Speaker 1: In a secluded world where magic and industry compete. The
veil between life and death grows thin. A cold wind
whispers secrets of the past, The gears of fate turn
ever onward, and in the darkness, something stirs. The dark
Room Detectives stand at the threshold paranormal investigators, seekers of truth.
But began as a simple case, unravels a mystery far
greater than they ever imagined. So gather your courage, steady
your hands, and roll the dice. Welcome to Adventures in
the Parted Veil. Hello everyone, Welcome to the Parted Veil
and eatingclayve Adventure by Twilight Enigma. I'm Ryan Land, the
mind player, and I'm joined by my good friends. Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Cassie Lang. I am playing Penelope Waters, the human
Aquium Architect.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm Tim and I play Driving rock fist
Our Dwarf Phantom Rogue.
Speaker 4: I'm Cameron. I play Amaroa Glendel our half elf bart Nice.
Speaker 1: Nice. Now, we have a few things we want to
talk about, as always, just some shout outs. We'll start
with you, Cassie.
Speaker 2: The minis that we use were printed with banana for
scale three D printing services. And you can use our
code mind Played twenty to get twenty percent off your
first order with them until the end of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: It's really good. We love their minis. I'm very excited
to paint the rest of them.
Speaker 3: Ye yeah, yep, yep, they do look good. Yeah, And
if you guys like what you're seeing, I want to
give us a little extra support. We do have a
Patreon setup. You can find the link for that in
the description to this video. And yeah, that'll give you
access to our discord where you can come and chat
with us and other people in the community. And we'd
love to see you on there and chat with you.
Speaker 4: And a big shout out to Carl Casey at White
Bat Audio for the music that you're hearing throughout this episode.
You can find it on YouTube or band camp if
you want to use it in your own campaigns.
Speaker 1: M Yes, in fact, his music's great. You could use
it in YouTube videos, video games, movies like he allows
you to use in all sorts of stuff and it's
it's great.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we are indoing it.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, we ended last time with a rather interesting encounter.
You had fought the crooked man who made a daring
escape through the tunnel or not the tunnel, the events
while you guys were looking down a tunnel at the
back of his lab or office or whatever you want
to call it.
Speaker 2: I wonder what that would look like if we had
been in the room to.
Speaker 3: See his like, probably really disturbed and he took all
his internal organs outside of his body when he left too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's disturbing.
Speaker 3: Were they just like flopping around behind his head?
Speaker 1: They were in a jar?
Speaker 2: Were they in a jar when we saw them? Yeah, discray,
I was just picturing.
Speaker 1: To you because I pictured I pictured kind of like
the head pops off and these little like mechanical legs
come down, and a tube goes down to where something
containing the organs and he kind of grabs it and
skitters off with it.
Speaker 4: That is so gross.
Speaker 1: I little things in asquired.
Speaker 3: Definitely, who the heck like decided to go down that
line of science in this world him?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: There might be some weirdo out there that yeah, interesting,
Well I guess, yeah, I guess you'll find out.
Speaker 1: Uh, So you guys are now at you're now looking
down this tunnel. He's skittered off. I should say that
an alarm starts blaring.
Speaker 4: Okay, let's run.
Speaker 3: When we grab some pieces of him, right.
Speaker 4: If I need a distraction.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're taking fore arms.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 2: And I put all of the pieces of Georgie that
I can into my pocket.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah right. So, uh, you you follow the tunnel.
When the tunnel goes for quite a ways in the dark,
what do you do for light and lantern?
Speaker 4: But do we want to.
Speaker 3: Oh, well, she can't see you.
Speaker 1: But if you want to move fast, she's gonna need
to be able to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I will pull out a lantern.
Speaker 1: Okay, burn a flask a flask of oil. Nice, okay. Uh.
The tunnel seems to go on for what seems like forever,
and eventually you notice it's gradually sloping upwards to where
you come to some doors at the end of the tunnel,
and they're they're rather thick wooden doors, but they're not metal.
They don't look like they've been built by mechanical magic, right,
they do, but they're they're quite large.
Speaker 3: Was the tunnel kind of like a straight shot or
it's it's very much a straight shot.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's some slight curves here and there, it's very
very straight the road itself, it's it's it's not paved,
but it's well packed earth and there's even been it
looks like there's wagon track and stuff on it at points. Okay, right,
you get to these giant doors. They're quite tall and
they're made of wood.
Speaker 3: Do we figure we've gone far enough to the point
where we're probably not near the mechanical magic warehouse anymore?
Speaker 1: Most? Definitely cool. Yes, it takes you a long time.
Speaker 2: And are the doors openable?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 1: You from from this side, yes, you can tell there's
there's like a lock and there's literally some keys hanging
on the side.
Speaker 4: Okay, do we want to go through right away?
Speaker 1: Though?
Speaker 3: Just get a little listen to the door, see if
that's anything. Yeah, good, good, thank you.
Speaker 4: Mar Okay, does it seem like anything's following us? Can
we like rest here?
Speaker 1: That's up to you.
Speaker 3: I think we should just keep going.
Speaker 4: I'm worried that we're going to open the door and
there's gonna be something like waiting.
Speaker 3: Well, there's an alarm blaring in the other direction, that's true,
okay either.
Speaker 1: Okay, So listening through the doors, you can't hear anything.
There's almost you you can almost see like cracks of
light coming through the wooden doors.
Speaker 2: Okay, check the keys for traps.
Speaker 1: There you go there, you won't have to roll for that.
There's nothing just hanging on a hook.
Speaker 4: I'll take the keys and unlo.
Speaker 1: Okay, pushing open the doors. They look like barn doors,
and when you exit, that's exactly what they are. You
see that you have exited a barn on the edge
of the city of Metacloud. And this this barn, like
this barn like there's no floor in it. It just
goes down into this pit what the pit entrance is
disguised as just a bartle barn?
Speaker 4: And is anything watching us?
Speaker 1: Nope?
Speaker 3: Okay, ye, all right, well should we What time of
day is it right now? We did this first thing
in the morning to go to this, so.
Speaker 1: It was first thing in the morning, like six that
you have your parents leave, So it's probably only like
it might even be what see after, it's probably late morning,
maybe even early afternoon, like.
Speaker 2: Okay, cool, I'm dang.
Speaker 3: Well, we've got some evidence here that I think Victor
might want to see. Do you think we should go
pay him a visit?
Speaker 2: Yes, we should go talk to Victor.
Speaker 4: Do you think there's eyes on Victor too.
Speaker 3: Oh for sure, everywhere.
Speaker 2: Okay, they might be a little bit distracted now that
the crooked man is at least temporarily eliminated.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I was. I was just reck there's a
hair on your mic.
Speaker 1: So yeah, all right, so you head back into the city.
Speaker 2: Let's go Victor, staying on alert to see if anybody
is watching us as we go. But yes, that's the
direction that we're headed.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so it takes you some time you
get back into the city.
Speaker 4: Do you want to fix Georgia first? Do you want
to try.
Speaker 1: If we have an hour taken? Well?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so where we are on the edge of town.
Would we get to Victor first or to Penelovi's parents
house first?
Speaker 1: You would get to Victor. Okay, So I envisioned here
is meta Claude and mechanical magic has towards the southern
tip of the city, pends more to the northern tip,
and the police station.
Speaker 3: Is more central. Yeah, so I mean stop at Victors
and then head to your house and then we can
fix George. Does that seem reasonable?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so you you head to Victors. Takes
you some time. It's probably close to like two in
the afternoon when you ride and he's he's there waiting
in his office. The secretary lets you in. He says, oh, uh,
great to see all of you look a little worse
for wear. What's going on?
Speaker 3: It's been an interesting evening and more? Yeah, and this morning?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: He he pulls his chair in. He's like, all right,
tell me what's going on? More? Did you find more body.
Speaker 3: Arms on the table?
Speaker 1: She's like, what are these?
Speaker 3: Well, they used to belong to the Crooked Man.
Speaker 1: No, you dispatched the crooked Man, he says, leaning in.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I don't think it's permanent.
Speaker 1: But yeah, well I'm going to overlook the fact that
you don't really have authority to do that.
Speaker 3: But we claim himself defend.
Speaker 1: That's good enough for me, he says. He's like, so,
so is that what all the hullabaloo down at Mechanical
Magic is?
Speaker 3: Probably I alarm went off as we were leaving.
Speaker 1: Well, uh, we were called for a break in there.
It's a lot going on. But uh, but yeah, I know,
nobody could talk to to the crooked Man. Nobody ever
does only can ever talk to some of his you know, minions,
I might say, but uh, yeah, he wasn't there. So anyways, yeah,
you fought.
Speaker 2: Him, Yeah, we did.
Speaker 1: What what was that like? Like?
Speaker 4: What a lot of arms?
Speaker 1: It was a lot of what you are you saying?
He's not human? He's what kind of what kind of
creature is he?
Speaker 3: I think you're the most qualified to explain that.
Speaker 4: He seemed like.
Speaker 2: He maybe at one point might have been human. H
but he is mostly a machine.
Speaker 1: You mean, like those things he has around the city,
well things garbage trucks?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 1: Really? What?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Oh my.
Speaker 1: Well that's are fine. Okay, tell me about it. What what.
Speaker 2: Before we fought him, he was speaking with a couple
of dwarves and who's Carter?
Speaker 1: Carter Man, a man named Carter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he gave them a gem of some sort
was kind of bluish, purplish greenish?
Speaker 4: Is that right?
Speaker 1: I think we have some red green color blindness purple red?
And do you think this whole room is like red? No?
But okay, so he gave some dwarves a gem. What
what does this have to do with anything?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm just sharing the information that we have.
We also have this paperwork, Yeah, okay, have the paperwork.
Speaker 3: It's like shipping stuff, stuff that he's sending.
Speaker 1: To the Krim, right, yes, and then they were shipping
back those boxes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we specifically heard bodies. Yeah, we heard these
dwarves and the Crooked Man talk about the shipment of bodies,
and these dwarves told the crooked Man that they didn't
need more bodies.
Speaker 1: Really right, Okay, maybe that's a good thing.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure about that. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me see the documents, he says, as he
perhaps them, and he starts pouring over. He's like, yeah,
there's a lot of business interactions here and some documents
about a shipment to a funeral home. This is the
funeral home that burned down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what led us here in the first place,
was following that shipment.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 3: Yes, if you recall that first night you met us,
that's what we talked about.
Speaker 1: Okay, well we might have something here.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: The nice thing is is they called the police, as
you know, for a break in. We could go down there,
we could maybe get more evidence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, unfortunately, he's still there, just I don't know his
head and Organs disappeared and sounded like what we were
scurrying off in the fence. What yep, I don't know.
Speaker 1: What kind of nightmare of fuel you guys have been witnessing.
But okay, it's just.
Speaker 2: Like you said, he was mostly machine, entirely mostly dead.
Speaker 1: Okay. Uh, it's like I'm sure we could write, we
could get a warrant for this. Give me, give me
a couple hours. We'll go down there.
Speaker 2: Okay, sure, way all of us should reccompany.
Speaker 4: Do you want us to accompany?
Speaker 1: We could bring a few. We don't.
Speaker 3: We don't have to. We were the ones that broke in.
They might not like us be in there.
Speaker 1: That's true. All right, I will go down with a
bunch of the guards. We will take a look around.
Is there anywhere specific you want me to look?
Speaker 2: Uh, there's the room where the crystal came from, but
it's gone now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we can tell him where we were
and that's where we found some of these things. Yeah, okay,
but we know about the that door with the lock
on it to get downstairs to wherever that secret area was,
which is probably and we can tell him about the
tunnel too. Okay.
Speaker 1: So he writes all this down and he uh he,
he says, all right, I'll get in contact with you
as soon as I have more.
Speaker 3: Thank you, all right, thank you?
Speaker 1: Okay, so he dismisses you. What do you do?
Speaker 3: Head to your house?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would like to take some time to fix Georgy,
maybe at my parents' house, maybe also fix their house
as much as I can.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm handy with a hammer and some nails and
a lick of paint. I'll help you.
Speaker 1: He licks the paint, you see ghosts. Heads back to
Penn's house. Yeah, and and you know it's not in
the greatest shape. You get in, you take some time
to clean it up, trying to fix some of the
smoke damage and all that. It described described to me.
What you do.
Speaker 2: I'm also gonna fix Georgie. That might be my first priority.
Speaker 3: Actually well yeah, well.
Speaker 1: It takes some time. You have to go up to
your room and look for old parts. But crooked man
took parts of Georgie Pens doing that.
Speaker 2: I must say, I'm pretty honored that he was impressed
by Georgie.
Speaker 1: Truly, Sorry, what was that?
Speaker 2: I might hate him, but I also am kind of
his fangirl.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was just gonna say, well, Pen's doing that.
I will kind of take it upon myself to like
start fixing up the house. So I'll walk around and
if I bump into either of these two or happen
to be in the same room while I'm fixing something,
I'll just try and talk to them about what we
should do next.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so uh and what what do you do?
Speaker 4: I'll help fix up the house a little bit. I
do want to take a long rest as well, So
depending on we're going to.
Speaker 1: Be here, probably it's only four hours.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as soon as Georgie's fixed, I will join them
in house repairs.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So what do you discuss with them
as you go about helping the house?
Speaker 3: Right? Well, as I was saying before we went to
the warehouse and fought the Crooked Man, clearly the dwarves
are involved. There's something happening here. And as we heard
them talk about, there's these new names. I don't know
what or where Vortar is, at least I don't think
I do, right, I haven't heard Okay, Yeah, I don't
know where what Vortar is. And the Crooked Man had
a keen interest in Frogast, whatever that is. I feel
like at some point in our near future we may
have to go to Krim, but I don't think we
know enough to know why we would be going there.
I think we need to do what we can to
find out more about these dwarves that we're doing business with,
the Crooked Man. See if we can find out anything
about Vortar. That wound that we saw on the body
in the box, those weapons of ice they carried. I
don't know about these things. I think we need to
look into that more. We could go to the library again.
I'm also inclined to see if we can make use
of our connection in Victor to see if we can
talk to Carter. If you could bring Carter in, maybe
we could question him a bit, or we take it
into our own hands to do that. I don't know
what are you both feeling?
Speaker 2: The ice weapons and the wound do they would we
have any way of knowing? Do those seem to match?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 3: I would say our impressions as it was described us.
When we looked at the wound, it looked frost.
Speaker 1: Bitten, right.
Speaker 3: I think weapons that look like they're made of ice
and a wound that at frostbite, you could probably there
seems I don't know much about magical weapons, but it
seems possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, long pause.
Speaker 4: I like all of those thoughts that you've brought up.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Uh, it's towards the evening when there's
a knockout on the door.
Speaker 4: Window.
Speaker 1: First, Okay, you see Victory, I see Victor.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I was gonna get ready to grab their buckets.
Speaker 1: And water, give Victor address I would, I'm assuming that
you were.
Speaker 4: I was just like, wait, is this a sign that
Victor it's not actually do it?
Speaker 3: Someone else can disguise.
Speaker 4: That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 1: That's good thinking. We just inspiration for that one.
Speaker 4: I forget what that means.
Speaker 3: Go to your character sheet.
Speaker 2: Can reroll a diet at.
Speaker 3: One point the top, Oh you've got it already, well,
so you can. You can use that to give yourself
an advantage basically.
Speaker 1: So yeah, if you you dislike it, you can reroll
it any die once okay, okay, But if you don't
use it this session, it goes away. Well okay, uh,
and don't forget you have it. That's that's what happens
with most players. Just for sure that they have it. Okay.
So Victor, upon answering there He is like, may I
come in?
Speaker 2: Please do Yeah, all right, I'd like to just do
a scan and see if anybody else is wanting.
Speaker 1: So, uh, go ahead and roll. That'd be perception.
Speaker 4: Twelve.
Speaker 1: Okay, you don't see anyone. Uh. He sits down at
the table and he looks around. He's like, looks like
you've had some trouble in this house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, mechanical magic this morning.
Speaker 3: I'm not the best painter, but it starts crying and.
Speaker 1: Try red. The walls were green color blind but okay,
so yeah you're using dark. It's all shades of gray. Uh,
he says, yeah, okay, like you have proof of this,
just a suspicion.
Speaker 3: Wait wait, wait something I meant to do last session
and we never did, but it should still be there.
Could I check that that bottle that they threw upstairs
that shattered and I put it out quickly? Oh, like
is there any sign?
Speaker 1: And like it might just be a glass bottle, It's
like cocktail, Okay, So I.
Speaker 3: Just wanted to check it in case there's any identifying
It's MM special vintage.
Speaker 1: Joke where guys steady there with a shattered window. There's
a brick with a note saying, brick thrown through window
calls itself.
Speaker 3: That's all good. That didn't leave me anywhere. It's good.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So he says, well that we heard the crooked man
say that he dealt with us.
Speaker 1: Okay, just a witness statement. Okay. I was hoping for proof.
The more we get, the easier it is is going
to to get him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we went.
Speaker 1: We had a good long look down at his factory.
All of the factories shut down. Apparently upper management. The
crooked man is gone. They say he left the building
and has left the management to someone else. We found
the room you talked about. It's empty, completely empty.
Speaker 2: Like not even the walls they can move or.
Speaker 1: Oh there are walls there, there are levers and they
do the room spins. One of my deputies had a
really good old time with that. But there's no documents,
there's no tables, there's no inventions, there's nothing. It's all gone.
I saw the vent that you said broke, but all
the evidence is gone. We did find some rather shady
dealings in the upstairs though, that are going to be
able to help us in our argument. And we did
find the tunnel, and we think that's how they've been
smuggling things into the city for quite some time, so
this helps. Unfortunately, we cannot convict him for anything when
it comes to the undead or dealings with the dwarfs.
Seems to have covered his tracks very well there, but
for some business practices, we're going to be able to
nail him down.
Speaker 4: Okay, what was going on upstairs?
Speaker 1: Oh, various things, theft, black market stuff. There's a laundry list,
he says.
Speaker 3: Naked people and piles of garbage.
Speaker 1: Employee dangerous. We found two guys tied up his hostages
and we don't know why. Okay, so thank you.
Speaker 3: We have not stated that we've changed.
Speaker 1: Oh that's terrible, Victor ghostly. Thank you, Jeff, sorry, Jeff.
So what he does is he thanks you for everything
you've done. He says, you've been a world of help.
If he needs anything, he will, he'll come find you.
Please do m okay yeah, and with that he takes
his leave.
Speaker 3: It's a shame we did all that work for free travel,
will say under his breath after victory.
Speaker 1: Lea yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 2: Okay, Oh yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: All right, so do you spend the night here? Is
that what you're doing?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I'd like to take a rest.
Speaker 3: Okay, do we want to talk through what we want
to do tomorrow before we go to sleep.
Speaker 2: I don't really feel comfortable leaving this area when he's
still around. I mean, I don't know how long it's
going to take him to rebuild himself, but he's going
to rebuild himself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we should have asked Victor who he left in charge.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm assuming Carter, but.
Speaker 3: Could be am I not.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, tomorrow, I don't know. I feel like we
should go to the library.
Speaker 4: I'm down to go to.
Speaker 2: The library, always down to go to the library.
Speaker 3: I don't know what else. I mean, we can go
back to Victor and see if he can help us
get to Carter at all.
Speaker 2: But that's yeah, I want to I want to shut
down mechanical magic for good. I don't feel safe with
my parents in the city until.
Speaker 4: Until they're.
Speaker 3: Not well. It's a real shame that Victor couldn't get
enough to convict the crooked man. I thought for sure
those boxes full of dead bodies marked with mechanical magic
would be enough, But.
Speaker 1: It seems that the crooked man has people in high places.
Speaker 2: Yeah, seriously, mm hmm.
Speaker 4: Or should we just.
Speaker 2: Head directly to grim and try.
Speaker 3: To I just don't feel like we're prepared enough to
go straight there. I don't know what we'd be looking for, and.
Speaker 2: It definitely sounds like the Crooked Man is not the
top of the food chain here.
Speaker 3: No, clearly not.
Speaker 2: Okay, I's got a lot of influence here.
Speaker 3: I mean, we could try to see if we could
track down those two dwarves if they're still in town, yeah,
or find out where they were staying, where they came from,
how they left, things like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, how where would we start on that?
Speaker 3: Mm? Ask our only friend in the city, Victor, if
he knows where we could go to?
Speaker 4: Pretty big city.
Speaker 3: But I'm sure he's done that sort of thing before
in his job.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 4: We can at least he.
Speaker 3: Might have some resources we can make use of or suggestions.
Speaker 1: For now, Perhaps we rest okay, Yeah, you may benefit
from a long rest.
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, wait in they need eight hours, I need
four yep.
Speaker 1: And that.
Speaker 4: It was a few days ago.
Speaker 1: Is there any secret things that anyone does.
Speaker 4: A few days ago now? But like a lot of
many sessions ago, when we were last in the Medicloud library.
I stole a book about lineage, yes, and I wanted
to read into that book more. How old is the book? Like,
what's the date of the book? And can I gain
any other information from the family about it? Like how
long does the family line? How recent is it?
Speaker 1: So it was published ten years ago?
Speaker 4: Ten years ago?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 4: Does that family line appear to still be in Steleno then.
Speaker 7: Like they were at least the time of publishing ten
years ago, and it seems that they've actually lived in
Stella Nobus for a significant amount of time. Okay, so
they're quite well established there.
Speaker 4: And then okay, I think that answers all of the
questions that I have. Okay, I read it. Actually, I
read it a little bit more. There's no pictures like
handron pictures of anyone or anything.
Speaker 1: You would see a picture of the family crest.
Speaker 4: Okay, cool, make note of that crest.
Speaker 1: Yes, So what it is is it's a blue shield
with kind of golden designs filigree or whatever you'd call
that around the edges, and then in the center is
a golden wolf's head.
Speaker 4: Say that one more time. Blue shield with with.
Speaker 1: Like golden designs around the edges, and rims of it
and a golden wolf's head in the center.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, Dravin goes to sleep. Okay, he will sit
in bed just staring at the ceiling for a while,
thinking about everything that's happened, and after probably like a
couple hours laying there not being able to sleep because
he's mulling over everything, I'm gonna sit up. I'm gonna
reach through my stuff and i'm gonna pull out my
bell okay, and I'm gonna give it a little ring,
and in a quiet tone, I will say, Aila, are
you there? Okay.
Speaker 1: There's kind of a wisping sound as a shimmering image
kind of starts to coalesce in the corner of the room,
and you see a female dwarven's face up here says
I'm here.
Speaker 3: I'm never sure how this works, despite all the times
we've talked. I don't know if you watch me or
see what I do all the time, but this is
what's happened, and I'll just go over you know what
we just dealt with, and seeing that wound on the body,
and seeing those two dwarves come with their weapons of
ice and them talking about Frogast and Foretar, I can't
help but feeling that my journey is going to lead
me towards Krim and that's not going to be easy.
But is there any of these things that you get
any feelings about things you've seen before heard. I don't know.
Speaker 1: So she pauses for a moment, and then she says,
the influence I'm feeling, the one like literally influencing me
and my guesses, all of the other spirits. It's still growing.
And her she almost gazes off, like throw you through
the wall for a moment. She says, it's it's almost
as if I'm losing myself to it. You mentioned a name.
What was the name again?
Speaker 3: Well, there was two Vortar and fro Vortar.
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember that name. He was the It was
the name of the nurse who tended to me in
the hospital. You're certain, yeah, it was. It was quite unique.
Speaker 3: I can't say I've heard the name before. Do you
know if he tended to others of our clan?
Speaker 1: I would suppose.
Speaker 3: M that's a help. And I'm just gonna sit there
staring at her for a moment, and then I'm gonna
kind of get a more gentle look in my eye,
and I'm just gonna say, do you remember? And I
don't have the mental capacity to come up with a
story on the spot, but I'm gonna go over an
old childhood story of ours just to see if she
remembers it and if that can like spark anything for her.
If she says she's losing herself.
Speaker 1: It takes her a moment, it's just like I do
remember that.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, good, well hold on to I don't know
how long it'll take us to solve this, but hold
on the way you can remember, and I'll try to
go as fast as I can.
Speaker 1: Please, But not just for me, for all of.
Speaker 3: Them, Yes, for all of them. That she fades away,
and Raven will go to sleep.
Speaker 2: Okay, Penelope is super boring. She just goes to sleep.
How many sneaking stuff to work on?
Speaker 1: You did your work earlier? You fixed Georgie.
Speaker 2: I did fix George.
Speaker 3: True.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the next morning, round eleven, late morning.
Speaker 4: During breakfast, Yeah, I want to talk about the play.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, all right, yes, yes.
Speaker 4: How do you guys? How do you guys think that
play ended? We didn't get to see the ending?
Speaker 3: Oh someone's oldest didn't they? They don't they both die or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's some tragedy.
Speaker 3: How would you like it to end?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I just.
Speaker 4: I think there's better endings out there is. It was
a good play. It's sad that it got cut short.
Speaker 3: He was a very good actor.
Speaker 2: Hopefully he can go on to do great things in life.
Speaker 3: Now that we've ends up, Next.
Speaker 2: We should get to Victor. I would like to ask
if he might have any leads about the dwarves. Either way, though,
I think we should head towards Krim.
Speaker 4: I'd also like to ask Victor.
Speaker 2: If he can leave some kind of security up for
my parents.
Speaker 3: Hmm, that's a good point.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So what time do you leave? Do
you wait around till late morning or would you leave
the house?
Speaker 4: What were you going to say? Happens at eleven?
Speaker 1: What do you do?
Speaker 3: I mean, we probably just want to head out in
the morning, right because we wanted to go to the library,
and you want to go talk to Victor.
Speaker 1: Okay, what time?
Speaker 2: I told my dad to come stay at least overnight,
maybe a day or two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they shouldn't be coming back.
Speaker 4: They might be back, well, they might be.
Speaker 3: Back to think.
Speaker 1: TikTok. Make your decision. Let's go.
Speaker 4: Let's go right in the morning.
Speaker 2: I would be pretty get to her.
Speaker 4: Okaybe we'll come back.
Speaker 1: Okay. So you go to Victor's. Yeah, you find him
in his office. He's swamped in paperwork. He's he looks up,
he sees all of you. He's like, oh hello again.
I'm literally currently going through everything it's going to take
to prosecute them. But what what can I do for you?
Speaker 4: We're wondering if you might have.
Speaker 2: Any idea where we might be able to track down
these dwarfs and figures that we talked about.
Speaker 1: I couldn't say you said they fled.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you haven't heard any other no leads about them anywhere?
Speaker 3: I mean in your line of work. Do you have
any suggestions where we might find information where they how
they arrived, where they might have been staying.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean there's hotels, but I mean there's probably
a haystack. Yeah, this is Metaclaud. Yeah. If they're taking
well traveled roads, this let me pull up the map here.
You could take one of the more southern roads towards.
Speaker 2: Krim but m yeah, okay, thank you.
Speaker 4: Another request.
Speaker 2: I hope that we have been of assistance to you.
Speaker 1: Oh, definitely, and.
Speaker 2: In return, I think we do need to head towards Krim.
Would you be able to leave somebody to look after
my parents?
Speaker 1: Oh? I think that's something that the Force could could do.
Thank you definitely. I have something for all of you,
he says. He reaches into his drawer he pulls out.
He's like, it won't be much good outside of and Arsis,
but I managed to talk to my superior and well,
and he hands you all badges. He's like, you are
all kind of honorary members of the investigative team here
in Meticlok. Now.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 1: We don't usually do something like this, but you've you've
helped us greatly.
Speaker 3: This isn't just like the badge they give to kids,
like when the kid visits.
Speaker 1: The pilot the plane or something. They are official badges,
he says. These will uh, these will give you know.
They have clout and all of and Darsis and people
will recognize them outside of the country.
Speaker 3: Cool. Can I ask Victor one more thing? Do you
know who it was they put in charge of mechanical magic?
Speaker 1: No, not really, some some fellow I've never heard his
name before.
Speaker 4: You've heard it when they said it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was the name? It was like it was
it was a Stephen Gregson. What's his name?
Speaker 3: All right? We talked about a person named Carter yesterday
that work for the Crooked Man. Have you heard of
him before?
Speaker 1: You know. I did some looking through records and he's
been caught for a few things, petty theft. It looks
like he may have been involved with a violent crime
in the Northern City a couple of years ago, though
there was never enough evidence to convict him. But no,
I haven't seen Heid nor her.
Speaker 3: All right, Okay, well, I think that's all we've had.
Thank you so much for your help. You've been a
good person to know in meta Claude.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, I'm always here if you need me.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: One more thing, sorry, almost forgot. He reaches over and
he pulls out like some paper. He's like, this came
in the mail today, and he slides it over to you.
He's like, take a look through. That might help you
in your research.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Is he giving it to us to keep or just
to read?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 1: Just to keep keep? Okay?
Speaker 2: If I open it up at a glance, what do
I see?
Speaker 1: You see a headline and the headline states dwarf an
attack on western border. On further inspection, well, I know,
would you read it right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, reading it, you find out that the city of
or not excuse me, not the city, but one of
the towns south of Shedhara, north of Nezreev, but like
on the very western border of Encleve was attacked by dwarfs.
Warships pulled up, they boarded the land and it was
a full on attack. Anyone not killed was taken prisoner.
Speaker 2: Is this the town that I would have heard rumors about?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: No, okay, okay.
Speaker 3: And then there's nothing in there. They don't know why
this attack was made.
Speaker 8: Nope, the but what well, what is written in there
is that they were woefully unprepared, as the majority of
their military force is assisting Steleanobus down against the dead Lands.
Speaker 6: Okay, okay, okay, good to know.
Speaker 1: Uh one more more more, Gotta give you a chance
to write the dwarves carried weapons of ice and and
uh snow fell everywhere they tread if.
Speaker 4: They killed everyone and took everyone else captain? How do
we have this news story? Escape?
Speaker 1: There's a few. Where do the stories come from?
Speaker 3: Mm hmm? Wow, Well this is making it scarier to
go to Krim now, yeah, I just want to walk
into the heart of all that. Yeah, I mean, I
don't do we need anything else from Victor?
Speaker 2: I don't think we do at this point.
Speaker 3: I've got nothing else for him.
Speaker 4: I would like to head back.
Speaker 2: To my parents' house or maybe wait around.
Speaker 4: Are we going at the library too?
Speaker 3: We should at some point.
Speaker 4: What would we look for at the library?
Speaker 3: I know, frost weapons from guest or weapons, yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, I just want to make sure we get
back to my parents.
Speaker 1: Before the Sphere University library. Yeah, okay, so you had
to spear university, Yes, we do. It's a hustle and
bustle as always, though there are whispered rumors of this
attack from the dwarfs right and in the university. How
long do you spend searching mm.
Speaker 3: Hmmm, I don't know. We probably want to spend a
fair bit in there.
Speaker 4: It was I returned Ood and I also look apart
from our actual searches.
Speaker 2: I told her to the library to just check it out.
I want to keep it.
Speaker 4: You could have checked it out and then just not
returned it. Then they have my name, Balid. I also look.
Speaker 1: Please don't, please, don't get any ideas.
Speaker 4: Not models in your real life.
Speaker 1: So you return the book.
Speaker 4: And then I also go into like the playwright script session,
and I search for the love long.
Speaker 1: Last script okay, or book or whatever it is. So
we'll start with you. So you find the play. Oh good,
it's a well known play. And and the white does
kill the the the Night of Stellanovus. And unfortunately, because
what a white kills also becomes a zombie when the
when the god Juwele's daughter comes home, the zombie that's
awaiting her gets her very tragic, and it teaches the
Goktewel a valuable lesson.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, gracious, I still steal the script.
Speaker 3: You've got a problem.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you guys search for how many hours? Four minutes?
Speaker 3: We could probably do two three because it was earlier
morning when we Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: A few hours of searching nothing nothing.
Speaker 4: Ice, weapons or progasts or nothing.
Speaker 3: Okay, Can I do a sneaky search for the name Glendell.
I'm not going to google my party.
Speaker 4: Glendell was my mother's name.
Speaker 1: Right, I would suppose, so yes, yeah, yeah, you find
it's a it's an elphin name up and amoralia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: It's fairly common.
Speaker 3: So I take a look. No like notable nobles, No
notable nobles with that name or anything.
Speaker 1: Not a single.
Speaker 3: Cool, So it's not your mother.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so you find nothing?
Speaker 2: Well, all right, well I feel like.
Speaker 3: We've did we strike? Did we strike out? Last time
we were at this library?
Speaker 1: You know you've found some good stuff.
Speaker 2: Okay, it was here we found the history book with
the maps that.
Speaker 3: Weren't Oh you're right, yeah about the whole thing, and yeah.
Speaker 2: That's fascinating stuff. Yeah, nothing here.
Speaker 4: I think.
Speaker 2: Head back to my parents house, maybe get packed and
ready to go to Krim.
Speaker 3: I guess. So, actually, while we were lebed, are there
any like dwarfish history books?
Speaker 1: Uh? Probably?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Can I see if there's any recordings of a specific event,
oh or anything relating to it? Uh?
Speaker 1: There, this is Metaclaud. Yes, how do you look? Where
do you look?
Speaker 2: What event?
Speaker 3: I bet that we just want to see if in
the recordings about this event, if there are any or
much at all, if I can find anything about this
of war tar Okay, like if there's named people or
anything in accounts of this. It's kind of a long
shot driving those figures.
Speaker 1: But okay, okay, give me an investigation.
Speaker 2: Check.
Speaker 3: Okay, there's an investigation.
Speaker 1: So you search in history, you search in genealogy, you
search in like like records of towns and cities, and then,
in a last ditch effort, you find a medical book
talking about unexplained phenomena, one that explains the instance where
it happened. Everyone's like, what is he talking about. It's
ambiguous the instance where it happened. How there has never
been anything like it before or since, and it remains
a mystery to this day where it came from. And
then it's just got a bunch of random theories about
what it might have been. But there are no names
other than the name of the most of the victims,
like like the common name. Okay, So he did not
find he did not find anything on Bortar.
Speaker 3: Okay, But the names of the like victims were listed.
Speaker 1: Of them, oh, just the name of like the famamily.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, whatever that means.
Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, go back to my parents house. Sure.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Adventures and the Parted Veil podcast.
You can see the video version of our sessions and
more on YouTube, and Georgie would like me to remind
you to check out our patreons at patreon dot com
slash Twilight Enigma for explosive content and discord access.
Speaker 4: I got a scoop.
Speaker 2: Hope you enjoyed the rest of the session.
Speaker 1: Okay, back at your parents' house. Upon entering, you hear this,
and then your mother comes running from another room.
Speaker 4: She's like, you're okay.
Speaker 1: She comes and like grabs you and hugs you, almost
pops your head off.
Speaker 2: Yes, Mom, of course I'm okay.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to think.
Speaker 3: Look at the house.
Speaker 1: It's I thought maybe the worst had happened. We checked
the hospital.
Speaker 3: I'll take myself.
Speaker 1: No, I'm not a good painter. A lot of damnit.
Speaker 2: Yes, there there was a fire. I don't know what
started it. It came from outside. It got us and
the neighbors. We did our best to put it out,
and we tried to fix things up as good as
we could. But I am safe.
Speaker 1: So she's gobbling it up, gobbling it up, and as
you just kind of peer over her shoulder, you see
your dad standing at the end of the hall and
he's not he's not taking in a word of it.
Speaker 2: I promise we're fine.
Speaker 4: Mom.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, do you need anything?
Speaker 4: Are you hurt?
Speaker 1: And she starts sing, No, I'm not hurt.
Speaker 2: I am glad that we were able to be here
and save most of the house. Yeah, I'm sorry about
the state of things.
Speaker 4: They are.
Speaker 1: Well. Well, I'm glad you're okay and the two of you, Oh.
Speaker 3: We're fine.
Speaker 2: How was your trip? Did you have a good time
with dad?
Speaker 1: Oh? It was lovely, she says.
Speaker 4: Where do you take you?
Speaker 1: Well, he took me north of the city. We went
and saw some some wonderful like a lake up there.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so sweet.
Speaker 1: It's very romantic.
Speaker 4: I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker 2: Mom. Maybe you could fix us some lunch.
Speaker 1: Sure, yes, okay, She says that she goes.
Speaker 2: To I will slide down the hallway towards Dad.
Speaker 1: She's like, spill it.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: First, I'm just gonna give him like a little a hug,
and then I will step back a little bit and.
Speaker 4: Thank you for taking her.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: I'd hate to think if you had been here.
Speaker 1: Might have been able to help.
Speaker 4: It wasn't an accident, Dad.
Speaker 1: I figured, So why do we move?
Speaker 4: Well, it was.
Speaker 2: The crooked man from Mechanical Magic.
Speaker 4: We kind of got on his bad side.
Speaker 1: Got mixed up with the crooked man.
Speaker 4: Sorry, Dad, He told me you were.
Speaker 1: Safe in this job.
Speaker 2: I can be. I'm taking precautions.
Speaker 1: Getting messed up with the biggest mob boss on this
side of the country.
Speaker 2: It was actually pretty easy to take out.
Speaker 1: What you fought, says. Yeah, I want to hear another
word of it. I want you to be smart. I
want you to keep your mom and I out of it.
I love you. Don't do dumb things, he says.
Speaker 2: The good news is they didn't seem interested in you
guys at all. They watched you leave and didn't follow.
We are going to be heading out, so hopefully that
means they don't.
Speaker 4: Bother you at all.
Speaker 2: But just in case, I have asked our friend Victor
at the city Guard. He's going to issue some men
to just keep a lookout on the house, just as
a precaution. Please don't tell mom.
Speaker 1: She couldn't handle this, all right, all right, Okay, I
mean I don't really have a choice, do I. Yeah, yeah,
all right, Well, you're welcome to stay as long as
you need to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we'll probably be leaving.
Speaker 4: Soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, yeah, before it gets too late in the day.
Speaker 2: I suppose, Yeah, like head out today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's probably close to the evening.
Speaker 3: Because you guys went to the Okay, well, maybe we
should just stay the night.
Speaker 1: Then, okay, okay, all right, spend the night. Mom feeds
you at your request.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just trying to get rid of her.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh, you wake up the next morning and head out.
Speaker 3: Do we what's the best way to get to cream
from where we are?
Speaker 1: Because pull up your map here, Yeah, cras.
Speaker 3: Were met Cloud. We know we're gonna a train to
ever Claim, the train to ever Claim to ever Claim.
Maybe there's like boat Stuffy.
Speaker 4: Take a boat out would probably be the best. The
ports were all.
Speaker 3: That's true, they were, but we could probably hop off
at one and just take care of roads.
Speaker 4: That does sonk faster than walking? That's a long walk.
Do we trust the train?
Speaker 3: I think with the disruption we might be okay, okay,
I'm willing trust it then.
Speaker 4: I yeah.
Speaker 3: Now, do we know if you could get what is
it Diamond Fish Lake that's north of Everclean? Yeah, do
we know that if there's a boat that would take
us out to sea from there? Or is that not
big enough.
Speaker 2: Okay, cool, yeah, because that's like a shipping passage.
Speaker 3: Let's let's do that.
Speaker 4: Then before we leave the house, I give Penn's parents
like a huge hug each, and I'm like starting to
tear up on like it's so nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: I will also say your dad hands your dad.
Speaker 4: I was just.
Speaker 3: About to, so I will also, like on the way out,
just say thanks for your hospitality. And pens In my employee,
and I also care for her, so I'll do everything
to make sure she comes back home safe.
Speaker 1: You've got my word, but okay, all right, And the
dad just kind of gives you like a annoing nod,
shakes your hand. Let you go, okay, cry What was
it five gold? I think to get to to get
on the train.
Speaker 3: Probably just one goal.
Speaker 4: I think it was actually free.
Speaker 3: I'm going to bet I didn't write down that.
Speaker 2: I don't remember if I remember correctly, it was four gold.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll say four gold, but I.
Speaker 3: Remember I could have written it down.
Speaker 2: I did, like just edit that session.
Speaker 3: I have money written down, but it was money we
got from the king, and it was one hundred goal.
Speaker 1: It's one hundred on the train.
Speaker 8: Did not.
Speaker 1: Case you end up on the train beaten away to
ever Claim.
Speaker 2: How much are we spending on the train for gold
for gold?
Speaker 3: Okay each okay, man, we need to make some money,
like this is a you know, I'm pretty poor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this is a campaign where you haven't really
earned a lot.
Speaker 3: No. No, we've done a lot of work that we
didn't get paid for.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, we got protection from my parents and these shiny badges.
Speaker 1: That's true, that's true. You have had some things, yeah,
we've We've.
Speaker 3: Been able to stay places for free and get like
free food and stuff too.
Speaker 2: We should have just flashed the badge at the train
ticket office said it was official business.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they might. They might have given us a discount.
Speaker 2: Should have thought earlier it.
Speaker 1: Okay, and what was it ten hours?
Speaker 2: I think was the train ride eleven?
Speaker 3: Is something something close to that.
Speaker 1: So it takes, you know, the better part of the
day to get to ever claim. You arrive at the
Everclean station. The train is just as exhilarating as it
always was. Yep, there's various people on it. You see
the lands rolling by. Everything seems as if everything you
just went through never happened. Right.
Speaker 4: The entire train ride when we're not talking or whatever,
I'm reading the script.
Speaker 1: Lots like memorizing lines.
Speaker 3: Near the end of the journey, driven will eventually concede
and say, you know, this train business really isn't actually
that bad.
Speaker 1: I told you.
Speaker 3: You're right. You're right. It's a lot more comfortable than
a horse and carriage. Yes, And the fact that you're
connected to the ground the whole time is refreshing when
being compared to being on a boat. Not the biggest
fan of boat.
Speaker 2: Travel, Well, we are going to be on a boat soon.
Speaker 3: Now, got my coping mechanisms at least between the legs.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you reach Everclane and then do you head
out towards Diamond Fish Lake right away?
Speaker 3: It'll be evening, it would be Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you left at like seven in the morning,
ten hours like fine, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I would like to see if we can
find a job.
Speaker 4: It's gonna say the same thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, quick, a quick evening job.
Speaker 4: O thet Yeah to get out.
Speaker 1: Okay, well there learned from pastmas. You're you're able to
find a like a sewage boat or don't give find
a goods boat. A boat with that is travel plane
down into Stella Nobus. In fact, it's it's taking provisions
from uh from ever plane down to the Starlet Citadel.
Speaker 4: How does a boat get to the Starlet Citadel?
Speaker 1: Well, it's it's it's just taking provisions to like Stellin
and then from there to the Starlet Citadel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, and they need some decan.
Speaker 1: Do we need some deck?
Speaker 3: Do we have to go all the way to the
Starlett Citadel to get paid?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, so okay, okay, yeah, all right, how much?
What's the what's the pay?
Speaker 1: What's the pay?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 1: So for the entire trip, you would each receive a
forty gold what.
Speaker 4: We don't? Don't question it. Just let him get that.
This is all the money.
Speaker 3: I think it seems fair.
Speaker 1: That's pretty fair. It's gonna take a while. Okay, it's
a long trip.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah.
Speaker 3: How much money do you guys have? You both got
to be rich you.
Speaker 1: Okay, awesome, alright, that's what we'll do then. Okay. So
you start down out of the river that comes out
of Diamond Fish Lake, and and at the split there
obviously you take the more southern road and pretty soon
you find yourself in the open sea. Well soon after
some days of travel. Uh, in our duty is on
the ship.
Speaker 4: What what are our duties on the ship?
Speaker 1: Schwabbed the poop deck? Clean the party, make some food.
You know, I.
Speaker 3: Assume they probably want to help loading goods and things to.
Speaker 5: Maybe first, Okay, they they they learned that that Mara
can play music, and pretty soon she gets requested each
evening to play play songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah cool, okay? And uh you even find a way
to put Georgie to use hunting rats that have scurried onto.
Speaker 3: Mechanical rat hunting rats.
Speaker 1: Yes, cool, Yeah, you can go everywhere they can okay. Uh,
As you approach Krim, you can see way way off
in the distance the well you wouldn't really be able
to see it, but oh well, in our world you
can't mount a factus, snow covered Mount athactis way off
in the distance.
Speaker 4: Where is that one?
Speaker 3: Right where Rakham is?
Speaker 6: Okay?
Speaker 1: And you begin to head in to the river that
leads to Lake Stellin, And that's when you notice the
snow is beginning to fall, and the snow is falling
not only south in Krim, but also north into and
arcis okay and it's on Uh let me sorry, let
me find this here. It's on one of your last
days before you would enter into the river. There that
you're woken up at night by the watch where he
yells for everyone to get all hands on deck. And
as you all arrive on deck, you can see that
there is another like your boat has stopped and there
is another boat floating in the water not far off.
Speaker 2: Are we being attacked?
Speaker 1: There's there's been no shots fired of any sort anything. However,
give me a perception check.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: So the two of you notice lights in the distance
and there's more boats and they seem to be blockading
the river.
Speaker 4: M oh m hm.
Speaker 1: And every single one of these boats is of a
dwarf in design.
Speaker 4: What's this? Have you seen this before?
Speaker 2: I've talked to like the crew other people.
Speaker 1: So so the man the watch says, this is this
is not okay, this is against treaties. This is they're
block they're blockading the river. They're not allowing anyone to
pass through.
Speaker 2: What do we do then, Ay, this.
Speaker 3: Is a supply route? Yeah? Do that?
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know. The captain has sent individuals over
to to speak with them, okay, And you can see
there's like a little dinghy on the side of the
dwar of the boat. Right. It's it's about thirty minutes.
And one of the men comes back of the two
of them, and the man climbs up into the boat
and he says, I need I need to speak to
the captain right away, okay, And he goes off, and
he goes into the captain's cabin and he shuts the
door and he and that's that's it for a bit.
Speaker 4: I would like to ease drop.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, give me a perception check. Okay, that
came in good idea eight. You can't hear anything but
just muffled talking, but there are raised voices, okay.
Speaker 2: Just like waiting at the door. I guess I don't know.
Speaker 7: I don't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think we wait to maybe talk
to the crew. I mean they don't know anything that's
happening either, But just try to get like a be
in the know for when whatever conversation has happening is over.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So after a few minutes, the captain gathers everyone on
the boat together. As you all standing there, he says,
this vessel he points off to the one that's flown
in the water not far away, He says. They are
demanding that we turn over our ship, our supplies, and
the crew. They have one of our men, and I
need to put it up to all of you. Do
we abandon him or do we try and fight? And
he points with his face, you know, like he looks
and you can see there are other vessels out there.
You're very much outnumbered. Frick, he says, I don't think.
I don't like abandoning a man, but I don't think
this is a battle we can win.
Speaker 3: I hate to say it, but I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I wanted to run it by all of you, but
I uh, I think that's what we're going to have
to do. Now.
Speaker 3: We're down the river heading.
Speaker 1: Towards Yeah, just starting. You're at the cusp there. See
where the border of and arcis. That white line is
where it ends by the river on the far right.
That's kind of where you're at.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, we could try to sneak off this
boat right now because it's nighttime.
Speaker 1: Right, it is nighttime, so.
Speaker 3: You can kind of just float through the water, try
to get off on shore and sneak further inland.
Speaker 2: I'm still going to get paid.
Speaker 3: We're probably not gonna get paid at all at this point?
Speaker 4: Okay, got free passage?
Speaker 3: Yeah, classic, no getting paid?
Speaker 4: I am okay with sneaking off the boat.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: In my head I thought for a second, maybe driving
could try to talk to these people blockading. But what
can I do?
Speaker 1: What can you do?
Speaker 3: I could maybe make a plea for like, well, aren't
you going to let a native back home? But how
would that let me get you guys in? And if
you start asking too many questions I wouldn't be comfortable
with that.
Speaker 4: So I was thinking of dis guys help again.
Speaker 1: But okay, so you try sneaking off the boat, all right,
all of you give me a stealth check at.
Speaker 4: Advantage, okay, because it's dark out.
Speaker 1: It is dark, Okay, they do have dark vision, but
you're on the water and there's a lot going.
Speaker 4: On, okay, and my stealth is.
Speaker 1: What did you get pen twenty three? Twenty three? Okay,
So it's.
Speaker 2: Always me, It is always it's like fits your character.
Speaker 4: The dice really helped tell the story. We usually end
up really good on investigating things.
Speaker 1: So how how do you do it? I should ask?
How do we sneak and sneak off?
Speaker 4: How big is this would we tell the captain or
we just we just go just go okay, Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I would think that we'd climb off the rear
end like of you know, away from the blockade, kind
of climb down, lower ourselves into the water, and then
just try to quietly swim to the land.
Speaker 1: Okay, the water is very cold, I bet all right
now because of how you've described it, the DC is
not high enough for you to have failed, so you
do get in the water.
Speaker 4: We had advantage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just.
Speaker 4: You have to choose.
Speaker 1: You swim south to Krim or north to end darsis.
Speaker 3: Probably to Krim before we're going.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Uh give me a constitution saving throw
DC ten all of you.
Speaker 4: NAT twenty.
Speaker 3: Thirteen.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, the water is very cold, but you
manage to steal yourself against it and you arrive on
the border of Krim, Right, what do you do?
Speaker 4: This is zero?
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know. We'll probably make our way to
Golden Hill, yea, I know that would be the closest
place for us to get all right, okay, and probably
try to head inland towards the mountains a bit so
that we're not close to the river.
Speaker 1: Wool.
Speaker 3: We're walking around so that we don't get spotted by
any Okay, blockading forces.
Speaker 1: Okay, so, Dravin, this is not the Crim you remember.
Krim is cold. It's the middle of summer, and there
is a dusting of snow on the ground, right, and
there seems to be a snowstorm off in the distance
towards Mount a Factus at all times, Okay, your travels.
It's not a super populated land, right. Most of the
population lives underground anyways, and you're able to travel fairly
freely within Krim. But there are times where you find
yourselves having to hide as what looks like patrols and
battalions of Dwarves are marching north towards the border of Krim.
Give me a perception check everyone, yep, Georgia two.
Speaker 3: Twenty.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't be able to explain it anyways, Okay, ten
to twelve. Okay, Dravin. Because of your history with the Dwarfs,
you're able to pick out the leaders of each of
these battalions from their markings and military you know, so
you can see that every single one of them seems
to carry a weapon made of ice. Even some of
the dwarf their skin, some of them, like some of
these leaders, their skin almost looks frost spitting at times,
but they almost seem they seem as if it doesn't
bother them.
Speaker 4: Hm hmm. I'm not the one looking, but okay.
Speaker 3: Mm hm hm hmm. That's really yeah. Do they look alive?
Speaker 1: They are definitely alive, not not dead.
Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, I mean I'll tell everyone what I saw. Okay,
more of these ice weapons.
Speaker 2: Do you have any family or anything around here that
we could.
Speaker 3: No? Okay, ah, I think our best bet is to
get to Golden Hill and see what the state of
it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: It takes a couple of days. Yeah, and you eventually.
Speaker 4: Be close to the border of the river.
Speaker 1: But you're also trying to be stealthy.
Speaker 3: Oh we're up here, yeah yeah, that end of that
line is where we were just like right there.
Speaker 4: Right, Okay, that would take a little.
Speaker 1: While, yep. And also you're trying not to get caught, yes, right,
because most of what you see as dwarfs, like the
two of you, kind of stick out like a sore thumb.
Speaker 4: Okay, short thoughts, where did you grow up driving?
Speaker 3: Uh in Vrakhum? Actually?
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: Okay, you arrive at Golden Hill. Golden Hill is very unique.
Unlike most dwarf in towns, this one is entirely above ground.
They've got log cabins, there's farmers and everything. In fact,
this is known as a place where there's a lot
of intermingling of individuals. A lot of people who move
to Krim never quite can get into the Dwarve in
ways because they are just so different. There's such a
big cultural shock. But Golden Hill is a city where
that's where you know, anyone who's moved Frakham lives. That's
where they meet people, that's where they have their friends
and it's kind of a melting pot of individuals. Okay, okay,
So you two don't stick out nearly as badly in
Golden Hill, and it's surrounding areas.
Speaker 4: That's good to know.
Speaker 2: When we arrived to Golden Hill, does it seem to
be a normally functioning city that like.
Speaker 1: It seems to be going well? Actually, give me, give
me an insight check, inst an.
Speaker 3: Insight check in a while. Oh dang, I'm really I'm
really really well nineteen nine nine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you are completely out of your element like, heck,
you probably haven't even seen much snow in your life,
but the two of you notice there's something off about
the town. Everyone's kind of going about their their daily life,
but there's a grim, solemnness to the air. Right. Frost
seems to cover everything and everyone. There's a tension, right,
like this electric tension at all times.
Speaker 2: Does there seem to be any military patrol in here?
Speaker 1: There is?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, And that's when when pretty soon you find an
individual in one of the town squares and he's talking
and it's almost like he's preaching.
Speaker 2: Okay, what he's saying.
Speaker 1: He's talking about how the Great Expansion continues and is
in motion, and how Frogast will free all of us
and he will lead us into the great beyond.
Speaker 4: Oh okay.
Speaker 1: He states that this world is but a fraction of
the glory that awaits, and as we as we enact
Frogast's vision, we will be carried with him to glory.
Speaker 3: Yikes. Does this guy have any sort of like holy
symbols or anything, as he just.
Speaker 1: He carries an ice weapon. Oh okay, and he does
mention as well. One other thing he says, the brother's
iron hand are fro gasts messengers. They will continue to
enact his will, and it is our duty to support them.
Speaker 3: M hmm, yikes.
Speaker 1: Is there anything any of you too?
Speaker 3: Do I recognize the name Ironhead?
Speaker 1: Yes? It was a clan in Vrackum cool.
Speaker 2: How do people seem to be responding to this preacher?
Speaker 3: Dude?
Speaker 1: Anyone around seems to pay him respect, although give me
an insight check.
Speaker 2: Twenty one.
Speaker 1: Okay, some seem to do it more out of fear
than what seems like faith.
Speaker 4: I would like to.
Speaker 2: Follow one of those people, the ones who seem more afraid,
until we are well out of sight from the other person,
and then I would like to try to approach them.
Speaker 1: Okay, right, So they go about their day. There seem
to be a market, They shop around for a bit,
and then they begin to walk often too the city.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 2: At a point when we can be kind of alone,
I'll just like walk up and like tap them on
their shoulder, like excuse me?
Speaker 1: Do they turn around? They're like, yes, how can I
help you?
Speaker 4: Hi?
Speaker 2: Would you be able to tell me who Frogast is?
Speaker 1: I take it you two are following her.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: At that moment, this individual, she's a small gnome lady.
Her eyes go very wide. She says, I don't know
who the three of you are, but you need to
follow me right now.
Speaker 3: You found the right person.
Speaker 1: Don't talk to anyone understood. She takes you, and she
takes you into her home. She shuts the door, closes
all of the windows, locks the door, sits you down, says,
how did you get into the country.
Speaker 2: Sneaking around patrols?
Speaker 1: What madness inspired you to do that?
Speaker 4: She says, we need to know what's going on here.
Speaker 1: You need to leave if they find you. If they
find out about you, you either convert or you die.
Speaker 3: Have you inverted?
Speaker 4: Who are they? Who is?
Speaker 1: As far as they know?
Speaker 3: She says, okay, good God.
Speaker 1: Them, the big them. I don't know the government. What
would you call it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Who?
Speaker 4: Who is progast?
Speaker 1: They say he is a god? Okay, I don't know
who or what he is personally, but if you don't
pay respect to him, you're not sticking around. And the
iron hands have been given great power. That's what I know.
Speaker 4: How long has this been going on?
Speaker 1: She gives you a date that correlates about a week
to a week and a half after the green flash.
Speaker 2: You're learning, Okay, whatever's happening here. It's spilling into the
rest of the world.
Speaker 1: Yes, she says, that's what do you think all there about?
As she points in a patrol of you know, like
peeking out the window, patrol of dwarves go marching by.
Speaker 4: So how do we look like followers?
Speaker 1: Pay tribute? Pay respect?
Speaker 4: But what is it?
Speaker 1: How?
Speaker 4: Ow?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could pray and pretty soon She holds up
her hand and in her palm is this kind of
almost like the white of frostbite of a snowflake. You'll
get one of these.
Speaker 3: How how did you receive that?
Speaker 1: As I paid my respects, it became part of me.
Speaker 3: It just appeared.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: So is this guy actually? God?
Speaker 2: H what's your name?
Speaker 4: By the way, what's your What.
Speaker 2: Is your name?
Speaker 1: I didn't ask Vanessa?
Speaker 2: Thank you Janessa.
Speaker 3: M h.
Speaker 4: I love that name.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 4: Do you mind if we spend the night here?
Speaker 1: One night and then you leave, agreed, get out? If
you know what's best, Get out of the country.
Speaker 3: Changed one night, get.
Speaker 1: Out, m h. Get out of the country, get yourself
to someplace safe, and warn everyone. She says.
Speaker 3: Why what are they doing? What are these iron hands doing?
What are they why are they spreading this.
Speaker 1: They they say that they follow this Frogast and that
that they're on a holy crusade there. They're taking over towns,
forced the people of the towns to convert.
Speaker 3: What does the Deep King do?
Speaker 1: The Deep King's not in power anymore.
Speaker 3: How is that possible?
Speaker 1: Well, they say that and Er iron Hand and his
brother vor Tar approached the Deep King and they relinquished
him of his reign in the name of this Frogast.
And no one has seen the Deep King since.
Speaker 3: But that's not how these things are done.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: I'm no Dwarf. I'm not steeped in Dwarven culture. I
know enough that rakoum Is is not easily swayed to anything.
So how they've achieved this, I don't know. I don't know.
But the council, the council has been swayed, and the
military forces are going. They're in full force. They've started
attacking Na Scott and I'm afraid that and Arcis is next.
Speaker 3: Do you know anything of undead appearing throughout the land.
Speaker 1: They say that Vortar carries potent magical energy, that he
is a necromancer, but a necromancer who's now been empowered.
Speaker 3: By Frogust.
Speaker 1: That's my guess.
Speaker 2: Yikes, thank goodness, we're over our heads.
Speaker 1: Gets some rest. I'll see if I can find a
way to get you out of the city.
Speaker 4: Do you want to think you can? We invite her
to sneak out with us.
Speaker 3: We're going to Racom to come.
Speaker 4: We're not leaving. I cannot okay, thank you for your kindness.
I can't thank you enough.
Speaker 3: Thank you. It was very brave of you to take
us in. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, she leads you to some rooms, she gets
you some beds and all that. She says, sleep. Well,
it's cold, I don't feel it much anymore, but the
rest of you do. Yep, and you may benefit from
a long rest, even though you don't need it. When
you awake the next morning, she is not there to
greet you.
Speaker 4: Is she okay?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 1: Do you look around the house?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Well, like, is there evidence that she is like taken?
Speaker 1: So you find her in bed and her body is
solidly frozen?
Speaker 4: No wire we the cause of that? Or is that just?
Speaker 3: How cool? Well?
Speaker 4: The punishment from this god, this gosh, we literally you
need to get out of here.
Speaker 2: What the heck?
Speaker 1: We will end there and congratulations, you have all leveled.
Speaker 2: Up man, I'm so sorry, Genessa.
Speaker 4: I shouldn't have asked to stay.
Speaker 2: Probably would have, which probably was too late anyway, I
don't know.
Speaker 1: All right, Wow, thank you everyone for joining us in
the parts of veil. Yeah, thank you, thank you, I
would say, but that's not.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 4: As always, the minis.
Speaker 1: That we use which you did not see tonight, not.
Speaker 2: Today, but I'm we did have them printed with Banana
for Scale three D printing services, and you can use
our code mind Plate twenty to get twenty percent off
your first order until the end of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: And if you are enjoying what you see and we'd
like to give us a little extra support, we do
have a Patreon setup. The details are in the description.
We'd be very grateful of your support, and it would
be awesome to see you on the discord that you'll
get access to.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, we'd love to talk with you all.
Speaker 3: Yep. It would be fun. So yeah, check it out.
Speaker 4: And the music is Carl Casey at White Bat Audio.
It's all his creations. We love it and we hope
that you do too, and you can find it on
YouTube and bandcamp.
Speaker 1: Yep. All right, and we'll see you all next week
in the parted Veil.
Speaker 3: Thanks for watching, Bye guys, thank you,