The Real You

This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors in names, terminology, or attribution.

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Um, I think they mean us. Oh, s***. Um... [clears throat] With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold. Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only on Peacock. Howdy folks, before I let you get to today's episode, let me tell you about two awesome groups of people. The first is Black Shell Media. They are a game producing company that has made some fantastic, fabulous games, including one that we have played on our stream channel called Sanctuary RPG. That game was a complete blast, and I'm sure all their other games are as well.

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So go check out geekfuel.com/dandr to get a special little surprise along with your GeekFuel subscription. With that, I'll let you guys get to your show. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason, I'm the Dungeon Master, going around the table starting with Mac. Hi, I'm Mac, and I'm going to fight everyone. And Jasper. Hey, this is Jasper. I play Merrick Ethelred, human cleric, and I will keep Mac from fighting. And Jamie. Hi, I'm Jamie, and I'm just going to sit here in the background and watch everything burn in flames.

And Bree. Hi, I'm Brianna, I play Thanatos, and I'm going to punch Mac in the fucking face. Yeah! Yeah! I kind of want to see that fight. I think you guys are about the same size. This is good. You're both scrappy. I think I have a few inches on Mac. I'm not a fight. You might. I don't know. I don't know how tall are you. Size five. You have one inch. My assumption was that Mac was like three foot three. That's what I meant. Well guys, previously on the show, you took on a challenge that could have been a hell of a lot more lethal. You all worked together really well, and you took care of the trolls, and you managed to carve out a chunk of brain, hand it over to Drak, and he forged a little antidote for the lovely Kaluna.

So, we're going to deal with the aftermath of that, but Kaluna won't die now. That's pretty good. Probably. Probably won't die a parasite-ridden death. How's about we pick up a short time after that? Because my understanding is that you guys wanted to pretty much just head out. Enough distractions, get on the road, start heading north into the mountains. Am I to understand this correctly? Do you want to take a nap? I would like to sleep. Yeah, I think that was the only condition was that we needed to come back and at least do the rest so we could start fresh.

Okay. I mean, Eric took a beating, so... True. What I want to do is if we do pass Drak on the road is to flip him off as we walk by. We didn't discuss this last time, yeah, just like double birds. Just want to make sure that that was... Well, you know what? Let's do me a favor. Roll a saving throw, and ten or higher you're going to pass Drak. Just a flat twenty? Just a flatty twenty. Let's just see if blind luck has got... nah, you got to see Drak on the way. He's really fast for a warforged. Maybe he just took another direction. Maybe he just wandered into the forest somewhere.

Just went straight out into the ocean. Yeah, he just took the direction. Just started walking. He's right now walking on the floor of the ocean. Just like walking, just angry. "Sad talk" song is playing in the background. So, let's say... you know what? Let's do this. Let's say you rested for the night. Let's say you took one more evening for yourselves, and it is now the sixth of Thorim. And you guys are going to wake up feeling refreshed, and you are going to... Unless you have any objections, you're going to head out of Aldmoor and start heading north along the path?

Yeah, I mean that's been the goal the whole time, right? Kaluna would actually volunteer to stay behind. In the town? Yes. Because they are going to be barfing in two days, and it seems like a bad idea to be in the mountains, barfing your guts up. Just throwing that out there. Seems like a worse idea to leave our healer behind. Yeah. You have another one. There's no way that we're leaving anybody behind at this point. No way. I mean, all of that was to take care of you, Kaluna. And there's no way that you're going to be let out of anybody's sight. Trust me. There's just no way.

Like, we'll... We will take care of you. They would sort of just hold their hand up. If we're out there, and we get sick again, which we're going to do, he said we would. And we trust him when he says bad things are going to happen to us. But if we're out there and we get sick again, then what if we're just stuck out there waiting for something to eat us? Yeah. Okay. I get the point, right? It's scary to think about being sick whenever there's no way to get any help, but the deal is this. You just got cured from something that could have been way worse. Being sick, if that's going to happen, is just going to happen, and we'll get through it.

And you'll still be fine. We're not worried about us. We're worried about if we get sick and everyone stays to help us out, then they're just going to sort of like gesture with their hands. Like, "Ehh!" "Bleh! Bleh!" Look, it's better to have you there than to have you be far away and not be able to help. We're in this together. It doesn't matter if you're sick, and we'll be able to handle it. That's it. I mean, just case closed. We've got to go. We've got to take care of this, and there's no way that I'm leaving you behind. Kaluna will just let out a huff, but they know that time is of the essence, so they're not going to argue the point any further.

But they are going to just sort of give him a look like, "If this goes to shit, it's your fault." I think he actually probably knows that, too. I think he's like, "Yeah, this might not go well sometimes, but we'll see." Oh, and before we do anything else, changing aspects to Aspect of the Ancients? Because I will forget later. All right, we are going to set off. So this is pretty early morning. This is a good time to get started for the day. You guys have plenty of daylight left. It's only the fall. The sun doesn't set that early. It just sort of crossed over into the month of Thorms, so you still have hours and hours of daylight.

So who's going to be the one to do me a favor and roll a flat T20? Not it. See what kind of luck we're going to have today. I'll do it. Do it. Do it. I want to do it. Okay. I don't know why, but I'm feeling good, guys. All right. Okay. Why would you say that before you roll? What the fuck is wrong with you? Okay. You know what? Could have been worse? I'm going to go ahead and stick on my positive vibe that I've got going on. Can I roll for you if I want better? We could be down a healer right now, you know? It's true. Fuck you, Dani. Oh my fucking god. Wow. I would have rolled a 20.

I didn't see you volunteering. You jumped up and down before I had a chance. I'm just saying. Wow. Fight. It's fight night, guys. We're all really angry. Well, that's good because you rolled a three. We'll see what comes to that later. Yeah, we rolled a three, guys. Maybe. No, I rolled a 20. I don't know what the rest of you did. We're a team, so we rolled together. You know what, Jamie? I said that I wouldn't roll it, so I will stand by your terrible shitty three. Thank you. That's what teamwork is, brah. Three could be good. We don't even know. Exactly. Maybe it's golf rules.

We don't know. Maybe it's golf rules. Low numbers are good in this game, obviously. If you've ever read a D&D book in your life, you know that you don't want high numbers. Low numbers are celebrated in our community. Exactly. For sure. Let's just get on with whatever's gonna kill us. You guys are gonna continue down the road, and you're heading north. Now, by your estimates, if you were to continue down the road, and I gotta ask you guys at a certain point, what's the call? Are you referencing the book to try and figure out where a good point would be to start heading into the mountains?

Because last I heard, you just said the Hazon Mountains. That's where you're heading. That is a large swath of land. That's a huge mountain range. Yeah, I imagine we would reference the book, right? Because we don't really have anything else to work with. Yeah, that was the best we had. And Kaluna could read much of it. Yeah. Well, we'll get to that in just a bit. Right now, you got a ways before you're even at the mountains yet. I would say you are going to be on the road for about seven hours. You've made a great amount of headway so far. It's been pretty uneventful.

The further you got away from Bayonets Rest, the better things seem to get. And there's this gorgeous road that kind of wraps around what's called Butcher's Bay, which is the body of water that you're passing right now. And you can sort of see out into the ocean and in the far distance. You can see Drake Island and it's just this lovely kind of mountainous road that slopes off into the water. So you're going to be traveling along that for hours and hours. Everyone do me a favor and roll a perception check. I'm actually pretty good at these now. Are you ready?

Yeah. Sick for everyone. 33. Well, guess what? Everyone in the party is going to hear the screech of a dragon. It is absolutely unmistakable. And Corey and Merrick are going to sort of strain their eyes and look. You kind of got to look into the sun almost to see it, but there is a point where this huge red dragon is going to sort of swoop down. And Corey and Merrick are going to get a really good look at this thing. What can we tell? Well, first of all, this is a dragon that's been around for a while. If you had to put a timestamp on it, probably a couple of hundred years, somewhere in there.

So if you were to fight it, this thing would pack a punch. This is not something to be trifled with or taken lightly. On top of that, it's oddly colored for a red dragon. Usually red dragons are fairly solid red, darker on top, sort of lighter pinkish on the bottom. This one has like a blackish tint to it on the bottom, specifically under the wings. It's a lot darker than what you'd normally see. And what we're going to do is we're going to roll a saving throw, guys. And 10 or higher, this dragon is not going to spot the party and is just going to fly on by.

Does that sound fair? Totally fair. Sounds great. You guys sound enthusiastic. That's great. Here we go. No, just do that. No, go ahead. I don't want to mess it up. So no, never mind. I think the party could use some optimism, Jamie. You're right. You know what? Mm-hmm. Let's pump it up with smiles. Do it. If we were to say roll a stealth, would it help in this saving roll or is it like an immediate thing? Well, this thing would be moving so fast that it's just, it's over your head. Like you can, this is just going to be if it spots you, then we'll see what you guys want to do after that.

If it were to spot you and that's jumping to conclusions. So, boom. Okay. Yeah. This dragon is going to soar over your heads and the entire party is going to see it. As I said, Corey and Merrick are going to get a really good look at it and it's going to soar into the mountains north of you and sort of pitch to the left a little bit. So it's going to be heading west just a tiny bit like northwest. And it's going to disappear in between a couple of mountains and just leave your sight entirely. Thank God. Yeah. That is a bullet dodged. More like a fucking bomb.

Yeah. See guys, I told you it was going to be all right. I'm glad you had faith, Jamie. Okay, good. Good. All right. So, dragon's feet. Everybody keep on your toes. That's all we got. Luna is literally always on their toes. True. I would say that you guys are going to continue on this road unless you want to take a break or stop, something like that. What time of day is it now? You said like seven or eight hours on the road. Yeah. So it'll be getting mid-afternoon-ish. If you want to continue on this road until around dusk, that'll put you right at the edge of Butcher's Bay actually to the north.

So this is the point where you're actually going to reach the mountains proper. Like it'll be almost on the path. Like the path kind of skirts over a bit and wraps around because the mountains are just so intrusive. So that would probably be a good spot to stop, get some rest, and then maybe check the book for references and see if you can kind of pinpoint a location where you should start searching. Totally up to you though. I'm just wondering, so I'm looking at the map right now and I'm just assuming, tell me if this is wrong, but just Merrick having just walked around and around and around and around Theria, I'm kind of just imagining that he has an idea of how things are sort of laid out a little bit.

I don't want it to be meta is my point. No. If on the map we were to go around Butcher's Bay and then up and around where Uminyiro is roughly and then sort of hang a left, there's a big valley that would take us into the middle of the Hazan Mountains. In Merrick's estimation, we could do a check on this, but in his estimation, would that be the easier route, even though it might take longer, for us to get into the midst of the mountains? Well, I guess looking at the book will actually help answer this question. I'm sorry. True. Yeah, but I mean, that's not a bad question.

There's a river that runs through that too. It's actually a good way to get to the center of the mountains without actually doing any mountain climbing. That's what I was looking at. We could go into the mountains and then make our way down into the middle, but if we need to go into the middle anyway, we could just go around. It might take longer, but it would be a lot safer. Anyway, okay. Well, let's just stop and be able to look at the book and then make that decision later, I guess. Okay. I mean, that's just my opinion. Does anybody else have any ideas or anything they want to do or consider?

Cool. Sounds good to me. I was going to say, I think Kori is up for anything because she just wants to get where they need to go. So any idea that was brought to the group, she'd probably be like, "Yeah, let's do that. Let's do that." Okay. I think it sounds reasonable. Let's just make our way to the edge of the mountains and then make an estimation of how best to get in there. And then we could actually just make it a slightly early camp, get a good rest, eat some rations or whatever, and just make sure that we've got our energy for the next day. Because going to the mountains is not going to be an easy walk.

Oh no. No, no, no. Well, let's do this. So let's say the group continues until night. So night has officially fallen and this would put you well outside of Uminiero, just to the south of it actually. So unless you were to take a detour, you're not going to really be anywhere near the city. But I would say that everyone would see it. It's not an easy sight to miss. So you guys are going to make camp and we're going to give you guys a rest and all that. I'm guessing that Kaluna is going to be looking through the book? And anybody else read Elvin? I think not.

Okay. Okay, so yeah, Kaluna's looking at the book. I mean, I think we would sort of all be crowded around or at least sitting around and trying to help interpret things that Kaluna's finding. You know, a little bit like, you know, Kaluna said something, he's like, "I don't know what that means, but it might mean something to everybody else." Well, I mean, Kaluna knows Elvin really well. They just wouldn't be able to translate it. They'd be like, "Well, I know this word, but I don't know what the fuck it is for you." Oh, good point. Good point. Well, while Kaluna is thumbing through this book, trying to pinpoint where this might be, or at least get a good, like, try and narrow this down a little bit.

Look for maps or anything that's sort of hand drawn or anything that might suggest- Oh yeah, Kaluna is definitely looking for pictures. Okay. Is there anything anybody in the party would like to do while Kaluna's doing that stuff? At some point, Santos would kind of like tug Merrick aside quietly and kind of motion with her head that she wants to be further away so that people can't hear. Right. I mean, Merrick would take the cue, I'm sure. And sort of, you know, go off a little bit further away. Is that all good, Jason? Like, we're further away now? Yep.

Not complete, not far enough away that, like, something would attack? Oh, stop. I'm not that kind of guy. He's specifying. Not like Roll of Three type thing, but more like a Roll of Seventeen. More like Roll of Twenty, yeah. So what's up? Santos, like, the entire time you've been traveling, Santos has just been glowering and pissed off. Not unlike her usual self, just kind of more. But now she looks a little bit timid, almost. Still angry, but also timid. And she's going to shrug at the question and then say, "I just need to explain what happened back there." What happened back where?

Merrick, by the way, would be totally at ease. Like, he's just having a chat. I think he's kind of just happy that there hasn't been any dragon attack or anything today. Everything's been pretty good. And he'll just sort of sit down and, you know, put his hands on his knees, kind of like, "Let's chat." So what happened where, when? What do you mean? Santos is still standing up. She has her fists clenched, completely guarded, as usual, with the trolls. Look, I've never really thought things before. I have trained a little, but I fucked up. And I just... but I'm going to get better.

That's it? I mean, you're worried about not having done as good of a job as you could have? You're worried about not having as much experience as somebody that's four times your age? I mean, have a seat. And he's just going to sort of pat his hand on the ground or something like that. Like, you know, it's sort of scoot over a little bit. Santos will kind of kneel down, like not put her butt on the ground, but like wrap her arms around her knees, squatting kind of position. You could look more comfortable, but that's fine. The point is, you did great. Listen, did anybody get really hurt?

Is everybody okay? Everybody's fine and you did great. And how old were you? There is going to be a suspiciously long silence. Like, she is considering lying right now. And it's kind of obvious before she goes, "14?" I'm going to be honest with you. I'm envious of the power you have at 14. And of course, you don't have everything under control. But what you will become and what you're able to do, the older you get and the more experience you have, it's breathtaking. And I'm in awe of you. And just remember that. It's not about the successes that you have all the time.

Failure means that you're trying. And that just means that you get better and better whenever you do succeed. So, nobody's worried. Except for you. And I get it. But nobody's worried. She's going to take a minute. Like, she's taking all of that in and then she'll nod. I just... My own power blew up in my face. And that's really humiliating. And I just wanted you to know that I take this seriously. I'm going to get stronger and I'll get smarter too. I promise. The only person that you need to promise that to is yourself if that's what you care about. But it's not something that matters to anybody else here.

Nobody's going to think lesser of you for any of those things. Let me tell you a story. Your power basically punched you back in the face, right? Do you know what I used to be? She's going to look at your armor. Your armor has the symbol of a monitor on it, right? But then crossed out. A paladin? No, I'm effectively a cleric one way or the other. That's another story. No, I'm talking about the fact that your own power sort of biting you in the ass. Up until very recently, I was afflicted with lycanthropy. Do you know what I'm saying? Jason, do I have to roll to know what that is?

Or is that just something everyone kind of knows about? It's actually much more prevalent on the mainland, so I would say that you should roll a history check. Oh, right. I'm pretty good at those. Not great. I would say that Thanatos would not know what lycanthropy is. Alright, she'll just shake her head. Werewolf changed from what I am right now into something a lot bigger and a lot more dangerous. So, it's not a power that I had. It's not something that I could control. But imagine walking around and being the power that could turn around and bite yourself.

That could punch yourself in the face or kill your friends. I had to deal with that. And that, like I said, wasn't that long ago that that's gone. And I'll be honest with you, that's been a tough transition for me. Things are okay now. I feel better, but I feel empty. Anyway, that's another story. The point is that what you're worried about, I've lived with for years and years and years. And yet, you're just learning how to control it. I didn't even have that choice. So, you're fine. And we're not just glad to have you here. And he's going to sort of gesture back at everybody else.

We're not just glad to have you here. We're actually proud that you're here. You trust us enough to be in our care and you're in our care. We're in this together. I... Do you know what I'm saying? She'll kind of like half nod like she's getting it. Like she comprehends but does not understand. The point is, I get it. I understand. You want to be better, you want to do better, and you don't want anybody to call you out on it, right? She'll nod again. Then he'll just sort of forget the big speech he was trying to give and he'll just say, "Okay, I'll do that." Santos will like wait another few seconds and if Merrick doesn't say anything, she'll kind of push herself back up and then nod back towards the group.

He's gonna actually, as she does that, he's gonna say, "Hey, one question if you don't mind." Yeah? We don't see a lot of you on the mainland. Why are you here? Like I said, I'm looking for someone after we deal with your whatever. I'll let you know more. Fair enough. But we're here, okay? We're here to help. Okay. And he'll let her go. Okay, so she'll walk back to the fire. He'll give her a good wide berth before he gets back so that it's, you know, kind of give her her space. But he wants to come back and say, "Did you find anything, Kaluna?" I don't know.

Did they? Well, let's see. Do me a favor. Do me a favor, roll an intelligence check. Oh, good. That's not a bad skill for you. Oh, it's not actually. No. Listen, I was just thinking of Kaluna in general. Gotta be honest. Ehhhh, 69 guys. There, eating the paper. They're licking it to gain the knowledge. Right, right. That's how it works. Just smelling it really deeply. This priceless book that they didn't even want to give to us. The one that Kaluna was very delicately using last time. So I would say that Kaluna is continuing to pour through this book. And there are a few drawings, but most of them are directly of the front of this place that you're looking for.

And what it appears to be are these two massive doors. They appear to be made of some sort of metal. And gaining entrance to this place could be a little tough. Might be a little strength involved. You're guessing that there's some sort of mechanism that opens the doors up. But it's supposed to look a little foreboding. It's supposed to look, you know, there's some grandeur to this place. And the more Kaluna reads, the more she finds out that awful, awful, awful things were done here for a long, long time. In the name of torturing tieflings, executing them, all kinds of stuff.

Until they finally figured out that tieflings aren't inherently connected to demons in any way, shape, or form. And then they sort of start doing a 180. But by that time, hundreds of people had dedicated their entire lives to hunting down tieflings and dragging them back to this place. The rest of the book is mostly about their demon research and all kinds of stuff. There does appear to be some place within this facility that is just dedicated to demons and everything they found out. Just books on books on books. Like, a huge repository on demons. So you do appear to be heading toward the right place.

Like, Julie was right and Kaluna was right. So, more to the point. Everyone do me a favor and roll a nature check. Because what's going to happen is Kaluna's going to find some drawings of certain mountain ranges and things like that. And depending on how good your nature is, that'll be how quickly you're going to be able to distinguish. It's like, well, that looks like that could be this place or that could lead to this place. Or that looks like it might be next to a river, that type of thing. Another sick four. The two best nature people. Wow. We're going to get lost.

It's a 22, it's a 24, 21. Kaluna's tired. They're not terrible. Totally not terrible. I would say Cory would have the best lead. Like, looking at the pictures alongside Kaluna might be a type of thing. It's like, okay, well that looks like that might be near a river. So, it looks like Merrick had the best idea in terms of getting to that river. Like, you can go around the other option. It might be quicker or longer. It depends on what you might run into. But you could head into the mountains proper and just sort of take the paths that lead up there and hope that there's a way down.

It all depends on what you'd like to do here. So, I don't know. My instinct is never lose elevation once you get it. So, like, if we go up into the mountains, I don't want to come back down out of the mountains and then have to go back up. I'd rather go around, find that river valley, and then see what makes the most sense. So, that's Merrick's idea. He would bring that to the group and say, "I think that's what we should do at first light, if not earlier." And then he will look at everyone for a response. No one will respond. Everyone just looks at Merrick blankly.

I imagine Thanos is just drawing shit on the ground because she actually, legitimately, does not care about what's happening. She's here to fight whatever you guys decide to do. Even though Merrick just gave her a very nice speech about how we're all in this together, she's like, "Well, this is your thing, so fuck off." She's doing the Therian equivalent of writing in her journal. Dear diary, life is suffering and pain. Mustache guy, talk to me. I'm an emo kid, nonconformist assistant. Thank you for being close to me. You're welcome. I knew that's where you were going with it.

I think that sounds good. Just as a first thing. Yeah, I don't want to waste any time, but I feel like we potentially could lose time going up and then coming back down, especially if we don't know what's in those mountains. I agree. Who wants first shift? I volunteer if no one else. Sure. Take first shift. We should probably set it up so that the people who are up latest are the ones with low light vision. Well, I'm going to bed, guys. I'll see you in the morning. Does anyone in this party have low light vision? Yes. I'm sure some of us do. I'm not sure if I do.

Where do you see that? It's on the main diddly-doo. Yeah, then I don't. I'll take first shift then as the sun sets, I guess. No, I did. Guys, this is magical. Does anyone else have low light? Nope. Cool. Well, never mind that idea then. You just take first shift. Fuck it. Alright, I'll take first shift. Great idea though. It was, really. I was trying to be helpful. It was. It was smart, but we can't do it. I mean, Polina would still take a shift in mountains. I never really think about this stuff when I had an Aladdin in the party. Right. I tried to get us a Warforged.

No one was going for it. How many shifts should we take here? Should we just all take a turn or should we just have a couple? We may be overthinking this. Yeah. I mean, you know, who knows? That's what we do, Jason. Yeah, I know. I'm just... We plan. I'm all for planning. Clearly. It's fine. Just checking. Okay, so, you know, we'll take turns. Let's put it that way. And if it matters, we'll let you know what the order is. But Corey will start off and then we'll all get some sleep. Okay. Who's the person that's staying up first? Sorry. Corey. Corey. Okay. So, here's what we're gonna do.

Everyone's gonna get some sleep here and settle down tonight. So you got a nice little crackling fire and the portion of the road you're near actually is pretty nice in terms of layout. You got a nice little ocean breeze coming off. I mean, it's nice and comfortable. It's not bad at all. You are situated near the actual mountains themselves. Like, you're really, really close. It's a very hilly area. Do me a favor, Corey, and roll a perception check for me. Ah, I almost turned it off. Holy shit! Yeah, I see all. I don't even know low light. I am light. Well, I mean, technically her eyes glow, so it's weird that she doesn't have low light.

Corey is going to turn into a being of natural light. That is... it's canon. Sweet! So here... okay. Corey is going to have a very vigilant watch. Every movement in the brush, every squirrel fart. Like, Corey's there. Like, Corey's on it. But something not apparently attempting to sneak to the night is gonna be picked up by Corey. She's gonna hear movement coming from the hills, and she's gonna look up and see the smaller figure. Looks like a dwarf. She will immediately arm herself. The dwarf appears to be alone and appears to be muttering to itself. Again, doesn't seem to be trying to sneak, doesn't seem to care if it gets spotted, and it appears to have a long white beard and carrying a spear with it.

Again, appears to be completely alone. Is it 100% apparent to her that it's a dwarf? Oh yeah, like with that perception roll? Oh yeah. Okay, Corey's eyes are going to go wide, and she is going to hastily wake up her party members. The balloon will sort of rub at their eyes like, "God fuck." And they're gonna look around and see that it's dark. And they're gonna go, "What the fuck?" I think Merrick would come straight to attention. We would stand up and arm himself, even though he's not at all awake. He'd be ready to blast something if he had to. Santos will probably, like, she'll half sit up onto her elbows and just be like, "What?" And at the same time, I think as the dwarf is approaching, Corey would probably slowly put down her bow.

Because it still, you know, it might not be a friendly person, but it might also be what she assumes to be a very jolly person, because she has a mindset of what dwarves are like. The mindset is so wrong. I can't help it. How far away is this dwarf? Do we see anything at this point? Do we do perception checks? Or is Corey pointing? I would imagine Corey would be pointing it out, right? Oh, definitely. Okay, yeah. So Corey would be pointing it out after a few seconds. I think everyone would pretty much focus in. Dwarf's gonna be more apparent as it gets closer.

Right now it's perfectly within shouting distance. Like, you can shout over and... He's not on the path. It appears to be taking more of the foothills route. And headed right towards us, or sort of around us? He would be around you, so it would be to the party's right. And this is the middle of the night, or... No, I guess it's not too late. If this is the first watch, right? Yeah, it's first watch. So, I mean, midnight, one o'clock, somewhere in there. Like, it's not crazy, crazy late. But it is kind of out in the middle of nowhere to see somebody. Like, unless people are heading to Uminyuro, you're really not seeing too many people up this way.

Okay, so Merrick would still stay armed and be prepared for danger. And kind of motion everybody, like, "Shh, just stay put until we figure out what's going on here." Hey, Eric. Yes. Do me a favor, give me a Perception roll. Okay. Oh, wow. That's a little different. Yeah. That's way better than your practice session stuff. So I'd say your character would see the party, too. Okay. The second I see the party, my immediate reaction is to kind of go into a defensive stance. And to look around to see if I missed anything else. The only thing you're going to see of note right now is the party.

To your side, the mountains are going to be there, and you're kind of avoiding that area. But, yeah, the little campfire going, and that party's going to be pretty damn easy to spot. And you're not going to see any other wildlife or any other people around. Okay. I suppose at this point I kind of relax a little bit since they're not doing anything too aggressive. And I approach. And, yeah, I'll probably just kind of walk up toward the edge of the firelight and just kind of wait to see how they respond. Hmm. How do you respond? Kaluna would, uh... Yeah. What would Kaluna do?

How? Kaluna would sort of reach into their pouch and pull out their totem, but not like super aggressively. Just sort of like, you know, just in case. And they're going to sort of look over at Merrick like, "What you want to do?" And then they'll look over at Merrick just sort of waiting to see what he does. Okay. This is like a standoff and nothing bad's happening. Yeah. Also, I would like to point out that Kaluna is like a glow-in-the-dark sticker right now. Is that your aspect? Yeah. They get like glowy and shit, but I imagine it's just like really shitty.

Like in the day you can't see it, but at night it's like, boom, hello. I will have to mark that down. I regret saying anything. But it's also really fun. Because there's a new poster for the store, which is the night poster with paint on it that glows in the dark. That'll sell huge in California for reasons. Yeah, totally. I want to say maybe that wasn't right where his mind was going. I think he was more going for like a, "Oh, well, that would make it easier for things to see you." Just guess. I feel like it's fine though when there's a fire. Oh, right. Yeah.

But Kaluna does not stealth that anyway, so it's fine. Okay, so it just seems like everybody's just standing and waiting to see if anybody's going to do something bad. But does it seem that way from any perception or anything? I mean, now that this dwarf is close enough, is there any sort of- I think it would be very apparent to everyone here that no one really means any harm. They're just like, "What are you doing?" All right, so I think Merrick would lower his morning star and just cautiously however just, you know, "Hello? Hi." "Greetings." "Coming out of the mountains.

Is this where you live? Is this your home?" "Nope, just passing through." Merrick's gonna sort of just look at the rest of the party and I think would give a glance to Kori like, "Should we invite him to share the fire?" I mean, we're all up. You were asking the right person. Yeah, sorry, that was a look, but- She's gonna look towards this dwarf. Do you need shelter for the evening? Very hesitantly because we're not 100% sure that this person is trustworthy, but she does have bias towards dwarves and would feel guilty if they found his corpse later on.

He's gonna kind of wave that off like, "I've got places to go and I can get there, but the fire does look tempting." So I think I would enjoy that. Okay, tea? Do you want anything stronger? Tea with alcohol in it? Good enough. Great. Polina will look delighted. Yeah, Merrick will go ahead and set around like, "Okay, this seems safe enough, seems like a reasonable enough person." So yeah, just sort of set up some tea. Well, my shift's over. Night guys. I'll see you later. So I'm gonna kind of scan the party and the githzari and I'm just gonna kind of quickly pass over, like not worried at all.

I don't know what to make of the tree creature. None of us do, so. So I'm kind of gonna go back and forth between Merrick and the goliath and kind of settle on the goliath to interact with at this point. What brings such an interesting party out this way? She's going to sort of like make eyes to the group and just, like obviously she's not 100% wanting to tell the whole story of like what's going on. So she's just going to look back at this dwarf and say, "Business and New Year were itself." And this look of distaste is gonna cross his face. I'm heading to a floating city for some reason.

And he's clearly upset that he's doing it, but he is like dead set on, "This is important, but I'm going." And then, Kaluna's gonna wrinkle their nose at the mention of the floating city and sort of glance in its direction like, "Oh yeah, that sounds like a not fun time." But then they'll just look back at the fire. I can't remember. Jason, do I know what I know what this floating city is? I don't think I've ever been there. No, actually. Same question. Yeah. I think it'd be pretty jarring for both Kory and Thanos. Right. Kory's just gonna look very confused when he says floating city.

And she's gonna look towards Kaluna because she made that face and be like floating what now? Like a whole city? Like up in the sky? I don't know if Kaluna would've actually been there. I just remember we saw it. I don't know if Kaluna would've been there with Merrick. I don't know if they've been traveling together that long. I don't know. I don't think that they ever went that direction. I think it was always going back and forth. Yeah. Yeah, so I don't think Kaluna really knows about it. They just saw it. And they just sort of assumed that being up in the sky would be bad, I say, whenever they flew around on a dragon.

Right. So I can imagine Kaluna walking by a floating city in the sky and thinking, "Hmm, that seems dangerous." And then just keep walking. Boats? Boats are super rad. But floating cities? Nah. Nah, not my cup of tea. But yeah, they'll sort of, when Kory looks at them, they'll sort of look over at Merrick. Just sort of direct the flow. As if we're all looking at each other and just bouncing ping pong in between. So you're headed to Uminyiro. What business do you have at Uminyiro? I'm hoping they have some information that I can... that's not readily available elsewhere.

Well, it's the place to go then, for sure. How far have you come? Straight from Stone's Thunder. It's a long walk by yourself. Have you traveled with anybody else, or is it just you? This is, uh, this is kind of my own thing. The rest of them don't quite believe it yet. Believe what? And he's gonna... he doesn't want to respond to that. He's been trying to convince his own people for so long, and failing, that the thought of trying to convince strangers is just impossible. Things have changed. Things have... In sort of in character, is Merrick watching the anguish of this happening?

All of a sudden it went from just sort of small talk to something that seems really like a struggle to figure out. Is that basically what's happening? Absolutely. I think Merrick would probably recognize that and just sort of raise his hand like, "It's not that important," and he'll hand the tea over. And as soon as the tea's in your hands, he'll pull a flask out and put a little bit of special fun stuff in the tea. Does Kaluna get buzz tea? Does Kaluna want alcohol? Oh, that's a good point. Never mind. I take it back. Do they get tea, though? They want tea.

Nothing but water and kibble for you. [laughter] It's either that or like... I can imagine Merrick the whole time from now, for like the next two weeks, nothing but water and like really, really boiled pasta. Like really soft pasta. Old stale bread. Yeah. Boiled pasta and stale bread are like the exact opposite of things. I know. So at this point, Ordon's gonna take the drink and he's gonna sit down by the fire and he's gonna kinda relax a little bit and he's going to down it quickly. I think whenever it's down to the bottom, Merrick will probably just fill it up a little bit more with just the flask and just forget the tea.

I'll give you a big thanks. You're not bad for a human and I'll down the alcohol. Okay. Can I like roll a perception on this dwarf? Like to see what he's carrying? Like does he have like a big axe or is he like... like is he your standard? He's carrying a spear. From what you gained, like you caught a really good look at him earlier. Right. Does look like a fighter and carries a spear instead of an axe or a hammer, which is a little outside the norm, but not unheard of and appears to maybe even be wearing something a little more lofty than what a standard like dwarf fighter would be wearing.

Like something a little more regal. Okay. Just okay. Cause I don't know. I don't know that... I don't know. I'm having all of these interpersonal thoughts and I just don't want to share cause I feel like they're not worth anything. Aww. That's a really sad thing to say. Jamie, you're worth something. You're valuable to us. We all have been slated. I didn't mean it like that. You guys are weird. Okay, so he looks sort of more regally than most dwarves and she actually hasn't... she's only met one dwarf and that was Cepheus and he was a healer. I suppose she's going to ask this dwarf.

I don't believe you gave us your name. My name is Kori. It's nice to meet you, Kori. Ordon King Shield at your service. She's going to shake his hand but she's going to shake it really hard. Yeah. Cause if he looks like a fighter he can take it. And I will return it in kind. Are you planning on continuing your journey in the morning? I suppose a rest here would be as good as any. Yes, that sounds good to me. I feel as though I should warn you. On our way here we did see a dragon. But we were lucky enough to not get noticed. I feel like I should let you know that considering you're traveling alone and headed sort of in that direction.

Sounds like you missed out on the opportunity for glorious battle. Have you ever fought a dragon? I have not yet had the honor. And he's like... his eyes almost lit up at the thought. Kaluna's going to get in the side eye. He's like "Ummm..." She's going to pull out this gale and sort of flip it in her hands and just hand it over to Ordon. Ordon's gonna take it and be immediately impressed. And then look back at the party kind of confused. Your party took this down. You dropped the dragon. Ooh, Ordon. Do me a favor. Roll a perception check. Okay. Okay. Cursory knowledge.

Ordon would pick up that this is obviously a much older scale. Wherever this came from, this was probably a pretty mighty dragon. Okay. He wants to hear about it, so tell me about the battle. Kaluna's gonna look expectantly at Kori. At this point, Thanos has literally rolled over and started going back to sleep. Yeah, Merrick would just sort of raise his hands up like "Not me. Not me." And sort of back up a little bit. Kaluna would actually get into story pose. You know? Like you pull up your legs and wrap your arms. Like "Ooh!" What did I do? Kori's like "I did not think this far through." I did not.

She just once seemed super cool. She likes friends. So she's gonna sort of awkwardly sort of scratch her head. And just say "You know, I didn't get any sleep before. I'll tell you the story some other time. I'm really beat right now." And she'll look towards Kaluna. "You second shift." Kaluna's just gonna let out an audible "Awwww" cause they were excited. They thought they were gonna hear a cool story. They'll give her a little thumbs up like "Okay. Our turn." Okay. Ordon will hand the scale back to Kori and turn towards the human and say "Thanks for the drink.

I did not catch your name." Maric Ethel read and he'll reach his hand out. And Ordon will shake it. Jason, would there be any sort of history check or anything like that for Ordon's name? For his surname? Yeah. Do me a favor. Roll a history check. See how up on dwarven knowledge you are. Oh. Nice. So the last name King Shield is not something you're born with. It's kind of something you earn. And the name implies exactly what it sounds like. Pretty much a bodyguard to the king. Okay. So it's almost like a title that becomes part of your name. Yeah. Pretty much. And it's something that's given to...

It's not like the job of one person. It's kind of like being part of the Secret Service type of thing. Yes. The King's Guard type. Only not so secret. Right. Cause the dwarves are not about subtlety. So, yeah. Maric would say... He'd shake his hand and he'd say "So, uh, King's Guard, huh?" And at that, Ordon's gonna be a little put off, unexpected. And he's going to immediately kind of wave that away with his right hand and say "My grandfather, he did amazing things. By the power of Moradin, he..." And at that, the second that the word "Moradin" leaves his lips, it's an automatic statement for him.

His face is just gonna sour. And he's gonna kind of mumble to himself under his breath and just stop. It is the most abrupt and awkward thing. He's just immediately looking inward. Jason, is there anything that could be gleaned? Give me an insight. Oh, yeah. Gimme. Well, obviously, something about the word, the name "Moradin" is some sort of trigger word. And there is some sort of anger or resentment either at the god itself or the implications surrounding the god or some interaction he's had with someone who worshiped Moradin. Something like that. But that is definitely a nerve.

Man, if this dude has a problem with gods, then this should be fun. Once again, I think Merrick's pushed a couple of times to get information just to find out more about Ordon, but isn't trying to be a dick. So he's just gonna be like "Hey, you know, why don't we get some rest and maybe eat some breakfast in the morning and we can clear our heads?" What do you think? Sounds good to me. And he's gonna he's gonna kind of look at the Ghazari and like the rest of your party have names. They do. Kaluna will pipe up. Kaluna will wave and say "We're Kaluna. Hello." Hello Kaluna.

If Thanatos is awake, she's not moving. Pretending. Yeah. That's Thanatos. A little broody. We can do some proper introductions in the morning maybe. Kaluna's gonna sort of frown like "I thought those were proper introductions, but okay, fine." Hey, Ordon. Yes. Let's see how well this dwarf handles his alcohol. Do me a favor, roll an endurance check for me. How's that? Very well. As well as you could possibly do. Very, very well. Okay, nevermind. You're cool to drive. Very dwarven of you. He's kind of mad. Yeah. Did you give me water, you fucks? Okay, so Ordon's gonna kind of he's gonna back away from the party just a little bit and kind of put his back up against the tree and he'll settle in for the night.

Yeah, I mean, Kaluna's on watch, right? Oh, yeah. I think that any time Kaluna is on watch, Merrick is not really sleeping. Aww. But never says, has never said anything about that, right? That is kind of super adorable though. It's really cute, but it's also like, wow. Okay. I see. To be fair, you did drink the soup though. That was recently. I'd like for it to be retroactively canon that that's been the case since they've known each other. So that even when it was just the two of them traveling alone and like, you know, Merrick took first watch and Kaluna fell asleep.

When it was Kaluna's watch, Merrick never went to sleep. Just Merrick never slept, basically. I feel like eventually once Kaluna learned that Merrick wasn't going to eat them in their sleep, they would do that too. Just like, hey. Kaluna. Oh. Do me a favor. Roll a flat D20 for me. No. Mistakes were made. Oh, mistakes were made. Mmm. We chose the wrong person. That's a four, everyone at home. Just if you're wondering. That's my third four of the night. Do me a favor and roll a perception check for me, Kaluna. Please. Dear fucking... Okay. Does a 31 do nicely for you?

Well the question is, does it do nicely for you? Kaluna's going to hear a sound and it's unlike anything they have ever heard before in their entire life. It is instantaneously more horrifying than any noise that they have ever heard in the Silverglade. And on top of that, louder than anything they have ever heard. It sounds like someone is tearing apart a skyscraper with their bare hands. And there is a rumble that's accompanying it. And it seems to be coming from everywhere at once. Kaluna is waking everyone up however the fuck they can. I would say that it wouldn't...

Yeah, the party's waking up no matter what. They're, you know, extra reassurance just like holy shit. The rest of the party, do me a favor and roll a perception check, negative two. Because you're a little groggy. Like I said, Merrick didn't go to sleep so... Why do we? Kaluna, Merrick. Well the whole party is going to see this but I'm going to do a little something extra for Kaluna. The entire party is going to hear this sound along with Kaluna. And it seems to stretch out and roll between the mountains forever. It just seems to keep rolling and going. And then just as it fades, a much more clearer version of it.

And it sounds... It sounds like something roaring. But it's this shrill, almost metallic sound. Like someone dragging nails against a large piece of iron or steel, something like that. And again it's going to roll through these mountains and just echo and bounce everywhere. And then a huge, shadowy figure is going to come into view. Large, large wings, kind of like a bat. This is even larger than the dragon you saw earlier. Same basic shape, but the wings are a bit more flared. And this just appears to be just as black as night. Kaluna and Merrick are going to see that this immense dragon is larger than the dragon that soared over Esther Holt.

It appears to be completely solid black. Like inky black. With this exaggeratedly long neck. And it appears to be flying south. It is going to soar above you and continue traveling south. And apparently not even look down into the valley where you are. And then it's going to disappear over the mountain ranges. I'd like to roll to shit myself. That should be really easy considering the worms. They come up the other way. Wow. Okay, holy crap. So, bigger than... Bigger than Thrawn. Jesus Christ. Shit, dude. Ordon is struggling with this right now. He expected himself to do something there.

To call out a challenge. He is torn up with the fact that he is just silently glad that it passed overhead. Kaluna is just going to grab Merrick's arm like holy shit and just sort of look over at him with that same look. Yeah, he's just going to have the same look on his face. Holy shit. You were going to say something about Pantos? I was just going to say she's just kind of staring up at the sky and she looks a little bit sick. Like even though the dragon is completely out of sight now, she's still staring where it was and just looks a little like sick.

So is anyone going back to sleep? No. That's honestly, everybody, that's fucked up. Completely fucked up. That's bigger than Strahd. So that's not the dragon you saw before? No, the one we saw before was big and old and would have been formidable. This is nothing. Kaluna's going to sit down. Is there any indication if from the flight path or anything like that, was this dragon sort of heading into the mountains? Sort of like that's where they were going or are they just flying south like an airplane? This was going south before it disappeared from your site.

It appears as though it was going to be flying over Bandit's Rest within minutes. Okay, okay. Huh. After that, it would be really tough to tell. Yeah, okay. Well shit. Alright, well is anybody going back to sleep? Or did everybody craft their pants? Vantis would probably pretend to after a little bit. I'm not scared shaking as she pulls up her sleeping bag and just rolls over. Ordon is going to be pacing at the edge of the firelight, muttering to himself, like, this isn't the way it's supposed to be. This isn't- this is wrong. This is- he's just going to be pacing constantly.

Kaluna would also be pacing, but they would sort of give him his space, you know, probably like divide up the area for pacing. But they're not doing it like, oh god, this is fucked up, this is fucked up. Just sort of, that was stressful. I'm going to walk this off in this very small area. What time- how much sleep do we get? Any at all? Was it minutes later or was it like a couple of hours into the watch? I'd say that's a couple more hours into the watch. Like you've gotten- it's not a very restful night, but you guys got some sleep. Maric would, at this point, just start getting his shit together and just suggest to everybody, we need to get a move on now.

I don't think there's any point in trying to sleep for the rest of the night. We just- we can't stick around with a fire and think we're safe whenever something like that's going to be around. So I say we just go ahead and get a move on. We've got a long trek ahead of us to be able to get around the mountains and into the valley. Kaluna would pack their shit. I don't know about everybody else. Same, I think. I mean, yeah. Maric's sleepy, but it's just like, look, we're just going to wake up from this point forward anyway, so let's just go. Maric's gonna take the book or find the book or add- does Kaluna have the book?

I don't know. I guess Kaluna's person who stays furthest in the back, so I guess. God, that's such a bad idea. Well, wherever the book was last. Like, you know, you were reading a book. It is in this protective little leather satchel type of thing. Is that enough for Kaluna, though? It's help. I think I remember Maric saying that he would take care of it or something like that and try to keep it safe, but I can't remember if he actually is the one who's carrying it. That sounds reasonable. Right, but I don't remember, because I think we were trying to keep it away from fire and Kaluna.

I feel like we definitely would not have given it to Kaluna. Yeah. Well, in any case, the point is not that. The point was just to say, wherever the book is right now, Maric's gonna sort of like fumble forward or go get it or whatever it is. Open up the book to, you know, you said that we did find like diagrams or drawings of those. Of the area. The very, like, yeah. Of the massive doors. Yes. Right? And that's what I want to open up to and take it over to Ordon and just sort of, in haste, not like urgent, like, "Oh my God!" But just more like, "Look, let's cut to the chase." Does this look familiar to you in any way?

Does this mean anything to you? Uh, Jason? Do me a favor. Let's roll a little skill check here. Give me a nature check. Because it's in the mountains, though, give me a plus two. So, 19. The only thing that Ordon would be able to really piggyback on would be because of the size of the doors, this would have to be an area that would be fairly close to the ground. And there'd need to be, there'd need to be some space around it. Now, this is probably an area, you know, maybe sandwiched in between a couple of mountains or surrounded by, like, maybe it's in a canyon somewhere, something like that.

But that does appear to be, like, at ground level, so to speak. Okay. Not near a peak. That's good news. Okay. Well, then it does sound like we're sort of maybe headed in the right direction if we go around into the valleys. We can do some reconnaissance and see, before going way up into some peaks, we might not even have to. Okay. I guess at this point it would be like, let's, we're gonna pack up and take off. We've got business. Ordon, are you still heading to Uminero? Yes. Well, then it was nice meeting you. Alright, the end. And they never saw each other again.

So, I guess, I guess I'm a little confused here. I thought you were still headed toward Uminero. Well, we're actually headed north and west, pointed toward Uminero, but then we're gonna be hanging a left into this big river valley that sort of cuts between the Hizan Mountains. So, we'll go up a little bit towards the direction of Uminero, but we're not going to Uminero, of course. Out of character? That sounds like we're walking in the same direction, at least for now. Yeah, okay. I would say it that way is, look, we're heading out. We're packing up. We've got a long trek ahead of us.

We're gonna head into the Hizan Mountains. For a little while we're gonna be heading sort of in the same direction. Do you wanna sort of stick together? I mean, that kind of screech isn't something I wanna be alone with myself, so it's up to you. I mean, Ordon's going to scan the skies. Like, he's up there looking for anything and just gonna shake his head, and I think that's for the best. Great. Okay, well, should we take off? Merrick is just gonna start getting ready, and he's just gonna go. If anybody wants to follow him, that's great. I mean, Ordon's right there with you.

Luna's going to make sure that their pack partially covers their cape, like as much as it possibly can. So, you guys are gonna be walking along for a while. And before I have anyone make a dice roll, that's later in the day, but you know, for the first part of the day I think you guys have had enough excitement. There's no need to roll again. So, for the next few hours you're gonna continue along this winding trail. You're gonna start to get close to the city of Uminero. Got a couple of hours before you're really gonna be wrapped around, and you're gonna be heading away from it.

Is there anything the party would like to do before we continue? I guess I'm gonna be curious about this book that Merrick showed me. So, I figure we're probably walking toward the front of the party, and I'll turn to Merrick and ask, "What's in the mountains that you're after?" That's a really big and very complicated answer. But just the basic way of saying it is we're looking for a really old library. We're looking for some information. Something probably abandoned. That's vague? It's complicated. The book is something that we needed. It was our only clue to be able to find what we needed to find, and that's why we're on this trip.

There's much bigger stuff at stake, but this is our first move. Yeah, I mean I guess I don't really have much of a reply to that. Okay, and now you, though. You said you're headed to Uminero, and you're clearly uncomfortable with answering questions. It's up to you, but while we're at it, what's your story? And with that, Ordon's gonna get a little lost in thought again. He has this tendency to almost get lost in his own head, and he's gonna snap out of it relatively quickly and say, "Back there with the dragon. We should have fought it. Years ago, I would have fought it." But, Ordon's not with us anymore.

Our heart is missing. And he is so unbelievably torn up with this that, again, he's just gonna kinda drift off for a moment, and he's gonna come back and say, "I need to find a way to reconnect with him." With Ordon? Yes. So, what's caused the disconnect, if I can ask? I don't know. He's never spoken to me. He's missing. And I don't know whether we pushed him away. I don't know whether he's abandoned us. I'm hoping the mages wasting their way through this life might actually do something useful and have answers. And he's gonna spit on the ground and shake his head like, "I still don't believe I'm going there." Merrick would have a very familiar sense of this.

He would sort of close his eyes a little bit and sort of do a big understanding nod, like, "Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, I think I understand where you're coming from. Did you know I'm a cleric? A cleric of a monitor, in fact." I saw the symbol. Yeah. Thing is, I really don't believe in a monitor anymore. The way I got there was because I realized that he had never spoken to me either. Yeah, maybe different reasons, but I understand where you are, at least. I mean, I still believe Morden's out there. My people don't understand. We're wandering aimlessly without his guidance.

When Morden says something about that Morden is still out there, Merrick's gonna do a "hoo boy" type of a look. Like, you don't even know, man. Hey, Morden. Yes? Do me a favor and roll an insight check. Okay. Never mind. There we go. I missed that. You didn't even realize that somebody else was there. The whole time you weren't talking to Merrick. I'm having another one of those conversations in my head. This rock has a mustache. Yeah. That's the oddest rock I've ever seen. Yeah, I mean, I think Merrick would just be shaking his head like, "Oh boy, the stories I have for you, you have no idea.

In fact, fuck it." You know, Merrick will just say something like that. Like, "You don't, you just, you have no clue." I completely hear what you're saying. You're the first. Everything I've been saying has been falling on deaf ears for years. And what you've been saying is that Morden's there somewhere, even though Morden is missing, right? Yes. I mean, this is flooring Merrick a little bit, right? Like, of all the people we could be meeting, we haven't seen another soul around. And this dwarf comes up to us and happens to be on a quest to try to find the gods, basically, in some way.

One might say it's divine intervention. Yeah. It's a little bit, it's just ludicrous. But it also is, in Merrick's mind, like, "Gee, everything is pushing us to this. Everything has been getting us to this point, and it's ridiculous." And I think it's just almost funny to Merrick at this point. And your people, and what do they think? And why won't they listen to you? They're convinced that Morden still guides their hand. That he, sure, he's been silent, but he's a god. Who are we to question the gods? And you don't think his hand's been involved at all? He's gonna look back up to the sky and look back at Merrick and just say, "Our strength is missing." "It's missing on the battlefield." "It's missing in the forges." "The glory that once was is no longer." Can, I just want Merrick to have a really good sense of Orden, like, and, and Orden's genuineness.

Is there, is there a role that, that, that I could, that Merrick could do just to sort of... I mean, you could roll insight just to kind of, just to kind of see if things that he's bouncing off you is, seems genuine, like he's genuinely conflicted, or has. Or is he crazy? Like, I'm trying... Yeah, or, yeah. Is he just a wandering nutjob? That's a 20. You're picking up that, yeah, at least he believes this, like he is being genuine about this. It's not something he's trying to grift you, or... There's not, there's not some sort of self-serving means to an end, it seems.

Okay. I'm toying with an idea that's gonna make Cory very uncomfortable. I don't know that I can even hear what you guys are saying. Yeah, I like to imagine that Poluna and Cory are like in the back, just like, "Yo, have you heard of this kind of flower? So rad." Just, coolest. Dude, like, you don't even know, if that flower has a cousin flower, check this out. Shit, dude. Right? So the good conversation's happening in the back. Right. Clearly. Totally. I like to imagine that they're actually talking about something really mundane, like, "Dude, cookies? Do you like cookies?

I love cookies." So, Merrick is putting all this together, and just, again, laughing, chuckling, about how ridiculous all of this is being, and that... It's all coming to a head for so many different people in so many different ways that it just feels like it's more now not a coincidence, but that there's something in the air, or in the water, or something like that. Like, it's just ridiculous. It just feels like, "Okay, this isn't coincidence anymore. Everybody's feeling this emptiness of the gods, and here we are on this path of trying to get them back." He's gonna look at Ordon and just say, "What if I told you that the gods and Morden were all around for a fact?" I mean, you're telling me what I already know.

What if I told you that the gods can't quite come back themselves, and maybe need some help? When you say "come back," you're gonna lose Ordon for a minute. You're claiming the gods are here, but they're not? I'm trying to think of how to put it. There's a reason, potentially, that you haven't felt the strength and power from Morden. It's not just that Morden's looking away, or not paying attention, or being hands-off. What if Morden couldn't give you that power and that strength? I would wonder what power exists that could trump that of the gods. There's a lot of power from a lot of people and a lot of things over the years that, let's just say it can happen.

Ordon's gonna kinda chuckle at that in a disbelieving sort of way. There is no power greater than the gods. There is no power greater than Morden. What I'm suggesting to you is... fuck it. Kori. And Meracle will get Kori's attention if possible, and stop them talking about nature. Rude. Yeah, we were having a conversation. I'm sorry. Whatever. I'm so sorry. And she'll sort of like, briefly like, "Oh, yeah," and walk over. I assume we're all just sort of traveling, right? We're all moving, or have we stopped? I kind of assumed we were waiting for you. I thought we were all just like walking.

You said we were going, and then you stopped to have a chat. I thought we were all walking. I thought we were all walking. Yeah, I thought we were just walking. Yeah, I thought we were all just walking and those two were talking. Yeah. Okay. Just trying to get a mental image here. Yeah, Meracle just motioned for Kori to come on up. Galena would probably follow, just sort of like, "I wanna be in on the conversation for a little bit." What's Thanos doing? Thanos would probably kind of move over too, because she wants to know what's going on as well. So you're just walking in a ball.

Yeah, so we're just, exactly, we're all in a bomb together. Okay. Kori, just trust me here. I'm sorry to do this to you. Kori, what are you? A goliath? Sure, sure, sure. What else are you? She's gonna look very confused because this is coming out of nowhere for Kori. And she does not know where, like what point you're trying to make, or... Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I'm also a seeker. Sure. Kori, our new friend here, Ordon, he gets the sense that Morden is not really available these days. Maybe a little distant. What do you think about that? Do I know who Morden is? Give me a religion check.

Okay. It would be a fairly low one, because... Thank goodness. Lots of people know the basic pantheon. Yeah. Yeah, you know who Morden is. Cool. I would assume that now she's starting to get the point of like, what he's doing, and she is going to look very aggravated. But there's a new person here, so she's going to keep it kind of to herself. But bear no mind, she is like shooting daggers at Merrick right now. I think he expects it. But I think he's also a little at his... he's just, "Enough, let's embrace this shit." Does he say that? Sure, but he's not... but not being a dick.

Like he's not like, "Come on, idiot." He's just like... Honestly, more like, "It's fine. This is our lot, and this is what's really happening, then let's embrace it." "Go on, I think you can tell him. We've been chatting, and I know where he is with things, and I think it's important for him to understand the system right now." Again, looking frustrated and exasperated. She's just going to sort of look towards both of them as we're walking, because she doesn't know what you were talking about beforehand, but she knows where it's going. And she'll just say, "I'm not a follower of Morden.

I don't know anything about Morden." But I can tell you this, we are on a search which will hopefully lead to finding more gods and goddesses. And that's all that she wants to contribute to this conversation. She feels betrayed, and she's going to continue walking forward. So, Ordon's going to immediately pipe up, and he's going to say, "You think the gods are trapped behind the door in the mountains?" Just saying that to everybody? Right, I mean, because you're looking for the gods, and you have this ancient book, Strange Door in the Mountains, that's all he...

He doesn't pick up on the subtext going on here. Oh, totally. No, that's why I think Merrick was just like, "Forget the subtext. If we're going to do this, let's do this." But I think he probably feels pretty shitty for putting Cori on the spot. Right now, Thanos' face kind of looks like, "I've made a horrible mistake, and I'm probably with a bunch of crazy people." And she's going to start slowly following Cori, like, "Well, I guess I'll see where this goes." Luna's going to watch Cori and Thanos just sort of speed up, and they'll speed up a little bit just to get on Merrick's other side, just like, "I know what their problem is.

Hey, sup?" Merrick is so frustrated right now. I am so frustrated right now. Merrick is... He's had to take this story that he was completely skeptical about anyway and own it, right? And for the sake of everybody and Cori and Theria and Una and... And everybody's being cagey about it, including Merrick, and they haven't even told Thanos what's really happening yet. Merrick just doesn't know how to deal with this, but he's going to have to do something. I mean, Ordon will ask you the question again. Do you think the gods are in the mountain? Caluna's going to just let out a little "Pfft!" You know, just like, "If gods are as powerful as everyone says, why would they be locked behind a door?" And they're going to give him that sort of look like, "Duh!" "Idiot!" "Stupid dwarf." Okay, Merrick's going to just yell out of frustration.

He's going to yell at everybody, "Okay, house meeting! House meeting!" He's going to stop, and he's just going to raise his hand until everybody else crowds around him. That's what he wants to happen. I don't know that everybody will. Caluna's going to look really confused, like, "What the fuck is a house meeting?" But they can't stop and stare at him. Thanos will just move over like, "Okay, whatever." She kind of accepts that Merrick's the leader of the group, so she's like, "Okay, whatever." He's the red-cowled ranger. Almost like a pouting teenager, Kori is going to stop, cross her arms, and slowly turn to start walking back towards Merrick.

Ordon's going to look really confused and start backing away? I guess he assumes this doesn't involve him? Nope, nope. Everybody, crowd around. Let's do this. We're all going to do this right now, alright? Everybody, Ordon, have a seat. Here on the wall, we are all one house. Mute yourself right fucking now. See, I went a different way. I heard him making the Rick Grimes speech. I just heard that. I want Merrick to have the cowboy hat. Yeah. No, and again, he's not angry. Merrick's not angry at all. He's just like, "No, we're doing this. Come on. We're going to do it all right now.

We're going to do it all at once. We're going to get it taken care of. Ordon, you're part of this right now, so let's all have a seat." He's going to suggest that everybody get in a circle and sit on the ground and cross their legs. Santos is going to do the weird, crouchy thing she did earlier. Coluna's going to do the little kid sit because Coluna crossing their legs is uncomfortable. I was going to say, Cory's going to stand because when she's on the ground, it's a hassle to get back up. Okay. All right, fine. Not a single person would just shut the fuck up and sit down.

Why is this so complicated, guys? Come on. Because we're all special snowflakes. We are. We're all assholes. Merrick's trying so hard. I would like to make a perception check. This dragon thing is still freaking the heck out of me, and we're just kind of walking along relatively in the open, so I'd like to... Oh, okay, there we go. Things look great to you. Sweet. Stay the course, big chief. I will. Dragon's just breathing down your neck. Hi, guys. For the record, I imagine we're under a tree, right? We're not fucking stupid doing this in the middle of the field, right?

But Coluna's sitting down. I know. I think we've all been trying to make sure we're not completely open. I'm not the kind of guy who's waiting for you to slip up verbally and take your hand off the chess piece, guys. Are you sure? I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty lenient. Merrick is trying so hard. Okay, is everybody paying attention? Everybody's paying attention. Thanos and Ordon, you need some information right now. Ordon, we've just met you. Thanos, we've relatively just met you, and yet you've agreed to come along with us, and we owe you some answers. And Ordon, you just happen to be along for the ride, so enjoy.

Who wants to be the one to explain this? Coluna looks excited, like, "Eh?" Merrick's gonna do the thing where Coluna's raising their hand, and Merrick's gonna pretend that he doesn't see it. Does anybody here want to explain? And he's gonna be one more time trying to- Coluna's gonna smack him upside the head. One more time trying to push- to put Corey in a position of, "You want to explain what's going on?" But not- again, not being a jerk, but just more like, "Come on, let's own this." Corey is- is going to purposefully not make eye contact with Merrick and say nothing.

Okay. Okay. Here's the deal. And he's going to be talking to everybody, but he's gonna especially be saying this for Thanos, and to a lesser degree, but also wanting Ordon to hear. Here's the story. The gods exist. That's what we're supposed to believe. They exist. I'm gonna be honest with you, I didn't think they did, but now I'm not so sure. The gods exist, and what we're supposed to understand is that they have been trapped. They've been trapped in human or whatever bodies, and they don't even know that they're the gods. Got it? That's step one. That's happened for a long time.

They were trapped there by some other people in another way, and it doesn't even really matter about that right now. But that's the case. Alright, if we take that as a foundation for all of this, the next step is we've got some trouble. Because the gods aren't around, that's making things a little bit easy for, I don't know, a demon army to take over Theria, and to make life living hell or worse for absolutely everybody. Everything would be destroyed. Everything that we know, that we love, even ourselves, gone. Do you understand? Ordon's gonna be kinda wide-eyed at this.

He doesn't... As crazy as he expected you to view him when he gave his little "Morden" speech, he's kind of returning that look to you now. Like, he doesn't... Thanos is looking from Merrick to Kori to Kaluna, then back to Merrick, then back to Kori, then back to Kaluna, just like... Merrick's like, watching people start to get distracted, and he's gonna be... He's raising his hand like, "Look at me! Look at me! Eyes up here. Eyes up here." The thing is, we have a chance to be able to stop that demon army from approaching Theria and taking over everything.

How? By releasing the gods and letting them know who they are again and releasing them from these corporeal prisons that they've been stuck in for hundreds of thousands of years. Got it? So, we're on a quest right now. Me, Kaluna, Kori. We know what we're doing, and we're doing this for everybody. We've got to find the ways to be able to stop this army. We've got to be able to find ways to bring people back that deserve... And he's gonna do air quotes, "to be back." Okay? So, is that basically the story? And he's gonna look at Kori. Anything else you wanna add?

She'll look surprised, and she'll nod and say, "That seems about it." Merrick's gonna keep staring at Kori for a few seconds until he realizes that that's gonna be it and there's not gonna be any other forthcoming information from Kori. And look back at Thanatos and say, "That's what you signed up for. That's why we're headed into the mountains. We're trying to find information. We're trying to find everything we can possibly find out about the demons themselves and how to stop this from happening. This is our first step. It's the first thing we even have to work with.

So, that's why you're here. Are you okay with that?" Thanatos is going to kind of like fall back like now she is fully sitting and she'll shrug. "Look, I'll hit whatever you want me to hit, but I'm not gonna be religious or anything." Yeah, listen. Kalu's gonna smile at you sort of like, "Yep, works for me." Listen, I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't give a shit about the gods. I don't know that they're gods and he's gonna look, whenever he says that, he's gonna look at Kori. I don't give a shit about them. If they are something, then there's something that's not beyond our comprehension.

They're magical. They're powerful. I get it. There's a lot of people who are magical and powerful. Maybe they're the most magical and powerful people. I can buy into that. Not much more than that. But I do know this. If that is what gets us to stop hell on Theria, then that's what we have to do. So, I don't need you to be religious. I'm not even sure I'm religious. And I'm a fucking cleric. So, don't worry about it. I just need you to hit. And I just need you to stay with us. Is that okay? Thanos will nod. Great. Thank you. Orton's gonna be giving you a look right now.

You're counting on this little girl to hit things for you? Kallen is going to look offended on Thanos' behalf. Look, we have a party of healers. We have a party of people who can blend in with nature. We've got a little bit of firepower, but she's the best we could find. But she's a child. She's an extremely powerful child with extraordinary abilities. She blew up a troll. She blew up a troll. She blew up a troll. Yes. And Kalluna's going to look kind of irritated like that's what we fucking said. Thank you for not mentioning that she blew up herself too. That was very nice.

That was Mary's whole point, by the way. While they're defending her, Thanos is going to stand up and, if nobody stops me, she's gonna walk over a tree and her hands are already lighting up. She's gonna show him if no one stops her. Would Kalluna notice? I would say everyone would pretty much notice. If you were in a group and you were all looking at each other and then she stands up and walks away, I think everyone would notice. Plus the glowing. That helps. Yeah, Kalluna would sort of start to jump up and sort of end up in a weird, awkward crouch and be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Not the tree." And they're going to sort of point at their arm like, "That's rude." She's not really paying attention. She was very visibly angry at first and then he went on and now she just wants to show him. And she's not the smartest. She doesn't think about what this could possibly mean. But if no one stops her, she is gonna wail on a tree right now. I mean, Kalluna's not getting in the way of those fists. Let's be real here. Marek doesn't know what the intention is here, but it seems hasty, so I think he would probably stand up. You know, like, "Is he sitting?

I can't remember if he actually did with it since nobody else did or not." I guess he was sort of sitting or standing or whatever. But yeah, he would sort of be at attention like, "Well, okay. What, what, what, what, what's happening?" And then let it happen as long as it didn't seem completely unsafe. Alright, Jason, I would like to force punch a nearby tree. Well, since the tree has no armor and isn't going to try and dodge or anything... Coup de grace. I'm gonna say that you do max damage on the tree. Fuck yeah. So, again, this windy road is sort of taking you around this gorgeous scenic spot.

And there's this gorgeous spot where it sort of takes you around this large bend and Uminyoro is in the distance. It's really nice. And along that way, the entire path is dotted with trees and it's fairly shady. I would say Thanatos walks up to one of these slightly larger trees and just blows out a good chunk with one single punch. And the base of this tree is wider, obviously, than her stance. So this is pretty damn impressive. It would take someone with an axe a while to hack down something like this. So I would say this is in full view of the entire party.

Going to blow a large chunk of it out, leaving a small sliver of the tree. And the tree is going to slowly fall over. You're gonna hear it crack and splinter. Bits and pieces of the tree, like shrapnel, are gonna fly out the other side of it as that's going on. And the tree is going to fall harmlessly away from the road. But she's going to take down this tree with one punch. I'd say afterward, it's clear that that took something out of her. Orton's gonna let out this huge belly laugh and just turn back to Merrick and say, "You expect her to punch things for you." And he's just got the biggest grin on his face right now.

Can I roll to see how old that tree was? Do me a favor and roll a nature check. Now I get good rolls. Ladies and gentlemen at home, that's a 33. You're gonna say that based on the size of that tree, that tree was probably a couple hundred years old somewhere in there. Kalluna's going to sort of mouth a gape. They're going to stare at the tree. And then they're gonna look over at Thanatos. They were so old. Thanatos, when she was done punching, she kind of kept her arm extended until the tree fully fell. And then once it was on the ground, she kind of takes a deep breath, gathers herself because she doesn't want to turn around looking weak.

And then she's just going to turn around and glare daggers at this dwarf. "Fuck you." And then she's gonna start walking again. As soon as she turns around, Ordon's gonna kind of raise his spear to his forehead and give this little salute. Like, "I see you. I respect that." And he's gonna laugh once again, that big belly laugh, when you swear at him and walk away. Can Kalluna collect some of the shards from the tree? You sure can. Okay. I think at this point, Kori's gonna sort of get out of her slumped over annoyed state. And she'll say, "Okay, so we're all caught up.

Everybody's shown off a little bit. Can we please continue to where we need to go?" And obviously she's still aggravated, but she's trying to just put it aside. Ordon's gonna walk away from the group for just a moment. Not far. Jason, you said that Uminyero was actually visible in the distance? Oh yeah. So he's gonna take just a couple steps off in that direction and gaze up at the city. He's gonna be looking once again inside. He's gonna shake his head. He's gonna turn back to the party, primarily to Merrick, and say, "You really think your path is gonna lead to the gods?" So after all that posturing by Merrick and aggravation, I think he's gonna slump a little bit.

His shoulders are gonna sort of slump. I don't know. I honestly don't know. But I know that if this is what's real, if this is the true story, then we don't have a choice. And as far as I can tell, we have the best lead there is, and we have the best chances of anybody. And he's gonna point at Uminyero and say, "Do you actually think you're gonna get answers there?" "You'll get answers, but do you think you're gonna get the answers you're looking for?" It was my best lead. Fair enough. I'm not so convinced it is now, though. What are you suggesting? And at that, he's just gonna slam his spear against his shield and say, "I'd like to see what the small one can do in battle." Is everybody sort of aware of all this?

Can everybody hear this? I don't know. My magic balloon would have stuck nearby. And I'm not being quiet about it. Yeah. Merrick's gonna look back at everybody sort of in turn and, first of all, just see what they're doing and how they're reacting to that. Santos was walking away, but then when no one came with her, she probably stopped and turned around. And when she hears what he said, she's gonna noticeably be a little bit less upset. Not a lot less upset. But like, "Oh, fine. Fuck you, but cool." Kalin is still sad about the tree, but their eyes sort of light up a little bit when he sort of bangs the shield.

Is Cory still mad? Cory looks visibly impatient. Well, yeah. If she had a swatch on, she would be staring at it and just being one of those annoying people that is just constantly looking at it. They told us it would be a 40-minute wait before we got our table. Or, I'm sorry, in this 45 minutes. I'm sorry, this generation, she would be pulling out her iPhone to check the time every five or so minutes. I think it should be canon that Cory has a swatch. Did you say swatch or watch? I did. I was trying to think of any type of watch, and I had Rolex, and I was like, "Oh, come on.

Cory's not a Rolex kind of girl." I think swatch makes perfect sense. So I pulled out swatch. I wanna hug you. Like, that was such a, like... I have no idea what a swatch is. Oh my god, you're so 80s. Like, that's so 80s. That's so 80s. I was gonna do a joke. You can tell we're all from different countries. Yeah. Okay. Merrick's going to... No, I guess we haven't even really talked about it. I guess you're clearly a Kingsguard, right? I'm a knight. So you've got some power behind yourself, right? And he... So Ordon's gonna pause for just a second, and he's fighting back the urge to reply the way he wants to.

And I know that's vague. I'm sorry. Ordon's gonna say, "I have enough power to handle what's coming. And if we can find the gods, eventually we'll be able to handle anything." Well, you have confidence. Merrick's gonna lift up his hand again and say, "House meeting! House meeting!" Luna will take two steps to enter the circle formation. That's sexy. Thanos is going to huff, and whenever she uses her powers, her hair usually gets in her face, and she never bothers to push it aside. So she kind of does the Meg thing of blowing hair out of her face, and then she'll come over.

Kori... *sigh* She will follow suit, and take two steps just to please Merrick. He'll say, "House meeting!" Ordon, give us a second. Do you mind? No. You're not in our house anymore. Fuck off. Not in my house! And I'll wander up the road the direction we've been traveling a little ways. Okay. We... We have an offer on the table. But we need to take a vote, or agree, or voice our opinions. We certainly could use some more firepower. And it's clear that we have some common alignments. What do you think? Kalluna will sort of lean out of the circle. He'll call over.

How many hits can you take? Ordon's gonna look back, and... I guess there's a confused look? And say, "I've never found enough to drop me." They'll just dismissively just go back into the circle. And they'll say, "Works for us." Thanos, do you have a problem with him? Thanos will pause for a second. Like, she feels like she should have a problem, but she's kind of over it, so she'll just shake her head. Kori? Kori will take a minute. Obviously not feeling like she should give her opinion. She's not sure that it is necessarily valued in the group anymore. And she'll just sort of, like, hastily, "He seems fine." There's no pressure, but we could use all the help we can get.

Okay, well, unless there's any objection, I feel like we should ask him to join. Certainly won't hurt in the mountains to have a dwarf, I can tell you that. A little grin at him like, "Hey!" Okay, so, Merrick's gonna look at Kori. Merrick feels awful, but he's also trying to, like I said earlier, like... Enough dancing around this, Merrick's having to sort of own himself and get on board with all of it, so he wants everybody else to do it too. But he feels awful, he feels like he's hurt. Some feelings, but he's just gonna have to suck it up for now. So, he's gonna say, "Okay, well we've got some more firepower.

Not that we didn't have enough." And he's gonna look at Thanos and be like, "Seriously, you don't understand. Your power's beyond comprehension." But we could certainly take somebody who can take some hits too. Thanos will just nod, like she realizes, like she wanted the Warforged to join too. She's like, "I can't take hits, I need someone who can." And he looks like he can. Plus he has a shield. That's cool. It's like a dwarven shield carrying a shield. Merrick's gonna make his way, you know, catch up with Ordon. You know, I'm assuming everybody's sort of making their way now, like we're heading along where we need to be headed.

But he's gonna head up to Ordon and say like, "Look, if you feel like we're your best option, we'd love to have you on board." I had no desire to go to the city anyway. I don't know anything about this demon army. I don't believe everything you've been saying, but I believe that you have knowledge, I believe that you have a direction, and I think our paths are going in the same direction. I feel like coming along would be good. Ordon, let me let you in on a little secret. I'm not sure I believe all the stuff that I said either. So, we're in the same boat.

But like I said, if any of this is true, then we don't really have a choice but to take it seriously. So, I think we're all in alignment. We're gonna find those doors. That's our next step. And that means we don't have to go to a floating cesspool of a city to find answers. So, let's head west. Sounds good. The journey west. Alright. So, it's still pretty early in the day. You guys got a crazy early start considering you didn't sleep all that much. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna pick things up. God, this is even before noon. You guys are making great time and you're gonna wrap around and start to venture away from Moon Hero.

And eventually, you're going to leave the path. Can, while we're going, can Kaluna whittle something from the chunks of wood? Seems cruel, but sure. Oh yeah, killing it is wrong, but carving up its dead body to make a pretty little ornament, that's cool. It's already dead. It's just using what's there. Not being wasteful. That's like me being a vegetarian and then saying, "But I'll eat dead meat." [laughter] I mean, I'm a vegetarian. I don't, I mean, animals and vegetarian stuff, but I mean, I'll have a steak, right? I was already dead. [laughter] Not an idiot.

You mean you don't, like, tackle animals and just rip the meat off of them? That's not how you guys do it? That's how I met my wife. Oh. I don't know what that meant, but I thought it would be. [laughter] I'm sitting here thinking I'm glad she survived, like... Were you hunting in a field together, or...? Yeah. Are you a ghoul? Kaluria is going to carve a pig and offer it to Corey. Wait, special eye. A pig, like oink oink? Or a pig like your pet? An actual pig. Well, I think I kind of wanted to make it so Corey was ahead of the group. Sort of like scoping things out beforehand, nature-y rolls or whatever, since we're in the mountains, and at the same time getting away from Eric, so she's sort of on her own but in front of the group.

They'll hold on to it then. They'll just... Give it to me later. Yay. Actually, Corey, do me a favor. Roll a nature check. Oh, guys, my rolls have been so good tonight. I'm feeling pretty great about this one. Yeah. That was pretty good. Yeah, that's two 3s right there. Boom boom. They look like little butts. More boobs. Let's be... No, one's bigger than the other. It's a butt. Could be lopsided boobs. Wait, what? What? What? Seriously? Isn't that more boobs than a butt, anyway? Yeah. Boobs are more frequently lopsided than a Yeah. I know. I mean, it could be like, you know, like sometimes you stand a certain way so like one half of your butt is like flexed differently.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Guys, guys, I love you all, but please. Butt please. Ayy. Okay. I feel like the dragon's coming back. So, Corey is actually gonna be scouting ahead and within eye-line of the rest of the party actually and they're gonna be following her. And she is, from memory, going to take into account what Ordon said about this having to be somewhere low, the pictures that were drawn in the book, and just the general landscape. And from that, Corey is going to extrapolate the best chances for this group finding this set of doors. And hours are gonna pass.

Like hours and hours. And I would imagine there's general chit-chat going on within the group. There's gonna be maybe a break here or there to grab a drink of water, to stop, but hours are gonna pass. You know what? Ordon. Yes? Do me a favor and roll a flat D20 for me. Oh gosh. This is your first one. Ooh. Ooh. Good job, kid. I have been consistent today. Well that's a two, everyone at home. And I want you to remember that. We're gonna pocket that for just a little bit. Let's pocket that. Thanks, Jason. You're so kind. Hey, anytime. Hours are gonna pass. And most of the day, most of the day is gone.

And a couple of dead ends have been reached. This valley sort of, you're finding, you're following this winding river. And there's a couple of spots where it looks like these doors could have been, but it just didn't quite pan out. Like the area, the area looks like it'd be right, but it just didn't pan out to be there. And getting away from this river, there's going to be this, this sort of sheer path that leads in between two mountains. And Cory is going to lead the group there. And the sun is going to start to dip in the sky as you have spent the entire day searching.

But I would like the entire party to do me a favor and roll a perception check for me. Look at that, another four, ladies and gents. That's like your fourth four. Twinsies. Twinsies. The worst possible kind of twinsies. The incestuous twinsies with the fucked up heads. Okay. I don't know why you're looking at the four when you're- With the wrong shaped faces. Cory's going to be the first to spot this. And this pathway's going to go on for a while and just about the point where she figures that this is another dead end and it's time to turn around. These massive doors are going to come into view.

And they appear to be reinforced iron. These things are huge. They tower. They tower above the party. But there's an addition to the doors that is not in the drawing from the book. And as the party starts filtering in behind Cory, they're all going to see it. There is a massive bar that is braced on the outside of the door that appears to be sealing it shut. And guys, I think that's probably a pretty good time for us to stop for the night. Nooooooo. Cool. Nice. This is super damn it. I can't wait for that two next session once we've forgotten about it. Don't worry though.

I won't forget about it. Hold on. I'm going to write it down so I don't forget either.