Hi i'm Olma, Flynn, March, Ceallach, Shraya

and i'm your DM Ethan welcome to Venture Forth

hey this is shane thanks for tuning in

stick around to the end of the episode

to hear how you can win a free digital

dice set

hello human civilization i'm shraya

march flynn oma and i'm your dm ethan

welcome to ventureforth

[Music]

previously you all had left the city of

adersfeld and

traveled towards the nation of calder

hoping to find the

origins of these crystals that you guys

now hold

um moving along the river you guys were

headed down

towards cold crest outpost that you guys

had discovered a

battle had broken out um most of the

soldiers at cold crest outpost had

traveled north a couple days previous um

in order to take care of a conflict up

there so

the the outpost was in dire need of

soldiers

and a surprise attack from kaldur ensued

you guys um approached in what seemed to

be the middle

of this battle and uh instead of going

around the battle

and continue continuing your mission you

guys had decided to

dock the boat and help out the side of

ondale

um kalec had quickly discovered sort of

what the situation was

and what was needed and after flynn

discovered a couple bags of explosives

you guys entered the fray taking part in

this combat and attempting to hold

this post flynn had

bravely ran out into the middle of the

beach hooked one of these

bags of explosives up onto the um

bow of the ship and with some assistance

from shraya with a massive gust of wind

pointing the boat in the other direction

and pushing it back this explosive went

off

and destroyed nearly half of this ship

the rest of you guys are

sort of still in uh combat here and

there with

some of the drought that have made their

way onto the the shore

but for the most part the entire ship

and

the crew and the soldiers on board

are sinking shraya notably is still

inside the ship as it is going down

looking for

goodies and uh any um anything that he

can find

of value in there so with

that um as the ship is going down these

dwarves that are

um on the beach itself

all of them have taken a substantial

amount of damage

and really their only fighting spirit

was knowing that

the main force of their their brethren

was quickly coming behind them but with

that explosion they noticed that

those soldiers are not coming down the

ramp they are not coming to the beach

and immediately seeing this drop their

weapons

and fall to their knees and begin sort

of clutching their injuries

now sort of taking note of the situation

around them

um as you can see the boat going down

now the um ship beginning to sink more

and more

shraya um uh would you like to fly out

from the rear of the ship as sort of the

water level is coming up and meeting

your feet

uh absolutely i am going to exit through

the window i came in

and take off back into the air

okay um so you uh take off back into the

air

and the top deck of the ship

finally sinks down underneath the water

as it sinks down you can see every once

in a while a head

pop up from the water a dwarven head um

of those who have survived this

explosion

and as you can see them popping up every

once in a while you can note

that um they're swimming pretty

comfortably it looks like

most of them have taken off their heavy

armor in order to actually keep

themselves afloat here

and as they make their way towards the

shore the ondale soldiers have also made

their way towards the water

and are now holding um bows and

swords towards them as the dwarves that

are coming out of the water

immediately surrender having no weapons

anymore not having their armor anymore

and the army of ondale begins taking

these

dwarves captive so as you guys

are sort of meeting back on this beach

seeing the the captives being taken in

and the situation being de-escalated

we are no longer in combat what would

you guys like to do

[Music]

um are the two uh they were dwarfs

correct

yes are they are they're still the two

dwarves directly in front

of flynn and myself yes but both of them

have dropped their weapons

and uh dropped to their knees and

surrender um you had

beaten quite a bit out of them um so

they know with

their forces not coming onto the beach

anymore they cannot hold you back

okay and then there were those two

soldiers that were over by us

as well if i recall that we're close to

flooding myself

okay um then i'm going to just

look at those two soldiers and say this

one's pretty

severely injured but uh if you guys can

go ahead

and uh you know do what you got to do

with these with these two in terms of

taking them uh and then i'm gonna kind

of just turn to flynn

uh and try and like back away a little

bit from the doors and just kind of

that was awesome it was so cool

i am so sorry to sound weird but i'm

really proud of you you did such an epic

job

that was cool also i would like to get

rid of this other explosive now if we

now know that it's going to

you know potentially cause a massive

explosion thank you

i thought it was pretty awesome too and

i hold my hands out uh

i'll take it back to the to the group

i'll return it

yeah i don't know where you got him i

five yeah but please

i think you got him up there from one of

the spell casters and i'm gonna go ahead

and

move it and like now a little bit more

of a like

previously i've just been like like

slapping over my back like naughty and

now i'm a little bit more gently going

hand that over to flynn and when i when

you hand it over i'll just

and i'll just throw it on my shoulder

really easily like not smiling like i

don't care and then i

i'm gonna head on off to where i got him

from uh and i'll kind of

i'm going to i'm going to follow him as

he does that um

maybe maybe like 5 10 feet behind just

slightly ever like a little bit like

let's hope that thing doesn't go off why

it sounds like it's back it'll be it'll

be fine march don't worry about it

and i'll walk up to the soldiers that

had the pile of them

and i'm kind of looking do i notice when

i get up to that top do i notice where

the rest of my party is over near the

fire can i see them i'm like looking to

reconvene as i'm walking up do i notice

where they are yeah you can see kellik

and

oma over there um just pulled this guy

out of the fire

um so as i walk up i notice where am i

the rest of my party is i'll look over

to the soldiers

and i'll just like nonchalantly just

kind of take off the satchel on my

shoulder and just take out drop it down

it only took one

and i just start walking towards my

party

[Laughter]

okay i'm i'm gonna walk walk by the

sliders like as he walks by i'm gonna

walk by this little

just like stroke my shoulders be like he

knows what's up and then just follow the

fun oh and i grabbed my i grabbed my bag

and everything took me my satchel that i

kind of left

i'll put that back on and head over okay

flynn and march you guys walk up to

kellik and oma

um try you can choose to fly over there

as well if you'd like yeah i'm gonna

see them gathering on the uh

upper shelf of the cliff top there and

i'm gonna fly over and

yeah greet them as well you are now all

together up on the top of this cliff

guys i pull up a ship

i'm uh uh cleaning this guy's

the ashes off the soot off of him uh

and searching for uh like

you know breakages abrasions

uh anywhere that i need to just like put

a sap

on and help this guy out

oh uh well done flynn

and i just continue when we're done here

there's two more

when we're done here there's two more

the the the the

the two of the spell casters earlier got

got hit by a cannon

are they are they still breathing home

i don't know i was dealing i was dealing

with trying to get him to see if she if

she's gesturing dm do i can i see these

where these people are

yeah they're both prone on the ground um

you would probably have to go over

and assess them better if you wanted to

see all right i will hand alma

the what i'm using to clean this guy and

just like direct your work

uh just uh the first and most important

thing

is to keep these things clean so that

they don't get infected right that's the

worst thing that can happen

okay i can do it be gentle all right but

thorough yes and i will uh

hustle over uh to these bodies to see if

i can uh

bring anybody back from the brink okay

um they're both

unconscious um and they are pretty

close to checking out i'm gonna to just

stabilize them i'm gonna wave my hand

like a wand

over their bodies and just sprinkle uh

little bits of dust that just appear

uh basically out of thin air uh and that

sort of knits itself together

on top of their uh skin and just

sort of seeps into them like snowflakes

melting

uh and just kind of bolstering

their life force like giving them a sort

of uh

flat line that they can

sit upon okay and uh see if there's any

urgent wounds between two um

nothing urgent it seems like uh

from what you've done to get them stable

it seems like they can probably recover

from that um it was a pretty massive

blast

from a cannonball um so there's just

it's just like a whole lot of stuff yeah

i'm gonna i'm gonna

see if i can spot jarnin down the hill

and just give him a look of like yep

more more of this to be done like and i

and i will just like

be busy uh

quickly quickly quickly like uh cleaning

wounds dressing wounds

uh checking uh uh

reflexes those kinds of things making

sure they are

okay able still

okay so uh you get to work doing that

what what the rest of you guys like to

do i look over to flynn

and i say yes well done well done little

one we

we took a chunk out of that boat didn't

we well you did primarily

and then i look over to march and i say

march come here for a second i i might

have something that

you might be interested in i'm gonna i'm

gonna shimmy over and

as i start to walk i i recalled it i got

a little bit of a slash in my back

like started trying shakedown

for god i didn't realize such a small

creature could do that kind of damage

what was that not not

nothing you can do that kind of damage

because you did blow up a boat

so i apologize for that so that guy

slashed me in my back and i totally

forgot about it until this moment

and i'm gonna kind of turn the phone

like did he ruin my jacket

i'll take a look uh dm is her jacket

ruined

oh no really not much

no it's totally fine if anything he

gives a character it looks cool

cool that's all that matters just wanna

make sure and i'm gonna kind of

go over to try yeah what's uh what's up

in addition to flynn

also being suicidal really quick try are

you suicidal for flying into a ship that

is starting to stay well to be fair

uh the explosion hadn't gone off when i

first boarded it

uh although i did know something was

coming i didn't

quite realize how large that explosion

was going to be

okay um well that was a little

nerve-wracking for a second there but

i found something on board this ship and

pull out the warhammer that i found

there and then i say i have no use for

it myself

but perhaps someone with your

type of knowledge of these weapons

could do something with it um

dm am i able to like my eyes are gonna

get wide and be like

kind of a little bit of a moment like

another warhammer

dm is this am i able to determine if

this warehammer is

cooler or better or just more badass

than the one i'm currently possessing

um i'm gonna have you make an arcana

check

okay i don't know if i've ever made an

arcana check in my entire life

um but what i do that is a 12. uh 12.

you don't know exactly what it does at

this moment of shraya having it

but um you know that it has some sort of

magical property to it

you look at it and it's very clearly

dwarven make um very like dwarven

iconography and dwarven symbols all

inlaid throughout the handle

and a um very sturdy

and well crafted uh hammer bit to it

would i be able to

carry both of them you would probably be

able to carry both of them

um using both of them at the same time

would be

difficult next to impossible right i

just want to see

um okay so since i can't really

determine like i can tell that it's

really really cool

um and look at it try to be like

i don't necessarily know much about this

one but

it does look really intriguing is it is

it all right if i

if i carry that there's only one thing i

would ask in return

and it's perhaps for uh if you'd be

willing to

part with a few of your handcrafted

javelins

that can be arranged and i'm going to

instinctually pull out the one that i

pulled out of the door

which i imagine by now like the blood is

starting to crush and be like

here's one did you on a site dude

that was just inside of a dork by the

way i was really really proud of myself

i actually managed to save this one

um i i would imagine a few might be in

order

for this i i would i would like four if

that's all right

four god try i can't can i give you

can i give you a three and i can at

least yeah two all right i

it's it's not quite fair but i okay i

like you

and i think you could use this

effectively so yes

[Music]

okay all right if you need another

traveling cool sometimes you know

they're far away

and it's like it's it's we're we're

traveling together and hanging out with

anyone finding more javelins you mean

javelins you know we're all we're all

here right

just sure yeah yes i have

my own crafty way of making them as well

just haven't had the time to since we've

joined

this party together thank you and i hand

her the

the warhammer and uh and say

use it well

i'm going to look at it like very like

just so like it's so pretty

okay um kind of like on her off to a

corner and stare at it um as you are

staring at it

um you begin to realize sort of what it

does and you you sort of have

a better understanding of what it is um

and i will uh give you exactly what that

hammer is you can

choose to to tell people about it or

keep it a secret whichever

you choose

but that i love it already that

warhammer is now yours

cool cool

um i'm going to be just

so enthralled with it that

right off the bat i'm not going to say

anything out loud because i'm still

calculating what it is in my head is

caleb still nearby

or has he rushed off to yeah he's he's

sort of he's sort of around

just uh okay helping out here uh caleb a

word

[Music]

yeah yeah australia what can i do for

you

where are your where are the superiors

of this outpost

i look over uh is vash still where he

was or is he

what is he off to um yeah so now he's

sort of

gone down the hill a little bit closer

to the beach area um and is sort of

directing where to bring prisoners

uh vash is the commander here

uh i don't know what what do you hope to

accomplish try

i would like a word with him i think i

may have something that could be useful

to him but

uh is is kalec like

act still actively like in this in a

healing process or do i could i have

enough time to show him the other things

i found on the ship

uh i've come over to you from where i

always come i'm just standing before you

[Music]

uh and i i show him i i kind of take

like i don't take them all the way out

of my bag

but i like open my bag enough to

to reveal that there are like a lot of

like scrolls and documents and

a tome in there or whatever i found and

and then i close the bag and i say i

don't know much about

the ways and means that communications

are conducted amongst

earth-faring folk i do know

what it means to hide something away and

not want it to be

found i believe that

i might be able to help these

he found by someone who might want to

find them

uh dm can i make out what what this is

actually um yeah make

just uh make a intelligence just

straight intelligence

uh that is a

uh 13. 13. um

looks like uh documents from kaldor not

exactly sure what they are

um but some sort of military documents

peruse them if i take a moment oh yeah

sure yeah if you want to take a moment

um yeah so there are um a couple of

maps on there outlining troop movement

there are

a couple of um like communication

letters

back and forth between the commander

here

as well as um a like an operating base

further beyond

the caldorian lines um and

then uh yeah just like general troop

movements

um strategy can i stone

goal is of this particular like set of

uh correspondence i guess what the what

their central

idea is yeah so

um the general idea

was um so in the days previous

um when most of the soldiers had gone up

north um

you see that there is like documentation

of like soldiers of kaldur

were planning to cross the river in

between

um the outpost of north shield and cold

crest

sort of in that shadow timberland area

make their presence very well known

there to

uh make to force troops north from cold

crest

um and then once that happened just to

occupy them there

for long enough for this force to then

come in take cold crests and have a

secure foothold

in this kind of pivotal area

as this is a straight shot to addersfeld

i mean yeah i think uh

i think vash would want to see this

right uh

one more question

what are the resources like of the

armies of uh

what do you say on ondale would they

have uh

they have anything in their military

budget to uh

buy this information from me

i didn't know you're uh concerned with

commercial wealth try it seems unlike

you

well i spent most of the

gold i had finding components for

the ways that i can commune with nature

and be effective and

for example the way i just was and

helping

destroy that ship say no more gotta

gotta eat to live

uh i look over at vash he's almost

definitely

shouting it's kind of his it's kind of

his mo

of course of course if you want to try

to sell

that man something uh you'd be my guest

try it but uh

i wouldn't advise it

unless you're looking for a fight oh

he's the type that just takes what he

wants

at the expense of who whosever's lives

he uh

deems necessary

well give it my best try

and i start to walk over to him good

luck

oh boy um as you walk up

uh you see him barking orders at

soldiers left and right

um yep hey bring those two over here no

those those two look important bring

them no yeah get them get them all tied

up and then bring them over here

and uh you approach him are you the one

they call vash

yeah uh commander if if he'd be so

commander vash of the armies of

undead represent very nice country

i've never been too deep into it myself

but

i've heard good things and

no not not those two you idiots the

other two

yes yeah yeah yeah the one with the the

long hair yeah bring them over here

uh i'm i'm sorry what what can i do for

you

so i'm going to

uh i'm going to say to him

i have something that could be very

valuable to the war

effort and for the right price

i might be able to extend that your way

and i'm gonna attempt to persuade him

with this

okay um yeah uh

what specifically are you trying to

persuade him of that

i'm trying to persuade him that it's in

his best interest

to uh

to respect

a price that the price is something that

is set in stone

or the the presents um

yeah uh make a persuasion check all

right

[Applause]

that is and

11.

well if you got something that'll help

out with the the war

and uh you know keep people from dying

then i would uh suggest you just hand it

over

i would i have no

stake in what happens between the

warring elements of this world

it might be advised that you value it

as greatly as you would value the lives

of your soldiers

uh and i'm gonna attempt if i hear this

i'm giving a hard like

like so if i'm across my throat

so and so

and so with um with that uh there's a

slight

um both of my hands touch the staff

uh and i take a couple feathers

uh from myself um and

like coat them with the crystal uh

and the crystal starts to glow and a

little pop

of air just kind of rushes out from me

uh ever so slightly

uh as i cast uh enhanced ability

on myself specifically uh eagles

splendor

and i'm going to uh give myself

advantage

on another persuasion check if i need to

do that

okay well i don't even know what you

have to offer so if

you would be so kind as let me go back

to my job i would very much breathe are

you

sure that you wouldn't want to look at

this and i

unfurl one of the uh battle plans

his attention immediately goes

completely towards you he has lost

interest in everything else that he's

been doing

um i i would be very much interested

in something of that nature

and you would be very interested in

handing it over so that i can use it

to help people 40 gold pieces firm

persuasion check that advantage

all right oh that's a 19.

hey 19.

i'd be able to part with 40 gold for

that yeah sure i'm glad you can see

reason in that case and uh let's make

the exchange

okay wrong way

and uh yeah he calls down uh one of the

half elves from

um on top of the hill and he sort of

runs down um

and they exchange some words the half

elf grabs a couple of gold from his

um pouch puts it into another small

little bag

tosses it over to you and you can now

add 40 gold

this is the haggling equivalent of flynn

running out in front of

[Laughter]

oh boy pleasure doing business with you

now i would also like to uh now that we

have a good footing here in our

relationship

um i would also like to uh extend uh

an offer for you to uh come on board

with us

i saw what you were doing um and we

could really use someone of your uh

skill set in uh in what we're doing here

am flattered though i have

other business to attend to in other

corners of this world

i hope i hope the information i've

provided helps you turn the tide

and i sort of splendiferously

uh like whoosh myself

directly back with my wings and uh

leave the leave the conversation

okay um he immediately like he stops

uh directing the the prisoners um

and he immediately walks back with the

half elf that had come down

and they begin pouring over these

documents i have a question

um shraya did you keep the um

like wax seal stamp or did you know i

would have had them

or did you just have documents yeah i i

just

it basically the troop movements the

battle plans

the i don't know if i would have given

them the ship's log

that has bearing i might have i might

have handed that over as well

okay but we have so are you just just

for my notes are you keeping the ship's

log or are you handing it over i'm going

to keep it i'm going to keep the ship's

log

okay and we're also keeping the wax seal

cool cool

that could come in handy

okay so um you guys have all

um sort of come back together after

killik um

you can see that now um jarnin has sort

taken over he can um start bringing

people back he's got a couple stretchers

out

and he's got just some of the people who

haven't been injured um helping him

uh bring back people to the the camp um

so where he has more of his equipment

um and you can see people are beginning

to disperse um you can see

that the dwarves are now being led back

towards cold crest

the the main camp itself and uh you guys

are

are sort of left there to your own

devices so

what would you guys like to do um the

guy i saved what um

um i would have probably talked to him

while i was helping him

um i just want to know a little bit

about him

yeah sure um so i would have while i was

like cleaning up his wounds

um if he said ow or anything i would say

stop being a baby

um yeah he uh every once while he oh

it's okay it's okay stop being a baby

you're alive it's good to feel things

i think i'm doing this right this this

kind of stuff kind of

it sucks i mean i won't lie yeah

no i get that yeah i've had some i've

had some um

some wounds like this and it's not fun

but it's it's gonna heal better

so it's it's really it's really worth it

what's your name um

my name is orn one more time orn

o rne hi oren i'm oma

hi oma have you been in the military

long

oh uh it's been about two years

two years what why'd you join the

military

well um i felt like i like had to you

know

help um there wasn't really much that i

could do back home

um and you know everyone back home was

always talking about how scared they

were and you know how

the war you know was really impacting

people and so i thought that this would

probably be the best place for me to

help

yeah but you could have died uh yeah

um that's that's kind of part of it

you want to die no i don't want to but

that's

part of the risk

but doesn't that seem like a pretty big

risk for

something that probably doesn't really

matter i mean

well why are people fighting

it's it's mostly over i mean it's like

ways of life

you know if if one side wins or if one

side decides to give in then

that's that's a way of life that's gonna

stomped out right yeah

but can't they just live their way and

and we live our way and

and why does it matter it's not like

anybody's hurting anyone except to try

and force them to think their way

well that's that's kind of why i'm

fighting and that's why i believe in our

cause is because

kaldura is is trying to you know come

over and and

force us to to think and to pray one way

and we're

sort of trying to to keep them from

doing that

and the only way to keep them from doing

that is to

fight back and and you know try and stop

them

they're not going to they're not going

to stop they'll just keep coming so now

force them to think their way

well we we wouldn't have to if they

didn't start this

now we're at the point where we have to

go and stop them at whatever cost

i don't know it seems like a lot of

fighting

for no real reason except over

people and land and power

well that's very important to a lot of

people yeah but the people it's

important to aren't fighting

you are yeah because i believe in in

what causes we stand for

but the people who have the power where

are they

they're not risking their lives you're

cannon fodder

[Laughter]

literally

well i mean that's that's part of the

the risk that

that we sign up for is that we are are

part of

a larger thing that's happening here

have you been charmed and i'm gonna like

tap his head

ow ow please don't do that

i no i haven't i don't know warren

i just came to protect my family

but couldn't you protect them better if

you were with them

[Music]

well if i was back there then there

if everyone thought that way then

everyone would be at home and kaldur

would have

won already

maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they won

if people stopped dying

well then we would have to do things

their way and and we've seen what that

looks like within

calder is is you know it's not

what it's it's a way of life that we

want to continue having

i don't know it seems like a lot of

death

but if if that's what you want to do

i guess that's fine you could just keep

killing people and they could keep

killing you

and endlessly over and over and over

again with with no real

end in sight that that's fine

if that's how you want to see it then

that's that's how you choose to see it

i appreciate you helping me out um

but this is this is the cause that i'm

fighting for yeah and what i've chosen

well try to stay alive maybe don't get

trapped under any other burning

buildings

i will try my best yeah

okay well

you should be fine now i guess but you'd

be better off going home

[Music]

all right we'll see hey jarnin i think

can we can we get going and he

sort of waves over to jordan and darn

runs over with the stretcher and

and begins begins uh loading him up on

the stretcher

bye orn bye oma

uh i would like to um

sort of hang

close as i can to vash to sort of hear

what's going on with these with the

prisoners

okay um from what you hear over the

course of a couple minutes and you don't

even have to be very close to vash as he

is very loud

um you can tell that they're going to

hold

the prisoners at cold crest for the time

being

until whatever remains of the soldiers

come back from the north

as well as some soldiers um that are

coming up uh coming up north from canyon

fort

um to escort them back down to canyon

fort

um for you know more secure holding

okay um do any of them

the prisoners um

do they have any like tattoos that i can

see

make a perception check

[Music]

or you can make a if i think i know

where you're going with this

you can make a religion check if you'd

[Music]

11 11.

some of them have like very generic

dwarven tattoos dwarven runes

but you don't see anything that really

stands out as out of the ordinary

i'll just survey the scene

look out to where the building was burnt

and just

[Music]

i hope you know what you're doing

and um i will try to reconvene with with

the gang

[Music]

okay

[Music]

why were you here with these people uh

i was uh sent here alma i uh

i work as a as a practitioner of

medical arts and i

[Music]

was sent here to help you know keep

people alive

[Music]

none of this makes any sense i just

don't understand why they can't live on

their own sides

i uh i wouldn't chew on it too hard alma

it's a bitter taste there's

there's things going on here beyond

either of our

ability to perceive

uh and probably understand

so i just have to make the best of it

right as little harm as possible

and as much goodwill

can we go i don't like it here i hate it

here homer

we can absolutely go

[Music]

good job by the way spotting that uh man

in the rubble

yeah i mean whatever he's gonna just die

anyway so what's the point

i know what you mean alma

you know uh

sometimes uh

you help people and

[Music]

they turn things around

sometimes they don't but it's not up to

us to decide

who gets that chance

you did the right thing yeah

a shrug i i'll um

take her by the hand and sort of like

give her a pat on the

on the wrist

tender way and uh and just like walk

with her

um back toward where our boat is parked

it's gonna take in the sea and and the

river and

everything all the pieces of wood that

are just

sitting probably literally littering the

bank and the beach and just like shake

my head

stupid

[Music]

and i'm gonna just walk with kelly

hopefully back to arbor i will uh

just hum softly

all right so you all um approach the

your boat

that you had beached um and

as you guys hop on um the river once

again

takes you down um through this little

side channel that you guys have left it

and now it leads you out to the main

river

um sorry before um

could i have scoured the battlefield for

wreckage um pieces of cannonball

uh shattered cannonball uh pieces of the

boat

maybe see if i can like gather a piece

or two there are

like large chunks of wood that are

coming to shore

um any pieces of cannonball any

cannonballs anything of the cannons

immediately sank to the bottom of the

river are there any um

cannons that had hit the beach and had

shattered or splintered that i could

maybe salvage some of that

there's uh like you can see from the

explosion

um there are a couple of like um

fist size chunks of this cast iron

that the cannons are made out of um you

can

grab those if you like sure um but yeah

nothing bigger than

like a hand size sure i'll pick the

pieces of cannonball up i'll pick up

some of the wood and then could i do a

once-over for maybe like a piece of wood

that has

splintered cannonball in it

like an actual sure yeah walk around

yeah

make an investigation check sure

[Music]

something that kind of like combines

both of them all right investigation

22 natural 20. nice

um yeah you see uh there is like a

little

chunk of wood that's got like some some

splintered iron

in it um that you'd be able to take sure

i'll pick it

up careful not to stab myself think

about it for a second

looks cool i'll pull open my souvenir

bag and chuck it in there and

throw it back on my shoulder i'll chuck

in the handful of uh cannonball in the

wood as well but i'll put it all in my

souvenir bag okay

and then ahead and then oh crap they're

running and then i catch up to the group

as i see them going towards the boat

all right um so yeah you guys are all

aboard the boat

um you guys are now crossing the main

section of

this river and as you guys hit the other

side of the river

um you guys see like a very similar sort

of layout where there's

beach for a little bit um and then a

very steep cliff face with a couple of

pads going up and then

rolling green hills on top so

as you guys hit the beach on the other

side um

is there anything that you guys would

like to specifically do before you

uh start heading south towards blackpool

would we have an opportunity like would

i be able to have an opportunity to

nap or specifically get a short russian

during this time yeah you guys can

definitely try for that um the

um the beach over here

is definitely quiet um you can still

sort of see

off in the distance um the remains of

the battle that just took place on the

other side of the river

but over here seems pretty calm um you

are covered by this cliff face

um here to the west so yeah you guys

could definitely do that

i would like to just attempt to get a

short rest in

um cool so everyone uh can mark down a

short rest if that affects anything for

you um you guys can roll your hit dice

if you would like

hey flynn yeah

[Music]

what makes you think

that you blew up the right enemy

well from what i've

grown up i grew up in this

this side of the war

they're they're trying to force people

to do stuff

regardless of what they think

and i don't know if i have all the right

answers

but well

i kind of just made a decision

and you just got to go with it

i know i know jardin i know kellik

and they're my friends i know i don't

know them for that long but

if this is the side they're fighting for

this is the side that i know more

kelly said he didn't have a side i think

he does

i just

isn't there a world in which

they feel like you're forcing them to

believe their

your way

isn't there a world where

both sides feel the same way

and that they have a flynn over there

and their flynn also goes on suicide

missions

and also thinks that he's doing the

right thing

and he has a family

yeah that's probable

but in the moment i felt like i was

making

the right decision to save the people

that i cared about in that moment

well how do you feel now

john is still alive the person that you

saved is still alive

the rest of the undale soldiers are

still alive and i think we had an input

in that

but how do you feel about the people who

aren't alive

the enemy the people who aren't alive

[Music]

they were attacking us they weren't

attacking you

again i don't know if it's the right way

it's just how i

how i thought about it in the moment i

just feel like there's all this fighting

because

of deciding where you live

well from my understanding we're not

trying to force

beliefs on anyone do you believe in god

in a god i mean

i've seen what kelly can do there's got

to be something up there

but do you believe

[Music]

sure

i i just feel like

[Music]

all these people are fighting because

they think they have a home and their

home just happens to be on one side

that happens to believe one way

but if they were on the other side they

would think the same thing so it's just

all this stupid fighting for no reason

and i don't know why we get involved

it has nothing to do with us it has

nothing to do with me

and i don't want to be part of something

that

blows the people up for no reason

well again the reason i went there

was because i knew someone there even

though i only knew him for a little bit

he still felt like someone that i cared

about

and i know you probably don't care about

jarnin but i did and i wanted to

help him well flynn if someone was

trying to hurt you

i would try to help you

i i also knew that that

outpost had a lot of wounded people

[Music]

and i also wanted to protect them as

well they're the people that were

protecting

our side andersfeld my hometown

everywhere

everywhere that i grew up and everywhere

that i visited

so i feel like i also owed it to them

because they are

giving their lives to protect us

and maybe what we do is we learn more

about it

the next time we're in a town we can ask

questions

get more insight make a

proper decision but

sometimes you just gotta go with your

gut

i don't like your gut don't know how

people do

i've taken um the bag of ashes from the

burned out building

out and i've just i've just like put

some of it in my hands and i've just

kind of like

been pulling with it in my palm

[Music]

look over do i do i see him doing this

are you hiding it i'm not hiding it

is that the ash that i i got you

that's fun how does that work

what

the stuff you do with the ash like

like i have my own way to do magic but

it's different from what you do

how how i uh

just letting it pour out of my closed

fist into my other palm

i uh

[Music]

it just uh comes to me

i can see tangs

uh in the air and i

can touch them and

move them

[Music]

and i can ask for help

in a language that

i don't really understand

[Music]

yeah maybe our magics aren't too

different

yeah maybe not

[Music]

almost on the other hand i have no idea

how that works

[Music]

i'll look over at home kind of like

him or not yeah i don't know

i was learning for a little bit but

then that stopped so i don't know maybe

that's something else we can look into

too flat night yeah maybe if we could

stop blowing people up

then we'd have time okay homer

it is worth considering and i'll address

the rest of the group

uh turning

how much we're willing to engage with

this

with this war i know it's not

your war shraya and for the rest of us

it's well

flynn joined the iron light collective

not the army

march and oman you're fugitives of

hologuard

and myself i

i'm just very confused

[Music]

we did something today that will change

the course

of this war

[Music]

maybe you know who knows maybe tomorrow

caldor strikes again and takes cold

crest

if we continue to jump in

and use the considerable power that we

have

uh between us

we could have a large impact on how

things pan out

well i don't think i

i didn't join the army but

i mean vash did say something that kind

of rung

true that if they take that outpost

then they can take outerspell and i have

friends

that i've known for a while in

addersfeld

and i if i don't stop

the enemy from attacking my friends i

and they die

i i don't know how i would be able to

deal with myself

but that doesn't mean that i want to

jump into every conflict with them

maybe i need to think about it

i don't want to be a soldier

that's fair i mean

flynn you say your home is there and i

get that

but i don't know where my home is so how

do i know which side to fight for if i

don't know where my home is

right i myself have never had

goodwill toward those of the dwarven

race

but since i was a very young

tiny probably fit in the palm of one of

your hands

the dwarves have done nothing but

mutilate the mountainsides of my

ancestral home

i acted perhaps a little rashly

and only considered my associations with

my past

and how i took action against them

however i understand that

more often than not there are other

purposes at play

and

people who were raised differently can

fight for

any cause they believe in perhaps that's

something

we can consider before we jump into the

fray the next time

[Music]

i'm going to have been lying on the

beach

uh sort of resting my eyes

um and uh

i'm gonna just say i do

agree and disagree on both sides

i was once a soldier before

rather you know in that area

i didn't care for it i don't appreciate

the politics involved

but if there are people

that someone has met or known

that need to be helped

then if it's the right thing to choose

and you got to do the right thing to do

i i'm not

i'm not i mean what flynn did today was

obviously it was very brave in that

sense and in the moment

it seemed the right thing to do

[Music]

am i stoked on it no but

in order to save the outpost that helped

save alma and myself i felt that it was

in that moment it made sense darn it and

maybe we brought it back to

consciousness

i don't think it's worth conflating your

survival uh

with that place with that cursed place

i and why is it cursed then caleb you've

seen it

it's a place for the the wounded and

dying just because wounded and dying

they're not

you know that doesn't make them curse

you know what they do with the bodies

there march they burn them

in enormous pit

reeks and you would prefer

solo 101 burials yes

i would prefer that they'd be given

their

due diligence and that their souls were

given a chance

to ascend to the heavens but instead

[Music]

it'd be better off that your

corporeal form were obliterated by a

cannonball

and what did they do in that bit

[Music]

but that's besides i would have to say

that i actually i i do respect and

understand that

i do agree that everyone should get

their own individual burial

i understand your frustrations and you

were there for far

longer woman and i were there for all of

an hour or whatever it may have been

but at that moment it seemed

made sense here's how i see things

[Music]

the war is happening and

we can't stop that we can't

make cal door and angel again will dear

agree uh on anything

[Music]

but my goal remains save as much life as

possible

and i'm not a military

tactician it's not my skill set or my

interest

but

i suspect i don't know

i don't have any uh logical reason to

it's just a feeling

[Music]

i suspect kaldor will win this war

[Music]

and the choice is ours or all the

choices

on deals uh how bloody

that victory will be so

change doesn't have to be scary it's

almost always scary alma

but sometimes it's good

[Music]

i'm uncertain what

what change is about to take place

well maybe we just focus on what we have

to do all right

we find out who was trying to

[Music]

plan this prison break and why and

and we try to recapture the souls and

odds are it's gonna tie back into this

whole war

anyway so i mean

just keep our eyes and ears open what

seems readily apparent is that the

denizens of these crystals

are beyond bad

help yeah so i'm fully on board with

this

pursuit it's nice to have some thing

that we can unerringly believe

uh yeah they're in prison for a reason

and they're

bad news and i like knowing their bad

news

i don't want to fight any more people or

how or flynn if you go in to fight

and you get hurt i have to help you and

when you make a choice to pick a side it

makes

everyone pick a side and i don't want to

be against you flynn

so i just need you to take a breath and

and realize that we don't have to be

part of every conflict

so just next time i mean i'm not gonna

shame you cause like

you did what you thought was right

and you did help some people while

killing a bunch of other people

[Laughter]

but i just don't want to be part of that

so so

so so just respect that

choice that i don't want to have to help

you fight

i'll uh walk over or

i don't know if i'm sitting next to her

i'll put my hand on her shoulder kind of

give her a pat under the eyes

all right i'll

i promise to think about it

okay maybe we can do a vote next time

i wanted to go the other direction on

the boat and not even bother

so maybe next time we do a vote

because my say should matter just as

much as your say even though i'm little

i look up at her

i feel that and i agree

from now on we vote

everyone okay with that

[Music]

agree sure

yes sure let's vote

all right and with that you guys

complete your short rest

um get whatever effects that that gives

you and

uh you guys get on your way um you

notice on this side of the beach just

like on the other side um

every once while there are these little

paths up the cliff side

um in order for you to get up on top and

move forward continuing your journey

um so you guys take one of those paths

you guys get to the top of the cliff and

you guys move on

towards blackpool you guys head south

so um as you guys are traveling south

the landscape is very similar to what

you guys had

seen on the other side lots of rolling

hills but eventually

it sort of shifts and and changes a

little bit

um these rolling hills um start to

sprout more and more

trees and they become more like

wetlands and they morph into more of

like this marsh land

and eventually you guys get on into

full-on swamp

um as you guys are trudging through

um you guys begin to walk through um

ankle deep water and then pretty soon it

gets to knee-deep water

and um your guys's speed is slowed

pretty considerably as you guys are

walking through this

um as it took you guys about

a couple hours to get from addersfield

to cold crest

and then the battle ensued it is taking

you another couple hours to now

walk down to blackpool and as you guys

are walking through this swamp

um you guys look up at the sun and it is

just beginning to crest down over the

horizon you have maybe

two more hours of sunlight um before the

sun completely goes down

um we didn't take the boat i'm guessing

there wasn't a pathway to

to steer the boat to this place no so

you guys are traveling south

the river um flows

north out to the ocean to the north got

it done um

so you would have had to beat your boat

there okay

so um as you guys are moving on it's

about an

hour until sunset

when you guys um are completely

surrounded by

all of these trees um you can barely

even see the sun anymore

um the the little light that is coming

through is casting these

long shadows and making the light warp

in some really weird ways

yeah but after a little while of

travel sort of wading through this

knee-deep water

you guys eventually come across a

pathway

a series of wooden planks that are being

held about six inches

above the water um that you guys are

able to

climb up on top of this is just a

singular path

south in pretty much the same direction

that you guys are going

um and as you guys hop up on top you

guys notice that

this wood is creaky and every once in a

while uh one of these wooden planks has

completely fallen out due to

um like mildew and rot um taking these

things

um but you guys do continue to take the

path south

and after another about hour and a half

um a little bit after the sun has gone

down um

fog begins to roll in and sort of this

this

um mysterious air begins to surround you

guys

as this swamp um just begins to

to absorb all light around you and you

guys hear the sounds of

night time in the swamp you guys hear

crickets you guys hear

frogs every once in a while every once

while you'll hear a splash

in the water off to your left or your

right but by the time you look over

and see what it was um what it's just

the water that's rippling you can't

quite see what it is

um the smell that is now filling your

nostrils

is this damp smell of

of um like different decaying plants

and animals and it's it's a pretty rank

smell

um but after that traveling time just

off in the distance down this

wooden path you guys catch just a very

slight glow seemingly to be a lantern

as you guys move forward even more you

guys pick up another

lantern light and another lantern light

and another lantern light

and you guys can see through the fog you

can just see the silhouettes the very

dull silhouettes

of what appears to be a swamp town

um you guys are now approaching

blackpool so as you guys see

blackpool and and the buildings all held

aloft

um anywhere from six inches to a couple

feet up off of the water

um you guys notice several buildings

this isn't

a huge town um but this it's it's

uh pretty pretty decent size you guys

see uh

a couple dozen of these buildings um you

guys aren't

officially in town yet but as you guys

see this what would you guys like to do

um i think on our walk there

you were saying a lot of s spooky stuff

so i would like to i would like to

look out left and right into this

darkness into the fog

and i would like to make a spooky vibes

check cause it's okay

it's looking spooky that was the

livestream it does

look spooky you are correct so i will

have you make a spooky vibe let's do it

um what do i add

again uh that is just your wisdom

modifier okay

um with the modifier

uh 11 11 for my spooky vibe 11.

um as you're looking out definitely some

spooky vibes

um but you aren't really picking up

anything like super natural spooky vibes

nothing necessarily magical about these

spooky vibes but just like

general sort of like the fog is rolling

in on the swamp and you've got

a mysterious town on the horizon um

i will pick up my pace a little bit as

i'm getting spooked out

okay guys we should hurry up it's creepy

out here

i know head on

okay um would any of you guys like to do

anything before you actually

enter town um blackpool's in caldora

right

yes it is okay we've crossed the border

it is uh

blackpool is actually the um

probably the easternmost establishment

um in caldor it is um

pretty close to the border uh yeah um

i guess too that would i know slash can

tell from looking um like what kind of

uh state blackpool is in in terms of

being embattled you know like do they

have

fortifications built uh or do i

did i hear word while i was at cold

crest about like the state of blackpool

and whether or not they were

like militarized yeah um so you do know

just because

um blackpool is like the closest town to

cold crest you would sort of

have a general idea of what's going on

there um you would know

that because of its position like

in the middle of this marshland and this

like impenetrable swamp

it is almost completely demilitarized

um it's so difficult to bring troops in

as well as to bring

to to move troops from that position

just because of the environment

um it's also not a very strategically

placed spot so

yeah wouldn't want to uh take it as well

um so yeah it's you

you probably know that you wouldn't come

across any heavy military force

from when i was there the first time do

i know if it's mostly dwarves that

take up this city

um yeah you know it's mostly dwarven

um there are a couple of other you have

seen like a smattering of other

races but just because kaldur is mostly

dwarven

it is a heavy dwarf population

sore thumb the less amount of time we

can spend here the better

we might wanna have a reason we're here

in case we get asked yeah it's

it seems how fun to just sink us

don't want them to think that we're part

of the military so

it's not like there's a lot of cross

traffic either through this area

so so maybe just look more like

adventurers if possible like if you've

got

like like march maybe you should

cover up any of your armor and

shields and stuff maybe put everything

away

i i will try to as much as i can um

dm what is this sound weird what is the

weather

what is it is it hot um it's not like

blisteringly hot uh but it is like just

on that brink of uncomfortable

okay then what i will do is i will take

off

the jacket i have and sort of try and

throw it over

what weapons i can't exactly quote

unquote store

um just to sort of just make it look

like it's just a pack of

shenanigans there are there are those

from

uh my ilk who travel and seek to give

aid wherever it's needed so

uh i could say that if we get any kind

uh dinkai

okay i know that we're just trying to

provide help where it's needed and and

just passenger

okay i like that idea this town is

likely not beleaguered

uh by the war so hopefully it's not uh

first and foremost on their minds as we

pass

all right so you guys enter this town um

and you guys can see all of these sort

of rickety

um buildings off to your left and right

nothing more than two stories

as everything here seems to mostly be

made out of wood and

the floorboards that you guys walk on

every single one of them creaks

as you walk by um and as you look around

you start noticing

um the people of this town walking back

and forth most of them

dwarves um you guys can see uh one

tiefling walks from one building to

another you guys see

a pair of tabaxi as well um walking

uh in between a couple of the buildings

um caleb you see

um a couple of drow actually sitting

outside of one of these buildings um

seemingly having a meal

to themselves um and it seems like

sort of a myriad of different races here

but again mostly dwarves

um sort of mingling and moving about

um as you guys move through the section

of the city that you guys are in or this

this town it's not really a city

um you guys look and

you can see off sort of in the distance

it's hard to see with all the fog that's

rolled in

but you can see a larger group of people

moving

um around this this area

um as you guys approach even further you

walk

past the town center and in this town

center

you see a stone statue

of a large throne um it's probably

about 10 feet tall of this large throne

and a dwarf sitting on the throne and

at his side he's holding a um large

spear

right next to him sort of taking a regal

sitting position

on this stone um this stone statue there

um so that's sort of the statue in the

main

center of town as you guys move closer

to this group of people

oma and march you guys immediately

recognize this area

but the building that you had recognized

that was there

is completely gone and you can see

there are people there who are sort of

rummaging through

what's left of the the completely

collapsed and burned down building

so seeing that what would you guys like

to do

um so

i've got some good news and some bad

news which one would you like first

bad news well i already know the news so

give us

bad news is

um this used to be the warehouse where

we found everything

um good news

nobody else can get to it

uh i'm gonna is there any trace of what

was here before

um i'm gonna have you make an insight

check

man oh man also from what i can tell

does this look like

the damage that could have possibly been

happened from me

or does it look like there might have

been something else that caused this

make an arcana check that's an eight for

the inside

eight um you you see

uh you see people sort of rummaging

through the

the debris but you can't really pick up

anything of what once was there

19 for arcana arcana um

from what you felt that you released

it was probably big enough to catch this

thing completely on fire okay

and and burn it down probably mostly you

good solid um

do i get the impression that if i start

to pick through things people are gonna

look at me weird looking at the people

there it doesn't seem like there's any

official

order to this it just seems like random

people picking through what they can

i want to casually look through the area

find to see if i can find any um

any portions of the cage that i saw

okay make an investigation check can i

aid her on that

yeah so you can take that at an

advantage or you can both roll

i already rolled twice okay just to be

honest

yeah um that's a 14.

uh 14 you're looking through this rubble

and you actually

after sort of turning over a couple

pieces of wood um

you notice a couple of like iron rod

bars

um that have sort of been been broken

apart and

bent and uh sort of melted into

sort of strange shapes it looks very

similar to what you had seen

do i see anything that implies that the

thing that was inside got out

just around the where you are

finding these bars you do see a couple

feathers

you don't see any signs of a body or

anything like that

but just a couple feathers i want to

collect the feathers

okay

i'll help collect the feathers okay

there's only about

six or seven um

yeah it's not like not like a huge pile

um it's it's just a few

well um well those two are digging

through the the rubble

um i'll just kind of lean up against a

wall uh

so i can kind of get a good look at

the whole area and i just want to see if

anyone's

taking a look at alma taking a look at

march noticing them anything like that

maybe

see if i can spot anyone that's looking

at them a little long okay yeah

uh make a perception check

not too good uh that is a nine

total a nine um you don't see anyone

who's like fixated on oma

in particular um you do see sort of

um in the building that's sort of next

to where you're leaning up against

you see um an old dwarven man who is

sort of leaned up in a very similar

fashion to the way that you are

um looking over the people picking

through the rub or

uh the rubble um does he look to have

guard attire on or anything that i would

know

he looks to have just normal no armor or

anything like that just

sort of uh this um sort of a very plain

shirt um and then some uh just

sort of like cloth pants oh uh how far

away

is this door probably like 15 feet

oh he's he's standing in the doorway of

the building right next to you i look to

try and march where i'm assuming he's

kind of standing here with me

let's kind of give him another like i'm

gonna go i'm gonna go talk to this dwarf

over here

keep an eye on alma okay

while he does that i'm going to kind of

having the same mindset that

oma and flynn i'm just going to vary as

slowly and kind of like non obviously

um discreetly as i can sort of take

my my hair and just take it and put it

in the back and sort of

put it so that my shirt goes over it so

it's hiding my hair as much as possible

just

just in case kind of thing and then i

will continue to sort of

observe uh oma

looking through some stuff because kalec

as well trying to keep the corner

i'm going to call her over

i'm going to give a last look sort of

over to flemish

as he's walking over and approach alma

i don't know where you were when you

found the box with the crystal

where where where did you find it

i was it's all still sort of hazy but

feels like it all happened at the same

time but i feel like it was

around the corner from here i hate it

when buildings burn out because

you try and get your bearings as to

where you actually are trying to figure

out

where the entrance was do you remember

where we sort of approached or where

there was a door at some one point

i i i don't know but i mean this is

where i was when i when i found

the the cage but

do you remember any other distinct

markings maybe you can look for

something you saw nearby

it was just it was a box it was uh was

there anything around the box this

this i found this because of bars

you know i just look for bars so maybe

look for pieces of

of something nearby was there a statue

was there

anything that was breakable that might

have left markings nearby

i can't recall oh no i'm sorry i was so

fixated on what i was being told to look

at and once i saw the box it was like

it was like i'll be looking for the box

staring at it

because the crystal got embedded in you

and embedded in everyone around you but

maybe look for the box

yeah okay i'm going to very hesitantly

not

it's it perhaps it's obvious to to maybe

oma but it's going to be obvious that

i'm a little hesitantly to

wanting to actually sift through things

but i will kind of veer off to an area

that

where i where i vaguely believe

i might have been about okay uh make an

investigation check for me

okey-dokey um

[Music]

don't you love it when it tips over it

was on something good and then

that was a six six um

it's it's a bunch of wooden

pieces it's really tough it's like you

know you're really looking for a needle

needle in a haystack um you're you're

looking for a specific piece of hay in a

haystack

um it's like you're looking for a wood

box and a bunch of

wooden rubble so it's very tough to see

can you describe what it looked like to

me marge

it was just a wooden box did it have any

engravings on

it was there a color

not that i recall but i do recall it

perhaps had like a pattern on the top of

i just i don't see how a wooden box

would

survive something like this

you did see just uh as as a quick note

um march you did see when the box opened

um the crystal was sort of placed on

this

small purple piece of cloth almost like

pillow or a padding um within the box

okay um

look for something that's gonna sound

weird i know i'm

we're looking for a crystal we're

looking for a broken crystal in a

burnt down warehouse that can't get much

weirder than we are so so it's fine

look for perhaps a small

purplish pillow or maybe like a

a cloth almost like it was torn from

something okay i can look for something

purple

hey let's let's help me find a piece of

purple fabric

i'm just like haphazardly

like holding one of these pieces of wood

just observing it

uh yeah of course home tell me what to

look for this is a mess

i don't know a box and some purple stuff

around it

okay fabric or pillow or if i look

around dm

is there anything um with a badger

emblem on it

or even on nearby buildings or anything

like that

um looking around you don't see

any badger emblems um

anything that would have been inlaid in

the wood you can see would have been

completely

burned away yeah okay so as you guys are

searching through that

um we're actually gonna go back over to

flynn um

flynn is you're sort of perched up and

right before he walks up

to the to the dwarf i'm gonna say help

yourself little one

on your own let's keep an eye on the

others

gladly i'll give them a little pat on

the

calf because that's probably as high as

i can reach i'll walk over

to the to the dwarf is the dwarf

watching my friends or just just in

general just kind of looking around the

area

um looking around the area but uh he

takes note of you as you walk up

how you doing uh are you saying dwarvish

you saying dwarvish yeah okay cool um he

responds back in dwarvish

um and he says uh

you are all little late wouldn't you say

yeah well i kind of just

showed up and i'm following a a healer

a traveling healer and kind of just

his bodyguard but i noticed this

building

destroyed and i'm curious how it

happened

and um as you ask him that he sort of

steps out from the doorway

and um you can see him now fully um just

very

um plain plain clothes all like

different tans and browns

um you can see his long white hair has

been all um

tied back in sort of this this ponytail

with um

a like a dwarvish golden

um ring holding all of his hair back

you can see um his white beard is very

like almost coming down to his stomach

um but very well groomed and it's got

um several pieces of golden jewelry um

throughout sort of keeping

all of the hair in line um and you can

tell

he sort of he keeps keeps uh takes care

of himself

um and uh he says

well i was here when the uh

accident happened so um i

i can tell you all you might want to

know

i mean yeah um i'm curious

it's destroyed building and it seems

something crazy happened yeah it started

from the beginning

uh well um the other day

probably about say a week ago

um there was a large

um explosion from within the building

i'm not quite sure what caused it

um but the entire building was pretty

soon taken down

um there were probably a few

people inside as i saw um a couple

people

leaving the building it was uh late at

night and i had just woken up from the

explosion

um so i couldn't quite see who it was

but i did see um

four figures uh leave the building um

two of them left first and then after a

few minutes uh another two

left um and then after that um

everyone seemed to have woken up in the

town

and uh then the the looting commenced

um there were known to be uh some

valuables within there this is um a uh

a halfway point you could say for um the

banuk tribe

and they keep a lot of valuables that

they trade within there

um so many people got their hands on a

lot of what was

um held there um but after that

some some members of the tribe came

through and

uh collected most of of what was taken

wow that's crazy that that happened um

you're okay what was your name again uh

my name is

dolman oak foot oh man

oak what

i'm d-o-l-e-m-e-n hello

friend nice to meet you i'm part of the

iron light collective

oh well i'm part of the island

collective

and he sort of uh looks you up and down

and he says

believe it or not i actually already

knew that oh

right and i kind of like pulled my green

cloak up a little bit

uh where you said

the tribe do you know where they are

do they live in um they are a group of

traders um they they uh trade in

uh minerals and gems and spices and

clothes and textiles and

pretty much anything you could uh ask

for

um and they operate um mostly

uh in the summer still mountains but

they have known to to trade

over the border with kaldur quite

frequently and do they have a residence

here in

in black blackpool no

not anymore oh i'm it's coming together

now

um well okay summer still mountains is

where they reside how far away is that

from here

oh it's um east quite a few miles it

is the mountain range that spans from uh

the top of ondale all the way almost

down to the bottom of ganboltir

well interesting

and what do you do in town

oh i i just uh i'm a sort of a

fortune teller um i can sort of

read people and and uh sort of gain

some insight of of who they are and uh

help them figure out problems i sort of

put the puzzle pieces together for them

they come in with uh

their problems or their questions and um

i i take all of that information and i

sort of

um uh make make sense of it

all and uh tell them the possibilities

that could happen to them in the future

flynn's eyes go wide and like go of

excitement can you do that now

um i would have to spend a couple of

minutes with you but yes if

if you would like is this your is do we

do it as this year and i point to the

building that he's been kind of leaning

up in is this your

place is this where you do the the

fortune tellings

yes right yeah i'll look back to shraya

and i'll give him like a thumbs up

and then i'll be like can we go in and

do it now

um sure are your friends okay with her

now they're fine

okay come on in after i give the thumbs

up to try

i enter the building

[Music]

i just sort of sharply sigh like all

right

[Music]

um okay so you you walk in sure and um

sort of with uh uh

[Music]

sort of inquisitive mind you walk in and

um you can see

that uh there are like um

lining the walls they're sort of like

all of these um

runes that have been written on on the

walls themselves um

and they look to be hand-painted um

and as he walks you through the house it

is more of a house than a shop

but he walks you through um sort of the

the living area and into a back room

and um in the middle of that room is

just two chairs facing

each other that is it just two very

simple wooden chairs

cool um i'll kind of take his lead and

sit in whichever one he wants me to sit

if that's the plan i'll kind of look to

him for guidance

um this is all about um you and your

destiny so uh whichever chair you feel

is calling towards you then that's the

one that you should take

um which chair is calling to medium

do you want to roll can i make a chair

i'm gonna go i'm gonna go to the left

one okay

um as you go and you sit down in

the uh left chair um

you sit down in the chair and he says oh

well that's interesting um could you um

stand up for one moment um yeah

sure and i'll stand up do me a favor and

um uh turn the chair over

okay i'll turn it upside down or

spin it around whichever one he wanted

uh just uh

flip it upside down flip her upside down

and there is

a little piece of uh parchment stuck to

um the underside of the chair

i'll look at him with like an acceptance

and i'll like reach down and like look

like i'm going for the paper to see if

that's what he wants me to do

he goes oh oh how did that get there

weird and i'll pick it up and i'll look

at it i'll take it off the chair and

i'll

look at it okay you open up this piece

of parchment

and um on that piece of parchment

you see a very familiar symbol

you look at this piece of parchment and

then you hold out your wrist

and you see on your wrist where that

black tattoo is

it's the exact same symbol on that piece

of parchment

isn't that my name that is your name

um what how

oh i i don't know i don't know how that

got there

oh stuff in my pocket

weird and he sort of as he as he comes

over and he sits down

he sort of gives you a wink

are you ready to get started yeah that's

crazy

yeah i would you believe me if i told

you that i had

written that uh down on a piece of paper

about two months ago

what no way

oh yes you must be really good at this

i am the best well i'm glad i found you

i'd love to have some answers to

what's going on in my life because ooh

boy it's been a

heck of a week i know you've had

quite a busy week i'm sure you know yeah

i'll get out flip the chair over and

i'll sit down even more excited now that

i've seen this

crazy amount of power showed and i'll

sit down and get like super excited

throw my bag off to the corner of the

room not even looking where it lands and

i'm just like

all right tell me everything well um

this is more of a conversation

more of a transaction between the two of

um what what would you like to know

oh boy um

i guess

i guess i can start with

my parents how are they doing

are they okay ah yes your parents

um nora and audrey

i'm not mistaken what yeah how do you

know their names

i know a lot of people

this is awesome yeah how are they

um well i i could not tell

you exactly how there i i believe

they're

they're still over in maple glen i

believe is that correct

yeah that's where i'm from oh

how has the store been doing i mean when

i left it was fine

oh that's so good to hear yeah i mean my

dad

he keeps that place up and up and it

keeps you tidy

and you know my mom's always doing the

running around and delivering stuff to

different magic shops but

yeah he he was i mean they were doing

well you know

they wanted me to stay obviously but i i

didn't i didn't want to work in a magic

shop

you know i wanted to do my own thing i

wanted to be an adventurer that was

that was not your destiny was it no no

it wasn't

but you know that i i do is there

anything else

yeah i mean i guess i have two more

um how is kalyn doing

um my friend from well i mean you know

she's from the ironway but yeah

i didn't see her the last time i went to

the castle and i'm

curious if she's doing okay oh you can

see the concern

in your eyes um i know that

uh she is uh on her way back to the iron

knights right now

um she actually um as we speak

is holding the head of a manticore and

is on her way back

to the iron knight man that's so cool

she uh

of course she is she's so good at this

man i'm i miss her she's like

and of course her mom's gonna be super

proud about it

but you know of course well that's good

i'm

excited to see her again can't wait to

give her a hug it's been too long

i guess not much longer oh really

well that's good i guess the last thing

and it's kind of it's kind of big so if

you can't i understand but i mean he's

pretty powerful so maybe you can

um am i going to become a sentinel

am i going to make it

oh flynn that that i believe is beyond

my powers

uh to even see i can see that you're on

the path

um but your final uh outcome is yet to

be determined

i i cannot quite see all of the the

pieces in that puzzle

that's fair i still have a long way to

well thank you

i'm

even though you know still a long way to

go i think this helped

and it's good to hear them that people i

know are doing okay

i knew that brings a lot of comfort to

most people

yeah well i'm gonna go check up

with my friends see if they found

anything

not that they're looking for anything or

anything but you know just you know

oh of course they're not looking for

anything and he gives you another wink

do you know nah never mind

all right well i'll see you around

i i do know i shouldn't say but i do

i do know you should check at the tavern

down the street

um okay

and i'll run out i'll i'll go to grab my

bag and head out

it was good to see your face again flynn

fellow weave

and he gives you a sort of pat on the

shoulder as you are

heading out and with that pat there's a

little uh

spark of this like pure white

energy um that emanates from his his

fingers as he gives you a pat on the way

out

i know this person what is going on okay

as as he pats you on the back and this

this spark of white energy

touches your back you have

advantage on any intelligence checks

for the next week

any check that has to do with

intelligence for the next week you have

advantage on

wow wow okay um

how many sessions

give him a smile and a

like man that feels good well i'll see

not really knowing what it does yet but

i do

and i'll head out to the group and i'll

head back to shraya all right any

investigation checks

go to you my friend it seems

to be the case now yeah tavern down the

street okay

um and then if you could just keep track

of that

individually of the number of days i

would very much appreciate that i'll try

and keep track of it too but uh

that would be a big help you got it

nice did i find anything purple

um in the rubble you did not okay

i'm gonna just look at omar real quick

but

it's it might be impossible to find it

think of a jewelry box alma no bigger

than that

it's small i guess we're back to square

one

yeah i don't know i wish

as much as you know air and

karen all them are ridiculous it's

it's almost like i want to ask them more

questions

but you know yeah

what did they know what do they know

that perhaps we didn't know

i mean i don't think colonel anything

knew anything but

air might have yeah

caleb any any luck on neuron you seeing

anything i

i don't really know what i'm looking for

uh no uh just just rubble i mean

what are the chances that whatever we're

looking for is still here even here

you're right why do we have any leads on

you know whose building it was who's

whose chest it was just the storage

space i don't know

let's maybe we can find somewhere to

rest for the night and talk it out

if we have to contact the hollow guard

we might have to

well certainly this building was

purchased from someone

and someone who lives here right or yeah

you know there would have to be some

kind of paper trail

yeah so that's our best bet let's just

see what the building what the what the

roots of the building are

and go from there well maybe someone is

at a tavern or at a

at a inn might know who owned it

yeah it stands for reason or sport

sports checking

i'm gonna walk over to flynn and shriya

well we can't find anything so

actually i might have some information

how

when how where'd you get it from well

there's this really smart really cool

looking dwarf in that building over

there

and well first i went over to talk to

him because he was just like looking at

the rubble and he said he was here when

the explosion happened

so i asked him like what happened and he

said uh that these people

are traitors and that they i think they

own this building

and i they said that some looters came

to take some stuff

but the tribe also grabbed a bunch of

stuff as well and then he told me that

he was a fortune teller

oh flynn you met a fortune teller did

you ask him what about the crystals and

who was trying to steal the crystals

no i should have done that why not

what did you ask him what could possibly

have been more important than asking him

who was trying to steal the crystals

well i where is he now he should be in

the building

what did you ask what was so important i

mean i asked to make sure my parents

were still doing okay

and then i asked if my best friend was

doing okay fine

i asked if i was gonna become a sentinel

but how could you but oh my oh my he

told me

that there's something that we're

seeking

and it's in the tavern down the street

well maybe it's your parents since

you're so eager to find them oh that'd

be great

i can't believe you were talking to a

fortune teller

and you didn't ask him about the

crystals

well you can go ask him he's super nice

that's not how fortune tellers work

maybe they just want to talk i say under

my breath to kellik

i say appears the short one is also

short-sighted

uh well if you don't want to talk to him

let's just go check out this tavern i

mean we probably need to find a place to

sleep anyway but

maybe that's where what your look maybe

that's where the crystals are but we

already have we're

talking about going toward the tavern

anyways then it's a

fine thing i will i will take a like a

peek

like is the is the door open to this

building or what is the yeah the front

door is wide open

can i see anybody inside uh yeah you

could see a uh

old dwarven man uh walking sort of back

and forth uh

taking care of his house i went to peek

in too

like just under it's like my head my

head is like four inches of

under calyx and i'm gonna peek over and

maybe we should go to that tavern and

then slow their back

um kellick you are um

you're looking in through the doorway

right yeah

um so as you sort of like peer in

um you can see the the dwarven man

um pacing back and forth but

your eyes lose focus and everything else

in the house

is like fuzzy and blurred and

out of focus um and pretty soon it's it

all just seems like a some garbled mess

um oma and march you guys can see in

just fine

[Music]

i'm gonna cast eyes of the grave and

and draw ashes across my eyes

does anything change nothing changes

uh as though not here in march i'm gonna

walk closer i'm gonna walk in the door

[Music]

okay um as you take a step in

your vision becomes even more blurred

and at this point you can

you can barely even see your hand in

front of your face

i'm going to press forward i'm going to

walk forward

you take a couple more steps forward and

with each step your vision gets more and

more blurred too

at this point it seems like just a white

and gray landscape

and you just hear beyond this this fog

um you hear a voice that says

[Music]

caleb i would appreciate you stepping

out of my home

and you feel this sort of shift in

gravity as you're not walking but your

entire body

is pushed out of this

home into the doorway and your feet like

slide across the wooden floor as you are

now

um standing outside on the porch once

more right

[Music]

can i still see him in there no

the the inside is is still completely

blurred

to your vision but can i see the door

for now that's also

no at this point he is completely

obscured as well

you you can look back and forth and you

can see like the wood paneling on the

outside of the home

you can see clearly but as soon as you

try and pierce that veil of the doorway

um it's completely blurred kellic you

should ask for permission before going

into people's homes

what in the devil is this place

uh i'll stand the nobis i light my

my bandage up on my arm and i'll try to

hold it to the

to the fog to the shroud

okay um you you cast that spell

and um you feel a gust of wind emanate

from

um inside the house and your

the the arm that just lit up is

completely extinguished

and you hear a booming voice from inside

of the house

and it says that magic has no

place here

can the rest of us hear this at all or

not yes you and alma looking inside you

see the dwarven man

standing there very calmly hands behind

his back

um just looking out right at kellock

what kind of magic kalec what's going on

i don't know

who are you old man

[Music]

what is this

your welcome has been worn out

and he snaps his fingers and the door to

the home i don't have access

from you and i'm trying to like stop the

door

as with my reaction

all right um make a strength check all

right

uh it's uh 13. the door slams in your

face

it closes god damn it

guys what's going on over there i've

never seen a being so

interested in getting in a place he's

not want what's going on

did something happen i don't know a

child

i don't know what this is is is the door

does the door have any symbology that i

can comprehend

nope just looks like a wooden door

[Music]

i will

damn i have no recourse

i'm just i'm just banging on it with my

clothes fist

okay um the door does not budge

whatsoever

kellet cal kelly it's okay

we can get your fortune told another

time i don't want my bloody fortuna

i want to know what the hell is this

what in the hell is going on here

what do you mean it's just a building

with a man

in it i'll i'll crouch down now almost

i'd flynn asked me how i do my magical

i don't know i don't understand it i can

just

i just see thanks

and hear the words of a being

and i just

did you here agreed to take part with

with the power it could give me

you don't know whose magic you have

i have an idea

are you worried

i'll compose myself stand up

no i'm not worried

keep your bloody fortune then

you belong in this swamp no

saunter off

flynn what way was that tavern you were

saying something about a tower um yeah

he said it's

um down the way

down the street and i'll look down the

street like both ways to see if i can

spot a tavern that maybe he was talking

about

um yeah you sort of look in the

direction that he was pointing um

and you see uh a pair of drow

um sitting out sort of on the front

porch area having a meal

um and you determined that that's

probably the the tavern who's pointing

it out yeah let's looks like it's over

there let's check it out

we get maybe not

this statue uh in town dm can i

it does does it look like a tear or is

a different dwarf um

no it is definitively not a tear um

it looks like sort of a younger

more like warrior dwarf

lots of like armor and and stuff on him

yeah not the same as a tear

[Music]

is it a new god presumably

caleb um no you would you would know

that this is definitively not

a new god um just the way that it's sort

of set up in town

and sort of in the middle um looks like

maybe either a founder of the town or a

congress

a conqueror local legend something of

that sort yeah

yeah nothing like worshipping um just

sort of uh

statue of recognition

uh i'll make my way to the driver

okay um you said there's drop the driver

on the front porch of the tower

yes can i hear what they're talking

about

um uh yeah they're um they're just

talking about

um how the two like they went fishing

yesterday and they were sort of in a

little competition

um and they were like so shocked that

neither of them

had caught anything for the day and then

they're sort of like ribbing each other

of like oh yeah you're terrible at this

well yeah you're terrible at this like

of course you didn't catch anything

um seems very trivial i'll just kind of

um uh enjoy

a moment of observing them as as i pass

okay where's he headed

i think that's the tavern ah

taffen oh could use it something stiff

to get my mind off this

awful locale i gotta start following

them

okay i'll lean towards you guys i mean

why is my shrine so upset

i don't know maybe you should ask him

i don't know yeah maybe no

maybe he's upset because you didn't ask

the fortune teller anything about where

we're going or what we're doing or how

to help us

maybe i mean i can't imagine why he'd be

upset about that but like maybe that's

why he's upset

that could be it i'll

kind of look down to the ground kick a

little pebble and then start walking

towards the tavern

okay um as you guys all walk into the

tavern

um it opens up and you can see that the

inside of the tavern is

pretty cleared for the most part there's

um a young dwarven couple sitting at a

table off in the far

corner just sort of enjoying an intimate

moment between them

um and as you guys walk in you see at

the

bar itself um two

hooded figures facing away from you

look about humanoid size um about the

same height as

let's say kellik um so definitely not

dwarves

they're hooded and they're facing away

from you so you cannot see their faces

but you can see

um the owner of the bar is a

uh like a middle-aged dwarven woman um

who is talking to these two

and as you guys enter she says for the

last

time we don't know where all of your

stuff went

we want nothing to do with the hollow

guard here

and with that we're going to end this

week's session

oh no we're going to come back right

there

yeah so that's where we're going to call

it thank you all so much for listening

and we can't wait to see you all again

next week bye nerds

hey nerds it's shane i want to thank you

so much for listening sharing and

subscribing to the podcast it really

means the world to me i

really really appreciate it uh and we're

excited to announce that we are

partnering with d beyond

isn't that crazy and giving away digital

dice sets for you to use in your own

campaigns and one shots and adventures

and maybe if you just are having trouble

deciding something you can roll some

digital dice

all you have to do to enter is head over

to our giveaway link in our bio

which is a dnd beyond link

venture which is super cool and you can

choose how you'd like to enter and how

many times

good luck i hope the dice roll in your

favor and we'll see you next week

bye nerds

you

Venture Forth is a Dungeons and Dragons podcast. We play 5th edition (5e) Dungeons and Dragons in a home-brew D&D actual play setting. Our campaign takes place in the high fantasy realm of Elbor. A world of monsters, heroes and epic tales to be told. D&D is a TTRPG, a tabletop roleplaying game, also known as an RPG. Our gameplay is perfect for beginners to Dungeons and Dragons from episode 1.Olma, Flynn, March, Ceallach, Shraya

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https://www.ventureforthdnd.com/
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