Latest / Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama / Nallukar Nights pt 1 of 4

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Nallukar Nights pt 1 of 4 · Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama

• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Steve Morrison of Arrant Adventures, and I'm
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: joined by my friend and collaborator John from Tail of
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the Manticor, and we are here to bring you a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: special combination actual play, narrative drama. John, what the heck
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: are we doing here?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Well, this is something we've been talking about for while, Steve,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: and I'm a fan of your show, You're a fan
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: of my show, and we thought what would happen if
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: we kind of just smash these two shows together and
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: saw what kind of ridiculous beast came out of it.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: And so that, I think is what we're going to
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: try and do here.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: It is and so we are going to do a
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: little bit of actual play gaming, and for that we're
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: going to use the old school essentials, a system that
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: John is very familiar with and that I have been
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: looking forward to playing ever since I started listening to
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Tail of the Manticor.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: My show is.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: All about the live actual play. I just sit down
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and play the game straight and to the microphone and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: do a little bit editing on it, whereas John's show
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: is a little bit more about creating some narrative and
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: actually spending time editing and writing and doing all those
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: wonderful production things that make his show sound so good.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we are thinking about sort of sea song
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: between a section of narrative, section of gameplay and just
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: kind of have the camera zoomed out and then have
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: the camera zoomed in and just see if it works.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I guess we're going to see if this works and
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: learn by doing absolutely. Let's talk about the kind of
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: house rules or lack of house rules that we're going
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: to use, because we are going to be using old
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: school essentials. And so the first question is do we
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: want to use it rules as written or do we
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: want to use any kind of homebrew hacks. Usually when
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: I play it, either at a table or on my show,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I use it a couple of hacks, nothing major, just
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: a couple of things to I guess it's to avoid
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: really really weak characters, especially from the get go, so
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I do things like begin with maximum hit points. Is
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: that something that we want to do? I think so.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I like the idea of trying to give our characters
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: as much of a chance to survive as we can.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's plenty deadly even with that. Okay, so we'll
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: do that, and then we shall we just play it
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: by year for everything else.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say, I really like your rule about
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: rolling for stat increases on level ups.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: It's fun, it's fun.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I feel like I would be happy to
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: do that as well, and then we can kind of
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: take it as it comes as we as we go through.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Now we're not going to be running this for years,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: so level ups, we could say that every episode our
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: characters go up a level, and even that it's not
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: going to take us that far right. Does that appeal
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: to you? It's going to feel accelerated.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would certainly give the narrative and the play
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: a certain momentum, which which might be nice to have.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what, why don't we do this? We'll
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: we'll say yes, but if it feels wrong when we
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: get there, then we'll have that and we'll say one
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: every two. Yeah. I agree. If we don't do at
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: least that, then it's essentially there's there's going to be
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: no level up. Yeah, makes sense to me. Other things
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: that we should knock out before we really get into it,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: lines and veils For me, I guess the places that
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I'm not really interested in going would be sort of
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: explicit sexuality things like torture. I don't mind having some
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: violence in there, especially as we'll almost inevitably have combat.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: How about you, Yeah, I would say I'm about the same.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Anything explicitly sexual, especially sexual violence. Definitely want to avoid that.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I would say probably violence against children, as you know,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: explicit violence against children. The world is a brutal place
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and terrible things happen, but you know, if we can
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: stay away from any sort of explicit descriptions of that.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: How do you feel about profanity, because that's one of
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: those things that, like, I have no trouble with it,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: but I feel like if it's not consistent, it does
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: something with the immersiveness of a world. It's kind of
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: you should either be there or not be there. Where
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: are you on that? Yeah?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I waffle a lot on my show. I don't really
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: use much profanity, and oftentimes in my fantasy worlds, I
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: create my own profanities, which can have its own roadblocks
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: and stumbling blocks as far as drawing you out of
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the narrative.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: I think we're on the same page there.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, I don't mind it. I play to the
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: table when it comes to profanity, Like I've sat at
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: tables where we swear every other word. I've sat at
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: tables where we go pole sessions without anything, so let's
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: go with not.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just because it's easy. And I think that said,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: we probably better underscore that this is made for mature audience.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Agreed, alrighty cool.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I think that we are probably ready to wrap up
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: this little introduction and get to character creation.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Sounds good to me. Let's actually get into some of
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: that play that we were talking about. Yeah, the sun
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: rose over nalakar as Drovar grabbed his pack and bow
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and set off down the street toward the gate. As
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: he approached the arched stone gateway, he saw the remnants
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: of the shattered pipes. Those damned Hillianites destroyed. Gods be
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: praised the beasts. Those pipes kept at bay hadn't been
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: seen in twenty years. As he passed through the gate,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: there was more traffic than usual as merchants from Formerist arrived.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: The carts were laden with barley and corn, and guards
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: and Formeristian livery walked beside the rolling caravan. Nalikar soldiers
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: greeted them and directed them toward the granaries. As citizens
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: passed by, calling out pleasantries outside the walls Drovar was
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: joined by Zealedra, who just pulled away from chatting with
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: a Nalikar sergeant. When she saw him, Zalidra said, wady
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: ahead out. Drovar nodded, how's odrum. She glanced back at
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the sergeant and shrugged.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: The Hillianites have been quiet since making them move, and
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: the grain delivery is on time, which puts everywhere at ease.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: We'll see if the hilly Knites remain quiet.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Grunting, Drovar adjusted his pack. Commander Ragan assigned us to
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: patrol the riven Wood. If we hurry, we can be
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: back mid afternoon. They left Nalakar behind as the sun
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: traversed the sky, turning the air warm and humid. The
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Ribbon Wood, an ancient dense forest, extended from the plains
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: outside Nalakar and stretched up the mountains separating Nalakar from
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Formerist The main road continued along the edge of the forest,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: while a single dirt path branched off through the ribbon
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Wood and skirted the edge of the mountain, connecting the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: two settlements. And it was along this path the two
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: rangers walked. They started to mallet around when the sun
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: reached its Zena. Exchanging looks, drove Ar knocked an arrow
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: while Zeleidra drew her axe. Advancing they followed the curve
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: of the path around a particularly thick cluster of gnarled trees.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Soledra saw it first, and she swore to all the gods.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Drove Ar squinted at what looked like a caravan, with
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: carts overturned and bodies everywhere. Flies buzzed and splotches of
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: red marked the trees. Sledra looked confused, and Drovar couldn't
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: blame her. Some of the bodies wore the livery of formerists.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: If he hadn't seen the caravan arriving at the gate
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: that morning, he would have believed this was that same caravan.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Was there supposed to be a second delivery, Zilidra asked.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Drovar shook his head. Never has been before, not within
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: a day of each other. A sound drew their attention,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: wheezing groan from one of the over turned carts. Sledra
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: gripped her ax and hurried to the spot. She stepped
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: around the edge of the cart and stared down. Her
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: face went from concern to terror in a heartbeat, and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Drovar watched in horror as something tackled her with a
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: wailing screech. Sladra barely had time to scream before the hunched,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: pallid thing ripped her throat open.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Drovar drew back.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: His bowstring and loosed an arrow to the thing's back.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Its head snapped around, jagged teeth, dripping Zeladra's blood. The
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: ranger dropped his bow and ran, but a root he
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: hadn't noticed before caught his foot, and he sprawled to
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the ground. As he tried to scramble to his feet,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a heavy weight landed on his back. Hot breath kissed
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the back of his neck. He screamed, what.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Are you feeling for our attribute roles? Do you want
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: to go straight three D six down the line or
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: do you have a preferred method.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: I am happy to play in your playground here. I'm
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: trying to think if I've ever done three D six
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: just straight down the line, So I kind of feel
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: like I want to do that.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's do it. Let's do it and see what
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: we get. And maybe if you hate what you're looking at, yeah,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: they will talk because sometimes you get a real ooh.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely gonna hate what I'm looking at because my
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: dice rolls are troublesome at best.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: You know, I could be a hot dice roller sometimes. Well,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: here's hoping always. Why don't we Do you want to
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: go sort of bounce back and forth or do you
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: want to do one character first and then another character.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Maybe doing the stats back and forth would be fine,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: but then doing all the rest of the details on.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: That there are no other details. Welcome to oh school essentials.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: That's it, like literally, that's about it. Yeah, not not completely,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: not completely. Okay, I'll tell you what. We'll we'll pingpong
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: it and I'm gonna start go for it. Okay, here
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: we go. Strength A thirteen. Hello, that's pretty good. It's
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: really good. I've got a nine, a nine. Intelligence, I've
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: got a nine, and I've got a fifteen. Hey, it's
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: gonna be Masers Part two for us. In wisdom, I've
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: ooh my goodness, I've got a four. Ooh, okay, I'm
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: gonna I'm gonna leave it as is for now.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I've got a seven for wisdom.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Dexterity, I've got a ten.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And I've got a twelve.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Okay, Constitution is seven.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, I've got a ten for constitution.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, I got a five for charisma. Boo,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know about this, and I'm looking at an
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: eight for charisma. Okay, so not bad. I'm looking at
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: a character that has got multiple deep penalties. I'm not
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: sure if this guy is a goer. Yeah, you might
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: be might need to reroll. I have a rule that
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: I use on my main show where anything that is
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: a five or less I reroll just because characters that
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: are this disadvantaged can really be difficult to play. Should
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: I just go ahead and use that rule. I'm just
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: going to go ahead and use that rule.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Because the alternative is you just reroll all the stats.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we just ping ponged it, which make it
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: really really difficult, really annoying. All right, here we go.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, I got a fourteen, which that where you're rerolling.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: I guess I was rerolling wisdom. And then I've got
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: a second that's a five or below, and that gives
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: me a twelve. Okay, this is a This is a
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: much better array. Where I've got one. I've got two
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: bonuses and one penalty. Good Okay. In case you're not
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: familiar for bonuses and penalties, Basically, if it's a thirteen
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: or above, you do get some kind of bonus. Do
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: you have any thirteen or aboves? I've got one.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: I've got a fifteen in intelligence.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: For intelligence, you get your native language plus an additional
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: and you're literate. Yeah. Yeah, it's nice. For strength, my
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: character has a thirteen. That's a plus one. For wisdom,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: that's a plus one, probably unsaving throws. And that's it. Oh,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: I had no. I have a negative too. I have
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: a negative constitution of minus one. All right, my character
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: is already kind of taking shape as to what they are.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: I'm looking at either a cleric character or a fighter character,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: but probably a cleric makes sense. Yeah, so I've got
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: a cleric, and I'm going to say that that constitution
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: is the result of some kind of past injury. I
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: don't know what that's going to be, but I'm somehow,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: you know, lamed, I probably probably walk with a limp
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: or something like that. Maybe I'm a bit slower. Good.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Your character is probably a magic user. Probably doesn't have
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: to be.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I feel like with that fourteen in intelligence, it makes
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: sense to go with magic user.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: They could also be like a leader, like an officer, right,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: that would make sense too.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but with my strength being a nine and dexterity
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: being a twelve, Like I don't get any bonuses from
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: any of those.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Still it's average. I could see an officer who doesn't
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: do as much frontline type fighting having a lower strength.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: I guess the question is what kind of character sounds
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: like more fun?
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I could also potentially go elf. Yes,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: that would be intelligence and strength as prime requisites.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: It's not a terrible idea actually to go with Elf,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: because then we're going to get a kind of a
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: nice breadth of skill sets. Yeah, all right, I'm going
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: to do that. Then, okay, let go Elf. So your
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Elf is going to take six hit points as their
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: sort of class maximum, and for anybody who's not versed
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: in the OSSE, they use races class. So Elf is
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: a class, but it's basically a fighter magic user. Let's see,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: my first level cleric does not get any spells. So
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: that's easy, yep. If you want to choose one, I
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: can give you the list, or you can roll randomly
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: and we'll just make sure that you don't get any
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: of the ones that don't translate into podcaster y Yeah,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: because there's a few that just don't I don't know.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Do you want to embrace the chaos or do you
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: want to choose one?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Absolutely want to embrace the chaos.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: All right, it's a D twelve then, and if you
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: get away, Amy, I'll have you roll again.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: All right, here we go rolling for spell A twelve.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, it's an interesting one, especially for podcastery. Can you
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: guess it's ventraloquism?
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Interesting? Do we want to decide sort of how we
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: know each other? My feeling is that the thing that
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: makes sense is a patrol doesn't come back. Yeah, and
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: we might be the b patrol that's set out to
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: find out what to them? Would they send two people
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: or do we want to say that we're two people
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: leading a small force of red shirts?
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Do we want to do that? Or do we want
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: to do like a patrol of four and each run
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: two characters?
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: We can do that for sure. Do you want to
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: go ahead and roll up those other two characters?
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: I kind of feel like, you know, rolling characters is
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: so easy and fun. It's it's so fast. Oh yeah,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I almost forgot. I have to name my guy. This
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I did in advance.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: I am going to play a male character just because
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: you don't want to hear me try and do a
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: female voice the whole time. It's painful. So my guy's
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: name is Vidar Esta.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I was not good and did not prepare a head,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: so I need some elf name here.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: How do you feel about Kara? That's Elvis for carrot top.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: He is a redhead. You know it's good. We've got Vidar,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: the cleric, human, Ka the elf, Yes, and ge I
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: wonder who else is in this scouting party? Are you
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: ready to go again? Let's find out? Yeah, here we go.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: All right, our rules are starting to come together. It's
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: gonna be anything five or lower. You reroll. I got
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: a five, jeez, okay, that's better. I got an eleven
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: for strength. I've got a thirteen nice. Oh oh oh
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: oh oh, this never happens. I got an eighteen yeah,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: and three D six. This may be our man. Oh
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: my gosh, it's gotta be oh my, I think that's
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: happened twice. Yeah, in the last three years. That's since
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: I picked up the hobby again. All right, my intelligence
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: seven seven, Well, my character promises not to talk down
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: to your character much. All right, wisdom six. All right,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: there's my hubris coming right back. At me.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I've got a twelve for my wisdom.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: I've got an eleven.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: For all right, I've got a fourteen for dex m hmm.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Nice. Are we getting all the four Are we getting
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: the classic characters? Almost right? Yeah, I'm looking at a
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: ten for con Oh, my goodness, thirteen for con good.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: There's a bonus there, boy, those are life saving those
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: corn bonuses. Charisma, Oh, another high rule sixteen? Nice, get out.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: This is a hero, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, these this
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: character may be the leader. Ten for my charisma. Very good.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: It's the middle of the road. We'll take it. Gosh,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: I would have been happy with just generally competent. This
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: leader character that I've got has got a wisdom of six. Wow,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: it's a negative one. It's not the end of the world.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Maybe they're just a little bit quick to anger. I'm
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: gonna just write that down. Quick to anger. Yeah, tell
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: me about your bonuses.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: So I've got a thirteen strength, so that gives me
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: a plus one to I think.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Tech and damage yep, hitting damage.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I get a minus one in intelligence, which is
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: you know, that's okay, probably just delliterate. Yeah, yeah, decks
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: of fourteen. So that also gives me a one and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: a con of thirteen, so that also gives me a one.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Good. So yeah, I don't know.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like I could go fighter or
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: archer even yeah, or archer or a thief.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: If you go with a thief character. The real advantage
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: that a thief has is that they level up quickly,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: and that probably won't you won't benefit from that. Give
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: me what we're doing. So you if you want to
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: play a thief, like great, do it, but you might
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: be embracing a weaker character, you know, which is fine.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: It would make sense to send off, you know, a
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: fighter and cleric and a magic user and an elf
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to scout out whatever terrible thing might be in the forest.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: So it does all right, Yeah, I'll go I'll go
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: fighter with this cool and I had a name here,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: but it's just not fancy enough for a magic user.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to go and call up the Don
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: John name generator as well, and I'm going to see
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: if I can find something that is like extremely fancy.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Now he may not be an ALF, but would have
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: an ALF name be indicative of being fancy or one
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: of the other options. Maybe it could be Dwarvish name
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: or something you know, something not human Findeleth.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: There, I'm combining two of the ones that I see
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: here awesome, and I'm going to go with Findealeth.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I think my fighter's name is going to be you
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: gall u g A l e u e g a
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: l you gall the breaker.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Good good good. Oh. And I get to roll for
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: a spell. It's like my favorite part, except when you
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: get a bad one. Okay, there we go, and it's
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: a five, which is light. Okay, it's not glamorous, but
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: it makes sense. It can be useful. You sure can.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: And let me see. Your fighter has eight hit points
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: plus constitution, so nine, I believe. And my wizard, who
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: I never played, like an old wizard, so I think
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go with a little bit old. He's
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: got four hit points.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Do we want to talk about gear and stuff like
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: that or do you think we should go through the
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: process of selecting all that gear and everything and then
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: jump back in.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I think we should kind of just sort of magic
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: snap the fingers, and why don't we just say that
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: our characters have whatever would be reasonable for a scouting
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: party to have. So the fighters are going to have
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: chain mail, but not plate mail. They're going to have
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: a wooden shield, but not an amazing shield, you know,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: just your basic you know, whatever kind of standard issue
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: gear would be available to be scouting party. Things like
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: do we have torches and ropes and stuff like that?
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: We could ran minds it at the time, or we
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: can just make it up. Yeah, we don't have to
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: get too granular with that stuff. Let's see if you've
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: got arm like chain mail and shield. I think that's
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: an AC of fifteen ascending, so yeah, they probably both
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: have that. Yeah, your carriacters definitely have that, as does
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: my cleric, and then Findleth is just gonna have AC
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: of ten. Nothing.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: One other question, which is my decks for you, gole
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the breaker, I have a dex bonus of one. Does
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: that add on to my AC in addition to yeah?
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Okay, cool, so that's AC and to hit for missile, right,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: but not for damage? What kind of weapons are we
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: all carrying? Cleric's going with handy old mace. The Wizard's
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: got nothing, just a just a walking staff. What kind
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: of weapons do uh care theear and you gall have?
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: That is a great question, I feel like with that
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: dex bonus Yougle should.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Definitely have a bow. Definitely, it would probably be a
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: short bow.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: It depends on how well we think they're kitted out
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: from Nalocar, because he has the strength to you know,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: wield a long bow just from a like narrative standpoint,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: like he's a he's a beefy old boy, so he
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: can probably you know, drop back a long bow. It
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: would just depend on whether or not we think that
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: they would have those available in Nalocar or if it
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: would just be like standard issue would be short bows.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: What do you think this is a city that spends
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: it's focused on defense. I guess a long bow does
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: make sense. Okay, so longbow is the elf similarly kitted out?
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Is it kind of like a bow and a sword
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: or are you going to go with something more exotic?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: So I definitely think that you Gall also has like
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: a mall or something like that, because if I if
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I nicknamed him the Breaker, he's got to he's got
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: to be able to get up close and do some damage.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: And then I like the idea of Karathy or having
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: probably a bow and then maybe a spear, but I
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: think he.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Would probably have a short bow. I think character creation's
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: pretty much zipped up. This is where we start our gameplay.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Here's what I'm feeling. I feel that since we are
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: the be scouting party, our first job is going to
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: be to go and find out what happened to the
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: party that did not return. And I rolled up a
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: name for our commanding officer, and her name is Commander Reagan.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: She says that our job is to go and find
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: out what happened to the last party. And do we
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: want to add anything to that or is that it
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: go find out what happened to them? I think that's enough.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I feel like it is a pretty straightforward mission.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Great, so we're for intelligent guys, and we're probably going
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: to start by retracing their steps or trying to figure
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: out where they would have been given their patrol route. Yeah. Absolutely,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: So let's see, are we going off in the morning
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: or is it kind of like they didn't come back
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: at night go out at night? That seems unwise. We're
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: probably a morning group, right, Yeah.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I think this is probably the following morning after they
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: went out scouting, because I think they were supposed to
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: take a pretty easy route down the road and just
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: check and make sure there weren't any dangers along the
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: road towards Formerist and so it shouldn't have taken them
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: more than a day. And so the fact that they
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: have not returned by nightfall either you know, they ran
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: into some trouble or they got lost, which would be
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: weird for a couple of scouts out there. And so
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I think us leaving in the morning makes the most sense.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Right, And I think given the history of Nelukar, they're
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: probably not thinking of some terrible beast has torn them
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: to ribbons. They're probably thinking raiders or highwaymen or just
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: misadventure of some good Yeah, absolutely, all right, So we're
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: not going out there expecting to get into some kind
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: of knockdown fight.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Now, we are just on the road looking for signs
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: of our fellows and any sort of trouble that might
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: be something that they either couldn't handle or you know,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: tried to. Maybe they got captured, who knows.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Now do you imagine that we're going out on horseback
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: or on foot? I think we're on foot. Okay, so
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: we're on foot. We're probably traveling fairly late, carrying our
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: weapons and like minor pack full of equipment, that kind
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: of thing.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think maybe like a day's worth of rations.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: We're expecting to go out, maybe even two days. You know,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, go out. Maybe we have to look
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: around a little bit. The expectation is that we're going
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: to find them probably dead, but we're hoping that that
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: is not the case, and that we find them living
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: or at least find some sign of them.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Right, Okay, so we're heading out to the south, we'll say,
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: and you know, the hours passed, and finally we get
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: to the point where we believe their patrol would have
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: come by this area. So we've gotten far enough out
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: that we believe that we're somewhere along their patrol route.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: I think at this point it makes sense for our
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: characters to look for some evidence of their passing. Yeah,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: do we want to say that one of our characters
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: has some ability to look for tracks that kind of thing.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Should we just make a roll against a table and
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: see if we can find any evidence of passing?
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I think that makes sense. And we've got a couple
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: of scouts out here, and we've.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Got an Elves are good at everything.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: They are the superior class.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Easy. Now, all right, what do you think it could
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: be like checking for secret doors, which would mean that
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: our elf would have a two in six chance. Should
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: we just make it as simple as that?
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: We should definitely make that as simple as that. Do
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: you have a D six? There's the real question. I
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: do have a D six, and I am rolling it now.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: I want to get a one or two?
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Correct? Yeah, I got it too. Hey, I think we
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: do find evidence of their passage, then, Okay, how old
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: is it, do you think? Well, I mean it's got
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: to be a day.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: It's a day, yeah, a little less than a day.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Are we at the edge of the forest and on
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the road, and so we're we're find some maybe some
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: like signs that they stepped off the road and maybe
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: took a break and had some food. And so there's
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: maybe an area of ground that's some like grasses that
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: have been trampled down a little bit, and some obvious
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: signs of you know, whatever hard tack bread that scouts carry.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Right, a trail of bread crumbs down.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: I think, Cara, there is you know, sort of crouching
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: down looking at it and then sort of holds up
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the piece of bread and sort of crumbles it in
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: his hand and is like they were here, they must
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: have gone into the forest, So I think we should
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: probably follow.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: Them, all right, So we're gonna leave our path. We're
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: gonna leave the sort of relative safety of I guess,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: being in sight of home and being on the road,
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: and being on the probably foothills or hills, going to
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: get into the woods the road splits off and definitely
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: findlith has studied their route and knows that they would
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: have continued on the outside of the tree line. But
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: if you're right, Gareth, here they've gone into the woods.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Why would they have done that?
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: It doesn't quite make sense. But I can see no
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: other alternative than that they entered into the woods, that
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: they followed the trails deeper.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Perhaps your acute sense of hearing might offer a clue.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: That's another one in two on a six again for
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: an elf or a thief. Here we go, I got
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: a four this time. Just is it silence or is
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: it bird zone?
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I think that because of what may be in the forest,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: that silence makes almost more sense.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: It does, right, Yeah, So even though you don't hear anything,
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: that means something too.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I think the thing that Kathare does not hear is
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the thing that you know may be what gives us trouble.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: The thing that all of us notice is the fact
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: that it is weirdly quiet HM on the edge of
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: this forest, a forest that is usually teeming with life,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and there's silence.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: All right, So I guess we make the decision together
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: to go inside. But this is probably a weapons drawn
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: kind of situation, right, agreed?
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: I think you Gaul draws out his bow and sort
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: of tests the draw a little bit. Is like, we
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: go into those woods, but we keep our eyes open.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: There are true dangers in the woods. Keep an arrow notch,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: both of you. I like it not something feels a miss.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: That's going to be my cleric, Vydar. I think, since
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: I have a cleric, I'm gonna have to come up
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: with some kind of deity. I'm going to the dun
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: John female dwarf names. How do we feel about Ugmar?
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Ugmar is good? Do you want divine domain from maze rats? Sure? Judgment?
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Ugmar's judgment? Oh that's cool.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, not necessarily a war cleric, but you know, a
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: cleric of justice, a cleric of he's.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: A bit of an inquisitor or some kind of law
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: upholder of law kind of guy.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, which makes sense, right? I mean we're scouts
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: for the city.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to go inside and we're making our
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: way through this woods. Does the woods obviously it sounds strange?
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Other than that, do you think it looks like a
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: normal woods or do you think it's got something tainted
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: to it? Does your gut say anything? Do you want
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: to roll on this?
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, is this is this our first
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: oracle question?
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: Either now or real soon?
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I feel like there's no better time than now. So
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: do we think it's impossible unlikely? Fifty to fifty?
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I think it's fifty to fifty, given that what we
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: already know that there is something bad in here and
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: that there's no sound in here, I think it's at
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: least fifty to fifty.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go fifty to fifty, So fifty or less
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: will be a yes, forty.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Five Okay, So it's not just that there's something here,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: is that the whole place has gone funny? Yeah?
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: So are there are there maybe markings in the trees? Yes,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: like some sort of substance, like something like ooze, or
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: like something gooey and like sticky that's like dripping from
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: the trees.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Caroth, Look over here, these markings on the trees from
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: a bear, no bear that I've ever seen, there's certainly
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: a lot of them. Look, there's more over there and
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: more over there. Something very powerful must have made these markings.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: And something that wasn't afraid to come close to this road.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah I said it before. We're like it not keep
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: your wits about you, Oukmar's law protect us. So I
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: think we have to keep going if we want to
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: kind of use old school type rules, that it would
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: just be as simple as every hour that we move
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: into this forest, we just roll for a wandering encounter.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: Do we want to do that? Or should we say
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: that since we're essentially going to wander until we reach something,
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: do we just want to roll to see how many
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: hours that takes?
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: So I think we should roll on the wandering monster first,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: because I think there's a possibility that the creature finds
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: us before we come upon the scene of death. Because
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: there are I think there are two mysteries, and we
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: know one of the mysteries, which is that there's the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: scouts missing, But there's a second mystery that our characters
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: maybe don't know, which is there's a dead caravan along
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: this road and a caravan arrived yesterday as far as
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: we're aware, But there was only one caravan scheduled from Formerist.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Why would there be one on the road if one arrived?
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: What's going on there? So I think the wandering monster.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I will answer whether or not the monster finds us
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: first or we stumble upon this grizzly scene.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, here's what I propose. Then let's roll our wandering
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: encounter check three times. If the encounter check comes up
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: as a hit, then the monster finds us first, and
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: if not, we find this scene of violence unhindered. Okay,
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: I gotta roll. For the first hour, I got a
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: three on a D six no wandering encounter. For the
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: second hour, I got a six on a D six
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: no wandering encounter. But things are getting creepy, very creepy.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: The woods is all but closed in behind us. And
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: this is our final role in a D six A two,
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: meaning that by the skin of our teeth we are
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: not detected by whatever hellish thing is out there, and
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: we find something. Now do you know what we find?
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: Or is this a role on the on action and subject?
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: I think we find the massacred caravan, or at least
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: like the blood and the overturned carts and stuff like that.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: I think the question is do we find bodies there
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: or are there just blood spatters? And we don't have
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: any actual physical evidence of who is dead here in
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: this place? Would this creature have dragged away the bodies
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: for some reason?
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: What do you think about using action and subject for this?
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I will never complain about using action and subjects, So
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: I think it's a great idea.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: Rollsome dice here.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: So we've got thirty nine, which is destroy It's always
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: a good start, sure, and fourteen destroy duty.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: I think that you and I will have to give
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: that a little bit of a thought and then see
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: how that plays out in the narrative. Krathair did not
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: much care for Vdar. Baidar was a human and a
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: cleric of Ukumar, and while Kearethir enjoyed the company of humans,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: he found all priests tiresome. Bidar was an especially efficient
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: to kill joy the night comes, frowned the cleric, I
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: like it not. With the head of his mace, he
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: gestured further down the forest road, see how dark it
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: is becoming. In an hour, the sun would set and
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: the humans in the party would be forced to give
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: up their search. Oh, the time is nothing to be
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: afraid of. Come on, Fiendileth pushed ahead, using his staff
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: as a walking stick. Bidar reluctantly followed. Why. Karethier the
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Elf and Yugal the Breaker exchanged brief looks before moving
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: to the front. It wasn't long before Karethir stopped the
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: party once again. I'm sure I hear something this time,
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: said the elf. What do you hear, speak, Elf, hissed Viidar.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Sh let mean this in.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: It's a droning sound, buzzing. Be careful and stay behind us.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: Grunted Yugo, walking ahead of the others. They fell in
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: behind him. The road was barely wide enough here in
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: the middle of the riven wood to allow them to
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: travel to abreast. After a few minutes, they could all
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: hear the buzzing flies, said Yugo, mostly to himself, a
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: lot of them. The sound reminded him of his time
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: as a soldier, bad memories. So it did not surprise
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: you of all when they came upon a scene that
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: would not have looked out of place in a butcher's shop.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: There were blood splatters everywhere, on the trees, on the
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: mossy ground, on the splintered wood of the shattered caravan wagons,
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: and on the ragged pieces of flesh poking out from
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: beneath it. Flies too, millions of them, writhing in glossy
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: black patches. Vaidar made a look of disgust, but did
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: not turn away. Findilith approached the scene, hobbling on a staff,
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: clearly not bothered by the violence. Most interesting, have a
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: look at this, He pointed at a partial corpse, some
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: unfortunate for Moorristian trader, missing ahead, but still identifiable as
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: such by his clothing. The body appeared to have been
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: fed on, as fist sized chunks were missing from the
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: torso and thighs. There's something in the wounds. It appeared
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: that the wizard was right. A whitish gray substance foamed
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: around the puckered edges of the bite marks. The flies
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: wouldn't go near it. Do you see any of our folk?
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Zalidra or Rovar, asked by Oar. Carothier shook his head,
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: muttering the same question the missing Lalacarians had asked.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Was there supposed to be a second delivery?
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: This time the question was met with the silence of
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: the darkening wood. I shall light the lantern. The clerk
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: set by way of reply, unslinging his pack and looking
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: doubtfully into the shadowy legion of trees surrounding him. Soon
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: it will be dark if there's a rabbit, animal, a wolf,
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: or a bear. Findleth was bending over the corpse now,
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: with his nose just inches from one of its wounds.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: He was sniffing at it. I doubt we'll find this
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: cottage was caused by a rabbit. Be quiet, Carithier said, tersely.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: No light just yet, and for the love of the gods,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: stay silent.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: Fiendeleth shrugged, straightened, and thumped the corpse or the staff.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: A cloud of flies alighted briefly before returning to the
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: feast on the forest floor. Suddenly, Kaothier snapped his head
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: to the side. Over there, his bow was at the ready,
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: as was Hyugol's. The two of them stepped carefully towards
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: the sound. No one else had.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: Heard karetheir said Yugo, we need the light now. I
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: can't see more than twenty feet ahead. Have it's your way, then,
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: said the elf, frowning. Claic Bindar struck a flint a
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: few times, and presently a yellow globe blooming from his
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: hooded lantern. Look, said Yugoll softly. He pointed with his
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: boot because his hands were occupied holding his bow. Now
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: that there was some light, they could all see it.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: Something had been dragged off the road and into the trees.
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: Here there were crushed plants in the undergrowth, and a
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: smear of blood marking the way.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: Kaathir was embarrassed. He had not noticed it before. The
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: others come, then, was all he said. They followed him
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: off the relative openness of the road and into the
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: thick darkness of the trees. It was impossible to move quietly,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: so after a few steps they didn't even try. Anything
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: within half a mile would have heard them. Thirty feet
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: off the road and into the dense wood, they found him.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: Drovar was sitting with his back against a tree. His
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: chest rose and fell quickly but faintly, and this was
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: the only evidence of life. The man's mouth hung open,
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: and his eyes also fully open, stared right through the
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: approaching party of his countrymen. Drovar Wvidar called out, where
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: here now you are saved? There was no point in whispering. Still,
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: Vydar flinched at the way his voice cut sharply into
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: the quiet of the woods. Drovar did not react to
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: sight or sound. He sat and stared and breathed shallow breaths.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: At first, he did not appear injured. Perhaps he was
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: in shock. Yugal had seen it happen to men before
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: on the battlefield. Their bodies would be intact while their
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: minds were broken. But it was Finderleth who noticed at
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: first look the back of his neck. How interesting. Interesting
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: was not the word any of them would have chosen.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: Drovar did not stir when Vardar came closer with his light.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: The warrior continued staring straight ahead. Some kind of growth
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: seemed to be attached to the back of the man's neck,
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: a rooty brown thing, a mass of fibrous tendrils embedded
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: in his flesh. How that can't be a good thing,
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: suggested Karathier, stepping back and lifting his bow. Fider apprehended
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: the ELF's intentions and held it be hand. No, Carothier,
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: do not. We have our orders from Commander Regan, and
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: our laws are clear. Citizens of Nalkar did not commit
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: murder outside of self defense. Almost as in response, Drovar stirred,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: his mouth opened, and a strange inhuman wheezing sound came out.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: His eyes rolled back into his head, and his whole
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: body began to shudder, as if in the grip of
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: the seizure. Karatherer loosed his arrow at point blank range.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: The shaft slammed into the fallen warrior's chest, easily punching
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: through his chain mel shirt and burying itself almost to
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: the fletching in his flesh. The body ceased its jerking
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: dance and slumped over. Bidar stared at kathe you've deliberately
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: broken our laws elf. What have you to say for yourself?
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: Perhaps Kaathie had slipped loosing his arrow because he had
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: been startled. Perhaps it was a deliberate execution. The truth
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: would have to wait. Just then, the wheezing sound returned,
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: but it did not come from the unmoving shape of Drovar.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: A figure staggered and lurched through the dim woods, directly
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: toward them. When it stepped into Vidar's lamplight, they could
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: see who it was. They could see what it was.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: It was a Laitra, her axe held limply in her
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: right hand. Her eyes were wide open but showed only white.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Her skin was gray, attached to her throat and chest
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: was a lump of fibrous brown tendrils do