Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: This is Nephelos, creator of Reflections and the Darksome Mirror.
It is my honor to welcome you to Tale of
the Manticor.
Speaker 3: 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 Manticre is barbed with cruel iron spikes.
There will be much pain in the days ahead. Last
time on Tail of the Manticor. In the previous chapter,
the party recovers after its battle with the Ogre. Of
all of them, Cord is the worst off by far,
due to being split nearly in two. The construct is
now being held together with a leather strap. As for
the others, they're so exhausted that they fall asleep right
there in Mombi's cave. In the morning, they search its
lair before striking out, and find some coins, along with
a strange skull decorated in jet and turquoise. The companions
have no way of knowing that this is the long
lost skull of a cam Or prince and a precious artifact.
At this point, the story switches to the perspective of Otot,
the orc shaman. Otote is old and blind, but he
can see in a manner of speaking through his crow.
He successfully uses them to find the party, but fortunately
for them, by the time he learns their location, they
have moved beyond his reach. Of course, if the pieces
ever return this way, he'll be watching for them, then
he'll be ready. The episode concludes with Achillia's strange dream,
in which she runs through a dark forest, lost and scared,
until she eventually comes across a pond. In its surface,
she sees her reflection, except she is not herself at all.
Chapter fourteen, Part one day one dawn mythic event meaning
befriend tension party status achilliea seven out of seven hit points,
Cord three out of eleven after regaining one point through
natural healing. De Renni six out of six six out
of six supplies. The companions have five portions of food
and zero of water. Spells available A Chilia has memorized
shrink and message. Cord can cast, entangle and locate plants
and animals. Achillia woke up and shivered. It was not
especially cold, but for some reason she felt strange the dream.
She'd had a vision that she was a human boy
child lost in the woods, and the dream had felt
so realistic. Derannian ten tears still slept. She saw, judging
by the rosy glow peaking through the pine needles of
their little shelter, it must only be dawn. She climbed
out from under the fragrant branches of their stunt of
pine and looked around. Cord was nearby, with Robin perched
atop his head. The bird was tweeting softly and looking
down in a way that almost made it seem like
he was talking to Cord. What a funny thought, Achilie
smiled to herself. When she approached, the wooden construct turned
around to face her, waving a carved hand in greeting.
He still looked very badly damaged. His bifurcated torso was
still held together by the tightly knotted leather strip she
had applied at the Ogre's cave, but the crack was
still plainly evident. Still, unless she was mistaken, it did
not seem quite as long as it had before she
screwed up her face.
Speaker 4: God, are you healing?
Speaker 3: The construct gave her a creaking bough by way of
saying yes. Akilie felt relief. She supposed it made a
certain amount of sense. All living plants were able to
regenerate to some degree given time and sun and water,
so why not cord. She turned to the sound coming
from behind and saw ten tire crawling out from under
the bushy green branches of their shelter. Durrenie followed directly,
after pulling their gear out with him. As he emerged,
the elder brothers stretched, scanned the distant skies to the south,
and then nodded to himself as though satisfied with something,
before attending to their equipment, rolling up the bedding and
buckling it to their respective packs. While Dorrennie went through
this morning routine, Achillie studied from her spell book and
re memorized her two spells of shrink and message ten Tire,
for his part, prepared a small breakfast for the group.
They were getting very low on water. What little they
had would be gone by the end of the day.
As for food, they still had enough to last another
couple of days. Tentyer made a point to remind the
others that they needed to keep an eye out for
a pond or a river. Are you ready, asked der
Rennie after everyone had finished their small meal. His companions
replied that.
Speaker 2: They were very well.
Speaker 4: Then let's go.
Speaker 3: Der Rennie looked at the sky once again, but this
time to the north, in the direction they were headed.
It was clear and blue but for a few groupings
of small clouds that sailed across the sky like formations
of white sailed ships.
Speaker 4: I feel like something good is going to happen today.
Speaker 3: Something good is going to happen because this episode is
a level up episode for de Renni as a second
level character. He'll get new hit points and enjoy a
chance for stat increases. I decided to weis back that
an Elvin fighter would get a D six for new
hit points, and my longtime house rule is that the
role will min out at half, so anything three or
under on the die will be treated as a three.
Here's the role ach A one on the die will
get raised to the men out of three Dorni goes
up to us still respectable nine hit points. Chances for
stat increases are next. For this, I go through each
attribute and roll a D six. On a six, that
attribute goes up by one point. Let's begin strength. The
five is no good intelligence, I've got a two. How
about wisdom five? Still in a luck? Dexterity six okay, yes, please?
Duranny's fourteen goes up to a fifteen. No mechanical change
of companies that but he's one step closer to it
constitution A four. No, that won't do. Charisma five close
but no. Well, that level up was okay, but I
hope the PC's luck will be a little better as
we make the rolls for today's X crawl. For weather
on a D twenty, I've got a seven. I think
those fleets of white clouds the PCs saw in the
morning turned into an armada of dark gray by late morning,
and the sky is threatening rain. Using the same dye,
I'll rollers stumble upon. A four means nothing out of
the ordinary is discovered. Next comes the role for wandering encounters.
A five or six on a D six will indicate
there is one the roll I got a six, which
means there will be one. But you know, I think
I need to go away and make a new encounter
table now that the PCs passed out of Black Cloud territory.
Hang tight, Ok, I've made a new table. It's posted
detail of the mantecor dot blogspot dot com. Those curious
to see the full spectrum of what might have been.
Here comes my role on a D ten. I've got
a six. That's going to make for a very interesting encounter.
But there's still a bit of housekeeping to do before
I can go back to the narrative. The pieces are
running out of supplies, and my copy of the Expert
Rules says a party can forage while traveling with a
one in six chance for success. Those aren't very good odds,
but it occurs to me that Chord has the spell
Locate Plants and animals, so he could be of enormous
help if he used the spell to aid their search.
I'll say that by using the spell, the chance to
find food will increase two three in six, because the
spell itself can't really fail. A roll of forty six
will mean that there is none of the sought after
type of food around. Anyway, let's toss this die. I
got a three, so that means that, with Chord's help,
the pieces do find food. Oh one quick thing. It
occurs to me that some listeners might be wondering why
didn't Court use this spell to help avoid the crows.
The answer is that I didn't think of it at
the time, and if I didn't think of it, neither
did Court. This is a game, after all, but I'll
try to be a little more on the ball going forward.
No promises on that anyway. I miching to get back
to the story, so I'll make any ancillary dice rolls
off Mike. For now, let's rejoin the PCs and see
what they found. Chapter fourteen, Part two, Day fourteen afternoon
mythic event meaning befriend tension party status. The party status
is unchanged with the exception of do Reni, who goes
up to nine out of nine hid points, and with Court,
who has used the spell locate plants and animals.
Speaker 1: Court, you truly.
Speaker 2: Are a min said Achilie, beaming. What other secrets are
you hiding from me?
Speaker 3: Cord shrugged his painted face showed only the same mild
expression it always did, But somehow Achilie felt that he
was grinning on the inside. By some feet of magic,
the wooden construct had led the companions directly to a
desperately needed source of food. It was a raspberry bush,
nestled in a small groove of dwarf pines, and it
was fairly bursting with fruit. Achilia did not hesitate. She
practically plunged into the bush, picking berries and shoving them
into her mouth, one after another. Perhaps because of all
they had been through, the terror and the hardship, she
allowed herself to become a little girl for the moment,
and started laughing between mouthfuls. Ten Tyre was right behind her,
tossing berry after berry into his mouth and laughing along
with Achillia. Derniate is well, but he was not one
to act like a child, and he tempered his enthusiasm.
The three of them had each consumed a full handful
of berries and had waited a good way into the
bushes when a great buzzing sound erupted from the dense leaves.
In an instant, there were such sounds all around them,
zipping past their ears. It was as if they had
disturbed a hive of wasps, which is exactly what they
thought they had done. Tenure thrashed about, swatting at the air.
If these were wasps, they must be enormous. The sounds
they made were too low and too loud for any
common insect. Suddenly his hand connected with something large, and
before his eyes a tiny person appeared in front of him,
hovering in the air, right in front of his face.
Wings like bees, wings thrumbed madly from its shoulders. The
little person, it was hard to say if it was
male or female, despite wearing very little in the way
of clothing, had a red welt on the side of
their body and face where tent tire had hit them
Directly after this, one tiny person appeared, Another popped into view, another,
and another, until seven miniature persons flitted and hovered in
the air in front of the companions and above the
raspberry bush. One of the little fairy folk had black
hair twisted above its head in a coil. Perhaps it
was the leader of the group, for it flew right
up to Tender's face and poked the elf in his
forehead with an accusing finger.
Speaker 5: Er As asked us, the roar.
Speaker 3: Ten Deers sensed his older brother moved behind him and
correctly anticipated Duranny's intention.
Speaker 1: No, do any weight, stay your blade.
Speaker 3: There was a barely perceptible click as the other ELF's
blade slid back into its scabbard. Tender let out a
breath of relief. He held up his hands, painted a
guilty red with berry juice.
Speaker 1: I beg pardon, he announced, All of us apologize for
eating your food. We had no idea it belonged to anybody.
Speaker 5: A fop arl or half pass all.
Speaker 3: Asked the black haired fairy. His littles the size of
Tender's fingers were crossed in front of his bare chest
while he bobbed in the air his wings a thrumb.
Speaker 1: No, No, that is not all. I apologize most of
all to your sister. I thought she was ten.
Speaker 3: Tear cut himself off here, thinking these beings might not
appreciate being mistaken for wasps.
Speaker 1: I mean, I didn't know what was happening.
Speaker 3: The one he had slept yet, rubbed her side and
wore a maudeline expression, even though it was clear that
the injury was not so bad. Her skin was already
returning to its previous milky color. The leader rotated in
the air so that he faced her.
Speaker 5: Run the feather fowler upon he.
Speaker 3: Let's take a step back for a moment and talk
about how we got here before we figure out how
the encounter will proceed. As you'll have guessed by the
last status update, the raspberry bush was discovered by Cord
through his use of the spell Located Plants and Animals Bind.
This occurrence with the result of my Wandering Encounter roll
of six, which on my new table indicated that the
party would come across a group of fairy folk. I
chose to use sprites. By the book, sprites can't turn invisible,
but I decided to give them this ability to give
the encounter a little more pizaz off. Mike. I rolled
that the sprites there are seven of them, would be surprised,
but that the PCs would not be. Thus the blundering
into their nest and ensuing uproar. Everything that followed was
simply a matter of figuring out what would logically take
place from there. All that brings us to the following question,
will these sprites accept ten tiers apology for eating their
food and striking one of their number? A reaction roll
will provide the answer. I'll roll two D six and oh,
look at this, ten tier has a charisma bonus of
plus one. Okay, I'll say that, along with his apology
and obvious effort to keep the peace, this is enough
to cancel out the bad first impression he made. It's
a straight role, then higher is better. Here we go.
Speaker 2: A seven.
Speaker 3: Okay, I can work with that. The sprite named Tuna
pouted and spun in the air so that she had
her little back turned to tent Tier, said the lead
sprite in a voice that was deadly serious despite his
high pitch.
Speaker 5: Three ten pounds of rules across sister.
Speaker 3: Her brief response was in a language of chitters and tuts,
incomprehensible to any of the companions. After she concluded, the
leader nodded agreement and turned back.
Speaker 1: To ten tier soonacrous promise with.
Speaker 3: Tender blanched. Well, oh, what kind of punishment, he stammered.
At their leader's command, four of the other sprites flew up,
so they all hovered in a straight line in front
of ten Tier. Together, they spoke a word in the
ancient tongue of fairies, and a puff of golden dust
blew forth from their tiny right into Tintyre's face. The
dust was gone an instant, but the moment he inhaled it,
Tenyres suddenly got a terrible taste in his mouth. Instead
of the flavor of raspberries, his tongue registered a flavor
of rotted fish. He doubled over, hands on his knees,
and spat on the ground, almost wretching. The line of
fairies flying in front of him broke formation and flew
about them, laughing hysterically. The leader did not participate in
the merrymaking, though he now wore a small smile.
Speaker 5: A personal fu he said, wow from off, that's herself.
Speaker 3: Achilia did not find anything funny about the fairy's mirth,
quite the opposite. It came across as both mean spirited
and a little hysterical, and it made her feel that
something awful was about to happen. She tensed, wondering how
quickly she could draw it dagger if she needed to.
But before she could do anything, the younger Elvin brother
once again called for peace, throwing at an arm. Even
when he was doubled over, he managed to croak no,
it's all right. Ten Tears straightened and wiped his mouth
with the back of his hand, looking a little ashen.
Speaker 1: What else will you have?
Speaker 3: Very the lead sprite did not hesitate.
Speaker 5: Your so little happen session for a little tot alsta,
my my, what.
Speaker 3: As ten tier genuinely perplexed rawats Doranian tantyr knew that
fairyfolk considered salt to be more valuable than gold, but
they were at a loss.
Speaker 4: We carry no salt.
Speaker 3: Said do Renni bah hafl, how far lead sprite, archly
pointing at a chillia. The Killia was shocked both to
be referred to as a halfling and to the other claim,
for she was neither a half leg, nor did she
carry any salt. She began to protest, but the lead
sprite zigzagged in the air in front of her, fluzzing
his wings in her face.
Speaker 5: Darts throw low to.
Speaker 3: Lap the other force brtes flew up into line formation.
Once again, Achilia chose the path of prudence and dumbed
the contents of her satchel onto the ground. Out came
her tinder box, her extra clothes that she had carefully
wrapped around the jet in turquoise skull, since it had
seemed somewhat fragile to her the potion of gaseous form,
several dozen coins, and then a tiny package wrapped in silk.
A ha A cried the lead sprite in triumph. Achilia
suddenly remembered getting the gift from fimgrim Atrus and putting
it into her bag. It had been intended for her vobby,
but in all the chaos and upset, she had completely
forgotten that it was there. A lah Ramas commanded the sprite,
his tiny voice imperious. She obeyed, picking up the silk
package and unwrapping it to reveal a miniature jar. Twisting
off the lid revealed the small quantity of pink salt crystals.
The fairies reacted visibly to this, buzzing and twittering to
each other excitedly in their strange, insectile tongue's all continued
the sprite. He didn't move. Instead, two subordinate sprites flew
over to Achillia, and with one of the fake creatures
supporting the little jar on each side, they bore it
away into the recesses of the raspberry patch. Stated the
lead sprite, I'll off a little boble for a little
path u bargin asked to Kilia, betting to put her
possessions back into her satchel.
Speaker 5: Lee for a little.
Speaker 3: Without thinking of the possible consequences, Achillie blurted out, do
you know of.
Speaker 2: A person named Ottoc? He lives somewhere to the north.
Speaker 3: There was more insect chatter between the sprites than the
leader replied.
Speaker 5: The level arf little prom.
Speaker 2: We need water, said do Rennie.
Speaker 4: We will make a week for you if you can
point us to a river or a stream.
Speaker 3: This will tell it, said the dark haired sprite, without hesitation.
Speaker 5: On For your part, you will put up a hocking
skilled parts.
Speaker 3: Achillia thought she'd seen the little fairy notice those, and
that she had more need of water than gold. She said,
perhaps we could simply buy the information from you twenty
gold coins in exchange for directions to a stream or
a pond. I will tell you, rebutter, and said the
sprite magnanimously.
Speaker 5: Rappa fa fare you must.
Speaker 3: Achillia would have preferred it her way, but could see
that they still had more to gain than to lose
by taking the deal.
Speaker 5: Very well, what is the wager?
Speaker 3: There was more excited talk between the fairy folk when
it ended.
Speaker 5: Later said I think her with her saravath unplut ad
eruptionles ah the sarmat way a go to us fine,
ask your riddle? This a personal for I sharnav replat
the crystal. What is then murder yourselves.
Speaker 3: Killia could think of a great number of things that
would fit this description, water, food, money, All of those
became less when shared. But she knew the answer would
have to be something more clever than that. A brief
silence fell between them. Ten tear twitched. He was about
to say something, but bit his tongue. The moment of
quiet had reminded him of something his former archery teacher
used to say that silence was the only reply to foolishness.
He had thought silence might be the answer to the
fairy's riddle, but no, that answer would lose the wager.
It was de Renni who actually spoke up.
Speaker 4: I know the answer, he.
Speaker 2: Said, Dramatis personae ten tyr.
Speaker 3: Five days ago.
Speaker 2: If you aren't early, prompted elmir, I know, I know,
said Tender, sauntering up to his archery teacher, say it.
If you are early, what are you?
Speaker 1: If you aren't early, you're late. You have an expression
for everything.
Speaker 3: Elm here.
Speaker 2: That's because an expression often says exactly what needs to
be said. Why are you late this time?
Speaker 3: Ten Tier? Ten tiers shrugged.
Speaker 1: I fell asleep under the big oak. It was sunny
and warm, and I just forgot. There's no reason to
get upset.
Speaker 2: I'm not so much upset as I am disappointed, replied Elmir.
Speaker 3: Oh that old quibble, said ten Tier, rolling his eyes.
Speaker 1: To be honest, Elmere, the things we're working on, I'm
past kneading practice.
Speaker 2: A hunter is never past kneading practice, returned the archery instructor.
Pick up your bow, draw and let me see you
hit the second target.
Speaker 3: Elmer pointed down the range to where a practice demy
had been tied to a post. A bored looking boy
stood a little way off to one side, waiting to
fetch in return spent arrows. Ten Tire knocked, drew back,
and fired in one fluid motion. The arrow sailed through
the air and struck the target right in the flower
pinned to the heart, which served as a bull's eye.
He looked at his instructor and bounced his eyebrows as
if to say, I told you so.
Speaker 2: Umhm.
Speaker 3: Almir grunted this would have been a lot easier if
Tintre had missed, but he kept a calm expression as
he said, very.
Speaker 2: Well, but can you do it while in motion? Try
it like this, torn your back on the target, spin
and fire.
Speaker 3: Elmir pantomimed the motion with an imaginary bow. Easy, said Tantyre,
and just like that he copied the instructor's movements, spinning
one hundred and eighty degrees while drawing and loosing. Once again,
his arrow struck true, burying itself in the target right
beside the first.
Speaker 2: You're a good shot, Almir conceded, and perhaps you are
ready for something more difficult. But your attitude ten tier.
It needs working on, finally.
Speaker 3: Huffed Tentier. Ignoring the admonition, Elmir waved to the boy
Elf down range, whose job was to fetch arrows and
run them back. Eventually this boy would become a pupil.
In years past, Tantyer done this same job as hed
Durrenni before he was allowed to practice under Elmir.
Speaker 2: Hickum work the rope on the swing target.
Speaker 3: Elmir called Hickham, was grateful simply to have a different task,
and went forth eagerly. Although he had the good sense
not to express it. He had noticed and was enjoying
Tenttyre's little show of defiance. Before long, he had removed
the stationary dummy from the range and was manning a
swing rope to which a second, smaller dummy was attached.
He looked back at Elmre, waiting for the command to
give it a push. Elmir turned to Tentier.
Speaker 2: Let's see how well you do against a moving target.
Speaker 3: He waved at Hickam, who gave the swing dummy a shove.
It followed its parabolic arch as it pendulumed from a
rope tied to a tree branch hanging high over the
middle of the range.
Speaker 2: Fire at will Tantier.
Speaker 3: Tintiers quinted briefly down his shaft at the target, tried
to calculate where it would be by the time his
arrow arrived. It was a tricky shot because with each
swing the range of motions slightly diminished, so it was
always changing and therefore hard to predict. All the same,
when he loosed, his aim was good. The arrow struck
the target on one side, causing it to spin in
the air. Hickum could not help but utter a clipped cheer,
excited to see this show of talent. Tantyr offered his
bow to Elmere, wearing a spunk expression on his face
before he thought better of it. He said, why though
you give it a shot. This went beyond cheek. It
was plain rudeness. In the culture of the Elves, elders
were to be obeyed and respected, never challenged. Elmir kept
his face calm, but his eyes betrayed his outrage. He
took the bow. However, instead of calling Hickum to once
again swing the dummy, he motioned for the boy to
come over.
Speaker 2: Tantyr. Today you will fetch the arrows and set up
the dummy. Hiccum will practice archery in your place.
Speaker 3: Tintyre's face registered shock and resent. His lip curled. Fet
your own arrows, he said. Even as the words came out,
he knew that he had gone too far. Without another word,
he stalked off, heading back home to wait for the
inevitable consequences of his actions. Elmer watched him go and
said nothing. I feel a bit guilty ending the episode
here before de Rennie has a chance to finish speaking,
but I thought it might be fun to give you,
the listeners, a chance to think over this Sprite's riddle,
or perhaps, like de Rennie, you already know the answer.
There's another reason too. The whole idea of the Fairy's
riddle was to fulfill my current event, meaning befriend pension. Now,
I think it's in keeping with that set of prompts
to wait for the riddle's answer, but we don't need
to wait for a new pair from the mythic tables.
Here goes. I've got eighty three assist and fifteen the innocent.
Oh yeah, I know exactly what to do with that.
Thanks very much for listening to Tale of the Manticore.
If you're enjoying the show and would like to help
to support it, there are lots of ways to do so.
You can recommend the show online or to friends. You
can like and repost episode announcements on social media. You
can pick up one of my offerings on drive through RPG.
You can purchase a Tale of the Manticore t shirt
at www Dot bear Arts dot store, and finally, you
can rate or review the show on your podcast of choice.
I am very grateful for all of your support. Let's
hear some words from another kind listener. This one is
something a little bit different. A while ago, I got
an email from JMS, a listener who linked me to
his blog where he created a settlement using the Pendulum
world building tool. On his blog, JMS writes, Pendulum is
a world building assistant from one of my all time
favorite creators, John from Tale of the Manticore. John's podcast
is the reason I first became interested in solo roleplay,
who has long been the inspiration for me combining my
solo play with fiction writing. The author then proceeds to
apply the world building tool and entry by entry creates
a settlement called the town of Oakton. Thanks so much, JMS,
both to the generous words of support and for sharing
your creative work. I've already linked your blog from mine,
but folks who'd like to check it out can gethered
directly by visiting myhro brain dot blog. Thanks again, JMS.
Thanks are also due to my amazing cast. In the
usual roles of Duretti Intentire are Kayellen and Kevin Barringer.
Also returning to the show in the role of Elmere.
The archery instructor is Dan Greek, creator of Legends from
the Fireside. Finally, a return from an actor who we
haven't heard from since season one. It's sit my amigo
in Arizona playing and absolutely nailing the role of Sprite Later.
Thanks to all four of you for delivering such great performances.
Now this is where I would usually drop my contacts
and ways to get in touch, but instead I'd like
to introduce you to a podcast called Reflections in the
Darksome Mirror. The creator New Follows did the bumper for
this episode. Reflections in the darks of Mirror is a
dark fantasy hybrid audiobook, and as with some other players
in this semi actual space, the creator uses his own
game system. That said, in this show, the slider is
set more to the story side and less to the
game side. For me, the quality of the dialogue is
a real standout and this pod is definitely worth checking out.
Making this announcement also gives me the opportunity to invite
others onto this adventure. Are you thinking of trying your
hand in producing an audio drama pod? I and an
evergrowing community of folks who are doing it are here
and willing to help. Don't be shy, get started, get
in touch, and let us give you a hand. Until
next time. The adventure will continue on tail of the manticor.
It's the story. We're chaos rules