Introducing: The Glass Cannon Podcast Shadowdark E2 | This Is the Gloaming

You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premier source for role-playing game entertainment. I can touch it for the things I'll never be In the shadow of time they say It's fight or flight, untouched right away I can barely see the road in front of me Welcome to the Glass Cannon Podcast. We're a bunch of good time pals yucking it up, busting chops, and creating actual play podcasts of your favorite tabletop RPGs. And for this, our third campaign, we are playing Shadow Dark. Shadow Dark. Shadow Dark. Shadow Dark. Shadow Dark. Shadow Dark. I don't know if you know Those vocals are Jason Charles Miller With backup vocals By Cindy Emanuel In Melbourne I can say now I sang on a song With Jason Charles Miller And that's the coolest thing It was the best part Of the song I think Yes Apart from the music And Jason's And the singing And the guitar Also the lyrics And the lyrics And the production Jason Killed it So fifth best part Thank you It was definitely part of the song Stop talking Everybody stop talking Was it worth us flying you out to LA just to get in the studio with JCM. Yes. And his 17-piece band. Oh, man. And his five dogs. To stand there. And his five beautiful dogs. Amongst his five beautiful dogs. And his 17-piece band. I feel so lucky. Five-star hotel we put you up in. Five-star hotel you put me up in. You didn't mention that. First class. Yeah, me in my office screaming at the top of my lungs. Wardrobe by Botany 500. Well, great song and solid F1. It felt good. It felt good leaving here. Felt good. If you liked it and you want to hear more of this stuff, the way to help us is subscribe and like the videos at youtube.com slash the glass cannon. Download and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Drop a little five-star John on those. It really helps boost us up the algo. Follow the Glass Cannon Network on Instagram. We've got nudity on there, probably. I don't know, maybe. That got your attention, right? and if you want to get tons of content including ad free versions of this very show subscribe today at join the nation dot com I got to say something real quick because I think a lot of people I think are under the impression that when we say subscribe means you have to like get the card like out of the magazine and like fill it out by hand mail it and mail it in you know six to eight weeks later you get your your subscription back that's not true it's just a button it's just a button yeah yeah so I'm glad you clarified we have really like updated all of our tech to just like, it's all digital. It happens like instantly. Yeah. You can use your smartphone. Yeah. Yeah. You could do it on the phone. Yeah. Which is crazy to me. That's great. The phones, isn't it crazy that the phones are just getting smaller? You're working out your type five? She booked a corporate gig. She's very excited about it. What's funny is like halfway through that joke, I was like, I was like, she could go about four different ways with the last word and they'd all be pretty old. We were all riffing, but something about your bit, we had to grind it to a half. What made me think to do that bit was Joe taking the subtle pause before saying smartphone, which just really tickled me. You forgot the word. Smartphone. I like that. We were talking about choosing dice for the show that are legible and we were talking and Joe and I were just scrutinizing dice like this like two old men in cities I mean I was like I need more light I can't see the numbers too dark in here I always complain about sitting at your tiny dice I know like how can you read those I forget that how eyes work differently at your age I didn't I completely forget like you can actually can you read that 12 there you go it's crazy it's like a superpower to me it really is I can't relate at all. It's insane. It stinks. I have glasses. I don't want to wear them. Yeah, well, you're not wearing them. No, no. I haven't worn them in months. That's why you always- See them when you drive? No, no. I don't need them when I drive. I get the gist. Guys. Basically where everything is. I don't know basically where everything is. You know how big cars are? I can't see them. I can't miss one of those. My friends worked with this guy in high school. They worked at a UPS store with him. And he, I don't know how, I mean, I think he said a lot of things. One of the things he said he liked to do is he and his girlfriend like to drop acid, drive down the highway and try to guess which cars were real. Jeepers. We were all like, That's a bad idea. You're joking, right? And he was like... Yes, I'm joking. Sydney, do you wear any corrective lenses whatsoever? No, I have glasses that I never really wear because I don't really need them, but they're for when I read at night. They're a slight magnification because I would read a lot at night and my eyes would get tired. And my eye doctor told me, you might be straining your eyes, you know, if you, if your eyes get tired and that's what leads to needing corrective lenses. So they're just my reading glasses. Little reading glasses. Are they like librarian? Like, like they have a long chain to them. No, that's, I lose them, which is why I don't wear them. Maybe I should get a long chain. No, they're just, uh, I think they're Warby Parker. Oh, that's fun. Those are, I have. Those are nice. That's another thing you can just get on the internet. Yeah. Well, you don't need a magazine. Don't need a little card for that either. No, no, just need to fill out a card. Six to eight weeks later, you get your glasses. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I mean like- They do mail them. They do mail them. That's the cool thing about glasses these days. Like Skid, are your glasses new? I have like three different pairs. I love these blue ones. These are my, I have a pair. These are my like outside pair that I wear when I'm out in the world. Indoor, outdoor? These are my medium pair. If I'm going to be looking at a lot of screens, but I'm also afraid of like a close in sort of gunman. I can memorize their face if they're like 20 feet away. There's a whole section for that. And then, and then I have like my, my office glasses, which is, I'm just going to be looking at the computer for the next like eight hours. If I'm streaming or something, then I, I wear those. Wow. Wow. You know what you don't need glasses to see? A podcast. This break. Didn't see it coming. That's why. Didn't see that coming at all. Didn't see it coming. So smooth. The transition. Segway. Expertise. Ah, the Regency era. You might know it as the time when Bridgerton takes place, or it's the time when Jane Austen wrote her books. The Regency era was also an explosive time of social change, sex scandals, and maybe the worst king in British history. Vulgar History's new season is all about the Regency era, the balls, the gowns, and all the scandal. Listen to Vulgar History Regency era wherever you get podcasts. Oh, please. Not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a little bit lighter, some lighter music here? Are you a fan of true crime TV shows? And what about Unsolved Mysteries, the show that jumpstarted all of our love of true crime? I'm Ellen Marsh. And I'm Joey Taranto. And we host I Think Not, a true crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries. Baby, you will laugh, you will cry, you'll think about true crime in a whole new way, and you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people mics? New episodes of I Think Not are released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon. And every Monday, you can listen to our True Crime Rundown, where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week. So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcasts. We are back! I want to thank our sponsors for this Shadow Dark campaign. Our good friends at Norse Foundry. I think we're going to be rolling some rocks today. I had some rolling happening last week behind the old screen that you guys, Matthew pointed out at one point. Don't worry about what I got going on here behind my tiny little Shadow Dark screen. That's a tight screen. Yeah. It's all you need. I feel like I ordered the wrong size. It is smaller than Maurice do. I wonder if they take returns. Yeah. I feel like I'm not covered back here. It's the girth. It's the girth, yes. It's very girthy. I also want to thank, speaking of girthy, big shout out to Foundry Virtual Tabletop. Yes. The girthiest virtual tabletop on the market. The girthiest. Yep. On the market. They are actually, they are, you remember Ember? We did Ember. Yeah. It's been a year. It was a year ago. Is that a year ago? Yeah, it's been a year, right? Yeah, I guess so. Since we played Ember, which, how would you describe Ember? It was almost like, I mean, just with the platform, it was like an interactive story game. It was like a LucasArts game. Yeah. It was like being able to play a video game. Remember the landscape, the vignette scenes? They had these scenes. It was very narrative. Yeah, the vignettes were really cool. It was very cool. And that was like, whatever they call it, I don't know the terms, alpha, like very, very early alpha. They are now, I think this week actually Releasing the beta No way Beta is out and if you backed it You can like start participating Oh sick In the beta which is like, it's absurd It's so cool It's like a I think he said if you play it weekly With your group It's like a year of content In the beta It's the first three chapters of the adventure So cool Yeah, so that's like out now, and then soon more people can buy into the beta in like December or something like that. I want to play again. I want to bring Flamberg back. Yes! Oh, Flamberg! He was awesome! Matthew was the only one that wasn't there. Oh, yeah. Do you feel, is this awkward for you for us to talk about this? No. See, he's fine with it. He loves it. Glad I brought it up. He always sits up straight like that and freezes. Guys, you had a Shattered Ark tea on last week. Looks like you're darkened back there Yeah Is that Mordanticus or something? Yeah, what's his name? That's cool Yeah, he's got a whole page in the monster This is honestly the most metal piece of clothing I've ever owned You look so cool You look so metal Which is so sad You're a real shadow dark pose Mordanticus the Flayed There he is There he is It's like a Samurag On theme, but I wore my shadow dark shirt for the first episode And now, I don't know, like every episode I feel like I have to dress metal. Like I have to dress hard. I don't know if I can keep it up. Or hard. I don't know if I can keep it up. I definitely can't either. Kate was the one who had like the coolest clothes and I feel like she would be crushing the shadow dog thing. Her wardrobe would be perfect for this show. I feel like I have to like step it up. I think she'd be willing to lend me some clothes. Or costume design this from afar. Or costume design it. Oh yeah. She would love to tell you guys what to wear. Absolutely. She tries. She always has a comment. That's why she loves the Sims. That's why she loves Sims so much. Let's dress you all up. Just dress everybody up. We're not dolls. Kate That it kind of is Oh man I've been waiting for this moment I've been waiting for this moment I was like the first time that Troy makes a comment about my height I'm going to reveal what we did Which was that I helped frame your seat Before you got here today Is that why my head is cut off? Is that why my head's cut off in the frame? we need to start framing Troy's seat he's not here yet and Joe was like I'm too tall and I was like we're basically the same height I'll do it wow do we have to stand up and do this the old oh man get an official measurement heads cut off slouching Troy yeah nailed it natural that's natural Troy you never sit like this slouching Troy who sits like this that's how I play all my shadow dark games this is the natural shadow dark pose It's time to play Shadow Dark. Are you ready to enter the Shadow Dark? Are you ready to enter the Shadow Dark? Grab your torch! OSR, OSR. OSR. Rubark, Rubark, Rubark. Man, last week was a lot of fun. I'm more stressed about this week, and I shouldn't be. We had in the episode, I'm like, why was I stressed? That was great. But there was just so much going on. We went out to lunch afterwards, and we couldn't stop talking about all the little threads. And you guys keep mentioning little things that like weren't even the major things that had come up. But obviously we get introduced to these four characters who are waking up after some cataclysm ended a war that they were in. And they don't know how long they've been out. Everyone around them, everything around them is death. And they come to like every part of their body aches and they find themselves in horrible, horrible places. I mean, I'll never not think about the opening image of this campaign is like your hand coming up from a pile of dead bodies. That says it all, right? And you quickly realize that so much of what is happening right here at the outset is about survival, right? It's not about go kill this great wizard and rid the land of this evil. No, this is much more simple. You need money to live. Yep. To eat. Money to eat, money to have a roof over our heads. We spent more money than any of us have spent or seen in recent memory for one night. For one night. I was thinking that had to be just kind of a stressful act too. It was like spending that much money knowing that if we were to continue to spend at that rate, we wouldn't last a week. I mean, she said the weekly price and Sydney got it. I looked at my sheet and I went, oh, oh no. She was trying to be nice. She was like, you know, we could prorate it if you decide to stay the whole week. But yeah, it's more you're cobbling together those coins just to stay one night. And so you come to Marinshold, this city where it seems like they've got everything you need here. Looks like it's a little bit under reconstruction. But the guy who runs the place, Reeve Tarly Winters, he sends out some guy to talk to the crowd. and is basically like, this can be a sanctuary for you. Whatever wars you fought in, they're not going to be fought in here. One other rule, no magic. We don't deal with that shit here. Keep that outside our walls. As long as you obey the rules, everything will be fine. Otherwise, you might suffer fate worse than death, which is banishment out there. Because the forest, this area is dangerous. At least here you're behind walls. Did we take that to mean all magic or just arcane magic? Sounded like all magic. Because it's like, I wouldn't understand a ban on arcane magic because the mishaps will occur. It can be very dangerous. But that doesn't, it isn't the case. Divine magic, you know, if it's, if that divine magic aligns with the deities they worship, you might be okay. You might be able to get a pass. He didn't extrapolate on that. It was just kind of like no magic. How do they feel about stuff like, you know, like the bullet catch? Or like. Like catching a bullet out of midair? Like, you know, or a little bit of like a three-card Monty situation. How do they feel about that kind of thing? Oh, like stage magic? Yeah. Oh, sleight of hand? Prestidigitation? Yeah, like if, you know... What if David Copperfield came into town? If David Copperfield came to town, there might be other reasons. I'm going to make the Mott of the Mott and Bailey disappear. They might be disturbed for other reasons there, but you understand my example. It sounds to me like it would be risky. You know what I mean? You don't know their level of what they believe and what they don't believe. If you made a card disappear, they might be like, we're putting you to do that. Is this your card? Shut him! If Doug Henning showed up in medieval London and like did, oh, here's your card. They would burn it probably at the stake, if you wish. Try it. Try it at the crayfish tonight. See how it goes. Maybe as on our way out, we'll be like, is this your card? See what happens. Go, go, go, go, go. What was the show that, was it Will Arnett? Did he do that show where like somebody was not in on, like they would have a celebrity come in and it was like a murder mystery, but it was all improv. Oh, murderville, murderville, murderville. Yeah. Do you remember that? Did you ever see it? I never watched it, but it was great. Yeah. It was on, but I wasn't watching it. The one with Conan O'Brien, a guy, a guy did like a, it was a magician that was a suspect and they were interrogating him. He was like, do you want to see a little? And he like, did a thing of Will Hartnett literally threw himself off of a chair back against the wall. And he's just like, sorcery. Conan O'Brien, Like broke character Like what's wrong with you So it was so funny That was a really good show Yeah but I do think about you know that kind of example Like where somebody else might be like oh that was a fun trick And somebody else might irrationally be like The use of magic in these walls is forbidden And then like throw you into the boat You cut her in half Saint saw the guards Making people leave Like unknown reason why But it seems to be magic This is where we ended the episode But a lot happened before then. You got your room. You met each other because basically they were running out of rooms. And they're like, we're looking for foursomes. And Matthew's character very wisely was like, they're with us. And grabbed Joe and Sidney's character. And the four of you got a room. You're together by circumstance. Four different people all involved with this war. And you're all in need of work. So you go down to the Crayfish Tavern. It seems pretty boisterous. everyone's kind of looking at you sideways, especially the new people. But you get some drinks and then Joe's character starts talking to some of the builders that are working on, it looks like a part of the Palisade had been rebuilt recently, but some of the houses nearby are under construction as well. Talk to some of the builders, see if they had work. And they were like, no, unless somebody gets hurt, I think we're in good shape. But there are other opportunities. there was this merchant that disappeared with her guard recently. You should talk to her business partner who's still here. People don't know. Maybe she took off or maybe she's gone for good. And then you followed a drunk guy out who was being carried home by one of the builders after putting up a scene. And you talked to the bartender and it seems like his wife died recently from an accident. And so he's very sad about that. You followed him, found out where he lived. You come back to the Crayfish Tavern, and there's a guy waiting outside, kind of a shady character who you beat at dice earlier when you were waiting to get into Marin's Hold. And he's like, if it's real coin you're after, I have some information if you'll give me my money back. And he tells you that there are bandits to the west outside of another settlement known as Wardenwood. And he thinks that the people of Wardenwood would pay a nice price to be rid of that problem. so you've got a couple options and then at the end you go back home you go back to your inn the feathered wish uh there's two ends the weathered fish and the feathered wish and you set a watch on the second watch you hear a woman shriek outside you look out the window and the guards are like forcibly ushering a few people including at least two women out of town uh and they're like no it's not it's not what you think or something like that and they brought them out, drawbridge goes up and you leave. And that's where we ended the episode. Sorry, did they walk them out? Yeah, they... Leave them? They left with them. Come back in? No, they left with them. Oh, that's interesting. Oh, they left with them. The guards left. I thought so. You described it coming back up and the guards never came back. I hope the audience understood that. Oh, Sidney didn't understand that. I didn't either. I didn't either. Yeah. Okay. Now you know. Okay. Okay. They left with them. They didn't just throw them out. But they closed the thing behind them, the gate behind them. That's interesting. Middle of the night. That's interesting. During the second watch. Hmm. That is where we pick up our episode today. How about some fresh caps? Yeah. Yeah. Sydney, you used your cap, so you're at one. Well, he's greedy fucks F2. Save them up. So many caps, so many. Blood of the wild. Fuck tokens. Who's this? Oh, that's Neil. That's Neil from Get in the Trunk. Oh, nice. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Skid's a Filmmaker Filmmaker Slash retired surgeon Is it Is the look Based on Rick Ocasek It is Good call Good eye Alright so You know You tell me Where you want to pick up We can pick up next morning Or are you coming back And waking them up No I would come back I would retie the door And do the watch as normal I'll tell them in the morning Alright We tell them in the morning Don't worry about it There's nothing we can do now They're probably dead Yeah Joe, let me hear that queued up cock-a-doodle-doo sound. Wish I did. Ready to go. Wish I did. That's what you hear. Cock-a-doodle-doo. There it is. I nailed it. The verisimilitude is stunning on the Glass Gun Network. Yes, you hear the... There we go. There we go. Just took an extra second. Thank you, Sirenscape, for bailing me out. Was that Ben himself? Probably. Probably. you wake up you're on the sixth floor sixth room of the feathered wish it's a new day and for the first time in a long time you've slept in a bed comfortably some of you took baths showers or whatever you feel recharged but you know it's a weird place yeah yeah and we can't get used to this we don't we don't have the money to like I know I also can't decide if it's the best night of sleep that Ellison has had in a long time or the worst because after sleeping on the ground in a foxhole for all this time to then have a bed, even a little cot, you know, it's like- It'd be weird. You just keep waking up. Yeah, whenever at a certain point you got up and just slept on the floor instead because that was more comfortable. Yeah, I've heard that like soldiers like coming back and sleeping in a bed for first time and forever and be like, no, it's too soft. I can't get comfortable. Yeah. I think Saint is still like out cold in the morning once folks wake up like he is sleeping through. Poke you a little bit. You poke me and immediately shoots up holding his dagger. We're just going to get breakfast. Well, yeah, I mean, should we, we were talking a little bit on our way back from lunch about order of operations here. So we do want to talk, we want to talk to Martin Gardock. Yes. The business partner of Regina Spence who went missing. We also thought maybe if there was, that was a bandit situation. That was your theory but maybe we have we don know But if that is what happened it might be worth getting the information from the attempted card sharp dude Yeah my friend I would be willing to part with some coin but I probably get that coin back if you know what I mean I feel like also if we show up with a hulking half-orc soldier. This is, I think, what Saint's idea is, too. He wants to bring the entire group to this guy to show, like, you can't bully me. You can't bully me into doing tasks for you. I'm not your friend. And I have people like with me now. I have like a crew now. So he pitches it to you guys in the morning and he tells you about last night. He says during his watch, heard something, went outside. And we'll cut to them like eating breakfast, maybe. And he's talking low at the table. And they took her and some others out. Well, they just kicked them out because they were probably fighting No, they took them out and the drawbridge closed behind them I wonder if they were using magic Well, that's what I thought too But even if they were, wouldn't the guards come back? That makes me wonder, the man we saw at the bar last night The one crying about his wife who had, what did they say? Died In an accident In an accident, she said, Rennie I wonder if she had been removed too, for the same reason That's interesting Did you recognize the women the people you saw being taken out? Did you see them today in one of the lines so they knew? Ken, did Saint kind of recognize if they were like new people he had been seeing in the camp? It's hard to tell at night there was nothing distinguishing about them Also why didn't you wake us up? It was my watch. But you left us in the room. Yeah. Did you lock the door behind you? No. You can't leave the room. Am I crazy? We're new to each other, but let's establish ground rules, maybe. If you leave the room, just lock the door behind you. Then I'd lock myself out. Presumably you'd have a key. You'd have a key to lock the door. Well, apologies for not thinking through all this in the moment when I heard a woman scream outside. Just wake us up if there's some danger or something. Just wake us. Alright, I'll wake you up next time. Alright. Do you guys want anything else to eat? Just the check. Where are we eating? Who's paying for this? He is. I'll just leave it on the table. I'm gonna make every single coin disappear. I'll leave it here. Ma'am, can I ask you a question before you go? We only take cash. What else? What? I was asking about working on the wall there, and we're new to town. I'm just curious what happened there. She kind of looks at you oddly. She's like, oh, just an accident. We had a tree fell on it and caused a bit of damage. Anyways, I'll be right back. Are we eating at the crayfish? I don't know. No, you're at a bed and breakfast. You're like a little breakfast spot. You're at the best breakfast spot in town. Seven gold for the meal. Well, we don't want to go to the best one. It's not the best one. It's a greasy spoon. Let's go to the worst. You said you went out for breakfast, so. The best one is ham on the bone. The worst one is greasy spoon. That's what I used to like to do. Like when I was going out to dinner, I was like, what would you like to drink? I was like, bring us some of your worst wine. Not necessarily the cheapest wine, just the one you like the least. Let's go to the worst breakfast spot. Isn't there a rule of thumb that you want to choose the second least expensive wine on the menu? I don't know. There's some thought process. I kind of live by that rule. That's usually what I do. Second cheapest. Because the cheapest is obviously the worst. Yeah. When I look at a wine list, I don't look at the wine. I look at the prices, and then I go left from there. One's $28 a bottle, one's $32, and one's $64. You get the $32. Same with sake, I do the same thing Unless it's special This whole time I thought you knew what you were talking about No, I like certain sakis, but I'm not gonna pick the most expensive one You always are very, like, you take charge Authoritative Authoritative in the ordering of sake I always thought you knew what you wanted No, I like what I like, I like a junmai, but anyway, I digress Hey, go away all Hey, hey Alright Warwick is gonna turn back to the table and be like This isn't... Tree Fallen is not going to do that to a wall or a bunch of houses all at once. People are saying the word accident too much. I don't like it. I think one other order of business we should attend to is if we can find a map of the area. I want to keep heading north. I want to get home. Map would be brilliant. So if we can find someone who has an accurate, well-drawn map of the area. That would be great. That would help a lot. You check the shops. Yeah. Maybe we can find, what's his name? Martin Gardock in his car. I think that's going to answer a lot of questions for us. So the sooner we get going, the better. I don't want to stay here very well. Are you ready? I think we should stay as a group, too. I got somebody I want to talk to, and I need you guys to come with me. All right. Thanks for picking up breakfast. And I get up. I get up and I leave. We're skipping out. How much is the bill? 300 gold. No! We're definitely skipping out. That's why this is the worst breakfast place. Yeah, the food was great. They charged 300 gold. You know, I imagine, so what did we say? Rations were three silver? Well, we can... Silver for three. Five silver for three rations. So... You can refer to the menu again. I think it's probably... The menu, give me something good. I think 12 silver seems accurate. Plain breakfast at the end of the welcome wench was five copper. An elaborate breakfast, on the other hand, was two silver pieces. Oh. All right. So maybe mine is a little expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It seems like it's probably like two... Two silver. Two silver. Five copper each. Yeah. Two silver. Five copper each. All right. Silver. Hey, you might want a tip. True. There were no gratuities. I thought this was Europe. There were no gratuities in a medieval fantasy world. To me, this is Europe fantasy. In this two episode old show. Everyone has paid a fair living wage In this town It is a fantasy world This poor war bedraggled town Also she clearly Lied right to our faces Oh a thousand percent So you start at twenty percent What are you going to test her Put the tip on the table And everyone tells you a lie You remove a copper piece She did lie to us So we shouldn't give her a tip Anytime a server lies to me That's the first thing I do Now you're down to 18% Ask them a question to which you know the answer I just keep testing them the whole meal What time is it? Yesterday 14% Let's head to Martin I'll put the two silver piece down I'm tracking it You were the richest one also because you won the money You don't know that You made a point of saying you look clean And well fed You appear richer Maybe you do know that. I don't know. And you won that card game. You should have a million dollars. Maybe she's just, I think maybe he's just a con man. Yeah, maybe. Um, all right. So you head over to, uh, Martin Godrack's shop. It's a little cart. Uh, and you go over there and there's a, uh, a stocky gentleman. Uh, he's got sort of this, uh, fanciful white beard. Uh, and, uh, he's not dwarf. He's a human, but he's just like short and stocky. And he's going about, like, opening up the shelves of his cart, and you see there's, like, spices everywhere. And he sees you coming. He's like, oh, just a moment. I'm almost ready. Just getting the rest of my spices set up for the day. It's a little hard here. I'm not used to setting this up. Is there something in particular you're looking for? I'm just not quite ready, but I don't want to lose the business. No, it's all right. We're not looking at the shop at the moment. We understand that your business partner, Regina Spence. Regina Spence. Yes, have you heard anything about her? She's gone missing, and we were hoping to look into it for you. We were wondering if there might be a reward not to be crass. Mercenary about it. I see. I mentioned it to the town guard, but they... They're not going to help you. No, they have a lot to do here, and so they couldn't do it. I didn't want to put up signs or anything, because I thought maybe she'd come back. There's sort of rumors that she left, but I know, Regina, she wouldn't just leave me here. We've been working together for some time. That's kind of you. What did you have in mind? Well, rumor was that she headed north. Is that right? Yes, she was heading up the northern road to see what was left of the area just beyond here. There was a... So that's the direction of the battlefield that we... No, we were moving north from the battlefield. North from the battlefield. Yeah, so it's like an area. Maybe another battlefield, but we really do need a map. Yeah, you really need a map. But my understanding, I think the battlefields are all around, right? But we were... The one we came from. Yeah, we came from one to the south. Yeah. Um, yes, there's evidently a spice trader up there, and she took our guard because it's dangerous out there, so I suppose anything could have happened to them. There's all sorts of strange rumors of what goes on beyond these halls. Right, well, we were hoping that maybe finding out what happened to her, or maybe even recovering some of the merchandise might be worth something to you. Um, yes, I suppose we should get right down to it then. I guess I could offer you perhaps 80 gold pieces. Holy shit. Did you say that? Holy shit. That's too low. Just completely freeze, like. Yeah, all of us, I think, I've never heard of that much money before in my life. Sane also freezes. Wait, I meant 50. 50 gold pieces. Oh, no. 80 plus, of course, a share of whatever we recover. Yes, no, 10 gold pieces each. is I think more than sufficient. What happens at the 80? This is a terrible negotiation. I read the wrong number originally. It was meant to be 50. We've lost money twice without saying anything. 25 gold should be enough. It's getting worse. Run! All right, we'll find her, bye! Just give me 30 gold and go find her. It was like, there's not even any time for counter-opters. What the fuck just happened? He's had to flee before we heal him. I meant to say 50, and I said 80 at the gate, but that's still 10 gold apiece, and even more if one of you perishes. Oh, no, there's four of you. There's four. Kate's gone. So 50 gold. 50 gold. 50 gold. 50 gold pieces. He's good for it. 50 gold? Yes, absolutely. Yes, absolutely. We could do that. I mean, obviously, I should state the obvious, but best case scenario, you retrieve them. if um the worst happened I would just need to know I need to know so that I can uh you know prepare myself to move on as best I can um but what I'm saying is I won't pay you without proof were you two uh were you two close yes we've worked together for some time this recent unpleasantness out there in the world has made business a little more difficult but um There aren't many spice traders like us out here, and so we've done well for ourselves. We were able to hire our own guard, and, you know, this was kind of... I don't know. We just thought, like, things were going to go on great forever. How many guards went with her? Three. You knew them? Yes, good men. They've been with us for some time. What are their names? We take care of them, and they take care of us. They've been with you for some time. What are their names? Corvin, of course. Corvin, yes. Brion and Nelvin. Corvin, Brion. And Nelvin. Yes. Were they well armed? It's going to be a long campaign. There's only so many names. You're going to meet a lot of Corvins. You're going to run out of names. That's the other thing. It's like, let's not forget, a lot of people in the world have the same name. That's right. It's not that crazy. Corvin is like Mike in Shattered Ark. Wait a minute. We already met a Mike. You're lying. You're lying about your name. Like there could be a second mind. You didn't even know their last name. That's honestly one of my favorite parts about Game of Thrones. There's so many of the same first name that people have. It feels very real. I make it a little confusing reading it off the page, but it is more realistic. They were three brothers. They all had the same last name. Which was? Lansingshire. Lansingshire? Or Nelvin Lansingshire? Rolls right off the tongue. Orvin Brion and Nelvin Lansing Shire Brothers Brothers And they were well armed Yes, yes You have to be if you're to go out there I assume horse? No, no, they were traveling by foot All of them Yes, the land around here is swampy It's safer to travel by foot So wait, how were they carrying the merchandise? A cart A cart A push cart They were just pulling it themselves Yes Speaking of that To find trace of the cart Let me know that as well But I need to know what What happened Or hopefully To retrieve them And bring them home They could have been captured Could you provide us Or point us to a Place where we could find An accurate and Well drawn map of the area And uh Current There's a Cartographer A little Shop of Antiquities Fantastic He owns it right over there. Hey. What's his name? You don't need to know what his name is. Please stop. What's the name of the store, though? Maps and stuff. Maps and stuff. Right. Amazing. I don't know how we missed it. Is it apostrophe? Honestly, it has almost everything you'll have in there. Is it maps, apostrophe? And apostrophe stuff. Yes. Maps and stuff. And the proprietor is nameless. He's never baptized. Johan nameless. You're nameless Right Alright Okay Alright And um Alright We'll set out Alright um Thank you for taking an interest In this and uh Good luck to you I hope that uh Weeks from now Another group won't be coming Looking for me to pay them To retrieve you That would Well you don't even know our names So Oh that's right You asked me my name I never got Yours And you do and then you move on. Okay, fine. Fine. Okay, let's go to maps and stuff. Okay. Can we not play roleplay maps and stuff or do you want to do that? You can roleplay maps and stuff a little bit. We just want a map. Welcome. Ding, ding. Oh, hello. Welcome to maps and stuff. Hello, Mr. Nameless. Yes, oh, you've heard of me. We've been highly recommended. We were told that you might be able to provide us with a map of the region and what you might charge for something like that. We don't have a lot of money. Well, I'm an honest salesman, as you will no doubt hear if you ask anyone in town. The nameless name carries a lot of weight. My name is Denzar. Oh, Denzar? Yes, I am. Oh, we were misinformed. I am a bit of an amateur cartographer, I should say, but I do my work not so much from sight, but from stories. and the reason I'm hesitant at first to sell you a map of the area is that its accuracy is questionable and that is not from my handiwork but is just from the nature of the area. You are outsiders, yes? Were you part of this group that was recently let in? Yes. Yes, we are new here, yeah? Oh. Oh, we also don't even know much about the land itself around here. We're very much strange. This place is strange to us. What do you mean the map is unreliable? I wouldn't pay for an unreliable map. Let me explain. And he goes and starts reaching through papers and he says, things are just different in the gloaming. And he pulls out a map and lays it On the fucking counter. Nice. What a foundry virtual. Oh! And you see this! Oh, foundry! Oh! Come on. Oh. That's awesome. Oh, cool. This is the general area that is sort of known as the gloaming. It is a strange area made all the more strange by these recent goings-on wars and whatnot. I don't get involved. But it is a forest of sorts where the sort of veil between our world and another world is very thin. The abyss, hell, the darkness beyond mortal ken. whatever you want to call it the land of demon kind they can sort of seep in to this world here it is a dangerous area that is very volatile so when I say the map is unreliable it's mainly because the world here changes sometimes so this gives you the general area, there are pathways as you can see, forests and what not but the only way to really know the gloaming is to explore it. And I think that this should be a good starting point for you, and I will obviously sell this map to you if you are interested, and perhaps I could even offer you some coin to help corroborate some information you find along the way. It could be a gift for me as well for future maps that I sell. if you discover things out there and are lucky enough to return, you let me know and I'll draw my little palisades and whatnot. Yeah, you can even see I already drew Maren's Hold. And I will put the party token on Maren's Hold. Oh! And this is Cardinal from where we are. So north, south. North, south, east, and west. Oh, I can see the hexes now. Oh my gosh, I see the party in the token. Oh my gosh, look at us! That's amazing. We're walking. So you can always see one hex away from where you are. And depending on where you go as you travel, it will start to reveal more on this map. Oh, that's so cool. That is so cool. So this road kind of through this valley up here is the roads to the north, presumably, that Martin was talking about, right? Presumably, yes. That is the road to the north that Regina allegedly took. and then yes, over that little footbridge, there's a pathway leading to the west. You could even ask him, oh yes, Wardenwood, yes, Wardenwood lies somewhere to the west, right at the edge of the lake, I believe. What's the lake called? Oh, the lake. You know the lake? Are you really that new here? He stalled while looking at his notes. It's Finimir Lake. Finimir, I assume it was important, but maybe not now. Yes, Finimir Lake. There's a little island on there and you'll see that to the south, It is a very marshy, swampy area, tough to traverse, yes? You might call it difficult terrain. We'll slow you down should you go down in that direction. The paths in the forest, I can't tell you what is better. Some of the paths might be just as dangerous as the forest, as people wait for unsuspecting travelers in the brush just to jump out and get them. But the forests are equally dangerous. That's why I'm happy to sell you this map, but just being honest, if I were you, would hang it up on the walls of your new abode and stay in Maron's Hold. You'll be mostly safe here. Sorry to say we have business outside the town walls. This is sort of like horrible news. What? That we're in a region where the line between reality and hell is fraying. Well, I was going to ask. I'm assuming that he's crazy. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Is he exaggerating? He's listening to too many stories. I think he's trying to sell up. How are we to take it? You don't want this map, do you? We've been out in this part of the world for some time now. Have we seen anything like that? Have we heard of this ever once before? No, you have not, and you have not seen anything. But you just recently came into this particular area. If you see where you're positioned on the map, who knows how you actually got here, but you didn't spend that much time. You probably spent three days. And we really don't know this part of the world at all. I think it's more interesting that way. Yeah, definitely. My impression was like, oh yeah, we've known how horrible this area is, but no, but we don't know at all. And I will say the nights that you had leading up to this, when you first entered this area that you now know is called the Gloaming, there were horrible experiences at night where you heard things, where you thought you saw things Like a Blair Witch kind of Yeah, just like very, very creepy but maybe just as you were... Okay, great I just really just wanted to get That is important recontextualization I think Saint One thinks this guy's kind of a con man has a faulty map and is trying to sell it to us by giving us like a ghost story where it's like the map always changes and he's like, all right. But he asks, feeling a bit of this fear of what is this actual area that we're in, he says, so what's the nearest town? That would be Wardenwood. And then after that? That's pretty much it as far as I know, but the world has changed. If we were to travel north and leave the Gloaming, would we encounter any other towns or settlements along the way? You would encounter groups but not so much towns How big is the gloaming It pretty large although some say the size is ever Is it growing outward? Is it contracting? It's all wives' tales. How much is the map? 75 gold. You can bill it to Martin Gordok. Yeah. Expenses. Attention, Martin Gordok. This map is... I owe you. It's three gold pieces. Three gold. This ain't kind of boffs. Or you can just roll an intelligence check and end up in a random hex as you go along. Or perhaps we might earn ourselves a discount by offering our services as guides and cartography. Well, now we're doing business together. Yes, yes, I like this. So perhaps one gold now and you come back with information and I don't charge you extra? Or three gold now and I give you gold back when you come. That one sounds better for me. Do we have one gold? And Pharaoh like reaches in his pouch and he like thinks about it, he looks at it, the coinage in his hand and he like takes a deep breath and lays it down on the counter, three gold pieces. Oh. Perfect, he reaches out his little meaty paw Wonderful, wonderful Well, you know, I'll just, what I'll do is I'll put this aside And should you come back with some information I could give you one gold back And a bevy of information I could even give you that second gold back And then we, now we're partners Yes, we're partners, partners in this This is wonderful And people are always asking for more complete maps And now I'll have more information And you won't, it won't be as costly for you And look at the world as your oyster Perhaps you could throw in a bit of rations or some traveling equipment to help smooth our journey then. Oh, but of course, yes. If you're going to travel beyond these walls, you'll need this. And it's a torch. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Just kidding. Yeah, I'll take it. This would never be exciting in any other system. Yeah, right. It's like, oh, a torch. A torch, the most valuable item. I've got 17 of these in my backpack. is... Let me ask you, before we leave maps and stuff, Warwick, are you... What are you wielding? Maps and stuff. What are you wielding? A spear. Are you happy with a spear? No, but a sword is 10 gold. Because we can... I feel like we can lay down the gold to get you a sword. You have 10 gold? I do, right? What else am I going to... What else did I spend on? Oh, I didn't know you had 10 gold. I rolled... I didn't know you had... I should be robbing these men I should be killing you I could have killed you in the night but like I don't know how we run on Ropa it's like we all are pooling our money to buy a sword or whatever you don't have any armor either if you leave maps and stuff and you see the armorer across the way or you see Warwick just sort of staring longingly at the armorer's shop you could catch that I mean, that's why I was... Passive aggressively trying to get us to buy stuff. Honestly, I don't think he would say anything. I think that it's... Oh, I wish I had a sword. Oh, man. You know, I think, you know, if you ask, like, is there anything we can get you to... Anything else we need? Because honestly, I think Ellison sees you as... He was surprised that Pharaoh pulled out three gold in the cartographer. Like, he's shocked at the amount of money you guys have right now. I think we... I have 16 gold. I think we might have, like, stumbled on... I think we stumbled on a little. Like, a cash or something. Yeah, that's why he was able, like, Allison was able to pay for this room last night. Yeah. Yeah, so maybe, well, maybe, like, you would ask him as a saying, you wouldn't be able to spare a sword. He's just like, no, of course not. And then it's like, then we would think, oh, well. Or maybe the better way to role play it is that we found a sword and we have a sword. And we'll, like, effectively pay for it. And then we'll be like, here, you wield this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like one of the things, the items that we found represents our own. And I've held on to. Yeah. Because we're supposed to be like hard scrabble survival mode. Yeah, it makes more sense. Buying a 10 gold piece sword seems extravagant. Yeah, maybe you guys have a sword, but you're not much good with it, right? Exactly. It's like, you should, yeah, let's do that. So I give up five, you give up five. Great. And we'll have a sword. Okay. You can sell the spear too. Oh, nice. Yeah. Sell back the spear. Well, do you, would you want armor? We could also say, I mean, like. I don't have a lot left. I have four gold left. I have 11 gold. How much does a suit of armor cost? I think leather is 10, right? I think it is, yeah. If you'd let me take some photographs of you, I could... Oh my God, these freaking people you make up in your head are all so messed up. Any role play, we stay in for too long. I'm a bit of an amateur portrait artist. I wonder if you wouldn't mind sitting for me in my studio. That's bad. I'm more of a... Lots of ways to earn gold in this town. I'm a student of the... The human form. Would you mind removing your cloak? Oh my God. The line here is between hell and... It's very thin indeed. The veil between humanity and gravity is thin. Yes, leather armor is tin. Tin gold. Tin gold. I mean, I have gold, but are you talking a saint? No, I think we're effectively saying like, this is stuff we found. Like it's starting gold, like, but I make... And Joe's good for it. You feel weird buying your new friend a gift. He feels weird that like he's starting the adventure with all this loose cash when we're supposed to be really like on the edge. Yeah. But also like. Because this is character creation gold. Right. I mean, we looked into it. I was like, well, maybe my guy would have a potion or something. But those are so expensive. Yeah, those are crazy expensive. So it was like the most reasonable thing to have is a weapon, even if I can't use it. So like buying a sword or like saying we found one or like a pack of armor. A pack of armor. Pack of armor. six pack like boxers pack of armor chainmail shirts like pop one off V-neck or no Haines makes good armor so let's why don't we just say that like you and I we came upon some gold and a sword and a suit of leather armor like a slain hedge knight and he was injured somewhere else like wandered away and like died in solitude and we happened across his body before any other scavengers got to it yeah how much gold of mine do you need well if we want to split it evenly it would be i mean three three and i'll do four okay yeah for armor yeah yeah yeah sure then that would leave me one gold one precious gold so you're like trying to suit up and whatnot and you're looking at this pathetic guy and you're like you know we we have some stuff i think we We were like probably planning to sell it, but like now. It was like you wear this and, you know, you can buy it from us eventually or whatever. You know, we'll give it to you for a fair rate. But for now, wear it and, you know, keep us safe. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Can I, can Saint, while they're, maybe they're like leaving the maps and stuff shop and talking about like gathering their equipment and whatever. I'd like to slide Denzar a silver and say there's a lot of accidents in this town I don't let him grab it yet I'm just holding it excited there's a lot of accidents in this town well it's a dangerous place right gloaming that is what happened to the wall oh the wall ugh hard time remembering I like lift a finger off the silver Push it a little closer And then put a finger on it again And so you both have your finger on it Well Not something we're supposed to Talk about really With outsiders especially We don't want to scare anyone off We're not outsiders You're not here We're outside the store We are outsiders We are outsiders They're outsiders. I'm inside your shop. It's a bit of a mandate, as it were. We don't want people to think that this place isn't safe, but seeing as you're eager to learn, and it sounds like you're leaving anyways. And we're partners. And we're partners, yes. Most important of all. There was an unfortunate attack recently on the Palisade and the town. Half a dozen demons, Skrell demons, I believe they're called, came and breached the walls and slew several of our inhabitants. Horrible business. Terrible. The guards were able to drive most of them off. All of them, actually. None of them perished. but we've been rebuilding ever since and trying to rebuild the hearts of those who, and he just slides the coin to himself. Let's go. Those who suffered personal losses. It's a difficult time to be alive. That's the truth. What's a Skrull demon? I don't know. Nasty little creatures, long claws. I'm lucky to say that I had never seen anything like it. And when I heard the screeches, I peered out my window for but a moment before I hid under my bed. Heard stories about it the next day, but Reeve Winters made it clear that it was something not to be talked about, so I would appreciate if you kept it amongst yourselves. See, yes, we're partners. Lums the word. Right. If that word gets out, I'll know who said it. What was my name again? I didn't catch it. Right. Nice to meet you, Denzar. Denzar Washington. Denzar, that's your name. Denzar Washington. You didn't have to say the last name. She didn't ask. Denzar Washington. You literally didn't even ask for your name. Cool. A bad not giving it to you. Denzar Washington. Denzar. No one owns maps and stuff. No relation. No relation. To George Washington. To George Washington. Go to work out there. All right. Should we go talk to your dude? My friend? Your friend? Yeah. And then set out? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. All right. All right, so who's this friend of yours? We're walking to the crayfish. Not my friend. What's his name? Don't know. What's he look like? Like a guy. I'll know him when I see him. And I get to the crayfish. I'll think of a name during this break. Perfect use of a commercial break. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not-so-dark, not-so-stormy, hard-boiled detective story that probably nobody saw coming. Follow Sonic and the intrepid Chaotix Detective Agency as they take on their biggest case yet. This high-flying, action-packed adventure will take them across the world, fighting for every clue they can find. It's one heck of a tale, which is good, because this story might be the only thing that can save their lives. Wait! Well, if that's all, I can just dispose of you. Wait, what? Ha ha! Ha ha ha! All will be revealed in... Sonic the Hedgehog presents The Chaotix Case Files. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. The Chaotix are on the case. Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run. 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll, of course, have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Kripke was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent Duchovny type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes. So please join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now. We're back. You are leaving Confines of maps and stuff To head to the Crayfish Tavern In the hopes that you run into this Fellow From last night Um Alright I'm gonna roll luck die I'm gonna say 1, 2, 3 He's there, 4, 5, 6, he's not there He's not there Wait a minute, wait a minute, are you doing this by the book? Wait, wait You're just making this up as you go? Yes and yes Okay. Well, there's a one, two, three. Do you have them right? Well, in this moment, yes. God damn it. There might be a book way of doing it, but me looking at the book instead of just calling it before I roll it. Yeah, it's fine. But it does say it. Around here, we do things by the book, LaValle. You're a loose cannon. I just liked the entry because it was like a result of one, two, three is like favorable to the players. Yeah, I know what you're looking at. I was just making the call on the fly, but now I won't be able to sleep tonight. I'm not going to change my response because I said before I rolled 1, 2, 3, this, 4, 5, 6, this but being a nerd I need to know the truth how to find the truth anyways, he's not there while I look for the truth a 1 to 3 results in a worse outcome for the players I knew it 4, 5, and 6, which you rolled is the better one well now we know for next time now we know Yeah, we open the door, I look around, I come back out. He's not in there. Well, I think we better head out while we've still got the light. Yeah, I don't know if I trust him anyway. Anyone that's telling you they know details of a bandit camp has abandoned themselves. Probably stab us in the back. Well, that is definitely what will happen, regardless. But I thought maybe I could get some coin off him before we left. Alright Right Well we've got a map We know the road that Regina went up Let's check it and see what we can find North first Then west North first then home We're back here then To get our money from Martin And then we can decide what we want to do next Also we may not be dead Let's talk about Hex travel Since it seems like you're actually going to do this I would say under normal conditions, you can travel eight hours per day. In order to go beyond that, you have to pass increasing con checks to push further beyond eight hours. That's straight from the book. These hexes are going to be six miles across, which is four hours walking. So, you know, you can basically cross two hexes a day. It's eight hours. Okay. Then you got to camp. Um, you know, there's a marsh area to the south. I think that you should walk slower through there, which would be difficult terrain, which is two times, which would be like one hex a day if you want to go to the south. That makes the most sense to me just to give some variation here. Um, and obviously I'll be rolling for random encounters at a certain pace throughout your journey. I love this. Wow. That's amazing. And you will see as you travel, depending on what hexes you move into, monuments and strange things will appear on the map that may lead you to go in a different direction. Shout out to our sponsor for making a mod to one of the modules that allows us to do that. So cool. Yeah, so cool. I think based off the map, we should go directly north. We'll hit the road if we just go directly north two spaces. She was traveling on the road, so we should go the way she traveled. Yeah, yeah. I just mean we'll hit the road if we just go north. So we might as well just go north. But we skip some of the road. Right. Like if we go northeast, we go straight to the road. Right. You know what I mean? But it's kind of takes longer then. As the crow flies. But we also want to like check every part of the road. Okay. Because we don't know where she might have gotten jumped or. Yeah. So we just go northeast. I mean, I think it's more likely. Northeast than north. And then north. Yeah. Northeast than north. Okay. It also looks like there's a little valley there, like a ridge that the road is running through. so maybe we get into that valley first I like that so in game we literally leave Marin's hold and just like follow that road just like straight out of the town and we all link arms yeah and we skip there's a lion and a guy made out of ten yeah oh you just made me think that like rations are important and I don't have any you don't have any rations? no I didn't have any money No, no, I did have some rations, but I actually got rid of those to start for flavor's sake, but I think it was important. So, um. So let's buy some. So, yeah, I think I would just need to buy some rations, but that's five silver pieces. Do you have money? Do you want to go back to maps and stuff? Um, no, I don't, I don't have any money. Maps, maps, snacks. So you guys are good. How many rations does everybody have? If it's three. I have three days of rations. So let's buy more and you hold them. Yeah, that's fine. So do you want to just spend like one gold on rations? and that's six rations and I'll hold them. Yeah. Yeah. I'll do that. Saint will come back with rations and like hands them to you. It doesn't say anything, just hands them to you. Just like stuffs them into this big, this big oversized backpack. Yeah. What's your, how many gear slots do you have with your strength? 17. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's strength plus con for fighters because of haul. Oh, right. Hauler ability. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about this because there's a lot of crunch to this that will seem pedantic at first, and then it will just be second nature. But obviously, I'm going to be rolling random encounters every X amount of hours, okay? And then when your day ends and you need to camp, there are random encounters that could happen while you're camping. And on top of that, if you want to make a campfire, you need... Which we do. It says, in many cases, adventurers need a light source while resting that may stave off predators. It may also alert you to other things, things you have to decide. you can combine three torches into a campfire that can't be moved once lit and it lasts up to eight hours while at least one character remains near to it. Also, how many torches do we have? I have one. You only have one? Yeah. I only have one. I have two from my crawling kit. And we got one. So, from... Crawling kit comes with two torches. But does that, do we need to do that? Like, we're in a forested area. Like, do we need torches? Can we make a torch? a... Why not even make a torch? Can we just build a fire? Yeah, I don't see why not. I mean, I say we're passing through the Gobi Desert. Or if we're... We would use torches. Or if we're camping in a dungeon. That's a perfect use for torches. We're in the wilderness. I don't think we need torches. You've got high wisdom, right? We have flint and steel and wood. Yeah, and I'm a nature guy, so... So yeah, I think that's okay with you, Troy. I feel like we should be able to roll to make a... I mean, not even roll, but just like make a fire while we're outside in the forest. So that makes sense to me. It's like if you're in a place where wood is readily available, you should be able to at least roll to see if you can start a fire. Because why not roll? That's always fun. And I might roll to be like, no, it rained out. And so you've got to roll with disadvantage. Who knows? But if you're in a cave or in an area where wood isn't readily available, free torches make a campfire. Cool. and it does say like even if you're outside at night you're rarely in total darkness so you still have the moonlight maybe a disadvantage who knows but like if something jumps you in the middle of the night you have a lot of problems beyond the light yeah you have the light spell you're just how long does that last an hour same as the same as George okay my d6 is going to be like all the edges are going to be frayed at the end of this game that video of a guy that like tries to kick a stone into a sphere. Yes, into a sphere. Yeah. And it's like day 500. I didn't know you could do it. He's doing it. He just kicks it for hours a day. Into a what? Into a sphere. He's trying to kick. He's kicking a rock to make it rounder and he just kicks it down the street for like hours. And it's like day 100 and whatever and it's almost completely spherical and he'll put it on something that measures how perfect a sphere it is. That's anyways, that's what my D6 is going to look like eventually. This is going to roll. It's going to be a marble. Will you stop rolling? A marble. A marble. They have rock tumblers for that purpose. Makes me want to start kicking rocks Hey, kick rocks I think you should If I walked home, that thing would be a sphere Alright, so Jay Bruce, we're doing this Did you get some extra torches? Yeah, we bought the stuff A torturous number of torches And we also have the lights as a backup So I feel like And most importantly, I saved you the role play from torches and stuff Thank you, yes, which he also owns Which he also owns He owns rations and stuff, torches and stuff And he's also got his sketch portraiture business He's quite the entrepreneur You'd like to pose for a few pictures That's in the back room Imagine we just add that as a mechanic It's like we need a little extra gold Thing is when you go back there there's no paint I go sit with Denzar For a photo sesh For a photo sesh Where's the easel? Shut up Shut up Turn around Don't look at my face Where do you want to go? You got obviously Six different options We're gonna go to the northeast And then Well We'll go to the northeast Let's see what happens Let's see what we see Yeah It's gonna open up more Go, go, go I wanna see this in action Can we move it? Can I move it? Nah, I don't trust you guys Alright, so let's move Oh Oh Oh there another Another town There a settlement Alright so You now see now that I moved the hex you see Marin hold there But yes to the southeast you see in the distance what looks like a castle. Oh. Whoa. Okay. This is the point in the video game where I would immediately go on a side quest. I would immediately stop what I'm doing and go to the castle. I would immediately save the game. It would immediately save the game. If I do anything else in this puzzle. Let's save right here. I don't care about saves coming. I can quick saving right now. I think let's stick to our mission for now. We can always retreat to the castle. Let's download some mods where we all have flamethrowers. Saint is like picking his nail and he just is staring at that castle as we walk further away from it thinking like, what could be inside that castle? I mean, it looks... What is that? It's so close. How is it not on his map? I didn't know one mention it It's not I think it's ruins I think it's I think it's It's crumbling Right? From the art It kind of looks like it Yeah it looks like It does look like Ruins of a castle A once great castle Oh cool Alright Let's stick to the plan for now Yeah Make a note Yeah put it on the map Yeah yeah make a note We mark it Benzar would like to know about that Don Basser Didn't even know There's a ruined castle Four miles away From his hometown It's one less portrait We have to sit through Good Alright so you want to go North Straight north And then this would be Towards the end of the day Right Yeah Then we have to camp So we go straight north Okay This is cool Alright so you go straight north Oh my god Oh my god Skeletons Do they look like brothers? But it's not in our hex It's far to the distance It's miles to the A few miles to the north Off the road You see A hill Like Stakes coming out of the ground with looks like something hanging on them. Oh, shit. And like the sun is going down. Yeah, let's... Oh, man. Man, what a creepy image that would be. All right, good night, everybody. All right, sleep well. As you're walking towards the latter half of the first day, you see... Oh, this is so scary. You see... Campfire. Where the snakes are? No, like... In our hex. In your hex. Oh, in our hex. Right near us now. In the distance. Well, we should... Sorry, real quick. Is it on, like, just to the side of the road? It'd be just to the side of the road. In the woods. Why don't you go, like, take a look? All right. We have no idea what they're about, so maybe we stay out of sight. Don't get seen. I'll go alone. I'll come back. By the way, the town has demons. Wait, what? I'll be right back. Wait. What the fuck was that? What did he say? We're all demons. All right, give me a... Let's go. Give me a dex roll with advantage here just to see if they hear you coming. Just while you're doing it, I think this is only contributing to my sense of unreality. To know that There are demons That have overlaid with this reality Just since The world has become fundamentally Has become somewhere we don't recognize Yes Also I was going to tell you guys At campfire time at camp But now I feel like we might get into a combat By the way There are demons 16 Okay You quietly move through the forest to come around. I have my bow. You have your bow, and you see seven people sitting around a campfire eating. They're cooking something over the fire, and they're all eating. No talking? Maybe some light Talking, how close are we getting? How close am I right now? About 50 feet away. 50 feet? That's pretty close. I could probably hear. Okay. Son of a bitch, you fucking asshole. They're not talking like this. I'd like to... My, this meat is delicious. More human, please. The best part is between the thumb and the forefinger. We call that the oyster. Is there any place of elevation compared to where we are right now? Like the road. You know what? One, two, three, yes. No, the other way. One, two, three, no. All right, four, five, six. No, fuck, no elevation. I think it was the reverse. She just said the other way. No, it's all very flat here. it's all like heavily forced. You feel pretty safe back here. You could probably get even a little closer. I think Saint will kind of get down and crawl very slowly to just hear. He doesn't even need to necessarily see, but just to hear. It's like the Call of Duty ghillie suit mission. Yeah, I'm in like forest shrubbery. Yeah. Okay. So they appear to be human. they're not they're not dressed in like fancy armor or anything you see some weapons nothing fancy and looks like they caught an animal that they're roasting over the fire and they're just talking about like mundane stuff like what's the plan for tomorrow oh I don't know we'll have to we'll have enough meat to get us through the next day or so, but then we'll have to hunt some more. Men? Men. Couple women. Humans? He says they seem human. Size. The couple that you've seen, like, did you get a real good look at their face? Humans. No horses? No horses. No carts? No carts. Okay. So he'll hang to listen. Doesn't hear any, like, pertinent information sticking out, no names or anything. And then he'll backward crawl until he's out of their sight line and then he'll get up and sneak back. Okay. What do you tell your compatriots? He comes back up behind you guys. Shh! You scared the hell out of me. What did you mean about demons? What was that about? You can't say that. I'll get back to that. I just wanted to tell you. You'll get back to that? What's worse? There's seven people up ahead. They have a campfire. They're cooking food. Men and women. They seem all human. Soldiers? Doesn't look like it. Or us? Can't tell. Couldn't see coloring or insignia. Some of them have armor. Some of them have weapons. No carts, no horses. What's the quality of the armor? Could you tell? Weaponry? Nothing looked fancy. What was their facial hair like? Scruffy. Unkempt? I mean, have you looked in a mirror? The beard is very well kept You look great After that bath, he's extremely kept Yeah, true I'm so kept And then he kind of crouches down Back to the demons Well, we either have to talk to him Or we don't light a fire tonight There could Sounds could easily be bandits I don't think I don't think we should light a fire I don't think we should risk it We can't go any further. The sun's going down. I didn't like what Denzar Washington suggested would happen in the dark. I didn't like that. I mean, you and I, we've heard and seen some strange things. We have. Since we've come into these lands. The tree falling on the wall is a lie. I asked Denzar about it. He said it was demons. I don't believe in demons. I don't even know what they would be, what they would look like. But he said it's a Skrell demon. Never heard of that in my life. Skrill demon. Skrill demon. Would I have heard of a skrill demon? I'm pretty smart. Do you study demons? I'm widely read. You're widely read? Yeah, I think it's safe to say that you may have heard of a skrill demon. They are... I think they're more like imps. They're not like giant demons. They fly. They're like flying reptilian demons. long claws. Kind of like, you know, I think of them as like Dark Souls, the things that take you away. Is it Dark Souls 3 when they've come flying in and they bring you to Anor Londo? Yeah. Like leathery. You know those things? Yeah, like leathery wings. Gaunt. Like dragon-esque except they're so gaunt and like like They take you to Anor Londo, right? Am I crazy? They like bring you to. Oh, they do. They take you a few places over the course of the game. Sounds like the alien race from the movie Forbidden Planet. Hmm. Well, I think that we hike off the road here a bit. I mean, do you think there's any chance that these are the ones that jump the caravan? Could be, could easily be. They didn't seem to have anything on them. Do they have any horses? No horses. They might have information. They might be like us. I mean, it could be a lot of things. I'm all in favor of not talking to them, to be honest. I don't think we risk it. There's seven of them. There's four of us. Yeah, they are numerous. I just want, I don't want to go through the night without a fire. I know, but what are you going to do? I mean, we could roll a constitution check and try to move another hex. Away from them? Yeah, or further along. What about flip a coin? I mean, what happens if we fail the con check? You're going to be fatigued. Right. You will, you know. What happens if we sleep without a campfire? Sleep without a campfire, you just won't have light if something attacks you in the middle of the night. So you might be fine. You might not be, depending on the level of the moonlight, depending on what hour. You've got magical light. This is something we encountered in my game of Nashville. Lighting a torch in combat is not particularly easy. You have to roll a check. Right. So if we get jumped, you're going to have to get that spell off. Yeah. All right. Well, why don't we just try to make our camp a little farther away from them and go... On the opposite side of the road, like deeper into the woods. But not move a hex. Or do move a hex. No, stay in the hex. Stay in the hex. Yeah. Just make a camp, no fire, and risk it. Yeah. Take turns. Agreed. If something happens, we agree to wake up. I should take the first watch, though. Because if I do have to use light spell, I'll have that. I still have it for today. Tomorrow I'll have another one, so I should use it. That's a good idea. All right. And maybe once the sun comes up, we could pass them on the road. Maybe ask them if they saw anything. Could do. I'd always try to run away. Yeah. And I think maybe if we approach during the day, they won't be as frightened. Won't be maybe as prone to attack. I mean, they could just be travelers on the road, same as us. That could be. I don't want to be cynical, but just have to be cautious. You and I know that. It's true. Farrah's right. All right. Let's get some sleep. Let's go. Sleep with my dagger. So will we reduce our rations? Yeah. Reduce your rations by one. Obviously you get three per pack, so just rations by one. If you get interrupted during your sleep, you have to roll a check. Otherwise you Consume the ration And don't gain the benefits of rest Which Right now is okay You haven't spent any spells You haven't lost any hit points But over time That sucks Yeah And you should role play it It's like you didn't sleep You got something attacked In the middle of the night I wonder if anything Is going to come after you You guys set the watch I'm first watch I'll go second Okay Just in case I have to cast a spell I'll go third And I'll wake up early And do the rest of it Okay. You go to bed. Night two of our adventure. Night two of our adventure. Yep. And the night passes without incident. Oh, my God. This is so fucking tense. This is really, like... Oh, man. Yeah. And, like, sometimes that's going to happen. Sometimes every two hours something could come after that. Jesus. It's just... And we'll see how it plays out for our group. What our environment's like. Yeah, that is just straight rolls now. I want to let the system do the talking. You wake up, you gather your things, and as you set out, you see that that other group got out a little bit before you and they're ahead of you on the path. Walking in the same direction. Walking in the same direction. Oh, interesting. Interesting. Do they notice us? I don't think so. I think you were careful enough. No, they don't notice you. And now that we're walking behind them, they're far enough ahead, they don't notice. Yeah, so you could approach them and get the jump. You are outnumbered. I think we approached them. In a friendly way. Yeah. Right. Hale them. See if they've heard anything or seen anything on the road. Hailing frequency is open. Hailing frequency is open. Okay. Who wants to talk? And keep in mind, I'm going to add your charisma modifier to their reaction. I think I have the highest charisma. You certainly have higher than one than me. What's your charisma? It's 14. Nice. Okay, I love this mechanic. So you'll talk, and then, you know, you'll add your charisma bonus to what I roll to see what their reaction is. Okay. Okay. The way I'm going to play it is I'm going to set the reaction, and then I'm going to modify it by your charisma roll. Okay, cool. Okay. Hold there! And they stop and they turn around slowly, one by one by one, and they kind of put their hands on their weapons suspiciously. I have my hands up in the air. That's far enough. No, no, no, of course. What's your business here on the road? We're traveling north. We're seeking a lost merchant from the town, from Marrow's. What was it, Marrow's? Marren's. Marren's Hold. Marren's Hold. No, no, no lost merchants here. No, no, we just, we want to make sure, and all there are bandits about, we just wanted to gauge your attitude towards civilians. What's your charisma? It's plus two, 14. Plus two. We haven't come across any bandits, thankfully. We did run afoul of some wolves and lost some of our number. We're from a village to the east called Treefall, or once called Treefall. It's gone. It's gone. We are seeking asylum somewhere. A village was razed. Well, you're going the wrong direction, man. You go back the way we're coming down the road to Maren's Hold. They're taking refugees. That's how we got there. They take all comers. Yes. I mean, look at us. They took us in. We have women and children. Yes, of course. All are welcome. This is no funny business. No, no, no. No, no, of course. We'll stand back. There's no... Don't worry about us. In fact, here. And I take my last gold. Oh. And I say, look, it's a gesture. And I toss it and stand back. It lands in the dirt at his feet and he picks it up. Thank you, stranger. a blessing upon you and your friends. You say it's just this way to the south, southwest? Right, it's just that way. As a matter of fact, you're going to laugh. We saw you last night. We were terrified, like shaking on our boots. We slept with no fire, like off the road. We were terrified you were bandits or bad men. It's just, honestly, I think we're all relieved to see that you're just normal folk like us. so yeah it's good to know that it's not all evil out here no no no um all right just to the south we can make it there you can make it there let's start to the day they've got plenty of time i think uh uh it should well you might you might might take two days i suppose but uh you'll you'll get there it's follow the road all right thank you thank you all um and they just like gather up and this group of seven villagers just like walk by you yeah they look at you um kind of smiling and nodding their heads. We'll be on our way back. Little children. Hopefully soon. They have children? Yeah, there's like two women. I was going to ask you about that. Little children, and they're smiling and thing. And they like point at you. Like, wow. Warriors. Hello, I'm waving. Hello. It's like, Gide, preserve you. And they pass on. Whew, I didn't think. Farrow, that was great. I can't believe I gave them the last of my gold. You gave them the last of your gold? I did, that was it I'm skint now, I've got nothing left Alms I'm gonna need alms now I'm just so glad I think we're all relieved, right? Yeah, alright That's one less threat I guess I've got to worry about And he's like watching them pass Maybe over like a hill And then down the road to a point Where we don't see them anymore He's like I hope they'll be alright I'm not sure if maybe we should have gone They could always push themselves And get there tonight Get there before nightfall Still early They made it this far Alright, let's keep moving Let's keep moving Okay, where are you going? Do you want to head north to this spike? Oh yeah, do we want to check out I mean, is it only three? Is the picture representative? or is it? Yeah, it looks like three large spikes coming out of the ground. At first, they look just like trees, but you realize, you know, from this distance, especially now that's the day, you can see it. I mean, Sidney's curious. Sidney's curious. I think this could be, this could easily be, I mean, we're out here looking for evidence of what happened. Yeah, like this could be evidence of something. And it's daytime. I think we should go there in the daytime. And then we can move north again. closer, carefully. Get back on the road. Get back on the road. Yeah, so we'll go to that hex. Okay. Day three. You head out to this hex. You head north another six miles. And as you approach, you see a mound rising up out of the ground. It's kind of like in the shape of a boot. and at the ankle part of the boot, there are three large stakes in the ground overlooking the forest. And there are three scorched skeletons lashed to the three stakes. And we'll see you next time. Oh no! Oh no! Completely lost track of time. Man, that snuck off on me. Yeah. I'm like... That fucking snuck off on me. It's like a physical... Oh my god. Oh my god, dude. I'm so pissed, I have to stop! I know! I wanna go in there right now. This game's awesome. Fuck, dude. Oh. Whew. Hi, I'm Brian Lucci, a former Chicago cop. Now I'm a producer on Chicago PD. And I'd like to introduce you to the official One Chicago podcast. The first ever behind-the-scenes look at the iconic TV shows. We're talking Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med. Join me each week for an exclusive conversation with the writers, the crew members, and the stars. Void's doing the right thing for Void. Check out the One Chicago Podcast from Wolf Entertainment and USG Audio. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s, and man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the shadow dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on youtube.com slash the glass cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark. Look, we all know there are a lot of celebrity interview podcasts out there, but there's only one Happy, Sad, Confused. I'm Josh Horowitz, and yeah, I'm the host of the show, so I'm a little biased, but truly, Happy, Sad, Confused is the place for nerdy and intimate conversations with all your favorite actors and filmmakers. 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