Latest / Smooth Critical / C1 Ep.9: The Cat's Pajamas

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C1 Ep.9: The Cat's Pajamas · Smooth Critical

0:19
Welcome back to Smooth Critical. I'm your DM, Avni.
0:23
Quick question, Avni, are you OK?
0:25
Avni, are you OK? Are you OK?
0:28
Baby, I'm doing awesomely. I cannot tell you how much fun I
0:32
had prepping this session, but knowing y'all, it will be
0:35
derailed almost immediately. Before we get into this
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wonderful game of D&D, let me introduce my three gorgeous
0:43
gladiators. Hey my.
0:45
Hello, it's Abe. Harry.
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Bonto Willowind Super excited to be playing with new dice that
0:51
Matilda got me for my birthday. That the the D20 says smooth
0:56
critical on it when I roll A20 and hopefully.
0:59
We'll be smooth. Criticals today, Yeah, happy.
1:02
Happy belated birthday, Harry. We kind of dropped the ball on
1:05
that one in the morning. But we got there.
1:06
Eventually. It's OK if.
1:09
You turn it over. I believe the one on the die has
1:11
a turned over cart on it, but. And the dead child underneath
1:15
it. Yeah.
1:17
She's got lore accurate dice child.
1:19
Murder and the Imperator. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:23
And Charlie. But classic.
1:25
All right gang, let's start our recap.
1:27
You all started by persuading the crowd not to kill Big Bertha
1:31
and Toby. Beau made a wonderful speech, as
1:33
he always does, reminding the crowd that Big Bertha and Toby
1:37
were fan favorites. So why turn your back on people
1:39
you were just rooting for? Then Bunty proclaimed that he
1:43
was horny, but also agreed with Beau's sentiment.
1:46
The crowd also agreed and Big Bertha and Toby were spared.
1:49
Abe and Bo made some eyes at Cloward, signaling respect, and
1:52
while Cloward was angry that his two fighters were taken out by
1:55
Y'all, he showed a little respect with the head nod.
1:58
You all then met Drummond and went back to his very, very nice
2:02
mansion for supper. Along the way and at the dinner
2:05
table, you all grilled him about his relationship with Vox as
2:08
well as a variety of other things.
2:10
Bond reminded the group to save some questions for later when
2:13
Drummond was liquored up with some very strong alcohol.
2:16
That Bo headbot. After you all went to your
2:18
rooms, had a quick talk about your game plan and showered.
2:21
You all went to the lounge where Drummond was waiting.
2:24
Abe, Drummond, and Bunty got very drunk while Bon and Bo kept
2:28
secretly tossing away their alcohol or giving it to Abe.
2:31
Eventually, Drummond answered your questions to the best of
2:34
his drunken abilities, but he also asked Bo, who was the last
2:37
of the monos in the lounge, if the group would consider helping
2:40
make him mayor. If he were to be elected mayor,
2:42
he would give them the location of the secret horde of Scoria.
2:45
An election reminder are in 2 days.
2:48
Beau said he would then talk to the group later and went to bed,
2:52
only to be awoken in the morning with a loud crash.
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And that's where we are now. So you guys get your long rest.
2:58
This happens in the morning. Morning in La Grande's village
3:01
arrives with heat already rising from the lava river that cuts
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through the edge of town. It was evening by the time you
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had arrived at Drummond's. But here in the morning, through
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the windows of the mansion, you can see the distant glow of the
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molten river, with fishing skiffs and cargo barges
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enchanted so they can move across the heat.
3:18
Your rest has barely settled into wakefulness when Crash you
3:22
hear a loud sound from downstairs.
3:27
Bunty, get off me. What was that?
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I don't know, wait, give me, give me one second and I and I
3:32
grabbed my journal and I quickly jot something down as I'm like
3:35
scrambling out of the bed with him grabbing my staff and
3:38
opening the door. Yeah, I think Bo jumps up and is
3:40
gonna put his disguise on and then get outside and see what's
3:43
going on. Bo, do you sleep without the
3:45
hat? I think I sleep with it on, but
3:47
you know, I have to make sure it stays on when I wait.
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I get up and come downstairs to take a look.
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I'm sort of already up at this point just because I already
3:57
slept my 4 hours or tranced my 4 hours so.
4:00
So you guys all run downstairs, kind of meeting each other in
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the hallway. Before you make your way
4:05
downstairs, you see glass on the floor from a window near the
4:08
front door. Shards have scattered across the
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wooden floor. It looks like something has been
4:13
thrown, but you don't. It's not apparent right there
4:16
what has been thrown. How could I do a check?
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Yeah, I was going to say, I'm going to stupidly move up to the
4:20
window and look out so effectively make a perception
4:24
check. Yeah, make a perception check
4:26
looking out of the window, but were you also trying to look at
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the window or? I'm gonna look for what object
4:31
was thrown through the window. Okay, give me a perception or
4:35
investigation check. 18 on the 21.
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Not great 9. OK, so Abe, you see the tail of
4:45
someone running away as fast as they can go.
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And Bo, you can tell that something has been thrown, but
4:52
it's kind of gotten lost inside the house.
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Like it was thrown incredibly hard through the window.
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So you don't know what it is or where it is.
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Avni can I chase? Chase the person.
5:01
Yeah, yeah. You open the door and you're
5:04
getting ready to run when you hear some heavy footsteps and
5:07
Drummond burst in the foyer, fur bristling and eyes wide in his
5:11
emerald green silk pajamas. What's happening guys, what's
5:15
happening? Abe, where are you going?
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I'm just going to run. Somebody threw something through
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your window, Abe's going to chase him down.
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Go get him, boy. And he Pats you on the back and
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you go running out. Don't know about boy, but don't
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know if I like the way that that was said.
5:33
You are a boy. No, go get it.
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So Abe, you start running. I'm going to fully dash.
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So, Abe, your speed is 80, right?
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40 feet of running and 40 feet dash.
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Or, excuse me, you got a level up now, right?
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All three of you have levelled up to level 4.
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Yeah. So you took a feat.
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What did you take? I took the Charger feat, which
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mostly effects my speed and adds speed into combat.
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I won't go through all the details right now, but right now
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what's functionally important is that it's going to add 10 feet
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onto the Max of my dash speed. So I'm going to be able to move
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90 feet right now. Nice O you're running and you're
6:16
just bolting after this tabaxi. This tabaxi does have a little
6:21
bit of a head start because you had to get out of bed and you
6:23
had to run down the stairs and and see what was happening first
6:27
before you could get to this tabaxi.
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You see the tabaxi slips into a crowd into the center of town.
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You have run so far at this point.
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Give me a perception check as he gives a stealth check.
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Try to find him or her. Yeah, not all troublemakers are
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boys. Come on, Not all men.
6:46
I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
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I'm kidding. God, let's go.
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It's a 19 on the die. So that's gonna be perception
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this time. Yep, 24.
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Eagle eyes looking into the crowd.
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You think you see the tail. It is a calico tail, but all of
7:02
a sudden it disappears and you do not catch who threw something
7:07
in the window. The rest of you are back at the
7:10
house, Bo. You were unable to actually find
7:13
what was thrown through the window.
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And Drummond turns to you guys. There is a kid in this house who
7:20
dare throw something through my window.
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What was it, guys? What was it?
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And he starts looking on the floor as well.
7:27
Can I start looking for it as well?
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Yeah, absolutely. Give me a perception or
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investigation. Where's Bunty in all this?
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Wrapped up in bed still. I don't want to come down.
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I was scared. First roll on the new dice was a
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19, so that's a 26. Yeah.
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Oh fuck. OK, you see that?
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A small stone lies heavy on the ground, but it was kind of
7:47
tucked behind the stairs case and attached to it is a strip of
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parchment tied tightly around it.
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I'll open it up and start to read it.
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Written roughly in charcoal, you read Drummond.
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This village belongs to its people, not to the rich cowards
8:01
who have enough money to help it but won't withdraw from the
8:04
race. Next time.
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The rock won't miss. Signed a true follower of
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Peshwari. Holy shit.
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Do you read this out loud or do you read it in your head?
8:13
I read it out loud, yeah. Well, is this absolute nonsense?
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My son sleeps in this house and Drummond his, his fur is like
8:22
prickling. He's fucking angry.
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His tail lashes violently. Drummond, consider that maybe
8:28
this is not who you think it is. Oh, that's interesting.
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What are you saying, boy? I mean, I'm not not a native
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here, I haven't lived here as long as you, but it seems like
8:37
throwing rocks through windows seems like something that
8:40
Clewerd would do, not necessarily Peshwari.
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But it doesn't make sense. If Clewer does it, he's already
8:46
winning. I drop out of the race, all my
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followers will probably vote for Peshwari and then she will have
8:52
that clear lead over clearword. There's got to be 1 of
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Peshwari's followers. It's got to be.
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Is there anybody that you think you know, a big supporter of
9:01
Peshwari, that's been disgruntled with you?
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I mean, I'm guessing most of them.
9:06
There's some socialist liberals. Do they have a tendency towards
9:11
violence though? Has this happened before?
9:14
Not Peshwari herself, no. But I don't know about her
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followers. Ever since this mayoral race has
9:20
gotten closer and closer. They seem to be even more angry
9:23
with the fact that I'm staying in the race.
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I think I'm going to have some words with this Peshwari.
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And he starts putting on his slippers.
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He's in his, like, silk green pajama suit right now.
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And he goes, I'm going to Peshwari.
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Are you coming boys or what? As I trudge back up to the
9:40
house, I just want to make one or a, however many you think
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investigation checks because I want to see regarding like the
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footsteps, were there any things that were dropped as the person
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was running? Yes, along the path that I was
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chasing. Give me your investigation
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check. It's a 15 on the dive, not
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rolled below a 15. That is going to be.
10:00
It's been 2 rolls man. It's 3 rolls. 3 rolls. 3.
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Rolls. That's 13 for investigation,
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sorry. Not 13. +3 so 18.
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That's why you're never beating the the weighted dice
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allegations. Yeah, Pascal.
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I'm just a lucky boy. OK, 18 you can tell from your
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ancient investigation that there is only one set of footprints.
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So this seems like there was only one person doing this act
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right now. Besides that, not much else.
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You can tell that there may be around 5 foot 8 by their
10:38
strides, but that's not an abnormal height for to backseat
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to be. So everything here just points
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to an average Joe or Josette, Yeah.
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Not Josephina. I don't know, Josie.
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I don't know. It was hard to.
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Think of it or Jolie. Jolene, Yeah.
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Jane, I think is the technical term.
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OK, OK, I realize that there are a lot.
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Of mains OK. OK, wait till you meet my new
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MPC Josette, and then you'll apologize.
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OK. So yeah, just an average
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tobaccy. I know the Drummond is kind of
11:18
rushing to get out. I want to make one more plea to
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his better nature and, and step in front of him and go.
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Listen, you're, you're a shrewd man.
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You told us yesterday that you would rather see Peshwari win
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than Cluard, right? Yes, but I would rather win
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myself if that's an option. Of course you'd rather when
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you're all running a race all of you would rather win.
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But isn't this just a way to keep you and Peshwari from one
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of you popping out of the ways, teaming up with the other one
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and beating Clowards so that he doesn't win?
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Right now the most important thing is that someone threw a
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rock through my window where my son sleeps, where my leaderboard
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Remington sleeps. So I will be having words with
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Peshawarri. It does not have to be political
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right now, but I will be having words.
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And he throws on his shoes and gets ready to leave.
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Now I would like if the three of you would accompany me.
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So yeah, at. This point I've made it back up
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to the front of the house, so I don't know anything about the
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pissuari stuff, but I'm at the front door now, so I'm going to
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walk back in and kind of huff and I, I, I couldn't catch them.
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I couldn't catch them. They slipped into the crowd.
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And after that it was there's a they all.
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And I kind of catch my words look the same.
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Drama turn, she goes. That is some clear word rhetoric
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of what he says about you humanoids.
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I mean. That is what he says about man
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and elf. Are you really going to stoop to
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his level, Abe, and say that about us?
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You're right, I'm sorry. It just objectively it was very
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hard to spot the attacker in the crowd.
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All right, Abe. Well, we are going to confront
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Peshwari and it would be nice if I had the three of you behind
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me. And Bunty, where is that little
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bunty? Bunty, come here, I'm coming.
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Drummond, I'm coming for you. And he jumps off the second
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floor. Wait, Bunty.
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This is how Bunty dies. It's like.
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The intro to the other guys Oh my God, there goes my hero and.
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Bunty gracefully lands on Drummond's shoulder with a 19.
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Nice. I look at Drummond's white suit
13:33
having been touched by Bunty. It's OK, it's his.
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It's just his emerald green silk pajama suit, so don't worry.
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Oh, OK. He's wearing his pajamas out.
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He is so angry. You know what?
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Maybe, maybe this will be a good thing.
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Let's, let's go. I'm sure we can straighten this
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out. He steps out of the house, slams
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the door behind him, and you guys start making your way back
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to the crowd where Abe just was. So Abe, you do, you ran there,
13:57
you double back, and you're going there again.
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You're getting your exercise in very early this morning.
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Doing Russians. So you go and you see festival
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banners hangover the streets and the campaign posters appear
14:09
everywhere. The central Plaza outside of the
14:11
arena buzzes with festival activity.
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Vendors are selling roasted fire, fish and spiced fruit
14:16
while gamblers shout odds for the arena fights.
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Outside the Plaza, you see Peshwari speaking with a group
14:22
of dockworkers and merchants who seem to have just arrived in
14:26
town. Drummond storms straight towards
14:28
her. Peshwari conversations
14:31
immediately stop, people step back, and the two candidates
14:35
face each other in the center of the Plaza.
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As this is happening, I'm just going to kind of lean into you
14:40
guys and be like, by the way, what happened last night?
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I don't think I drank a lot, but I can't remember anything.
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We'll we'll fill you in later. I don't know if we have time
14:51
right now. Fair enough.
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I think we got to pay attention. Drummond turns to you bon and
14:55
goes bon. May I take that note that you
14:58
found on that rock? I hand it to him.
15:01
Drummond waves the note in front of her face.
15:04
Do you see this, Peshwari? You call this campaigning?
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My house was attacked this morning and my son was sleeping
15:11
inside, and whoever threw this signed your name on it.
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If you want to beat me in an election, fine, but you do not
15:19
threaten me or my family. Peshwari reads the note very
15:23
carefully and her ears lower slightly.
15:25
Do you want to give me an insight check?
15:29
Unnatural 20. That's a three. 25.
15:33
South Bon and Bo you 2 can both tell that Peshwari seems
15:39
embarrassed and saddened while reading this note.
15:43
She says this was not me. She looks at Drummond.
15:47
I would never threaten you and Remington.
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She raises the note so nearby villagers can see it.
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If someone did this claiming to support me, they acted without
15:57
my consent. I know your son lives there,
15:59
Drummond. I would never endanger him.
16:02
I was his teacher for Sylvira's sake.
16:04
Remington means a lot to me. I do not know who did this, but
16:08
I am deeply sorry. Drummond looks at her.
16:12
Well, that might be true that you care about Remington, but
16:15
this is not an election to be fought dirty.
16:18
This is a clean election. Who are you, Clayward?
16:21
And with that, she kind of hisses and steps back.
16:24
Do not call me Clayward. He is something that both of us
16:27
do not wish to be. We are on the same side.
16:31
Drummond, I do not know what side you are on, but you better
16:35
talk to your followers, make them back off.
16:39
I'm trying to Drummond. I have never, ever supported
16:43
violence. All I'm trying to do is get more
16:46
merchants into the town, bring more revenue into our little
16:49
village. See, I've been working here for
16:51
these merchant guilds, and not just the ones from Ignavarum,
16:55
but from other empires too. If La Grande's village is going
16:58
to thrive, we need trade routes that don't just serve the rich
17:01
houses upriver. We need food shipments that
17:04
reach the worker districts, opportunities for people who
17:07
aren't already wealthy. Trade is the only way to make
17:10
that happen. Aspeshwari mentions merchants
17:13
from other empires. Abe.
17:16
A memory from the back of your mind starts to make its way to
17:20
the surface. The Plaza fades, the sound of La
17:24
Grande's village disappears. And Abe, You remember standing
17:28
on the moonfen docks, long evening, sitting on wooden
17:32
crates, watching ships return from the horizon.
17:35
Your parents in Alphonse were already gone on their voyage,
17:38
the Shards, but you spent hours on the dock every sunset,
17:42
sketching cargo as it came off of ships, asking merchants the
17:45
same question again and again. Have you seen the ship heading
17:49
back from the Veralian shards? Most sailors brushed you off,
17:53
but one never did. A tall wood elf merchant, 6 feet
17:57
tall with deep brown skin the color of tree bark.
18:00
He had a neatly groomed beard braided with a small Y shaped
18:03
golden stick. His robes are expensive and
18:05
elegant, despite his hands looking like those roughed up.
18:08
Like a sailor, he was scarred, weathered, and covered in rings.
18:13
His eyebrows were beginning to Gray and his short hair had
18:15
streaks of silver through it. A distinguished looking
18:18
merchant, you always thought, and what you remember most for
18:21
his eyes. Curious and thoughtful, he spent
18:24
far more time listening than speaking.
18:27
Sometimes he would sit beside you while his crew loaded
18:30
crates, and you talked a lot about your parents, about the
18:34
shards, about your sketches, and he would just listen.
18:38
Occasionally, when the work finished, he'd hand you
18:40
something small from his cargo. A book about the war, forged
18:44
from Fairy Malik's dried mango from Sylvorum Rex, your
18:47
favorite. And the last time you saw him,
18:50
he handed you two things, a set of robes and a journal.
18:55
You paid him for the robes with every coin you had, insisting
18:57
that you must start paying him for all that he has gotten you.
19:01
He took the coin, but the journal he insisted you keep for
19:04
free. You see so much, young Abe.
19:08
Write what you see, keep track of the world around you, and
19:13
that is where the memory ends. And Abe, you find yourself
19:18
touching your journal by your side and thinking about the
19:22
robes, the gift that he had given you.
19:25
Yeah, just like almost subconsciously, I start looking
19:29
almost impossibly hopefully into the crowd of the merchants, the
19:34
dock workers that are in that crowd hoping to spot stick.
19:39
Yeah. Do you want to roll an
19:40
investigation check? Sure, 711.
19:45
You don't see the man that you call Stick.
19:47
You never learned his name. He knew yours, but you were just
19:50
too much of A chatty. Kathy forgot to even ask his
19:53
name. But Stick is not there.
19:55
He's not here in the Rondo's village.
19:58
Yeah, a little disappointed I I look.
19:59
Away. I'm going to walk up to Drummond
20:03
and tap him on the shoulder and just say Drummond the wood,
20:06
please. Yes, Bon Peshawari, please let
20:09
me step away from you for a second.
20:11
I bring him back to our group and I, I say Drummond.
20:16
I mean, you yourself seem like there would be plenty to benefit
20:19
from merchants. And I know the vote is split
20:23
between the two of you right now, but is there ever a world
20:25
in which you work together? I mean, she was.
20:28
She was Remington's teacher after all.
20:30
I mean, sure, if I become mayor maybe I'd implore her, she's got
20:35
some good ideas. But I'm not giving my money up
20:39
for higher taxes, and I know my friends don't want that either.
20:43
So we can find some sort of middle ground, but that's going
20:46
to have to happen after I become mayor.
20:49
Got it. OK, understood.
20:51
Sorry, I'll let you back to it. Do you 3 support me and you 2
20:56
Bunty? Of course.
20:57
I don't know if you've had time to talk to Bo, but I think, I
21:02
mean last night is quite hazy, but I think I remember making an
21:06
offer. If you guys make me mayor, I
21:09
will give you the location too. And he kind of leans in.
21:13
Whispers the Dragon Sword. I feel like me and Abe are kind
21:18
of surprised at this since he said this to Beau after we went
21:21
to bed. I look over at Beau.
21:24
Yeah, I haven't, I haven't discussed it with them yet.
21:26
So I think we're going to still need some time to speak amongst
21:29
ourselves, make sure this is fair compensation.
21:32
No worries, you do have to make a decision today though.
21:36
In a couple of hours you're going to have your semi finals
21:39
fight and then your finals fight right after.
21:42
Fingers crossed. Assuming you win, the voting
21:45
happens to not and the election will be called tomorrow morning.
21:50
So if you're going to start campaigning for me, you better
21:53
start soon. Drummond, Sir, I have one
21:58
question. Of course, Abe.
22:00
Do you know who Betsy is? Betsy, let me roll to see if you
22:04
remembers. She's poor.
22:06
How would he know? I actually do know Betsy.
22:10
She is a nice cat. She, she lives out there were,
22:14
you know, the rest of the unwealthy people live.
22:17
I learned that poor is actually a mean word to say unwealthy.
22:22
That's what Remington taught me. She seems fine.
22:25
What can I say? I've never lost a limb.
22:28
Most of the people here in this town have not lost limbs.
22:32
I don't think her shop is doing too well.
22:35
Honestly, a little overcome with some of the memories of being in
22:39
Moonfed for all those years alone and the people that helped
22:42
me that didn't have much to give.
22:44
Listen, honestly, I'm impressed that you remember who Betsy is.
22:48
But, and I look at the two of you and look back at him.
22:52
You have to do better, Sir, if you, if we're going to campaign
22:55
for you and if we're going to believe what we say.
22:58
Because listen, I, I think that you want what's good for this
23:00
town, but you can't let people like that hang out to dry.
23:04
We didn't have much money when we came into town and Bon had
23:07
lost his leg and she treated us and she even gave us gifts
23:10
afterwards because we paid her the actual price of what it was
23:13
worth. And she even taught me some of
23:15
the things when she did the surgery on bond.
23:16
Those are kind of people. Those are the people that make
23:18
up Lagrande's village. And there are people like that
23:20
all over. Peshwari appeals to them because
23:23
she knows them, because she is them.
23:25
And right now you're so, so apart from them.
23:29
You talk a lot about supporting your friends who don't want to
23:31
pay higher taxes. What are what are you going to
23:32
do for people like Betsy? I don't know.
23:35
I just think that you need to make some sort of promise that
23:38
you'll keep for those people. That's the only way you're going
23:41
to win. We can say whatever we want.
23:42
We can fight for you in the pits.
23:44
We can do well and you'll get fame and you'll get support that
23:47
way. But you're not going to win this
23:48
election without really trying to help the people that need it
23:52
the most, so. And more more importantly,
23:55
you're not going to make a better village for Remington
24:00
this way. Abe rolled me persuasion with
24:04
advantage. That was a nice backup Bond
24:07
bringing his son into it. Yeah, I know.
24:09
That's how he carries about it. That's true.
24:10
It's an 18 and a 12. So that's going to be a 17
24:13
because I have -1. Can I give guidance on this?
24:21
Sure, this is AD 4. D4.
24:24
It's going to be 19. Well, you all make some
24:28
interesting points. Maybe this morning before your
24:32
fats, you go around town and maybe don't campaign for me just
24:38
yet, but you ask them what they want and you come to me with a
24:42
list of what people are really looking for.
24:44
I know what Peshawar is offering and it seems like people like
24:48
that. But if I jump on the bandwagon
24:51
and say I'll bring more merchants and I'll bring more
24:54
money into the village, it'll seem like I'm just copying her.
24:58
And I don't think the people that support me would respect me
25:02
if I just jump on what she's saying.
25:05
It's hard. I feel like I've kind of
25:07
pigeonholed myself because what people want is more money for
25:11
the village, and she's promised that.
25:13
If I promise that, I feel like I'm a copycat.
25:16
And then he chuckles at his own job.
25:19
You need to do Drummond is position yourself as someone
25:22
who's capable of doing that in a better way.
25:24
You're someone with connections like Vox.
25:26
You finance things in different countries like Ken Peshwari.
25:30
Do that. That is a good point.
25:32
You see those merchants and those dock workers that are over
25:35
there and you guys look over, They're not the highest quality.
25:40
I know some people, some big names actually.
25:44
Have you guys heard of Drusilla and Bond?
25:49
You. You would have heard of her as
25:51
someone. Yeah.
25:52
Drusilla is like a big name in the merchant sphere.
25:57
She is technically tied to Silvorum Rex, but she has
26:00
travelled everywhere. She even goes through the rivers
26:03
more inland, which a lot of the other merchants don't do.
26:06
Oh. Wow, you've worked.
26:07
You've worked with Drusilla. Yeah.
26:09
That's incredible. She's legendary.
26:11
Oh yeah, she is. And another guy, he's a little
26:14
smaller. Have you heard of a man named
26:16
Nerix? He is a good merchant.
26:18
I respect that man. My ears perk up at this.
26:22
I actually, yeah, I I know Nerix quite well.
26:25
Wow, that's that's incredible. Really, he is an incredible
26:29
merchant. He's got me some very
26:31
interesting things from Noctovalis.
26:34
I feel like he's got his hands in so many different pots and he
26:37
knows the impair tricks personally.
26:39
So I'm impressed that you know him.
26:42
You know, I do have a question for you, Bond.
26:45
You know, Nerx, can you tell me why he's got that stick braided
26:49
in his beard? It seems like an interesting
26:51
feature. I start to explain the the
26:54
stick, what you know, it's part of the wood elves.
26:57
It's just like it was tangled in his beard during the, like, the
27:00
biggest meeting that he had as a young merchant.
27:02
And it seemed intentional, and he kind of just stuck with it.
27:06
That's what he told me. And eventually he moved on to
27:07
having, like, a golden one in his beard rather than like, an
27:10
actual tweak bond. Yeah.
27:12
Yeah. What's up?
27:13
Wood elf with a stick in his beard, yeah.
27:16
That's Narex. You sure his name isn't Stick?
27:24
No, no, I'm pretty sure it's Narex.
27:26
And I look at Drummond, I'm like.
27:28
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's Narex, Abe.
27:31
It's like, why would you call someone stick just because he's
27:34
got a stick in his beard? That seems a little on the nose.
27:38
Sometimes that's, you know, the simplest thing is what it is.
27:42
But that's really weird. I I also knew a merchant with a
27:45
stick in his beard that was a wood elf, but it can't be the
27:48
same guy. Interesting, and I'll keep this
27:51
in my mind for later as as I find some alone time with Abe to
27:55
chat, but I'm going to let it go for now to not go on too much of
27:59
A tangent. Well, you guys have given me a
28:02
lot to think about after the finals today for the Pampson
28:06
Fury festival. I will be making a speech.
28:09
It's a pre planned speech, but maybe I'll go in and and make
28:13
some changes to that speech and maybe I'll bring up some of the
28:17
points that you guys have made. How?
28:19
I'm rich. I'm so fucking rich, and I have
28:23
those connections. Yeah.
28:25
Thank you guys. That was really helpful.
28:27
Wait, wait, wait. He walks away, I'm assuming.
28:32
I'm in my pajamas, I better go. I can't have the town seeing me
28:37
like this. He was so close.
28:40
He was so close to getting it. Avni, I wanted to say this
28:45
earlier, but I didn't want to interrupt, but I feel like Bo
28:47
was probably gauging like the crowd's reaction to everything
28:52
more than, you know, the interaction between Peshwari and
28:55
Drummond. Yeah, give me an insight check.
28:58
It'll be another unnatural 20. Nice.
29:01
You can tell that the merchants that are there seem a little put
29:07
off by the conversation. They seem put off by Drummond
29:10
strutting in here and yelling these accusations.
29:13
But now they also seem a little hesitant of Peshwari.
29:17
But the rest of the crowd, you can tell that they're mostly
29:20
just confused about what has happened.
29:23
But when Peshwari held up the note and said that she does not
29:26
stand for this, violence is not her thing and whoever threw this
29:30
rock was not doing it in her name, you can tell that the
29:33
crowd kind of believed her. They believe that Peshwari is a
29:36
good to backseat and she means well.
29:38
They were a little iffy on Drummond running in here, but
29:41
Peshwari, for the most part people still believe her and
29:44
still support her. Awesome, is she still around?
29:48
Yeah, she has gone back to talking with the dock workers.
29:50
OK, yeah, I was going to maybe talk to her for a second, but I
29:53
don't want to interrupt her. You can pull her aside if you
29:56
want to Bo. I guess I'll I'll wait for a a
29:59
lull in the conversation. Yeah, so soon after you're just
30:02
kind of all three of you, 4 of you.
30:04
Excuse me, I always forget. Bunty are just waiting around
30:07
and Pushwari seems to give her goodbyes to some of the dock
30:11
workers and he's making her way through the center of town.
30:14
When you're able to kind of grab her attention if you want.
30:18
Yeah, I'm just going to like wave at her and be like, hi,
30:21
hello. Hi you.
30:22
Don't know me. I mean, I saw your fight
30:25
yesterday. You guys are the monos, right?
30:28
Yeah, that's us. Yeah, it was an interesting
30:31
fight. So I couldn't help but overhear
30:34
the interaction, the unfortunate interaction between you and
30:38
Drummond over there. And you mentioned that you you
30:41
taught Remington. Yeah, yeah, I'm a teacher, so I
30:45
used to work in the school here. That's great.
30:48
That's that's so good. How?
30:49
How was he as a student? Remington, oh, I mean, he's got
30:53
a touch of ADHD, but besides that, he, he means well, he's a
30:58
really good boy. I mean, yeah, he it's hard.
31:03
You can tell that he comes from privilege when a lot of the
31:06
other students don't, but he's always treated everyone pretty
31:10
fairly in the class. He's just a little out of touch
31:13
when he makes comments about how him and his dad and his Papa
31:16
used to be able to travel the world together and and see all
31:20
these other cool cities when a lot of the other tobaccis here
31:23
don't have the money to travel. And he just didn't understand
31:27
that that wasn't normal. But he's a good kid.
31:30
That's good to hear. Do you think if if he told his
31:34
dad something he would listen? Yeah, I think Drummond loves
31:39
nothing more than Remington. He would give up the world for
31:43
Remington. OK, Thank you, you know, for
31:46
talking to me and everything that you're doing.
31:47
Keep doing what you're doing, please.
31:50
Yeah, of course, of course. I'm always here to make La
31:53
Grande's village better for everyone.
31:56
Awesome. I'm going to head back.
31:57
So the three of you and Bunty are now alone, kind of in the
32:03
center of town. Bunty turns to you guys and
32:06
goes. Wow, that was so crazy.
32:08
Guys, that was really awesome. Also, can we talk about how
32:12
drunk Abe and I were last night? That was so fun.
32:17
I was just like feeling myself and Abe was feeling himself and
32:20
we were on like elevated surfaces dancing.
32:23
Yeah, Abe smacked. Your own ass.
32:25
You were. You were.
32:26
Smacking your own ass and. Going I wasn't.
32:28
I don't know who I was. Yeah, you, you totally were.
32:31
Wait. And I look at the two of you
32:32
guys. Unfortunately, Abe, yes, you
32:34
were. No, Abe, I'm sorry I gave you
32:37
some some of my drink and maybe I shouldn't have done that, but
32:42
but it helped us a lot. And I start to sort of like
32:45
recap some of the things we talked about last night, some of
32:48
like Vox's history, some of the stuff with the horde of scoria.
32:53
And I turn over to Beau and I was said what?
32:56
What's this deal with his offer? Yeah, so he he knows the
33:00
location of 1 of Scoria's hordes and he he wants to give it to us
33:05
in exchange for helping him become mayor.
33:08
I personally don't think it's worth it.
33:10
You said you ran into the group that has found Scoria's hood,
33:13
the Claw mock trio. Yeah, they're, they're just,
33:17
they're kind of lame, you know? I don't like those guys.
33:20
They're knobs. OK.
33:21
All right. Well, they seem to be sponsored
33:23
by the Imperator and Vox and Drummond, so they got lots of
33:27
moolah. I'm sure they do.
33:30
You know what, Bunty, Bunty, we, we don't want to be anywhere
33:34
near getting sponsored by the Imperator.
33:37
And you remember. No, I'm, I know.
33:39
I'm not saying we want to be. I'm just saying like.
33:42
How other thing? How much?
33:43
Knobby can they be? How knobby can they be if they
33:46
got so many spots? Talking over me right now,
33:48
Bunty, you know you started. When I was already.
33:50
Talking. You got me up.
33:53
Alright, boys, boys, boys. Hey, hey, guys, guys, guys,
33:56
enough, enough. Wait, wait, I have to ask him
33:58
something. Bunty, did you throw up?
34:00
Because I had them prepare you jello and chicken feet last
34:02
night and I swear to God if you threw that up I'm going to be so
34:04
mad. Of course not.
34:06
My digestive track is like so fast I pretty much shit it out
34:09
like 3 minutes later. Okay, another thing I turned to
34:14
you guys full transparency boys, I don't want to be near another
34:18
dragon for a really long time because.
34:22
That sucked. I believe the deal part of the
34:25
deal with Scoria's horde. Wasn't it that like Scoria has
34:28
multiple and doesn't defend them necessarily all at once or?
34:33
That changes things. We know Scoria's location is
34:36
it's an ash, and so we were under the impression that this
34:40
horde was in a different location, so Scoria may not even
34:43
be there. I don't know.
34:45
This is a pretty tempting offer, I have to say.
34:47
And, and I don't know if it's exactly our place to be meddling
34:51
in this village's elections one way or the other, but you know,
34:55
it's tough. Yeah, I think unfortunately we
34:57
already did when we made our way into town, or I did, I guess.
35:01
Yeah, I think Abe's right. We kind of, we're currently
35:04
already in it. Whether or not we accept this
35:07
deal or don't accept it, we're affecting the political outcomes
35:10
of this village. So I think somehow Remington
35:15
might be our key. I think somehow if we can talk
35:18
to him and like establish A rapport with him, maybe he likes
35:23
us as fighters or something, but I think we got to convince him
35:26
to tell his dad to drop out. What if we put together a
35:29
meeting with Peshwari at Drummond's house?
35:32
I mean, we've got some influence.
35:34
We've got this clear battle, like rivalry against Clearwood.
35:37
I think we have some push here and neither of them are going to
35:41
win the election this way. It's just going to end up in the
35:43
hands of him. What if we tried to convince her
35:45
to at least talk and see if there's in some way they can
35:47
figure this out on their own? Potentially I'm worried about I
35:51
don't think anybody can get to Drummond but Remington.
35:54
Well, that's why we do it at the house if Remington's there.
35:57
Yeah, I but I'm wondering, if Cluard finds out about this
36:01
meeting, wouldn't he do everything in his power to try
36:04
to sabotage their connection, to try to kind of seed chaos into
36:09
into what they're talking about? That's a possibility.
36:12
I'm also like. I mean, he did it this morning,
36:14
in my opinion. We don't know who threw the
36:16
brick, but yeah. This is a really this is a far
36:19
throw, but I am I was also curious if what if Drummond
36:25
hired someone to do that to himself?
36:28
I had also thought of that, but I don't think having having
36:32
drunk with him, I don't think that he would do that.
36:35
And to go out in his pajamas. Unfortunately, every political
36:39
faction has militant extremists. That's that's what I was
36:44
thinking, like it's, it's a perfectly reasonable possibility
36:48
that Teshwari's followers could do this.
36:50
And you know, when it comes to Peshwari needs some bite, so I'm
36:54
not even that opposed to if one of her followers actually did
36:57
that, if I'm being completely honest.
36:59
Yeah, I kind of agree with you, Abe, unfortunately.
37:02
But at the same time, I understand the most useful thing
37:05
in this situation is to get Drummond to back out somehow.
37:09
Yeah. So you guys are having this
37:11
conversation and you remember that Drummond said that in a
37:14
couple of hours you guys will be fighting the semi finals and if
37:18
you win the finals directly after.
37:21
So if there's anything you guys want to do right now, this is
37:25
the time to do it. OK, listen, Drummond said.
37:29
He has a lot of money on this match, on US winning the
37:32
tournament. What if we asked him to sponsor
37:35
some supplies for us? But what if you you tried to
37:38
convince him that it would positively affect the outcome?
37:40
I can do that, yeah. If clerics and other people are
37:44
fair game from the audience, then perhaps we can also ask if
37:48
he knows any any corrupt healers.
37:51
Oh my God, that reminds me and I pull out my journal guys, I had
37:54
a crazy dream last night and I and I turned the notebook to you
37:58
guys and big notes. It scratched on one page.
38:01
I said I wrote it down as soon as I woke up because there's a
38:03
lot of commotion. But and you see that it says
38:06
poison bunty evaporate. OK.
38:11
Well, it's it's don't you see? This could be huge.
38:13
I I don't see a I'm sorry I don't know what this means.
38:18
Bunty and I grab him and I lift him up by like his.
38:21
Yeah, yeah, I say open your mouth.
38:23
Open your mouth. Should stick up my tongue too.
38:27
Sure. Do you see the poison all over
38:29
that? Yeah, I'm thinking if we get him
38:33
to produce enough and then we reduce the volume of it, you
38:37
could get its effects to be much more powerful.
38:39
And I don't know, maybe you just like splash it in someone's face
38:42
or you put it on like the darts of a blowgun, or you you treat
38:46
the edge of your blade in it or something.
38:48
It could do so much more than what he does already.
38:50
That's interesting. A blow dart could be really good
38:54
for Bunty. I mean, he almost, he almost got
38:56
absolutely rocked last last night.
38:58
I got my shit rocked. That's for.
39:00
Sure. I mean, listen, you wanted to
39:02
talk to Betsy anyway. Maybe we could stop by and see
39:05
if she could make something for us.
39:07
Yeah, and Bunty actually wanted to talk to you about that.
39:10
Yeah, this next fight maybe you don't act as a support weapon
39:14
for me because I didn't like how close you got to dying last
39:18
time. I love you too.
39:20
That was so funny to say. Bunty, that's not what I meant.
39:25
No, no, no. I listen.
39:27
Listen, Abe, relax the body. All right, So what if Abe and
39:31
Bunty, you guys, you guys went to Betsy to get this this blow
39:35
dot made before the match? And then Bo, do you want to go
39:39
talk to Drummond, see if he can get us a little bit of an edge?
39:43
Can I actually request that Bo comes with me because there's
39:48
something else I wanted to talk to Betsy about?
39:51
Bo, if it's all right with you and Bond, maybe you could talk
39:54
to Drummond. Oh, OK.
40:00
And Bunty can come with you, Bunty can go with you, and I
40:03
can. No, no, no, no, no.
40:05
But she'll he'll probably need that for the the sizing of the
40:07
blow dot, you know, like I'm sure that's very important.
40:10
Get my mouth whole size. Listen, I know I'm not always
40:14
the best at talking, but I feel like my ideas are good enough.
40:16
Maybe I could get to Drummond. Cool.
40:18
So you guys go and split up. We'll start with Bon heads back
40:23
to Drummond's house. And you see Drummond right now,
40:26
he's back in his very dapper suit and he is playing on the
40:31
ground with some Legos with Remington.
40:35
And he looks up and he goes, Well, Bon, how you doing?
40:39
What can I do for you? Just to preface, I'm going to
40:42
cast guidance on myself in advance.
40:45
Of course. Yeah, sounds good.
40:47
Yeah. Thank you, Drummond.
40:49
Well, you're looking really guided right now.
40:52
Yes, this mirror is with me always.
40:54
And let her be with you as well. So we've got this fight in a few
40:58
hours and I know you have a lot of money riding on us and
41:01
potentially with this, with this offer to campaign for you.
41:05
You've got a lot riding on this match.
41:06
I was hoping maybe there was a way that you could give us a
41:09
little, a little bit of an edge, you know, like help us get some
41:12
new gear. And we were talking last night
41:15
about the cleric that Clearwood was using to cheat and and heal
41:20
big Betha. Do you happen to know anybody
41:22
like that that could help? Or maybe like a wizard that
41:25
could counter spell if there's any more interference?
41:27
Well, a lot of the very strong people of this town are fighting
41:33
in the matches, but I do know a cleric.
41:37
Do you think it'd be in bad taste if I use that same cleric
41:41
that healed Big Bertha? He probably works for just any
41:45
corn, so I can definitely see if I can get him on our side.
41:51
He could cast something like Mass Cure Wounds or something
41:55
like that once during the battle.
41:58
He's a little expensive because he's got to do things so sneaky
42:01
and technically it's not allowed to do that, but I'd be happy to
42:05
ask. That would be fantastic, as long
42:07
as Clover doesn't shift the narrative.
42:10
I think we just need to make sure this is really, really
42:12
undercover. I will dress him in a suit with
42:16
a hat. He'll look just like me.
42:18
He's also a white cat, so maybe people will think they're seeing
42:23
double. I mean, that's awesome.
42:25
That would be fantastic. And I mean you've I'm sure
42:27
you'll make your money back off of us because we're definitely
42:30
going to make it to the finals. But, you know, knowing that
42:32
there's only one day happening with the rest of this
42:36
tournament, any chance you could, you know, spot us some
42:38
money to help upgrade our gear a bit, you know, get some, some
42:43
new supplies, some new healing potions, things like that?
42:46
And with that roller persuasion check.
42:50
I'm counting on these new dice. 15 on the die plus three from
42:55
guidance and persuasion is +0, so that's an 18.
42:59
Amazing. Well, I actually have some stuff
43:03
that I could just give you myself, if that's OK.
43:06
Yeah, that's the lending out coin here.
43:09
Let me go. Give me a second.
43:10
We go just play with Legos with Remington right now, and I'm
43:14
just going to go pop back and grab something.
43:17
Yeah, come play. Later start to build a Knicks
43:19
Shard immediately just like this.
43:21
This like diamond D8 shaped thing pretty much.
43:25
Wow, what's that? Are you pushing your religion on
43:28
me? Oh, wow, You, you already know.
43:31
All right, That's impressive. I'm a worldly man.
43:33
I've travelled the world. You've seen these?
43:36
These are these are actually really only native to my
43:39
village. Where?
43:41
Where are you? From where are you from?
43:43
I'm from a solif, I don't know if you've it's not really round
43:48
anymore. Yeah, I haven't been there, but
43:50
I've been to Moon Fan and I I saw a woman, she had one of
43:55
those and she she blew the same thing.
43:57
This was like 2 years ago. I was only a little little boy.
44:01
My eyes go wide at this. Like incredibly wide at this
44:05
because only people from my village too this and as far as I
44:08
knew, everybody from my village was dead.
44:11
And I'm just kind of breathless at this and speechless.
44:14
Drummond comes back into the room and goes well.
44:18
So I found one greater healing potion and one regular healing
44:22
potion. I I think that's all I have
44:25
right now on me. I sold a lot of the other
44:28
weapons and stuff that I can't use.
44:30
But would you be OK accepting this?
44:33
It'll help. Yeah.
44:35
Thank you. Yeah, of course.
44:37
Well, if you don't mind, I might spend some alone time with my
44:41
son right now. There's going to be a lot
44:43
happening this afternoon with the fight and then I'm making my
44:47
big speech and all. So I think it's best that I I
44:51
get some alone time with my son right now.
44:53
But thanks for stopping by Bond, and I'll definitely make sure to
44:56
talk to that cleric. Thank you.
44:59
OK, so we jump to Bo, Abe and Bunty who are heading over to
45:04
Betsy's right now. Just on the way there, Bo, I
45:08
sorry, I didn't mean to pull you away from what you wanted to do
45:11
with Drummond. But I kind of look at your arm
45:14
and I say the reason I'm bringing you to Betsy's is
45:17
because we checked out that arm from down under the arena with
45:21
Betsy and she was able to open it.
45:22
And I'm really, really curious if she could take a look at your
45:27
old one too. Oh, yeah, yeah.
45:29
No, no. Yeah, no, no.
45:34
So there were a lot of yeahs and Nos, but I didn't really.
45:38
I don't really know where you ended up.
45:39
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, Nope.
45:41
Yeah, no or no, Yeah. No, no, no.
45:44
No, no. OK, let's just let's get to
45:47
Betsy's and maybe you could think about it because it
45:49
wouldn't. She's really experienced.
45:51
I saw what she did with bonds like.
45:52
Yeah, you know, but just really don't want people to know about
45:56
my situation. You know, like, you guys are
45:59
fine, you guys are cool, you pass the test and everything.
46:01
Betsy seems cool. But you know what happens when
46:04
Betsy, like, mentions to her next client that she saw a man
46:08
who was fully made out of metal and everything like that?
46:10
And it's just like. What if you kept the disguise on
46:12
everything else except the arm? What if you kept that up?
46:16
That's interesting. I, I just, I don't know how far
46:21
into my arm she's going to have to go, if you know what I mean.
46:26
What if we just have her look at the same compartment thing that
46:28
she looked in the other arm like it wasn't?
46:31
I don't think it was that far. I don't know.
46:33
Like, I don't know. I, I just, there's like only one
46:36
person I'm really comfortable with, kind of like tinkering
46:39
around with me. And again, Betsy seems really
46:42
nice and all, but I just, I don't think.
46:45
Who can tinker with you? You know, maybe maybe tonight
46:49
after our fight or sometime before or whenever we we get
46:53
back together. I'm I'm just I, I, I'll tell you
46:56
guys everything. I mean, you already pretty much
46:59
know, but I I just, I'm not super comfortable with the the
47:03
knowledge getting out there about a a mechanical man.
47:07
What if, what if? She gave me like a really quick
47:10
rundown on what to do and then I took a look at it tonight when
47:13
we're together and away from everything else.
47:16
Would that be OK if she just like showed me what to do and I
47:19
took a look at it? I wouldn't tinker.
47:21
All I'd be doing is opening 1 little flap and just taking a
47:23
look inside. I just want to see if they're
47:24
initials. Bo I just want to see if they're
47:26
initials. Yeah, I mean, if, if like I
47:28
spent like 30 minutes talking to a doctor and then asked if I
47:32
wanted to like, cut open a piece of your skin and like, look at
47:35
what's underneath. Would you be comfortable with
47:36
that? Honestly?
47:38
Abe would actually be OK with that.
47:39
That's the problem. I I, yeah, I think I'd be fine
47:43
with that. I asked the question and then I
47:45
look at his arm which he had had me cut off.
47:47
In. An alleyway.
47:49
And I'm like, wait, maybe this is the wrong appeal.
47:53
I, I don't know if I just, I'm, I'm not comfortable with that.
47:57
I'm really sorry. I agree that we should take a
47:59
look at it, but I don't know if this is the time.
48:02
OK, honestly, I respect it. OK, so you guys head to Betsy's
48:07
and you get there and and she's sitting inside waiting for new
48:10
customers and she sees you all. Oh dear.
48:13
It's so good to see you guys again.
48:16
Hi, Betsy. Hello, hi guys, what can I do
48:20
for you? Did you guys lose any limbs in
48:22
yesterday's match? I didn't watch.
48:25
I was with my grandbabies. No, actually, as you can see, Bo
48:28
has all four of his human limbs and I smile.
48:32
That is really great to. Hear And so actually we're here
48:36
for something completely different.
48:38
So you know, my friend Bunty, my brother, actually, apologies.
48:42
Yeah, that's me. Yeah, Bunty, I'll, I'll do the
48:45
talking. We were thinking that we should
48:47
get a weapon made for him that would suit his fighting style.
48:52
And we were thinking of a blow dart.
48:53
And we know you don't really like make weapons and it's
48:56
mostly limb stuff, but you'd think you could fashion
48:58
something. It'd be like metal, something
49:02
that he could fit his mouth around.
49:03
Just like a pneumatic tube of some kind.
49:06
Yeah. Yeah, it definitely.
49:08
I think that I could do something like that.
49:10
Do you mind, Bunty? Sir, if I if I measure your
49:13
mouth now, I go for it, lady. And one, one more thing, Betsy,
49:17
do you have any kind of like a non corrosive metals, like
49:20
metals that could withstand highly corrosive like materials
49:24
like really strong acids or things like that?
49:27
And I just want some kind of like a, like A and I start just
49:30
like like shaping a cylinder, just just something that I could
49:35
fill with liquid that might be corrosive, you know?
49:38
I mean, we usually just work with steel here.
49:43
I have like a glass jar, but that's really all I got.
49:48
That. I'll take that.
49:49
I'll take that, yeah. Okay.
49:50
Yeah, she hands you a glass jar. She measures Bunty and is like
49:55
give me just left. 5 minutes in the back and I think I can just
49:59
bend something into shape for for bunty here to to use as like
50:03
a blow gun or something right? She heads back into a backroom
50:08
and and you kind of hear the sounds of metalworking and a
50:12
couple minutes later she comes back and it's pretty much just
50:15
like a cylinder, like there's not much else to it.
50:19
And she goes. Bun, do you want to try this
50:23
out? Yeah.
50:24
Dude, can I shoot you? Don't shoot me, baby.
50:28
Shoot them. And she lifts a bag that she has
50:33
in the corner and hangs it on a hook.
50:35
And she goes here. Aim at that hook.
50:37
Aim at that hook at the bag. OK, yes, And I've made you some
50:42
darts right here for you to use. There's twenty of them, but
50:47
they're reusable so you can pick them up after you're done.
50:51
Thank you lady. And Bunty shoots.
50:54
Shout out two of these vocal cords right now.
50:56
Between. Betsy and Bunty, Bunty and
51:00
Trummond. And that was a natural 20 for
51:05
Bunty, and Bunty fucking nails that shit.
51:10
And Betsy goes. That was so good.
51:13
Yes, yes. She starts clapping.
51:16
Good job, Bunty. Well, thank you lady.
51:19
That was really fun. Can I have the dart please?
51:22
I shot it too high and. She reaches up and.
51:25
Grabs it. Yes, Bunty, of course.
51:28
Here you go, Sir. And she gives it to him.
51:30
Betsy, how much for that in the in the jar?
51:34
No, no, please, please. You gave me 500 gold pieces for
51:39
Bond's leg and, and honestly, that was too much this year.
51:44
This was made out of scrap metal.
51:45
A lot of these things that I just gave you, these were just,
51:49
you owe me nothing. Just nothing.
51:51
But the cost of Labor? Give me one gold piece.
51:54
Great. Assuming you guys don't need
51:56
Betsy for anything else. The four of you reconvene.
52:01
Drummond said that he wanted space with his son, so he kind
52:05
of kicked Bon out of the house a little bit.
52:08
And the four of you can convene kind of in the center of the
52:11
square where you were before. You guys show each other what
52:15
you got from your respective little scenes.
52:17
And Bunty turns to you Abe, and goes.
52:21
Abe, I think we blew past it a little bit, but you knew a man
52:26
named Stick. That's kind of crazy.
52:29
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, this was when you were
52:31
like, this is like when I, you know, when I would, like,
52:33
sometimes do my alone time. Yeah.
52:35
And like, this is obviously before I met you, but also after
52:38
I met you. And I'd like kind of be out, you
52:40
know, sometimes at the docks, even after I found out my
52:43
parents weren't gone, or they were, they were gone and
52:46
Alphonse would come back. Listen Ava, I know you're a bit
52:49
of an an artist. Could you draw him real quick?
52:52
Sure. And pull out my notebook.
52:54
Actually he gave me this notebook as I'm like flipping to
52:57
a blank page and the robes wow. And I start to sketch an image
53:02
of stick. Am I gonna have to make like a
53:05
check or I mean I have this scribe background?
53:08
Give me like slight of hand with advantage I'd say.
53:12
Sure, yeah. Are there tools that you use as
53:15
described? Like did your background come
53:17
with tools? Indeed it did.
53:19
So I have calligraphers supplies.
53:22
So you would roll this with advantage and add proficiency
53:25
for your sleight of hand. Cool, so that would be.
53:29
Only for this case, regular sleight of hand.
53:31
I would not. Yeah, this is just when you're
53:33
using your calligraphy's tools. Yeah.
53:35
I got you. So then it would be a 24.
53:38
Damn, so you draw this incredibly accurate picture of
53:42
stick and bond you look over and that is fully Naryx.
53:46
That is fully the wood elf that you know.
53:49
This is Naryx. I I don't know what to tell you.
53:51
There's there's no stick. I he had a stick in his beard.
53:55
Yeah, but his name was Nerix. I don't.
53:57
Know he looks like a stick to me.
53:59
Right. And also maybe he had a twin
54:01
brother. Did you know that if he had a
54:04
twin brother? Listen, I Nerix was a close
54:07
family friend of mine. I spent a lot of time with him
54:10
and after my village was destroyed, I lived with him for
54:14
years. I never really went back to
54:16
Noctevalis with him. I never went to Moonfen, which
54:18
with him, which it makes sense why I never saw you there.
54:21
But I travelled the world with him on his ship after my parents
54:25
died and I spent some time with him in Amber Hold.
54:28
And this is him. I have no doubts in my mind.
54:32
That's incredible that I guess I should have put it together that
54:35
you were from near Moonfen, same as me.
54:37
But wow, Yeah. Small world.
54:40
Ron, as you're as you're talking to Abe about this, you also have
54:44
a memory that triggers for you as the wind in La Grande's
54:48
village kind of breezes past you through your hair.
54:51
The memory comes from the sea, the deck of a merchant vessel,
54:55
wind whipping across the sails. Narex is standing beside you.
55:00
His posture was always perfect, even on a rocketing deck.
55:04
Winds turning, he said. Once he guided your hands onto a
55:08
rope tied to the sail. Feel that wind tells you
55:12
everything you need to know. You just have to listen.
55:16
He showed you how to adjust the sails, how to read ocean
55:19
currents, and how to tell when another merchant was lying
55:22
during negotiations. Sometimes he let you stand at
55:25
the wheel while he watched the horizon.
55:28
And sometimes, late at night, when the crew slept, he would
55:32
tell stories. Stories about your mother when
55:34
she was young. Stories about adventures they
55:37
had gone on together when she left Soleaf soon after her
55:40
anaphosis ceremony. After those stories, you'd lay
55:44
in bed thinking about your family.
55:46
And more often than not, tears would roll down your face.
55:49
And as the memory fades, that gentle breeze passes over your
55:53
face once again in the Grande's village.
55:56
Soft, almost deliberate, like a whisper carried on the wind.
56:01
Give me a religion check. You can do it with advantage.
56:06
Ah, that is a 20/30/20. You feel a whisper in your ear.
56:13
It doesn't really sound like words necessarily, but a whisper
56:18
of the wind that gives you this feeling.
56:20
It feels like this mirror is nudging you to reread Nerx's
56:24
letter. He had left it for you last time
56:27
you saw him, and you must have read it 1000 times already, but
56:31
something in the way the wind blows against you makes you
56:34
think of the letter and feels like Tasmira is nudging you to
56:38
read it again. Like right now Tasmira.
56:49
She doesn't answer. For the audio, nobody saw
56:55
Harry's eye roll at the same time.
57:00
Like right now. Oh my God.
57:01
I mean your choice, right? I'll read it again when I get
57:05
back to my my like when I have some time when everybody else is
57:09
sleeping the next time. And I'll title the sketch, stick
57:13
in very big letters, and then in a subheading much much lower at
57:16
the bottom of the page, I'll write narricks with an I because
57:21
I don't know how it's spelt. I'm absolutely, I'm gonna, I'm
57:24
gonna correct that NARYX. Got it and I scratched that out
57:29
and write in even smaller letters below that narix with
57:32
AY. So you guys have like an hour of
57:36
downtime right now before your battle.
57:39
Is there anything else you guys want to do, or do you guys want
57:41
to just head over to the arena and get yourself kind of hyped
57:45
for the fight? I'm gonna hand one of the
57:46
greater healing potions to Bunty.
57:49
I'm going to say use this if somebody is really, in really,
57:52
really bad shape, and then I'll hand one to Abe as well.
57:55
Regular healing potion. Am I fighting or am I not?
57:59
Just I don't want to carry it if I'm not going to fight.
58:02
No, we need you, Bunty. Yeah, Bunty.
58:05
You can. You'll be in the fight.
58:06
Just, you know, use that blowgun.
58:09
It seems to work pretty well for you.
58:10
Sounds good. And actually talking about that,
58:14
come here. And I pull out the glass jar
58:16
that Betsy gave me. And I'm going to say, can you
58:18
just for the next 1020 minutes, actually does anyone.
58:23
I'm gonna pull out a water skin that I have.
58:25
And when I say just switch this around, get as much saliva going
58:28
as possible and just everything that comes out of your mouth.
58:31
Do not throw up, Bunty. I swear to God, do not pull your
58:34
uvula. Yeah.
58:36
I'm gonna take out the bottle of the really strong alcohol.
58:39
Do you think this would pick up more of it?
58:41
Yeah, actually. Do you wanna give me an
58:43
intelligence check? Sure.
58:45
He's definitely just gonna drink the alcohol.
58:47
That's gonna be an 11. Just straight intelligence,
58:52
right? Yep.
58:52
Yeah, so 12. You know that the way Bunty's
58:58
poison works is if he's, like, angry or upset, it comes out of
59:04
his teeth. So if he's gonna try to, like,
59:08
get the poison out of his teeth, he's gonna have to be angry or
59:11
upset. But you might not be able to
59:13
control him at that point. What if we just like have him
59:17
stick the bottle on his teeth during the battle and then maybe
59:19
the adrenaline? Well.
59:21
I'm sure after the battle also. Yeah, maybe we could do this
59:25
later, but if you have anything that latently comes off right
59:29
now, Bunty might not be as strong, but just drip it into
59:32
this bottle and with whatever time we have left, I'm gonna try
59:36
to do something. Sounds good.
59:38
I'm gonna share with the party the plan with the clerk.
59:42
Awesome. So you guys head to the arena,
59:45
you start hyping yourself up and you see that people start to
59:50
file in to watch the semi final and then the finals.
59:53
Above the arena, you guys notice something different.
59:56
The rope rigging, that one stretched across the arena
59:58
ceiling is gone. It's fully burnt away.
1:00:01
They don't seem to have replaced it.
1:00:03
So that's going to be the one difference in these fights.
1:00:06
That's a backseat that leads you into the pits of the arena turn
1:00:09
and says, OK guys, you have the semi finals and then the finals
1:00:12
right after if you guys win. So no break, it'll just kind of
1:00:15
be back-to-back to back. We're going to announce you
1:00:18
both, both teams. And then since you guys kind of
1:00:20
like really hype the crowd up so much yesterday, you can come out
1:00:25
after the other team and then you can just really, really get
1:00:28
that crowd going. Maybe do some more backflips.
1:00:30
They love the fucking shadow boxing.
1:00:32
Yeah, that was really cool. Dude.
1:00:33
Let's let's get this thing going.
1:00:34
I'm voting for you guys. Let's go.
1:00:37
And he, like, just dabs you guys up.
1:00:39
Let's go. Thank you.
1:00:40
All right. Give him the most clean.
1:00:44
Dab it just like pops. I used darmaturgy to make the
1:00:47
pop sound throughout the entire stadium.
1:00:50
Incredible. OK, the announcer starts.
1:00:53
People of La Grande's village, welcome back to the semi final
1:00:58
round of the Pounce and Fury Festival.
1:01:02
Whoever wins this fight will face off against the sibling
1:01:05
mages in the finals. And you see two average size
1:01:08
Calico Tobaccis dressed in major robes that are like teal color
1:01:12
with sun patterns and they stand to the side and are just waving.
1:01:16
The announcer continues. Yesterday we saw two astonishing
1:01:19
battles. He points dramatically to Y'all
1:01:23
1st, the challengers who shocked the arena, the fighters who
1:01:26
defeated the unstoppable Big Bertha and Toby.
1:01:30
It's the Monos and in the other match the sneaky lads who
1:01:34
overwhelmed the Stabby pals. It's the kitten Claws.
1:01:39
And there's a wild cheer as the three of you see those five
1:01:42
small tobaccis in matching track suits from yesterday that you
1:01:45
were supposed to fight. Everyone give me an insight
1:01:48
check. 5. 16. 25. Abe and Bond, both of you can
1:01:56
tell that the Kitten claws are terrified of you guys like they
1:02:00
are not at the same level of you guys.
1:02:03
That's why they were going to be your first round match and it
1:02:05
got all screwed up. With Big Bertha and Toby and
1:02:09
Bond, you can tell that you can maybe scare them into forfeiting
1:02:13
the match if you want. Meanwhile Bo got a 5 and is
1:02:16
scared of these guys. Yeah, Bo's shaking in his boots.
1:02:19
They got matching. Tracks.
1:02:20
I'm not. I'm not sure about this one.
1:02:23
I'm going to say this to Bo. I think we could convince him to
1:02:26
drop out if we scare them enough.
1:02:29
All right, So they have already come out.
1:02:31
Yeah. Yeah, the kitten claws have
1:02:33
stepped out, and now it's your guys's turn to kind of jump in
1:02:36
the arena and do your thing. All right, right before we come
1:02:39
out, I am going to cast Damatergy a couple times.
1:02:44
I'm going to cast Thamatergy once to cause harmless tremors
1:02:47
in the ground for one minute. So the the stadium's going to
1:02:50
start to rumble. I'm going to cast it again right
1:02:53
after that to create some sounds that are whispers like 30 feet
1:02:57
up in the crowd. I'm going to draw a my sword and
1:03:00
my dagger and I'm just going to kind of like nonchalantly walk
1:03:05
forward towards the kittens and like like almost even with a
1:03:09
little bit of a smile, I'm just going to point out one of them
1:03:11
and be like, hey, what's your name?
1:03:13
My name is Joshua. Cool, Joshua, what do you want
1:03:17
to lose? What do you mean like?
1:03:20
I mean like arm, leg, hand. Do you have a preference for
1:03:23
side? I could take an eye if you want.
1:03:26
Oh. My fucking God and give me your
1:03:32
intimidation with advantage and. While I'm doing this, I'm going
1:03:35
to be like taking my dagger and my knife and I'm going to be
1:03:37
scraping them along each other like a chef sharpening a blade,
1:03:41
which I know does not. I know it is not a way to
1:03:44
sharpen knives, but I'm just like kind of making them spark a
1:03:47
little bit, said an intimidation check.
1:03:49
With advantage, of course. Awesome, that's a 17.
1:03:55
Oh, also guidance of course. And awesome, that'll be a 21.
1:04:00
I got a four. Nice.
1:04:01
Joshua just backs away, not making eye contact with you and
1:04:06
heads over to the announcer on the side.
1:04:09
Joshua and the rest of the kitten claws are are pretty
1:04:12
small to back see under 5 feet tall.
1:04:14
And Joshua beckons for the announcer to bend down and
1:04:17
there's some whispering and the kitten claws start to leave the
1:04:21
arena and the announcer goes. Well it seems like we are
1:04:24
speeding up to the finals right now folks.
1:04:26
The kitten claws have 4 fitted because in their words, that man
1:04:32
over there points at bow is very scary and they would rather not
1:04:36
lose any limbs. So we are just jumping ahead to
1:04:39
the files folk. This has not been done before.
1:04:43
Right now we're going to introduce the winners of last
1:04:46
year's tournament, the sibling majors and the Tabaxi major.
1:04:50
Step out and give a little bow wave to the crowd before they
1:04:53
shoot off some sparks in the arena.
1:04:56
And of course, All right, monos back up, let's do this again.
1:04:59
And of course, the newcomers, who have caused quite a ruckus
1:05:03
both inside and outside the arena.
1:05:05
The models. The ground trembles as I come
1:05:09
out, my Mace grinding against the ground with electricity
1:05:13
again. There's so many Cheerios.
1:05:15
Woo woo, I'm. Going to run out this time of
1:05:17
me. Are there any support beams on
1:05:19
one of the cat trees nearest to us?
1:05:21
Like how is this thing held up? Is it?
1:05:23
A yeah, I mean, it's for there. It's a single post in the corner
1:05:27
of. Are there your trusted
1:05:29
structural things near the bottom?
1:05:32
No. Let's try to do some force
1:05:34
diagrams. It's just it's magic world.
1:05:37
There's just a single pole in a corner with the ledges sticking
1:05:41
out of it. OK, I I haven't been using this
1:05:43
feature, but when I activate my spectral arms, there is a check
1:05:47
that people need to make if they're within certain distance
1:05:49
of me. It's a force check.
1:05:50
I'm going to come out and I'm going to activate my astral self
1:05:55
arms right next to the cat tree. Am I allowed to straight up
1:06:00
apply force damage or are you going to make a check for the
1:06:03
cat tree? The cat tree will be unaffected
1:06:06
unless you hit a certain damage threshold.
1:06:09
So how much damage do you do? Overall damage nice, nice.
1:06:15
Two sixes on the martial arts die.
1:06:18
So the cat tree kind of rumbles a little bit, but there are no
1:06:22
visible cracks or actual damage that gets done to it.
1:06:26
OK, cool. And Bo, you had stepped out, the
1:06:29
announcer kind of told you to back up and come back in.
1:06:32
What are you doing when you come back out again?
1:06:35
So I think I'm like kind of in in fight mode now.
1:06:38
So I'm not going to do much to like hype up the crowd, but I
1:06:41
would like to cast. And this is the finals, right?
1:06:45
We skipped like. The yeah, you skipped the semi
1:06:47
finals. You're into the finals, baby.
1:06:49
Awesome, then I will cast false life on myself.
1:06:52
Give myself some temp hit points.
1:06:56
Are you? What's your?
1:06:56
What's your like opening sequence?
1:06:58
I think Beau is like in fight mode, he's he's still figuring
1:07:01
out his magic. I think he's just trying to use
1:07:03
it to bolster himself as much as possible before the fight
1:07:06
begins. So he's not really trying to
1:07:08
are. You using your sword or using
1:07:09
Cluard's Sun sword? I'm going to use.
1:07:12
I'm going to stick with the plus one short sword and the dagger.
1:07:15
Actually, no, I think I'm going to stick with my plus one short
1:07:19
sword. So I'm going to cast False Life
1:07:21
and then I'm also going to cast Blade Ward on myself.
1:07:23
Sick and Bon, are you going to cast anything?
1:07:26
Can I do an insight check real quick on what these guys look
1:07:29
like? Yes.
1:07:30
Like I want to try to figure out what type of.
1:07:32
Magic they have. They said twin mages.
1:07:35
Yeah, they're the sibling mages. False Life gave me 8 temporary
1:07:38
hit points by the way. Cool.
1:07:41
Insight is going to be 19. Do they look like Wizards?
1:07:45
They look. Yeah, they look like.
1:07:47
They look like majors. They look like Wizards.
1:07:48
Yeah. Cool.
1:07:49
Yeah, I don't think I'm going to cast anything yet.
1:07:51
So you guys are are on the arena floor, the sibling mages were on
1:07:56
the other side and there's a lot of hooting and hollering
1:07:58
happening. But all of a sudden the cheering
1:08:01
slowly fades because someone else has just walked on to the
1:08:06
arena floor. A tall black to backseat slowly
1:08:11
steps into the arena. His fur is ragged and uneven,
1:08:16
and a patched coat hangs loosely from his shoulders, but despite
1:08:20
the wear of time, he moves with confidence.
1:08:23
The crowd murmurs and everyone recognizes him.
1:08:26
Colored. He stops in the center of the
1:08:29
arena and looks directly at the Manos.
1:08:31
Congratulations, outsiders on making it this far, though
1:08:36
you're supposed semi final match was a dud.
1:08:39
But you are the outsiders who killed my son.
1:08:42
Which one of you was it? Was it you the one who shouted
1:08:45
at me? And he points at Abe.
1:08:48
And I kind of just nod. I watched your first fight and
1:08:51
you've got skill more than I expected.
1:08:55
He cracks his neck. So here's my offer.
1:08:58
As long as the sibling majors agree, I will fight in place of
1:09:01
them. If I win, they will get the 2000
1:09:05
gold pieces, but if you win, I will give you an extra 2000 gold
1:09:10
pieces. Just you all against little old
1:09:15
me. He cracks his knuckles.
1:09:18
Like snap my neck to both of you guys.
1:09:20
It's a trap. It's a trap.
1:09:22
And that's where we'll end our session.
1:09:26
Holy crap. It's a trap, but it's a very
1:09:28
tempting 1. I know, I just, I'm so sick.
1:09:30
Yeah, it's so sick. Yeah, he's got so much aura he's
1:09:34
got. He's so confident.
1:09:36
He's too confident. Oh that was fun.
1:09:40
God damn. I'm so excited, I don't want to
1:09:42
wait till next session. Well, I'll give you guys some
1:09:46
time to decide on what you want to do.
1:09:49
But before we end, if you like the podcast, make sure to follow
1:09:53
and rate US on Spotify or Apple Music or join us on our social
1:09:57
media for updates, official art and more.
1:10:00
We are on Instagram at Smooth Critical Podcast and Blue Sky at
1:10:04
Smooth Critical so lots of things to discuss.
1:10:09
I also got to say I cannot believe that you just dropped my
1:10:13
new like main operative out of the mouth of Cloward son, that
1:10:18
now I know that people from my village are alive because of
1:10:21
this child. Drum and son.
1:10:22
Legos drum, drum and son. That's crazy.
1:10:27
That's crazy. OK, well, we'll see what you
1:10:30
guys want to do next session. This was fun guys.
1:10:33
We'll talk to you later. Bye.
1:10:36
Bye.