The camera
pans down from the sky of
a warm sunny blue sky day with nary
a speck of cloud in the sky
upon the
boisterous and lively tower fall
as people go to and fro rushing about
doing their business,
whatever transactions
they need to accomplish to suit the day's
needs and
hopefully not be hassled too much by the
northern tower full
guard. And we pan over to Ebora.
Ebora, if you could please go ahead and
describe yourself.
I sure can.
So I'm not rather,
imposing figure as most people say as I'm
standing just close to 8 foot.
I'm a firbolg, which is just means that
I'm akin to the giant. Not quite a
giant, but close enough. I guess depending on
who you ask, that means a lot of
different things.
I'm
a older woman, you know, but don't ask
my age because a woman never tells.
I've got white braids, so the tips are
pink because I like a little splash of
color now and then.
A bit of a darker color to my
skin and I like to put all the
color everywhere else so I've got, you know,
my herbs here on my belt and a
couple of potions in case you need it.
And also always have a bag of tea
ready for
calming someone down or amping someone up depending
on what they need. Oh my god. Please
tell me Evora is a quilter.
Oh, well, I I dabble.
Oh.
Yeah.
When I've got the time. We venture down
onto Evora as she is bustling about the
streets of Towerfall.
Evora, what is your, what is your normal
day to day routine in Towerfall?
Oh, well, it really depends on the day.
I'm not one that's too beholden to routines.
You see? I like to go wherever the,
you know,
mood strikes.
But I tend to stop at the shops
in the morning, pick up what I might
need. I'm a bit of
a helper around town. You know, I run
a little apothecary and
help with healing ails and
listening to problems and giving advice.
So I've probably stopped by the shops this
morning and said hi to a few people,
and then said hi to a few more,
and probably forgot what I was doing.
Usually, I gotta go back out once or
twice.
Just about coming home now.
As you are,
just about heading home,
you start hearing screaming behind you
and running.
And despite
and despite it being
a cloudless
blue sky day,
it
it the sky seems dim like it's been
blotted out by clouds of undetermined
origin.
And as you turn to see what the
screaming is behind you,
you see gaping voids in the sky
where tentacles are flying out of the sky
and,
pulling people up. And as they're being pulled
up,
there is,
you're you're watching their bodies
dissolve to almost ash.
I think I'm will I'm gonna give a
little scream,
and rush a little faster towards home. Okay.
As you're rushing faster towards home, a rift
opens up the part of town that you're
in and you see many tentacles fly through
this rift.
And as you're run running, you're watching people
to the right and left if you get
pulled up off their feet.
Which direction are you running, by the way,
to the east or west?
Towards the east.
You're watching as these tentacles slam through buildings
and and rip people out of the ground,
and you hear as one just narrowly misses,
snatching you by the ankle as you're running.
And when you go by past the,
side street to where your home where you
would normally turn to your home as you
turn up up the hill, you just
the town has become anarchy. There there's fire
everywhere and people are panicking.
But, yeah, your street is has been completely
destroyed by
whatever calamity has befallen your this country.
I'm a I'm not gonna make this decision
for you, but do you wanna go check
your home out, or are you gonna keep
heading
where are you gonna go?
I think because I'm standing there.
I
well, I want to go home and check
on my husband and son, but
there's definitely a moments of pauses. Everything seems
to be destroyed, and everyone's running, and it's
just so loud. And, you know,
I'm I'm a tall person and I'm kinda
loud myself, but it's a bit too much
and I'm I'm gonna start running with the
crowd. There's no real distinct direction where they're
running.
Because there doesn't really seem to be any
there doesn't seem to be a safe space.
Roll,
wisdom
check for me, please.
It's a 17th.
Okay.
You get the idea that your best chance
of surviving the situation
is to go where
there is I mean, based off of your
observations of how things
function naturally
is your best chance of survival is to
go where
whatever this thing is hunting is less plentiful,
and it appears that
people are what's on the menu.
Yes. I I think I'll
pretty instinctively head towards the sea since that's
what she's most familiar with and what she's
used to looking at out the window of
the house.
You start heading towards
the ocean,
being as you're on the southern part of
Northern Towerfall,
you find yourself out into in the,
more taboo parts of the town
associated with funeral rights.
Right? As you see a, goblin
pushing a small makeshift
raft out onto the ocean
and starting to,
paddle kick his way out away from
the island
of Towerfall.
How big is his raft? He lays on
it. It seems to be about the size
of a human door.
Oh, so there's room for 2 on there
despite what people might do.
Alright.
Squid for the alley oop. I am I
am gonna give you inspiration.
I can make these kind of references all
night, baby.
I am going to give you a dive
inspiration for catching the joke I was setting
up and so thoroughly putting it into that
basket. That was Oh, thank you. That was
fantastic.
Don't let go of me, Tombo.
Won't let go.
Okay.
Well, I think
there will be that moment of,
perhaps
wisdom said to come here, but it's perhaps
the fight or flight instinct that says I
need to be where it's safe,
and that seems safer. So I will kind
of call and just wait. Wait. Don't wait.
And then try to,
take over his raft. You can't hear him
over the the you can't hear him over
the bedlam behind you, but you can see
that he's gesturing you to hurry up if
you're getting on.
Yeah. So you hustle and grab onto the,
side of the raft and kinda dip it
down into the water as you pull your
large body up onto it.
As,
Tomball comically grabs the other end of the
raft and hangs precariously
over the water as you situate yourself.
Begin to paddle yourself away from the shore
as you just watch what can only be
described as the apocalypse unveiling onto the world.
And as you aren't paying attention and Tomballk
is getting a little bit antsy behind you
as you're,
watching these tentacles from the sky. I think
I think I just stopped paddling too and
I'm just watching,
kind of
holding on to this door and watching it
all
fall apart quite literally. You hear and Tom
Bolt gets increasingly more frantic and antsy behind
you as you hear.
Little guy.
Now turn to look at him. He's no
longer on the
Old and old. He's no longer on the
door,
and you
Oh, buddy. You see ripples in the water
where it seems like something may have just
entered the water.
Okay. This is fine. It's all fine. This
is fine. Everything's
fine.
Okay.
Hello?
Buddy? You guys still out there?
Hello? And as you say that last peep
of a hello,
you feel
a suction cup about the size of a
dinner plate
encapsulate your face as you feel your body
fly into the water,
and your eyes fly open.
And you you wake up from a dream,
and you remember, oh, yeah. I'm in
I'm in Peravah now or the outskirts anyway.
And it is a warm
summer morning.
The
it is actually the beginning of the summer
festival
as we pan back
and say welcome to campaign 2 of playing
games with strangers.
Don't nobody know how the life would go?
If you listen close though, you can hear
the dice roll and the characters narrating everything
as they go. So let it go. Let
your imagination
flow.
We pan in now
on a small
gnome
as he enters into the town of Perv,
Fenwick.
As you come into this large town, you
see
as
as the, sun is cascading over the top
of the distant mountains,
you see
as local merchants are beginning to set up
stalls
and,
streamers and brightly colored
ornamentations
across
the main drag going down
through this sprawling
city, that still has a somewhat of a
rustic rural feel to it as the,
the houses are tightly packed together, but there
are still a lot of trees and foliage
throughout this that gives it that nice woodsy
feel that you appreciate given your
given your chosen lifestyle.
But as as you come in
yeah. Lots of colors and sights and smells,
some savory, some sweet, but
it it it it does become apparent that
there is a large festival that is underway.
And I'm very interested in this because
it's it's all new. It's all new to
me. Brand new.
It's
I'm experiencing this for about the first time.
I've I've been here before but I was
a wee little child and now I'm a
wee little adult.
What's,
what what what does Fenwick look like for
the,
listeners at home? So Fenwick's about 3 and
a half feet tall.
He's tan. He's he's got a very very
tan
skin where there's no clothes,
under the clothes is very, very white. Very,
very white.
His leather trousers,
sleeveless jerking that he's wearing wearing,
leather boots, but he does have a leather
sleeve on his left arm and a glove
on his left hand.
These are not really armor or anything like
that. They're there for reasons
that
if you if he trusts you he'll tell
you what the reasons are. He's got pointy
ears or a pointy ear. His right ear
is fine but his left ear the point
is is gone
it was lost in a
long ago incident
and he carries 2 swords
on his back
one that he never touches that's all black
and looks very nefarious
and the other is just a normal sword,
he also is coming into town leading not
riding on right now but leading
a Hippogriff named Hadwin that has no wings
and so it has that
everything about the the Hippogriff is is fairly
normal except that there are are no wings
on this beast,
so it is just walking behind him very
very calmly and
actually not as impressed by all the sites
as much as as much as, Fenwick is.
Okay.
And as you are,
leading this hippogriff into town
and taking in the sites. You get norm
normally when normally when you're encountering,
what would be a
what could possibly
be a social situation, you have a you
have a tendency to be a little bit
more mindful of your griffin
as people have a tendency to get the
wrong idea
of his nature.
Yeah. Hadwin's nice. Yeah. He he he's he's
a nice he's a nice beast. He doesn't
he doesn't look for trouble. Momentarily,
you take your eyes off of him as
you are taking in the sights, and you
hear
a
crunch
behind you
in the approximate area of where your you
had last spotted your griffin.
Well, I definitely look over there.
What?
Hadwin?
You see your hippogryph
pawing
at
a broken clay pot
inside of which there apparently
had been a dead field mouse. And as
you we retract further Rule an arcana check
for me, please.
Okay.
So,
19.
Okay. Yeah. You reckon you you're looking on
the ground, and it what initially struck you
as possibly being graffiti, you're starting to realize
was somebody's
setup
to a,
arcane incantation.
And they are not currently around to have
seen what had happened.
And as you turn and look at your
hippogriff, it is starting to choke down
the dead field mouse that was in the
clay pot that had broke like that. That
win. That win. And so I do step
over. I do try and, like,
rip his jaw.
I can't because I my hands are too
tiny, but I I I try and grip
his jaw and and and force force that
beak open.
I And and anybody who anybody who has
ever owned a dog knows what I'm about
to describe.
As you start to go for its mouth,
try to force its mouth open, it starts
to choke it down even faster because it
knows you're coming, and it wants to get
it swallowed before you can get to it.
Edwin. No.
No.
Edwin.
And
I I I'm I'm still struggling with the
beak. Now I've got hit the beak under
my arm with one hand on the top
part of the beak, the other hand on
the bottom part trying to pry it open,
and
I'm assuming
not very successfully because
the mouse is probably not too not too
large for him to snarf down. But
and as you are doing this, Cas,
Liev has charged you to assist with taking
supplies out to his stall in a in
his part of the festival.
And as you are coming out to set
up Liev's stall,
you see a gnome
that has a hippogryph in a headlock.
Yeah. I I take the supplies that I
currently have in my hand and I'm like
watching this happen as I slowly can like,
maybe not with a lot of urgency
walk away like I'm pretty kind of entrained
by
this is something you don't see every day,
and I set the stuff over in Leo's
booth
and turn back.
Excuse me.
Having an issue with your pet there?
Yeah. I I I I'm just he's he's
he's eating something he probably probably shouldn't be.
I've now shifted my body. I am actually
straddling his beak now,
holding the top with my hands, trying to
pull that up toward me, and my heels
are on the bottom part of his beak
as I'm trying to just pry that beak
open,
hoping
beyond all hope that that mouse is still
in the mouth part of his body and
not in the throat or stomach part of
his body.
Was it was it poisonous?
I don't know.
It came out of that that that pot
there, and
I I can tell you right now that
that's not a good pot for
anything to come out of.
Okay. We can check that out. If
no offense. But if your if your pet
happens to vomit, you will need to clean
it up as we are preparing festivities,
and I can't have anyone
walk in it. No worries. No worries. I
will take care of any and all mess
that my hippogryph is responsible for.
Okay. If you need any supplies to clean
it up,
the
in over there, snapdragons,
hoth in right there, that you can find
me there. Okay.
Thanks.
Yeah. Kaz, go ahead and describe yourself real
quick for me. I apologize, Dave.
Kasmus is a 6 foot 2,
tiefling with pale purple skin.
Intriguing,
beautiful, wonderful,
yellow eyes,
and,
currently
donning,
commoner's clothes,
as he works in a tavern. Also, his
horns
are cut short intentionally,
and he has his head,
pulled back
in locks that are
black,
graying, and has a silver streak that runs
all the way through.
Alright. So
we're gonna pull back out and then come
back down again. And,
Ebb Yeah. Would do you have any intention
on seeing this festival?
Oh.
You have been in Peravah
for the last 50 years. Yeah.
I, you know,
I never miss an opportunity for a good
festival.
Okay.
Zeline, would you be going with her then?
Yeah. I'm I'm not staying by myself anymore.
So the 2 of you are heading into
town to the festival.
Jura, during the morning of the festival, what
is your intention?
Jura has spent the night at an inn
on the mainland, which he hasn't done for
some time. He usually keeps it to a
few hours at most.
He is
looking
aggressively
for a young man
who is
moving quickly and has particularly loose fingers.
So he is looking for somebody who is
following and putting eyes on other people and
trying to steal for them from them. Okay.
So as you are coming in
to
Peravah
because it would make the most sense that
if you're looking for that, you're gonna be
checking out the festival.
Mhmm.
Jura,
you come across a firbolg and a high
elf traveling in the town, which is
it it kinda strikes you as an odd
pair.
Do I recognize
any
iconography,
regarding Irelia when I see Selene?
Make a religion check.
It's an 11.
Gotcha.
I will say with an 11,
it seems like you recognize the iconography
that she has on her, although
the style of what she's wearing seems a
bit outdated.
And so you
it it's familiar, but you don't
know what specifically it is.
Okay.
So when we get to the festival, you
just gotta stay close. There's people everywhere. Right?
Don't want y'all getting lost in the crowd.
I won't be going anywhere away from you.
I would love to just
is hold cans weird? I have an No.
I'll hold your hand if you like. I'm
also real hard to lose in a crowd.
I've already lost someone, so I'd like to
not do it again.
Yeah. No. No. We won't be losing anyone
else. Don't you worry. We can maybe find
him too. Would that be nice? Yes. Or
do we not want to find him? I
can't remember.
Well,
it would be nice if I found him,
but I don't know why I lost him.
So
Well, that's the way it goes with a
lot of people. You know? Sometimes we just
don't know and then they're gone.
Jura, you overhear this conversation
watching these 2.
Zalene,
go ahead and describe your high elf self.
So next to Ebb, you'll see, a high
elf
with a fair complexion and very long blonde
hair, abnormally long,
for the way most women tend to wear
in in the style.
They're dressed in,
just older religious robes
with a sash that does have the crest
of Aurelia, which is a golden sun,
a moniker.
And then, she does have with her
For some reason, she's carrying around a frying
pan.
You never know when you need to cook
a meal.
And Jura, as as as you guys
are walking, you encounter Jura as well. Jura,
go ahead and,
describe yourself, please.
You would easily mistake him for one of
the many fishermen in Parva.
It he's tremendously
sun beaten,
thin as a rail, but very wiry. You
can tell that he has strong powerful hands,
from years of manual labor.
If it wasn't for his dress, which consists
of a set of overlapping
black cloaks, which are coated in some sort
of,
sheening,
shiny, reflective substance, almost like a rain jacket.
He wears a large, wide brimmed hat,
and underneath it, there is
very long, stringy white hair.
And you would assume he's
quite
old, but his stormy blue eyes belied out
just a little bit. And if you look
right at them, they are vivid and vibrant,
with the life of a much younger man.
Is that him, Saline?
I'll lean down, but Ebb still talks loudly
enough to probably hear.
No. What? No. It's definitely not. It's much
much younger.
Okay. So we're not look okay. Much younger
then.
Hearing this distressed,
young
woman,
call out for somebody who has perhaps abandoned
her that maybe might match description of Juris
Quarry,
he will
move a little closer,
Very politely interpose himself.
Excuse me.
Yes?
You said you're looking for someone. Yes. Well,
we didn't actually say that to you, but
yeah.
We are though. Well, I Well, yeah. We
are. Of course. I happen to be from
the shrine of Tanaris just off the coast,
and I am looking for somebody who is
about your age. My age? Perhaps you might
Mine or hers? Two different ages. Here.
Hers. He's looking at Zelene as he says
this. Oh,
not me? I would hope not me. I
don't know you. But
who are you looking for?
I'm looking for a young man. He's
quite a
pretty
young fellow.
He's pretty young or he's pretty and young?
Both, actually.
Like a pretty young thing. Indeed.
A charming roguish type, I would say.
He made off with,
something rather important of mine, you see.
It was my heart. I was gonna say
the same thing, and you really took it
right out of I was alright.
I
you're looking for
a a man who took something from you?
I I do believe that is the summary
of what I have just said. Yes.
Well, I I am actually looking for someone
too.
Yes. I do think that's why I initiated
this conversation.
Maybe we could look together.
Well,
I don't know about that, but
will he seem nice?
It's Celine.
No. Pardon me. I don't mean you any
disgrace, sir, but But look at him. I'm
gonna have a little moment for a second
here with this young lady. He seems like
an I mean, there's people at the monastery
who kinda look like him, but they're nice.
Dalene, we can't just go trusting all the
strangers we meet.
Just because you knocked on my window, it
doesn't mean everyone's window who you knock upon
is gonna be a nice person.
You gotta be careful. Well you don't know.
Well I don't know. You don't know either.
Unless you just say hi. Are you a
are you a nice person?
That depends.
Usually, especially nowadays, I would say so. Oh.
You know, I have seen you before at
the festival. Me? I forget your name. I'm
so sorry. Yes. Well, I'm Ebb, Abora,
or mama Ebb, you know, whichever one you
wanna call me. She's very nice. I, you
know, I do think I've seen you at
the festival before.
You run an apothecary in town. Right? Yeah.
Well, not in Piravah, but, yeah, just outside
in Lynn Grove.
A little towards the coast. I see. Yeah.
Lynn Grove? Yeah.
Interesting.
Is it? Yes.
It's been a long time since I've been
there. Yeah. Not many people come. It's pretty
small.
Well, no. I, every once in a while
I bring fish and I collect tithes from
the few
followers
for the shrine.
For who
now? Sorry. I'm not very in the, you
know, praying type. No. Of course. I my
name is Jura, and I maintain the shrine
of on the Isle of Tanaris just off
the coast. And actually, you caught my eye,
young lady.
Well, please Hold on now. What are your
intentions here, sir? It was nice to meet
you.
No. You misunderstand me.
He looks and very formally presents,
himself and says,
surely we can hope he'll return home to
you sometime soon.
And bows his head,
Who's coming home to who now?
Selene also bows her head
back at him.
You're a priestess of Aurelia. Yes?
Yeah. Yeah. How did you know?
Have we met? Oh, well,
no. No. No. No. No. We've never met.
We just have a loose affiliation,
I believe, religiously.
So we we haven't met, but we we
know each other?
In a manner of speaking.
You could say that the arc that guides
our lives is connected.
Okay.
I didn't
I don't like studying,
so I don't know how that works. But
I'm
oh, nice to meet you.
Eb, you hear a familiar voice in the
back of your head as that conversation comes
to that cringeworthy
end,
the familiar voice goes,
he's the catch.
But he don't know about that. He's talking
about a lot of religious things. I will
say this in my head, not out loud.
Yes.
But he is intelligent.
Well, there are you know, there are a
lot of intelligent people out there. That doesn't
mean they're all catchers.
The capacity for wisdom and intelligence
can be genetically
passed. Yeah. But they're not mutually exclusive, and
sometimes they don't show up in the same
people.
In fact, I find that often wisdom and
intelligence don't go hand in hand.
Keep an eye on this one. Well, alright.
He may be a suitable
mate. Well, I don't know about that for
you.
It could be weird, but I could ask
him.
If you say so,
dibs.
Don't worry.
Go off, girl.
At the end of that conversation, Jura will
squint a bit at Zelene,
in a way that says, did you understand
anything I just said?
Sure.
Well, my question
originally was
this young man,
can you describe him for me? I'm just
wondering if we're talking about the same person.
You see, he's taken an element that's very
important to the integrity of the shrine.
Well I don't want to.
He was really handsome
and really sweet and just really kind.
And
darling, can you come up with some meaty
words that are descriptive of visual effects instead
of emotional ones?
But but when you look at him, he
just he just is. He's
that's exactly what he looks like.
Well, we got a lot to teach you,
honey.
Don't you worry.
You said he's very kind.
Well, I thought he was.
Ebb is just shaking her head from behind
Zelie, just like
Dura
will smile
kind of sheepishly out of one corner of
his mouth and turn back. And how did
she, how did you come to lose him
then?
What well, the the other night, there's just
there were so many people
and I I don't know what happened, but
he just wasn't there when I looked beside
me.
Real quick, what is the formation by which
you guys are walking?
I thought we were stopped. Or are we
walk I think we stopped. We stopped walking.
I think we stopped. Okay. He came up
to us.
I think
Chura probably clocked,
Ebora's
fairly defensive
response to being approached
immediately and is giving a very respectful distance,
but he's probably standing across from them. Okay.
Well,
that's interesting because I was,
giving him
a place to sleep,
food to eat, and
I also turned my back for a moment.
There was nobody around. There was just the
2 of us, and he was also gone.
And he was also handsome and kind?
Devastatingly
so.
Although, the kind part I might withdraw as
he did take one of my lifeboats.
Do you have more than 1? I do.
I didn't see it. Well, then it's not
not too rude. It's not kind, of course,
to steal things. Don't steal things, Selene. But,
you know, at least he didn't leave you
stranded. So that's something.
Well, I
perhaps he had something of
incredible importance. You never know. Maybe he came
here. To leave someone else? People have all
sorts of reasons for flitting about. I just
want to have a conversation with him.
As Jura says this, you guys hear the
loud shriek of a Hippogriff
followed by a male shriek afterwards coming from
more centrally in town.
Oh, well, that doesn't sound so good.
Would you guys like to walk together?
Sure. Maybe that's him. What was that?
I've never heard that sound before. You know,
I've never heard that sound before, and I've
heard a lot of sounds in my life.
So I have heard that sound before.
Oh, well, why don't you lead the way
then?
Selene's gonna just start walking towards the sound.
Alright. You come into the town, and you
see a Hippogryph
leaning forward towards a gnome who is
on the ground,
prone,
leaning back on his elbows
as he's looking up into this gaping mouth
of this Hippogryph as it's standing over him.
Can I,
just kinda
use speech of beast and leaf to talk
to this Hippogryph and just be like, you
need to calm down there, buddy?
We're in the middle of a town. Can
you not eat that little fella?
Is that a is that a role thing
or is it it just happens to you?
So I can just communicate in a limited
manner with beasts and plants, and they can
understand my words.
In its own
weird way, you can you it kinda communicates
to you, like, you're misunderstanding
the situation.
Oh. Well, I apologize for butting then. Carry
on.
Are you okay down there, fella? So I
stand up and now because his mouth is
open, I just
reach right in.
My arm, my left or or right arm
just goes straight in. My head is inside
his beak. It maybe even looks like I'm
I'm doing some sort of a Siegfried and
Roid, but
a guy I'm just reaching down
and just like, come on. Give it back.
Don't
it's gone.
Actually, at right as he says it's gone,
the Hippogryph cocks its head back and tosses
this gnome back into its mouth.
Oh. And then but it starts making this
jerking motion with its head and you hear
this
And then well, it kicks up a gnome,
and the gnome is holding on to a
couple pieces
of a dead rodent.
So close.
I'm gonna just repeat my previous question.
Well, I I'm not doing as good now
as I was when you asked me before,
but I I I'm
You are doing better when you had a
hand in its mouth? Well, I I wasn't
covered in his saliva.
And Well, I suppose that's true.
What are you doing? Would you like a
handkerchief?
I just yeah. That's a little handkerchief. I
don't know if it's big enough.
Zeline,
as you say, what are you doing?
And you lean forward to look into that.
You trip over a piece of broken
clay pot on the ground,
and
you fall
onto
what looks like to you graffiti.
Why don't you make an arcana check for
me, please? Can I check it as well?
You can as a react you can as
just a reaction for understanding the situation, but
not for reaction as preventing what's about to
happen.
I got a 5.
Okay. Yeah. It looked like graffiti to you.
Nice.
What what did you what did you get,
Abora?
Oh, I have 13.
Oh, yeah. You're you're looking at a botched
teleportation
circle. Oh,
that's not good.
Apparent apparently, someone was, powering
it using a,
life pot that had been broken.
Whatever was in the life pot is no
longer there. Kids will do anything these days.
Okay. So, Zelene,
unfreeze the moment now that you saw saw
where you were landing.
You hit the ground pretty hard.
And as you open your eyes, everything is
in black and white.
Oh.
To the rest of you and Cas, this
happens right as you're carrying more stuff out
past the weird guy wrestling the hippogryph.
You watch
as
this blonde high elf hits the ground.
And as she hits the ground where either
some of you recognize the a spell versus
some of you don't just see graffiti,
the flesh fluids, fats, and everything else outside
of
her clothes and hair
are teleported
off of Zelene as she lands on the
ground and begins to push herself back up.
Essentially, what you see is a closed skeleton
with blonde
hair.
So, yes, Zelene, as you look up and
everything's in black and white, you see some
fairly
unexpected
looks on the faces of those who just
watched you trip.
Where do the colors go?
Oh, well,
Adorlin, I don't mean to alarm you. Why
don't you take a seat for a second?
I'm already on the ground. Yeah. You just
stay right there.
Don't move.
It'll be alright. What happened? Well,
that's a good question. Can I cast detect
magic, please?
Yeah. Hey. What's going on here?
She fell into a botched teleportation circle. And
without the,
without the life sources
the life source to power it effectively,
it only teleported
everything except for her skeleton and her
Oh. To somewhere.
Well, you know, I'm stumped.
Is this an illusion of some sort?
No. I don't think so.
Are you
sure? She seems unharmed.
She does. But, you know, it seems as
though.
Do you know what these symbols are?
No?
I I I kinda do. Jura, if you
wanna check that, go ahead and roll an
arcana check.
15.
Yeah. You you figured out what I have
already described.
No. So it seems like,
some things have happened.
Yeah. I can't I can't see any colors
anymore. And that that's, like, the best part.
Oh. And Well you're starting to you're starting
to realize you can't smell.
In fact, every time you breathe in through
your nose, you know that feeling you get
when you breathe in some really dry air
in the wintertime and it just your sinuses
just dry out super dry and it just
hurts?
That's what it's like to breathe in through
your nose right now.
Zelene, your name was right?
Yes.
I think you're alright. Just,
Thank you. Keep it here for a few
seconds. I'm going to tell you a quick
story about something much like this. Excuse me.
Did you did you just say that this
young lady was all right? Because she's definitely
not all right. Oh, well, you know, we're
working on it, I think.
He's gonna tell a story about somebody getting
hit in the head by a canoe and
losing their color vision for a moment as
he,
hopes that
Ebora figures this out before Oh, no. His
lane looks down.
Oh, so so it'll come back?
Yes. It always comes back. It always comes
back along with everything else. You'll be fine.
Okay. So
the smell,
it'll also come back. I can't smell. Congestion
in which summer festival Oh, it's not congestion.
It's like it goes right through.
Well,
Pauline could do strange things to the sinuses.
I've seen it on the sea.
I just lean over towards the Fenwick and
Kasmus and go, do you guys have, any
ideas? Because I'm stumped. You know? I that's
something.
You see, the salt gets carried on the
air, and it just does all sorts of
strange things to your senses.
I recommend
keeping her away from mirrors for a little
while.
Just Pooping out. For a little while.
Would you would you care to go
to the end? We could clear a room
out if need be. Would be real. Maybe
for privacy. Good.
Okay.
Well,
does anyone
have a pot with something dead in it?
Maybe that would help
to get my smell back. I have part
of a mouse
here in my I'm sure we can find
a pot. Yeah. Is this enough?
I've got a hind leg and a tail,
Little tough to fur.
Do we have any idea of if, like,
putting back something dead and or, like, destroying
the circle would help this
situation?
Roll Arcana.
That's an 18.
You examine
this circle of teleportation
and how it was set up
and how this,
how this,
life source
was positioned and what what kind of pot
was used and and all the intricacies of
the spell. And best you can tell,
the way the circle was set up is
it was using a life form
from
the location it was sending to.
So if you were to deposit something from
Pariva,
you
would go to some place in Pariva.
Oh.
So wherever this animal's from is where,
you know, other things have gone?
That that would be the most logical.
None of that helps me to fix this.
Okay. So I think what we need to
do
is find out where this circle goes to
and then we go there and then we
just pop her back in. Yeah.
What circle?
Oh, the circle on the ground. Don't you
worry.
It'll be fine. We should take you over
to the end. Maybe have
Do you look on the ground as she
says the circle on the island's going graffiti.
As you look down where your hands are
holding you up on the ground, you see
skeleton hands where you're expect to see your
own hands.
Oh.
But then I, of course, move
away from the skeleton hands.
They follow you for some odd reason.
We should go now, plea I think. Why
don't we get you Are these a blanket?
Oh, wait. Are these these are my hands?
Yeah. I'll just, like Wait. Relax. Arm around
her shoulders and As as Eb says we
should get you a blanket, you realize you
no longer feel hot and cold. You no
longer have that sensation.
What are the statutes for necromancy in Parva?
It's generally frowned upon. Yeah. Jura's gonna,
stand as close to the skeleton as possible.
So we don't look like a bunch of
degenerates.
She's Ebb's just gonna use most of her
body to, like, pick up Selene.
Start moving us towards the end.
But,
yeah. Well, wait. You know what? We're gonna
get you fixed up. I don't have a
tea for this, but I've got other things,
and we'll figure it out just like most
stuff. So I grab Hadwin's
harness and say, this is your fault. This
is all your fault.
I would volunteer you to be in a
pot if you were small enough to be
in a pot. I didn't love you so
much, and we
follow along behind.
I rush hurriedly
to the inn,
and
get the door open
and, Lea,
we have a situation.
You might need to man the desk for
just a moment.
Oh, oh, that's the least I can do
that.
Thank you, sir. You see another furballg,
albeit
this one is of the cow face type
as he comes towards the front.
In the meantime,
who's making up the rear of the people
going into the inn?
Fenwick.
I'm I'm behind the the trio.
Can this be the inn that Jura spent
last night at and he just hadn't had
a reason to speak to Cas yet?
Okay.
He'll be kind of surprised as he gets
taken back to his own lodging.
Real real quick, Jira, before we start diving
into that. Fenwick, I need you to make
a
what what's your passive perception? Let me ask
you that. My passive perception
is
12.
Awesome. So as you are starting to go
towards the end, you take a quick look
back just to see if anybody saw you
guys around that area to know, you know,
because you you do feel like,
you do feel like your, Hippogriff may
be responsible for this situation. So you wanna
know how into it you really are. He
is.
I don't feel that way he is.
Right.
So you you turn to look back to
see if anybody else had noticed you guys
making your quick exit from that scene,
just in time to notice a,
drow
walking back over to his,
area where that
that circle was at, and he he stands
there. He looks confused, and he starts looking
around as he's holding a sign saying, come
visit the lost Pan Purdue.
Pan Purdue.
Okay.
Hey,
everybody.
I think I know where it went.
I have an idea.
Oh, where where what went?
By in it,
I mean, the,
outer
meat shell,
that's not helping, is it? What?
There is a choice of words.
I I well,
the thing.
Yeah. You know, keep going. The stuff?
Yeah.
Pan Purdue.
Pan Purdue. I I've got an idea
because that guy has a sign.
You have an idea because he has a
sign. Look at the sign. Look at the
man.
I look at the sign and the man.
Look at the sign and the man. There.
Suddenly,
as spectators begin to hear this gnome shouting,
look at the man. Look at the sign.
As you watch as
they're watching as this gnome is pointing at
this
black skinned elf
and
pointing him out to the other characters in
front as he is
staring aghast as he is being,
for some reason, ostracized by this crowd of
people
for being there.
This does his sign have anything, like, connected
to
these symbols or
You don't see any symbols on there. All
it says is come visit the lost Pan
Purdue. Have I heard of this Pan Purdue
before? Go ahead and make a history check.
Can I also make a history check? Yes.
Anybody who wants to try to recognize Pan
Purdue can make a history check. That's a
19.
Okay.
It's
a 13. It's a solid 7.
19. That is a 9.
Why would you know these? I've read books,
I guess. Why would I know? Anybody anybody
who got above a 10,
because this would be
standard
school
stuff. Anybody who got a 10 or above,
you know, Pan Purdue as a legend that
is taught in schools,
common to this area of the continent of
Pandaria.
It tells of a mystical city
that exists in the distant mountains that only
appears once a millennia for a week
and disappears
for another millennia.
Oh, yes. I used to play that when
I was a child.
Yeah. I think we all did.
Yes. I didn't. I didn't.
I I played it. You are still a
child.
No. No. I'm not.
I'm 18.
It's
festival poppycock
tourism business. Hey, lady. Can you hold this?
And I hand,
Ebb
the the harness of my Hippogriff. Oh, sure.
And I march over to that guy with
a sign.
Oh, just going over there. Okay.
Zillane,
as you're watching,
this
gnome march away from you as he's handed
the reins of this hippogryph off to your
friend,
you hear a kind of a clicky clacky
sound coming
from
you,
oddly enough. And as you look down, you
see the,
hippogryph kind
of sort of mouthing on your femur Stop
that. Like like you would expect a puppy
to. No. We don't chew on our friends.
You cut that out right now.
That's my leg.
Yeah.
You realize you'd you had no sensation of
pain when that was happening.
I can't feel my leg.
I'll just take a little rash and out
and feed the Hippogriff so it doesn't chew
on my friend. Yeah. You immediately caught its
attention. It it it it literally is like
a teething puppy. It it's it has the
per that that's that's basically its personality.
Fenwick has, done a a very good job
of raising this hippogriff.
Not too good. It's chewing on our friends.
Well, it's still a young boy. It also
would not chew on it if there was
actually flesh there. So That's, you know, that's
fair. Alright. You got me there.
Alright. So, Fenwick, you are approaching this drow
who's holding the sign and very confused. Because
you just said, okay, goodbye, and now you're
approaching him.
So he is he is beginning to fear
he he has this look of fear for
his life as you are approaching him after
telling him goodbye. He should. My my my
fists are clenched. I'm getting more and more
angry with every single step.
And until I get in front of him,
and then I just point at him and
say,
what's going on?
Just
tell me
what's going on,
sir.
I came out here, and
I was setting up my sign, and somebody
vandalized
my station.
And then suddenly, I have people pointing at
me
and saying that guy,
that sign.
And now I have you telling me goodbye
and yelling at me,
please don't kill me. I'm just I'm just
a summer intern.
I I'm just trying to get money to
go to college.
So here's what you gotta do
right now.
You're gonna set it back up,
please,
and thank you.
Okay. I just
I
just need to know where my mouse went.
I've got part of him right here.
That's not good.
Well,
I can't do better than that. Do you
need another mouse? What do you need?
I need a living being from where this
is going.
You don't have extras?
Come on.
You've gotta have extras.
Why? So you could
do it again in case you lose 1.
If I could if I lost one I
could just find
cast find creature. Alright. Come on. Let's come
with me. Come with me.
And I take him
by the sleeve, and I start pulling. I
don't know if he's coming, but I'm pulling.
He's just standing there staring down at you.
This
way. With his other hand, he reaches up
to a chain or that's around his neck,
and he lifts a whistle
up to his mouth.
Yes. Come with me.
How is everybody else reacting to the situation
as it's unfolding?
Jura was starting to be like, okay. It
seems like it's time for maybe we can
have a conversation with this person. And then
the polling started and the whistle followed it,
and Jura
had his hand out and has reached for
his hat and just turned around and is
now just
stroking his hair, whistling. Could you just hold
this for me? And I'm gonna hand the
reins to Durott, and I'm just gonna start
walking towards these 2.
Oh, gladly. You're a magnificent creature. You're so
beautiful. Yes. Hello.
Excuse me. Hi. I'm sorry. I don't mean
to interrupt.
Hi. I'm Abora, Abora Ketheri. Most people call
me mama Ebb. Would you mind stop blowing
that whistle for a second? Tell me who
you are.
Evera, actually, as as you get up close,
you notice,
you you know
you know Jimmy Smits. Oh.
Oh, hi. I'm sorry. I didn't notice you
from so far away.
He he he's just a 18 year old
drow trying
to get some extra scratch
to to make his way to wiz the
wonderful wizarding school of,
of Harold Patris.
How are you doing, Jimmy?
I'm sorry.
I I He's the one who set the
trap. He set the trap. He set the
trap that made the thing happen. All sorted.
And he ate the mouse.
Yeah. And then then she had the thing
happened to her stuff. Yeah.
Yeah. How are your parents?
Well, you know,
mom mom's doing okay. Yeah. And your dad's
you know? You know? Better?
Well,
you know, if by better, you mean back
at the corner seat at the tavern. Yeah.
Cool. Well, you know, some of us have
a long way to go in our recovery
journey.
So,
Jimmy
Yeah? You wanna do me a favor?
Yeah. You wanna just let me know who
hired you for this?
Oh, I'm just said I I'm I'm doing
intern work for Pete's portals.
Okay.
They're they're advertising,
some
trips
for,
I guess they're trying to expand
into Pandaria,
and
they were trying to show people the how
powerful their portals were
by letting them experience it.
And somebody took the life source of this
new Yeah. Model. You'll know what happens.
Yeah. And so
it it it's not
it's operating on residual energy, so it's not
powered up enough to take all of somebody.
Does that make sense? Oh, we noticed. Yeah.
Let let me ask you a question. Okay?
Does the does the
entire
animal
have to be in the pot
in one piece
or can it just be like a bigger
pot and it's inside another animal
You did multiple pieces.
You did hear me when I said
life source.
Right?
So it's supposed to be alive is what
you're saying.
That would
be a life
source.
So
Let me let me ask you this. If
if you're operating
a circle of teleportation
that is based off of the memories of
of
whatever the source it is.
Can the dead remember? I'm sorry. Hold on.
I don't mean to interrupt. Are you saying
that this entire circle is powered by the
memory of a rat?
Because that seems a bit questionable.
It's a mouse. Yes. It's a mouse. Okay.
It's a it was a field mouse. Okay.
Oh, better. That's even better because at least
rats are intelligent.
Field mice are just kinda there. They have
better memories than you would expect. I've spoken
to a couple,
and Yeah. They have better memories than you'd
expect.
Alright. So so here's my idea. Alright?
We get
Hadwin
to cough up the rest of the mouse,
or we feed him
some very
fat bacon
that's gonna like lube things up inside
and get the mouse out the other end,
and then we get some magic people to
do magic things. And the magic thing brings
the the the the mouse back to back
to life.
Can I just provide a counter idea?
Okay.
Why don't we just go to Pete's portal
who is in charge of this operation and
see if they can sort this out?
We could try that first.
Okay.
Pete can't be reached right now. Why can't
Pete be reached right now? Because he's under
indictment for his participation
in trying to,
import an extra dimensional entity
for global destruction.
Well, that is a problem, isn't it? How
are you still working for him? Yeah. Let
me just ask you how you're getting paid.
Who's your manager? Can I speak to him?
Hey, can you please not hassle me? I
No. I really I need I'm sorry. My
friend lost most of her body so I'm
gonna be a bit of a hassle for
a minute. Sorry buddy.
And if you want me to keep helping
with that little problem and not tell the
rest of the people around what that problem
was then I'm gonna need to talk to
the manager.
And you're the one who left it unattended.
Yeah.
You hear him just go,
okay.
Yeah.
And so he
kind of
pulls a ring out of his pocket and
puts it on his finger and he disappears.
Do I still have a sleeve in my
hand or is he, like,
gone?
Yes. You still had the sleeve in your
hand
and
as he puts this ring on his finger,
you have a moment a momentary sensation of
breathlessness
and suddenly
you are in a very calm wood
where there are a bunch of trees around.
And he's like, oh,
yeah, you can't follow me.
Yeah. You can't lose me.
This has been playing games with strangers,
featuring the vocal talents of Amanda Clements,
Ben Avery,
Celeste Mora,
Dave
Clements, John Michael Bilizikian,
Josiah Crandall,
Catherine Bilizikian,
and John Harju as our DM,
edited and scored by Catherine Bilizikian.
Thanks for listening.