Speaker 1: Hello, This is Wax Stephen from table Story. If you
like this podcast, please make sure to rate and review it.
If you would like to listen to more of our podcasts,
you can head on over to table story don TV
to check out a variety of other shows. If you'd
like to support us, you can visit table story don
TV slash support, and if you'd like to join our community,
make sure to go to table story don TV slash discord.
Speaker 2: Thank you, enjoy.
Speaker 1: Moon. You are running as you now hear the warm
of bombard ants crawling around behind you. You get the
impression that they are not happy as they are chasing you.
Periodic debris is launched behind you as you get the
barest hint of light. Occasionally. You're mainly rushing down this
cavern without much of any sort of real guidance. As
you continue to rush forward, you can see now it
looks like up ahead there is the familiar orange glow
of some lava flows illuminating the cave just up ahead,
allowing you to look around. Do you look behind you? No,
just keep running very well. Again you see cresting the
edge of like a small hill. Here in this cavern,
there are various rocks in debris as you can see
past this cresting of the hill a steep drop. As
as rocks begin to tumble over the edge, lava is
or or magma is illuminating the area in.
Speaker 3: Front of you, and I can't go forward.
Speaker 1: How would you like to try to go forward? Because
you have magma in front of you?
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't even think about it. I would
like to try and float across.
Speaker 1: Okay. You use your armor to grow wings and fly
for a short period of time, your valkyrie plate allowing
you to fly and slowly fall to the ground for
short periods of time, as well as attack flying creatures.
You launch the wings out from behind you, and I
would like you to please make a dex dex check
for me. Open check.
Speaker 3: That's an eight.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me check here. Ah, this might not be enough.
Just barely. Ants are falling down from the cave's ceilings
trying to fall upon you, and some of them do
your wings open. As you begin to fly across to
the other side, ants start to try to climb up you.
Some of them fall off and you see them like
fall into the magma. Little small explosions down below, maybe
about twenty feet below you as you sail over to
what looks to be like a rock that's sort of
dividing a small lava flow. It's not nearly as big
as that cavern you were in before, but maybe this
is like a tributary or an offshoot from that cavern.
There's a river of magma, maybe about fifteen feet wide
something like that, and you have landed on a boulder
sort of that is splitting that lava flow that magma flow.
The rock itself is sort of glow, and you can
see ants sort of begin to crawl out and spread
out around from that hole that you just came out
of the cavern. Looking around you, you can see that
the next area that you might be able to leap
to is maybe ten feet up from your location and
pretty dark, like it doesn't look like there's more lava
in that direction. The ants are spreading out on the
other side as they begin to try and climb across
the ceiling to try to get to you.
Speaker 3: I'm going to go with a path of least resistance.
I'm going to try and avoid the ants.
Speaker 1: You're going to try and avoid them. How, I don't
know if you want to keep running or you're trying
to get to the other side Stath.
Speaker 3: If I can avoid them, maybe bash them with my
shield somehow, or the path that looks like they're not
coming from, I guess if that makes sense. Anything that
looks like it's an opening into the grouping.
Speaker 1: Sure, basically the way that you came from. There's like
a swarm of them that are just kind of spreading out, crawling.
It almost looks like that scene at a Lord of
the Rings with the goblins like running on the walls
and stuff. Yeah, there's just so many bombard ants like
all over, and several of them are starting to like
throw projectiles and stuff. So you've got to think quick.
You have the way forward or the way back, or
there's this magma river or some means of try and
climb the wall. What would you like to do?
Speaker 3: I have to go forward. I can't think of anything
else in the moment other than my brain just keeps
thinking charge and I have my shield at the ready.
Speaker 1: Okay, you rush forward up again. This is about ten feet.
I'm gonna need a mite and might check.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: Make sure we turn off your weakness though. That is all.
Speaker 3: Mighte and mite yep, Okay, that's a fifteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fifteen. You use your strength, you coil yourself up
like a spring. You leap upwards, grabbing onto the edge
of the rock, and you clamber up to the other side.
Another sort of cavern ahead of you. This one is
also sort of glassy looking.
Speaker 3: Where does it look like it keeps going?
Speaker 1: Insight and insight. Let's see if you can tell crap.
Speaker 3: Okay, they think, oh that's an eight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's too dark to tell crap.
Speaker 3: I stumble blindly forward with my shield, trying to feel
out for anything.
Speaker 1: Okay, oh, come on, you just start hauling ass down
this cavern. You're fast, Yeah, you are fast. You're not quiet.
You're flanking the whole way through, and you have no
idea really where you're running.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: I need you to please make a uh dex and
insight check for me. Please open check.
Speaker 3: Dexon insight. Is this open?
Speaker 6: Check?
Speaker 1: Yes? Moon You fall, you tumble, uh. You you stumble
across a rock and you begin to slide. Uh. As
you tumble, you begin to uh you begin to uh
slide to the side, and something gives way. There's something
that breaks. It feels like a shallow bit of flooring
as you begin to fall down a small hole. Tumbling down.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: You land not long after. There is a a hard
stop as you connect with a new ground here. The
area around you, uh is sort of crunchy where you're stepping.
Speaker 3: Oh, my boot as heavy as I rise up, shake
myself off.
Speaker 6: Oh oh, I think I.
Speaker 3: Broke something, might start crunching.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's like the sound of leaves, but like I'm
stepping on junk.
Speaker 1: And it's really kind of like yeah, it's like you're
I say, it feels probably something like you're stepping on
like a uh like corn pops or something like that,
kind of a cereal. Oh is it balls? You look down? Yes, okay,
try to look around at your feet. There's no light
to really judge. You can't really tell what it is.
Speaker 3: Flaw. I bend down and I and I stick my
hand down into it.
Speaker 1: Okay, no gloves, Uh gloves, Yeah, you stick your hand
down in there. It feels like I guess it would
feel kind of like eggs, eggs.
Speaker 3: M Oh, I need to know. I smell it.
Speaker 1: Oh, it doesn't smell. It doesn't smell good. Yeah, it's
it smells like probably a little bit of sulfur.
Speaker 3: Nope, and I let go of it, and I keep
forging ahead, and I wipe my hand off on my cape.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, gross.
Speaker 6: Grass.
Speaker 1: You can hear something down the tunnel that you fell down,
the hole that you fell down, as well the familiar
sounds of ants making their way down. Do you run?
Do you continue to walk? What do you do?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 3: I can hear all of them all around me, And
I'm really lacking in not strength but motivation to keep running.
It's like it's doing nothing for me. I just keep
tumbling into the darkness. Can I look for any sign
of light?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 6: Okay?
Speaker 1: Uh, looking for any sign of light? I need you
to please make an insight. Insight oh a ten? Okay, Yeah,
there's probably the remnants of some bioluminescent mushrooms about. There's
really very little light here, but there is enough for
you to maybe get an idea of like how big
this place is, and like a rough idea of where
you need to go.
Speaker 3: I go over to the mushrooms a little bit quicker, yeah,
my shield and singing around.
Speaker 7: Like step back.
Speaker 1: The cavern seems to be maybe, uh, fifteen feet wide
or so something out like that, and it has more
of those glassy, sort of obsidian like walls. You can
tell that there's like a few ridges here and there.
There is what appears to be a fuck ton of
eggs on the ground that have been It looks squished, hatched,
all various states.
Speaker 3: I feel out the glassy obsidian wall and I kind
of just go along the side of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't know why.
Speaker 3: I'm just like, I'm feeling for anything that almost feels
like man made at this point, because there's been a
huge lack of anything designed for god knows how long
down here.
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay. As you begin to feel around, you can
start to feel what appears to be, Uh, there appears
to be water dripping down the side of the I
guess it would be on your your left, probably on
the left wall. Uh. You can feel what appears to
be some dampness. There appears to be some water that
is leaking down into here, and there is a puddle
of it nearby.
Speaker 3: I kneel down and I scoop.
Speaker 1: I scoop it without hesitation. Did you drink it? Oh? God, Moon,
it's so gross. This water is disgusting. Well, it's so bad, Moon,
It's so bad. It's the worst water you've ever tasted,
and I kneeled down. We're gonna need a roll. I think, here,
this will be rolling a check. This will be difficulty fourteen.
I think, Okay, oh it's a twenty holy shit moon.
You've eaten and drank worse somehow, And yeah, you're able
to like keep it together. But you can tell you
definitely should not have drank that water. Your body is
hardy enough that you're able to kind of like shrug
it off. Okay, maybe you needed it more than you
didn't need to drink that specific water, but holy shit,
because that was definitely gonna be poison. Yeah, and you're
able to kind of like get yourself together for a second.
As you can see the first ants squishing their way
through that hole, it seems to be just big enough
for them to like file through like one at a time,
but they file in quick succession into the room.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, uh, and I collect myself, I stand up,
and I keep moving forward because I realize that they're
they're they're chasing me and I I don't know what
I'm where I'm going. I have no I have no
particular goal right now, but my goal is to it's
it's to avoid a battle because I'm not feeling very
good and I definitely feel like I like I'm gonna
yack at any moment. So I'm just just blindly sort
of going forward, kind of frog blinking from uh, getting hydrated,
but also feeling like I just drank something that tasted
like blended snails.
Speaker 1: It's about right. As you blunder around in the darkness,
you can hear the ants behind you getting closer and closer,
and there is movement ahead of you, something big.
Speaker 3: This, this is different, this is this a different thing?
Speaker 1: Hello, there is a horrible screech uh, a sort of
ringing in your ears. As emerging from some refuse, you
see a much larger version of the bombard ants. I
think it's time for us to get some initiative as
we head over to here.
Speaker 3: Okay, mm hmm, I hold up my shield. I hear you.
I don't see what I hear you.
Speaker 1: Okay, we need to get some initiative. Let's do that.
Speaker 3: Let's I burp out something that tastes like a rotten egg.
Speaker 1: It's horrible. Uh, you gotta beat It's like that scene.
Speaker 3: Harry Potter where Ron keeps throwing up slugs just like
just imagine my face is like all right for battle,
but I'm still really queasy.
Speaker 1: You gotta beat a ten. Okay, initiative roll please.
Speaker 3: Okay, just like myself with us, I just roll initiative.
Speaker 1: You can just hit the initiative button. The Oh whoa,
holy shit.
Speaker 3: I'm throwing rocks today.
Speaker 8: Boys.
Speaker 1: Let's go alrighty uh moon, you are going first in
this combat.
Speaker 3: I'm hydrated, all right, I can't see too well. So
what I think I'm gonna do is is can I
can I make out the big one or is the
big one being protected by the smaller ones at this juncture?
Speaker 1: There are several they're swarming into this cave. Uh so
there's appears to be four that are in front of
the large one, but there are more coming from behind you.
Speaker 3: Okay, Oh give me one second. I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1: I'm just dying heat. It ruins everything.
Speaker 3: It is, it is running how hold up? Hold up?
I'm writhing on the ground. Uh it's an anime sequence
where I'm holding my stomach and.
Speaker 1: I'm going.
Speaker 3: Because I'm still really nauseous. Let's see if I can't
know if.
Speaker 1: We got that.
Speaker 9: Sorry, way did he?
Speaker 3: God bless it you guys. Hey God, the curtain. The
curtain fell and I tripped. I followed and I can't
get up.
Speaker 10: Oh, come on, buddy, And I'm here again.
Speaker 3: Hopefully all right, and I'm I'm attacking. Okay, the game
is not loading for me either. I I just something
something happened and things died. Everything died. Thankfully. I'm still alive.
I'm still alive. Come back. We'll come back, and.
Speaker 1: I might let you into the game because you're you're
still logged in.
Speaker 3: Oh weird. Okay, Oh here, I am here, I am okay, okay, okay.
So I think I'm just gonna target the one nearest
me and take I guess use my sword because right now,
I think the sword is the thing I trust trust
the most. So I'm gonna take broken revelry and just
attempt to stab this one right in front of me.
Speaker 1: Okay, yep, that is a hit, very nice.
Speaker 11: Uh uh.
Speaker 1: You hit the carapace and leave a horrible furrow in it.
The creature screeches in pain as its antenna wiggle around.
You can see maybe like the tiny tiny bit of
light that's in here. For some of these bioluminescent mushrooms.
Like the walls look like they're alive because the ants
are just sort of crawling all about. Okay, their turn,
Oki doki, Oh boy, I think what we're gonna do here?
The bombard ant queen is going to charge. You can
see the ant queen start to bunch up its legs
and they sort of do that thing, you know, like
when a cat is wiggling its butt, and like it's happened.
It's a little it's a little tootsies getting ready for something.
It's doing that, and that's its turn.
Speaker 3: Okay, oh like that. I do not like that?
Speaker 8: Is it my turn?
Speaker 6: Now?
Speaker 5: It is?
Speaker 6: Huh?
Speaker 3: How do I just get out of the way. I
just I just want to avoid because this this thing
looks like it's it's charging up for something, and I
don't like it. I almost don't want to get in
its face.
Speaker 1: But hm hmm. You can guard. You can uh. You
have the ability to study the enemy, you have the
ability to hinder them. Try to do all of these things.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna try and hinder them. I'm gonna try try
and and throw a wrench in the plan here because
it looks like whatever they're doing is not something that
I want to be. I want to be. Uh.
Speaker 1: What hinder does and if you cover over it, it tells
you Okay, basically you perform a check uh and if
you succeed, you can inflict days shaken slow or a
week Okay, okay, trying you want to do? Yeah, target
it all?
Speaker 3: All right? There we go.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's targeted. I'm sorry. It's like almost
the exact same color as the stars that arend there. Okay,
you can try hitting the hinder button. I'm not sure
if that works. We might just have to do it.
Speaker 3: Man, you're where's that located us?
Speaker 1: I'm on the stats page on the left.
Speaker 3: Hinder perform check?
Speaker 6: There?
Speaker 3: It is all right, and now it's asking me to
roll so one of my might.
Speaker 1: And you're going to be doing uh, let's see. How
do you think you're trying to hinder it? Like? What
are you feel? You know?
Speaker 3: I I'd love to I don't know, maybe trip it
up with my Uh? Can I just try and grab
it like as I'm just gonna try and its legs
and be like, you know what, you're so excited to
do some tap dancing. I'm just I'm just gonna grab
you right off the bat. I think I don't know
what that would look like, but I'm assuming probably some
sort of decks and might roll.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be mite, might.
Speaker 3: Might and might.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's the difficulty, uh difficulty we're gonna say is probably.
Speaker 3: Twelve twelve okay, twelve to grab this thing's legs and
try and roll around. Oh that's an eight.
Speaker 1: Oh no, yeap, okay, yeah, you try to grab it.
It's just a little too fast. It leans back as
you try to grab it. Oh crap.
Speaker 3: Oh no, And now I'm right in front of it.
Speaker 1: Yep, and it's gonna go ahead because it gets to
do it's action. Now it will triple you. No, and
we need you should be able to click uh that
and for decks and insight.
Speaker 3: Oh well, god, uh huh.
Speaker 1: Okay, you are trampled underfoot, and this is gonna do.
Let's see if this works. This is probably not gonna work.
Every time I've tried this, it doesn't work. Nope, it
doesn't work. Okay, let me see this should be oh god,
fifteen twenty five or thirty five. Let's find out that
is going to be twenty five physical damage twenty five
physical damage to you.
Speaker 3: Oh, and I am just I'm just getting like battered
underneath this thing, Like, oh.
Speaker 1: Uh, would you like to try to stop it as
it tramples you?
Speaker 3: I think that would be my first instinct to do that,
So yes, I think you know, anybody's getting trampled, you'd
want to like try and throw it off of you.
So yeah, I'd want to have to throw this thing
off of me if I can.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you should be able to click that might
mighte button there? Okay, and it gets to do the same.
Speaker 3: It's a seven.
Speaker 1: Gotta beat a seven it does. Oh shit, you're stunned.
Oh no, oh no, oh shit. Okay, So stunned means
you take one less action on your turn, so instead
of having two actions left at this round, you only
have one. Oh okay, that is it for its turn.
Speaker 3: It is your Like what just happened?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just get steam rolled. Basically, this thing batters
you like a battering ram getting knocked on the ground.
You try to grab it and hold your hands protect yourself,
but it just runs right away. You feels like you
got hit by a car.
Speaker 3: Ah ah, my funny bone.
Speaker 1: Oh it is your turn. You have one action left
this round.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I'm not playing around now. I understand. I
understand that this thing can definitely hurt me. And uh.
I take a broken revelry and I target and I
look at this thing and I attempt to hit maybe
the underside of it with broken revelry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Uh, that is a miss. You swing wildly
trying to hit this creature as it rushes past you
and flail about missing. That is the last of your
actions this round. The bombard ants begin to rush towards you,
and I think, I think they're gonna go ahead and
start firing their cannons towards you. There and cannons. They're
just shooting more bombard ants at you, shooting debris at you. Basically,
they're spitting out this glassy, obsidian like rock towards you. Okay,
that is a miss. Uh. The first one h slam
some debris near you. You're able to roll out of
the way. The next one because you, unfortunately do not
get your other action this turn. Which one is this
that's on? I think yes, the other three are going
to try to continuously bombard you. Another miss. There are
just these shards of obsidian landing nearby all around you.
Speaker 12: Moon.
Speaker 1: As that one misses, you're able to roll out of
the way. Things are getting a bit dire, I think.
As you look to the left you're rolling around me,
you see more of these ants coming into this cavern. Okay,
the next one here will also fire towards you. That
is another miss You're able to raise your shield up
and just kind of batter this away. The next one
is going to try to grab you Moon with its
with its legs, It's going to try and hold you
in place. Huh as it will try to hinder you. Okay,
this is going to be might please, what is your
Your mite is twelve? Right? You got a D twelve?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1: All right, it's gonna have to be to twelve to
do this.
Speaker 5: Called the is twelve.
Speaker 1: It does not succeed.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 1: You can see the ants are now. It look like
they're trying to get coordinated.
Speaker 6: Moon.
Speaker 1: They're like trying to hold you down and grab you
and stop you from moving you round return.
Speaker 3: And I'm like trying to avoid all of these like
mandibles and legs and claws and hoofs and things that
are just kind of stabbing out of nowhere and all
This clicking is driving me insane, and I'm trying to
I'm still trying to make out where where the largest
one is, and I can see the largest one.
Speaker 1: Right, Oh, definitely, Okay, I'm.
Speaker 3: Trying to batter my way through all of these. I'm
gonna take my sword broken Revelry and its target the
largest one again. I'm still coming after you, and I.
Speaker 1: Langed forward strike again with Broken Revelry. There's another screep
as it howls in pain, you leave a small furrow
in its carapace.
Speaker 3: Maybe it was loud.
Speaker 1: It is their turn. I think we're gonna have the
bombard aunt Queen, not go just yet. I think we're
gonna have the other ants go first. Okay, this one
in the front here is going to try to hinder you.
Got to beat a twelve. That is a success. You
are now weak as you are basically grabbed by some
of these ants. Oh, there is a there's an icon
that looks like a broken bone second second from the
left on the bottom row icons. There there you go. Uh,
you feel yourself. It feels like you're trying to move
like wade through mud. Right now, Moon as you're trying
to move that is it for their turn. It's your turn.
Speaker 3: I've got I've got focused on this big one right here,
because I feel like it it's like bees, right like
you kill the queen, you kill the queen on a
lunch for it again, even though it's a little bit
more difficult this time with broken revelry and swipe horizontally
trying to go for one of its handle things on
its head.
Speaker 1: You strike and you connect. This handle thing manages to
take some damage. Okay, the queen house and pain as
that is your turn unless you got anything else. Huh, okay, uh,
the ants are going to.
Speaker 5: Let's see, mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: I think like waiting, Yeah, I think this next one
is going to try and slam you. It rushes up
and it just kind of rears back and it's going
to try and bring its legs down upon you.
Speaker 8: Huh.
Speaker 1: That is a miss. Moon. You're able to maybe raise
of your shield or just shove it off of you
as it tries to land upon you.
Speaker 3: Okay, oh, year old, you are just all so persistent.
Speaker 1: It is your turn.
Speaker 3: Again again. I I've got my sword, I've got my sword,
and I I'm really trying to focus in on these
candle things and I swipe. I swipe with the big one.
Speaker 1: It's another hit. It screeches in pain yet again.
Speaker 3: Get off, me, get off, and I kick one away. Yeah,
and I feel like the weird wings on one of
them kind of crumple beneath me as I step on one.
Get off, and they are everywhere.
Speaker 1: Okay, the next bombard ant is going to attack. This
one will fire debris at you. That is a fumble
as it it probably connects with one of the ones
nearby instead, and that one is going to take damage.
It's sort of you see, like it's antenna, sort of
wiggle around, turn around for a second, but it continues
towards its task. There are so many of the moon.
Speaker 3: There are so many of them. Okay, I get this,
this hair brained idea, because these almost look like fuses,
but not quite fuses. Something that's like a like a
dousing rod maybe. And I and I'm looking at this
big one and can I can I make an attempt?
I don't know if I have the ability to do this,
to just grab onto both of these these candle things
and just try and bring them out of shape.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this would be a hinder.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna try and hinder this big one again.
Speaker 1: Okay, you gotta beat a twelve difficulty twelve?
Speaker 12: Is that just ight?
Speaker 3: And MTE might and mighte oh success?
Speaker 1: Nice? Okay, and I think this is probably gonna be uh.
I will leave this up to you. Which effect are
you putting on it?
Speaker 3: Ooh ooh definitely definitely dazed? I think days that's probably
good because I'm bending amount of shape. I'm not necessarily
trying to do damage. But I'm like, and it's like
I'm bending metal. But now they're super crooked there. I
don't even know if what intention these things have, but
they I hope that they just don't work after.
Speaker 1: This, Okay, yes, you just you kind of bend it.
There's like a horrible like see the antenna moving around wildly.
You see way more of the bombard ants starts swinging
in as they begin to swarm around you.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's what I thought. Don't want me to hurt
this one.
Speaker 1: Okay, and their turn. The ants are going to I think,
probably try to slam you as you grab the queen.
This one here is going to attack you. That is
a hit for nineteen physical damage this time. As you're
like doing this, an ant from behind just falls on
your back and knocks you down.
Speaker 3: Oh and there's like this horrible sound of of of
insect wing giant insect wing meeting armor. That's like a
queen and I'm not to the ground and I'm I'm
at the at the the mandibles of this big one.
Speaker 1: Out.
Speaker 3: Ah, you stand back up.
Speaker 1: Okay, the bombard ant queen now has two turns. Okay,
it will I think, charge and then trample you. So
it's first action is going to be charging. It's gonna
do that thing where it leans back again, and then
it's gonna rush forward, trying to trample you with its
next action. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 3: What then I weekly hold up my shields from the ground.
Speaker 1: Needed hit that des and insight check button. Okay, that's
a success. You.
Speaker 13: You you hold your shield up and just like you,
I feel like you just crouch down and you just
try to use pure force to shove it away from you. Yeah,
this thing tries to trample you and you hold it together.
You feel it, I mean, it feels like something's rolling
over you and you're.
Speaker 1: Able to hold that off. Next round, it's your turn.
Speaker 8: Well, as it.
Speaker 3: Rolls over me, I'm gonna take a broken revelry and
an attempt to stab it in the underbelty, but I
totally miss as it's already gone.
Speaker 1: Damn it. Okay, I think we're gonna have the ants.
They're gonna continue to try to slam you. As you're
like down honkered on the ground and you're like, try
to stab this thing. The ants just kind of swarm you,
and you see them like all rear up and they're
all just gonna try and slam you. First one is
a miss. Your turn.
Speaker 3: I try to leve it.
Speaker 1: T you absolutely can. For short periods of.
Speaker 14: Time, I try to levitate out of this, this this
circle of like of what looks almost like a ritualistic
group of mandibles that are just ready to pounce on me.
And I see this opening, and I think, without thinking
about it, my first thought is can I levitate?
Speaker 3: Can I fly out of this?
Speaker 1: The wings burst forth from your valkyrie plate.
Speaker 3: And I attempt to shoot up past these guys.
Speaker 1: Sure you begin to fly upwards, give me an insight
and insight?
Speaker 3: Sure is that an open check or roll check, roll
check or oak check?
Speaker 5: Sorry?
Speaker 3: Open open? Okay, insight insight.
Speaker 1: That's a fourteen yeah, you stop yourself before you hit
the ceiling of this cavern. It's not that high. It's
maybe fifteen feet high. So you get up, you're higher
than these ants. But like the roof is right there
and there's ants crawling on that.
Speaker 3: But I but I stop, and I and I just levitate,
and I think that's my turn, and I just I
just wait, okay, because it's really quick, right, it's really quick.
I mean they're probably not expecting it. I think their
next turn, they're probably gonna attempt to hit something hopefully
that's not there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will. I'll tell you what. I'm gonna make
a roll to see if they, okay, they're able to
stop this, because that was a sneaky little maneuver here,
So I'm gonna make them do a dex check see
if they're able to stop. Oh yeah, So they do
manage to change their tactic here, the swarm seems to
begin to take aim with some pot shots with their cannons.
Their bombard of debris, this obsidian shards. It's like you're
hearing like glass break around you and there's like shards
of it that are hitting your armor.
Speaker 3: And I'm kind of still levitating up in the air
as the stuff hits me like, oh.
Speaker 1: It's your turn.
Speaker 3: Oh, and I'm tired, but I do I still see
the giant one.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, it's it's down there all right.
Speaker 3: I float down with broken revelry in my hand, directly
towards this one or towards the ant queen.
Speaker 1: There's another hit.
Speaker 3: I slash at her.
Speaker 1: Yep. So you're you're flying down basically from the ceiling
to swipe downwards towards this creature. And yeah, that is
absolutely a hit. As you connect, your wings retract and
you fall back into the.
Speaker 3: Ground and I'm down on the ground again and I
feel my feet. Can't use your I'm hungry.
Speaker 1: You can't use your flying until the next round. Okay
Oki doki. Let's see the bombard ants are going to
rush towards you. This one here is going to try
and slam you. That is a hit for eighteen physical damage. Moon.
As you land, you don't see one sort of behind you,
and again it slams down on your back and you
stumble as you were hit. You feel like maybe a
dent in the plate from that shot.
Speaker 3: What ah, my kidneys, Oh it's your turn. I stand up.
I shrug it off, and I've just got this focus,
this intense focus. I just hear all these creepy crawley
crumbling things around me. I keep going and and I'm
aware of my hunger. I'm aware of this, like my
stomach growls and you can hear it. Ah echo in
the cavern. Oh oh, and I'm smelling turkey. Oh that's
not good. And I lunge forward again, kind of aimlessly
into something that feels like a brick wall cling clangs
right off, but.
Speaker 6: Manages to hit it.
Speaker 1: Does it connects with this creature as you You definitely
managed to pierce the carapace as you do this attack.
Speaker 3: I pierced the carabas. Yep, that's exciting. What does that
feel like?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it feels like your sword is crunching
through like sheet rock. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So like slow motion. I'm putting it in slow motion.
They'll put it in take it out of God text
and it's like a It's like it's like.
Speaker 1: In this episode.
Speaker 3: Listen, if you've ever put a thermometer into meat, right,
if you've ever put a thermometer into meat, and you're like, okay,
there's that give because it was frozen. But now it's not.
It's like, okay, I can feel the meat. I can
feel the meat.
Speaker 8: I can feel the meat.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, are you trying? I mean wow, going on
a shirt? Oh my god. Okay, is their turn? Well, okay,
I am.
Speaker 8: I'm I'm a little dazed.
Speaker 3: I'm a little dazed and confused.
Speaker 1: At this junction, all are we? All are okay?
Speaker 3: And and I'm I'm hearing I've been hearing these these
crackles in my ears for like this whole time. So
I'm like, okay, all right, maybe maybe maybe you just
maybe you just shouldn't be able to move, and and
I'm gonna attempt with broken revelry.
Speaker 1: Their turn right now.
Speaker 3: Oh god, dang it, that's how days I am. That's
how days I am. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Okay, you feel the meat? Oh my god. The next
one is going to try to attack you. This is
gonna be another slam attack, another hit that is twenty damage.
Speaker 6: Moon.
Speaker 1: As you are smacked again, probably this time from the side,
you feel your like ribs creak a little bit on
that one. Okay, now it is your turn.
Speaker 3: I stand back up and I'm rubbing my ribcage like
ou out. Okay, Okay, this is fine as fine. This
is fine, man, you know how fine it is.
Speaker 7: It's so fine.
Speaker 3: I take my sword and I attempt to cut off
the front leg of the giant bug of the giant queen.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 3: Just directly on the right side.
Speaker 1: Another big hit moon as you connect, and yeah, you
definitely feel something squishy as you connect with this attack,
slicing into this creature. Yet ag and uh it screeches
in pain.
Speaker 6: Ah.
Speaker 3: God, every time it's screeches. I feel like my ears
are bleeding. But I go, gotcha, gotcha, sucker. And I
know that my blade made made a huge, a huge
slice because I at this juncture, it's not clanging so much.
And that's a good sign.
Speaker 1: How are you doing?
Speaker 3: Man, I'm dreaming of dinner. I'm thinking, I'm thinking of
cutting a steak, and I think.
Speaker 1: Of what are you doing?
Speaker 3: Ah, standing and smelling sulfur and stabbing smants.
Speaker 1: You're wronger than this? What are you doing?
Speaker 8: Uh?
Speaker 5: I mean?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 3: And I look up, what do you mean? What am
I doing? I'm giving it the best I've got and
I look at my sword and I feel like, oh,
I'm stabbing it.
Speaker 1: You have far more power than this man, what are
you doing?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah, And I put a hand on
the ant queen and I remove one of the wings.
I just tear it off.
Speaker 5: Moon.
Speaker 1: You can try to dominate this creature, however, okay, you
know that must be dazed and shaken before you can
do this.
Speaker 3: Okay, And I'm looking at it. Okay, So how can
I do this? How can i?
Speaker 1: Another bombard ant will try and strike you before you
can do this? Man, Okay, that is a mess.
Speaker 3: A stand illustrator knowing it missed.
Speaker 1: When your turn comes around, you can try and daze
and shake it. But now yet, okay, the bombard aunt
queen will attempt to charge and trample you again. Its
first action is the charge. It's next action will attempt
to be a trample. Decks an insight, please move.
Speaker 3: I look right at it.
Speaker 7: Oough, disgusting.
Speaker 3: Success eleven.
Speaker 1: Nice You avoid the trample it almost It looks casual. Yeah,
it looks casual. As you avoid this, the answer still
swarming around you. It is a new round. What do
you do well?
Speaker 3: I want to attempt to dominate it, so.
Speaker 1: Try and hinder it.
Speaker 3: I have an attempt to hinder.
Speaker 1: It, potentially days and shake it you can try for both,
but I will say it will be hard.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: I will try to daze this this creature.
Speaker 1: Okay, and how do you try to do that? I
punch it, okay, might and might. Difficulty is going to
be ten.
Speaker 3: Ten, that's a fourteen. I wind up my fist, strike,
collides you, strike.
Speaker 1: And daze this creature. Oh, I'm sorry it was already dazed.
Oh you can, I will allow. I will just say
you can just do shaken. Oh excellence, Sorry about that?
Speaker 3: Oh that's okay.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sorry you cannot daze it. That was the problem.
That means I will I will allow you to shaken
it instead, because I read that wrong. But it appears
to be immune to dazed, which means it doesn't seem
like you can dominate it. Okay, you hear again, Noon,
You're stronger than this. You are a calamity, and at.
Speaker 3: This I feel imbued with energy. Can I still make
the calamity rule and charge for it?
Speaker 1: This turn and then the following turn you can activate it?
Speaker 3: And I lower my head and I steel myself.
Speaker 1: I am ready show me how strong you are. Mote. Yes,
the ants are going to get their turn now, and
I think the the ants closest to you since something
is wrong, and they will try to slam you again,
but they begin to look a bit weary. That is
a miss, and I think they actually connect with you.
But as they get close to you, they are repelled.
As we see this glow begin to emanate from Moon Moon.
It's your turn.
Speaker 3: You see me levitate just a bit after I finished channeling,
and I unleash a powerful, powerful.
Speaker 1: Blast the calamity who lets Moon? What do you think
this feels like for you? What does this look like
for everybody?
Speaker 3: I'm floating just slightly off the ground and my hands
are outstretched and I'm looking up and you see these
beams of light emanate from my body, going off in
all directions there. There's no clear target, but many are affected,
and it's almost like I can't control where it's going.
And it's unleashed.
Speaker 1: This blast of raw energy is unleashed upon this battlefield
you use. You spend the forty mana to do this.
The mind points and immediately you see ants launched from
all directions around you as this massive blast of four
launches them about the smaller ones that weren't directly protecting
the bombard ant queen. The ones crawling along the wall
and ceiling are buffeted by this force. And this vrain
of viscera reminiscent of that scene in Blade, looks like
it is raining down from all around as Moon is
surrounded with this energy. The ants hesitated.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I'm still levitating.
Speaker 1: Hm, Moon, can you feel it? Yes? Nearby? There's more
where at the end of this cave.
Speaker 3: At the end of the cave. Give it to me.
And I'm smelling out angrily, hungrily. There's a charge forward,
sweet smell.
Speaker 1: Man, smells like favorite snack.
Speaker 3: I'm so hungry.
Speaker 1: I feeling electric feels like energy dancing along the walls.
It's calling to you.
Speaker 3: Where are you?
Speaker 8: Where are you?
Speaker 3: And I'm seeing this electricity and it's clouding my eyes
and this crackling that is gone but now is replaced
by this almost tonight is.
Speaker 14: Walnce?
Speaker 1: Show me?
Speaker 3: I'm so hungry.
Speaker 1: Do you want to see it?
Speaker 3: And I feel? I feel it and I smell it
and I go. I go towards that. Am I close?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yes, so close? And we bet away.
Speaker 3: And I'm going quickly.
Speaker 1: Now. You rush with no regard for the ants seem
to be petrified and not moving closer to you. You
come to the edge of the cavern, and before you
you see it, remember stone.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and I rush up to it. I place
my hands along the wall, a craving file, always satisfied.
Speaker 1: As you put your hands on the wall, you see
the emberstone almost melt away, falling along the wall like
liquid without adhering to the laws of physics. It begins
to crawl along the wall towards your hands. Crystals varying
sizes melt and flow into your hands. Ease, roll me
a D ten six. You gain in six ultimate points.
Your health and your mind points are restored to full.
You feel so powerful.
Speaker 3: I look around moon.
Speaker 1: Another notification on your interface appears. Familiar sound that you've
experienced many times, but again feels almost foreign because you
haven't heard it so much recently.
Speaker 8: I tap it.
Speaker 1: You are now level fifty two.
Speaker 3: What is that possible?
Speaker 1: How is that?
Speaker 3: How is that possible?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 3: And I'm looking around? Are the are the ants near me?
Speaker 1: The ants are cowering against the wall. The viscera is
all about this cave. It smells like sulfur. It smells
like death. You are covered in it.
Speaker 3: Oh and I look down at my hands that only
one moment ago I thought were so intensely beautiful because
of the emberstone flowing through them. But now there's just
scratches and bits of gore, flecks of wings and antennae
and bug juice and eggs, and I wipe my face.
And that's where I finally kneel down in front of
all of these cowering ants and throw up.
Speaker 6: Who oh.
Speaker 3: And I stand up and I start running the other
direction into the darkness.
Speaker 1: Yes, would you like to leave this past? Moon?
Speaker 3: I want to leave? How do I leave?
Speaker 1: You want to leave?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Very well? Moon, You disappear.
Speaker 3: Wait wait wait wait wait wait.
Speaker 1: The ants that survived this are left behind Moon. I
reappear hm hm in a very different scene. First and foremost,
you're blinded by light.
Speaker 6: Hm hm.
Speaker 8: Huh.
Speaker 1: There is wind that buffets you immediately. Takes a second
kay for you to process what's happening. H it's so
much colder where you were.
Speaker 3: Only begin to lose my body temperature around two seconds ago. Huh.
I can see my breath.
Speaker 1: Distance. You can see some kind of city.
Speaker 6: Huh m hmm.
Speaker 3: This is real. I've been down a nice up. Is
this snow.
Speaker 6: What is this?
Speaker 1: Please make an insight an insight. The difficulty is twelve.
Speaker 3: Okay, insight, insight and difficulty, Okay, that's a nine.
Speaker 1: You don't recognize this place. I haven't been here before,
but it could be a few places. The city in
the snow makes you think for a moment, takes maybe
a minute or two before you start piecing together. First
of all, you're no longer in a loan ship. You're
on the surface. There is a sprawling city where you
see neon lights. There's movement, but what would live in
this place?
Speaker 3: And the eyes.
Speaker 1: It starts to starts to process for you, because there
aren't too many places like this.
Speaker 2: You're in.
Speaker 1: FRIPI whoa, whoa.
Speaker 3: I smell the air.
Speaker 15: Oh oh, my gosh. I start to move forward.
Speaker 3: It no longer smells like sulfur, and there's no more
crackling in my ears, and it's not hot and damp.
It's like it's like stepping outside of a sauna, but
you've been inside a sauna for days. That I lay
down and I start making snow angels, and then it's
anime all over again. I step up on that are
really cold, and I start making my way towards the city.
They have meat, they have to meet, They have to meet.
Speaker 1: The audience seas Moon traveling through the snow towards the
city nearby. Give me a favorite Moon, roll me a
D three please D three.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a three.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You are heading towards the city, just to
give the audience a little bit of an idea.
Speaker 10: M h.
Speaker 1: I think it's hilarious that you keep rolling places around mellowfacts.
I think it's fucking hilarious to give the audience an idea.
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can show this, but I
think I can. Let's see, Oh, I can. This is
what Moon sees in the distance.
Speaker 3: I think I'm seeing snow, but I also think I'm
hallucinating because I am in daylight for the first time
and god knows how long, so maybe it's ashes ste
oh God.
Speaker 1: Moon continues towards the nearest city in Cryptia. We see
her figure sort of diminishing in the distance as the
camera zooms out and we see more of this landscape,
the snowy, bleak landscape, and we switch scenes very different
sight as we find Rue and Greg making their way
into the area of the biggest city in Regalia, a
metropolis stands before you.
Speaker 16: Rue.
Speaker 1: Let's find out how your journey went to get here,
because I want to see what we're seeing, what the
audience is seeing here as you are heading towards this.
Let's find out what Rue and Greg look like at
this moment. M Let's do some roles, shall we?
Speaker 8: I hate rolling. I hate rolling so much.
Speaker 1: You have not had the best of luck.
Speaker 8: This is the only campaign I've rold so bad.
Speaker 1: It is so funny to me. It makes me very happy.
Speaker 8: I'm glad it makes you happy. What would you like
me to roll?
Speaker 1: Okay, First and foremost, you had to escape from Scaldmere
mmm to get to Shrinder Cinder Shroud. Let's have you
do a dex and decks check to start things off,
to make your way out of Scaldmere, and this will
be open.
Speaker 8: A five. I've rolled two d ten's and I give
you a five.
Speaker 1: That's your best stay. No, I'm like, I'll give her.
I'll give her an easy one to start off. Holy shit?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 1: Okay, Rue, the escape from SKO did not go well.
You were on an iguidon with Greg and it was
an undersized iguidon as well. This was like a you know,
the the teenage version of an iguidon. Okay, it is feisty,
non cooperative, and the only way that you were able
to escape from scaldmre On this creature was through absolute accident.
I feel like as you were escaping, some other horrendous
thing happened in skaldmre at the guard posts. What do
you think that was? Gaffran was there. There was like
a heated conversation in the background. Gaffran was about to
like get you out of the jail before you escaped,
And what do you think happened? What went wrong as
you tried to escape from scaldmre greg.
Speaker 8: Clearly, this young iguodon being released from its former home
or shelter or wherever it is upset the other iguodons
and there was a stampede.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe it's mother was there or something. And unlike
most lizards, these creatures lean more mammalion in the way
that they care for their young, So maybe it triggered something.
Seeing this iguidon approaching, the guards are totally ready for you.
They're like, oh, here we go. Somebody's trying to, you know,
escape or whatever. They probably have already gotten word that
you escape the jail, they've heard the alarms or what
have you, and then a stampede happens. Basically all of
the Iguidons in the stables nearby start to lose their shit,
and this this horrific scene happens of basically the place
getting trashed. The guards are thrown in all directions, and
somehow you make your way through. It's not an easy
escape though, as you have to sort of dodge all
of this nonsense as well as you're escaping. I think
you're probably covered in dirt and filth and stuff as
you are cast out of the town. Now, as Greg
tries to get this situation sorted out, he's sort of
taking the reins literally here for the igo Don. He's
driving and he's led you to the road towards Cinder Shroud.
As you are venturing on the road towards Cinder Shroud,
it's not a super long trip, it's maybe a few
days normally. Let's see how this part goes. As you
are journeying towards Cinder Shroud on the main road, I
think this will probably be probably insight and insight. I
think let's do an open check here.
Speaker 8: This is another two d ten oven.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, yeah, so things kind of go as
you expect. Greg is a little worried about staying on
this road for too long. So periodically you get off
the road, you try and find the place to camp
here and there. As you try and find some places
to rest, you're able to find some food, which you're
desperately needed. And yeah, you find some food. It's not bad.
It's not the best situation in the world, but hey,
it's a lot better than where you were. You can
definitely hear by the way periodically as you're making this
trip that there are like guards and stuff on the
lookout for you. There's probably a few times where you
have to hide. Let's have another Decks and Decks check.
Speaker 8: Nineteen.
Speaker 1: Hey, this time you were able to hide super well
throughout the entire trip to Cinder Shroud. The guards do
not manage to catch up to you. You think they
might get on your trail here and there, but Greg
helps you with like.
Speaker 8: Probably imagine we're just like covered in dirt and souid.
We're stinky, we smell of earth and heath, and just
have bits of Greg sleeves just plastered on me. Just
a natural camouflage.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, Greg is really good at that stuff. So
you're able to throw the guards off. You create little
like distractions along the way, little like false trails for
them to follow and shit like that. It's like you've
left breadcrumbs effectively and going the wrong direction, so you
throw the guards off basically the whole way to cinder Shroud. However,
as you start to get close to Cindershroud, Greg eventually communicates,
because the communication is always a bit tricky with Greg,
that you know, this is like, this is the capital
city of the largest nation on Regalia. You know, this
is like a metropolis. He draws like a big city
on the ground with a stick or something like that,
and he's like he's drawing dragons and shit in the air,
and he's just like he's showing he's drawing like rudimentary
people with swords and stuff all about, and he's indicating
like it's going to be really hard to get in
there without being noticed.
Speaker 8: Hmmm, well, do you think that it's going to be
a problem. Do you think do you think we're wanted?
Speaker 1: He stares at you for like a solid ten second.
Speaker 8: Okay, maybe we'll need to think of a different way
to get in then maybe hmm, I know there's movies that.
In the movies, Greg, they always get in on a
caravan and they hide. They stole away, stow away inside
the cargo pins so we can hide.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, He pats you on the head.
Speaker 8: Okay, so keep your eyes out for a caravan or
something along the way. We might have to get rid
of this. I point immediate.
Speaker 1: It just rushes off. He thumbs up.
Speaker 8: Cud yop. I had five of his thumbs up.
Speaker 5: No, I'm not.
Speaker 8: Hm, combs up.
Speaker 1: Up, and then he rushes over to some foliage. This
is like a forested area. Now as you've gotten closer
to Cindershroud, there's more trees here, there's more rivers and
like little streams and stuff. As you're headed this way,
there is probably a very large river that is nearby.
And Greg walks you over towards the river and he points,
holds up one finger. Then he walks away and then
goes back towards the road, holds up two fingers, and
then he waits for a little while, and you see
probably like a there's traffic going in and out of
this city along the road. So there's there's like vehicles
that are making their way across the road. Some of
them are like animals, like headed from Skaldmere. Some of
them are higher tech vehicles, like the sort of party
van like vehicles you saw headed from Skaldmere. Greg waits
for one, and he says, hold on another.
Speaker 8: I think we might be jumping the gun a little bit.
All right. Our disguise is kind of gesturing to myself,
just slathered in Greg's leaves, our disguise as somebody as
that might have helped us us this far, but maybe
we need to clean up a little bit if we
get caught. I don't I don't think this, this disguise
will work for us in this city.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 8: It's time for a bass point at the river.
Speaker 1: Double thumbs up. Okay, he shoves you in and he
like holds a hand up to his face and cannon
balls in.
Speaker 3: I've come up.
Speaker 1: Up my nose.
Speaker 8: I guess this is one way to do it. And
I just sort of watch, like as a cloud of
dirt and leaves just drifts away from my body in
the direction of the stream.
Speaker 4: Sure, yeah, okay, I just.
Speaker 8: Start scrubbing the water in different places.
Speaker 1: Greg is uh, Greg is.
Speaker 8: Oh, you missed the spot, and I just dunk him
underneath the water.
Speaker 1: He pops back up, splashes you, and.
Speaker 8: I start splashing back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's chuckling a bit.
Speaker 8: You're a good swimmer. You're a pretty buoyant.
Speaker 1: He easily, He's like flexing and just floating down the river,
paddles back.
Speaker 8: My face drops a little as I wonder if Jan
had experienced moments like this with Greg. I just sort
of wonder if things were like this for her while
many years passed by. Uh right, we should probably get going.
I sort of clump out onto the river bank and
just shake starting from my head, my ears, and my
tail goes a little bushy behind me.
Speaker 1: Greg does the exact same thing.
Speaker 8: Mm hmm, yeah, great, m hm. Okay, let's just ride all.
Speaker 1: Right, and you try to hitch your ride now. Are
you looking for, uh a nicer vehicle to hit your
ride onto or are you looking for something low tech?
Speaker 3: Hmmm.
Speaker 8: I'm going to look for something a bit nicer because I imagine,
like most places, wealth is privileged and they're less likely
to check for contraband in the form of wanted cat
girls and blushies shroublets.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, my bad. Yeah, Greg is as
soon as you as soon as you like relaying the plan,
like Greg is like, yeah, motions down to himself.
Speaker 8: It's fine, just go with it, all right, Fine, I
take my scarf off and I just just wrap it
around him. There you look. Oh you know what if
we get caught, we can say that we're performers. Just
follow after me and I'll start a dance and I
start wiggling my hips trying to demonstrate essentially one of
these like egirl cackirl dances that I usually do outside
the tavern in game.
Speaker 1: Watching Greg do this is a catastrophe. Greg is creaking
and there's cracking as he's doing this, and he looks like.
Speaker 8: No, no, you got to keep it loose, keep it loose.
And I reached down, like grab him by. I try
to try to feel for hips. Does he have hips?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's just he's trying to do this, and I
mean he's he's just kind of a sphere sort of
and he uh, he doesn't have the same joints that
you do, so he doesn't have that like twisting motion
that you can do.
Speaker 6: Hmmm.
Speaker 8: I try to like wiggle him around to find what
works with his range of motion.
Speaker 7: It's fine, You're gonna do great.
Speaker 8: Okay, maybe just wiggle back and forth. Perfect, you're a natural,
you know what. I have an idea, and I'll grab
Greg by the hand and move him towards the main road,
and I'll essentially reach into my inventory, pull out one
of the vases that I stole and put it down
in front of us, and I'll just start dancing. Hright, Greg,
do you wiggle? It's called busking.
Speaker 1: And you've just done this right next to the road.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 8: He just start hackling people and just being like, do
you like.
Speaker 1: Insight? Will power.
Speaker 12: Ten?
Speaker 1: Okay? Yeah, there's probably a few people that slow down,
but no one seems to stop.
Speaker 8: Have you ever been to cat Cat Girls and troublets
on the dam? You gotta putt more enthusiasm into it.
He's wiggling faster, Start wiggling faster.
Speaker 4: Top crowd.
Speaker 8: I sort of keel over, putting my hands on my knees.
Speaker 1: Somebody somebody like rolls down a window and you see
like somebody throws something out the window towards you.
Speaker 8: Oh, I try to catch it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's uh, it appears to be like a takeout container.
Speaker 8: Oh, I hand it to Greig opens it up and
there's just garbage in there.
Speaker 1: He throws it down on the ground.
Speaker 8: These people are so rude. I give them a show.
We gave them a show, and this is what they
have to offer. USh shitty crowd. We shouldn't feel bad
about robbing any of these people. Greg, Yeah, all right,
let's pack it up. Hmmm is that carriage going towards
the city or leaving ith going towards? All right, Greg,
come on and I will essentially start running after it,
and I'm gonna try to figure out if there's a
way I can hang off of it, hang into it.
Speaker 1: Open it, let's find out. So you're looking for a
place to like hang.
Speaker 8: Onto it, that's your top top priorities, just latching onto it.
First insight insight, okay, eleven.
Speaker 1: So there's the obvious of you can just kind of
like hang on the back. It's not gonna be comfortable,
probably be pretty obvious. The other choice that you have
easily available to you that you can tell is you
can probably fit underneath. Greg might be able to you
most likely can.
Speaker 8: So right, Sorry, we got this. We got this, Greg,
Just believe hold your breath and I'll try to help
maneuver him underneath the carriage.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's gonna be a.
Speaker 8: Little bumpy, a little scrape, He's gonna loose some leaves.
But we got to get in.
Speaker 1: Deck. This is not gonna be interesting.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna I'm gonna reroll that. If that's okay, I
would like to invoke my identity of slick opportunists here. Look,
this is an opportunity to get into the city. We
need to get in to try to find our way
back to our friends.
Speaker 1: Okay, I will allow it.
Speaker 8: Hell yeah, I'm gonna reroll both of those two's ten.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna say that you get there. But Greg
is kind of dragging along the ground. He definitely cannot
fit underneath. Like you hear like this. You just see
like the scraping, like leaves being left behind. There's like
wood chips. It looks like mulch is getting launched.
Speaker 4: Fuck God, damn it.
Speaker 8: We bonded over over the river. Can't let you go
right now? Okay, fine, I let go, and I essentially
will take Greg with me.
Speaker 1: Let let let go Greg. Let's go, And there's he's
just like starfished on the road. There's a trail of
mulch behind him and like the leaves just played out.
Speaker 8: Sorry, buddy, just.
Speaker 1: Got thrown into a woodchipper. Oh, Gregg's entire front is
like missing leaves.
Speaker 8: Oh I'm sorry, buddy. It's like cards. And I'll just
sort of like readjust my scarf on him so it
covers some up. We'll find another way, Okay, just sitting
the dirt next to him.
Speaker 1: Just on the side of the road, you're watching like
you're watching vehicles periodically go by. I know, I know
he's putting dirt on himself.
Speaker 8: I reach over and I start helping. Just it's ony
Iris or Enders. We're here, they'd have a good idea
of what's due. Look, I know I look like it,
but I'm at the brains of this operation. I usually
just bring the charisma. You know, I'm good at making friends,
but I'm not very good at solving Pauls we're getting
yelled at or Yeah, it's just unfortunate. We don't have
a very diversified skill set between you and me.
Speaker 6: Up, I'm.
Speaker 8: A high five of him, despite not understanding anything that
he's saying. Yeah, but we're together.
Speaker 1: That's what matters. Greg hops up, walks into the middle
of the road.
Speaker 8: Yeah, what are you doing this time? And slowly get up.
Speaker 1: Greg looks like he's flagging down a vehicle as it
begins to approach. They stop join him. Okay, buddy, you
got this, Greg leans towards you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: Vehicle stops. There's no like car horn on it. There's
probably like an annoying bell that starts raining, bing bing
bing bing bing.
Speaker 8: Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: He rolls down. Somebody rolls down the window.
Speaker 6: Away.
Speaker 1: Greg rushes over towards the window. What are you talking about?
Speaker 17: What is this creature? It's not making any sense. Why
are you doing this?
Speaker 1: What's happened?
Speaker 8: And I opened my pouch and I hold five, zent
it out to him.
Speaker 1: Are you giving me this money?
Speaker 8: And I just point at the carriage and I use
my fingers to motion walking and then towards the city.
Speaker 1: Make an insight will power.
Speaker 8: I don't know what the fuck is going on?
Speaker 6: Five?
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah, you're doing this. Get out of the way.
We're not some sort of public transport.
Speaker 8: I add another's in it. I just start adding 's
in it until ten. I stop at ten.
Speaker 1: Yeah you do this? And Greg has disappeared.
Speaker 8: Oh great, I just keep going.
Speaker 1: In the background, we can see we can see that
Greg is trying the doors on this vehicle. He's trying
to see if any of these doors are open on
this vehicle. It's got four doors. It's kind of like
a mini party bus look to it. And Greg is
trying all the doors. One of them opens, and there's
another person in there, Like, what is this thing?
Speaker 16: Greg?
Speaker 1: I think it's trying to attack me. And you see
like a foot coming out trying to shove Greg away. Yeah,
my friend Greg like falls.
Speaker 6: On his head.
Speaker 1: He's looking looks a little bit like a turtle.
Speaker 8: I pocket my zenate and I rush around to the
other side. And then I punched the person who kicked Greg.
Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead and do a mitin mite.
Speaker 8: God. I hate this game.
Speaker 1: Hey, at least the guards didn't see it, so the yeah,
you try to punch this person, they just they kind
of close the door and you bam, you smack the
door and the vehicle starts to move. Greg is again
on the ground like starfished.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 1: Greg sort of like tries to roll and he eventually
gets himself onto his hands and and and knees and
he works as his way back. Uh, yeah he does,
he's got Yeah he doesn't. He doesn't have like hip
joints the way that you do. But like he's got,
he's got knees, and he'll work his way back up.
Speaker 7: And I tried, Uh.
Speaker 8: They will take this in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. He wanders around the side of the roads. Some
more vehicles that come and go, and they avoid him
and you, and he sighs.
Speaker 8: Maybe we'll have to find a sewer or something. I
remember there being a quest sign that took us through
the sewers, and they're all underneath the city, so if
we go in through one entrance, we might pop out inside. Wheah, right, right, right, yeah.
Speaker 1: Greg turns around rushes to the river.
Speaker 8: Hey wait, wait, I rush after him.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think it's an insight and insight now fifteen Okay, Yes,
you find some kind of sewer entrance. As you begin
to head through the sewer, it's about as wonderful as
you imagine.
Speaker 8: Plug my nose immediately. My nose is extremely sensitive. I
basically take the scarf back from Greg. I'm sorry, buddy,
you're just gonna have to be a bit exposa.
Speaker 7: It means the reason for my health I just.
Speaker 8: Sort of tie it around and I plug my nose.
Speaker 18: So hear it.
Speaker 8: If it helps, I'll just open my inventory. You don't
give him one of the rainbow fish that I stole.
Just give it for him to hold.
Speaker 6: All right.
Speaker 1: He just waves it around.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe a lightly taps you with it. Don't do that.
Does it again?
Speaker 17: Hmmm?
Speaker 1: He does like some Marshall poses with the fish. Ah,
spins the gun that one of the guns that you
gave him in his other hand. He's got a gun
and a fish.
Speaker 8: Hey you're doing you're getting pretty good at that. Might
not have hips, but you've got fingies.
Speaker 5: Ah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay, let's go. I'll try to maneuver into the sewers.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You begin to be under your way through the sewers,
which are horrible smelling obviously, and eventually you come to
what appears to be like this looks like a Final
Fantasy Sluice Skates situation if you played Final Fantasy twelve.
This is like the slu Skates and Final Fantasy twelve. Uh,
it's just this nightmare scenario of having to like, I mean,
you're down here for a while and there is a
there is a gate system. You gotta flip some switches.
I mean, we see a final fantasy level happening for
like the for like the rest of the day. You
guys are trying to figure out how the sewer and
the slu skates work, and there are some shitty situations
that arrive. Sorry, I had to do it at least once.
Go ahead and make me a Dexon Insight. Dexon Insight
checked sixteen. Okay, so yeah, you you managed.
Speaker 8: I imagine that it's who solves the puzzles because I
suck at puzzles.
Speaker 1: Huh. Regardless you are, you don't get covered in sewer
as you Yeah, as you complete these puzzles. It's so
it takes forever. It's so annoying, Like whoever came up
with this level, uh, you know, they didn't know what
they were thinking. And you finally managed to work your
way towards what appears to be some kind of maintenance tunnel,
finding your way towards the surface.
Speaker 8: Oh thank god, Oh my god.
Speaker 6: I can't stand this.
Speaker 8: We have to be in here for ready four hours.
Speaker 6: I think it's just good.
Speaker 1: Hell, you are rewarded by possibly seeing one of the
most beautiful cities you have ever seen in your life.
As we head over to Cinder Shroud, the capital of
mill Offax, you come out near one of the canals
here in mit Offax. The in cinder Shroud, the area
around you is stunning. It's beautiful, it's dusk. There's this
sort of purple and blue and orange lighting that's happening here.
This place is regal and it is incredible. It is beautiful.
Speaker 8: Huh, hey, have you ever been here before?
Speaker 1: Ada he holds one finger up.
Speaker 8: Was it with Moon?
Speaker 1: There are tons of people about nobody immediately near you.
You're kind of like down by the canals or probably
like in this area down there where m Yeah, flying overhead,
you can see dragons and such tall towers and domed buildings.
There are, however, sections of the city that you can
see are not lit or not nearly as impressive around
you this place. I mean, you didn't get to see
mill Offax in game technically, just some of the previews
that you saw at Rigallia khan m But this is
by far the grand city that you've ever seen in
Regalia or Yeah, we're here, since.
Speaker 8: You've been here, I'm glad to know that Moon had
a chance to see something like this. This is beautiful, Greg,
there's I don't think I've ever seen anything like this
where I'm from.
Speaker 1: He points sort of like hooards some stairs about.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we should get out of here, and I crawl
out and I reach down to help Greg hoist him up.
All right, we probably smelled really bad, so we should
avoid the main streets. I think finding shelter and finding
a really good bath is probably our first place we
should do is go and then we're gonna try to
find a way to meet up with our friends. Okay.
Speaker 1: Greg points towards the large dome building. It takes him
a second to maybe locate it from your position, but
he points towards the very large domed building and some
of the muck and stuff that's accumulated in the canal.
He will use it to sort of draw very rudimentary
stick figure.
Speaker 8: Okay, there's someone there that you know.
Speaker 1: I'm not buying. Points to you too, someone that I know,
and he draws a sort of dragon head on this
stick figure, the Empress.
Speaker 8: Okay, yeah, yeah, yes, Craig, you're brilliant. And I grab
him by the sides of his face. I look like
I'm back kiss and I'm like, oh no, not right now, horrible. Okay,
we really need a bath. Okay, I pull out my
zenate start counting. All right, I have eighteen zenate. We
have to get to a bath house, clean up, get presentable.
We have to look like heroes going in through those doors.
Otherwise we're not going to get seen.
Speaker 1: About.
Speaker 4: Okay, let's go.
Speaker 1: Okay. A familiar sound rings in your interface as you
see a new quest pop up.
Speaker 8: Huh what's that?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 8: My tail curls excitedly behind me as I access the
quest menu.
Speaker 1: As you see the quest pop up, you see a
quest titled report to the Dragon Empress. There is an
objective there for you that says, convince the Dragon Empress
to send you to Infernia. And basically like, there's no
detailed information about this.
Speaker 8: As I'm looking at over, I rub my hands together.
Speaker 4: Oh this is gonna be fun.
Speaker 8: All right, Greg, let's go.
Speaker 1: Okay. As dusk settles on cinder shroud, we I think
see ru and Greg look for some kind of bathhouse
or something to clean up. Go ahead and give me
an insight. Insight, Okay, fifteen dice are with you today.
I think for the most part and it doesn't take
you too long, maybe ten minutes or so to maybe
find someplace to clean up. It's not too expensive. It
probably runs you five 's in it or something for
like a quick sort of shower or something along those lines.
Speaker 8: That's for both of us.
Speaker 1: Uh sure, why not?
Speaker 10: Okay?
Speaker 1: They have like they probably have like the equivalent of
you know, like a shitty like beach shower. They probably
have something like that for uh, for like you know,
people that are that are in your kind of a
situation just broken ship and like please don't stick it
up around here, you know. And then they have like
the nicer they have some like nicer packages, you know,
they have like a full on like pampered package of
you know, like bath and like, you know, are.
Speaker 8: There pretty off I can get with the thirteen senate
that I have left over?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna spend all of the money that you
have to get? Okay? Sure?
Speaker 8: I just start ending my coin pers on the table.
I'm like, can I give her this?
Speaker 1: Sure? It's like the next step up basically like just
one step up, which is basically like hey, here's some
like here's some actual like decent soap and maybe some
like moisturizer or something along, like some oil.
Speaker 8: Or something to try to get the smell away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some like it's it's but it's like bullshit. It's
like the hotel stuff, you know, like the little tiny
packages of this to go clean yourself. It's still the
same shower though it's not like you don't get you
don't get the super deluxe package. Like you can tell
this place has like nice baths and like they have massages.
It's like a spa, you know, you have all that
shit and you just like see it like you know,
nose pressed up against the window, like as you know,
you can probably see like people in nice bathrobes and shit.
You're like out in the in like the alley way,
you know, and like those showers and uh yeah, you
get cleaned up. You get cleaned up a little bit,
and uh Greg gets cleaned up. As you know, it's
probably getting close to night time here, okay.
Speaker 8: As we're kind of like making our way out, I
like to steal one of the bathrobes and throw it
into my inventory. Actually I'll do two. One that's Greg
sized and one that's my sized.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, your clothes are still you know, you're just rudimentary,
rudimentarily scrubbing them, you know, like in the shower. They
still they're kind of disheveled and horrible. They road weary clothes.
Speaker 8: In that case, I'm going to steal someone else's clothes.
Speaker 9: All right, go ahead and give us a decks decks
open check, come on, we're god ten?
Speaker 1: Okay, with a ten. I'm gonna say there probably wasn't
stuff that was like easy to steal. I think imagine
there's probably like lockers or something like that where people
put all their stuff and you just try to find
like the easiest closest one. Yeah, to not cause any
kind of a scene. You go in there and there's
stuff that's like it's clothing. Is it like what you're
looking for? Definitely not.
Speaker 8: It's probably cleaner than what I've got.
Speaker 1: It's definitely cleaner than what you've got on.
Speaker 8: Yeah, what do you think for that?
Speaker 1: What do you think that you find in there that's
like not what you're looking for, but it's it'll work.
I guess.
Speaker 7: Oh.
Speaker 8: It's definitely some kind of like large umbrella like robe.
It just sort of like comes on like an oversized
poncho and it's got like slits for the arms, but
it's completely shapeless. It's a drab like gray green color
and it's super uncharacteristic and it's just basically like a
blanket with armholes and it drags on the ground behind me.
It's just a little too tall, a little too long.
Speaker 4: I guess this will do.
Speaker 1: Ah, what is Greg? What did you what was in
there for Greg?
Speaker 8: For Greg? Uh, it was in a different locker and
it was one that was like a little lower to
the ground. And this particular one is a pair of
hotpants that are like this like bright red color, and
then this, uh, this crop top. But it's like a
it's like a battle blouse, right, so it's got like
it's got like a deep V and it's got those
laces that chriss cross over and it's got like a
really freely part for the neck. But the the arms
are pretty tight so that you know, you don't get
caught up when you're sword player or whatever you're you're
you do wearing this sort of battle top. But it
looks really funky. Oh my dude here, Oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Greg, we just see the aftermath. Greg looks down.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I mean, hm, that you've got a dump chuck back there.
Speaker 1: He's turning around, looks like he's chasing his tail.
Speaker 8: Mmm. No, no, no, it's a compliment. Your butt cheeks
are like, hm, my dude, they look great. Chef's kiss. Look,
people would kill for a but cheek like yours. It's
that natural.
Speaker 4: Nos, damn high five?
Speaker 8: Cool? All right, we should get out of here. We
should get out of here.
Speaker 1: He does like a like a gain you force pose
towards the building.
Speaker 8: I clap.
Speaker 1: And Greg yeah, Greg starts leading away towards the fucking
towards the towards the imperial fucking the imperial uh dome
where the empress And yeah, yeah, there's all kinds of
like people outside. I mean, this place is gorgeous. I
mean imagine walking to like the Emperor's you know, a
hall or whatever. Like there's guards and shit all over
the place. You can see like anybody that's trying to
get anywhere closed is being stopped by guards. It's what
you about, what you'd expect. Like the guards are checking
with everybody and like they're going over paperwork and what
have you. And one of the guards yells.
Speaker 12: One hour remains until court is closed for the day.
One hour, Greg.
Speaker 8: We gotta hurry up. We don't want to have to
spend the night here. Her am out of money. Come
on and I'll pick up the pace ahead over.
Speaker 6: Good evening.
Speaker 1: Visa information please please.
Speaker 8: I pat myself and I searched my inventory. Do I
still have my visa?
Speaker 1: I don't think you do. I think you left it
at the guard station.
Speaker 8: Hey, look good evening. Thank you for your service and
everything that you're doing. My name is Rue, I'm a hero,
and I request an immediate audience with the Empress.
Speaker 1: Please.
Speaker 8: This is of utmost importance. I'm on a mission sanctioned
by the Empress.
Speaker 1: Please roll in insight and willpower.
Speaker 8: Fourteen pretty pretty please?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the guard you can see like they get some
kind of bullshit like this every day. You know that
sort of look on his face, and he doesn't even
really like he'll glance up at you for a second. Okay, cat,
and you don't have a visa? I lost it, looks
up at you, then does like a double take, burrows
his brow.
Speaker 8: Watch this, and I open my inventory and I take
a fish in out in out in out in out
in out.
Speaker 1: God panic like like freaks out. And you can see like, uh,
you can see like the guards around like immediately react
and there's that like that march sound of like everybody's
foot stomping as they like draw lances and like they
all point them towards you.
Speaker 8: I'm a hero. That's something that heroes can do.
Speaker 4: Uh please.
Speaker 1: They all sort of look at each other and it's.
Speaker 2: Can you feel that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, some sort of itching. Not your personal problems.
I mean when you look at them, they're hero.
Speaker 8: I'm a hero, baby, that's right, And I request an
audience with the Empress pretty please.
Speaker 1: Greg holds up his fish.
Speaker 8: This is my companion, Greg.
Speaker 5: Alah.
Speaker 1: Shrublet and a cat. Yes, hold on, wait here, okay,
all the guards are like there are lances are still
like drawn towards you. There's like ten lances just pointed
at you right now.
Speaker 8: Sorry, I like the attention. I start dancing a little bit.
Speaker 1: After like five to ten minutes, this guard returns. You
do match the description? Mm hmmm, who are you traveling with?
Speaker 8: I was traveling with enders Iris, Bow Moon, the Savior.
Speaker 1: They all look a bit like yeah, okay, you know
like this is and you see like sweats start to
build up on the guard that like ask you this question.
Like all the other guards is like, what is this
person smoking? Like another one? You know that kind of response,
and then the guard is just progressively getting moister and moisture.
Speaker 8: Ah, grab the edge of my scarf and I just
like dap some of the sweat off of his face.
It's okay, I'm used to this, but yeah, please, it's
the most importance.
Speaker 1: Escort two by two. You will see the Empress follow.
Speaker 8: I look behind me to Greg and I just give
him a little thumbs.
Speaker 1: Up, like a that flash sound, which she.
Speaker 8: And I proceed, I says, shay as we're going, just
chin up my tail, just a lovingly curling behind me.
I love the attention.
Speaker 1: Oh holy shit, this place is bonkers. I mean you
thought like when you when you were in the gilded
Hall of Koga, like that ship was posh.
Speaker 12: Uh what the fuck?
Speaker 1: Like black marble and like you know, you see statues
of the Empress, and I mean tapestry is rich and beautiful.
There's fucking art all around this place. Everything looks so expensive.
It's just a thief's dream. But all of the guards
around here just they look so dangerous and fucking deadly,
like there are I feel like it's your immediate reaction
is like any of these people could fucking kill you,
like so easily. And you're just being walked and Greg
is in hot pants and a fucking a deep V
neck and it's probably got some kind of hideous pattern
on it that you know would make a grown man cry.
And you were walking in in a bathrobe into the
Imperial Palace and this we see.
Speaker 8: This check would I be better received if I was
just button naked?
Speaker 1: You can probably make a check sure insight insight' I
think even with a nine you can tell not the
best idea. This is okay, definitely better than just walking
in here, but ass naked.
Speaker 8: Okay, I shall not disrobe for now.
Speaker 1: As you're meandering through this place, I mean there's people
that are staring at you for sure, Like everybody's like
what is she wearing? Nobility? Or in here there's just like, uh,
we have this like really long shot of you Greg
and the guards sort of escorting you through this, and
we just see the bathrobe, you know, like trailing like
it's a fucking gown or something, and just so much
so much like more pathetic. And you are marched towards
a large set of doors in a rounded archway. You
stop before the doors. There are two guards there. What
is your name? Who grew? And the guard looks towards
Greg sort of disgusted Greg, Greg for the Empress. They
look absolutely bewildered. The two guards that are guarding these
large double doors. Look at the guard that says this
to them. Are you sure the Empress wishes to see them?
Do you have any weapons on you?
Speaker 6: Ah?
Speaker 1: Yes, they must be removed before you see the Empress.
Speaker 8: That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 1: Fish. The guard awkwardly catches it. What the fuck is this?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: He's Greg also like spins the gun and like drops
it in their hand.
Speaker 8: And the second gun, Greg, we had that. Come on,
we don't. We're friends, we're friends of the Empress.
Speaker 1: Come on. Greg crams his hand into his mouth and
pulls out the other gun. It's a little slimy.
Speaker 8: The guard is very impressed at this.
Speaker 6: Okay, Greg could put some stuff away.
Speaker 1: Greg drops a slimy gun in the guards and the fish.
Two guns are there, and you.
Speaker 8: I'll drop my bladed roses. Okay, I'll leave all of
this in my inventory.
Speaker 1: In seven weapons in the inventory.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we'll just leave them. They don't need to worry
about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, so you uh.
Speaker 8: I make a joke as as I leave, and I'm like,
I'm also a weapon, but I can't disarm myself.
Speaker 1: There's zero reaction from the guards.
Speaker 8: Okay, we're ready.
Speaker 1: No, the door's open. As you see the throne room
of Her Imperial Majesty, the drag An Empress, which is
even more incredible than the rest of the palace. There
is a round throne room circular room here arches that
have all this like intricate like woodworking done so the
woodworking is placed inside the arches so that the different
lighting of the day casts different shadows into this room.
There are various sculptures in points around the room depicting
what appears to be the the succession of emperors and
empresses for Millifax. Around the room carved busts of stone.
Around the perimeter. There are lush tafer strees of black,
red and gold that hang, and a lush carpet of
golden finery that leads towards the throne and stops before
the stairs that lead to it. The Dragon Empress sits
upon the throne scepter, leaning against it, and she looks upon.
Speaker 8: You as a As I'm walking up, my breath is
taken away. This splendor, this grandeur. I haven't seen anything
like it before, and my finger's naturally itch, but there's
just something about it that just sits in my gut
like a lead stone. And as my eyes lock onto
the Empress in our slow approach, I can't help but
feel like I'm looking into the face of some sort
of ultimate predator, the apex, the literal champion of this city,
this nation.
Speaker 1: This is further felt as you see the fires that
also seem to grow and circle behind the Empress grow
in intensity like breath behind her. As you approach, they
dance behind the Empress's throne.
Speaker 19: Ah, you, the Empress, I.
Speaker 12: I present to you Rue and Greg, your majesty.
Speaker 8: As I see the attendant bow, I remember myself and
I also drop down into a bow your majesty Greg,
I don't know.
Speaker 1: Greg sort of creaks as he tries to bow a
little bit.
Speaker 18: Hi, Hello, and why are you here before me?
Speaker 8: Uh it? You know, the the mission that you had
us on before, there were some complications. And I look
around at the very many people in this room and
I sort of.
Speaker 1: They're serious looking guards here.
Speaker 8: I eyeball them and back to the Empress. I'm not
sure if it's a sensitive matter that you'd like so
many people to hear, but yeah, it's about that.
Speaker 1: Grandis clear the room. There is a sort of marching
sound as you can see so many guard there's like
at least ten guards like in full fucking plate and
armor and weapons that turn upon the Empress's words towards
another guard. And you recognize this armor. You saw this
guard before when you were at the Geffran estate, the
guard that was with the Empress. This must be the
captain of the guard. Certain this very large looking presence
who is wearing a helmet inside this inside this palace, says,
as you wish.
Speaker 18: Your majesty guards.
Speaker 1: Were in the chamber, the guards being a clear Grandest
remains as the Empress says, You're not.
Speaker 18: Worry, Grande is this hero poses no threat to me?
And neither does the Savior's companion or should I call
her the valkyrie? Now once again.
Speaker 1: You hear Greg make like a little.
Speaker 8: Noise next you that the name valkyrie. I visibly WinCE
and I feel a pain strike my heart, but I
don't say anything.
Speaker 18: Now you will tell me everything that happened, I have
only received the barest hint of information. I will know
it all.
Speaker 8: She needs your help, my help, my help. Something very
wrong has been happening.
Speaker 1: And why.
Speaker 18: Does the Valkyrie deserve my hell?
Speaker 8: Because you know that's not truly who she is, the Emberstone.
It's changing her.
Speaker 1: The Embers stands up and she points at.
Speaker 8: You, my shrink underneath this finger.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you do not know who she is? You dare
to presume.
Speaker 18: That I do not know my greatest adversary.
Speaker 8: I know that you've been through much, and I know
that speaking to you now this is no small thing.
But I think there's something far more dangerous than her
is at foot. Someone changed her, someone made her into
what she is. And his name is Tim Cross.
Speaker 1: Yes, his name. The Empress begins to pace in front
of her throne.
Speaker 8: My voice intensifies, and a bitterness begins to bite with
my words laced with the vengeance that compelled me to
rise again. It's because of him that we both lost her.
She's poisoned, she's out of her mind, her heart is lost.
I know deep down that who she used to be,
who she could be, it means something to you. And
I know that It's complicated. Hell, she tried to kill
me and I grew up with her, but I'm not
ready to give up on her. The reason that I'm
here now is we're all scattered, we've been separated. I
don't have any faintest idea where she is. I want
to help her, but I can't find her, and I
know she's not okay. All I know is if I
can get to her, I might be able to reach her.
And in order to do that, I need to find
my friends.
Speaker 1: Your friends.
Speaker 18: Were at the Malifacarnum in Infernia.
Speaker 8: Are they okay?
Speaker 18: What I understand two of them were admitted into this
prestigious academy.
Speaker 8: Sounds like a good thing.
Speaker 18: Your concern for the Valkyrie, it is understandable. However, she
is Regalia's greatest threat. There are others here, perhaps even
my own people, that believe that I am this world's
greatest threat. But I tell you this, child, I am
the Empress of the greatest nation on Regalia. It is
my duty see to my people, just as it was
my duty to agree to cease fire to end the
war despite the needs of my people.
Speaker 1: And now now we have.
Speaker 18: Another growing crisis. The Valkyrie has decided who what follow
this tim Cross.
Speaker 1: Be poisoned by him.
Speaker 18: Last records that I had from the Dragmoor laboratories, I
had no information about this Hymn Cross.
Speaker 8: Well, if you don't mind having a seat, my lady Empress,
I'll tell you everything from the very beginning.
Speaker 1: You will.
Speaker 18: Or you will find your party will be one less.
Speaker 4: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1: She narrows her eyes and looks at you. Fire begins
to rise up behind her, and you realize that is
not all that is in this chamber. The fire it
rises behind the Empress draws your eye. Do something in
the shadows.
Speaker 8: Away from the Empress and towards it.
Speaker 1: As you see massive creature begin to move. Dragon stretches
its wings behind the Empress.
Speaker 8: I naturally sink, shrinking.
Speaker 18: Aguari, You're not worry. This one cannot to me. She
is no valkyrie. Tell me everything, okay.
Speaker 10: So.
Speaker 8: Bear with me. Some of this might be kind of
hard to swallow. I'll start from the beginning, and I
begin to tell the Empress about Regalia, con about.
Speaker 3: Who I was.
Speaker 8: As Riley, about jan and about the great portal that
suck us into this world, and how we are not
from this world. Now. Tell her about how we appeared
out of Emberstone, how Moon came from the sky and
saved us, and every single moment that's led us up
to this right now, and I don't spare.
Speaker 1: It as far as you can remember.
Speaker 4: You tell her as far.
Speaker 8: As I can remember, as Riley Andrew.
Speaker 1: Oh Jesus, okay hmm.
Speaker 8: And I finished by begging her, please, it's not her.
We share a common enemy. The Valkyrie is made and
it was made by Tim Cross. She's been turned into
a weapon. Isn't the weapon that you should be afraid of, Empress?
It's the one who wields it. And I dropped down
to my knees in front of her.
Speaker 1: I beg you, I need you to please make an
insight and willpower.
Speaker 8: Fuck dude, fuck, I don't have any fabulous points. Oh
my god, you said insight will power.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're just gonna have to create that's all.
Speaker 8: Oh my god.
Speaker 6: Uh ten.
Speaker 3: You switch scenes, get right, nerds.
Speaker 1: As we join our friends in Infernia, mm hm hmmm,
we find bo Iris and Enders entering into a cavern.
I was so thrown off by Ruth's decision that I
forgot what all my buttons douh that one. There we go. Okay,
we join, We join our squad in the Infernia area.
You have been sent on your I guess we can
call it your sort of final exam. You've been sent
on a quest into a demon nest. The quest og
is there for you. By the way, you should be
able to see it. Clear out the demon nest from
the Malfaicarnam Academy. Uh. Where did it go? Everything? I've
I've lost my brain after Rusine, I've lost it. It's gone.
I've lost it. I can't believe you did that. I
should have expected it. But here we are. Forgot. What
all of the buttons on everything do? M hm uh?
And let's see we need this scene. What did I
do with it? Did it not get added?
Speaker 16: I don't think it, dude.
Speaker 1: Cool? I set up a scene and it's not here. Cool. Okay,
very well, let's do this. There we go. As uh
as you begin to walk through this cavern, I imagine
that you're checking this quest log again.
Speaker 14: Uh.
Speaker 1: You've been directed uh, specifically by the arch magus of
the Malfacarnam Academy. It's about maybe a mile or two
away from the city of Infernia as the three of
you Namo, as the three of you making your way
through this cabra. You've been given this quest by the
arch Magus, and there are some like really good rewards
for this. Thankfully you should be able to view it.
I believe you're all able to see that.
Speaker 8: Yes, I see them.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, Hello, you see what I'm If you like
this podcast in the.
Speaker 20: Journal under the yellow tab that says active quests, demon nest,
clear it out is there?
Speaker 1: Okay, check out? See Indeed, if you'd like to support us,
you can visit the slash support as you're making a
new way through this cave. I think everybody's like salivating
a little bit at these potential rewards because things have
been very expensive in Infernia and in the Academy. You've
been scrounging and scrimping for the last couple of weeks
of you, as you have been progressing very quick Kali
through your classes, all of the professors have been kind
of marveled by all of your magical abilities and your
studies and such, and you've kind of been just doing
very well in the academy. But they have warned you
that this is going to be a very dangerous quest
taking this on the They haven't given you a huge
amount of details, but they have told you that there
is in fact a demon nest that has been growing,
and it's been your job to track it down and
clear it out. You've tracked it down. It's taken you
the better part of a day to find this nest
and find the clues and such to make your way here,
and you finally have done so. You've killed a few
imps that were mischievous and about what you'd expect when
you visualize an ip in your head, sort of red
orangiesh and color. And the landscape around here is mostly
like red clay and shrub lands. It's sort of a
bad lands environment. The cavern that you're entering right now
is also sort of red clay. There are rays of
sunlight that are making their way down. It is illuminated,
and the light of the day is sort of reflecting
through this place. There is a hideous smell of sulfur
that you all sort of sense immediately as you begin
walking through here. The the imps that you fought really
no big deal. But you have been warned in general
about the creatures near Infernia and that they can be
very dangerous and deadly in this speci if a cave
or this demon nest you have told when they do
crop up, they can be well, they can be pretty nasty.
There's all different kinds of demons that can come from
this place. You may have read about some of them.
Let's do some checks to see. Let's do a group
check to see if an insight insight, and see what
you have learned.
Speaker 20: And what is the difficulty for this group check?
Speaker 1: Difficulty is gonna be twelve twelve?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 11: You know, I don't think I've ever helped to support
a roll ever.
Speaker 8: You are so closed.
Speaker 1: Okay, and let me roll for enders, okay, and let's
see if I can support as enders. I don't know
if I can. Let me see if I hit this button, uh,
okay to go from this because my scene got lost
somehow or I didn't hit save, I was gonna do
it from here. I'll do it that way, Okay, if
I click this and then do.
Speaker 16: Support mmm, M.
Speaker 1: Okay, no help fremenders. You honestly, you just have general
knowledge about demons, I'm gonna say, and I don't think
you have beyond the imps that you fought. You have
no real idea aside from what you've been told, which
is it can be very dangerous and there's most likely
more than one type of demon here, and it's the
demons can be extremely bad in general for the environment around,
for Infernia, which is already very dangerous, and this is
pretty close to the city. So this is this is
pretty bad. The sooner you can clear this out, the better.
The Guard don't usually get sent out for missions like this.
It's usually mercenaries in town or students. They get sent
out for these kinds of jobs, and they can be deadly.
They did warn you about that, and you had a
choice between do you want to try and complete this
difficult quest and sort of gain some cash, gain some
nice rewards, or you know, just leave it up to
somebody else without a question.
Speaker 8: We would have taken it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, anyway, yeah, Loop before Life.
Speaker 11: Indeed, that was our second like a guild name choice.
Speaker 20: It was in concept m Yeah, but anyway, we're hardcore,
so of course we would do this.
Speaker 1: Yes. As you uh head into this cavern, there are
again it's mostly like red clay, the smell of sulfur.
There's bones and things all about like littering the sides
of this cave and waste and stuff. It's obvious that
something is living here.
Speaker 20: Do we see any sort of signs, any tracks, or
any droppings or anything of that.
Speaker 1: Loads of tracks all about. I think enders will take
the lead there and just trying to follow tracks. So
we'll have enders make a roll here. This canna be
a group check, and this will be insight insight difficulty
is going to be. I'm just gonna leave it at ten,
I think. Okay, no dies for me.
Speaker 20: Literally fifteen success from me, so that'll be.
Speaker 4: A plus two.
Speaker 1: Okay, Andrew's got a plus three there somehow, because.
Speaker 8: It's one for the success and then two for the bond.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he still gets a nine. He says, there
are too many tracks here. I can't seem to figure
out what is what.
Speaker 16: Hmm.
Speaker 20: Then I suppose we should just be on our guard
and try to clear each room.
Speaker 8: Care Eli.
Speaker 18: All right, bo leather way me, uh okay, all right?
Speaker 1: In follow me.
Speaker 11: I know exactly where I'm going, and I go in
a direction away from them.
Speaker 1: Sure not the way we came. There's one direction for
you to go at the moment. It's kind of a
larger cave. I would say probably. This cavern is maybe
twenty five feet wide or so, and there's one way
for you to go. You travel down this path and
then it starts to branch off. There are three different
ways you can go, and you can see tracks coming
from all three.
Speaker 11: Okay, I've got the middle path, middle path.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 20: And do any of the tracks look any bigger than
the others?
Speaker 10: Yep?
Speaker 8: Meeting to the direction we're going.
Speaker 1: Yep, Okay, certainly. And they look all different too. Some
that look like like almost like dog tracks, there's some
that look like sort of humanoid ish. There's some that
look like like there's just sort of trails, you know,
just sort of sliding trail.
Speaker 11: Much what we told about this, they said, clear a
demon nests, But we see it a path here, and
it looks like there might be many different kinds of
shapes and size of of demon. Are they all the
same demon that do they breed in nests? We're gonna
smash demon eggs? They the same character right now? Character
at the same time?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 20: So.
Speaker 17: Uh.
Speaker 1: As far as what the Male of Karnum told you,
they told you like it's it could be a bunch
of different creatures. It's most likely not the same creature. Hmm.
Speaker 3: Could be interesting.
Speaker 20: That is opportunity perhaps for you to learn new magics.
Speaker 3: Right Nope, Oh.
Speaker 11: Okay, I do think we're going this way though. Can
you describe this middle path but going through?
Speaker 1: Sure, this path is probably a little bit smaller than
the others. It meanders a bit this path. Uh, there's
like large boulders and stuff here and there. There are
rays of light that kind of breaks through various pock
marked holes uh in the cavern ceilings, and there are
there's like waste and bones and ship about like k
it smells like sulfur. There's probably some I imagine, like
a lot of insects and things picking at waste and
picking at like bones and stuff. So you're definitely like,
meander around some insects here and there.
Speaker 11: I see, Okay, I guess I keep rolling along and
hoping they follow me and tell me if I'm about
to fall off the cliff.
Speaker 1: Okay. As you continue down, you can see what appears
to be there appears to be I would imagine I'm
trying to figure out how to explain this to you.
It sort of looks like more contrast. Other than that,
I don't know how to explain it. It's like this,
there's bright rays of sunlight that are obviously coming down,
and the cave has gotten darker as you've gone in.
So this contrast between the rays of sunlight and the
sharpness of the red clay, as well as the shadow
seems you've gotten very intense as you've been walking. Shadows
are especially dark.
Speaker 11: I'm does it smell more demony here?
Speaker 20: I ask I iris, Well, my nose is not as
good as ruse. But is there perhaps any sort of
I don't know how to describe it, like a magical
sickness to the air or anything like that that we
might be able to sense or feel.
Speaker 11: Are we getting warmer?
Speaker 1: Literally definitely not warmer?
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And it's fairly hot here, by the way, it's like
really really dry. And imagine I guess the closest I
could suggest to use. It's probably like Arizona type climate
in this area. And it is Uh. It definitely smells bad.
Definitely smells bad. For sure. There is the smell of sulfur,
smell of waste, so like sulfur methane and like god
knows what else death.
Speaker 20: Hmmm, Well, it certainly smells bad so perhaps so, it's
getting pretty.
Speaker 1: Deafy Enders points to the shadow and says, that's something
wrong with that shadow. It's dripping.
Speaker 3: From what.
Speaker 1: He points. And as you look shadow from the ceiling,
from maybe one of the rocks, and some of the
light that's bouncing around in here, shadow that's on the
ceiling is drip onto the floor, and on the floor,
the shadow looks like it's spreading out further and further slowly.
Speaker 11: I launch a piece of slime at it.
Speaker 1: Okay, launch a piece of slime at it. As you
do begin to hear growling, I knew it.
Speaker 11: I had to be sure. I'm sorry. Okay, remember it's
gonna be.
Speaker 6: It's all right.
Speaker 1: Just getting line, prepare yourselves. As the shadow grows in size,
you begin to see purple flame and hair emerge as
to sort of red magenta eyes emerge from the shadow
to pointy ears in a sort of haunched back. This
dog wolf like creature begins to emerge from the shadows.
Speaker 21: Namo roma emerta bird.
Speaker 7: They give me diny.
Speaker 1: Nada loved me.
Speaker 8: I get to eata. I know you're removed.
Speaker 21: Paddizida my dadu Poka tola or takao, come omada, dog
anada da yuka, timimmo sayona da nanda. You may oh
IgA get adeta spunk, give me ga satara the door,
baskut kumanaka bar kakaramicon. There you could your little sada,
got your goodicit cami himava lamina no i rola and
a little bird or what's the gamy tiny You can't
the route.
Speaker 1: When you come over to the takanda, you w