Ghost in the Machine

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

Hey folks, Jasper here. Welcome back to Dungeons and randomness, arc six, Frostborn. Listen, I know how it is. There's too much amazing content and so little time. So just for you, we made a one-hour recap that takes the first 20 episodes of Frostborn and boils it down to the essentials. That should get you going. So go check it out. I promise we'll do another every 20 episodes or so to keep things rolling along and for folks to have some super easy ways into our story. And if you do it going, so go check it out. I promise we'll do another every 20 episodes or so to keep things rolling along and for folks to have some super easy ways into our story.

And if you do it, listen, please consider sharing it along to at least one person who's never heard of DNR. How about your hairdresser? Barista, dog walker, handsome farmhand, it doesn't matter. Okay, on to our partners. Quick PSA before we start, our own Jameson Alcorn, who plays Logrin, our favorite dwarf tactician and emotional chaos sponge, is unleashing a Kickstarter for his new graphic novel, Lobstar, on November 4th, 2025. Yes, it's. Yes. It's a It is about a main lobsterman blessed with superpowers by the Lord of Lobsters. No, you are not audibly hallucinating that.

It's part superhero epic, part small town mystery, and part anti-capitalist seafood sermon. Think Stephen King meets Aquaman if Aquaman hated billionaires? Anyway, it's heartfelt, strange, and aggressively Jameson. We're backing it, duh, and we think you should too. Find Lobster on Kickstarter to be the first here when it goes live, November 4th, 2025. Links will be in our episode description. Next up, Onclave is live on Kickstarter as well. It's fast, it's diceless, it's a dangerous TTRPG that we absolutely love. The new edition called Advent and its expansion, Aspirant, are, well, epic and badass.

And if you back at using the link in our episode description, you get a DNR exclusive class. We played it with the Enclave folks, so check out how it all works with DNR in the mix. The episode's in the feed, so go check it out. And as always, D&R uses Level Up Advanced Fifth Edition from EN Publishing as our gaming system. Sure, it's D&D in a way, but with even more teeth. Code D-A-N-D-R gets you a discount. We love them. They keep all of our epic storytelling happening. All right, enough of that. Last time on Frostborn, let's cut to the chase. Chimera evidently tested Colgoth's patients, and Colgoth, took a moment to show that as much as he takes care of chimera, he's not to be trifled with.

Cole goth took momentary control over chimera's body, murdering our guide Jesse just to prove a very toxic point. So yeah, a big line was crossed. This time on Frostborn, Chimera rocked by that moment, bolts into action, enlisting Nithera and Ruby to help clean up the mess. Even Lagerin plays the distraction game. Otherwise, you're in for a bit of amateur mopping, questionable OSHA requirements, reasons to have a legendary assassin on your side, and a healthy dose of emotional wreckage. All in a day's work. Take it away, Jason Massey. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves.

I'm chasing. I'm the dungeon master. Go around the table. Starting with Ian. Hi, I'm Ian. My pronouns are he, him, Eni, and I play chimera, the Tifling Warlock. And Jameson. Hi, I'm Jameson. I play Logger and Cragborn. He's a Dwarven Marshall. And Susan. Hi, I'm Susan. My pronouns are she her. And I will be playing Nicierrioleth, the Elven Rogue. And Jasper. Hey, everybody. I'm Jasper. He-him. I play Ruby Pedagru, the Year Slinger Adept. So if you guys recall, uh, does anyone remember how the Lester? episode ended. Like, I can't. A lot. I feel like it was normal. Like just something normal.

It's like on the tip of my phone. I don't know. The best part is Bonzo's. The best part is that episode's closing out October, then we do extended rest. So this is going to kick off November and I can't I can't wait for that extended rest, guys. Oh my God. I have to wait for it to be. I was thinking, you know, maybe there's not a bonzo's in the Durgaar stronghold of the Black Rock Mountains, but maybe there's one of those, those, you know, like the gas station with like a subway and a and a little horse and a Robbins kind of a thing. Yeah, exactly. Like an airport and bonso.

Maybe they've got like a kiosk. If you guys want to start out the episode in Bonzo's and it's just a hallucination, to escape this. I get it. Yeah. Do like a David Lynch type of thing. Yeah. Oh, God. All right. So let's recap where everybody is. I got you guys a map, right? So. So. Ha. Oh, boy. Oh, wow. That's real small. Hold on. too small. Oh, what? Oh, yeah. What we got here? Oh, good. Oh, that's you. Okay. It's a good number. We had the car. We had the dice. Now we're good to go. Yeah. Yeah. That should be. That should be fun. So we got. Austin And Logran Jameson I was just curious as to how many D12s you've rolled and now you can't roll any more because you've rolled well I guess you keep you've rolled 420 Don't tell me I can't roll more Yeah I can't say that You got to 420 You got the funny drug number We should celebrate that By rolling D12s.

Now you're a 120 D12. Somehow my macro disappeared where I could roll 47 D12. Jason probably came in. They erased that. I said enough of that shit. Crash the table. Let me upgrade the internet first. It was lagging us out. It really would. You know, you've only rolled six D6s. That's fine. I'm happy keeping it that. Don't try to cut me into different dice. I'm happy where I am. I'm just curious. In your lane, moisturized, content. You rolled 134 D20s. All right. Son of a bitch. Here we go. Ian, we're going to pick up with you. Now, the way we described it, you just sort of blacked out for a second.

Like, there's just an instant where you're kind of watching Jesse. It's like, yeah, that's exactly what I did. You signed your name. You know, magic starts to take over and like gurgling on the floor, blood spurting out of his neck, and you watch him gasp his last. What is going through your head? It's it's shock. It's utter shock. I mean, there's the initial shock that there's, you know, missed time and then suddenly a dead person in front of me. And I don't think it takes long for Kamira under, especially because Kolgat says a little thing in his year, you know.

So like he knows right away what's happened. And I think he gets right away that this is, you know, what kind of lesson this is, that this is a lesson. This is punishment for the way that things have gone. And that's shocking too, because this has never happened before. Like, this is not a thing that has ever happened. So, chimera is just kind of like, like, standing there. stuttering and like blinking and he probably there's probably been some like blood that sort of like, you know, arterial blood spray like on him or or on the cards on the table somewhere.

And he's just like, what the fuck? And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This that he thinks is like I have to I have to fix this before somebody sees. Like, this is going to fuck up why we're here. And I've got to fix this. And he's in panic mode. Yeah. I'm supposed to say, what does fix this look like in this situation? I think he stands up, the chair just falls back. And he is going to try, and he's going to press to digitate the blood off of him. So immediately just like pull that off of him. And he starts to think about what do I have?

What can I do? How do I? How do I? How can I? Why about this? What can I spin? So I think he's going to go. And he remembers he has a potion of invisibility. And so he's like, okay, that is the first step. We take this in steps. And he's going to go outside, look out the door, see if anyone, ones around. Specifically, whether Lagrin and Austin are. Yeah. So. Not yet, but the guards are still outside. Okay. So yeah. So there's only one by your door and two by the other two doors. So there's a total of five in your vicinity. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Oh, I see them. Yes. Yeah, so he's going to like nod and put on a smile and just kind of slip through the door and close it and then move as quickly as he can to the room that we are staying into his things.

And I don't even think there'd be a second thought because there were no screams, there were no nothing. and while you were walking, you know, while you do the press the digitation, you're... Colgoth will be talking to you, or talking at you. Do you feel your heart racing right now? When is the last time you? You felt this alive. Not expecting a reaction or anything, it's more just shit, shit, shit, as you're kind of shuffling down the hallway. So I'm going to go ahead and guess that my fear has done their bath. Yes. Maybe kicking back in one of these infuriatingly spaced beds.

Yes. Try not to acknowledge that there is a bed in the corner for some reason. Yep, screenshots on the Discord. So join our community so you can see. As soon as this is over, I'm fixing it. And then we'll explain. I promise, I will fix this. Oh, my God, I just had a great idea for the Patreon. So I'll release free versions of maps like this. And then for a dollar, I'll fix it. re-exported. So you're releasing a shitty product first? Yeah, I'm, I'm extorting the community. Sounds like every triple, every AAA game that comes out nowadays. I know that's the, that's the thing, because I felt bad about it instantly.

So it's like, yeah, that's probably what they do. So you cross the threshold into the room you've been standing. and open the door, boom, close the door behind you. And neither here is, though. Do you look haried at all? I would say, no. Chimera does not look harried, but he is moving fast. Like, he comes in the door and closes it, and And as soon as the door is closed, he's spinning around and moving towards his things. So I rolled an insight check for ninth year. And I rolled a 16 and I think because, you know, we've been together for a year. She's going to clock instantly that you're moving fast, that you're, you didn't even say hi.

That's like you didn't even say some fun quip or anything. There's something wrong. Like he just cramered his way into the room and then just. started walking really quiet. Right. To the cereal boxes, yeah. So Nythira is going to instantly like, okay, start putting on her belt, which has like all her knives on it. And then what do we need to do? So glad you asked. Nifer, I need you to come into the other room with me right now. You can't ask any questions. I will answer everything later. But we need to go. And we don't have a lot of time. Okay. Sounds good. Do you need me to watch out for the guards?

Or just walk into the other room? Just follow me. It'll make sense in a second. Okay. And he'll give her a nod. Like, yes. And go to his things and pull out that potion of invisibility. And go to the and start and head back out. Like we're we've got it and that's what he came in to do. Glad Nithera is here. And Jason for the guards, it doesn't look like she's carrying any knives. Because it's an assassin's gauntlet, which means it hides the knife in her glove. So she's just wearing a glove. And then the other one's the like light saber one. So it's just a... Well, for legal reasons, we can't call that.

But... I genuinely think, for the most part, the honor system was used. Because Real, the person who took you here was like, look, this is a formality for the most part. But it would really look good if you guys, your giant ash shield, your projectile, gontlet, you're all that stuff. your boomerang made of knives, that thing. You know, like, things like that. Just like, hey, this would go a long way to like, you know, making everyone feel comfortable. But like, they're not checking your boots, your belts and stuff like that. You have sharp implements on you.

We know chimera does. Yeah. But just like if they're clocking anything, she looks normal. It doesn't look like she's like weaponed up or anything. Well, also, you guys were brought in together. It's not like you were fighting. So there's no. reason for them to think. Like, this is a cushy gig for the Durgar soldiers here, because they were told all about you guys. You're not, you're not in a prison cell. So they're not trying to, you know, be stern with you or mean or anything. But yeah, they, they, they, it would take a bit for them to go, what is up? Like, if you guys, went back and forth a few more times to be like, all right, what's up?

Like that type of thing. Right now, it just looks like, oh, I went to get my friend. We're playing cards. Whatever. A big deal. Oh, I asked Nythera, too, as we're heading out, I go, do you have that ring? The strength ring? No. I don't have it. Or pendant? Didn't you have something? I have any jewelry? I have the amulet of health. Health. That's not what I need. I go back and I get a potion of Frost Giant Strength. Okay. Oh, man. We're tapping into the reserves. Okay. Yeah. And then we go into the other room. And when we go in, like, as we pass by the guards, again, Kamira is just like all smiles.

It's all good. We go back in. And as soon as he closed. closes the door, he like, looks at Nythera and sort of like motions his head toward the dead body. So the way the room set up, you don't initially see a body because the beds are in the way, right? However, you will start to see this tiny river of blood to start to trickle out into, because it's a stone floor and it's tiled. So it's getting into the grooves and slowly filling those up. So Nythera will approach. Just assess there's no reaction on our face when she sees the body, no like anything. And then she'll go to like a chair which has Jesse's cloak over it.

And then she'll pick that up and then like flip it out, put that out next to him and instantly move the body on to the cloak. Okay, we got to get the blood off the grout because that's where they're. They're going to find it. That's where they're going to see the traces first. You have precededitation, right? That's probably what the first thing you'll want to do. If we keep it on the cloak, we could take care of that with his body. Got it. Here. Feed this to him. And we are going to go for a walk. I saw some furnaces or something that we could. could maybe get a tour of and we are going to drop our friend off somewhere in there.

Unless you have a better idea, I would love to hear it. I'm raising my hand. Do you have a better idea? I do not. So I need to bring up that Presta Digitation is a spell that has been tweaked slightly in A5E. So it largely does exactly what it did before, right? However, there's a duration of an hour. So you can't just go pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and spam it over and over again. And the one you're looking for, because it does, you know, a bunch of different things. You can create a little magic sound or whatever, lighter snuff a flame. So you're looking for clean or soil an object of one cubic foot or less. that's not a lot.

Just know that. It's not going to be like, oh, blood gone. Like, you know, it's not a get out of jail free card like it used to be because it was a can trip and it wasn't specifically stated. You just go, okay. If you specifically target the grout, I will get it off of the stone. That's easier to clean. But the grout in between the tiles, that's how everybody catches on. Got it. And that's what. what Kimer is going to start doing. Yeah, I understand it's like, it's a small amount of space and it'll take some time. But he's going to start cleaning this as best he can.

Targeting the grout. This is where my true crime. Obsession comes in the play. A white lady into true crime? Wow. Right? Let's check off that. standard white woman box. So yeah, we're trying to feed this invisibility potion to this dead body and clean up the blood. You know, I've never thought about that before. So there's questions we got to answer. One of them is how long do you have? You don't know, right? Right. Yeah. What I want to do is I want Ian to roll to D20s. And that's how many minutes you have. Got it. So we're hoping for high rolls. High rolls. High rolls.

Two ones and I think you're just in prison. Like I think that we just advanced to. Oh. Okay. 30 minutes. That's not... Half hours, not a lot time. Yeah, but it's got to be enough. But there's an intense conversation going on in the next room. So like, while that was all happening, you know. This, I imagine this is all intercut, too. Like, it's cutting back and forth, you know. Okay. So let's... Hmm. I need to make a ruling on something. Let me read potion of invisibility. Really quickly. Yeah, I was just looking that out. Because how this is worded, obviously, changes things.

A silver liquid in this file is visible only when shaken or disrupted. After drinking this potion, for the next hour, you and anything you're wearing or carrying or carrying, burying becomes invisible. All right. The way I read this is, it doesn't matter how big the person is, right? It doesn't stay anything about large. So technically a hill giant could drink this. they drink it, they're invisible. Which makes me think it isn't about pouring the liquid onto something. It's about it circulating throughout the body. So I think if you pour this potion of invisibility down Jesse's throat, only a portion of him that this touches, because the body's still warm, but it's not going to circulate throughout the body.

However, if one of you drinks it and starts carrying the body, It will go invisible. I don't know if that's helpful or not. Would you like time to think about this? Can you have two active potions? You can have two. No, I don't. So can you be invisible and hill giant strength? I'll allow it. But for every potion you take, give me a low con saving throw. It gets a little higher each time. And then if you fail, you take a level of fatigue. Okay. That sounds fair. Yeah. And then. So Nythera will say to Kamera, I don't think this is going to work on him, but give me the hill giant strength.

You're better at talking and I'm better at hiding. So I will wrap a cloak around him or something. Not really realizing that when she picks him up, he'll go invisible. Right. So you run distraction and I'll carry him. Okay. appreciate it. And he starts to say more, but he realizes there's no time. And he hands over the potion. Hey, Jasper. Could you do me a big favor? Could you give me two D20s? 14 and 13, 27. So your tour wraps up in 27 minutes. So you'll get, you'll, you'll get back. back in time to see whatever the tail end of this. Sure. So okay. To recap, what you guys are setting up is Nithaer is going to drink the potion of Hildjai, uh, uh, Frost.

Frost giant's drink. Frost giants. Yes, that's correct. Yeah. Yes. And also the invisibility potion. Correct. And I guess just distract people, like talk to that. Like, because if we got to go on a tour. Yeah. If we got a, if we got to go on a tour like how Ruby went, then that's what he's going to do. It's like, come join the tour. Yeah. Come join. And let's go meet our friend. Ruby. You know, like, where's Ruby? Let's, can you take me there, guards? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Really, just nice. Here I can't open doors without people going, hey, that door's opening by itself.

Yeah. So when you, when you drink the potion of frost strength, a chill kind of overtakes. Like, you're, you're emitting this frost. Like, it, it almost, you can see it on the ground. There's like a haze of where the cold is meeting whatever warm stone and stuff there is. So after you drink the invisibility potion, no one will be able to see it, but it'll be like there's a ghost. Like, you know, you know, that sounds like fun for later. Keep that in mind. That combination of things gets used this. And ninth year will grab Jesse and see he disappears and then signal to come here.

I'm ready. So let's go back to this blood. Are you cleaning up the blood beforehand? Before we leave? Yeah. Oh, 100%. I'm trying to get rid as much of it as I can. Okay. So I understand the way the spell's worded, you can only affect something in a cubic foot. What I'm going to say is... is... I'm going to take half the volume of the blood and shove it into that cube. Does that make sense? I know that that's not how the spell is supposed to work, but I'm trying to help you out. What about the blood that's left over? How is that being cleaned? Probably with his own cloak as well.

Yeah, we could... We could soak some of that up with the cloak, yeah. Yeah, for sure. But there's no mop or anything, right? So like, not that I know of, not that I see, yeah. So we have blood on a stone floor and we're taking as duster and we're just kind of like, you know, mopping it up to the best. Okay, I guess, man, what would be a good cleaning check? Let's do this. Perception? Just to see if you missed anything? Or deception? Oh, well, not. Okay. You're not lying about cleaning. You're doing the cleaning. What I, okay, the best, the best I could do is give me an investigation, and this is you looking, like, looking at how an investigator would look at this.

It's like, okay, we got to hide the evidence. We got to, because that's how you entered. you kind of entered in like the wolf from, from Pulp Fiction. Like you're here to solve the problem. Can I assist? Because I'm trained. I'm asking you to do it. Oh, me. Okay. Yeah. Can I mean, can you assist? Are you trained? Investigation? I'm not, but I am definitely doing something to assist. To assist. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Oh. Oh. Oh, that was a 17 rolled over to a three. So that is seven. Oh, wait. I'm fortunate. And you get a D4. Okay. Yeah, I have fortunate, which means I can re-roll a skill check.

I only have three of those a day. So it's a, it's a trait I have, I think. Oh. And you get a D4. Yeah, we'll do. Oh, my God. Fuck me. Well, that's a 10. That is better. Camero, we shouldn't be doing this. We're the worst. We're the worst. I think you know. With a 10, you know, you're not doing the best job, right? Like, obviously, the river of blood has stopped. And like, it's, but like, you've smeared it. So, like, you know that it's like, it's like, okay, this is a problem that. needs to be solved at some point. But this is as good as we can get it with this bloody duster.

Let's put a bed over it. That is something you can do. I will say, if you do that, we have another situation where there's a bed facing another bed in a corner. But yes, we could do that. We thought that's how they like it here. All right. Well then. And nice here with the hell. giant strength will just move it one-handed. Just push it like a Kung Fu master. Oh, it like, it like hits, it like hits the wall and it and Logrin and Austin kind of hear it on the other side. They're just like, mm-hmm. What? Speaking of the other side. Yeah. Um, how is Logrin kind of wrapping up this conversation?

Because I imagine there were a lot of questions. And Rex is interested because, like, obviously, brute strength doesn't always do it. They just entered into a situation where it's like, okay, that was one guy. Obviously, there's magic involved in all that. But if we could not lose people, that would be great. And Austin's just kind of facilitating, kind of helping you out. So let's pretend you did the whole TED talk. Like, obviously, you told him to plan. But like, in summation, and all this is happening while the shenanigans next door. Yeah, he's doing a little bit of like, now repeat back to me what I just said, because he's, he's talked to miniatures before.

He wants to make sure he's got his attention for the entire thing and that he understands, like, what is being asked of him. So a little bit of that. And as long as it gets repeated back to him, more or less, the way he expects. to I don't want to say he does the same thing to Austin because Austin is the smarter of the two brothers or at least it seems that way the more patient of the two. But he just kind of looks at me like we're square. Everybody gets what we're supposed to be doing, right? It Austin's like, yeah, all right? That's, uh, so what's next?

Next. we wait for them to finish what they're doing. And then they'll just come tell us. So. I'm getting awfully tired to sit in that room. You didn't bring any booze. And it's like, no, actually, I didn't. Like, why didn't be? Like, I didn't know we'd be staying. Well, there's your problem. Who's room? We're in. We're in Brax's room. We're not in my room. I thought I've got to be. Yeah, we're in Brex's room. Yeah. Do you tell him that? He doesn't say he has booze, but he's kind of like thinking about whether or not he's going to go get some. Yeah, so he'll be, I'm going to roll for it because it's kind of like I don't want a game that like he's stalling.

Yeah. Right. But I also have no reason to. Right. But also like he brought up booze. He might be like, well, I got some. So I'm just going to roll. That's why I figured 40 minutes would be the cut off because it's a heavy conversation, but it shouldn't be. Oh, my God. That's a 23. That's a crit. I didn't decide. I didn't determine what a high roll meant, but he crit. So I guess I'm going to do the one I want to do. Yeah, sure. You just flip the coin. You didn't. Yeah, he's like, I can't tell you how many times I do that. But I don't flip a coin. I didn't determine.

Which side is which? What are the parameters? I just enjoy the motion to flipping the coin. Yeah, so there'll be a moment where he's like, well, I didn't bring booze, that's why. And then there's like a pregnant silence. He goes, all right, I'll get some booze. Just hang out. And he goes to go get a bottle and a couple of cups. Which. Austin appreciates and doesn't. Because it's like, oh, thank you for the booze. That's great. I'm about to have the most awkward small talk. Any two people have ever had. You know, I feel like there's, uh, Brax just had whoever dozer was to Brax.

You know, his counterpart was just smashed by this king. So this is probably a logaran, kind of, I'm not speaking for logarithm, but this is the kind of thing that Lager would be like, I guess we've been, we've had a hard day anyway. Let's just let's just, let's just, let's just, let's, let's, just get a little. It's a little bit like we just, all three of us, like we're in business together, basically, at least until the next step of this entire thing. Like with Austin, we are in business because you are now managing our junior scouts in Estherhole.

And with Brax, it's like we know we're now on the same team in this entire thing, at least until, you know, the next step. Yeah, we want the same thing in that we want new leadership. for the mountain. We're going to work out the details later. We know and we want that. And we also agree that Brax is not the one to make that decision, but he agrees to get me to them. So that's worth having a drink over. That'll seal the deal as far as logger's concerned. So he goes and gets a couple of glasses in a bottle. And he doesn't have his armor or his shield. So he's this full, speedy, 25 foot move speed.

He's over in the Jiffy. He's huffing, right, huffing and puffing down the hall. Excuse me. Can you guys move? God. I picture one of those mall power walkers where they're just like... It's a lot of upper body movement, but not real fast, lower body movement. Like, you know. So I rolled for this. It was a wisdom saving throw and rolled in 19. So 21. Austin did. I genuinely think that Austin would try to make Brex feel better. I mean, I don't know if that was your brother or not, but you guys were close, obviously. You travel together and, you know, he would try to make him feel better.

Like, I don't know what I do if I lost my brother. So I don't, you know, I genuinely think that that he just trying to make him feel better because he knows what it's like to travel with somebody to live with them and stuff. And then, you know, you get attached. And who knows how long Brax and Dozer had been together. but like minotores are pretty close. They're tight-knit. So, you know. So he would try to make him feel better about that until Logren got back. He comes back with a drink and they're like hugging and crying. Oh, man. Oh, man. So we've got, Logrin gets to the other end of that hallway.

Normally, that would be several rounds of combat. But we, you know, you're super speedy. You just for it, basically. Yeah. Turns out when he's not armored, he skips. I don't know if he'll be. It's like when Goku takes the weights off. He's just like, boom. Boom. All of a sudden, he keeps running into walls because he doesn't realize he's going as fast as he is. Usually he's got to take those corners like tighter. Like it's fine. He keeps clicking the corners. So you get back to your room and you kind of smell that like it's like oh someone took a bath like it smells kind of fragrant and stuff.

No one's in this fucking room though. Like no one's here. Yeah. Which is odd because you definitely people were like at some, you know, person was. Well, listen, uh, Nithera sometimes just does things. So he walks in the room. Sure. He goes, Nathira. We're getting a drink. That there. All right. And he goes. Like she could be hiding in here. Right. From the ceiling. I'm not in the mood. Don't spook me. You check the corners. Lights go out. It's like, no. I think it's at this time when Logrin comes back with drinks at Kimer and Nithira are trying to make their way out of the room.

So the one door closes and other opens. So let's do this. Okay. I want Jameson and Chimera to have a roll off. If Jameson beats Chimera, then he's going to run into you exactly as you're walking through the door. And if Chimera beats Jameson, then they're just going to miss each other's sitcom style. We're going to Scooby-Doo this shit. Can... I just... Not to interrupt that, but just right before we get ready to go, Nitha, Wood, while she's invisible, put her hand gently on chimed her shoulder and be like, we are going to take care of this. Oh, I know. We have to.

It will be okay. It'll be something. And then give them like a little squeeze, and then give them like a little squeeze, and then, You hear body hefty noises. You don't see it. Cogoth would be in your ear. It's like, fuck. Would you like me to help your friend? She's so interested in your well-being. If you signed her up, I'm sure. That we could give her some abilities that would aid her. Think of what she could do. Chimer doesn't say anything out loud, but he thinks in his mind and like, sort of just like, shakes his head around a little bit and thinks in his head like, fuck off.

He, okay, so I want you to know the entire time this is going, he is talking to you. Yeah, I figured. And it's like so loud in his head. It's like the only thing. can hear. It's literally he would be like, Are you still mad about that cowboy? We're square now. You don't have to worry any more as long as you fulfill your end of the bargain. I promise I'll never do it again. Just like echoing in his mind, echo, echo, echo. God. Hey folks, Jasper here. Sorry to interrupt. Listen, Cole goth makes a lot of promises with mixed results. But there's a special friend of yours that isn't terrible and toxic.

That's right. It's this podcast, Dungeons and Randomness. Consider joining our community on our Discord server. And if you're feeling frisky, how about the DNR at patreon.com. slash D-A-N-D-R? There you'll get behind the scenes, looks, bonus games, Patreon groups with Jason and Brie at higher tiers. And who knows, maybe even your very own toxic warlock patron. Your mileage and spell slots may vary. Links to our Discord and Patreon in the show description. Just a couple of quick words from our sponsors, then back to the show. Okay. Because I think it's funny, both of you roll a D12.

There's no way. I'm going to go. Uh. Yep. Of course. I'm going up against the master of D12. How is I ever going to be. Jameson rolled in eight and and he enrolled a five. If you don't know why that's funny, listen to the behind the scenes. Like, Jameson's weirdly obsessed this year with D12s and it's just Yeah. It started with stats and now I think it's a five. about something way deeper. I don't know. Listen, if I don't look any deeper into it, you've got to promise not to read it. Okay. I'm definitely not qualified. So, all right. As you're moving down the hall, you have this booze, you have glasses, and you're moving past these guards.

At this point, they're like, yeah, I, okay, like, are you guys having a party or something? But like, glasses and booze doesn't scream. There's a problem, right? So it's like, all right, fine. You're still confined to your rooms. I don't care. All of you have a board game night. I do not. It's fine. But just as you're doing that, the middle room's door is going to open. And chimera is going to start to come out. And the way he opens the door, he has to. So okay. You have to open the door. The door swings inward. Step out and leave enough room for Nythira carrying a body over her shoulder.

How strong is your tail? Maybe you just leave it open for your tail. Leave the door open for my tail. Yeah. Maybe that's just a normal thing, you know? You have to keep it open. but a little bit longer for your tail. Oh. It is pre-pensile. I could close the door with my tail. Yeah. No, I here comes out and and just kind of like opens the door and steps out and just kind of like does a little brush off. Just to look. Give him some in theater, we would call it a little bit of business. So Longer is standing right there. there. Like, as you open the door and walk out, like, it's just like, poop, you intersect.

And Logren's moving so fucking fast. Like, you've never seen him move this fast. Almost as fast as a normal person. So. He's like bopping down the hole. Yeah. He's getting in. Yeah. He's skipping. Yeah. I rolled an inside and got an eight. So Logrin thinks everything's fine. And he goes, hey, if you guys are, uh, Things are good. Happen that are pretty positive. So if you want, we're going to have a drink in the next room over. Yeah, looks like it. Looks like things are going well. Just going to go meet up with Ruby real quick. I'm getting a little stir crazy. I might join you later.

All right, yeah, we're just in the only other room that isn't this one or that one. Camer is going to look Lagrin right in the eye. And he, I feel like. there is some kind of signals that we have given each other in the time that we've known. And he gives him one that like, it's not good. And maybe it's just like a one of these, like, drawing the hand across the, across the neck. Like, no. Stop with the good news thing. Yeah. It's not good. But just real subtle, you know, just in like, chimera's smiling. And it's all good. and he's just kind of like does that little like no it's our bad okay so he'll take a beat and he kind of he makes it a point not to look anywhere other than at chimera but then he goes okay uh well if you're not up for it maybe you are and he'll look at the guards be like we're getting drinks in the room over if you guys want to get a drink i don't know if you you guys drink.

I assume you do. And obviously they're not allowed to drink. But so the guard standing closest to the door is just kind of like, like, just kind of uncomfortable. It's fucking freezing all the sudden. But like, you know, they got a, that's why? That's just weird. More than anything. Okay. But you guys can't drink. Um, and they, like, it's a serious offer now. It was like, well, we're on duty. We won't tell. Yeah. It was not gonna tell on you. I need a persuasion check. All right. Can I assist? You know what? Yes. I assume you're trained in persuasion. Yes, I am. Yes.

Can I get a bonus because I'm offering dwarves a drink? That's just a stereotype. And that is, you know. Can I suppose by whispering in their ears? It's not even creepy cold lady voice is like it's fun, you know? All right, I'll just do it with the, um, I think death is following me. I mean, it's not wrong. I mean, yeah. All right. 19. What the fuck? You rolled a 9 and got a 19. That is a lot of heavy lifting for the modifier. And so. Ah, boy. So you're not going to clear out the entire hallway full of guards, right? But the one standing next to the middle room here where you are is going to kind of look.

Just kind of like look down the hallway. I'm just for a moment, I suppose. You don't have to hang out. I'm just offering you to drink. Like, come get a drink and then go back to work. I do it all the time. Watch. Okay. There's, there are thoughts that the dirk are have about a common do. And I think the first thought is like, yeah, of course you drink on the job. I wouldn't expect anything less. Like it's, you know, there's a bit of a, it's like, wow, you, you know. But he's going to, he's going to show up that aside. It's like, you know what, it's being nice.

He's offering me, you know, his last name in Stone Sunder, it's fine, like, fine. And he'll, he'll follow you and he'll go back. So, Logren and Guard. are going to rejoin Brax and Austin in room number three, while room number two is being vacated by chimera, Invisible Nithera, and Dead Jesse. Now, okay. You are now leaving the hallway, walking past room one and just going out into the hallway, trying to find Ruby. Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah. Well, well, we're not trying to find Ruby. What we're trying to find are the deposits of the furnaces, the lava, the place to dispose of this corpse.

But we know that Ruby has gone to take a tour of these things. and it's likely what with the time frame that we might run into her. But yeah, we're not specifically looking for Ruby. We're looking for a place to discard this body. Who boy. Okay. Well, and make it disappear it. Like disappear it. Like find the pig trough, you know? Like that's what we're looking for. Oh, man. So if this were just to just to. a regular, like, okay, if this were stone sundar, man, it would be so easy to just dump this body over like an unguarded like ravine into lava. But because this place is set up like a factory and it meets all safety standards, there are railings and there are ways to, so we're going to have to find a way to jam this into God damn.

God damn, Dergare OSHA. Because someone brought up, it's like, well, Well, one of us could fall in, then that would be bad. So like they, they, it's like, so you're going to have to jam this guy into a machine. What's with this woke thinking? What's with this? So woke, this woke safe, ethical workplace behavior. What's going on? Man, back in my day, you could be missing some fingers and men were men, you know? I just, I just, I. I just want to put my face in some lava. Is that too much to ask for? I yearn for the times where the orphans yearned for the mines.

You know what I mean? Yes. That's a T-shirt. Let's get on that. I would buy that right now. It's not a D-shirt. It's not the name of this episode either. So don't even do that on the list. You don't need to do anything anymore. You're so bad. No. No. Anyway, let's disappear this dead body. All right. So let's, okay, so Lovern comes back in with drinks and guard number three is there. And, you know, has a drink, he gets back to work and you guys just hang out. And all right. Oh, boy. You guys are going to walk for like 10 minutes, and you're going to get back out to what would be the main forge floor, right?

So you have all these, you know, gigantic machines that crank out six and eight foot long ingots. And obviously, the ones that burn the ones that burn. the hottest are the ones refining anima type. So do you want to head there kind of rounding the corners to the end and just try to I guess shove one in the machine? Like I guess like, yeah, I think so. I think so. Yeah. And to everyone, to an outside observer, it looks like, is alone by himself. And so and he's like guiding Nythera through whatever needs to be guided through, you know, probably walking in front of her.

And yeah, he's just going to come up sort of like he had before with the exhaust that was coming off the stuff. But he's not going to go in for that right now. He's returning to sort of like, yeah. Now's nothing. You know, as fun as it would be. But yeah, he's sort of leaning into a deception of looking interested, looking like what, trying to take it all in, what is going on, and getting us close to the hot parts of this machine, yeah, where it can be burned away. The hotter the better, it needs to happen fast. Mm-hmm. Could you give me a deception check please?

Yes. Do do? Role deception. Oh, that's a crit. That's a crit, maybe. Wow. That's a 33. Do you want to roll on that little crit table? Yes. You're a good liar. Do you know that? Almost as good as Loggeron's EC. Almost. Almost is good. Almost is good. Okay, interesting. We got on the crit table, and this one is called Codebreaker. You are not only a master of creating a cipher, but also cracking them. You gain an expertise die on checks made to decipher any coded language for the next hour. So I don't know what that means for you, but off the top of my head, that could maybe mean that I get a little understanding of these machines. of what's going on.

I would say like, okay, if they have guardrails and everything like that, everything's probably labeled, right? Like there's probably like, hey, do not vent. Don't get your face near this. Don't, you know, that type of thing. And it would be, you know, it would be an undercomen or some, you know, whatever language that, you know, so you, you would like, you would recognize certain words. It's like, don't stop, you know, caution, like that type of thing. And you're like, uh-huh. And you're just following those. to the hot parts. The more caution, the hotter, like you figure, right?

So the way this machine works is it is being filled with ore, and that ore is being ground, and then there is a separation thing trying to get the stone out as much as possible. And then it is just being superheated to the point where the stone, It's stills away, but the adamantite is left. And then that is refined into the big ingots. And it's, it's this pure thing. So there is, there's an opening large enough. You would basically have to dump him in with the ore. Right. Okay. Yeah. And from there, he'd be ground up and then. Yeah. It is not. It is not. It is not. dignified way to go.

It is a... It's so fucked up because... Lots of reasons. Austin... There's a lot of reasons. There's a lot of reasons. But like, Austin is going to have no closure for this. Like, this is so fucked up. Oh, yeah. Not only did his brother die in just a horrible way. His body is an even like, it's like then. Then there's a then. You know what I mean? Like it's fucking rough. So yeah. And he'll never know. If everything goes right, he will never find out. And that sucks. That is the perfect. Yeah. That is the perfect version of this, which is still the worst. So and right about this time, I think Ruby is going to, uh, you know, finish her tour and just kind of see you poking around.

And I probably assume that you're looking to score. You're looking to get high. And it's like, you know, but you're on the wrong end to the machine. You're on the cool end here with the oar. Yeah. Yeah. Don't put your face in that one. Ruby. I go to run into you here. Uh, they let you wander around the halls like that. Yeah, just me. And I'm going to run into you here. Uh, they let you wander around the halls like that. Yeah. Just going to give Ruby a signal that we have that is just night. It's one that we do a lot. Nythera is around. Like, it's just something that we do.

And it's, and it's, you know, and it means a lot of things. My fear is like doing her thing in the shadows. Nifer is like scouting out. Nifer is around. We can't do this cool thing that we want to do. do like it has a lot of uses, but it's just like a simple gesture that my fear is around. Okay. Perfect. Oh. Oh. Um. Well, do you need any help? Um. Finding your way around. She's leading you into, you know, basically what you need. You suddenly feel cold. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a. It's like. Man, this is the cold end. Holy shit. Like in a place like this where the like, okay, even the cold end, the average temperature still around 105.

Good God. Because, oh, I used to work in a glass plant. Like it is horrendous. Jesus. Anyway. So yeah, no, it's stifling. It is hard to breathe on the hot end. And there is a guard leading Ruby around. So like, not like shadowing and stuff like at by this point, they know it's like, hey, you're really interested in the machines. You like gadgets. You like stuff. It's like, cool. I'm really glad like this, you know, we don't get to brag about our technology very much. We don't get outsiders. We don't get. So this is nice. So this guard is here basically as well.

Right? Not I'd say like 20, 30 feet away behind you. Yeah. Just waiting for you to get on. Shadowing a little bit. She'll kind of just want to just work. wave over at him and say, well, so, uh, what do you need right now? Well, really, I was just interested in how all of this works. There's a, you know, and maybe you could, you're always really good at helping someone who, a layman, understand these kind of things. Maybe you could tell me how it kind of all. flows in the language I understand. Yeah, absolutely. So, well, what happens? And she'll make a little bit of a show of it.

Genuinely, if there's some signals here. I think chimera is like, because if we've come to this area where there's a space to throw this thing off, that's great. You know, unless there's, unless he needs to like open a door or undo a chain or anything, anything like that. And I think it would say take care of it. Yeah. There's probably so the way I picture this, I have too much experience in factories. But like if they're really worried about safety and stuff like that, there isn't just a giant conveyor belt leading into a gaping mall that grinds things, right?

So there'd be some kind of latch. Well, not in good ones. Not in good factories. I don't know. You know what? I haven't worked in a factory in a while. Conditions may have changed. We should have gotten lax. But you're not supposed to. So there's probably a hatch or something that you have to open, but no one will hear it. But the guard might, you might have to position yourself in such a way that like, you can lift this up and just kind of cram the body in so that it rolls over and lands in the pile of rubble, essentially, and then just kind of gets mixed in and just kind of cram the body in so that it rolls over and lands in the pile of rubble, essentially carried away.

So if chimera is kind of leading Ruby to that being something that needs to happen, you know, sort of subtext, she'd make a little bit of a show of it. She'd wave to the guard and she'd just kind of point at chimera with her thumb, you know, like like my friend, you know, and then she would, you know, kind of hold up and then she'll she'll make big gestures of showing you how that big thing up there connects to that big thing over there. And then this is where it comes into. And then she would pick up that hatch and she would open it up. And then she would point into it and be like, and that's where you put things for them to be able to.

And then quickly while that's happening. Yeah. Yeah. So. So you, okay, you can't see. this. But that duster wrapped around, Jesse is just going to tumble in. And it's going to kind of like lay awkwardly on this, this rock. And yeah, and as more gets dumped in, it's just, you know, bones are going to break. You'll, you'll probably hear something, right? But like, it'll be faint. And then it'll be faint. And then it's just, you know, bones are going to break. You'll, you'll, you'll probably It'll just be carried further into the machine where it'll be pulverized and then incinerated.

So, yeah, there will be no evidence of a body. So Ruby will finish up her, you know, she'll keep talking as long as you need her to. She'll, she'll string it out until you were to give her a, you know, well, that's good. That's good enough. Or you might feel. Hand. Thank you. I understand. Yeah, we each feel like a cold. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, she'll stop. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. I get it now. It's actually quite fascinating. It actually is. She's a issue. No, but it really is actually fascinating. I don't know what I just was accomplice to. But like, it is really fast.

But it actually is. I've learned an actual lot of this. Um, Do we need to stay away from the rooms or do we need to go back to the rooms? She's asking generally. We should go back. Yeah, I think we could go back, rest. I mean, if you're done here, you know, LaGrin was having some drinks and... Oh, let's go. Yeah. She'll wave over to the guard like, like we're done here. So, you know, which way? Which way, I guess? Assuming that the guard needs to sort of drop everybody back off at these these rooms. Does kind of need to make sure you get to where you go. Yeah.

It's a formality, but like, yeah, no, no. She'll have no problem with it. She's expecting it, but she's just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're done here. We can go back. We can go back. And as you're walking back, I must say, I've never met anybody so interested in our machinery. It's so good. Like, it's so perfect. Everything you've done, is like the most perfect machine and then you've gone like one level more. It's like you've really thought it through. It's just it's fat. It's such a pleasure. She's like she's genuinely like really excited about it. Could you do me a favor?

Could you give me a persuasion check? Sure. And to be clear, she meant it. With advantage. Yeah, I was going to say she she's not even trying to get away with anything. Yeah. Do do to do. Persuasion check with it. By your page. Oof. Not very good. It's an eight. But again, she was being genuine, but nothing. Yeah. But like just, just kind of, you know, it's very nice of you to say, thank you. And he's just going to, like, there's a little telltale games like he'll remember that. Like, thank you. I appreciate that. That was very nice. My compliments to the foreman, she'll say.

Well, fuck. There's a couple of things we got to do, guys, because this has gone very perfect so far, but now we need to involve dice. All right, here's what we're going to do. Susan, you're not having the best run of luck, but I think it's going to break. I think we're going to. I need you to have a roll off with me. And we're both going to roll a D20. And if I beat you, Austin's going to call it a night and head back to his room. If you beat me, you were going to get back there before him. Okay. Are you ready? No pressure. That's a six. That's one. Ha! Ha! God, I'm so sorry.

We got to get up to stab it again. Yeah, we forgot. We're in a town. Should I be fortunate on this? You can. You've got three a day. That's not a skill role. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Never mind. This was just luck. I'm really sorry. I thought I would thought that was a time. A technical ability or saving through. So, back. Oh. Oh, so with. It's not even for skills. Yeah. My best. That's okay. That's okay. Now we know. It's all good. Is a skill? Is a skill of ability? Oh, ability check would be like saving throw or ability check. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of your ability scores. So here's the thing.

Logrin has no idea that this is happening. Ruby has There's no idea that this is happening. No, something is up. And it's just so Austin, after a couple of drinks, it's like, all right, I'm, I'm going to head back. Just try to get some sleep. Hopefully, we can just get the hell out of here soon. You tell your friends I said, A. Yeah, leave a glass though. There's going to be, it's like, not trying to steal your glass, like, I'm not trying to steal your glass, like to. I'm going to finish it. I'm gonna drink it. Just kind of give you a little head nods like, thanks for the drink.

Head nod back. And he'll head back to his room. Ian. I would like to do something as we head back. Um, Camira is going to take his dagger and, uh, He's going to just really clandestinely cut his palm. And squeeze it and maybe like take out a bandage or something. Piece of cloth and they just wrap his hand with it. Sneaky fuck. You know what I was going to do next. This body's going to drip, right? I need to see. So, okay. You know what? Let's rope. Let's, let's rope Jameson in. On a scale of one to ten, how much is this body dripping? How noticeable? Anything above a five.

And someone is going to go, what the fuck? Like, it's noticeable amounts, right? I could have a old one that's for low. Can it be a scale of one to 12? You know what? It can. Yes. Six or higher is a lot. I don't think you altered the... You're right. You're right. That's a two. All right. Damn it. Why'd I? Why'd I? You'd fight the devil on his turf. Like, you gotta fight. Okay. It's a D10 next time. I won't let you seduce me into a D12. It'll be a D12. That's a two. So, yeah. So little drips and drabs. but nothing big. Is that why you cut your palm? That's part of the reason I cut my palm.

Can you elaborate with the rest? Or is this a... If it comes up... Okay. Fair enough. But as you cut your palm, Cole Goth would... Mm-hmm. Just do with that, which you will. I don't know. Everybody out there driving their cars. I'm sorry. Damn it. Wouldn't it be the worst if that were my sexy voice? Like it's like, you know what I mean? Like that's my legit. That's sexy voice. I really thought that's what this was the whole time. It is for me. Is this the best I can do? I mean, I do think you could do worse. Yeah. You could do worse. I plan on it. This is. It's going to be. somewhere.

I dare you to. Different podcast. Roll it. No, wait. Hold on. Hold on. Well. Oh, boy. Oh, fuck. Wasn't there a con save I had to do to at some point? There is. Yeah. Do you want to roll that now? I was going to wait until after the potion wears off. But I figure we've eaten up a good 20, 20 minutes of it somewhere in there. Well, if it's 10 minutes, they're 10 minutes back, that's 20. And then let's say five messing around this. 25 minutes. Let's say. Are you heading back? Who's room are you heading back to? Our room. Ruby would assume our room because she would have no reason to go anywhere else.

So she would at least head that way. Okay. So. Kimer, Nythera, Ruby. Go back to room number one, your room. And you cross the threshold. And you can feel that cold chill. And you're just, it's like, I'm, it wouldn't take much. It's like, I'm going to guess that's, you know, my theory. I'm going to guess for some reason. So you get back into the room. What is? Like, go. Like, what happens? This been the most stressful bottle episode ever, right? Yeah. Yeah. So Rudy would... I don't think it's over. No, no. As soon as the door closes, she'll say, you're right behind me, aren't you?

In front of you, actually. God damn it. Come here. is just going to go over to a chair and just like collapse in it and just sit down. Like, it's not, he doesn't feel like it's over, but he's had cold death in his head this whole time. And he's been 11 inside. Outside, perfectly normal. 11 on the inside. And you can tell that because he just collapses into a chair. First of all, before we get anything else, where's Lagrin? Like she's genuinely worried. Logren's okay. He's with the other two. I assume in Brax's room. She'll sort of glance, kind of piecing it together.

Okay. Or he's down the hall. All right. Well, what the hell? Both of you. Somebody speak up. If you don't want to tell me, if it's something I shouldn't know, Just tell me it's something I shouldn't know and I'll just leave it. No, it's not that, Ruby. I don't know where to start. I needed to... I was given an ultimatum. I had to take a life within 48 hours. She's already starting to roll eyes and sigh, not even mockingly, but just like, Oh, hell. Kind of... God damn it. Well, it gets so much worse. Of course. Because I accomplished that. And things were going great.

Just a few minutes ago, I was talking with Jesse, and I signed him up. And... And... I thought that made a square. I thought that got me on an even keel. But Colgoth was not satisfied. And he killed him. He slashed his throat with my hand. That has never happened. So Ruby will She'll She'll walk over to wherever you are on the on the chair And she'll crouch down She'll grab your hands And just try to soothe a little bit And again, as we've established, this is the kind of thing that This is their relationship. And you will feel. a hand on your shoulder as well.

She wants it to be warm, but she can't help. It's fine. Whatever. The difference in temperature means that she knows you're there. So this is all very, very good. And she's being really genuine about it. Be real honest with you. Sounds like Jesse dodged a bullet. And then she's going to lean She's going to lean forward and over Like she's talking to your shoulder And she's just going to say Fuck you And then she's going to stand up And then she's going to stand up And then she's fuming a little bit It It put everything that we're doing in jeopardy. it could have been a disaster of...

I still have to tell Austin. He's going to ask questions. Ruby is going to turn and reach out her hand just sort of like, where the hell are you? She's right next to a chimera shoulder. There's still hand on shoulder. So... She'll reach out. I'll grab your hand too. Okay. She's looking for you, basically. How is it? Is it okay? Is it done? We didn't sweep the room as well as I like. But there will be no body found. And she's asking night there because she wants the, you know, she doesn't want the chimera's unpanicking answer. She wants to know, is it actually okay or is it not okay?

Okay. She's just going to, she's going to pace back and forth for a minute. Does Longer know? He knows something's up. But he doesn't know the extent and he doesn't know. That one of the quick bolt is gone. He's got to know. I know. I know. And I'll tell. him. She's just piecing it together. She's not, you know, she's not suggesting otherwise, but she's just like, okay, well, got a tail Lagerin. Sounds like it's not great. I mean, maybe this doesn't change anything. Maybe it's just... This changes our deal. Who's deal? Mine and him. He doesn't do this. He doesn't take control.

That's not his thing. Free will, that's like our whole thing. Choice matters. To take someone over, that changes everything. This is getting worse all the time. There's a wise man I know who moves real slow wears stone armor. He always tells me that any contract is negotiable. Sounds like somebody's not holding up there into the bargain. Just put that in your pocket. I don't know if that's enough. I'm afraid that's not enough. Well, whatever happens next, you're not in it alone. We'll figure this out together. Whatever steps you want to take, we will back you up.

Whatever happens next, Austin cannot find out about this. I will spin whatever tail that I have to. Until... Until... Until what we came here to do is done. Okay And Camira I think you need to hear this from someone else You may already understand it But it wasn't you You didn't do this She's going to lean back down and grab your hands It wasn't It was him Camira like he relaxes a little bit and he says if there's anything I know it's that it's that and that and that you have my back and I think he hates that. And I think he hates that. Kogoth would be speaking.

Like, right about the, you know, fuck you, like that type of thing. Like, just kind of like, you know. It was you. Your choice has brought us here. You may not have moved your body, but your mind. Your sick mind brought us here. After what chimeras says out loud, and I'm going to take a page from Ruby's book. Fuck you, Colgoth. Logger and kicks the door in. I got great news. His face is a little red. He's been drinking. This has been so productive. I can't believe. It's gone as well. You're looking happy and fast. That's crazy, right? I was crazy, right? I almost sit there like I should put the armor back on.

He'll close the door and he's going to walk into the room and he's going to start pouring drinks for everybody. I mean, Ruby will take one and then hand it to Cimera. Yeah. Camero will take one and If he pours another one. He doesn't even stop. The glass just floats in the air and he goes. Exactly. All right. And he doesn't, like, it's not going to be some great explanation. Like, he's just going to hold the glass out for a toast. Yeah. Camira toasts. And, oh, yeah, go ahead. I was just going to say when they touched. night of your glasses get frosted. Oh, nice.

Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably a welcome relief in the, it's like getting a little ice cube in a whiskey or something. It's a very expensive way to do that. That potion retails for five grand. But like, it's more than paying for itself, honestly. It was worth it. So what I'm hearing is we better keep doing that until the potion works out. Yeah. Yeah. Camira like toast downs the glass. hold it out for another one. And he says, I'm glad you're in good spirits. I have good news and I have bad news. Which do you want to hear first? He'll turn around and make sure that the door is closed because there are guards outside.

There will be a knock at the door. Just like a quick knock. All right, hold that thought. Hang on. He skips over to the door. door. So jaunty. You always up. Austin will be any other side of it. Hey, Jesse's not in there, is he? Uh, no, just, uh, just us. And he's just gonna, like, huh. I made me win on that tour. It doesn't matter. Yeah, I'll just wait up for him. Yeah, you guys have fun. So I had him roll a perception check and he crit one. Oh my job. He's going to go back to the room and kick back on the bed on top of the box spot. Oh, no. And wait for Jesse to come back.

He's been drinking. Why did the bed get moved? He's been drinking. His perception is so low that like, it's like, ah, maybe it was always there. What a weird configuration for that's me. Like the room, this room is not good, but it's all right. He just saw our room too. It's like, oh, there's even more weird. He just shivers when he looks inside. He's just like, ugh. Our room. What's the opposite of feng shui? Who sleeps in that center bed? There are all the beds in a ring around a smaller bed. I don't know, no, no, that way. It's part of it. You have to have. You will not, you will never have a better night's sleep.

Trust me. So Logger closes the door, he turns around and he'll kind of be thoughtful as he walks back over to the group. He'll be that. Did he have anything to do with the good news or the bad news? Both. All right. He sits down. Might as well sit for this. Good for us to bed Let's hear the bad Ruby pours a little bit more in his cup Yeah In the midst of this, cold call that would be like Yes, let's get another drink in you Oh no, this was for Lager and for sure But Camira does oblige. Another round. Yeah, Camira holds out his cup to have it filled. If you need any details filled in for the parts that you weren't there for, I'd be more than happy to describe them for you.

Just know that that's happening the entire time you're speaking. Yeah, no, I know. On the edge of madness. Like, it is. Oh. Suddenly, chimera's volume just gets a little louder when he's speaking. Which he brings down right away because he says, Jesse is dead. That's the bad news. The good news is it's taken care of for now. and that will remain until we're done here. Also, that little problem you and I talked about, that's taken care of, too. Well, okay. Not the best news I've had today, but also not the worst. We did commit regicide like a few hours ago. It's been a bit.

It's been at least a day. Yesterday. We did it yesterday. And by yesterday, it was a self-defense. It was self-defense. It was self-defense. Reggie defense, really. Defense of regicide. He's just kind of like, glances down at his glass and a couple pieces of this are falling into place. Like, oh, that's why I net there is invisible. The cold doesn't make sense, but I'm sure. It's something I do now. She's just cold now, yeah. So like little pieces of it are starting to add out and say, okay. So that leaves one loose end, and he tilts his head towards the room where Austin is.

A couple ways we could do that. I have my preferences. He did just agree to basically take in the kids. Not babysit. He was very clear about that. But, you know, teach, guide. So I'm sure there's a way. Where he's still with us. Well... We should probably figure that out. It seemed like Jesse was real squirrely. And he wanted to leave. Maybe he did. Maybe he found his way back outside on the mountain, trying to get to get back to Esther Holt, maybe that's where he's waiting for Austin right now. Who's to say? He did bring up a secret entrance that he knew about into this place.

I did get the guard at their door to come have a drink with us, too, so there's a window where nobody was watching. Yeah, that was a good move. Really good move. You know, in spite of it all, I think we... We've worked around this pretty well. Toastable, even. He'll raise his glass again. Oh, we're not through it yet. No. This or the other thing. But... We're going to be all right. What about this whole... I mean, this is an us thing, but what about their thing? She's pointing at the door. I mean, we don't even know who's ruling this place now, and... Racks over there killed their king.

They're sitting small stuff. This doesn't look good for us. It doesn't look good at all. That part's out of our hands right now. if we do get out of here I have Brax's word that we'll be able to get in with the people in charge of their little coup That's something But he did come here to talk to the king And if the king isn't here, then there must be somebody else to talk to. Yeah, we still haven't heard anything about that. Who's next in line? Oh, that's, they, what was it? They, uh, they vote. Right. Right. They're more democratic. Right. Yes. I wonder how that's going.

It's a terrible idea. People are stupid. Just then two guards with red hats walk in. And, uh, no, I'm joking. I'm joking. No, no. No. Guys, I think that's a good time for us to stop for the evening. How are we feeling? That's tense. Yeah. Drained. Spent. Yeah. It's just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Yeah. Weirdly, all the pieces started to work. though. The emotional baggage is probably going to stick with us for a while. Every time Austin goes, I really love my brother. We grew up together and we spent all our childhood together. Just lash out. Would you stop talking about your brother?

Like that? She was a bastard. Yeah, maybe he didn't even really like him. That's what I keep thinking. And maybe he's like, thank God. Finally, this is a great fan fiction to make this albatross. This albatross around my neck is gone. I'm looking for my brother because I was hoping to kill him while we were here. That would be perfect. Turns out they weren't even really brothers. Exactly. I don't know why.