- Hello everybody.
My name's Dave Clements and I am introducing this episode
because we had some technical issues and lost John's opener.
So I'm gonna do that now.
Uh, with us today, we have of course our dmm John,
how are you myself playing Wilder Filch,
Josiah Crandall playing Poo, the bug bear.
Jss Earls playing Orba, the Grumpy, grumpy half work.
Celeste Mora playing Alene Sugar Baker,
and returning guest
and publicly announced cast member for Campaign two,
Amanda Clements returning as me.
So that's what we've got in store for you this episode.
And the next one.
And man, buckle up
'cause you guys are in for a little bit of a ride.
All right, here's the music playing
- Games, stranger.
There's no danger.
So good morning, we're friends playing games
with strangers.
- Yeah, I don't really remember too much,
but from my recollection, Wilder
and Emerin had a very nice conversation about
life and the pursuit of happiness
and the loss of loved ones.
And at the end of the session, we had a very emotional, um,
painful speech from
Rhoda. And that's all I remember.
- Uh, also who scared a bunch of people
and tried to blow up Emerin.
- There was that - A succeeded in blowing
up emerin. This is
- True.
It succeeded. And you found, you also found a
functioning circle of teleportation,
which took you to fan Daria.
- Lots of little fond people. Yep.
- Were they real that little?
- No. In fact,
poo almost got himself killed there too. They're
- Littler than me, but I remembered
that I could talk to them.
- We're gonna pick up with Meira. Mera.
You follow your mark into the cavernous, uh,
maze of tunnels below the tower, uh,
keeping a safe distance as to not be perceived by them
or the rest of the party.
Um, until you come to an open clearing where it seems many,
uh, refugees are gathering.
And you see the crystal being
handed over to a small halfling
at which her eyes go completely white.
And then she grabs the arm of your mark
and both of their eyes go white as they stand there for
several minutes and seem
to become non-responsive.
What would you like to do?
- How far away are they?
- Mm, I would say probably about 20 feet.
- Are they the only two in the room?
- No. Uh, like I said, this is, this is a large cavern
that seems to be full of many of the, uh,
refugees from above.
- I will, uh, kind of weave between people, try to look
as casual as possible to get just a little bit closer
and, uh, see if I can kind of figure out what's going on
and if there's any opportunity.
- They both seem fairly catatonic while whatever they're
doing is happening.
And I, I'm gonna ask this 'cause I know that Orba
and Callum are currently not in the vicinity.
Uh, so Wilder
and who, where are you
after you guys came back into the, uh, cavern?
What are you doing?
- They were having a conversation.
So Poo kind of, um, maybe wondered
'cause they were, they were up the stairs, right?
Is that that where that conversation happened?
- Mm-Hmm. No, you guys are, you guys are below,
below the remains of Castle Man Lagar
in the large cavernous area where they,
where there's the tunnel that goes down into the under dark.
- Um, so I'm, I would've kind of hung around
for a little bit and then wandered off to, to look for, uh,
some food, see if I could find some food while, um,
they're having that conversation.
- Wilder, what are you doing?
- I have slouched up against a wall, uh, just to ponder
Elle and Leona, that whole situation.
- Okay. So you're just kind of off in your own thing. Okay.
So, Mm-Hmm. , um, yeah, the rest of the,
the rest of the party that your mark was traveling with,
they seem to have gone off amongst their own business.
So, and the two, the two that are there with the crystal,
um, are pretty catatonic.
- And so I will kinda casually just mindful of other people
around had towards the, the two that seemed
to be completely out of it.
And, uh, see if I can kind of quickly
snatch the crystal.
Tuck it under my cape.
- Uh, are you trying to, are
you trying to do it stealth, fully?
Mm-Hmm. like so other people.
Okay, so go ahead and roll a stealth check please.
- 35. - Good Lord.
- What - You older than that? 20.
- Nice. And - Then all of a sudden,
Amanda was no longer there.
- Amanda, Amanda appears in, uh, another podcast.
. Uh, that's how stealthy she,
she shows up in someone some other room
and there's just some lady on a microphone going,
- That's the cat ASMR one.
- Oh, right. Uh, so yeah, you managed to
walk up and just slip the stone out
of the halflings hand.
At that moment, the halfling
and the font horror that you had encountered
both collapse.
It, it wasn't as easy
as just taking it outta someone's hand.
Like you feel like you broke a connection somewhere. A lean.
- Yes. - You are.
Suddenly it, it, it feels like something
inside your mind broke for a moment.
So you're trying to collect yourself
as you fall to the ground.
And you are a little bit discombobulated,
but the, uh, soul stone that was in your hand is gone.
And you can't tell who took it.
- No, no, no. Where did it go? Where did she go?
- Emerin seems even more out
of it than you are at the moment.
So she's a little bit nonresponsive.
- M darland. You okay? We need to find, find the assist.
We need to know where she went. Help me look.
I'm just gonna start looking around.
Can I roll an investigation for that?
- I mean, you can certainly try.
- I mean, I understand Celeste understands like a
36 or something like that.
It's a three. I I don't even You found it.
I don't even know where my own feet are. Yes.
- Yeah. Which makes sense
because you're a bit out of sorts at the moment.
Having that connection broken.
Uh, Mayra the crystal in your, that you have just grabbed.
It's weird. It is like the,
the lonely girl presence is still there,
but there is another presence there
that you are familiar with.
It feels like that Fonta you fought
with is also there now.
And the crystal is getting very hot, very fast.
- Ouch. Ouch. Shake my cape a little bit.
Wrap the cape around the stone
and try to not touch where it's really warm.
And then I'm gonna move to a, hopefully down to a corner
area in the ca and where it's a little bit less conspicuous
and, and set it down.
I don't understand why is it different?
- It, it's getting super hot.
- Does it, uh, smell of heat at all?
- Fell. Listen, - Cooking. Do I say
- When you say smell of heat,
- Like I'm looking for food as poo would, wasn't
- I?
Yeah. This isn't gonna, this isn't gonna smell like food.
- It doesn't smell like something cooking.
- No. - Okay.
- If anything it would smell like hot dirt.
- I'll take it. - .
You find a, a corner that seems like a decent place to sulk
as there is somebody else already sulking in this area.
Wilder. You're, you're sitting there kind
of contemplating ll
and Leona in the periphery
of your vision.
Someone comes and sets down
and puts down a, uh, something,
a shiny something.
- Oh, uh, hello? I, I can scoot over a little bit.
Wait, I'm gonna
roll a history check to see if I remember who she is.
'cause I'm pretty sure I saw her previously.
- The only time Felix slash Wilder
has encountered this individual.
It was in, very briefly, in passing outside
of the tower when you were feeble minded.
- Okay. Oh, sorry. Let's get over.
Um, what you got?
- Nothing. Just, just a rock.
- A rock You normally carry around a rock,
like a pet rock. It's got a name.
- I just found it - Found a rock
- In a cavern.
- Yeah. - Strange. I know.
- That's where you would find rocks. Yeah.
Um, do you normally collect rocks?
- Sometimes They're interesting.
- Uh, my daughter collects rocks,
but I see the rock you have. I mean, it's
- Mine, but - I'm not, I don't want to take it.
I just wanna see it. Like she used to do that.
Uh, you know how little kids like, they just want to like,
gather a rock from every place they've ever been
and then they like leave them in their room
and then you step on 'em
and like twist your ankle and all that stuff.
Um, I've kind of, not a connoisseur of rocks,
but I mean,
sorry, you just met me.
Um,
- Speaking of rocks, this bread is not very good.
- I say as I walk towards wild air in this conversation.
- Are you sure it is bread poo?
- Um, well, it's kind of squishy, like a little bit.
You wanna about it? No.
- Uh, Mera? Yeah.
You, you mera you do recognize this bug bear.
However, as you,
it's hard to forget a bug bear that's traveling
with the person that you were following.
- No, thank you. - You saw it's, um, it's uh,
it's tasty ish.
- I kind of turn away
and continue looking at the stone, trying to figure out
how in the world I'm gonna move it.
- It's starting to glow now, by the way.
- Oh, great. - Do I see that? Finally?
- I was gonna ask the same thing.
- It both of you roll perception checks
- 27, 8 14
- Wilder and Eileen.
Yes. You both see it. 'cause you're in a very dark place
right now, both physically
and mentally, I suppose, uh, , but,
and so something glowing is going to stand out quite a bit.
- I'm going to run over there
because it looks like what I'm looking for.
- Mm-Hmm. and Aileen.
- Yes. - Because you are the aspect of death now.
Uh, and you know, it just,
with the territory comes a knowledge of soul, how souls
and soul adjacent paraphernalia work.
You, uh, know that a soul stone can only have
one entity in it
and Emerin is not currently
- In herself.
- Well, she's not responding.
I'll let you draw whatever conclusions you want.
- Oh, Elaine, I have a question. Hold on.
Is this bread or is it Oh,
- H Hang on one second.
Poo. We can deal with that in a second.
Uh, the, where did that come from? That glowing stone.
- Oh yeah. That's a glowing rock.
You didn't tell me it was a glowing rock. Let's have it.
- No, no. It, - If this is what I think it is,
this is very bad.
And I need to take this back over towards the body
of my friend who is laying unconscious
and we will deal with you in a minute.
- Hey, poo, could you put the bread down?
I think we might need your, um, large assistance over here.
- No, I heard, I heard friend unconscious. I'm ready to go.
You wouldn't mean Imran, would you?
- Yes. She
and I were having a conversation with a stole a soul stone,
and all of a sudden the soul stone wasn't that.
Em it's unconscious. And now this stone is glowing
and I feel like two to two equals
- Look at you.
Yes. No, it does.
- Yes it does. - Sorry. It's got, okay.
- Two cookies plus two cupcakes sequels, four baked goods.
- Oh no, you are talking,
but focus you, you, um, you with the stone.
Can could we please borrow that for a second?
- Okay. Uh, Celeste, I need you to roll,
uh, D six for me please.
- Uh, I don't like the sound of that
six.
- Okay. The countdown starts at six. Go ahead.
- Countdown. - So while the arguing mayor is going to try
to rewrap the stone, but it's still very hot.
Right?
- As soon as, as soon as you try to wrap it,
what you're trying to wrap it with catches fire. Cool,
- Cool. Oh,
- I'm gonna go ahead and try to, uh, grab it.
- Okay. Uh, - With my metal hand. What?
- Oh, I forgot about that. Dang it. . Okay.
Yeah. Uh, Meira, you watch as this giant, uh, barrel,
like being reaches down
and grabs the, grabs the child.
- Excuse me. What are you doing? Uh, I don't touch her.
- Five. - Um, we, we need, we need this.
I need to get my friend back into our body.
I think that's what I feel like is is going on here.
Is is that correct? Um, Eileen? Yes.
- Yes. Come on, let's get back to, to Emerin.
- Where where is she? She's right
- Over there. The way
- Four.
- I'm on my way to Emran. I'm holding it. We're just
- Poo and I are just going. Yeah,
- But it's mine.
- It's not Y's. - We can
- Talk.
Are you doing anything to combat this Meira? Yeah,
- But it's very hot.
I can't exactly hold it anyway, so I'm going
to follow very unhappily.
- Okay. - All right. We, we get to Emin, I guess.
- Now, now how does this work?
I'm, uh, well, it's, it's seems rather warm.
- I think I - Have Do you want it or should
- I I think I have to hold it
and I think I have to touch Emerin.
Okay. So I'm going to here just set it. Just tell me when.
Set it right here. And then
- You'll give it back.
- I'm going to ignore Mayra. - I set it down. I think you
- Can just wait until we do what we
- Have to do.
I'm going to touch Emerin
and I'm going to touch the soul stone.
- Yeah. As soon as you do that, you feel a large angry force
flow through you as Amerin convulses.
And the slow and the soul stone immediately stops glowing.
- Did we do it? - Well, it stopped glowing.
- Is poo still holding it?
- No, it's on the ground. It's on the ground. I said
- It on the ground.
- I'm gonna have that now. Mm-Hmm.
- . I'm touching it though.
- Yeah, but I'm gonna try to take it anyway. .
- Okay. Well, you do that. - You fixed it. It's mine Now.
- Um, I'm, I'm looking at, I, I'm watching Emerin right now.
I'm not paying attention to the stone,
making sure that she's okay.
- And I am watching the Ladies and the stone,
and I would just like to offer
to help Aileen stop Mera from taking this.
- How close is Mera to me?
- I was, um, hovering, so I followed Poo,
and then when it was set down, I was hovering right next
to it, basically just ready to go.
So probably within melee five, five feet,
- I'm going to cast,
I'm going to cast feeble mind, which means you have
to make an intelligence saving through.
- Am I smart? - Wilder
tasted this one recently.
- Tastes like I know.
- Remember, I'm not smart. Well, maybe. No, I It's 11.
- Guess who just got dumb?
- Yeah. .
Because that's not the, the DC's higher than that.
than, so, uh, I have blasted you in the mind
attempting to shatter your intellect and personality.
You take four D six psychic damage. Ooh.
In addition to the intelligence saving through,
and your intelligence and your Christmas score are one now.
And at the end of every 30 days, you can try
to make a saving throw to, to regain that.
So just so you know, all right,
- Fast forward 30 days,
- Or if someone hits 'em with a greater restoration,
- Good luck with that.
- Considering that you were about to steal our friend.
I don't think that's gonna be a thing.
- So I wonder what she needed with this.
- I don't know. But, uh, has, has anybody, like,
how, how does Zimmer look to y'all?
- Emin? Hello? Emin? Are you, are you all right? Ugh,
- I'm, I'm like right there in Emin's face.
Yes.
- She, she, she just kind of cracks her eyes open.
She goes, Ugh, what just happened?
I just, I was talking to Rhoda
and then it got really hot and now I'm on the ground.
- I, I think what happened is that, and your
- Voice deepened.
- Really? We're gonna do this. Jo. Josiah,
- It's, it's required .
- I think what happened, dear is
that this young lady over here decided
- Xna on the ear day.
- Huh? - You know, just be careful about using the D word.
- I don't speak d
- Um, this young lady over here apparently tried
to snatch this soul stone,
and it was in the middle of our conversation,
quite rude to interrupt.
And, uh, you stayed in the soul stone instead of your body.
And thankfully she did not get very fast.
We were able to bring the soul stone back over here
and put your soul back where it belongs.
- Everything's a okay now,
and you are not going to take it again.
Are you Right? I
- Give her a stern look.
- I don't think she's going to be doing much anything.
- What? Why, why, why is she licking the ground?
- Well, - Yeah, that's not a fun time .
Not really . I mean, glad that her not me,
but, you know, not a fun time. I just
- Needed her to stop, but I didn't wanna hurt her.
- Okay. Well, - She, she looks great. Perfectly normal.
I mean, that's, if that's not hurting someone, then
I'd hate to see you hurt someone.
- Well, the other option was just, just kill her.
And I didn't think that that was a good idea.
- That's, that's a valid point. Valid point.
- I mean, especially with these people around and whatnot,
- You could have just like slapped her hand or something.
- No, - She was very stubborn.
- I need, I needed to, to make her stop.
And she was not going to stop.
- She is not going to stop looking that floor anytime soon.
- So do we just leave her here and move on?
I don't know what the next step is.
I, I don't really think we got that far.
- Emerin tries to stand up,
but her back leg stagger underneath her.
And pretty much the only thing that's holding up is holding
her up at the moment is her busted combat wheelchair.
That who blew up.
- Oh. Oh, you should. - It's easy there. Emran
- Probably sit stay sitting down for a while, darling.
- I'm just gonna take a nap.
- That's a good idea. We'll keep watch
while you sleep. Okay?
- I'm a blanket, - Eileen.
- Yes. - From your perspective, you know what's going on?
This is very much like when you guys resurrected,
uh, eren the la from the coronation in red.
- Gotcha. - You ba
because basically having her soul taken from her body
and put back in it is very similar to being resurrected.
- I imagine having your soul ripped from your body
and then shoved back in is a little traumatic,
- Especially when it's a forceful thing.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the rip.
- So Poo has gone to seek some blankets.
Uh, meira, you have strange people around you
making audible noises at each other.
You aren't certain of your circumstances in your currently
adult brain as well
as you see the purple stone.
You see it as a child
and you're not certain why in the hands of the,
uh, halfling,
- But none of them have any particular meaning
to me except that one,
- That one stone.
- Okay. - So I'm gonna kind of
walk over a little bit unsteadily towards the halfling
with the stone and just reach out for it.
- I'm going to hand her a
brownie for my bag.
- I guess I eat, I eat the brownie.
- Oh wait, really? Yes, dear. You have brownies in your bag?
Yes. You've had quite a few. You want one? Yes please.
There you go darling. Thank you.
- So with brownie in one hand,
I'm still reaching towards the stone with the other.
- She wants another Here. Take a cinnamon roll.
Oh, those are good. You'll like those.
I'm just gonna continually put things in her hands
to keep her from reaching from the stone.
- I'm going to, uh, take some of the rope out of my pack
and, uh, lash her hands together behind her back so
that she can't grab for the stone anymore.
- Are you gonna contest this me?
- Yeah, . - Alright,
I need opposing strength rolls, please.
- I got a Nat 20. - Well, I didn't, so
- I got a Nat 20 plus one.
- All right. So you are able to restrain her.
I need you to roll a survival check
for your knot. Tying though.
- 19. - Hey, that's actually pretty decent.
- I'm not going nowhere. Yeah,
- Yeah.
So you are able to tie her up.
I was actually waiting for somebody to eventually do that,
to try to figure out the sit the situation.
So you have your tied up elf
who has been feeble-minded.
What are you guys doing at this point?
Uh, emerin is a bit more, a bit down
for the count at the moment.
- Moment. John, would we be aware of any medical people
or healers in the area that could tend to Emerin?
- You would know that, uh, Callum could ,
- Right? Yes.
- But Callum did say, oh, well, if there's no, you know,
I guess we'll just take a rest here maybe.
So if there was, you know,
maybe you might wanna let them know
of a change of circumstance
- Due to the prompting from some ethereal being, bro,
- I am not prompting, you don't treat it like that.
. I don't need another person yelling, chew,
chew at me in the background. No,
- No, no.
I I am not gonna yell, chew, chew. Everybody knows that.
- No, you're just gonna call me out in a passive
aggressive kind of way.
- I'm not passive aggressive at all.
- . No, - I, uh, Callum, uh,
we have a bit of a situation here.
Um, somebody trying to steal Soul Stone
and, uh, she's,
she's tied up right now, uh, but emin's in trouble.
Uh, so if you could like hurry back, that'd be great.
Um, you, you may have to do the whatever thing.
I don't know, whatever cleric stuff you have,
- Tell all about.
Hi,
- Uh, Orba.
Callum is away making,
like saw in a cave if you catch my drift.
But you hear the stone of Far speech go off
and you hear Wilder say that through there.
So, I mean, if you would like to respond to it.
- Oh, hey, Wilder or Poo or whoever?
- No, it's me. - Oh,
- Uh, where are you?
And Callum, we could really use Callum.
Not that we couldn't use you,
but it's kind of desperate with Emerin and whatnot.
- Um, how much is it worth to you?
I am just joking. Uh, we're in a cave.
We're hiding in a cave like wimpy, whiny boys.
- Why? - Uh, I, I don't know.
I was following his lead and his lead stinks.
- Okay. So, uh, are you headed back this way
or headed the opposite direction?
It'd be really nice if you guys get back.
That's all I'm saying.
- As a matter of fact, we're heading back right now.
Is there anything you'd like me to pick you up on the way?
- Uh, nope. Maybe, uh, - Honey, honey, running low.
- Maybe a range of cleric boy, um, who has daddy issues.
That'd be great.
- Okay, we - Already have one of those.
- I'll look for one of those. - That's who I was employing.
Pooh. I was talking about Callum.
- Oh, there's small words. Oh,
- Small words.
Yes. Yes, exactly. I get it. I get what you did there.
Wilder. They're very clever. Okay,
- So I don't know if you caught that,
but we do have, um, someone who's tried
to steal the, the soul stone.
Why is it so hard to say? Aileen? Uh, feeble-minded her.
So, uh, we went ahead
and tied her up just for safekeeping, so
that shouldn't go anywhere, but we're kind
of stuck here not knowing.
I'm gonna turn away from the stone of fire speech.
Hi, Aileen. How did that conversation
that you were having with Emerin go?
- Um, that, that, uh hmm.
Let, let's just say that, uh, Rhoda's,
Rhoda's not in a good place mentally.
- Okay. Yeah. Well, bug you should probably get here
with Callum as soon as possible.
Okay? I don't need anything else.
I don't think I'm, need my dagger back,
but anyway, go.
That, that's fine. Uh, I'm gonna go check on Emin.
I'm gonna put the stone away, okay?
Before he even gets the chance to respond.
And I'm gonna walk over, and this,
- This - Is or bug, you can reply to this message,
- , when you go to check on Emerin, she's sleeping.
- Any ideas for what we should do in the meantime? Everyone,
- Anybody got a deck of cards?
- Always. - I think there's someone here I could actually
beat at a game of cards.
- . That's probably true.
- Let's see. - I I grabbed the dick of cards.
- Don't be mean to, uh,
- See if I can, um, beat our mysterious stranger in a game
of cards.
And I, yeah, I just lay 'em out in front
and start, start trying to get her to
- Poo.
That's solitaire, that's one for one person only.
- I think I'm winning. - . Maybe
- Several hours go by
because according to Callum in the last episode,
they were pretty much underneath the mountain
when you had messaged them last time.
Uh, so they finally get back Orba.
It's been a long day of walking for no purpose.
So however Orba would respond to that,
emotionally speaking is up to you.
But Callum is now back at the camp.
- Okay? I brought the important person with me.
- I mean, you important too. - Hey, .
- Oh, okay. Yeah. - Callum.
- Hello, Callum. - Is there anything you can do for Emerin?
- Callum's? Like, yeah, I can, yeah.
And so does a healing word on Emerin.
And then Callum looks at you and he says, uh, yeah.
So I, I'm getting a vibe off of this.
Like, it doesn't matter how much I heal her, uh,
it's just gonna take a couple days before she's all right.
Well, I mean physically. All right.
Anyway, what's going on with her?
- I was about to ask if you thought you might be able to,
to fix what I've done with her.
Now that we have her tied up,
- She's winning.
That's what's going on. . I don't know how
- , uh, yeah. As,
- But she's winning - As, as you guys look down
with her hands be ti tied behind her back
and feeble-minded who, and, uh, Mayra are playing pinochle
and she somehow not being able to touch the cards
and being feeble-minded has been shooting the moon on this,
on this recent hand.
- Ooh, please tell me you're not playing for money.
- Uh, I'm not playing for money.
- Is that why you only have your shirt on now?
- Yes. .
- I'm just wearing the, uh, the guard's jacket.
I had to take off the fancy boy clothes.
They're in a pile next to Mira. She won them
- .
This new person walks up to you, Mira, um,
and begins to stick his hands out towards your face.
- Don't like that. - No, I don't.
- Not not more bog. Not, or bog.
- I wouldn't put charact important. Charact. I wouldn't put
the past or bog the important
- .
I'm just gonna like lean back away from
him real quick, quick.
Just no.
- And he is like, no, no, no, no. Hold on, hold on.
And he, he kind lunges forward and grabs a side of your face
and suddenly as he does this, uh, like this,
this cloud in your mind lifts
and you are, feel more like yourself.
Uh, Kellen looks, look at the rest of you guys.
You guys, uh, you guys gotta stop doing this.
I can't keep just showing up.
Like there's gotta be a way for you guys
to stop having this happen.
I mean, he just kind of mutters and goes
and sits next to Emerin.
- I make no, no bones about the fact that I was trying
to not kill the pole girl.
I just wanted to in Potass in I can't talk .
- Yeah, decapitate.
- Else cannot talk tonight.
Incapacitate her.
- Well, that doesn't sound very good.
- Well, she's alive, isn't she? Now? Dia, what is your name?
- What? She's gonna struggle
- Her name's.
What? .
- I believe it's what? - Hello? Hello? What? I'm
- Poor.
You might wanna take your finger out of your nose.
- I'm gonna look around for the stone.
- I'm gonna directly get into her face. Sweetheart.
I asked you what your name was.
- She said it was water.
- I'm just thinking it's probably not, not her name.
- Maybe she wants some water. That's what she was saying.
Water. Dry mouth. From all the dirt.
- I'm still on board with decapitating her.
- We are not killing this person. Starving.
- Maybe eventually - Not unless she gives us reason.
- Yeah. Have some water. Water. Those
- Cinnamon rolls - A little dry.
- So is the ground. - That's also true.
- Can I try to, while they're talking, slip a dagger out
of my belt to cut my bonds.
- I am right in your face though, so
- Make a slight of hand check. Okay?
- But it's behind my back. This is 22.
- You're sitting on the ground and I'm just like, right.
- Yeah. She rolled a 22 and your passive perception is 19.
So you ain't seeing it.
Uh, so yeah, you, you slip that dagger out.
- Okay, I'm gonna be working on the tie behind my back
and lean back just a little bit.
'cause she's in my face. Have
- That and as you do, I take the canteen
and start pouring some water in your mouth.
- Stop. There you go. There's some water for you.
Round head boo. Sorry. Sorry.
- It, it's called, it's called enhanced.
Uh, enhanced interrogation tactics. Torture.
- There you go. That should fix your right up.
I'm gonna cast fascinate on her.
- What does that do? - It means that she sees me
as a person she trusts.
Ooh. She has to make a wisdom saving throw.
- Celeste went from being a ancillary character just
to coming out of the box, throwing spells around
- One of those.
I just put on my, my spell sheet.
And the other one. I was like, oh, what's this?
- 12? - Oh no, you did not. 'cause mine's a 17.
- I didn't succeed. Okay, - So you I am trustworthy.
- Oh, okay. - How long does the spell last? Celeste?
- About three minutes. It's not long.
- I'm Mera. - Hey Ra, that's a lovely name. An idea.
Why are you trying to take this stone?
- It's the child. I must protect her. She's mine.
- No, I can understand wanting to protect her,
but she's not yours.
- She is. She was alone.
- She was alone by choice.
Now I do think that, that we need to not let her be alone.
We need to, to support her and,
and help her during this very difficult season
of her life. But
- Yes.
So give her to me.
- No. Did you know her in life?
- I found her. - We are,
we have her best interests at heart.
Now, if you would like to stay with us while we take care
of her, that is fine.
But you cannot take her.
- Uh, not, not to interrupt, but to interrupt.
Who is the child
- That's Rhoda in the soul stone?
Oh,
- Ma'am, you need to understand that, that the child
that's in this soul stone, the soul that is here, belongs
to her sister.
- And a dear friend of ours. Ha, you did it again dear.
I did dear. So you're welcome to, to stick with us so
that we can protect her.
But you cannot just take her and run.
We can't let you do that.
- But where were you when they wanted her killed?
- Sadly, we thought she was safe and she was not.
She was safe with me, trusted. We trusted the wrong person.
So you can understand why we don't want to leave her alone
with someone after having misjudged.
- Aileen was also dead recently.
- I'm pretty sure I judged him. Spot on. That's,
- That's a conversation for another day.
- Has Aileen backed out of my personal space at all?
- I'm just kind of like I sat down.
'cause I'm assuming you're still sitting down.
So like, I'm in your space,
but I sat down rather than just like in your face.
- So you'll let me stay to take care of the child?
- Yes, - We will.
- If we, we are all full taking care of this child.
- I have a question. - What's up,
- Poo?
Yes. Um, I do think she would like being called the child.
No, she seems more like
teenage ish.
I'm not great with ages, but
- Her, her name's Rhoda.
- Yes. Rhoda. - I, I believe, oh,
- We could call her the angst stone
- That also might fit.
I think she's 15, 16.
Emer would know better, but still a child.
She may not think so. But
- She's also, my daughter's like best friend,
recent best friend.
- Indeed. Uh, - Speaking of, uh, Aileen.
Yes. Uh, sorry, not to interrupt. To interrupt again.
Um, uh, when, when you talk to Leona, uh,
did she, did she say anything about it? Ll
- No, I'm sorry, she didn't.
- Oh, okay. That's, that's fine. We'll find her.
We have to find her. Um, we will
- Find her. Yeah,
- We need to get on that.
- So just, just so you understand, um, ma'am, what,
what'd you say your name was again?
- Oh, look at Aileen says she's the one I find trustworthy.
- It's okay, dear. - It's Mera.
- So, um, everything is going on
around here right now in TowerFall.
And I assume everywhere else
- It's - Not our fault.
It's bigger than, oh, well, I don't know if it's our fault,
but the point is, it's bigger than all of us,
but it very much has to do with us.
Every, everyone here.
And I just kind of pointed everybody we're
- Trying to stop it.
- Yes, we are trying to stop it.
But we would appreciate your cooperation.
We can't give you the soul stone back.
And uh, I, I don't want to threaten you.
I would rather go along as basically as possible.
But if it does come
to violence, it'll fight you. I will fight you.
- What are you going to do for Rhoda?
- Protect her to the end.
We're still trying to figure things out.
And uh, Aileen here, she's a very important, um,
- She's deaf.
What kind of she's
- That's an aspect,
- That's a, a long conversation that I'm not entirely sure.
Uh, yeah, no, that may not have the
right, that may have not.
So just, uh, the, the aspect, forget I said anything
, the aspect of death, uh, saved my life.
And as a result, I am now the aspect
of death. Um,
- And, and Callum over there has something going on
that's involved in all this.
- So, but as a result, - I as to do with me pa
- as a result.
'cause do, do you know that what this is,
you don't understand This is a soul stone.
This is not just a, a rock that feels like a girl.
- Yes. There's a, there's a girl inside.
- Okay. It's, it's part of my responsibilities to care for
and protect soul stones.
So, um, I haven't completely figured that out as to
how, how that works.
But I do know it is a responsibility of mine
and I take my responsibility serious.
- Noted. All right then
- Why, why do you care about Rhoda so much?
- She reminds me of someone.
- Well, she, she reminds, yeah, she reminds us
of Rhoda actually.
She's like a spitting image of Rhoda.
I think wherever you care about,
like we care like just one little step high,
- You'll not help. What,
- Uh, this is - Can I be the aspect of taxes?
- It could be the aspect of foot and mouth
- That, that fits.
- Sorry. - Are you telling me you care
for Rhoda more than I do?
- I am telling you that Wilder is willing
to fight you to the death over.
- I would say if anybody caress more than anybody else,
it would be Emerin.
Because Emin has grown up with Rhoda.
- Yeah, - Right. Perfect.
I'm just gonna stand up and walk over
to the stone and pick it up.
- . Wait, how'd she do that?
- And then I'm gonna hand it to Eileen. Okay.
- Thank you. - I trust you.
- Okay. I appreciate your trust.
I get the impression it's not easily won,
- But I'm not leaving that stone.
- That's okay. - I'm like, glue yourself to it or
- That being said, have we had dinner
yet? I had some brownies.
- I will say, mayor, given your profession, uh,
you do recognize, uh, Felix, you, you do know
that he is the head
of the thieves guild
- Over Lord - The very tiny thieves guild.
- Yeah, it would be tiny to my memory.
- Oddly enough. No,
- I am special.
- So Mera, if you're going to continue along on this journey
for however long, what do you bring to the table
skills, that kind of thing. Oh, is
- It time to eat?
- I know it's table. Is this metaphorical,
- Metaphorical table specifically talking about skills
that Mera brings to this group
because she's not leaving.
Apparently
- I'm a trained assassin, which I'm sure you know
- My brother's training to do that.
- Oh yeah, because you killed all of it all.
- Is this a great idea? I mean, a trained assassin
that sounds healthy.
- I'm gonna share a look with Wilder as one profession
on the underside of Tower fall to the other.
- If I'm real honest, I haven't really had time to go
through all the books and meet all the people,
but I'm sure maybe we've seen each other in passing.
I'm, I'm sorry. This, this situation has kept me very,
very busy since I've been back to TowerFall.
- It's only natural I know of you.
But the point is that you didn't know of me,
- You know, for assassin.
I feel like that's a good thing.
- Oh yeah. Yeah. I would - Very sneaky.
- Oh, she doesn't need an ego boost. Who?
- Okay. - I know what I'm capable of.
- Can you see me if I do this? - Whoa.
- I try to hide .
- It's just your hands in front of your face.
- Hi, dalene. .
- No, I, I, I try to dive somewhere to see if I can
impress her with my sneakiness. All
- Right.
Roll a stealth check.
- A 12 - Roll per what's your passive perception, mayor?
- 22. - Yeah, you see him?
- Very impressive. - Oh, I like her. She can stay
- Rolls my eyes.
- Glad she has your vote. Okay.
Uh, not to be a potty pooper, but hi.
Desperately could use a rest.
Um, that whole bout with, uh, poo
and emin and the dynamite.
That was, that was something.
- I'm sorry about that. - Unless anyone has a healing
potion or something like that, just lying around.
- And you're telling me this is the safest place for Rhoda
- , - Believe it or not. Yes.
- I said you could trust me, - .
- It's, it's safe because we know what's going on.
We know what's going down.
- It was an accident.
- Yeah. You, you'll come to learn that. Who does mean well?
Um, he is a bug bear of little brain,
but we love him. Like
- You. A little bit ago
- He reminds me of a construct I met recently.
- Not an aspect. - No, that's different.
- A construct - That is
- Different.
Are you talking to a building
- Construct?
- No, it was walking
and talking just like you
a building very loudly. Building a
- Building that was walking and talking,
- I think. And she
- Still a little bit crazy.
- Yeah, I think so.
- Yeah. Could we just settle down for the night
and, uh, get some rest
- In this cavern?
- I mean, there's - Other people here, so probably, yeah,
unless you have like a hotel reserve somewhere
that would that's fine.
- Oh, do, yeah. Do you,
- I just wondered if it was the safest place
with everything going on.
- Well, there's definitely less safer places
- We could go outside.
- Callum responds to Humira
and he goes, I mean, do you know of a safer place?
- That would be nice if I did.
It'd be safer if we could get rid
of whatever is happening out there.
- Well, for that I need at least a nap.
- Uh, Callum goes and I have some ideas too.
- Oh, well, somebody has ideas.
- Good. - We'll talk about that later.
So are you guys taking a rest?
- Yes. Most definitely. Need a long rest.
- Okay, well, I'm sorry Dave .
- It's okay. - Because as everybody settles into sleep,
uh, Wilder, Felix, you
are laying there slightly unsettled as you
would be with a missing daughter, that you are uncertain as
to where she is.
And if she is currently okay,
and you kind of get the urge to pee, God,
- I'm getting old - .
And your eyes pop open
and you are experiencing sleep paralysis.
You're, you're, you're laying there,
but you can't move
as the entire survivor camp is currently sleeping.
And as your eyes are moving around, you hear,
you hear faint footsteps coming towards your direction
and you
can't move.
And you see a pair of legs standing next to you
as you are lying on the ground.
But it's not like they're legs.
They're, they're the shape of legs
that have been cut out of reality.
And as you lay there
and your eyes follow the legs up to see a figure
that has wings and, but it's like, it's cut.
The, the whole figure is cut out of reality.
It's just blackness.
And this figure has long hair
and it has the familiar coals for eyes, except instead
of burning red,
they're more a glowing icy blue.
And it's weird. It's like
this shadow has taken the na almost like it's the negative
form of Leona standing over you
and still you can't move.
- Can he pee? - Leave it to j to
- You said he needed to pee .
- He's got a point - Following. I'm following the train.
- And Leona reaches down
and her hand passes through your face
as you feel her reaching into your head.
And it's at this moment that you know that these shadow
creatures, how they function is they reach
into your mind and
they don't change what is, they just change your perception
and it's messing around inside your head.
And you remembering that
time when you were in water deep
and you got busted selling this stone to
an official, and Fenrick Coldwater was
murdered and you ran and ran and ran
because of course you're, you're wilder and
and that that's who you are.
You're, you're, you're wild Wilder filch.
But then the memory of Ell comes to mind.
And that's the only thing
that doesn't make sense is who is this?
Who is this girl? And then you begin to realize
what happened in water deep.
Nobody was sent to change your memories,
but this has all happened before.
And with a start wilder,
you wake up screaming and everybody in the camp hears it.
- You have been listening to the Playing Games With
Strangers podcast, with the voices of John Har you,
Katherine Sirki, Dave Clements, JS Earls,
Celeste Mora, Josiah Crandall, Eric Campo,
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