Latest / Smooth Critical / C1 Ep.11: A Father's Love

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C1 Ep.11: A Father's Love · Smooth Critical

• 0:20
  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, Avni?
• 0:29
  OK, tough session last time I feel this like immense guilt for
• 0:36
  almost killing Bunty on the first attack, you know, Oh, oh
• 0:41
  so sorry, sorry. And killing Abe, whoops.
• 0:44
  But but that cleric Bond asked her came in handy.
• 0:47
  So honestly, all is well that ends well.
• 0:51
  So let me introduce my three alive and gorgeous gladiators.
• 0:55
  He my. Hello, it's Abe.
• 0:57
  Harry Bond to Willowind it says it on my actual shirt right now,
• 1:02
  much like Bo in game. She might have got me a a shirt
• 1:06
  that has has bond on it. Yeah, Check out the character.
• 1:10
  This Mirror's Chosen 1. So if we ever get a merch shop,
• 1:13
  this is going this is the first piece on there.
• 1:15
  Keep your eyes. Open.
• 1:17
  It works for both Bond and Bo. It does.
• 1:19
  That's true. Perfect.
• 1:21
  And Charlie? I am Bo and I am also boagging.
• 1:26
  You of need to stop being so good at your job.
• 1:28
  I'm too invested. That one was tough, Charlie.
• 1:33
  It took me a SEC to, like, figure out what the word was
• 1:39
  even supposed to be. All right, gang, let's start our
• 1:43
  recap. Despite thinking that Clover's
• 1:46
  offer was a trap, you all decided to go for it anyways.
• 1:49
  After all, 4000 gold pieces was a lot of money.
• 1:53
  Before the fight began, Abe confirmed that he had killed
• 1:56
  Cloward's son, making Abe the target of Cloward's anger, and
• 1:59
  Cloward got injected with something that made him grow
• 2:02
  spikes and longer claws and even doubled in size.
• 2:05
  The battle commenced with lots of area of effect attacks and
• 2:08
  some legendary actions. Bond was able to get a round of
• 2:11
  Hold a Person off where Abe and Bo proceeded to damage Cloward
• 2:14
  pretty heavily, but it was no match for the juiced up to
• 2:17
  backseat. Despite the illegal use of a
• 2:19
  cleric, Bond got downed and Abe got killed before Bunty could
• 2:22
  rescue him. While dead, Abe met Sylvira, the
• 2:25
  Silent Bloom goddess of nature, renewal, and death.
• 2:30
  Abe interrogated her as was as expected, but she also passed
• 2:34
  along some important secrets to him.
• 2:36
  This Mira is her younger sister, and there is a middle sister who
• 2:40
  isn't a goddess, but an amalgamation of ideas.
• 2:44
  Back on the mortal plane, Bo chose to forfeit the fight.
• 2:47
  Bond was brought back up, but Abe was still dead emotional.
• 2:51
  Beau made a speech to the crowd calling out both Clayward and
• 2:55
  Drummond. Drummond then had the illegal
• 2:57
  cleric revivify Abe and use that as his own talking point, while
• 3:01
  Clayward's speech was more about how strong he was and how much
• 3:04
  the monos socked. The crowd seemed more swayed by
• 3:07
  Beau and Drummond though. We ended with Abe brought back
• 3:11
  to life but seriously hurt and the monos back at Drummond's
• 3:14
  place with clean clothes heading down to the lounge.
• 3:18
  So we start with you 3 in your new Drummond's Crew sweatshirts
• 3:22
  down in the lounge. Oh yeah I forgot to.
• 3:24
  I got to add that to my inventory.
• 3:28
  They can be like your pajamas for night when you have to
• 3:30
  sleep. That's awesome.
• 3:31
  So Drummond is waiting for you there and y'all are ready to
• 3:34
  talk when all of a sudden Remington comes running towards
• 3:38
  you all. Daddy.
• 3:39
  Daddy, I know you said I couldn't watch the matches but I
• 3:43
  went to see the fight. Mr. Abe, are you OK?
• 3:47
  Daddy, Thank you for saving them.
• 3:48
  I'm kind of like a little hunched over.
• 3:51
  I know I was brought back and like healed a bit, but I'm
• 3:53
  assuming I still have like wounds on my torso that I'm
• 3:55
  holding a bit. Totally.
• 3:57
  I'm, I'm, I'm OK Remington, thanks for asking.
• 4:00
  That that was so scary. I've never seen anything like
• 4:04
  it. Everyone give me an insight
• 4:06
  check on Drummond. Right now it's a 6 + 7. 13 Oh,
• 4:14
  no, Harry. Harry, it's not in style to do
• 4:17
  the six seven thing anymore. We're.
• 4:19
  Like 27 years old. We can't also all of our Gen.
• 4:23
  Alba listeners, it was it was actually a nine.
• 4:27
  So it's. Even worse. 16.
• 4:31
  Just a 7 for me. Yeah, 13.
• 4:34
  Beau and Abe, you're both still kind of shook by all of this.
• 4:39
  Not that Bond isn't also, but he's able to clock that.
• 4:41
  Drummond is looking really shaken that Remington was at the
• 4:45
  fight. He didn't know that this was
• 4:47
  going to happen. And Drummond says, Oh yes,
• 4:50
  Remington, Abe is OK Remington, why don't you go and get the
• 4:56
  shaft leader to whip up some food for us?
• 4:59
  And before, before he runs away, I'm going to kneel down
• 5:02
  actually, and just say, Remington, your father's a good
• 5:06
  man and he's the reason I'm back.
• 5:08
  Yes, I saw that. That was really, really scary
• 5:11
  though. I mean, I've never seen anyone
• 5:14
  die before. I'm not really allowed at the
• 5:16
  gladiator benches but but I thought.
• 5:17
  I'm going to put my hand on the shoulder and sort of pull it
• 5:20
  back and just say Remington, yeah, why don't you go have the
• 5:24
  chef prepare some food for us, like your dad said.
• 5:26
  OK, Yeah, yeah, grilled cheese. I'm gonna step up to Drummond
• 5:31
  and just say quickly you should really consider getting security
• 5:35
  around this house. There was a rock thrown in your
• 5:37
  house this morning and you should try to keep that boy
• 5:40
  safe. Drummond puts his hand on your
• 5:42
  shoulder and goes. Abe, I really appreciate you
• 5:46
  worrying about me, but I'm not the one who died today.
• 5:51
  And honestly, after everything that happens, I think we're
• 5:56
  pretty safe. I think everyone saw clear
• 5:59
  words, true colors, and, and I think there's just a lot of talk
• 6:03
  going around town about what to do now.
• 6:06
  I think honestly, we might be left alone because there's just
• 6:09
  so much to think about. And he kind of looks off into
• 6:14
  the distance. We've had death in the arena
• 6:18
  before. Not many, but still.
• 6:21
  I've seen people die. But but my son, he's never seen
• 6:24
  anything like that before. And I mean, he seems fine.
• 6:30
  Maybe a little shaken, right? He he seems fine.
• 6:33
  Yeah. I'm sure he'll be OK.
• 6:35
  I've got 1000 yard stare. I'm not even listening.
• 6:38
  His politics really led to this, to the death of of you, Abe.
• 6:44
  It seems so meaningless sometimes, this mayoral race.
• 6:50
  I know it's not. Someone needs to be the leader
• 6:53
  of the Tobaccis. And, and I've been here for so
• 6:56
  long. My family has been a staple of
• 6:59
  this city for so long. But I don't know.
• 7:02
  Clewer took it in a way that that I never expected.
• 7:06
  I, I don't know, you know. I mean, Clewerd, I hate to say
• 7:12
  it and I hate to, you know, argue on behalf of him.
• 7:15
  He did lose his son. Yeah, I don't.
• 7:17
  Think you know death justifies more death, but.
• 7:20
  You bring up a good point, Beau. I mean, if one of you had killed
• 7:25
  Rammington, I probably would have killed you, too.
• 7:29
  But you said Clewart's son attacked you first.
• 7:33
  He was the reason he he aggravated y'all out in the
• 7:37
  woods right out there. It's hard to tell whose fault
• 7:41
  is. Is is what I don't know, it's
• 7:45
  very challenging to to grapple with the way that fear has a
• 7:50
  chance to control all of us. And it seems like clearword is
• 7:55
  just sort of the extreme level of that.
• 7:57
  And whether or not I agree with his politics, he represents a
• 8:01
  portion of the people here. And I mean, throughout the
• 8:06
  world, there's been fear. There's these complex
• 8:09
  interactions between these nations at a macroscopic scale.
• 8:13
  And then even in small villages like this, you know, we've all
• 8:17
  lost people. But it's how we react to it and
• 8:21
  how we move on that defines who we are and whether or not we're
• 8:26
  good people. Von, will you give me a
• 8:29
  persuasion check with advantage? Right now there's 19 strumming
• 8:34
  looks at you and goes. When Vox told me that he was
• 8:39
  sending his three gladiators, I really thought this would be
• 8:42
  something like easy money get you guys to go campaign on my
• 8:47
  behalf. Usually gladiators, at least the
• 8:49
  one that Vox and I have sponsored in the past, they
• 8:53
  don't really have strong minds of their own when it comes to
• 8:57
  things like this. I don't see them necessarily
• 9:00
  caring for the people like you guys do.
• 9:04
  What you said, I had something that I wanted to talk to you
• 9:08
  guys about, maybe making like a blood oath or something so that
• 9:13
  I'd give you the location of the Dragon's board and then we make
• 9:16
  a blood oath and then you come back and you give me some stuff,
• 9:19
  of course. Yeah, I mean, but obviously you
• 9:22
  can't just like nonchalantly say that like we were going to go
• 9:24
  along with it, but OK. Well, I, I was gonna, I just, I
• 9:29
  mean, I was going to find a way to persuade you guys, but.
• 9:32
  I literally, I, I just gave you a speech about how I don't want
• 9:34
  you to be mayor and then you're like, well, maybe I'll just do a
• 9:37
  blood oath on. That well, I don't.
• 9:38
  Know we're chilling right now. We're chilling right now.
• 9:40
  I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't.
• 9:42
  Listen. Listen, Bo Chillax.
• 9:44
  Listen. I just hear something like blood
• 9:46
  oath, you know, and it kind of and I kind of like my alarms go
• 9:49
  off a little bit, but but we're chilling all.
• 9:51
  Right. Well, this was something I had
• 9:52
  thought of before because in my head I was like, all right, if
• 9:56
  they lose and then they don't really make me mayor, maybe I
• 10:00
  could make them do a blood Earth.
• 10:02
  But obviously I couldn't predict all of this happening.
• 10:06
  What you guys have said gives me pause right now and pause, pause
• 10:14
  right now. And I don't know exactly how to
• 10:20
  approach this situation. I feel just a little out of my
• 10:26
  depth right now and if you guys wouldn't mind just giving me 1/2
• 10:33
  an hour to think about some things.
• 10:35
  You guys can stay in the lounge please.
• 10:38
  I think I'm just going to go get a stiff drink and pound of
• 10:43
  things in my bedroom. Just lay down and rest for a
• 10:48
  second. Yeah, of course.
• 10:50
  We've got some stuff to catch up with with Abe about.
• 10:53
  Oh, of course, of course he did. Just die.
• 10:56
  Please please. When he says that, I kind of
• 10:58
  like there's a shudder in my body.
• 11:00
  I haven't said much but I'm thinking.
• 11:04
  And, and if you don't mind giving you one more thing to to
• 11:07
  ponder, Vaughn brought up earlier the possibility of you
• 11:13
  and Peshwari sitting down and talking far from, you know,
• 11:17
  crowds and, and people just maybe mano E mano.
• 11:24
  But, you know, think about that. Maybe maybe if you could talk
• 11:29
  without worrying about what people are thinking about you
• 11:32
  and just exchange ideas, maybe you could get something like out
• 11:35
  of that. I'll do that.
• 11:37
  I have a speech that I'm supposed to make later today and
• 11:41
  I just, it would be nice to know what direction I should be
• 11:45
  heading in before I make that speech.
• 11:48
  And that is definitely One Direction.
• 11:53
  You don't know, you're beautiful.
• 11:59
  And Drummond, you asked this earlier to, to go out and sort
• 12:02
  of see what the villagers want. So I figured we just kind of,
• 12:07
  you know, I, we didn't get a chance to do too much, but we
• 12:10
  did talk to some of the people in, in the slums of the village.
• 12:13
  And I think what they want is just to be able to take care of
• 12:17
  their family, their grandbabies. You know, maybe as you're
• 12:22
  thinking about your speech, I think that's an area where you
• 12:26
  really have a chance to shine. Yeah.
• 12:28
  Thank you 3 for for bringing this all to my attention.
• 12:32
  I think it's probably important to remember that like we've
• 12:36
  talked about fear controlling people, but the ultimate basis
• 12:40
  of fear is love and protection for those around you.
• 12:45
  People wouldn't be afraid if they weren't afraid of losing
• 12:48
  something that they loved, and maybe it's just a matter of
• 12:51
  trying to expand that love a little bit.
• 12:53
  I need to take a second and Abe is going to leave the room.
• 12:57
  Drummond is like Abe, I'm heading out too, all right.
• 13:00
  And so Drummond heads off. I guess it's just Bow and Bond
• 13:05
  in the room for the second. Should we should we go check in
• 13:09
  on Abe or do you think he needs a minute?
• 13:12
  Yeah, Where's Bunty right now? Is he with Abe?
• 13:14
  No, I haven't here. I I I just like.
• 13:19
  Something's wrong with. Abe, you know how he is.
• 13:22
  He's hot headed. He's he says a lot of things.
• 13:25
  Sometimes the things he says are really confusing, but he says a
• 13:28
  lot of things. But right now, he's not saying
• 13:32
  anything that's concerning. Yeah, he hasn't mentioned his
• 13:36
  that his brother is in prison or his that his parents are dead in
• 13:39
  a little bit. That is kind of weird.
• 13:42
  The Abe metric, that's how we know he's normal.
• 13:46
  Bunty. You, you know a best.
• 13:48
  Do you think we should go talk to him or do you think he
• 13:51
  actually needs a minute? Bunty has a psychic connection
• 13:55
  with Abe, right? Yeah.
• 13:56
  Bunty turns, he goes, let me check in on him first real
• 14:00
  quick. And he does his little psychic
• 14:04
  minds link with Abe. Hey, Big Brother, are you OK?
• 14:11
  It's OK. You don't have to respond, I
• 14:14
  just thought I'd check in on you.
• 14:16
  We're going to be waiting in the lounge if you need us.
• 14:20
  I think grammage is going to bring grilled.
• 14:22
  Cheese. Yeah, I know.
• 14:25
  I knew the grilled cheese would get to you.
• 14:28
  OK, but we'll be waiting here and, and maybe just take a beat,
• 14:33
  but like come back to us 'cause I know that that Bo and and Bon
• 14:38
  are worried about you and, and we all just love you.
• 14:41
  So when you need us, we'll be here.
• 14:43
  OK, Love you. Bye.
• 14:46
  And you somehow feel a wet kiss through your psychic mind link.
• 14:49
  Your brain gets wet. What a weird.
• 14:56
  All right, so we sit down in the lounge.
• 14:58
  Yeah, after a couple minutes, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make my way
• 15:01
  back down as well. Great.
• 15:03
  So Abe, you went to the lounge, You guys go sit in the
• 15:08
  conversation pit in the lounge. Hey, Abe, how's it going?
• 15:12
  Hey bud, how you doing? I mean, maybe, maybe fear is
• 15:17
  really important. I know I didn't really want to
• 15:20
  say anything to Drummond because you had his ear, but maybe fear
• 15:23
  is like a really important survival mechanism.
• 15:27
  And I look at you both. Did you consider that maybe fear
• 15:30
  is what keeps us alive? Maybe Cluert has a point.
• 15:33
  Maybe if I was scared of him, I wouldn't have gotten up in his
• 15:37
  face. Maybe if I was scared of the
• 15:38
  consequences of my actions, I wouldn't have killed his son.
• 15:41
  I look over at Beau. Yeah, I think we just kind of
• 15:44
  share a look. Yeah, that's, I mean, certainly
• 15:50
  fear is is a survival mechanism. Yeah, that's one way to take it.
• 15:54
  I think there's a healthy level of fear, but there's also, you
• 15:59
  know, you can't control everything in life.
• 16:01
  I mean, I was in a really dark place for a long time when my
• 16:06
  village was destroyed and I felt lost and I was so scared of
• 16:13
  being found by the Imperator. And you know that that fear is
• 16:18
  still there, especially now that we've made ourselves so public
• 16:22
  with with what happened back in scenario.
• 16:25
  But if I let it control me, if I let it guide my every decision,
• 16:30
  I think I would just be paralysed.
• 16:32
  And that's not how I want to live.
• 16:35
  And I know it's still very fresh with you.
• 16:37
  That's OK. But it will pass and it will
• 16:40
  fade and it will get smaller. But you can't let it drive your,
• 16:45
  your strength in, in trusting people.
• 16:48
  And the thing that brought us all together with you is, is
• 16:52
  that you sort of reached out. You, you made this team A-Team.
• 16:58
  You know, me, me and Bo. I, I don't know if we would have
• 17:02
  brought up as much or talked as much or or been as open if you
• 17:05
  weren't constantly just sharing fearlessly about yourself.
• 17:11
  It's OK to be afraid. I appreciate that bond.
• 17:15
  I just don't know if I'm ready to like, die.
• 17:19
  That's OK, You don't have to be. I don't want you to die.
• 17:27
  Yeah, I've been that would that would not be preferable for me
• 17:30
  either. I'm just kidding.
• 17:31
  I really don't want either of you guys to die.
• 17:33
  I've got to be honest. If we're talking about fear,
• 17:36
  like I, you know, a couple months ago, I didn't really have
• 17:40
  anything besides myself and I was afraid of things, but it
• 17:44
  felt more like, you know, an instinct.
• 17:46
  But as time has gone on and I've, I've come to have more
• 17:51
  things and know more people and have friends and I just gesture
• 17:56
  vaguely at U2 and Bunty, I've become more afraid.
• 18:01
  And, and it's, it's certainly I, I feel like I need to freeze up
• 18:06
  in moments, but also if I do, then maybe I'm increasing my
• 18:11
  chance of, of losing the things I want.
• 18:14
  Who knows? Anyway, I think we have a lot of
• 18:16
  tough conversations ahead of us. Perhaps we should we should move
• 18:20
  on from this one for now. The more we try and the more we
• 18:25
  work towards our goals, the more we have to lose.
• 18:28
  And it's this strange paradox I can't wrap my head around.
• 18:31
  There isn't like a solution to it.
• 18:34
  Like, do you just how do you rid yourself of fear as the fear
• 18:37
  continues to grow? I don't know.
• 18:40
  I don't know. I'm happy we're together and I'm
• 18:44
  happy we're doing this. I'm just like, Sylvia's
• 18:48
  conversation also threw me for a loop.
• 18:49
  It was exciting. But there's so many things we
• 18:51
  don't know. And maybe, and I look at you,
• 18:53
  Bond, maybe the Imperator, like I mentioned, maybe his actions
• 18:57
  aren't his own, was what Sylvia alluded to, that maybe he's much
• 19:02
  more a pawn of his of distraction than we think.
• 19:07
  Can I do sort of a religion check at this and and sort of
• 19:12
  see what I know about extraction and his moral standing?
• 19:17
  Totally go for it is an 11. What you know about extraction I
• 19:24
  would say is pretty rudimentary. He is one of the Paragons, so
• 19:31
  he's one of the three eldest gods.
• 19:34
  You know that his domain is like fire forge war.
• 19:38
  You know that he enjoys power, he enjoys being high up.
• 19:45
  Silvira even said to Abe that extraction is the strongest when
• 19:50
  it comes to battle and things like that.
• 19:53
  Not necessarily the strongest in every other sense, but the
• 19:56
  strongest when it comes to that. You think that it's a little
• 20:01
  weird? That Ostraxian had chosen Kylas
• 20:07
  Pirion when he was the general to unite the empires against the
• 20:14
  rebellion. Because it's in Ostraxion's best
• 20:19
  interest to have the war keep raging on, because during war
• 20:25
  people are going to pray to him to have the strength during the
• 20:28
  fights and the battles, sort of saying this all to to them and
• 20:34
  sharing the philosophy. Do people pray to him ahead of
• 20:38
  like gladiator fights and things of that nature?
• 20:41
  Yeah, definitely. The followers of Hystraction,
• 20:45
  that's probably the time that they pray to him the most would
• 20:49
  be before battle. I wonder if like the Rebellion
• 20:53
  Empire even had gladiator fights, or if that was something
• 20:56
  that was even culturally relevant for them, or if that's
• 20:59
  just something that Ignvarum has.
• 21:02
  I sort of smile to Beau as I see that Abe's sort of getting lost
• 21:06
  in his more like analytical and philosophical thought and sort
• 21:10
  of getting his mind off of everything.
• 21:12
  Yeah, I kind of nod back at you. Consider that what was the name
• 21:17
  of the arena in scenario? The Agony Arena.
• 21:20
  Yeah, consider that the Ugni Arena was built on top of the
• 21:24
  former Imperial Palace. Was there even an arena when
• 21:27
  Johnny Maccabee was around? Or did they build it after the
• 21:31
  war ended as a way to, you know, keep the worship to Astraxion
• 21:36
  going? That is a.
• 21:38
  Great point, Beau. I'm gonna I'm going to write
• 21:42
  that down. As you pull out your journal.
• 21:44
  Is Abe writing it down out loud? Yes.
• 21:46
  Thoughts on the ugly arena? Was it even?
• 21:48
  Around before I was going to say, because if you were done it
• 21:52
  quietly, I would have. I would have been freaking out.
• 21:55
  Was it even around? Before the Imperator became the
• 21:57
  Imperator pre Johnny Maccabee. Say Abe, did you get a chance to
• 22:03
  write down your thoughts and and what happened to you while you
• 22:06
  were with Sylvia? Yes, and I stopped writing this,
• 22:10
  this note, and I just kind of fire off some things I've jotted
• 22:14
  down since the conversation. It's titled this.
• 22:18
  This page is titled Conversation with Sylvira in the Eternal
• 22:22
  Garden. My parents are not dead.
• 22:25
  They are and I pick up both my hands to air quotes in between.
• 22:30
  Hard to reach was the term I believe.
• 22:33
  But I'm going to have to change what I say to people when I tell
• 22:35
  them about my parents. They're not dead.
• 22:38
  They look at you guys, they're just somewhere else.
• 22:41
  Maybe you could just say they're missing.
• 22:43
  Yeah, you lost your parents. Yeah, but that just feels like
• 22:45
  kind of juvenile, you know? Like, anyways, Fesmira with
• 22:51
  Sylvia's sister and I motion to you, Bon.
• 22:54
  We've spoken about that. Sylvia had a third sister, one
• 22:59
  who didn't have form, and she sent a piece of herself to the
• 23:02
  mortal flame, the void Mommy, I think, and I look at Beau.
• 23:05
  Void. Void Mother.
• 23:06
  Yeah. Mommy void Mommy.
• 23:09
  The Void Monty, yes. She was jealous.
• 23:13
  Well, she's she's Thesmira's sister, so maybe she's the Void
• 23:17
  auntie. She's my mommy.
• 23:20
  She's my mommy. That's true.
• 23:23
  That's true. I look at Bunty.
• 23:24
  She was jealous that Thesmira was worshipped in the Rebellion
• 23:29
  Empire. So we were right about that.
• 23:31
  I think we have considered that. And she was jealous that they
• 23:35
  worshipped Thesmira and Silvira and she came here and she
• 23:40
  actually corrupted the way of Astro self monks and turned
• 23:44
  them, gave them a form of immortality where their souls
• 23:47
  remained bonded to the mortal plane despite even their
• 23:50
  physical forms dying. That might have been how those
• 23:52
  statues down, you know, below the Agni arena when we fought
• 23:57
  those ghost monks, maybe that's how they were still there.
• 24:00
  But it didn't seem like they wanted that or that they
• 24:02
  anticipated that outcome for themselves.
• 24:04
  It they were maybe tricked, I'm not really sure.
• 24:06
  There's not a lot that we know. And then I said, like I said,
• 24:10
  like we just talked about maybe the imperator is not the not the
• 24:14
  one behind everything that we're, Sylvia said.
• 24:18
  We're on the precipice of like many ancient questions, just to
• 24:22
  be clear. Like there's many things that we
• 24:24
  are happening upon that I don't think a lot of people have
• 24:27
  considered for a long time. Can I try something real quick
• 24:31
  of me? I want to do a religion check
• 24:34
  with this. I am looking to find the
• 24:39
  connection between the warship of Thesmira that I know from my
• 24:44
  village and the warship of this Mira that the Rebellion Empire
• 24:49
  used that you know, Silvira said, you know she was the main
• 24:54
  deity of the Rebellion Empire. I'm trying to find the
• 24:58
  connections there. I pull out the prayer sheet and
• 25:01
  I look at the in the last sentence of the prayer sheet,
• 25:04
  there's a redacted word. It says the people of blank will
• 25:07
  always stay safe against the chains of four.
• 25:10
  And I start to say the prayer out loud and sort of try to use
• 25:13
  some of my like clerical magic to make it happen.
• 25:17
  When you wake, bow your head and draw in the first breath.
• 25:21
  Raise your arms wide as the lungs swell and whisper,
• 25:24
  Mistress of Breath, fill my heart as I fill my lungs and
• 25:28
  then I lower my hands to the earth.
• 25:30
  With my palms open I say, Mistress of Breath, what leaves
• 25:33
  me give to the world. Then I place my head on the
• 25:36
  ground and promise each breath is yours, until no breath
• 25:40
  remains. And I say out loud, remember she
• 25:44
  brings each breath to our lungs. On the winds of freedom.
• 25:48
  The people of Rebellion will always stay safe against the
• 25:52
  chains of the fall despite being inside.
• 25:57
  There is a gust of wind that pushes your hair back, messing
• 26:01
  it up as this deeply connects you to something from long ago
• 26:06
  and you get a + 1 to religion. Like a permanent plus one?
• 26:10
  Yep. Oh shit.
• 26:11
  What? Damn.
• 26:12
  OK. OK, I rolled the 16.
• 26:16
  You're coming for those Dream Salt checks now.
• 26:19
  I was waiting for this, waiting till you figured it out with the
• 26:23
  prayer, with your new plus one religion, and with your role.
• 26:28
  You put the pieces together and you figure out that what was
• 26:33
  going to happen at your Anaphosa ceremony was something that was
• 26:38
  going to connect you to the warship that used to happen at
• 26:42
  Rebellion. So maybe the elders in your
• 26:46
  village knew something about this lost empire, Knew something
• 26:51
  about the warship of Fesmira. I don't know if I told you guys
• 26:55
  this before, but Remington mentioned seeing a Knicks Shard
• 27:01
  when I built one out of Legos. He said he saw one in Moon Fen 2
• 27:06
  years ago. That's well after my village was
• 27:09
  destroyed. I thought everybody was gone.
• 27:12
  I think Drummond might know something, or I've seen
• 27:15
  something. Can I do a history check?
• 27:17
  Yeah, what do you want to do a history check on?
• 27:19
  I was in Moonfen 2 years ago. I was in moonfen up to like just
• 27:23
  a few months ago. Are you trying to see if you
• 27:25
  know who this person is? No, I'm trying to see if like,
• 27:30
  because I was, you know, spent a lot of time at the docks and
• 27:33
  stuff and walking around those specific areas of my
• 27:36
  neighborhood, did I ever spot a drow that looked anything like
• 27:39
  Bon? Just it, the clothing, maybe the
• 27:42
  hair setup, something that looked like him.
• 27:45
  Just give me a pure luck check, don't add anything OK?
• 27:48
  You said this. This person made a Nick's Shard
• 27:52
  made out of Legos. No, no, I made a Nick's shot out
• 27:55
  of Legos. Oh, OK.
• 27:57
  All right. I see.
• 27:58
  And Remington recognized it so. Well, I figured he recognized
• 28:03
  the Lego version so that's what he saw, but I guess no, that
• 28:06
  makes sense. Well then, then Bon actually
• 28:08
  blew a nick Shard to like confirm that Remington saw it.
• 28:12
  And Remington wasn't like, yeah, it looked like that, but made
• 28:15
  out of Legos. He didn't say that or anything.
• 28:18
  I don't I don't think it was made out of Legos all.
• 28:21
  Right, OK, I'm just trying to rule out all all possible you.
• 28:24
  Know that's that's really smart Bo that's really smart I.
• 28:28
  Think Legos are actually from Pharaoh Malik's Yeah, they're
• 28:32
  the building blocks, of course makes.
• 28:34
  So much sense, yeah. All right.
• 28:37
  I don't think we had them in Moonfen.
• 28:38
  And they're called and they're called the Fago Fuego, like.
• 28:44
  Fuego, OH. My God, I don't know what Lego
• 28:47
  is. Never heard of that.
• 28:50
  Yeah, sorry, we're gonna get demonetized from the $0.00 that
• 28:53
  we make for this podcast. 19 on the straight D20.
• 28:58
  Abe with a 19, you never ever, ever saw a drow that looks like
• 29:06
  Bon Post, the village being destroyed, right?
• 29:10
  Because some of the people in the village used to go to Moon
• 29:13
  Fan ahead of time, so you might have seen them around then.
• 29:16
  But you did see someone with this pocket watch embedded in
• 29:25
  their hand, but it was a halfling.
• 29:28
  You never saw a Nick Shard. You never saw any of that, but
• 29:31
  you did see someone with a pocket watch embedded in their
• 29:34
  hand, and it was a halfling woman.
• 29:36
  And do I like? Did I do?
• 29:37
  You just remember she came in on the dock, she came in on a boat
• 29:40
  and you were there at night waiting to see if your family
• 29:43
  came back and that's all you. Remember.
• 29:45
  OK, OK, OK. Yeah, yeah, my.
• 29:46
  Eyes light up a bit at this. I know the people.
• 29:51
  The people in my village would drow.
• 29:53
  But Thesmira is a halfling. Yes.
• 29:55
  She she appears to people as a halfling, Yeah.
• 29:58
  I wonder if there's a chance that either there's a halfling
• 30:02
  faction of this old rebellion religion or I've heard stories
• 30:07
  that Thesmira has revealed herself at times, and when she
• 30:11
  does, she appears in the form of a halfling.
• 30:14
  Maybe you saw Thesmira? I'm like stunned at this
• 30:18
  suggestion. Yeah, Johnny Maccabee was also a
• 30:22
  halfling. Bo, can you roll me just a
• 30:26
  straight Wisdom check right now? Thank God, I was so worried you
• 30:31
  were going to say like history or something.
• 30:33
  I mean, wisdom's not that much better, but it's a 14.
• 30:37
  OK, a 14, you'd think. Yeah, Johnny Maccabee is a
• 30:40
  halfling. So is his wife a Laura GAIL
• 30:45
  Song? And a Laura GAIL Song is somehow
• 30:49
  related to High Priestess GAIL Song.
• 30:54
  When we saw Johnny Maccabee in the mirror, he, he looks like
• 30:59
  the the official art, official art.
• 31:02
  Thank you for for Johnny Maccabee right with the all of
• 31:06
  the flame motifs and armor and stuff.
• 31:08
  Follow us on Instagram at Smooth Critical Podcast.
• 31:13
  But yeah, he had all of like the flamotis and stuff.
• 31:15
  So he he was like, it was still the the empire of like
• 31:20
  Astraxian. However, if Johnny Maccabee was
• 31:25
  getting more and more favorable towards people from rebellion
• 31:30
  who worshipped this other goddess, perhaps Astraxian
• 31:34
  overthrew his own emperor and replaced him with someone who is
• 31:39
  more dedicated to him. And Bo.
• 31:41
  As you finish that sentence, the door creaks open and you see
• 31:46
  Remington standing there, balancing a plate of grilled
• 31:51
  cheeses stacked really high and a stuffed animal bear in his
• 31:55
  hand. I know you're having adult
• 31:57
  conversations in here, but, uh, daddy fell asleep in his bed, so
• 32:04
  I thought maybe I'd, uh, come in and, uh, and give you guys
• 32:08
  these, these grilled cheeses. And he hands out the.
• 32:11
  Plate. I freak out.
• 32:12
  Are you working for the Imperator?
• 32:18
  I'm just kidding. I don't do that.
• 32:19
  Don't do that. It's and the Abe equation.
• 32:24
  Someone has to behave in every scenario.
• 32:27
  It's like the Santa Claus movie, actually.
• 32:31
  Actually, the word is becoming Abe.
• 32:34
  Cleward is going to become Abe now that he's killed Abe.
• 32:39
  My son is. Dead.
• 32:41
  Oh my God. And, and Remington enters the
• 32:44
  room, hands the grilled cheeses and he turns to you and he goes,
• 32:48
  uh, Mr. Abe, I'm. Very sad that you died.
• 32:53
  That was really scary. You were down and, and he just
• 32:56
  kept, he kept clawing at you and uh, that didn't seem fair.
• 33:01
  But here I brought this for you. And he he hands out the teddy
• 33:06
  bear to you, Abe. I kneel down so that we're on
• 33:10
  eye level and I take this stuffed animal and I say thank
• 33:16
  you, Remington, that's very sweet of you.
• 33:18
  And just so you know, you're right, that wasn't fair.
• 33:23
  What what cluer did to me and what I did to his son also
• 33:28
  wasn't fair. And if you should learn anything
• 33:32
  from this, it's that everyone deserves respect from the
• 33:37
  beginning. They can only lose your respect.
• 33:40
  So, you know, don't assume things about people and don't
• 33:44
  approach them with fear. And I look back at the two of
• 33:47
  you, just try to treat people right.
• 33:50
  And hopefully they will return that in kind.
• 33:53
  And I take the grilled cheese. I also, I also take a grilled
• 33:57
  cheese. Hey, Remington.
• 33:59
  Yeah, I'm, I'm curious what your thoughts of this mayoral race
• 34:05
  are, because it seems like there are a few people in this village
• 34:09
  who actually know two of the candidates as well as you do,
• 34:14
  you know, having one for a parent and the other for a
• 34:16
  teacher. Well, I can't vote.
• 34:18
  Sure, yeah, but who's to say a a child can't have insight?
• 34:23
  Very true, Mr. Beau. Very true.
• 34:27
  Well, I like my daddy. Sure.
• 34:30
  Daddy is a good guy. He he's.
• 34:32
  Hey, he just, he brought babe back to life.
• 34:35
  He did, and that was very kind of him.
• 34:37
  He means well, but Miss Peshwari, when when she was my
• 34:43
  teacher, she told me something, you know, I would always talk
• 34:47
  about how I used to travel and I've seen the world.
• 34:51
  Oh, and Daddy bought me a pony for my birthday and and Daddy
• 34:56
  lets me rent out the whole music arena for my birthday party and.
• 35:02
  Yeah. But Miss Peshwari said she
• 35:05
  talked to me, she was very nice. She said that not everyone has
• 35:09
  these opportunities, So when? I.
• 35:13
  I say all these things, it makes sometimes it makes people feel
• 35:18
  sad that they don't they don't have this opportunity.
• 35:21
  And I never want to make people sad.
• 35:24
  I just want everyone to to be able to live their life like I
• 35:27
  live my life. I want everyone to come
• 35:30
  traveling with me and I want everyone to to get a pony.
• 35:34
  But apparently that's just not the way the world works, and
• 35:38
  that's really sad. So I don't know.
• 35:42
  I love Daddy, but why can't everyone have these things?
• 35:48
  It seems wrong. You're a good kid, Remington.
• 35:52
  Thank you. Are these like really fancy rich
• 35:54
  people grilled cheeses? They have like Brie and shit in
• 35:56
  there. Oh yeah, it's not the fucking
• 35:58
  American singles, Kraft cheese or anything like that.
• 36:02
  And there's some. Brioche bun.
• 36:04
  Yeah, it's a it's a brioche bun for sure.
• 36:07
  It's like. An apricot jam in it, which
• 36:09
  shouldn't work. I was just about to say that
• 36:13
  because that's how I like to make my grilled cheeses at home.
• 36:17
  Yeah, you guys are making me so hungry.
• 36:19
  It is lunchtime. I apologize, but Remington turns
• 36:23
  to you again, Abe, and goes. Mr. Abe, I know you're probably
• 36:27
  scared because death is it's scary sometimes.
• 36:31
  When my Papa died, it was, it was really hard, but he got this
• 36:37
  teddy bear for me to comfort me when I was scared.
• 36:41
  And, and I know you're a fighter, you know, but I bet
• 36:43
  you're scared a little too. And maybe this bear will bring
• 36:48
  you some comfort. I'm so.
• 36:51
  Fucking cute. I'm choked up.
• 36:52
  This is so sweet. Ah, I look back at the two of
• 36:57
  you. I don't know, Remington, if I
• 36:58
  can take this from you. Mr. Abe, I, I promise I have a
• 37:03
  lot of money. OK.
• 37:05
  Well, OK. Thank you so much and I'll and
• 37:10
  I'll take the stuff Bear. What's Bunty's reaction to this?
• 37:13
  Why is there a little guy being friends with Abe?
• 37:16
  I'm the only little guy. But you know what?
• 37:19
  Abe needs this. Abe needs this.
• 37:21
  And it's just Bunty muttering to himself in a corner.
• 37:24
  Abe needs this. Abe needs this more than I need
• 37:27
  Abe. It's OK.
• 37:29
  Bunty, I'm jealous too, but we'll get through it.
• 37:31
  Everyone just loves Abe. Why I love Abe.
• 37:34
  Abe is so cool. It's just fucking like it's hard
• 37:39
  to share and the people you love.
• 37:41
  I'm going to go play with my Fuegos and then I'll go wake up
• 37:44
  daddy in about 10 minutes, is that OK?
• 37:47
  Yeah, sounds great. Remington, thank you.
• 37:50
  Of course, Bye. With that, I kind of snap back
• 37:53
  towards you guys. I have been trying to put
• 37:56
  together this family tree for a few days now, since we've gotten
• 38:01
  it about Johnny and Laura and how Ansel and Ambrose and little
• 38:06
  Mira are all related to each other.
• 38:10
  And this is what I'm working with right now.
• 38:12
  This is what I think, right? So we know Johnny and Ilara were
• 38:16
  married, and we know that we maybe possibly Ilara and
• 38:23
  Ambrose, clearly they were all very, very close friends, which
• 38:26
  we know. But I'm wondering if Mira and
• 38:31
  her descendants are still around and if maybe they had taken a
• 38:36
  new name or something of that kind.
• 38:38
  Maybe. I don't know, I'm just.
• 38:41
  Maybe that's who you saw. Oh my God.
• 38:43
  I mean, you said you saw a halfling with.
• 38:45
  With a pocket watch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't.
• 38:49
  Who knows? I don't know if we're going to
• 38:50
  be able to get the answer right now.
• 38:52
  No, yeah, certainly not. It's just something that we
• 38:54
  should keep in mind if if we hear the I mean, I feel like
• 38:58
  we're not going to hear the Skylark name.
• 38:59
  I feel as if the Imperator would have gone to great lengths to
• 39:02
  make sure that these names are not around or easy to find.
• 39:06
  I mean he literally destroyed your village bond to make sure
• 39:09
  that this worship that any any little embers of it were snuffed
• 39:14
  out. But if, if someone can tell us
• 39:18
  if we can find a lineage book or something at an old library,
• 39:22
  just to see something like that would be really useful.
• 39:26
  If we can go speak to someone who's alive, that would be the
• 39:30
  most useful. Primary sources are the best
• 39:32
  ways to piece together history. Maybe.
• 39:35
  Maybe there will be something in Amber Hold, yeah, maybe a
• 39:38
  library, something where we can try to find something, research
• 39:41
  something. And one last thing, you were
• 39:45
  just repeating the prayer, right, about how this Mira's
• 39:49
  breath fills you and every breath is hers until the end.
• 39:55
  And so Vera, when I spoke to her, was very much so about like
• 39:59
  the cycle, like the entire cycle of life and death.
• 40:02
  She took great lengths to show me a few different flowers that
• 40:08
  she brought to life and use their energy from one to
• 40:11
  another. One would die and the other
• 40:13
  would come to life and so on and so forth in this endless cycle.
• 40:16
  And sounds like this mirror is more about like within your
• 40:20
  life. Within the confines of your
• 40:22
  life, this breath, this like worship, it doesn't feel
• 40:25
  actually like immortality. And then you have this third
• 40:28
  sister where like instead of in life, you have this worship.
• 40:33
  It's almost as if in death you're tethered, that the souls
• 40:36
  stayed stuck on the mortal plane.
• 40:38
  And for some reason, I don't know, it just feels like Sylvira
• 40:41
  is like the connection between both of their powers, which
• 40:43
  would make sense is she's the oldest sister.
• 40:45
  But I don't know, these are just things to think about.
• 40:48
  I'm. I'm not really sure where I'm
• 40:49
  going with this. I just, yeah.
• 40:51
  Trying to piece together their domains and why.
• 40:54
  As you bring up the the letter and like the family tree, I
• 40:58
  think about the AES and Ambrose mentions in his letter somebody
• 41:04
  in his household named Elias. I wonder if there's a chance
• 41:08
  that the E in there has something to do with that.
• 41:12
  The AES could be Ansel, could be Ambrose, could be Elias.
• 41:18
  Elias was his child. I don't know where Ansel is in
• 41:22
  the in the lineage, but I know that Elias and Corin were
• 41:25
  children. I wonder if Ansel if his middle
• 41:29
  name is Elias. Maybe Elias is a middle name and
• 41:32
  Ambrose or Ansel was taken as a name like a junior and he went
• 41:36
  by Elias possibly. Either way, we have to find out
• 41:40
  more. Yeah, I don't know.
• 41:41
  I think it's unlikely that we'll find too much in a in a library
• 41:45
  for of of the Ignovarum Empire, but maybe in Noctavalis where
• 41:50
  the secrets are are kept a bit more closely.
• 41:54
  There are always strange characters at places where there
• 41:59
  are books, and there are always people I feel as though that are
• 42:03
  willing to seek out the truth, even if it's not looked kindly
• 42:08
  upon. So maybe there will be someone.
• 42:10
  Maybe someone knows something. Maybe someone has hidden
• 42:13
  something. It's worth, it's worth checking
• 42:15
  out. It's worth inquiring about.
• 42:17
  And with that, there is a knock at the door as Drummond kind of
• 42:23
  opens it up and goes, I heard y'all talking and I didn't want
• 42:27
  to interrupt, but I think I've gotten my head on straight after
• 42:33
  that quick little power nap. And I think we should talk about
• 42:37
  the election. See.
• 42:39
  Yeah, please come join us. He comes and joins in the
• 42:43
  conversation pit. Drummond I'm like, at the
• 42:46
  moment, my mind is like swirling around incredibly ancient
• 42:50
  questions right now that are really stocking the interests of
• 42:55
  my mind in this election. At the moment, it's just not it
• 42:59
  doesn't. You're coming into a space where
• 43:02
  I have a lot of, there's a lot of creative juices flowing.
• 43:05
  You know what I mean guys? And I look at you both and just.
• 43:09
  We got to figure out this election shit.
• 43:13
  Abe, this is step one. Abe, if you wanted to go to your
• 43:16
  room instead, maybe that's OK. No, I don't really feel like
• 43:20
  being alone right now. Well, I've, I've given it some
• 43:24
  thought, especially the part where you said, you know, maybe
• 43:28
  Peshawar and I work together and I think maybe I'd be open to
• 43:36
  something like that. We'd have to hammer out the
• 43:40
  details, but. I mean, you've said you've said
• 43:42
  as much in the past, but when you say you're open to it, is it
• 43:46
  the same thing you said before where you're just, you want to
• 43:49
  be mayor still and you want her to work for you?
• 43:54
  Well. So yes.
• 43:56
  No, no Bo jumping down my throat.
• 44:01
  You know, you're right. I'm sorry.
• 44:02
  I'm sorry. Maybe we can institute something
• 44:08
  mayor and deputy mayor. OK.
• 44:12
  And then we both have power. I think I need to talk to her to
• 44:18
  see if she's even open to this idea.
• 44:22
  Sure. And then we can figure out who's
• 44:25
  mayor, who's deputy mayor, all that stuff.
• 44:29
  That is fair. You said you have a speech to
• 44:33
  make today. Will there be time before that,
• 44:36
  do you think? Yeah, actually already called
• 44:39
  Bishwarya to the house preemptively.
• 44:42
  I hope that's OK. I just.
• 44:44
  I sent someone out to go run and get A and there's a knock at the
• 44:50
  door. Oh, I think that's her.
• 44:52
  Yeah, Abe. I was just going to say, can you
• 44:56
  tell her not to bring up the dying thing?
• 44:58
  People have been bringing that up.
• 45:00
  Like Remington brought that up and I just don't think I'm
• 45:02
  really like. I'll go answer the door and I'll
• 45:04
  let her know, OK? Thank you.
• 45:06
  Thank you. So Drummond steps out for a
• 45:08
  second. You hear that the door opens and
• 45:10
  he greets Piswari. And you hear him say to her,
• 45:13
  Beshwari don't mention the dad thing to Abe.
• 45:16
  He's very sensitive about it right now.
• 45:19
  And she goes, oh, yeah, of course.
• 45:21
  Is he OK, though? Well, I don't know.
• 45:24
  That boy is odd. All right, come on in.
• 45:26
  And they enter the lounge and head down to the conversation
• 45:30
  pit. And Peshwari leans over to you
• 45:33
  guys. And he goes, it's really nice to
• 45:35
  to see you guys again. And then she doesn't say
• 45:39
  anything else. Yeah, it's it's nice to see you
• 45:41
  too. So Drummond said that there were
• 45:44
  some things that he wanted to talk about that you guys had had
• 45:48
  brought up. I'd be open to to to hearing
• 45:51
  ideas to how to make our village a a better place for everyone.
• 45:55
  There was a a an idea, a collective idea that perhaps
• 46:01
  there's a possibility of you 2 putting differences aside and
• 46:06
  working together to some degree. I mean, I would be very open to
• 46:10
  that. I think Drummond's family has
• 46:12
  been just here for so long and been very influential and he
• 46:17
  knows a lot of people throughout all the different empires and I
• 46:21
  and I don't have those connections.
• 46:22
  So if we really want to work to get this village more elevated
• 46:28
  and and more connected to everyone, I think Drummond using
• 46:31
  his connections would be a really great idea.
• 46:33
  Yeah, I I do too. Drummond brought up the
• 46:37
  possibility of one of you 2 being mayor.
• 46:41
  It seems like that's the the result of of this election
• 46:45
  anyway, assuming Kluwer doesn't gain more popularity and win it,
• 46:49
  and the other person being a deputy mayor of sorts are also
• 46:53
  holding office. It wasn't, it wasn't specified
• 46:58
  at the time who might be in which position.
• 47:02
  But Drummond, you did say before that this would be a way for
• 47:07
  both of you to have some power. And I might respond to that by
• 47:12
  saying, Drummond, you already have quite a bit of power being
• 47:17
  a, a rich, influential person in this village.
• 47:21
  So I feel like there are things that you can do, even if you're
• 47:25
  not mayor to improve the life of everyday citizens.
• 47:30
  Whereas Heshwari has has shown that she can rally others who
• 47:34
  aren't, as you know, at least at this point, who aren't as
• 47:38
  welcoming to you. She can rally them and get them
• 47:41
  to support and kind of maybe if you can work together and she
• 47:45
  was in the the main mayor position and you were kind of
• 47:48
  one of her deputies, you could both help the village.
• 47:52
  And I'm, I'm going to cast guidance on Beau as he says
• 47:57
  this. Yeah.
• 47:58
  Bo, give me your persuasion check for Peshwari.
• 48:01
  All right? Oh, and and and Drummond, excuse
• 48:03
  me cuz you did. I'm doing 2 checks, yeah.
• 48:06
  One for Peshwari, one for Drummond.
• 48:08
  All right, First one for Peshwari.
• 48:12
  I rolled it 2 the die and a one on the D4.
• 48:16
  So that's gonna be a 8 in total. Do you have any heroic
• 48:24
  inspiration or luck points you'd like to use?
• 48:26
  I I think I honestly can't remember if I used my heroic
• 48:30
  inspiration. I think not.
• 48:32
  I don't have you guys always. You always use your luck points
• 48:35
  first. Yeah, I used everything else.
• 48:37
  I know I used both luck points and the amulet, so I'm going to
• 48:41
  Yeah, I'll use my heroic inspiration and pray like this
• 48:46
  goes better. 15 on the die and I'll keep the one on the D4
• 48:50
  because that's what I rolled 21. OK, now give me the one for
• 48:53
  Drummond. That is an unnatural 20.
• 48:59
  Peshwari and Drummond turn to each other.
• 49:02
  Peshwari, I was hesitant to make you mayor for a lot of reasons
• 49:10
  and and one of them being. It was taxes.
• 49:13
  Taxes was the reason. Taxes was one of them, of
• 49:15
  course. But you're just so young and I,
• 49:20
  I worry that you only know the village, you only know your
• 49:26
  experience in the village as this young person.
• 49:30
  But Beau has brought up the point that I do have power and
• 49:35
  even if I was to be deputy mayor, I would still retain my
• 49:41
  previous power as Rich Cat, the most prestigious position.
• 49:50
  Yeah. Fishwari goes Drummond I.
• 49:54
  I think that the future is with the youth, and that's not
• 49:59
  something to say that's wrong with you or anyone like that.
• 50:03
  But yeah, maybe we are idealistic in what we want to
• 50:06
  the future, but you have to be idealistic to really push
• 50:10
  forward. If you're OK with the status
• 50:13
  quo, then things are going to stagnate.
• 50:16
  And you are rich and you are correct in saying that.
• 50:19
  And you will always, always have influence, especially for your
• 50:24
  other rich friends. You are richer than them.
• 50:26
  They will always want to be on your good side.
• 50:29
  So honestly, you being deputy mayor, you still might have more
• 50:34
  influence if I were to be mayor. And I want to work with you.
• 50:39
  I want to find a solution for everyone.
• 50:43
  So what do you say, Drummond? I'm mayor, your deputy mayor.
• 50:47
  And we we take Clearwater out of this race.
• 50:50
  Yeah, I think so. Peshwari and they class pause in
• 50:56
  a handshake. I'm very much looking forward to
• 50:59
  your ideas and we will definitely talk about them a lot
• 51:03
  before we implement them. That sounds good to me.
• 51:06
  OK Drummond, we'll get to that later.
• 51:09
  OK? Let's just see if we win the
• 51:10
  election first, OK? Mea Peshwari.
• 51:13
  And he kind of Pats here on the back.
• 51:16
  No, I got a speech to make. And I think it would be nice if
• 51:21
  you would stand right up there with me and we address this town
• 51:26
  before they do their final votes.
• 51:28
  What do you say? I think that's a great idea,
• 51:31
  Drummond. All right, Monos, you're coming
• 51:35
  with me. Let's head out together.
• 51:37
  You are my posse. You are Drummond's crew.
• 51:40
  As your sweatshirts say. I.
• 51:43
  Just shrugged. Let's do it, Drummond.
• 51:47
  Did you make those sweatshirts for them right now, or did you
• 51:49
  have them before? And Drummond kind of stutters?
• 51:53
  I don't. I actually have no idea.
• 51:54
  Where they Yeah, they were made for us right now.
• 51:57
  I was. Thank you.
• 51:58
  Bo we actually, we made these because we like Drummond so
• 52:02
  much. Boa Drummond.
• 52:05
  Drummond slips you 10 gold pieces in your pocket.
• 52:07
  Thank you, Bo. Let's fucking go, you.
• 52:10
  Can you can add that to the total?
• 52:13
  So you guys head out into the center of town where there's
• 52:19
  that's how we can get limb upgrades.
• 52:21
  We've got to be professional suck UPS, just brown nosers.
• 52:26
  OK, so you guys head out to the center of town.
• 52:30
  There's a platform that has been built with a microphone and you
• 52:34
  see that a large crowd has gathered and Drummond steps up
• 52:38
  there and lowers his hand to help Peshwari step up onto the
• 52:42
  stage as well, and a silence goes over at the crowd.
• 52:46
  As you all can see, I'm here with Peshwari and that is for a
• 52:52
  good reason, a very, very good reason.
• 52:56
  We've decided to combine forces so Peshwara is mayor and I will
• 53:03
  be deputy mayor, a position that didn't exist then but will exist
• 53:08
  when Peshwara is mayor. And there's a little bit of
• 53:12
  clapping in the crowd as there's some confusion.
• 53:15
  No, guys, this is very good. Listen, we had a talk and thanks
• 53:20
  to the mottos, my eyes have been open to some discrepancies in
• 53:26
  this village. I always knew that there was a
• 53:30
  problem, a problem with poor people.
• 53:33
  Oh sorry people, not as rich anyways and push for you.
• 53:39
  Shaking her head. Quick stumble.
• 53:42
  But I liked my life, I liked going and traveling.
• 53:46
  I liked buying my son a pony for his birthday.
• 53:49
  But I think it's time that we find a way to bring more wealth
• 53:54
  to our area and maybe even redistribute the wealth that we
• 53:58
  have now. Listen people, They worship the
• 54:02
  gods, and rightly so. They have shaped our world in
• 54:07
  ways we cannot fathom. But we forget something.
• 54:11
  We forget the people here and we forget the people who walked
• 54:15
  beside us and people who came before us.
• 54:19
  How many of you remember the story of Saint Granda?
• 54:23
  And there's some cheering in the crowd.
• 54:25
  St. Granda.
• 54:26
  She was a tabasi who came here over 1000 years ago when our
• 54:31
  people were driven from Silvorum wrecks.
• 54:34
  She did not build this village to hide us away.
• 54:37
  She built it to protect us so we could one day stand proudly in
• 54:42
  the world again. This world has stranged, and so
• 54:46
  must we. Mayor Peshwari and I see I'm
• 54:50
  getting ahead of myself because I know she's going to win.
• 54:53
  Mayor Peshwari and I will work together to open our gates, to
• 54:57
  welcome others, to build trade, to create opportunity.
• 55:01
  Let's build a merchant skilled. Let's strengthen our economy.
• 55:06
  Let's. Oh, I can't believe I'm going to
• 55:09
  say this. Let's tax the rich.
• 55:14
  And there is a big cheer, everyone in the crowd.
• 55:19
  And you hear whispering like, Oh my God, maybe he's for real.
• 55:22
  Maybe this is actually happening.
• 55:25
  Long live La Grande's village and Long live the love of the
• 55:31
  Tabaxi. Thank you.
• 55:33
  And there's a lot of cheers. Hell yeah.
• 55:35
  Are we up there with him? Are we in the crowd?
• 55:37
  I think he tried to get you like, front near the stage.
• 55:40
  Just wondering. So Drummond and Peshwari step
• 55:43
  down and you see a bunch of people start heading to the
• 55:48
  polls to vote. And Drummond turns to you guys
• 55:50
  and goes, well, of course we have magic.
• 55:53
  So votes are going to be counted pretty instantaneously.
• 55:56
  So I feel like we're going to figure out really quickly if we
• 56:00
  have the majority or not. I hope that the people who were
• 56:04
  doing the ballots fix the fix the ballot.
• 56:07
  So it's me and Peshawari as one. OK, whatever.
• 56:11
  I thought. It's magic, they'll figure it
• 56:13
  out, right? I'm going to go up to Drummond
• 56:16
  and kind of, you know, give him a pat on the back and say, I, I
• 56:21
  was wrong about you. You're, you're better than
• 56:23
  Andrew Cuomo. And my eyes flash and I'm like,
• 56:27
  I don't even, I don't even know what that means exactly, but.
• 56:30
  Is he that? Is he that goblin that works in
• 56:32
  the shade? Hold that really gross goblin.
• 56:36
  I think he got fired from his job from doing some bad stuff.
• 56:40
  All right. Yeah, his brother used to be a
• 56:42
  reporter and also did the same thing.
• 56:46
  Okay, so we're going to get into mechanics of the election real
• 56:51
  quick. So Harry and Charlie, you guys
• 56:57
  are each going to roll a D100 and this is to represent
• 57:02
  actually advantage because Peshwari and Drummond have come
• 57:05
  together. So as long as one of you rolls
• 57:08
  above A50, Clearwood will get the other half.
• 57:12
  OK. So, OK, all right, as long as
• 57:16
  one of you rolls above a 50%, this is.
• 57:17
  So scary, Oh my God. All right, I'm going to roll.
• 57:21
  I don't even want to roll. This is OK.
• 57:26
  Oh thank God I got 72. I got an 84.
• 57:28
  Holy shit, yeah. Blow out.
• 57:33
  Honestly, that's great. Immediately you can tell who has
• 57:37
  won. There is like a magic scoreboard
• 57:40
  at the top that's like counting votes and showing the percentage
• 57:43
  of the village. And so quickly the number
• 57:45
  bounces to what 8484% of the village has voted and has voted
• 57:51
  for Peshwari and Drummond. And there is a loud cheer.
• 57:55
  Everyone give me a perception check.
• 57:57
  Yeah, I'm looking for cluward. 15.
• 58:02
  Not one. 9 Bo and Bond, you guys are too distracted by everything
• 58:07
  that's happened, Abe. You're already just like kind of
• 58:10
  in your head looking around, just, you know, observing
• 58:14
  quietly. And you see Cluard and the rest
• 58:16
  of the CVPP are looking angry, but you see them just stalk off
• 58:21
  in the distance and disappear, seemingly upset, but have
• 58:27
  accepted the effects of this race.
• 58:30
  Hey, hopes that it was kind of a blowout.
• 58:32
  Cloward, Cloward. All right, interesting.
• 58:37
  And I and I pushed my way through the crowd towards the
• 58:39
  CVPP. So Cloward is far, far at the
• 58:43
  edge of crowd. I want you to give me a
• 58:45
  Dexterity check to try to maneuver your way through this
• 58:49
  crowd to get to Cloward before he disappears.
• 58:53
  That is a deck saving throw. No, just a Dexterity throw. 19.
• 58:59
  Bo's not trying to stop Abe, but he's trying to keep up with him
• 59:02
  just so he can be there if something bad happens.
• 59:05
  All right, Bo, give me your dexterity as well.
• 59:08
  Just straight dexterity. 10. OK, so Abe manages to wriggle
• 59:13
  away from you and goes through the cloud, and you're at the
• 59:17
  edge, like far, far away from where the election results are
• 59:21
  kind of isolated, and you're yelling for Cluward, and Cluward
• 59:24
  stops and turns around and faces you.
• 59:28
  You have something to say, all right?
• 59:34
  And then he turns to walk away again with the CVPP.
• 59:38
  Do better, Do better. He gives you the middle finger
• 59:41
  and keeps walking. Now I'm going to walk away.
• 59:45
  Abe, you walk away, do you go back to where Bo and Bond were
• 59:49
  with the rest of the people? Yeah.
• 59:52
  There's a bunch of cheering, there's balloons that were
• 59:55
  released into the air. You see like a giant cake in the
• 59:58
  center and everyone's passing out cake to the crowd.
• 1:00:01
  Do you guys want to grab a slice?
• 1:00:03
  Hell yeah. Amazing.
• 1:00:04
  The the in unison. Yeah.
• 1:00:06
  Is it just tuna? It's wet cat food.
• 1:00:08
  Oh God. Oh God no.
• 1:00:11
  It's it's cup from like it's, it's vanilla cake.
• 1:00:14
  It's just cake. It's just cake.
• 1:00:16
  It's actually, it was actually pretty good.
• 1:00:19
  This. Is why St.
• 1:00:19
  Granda had to leave Salvorim Rex the the the cat food jokes.
• 1:00:27
  So Drummond comes over to you, goes and guys and goes.
• 1:00:30
  Well, maybe it sounds cheesy to say, but I think you 3 have kind
• 1:00:35
  of changed my perspective on everything.
• 1:00:39
  I wanted to win, to prove something to my family, to
• 1:00:43
  Remington, but that's not exactly the legacy.
• 1:00:47
  I won't anymore. I want my son to Remember Me as
• 1:00:51
  a good man. He Pats Bond and Abe on the back
• 1:00:56
  and then turns to Bo. Bo, you said some harsh things
• 1:01:00
  about me in the past. Yeah, Yep.
• 1:01:03
  I'm sorry. But they were mostly true.
• 1:01:06
  But The thing is, I do care, even if I maybe went about it
• 1:01:11
  wrong. He reaches out and puts 200 gold
• 1:01:15
  pieces and a map in Beau's hand. Listen, no, listen, listen.
• 1:01:19
  You deserve this map. And honestly, I don't know if I
• 1:01:25
  want to start sponsoring these adventuring groups anymore.
• 1:01:30
  I don't know what they're doing with my money, and before I
• 1:01:34
  didn't care as long as they brought me back some treasure.
• 1:01:37
  But what if I'm sponsoring people who are making the world
• 1:01:42
  a worse place? So listen very carefully Manos.
• 1:01:46
  Because the map to the Horde is yours, as is everything inside
• 1:01:51
  of the horde, assuming the claw mark trio haven't gotten to it
• 1:01:55
  first. So you open the map.
• 1:01:57
  The horde is in Noctavalis on the outskirt of Velrin's Comet.
• 1:02:02
  Have you guys heard about that city?
• 1:02:05
  Yes, long ago, nearly thousand years ago, this comet fell from
• 1:02:11
  the sky and smashed a hole in the ground.
• 1:02:14
  And it still radiates wild magic around the city, around the
• 1:02:20
  outskirts of the crater. So the horde is on that
• 1:02:24
  outskirts of the city, still within the bounds of that
• 1:02:28
  crater. But it is a weird place.
• 1:02:33
  It is odd, Odd things happen there, and I bet Scoria chose
• 1:02:39
  that place for a reason. She's a red dragon, so she lacks
• 1:02:45
  the heat. But this is like a different
• 1:02:47
  type of heat. It's something that you feel it
• 1:02:50
  on the outside and the inside of yourself.
• 1:02:54
  There's power, there's instability in this area.
• 1:02:59
  When I talked to the Klawmark trio, they said that there was
• 1:03:01
  lots of art and books from the Lost Empire and at least 10
• 1:03:07
  highly magical items. Wow.
• 1:03:09
  But I don't, I mean, who knows what's left, right?
• 1:03:12
  They could have been lying to me and taken some stuff and left.
• 1:03:15
  I I truly hope that haven't. But they did work for the
• 1:03:20
  Imperator, so. Drummond, Drummond, If they had
• 1:03:24
  already left, do you know where they would have been going?
• 1:03:27
  That was the last mission that I had given to them, so I'm not
• 1:03:32
  entirely sure. Abe, make a insight check. 23.
• 1:03:40
  Great. Do you remember that piece of
• 1:03:43
  paper that that Cobalt had from down under that rug had?
• 1:03:47
  Yes. It was saying that the claw mark
• 1:03:50
  trio was going after Dragons so. Got you.
• 1:03:56
  So there's a few. Right, that they could have.
• 1:03:58
  Gone to afterwards. There's I think another one in
• 1:04:01
  Noctavalis as well, so it could be there.
• 1:04:04
  They could have gone S to civil Warm Rex.
• 1:04:06
  They could have, you know, but that's just an option.
• 1:04:08
  Yeah, but Drummond says y'all should go soon, at least within
• 1:04:12
  the month if you can. And be careful.
• 1:04:17
  Like I said, weird place people there, odd motherfuckers.
• 1:04:24
  Thank you, Drummond. You know, I meant, I meant what
• 1:04:26
  I said when I said it. But I, I do, I can tell that you
• 1:04:30
  care. And I, I think that you're,
• 1:04:33
  let's just say I feel like you should, you should talk to
• 1:04:36
  Remington about how he feels about the decision you made with
• 1:04:40
  Peshwari. And I think you'll find that he
• 1:04:42
  would be very proud to have you as a dad.
• 1:04:45
  Tears start welling up in Drummond's eyes.
• 1:04:47
  Thank you, Beau. Thank you.
• 1:04:50
  I look to the other members of the Monos and I say I think, I
• 1:04:54
  think maybe we need to get going on this as soon as we can.
• 1:04:57
  Yeah. Yes.
• 1:04:58
  Well, sorry, I know you weren't addressing me, but I think Mayor
• 1:05:01
  Peshawar wants to say her thanks to you.
• 1:05:04
  If you could just not jet out right away.
• 1:05:07
  Oh, sure, yeah. Yeah, I was thinking we leave
• 1:05:09
  first thing in the morning, but I don't what time of day is it?
• 1:05:12
  I guess late afternoon or maybe around 5 PMI mean we could.
• 1:05:18
  What do you guys think? Should we leave today or leave
• 1:05:19
  tomorrow? I'm pretty tired.
• 1:05:21
  Abe died. Yeah, Abe did die today.
• 1:05:24
  That's a pretty good reason to to go to.
• 1:05:26
  Sleep. I would rather not go to sleep.
• 1:05:30
  I would rather not go to sleep. I think we should leave right
• 1:05:32
  after this actually. As you're having this
• 1:05:35
  conversation, Peshwari is going to approach you real quick.
• 1:05:39
  Sorry, I, I don't mean to interrupt, but I just wanted to
• 1:05:41
  say thank you for, for all that you've done.
• 1:05:44
  And I don't really mean this in a mean way, but I think it might
• 1:05:48
  be best you guys leave our village.
• 1:05:51
  And once again, I don't mean this in a mean way, but like so
• 1:05:55
  much has happened in the two days that you've been here.
• 1:05:58
  And I really think it would be nice for the village to have a
• 1:06:01
  few calm months as we roll out on new initiatives.
• 1:06:04
  And I worry honestly that if you're here, clearword might
• 1:06:08
  start something up again. Yeah, well, I was actually, I
• 1:06:10
  was wondering if Clearword has any more kids and if if, you
• 1:06:13
  know, we could. Just kidding.
• 1:06:15
  I'm just kidding. We're gonna get out of here as
• 1:06:16
  soon as possible. She awkwardly laughs at that
• 1:06:19
  joke. Okay, where are you going to?
• 1:06:23
  Offer you a piece of advice, Peshwari.
• 1:06:26
  Unwarranted, but okay babe. It's about to mansplain like
• 1:06:30
  crazy, I can tell. I'm just just an extend.
• 1:06:34
  Just extend an olive branch to Cloord.
• 1:06:36
  Yeah, of course, everyone in this village deserves to be
• 1:06:40
  heard. Make sure that his his people
• 1:06:43
  are felt. Actually, maybe this will help
• 1:06:45
  and I'm going to give her his son's sword.
• 1:06:48
  Oh, thank you. Nice.
• 1:06:51
  I will, I will get this back to Cloord.
• 1:06:54
  I will. I will make sure that we make
• 1:06:55
  peace with the CVPP. But do you guys know where
• 1:06:58
  you're you're heading, where you're planning on going to
• 1:07:00
  next? Because I have a lot of actually
• 1:07:03
  merchants that are heading out very soon and they might be able
• 1:07:06
  to take you to where you go pretty quickly, especially if
• 1:07:09
  you have to cross the lava river.
• 1:07:12
  The lava river is such a so annoying sometimes because you
• 1:07:15
  have to go to like a specific port and then you have to wait
• 1:07:18
  for the shuttle to come and get you back across the river.
• 1:07:21
  And, and I think there are some merchants here with a boat that
• 1:07:24
  could just kind of bus you right across if if you're going in
• 1:07:27
  that direction. But if you're not, you know, no
• 1:07:29
  worries. Yeah.
• 1:07:30
  We're we're going to head to Ember Hold.
• 1:07:32
  So that would be fantastic. Yeah.
• 1:07:35
  Oh Ember Hold. Yeah.
• 1:07:36
  And then from. It's yeah, yeah, just ember hold
• 1:07:39
  and I sort of hold a hand on Abe's shoulder as he starts.
• 1:07:42
  Yeah, I was about to. Tell her our entire travel I.
• 1:07:45
  Was like, yeah, yeah. Oh, I actually have some
• 1:07:48
  merchant friends that are that are heading that way.
• 1:07:50
  So if you go to the docks on the lava river that are kind of east
• 1:07:54
  of town, you look for two orc women named Tan and Tresh.
• 1:07:59
  They should be setting up their boat right now.
• 1:08:01
  And it's it's big enough to actually hold your horses as
• 1:08:03
  well. And if you tell them that I sent
• 1:08:05
  you, they will happily, happily give you a ride across the the
• 1:08:09
  river at least. Thank you.
• 1:08:11
  Yeah. Thank you so much.
• 1:08:12
  Of course. All right, we need to find the
• 1:08:14
  two Jeffs and Alexander. The horses.
• 1:08:18
  I think we, I think we just kind of let them roam as soon as we
• 1:08:21
  walked into the village. All right, so you guys go
• 1:08:26
  hunting around the village for your horses, which have been
• 1:08:29
  nicely grazing some grass off to the side for the past two days.
• 1:08:34
  Just been hanging out. And I assume you guys want to
• 1:08:37
  head over to the docks on the LA River east of town.
• 1:08:42
  Yeah, I'm going to. Before we head out, I've got two
• 1:08:44
  more things I want to say to Drummond.
• 1:08:46
  Absolutely. I pull everybody aside, sort of
• 1:08:49
  try to find a little bit more of a private place.
• 1:08:51
  I said Drummond, thank you for for the map, for everything, for
• 1:08:55
  housing us, for your hospitality.
• 1:08:57
  I reach over who's who's who carries the bag of holding.
• 1:09:00
  I think I was carrying him before, but I don't have to
• 1:09:03
  necessarily, but I I can. I yeah, I can.
• 1:09:07
  Yeah, let's say that I sort of reach over and ask for the bag
• 1:09:10
  of holding and I pull out the wrench with Egrex on it.
• 1:09:15
  Good call. And I say, Drummond, you've
• 1:09:17
  shown us a lot of trust and respect, and I think it's about
• 1:09:21
  time we did the same. When we got here, after we were
• 1:09:25
  getting my leg fixed, Egrix fell to the floor and turned into
• 1:09:30
  this. And I pull out the wrench and
• 1:09:33
  hold it up to him. They say I think something's
• 1:09:36
  happened to Vox, and I don't know what.
• 1:09:39
  Yes. Oh, no.
• 1:09:42
  Well, as you may know, Vox is an artificer.
• 1:09:49
  I don't know if you guys knew that, but yeah, he has made a
• 1:09:55
  little doodads and one of the doodads is obviously Egrix.
• 1:09:58
  And I worry if Vox has died, the infusion on Egrix would fade
• 1:10:06
  away and make Egrix turn back into its original form, which I
• 1:10:12
  guess was a ranch. Hypothetically, if he was
• 1:10:16
  brought back after he died, would Egrix stay as a wrench?
• 1:10:19
  Like you know how I was brought back?
• 1:10:22
  OK, well I think the wrench would need to have a touch
• 1:10:28
  component. Vox would have to lay his hand
• 1:10:31
  on the wrench and infuse it once again to get Egrix back.
• 1:10:36
  Assuming that Vox died and. Is there a way that Egrix would
• 1:10:40
  drop without him dying? Probably just if.
• 1:10:43
  Like if he released the if he. Yeah, if he gave up the infusion
• 1:10:48
  to infuse something else. But I've never seen Vox without
• 1:10:52
  his bird. That bird talks for him.
• 1:10:54
  That bird has a mental link to Vox so he can keep an eye on
• 1:10:58
  things. That bird is his his eyes when
• 1:11:01
  he can't be there. Do you have any inkling of an
• 1:11:05
  idea where Fox might have been when he was hurt?
• 1:11:09
  He said he was going to meet us here and we just saw him in
• 1:11:12
  scenario so I figured maybe he couldn't be too far but I would
• 1:11:16
  assume he maybe went to some of the closest cities to talk to
• 1:11:24
  someone. I don't think he could have
• 1:11:26
  gotten further than maybe and behold or hmm maybe he could
• 1:11:32
  have gotten to ash end. It's not that quick of a trip in
• 1:11:38
  comparison, but it it's doable if you're moving quite fast.
• 1:11:43
  All right, thank you. We'll keep an eye out when we
• 1:11:45
  get to. And behold, the only other thing
• 1:11:47
  I wanted to mention before we left was your son Remington when
• 1:11:51
  when we were playing with the Fuegos.
• 1:11:55
  He. He mentioned seeing something
• 1:11:58
  like this and I blow Nick's Shard when you guys were in Moon
• 1:12:02
  Fen. My my village was destroyed a
• 1:12:05
  long time ago and this is a symbol of ours.
• 1:12:08
  Do you remember anything about this?
• 1:12:10
  Going to roll for it. Yes, I saw a man and a woman
• 1:12:17
  hefflings in Moonfen. They did something similar to
• 1:12:22
  you. They had pocket watches embedded
• 1:12:24
  in their hands and I don't know if he blew one or she blew one,
• 1:12:28
  but someone blew one of those nick shards late at night.
• 1:12:33
  Well let me roll one more time to see if you remember something
• 1:12:35
  else. Now don't quote me on this, but
• 1:12:41
  I think I overheard her say something to someone, like she
• 1:12:46
  came from this village called Solien, which is outside Moss
• 1:12:52
  Reach in Savorum Rex. All right.
• 1:12:55
  And I look over to Abe and make sure he's writing that down.
• 1:12:59
  I'm kind of trying to whisper, yeah.
• 1:13:03
  As Drummond says, don't quote this.
• 1:13:06
  Abe is actively quoting, quoting him.
• 1:13:10
  Thank you. Of course, I, I shake his hand.
• 1:13:13
  I, I really hope you guys have safe travels and safe passage to
• 1:13:19
  and behold. You said you were going to and,
• 1:13:21
  and Remington and I will think about you during your travels
• 1:13:25
  and maybe one day our paths will cross again.
• 1:13:28
  If you ever fight in the gladiatorial match in any of the
• 1:13:31
  big cities, who knows, maybe one day we'll be there.
• 1:13:34
  I I hope for that. Thank you.
• 1:13:36
  I look forward to seeing you again, Drummond.
• 1:13:38
  Well, Monos, it's dinner time for me and I think my shift is a
• 1:13:43
  little traumatized from that raw chicken feet jello combo.
• 1:13:47
  So we're just going to have regular chicken at home and
• 1:13:51
  that's going to be great. I I put my hands over Bunty's
• 1:13:55
  ears. Say don't listen to him, Bunty.
• 1:13:58
  Bunty has eaten. Regular.
• 1:14:00
  Of the Bunty has eaten like a third of the victory cake that
• 1:14:04
  was just in the center of town and he.
• 1:14:06
  Goes. I don't feel very good.
• 1:14:09
  It seems like this was big and I only things that are raw.
• 1:14:13
  So I think I might vomit. I pick up Bunty and like speak
• 1:14:19
  it. Don't, don't shake me, Don't
• 1:14:21
  shake me. Bunty, try to transform now.
• 1:14:24
  But don't I carry him quickly over to like a corner
• 1:14:30
  simultaneously shits and vomits at the same time?
• 1:14:37
  Like if you just took a cannoli and squeezed it.
• 1:14:40
  No, that's so fucking Charlie. Why would you say that?
• 1:14:48
  Okay. Think of that next time you eat
• 1:14:50
  a cannoli anyway. Okay, great.
• 1:14:54
  So you guys head out and you guys head.
• 1:14:56
  Out as we're walking away, raise this stuffed animal to
• 1:15:00
  Remington. We kind of wave it as we walk
• 1:15:02
  away. By Mr. A by models.
• 1:15:06
  By Remington. I'm going to say to Bunty and be
• 1:15:08
  like, what's so cool about like being soft and fluffy anyway?
• 1:15:13
  I mean, yeah, it's so much cooler to have like cold, sharp
• 1:15:16
  metal skin or be covered in goop and scales.
• 1:15:18
  Right. No, you're so right dude.
• 1:15:20
  If you're covered in like scales and metal, you probably are like
• 1:15:24
  the coolest motherfucker in the whole world.
• 1:15:27
  Exactly. Like, come on.
• 1:15:29
  And as we're out of eyesight of Remington, I literally say I
• 1:15:32
  shove the stuff bare to you, Bo, and I say put this in the bag of
• 1:15:37
  holding. I don't like soft fluffy things.
• 1:15:41
  Thank you and. Bunty, who was just shit and
• 1:15:44
  vomited everywhere, climbs up and gives you a kiss and puts
• 1:15:47
  his bare ass on your shoulder. I I I gave him a little rub.
• 1:15:51
  As soon as Beau holds it, he realizes why.
• 1:15:53
  It's why people like it. But yeah.
• 1:15:57
  I go to. I go to take it from Beau.
• 1:16:00
  Hold. Excuse me?
• 1:16:02
  Beau really wants it. Awesome.
• 1:16:06
  So you guys head over to the docks and you see two orc women
• 1:16:11
  on a very, very long ship. So one of the orcs is quite tall
• 1:16:16
  with like this lean, athletic build.
• 1:16:18
  She's rigging up the sails and you can tell her she kind of
• 1:16:21
  carries herself with this like loose, effortless confidence.
• 1:16:25
  Her skin is this deep olive marked with pale scars, and her
• 1:16:29
  hair is pulled back into a loose braid with a few strands hanging
• 1:16:32
  down in the front. She's dressed in this loose
• 1:16:34
  white T-shirt with ruffled sleeves, tight pants, high black
• 1:16:38
  boots, a belted sash with fingerless gloves, and a rapier
• 1:16:43
  hangs at her hips. Her tusks are small and she
• 1:16:46
  flashes them every so often as she talks animatedly to the
• 1:16:49
  other orc who is standing by the wheel of the ship.
• 1:16:52
  The other orc woman stands in quiet contrast.
• 1:16:55
  She is shorter, broader, with a sturdy, grounded build.
• 1:17:00
  She looks more stoic and her skin is a softer, muted green
• 1:17:05
  Gray, and her features are rounder, giving her a more
• 1:17:08
  gentle appearance. Her hair is kept short and neat,
• 1:17:11
  tucked behind the ears, and she wears simple clothes, loose
• 1:17:15
  brown pants, a purple tunic, and a weathered leather jacket.
• 1:17:19
  A pair of round gold framed glasses sit on her face as she
• 1:17:22
  studies a map in front of her, and her tusks are quite large.
• 1:17:26
  TA an I pointed the tall one trash point at the the shorter
• 1:17:31
  one. Oh my God, yes, How did you know
• 1:17:34
  I am Tahan? Pleasure to meet you all.
• 1:17:37
  And she extends her hand out of the boat.
• 1:17:39
  You are incredible, what is your name?
• 1:17:42
  How did you know I was Tahan and my girlfriend is Tresh?
• 1:17:44
  How could you tell the difference?
• 1:17:47
  I don't know, just a feeling, I guess that the names, we were
• 1:17:50
  told your names and they kind of fit the vibe.
• 1:17:53
  Also, who are you and why are you here?
• 1:17:55
  We're. We're friends of Peshwari's and
• 1:17:59
  and Drummond's from La Grande's village and they told us that
• 1:18:03
  you could take us to Emberhold. Oh, my God, Yes.
• 1:18:06
  That is where we're heading next.
• 1:18:07
  Please, please come aboard. Trish and I, we love visitors.
• 1:18:13
  And Trish goes. Yeah, visitors are great to
• 1:18:15
  have. I love this.
• 1:18:18
  I was going to do an insight check because I didn't like how
• 1:18:21
  welcoming she was but that the fact that the other one was so
• 1:18:25
  nonchalant. I'm like, no, this is fine, no
• 1:18:27
  this is fine. This is just this is just a bad
• 1:18:29
  ass lesbian couple. And do you have room for
• 1:18:33
  Alexander and the two Jeffs? If those are your horses, then
• 1:18:37
  yes, we have two horses of ours own and they're sitting aboard.
• 1:18:41
  It might be a little tight squeeze, but I'm sure they'll be
• 1:18:43
  fine for a day. So please, please come aboard.
• 1:18:46
  And welcome to the s s Flame Rider.
• 1:18:49
  Oh, that's so sick. And my name is.
• 1:18:52
  My name is Babe. Babe, OK, fuck me.
• 1:18:56
  My name is Benin. Benin.
• 1:18:57
  Great. I'm I'm Ollie.
• 1:18:59
  Ollie and And what about that little guy right there?
• 1:19:02
  My name is David Busters. Sure is.
• 1:19:06
  Yeah, that's our friend David. Well, all of you guys welcome to
• 1:19:10
  our ship and I cannot wait to journey alongside of you.
• 1:19:15
  And that's where we'll end our episode.
• 1:19:16
  Hell yeah. Oh my God.
• 1:19:18
  Oh man, that was a fun one. Good way to wrap it up.
• 1:19:21
  I'm glad it's such a good resolution.
• 1:19:23
  Yeah, I've been so, so attached to this fictional fucking cat
• 1:19:30
  person election and I'm so that it is over with like a pretty
• 1:19:34
  pretty good like kind of best of you know, I can't think of a
• 1:19:39
  much better outcome, I think personally and the fact.
• 1:19:42
  That both of our rolls are 5050 like with advantage.
• 1:19:47
  You guys rolled so high I thought at least one of you
• 1:19:50
  would get a below of 50 and then shoot your pants right?
• 1:19:53
  Like so scared. I thought if we voted, if we did
• 1:19:56
  that last session when I was rolling like crap, yeah.
• 1:20:00
  Oh my. God.
• 1:20:02
  We might have lost the election. I was so I was scared when I was
• 1:20:05
  rolling for Peshwari and Drummond because I I fucked up
• 1:20:08
  the role for Peshwari and I was like, well, I'll probably do
• 1:20:12
  well for her. But if I fuck up the the role
• 1:20:14
  for Drummond, I can always like bring Remington in here and ask
• 1:20:17
  him like Remington was the ace in the hole and we didn't even
• 1:20:20
  use him. But Oh my God the fuck the fact
• 1:20:23
  that I rolled A2 for trying to. Convince so mark down that
• 1:20:26
  you're a heroic inspiration and all lock points are gone for the
• 1:20:30
  rest of the day. Yep.
• 1:20:31
  And you have Remington stuff Bear.
• 1:20:35
  OK, well, yeah, this was honestly pretty great outcome.
• 1:20:38
  Pesuari is the candidate that you won.
• 1:20:40
  Drummond has money and influence.
• 1:20:42
  And, you know, hopefully they'll be able to work together to make
• 1:20:46
  La Grande's village a better place for all.
• 1:20:48
  So great job, guys. Really, really fun story arc.
• 1:20:51
  Thank you. And honestly, and ended better
• 1:20:54
  than the last story arc in scenario where you let a dragon
• 1:20:56
  loose and then fuck the whole city.
• 1:20:58
  So Yep. Yep.
• 1:21:00
  Anyways, if you like the podcast, please make sure to
• 1:21:04
  follow and rate US on Spotify or Apple Music or join us on our
• 1:21:07
  social media for updates, official art and more.
• 1:21:10
  We are on Instagram at Smooth Critical podcast and Blue Sky at
• 1:21:14
  Smooth Critical. I'll see you for next session.
• 1:21:17
  Bye.