Previously on ups. All Bards, with most of the competent mages and fighters
of Udvada trapped under an energy dome at maj And Marshall's Memorial Stadium. Triarchisilodora,
Acting Secretary of War Gideon storm Caller, a handful of Major and Marshall
faculty, and five new graduates, All Bards head to Sovereignhouse to determine how
best to handle the reappearance of the former autocrat Phineas Malvaux, long presumed dead.
The Bards have with them a hostage of sorts, a young sator who
was left behind by the other Malvaux supporters pooched in rucus. One of the
Bards shows some kindness to the satyr, who reveals that he was fighting for
Malvaux under duress and agrees to help the Bards and the Republic in exchange for
assurances of safety. Meanwhile, a legislative staffer, Clarva Dasham reveals Tokelonian Stumps
and Andrek Harrowhold that the letter that was affixed to the front doors of Sovereign
House with a dagger was a missive from Lucinda o'coor, former head of Propaganda
under Malvaux, further outlining the demands from the Malvo camp. Clarice Sauercloud and
Velsernamil, who first became childhood friends wandering the halls of Sovereign House, decide
to gather intel of their own, with Clarice spying on the administrators and leaders
as they try to strategize and eventually offering her own services as a strategist.
And with nobody else left to assist, the adults reluctantly agree to bring the
Bards into their planning. But what good are the bardic arts in such a
time of crisis that remains to be determined. You wanted monsters all slain by
their betters, but you ain't seen nothing like arts and letters. Look who
has answered the cry of distress? Oops it saw Barns. Oh what a
mess. You think we're a joke, But in truth we're all in.
We fight like we learned in in books, because we did. We all
survived college with charisma. Impressive. Oops, it's all Bards, and yes
it's excessive. If you're still confused, we'll explain to you. Thus there's
nobody left, so that's why they call us. We'll fight or we'll otherwise
roll for successes. Oops, it's all birds. We hope that addresses all
that you have to know to enjoy listening to our All Bard party sent off
on a mission. Hell it go, Well, we're sure you can guess.
Oops it's all bars. Oh Andra Carrobold, You're a Bella Tsunamio,
Flat Colonial Stumps, Saluver College, Clari sour Cloud Palmage, Ruckus, Doc
Goners. Welcome back to Oops All Bard's, the actual play D and D
podcast that does what it says on the box. I'm your hosting game master,
Jillian Ashley Blair Ivy. But if you see me on the street and
call me anything other than Jill, I'm almost certainly going to assume you're talking
to somebody else with me. Are our bards? Bards, please introduce yourselves.
Chris Gwineke He him his pronounce and I play Ruckus the Aspiring best Boy
and Coleman she Her and I play Clarie's who just is over It? Ashley
Banks Her, I play bell Sirnamol Ross Cary, He him and I play
Andrew Harrow hold Bob Killian, He him and I play Keylonian Stumps Great and
also with us at the table is our producer, Nate Runkle, who is
going to be the person you hear throughout this entire podcast without actually hearing him
at all, except for some of our behind the scenespisodes. So a lot
happened in our last episode. We started with the Bards and some of the
university officials and visiting dignitaries who had just finished their combat against the supporters of
the long presumed dead former autocrat Phineas Malva, who is apparently alive and well.
Most of malvo supporters who you fought have fled, except for a Robe
Sater who fell victim to a sleep spell cast by one of his own compatriots.
You do know that there are other conspirators in the area because the giant
energy dome that engulfs most of the Memorial Stadium is still there, and Clarice,
you detected that it was being cast by multiple unseen mages all at once.
You Bards all follow the officials and the dignitaries back to Sovereign House,
which is the building that houses the legislative body not far from campus, and
on your way, Clarice, you make an unseen detour to Enchanted Grounds,
which is the coffee shop where you work, and you write a couple of
important letters. You catch up to the group shortly after they arrive at Sovereign
House, and you slam right into this Elodora, one of udvad'st trum b
archs, and there's a little bit of hostility in your subsequent conversation. The
group is then escorted to a room off of the legislative chambers, kind of
an anti chamber deal, and you're told to wait. But Clarie and Bell
you had some other ideas, Belle. You help Clarice in the building's ventilation
system, and then you set off, at least you said to find a
bathroom. And then you leave Rucus and Andrik and Keilonian with the satyr who
you brought with you from the stadium. A legislative aide named Clarva Dasham knocks
on the door looking for Clares and Bell. They know Clarison Bell because of
their parents' affiliation with the government. Eventually, Clarva shares with Arak and Klonian
the contents of the letter that was affixed to the front door of Sovereign House
with a dagger. The letters from Lucinda o'cour who is the former Minister of
Propaganda under Malvaux, and it outlines Malvo's stumans. Meanwhile, the sator is
at first unwilling to cooperate until Rucus you show him a small kindness by helping
him use the bathroom, and then you notice that there are some bruises on
his legs indicate he's probably been treated unkindly by his compatriots, and you offer
him a little bit of healing move by your gesture. The sator tells you
that his name is GoF Dromiore, and he's working with Malvo supporters against his
will after they abducted his parents, and he will help how he can.
Belle you successfully found the bathroom, and you're now mingling with some of the
confused and upset legislative aids and the other staffers at Sovereign House, and you're
trying to get what information you can clarice you infiltrated the legislative chambers, spying
on the administrators and politicians that you arrived with, and eventually you sort of
insert yourself into the narrative. Philamina Blunderstool, who's the university president, tells
Thistle that the students in the other room are actually pretty powerful and she should
probably consider enlisting their help, so she agrees with Clarice kind of especially considering
that there really isn't anyone else available right now because so many people are trapped
under the dome. Filamina then opens the door to the room were Ruckus Andrek
and Keilonian are, along with Clarva and Golf and realizes that Belle is not
there, So let's let's catch up with Bell because we haven't for a while.
So Bell, when we last saw you, you had successfully go onto
the bathroom, and yes, we decided that we weren't going to make your
role for that and good choice, yeah, I thought, I thought,
so, we didn't really like there's a lot of bathroom in the last episode.
We didn't need more. But softer after that, you kind of emerge
into this crowd that you previously walk through, which is a bunch of very
anxious looking legislative aids, some other staffers from Sovereign House, a couple of
security guards, some other folks who were just really kind of looking lost,
and there's some some murmurs, some gossip, but nobody really seems to know
what to do next. And you'd also shared with us that you recognized it
some of those people, or maybe that some of them recognized you because you
come from a powerful family and you probably or your family at least probably helped
to get some of them to where they are today. So what would you
like to do at this point? So I think first thing that Bella is
going to do is like approach the group and sort of like pick out somebody
that she is closer to, probably you know, probably somebody who you know
she's known for a long time informally, maybe they've like gone to social events
together, things like that. So she's gonna first scan the crowd for somebody
like that. So I will tell you that there are four figures that really
stand out in the crowd to you. One is a half elf named the
Linder Swiftscribe, who you recognize because she's your former babysitter. Great. You
also see Saraphine Moonseal, who is a middle aged air Jannazi and good friends
with your mother. And you see brand Ironbinder, who is a Dwarf.
His family lives in the caves not far out of Jubilanti, and he always
before he became a legislative a during the summer's like in college. He would
help set up the festival with your family. And then you also see a
familiar figure, maybe not somebody that you know as well, but somebody who
really stands out in the crowd. It's a tall war forged that you recognize
as Gaverick iron Brand. And you know them because they were actually your escort
when you came to tour mage in Marshall about five years ago. Okay,
I think of these people, I'm going to approach Seraphene, probably because you've
known her your I've known her my whole life, and also, like I
know, my mom is currently in a block of magic eyes, magic energy,
magic energy, ice, energize, yes, energy, it's it's just
energy. So Seraphene is this tall Airjanazi. She's got palpow skin and dark
eyes and this white blonde hair. You would spot her anywhere, and the
thing is she would also spot you. She's known near your entire life.
She's an old friend of your mom. She visited a lot when you were
growing up. I am also currently wearing very bright colors with a lot of
sparkles. That's right, that's right, because you shed your robes, so
now you're wearing like your dance costume from earlier. So I imagine there's like
feathers involved, you know, I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Yeah,
even if she didn't want to spot me, she would spot me. Yeah,
it's a lot. So Seraphine is going to see you starting to approach
Belle Belle, is that you? Yeah? Oh my godness, how are
you? I have had better days? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Verre.
Your parents, yeah, they're still at graduation. I guess they're kind
of in like a big dome of energy. I have heard of zoos doom.
I was hoping her parents been in there. Yeah. That would have
been great. Yeah, yeah, it would have been great. I'm very
worried, not just about Zam, but obviously, I mean, your mother
is very very special to me, so I'm very worried about her. But
I'm worried because there's been much action, even before the dome and the malvel
appearance. Really, like what this morning? I don't know that I should
tell you this. Oh come on, you know, I'm not gonna tell
anyone Roman persuasion check that was it? Two? What's five for seven?
Well? I don't think your parents would be very happy with me if I
shared any information, but I will tell you to look around and notice that
is perhaps missing here. Sure I can. Yeah, Uh, that's totally
fine. I mean, like I get it. You're like super important and
you have secrets and that's fine. Yeah. Can I like do a per
investigation investigation? Oh, I'm so good at that, you know what.
I will give it to you with advantage because what she is asking you about
is actually something that came up a lot, and it's just a matter of
connecting the dots here. Okay, So first role is gonna be eleven minus
one for ten ten. So what you will notice just from looking around the
room again, because this is something you noticed before, not a lot of
security in the room. Bell's gonna look around, and I feel like it's
gonna be it's gonna take a beat or two longer than Saraphine expects it to,
or maybe she knows Bell well enough that she doesn't expect it to.
Saraphine is going to take you by the shoulders and actually like point you to
an empty security kiosk. Perfect, and then there's just gonna be like a
sort of like Bell's gonna be kind of humming to herself while she thinks,
she's like hmm oh, yes, so where's all the security people? Theraphine
looks around and notices like everybody's kind of looking in your direction, but nobody's
it's it's more out of anxiety. It's not like anybody's like trying to eavesdrop
on your conversation. And she's going to kind of take you. She still
has you by the shoulders and she's just gonna kind of like shell you to
the fringe of the crowd a little bit and say, I do not know
exactly where's the security is, but this morning we've told it much as a
security was dispatched to the graduation and Independence Day celebrations, and it seemed perhaps
like it was a little sudden huh, Well that sucks because like they're probably
in the energy, don't too now, Yes, so so like everybody's gone,
is that would seem to be the case? Yes, huh. Can
you send a message home for me just to tell them, like mom and
dad and grandma and my aunts and my uncles and my cousins and my cousin's
aunts, anybody anyway, everybody, like my whole family is not gonna be
coming back. Tomorrow probably did say leave a designated survivor. Yeah, yeah,
we have three surnamios at home because like we're still prepping for the festival
and like the staff is there and like the whole town is there. Uh
but you know Grandma is here. Yes, yes, okay, I will
I will see what I can do. So visitor Tube Networks seems to be
working. That would be great, Thank you so much. What are you
guys doing now? Like I guess you're just waiting, like vvate lot's boring.
From across the crowd, you hear a very familiar voice, and it's
somebody that you knew already was in the crowd. It is the Lindro swiftscribe
your your old babysitter. It's a beautiful half Elven woman with olive skin,
dark eyes, dark hair, who after university became a legislative aide. Comes
running across Belle Belle, Is that is that you? Oh my god,
Bell, you're okay. Yeah. I was doing my performance, so I
was like totally out of range. And your your parents they are totally in
range. Oh, but like they're you know, I think they're probably fine
because they're super and cool and powerful. And stuff. So Bella's like like
trailing off as she tries to assure her former babysitter and then like is in
the process somehow becoming less assured herself. Yeah, so, Cilindred know,
having known you since you were child and taking taking care of you, recognize
this, that this is something that you're doing. It's okay. Well you
can cry. No, I really can't, because like there's a lot going
on and they would want me to take charge and be strong. And also
I'm wearing so much makeup right now. That is that is actually a really
good point, and we wouldn't want to I mean that eyeliner alone, it
would just be such a mess. But I am worried about you. No,
don't worry about me. I am fine. I have had lots of
water. I have had a very good, nutritious and balanced breakfast, and
you know, I'm I'm gonna take care of this. It's gonna be great.
Do you have any questions for Thilindra, knowing that she works for the
legislature, I know I have questions. I'm wondering if Belle has questions trying
to yeah that needle, does she have a significant do I know if she
has a significantly different role and therefore potentially different information than Saraphine has, Like
do you know what I mean? Seraphine is actually the chief of staff for
the legislature's president, So Saraphine has has a lot of power. The Lindra
is she's much younger, she works on writing legislation, and last you heard,
at least her focus was on civil rights. Cool, so probably very
much an anti mal Vogue kind of person. I think that's safe. Just
yess okay. I think Belle would ask so, like you do a lot
of like stuff with papers and words and laws and stuff. What would happen
hypothetically if the triarchy were like, ooh, we surrender, Like what happens
next? I mean, nobody really knows for sure, but theoretically the current
loss day in place. Theoretically do an insight check thirteen. As much as
the Lindra knows how to read your emotions and has for a long time,
you also know hers. You saw her. You know she babysat you after
her first boyfriend broke up with her. You've seen her go through heartache,
You've seen her go through a lot of excitement when she got into Maden Marshall.
And so with a thirteen, you can tell that there is something that
she is not telling you. I feel like Belle is not known for subterfuge
in the way. That's so she's probably gonna be like Philindra, what aren't
you telling me? Persuasion check eighteen. Finally, she's just get something above
ten perfect With an eighteen Thlindra is going to now take you aside. Saraphine
has already kind of wandered off. She's going to take you aside, heading
back towards the bathroom that you had emerged from before you came out here,
and she's going to say, listen, you know that I work for a
grand counselor Coppershaw. Yeah, narrator, she did not, but you know
whatever, it's fine, it's not doesn't even realize history check here. You
already know you know that she has an interest in civil rights and so so,
yes, like, had Bell been quizzed on this, would she have
gotten that right? Absolutely No. No, If she like saw the guy,
would she know who he was? Yeah? Yeah, I mean you
probably at least would recognize a lot of the people in the legislature. So
she's kind of standing near the bathroom door and saying very quietly. Counselor copper
Job recently asked me if I could take a look at all of our already
enacted civil rights legislation and make sure there aren't any loopholes in it, just
in case something were to happen and there was to be a major change of
power. He just wanted to make sure that everyone's civil rights would still be
safe. Huh when you say recently, do you mean like this morning,
or do you mean like a week ago, in the last month or so.
Huh, Okay, that's weird, he seemed very concerned. Well,
I mean like seems fair honestly, I mean, knowing what we know now.
So the question is what did he know then he was at graduation,
wasn't he? Yes? Oh? Okay, Well, were there any loopholes?
I'm still doing the work. I've found a couple. We've passed a
few pieces of patch legislation to try and close them. We've passed so many
civil rights bills it's really hard to go back through all of them. I
mean, we're talking about thirty years of change. Yeah, I mean,
listen, to be fair, if somebody were to again hypothetically like forcibly take
over control of all of our government. I don't know how much like the
piece of paper saying that you can't do stuff is gonna help anyway. So
like silver linings, sure, I feel like Belle like is trying to be
comforting and he's just being like, all of the work that you just did
doesn't matter anywhere. Yeah, she looks pretty crestfallen at this. Yeah,
is there anybody else that you want to talk to? I feel like I
want to say hi to Bran okay, And then I feel as a player,
like I should probably talk to Gabick, but I feel like Belle is
just like not even gonna register that she should talk to him. So I'm
just gonna leave that hook on the table. So yeah, I think Belle's
gonna be gonna give Phil and dra a hug and be like it's gonna be
oh, okay, thank you, You're welcome, And she's gonna give her
a little kiss on the forehead, which like Belle's gonna have to like stand
on tippy toes to do that, and it's definitely gonna leave a lipstick mark
with sparkles. I love it. Then she's gonna go over to brands like
brand High. Oh is that Bell? Yeah, it's Bell. It's been
so long since I've seen you. Yeah, it's been like, I don't
know, a year or two. Oha. I wish we were meeting under
happier circumstances. Yeah, it's kind of sucky right now. You got any
like dirt? Dirt? Yeah? Like, like what's going on with you?
And also the world? I mean right now, I'm just trying to
keep everything together. Yeah, I you know what that's that's fair? Do
you know what he does here? No? Do you want to ask him
what he's doing to keep everything together? No, she doesn't. She's gonna
I know exactly what she's gonna ask. There's gonna be a pause, and
Bell's gonna be like, so what do you use for that? Like string
or like some glue? What are you talking about? Bell? To keep
it together? Oh? Bell, No, I'm I'm the deputy chief of
facilities here, so like duct tape to be okay, to be fair,
it's so funny because I was about to interject and say the same thing.
To be fair, I feel like a lot of keeping things together with facilities
could involve duct tape. That is that is true. There's a little rule
ducks. Ducks there are there are ducks. We've decided in this world that
has not a lot of other technology. There's HVAC. There's a rule that
all fantasy worlds that involve any kind of rogues has to have HVAC as like
an early development of technology for the sake of roguery. I'm good with that
rule. So so after you after you ask him about the duct tape,
well, I better get back to work. You'd be safe now wait wait,
no, wait, so facilities, like what do you need to keep
together? If like everybody, like everybody's at graduation, the buildings should be
fine, right, like nobody's causing floods or like clogging toilets. What do
you think we I'm not a janitor, Bell, Okay, So like what
but like facilities is like buildings, right, like nobody's around to mess up
the buildings. Do you think the building will just continue to stand if there
aren't some of us who are caven and maintained. Do buildings fall apart?
Fast? Bell? Like genuinely like she is alarmed at the idea that,
like, if a building is not actively being held together by somebody that it
is just going to collapse at any minute. The building's not gonna fall apart,
dear, but the magic hold in and up might Uh yeah, go
you go get back to work. Do you you get that magic duct tape
and you just you just tape it off. Great, We're going to leave
Bell and we're going to go back into that that legislative anti chamber where I
think we all need a break. Philamina has has just come out of the
legislative chambers into that anti chamber and looked around and realized that there is one
of you missing, a very ostentatious, very noticeable one. Not not just
because she is, yes, she's highly visible, but also because of who
her parents are. She's somebody that we need to keep an eye on.
The room seems less literally when she comes in somehow. So yeah, So
Filimina looked around, Where's Belle? Any anyone? Anyone? Where's where's Belle?
I'm afraid I don't currently know where Bell is. Raucus No, no,
Filmina's going to look back at Clarice and say it, I know that
you must know something. Okay, you are entitled to your opinion. Gideon
is going to kind of shoulder his way into the room and look at you
and say, Clarice, now is not the time to try to be clever
or deceptive. I know that you know Bell, and I suspect that you
have at least an inkling of where Bell is. Yeah, I didn't say,
I didn't. I mean, listen, do you want to help us
or not? I? Well, yeah, as long as I get to
be the chief negotiator. Well, I'd be happy to go look for Nah,
It's okay. What do you say, uncle Gideon, chief negotiator?
Is it all? Are you hiring me? Clarva stands up from the couch.
Is I think I have a better idea? Oh no, no,
that is not possible. Good to see you, Clarice. So Clarva is
going to go into the desk that's in the corner of the room, open
a drawer and pull out a sending stone and speak into the sending stone to
say, ironbinder, have you seen this Trenamio girl? If you have bring
her here? Probably could have just done that in the first place. Nobody
asked me to begin with. Clara. You're such a killed you know,
I would be the best cheap negotiator like ever, love you, Clorice,
you we probably should find Belle itself, Like I know where she is.
I never said I didn't, so like, how can you fight something that
is not nift saying? Does she actually know Wherebell is? I mean sort
of yes, yeah, totally love that you went to the bathroom. Yes,
well she was in she was actively in a duct d Bell went to
the bathroom, So I don't know, but there was so so we in
the last episode, there was some There was a lot of sideways glances and
giggles at each other, and I think that a plan had maybe kind of
emerged that fair so she might have You both know your way around this building
very well, so she probably at least has some ideas of where you might
have gone to if you're not in that room waiting for her. You've also
both well exceeded these three and a half minutes that you decided you would be
back in this room. I feel like that's a pattern. I feel like
probably the watch that you synchronized doesn't even actually work. You just like said
and you're like, yeah, it's said at the same time, and you
looked at her like, oh, I still plenty of time. You forgot
about the watches, didn't you. I definitely did. Actually, it occurs
to me that Belle probably wasn't wearing a watch with her dance costume, so
she probably just like fiddled with a bracelet and I was like, yeah,
synchronized done. I could see that. Just for the record, Clarice is
really concerned that people are trying to get her out of the room, so
she is not helping, not because she does know things. She knows things,
Okay, philim me, he says, you know, that's actually a
good point. It's much more roomy if we all go back to the legislative
chambers. So we're not asking you to leave the room with so much Clarice,
as I'm suggesting that we all leave the room back there in the big
room with the soundproofing. I am a college graduate. You do not need
to talk to me like yesterday was my first day Everchlorice. I don't.
I don't know why you're being so rude to me. That was not real.
That was a factual statement. Point of order. I'm technically not sure
that we're college graduates. We didn't get our diplomas. Who asked you?
Just pointing out a factual gap in your reasoning. Seeing as I didn't go
to the ceremony, I'm hoping that it is just a formality and that we
don't actually need it to Yeah, whatever our national clearinghouse of degrees is.
I have completed the credits, I have paid the bills, and I am
a graduate Filipina like as the university president, Philimina is looking back and forth
at all of you. You you all met the work you. Yes,
sure you've graduated. I know, I know that. A few minutes ago
I said technically you hadn't graduated, but I was trying to kind of lighten
up the mood. Can we just all play? I'm getting a little claustrophobic
in here. Can we just move back into the big room please? Yes
we can. But the record should note that telling recent college graduates that they
have not actually graduated is a dick move. Yes, this will looks at
you and says, you know what I am. I think you're right,
And then she turns and walks into the back into the legislative chambers and waits
for everybody to follow her. As that's happening. The door to which you
entered that parlor, that side room opens and there is a tall warfged who
is I don't know, Belle. The war Force has decided that you need
to come back into this room. Is this something that you are doing volunteers
early? Yeah, I think so, okay, but I think she was
probably chatting them up the full time. Yeah, I think that that's I
think that that's probably fair. So what are you talking about as you walk
into this room? Uh? Well, probably during the walk from you know,
during the beginning of the walk she was figuring out like, oh so
you're like not a tour guide anymore, good for you, and trying to
figure out like, what is it that the warf wordge does now? And
I assume that whatever they're talking about now is predicated on that, Like is
their duct tape involved? Why are you really a perception check to see whether
you were actually paying attention to the war Forge? Answer? Sure, eighteen
yes. So so as Gaverick was walking you back to meet up with everybody,
they told you that they are they are now the head of security for
Sovereign House and they've spent the entire morning trying to keep everyone calm, especially
challenging give In the early that morning, they were asked to dispatch any of
the non essential security personnel to Memorial Stadium. Yes, so I guess she
is now trying to ask about, like what does security do now besides keeping
people calm, but like do they go secure the other secure people? Like
what happens when the security needs securing? Really a charisma check? Straight charisma,
straight charisma. It's gonna be pretty high because you have to be charming
to a automaton. Yeah, that's a ten. Yeah. So Gabrick is
mostly like still just giving you the barest details, talking a little bit about
their career ascension, has told you about the security situation, but is not
not really revealing much else. And then as the door opens, you see
everybody is walking from that that anti chamber back into the legislative chambers, and
Gabrick says, thank you, Bill, I will see you nature Bill.
I was gonna say thank you, Gabrick, I will see you too.
What do you do when you when you enter that room. I am a
little disappointed that she got back to the room before everybody cleared out, because
I think it would have been hilarious if she was summoned and then was just
like ah, but she sees everybody going into the other room. So she's
just she's not super stupid, So she's going to just follow everybody into the
larger room. Great, in the larger room, Thissla is going to look
back at Clarice and say, sounded like you have a plan, you want
to you want to share. You're literally in charge of the government, and
you are prepared to turn things over to me. Oh no, I have
a plan. Although I think it's just I mean, you were so vocal.
I thought that it would be nice to just give you a chance to
hear your plan. You need to buy time. I can buy you time.
That is the plan, take it or leave it. I mean,
I'm definitely planning on buying time. Yes, I mean the other two triarcs
aren't going to be able to get here by the deadline of midnight tomorrow.
Oh my god, you're joking, right, you think that you guys should
actually be in the same place right now? Okay, everybody, everybody,
I need your attention please. Thisole is clearly working with mal though. This
soole is clearly working with Malviowe. Who would like to join me in a
vote of no confidence? Get in steps in front of you, Just Clarice
sit down, you guys. I red tracked my previous suggestion that Thistle is
working with Melbow, but I am not striking it from the record. Let
it be noted for the record. I have suspicions this is suspicious. Is
the keeping a record of absolutely not? Absolutely not? Just let me just
going to look around the room and say, you know you you keep making
reference to this record. Bell is just like signaling, like like standing behind
crees and just like making signals like don't bother, don't don't bothercus help.
He pulls out some in a quill. He starts scribbling madly on the party.
I love it, and this will this is going to look back around
the room and say, the satyr, what's his story? Well, a
long time ago they were escaping from Egypt. He has a very sad story
and has been essentially blackmailed and tortured into helping Malvo. Oh my goddess,
yes, and well this is the part you might enjoy. This was all
executed at Malvo's summer manor. I think we're going on vacation beach trip.
The Alcazar is not by the beach, It is in the forest forest trip.
Wait no, but hang on. Belle's gonna like look at the Sata
and be like, I'm so sorry. Do you want to come live in
Juwbilantia. I think I would like to find my parents first, but I
have heard Jubilantia is a very safe place, so maybe after I find them,
we can all seek refuge in Jewbilantia. Yeah, for sure, just
like tell him I sent you amazing. Don't you all looking at the at
this sole specifically, but at the adults in the room. Don't you all
kind of need to know what I know before you make your plans. Yeah,
Bell's gonna be like, I want to hear whatever you want to share
you, no question mark. He's going to look over to Thistle, who
gives him a nod and says, if there's anything you can tell us please,
And Gideon is going to look And how do we know we can trust
him? Do we have a choice, Uncle Gideon? I know that you
were doing some very important things at the stadium during their graduation, but this
little tweemy satyr Uh was sat upon and coerced into staying so like clearly was
not part of the plan that we were going to have him and be able
to ask him things. I remember one of his own compatriots putting him to
sleep. How do we know that wasn't part of the plan. Well,
you're all the pretty powerful individuals. Anybody to get a Zone of truth spell?
Not that not that I'm a big fan of coercing information out of people,
but seems like a pretty humane way to do it. We have ways
of making you talk. That's a fist way. We will ask very nicely.
FLA is our head of magical arts, and FLA is going to just
step forward like it's a there's a big range on the spell, but it's
going to step forward into this the center of where everybody is standing and cast
a zone of truth on every one. I promise, I am telling you
to the truth. I didn't want to be a part of that. They
did everything they could to brainwash me into supporting Melville. They were unkind.
They beat me, and if you will help me, I will help you.
It seems like a pretty like not great way to like get somebody to
support you. It's like, yeah, support us, punch punch, you
know. Yeah. I wasn't a really big fan of that either. While
the Zone of Truth is operating, Clarice is going to discard her affected pronunciation.
I love it of everything, And I was just like, oh my
god, I'm so sorry, dude, Like that's not that's that's not okay.
Do you need a hug? I would love a hug. Bell Bell
hugs him. You smell nice, Thank you. You might be covered in
glitter for like a a long time. I think I already had some glitter
on me from earlier. Great, So she's just going to continue hogging him
and like pat his head, and Clarice, having now conducted business in her
normal voice, is going to turn to Thistlodora who is us, and say,
so try our What is your plan? My plan is the same as
yours. It is to kill time until until we have a better plan.
Who will determine what's a better plan. Gideon's going to step out and say
I think I've at least got the beginnings of a plan, but we need
some intel first, and he's going to look at the satyr at golf and
he's Gideon doesn't really drop his his gruff affectation, like that is who he
is. But he's also always been very warm and affectionate toward Clarice, and
he kind of picked up a little bit of that, looking at Golf,
looking at the stator and saying it's okay, buddy, tell us what's going
on? And GoF is going to say to him, does everybody know about
the letter from Lucinda? Okor let's just say, like what if we don't?
Like you know, recap. He's going to look at Keilonian, who
was the one responsible for reading it. Well, it's a sad state of
affairs. Want to bring back this city in court? Fan of democracy myself,
i'd prefer it, but you know our triochs. That doesn't mean that
I want to see them put to death, which seems like this obsidian court
would want to do. Wants them to abdicate their power and then get tried.
Seems like a sham court to me. They're just gonna sort of put
him to death. Doesn't seem right. So it seems to be the stakes.
And you know somebody who's gonna come in and trap everybody in a big
dome. I don't know how well we can trust them, trust them with
their word, or trust that they're going to keep those people safe inside.
Seems to me we gotta do something help them out. Many yes, clarv
is going to look at the point of order. You said, you're a
fan of democracy, but you to the tryarks are elected? You you are
you just you're a college graduate. You are aware of this yet, Well
I'll take it back because I forgot about the details of the sort of government
here. I appreciate that we have elected leaders in the triarchy here, and
so you know, as much as I may disagree with their actions, sometimes
I think that you know, we don't certainly wouldn't want to see them put
to death. And I don't think we can trust this Malvo mal means bad.
I'm gonna assume he's a bad person. Gideon says, huh, I
actually I never put that together. I'm sure they have Latin in this world.
Right. Bell is gonna be like, I don't know about judging people
based on their names, but okay, Also, what is this letter?
And like Bell's gonna like see if just sort of suddenly in the background,
like try to get the letter so she can read it because she was not
in the room. Clarva's just gonna hand you the letter. Yeah, that's
great. They know you. Yeah, they know you and Clarice. They've
known you both for a long time. So now that Clarva has shared the
letter with your other three compatriots, yeah, no reason to not share it
with Bell, right, Yeah, so she's just while this is all happening,
is just reading and like chime in, like, let's not judge people
based on their names. Thanks? Bye? Okay? Yes, So,
just to summarize the letter from listen to occur, the former head of propaganda
for the Malvo Autocracy demands that the triarchs abdicate their power at midnight tomorrow and
stand before the Obsidian Court. And the Obsidian Court, you know, is
a basically a kangaroo court. It existed under Melva to give the appearance of
a fair trial for anyone. Malvo really just wanted to get rid of.
The letter also says that it's the triarch, so it's surrender or will be
declared and the Emergency Dome im Memorial Stadium will be zapped into another plane.
Philimina is going to say, Bell, maybe we should let the triarch read
the letter. Oh sure, I'm sorry, I didn't know here. This
is worse than I thought it was going to be, is it. We've
had intel for some months now that something like this could happen. We didn't.
We didn't really take any we didn't take it seriously. And Goff is
going to pipe up. See it is very serious, ma'am. It is,
it is extremely serious. Miss o'coor and her bodyguards are hanging out at
the Alcazar, and I do believe she's She's always told me that she's a
reasonable woman. I I mean, I don't know for sure. But if
you're looking to buy time, and he looks over at Clarice and then back
at this, if you're looking to buy time, I think your best bet
would be to send some emissaries to miss Ocoor. Clarise is going to nod,
but as anybody within the Zone of Truth is aware that they are within
the zone of truth, Clarius is also going to sort of defer and try
to slip away a little bit and get Rucus's attention. Rugus, enjoying the
warm fuzziness of the zone of truth, rears himself up on his hind legs,
was full height, grins, a toothy grim with his tongue blubbing out,
and says Rucus, big dog folk and beams at everyone. That is
definitely the truth. Ruckus, Ruckus, Yes, Hello, can I a
word? Yes, like over over there, Ruckus go question mark, Please
go outside, question mark, no question mark, just just follow Yes.
With that, Claricea is going to walk sort of away a little bit while
she has a quick word with Ruckus. Both of you should do a stealth
check. That's a non natural twenty okay, right, and mine's a fifteen.
Yeah. I'd say those are high enough that you're able to do.
Everybody else was just bragging about how large he was. I think part of
the reason they're able to escape is because everybody in the zone of truth is
like feeling so warm towards this poor little beaten satyr that while you're continuing to
ask him questions, everybody's just kind of like closed in, and you're kind
of like all trying to comfort him in your own ways. Everyone is kind
of fawning over the sador fawning yes. Yeah. As I said it,
it was like, oh boy, but everybody is. Everybody is paying attention
to the sator, to what he is saying, but they also seem very
concerned about his well being. So that's where all the focus is right now.
So the two of you are able to get away Ruckus, Yes,
would you like a banana? Really really excited Rucus sits down, sticks his
tongue out and says big yes. Clarice, who when she stopped at enchanted
grounds did bag up some bananas, is going to give Ruckus a banana,
peel it and not give it all to him in one She's going to break
it into individual pieces, so his attention across the conversation. Right, Yes,
amazing, Uckus, Yes, you understand that something dangerous is going on
us wagon. Just tell really really excitedly what the banana and says yes,
and Clarice gives the first piece of banana. I think that this is one
of those times when you need to hide what you can do. Understand Ruckus,
understand good, Ruckus, extra banana piece just for maintaining attention. Trump,
Oh boyd's my favorite one. Do you understand that there are many bad
people? Yes, banana piece? Trump? Do you understand someone here might
be bad? Big y banana piece? Good? Do you know that you
can trust me? Yes? Okay, I'm not going to give you this
piece of banana just yet, because it is not for trusting me. No
bananas question mark, wait, one more question than all bananas. If I
need your help and I think someone is bad. Will you help me?
Big, yes, Dawn Great Clarius is going to give the last three pieces
of banana rapid fire, and then is gonna ask Ruckus if he would like
one backup banana to carry with him many yes, okay, And Clarice is
going to give a still enclosed in it's peel banana to Raucus. Yeah,
big good. Right, are you staying on the fringes or are you re
entering the circle? I am going to come back to where I can listen,
and if that means I need to enter the zone of truth, I
will do so. But I am not interested in going right to the middle
just yet. That's fine, you are back in the zone of truth,
but yeah, you don't need to be all the way in the middle.
So everybody is listening intently to really kind of a recap of what some of
you at least already heard from Golf last time. His sob story is really
resonant with everybody right now in the zone of truth, because everybody's gonna let
their guard down and there so there are tears. There's a lot of like
poor babies and tisking of the tongues. But at the same time, I
think there's an understanding that there's information that needs to be had. Does anybody
have any questions? For GoF, GoF, what can you tell us about
the manner, it's layout, its defenses and miss o Corr's bodyguards. There
are not many defenses. I think that there is an expectation that emissaries will
be sent, but not that battle will be waged. They are prepared if
anyone tries combat. Miss o'korp's bodyguards are quite frightening. I know of at
least two that are there my compatriots. I guess we're not supposed to return
to the Alcazar. Where were they supposed to go? They never told me.
Were you just going to blindly follow them? I think they didn't think
I would make it back. Gideon, after listening to all of this,
is going to say, all right, so I think I have at least
the beginnings of a plan. You are all bards, you're very charismatic,
so it makes diplomacy maybe in your wheelhouse. And Filmina looks at Gideon and
says, well, you know, some of the schools at least off for
diplomacy is part of their major he must listened to the theme song. I
don't know where you would get that idea. So you actually intend for us
to entreat with malve and Ocre, to be clear, not with Malveo.
Malvil is not there. Can I do a history check war work. I
want to know where miss o'cor is supposed to be, like what her status
was, because we know Malvo was supposed to be dead. Yeah, what
did you I rolled in eleven so last you heard, she and some of
the other cabinet ministers under Malvo had been imprisoned in the far north of the
country, actually not far from where Andreck's family is from. Okay. And
then I'd also like to do a perception check, Okay, to see if
anybody among the many sympathetic people in the zone of truth, if anybody is
being less expressive or less warm. All right, roll it with advantage.
That's about fifteen oh, not twenty plus three. You notice that this will
looks very uncomfortable, but that the discomfort that she is showing seems to be
more a response to the cruelty that GoF has endured than to any part of
this plan that is taking shape. Great, I am going to try to
get Belle's attention, and the way I'm going to do that is by staring
at Belle until Belle looks at me, and then I'm going to meaningfully with
my eyes look at Thistle and back at Bell. Bell. Let's have a
perception check from you. Six. Belle is so riveted by golf sad story
that she's not looking at you at all. Right, Realizing that Belle is
not getting get on board, Clarice is going to pull out her trusty journal
that she grabbed the record. She keeps a record of everything if she can.
She's gonna rip out a page and she is going to scribble to Gideon
a little note. Okay, that is just gonna say, look at Odorra,
something's off. And then she's gonna fold it. She's gonna fold it
again, and then she's gonna fold it a different way, and then she's
gonna fold it until it makes a little football listeners. That is happening right
now. It seems to be the fold that Clarice prefers, because I feel
like this happened in the last episode two. Yes, this is how you
know it's from Clarice. I'm just gonna tuck it together and then she's gonna
go a big stretch and then just say the words big stretch, the hanging
her out with Ruckus too much, and she's just gonna go directly over with
her hands, the one that's reaching higher in the air, over Gideon's shoulder
and into his lapel pocket with the note. So Gideon is still talking through
the plan yep, and a hand track. Yeah, no, that was
not an attempt at Everybody can see that she is sending this note. Okay,
it is just like something's off, all right, So, remembering that
you are all in zone of truth, would anybody like to ask Clarice about
what she's just done. I would like to announce that Ruckus find stretches contagious
in the same way that humans find yas. So he also gives a beegle
scratch. Lucy looks sleepy. They need to make a trip to Enandy Grounds
get you some coffee. Uh this asturbing laugh machine gun lab excellent. Clarius
is going to uh look at Colonian and just say, like things, I'm
totally fine. Gideon is a little annoyed with you for interrupting him by this
very very not subtle gesture of putting a note in his pocket. He's going
to take the note out, and he's going to look at you, look
at Thistle, remembering that you are all in the zone of truth. He's
going to show the note to Thistle. This is going to look at the
note. You want to know why I look upset? Yes, you know
that my parents were part of the Malvaux administration. Oh yes, did you
know that they left the administration before the revolution? I thought, shit,
yeah, I think I didn't know that. History check. That is a
twenty two. Yeah. So it all comes running back to you. When
your mother was managing Thistle's campaign, you were tasked to do in quite a
bit of research during your summer break, and you learned that Thistle's parents nobody
ever really said what had happened, but something led to them parting ways with
the malvo administration, after which they were captured and beaten. And so what
you see as affecting Thistle so much is not that she's concerned or that she's
complicit in what's happening. It's PTSD clarice in the znut truth is just gonna
be like, oh, okay, I'm sorry for dretching up your drama.
That was not cool. To be fair, this whole thing is stretching up
my trauma. But I appreciate your apology. You know that I love and
respect your mother very much. Yeah, I just you were acting so weird,
and I just it was throwing me off. And I know that there
have to be people on the inside because like otherwise wise the dome is still
going, like we know that there's nobody outside. So like I have my
suspect, like I'm just somebody has got to be in on this. Fella
kind of gestures to indicate that we're all in the zone of truth. Still,
it says chove Hans, who's involved. Bell's hand goes up, who's
involved with the conspiracy to restore Melvo to power? Bell's hand goes down?
There are no hands up? Uh just uh can check I think it would
be Yeah, I do, does hand raising fall under zone of truth control?
I'm going to check the rules on it really fast, because I thought
it was just that you can't intentionally yeah, I can't speak a deliberate line.
Yeah, there's you know when somebody I didn't have anybody roll the because
it it seemed like it was we are all agreeing. Yeah, we are
all agreeing to be under the zone of truth, so there was no reason
to roll a saving throw. So Clarice is knowing that hands don't apply.
It's going to be like, aren't you literally the person in charge of magic
at this university? Okay, fine, we'll just go around the room.
I am not in cahoots with Malvo or or any of the conspira, Clarice,
you know me better than that, say her name or listen to of
course she's in kohoots with Malvau. If I'm not in cohoots with Malva,
she could be acting independently. I am just covering my basis. I have
nothing to do with what is happening today or oh anything to do with any
of this. Great everybody repeat that, everybody, all of the administrators at
the same time say I have nothing to do with anything to do with all
of this. I got nothing to do with any What was it to get
Bella's going to repeat that entire back and forth, both colors and thistles parts
back and forth. She's going to stay the whole Everybody just waits very patiently
for her to finish. It's actually impressive that she like she gets it word
for word information everything performance check great, not twenty with a plus seven saver
that is a waste of a now twenty. Yeah, you you do it
word for word, and it is so compelling. Everybody stops and like applauds
you for your performance. You just you got both voices down so well and
the timing and everything else. Yeah, it's literally like as if she just
replayed it, like you know that scene in Leelo and Stitch where Stitch like
puts the finger on the record and opens his mouth that Elphis comes out amazing,
amazing, amazing. So the rest of you do you want to say
out loud that you have nothing to do with all of this? Ruckus can't
say any of that, So I'll just say ruckus, good dog them.
Obviously, I have nothing to do with anything that happened today or Melbow or
o Court or any grand conspiracy. And I support the triarchy, even when
maybe I accidentally seem a little bit rude to one of them. I was
completely not involved and prefer to stay out of the political system together. Yeah,
I'm not involved with any of this. I got feelings about the triarchy
and their actions, but I'll lead that to myself. I don't think that's
germane to the situation. What does GoF say I have nothing to do well?
I mean, I guess I do kind of have to do with what
happened earlier today. But I promise I am telling you the truth. I
am not a supporter of Malvaux. All I want is to find my parents
and forget any of this ever happened. Are you a supporter of the lady
though, of Lucinda? Yeah, just like Clarice was like, let's cover
all our bases. I mean, if Lucinda is a supporter of Malvaux,
or even if she just says she is the No, I am not a
supporter of her. She's never done anything bad to me, although she did
kind of oversee the camp where I was, where everybody was kicking my ass.
So yeah, no, I'm not a fan. Belle's gonna look at
Clarice and be like, does that count? Like missa, does that cover
everything? Clariss gonna give a sort of checks out shrug. Gideon's like,
can I just can I get back to my plan? I was almost finished.
Clarie is gonna do it tiny warlike salute her. Whole little body is
going to snap to momentary attention, and she's just going to do a very
very quick, sharp gesture salute to the forehead and down because of course Gideon
his secretary of war, and she thinks that's funny. Gideon thinks it's adorable.
He's gonna say, look, I just I think that it would be
best if we keep the triarch safe with us, and if your administrators go
back to the school to start working on how to break the energy dome spell,
and the five of you can try to entreat with a core to at
least buy the triarchs some time. Your head Rock reads and this is going
to add, don't engage unless you have to do You all accept Well,
Kilonian very much likes that this is a sort of diplomatic solution that we're trying
to aim for. So Keilonian is like, let's absolutely we really want to
help in this situation, and I think this seems like a good plan.
You still have Angel on your back. We haven't heard from Angel in a
while. Well, Angel doesn't say no, but Angel has a chicken.
Are you are you going to bring Angel with you? Angel goes with Kilonian
for better or worse? Okay, how about everybody else? Are you in
for Goth's sake? Yes? But why would o'cory even deal with us?
What? What could we possibly offer her to get her to back off?
Bananas? Rucus looks at you like you're an idiot, Like you didn't actually
just graduate. Bananas. Clarice becomes aware that she is being stared at,
as though she should have a suggestion for what to do. You did request
to be the chief negotiator? Yes, and I had some thoughts. Clarice
did not have some thoughts. Roll out a step in check. Wait,
are we in the zone of truth? Yeah, but she's she's trying to
do a charisma saving throat wisdom. Well, but I think also she definitely
has some thoughts. That's fair. Yeah, okay, So Claris says I
have some thoughts and is circumlocuting. She is not technically lying. She's just
saying there are thoughts in her head, some of which are panic. And
what she is going to say is, among us, we have some very
important people. And when I say us, I mean the five graduates.
We represent something that even the triarchs can't compete with. And what's that friendship?
Oh boy, So I'm gonna roll a charisma saving throw. Yeah,
I'm going to say that it's disadvantage because everybody had agreed to be in this
zone of truth. So you're trying to get out of the zone of truth,
right, Well, I'm trying to be persuasive, Okay, I'm trying
to be like, I don't think it's a lie to say that Malvo would
consider taking me hostage a real win. I don't think it's a lie to
say that taking Belle hostage would be a real win. Mm hmm. Yeah.
I think also with I think it's a lie that taking Colonian might not
be seen as a win. Yeah, it occurs to me that with Bell's
family, like obviously somebody was left behind as to run Jubilantia. But like
with Bell's family out of commission, I think she is effectively the new mayor
m hm, governor, right, it's a city, Okay, Yeah,
so yeah, she's effectively the acting mayor of the singular stronghold that Melvo could
not take, so sending sending us. So the intent here just to is
to like over sell a little. It's not to deceive so much as like
to use political and marketing language to frame it effectively. So then yeah,
I think I'm actually going to have you do a performance check on that,
okay, And I think that it's if you succeed, then you are able
to talk your way around lying successfully. Great. I rolled in eighteen.
Yeah, totally fine. Everybody's like, yeah, good point. Yeah sure.
And while I'm not suggesting that we offer ourselves as hostages, I am
suggesting we would be believable negotiators with some compelling reasons to get a court to
Lissa. Gideon is going to step forward and kind of you are so much
smaller than he is, and he's going to get down on a knee and
say, your parents will kill me if anything happens to you. And Clarice
is going to bare her teeth in what somebody else might thing that's an attempt
at smiling, but what Uncle Gideon should recognize as the face she uses before
she pulls her rape ear. I love it. I love it. You
are all agreed to this encounter. You can choose when you like, if
you want to set off right away, and how you want to travel there
before we go, has the ton of truth been dropped at all? So
it's a ten minutes spell, so it's still very much active. I mean
we in real time, we've been here for more than ten minutes. But
okay, so Clariicus is just gonna sort of ask Thisslodora to provide us with
a diplomatic letter that indicates the desired extension time. No problem, what is
the desired extension done? This will is asking for one week? Okay?
Can we put in those conditions just something about providing uh sustenance under the dome.
I feel like in the previous episode you were told that nobody there,
like everybody inside the dome would be taken care of. But yeah, I
mean you can definitely put that in there to like as a you know,
you said that these people are not going to be harmed, but we need
we need evidence. We need the equivalent of proof of life that has quality.
Yes, okay, great, So thisle is going to just grab a
piece of paper and a quill off of a desk write a note for you.
Clarva is going to step forward and produce a stamp to like notarize it
and then fold it and seal it using that same stamp so that it's clear
that it's official. Is there anything that anybody needs to do before setting out
or does anybody feel that they feel strongly that they need to rest or Are
you ready to go? I don't think Belle needs to rest per se,
but she definitely would want to like go back to her dorm room and like
pack a bag. Fair. I remember Belle does still have her she has
her chakrums, yes, but like she probably doesn't have much more in it.
Man probably wants to change clothes too, changing a little bit more stealthy
maybe, I mean, maybe not Belle more stealthy, but maybe just like
less feathers. Okay, I bet there's a family robe or sort of ceremonial
garment that would seem diplomatic to Belle. She has a neck like a choker
that has her family crest on it that she wears all the time. But
yes, she would probably wear something that maybe is a little bit more dignified.
I've already used two adam A three love a spell slots, so I
wouldn't mind a long rest. Beala is going to look at the grown ups.
I was gonna say, can we have like horses or Clarva is going
to say to you, I mean, you know as well as I do
with the stables. Are I can't imagine anybody's going to stop you from taking
horses. Yeah, okay, fair Clarice is gonna be like, all right,
I'm still technically on the clock, so I'm just gonna and as Clarice
walks, she exits the zone of truth and her voice drops back into it's
affected, like if anybody needs me or coffee, that's where I'll be.
So I'm like, I guess the mayor now of Jubilantia because mayors are inherited
in Jubilancia. Sure, yeah, and and so maybe I should like send
a letter home or something you'd already asked. I know I did, but
this is updated information. So so Belle's gonna be like, do we want
to like meet at the stables at a time or a place? I wake
up at four, so we want to meet at five? Yeah? Five
five five? And sounds good? She like, she she looks at each
five five five, Bell's going to look at golf and is going to say
so, like, I think you could be helpful if you came with us,
but also like, ooh, trauma, so totally up to you.
But like I've you could not pay me to go back there. Good luck
to all of you. Hey, we're gonna go see if I can buy
my parents. It's super valid. If you end up in jubilantia, just
say my name. I mean, it sounds amazing. And if I have
my parents, that's a plan. So I'll see you soon. Yeah,
yanks, bye bye bye. She's gonna give another forehead kiss. All right,
So you're all going to long rest. Does anybody have anything they want
to do prior to long rest their long rest? Belle is definitely going to
go back to her room and like change into traveling slash diplomacy outfit and pack
a bag and take a change before you take your long rest, before you
take a nap. Well, she's going to change out of her performance outfit
and maybe take off them several layers of makeup and glitter so that she only
has the one layer of makeup and glitter and so on, and then she'll
do her rest well because she does have the naturally occurring glitter. Yes,
yes, okay, anybody else have anything they need to do? Yeah?
I like to do an animal handling check to see if I can feed my
oligarchic butterfly friend bananas one of these two dandelions that I picked an hour or
two ago. Okay, twelve, Yeah, I mean the dandeline looks a
little bit wilted, but you hold it up in your your butterfly friend and
hops on and SIPs a little nectar. Oh can I also look for more
flowers of any assortment on the way back to wherever it is that I'm going
to sleep, presumably presumably back in your dorm. Right right, It didn't
kick me out yet. Usually it's like you gotta be out by five pm.
I think they're a little bit I mean, first of all, the
people who do the kicking out suck. Yeah, all right, then yeah,
how many nature check? How many flowers do I find? Do a
nature check? Nice? Nineteen? All right? Real me a D six
four? You get four very beautiful large flowers on your way back to your
dorm. Four very beautiful lard flower just for wife wreck anybody else. I
would also go back and you know, change clothes, start to get packed,
and would probably take an hour or so to study the sword and attune
to it. Fantastic Clarice is going to go to enchanted grounds and is going
to, in a sort of meditative, ritualistic way, just clean all of
the machines and power them down before locking up, going back to her room
and carving her name in the wall. Okay, Kelonian carries most of what
he has with him, and so he's going to go back, maybe with
Clarice too enchanted Grounds, and hang out while she's cleaning up, and then
go back to wherever he lives and sleep. So the next morning you all
meet at the stables behind Sovereign House at five am. How are you all
feeling just as good as I did yesterday? I wonder if any scroccer Chase
I feel fine. Clarice is inappropriately hype. Bell and Clarice have swapped personalities
at this earlier hour, and Bell is just like in Claricea's bag from Enchanted
Grounds that she packed up yesterday, she did set aside her Mocha caramel syrup
and a thermis of Latte espresso that you packed up. Yeah, so she's
gonna just pull off the top of that thermos and mix a little small mocha
caramel for Belle. That's very thoughtful. Belle very gratefully accepts it with like
a cheerful grunt like a and then just start sipping. Howarchilani and an angel
feeling feeling good. Angel had a little breakfast of seeds. And so it's
hanging out in the little coop on my shell, ready for adventure. We're
always ready for traveling adventure. As we approach each other, presumably at the
stables, I will approach her. Yeah, Ruckus will approach Chlorice and say
hello, Ruckus, kim you this, and hands over the parchment with the
minutes that he took from the meeting yesterday. Amazing. Clarice is going to
accept the minutes, open them. I can tell you what you see if
you want. Yeah, tell me what I see. Do you read dog
folks shorthand? No? All right. It's more of a codex than it
is notes. It's like a pictogram of sort of what ruck Is observed.
It's a lot of stick figures of dogs chasing trees and squirrels and other things,
with occasional pawprints and dashes and dots interspersed throughout. So Clarice is going
to roll a performance check on how encouraging she is able to seem. Yes,
she has rolled a sixteen. I think that Recus believes that you're very
grateful for okay. And then Clarise is gonna tuck that into her journal.
Okay, I think you would know that. You could ask another dog folk
that is able to communicate in common, but it says you probably can't read
it. A small gnome steps out of the stables. It's the stable keeper.
This is I've heard you all here for horses. You can take whatever
horses you need. Don't let them get hurt. Okay. And also,
just when I say whatever horses you need to just be one each, not
like all of the horses horses new Front, Clarice is going to look at
each of the names on the different stalls and inspect the horses for sociability around
halflings. Do any of them seem to think that she is edible, et
cetera, and is looking for a horse that communicates a wild spirit in terms
of like its vocalizations, right, one that is hopefully like, if not
screaming, at least like making a lot of chit chat in the stable,
but also does not tried to eat her hair. Can I just say I
feel like Bell has probably spent a non zero like I feel like Bell knows
her way around these particular stables. Belle has knows around her way around the
stables. But Bell has also probably taken drissage classes at some point. Oh
yeah, yeah, Bell knows her way around stables period. But I think
she also knows like I think she knows the stablehands name, don't. I
don't, but I think she does, and I think she knows the horses.
Uh, do a history check. Three, you don't remember the stable
hands name? Sure, it's it's one of those like hey you long times.
Yeah, things I'm gonna make. I'm gonna make the proposal that Bell
probably should roll with advantage for history check for knowing the horses. I think
that that's fair because they're pretty horses. That's an eleven. You know that
the horse that is stand that Clarice's standing in front of is named flash Heart.
That is a an all black horse with a white stripe right down its
forehead and its tail has like just some white some white hair is in it
as well. Flash Heart is an older horse. That's why you remember that
horse's name, because, like you're you've seen this horse many times. Next
to Flashhart, there is a small paint mare named Pansy. And those are
the horses that you whose names you remember. Cool. I'm gonna do my
best to work with hey, you and my understanding of the horses to help
people who maybe are less familiar with horses find an appropriate match. Yeah.
I actually just for the record that the chatty horse that won't eat my hair
I am looking for specifically for Ruckus, So I do thank you me,
Okay. I just thought Ruckus would enjoy a horse that sort of talked a
lot. I'll wait for my dark Yeah. Yeah. Having grown up in
a place where we also had stables and horses, but everything was very practical
there, RIC would be looking for a horse that looks both sturdy and calm
above all things real mean a perception check. Sweet with a fifteen, You
hear horsey noises coming from the way back, and there's something about the tone
of that of that particular winny that kind of calls you. It sounds maybe
like a horse that you knew sure, And you see a as you walk
toward the back, you see a large quarter horse kind of just reddish brown
in color, all one color, but slightly darker toward the face, and
the name on the stable says Hogan, does that seem like the right horse
for you? I'll put my hand kind of very cautiously kind of over the
stable door, and see how he reacts to putting my hand out roll an
animal handling check, and I'll say with advantage, because I mean, these
horses are all very used to people, were to visitors dirty twenties, Oh
with a dirty twenty. The horse like nuzzles right into your hand and gives
you like a little I don't know if you've ever been around a horse that's
done this, but gives you like the littlest horsey nibble, like a really
affectionate sort of nibble. And is this kind of stable where they're like are
kind of like i'll say, like feedbacks between the stalls, So I'll like,
as he's doing that, I'll like reach my hand over to the feedback
nearest and just pull out a small handful to cup in my hands and offer
to Hogan. Okay, Hogan is your horse, Belle? Do you want
to try and play horse matchmaker? Yeah? I mean I imagine Bell has
a preferred horse. I don't know which one it is, but I imagine
she has a preferred horse. And then after that, like two like obviously
Andrew seems to have it under control, so I think she would probably check
in on Kilonian to see if like he feels like he's got it figured out,
or if he needs any help, Like she just genuinely wants to be
helpful. I imagine Kilonian not being big on riding horses. It's got a
big shell, you know, it doesn't seem like something that But what would
that slow everybody down? If Keilonian walked alongside the horse, is it basically
the same? It would definitely? Okay, Well, then Kilonian will ride,
will ride a horse, So he's gonna need to look for a horse
that seemed like a draft horse liese, Yeah, like very like very sturdy.
I mean, this is a world where there are a lot of different
body shapes, so I have to imagine that there are horses, yeah,
being kept on hand for that purpose. Yeah, there's definitely a really large
Clydesdale like add its shoulder because that's how they measure horses height is to the
shoulder. It's like six and a half feet tall. It's massive, and
its name is Rainstep, which seems like this like very gentle, delicate name
for such a massive horse. Do you want to do an animal handling check?
Oh? I would love to. I'm pretty good at animal handling.
Hello, rain Step, how are you rain Step and be a completely little
ditty yes, and you're gonna roll with advantage here. I want to know.
Have you ever seen lou Rainstep coming down from stables? All right,
animal handling? Check with advantage, with advantage? Okay? Good? Oh
not that good? U thirteen? I think with a thirteen the horse gives
you a little bit of side eye. And it's not it doesn't seem averse
to you, but it's not as enthusiastic as Hogan had been with Andrik Greece
is gonna invite Rocis over and pointed the horse that was chatty and be like
this one is it my turn? Now? Yeah? So that was and
that was flash Heart great. I'm gonna cast speak with animals. I'm gonna
duck behind one of the stall sides to do it so that nobody else sees
me cast the spell. I'm gonna cast that spell and then I'll go to
flash Step, flash Heart, flash Heart and say uh And to the rest
of you would all just are like whoa. But to flash Heart, it's
gonna sound like how's it going, flash Art, It's not for your real
name? Or was it just the name of how much game you flash Heart
is a little bit on the older side, but it is still, you
know, a pretty pretty active, spry horse like you have an awful lot
of energy for those early in the mornings. This morning you were quick.
Do you want one? I have some extra ones in my bag. You
know what you have? Actually, I will take a banana? All right,
here you go. He pulls out a banana, peels it, he
gives it to Flashart. Pretty good, right, Yeah, that was that
was actually really good. Oh they're my favorite. So what can I do
for Ruckus? You said, Poots and Ruckus? That's what can I do
for you today? Ruckus? I'd like to know what's among your friends here
has been cooped up the longest and really could use a good day out.
He kind of sways his head over to the still next to him AND's like,
that would be Pansy Pantry. Okay, goodbye, I'm gonna go over
to pan Hello, Pansry, good morning. How are you doing? Hello?
Oh have you had breakfast yet? I mean I had? Oh?
Is Pandry your real name or is that just navy humans gave you? I
mean it, that's the name I've known my whole life. Would you like
a better one? No? I think Pansy's okay. That's okay. Would
you like a banana? Yes? Here we go, Racus, which of
these two horses do you want to take with you? Okay? Panja looks
like you use are a little a little bit of a stretch of little lights
to help. And Clarice now is gonna turn to the stable keeper and ask
do you have any of those like Icelandic horses, you know, the really
small ones that are like extra free. The stable keepers going to say,
well, I don't exactly know where Iceland is, and I don't think I
know what you're talking about. All of our horses are normal sized horses.
I'm looking for, like max fourteen hands. Maybe you can convince your friend
over there that you should be riding Pansy. Also, they have a max
fourteen hands named horse somewhere they have hoofs hands Rackus, I'm very small?
Yes? Can I please ride the very small horse? Yes? Thanks,
And Pansy says to Raucus, Oh, thank god, you're quite large for
me. I wasn't gonna ride you, I'm gonna run alongside. It seems
like a great day for a run. So, Raucus, do you want
a horse at all? No, I just wanted to get Pansy out,
Okay, pans could have a nice little run, all right. So Clarice
is going to have Pansy then, and that leaves Bell. I assume Bell
has a preferred horse. Flash Heart is one that you recognize. You've definitely
ridden flash Heart before. You can't remember all of the other horses particularly well.
So either you can choose flash Heart because you know him, or you
can choose another horse based on their aesthetic. I mean, I think she
would choose Flashart because she she knows him. Good choice, all right.
And I feel like Flashart is the one who made the comment to Ruckus about
having a lot of energy early in the morning. Right. Yes, none
of you would have understood that conversation. I know that she would not have
understood it, but I feel like her soul understands that this horse also does
not want to be up this early. Okay. The stable hand helps you
all to get equipped, and you are all going to set off for the
Alcazar Ruckus running alongside the rest of you on your horses. Somebody do actually,
who's got the highest passive perception, not me fifteen, you're rid of
the mind. Okay, So with the fifteen, the thing that you notice
most is how quiet it is as you head out of town and toward the
woods, normally like you're going through the the kind of commercial center of the
capital city. So you would see it's it's quite early in the morning,
but at least you would probably see like Baker's florists, people whose days start
early. And there are a few people out and about, but nobody seems
particularly hurried to do much of anything. You know, you don't smell baking
bread or anything. It doesn't It doesn't seem like life is normal. Everyone
is affected by what happened yesterday. You don't perceive any danger to you as
you you take your hour long ride to the Alcazar. Well, it seems
like they just need to pick me up song then maybe don't make feel better?
Yes, do you want to play a traveling song? Maybe Colorian's willing
to help me. So this is one of Ruckus's favorite songs. It's called
all the Best Boys go to pooch Fibe six five six woo oh oh,
and it repeats like that for the entire hour. Beautiful okay, well,
in that if it's for the entire hour, I'm gonna need a party stealth
check, critical fail. I think well earned six eighteen, Bell Dirty twenty,
Andrik fourteen. All right, the three high rolls are enough to even
get past that Dirty twenty. So you arrive on the grounds of the Alcazar,
which are in the woods north of Schlamere. The grounds are really sprawling.
Think of like if you've seen like an English garden, or even like
first sight. There are a lot of fountains, there are a lot of
what clearly had been hedgerows and topiaries, but it's been thirty years since anyone
was known to occupy this space, and so it's lots of weeds, brackish
water in the fountains that's clearly been you know, like water that came from
the rain and then didn't have any place to go, so it just it
started to turn black and it's a little smelly, and it does seem like
there's nobody there. But this is where Off told you that you could find.
Listen to Ocor and at least her two bodyguards, maybe some others.
And as you you go through the garden and you approach the front door.
It swings open. What do you do? Sorry? Is this like a
gate to the premises from No, you've you've been walking through the gardens.
So as you're walking closer and closer to the manor the house, the door
opens. I'm going to look for a spot to hitch Hogan because I don't
think I don't think the horse is getting into the house. Do an investigation
check. Eleven. There's some wrought iron fencing off to the sides of the
garden, and it looks sturdy enough that you can throw the reins over.
What does everybody else do with their horses. I'm gonna do an animal handling
check to see if if the oligark butterflies, we'll want to just continue to
hang out with me. If I need to recast animal friendship, all right,
go for it, all right? Yeah thirteen. Yeah, the oligarchic
butterfly is still hanging out with you, although friend it does doesn't seem thrilled
about the dark, gross, overgrown surroundings. There aren't like any flowers around.
You might still have the flowers, some of the flowers that you picked
yesterday, but they're not in the garden here. No, they're none in
the garden. Well, they're all given one of my big beautiful flower'd be
good. Okay, it's a critical fail. Hopefully he figures out what to
do with a critical fail. I will say that the butterfly flies off of
was he riding on your shoulders the hat? Oh right? Okay, so
he was in your little hat to give him a little flower? Yeah,
he can tell that the flower is old, having been picked yesterday, and
he's going to like fly out of your hat and just go land on the
fencing near the horse. Not flying away, just not interested in. I'm
going to chill over here. Yeah, okay, we'll come get to you
in a little bit. Okay, But as everybody yells to with their horses,
Kelonian is probably not one to want to tie up that horse. I
think that's fair and so, but we'll do a maybe an animal handling check
to see if he needs to clarify that with the horse or the horse will
stay around. Okay, does that sound okay? All right? So eighteen
animal handling jack. I think with an eighteen, the horse understands that you've
you've hopped off of it. There's another horse there that's kind of tied up
to the fencing. It knows that it's not supposed to just wander off.
Great, Yeah, Bella's gonna tie hers up. She's gonna like unsaddle it,
she's gonna like rub it. She's just like going to take a few
minutes to do the whole. Make sure there's feed poke, some feed out
for the other horses. It's very thoughtful of you. While Bella is doing
that, Clarice is also going to remove the bridle in the saddle and just
use a little of her water bottle to just rinse where the saddle was,
to make sure that there's no sweat or caked. So you've horses are put
up. You This door swung open as you wrote up. So the door's
been sitting there open for a couple of minutes. What do you do.
Clarise is going to do a history check, okay, And what she's gonna
check for is whether or not she remembers the like during the Malvo time,
like what the drum fanfare was that they used, because Clarice has her hand
drum and would like to announce their presence, okay, in the appropriate manner,
Okay, Yeah, roll in a history check. Big When in Rome
via fifteen for fifteen. You've definitely heard recordings of Malvo's entry music before.
It doesn't it involves more than a drum. But with your fifteen though,
you can you can definitely like get the rhythm of it. Yeah, so
Clarice is going to pull out the hand drum. Great, So Clarice's drawing
attention to all of you, and this door is open. What else are
we doing? Well, I'm gonna do maybe a perception check, see what's
going on there, perception of eight door opened. I'll do kind of check
sixteen. There is nobody in the immediate vicinity who opened that door, So
that door definitely was opened through some sort of magical effect, probably a proximity
effect that had been set up to open as you neared. Can we tell
if anyone seems to be observing us, either from windows or like just in
the area, like perception check, I'll use the help action. You can
have advantage of us natural twenty for a NAT twenty twenty four total. Okay,
ruckus does because it'll like beagal point this full body towards whatever it is
that Jill's about. I love it. It is clear to you that this
area is not uninhabited. You get a feeling like the hair is on the
back of your neck are sticking up. You're definitely being watched. If you
stand back and look up toward the windows, you'll notice that, like,
because this house has been abandoned for thirty years, most of the windows are
pretty clouded. But you see that one of the windows seems like it had
been recently wiped to allow somebody to view down into the courtyard. You also
hear some distant footsteps inside of the house. Ruckaus points and says, you
look this, and I'm just going to make a mental note of where in
the house layout that seems to be. Just so when we get inside,
as I'm trying to like read the layout of the house, just have to
keep a mental note of where that room is. Yes, okay, it's
like it's right over the front door. So if you gave like a classical
manner that has the center mass door with the the like long kind of like
the four by four stet episode, like there are rooms off to the sides.
So it'll be if you can remember, like if you have your bearings
in the building directly over the front door. Bell has the lack of self
preservation that can only come with being extremely privileged. Okay, and so she
is going to just sort of, you know, put on her best posture,
her air of dignity, and she's just gonna stride on in because the
door was opened, so clearly she was invited. Sure, and Clarice has
anticipated that this would occur and is using the hand drum to announce Bell's presence,
walking directly behind Belle. Okay, I'll get in on that action.
Are you you so you're gonna play You said it's like a march. Yeah,
yeah, a jaunty march because it is Bell. Oh okay. As
she's marching in, I'm going to keep an eye on our rear, just
make sure we don't get flames from behind. Probably very smart. So you
go in and the hall is empty, I'll be in the middle of the
group on high legs. Okay, there's nobody there to greet, but somebody
can do an investigation check here and see if there's anything that you notice in
this massive entry hall that you're standing in. Bill won't do that, but
she will like stop sort of in the center and she'll be like nothing,
and then we'd expect to me nothing. Yeah, it was worth a shot.
How's your investigations? My investigation is actually pretty good, but I'm still
like basically rear guard at all. Right, I'll do it, okay,
okay? Sixteen for sixteen. You can smell the distinct smell of matches that
have recently been put out, and they seem to be coming from an alcove
just off to your left, which is where the big winding staircase is.
What is it? Ruckus? Who little schnauzer point? Ruckus seems to be
pointing over that little alcove over there. What do you smell? Ruckus?
Twenty bark buttons. Now we'll go over to the alcove and check it out.
After entering the house, someone does, does the door automatically close behind
us? Or can I actually close the door? The door closes behind you
when it closes, I'm just gonna put my hand on the knob and see
if I can open it. Where If we're now locked in to an arcana
check ten, it doesn't give way easily. That's a d M non answer
if I ever heard one. So that's what you get. Yeah, so
Bell, you walked over to the alcohove where you saw the or where Ruckus
was pointing, And what you see are freshly lit taper candles there. You
can tell they're freshly lit because they're still very tall. There is evidence that
there have been other candles here, probably pretty recently, because there's a lot
of other like fallen wax and you know like candles get kind of chippy.
Well, yeah, and they also get like kind of dull because dust just
kind of is attracted to the wax. So there doesn't seem to be any
coating of dust on the fallen wax that's there. So it's pretty clear.
I don't I'm not going to make you roll for this. It's pretty clear
that like there have been candles lit in this place recently, and the candle
that is lit there has also just been lit. Can I ask what's the
what's the lighting situation overall? Well, so it's daytime and there is a
big stained glass dome over this entry that's letting in a lot of filtered light,
and there are windows that face out to the front gardens. The windows
are dirty, so you're still getting filtered light, but it's not dark,
sure, I guess, I mean, like for these candles, is it
like the candles are part of the lighting. Or is it like there's the
general light and then there's the candles. You know what I mean? I
do Kat just row me in an investigation Check twelve. You look to your
right, which is the direction. So you're standing to the left of the
stairs. As you look at your right, you're looking up the stairs,
and you see that there are more candles lit kind of cycling up the stairs.
Oh it's a path, perhaps, that's what she's just gonna say out
loud. But lead down by who? I wonder whom? Wa down by
whom? What do you all do? Uh? Clarice is going to continue
the drumming, but is going to move towards the stairs, and uh is
going to begin uh sort of litany that she's going to repeat as they walk
in, which she says, we are annissaries of the current people of Ore,
and we come seeking an audience with the Attache to the Premier in exile.
We are ms series of the people of Are and we come speaking an
audience with the Attache to the Premier in exile. Performance check. Can I
use the help? Action? Yeah? I think I think that. Yeah,
thank you for your help, Thank you for your help. Twenty three.
At the top of the stairs, another door swings open, and you
hear a voice that, as somebody who's grown up in political circles and as
somebody who studied a bit of history, you recognize as the voice of Lossen
Too. Core J says, come on in, y'all, I'm ready to
talk to you. So you're ascending the stairs and you've just heard the voice
of Luciendo Core inviting you to come on in. As we ascend, I'm
going to say to Clarice, you are still the chief negotiator, right,
Yeah, I have every bit of confidence in you I'm gonna give. I'm
giving Clarice Bartkans Okay. Well, so you you ascend the stairs and you
find yourselves in the three story library of the Alcazar Books from Florida. Ceiling
on three of the walls. The fourth wall is windows. That's where and
it's directly above the entry. So that is where when Andrew had looked up
and seen that one of the windows had been recently wiped clear, that was
the window. So from the exterior, how many stories high is this whole
building? Five? So there's the ground floor and then there are three three
stories of like living space and an attic, but the attic still ats height.
So the library is three whole stories. You can only access it from
the second floor. All right, So standing in the middle of the room,
you see Lucido o'corr, who's a tall Elven woman, and you recognize
her because even though none of you were alive during the autocracy, there's been
plenty of historical documentation. She's flanked on one side by a male goliath and
on the other side by a female dwarf. Somebody roll a perception check.
I'll use the help action. Okay, that's a fifteen. So the fifteen
because Ruccus helped you. You notice that Rucus is sniffing around the air and
kind of looks toward the heavy curtains that are on either side of the windows,
So it's safe to assume he notices something. There is more than we
are seeing. There is more than you are seeing. What what do you
do listen to? Is just standing there? I draw my sword, I
say, how now, all rat and I stabbed through the curtain. I
don't have a sword and I don't do that. I was gonna say,
are we rolling for initiative? Blend into the curtains. Listen. I saw
my chance to make a Shakespeare reference, and I took it. Although I
am incredibly small, I am going to attempt to do like half half curtsy
bell thing. Okay, I'm a little shortened squat. So that's why it's
attempt rather than certainty that I will succeed. Okay, it's a proportional.
Yeah yeah, I mean you're not. It's not like you're so top heavy
that you're gonna tip over or something. Yeah no, And you're not just
like a head on spin us. So I'm gonna implying, okay, slightly,
okay, towards Lyn Lucinda ocre and I'm going to cease my drumming and
cease my pronouncement of our purpose. And uh, using a history check,
I'm going to see if I remember with my eighteen the name of the equivalent
of like the Geneva Convention in this world, what like the the like are
there? Broker ring terms are there? Like for hostile party negotiations? Are
there any sort of like don't don't poison the diplomat rules? It was the
Schalimir Peace Accords. Now that being said, with your history check, you
will also remember that Ocorp had already been arrested by that point, So whether
she considers herself beholden to the accords, okay, So knowing all of that,
I am going to say, we come in the spirit of the Shalamere
Piece Accords, wherein we offer ourselves and our honest dealings to discuss with you
your recent missive and to offer terms of engagement. And in turn we ask
if you will abide by the laws currently enforced in Rivara, understanding that you
may dispute their foundation, but recognizing that basic understanding and respect is necessary to
all successful negotiations, wherewith we must operate openly in our dealings, have a
certain assumption of safety in order to proceed in good faith. Do you accept
these terms and understand what is being asked of you? Roll a perception check,
that's nineteen okay. So with your perception check, you notice that Lucinda
looks extremely bored but also slightly amused, And she's just going to stand there
and wait until you're finished. And you finished by asking her if she understands
and agrees, and she's gonna say, my darlin, if you're only here
to talk, let's talk as a show of good faith. The people of
Rivara have sent young, non governmentally employed emissaries. We are here to do
is to talk and offer terms. However, we don't want to die.
So could you like promise that's not on the table please, yes, as
a token of respect, we sent these amateur schmucks instead of sending the real
people. So in case you do want to kill somebody, we'll just lose
the amateur schmucks. This will be fine. And while Chloris was doing her
fiel, the quickly sizing up the bodyguards. Do they seem to be like,
I'll say more marshal like, are they armored? Do they are they
wearing visible do they have visible weapons on them? Or might they be more
subtle in their style of protection? They both have weapons. I mean,
if you want to roll to see if you notice anything else? Sure perception,
Yeah that's a neat Yeah, no, you just see that they both
have weapons. And Luciender looks back to Clearis and says, I don't believe
in making promises I can't keep, but I will tell you I have no
intention of harm and in of y'all as long as y'all don't try to harm
me. Oh excellent, because I'm a bard, and so is everyone.
Like we literally that's we're just here to talk and like, yeah, yes,
Louciner STIPs back and takes the measure of your party. Y'all are so
cute. What's the matter all of the older, more more experienced, more
qualified people stuck under that dome? Yes, no, not all of them.
But that's actually kind of why we're here. It's that we, as
the people of Rivara, have not had time to get all of the triarchs
that you have requested, and there are certain logistics which must be considered in
terms of the peaceful transfer of power, and you have given us less time
than the people feel we are able to, or rather not able than the
people feel we need in order to enact a peaceful and safe transfer. So,
yes, we're young, but we are authorized agents of the people,
and we come in peace to ask for an extension and for good faith gesture
regarding the energy dome such that we will be able to actually meet your terms.
But like, we can't, like we literally can't right now because they're
too far away loosen to at all of the rest of you, And says
anyone want to put that in common for me? Yeah, so we hear
you, and we totally would like to like fulfill your request, but we
need more time because like we literally can't right now. If you think about
it, sending recent graduates to ask for an extension is actually sending the masters
to work. We are so good at asking for extensions at this point,
why should I give you an extension? Well, I'll tell you. You
know what I gather from your message to us that you seemed to be in
a bit of a well, I would say desperation. Not desperation in a
sort of a weak sense, but a desperation in the sense of your willing
to go to extreme ends to get what you're looking for. You trapped a
lot of people under dome. Given the letter that you sent, I can
see that you want to really have a sort of a whole change in order.
It seems like to the to the to this country, world, this
place where we live. You seem to want to make a really big change,
And well, you know, I may not agree with it, but
certainly we can agree that if you want to make a big change to everything,
it's going to take a little bit of time. You can't just do
it. Don't want to rush it. Don't want to rush into it.
Just make it a big change all of a sudden. And if I may
interject, you know what happened last time there was a chansfer a power,
and you know that there are many constituencies that opposed the previous administration. And
in order to ensure that those constituencies are managed and do not create future issues,
we need time to seek out, communicate with, negotiate with, and
pacify all potential opposition. As you they're only understand do you understand? Question
mark? Also, like you already have everybody under the dome, you clearly
have a plan for what to do, like if we don't follow through,
so like, why not just give us the time. We're only asking for
one week, and we are operating with complete transparency. If you would like,
I can cast a zone of truth only with your permission, of course,
but we are here fully transparently just to offer our best cooperation and a
request for an extra week. I hear you talk about the last time there
was a transfer of power. You could call it that. I'll call it
the overthrow of our country's premiere, who you then strung up on the steps
of this very house. Now I'm gonna ask you just for a moment.
I am very interested and I would like to hear all of the experience that
you had, because I am sure that your feelings are valid. But I
do want to remind you that I am twenty two years old and legit was
not there. None of us were. I don't mean you specific I mean
your people, right, But like I, as you are dealing with us.
We are the future of the country, and it is important that you
understand that as emissaries, we are operating on behalf of the people of Urvara.
Ruckus begins to chase his own tail, and as representors of the people,
there are many many individuals, families, even cities that were not involved
in the last situation. The last situation put me in a dark prison cell.
The last situation killed my best friend. Oh my god, Oh my
god. That like, I I'm so sorry. I don't know why your
best friend died. My best friend is Phineas Melville. My god, I've
heard of him, but like, that's terrible. He's like he's okay,
though, right, he's back, so like, oh he is most assuredly
back. So so you know, like, wait, I thought you said
he was killed. I'm confused he was executed. That doesn't mean he didn't
come. You got better, So like you're best friend's back, but you're
mad at people who weren't there. I'm just trying to understand, like truly,
like speak your truth, babe, like you do. She's gonna snap
her fingers and uh roll me a personal saving throw. He was a twenty
three. Okay, well, you feel for a moment your lips sort of
start to stick together, but then they released. She was trying to get
you to shut up, babe, Babe, I'm ready to listen. I
don't understand why you keep calling me babe. It's like I would hope that
you would also feel comfortable calling me like lot one or suret oh, but
like I would like to feel like you and I like we're gonna understand each
other and so like it is appropriate to call me short bless your heart.
Yeah, I mean to be fair, you've been calling us Darling's and like
seems like you sort of put nicknames out on the table. Yeah, so
babe, speak yo truth. What would it take to give us an extra
week to consider sort of come to an agreement about your demands? Your accident
you're from the South. If you're from the same part of the country as
I am, you know how important it is for folks to keep their words.
Oh well, I do agree. It's important for folks to keep their
words. The folks of this country swore an oath of fealty to Phineas Malveaux.
They didn't keep their word. Hmm. You know, I bet if
we were being honest with each other, you and I sort of keep an
eye word to be honest here. I'm sure you might. You might confess
to maybe not always keeping your word to phineas I did, but to like
the niche you are talking about. I don't remember promising y'all anything. Well,
you know, as I mentioned before, as I asked, what would
it take? What would it take for you to give us an extra extra
week? To consider? I can give you all access VIP passes. Well,
yes, not yet save it. What are you offering? You have
all the power? What do you want? Y'all know what I want?
Excuse me, we are asking very specifically what you want in exchange or one
week extension in exchange for one week extension. Yeah, that's a mighty generous
offer. You're asking me to make you. Uh, I think you are
not understanding how much work we're offering to do a message. Okay, so
let's let's just be clear. When you say hostage, do you mean literally
anyone that you could hold? Also, like, don't you already have like
a lot of hostages in a dome? Yeah, like all of them?
Like those are some quality hostages. They're collateral, is it? Belle is
gonna like look at Clarice and be like hostage is right though? There is
that? Yes, Okay, you are correct. Okay, help me understand,
help me help you. The folks in the dome either they don't matter
at all, or they matter a whole hell of a lot. But either
way, if the dome gets destroyed tomorrow, I only see that help in
my cast. I want a valuable hostage, okay, but like valuable to
bring me Thistleodora. Okay, So how much time are you offering us to
get this solo Dora? Convince her to come here and then leave her with
you, and then go begin doing the work that we have asked for a
minimum of seven days to complete of convincing the many potential opponents of this move
to get on board. Because I would like to be fully upfront with you
that, like, I am good at managing my time, but there is
a lot of travel involved in this request. All right, Well that was
a very bad role on Lucinda's part, which is good for us, right,
it's good for you. So Lucinda looks at you and she sees you're
clearly not standing down, even though she's pretty much tuned out most of what
you've got to say. She says that you're not standing down. She says,
I'll tell you what we'd originally, I asked for all three of the
triarchs to surrender themselves by midnight tonight. If this low doorra walks through the
front door of the Alcazar by midnight tonight, we'll give you your week starting
from the moment oh door enters? Sure? And are we measuring a week
like it? Can? Can you be precise? Like like you know,
like when somebody says like, I'll give you a week like some people mean
just like the business days and some people include the weekends seven moon rises cool?
And when Thistle o'dorra comes, are you suggesting that nobody stays here to
like, you know, communicate with us? She should come alone? But
like just like no sending stone like no, like, how are we going
to communicate with you about our progress? If you just have like thistle?
Could I could we like leave somebody nearby who could just like, you know,
talk to you sometimes broll me a history check. That's twenty four.
Lucinda gestures to this black sort of opalescent rectangle set in the wall. You
recognize it as an echo shard. Echo shards were telecommunications devices that were installed
into every building in Uva during the Malvau administration, and they were basically used
for official broadcasts for Malva at least once a day, sometimes more so.
Think like Big Brother. After the fall of the autocracy, some very enterprising
members of the resistants who were helping to form the new government saw that this
technology existed everywhere and decided that what they should do is basically start a radio
broadcast network in Udva. Currently there are only three stations. There is a
news broadcast station, there's a music station that plays more contemporary music, so
music from the last thirty years but trending toward like maybe the last ten years.
And then there's a station that plays music that predates the autocracy, so
music from sixty years ago or more, and Lucinda is pointing out to this
to indicate that this system might also actually be a way of her being able
to show you, or to prove to you, that Odorra is still alive
while being held as a hostage. Okay, I think I'm picking up what
you're putting down, but I just want to check that you're asking me to,
on good faith trust to you that you're not going to magic Adorra's voice,
and that feels like a very big leap of faith when you're currently holding
everybody's loved ones at more than half the government under an energy dome. Because
like I mean by like that is some proper magic use. Well done,
very impressive hashtag boss bitch. What if I told you that I'd allow a
reporter from the Echo Shard news network to come here at six am every day
to interview Odorra and broadcast it to the nation, I would say that sounds
like a pretty solid opera. Are you telling me that? Or is that
just like a hypothetical, like giving a thumbs up, like take it,
take it if you think Odorra will agree to those terms, sure, okay,
but like maybe you've already said that you don't feel like you've made any
promises to the nation that you have not broken. And so I'm gonna ask
you, girl to a girl, like can I get your word? You
have my word that Odorra will not be harmed for seven moon roses starting to
not but she has to come alone, Okay. I mean that there was
another part which was like that you would you wouldn't you know, do anything
for those seven moon rises in terms of like the nation is are you?
Are you on board? I promise you that I will not do anything during
those seven days. I don't appreciate your choice of words, so I'm going
to offer you some language, and if you are willing to use the language,
then I will consider your word granted. Repeat after me. If you
feel comfortable, I loosenda okor she just stares at you impassively as the attache
to the premiere in exile malthough she's still staring at you. Speak on behalf
of all supporters of Malvo and Malvo in any form he may take. And
I pledge that we will afford the people of Urvara a full seven moon rises
before we enact any of the actions we have threatened to perform in order to
exchange the current administration and the vise of the triarchs for the premier in exile.
I told you at the beginning I don't believe in making promises I can't
keep. But I will tell you that I will not enact any further action
on behalf of Malvo those seven moon rases if Odra comes here willingly and alone.
Okay, But like, is somebody else going to kill our families under
the dome, because like that's what we're getting at here. Your families are
safe for now, for now, but like for the seven moon rises or
until midnight tomorrow, your families, your families. She looks at you,
she studies you for a moment, your family. It's just fun. Okay,
But like you still have not assured us of anything, So I don't
feel like we're dealing openly right now. Do persuasion check, Okay. So
that gets me to a fourteen, and I'm going to add my Bartic inspiration.
I'm at a nineteen. I will not sign off on any harm coming
to your families. Has anything already been put into motion magically or otherwise?
I mean, the dome is magic, you know. I got that.
Thank you. As long as your people don't try to end the dome.
I promise that for those seven days, no harm is going to come to
anyone inside of the dome. And what about outside? I promise that I
won't sign off on anything. And you haven't already I haven't already? Can
me? Just like, is there like a room where we could just like
very quickly touch base with each other, because like, yes, I add
the chief negotiator, but like we're a team. She looks at the dwarf
beside her and says, Millie, you want to show him to the parlor,
And the dwarf beckons all of you to follow her down the hall to
a smaller room, and as she exits, you hear the door locking behind
you. I think it's seems like progress to me. I don't know if
our leader is going to go for it, but at least we got something.
She's bluffing. She has no leverage. Which of us has no leverage?
Or you're talking about me? Because I feel like that went really well.
She has no leverage. Do you really believe Malvow is back? I
believe that there will always be undercurrents of descent in this country, no matter
what the administration exactly. If Malveaux we're ready to reclaim power, why wouldn't
he just do it? Why this elaborate show. Okay, so that's really
nice and all, but like, my family is under the dome, so
I'd really like for whatever we do to not involve my family getting portal to
a different dimension in like twenty four hours or so. And to be clear,
we also are tacitly agreeing to not attempt to remove the dome. That
was very clearly a part of what she said was an explicit though. So
no, she definitely fell bell like I'm telling you she said it. Yeah,
and like I think that is a massive concession on our part. So
thoughts, we don't really know what the plan is. Right, we're buying
time, but we don't really know what we're buying time for accurate. Yes,
we are here to show good faith and requests time. Ruck is really
a perception check done. Okay. So, Andrik, are you saying we
should not agree to these terms, because like, if so, what's your
suggestion? I just don't understand why Thistle would agree to this, right,
but this is not for us to decide. We have come to negotiate terms
and Lisanda has told us her terms, and so like should should we We'll
take the terms back to Thistle, but I think we should be prepared for
her to not agree. Okay, Okay, I understand that. Yes,
do you have concerns? No, great bell, Yeah, are kind of
important in this because like your family would have to stay under the dome.
Yeah, you good with that. I mean, I'm better with it than
them being plane shifted. Okay, Okay, and Colonian, you feel like
this is a good deal. Well, I don't know if it's such a
good deal, but I think it's the deal we get, and I think
we got to bring it back. Okay, wherever you are, people,
I'm sure you are listening, Can we please go give you a massage to
this all? Now? The door immediately opens and the dwarf who led you
into the room is standing there, and she just walks you towards the staircase.
I'm gonna get out my hand, drum play yourselves out. Yes,
I'm gonna do the same processional, but as a recessional. So I'm just
gonna shift anything that was major to minor. I'm gonna fly it backwards.
We're gonna walk backwards out the door. Dromming along. All right, walk
in vibe it, walk down the stairs unimpeded. The door swings open as
you approach it. You step outside. Your horses are still there. There's
something else there too. Out of the shadows, a large figure emerges and
racas I'd like you to rull me another perception. Check not your ears,
perka. Your hackles start to stand up a little bit, your tail puffs
up. You recognize the scent of another dog folk stepping out of the shadows.
Finally, can I guess it goes you dog folk? Question mark all
comes back. You all made fun of me for asking everybody I met it
was off for this moment, I stand by it. Stepping out of the
shadows, you see what looks like for for us as players, a large
version of a husky. She has gray and white fur, and as she
gets closer you see that she has two different colored eyes. Knowing that Rugus,
you would immediately know that this is Absolo Nova, who is the same
the best bow that came before you but is still in your generation. Bards
On. Seeing this, is there anything in particular like would anybody like to
to take it from from a distance? Of course, she looks a little
scary, but like, would you like to roll to see if there's anything
that you notice? O Kelonia must know if she's got bark buttons. No,
oh no, Ruckus is just stupid, sid stupid. Clarice uh knows
a decent amount of the history of the dog folk from her parents. I'm
not sure if it requires a check or not, but she would recognize that
the heterochromia as the indicator and so uh. I think her next move is
to try to like perceive how Rugus is responding and sort of follow any protocols
that Rucus knows in terms of greeting. Okay, at twenty plus three Ruggas
bows uh so deep doggy bow Clarie bow wow, bow wow to the beast
bow. Clarice is gonna curtsy and sort of eyeball everybody else in the party
to say, like, this is the thing that we should do out of
respect. Do the rest of you bower curtsy? Yes? I bow wow.
Bell is going to curtsy, so see you curtsey. Oh yeah,
for sure, not a full bow, but definitely deep head nod. The
dog folk drops down onto all fours and approaches you and circles around ruggus,
it's sniffs's butt. Ruckus wags his tail and goes around to the to the
best bows bum and hesitates and look for a moment, gives the most sniff.
What do I smell? That's that's a twenty. You smell exhaustion.
Oh she's been running all day? Are I think you smell a lack of
nutrition? Oh she's got more brains and you smell blood? Oh? When
what she ate? Or who? As she circles back around to face you,
are you still on your hind legs or did you drop down? I'm
dropped down in the bow, so I'm on okay, okay yea. So
she circles around. She sits right in front of you, and you can
see that the tip of one of her ears is missing, as is one
of her canine teeth. As she sits in front, I'm gonna duck a
little bit just to make sure my head is lower than hers as a side
of respect. She looks around and she is going to speak with animals in
reverse on all of you, so that you can understand what she is about
to say from her perspective, We are the animals. Yes, I mean
technically like technically the spell is used for communicating with beasts, and because dog
Folk a half beast, it doesn't really work to be cast on you,
but shouldn't the way that she is casting it, with her special palette and
abilities. She's casting it in such a way that it gets rid of the
need for Ruckus's bark buttons, because otherwise she would only be able to communicate
with him because she doesn't have bark buttons, and that would be five minutes.
Who as she does that, she is going to come up to you
and kind of nuzzle into your cheek where your eye patches Ruckus and flip your
eye patch up. And this is the first time that any of the rest
of you have seen that Rucus also has HETEROCHROMEA. Rucus has two different color
Here's the first time I knew that she knew that I had to roll CHROMEA.
Oh my goodness, there's a big day. Bell does not ask,
because Bell just doesn't. Clarice becomes increasingly nervous because Clarice did suspect this,
having seen Rugus use magic, and she understands this is not a thing that
happens in this world. There's not supposed to be two of them at once.
Do you know who I am? Oh? Yeah, I do.
Would you like to tell your friends? Yeah, this is the best bow,
the one for my generation. She's been taken under the wing of the
previous bust bow and has been training for her whole life. I'm sorry the
what she's like the most important doc folk. Yeah, most of us are
non magical, but once in a generation there's one born with heterochromia. That's
the mark of magic. And she looks at Rucas and she says twice for
us, I don't know what happened. I'll be trying to keep your ticket
this whole time. I'm so nervous. I'm trying my best because the police
again recus. Oh, I was waiting for you to speak with animals on
me, but you didn't. That's okay, we finally got there. So
you're like the sovereign ruler of the dog folk. Rules are pretty strong.
She's more like the general, like like when in battle or strategy. Okay,
but the the best if you will, the best power is the paragon
of all of the dog folk. Okay. So you're the paragon and you're
the spare paragon. I don't know I was born Okay, why are you
here? Have you heard about melvow? Oh boy, halfway, we can't
stop hearing about him. Tell us what you mean? He's back? Okay,
but like him him as far as my intelligence knows him. Him and
your notes is very intelligent, because you're the best bow so we trusted.
Six days ago, a large group of supporters of Malvo arrived in Pushtin.
Oh no, that doesn't sound good. They're trying to enlist the dog folk
to their cause. Oh that's terrible idea. Dog folk are gonna say yes
to that unless they bring bananas. Unless they bring burnanas, that might be
well, don't tell them that, you guys, You guys continue, please
rock because your family has been taken. Oh whoa, I don't know by
Malvo's people somewhere ruckus. We need you, Okay, where should I go?
I'll be hopeful. We need you back in Poochtin fighting for us.
Okay, what can we do? I think this is a dog folk thing.
But like do you need food or anything right now? Or like healing?
Like I can't heal, so just like you know, but like do
you have burrs in your coat that I could pluck out? Or something I
haven't eaten since I left poochtin. Oh goodness, do you want some bananas?
We got plenty of them. I mean that would be a start,
a whole bunch of bananas. And she she looks at them, and she
unpeels one of the bananas and shoves in her face. And then just because
it's like the best thing she's ever eaten, she does the same thing like
four or five times, just as quickly as she possibly can, just shoving
bananas into her face. Oh no, they're so good, right, won't
you put your cat straw? Okay, So, like, I get that
you're super hungry, but if you haven't eaten in a long time, then
it's really important to eat slowly so that you don't Bell just goes into full
like party group mom mode and like is coaching her through like how to eat
so that she like keeps it down and Abslolenova snarls at you, constitution,
I'll be able to do the saving. Clariceus is going to offer her water
skin too, the best spow. She takes it and drinks thirstily from it
and hands it back to you empty. Keilonian should have shifts himself in order
to hide Angel let's do a sleight of hand check there. Eleven. She
looks at you and notices that you're kind of hiding something. She's it's fine,
I'm a vegetarian. She looks over at Rucas and she says, I
need you to understand how serious this is. Rucas, I understand very well.
We're gonna go save my family and save everybody in Pochin. You might
not make it back. Oh, do what I can to save my family
and serve Poochin and serve the best bow. Say your goodbye son. Okay,
well, I'm gonna go to Pooch from everybody. I hope you can
find a way to meet with Malveaux and maybe talk him down and or maybe
just kill him. If that's not gonna work, I'm trying to try to
do my thing over Pooch and help with the best maul over there, and
well, I think I gotta go north now. Tell that cripuladd inside.
I'm sorry, but I couldn't come back because I don't think you do.
Clarice is gonna reach into her pack and remove the final bananas and hand them
off to Ruckus and then uh reach for a paw to just sort of give
it a squeeze if he offers it back, Rucus puts his paw out.
Clarius's tiny hand sinks under the weight of Rucus's paw, and she attempts to
squeeze, but really it just sort of ends up padding in a flipper like
motion. Glorius Colonion, You've always been a great friend of Booth. Were
all life studies helping me up, you know, put my studies and my
homework and stuff when I wasn't doing a lot great, So thanks so much.
Don't be afraid to be the best, because to me you are.
Rucus sits down and gonna miss you Ruckus. Lugas then want you to take
this. Calonian takes out his hands made mug and hands it. Oh,
thank you. I gotta give your something to b He looks up and he
takes off his bicockett green hat with the orange Oriole feather and hands it to
Colony and then says, don't tell Angel where that feather came from, but
I hope you enjoy the hat. Lucas, thank you very much. I'm
gonna wear it right now. He takes off his regular hat that he wears.
It's like kind of a cowboy hat and puts on your hat instead.
It doesn't have any magical properties. It's just a cool hat. Anybody else
have any farewells? I would like to say, I feel like Belle and
Andrek are like sort of standing on the side, like did you know he
could talk? Yeah? I mean it is under a spell, sure,
But like Bell is just like you know, like Clarice and Keilony and clearly
had like this releashy ship with Ruggas and Belle is just like, oh he
can talk, talk talk. This is just a revelation. Sorry, I'm
still processing the actually comprehending rather than just hearing bark buttons. It's okay.
I understand it's probably a big train for you, But I've had a very
vibrant inner life this whole time. What you don't actually know is that all
of you are actually talking dog folk right now. Amazing. I love that.
I suspect before this is over, we're all going to have to save
our own families or each other. So take care of yourself and come on
back. And I'm gonna cast minor illusion and make an olive ark butterfly appre
on. Oh but yours my friend over there He gestures over to the agut
brother, but it's been waiting patiently on the fence, says go on,
Bananas, ready to go to put with us? Animal handling check right alight?
Can I I feel like Bell probably just has a flower somewhere on her
person? Sure? Can Bell do the help action by giving ruckus the absolutely
Oh that's much better? Seventeen Banana's the oligarch butterfly flutters over to you and
lands on the flower that Bell handed you, And then, because you don't
have the hat anymore, kind of floats up onto your head and nuzzles behind
one of your ears. Oh, that's a great place to ride, or
be a great view of some great breezes. Shall we let's go? Do
you want to sing my favorite song with me? It's called all the Best
Bowels? God of Whoa Whoa? They trot off into the woods. Can
the rest of us join in to sing them off? You are welcome to
five six. You watch Rucus and Absolonova disappear into the distance, and you
remember that you still have a lot of work to do, and get back
on your horses and start to head back hoops. All barns is created,
GMed and directed by Jillian Ashley Blair Ivy. This episode was produced, edited,
and sound designed by Nate Runkle. Oops All bart stars Ashley Banks as
Bell Cernameo and Coleman as Clarice Sauerkloud, Ross Curry as Andrek Harrowhold, Chris
Kleinecki as Pooched and Ruckus, Bob Killian as Kilonian Stumps, featuring Paige Clinecki
as the voice of the bark Buttons. The oops all Bard's theme song is
by Bob Killian with additional lyrics by Jillian Ashley Blair Ivy. Oops All Bards
is executive produced by the porch Room. We are part of the porch Room
Network on spreaker Prime. For more information, visit oopsalbards dot com. Thanks
and be sure to subscribe to oops all Bards on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
or your podcatcher of choice. We'll see you next time. Howl it go
Well, We're sure you can guess oops it sal bars Oh