Mike: Hello everyone. And welcome to the tale and told a fifth edition D D podcast documenting the ridiculous and thrilling adventures of a group of friends. I am Michael a player on this great adventure and I I'm here today with two of my good friends. Brad.

Brad: Hello today I will be playing a different character than Thomas.

I will be playing a. A magical escape artist with a pension for talking his way into trouble.

Mike: That's good because, uh, I will be playing may who likes to talk herself out of trouble. and of course we have our glorious dungeon master Matt,

Matt: uh, low friends. It's so sad that, um, Jordan and JS could not be with us today, but it's okay.

It gives us a chance for brides new character who may or may not have the same name as one of the names of Augie other. They was Augustine April the second.

Mike: Oh

Brad: yeah.

Matt: That's some freaky subliminal stuff right there. Isn't that? So. For those either in the recording. I apologize. I moved my mic a tiny bit closer, cause that was probably a little bit louder.

Adjust your headphones as needed anyways. Um, so today, since we have a small group, we're going to do a side quest. This might be a slightly shorter episode. Don't freak out. Don't worry. Re keep the quality high for you guys. for my players, as I warned you before we started, this can be a little bit more of a sandbox episode.

if you have an idea, we're going to run with it because I want to give you guys a chance to feel out these characters in a slightly less restrictive fashion. Since these are new characters, you haven't played these classes before. so Azle for our listeners. Would you tell them your subclass and race and that's all they really need to know.

Brad: I am playing a arcane trickster rogue. And mechanically a high elf, but you know, in the setting, everything's kind of a mixed

Matt: high health problems and features

Brad: dominantly, Elvin

Matt: features that.

Brad: All

Matt: right. Well, I have my DMG, my dungeon masters guide next to me. I have my dice. So where we left off the rest of the party is we were spending a few days in hiding at the safe house.

yeah, Draxik is getting Rogadin out and give him a chance to walk around a little bit because, you know, while he had Rogadin sucked inside of himself, which was like a fun. If the turf is subclass, I think Rogadin would feel a little claustrophobic after awhile. And of course, Clara is just happy to meet anyone.

So she's having the time of her life, being all these people and hearing their stories. Oh, she's even braiding the hair of a couple of young female magic users that were feeling a little, little frightened and a little out of their other depth, but then they met Clara. She's all too happy to be mom to them.

Little scary since she's in a male, half work body, but still

Mike: little different, but that's okay.

Matt: Well, yeah. So what we have here is that may after a day or two in the safe house, you decided that it would be best if you went out and made contact. One of the various majors or major adjacent, people in the underground on the other side of the city, uh, maybe find a way to enlist their help potentially in the future.

So you slip out, uh, even though you're not familiar with the city, you asked for a map before you left. So it's pretty easy for you to figure out where to go, slipping through the city streets and after an hour or so. right after sun rise, you manage to get to a set of, well, they're not really slums so much as they're not as built up as the rest of the city itself.

The few slums that do exist in the city are on the outskirts. so it's kind of a little bit more of a residential area. Yeah, middle-class people. So you get there, you look at your map and it tells you that you're looking for a, a set of sigils that will lead you there. I'm not gonna make you roll because obviously you're actively looking for these, you find, the first sigils has you turned right?

Second central team has you go up a set of stairs and sat down, and then you get to the third sigil it's between two doors. And as you look at it, the sigil, it's not where you thought it would be. It says to knock at the door, but it's between two doors. So what do you do?

Mike: do I have any context to allow me to make a decision about.

Matt: One door is red. One door is blue. They're both approximately the same height. And since you appeared to be in what is basically an apartment complex, if you will, except for, instead of being stacked on top of each other, they're in kind of blocks. they look very similar, unfortunately, except for the fact that this one door is red.

One's blue. There's no house numbers there. And the sigil happens to be right between the two.

Mike: Is there enough room between these two doors for a third door that I don't see?

Matt: That is an excellent question. How he wrote perception.

Mike: All right. I can do that. Uh, Ooh, 19 plus 4 23.

Matt: 23. as you look around, you do notice that while there is enough room for someone to stand between the doors, there doesn't seem quite enough room for a door. unfortunately, however, with the 23, you will notice that the sigil seems to be ever so slightly.

Cockeyed is not perfectly stripping down. It's pointing slightly to the right.

Mike: All right. I'll guess I'll be knocking on the right-hand door. Knock, knock,

Brad: knock.

Mike: That is of course the official underground knock, knock, knock, knock, knock knock.

Matt: Yes, of course, because shaving a haircut doesn't exist in this world.

It's the official thieves can't knock on it. so you knock and the door. Does not open and you sit there waiting for a moment and kind of awkward silence.

Mike: Uh, okay. Um,

Matt: while may sitting there kind of thinking over what to do the sigil on the wall actually flashes some green arcane light for a second, and you are going to have a dimension door open to beneath your feet and drop you into the room where Hazel happens to be sitting with a nice beverage on the table, feet up and leaning back and a Hazel.

What do you say as your friend drops through your, protective. Doormat, your magical trap, the

Brad: idea who's, who's dropping in before they dropped in or did someone just drop

Matt: it, you would know, considering that you put a very cleverly, concealed scrying spell on the door so that once someone knocks you basically get a snapshot of what the door looks like, flashed into your brain.

Brad: You can go,

Matt: oh, just takes a second for you to do the verbal and some medic components to the smell to drop it through. Hey may, is that you it's been,

Brad: it's been a long time. Okay. Oh, but Hazel, what, what brings you to the Capitol?

Mike: wow. It's it's been some time. Wow. Uh, what was the last time we saw each other that let's

Brad: see, um, must've been I wasn't laying back in Stilton.

Matt: I must've been

Brad: oh,

Mike: yes. I mean, I've been there for like six months now. I, uh, I ran into some very strange fellows the last few days though.

Brad: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You haven't been to Capitol in a long time. Have you?

Mike: This is my first time. I've never been here.

Yeah, it's, it's strange, you know, um, this, the headquarters of our, uh, of our underground and have never been here. This is strange city.

Brad: Yeah. And it's, it's, it's not, not so kind to me, it's not so kind to us and it's definitely no Stilton, you know what I mean?

Mike: Yeah. Th those, those folks they're mighty kind to us, and amenable to our, our cause and our plates, yes. So I'm here and my new friends. R, in need of the information from the library. And I was looking for, some help from the cells here in, in capital though. The one that we landed on is trying to rustle us up some papers to get us into the inner city. But, they're having a bit of trouble.

Brad: Oh yeah. That's hard. Hard to come by these days.

Mike: I remember you are quite good at getting in and out of, tight spots.

Brad: yeah. That's, It has been harder for me these days, but now I can still get into just about anywhere I want to.

Mike: oh, now that I see you here, I'm, I'm thinking inspiration is hitting me. And I'm wondering if we should perhaps ply our considerable skills and weasel our way into, a magistrates' house or some such and get some documentation or papers, uh, From their, uh, stores like, forums and such that perhaps we could, officiate with our, or creative, skills and, but would be perhaps more official than papers made from scratch.

Brad: No, I don't. That sound like some fun. Amen. I've been lying low here for a bit, but I'm getting Nancy it's time to get back out in the streets for me.

Mike: Well, you've been here longer than I have. maybe you could, give me some ideas of where I might, uh, we might procure a such a thing.

Brad: Oh yeah, I got, I got some ideas.

Can I just do like a check of may just to see if there's anything that's obviously going to be like,

Matt: not stealthy about, oh, you got practiced. I would, I would assume that you're already looking her over. what do you have proficiency and self

Mike: do I know I don't. No,

Matt: no, no. Hazel. Oh,

Brad: I better. God.

Matt: Do you ever know?

Or did you choose double proficiency? I have double proficiency. Okay. You're so experienced. You're looking around and you're casually, like, okay, you're gonna have to tuck that in. Cause that's gonna jingle around. You're like looking at her and seeing like all the little. Oh, the little things that she carries since she looks a little bit like a, like a combat medic from a steam punk towns, you know, she has her little bag with all of her metal do hickeys on there.

That's some very, very crude syringes and sutures and scissors and such. And you're looking at that going that's too shiny and you start to figure out how you could hide it without having to like, mess with her stuff. Okay. So you can definitely see that for eight for may. Do you have proficiency in stealth way?

Mike: No, I don't. Mate does not hide in the shadows. She, uh, she uses deception to get in places, rather than, than stealth. She doesn't sneak in. She just walks in the front door and just makes everyone assume that she's in the right place.

Matt: All right. My only last question is, do you have any armor on you that would give you disadvantaged to sell thrills negative?

Mike: Okay.

Matt: Besides a couple of 'em besides a couple of pieces of jewelry and some metal stuff that she has, that might be a little flashy. Uh, if the light hits it just right, you can see that she looks to be in a situation where she goes, at least blend in, terms of like hiding in the shadows. Like you're coasting too.

She might struggle a little bit, but in terms of walking around the city without being accosted, she's probably going to be. Pretty good at disappearing into the crowds.

Brad: All right. Still, it's still a little flashier than I liked, but that, that I'm a new yet.

Mike: well, my, found, finding my voice, my skills.

they don't necessarily work in the shadows. I like to, uh, move in the lot, but I can be quite the distraction when I want to. So, um, I think we'll work well together. I can, uh, I can be out and flashy in front. Well, you make your way in all selfie lack. And plus I've got surf fan. You remember him?

Brad: Oh sir.

Fan, is he around

Mike: here too? And super-fan will just pop, for a

Brad: moment. Hi, Sarah fan at

Mike: your command, he does this little salute thing. pulls out his sword, a little miniature, a long sword, swirls that around in the air and then brings it up in a salute

Brad: very good to see you, my friend.

Uh, how have you been, uh, been good. Been good spin.

Matt: I'm gonna go

Mike: now and he's like, oh, thank you, sir. Fan

Brad: pleasure as always fan. So

Matt: besides the usual accoutrements of weapons and leathers and other thing else, is there anything else that you take with you, uh, from your hideout since obviously you don't need to carry a full Traveler's pack with you?

do you take your usual burgling tools you take, Any amount of gold. Is there anything specific that you take with you besides your weapons and the usual stuff you keep in your pockets?

Brad: I'm going to leave most things other than weapons and my magic items and at

Matt: least the rope. All right.

Some rope bundled up around your waist, like a belt and tied off so that it, it doesn't draw too much attention.

Mike: May's going to, I think she does have her like steam punk medic bag. but she, she also is right now wearing, uh, like a, sorry, like dress, uh, this like almost peacock coloring.

very kind of. flashy and, almost shimmery, but she also has a, a handbag that she is like, she's putting most of the stuff that she's carrying around in including, her, whips. And she's also going to, uh, I guess she doesn't really need rope, but anyway, she's going to kind of the things in her purse, she's going to range in such a way.

Gives off the impression that she might be a, dominate tricks with the whips. Like maybe some, like, I don't know, bindings or like a gag or something improvise something like, they're just like little things that would give the impression that she's, working

Matt: the specialist lady at the evening goddess in this city, the, uh, the, uh, ladies of the night, if you will, the working ladies, ladies and the red light district, they do have a specific way that they style their hair.

specifically dropping it into four ringlets, two at the quarters of their front of the face and two in the back, while in the city anymore.

Brad: Oh.

Mike: Oh, is that right? Well, you, you tell sir, fan how my hair supposed to be. He really likes styling it. I don't know. I go to sleep sometimes and I wake up with braids.

It's just, oh, it's kind of bizarre. I, you know, I usually just lock my hair in a ponytail, not so nice. It's like, anyways, you, you, you let him know and the heels he's gonna style up my hair in the right way. And my makeup and

Brad: fence or fan it's more like this. It's more like this. And then I'll describe what,

Matt: okay.

Just for surfing role, a general dexterity save, then we'll get you guys back out into the streets to see how well he does. I love the general dexterity.

Mike: he is very dexterous. That's good. I would assume. So. The, uh, 20,

Matt: Okay, this is not unnatural. He does get this style just about. Perfect. your hair is a little bit shorter than it needs to be, so they're a little bit short, but it's okay.

EV given the dominatrix look that you're going for, it probably works.

Brad: and last thing I want to do is cast mending on his cloak that has bite marks

Matt: in it. Uh, good, good idea. So your cloak that was previously full of Rogadin bites is now fully repaired and quite warm.

Mike: Oh, thank you. That's Maddie kind of you.

And then she cast prejudice. Digitation on a nasal cleaning them up a little bit, uh, getting the. Or maybe dirtying him up. I don't know, putting a little bit of like, I don't know,

Brad: probably you'd probably be dirtying him just so

Matt: he wears,

Brad: he CA he had meticulously, keeps everything spotless and clean.

Prestidigitation I see he's the wears a lot of stolen rings and jewelry and earrings and things. Um, and then he covers it all. When he's walking around with a ratty old looking cloak that is prestidigitation to just look awful, but kind of covers it. But if you like peak, you can see like crisp white wraps, the meat that, and like a crisp vest and all this jewelry and stuff on his

Mike: may, also where she has a rings on, she wears gloves over top of it.

always, she's always wearing gloves of one certain or another, All right. Cool. I think we're all set up.

Matt: All right. So you guys head out from this safe house, uh, thankfully, there is a set of stairs that leads up that you don't have to dimension door out, considering that that amount of magic might happen at the wrong moment.

so you hit up the stairs and you ended up coming out of the door that you did knock on may the other door, you come out the other one, which is the actual door. as you come out, you lock it behind you and you head out into the streets. you guys are,

Mike: you know, what Hazel, you just, that was a mighty confusing sigil.

You put there. I spent a good, like five minutes looking back and forth between these doors. I ended up knocking on the other one, I guess, uh, is, uh, maybe it's something clever. Did you,

Brad: uh, uh, honestly I didn't make it myself. I just had to stop here sometimes. It's

Mike: oh, all right. Well, you know, uh, and she goes over to little sigil and corrects it a little bit, makes a little song, you know, next time, you know, if someone's in trouble, it would be kind of nice that they see the little mark here pointing you to the right door, because you know, if you're in trouble and you need to get to a safe house spending five minutes, uh, looking at doors, trying to figure out which one is, you know, a little bit, unruly but let's, let's go,

Brad: I'll pass it up. But I don't know if they're gonna be awhile before four maintenance gets around to fixing that,

Mike: oh man maintenance. They're just horrible. I mean, uh, I appreciate what they do, but they always just come in and just kind of haphazardly put up these wards in these safe houses that they have no, uh, for detail or a spinous,

Brad: you know?

Yeah. You know, you know, one time it was supposed to be a dimension door, but it was not a dimension door. And man, that was a, that was a day. We burned down half the town.

Matt: As you walk out from the alleyway into the main thoroughfare, you hear two voices shouting very loudly in the middle of the street.

oh, you don't even need a real perception. They're screaming. It's a very apparent. Okay, as you look, you'll see two men, both of them, Nome ish, looking, you know, they have the height of a gnome. a couple of, you know, one of them has really quite beautiful Elvin looking hair to striping a gnome. Well, in the past, a couple of tests, you don't have the mixed race thing is in this town, but anyways, they are screaming.

You have one of them screaming. I told you, you ripped off my work. I, that crossbow. And next thing I know, I see one chest. I get in your shop telling me, do my face. You lift me off, admit it. And the other one's just like, uh, tell you I did not. I came up with the idea first myself, and you ripped me off. How dare you accuse me and my family.

It was such an action considering how your family obviously lacks just with those at the orchestra suasion, given those tucks rescued from your vase, they are just screaming and hollering. And there is a little bit of a crowd starting together.

Brad: Is anyone in the gathering crowd look like they have money.

Matt: Besides the two inventors. yeah, it looks like a couple of slightly wealthier people have shown up as they're just walking by because you know how people are there's can't help, but look at a fight. So there's about seven or so people that you, as a trained person notice sitting in various areas in this cab crowd, they're just like trying to turn to try to get a good view.

People have a shorter persuasion trying to look through your legs. The taller folks are trying to get over shoulders. yeah, people are loving this. Um, and you can hear the voices are getting louder and all of a sudden you hear a very forceful slap. You hit me, that's it. You know, you hear scuffle and people are starting to change.

Get him

come on now in the face. Come on now. And so there's, the ruckus is going. However, if you plan to do anything, the timeframe is limited.

Mike: Does this, do they look like they're on relatively equal footing? Like there's no, like one's not particularly, you

Matt: could run it. The reception, they're kind of obscured by a crowd. It's going to be a rather high DC of 19, but you can roll perception.

Mike: all right. Um, I guess maybe it's just like insight with this perception inside the same amount.

Matt: I, you know what I would, except insight. Cause it's a wisdom role at it. You could have, like from what you saw, what you're judging now that they're obscured, I would accept the insight.

Mike: All right. I'm gonna have a superfan and I are kind of gonna look at this from a few angles and kind of try and figure this out.

So I'm going to roll with advantage if that's okay.

Matt: I'll roll with you with a plus four, given that looking through surfing's eyes means you to close your own. So it's kind of all right,

Mike: 16,

Matt: even with the surf fence, help with all the dust that's being kicked up. And the fact that the crowd is generally taller than the two individuals.

And unless you sensor fend directly over the frack is, he, you really can't see a whole lot. Uh, however, the kind of does, does seem to be equally large on each side.

Mike: Alright, well, made wouldn't engage. if this seems like a dispute that on relatively even footing, she. these are people trying to work out their problems.

Matt: Hazel, how do you interact?

Brad: uh, this kind of thing happens every day, so it's not, it's not the wealthy part of town and it is about people, people fighting for far less than that. but I, I do see some wealthier folk in this crap. are any of them kind of near the edge of the crowd? I don't wanna be like

Matt: super far into it.

There is one dwarfish looking gentlemen towards the edge of the ground who is actively attempting to kind of get push his way in. Unfortunately he's just tall enough where he can't look down and he also can't look up. So he's trying to kind of push his way in slowly is kind of stuck between people and it's slow going.

So he is probably the closest to you that you could see.

Brad: I am going to try to use my invisible MEJ hand

Mike: to

Brad: if he's got any, if he's, if he's got anything. Last to his belt and then they try to

Matt: just untie that. but yeah, basically. Okay. Take it. It's a slight of hand check, I believe. that is a 23, 23.

Wow. As I

Brad: tried to have it kind of just, I don't want to like flying, so I just want to like untie it and have it like fall to the ground. And then if he doesn't notice it fall to the ground, I'm going to kind of like flicking, flicking it across, like as, as if someone had kicked it. But. Knock it to the side so I can walk by and pick it up off the ground.

Matt: Okay. A little hacky sack

Brad: action. I don't want, I don't. I want it to like, look reasonably like somewhat, like it just fell off him and someone kicked it in the chaos and I just, you know, you don't get up off the ground.

Matt: Okay. Uh, you got 23, so you're able to pull an item off of his belt. Uh, he kind of twisting and turning.

So it's hard to be specific on what you go to grab, but you do get a hold of something which kind of drops. And then you do your little skittering thing to get close to you, stop it with your foot and just kind of definitely will look around. Double-check pick it up, put it in your pocket and start walking a classic pickpocket.

Don't stay around to get caught again. Once you have your back to him and he's definitely inside the crowd, you'd look down and you'll notice that you have in front of you is a. Small wooden tubular case. you kind of opened it up. It unscrews, very finely designed wooden threads. And as you look inside, you'll notice inside is what is essentially a harmonica definitely made in silver and gold, this harmonica or a mouth harp.

If you will, as you look at it is finely crafted with inlay, a little bit of a mother of Pearl middle bridge on there. The part that's in the middle that has the actual tines attached to it. This is finally crafted. assuming you could find someone that would be willing to fence it for you and take it and sell it.

This would probably fit fetch you a good price or maybe a good favor.

Brad: And I'm going to lean to may like I, now that I know that guy, he's a real asshole and you, you know, for sure that I'm lying, you can tell you've known me long enough to know when I'm lying. And that's, most of it is

Matt: subtle. Tell of a wink whenever he's lying to me, basically.

Brad: basically he's got really low charisma, but he still tries to lie through his teeth all the time.

Matt: What is your Christmas score? Minus

the date in charisma for a robe that acts charismatic. That's funny. Okay.

Brad: he'll like talk trash, but he's not, not good at not good at convincing people to do anything. He gets himself into trouble.

Mike: Can I do an insight check on the dwarf

Matt: as you're walking away? Sure. Yeah.

Mike: That would be

Matt: 17. He seems to be distracted enough not to notice. It seems to be rich, enough. And from the way he, uh, kind of was shoving people out of his way to try and get closer. He seems to be a little bit too preoccupied with watching other people hurt each other. See you infer these probably not the greatest of dudes.

Anyhow.

Mike: And then, um, may I probably would say for the cause, uh, like assuming that, Hazel had just stolen this defense it to bring money to, to the, uh, the underground. Yep.

Brad: No, no one with that much money here. Got it. Got it. Be a nice.

Matt: And that's how he found out that may secretly communist.

Alright.

Mike: She does have a little bit of Robin hood in her. So

Brad: yeah. That's kind of more of that

Matt: vein. Yeah. Okay. So we'll call you a redistributive socialist. Anyhow, uh, you guys continue walking down the street as a nasal kind of fiddles with this. For'ramar like not playing it, but just kind of looking at it over, as you come to a major crossroads that leads you into the other city.

You notice that three town guards, the not the emphasis Royal guard they're wearing that very fancy poncho talked about last session, but normal guards, um, wearing a very Regal blue and purple swirls on their armor have painted on and white taverns underneath they come barreling past three of them saying by hurling through, heading down the street corner, make a perception, check.

Both of you.

Mike: At 11,

Brad: 11

Mike: Surfin got 14 or 13, 21 image better. There you go.

Matt: may this is your first time being in capital. So it takes you just a second to realize that they're guards and not mercenaries. I, you do a little bit too distracted thinking of, I have to fight this moment. You can't string back and kind of put your hand in your whip and as they pass you by, you're like, huh,

Brad: okay,

Matt: Hazel, you just kind of definitely stepped aside and see where they're running and you can see they're running towards two guys that seem to be kind of up on little podiums or soap boxes in the middle of the street.

And traffic jam started happens. People try and get around them. these two guys are just. They're debating rather loudly, eloquently, but loudly about what exactly constitutes a sandwich. one guy is screaming loudly. I'm telling you, just wrapping meat in bread does not make it a sandwich. It's all about the form.

It must be flat between two pieces of bread and there must be some sort of sauce implied. Otherwise it's just bread and meat. The other guy is talking, I'm telling you form is of no consequence. It's simply as bread being used as the exterior cursing forward. You're eating inside. Are you telling me that a dumpling is technically a sandwich sign?

I want you to agree friends and they make that can directly at you and the guards are now attempting to kind of. Pull them down off their soap boxes and telling him to get to the side, get to the sidewalks. They're not impeding traffic. And these two philosophers walked directly up to, you may said

you've probably seen your fair share of food. Do you believe that a sandwich is all about the construction or do you believe as my esteemed compatriot, those it's all about the form. Is it all about what it's made over? How does mood,

Mike: well, uh, strictly speaking, uh, either form is just a series of calories, proteins, fats, amino acids, uh, nutrients that our body then transforms into the vital essences of existence.

What you call it has absolutely nothing to do. With anything other than the words that are coming out of your mouth. I like sandwiches, burritos. I locked down plans and wraps and

Matt: all sorts of generally kind of Christmas save. Uh, you can tell me if this is persuasion, deception, or performance. I think it's up to you at this point.

There's a lot of people listening in as they walk by now.

Mike: It would probably be persuasion. I'm not being deceptive. Like she literally may is. She's not analytical. Uh, but she's kind of trying to diffuse the situation a little. So I think, she is a little bit analytical thinking, well, this is actually what they are, but yeah.

So persuasion, and general, uh, that's nine total rolled back.

Matt: Okay. So the gentleman who was all about how has to be flat and it has to have sauce on it, legend, the guy talking about proper form is necessary. You're going to see his eyes slowly glaze over. As you talk, the other guy tries to kind of nod along.

You can tell he's already discarded your opinion. It's about to move on and turns to Hazel and says, what do you think? Yeah. What do you think? I don't know. Now, now there

Brad: is no way in hell a dumpling is a sandwich.

Matt: I don't,

Brad: I don't know about all, all the rules involved, but there is no way in hell. You're you're convincing me that a dumplings, a sandwich.

Matt: How could you serve sort of thing? Now you shut up. This is Steve gentlemen. I mean, look at the, his finery. He must know something about dumping oil,

Brad: a sandwich,

Matt: or had not considered that boiling of a sandwich might be a necessary distinction,

Brad: closer pasta,

Matt: but our dumplings pasta.

Brad: No, no,

Matt: I think they could be, they start a whole new

Brad: discussion now based off of your insinuation, that Dublin's

Matt: our pasta, which is awesome.

By the way. Um, I started a whole new debate. I'd like to start marching, marching off to where they left their soap boxes to start another pontification battle between themselves.

Mike: as the guards are, um, making or working with these guys, I'm going to nudge, Hazel and, insinuate that perhaps he should lift some like keys.

Maybe they have like keys to the, to the court house or something like that, that we might be able to use to make our, weight into the facility.

Matt: I mean, you can seek, you can kind of secretly nudge him and do a little hand signal, you know, a little thieves. Can't like the key, you know, just kind of simple you use for money.

It's kind of interchangeable. Hmm.

Mike: Yeah. So like just like nudge them. Yeah. Keys or like just perhaps the key to this situation or to this debate is, uh, is near at hand something that we could key, our discussion on might help us in the future.

She would be much more subtle than that, or like just working it into conversation because she's far more far better at wordplay then than I am. So just imagine something really clever in that vein.

Brad: Right. Um, so what I know from my run-ins with these people, if they would have the kind of keys he's talking

Matt: about and city gardens possible general jails that not attached to the emphasis library.

Uh, however, a key is a key. You never know what a set of keys might come in handy, especially if you intend to get yourself involved in some sort of rumpus. However, you would know that they probably don't have any keys on them that would take them anywhere near what you're trying to find. Unless you happen to be thinking of busting someone out of the prison that could get you the information or items that you desire.

Mike: I don't know does angel know anyone who might be in jail, who might be an expert forger that we could, uh,

Brad: break.

Matt: So while Hazel thinks about that, I'm going to remind our listeners that we employ the, I know a guy rule, or I let my players, uh, say anytime I know a guy who kind of set it up and then that NPC is cannon and we can interact with them kind of an interesting way of their characters, being able to expand their backstories,

Brad: you know, you know, Hammond gotten out of a bit ago, but he was, he was the best that's for drying new, not, not a magical to it. So I don't think he'll eat. He just gets, he got locked up for a little bit. I think he's not, he's not, you know, take taken away.

Mike: um, not in the, in purses Dungeons, Perhaps then we should liberate some key information from these individuals and, uh, and perhaps a friend as well,

or an associate.

Brad: I want to just, when the, when the guards seem distracted, kind of with the crowd at hand, I want to just kind of flick one of their clothing garments to try to get a view under there, like Cokes and stuff with my major hand, and just have it kind of feel like it's someone brushing past them to see if I can spot where.

Where, what I'm looking forward to me where that

Matt: really inspired. I love that. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to have you make it our Connor role. If you can make the, our Connor role, it's going to be a 15. If you'll make it, then I'll let you do what you want to do. No rolling, attached, because that's awesome.

And I love it. I'll give you advantage for the slight of hand of whatever you wish to try and take,

so you don't get it. Okay. So. the guards are doing the thing. They're trying to get the crowd dispersed, get them going. Um, one of them is over talking to the two philosophers. Like you call them, uh, giving them a speech about, do you have the proper permits? You can't do this in the middle of the street.

Yes. The sidewalks, you know, the rules he's given them the nth degree. you sneak out your main hand and you're going to try and flip up his tablet to can see what's on his belt underneath. And just as you go to do it and flip up his Tavern, he turns to just the wrong moment. So you still get the Tavern flip, but right, as he turns, just the tiniest pivot in opportune moments, you don't really get to see much of anything.

Besides the usual, scabbard of a small dagger is kind of tucked into their Kevin emergency weapon.

Mike: I think then may would go up to the guards and start a ruckus, uh, with deception and getting them further distracted saying, are you city gods? How could you let this spectacle goat on? I mean, truly are you not in control in this city? I mean, how could you let us go on for so long?

These gentleman's voices are so loud and shrill and they are speaking of the most benign and irritating subject I could possibly think of.

Brad: And then I'm, I'm going to try to walk behind them and kick pockets though. The one I'd already kind of looked at.

Matt: Okay. So depending on how well her deception goes, get determined, the DC for your pickpocket. All right. So I'm going to have you roll first bay

Mike: is 18.

Matt: Okay. And 18, he, he does seem to be a little bit annoyed that a citizen is coming up complaining, but he's trying to do his job and he kind of enjoys his job.

He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. My, um, um, yes, uh, we were just trying to get these interlopers and these distractors, if you will. Out of the general square, I am, asking for them to present their permits for, uh, pontifications of the general. Sor if you, if you will, if you don't mind, uh, I might be able to, he starts like basically going over what he's intending to do and the laws that they may or may not have broken he's he's trying to deal with.

He thinks is basically a D and D Karen. So he was distracted. So go ahead and make your slight of hand roll. even though he's a city guard and generally is kind of, you know, trained to avoid being pickpocketed, he's pretty well distracted. So I'm going to call this a 16.

Mike: Mm. Yeah. Anytime that he, or they like start looking not right at, in her eyes, like, as she's talking to them, she's going to like, excuse me, I am talking to you.

I'd like you to pay attention to me. I am not, I am a person and you should look me in the eyes when you were discussing

Brad: that is a 25.

Matt: He is obviously not happy with having to deal with me, but he also is trying to not lose his charges. So he's now thoroughly distracted trying to keep these twos flossers, stepping away and also keeping an eye on her.

So he's like Jocelyn, and you manage this just at the right moment, slip your hand underneath his Tavern as he turns. And you're just going to catch everything that's on his belt and with your, all your Dykers just can definitely cut all the strings and pull them away. so one of them is a set of small keys and as you take it as soon, we kind of fade back into the crowd.

Mike: Hmm, well, gentlemen, I appreciate you taking the time to, uh, discuss with me these issues and you know what you are both fine, gentlemen, and I really appreciate your attention, and I will not disrupt you from doing your work any longer. I want you to have yourselves a good day. and which guard station are you from?

I want to go there and talk to your Lieutenant or your captain. And I personally want to recommend your good deeds and congratulate, You're a superior officer job well done with their subordinates.

Matt: He's just flustered by the aggressive turn of events and kind of just eventually like nods half vows is not sort of, he feels like he should be bowing, but he's not certain. So he's kinda like half thous and then just turns and grabs the two philosophers and starts watching them down the street. as you, as you step into the alley that a Hazel went down a Zelle, I would have you roll, on we'll have you roll a percentile twice for the other two items that you got

Brad: 60 to

Matt: 62. You happened to have gotten a, a small reading book? a small book, like, like an eight, five size, a little journal. It's meant to be tied onto the belt, for him to keep track. It's like his, basically his police notebook for him reporting down what he's seen and taking evidence and stuff that you managed to swipe.

if you want to see if he has any evidence that might be helpful to you, you'll have to roll percentile to see what you find. The second one.

it's a simple coin purse like to golden. It's probably his money for lunch.

Is that local gold? Oh yeah, the local gold. Unless we're with the main party, I will have to make the distinction between local gold and. This gold is a lot closer to Electrum. It's not pure. And it looks at, it says me that brilliant yellow color. It looks slightly green in its tinge, greenish, not nearly as vibrant.

Mike: Okay. and, uh, how was your hunting? My good friend. You find anything interesting perhaps, uh, which would help us free your friend from, uh, his bondage?

Brad: Um, I'll just kinda like jingle the keys and like kind of open my cloak and show him the keys I grabbed. I got, I got these and a notebook that, you know, might, might, might be some good information for the, for the, uh, core.

Mike: All right. Um, may I take a look, please?

Brad: Yeah. You want the notebook? Yeah. Yeah.

Mike: She would look at that for any good info that might be helpful, particularly in a, deception things that she could use for helping her get into the, the, the place

Matt: mentions. Yeah. Be an intelligence check to see if you can find anything useful and then a percentile check.

So I know which thing to do use. Okay.

Mike: Jude. Oh, no, that was a three. A and I got plus nothing.

Matt: He has horrible handwriting. You find it very difficult to read. if you, yeah. If you wanted to, you probably could attempt to read it, but it will take a good amount of time just to decipher a single page.

Mike: can you help me out with this? Uh, I can't re read this local chicken scratch, uh, uh, easily. This make any sense to you.

Brad: You know, those guys really are a dumb as shit aren't they?

Mike: Well, they are, uh, you know, the, the foot soldiers of the oppressive regime. they obviously don't think much for themselves, so, yeah.

Brad: could that just be, I'm helping you, so you get to roll

Matt: again. I will let you guys roll together and now with the help actions. I'll let you, Hazel roll with the plus four from the help action.

Okay.

Brad: It was just straight intelligence investigation.

Matt: Yeah. It's intelligence more than investigate. Cause you're trying to decipher someone else's writings kind of generalize. Generally.

Mike: It's like a shorthand

Brad: that's a 16,

Matt: uh, 16, you're able to piece it together after looking it over. You realize that this is kind of the guard's own version of thieves. Can't that they've kind of stumbled into except for while not falling the same linguistic styles and structures. once you figure out what one phrase that he's using in his shorthand means, uh, it's pretty easy to figure out that he's using references the involvement.

And after that, it's very easy to figure out. You know, cranberry lay was burned is obviously murder. talking about, missing cow is robbery. if for some reason he's really focused on milk and milk bearing creatures, that was an ironic sound. so those things you may to figure it out. So go ahead and roll percentile to see what you learn.

Mike: Oh, you're, you're reading it. So

Matt: I have the, I have a list

Brad: 49,

Matt: 49. Did you do.

Incidentally. He has notes in there that are about the potential use of someone who has been forging improper coinage. They've been trying to fool the mint by basically painting silver things, a little bit of green paint and washing it, just sews. It looks like Electrum. and so there's someone that has been forging stuff and that they're looking for leads the best they can tell is that it's probably.

A magical job because the paint seems to hold up to the general tests of like scrubbing it, to see if anything comes off or biting on it. Someone's like they managed to transform the outer edge of Electrum, but they can't quite prove it yet. Kind of like altitude investigation that's in progress.

Brad: Um, is this what I, you know, made them up a minute ago, but what I know if I named them terror, Herrmann, something like that.

If he, if this sounds like something he might do of this,

Matt: um, you know, the Hummer and was not taken in for a counterfeiting, but it does sound like something he might have gotten involved in, uh, considering his skills of doing such things. I know he's not above using the majors of the underground to try and make a buck.

Brad: Right.

I don't think this is Herrmann, but it, it sounds like, they've they've been looking into foragers recently and they followed it. They're looking for one now. And it sounds like, you know what, maybe if you mentioned that you're wanting to question the foragers or something, it might

Matt: be

Mike: yeah. Um, we could

Brad: see those lines better this than ours

Mike: pass ourselves off as investigators and, perhaps, uh, asking to, uh, talk to the prisoner, to get some clarification.

I don't know. Maybe I'll think about it. This could be a useful little tidbit. All right. Well, let's, let's proceed to the drain.

Brad: All right. Let's

Matt: All right. So you head to the jail. thankfully the town guards usually keep to their own districts. So it's pretty easy to figure out what shale to go to as you arrive. there is a guard standing outside and he kind of, he sees you come up and since you don't look like you're here in desperate need of someone to go find your lost puppy or something of that nature, he looks at you and says, um, kind of gruffly.

Well, she'll bearish, Nish.

Mike: I am, uh, Evelyn. Angel. And, I am a scribe at, from the courthouse and I've been told to go take a disposition from one Harmon, in regards to a case of, uh, related case to his own, about some counterfeit, coinage, uh, that he might have some, uh, information about it.

may I please, enter so that I can, uh, speak with the prisoner and take his disposition is

Matt: it's going to be deception as you probably guessed. I'm lowering the DC slightly because his intelligence isn't way too. He rolled it to on his intelligence. I was trying to figure out what you were saying through the legalees, 15.

Oh yeah. you only needed a 13. That's good. So he's the kind of looks you up jungles. All right, come on then. I'm sure he's gonna have nothing to say to you. He doesn't say nothing to you magistrates you. What are you called? Speculate. I don't know the time for you people. He doesn't speak to you much.

You're welcome to try. Go ahead in. And he kind of nods his head inside the jail.

Mike: Come on, Johnson. I bring my equipment. I find it quite taxing carrying these lodge books all the time. Johnson is just an absolute dream, helping me carry my equipment. All

Matt: right. And by now, talk, as you walk through the door, once inside there's one person kind of waiting at a desk of this row of cells, there's two cells, two rows that go down this building, they go about 30 feet down the cells to the front.

As he kind of, as you guys kind of mentioned who you're looking for and he, he kind of goes, oh yeah, you're describing me, grabs the key to walk you down. The first she sells, you can tell her, obviously just drunks, they're sleeping it off at the moment in the middle. There's some people that are kind of sitting there.

somber faced, waiting for a magistrate or someone else to come speak with them. takes you down to about two thirds of the way down to this case. Where, how do you pronounce his name Holman or something like that?

Brad: Harmon, H a R M O N D Harmon Harmon.

Matt: Harmond you come down to her? Harmond is I thought, I thought it was Horan.

Definitely send the first time. This is what I wrote down the Heartland and he kind of gestures to sell. the guards says you, if you like, you can speak to them. As in speaking to no, adjudicators and magistrates, nothing has been keeping it dead silent. I tell you, so it's up to you if you want to get anything out of him.

Mike: thank you. So. Your guidance here has been much appreciated, but I like you, I'm just in a cog, in the great machine of, our justice system.

And I am here to do, as I'm told, you may, of course

Matt: you did it.

Mike: You may, of course leave. Yes. Thank you.

Matt: You say to his back as he walks away.

Mike: and then I, I think I'm going to speak, but, surf van is going to like walk over to, or fly over to, um, April's ear and kind of whisper in his ear. maze may is going to speak.

You can use your, Thieves can't stuff. Talk to this guy and maybe, uh, tell him what we're here for. And we're here to help in exchange for. His health and then may goes off like on this speech about, his civic duty to, uh, to help the city and so on and so forth as a cover for, Hazel to have the conversation that's

Matt: inspired.

I love it. so as you look into cell Herman, is this gentleman, a dwarf halfling kind of mixed, uh, he looks like a dwarf. He's missing the really solid beard that most people with majority torment and blood have. Instead he's got what looks to be the worst five o'clock shadow that's ever come forth, thrill scraggly, and he's got one eye that's green and one that's blue, which is the unfortunate part because it's a dead giveaway.

he's kind of just sitting on the bed and he kind of looks up at you too. And you begin you Hazel, you can attempt to use slight of hand to stealthily Hughes. These can't hand symbols to communicate what you want to do. here's what I do. I'm going to have you tell me what you wish to communicate.

Then I'll have you make a slight of hand check to see if anyone notices.

Brad: Um, and then as the guard is he, is he just

Matt: hanging out with, with us? He is walked back to his desk. We just kind of have keeping an eye on him because of course, he's trying to make sure that no one's attempting to stage a prison break or, you know, and that you're not, uh, you know, he's not gonna attempt to lunge through the bars at you, right?

So he's about 25, 30 feet away. And of course may is attempting to block the view for you as she's loudly pontificating. Okay.

Mike: Um, I kind of envisioned like me, like putting my book on Hazel's back and just like making, like using him as a, a table in order to like further provide cover, like, completely obscuring his hands,

Matt: making discussion about the various statutes you might be involved in breaking, you know?

Brad: so I'm going to tell him the gist of that. We're here to get him out and, but he's got to give us a favor. He's got to do us a favor

Matt: after. Okay. So you, um, I've used your slide hand at the end to see who who's noticed. Uh, you basically make the birds sign. Which is the thieves can't sign for escape, uh, to him.

He kind of looks at you and you, you do the whole thing of us too. And, you know, point view, point to may point to him like a circle. We're all getting out of here. I pointed yourself and have pointed to your head saying, I have an idea pointing to him and raising your eyes. Like, are you in, he kind of sits up a little straighter.

It looks around and kind of quietly reaches under his bedspread and pulls out what looks to be a pretty well made shift for only being in jail for a few days, pulls it out from under his bed and it looks at you and he nods and he looks over towards where the guard is. And kind of goes across his neck as if he's slicing it and looks at you with his head tilted.

When he's asked to sing is I'm in, do we have to kill him?

Brad: I mean, I kind of look at may as well be like,

Mike: while I'm giving this speech, I'm looking around. Are there any like, uh, pipes or, things is a heated jail, the

Matt: heater, Joe there's pipes of steam, probably from the local refineries that are being diverted to help heat government buildings.

so it's, it's not like chilly and wet in there, but the, it is a little bit not like warm. It's just like, it's a nice cozy room to.

Mike: Is there like any like, uh, valves on, on these pipes,

Matt: there's some rudimentary controls at the back of the jail, not where the guard is sitting near the front, but towards the back, some rudimentary controls to kind of help control what's going on.

It's more of a diverting the air out of the building quickly before it goes all the way in kind of like shutting. Pardon me, shutting the great so that it doesn't get too warm. So you can kind of control the temperature a little bit during the seasons.

Mike: What I'm looking to do is rupture the pipe and let out the steam and create some mist.

do I, with my tinkering capabilities, am I able to assess, If I was be able to do that, I think there are any like structurally weak pipes or like valves that I could open to release steam or, okay. Uh, do I get to add anything to that? Other than just perception, you can

Matt: add double proficiencies since this is something that you are, uh, that you would be well aware of with your Tinker's proficiency.

Mike: So that was not a great role, but that was still a 13.

Matt: You don't see anything that looks egregiously damaged, but you do notice that the, uh, the valve handle for opening and closing the valve, does seem to be a little rusted.

Mike: All right. I'm, I'm wondering if I could get Surfin to a. Open the valve as I am making this little speech and I'm going to, uh,

Matt: not

Mike: good, three.

Matt: Okay. With a strength of three, that means that the DC for this is going to be really quite high because he doesn't have the strength to move it like to move it. He would have to like put all of his body weight in and like fly against the fly with it as he's holding on to try and get it to move. So for him to do this, with any sort of speed is going to take a sprint, a strength check of about

Mike: right.

I'm going to, before he, he does that. I'm going to, have him whisper to, Hazel and ask him if he can use his major hand to help Surfin release the valve

Brad: so they can work.

wondering.

Mike: Okay. yeah. So use their combined, like I know may Chan doesn't particularly strong and about 10 pounds, but yeah, it's her fan isn't particularly. But together, maybe they do it.

Brad: Yeah. Other than

Matt: nothing. Okay. Now I'm going to have you make here slight of hand check,

Brad: right.

Mike: And sir, fan make a strength check.

Or do you want Tim to do his slate? I

Matt: decided to hit and check first. You gotta make your strength check, but allow you to roll it with a plus two. Okay. I got a

Brad: 21 on this slide

Matt: of hand. Okay. So as you're kind of doing this, you very stealthy reach across yourself and start doing the somatic components for a major hand.

It just it's so perfect that, Hammond almost doesn't see what you're doing. And these special sensory chains, invisible, he just thinks you're kinda like scratching an itch.

Mike: Yeah. I only got a

Brad: 12.

Matt: So is there a fan really is trying, and you can sense these really trying, all you hear is a little bit of a tiny squeak.

Is it jarred as it shifts just a little bit, you got a little, uh,

they can't quite seem to get it to go past. It's a point where it will snap to the side.

Brad: Are there other prisoners in here

Matt: there's about six drunks upfront from various revelries at night. And besides that there is oh three or so people in the jail for various other crimes, a couple of young kids to look up to they're picked up for pick-pocketing, um, based off of their really ratty clothes.

one older gentleman that looks like he might've been picked up for some other crime, but he's looking pretty older. And for your mixed race population concerning elderly usually means over a hundred. it's kind of interesting how he ended up here,

Brad: who, who looks to most like they deserve to be here.

Matt: That is a wisdom check

Brad: because what I'm going to do might get them collateral damage. And I don't want to like

Matt: meme the kids.

Brad: What's your wisdom? Wisdom check is an 18.

Matt: Uh, it definitely looks like the old man probably has a legitimate reason for being here. He's scarred. He looks like he has what looks to be tattoos, but it's kinda hard to tell.

Cause he's just feeling. but he's, he hasn't gotten up the whole time and he's just staring straight into the wall of his cell. He's been here before.

Brad: do the key is I picture this is so funny, cause it's just like straight out of a video game. I picture the key is having two keys that are identical on the same key. Right.

Mike: But it might not be how it is.

Matt: That's how it is. I wrote a 17 on my percentile. They're essentially identical except for one tiny little knob on the end.

One of the T keys, which is for all intents and purposes, they look identical and it's hard to judge, which one's the correct one. Obviously there's some sort of difference, but.

Brad: Okay, I'm going to try to hold one of them in my hand and then put the other one to my main hand and try to when the person's looking down or whatever, unlock the cell of the big guy, the old, the old guy who

Matt: let's say he deserves it.

Okay.

Brad: And I'm, I'm kind of intending this to make. No, I don't think I can really like silently open his cell, but either way, if it, if it sound, I'm going to creak the door open so that it's obvious to the guard that this person is just opens itself.

Matt: Oh yeah. So I rolled this guys, this guy's ability to be able to get the door open for the other side and to, and also for you to be managed, to get the key, to float across the way without being noticed by anyone which you managed to do.

he takes the key and it looks at it. You can see this crazy look in his eye. He went from being very like stoic and unreadable to just looking like a wild man as he stuffs the key into the hole. And he turns it without

swings, the seller orphan. I rolled for his stealth. You've got a natural one. So I'm going to lean back from my mic as he screams.

And he starts running straight at the guard with his mouth wide open arms to the side, just running. I hit him

and he's just running. So make your, as you attempt to open the door, the guard is very thoroughly distracted. So I'll have your role slight of hand with advantage. yeah, because I'm trying to already even notices what you're doing. Cause the guard is currently attempting to Dodge. What looks to be the hugs have a slightly crazy.

Brad: I got a 31 cause I have a natural 20.

Matt: Okay. Now natural 20. You managed to get in there and it doesn't even click as you turn it. It's just like, huh? You pull it just ever so gently and let its own way. Pull it the rest away. And it slides open. Silently is a beautiful job. Holden stands up, takes this Shiv and slips out behind you guys.

Kind of like trying to keep the guard obscured by you hoping he can kind of hide a little. Um, okay. The old man old man, we got gig, as you would later learned, his name is this. You asked around, he rolled a natural 20 on his attack to bite the guard in the face. So he grabs the guard by the head and screams at him once again, chomp bites down on his face and he's going to deal critical damage.

So, oh crap. He deals 20 points of damage with that bite. As he must've gotten artery that the guard kind of reels back, trying to get away from him as to holds onto him on is quite obviously biting a chunk out of his neck, as he holds on at the guards flailing. He's trying to scream except for the fact that this guy literally bit him on the throat.

And he's kind of making that horrible sound of someone who is being choked. But he's also having his juggler bit from the way that mammoth get is just too perfect. And he's just kind of got,

you can see him attempting to reach for his weapon, that he had sat on the desk, but it's just out of reach for the moment. What do you do?

Brad: so I've got Herrmann to out and I'm going to, after doing that, give the key, I'm gonna slide it to one of the pickpocket kids and kind of give them a nod so they can get out whenever they want to.

Um, and then I think I just want

Mike: to book it all right. Well, this distraction is going on. I'm going to a. I do. I want to cast a spell because that could be dangerous, but at the same time, it could help us real good and getting out.

Matt: I tell you that on the percentile for people to notice magic at the moment I rolled an 18, it seems that with all of the commotion, uh, you might, that you might be able to get away with it.

Uh, the other guard is now coming in as attempting to pull McGuckin off. The other guard that now is visibly bleeding from the neck wound and is kind of choking and spitting and attempting to, stop the bleeding. Well, he goes for a weapon. So

Mike: may is going to do a deception as she does. And she's going to pretend to cower behind a Zelle, like she is like scared and a maiden in trouble.

When she is like, hidden behind. She's going to cast fog cloud, to, make like the room, fill up with fog.

Brad: And I'm going to use my hand to try to squeak that gas I began. So there could plausibly the, from the, from the gas pipe. Yeah.

Matt: Both of you go ahead and make your common checks since it's a little out of the ordinary, what you do, but I love it.

Mike: Arcana for what?

Matt: Just a general Arconic check that. So I can kind of determine if they've noticed that you've captured the smell, uh, or if they think it's steam, can

Mike: I roll deception for that? Cause that's,

Matt: I'm better. It would allow you to roll deception, but. You're going to need to use your spell casting modifier and saved your charisma modifier.

Mike: Well, my spell casting modifier is my charisma is my

Brad: so

Mike: better. Okay.

Matt: So 20. So I thought you were cleric. Yeah, 27. And once you get, I only got a

Brad: nine. Okay. It might've happened after this still pretty high. What happens is,

Matt: the fog starts to spew out from may kind of filling the room from the floor up.

And once the fog gets to the guards, that's when they hear the squeak.

you're so lucky, are five and eight on their attempt at perceiving that both go what the they're obviously very distracted by someone biting at them and just going ham McGuckin has managed to. No, he's not managed to slip out from two guards. He's now being held down and restrained by the one guard as a, the other guard is tempting to stop the bleeding and his grabbed his sword.

but however, you're 20 feet, 20 feet collect, correct for fog bank. Oh,

Mike: this is like my spell slots. It's a fourth level. It's a 20 twenty-five. It, this capsulates, the whole room, the whole office building probably

spills

Brad: out onto the street. You don't

Matt: have

recording-1_postproductions_2022-03-04-t09-23-20pm-final-mix: a

Brad: quiet, you, I don't have a lot of you don't have like a quiet setting for your spouse. It's just like giant.

Mike: Yeah. It's fourth level or no level.

Matt: It's shocking Oz, what it is. so I'm not going to get your old stealth. They're distracted. There's fog. They'd roll with disadvantage anyways.

Yeah. And I can see it in the fog and they can't get double disadvantage and you can see the fog so you could easily kind of skirt around them. Yeah.

Mike: And I'll lead everyone else around. And oh, I stumble out

Matt: and the doors opens this like huge wave of fog, kind of screams out into the streets. Yeah, in the perfect shape of the door for a good, like 10 feet.

Mike: as we're leaving I'm since now everything's, covered in fog. I'm gonna I guess just smash the, the pipe and I'm also going to drop, some bandages for the guard on the way out as we're sneaking out,

Matt: you tend to smash the pipe.

It's on the opposite side of the room from where the guards are in the back

Brad: of the jail with it. Good. A

Matt: whip it. Okay. Make your whip attack.

Mike: I'm going to grapple grapple with,

Matt: oh, go for it. Do your role.

Mike: Uh, all right. Uh, that's like 32.

Matt: 13 we'll hit it. And since you're supposed to be able to pull up an object, with a strength check, what's your

Mike: strength?

Uh, not good. Negative one, but, I got Nate. Okay.

Matt: And that's it with an eight strength of the measure where you've managed. You can't get it halfway as you catch it and kind of rip out it to try and get to spin know men should get it to pop loose since it was already rusty and some steam and the hissing sound that accompanies is.

Shoots through the room. so now the fog is moving. It's still a huge fog bank it's covering you, but there's kind of that sensation of movement in the fog bank from all the pressure rise air coming through. Yeah.

Mike: I want it to kind of cover up the Keva, plausible deniability on the spell casting, improve the like later, when they investigate later, there'll be evidence of mundane means for this thing to have happened.

so they don't chase after us or look for a magic user. and yeah, we'll sneak out,

Matt: you guys head out the door into the sun. the fog kind of rolls out with you and you guys can come out of it. faking some coughing and whatnot. Since you cough, right. Then I'll count that as RP, somebody

Mike: helped the there's a crazed, escapee down in the jails, please help

Matt: some Passerbuys.

And the odd town guard kind of drift up there trying to like trying to swipe away the miss can I get to fade was not fading. I think you could hear the scuffle inside. YouTube managed to slip away. Hammond is once you guys can get a safe distance away and you're in a, in an alleyway having this cat tosses, this shit aside.

Well, um, thank you. It was quite nice of you to rescue me. I didn't expect to be sent help from the underground, but, um, Anke you anyways, I owe you a debt. They were threatening me with, uh, with, uh, you know, some crude physical labor, as you can tell by my delicate tens, that would not agree with me. You say, oh, you favor.

Brad: Right?

Mike: That is exactly what we are, got to get the right voice. Um, all right. Another coughing fit. Yeah. well, that's exactly what we're looking for. Um, we do that to liberate those who've been unjustly incarcerated. but I have a sneaking suspicion that, uh, you may have broken a law or two of your own volition, any who, uh, your skills are in needed, uh, for a greater cause if, I might, ask you for, some papers that could get us into the library, for myself plus, three others, is that something that you are able to do?

Matt: Oh, complicated forgeries I could do, but it's difficult to do without my muse.

Mike: And what exactly might that be?

Matt: This I don't usually share with non-clients, as you can imagine. Uh, don't usually accept gold for my work to trace to easy to implicate. No, I accept payment in what I use to do my tax. I prefer to rune or Ray bark. They're very effective for what I intend to do. They will grant me the dexterity I need.

That's true. And the Ray bar. Well, in the words laid back, they're very, very, very easy to find if you know who to talk to. Uh, however, I have made the case to not know who to talk to, because again, one simple deniability is a friend of mine is, you know, if you can procure from me, I can help you. But without my views, it is so difficult to whack.

I mean, so easy to make a mistake, so easy to make a crude copy rather than a fancy one yet it's

Brad: got to be,

Matt: we all have already been through human on that junk. Well, I've been in the shell too long and that man was running off on me.

Mike: Do, can I make a medicine check or like a herbalism check to like, identify these drugs or substances

Matt: you can, what is, are you proficient in medicine?

Mike: I am proficient in both herbalism kit and

Matt: medicine grand. So I'll give you a PR uh, advantage on your role. DC is 12 to be able to know, to know Rafa was, these are 18 to know exactly what they are. I

Mike: got a 14 bus fork, so I hit on my 14 and eight. So there's good thing. I got advantage.

Matt: Whew. Okay. So, you are aware of what these are.

Drew is a Kendall brown south, that is absorbed into one's pores. You kind of rub it on the people's arms. Some people will kind of rub it under their tongues or under their chins or behind the ears. it will aggressively amplify all of your senses, including, pro perception and your sense of touch, which for people in Hammons, when of work, the ability to have your sense of touch aggressively amplified is very handy to make sure that everything looks absolutely perfect.

It both clarifies his senses and gives him the necessary dexterity to do his work at such a high level. also, um, it usually is helps with his unusual way of having to do some of the work with some of these inks that he uses are kind of finicky and need to be applied in a certain way. so it gives him the ability to Healy know when the ink is at the right temperature on the paper to make sure that it sets correctly.

Again, some of these things are very fancy. They're used for high level forging and will be treated in such a way is that it's extracted from a cactus,

Mike: cactus. are the, is this something that's used medicinally, for legitimate reasons or is it like just a street drug?

Matt: It is used medicinally for a couple of people that have suffered debilitating injuries that have left them without their sense of sensation or, or it's severely dulled.

However, is used illicitly all over the place. Imagine if you will, a mix of meth angel dust and, crack cocaine, you

Brad: know, those medicinal drugs. So

Matt: it has this theoretically could have a medicinal use for certain. But the fact that they so stimulating has drawn people in, of course the, uh, since the increase in senses can be quite drastic.

it's something that is only used by some of the hardest of drug users, because using this will make us like touching something like silk feels incredible. However, setting your hand in the sun feels like your hand is on fire because of how acute your senses become.

Brad: Okay. I don't know. Are there chalkboards in this.

Matt: usually fingernails it doesn't usually apply to the census hearing, but definitely the sense of more physical sentences like balance, your sense of touch. It helps aid in your fluidity of movement. Very popular with exotic dancers, inside of some of the slightly less, reputable dance clubs,

Mike: gray

Matt: bark rape bark is not actually a bark.

but it was nickname. Cause it looks a bit like bark thin strips of rightly covered, large fungus that grow, In the wastes slightly to the east of the town, gray bark improvise external senses, if you will, when ingested or snorted, it gives people all sorts of strange, additional sentences that are latent in their natural bodies, but they don't usually have the ability to tune into like being able to detect magnetic north, being able to tell when people are watching you, to sense the coming of a storm to kind of tell how healthy a plant is by just looking at its leaves, to see with, to see an ultraviolet light and most specifically, for his line of work, Ray Bart gives them the ability to export.

Discern and replicate handwriting from his extensive files of different missives and things that he's collected over the years, since he's able to discern the tiniest of pen strokes, that usually are not observable by the casual eye. the sense of his own body is greatly like, it's almost like he's in a strange transport is using it.

So he, he has to be in a safe location while using it, because you would know that with Ray bark, their, their sense of inner ear balance is completely ruined for about 24 hours due to the fact that all of their senses are kind of playing with her with their sense of balance. Um, this is interestingly enough, often used by, street living homeless hippie type pacifists, who like feeling connected with the world around them.

They feel like it connects them to the general world. It has been thoroughly investigated and prove and do not have any arcane origin. So it is kind of permitted more. It's not so much permitted as they just kind of turn a blind eye to its use, but it is commonly used by magic users because the ability to feel the magical currents around them as it's a heightened way, can make them can make it easier to cast certain spells.

They're usually quite difficult to cast.

Mike: So he wanted a bit of both of these

Matt: both would be preferred. He can deal with either one, but both would be preferred. They do slightly different things. You see?

Mike: All right. So if we wanted to have like a superior, forgery, both would be good to have.

Matt: as he kind of describes what he's looking for and make sure that you know exactly what we're talking about, just in case there's any confusion, the names he does say I would like a safe place to work.

My safe house was unfortunately, uh, no longer safe we could make stop and I could pick up my records. Of course they don't keep them in the safe house. They have their own safe house because I don't trust them in my safe house. But anyways, if we stop, grab my records and get me to a safe location, I could theoretically, begin the prep work while you seek to procure my amused.

Brad: can't believe what? Just drug run for this guy. Well, all right,

Matt: let's get ya.

Brad: Let's get you in a safe house. you probably don't want to assume we're kind of walking away from the place

Matt: at this point. We're not really. Anyway, three old ladies rush up to you. other like what happened inside of, of the jail?

You look like strapping lads, who surely you participated and helped out what happened. Surely, you know, the story.

Mike: Oh, it was horrible. And she does this like a hand on her forehead, like, oh, it was horrible. There, there was violence and there was blood. Oh, my, it was absolute terror, uh, feeling so faint gentlemen, please, please get

Brad: me

Matt: home.

Brad: Yeah. Sorry. When we gotta, we gotta

Matt: get our lady to safety. Oh, so dashing lat. So dash state, let's you dash off, I'll let you know slightly Metta that will become the accepted version by almost everyone in town. As the rumors surprise that there was some sort of violence in the jail that led to whatever happened.

That that was the ultimate cause because these three ran into happened to be the rumor mill for the whole city.

I like that account of myself. you guys work to get him in back to the safe house. Ms. Scroll here, as you guys are attempting to kind of worm your way through the city, trying to avoid the main thoroughfares for a little while, and then kind of walking as you go. as you have to cross between districts to get back to, the main safe house where you were may, um, as you walk, you're going to stumble into a small public speech being given.

Uh, it seems that someone is attempting to, uh, become oligarch of this particular district. And he's trying to get people support for the, uh, upcoming vote is done. he's standing up on a, podium and he's speeding. And he's doing his very best to, uh, encourage people to vote for him. I would have all three of you make a perception, check Haman got an eight.

That's not good. All you do that. This is what you hear. And I tell you, Lila, go fuck. And to remove crime from my district to be well, they , that has a proper set pat of grabs. No, not grabs out of grab a food for those of you who find yourself in need. And furthermore, what'd you guys all roll

Brad: they're on the 10.

Mike: Uh, I rolled a plus four, so 12 and surf enrolled a 16.

Matt: Hamlin's just kind of nodding along like, oh, okay. You two can see that it's clearly three goblins and a trench coat and no one else in the crowd seems to notice, Which is odd because as you know, there are three powerful goblin clans in the area.

These goblins are obviously attempting to conceal who they are and they're wrapped in a cloak that face obscured as they're kind of shouting out. and so the three goblins,

Mike: the real insight to see if they're like legitimately trying to like better the community

Matt: you most

Mike: certainly can. all right.

Ooh, 16. Or is that 19? Oh, that's a 1919 plus you noticed

Matt: that there's a donations box setting sitting at their feet, that people are tossing coins into as they're talking

Mike: and they are, are they legitimate? Do they seem like legitimately, uh, like they're trying to help and be like good leaders in the community or are they like trying to rip these people off?

Matt: This is what kind of tempting to make some quick corn. Okay.

Brad: I'm just going to shout out how can we trust anyone who thinks the dumplings are a sandwich?

Matt: okay. the whole crowd kind of murmurs the sandwich or the goblins, or like, uh, dumplings. I hadn't considered the idea of, as I sit yet, they do sound kind of sandwich. Like they have bread around the outside, which I guess makes them a sandwich. The whole crowd starts booing. Yeah, sandwich. I mean, uh, at this point, people have picked up small stones and it kind of pelting them with these tiny pebbles.

They fall over backwards and now everyone can see it's just three goblins and a trench coat on that's where the Crowdcast surges forward screaming like frauds. How could you do as

Brad: was,

Matt: I know you were charlatans. I knew it. They all kind of surge forward over the goblins. You can hear some quiet screams as they're taken up by the crowd.

Mike: Oh, well done. That was very well executed. Those frauds are getting their just desserts

Brad: or

Mike: goblins getting their, I don't know. Hey,

Brad: that was what goblins.

Mike: you didn't see them fall out of that trench coat? they, they were, they were now, but yeah. Oh, well, let's, let's get our friend out here. Well, this distraction is keeping the rest of Lee's phone folks busy.

Matt: You turn and almost run over an old hunchback. Lauren who is right behind you.

Mike: Oh, well, let me help you out, miss, you all right.

Matt: Uh, so you must come and visit me at my stop. I can be, I can show you my gratitude through my, and she can't slips you a, uh, a card, and starts kind of waddling away from you. Cause you look at the card, you'll see that it says aunt may. fortune reading at the very bottom. There's a tiny little sigil that you recognize as saying that she's a member of the underground and is actually a magic user.

Mike: Okay.

Matt: Uh, you notice it as the divination, uh, sigil.

Mike: Okay. well, that was a man interesting woman, but we need to get, Armando off the streets and somewhere safe. And then apparently we need to, uh, procure him some drugs, drugs. Yes. So you can trip balls and, forged documents. I do not endorse that last style.

It is self destructive and harmful to your immune system, as well as several other sensories organs and vital parts of your being. But,

Matt: I do not recommend for the faint of heart strong here, you

Mike: help you out a little bit there. that is possible. Yes.

Matt: I'm sure. You know, those are strong halfling. Blood are usually immune to serious poisonings. Uh, largely aside the fact of the fact that we love mushrooms, to lead, I find myself in need of said mushroom soon, and I'm feeling a bit famish. Well,

Brad: where do you normally get your, your mushrooms

Matt: again?

Are you all referring to food mushrooms? Are you referring to drugs?

Brad: The Durham and the rain bar

Matt: throne playback? like I said, I do not usually procure those. I usually have those brought to me as beam and I multiple touch of where to find settings at this time, considering that I find it best to stay detached from that parts of the cities underworld, you got to be some legitimate.

You got, you got a guy who's that guy that he was picked up about 18 years ago. I'm not sure I could be able to reliably found at this time, 18 years.

Mike: Oh, well, I think our first step is to get him off the streets and then we'll go find, uh, some drugs, maybe this interesting fortune teller could, uh, Devon us some location of say drugs, but, first we need to get Mr.

Harmon off of the streets. Uh, imagine that, uh, our little distraction at the jail house probably has been, uh, concluded by now, and they might be doing an inventory of their prisoners and we find out that perhaps one has gone missing.

Brad: Yeah, I think, I think the best that's we get back to that safe house, drop him off

Mike: this way.

Matt: Alright. May leads you through the city, takes you to the safe house where the rest of the party is setting up. Uh, Thomas is just kind of quietly playing some music and entertaining folks and they're loving it. as you come in, everyone's kind of. Tend to this for a second, as they always do is they worry about being found out.

But then as they see may they'll relax and they're all happy to see her. some of them that no harm and are surprised to see him out of jail concerning he was supposed to be in jail for a few more weeks yet.

Brad: Well,

Mike: that's interesting. We broke him out of jail like two weeks before he's going to be released and now he's on the lamp.

So we actually did him a disfavor. I suspect in the logical things, as he's now going to be, uh, probably, hanged or something for having escaped.

Brad: He was going to, if he was going to get out of there or if he was going to get sentenced to that labor was going. Dude do no favors to his hands and then he'd be out of work and that's

Matt: as good as dead you're already works in the underground.

And when you kind of mentioned something of the fact to him while you were walking, he told you basically, he works with unscrupulous people from unscrupulous beans. He fully expects that people looking for him at all times. all you did was you, uh, you bought him a couple of days while they look around for him while he hides in the safe house.

And when the heat dies down, he can sneak out and find himself at a new location for his business to set up.

Mike: Alright, so now we need to find some drugs.

Matt: I think we'll leave the drug hunting for next session. That'll be a fun little thing for the parties you have to endure. Okay, cool. So you guys get them back, you as shit.

Talk about what's going on and may. Hazel, you guys managed to have a chance to talk about, easels skills, perhaps being needed at some point in the future. so for our listeners, we're going to talk about angel. Hazel will be joining our party. As we've talked about Thomas heading off to seek out Augie and potentially can spread the word of the bone, shatter plagues, origin, uh, help rally some support.

So I think next session, assuming we can get into the library and get out of the library, who knows how long we'll have with time. I think after that session, I believe Thomas will attempt to go and follow after Augie and Hazel will be joined the party. So, we're gonna talk over how we think that will work best, but of course, we're going to do that off, off stream.

So for everyone here, My name is Matthew. This has been the tail and totaled podcast. Thank you for listening. And we look forward to seeing you again in our next adventure. Hopefully with the full party. Remember if you enjoy what you've listened to here today, delete yourself a player's handbook or dungeon masters guide.

Grab some friends and go ahead and do it yourself because Dungeons and dragons is best with friends. Have a great night, everybody. Good night.