Latest / Smooth Critical / C1 Ep.20: ¿Dónde Está la Biblioteca?

Transcript

C1 Ep.20: ¿Dónde Está la Biblioteca? · Smooth Critical

• 0:19
  Welcome back to Smooth Critical. I'm your DM, Avni.
• 0:26
  Avni, are you OK? Avni, are you OK?
• 0:29
  Are you OK, Avni? I am wiggling with excitement
• 0:34
  and since this is voice only, I will narrate that I'm physically
• 0:39
  wiggling on camera right now. She's not.
• 0:41
  She's staying completely still. She's lying to.
• 0:44
  You. She's not.
• 0:45
  Wiggling. She's not wiggling.
• 0:46
  Who? Who are you going to believe, me
• 0:49
  or the three liars? OK, that was super unrelated to
• 0:53
  anything that has happened in this campaign so far.
• 0:56
  So let's kind of just move on and let me introduce you to my
• 0:59
  three gorgeous gladiators. He my.
• 1:03
  It's Abe. Harry.
• 1:04
  Just a casual purchaser of a telescope.
• 1:09
  OK, that's it. That's my character.
• 1:16
  And Charlie. OK, then we will move on to
• 1:19
  Charlie. Bow.
• 1:23
  Brilliant. Are you back in bow form or you
• 1:25
  are you still gumbo at? This point I'm in, I'm in, I'm
• 1:28
  in bow form, but I don't think we've seen the last of gumbo
• 1:31
  lobotomy. I sure hope not.
• 1:34
  He was so charming beyond belief.
• 1:37
  He's he's one of my favorite. Boris on us?
• 1:40
  Yeah. The the episode title for
• 1:42
  episode 19 is gonna just be Gumbo.
• 1:45
  Lobotomy will return in Avengers End Game.
• 1:48
  Avengers Doomsday. Yeah.
• 1:50
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a post credits scene
• 1:54
  with gumbo lobotomy. Let's start our recap.
• 1:59
  You all started in the gladiator pits where Bon and Abe, after
• 2:03
  winning their match, went up to talk to Vaidu.
• 2:06
  Bon kind of put his foot in his mouth with Glorp, which was
• 2:09
  Bon's first strike. Vaidu took pity on Bon and let
• 2:13
  Bon not get thrown off of a Cliff.
• 2:16
  They actually had a really nice conversation, with Abe acting
• 2:19
  pretty normal. Or maybe Vaidu's just super
• 2:22
  crazy. Well we don't know.
• 2:24
  At the same time, Bo met up with Rorick, the guy he fought, and
• 2:28
  the two had a very lovely chat. Rorick informed Bo about how the
• 2:32
  Imperator has low key banned gladiators from worshipping
• 2:35
  Thesmira and instead encouraged worship of Astraxion and
• 2:39
  Dravano. The Monos all left the pit
• 2:41
  together and discussed all of this on their way back to Gale
• 2:44
  Songs. Bond got freaked out by the anti
• 2:47
  thesmira sentiment and frantically looked around,
• 2:49
  spotting A goblin who's following them.
• 2:52
  Abe chased the goblin and wound up in front of the parchment
• 2:54
  store where the door was locked. Abe informed them of what had
• 2:58
  just happened and they stealth back to the Gale Songs and
• 3:00
  chatted before bed. Beau played on his banjo a bit
• 3:04
  before he hit the hay. Abe read some of Johnny's
• 3:07
  journals, which kind of explained how drow were
• 3:10
  introduced into the Gale Song lineage, and Abe also learned to
• 3:13
  meditate a bit. And then in the third room, Bond
• 3:17
  did some drugs. The dream salt somehow merged
• 3:20
  Beau and Bond's brains, where they shared a memory in the
• 3:23
  perspective of Corin's brother, and they were in a bunker.
• 3:27
  Your host was drunk and angry, yelling at Corin about how much
• 3:31
  the family sacrificed for Corin to live.
• 3:34
  Corin was angry about how he didn't ask for this, referring
• 3:37
  to his mechanical body. Both Corin and the host were
• 3:40
  mostly mechanical, and they started shoving each other back
• 3:44
  and forth, and in a fit of anger, Corin destroyed a panel
• 3:47
  inside the bunker they were in, steel doors closed and trapped
• 3:50
  them inside, which is when Bo and Bon woke up.
• 3:54
  At breakfast the next morning, the Monos discussed the journal
• 3:57
  and the memory, and the session ended with them pondering very
• 4:00
  strongly. And that's where we are now,
• 4:04
  guys. I I've been thinking a little
• 4:07
  bit, do you think that the, the, the goblin that was following us
• 4:11
  last night is like, do you think he could be a mind goblin?
• 4:16
  Bond I. That's a mind goblin.
• 4:20
  What's a mind goblin? No, but do you know?
• 4:22
  No, what's a mind goblin? It's the it's like the this type
• 4:28
  of psychic goblin that can go into your your head without you
• 4:31
  even noticing. And I'm wondering if he could
• 4:34
  figure out whether or not like just how deep of a follower of
• 4:39
  the smear I was. Maybe I've never heard of mind
• 4:42
  gobblins have you do? You mind gobbling Deez Nuts,
• 4:45
  Bunty bon? I'm actually very proud of you.
• 4:50
  That was that was very well done.
• 4:52
  He takes this very seriously. Bunty looks away and goes Bo.
• 4:56
  I kind of saw you more as like a brother, so it would be kind of
• 4:59
  weird if I gobbled your nuts. You.
• 5:01
  Think. Huh.
• 5:03
  And I kind of look at the breakfast table like there's no
• 5:06
  nuts around. It's sausage.
• 5:08
  There's eggs. I'm going to sit Abe and Bunty
• 5:11
  down and just explain everything about deenda jokes and Deez Nuts
• 5:17
  jokes. Abe, you know how you're really
• 5:21
  into fitness? I mean, I'm not really, no.
• 5:26
  Why? Why fitness?
• 5:27
  Well, are you, are you really into fitting this Dick in your
• 5:29
  mouth? Do you see what's going on here?
• 5:31
  Do you understand now? I This is incredible, Bo.
• 5:34
  You remember when I used to teach you jokes?
• 5:37
  I know, I know. But I'm confused because are we
• 5:41
  all not like family? It's really inappropriate to be
• 5:44
  doing this. This is.
• 5:46
  Like a really. Strange line for you to be
• 5:49
  drawing. I have to be completely clear on
• 5:50
  that. I appreciate that you're drawing
• 5:52
  this line right now. I'm proud of you, even that
• 5:55
  you're drawing this line. You can shit in front of family,
• 5:58
  but you can't do sexual things with them and that's where I
• 6:01
  draw the line. You know, fair enough.
• 6:03
  I mean, that's actually kind of. Yeah, that's actually an
• 6:06
  incredibly clear line. I look at the madness that I've
• 6:10
  absolutely unleashed. On this table.
• 6:13
  And I say, OK everybody. So there were two things we had
• 6:18
  talked about doing today. We had talked about going to the
• 6:20
  Captain's Club, the shanty, and we had talked about going to the
• 6:24
  library. And then we of course, limb
• 6:27
  upgrades, obviously. If we do go to the shanty, I
• 6:29
  think we well we should keep the letter and the seal close to our
• 6:35
  chest unless we meet the right crowd considering Eric's new.
• 6:41
  Oh yeah. I just we were talking about I.
• 6:43
  Was more thinking of going to the shanty to try to get a
• 6:45
  little bit of insight on like the sentiment around new
• 6:50
  leadership here. But also I think we need to look
• 6:53
  for for Vox. Yeah, that's true.
• 6:58
  And I wasn't thinking about bringing up any of the narrick
• 7:02
  stuff until we got to the address.
• 7:04
  Honestly, I I wouldn't risk it. But if there's an opening and
• 7:09
  maybe I don't know. Speaking of which, I mean, we
• 7:11
  like, what do you want to do that tonight?
• 7:13
  When do you want to visit that? I'm worried.
• 7:17
  I'm worried that the longer we're here, the the more that
• 7:20
  we're going to be sought after and people will start asking
• 7:23
  around. I don't know that that the
• 7:26
  goblin last night really freaked me out a little bit.
• 7:28
  I and you see, I kind of like, I definitely don't have the same
• 7:33
  like spark in my eye as I did yesterday about returning to
• 7:36
  Emberhold and like coming back to the main home.
• 7:38
  I knew on Ignovarum feels like that that embers been kind of
• 7:42
  crushed a little bit by this. Like now I am back in the
• 7:47
  mindset of once again being haunted.
• 7:49
  Yeah. Well, I was going to say like we
• 7:51
  should, we should hide this seal.
• 7:53
  However, if we do go to the shanty and we meet somebody and
• 7:56
  we're like talking to them and we're like, it's a real shame
• 7:59
  what happened to Narricks, you know, and they seem to agree
• 8:03
  with us then perhaps. But it's a good point that we
• 8:07
  should probably just keep it safe until we discover or check
• 8:11
  out the address. I feel like we should probably
• 8:17
  try to disguise ourselves a little bit.
• 8:20
  For sure, but you know Narix is a well known name so we can
• 8:23
  throw the name out there and see like kind.
• 8:25
  Of Test the Waters, yeah. Yeah.
• 8:27
  Independently, just generally leaving Gayle songs today.
• 8:31
  I think we should ask them if we can disguise ourselves if if
• 8:35
  they know that this is where we're staying.
• 8:36
  I mean, we tried to take the back roads last night, so
• 8:38
  hopefully at that point we didn't have eyes on us.
• 8:41
  We could ask them if there's a back exit too.
• 8:44
  I'm just like I do, really. There's something about your
• 8:47
  dream, guys. We we know the only brother we
• 8:50
  know of Corin's was Elias. And then I look at you again,
• 8:52
  Bo. I don't say anything.
• 8:55
  And and we're going to need to look into the GAIL song name and
• 8:57
  and Ball Sewell. And there's a lot there's I want
• 9:00
  to look into the into the Boyd Mommy, I say with a lower voice,
• 9:04
  looking at Bunty. Yeah.
• 9:05
  I just don't want for there to be eyes when we find these
• 9:07
  things out because they could be watching us because whoever they
• 9:10
  are, I don't know. Is it the imperator?
• 9:12
  Is it just Vaidu who's interested in US?
• 9:14
  Is it the domina? I think the answer is all of the
• 9:18
  above. So yeah, we should be.
• 9:20
  We should be careful. Perhaps we take that trip to the
• 9:25
  library. Yeah, I was going to say, do you
• 9:28
  guys want to get like do the limb upgrade stuff first?
• 9:32
  I know you guys were both interested in in new parts and I
• 9:36
  figured, you know, if if we get into anything later today, it
• 9:39
  would be better to have the new parts now than not have them,
• 9:42
  you know? It's like, can we go one day
• 9:44
  without fighting someone? Everyone always just wants to
• 9:47
  fight. But you bring up a good point.
• 9:49
  Bond. Yes.
• 9:50
  So you guys ask Mieleth if there is a a back entrance and he
• 9:58
  shows you a small door that leads to one of kind of like the
• 10:03
  side streets. Bond, you are obviously in
• 10:06
  disguise already. Bo and Abe, did you guys want
• 10:09
  to? Bo, you could just use your hat,
• 10:11
  But Abe, did you want to do something before you headed out
• 10:14
  real quick? Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to
• 10:16
  take the the cloak that I have and like put it into the bag of
• 10:19
  holding and then ask meal if for like a more traditional like
• 10:25
  tunic shirt that I can wear over my my ghee and a pair of shoes
• 10:30
  and just a pair and a hat, something that just like kind of
• 10:33
  obscures what I've got going on underneath.
• 10:36
  Yeah, you talked to Mieleth, he hand you some more like
• 10:39
  Commoner's clothes that he just had laying around and yeah, you
• 10:44
  guys, all three of you are in disguise.
• 10:46
  Bow. How do you want to look like
• 10:48
  with the hat? I am going to look like Jason
• 10:52
  Statham. I don't.
• 10:54
  Know hot? Yeah, but like, you know, that
• 10:58
  kind of rugged, average hot. Incredible.
• 11:02
  Jason Sathem would not appreciate you calling him
• 11:04
  average, but hot is OK. That's how he has built his
• 11:07
  career. I'm just going to say it.
• 11:11
  OK great so you 3 head out and bond.
• 11:16
  You know that there is a limb upgrade shop called the Gantry
• 11:21
  which is kind of the more popular 1 here in Ember hold.
• 11:26
  So you head to the cliff's edge and find the colossal base of
• 11:31
  like an old wartime crane rooted deep into the solid rock like
• 11:36
  right on the edge of this Cliff. The structure is anchored to the
• 11:40
  flat top of the Cliff face and serves as like a massive stone
• 11:43
  and iron chamber with this like waiting area.
• 11:47
  Inside this room is an exposed winch spool the size of like a
• 11:52
  two-story house. Like this is a massive massive
• 11:55
  crane and you think that they probably use this back in the
• 11:59
  old days to lower parts of ships off of the Cliff to go all the
• 12:05
  way down to the bottom when they were building warships.
• 12:08
  So the shop itself though isn't on the Cliff.
• 12:12
  You see the cranes massive iron arm extending a full 100 feet
• 12:17
  straight out over the abyss and dangling from the colossal hook
• 12:20
  at the very end of the cable, suspended like a piece of cargo
• 12:24
  that never got unloaded is a heavily reinforced iron riveted
• 12:28
  box. It looks exactly like as if the
• 12:31
  crane was caught mid job centuries ago, perpetually like
• 12:34
  lowering this crate into the smouldering sea and this
• 12:37
  building just sways there gently.
• 12:40
  To get to it, you have to step out onto the cliffside chamber
• 12:44
  and walk across that really narrow open mesh iron gateway
• 12:48
  that spans like 100 foot empty space.
• 12:51
  Thankfully, Ignovar engineers have bolted the hand hand rails
• 12:56
  on so you guys can kind of like balance your way on, but it is
• 12:59
  once again, not for the faint of heart, as is most of this city
• 13:04
  bond. You remember that Narex kind of
• 13:06
  had a slight aversion to this shop, mostly because of the
• 13:09
  location. But he told you that the woman
• 13:11
  who ran the shop, Cooley, was quick, no nonsense, wouldn't try
• 13:15
  to upcharge you, and was like, you know, straight to the point.
• 13:19
  As we walk in, I sort of explain that to them.
• 13:21
  And I'm like, I, I don't really understand how, you know, she
• 13:24
  can be so precise while the building is swinging.
• 13:27
  But, you know, she's the best around.
• 13:29
  Yeah. I'm just like, what if, what if
• 13:31
  somebody had like a leg or a foot chopped off and they have
• 13:34
  to like, you know, sidestep or log this this long.
• 13:39
  All right, you know she makes it work.
• 13:42
  This is a. Horrible business idea.
• 13:44
  This is so bad. That must explain as we walk in
• 13:49
  I saw your your buy one get one free sign out business must not
• 13:56
  be very good. She looks at you.
• 13:59
  I would never do that. I would never do.
• 14:01
  Buy one, get one free. You must have been looking at
• 14:04
  some A bad place. This is not a bad place.
• 14:06
  This is a nice place. I love this place.
• 14:09
  And you guys have to enter through like a door in like the
• 14:11
  ceiling, like it's hanging off. So you have to like kind of like
• 14:15
  slide your way in. Like you said, if you were
• 14:17
  actually missing a limb. This is like a fucking
• 14:19
  nightmare. I will do your arm.
• 14:22
  I will do your leg. I will do your hand.
• 14:24
  What do you want? Buy me a drink first, am I
• 14:26
  right? I didn't like that.
• 14:30
  Guys, let's be respectful of Cooley actually, and I curtsy
• 14:34
  and I bow. OK.
• 14:37
  Madame, would you? Mind, I don't like that.
• 14:40
  Cooley, I would like my hand done.
• 14:42
  OK, Hand and I and I kind of level what, what are you at now?
• 14:46
  Can I look? At I would like a level two
• 14:47
  hand. I'm at a level 1 right now.
• 14:48
  I'm show her my hand the the right hand that is the newer
• 14:53
  prosthetic. Awesome, I'm.
• 14:54
  Going to look at Abe and I'm going to say, Abe, what do you
• 14:56
  want? No nonsense.
• 14:57
  Level 2 arm. Level 2 arm.
• 14:59
  Be quick with it. This is like a deli.
• 15:01
  OK, I'm going to put my apprentice on you.
• 15:04
  She points at Abe and the two of you get your arm and your hands
• 15:10
  done. So a level 2.
• 15:13
  Hand all right, fuck it, fuck it, level two leg hell.
• 15:16
  Yeah, Hell yeah. Let's.
• 15:18
  Go, I mean, I mean, that's great.
• 15:22
  OK, that's fine with me. She says that she looks at you.
• 15:25
  OK, so that is 750 for each of those.
• 15:29
  Bow is trying not to be super energetic around her, but he's
• 15:33
  hype about everybody getting matching Petty's and Manny.
• 15:38
  So bon, your walking speed now increases by 5 feet, huge for
• 15:44
  the hand bow. You now have advantage on
• 15:47
  Sleight of Hand and Abe with that level 2 arm.
• 15:52
  You gain advantage on contested strength or dex checks 'cause
• 15:56
  you're a monk involving that arm.
• 15:57
  So like grapples, shoves, etcetera.
• 16:00
  Nice. I didn't ask about it ahead of
• 16:02
  time, but I'm assuming not. But you know, with my mage hand
• 16:05
  I can make Sleight of Hand checks away from me, but since
• 16:09
  that isn't the upgraded hand, I assume that that doesn't count,
• 16:12
  right? Really great question.
• 16:15
  I'm going to say that that does count.
• 16:18
  You're controlling it with like, sure, yeah, yeah.
• 16:22
  Your hand kind of, you know, it's part of you.
• 16:24
  I would, I would say that it counts.
• 16:25
  It's using your stats, so why wouldn't it?
• 16:27
  Sure. OK, cool.
• 16:29
  Awesome. Awesome so a few hours later it
• 16:31
  is now around noon ish. You guys head out of the shop.
• 16:38
  She didn't ask you at all colors of non she just she just made it
• 16:41
  out of steel and sent you on your way.
• 16:44
  She did not care. And Bo didn't try to haggle.
• 16:47
  Incredible. So very easy, very simple.
• 16:51
  You guys exit the shop the whole time that the the store was
• 16:55
  swaying and Cooley when she was doing Bo's hand was very, you
• 17:00
  know, she was on top of it. Her two apprentices that were
• 17:04
  doing Bon and Abe were a little more shaky, especially when high
• 17:09
  winds hit the store and they swung back and forth.
• 17:11
  You heard things clatter, but you know, no permanent damage.
• 17:15
  You guys seem fine. Guys, this place rocks.
• 17:19
  Yep. Let's go.
• 17:20
  Yeah. And I, and I'm like, I'm
• 17:25
  whispering the mantra. Inhale the boundless sky exhaled
• 17:28
  heavy stone. Inhaled boundless sky exhaled
• 17:30
  heavy stone. Awesome, so you 4 head back out
• 17:37
  and get back on solid ground. Are you guys heading over to the
• 17:42
  library now or what's the plan? Yeah, do we all just have like,
• 17:45
  matching shiny Chrome appendages now?
• 17:48
  Yep, yeah, just just simple steal right now.
• 17:51
  Your hand, your arm and your leg looking good.
• 17:56
  So it was just an upgrade. So the whole thing wasn't, it
• 17:58
  didn't have to be replaced, it was just minor parts of it so
• 18:02
  that you could get that upgrade. So it's not like the whole thing
• 18:04
  got replaced. There was just a lot of tweaking
• 18:07
  and maybe some extra parts added on to it.
• 18:09
  So those parts are all steel right now.
• 18:11
  Cool. So you guys, feeling good,
• 18:15
  feeling fresh, decide to head to the library.
• 18:20
  So actually very close by and perched precariously on the
• 18:24
  absolute edge of the Cliff is the Ember Hold public archives.
• 18:28
  It acts as a physical bridge between the split societies of
• 18:31
  the city. Because of its unique location,
• 18:34
  both the Cliff faces who navigate the narrow switchbacks
• 18:37
  below and the overlookers can access the library with equal ES
• 18:41
  from the top tier. Which is where you guys are are
• 18:44
  the library looks like a monolithic sweeping structure of
• 18:48
  weathered white granite and dark basalt designed to mimic the
• 18:51
  prow of a massive merchant's galleon thrusting out over the
• 18:56
  open ocean. There is a grand pristine stone
• 18:59
  Plaza leading to its upper entrance, where wealthy scholars
• 19:03
  and city officials and whoever enter through towering brass
• 19:06
  doors etched with celestial charts.
• 19:09
  However, if you look down the vertical face of the Cliff, the
• 19:12
  building is anchored directly into the rock using massive
• 19:16
  stepped foundation of iron reinforced stone.
• 19:20
  Carved straight into the Cliff side itself is the secondary
• 19:22
  lower entrance which is heavily weathered salt crusted archway
• 19:26
  which is accessible by pedestrians on those switch back
• 19:29
  roads and ladders and stuff like that which allows dockworkers,
• 19:32
  sailors and citizens to slip inside without ever having to
• 19:36
  step foot on the flat part of the Cliff.
• 19:39
  You guys take the main entrance, which is just like
• 19:42
  architecturally stunning. Like this whole thing just looks
• 19:45
  like a giant ship. And there's like that giant
• 19:48
  Plaza. And when you step inside, the
• 19:51
  library really embraces its identity as like, like a major
• 19:56
  part of like the port city. The main hall is vast and
• 20:00
  cavernous. Shaped like the inverted hull of
• 20:03
  like our gargantuan Leviathan ship, there is massive curved
• 20:07
  ribs of polished dark oak arch overhead and meeting the spine
• 20:12
  of reinforced brass. There are very few solid walls
• 20:15
  facing the sea. Instead there are immense floor
• 20:18
  to ceiling stained glass windows that overlook the smoldering
• 20:22
  sea. The glass is tinted in deep
• 20:24
  ocean Blues, seafoam greens, and like warm red and orange colors.
• 20:29
  The floor right now is eerily, eerily quiet.
• 20:34
  I pause as we walk in, slow down my steps, and I kind of say to
• 20:38
  you guys, I mean, they never mentioned it, but I wonder if my
• 20:42
  parents ever came here on their way to scenario.
• 20:48
  And I kind of look around. Hey, they they were they were
• 20:51
  traveling around the world in search of knowledge, just like
• 20:54
  you. Abe, I think you're you're
• 20:56
  walking in their footsteps. Kind of not at that.
• 20:59
  Look around to see if there's any like bookkeepers or
• 21:03
  attendance or anything like that.
• 21:05
  Yeah, You see that there is like a head librarian desk.
• 21:09
  You don't see much anyone else in here right now, it seems It's
• 21:14
  a work day. It's like a Tuesday, so no one's
• 21:16
  really at the library at noon. And this no man is sitting at
• 21:22
  the desk. He has dark black hair that kind
• 21:26
  of sweeps over his face and he's got thick black eyeliner and you
• 21:30
  see the name tag, says Head librarian Jerry.
• 21:34
  Jerry, hi. As we walk up to the desk, Jerry
• 21:40
  and I read his name tag. Hey, what's up?
• 21:47
  We're and I kind of look back at you guys and I widened my eyes.
• 21:51
  Thumbs up. And I turn back and I'm nodding
• 21:55
  and I'm like, we are trying to learn some things today.
• 21:58
  Yeah, we're trying to learn some things.
• 22:01
  I mean, that's what a library is for, so like obviously.
• 22:08
  Do you do you like working here? I love this place.
• 22:12
  Can I insight check in? Yeah, go for it.
• 22:17
  Is 16. He loves this place.
• 22:19
  This is just his general demeanor.
• 22:21
  OK, I kind of shrug at that. I get the feeling that he loves
• 22:23
  this place more than he loves other people.
• 22:27
  We are looking to, we are trying to find some family names, some
• 22:34
  really old names. And then also we're looking into
• 22:38
  like deities, you know, theology, things of that nature,
• 22:42
  other like places where we could find really old primary sources
• 22:47
  that would be great. Like I'm I'm really into primary
• 22:49
  sources. We all are.
• 22:52
  And I and I motion my hands big. Put my thumbs up again.
• 22:58
  Primary sources. I whispered a bow.
• 23:01
  I've never been in a library before.
• 23:07
  So glad we're work together on this.
• 23:09
  You guys like do the Dewey Decimal system or what?
• 23:11
  What's? Who's Dewey?
• 23:15
  You know, it was taught the Dewey Decimal System at a very
• 23:19
  young age. Yeah.
• 23:20
  Do you guys do the dragon decimal system or?
• 23:22
  It's the. It's the Louis decimal system
• 23:25
  actually. Louis yeah, yes.
• 23:28
  Louie, Louie, I knew that. And I look back at you guys, I I
• 23:30
  knew that. I just a slip of the tongue.
• 23:33
  I mean like. Thumbs up.
• 23:35
  Lots of like we don't have lots of like primary sources, like
• 23:40
  the really like, you know, cool, exciting, like unique stuff.
• 23:47
  We don't really like keep here at the library.
• 23:50
  A lot of it gets sent to the Imperator who then kind of
• 23:54
  decides what to do with it. But we have like like general
• 23:58
  books. Do you guys have a place where
• 24:01
  you might keep things that might then get sent to the imperator?
• 24:04
  Like is there a place like that? I'm like about the exciting
• 24:08
  things. I'm just curious, like if you
• 24:09
  have them in holding here before they go get sent out, that
• 24:14
  sounds like a fun thing to research, right?
• 24:16
  Like, like you're you're a researcher.
• 24:18
  It seems it's you'd like knowledge.
• 24:19
  No, I just like YA fiction books.
• 24:24
  And I kind of Have you ever heard of The Fault in Our Many
• 24:29
  Stars? Bunty, have you heard of that?
• 24:35
  Oh my God, yeah, I read it. So there's two people and I
• 24:39
  think they're both dying or something, and then they fall in
• 24:41
  love. I cried a lot.
• 24:43
  When did you read that? OK, interesting.
• 24:45
  So we're where is this book? Oh, it's like it's in the YA
• 24:50
  fiction section if you're curious.
• 24:54
  Do you do you have a library card?
• 24:55
  Or you can just read it here, You just can't take it out.
• 24:59
  I look at AB and Bond. Do we have time?
• 25:04
  And wait one second, but one second.
• 25:09
  So so before you take my friend to that section with the, with
• 25:13
  the, that's how many. Stars, you can just read the
• 25:15
  signs if he wants. Yeah, it says.
• 25:18
  Could we go back to fiction? Really big.
• 25:21
  Yes, that's great. Thank you so much, Jerry.
• 25:23
  You really know your way around this place.
• 25:25
  Yeah. It's like talking with an AI
• 25:28
  bot. It's such an AI response.
• 25:34
  What a great suggestion, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't.
• 25:39
  If you want to hash things out, throw some ideas my way, just
• 25:43
  let me know. I'm here for you man.
• 25:47
  Could you could we go back to that thing about the books that
• 25:50
  get sent to Scenarium? Yeah, so sometimes there are
• 25:57
  books. Well, there's two types of
• 25:59
  books. I don't know if I should be
• 26:02
  telling you this. Give me a persuasion check.
• 26:06
  Yeah, before I do that, I'm gonna just try to be like I am.
• 26:11
  Just there's something about reading a new thing that just
• 26:16
  gets me going, Jerry, you know? And I raised my eyebrows on it
• 26:21
  and it's a really, it's a really hard thing to come by, Jerry.
• 26:25
  It's a unfortunately it's with disadvantage now.
• 26:29
  Oh my God. You, you, you made it perverted
• 26:32
  and creepy. You ain't got that Willow Wind
• 26:37
  rizz, bud. Yeah, OK.
• 26:39
  It's gonna be a 15. That's pretty good.
• 26:42
  Yeah, it's not bad. Even with the -1 that's that's
• 26:44
  pretty good. I hope it's good enough though.
• 26:48
  We'll see. Abe with disadvantage and a -1
• 26:51
  roles better than me with like +9.
• 26:54
  Unfortunate. Yeah.
• 26:57
  Well, there's like books that we like store that sometimes, like
• 27:06
  once every so often some of the like imperidors guards come and
• 27:13
  they just like deal with the books.
• 27:15
  Sometimes they take it back to him and sometimes they just, you
• 27:20
  know, burn him up or whatever. Is there any like specific place
• 27:26
  where they burn the books 'cause obviously you know they don't
• 27:28
  want to be doing it around the other books?
• 27:29
  Oh yeah, I mean, just like where, you know, we store it and
• 27:34
  whatever. Yeah, and just to be like super
• 27:37
  clear about that previous thing I said about books, like it's
• 27:40
  not that it's not like a it's not a sexual thing.
• 27:44
  It's more like I. Mean whatever gets.
• 27:46
  You going No, no, no, no, like I, I fall into a really deep
• 27:49
  depression and and the and the books and finding out new things
• 27:52
  like that's what keeps me going in life.
• 27:54
  I mean I'm on SSR is you could be too.
• 27:57
  Yeah, whatever. Like, yeah, whatever floats your
• 28:01
  boat I guess. But this is what does it for me.
• 28:05
  OK, so what's the question? Like where do you where where
• 28:09
  where are those books kept? That would be great.
• 28:12
  This is. So I can't tell you that.
• 28:16
  Why not? I thought we were.
• 28:17
  We had a good thing going here, Jerry.
• 28:19
  You like? I like books.
• 28:22
  I like why I? Gave a message.
• 28:24
  I'm going to step behind his back and and like, message him
• 28:27
  and just say and hail the boundless guy, exhaled heavy
• 28:31
  stone. Yeah, I kind of closed my eyes.
• 28:35
  If you like tell me what you're like kind of looking for a
• 28:39
  little more specifically, I can like lead you in like the right
• 28:44
  direction or something. I think we are interested in
• 28:48
  some like family trees, significant family names, you
• 28:54
  know, cut those kinds of records and histories and stuff like
• 28:57
  that. I'm also, you know, we didn't
• 28:59
  mention it. I'm a little bit curious about
• 29:02
  just the science behind prosthetics.
• 29:05
  You know, as you can see, we're all sporting some.
• 29:08
  And I was curious like what's the difference between using one
• 29:12
  metal or alloy, alloy versus another one?
• 29:16
  Yeah. So for that we have like a like,
• 29:20
  if you look over there and he points like far to the right he
• 29:23
  goes. There's a staircase that leads
• 29:25
  down it to like a, there's like this really small room with like
• 29:29
  books about artificers and stuff.
• 29:31
  I mean, most of the artifices are books we send to the Academy
• 29:36
  of Artifice and whatever so that they can like have it.
• 29:39
  But there's some books down there that you could like look
• 29:43
  at if you're interested. I think there's one called Flesh
• 29:48
  and Forge Arcane Conductivity by Lollith Bridgemore or something
• 29:53
  that. Was very specific, Jerry.
• 29:56
  Yeah, well, I've worked at the library like my whole life or
• 29:59
  whatever. Fair enough.
• 30:01
  All right. And then for like family history
• 30:05
  and stuff, there's like some records that you could like look
• 30:11
  through. Are there a lot of people or
• 30:14
  last names you're looking for? I can help.
• 30:17
  Have they ever written books or something?
• 30:23
  Are we all just going to stare at each other or?
• 30:26
  I'm not making eye contact with you, Jerry.
• 30:28
  I'm actually not making eye contact.
• 30:29
  All right, I'll be, I'll be, I'm going to be, I'm going to be
• 30:31
  real with you, Jerry. Yeah.
• 30:34
  Do you know the pup? The what is it called?
• 30:37
  GAIL Songs or whatever it is. Like no.
• 30:43
  Well, it's a pup in this town and and they have this painting
• 30:46
  and they're not really sure about its origins.
• 30:48
  So we're just looking to see if we can find any information
• 30:51
  about that name. Gayle Song just as a personal,
• 30:55
  you know, kind of present for the owners of this pub, which
• 30:59
  are are friends of ours. Gayle song like doesn't sound
• 31:04
  familiar to me. I haven't read like the whole
• 31:08
  book on like families or whatever.
• 31:12
  So you can like look. We saw a brief mention of it
• 31:15
  like also in regards to a Skylark family, if that rings
• 31:20
  any bells. No.
• 31:23
  Are there more? There was like a there was a
• 31:25
  Kai, There was a Kai in there. No more.
• 31:31
  Balsu. Is that a last name or a first
• 31:34
  name? That was a that was a first
• 31:36
  name, I think, but other last there was like an Everlore.
• 31:40
  Oh yeah. Yeah.
• 31:42
  Everlore. Oh.
• 31:44
  Yeah. Yeah, there's a book called
• 31:48
  Forming the Wild 3D Artistry through Vine and Stone by Island
• 31:54
  Everlore. OK, interesting.
• 31:57
  Well, well, let me guess. We'll start there.
• 31:59
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you so much, Jerry.
• 32:03
  Thank you. And I and I curtsy and I bow.
• 32:05
  He's sitting on his desk right now and you see next to him is
• 32:10
  like the giant ship's wheel and he kind of like leans over on it
• 32:15
  and it starts slightly spinning a little bit and he kind of just
• 32:19
  like jerks away from it. Everyone give me a perception
• 32:23
  check. Bo do this with advantage. 18.
• 32:31
  19. 12. So Bo and Bon, you hear that as
• 32:37
  the wheel starts spinning. You hear like a click every so
• 32:43
  often. And Bo, this reminds you of like
• 32:46
  kind of when you were like picking locks.
• 32:49
  Kind of like a safe. You're yeah, something that
• 32:52
  opened something. Interesting, very interesting.
• 32:55
  OK. Dawn.
• 32:56
  There's another thing, Jerry. Actually, have you ever heard
• 32:59
  of? Like the dawn of stars.
• 33:02
  Yeah, it's like one of those like monk orders or whatever,
• 33:07
  right. Like the astral self monks or
• 33:09
  whatever. Yeah.
• 33:11
  There's like a book, What's it called?
• 33:14
  It's called like the Splintered Mirror, A History of the
• 33:18
  Projected Soul by like Talvid Kez.
• 33:22
  He gives you the location. OK, OK, OK.
• 33:24
  Where both the books are. Yeah.
• 33:26
  Cool. Yeah.
• 33:27
  You see the upper balcony, which like you have to like use one of
• 33:30
  those like ladders that kind of swings around like the whole
• 33:33
  room very fancy will lead you to an upper balcony and that he
• 33:37
  says it has the the splintered mirror book.
• 33:40
  And on this main floor over to the left is the book by Island
• 33:46
  Everlore got you. And then of course the one for
• 33:49
  bow is in the sub basement. And I'm going to tap a real
• 33:53
  quick and ask him to pull out a sketch he did of Vox.
• 33:58
  Yeah, I, I will. Have you, has this guy come in
• 34:02
  here recently? He went missing and we're just
• 34:05
  kind of looking for our friend. Does he have like a library
• 34:08
  card? I look over at Abe.
• 34:11
  Maybe. OK, well what's his name?
• 34:14
  I can look through our physical database of library cards or
• 34:18
  something. It's Fox RM.
• 34:23
  OK, well get get back to me in like an hour or so.
• 34:28
  OK. Thank you.
• 34:29
  Thank you. As we step away from the desk,
• 34:33
  you mentioned they're, they're pretty quiet here, right?
• 34:36
  There's not a lot of people around.
• 34:37
  It's just. Yeah, just seems to be it
• 34:39
  honestly, right now it seems like Jerry and you guys.
• 34:43
  Got you. I kind of pull you guys into a
• 34:45
  shelf nearby or like sort of towards one of the directions of
• 34:50
  the the the book by Everlore, which is on the main floor.
• 34:55
  And as you're walking, get out of earshot having a crazy idea.
• 34:59
  But what if we just tell him everything, guys?
• 35:01
  He doesn't see him outright, you know, like bad.
• 35:05
  But I don't know if we should necessarily because like, if
• 35:08
  somebody comes in later and he tells them, yeah, there were
• 35:11
  these people that were asking all these questions about these
• 35:14
  names and stuff like that. Like it, it could be, it could
• 35:17
  be risky, I don't know. It's also not necessarily just
• 35:21
  risky for us, but giving other people this information could be
• 35:24
  risky for them and we have to consider letting him in on our
• 35:27
  secrets could put his life in danger.
• 35:30
  Yeah, I'm just like talking around these things with people
• 35:34
  that are supposed to be like beacons of knowledge.
• 35:37
  Like I always imagined that someone at a library, like a
• 35:40
  real library like, would support these queries that we have.
• 35:44
  And instead he just is interested in YA novels.
• 35:48
  The way novel was really good. Ponty I know, but it's like if
• 35:52
  you work in the library of Emberhold, like look at this
• 35:55
  place. And then I kind of look around
• 35:57
  again and it's like seriously, like you're not going to.
• 36:01
  It's this is my parents had so many people turn them away from
• 36:06
  finding out the things they wanted to find.
• 36:07
  I know what we're looking for is here.
• 36:09
  If we could just figure out where that space is, where they
• 36:12
  keep those books that go to the Imperator or get burned.
• 36:15
  I'll tell you what, you, you guys do your research.
• 36:19
  I'm going to take a look around with my detect magic and see if
• 36:22
  I can find anywhere that's interesting.
• 36:24
  There's got to be something here.
• 36:25
  Maybe I can also keep an eye out for any guards or anything.
• 36:28
  I see that's kind of funky. That's a good idea, yeah.
• 36:32
  So let's start with bow Bow, Are you going to head down to the
• 36:37
  sub basement? Yes.
• 36:39
  OK, incredible. So you head over to the
• 36:43
  staircase that leads down with this very, very small room, and
• 36:47
  you pulled a heavily singed leather tome off the shelf,
• 36:51
  titled Flesh and Forge Arcane Conductivity by Lawless
• 36:55
  Bridgemore. You see it's covered in dust and
• 36:57
  looks like no one has really read this since it arrived.
• 37:01
  And flipping through the thick parchment, you find an entire
• 37:03
  chapter dedicated to artificial limbs and the arcane property of
• 37:07
  metals. The author very plainly states
• 37:11
  that steel, brass, and silver are the foundational metals of
• 37:14
  modern augmentation. They are incredibly eager to
• 37:17
  hold magical charges. Steel is strong and
• 37:20
  mathematically rigid, brass is perfect for intricate spinning
• 37:23
  clock works, and silver practically like begs to act as
• 37:27
  a conduit for spells. That is one of the more highly
• 37:29
  magical ones. Any journeyman artificer can
• 37:32
  carve a rune into brass and kind of make a finger twitch.
• 37:35
  Like very basic artificers can do this, but then you read this
• 37:39
  highly critical, heavily footnoted section on bronze.
• 37:43
  Or the author writes bronze is a stubborn lifeless metal.
• 37:46
  Modern guilds and imperial engineers abandoned its
• 37:50
  centuries ago as it actively resists traditional arcane
• 37:54
  imbuing. You cannot simply carve an
• 37:56
  equation or rune into bronze and expect it to move.
• 38:00
  It rejects the arcane. However, text I have read said
• 38:04
  that it was once achieved. There was a seamless, impossible
• 38:07
  integration of bronze and human flesh, a craft we cannot
• 38:11
  replicate today. Why?
• 38:13
  Because modern artificers treat bronze as a machine.
• 38:17
  They used to treat it as bone. To successfully imbue bronze,
• 38:21
  the Creator must possess A profound, almost spiritual
• 38:25
  understanding of the flesh they are replacing and exactly why
• 38:29
  they are making it. Bronze does not conduct raw
• 38:32
  power, It conducts life. It requires a mastery of
• 38:36
  vitality. You cannot force magic into
• 38:38
  bronze. It must be coaxed.
• 38:40
  It must be breathed into it. And as you're reading that, give
• 38:44
  me an insight check. 14. You kind of get the feeling that
• 38:49
  this author, Lollith Bridgemore, is definitely alluding to some
• 38:53
  like maybe some like Lost Empire texts that she read when she
• 38:57
  talks about in the past they were able to integrate bronze in
• 39:01
  human flesh. And that's pretty much what you
• 39:03
  get from it. I'm trying to Bo doesn't know
• 39:07
  library etiquette. I'm trying to think of a reason
• 39:10
  why Bo wouldn't just like, RIP these pages out.
• 39:14
  I mean, yeah, you want to give me like a investigation check to
• 39:17
  make sure there's nothing watching or whatever?
• 39:20
  Sure 14 Yep. You don't.
• 39:24
  You don't see anything that would stop you from taking these
• 39:26
  pages. I'm.
• 39:27
  Just going to hold on to the book for now and I'll I'll
• 39:29
  reconvene with with the others. We're going to go to Abe next.
• 39:36
  Abe, which one do you want to go to 1st, The monk stuff or the
• 39:41
  ever lure stuff? Ever lure O you go to the book
• 39:45
  titled Forming the Wild 3D Artistry through Vine and Stone.
• 39:49
  So you pull this like gorgeous oversized portfolio from the
• 39:53
  shelf. It is an art book filled with
• 39:55
  intricate sketches, architectural schematics and
• 39:58
  journals detailing how to use living nature, flora, roots,
• 40:03
  volcanic stone XYZ to create sprawling 3 dimensional living
• 40:08
  sculptures. When you're flipping through it,
• 40:10
  it's very nice, but you finally flip to the front page and you
• 40:14
  see this deeply personal dedication written.
• 40:18
  This work is dedicated first to my grandparents, Cass, who has
• 40:21
  passed beyond the veil. Cass was an incredible artist, a
• 40:25
  soul who taught me that fame and worldly glory were nothing but
• 40:28
  passing smoke, and that a true Creator must only make the
• 40:31
  things they feel from deeply within their own heart.
• 40:34
  And to my grandmother Lauren, who became Cass's eternal muse
• 40:38
  and the singular reason? The ever your family grew so
• 40:40
  close, loving and strong. Lauren was a cleric of Silvira.
• 40:44
  She was the one who healed cast his broken heart all those years
• 40:47
  ago, acting as the gentle glue that held our entire lives
• 40:50
  together. I will miss them both deeply.
• 40:53
  And as you finish getting those words out, you hear where you
• 40:58
  see Bunty's eyes go wide and he starts gripping his head and he
• 41:03
  goes. My heart was only broken because
• 41:07
  of me. What?
• 41:08
  And like the words kind of just slip out and as as soon as they
• 41:12
  happen, he starts heavy crying. Like really heavy crying.
• 41:16
  Wait. Bunty, bunty, bunty.
• 41:17
  And I And I put the book down and I kind of kneel down and I
• 41:19
  take him off my shoulder and I'm like, kind of holding him like a
• 41:23
  baby but low to the ground as he's crying.
• 41:26
  Bunty, Bunty, Bunty, it's OK. What What did you just say?
• 41:29
  What? What What did I say that?
• 41:31
  What do you mean? Did you know I?
• 41:33
  Don't know why I'm sad and I don't really understand what I
• 41:36
  mean sometimes I don't know what it means.
• 41:39
  I'm so confused. These memories they sometimes of
• 41:43
  these feelings are cast. I broke a heart cast.
• 41:48
  I don't know what it means. And he starts.
• 41:50
  Like a bunty bunty, bunty just. And I start saying inhale the
• 41:54
  boundless sky, exhale the heavy stone, inhale the boundless sky,
• 42:00
  exhale the heavy stone. And I kind of rubbed him
• 42:02
  soothingly a bit. Yeah, he starts to take some
• 42:06
  deep breaths in and out and seems to calm down quite a bit
• 42:10
  when you say that. As he's kind of like
• 42:13
  recuperating, I just quickly jot down in my notebook exactly what
• 42:18
  was written in the in the last section that I read out loud,
• 42:22
  just so I have it in my journal. And then I turn back to Bunty
• 42:25
  and I say, so you knew. And listen, I'm not.
• 42:29
  No one's going to be mad at you about this.
• 42:30
  And I know that your memory is fragmented, so if you can't
• 42:33
  remember, that's OK. I mean, look at Bo.
• 42:36
  And I kind of like whispered that because even though he's
• 42:38
  not nearby, but I'm like, he doesn't know anything that
• 42:40
  happened to him like beyond a couple months ago.
• 42:43
  Like it's OK to not remember things.
• 42:45
  We're clearly going to figure it out and emotion around the
• 42:47
  library. That's why we're here.
• 42:49
  I. Know but like when you read
• 42:53
  Johnny's journals earlier we heard Cass his name like I
• 42:57
  didn't feel anything like nothing nothing happened and
• 43:00
  then. But they didn't.
• 43:01
  I don't think that they mentioned Lauren along with Cass
• 43:05
  and and about her broken heart. Yeah, I know.
• 43:09
  I got this feeling that I was supposed to be the one there,
• 43:13
  not Lauren. I was supposed to be the one,
• 43:15
  you know? Do you ever feel that that
• 43:18
  something was meant for you and it didn't happen?
• 43:22
  I mean, yeah, like, I was. And I kind of get a little quiet
• 43:26
  thinking about how, like, I mean, I wasn't supposed to have
• 43:28
  Bunty and my parents should still be around and Alphonse
• 43:32
  shouldn't be crazy and let the life that was ripped from me.
• 43:35
  But I can't say that all out loud to him, but I think he can
• 43:38
  probably sense what I'm feeling. But I say, but that's a little
• 43:42
  pat. On the butt.
• 43:43
  What we could have done or what we what we could have had is not
• 43:48
  worth thinking about all that much, Bunty.
• 43:52
  We just got to move forward. It's hard to move forward when
• 43:55
  you keep getting these like emotions.
• 43:58
  I know, but like like you said, inhale the boundless sky, exhale
• 44:05
  the heavy stone. I did say that I'm super cool.
• 44:09
  Yeah, you are buddy. You are OK.
• 44:12
  Yeah, I am super cool. You are super cool and these.
• 44:15
  Do you think you can make me sunglasses?
• 44:17
  But it just has one little thing from my eye.
• 44:20
  Yeah, yeah. That's kind of off topic, but
• 44:22
  yeah, we can definitely get that done.
• 44:23
  We can definitely get that done when we get out of here.
• 44:26
  Cool, I don't want anyone to know that I've been crying.
• 44:29
  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why don't you, do you want to
• 44:32
  like get a little bit under the? Do you want to wear the hat like
• 44:35
  he does? He have his tricorn right now?
• 44:37
  Yeah, he's wearing a full tiger hat right now.
• 44:39
  OK, OK. I'm just so you can just kind of
• 44:40
  like you can just kind of bring it down a little bit, cover your
• 44:43
  eyes, put a little shade over them because right now I can't
• 44:45
  get you sunglasses in here. Like I don't know that they have
• 44:48
  a sunglasses shop in the library, but.
• 44:50
  No Sunglass Hut. No, and I feel like you're
• 44:53
  asking for a custom job. Yeah, that's fair.
• 44:56
  OK, I'll put the hat down. Yeah.
• 44:58
  OK, can we leave this this. This should have made me sad.
• 45:00
  Let's go somewhere. Yeah, but listen, listen, next
• 45:04
  time you remember something, it's OK.
• 45:05
  If it's unsettling, just let that pass, you know?
• 45:10
  Like, let it you can talk to me about it.
• 45:11
  You can tell me, you can cry about it.
• 45:13
  It's fine. And you can do that with Bon and
• 45:15
  Bo as well. I'm sure they they they wouldn't
• 45:19
  mind. Thank you baby, I love you.
• 45:21
  Love you too, Bunty. And then we kind of make our way
• 45:24
  to the to the upper section through the.
• 45:26
  Ladder So you head up to the upper section and get the book
• 45:31
  The Splintered Mirror A History of the Projected Soul by Talvid
• 45:34
  Kez. This book actually explains
• 45:38
  astral self monks pretty well. I mean you understand most of
• 45:41
  it. It talks about the physical
• 45:43
  transformations that you have already gone through and stuff
• 45:46
  like that. It also explains that the Donna
• 45:50
  Stars was an ordered that emerged long ago as a faction of
• 45:55
  the astral self monks. It actually lists 4 primary
• 45:58
  astral self factions. The Order of the Dawn of Stars
• 46:01
  is of course one of them, the Order of the Wave Riders, the
• 46:04
  Order of the Iron Knuckles, and the Order of the Night Watch.
• 46:08
  So the book notes that the Wave Riders are astral self monks who
• 46:13
  are adventurers, right? The Iron Knuckles are astral
• 46:17
  self monks who are more fighters.
• 46:20
  They they actively enjoy the gladiator pit.
• 46:22
  They find peace and solace through fighting.
• 46:25
  And then the Dawn of Stars and the Night Watch.
• 46:28
  There's not a lot on it. It seems very secretive.
• 46:31
  Their ultimate goals are shrouded kind of in mystery.
• 46:34
  It says that the Night Watch is explicitly noted as the
• 46:37
  smallest, most reclusive order of the bunch.
• 46:40
  But the book does say that there is this rivalry between the
• 46:44
  Order of the Night Watch and the Order of the Dawn of Stars.
• 46:48
  Besides that, the text notes that traditional monk orders
• 46:52
  like the way of the open hand shadow for elements.
• 46:55
  The other ones, not the astral self.
• 46:57
  They're deeply hesitant to ally with the astral self monks
• 47:01
  because most like monk traditions, they're highly
• 47:04
  unified. They share a singular philosophy
• 47:07
  and stuff like that. And the only subcategory of
• 47:11
  monks, the astral self monks, are the ones that are deeply
• 47:14
  fractured into rival factions that kind of refuse to merge and
• 47:18
  have that one mind philosophy. And that's kind of what you get
• 47:22
  from that. There is no talk about the void
• 47:25
  Mommy, specifically how one joins the Order of the Dawn of
• 47:30
  Stars. There's no discussion on that.
• 47:32
  It's just more of like an observational book about astral
• 47:36
  self monks. Yeah, I, I, I kind of take
• 47:40
  intermittent notes as I'm, as I'm reading about all of these,
• 47:44
  like key points, like these are definitely things I didn't know
• 47:46
  about the factions or anything like that, but feeling
• 47:50
  comfortable in the notes I've taken down, I put the book back.
• 47:53
  Great. Yeah, you're part of a really,
• 47:55
  really fractured monk category, you know, with Astral Self.
• 47:59
  And the concept of the night watch the Night Watchers is
• 48:04
  interesting. All right, Bon, you're walking
• 48:06
  around this library. Yeah, I, I like pick up just
• 48:12
  kind of like a random book from from like the top top seller's
• 48:16
  shelf. I pick up fight prey Lust, just
• 48:21
  flipping through it kind of loosely.
• 48:23
  Oh wow, This this woman's vacation was crazy.
• 48:27
  Yeah. As I'm trying to like sneakily
• 48:30
  cast detect magic. She went to Zinnia's Rest in
• 48:33
  Civil Warm Rex and found herself.
• 48:36
  OK. So you cast detect Magic and you
• 48:38
  see little like bits of magic all around the library, just
• 48:43
  like sometimes on books, like little bindings of books or
• 48:46
  whatever, like something was cast to help keep them together
• 48:49
  or random stuff. You see a lot of magic was used
• 48:54
  to holds this like giant library together because like I said, it
• 49:00
  is like an architectural feat. So definitely some magic had to
• 49:03
  go into it to keep it very stable, especially because it is
• 49:07
  like literally hanging over the Cliff, like the ship mast is
• 49:10
  hanging over the Cliff. You get to the front again where
• 49:15
  Jerry is, and you see that there is surprisingly not magic on the
• 49:24
  wheel. So you're thinking maybe the
• 49:26
  wheel is like just a simple lock, you know what I mean?
• 49:30
  But behind Jerry's desk, you can kind of see like an outline of
• 49:36
  like a door outlined in magic, but you don't see it when you're
• 49:41
  actually just looking normally. It just looks like stone.
• 49:44
  So about an hour can have passed at this point if you guys want
• 49:47
  to go back to Jerry about your question about Vox.
• 49:51
  Yeah. If that's of interest.
• 49:54
  So the three of you go talk to Jerry and he goes, hey, so like
• 49:59
  that guy Vox or whatever, he does have a library card.
• 50:05
  It says like he checked out a book like 2 weeks ago, which you
• 50:13
  guys know is probably like right after he left scenario.
• 50:17
  And he says, yeah, it was like, just like a he seems like he
• 50:23
  likes Why a fiction too, you know?
• 50:28
  Interesting. What was the title?
• 50:31
  What was the title he read like is a book called like Parchment
• 50:35
  Towns by Giovinian Greenbush now that Giovinian is Canon for
• 50:42
  Johnny. Yeah.
• 50:45
  So but then like he didn't, like return it.
• 50:49
  And it was like do like couple days ago or whatever.
• 50:54
  OK, what's the, what's the policy on?
• 50:57
  I'm not. Returning.
• 50:58
  Do you have like a way that you track your books?
• 51:01
  No, you just have to come back and return it or whatever.
• 51:04
  OK. It's a library.
• 51:05
  I'm not hunting you down. I was.
• 51:08
  Just curious. But like, what if someone just
• 51:09
  never returns a book? Like there's no penalty for
• 51:12
  that. That feels.
• 51:13
  Like, I mean, they're banned from the library.
• 51:15
  I mean, that sounds pretty serious.
• 51:17
  And you have no way to what if they're like really valuable
• 51:20
  books, like like you have no way to track them down?
• 51:23
  Well, the really, really valuable stuff I we don't leave
• 51:26
  out for people. Where do you guys keep that?
• 51:30
  Stop asking. Me that what do you what do you
• 51:33
  mean stop at I have asked me to. Where the valuable stuff was and
• 51:39
  like the primary sources and stuff, that's all the same.
• 51:42
  Primary sources don't have to be valuable.
• 51:45
  They're valuable to me, but. They are valuable to the
• 51:48
  Imperator as well. OK, yeah, well I wanted to show
• 51:54
  you guys this book that I found and I I bring them over to the
• 52:02
  The Fight Fight Prey Lust bookshelf.
• 52:04
  Incredible. And I I sort of give them the,
• 52:09
  yeah, what's up? I'm just going to say, like in
• 52:11
  in hindsight, maybe it's good we didn't tell him everything
• 52:14
  because he's kind of like a boot licker for the Imperator.
• 52:17
  That's that's what Bo is saying, yeah.
• 52:20
  Yeah, no, you're right. Bo, you had a great read on him.
• 52:22
  He kind of sucks. The there's some magic happening
• 52:29
  behind behind desk. OK, I I mean.
• 52:35
  No, no, not, not like that. I, I, I noticed and I think I
• 52:43
  saw you notice earlier Bon the when he, when he touched that
• 52:48
  wheel, it seemed to, to do something, made some, some
• 52:52
  clicking noises that reminded me of like, you know, trying to
• 52:55
  listen to a safe and figure out the combination.
• 52:59
  So I'm wondering if that wheel has something to do with it.
• 53:02
  Maybe there's a way we could distract him and get him away
• 53:04
  from the Dusk Bunty? Yes.
• 53:07
  Do you feel like you need to shit or anything or?
• 53:11
  I can probably dumb in it off if you want.
• 53:14
  OK, actually. Why should I shit?
• 53:17
  Wait, wait. Bunty, Bunty.
• 53:18
  Yeah, only. Only if you really want to.
• 53:21
  He starts. He starts talking in your head.
• 53:23
  I don't. I don't want them to know that
• 53:25
  I'm feeling weird, which means don't let them know that I'm
• 53:28
  feeling weird, please. In my head I'm like, OK, Bunty
• 53:32
  really wants to whenever I would love to, however.
• 53:36
  Yeah, however you want to make him shit, ask him.
• 53:39
  He'll do it. He's a OK.
• 53:41
  That Bunty? He's 100.
• 53:43
  P Someone shake me, Someone shake me up a little bit.
• 53:46
  Whoa, whoa. Not not, not here.
• 53:48
  Wait, wait, wait. OK, well now, now I feel weird
• 53:50
  about it. I was just asking you to take a
• 53:52
  shit. Now you don't have to make it,
• 53:54
  you know, a weird thing, but. What's weird?
• 53:57
  If you shake me, I'm gonna shit. Good to know.
• 54:00
  OK, why don't we we go to like the most like one of the distant
• 54:04
  corners maybe like the the place where you were reading the book
• 54:07
  though. Yeah, I think, I think we do
• 54:10
  that. We should we we, we shake a
• 54:12
  bunty, we should walk up. Yeah.
• 54:16
  I, I walk over and I'm like, I'm so sorry.
• 54:18
  Do you have like a mop or anything?
• 54:20
  And then when he leaves to get us a mop or goes to clean it
• 54:23
  himself, then I'll I can go behind the desk or use my my
• 54:28
  magic to try to mess with the wheel.
• 54:29
  That sounds like a good idea. Awesome, yeah.
• 54:32
  I'll fill you guys in on on what I read in the Everlore stuff as
• 54:36
  well as about the monks, but I can't even express and none of
• 54:39
  it's like incredibly groundbreaking in terms of the
• 54:42
  things we're looking for. Yeah.
• 54:44
  I mean, I learned a little bit in my dive, so we can compare
• 54:50
  notes, yeah. Awesome.
• 54:52
  So you guys head over to the artificer section, you shake up
• 54:57
  Bunty, he takes a massive smelly shit on the floor and you go to
• 55:01
  Jerry and Jerry just goes. To be clear, it's like, you
• 55:05
  know, like a high end bartender making a martini or like over
• 55:08
  the head. Yeah, incredible that that got
• 55:14
  like the prime shit that Bunty needed to make it Uber smelly.
• 55:20
  You guys basically gas yourself in this small room and have to
• 55:23
  run out. Of there there's.
• 55:25
  Eggs in there somehow. We're not sure how.
• 55:28
  There's corn whole. Olives looks chewed, but the
• 55:33
  olives don't. Yeah.
• 55:36
  Jerry turns to you guys and goes, yeah, OK.
• 55:40
  I would like be lying if I said like this was the first time and
• 55:47
  then he just walks off, grabs him up and then heads over.
• 55:51
  Maybe that's why he's like this. People disrespect his library.
• 55:56
  How many people are coming in here and shitting that he has to
• 55:58
  clean it up? Hey, it's a Public Library, kind
• 56:00
  of like a public pool, you know? Mm, Hmm.
• 56:03
  All right. Quick, quick, quickly.
• 56:06
  Are you guys telling me you I didn't pee your pants while you
• 56:08
  were reading anyway? I'm going to cast guidance on
• 56:12
  Bo. Bo, give me your sleight of
• 56:15
  hand. I'll.
• 56:16
  Cast mage hand and I start messing with that wheel.
• 56:21
  Oh and I have advantage. I almost forgot.
• 56:23
  And so this wheel has 12 spokes around it, and you when you
• 56:30
  approach slightly as Jerry leaves, you see that each spoke
• 56:33
  is numbered one through 12. So that will be a 22.
• 56:39
  A 22, yeah. You unlock the lock.
• 56:44
  Well you turn the wheel and it clicks as you hit 3 numbers, 11,
• 56:48
  three and two. Everyone give me a history check
• 56:52
  real quick. Just a fun tidbit.
• 56:57
  Yeah, yeah, Unnatural 20. Awesome.
• 57:00
  Is a three. You said history.
• 57:03
  Yeah. That'll be a 17.
• 57:05
  OK, for everyone except Bond, that was 1132 was 500 years ago.
• 57:13
  That was the year that the Imperator became the Imperator
• 57:16
  of IG Novarum. Very interesting.
• 57:19
  And so you put in this code and as the two gets clicked into
• 57:25
  place, a wall opens up behind Jerry's desk and you see stone
• 57:31
  steps that lead downwards Bond. It seems like the detect magic
• 57:35
  is still going. It wasn't the door that was
• 57:37
  magic, but something that downstairs is magic itself.
• 57:42
  I think we take Bunty, we go down.
• 57:45
  The four of you go down and the door shuts behind you until
• 57:51
  you're in darkness. You follow the steps, circling
• 57:54
  all the way down, Bow and Abe kind of blind, just feeling
• 57:58
  along the wall. This is very narrow chamber and
• 58:01
  you step into a narrow stone corridor that ends with a
• 58:05
  massive dead end stone slab door.
• 58:08
  Here there are small twinkling lights all around the ceiling
• 58:12
  that kind of quote, UN quote turn on when you enter.
• 58:15
  They're like motion sensors. In the center of this hallway
• 58:18
  sits A circular stone pedestal. Arranged on top of it, in a
• 58:22
  perfect arc, are 7 crystal cups, each filled with a glowing thick
• 58:27
  liquid representing a different color of the rainbow.
• 58:30
  Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and Violet.
• 58:33
  Etched into the stone base of the pedestal is a line of
• 58:37
  elegant script. It says to find what lies
• 58:40
  beneath the floor, take one big sip of green to clear the door.
• 58:44
  So as you guys look at the chalices, there's obviously a
• 58:48
  green one, but it's running low and you can tell from the get go
• 58:52
  that there's exactly 2 sips left in the cup.
• 58:55
  So if 2 of you drink this, there'd be no more left for the
• 58:58
  other two. You said there were all of the
• 59:01
  other colors of the rainbow though.
• 59:03
  Yep. Would you make some green?
• 59:05
  Well, I was thinking if there's yellow and blue, yeah,
• 59:08
  theoretically we could make some green.
• 59:11
  Before we take, before anyone takes a sip of the green, try
• 59:14
  that and I'll are we OK with me trying that?
• 59:18
  Yeah, why don't we pull out? Like I feel like we've got like
• 59:21
  a tin cup. Yeah, just to like.
• 59:23
  Just like in our packs. Yeah, yeah.
• 59:25
  And I'll take, I'll take like equal parts of the blue and the
• 59:28
  yellow and kind of. How much do like does it look
• 59:31
  like there's left in the other cups?
• 59:32
  Like kind of the same amount. Yeah, probably about two, two
• 59:35
  sips in the rest of the cups. OK, it looks like maybe it like
• 59:40
  Bond with his detect magic. It looks like maybe the glass is
• 59:43
  magically filled to this point where it maxes out at 2:00.
• 59:46
  Gotcha. I'm gonna spend before we drink
• 59:50
  something crazy. I'm going to spend sure 10
• 59:53
  minutes ritual casting augury, and I'm going to reach out to
• 59:59
  Fesmira and say I'm planning on drinking this synthetic green
• 1:00:05
  liquid. What do you think?
• 1:00:09
  During the 10 minutes since we're just like kind of waiting
• 1:00:12
  all sit down and take out the banjo and play a little bit to
• 1:00:14
  give you some bardic inspiration in case you need it.
• 1:00:18
  Awesome. Just me or?
• 1:00:20
  Yeah, just you for now, in case I don't know if we're going to
• 1:00:23
  be running into urgent trouble right away.
• 1:00:26
  OK. And so Augury is pretty much
• 1:00:28
  just a vibe check, yes. Yeah.
• 1:00:31
  Do you have to roll anything for it?
• 1:00:32
  No. Oh, I can if you want.
• 1:00:36
  I mean, that makes things more interesting.
• 1:00:38
  I mean you, this is a very simple thing.
• 1:00:41
  You look at the cup, you cast augury.
• 1:00:44
  This mirror kind of fills you with this like good warm
• 1:00:47
  comforting feeling even though the liquid is like neon fucking
• 1:00:51
  green. It's probably OK.
• 1:00:53
  I give the thumbs up to Abe and Bo.
• 1:00:57
  So Abe, you mix blue and yellow in your tin cup and there's four
• 1:01:02
  sips of green liquid in that one as well.
• 1:01:04
  And does it look like the same green like if we're to hold them
• 1:01:08
  up? It looks like the same green.
• 1:01:10
  OK. So I think maybe maybe we start
• 1:01:13
  with should we all just do the same green if we have 4 sips
• 1:01:16
  here or should two of us take the cup that's already there?
• 1:01:19
  And you know what I mean? Like.
• 1:01:22
  Let's have one person take one sip first, because maybe this is
• 1:01:28
  one of those tricks where like the the, you know, the Riddle is
• 1:01:31
  word in a very specific way. And when it says like one big
• 1:01:34
  sip, it literally means only one sip so.
• 1:01:39
  Oh, you mean of the of the of the the one in the chalice or
• 1:01:43
  the tin cup? Well, I mean, I mean just like
• 1:01:45
  instead of all of us doing it at once, let's start with just one
• 1:01:48
  person. I can go if if nobody else is
• 1:01:51
  interested, I can. No, I mean I'm interested, but
• 1:01:54
  but go for it. Go for it.
• 1:01:56
  And I kind of. Yeah.
• 1:01:58
  OK, Bo, you take a sip of which one do you want to take a sip
• 1:02:01
  of? The chalice or the metal club?
• 1:02:05
  I don't like that question. I I'll do the the metal cup.
• 1:02:10
  Great. You take a sip of it.
• 1:02:11
  You sink through the floor. Is that?
• 1:02:15
  Imagine. Bunty takes a sip and sinks are
• 1:02:17
  sinking through the floor. Was that I thought there was
• 1:02:20
  like a door at the end of the hallway.
• 1:02:21
  Why did they go through the floor?
• 1:02:23
  Bon bon. The vine slides beneath the
• 1:02:26
  floor. Take one sip of green to clear
• 1:02:28
  the door. Bond starts sinking.
• 1:02:30
  Oh God, oh God, oh God, Everyone's gone, Everyone's
• 1:02:33
  gone. Everyone and I spill the cup,
• 1:02:35
  everyone said. I go to the chalice green
• 1:02:37
  liquid. I go to the chalice.
• 1:02:39
  I drink it. And you, you also sink beneath
• 1:02:43
  the floor. You all, you all sink beneath
• 1:02:46
  the floor. It doesn't.
• 1:02:50
  And all four of you are now in this stone room where there is a
• 1:02:55
  massive stone door here, and there's no handles, key holes,
• 1:02:59
  seams, hinges, none of that. And instead there is a giant
• 1:03:04
  sculpture of, like, a lion's head on the door.
• 1:03:07
  And he's looking really angry. That's all there is in this
• 1:03:11
  room. Yep.
• 1:03:14
  Well. Does anybody have any beef jerky
• 1:03:17
  or something? As you say that out loud, the
• 1:03:20
  lion's eyes flash with this dull yellow light and it says no.
• 1:03:26
  Whoa, whoa, did that thing just talk?
• 1:03:30
  No. Are you a lion?
• 1:03:33
  No. Are you a statue of a lion?
• 1:03:37
  No. Yes.
• 1:03:39
  No. OK, it was, you know, it's worth
• 1:03:42
  a try, guys. No.
• 1:03:45
  No. Can you, can you keep that door
• 1:03:48
  locked for us? No, and the door swings open
• 1:03:54
  really nice. I was wondering how long it'd
• 1:03:59
  take you but. Damn it, you got us, I say as I
• 1:04:04
  walk through the door. No, I didn't.
• 1:04:09
  That's the. Truth.
• 1:04:10
  So stupid. That's so good, I love that.
• 1:04:14
  Though you guys really loved your Don't Think puzzle, so I
• 1:04:17
  wanted to. Throw that one in there.
• 1:04:19
  So you enter a room, a room that looks empty.
• 1:04:24
  There are shelves everywhere, but there are absolutely no
• 1:04:29
  books. Everyone give me an
• 1:04:31
  investigation check. You're going to want ADC 20 Plus
• 1:04:37
  for some stuff. Who has the best investigation?
• 1:04:40
  Not me. Assume Abe.
• 1:04:43
  Yeah, I do. I have a + 4 to investigation.
• 1:04:45
  I don't know if that's. Yeah, I'm going to cast guidance
• 1:04:48
  on you. Perfect.
• 1:04:49
  And because I got to. Give out another part of
• 1:04:53
  conspiration. And he said this is a greater
• 1:04:56
  than 20. 20. OK 23 cuz I was at 19 with the
• 1:05:01
  normal rule and I needed something to boost so 23.
• 1:05:05
  Awesome. You look around and you see that
• 1:05:09
  there isn't any dust on these shelves.
• 1:05:11
  It looks like there were once books.
• 1:05:14
  And as you walk around, you spot this little note on the floor.
• 1:05:17
  It looks like one of those library checkout cards like
• 1:05:19
  that, those book cards that track the borrowers of the
• 1:05:22
  books, but it's slightly different.
• 1:05:24
  The three columns are date, number of books, and status.
• 1:05:29
  Underneath it you see various dates all spanning 2 months
• 1:05:33
  apart and numbers of books ranging from 50 to 30.
• 1:05:36
  The most recent date was a week ago.
• 1:05:39
  The number of books says 256 and under status it says burned.
• 1:05:44
  So no. You flip over the card and you
• 1:05:47
  read. By orders of Imperator Chylas
• 1:05:50
  Purion, these illegally seized books from merchant ships are to
• 1:05:53
  be burned. Oh God, and I and I show you
• 1:05:56
  that bond, that that bit. On you remember, sometimes you
• 1:06:00
  would have your ships searched by Imperial guards very
• 1:06:05
  infrequently. It kind of depended on when the
• 1:06:08
  Imperial Guards were actually in Ember Hold, and Narricks tried
• 1:06:12
  to avoid that situation by coming on the off chance that
• 1:06:16
  the Imperial Guards were not there.
• 1:06:18
  But you guys never had anything seized on your ships?
• 1:06:21
  I'm trying to remember the words of the prophecy.
• 1:06:25
  When the tyrant strips the walls and the ink is turned to ash,
• 1:06:29
  the light will strike the empty stone to yield my hidden stash.
• 1:06:33
  Bond, do you think you could summon a nick Shard?
• 1:06:36
  I cast dancing lights and I summoned 3 nick shards a little
• 1:06:40
  bit more than like my typical just usual spell and I'll I'll
• 1:06:46
  kind of bring them down to the floor where I see scorch marks.
• 1:06:50
  Yeah, You summon these nick shards and you walk around kind
• 1:06:55
  of looking through the bookshelves as the nick shards
• 1:06:57
  kind of float out and down, and you see that through the
• 1:07:05
  shelves. The lights kind of like collide
• 1:07:08
  at this one stone all the way across the other end of the
• 1:07:12
  room. I go up to it and kind of like
• 1:07:15
  feel around for it. Yeah, you go, you go up to it.
• 1:07:19
  It's like in the dark kind of corner of this room, and you
• 1:07:22
  feel like a loose stone. And it is like these stones are
• 1:07:28
  like pretty massive. They're very long.
• 1:07:31
  They're very wide. And you kind of have to, like,
• 1:07:34
  forcefully jiggle it out of there, Abe.
• 1:07:38
  Abe help me with this. Yeah, I, I, I come over and I
• 1:07:41
  help. Yeah, I'm going to try to summon
• 1:07:42
  my mage hand behind the stone and push it a little bit.
• 1:07:46
  As you push it out, it opens up into this, this empty place
• 1:07:51
  where the stone used to be. And you see that the stone
• 1:07:54
  actually isn't as like deep as you think it would be.
• 1:07:59
  It looks like the stone has been like maybe like cut in half or
• 1:08:03
  something. And you put your hand in and you
• 1:08:06
  feel around and you can feel a bag, like a big bag that was
• 1:08:13
  pushed all the way in there. And you're you and Abe can shove
• 1:08:17
  your hands in there and yank this bag out of there.
• 1:08:21
  And there is a dusty canvas bag that you see.
• 1:08:25
  Yeah, we open it up. Awesome.
• 1:08:27
  Inside the bag are lots of clothes at first.
• 1:08:31
  The clothes are different nowadays, like these are bright
• 1:08:36
  colorful pants, long leather jackets, ascots.
• 1:08:39
  There are at least six different outfits in here.
• 1:08:41
  You also find a spell scroll, a feather fall.
• 1:08:45
  There is 150 gold coins, but they don't look like the coins
• 1:08:50
  that you use, Abe. You pick it up and look at it
• 1:08:54
  and you see a phoenix carved into each of them.
• 1:08:58
  And when you tilt the coin, you see the outline of the Phoenix
• 1:09:01
  kind of flash with some orange and red.
• 1:09:04
  The next thing you find in this bag are two bronze bracers.
• 1:09:08
  They're very simple looking, no carvings or anything.
• 1:09:13
  And as you pull it out, Bunty puts his hand on the bracers and
• 1:09:17
  goes. This was mine.
• 1:09:21
  This was mine. These are mine.
• 1:09:23
  These are mine. Those are mine.
• 1:09:25
  And a large tear drops from his eyes.
• 1:09:28
  Inhale the boundless sky. Exhale the heavy stone.
• 1:09:30
  You you can, you can have them. They're like, I didn't want
• 1:09:34
  them, Bunty, it's OK, they're all yours, but.
• 1:09:37
  They're like just as big as Bunty and Abe.
• 1:09:40
  As you try to calm Bunty down, Posh Bunty returns and he goes.
• 1:09:44
  Abe, can you tell Bunty to grow up?
• 1:09:47
  That life is over now? That was when we were Bjerg.
• 1:09:51
  Now we are Voiling AKA me and Bunty AKA him.
• 1:09:56
  And then it flashes back to Bunty and Bunty's like.
• 1:10:00
  Those are mine. Those are mine, Those are mine.
• 1:10:03
  Why were they mine? They don't fit me.
• 1:10:05
  They're too big for me. I'm so little.
• 1:10:09
  Wait, did you guys see that? Did we see the the the posh
• 1:10:12
  bunty? Yeah, Posh Bunty said this out
• 1:10:14
  loud. Oh God.
• 1:10:18
  Hey, what's going on? You guys had seen Posh Bunty
• 1:10:22
  once before? That's the first time that Posh
• 1:10:25
  Bunty has referred to themselves as previously being Bjerg, which
• 1:10:29
  was the name that Bunty came out with when I first summoned you,
• 1:10:33
  buddy. And I look at Bunty.
• 1:10:36
  I think you're having kind of like a split personality
• 1:10:39
  situation, which does hopefully make you feel a bit calmer about
• 1:10:42
  what's going on and why you're remembering things, hopefully.
• 1:10:46
  And I squint my eyes. But he's But what did he say?
• 1:10:49
  And you repeat back to him, I assume what posh Bunty said.
• 1:10:52
  And then Bunty goes. Well, he said I'm butty and he's
• 1:10:56
  voidling and we used to be beard.
• 1:10:58
  So is it three people? Maybe.
• 1:11:00
  Or maybe maybe you and Voidling made beard together.
• 1:11:03
  Maybe. Maybe you're another aspect of
• 1:11:07
  Posh Bunty that the two of you split into different things.
• 1:11:12
  I don't know. Sounds like maybe you both were
• 1:11:15
  one thing before. Yeah.
• 1:11:18
  I have a headache. Anyone have ibuprofen generic
• 1:11:22
  brand? I don't know what that is.
• 1:11:26
  Of Christ, I'm a headache. I got ibuprofen.
• 1:11:29
  Yeah, ibuprofen, I'll take that shit and.
• 1:11:31
  I take out I take out my banjo and play some calming melodies
• 1:11:34
  for for Bunty. Bunty kind of rubs his temples
• 1:11:38
  and turns to Abe and goes. Abe, you should have the
• 1:11:42
  bracers. They won't fit me.
• 1:11:43
  Just take them. Just take them.
• 1:11:46
  OK. But if you listen, I'm just
• 1:11:49
  hanging on to them till till you can wear them because you
• 1:11:51
  remember you got bigger a week or two ago.
• 1:11:54
  Do you remember that? Yeah, but I'm not getting your
• 1:11:57
  size anytime soon, I don't think.
• 1:11:59
  Yeah, we can also get them resized if you want, but I'll
• 1:12:01
  put them on for now. I'll hang on to them.
• 1:12:03
  Abe, when you put these on, you feel slightly smarter.
• 1:12:09
  You get a + 2 to your intelligence score.
• 1:12:12
  Let's not modify your score. Let me specify.
• 1:12:17
  Yeah, yeah, my has no idea what that means.
• 1:12:20
  I'm sorry, what? Sorry, repeat.
• 1:12:22
  No, that that's great for. Me hey, when we're doing the
• 1:12:24
  jumping part of the the bandits and he's like like three I was
• 1:12:29
  like that cannot be 1 foot 1 foot all right wow next you this
• 1:12:36
  bag seems honestly endless. It is not a bag of holding, but
• 1:12:39
  there was a lot of shit in it Bond.
• 1:12:41
  You reach your hand in there and you pull out this dark bronze
• 1:12:46
  breastplate that looks a little shoddy.
• 1:12:49
  On the center of the armor is this dark green Opal and looking
• 1:12:53
  closely you can see the phoenix symbol from the gold coin you
• 1:12:57
  found is also carved into this Opal bond.
• 1:13:00
  Give me a deck saving throw with disadvantage all.
• 1:13:03
  Right disadvantage. We got A7 plus one, so that's an
• 1:13:10
  8. OK, as you kind of like
• 1:13:12
  haphazardly like you're just reaching into the bag and
• 1:13:14
  grabbing this armor, you touch the Opal on the armor and you
• 1:13:18
  prick your finger ever so slightly.
• 1:13:21
  Oh fuck. And you see drips of your blood
• 1:13:24
  get sucked into this Opal. And at this point the armor
• 1:13:28
  seems to shine brighter and, and, and look a little more
• 1:13:31
  polished. This armor went from looking men
• 1:13:34
  to like really nice and it now feels like warm to the touch,
• 1:13:39
  huh? Huh, that armor really seems to
• 1:13:42
  like your blood bon. Yeah, I'm gonna like cut my
• 1:13:45
  finger a little bit more and just rub it on the Opal some
• 1:13:48
  more. Yeah, the Opal.
• 1:13:50
  The Opal sucks it up and that the armor just seems to be like
• 1:13:54
  really nice warm, bright, really pristine looking.
• 1:13:58
  Chop off my hand. He starts to feed.
• 1:14:00
  It to the Opal. The Opal takes it hungrily.
• 1:14:05
  I found my new patron. I look, I look to bow and I.
• 1:14:09
  Say mirror, I gave you so many chances.
• 1:14:13
  I I think I'm gonna put it on. Incredible.
• 1:14:16
  It is a + 1 breastplate, so it's 14 + 1 plus decks.
• 1:14:22
  Hell yeah. And once per long rest, you can
• 1:14:26
  Max out the healing from a healing spell.
• 1:14:30
  Very nice. That's huge.
• 1:14:33
  Oh my God, I know it gives me so much as the DM to play with now
• 1:14:36
  because now I know you can do this.
• 1:14:38
  Now you could just like, up cast Cure wounds, yeah.
• 1:14:42
  And I could do. Oh my God.
• 1:14:44
  Like a mask, your wounds too. Oh wow, wow.
• 1:14:48
  OK. And Bo you, you reach into the
• 1:14:51
  bag and you're like, is there anything in here for me, Bo And
• 1:14:56
  inside the bag, wrapped in protective velvet, is this long
• 1:15:02
  panoramic oil painting that looks like it has been like cut
• 1:15:05
  or ripped or something horizontally and vertically only
• 1:15:08
  leaving like this very partial part of what this oil painting
• 1:15:13
  used to be. It looks like you just have like
• 1:15:15
  a little section. Cool.
• 1:15:16
  I shrug and throw it behind me and then look for some cool
• 1:15:19
  armor. There's nothing else in the bag.
• 1:15:22
  No, I look at it. Boo, all of you, if you're
• 1:15:25
  looking at this can give me an investigation check.
• 1:15:28
  With that +5 for investigation now +4.
• 1:15:34
  We have 15. 3020. 18. All of you pass.
• 1:15:39
  You can tell that the canvas reveals that the painting wasn't
• 1:15:42
  made all at once. It looks like it was made.
• 1:15:45
  The top part was made first and then things were added on to it
• 1:15:49
  and what you see looks like a lineage of a family tree painted
• 1:15:54
  over decades. So your eyes scan down and you
• 1:15:58
  see 4 rows of these eccentric human faces and you get this
• 1:16:04
  overwhelming sense of familiarity.
• 1:16:07
  The top row features three men. Their names that were beneath
• 1:16:12
  these are like kind of rubbed away.
• 1:16:15
  You see that one has a sharp black hair and the other two are
• 1:16:19
  brunettes and they all have very stylish mustaches and beards,
• 1:16:23
  but their faces have kind of been wiped away with time.
• 1:16:27
  In the 2nd row you see two brothers sitting side by side.
• 1:16:31
  The one on the left is this eccentric man with a
• 1:16:33
  meticulously trimmed, twirly mustache and pitch black hair.
• 1:16:37
  Next to him is his brother who wears his long brown hair tied
• 1:16:40
  up in the distinctive half up, half down, boarding, a trimmed
• 1:16:43
  mustache and a beautifully braided beard.
• 1:16:46
  What you can read below it says Ansel to the one with the pitch
• 1:16:49
  black hair and Elias to the one with the long brown hair.
• 1:16:53
  The 3rd row is only a singular man.
• 1:16:55
  He has short, messy dark brown hair and a rugged short beard
• 1:16:59
  and mustache combo. The name below him reads
• 1:17:02
  Ambrose. And then there's the 4th row.
• 1:17:05
  Here are two brothers. The brother on the left has this
• 1:17:09
  large, wide, crooked smile, but looking closely at the
• 1:17:13
  brushwork, the smile kind of feels entirely fake, masking
• 1:17:16
  this like deep, profound pain. Behind his eyes, rested on top
• 1:17:21
  of his head, are a pair of bronze artificer goggles, and he
• 1:17:25
  sports this trimmed, twirly mustache.
• 1:17:28
  No beard. The brother to his right looks
• 1:17:31
  strikingly pale, almost sickly. He has no facial hair
• 1:17:36
  whatsoever, and he's smiling wide, but he looks like he's in
• 1:17:39
  agony. And the name beneath each of
• 1:17:41
  them reads Ambrose, Junior, Parentheses, Elias and Corin.
• 1:17:47
  Of nee. Bo.
• 1:17:49
  I would like to reach into the bag of holding.
• 1:17:56
  Abe, could you cover up Bunty's eye for a second?
• 1:18:00
  Yeah, and I'll cover up his eye. Sorry buddy, just wipe in your
• 1:18:05
  tears. I.
• 1:18:07
  Guess. I would like to pull out the
• 1:18:10
  ordinate mirror of Johnny Maccabee and hold it in my hand
• 1:18:14
  to just stare into the static. You stare into the static, and
• 1:18:22
  there seems to be something happening.
• 1:18:25
  Last time you were looking into it.
• 1:18:27
  There's only a brief flash, but this time the picture is clear.
• 1:18:32
  There you are, this human man with a crooked smile, twirly
• 1:18:37
  mustache, messy hair, bronze artificial goggles on top of
• 1:18:42
  your head. Bow.
• 1:18:44
  Give me a wisdom saving throw. Or you can choose to fail.
• 1:18:46
  I'll. Choose to fail.
• 1:18:49
  Fuck, now we have to fight sexy Bo.
• 1:18:52
  What do you mean sexy Bo No. No, no, no, no, no more, no
• 1:18:56
  more, no more sexy Bo. Remember he passed it the first
• 1:18:59
  time. I was like, I'm not prepared for
• 1:19:02
  this. Bon and Abe and Bunty, you 3
• 1:19:08
  watch as Bo kind of collapses in a heap on the ground.
• 1:19:13
  And Bo, you have a memory, a memory of standing for this
• 1:19:16
  painting as your younger brother watched.
• 1:19:19
  He'd been doing OK for the past two years, but it had come with
• 1:19:23
  a price. You stand there smiling, but
• 1:19:26
  it's it's fake. Your brother turns to you,
• 1:19:29
  saying you look like a mess. You should have brushed your
• 1:19:32
  hair and taken off your goggles. Who are you, my mom?
• 1:19:36
  You retort without thinking, and as you say, that sadness
• 1:19:39
  encompasses both of you. 2 years without her.
• 1:19:44
  The memory flashes to a time much later, Eight years later to
• 1:19:48
  be precise, When your brother turned 18 and you were a young
• 1:19:52
  26. You remember watching him as he
• 1:19:55
  stood for his painting. You get bored and you feel
• 1:19:58
  yourself turning to head down to your basement workshop, the
• 1:20:02
  heavy thudding of your right mechanical foot hitting the
• 1:20:04
  wooden floor. You'd have to be more careful.
• 1:20:08
  Body modifications were still in the testing phase and and you
• 1:20:10
  weren't allowed to do at home. Self modifications.
• 1:20:14
  Luckily you had your goggles of disguise that hid the
• 1:20:17
  modifications in public. You turn over to look at your
• 1:20:20
  brother again, noticing him struggle to stand.
• 1:20:23
  He had been doing so much better since your mother died, but he
• 1:20:26
  he still has off days. Sylvia's blessing wasn't
• 1:20:30
  perfect, you remember. You're all that he has now, and
• 1:20:34
  you go rush to get him a chair before he collapses.
• 1:20:37
  He smiles up weakly at you as you put a firm hand on his
• 1:20:41
  shoulder, trying not to cry. And Bo, right now, in real life,
• 1:20:46
  you're you're back in the basement of the library with Abe
• 1:20:48
  and Bon, and your eyes flash open and you stare at the
• 1:20:53
  painting, looking directly at yourself.
• 1:20:56
  Ambrose. Elias Junior.
• 1:20:59
  And that's where we're going to end the session.
• 1:21:01
  Incredible. Incredible.
• 1:21:05
  Damn. Absolute cinema.
• 1:21:08
  Wow, OK. You've you've been AES this
• 1:21:11
  whole time. Yeah.
• 1:21:13
  Damn, why didn't you tell us? Yeah, dude, what the fuck?
• 1:21:17
  I'm sorry. Sorry.
• 1:21:18
  Guys. Yeah, actually, I I should have
• 1:21:20
  told you. I know what happened to Fesmira
• 1:21:22
  too. No.
• 1:21:26
  Wow. OK, so much, so much to think
• 1:21:29
  about. Yeah.
• 1:21:31
  Can we our day one AES Bo Truthers rise up?
• 1:21:35
  Yeah, he might called it like too early.
• 1:21:38
  And I was like. I thought we we thought he was
• 1:21:40
  like. I thought we thought he was the.
• 1:21:42
  Other one you threw out a lot of options.
• 1:21:45
  We thought maybe Vox, we thought Ansel, we thought Ambrose.
• 1:21:48
  But then when the arm thing came up, when it was like there in
• 1:21:52
  the arm and that was exactly his arm like or very close, I don't
• 1:21:57
  know. And then after the dream
• 1:21:59
  sequence last episode like. Yeah, I think, I think we had a
• 1:22:03
  hint of this, but like, it feels like there's still so many like
• 1:22:08
  missing bits and pieces to put it all ticket because this seems
• 1:22:12
  like whatever. Like I was under the assumption
• 1:22:15
  that like all of our, you know, ancestors or ties were like at
• 1:22:19
  the same time. But I think there were like
• 1:22:21
  generations of this this adventuring party or something
• 1:22:23
  like that. Oh my God, this is this is so
• 1:22:26
  deep of me. Yeah, I can see why you had 49
• 1:22:29
  pages just for this. City alone.
• 1:22:32
  I also have a very long ass timeline where I had to like
• 1:22:36
  give dates and current years to things so that it would like
• 1:22:39
  work out so it makes sense logically.
• 1:22:42
  Damn because journal one begins right.
• 1:22:46
  Everyone is like like who is it in it?
• 1:22:49
  Larry's Ansel Kass Saloon, Johnny and Alaura and they're
• 1:22:56
  probably like in their like early 30s ish time frame, right?
• 1:22:59
  And then like Ansel has a younger brother named Elias.
• 1:23:02
  And I knew using the name Elias like threw you guys off about
• 1:23:05
  the timeline because of the letter from Ambrose and his son
• 1:23:08
  Elias. And so I was like, all right,
• 1:23:11
  let me, let me write this shit out.
• 1:23:12
  Let me figure out where we are. You've done something that I've
• 1:23:16
  always like ever since I was little thought that all fantasy
• 1:23:20
  worlds miss and that all fantasy writers are too cowardly to do
• 1:23:27
  is to reuse names because everybody is named after
• 1:23:31
  somebody else. And all fantasy worlds are like,
• 1:23:34
  no, everybody has a unique individual name.
• 1:23:36
  And I respect you so much for doing.
• 1:23:39
  That that's incredible that that was a great the AES also like we
• 1:23:43
  didn't hear of middle names like and this one makes all the more
• 1:23:47
  sense now that you've said who he was named after and.
• 1:23:50
  Then yeah, his dad, yeah, he goes by his middle name.
• 1:23:53
  So there weren't 2 Ambroses. But yeah, your your your parents
• 1:23:58
  died. You did something.
• 1:24:01
  You know what to everyone's parents are dead.
• 1:24:06
  I can neither can neither confirm nor did I Abe and Bond's
• 1:24:10
  parents. But though, I will confirm your
• 1:24:12
  parents are dead. Boss OK.
• 1:24:14
  Well, it's been hundreds and hundreds.
• 1:24:16
  Of years. What a loser.
• 1:24:17
  There goes, yeah. Bro yeah, there goes there goes
• 1:24:19
  my plans as my character. Can I?
• 1:24:21
  Can I do somebody else? Of me, my parents are like,
• 1:24:24
  maybe not on the mortal plane, but.
• 1:24:27
  That's what I got. It's my.
• 1:24:28
  It's my turn to. Be Beau Beau sells his gladiator
• 1:24:32
  contract to Jonkers and and. Takes off of them.
• 1:24:38
  That's what I that's what I was trying to think.
• 1:24:39
  I couldn't remember his name. I was going to say Percy
• 1:24:42
  Jonkers. That was so good.
• 1:24:47
  But I couldn't remember his name, so I didn't do it.
• 1:24:50
  Incredible. OK, well, if you guys like the
• 1:24:55
  podcast, make sure to follow and rate US on Spotify or Apple
• 1:24:58
  Music or join us on our social media for updates, official art
• 1:25:01
  and more. We are on Instagram at Smooth
• 1:25:04
  critical podcast and Blue sky at Smooth critical.
• 1:25:08
  I'll see you later guys. Bye bye.
• 1:25:14
  I have so much art to show you guys too.