Speaker 1: Hi, this is Nathan Helm, author of Kingdom Society, The
Black Hood. You're listening to Tale of the manta Core.
The following podcast is intended for a mature audience. Listener
discretion is advised. Welcome back to Tale of the Manticor
Season three. Like the creature from which it takes its name,
Tale of the Manticor is a mashup, a cross breeding
between two different species of storytelling. Here you will find
the unpredictability of old school paper and dice games with
the story craft of a dark fantasy novel. No character
is sacred, and none will be spared if the dice
decide their fate is at hand. According to lore, the
Tale of a Mantica corp is barbed with cruel iron spikes.
There will be much pain in the days ahead. Last
time on Tail of the Manticor, Chapter three begins with
the season's first player character, Achilia, trying to deal with
the sudden upending of her old life. Her master Aldby
has been turned to stone and to spellbook stolen. Her
first thought is to run back to the Iron Tower,
but when she arrives at the spot, accompanied by her
friend Court, the tower is gone. Achillier returns home and
begins a more thorough search of it, looking for clues.
She finds three. First, there's drops of blood near the
spot where a glyff guarding her master's spellbook detonated. Second,
when she goes downstairs, she finds the components for a
poisoned slowing remedy on Old Day's work bench. Finally, beside
the statue that her master is become and scratched into
the dirt of the basement floor is a name Adoc.
Chord recognizes it and shows Achillia a sketchbook from Aldvay's
book collection. Audoc is the name of the artist. On
the final page is an inscription that seems to invite
Oldva to come back north sometime. At this point, Achillie
makes a decision and a promise she will go north,
find this Audoc and get some answers. She packs her
own spell book and some traveling supplies into a bag.
In the morning, along with Chord and Robin, she leaves
home and begins her quest. Chapter four, Part one, Day
two morning mythic event meaning create the intellectual party status
ACHILLEA four at A four hit points spells available. Achilia
has memorized shrink. All necessary preparations were complete. That Kilia
had hidden all of Aldvay's valuables and packed everything she
could think of that she might need to be gone
for a few days. She had given the Oakman specific
instructions to guard Aldvais and then thrown a blanket over
her master. It didn't really do much to hide him,
but it was something. Finally, she had nailed the note
on to the front door. It read a wizard lives here.
No trespassers. Since the door had a bar inside but
no actual lock, she could engage from the outside. This
was the best she could do.
Speaker 2: She doubted that.
Speaker 1: Anyone would come by the creatures that lived in the
woods around here, both evil and good, and enough sense
to stay away. The only human that ever came here
was Aaron, the boy from the nearest village who delivered supplies,
but airon only came once a season, and he had
just come and gone yesterday, so she doubted very highly
he'd returned before she did. With the door shut and
the note, it was time to go. Cord was with her,
carrying half of their supplies in a custom fitted backpack
he usually used told firewood. He had his axe as well.
After they had taken a few steps away from their home,
Achillia whistled, and presently Robin flew down from his perch
atop the hummock to settle on top of her head.
She felt like she should say or do something before
she left. She opened her mouth and was about to
say I'll see you soon, when she realized those were
the last words Voppi had spoken to her. She shut
her mouth, sniffed, and started walking north. Way. Back in
season one, I started using a set of homebrew mechanics
for overland travel, or hex crawling as the old schoolers
call it. The first is for determining weather, and it's
dead simple. Roll a D twenty. The higher the result,
the more favorable the weather. That might not always mean
that A twenty is a perfectly warm and sunny day
with a light breeze. Times rain would be the most
desirable today, however, I think a classic summer day would
be best for this traveling trio. Let's roll and see
what we get on a D twenty. A six. Okay,
that's not extreme weather by any means, but it's a
bit unpleasant too hot, is my interpretation. Another mechanic I
used in the past is something I called this stumble
upon roll. It's another D twenty roll, but this one
ignores any result from two to nineteen inclusive. If I
do roll a natural twenty. However, the pieces stumble upon
something beneficial that might take one of many forms on
a one you guess, Yet they run into some bad luck.
This might be in the form of enemies, but more
often it's a thing, event, or circumstance that introduces or
augments a new or existing problem. It feels a bit
early to be making this role, but what the heck
I'm going to do it? Here goes the seven on
the die means nothing exceptional is discovered that reminds me
of one final core mechanic for overland travel, the wandering encounter.
This role happens in addition to the stumble upon and
is much more likely to result in a meeting with
hostile beings. The expert rules suggest that encounter checks are
usually made once per day, but the DM may make
additional checks if appropriate. This rule set further says that
for a trek through a wooded area, an encounters should
occur on a roll of four to six on a
D six fair enough ACHILLIEA is moving through dangerous, untamed
wilderness far from any human settlement, so this is well
go with adding a high low roll to determine if
any given encounters take place during the day or night.
Here comes the first wandering encounter roll for season three
of what I expect will be many. Rolling a D
six and hoping for a low result. Dang it, I
got a four. That means I need to follow up
with a high low. High means the encounter happens in
the daytime. Rolling a D twenty a one, it's going
to happen in the middle of the night. It also
means I need to go away and make a wandering
encounter table back in a jiffy. Okay, I've made a
simple D eight table. I'll post it to Tale of
themante car dot blogspot dot com in case anyone is
curious to see. It's got everything from a harmless animal
all the way up to deadly monster with a single
chance for an NPC encounter tucked in there for good measure.
Rolling a D eight, I got a one. Well, okay,
then the going was both exhausting and exhilarating. Exhausting because
sometime before noon the clouds parted, and the indifferent disc
of the sun blazed hot and angry over their heads.
The terrain trended uphill, and the exertion left a Chiliev
sweaty and breathless in short order. Normally, she liked to
conduct a kind of one way conversation with Cord when
they were together, but by mid afternoon she found she
didn't have the lungs for it, and spent the rest
of the day's journey in silence. Around evening, but well
before sunset, they passed outside their home territory. There was
a circle of influence that lasted about eight or nine
hours walk in a radius around Altvay's house. Years of
living near a way had taught predators to stay away.
Now that they were outside this imaginary circle of protection,
Achilie felt exposed and on edge. Her surroundings were no
longer familiar. The trees, the land formations, even the fauna
felt alien, alien and dangerous. Despite this, nothing troubled the
trio as they continued north. Eventually, the sun began to
dip and the temperature dropped. The stars came out and
spangled the night sky with winking diamonds. It was beautiful
and serene and magical. They picked a spot to rest
for the night under a foxtail pine, and Achilie pushed
together a bed of soft needles before spreading out her
bed roll. The foot sore and depleted, sleep did not
come quickly. Achilia's clothing was damp with perspiration and it
clung to her skin. Her mind continued to whirr with
anxiety too. She had a terrible thought. What if Aldvai
those eyes and ears were turned to stone, remained conscious,
He'd be blind and deaf, but still cursed with the
ability to think. In such a situation, she would go mad,
she thought. But no, that was impossible. His brain would
be stone too, so he must instead be in some
kind of stasis. As soon as that worry was put aside,
a new one took its place. What if someone or
some thing came into their house and found him vulnerable?
But of course Alvais was now invulnerable, impossible to harm,
even to move, so this fear, too, was unfounded. Cord
was nearby. Since Constructs didn't sleep, he simply sat with
his back to the trunk of the pine, keeping watch.
Robin picked a branch overhead as the stars slowly wheeled
on their heavenly axis. Achillie drifted off into a light sleep.
She was woken by Cord shaking her with a wooden hand.
By intro vision, Achilia saw her companion's face as it
was permanently painted on. It was the same mildly smiling
face that was always there, but somehow, by the way
he held himself, she knew there was trouble. The wooden
hand moved, touched her chin, and then turned her head
gently to the left. In the darkness, Achilia saw a
pair of unblinking silver eyes. Chapter four, Part two, Day
two midnight mythic event meaning create the intellectual party status
achillea four out of four hit points. Spells available. Achilie
has memorized shrink. The shining eyes were close, but they
only startled Achillia for a second.
Speaker 2: Get back, your little thief, come to steal my travel rations.
Speaker 1: Shoot the intruder. A curious and courageous raccoon flinched at
her words before bolting off into the night.
Speaker 2: Thanks Cord, we won't get very far off where those
our rations.
Speaker 1: Cord required neither food nor water, but he understood the
ways of mortals and creaked forward in agreement. The slim
wooden man then resumed his vigil, while Achillea settled back
to sleep after pulling her satchel close and putting it
under her head to use as a pillow. The rest
of the night passed with that incident, and Achillea slept well.
The encounter with the raccoon had made her feel like
the threats beyond Aldvay's borders were not as frightening as
she'd imagined. In the morning, she ate a quick breakfast
of dried river fish and wild out biscuits. Then she
packed up her bedroll and the treo resumed their trek north.
The expert rules for overland travel included a chance for
getting lost, but I'm going to set this aside for
now and say that as long as the sky is
clear enough to show the stars, Achillie could make her
way more or less northward without significant error. I will, however,
take this chance to make the rolls for day three.
First is weather on a D twenty a thirteen. It's
a lovely summer day, cooler than the previous and good
for travel. The next role to make is for stumble upon.
Only a one or a twenty will alter the narrative.
The role A four nothing especially out of the ordinary.
Yet another role will be for wandering encounters for day
three on a D six and hoping to get a
low result. The role A six looks like there will
be another encounter, and it's not likely to be another raccoon.
Will this encounter take place in the day or night
rolling high low, with high being a daytime encounter. I
got a thirteen on a D twenty, so it happens
during the day. And a final role this time on
my D eight Woodland encounter table. The full table is
posted on my blog Tale of Themanticore dot blogspot dot com.
By the way, here we go a six. Oh dear,
that's not great. Turns out on need to make a
few more rolls to flesh out instead of the encounter,
but I'll do those off Mike so we can jump
back into the narrative. It had been a good day
for travel, with mile after mile of gorgeous countryside rolling
by under their steady tread. In the morning, they'd wind
around a hillock tufted with ash trees. In the afternoon,
they'd crossed a sparkling brook where Achille had taken the
opportunity to wash her face and hands, to drink her
fill and replenish their water sply. She had also pulled
out the sketch book to see if the countryside matched
any of the pictures. It didn't. In the evening, while
the sun hung low in the west, they waded through
a field of tall mountain grass shot with bright flowers.
At the top of the next hill, Achillia spotted a
lone figure to the east. The moment they saw it,
it saw them. At first, the person turned as though
they meant to run off, Then they seemed to recon
hit her and began to move towards Achillea with a
waving hand thrown up in salutation, old man, little girl.
This person must not have seen them properly to have
so wrongly identified them, perhaps because they were back lit
by the sun. Achillie also briefly considered running away, but
then had second thoughts of her own. This person might
know something about adoc or recognize the scenes in the
sketch books she carried. Ignoring Robin's warble of warning, she
pointed herself toward the figure and started walking to meet them.
At closer range, she could see it was a young
man of about her own age. He had long tangled hair,
and wore clothes of shabby linen patched in places. He
seemed terribly thin and dirty. The man's paced slowed as
his squinting eyes began to make out details and recognize
his error. Kord was no old man, and Achilia was
not a child. Upon this realization, he stopped in his tracks,
and his waving arm dropped, what are you a dryad
on her tree? Spirit? There was a noticeable tremor in
his voice. Achillie was momentarily perplexed before she understood that
he meant her in Chord. She burst out laughing, causing
the man to tremble in fear and back away, showing
his palms and surrender. Achillea swallowed her mirth and offered
him a friendly smile at a bow.
Speaker 2: No dryad, no trees beard, Well, not precisely. My name
is Achilie. This is my friend Cord. And this, she.
Speaker 1: Pointed to, the little stuffed bird on her head.
Speaker 2: Is Robin Well met traveler.
Speaker 1: Well, ma'am, stammered the other, his eyes flicking back and
forth between Achillee's pointed ears and Chord's axe. The bird
did not seem to concern him in quite the same way.
Speaker 2: Well met, indeed, and your name goods.
Speaker 1: Achillia smiled pleasantly again.
Speaker 2: I forgive me.
Speaker 1: You aren't going to put an enchantment on me, are you?
Achille laughed again, which did nothing to calm the stranger.
She shook her head.
Speaker 2: I had turn't plan on it.
Speaker 1: The other man swallowed hard and cast a quick look
behind him, perhaps judging he could not get away even
if he tried. He sighed and gave his name. I'm
called Idolian. My friends call me Edo.
Speaker 2: Nay, I call you Ado if you please, wood spirit, Achilia.
Speaker 1: Let the wood spirit.
Speaker 2: Think pass Edo then, and I suppose that must mean
we're friends now.
Speaker 1: When rolling for this encounter, I got a six human outlaws.
The result prompted a quick series of other roles. How
many outlaws would there be? I figured one to three
was about right, and the disk decided it would be
a solitary outlaw. Would either side be surprised to find
out I used a D six on a one or two?
They would be surprised. I got a pair of fours,
meaning neither would be Finally, did a reaction role the
b X rules say that for an encounter like this
one where the disposition of the beings encountered is up
in the air, the DM can roll two D six
and compare the result to a chart. I did so
and got a nine, indicating no attack, monster leaves or
considers offers. Okay, then's a start by DM fiat. I
decided that this person, alone and so far away from civilization,
was likely an outcast among other outlaws. That in turn
implies a few things. He's probably under equipped, hungry, and
there's a decent chance he's being hunted. Using that monster
reaction result, I think he's going to try to bargain
with Achillia for some food. He doesn't have much to
offer in exchange, or does he? You know? I think
I have the opportunity here to use my current mythic event,
meaning create the intellectual.
Speaker 2: And furthermore, I'm not a wood spirit.
Speaker 1: She touched the tip of her right ear as she
turned her head for him to see.
Speaker 2: I'm an elf, an elf, I've never met one of
your race before, but your companion must be a wood spirit.
Not exactly.
Speaker 1: She patted Cord on the shoulder, and the construct twisted
his body to her showing his eternal painted on smile.
Speaker 2: He's a well, I suppose it's a bit complicated. This
is coord he's a friend too. Oh, and this is Robin.
Speaker 1: She pointed to the top of her head. Without needing
to look, Robin peeped in reply, where do you hail from,
mister s Acilia. A sudden pang of wariness made Achillia
hesitate for just a second before entering.
Speaker 2: To the south.
Speaker 1: And you.
Speaker 2: Zasha.
Speaker 1: It was an equally vague reply, but a more specific
answer would have been wasted on Achillia anyway, since we
befriends Achilia said Ito slowly.
Speaker 2: Would you happen to have any food to spare? I
have a little.
Speaker 1: Achillie was reluctant to give away the one thing she
expected to need on her journey, but she could tell
by looking at itdo that he was starving. Besides his thinness,
there was a certain air of desperation about him.
Speaker 2: It'll be dark, so let us find a place to rest.
Then we will.
Speaker 1: Share a lightmare, she suggested. Edo readily agreed, and just
as the top edge of the sun disappeared below the
western horizon, the four of them settled down at a
small clearing hidden behind a row of fir trees. I
feel like Edo is going to be with a Killier
for at least a little while. It's too early to
say if they'll join forces, but I do think it's
in both of their best interests to stay together for now.
For that reason, I think I should roll up his
stats and see who he is given the possibility that
he might join Achillia long term. I'll use my home
brew rules for PCs to roll him up. It's a
simple system designed to keep from making hopeless characters. I
just roll three D six down the line and reroll
any results of five or less. Shall we begin for
strength A ten, Intelligence, A nine wisdom Pretty good. I've
got a twelve dexterity eleven, constitution twelve again, and finally charisma.
Ooh that's six. Well, okay, that's an interesting set of results.
Edo is average or slightly better than average in every
stat except for one. He's not exceptionally strong or smart
or nimble, but he does have a very low charisma score.
Although this score gives him a minus one to reaction roles,
I won't retcon the one I made earlier. I wonder
what it is about him that makes people dislike or
not trust him. I'm sure I'll figure it out as
we go. Now, I was hoping the stat roles would
give me some guidance as to Edo's class. He's a
fighter or a thief, probably the last, but let's let
the dice decide on a D six one to four
means he's a thief rolling a two thief it is
that means he gets four hit points. I'm going to say,
by d m fiad that the only possessions Edo has
are the clothes on his back, no food or water,
no weapons, no armor. He's alone because i had to
flee a bad situation. I'm not sure exactly what that
is yet, but I have an idea percolating in my
brain about it. Let's get back to the narrative. I'm
going to add a food supply tracker to the usual
status information. I think Chapter four, Part two, Day four
morning mythic event meaning create the intellectual party status. Achillea
four at A four hit points, Edo four at A
four hit points supplies the companions have four portions of
food and six portions of water. Remaining spells available. Achillee
has memorized shrink the conversation between Achillea and Edo the
previous evening had been a kind of careful dance. Neither
side wanted to give away too much information. Edo had
been evasive in his explanation of what he was doing
so far away from human settlements, but to be fair,
Achilie had not given up much either. She decided early
on that though she and this man could be friends,
she would not mention al day nor where she had
come from. Instead, she had told an edited version of
the truth that she lived with her father to the south,
and that she was searching for an acquaintance of his
on a mission of substantial importance. He had likewise been vague,
saying he had come to the woods with some companions,
but that they had gotten separated due to an unforeseen occurrence.
When Achillie had asked him if he intended to go
west into the lands where men lived in numbers, he
had simply replied that he preferred the wilderness. Something about
his lack of details came across as evasive, and Achilia
mostly kept up her guard. Even when the night passed
without incident. The stranger made no attempt to rob her,
and I counted for something She hadn't really been too
worried about him actually succeeding in taking her things or
harming her. Court, who never slept, would not have let
that happen. Still, it was to his credit that he
hadn't tried. In the morning, as Achillia collected her few
things together in preparation for a long day of travel,
she couldn't.
Speaker 2: Help but ask have you heard of a man named audoc?
Odac echoed the.
Speaker 1: Other, wiping sleep from his eyes and yawning.
Speaker 2: Ow do you know him.
Speaker 1: Achilie asked again, hopefully.
Speaker 2: I As a matter of fact, Yes I do.
Speaker 1: Achilie almost burst with joy. What a stroke of luck
to have found someone who knew the person she was
searching for. She immediately had the sketch book out of
her bag and was showing him the illustrations within. Edo
kept his chin and nodded sagely as she flipped the pages. Yes, yes,
I recognize the name and the work. He lives to
the north. Akilia experienced a mild pang of doubt. Had
she mentioned before that she was headed north? Perhaps he
had simply guessed from the direction she had been traveling
when they'd met. She pushed the worry aside, what do you.
Speaker 2: Know about him? Tell me everything?
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Tale of the Mantigor. If you're
enjoying the show and would like to help to support it,
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bar Art dot store, and finally, you can rate or
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for any and all support of the show. As you know,
I like to read a listener review at the end
of each episode. This one was left by the M
two M podcast on Apple Podcasts, and this read aloud
is long overdue because somehow I missed this review from
well a long time ago. AnyWho, the M two M
podcast writes, I've never listened to a podcast about D
and D or anything related, but listening to this is
like Game of Thrones but audio. The narration is excellent
and dark and super immersive. I admittedly have to look
up certain parts because I'm not an expert at this
at all, but it is fun and makes you want
to keep listening to more. Editing is on point two.
My apologies for having somehow missed this review the M
two M podcast. It's super cool that even listeners who
aren't much into D and D can still follow and
enjoy the show. Thank you so much for that review.
I have one voice actor on the show this go around.
Welcome to the cast, chess or roll Bound, who plays Edo.
I love how your voice characterizes a Chillie's new companion.
For anyone who'd like to get in touch with me,
I let Manticore Tale on X, Tale of the Manticor
podcast on Instagram, or Tale of Themanticre at gmail dot com.
I always enjoy hearing from listeners. Finally, I keep a
blog where I post all kinds of show on RPG
related stuff like art, maps, tables, crafts, and show notes.
You can find it at Tale Ofthemanticore dot blogspot dot com.
The adventure will continue on the next episode of Tale
of the Manticor. It's the story for Chaos Rules