?
Sylvia: Um, I think I’m probably awake, but like, not like awake doing things. Just can’t sleep, awake.
Austin: Yeah. So…
Sylvia: So, I’m able to get up and get ready pretty easily.
Austin: Totally. Alright. So then, yeah. I think the two of you plus… Actually, I think Corsica Neue sleeps like a fucking rock when she sleeps.
Dre: I was gonna say, before Throndir goes to the party, he goes and gets Rosana and Benjamin first.
Austin: Good call. Good call. So, they come with you. And you… do you… anybody else you bring? [long pause]
Dre: Um… I don’t know. I think that’s…
Austin: That’s the key. That’s the key folks.
Dre: I guess, Uklan Tel, probably.
Austin: Yeah. Ok. He’s grumpy. He has on like, a long, night… llike a robe, you know? And one of those like, puffy hats and a pair of like, wire framed glasses. And a little candle. He’s in full-on like, bedtime cosplay.
Dre: Ebenezer Scrooge in the Christmas Carol.
Austin: Ebenezer Scrooge. 100% 100% And he’s like,
Austin (as Uklan Tel): Oh, wh… are you sure? Uh,
Austin: And follows you out and… yeah, I think we get the shot of Hella coming in. And we see Rosana making like, like… uh, not making eyes at Hella [laughs with Ali]. Like, recognizing who Hella is, and then looking you know, in the dark behind her for Hadrian.And eventually he kind of, breeches through the shield and the darkness. I guess you’re already through the shield, but through the wall, and sees you. And she and a very tired Benjamin run up to embrace you, Hadrian. Gives like a very big, deep hug.
Art (as Hadrian): I thought I’d never see any of you again.
Austin (as Rosana): We thought you were dead. And then [sighs]... It doesn’t matter.
Austin: Um, and she gives you a big kiss. She like, leans in and just like, she’s going for it. Benjamin is like, very awkward little boy, and is… I guess that’s not true. He’s like a teen, right? He’s like 17 or 18 now. And he’s like…
Art: Yeah, 17/18 childrens are never awkward. Good call.
Austin: Never. He’s like,
Austin (as Benjamin): Ugh… ugh.
Austin: But he’s tall, right? Like, he’s… he’s… How tall are you?
Art: I don’t know, tall. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Great. He’s like a little shorter than you, right?
Art: [laughs] Sure. Cause I got older, too.
Austin: [overlapping] Is Rosana… how tall is Rosana? I’ve imagined her as like, fairly tall.
Art: Yeah, I have, too.
Austin: Yeah. So, I think he’s probably like, a little… around her height. And then like, when she finishes kissing you, he like, gives you like, he gives you a big hug. He like, finds it in himself, in his teenage self, to get over his shit and gives you a big hug. And he’s like,
Austin (as Benjamin): I didn’t think you would come back.
Art (as Hadrian): I… I confess, there were moments I was despairing, too. It’s… It’s a big statement to the courage of the rest of this group and to the… of luck. I’m so lucky to be back with you.
Austin: There is something in his like… he just, as he… as you’re talking, the shot is just of his face in the torchlight. And there’s bit of him that you can see… he goes on this like, emotionally journey that is very obvious to see on his face. That go from like, ‘I cannot believe you’re talking like this, dad.’ Like this is… ‘why are you using church words?’ Um, and then like, to like, joy in hearing this specific cadence again because it’s been a long time since he’s heard someone speak with this sort of formality that he knows is something you’ve practiced. This isn’t just like… you’re not being… This isn’t you being cold. It’s you being careful, and that is showing your affection in a real way. And he says,
Austin (as Benjamin): I’m just glad you’re back. We’ve got to show you so many things. I… I found this.. Oh man, the whole place is so cool. I… [Art laughs as Hadrian]
Austin: And Rosana is like,
Austin (as Rosana): Aright. Let’s slow down. Have you eaten? Have any of you eaten? Hella, Adaire, Lem? Do you need food? Do you need… What do… Come inside.
Art (as Hadrian): Sure. Yeah.
Austin : And then, yeah. Ephrim and Throndir, you’re there, too.
Sylvia: Uh, where to start, right?
Austin: Yeah, I mean, I guess the thing that I’ll say is like, as you walk in, you know, it is not people like… There aren’t like, bodies out in the cold. Do you know what I mean? Um, you definitely can tell that there is like, a bit of sickness in the camp right now. Lots of people are coughing. Um, lots of guards seem tired. Seem exhausted like they’ve been... a lot of the kind of, people who work late nights have taken ill. But as far as you can tell, at this moment, no one who remains is starving. Um, I guess like, just to give you the current update from Coldest Winter, er Cold Winter. Coldest Winter is a Kanye West song. Uh, from Cold Winter is the… Mothkin are… I guess, actually, I’ll just say. Here are the types of people you see as you walk through and go to meet up.
You see Rosana’s group of Valesians who she led with Alyosha first to Mor… I said Morrowind,... I almost said Morrowind. First to Morrowind. First to Rosemerrow. And then from Rosemerrow here. And so that includes members of your old congregation, Hadrian. Uh, we see Chatterchin’s gnolls. Some of them are definitely part of the night guard. Um, their night vision helps really well with that. You see some of the mothkin that some of you helped at Twinbrook are here. I bet Frond is working the night shift also. Um, and I think you can probably tell that Frond is like, sick the way… I don’t know what moth sick looks like. Maybe it’s like, the wings are covered in a weird like, ash or not ash, but like…
Dre: The colors are faded?
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s like desaturated a little bit and needs to grow some new moth wings. I don’t know. Um, you see some of Corsica Neue’s unstill are here. You recognize the like, armor design for them. There are a number of halflings here who came from Rosemerrow also. Uh, there are members of the Ordennan Dissent which you don’t know what the Ordennan Dissent is. And I don’t even know that you… no one here is like, wearing Ordennan armor at this point.
But I’d say Hella, there’s certainly like, complexion and language that you overhear that you recognize as being Ordennan. Um, but these aren’t people who are like, ‘And we should burn them all.’ It sounds like home, right? This sounds like home to you to some degree when you hear them. Um, and those folks are also sick. But not of all obviously, but there is a string of it happening there. I think that’s kind of the big remaining groups here. There are 7 remaining groups and many, many who have left or died. Ephrim and Throndir, how do you… what do you do? What do you say?
Dre (as Throndir): Huh. [pause] It’s really good to see you all. It’s been a long 7 years.
Sylvia: I think I’m just kind of starin’ a little bit. If I’m being honest. Like, I’m just kind of eyeing them all. I don’t believe it, you know?
Ali (as Hella): Hey. Glad to be here.
Dre (as Throndir): Did you guys run into Fero on your way in?
Ali (as Hella): Uh, yeah. He talks a lot of shit though. What’s really going on here?
Dre (as Throndir): Uh, well, he’s throwing a hissy fit mostly. Um…
Ali (as Hella): Hmm.
Dre (as Throndir): What’s really going on here is that the Heat and the Dark is expanding. It’s been messing… It and the weather have been messing with the ability to grow crops, um… it’s been messing with animal populations, so… I mean, it’s not been great here. We haven’t had as much food as you would really want to feed all the people that were here. So, we still have a pretty decent amount of people here, but it’s not… it’s not what we started with. Some people are sick. Some people are still hungry, but we’re… we’re doing ok.
Ali (as Hella): [sighed exhale] Well, like, what do you need? What are you doing?
Dre (as Throndir): Honestly? What we’ve been doing is surviving and fixing the sword.
Ali (as Hella): Ok. Well, sword is fixed. Um…
Sylvia (as Ephrim): Obviously.
Ali (as Hella): Does it still work? I don’t know. Like, I… [sighs] It’s good to see you.
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah.
Austin: You note at this point that Uklan Tel is like, a little too close to everybody and is like, staring at you as if to try to… as if to try to like, figure something out. He’s basically studying you.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): Hmm. Hmm… Hm.
Ali (as Hella): Uh, Hella. Nice to meet you. Hi.
Ali: I think Hella just like, puts her hand out.
Austin: He like…
Art: You never met Uklan Tel?
Ali: Maybe not.
Austin: No, I don’t know that you ever did.
Sylvia (as Ephrim): He gets like this sometimes.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): This is really you? You’re not some sort of sword people?
Dre (as Throndir): I mean, does that matter?
Austin (as Uklan Tel): Well, yes. If they’re sword then they may return to their sword form at any point and stab us.
Ali (as Hella): Wait, where’s my sword?
Austin (as Uklan Tel): Uh, in the for… First of all, you really Hella Varal? Wielder of the Blade in the Dark.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah. And I’m not gonna turn into my sword, but I would like it back.
Austin: He like, squints at you.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): Hmm… Such things are possible.
Art (as Hadrian): That is what someone who was going to turn into a sword would say.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): Exactly. Ah, yes. [lightly laughing] That is… That is the wisdom of Hadrian. I am at rest now. [Ali and Keith laugh] Your blade is in the forge. It is safe. It is safe and sound.
Ali (as Hella): Hm.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): As you are, I see. We expected you to return directly, perhaps in a flash of light and smoke. Where did you arrive?
Art (as Hadrian): We came by boat.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): How… What?
Ali (as Hella): Let’s slow down. Ok. So, the way... ok… so, the way that you get out of the sword is that you drive into a storm. And we did that. And then we were just here.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): I see.
Ali (as Hella): In water.
Dre (as Throndir): I told you that Red Jack wasn’t making that up.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): I thought perhaps it was different though because at the time, he… he arrived in the ocean, and we don’t have an ocean, so I thought that was just where the… it was.
Ali (as Hella): Well, we drowned technically. Didn’t we drown?
Ali: I think she like, looks back at the group...
Dre (as Throndir): Jesus.
Ali: ...and is like,
Ali (as Hella): We drowned, right?
Art (as Hadrian): Did we?
Janine (as Adaire): I…
Jack (as Lem): We… we fell in some water.
Ali (as Hella): It was a long time ago.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): Apparently. Well, I’m going back to sleep, and I’ll begin studying you all first thing in the morning.
Ali (as Hella): Sure.
Janine (as Adaire): No.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): I don’t believe we’ve met.
Austin: He says to you, Adaire.
Janine (as Adaire): Yeah.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): First thing in the morning, then. Once we all have tea and breakfast. Have a good night.
Sylvia (as Ephrim): Let our guests get some rest, Uklan. Go… you go back to bed, too. Let them sleep in tomorrow.
Austin (as Uklan Tel): Hm. Very well.
Sylvia (as Ephrim): Please. Please for their own sake.
Art (as Hadrian): Ephrim, I have such terrible news to tell you.
Sylvia (as Ephrim): Oh?
Dre (as Throndir): Oh, that’s a good start.
Art (as Hadrian): Well, it’s… it’s worse news for Ephrim than most. Um…
Austin: Um, I think Rosana actually… As you start to say this, Rosana puts a hand on your back, and she says,
Austin (as Rosana): Bad news can wait until tomorrow. Yeah?
Art (as Hadrian): Yeah, of course. Of course. Well, good night.
Austin (as Rosana): Let’s celebrate good news and yeah.
Dre (as Throndir): Um, we’ve got places you all can stay. I think we’ve got some empty rooms in the old dormitories.
Sylvia (as Ephrim): Yeah, we’ve got space. The… um, when the thieves left, they left a lot of space. Their beds are probably in… probably not great condition. They probably took most of the stuff in there.
Austin: [laughing] When the thieves left is a good sentence.
Sylvia: Well, you know.
Sylvia (as Ephrim): Um, you’re gonna need… we’ll get you some linens, but uh, it might be a little drafty in there. Since they took all the curtains, too.
Dre (as Throndir): Lem, you should… You should know that uh… that… Morbash was here. But he… he didn’t make it.
Jack (as Lem): Morbash is dead?
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah.
Jack (as Lem): Ok. [pause] Ok.
Sylvia: Ephrim puts his hand on Throndir’s shoulder, and says,
Sylvia (as Ephrim): Bad news can wait till tomorrow. [Austin laughs]
Sylvia: And then like looks at Rosana and with like, ‘this fucking guy, really?’ [Austin, Janine, and Ali laugh]
Austin: Rosana nods and begins to lead Hadrian and Benjamin back to their quarters. Anybody else doing anything tonight?
Ali (as Hella): Um… y’all sure you don’t need anything? Like, I could just go…
Sylvia (as Ephrim): It can wait a night.
Ali (as Hella): Ok. Ok.
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah, you all get rest.
Sylvia (as Ephrim): You… you did just mention drowning, you should probably sleep that off.
Ali (as Hella): It was a while ago. I’m fine. I’m so fine.
Sylvia (as Ephrim): Ok.
Ali (as Hella): But ok, yeah. You all should get some sleep, too, anyway.
Dre (as Throndir): Nah, I take night watch.
Ali (as Hella): You want to show me around? What’s that like?
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah, sure.
Ali (as Hella): Ok.
Art: Hella will just not go to bed. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah, true. So, yeah. Do you just do a tour, Throndir?
Dre: Uh huh.
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah, the dormitory is the storeroom. Um, the underground garden full of weird, new plants.
Ali (as Hella): What the fuck?
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah. Yeah, they’re… they’re new. I don’t know if they’re good-new or bad-new.
Ali (as Hella): Well, they’re plants. How bad can they be?
Dre (as Throndir): Ugh. I… I mean, I could tell you pretty much every plant that exists on this planet until a couple of years ago.
Ali (as Hella): Oh.
Dre (as Throndir): That’s not something that happens a lot.
Ali (as Hella): But you brought them here?
Dre (as Throndir): They brought themselves here.
Ali (as Hella): Oh. So, that’s how bad plants can be.
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah.
Ali (as Hella): Ok. Um, alright. Since it’s just me and you, like, on a scale of 1 to 10, like, how fucked are you guys actually?
Dre (as Throndir): Ok. Well, what’s like, is 10 good? Or is 10 bad? [Austin and Sylvia laugh]
Ali (as Hella): 10 is like… Sure, 10 is really good.
Dre (as Throndir): Ok. Um, I don’t know. I’d say we’re at like, a se… a f…. Like, at the moment?
Austin: [laughing hard] That went from a seven to a four! In like, no time flat. [Ali laughs]
Dre (as Throndir): At the moment, we’re at like a seven. Like, long term existentially, I don’t know. I don’t think… I mean, we don’t have any long term answers. Like, with you all here, we probably now could get everything up and running in a place where we could get food and everybody would be fine and medicine. But I mean, the Heat and the Dark is still there.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah. Yeah, I… Ugh.
Dre (as Throndir): Did you… learn anything? What was even in the sword?
Ali (as Hella): An island. An ocean. Samothes was there, but he was kind of a dick. Um…
Dre (as Throndir): Huh. Wait.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah.
Dre (as Throndir): Then… Ok. That’s above my pay grade.
Ali (as Hella): Uh huh. Yep, mine, too. Uh, but they… He… He also seemed afraid of the Heat and the Dark.
Dre (as Throndir): Oh, good.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah. we’re kind of on our own now, buddy. But uh, 4 more people.
Dre (as Throndir): Eh, 4 more good people.
Ali (as Hella): I appreciate that. It’s good to see you again.
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah. You, too. How is Hadrian?
Ali (as Hella): He’ll be fine. If he’s with his family, he’ll be fine.
Dre (as Throndir): Huh. Yeah. Hopefully? There’s some stuff I gotta… talk with him about.
Ali (as Hella): Ok, well. Bad news tomorrow, right?
Dre (as Throndir): Yep.
Ali (as Hella): Ok.
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah, go… go get some rest.
Ali (as Hella): See ya then.
Ali: I think like, Hella like, goes to give Throndir like, a handshake, but like, if he lets her… [laughs] like, gives him a hug. Is like...
Dre: Yeah, that’s fine.
Ali: ...‘Good to see you again.’
Dre: I think he has no idea. Like, he wouldn’t fight it, but it’s also like, ‘Ok… This is different.’
Austin: Yeah, I think it’s fair to say that your picking up like, less indifferent vibes from Hella. Almost immediately. You don’t have sense alignment, but you know.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Um, fuck. Alright. Um, Adaire and Lem, what are you up to tonight? Are you just finding beds?And call it a night?
Jack: I think we just get like, like a montage of Lem finding a bed in the… what did Ephrim say? The thieves quarters or something?
Sylvia: Yeah, there were a bunch of thieves that hung out here, and uh...
Austin: This is the Moonlighters’ guild. It was Blake Bromley’s crew.
Sylvia: The Moonlighters’ guild. That’s what they were called.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Oh wow.
Sylvia: [overlapping] I can’t find my notebook.
Jack: Uh, and then like, a montage of Lem like, laying awake. And then just getting up and lighting a lantern and just starting reading in this dormitory.
Austin: Alright. Adaire, how about you?
Janine: Um, I think Adaire spends a little time just kind of like, not snooping around, but kind of snooping around. Just kind of like…
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: ...trying to figure out like, if she knows anyone who is here, who she knows. Stuff like that. Just trying to like, put faces to names and things like that.
Austin: Um, you immediately recognize some of the mothkin from…
Janine: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: From Twinbrook. Or from Old Man’s Chin. Um, thinking of anyone who jumps out to me for you. Hmm… Not that you see tonight, you know? But…
Janine: Uh huh.
Austin: You recognize just like… I think it… There is something about… you know, with Lem, we talk about the pattern a lot and the pattern in Aubade being different. And that’s not how Adaire operates obviously, but there are different types of patterns. And different types of ways to make sense of the world, if that makes sense. Um, I talk about going to Canada for the first time, and like, living there. It being a little weird because… So like, well, everything in London, Ontario where I was was in English as a primary language, and so like, and like, there were subways and there was a Target, and there were… I know there’s not Targets in Canada anymore.
We won’t get into it, but like, there’s enough things where like, ‘Oh yeah. This is basically just like where I grew up, except there’s like, a handful of things that are either different in minor ways or different in like, larger ways that are super important.’ And it left me feeling a little unmoored for my first couple of years there. Um, and so I think that this is one of those things where you can see… Like, there are things that would never be referenced in Aubade because they are part of the last 50 years of history in Hieron. And so like, little things like you know, maybe you overhear a couple of phrases. Maybe you see a sign with some language on it that you wouldn’t have seen inside of the sword.
Um, there’s something just like, the style of furniture that you see feels like, home in the bigger picture version of home. Not in the like, ‘ah, yes. I’m home and safe and sound.’ But home as in like, I know how to move in this space. I know the rules here really well. And so I think you immediately, that part of it, does return for you. Alright. Cool. Um, I say we go over some character stuff now. Some like, character sheet stuff as everyone sleeps. And then, then when we come back and do a couple of scenes to kind of set things up going forward. Does that sound good? Maybe we even do… there even might be a bit of like, in character slash out of character stuff here. Um, because there’s a lot of changes. And there’s a lot of people who didn’t change much at all. But there are a lot of people who did change a lot. Uh, is anyone eager to go first?
Dre: Uh, I think I… I mean, I could go first since we’ve..
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah.
Dre: I think we’ve got Throndir stuff pretty much…
Austin: [overlapping] Let’s do it.
Dre: …figured out.
Austin: Totally. So… Throndir, tell me about…
Dre: [interrupting]I A lot’s changed.
Austin: A lot changed. A lot changed.
Dre: Uh, yeah. So, Throndir is no longer the ranger.
Austin: Right.
Dre: His class is now the Gunslinger class.
Austin: Yeah. Which is… Oh, I guess I should say this. So, for the first 2 seasons of Hieron, we were like… I was pretty determined to keep people on official or official-adjacent books. Um, playbooks. Either playbooks made by Sage and Adam or else books that had been like, backer bonuses for the kickstarter or just like, part of official compendiums and stuff like that. This year, with Spring, it felt appropriate to open up the possibility of looking at some supplemental material.
We looked at a bunch from a bunch of different people. In the end, we ended up using of stuff from Peter Johansen who is one writer who did a ton of little splat books for Dungeon World and sold them for a while. And then now, there’s just like a google plus post by Peter like, ‘Ya, I’m not selling these anymore. Uh, here they are. Here’s all of them in a PDF called Everything.pdf’ And so we started looking through those. And I think we wound up with I think half of the party ended up at least dipping into those. Uh, Throndir, tell me about your… you know, we don’t have to go through all your stats… Um, actually, maybe it’s worth it just to be like, here’s my stat line real quick.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Give me… give me you HP, give me your damage, give me you strength and stuff. Give me your alignment.
Dre: Yeah, my HP is 22. My damage is a d8. I have 13 strength, 18 dex, 14 constitution, 9 intelligence, 15 wisdom, 9 charisma. Uh, my alignment is good: Put yourself at risk to improve someone else’s life.
Austin: So, that’s a change cause you’d previous been chaotic, right?
Dre: Yep. Um, I guess the other big change is also, my race has changed?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: So, instead of just half elf, I’m now recently turned vampire, half-elf.
Austin: Yeah. It’s great.
Dre: Uh huh.
Austin: Um, you have a bunch of new vampire moves which we can… I don’t want to go over them word for word necessarily, but basically, there’s an entire thing that you have now where you have some vampiric weaknesses. You have a move called Nosferatu which means that when you die, when you hit 0 HP, unless you are utterly annihilated, which is possible certainly or killed by a weakness, you turn into a red mist and return to your last safe resting place again, and you gain 1 hunger.
Right now, your weaknesses are the smell of burning licorice root which is a type of root that Fero and I talked about in a previous episode. You're repulsed and vulnerable to Ordennan steel, and you're weak to the sound of three certain musical notes played in succession. Um, as a rule, whenever you fail a roll, there’s a chance I could say, ‘And this or something related to this is actually one of your additional weaknesses.’ You can get 2 more weaknesses, so that’ll be fun.
Dre: Yay.
Austin: You have a move called apex predator which is all about the sort of like, emotional vampirism stuff that we… that we talked about. That we did some of last season. We basically tossed… so, I guess I’ll say this right now. With… the way changing classes works in Dungeon World is that normally you do it at level 10. It’s like the thing… level 10 is the cap. You get to level 10, and when you hit level 11, you either are supposed to take on a protege and then you basically play as the protege, and your main character, your previous character doesn’t gain any xp anymore.
The protege does.You retire the character and kind of step away from the game or you throw out all the class moves that don’t make sense for you to still have. Things that are not core to who the character is. And start as a new class. For those people who changes classes, we just did that now. Um, and so, we basically end up having a few people who are now a level… and then also some people got levels from the time between. Basically, everyone was gonna be level 8. Now some of your are level 3 instead of level 8. Um, and you’ve lost a bunch of moves and gained a couple of new moves.
Apex Predator is one of those moves that’s a starting move for vampire that lets you gain… for you, it’s energy. Your vigour is what we named it. It would be blood for most vampires. It’s you know, you roll some dice to try to like, to get some energy from somebody. I will say that you and I had a really good talk about the kind of, boundaries of using that and where Throndir is at with it. Um, we talked about this last year with the empath in the Veil. And one of the things that that book ended up doing the second printing was adding a little section on consent so that it was… it had to be part of the conversation of making the character. And so Throndir, you identified the kind of like, the circumstances in which Throndir is willing to use the Apex Predator like, the bloodsucking equivalent for you. Do you want to talk about those? Like, when does Throndir feed?
Dre: Yeah, uh, I mean, I think the way we set it on is that like, Throndir views it as basically just another form of violence. So, I don’t think it’s, you know, it’s not like Throndir’s gonna roll up to Hadrian and be like, ‘Hey, can I like, you know… get a little hit of something like, really quick?’ [Austin laughs] It would be um, in what I think we also talked about, too, in the context of like, cause when you do the draining move, it’s like, you can drain 2 vigour which like, leaves them alive, but they’re weak.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And then it’s 3 vigour, and that like, kills the person.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And so it’s like, I think I joked, it’s like the weird different between like, when you’re playing Sam Fisher, do you choose the lethal button or like, the knock-out button?
Austin: Right.
Dre: Um, but yeah. I think it is like, it’s… I think this is gonna be the most interesting thing in play because I don’t think it’s… it’s not gonna be Throndir like, every time we like, fight somebody is like, ‘Oh, also and I’m gonna like, suck this dude’s blood.’ It’s...
Austin: Right.
Dre: I think it will be a very intentional thing when it comes into play.
Austin: Um, the way… the thing that’s important about that is like, that’s how you heal. You don’t just heal when you rest anymore.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: You have to… You have to use vigour to heal. And then you get a gun. And the cool thing… here’s my question, maybe this is a thing that we don’t need to frame the whole scene, but like, sometime this year is when you like, are officially initiated into the Golden Lance. Um, because you now have… you’re now a gunslinger which gives you things like a trickshot and eagle eye, which lets you like, ask extra questions from Discern Realities.
Dre: Uh huh.
Austin: Um, and I forget… what does Big Damn Hero do?
Dre: Um, so, part of the gunslinger class is the oath and like, this honor code. This idea that as the gunslinger, you have to uphold like, your personal code of honor. So, the three ones that I chose for Throndir are that you never leave a comrade behind, you always protect the weak, and you always show courage in the face of danger. By keeping your oath, you… well, I don’t think… there’s not mechanics for keeping your oath, but if you break your oath, it actually takes away from this aim score that you have.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And you use your aim score to help do trickshots or I think other certain things when you use your gun.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: So, the idea is that like, basically like, the gun is an extension of you, and if you are betraying kind of your personal standards that you set for yourself, then you know, the class is going to be more difficult for you to play. Or the equipment is not going to work as well.
Austin: You gain aim for you based on like, the racial choice you picked, or like the background choice you picked.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: When you make a sacrifice or put yourself in danger to save someone else, so very much in line with your alignment, also.
Dre: Uh huh.
Austin: Um, what’s the… what does the… again, we don’t need to actually do this sequence, but what does the initiation look like? And also, I think you’re gonna have to tell me about whatever your gun is now that your name is… now that your class is the gunslinger.
Dre: Yeah. [sigh] It’s interesting cause I would think that the initiation probably used to be something that was a lot more like, rigorous and proper.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Like, I bet the initiation used to contain a lot of like, ‘Let us recite like, all of the treaties that the Golden Lance has signed and like, all of the special laws that we have that allow us to do what we do.’ Um, but I mean, a lot of the cities and things that they have signed treaties with like, don’t exist anymore.
Austin: Right.
Dre: So, I don’t think that Gloria Lake and Doctor… Solomon…
Austin: The other… Victoria Solomon and Dr Gloria Lake, right?
Dre: There we go! Yep.
Austin: Yeah, I’m pretty sure. I’m pretty sure one… yeah.
Dre: I’m bad at names.
Austin: Eh, me, too.
Dre: I don’t know if they care as much about like, that ceremony now. Because it’s just… it’s… I think it is more kind of just like a very frank discussion about what the hell does it mean for us to be creating or initiating someone into the Golden Lance…
Austin: Right.
Dre: …when the world is maybe going to end.
Austin: Is it in voicing the oath and being and becoming kind of… because my suspicion is their oaths are a little bit different, right? We’ve seen, especially Victoria as this kind of force of justice that is not indiscriminate, but like, is… doesn’t really have… it’s kind of a binary, in terms of level of effect offered…
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: ...when it’s time to… correct an injustice, right?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Not a lot of wiggle room there. At least in official capacities. Um, so I’m curious if her oath is different, it probably is, but more importantly, I guess like, is it in stating that oath and abiding it and living it for some amount of time, that the crystal starts working?
Dre: Yeah, I could see that. [overlapped] And I think...
Austin: [overlapping] Um because it’s not like you fought a big monster and then charged… you know what I mean?
Dre: Right. Yeah. What I think it… like, it probably starts like, it ties back to that conversation that like, Throndir had with Rosana. Where again, it goes back to Rosana being like, um, you have a lot of things that are pulling you in different directions, but it’s time for you to figure out like, where your personal responsibilities lie.
Austin: Yeah. Sure. Cool. Um, awesome. Is there anything else that’s important… oh, I guess, like, it’s important to remember this which is like, you’re not the ranger anymore.
Dre: Un un.
Austin: But we might live in a world where Blue J becomes the ranger as...
Dre: *He’s got the bow.
Austin: …as your protege, right? Yeah. [overlapped] Totally has the bow.
Dre: Oh, I still have Kodiak. That’s important.
Austin: You still have Kodiak. That’s super important. You still have Kodiak. You still command Kodiak to do stuff. And I think you can still… but you know, you can’t speak to animals anymore. You can’t… there’s a bunch of ranger shit you cannot do.
Dre: Yeah, the only ranger stuff I have is hunt and track and animal companion. That’s it. [overlapped] Everything else, we got rid of.
Austin: [overlapping] Hunt and Track is like tracking people which feels like, a gunslinger thing also, right?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: But yeah. You can’t do any of the cool bow tricks, you can’t do any of like, the… and you also lost Kindrali’s Chosen, right?
Dre: Uh huh, yeah. That one went away as well.
Austin: Somewhere along the line, maybe because of your vampirism, that connection was shattered. Like connection to the past. Also just… or, or Kindrali was just… whatever the ghost of Kindrali was, with the throne of Tristero empty for years, maybe just gone, you know? Swallowed up by the Heat and the Dark. I don’t think you know. I don’t think you know where Kindrali went, but one day, his voice was gone. Uh, alright. Awesome. Um, do you have new bonds already written?
Dre: I have a couple, yeah.
Austin: Ok. Let’s hear those, and then we’ll move on.
Dre: I have a bond with Ephrim. Ephrim never wavered during the worst years of the Last University, so I’ll always heed his counsel.
Austin: Cool.
Dre: Fero. I’m not sure Fero knows what it means to help someone besides himself. And Hadrian. I’m not so sure I can look at Hadrian the same way after learning he willingly gave Benjamin over to Arrell.
Austin: Oooh. Heavy shit. Alright. Cool. Who wants to go next? [pause] I’ll call on somebody. I’ll be the teacher. [Sylvia, Dre, and Ali laugh]
Ali: You have to.
Austin: It’s not fair. It’s not fun. We’re all collaborators. Someone… people should be excited.
Art: I’ll do it.
Keith: I don’t… I don’t think I have… I don’t have anything, right? I would go, but I don’t have a thing.
Austin: We could do your thing real quick, I guess then. Real…
Keith: Ok, yeah.
Austin: Fero, just go over what your hit points, your damage, and your stats are. And then I’ll read the 2 new… the moves that we added.
Keith: So, my damage is a d6, unless I am a dangerous animal, and then it is a d8. Wait, sorry. That’s… is that damage is one of the things I was suppose to read? Hit points 16.
Austin: Yeah, yep. You’re good.
Keith: Let’s see, my significant stats, I would say, wisdom is 18. Uh, strength is 16. Constitution is 14.
Austin: Yeah, everything else is like, no real… I guess dexterity, you have a +1 bonus, but…
Keith: Yeah, dexterity I have a +1, yeah, so 13. And then the other 2 are 0 modifiers. And then my sort of new things that I can do… Uh… which one is the… the original one? Ok. It’s that. So, Breath of the Wild is a move that I’ve got. Um, thank you, Austin for naming that.
Austin: Oh, of course.
Keith: Good name.
Austin: Listen, uh huh.
Keith: It’s a great game. [laughing] Play that game.
Austin: People should play that game.
Keith: Oh boy. Um…
Austin: I keep seeing screenshots of it on Twitter, and it is like, all I want to do and replay that whole game.
Keith: I know. I have… A couple of months ago, I went back and played a little bit of it for the first time since basically since it came out, and it was super easy to get back into it.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: And play a ton of it.
Austin: Yeah, I need to do that. I feel like, what’s funny is like, I saw some screenshots with text and like, dialogue for like, random npcs, and I realized like, so much of it’s tone was exactly the kind of Hieron-style like… it’s not… it’s not jokey, but there are jokes. Do you know what I mean? Like..
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: It isn’t not taking itself seriously, but also there is a man named Spinach who has a horse named Spinach, so…. [Keith and Ali laugh] You know, good to remember that feel. The feeling, you know?
Keith: I also like, that’s something Zelda has always done… never… hold on, ok, the move. Um, when you use shapeshifter and or origin of the species to change your shape, the world may change with you. On a 12+, if you are transforming into a new species, the world is seeded with its presence. On a 6-, the Heat and the Dark consume each instance of that form except for you. Um, so, the first part of that, the 12+ is what’s new to this season.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Um, so the… sword party, when you saw the wholetaur or aka, fullatur, those are just now out there in the world, along with a few other things that I made.
Austin: Yeah, they’re just out there for real.
Keith: There are herds of fulltaur roaming the countryside.
Austin: Fucking plains, yeah. It’s great.
Keith: [overlapping] So like, maybe, maybe going up to uh…
Austin: [overlapping] Squirrels, the sea squirrels are there.
Keith: Yep, sea squirrels are one of them… [overlapped] eatin’ tide corns.
Austin: [overlapping] Great. And there’s like fungus cats.
Keith: Yep, there’s uh, there’s bear head cats. They’re a sort of fungal cat. A seasonal animal that is sort of a spring/summer animal.
Austin: Love it.
Keith: Some sort of inverted pumpkin spice? [Keith laughs]
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh. Perfect.
Keith: Um….
Austin: Ugh.
Keith: And then ok. Origin of the Species, I only read today.
Austin: Yeah, I went to figure out what the mechanics was because for… in the year, in the… our kind of like, you’re hanging out with Samol thing, it was just like, ‘Yeah, just do the roll and we’ll just see if it works. Like, it’s gonna work. You have infinite time to study stuff, so you’re gonna have time to do it.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But like…
Keith: So, now I have to come up with it ahead of time?
Austin: You have to like… you have to do this… You have… Because the way shape… So, shapeshifter works with like, it’s about… you’ve had to have studied the essence of the thing, and so, this is you creating the essence of the thing.
Keith: Ok.
Austin: You basically take a week of time to like, design that new type of life. And you roll for it.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: On a 10+, you can just do it immediately. You get 3 hold, and it costs 3 hold to like, finalize it. Um, if you get a 7-9, you only take 1 hold, so you’ll have to roll again the next time you have enough time to like, fuck around and turn parts of your body into one thing and parts into another, and eventually kind of figure it out.
Keith: This is intelligence, not wisdom.
Austin: This is intelligence, not wisdom. This is about like…
Keith: That’s rough.
Austin: It is. This is about slowing down and like, designing a thing that will work. And like, I think that’s… that was part of the lesson that Samol was trying to teach, right? Or not the lesson, but like, that was part of like, the ideology behind it.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: The thing to note is you never lose that hold, so even if… So, if you fail, you hit a dead end and you can’t make the thing you are currently making, but you keep any hold you gain on the way. So, let’s say you’re at 2 hold for something, and then you fail, and you were trying to make the wholetaur. Well, maybe you don’t get to make the wholetaur, but like, look, you still know how to make some part… You still know how to make a person who goes, ‘Hello. Hi. How is the weather?’ And so, ok, well, how do you apply that to a new, different type of creature? So, that’ll be…
Keith: Ok.
Austin: It’s our equivalent of long term projects.
Keith: Here, let me read the exact language of it.
Austin: Please.
Keith: Instead of spending time in contemplation of an animal spirit, you may…
Austin: Conceive. I’ll fix that.
Keith: You may conceive. You may conceive of a new type of life. When you spend an extended amount of time, a week+, to design a new type of life, take… On a success, take 3 hold. Each hold representing an attribute of the new creature. At a cost, on a 7-9, take 1 hold and then the failure is that I can’t… can’t do it.
Austin: Yeah, but you keep that hold, so that you can… you can build a new thing.
Keith: And does this mean that I can never try again? With that same thing? Or if I want to take another week+... ?
Austin: I think you could take the… No, I think that’s the failure. The failure is you’ve reached a dead end with that type of creature.
Keith: Ok. Got it.
Austin: Like, it just… it’s just like, ‘ah, fuck. This doesn’t work. The veins… they’re… I cannot get enough blood into… into the man on top of the wholetaur. I can’t make it happen.’
Keith: Right. Well, I have...
Austin: [overlapping] And so you have to go somewhere else.
Keith: Um, I do have a creature, so when I have a week+ of time…
Austin: Which you’ll have pretty much immediately, so…
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Once we wrap back around to like, open play, let’s do that. Um, no new bonds yet, but we should get those before the next session for sure.
Keith: Uh huh.
Austin: And then, the other thing that is worth noting is just, you have the base… you’re like a level 1 Cleric. You have the level 1 Cleric stuff now.
Keith: Right.
Austin: That came up at the very end of last season, and it just never happened, but you took Hunter’s Brother which lets you take a Ranger move, and then the Ranger move you took was God Amidst the Wastes which gives you… You dedicate yourself to a deity, name a new one or choose one that’s already been established. You gain the Commune, blah, blah, blah. I’m guessing that’s Samol? Is that Samol? Who is that?
Keith: Yeah, I think it’s Samol.
Austin: Ok. Let’s… let’s... I’m gonna actually just add that. Um. [typing]
Keith: So, I… So, this was the thing that I was confused about when I was rereading these cause it’s kind of the first time I’ve looked at these since…
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah, you picked it at the very end of last season, so…
Keith: Right. I picked it at the very end. It never really came up. So, I picked the move that lets me pick a hunter move, and the hunter move I picked was the move that lets me do Cleric moves.
Austin: Right, exactly.
Keith: So that’s… it’s a sort of once removed, twice removed thing.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: That I was confused by my decision to do. But that’s…
Austin: I was very confused cause I saw… I saw Commune on your old sheet. I was like, ‘How the fuck? Like, druid can’t do that.’
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And I was like, ‘Oh, right. You have to do this weird like, end around you could get there.’
Keith: I picked a move that let me pick a move from the thing, yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Um, and so Commune gives you some level 1 Cleric spells, and Keith, if you look on the sub part of your form, you can see that I’ve added it all full of the level 1 Cleric spells.
Keith: Oh, excellent.
Austin: So, that’s things like, Light, Guidance, Detect Alignment, Magic Weapon, Bless, Sanctify, etc. Cure Light Wounds.
Keith: What here is evil?
Austin: What here is evil? You can totally do that. And for once, the answer is nothing. Um, so, Hella? Do you want to talk about that?
Ali: Hi. Hey.
Austin: Hi. [Ali laughs] Um, what do you want to… Do you want to talk about what your new class is?
Ali: Yeah, where are we gonna start?
Austin: I guess, the thing we should actually start with is… Do you go get your sword at some point that night?
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: But I think it’s like, you touch the sword and I guess my first question is like, we’re gonna have to decide if it looks different in some way, cause I guess it will. Um, like, as you touch it, it has to transform in some way here, right?
Ali: Um, does it have to? Like, I think there’s just like…
Austin: Well, because instead of when it… It can’t do the shit it did before where you could see inside to Aubade, right?
Ali: Right. Um…
Austin: Um… do you just see Adelaide’s eyes in the reflection?
Ali: I suppose so. Yeah. Sure. [laughs]
Austin: Ok.
Keith: Wait. Wait, hold on.
Austin: Uh huh?
Ali: Hi.
Keith: I thought that Adelaide wasn’t in the sword.
Austin: Hella pulled Adelaide into the sword originally.
Ali: Uh huh. I dragged her in.
Austin: Dragged her in, and then she dragged out of you that it would be nice if she came out with you. [Ali laughs] And then she did come out, and so now, the thing inside the sword… you’re not looking inside the sword. The blade no longer shows you into Aubade. It shows you something else.
Ali: Right.
Austin: I think you just, yeah. Do you just… I think you just get an image of it. Let’s set it up really quick…
Ali: Ok.
Austin: ... because I don’t think we need to do the whole scene. We don’t need to this whole scene here. Maybe we do. I don’t know. You see… Adelaide’s returned to her throne. And in place of the kind of iridescent, white kind of Nacre-style kingdom that she had in the underworld before, which is literally below you, right? Like the way the world works, at the very bottom layer is kind of the heart of Samol. The very, very lowest bit is where Samol was first created and the layer above that where Tristero was created, and that is the kingdom of Tristero. And now of Adelaide. And in place of all of the kind of white and you know, marble and pearl and ivory that we associate with Nacre, I think we see a lot of kind of, kind of like, black opal style stuff. Lots of like, primary black marble instead of the primary white marble.
There’s a bunch of different types of marble, I didn’t realize that. There’s like… well, I knew there was a… I knew there was a bunch of types, but I didn’t realize they all had cool names. They all have dope names. I have to look at more of them. And it is this… it is she’s building a kingdom of death. And [sighs] I think she probably like, when you touch the hilt of the blade, you… I don’t know that you arrive there physically, but you certainly can see it in your mind’s eye. And you can see her, and she’s like, mid-tour. Like, she’s like, walking past you and she’s like…
Keith: Midtaur. That’s between centaur and fulltaur. [Ali laughs]
Austin: God damnit. Uh huh.
Janine: I also thought that’s what you meant. [Janine and Keith laugh]
Austin: That’s what you decided to make. She’s a midtaur now. [Ali laughing] Uh, that was the… Keith secret… I had Keith secretly roll and he failed, and so the result is he turned random people, including Adelaide into a midtaur. Uh…
Ali: No…
Austin: That didn’t happen. That didn’t happen.
Ali: I was scared.
Austin: But she’s like, giving you the walk through of the place. Like, she doesn’t even say hello, you know what I mean? She’s just like,
Austin (as Adelaide): And this is where, I think that people who primarily were craftspeople stay. You know, they don’t need to toil away, but I suspect they’ll have some creative urges, so I wanted there to be a space for that.
Austin: And she’s giving you a tour of this kingdom that she’s building. Adelaide explains to you that she was impressed by Aubade. She was inspired by it. You may recall that her old goal had been to turn everywhere into Nacre to kind of, make a place where death was fully voluntary. Spending time in Aubade, speaking to Samothes, speaking to the people there, including some of the former residents of Nacre, like Ginny, and including some people who had… who went into the sword and who had lived in the time of kind of her expansion… the expansion of Nacre, came to understand that you cannot just do that and expect it to go well. That you will end up having the situations that we saw outside of Rosemerrow where you’ll have just like, an entire city of people who are undead, but in shock because they don’t have a culture of being undead, they just expect to be dead, and their bodies don’t know what to do with the fact that they’re alive despite the fact that blood isn’t moving through them anymore.
And you’ll have people like the bandits who we saw, who use their undead abilities to just like, hurt as many people as possible. And take whatever they want. And so, instead, inspired by Aubade, she is building a new kingdom where those who die will be able to go and rest if they want before passing on to the Heat and the Dark. They can also just jump right into the Heat and the Dark if they are ready to go. But she’s effectively making an afterlife. I think she also explains to you that like, if you were born in Nacre, if you were like, truly born in old Nacre… because remember all this, none of this is natural law. None of this is like, ‘and that’s how it works.’ All of this is whoever is the reigning god of death can just make these decisions. They can like, literally check people as they pass on the way to the gates of the Heat and the Dark, can either be like, ‘I’m gonna close the door and you don’t get to go in. Or I’m gonna reroute you back to earth where you get to remain alive.’
Which is what Tristero did with you, Hella. Or everyone just returns in the state of undead which is what Adelaide had been doing, except for some certain exceptions she made. Now she is doing this thing which is like, ‘ok.’ Like, ‘there is this place that I am building for people to come hang out before the Heat and the Dark kills us all.’ You know, one way or the other, she wants people to be at ease when… you know, in the end of days. And so, that is what she is providing for people. And she wants you to help. I think she brings it up in just like, a passing way which is, she says,
Austin (as Adelaide): I’m sure you’re wondering how all this works. You know, once.. You know, someone dies, part of them will be fleeing quickly to the Heat and the Dark, and I’ll slow that down. And then when you arrive to their spirit, you can perform the rights…
Ali (as Hella): [interrupting] When I what now?
Austin (as Adelaide): ... at that point… Um, when you arrive to… it shouldn’t be hard for you. You have so many dead bodies around you normally.
Ali (as Hella): Excuse me?
Austin (as Adelaide): Hella, you’ll be my knight.
Ali (as Hella): Ok.
Austin: She like, smiles and puts a hand on your cheek. And she says,
Austin (as Adelaide): We can have a whole ceremony, if you want, but I didn’t think you were that type of girl.
Ali (as Hella): [laughs] So, it’s the old plan, but not shitty. You took my advice.
Austin (as Adelaide): I listen. I listen whenever you speak. [sigh]
Austin: And yeah, the thing I was saying before, but didn’t finish was like, for people like Emmanuel or Ventaro Doce or Brandish, they… the old Nacre rules still… or Corsica Neue, those rules apply to them. People who like, were raised in the culture of the undead and who expect to go from human to zombie to ghost, those things apply. And like, they get to still have that. But I think probably people who Corsica Neue like, the unstill that is true for, in general. And if other cultures of being undead sprout up over time, I think she will judge those things as a goddess is want to judge. But by and large, this is not a thing… it’s fundamentally not a thing that happens involuntarily at this point. You know? You come up here and you stay up here. Er down here, I guess, actually. For the bulk of people on Hieron. Um, I’m guessing you accept this offer?
Ali: [laughing] Sure. Yep.
Austin: Let’s talk about what it means mechanically.
Ali: Sure. Um, so I switched from the Fighter to the Dark Knight.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: You might have mentioned on my sheet that I switched my name from Hella Varal, Queen Killer to Hella Varal, Death’s Servant.
Austin: Yeah. Oh, you couldn’t go all the way to Queen’s Servant? No? You didn’t want to…
Ali: I mean, all the other moves have death in them. I don’t know.
Austin: That’s true. That’s fair. That’s fair.
Ali: Yeah, Dark Knight is kind of a cool class. I… I’m just gonna say, we were talking about this for a little bit like, what should we do with Adelaide. She’s just… she’d just be like, an NPC that’s around, but it like, kind of felt weird for her to take like, a like a power hit, you know?
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Like she would lose her own powers. So, I kind of went around looking for which class was the most like having a JoJo stand, and I think we got pretty close.
Austin: Perfect. You did it. 100% [Sylvia laughs] Wait, which… are you her stand or… is she your stand?
Ali: She’s my stand.
Austin: Ok.
Ali: Have you watched JoJo?
Austin: Yeah, I’m just… no. I’m saying...
Ali: [overlapping] Ok. Ok.
Keith: Wait, what is the… stand?
Ali: [laughing] Ok, we’ll talk about this after…
Austin: [overlapping] You’re opening a can of worms.
Ali: There will be a JoJo lesson after class.
Keith: Ok. Yeah, I thought... I don’t… I feel like all the JoJo anybody talks about comes from after I stopped watching it.
Ali: It switches. Anyway, so I… I don’t even… Do you want me to just start with my hit points and then we’ll go through everything?
Austin: Yeah, let’s go through you stats.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: And then we’ll get into moves.
Ali: Yeah. So, my hit points are 26. My damage is a d10. Strength is 18. Dexterity is 13. Constitution is 16. Intelligence is 9. Wisdom is 11. And Charisma is 14.
Austin: I love that everyone is getting out of having negatives finally. Everyone is like, ‘alright, my baseline, pretty good. And then a couple of things I’m fucking dope at.’
Ali: God, it feels like there’s a lot.
Austin: Yeah, let’s just go through new moves. What I’ll say is, you’ve lost some important fighter things, in terms of like, Evil Eye. You lost… there’s at least a couple, oh like, Heirloom. Like the weapon, Signature Weapon is gone because you reset, and so you took the first level, Dark Knight moves. So, let’s start there. You kept things like, Bend Bars, Lift Gates. Things that are just like, ‘Oh, I’m Hella.’
Ali: Ok.
Austin: Like, “I’m strong as shit.’ You still have. The thing that’s like, Smash, the Barbarian thing that you’d taken with the multi-class move, the one that’s like, on a 12+ on Hack ’n Slash you still cut someone’s arm off or whatever. Sure.
Ali: Oh, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna lose that, but it’s ok.
Austin: Um, I could go either way with that one. It’s like, I guess it’s up to us which is like, is that something that was true about who Hella was because she was evil? Is maybe one way to think about this. Because she was just like, ‘I’m out here to fuckin’ kill people.’ Or was that something that was true about her strength? Because if it was about who she was as like, as a personality, then yeah, we should probably lose it.
Ali: Um, I actually do want to keep this because there is something about this move that is like, it’s specifically nonlethal.
Austin: Yes. Ok.
Ali: Where it’s like destroying a physical thing that they have.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Ali: I think that she probably was gonna be using it a different way now, but you know.
Austin: Fair. Yeah. So, let’s talk about new moves. Dark Blade, Road to Perdition, and Interrogator and Dead Eyes.
Ali: Yeah. [laughing] So, death has given you a bladed weapon of terrible power. Describe it.
Austin: Oh, ok.
Ali: Your weapon will always have a shadowy aura around it. Anyone who sees it will know that it is a weapon of darkness.
Austin: There you go. [Ali laughs] This is what I meant when I said, does it change in its appearance.
Ali: I think that’s the important thing that it like, doesn’t, but like, so a lot of… a lot of these moves are like, ‘so people are gonna know that you are a demon and be scared of you.’
Austin: Right.
Ali: But like, ok sure. But I think that like, in terms of the Blade of the Dark... Blade in the Dark being like, a symbol in Hieron or like, a recognizable thing.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: That should stay. I think the thing that we talked about in terms of it being like, heavier to hold…
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Because Samothes like, locked the door essentially, is cool, but like, in terms of like, ‘Ok. This is it. It’s not gonna get any weird gems.’
Austin: Right.
Ali: And this is a sword now, and then sometimes people are gonna look at it and see that it’s a demon sword, I guess.
Austin: Yeah. There’s a lot of ways to read shadowy aura, right?
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Like, there’s… I like doing it when the effect is maybe not to do with the blade, where like, when they make eye contact with it, if you’re looking at the sword, it’s as if the sun is setting and all of the shadows in the room or in the location get really long. And if you break eye contact with the sword, they revert, right? They don’t actually stick around, right? Like, it doesn’t physically change the properties of light and sunlight and such, but like, when you look at the sword, everything gets dimmer because all of the shadows grow bigger and longer. But it’s not like… it doesn’t have a like, black fire around it. We’ve done our black fire sword. We don’t have that anymore. [Ali laughs] Uh, what are its features?
Ali: So, its features is sharp, which is a hold over, and then it’s also ancient. And no that lets me take +1 sprout lore about spirits or the lands beyond the black gate.
Austin: So like the lands of death, basically. Like, if someone is like, ‘well, what’s it like in Adelaide’s new heaven?’, which I still need a name for, it’s like, Nacre is such a good name. And it’s not just Nacre again. I don’t want to just call it like, it’s Opal now. Like, that doesn’t really work. I looked at a bunch of other things. I’ll get there, but that’s…
Ali: We’ll get there.
Austin: ...you know. Yeah.
Ali: We spent a lot of time yesterday.
Austin: Truly did.
Ali: Anyway, so, choose what death has tasked you with in exchange for this weapon. When you fulfill death’s task, hold 3 peace. Which is basically just like, a hold.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: In this move, as written, it’s torment. And we were like, ‘no no no no, that’s ok.’
Austin: Yeah, not torment. The opposite thing really.
Ali: Yeah, and my… so my task is help the dead or the dying pass on.
Austin: Totally. Ok, so like, that is it. Like, in my mind, it’s like… It’s a lot of ways you can do that. You can do that in very informal ways, but there is also a version of this that is you performing like, the rights of death and basically convincing them to go to Adelaide’s kingdom instead of the Heat and the Dark, right? And I think that happens very quietly. I don’t think that you… I don’t think that you are seen speaking like, in the world. No one sees you talking to ghosts to do this. But I think we… in your own soul and spirit, like, that is what’s happening. You are doing Assassin’s Creed 2 style like, final words between you and whoever has died, you know?
Ali: Ok. Gonna be busy. Alright.
Austin: Cause there’s a lot of dead people.
Ali: I didn’t know if it was gonna be like a ritual thing or like… But that makes sense.
Austin: I think there’s part of that, right? Like, part of that… I bet the same words will convince a lot of people, you know what I mean?
Ali: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it’s not like Hella going around like, finding a specific flower petal to like put on people when they’re gonna die.
Austin: No, no, no, no. I don’t think it’s that.
Ali: Yeah. Ok.
Austin: Or it could be that, if that’s what they really need to rest, you know? Like…
Ali: Right. Yeah, yeah.
Austin: But that’s a case by case thing, and I think in general, this is about like, I want to know what the conversation is like, we’ll talk about it in a kind of broader sense, but not that like… I don’t want to pause play. I don’t want to be like…
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: ‘Alright, well this adventure stops until Hella goes and kills the… the Cerberus so that she can use the second Cerberus head to… let this guard die.’ Anyway, Road to Perdition.
Ali: Um, yeah. So, that is when I draw upon the unholy power of my dark blade.
Austin: Hell yeah.
Ali: Choose 1 of the following affects. I can either don the visage of death, terrifying a target.
Austin: That is a stand. You’re right. That is literally just…
Ali: That is a stand.
Austin: Yeah, ok.
Ali: That essentially just let me cast the Cast Fear spell, which is a…
Austin: Right.
Ali: …a thing. Um, from a different class. I can plunge my blade into a corpse. Its spirit will answer any 3 questions you pose to it to the best of your knowledge it had in life and the knowledge it gained in death. And then, this third one, I actually wanted to ask you about cause it is, summon supernatural darkness into an area you can see until you use this move again or dismiss it.
Austin: Yeah. You know. I don’t know that that’s...
Ali: [overlapping] What’s the use case for that?
Austin: Well, so Hadrian used it against a star. Hadrian used it a bunch last year actually.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: Hadrian used it in the opening fight against the mothkin. Because Hadrian had taken the Cleric thing, too, and one of the starting Cleric moves is Cast Shadow or Cast Darkness or whatever. And Hadrian used it to like, blind snipers, some moths that were up in the higher trees and forced them to come low. Uh, Hadrian used it on the star that didn’t do too much. Um, cause the stars are special, but like, you know, there are times when maybe you want things to be dark. I’m sure Adaire could get up to some shit if I was like, if you were like, ‘Oh, I can make it so it’s dark in here.’
Ali: Ok, so it’s just darkness. It says supernatural darkness. It is a supernatural darkness, but it’s not like a, like a weird…
Austin: It’s not the Heat and the Dark darkness.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: It’s a supernatural darkness in the sense that like, you could do this in a town square, in the middle of… at noon.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: And it’s just dark there, you know?
Ali: Ok.
Austin: Or like, most places don’t get to be absolutely dark. Right? I am sure some people have done the thing where like, you go spelunking. You go into some cave with a tour group, and then like, ok, ‘this next place. It’s absolute quiet and absolutely dark because there’s no sunlight in here or whatever.’ And that is like, ‘Oh wow. This is a different type of dark. I cannot even see my hands. Like, there isn’t even the reflection of a light from a different room that’s seeping in, giving me enough to where my eyes can adjust and I can at least make out the general shapes.’ Like, it’s absolutely dark. And that is… that is kind of what… Maybe it’s not all the way to there, but it’s very dark. And it’d be a surprise to people, so it’s like a tactical fun thing you can do.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: And then, broadly, let’s talk about Interrogator and Dead Eyes.
Ali: Yeah, Interrogator is just like, I can pull a person aside, and if I… they’ll answer 2 questions or 1 question depending on the roll, and regardless, they’ll never want to talk to me again.
Austin: Love it.
Ali: [laughs] And then, the Dead Eyes is similar to the Fighter’s Evil Eye, but it’s not combat specific, and it’s when you…
Austin: Right.
Ali: ...fix someone with your cold, hard, stale roll charisma, and either they flinch or hesitate or the GM will tell me their true nature.
Austin: Or on a 7-9, they’ll like…
Ali: It’s one.
Austin: Don’t they do something… it’s one. Ok.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
Ali: It’s one or the other. It’s simple.
Austin: Cool. Awesome. So, that is Hella, the Dark Knight.
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: Hella is so… is less evil, but way more scary.
Austin: Right. I mean, actually wait. We skipped... We actually skipped your alignment.
Ali: Yeah. Um…
Austin: Which is no longer evil. It used to be evil, destroy things instead of understanding them, right?
Ali: Yeah. So, it’s been weird cause like, I’m glad that we’ve come to this part, and that Hella is not evil anymore over like years and years of negotiating conflict through nonviolent.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: And now she is neutral, increase your reputation while working to fulfill death’s task to you.
Austin: That’s like default neutral alignment for this class. If you want to change that to something else, I’m happy to.
Keith: I’m sorry, working to do what?
Ali: To fulfill death’s task to me.
Keith: Hmm.
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: Which is like, helping people move on, you know?
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: So, at least it’s a good task and not like… or at least it’s a lower case good task and not a… at least you… the other tasks available we didn’t even say those, right? We didn’t say what you could have chosen.
Ali: Oh, the other tasks available are extinguish some of the world’s light or beauty. [Ali and Austin laugh] Remove stagnation so rebirth can occur. I… I was kind of on the fence on that one. Or punish...
Austin: [interrupting] Maybe we should change it at some point.
Ali: Yeah. Or punish those who defy death’s order. Uh, which…
Austin: So, you picked the one that is the most like, chill. Help the dead or dying pass on is definitely the one that is like, ‘alright. Look.’ [Ali laughs]
Keith: Least scary?
Austin: Yeah. I’m not here to extinguish some of the world’s light or beauty. [laughs]
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Um, but yeah. Neutral. I don’t, you know, I think we’ve seen Hella be nice to her friends. We have not seen Hella stand against systemic injustice. We have not seen Hella try to organize people so that the weak will live, you know. And make sacrif… make personal sacrifices. Neutral feels right as a move up from evil, but not all the way to good.
Ali: Right. Yeah. It’s kind of like a very small shift. Cause we’ve seen her like… with the Adaire thing, she said something like, ‘I should stop you, but I’m not.’
Austin: Right, right.
Ali: [laughing] And like, that is a very neutral thing. Also, like, I wanted to rewrite, but I actually do really like this alignment for her specifically. Just in terms of being like, ‘Ok, I know that I’m probably not terribly well-liked...
Austin: Right.
Ali: ...and I get to go around and increase my reputation.’ Which is good for now. It will probably… if it shifts, it shifts.
Austin: More excuse to give people cards. [Ali laughs] Cool. Alright. I guess I’ll not that like, I don’t think it happens immediately, but part of you expanding that reputation is that knowledge about this kingdom will spread eventually, right? And so I think people like Corsica Neue and the unstill will have some allegiance to Adelaide, you know?
Ali: Ok.
Austin: Maybe they know how to say the prayers to themselves as they’re dying, you know? Maybe they’ve already… you know, I think maybe that’s part of it is one of your jobs with this is that you have to convince those who don’t believe already. Because like, if you already believe, you know where you’re going. It’s not a hard thing to convince you to go to heaven. But if you don’t and in fact, the stories about Adelaide that have been told before like, ‘Oh yeah. She was the evil queen of Nacre. The undead zombie place.’ You know? ‘Nah, I’m good over here with the Heat and the Dark actually. Let me just get eradicated. Fuck this.’
Ali: Before we move on, there’s just 2 things I want to say really quickly.
Austin: Sure.
Ali: Hella’s boat is the Boundless Fate. It is has a name.
Austin: Good name.
Ali: It’s had a name. And then I do have an addition to my gear which is the…
Austin: Right.
Ali: NikeLab N96xSamothes.
Austin: Great. [Ali and Sylvia laugh]
Ali: Which is the coat I received. And me and Austin decided that what happens is the gold trim on the armor shines. And also, for people looking for this coat, I have like, images in the description, but it’s uh, NikeLab NX8xOR or Olivier Rousteing who is the creative director for Balmain. They did a line a little bit ago. It’s the women’s jacket. It looks great. I have it now, and it glows.
Austin: When it glows, it can basically cast light.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Like that’s basically… Samothes was like, ‘what else do I do? I guess suns. Ah, yeah. I’ll make it light up. The gold can glow. Sick. Cool.’
Ali: Real lazy design from him. I don’t like that guy at all.
Austin: [laughs] Alright. Um, who is next? Who has some stuff? I’m gonna save… I think Ephrim we should do you last because your stuff is like university stuff.
Sylvia: Ok.
Austin: But Adaire, Lem, um… Hadrian? I think jump out. Any of you want to… tackle this next?
Art: [overlapping] I’ll go.
Jack: [overlapping] I can go.
Austin: Alright. Lem.
Art: [conceding] Oh sure.
Jack: Uh, so my… I have… I’m still a Bard.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: I have 12 hit points, and I’m rolling a d6.
Austin: Oh my god. Wait, that can’t be right. That’s not right. You do not have 12 hit points. That’s broken.
Jack: How many do you have Hella?
Ali: I have 26.
Jack: I remember Hella having… I remember Hella having like a comedy amount of hit points in comparison to me.
Keith: I’ve only got… I think I only have like, 16 or something.
Austin: Yeah, but that’s still more than 11.
Art: That’s 33% more than 12.
Jack: No, I have 12.
Austin: [typing and overlapped] I’m finding out. One second.
Jack: [overlapping] Please. The difference between 11 and 12 is…
Dre: It’s what? It’s your base HP number plus your constitution score.
Austin: Yeah, and…
Dre: Not the modifier.
Austin: And bard… and Lem’s constitution is 11, so there is no way that… [Austin and Ali laugh]
Art: [largely inaudible] This is bard, but this is…
Keith: What’s the construction for it?
Art: It’s your base… your base hit points which is in your playbook.
Austin: Oh right, which I...
Art: Plus just your constitution score. Your whole constitution score.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Uh, quick note to everyone on the call. You can check all this in this app now. In Roll20.
Jack: Oh yeah. This is amazing.
Austin: Uh, if you… there’s a little ‘i’, like an information ‘i’ in the top right of your screen. I don’t know what your other icons are there, but near the chat icon basically. And you can just search for things in there, including…
Art: It’s 6 plus constitution.
Austin: Alright, so Lem you have 17 hit points. [Austin, Ali, and Art laugh]
Jack: Are you making that change, or should I?
Austin: You go ahead and make that change.
Jack: I am healthier than I believed!
Austin: Thank god. 12. That like…
Ali: That would have not…
Austin: There are things that could kill you in a hit.
Jack: Lem just arri… well, you should see one of my bonds. Uh, actually I cut that sentence…
Austin: Ok.
Jack: A sentence that I cut from… a sentence that I cut from one of my bonds was, ‘I am uncertain and afraid in Hieron.’ [Ali laughs]
Austin: Great.
Jack: Which with 12 HP is like, you know. Uh, my strength is 14. My dexterity is 9. My constitution is 11. My intelligence is 13. My wisdom is 15. Lem is wiser than I would give him credit for.
Austin: Remember, wisdom doesn’t mean what you think it does.
Jack: Sure, wisdom is like, a weird one.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Wisdom is like, Lem knows the pattern. Kind of.
Austin: Um, yeah. Wisdom is about like, understanding the world. It is about like, not understanding the world, sorry. It’s about...
Jack: [overlapping] Lem is also not good at that.
Austin: [overlapping] It’s about looking at things.
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah. Hi, it’s me, Fero. My wisdom is 18.
Austin: [laughs] Um, it’s about observing things.
Jack: Right. I am good at that.
Austin: In the very sense way, you know?
Jack: Uh, and my charisma is 16. I took a move from the Archaeologist playbook.
Austin: Which is also from Peter Johansen.
Jack: Yes. Which is a playbook for Indiana Jones.
Austin: Yeah, and it literally has a whip move. It’s a whole thing.
Jack: I’m not Indiana Jones. Um, but the move that I took is called Researcher. And it says, when you spend at least a full day researching old tomes, dusty maps, and bits of lore about a nearby location, roll +INT. On a 10+, choose 2 from the list. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a 6, choose 1 anyway, but don’t describe it. Instead ask the GM what it will cost you or you must do to gain that benefit. And what I can do is find part of a map, draw it out, or otherwise present it to a group. Learn of a trap or similar hazard, describe it and hold +1 preparation.
Learn of a dangerous enemy or group in the area, describe and or name them and hold +1 preparation. Learn of a valuable treasure, describe it and where it’s kept. Learn something useful about the area’s history, layout, or politics. Tell us what. Uh, or gain something that will be particularly useful in there; a key, a password, etc. Tell us what you got. So, this is kind of like a… it’s a research move. It lets me research things. Um, which is what Lem did with varying levels of success during…
Austin: Right.
Jack: ...his time in Aubade. And that’s kind of where I’m at. I’m still… still neutral.
Austin: Still a Bard.
Jack: But I will read that. Neutral says avoid conflict or diffuse a tense situation.
Austin: Great. Yeah. Um, I guess the other thing to note is that you do have that other fiddle now. Right? You have the…
Jack: Yes.
Austin: The um, the fiddle that Samol turned… er it was a guitar that Samol turned into a fiddle when you said you couldn’t play a guitar. Or when you proved you couldn’t play a guitar. Um, here’s a question. Adaire, do you have Hitchcock’s rapier on your sheet? One of the Hitchcock rapiers one your sheet.
Janine: Yes.
Austin: Do you have both of them?
Janine:I think I only have the one.
Austin: So, you each then have one. Lem has the other one then right now.
Jack: Ok.
Austin: Because Lem has Hitchcock’s rapiers on there, and we both like, ‘well, that’s not true. I know Adaire has at least one of them.’ We felt like we should just ask you to see if you had both or what.
Janine:Yeah. Cause...
Jack: Just taken the ‘s’ off that.
Austin: Yeah. There you go. Um, cool. Well, that was easy, Lem.
Jack: Uh, oh I have bonds. I kind of...
Austin: You do have… oh do you have new bonds?
Jack: Yeah, I have 2 new bonds?
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: My new bond for… er my previous bond for Hella was “Hella is a rock; let her anchor me”.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: Which I don’t think… I don’t think works now. So, I would like to replace it with: “Aubade changed Hella; I will look to her to find the ways that it changed me”.
Austin: Hmm.
Jack: Um, and then I want one about… Throndir or Ephrim. I want one about the university.
Austin: Right.
Jack: So, the one that I wrote that started “I am uncertain and afraid in Hieron, uh but I draw strength from the fact that”… and I’ve written down here “Ephrim has built something here.” I don’t quite know how much of a joint effort it was, but I know that Ephrim has a lot of moves about this space.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: So, I think it’s probably Ephrim.
Austin: Cool.
Jack: Lem takes some kind of solace from the fact that like, there’s a building here.
Austin: Yeah. There is a building here. There’s a bunch of them, in fact. There’s more than there are on the map already, which we’ll get to momentarily. Cool. Um, Hadrian or Adaire?
Art: I’ll go.
Austin: Ok. Hadrian. No longer Sword of Samothes, Defender of the Undying Fire, Officer of the Order of Eternal Princes?
Art: Do I get expelled from the Order of the Eternal Princes?
Austin: No, but do you just… I guess you’re still an officer, but I didn’t know if you still fuck with the Order of Eternal Princes.
Art: I don’t know. That feels like a bridge to cross when we get there.
Austin: Ok.
Art: Um… Just, I put in a lot of work, you know?
Austin: I know. I get you. I know. You took those classes.
Art: Yeah. Uh huh. Tests.Anyway, with the absence of… uh, Samothes there. Um, it feels like, I have to move on from paladin. Hadrian will be the Guardian. Which is sort of a weird, like, bodyguard class. The like, principal move of which is the… is I’ll Be There For You. Which is when you promise to be… When you promise to protect someone, they become your ward. You only have one ward at a time. And then there’s a bunch of bonuses for defending the ward.
Austin: Yeah, so like, you get extra armor when you’re defending your ward. You cannot fail the defend move when you’re defending your ward. You always treat it as a 7-9 even if you roll under 6. And then you also have the option to give you ward an opportunity to escape a dangerous situation. Do you pick… you don’t pick your ward once. You pick your ward once at a time, so.
Art: Yeah. And… oh, that move isn’t here. Um…
Austin: Which one?
Art: Hell’s Gate.
Austin: Uh, right because you said you wanted that from somewhere else down the road. I don’t know if you took that.
Art: Yeah, we’ll pick that up in the middle.
Austin: Ok.
Art: Where’s the… yeah, there’s Make a Stand which is the… uh, the equivalent of…
Austin: I Am the Law.
Art: …like a modified version of the I Am the Law move where you can call out someone's villainous actions, demand they stand down, and they can either do all that stuff. They can stop or attack you.
Austin: Yep. There’s a…. There’s an important distinction here, right? Which is like, it’s someone’s villainous actions whereas before you were just like, ‘It’s me. I represent Samothes!’ So, it’s a little tighter in terms of when you’re doing it, but that feels like an important distinction given the talk that Samothes gave you.
Art: Yeah, it’s a little tighter, and I… if they attack, I get a forward against them.
Austin: Right.
Art: So, it’s no longer just like, a great way to get people to hurt me.
Austin: [laughs] And also gives you… it gives you payback, right? Which...
Art: No, payback is a… I don’t think this gives… this doesn’t give payback until that…
Austin: Ok.
Art: …the move that modifies it. Is that on here?
Austin: Yeah, it is. That’s just Bring It.
Art: That’s just Bring It?
Austin: That’s… the first of your many wrestling moves that are in this playbook. [laughs]
Art: Yeah, this playbook is a lot of moves named after wrestling stuff. Um, which I promise is a… is a 10% coincidence. [Austin and Ali laugh] This was the right playbook to switch to and also, it has like, 4 different wrestling moves.
Austin: It also… there’s a move called The People’s Champion.
Art: And also I’m…
Austin: Hell’s Gate. Yeah.
Art: …a couple levels from The People’s Champion. Uh, Payback Time is the other big thing. You choose 2 things that make you burn with a righteous anger. I chose cowardice, treachery, and selfishness. That’s one thing, that’s not three things.
Austin: Right.
Art: And the second thing is threats to your loved ones. And when you burn with righteous anger, you can hold 3, and you can spend payback to act despite pain, fear, or doubt. Act suddenly and with conviction, catch you foe off guard. Add 1d6 damage and the forceful tag to your next attack. Stand fast, keeping your position, stance, and course despite what befalls you. Throw off the effects of being stunned, confused, or enchanted. And when there are no threats to you or your ward in sight, you lose all of your held paybacks. You really gotta spend it.
Austin: I’m realizing we did not, in fact, add the last one that you took which is Shield Bash.
Art: Yeah, which is like, I can hit someone with a shield, and they take damage and it works less good as a shield because it’s got [overlapped] a person dent in it.
Austin: [interrupting] Cause you’re bashing with it. Yeah. It’s when you Hack and Slash while wielding a shield you may deal +1d6 damage. If you do, take -1 armor forward, as well. And I think as a note, before we go further, I think when you get back to your quarters with Rosana and Benjamin, before you go to bed, like… you’ve already said… said your goodnights, you know? Benjamin’s going to sleep in his room which is attached. You’re like, literally sitting down in bed, and you’re like, ‘Uh.’ Like, you’re armor is off. You’re ready to just be asleep. Um, Benjamin knocks on the door. And when you open… when you open it, it’s him and he has like, a big ca… he’s like holding something behind a big canvas throw. [Art laughs] And he like, pulls it… he pulls the canvas off and reveals a shield that he has made for you. He’s gotten help from people here. And it… I haven’t figured out what the magic attached to it is, and… but I think we just kind of get like, we don’t need to hear him explain what it does, but he’s super excited about what it does. But it’s also just a good shield.
Art: Sure. I’m sure it looks real nice.
Austin: Yeah, totally. He doesn’t… I don’t think he comes out and says like, ‘And I enchanted it to do blank’, you know? But…
Art: Sure. We’re slow-rolling that?
Austin: Yeah, he’s not quite ready to admit that he does a bunch of magic to you. The paladin. The former paladin. But yeah. He’s given you a shield. He’s been building you a shield for the last few years, right? Um, and I think like, the last thing he says is just like,
Austin (as Benjamin): You know, I just didn’t… I just… I didn’t want you to get hurt. So, I thought it was important.
Art (as Hadrian): Thank you very much.
Austin (as Benjamin): [overlapping] Have a good night.
Art (as Hadrian): [overlapping] It’s beautiful.
Austin (as Benjamin): [overlapping] Thank you.
Art (as Hadrian): [overlapping] You, too.
Austin: And he like, hurries away. And definitely is already like, telling Blue J somehow through some sort of magical communication that he’s given you the shield.
Art: And on a… on a… on just a character sheet note, I thought I was keeping Bloody Aegis and not keeping Hospitaller.
Austin: You’re keeping both. You get both of those.
Art: Ah well, Bloody Aegis isn’t on here.
Austin: I’ll drag it on. One second. Boop. Boom. Should be there now.
Art: Man, these sheets are awesome.
Austin: Yeah, it’s great. I was just like... I just searched Bloody Aegis and then grabbed it and threw it on here, and it was on there. And I can click it and roll it. I don’t think you actually roll Bloody Aegis, but you could.
Art: No, it doesn’t roll. That’s just…
Austin: But it does show you the…
Art: But it’s good to have a...
Austin: Yeah. You click it, and there it is.
Art: Um, I also have a new alignment. My alignment has shifted to good. And it is... this is the default move, we might tweak this, but it’s suffer under hardships that someone else does not have to.
Austin: Big moves.
Art: I’m not 100% sure I have the right number of stat points, but I have 17, 12, 14, 9, 12, and 16. I guess saying it’s strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma respectively...
Austin: Oh great.
Art: ...is not good radio. [Ali laughs]
Austin: No, not so much.
Art: Just remember that string of numbers I said and then map them to the words I said after.
Austin: 17 strength, 12 dexterity, 14 constitution, 9 intelligence, 12 wisdom, 16 charisma.
Art: I’m gonna add those up and check in a little bit.
Austin: Yes, sounds good. Cool. And you have a new sword, which we also have to figure…. Oh, I kind of, I’ve given it some… I know what it does. You might need a name, if you want to name it something. I bet you Benjamin really wants you to name it something. Like, there are definitely scenes we won’t play out because of time constraints where Benjamin is just like, needling you for weeks to be like, ‘You have to name the sword. If you have a cool sword, you have to name it. That’s what every hero does.’ Uh...
Art: The sword didn’t come with a name though. It’s…
Austin: No, cause it was just a fucking sword you found on the ground. Here’s like, my favorite… there’s a really good document that one of our fans made that’s like, ‘here are all the important swords in Friends at the Table Hieron. Here they are. Here’s all the details.’ And I mean that sincerely because there are details I forget because it’s taken us 4 years to get here, and so sometimes something we did in year 2 has slipped my memory. Um, but on that document and in general, there’s like, ‘What was up with that golden sword that Hadrian found in the fallen tower. Like, what was… does it have magical properties? Was that a sword that Samoth…?’ No, it’s just like a gol… it was a shitty golden sword. Like, it was just a shitty golden sword. That’s all it was. And it has since been turned into a number of different things. But it was never a particularly good sword. Like, gold is not a good thing to build swords out of.
Art: Sure. It’s very soft.
Austin: It’s a soft metal.
Art: What about the… what about the new sword though?
Austin: So, it is close… well, that is still… He took the hilt of the golden sword and broke off the shitty Heat and Dark stuff that Maelothes gave you. And added close… so it’s close. It’s one handed. It ignores armor entirely. And it’s made of starstuff, and you’ll have to figure out if that means anything special in play.
Art: Alright.
Austin: But it ignores armor which is huge, right? Like, it doesn’t.. It’s not… It pierces 2. Like, it ignores armor. You know, there’s like… one of the first ways to learn how to play Dungeon World, one of the common ways to explain how this game works is to talk about HP and dragons. There is like, you know, a thing in D&D when you fight a dragon, dragons have like a ton of HP. A dragon in Dungeon World might have like, 20HP, which is not that much. Like, there are people in this party who have more, but that doesn’t mean anything. Because good luck fighting a dragon. It’s a dragon. Dragons don’t take damage from your fucking sword. They’re not, you know… they’re gonna… the armor though on it is going to just like, bounce off arrows. And that’s not because its armor score is high, it’s cause it’s a dragon. And you follow the fiction there. This sword can kill a dragon. That’s the type of sword it is, you know?
Art: Alright, let’s go find a dragon that’s pissin’ me off.
Austin: Ok, well, Samol is the north.
Keith: I know where there’s one.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. Don’t do that. [laughing] Oh my… well, we joked about this being the last episode… and here we are. [Keith laughs] Hadrian’s killed Samol the dragon. And the earth falls apart. Great.
Art: Goodnight everybody!
Austin: [laughs] It’s been great! Um, but other than that, yeah. There’s not… we’ll have to add that shield and do some stats for it. Um, Adaire.
Janine: Hey. I’m still a thief.
Austin: You’re still a thief. Have you changed your alignment? Because I see…
Janine: I think so.
Austin: Ok. Let’s start… let’s start with stats unless you…
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, go ahead.
Janine: Let’s start with stats. Uh, so I have strength 9, dexterity 18,
Austin: Hell yeah.
Janine: Constitution 9, Intelligence 13, Wisdom 13, and Charisma 18.
Austin: Damn. That’s a lot.
Ali: That’s powering.
Austin: That’s a lot of 18s. Yeah.
Janine: But also, if someone breathes on me, I’ll die. So, [laughing] you know.
Austin: You have 15 hit points, you know.
Janine: Highs and lows.
Austin: Yeah. true.
Janine: So, I think I’m switching my alignment to chaotic. I know we can like, make our own alignment statements, but I am not… I can’t figure one out that makes sense.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: As like, an action. So, I’m just… I think I’m just gonna go with break an unjust law to benefit another.
Austin: Ok. Yeah. I like that.
Janine: Benefit’s broad, you know.
Austin: Yeah. Is that… is that a distinction from the sort of stuff… like, is that where… where Adaire end up regardless of the final talk with Hella in Aubade? Or is that like, a modification of worldview based on that?
Janine: Um, I don’t know that it’s based on that talk. I think what it is is that it’s like, [sigh] I think it’s where she’s at sort of after that spate of sabotaging things to make herself feel better.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Um, I think her like, take away from that is that like, ok, rules have never particularly mattered to her. Rules have always been about breaking to benefit, but like benefit can be broad. Benefit doesn’t have to just be her.
Austin: Right.
Janine: Benefit can be… you know, you can do the things that [laughing] make you feel better about how fucked society is and maybe help someone out or like, there’s ways to direct that, I guess. I don’t know.
Austin: Uh huh. Cool.
Janine: I think. I think that’s… the best fit.
Austin: Do you have new bonds?
Janine: Maybe.
Austin: Ok.
Janine: We haven’t tested those out, but I think um, I have some in brackets here.
Austin: Sure.
Janine: So, it’s... and its based on the time in Aubade, so for Hadrian, I think the bond I’d like is Hadrian is not an immovable rock. Do not use him as a foothold.
Austin: Hm.
Janine: Um, because obviously the counter to that is having to rely on Hadrian in any way.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Uh, and I think Lem [laugh] I don’t… Lem is the most shaky on. Lem is a river in need of a dam, give him shape and guidance. I… I’m not in love that. That might change.
Austin: Ok. That’s interesting though. I hadn’t considered that… that direction for… Is that… would that also be a sort of like, opportunity thing or is that from like, genuine friendship? A mix thereof because it’s Adaire?
Janine: Um, I think that was… that’s her noticing that in Aubade he was just kind of spinning his wheels.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: And like, not panicking, but like, he was definitely adrift in a certain way, and I think it’s kind of a rather Adaire thing to like, see someone doing that and be like, ‘You know… they just… they just need someone to point them in the right direction…
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: ...of some shit.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: They just need a friendly, benevolent...
Austin: Thief.
Janine: ...helper. [laughs] Thief.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Uh hm.
Austin: Perfect.
Janine: You know.
Austin: Um, in terms of…
Janine: Oh, I think my Hella one is the same.
Austin: Is it? Which was?
Janine: Hella’s loyalty is a tremendous and unreliable asset. Cultivate it actively. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Great.
Ali: Uh huh.
Janine: I don’t think that’s changed at all.
Austin: No, it’s only grown. Now she can talk to death whenever she wants. Like, fuck.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: So, last time… last season, I think you… did you just get Disguise at the end?
Janine: Yes, I got Disguise like, a few episodes before the very end. Cause I used it with Barbelo. Remember? To be invisible and murder a bunch of people.
Austin: Right. Right, yes.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: You certainly did do that. Yeah. Totally. I just listened to that yesterday, so…
Austin (cont.): So, your 2 new ones are Cheap Shot and Heist. I guess, I’ll just read those moves out that you have right now because people can just look those up online. The Dungeon World… you can just find the Dungeon World moves at like, if you search for Dungeon World SRD. So, you have Trap Expert…
Janine: [overlapping] What was the…
Austin: Tricks of the Trade, Backstab, Flexible Morals, Poisoner, Shoot First, Connections, Bamboozle, Wealth and Taste, and Disguise. That’s coming into this level… the levels you’re at now.
Janine: Uh huh. Cheap Shot is very straight forward, you’re Backstab deals an extra 1d6 damage.
Austin: And that’s when you’re using your precise or hand weapon.
Janine: Yes. When using a precise, which I think are my only weapons basically.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I only have those.
Austin: Yeah, but like, if you ever picked up a black ack…
Janine: Well, yeah. Yeah.
Austin: ...that would still be a hand weapon. It doesn’t have to just be like a sharp thing.
Janine: Uh huh. And Heist. When you take time to make a plan to steal something, name the thing you want to steal. Ask the GM these questions. When acting on the answers, you and your allies take +1 forward. Who will notice it’s missing? What’s its most powerful defense? Who will come after it? Who else wants it?
Austin: We gotta do a fucking heist.
Janine: You know, heist. Uh, we can be flexible with language.
Austin: Nah.
Janine: A heist could be a lot of things.
Austin: You know, this one of those things where I saw that thing…
Janine: [overlapping] We could also just do a straight up heist.
Austin: I was like, we gotta steal some shit. There has to be at least one adventure that is going to end with, ‘Alright, it’s time to fucking steal some shit.’ We’ll see. We’ll see how that goes. But yeah, I love both of those. Here’s what I love about Adaire. Everyone else has dipped into other playbooks at some point. Either through…
Janine: I have.
Austin: Have you? What’s… which ones?
Janine: Bamboozle, I believe, is a Bard move.
Austin: Ohhhh, ok. Ok.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: When you parley with someone, you also take +1 forward with them. Yeah, that sounds like a Bard.
Janine: Yeah. But I had to take that.
Austin: Yeah. Totally. Totally. I think that represents a lot of the like, talk-y Adaire versus the...
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: ...the stabby Adaire. Thief, in general, has like a real stabby and poison-y thing in Dungeon World.
Janine: And Adaire really wasn’t that for a little while, and I think…
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: ...has come into that. That’s why I didn’t switch playbooks is like, because before… you know, I told you this earlier like, I don’t think that Adaire lived up to being quote, unquote The Thief for a very long time.
Austin: Right. And then suddenly that last episode in Winter...
Janine: [overlapping] But now it’s… yeah.
Austin: ...she was stabbing people in the back. And then didn’t get to do that for 4 years.
Janine: Uh huh.
Austin: Um, that’s exciting. Ok. Ephrim.
Sylvia: Hello.
Austin: How are you doin’?
Sylvia: I’m pretty good.
Austin: Yeah?
Sylvia: Got a lot going on.
Austin: How is the… how is the undying flame inside of your body going?
Sylvia: Uh, well, that… you know. [Austin laughs] Still undying. But maybe I’m not.
Austin: Great.
Sylvia: Someone hit me with like, the rim shot things.
Austin: Yeah. [overlapping] We’ll add it in post.
Ali: [overlapping] I’ll put it in post.
Sylvia: [overlapping] Cause… yeah, Ali. Thank you.
Austin: Yeah. thank you, Ali.
Sylvia: So, yeah. That situation is not great, so I’m no longer the Immolator.
Austin: Boom. That’s a big change.
Sylvia: I am now the Baron. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: B-A-R-EN or B-A-R-O-N?
Sylvia: B-A-R-O-N.
Austin: Yeah. And let’s go through stats first, cause that’s…
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: ...the simplest part of this.
Sylvia: Yeah, so my stats right now are strength 9, dexterity 9, constitution 17, intelligence 16, wisdom 14, and charisma 14.
Austin: And you have 21 hit points.
Sylvia: Actually, I wanted to ask about that. Because...
Austin: [overlapping] You keep your hit points. Your hit points don’t reduce.
Sylvia: The hit points don’t change? Ok. [overlapping] So, I do have 21 points.
Austin: [overlapping] No, hit points, you keep. Stats, you keep. Damage, you keep.
Sylvia: Ok.
Keith: Um, so I’m glad we looked into the hit points thing cause I was rolling with 16 hit points, but I should have 20.
Austin: That’s a big difference, Fero.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: Oh my god. Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: That’s a big difference. Yeah. The thing to remember is anytime you increase your constitution, your base hit points change.
Sylvia: Uh huh.
Austin: So, in fact, Ephrim, I bet you have more than what you’re showing for hit points.
Sylvia: No, it’s.. Immolator is 4 plus your constitution score.
Austin: Oh wow! Ok, so they’re just like...
Sylvia: Yeah, yeah yeah.
Austin: ...super encouraging you to dump into constitution. I guess…
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: ...a lot of Immolator stuff did have high constitution. Er, roll +CON.
Sylvia: Well, yeah, cause the burning blade was based around that stat.
Austin: Right.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Totally. So, do you want to talk about moves first?
Sylvia: Yeah, I think that’s probably for the best.
Austin: [interrupting] We should talk about what happened to your Immolator moves first because that’s… and then we’ll talk about Baron, if that makes sense.
Sylvia: Yeah, cause there’s been a lot of changes here.
Austin: Yeah. Um...
Sylvia: I guess we should start with the Burning Brand, right?
Austin: Yeah, which is… you still have these, right? You didn’t…
Sylvia: Uh huh.
Austin: We’re still saying these are key to who Ephrim is. But um, you’ll see that I.. I changed something. At the bottom of Burning Brand [laughs], Burning Brand is the one that you know Ephrim does. Like, the first piece of art of Ephrim were Ephrim summoning a Burning Brand.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Creating a weapon of fire, and it’s cool. You can turn it into a bunch of stuff. As Art was saying before, it feels very much like Avatar: The Last Airbender. You know, you have a move called Zuko Style, like that is what’s happening.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: But the details now, you’ll see that there’s a note that I’ve added that says, Lose 1HP permanently when you use this move.
Sylvia: Yeah. So… [laughs]
Austin: So.
Sylvia: That’s a problem. Uh, yeah. We basically decided that with Ephrim’s condition with the Heat and the Dark, and the… like in his hand and everything, that there should be a consequence to invoking those powers.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: And that’s it.
Austin: And so, there had previously been a move that you had called The Undying Flame that let you use the Heat and the Dark. You used the kind of dark flame of Samothes. In place of regular fire. Um, and if you did, it would like… it ignored armor, and it burnt people’s souls instead of their bodies. Now it says, the devouring flame. Whenever you summon fire with any of your moves, it is replaced with the Heat and the Dark. This fire ignores armor. Using any of these moves costs you 1HP permanently. And so that is your Burning Brand, your Fighting Fire with Fire, which is the thing that lets you like, heal on certain hits, Handcrafted, which is the thing where you can use your hand, so you can summon fire from within you to bend and shape metal. And This Killing Fire which is a buff to Burning Brand.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: You can still use the things that are about like, understanding people and looking at people like, Give Me Fuel, Give Me Fire.. Uh, like This Killing Fire. Er not This Killing Fire. Uh, Moth to the Flame.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Those you can still use without it hurting you because those are about your ability to tempt weak minds and read people and figure out what they want. And I still let you have Zuko Style which is the thing where you can like, you can bend flame to your will. It does as you command taking a shape and movement you desire for as long as you… as it has fuel to burn. But that’s not with the Heat and… that’s just like, if you have a torch nearby, you can like, do a little parlour trick with it. That’s not… er you know. There are times I can imagine you doing cool shit with it, but it’s not… you don’t get to just have that whenever you want. You need that fuel source.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: And you cannot use like Burning Brand with that. You cannot shape it into a weapon. It’s only like, other types of like, uses basically.
Sylvia: Uh huh.
Austin: And from your old moves, maybe the last one, is Lore of the Forge. Do you want to read that?
Sylvia: Right, yeah. Uh, when you stare into a source of fire, looking for answers, roll+ Wisdom. On a hit, the GM will tell you something new and interesting about the current situation. So, I believe this was originally Lore of the Flame?
Austin: It was. And so you would like, look into a flame and get guidance from Samothes. You don’t get guidance from Samothes anymore, cause Sammothes died. But you do get guidance from the person who is at the forge. Um, I have a questions. Have you done this yet?
Sylvia: I don’t think so.
Austin: Ok. We’ll have to see what would…
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: ...drive you to doing that. If there’s a situation that could show up where you’re like, ‘Fuck. I need… I need help.’
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Because uh, you will be receiving information and guidance from Alyosha. I don’t think you know who that is. Or I guess you saw Alyosha very briefly when you were killing Samothes, but like, you don’t know Alyosha like that, right?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Maybe you do. Maybe, I mean, you’re in the same church. Or you were in the same church.
Sylvia: I think it’s… it’s one of those things where it’s like, they’ve met before.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: But it’s like, once or twice.
Austin: We’ll talk about it maybe the first time you use the ability.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: And see if it makes sense that you recognize him or don’t. Cool. Uh, let’s talk about Baron. Tell me about Baron. Tell me about your new moves.
Sylvia: So, let’s start from the top.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: It’s the big one.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Uh, Master of Your Domain. You have claim to a stronghold and its surrounding lands. Describe it and give it a name and place it on the map as a keep. In this case, the stronghold is the university and the settlement here. Uh, your stronghold begins with the following tags, poor prosperity, shrinking population, guard defenses, and oath protection for nearby lands. And then, take the stronghold sheet and choose features for your stronghold on it. We’ll go through those in a sec.
Austin: Yep.
Sylvia: And the GM will add a need...
Austin: Yep.
Sylvia: ...which we’ve done. And then, when your stronghold is secure and you are present to rule it unchallenged at the start of the season roll + charisma. Should I do that now? Or start of the session?
Austin: No, let’s do that…
Sylvia: Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Austin: Let’s do that after we go through all the stuff in the break.
Sylvia: Yeah. Um, that can… that can give me surplus which is a resource for the stronghold. It can also gain a unit of a resource my stronghold produces or it’s free from want or danger for the time being if I get a 10. We can go through that later.
Austin: Whenever we roll it, yeah.
Sylvia: It basically, yeah. It lets me sort of… It’s basically what helps me develop the stronghold itself.
Austin: Right, like, this is basically our version of keeping some of the Cold Winter stuff in. But without the severity of it. Where it just completely [laughs] is just constantly in decline. But you know, you could still fuck up some rolls and…
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: ...the fiction is still gonna lead here. So.
Sylvia: Uh, should… do we wanna go into the… do we want to finish up the moves first or jump into the…
Austin: Um…
Sylvia: Cause the stronghold kind of leads into that move.
Austin: Yeah, let’s talk about your stronghold. I added that stuff under your… yeah. You see it, right? Cool.
Sylvia: So, uh, in the sheet from that class, that big everything PDF that Austin mentioned earlier, had a… It had a bunch of option to choose from, and the ones we decided on were that the stronghold guards a major crossroad. These are the descriptions for it. Guards a major crossroads, either manmade or natural.
Austin: Which makes sense, right? Cause it’s like...
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: ...literally at the… I’ll go back to our Hieron map. It’s literally at the center of Hieron, right? Or damn near it. And so, I imagine there’s like, roads coming up from every direction that have to pas through the Last University. If you’re going to the northwest, you have to cut through… between the forest and the mountains. If you’re going out east from the west, the Last University is the place you would stop to get supplies. You know. Every direction, it’s kind of… it’s kind of right in the middle of everything.
Sylvia: I think it’s like, literally in the middle of the continent actually. Looking at it now.
Austin: Yeah, I suspect if we go back and listen to episode 0, Nick is the… Nick is the one who placed it, right?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: And so, I’m pretty sure Nick would be like, ‘Yeah. That’s right in the middle of everything.’
Sylvia: It is constructed in ancient times, yet well-preserved, which…
Austin: True.
Sylvia: Self-explanatory for this one. A shining beacon of light with graceful arches and soaring towers. The site of a legendary mystical event.
Austin: Yeah, this is definitely… the mages did some shit from here.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Back in the day, so.
Sylvia: And yeah, and the… shining beacon of light literally… with the starstuff obviously.
Austin: With the starstuff. Yeah, totally.
Sylvia: And then yeah, forgotten history full of secrets and riddles, which I think I actually was part of the legendary mystical event that… anyway.
Austin: Yeah, there’s… I mean, there’s a lot of weird history here, and it’s like..
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: It’s an old mage university so like yeah, there’s a lot of… lot of secrets. A lot of… a lot of you know, I’ve seen those Harry Potter movies. I’ve seen a couple of them .They find maps and shit, right?
Sylvia: They got stairs all over the place.
Austin: Yeah. All sorts of them.
Sylvia: [laughs] And then, on top of that, there are also like, features to the stronghold which makes it not terrible at the beginning.
Austin: Right, so it starts with… with what is it? Poor prosperity, which is bad. That’s not good. That’s like, people are starving, right? Prosperity indicates…
Sylvia: There’s also like… decaying population, as well.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Like, everything is in decay at the beginning with the Baron.
Austin: So, yeah. It starts with poor prosperity which means only the bare necessities are for sale. Weapons are scarce unless the steading is heavily defended or militant. Unskilled labor is readily available, and it had shrinking population, which is the population is less than it once was. Buildings stand empty. And it had guard defenses which is… there are armed defenders at all times. The totally pool of less than 100 or equivalent. There is always at least 1 armed patrol about the steady. So, that’s where it start… and then and then oath protection for nearby lands, which is like, you’ve taken an oath to protect the people nearby. That’s why.. That’s part of what your authority comes from.
Keith: Truly accurate.
Austin: [laughs] Yeah.
Keith: From all of this.
Austin: Well, except now you have new moves, right? Or new… new land features. You want to go over those?
Sylvia: Yeah, so, Fero?
Keith: Helllo.
Sylvia: Fuck you for saying everything is really bad, cause we got some good stuff. We got sturdy walls and manned watch towers...
Austin: Which raises you up…
Sylvia: ... which gives us some defenses.
Austin: Yeah, it raises your defences which brings you up to garrison. There are armed defender at all times. The total pool of 100 to 300 or equivalent. There are multiple armed patrols at all times. So defenses, check.
Sylvia: Uh, we got hard working and honest folk here. At the university, so…
Austin: [interrupting] So, prospe…
Sylvia: Wait, we’ve added prosperity
Austin: Yeah. Prosperity is...
Sylvia: So, we’re at moderate prosperity now.
Austin: Most mundane items are available. Some types of skilled laborers.
Sylvia: Fero, in the chat says, ‘It’s not all bad. Look at all these cops we got.’ I did realize that after I said it. [Ali and Keith laugh]
Austin: Yep, that is...
Sylvia: And that is sounded really bad.
Austin: Uh huh. That was the first one.
Sylvia: That’s cause it was at the top of the list.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: And the nice one is that since we have a major highway leading to other nearby towns, we have trade with the city of First Light. And also, more populations. So, we’re not all dying.
Austin: No. You...
Sylvia: Thanks.
Austin: Instead of shrinking population, which was the population is less than it once was, buildings stand empty, you have steady population. The population is in line with the current size of the steading. Some slow growth. Which is, you know.
Keith: That has yet to play out in fiction.
Austin: No, but I think this is what’s happening at… you know, Ephrim taking this class is what will push that down the road, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Ephrim going, ‘I’m not the Immolator. I’m the Baron. I’m going to use my intelligence and my knowledge and my resource to like, fix this shit over the next little bit. And I have the.. I have taken the authority to do that.’ is what starts pushing this down the path. It’s not to say there aren’t problem. You know?
Sylvia: Some would say that there’s actually a section on the sheet that says stronghold problems. [Ali laughs] So, we actually… I needed to…
Austin: You need to pick one.
Sylvia: ...still need to pick one, and I have it.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: I wanted a… I was gonna bring it up but then we started recording.
Austin: Sure.
Sylvia: Uh, I wanted to say I owe fealty, a debt, or support to someone else.
Austin: Interesting.
Sylvia: And that someone else being Corsica.
Austin: Yeah, ok.
Sylvia: Because I don’t think I get this power without the support of her.
Austin: Yeah, I think that’s a great idea.
Sylvia: Considering… yeah.
Austin: It kind of gives there a pivot point, or like, a weak point almost in this whole place. Which is this place works because Ephrim and Corsica Neue have decided to basically be kind and queen. I don’t think there’s a wedding. I don’t think this is like that. I think this is like, a platonic king and queen situation. Do you divide like, authority over certain things? Like is she in charge of like, the military and you’re in charge of like, the buildings? Is there… or is it…?
Sylvia: Yeah. it’s a little bit.
Austin: Ok.
Sylvia: It’s more like, she‘s like definitely is more of the general.
Keith: I…
Austin: Ok.
Keith: I have a… I have a thing that I learned literally yesterday.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: Which is in real estate law, which is really weird, there’s something called tenant in the entirety which is when like, when 2 people own the house, they both own 100% of the house.
Austin: Oh interesting.
Keith: Yeah, and so it’s this weird thing where like, there’’s… it’s like a legal exception where usually when 2 people share ownership of something, they share a percentage of the ownership, but in real estate, you own all of it together.
Austin: Wow.
Keith: So, maybe that’s something that could… you could think about. For where it’s like, you are both 100% in charge.
Austin: Right. Which is probably hard to do, right?
Keith: Yeah, it is.
Sylvia: I do like… Yeah. I think that is it because one, I like the problems that that’s gonna cause, but it also means like even though we both have our specialities, if I’m away Corsica has to deal with like, the diplomacy shit.
Austin: Yeah 100%.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: 100% Or vice versa.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: If she’s away, you have to bring together some troops to do some defense or help the undead people who are here or whatever.
Sylvia: Uh huh.
Austin: Cool. Um, so the way this is… It says choose one prompt for your lands, and the GM will choose one as well. And so the one I’ve chosen is, within your lands is a source of something wild, chaotic, or dangerous which may attract unwanted attention from beyond your lands. Tell us what it is, and what desires it, but not both. And it’s magical knowledge.
Art: Is it Fero? [Keith laughs]
Austin: It’s magical knowledge. It’s a magic university. Um, and I’m just… you know, I can’t tell you who specifically desire it, I guess but like fill in the fucking blanks. [Sylvia laughs] Everybody wants magic. That’s why they call it magic, you know? So, so that is… that is that. I think we also still need a need. We still need one need for your stronghold.
Sylvia: Right. I… was gonna, because going off of what we had at the end of the um, Long Cold Winter, Long Dark Winter… I always mix up the name. Um, I was thinking that the need could be like, medicine?
Austin: Yeah. That’s a good idea.
Sylvia: Or like a steady supply of medicine of some kind.
Austin: Yup.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Let’s make a note of that under your stronghold tags. Yeah, steady supply of medicine would be great. You have a lot of different types of people is a thing that’s important about this place. And it’s not like… like basically… I think like, the city of Last Light or First Light rather… The City of First Light slash Marielda had some distinct, different population of different species and cultures, but it was so… um, segregated. And still humans were the priority and were the primary group. This is a place that has had like, mothkin and snow elves and goblins and orcs and hyena peop… uh, gnolls. All mixed together, and so like, I actually imagine that like, it’s just hard to have effective medicine for everybody. The general stuff works for a lot of people, but like, you need something special for treating moth wings that does not do anything for halflings, you know?
Sylvia: Yeah, I imagine also having a bunch of undead people makes that even more confusing.
Austin: Totally.
Sylvia: When it’s… a bunch undead people from all these different species.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Totally. Exactly. So, yeah, I think that’s, as long as Corsica and the unstill are here, that’s going to probably remain a need until there’s a permanent, you know… import of it or a local creation of it. So, need that medicine, you know? And also, it’s just dangerous out right now. Between the Heat and the Dark, the stars, and the new… the new flora from Alyosha’s forge, like, it’s dangerous outside. People get hurt a lot. Let’s go over your last few moves, and then we’ll take a break.
Sylvia: Right. So, um, I have the move Castle Builder. I think I didn’t go over that one yet.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: So, I can add or move a feature from my stronghold and the GM can… gives me 4 of the following conditions, and if I fill them out, I can basically change the stronghold in some way. So, you’ll need help from blank, spending surplus, spend a unit of a resource, it will take a certain amount of time (weeks, months or years), first you must blank, you’ll need to acquire blank, or you and your allies will risk danger from blank.
Austin: Which again is like a long term project style thing where you’re like, ‘hey, we really need to get like, a medicine hut where people can just constantly be making medicine. What do we need for that?’ And you can ask me those questions to help, for me to basically say, ‘here’s a quest. I’m gonna give you a quest to go do this.’
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Uh, you have 3 other moves.
Sylvia: Yeah, next up, the last starting move I have is Loyal Retainers. I have a few, 4-7. I’m probably gonna go with 4.
Austin: Sure.
Sylvia: Loyal retainers who will back you up, follow your orders, impress people, carry things, and help you conduct your business. [Austin laughs] Choose what type of people compose your retainers, and I’ve chosen stalwart guards, who when they help me fight, I get +1 armor. I’m still sort of filling out the ranks, but Highwater is definitely one of them, the cobbin assassin who has sort of turned…
Austin: Right.
Sylvia: ... to my side. Cause they have...
Austin: She has… she has served you the longest. Yeah, right?
Sylvia: She has served me the longest. Yeah. And then…
Austin: [overlapping] We’ll figure out the rest at some point, yeah.
Sylvia: I’ll have the rest at another point.
Austin: The other like, titles for them or the other like, whatever… not titles, but like, descriptions. It’s the one who served you the longest, the most reliable, the most cunning, the most fearsome, or the one who bears blank. So, some combination of those will be there.
Sylvia: Uh huh.
Austin: It’s exciting. We’ll go over the NPCs who are still there like, I could imagine it being a mix of people who are NPC… major NPCs and people who are completely new, but we’ll talk about it off mic and figure it out.
Sylvia: Yeah, for sure. Next, I have Hold Court. When you hold court and hear the problems of the people, the GM will tell you at least… of at least one opportunity within your stronghold or the area surrounding it. And then, finally, I have... the last new move I have is Everyone Wants Something. When you parley with someone or discern realities connected to them, on a hit you can also ask the GM one of these questions. They will answer truthfully. And it basically just lets me find out what the person really wants from me.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: What are they... what they value most, and what is the most valuable thing here.
Austin: Interesting. Cool.
Sylvia: Yeah. And that’s it for me?
Austin: So, Ephrim, as like… are you a king? Are you saying King Ephrim? I know we kind of said that in the end of winter, but I don’t know if we…
Sylvia: [overlapped] I don’t know...
Keith: Technically a baron would be a lord. But I know that… I get that that’s not literal.
Austin: Right. Yes, it’s not… It’s not exactly literal.
Sylvia: Yeah. Oh, I don’t know. I think…
Austin: Or Lord Ephrim.
Sylvia: I like lord more than king, I think.
Austin: Ok. Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Let’s go with Lord Ephrim.
Sylvia: Hell yeah.
Austin: Figure you with you get some more… some more titles down the road. I’m trying to think if there’s anything else important here. Oh, oh, you have a new, a new alignment and new race move.
Sylvia: Yes.
Austin: Background move.
Sylvia: So, my new alignment is neutral. And I’m just also using the stock one right now which is increase the prestige of yourself or your stronghold.
Austin: Sure.
Sylvia: And then my new background is champion. You received the stronghold as a reward for some prior service, and people are eager to join your banner. When you recruit from your lands, you automatically get a 10+ on the roll.
Austin: Which I have no idea how often that will come up.
Sylvia: I don’t either.
[Jack de Quidt’s “Something” begins playing in background]
Austin: But if it comes up, it’ll come up. You know? Hey listen, maybe there’s a time when you’re like, ‘I have to recruit from my lands.’ [laughs] That’s a thing that could happen. Uh yeah, so we should take a break, but before we take a break, the last thing I want to ask people to do is, there are 7 people on this call besides me… everyone should come up with a building that should be on this map that isn’t on this map yet.
[Music plays out to the end]
[1] The name in the audio recording is no longer in use, hence the audio/transcript discrepancy.