1000 Years on the Path
1000 Years on the Path is an Actual Play podcast that understands the power of play. Our campaigns have a focus on telling stories that matter with characters who feel like real people.
Our first campaign, Exquisite Corpse, is a pre-recorded Pathfinder 2nd Edition level 1-10 actual-play that's part magitech-noir, part surrealist horror, and part exploration of the interconnectedness of everything – with a side of commitment to any available bit. The first season will play out in weekly episodes (60-90min long) every Monday over the course of a year. Expect ~ 60 episodes in full!
More here!: https://linktr.ee/1000yearspath
1000 Years on the Path
Exquisite Corpse - Ep 01: Lost in Lachryma
6 months after forming up, Ichabod's Eyes have made a name for themselves. Hot on the heels of a closed case, they're thrust into a most unusual mystery involving a missing Elf.
CONTENT WARNINGS
Overall: Body horror, Violence, Blood/gore, Alcohol/drug use, Addiction, Illness/chronic illness/terminal illness
This Episode: Dismemberment
CREDITS
Editing by Brendan Starling
Music/ Sound Effects Include:
"Sneaky Action" by FesliyanStudios
"Looking for Clues" by FesliyanStudios
"Dreadrock Cradle (loop)" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Ashthorn Bastion" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Tribes of Kalemdesh" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Galactic Odyssey" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Walk the Path of Shadows" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Raven’s Gallery" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Fallen Petals" by FesliyanStudios
"Horror Sting" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Mystery at Midnight Station" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Vai Tex (Loop)" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Feast Under Stars" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Kalladhar’s Fire" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Hidden in the Tall Grass" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
"Hymn of Eternals" by Michael Ghelfi Studios
Brendan Starling is the Game Master (https://bsky.app/profile/brendrag0n.bsky.social)
Sola Valerioi is played by Chen (https://bsky.app/profile/chenanigans.bsky.social)
Olí Cnidaria is played by Sam
Sabrina Ezo is played by Jeff
Balsam is played by Will
And Benjamin Blais is played by Hannah (https://bsky.app/profile/eldritchpuffin.bsky.social)
If you'd like to support the show, please be sure to rate the episode and follow us on various apps here: https://linktr.ee/1000yearspath
As always, thank you for listening!
The corpse of a forgotten god has been rounded into a world. On that world is a sea of gray, and across that sea floats a monument of bone tinted blue. On that monument, stark towers twist and snap and rise beyond the ever-pouring rain clouds. Between and upon those towers, a city grows. That city is Lacrimacolch. Its homes are bright and colorful, its streets shift with the churn of the water below, and its eel rats grow fat on secrets. Below the drifting streets, a red-skinned Nephilim races through the labyrinthine sewers. A splash of his boots against the damp floor echoes through the high, long tunnels. He holds a thin metal lockbox to his chest. His heavy panting and the jostle of metal and glass in his large bag makes it clear he's traded discretion for haste. He is dashing for the moonlight, filling the end of the tunnel. The end of his journey. Out of the sewers, out of Lacryma, and into the Grey Sea. The Nephilim winces, as his nephropydian homunculus digs its claws into his shoulder. The other claw points to the shadows now darkening his path. Before him stands two shapes, one volpi and one seemingly cloaked in shadow, moonlight glowing behind them. Jeff and Hannah, please introduce your characters. We're here. Sabrina Izzo is a 5'5". In this form, looks like a person, a normal white woman in her mid-20s age-wise with sharp red eyes. A little bit of a pointy nose and an extremely threatening smile, who seems normal until your eyes travel up and see the two fox ears, but she's never quite managed to not appear whenever she transforms from her native kitsune form. She's wearing a cloak over a blue shirt and has all sorts of knickknacks and... Has all sort of knickknacks and tools for investigating. Has like a magnifying glass and things with which to take samples. Notably, in her left hand, she has a long cane. that at first looks just like a normal walking stick, but is now being pointed ready to shoot at any threats because it is also a gun. She has both an elegance to her movement as well as an inscrutable, insatiable curiosity. Very good!
SPEAKER_00:And beside her is one Benjamin Blaze, pronouns he,
SPEAKER_02:they, who is a very, very ordinary person. He's about 5'10", with a sturdy build, square jaw, floppy hair, resembles nothing so much as a photo negative. That is, all the color has been drained out of him. He's wearing mid-century, ordinary trousers, button-down shirt, suspenders. probably should have a cap but didn't seems apparently didn't grab it when he was leaving the office today instead he alternately wears and fidgets with a simple silver circlet set with a smoky dark stone he has a long sword at his hip a pack, probably sort of a leather messenger bag sort of thing with any number of pouches and vials and
SPEAKER_00:small containers hanging off of it. It has just sort of a pensive, hopeful look about him.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Seeing the figures before him, Nephilim sneers and runs to a bridge crossing from one side of the sewer to the other, now holding a glowing green flask tightly in hand. He gets halfway across when he notices two more figures on the other side of the sewer. One Renine and the other a blue-skinned elf, whose tentacles and bell seem to sparkle in the moonlight. Sam and Shin, please introduce your characters.
SPEAKER_00:Our lovely elf friend is Ulvidar Nedaria. He is modeled after the immortal jellyfish in coloration and a sea nettle in terms of his flowing hair resembling the tentacles as well as the a sort of nature that the sea nettle has, a little shorter than our friend Benjamin Blaze, also in a sort of Quintessential, just a guy, gray ensemble, sweater vest, seemingly very unassuming with his bag full of things, with a elven blade at the ready, as well as a bladed scarf around his neck, as should more than one weapon ever be needed. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Sola, or Return Sola, Hylian Valerioi. is a short poison hide turkey she's modeled to look like a green glass frog save for her one of her arms which is purple in color due to her purse she is wearing thick glasses and has a sunflower attached to her head and she's currently wearing a hawaiian shirt today modeled to look like a horse with a thunderstorm and she looks really relaxed but like in a way that's a little unnerving for the situation.
SPEAKER_02:One of many Hawaiian shirts. Surrounded on all sides, the Nephilim acts quickly. He tosses the green vial towards Benjamin and Sabrina. The same moment he tosses the lockbox into the rushing sewage. As a vial shatters and filth from the floor collects into a bulbous mass, I need everyone to roll initiative. I
SPEAKER_00:wanted to go, woo, and then I wasn't sure if that was appropriate or
SPEAKER_02:not. No, it's fine. I sang a little song.
SPEAKER_00:You can cut it out.
SPEAKER_02:That's true. Everything can be fixed in post. But no, thank you for indulging that introduction.
SPEAKER_00:Can you make me funnier in post?
SPEAKER_02:I can't, because you're already super funny.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Sure,
SPEAKER_00:Sam. That moment when I realized, oh man, I've never done an intro before. What do I say?
SPEAKER_01:You all did great.
SPEAKER_00:I will admit that I thought, I bet he's going to ask for another intro. Let me make sure I have one. I'm glad that I did. I
SPEAKER_02:like intros. I hope you liked my little spiel. I
SPEAKER_00:loved it. Very good.
SPEAKER_02:Yay. In fact, my new coping strategy for perfectionism is massive ego along with my new character. So I'm just going to say I killed it.
SPEAKER_00:You killed it. You did.
SPEAKER_02:You were first up and you knocked it out of the park.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I never think to do that. I'm like, here, look at this drawing. That's her.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:So as you all reveal yourselves from the shadows and look at your quarry, I'll provide a little bit of context because we did start in media res, which is contextless,
SPEAKER_01:but fun. Bet you're wondering how we ended up in this situation.
SPEAKER_02:Bet you're wondering how you got here. So, you have been on the trail of an infamous thief who has been under guise of night or just otherwise unnoticed somehow managing to sneak his way into people's homes and take their valuables for some nefarious purpose. He's not taking like expensive jewelry or things that most people would say are like, I say monetarily valuable, but instead he's taking things that have sentimental value. He's been taking like old family portraits, knickknacks that like, or gifted to someone by an ex or a best friend, they're all just sentimental and emotionally resonant objects. Always significantly so, despite the fact that no one really knew who this person was before he started investigating or how he got this information. But you can assume that, Something on his person possesses, or maybe down in the sewer now, in the wastewater, possesses those stolen goods. But you managed to catch him, figure out where he was likely going to go, and you have ambushed him quite effectively, which is why the first up in initiative is one, Sabrina Izzo. And I'll tell you, this is in fact the subject of your investigation. So you get these requisite buffs.
SPEAKER_00:Does this guy have a name?
SPEAKER_02:This guy's name... Grawl.
SPEAKER_00:Grawl?
SPEAKER_02:Grawl. G-R-A-U-L. Grawl. Delightful. So yeah, Sabrina, you're first up. What do you do? Okay. So, first off, I'm gonna twirl my cane pistol that I added a fox head on the top of it. just because branding's important when you're the greatest detective in the world. And Ed dramatically points at Ikral and says, Your company has not been a pleasure, but your mystery was better than most. I'm sure the case write-up will be quite interesting. And makes like she's going to attack him, but first I need to make my devise a stratagem roll. Reaction devise a stratagem. Reaction and devise a stratagem, and remind me what I add to that. You don't add anything to it, but you can, so you can see what the die roll is, and that can substitute a roll on your next strike this turn. So this is the first turn of our campaign, and I have shenanigans to propose. Because you gotta start early.
SPEAKER_00:I have a...
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I have a grappling hook. I'm quite confident in my friend's ability to murder this man. The grappling hook rules state that it basically works as an attack roll. Yes, a ranged attack roll. A ranged attack roll. But I substitute that, and I'd like to try to attach my grappling hook to the safe that he has in the sewage, rather. Okay, I... will allow that you can make a uh you can substitute your device stratagem roll for your attack roll that you're making with this grappling hook and as an attempt to retrieve the safe that's very clever i rolled a 15 yeah okay 15 on the die so add your yeah add your attack as though you were using your uh intelligence which i think for you is going to be a plus 7 for a 22 total yes Okay, so free action to devise a stratagem. You're acting as though you're going to shoot, but with your other hand, you toss the grappling hook into the water and you hear a satisfying sound even through the wastewater of metal on metal as you nail the shot. That's one action. You have two more actions. Excellent. Grappling hooks are a girl's best friend. You never leave home without it. I'd like to use a second action. Does Pathfinder have a hoist action? A lasso action? A... So it... So it probably... It probably does. I will... I will say this is just an interact action to pull this back up to you. Okay, I'd like to do that. Yes. Go for it. Roll me an athletics check. I get to add my... I assume that this save is what we're trying to get. Yes, you're going against a standard DC. That is a success. Yep, that is a success. That is what you got, 15. So yeah, one action to hook it, another action to perfectly pull it out of the water, and it's now at your feet. And Grawl here looks quite upset at that. You have one more action. I have one more action. I don't really know what to do with it. Oh, my eyes will sparkle with the red in them will glow a little bit lighter. And I'll slap my friend Benjamin very hard on the back and cast Forbidding War. No, that's two actions. I won't do that. That is two actions. I like where you're going. Sorry, Benjamin. Okay, could I demoralize? It's all
SPEAKER_00:right.
SPEAKER_02:I'll give you a plus one circumstance bonus to this demoralized check. Just due to having a very effective first turn. Just for immediately succeeding at the secondary objective. What's the check there? It's going to be an intimidation check. You get a plus one circumstance bonus. And yes, you can have a hero point for all of that. I'd love to hear it. Yeah, so that's an eight. Okay, that is a failure. We're still working on it. We're still working on the quips. It was definitely quippy. It does not seem to have landed. But it is not a critical hit. You are fine. We'll note this down and return to it. That's your turn. That is my turn. Brilliant. Okay. That was Sabrina Izzo. Next up is one, Ollie.
SPEAKER_00:Ollie's going to go ahead and run over And if you allow me, because again, shenanigans gotta start early, he's gonna try and dodge roll so that he is somehow, if this is allowed, in between Grawl and his buddy. If that's not allowed, that's cool. Totally understand.
SPEAKER_02:So unfortunately, they are occupying space in such a way that you cannot tumble through, but you are welcome to do something else
SPEAKER_00:okay instead i'm gonna go chill right here and i'm going to whack scrawl with the bladed scarf first
SPEAKER_02:okay i will tell you the place you placed your token is the water
SPEAKER_00:never mind i forgot
SPEAKER_02:you're good There's a very, very short safety railing around where the water is. It's broken in several places. If you wanted to dive in the water, you're more than welcome to. But yeah, you can stop right there before him. And yeah, make your attack.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think I'd do it.
SPEAKER_02:So an 11 will not hit. I will remind you that you do have a hero point if you'd like to use it.
SPEAKER_00:I would very much like to use it.
SPEAKER_02:Go ahead and re-roll.
SPEAKER_00:You know, about that.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, sometimes these things happen. So you take the bladed scarf and whip it out at him, but he manages to dodge out of the way. You have one more action.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, just because I want to get my panache up, please tell me if this is stupid. I'd like to do a backflip onto the railing.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, you're going to give me a balance check to get up onto the railing. So to balance... I need you to give me acrobatics.
SPEAKER_00:Would you like us to be public?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, to be public.
SPEAKER_00:You know, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Well, appreciate you doing stuff. So a 12 will not be sufficient. So you attempt to jump in balance on the railing. On a failure, you must remain stationary to keep your balance. So you are able to stand on the railing. But you can tell that your footing is not quite so sure. And you do get panache for just the raw balls on this man. He's
SPEAKER_00:trying real hard. I do need to know whether Ali is bioluminescing at this moment in time. Ollie is bioluminescing and I feel like he's doing that thing, you know, where you're like your arms are out and they're waving and he's trying to catch himself. And I think that just means he's bioluminescing and it's like hitting his belt and it's like the tentacles, like the different accents are like hitting in different angles.
SPEAKER_02:Oh. Yeah, trying to balance on a wooden beam while holding a bladed scarf in both hands is... and flailing about. Look, he may have failed the acrobatic check, but he's definitely acrobatic. I
SPEAKER_00:love him.
SPEAKER_02:Alright, so that will be your turn. You do have panache, so you can be happy to have that. Okay. And then it's going to be my guy's turn. Ooh. This should be fun. For who? For me! Because this is going to be great. Okay, so you see Grawl. Yeah, sees all of you. Sees that he is in fact surrounded. Needs to do something to get out of this situation. So first thing he's going to do is just try to tumble through you, Ollie. She's going to try to get past you to continue booking it the way he has been. So he's going to make an acrobatics check against your reflex DC. What is your reflex DC?
SPEAKER_00:Okay. I should, I should really know what this is. It's
SPEAKER_02:your reflex save plus 10.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, that's gonna be 18.
SPEAKER_02:Oh boy, that's high. Okay. Wow.
SPEAKER_00:He can try it.
SPEAKER_02:And a cool, he tries to move past you. And even though the fact, even though you're balancing and kind of, kind of failing a bit, you do stick out one foot and stop his, his movement. And so he's going to do something else entirely. Yeah, this is fun. He's going to take his hand. Both of his hands are currently empty. He's going to take his hand. You see it suddenly erupts with flame as he slashes at you with a burning karate chop. So he's going to try to hit you with a spell. That is a 17. That
SPEAKER_00:meets it.
SPEAKER_02:Actually, 17 misses. You have an AC of 18.
SPEAKER_00:I did something wrong. Oh, I was looking at my HP. I know how to play Pathfinder.
SPEAKER_02:You're good. Yeah, so he chops out at you with this flaming chop and you just narrowly avoid it. And then he is going to use his final action to activate Quick Bomber and toss a flask of Alchemist Fire at Sabrina. That is a 17. which just barely hits. So yeah, one hand chops at you, the other takes from his belt a bomb and tosses it behind him. And as it slams into Sabrina, Sabrina, you take five fire damage and one persistent fire damage. And Benjamin, a little bit of the fire bursts onto you and you take one fire damage.
SPEAKER_00:Benjamin ducked as the bomb, like reflexively, as something came flying in their direction.
SPEAKER_02:Sabrina claps back with, I'm already plenty hot, darling. I don't need any help with that. Yes, your clothes are on fire, but you are still very quippy. Grawl is just going to growl and say, let me out of here, all right? Just go. Give me back my box. That's his turn. Now it's going to be his homunculus, which is going to fly over to Ali and attack. So it flies over to you. It's this, I know I used a big word earlier without really explaining what it meant. So this homunculus looks like a winged lobster. So it's like a big kind of humanoid lobster. It's like a human body within like the face of a lobster and these two big lobster pinchers, lobster claws. And it barble, it, gurgles and burbles with like the little bit of foam that comes out of like a lobster's mouth as it flies at you, Ollie, and is going to chomp down on you with its claw. That is a 22. You
SPEAKER_00:know what? Yep. I think that one hits.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so that is going to be just three damage, but you do need to give me a fortitude saving throw. against Chamonculus Poison. Oh, wow. Yeah, no, you're fine. Also a 22. Yes, a 22 is a success. You are unaffected by this poison. Yeah, it then is going to just do it again. A very simple way of doing things. Yeah, multiple attack penalty makes that a zero. Sorry, a two, a four. For a critical miss against you. But yeah, it stays up in your business.
SPEAKER_00:Amazing. Can we say that for flavor? This is just helping Ollie steady himself.
SPEAKER_02:Holds you in the air. Yeah, you use it. You take that first hit just to be better gripped by it in the air, and it seems confused.
SPEAKER_00:You know, you're really helping me out. I do appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know if you can understand me, though. Pinchy, push him. Push him off, Pinchy, says Grawl. And she looks confused, and that is going to be Sola's turn.
SPEAKER_00:I'm going to move away. So I'm going to stride.
SPEAKER_02:You hop backwards to get a bit more distance.
SPEAKER_00:I'll move a little further back because I don't know if it's like 30 feet. Your longbow has 100
SPEAKER_02:foot of reach, so there's nothing that's too far away.
SPEAKER_00:It's more like the volley I'm trying to avoid.
SPEAKER_02:I understand.
SPEAKER_00:And then I'm going to... Hunt prey, which is... Grawl?
SPEAKER_02:Alright, you're gonna hunt Grawl. That'd be one more action, so you have one last action. Now that you've done that.
SPEAKER_00:Does hunted shot count as two actions? Or counts as one? Hunted
SPEAKER_02:shot is one action that lets you make two attacks. That's why it's so good.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna do that.
SPEAKER_02:Fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:Shoot. Kill. Bite. Oh no! She does not want to kill.
SPEAKER_02:First attack is a miss. Take your second attack. Miss with
SPEAKER_00:an 11. I'm going to try to hit with a hero point.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Reroll that one with a hero point. Still misses.
SPEAKER_00:Crunch. Now make
SPEAKER_02:your second attack.
SPEAKER_00:Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_02:Oof. Unfortunate. Dice are not in your favor. That is a seven. Five on the die. You hop back, take aim, fire two shots. And as you go to pull back, two arrows knocked on the same string of the bow. You do slip just a little bit, knocking you off balance, sending one arrow into the water and the one going wide. But that is your turn.
SPEAKER_00:A distant fuck.
SPEAKER_02:It echoes through the sewer. And then that's going to be this disgusting mass of filth that we're all brought forth.
SPEAKER_00:What is this thing? What is this thing? I mean,
SPEAKER_02:I will try to figure out on my turn what this thing actually is, but like, what are we seeing here? What you see is it looks like when the vial shattered on the ground, we threw it, the green liquid in it kind of spread over the floor of this sewer and some of it even dripped over the side into the viscera and waste rushing out to the gray sea and then started to coalesce in the center of the puddle, rising up to be about five feet tall. It's just this big green and red mass of, filth, for lack of a better term.
SPEAKER_00:Great. Toxic sludge.
SPEAKER_02:So it is toxic sludge and bio-waste.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god. And it seems...
SPEAKER_02:It seems sentient and aggressive. However, you all may be lucky because this thing happens to also be mindless. I'm going to roll something to see who it's going to go after.
SPEAKER_00:Oh...
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna roll a d4. You want a four. I
SPEAKER_00:do want a four. I would like a four.
SPEAKER_02:Well, darn, that's a four.
SPEAKER_00:Yay! I always get what I want.
SPEAKER_02:It is actually going to... It comes to life, and being a mindless creature, it's not subject to the whims of Grawl, and you realize in this moment why he was so keen to get away, why he was trying to get past Ali, as it... trundles in his direction. Well, this is awkward. And is going to attack him. So one action to move, and then it will make a strike with its pseudopod. And with a nat one miss!
SPEAKER_00:Oh, buddy. He was just born.
SPEAKER_02:Unfortunately, he does not benefit from flanking because he is not your friend either. But a nat one wouldn't save that anyways. This ooze moves forward and tries to attack Grawl, who just literally bats its super pod away. It goes, hey, no, get them. And it is going to use its last action to try again to get Grawl. Another four, and
SPEAKER_01:once again.
SPEAKER_02:It's going great. I'm glad the dice are equally unhappy with everyone. Yeah, the dice... The dice are not working with anyone, and that is good.
SPEAKER_00:In the investigator's world, the rest of us are just...
SPEAKER_02:Well, we say the dice are going to go to Sabrina, but Sabrina's also the only one who's been hit. Well, I guess besides Ali. Ali also got hit, so that's fair. But speaking of none of those people, Benjamin,
SPEAKER_00:it's your turn. Speaking of people who are generally unlucky... I have another question because I always have questions.
SPEAKER_01:Go for it.
SPEAKER_00:If I were to wish to hypothetically grab
SPEAKER_02:the horrifying mass of slime and viscera is the railing like what would the interaction between the railing is very short okay the railing is perfect height to accidentally trip over it is not good for actually keeping anyone from hopping it it like goes up just a little bit above your ankles and below the knee so basically unimpeded on a diagonal that touches that
SPEAKER_01:yeah
SPEAKER_02:delightful um i'm not gonna do that i'm gonna do something a little bit different but it's it's that was the easiest way to explain it this This ooze seems to be on our side, as far as
SPEAKER_00:Benjamin
SPEAKER_02:can tell. Benjamin is manifesting that the ooze is on
SPEAKER_00:our side, and would like to... Slime Tony.
SPEAKER_02:Starts making sounds.
SPEAKER_00:Slime Tony has to stay in. We're adopting Slime Tony.
SPEAKER_02:If
SPEAKER_00:we stay in enough times to make it so, he can't cut it.
SPEAKER_02:You're not going to cut it, but you're not going to get Slime Tony. So the long jump action incorporates a stride and athletics check to make a long jump in the direction that you are striding. Basically, Benjamin is trying to jump the waist, the sewer, the sewer. So it's an
SPEAKER_00:athletics check to make a long jump in the direction that I was striding. So let's see how that works out for me.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, and you'll jump a number of feet horizontally equal to your roll. Round it to the nearest five. Well...
SPEAKER_00:And the DC is... Is the DC 15? The standard DC is 15.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. If you want to re-roll that, you are welcome to. Well, a normal horizontal leap is up to 10 feet horizontally. Does that get me across? I need 15 feet to get across, don't I? Yes. I will use my hero point to re-roll that. So good to have these at the start of the session. And if I
SPEAKER_00:land in the water, that's... Ah, 16! Huzzah!
SPEAKER_02:Perfect. Okay. So you start to jump a little too soon, and then you will... No, one more foot down... Then you make the jump. Kicks right off the very edge of the sewer to land next to Ollie and looks just like he felt the slip. And so the expression is this like, like adrenalized horror that turns into just, just melts into relief as they land.
SPEAKER_00:And then we'll turn
SPEAKER_02:and... I've got my circlet in one hand, in my buckler hand, my longsword is at my hip. I'm going to put
SPEAKER_00:off doing the thaumaturge thing one more time, and I'm going to try to reach out, and does Growl have a collar by any chance?
SPEAKER_02:He's wearing a lot of layers, but you can see kind of underneath all the heavy cloak that he's wearing, and in an attempt to obscure his visage, he does seem to be wearing some kind of doctor's uniform? Oh,
SPEAKER_00:long jump is two
SPEAKER_02:actions. It is two actions.
SPEAKER_00:That's fair. That's fine. I'll still do what I'm doing. I would like to reach out and use my third action to try to grab him, grapple him, specifically.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, make that athletics check. You're going against his fortitude, DC. This is the manual attempt to figure out how his fortitude save is. Oh boy, that's not great. Is it 42 DC 11 by any chance? Believe it or not, no. This guy is, hey, this guy's slippery. He's really slippery. You're learning, you're all realizing in this moment, this man is incredibly slippery. In fact, as you go and grab him and try to grab the scruff of his scrubs, you realize it seems as though he's covered himself in a thin layer of oil.
SPEAKER_00:Ew.
SPEAKER_02:For this exact purpose. Dangerous for someone with so much fire, but that's what he did.
SPEAKER_00:This dude is absolutely slimed up. What the hell? He's literally trying to fry himself. Benjamin
SPEAKER_02:will just sort of like, like he's trying to grapple Grawl, but in practice, he's just kind of patting at him. Oh, that's, um, that's, um, Ollie, I don't think you'll want to touch this one. He's a bit disgusting. Uh, beg your pardon, sir. For some reason, they call me Greasy Grawl. Oh, I did not realize that before now. I should have tried to figure out more about you before I reached out and tried to grapple you. I'm sorry, that was both rude and ill-advised. That's my turn. You should have learned more about me before you ever came after me. And that's your turn. Sabrina, you got Greasy Grawl, a Filth Monster. It's a little lobster that flies. It's a lot going on. The three genders. So you can free action, devise a stratagem, and then decide if you want to use that for a strike or to augment a skill check. Okay. I got a 10, which if I made into an attack roll would be a 17, and I don't know if that would hit this guy. If you'd like, you can make a recall knowledge check, and on success, you can ask for, like, what are his defenses like, and I'll give you the AC. Yeah, can I do that with Expeditious Inspection for free? Yes, you can. You can do multiple free actions a turn. Okay, cool. What's the role there? So for him, that's going to be Society. Give me a Secret Society check. Do I get to add Pursue Elite to this? You may. Yeah, you may. Okay. That is... success okay so i will give you uh one piece of information and i assume you want to know about his defenses looking at him he appears to be wearing over his scrubs studded leather armor and you've already seen that he's pretty dexterous you get two bits of knowledge you can tell that reflex is his best save because he's been very slippery so far and that his ac is 18. Okay, so then I'm going to hit the grabby guy because I'm going to ascend. That's going to be lower. So I'm going to... The homunculus? The little flying lobster? Yeah, I'm going to aim. It will seem cavalier, but it's actually very calculated. I just shoot right at the point and hit the homunculus. Fantastic. Go ahead and you don't have to make an attack roll. That's right. 17 is its AC exactly. So you lift up the cane, take the shot, hit. It's a D4 and a D6. D4 and a D6. That is a good old six damage. Right. Yeah, you pop it right between the eyes. It barbles. Very upset at being shot. You can see there's a clear bullet hole through its head, but it does not seem to have stopped it in any way. As whatever it's made of goes flying off behind it with your bullet. You have two more actions.
SPEAKER_00:Easy come,
SPEAKER_02:easy go. Hey, yeah, I'll toss a bullet into the air and slam it back into my cane. You do a cool reload.
SPEAKER_01:Sola shakes her head.
SPEAKER_02:You don't become and maintain the position of greatest detective in the world by doing things normally. Just definitely the position that Sabina objectively holds, as we know. Yes. 100%. This is fact. 100%. Yes, thank you. What should I do with that last action, gang? Let's see. Here you go. Go ahead. What were you going to say? Okay, I'm going to just throw this there. Could I attempt to use my knowledge of this nasty guy using the underworld lore skill specifically, which I'm trained in? Could I try to use that to demoralize him? No, only because there are other things that augment that action. If there's something you want to do with your third action, I was going to suggest you could, since you've shot, you've reloaded, There's nothing stopping you from recall knowledging multiple times, so you could potentially pick a different target and try to learn about it as well to help share with your allies, such as the filth monster or the homunculus. Would you let me try again on the main guy? Yeah, so yes, you could absolutely do a recall knowledge check with underworld lore, which is irrelevant lore. Doing a recall knowledge on the same creature repeatedly increases the DC, but a specific lore lowers the DC. So it's not outside the realm of possibility. So you can use underworld lore at a fluctuated DC. And you do have two hero points. Why not? I'll go for it. Give me a secret underworld lore check. So what else do you want to know about him? I guess I'd like to know more of his weaknesses. Do I know what damage he's weak to? I feel like that's useful for Benjamin. Yes, so he doesn't have any weaknesses. So if there's going to be a weakness, it's just going to be a weakness to Benjamin. But you know his weakest save is Will. He seems very hot-headed. He's a slippery guy, but he's very hot-headed, and you think you could potentially get to him mentally.
SPEAKER_00:Oh boy, psychic damage.
SPEAKER_02:And that is your turn. I will communicate this
SPEAKER_00:to
SPEAKER_02:my friends by saying, in addition to dropping the box, I don't think my new friend here has got his wits about him. That's my turn. Abby Snarky. All right. Where is the box at this point in time? I know Sabina
SPEAKER_00:pulled it towards herself, but was she able to, like, does Sabina have it now, or is it on
SPEAKER_02:the ground? It is on the ground. She has not picked it up. I guess this is something Yotsu could have done with an interact action.
SPEAKER_00:I forgot that. It's just a couple, just this moment.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so it's still at your feet, Sabrina. You also take one fire damage because you are still on fire. Go ahead and roll a recovery check. It is a flat DC of 15. Dale, you continue to be on fire.
SPEAKER_00:Ouch. Ouch, you guava.
SPEAKER_02:That's not a problem. That's just, that's fine. That's a complicating factor, if any. Okay, Ali, it's you. You have panache.
SPEAKER_00:I have panache. I'm going to go ahead and do an oldie but goodie. I'm going to go ahead and just look again over to Greasy Grawl, scrunch my eyes and say, you better not get any grease on. on this damn scarf, and then I'm gonna whack him. All right. I mean.
SPEAKER_02:Go ahead and make your attack. 21 hits. Okay, oh, sweet.
SPEAKER_00:That is a
SPEAKER_02:total of nine damage. He's immediately looking a lot worse off as you just slash. Yeah, where do you aim the scarf? What are you aiming for?
SPEAKER_00:Preferably a place with the least amount of grease.
SPEAKER_02:The place with the least amount of grease?
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, cool. Yeah, so you just, you slash out and you get him across the shoulder. And it's one hell of a hit. As you cut through all the fabric there and you see blood gushes for a moment. And he exclaims in pain. You have two more actions.
SPEAKER_00:After that, I know I'm going to get the map, but I'm always going to wing around like have the scarf swing around once over his head and then slash the homunculus
SPEAKER_02:okay so hold
SPEAKER_00:on
SPEAKER_02:it has sweep so you actually get a plus one bonus to this attack in addition to that so it's only a minus four instead of a minus five
SPEAKER_00:and I would also like to use my finisher if I can
SPEAKER_02:you can You can absolutely use your finisher. Oh no, just a Nucleus.
SPEAKER_00:Rip
SPEAKER_02:pinching. Alright, go ahead and make your attack.
SPEAKER_00:Rip pinching.
SPEAKER_02:18 hits. Just barely, you hit.
SPEAKER_00:That's just wild that that's a minus 5.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well it's a minus 4. But yeah, you still hit with a plus 2. Very well done. 16 on the die. Go ahead and roll damage with a bonus 2d6 precision.
SPEAKER_00:Damn. And potion. Damage. Damage.
SPEAKER_02:Damage. Yeah, so you fall
SPEAKER_00:through.
SPEAKER_02:So the effect of confident finisher is just if you miss, you still get to do the precision damage. That's right. So that's the benefit. The other benefit is just that you hit and get to do the extra finisher damage. So your finisher It does end, but you do two great strikes on these two enemies, and they're both looking incredibly bad off now, especially the homunculus. You have one action left.
SPEAKER_00:And then for my next trick, oh no, a shove still counts as like an attack-ish.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so it would be with a minus 10, but if you fail to get panache, you only don't get panache on a crit fail.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, I'll do it. I would like to push our friend Grawl into the water, make this fire go out a little
SPEAKER_02:bit. Mm, okay. Uh, yeah, go ahead and give me that FNX check.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think it's gonna work, but I cannot think of anything else to do.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, hey, on a fail, as long as it isn't a crit fail, you at least get FNX for having just the...
SPEAKER_00:I was gonna, I was frantically trying to figure out if this was something that I could aid with.
SPEAKER_02:You'd have to set it up beforehand for an action. So this was a shove against his Fortitude DC. So that is a fail, but guess what you get? FNX.
UNKNOWN:FNX!
SPEAKER_00:Going Super Saiyan yet again. This
SPEAKER_02:is the best. I really appreciate the changes to how the Nash works because now it pays to try something.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I just think it'd be wacky.
SPEAKER_02:And it might work. Alright, that is your turn. It is now his turn.
SPEAKER_00:Oh no.
SPEAKER_02:He is upset because he's very hurt.
SPEAKER_00:As most people are when they're very hurt.
SPEAKER_02:He's going to freak out. and he is going to reach behind him into the big pack that he has on his back grab something from within it and whip out a flamethrower oh with two alchemist fire bottles turned upside down into what seems to be some kind of depository in the flamethrower and he is going to cackle maniacally as he pulls the trigger with two actions i need a reflex save from ollie and benjamin
SPEAKER_00:Is this like a double-barreled shotgun flamethrower situation? Is that what's happening here?
SPEAKER_01:Kind of, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Amazing. Oh no! Benjamin is too busy staring at Ollie in awe. It doesn't even like register that this is happening until it has
SPEAKER_02:already happened. That's
SPEAKER_00:a five. So he whips out
SPEAKER_02:this flamethrower and you see this like this giant lever that he has to like pull back and then shove forward to cause it to like put out the flame. So he just pulls it back strikes it forward. There's a flash of light and then fire. Let me just check. Is this a basic? It is a basic save. So Benjamin, you'll take double this damage. Oh, oh my gosh. Ali, you will take half of this damage. And additionally, Benjamin, you are on fire, taking one persistent fire damage.
SPEAKER_00:All right. Oh, Benjamin.
SPEAKER_02:It's fine. What I will say, though, is I should have given you a hero point before. I will say, I should have given you a hero point before for your long jump. You've all made very interesting moves for this first combat. So if you want to go ahead and use that hero point, you are welcome to. I will take that hero point, but I'm absolutely not using it. This is too delightful. A reroll to try to pass the save. But thank you. Yeah, sure. All good. So that is going to be 12 fire damage to Benjamin and three to Ali. As Ali, you are able to dodge most of the flame and Benjamin takes the front of it. Bop,
SPEAKER_00:drop, and roll, dudes. Bop, drop, and roll. Into the water. Not into the water. Not
SPEAKER_02:this. I don't think that well. I don't have any open wounds currently. The burns are sealed, I think. So
SPEAKER_00:maybe. Maybe.
SPEAKER_02:It's coming after Greasy Grawl. You're not going to make it out of here. None of us are going to make it out of here.
SPEAKER_00:Dude, you're crazy. Knock that off.
SPEAKER_02:I am crazy. That's why they call me... Well, they don't call me that. Whatever. Fuck you. All right. This man is not well. He is not well, no. It's going to be his homunculus' turn, which... Speaking of people who suck well. Yeah, no, he's going to say, Pinchy! Pinchy, just go. Go get the box. Get the box from the girl. Pinchy's going to salute and go off. Bye, Pinchy fly. That's your speed, Pinchy. Opportunity attack. Just kidding. Nope, doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_00:I fully know that. Unless...
SPEAKER_02:Pinchy flies through you all and flutters after Sabrina as one action and then is going to take second action to strike. That is a 20. yeah it hits shockingly okay so uh you need to give me that four to two to save and you will take four piercing damage
SPEAKER_00:just got pinched so messed up
SPEAKER_02:i'm gonna roll that yes worse Worse, but not a crit fail. Wait. Nope, it doesn't have any poison because it didn't refill its poison. You're fine. I missed that it needs to refill its poison as an interact action. So you just get pinched for four damage, and then it is going to grab the box as an interact action. And that is its turn. Sola, from way downtown.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. Everyone's getting pinched and burned. Save us, Sola. Well, I'll certainly try. I will certainly try. Save our Solas. I'm just gonna shoot this guy. I'll try.
SPEAKER_02:He's in fact not doing terribly hot. That
SPEAKER_01:is
SPEAKER_02:a hit. Go ahead and roll damage. I think for you that's 2d8 damage. An
SPEAKER_01:8.
SPEAKER_02:Oh! Buddy is doing a lot worse. Yeah, you nail him in a vital point. You break the grease trap he has strapped to his back as the arrow embeds itself just inches from his spine. Dude, knock it off.
SPEAKER_01:All right, I'll knock it off. Ah, shit, that hurt. I'll knock it off. I'll stop. Hmm. I don't know if I trust this dude. He's got a lot of slime on him. I'll stop. I don't
SPEAKER_02:want to die. Hmm. You can make a sense motive check. Ooh, what is that? What? That's going to be a perception check against his deception DC. See if you can figure out what he really means, what he really wants to do. It's a one action activity.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it's an action to do that? Yeah, it's an action. Well, it's not like I'm doing much else. Let me just do my... Let's do this and then I'll see if I shoot at something else. Does hunted shot have to be the same target?
SPEAKER_02:So your hunted shot specifically has to be at your hunted prey.
SPEAKER_00:Oh. Yeah, I'll do a perception.
SPEAKER_02:Give me that perception check. See if you can figure out his vibe. Okay, so you just need to beat his Deception DC. Wow. Which is... You do. You do beat his Deception DC. So, he seems genuine. He is in a lot of pain. He is behaving normally and about the way that you would expect. He looks really bad. You think he's at a point where another hit will do him in and he is surrendering.
SPEAKER_00:You gonna drop your weapon, dude? Drop that weird flamethrower?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, man. Yeah, man. I'll stop. I'll stop. Just don't shoot me again.
SPEAKER_01:Give me back all the stuff I stole. What?
SPEAKER_00:Wait, you said he's gonna give it back?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:What do we think, guys?
SPEAKER_02:There's a certain elegance to taking someone alive, is there not?
SPEAKER_01:That's a fucking scary thing to say.
SPEAKER_00:You think our new friend knows about that? Benjamin says, looking at the giant pile of slime and viscera that was recently attempting to consume Growl alive. Is there like a non-lethal shot? No, right?
SPEAKER_02:No, there's not a non-lethal shot. You can melee attack someone non-lethally to knock them unconscious.
SPEAKER_01:I can't get close enough.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I can do it. He's going to surrender. If you accept his surrender in this moment, that will be combat, basically.
SPEAKER_00:Sola puts her bow down. I could have broken your spine, dude.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I did want that to happen. All right, let's just talk about this. Yeah, so we are going to come out of initiative as Grawl takes some dust out of his pocket. and sprinkles it on the slime. And much like a slug, when exposed to an overabundance of salt, it shrivels away just as easily as he brought it into the world.
SPEAKER_00:Benjamin would
SPEAKER_02:like to reach
SPEAKER_00:out and
SPEAKER_02:take the
SPEAKER_00:packet of dust, salt, question mark, dust, from him.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. He gives it to you. It's half empty.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Is this a packet of salt?
UNKNOWN:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:I just added it to my esoterica.
SPEAKER_02:You can add a bag of salt to your esoterica. Half empty bag of salt. Benjamin tucked it very carefully in a pouch and then remembers that he's on fire and would like to stop, drop, and roll.
SPEAKER_00:Away from the sewer, I cannot specify clearly enough.
SPEAKER_02:No, yeah, you're good. You guys can, both Sabrina and Benjamin, you guys can easily get your water skins out. Because you've been here for hours waiting for this guy. You had water and stuff with you. You can just put yourselves out with the water. Greasy Grawl is going to sit on the bridge with his homunculus. up the box with one arm. Sabrina's going to skip with a spring in her step over to her good friend Benjamin, who she knows is about to die. Her is very low on health.
SPEAKER_00:Alright, I'm quite alright. I'm sure I'll be fine as soon as I catch my breath. She
SPEAKER_02:says, oh no, no need to wait for that, my dear friend, and like still keeping her hand on the box. It's
SPEAKER_00:just that the burns are rather numb right now and I know that as soon as you start trying to heal them I will feel that and it will not be pleasant but um all right
SPEAKER_02:whoever said healing had to be pleasant and like we'll bite off a piece of gauze and like stretch it all in one and then i will do a medicine check to try to help dear friend benjamin
SPEAKER_00:so let's watch it so disappointingly it doesn't
SPEAKER_02:happen yeah you're that medicine check to do uh tree towards While you're taking this time to patch up Benjamin, because it's going to take like 10 minutes, you guys can talk to Grawl about whatever you might want to ask him about. I'd pursue a lead to this. No, because it's not... Your case is solved now. You have caught him. Oh, okay. That's a success. So 2d8 healing.
SPEAKER_00:Why are you doing this? Why are you taking people's stuff? Not just like any stuff, like stuff that means a lot to people. That's just not cool.
SPEAKER_02:I was just doing what I was... hire to do you know i got a i got a i got a message from a guy it's like hey greasy girl go hoist some things and i took them and i had them and then he gave me that case told me to throw it in the throw it in the sewer so i threw it in the sewer or he wanted he wanted it to go out to the gray sea He wanted it out of you.
SPEAKER_00:That is so bizarre. You just took a- Do you even know who the guy is? I
SPEAKER_02:just know he gives me- He gives me stuff in exchange for other people's stuff.
SPEAKER_00:How did he reach out to you?
SPEAKER_02:I had the letter in my mailbox. Did you happen to have one of these letters on you? Not on me, but I can get it for you. Your cooperation in this is not really optional at this point. Well, no, but you're all a bunch of violent maniacs.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. You took out a flamethrower. What are you talking about? You're not much different.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not saying I'm not a violent maniac. I'm also a violent maniac. Yes, I'm a violent maniac, but I'm mostly a thief. Okay? And I'm not used to... You know, it hasn't really been until y'all started... You all started poking around. Hasn't really been anybody trying to, like, stop theft and such. So I just... I don't know. I thought... If you're goody-goody enough to not want people to steal, you might be goody-goody enough to not just straight kill a guy. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:so you want to be
SPEAKER_00:killed?
SPEAKER_02:No! I can tell you're willing to do it. I don't want that. I don't want that smoke. I like being alive.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you should turn over a new leaf, dude, because if you start this up again, we will come for you. Oh, God! Um, excuse me.
SPEAKER_01:Uh-huh?
SPEAKER_00:Benjamin, who was sitting on the ground and has sort of been just sort of staring at the ground with his jaw set, stoically enduring Sabrina's medical care. Well now sort of like lift his chin just enough to like sort of look through his floppy floppy bangs at Grawl and sort of in his most genuine and sincere self. Please pardon my associates. We're not, I swear
SPEAKER_02:we're not really violent maniacs. I'm sure we can work this out. I would like to make an impression. Yeah, go ahead and give me a diplomacy check. I'd like to butter this individual up a wee little bit. Normally, someone you fought near death would be unfriendly towards you, but he's indifferent. Delightful. Benjamin is also fidgeting, running in that circle through his hand, further distracts himself from the pain of being healed. 21? 21 is a success.
SPEAKER_00:And so you see, we're all just well well
SPEAKER_02:it's this is um well this is the place sort of place that it is and we're just sort of all the sort of people that live in a place like
SPEAKER_00:this one is um and we all are well acquainted with the sort of people that live in a place like this and what you have to do to get get along since we all certainly have lived here for some time um and we're just i'm sure we can all work together here uh you can bring us that letter and also all the things that you stole and um
SPEAKER_02:like starts glancing around at the others to see like Benjamin is certain that there's supposed to be a third thing here and he can't quite figure out what it should be a third ask
SPEAKER_00:and maybe tell us promise us never to do it again I
SPEAKER_02:won't steal again and I'll get you what you're looking for well that's nice that's very nice I think that's very nice isn't it like again sort of looking at the other the rest of the the other detectives
SPEAKER_00:sorry for getting so mad dude you just took out a flamethrower and i don't know that just kind of set me off it's all right it's good to share your share your we're just having good open communication here i appreciate you for sharing your thoughts did you make it
SPEAKER_01:yeah
SPEAKER_00:that's
SPEAKER_01:pretty awesome dude not gonna lie
SPEAKER_02:yeah i like i like bombs and
SPEAKER_00:A little dangerous, but I'm sure people who do mining might find a use for that. Probably. Or demolition.
SPEAKER_02:Alright, so I'll stop my life of crime, y'all let me go, and you won't hear from Greasy Grawl anymore, and I'll become Good Guy Grawl, and it won't be a problem.
SPEAKER_00:As much as I'd like to believe you, because, oh, look at me, I did the same thing. I don't. And Ollie's going to turn to Benjamin. So boss permission to follow. Do you mean giving up your life of crime and becoming good guy? Ollie doesn't have quite the same thing to it, but I'm sure we can. Or is that did you mean more literally follow? Or literally follow.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, well, I'm not the... No, I guess I am the boss of you. Technically. Yeah, you hired her. I did. I did definitely hire all of you. Yes, do that, please. That sounds like an excellent idea. Could I compare the information he gave, how you roll underworld lore, to see if that matches up with anything that I know? Or rather, how it doesn't match up? The thing that Sabrina's immediately thinking is that this sounds like the Meister of Pain doing something instead of a criminal organization because this has no criminal benefit. But could I do a recall knowledge to compare that? Yeah, give me underworld lore, secret underworld lore check, and I'll tell you what you know. With that role, this does not sound like the Pain Demon, the Meister of Grief. It does not sound like that entity. It also does not sound like any kind of organized crime that you're aware of. Sounds like there might be someone new getting up to stuff, and perhaps that's something you can pursue a lead about in the future. Back open yet another case. I'll pick up the lockbox and then stop getting in the way of all these cool things. You're good. Ali, you can follow him. But this effectively spells the end of this scene. Grawl is incredibly cooperative. Because, again, he wants to be alive. Gives you all of the sentimental items he had not yet delivered. And gives to you some of the letters that he received from this mysterious patron. Each of these letters, just at a cursory glance, before you can really devote more time to really trying to decode them or, you know, match handwriting or anything like that. The main thing that stands out to you about these letters is that they're all written in a different hand.
SPEAKER_00:Like each one from the others?
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Interesting. They're all written in a different hand and from just like a squiggly symbol as the sender.
SPEAKER_00:Is it the same squiggly symbol on each one, even though the hands are different, or is it just like sort of everything? Okay.
SPEAKER_02:The symbol is the only thing consistent. Each letter tells him, basically, it's kind of like, find a beloved family portrait and bring it to this area of the city. Find someone's beloved childhood toy and stash it here, and things like that. Is it like find this specific portrait? I don't know why I'm asking these questions. Benjamin doesn't have the intelligence to do anything with it. But Hannah wants to know, is it like find John Doe's beloved family portrait? Or is it just like find, is it literally find a book? Here's the type, but you do this. Okay, interesting, thank you.
SPEAKER_00:And is it different places, different drop places each time? There are
SPEAKER_02:different drop sites each time.
SPEAKER_00:Are they clustered at all?
SPEAKER_02:That's something you'd have to do a greater investigation to discover. These are just the things, you know, just at a glance. Benjamin is going to hand over a business card and tell Grawl that I do have a friend who is an alchemist of sorts and I might be able to put you in touch. You might be able to use your skills in a less horrifying manner if you were interested in such a thing. So basically an offer of a future connection, potentially. Excellent. Are there any further questions about this situation? Can I roll a check on the squiggle? Do I recognize it? Yeah. Okay, yeah. Give me a underworld lore or occultism.
SPEAKER_00:I don't have underworld lore, but from beating up the shady folks that Ali used to beat up, would I also be able to make a check?
SPEAKER_02:Give me a pitch.
SPEAKER_00:So when Sola found Ollie, he used to be out and about trying to check the more seedier places, more like underground places for black spot cures. Would he possibly have come across anything like this?
SPEAKER_02:Okay, that's going to be a society check, secret society check. Because of who Sabrina is, I'm going to choose a cult. I'm going to designate this as one of my pursual leads so I can get that bonus again. Figuring out who is paying for all. And also, also, I'm going to clue in Ollie on Ollie's check. So Ollie gets a plus one to that.
SPEAKER_00:There is
SPEAKER_02:free for all of the call knowledge going on. I would love to get in on that. Of course. I
SPEAKER_00:also want to roll.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, feel free. Anything relevant.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I forgot. Um, planar rift at all? Does that help at all? That's
SPEAKER_02:not relevant, no. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, dang it. I had a plus three occultism.
SPEAKER_02:It's fine. So looking at those rolls, looking at my TC's table...
SPEAKER_00:I have dubious knowledge if that's relevant.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, fuck yes. Dubious knowledge could
SPEAKER_00:be relevant. It may or may not be relevant. Who can say?
SPEAKER_02:If it's a crit fail, it's not, right?
SPEAKER_00:I think... I think that's correct. Let's double check hypothetically.
SPEAKER_02:When you fail, but don't critically fail or recall knowledge using any skill, you learn the correct answer and an erroneous answer. Crit fail does not, dubious knowledge is not an effect. It is just a standard recall knowledge crit fail. If that is hypothetically what happened. So none of you recognize this symbol. This is new to you. This is something you're going to have to learn more about with time. However, Benjamin.
UNKNOWN:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:You do not recognize this symbol. You don't have a conscious idea of what this symbol represents, but something in the back of your mind does recognize this symbol. And you know that it designates an individual. You do not know that individual, but this is someone's call sign.
SPEAKER_01:You know
SPEAKER_02:that for certain. You don't know who. You believe that all of these letters do come from the same source.
SPEAKER_00:Delightful. So I don't recognize it, but I believe that I know sort of what its purpose is. This is, I, well, I'm sure we all can tell that this is, in fact, a consistent symbol and that the,
SPEAKER_02:whatever's going on here, these all do come from the same source. Benjamin says with as much confidence as he can muster. Um, yeah. And so we will end that little thread there. You can all take. And we'll be right back after the break. It's been a few days since we solved the Greasy Grawl case. Such a funny name. Grawl has since returned the stolen goods that were not already collected by this mysterious patron, who I guess you can call whatever you'd like because you don't know who they are. Mystery Man. Mystery Man, there we go. Yeah. So, and Grawl seems to have resumed work whatever activities he was previously up to that were not necessarily crime. There's no real formal policing in Lacrima. There is a loose idea of if you do something bad enough, like murder or assault, like a violent crime, you are judged before a council and you are able to defend yourself. or get someone to defend you against those who accuse you of said deed. But since this was just minor theft, really, you let Groff go. So it's been a few days. You are back at the agency. Nothing's really happened in the intervening days. You haven't received any more cases for some time. You did get an article on the third page of the paper. of the Lacrima Times. So that's nice. You had to look at that. If you wanted to, you could put it up on a wall.
SPEAKER_00:What does it say? Is it pictures? Is it descriptions? What does it say? Is it flattering? Is it accurate?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so underneath an advertisement for a local bakery is a small column devoted entirely to your escapades. And the headline reads, Violent maniacs apprehend Greasy Grawl. Sentimental thief.
SPEAKER_00:Violent maniacs. I mean, accurate. We didn't make your pardon. I mean, we did kind of go in and beat him up. To be fair, it should be equitable. Some of us did not. Good point. I missed the first few shots. I also missed...
SPEAKER_02:According to the article, you all cornered him on a bridge and beat him within an inch of his life. But he's turned himself around, so round of applause for, and they actually got your name right this time, Ichabod's Eyes Investigation.
SPEAKER_00:Any Benjamin is audibly trying it out. Any publicity is good publicity. And looks around to see if that's correct. It depends. Silence
SPEAKER_02:speaks volumes.
SPEAKER_00:I guess if people know us, they know if they need someone beat up, they can come to us, but that's not necessarily what I want to do. Well, on the bright side at least, people out there doing bad stuff will know not to come after us, maybe? You know? Or want to hire us to do more violence. That's a good point. I have some people, if we do that, I have some people that I absolutely cannot, that we cannot say yes to. They're gonna be upset. I have an out-of-character question, which is, do we, I assume Sola knows about Ali's life of crime. Has that previous life of crime, is that common, can you remind me, is that common knowledge to the other, to the rest of the group? Was that on his resume? I feel like that, I feel like that was on his resume. Nicely. Yeah. Security. Expert in Larceny. That's right. That's true. I think I will go put this up on my wall as both a demonstration of our effectiveness and reach, and also a reminder to be discerning in our effectiveness in Beach. Good job, everyone. Well done. Violence next time? You want less violence, or...? I think it depends on context. Okay. Less violent maniac. At least. Maybe. Methodical violence. Okay. Let me go ask the boss, and he's gonna go off to find Ms. Marple Ichabod. Like, he's not actually gonna ask her anything. Um... but he just needs to sit down and pet the cat for a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you go over. You all have been having your morning coffee or tea or whatever you want to drink or not drink in your shared, like, mess space here at the agency. Your own building owned by one Benjamin Blaze that you all have taken up to both living in and working out of. Spacious space. A six-bedroom home with a kitchen and a large foyer that has been converted into a proper office for taking in anyone looking to hire you to speak with them there and meet with them there, as well as your own personal offices slash bedrooms and a general mess hall that you can enjoy food at.
SPEAKER_00:Every home aspires to have.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, the shared home all friends desire to have. You're co-workers who are kind of friends. Yeah, so you're all enjoying your morning drinks. And Benjamin, as you head to your office, which is in the direction of Miss Marple, all of you can see Miss Ichabod Marple herself, your little catfish, who looks like a blend between an adorable orange cat. Gamut cat. She is a salmon cat.
SPEAKER_00:With weirdly soft scales
SPEAKER_02:all over is what I have in my notes. Yes, she is a catfish, this being one of the unique fauna to Lacrymaculch. A blend between a cat and a fish. With webbed paws and many rows of sharp teeth and scales resembling fur. Just this adorable little red kitty purrs as you pet her scales. And they do kind of like those pillows where you can just kind of go up and down them and the color changes. Her scales do very similar with that.
SPEAKER_00:And she looks
SPEAKER_02:quite pleased.
SPEAKER_00:Benjamin sits down in this comfy chair in the office and invites Miss Marple Ichabod up into their lap and pats her and scritches under her chin and says, Sometimes I don't think I'm very good at this.
UNKNOWN:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:And then she's petting the cat, who I assume doesn't respond unless you're about to surprise me. No, she purrs selfishly. Oh. Enjoying being pet. I find this
SPEAKER_00:reassuring.
SPEAKER_02:But as you are sitting in your comfy chair in your, you know, very formal, professional-looking office, you can see out of your western window, oh my, there's someone at the door. Oh.
SPEAKER_00:There's someone at the door.
SPEAKER_02:And all of you here, after a moment of knocking.
SPEAKER_00:What is this someone? Can I see this someone? You can.
SPEAKER_02:Looking out the window, you see a light-skinned human woman with brilliant gray eyes. You can kind of see it just as you look up close to your window to investigate this stranger. She is by herself. She has a completely... shaved head, and she is wearing what looks to be a suit of bone armor.
SPEAKER_00:You can
SPEAKER_02:actually see from the angle you're at, so it's this armor that's just a bunch of interlocking bone plates that you know, now recognizing her as a champion, you know was grown over the course of her life from her first lost baby tooth, which you can kind of faintly see imprinted in the right pauldron of her armor.
SPEAKER_01:So cool.
SPEAKER_02:She has a heavy-looking... bone hammer on her hip. Hey, she's knocking on your door. Looking very formal, very champion-y. Benjamin will attempt to stand up and very gently put Miss Marple Ichabod on the
SPEAKER_00:comfortable chair.
SPEAKER_02:She digs her claws into your legs.
SPEAKER_00:How dare you think you can get up when there's a cat? Benjamin will be here for some time trying to gently extract this cat so I hope somebody else is planning to answer
SPEAKER_02:the door. Someone else will have to get the door. With too much confidence, Sabrina bursts in, probably having Drugg, Sola, and Ollie behind her, because these are her favorite days, or the days when people come in. Yeah, you head into the proper office reception area. Spurs the door open, and says to the champion, Welcome to Ichabod's Eyes Detective Agency. I'm Sabrina Izzo, and here are my associates. This is Ternasola... Elion Valeroy. Sabrina says it correctly. Valeroy. And Olvidar Sinadaria. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. You open the door to your reception area, which is very well decorated with these light blue corner couches, these dark wood tables for people to sit things on. You have a number of trophies on display between two windows on the western side. And then, of course, a big desk. for properly meeting with people when, you know, you're actually expecting guests and have someone on shift to receive them. And then there's a nice, very much unused piano, as well as bookshelves lighting the far wall. And then there's a little bed for Miss Marple, as well as a little pool for Miss Marple to swim in. Yeah, as you open the door and allow this woman to enter, she gives you a big polite smile, and then... interlocks her thumbs facing palm outward, and then curls her fingers in what resembles a rib cage, and gives you all a nod, giving you the proper greeting of champions of the rib divine, what you know to be the absolutely massive superstructure that is the exposed ribs of the planet, in which a lot of very religious people gather and live inside. So she seems to be connected to that particular order in one way or another. And she says, hail and well met. It's wonderful to finally get to meet you all. I've been kind of hearing about your agency for some time. I think I'm actually kind of getting ahead of myself. I think I skipped my name. My name is Valerosa. I am an official agent. neo-champion of the Ribbed Divine, and I have an exciting proposition for you all.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, we'd love to hear it.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, I was really waiting to see whether you wanted to hear it or you did not want to hear it, because if you didn't want to hear it, that would be kind of an end to this whole conversation. But I'm glad to hear you want to hear it. So, man, I don't have any of my things that I showed to the council. Okay, I think... That this world could use a bit more structure. A lot of things are pretty loosey-goosey. And Lacrima is one of those places where things are kind of the looseiest-gooseiest. And so I've had an idea recently for a way that people could do things. I've been hearing about you all and the work that you're doing, and you seem to be good people. And I learned recently that you all stopped a criminal who was stealing people's stuff. and you let them go, which is fine. That's what you guys do here. That's completely fine. What I'm here to try to do, and I would love your help to do it, I've already gotten permission from, you know, the people in charge of LACRMA, but I think it could really help if we work together, is I want to start kind of formalizing the process of rehabilitation for violent criminals. Does that make sense? What about cops? Yes, she is going to get being cops. She is a cop, which I know how we all feel about that. But you guys are completely... Your characters have never heard of this. The idea of a police force has never been heard of. This is a new thing that she wants to try. She continues and she says, Yes, so the way that it would basically work is... find out that something's going on. We don't do anything to stop that. Our job continues to be to deal with just, you know, curses and rot and things like that. But when it comes to matters of dealing with people or anything you find in your investigations, basically, if Lacryma, or starting just with Lacryma, if Lacryma decides that someone would normally face, you know, exile or banishment, or I know that you're all very fond of a victim chooses the punishment. Instead of doing any of that, you relinquish said individuals to us, and we take them to rehabilitation facilities where we can try to put any talents they may have to better use. You don't have to say yes or no right now. I just wanted to come by and give you some paper that I meant to bring with me but forgot to. So I'll bring that by again later.
SPEAKER_00:A rush? Did you get chased out?
SPEAKER_02:No! No, chased? Out of where? No, I'm just... I've been... If I'm being completely honest, I was really nervous about doing this. Like, all last night. So I didn't really sleep. And then I just kind of came here. And I forgot a lot of what I had prepped.
SPEAKER_00:You had an ADHD-ass moment. Oh my god, that's for a woman. Do you want some tea or something? Did you have breakfast?
SPEAKER_02:No, I haven't eaten. I would love some tea, actually.
SPEAKER_00:I was gonna go get this woman some tea.
SPEAKER_02:Can I try to sense motive here? Yeah, give me a secret perception check. Sabrina's going to keep quiet, and then I'm maybe trying to nudge Ollie into taking point while she just watches.
SPEAKER_00:While I'm getting the tea, can I also tell... I see you're trapped by the cat, Benjamin. I think you would want to listen to what this lady's saying. I do. Oh,
SPEAKER_02:it's not so much that I'm trapped, it's just that I'm trying to convince her to let me stand up and she doesn't want to.
SPEAKER_00:You could try crab walking, maybe. I beg your pardon? What if I just bring her with? GM, is Ms. Marple Ichabod amenable to being carried?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, actually, she is willing to be carried. She likes to sit on people's shoulders.
SPEAKER_00:I should have thought of that eight to ten minutes ago. Thank you for rescuing me, Sola. Well, that's all right. I probably was due for a trip. Benjamin will follow Sola to get the brief, Frank. Y'all will walk in on Ollie just asking, like, a lot of weirdly defensive questions. Like... So where are these people going to be taken? You said that they're going to be taken to you all for rehabilitation. Like, what does that mean? Why specifically y'all? Why did you come by yourself? This seems really important for one person to make sure it gets done, especially in like a city full of criminals. That's kind of weird. And just like a bunch of questions said with no tact whatsoever.
SPEAKER_02:Just give me a diplomacy check to see how she responds. I'd like to clue in to get a meaty plus one. This one's are legitimately meaty in Pathfinder.
SPEAKER_00:I will take whatever I can get. Benjamin starts to go sit on the couch and then realizes he should go sit behind the table,
SPEAKER_02:the
SPEAKER_00:desk, and does that.
SPEAKER_02:That's 16. All right. So this was basically just to make an impression. Cool. So with a 16, she listens to you. Here's what she has to say. She's willing to answer your questions. And she says, wow, it's really good that you're thinking about that kind of stuff. Obviously, I've also thought about this kind of stuff, but I'm happy to see that I came to the right people. When I say to us, we're not going to take them away from Lacrima. We actually have a place here. made for us here, where we can kind of try to just work with these people once you've apprehended them to determine what they should do next, basically. Basically, we've already kind of talked to the council. And if you take anyone, if you manage to apprehend anyone else who's done like a pretty heinous crime, we will be working with them if they determine, you know, what the best course of action is for people. It's just an attempt to help people who are violent have a second chance Or do something particularly bad. Have like a second option or a second chance. Because it's better to have more people doing good in the world than less people. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00:What happens if they royally mess up that second chance? What happens then?
SPEAKER_02:We can just keep them away from the general public where they can't hear anybody.
SPEAKER_00:Out of character, don't we already kind of do that?
SPEAKER_02:You do, but you gotta send them somewhere else. They're not, like, you know, in a solitary place where they're kept. They, like, just get sent away. Which means they could potentially become someone else's problem. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Banished.
SPEAKER_02:Um.
SPEAKER_00:It sucks. Get them out of here.
SPEAKER_02:Now, she does say, again, just something to think about when things happen again. We will be involved. And I wanted to talk to you because you're kind of the only people making an active effort to do anything that I've seen. which I appreciate. I think that's great of you. So I just, I wanted to, I just wanted to touch base and get in contact because we're going to be seeing a lot of each other in the future, probably, unless you all stop doing this, in which case, well, that's a shame. It was nice to meet you all. Do have to run. Thank you for the tea. She puts down her tea. It's been not a sip, has been drank. You
SPEAKER_00:didn't drink any.
SPEAKER_02:Huh?
SPEAKER_00:You didn't drink any. Okay, well, um... If you run around without any... thing in your stomach, you're going to be doing a lot worse.
SPEAKER_02:She suddenly snatches up the cup and just downs it.
SPEAKER_00:It clearly
SPEAKER_02:burns on the way down, but she does not flinch.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for
SPEAKER_02:the tea. Please think about it. I look forward to seeing you all in the future. Goodbye. And she leaves.
SPEAKER_00:That's wild. Oh, I just had a thought. Can I follow her? Benjamin is going to wonder something out loud that Ollie may or may not be interested in. Oh.
SPEAKER_02:Benjamin will wonder it out loud and Ollie, then you make your call and Ollie does or does not move towards the door. Benjamin just sitting there with sort of furrowed brow slowly forming
SPEAKER_00:the thought that he was trying to think through as the whole like, what do you mean you didn't drink any tea? exchange what's going on. And he just sort of says out loud to no one to care. But, like, looking at Ollie's general direction, can't people who want a second chance already get it? Already take one for themselves? If they want one? Is that not a thing? Isn't that what we do here? We do a lot of stuff here. That's a really good point. I mean, I'm here. So... I just don't fathom. I cannot fathom why...
SPEAKER_02:Obviously. Obviously. So, it is at this point
SPEAKER_00:I think that...
SPEAKER_02:It is at this point, I think, that Sabrina finishes her thought about this person and what she came to talk about and gets that sense motive. And what you get with a very good secret role, you get an idea of her true intentions, which is that this wasn't a conversation, like it was posed as a conversation of I can't wait to work with you. But what you realize after the conversation is and getting some more time to talk about it with your associates and really digest it. It isn't that you're going to be working together. It's that if you continue, if you guys continue to do your investigator stuff and get increasingly involved in a number of things, you're going to be seeing a lot more of her because, well, she can be either a useful resource or something of a antagonist. Depending on what you want, For your agency, she's going to be a boon or a pain in the ass. This meeting was basically to let you know that she's going to be a part of your lives going forward.
SPEAKER_00:Who invited her here? She didn't even want to drink the tea.
SPEAKER_01:Crazy.
SPEAKER_02:And just so you know, Jeff, you got a nat 20.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Hero point?
SPEAKER_02:Hero point.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I so appreciate Anna at a point.
SPEAKER_00:Nice to be able to channel my bossiness into something useful. Well, you are our boss. I am definitely your boss. You're looking out the wrong
SPEAKER_02:window. He wants to do
SPEAKER_01:anything? He
SPEAKER_02:wants to do anything about her or let sleeping bulldogs lie? Ollie, it looked like you were thinking of maybe moving towards the door before I interrupted you by expressing thoughts aloud. Sorry about that. Were you going somewhere?
SPEAKER_00:No, it's okay. So I was going to follow her, but now that... Did Sabrina tell us what she kind of Mind Palace figured out? Yes. Okay. Well, now that, to tell you the truth, I'm kind of grateful for that because now that Sabrina just told us that, I don't know if I want to mess with her. I don't know if I want to get on her bad side, at least just yet. I don't know what we're dealing with or going to be dealing with. So I'd rather not. So thank you. Benjamin lights up. Literally unlike some of you, just metaphorically. in our hearts. Do we know anything about bone people?
SPEAKER_02:Give me secret religion checks to see what you know about the Rib Divine.
SPEAKER_00:I was also wondering that. Can I give you a relevant lore?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, what do you have? Is it esoteric? Is it esoteric with a minus two penalty?
SPEAKER_00:How did you guess? Is it secret?
SPEAKER_02:It is secret. Recall knowledge is usually secret. I feel better than my religion. Secret, secret. Oops. It's easy enough to know what the Rib Devine is. The Rib Devine is primarily a holy site, but also the group for, like the name for, a group of people who live at, kind of worship this holy site. Years ago, there was some excavation of the corpse planet. And when they got deep enough in the flesh, they actually discovered the tip of one of the planet's ribs. At least six spires that greatly resembled ribs. And now there's a vast system of catacombs within said ribs. So they declared it a holy site, as we know it as the adherence, declared it a holy site, carved the bone into a massive city-state, while doing their best to not damage the ribs too much. And now... A lot of those people gather there to kind of worship the planet itself. That's what all of you would know.
SPEAKER_00:Is this holy site within or near Lacrima, or is this distant?
SPEAKER_02:You'd have to, yeah, it's pretty distant. Basically, you would know that to get here, she had to cross a lot of land and then take a boat across the Grey Sea to get to Lacrima. The Rib Divine is its own kind of like... It's a much smaller country than Zinra, but it is on the mainland, away from you. Additionally, Ali and Sabrina, you know that the adherents of the Rib Divine have particular religious beliefs that line up well with the behavior you saw from this woman. Adherents believe that, to put it simply, They believe that magic is math, to greatly simplify it. But the gist of it is they think there are very strict rules to the way that divine magic works. That is, magic using bones, the bones of the planet. And they think that following those rules are ultimately important, and that there are certain structures and rules in place on a fundamental level that must be adhered to For the proper functioning of everything. And any kind of violation of those rules can send the entire system into disarray. And who determines those rules? Well, I'll give you one guess. But they claim that it is absolute. And it's truth.
SPEAKER_01:It's on the bone. Some people live on the meat.
SPEAKER_02:Some people live on the meat. Some people live in the great growth of Greenhaven, where there's plenty of Flora to explore.
SPEAKER_00:That's me, haha.
SPEAKER_02:Used to, yeah. But yeah, so they very much seem like they are very much the kind of people who want to go into a place and create a structure there. That seems to be what she's trying to do. Which might not sit well with your anarchist tendencies.
SPEAKER_00:Girl, you came to Anarchy Town and tried to make rules? What are you doing? You're gonna get killed.
SPEAKER_02:That also strikes you as... something uh with that critical success sabrina i didn't expect you to uncover this so quickly she is not naive she's not carrying herself like someone as awkward as she behaves do you think that to a degree that was a performance to a degree is it a fair um is it a fair assumption that There's got to be a degree of institutional heft behind her, right? This isn't an individual person. This is someone working. This is the tip of an institutional spear. That is the impression you get. It's a very friendly face at the end of an institutional spear. That's a good way to put it. Something to be aware of. While you consider that and what that might mean for you going forward, You do hear another, much smaller knock at the door. And Benjamin, as you sit behind the desk, you do see that you are actually penciled in for a meeting today. At about this time.
SPEAKER_00:Oh. Whose handwriting is this?
SPEAKER_02:It's not handwriting at all. It's actually type print from the typewriter of the fifth member of Ichabod's
SPEAKER_00:Eye.
UNKNOWN:Oh!
SPEAKER_00:That makes
SPEAKER_02:sense. Your accountant slash secretary slash security guard. Awesome. He's so organized. I don't know how we get anything done without him. All the information is written out, but you notice a distinct lack of ease. Ease? Like the letter E? Like the letter E, almost as though his E key is missing. I'm sure he likes it that way. Is Ms. Marple still on my shoulder?
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Would someone mind getting the door? I'm afraid that if I stand up, she will claw out my eyes. But I'm still using them. That's probably a good call. I've seen her do it. Can I sense motive?
SPEAKER_02:Miss Marple, no sense motive necessary. Miss Marple looks at you intently.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I meant on Ollie. Oh, on Ollie. I never doubted Miss Marple Ichabod for a second. I just wanted to know if Ollie was with me. Ollie's fully choking.
UNKNOWN:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Has a very, has a very playable look on his
SPEAKER_02:face. Benjamin smiles and looks away, but not too quickly, so as not to get his eyes caught out. Scratches her under his chin. Does anyone get the door? Uh, yeah, Sabrina will. Excellent.
SPEAKER_00:Best detective in the world, of
SPEAKER_02:course. Standing at the door, as you open it, is a very small elven woman. with a green bell and dark green tentacles for hair her skin is a pale green as well so she just kind of has this this look about her and kind of a glassy sheen to her and these big massive blue eyes that just look deep enough that you could drown in them she stands about four foot ten looks very genuinely nervous and shaken And she says, this is the agency, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, come in.
SPEAKER_02:She comes in. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. What do you go by? Putting her hand forward to shake it.
SPEAKER_01:My name is
SPEAKER_02:Clover. Nice to meet you. She does not shake your hand, but instead pulls her, like, moss-grown cardigan tighter around her shoulders. She says, I need your help. with what I think is a very unusual missing persons.
SPEAKER_01:You
SPEAKER_02:see my companion, we were hyphenated. My companion has been, and everyone who wants to can roll like elven lore or society to know what the hell hyphenated means.
SPEAKER_00:I guess
SPEAKER_02:there's no need for you to roll elven lore, you know what hyphenated means. Yeah, so hyponated means that they stick together and maintain some sort of relationship across all of their incarnations. So elves in this setting as upon death dematerialize and their spores travel to their spawning stones where they are birthed again and anew as identical individuals. And hyponating is when two elves who have formed some kind of powerful relationship choose to move their spawning stones in close proximity so that whenever one of them dies, the other can be there to continue to be with them. This relationship can take on many forms. It's not romantic, it's not familial, and it isn't friendship. It's something wholly unique to elves. So it's an incredibly meaningful relationship to have. is what you would know. I'm willing to pay up front if you would just come with me. It's hard to explain, but I think that my partner is missing and maybe dead, but I'm not sure. So if you would help, I'd greatly appreciate it. Could I roll a cinch motive on her? Yes, you may. Sorry for Yon. That is not important, Yon. That is identity. So yeah, you sense motive. Nothing about her strikes you as unusual. She's acting like someone who is greatly concerned for someone important to them.
SPEAKER_00:Because while all the figuring out and everything is going on, because Ollie is very familiar with what this means, he is going to... I assume she said it?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, she's taking a seat.
SPEAKER_00:just kind of sit down next to her and just completely sincerely say, I am deeply sorry for your loss. Being hyphenated is not something you always come by and it's very hard to find.
SPEAKER_02:So that's, I appreciate that, but that's kind of why I've come to you. If they were just dead, That, you know, I would just wait. But they're not quite dead. But they're not here. Like I said, it's hard to explain. If you would just come with me, I could show you.
SPEAKER_00:Wait, you know where they are?
SPEAKER_02:Something's wrong with their spawning stone.
SPEAKER_00:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:I want to show you, and I want to know if you can help me find them.
SPEAKER_00:And Ollie looks back at the rest of the gang. Benjamin... is nodding and has already stood
SPEAKER_02:up, very gingerly balancing Miss Marple, Ichabod. At this point, she leaps from your hands and begins swimming in her little pool, playing with a rubber ducky.
SPEAKER_00:Aw. Aw. Sweet. Benjamin looks both charmed and relieved and will move to hold the door for the others. Phyllis, ready to go.
SPEAKER_02:You all follow her across town. She takes you to her home, which is just one of the many homes clustered around one of the tall spires. She opens the door inside, and you see that it is a very plush, well-appointed home. Blue walls, deep purple and velvety cushions everywhere. Strong smell of lavender, crystals hanging all around, and just a general sense of ease and comfort as you come in. And it just strikes you as being very homely, because it's very homey. I shouldn't say homey, homey. And as you come in, you immediately notice in the center of the home are these two massive stones carved with all these intricate symbols all over them. A smooth... glossy gray stone with all these etchings standing at about eight feet tall each that are right next to each other in the center of the home. One of them is dormant, but the other you see is easily lighting up for seconds at a time and then fading away. As you come in and look at the scene before you and look at the the stone that's behaving strangely you notice something sitting in front of it do any of you get a closer look
SPEAKER_00:uh yeah i mean hollywood going up to touch i'm not like touching i'm trying to be respectful
SPEAKER_01:but
SPEAKER_00:looking looking and thinking applying my brain and fast probe of accurate knowledge
SPEAKER_02:everyone who who looks give me either a medicine check or an esoteric lore check at this mass before the stone
SPEAKER_00:can i do curse
SPEAKER_02:lore yes with a modified dc
SPEAKER_00:oh no that's worse
SPEAKER_02:we got a mine from benjamin
SPEAKER_00:there you
SPEAKER_02:go
SPEAKER_00:Not today, the dice said. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_02:16. Looking at the mass here, you can recognize it as identifiably some very thin flesh gathered here before the stone. Sabrina, you're able to recognize this, being the morbid person that you are, and of course the morbid teenager you once were. You had something of a fascination in youth with anatomy. That's You know, who doesn't in this world? You recognize this as a nervous system attached to a perfectly smooth brain. As you look at this and recognize it for what it is, the stone suddenly flares to life, lights up brilliantly, a crack is suddenly formed in it in a way that All that you would recognize as elvish reincarnation. But instead of a newly born elf stepping from the stone, a single purple hand plops onto the nervous system, unmoving. That's where we end the session.
