2026-8-3 — Akasha

Argyle:I was holding out for us

Gamemaster:What?

Gamemaster:How's the new PVE mode?

Gamemaster:Oh, the reason I was asking is just because it said that you had Marvel Rivals open.

Argyle:for all three of us

Gamemaster:I assumed you were looking at it.

Argyle:I just spun it up because I didn't know if people weren't hopping out until 8.15

Argyle:have you played any more of the blood hunt?

Gamemaster:That's fair.

Argyle:Okay.

Gamemaster:Uh, no, not since we last played.

Johnny:Yo, yo, yo.

Gamemaster:Hello!

Argyle:Hey.

Gamemaster:Howdy doodly.

Johnny:Yo, yo, yo.

Argyle:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gamemaster:I disliked that noise in particular.

Argyle:Why?

Johnny:I take it as a win.

Gamemaster:It made me uncomfortable, it sounded bad, and I'm scared.

Argyle:Yeah.

Argyle:Wow.

Argyle:Better.

Argyle:Yeah.

Argyle:hmm

Gamemaster:It is, uh, rare that I'm in the first group of people to join.

Anzu:Yes hello Hello Oh you know you can keep me away

Gamemaster:I know that this is exacerbated by the fact that it's because other people, and by other

Gamemaster:people I mean specifically Mike, is even later than I am, but I'll take it.

Argyle:yes

Gamemaster:This counts as a win for me.

Argyle:yes

Gamemaster:Oh gosh I can believe Tanner here I thought we gave him the wrong time on purpose How he still here Oh

Argyle:oh

Argyle:tana

Johnny:Oh, he's arrived.

Johnny:Tanner showed up here at 3 p.m. just to be safe and has been bouncing in and out.

Argyle:you Tanner have you taken a look at the Necromancer class

Gamemaster:Oh.

Johnny:All right.

Anzu:I am inevitable.

Argyle:I looked at it.

Johnny:Instead of mind magic, dead magic.

Anzu:I haven't.

Argyle:I think it would be...

Argyle:It fits Anzu's niche.

Argyle:So if anyone in the party is going to play it,

Argyle:it's like an arcane, not full...

Argyle:Or arcane set, all of that.

Argyle:So if Anzu has a real big change of heart

Argyle:and decides he wants to just start bringing up dead things,

Argyle:I think it's perfect for you.

Anzu:Right.

Argyle:Yeah.

Argyle:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anzu:I see.

Argyle:If he just completely decides to change everything.

Argyle:it is in base i i hope that in the future they come up with a wisdom based one i think that'd be fun

Gamemaster:Wisdom based, what, caster?

Johnny:I think, are both the rune scriber, rune mage, rune crafter, and necromancer in-based?

Anzu:I guess it's int-based.

Argyle:uh necromancer you know some of them have like variants so you can go like a wisdom one

Argyle:yeah i think that'd be fun

Gamemaster:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anzu:Yeah, the rune one is.

Gamemaster:I didn't...

Anzu:Yeah.

Argyle:I think it's like an arc

Gamemaster:I didn't look at the rune one, I didn't realize it was int based. I thought it's like a fighter.

Johnny:I think it's like a...

Anzu:It, like, kind of is.

Johnny:Yeah.

Argyle:yeah

Gamemaster:Oh.

Johnny:It's sort of like a fighter, but also...

Johnny:It ruins stuff.

Anzu:It, yeah, it doesn't have to be, it seems.

Anzu:I was actually, like, I'm thinking down the line of taking that archetype.

Johnny:It looks pretty neat.

Argyle:nope

Johnny:It looks like a class.

Johnny:there a lot of cool builds and a lot of ways to mess it up Seems complex No Tanner I believe in you

Argyle:you I agree

Gamemaster:you No I don

Anzu:Probably I would mess it up

Anzu:Oh, thanks.

Johnny:Nail it.

Gamemaster:I think you would mess it up.

Gamemaster:I think the only person qualified here to play that class is me.

Gamemaster:So if anybody else tries it, they'll mess it up.

Johnny:Okay, we'll save it for you, Josh.

Johnny:I like on Archives of Anethas

Johnny:since they don't have the Oracle license anymore.

Johnny:Now it's just pictures of the iconics.

Gamemaster:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:Yeah, which is mildly annoying.

Gamemaster:I don't think...

Gamemaster:So whenever we do one-shots and stuff for your characters,

Gamemaster:I've been going and yoinking the class icons from Archives of Nethis.

Gamemaster:And I figured I'd just fill them in slowly over time

Gamemaster:as you guys play new classes.

Gamemaster:And as it turns out,

Johnny:There's only six classes we've played.

Anzu:I feel like we've had decent coverage over the last few years,

Gamemaster:I only have like six of them,

Gamemaster:and they're gone now.

Gamemaster:So I gotta find some other class icons to use.

Gamemaster:Basically, one second,

Gamemaster:I can actually tell you

Gamemaster:specifically what icons I have.

Johnny:Are eight of them fighter?

Johnny:I feel like eight of them are fighter and...

Gamemaster:They might all be fighter.

Gamemaster:Every single one is a fighter.

Johnny:Was Marzo

Anzu:but I guess not.

Argyle:We've had Thaumaturges,

Argyle:Swashbucklers, Summoners,

Argyle:Wizards,

Anzu:I played a guardian once.

Johnny:Guardians of the Galaxy?

Anzu:I played a witch.

Argyle:Clerics,

Anzu:That was a long time ago that I played a witch.

Argyle:Witch, Psychic.

Johnny:I think it was an exemplar for one one-shot.

Johnny:We had a gunslinger and

Anzu:Barbarian.

Argyle:A Magus?

Johnny:What'd you say?

Anzu:Barbarian.

Argyle:We had a Magus.

Johnny:Oh.

Gamemaster:I have Thaumaturge Psychic Kineticist Champion Bard Exemplar Fighter Um I don know this might be like a year or two old

Johnny:I don't think we've got

Argyle:Oh did you start saving not the entire time

Johnny:I think

Gamemaster:I don't know when I started saving these.

Argyle:I'm trying to think.

Gamemaster:Those are the only classes you guys are allowed to play now, so.

Argyle:What class?

Gamemaster:um alchemist

Argyle:I'm trying to think.

Argyle:What classes have, I'm looking at the whole page,

Argyle:like what classes have we not played besides the new ones?

Argyle:Is it monk?

Argyle:We haven't played Monk, right?

Johnny:Commander.

Anzu:Oh, what does the animus do?

Gamemaster:swashbuckler

Johnny:Oh, Commander.

Johnny:Druid.

Argyle:Alchemist.

Johnny:I think anyone's been a Druid.

Johnny:Has anyone been a Ranger?

Johnny:Mike's been a Ranger for one thing, actually.

Gamemaster:oh okay were you an animist as well was somebody an animist

Johnny:I was a Swashbuckler for a one-shot.

Johnny:I think Tanner was an Animist.

Argyle:And I was...

Gamemaster:They, um...

Johnny:They got Spirits.

Argyle:Boulder.

Gamemaster:Oh, okay, so we do have an ant.

Argyle:Boulder was an animist.

Argyle:Oh, no, he was a kineticist.

Johnny:What?

Argyle:He was a kineticist.

Gamemaster:Yeah, no, Kineticist is different. We've had a few Kineticists.

Argyle:Bull!

Johnny:I forgot about the boulder.

Anzu:The boulder.

Gamemaster:Did we have an oracle?

Johnny:I don't know if we had no...

Anzu:I've played an oracle.

Anzu:I played a leshy oracle a very long time ago.

Gamemaster:Yes, I do.

Anzu:When we melted that lock.

Anzu:Remember when we melted the lock in the one shot?

Johnny:Oh.

Johnny:Yes.

Gamemaster:You were an oracle?

Johnny:you're trying to figure out

Anzu:Yes, and then I hid in the seaweed

Gamemaster:I didn't remember what class you were.

Gamemaster:You were a seaweed leshy, weren't you?

Anzu:at the end of the one shot.

Gamemaster:Hey, it worked.

Anzu:I kind of like the Oracle.

Anzu:Sometimes the drawbacks are pretty harsh.

Gamemaster:Are they still pretty harsh? I think they changed that in the remaster. I vaguely

Johnny:I feel like the drawbacks are not balanced

Johnny:I think so

Anzu:Maybe not.

Johnny:I feel like they're balanced

Johnny:I think some of them are like you get very light

Johnny:and some are like you're stunned forever

Johnny:or

Gamemaster:recall it being better now but i haven't actually gone back to double check

Johnny:Okay, well one makes you clumsy.

Johnny:One gives you weakness to fire.

Johnny:One just gives you weakness two to any spell damage.

Johnny:Jeez.

Johnny:Some of these are worse than others.

Johnny:Okay.

Johnny:It feels like they're a little more balanced than they used to be.

Argyle:When do you Oh, are these the spells?

Gamemaster:There was...

Johnny:Oh my gosh.

Anzu:What's Seraphic always one of the names?

Gamemaster:there was always a single level 10 spell that was really designed mostly to be used as like

Anzu:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:the pivotal part of a campaign and not to be casted by the players and then we moved to

Gamemaster:Pathfinder and Pathfinder just normally has level 10 spells and I thought it would be goofy to make

Gamemaster:this level 11 as it just like one upping so it's instead now just a ritual at level 10 with some

Anzu:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:pretty strict requirements but it has always been around it just didn't come up in in that

Argyle:uh it's a quick question on this what what uh schools can clerics cast i know

Johnny:Amen.

Anzu:So we had these kind of main, I remember all seven of these.

Gamemaster:first campaign because you guys had other things to worry about uh but it's there

Gamemaster:well so i i like there are

Argyle:cosmetology is there anything else obviously i not going to put these in yet i just looking I don see looking Dope So you filtered that in there

Gamemaster:You can if you like you can go into the filters in the top right and then choose the divine tradition There are 61 spells that are on the divine tradition

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Argyle:I see 33.

Gamemaster:There should be 61.

Gamemaster:What do you mean you see 33?

Gamemaster:It's 61 specifically from Liturgy of the Irodei.

Argyle:Wait, is it 61 not including

Argyle:with the core?

Argyle:Or is it 61 from Iridite?

Argyle:There we go.

Anzu:Yeah, I see 61.

Gamemaster:Yeah one second.

Gamemaster:Um, yeah you might have another, oh you had the Cosmeturgy filter on.

Anzu:Do you have another filter on Jorge?

Gamemaster:There are some that aren't Cosmeturgy, there you go.

Argyle:Duh-duh-duh.

Argyle:Woo-hoo!

Gamemaster:No, but there's a bunch.

Argyle:Um...

Gamemaster:I will say, there were like

Gamemaster:three spells that I couldn't

Gamemaster:find. Either I couldn't find

Gamemaster:a way to bring it into Pathfinder without it being

Anzu:Oh, put it on blast.

Gamemaster:either completely broken or

Gamemaster:completely useless.

Gamemaster:And there was one spell

Gamemaster:that I chose not to port.

Gamemaster:But other than that,

Gamemaster:everything else made it in.

Anzu:Tell us about it.

Anzu:Oh, we know about that one.

Anzu:Never mind.

Gamemaster:Yeah, you do know

Gamemaster:about that one.

Anzu:What are the other ones then?

Gamemaster:There was Lesser Wish, which its whole deal was that it let you cast a spell in another spell school at a lower level.

Gamemaster:But it didn't port very well.

Gamemaster:And I also didn't know how I felt about letting wizards just cast other spell, like the classes from other spells.

Gamemaster:um i thought it kind of defeated the purpose of having it split up and it was less of a problem

Gamemaster:in this one uh because uh there are only four spell lists instead of the 16 that there would have been in 5e yes Jorge yeah i i don remember what the other one is I have to go back and double

Argyle:You can keep going I just queuing up my question so i noticed something extra planar beam is vitality why vitality rather than spirit

Gamemaster:Because I missed that,

Gamemaster:and it's supposed to be Spirit.

Argyle:okay now i wasn't i wasn't like upset i was just curious yeah yeah

Gamemaster:No, no, no, no.

Gamemaster:No, you're correct.

Gamemaster:It's supposed to actually do damage to most things, is the point of it.

Argyle:Okay.

Argyle:Was that just from my Claude skill?

Gamemaster:I just, I missed that.

Gamemaster:What I did...

Argyle:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:No, it's not even that.

Gamemaster:I went through, and I had a bout of Alzheimer's, or dementia, I suppose.

Gamemaster:Because I went through and I adjusted a lot of the radiant spells to be force.

Gamemaster:And then I was like, wait, no, force isn't in Pathfinder.

Argyle:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:Let's make them other things.

Gamemaster:and so then I went to everything that I made force

Argyle:Okay.

Gamemaster:and I changed it into different damage types

Gamemaster:and then I remembered that force is a damage type in Pathfinder

Gamemaster:and I'm a crazy person

Gamemaster:and so I like went to go back

Gamemaster:and moved a lot of the things back over to force

Gamemaster:and I must have missed this one

Gamemaster:but even saying it out loud

Gamemaster:I actually think spirit is a better fit than force

Gamemaster:for extra planar beam anyway

Argyle:Okay.

Gamemaster:so I can update that pretty easily

Gamemaster:to just be spirit damage instead

Argyle:If you want to make that force, that'd be fine with force.

Gamemaster:I think

Gamemaster:Spirit probably fits better

Gamemaster:because the

Argyle:yeah

Gamemaster:whole thing is extra planar beam

Gamemaster:is shooting out like bits

Gamemaster:of the slip at people

Gamemaster:and so

Gamemaster:like

Gamemaster:I guess force works

Gamemaster:I think spirit also works

Gamemaster:it's because it's both supposed to be radiant and radiant

Gamemaster:just isn't a damage type in Pathfinder

Gamemaster:and I know that it isn't a damage type

Argyle:i'm

Gamemaster:I had to double check to make sure I wasn't

Gamemaster:a crazy person again

Argyle:i mean i think if you do spirit it makes more sense

Gamemaster:It not necrotic it not darkness stuff though um it like the original flavor of the

Argyle:with the dazzled and blinded that you have there Well I guess it doesn if it necrotic well i guess you could still be blinded from necrotic because that like darkness stuff

Argyle:so maybe

Gamemaster:spell was that you're effectively opening up a portal to the sink um and that's not a thing

Argyle:yeah

Gamemaster:in in sorry to the source not the sink i apologize uh you were opening up a portal to the source

Gamemaster:But that's not a thing in this particular section.

Argyle:All right.

Johnny:I forgot the Zog spell named after him.

Gamemaster:There is, and this is the thing that you're not getting with this thing and you will get with the PDF,

Gamemaster:is that there are lore reasons for these spells to be on Færrin.

Gamemaster:That would explain why you have things that don't, like, point to the right, like, and all that kind of stuff.

Argyle:All right.

Gamemaster:But no, you don't have access to the source on Færrin.

Gamemaster:So instead it's just, like, this slip, which is, you know, space, effectively.

Argyle:All right.

Gamemaster:I think Spirit is a fine selection there.

Gamemaster:Sorry?

Argyle:Nope.

Johnny:And Jorge can't even cast it.

Gamemaster:He doesn't deserve it.

Gamemaster:Uh-uh.

Argyle:What do you think about falling stars?

Argyle:Is that going to stay vitality?

Gamemaster:Uh, no, that's a similar issue. I think that unless it's obvious that the spell is supposed to be used for healing, it is a misprint of mine that it says vitality instead of spirit or force.

Argyle:OK.

Johnny:Is that all there is?

Argyle:OK.

Argyle:Summon Heart has a whole different,

Argyle:it feels slightly weird in this context,

Gamemaster:Yeah, no.

Argyle:because I think it means like a, like a,

Argyle:like a heart dimension thing.

Johnny:he was

Johnny:where's the

Argyle:Yeah.

Johnny:where's the

Argyle:yeah

Gamemaster:It's...

Johnny:We're in the middle of a big fight. We're on the other side of the Strider. We cast Summon Heart, Machine God, Rockets across the Strider.

Gamemaster:Maybe I should change it to do that instead.

Gamemaster:No, it comes from back in ye olden days when a heart was just a thing inside your chest that made you not die.

Argyle:that one's void as a heads up

Gamemaster:But, you know.

Argyle:okay

Gamemaster:That one should be void. That makes sense.

Argyle:what about if I use summon heart

Argyle:on an undead thing that's void immune

Gamemaster:Well, um, an undead's heart would not functionally, uh, affect its, like, like that's on purpose.

Johnny:What is the, how far can we push these spells, Josh?

Argyle:but I can't pull its heart out?

Argyle:That's fair.

Argyle:Second question.

Argyle:Can I use summon heart on

Argyle:a heart

Argyle:to get its like, to rip it out?

Argyle:To kill it.

Gamemaster:Yeah. Yeah. No, I would allow that. That's fine.

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:like explicitly a change in the spell was to go

Argyle:Oh, yeah.

Gamemaster:sorry a change in the spell was to go from heart to heart or functional equivalent i would allow

Gamemaster:that that's fine but like undead specifically do not have a functional equivalent because

Argyle:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:they are animated by magic and not by a heart

Argyle:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:we will see you know obviously we're going to have to do all of this with like a big old

Argyle:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:i think they're balanced but who knows if they actually are so if you do start using them

Argyle:I can't wait for

Johnny:Thank you fight listen there a lot of good spells on here that Johnny is gonna pull Johnny gonna walk and go I cast Lurr Chronomantic Shell Is that how you pronounce

Gamemaster:in in any capacity um and it turns out that something is wildly out of band we will work

Gamemaster:to bring it back in but like i think they're all generally around where they're supposed to be

Gamemaster:So, who knows?

Gamemaster:Although I am as I clicking Yeah that pretty close

Argyle:I was going to say I can wait for Johnny to start saying let start a fight Will he have access to that Ha ha ha

Argyle:Ha ha ha.

Gamemaster:I mean, you have no point of reference, so as well as you know, that's how you say it.

Argyle:And they're from, and they're from, that's messed up.

Johnny:Somebody's got to step up.

Anzu:around here call it LYRR.

Gamemaster:Oh, that's dumb.

Anzu:Listen, Mike's running late so I had to sub in.

Gamemaster:My co-workers all call it the lure, and I'm going crazy.

Anzu:Yeah, no, that should be illegal.

Gamemaster:They're not from here.

Gamemaster:Like, a good majority of them aren't from, like, New York,

Argyle:Oh.

Johnny:I'm not from New York.

Gamemaster:so it's not surprising, necessarily.

Gamemaster:But I feel like if I correct them, it's been too long,

Gamemaster:and they've said it too many times, and I'll just look very rude.

Gamemaster:Actually, it's the LIRR.

Johnny:What is this?

Gamemaster:The Long Island Railroad, abbreviated LIRR,

Gamemaster:is by most natives referred to as the LIRR, but occasionally you get an out-of-towner

Gamemaster:who calls it the LRR instead, and they're wrong. Yes, Jorge.

Argyle:I've also found people that were raised in Queens or Brooklyn

Anzu:I just don't like it.

Argyle:maybe calling it that as well, the lure.

Gamemaster:No.

Anzu:You do No no please this is very intriguing

Argyle:And Bailey knows someone from Google that is dating someone

Argyle:who's from Brooklyn, born and raised, and he calls it the lure.

Gamemaster:not correct

Argyle:And everyone's just like, what's going on, man?

Gamemaster:they just don't know what they're talking about

Argyle:And then I know someone from Queens.

Argyle:you know who I ran into sorry go ahead no so do you remember on 15 C there were like

Gamemaster:Yes.

Argyle:two girls that like were next to our

Argyle:common room one of them went by the name

Argyle:Big Daddy yeah I don't I don't remember

Gamemaster:I don't know their actual name or their faces,

Anzu:Hmm.

Gamemaster:but I specifically remember somebody being called Big Daddy.

Argyle:her name she was an asian girl i don't remember her name that one i was just like that's a crazy

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Anzu:Jeez, you're going, I did not pay enough attention to these goings on.

Argyle:nickname you want people to call you that's crazy um do you remember how she had a boyfriend

Argyle:and then there was another dude that just kept showing up all the time named brian

Argyle:also an asian guy he kept showing up and then eventually they just started dating and i guess

Argyle:they broke up with the old one do you guys know any of those

Argyle:yeah one time he was in our he was in our uh he was in the guy's side of the bathroom and then

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:It's...

Anzu:We

Argyle:he said something like yeah i just broke her bed and we're just like isn't she dating someone and

Argyle:your friends anyway um his name's brian he i think he's from queens him and the same girl now

Argyle:live in LIC

Argyle:and I've seen him at the gym once or twice

Argyle:and he calls it LUR.

Argyle:That's a whole throwback.

Gamemaster:I have heard that.

Anzu:occasionally get LIRR which is acceptable.

Johnny:It's kind of fun.

Gamemaster:That's fine.

Gamemaster:It's not correct, but it's fine.

Johnny:A little funky.

Argyle:Wait, what do you call it then?

Gamemaster:L-I-R-R.

Gamemaster:It's the L-I-R-R.

Gamemaster:You say all the letters.

Argyle:Oh.

Argyle:No, I like L-I-R-R.

Gamemaster:There's only four of them.

Gamemaster:But that's more syllables.

Argyle:It has a nice ring to it.

Gamemaster:L-I-R-R.

Gamemaster:it's faster to just say all the letters

Gamemaster:than to take two of the letters

Anzu:All right Right

Gamemaster:and turn them into three syllables

Argyle:No, but...

Gamemaster:well if you just never say L I double L then that not an issue

Argyle:What if I accidentally say L No no but now it confusing because in my head yeah yeah yeah but what

Johnny:L I double R Are you a pirate

Anzu:Oh, so I shouldn't have opened my stupid mouth.

Gamemaster:No.

Argyle:if I also can't count

Argyle:R so it's just L I R R

Argyle:or what do they think

Argyle:I'm a pirate and they

Argyle:think I'm saying L I R

Argyle:so now they start

Johnny:Are you a pirate?

Johnny:I think people could tell just looking at you

Argyle:worrying if I'm a

Argyle:scurvy

Johnny:if you're scurvy or not

Argyle:Well.

Gamemaster:talking about college

Anzu:Is that still a big problem for pirates?

Benny:Yeah, I don't know if we are pirates.

Johnny:you're smiling, your gums are just bleeding

Anzu:I mean, we have a lot of resources now.

Argyle:Yeah, but they're not on land a lot.

Argyle:Nice haircut.

Anzu:Speak for yourself.

Benny:Thanks.

Gamemaster:there was a kid in

Argyle:Nice haircut, Mike.

Gamemaster:the same club as me who had scurvy

Johnny:yeah

Gamemaster:at BU

Gamemaster:because he just fully didn't eat a fruit

Johnny:You didn't ask him.

Gamemaster:for like two years straight

Gamemaster:no he had to go to the doctor and then they literally told him to just like start eating

Benny:Was it like a chicks dig scars type thing?

Benny:He got a lot of attention.

Anzu:Do you not trust her medical advice?

Benny:Question.

Gamemaster:fruit or take a multivitamin i don't know

Benny:Was the doctor a woman?

Gamemaster:besides the fact that this was like 10 years ago i didn't

Benny:It's important info for my notes.

Benny:Okay.

Gamemaster:no i i didn't yeah i don't know i i never went to the like bu clinic have any of you gone if you

Johnny:That wasn't the first question when he came back.

Johnny:you weren't like

Johnny:how's Josh claiming

Johnny:was it a woman

Johnny:hmm

Argyle:Mike, is that the right mic?

Benny:no no no no

Gamemaster:went was there a woman there because if there was apparently mike doesn't trust her

Gamemaster:oh

Benny:I'm saying it worked

Benny:chick stick scars and scurvy

Benny:he was literally forced

Gamemaster:you think it was a ploy to pick up women

Benny:to see a woman

Benny:because of his scurvy

Benny:oh

Benny:everyone became a robot

Johnny:Let's do it.

Argyle:Yeah.

Argyle:Shall we start?

Argyle:Yeah.

Benny:It is the wrong mic.

Benny:This is the right mic.

Gamemaster:sure

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Oh, that is the right mic. That's so different. Why didn't you start with that one?

Benny:I wanted to freak everyone out.

Argyle:Okay.

Benny:I do apologize for my lateness.

Benny:See, what had happened was we are still onboarding two new kinds of securities for 1 p.m.

Benny:The p.m. has been cleared to trade security number one.

Benny:They've not been cleared to trade security number two.

Benny:Guess who decided to test everyone's systems in prod today by trading security number two?

Argyle:And that's life.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Johnny:Um.

Anzu:You know, that's life.

Benny:Guess who had to adopt my team's part of the system that's responsible for this because the last guy that did it made it fully unfunctional.

Benny:So I had to fix the whole thing.

Benny:So it became my responsibility now to double fix it and triple correct several things.

Benny:So there's still more work to be done, but it is.

Gamemaster:Nice.

Johnny:Thanks.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Anzu:It's all right.

Argyle:If you need me to sing any other songs, just let me know.

Gamemaster:I hated it. I think you're gonna start with one less mythic point today.

Johnny:Oh, no.

Anzu:That was actually very good, Jorge.

Benny:Got him.

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:No I don't. I'm ableist.

Anzu:No, but you've got to consider he's at a disadvantage.

Benny:Got him.

Argyle:That's true.

Gamemaster:Craig is writing that down

Argyle:Write that down.

Argyle:Write that down, Craig.

Johnny:We got it on script.

Johnny:Are we recording?

Johnny:Is Craig recording?

Argyle:yeah yeah so we started out mid-fight some of us had already been positioned

Gamemaster:yeah let's

Benny:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:play some Pathfinder

Gamemaster:great

Gamemaster:does anybody want to do a

Gamemaster:recap of last session

Gamemaster:if they remember it

Gamemaster:Jorge is handling up first

Argyle:really smartly because we realized these big goofs couldn attack us on the the pods super smart so we start fighting right we start fighting it going well then the maid not to be confused with the

Argyle:maid as in uh like a cleaner uh the maid as in like they were created uh was decided i'm gonna

Argyle:to go call the big weird uh thing of leeches aka lifeline

Gamemaster:Hmm?

Benny:Okay.

Argyle:dope um so it starts running benny starts chasing it starts getting some good waxing on the metal

Argyle:we start killing it and i say killing because it keeps coming back up so in between fighting

Argyle:the other things, we're playing whack-a-mole with this maid

Argyle:thing.

Argyle:And we tried spirit, hold, fire, vitality, slashing, crushing.

Argyle:I think that was it.

Argyle:And then finally, silver was the thing that stopped it.

Argyle:Some of the other guys were just there.

Argyle:Finally, we were able to stop it.

Argyle:We killed everyone.

Argyle:And they were like, this is great.

Argyle:now what do we do next?

Argyle:We should eat this heart, because they said it was unsavable.

Argyle:But then Josh

Argyle:made us decide,

Argyle:based on our greed, because he knows we like everything,

Argyle:so he said, you either can kill

Argyle:all the high-level things that you definitely couldn't take in a fight,

Argyle:or

Argyle:you can get a measly 70

Argyle:health. Surprisingly,

Argyle:we didn't go for the health.

Argyle:We said, no. We gotta do this

Argyle:smart thing. So half of us

Argyle:went foraging for

Argyle:spider venom the other half stayed and prepared a uh lobotomy a psychic reading thing of a sleeping

Argyle:guy uh so we did that mind bird uh decided to go hang out with the sinister six which we now know is the ashen pact yeah um we learned a lot about them uh one of the main things we learned was that really tall

Argyle:guy that we saw was in fact the guy named Giant um very important uh we saw some other things

Argyle:he pulled out, we think, successfully.

Argyle:We sectioned off two of those canisters

Argyle:and then everything else died after this.

Argyle:So we poisoned everything.

Argyle:We lost the heart.

Argyle:We realize this is also right above Grayson's thing.

Argyle:Maybe that's related.

Argyle:He hasn't visited yet, which is a good sign.

Argyle:We also know that they're related to the guys

Argyle:who tried to jump us for that box.

Argyle:And we definitely should have looked at what was in that box.

Argyle:Anyway.

Argyle:I think that was it right.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Benny:I'll try.

Argyle:I don't know if we made it back home yet.

Gamemaster:No, that pretty much covers it.

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Yeah, you get a mythic point.

Gamemaster:Can you, from memory, describe the six members of the Ashen Pact?

Argyle:Define memory.

Argyle:can I look at a photo from discord

Gamemaster:Without looking at the description that I wrote in Discord.

Gamemaster:no

Argyle:all right

Gamemaster:Mike said he'll try

Anzu:I'm being dripped as hell.

Johnny:The faction pact.

Benny:Giant, who's big

Gamemaster:that's true

Benny:Regent, who's dripped out with crown

Benny:Pyre, who's dripped out tied to a stake and burned

Benny:Esoterica, who's dripped out with multiple hands

Benny:and multiple arms too

Benny:Herald, who's dripped out

Johnny:Important distinction.

Gamemaster:Thank you Yeah that works

Benny:doesn't have a horn in any of the generated photos

Benny:because that what I recalling And who was the last one hold on War War War and that two guys uh dueling but

Benny:they don't have heads and they're probably gonna have a heart soon i'm just remembering the

Gamemaster:Cool.

Gamemaster:There's no price for that, but good on you for recall.

Benny:the generated images.

Gamemaster:Yeah, no, I know.

Gamemaster:I could tell because you kept saying dripped out, which was not at any point part of any of the descriptions that I gave.

Johnny:Well, you forgot the...

Anzu:You could argue for region.

Gamemaster:But it was part of your fashion pact.

Johnny:Everyone forgot the very important part.

Johnny:We all forgot the important part that Pyre is apparently Chinese, as shown by the political cartoon.

Gamemaster:Right.

Gamemaster:For whatever reason, the political cartoon captioned pirate in Chinese only.

Gamemaster:I don't know why Gemini took that particular artistic liberty.

Benny:I would love to take credit for any weird, funny thing, but I literally gave it your description and I said, make them a verbose political cartoon of them breaking the firmament.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Johnny:All right.

Benny:And then I vaguely explained what the firmament and fair and were, and then they just made buyer Chinese.

Gamemaster:It just felt like that.

Gamemaster:I don't know why.

Gamemaster:But, yeah, no, that's a pretty accurate retelling.

Gamemaster:Um, so you guys, having extracted some maybe useful information out of the brain of one of those true kin of Herald that you did then poison, um, in the area that was formerly controlled by Lifeline, now controlled by, uh, your friend, the Machine God, uh, having expanded his, uh, domain underneath the Strider.

Gamemaster:you did a little bit of searching

Gamemaster:you found that there are in fact pretty close by

Gamemaster:to where you are the elevators

Gamemaster:that go up to the garages underneath

Gamemaster:the bases of

Gamemaster:both Amber Hall

Gamemaster:and the Pale Lantern Society

Gamemaster:Jorge's hand

Gamemaster:is raised

Argyle:Multiple elevators to go below.

Gamemaster:This is, so, to clarify, this is under them, because this is level three of the Strider,

Argyle:How is this one above that, or are they just next to the garage?

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:which it, like, counts down.

Gamemaster:The first floor is the top, where you guys are, and then it counts all the way down to

Gamemaster:15.

Gamemaster:There are beneath, not directly beneath, but, like, offset slightly from where everybody's

Gamemaster:Spain is. There is access via a garage on the second floor down into the interior of

Argyle:oh so there's there's a lot of garage accesses oh i thought there was just one okay

Gamemaster:the Undercroft. You guys have one, that's how you got here, from the area underneath

Gamemaster:your own base, but there is one for each... Correct. No, no, no, no, there is one underneath

Argyle:I'd like to touch

Gamemaster:each of the 20 slivers that make up the Strider itself.

Gamemaster:Yes, your hand is raised again.

Argyle:two fingers to my head and say

Argyle:Machine God, are you able to change

Argyle:anything about your fame?

Gamemaster:No, my purpose was not to customize the Strider,

Gamemaster:but to keep it operating and observed.

Argyle:That's a real letdown.

Gamemaster:I have a firearm attached to my arm.

Argyle:You don't have any defenses.

Argyle:You can start spinning up.

Anzu:He got a lot of really great abilities

Argyle:So you can't do anything else.

Gamemaster:No.

Argyle:Okay.

Gamemaster:There's a pretty long silence on the other end.

Argyle:I say to the guys, it seems like a...

Gamemaster:from machine cut.

Argyle:I say to the other guys, I'm like,

Argyle:this is kind of a letdown I made.

Argyle:Like, no wonder he got jumped.

Gamemaster:Are you trying to like goad him into being able to make changes to this writer?

Argyle:Yeah yeah but like I mean at least just like be able to like remove a hallway would be great like like our our baby heart can change reality and he can come on

Johnny:you I mean

Benny:Thank you Or insert one

Argyle:uh johnny see if you can see if you can try to convince him like he's got to be able to do this

Gamemaster:You can try a diplomacy check.

Gamemaster:Hello, I am the same.

Johnny:Machine God, come in Machine God

Anzu:Well, the problem is...

Argyle:right because i just want him to quarantine himself that's i don't care if they find this room but like

Johnny:this is Johnny Skyfall, how you doing?

Johnny:there's been a lot of talk around here about all the things you

Johnny:there's been a lot of talk about all the things you can't do

Johnny:but I think you can do a lot of stuff

Argyle:Can I...

Johnny:I think you can cordon yourself off

Johnny:so that other spiders and also people don't find you

Johnny:beside us, I believe in you

Gamemaster:diplomacy check.

Argyle:Can I try to aid him

Gamemaster:This can be an aid

Gamemaster:if you want, Argyle.

Argyle:with warfare lore?

Gamemaster:No.

Argyle:Because I can talk about how, like...

Gamemaster:He doesn't need

Gamemaster:knowledge on

Gamemaster:battlements

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:and the like.

Gamemaster:This is not a lack of he doesn't know how to.

Gamemaster:This is a lack of, as far as

Johnny:Yeah, if you could.

Gamemaster:he's communicated to you, he can't do it.

Gamemaster:So you're trying to convince him

Gamemaster:in the case that it's not a

Gamemaster:lack of ability, but a lack

Gamemaster:of want.

Argyle:Wait, wait.

Argyle:So if I fail this, do I have to critically fail

Argyle:to reduce his performance?

Gamemaster:Yes.

Gamemaster:If you critically fail, he gets a minus one.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:But other than that,

Argyle:And a level-based DC, if this is level-based,

Gamemaster:if you just fail, it's nothing.

Argyle:regular is 24.

Gamemaster:If this is a level based DC, it's 24.

Gamemaster:Yes, because you guys are level 8.

Argyle:All right, I'm going to refrain from rolling.

Johnny:Yeah worst comes worst I got pretty high diplomacy Huh

Gamemaster:Amen.

Argyle:I have a plus 12.

Argyle:More often than not, I actually...

Argyle:No I try it I have to roll like a 2 or something Alright

Gamemaster:Oh, what'd you get?

Argyle:30 for my aid.

Gamemaster:30.

Gamemaster:A 30 is a success here.

Argyle:Okay, great.

Johnny:Nice.

Argyle:And if he wants,

Argyle:it could be a 33 if it's a warfare of lore.

Gamemaster:It's not Warfare Lore.

Argyle:I'm just saying, if it is,

Argyle:just for your record keeping.

Argyle:You don't have to tell me, but...

Gamemaster:It isn't.

Johnny:I rolled okay.

Gamemaster:So that's fine.

Gamemaster:What'd you get?

Johnny:I got a 28.

Johnny:I could have rolled much better.

Gamemaster:Uh, a 28.

Johnny:All right.

Gamemaster:There's a bit of a pause on the other end

Gamemaster:as you wait for Machine Gun to respond.

Gamemaster:And then it seems like he feels the need to justify what he can do.

Gamemaster:it was like

Gamemaster:I was designed for

Gamemaster:espionage

Gamemaster:and for management

Argyle:Could we, uh,

Johnny:All right.

Anzu:Yeah, his Fane is imprinted upon existing structure.

Gamemaster:I was not designed to create

Gamemaster:modifications to the Strider

Gamemaster:that were

Gamemaster:that wasn't why I was constructed

Gamemaster:that wasn't why I was created

Gamemaster:I cannot do what you ask of me to do

Gamemaster:but I am capable in the areas

Gamemaster:where I was originally designed to function

Gamemaster:I

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Anzu:It's different from the way our Fane is manifested.

Gamemaster:Correct.

Johnny:Maybe we'll get you a wrought iron gate or something.

Argyle:Yeah, maybe we'll get...

Anzu:Ooh, a portcullis might be nice.

Benny:A moat.

Johnny:A fence.

Benny:We know a group that want to build a moat and haven't got an opportunity yet.

Argyle:Yeah, maybe we should use our heart to make a gate that we can bring down for this heart.

Anzu:I don't think that would work either.

Anzu:you're again you're you're kind of getting mixed up between the

Gamemaster:Roll a d20.

Anzu:you know physical things that exist and then feign items that are kind of manifested

Johnny:Thank you You get brain zapped by machine god

Argyle:Wait who rolling 15

Gamemaster:Argyle you need to roll a d20

Gamemaster:What'd you get?

Gamemaster:15.

Gamemaster:There's

Gamemaster:like the sound of

Gamemaster:static in the back of your head for a second

Gamemaster:and then it cuts off.

Argyle:All right, I'm sorry, Machine God.

Gamemaster:There's no response.

Johnny:Oh, no.

Anzu:He doesn't understand the internet.

Anzu:I think he hung up on you.

Anzu:All right, I think we should go home

Anzu:because I'm really overwhelmed with what I just saw.

Anzu:we can still call them nostrils

Johnny:Yeah, Anzu, your nose is bleeding.

Argyle:What I said, though?

Argyle:Yeah.

Johnny:Your beak is bleeding really badly out of your nose holes.

Argyle:laughing

Johnny:Based on all the stuff we found, it seems like they've been here for a while.

Anzu:but

Anzu:yeah

Argyle:laughing

Anzu:this

Anzu:the

Anzu:Ashen Pact is really

Anzu:kind of at the door of

Anzu:of

Anzu:whatever this source of the Voidsong is.

Argyle:um

Johnny:I mean...

Anzu:Yeah, at the very least, the Herald's been planting seeds for quite a long time.

Anzu:I don't know.

Anzu:Yeah, it's strange.

Anzu:We only really started hearing about stuff related to Pyre kind of recently.

Anzu:But...

Argyle:machine gun hung up on me can one of you guys ask him uh if we get

Argyle:would he benefit from a piece of

Argyle:Aurelia's armor?

Argyle:They said we could hold on it.

Gamemaster:Are you asking him?

Anzu:You want me to give Yao's treasured relic to Machine God, who might not want to give it back?

Benny:Hypothetically, I just hypothetical.

Argyle:I'm just trying to see how pathetic I am.

Argyle:Can you just ask him?

Anzu:Well, he can hear me speak, so...

Argyle:I'm sure he can hear me. He's an espionage.

Argyle:Yeah.

Anzu:I'm not going to ask him about that.

Gamemaster:You do need to use intent as best you're aware in order to communicate with him.

Argyle:I wasn't using intent when I was talking smack

Argyle:about the gate,

Gamemaster:All right.

Anzu:All right, so all of these true kin have died to poison, yes.

Benny:I could do a lot of thinking.

Argyle:but that's fine.

Anzu:All right, so we can kind of...

Argyle:Wait, did you ask him?

Anzu:No, I don't want to get that kind of all mixed up.

Argyle:Why don't you ask him?

Anzu:I don't even want him to, you know, have to think about it.

Argyle:Well, he already knows about it, so...

Argyle:now that we told him just say like you can't guarantee you're just wondering if it would

Gamemaster:Yes.

Anzu:Machine God,

Benny:I like a lot.

Argyle:be helpful because we can also talk to them you know

Benny:He's got a big brain.

Anzu:do

Anzu:relics of Aurelia

Gamemaster:Yes.

Anzu:provide any value to you?

Gamemaster:If they are truly relics of one of my former masters,

Gamemaster:I would be very interested.

Gamemaster:and acquiring them.

Anzu:I am able to get kind of more of a borrow situation going on an alleged relic of Aurelia,

Gamemaster:Why?

Gamemaster:I would very much like to own it but it would not grant me any power if that is your question

Anzu:but if I don't give it back, my life would be forfeit.

Anzu:So you use the word acquire and that is not really accurate to what we able to provide Yeah I think it gonna have to stay where it is for now

Argyle:you That fair

Anzu:I'm sorry about that.

Gamemaster:A shame, but understandable.

Argyle:Can you tell them I'm

Argyle:sorry?

Argyle:I didn't mean to offend them.

Argyle:I was trying to think critically.

Argyle:I need to do more improv.

Argyle:Say all those things verbatim, please.

Gamemaster:No.

Johnny:So we're going to go save on Zoom.

Anzu:Machine God, are you hearing what Argyle is saying?

Gamemaster:No.

Gamemaster:the punishment is not understood unless it is experienced in its entirety

Anzu:Oh, God.

Anzu:He apologized.

Johnny:We're going to go save on Zoom.

Anzu:He said he was trying some critical thinking.

Anzu:And I guess it didn't really work.

Anzu:I don't know.

Argyle:You know, for how long?

Anzu:All right. Good talk.

Benny:I think it's currently punished.

Anzu:Argyle, you've been punished.

Anzu:You're being punished as we speak.

Argyle:So you can't hear me.

Anzu:He said he can't hear you, but he also might be able to lie.

Anzu:so he was made for espionage um let's go home

Argyle:All right, let's go up.

Argyle:That's true.

Johnny:We go back.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:If you guys have nothing else you would like to do during this visit into the Undercraft,

Gamemaster:you are more than welcome to navigate your way back to the lift up underneath your own little slice of the strider

Gamemaster:and make your way home.

Gamemaster:No checks necessary, because those of you that can still hear the machine gun can be accurately directed back.

Anzu:Thank you Well we certainly can go today because a lot kind of happened and resources are a

Argyle:What a cranky guy.

Argyle:Thank you I think we go kidnap that other could go kidnap your sister yet

Johnny:Thank you And we need I feel like we should

Gamemaster:And you find yourselves back home What the plan

Anzu:little drained.

Johnny:I'm tapped.

Johnny:I feel like we're, if there's going to be repercussions, it's going to happen soon,

Argyle:If you're not ready to cleanse her brain yet,

Johnny:We're on a roll, but it might help having a little bit more information on what we're fighting,

Anzu:Yeah, I'm really nervous to find her.

Benny:Mm-hmm.

Johnny:and your sister might have a little info on Herald if she's in there.

Argyle:we could just take her as a captive.

Anzu:Yes, but that might not be an easy thing to do.

Argyle:I'd like to ask the group to do, if we could do two things.

Gamemaster:You guys have had like a full adventuring day.

Anzu:Um, is it, like, what time of day is it now?

Benny:All right.

Anzu:Um, is it, like, what time of day is it now?

Gamemaster:I think it's probably getting close to sunset.

Gamemaster:Sun's set around now.

Gamemaster:Yes.

Argyle:One, move the...

Argyle:Was it two or three

Argyle:containers that we quarantined

Gamemaster:Oh, you got three.

Johnny:I think it was only two.

Benny:Who?

Argyle:with the liquid?

Benny:Mo.

Johnny:Oh, right.

Argyle:Yeah.

Argyle:So three. Should we move...

Gamemaster:No, it was three, because there were two empty ones,

Gamemaster:and then you also quarantined the one with the dead true kin that you caved the skull in of.

Argyle:Yeah.

Argyle:So if we can move those into our car

Johnny:Yeah it kind of like

Argyle:and then bring it to our place.

Argyle:And then should we just empty out the rest?

Argyle:Yeah Yeah You guys want to ask Machine Gun if that a bad idea

Gamemaster:Thank you Well I wouldn drink it

Anzu:From where Like oh down here Just like spill them out into the floor

Benny:I D out Bye

Benny:Here.

Johnny:Hey, Machine God, there's a lot of blue liquid in these tubes.

Johnny:Uh, we don't really want anyone else to get their hands on it. Is it already

Johnny:point- it already tainted from the poison or should we spill it all over the floor?

Gamemaster:No.

Johnny:But is it usable?

Johnny:Do you know what this is?

Gamemaster:This seems to be a pet project of Lifeline's.

Gamemaster:It will take me some time before I can fully reassemble its brain.

Gamemaster:It doesn't seem to be particularly caustic, if that's the question.

Argyle:Is he going to remake Lifeline?

Anzu:I think he's just going to try to access maybe its memories or something.

Anzu:I think we can just leave this stuff because maybe he'll have use for it as he's exploring.

Argyle:Grayson gets a grubby little undead paws on it.

Argyle:It's going to be sad.

Argyle:Alright, so let's bring the three other containers that we got.

Gamemaster:Well, okay, so, I don't, what is your idea for bringing them?

Benny:We have buckets.

Argyle:If possible.

Gamemaster:Because they are each, like, ten foot tall vats filled with liquid.

Argyle:OK. OK.

Gamemaster:Because, like, you can see the Scale of them on the map.

Argyle:Gal.

Gamemaster:They're massive.

Gamemaster:I said Scale

Argyle:Mm hmm.

Argyle:Scale

Gamemaster:not sail

Gamemaster:um

Gamemaster:Oh, he said Scale.

Johnny:A popular song in this setting.

Anzu:He's just having pride for his org, because you said the word that is them.

Anzu:we kind of can't take the whole

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:For some reason, I thought you were just doing the sail by AWOL nation meme.

Gamemaster:But yeah, so like the liquid is there.

Gamemaster:It's a question of what are you planning?

Gamemaster:Like, how are you planning to transport it?

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Argyle:yeah

Gamemaster:Yeah, your water skins are filled with the liquid that you extracted out of it.

Benny:didn't we fill our water skins

Anzu:thing I feel like

Anzu:we take a sample

Anzu:you know some samples and

Anzu:you know study them

Benny:our water skin is like

Argyle:yeah

Benny:two liters a liter

Benny:so do we want to dump the rest or see if we can bring some buckets down

Gamemaster:Yeah, we'll say two liters.

Gamemaster:just because now in my head

Argyle:We can put

Johnny:Yum.

Gamemaster:I'm envisioning all of you walking around

Johnny:I mean, it might get a little conspicuous at some point if we're just going up and down.

Anzu:Hmm.

Gamemaster:with a two liter of

Gamemaster:Mountain Dew Baja Blast

Gamemaster:because that's about the color of this stuff

Gamemaster:so

Benny:Yeah.

Benny:I mean, this is probably enough for a bit.

Argyle:We can put it in our car.

Gamemaster:Thank you you Well yeah so like two things here

Argyle:If it fit.

Johnny:Yeah, these things are pretty big.

Anzu:I don't know if we're moving one of these things.

Benny:We could.

Benny:We could empty out one of the gas cans and then fill up a gas can.

Benny:That's five more gallons.

Benny:Yes.

Argyle:Or put our gas cans temporarily in our Fane,

Argyle:and then we just throw one of these into the back trunk.

Anzu:This thing is huge.

Anzu:I just a bird Well then the next question is does it fit in the trunk I can get in the opening

Argyle:Yeah Okay but let say we could move this what do you think is that a good plan

Benny:Yeah yeah

Johnny:And despite my massive strength score of plus zero I don think I can move this

Argyle:all right yeah

Benny:10 10 feet tall

Anzu:you know what I'm saying?

Gamemaster:First off, how are you planning on getting your car to...

Argyle:Can we get this to the garage?

Benny:What if it's like a big dresser?

Gamemaster:to here?

Gamemaster:How?

Argyle:I'm just trying to brainstorm if it's possible.

Gamemaster:No, I understand. It's just, this is, like,

Argyle:If we do, could we get...

Gamemaster:multiple tons of liquid in each vat.

Argyle:Mm-hmm.

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:I...

Benny:What if we take the drawers out?

Gamemaster:If, like...

Benny:It'll make it lighter.

Gamemaster:Yes, if you emptied all of the liquid out of the vat, then the vat itself would be lighter.

Argyle:Mm-hmm.

Benny:Yeah, so...

Gamemaster:It is still...

Argyle:What if I summoned a very large creature to carry it?

Johnny:I think we've forgotten.

Benny:Just dump all the liquid. We can take this up. No problem.

Gamemaster:I mean, it'd have to be very delicate to avoid breaking the glass.

Gamemaster:But I suppose, in theory, if it were strong enough...

Gamemaster:I cannot reiterate how heavy water is, just in general.

Gamemaster:Like, I don't know how heavy you're envisioning this is,

Argyle:I didn't realize moving a ton or two

Anzu:I think we take our samples, we leave this all down here, and we could come back for

Benny:Let me see.

Gamemaster:but I would add an order or two of magnitude

Gamemaster:to whatever number you have in your head for how heavy it is.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:more with some different sized receptacles at some point.

Gamemaster:If you have magic you can use I you know just so that we could put like some actual number to it

Argyle:is past the realm of possibility for EF2 characters with magic but i will i will stop

Gamemaster:I just double-checked. Each of these is approximately a thousand gallons of water, of liquid,

Argyle:okay

Argyle:that's more than two but okay yes

Gamemaster:just by looking at, like, what a normal a thousand gallon fat is.

Gamemaster:That's about the correct size, which makes it 8,000 pounds.

Argyle:yeah

Gamemaster:So, actually, how much is a bulk equal to?

Benny:It's four tons, which that's a smaller number than an 8,000.

Benny:So we should be able to.

Benny:10 pounds.

Gamemaster:Is it 10 pounds?

Benny:Sure, I don't know.

Gamemaster:Okay, I think that sounds right, which means that it is 800 bulk.

Gamemaster:If you can find something that lets you move 800 bulk, you can move this.

Gamemaster:That's a start.

Johnny:Okay, we're only only 798 away.

Anzu:Because I'm my type of psychic, my telekinetic hand can do two bulk.

Anzu:I don't currently...

Gamemaster:Actually, I can be nice to you.

Argyle:All right, let's go.

Gamemaster:One bulk is items weighing from 5 to 10 pounds.

Gamemaster:So it's only 400 bulk.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Johnny:Oh.

Anzu:Yeah, I agree.

Benny:Yeah.

Johnny:Uh.

Johnny:Mm-hmm.

Argyle:We can also just summon a bunch of little guys

Gamemaster:Okay.

Argyle:and just do a bucket brigade.

Gamemaster:I mean, like, I am 100% open to you guys figuring out a way to transport this liquid.

Argyle:Okay

Gamemaster:There is nothing stopping you plot-wise.

Gamemaster:You know you just need to come up with a way that makes sense to move all of this stuff if you set on doing that So it be here

Gamemaster:You can always come back if that's what you want to do as well.

Gamemaster:But for the time being, it sounds like you want to head home.

Gamemaster:You can do that easily enough.

Gamemaster:You make it home.

Gamemaster:What's the plan?

Gamemaster:It is, as we were talking, it is like evening.

Argyle:я бы хотел просто посмотреть на нашу стену и посмотреть, если я заметил, если я могу увидеть, что у нас есть настройки, которые наши соседи имеют

Johnny:I'll eat a meal prepped sandwich.

Gamemaster:I would say probably like 8 in the evening at this point.

Gamemaster:Is there anything else you'd like to do?

Gamemaster:Anything on the docket?

Gamemaster:That's absolutely doable.

Gamemaster:Absolutely, one second.

Argyle:Спасибо.

Johnny:Okay.

Gamemaster:You want to see, I assume, both sides?

Gamemaster:Okay, let's look up north.

Gamemaster:Up north is Hill-de-Brant.

Gamemaster:Hill-de-Brant has walls.

Gamemaster:They have reinforced wallcats.

Gamemaster:As well as you can see the antenna, that would imply that they have a siphon array, and there

Gamemaster:is a radar dish by the looks of it on their siphon array that is not something that I think you guys

Argyle:Спасибо.

Gamemaster:have yet um that you would know is either the tithe masking matrix or the spoofing transmitter

Gamemaster:um you would know which uh they do also it looks like they've grown um uh an auxiliary building

Gamemaster:that you gather is probably uh the uh wards of comfort um the uh like that that set of beds and

Gamemaster:that is it for them.

Argyle:Продолжение следует...

Gamemaster:On the other side, we're looking at the RunGunners.

Argyle:Okay.

Gamemaster:The RunGunners have reinforced bulkheads, they have a morphic moat, they have an automated

Johnny:Have our Android friends moved in yet?

Gamemaster:turret, they also have an armature aided workshop, and what looks to be from the exterior a series

Gamemaster:of tents that you would place as being medical in nature.

Gamemaster:You gather that these are the infirmary cots.

Argyle:I wonder if they're going to try to make this liquid.

Gamemaster:Yeah, you would have, at this point you have brought in Radiant Arms, they are living with you.

Anzu:All right.

Gamemaster:They already have taken over, you had promised them two expansions, they already used one to make a firing range, to act as testing for their firearms,

Gamemaster:and the second one is reserved for a kind of distillery that they had set up, but I don't think you've actually acquired the upgrade to build that yet.

Argyle:And if so, are they going to do it from the Voidsong rather than the False Song?

Johnny:Should we game plan what we want to do tomorrow before we go to sleep?

Anzu:Water skin.

Johnny:Yeah.

Argyle:Do you want to give some liquid to them first?

Argyle:Give some liquid to them and the twins.

Argyle:I'll give my run sack to the twins.

Argyle:Or my drinking sack to the twins.

Argyle:someone gives yeah i like drinking sack

Gamemaster:No.

Johnny:Wait, have we had Anzu try to identify this stuff yet?

Anzu:I guess now would be a great time to do that.

Anzu:Hmm.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Johnny:I will aid Anzu in this endeavor.

Gamemaster:This will be an arcana or a religion check.

Johnny:I will aid him with performance.

Johnny:I have gotten a 30 to aid him in performance I give him a very vigorous shoulder rub

Gamemaster:That a success

Anzu:Bye 36

Anzu:36.

Gamemaster:36.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Johnny:Okay.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Anzu:Big number.

Gamemaster:That is a big number.

Gamemaster:So you're looking at the liquid.

Gamemaster:you have definitely like it is striking you as something similar to what you've seen before

Gamemaster:uh this is a much more dilute form of the blue liquid that you had seen both in the firearms

Gamemaster:that you took off of those guys that got them from sable sun uh sable and sun as well as um

Gamemaster:the blue liquid that you'd seen in the construction undertellers run um it's not as concentrated uh

Gamemaster:And like, you're trying to figure out the properties here kind of just off of, for lack of better term, vibes.

Anzu:I think in terms of the identify magic, you know, cursory glance, we'll stick with that for now.

Gamemaster:In that I'm assuming that you're not actually taking out the liquid and interacting with it in any way.

Gamemaster:You're just kind of more looking at how it interacts with the magic around it, I assume.

Gamemaster:Unless, correct me if I'm wrong.

Gamemaster:If your intent was to like take it out and see if it like interacts with other things, that's fine.

Gamemaster:You can do that as well.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Okay, so I think the placemate you see here is, with that roll, the two interesting notes here are that it definitely, in a similar way to the liquid that you had seen in those other places, especially under Teller's Run, it appears to be adhesive to magic energy, if that makes sense.

Gamemaster:like you can put some magical energy into it and it kind of gets stored in there

Gamemaster:akin to a battery uh not to the same degree that you had seen in the other places because of how dilute this is but definitely that property still exists The other thing of note and this will require more extensive study it not something you get just off of a cursory glance is there is

Gamemaster:And we're getting a little bit into, like, the kind of theory that Anzu would have bumped into in interactions at Belvedere.

Gamemaster:and not necessarily the thing that comes up into day-to-day

Gamemaster:like spellcasting and interacting with magic and all of that kind of stuff.

Gamemaster:Something that you can notice here that you couldn't have noticed

Gamemaster:in the other versions of the liquid because it is so dilute

Gamemaster:is that there is a very, very deep down in the rules of the universe

Gamemaster:correlation, or correlation is the wrong term,

Gamemaster:There is no fundamental difference between energy and information.

Gamemaster:And so, like, just in terms of representing how things exist, how magic works, it is effectively defining some kind of informational set of data points that causes these things to manifest if they get dense enough.

Gamemaster:The magic that gets attached to this liquid isn't just regular somebody's putting raw magic energy into it.

Gamemaster:It is a very, very complex set of some kind of information that's stored in this liquid.

Gamemaster:Because information and magic are basically the same thing, if you go low enough level, that's how it presents.

Gamemaster:And you gather that this property is probably true of the other glowing blue liquids you've seen in the past, just to a greater extent.

Gamemaster:but I

Gamemaster:like just with a detect magic

Gamemaster:with the high roll that you got you can tell

Gamemaster:that underlying this isn't just

Gamemaster:an energy store it is an information store

Gamemaster:but

Gamemaster:to what end you don know

Argyle:you You think the twins could make us a clockwork wagon

Anzu:Wow Yeah this is holding on to a lot of magic in more ways than one

Anzu:We'll have to spend some time with it and perhaps have the twins spend some time with

Anzu:it as well.

Argyle:because we can fit

Anzu:I mean, could you just make like a small car or something?

Benny:We could ask.

Argyle:a portion of the liquid in there

Argyle:and then just make multiple trips back and forth.

Argyle:It can carry a hundred bulk.

Argyle:Oh, just make a small car.

Anzu:I mean, maybe that sounds kind of...

Benny:Uh-huh.

Benny:at the end

Argyle:I think the wagon's easier, huh?

Argyle:it's a level three item i don't i don't know if that's or her car is easier yeah yeah yeah

Gamemaster:Yeah, yeah, it is.

Johnny:I think that is the canonical deep-ass bag.

Anzu:Well, I don't know.

Benny:I think a wagon is easier huh

Benny:what about a

Benny:what are they

Anzu:Clockwork sounds intricate.

Benny:what's the name for

Benny:what's the name for a bag of

Anzu:Oh, is that an actual thing?

Anzu:I didn't...

Benny:a bag of hole it's just a deep ass

Benny:bag in this

Anzu:Oh, no.

Benny:system

Benny:sorry

Gamemaster:It's a spacious pouch.

Benny:spacious pouch

Benny:if they make us a spacious pouch

Argyle:Can we make like a

Argyle:Spacian tank or a Spacious

Gamemaster:So...

Anzu:Specifically for holding liquids.

Benny:uh

Argyle:Tank?

Argyle:So one of these can hold 400.

Gamemaster:We're talking about the clockwork wagon, right?

Argyle:So one of these can hold, a base one can hold

Argyle:400 bulk.

Argyle:So that's two trips per

Argyle:tank.

Argyle:Yeah, yeah.

Benny:The clockwork.

Gamemaster:Yeah, I mean, like...

Gamemaster:I...

Gamemaster:I think the answer is, is that a normal clockwork wagon

Argyle:Elevator.

Gamemaster:is large and you will have difficulty getting it into the interior of the Undercroft.

Argyle:Okay.

Gamemaster:I think there is a world in which you get a modified version of the Clockwork Wagon that

Gamemaster:perhaps can hold half of the bulk it normally can, but is able to traverse, albeit slowly,

Gamemaster:through the hallways of the Undercroft,

Gamemaster:if that is an acceptable trade-off to you,

Argyle:I'd be willing

Anzu:I have 44 gold.

Benny:Yeah, we're poor.

Gamemaster:I don't think that's an unreasonable thing

Gamemaster:to ask the Twins to create.

Gamemaster:Assuming you're willing to put forward the golds

Gamemaster:to actually create it.

Argyle:what

Anzu:I have 44 gold.

Argyle:oh

Argyle:I have a bunch of gold

Benny:How much is a clockwork wagon?

Benny:the group has 172

Gamemaster:160?

Argyle:I have 360 gold

Argyle:would this be

Anzu:That's pretty good.

Argyle:would this only be fitted for

Argyle:liquids or could it be

Argyle:I just want to know if I have to commit to only liquids

Gamemaster:I would allow you to say that this, like, it's not normally for liquids and you can chuck a tarp in the back so that it becomes available for liquids.

Argyle:okay

Gamemaster:Like, I'm not going to lock you into it just being a tank specifically.

Argyle:okay

Argyle:and just also to understand something

Gamemaster:I think that's fine.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Argyle:because I'm worried this might become an issue later.

Argyle:People could use their own elevator to the garage

Argyle:to then go to other fanes, right,

Argyle:if they have that mapped out.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:I can mark them for you eventually but they are effectively like the third row into each slice from the center

Argyle:Sorry.

Argyle:And then in the strider.cc, where are these elevators?

Argyle:Are they at the very back?

Argyle:you Oh so they in the front

Argyle:and on the back.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:They're pretty close to the center area,

Gamemaster:but still within your territory.

Argyle:Does anyone else want to

Argyle:contribute or is this an Argyle only thing?

Gamemaster:Sorry, run that by me again.

Johnny:I have no money to pay you.

Benny:I mean we have

Benny:we have 172

Benny:gold in the group fund

Benny:and

Argyle:Would they be able to

Benny:and

Argyle:distract any of the magic from this

Benny:and

Argyle:to feed to our heart?

Gamemaster:No.

Argyle:Would we be able to

Argyle:convert some of this liquid

Argyle:for our heart power?

Gamemaster:No.

Argyle:Okay.

Argyle:So I'm for the

Argyle:clockwork thing. We should probably find a use before

Anzu:Right.

Benny:We just have another vet.

Argyle:I spend that much gold, though.

Argyle:Because, like, where do we even put it?

Argyle:You know? Like, what's when I have it?

Anzu:So let's give some to the twins to study and see if there's, you know...

Argyle:And, um,

Argyle:to the gun people.

Anzu:Yes.

Argyle:Yeah, it can share.

Anzu:Although it does seem like the stuff in their guns is more potent than this.

Argyle:Yeah, but they could refine it

Argyle:with the room they want to make. I don't know.

Anzu:Yeah.

Argyle:I assume the room they're going to make, they want to be able to make

Argyle:more of this, this might just be a good way to seed it.

Gamemaster:I will also, just as we're talking about this, so that you guys have an idea on time.

Johnny:Anzu, how's it going with the

Anzu:That's a good point.

Benny:Yeah.

Argyle:Alright.

Argyle:Other than this,

Argyle:Argo, do you guys want to strategize

Argyle:for tomorrow?

Johnny:de-heralding

Johnny:thing?

Gamemaster:This evening, the next day, will be day six of this particular cycle.

Gamemaster:there are nine days in a cycle so it six seven eight nine just putting that out there for your own timekeeping

Johnny:you We research tomorrow and then when you confident we kidnap

Anzu:I would love to be able to spend tomorrow doing some research

Benny:you So after we kidnap you want to research

Anzu:I'm saying we're not going to kidnap tomorrow.

Argyle:It might not be this cycle.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Johnny:No pressure, though.

Anzu:Right.

Benny:when he's confident.

Argyle:Just know they're active, so every day we wait,

Argyle:your sister might get more entrenched with them.

Benny:Some might say they're awake.

Argyle:So keep that in mind.

Johnny:Good night.

Benny:Yeah.

Argyle:No pressure.

Benny:Yeah.

Anzu:That all makes a ton of sense.

Argyle:Yeah, yeah.

Argyle:But.

Argyle:I am going to send some prayers to the judge

Gamemaster:okay make a religion check

Argyle:I feel like I haven't gotten much guidance from him ever

Argyle:so I'm going to try to kindle that

Argyle:alright

Argyle:28

Argyle:mm-hmm

Gamemaster:28

Gamemaster:I mean, you pretty well know the words to any of the prayers that are standard in the Scale towards the judge.

Gamemaster:You earnestly go through them.

Gamemaster:You don't hear anything back, necessarily, but maybe if you keep at it, someday you will.

Argyle:I didn't expect to be enlightened on one day.

Argyle:All right.

Argyle:All right, I sleep.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Okay and you guys head off to bed Um you awake the next day well rested yes

Anzu:I so sorry Uh before I go to sleep

Gamemaster:That's fine, you can do that.

Anzu:since it's so fresh on my mind,

Anzu:I'm like trying to write down what I can remember of the musical notes and,

Anzu:uh,

Anzu:harmonies and stuff like that.

Anzu:Yeah.

Gamemaster:I think without a roll, given that Anzu did very recently have a particularly harrowing

Anzu:Perfect.

Gamemaster:experience there, and the notes seem to come to you pretty easily.

Gamemaster:So you can write them down without issue.

Gamemaster:Okay, I'm allowed to say the word arrow without it being...

Gamemaster:You can, yeah, you write them down without issue before heading off to bed.

Gamemaster:Anything else?

Anzu:No, sorry.

Gamemaster:You all wake up well rested.

Gamemaster:Well, so I guess we do have more of a bigger question here.

Gamemaster:There are, including the day you're currently in, effectively four days remaining in the cycle.

Gamemaster:Did you have things you wanted to do?

Gamemaster:Because, like, you would already know from Anzu having set up his research, Anzu's research will take at least a few days.

Gamemaster:Like, the estimate you had given would be at least until past the end of the cycle, past the tithe.

Johnny:I like to scope out the top of the strider,

Gamemaster:and then you interrupted it to go fight some people in the Undercroft.

Gamemaster:So if the plan is to let Anzu continue to research

Gamemaster:until he comes to a reasonable stopping point,

Gamemaster:then you can do that.

Gamemaster:It's just a question of did the rest of you have anything you wanted to do

Gamemaster:in that time period?

Gamemaster:Yes.

Johnny:not going beneath it, but scope out that village a little bit,

Johnny:kind of go as far as I can, see if any of the other groups

Gamemaster:Okay, absolutely. You can, if you like, roll a perception check for that, for going around.

Johnny:making inroads on other parts of the strider, like on the surface.

Johnny:27.

Gamemaster:Or I suppose society would fit here as well.

Johnny:27.

Gamemaster:27.

Gamemaster:Uh, 27.

Gamemaster:Okay, in terms of, um...

Gamemaster:In terms of, like, movement, uh, on the surface of the Strider,

Gamemaster:I mean, the biggest change of hands of land on the Strider so far

Gamemaster:has been the Protectorate expanding into the area left behind by the two groups you yoinked over into your area.

Gamemaster:because they left that spot open

Gamemaster:and you promised that the Protectorate could take it over.

Gamemaster:And so they have been,

Gamemaster:they're in the process of expanding their influence there

Gamemaster:by continuing to further entrench their defenses

Gamemaster:more northward, making their way towards Ternion Heavy.

Gamemaster:I will also note, because you rolled high enough,

Gamemaster:the Protectorate's slice of land

Gamemaster:is substantially more overgrown

Gamemaster:than anybody's was when you first joined up.

Gamemaster:It is like the grass has grown pretty tall.

Gamemaster:There are trees starting to sprout

Gamemaster:in some areas of their territory

Gamemaster:that there weren't before,

Gamemaster:notably one particularly large one

Gamemaster:that seems to be growing out of the compound itself

Gamemaster:that is the entirety of the Protectorate,

Gamemaster:to the point that it's noticeable

Gamemaster:just like walking around.

Gamemaster:Um, beyond that, what else would stand out to you?

Gamemaster:Uh the Scale's is mostly the same except I think probably the grass would have actually started to die in the Scale's area It starting to take on this more like rocky almost dusty shape

Gamemaster:where a lot of the grass is dying out and the dirt is kind of giving way to rock.

Gamemaster:The Iridescent Church's building itself, you guys haven't really spent much time actually

Gamemaster:entering it, but you can see that in miniature hovering above it, there is a small aurora that

Gamemaster:has kind of just manifested directly above the church itself, which has also noticeably

Gamemaster:near doubled in size since the last tithe. They haven't gained any more land. It's the

Gamemaster:compound itself on the land they have has increased in size um necrolog on the other hand uh looks

Gamemaster:abandoned um looking like looking at the area uh it doesn't look like there's anybody in it you

Argyle:Makes sense.

Gamemaster:don't see any movement if even if you stick around for a few days um but it is otherwise like stock

Gamemaster:uniform where it was before uh prime meridian uh hasn't changed uh much at all to be honest

Gamemaster:it is as you remember it

Gamemaster:like back before the first tie that doesn't

Gamemaster:look like they've added any new rooms or anything

Gamemaster:like that

Gamemaster:it is almost identical to what

Gamemaster:it was before

Gamemaster:Sable and Suns

Gamemaster:is

Gamemaster:Sable and Suns

Gamemaster:I don't think you'd have a good view of

Gamemaster:because they're up towards the front

Gamemaster:and they have walls

Gamemaster:and it is situated in such

Gamemaster:a way that you really don't have a view

Gamemaster:beyond that initial point into the rest of that slice. So you don't have a good way of seeing

Gamemaster:what going on there Ætherion Limited is open so you could feasibly walk onto that land if you wanted to although there is there definitely some noticeable tension there You can see that Ætherion Limited what used to

Gamemaster:be, if you recall, it used to be like a series of tents around some like hydroponics kind of

Gamemaster:ad hoc greenhouse areas. It has, even from a distance, notably separated, sorry, noticeably

Gamemaster:separated into two different sections of tents and makeshift greenhouse camps and all that

Argyle:That's Ferdinand Holdings, right?

Johnny:Was this the one we went and talked to them and they were, were they having an election?

Benny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:kind of stuff.

Gamemaster:There's a pretty obvious divide going on there.

Gamemaster:Beyond...

Gamemaster:Oh!

Gamemaster:I'm sorry, that was Verdant Holdings.

Johnny:I couldn't hold it.

Gamemaster:I didn't mean to say Ætherion.

Gamemaster:I meant to say Verdant.

Gamemaster:That's what's happening with Verdant.

Gamemaster:Verdant is split.

Gamemaster:Aetherian Holdings is the one, I believe, with all of the mines.

Johnny:Okay.

Argyle:The Bobs.

Gamemaster:Yes.

Gamemaster:That one you can't walk on unless you want to blow up.

Johnny:But Josh, I'm a professional sapper.

Anzu:First time will blow up.

Johnny:You don't remember that's from my backstory?

Gamemaster:I do not remember that part of your backstory.

Gamemaster:You just know that there are...

Gamemaster:And then after you act like you don't know nobody,

Gamemaster:you can continue moving forward to the run cutters.

Gamemaster:who have further entrenched their position here of carving out that space.

Gamemaster:They haven't attempted to enter into your territory at all,

Johnny:Interesting.

Anzu:I'm sorry.

Gamemaster:but their road has, it appears, grown a little bit into Verdant Holdings land.

Gamemaster:I don't know if you have a good way of knowing if that's a friendly or hostile action,

Gamemaster:but it has definitely expanded beyond what you would assume to be their borders into what you believe to be Verdant Holdings' borders.

Gamemaster:As we continue...

Johnny:And which side of the schism is on the same side as the RunGunners Thank you

Gamemaster:Um you would know gosh what was his name It would be like I you can see the the half uh over on that side Um I can remember his name I have to go like back through my notes to find it

Gamemaster:but if you recall it was effectively split between there was this half Giant that looked to be the

Gamemaster:de facto leader and then there was um an elven uh kind of self-assured person that was the other

Gamemaster:half of that camp uh it is the half Giant's side uh that is on the same side as the RunGunners

Argyle:Okay.

Johnny:Interesting.

Gamemaster:um gosh i have to find the uh i don't know where that is um i have to scroll back through my notes

Gamemaster:looping further

Gamemaster:I don't need to describe your fame

Gamemaster:it has changed

Gamemaster:although I do actually have a question for you guys

Gamemaster:your

Gamemaster:fame

Gamemaster:because you've jumped enough power

Gamemaster:into it will have started to take on

Gamemaster:geographically

Gamemaster:the characteristics

Gamemaster:or some characteristics

Gamemaster:imbued to it by

Gamemaster:whatever your vibe

Gamemaster:is

Gamemaster:and so I'm not going to decide necessarily what that is

Gamemaster:but you guys should come up with a tendency

Gamemaster:towards a particular geographic structure or feature or landmark

Gamemaster:or something of that nature

Gamemaster:that would begin to exert itself as your fame increases in power

Argyle:I like how you said, you know, like in college,

Johnny:You know when you're in college and there's like, this building is the science building,

Johnny:this building is the business building, and then you have that third building that's like

Johnny:15 different schools in one, and there's a bunch of...

Johnny:There's like two auditoriums in it, and then a bunch of classrooms, and also a small library.

Gamemaster:Mm-hmm.

Johnny:That's what I'm proposing as our vibe.

Johnny:Like at BU, how there was separate buildings, and then there was a couple that

Argyle:as if we all didn't go to the same college.

Johnny:was like everything in one and by that one I mean the College of Arts and Sciences.

Argyle:Yeah.

Benny:I

Gamemaster:Well...

Benny:Like, based on the survival roles that we have and the origin of Iconoclasm, we are city folk.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Gamemaster:it is absolutely possible for you guys to have a bit more of an urban environment

Benny:And I think most of the people, if not all the people that we're with, are also city folk.

Benny:So I imagine some level of, like, stone creep and, like, I don't know, neon signs and jazz from the basements of buildings in there.

Argyle:or we can do a we can do snowy or swampy also one of those out snowy is kind of like a

Johnny:Mike, would you say that there's a tendency towards Art Deco?

Benny:there might even be some art deco no i don't know

Gamemaster:that is starting to pull itself out of the ground

Gamemaster:in the area that you currently are.

Benny:we've yet to find the Heart deco in this universe quite yet

Gamemaster:That's fine.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Good to know.

Gamemaster:I will keep that in mind.

Gamemaster:Okay, how do you guys feel?

Gamemaster:Snowy, swampier city.

Argyle:snowy is similar to

Johnny:you come from

Benny:of a deer.

Gamemaster:I

Argyle:the two of the Watcher people.

Benny:Ma, un poco.

Argyle:If we make it mountain snowy,

Johnny:you come from a swamp

Argyle:it's similar to three of us.

Johnny:where'd you get swamped from

Argyle:I come from a mountain area.

Gamemaster:yeah for the record

Argyle:I just thought Swamp was cool.

Argyle:Like Shrek.

Gamemaster:like all four of your characters

Gamemaster:are from the mountains

Gamemaster:in some shape or form

Gamemaster:but also all four of your characters are from

Argyle:Yeah.

Johnny:a mountain town tavern

Johnny:Hey now, you're an all-star.

Argyle:I just wanted to be Shrek.

Gamemaster:cities or city equivalent something metropolitan so I think either of those fit none of your

Benny:what if we went

Gamemaster:characters are from a swamp I'm sorry to like talk about your backstories in that way I don't

Gamemaster:know if you're keeping it a secret that you're not from a swamp uh but you're not from a swamp

Gamemaster:that that Thank you That that doable

Argyle:I'm okay with snowy mountains.

Benny:alpine alpine city so it like city streets but they like Yeah Like every Every Alpine city

Argyle:Ooh yeah Yeah and we have a dark green like a mountain green like from Minecraft Maybe a little snow A little snow

Johnny:Thank you Every

Argyle:Yeah.

Benny:has a big laser.

Benny:So we get a laser for free.

Gamemaster:I was on board up until the laser.

Johnny:Josh, don't you have all the lasers in all the mountain towns in Colorado?

Benny:Damn it, alright.

Gamemaster:It's funny that you say that, because in the original Liturgy of the Iridite, the picture used to represent Austrin has a laser.

Johnny:They're famous.

Argyle:Yeah.

Johnny:Oh god, there's Captain Cook.

Benny:Tanner's lost in the back rooms.

Gamemaster:So, like, it's not crazy. It's not true, but it's not crazy.

Benny:We're just traveling with him.

Benny:I think he was sweating.

Benny:What was that?

Benny:Are you sending the laser picture?

Gamemaster:Um, yeah, one second, I will find, I will find the laser, I have it.

Johnny:Yeah, I saw backrooms.

Benny:I am a fucking architect

Benny:I've been thinking

Gamemaster:What?

Benny:it's been stuck in my head all day

Benny:I've been saying it randomly at work

Benny:under my breath so that people don't know what I'm saying

Benny:but

Benny:does anyone know where that's from?

Gamemaster:I mean, I heard you say it out loud and I don't know what you're saying.

Johnny:I have an architect.

Gamemaster:I unfortunately did not look meaning to

Benny:I am a fucking architect

Johnny:I don't like that part.

Anzu:I didn't see it.

Benny:it's just one of the most memed phrases

Benny:like every YouTube poop I see posted

Benny:on Twitter of the back rooms they have

Benny:I'm going I'm a fucking architect

Benny:the best part

Benny:Josh you can eat him

Benny:oh I love that part

Johnny:I just saying the place that my character from has got style listen guys we could do Raelion and just kind of do a big black void in the middle of the entire area

Benny:I laughed so hard at that part

Benny:that's a fucking great laser

Benny:nobody here's got fucking style dude

Gamemaster:laughter

Gamemaster:um okay well we can come back to this it's your heart isn't strong enough uh to to like really

Benny:That that like that so sad

Gamemaster:distinguish at the moment and i feel like both city if alpine city is what you're going for it

Gamemaster:really just kind of looks like a bunch of rocks starting to lift themselves out of the grass at

Argyle:Okay.

Gamemaster:this point uh but changes are happening is really the point there um hildebrandt uh hildebrandt uh

Gamemaster:you you already know about the upgrades uh as we continue going um clockwise here you know about

Gamemaster:the upgrades they have in terms of tendency of the land uh they are similarly also uh metropolitan

Gamemaster:although it seems that instead of a city it is actually kind of focusing on the structure that

Argyle:Yep, we killed it.

Benny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:they currently have and is pushing them upwards as it starts to take on the shape of a taller

Gamemaster:building almost skyscraper-esque but proto skyscraper-esque at the moment but that is the

Gamemaster:direction that it is pushing beyond that is radiant arms i don't remember you kill you killed

Gamemaster:the heart in Radiant Arms, right?

Benny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:So it is

Gamemaster:fallow. Nothing's

Gamemaster:over there. The Pale

Gamemaster:Lantern Society

Gamemaster:The Pale

Gamemaster:Lantern Society is

Gamemaster:interesting

Gamemaster:in that it has started

Gamemaster:to become just fully paved

Gamemaster:over like some

Gamemaster:kind of concrete

Gamemaster:or asphalt or the

Gamemaster:like.

Gamemaster:Except it is this pretty

Gamemaster:white coloration of the ground.

Gamemaster:And the artwork that they brought with them when they entered here has expanded such that it is pretty visible even from the exterior of their area They appear to be forming what looks to be a wave constructed out of people

Gamemaster:It is relatively large, visible at least from where you are. You can't quite make out each

Gamemaster:the individual people, but you do know their general medium, so it's not hard to make the

Gamemaster:but figuring out what that is. It is both slightly macabre and also well placed because the wave is

Gamemaster:placed in such a way that you cannot, from where you are in the exterior, see beyond it to their

Gamemaster:base itself. It is placed in such a way to hide that. Amber call, on the other hand, has no such

Gamemaster:protection around it. Amber

Gamemaster:coal has started to take on

Gamemaster:the grass has started

Gamemaster:to take on this reddish coloration

Gamemaster:in patches

Argyle:It's a lich.

Gamemaster:and you're starting to see

Gamemaster:bits of

Gamemaster:lightning despite the fact that

Gamemaster:it is during the day

Gamemaster:forming above

Gamemaster:amber coal's

Gamemaster:manor.

Gamemaster:And it is a manor at this point.

Gamemaster:It looks very similar to

Gamemaster:a different manner that you had seen somewhere else.

Gamemaster:It has taken on very similar Victorian construction there.

Gamemaster:A little out of date for modern sensibilities, but in some ways, timeless.

Gamemaster:They have also, at this point, as you had already confirmed,

Gamemaster:fully expanded into the area that used to be Garrick textiles.

Gamemaster:That whole area leading all the way up to where the Harlequins are is now theirs.

Gamemaster:Moving further down, there is the town of the Harlequins itself.

Gamemaster:You're allowed to walk through this one.

Gamemaster:They don't block you.

Gamemaster:It is as eerie as it has always been.

Gamemaster:It's got this weird stage-feeling presence, like the whole thing is set up to put on a show,

Gamemaster:but to what audience and for what purpose, it is not immediately obvious to you still.

Gamemaster:There's always at least one or two Harlequins just staring at you as you're around there,

Gamemaster:but the town itself continues to be eerily quiet,

Gamemaster:even though they do not speak to each other in the same way that they communicate with you.

Gamemaster:but it doesn't look like they've acquired upgrades

Gamemaster:or anything like that as best you can tell

Gamemaster:it is just the town

Gamemaster:beyond them is

Gamemaster:Ternion Heavy. Ternion Heavy is

Gamemaster:hell and hearty

Gamemaster:they've fully got their airstrip

Gamemaster:set up, they have constructed

Gamemaster:their little biplane

Gamemaster:and they are

Gamemaster:it appears getting ready

Gamemaster:to do their first test launch

Gamemaster:off of the Stryker

Gamemaster:the only difficulty is right now

Gamemaster:they are actually affixing a slide to the plane

Gamemaster:so that they can get back to the strider

Gamemaster:once they leave it

Gamemaster:but they seem fine

Gamemaster:the tendency of their particular slice of the Fane

Gamemaster:is to continue that airstrip feeling

Gamemaster:despite the fact that they're not even actually

Gamemaster:manually constructing it anymore

Gamemaster:there are these concrete strips

Gamemaster:stretching off of their area, off of where their Fane is to extend their airstrip and almost

Gamemaster:make more airstrips at different angles off of the first one. Not that it seems that would

Argyle:I just have the things our guy would like to do while he waiting he like to spend one day actually learning about the curse

Johnny:Go ahead and report this back to everybody.

Gamemaster:necessarily be very useful, you only need the one, but that's just what their Fane is doing.

Gamemaster:And that is all of them, 100% of the factions on the top of the strider.

Gamemaster:Yes, Jorge.

Johnny:Give a full rundown.

Gamemaster:Okay Absolutely Absolutely

Argyle:that happened.

Argyle:He would like to learn a little bit, maybe an hour or two.

Argyle:Then he'll try to break it.

Argyle:And if he fails, he's going to wait until he gets

Argyle:more powerful. That's what he's doing.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:I think the answer is that he's already tried twice, so I'm not going to make you roll again at your level with your current abilities.

Argyle:Okay.

Gamemaster:I think that Argyle just will have a hard time breaking the curse, but he can revisit it at a later date.

Argyle:But find out. Yeah.

Gamemaster:The story itself, pretty abridged, is effectively that he got on the bad side of a coven of nighthags.

Gamemaster:and not fighting them or anything like that.

Gamemaster:He was just very rude to them when he was younger and more arrogant

Gamemaster:and walking through a swamp.

Benny:And

Gamemaster:And they cursed him just to kind of drain his life in favor of theirs.

Argyle:Is he going to die soon?

Gamemaster:so he has

Gamemaster:currently a quarter of the

Gamemaster:lifespan that he's expected to have

Gamemaster:because he's donating three quarters of it

Gamemaster:to those three hags

Gamemaster:hence the pallid look

Gamemaster:yeah

Argyle:If this isn't fixed?

Argyle:How old is he?

Gamemaster:at this point he's around 25

Gamemaster:so he guesses he has maybe 5

Gamemaster:6 years left

Argyle:I will fix this.

Argyle:So I can't make another check? Okay, okay. Then I would like to radio first, see if the Protectorate would be willing to let me meditate in their garden.

Gamemaster:um yeah they like you guys are allies if you want to come over and meditate you more than welcome to do that

Argyle:Also I like to talk a little bit about Aurelia I with them and then if I could use the armor to help meditate and guide me That be great

Gamemaster:I will say, for the sake of getting the benefit of the upgrade,

Gamemaster:you do not get the benefit of the upgrade.

Argyle:Oh, no, no, I don't expect that. Yeah, I don't expect that.

Gamemaster:But you're, like, welcome to go over and meditate in their area.

Gamemaster:They're more than happy to invite you over.

Gamemaster:With the caveat that they let you know

Gamemaster:that they will be attempting to

Gamemaster:engage in

Argyle:and i would like to actually learn about it

Gamemaster:friendly debate and try and bring you

Gamemaster:over to the side of Aurelia

Gamemaster:and the rest of the true

Gamemaster:Iridescent Church and all of that fun stuff.

Gamemaster:But you're more than welcome.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:When you say actually learn,

Gamemaster:do you mean like as Jorge from the perspective

Gamemaster:of you don't know much about the

Gamemaster:church or as

Gamemaster:Argyle just

Gamemaster:not having experienced that religion?

Gamemaster:like what what is the goal here all right

Argyle:um Jorge would like to learn a little you don't have to do a full monologue dump

Argyle:So Argyle, to be honest with you, is a fallen angel.

Gamemaster:all right yeah uh so like the the spark notes there is is that for vossing was for sorry not

Argyle:He's had a real bad – he doesn't even know why he's fallen.

Argyle:He's had a real bad string of things.

Argyle:He got bonded to some demon child.

Argyle:He's a little curious.

Argyle:I'm not saying he's switching, but he's a little curious.

Gamemaster:prefacing. Brithwyn, where they're from, was for a very long time part of Calaria. They were

Argyle:All right.

Gamemaster:founded by Aurelia and her party almost 800 years ago at this point, and for a while they were just

Gamemaster:part of the Iridescent Church. There was this big hoopla, one second, they would have the actual

Gamemaster:year available, so I will have the actual year available.

Gamemaster:One second.

Gamemaster:So basically Aurelia the First dies and then like a month later it is announced by divine revelation that this orphan left at the the base of the Iridescent Church in what would become Hallia is aurelia reincarnated and that

Gamemaster:starts this cycle of aurelia becomes reincarnated uh every time she passes away which is around

Gamemaster:every century or so.

Gamemaster:With the caveat

Gamemaster:that Aurelia

Gamemaster:the Sixth

Gamemaster:declares that

Gamemaster:she was going to break the cycle

Gamemaster:of reincarnation

Gamemaster:and remain

Gamemaster:on Færrin

Gamemaster:and stay immortal.

Gamemaster:And for a

Gamemaster:while it looks like she has actually managed

Gamemaster:to do that.

Gamemaster:She lives to 193 years

Gamemaster:old, which is much, much longer than anybody has naturally been able to do that.

Gamemaster:But there are accusations that in doing so, she has forsaken the host's blessing and

Gamemaster:like perverting it away from what it was originally intended to do.

Gamemaster:She does eventually pass away.

Gamemaster:Aurelia VII, supposedly found on the doorstep of an orphanage again, but the church in

Gamemaster:Brithwyn does not recognize that as the next Aurelia.

Gamemaster:They think that it is the church in Hallia, the Calarian church,

Gamemaster:trying to hide the fact that Aurelia has not reincarnated again because of whatever she did.

Argyle:All right.

Gamemaster:That causes the split. That's where the fracture happens.

Gamemaster:Brithwyn believes that there is an Aurelia fixed by the host,

Gamemaster:removed from her corruption and repentant from her attempted perversion of what she did with the immortality.

Gamemaster:Somewhere, depending on who's talking about it, it's up to interpretation.

Gamemaster:You already spoke to Yao, who thinks that she does truly exist, but it's far voidward and she's the reason for the Voidsong.

Gamemaster:But it is the official station.

Argyle:oh

Gamemaster:It's the official stance of the Brithwinian Iridescent Church that Aurelia has passed away and has just, like, joined the host in the Godhome.

Gamemaster:And so that's kind of where the split happens.

Gamemaster:I know I said spark notes, and then I said way more words than would fit in a spark notes.

Argyle:all right

Gamemaster:But, yeah.

Gamemaster:So that's kind of the standard.

Gamemaster:That's where the break is.

Gamemaster:That's why Berthwood pulls away and declares their independence from from Calaria and why they're not on amazing terms with Calaria at the moment.

Argyle:and then uh just send some prayers while using i don't know maybe this is attuned to the god

Argyle:home maybe it's not uh he's gonna send some uh

Argyle:that's handy so he's gonna send some uh

Gamemaster:Okay.

Argyle:he's gonna try to talk to the the uh and argel doesn't know this while he's starting it

Argyle:But I do think Argyle eventually, if he gets no response after multiple days, he might send a little message out to be like, host?

Argyle:Just to see.

Argyle:will Argyle know

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:He will, like, if he continues to pray, he will at no point, at the very least for the next few days,

Gamemaster:he won't hear back from the judge

Gamemaster:reaching out.

Gamemaster:He can send something out to the host, but

Gamemaster:I think

Gamemaster:at the very least on his first attempt

Argyle:will Argyle know that's a burning of a bridge

Gamemaster:doing it, well...

Argyle:if he does that

Gamemaster:I don't think it would be a burning of a

Gamemaster:bridge.

Gamemaster:It's like, it's not common,

Gamemaster:but there are people who worship

Gamemaster:multiple members of the pantheon

Gamemaster:of the Outer Gods without any particular issue. I think Argyle is definitely in a unique circumstance

Gamemaster:given his upbringing I think he be pretty confident that it wouldn necessarily burn a bridge I don know how well the judge would necessarily take it but it nothing irreparable by any means if that the question

Argyle:Okay.

Benny:you Benny would like to

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Anything else from anyone?

Benny:do two things.

Benny:He wants to spend

Benny:20% of his time at the gym.

Gamemaster:Ghost Town.

Benny:First off, is anyone there anymore?

Benny:Or is this place like

Benny:absolute ghost town

Benny:perfect?

Gamemaster:No one's using the, like, shared amenities at this point, so...

Gamemaster:...

Benny:Benny has free reign

Gamemaster:...

Benny:then.

Gamemaster:...

Benny:He'll do some training

Gamemaster:...

Benny:if I ever decide to

Gamemaster:...

Benny:swap out of whatever feats

Benny:he has. And then the

Benny:rest of his time uh he wants to be posted up in the uh weird uh bone guys library with like a hood

Benny:on but he's gonna be looking around and he's gonna just he's gonna be checking interesting books

Benny:like things that seem i guess anything recently put back he wants to check who checked out the

Benny:book and he's not even reading that much for the sake of like the material he's just looking at

Argyle:You killed him.

Johnny:Hello.

Benny:what information uh people that he can tie to groups have recently looked up to try to

Benny:gain some intel on what intel they want

Benny:i bored him to death he's like mike's going in a library again

Benny:And I can keep putting libraries in these goddamn campaigns because Mike just going to go to the library in downtime

Argyle:I like how much Mike likes libraries that he had three characters that likes libraries even one of them a nine boy who fisticuffs

Johnny:you Good

Argyle:you could train our

Benny:I don't know what else to do.

Benny:Just throw rocks at people that walk by and try and kill them?

Benny:Like what?

Argyle:our three

Argyle:regular people

Benny:Oh.

Argyle:Yeah, I can hear you.

Gamemaster:Can you guys hear me now? Okay. I have no idea any of what you said. As soon as my

Johnny:Oof.

Anzu:Oh, you missed a lot.

Benny:actually yes yeah we can hear you i'll take them to the gym

Benny:oh perfect then we can redo it

Gamemaster:camera went off, I heard nothing beyond that. I'm so sorry. What did I miss?

Benny:uh okay so so part-time he's gonna be shipping off uh or going to the gym with the less capable

Benny:but willing people in our group to train them up a bit.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:That's actually a very good use of his time.

Benny:Maybe 30% of his time is just running classes,

Benny:just like do this bad, good, bad.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:And then the rest, he's going to be posted up with a hood on,

Benny:just rifling through books at the library.

Benny:The ones that look like they were most recently taken out

Benny:and then just essentially recording the names of books that were most recently taken out

Gamemaster:Okay, that is a good point of inquiry.

Benny:to see what kind of intel other groups are trying to get access to.

Gamemaster:One second, what are we going to make you roll for that?

Gamemaster:Um...

Benny:Athletics.

Gamemaster:Yes, you got me.

Gamemaster:It's athletics.

Gamemaster:How about I make you roll...

Benny:Yeah that is the

Gamemaster:Oh I forgot You have record lore That is a record check if I ever heard one

Benny:the only

Benny:the fuck is going on

Benny:that is the only

Benny:intelligence based thing that I can roll

Benny:high on or mildly intelligence

Benny:based so

Benny:when I get into

Gamemaster:You should be master in that, so...

Benny:yeah

Benny:I'm booting up Foundry specifically

Gamemaster:You can roll that when you like. Oh you would.

Benny:because it has the

Benny:I don't have it set up in what's it called

Benny:oh lore

Gamemaster:Sure.

Benny:record keeping

Gamemaster:did you get 24 okay uh so uh a few things um

Benny:alright alright 24

Gamemaster:i don't know i don't know what benny expected in terms of uh response from ocelith and the

Gamemaster:bug babies in the library. But he is more than happy to let Benny hang out in the library and

Gamemaster:peruse so long as he doesn't remove any books from the library. And there is a specific section that

Gamemaster:is, it appears, restricted, that you do not have access to. That's where the Atlas came from.

Benny:course

Gamemaster:There are a few other books in that area that you would just be able to look at. But the rest of the

Gamemaster:library is open to you.

Gamemaster:I do

Gamemaster:actually, if you're spending any reasonable amount

Gamemaster:of time in there, I would also like it if Benny

Gamemaster:could make a fortitude save

Gamemaster:for me, please.

Benny:I think I'm going to zero point that.

Benny:Well, what's the risk?

Benny:No, we'll leave it.

Gamemaster:What'd you get?

Benny:21.

Gamemaster:21.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:There is a chill just while you're in the library.

Gamemaster:And it's strange because it's not actually cold.

Gamemaster:You just kind of feel this fatigue almost sapping you and sinking into your bones the longer you stay in the library.

Gamemaster:It does not cause you physical harm, but it is an uncomfortable effect.

Argyle:What? No.

Johnny:Oh.

Benny:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:And it takes you some time to notice where it's actually coming from.

Gamemaster:Actually, you have Foundry open, right?

Gamemaster:One second, let's just go there.

Gamemaster:Ignore the gun.

Gamemaster:this is a pretty accurate representation

Benny:Wait, how...

Johnny:Okay.

Gamemaster:of what the interior of the library looks like

Gamemaster:and you can see that there are these kind of

Gamemaster:troughs throughout the library

Gamemaster:that is filled with

Gamemaster:disembodied hands reaching out of the void

Gamemaster:grabbing at whatever comes near

Gamemaster:holding onto books

Gamemaster:kind of emanating this aura of

Gamemaster:sinister intent, I think is the best way to put it.

Gamemaster:And out of these weird extra planar holes in this library is where this weird cold,

Gamemaster:seeping, sapping feeling is coming from for Benny.

Gamemaster:And I think if Benny spends any amount of time in the library, he would, if perhaps,

Gamemaster:I don't know if irrational is the correct word here,

Gamemaster:but there is this almost animal instinct

Gamemaster:to stay away from those things for any amount of time Of note I will say to the fact that Benny bones

Gamemaster:aren't necessarily of the same construction

Gamemaster:of other people's.

Gamemaster:He doesn't have nerve endings in the same way

Gamemaster:other people do. They are

Gamemaster:fashioned, they are constructed.

Gamemaster:They're not quite fully organic.

Gamemaster:And this still

Gamemaster:affects him in some way. It is

Gamemaster:deeper than organic versus inorganic.

Gamemaster:It's uncomfortable.

Gamemaster:Uh, but with the roll that you got, um, with your, with your 33, nope, sorry, I lied, you didn't get a 33, you got a 24. The 33 was Anzu attacking Ocelith, uh, with his beak. Um, with your 24 in record keeping, looking around, uh, you notice that those, uh, those, uh, bug babies, the Zbubs, uh, don't seem to be sorting the books.

Gamemaster:in any way that would make immediate sense to you,

Gamemaster:especially given that they seemingly at random

Gamemaster:choose to reorder books.

Gamemaster:This is not a traditional library

Gamemaster:with its own flavor of the Dewey Decimal System

Gamemaster:or anything similar to that.

Gamemaster:So Benny has a little bit of a hard time

Gamemaster:finding what would be considered recently used.

Gamemaster:He does just, looking throughout the library,

Gamemaster:he notices that people have checked out these books.

Gamemaster:there are two kinds

Gamemaster:of people who have checked out these books

Gamemaster:the first is

Gamemaster:people from within the past

Gamemaster:800 years or so

Gamemaster:and they are pretty

Gamemaster:well distributed across all 800

Gamemaster:years

Gamemaster:the names

Gamemaster:can you actually also roll a society check here

Gamemaster:you can record a bunch of the names

Gamemaster:and then we'll do a society check if you can

Gamemaster:draw any patterning from the names

Gamemaster:12 no unfortunately I don think like that just wasn part of Benny education here

Benny:Well Well

Gamemaster:You don't have a good way of, like, looking at the names over the course of these years

Gamemaster:and drawing any particular conclusions to them.

Gamemaster:You have a list of them.

Gamemaster:There are thousands of books in this library.

Gamemaster:You can pick any number of people out of them.

Gamemaster:But with the check that you made, the original record-keeping check,

Gamemaster:The second kind of person taking this stuff out is the kind of person who uses a language that uses an alphabet that I don't think Benny speaks in.

Benny:Then he has many leather-bound boots.

Gamemaster:One second.

Gamemaster:What languages does Benny speak in?

Benny:Then he speaks two languages.

Gamemaster:He speaks two languages, and this is neither of those.

Gamemaster:it like uses an alphabet that Benny is not familiar with including a numerical system

Gamemaster:that Benny is not familiar with and so occasionally he he finds a book a lot of

Gamemaster:them on seemingly mundane topics written in in this script that he has no way of parsing out

Gamemaster:they're not as common as all the other signees but they're around I will say

Gamemaster:unfortunately with the 24 that isn't enough.

Gamemaster:Despite spending some time in here,

Gamemaster:you do not find any books taken out by names that you would recognize.

Benny:so

Gamemaster:It is up to Benny to decide if that means that

Gamemaster:nobody else on the Strider has come to take out a book,

Gamemaster:or if that whatever books they took out or they read or anything of that nature

Gamemaster:are hidden or still taken out, both of which are possible.

Benny:so

Benny:Benny spent about 30% of his

Gamemaster:Uh no rule necessary here the only people that ever enter this library other than you Oceliff and the Zabubbs are every once in a while another Harlequin will walk in

Benny:time

Benny:in the gym

Benny:he spent 70% here

Benny:Would he have noticed anyone coming in during the time that he spent at the library

Gamemaster:Also make a will save for me.

Benny:31.

Gamemaster:31. Oh, also this like nondescript looking guy, like once or twice walked in and walked out.

Benny:doesn't seem important

Benny:okay

Gamemaster:No.

Benny:is there any

Gamemaster:All right.

Benny:outcomes to

Gamemaster:uh yeah no people absolutely would uh i think you definitely get um quite a few people uh

Benny:does anyone go train with Benny

Benny:I mean he's not holding them at fucking gunpoint

Benny:there are a lot

Anzu:Okay, go.

Gamemaster:of the like four um from alkahest freight um including uh gosh what's his name what's his name

Gamemaster:there are too many names in the setting now i've added too many people and i can't remember Kadou

Gamemaster:thank you, yes, Kadou from Alkahest Freight, uh, he'd come along, um, it is, uh, pretty obvious

Benny:um

Gamemaster:from his training that this is, uh, uh, pretty hopeless, um, he is not a fighter, um, he's trying,

Benny:So, Laurie.

Gamemaster:he's trying his best, uh, he just has neither the aptitude nor the ability at the moment, um,

Gamemaster:you give him enough time, maybe, maybe he can overcome some of that, uh, you will also get,

Gamemaster:Salvado, sorry, Salvado, from the Solari Sub-surface.

Gamemaster:His two companions will not come, unless you actually coerce them, but Salvado will.

Gamemaster:And he did at some point in his life.

Gamemaster:He was a fighter.

Benny:Fair enough.

Gamemaster:He kind of has to work a little bit to train back up

Gamemaster:to get through the haze of four decades or so

Gamemaster:of drinking his physique away.

Gamemaster:But underlying all of that,

Gamemaster:there was at one time a rough-and-tumble fighter.

Gamemaster:And you can see that maybe given some time,

Gamemaster:he might be able to bring that back out.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Argyle:and you should take the

Johnny:Take the Captain archetype and make this as followers.

Benny:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:Actually, can you do me a favor and roll an athletics check?

Benny:28.

Benny:Okay.

Benny:So,

Argyle:master and apprentice feat

Benny:I'm going to show you the

Argyle:and then you make him your apprentice

Argyle:oh yeah

Benny:the

Gamemaster:28?

Benny:Let's go.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:You definitely spend a considerable amount of time

Gamemaster:drilling the correct forms into those who come with it.

Gamemaster:And by the end of the next few days,

Gamemaster:you start to see them improving a little bit.

Gamemaster:All right.

Gamemaster:does that then bring us over to Anzu

Gamemaster:and his experimentation

Gamemaster:okay

Argyle:When does the Mirage happen again?

Johnny:Thank you you Yeah

Benny:He saved his sister from the rest of us.

Gamemaster:the top

Argyle:The special ship of goodies?

Gamemaster:oh the menagerie

Gamemaster:the menagerie is going to be

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:a little under

Gamemaster:halfway through the next cycle

Gamemaster:so it is currently day 6

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:It's about nine days away.

Gamemaster:Actually it seven days away probably it a week away

Argyle:Okay Okay and then Sorry just to clarify this before We can do this after Anzu zoo I just want we might need to go back in time I just wanna make sure Hildebrandt and our scanner

Argyle:people are working and prep for that.

Gamemaster:There.

Argyle:OK.

Gamemaster:Yes, like you got

Gamemaster:the map form, Keto is

Gamemaster:working on making a directional

Gamemaster:magic locator

Gamemaster:and Hildebrandt

Gamemaster:is working on getting

Gamemaster:their

Gamemaster:airframe up

Gamemaster:and ready to go.

Anzu:I mean,

Gamemaster:They have to do similar retrofits to add a slide into it so that it works.

Gamemaster:That they're working on it.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Anzu.

Gamemaster:Walk me through what you're doing.

Gamemaster:I know you don't know any of the science, quote-unquote, behind it,

Gamemaster:but tell me what Anzu's avenues of attack here are.

Anzu:so like what Tanner thinks

Anzu:and I don't know if this is too much for Anzu to like come up with

Anzu:but now like having heard the song

Anzu:and listened tried to focus on both the Voidsong and the other song at the same time

Anzu:uh

Anzu:what I think I want to do is create a field that projects um

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:the like delta between the two songs

Anzu:using the

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:sentience distributor

Anzu:obviously he needs

Anzu:some source

Anzu:of whatever this

Anzu:extra sound

Anzu:he's adding would be

Anzu:but

Anzu:that kind of what I thinking if we can have a field that cancels out the parts of the Herald song that make it differ from the Voidsong like uh sonically Is that the right word Sonically

Gamemaster:you That works

Gamemaster:That is very interesting.

Gamemaster:Okay, so to start with, I think you either need to make an arcana or an occultism check.

Gamemaster:And then I also need a will save.

Gamemaster:If you please.

Anzu:Well, I do like to make occultism checks, so we'll probably start there.

Anzu:Alright, I'm gonna cast...

Gamemaster:Also make an academia lore check because you have that and that fits.

Gamemaster:that is allowed.

Anzu:I'm gonna use Guidance on the Occultism, if that's allowed.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:And then I'll be immune to the guidance for the other rolls, but oh

Anzu:Jeez good thing I used it as a 26

Anzu:for the occultism

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:And we'll make a will say

Gamemaster:Nice, that is pretty good.

Anzu:That's a 35 pretty good

Anzu:and then some academia

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Anzu:that's a natural 20 for a 39

Argyle:Hell yeah.

Gamemaster:What did you get?

Anzu:I'm well studied

Gamemaster:Hot damn.

Gamemaster:So, this is research that's taking place over a few days.

Gamemaster:It's taking place over a few days

Gamemaster:and also you are doing it in like,

Gamemaster:I'm not gonna say a public place

Gamemaster:because it's within your fame,

Gamemaster:but like you not hidden away so people can every once in a while walk in and walk out And so it over the course of a few days with like Anouk and Anaïs coming in peering over your shoulder every once in a while um and uh

Gamemaster:ishell and utzel from radiant arms coming in peering over your shoulder every once in a while

Gamemaster:and salvado walks in sees you doing some kind of weird magic stuff and immediately walks back out

Gamemaster:um but like you are you are doing it in such a way that sometimes people come in

Gamemaster:and give you their two cents and maybe help and maybe not so much help.

Gamemaster:And so the initial beginning, like step one,

Gamemaster:is just can I somehow take the sentience distributor that we have

Gamemaster:that was tuned towards a third song unrelated to the Voidsong

Gamemaster:and whatever the Herald song is and all of that kind of stuff

Gamemaster:and then kind of make it fit into this area.

Gamemaster:that gets off to a bit of a rocky start

Gamemaster:in that

Gamemaster:you have no idea

Gamemaster:who the hell originally wrote the

Gamemaster:sentience distributor but they've structured it in a way

Gamemaster:that you would not

Gamemaster:it is the equivalent

Gamemaster:of spaghetti code but

Gamemaster:for magic

Gamemaster:and so you're like going through

Gamemaster:and you're trying to, you spend quite a long

Gamemaster:time trying to tease out

Gamemaster:like even what they did

Gamemaster:so that you can start making changes

Gamemaster:to it. And it is, it's pretty slow going. There is a little bit of a breakthrough, though, when you,

Gamemaster:Anzu combines some of the work that he's already done, because that counts as successes towards

Gamemaster:this particular research, on the Void paper. So you've already done some work on inscribing

Gamemaster:something related to the Voidsong onto a physical media. That's what this is. This is physical media

Gamemaster:that is related to one of these harmonies.

Gamemaster:And so you can kind of use that here to try and connect the sentience distributor up to

Gamemaster:similar to that. The will save was because the thing that you have in your head to act as the

Gamemaster:anchor here isn't quite the Voidsong anymore, which is a bit surprising when you actually do

Gamemaster:successfully manage to hook up what's going on in your head to the sentience distributor, and there

Gamemaster:is a half second where the entire room gets enveloped in this blinding light, and you can feel

Gamemaster:at your jaw starting to split before you clamp that shit down real quick. And you feel that

Anzu:Oh.

Gamemaster:you've probably made a pretty, pretty solid connection here. I will say, as a caveat to that,

Gamemaster:we're going to go off on a little bit of a tangent. Can I get a medicine check for Manzu?

Gamemaster:I know that's not really his thing, but maybe he rolls well.

Anzu:I'm untrained in medicine.

Gamemaster:We'll see.

Gamemaster:Yeah, I know.

Anzu:I mean, you know, given...

Anzu:I got a 19.

Gamemaster:Yeah, 19.

Gamemaster:That's not bad.

Gamemaster:What I will say on that point is at the moment where you feel that cleft in your jaw, you've

Gamemaster:got a beak.

Gamemaster:it almost feels like the bit of the beak is starting to come apart.

Gamemaster:And if that had continued much further,

Gamemaster:it probably would have left a pretty nasty vertical scar on his beak.

Gamemaster:And that's all I'll say on that matter.

Gamemaster:We continue forward.

Gamemaster:You've figured out a link onto the sentience distributor,

Gamemaster:and you've kind of hooked it up to yourself,

Gamemaster:which is interesting in a way

Gamemaster:because as you have just discovered you don only have the Voidsong bouncing around in your head it the Voidsong and which actually helps you out a little bit in this particular circumstance because that gives

Gamemaster:you a better handle on what the next step is. You have somebody, you have many, many examples at

Gamemaster:this point that you can rope into it that at this point, you know, has the pure Voidsong running

Gamemaster:through their head. You yourself

Gamemaster:have a kind of hybrid

Gamemaster:version of it,

Gamemaster:and with your ridiculous academia

Gamemaster:role,

Gamemaster:you put together

Gamemaster:a pretty, as best you can tell,

Gamemaster:a pretty solid understanding

Gamemaster:of how you would

Gamemaster:somehow emit the interference

Gamemaster:between the two, because that's what you're looking

Gamemaster:for, to the point that

Gamemaster:you've fully written out the plans

Gamemaster:for how one might alter the

Gamemaster:sentience distributor in order to do that.

Gamemaster:The caveat there is in order to actually fully get the interference between the Herald Song and the Voidsong,

Argyle:Kidnap!

Gamemaster:you need a reference of the Herald Song.

Gamemaster:You need a living reference of the Herald Song in order to do that.

Gamemaster:because you rolled so well

Gamemaster:you won't have to do any additional research

Gamemaster:you just kind of have to

Gamemaster:tie them in the same way that you've tied yourself

Gamemaster:to the sentience distributor

Gamemaster:but you do need something to

Gamemaster:offer that reference

Gamemaster:against the Voidsong

Gamemaster:and that's all I have to say about that

Gamemaster:that research does take

Gamemaster:a good three and a half days

Gamemaster:to get to that point

Gamemaster:in that you are done on the eve

Gamemaster:of the next tithe

Gamemaster:at the end of the cycle

Gamemaster:you do have a little bit of time to do other stuff

Gamemaster:if you like before that

Gamemaster:if you don we could just move forward uh that that what it seems like yes if you if you going down that particular route yeah

Argyle:you We got a kidnapper

Johnny:So basically Anzu is stuck until we get someone who actually has the song in their head

Argyle:So we either need to kidnap Anzu's sister

Argyle:and experiment on her,

Argyle:or we need to

Argyle:kidnap the very high-powered

Johnny:Why did you say that?

Argyle:other host person,

Johnny:So we go down there, find one of the weaker ones,

Anzu:Well, allegedly there are plenty of people working for the Herald in the bowels of that

Argyle:which I think is harder.

Argyle:But they're probably

Argyle:bad person.

Anzu:area.

Argyle:Oh, you don't want to...

Johnny:flick.

Johnny:Choke hold them out.

Argyle:But if we...

Argyle:You don't want to just try to destroy everything at once.

Anzu:No, no, I'm not.

Benny:Well, if we can reverse, if we get, if we kidnap one person, if we sneak down there,

Argyle:Okay.

Anzu:I'm just saying we have other options.

Argyle:Yeah.

Anzu:But...

Benny:we grab one that's on patrol or something, we give it to Anzu.

Benny:Anzu rewires their brain like he did to that bird.

Benny:And then we can figure out how to, he killed, that effectively killed the bird, by the way,

Benny:just rewrote its personality.

Benny:He just completely discarded

Benny:an entire sentience.

Benny:But

Benny:we can grab one,

Benny:have Anzu brainwash them

Benny:into following his every order

Benny:like the bird, and then we can

Benny:do that with the

Benny:rest of the awake people.

Benny:We can un-brainwash all of them

Benny:from the Herald song, maybe.

Benny:Or maybe we have to kill a bunch of them.

Benny:I don't know.

Argyle:You can get a bunch of allies What if you guys want to

Benny:yeah we have to figure out if they side with us Because if

Johnny:you I believe in you Anzu

Anzu:I also not sure how permanent of an effect I can have just yet

Benny:I don't know if this is the time to be giving us any hesitancy.

Benny:Because one of them is your sister.

Benny:If you tell us that you can't fix your sister...

Johnny:I think you can do it.

Benny:Anyways, we have the stuff to...

Anzu:I've made a lot of headway.

Benny:We've got a lot of material for an abduction.

Benny:we do have the anti-magic

Gamemaster:That's not a debuff.

Johnny:I forgot we have those.

Benny:shackle and anti-magic gag

Benny:that was used on

Benny:it's very hard to convince

Benny:us not to stockpile

Johnny:Listen, we get someone...

Benny:and hoard random shit when

Johnny:Here's what we do.

Benny:it becomes useful later

Johnny:We get someone in the small area.

Johnny:We just stack a bunch of debuffs on them.

Johnny:Dirge of Doom.

Johnny:Calm.

Johnny:Silence.

Johnny:Then...

Benny:damage

Benny:and then we have

Argyle:He buffs their health.

Johnny:Damage the ultimate debuff.

Anzu:I mean, yeah, it does debuff their HP.

Johnny:Then we just gag him and put some shackles on him.

Argyle:So you want to

Benny:on to scramble the brain

Argyle:gag

Benny:no someone else first

Johnny:And then we have on some...

Argyle:Anzu's sister?

Benny:and then we'll wash the gag

Argyle:Why don't we just...

Benny:it would be weird

Benny:not if I didn't say that

Benny:You'd be like, you said we're not going to watch the gag.

Argyle:one of you guys want to

Gamemaster:You think somebody was going to say that?

Johnny:All right, so we find someone else, we gag them.

Anzu:I think you rolled for D20 number of days.

Benny:You didn't mention that.

Gamemaster:Did you think that was going to come up?

Benny:Just in case.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:do we

Argyle:do I have a connection with machine gun again

Gamemaster:Uh, no.

Gamemaster:

Johnny:I think it's 15.

Benny:do we want to check if he knows

Benny:their patterns and we can

Argyle:Yeah, if there's one we can isolate.

Benny:yoink one

Benny:yeah Johnny you're on a good

Argyle:I don't know.

Johnny:Hey, Machine God.

Benny:terms. Can you?

Johnny:Couple days, long time no see. Hope you're doing well.

Johnny:We're looking for an easy target for one of the singers of the Herald Star song.

Johnny:Star.

Johnny:That we can kind of corner and just dogpile on so that Anzu can rewire their brain.

Johnny:Preferably someone on their own or in a small group that we can easily take out with damage.

Johnny:The ultimate debuff.

Argyle:Yeah.

Gamemaster:After a moment he'll say,

Johnny:You got anyone like that?

Gamemaster:the remaining members of the Herald's children on the Strider

Gamemaster:do not make a habit of staying by their lonesome

Gamemaster:in hidden areas of the Strider.

Gamemaster:They are focused primarily at one populous area.

Argyle:Guys, what's going on?

Anzu:Are they near another, um, are they near another old heart that's been...

Gamemaster:It would be up to you to corner them, if this was your plan.

Gamemaster:I can point to you.

Gamemaster:Yes.

Gamemaster:They are.

Johnny:What's that for, Sam?

Anzu:What can you tell us about that one?

Anzu:What was this heart's original purpose?

Gamemaster:Sorry.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:The heart was the...

Gamemaster:I suppose you'd say...

Gamemaster:timekeeper for the Strider They were responsible for the religious rites when they happened They were responsible for logging the events of what the Strider did and where it went And they kept everything

Johnny:you Are they as corrupted as Lifeline

Gamemaster:moving smoothly and forward. They were Tally.

Johnny:Or are they... we save them.

Argyle:you guys can you try to on zoom can you try giving great detail about what your sister

Gamemaster:I fear they are already dead.

Benny:Okay.

Johnny:Oh. Yikes.

Johnny:All right, so we go in there stealthily, we find a smaller group, we corner them quietly,

Johnny:we knock one down, we gag them, we drag them off.

Johnny:Easy.

Argyle:looks like and maybe

Johnny:It looks like

Argyle:he can tell you where.

Gamemaster:Yes, Anzu, can you give us great detail about what your sister looks like?

Anzu:Uh, Steve, Steve Bird, uh, I don't know, um, that's a great question that I don't really

Benny:Yeah, and?

Argyle:Cheers.

Johnny:Anzu with a pink bow.

Johnny:Oh.

Johnny:I don't know.

Anzu:have the answer to.

Argyle:You don't know what your sister looks like?

Argyle:How many sisters do you have?

Benny:I can name 100.

Anzu:I have one sister and I have one brother.

Argyle:That's not that many siblings.

Argyle:I have a lot more than that.

Argyle:And I can name at least 20 of them.

Argyle:Yeah.

Argyle:See?

Johnny:I was an only child.

Argyle:Okay, so answer what she looked like so we can find her.

Argyle:What's her name, by the way?

Anzu:I will...

Anzu:Galzu?

Argyle:Doll Zoo.

Argyle:Okay.

Anzu:I will give a physical description of my sister How about that And that how you play tabletop roleplaying games

Argyle:Racist.

Gamemaster:Okay Absolutely He does that It funny

Benny:you What if

Gamemaster:I went back to check, like, the backstory you gave me to see if there was any info there.

Gamemaster:And nope.

Anzu:No, I don't...

Gamemaster:There wasn't.

Anzu:I'm not even sure how to describe

Gamemaster:I...

Gamemaster:That's fair.

Anzu:different looking Tengu.

Benny:what if Tanner was like

Gamemaster:Well, actually, in this particular instance, I have more to go on for the sister than the brother,

Benny:I can't just have a brother and he like wrote up like a

Benny:very complicated backstory for his brother

Benny:so he just chucked his sister in there and Josh is

Benny:like she was abducted by Herald's

Benny:clan and she's going to be part of a major part

Benny:of the story

Benny:I don't even know how many I sent you

Gamemaster:because for the sister, I have seven words, and for the brother, I have three.

Gamemaster:yeah yeah i i it is not to fault tanner by any means i don't think he expected me to

Benny:I think I have more

Benny:more than that combined

Benny:for each of the siblings

Argyle:What color

Benny:to be fair one of them is the same as

Benny:the last name that I claimed in a former

Benny:session so I don't know if

Benny:I'm going to be any more consistent with my

Benny:family

Gamemaster:to like make his sister plot relevant in any form um but it is funny that now we're bumping into a

Benny:...

Gamemaster:I don't know, it looks like Anzu, but not.

Argyle:What color feathers does it have?

Anzu:Mostly black, but there is some blue at the tips in some of the areas of longer feathers.

Argyle:Very cool.

Anzu:And it would feel really dumb if hers were pink, so we're not going to do that.

Argyle:So she has blue highlights.

Gamemaster:For what it's worth, the term is plumage.

Argyle:So yeah.

Gamemaster:Just putting that out there.

Anzu:So Mitch, so does she.

Gamemaster:That's relevant. I mean, I have to imagine that, yeah, like, Gozu...

Gamemaster:I been imagining most of your family as having that like black feathers with with the bluish trimming edging there just because like by nature of you all the same kind of bird person so yeah

Anzu:Right Right Right

Anzu:And we're all related genetically.

Gamemaster:because they're your family so that that tracks but she she wasn't fond of pink

Anzu:Yeah.

Gamemaster:bows, so we're not going to use that as the distinguishing factor. Either way,

Argyle:Ken Machine Gunfighter.

Johnny:Go on to the machine guard.

Anzu:So now it is the night before the tithe.

Gamemaster:Anzu can absolutely give a description of his sister, if you guys

Gamemaster:were planning on doing anything with that.

Gamemaster:It's the night of the tithe.

Johnny:Go on to the machine guard.

Anzu:Oh.

Gamemaster:It's like

Gamemaster:it's like

Gamemaster:4pm and the

Argyle:sorry was machine

Gamemaster:tithe is at midnight.

Argyle:guy able to find her since he's an espionage

Argyle:heart and not a

Argyle:does she ever go off in groups or she

Gamemaster:Oh, I didn't realize you asked that.

Gamemaster:Yeah, he'd be able to locate her.

Argyle:always stay by the heart

Gamemaster:Well, so she's not by the heart.

Gamemaster:She is in groups.

Gamemaster:She's, I guess she's kind of by the heart.

Gamemaster:He would tell you that she's in Neweth, which is the area around the heart in Tali.

Gamemaster:Tally is both the name of the heart and a Mongol folk town that has kind of sprung up

Gamemaster:around it in the years since.

Gamemaster:Tally the Heart is quite warm and encased in a metal shell.

Argyle:I say we go there.

Gamemaster:There is an area around the metal shell where a number of buildings have been made, just kind of in that radiating heat.

Anzu:So there's a whole town of mongrel folk

Gamemaster:And it seems that she, as well as three other Tengu, have taken up residence in that area.

Gamemaster:It does not appear that they separate often, if ever.

Argyle:Kidnapper.

Argyle:That's a small group.

Anzu:and the Herald folk are kind of blending in with them?

Gamemaster:Correct.

Anzu:Whoa.

Anzu:What is the...

Anzu:Well, I guess, Machine God, if you happen to know this,

Anzu:what is the disposition of these citizens there?

Gamemaster:In what context, I suppose?

Anzu:Like, are they going to be...

Anzu:Are they just like kind of violent and savage or do they have like a real civilization going?

Gamemaster:He will say he's only started observing this area in the time that you freed him from the heart thief who had taken over.

Anzu:Are they going to be really upset if some of us walk in there?

Gamemaster:but from what he has seen in the past few days, they are a functional, if perhaps slightly more

Gamemaster:violent than you would have expected, civilization kind of buried in the Strider. They seem to be

Gamemaster:old in terms of the length of the Strider. He doesn't know how long this particular settlement

Gamemaster:has existed, but it's been some time. There are quite a few people, like on the order of perhaps

Gamemaster:a thousand or two in this kind of interior area of the Strider around Tally I said Tally so many times and it occurred to me that it sounds so similar to Tali from last

Benny:you Uh

Gamemaster:Like, Holly and Tenno put together sounds like Tali and so it's just in my head.

Gamemaster:Either way, around Tali the heart.

Gamemaster:All of the people who currently live there are either mongrel folk or similar outcast indentured, perhaps, to the owners of the Strider.

Gamemaster:In that he doesn't know how they would react to the four of you, given that you do not fit into that class of people, necessarily.

Gamemaster:he doesn't think that they would necessarily attack you on sight but he would warn that it

Gamemaster:seems that their currency is based entirely around a finite amount of ration slips that that are used

Gamemaster:in place of like gold and depending on the person they might either think that you have some source

Gamemaster:of of currency that they can use and try to take it from you or they might think you have some

Gamemaster:source of currency and suck up to you to get

Gamemaster:some, or some other secret third

Gamemaster:thing. It's a little hard to predict.

Gamemaster:There are, once again, like one to two

Gamemaster:thousand people in there. There's nothing

Anzu:Right.

Benny:So this is more of an extraction

Gamemaster:universal that will cover all of them.

Gamemaster:It doesn't seem... He thinks it

Gamemaster:unlikely that they would attack you on sight.

Gamemaster:But beyond that,

Gamemaster:I don't think he has a good way of predicting

Gamemaster:necessarily what they would do.

Anzu:Well, so this is going to be an interesting one.

Gamemaster:Thank you That me

Anzu:That's for sure.

Benny:than a smash and smash It like there no smash There is grab But it not a smash and smash see it like there no smash there is grab but it not a smash and grab

Argyle:Josh.

Johnny:It was a grab and grab

Anzu:right no because we entering like a civilization

Benny:grab a good

Anzu:I mean, it's...

Benny:well we're gonna call that no sure i guess

Johnny:It's a grab and grab.

Argyle:so was there a way

Gamemaster:That's me.

Gamemaster:Machine God's closest lift would have been...

Argyle:was there an express elevator to machine god

Argyle:and if so near what group was it

Gamemaster:One second.

Gamemaster:I'm going to pull up this driver map again.

Gamemaster:It'd probably be close to underneath Verdant Holdings,

Gamemaster:somewhere between Verdant Holdings and Ætherion Limited.

Argyle:Okay.

Argyle:And then they mentioned that the host went down.

Gamemaster:yeah people from the

Argyle:The host that your desk notes people

Argyle:also went underground.

Gamemaster:Iridescent Church

Anzu:I guess we can go tomorrow after the tithe.

Gamemaster:they are

Argyle:Are they going near this area?

Gamemaster:they are almost directly

Gamemaster:above Tali

Argyle:And there's a.

Argyle:Get that in mind, guys.

Argyle:Get that in mind.

Argyle:All right, well.

Gamemaster:Um, well, I don't know, like,

Argyle:Uh.

Argyle:Yeah, sounds good.

Argyle:We should be on red alert.

Argyle:I feel like it's going to be the purge.

Argyle:Oh, one other quick thing.

Argyle:Did our people find any good uses for this magic liquid?

Argyle:Slash should I pay to have the clockwork thing constructed?

Gamemaster:what's your plan to pile onto the list of things

Gamemaster:that you want Annigan and I to do

Gamemaster:to look at this liquid?

Argyle:If it would be useful to get this liquid,

Gamemaster:Like, the answer is I don't think they would have come up with anything for you in the past three days.

Gamemaster:But they wouldn't have had much time to look into it.

Gamemaster:Although gosh I forget what they actually doing for you right now What do you have them doing Oh right they making a minesweeper which they are working on I do I want one second That is that is a good call

Gamemaster:Where did you

Gamemaster:do this?

Gamemaster:It is used in a gun, yes.

Gamemaster:None of you use guns.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Can I have somebody do me a favor and roll... we're going to do a crafting check for the twins.

Gamemaster:You're going to do a d20 plus... gosh what is that modifier... plus 22.

Gamemaster:33. I think that's enough over the course of the past three days. They can have

Gamemaster:produced not quite a minesweeper. It's not like you hold it over the ground and then it starts

Gamemaster:beeping if there's a mine. It is more akin to Anzu's vector field, if you recall, which kind

Gamemaster:of redirects projectiles and stuff. But this one is designed for explosive ordnance. This

Gamemaster:This is effectively an addition that one can make to a shield that would give you a plus

Gamemaster:two bonus to perception checks to spot mines and a plus two bonus to reflex saves to get

Gamemaster:out of the way of an exploding mine.

Johnny:We won't wait until after the tide goes through?

Johnny:Or do we want to head out now?

Johnny:Tally.

Anzu:Head out to where?

Benny:Yes.

Benny:The town.

Anzu:Where?

Benny:Tally.

Benny:Mm hmm.

Anzu:Oh.

Benny:Mm hmm.

Anzu:Yes, I'll work on that.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Johnny:I see no problem.

Anzu:That would be great if we could do that.

Benny:Nice.

Gamemaster:uh sure i will say like if you're if if argyle is doing perimeters around the wall just in general

Gamemaster:uh i'm going to say i believe like oil soaked walls needs to be reapplied every seven days

Benny:a mop over the side of the wall

Gamemaster:We can include that as part of Argyle's general rounds and stuff.

Gamemaster:That's fine.

Gamemaster:Basically, yeah.

Gamemaster:You guys can post up for the tithe,

Gamemaster:as it will happen immediately upon midnight,

Gamemaster:as was the previous event.

Benny:Up to two.

Gamemaster:I'll get a perception check from those of you

Gamemaster:hanging out on top of the walls looking around to see if you spot anything of interest.

Gamemaster:Up to two.

Gamemaster:Okay you Okay

Gamemaster:Expert is plus four.

Gamemaster:Plus your level, plus four.

Gamemaster:Oh, sorry, if you use mythic, it's plus six.

Gamemaster:I apologize.

Gamemaster:I thought you were asking what the benefit expert gives you.

Gamemaster:If you're going up to mythic, it's plus six.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Johnny:I got a 33.

Johnny:I rolled in the boundary.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:28. Okay.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:So you guys are hanging out on the wall

Gamemaster:above, like, looking out onto the strider itself.

Gamemaster:As the clock strikes midnight,

Gamemaster:there isn't, like, an actual clock tower or anything like that,

Gamemaster:so you just have to hope that your watch is keeping good time.

Gamemaster:But there is, at the exact moment for a split second,

Gamemaster:if you recall, there's the set of gyroscopic rings

Gamemaster:mounted on this tower above the Stryger,

Gamemaster:spinning in all completely different directions,

Gamemaster:and with these chaotically moving scoops

Gamemaster:attached at strange points along those rings.

Gamemaster:At exactly midnight, there is a split second

Gamemaster:where all of the rings line up exactly

Gamemaster:into a single conjunction almost

Gamemaster:before they split apart again.

Gamemaster:But at the moment where they all line up,

Gamemaster:there is a burst of purple energy

Gamemaster:that extends out of the gyroscopic center,

Gamemaster:pushes through the air towards you,

Gamemaster:and passes harmlessly through you

Gamemaster:as well as passing through all the other areas

Gamemaster:before colliding with your heart.

Gamemaster:and then pulling back And I have to double check I think it 28 energy gets pulled this time um but I can double check I think it 28 energy gets pulled this time but I can double check that it is

Anzu:you The tithe

Anzu:The tithe?

Anzu:We know ways to mitigate it.

Gamemaster:it is in fact

Gamemaster:29

Gamemaster:energy gets pulled

Gamemaster:out of your heart

Gamemaster:as it recedes

Gamemaster:but with

Gamemaster:the perceptual looking around

Gamemaster:And you can see that that purple energy extends out of the gyroscope towards each of the remaining

Gamemaster:fanes on the strider, and then eventually pulls back.

Gamemaster:You do not, from your vantage point, see any explosions or secondary bursts of purple light

Gamemaster:or whatever.

Gamemaster:Yes, Jorge.

Johnny:Hmm.

Anzu:Yeah.

Benny:we left it just at 30

Gamemaster:It does go to the village.

Johnny:Trust me.

Gamemaster:Mark down the 29 energy that was pulled out of your heart.

Gamemaster:Also, how much energy is in your heart right now?

Benny:no I'm joking

Benny:104

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Just good to keep in mind.

Gamemaster:The purple energy recedes.

Johnny:Should we get some sleep and then head to Talley in the morning?

Gamemaster:The gyroscope continues to spin.

Gamemaster:Nothing seems to have gone up in flames.

Gamemaster:You don't see armies marching on other fanes or anything of the like.

Gamemaster:You, at the very least, have survived this cycle's tithe.

Gamemaster:And the countdown starts anew. You're on day one!

Gamemaster:Oh, I apologize. Can I get a perception check from...

Gamemaster:Anzu Anzu Anzu you the one with the totem right

Johnny:Thank you Great James

Anzu:Sure Yes I have the totem

Benny:Thank you is now giving you the middle finger

Anzu:I have the power.

Anzu:I have the totem.

Benny:But only if you're all above a 36.

Gamemaster:We'll find out.

Gamemaster:Okay, it is not giving you the middle finger then, but it does now say 34.

Anzu:I got a 26.

Johnny:Oh, that's a big, big jump.

Anzu:Okay.

Benny:Wait, does that mean that we lost people?

Benny:We have to figure out who couldn't pay the tithe.

Benny:Ons are your sisters.

Gamemaster:You, to the best of your ability, believed that it was a constant 400.

Benny:I thought it was a constant 400 every time.

Anzu:You said it went up to 34?

Benny:All right, so the break just went up.

Benny:That's a meme.

Benny:Um.

Anzu:Is that right?

Gamemaster:Yes, 34.

Gamemaster:Oh, actually.

Gamemaster:Who's on the walls?

Benny:I think all of us.

Gamemaster:You're all on the walls?

Benny:Uh-huh.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Everybody except for Anzu.

Anzu:Josh, I wouldn't have been on the walls anyway.

Benny:Fear of heights.

Gamemaster:I would love it if you could either make a perception check or we'll save your choice.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:I would have probably been by the heart.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:That is reasonable.

Benny:

Anzu:Very oily.

Gamemaster:Uh, this is not a mental effect.

Benny:Fucked up.

Gamemaster:It makes me angry at you.

Benny:It makes your eyes uncooperative and you can't see well.

Gamemaster:You get a plus one item bonus to religion and to saves against holy and unholy effects.

Gamemaster:This would be neither of those.

Gamemaster:It's neither holy nor unholy.

Gamemaster:35.

Johnny:I think it's six.

Gamemaster:Okay, for a split second, as the purple energy is receding, having taken the energy it needs from your heart,

Gamemaster:you swear you see

Gamemaster:like a humanoid figure

Benny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:in the middle of the gyroscopic

Gamemaster:rings just for like a split second

Gamemaster:but you blink and it's gone

Gamemaster:35 was the highest

Gamemaster:roll anybody got right

Gamemaster:yeah

Gamemaster:that's what you see

Benny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Okay, what is the plan here?

Benny:Yeah.

Benny:We're going to go drive around

Johnny:event

Anzu:We, yeah, that's what I was going to say.

Benny:and check on everyone.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:When you say check on everyone, are you trying to peek in from the exterior, or are you knocking on doors?

Benny:I think we'll knock on doors

Benny:that we're friendly with

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:and don't have to go through a minefield.

Gamemaster:That's...

Benny:Oh, yeah.

Johnny:yeah

Anzu:Check in virtually with our folks

Benny:Can we see on the skein if any hearts have left the skein

Johnny:you I respond immediately

Gamemaster:You can And that easy enough to check Nobody has left your scheme

Gamemaster:You send a message out.

Johnny:I respond immediately.

Johnny:I'm good.

Gamemaster:You get confirmation back pretty quickly from everybody that all of the people on your scheme are fine.

Gamemaster:They're looking out.

Gamemaster:You would get back the Scale.

Gamemaster:We'll say that they think that the church to their south is fine.

Gamemaster:It doesn't look like anything's changed with them.

Gamemaster:The Prime Meridian looks at both of their neighbors.

Gamemaster:The Necrolog is, as best they can tell, fallow.

Gamemaster:They don't know if that's because the person inside died, or if that's because they moved somewhere else, but it is pretty clear that that Fane is gone now.

Johnny:This was pretty.

Gamemaster:And to their other side, Sable and Suns, as best they can tell, looks fine.

Gamemaster:They don't really see any movement coming from over there, but the Fane itself is still standing.

Gamemaster:And then Hildebrandt will say that you look fine, and also Radiant Arms' old slice of land looks fine.

Gamemaster:Oh, you're right. The Protectorate would say the only person bordering the Protectorate is Chernian Heavy, and as best they can tell, they seem okay. It doesn't look like Chernian Heavy has collapsed.

Johnny:I don't know what they're doing.

Anzu:That's.

Gamemaster:Correct. Nobody has mentioned the Ministry of Cultural Progress.

Johnny:I feel like they're more dangerous than Grayson.

Gamemaster:You get like a pretty noncommittal seems fine

Johnny:That seems like something to deal with a little.

Anzu:you It could be that they infighting led to some issues

Benny:you Can we check them out then

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:You head on over, and where Verdant Holdings used to be is just a crater in the ground.

Johnny:Is there a

Benny:They might have just got bombed.

Johnny:white heart there?

Johnny:The scary purple thing?

Gamemaster:Roll a presenter check.

Gamemaster:Or a cultism.

Johnny:Oof, I see nothing.

Gamemaster:30.

Johnny:Actually, no, I, oh my gosh.

Johnny:I got a mythic point.

Johnny:I work in the session.

Johnny:I'll use it.

Johnny:Oops, what's happening?

Johnny:30.

Gamemaster:Which was that, perception or occultism?

Johnny:Perception.

Gamemaster:Okay, with a 30 perception,

Gamemaster:you do not see a void heart in this crater.

Gamemaster:it is just a divot in the ground like a big chunk of matter just ceased to exist here

Johnny:Entry.

Johnny:That's concerning.

Anzu:That's very different from what happened to Garruk Textiles.

Anzu:Josh, do I think any of the more nefarious base upgrades could do this to another holding?

Gamemaster:roll a crafting I think a crafting check would probably be the best fit here

Anzu:Like probably not right I do that Oh I got a 23

Gamemaster:With a 23, I think you are not aware of any base upgrade that could cause something like this.

Gamemaster:You can also roll a perceptor check if you like to dig through the crater.

Gamemaster:Uh, nope.

Benny:We have a second pair of eyes.

Gamemaster:Just a big ol' hole in the ground.

Benny:Take a look.

Benny:Josh.

Gamemaster:Oh, you're asking me if you're allowed to do that.

Gamemaster:Yes.

Gamemaster:I thought you were asking if anybody in the party wanted to.

Gamemaster:36 crit!

Johnny:Amazing.

Benny:36 crit.

Benny:All right.

Gamemaster:Okay, with a 36 crit, Benny sees something.

Gamemaster:No, there isn't anything in the crater for you to loot.

Gamemaster:The crater is encompassing the entirety of where both camps of Verdant Holding were,

Gamemaster:centered kind of directly in the middle between the two.

Gamemaster:But with a 36 crit, I think what Benny does see is...

Gamemaster:I don't know if Benny has had some experience with his...

Gamemaster:heavy ordinance in his past.

Gamemaster:This does not strike Benny as the same thing that happened to Garrick Textiles, albeit

Gamemaster:timed in such a way that one might think that it was the same as what happened to Garrick

Gamemaster:Textiles.

Gamemaster:This was clearly somebody, somebody set up some kind of ordinance somehow on their heart,

Gamemaster:it seems, and managed to collapse the whole thing and kill everybody in it at the same time.

Gamemaster:Benny is pretty confident that this is sabotage. From within or without, he has obviously no way

Gamemaster:of knowing. But somebody killed Verdant Holdings and timed it in such a way that it is...

Gamemaster:if you hadn't inspected as much as you had

Gamemaster:timed in such a way that it is easily believable

Gamemaster:that it is due to an inability to pay the tithe.

Benny:maybe we keep this from the skein

Benny:at least this info because there i mean it doesn't matter it doesn't have to be one of their neighbors

Benny:but there's only so many people capable of this level of destruction with ordinance on the ship

Gamemaster:entirely intuition.

Benny:on the strider

Anzu:But why them?

Benny:Yeah Thank you Well

Gamemaster:He's looking at, like, the shape of the crater

Gamemaster:and associating it with this was clearly, like,

Gamemaster:regular physical ordnance that caused this.

Gamemaster:There isn't debris in the crater.

Gamemaster:Whoever did this either came back and cleaned up after themselves

Gamemaster:or knew enough about what they were doing

Gamemaster:so that it wouldn't leave a trace in the first place.

Anzu:Why were they a target

Gamemaster:If...

Gamemaster:One second.

Gamemaster:If they're the only ones that are dead, it should be, I think, 12.

Anzu:Well, we don't know for sure.

Johnny:All right.

Anzu:Well, Necrolog is the other group that's...

Benny:We paid $29 for the tithe, right?

Gamemaster:One second.

Gamemaster:13.

Gamemaster:You paid 29 for the tithe, and now it's 34.

Benny:I think that's two groups gone then.

Anzu:They've been...

Johnny:Yeah.

Benny:yeah

Johnny:Okay.

Benny:but this is this is a i mean i think we should leave i don't know if we want to be standing near

Benny:this um but

Johnny:Okay.

Benny:well i think necrolog might have let it expire or they had um pale lantern society pull the plug

Benny:with, I don't know,

Anzu:I think they went and moved in with one of the other two, like, a couple days ago.

Benny:moments to spare for the...

Benny:Or would it have

Benny:had to have been simultaneous? Sorry, do we think

Benny:Necrolog is partnering with PLS or do we

Benny:think they're just fucked?

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Thank you Sure

Benny:But wouldn't have...

Johnny:So this is the bend.

Benny:If it jumped...

Benny:Yeah, if it jumped from 29 to 34...

Anzu:It did.

Anzu:No, didn't it? That...

Benny:But 29 to 34

Benny:is two groups.

Benny:Okay Let just drive by the ministry

Anzu:Thank you The ministry

Anzu:Just to throw in one more little nugget here that could be affecting this, I don't know

Benny:Yeah, but we paid $29,000.

Anzu:how this math works out, but if folks used some of the different upgrades to affect their

Anzu:a tithe, would that not kind of distribute more weight to other folks?

Anzu:Right, so it wouldn't, that wouldn't affect the next tithe yet, right?

Gamemaster:Sure.

Benny:Like it said 29, we paid 29.

Benny:Let's drive by the ministry of what you can say and not.

Anzu:And is...

Gamemaster:You can head over to the Ministry of Cultural Progress easily enough.

Gamemaster:No perception check necessary.

Gamemaster:Their feign is still standing.

Benny:Fair enough.

Gamemaster:You can turn over to Ternion as well.

Benny:But on like at the time of a tithe.

Anzu:I know Protectorate said Ternion is fine, but they're a little bit far away.

Anzu:Is that actually the case?

Gamemaster:Uh...

Anzu:That was fun.

Benny:Yes.

Gamemaster:Ternion, also from a distant...

Gamemaster:Ternion also from a distance looks to be still standing They got their little airstrip thing set up

Benny:We didn see any movement outside of Ministry of Cultural Progress

Benny:yeah

Gamemaster:you did not

Benny:I think

Benny:they would be able to pay the tithe

Benny:and Ternion would too

Benny:because okay so we've seen the exterior

Benny:keep in mind Garrick Textile's building

Benny:was still there until Benny

Benny:ripped the heart.

Benny:Then the building collapsed.

Benny:Post-tithe,

Benny:it's fine until

Benny:probably the next tithe or someone

Benny:goes and kills the heart. The people

Benny:that are part of it just die.

Benny:Just the fact that we see the building doesn't

Benny:indicate anything, but they both definitely

Benny:had enough resources

Benny:unless something happened that we're

Benny:not aware of. This is tithe

Benny:2. I don't

Benny:know if they're just going to be dropping like flies.

Benny:Detournian?

Gamemaster:No, you're dead.

Johnny:Oh, God.

Anzu:I don't know either.

Benny:I don't know.

Benny:Is our heart still up?

Benny:Are we dead?

Benny:Are we the ones that are dead?

Benny:I don't know.

Anzu:Yeah, I don't know.

Anzu:I mean we checked

Benny:Wait, hold on.

Anzu:see it seems like our whole

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Johnny:Yeah.

Benny:Did everyone respond to our scan?

Benny:Okay.

Anzu:alliance is fine

Benny:Most likely to die.

Gamemaster:If they had access to the Heart that's on this game.

Benny:Well, if we drive back and check.

Anzu:I mean, it would be Hildebrandt is really the only one.

Benny:I don't think I'd leave the shell of a building.

Benny:I think I would

Benny:nick the heart.

Gamemaster:Okay, that's fine.

Benny:Do you think we should say hi to Ternion?

Benny:Okay.

Benny:Sure, we can check on him.

Gamemaster:Okay, you drive on up to Ternion?

Gamemaster:absolutely

Benny:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:Jethro and

Gamemaster:Co

Gamemaster:they're up as it is

Gamemaster:close to midnight and they probably stayed up

Gamemaster:for the tithe as well they're all

Gamemaster:hale and hearty

Gamemaster:they're alive

Gamemaster:just kind of huddled around

Gamemaster:they made a makeshift kind of

Gamemaster:fire while they hang out at night because it is a little

Gamemaster:bit chilly where you are right now

Gamemaster:but no they're alive

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:You gotta go see Paavo.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:No, they're both gone.

Gamemaster:No, they're both as best you...

Gamemaster:Like, once again, as Mike slash Benny pointed out,

Gamemaster:Um, yeah, the buildings are still standing.

Gamemaster:You don't see anybody moving around, but that kind of seems like the standard.

Gamemaster:People are not going out at the moment.

Anzu:Well, just...

Gamemaster:So.

Gamemaster:Um.

Gamemaster:I.

Gamemaster:Like, I don't I don't know how to answer that, to be honest.

Gamemaster:like short I suppose you can roll an Arcana check Yes

Anzu:Does on our way home we have to pass Hildebrandt

Anzu:Because they're our neighbors.

Gamemaster:Correct.

Anzu:Can we go to their door and can we get eyes on Paavo?

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:You can knock on their door and Demibert Hildebrandt will open it up

Gamemaster:and summon Paavo for you.

Gamemaster:Paavo was hanging out near the top floor of their building,

Gamemaster:trying to keep a lookout.

Gamemaster:He's alive. He's fine.

Johnny:Silence.

Anzu:I guess I'll roll for math

Benny:hey nerd tell us if these numbers look good

Anzu:roll for time math

Gamemaster:Sure, roll for math.

Anzu:it's not nice

Anzu:yikes

Anzu:I got a 21

Gamemaster:With the 21 you know that 400 divided by 33 is 11.

Anzu:Well.

Benny:Of course.

Gamemaster:No, actually that's not even true.

Benny:12.

Gamemaster:You know what I meant to say.

Gamemaster:Yes, that is what I meant to say.

Gamemaster:It's also not 12.

Gamemaster:Four hundred divided by thirty-four is eleven point seven six.

Benny:It's...

Anzu:See, I've got no problem sharing that with him.

Gamemaster:That's what you know.

Gamemaster:Uh, let's see.

Gamemaster:You can sense motive if you like that perception or society And he will say why would you keep it off of the skate Surely that pertinent information

Benny:You're talking to.

Gamemaster:They couldn't pay the tithe?

Anzu:that's motive yeah

Gamemaster:It is sense motive, yes.

Benny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Sense your motive.

Gamemaster:25

Gamemaster:excuse me

Gamemaster:I think you don't have a particularly

Gamemaster:good read on him

Gamemaster:not to say that he's suspicious

Gamemaster:I think it's just, it's dark

Gamemaster:he's tired, everybody's stressed

Gamemaster:I think that you do not feel

Gamemaster:that you have a good idea one way or the other

Gamemaster:if he is suspicious

Gamemaster:even more reason to

Gamemaster:communicate it on this game

Gamemaster:I thought that's what it was for

Gamemaster:alright

Gamemaster:with that particular information

Gamemaster:sure

Gamemaster:Okay

Anzu:Yes.

Benny:Paint it up.

Gamemaster:Yeah, sure

Gamemaster:Your heart is dead

Gamemaster:No, crafting check

Gamemaster:As you go back to see if somebody has managed

Gamemaster:To sneakily put some heavy ordnance

Gamemaster:Somewhere on your heart

Benny:Wait.

Johnny:That would be wild

Anzu:Thank you That is very possible

Benny:what if it was the twins what if Rango was like blow up blow up reasonable using heavy ordnance

Anzu:I'm going to use the hero point because I got a natural one on the crafting check.

Benny:and being like well

Benny:zombies attack them and bug and they would think it was

Gamemaster:A 25 crafting, it does not appear to the best of your ability that anybody has tampered

Anzu:I got a 25 crafting to take a look at the Heart.

Benny:that

Gamemaster:with the room where Eerie is.

Benny:Does it look like standard ordinance was used?

Gamemaster:Bomb or no bomb.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Benny:Like, is there soot and shrapnel?

Gamemaster:No.

Benny:Okay.

Benny:I don't think Benny knows, but planar bombs are a 5E thing.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:What?

Anzu:Can...

Anzu:So you...

Anzu:I'll send, like, what we have deduced out to our allies, if that's alright.

Anzu:Alright, so I'll go connect with the network and just send the message out, like...

Anzu:Alright, well...

Anzu:Well done, everyone.

Anzu:We seem to have pulled our alliance through the tithe.

Anzu:I do have some interesting news. It appears that Verdant Holdings is no longer

Anzu:longer around, though what remains of their territory indicates that they were sabotaged

Anzu:as opposed to not having enough energy to pay the tithe.

Anzu:We don't have a ton of information, but it seems maybe their heart was compromised.

Anzu:Please investigate your hearts, make sure nothing nefarious has been placed on or around

Anzu:them.

Gamemaster:Okay, you send that message out.

Benny:Get this over.

Benny:Sorry, go ahead.

Gamemaster:You don't have to say over.

Gamemaster:You send the message out, and you get back acknowledgements from everybody,

Gamemaster:although it does seem that those who weren't held to brand

Gamemaster:are now going to go and check their heart pretty quickly.

Gamemaster:You get that that held to brand was already doing that

Gamemaster:after you paid them their visit.

Gamemaster:Everybody checks back in and says that they couldn't find any evidence of tampering.

Gamemaster:Prime Meridian will express interest in investigating the site to see what caused the issue.

Gamemaster:And will, I guess, publicly muse both that run-gunners seem to have been encroaching on their territory

Gamemaster:and that Ætherion Limited seems to have experience with explosives.

Anzu:both of their neighbors

Benny:Let's check in on the twins.

Gamemaster:They're not pointing any fingers, but they do call those out as suspicious.

Gamemaster:Go ask the twins what?

Gamemaster:What are you asking the twins?

Benny:Hold on.

Benny:We asked them to make something If they haven made any progress then we know they been making a bomb the whole time What did we have

Gamemaster:Well so they finished the you had asked for the minesweeper

Johnny:you you any days to make a bomb you had these people probably take some like a lunch break

Gamemaster:they finished that stuff

Benny:Oh, fuck!

Gamemaster:they are

Gamemaster:the

Benny:They had several days!

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:We should have given them more shit.

Benny:Yeah, here's your minesweeper. Thank god we're free

Benny:for the next few days to make a bomb!

Benny:see if they know

Benny:hey you guys want to think about that

Gamemaster:Yeah, sure. You can find a space to talk to them.

Gamemaster:Can I actually, before you start talking to them, I would like a sense motive from whoever would like to,

Gamemaster:looking at the two of them, that's either perception or society, or if you have lied to me, deception.

Johnny:I do apply to me.

Johnny:Is exactly 17.

Gamemaster:Two rolls.

Johnny:It's exactly 17.

Gamemaster:Two rolls.

Johnny:Cool.

Johnny:I got a 30 exactly.

Johnny:Oh, oh, good reroll.

Anzu:Holy.

Gamemaster:41.

Johnny:Wow.

Gamemaster:41.

Gamemaster:The twins are shaken.

Gamemaster:like they're hiding it pretty well

Gamemaster:but there's an undercurrent there

Gamemaster:of

Gamemaster:like on edge

Gamemaster:rattled a little bit

Gamemaster:you didn't hear them

Gamemaster:talking but it kind of seems like as you

Gamemaster:walk in to interact with them they were like in the middle of hardly talking about something and then they stopped when they said when they felt that you guys were on your way to talk to them

Gamemaster:and I will say I yes everything is fine we are just concerned about the tithe

Gamemaster:This is not a particularly enviable place to be in. I imagine you are worried as well.

Johnny:Yeah, we've never seen you guys quite so rattled.

Gamemaster:Anakul say this is just a particularly stressful time, you know.

Gamemaster:I, if anything, I think it would be stranger not to be rattled in some way.

Johnny:No, you guys always seem so collected.

Gamemaster:No?

Johnny:Anything else we can help with?

Gamemaster:Roll a diplomacy check.

Johnny:That was definitely a whammy.

Gamemaster:He's trying it again.

Johnny:I'm gonna try it again. I can do better. Oh no, I just keep re-rolling the same thing.

Gamemaster:He's trying again his try again.

Johnny:Wow. It's a good thing I tried again.

Gamemaster:That's crazy.

Johnny:Listen Johnny doesn always come through but whenever we need to have a crazy high check with a very specific character to get an incredibly insane thing Johnny always comes through No and uh what the rapid transit wow

Gamemaster:That ridiculous That ridiculous Yeah Yeah

Benny:Yeah Yeah

Johnny:yes

Gamemaster:And I will look around, see that there's nobody else listening in,

Gamemaster:and he will kind of drop his voice down a little bit and say,

Gamemaster:A particularly rude sibling of our patron paid a visit this past evening.

Johnny:Does it happen to be art?

Gamemaster:He is not one to be a portent of good omens, as it were.

Gamemaster:Just to say.

Gamemaster:no

Gamemaster:this one is

Johnny:That's in Superlix, right?

Gamemaster:half a man

Gamemaster:but he's

Gamemaster:yes

Gamemaster:the

Gamemaster:the mountain to be

Gamemaster:overcome

Gamemaster:so to speak

Gamemaster:we were not aware that he was watching

Gamemaster:our progress, but it appears he has taken

Gamemaster:an interest the same way

Gamemaster:that his siblings have

Gamemaster:in this journey to the Hoi Cong,

Johnny:Did he, yeah.

Anzu:And he spoke to you?

Gamemaster:which is

Gamemaster:not particularly good tidings.

Gamemaster:No.

Gamemaster:No, yeah, we just felt

Gamemaster:that he was here for a moment.

Gamemaster:He spoke to someone else,

Gamemaster:surely, but to whom we do not know.

Johnny:Whoever he spoke to, does that mean he's on their side?

Gamemaster:Hence

Gamemaster:the concern.

Gamemaster:We couldn't say.

Gamemaster:Just as our mistress is perhaps a little incomprehensible, all of her siblings are similar.

Gamemaster:Similarly, acting on motives that are, if not unknowable, at least unpredictable for mortals.

Benny:Does he just make stuff harder?

Gamemaster:Effectively, he is a representation of the difficulty the heroes must take as they attempt to reach their goal.

Gamemaster:although truth be told

Gamemaster:he is not a guaranteed obstacle to overcome

Johnny:Yikes.

Benny:Oh.

Gamemaster:more a filter for those who are not worthy I suppose

Gamemaster:No

Gamemaster:but not immediately something to worry about necessarily

Gamemaster:which is why we didn't mention it. There is nothing you can do except, I suppose, be on edge.

Gamemaster:But it is... it is... sorry, not to interrupt, I just... it is interesting now this is

Gamemaster:three, I suppose, of their siblings that have taken an interest in this voyage. I would,

Gamemaster:at this point assume that all five have some interest perhaps. Just in case there weren't

Gamemaster:enough moving parts on this Strider.

Johnny:Oh, so whatever's the end of this journey is very important.

Gamemaster:It seems so.

Gamemaster:Thank you ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah

Johnny:Yeah Thank you

Gamemaster:ah

Gamemaster:

Gamemaster:ah

Gamemaster:

Gamemaster:we did not

Gamemaster:bomb

Gamemaster:virgin

Gamemaster:holdings

Gamemaster:for what

Gamemaster:reason

Gamemaster:would we

Gamemaster:bomb

Gamemaster:that is

Gamemaster:unfair

Gamemaster:if

Gamemaster:Renge

Gamemaster:told us

Gamemaster:to

Gamemaster:bomb

Gamemaster:another

Gamemaster:group

Gamemaster:we would

Gamemaster:do

Gamemaster:so

Gamemaster:it

Gamemaster:wasn't

Gamemaster:us

Gamemaster:in

Gamemaster:this

Gamemaster:particular

Gamemaster:instance

Gamemaster:That is often the easiest solution.

Anzu:Is that something this sibling of your patron?

Gamemaster:I fully agree with what we said.

Gamemaster:But in this particular instance,

Gamemaster:we don't actually have any reason to go on the offensive

Gamemaster:against any of these orts.

Gamemaster:We are leaving this up to you.

Gamemaster:You do whatever you like.

Gamemaster:I am from what I know of him and we we have only interacted in in brief instances in the past but

Anzu:might have done to make this journey, you know, increase the tide through everybody or...

Gamemaster:he is not one to enact immediate violence on a group it is more to raise the stakes in general

Gamemaster:for everyone. So he would, I find it unlikely that he would have directly wiped out an organization

Anzu:Right?

Benny:Would he be so direct in raising the stakes?

Gamemaster:like that.

Benny:Like, I mean, if they operate outside of normal common person operations, I'm not sure they'd want to show themselves so blatantly.

Benny:Or am I wrong?

Gamemaster:To be honest, I don't know.

Gamemaster:The rules that bind them are different than the rules that bind us or even the gods Generally speaking they are empowered to act The more deviated from the story from the general plot that things are

Gamemaster:supposed to follow, the more empowered they are to act, if that makes sense, with the caveat that

Gamemaster:we do not know what the predestined plot is supposed to be.

Johnny:If all five of them, I don't know much about these folks, but if they're all focused on one thing, are they the sort of folks that can be focused on many things at once?

Johnny:As in they could be all looking at many things, or are they all on one thing at one time?

Gamemaster:They would tell you that they are omnipotent, but this is not true. I

Gamemaster:I believe that if they are focusing here, they are focusing here.

Johnny:So I don't want to, I'm a bit of a showman, so I love hyperbole.

Johnny:It sort of seems like whatever's happening right now may be the most important thing in existence.

Gamemaster:This is not inaccurate.

Gamemaster:I would agree with this assessment.

Gamemaster:I don't know how you feel about having lucked into, or perhaps unlocked,

Johnny:Cool.

Gamemaster:Rengar willing one of the two

Gamemaster:into this particular situation

Gamemaster:but it seems quite a

Gamemaster:quite a

Gamemaster:storied set of eyes are on

Gamemaster:all of us on this strider

Johnny:Cool.

Gamemaster:Sure. This is a pretty common application of a particularly dense magical collection.

Gamemaster:You set off an explosion it kind of just erases the area around it If it gets particularly strong it forms what one calls a locus which is similar to your void heart but if you know the correct ratio

Gamemaster:just underneath the point where you create the locus is just big explosion.

Gamemaster:There is a

Johnny:All right.

Anzu:I guess we'll have to see what kind of stories start to circulate tomorrow.

Benny:well

Johnny:Well, good, Tom.

Benny:are we going to be here to see it or are we going to be

Benny:waltzing into

Benny:scaresville

Johnny:We're waltzing into – hey, I think while there's chaos here, it might be good to waltz on over to – yeah.

Benny:okay

Anzu:In the morning.

Benny:in the morning

Gamemaster:Alright, um, then I think, uh, after Argyle poisons Anzu, I think we will leave it there

Johnny:In the morning.

Anzu:I sleep.

Johnny:next week I am

Gamemaster:for the evening.

Anzu:Okay.

Gamemaster:Um, does next week work?

Anzu:Dang.

Anzu:Alright, I'll...

Anzu:Yeah, I'll roll up a new character for next week.

Gamemaster:Yeah, that's a good idea.

Benny:hmm

Johnny:Next week I'm out all week.

Anzu:Oh, this man.

Johnny:So I will not play.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:So, then...

Gamemaster:That's a good time.

Johnny:I'm going off to Aspen.

Anzu:Nice.

Johnny:Yeah, you're going to be there all week.

Gamemaster:Good boy.

Gamemaster:Well, we will be sad without you,

Anzu:Indeed.

Gamemaster:as you have a good time.

Gamemaster:but somebody should run a one-shot.

Anzu:Mm-hmm.

Anzu:Let's take a day to think on it.

Gamemaster:Does anybody...

Gamemaster:Yeah, does anybody want to...

Gamemaster:Like, tomorrow, if anybody decides that they want to run a one-shot, let us know.

Gamemaster:If not, I'm happy to be the default, but I absolutely defer to you guys since you have less chances to DM.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:I think it's rude of you guys to roll as well as you are.

Gamemaster:I think that's illegal.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Johnny:actually the most important thing in existence.

Anzu:I've tainted myself.

Benny:Roast.

Johnny:Which is...

Gamemaster:I stick to my guns.

Gamemaster:If weird stuff happens and you roll a natural 20

Gamemaster:on people who know what they're talking about,

Gamemaster:you're learning about what's happening,

Gamemaster:but only a little bit,

Gamemaster:because they kind of only know what's happening.

Gamemaster:But still.

Gamemaster:Still.

Johnny:On to...

Gamemaster:Ooh, I didn't even think birds had one of those.

Anzu:Yeah.

Benny:is it not probably just the

Anzu:Oh, yeah, the body that appeared in the gyroscope?

Benny:ringmaster the ringleader

Benny:whatever his name is the master of ceremonies Yeah

Gamemaster:The master of ceremonies

Johnny:you I guess we don really know what machine god can do when he fully operational

Johnny:We got to save on Zeus' history.

Anzu:I mean, we're still going.

Gamemaster:I think you should just abandon her.

Benny:Oh.

Anzu:We gotta go to the, you know,

Anzu:to the wall.

Gamemaster:Just leave her.

Anzu:There a lot of really important steps that are in between where we are now in that situation

Gamemaster:Nope Nope Kill everyone else on the Strider Huh

Benny:So the tithe is lower?

Benny:I like that.

Benny:I mean, if we're able to kill the other org on the surface,

Benny:I think there should be plenty for the remaining tithes.

Benny:Like, they have a bunch of shit, no?

Benny:Blah La la la la la la la la la Bye

Gamemaster:Listen, your previous campaign characters are busy, okay?

Gamemaster:They don't got time to have you walk around and just start killing stuff.

Gamemaster:If Lev showed up on the Strider, everyone would be dead.

Johnny:These people think the walls could stop the left?

Anzu:They couldn't.

Benny:Wait.

Gamemaster:So that's not happening.

Johnny:Think they have enough rope on this strider to stop Henrik?

Anzu:They simply couldn't.

Gamemaster:atrocious

Johnny:Which one of you guys looks the most injured?

Anzu:guys I like decided to like make a couple family members and I didn know what was gonna happen so I didn put a lot of thought into it And I really got put on blast today so I do better next campaign

Benny:And then

Benny:Anzu would notice

Benny:like

Benny:Henrik would take his fucking

Benny:beggar hood off and Anzu would be like

Benny:nice neck.

Benny:And then Henrik would be like nice chip.

Benny:you getting him killed

Gamemaster:I sorry

Johnny:Thank you John

Gamemaster:I'm sorry.

Benny:I mean...

Gamemaster:I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that.

Benny:there's a random guy

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:I got to do it back to you.

Johnny:John

Johnny:Quick, what does your sister look like?

Gamemaster:Sure.

Benny:you mean your sister

Gamemaster:Easy peasy.

Benny:I would like to play

Gamemaster:Yeah, you guys either say that you want to do one shot or say that you don't so that

Johnny:All right, I'll see you guys.

Johnny:I'll see you guys in a couple.

Gamemaster:we can know early on who's doing what.

Johnny:See you folks.

Anzu:Allow me to ponder this.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:I mean, it doesn't need to be Pathfinder.

Gamemaster:But okay.

Benny:I don't

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Tanner, do you want to run a one-shot or not?

Benny:Peace.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Get back to us.

Gamemaster:The choice is yours.

Anzu:I bet.

Anzu:Good night.

Gamemaster:Alright.

Gamemaster:See y'all.