Matt: hello, friends. And welcome to the tail untold podcast. I am your friendly neighborhood dungeon master Matthew and tonight.

Uh, unfortunately Jace is not with us. He is dealing with some personal stuff. That's fine. So we're going to get another exciting adventure with his NPC, personality Clara. I'm joined by Jordan

Jordan: pain. Jordan played Draxik the, uh, cavalier Drake Wharton.

Matt: Thank you. Thank you. I know he's super excited to get that last level in fighter. Now his character is super powerful. I'm joined by. Brad playing Thomas. Hello?

Brad: I played Tom Snyder. He's an adventure junkie and a woodcarving enthusiast,

Matt: but on a big foot enthusiast, I don't want to make the joke to my mind about what, yeah. Mike, the big foot enthusiast here today playing his new character.

Mike: Yes. Um, may, um, or may not be, um, uh, yes, may she is a, interesting personality. uh, and she is a warlock, uh, pack to the genie. we haven't really seen too much of her abilities, but I I'm looking forward to, really showing them off this session.

Matt: last time may join the party, offering to be a guide to get you guys to the capital city of this nation. You guys discovered on the other side of the wall, may reveal that the civilization I'll say does not enjoy magic users at all.

And that in some of the outlying civilizations, outlined parts of civilization, I should say, pardon me? That magic is kept under wraps, but ma might be tolerated as long as it's a don't ask. Don't tell type situation if you will. But once you get closer to the cities, it becomes a lot more aggressive in how they deal with magic users.

So last time we were here, we had entered into the city of and in that city, you guys had gone into the bizarre thing, had decided to, abscond with an advanced crossbow, hadn't they repeating capability. There was some scuffle. He ended up casting some magic and attempt to escape and may violently decided to help out her new friends by distracting the crowd of angry or bans, I guess they are, that came after him.

So he could escape. And where we left off, we'd all met up at the crocodile pits, kind of a local zoo attraction, if you will. and where we left off, I believe we were attempting to get to the city by way of the air ship. So if anyone has need to pull up the map on our handy-dandy discord or bay, so you know where we are, please do.

So, other than that, I lovely, lovely players. What would you like to do?

Mike: yeah, go ahead. What

Matt: are the, what are the people around us wearing

Brad: and how different is that from what we were wearing? How like sore, thumb,

Matt: are we, uh, great question. So, make a perception check.

Okay. So besides what we've already talked about with the fact that they haven't seen a pure blooded human Loveland, uh, it like this just is completely unheard of. Some people are really close to pure blooded, but even pretty much everyone has a little bit of everything to a certain extent. Uh, may I believe is basically a half old, but she's got some goblin and some halfling and such correct me if I'm wrong, Mike.

Oh,

Mike: she's a mutt. Um, just like everyone else. Uh, a little bit of goblin, a little bit of elf, a little bit of a dwarf.

Matt: the dominant trait for visuals, for our listeners.

Mike: like she, it nets out to being very much a human Nash, but you know, pointy ears, there's no particular dominant trait. I mean, she, she is like a true, like mixed blood heritage, individual who was born of a town where, this is very common that the peoples it's a crossroads town and the peoples, there are just, they are all just so mixed that, uh, their heritage is all kind of blended together.

Matt: Yes. Now, as you guys look around this town, remind me the number you got there. Bread 17. as you look around, you're going to notice that there are some people that appear to be, I would say, pure blood, like people that you can tell, obviously have a little bit more of a dominant Elvish tr you know, family tree look almost pure blood elf.

You can tell. And the people that seem to have pure heritage. Tend to have wealthier looking clothes. What is unique is that the clothing that they're wearing is not the same as what you would find inside of three, at three in valley, you guys are wearing, what's more the classic medieval, D and D clothing, medieval Europe, you know, tunics and trousers and cloaks and such.

However, here, you're going to notice that lot of people are wearing clothing, similar to Persia and similar to north Africa. pants are something you're gonna see there, but equally you're going to find people wearing, essentially a one-piece garment. It's essentially a very long extended tunic that goes down below the knees.

Some of them all the way down to their ankles, it's belted at the waist head coverings are kind of common, not for everyone, but you can tell that the wealthier you are

the wealthier you are, the more cloth is used in your garments in general. So if you're wearing these kinds of billowy pants that go with the short jackets that some of the merchants are wearing, the more wealth they have, the more color, the more material, the layers, generally, since we're living on the Plains swept, there's a bit more of a push towards A little bit more of a push towards what we would consider to be that slightly, north African look.

So yes, you guys stick out a little bit. you getting some looks definitely, as people are walking by, but, uh, no one has been brave enough to say anything yet.

Brad: okay. I'll take that information. then Mike, you were going to ask them to,

Mike: yeah, so we kind of last time we split up in the market. I know, Thomas had sent a message to thing I was wondering.

but I don't know if he sent one to may as well. So,

Matt: I think I forgot to send it to,

Brad: Ramaz but I think I sent it to

Matt: may,

Brad: but I intended to send it to everyone involved. Okay.

Matt: I was just wondering for simplicity. We'll assume everyone got the message and gore they've managed to end up with a crocodile conservative conservatory by luck.

Cool. All

Mike: right. So yeah, I've probably spent. or may spent the time like cat, she was floating around in her, being carried around by Surfin to the, uh, to the conservatory. and she spent her time laundry, well, not lounging around, but changing, and to some new clothes. So when she arrived there and came out of her, rings, um, she would probably be wearing something that I imagine is king akin to a, uh, uh, sorry, like I'll wrap dress, kind of greens and blues more, I guess what you might consider like upper Nobel class attire and she's cleaned herself up and she no longer looks like the ratty, herder, that you've been seeing for the last little while, but is clean yourself up and made herself look more like a upper-class individual.

Okay. So she's a little bit harder to discern from her previous state

Matt: and good to know.

Mike: if you don't know, um, the G the, the genie packet of the genie get a, um, essentially a little, uh, interdimensional, flat that they can carry around with them. And like once a day, they can pop into this like 20 uh, or 20 foot diameter, or sorry, radius a room with a 20 foot tall ceiling.

So this is like a pretty huge thing. She's got a wardrobe in there and,

Matt: gotta run you about 50 grand a month in New York, you know,

Mike: it's, it doesn't have a very good view, but it's a plush with pillows and such. anyways. Yeah. So she, she changed out of her stuff. And when she, uh, eventually met up with the fellows, the fellowship.

Uh, no, that's, that's already trademarked the fellowship,

Matt: um, go with the dudes.

Mike: They got, uh, a woman now with them. That's you gotta be gender. She met up with the dudes. She met up with the dudes. Fair enough.

Matt: Um, something like that. Anyhow.

Mike: Yeah. So I just want to clarify that so cool. and so we just fall in, I guess, together in a crowd, what's this conservatory like?

Um, I'm very curious.

Matt: Well, this crocodile conservatory is something that the people from three, I have never seen a true zoo, if you will. it's a place for crocodiles should be cared for. they are technically being raised with a purpose of eventually harvesting their hide for various awares, which is what Draxik was looking through at the end of our last session and deciding that he would not deigned with any animals hide if it wasn't made from dragon.

which, you know, I respect that. but besides that, it's a place for people to come. Throw food to the creatures, kind of Marvel at them. Give safe space for these creatures to be interacted with no real danger of being dead. It is a little bit of a petting zoo for the small ones for the babies, like used to

flips on its bell yet. There's one huge one. That's about, let's say this one, huge one. That's about 20 feet long. That is just ancient and hardly moving it wasn't for the eyes blinking. You would think it was stuffed.

It's a good looking little zoo.

Mike: It's like half corral, half petting zoo, a half a spectacle, literally raising livestock and, uh, creating a tourist attraction at the same time.

Matt: Exactly great. Right there. Motherly river. Wonderful time. So if you guys look on your map, there's a lot of stuff in here. Um, you guys, initially, when we started in this town, I started you guys at the temple of commerce. Number 10, you're currently by number 12 on the map, which is the crocodile conservatory, which incidentally is, on the Eastern side of this picture.

Uh, you guys were heading towards the airships at the top of the map there, those are the fastest way to get to the remanent empires, capital city. Um, the only way there is to walk. So,

Mike: and I think at this point, um, may hasn't met Clara yet, so this'll be a fun thing. did anyone, Hey, got, I got a good voice, right?

Matt: just Southern. Is the word touch a

Mike: Southern hello? Darlene's uh, yeah, I don't know if I can get it right right now. Anyways. Um, my voice is still a little bit sore from this last week. Uh, sweethearts. Um, I, I noticed something rather I've beginning to form this thought in my head, which is very strange. I've noticed a few rather odd things happening to us over the last few days, which seem incongruous in CRE.

and I, I don't know this,

it seems as though something is, Something is interacting with us. That is just very strange. I, um, when we were in Stilton, this is, I don't know what the name of the, the S stilt city Stilton it is built in. It is okay. When you were in Stilton.

Matt: Um,

Mike: and I met you at the Tavern, I, with my friend Leland, we had that big kerfuffle and it all started when you all swore that you saw my pixie fairy and we had

Matt: gotten to this role, but

Mike: I swear that I have no idea how you could possibly see him because he's invisible.

Matt: And then

Mike: today, just now in the market, I could have sworn that Ramaz, didn't have much in the way of magical talent, but then out of the blue, in the middle of the market, in broad daylight, in front of one of the cog fathers, priests, he cast a spell. This does not seem like the act of a sane person.

I beginning to feel as though perhaps something is trying to drive a wedge between us and something. That's something might have magical means by which they are doing this.

Matt: I'm gonna have everybody except for may, role insight for me, get up, taking what she has said and thinking about it and kind of searching your own minds and thinking about it and kind of feeling out what might be happening around you.

got it. 1221. Okay. Ooh. And for Clara whose stats? I do not have pulled up, but I, She's going to get 17. So Clara is just sitting there. She's kind of nodding, you know? Oh, oh, whoa. Oh, but

Mike: what's going on with Ramos's voice?

Matt: Um, oh, this is a fun place. Oh, hi. I'm Clara.

so Fang and Ramaz, you've met them. They're fun. I'm pretty sure. Oh yes. You haven't met him yet. He's a lot of fun, deep voice who he's fun. Anyways. I'm Klara. I've been able to gather that. I'm pretty sure. All three of us are related distantly, uh, that share this body. And so sort of shenanigans got involved, but suffice to say every once in a while, it looks like they let me come to the front.

so hi, how are you? well, Clara and, uh, may have a whole conflict of, uh, of belief when the whole multiple personalities thing is getting really deep between the two of them. you know, the whole thing of, so how did this happen? Oh, you know, and how long have you been at the group and all that.

I'm going to give the insight of Draxik way to let you know that as you're sitting there, kind of thinking it over and using your ranger training to kind of go through your thoughts and your memories and think about it. You did notice as you think about now that for some reason, there didn't seem to be a presence kind of pushing on your mind.

It was very subtle, but if they hadn't said anything, you probably wouldn't have noticed that there was something ever so gently kind of pushing you, nudging you, almost like having, I was like having a little hair sticking. Like rubbing against your skin, not enough to hurt, but enough to distract you and kind of make you on edge.

So now as you look back at it, there's definitely something that was kind of interacting with you. As soon as you thought of this, you kind of think about it. You feel this presence suddenly pull away as if it's been discovered.

Mike: I, I, I felt this when we're down in the market

Matt: and

Mike: I managed to snap out of it at the last moment

Matt: I, this is,

Mike: I've never had one of my own fight against me before.

And by the way, Clara is very nice to meet you. Uh you're I can't believe there's another one.

Matt: We're not alone. Oh, well you sent me related. I don't know anymore. I'm very confused. I'm just happy to be here. Honestly, of course, you know, me and clutch, you know, w the time Fletcher, she picks up

a little further back from your mic when you do that,

Mike: that hurt my throat a little horribly.

Matt: So Draxik. How would you react to having felt some sort of, uh, alien presence touching your brain?

Jordan: Is that how we're doing

Matt: this? That is the best thing that we were able to come up with two. Uh, so she

Jordan: forgot

Matt: she did cast the spell. you said that this is the best way to explain the craziness that happened last session without having to go back and read con everything. so we can leave it as it was and move as outside forces, pushing us as a party to do stuff. That's,

Jordan: she's still cast a spell.

Matt: She did as a distraction to give Jason a chance to get Fang.

I should say a chance to escape the mobs. And she had a pretty solid escape plan set up for herself. So her spell that she cast was, willful, but we're going to say that, uh, the tensions that we were having was definitely, it works with some outside force.

So this best option I've found a female figure it over.

Yeah, I'm fine. If you want to, uh, try a different approach, but just trying to figure out a good way of moving forward without having to, uh, retcon the whole session.

Jordan: I I'm just trying to wrap my head around. So

Matt: there

Jordan: was two magic spells cast in one from Ramaz when he casts darkness,

Brad: the rematch normally doesn't have spells. Correct. And then

Jordan: I don't know if he,

Matt: and then

Jordan: may cast it technically to cause you guys to command and something else. Yep.

Matt: And she casts fog bank. Yeah. Yeah, that's correct. We went back later while I was listening to the recording and realized, wait a second, Moss doesn't have the ability to cast spells.

So it shouldn't have allowed the darkness spell to move forward, but we did. And so. Okay. That was kind of the best way to figure out to make that work. But then may, may can cast spells.

Jordan: It's not, it's not the fact that they can, it's just,

Matt: yeah, I'm trying

Jordan: to figure out how we got over here when people were being chased, she was drawing people

Matt: away.

Yeah. So what happened was she distracted them by triggering a fog bank and, you know, picking on this persona of that guy runs attention. Well, Jay's got a chance to slip away. and then what she did is she used her familiar and her Jeanie, feature with a subclass to go into her vessel, which is a ring that had her familiar carry the ring away from the action.

At least that's how we rolled it last time. Uh, so she did cast some spells. Uh, her spells were willful, Jason spelled and, uh, yeah. Any other questions? I love them. Nope.

Brad: Cause it's been like a

Matt: while since that. Yeah.

Brad: We've been at the conservatory for a very may. We ran around and kind of lost the

Matt: heat. yeah, well, well, you've kind of hidden in the area. I think,

Mike: I think we all need to be very careful. I hopefully drew as much of the attention from the authorities as I could, but, uh, Vermont was seen, you, we all were seen with him, right

Brad: beforehand, right beforehand.

Mike: And I don't think this we're safe in the city anymore.

Matt: Do we see,

Brad: like, are the people kind of in charge? Do they have like a uniform that's recognizable?

Matt: I won't make you real perception since you were in the bizarre, the guards that came by, including the, uh, guards, looking for the, uh, the lady that kissed you. If you remember last session, random thief kissed you and then stole us water skin.

I think it was worst thief of all time. They definitely have this look about them of deep, Royal blue, of like turbines and shirts, these long sleeves that they wear these blue shirts underneath their armor. That's kind of bolted on top. and they have a split skirt type pant. So it looks like a skirt when they're standing still.

But as you move, you can tell it's actually kind of a skort. If you will, the skirt pant hybrid, that's split down the middle, usually wearing brilliant gleaming, breastplates and having kind of metal bands in their turbines and on their arms. All right. Okay. and then I want to kind of see

Brad: in our vicinity, if there are any

Matt: around, if they're acting, you

Brad: know, On alert.

Are they talking with each other during that they searching or are they just kind of

Matt: not present and what's going on? So as you always been standing here talking and kind of figuring out what happened and, you know, Clara and may have been having a thing and may explain what she did to give everyone a chance to get out of there.

You guys have noticed that people are looking in your general direction. It seems like there's word of something happening. And you obviously are sticking out like a sore thumb. This is considered a semi large city, a population of about 30, 40,000 people. And so news as a chance to spread to every corner of the city yet.

But I'll say for the purposes of what now let's consider that security is going to be heightened a little bit. not everyone has a good description of you or knows who exactly was involved in everything, except for that some half work with horns and a person with armor that likes to cast fog spells, may or may not be casters at larger the city.

So we'll consider security heightened, but not like they're actively searching for you at the moment. They're still spreading the information around.

I th I think we had a ditch

Brad: this close guys. I think we've got to start. We got to blend in a little better than this. We stand out like a sore thumb and that he uses

Matt: time that blend

Brad: in. Are there any shops nearby? I've kind of look around

Matt: to see if there's any, um, boots

Brad: with just kind of generic

Matt: clothing, maybe even, probably something that's not obviously alligator at the crocodile conservatory.

The only thing you're going to find is basically branded merch. If you will, either crocodile, skin armor, and a crocodile themed clothing and stuff that has been woven to have crocodiles on it. It's almost tourist trappy to a certain extent if such a thing could exist. However, if you look across the canal, you'll see that there is some more buildings on the other side.

If you could cross the canal at one of the various bridges, that should be able to get you to someplace that is not the bizarre where you might be able to find some clothing. I'd

Brad: probably try to buy at least the, the least obnoxious shirt or top, top,

Mike: um,

Current some local currency. Um, darlin's um, I know you, you seem to have some rightful purses, but, uh, your coin is mighty peculiar here, here. Uh, here's a few pieces of, of a local gold enough to certainly get yourself some foreign

Matt: clothes.

It's closer to, Electrum kind of a gold silver hybrid. Uh, as you guys remember from the last session throwing gold around, it makes you look like high rollers, because most people haven't seen peer gold coins in a long time, right? The least outside of the capital city. so she gives you some coins to get some crocodile themed, uh, stuff.

Clara has access to all of Fang and Ramos's cloaks and such. So a simple change of a little bit of the garb is enough to make her roughly, incognito. It's still very apparent that she's walking around and a half work body with horns, but, um, it's, it's doing the best that you can to help her out without, you know, casting in casting a spell to change her form.

Okay. I don't think anyone here has polymorph or disguise self. So, hi, polymorph

Mike: a new feature, but I don't think that's going to help. You want

Matt: to deploy. If you wanted to pull Mr. Clary into a stale and put her in your pocket, you could theoretically do that.

Mike: I think I'm going to say little gem.

Matt: Yes. Willing creature. So as you guys head deck, kind of tracing your steps towards the bridges. You're going to pass by a couple of stalls, people selling, you know, food and such outside of the bizarre. Cause the bizarre is more of material stuff, you know, clothing and weapons and animals and such. So you guys get some food as you're walking by, the people are yelling, you know, try the new Husson bread over here, fresh Grogen meat.

Come, come, come get your clogging meats. Fresh. Just killed bloods. Jalonda if you want it come, come. And as you are walking through all of this, thankfully the clothes you've gotten seem to be getting a couple of glances, but none of the stairs you were getting a little earlier is it's, uh, it's helping to break up your, uh, social visibility.

Brad: Okay. Thomas is probably helping himself to some of the, the street food as he walks by, maybe with whatever's left of the, or not whatever, but like little

Matt: bits of the coin he's been handed. He's like, Ooh, I'll take, I'll take some of that. All right. How much? So let's assume that sh that you're given, you know, roughly five gold equivalent of money, you spent three of it.

How much would you be willing to spend to a try the food?

Brad: He just wants to try the local food. So he's gone for like the cheap, like, you know, marked up, but like, uh, he just wants to get a hot dog equivalent of,

Matt: okay. Well, the closest equivalent to a hotdog is, you find someone talk, you know, Hawking the wares and other people you could see are walking way, carrying something with a straw attached to it as they're walking away.

So you approach him, he's right next to the bridges. If you follow the canal on your map is two bridges. There's one with the number 13 next to it. The autumn bridge, very fancy official bridge, which is one of the connects. The two market districts. There's a smaller one. That's usually for local foot traffic.

Right next to that smaller bridge is this guy with this thing, and you can hear him going, come on up. Firstly, vegans, fresh steamed first Regan's eat on the go. Don't be late. Eager ligans. Now. To grinds only two. And you look down and realize you have about seven coins with you. Okay. I'll I'll take one, please.

Brad: I'll try to match his accent as much as possible. It'll be here. It'll be

Matt: horrible. But you sir, not from this town, but I'm sure you'll love my illegals. Have you had them before? Oh yes. All the time. They're my favorite. Would you prefer it to be cracked for you or do you like to do the honors? Oh no, I'll do it myself.

Very good, sir. He hands you this black orb. it's it looks like it's made of segmented sections that kind of spiral around each other to create this ball and he hands it to you. And he also hands you. This stick that is hollowed in the center. It is actually rather thick. We're talking like a Boba straw size, but made of wood institutes with joy, your in fresh first, he continues his Hawking.

I am going to ask you, what is your wisdom score? Wisdom score is 14. Okay. You're almost complete. You're almost halfway across the bridge. As you guys are attempting to move towards the airships. By the time you figure out that this. Food. It needs to be cracked in some fashion. And you thought like, you're going to like knock it on something, but it's not working.

So you take the stick and after a second, you can't figure out you got whack it with the stick. As you see some other people that walking by a little bit faster than you they're like, so you whack it. And this thing opens up from the F from one side into a half moon shape. And as it opens up, what is basically a gigantic steamed pill bug its legs kind of sticking out a little bit as it uncurled and some light steam coming out.

as you glance around, you can see everyone else is just taking a straw, sticking it into the meat and going to town. Most of them with a one-handed grip. Is there, is there continuing on, would you like to still try the legal I'm going

Brad: to, I'm going to look at everyone else and see if they have any interest in it.

Just like by eye contact and if not, I'm just going to drop it and keep walking.

Mike: Well, may would like grab it and then just like knock it back. Like a, um, oyster.

Brad: Yeah, I'd kind of like, not like

Matt: may just pierces one side and just tips it and slides the whole thing in her mouth, which. It looks very unladylike, but it's also really impressive for you. A Bard who has spent a lot of time in taverns with drinking and eating contests, watching this rather polite issue. Women just slide this thing back and go pro Clara failed her constitution check to not puke.

And so she's over the edge of the, the railing just oh, oh, oh, oh my. Oh, I'm so sorry if he would, oh, Ooh, smell. it does smell vaguely like wet paper towels and, pistachio shells. It's very weird smell. Okay. Thomas can handle that. He'll be fine.

her constitution scores are that low. All right. So once you guys get crossed, you're going to notice the path goes two ways to the left. It seems to go into another one of those crevasses that the bizarre was in. And the other side, it goes around towards the edge of the lake that this town is built on.

You notice that the flow of general traffic seems to be going to the right around the edge of the lake. And it seems like only, you know, a few people here they're going to the left.

Brad: So we're kind of by 10

Matt: at this point, 13 right there on the edge of the, of the Southern side of the canal. So I love this map because there's numbers I can give you references. Yeah, that's convenient. Okay. Draxik since you have a very high passive perception, I believe, if I remember correctly, it's like 17,

Jordan: uh, for me, no,

Matt: what's your passive perception. Oh, 11, 11. That might be the lowest passive perception of ever heard of for a ranger. however, if you being shorter than the rest of the party, uh, you're having a hard time navigating, just keeping up with the party's a little bit tricky with all the craziness.

Uh, if you had Rogadin, you would be standing high above everyone else if you're on his back, but at the moment you're really regretting your height. Everyone seems to be a little bit taller than normal, probably because of the Elvin blood. That's kind of mixed in around here. may I'm gonna have you roll a very simple, uh, wisdom check.

Okay.

Since you're the guide at the moment,

Mike: uh, perception, uh, or

Matt: wisdom in general, uh, it's kind of a mix of all the others.

Mike: 14. Do I get to add proficiency?

Matt: Yeah. So 17, 17, right? As you're kind of standing there, you, I don't know if you've been to this city or not. That's up to you, but you definitely can tell that the flow of traffic to the right seems to be the way to go.

So you get the feeling you might want to follow them if you're trying to get out of the city.

Mike: All right. Um, this way out, and I think, um, are, are we now, are we I'm planning to head out, uh, to the airships? Are we just going to be heading, uh, straight out the way we came and find another way?

Matt: I think we got to

Brad: stay below the radar.

Matt: Um,

Mike: as I recall, it it's a fairly lengthy procedure for us to get to an Airship. it might not be the smartest way to go. The, And correct me if I'm wrong is there's, there's a certain amount of, there's an authority involved in writing one of these things,

Matt: right.

It was a ticketing procedure. it's it's something that they're already going to making regular trips. It's kind of like just getting your Okie-dokie to ride on one. okay. So as you guys walk your end up at, so if you find you're at 13, right next to it is 14, which is at the top of that hill at the bottom of that hill is roughly where you guys end up where you're having this conversation as you guys would follow the crowd.

So go ahead and continue.

Mike: it's up to you guys.

Matt: I think,

recording-1_postproductions_2022-02-25-t09-58-07pm-final-mix: well,

Brad: I think if we're quick, we can maybe get on the air ships before security,

Matt: tightens up too much other that otherwise you might have to take a boat. I don't know about you guys, but I think it'd be great fun to steal an Airship. Claire's getting way too comfortable with this group at this point.

I don't, I don't think we

Brad: needed the attention of a stolen Airship. I don't

Matt: do you know how to fly one of those things? I mean, I assume it's pretty straight forward. You aim at where you want to go, but you know, I hadn't thought this through all the way. Yeah. I think we just

Brad: scope it out first.

Matt: For the record, her intelligence is an eight.

Mike: my father took me on a ride on one of these when I was younger and the captain let us come up to the front of the ship. There's a lot of levers. It's, it's a lot of

Matt: levers

Brad: that sounds like a lot more

Matt: than I want to deal with.

I bet Ramaz

Brad: could sail us across this,

Matt: like no problem. But,

yeah, I,

Brad: I think Thomas just kind of lost the peek at the security of like, we can just take a public Airship to the next town or if they're cracking down on people, leaving the town.

Matt: Okay. So if you guys head up the hill, there you'll come to the first, uh, set of tolls, the, uh, argue quitting booth. It's almost no security. Really. It's a dude standing at a booth with two jars and one on each side, as people pass by just kind of casually dropping a coin in, and as he is sitting there like a TSA agent, the soul sucked out just casually waving people through, gave it going.

Don't hold up online, Kim on coins in the jars, you know, the drill, come on. If you want to go to the upper city costs one coin, come on, everybody. Let's go. I'm not even gonna make you guys roll, a deception check to get through because he's not paying any attention to anything he's waving people through.

So, I think guys are able to get through pretty easy.

This just try to blend in and

Brad: I think we'll be,

Matt: we'll be all right.

Brad: Do we see any guards

Matt: around here besides the guy in the booth? There's two dudes over to the side, kind of casually talking, leaning against a building they're supposed to be there mostly in case our rockets breaks out. But since they don't hear anything, they're not actively looking over, they're just kind of doing their job of standing there and looking important.

Are they like.

Brad: The same uniform as the kind of city people are, they're their own little like private security.

Matt: And you notice that now that you've got up to the upper city, instead of wearing deep blue, it's more of a maroon. Okay. But like similar, very similar look, still have the turbines and the long shirts with a split pant.

It doesn't seem like anyone is paying too much attention to you, except for the odd glance. Every once in awhile, when they see your crocodile conservatory, branded clothing that you're wearing a matching track suit and all that,

Mike: make sure to, fashion them little Fanny packs where they can hold their passports and

Matt: oh, the shake like crocodiles or the tail wrapping around.

Yeah. That's great. All right. So you guys get up, you cross over the first bridge of the upper city to that central Iowa central rise, where the three bridges coming off of it, crossing this bridge. I'm going to ask, is anyone here afraid of Heights? Nope. No, I think Thomas

Brad: loves it.

Matt: It'd be

Brad: good to get a top kind of view of the city.

He'd be all

Matt: all for it. No it's Draxik is afraid of Heights. Nope, Clara is so she's right in the middle of the bridge, not looking satisfied, just kept walking, like focused as if getting to the end of this bridge. His or her life depends on just going. It will not die. If I keep walking. Don't look, don't look, she she's just going.

She's not waiting for you guys. However you guys notice this is might be the highest step that some of you guys have ever been. This is about 50 feet up 50 meters. I should say, up in the air. It's a good size drop. there's the odd child decided this is a great time to jump from the bridge to the canal below to Daredevil kids.

Mike: Yeah. May is not phased by

Matt: Heights.

Mike: She walks confidently across and probably is like just holding Clara's hand and trying to help her cross more comfortably.

Matt: So once you guys get to that central aisle, it's fairly easy. for you guys to navigate, it is a little bit more of a formal market, not the bizarre that you saw down low.

this formal wise market is got expensive. Wears. You can tell. Now the upper city is definitely where the rich people are living. Usually. got the fancy clothes, you know, the random guy with the Juul dagger that he runs up to everyone and like USAA, you should try is a dagga. It is beautiful. No, it matches your colors.

Try the dagga only 15. Glen's like doing his very best to try and entice people with his wares. And some of the other people are looking at him with score. And like, if there wasn't jewels in your deck here, you wouldn't be up here. I think Mays making the restaurants

Mike: look bad, May's pretending to be like a tour guide and like shooing away the people who are coming close, but then, you know, making the little like underhanded signs, like, like what's the commission you're going to offer me for selling or getting my people to come to your shop kind of ideas to, uh, to make them like, kind of back off a little bit, you know how, I don't know if any of you guys have been to India or, uh, uh, similar markets, but the, uh, the, the tourist guides are always in for some, not always.

I shouldn't say that's, that is a brass generalization often in on

Matt: the hustle. There's a chance that they're involved. So I'm kind of. If you're ever down here in LA, come to Olvera street and you'll get a feel for that type of market. It's not dirty. It's not crazy loud, but there's definitely is this feeling of an active attempt to get you to buy something?

Anything, especially if you're there with an organized tour. So the airships, you can either go to the left out into the upper residential area and then circle around to the airships. Or you can take the bridge on the right, the Eastern side, and that will take you right to the airships proper.

Now I'm going to ask everyone here to make a stealth check.

Mike: Clara doesn't stealth. She deceives.

Matt: Oh God. Okay. I got a 16 stealth.

Mike: We're trying not to be seen

Brad: 20 for

Matt: 26, 26. Wow. And may, what was

Mike: yourself? Well, can I roll a deception instead to make myself blend in

Matt: or rather to will? I will allow this,

Mike: make myself look like a member of the crowd

Matt: since you do not stand like a sore thumb, I will allow this, uh, this one time.

Oh, not 20.

Uh,

Brad: probably,

Mike: oh, I don't have a very good stealth, but yeah, the 20 would have certainly helped.

Matt: Well, the good thing is that as a group, you guys still managed to make your group self-check. So even with Draxik, you know, his, so Jordan Draxik goblin nature, does he like most goblins attracted to the shiny things in life, or as he largely been able to control that desire?

Uh, he

Jordan: controls a Haitian and really heavy armor. That's all.

Matt: all right. So I was trying to try and figure it out. If you were to got distracted by someone, I was like, yeah. Ooh, that is pretty. Uh, so with the gleaming armor, being the only thing that is giving you guys away, which people see, and then thankfully, thanks to the rest of your group being pre nondescript, they assume, oh, or just a warrior.

That's all good. Look away, respectful. Don't look at them too long. Thankfully, you guys managed to get to the blinding bridge, number two, bridge on the right and you're able to cross. So this bridge is made out of gleaming white limestone. That seems to be native to the area, you know, several buildings made from it.

but this bridge literally. Completely bathe in reflected light. so everybody here for the moment is what, as you're walking across, you're going to be suffering from a minor perception dip, which all factor into the DC. If we ever need it. This is what cross. This is very bright light. Yep.

Brad: Thomas is still too hung over for this.

It's late in the day, but he's still too hung over for that.

Matt: Thomas is holding on declare. Now. Now there's like a little trays, terrified of Heights. And Thomas is like covering his eyes. Now you definitely look at to her,

bonus yourself. You guys get across. Now the air shifts as you guys get closer, you're going to look at these things. I like everyone to, um, I'd like to have, Draxik make a perception check specifically. Everyone else is just looking at these things and five you're very certain. They look like giant shrimp.

they want to have, proficiency in animal handling.

Okay. So you think that Lieutenant shrimp, but as you then look down, you'll notice that they are. that seems to be towed by a creature that be part of this, providing the local motion. This is a very live creature. You can see it's a, pardon me. It looks a bit like a Panther mixed with a lizard mixed with an ostrich.

If you will. I have an image I'm going to send to you guys in about 10 seconds.

this creature is set up in a pretty basic harness that you can tell is meant for pulling this thing. so the levers seem to be more for that are inside. You can gather having seen this, so dealing with the various cross winds to kind of direct the Bridgeable to not get blown off course and drag the creature with it.

Mike: So these are just, these are dirigibles being dragged on the ground. By these Panther lizard creatures.

Matt: I have an image. This will be dropped into our chat for the game right now. You'll be on your discord. If you're listening right now, it's pretty fantastic. Little creature, cute. Ooh, they're fun. Kind of a runner.

And when sent into a harness, it looks like they might be able to provide some pretty moderate speed. At least you can guess is looking at these things. So this is

Brad: for.

This is just people on the bridge

Matt: are being moved by. These are now, this is the durables. You can see these kind of tethered to the, uh, the airships. If you will, like I'm tethered to the base of them. The airships themselves are mounted up to towers with doors of the bases that it can top the top of them.

You can see some bridges going to the dribbles at kind of a standardized height. there is three dirigibles, available. And as you guys are looking at all this, you'll notice that there's a sign pointing to the left saying tickets here and to the small building that is directly to the left of the originals shaped kind of like a horseshoe.

So the question is, are you going to get tickets? Are you going to try and sneak on as like you talked about earlier

and

Mike: may would go over and buy the tickets for everyone? If the others don't want to, get themselves to notice, like she can just go in and grab some tickets while I think everyone else kind of waits outside. Loiters inconspicuously to make.

Brad: Getting our tickets. We'll kind of try to stay out of sight.

Matt: All right. So we had heard I'll be right back. may this is a pretty mundane process. It's just like going to the airport. You go stand in the queue for far too long, even though most accused empty. If you go through the zigzag to get there, can you get to the front, the ladies, like you going north, you know?

No, sorry. She's saying, are you guys going to the east, going to the capital city? You're going to the mountains. Where are you gone?

Mike: But like, uh, four tickets to the Capitol, please. There's four of us, right? Yes.

Matt: For, for the capital. All right. Four tickets for the capital. That's about consulting her chart.

You want to leave today? Are you going tomorrow?

Mike: Today would be fine.

Matt: Thank you. She moves her hand to a different part of the chart. Uh, it's going to be about 35 coins. Give or take, uh, depends. Are you all full-sized creatures or is there any member of your party of the community of stature? We

Mike: have three, uh, standard.

Uh, seats plus a, uh, a small seat please.

Matt: Very good. Uh, child or adult adult for the small thing that was very, very good slides or finger back one tech. Okay. So the cost is actually going to be 20 coins. thank you for your time. If you can deposit your coins into the receptacle here, I can get your tickets and she's kind of stepped to the side and started grabbing some paper and writing up a quick ticket.

Mike: Yeah. The coins into the

Matt: jar. It's kind of a fun jar. It's shaped like a large trumpets as you slide each coin in. It makes us very loud rash.

Yep. which, you know, fit 20 coins going in. It gets quite loud and she goes, thank you. The dribbles they'll be leaving in approximately 15 minutes. I recommend you take your seats immediately. Have a great day next. there's no one behind you. She's just shots next.

Mike: All right. I think, yeah. May we'll, we'll take the tickets and she'll say thank you very much.

That was it. You were an excellent. Ticket a seller. You should be very proud of your profession. And you know, I hope you have the most amazing

Matt: day. Next next she goes, this person looks low in our modern world. This is the person that you think needs to have at least three cups of coffee to look like.

They don't want to murder everyone. That person, even though it's, mid-afternoon never hurts to

Mike: be kind that's May's philosophy.

Matt: Yes. The juice will go into the capitals, the blue one on the map, you guys get to the tower, you go up and, uh, as you get there as a guy going dig it's I need your tickets, no boarding without tickets.

Two minutes till we leave, right. People kind of milling about the top of the tower. Thank you. Come on in chairs. You can use your tickets to church and help them move forward. He sees Draxik and he goes, Ooh,

I don't know if I've seen someone with your pure blood. Good, sir. It is a rare treat to have one of the goblin families on board. So he bows very deeply to drag six as he kind of lets him in.

Jordan: Yes. Yes.

Matt: Okay. Um,

you guys take your seats and right as the Digable is taking off and you do the whole thing of crossing off lines, clear, let's go and we'll start it's way along the path. it looks like there's an extremely long whip that the, uh, tender at the top of the durable uses to direct the animal. Uh, you guys start your way off and I'd like to have everyone make a perception check as your dirigible takes off towards the Capitol city.

13, 17. Hm.

Mike: May got 18. And, uh, sir Fen got 23.

Matt: All right. So all of you guys notice as you guys leave. A clump of people wearing blue uniforms and turbines come rushing up, behind the durables. It leaves they are writing on creatures that look to be kind of a mixture of a Jaguar and a rabbit. it's kind of a strange creature. they come up trying to catch up to you, but the creature that's towing you is simply too fast and they give chase for about two minutes for they give up since the dribbles now too high, up too difficult to apprehend.

And of course that screecher is making excellent time, but you definitely notice now that they knew where you were heading, at least they're a little behind and they definitely know which dribble you're on. All right, I'm gonna drop a map in the chat. This map is on, are handed into discord. I mean this one, myself, I'm not a professional map maker in the least, but I wanted you guys to see this.

So you guys were in Orbera and they're going to take you to the city of a Shaya. No, the city of Shaya is the Capitol. And as you guys are on the dirigible, you guys could have a little bit of downtime, cause it was about a six to seven hour flight to a Shaya. So it would even like to do anything with their downtime besides taking what the equivalent of a long rest.

Mike: I think may, would want to talk about exit strategy getting, off when we get to the Capitol, she's never been there before, but given that they were being chased, leaving, or BIA, probably fairly good chance that we're going to see some, action as we disembark. we may want to jump ship before.

Matt: How fast is this word,

Brad: this word travel here.

Matt: Are they going to let you know pretty simply that there's a bit of a messenger pigeon system, or transporting information between the major cities, considering without dirigible the land between the cities is wide open and pretty much not safe for most creatures to traverse unless they have sizeable defenses with them.

as you guys are flying, you actually noticed that this creature is making excellent time and is running as fast as it possibly can. And you can see off on the side, some creatures, you can just barely make out the sea, the dribble and follow for a little bit for giving up the chase. Uh, but these creatures were in the, uh, gargantuan size category that we're following for a short period of time.

It's definitely a more dangerous piece of land.

Um, but those of you listeners that don't have your DMG with you, gargantuan is any creature that is in 35 feet, tall or larger

for your own reference.

Mike: I suggest we jumped ship before we get to town and then find a way in a different way.

Matt: So this

Brad: is, is this floating, but just like barely off the ground.

Matt: It's about 30 feet up. Now that it's moving, when it's stationary, it drifts up even further. It's about 50, but since it's being pulled, it's down a little bit.

So it's about 30 feet off the ground. that jump is survivable with, uh, dexterity save. even if you fail to save, it's very unlikely. You'll do life ending damage to, is there a railing? So the durable platform that you're on, which I should've described earlier, that's my fault. It's essentially, it looks a lot like a train station where there's lots of chairs came arranged in little clumps backs to back.

Instead of in rows, we were kind of a walking area in between and a railing. It is very open air. There is no air conditioning, so having enclosed would be horrifying. and it's kind of just hanging below the inflated SAC above you.

So I think

Brad: once we get closer and want to try to

Matt: stealthily tire rope off to the

Brad: whatever's like kind of railing or maybe off a chair leg. And so we can slide off the back. whenever we choose to throw the rope over and then

Matt: we'll

Mike: probably want to jump off before we get, in visual range of the city. So they don't see us departing.

Matt: so like maybe doctors, if you will have been giving hourly ticks of like eight hours left to arrive in a Shaya six hours left, we arrive in Ms. Shy, like counting down roughly how long they've been in the air. So judging to be about hour before you arrive, uh, would not be too difficult.

Mike: And how far would that be on foot?

Matt: at the speed you're traveling. Being an hour away would leave you about 10 ish. Let's say it'll leave you about 10 ish, 15 ish miles away. from the city in terms of like being outside of its furthest outskirts, it's like a couple of hours of walking an hour or two. Good walking. You guys are seasoned travelers at this point.

You guys just eat up the miles. I

Brad: don't want to be stranded too far away from a place to hide either.

Matt: Maybe half an hour is

better.

Brad: Do

recording-1_postproductions_2022-02-25-t09-58-07pm-final-mix: we

Matt: see

Brad: the terrain changing as we're getting

Matt: closer? Yes. as close we get to a Shaya, the less, this looks like open Plains and the more, this is beginning to resemble grassy, Semite Jagat Hills, I actually went to look up an image for you, let me grab it. but as he gets closer, these are kind of Rocky Hills covered in grass, but they're definitely not rolling.

I was heavily inspired by the Hills around where I currently live. Um, the closer you get to shine, the more these rocks start to become more. Shagun, uh, kind of budding up from the surrounding area. And you are noticing an uptick in foliage. There seems to be a larger and larger amount of plants that are growing. These are still scrub, but with the increase in plants, it's making it a lot easier.

Do a sea creatures running around here and there, not just Plains. Ah, there's the image I was looking for.

I had this human just pulled up and then I had to restart my computer. It was a real shame. All right, there you go. That second one is definitely what those Hills look great. And as you get closer to Shai, you start seeing some jutting up of rocks here and there. It's becoming a little bit more, intermittently Rocky, if you will.

All right. Are we,

Brad: I guess

Matt: maybe have you been to this? Have you been to this capital?

recently. No.

Mike: I haven't, uh, my daddy never took me, Norma ma uh, in fact, the, one of the few times that, uh, asked to go, they both for bade me, so yeah, I've never been here. vinta some of the surrounding counties, but, never to the

Matt: Capitol,

I guess.

Brad: I, I think once we, once we see any kind of civilization, we should drop off this thing, hopefully on the very outskirts of town and we can make our way in from there, maybe catch a wagon or something.

Mike: there would be some coming in from the, uh, the, uh, west, uh, from,

Matt: Korea. I hadn't sat

Mike: Korea, um, uh, they have regular trade route with a Shaya. I've been there. That's that's about the closest I've been though. but we're coming in from the, uh, the north Northwest. So it might be a little bit of a hack to get around to, to that side. But we, uh, if we had directly south first, we'll hit a trade route and we'll be able to walk in from there.

Matt: So we'll drop

Brad: once we get toward, since we get near the town and we'll head south, once we're there to do these away from where

Matt: they're looking for, do these

Mike: walk ways. Oh, well, I mean, I imagine there are, uh, like land traders that, just walk these paths as well. Not just the, the boats, but, uh, or the dirigibles, but yeah, it'd probably be good for us to come in from a different entrance.

Matt: There are people that come from the surrounding, settlements, including Korea and smaller outlying farms and such, long travel sheen or BIA. And the capital city is largely done via ritual because of the creatures that live in the area, making Overland travel, particularly hazardous. So only the most unstable of produce is taken by land.

Reasons of personal safety. Other than that, yes. There's plenty of ways to enter the city without having to come in on durable. Cool. Clara is going to interject for a moment. so when we get to the city I've been out of, out for a little bit, you know, Fang and Ramaz like to take control whenever they feel like it.

But are we still looking for information on that plague? well, what'd you guys call it the moon, the moon splatter plague. I forget

Brad: the bone shattered leg.

Matt: Oh, bone chatter. That's my, is there any, um, is there any places at the capital city that we might be able to, to find information regarding any, anything like that?

Mike: Uh, well, yeah, we have, uh, I'm in the capital is full of some of the best libraries, in all of known existence. She says with authority because she has no idea what exists inside the wall. uh, and, uh, I also have some friends that, uh, that live here, those people whom, seek to protect the, safety of those who, uh, cast

Matt: magic.

Uh, they could a, okay. There's like a hidden enclave or something. It sounds so exciting. Oh yeah. Something like

Mike: that. Um, we, we try and rescue people, uh, who are being oppressed by the empire, who are by no fault of their own, in many circumstances, users of magic and we try and keep them safe. and they would certainly be interested in talking to you and I'm sure you'd find it interesting talking to them.

Uh, there, some of the more, arcane individuals, uh, the side of the wall, and if you're looking for something of that sort, then they would probably be a good group of people to talk

Matt: to.

All right. So while you guys formulate your plan and are talking about the libraries and kind of how you're going to get off this ship without dying, Draxik I have set up a role-playing opportunity for you, if you so desire. Because as you came onto the Airship, as soon as of course, the conductor started talking about a member of the great goblin clans, everyone started looking up and ill.

It took about an hour into the travel before someone came up, looking very sheepish, um, um, excuse me. So all I do not mean to be rude.

Yeah. What do you want your, your, your Alma and th the, the, the point of view is a new, your mighty statures. He's alleged to me that he might be a member of the great goblin houses, the pier, his blood lines, as, as, as we know them, I must know of which house do you hail? Are you of the green teeth clan, or if you are, you have the bright shackle clan?

I must know

Jordan: the fuck. Are you talking about

Matt: a new, oh, you must come from one of the nine glands. Ah, good, good, good Jen in to see your kids then I'm sure. I'm sure. I mean, no offense, let me, I believe you. I'm sure that the great. Defenders of the remanent empire enjoy the quality of the goods of which your people produce.

Surely Alma is a great Testament to their skill at craftsman ship

kind of backs up and bows away until he's as far away as he can get on this enclosed space before he takes a seat again. Oh fuck. What's wrong with that guy?

So

Brad: go ahead. Uh, some features they, they covered

Matt: here,

Mike: there, there are very few pure blood. goblins are humans and all, I mean, most of them are from blood lines that have, that prided themselves on being pure and maintaining their purity. mostly, highly aristocratic bloodlines. both you sir, goblin and you, Mr.

Thomas will we'll find that you are not so, uh, alright. You're easily mistaken for aristocrats when you get to the Capitol.

Matt: I think I might need a nicer shirt

Mike: then. Yeah. The I heart crocodiles shirt is, uh, is probably not going to when you much claim,

Matt: the one Claire is wearing says life's a crock, so deal with it. It's great. as you guys are talking, a man kind of walks up with a tray and a, a glass on it and he comes up, excuse me. So I've been informed that a member of the great government houses is here. We have come to offer you a libation. We, we would not dare think to charge you as you would charge other patrons.

Your service to the remanent empire is as always greatly appreciated. And we kind of bends down, head down and extends the, a platter towards you with this pretty ornate looking goblet in front of you, inlaid with mother of Pearl and silver. Oh, can we get two of those? No, no, no, no,

Jordan: no. You don't get nothing

Matt: out

Jordan: that they could just take my drink some way for me.

So could you have this gentlemen arrested please? It would do me. Great honor.

Matt: If you will. Paige surely our apprentices not insulted you in such great, a way that you would find it necessary to have him arrested. If that is your wish, then I could have him taken in, only reach a Shaya, but as you can see, unfortunately, there's a lack of serious security here.

It makes the patrons uncomfortable. You see

he's countering just a little bit. Now

give me a drink.

Brad: Oh, look, I just found

Matt: one.

Grab it. I'll

Brad: grab it off the tray. and then dismiss the other person and then take a sip before handing it.

Mike: But Jack wait and taste it.

Matt: Oh yeah. Uh, let me, let me take this to your human taste buds. This tastes particularly fetid. Like it's been in the bottle too long. It's been sitting in the sun, even though it's wrong with the food here. you, if you needed to drag six, goblin tastes, buds are a little different. Yeah. I just,

Brad: I just take a sip.

Matt: Draxik. As you can now, you know, he's not poisoned, you dip a finger in there and can't taste it to you. Thanks to the difference in taste buds. This tastes like the best Bordeaux wine you've ever tasted.

It's the unfortunate difference in chemical receptors between species, you drink that stuff. Yeah. How do you

Jordan: put up with your human women? I don't get that. So you'd have your safes.

Matt: I have mine.

Clara's going to say so, um,

the place where they keep saying remanent empire, I'm just a simple, simple, simple bar made with a couple of Kung Fu skills, but aren't empires usually. Um, scary. Yeah.

Brad: We're grumpy remnant makes me think there's some kind of.

Matt: Power

Brad: struggle here. I really don't want to be a part

Jordan: of

Matt: made me, do you know what this is

Mike: about Matt? Do I know what this is about?

Matt: Okay. So for the next two hours, May's going to tell you guys the story she's going to phrase it as if you saying, as you know about our great empire, she's doing impromptu history lesson.

the remanent empire is made up of various groups of people that are the remains of the civilization that once existed outside the wall, far to the east, the people that live inside Athoria once came from the civilization as well. but the remnant empire, interestingly enough, when they came to follow after their kinsmen, uh, they found the wall had been built and they were denied entry.

And so as all that remained of that civilization, they set up a new capital and began rebuilding. and you see now that their technology has significantly advanced, and it only takes a little bit to figure. They have a great hate of magic users can have advanced technology that there seems to be some sort of compensating for the lack of magic and the society that you guys have gotten so accustomed to.

There's no Druids coming to help when there's a famine. Right.

you discover that, that has made is telling you there are no churches really, besides the cog father and other more, um, philosophical churches. There's no divine magic, no clerics in this area, these none that's legal. and other than that, there only really is three cities in this whole empire that could be really considered cities as

I have to look at it so I can rate it Korea and, uh, Shaya, Shaya being a huge, huge, huge mega city. Maya is also going to take this time to tell you about the struggles that the empire has been having with the bill Lawrence, who always seem to attack from the west. Uh, no one knows where they come from, except for maybe may cause she has some stories.

So Draxik says he will continue to come over and fallen before. I'm going to give you one last RP opportunity before I turn it over to Mike to kind of share some of the lore that I helped build up for him. Um, so for Draxik one last person, this person, um, with a sword hanging from their side, no Arbor, but a semi ornate Symitar sword hanging from their side.

they approach you as middle of may story and says, I do not mean to intrude, please. I must ask of the great goblin here. I com as a representative of the warriors of, or wishing to present our acolytes for induction into the wing defenders of a shine. The Empress is on guard. Your armor is so fine. I could not help, but think surely you are a member of the emphasis guard.

Tell me how does one bind themselves to a dragon to become part of the emphasis guard. And this, of course, that is a closely held secret. In which case I apologize, Ryan through.

They don't,

they have no idea where it exists. They're making judgements based off of your

Mike: armor. They would whisper into Draxik fuzzier, the impersonal guard, our dragon writers, her elite soldiers, some of the great houses send Knights to join

Jordan: their order.

Matt: He's still there after mice whispered into your ear kind of waiting half except expectantly, but also trying to keep it respectful. Six feet.

Mike: Yeah. May does a little flourish bows and kind of steps back as if she's letting her Lord know something.

Jordan: And it's something that you're born with.

You don't have it. You don't have it. That's all I gotta say. I'm sitting there, I'm picking up food up between my

Matt: teeth. he, he vows, it says thank you for your wisdom, talent. But not lines. I can normally hope that it will have the same talent. So I might be inducted

Jordan: don't don't really get your hopes up if any of that hasn't happened yet. It has. I don't know if they get well happen,

Matt: uh, yield to your superior with agreed one and he starts to back up, if you should find need for one in York to join your wretched new, perhaps I could, uh, be of assistance. I could lend my sword to your side.

I am T-Bird and I would hope I could make myself useful.

Yes. Yes.

Jordan: How, how do we get people from step chasing us around here?

Matt: Oh, I mean, it is difficult for people to contain themselves in the presence of a mighty one. However, I will make it's my job to go and discourage further disruptions of your peaceful travel.

Jordan: All right. Great.

Thank you. There's people chasing us in the water and, uh, If you can choose some way, I will bless you with her dragging her around so you can be calm a part of us.

Matt: I'm going to have you make a perception, check with advantage because he is definitely on board with this idea. okay. Okay. That's good. Uh,

Jordan: four,

Matt: four with advantage.

Jordan: I rolled a natural one in five with a negative one disruption.

Brad: I feel like every time you have advantage, you roll a natural one with one of them. You rolled normal other times, but if you have advantage one of them, who's going to be a natural.

Matt: That's a serious. Alright, tiny, but bunny trail.

I don't know if you guys have listened to critical role, which is a fantastic podcast for those guys that listen, totally recommend them a great way to ex to see what a high level campaign looks like. Um, before they even get into their second campaign, they're already at level like seventeens was fantastic.

Um, but they had a guest player of Wil Wheaton, uh, who plays Wesley crusher on star Trek, the next generation, uh, avid. He is possessed of a curse where he rolls an unnaturally high amount of one digit rolls, um, to the point where he is like a 70% chance of rolling under 12.

Mike: Yeah. Listen to his, uh, his, uh, YouTube channel tabletop games.

Uh, it is featured quite frequently there as well.

Matt: well done. That's what made me think about that was listening to that episode the other week, because it's a very good episode. yeah. All right. Back to what you're doing now. He is, he looks very confused at this, asked to chase people away because it takes him a second.

He's just kinda like, uh, he looks at you very, very confused about why you need some chase people away, but then suddenly there's a flash in his eyes. Oh, yes. I understand you have adoring fans and they are, of course obstructing your ability to travel in the appropriate and respectful manner. I will make sure that these, that the add the ration fields, lovers of your kind architected

kind of bows, like almost like 18 times as he backs up, just keeps mowing at the waist all the way down. 90 degrees in backup just keeps bouncing, backing up, backing up. I think he sees someone walking by, puts his arm out, shakes his head and pushes him back. He looks back at you nods. It turns around and basically pretends to play goalie for the rest of the trip, preventing people from walking up to you.

Jordan: Cool.

Matt: All right. So Mike, while, I step away from my microphone for 10 seconds, why don't you share what you know about the bill Lauren threats to the west,

Mike: um,

Matt: may work some stuff out during character creation. So

Mike: I think whilst, Well, this interaction is occurring may is probably having a conversation with, uh, with Clara and, and Thomas and saying. Um, so I,

I have spent a lot of time in the west, unfortunately. Um, when I was younger, couple of years ago, I find, I found myself wandering around the Lauren, uh, territories with my, my sister. And

we got taken by one of their rating parties. And I spent the next two years as a slave to their Lords.

And well, my sister toiled in the mines and fought as a meat shield for their armies. I was lucky enough to. Be spared that cause of her sacrifice, uh, and was a page or rather a servant in the households of the Belarusians, they're brutal creatures, and some of the only magical people, the side of the wall, the bill Laurens are fierce enemies of the remanent empire and the empire despises them as well.

I think they're the source large reason why magic users are hated so much. They're brutal creatures,

Jordan: uh,

Mike: that respond almost exclusively to shows of strength and have very little compassion for others. I suggest with all my heart that we stay away from them and I dearly hope that your quest, for whatever knowledge you're seeking, we can find that knowledge here in the capital and the.

Be gone from this hellish place for though it is perhaps the source of greatest knowledge left the side of the wall. It is also going to be the most dangerous place save perhaps amongst the bowler and raid most dangerous place for us, all one slip up is going to cost us dearly or be as walk in the park compared to here.

The emphasis guards will be everywhere. Agents or agents will be on every corner. We will not be so lucky to survive a similar incident.

Matt: I just love how Brad is taking notes all the time. I hear the click clacking and it is awesome, but we're Bart at heart taking notes. I need to

Brad: quiet a keyboard. It's right next to the

Matt: mic. Don't worry. We edit it out. Edit out this little snippet of conversation. all right. And as may finishes your story, that you can hear the conductor shout out two hours to a Shaya do hours.

see from your position,

Brad: it

Matt: might've been, let's say he's giving you one hour warning for the sake of the sake of what we're doing. He'll say here's what our, so you guys want to get off this thing. How are you going to do it?

You said the seats are kind

Brad: of, are they kind of facing forward generally?

Matt: Uh, they're facing all sorts, largely forward. There's some seats facing backward, but those ones are not, being used very much by anyone because of course it's not great view. they kind of want to see where they're going

back, but get into one of those cars that has the backward facing last. I can remember seeing one, not seeing it

Mike: terrifying like 35 years, maybe when I was like five

Matt: years, I got to be in one one. And let me tell you, writing that back seat motion sickness is way too easy. So most people are facing forward or kind of watching the rails rather than sitting in those seats.

Mike: may, could cause a distraction and you guys could jump off or we could just try and go to the silent stealthy right way and just kind of like slide down the back when no, one's looking just as the city comes into view and everyone rushes forward to take a look, we just kind of zip out.

Matt: Yeah. I think,

Jordan: I think it would just slip

Matt: off any distractions

Brad: only gonna cause more attention to the fact that we're on this

Matt: boat.

True. All right. All right. Now the city is starting to come into view. people are moving to the front. it's largely just kind of a spec in front, but this is your moment. So what do you do? Can we see

Brad: also, like, are we close enough to see where the like end point is? Can we see the towers

Matt: that the. You are not close enough yet, to be able to see the, uh, tethering towers.

Okay. you are roughly about 10 miles out, so you can, you can see the surrounding farms outside of the city. You can see the trade route heading off to the west. it's kind of a light line to the south and you can see the city itself, which seems to be built around a centralized mountain.

Mike: Is there like a dust cloud coming out from behind the, the beast as it trudges along?

Matt: Oh, there is a small cloud of dust is making great time.

Mike: I'm wondering if it would be enough to give us some cover as we kind

Matt: of slip off. Oh, I will give the group, uh, a plus one to their stealth roles. If that comes to that. Yeah, I think,

Brad: all right. I think we got a, I think we got to take our

Matt: moment now. I need to get off this thing.

Mike: Maybe we'll go last and she'll stand, watch while everyone else gets down.

Brad: And then I'm going to tie a rope

Matt: on to the leg of a chair or a railing. And toss, toss it off and then kind of climbed down from there.

All right. Uh, you're moving at a pretty steady clip. so it's, the creature is beginning to slow down as it approaches the city, but you're still moving at a pretty steady clip. And since you're tying it onto the leg of the chair and you're about 30 feet up, I'm not gonna make you roll acrobatics to send, but you will also make a dexterity save.

Once you release yourself from the rope to keep your footing like jumping out of a moving car. Right. So go ahead and make your deck save and Draxik. Are you going next? Are you gonna let Claire go next?

Ah, okay. Clara goes down. what was your save eight?

so Clara rolled eight, 12. So what happens is you're going and you get to the bottom of the rope, the ground's right there, just like two or three feet below you. And. You let go, you try and step with it and keep your balance. And you get two steps in before you there's a Bush that has happened to you in just the wrong spot.

And you kind of slide, not face plant so much, but kind of a tuck and roll slide as you attempt to rest your momentum. And you're only gonna take one point of damage. It's more bruising than anything else. Uh, Clara manages to do it. Definitely. And the funny part is, is that since 12 is the DC to successfully get off this thing, you face plant as she just kind of like casually jumps off and jogs next to you.

Are you okay? That hard, easy for me, maybe it would be training. Do you have any training in acrobatics? The sun got in my eye. Oh, oh yes. Every time. All right. Draxik you're up? You said you had a plan. Yep.

Jordan: I'm staying on until, until we get to get

Matt: to the land. And may I assume it's probably going to, once she learns this, are you going to attempt to, uh, go down with the rest of group?

Are you going to see with Draxik.

Mike: Um, Hm, no man or woman left behind. Yeah. So I think, she would send sir fend down and, he would like land on, I guess Thomas his shoulder, as in say, Draxik says deciding to stay. I think it best that I, stay with them to help them with any interactions that he might have.

We will meet you. Uh, the, uh, I guess Eastern gate or Western gate. Sorry, the Western gate.

Matt: I was gonna say walk around

Mike: the one that coming from Korea, Korea,

Matt: Korea, I guess we'll see you there. So for you, Tom, and for, um, Clara, it's going to be a bit of a walk. We're going to consider it technically a short rest for you in case there's anything you wish to do with your short wrist.

cause it's about 15 ish, 10 ish mile walk. So it's going to take you a couple hours to get there. Okay. So we'll come back to you. If you have any questions or something you'd like to have your downtime, don't be shy. You can message me.

I'll be happy to adjudicate via texting if needed, for the group on the dirigible, the rope it's let go. You guys get closer. And the view of the city is beautiful and Thomas you'll get the same view once you and Clara get closer. So I'll drop that for you guys. A great image of the city, find it. Oh, there it is.

So as you approach the city, you can see that there is a lower city and part of the city built into the mountain itself. There's not any other mountains around it. It's the only true mountain in the area. It was a little bit snow up on top. the Moring platform is outside of the city for safety reasons.

And so as you guys get off of the platform, go down to the bottom and out. This is the thing that you guys are going to see with the walkway leading to the city.

I did drop it in the chat for those of you there with us, is that water.

Yes, there is a small, very shallow but existing, uh, exterior lake around the mountain. as you're walking past it, the people that will look down and see this largely looks like, runoff and the, was it the leftovers from different industrial processes being funneled out of the city? It looks very beautiful.

It's very iridescent reflective. but it definitely doesn't look particularly safe to drink.

Mike: so it's industrial waste,

Jordan: eh,

Matt: yes. By considering a gray water. Yeah. Let's call it city gray water, many Victor, various different things running altogether. some of it might be, you know, waste from different processes, but it might also just very much be people's wastewater.

Mike: So like sewage and such. Yeah.

Matt: It's not, it's not amazing smelling, but thankfully there's a very strong wind coming away from the mountain. So it is nothing like kind of sitting in your nostrils. Thomas you get down to close enough where you can get join. One of the various parties traveling in law of triceratops is, with, you know, pulling things in there's the odd triceratops with a howto on top, which is that box saddle.

They use elephants and there was one or two of those that you can see off in the distance, traveling for what looks to be kind of estates outside of town, Richard places, caring people. So you get to have some fun traveling and talking to folks, Draxik and may, as you guys get off, of course, you hit another person tries to come up and talk to you.

But thankfully Tiburon is on top of it. He's kinda gets in front of them and it kind of directs them to the side. So you guys can slip past all the while, berating them. He can just hear his voice in the background out there. Are

Brad: you in salt, a great house by belittling them with

Matt: questions? All good.

You're doing such a thing. and well, he's given the guy, the nth degree, you guys managed to slip into the city over one of these bridges and through the gate, what would you like to do while we wait for Thomas giraffe?

Mike: I will let Draxik know the, uh, Thomas and Clara, uh, know that we would meet him at the Western gate.

Matt: You guys landed kind of a Northeast corner of this city. so I'm sending you guys a map, the centralized area. you'll see, in this map, there's kind of a, inner ring. That's the part that's built onto the mountain. And then the very innermost part of it is the mountain itself.

So here you go. I've lots of maps today. Very prepared, very, as you guys are walking, uh, you will find as you get to the gate and start walking, there will be these people walking around in these very saffron yellow, ropes. They're pretty much everywhere in clumps of three. And may, you would recognize these people as acolytes.

Uh, none of the cog father, that's more nor centralized into Obeya. these are acolytes of the awakened mind cult. they believe that the power of thought and reason to be the ultimate goal. And so these are basically scientists and scholars that work to develop new chemical technologies and to steady histories and such the cog father, church being more common in the development of, um, physical, mechanical technology and the art of smithing and material construction such

Jordan: cool.

Matt: they largely ignore you except for Draxik. Then the sea Drex is they, they stop. They look at you, they do not approach what they all it kind of in unison, bow

and stand. They're waiting

Mike: with the protocol for this. Be for him to bow back,

Matt: you could make a, wisdom check or an insight check

Jordan: just to scoff, or just keep on walking.

Matt: Oh, it does sound right. Draxik Draxik keeps going. They may, as you glance back, they look, it's a weird mix between worried as if they've done something, but also a tiny bit insulted. Like he may have broken protocol, but they wouldn't necessarily be something that would have been like a huge deal breaker.

It's just like unusual. What did we do to offend him? Oh my goodness.

Mike: 19 plus four. So 23 on insight.

Matt: Yeah. They seem to be more worried that they've done something to offend than worried that you might be infiltrating in the city. Okay. It's just got a general vibe of, oh my God. Did you not bow correctly?

What, what are you doing? You know, like kind of like looking at each other, trying to figure out who screwed up.

Mike: they may would like take a her hand or her, um, her bag and like slap them on the back of the heads and say lower his Lordship.

Matt: Once you tip out lower.

Gosh, now there are as low as someone can physically bow without being deeply knocked over by their own weight. Like they're almost touching their toes at this point. Is that as low as you can bow.

Mike: I'm sorry, Lordship. They do not know the protocols. They, they do

Matt: not move them fall over because they're trying so hard.

Mike: Um, I am so sorry. and she like just gives them like swats them gently and says you will have to learn to do better

Matt: and, uh,

Mike: continues on.

Matt: All right.

So as you guys walk, eventually you're going to see, as you guys continue moving down towards the Western gate, you will see a man standing there, elegant robes of blue and white kind of zigzag, geometric pattern. standing there is nothing on his head. He's carrying a simple, simple spear in his right hand, but as he's standing there, the entire flow of traffic is partying and leaving him like 15 foot berth as they move around him.

Mike: do I

Matt: recognize the question I have for you is. You would recognize this person as one of the, one of the leaders of the is guard in the city, it's kind of like the emphasis guard they're defending her are always in their armor, but when they're out and about, they tend to wear this clothing, they have occasionally visited Stilton.

usually it's more of a, we're here for your taxes type of situation. So they're not in armor, but wearing this kind of poncho cloak, if you will, that identifies them as emissaries of her majesty, the Empress,

Mike: track six. You remember the impresses God that I referenced the dragon writers, one of their members is just up ahead.

He is unmistakable. in those, in the blue, Tabert or robes, did you say

Matt: it's kind of like a poncho more than, uh, robes that kind of hangs down over shoulders? Uh, trying to find,

Mike: I suggest that we make our way around him and try not to engage him in conversation. You may have been able to deceive some of the lesser, yokels, but if we try to deceive this, man, it will not go well.

Jordan: Let's see about that. I got an idea. You just be quiet, stand behind me. And every once in a while, pretend to whisper something to my ear. Doesn't have to be any words or anything you could say, carrots and peas. Uh, just, just, just go along with it

Mike: as you wish.

Jordan: And I'm just going to not walk up to talk to him, but walk up to just go by him and see if he makes any notice at me.

Matt: All right. So. I'm going to have him roll his perception here.

Okie doke. So as you're walking at first, as you guys are kind of, are you following the flow of traffic? Are you got to cut through that open space?

Jordan: I was going to cut through the open

Matt: space, so even still want him to see me. Okay. But even still, he really doesn't notice you at first because he's too busy, kind of looking around and keeping track of what everyone else is doing is kind of his job. you're, you've got get within, like you get within about seven feet of him before he notices your, your approach. And he looks at you.

Um, I do not know your face. Who are you? You are not of this region of the city.

Jordan: Is this how you treat all the diplomatics that come here?

Matt: Yeah. Am.

I'm going to have you make an exception check.

Jordan: Yes, yes. Yes. Calm down maiden. Hope. Don't worry. We'll find you some

Matt: deception with a plus six for that, for the help action that she's basically giving you a, uh,

Jordan: dirty 20 then.

Matt: So he looks at, you looks you up and down, and then he notices the fact that your, your goblin ears are nice and long.

Your skin is a very nice, deep green tone. And he goes, it must be an Emissary of one of the houses, but I do not know your face.

I apologize if I am rude, please, of whom do you represent in your travels to the capital of off-air empire?

Jordan: Whisper, whisper, whisper, whisper whisper me one of the tribes.

Mike: Uh, what was it that you said you had like two Galvan tribes? I can't remember them off the top of my head, yellow tea,

Matt: green tea. There was the green teeth clan teeth and.

And the shiny shackle clan, there is a third clan, which Maya knows of that she could whisper to you, they call them the grasshopper clan mostly because they are incredibly short, even for goblins.

Mike: what would play best year,

Matt: given your armor? Probably shiny shackle, shiny

Mike: shackle, then probably shiny shackles

Jordan: their best bet.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. We're going to get you food calm town. The man asked me a question

now I'm with a shiny shackle and I'm here to negotiate some deals.

Matt: Um, who are you meeting with his own usual time for the shiny shackle clan to be meeting, although your meanings and actions, all your own you'll people all strange to me, of course, but

Jordan: it's kind of strange to me, buddy. Uh, I would

Matt: just meeting, we're going to Brisbane, just general charisma, that statement.

Uh, okay, here

Jordan: we go. Uh, that's good. That's good. Back to zero,

Matt: zero

ladies and gentlemen, this is a great indicator. Great time to talk about failing up. If you were to get a natural one, getting is

Jordan: one minus one,

Matt: so natural one or lower because negative roles are theoretically possible. Instead of having everything go completely sideways, it's sometimes fun to have them fail up.

So he first looks extreme, like he's going to become extremely mad and then he stops and goes. Hmm.

I apologize if my face is not to a liking, if you would like to speak to someone else, I can direct you to them. But if you do not mind, so of the shiny shackle clan I have business to attend to here,

Jordan: I've been here from doing your business.

Matt: You're surfing to speaking again. Yeah.

Jordan: So you brought her on us until we're. Did you

Mike: disrespect my Lord?

Matt: How dare

Mike: you? Do you understand the implications of what you just said? Hate

Jordan: goblins?

Mike: Uh, I think I am going to like, what would this be? This would be a like intimidation check. I

Matt: think it would be,

Mike: and take

Jordan: advantage because I'm standing there puffing up. I chest as much as my little goblin body can,

Mike: uh, 10 plus seven. So 25,

Matt: he was already getting extremely upset as you could tell on his face, he was getting red, but then when you start accusing him of this, you can see, or a tiny second, a flash of fear go through his eyes, even though he's still angry, you could see him make the conscious effort to not make any sudden moves.

Just say, uh,

Brad: I apologize. I believe the proper

Mike: protocol in these instances is for you to prostrate yourself to his Lordship.

Jordan: I think this is a little bit more severe. Uh, I think my, uh, my, my shoe down here needs a little, uh, cleaning. So, uh, get down there. Come on. Yeah,

Matt: he looks back at me. He looks at you. He looks at everyone around him. Uh,

I believe it would be improper for me to disrespect the emperor since such a way. However, if you, like, I can direct you to someone who can provide you with a new splendor cloak that should fit your physique and the coloration of your skin. Quite nicely as no charge since it will, of course be on my tab or

Jordan: good.

Where does this, where do I go for this?

Matt: He points off to the side or there's a merchant that is, attempting to sell, find cloth to people coming by. He wants to side of the merchant kind of locks eyes with him. He does the gestures of like take, you know, he's going to you. I'm paying, you know, he's doing the best he can to communicate with needs and interests.

Okay. He looks very confused until, uh, may steps out of the way and sees Draxik. And he's like, oh, I need like starts pushing some of the cloth away, getting out some shiny or cloth, and you know, trying to prepare for, and

Mike: I think as drug six walks off may would settle up next to this individual and says his grace has honored you with a second chance.

I would suggest we keep this between us.

You do not want to incur the dishonor or shame upon your regiment or your, or the Empress for your deeds. I'm sure my Lord will be, do not

Matt: invoke the emphasis name. You've made your point, please. I have work to do leave me in my soaking. Okay.

Mike: She leaves just wanted to make the implant, the suggestion that it better best left alone and nobody.

Neither he nor we will talk about it. So

Matt: yeah, as you walk away, I'm going to have you persuasion check. Um,

Jordan: I'll fuck them, the double birds as we walk away,

Matt: I'm still gonna have you make your frustration checks. Uh, he does not respond visibly to the double birds. Uh, no, he's not that you can see. All right.

So you don't know.

Mike: So I'm going to, I guess go to shake his hand and as I do, I am telepathically telling, uh, sir, Fen to kind of just brush his hands, as I'm brushing

Matt: his hand. Yes, sir. Fan not with a SFN. Not with no, he

Mike: wouldn't have been, he would have delivered the message and then come back to me.

I can't communicate a hundred feet with, with him anyways. So that was a

Matt: pretty,

Mike: uh, yeah, and he's, he would probably stick next to me anyways. I'm going to use his, uh, what is it? Uh, heart site feature. When you touch his up creature, he magically knows their current emotional state. I'm going to use that to give me advantage on my persuasion check.

Matt: Instead of, uh, so, uh, you know, advantage probably is the appropriate response in this instance.

yeah, go ahead and roll it earlier advantage.

Mike: Okay. Uh, that is 17 persuasion.

Matt: he seems persuaded enough to, to live the matter dropping you, move on with your day. Yeah.

He seems to be actively avoiding your eyesight as well. so Draxik, do you use it the rest of the time until Thomas would arrive? Tell me, describe what opulent dress you would like to be adorned in because he is apparently paying, remember this kind of a African middle east vibe to the clothing around here,

Jordan: since he is paying, I'm going to be having everything just smattered and all sorts of gems, jewels, the most expensive pieces of a cloth that they have dragon.

Of course, of course. It's going to have a drink. It's going to have a dragon, embroidered upon it. And, uh,

Matt: I'm going to

Jordan: basically. Spend as much cold as I can, no matter how shitty and outfit it looks,

Matt: it's getting to be too much and his money,

Mike: super Gotti.

Matt: Okay.

Brad: Starting to clash with

Matt: itself. So Draxik, I'm going to say that for your own inventory, consider these exquisite clothes, exquisite clothing, and while you're wearing them in this area, it will give you a plus two to create as much X.

So take you to a plus one total, since everyone's going to assume that you're extraordinarily rich, which will affect theirs the way they perceive you socially.

Jordan: Okay.

Matt: so here's the thing Thomas you walk in, which is the Western gate, which incidentally is right where you are. These people are at the Western gate where this guy is basically watching the traffic that comes in. as you walk in through the Western gate, you see this guard and for a second, you go to slip away from move and move to the side and almost you and Clara almost stumbled into may.

you didn't recognize Draxik cause of his ornate clothing. Oh, oh. They're like, oh, Hey, perfect. Thank you. Stumble into each other right out, right at the gate. Just cause you're trying to avoid the guys gaze.

Jordan: yeah.

Matt: So there we go. Party back together. I apologize for that. 30 seconds of railroad and get the party back together.

Jordan: I see you

Brad: gone

Jordan: shopping. Yeah. Anyone says anything about anything? Just shut up, tell him you're going to get your Lordship and call me over.

Matt: I see you do

Jordan: anything else. And I mean, literally anything else y'all die.

Mike: 10 Draxik

Matt: the ShopKeep in the back corner. It goes like the shopkeepers, enjoying this as he's, you know, picking up the scraps of the cloth as he's made these clothes for you.

Jordan: Yeah. You shut up over there. Okay. Hmm.

Matt: Duck's back behind the counter and

Brad: any chance we could get something. Crocodile shirts while we're

Matt: here.

Jordan: Oh shit.

Get your ass back

Matt: out here. The guy peaks over the counter really carefully.

Jordan: Yes. Get them close in their time. Here's tab two.

Matt: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Right away. So, they get you some pretty basic clothing. It is, well-made very comfortable, not nearly as ornate as what a Draxik is wearing. It says you are obviously not a member of the Doblin houses.

something that would fit your station as a assistance. they're very comfortable though. Egyptian cotton, if you will, is beautiful. for Thomas, this might be the best clothing you've ever worn because you're not a coat. Clara is having a field day and it takes may stopping Clara from putting thing in a dress. Cause even the job, keep us a little confused about why this borough. Half work with a sword strapped, his side is asking for address. but then once they get settled down, they managed to get a pretty gender neutral costume going on.

Mike: Yeah, I think may, would suggest maybe suggesting some clothes that kind of border on, uh, the, the fringes of, high fashion, like gender, agnostic. Well, I mean, like like something that would be, uh, um, flattering for a female silhouette, uh, and a female personality, but also acceptable as a, like a male clothing.

But yeah, maybe some, like

Matt: Jason's going to have a field day when he realizes what he's wearing. okay. Thomas is pointing

Brad: at you. Like you can't get anything too nice. Fingal just tear right up the moment he, he pops into it, you know, that's

Mike: I have yet to meet this thing

Matt: is,

Jordan: is a character.

Matt: All right. So you guys are dressed you no longer stick out like a sore thumb, except for the fact that you're racially quite uncommon in these areas. so you're in town,

Jordan: are you sure? I don't stick out

Matt: like a sore thumb. Oh, you still, so you still stick out like a sore thumb, but now it's almost like it fits, you know, guess.

Yeah. I think it's kind of like celebrity status, less of a who's the weird dude in armor, walking around

Jordan: sky.

Matt: Let me do my handy dandy math. I think we would get

Mike: turbines for,

Matt: um, for,

Mike: Clara and for, uh, Thomas mostly to cover their like particular features, cover the ears and all of the years. Yeah. Thomas is probably doesn't stick out quite so much because a lot of people are kind of human adjacent, but his like lack of pointy ears and a distinct coloring or sharp features, could be covered up by a turbine just as easily as things for

Brad: and to be

Matt: half elf.

Yeah, my ears covered. So Draxik, since you had clothing made the kitchen. Over your armor, if you so desire to conceal it and still look well-fitted and it's just shiny, it looks like it's made of liquid gold. Um, it's definitely, there's a historical fiber, um, called sea silk that looks like liquid gold and it's incredibly difficult to work with extraordinarily expensive.

And currently there's only one woman that knows how to make it and just spin it kind of fun. this whole regalia ended up costing the guy just for you. 595 equivalent gold.

Jordan: I went on the cheap side.

Matt: the, they basically rounded it out to about six 10 with everyone else's stuff. Since they also set you guys up with some local shoes and such.

So you definitely have the full ensemble.

Mike: That's expensive for a Baron.

Matt: You look gaudy. it's, it's, it's a lot, God, in a good way. Like you look like most kids think they look like when they dress up like a rapper for Halloween, just like rolling in it. you know, gold plated, Gucci, everything. All right.

Mike: This is going to be one poor guard.

Jordan: Yeah. Well you disrespected me, so,

all right, where do we go?

Matt: All right. So in this city, the outside edge is largely markets and production facilities. If you'd like you could inquire around asking for help, or you could just kind of, you know, do your best to try and figure out where to go. I think we would,

Mike: I would chat up the, uh, uh, the air, whilst he was decking out everyone and get the lay of the land where the library is, what the protocols are for getting into, to be in there. I imagine libraries were, are seldom, open to the public in these ages.

Matt: Yeah. as you inquire, he explains that, uh, most of the smoothing and industrial development and scientific development that is headed by. Colt the awakened mind is done in the Eastern part of the city. The Western part of the city is largely, shops and the, um, kind of, not like the financial district, but definitely where the trading for the market and the wider empire is taken care of.

Some offices, residential areas are found closer to the inner wall and that the libraries would be inside that inner wall up against the side of the mountain or perhaps within the mountain itself. as he, the guy explains and you, figure out through deduction, the mountain itself is largely been carved to become a large natural fortress that is controlled by the emperor and her guards.

And that is where the largest the libraries are held. the only way to get access to the full archives would be to seek audience with the Empress herself.

he does tell Draxik least 18 times that that should not be a problem for someone of his esteemed Regal stature.

Mike: and once he steps away to do some of his, uh, alterations, uh, I think may would say we've. Push this ruse quite far, but the further we go, the less likely it is going to be that we will be successful as they will likely start demanding writs of nobility or a proof of personage.

Jordan: Yeah. We'll just tell him the coffins donut. Hadn't read it. Right. And you know, just go from there.

Matt: Uh, Jack six, I, I am, I have suggestion perhaps, um, perhaps you could find a secluded location and you could bring out your dragon. I'm pretty sure if they see a dragon with, uh, with you mounted on top of it, that they won't ask any questions because they will have to assume since no one else has a dragon writer around here that you're part of the guard maybe that

Jordan: would work.

Yeah. Maybe we'll see how, uh, how stuff goes. Maybe the summoning of him will, uh, spark some fear in their eyes. Soon. We really need it more than just

Mike: randomly. I would suggest not summoning them in the open. That is an immediately identifiable, Def and tend to fireball magical effect. And it will be met with, uh, Severe aggression.

Jordan: Uh, may

Brad: you said, you

Matt: said

Brad: you had friends in town here, would they potentially be able to,

you know, and the big cities, it wasn't too hard or from it wasn't too hard to find someone willing to forge up some Ritz for the right

Matt: price. Yeah, my

Brad: friends, like our money goes pretty far here and we might be able to

Matt: get

Jordan: a,

Matt: a

Brad: well-made document for

Matt: a couple of goals.

Mike: My friends would certainly be able to help with that. They are quite capable of, creative documentation. they do so regularly, that would certainly help us gain access to the libraries. but I suspect that they will have their own agendas as well. so it will likely not come free, but there are certainly going to be sympathetic to your new.

Jordan: I

Brad: think we need some locals who know how to navigate these streets and stay out of the guards. I,

Matt: I don't know if

Brad: this is quite going to get us where we need kind of gesturing to the ornate clothing. Like I don't, I don't know if this is the attention you really want. at least without some smart information of how the, how the

Matt: city functions.

Mike: Give me a few minutes and I'll, uh, see if I can flag some of my, uh, friends down and see where I, or we need to go to meet with the locals.

Matt: All right. Uh, well, they sit there and Draxik continues to, uh, you know, him and haul about this seem. And that seemed to keep the Clover busy, Maya, you slip away. Now, the way that your group has, set up a system of signals to both find members of the group in the general area to help coordinate things and also to ask for help.

Is kind of similar to how it works, except for involves, um, you know, going to this agreed upon store and taking, you know, this apple and setting it into the different bin as a Monday,

Mike: Adam's arranged in like a particular way, identifies as like the drop point or whatever.

Matt: And you wait, next to the bin and with your foot, you draw a circle right in front of you.

Now you wait and it takes about 15 minutes before someone comes up, takes the piece of fruit,

comes up and says, I think you may have dropped this hands it to you. And with their foot in the circle, they make a cross symbol kind of creating a, uh, a circle with a plus sign inside of it. Uh, which is the agreed upon symbol of, I am a member of the, underground mages society here in town. we can talk if you need to.

Mike: I'm looking for the purveyor of fine, fruits and vegetables. I have a package that they will want to inspect with some, uh, rare, crops from far off lands.

Matt: Ah, friend, I believe that you should seek out a gentleman, a friend of mine here, let me write down where you might find him and I will send you on your way.

Of course, I am quite busy. they take out a pottery shard, other bag, piece of broken pottery, and scratched down. Basically some instructions in your unique form of thieves. Can't have, you know, go down this alleyway, knock on this door three times and then move past. It. There'll be a secret door. They'll open around the corner, like giving you some basic instructions of what to, what to do, on this piece of pottery so that it could be easily destroyed.

If you could crush it, if you need to. And they hand it to you and say good day and just walk away.

Mike: And she kind of looks at the instructions and then, then slips it into her boot so that she could just grind it with her heel of her foot, if she needs to, And then, uh, then walks back to the Clothier, dropping a few coppers,

Matt: a little uncomfortable with, well, it's just

Mike: kind of like in her sock on the side of her foot, not like,

Matt: yeah, it's a little uncomfortable.

It's not stopping you from moving at all and affecting your speed, but it's a little comfortable. it leaves some coppers for the food.

Mike: Uh, I grab a few pieces and bring them back kind of like, I was just going out for some groceries

Matt: and then, all right, well you come back, bring some dates or something.

Uh,

what you bring is a fruit called a Ram Butan? well it looks like a Ram Butan. I don't know if anyone, if you guys have had it, it's a really good, delicious fruit, Redwood town as you had it, Brad, it looks okay. I'm going to drop a picture for you. I always describe it as looking like a, like a testicle it's spelled R a M B U T a N.

we'll put it in the chat for those of you that are there and also for our handy-dandy listeners. Oh

Mike: yeah. Like for Logan

Matt: Lee cheese. Yeah. I was described them as looking like. Like an eyeball inside of a, see an enemy. Yeah, they are very delicious. kind of a gentle sweetness, little creamy, but here are knowing to peel though, if you do not have a spoon, um, boy, howdy.

Anyhow, uh, you bring the fruit back, uh Draxik as he sees you coming kind of gives the shopkeeper one last good tongue lashing before leaving. as you all come together, you will notice that the guard that was there doing all this stuff, has the guards have changed. There's a new guard. There is now keeping an eye on the street.

Mike: I found what we're looking for. I have a friend that we should visit, that might be able to help us with some of our problems and, we can go whenever we're ready.

Jordan: What

Matt: time of days of getting to the sun is just now beginning to see. Okay. It's since there's not a whole lot of, um, Hills and the way sunsets of long affair. but it's just now beginning to get low enough where it's obscured by some of the Rocky outcroppings that surround the city. Okay.

Mike: Sunset probably comes early for the east side of the mountain.

Matt: Yes. one side of the mountain gets sunset real early. The other side it takes forever.

Yes.

Brad: I th I think we should go see this person and get off the streets. I think the guards are changing. I don't know if this one will be as amenable as

Matt: the

Jordan: last

Mike: well let's, let's proceed. Then

Matt: follow me. Uh, instructions. Tell you to proceed to the south side of town. you follow them along and

Mike: I'm going to have Surfin mate.

You guys hang back to watch for tails.

Jordan: Very good.

Matt: Uh, the instructions are pretty easy. Like, you know, find this shop and then go down the second alleyway on your left after you pass it. go down, knock on the fifth door that completely walk away and turn right, go down the alleyway and there'll be a door they'll open up on your right.

And that door will lead to a set of stairs. They'll lead up. And then there's a walkway that you have to take, which is, can take you between buildings. And then you're going to walk down again and exit out of another door into an interior courtyard. It's very, very, very much, a winding path to try and make sure that no one's telling you over may.

You're going to notice that two of the guards, this time in armor are following you guys, thanks to surf it and keeping an eye for you. they are keeping their distance, and I was slowed down significantly by your extensive turns and stuff that you're doing, but they are managing to stay just barely behind you.

okay. Kind of like it's a little bit like a. Like a very, very, very, very slow police chase in that. They're just trying to keep an eye on you more than they're trying to take you down.

Mike: We

Matt: have someone following the site, but don't get too close.

Mike: we can try and lose them. Shall we pick up our pace?

Jordan: Yes. I'll follow your lead.

Mike: And then, uh, she speeds up and continues, along a path, taking a slight like roundabout detour, like a raw around a building and then circling back and then doubling back around and then just kinda trying to like do four quick turns just to get them out of sight and then, make a few more quick turns just to, uh, to lose them.

Matt: Okay. So for a second, as you do this turns, they think something is up, so they start to hurry, but your successive amount of, you know, left right left, right, right. Left. Right, right. Left, left. Getting around in this part of the city. After a while, even though you're not native to this precedent, you have been able to successfully lose them.

you can kind of hear their voices, a couple of blocks over. I can't believe they got all that. I mean, where could I have gone? You guys are like hiding behind a dumpster on the other side of the building and it wasn't for the fact that it's quiet night is falling. You wouldn't have heard them. Oh, well, they can't go far, most postcards in the city gates, and then we'll be able to talk to them and really figure out what's going on here.

Mike: I think surfing might like pick up a stone and, knock it against, uh, roll it down a alleyway in the opposite direction. Just like a clock clock.

Matt: Oh yeah.

With the classic cartoon crash and a cat yelling out disturbed. you're now very certain that they're distracted as you hear the fee for seed and the night becomes quiet.

Mike: I think we're clear. I'll have Stephanie do a,

circled the area, but I think we are good to continue on this little, uh, Tongue twister of a map.

I think we are

Matt: close now, as you say this, the ground underneath you is going to open up and drop underneath. You not drop out from underneath you, but almost like a swift elevators can go juke keeping your feet on the ground. as you fall the earth swallows up on top of you and you find yourself underneath the S the streets in a small, small little room, single torch on the wall and a person that looks to be a bit of a half elf mixed with ORC heritage. They got big teeth. Otherwise look, mostly Elfen sitting there. Sister, you alerted them to your presence.

We've heard from whispers of our spies inside of the emphasis house that someone touched the mind of a God. He, he did. He did feel your influence. However, since you apparently able to keep them from finding the entrance, the house. Successfully managed to get you here. Let's stop for a second. my familiar reports that there is no one coming and the, you have successfully escaped

Mike: may is looking visibly nervous. Now that we're underground, she's looking around or eyes are shifting and she's beginning to breathe radically. Um, Hmm.

Jordan: Hmm.

Mike: I had no idea

Jordan: that we were going underground,

Matt: underground. Um,

Mike: I don't like being underground. Can we please?

Matt: Um, oh yes. Oh yes. Please go. Um, she steps on the way and easier through you. Just go up a spiral staircase out from underground inside of a building, a building, what you had turned around several times. And now you finally noticed there didn't seem to be any doors leading into this building.

as you guys had done all of your quick turns and such, inside this building, once you get inside, it opens up into what looks. Essentially like a warehouse, uh, there's bunk beds on one side made from improvise. And for us from shells, there's tables. There's about 15 people in here, which is a lot less than this room could hold.

It could hold, you know, about a hundred people. So he really pushed it. most of them are kind of milling about getting the evening meal going. some of them were just kind of sitting on the beds, talking to each other and, uh, the person who let you in says hi, I should let you know that, enclave had to recently relocate.

somehow they found a previous location and thankfully no one was captured, but we managed to escape. th th the gods are becoming even more, uh, vigilant in any event. what we have is yours. If you are here to meet with the head of the city's cadre, I can arrange for that and we can meet him in the morning.

otherwise there was food, there is beds. And of course, if you need to relieve yourself, there's an area for that off in the corner. There. You're welcome here. And please feel free to quiet practice your magical skills. welcome to the underground kind of step back and go back into the room that they were in.

Originally going down the spiral staircase to the entrance.

Mike: We should be safe here, for least a spell. but I would not risk these people for very long. Uh, they are also very nervous around new people, as you might guess. So on our best behavior, please.

Matt: I would like Draxik to make a perception check

Jordan: 15 0 0 15,

Matt: 17, 17, even better. Uh Draxik. As you look over the people in there, you're going to notice a very familiar face, a gentlemen with a Symitar hanging from his hip. That's sitting at a table and laughing with a cup. he's going to see you and go, ah, so goblin. It seems that we both have disguises.

Do we not? Pardon me? The accent was very fake. Um, I must apologize. However, the name is true. I am Tobin and I am a member of the underground as well. I'm just, just good to see that you are as a members. Well, it seems,

Jordan: yeah, I'm not a member. I'm just going to let you know now it's all our

Matt: You're either a member or a passenger. So, if you like, as we head out, I can help assist with getting you a guide. If you need a transportation out of the city, or if you need a guide to get into the inner city. I'm sure that one of our more roguish agents would be happy to assist you. and if anyone here funds needs, leave the city, I'm the person to talk to.

As you can see, I find it quite easy to get in and out

Mike: right now we need documentation that will allow us into the inner city. Um, my friends here are in need of the library.

Matt: Oh, I'm sure that we can procure a four jurist. let me send out message to the other enclaves inside the city. And, uh, we'll gather the cadres resources to see what can be done until then. It would be best if you waited until morning, as you can imagine, given the recent discovery of our previous safe house, the city gods are quite active at night now to try and make sure to dissuade our activities.

Mike: I imagine there's like a retinue of familiars that keep an eye on this place throughout the night.

Matt: familiars unseen servants. Different, warding spells that are basically tripwires that set off alarms, which is how they're able to escape,

Mike: Sur surfing

Matt: for you who works in the underground.

It's pretty easy for you to understand how it works. you don't know each individual enclaves offenses, cause obviously they wouldn't share that in case there were portrayed. But, if surfing wants to join the group of familiars keeping watch, you can do so

Mike: he would want to help.

He's a very helpful guy.

Matt: All right. So friends keeping watch, this is considered a truly safe location. So, for you guys, I'm going, I consider this a true, nice long rest for you. Since you're able to relax, take off your armor, bandage up wounds, handle your equipment. And I think for tonight, this is where we'll leave it with you guys at a safe location.

And I think we'll pick it up next week. As you guys attempt to infiltrate or otherwise enter the libraries of the remanent empire.

So ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening to sail and told podcast. I've been your dungeon master and we look forward to seeing you guys next week as we continue the adventure.

Mike: Good day,

Matt: everybody today. Good morning and good Morrow.