So, the morning comes as you all are, you know, resting in whatever room that Rugged Wood can supply for you in the, in the Golden Claw. And most, everyone's morning goes fairly normal, aside from Luna, who you hear a rattling in the corner of the room. You can see the sheath of absolution shaking. I'm running to get it? Like I jump out of the bed to go get it. You grab it and it starts to shift as if it's being pulled by an aetherical force in a certain direction. And I'm gonna need you to make a strength saving throw.  Wow, we're starting off strong, look at me, oh jeez. That's how it's gonna be. Oh god, we're starting off strong. Strength save? Yep. 20. Hold on to it. And if you've, like, it starts to drag your feet sliding across the floorboards, but you're able to get a good grip and hold it steady. And then the shaking. Do you wanna follow it? I wanted to, like, to let it lead, I just didn't wanna, like, let go of it. Right, right, right. It leads you just to the wall of your room, presumably, to the next room over. Oh dear. Wait, is that one of ours? No. Oh, that's worse. You don't know, you don't know whose room that is. Oh no. I wanna try and wrestle this thing, the sheath onto my back, I guess, if it starts to calm down. Yeah, it does calm down after a moment. Hell, it's gone into you.  I'd like to try and, okay, what's the layout? Is this one of those places where it's got two stories and there's a banister that looks down onto the bar, or is this an entirely different floor with stairs? It's a different floor with stairs and it's laid out like a hallway with rooms aligned. Are the rooms numbered? More or less, yeah. Okay, I just wanna make note of that room's number then, because I... Yeah, let's say it's room number six, yours was number five. Okay, yeah, I'm gonna note that that's room number six and I'd like to go downstairs and find tap water. Okay, and while you do that, how is the rest of you's mornings goes? Making the extra minute, making sure that I am looking absolutely flawless today because, oh no, I messed up last night. I gotta look my best today. Oh, babe. Okay, you can give me a charisma check. Oh god, okay. Here we go. You look all right, although it's very clear to see that you had a rough night, but you try to spruce up as best you can. You do your makeup and all of that, but some of it's a little off, the wings are not as flowy as they normally would be. Merte, she's just like cursing to herself in the mirror. While you're having your difficulties, I am waking up calmly, gently taking out a handkerchief, gently cleaning glasses, putting them on, getting out banana suit. Unpeeling. Did you just call that now? Unpeeling. Don't you mean like repealing? You're putting it on.  If you peel, you take it off. That's how bananas work. I am unpeeling. It is going back on. This is like taking a naked banana and finding an empty peel and making that work somehow. Oh, you've been unpeeling. I thought you've been like... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Unpeeling. Unpeeling, okay. Repealing. Repealing is where you take it off. Oh, repealing is it. That's right. I am unpeeling. In either case, I put the suit on. I go to the mirror. I put my hat on. I look at myself in the mirror.  And then I walk out. Good for you. I am so angry with another human being in my life. I am completely, completely content. In my face. Betray is no emotion. There it is. Enoch, how was your morning go? Well, I wake up. I put my arm back on as per tradition. I walk over towards the mirror and I stare at the reflection, almost squinting my eyes, looking at it. And I take my hat. I put it on. My hair is still slightly messy. I brush off my jacket, reapply and get all my equipment. And it's kind of right before I leave, I stare back at the mirror one more time, kind of trying to bolster my emotion here. And then I... When you stare at the mirror a second time, you hear a soft chuckle. I let out a sigh. And I just leave the room. You hear nothing more.  In the tavern, there's a few regular patrons, as well as tap water, Murth and Juliana. And you can see that Murth is sitting next to tap water who is yet to start a regular shift, it seems, and is talking a mile a minute. And tap water is just nodding his head along. And you hear a voice in your head, kind of echoing in your mind. I am sorry, adventurer, but on Chief Juliana's orders, I am unable to spare you any breakfast on account of our low supply. Also, could you please occupy Murth for me? They are talking my ear holes off. I guess I'm replying. I don't understand why you're talking in my head, but... I am attempting to be polite. I give a nod and then say, if I can ask a question, yes, sure. Of course.  It appears that your companion, Luna, is here. Perhaps you can share with her as well.  Yes, hello. Can you just give me one moment, tap water? Yes, what is it, Luna? Could you tell me? That's a... I heard some strange noise last night coming from Room 6. Could you tell me who's staying up there? Murth speaks up, and actually, I have art of Murth now. Oh, yeah. Oh, my boy. Let's see the boy. And they look like... I swear to God, if he's hot.  He's a divine. Oh, my God. He's my child. It is a day, by the way. My child is so cool. It's a day. It's a day, day. It's a day. I'm so cool.  Yeah. No, they're so cool. Oh, I love them. Oh. And Murth speaks up. Oh, that's my room. Sorry, I was experimenting last night, making a few more new recipes, you know? Can I? Dear, can I speak with you for a moment, please? Sorry. Yes? They put their potion bottle on the table and kind of like, just scratch the back of their head. Am I in trouble? No. Oh, no, no, no, no. Not at all, dear. I just had a bit of a... Just come with me for a moment, all right? Okay. You're not in trouble. They get up and follow you. Yeah, I'm going back upstairs. Oh, back upstairs? Okay. You do and you pass by your three other companions. And Murth waves to each one. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Oh, good morning. How do they mate? They're currently in issue. I'll get back to you on that. I just need to check something, that's all. And then I'll let you all know what's going on. I just need to check something. All right. Eyes narrow. You're free to come with us. Just, I have a few questions, that's all. Hmm. Given my immediate relationship with Murth, I will follow behind Murth, just to kind of see what's going on. I cannot. I have somewhere else to be. I need to make preparations for the trip we're about to go on. All right. Well, maybe we can meet at the bot. We all meet down in the bot, I guess, to figure out what our plans are. Renee just nods, but also looks over at me, then you'll be like, do you mind if I join you? I expected that. Right. Right, of course. Just nods like, OK. No. Luna is going to give Renee a little pat on the shoulder. We'll see you, we'll see you two soon then. Yes? Yes. And we will catch up with you three after this.  And Luna, Luna, or rather not three, you two, Luna and Enoch are staying by Murth. Save a tea for me. Sure, sure, Murth. Yeah. I'm sorry I pulled you away like that. I just didn't want to ask this in front of the others, but you haven't happened to have found anything that I don't know might have some strange cymbals on them or anything that may be radiating a kind of magic that you don't know. Murth just gazes around like almost searching the building.  So when I woke up this morning, I had a rather strange situation happen and I'm going to start not unsheathing but taking off of taking taking absolution off my back, the scavenger and all, not unsheathing it. I'm not threatening this child. Right, you take you take off the entire thing, including the scabbard. Yeah, yeah. So one of my swords was reacting to something in your room. I don't know what, but it was flying towards the wall. Oh, that's weird. Just just a little bit. I I this is rather new. I'm just trying to make sure that maybe there wasn't something that was maybe attracting metal in your room. Maybe they scratch their head a little bit and you can see that they step a few steps like closer to Enoch. Well, I mean, if you want, you can look in there. But I mean, it's kind of private. And I've got a few projects that I'm not quite ready to show. I don't want to ask to search your room. That's not my place. I just it's a strange occurrence this morning. That's all I'm just trying to get the tales of it. OK, I get I get down on one knee and I take off my hat and I look mirth in the eye. I believe if there is one piece of fellow advice from one engineer to another, the best kind of properties I've ever found in people is honesty. If you feel like your privacy is important to you, I understand. But if there's something going on in there, you'll be honest with me. Yeah, they look to the ground a bit and just kind of like start to scratch their their lap. Um, how long will you be staying? I look up towards Luna with a questioning face. Can't imagine much longer. We need to get on the road soon. She'll probably probably heading out today. Tell you what, if you can give me maybe an hour before you go, I can show you. I just need to get everything ready. OK, sure. Sure. Yes. And Miss Renee was it? She took off with the potions and I'm grateful that she'll send me letters or some sending or something else. But I'm just really eager to see the results soon. You know, like, do you think maybe just for some confidence, maybe maybe she or one of you could could try one before before you leave? I mean, if you don't want to, that's all fine. I'm just very excited and just a bit too excited, you know. Sure, sure. Try one. I don't mind. They have a big smile from ear to ear. OK, thanks. OK, I'm going to go. I'm going to go in there and I'm going to make sure that thing is ready. And they just kind of like creek open the door and kind of scuffle in. I promise it's going to be something amazing. I'm sure it will be. Just be careful. I will. I put my hat back on and I stand on both my feet. Well, that went well. I'm concerned. This isn't the first time I've been. This is the past two days I felt my sword acting like it's never acted before. It got cold when we were in Yazdil and that's never happened before.  So is that often a negative reaction or is it like a forewarning kind of reaction? I can't tell. I've never had it happen before. This is it's never done this. It's just it's a nice sword. Don't get me wrong, but it's just a sword. It's not supposed to do things like that. In a world of magic mystery and what nots, usually things like that do not often come without the advice that it gives. Oh, I know. I had the thing looked at dozens of times. They've never found anything magical about it. Honestly, the whole story, my father told me about it. I'm not even sure how true that story is. Can I ask you something personal? Yes, you and me were a bit alike. Yeah, I think we're blessed in very similar ways. But we also acknowledge that we are from two very different kinds of cuts of cloth.  I have a hood of the Queen of Ravens. The goddess of passing souls, death, not too unfamiliar with it. So I don't have any proof, but I have looked into it before. Wondering what my father saw was claimed to have seen. I don't know. Maybe maybe she appeared that day. I don't know. Something clearly happened. I may not know what she asked in return, but I think I can make a very clear connection that I was a direct result of whatever deal he asked for or she made. It's just never. I don't I've never had I've never had instances where I felt pulled. I've just always gone through my life. I didn't never feel claimed or that I had some something to follow. I just I hunt monsters and I fight with my father's soul because I loved my father and he's gone. So this is all a bit weird for me. Can I ask one more personal question? How well did you know your father? Like, was he good to you? Of course. I mean, he was he was tough when we were especially, especially when he was teaching me how to use these things. I at least three of my scouts are simply from those days. But my father was a great person. Proud. I see. I don't think that this is a direct result of him doing something wrong. I think that whatever. Whatever he saw that day, I think that he was just doing what the best he could as a leader, trying to protect his men. I've made my peace with that a long time ago. Someone in my family had to. And she's going to walk away. I just stand in the middle of the hallway for a few minutes. That's it. OK, and now we can catch up with Renee and Nathaniel. As you walk on out, it's a bright, beautiful day. Birds are chirping. People are chatting around. And I assume you are walking towards Lancel's Cottage. Yes, yes, on days like these.  Anyway, let's continue.  Anyway, you can actually start making your way to Lancel's Cottage. Is there anything you do on the way? Renee, as soon as like they're sort of on their own, she will give sort of like a small nod and just say I want to apologize for how I was acting yesterday. It was. A little bit. It was out of place. Renee, you're an investigator. If you weren't doing that, then I would have been bothered. Of course, I'm not going to tell you anything, but. And I shouldn't expect it of you, so it makes sense. I will ask you a few questions. That's fine. I suppose the first is, do you think that you're going to let this go?  What do you think? It doesn't matter what I think. I don't want to. Absolutely not. If you ask me to, I will. But. Well, I am not asked. Probably not. Then it's a game, then. Incredence just looks over like what? I believe that by the end of this, you will still not know who this person is to me, not that they are anyone to me. They are actually simply an investigator. Junior, as they are, they're not supposed to be here. Doesn't matter. But if there is anything more to be found out about it, I believe that you'll find it out. Or, I believe that I am still the best investigator. All right, then, Smeltas. What do I get if I win this at the way jail? Did I need to give you anything? I think that the victory of information is its own reward. See, this is why I can't get you set up with anyone. Well, you're not fine. A girl can wish for trinkets, but I'll shall get this just pages of information. Right. Nothing. What happens if I lose?  I would never say that. Of course you wouldn't. But I'm just saying, is there anything for you out of this? I suppose my victory will. I have had you by my side learning how to be an investigator for as long as I could. If you fail this, it'll be as if I succeed. Then I suppose I failed again, just in a better way. I suppose if I win, you'll have to quit. She did for her chess. She looks so angry. Oh, my God.  You know what? You're on.  So you know what? Fine. Well, I don't doubt that. Also, if I win, the intern gets to wear my hat. Have the game. Oh, you want it? I look straight at you. My eyes flash a little bit with bright pink energy. And I say, try me.   You know what?  In any case, I believe that we're here. This is the place that has terrible locks. Oh, OK. Are we trying to work in? No, no, I already successfully did so yesterday. Oh, all right.  It is locked and you hear a voice. You know, most people knock. Renee's squint. Did you change the locks? Well, it's not going to matter, is it? And you hear and you can see the Dragonborn looks all set and ready. And I have art for Lancel. There he is. It's a boy. Here comes the boy. She's a little boy. Short as badass. Welcome. And it's far to the bull. He is here. I don't like that he is a cooler sword than me and have to fight now. He comes out, he's got a pack on his back. His armor is all set and ready. And he looks to you with a little cheeky smile to both of you and he nods. He nods to you both. Good morning, witch taker. Miss Renee. Good morning. And she's like she is smiling, bright and big. I am unimpressed by this display. He's showboating. Oh, of course, you know immediately what she's doing. This does nothing to me. I'm not trying to do anything to you. My response in response to him saying, does it matter anyway? I'll say, oh, so that's a no then. In any case, we have two more inside of the inside of I'm trying to not see. God, what's the place called? I keep the Golden Claw. That's definitely not the name. Golden Claw. Golden Claw. We have two more waiting inside of the Golden Claw. Once the five of us are convened, we can go over the plan. Until then, I look at Blancel's equipment. Does he have does he only have the sword and no shield? No, he has no shield. Oh, blasphemy. I know kind of armor does he have. It's chainmail. Yes. Excuse me. You do not need another so a shield to be functional. It is. It is a great sword, though. It's it's large. Oh, I see. It's a great sword.  And while you guys are chatting there, he he does take a moment and reach for his pack before we go. While I was packing, one thing I was reminded of that I didn't think about when we had our conversation yesterday and he reaches out and he he lifts out of his pack. A book, a very familiar book.  Another necromancer journal. When I was fighting that necromancer from last week, he dropped this and he hands up to you.  There's four. That's three. Three, OK. All of them. I will take this third one. I will open it and I will like start flipping through it. As I say, was there anything of note besides this being a necromancer journal? Yes, there was a strange page. And as you're flipping through it, coincidentally, you come across it. This page. Oh God, now another one. Not time for Nathaniel's reading message again. Hard to read it, Nathaniel. Year 131, winter. Prolonged use of necromancy has given the appearance of black veins in a few of my mages. It seemed to start from tips of the extremities and facial features first, then move on and outwards to the rest of the skin. After a while, they dissipate, not unlike sobering up from an alcoholic beverage. It seems this is a purely cosmetic side effect that has no further impact on the user. Must investigate further. Raising more, raising of more powerful creatures and beings, example, war heroes, past lord's strikes, has resulted in less than ideal commanding implications. Not all reanimated corpses seem to follow orders immediately. Perhaps they maintain a sliver of sentience. Must investigate further. I've handpicked some of the mages most skilled in necromancy. Perhaps they are good candidates for testing true resurrection. I am so angry. I am so angry. I am so angry. Hold on. They're all so... Enoch screaming in the distance. Hold on. There are also rules for create undead, finger of death, and let's see. Yes, common soldiers, apprentice mages, common folk, farmers, smiths, et cetera. Most elderly folk. Most. I suppose that there may be a time limit, in any case. No, non-humanoids, warlords, powerful mages or warriors, large creatures. And then in a different writing, it says, Abby, will you please stop writing in your sister's research book? And then a third writing that says, never ninja Abby. Small drawing of a ninja. Oh, he's such a character I love her. But also, oh my God. Before you think that that is incredibly cute, perhaps remember that Abigail is a dead person and this is a book on necromancy. You can see more specifically research notes on the nature of black veins and such. I see, yes. I'm going to have to look at this further. But this is very good. You said that you found this off of the necromancers that you fought about a week ago. I did. He dropped it in the commotion. Well then, in that case, it seems that we, I close the book, must investigate further. Thank you. You see Lancel just like pinch his nose and just, ah, yes, yes we do. What? That was good. That was fine. Let them have this, let them have this in the world. Arms like we're gonna last like, come on. He lifts his pat onto his shoulder. Well, I am ready whenever you are. All right. So I guess that he's joining us then, instead of going back home. As a matter of fact, he is. He's going to be going on this adventure. Only this one, but it's not enough. You can see he's trying to hide a smile badly. But I just kind of like, there is a teeny tiny bit. She's keeping her smile, but it's just kind of like a, hmm, noted. All right, and now while you guys head back to the tavern, Luna and Enoch, you head downstairs and Enoch, you can see Juliana is sitting at, well, she's always sitting, but she's at one of the tables and just rapid fire, so many new portraits since they're important characters now. You can see Juliana now. I love her. So beautiful. I do.  Oh yeah. And you can see that she is eating a mountain of breakfast and she waves you over Enoch and she speaks through a full mouth. Jul, over here, I want to have breakfast with you. I share a little bit, just a little though. My heart skips a beat. Can I just like a pat Enoch's shoulder? Oh, that seems like that's your calling. I'm going over there. Just find myself in a quiet place. No, no, no, don't, please don't let me be alone. Listen, it's not that scary as you might think and I'm going to start like gently pushing him. Just say hello, be yourself, be yourself.  I'm always myself. It's just kind of one step at a time being pushed down. It's not that bad, compliment her hair or something. I don't know. That's not the, Juliana. Yes, met or honor, honor, man. It's good to see you. Good to see you too, Madam Juliana. And I sit down and I kindly ask for just tap water to get me some tap water. Of course, and yep, he gets you just to find a drink. You sleep well, yes? Well, I do sleep. But just the sleeping well is not a concept. Perhaps future you invent something that make you sleep better. I think there's like things that you can take for it. Besides the point, how is your evening and morning so far? I sleep amazing as I do everything amazing. You can see like he is, he is nervously smiling. I'm very glad, yep. And she continues to just eat her breakfast and having a nice time. I hate to be a bearer of bad news, but we do have a mission on going right now and we might be leaving a little bit later today, but I do want to stick around for as long as I can. You seem like a very kind and individual and also very, I like to hear more about you. Mm, she looks, she's like halfway through a drumstick. What do you mean specifically? And she squints at you suspiciously, like she leans closer. Well, I don't want to be prifle and I think it's awesome that you are literally doing your best in every aspect, not just only defending its town, but also helping everyone around here and also hearing me out last night. And I'm just curious as all is what I wanted to ask is you look at me, right? You see this and I point towards the arm. Ah, you wonder why I not make arm like that. I love tell this story because story also tell how great I am. Exactly. That's why I'm curious. I want to, yeah. Yes, that's exactly why I'm not only am I curious, but also like I do want to hear. I want to hear your perspective. Yes, I love giving my perspective. Perspective so great, it create entire town. You and me, we are like molten metal. We are like soft, malleable, adaptable to hook and she lifts her hook arm hand and points at your hand or rapid fire crossbow. And she kind of like pats her seat where you can see a crossbow. It's rapid fire, wait a minute. Well, you can see a belt. That's a queen. You can see a belt with bolts lining it. I didn't even realize that was there. I was looking at her. Amazing. Life changes a lot. I used to be big game hunter, then I was not. I used to be a foreigner, then I was not. I used to have three more limbs. Now I do not. I also used to be baby and drink from mama's teeth. Now I do not. Is no different.   No. I legitimately, I legitimately raised my drink to that. Raise my drink to that. And she clinks it with her mug and takes a big swig. And if rapid fire crossbow break, I merely change again like metal. I've lived life kind of solidifying what I want to be or what I think I can be. And I do see the impermanence to mechanical and also the impermanence of life. But I do, I like that thought and just staring at her genuinely. She smiles at you and gives you a friendly punch on the shoulder, but it's a little heavier than she means to. No, she can. My guard is down. Yep. And it feels a little sore. Good, good, good. And she takes another, she takes another bite. I like you open to perspective. Good man. Enoch kind of becomes uneasy at hearing good man. She doesn't seem to take notice.  I think that's inspiring. I think all, I think all of what you are is inspiring. Hmm. She nods, yes. And you. And she points to you again this time closer kind of to the middle of your chest. You can also be great like Juliana. She shrugs her shoulders. Maybe you already are. When I come back and I am going to come back, perhaps we can spend more time. She smiles at that and actually puts down like her fork. I like that. I like that a lot too. And at this moment, you hear commotion outside just as the rest are arriving. Dang, nab it. You're ruining my moment. Enoch just get a girlfriend, is that what just happened? I need the world to know that her hair, needles are spills there. Juliana, Juliana is the best.   She's got a lot of attitude in my in my brain. It's all I hear.  It's just hitting that loud sound.  I forgot that I'm sorry. I forgot that I'm supposed to be playing a game here. I just want more Juliana. She's made an entire video of Juliana's motivational speeches and I'll watch it. Yeah. Anyway, all right. So commotion outside. Commotion outside. Let me just arrange all of this stuff real quick. Oh, no, we're ranging stuff. And you all here is shouting in a crowd and someone chanting. And Juliana puts down her fork. God, oh, God, I cannot finish my breakfast with this commotion. And she starts to roll out of the door. Can I roll out? I would have been sitting closer to the entrance. Can I just bolt out, please? Yep, you most certainly can. I quickly follow behind Juliana gun in hand. Yep. Yep. God, I want to see the rapid fire crossbow and actually, I want to I want to make one. Of course, I can't, but I am about to want one. Oh, God, we're going to get a map, aren't we? I'm scared. We are getting a map, and I'm afraid. That's scary.  Aligned. Oh, no. Wait, is that is this the real bitch? Is this the real bitch?   That's a real motherfucker. As far as you can tell. Oh, with your passive perceptions, as far as you can tell, this looks like flesh and blood. OK, OK, I know where I'm going. I know where I'm going. Hold on. Yep, it's time to talk. I am good. Yep. I'm going to I'm going to take a step up to this. We need if I may. We're going to talk first. You may. Please don't shoot him yet. And I stare down at I stare down at bloodstripe. Yeah. Can I bring my dad out? You most certainly can. Right now, I'm going. He is just out to attempt to buy as much time. He just just out to all of you. Ah, good to see you again. I'm glad I was able to catch up to you. And a damn too early of a time to be seeing your face again. You were just seen yesterday. Yes, I was. I was. But that was coincidence. But now I'm intrigued. Are you trying to get killed? Because that's exactly what it looks like you're doing. Oh, but I'm not hostile right now. There's no there's no need to be violent. I merely came to say a few words to this nice little town. Frankly, I could just for what you almost did to a child two days ago.  I'm going to raise my hand and wait for this. We are bound by law in order to put people like you down. Well, you at least not hear me out first. I promise it's just a few words. You have 10 seconds. You have six words. Use them wisely as I raise the gun up to to aim before we begin. I don't believe that you would be here if there wasn't a way for you to get out. Oh, of course, there's a way for me to get out.  That is not a question. That is not a question. I wasn't asking.   You see one human look at you if that's what it takes. I'm doing an insight check on him. You most certainly can. I'm going to do it. Oh, my God, you in site and there's passion in this force. There's belief, there's confidence. I don't feel that then. It's not a natural 20, by the way, but. Yeah, but still, that's really nice. That's nice to see. I'm sure that one of you says this, but I'm going to give the rest of you a chance right now. Can I like you can draw both of my swords to like add to an intimidation tactic? Just be like you most certainly can. I'd suggest you will make the right choice. The last band we ran into, none made out alive. I once again, scream down to bloodstrikes. Six words, Dick Van Dede. Well, they're all doing shenanigans. I'm just going to really quick use my telepathic feet. And I'm basically just going to specifically just tell the Daniel. They are very dedicated to the craft so much so that they are in fact willing to die for it. It will be very difficult to do this peacefully. That's an Irish. Yeah, I think you can. I think the telepathic feet are believe you're establishing a mental connection. Yeah, I'm establishing a connection up as long as I can. It's up as long as I have it up, I believe. It does not give the ability to respond. OK, I cannot respond. I'm basically just like filling you in on what I'm seeing. I'm just keeping a very close eye. Average mind. Yeah, yeah, you think of average mind. Yeah. Sending allows you to respond, though. Yeah. But yes, at what you say, Enoch, Bloodstriar just lifts two hands up, gesturing outwards as if an open embrace. Who wishes to join the spine? And the rest of the. Citizens kind of talk amongst themselves, kind of looking back and forth. And Juliana just stares daggers. You can see that Lancel has a hand on his sword ready to unsheath. I don't suppose my being like, hey, we killed the last group of people while she unsheathing my swords did much. Or do I need to make a check? You can make an intimidation, if you would like. Yes, strength based intimidation again. Let's go. Yeah, we're only a strength. Ah, that's a 10. You can see that a few of the necromancers are shaking. You can see. But there you can see that they are with your insight as well, Renee. You can see that all of them are like holding steady. If it is a question, if it is a question of perception, then I would have those villagers who are doubting themselves know that this cult is responsible for destruction, death throughout most of Belkin's. And more importantly. To you, members of the cult who may also be having doubts, but are afraid to say it. My name is Nathaniel Gainesby, the witch taker wizard of Belkin's. And if you do not leave right now, then I will take you to give me a persuasion followed with an intimidation. Oh, we love to see a king. Persuasion, 19. Look at it. Intimidation, not great. Somehow I feel like those should be switched, but we are where we are. You can see that actually a few civilians are motioning a little bit towards the spine until you speak of what they've done.  And they you see a few of them are looking at each other and they're nodding to each other and they stay solid. The bloodstride says nothing and waits. I want to start approaching. They've had their six seconds. They've had their chance. Luna is going to start approaching. OK, I will say.  And you can see that bones from their helmet kind of protrude out and cover them like armor. Oh, so that's how it's going to be, huh? That's fine. Since I was holding an attack action. Can I put one? Can I just put one in somebody? I'm going to say, is everyone in agreement to start fighting? I mean, if they start, then we will start. I would like to start talking, but that's what they would want. But if they choose to do so, we do. I do. I apologize. It just doesn't seem like talking is going anywhere. Yeah, when you go forward, I will tell like I will yell for you to stop, but that doesn't mean you have to. Yeah, exactly. That's sort of like the same. I mean, if you know that I mean she won't. She will she will stop approaching, but she's not putting her swords away. And Echo Dad is coming with her. You know, are you going to shoot? I hear Nathaniel scream it. Hmm. The armor that they're wearing. Bloodstride had been following all of us after two encounters. I'm sure that he knows at least a bit about what our capabilities are. It changed when you moved forward, which indicates if I'm not mistaken. Bloodstride points to Nathaniel without saying anything, doing kind of like the, you know, the Leonardo DiCaprio like point. Yeah. And smiles without saying another word. You know, I can be pretty strong and you can still hack through it if you're strong enough. I look back at Juliana. She has she has pulled a lever and her crossbow is armed. I would like to ask why you're asking here of our places. Are you just going around looking? He he lists two hands back and forth. It's a simple demotivation tactic and do it here where we are. And we will be less enthused to continue. Ah, so I see you're trying to skip. Pretty bad tactic when every time you show up, I just want to keep fighting you. I. I stare back at Juliana, the people. She she nods and kind of like does a little gesture with her hand and they all start to slowly back away into their houses, into the tavern. You know, I very much would consider this whatever you're trying to do. If it weren't for the fact that you very much don't really care about the little ones around you, that you're basically using as a live meat shield. He gestures to Enoch, tilting his head and kind of moves his hand like over over his neck a little bit forwards. It seems he wants to speak. I mean, it seems he wants to speak because he's doing a gesture as if like like he wants to speak to Enoch like you come here. He was talking before, though. Well, after he said his six words, he has not said a single thing. Oh, I understand now. He's asking for permission.  I don't like him. I like him so much. I do too. But I just saw his and like looks over at Enoch like that, like, are you going to shoot the motherfucker? Are you going to let are we going to talk? I'm I am waiting for as many people to get away from this area as possible. Yep. And the standoff, if that is the case, the standoff does take like a minute or two and he sits there and allows people to to exit or exit the area, go find shelter, go into the tavern, man of honorable fighting, at least. And the location clears of all civilians. Thank God, honestly. The last thing we need is them being able to like. Then we don't need them to be able to get the annual the NPCs. Yeah, let's not. I'm going to start looking at all of these creatures, all these people, the necromancers. You can see, yeah, yeah, they are a variety of different races. You see a few humans, elves, a draw in there and orc and a halfling. I'm less worried about that. Their armor moved with Luna forward. Yes. Now, correct me if I'm wrong. Armor doesn't normally do that. It does. A world perception, if that is all right, to see if there's anything else about them, namely, if any of them have rings that would make it harder for me to do my job. You most certainly can. And that is a natural 20. That is a natural 20. You look over them. And you do not see any rings.  You do remember that looking over them, kind of like Sherlock Holmes visions flash before you, kind of looking over the robes. They did not wear any rings, although right now their hands are covered by bone gauntlets. On the armor move, did it seem like it was something magical to me? Or did it seem? Oh, it looked it looked magical. It extended out like Iron Man suit. OK, I think I think I know what they did. I think player Shelby knows what they did.  I look over towards Nathaniel and I look back down at Bloodstread. I'm going to give you one last opportunity to. Reconsider your position at this moment. If you hand yourself over to the authorities now. I will put into serious consideration that. At least this can be done peacefully.  We are going to have an issue. You may speak. He smiles a bit and he bows. Oh, thank you for being so cooperative and willing to be diplomatic. I love him. I simply wanted to say my piece. Unfortunately, six words is not enough. But I thank you for allowing me such privilege. And don't you do it? He shouts out with Thaumaturgy, Thaumaturgy motherfucker. Village of Rogawood, I am calm in peace, seeking kinship. Necromancy is not an abomination, but merely a natural part of magic, thereby a natural part of the world. I have little doubt that some among you have necromatic talents within you. Look how these people villainize us merely because of a word of law. Any gestures to all of you. Word of law? You think that's why I'm villainizing you?  I call forth any who wish to leave this oppressive toil to join with me. Bloodstride and walk in the path of the Black Vein Queen that you may ascend to her greatness. When he says this, he locks eyes with you, you know. Just looking at Nathaniel like, can I please? Oh, yes, we should all join the Necromancy Guild. It is such a wonderful idea. Such comradery, you know, especially when at the moment of danger or at the moment of testing and hoping that you will come and be there with them, fighting with them.   Oh, Motherfucker. You also told them how you expect them to use scrolls to kill themselves if they fail. You see one of the Necromancers, not Bloodstride, speak up. A small price to pay. An alternative option that with the exception of Bloodstride because unfortunately our I don't think you would take it either way. But our personalities are a bit too different for the store. Those of you that are in the cult most likely seem like there is no. That's why you have the scrolls. And as you said, you seem so eager to use them when you think you can't. So I offer you a different solution. Join me, join my investigation services.  Oh, God, oh, no, no, no, no, no. And a figure, no, no, a figure slams into the ground right about here, cracking the stone path. What is Oh, No. I don't know what the notes is, but I hate what it is being described. I'm panicking. I have two theories and I do not like either of them. And and I don't like that idea. And you see a humanoid rise up as the clouds start to cover the sky as a large armored figure appears. Shit, it's him.  Oh, my God. Oh, I love you. Oh, look at it. It's also done by Kate. This was done by Kate. Yeah. Amazing. Beautiful. Oh my god. Dude, okay. And immediately, the Necromancers start blasting and I'm gonna need everybody to roll initiative. Jesus. I thought I had something there. I still made my health attack, actually.  Yes, you may, once everyone rolls initiative where your thing is gonna spring off the first thing. Okay. Oh my god. You know, I was sitting here. I thought, okay, so if we run into Thorn, I could probably take it. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, he's got more armor than me. Let me see.    The of these. No, I'm so broke. Okay, let's sit here, all right. Luna's not smart. Let her do them. Luna, I swear to God. Okay, I got a roll initiative for everybody. Give me a second. I thought I made one. It seems that I have forgotten to make a token for Thorn, so Thorn is just going to be a square of art right there. That's okay, we like the square. Yeah, it's fine. I can use the square for now. Be a square, see if I care. Oh, look at Thorn, he's not like the other boys. Look at him. Look, Thorn's such a square. I will fix this. I'm all about Thorn. I want to get to know everything about Thorn. I've only seen one image of Thorn and I would die for them. I'm sorry if we kill them. No! Okay. You're not allowed. The first one, the first thing that happens is Enoch, your action springs. What do you do? All right, objection, winging shot, this motherfucker. Which one? Bloodstride. Bloodstride? Okay. Bloodstride casts shield and ping. Oh, motherfucker. The bullet disintegrates and his armor has been increased until he's turned. But wait, I still have my inspiration from... Oh, no, wait, that would have gone overnight. That wouldn't matter. The whole thing was shielded. Yeah, save it, save it for a rainy day. All right, and first stop will be Nathaniel. Oh God, I just finished the token though. Send it over. I put it in the discord. I want them! Oh God, look at them! Look at that! Oh God, it's not perfect, but you know what? Sometimes we can't have perfection. So while you're doing that, I will give the chat something to look at. First things first. Everybody here, let's see, I can only do this with four people. So it's going to have to be a choice of... All right, I bring my hands up and as the lines of pink white energy shoot out, they will connect with Luna, Enoch, Renee, and Lancel. And I will pull them forward towards the fight as I cast my mantle. Oh yeah, let's go mantle. Anything you do. That, that, that, that, I love mantle. Remember your five-temperary HP. Remember, as a reaction, you can move up to your speed. Luna, why would you do that? Yes, you know why I'm doing this. Why would you do this to me? You know why I'm doing this. But I can't do anything now. It's fine. My turn is before yours, you can move, it's fine. I'm gonna just... Yes, put all my stuff as A-O-E. It'll be fine. Huh?  I have missed my opportunity twice now.  And as I back up, while I presume Lancel is moving forward, I will turn to say to him, now is your time to impress me. You see a smile and he unsheaths his sword and runs forward. Justice! And he runs up to this human. Oh, I love him. He's such a good boy.  Oh, he speaks more language. That's a drill, right? That is a human. The blue one is a drill. Oh, well, that blue one I'm going to ignore entirely. Is that a goblin? The yellow, so the yellow means it's an elf. The green one over here is an orc. The light green one over here is a halfling. Oh, it's halfling, okay. So that's a human then? Yeah, the neutral skin colored one, that one is a human. Got it, understood.  Take my amnesty, fight for us. And I cast suggestion. Nice. A suggestion ruined if they take damage. Yes. Yes. Fuck.   Okay, okay, I need to know if that counts with area of effect. Yes. Well, throwing fireball at them also counts. Well, I think it's just like she wants to set herself on fire. Oh, luckily you won't have to worry about that because they make the save. Okay. They shake it off and they shake it off and they stallward and hold steady ready, just blasting at a thorn. Disappointing. And I back up. Okay. All right, this is my turn. Luna, you're right in the thick of things. Yeah, I am. Into the thick of things. I think you know the chain of events that's about to go down, radiant consumption going up. Okay. Burn everything, you know what? Please don't get any closer to me or you will burn too. I'm on range, baby. I can't go that close. Echo dad's going here since I don't think he can move. I don't know. Could you argue he could move to this area? He could, he was like right here. Yeah, I'd say so. Okay, I'll take that flank. Echo dad right there. Burning my action surge to get my action back because creating consumption really should be a bonus action, but it's not. Yes, this bright light burns away at the robes a bit and blood, it does burn away at Bloodstride but he stays there, unflinched. Yep. Bloodstride's about to get smacked or I'm going to a tent. I know he has a shield on him still, but I'm unleashing an incarnation to take two smacks. Ooh, all right. Retribution, 10. Unfortunately not enough. It pings off of this. Absolutely 23. Ooh, that is enough. The first one pings and the other one catches him in the back and he does stumble a little bit but he holds steady and tries to keep, you know, his gaze at you. Yep, that's my turn, yeah? Yeah, actually wait, I have an extra bonus action. I want to confuse him a little bit. Let's switch places with Shadow Dad. Ooh. Bang! This does nothing but it looks cool. It does nothing. Am I here? So am I here.  Yeah, listen. He tilts his head a bit. Oh, fancy trick. Renee, your turn. Hello, yes. I'm just going to go ahead and try and see if I can get some of these boyos out of the way so that is a 20 foot radius. I'm going to shatter these motherfuckers. Ooh, nice, nice. I'm going to shatter them. Hattata token. Oh, that's not a lot of day. I thought it was the worst. That was a very poor roll. That was a very bad shatter. That was a very bad shatter.  Two ones. Two ones. I can do an upwards of 24 damage. And I got six. Wow. I'm so sad. Roll 20. Roll 20, what the? Well, I don't know if it's roll 20 or D&D beyond. Either way, I'm a little bit upsetty but, you know, it's fine. Yeah, a loud crack. Peers, rights, where you point. And the necromancers seem unfazed. I'm so upset. Me, myself, and I are very upset. Well, they still take half damage, right? Yeah, they take half damage, so all of three points. All of three points. I'm doing a really good job, you guys. You guys are chipping away at their HP. Yeah, well, I mean, these two had already taken like three burnings, so, you know, three more damage on top of that is a lot for NPCs. This Boyo or this Boyo? Who do I want to make it easier to convince to murder? Maybe not the one that's constantly taking damage around me. Yeah, probably not that one. Well, this guy just got hit, so I'm just going to go ahead and go, he's going to be fighting that dude, so that's fine. But actually, easy point. I'm actually going to go to this dude and I am going to cast my, where is it? Unsettling Words. As a bonus action, I can spend one of my bardic inspiration and choose one creature I see within 60 feet.  It's like bardic bane. Yeah, it's bardic bane. It's one of the reasons why that bard is like such a broken bard. The next time that he has to make a saving throw, it is going to be, every time he makes a saving throw until the start of my next turn, it's a minus of three. Wow. Okay, well. So, yeah. And I'm going to stay crouched behind this rock where I am safe. Sweet. I forgot to take mine. But also kind of shout out like, wait, I'm talking about a problem? Just like in general, because that motherfucker, whoo, and that's all I can do for my turn. All right. So, next is Thorn in the spine and pretty much everybody else's turn. Speaking of them, I'm so sorry. My radiant consumption damage is actually increased. So they all should have taken four. Oh, that's right. It's based on your level. Yeah, they do take four. I'm also taking more damage from my radiant consumption, so that's fun. No! Yep, they all take four. Yeah, so just an extra point. So, let's... Raise the glass for the level up. So, first one that's going to go is it's going to be Lancel, who takes a sword down, and a big ol' strike down on this human. Hell yeah. And it's a solid hit.  Next is Juliana. You hear a whirling from her chair. Vrrrrrrrr.  Into the same target that Lancel is hitting.  She's so cool. Hey, yo, that's hot Why can't you be like the wheelchair woman? Leave your son alone Two of them are dodged one of them land in the shoulder.  Uh, la la la la la you make another one at the end of your turn Cool. Oh, you are lucky. Then I got another oh you are lucky and these two flanking the echo they both form a uh kind of like bony claws from their fingers and slash and the The echo dissipates, but I guess we can just keep it on the board if you're going to summon it next turn I absolutely I'm just I'll put a like a little condition on him. Yeah, no, I want to see it gone No You're breaking my immersion. There we go.   It does not say anything about sight When a creature within five feet of you makes an attack against a target, would you count that as an attack? It is not they're casting a spell Damn it. So it's not. Yeah, it's not inflicting damage. It's just they're not making boys appear. They're not making an attack roll So, yeah, it is good to know though that yeah sentinel now some spells do proc sentinel if they roll an attack Yeah, yeah, no, no, it's good to know that me being blind or deaf doesn't defeat sentinel I wasn't sure if it was a sight thing or not these skeletons start to swipe And renae and enok you both take two damage They start to swipe at you with their bony claws. That was that was half of renae's entire hitbox.  That's that's I was I know I was saying you were squishy It doesn't even get through your temporary hp. It's fine. I'm fine.   Just wait till we have counter spell on our side Exactly That's all I want. Okay I know I can I know I could do something and All right, I am going to cast my first level spell Expedious retreat Which basically Basically, it allows me to Uh It allows me to take a dash action Uh, you can uh, you basically have cunning action dash Nice for 10 minutes. So it is concentration Turned you into a road for 10 minutes. Nice I believe it is pronounced expeditious It is expeditious, but I like expeditious Expeditious expeditious retreat.  Okay. Oh, it's cool. And then Marks that I am blind And then oh, yeah here.  All right. Show me both attacks. All right, so All right, so Roll for severity The rapier the rapier does go through its bones And the skeleton like moves its ribs in a way that disarms you and your rapier falls to the floor You will need a bonus action to pick it back up My bonus my bonus action uh with my firearm is unfortunately I have to follow through with this attack Yeah, okay because uh Because the only way that I can use this feature is if I make a melee attack and then a firearm attack Action surge does not provide a bonus action Doesn't it? I swear to god it does. I promise you it does not. Uh, I It's not that I don't believe you. One additional action of your regular action any possible bonus action It says it right there. Yes, but yeah, it is saying in addition to your normal action and possible bonus action In addition to your okay, that is worded strange I should not have been able I should not have been able to uh To uh do my switcheroo with my dad, but it doesn't really well. Well, we know we know that now Yep, we'll know for the future. Oh, well, I did not know that it's worded that way because this It's not like a guarantee that you'll have a bonus action to use on your turn But it's kind of dumb because every The way that is written is it very much gives you the indication that you get a bonus action I see what they're going for they're trying to make it clear, but I think it just makes it even less clear Then Then joe if I can make the the right decision to just using objection only then Um Yes, and if you want to pick up your rapier Uh Okay, yeah, no use of the rapier at that point.  I am not shooting at the skeleton. I'm pointing through the skeleton just Just because I know it's a mouth and fired out the back of his head Imagine god as much as I would have loved that but I can't all right, so gun goes Uh, just basically chiching bang and knocks Knocks a bit on Uh on the man and that's all I oh no wait.  Oh, yeah, never mind never mind So that's why I switched to the gun. I'm just using the sword. So sword stays put. Okay. There we go. Uh, are you moving at all? Uh, I'm kind of you don't kind of putting myself as the body between me and In juliana The lady Yeah, Nathaniel your turn. I'm I will take a step out of my hiding spot. Who would like to move Uh juliana speaks up. I would like to move so that I may show them my crossbow at point blank range That's a terrible idea, but I will trust you I'm going to has lancell been injured. Has he been hit at all? Uh a little bit. He doesn't look too bad. He's a good guy. He has been hit by the skeleton same as uh everybody else Um, luna's out of range.  Sorry Luna's also blind. So, you know, it's fine. It's right there. I got you. Yep. In that case In that case, I have my choices. Uh as I walk out from this large tavern I'm going to with my left hand continue using my mantle of inspiration Just spinning my hand twisting all of the wires that connect now with enok juliana lancell and myself Your temporary hp is refreshed and you may use your reaction if you would like to move up to your speed Nice It is still five. So it's not whatever you had before plus five. It just becomes five again I'm still gonna body this thing and then Juliana rolls up to the other side and takes a hook her hook hand onto her crossbow and lifts it up and points it at the skeleton Oh Yes, let me see it firsthand I will accept this She doesn't miss and hit you. Oh, no, if it hits me, it will be the greatest thing ever Listen, he'll be shot through the heart and she's to blame. Oh my god I am now going to look at bloodstride and I will say I don't suppose you're worried about the axe murderer that fell from the sky Oh, no, now I can study it even more With them so busy with my students, perhaps I can get a little bit more information out of them Fantastic I'll help you stay here and I raise my hand and as I do I reach into his mind And I'm going to turn off the part that controls motor function and I cast whole person As you reach into his mind You are you are stopped by a simple snap of his fingers and he counterspells you I'm sorry.  You can't fault me for trying Uh, I'd like your methods. Perhaps we can have a cup of tea when this is over Why not now the tavern's over there and everyone else is preoccupied He chuckles a little bit. Is that your turn Nathaniel? Yes, that is my turn Luna Your turn. You're blinded Okay, I imagine she like puts herself really low to the ground because she can't see so she's just relying on hearing And I'm going to take a back at the person to my left because that's who I remember being there Okay, you may roll at disadvantage All right. Well, good thing. I always have to toggle on for this very situation chat 12 is not enough. Unfortunately you swing in a miss. All right.  He's just gonna Be right there right there in the middle. I just need him beside me to get through this and uh Yeah, Lynn's just staying low to the ground and that's her turn Okay, you may make your another con save to try and get rid of the blindness. Yes 14 that will be enough Your blindness is gone. Okay All right, what you ever want to do is that it's really good to regret it You can see that they're just kind of looking and they're shaking their heads at who they're also all burning They're also all burning. That's right. They are burning.  Oh boy. We're cast in sleep every session. I don't care every session So I will roll my 58 Very nice 21. That's not bad with a 21 only a single person is slept That's fine. But basically like I'm aiming for all of these folks to Get skee rude. I know that there's an elf in there and they're not going to take effects, which is fine I need to know if this boy is doing anything or if it affects this boy The the orc falls asleep Okay, that's right. Does that end luna's blindness? My blindness was already over. Yeah, because luna succeeded the thing Um, the only thing is that on luna's next turn. He'll probably he'll probably just wake back up because he's gonna He's burning, but does it affect any the other boyos or is it just the one? damn it But yeah, the the orc is asleep, but you know while it's asleep. It's incapacitated. So, you know attacks 40 feet of me 21 You are within 40 feet of me.   Oh not as much.  Okay.  No, it's just a saving the next time that he makes a saving throw He'll be a minus two from right. Yeah. It subtracts from whatever saving throw He has to make next so this guy has a minute. Oh wait the one on this guy is gone I get no I guess but he's sort of going to be fighting until he can't fight anymore, which is fine Yep. All right. Um, I also, you know what? I probably could take the The one hit I just don't like being mere skeleton. Yep So I do I prefer not to be around a skeleton. All right. Um, I'm going to move over five 10 20 25 30 I'm going to move over to this side of the house. Okay. You will take an attack of opportunity That's fine. I'll take it. It swipes at you again and you take another two damage Owie, that's fine. I that's not even back here. I still have I still have one temporary hp left.  Oh and this boy.  So first juliana uh Goes to the skeleton hands off good man and you can see her She shakes She shakes her crossbow with her hook hand a little bit and it turns Uh kind of sideways into what looks like a pick and she thrusts it down And crushes The skeleton down its center I love her. Oh my god. I love her Man, you know that's hot. That's that's hot. Yeah. No. No as this thing falls to the ground I'm heart in the eyes I like slow motion Like bones flying everywhere And now enog understands why scorpio is with luna It's the heist This spine of death member is going to rearrange And these three summon three more skeletons. No This one really we really need to get these guys out of the way Uh See here is it not showing up. Okay, I guess I gotta so this this one moves over About here another one appears at your side One appears Uh beside Lancel and another behind luna Luna you are trapped from all sides. You cannot move out of there. Um Actually, no, no, they're diagonals. Never mind Yeah, well, and yeah, no, no, and I won't be for long because ecodad's gonna move. Yep. Yep And uh, they both take a swipe at Lancel and Lancel is taking a beating but he takes out his sling and Throws what looks to be a glowing rock at this elf and He is going to cast Cast tail of thorns as the projectile The projectile hits this this uh elf and it Fires out several other bright stones into these other necromancers Lancel I'm sorry Did you think my child wouldn't be a caster? I'd love your child. I I wasn't sure I'm just being honest. I wasn't sure the question now Is what kind and now uh before this elf has a chance to cast anything thorn? Rushes up once again hovering at mighty speed and cuts it down in a single swipe In half Horizontally this time. So I think we should probably use this to our advantage for now. Yes And uh He's after the necromancers and and not us. So keep doing what you're doing there. You're doing fine and blood stride is gonna look at unithennial and he Says oh, yes, perhaps you should actually go into the tavern.  Will you know All right, let's see. Luckily for him constitution is my worst stat An 11 Is not enough I think I died No, you did not let's see if you can handle eight v eight.  This is right You take 37 points of damage.  Look at him. Oh my god this you can see that uh Lancel sees this no And uh, this drow Will sorry, there's a lot of there's a lot of spine or death members All good. It's all good. Take your time. You got the hardest job here, man I am going to go So Feral this drow. So did you summon echo dad again echo dad is right there? Yes drow is going to With its heavy armor going to move out of the way and uh echo dad has an attack of opportunity If you would like echo dad is taking that attack of opportunity It is my reaction, but echo dad is taking the opportunity show me the attack attack 15 Yes, that cuts right through this bone armor just And does a bit of damage nine damage. That is a decent amount.  Not that easy And uh, oh, yeah the skeletons. That's right. Uh, renai you take a skeleton warrior Okay, renai you take four points of damage. I'm fine with that one. I listen. I'm golden and luna. I'm fine AC 17 Yes, you take two points of damage from this skeleton at a very lucky roll Okay, I'm still fine.  Oh, okay. I just oh my god. If a bard could rage Wait, you need to take a level you need to take a level in barbarian just to make listen just for that one If a bard could rage. Oh my god, I am going to go feral Yeah, uh, you know at the very least or within distance easy. So that's good. That's very good for me After even watching all of that he sees Nathaniel drop to the ground and He takes off his hat and he looks towards juliana. I'm really sorry and Throws the hat to the ground and he's going to walk up to Nathaniel he's gonna pump him Of he's gonna pump him with the It's an awesome art thing Uh healing hands for hit points. Hmm. Is that your bonus action? Which should bring him back up. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a bonus action.  Uh, yeah, you know, that's the end of his action. Oh, oh that was an action Was it all right? We lost joe. Hello We might have lost her out. We do not have joe anymore. Hold on one second. Oh, oh, this is my stream now Hello. Hello. Hello Sorry, so I accidentally mess with something. I accidentally mess with something on the uh chat. You can still hear me, right? Okay, yeah, okay. I accidentally mess with something on my um On my uh little compressor audio thing But uh, okay, so that uh that healing hands that was a full action Healing hands is an action is an action. Okay, and are you doing your thing then?  I understand what's happening here as much as I need to My attention turns to bloodstride And you think that I Can be felled by the every two-bit mage that comes to my way and I snap at him And as I do I am casting mind sliver And that's the that's the runaway one, right? No, that's just the normal damage. Okay So if he fails Then he's going to have A d4 subtract that subtracted from his neck save. Okay.  He reaches his hand to his head.  His head or his hands are on his head and he is distracted My form melts away Leaving only the hat behind What and I cast misty stuff Nice disappear behind these buildings. Oh, thank you for giving him that negative because I'm about to do a thing Oh my god And now Uh luna so your little uh your light goes off at the beginning of the turn And I think we've uh Okay It's at the ends and I'm going to be foregoing the radiant damage because uh, we're gonna do a thing So echo dad is going to take off Go about here As he has 30 feet of movement Uh, I think hold on. Let me make sure I measured that right Now that no just a little one more closer Luna is going to bonus actions, which places No, he will take attack one attack of opportunity moving there. That is yes, he will Oh, you are lucky.  Luna is going to switch places now Fun fact when I switch places with echo dad, it only cost me half of my movements when I still have 15 feet I want to tackle blood stride. I want to grapple him.  I'm trying to keep him from being able to get away. I can do that You know, we can't have this conversation.  I saw you go down buddy. I can hold person. I don't know that Yeah, I casted. I guess it got counterspelled. It didn't work. Yeah, I got counterspelled Okay, I'll write after which So he's got a minus six Yep, come on actually wait. He has to make an athletics check He does this is not a saving throw, which means my mind sliver doesn't count Ah, okay Yeah It's not a saving throw. It's contested athletics Yes contested athletics or acrobatics and guess what he's going with Uh, yeah, acrobatics athletics I'm gonna guess athletics. I am still trying Please and unfortunately he's he simply side steps you God damn it. Okay. Oh, but now he can't move away for me.  It's fine. I don't always do it So my minus two goes away because it's at the start of my next turn.  Oh, all right.  I'm so angry Angy The shatter goes off Thank you. Don't talk to renae Oh, wait, is this one of those that does damage either way? It does damage either way. So echo dad goes away I'm sorry. I'm sorry No, it's okay. I'm sorry about echo dad It's okay. I can bring it back in the bonus section. I'm just trying to get as written as many folks as possible Oh, good. There's no limit to echo dad. You haven't done anything wrong.   He scares me too much I want to know about armor man. God damn armor man. You can't really tell because he's covered in armor But uh the armor is chipped and broken and very very rough looking Oh, oh, you mean thorn Yeah, oh you hit thorn I did hit thorn and maybe you won't notice it was you Listen I frackling sound thorn turns the helmet slowly to you renae Pointed a skeleton say it was him Next uh is the spine of death and thorn And I'm gonna give inspiration to remember that scene in avengers where iron man punched the Hulk and the Hulk just spat out of two You If it means anything to you pointy, she's not with the necromancers keep doing much of doing This guy came from the sky I don't know what the implications of that are We were also pretty explicitly told that he doesn't care what's in his way that he's been like causing a lot of damage and Yeah, I believe our Necromancers like come on our specific orders were like leave him alone because he'll one shot us I'm trying to And you know what he'll say the same thing. We got those skeletons through. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right, so it's NPC's turn Yeah, NPC's turn now.   I'm sorry And another skeleton appears before you uh renais you take I'm coming. I'm coming renais I'm sorry. This is an actual question of which human I see like a lot of dead Symbols they're dying dying the skull. I put the skull to show that they're close to dying Yeah, they're like very close like this guy is dead renais you take six damage from all the skeletons around you That's fine. I can take that I can handle it And I'm sure I could have also taken that damage because I ended my turn near him It doesn't do anything, but I did burn you did sing him a little bit Yep, another skeleton appears around lancell Uh and a skeleton appears. Oh god lancell's getting fucked up next to uh julienne And lancell is going to take one skeleton and throw it at the other skeleton Yes, he grabs it by the leg lifts it up and Bashes it into the other skeleton and they both fall to the ground and crumble. Oh my god lancell Remember that scene from the avengers And this one is going to take a swipe at julienne it does And Yep, it swipes at her cuts into her shoulder and she goes stupid dead body person stop And is going to take her crossbow pick hybrid swipe back she misses Uh, and this one is going to stomp on back over Towards you luna just boom boom boom boom and it's heavy uh bone armor for me And takes both large bony hands and boom slams them into the ground. I'm gonna need you to make a deck save a decks You have bardic inspiration. I do and i'm gonna have to need it. I'm gonna need it.  Don't put that in the air All right with a 13 13 is just enough you You are able to avoid the the additional effect, but you do take uh Five bludgeoning damage as the ground shakes beneath you keeping your legs wobbly No, no, I I did like a little Actually, yeah thorn would have an attack of opportunity wouldn't they? Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't matter. They missed That's okay. Yeah, that's okay. This is the lowest linus. I think bin at all Next Is enok in your new ethirical form you do have control, but someone else is speaking their mind through you Yep And like for your love The the gun almost as as easy as just like pushing through air points at this skeleton, yep And for the damage And don't forget big if he's like this That's uh gradient damage.  Uh, you are not just good man. You are a strong man Oh, yeah, we absolutely need to stay an extra night now at least one night for you. Nathaniel your turn Hunching a little bit from the black bile that I am hurling off of it I take a step out two three four five six I'm gonna grab my hat off of the ground Why did put it back on my head and twist the brim then wave that hand back around as lines of magic shoot out And I cast my mantle of inspiration on luna enok Woman whose name does not have a card so I can't remember it because I'm bad at names Also, I forgot I forgot to take thorns turn after you're done with this. I'm gonna take thorns turn So everyone is allowed to move if they would like juliana actually You do not you do not provoke a talk attacks of opportunity at all juliana rolls behind enok and readies her crossbow It goes back Go back to crossbow form And then when that is done I'm going to not where I want to be hold on. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I think I was there Was I right there or was I right here? Sounds about right sounds right there. Yeah, yeah No, no, I think I want to get closer to renai because she's a little bit in a mosh pit. So, uh, it's fine No, no, no, no Good idea No, no, no because if thorn runs past me I can sentinel stop him And then I will swipe my hand once more And with the largest headache from the blight I look all look across all of these necromancers dancing about trying to pretend like they matter in this story And I tell them all shut up and I asked Sorry, that was meant to be at a higher level. Uh, really? You can throw an additional. Uh, what is a d10? Uh, I it would be an additional d8. I believe It is an additional 2d8 actually 2d8. Okay. You can throw another dude to the 2d8 Let's see if it let's see if this is in fact literally two more health It's eight more health. That's enough to drop Two humans Yes Well, did either of them cast skellingtons? They did cast skellingtons and you know what those skeletons go away Thank god, leave me alone Please tell me some of the ones are tell me one of them. Which is yes And then I'm gonna look at thorn and I am going to shout out matter of factly apicale What No response and I'm gonna wait for a response. No response at all. No response Well, that was a shot in the dark.  What your turn is just kind of looking at him Fuse i'm going to move right here and bring echo dad back Right behind me in between me and renae Okay, and i'm just going to have my sword ready. I want to hold an attack if he tries to move past me towards renae, but i'm just staring confused as to why he He stopped at me Well, you were in a ready stance right to try and stop them on the way Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, yeah technically they can yeah Okay If I can because I think talking is a free action.   I am fine. I would like to look at this person in particular Um, am I close enough to hear the breathing now that it is approaching me? Yes Okay, I'm terrified me as a player me as a character renae is So is there any source any sense that there is a will of a human inside of this thing? That would require a very high investigation check. I would say It's they they'll help you say really high investigation Are you reanimated corks, sir? Are you are reanimated corpse there? We'll see if I get anything. I probably won't let's see, but Good luck 13 You stare you try to look you can see the shine You know what little sunlight that is peering through The clouds do seem to bounce off of something inside of the helmet Oh, it bounces off of something, you know how well, you know when light is on something Oh, okay. So, um, you can see that this is armor on like any you've seen Yeah, that's another thing in particular.  That's why Thorn would have been burned in my aura. Oh Oh, no, would they now? Yeah, I wish I probably need to know that before I move. Yep You uh That doesn't change anything you can see the radiant the radiant aura Uh for me, I'm sorry, but you are also getting burned for damage Yeah for I'm sorry, I'm sorry You can see It's only on the end of my turn. So if you pass through me, you're not taking it The little bits of cloth and kind of armor start to singe a little bit as you stay there luna But uh, the turn remains the same and the action that thorn takes remains the same Okay, so it's they're they're just still staring at me. Yep. They seem unfazed That like extra damage that I got from the skelly boy And uh, so I actually do have to move away from lina just to keep myself from getting hurt anymore. I'm sorry I forgot to take my radiant damage down 10 feet Yeah, yeah, you literally the way you were going would have been absolute just fine.  That's 20 Uh, I don't like being so close But I also don't want to lead it to the panel.  I like to sorry people thinking about my movement But basically I just am like I'm just going to uh You know, I'm not here All right, don't mind me Cool Now the npc's turns the remaining elf and drow look to each other as the rest of their companions are dead or incapacitated And uh, the elf speaks out this is a lost cause. Let's try it as abandon us. We must retreat And you hear from muffled from behind the uh The bone armor of the drow Fine and they both open up a portal as well Step through The battle is over and Thorn stays standing And juliana yells out Be gone thorn There are no necromancers here left for you except the ones on the ground Take your kills and leave Thorn simply looks through you luna directly at renae And turns and and starts to hover towards the incapacitated Necromancers do you take an attack of opportunity? Don't you dare? No, no, but because my plan was that if he if he went to renae I was going to hit him with the management crystal. That was my plan. Ah, okay Is resistant to those is what the yes, but we were told it would not hold him for long periods of time But it would hold we were told it would hold it would give us It would give us a chance to not deal with the crazy axe murderer Literally a crazy axe murderer Yeah, and they take their axe and swipe down at the human Cleaving them into and On the final turn inoc is there anything you're doing?  I walk over and I pick up my hat All right Very important these men and their hats will be combat and lancel looks shaken as thorn starts to hover towards Uh the body And he merely sheaths his sword and takes a few cautious steps back without saying anything You can see he's he's visibly shaken And thorn Takes their axe Brings it down executioner style And kills the last necromancer I apologize, but my curiosity won't be sated until I do this Vagrant No response any reaction Thank you. Fuck.  Renee got spooked.  I told you there are no necromancers amongst us Leave yeah, no, I'm staying hidden.  Are you all right, and I'm running over to her. I'm fine Dropping ready consumption by the way. Good. Yeah. Renee have some have some have my healing cancer now before healing I'm fine. I'm fine. I don't need it. I don't it's fine No, you're not fine, and you're not going to pretend to be fine.   Thank you for the four healies.  This does not feel good And he he lets go and you can see their tears across his eyes Okay All right, I just wanted to make sure I am fine You do not need to worry And before anyone has even another chance of respite someone crashes through the door Of the tavern God damn it and you can see that it's tap water Oh, no, who's got allowed interrupt who's got a gash across his chest. You can see sparks coming out a little bit No, he he steps out. Um, you're about to iron giant tap water. I'm gonna be so Uh, where are my notes And you can hear his voice skitter a bit is is everyone accounted for Oh my god, what happened to you? And he's kind of stumbles to the ground the the protectors came During the commotion broke into the tavern. They they they took mirth I will be all right. I I I simply need some recovery time What which way did they go what direction they do? You And you can hear like a powered down sound and I need rest I am going to quickly run into the tavern and like and I'm gonna and I'm gonna do my best Like as soon as I run in there, I'm gonna take in what I'm looking at Analyze everything and see if I can't figure out what direction they all went in Nathaniel, you are surveying the area. There was a struggle. There was a burst through the window and an attack from the upper level And uh, give me an investigation. Actually, you can use a passive investigation since it's not under pressure Oh, which would be what like 20 24 or something like that? What no Oh, no, no, no, no. It's only gonna be uh, 21 21 Yes, so with a 21 passive investigation You look around there was a struggle Uh, some you can see that there's some potion residue on the ground. There are some broken inventions and It seems the attack occurred in mirth's room. You can see everything is trash.  Sorry not bread. The bed is broken Furniture has been thrown you can see that there's a lot of civilians inside who are hurt as well And they recount you the story of other protectors came in and you know, uh Basically were just grabbing mirth and mirth tried to fight them people tried to help They were not able to the protectors were too powerful and the commotion outside Kind of covering up the shouts, but they also didn't want to fight with the necromancers Is there anything in specific that you're looking for? I ran in with nathaniel Is I specifically want to pay attention to absolution while i'm in the room You're in there and notably absolution Doesn't do anything neither did it do anything when you were fighting any of the necromancers Oh god that kid's going to get themselves killed Uh and uh leaving nathaniel i'm running back outside to find rene Oh also, I assume you're questioning them about where they went Uh and some people were counted that they were heading west Some rumors that they that the protectors have a hidden kind of meeting location Just in the wilderness Right Luna you can heal but can you heal the injuries of all of these people? I've already used what I could on to could today on rene. I'm sorry Don't be we've gone through a lot today. Unfortunately rene is going to need to heal me uh also Might be slightly troubling as I imagine we're heading outside Yep, my sword had a my sword had a reaction to something in in moth's room today I don't know what I don't I can't really Figure out what it's been doing especially really weird lately It was just I woke up and it was vibrating and trying to pull itself against the wall into his room And I asked him about it and he seemed excited to show something to me and inock and then locked himself in the room And I'm assuming that's probably what the protectors are after Does the sword normally move on its own? No But it won't be whatever isn't it that incident when I felt the blade go cold It's the first time I've ever felt this thing do anything. This is just a fancy piece of metal Otherwise, it shouldn't be doing this. Is it the same one that's moving. Yes. It's my father's sword You had rene take a look at it, correct? Yes, and I've had it looked at multiple times. It has no magical properties Then something is affecting it I don't know. I don't know I don't know As we're heading out.  I'm dying.  Do you still have those passions from birth? Yes, I do give me one, please I'll pass one over to you. I'm putting it on my belt. I'm drinking this thing soon Oh god I think I got two of them, right? Yeah, you had a couple of them. No, I had three at three. Yeah. Yeah.  I I'm not going to leave you alone like that anymore. It's just you you're not allowed No, lancel lancel speaks up that makes two of us Thank you. I like you now This is beautiful and heartwarming, but we have a time limit It's also a waste of time We need to move They're going west. We are we're going to save them. Why what else would we be doing? You can see a smile across his face Right. I don't have much left in good and efficiency. You do have a heart Question did I know it's somewhere in there when they were telling where they went did they mention having any sort of Faster means of transportation like horses or are they all on foot? They're all on axe beaks.  Think a chocobo. Think like a chocobo Giant dodo birds.   I'll be fuffa fuffa fuffa fuffa. Would you like another drink? I would love a horse Oh, uh, yes, uh, juliana, uh rolls up Hmm Maybe I will look around see if we can spare Thank you Enoch He's just staring at the ground.  Thank you for getting to him first I appreciate it Yes, thank you You need to find I know I do We're gonna find him Then we need to move now Let's go I'll be waiting. Are we going to wait for horses or are we going to move now? The horses will give us a faster time. All right I'm going to go look around in this room again. I'll be right back All right, I think I'll go with you Interested Ah, you'll be fine. He's fairly good at seeing things except for when you need to Just like I will say luna looks very clearly on edge since you she mentioned her sword doing weird shit Lanza will simply stay by tap water just like Checking up on him. He doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing, but you know, he's kind of Closing what wounds he can Enoch, do you think you could work your magic on on the poor bartender here? This seems like it's your your calling your avenue he uh Tap water lifts up one finger.  Then I'm just going to cast healing word on this Just you know what fine Take eight points Renee what as much as I appreciate the kindness we are showing to the warforged We are about to go into battle. I still have some spells left. It could be fine Hmm. I will also ask if you guys would like to take a short rest before you head out as well. Yes, please Yeah, I got my spell slots back after that was in a short. I don't remember with bars You are not a warlock. Sorry only warlocks, but you can you know get use some of your hit dice to gain hp back I would like to do that. No, I've got I've got so little hp that I may as well have one You're also barred so you can use song of rest Yes song of rest. Oh my god. We need song rest together. We'll be fine. What does song of rest do? Song of rest gives you an additional d6 Is that for everybody or just you guys? It's everybody. It's everybody gets one d6 when they take a short rest as long as they use them to die. Is that per each bard? Good. I believe Yeah, is that per each? This isn't a question that we normally get because bards aren't used as a team. Yeah, they're not used in twos I can't imagine it with stack I mean, there's no reason why it wouldn't. Yeah Song of rest checking right now Begin again It says nothing does not say it does not say anything about not stacking which means it does Ha ha. Yeah. Well, it doesn't matter with me. My goddamn spells hate me today How long does the mantle of inspiration temp hp last? It's probably gone by now Temporary hp will last as long as eight hours Oh Cool. Nice. I am back to full health. That might not be right. I think I may be giving you false information Well, either way I'm back up to full if I should take the the temp hp off if we like rule it later I just take three extra damages. Okay Uh, unless the future that grants you temp for hp has a duration They last until they are depleted or until you finish a long rest. There you go. Oh, there we go Okay, so I just have three extra hp until tonight um Yeah, up to kids room. Sure Okay, awesome. Awesome. So, uh, yeah during your short rest, uh You guys can say what you're doing. I guess in the meantime And by the time the short rest is over juliana, I will say juliana is able to manage Three horses for you. Awesome. That's ponte Uh, cool. Good. Um, oh my god. Good. I hate that.   I'm back at full. Oh my god. It only took all of your days I have one left. Actually, I should have rolled my song to rest one sec.  All right. We're good here. Awesome. Uh, like I said, I'm I'm probably fruitlessly going around, uh, marth's room trying to see if my sword starts reacting again Because that was weird. No, it doesn't she can see her getting like increasingly more distressed as she can't find it But you can't find what's setting off looking around the room You do find parts that look like kind of wooden limbs Like like a puppet and they're about like small like a small humanoid size and they're broken apart and You see bits of hay here and there How was he trying to do? I am gonna make my way up to marth's room Think by the time you come up luna's gonna be walking past you It's nothing up there nothing Maybe a skilled eye Be my guest Yep, I enter the room and I am going to look for anything that is particular To my understanding, especially when it comes to art of the sea roll an investigation with advantage I think it was advantage because Looking around I mean it just looks like it could be some kind of doll it could be just a sculpting project Some kind maybe an art piece Could I come to a conclusion on this just as Aaron? Yeah, you can as your own conclusions I think I know what he was trying to do They by the way, he was trying. Oh, I think I know what they were trying to do. They were trying to make a mechanical servant Merth is probably trying to sell the potions in order to make money in order to build this and That's where my conclusion comes to because it's not Out of my wheelhouse to make that assumption given my class Yeah, yeah, yeah If you feel that if that's what you know assumption Yeah, if that the conclusion enoc comes to then that is the conclusion that enoc because you saw what in pieces So you like robot Well, I'm like he is your apprentice man. I think I think you you understand or they are your apprentice. Sorry There you go. Yeah. Yeah, I think that I think that uh, you might be onto something there, mr Yeah, so I I exit the room Is there anything that I could possibly Maybe Use or take from this mess With an eight, I'm gonna say that a lot of this just looks like junk You can still take the random bits of debris and add debris into your inventory if you would like A child is gone, still do things Is there any alchemist concoctions on the floor?  This is apple cider Yep. No, that's just that's just his Or their preferred beverage stands straight up Is there a mirror in the room? There is you know it's standard With the rooms Squint back at the reflection once more Before trying to leave the room No response this time I wouldn't expect you to And begins walking down the hall and gaining up the rest of the group. Okay.  No, I'm not going to be alright Honestly, everything has kind of been turned upside down in my world right now.  Oh my god. Jesus.  You need the balance of Determined a little bit angry But you're thinking things through I understand this is very difficult. I understand this is very stressful But you're not doing this on your own I understand that it is a lot of a lot of problems going on in your head right now But I want you to understand you're not facing this on your own.  You're right. You're right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Don't apologize. Listen the develop those are valley feelings. I just I need you to feel them and then we need to go in the sense of if you state I don't want you to stay stuck in them Right, right. Yeah, it'll be of no benefit if you are right. You're right Thank you She just nods The smile.  All right, all right Julianne comes up with the reins of the horses. You know, these things are ready to go. Thank you. Good Ah fantastic You will have to share there are only three I can spare That's fine I can take someone or Somebody else can take someone.  I can ride with someone Uh, you see Lancel speak up. Perhaps you could ride with me miss Renee Could give me time to get to know you a little bit. This is a terrible idea This is a wonderful idea. I will ride with Lancel. He hops up on one of the horses, which I do not have a token for She's not for the horse too. So I guess Nathaniel is riding with Enoch then that's fine And I'm getting on a horse I reject this idea as much as possible. I'm sorry. There's only one horse left. Do you want Nathaniel in the front with me? Who's the one that has the cowboy hat here? That's me. So I'm taking this horse Okay, do you do three horses again? Do you want Nathaniel near the one who burns everything around her? I'm just taking my own horse. This is my Wait, what about lovely juliana? Oh, is she coming with? I don't know. Is she I must tend to the town many hurt that makes sense and tavern broken I must mend also tap water is too good Must not let employee lose life We'll try to come back as soon as we can. I respect an employer that gives a damn about her employees Thank you. We do what you need to do as an employer. I appreciate this Tap water you get four time over time and she drags him kind of across the grass as she rolls back into the tavern avoid I'm under under my breath. Okay. Maybe that's a bit much and then I'm going to turn to lancel And I'm going to I'm realizing that renais is just going to be on this horse. I am going to Gently put my hand on his shoulder and we'll say are you ready prepared? I am Oh good And then I will grab the collar of his outfit and pull him closer I'll say do you remember what we talked about last night?  He's got his own horse. He's on his own horse.  I'm going You know what fine fine. I do not care. I'm not going to make this an issue Enoch front or back pick one. I don't care I'll take the lead I I hop on the on the front end and I crack Yeah, I crack the uh I crack the reins as as hard as I can and We are we need to go off quick. All right. Yes, off we go You follow along the path with your incredibly high passive investigation Nathaniel you're able to find the tracks following feathers footprints the smell of rum and dirt and alchemy so you follow along Into some secluded woods away as uh, that's you know It takes a little bit of time just tracking And you move a little bit slower than you would have to keep up with the tracks And it starts the sun starts to set of it as the sky turns in orange and along the way Lancel is just kind of making small talk whisperings to you renae and uh, it's like Good I'm curious. I don't see him out working all the time. Is he normally this uptight? I mean, he's normally uptight when he's back at the office, but No, no, listen, usually it's far worse. This is actually Nice to see him relaxing and doing something I've never seen him react like that I've seen that plenty of times Really? When? Ah Hey, look at that. Wow. I've never seen the horizon so beautiful. Oh Witch taker, I assume we're getting close Hmm, please tell me we're getting close. He's very terrible at small talk I sure hope so Is anybody doing anything else along the trip?  He's hiding something. Oh, yeah He's a terrible average. He is a terrible liar What that is Knows, but he's trying to just changing the conversation. He's looking away. Do not speak Do you do you lancel? I have taught you this. What did I say when the police ask you questions?  I love the conversation with your son.  It's a map. That is not the right token. Let me get rid of that. That was before I A proper token for mirth You get within range and you can just see that mirth is tied up to a tree. You can see that they've got bruises And cuts across them Where's my child? They are right there and you can see The uh earth genasi that you saw yesterday was talking with juliana And she is uh Just kind of looking through his pack Smiling and you can see a bunch of other tents and you guys can put yourselves at the bottom right over here Okay, cool. I am so angry potion The oh you actually uh took a swig of the random potion No, no, I want to know what the duration is on it because I want to have it prepared.  Yeah, he didn't tell us how long it'll last.  They said that they just want someone to test them out. They they make them powerful No, I'm doing it. Got you. Got you. Then yeah writing this down for myself again We are about to get an altercation. I would like to drink potion, please Okay, I am I get off the horse and I'm briskly walking towards that All right before you do luna you take a swig of the potion. I'm gonna need you to make a d6 roll Oh, please be poison. Please. No, please be poisoned. Why do you want me to be poisoned?     Yeah, she's like this is as good a time as any who wants to help Mercy their experiments live I will take one and down one everyone who wants to down one roll a d6 I only have three so that was luna inock. I have one more If you would like it, you can have it.  I don't know. I think it's just determining what Yeah, I'm I'm being facetious in agus. Yeah You should give the last one to lancel Oh, yeah, lancel's here. That's right.  Uh, yeah, uh, he's like, uh, do I That's it's completely up to you so far two out of the three have been good Oh, nothing then should and he takes one and there he is there. Yes It's one of math's potions as he's drinking it Uh, he goes like as he raises as he raises it you say one of mirth's potions and he stops Actually, you know specifically waiting for I was specifically waiting for him to drink it like start drinking it before Oh, okay. Oh, so it's too late now.  I'm having the rest of it. All right So, uh, yeah, renae, uh, you can also roll the d6 All right, sounds good For for that would be intelligence your intelligence gets plus two To all I am a smart girl You have this is a big break now this last 10 minutes Cool.  You can I'm gonna move and enoch was yeah enough with the stepping up, right? Yeah, I'm moving behind the tree. Actually, I'm gonna move over I unpeel as I go. Yeah I would like to follow up behind oh my gosh I would like to follow up behind enoch as a added muscle and intimidation I'm saying And actually, yeah, go ahead and roll in intimidation right now. It's like showing up randomly Objection is drawn out and I am going to just step up to the earth genasi as uh, you don't get quite there You get here.  That was a warning shot I'll show you a warning shot. Where did where did that come from? You can give me a perception. Where did that air?  There'll be a giant yellow outfit's not that will be a nine.  I'd like to summon echo dad right behind her No, no All right, you can With Right now he's just like running her hands on her face. Just like oh These two He's not doing anything. He's just there Uh, okay. Yeah, and uh, he's not doing anything. I can't have him do anything. She she lifts one hand up And goes Oh, the warning's not for you and you can see several bows Reach out from the trees and all aim at mirth Guess what? I'm holding a healing spell.  Are we I think that is not a group who calls himself the protectors You should do a really shitty job at protecting things Oh, but we were able to manage to grab them Just before any necromancy harm could come to them. Hey Oh, yes.  Good job. Look. What is it exactly that you want? Just a little bit of payment for our protecting of this little town What exactly is the payment that you're trying to get that was very little protection Oh, oh just a a measly 150 gold pieces for this morsel fell just one person Uh, you don't think they're worth that much. She like looks over at mirth. Yeah, she like looks over at mirth like Mirth's eyes water a little bit and their their lip quivers. I I shoot I shoot eye daggers at renais just look Look if you were doing really a wonderful job, you would have grabbed far more people and would have made much more money Oh, but I think I I think I can make a lot more money Because this little snugums Is a necromancer Aren't you? My heart drops. Would you like to repeat that?   There's only one book in this entire country That's one book that we hate we hate learning Mirth, I want you to answer one question. Did you acquire it? Or did you find it? Did you seek it or did you just stumble upon it? That's going to determine the outcome Give me a charisma check. I will if you just found it We're not going to come after you and if you sorted out We're still not going to come after you yet, but I hope you have a good reason perhaps Okay, you say you say this to mirth and tears start to Cover their face and snot drips down their nose Right, I'm mirth.  They look at you teary-eyed. I want you to remember What I told you earlier today honesty It means everything to me and for the past 24 hours it seemingly Has been the goal between us is to be honest One engineer to another will you be honest with me? They sniff and they nod Did you Look for that book or did you find that book?  Hold on Hey, hey, you know, listen, we can all be very very reasonable here Look, I actually believe that this can be solved Very peacefully. Look, I have some coin And I would be more than happy to give it to you. All right I am going to cast this one spell That I have not been able to actually do in a half minute I need to reread it first to make sure that I'm getting exactly what I want So, let me see. I just got to make sure I'm reading this right Yeah, but now I wish I hadn't drank in the spell or the potion, but you know, um While while you guys were having the conversation Lancel is just like Keeping an eye on the tense. You can see his eyes darting around and he Sheathing his sword ready Um I am going to take out I don't have a lot of shit, which is not great But you know, I don't need a dagger. I guess Um, I'm going to take out my dagger because I don't really use it a lot anyways, and I'm going to cast distort value I'm basically going to Yes, um turn this knife into a very very fancy looking like custom made Dagger with some pretty little jewels in it with your dc 14 I prayed a guide Cross my heart You uh See the earth genasi just like looking it over Her eyes is glazing. She's like twirling it in her hand Hopefully she she extends a hand and does like a like a comey air motion All right, and I will slowly walk over there still drawn all at mirth Yep, that's why while they're distracted by rene Would I be able to roll perception to see if I can't figure out how many of them there are and you most certainly can Okay I will remind you my passive perception Is 19, but I will roll normal perception anyway to see if I can get higher than 19 Click I do not I'm I'm wasting my time getting over there.  Okay. That's not a 19. Um But And I'm just going to put human tokens for now. I'll uh determine what they are you see one here here Here All right here Oh my here. Oh, Jesus christ, please They're in all the trees my one weakness range attack Oh Jesus christ and Here You can't tell you can't tell what they are but they all have bows drawn and they're all in that mirth Like as rene is like spinning the knife in her hand She's like it took me a very very long time to acquire this it is Very valuable. I'm sure I could get thinking about it 500 gold Then you are incredibly generous And with a whistle all the bows are redrawn. It's just a dagger to me I much prefer having a lovely conversation Redrawn means Pulled back into the trees.  I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just want And she takes it I hope you have a wonderful day and she pockets it Of course I've Listen all these people with their fancy weapons and oh gosh, all of them.   Are you sure about that because that she was one of my family? uh, lance will just kind of steps up and uh, speaks. Oh, are they all right and uh Merth is just crying into your shoulder. You know, I'm sorry Please can we just get out of here? We'll have this conversation And I pick them up or pick them up and I look at luna Can I please borrow the horse lance will speaks up you can ride with me miss luna That's fine So So now what you're going to continue terrorizing this town Listen if they all smell so they'll take that to a beautiful market and just take the golden run We'll simply Find wherever our job takes us She puts two fingers into her mouth and whistles and out of the out of the tents Are several axe beaks That spry up Uh, I'd like to approach her. I put my swords away, but I am approaching. Yep. I swear to god Let me just make something very clear.   We'll head back in the morning I don't know if that's necessary, but oh no. No. Yeah, you've got time to like maybe have a chat before you Okay, I was under the impression it was already nighttime. So no no no five minutes We don't need to break camp. We're five minutes there even if we tell you for three hours We'll just walk to camp. Yeah, exactly. Okay in any case I On on this horse right back. I'm definitely having this moment with And as we're going down back to ruggawood why I I'm I'm not much of a fighter And the other schools of magic just don't they just don't come to me in the same way and Sometimes I get in trouble finding the right ingredients I need and you see how most of ruggawood is Towards my experiments. They they wouldn't even give me the minute of their time. So I I kind of have to make my own help and and honestly some of these spells are very useful Blight can dry out herbs that I don't know. No, no, no, no, no I didn't ask you I'm not asking you To explain to me I'm asking you To give me a reason why I should not have you arrest you My god, you know, they they they look down and their child They they sniff I don't know Because I really don't want to I I see it I see something bright. I see something smart. I see something different They reach into their pack And they pull out what looks to be a small wooden box kind of like a foot across you uh This is what I wanted to show you And they drop it and it turns into a construct a humanoid construct And it's about like four feet tall It stands up and blades extend from it from its hands I was trying to make Something to help protect the town The what now? It's a modron It's a modron Oh I get down on one knee. I hands on shoulders please This is what you're supposed to do this never ever dabble in such poisonous ideals and dreams of necromancy I beg you but Necromancy is what allowed me to make this Excuse me The ingredients that I use and the incantations that I make and Some of the inventions as well I'm able to learn from necromancy how to do them better I I don't I don't know it's just I I'm not proud of it Who gave you the book? Uh a strange man about last week And uh you see lancel pipe up the necromancer I ran into The same one from today uh No different different one It was he uh, they look over to lancel. It was that one that you fought lancel I didn't get a quite quite a good look at their face, but they would traveling alone before they attacked that cart they They handed this to me as if they knew somehow and uh let me see the book Yes, and lancel goes to grab it with shaky hands and the glove falls off and you can see that They have black veins from their fingertips Renee's face just scrunches up Sorry, sorry, and they quickly go to put the gloves back on This is why you shouldn't be practicing. Look what it's doing to your body. It's it's just all visual. I promise. No, no That leaves a mark on you Did you see that thing that fell from the sky? Felt that every necromancer he came across What would happen if he saw that you wouldn't stand a chance My heart sinks a bit more at that statement She's right. Can't You've learned what you've learned, but you cannot keep doing this. This is going to get you killed whether your intentions I I believe that your intentions are good and pure, but Others are not going to see it that way I Keep looking into mirth size mirth We are creatures of science and magic We are A lot of things There are ways To get around This sort of thing and pointing at the construct There are methods we can find In order to protect others doing the exact same thing without burning our blood And that is why I started To actually like you as my friend Why I wanted you to be my princess Because we can find a better way a smarter way and As much as I do not want to do this as much as I You know They can still go another way. This doesn't have to be a defining factor Remember that As a matter of fact While you are higher at vigilantes I am I am an official If we could let you not finish first.   I thought that you were going to pull that thing off Yeah, no 13 No response They've hurt their gaze And they sniffled down and they hand Nathaniel the book Nathaniel I just would like to test something. That's right Oh, you could just hold the book out Uh, I want to see if that's what absolution was reacting to You can make me an investigation Luna doesn't have any idea what the hell's going on with this shit Meanwhile, I would like to Oh my god The word mirth says that they use necromancy to learn and create constructs They were working on something this morning.  They say nothing Don't look at you. I'm not going to be angry. It's just helping me fill in a blank They nod without saying another word Now that explains that My sword reacted to this this morning Thing nearly flew itself into the wall to get into mirth's room I look at mirth one more time I am however bound by the wall Are you not a vigilante?  What is this therefore? Mirth as per your punishment You have to going to turn me in As per your punishment You are to remain in rugged wood Continuing to help the people until I return for you Some of the tears clear from their eyes You are not to perform necromancy You are to continue to make your alchemical and brilliant concoctions And you are to continue to study on how to create constructs without the art of necromancy They wrap their arms around you and fall By the way Matthew should keep burning that potion it made me feel fantastic I didn't get to use it, but their faces is buried in enox jacket And I I rub their head and I say court is adjourned All right, and Nathaniel you look into the the book and you find another paper Of course, of course we do. Yeah This one notably is labeled fall whereas the other one was labeled winter Oh Yes, so this happened before the winter one Animate dad and blight Did it? Year 131 fall I've managed to become fairly attuned with what is quickly becoming a favorite school of magic of mine Reanimating corpses has resulted in some extremely efficient assistance in various tasks so far skeletons and moderately decrepit corpses are as harmless as the summoner wills them to be Unfortunately, the summonings have upset locals who would have guessed Bringing back someone's loved one in a vegetable like state would elicit a negative response That's all the rails Renaissance summoning grounds and put out a request for volunteers willing to donate their deceased loved ones In the name of research I'm very intrigued at the possibilities of further experiments. We'll write results out And abby stop doodling in here. This is an important thesis for sake of record keeping and future discovery not a sketch And then in a different writing presumably abby's But all the papers in shandy's office are office is spelled wrong are full of battle tactics Inquititions and combat strategies in crititions Besides you can't stop me. I know all of your hiding spots and then a doodle What year did you say that was? I'm sorry. It's season season. Sorry fall. So between the papers we have gotten we have one from summer One from fall and now one from winter of the same year. Yes I would think that the person who wrote this assuming it is cara is actually quite analytically minded I think it's fairly obvious. It's car. It's car.  Where in the world is cara maharian?  You've run into him before multiple times Yes, he first of all we met him inside of an underground layer that he had constructed or found whichever It was a sewer system Exactly an abandoned one, but still a sewer system Exactly and I had impersonated a member of the cult or at least stated that I was one Which told me that bloodstride is not working with cara maharian officially or else they would have recognized me as clearly not being a member They asked where my uniform was but he did question if car that he did question when you said that cara sent you So clearly they know of each other clearly Clearly bloodstride knows the car And the car the black veined queen. Yes. It's a positive. I'm sure that doesn't mean that he isn't just using the name Or using her name I'm not sure they revere her some sort of to say the black veined queen is watching seems like they're Revealing her as a sort of deity figure or ahead. I don't think that I'm pretty sure they're working together It's fairly easy to follow something if they have a god behind them.  It's only been a couple days But for me, it's been like five weeks Right. What are you trying to remember? so I I cannot remember exactly what he was saying when I mentioned kara maharian But I said that I was working for kara that first day that I met bloodstry. I remember what he said Yes, he seemed surprised, right? He said He said kara sent you and then acted as if he had no idea what you were talking about because she didn't tell him Exactly someone so clearly they have some sort of a communication line. Exactly the implication was that he is Somebody underneath kara. Yeah, I would like to roll something To get a better idea of what he might have been thinking in fact that is going to require a very high I think retroactive insight um I have one bit of bardic inspiration left. I'm smacking it at you most certainly can Smack it at you take the bardic inspiration. Take my inspiration. You can in fact I'm wondering If it's possible That bloodstride is an alias of kara Their hair colors aren't the same though kara's hair was kind of red You can dye your hair You live in a world made of magic You can dye your hair I'm just saying The herbo is coming out That and also hair I I'm sorry. We we don't just live in a world made of magic. We live in a world made of wigs Okay, in sight with your bardic inspiration go Okay, I'm gonna use my inspiration Roll that inspiration Your actual inspiration I need to know Well, this was worse This was worse. Oh, there goes that inspiration. This was not better.  Good try You have bardic inspiration A d6? I believe it is. Yeah, it's a d6 D6, bardic inspiration We're not gonna go far Wow, it's a 14 14 All you can glean from your memory of what you saw of him was that he was genuinely confused in some way At the thought that you were sent By car by car a maharian And then he was angry when you held up the book that we believe belonged to car Yeah, he was curious How angry do you believe a person would be if you held up their diary? I mean while while this whole discussion is going on you can see that Lancel is like pointing fingers like drawing on an imaginary chalkboard and looking confused and not following along at all Listen, this is way above your pay grade You're lucky you're in the world We do not have time to slow down. You speed up. We do not look backwards only forwards I really don't think they're the same people.  Why would why would he have disguised himself for us if he didn't know No, I mean when you straight up said that you were when you very pointedly said I am one of your members if they recognize you as the witch taker of belganess immediately Then I can't imagine she would have let that bruise go on for so long when When bloodstired looked genuinely confused when you commanded his minions Cara would know about you. I'm sure so why would she let the witch taker Do all that take out half her forces. It just doesn't make any tactical sense I think we're overthinking it for for the night We should probably just head back to the city as soon as possible As I said, it's only a theory and you're the one who asked about it. I was I mean, it's a it's a fascinating theory and thank you for sharing it. I just don't think it's a correct one Perhaps but yeah, we should get back to regular wood All right I think the little one needs to get some rest. What are we going to do with that thing? Like rena is looking at the little The little necro machine with knives. Oh, yeah Yeah, she's like what's all we're going to do with that? Oh, uh, just simply, uh, there's a switch on the back All right, I will be brave enough to try and flip it. I don't think the squishy needs to go up and flip it It just stands, uh, at salute at you And just stands still straight up and it is it is four feet tall. It's pretty small It's made of wood and you can see that there's a switch on the back you flip it and Like a crank comes out like extends out from a other part And you turn it and it goes back into being a wooden crate I don't think you should keep it How what pieces of necromancy were used to create this box? I, uh I I'm not proud of it, but um, I studied some skeletons that I raised to Study the the automation and and you know where pieces go and I Sort of reverse engineered because they are very useful But I know like running around with a skeleton is this kind of you know, some eyes are going to look at me So so I made a wooden skeleton instead. Obviously it doesn't look like a skeleton, but you know So I used that Raising in order to understand how to put the parts together But the actual animation of this thing the mechanisms that are making this thing move is not necromancy All are all regular old non necrotic magic Well, it sounds like you could have gotten to the same flash But it sounds like you can get to the same conclusion with a different method though A flash of genius just went through my head. You are not raising skeletons No Why would you think I would be the one to do that? It was right there I have all people I I know I know it was right there though. Listen. Let me have my joke Flash of genius however my my reaction is genuine anyways All right, uh, yeah, no the the gears begin to turn in the head On how to do this As long as it's not necromanic and yeah All right So you guys are you guys gonna head the rest of the way to rugged wood then? Yeah. Yep All right, you do and it's about nightfall by the time you come back and you can see that Tap water has been pretty much patched up. You can see that there are like Kind of wooden braces all along his side and stuff and some bandages Oh, I just remembered something I Walk up Tap water. I hope you wouldn't mind me It escaped my mind earlier I thought I could do something a little bit better than this Ah, what is it mr. Enoch? Well, uh, I do have a way to kind of Well close those gaps a lot better if you wouldn't mind me doing some of my fancy work By all means it is horrible to look at in the mirror. I must look my best I use mending. Oh nice Yeah, I use mending in order to fix uh fix tap water Yep, you can see some of the pieces on his chassis just Close up. They're very small kind of Fist size gashes and such Ah, thank you, mr.   No, but we found some protectors and I probably would at least recommend uh upping these defenses a little bit around the town You know just because uh, they might get a little bit pissed. She sees you see Enoch raise a hand.  You do not know what really is What is it Enoch We did run into a necromancer and you can see like uh Merth grasps you in the back like of the jacket Please please now however I have performed my duties as a member of the order of the gear and they have Been sentenced properly And from this point on they will not be performing any more necromancer activities within this town And I tip my hat Give me Actually, I'm gonna roll for two months instead I did not lie. You didn't lie that you omitted information. It's a live omission It's a live omission. I'm rolling to see if she's going to ask She does Were they a part of the spine of death? Did they come with that group? No, they are not Good, let's hope it stays that way I smile at Juliana Me too I'm tired and I want to go to bed Me too. I'm going on a walk I Have work to do I'm gonna go into the tavern. Uh, Lancel kind of grabs your shoulder for a bit Uh, which one would who? Uh, Nathaniel. Sorry. Okay. Could I uh, just make sure joined you and help out If you would like to see it Yes All right Am I staying up or am I going to bed And do what you would like.    She's agitated She's going to go and find the nearest uh open field and spar with her echo to get some aggression out You would like you can just uh Roll me an attack real quick. Uh, just a normal attack. Yeah, just one attack.  She's pissed and she it's like she keeps getting more pissed and she can't figure out why You fight and fight and fight and fight until suddenly the echo Stots during one of your swings And just stands there looking at you I think that like it's like she's about to go in front of their head and she realizes that it's not following her command anymore And she just kind of stops and stares at it the hell And one of its hands rises up to your cheek And just brushes it gently She's kind of frozen at this point Uh, she she stopped moving. Um, because this is a lot to process And then the echo disappears into a smoke Yeah, still there dad I'm Not sheathing absolution.   Just like trying to comprehend everything. That's that's it though. Next is Renee. What are you doing?  She's just like decompressing like getting ready for bed Might have asked for a drink that she could take upstairs because just Uh, he's calmed down. Yep.  There's one that stares at you One with a very familiar silhouette Um, how familiar is familiar? Familiar familiar Okay, this shape is one that you have seen a lot this body type is very Very recognizable Okay I am going to down the rest of my drink And as you down it When you when you do and drop the cup from your eyes the figure is gone now He just starts rubbing her eyes That's that's enough And so she's bad actually she's shaking Oh, baby But she will try to keep herself calm take a few more breaths and just Lay in bed Like turned away from the window But probably make like before doing that making sure the window is closed like a lot barred Close the curtains It just turns over And lastly Nathaniel you And lancel sitting at the tavern Spirits are low Sorry, I'm going directly to mirth's room. Oh mirth's room Lancel, uh, just kind of following you Uh What are you doing? Well, I expect that mirth is going to come back here eventually and in addition to The strange necromancy that he was performing he stated that some of it came from his work or was used in his work I would like to see what you all drank a potion recently I'd like to know if that had something to do with necromancy Hey, by the way Sorry. Yeah, I'll get Ah, I see Um, I'm not comfortable with this. I will wait downstairs for you What's uncomfortable about it? Well, given my experience. I don't think most people would enjoy other folk rummaging through their rooms Without their permission Well, that's well firstly that's what locks are for change your locks secondly I need to have a conversation with mirth and I'd like to do it free from the rest of them if you were here I would be very grateful. I would like a friendly face because this conversation is going to be less than friendly not threatening nothing like that, but The child worries me I'm worried that they are going to continue And I don't want that to happen for their sake Likewise I imagine this is happening while we're like in the hallway just to his room. Mm-hmm Likewise I nearly died today. What would you have done if that had happened? He looks down And no response comes out It's important that you have an answer someday because it might happen. This is the dangerous work Bloodstride is the consequences that you inherit. He looks up to you and opens his mouth, but no words come out If not him and somebody else And I'm not going to dissuade you from continuing this adventurous work that you do If you tried to dissuade me Or if my father had tried when I was your age It wouldn't have worked either That is our strength is that we persist But You know, I did not die today because you are the witch-taker of balcony No, nothing so pompous. It is because there was someone standing next to me It was an Enoch of all people But normally it is Renee for that exact purpose And you are traveling alone. You may have Gallivanters following you around, but that's not the same as having a partner Or having a system of people. So I am going into Murth's room I'm going to check on all of his things And I am going to make sure that he does not intend to continue necromancy. They Sorry, and I'm going to check on all make sure that They do not continue necromancy Because I want you To keep them on that path Very well And if Murth decides that they want to go out into the world because they see an adventurous young lad that Is being a hero or some such Then perhaps you will allow them to go with you And then you will have a partner and I won't worry so much This is acceptable Are you saying I should stay here? Or go somewhere else Oh this is your choice and I think I need to It's your choice and I think that keeping you in balcony is proper is Not good for your health any longer. He has a little Smile and his shoulders lower in relief Oh, thank goodness. Oh, you saved me so much trouble father.  I didn't buy good locks Would you go into Murth's room like me to stand at weight or join you? And do what you would like. I hope that you'll take from me and Learn how to investigate rooms Even friends have secrets Very well Do you I don't expect to find I don't expect to find anything incriminating But you can never be too sure and if I'm sending somebody to Be attached to you in any way. I'm going to make sure that there isn't a danger post And then I'm going to go do my thing Look on in and the room has been pretty cleaned up. Are you looking for anything in particular? No, just general scavenging scavenging around you can see Just as proposed some of these uh, you know like with passive Arcana you can tell that some of the ingredients were indeed blighted. They were not tried naturally Um Some of the ingredients are blighted. You do find, you know crushed bone marrow as part of some ingredients presumably You know coming to conclusion that they were from raised creatures uh various different uh Potion ideas notes on experiments a lot of them scratched out a lot of them failed And as you're investigating through you And renae and inoc all here from your rooms allowed Low boom And you hear lancell's voice I run out you run out you see you see lancell is at the end of the hallway And you can see that mirth has a hand in hand With bloodstride and they look to you with tears in their eyes I'm sorry and they walk through a portal. That is where we're gonna end today's session You stole the boy you stole the boy This is what you get Mirth mirth walks through the portal with bloodstride and that is where today's session will end I trusted and that was a mistake