Speaker 1: Hi, this is Dan from Legends from the Fireside. You're
listening to Tale of the Manticor. The following podcast is
intended for a mature audience. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome
back to Tale of the Manticor Season three. Like the
creature from which it takes its name, Tale of the
Manticor is a mashup, a cross breeding between two different
species of storytelling. Here you will find the unpredictability of
old school paper and dice games with the story craft
of a dark fantasy novel. No character is sacred, and
none will be spared if the dice decide their fate
is at hand. According to Lare, the Tale of a
Manticor is barbed with cruel iron spikes. There will be
much pain in the days ahead. Last time on Tail
of the Manticor, in chapter four, Achillia, Cord, and Robin
begin their quest in earnest. They set off headed north
in search of a person named Otdoc. Their first encounter
is mercifully harmless. A bold raccoon trust to steal their
food at night, but Cord, who doesn't sleep, spots it
and the pieces easily shew it away. Their next encounter
is less straightforward. The very next day, the trio run
into a solitary human. He's filthy and appears not to
have eaten in some time. Achillie shares a bit of
food with him, and the two decide to make camp
together as night is falling. In the morning, Achillie asks
the man, whose name is Edo, if he knows any
one by the name of Odoc. Incredibly, he says he does.
Near the end of the last episode, I recognized a
good opportunity to use my current mythic event, meaning create
the intellectual to guide the story along. Ito has no
idea who Audoc is. The lie he believes is justified
by his need at the moment. He needs Achilia and
her companions not just for food, but for the safety
of their numbers. Achilia, for her part, is guileless and
not used to dishonesty. She's no fool, but her inexperience
makes her gullible, and she takes Odo at his word.
After all, he's telling her precisely the thing she wants
to hear. Before returning to the narrative, I need to
roll up a new event, meaning to put in the hopper.
Let's see what do seventy eight and forty three give
me okay, it's cruelty competition. M no immediate use for this,
but that's no problem. It gets set aside until it's needed.
Since I have the action paused, I should take this
chance to make my roles for tomorrow's hex crawl. Here's
a D twenty for the weather, A fifteen A beautiful
day for traveling stumble Upon, while I'll be damned, I've
got a one that means something bad's going to happen,
and I already know what it's going to be. Here's
a hint. I'm not going to need a wandering counter
roll for the day. Chapter five, Part one, Day four,
mid afternoon, mythic event meaning cruelty competition. Party status ACHILLEA
four at A four hit points, Edo four at A
four hit points supplies. The companions have four portions of
food and six portions of water. Remaning spells available. Achillia
has memorized shrink Edo's limited charm was beginning to wear thin.
The man huffed and complained peevishly about minor discomforts, even
though the weather was fine and the going was easy.
He also kept looking back over his shoulder, which made
Achillia nervous too. Furthermore, Edo talked too much and he
smelled bad. But he had offered to take her north
to see Ottoc, and Achilie would have put up with
much worse for such help as he was able to offer.
The quartet entered a lightly wooded area that eventually grew
dense with thickly clustered oak and boxwood trees. Odo stole
another glimpse behind them, and Achillia's patience broke. Would you
stop looking over your shoulder every twenty minutes you've jump
in shadows? Edo? What are you so worried about? Anyway?
It'do bit his lip before answering.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 1: Remember I said I had been traveling with someone.
Speaker 2: We had a falling out rance.
Speaker 1: What kind of Achillie did not own a bow. So
it was not the sound of a drawn string that
made her stop in her tracks so much as the
awareness that Edo at her side had ceased walking. When
she looked at him, his eyes were wide and hid
a fairer look on his face, like a trapped animal.
Achillie quickly scanned the tree line in the direction of
the sound had come, but the way the sunlight dappled
and played in the foliage made it impossible to make
out anyone hidden within the greenery. At that moment, a
voice rang out, although it came from somewhere directly in
front of her, still she could not see its owner.
Speaker 2: Whoever you are, We have three arrows trained on your party,
but we only want the man who wronged us. You
can walk away. It's not your lives that we've come for.
Speaker 1: She said, you are traveling with someone. Achillea hissed at Itito,
Did I say that? Stammered the other in a whisper.
How do we know there are three of you? Achillea
suddenly found herself calling into the woods. She could feel
Robin tensing on her head, about to spring off and
fly away. A sudden movement at this moment would not
be good, she thought. The reply came after a momentary delay.
Speaker 2: Ask your new friend, he can tell you.
Speaker 1: In the disembodied voice. Achilia stared at Itto well. He
looked at her out of the corners of his eyes
and nodded guiltily. Achilia felt a flush of anger at
Edo for having misled her. What will you do with
this man if we walk away and leave him to you?
Another pause from the forest. Then his life is forfeit.
Speaker 2: Choose quickly now you can't hold back this bow string forever.
Speaker 1: Dramatis persona Edo two days ago. It was absolutely unfair
because it wasn't his fault, not really, and accidents did
happen after all. This is what Edo told himself while
he stopped to catch his breath hiding within the brambles
of a particularly inhospitable thorn bush. He'd been on the run,
stopping periodically for hours. Earlier that morning, he'd woken up
to the noise of his three fellow outlaws wretching a
little ways off from their campsite. As Itto was the
only one who was not ill, he did not take
long for his companions to draw the same conclusion. The
mushrooms he had gathered as part of their meal the
night before must have been poisonous. Edo had tried to protest,
saying that he had eaten them as well and just
as many, but they had not believed him. Perhaps the
mistrust was due to his joining their group last. He
had always been on the ouge of them. Edo suspected
that they also blamed him for the failure of their
last caper. When the vomiting stopped. The accusations began. There
was yelling, insults hurled in both directions, and then the
knives came out. He had run for his life and
they had pursued by the hatefield. Look on his former allies,
waxy and pale faces, do did not expect them to
give up. He had to keep going. His throat was
still raw in his heart yet beat a rapid tattoo
in his chest, but there was nothing for it. If
he didn't keep moving, they would catch him. And while
he had nothing to defend himself with, not even a dagger,
they had knives, swords, and bows. Chapter five, Part two,
Day four, mid afternoon, mythic event meaning cruelty competition Party
status ACHILLEA four at A four hit points Edo four
at A four hit points supplies. The companions have four
portions of food and six portions of water. Remaining spells available.
Achilie has memorized shrink. Achilia's mind raced through the limited options.
They could flee or fight, or she and Court could
walk away. If they fled, they all might well get away.
These woods were thick and would provide plenty of cover.
Fighting would be foolish. Edo was unarmed, she had no
combat skill, and Court couldn't take on three humans alone.
The third option was also problematic. To surrender Edo, despite
the questionable morality of such a course, would result in
her losing her best chance to finding Audoc. It was
possible that Otdoc was very famous. That would explain how
Edo knew of him, and would suggest that others could
help in the future. But what if she had stumbled
across the exact person she needed. Maybe Fate was screaming
in her ear? Was she being deaf to it? She
flicked her eyes at Cord and saw that he was
waiting on her decision. She felt oddly alone and suddenly
wished she were back at home, but there was no
one to make choices for her there either. It was
up to her. Earlier in the episode, I rolled a
natural one when my stumble upon roll, one of the
roles I make each day to prepare for a hex crawl.
A natural one indicates that something really bad will happen,
something life threatening. It took me no time to decide
what that would be. Edo's ex partners, also Outlaws, have
been tracking them and have managed to overtake them and
set up an ambush. Edo had mentioned that he'd fallen
out with his previous companions, and that part was true,
but he was vague about their number. Achillia's party is
in a lot of trouble because there are three outlaws
hidden in the forest pointing arrows at them. Achillia, Cord,
and Edo can't really make an effective attack because they
can't see the enemy. Ultimately, they could run where they
can surrender. Akilia is fairly nigh, but even she doesn't
really believe that Ido's old allies will just let them go.
At best, they would steal her food and other valuables,
maybe even her spell book. That would be disastrous. So
it would seem that flight is the best of the
three bad options. The danger of the natural ones stumble
upon is not just in that this encounter happens. The
penalty is really expressed in the current no win situation,
where even the best option puts every one of them
in mortal danger. Achilia didn't say anything. She didn't yell
out for her companions to run, or give any indication
by her posture or orientation to suggest her intentions. She
simply dashed off to the left, ducking low and hoping
desperately that Chord would follow and that the archers would
be taken by surprise by her sudden flight. Her keen
ears picked up multiple twangs as bow strings were released.
Then she heard the crashing sound of Cord and Edo
as they fell in right behind her. She sprinted, jagging
left and right, deliberately choosing the thickest oaks to put
between herself and the archers injury combat. Achillia runs as
fast as she can through the woods, hoping the trees
will provide good cover against enemy bowfire. They will, but
not before the archers get to loose a volley of arrows.
Because the pieces have so few hit points, each one
of them will face death here. Even Cord, who I've
decided will have six hit points, could be killed outright.
It's time to make some rolls. Edo has an armor
class of ten. Achillia has a Dexterity bonus, which gives
her an ac up eleven, and Chord because he's made
of wood. As an ac of I'll say fourteen, Robin
is not a target. The archers will each take a
minus two penalty because even at close range, the woods
do provide some cover. The first arrow is meant for Edo,
a twelve are better on a D twenty hits. The
roll a seventeen hits damage will be four points. That's
it for him. Edo has been shot in the back
and killed. Not what I'd call a good start. Chord
is next. The archer firing at him will need to
roll a sixteen or better. Here goes. A fourteen is
a good roll, but not good enough. The arrow's zips
harmlessly past Chord's shoulder. Now for the role I'm dreading.
I've already bonded with Achillie and would hate to lose her.
Here the arrow speeding towards Achillea needs a thirteen or
better to hit A ten. Sure, the young half elf
and her friend hear their new companion go down, but
there's no helping that. They need to save their own
skins and do not even break stride as they bolt
through the forest, arms and legs pumping madly. At this point,
the combat is over, at least for now. I'm going
to make a reaction roll to see if the outlaws
will want to pursue. I think since they got what
they wanted that they probably will not, but they might
all add a plus two to the role given the
circumstances on two D six, higher is better at ten
on the dice. Yeah. Even with that bonus, Ito's former
companions will not give chase. They were out for revenge,
and I guess they got satisfaction. Chapter five, Part three,
Day four, late afternoon mythic event meaning cruelty competition party
status Achillea four out of four hit points, Cord six
out of six hit points. Supplies The companions have four
portions of food and six portions of water. Remaining spells available.
Achilie has memorized shrink. Achillie ran and ran and ran
until her throat and lungs burned and her heart felt
like it would burst. She had no idea which direction
she was headed. She only wanted to put as much
distance between her and Cord and the archers, while keeping
to the woods as much as possible. As a result,
when Achillia could go no further and they were finally
forced to stop, she had no idea where they were.
The half elf bent over double with her hands on
her knees, sucking wind. It took some time before she
could manage a word. Do you think she didn't really
need to finish her sentence. Cord could just about read
her mind. After so many years of companionship, he knew
that she was wondering if Edo had been killed. He
bowed in his way of nodding. Maybe he isn't there,
Maybe we should go back. Neither of them had ever
seen someone be killed before. Technically they still hadn't, but
despite her words, Akilia was pretty sure that they had
heard Itto die. Cord twisted his body back and forth,
meaning no, they should not go back, and Achilia did
not argue about it further. She felt strangely exhilarated by
having been so close to death herself, but she was
equally frustrated her best chance of finding Adoc was gone. Suddenly,
she pinched her eyes shut and let out a moan.
How could she have been so stupid? Itto had never
known about Adoc. That had been a lie, just like
the number of his companions had been a lie. Of course,
all he had wanted from her was her food and
the improved safety of their company. She shook her head,
angry with herself, and bunched her little hands into fists.
She would have to be more careful, less trusting in future.
She opened her eyes. God, I'm a fool. The bland
slightly smiling face of her companion looked back. Just then
a fluttering of wings and a peep from a nearby
boxwood told a Chillie that Robin had found them. At
least that was good news. Come Robin, the stuffed bird
wing down from the branch to settle once again on
top of her head. I'm glad you found us. I
don't know what we would have done if we'd lost you.
A trill came in reply, and she felt the hard
little bird feet on her scalp as they gripped her hair.
All right, let's keep going between the lines. You know,
I think I'm going to need to start a map.
We can begin with this story's starting point. This is
a place called Willow Vale, Ald. They chose to build
his home here because of its remoteness, no doubt, but
also because the valley had a river that, because of
its steady current and fordable shallows, teemed with fish. Besides this,
Willow Vale is also a beautiful locale, with plenty of
wild flowers, fruiting trees, and a pleasantly rolling landscape. To
the north where Achillie met Edo is a place called
Summer Hill. Summer Hill wasn't named for any unique features.
It was just a name that Aldveay thought sounded well.
Going further north, we leave the circle of protection that
Aldvey's presence once provided. I'll call the woods where Achillie
and her companions can currently be found the finch Wood.
On account of the number of that type of bird
living in its canopy, I think the Finchwood will end
in an escarpment where the land sharply drops along a
miles long line running southwest to northeast. By the time
Achillies party reaches this feature of the landscape, the sun
will be low in the sky and trouble will be
miles behind them. Chapter five, Part four, Day four sunset
mythic event meaning cruelty competition, party status Achillee four at
a hit points supplies. The companions have three portions of
food and five portions of water remaining spells available. Achillia
has memorized shrink. The low sun made the trees cast
long shadows as Achillie, Cord, and Robin emerged from the
finch Wood and found themselves looking down from the lip
of an escarpment that ran away to their left and right.
As far as the eye could see. Below was a
grassy plain whose surface rippled and dimpled in the light wind,
revealing a secret legion of pink clover blossoms. Achillie felt
more settled than she had before. It had taken her
all day to stop shaking, and she still had the
impulse to look back over her shoulder. It was mad
to think that the people who had tried to kill
her would have pursued her this far, but she could
not fully banish the notion. She decided to stop for
the night here, where there is plenty of cover, and
she was at a good vantage for at least the
terrain in front of them, if not behind. Once again,
she did not wish to risk a fire, but there
was no need for one. She still had a few
days worth of dried provisions, and the summer evening, with
its chirping crickets and katy DIDs, was warm and comfortable.
She and Court found a thick tree to lean against
and sat in silence while twilight became night and the
fireflies came out. She tried to control her breathing and
meditate in the way Aldvee had told her to calm herself,
and truly think of nothing. This was a skill that
did not come quickly or easily, but she had been
practicing for years, and so even considering all the troubles
she had recently faced, or perhaps because of them, she
eventually found sleep. It's time to make the rolls for
the next day's hex crawl. The first roll will be
for weather on a D twenty. A fourteen means the
mild weather continues stumble upon. I hope we don't see
another one here. That role has already it cost me
a potential player character. Here goes eleven. That means nothing
exceptional will happen or be discovered. Of course, that doesn't
preclude the chance for a wandering encounter. A four to
six on a D six indicates there will be one
the role. I've got a one. I don't think it
would make for a particularly gripping audio drama to narrate
a day's worth of travel through pleasant weather in which
nothing is encountered. So I'll just update my map and hmm,
I seem to have forgotten how many miles a person
can walk in a day in D and D. Hang on,
I'll check the internet. Okay, I'm back and it seems
like the official number is eighteen miles in a day.
This seemed like a lot, so I did a bit
of research on what real life hikers can do, and
I found answers ranging from eight to sixteen. I'm going
to say that Achillia, who's young and fit but not
an experienced long distance hiker, can go twelve miles a
day on average through this mixed terrain. I'm going to
mark off a day's worth of supplies from Achillea's character sheet,
and then I think it'll be time for new dice
rolls for weather an eight that's maybe a little gusty,
making the walk a bit more fatiguing, but nothing special
stumble upon, Oh and nineteen My d twenty is teasing me,
but nothing is stumbled upon on day five while it
just food and water supplies down by one each. And finally,
is there any wandering encounter the roll A six that's
a bingo. I'm first going to make a few light
additions to my bespoke wandering encountertable. The most important one
is to replace human outlaws with something else. I'm going
to substitute human travelers there, just so we don't get
a repeat result. Rolling on the new table before what's that,
Oh dear, that's not very good. A quick high low
roll to see when the encounter takes place night, Yeah,
that makes sense. One more pair of rolls to check
for surprise for the PCs A six for the wandering
encounter A one. The dice gods like to tease me,
but I think they might just be rooting for Achillea,
because that is a stroke of good luck. Here's how
all those dice rolls play out in the narrative. Chapter five,
Part five, Day five night mythic event meaning cruelty, competition,
party status, Achillea four out of four hit points. Supplies.
The companions have two portions of food and four portions
of water. Remaining spells available. Achillea has memorized shrink. The
sky had not been so overcast that Achillia and her
companions could not see the stars, and they had taken
their bearings before going to sleep. The escarpment that marked
the edge of the Finchwood was now two dozen miles
to her back. The terrain had been flat for a
day and then began to rise and fall. She had
felt somewhat exposed as they made their way through the
tall grasses, though conversely, there was a comfort knowing she
could see for long distances in all directions, especially behind them.
They had made a cold camp right there in the
grass that night, looking up at the stars and wondering
what the next day would bring. It turned out that
overcast skies and gusty winds were in store, and to
going on the next day was a little harder. Eventually,
the plane gave way to a mixed forest of white cedar,
broad leaf and ash. Camp that night was in the
naturally hollowed out bowl of a large sequoia. It was
spacious enough for all three of them, and Achillia was
even considering making a small fire to warm them when
a sound pierced the noises of the chirping dusk insects.
The sound was not familiar to Achillia, who had never
heard or seen a whip before. There it was again,
this time accompanied by the unmistakable sound of laughter. Whoever
owned that laugh, Achilia did not want to meet them.
It sounded somehow cruel. Making a fire was now off
the table, and Achilie only hoped to pass the night
without being molested. Was that the sound of someone in pain?
Common sense told her not to investigate, and she would
not have if it hadn't been for the next time
the sound came, because there could be no mistake that
voice was speaking in Elvish. Thanks so much for listening
to Tale of the Mantagor. If you're enjoying the show
and would like to help them support it, there are
lots of ways to do so. You can recommend the
show online or to friends. You can like and repost
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Shot in the Dark, the Pendulum world building tool, or
Encyclopedia Manticorica on drive through RPG. You can purchase a
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dot stor, and finally, you can rate or review the
show on your podcatcher of choice. I am grateful for
all of your kind support. As you know, I enjoy
sharing a listener review at the end of each episode.
This one was left by Displaced Hoosier. Displaced Hoosier writes,
we are absolutely obsessed with this podcast both seasons one
and two. John does such an excellent job weaving dark narrative,
absolutely terrifying details, and fantastic character development. We feel nothing
but gratitude to listen to this podcast every week likewise
displaced Usier. It's all gratitude here. I feel extremely fortunate
to have listeners who are so supportive. Thank you very
very much. I have three voice actors on the show today.
Chess from roll Bound is back playing Edo once again
in the role of the ambushing l Law is a newcomer,
Tom Masters. Tom did a great job in this role
and has asked me to let the world know that
he is available for other voice work. Contact him at
Tea Masters two three nine five at gmail dot com. Finally,
who's that person speaking Elvish off to one side at
the end of the episode? Returning season two favorite Kyellen
is back on the show in a new role, but
since we haven't met this character just yet, I'll leave
it as mystery voice for now. Thanks very much, Chas,
Tom and Kyellen. For those curious to learn a bit
more about Tale of the manticor at gab a blog
where I post all kinds of show and RPG related
stuff like art, maps, tables, crafts, and show notes, you
can find it at Tale of Themanticore dot blogspot dot com.
To get in touch with me, try at Manticore Tale
on x, Tale of the Manticor podcast on Instagram, or
Tale of the Manticor at gmail dot com. I'd love
to hear from you. The adventure will continue on the
next episode of Tale of the Manticor. It's the story
where chaos rolls.