The Case of the Skirmish and the Students

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Welcome adventurers to Probability of Demise, the podcast where critical fumbles meet critical facepalms. Join us as we delve into the darkest dungeons, slay the stupidest gremlins, and roll enough ones to make a beholder weep. Forget epic storylines and heroic deeds. Here we celebrate the chaotic beauty of bad roles, questionable decisions, and characters with more charisma than sense.

We'll be your dungeon masters of disappointment, guiding you through campaigns where the only guaranteed treasure is a mountain of laughter, and maybe some psychic scarring. So grab your nat 1 dice, strap on your anxiety helmets, and prepare to witness the glorious trainwreck that is our D and D journey.

Because, in the end, it's Even if your character dies face first into a pile of pudding, at least you'll have the Dice God's permission to laugh your ass off.

Hi, welcome to Probability of Demise, the only podcast where you can like, subscribe, and we won't blame you. I'm gonna blame you. I'm holding you fully responsible. It's all the rest is fault. What? What did I do? Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Wait. Welcome to Probability of Demise. This is our pod. We hang out. We get along.

We play games. Hope you have fun. Word of the day. That's me. Okay.

Alrighty. Hello, everyone. Again, fun and wonderful adventurers. Uh, welcome to this wonderful segment that I get to do cause I am the best of Word of the Day.

Um, so, today's word is vitiate. It means

What did you roll? What? What number? What number did you roll? Oh yeah! What number did I roll? I wrote it down. Because I always do, because otherwise, I'm going to, you know, I don't want to have the same number twice. Number thirty three on my wonderful, magical, dun da da dun! D 100 from Jason. La da da da!

Which I just realized comes in a box that says Indigo.

Dropped an ad placement there without any sponsorship. Actually I think it's just the color of the dice. It is. It is a verb. So it is to uh, spoil or impair the quality of something. Used in the sentence, The necromancer's dark magic threatened to I visiate the protective wards around the castle, weakening their power with every sinister incantation.

Ta da! Ta da! I I I I I I I I

I'm not totally doing it. I'm like, I don't know what you're saying anymore. I've just given up. The air in the Grand Hall of Records is thick with tension. Gus, his heart pounding in his chest, watches from atop the winding staircase as chaos erupts. The once quiet, serene room has transformed into Battlefield?

A motley crew of ne'er do wells has invaded the space, their varied appearances hinting at their diverse skills. Some are hulking muscular figures and their strength is evident in their movement. Others radiate a more ethereal glow, if you will, their magic crackling around them. And then there's the more subtle threats, cunning, hidden beneath a facade of normalcy.

And at the center of this fray, Ulua and Serafina, who just left their records search and a bit of romantic moment. Serafina, her head obscured by a sack is being, it's in the act of being dragged away, her muffled cries maybe even echoing down the hall. Ulua, in the dim light, you're fighting valiantly against and thwarting the first of your assailants.

Your movements a blur. of speed and possible desperation. Gus, your eyes wide with horror. You realize that you have the element of surprise as you are hidden, unseen, and have a perfect vantage point. With whatever plan forming in your mind to possibly rescue your friends and bring these invaders to justice, it's really going to be up to you all.

Go ahead and roll initiative. Gus, with advantage.

Oh, that's different.

Hey, look at that. Look at that. Look at how pretty it is. Look at that. or Perta?

16, I think that is 22, 21. 22 and 21. Wow. That is . Did you just, Owen Wilson that Roll those. Roll. Well, so Gus, you got a 20 natural 20 Wait. Natural 2022 total.

Um, and Jess, what'd you get? Twenty one!

And Allula, what'd you get? Sixteen. Ahhhh.

Well, wonderful. Gus, you not, you tucked in to that space up there. You have double action movement and bonus action available to you, uh, with that, with that, that 20 year old. Um, you could creep forward towards the group, or you could stay where you are. Or, um, you could Like, you have so many options. I don't even know what to say.

Um, okay, so as Gus quietly creeps back up the stairs, giving me a chance to murder the other two. I'm at the top of the stairs. Right here. We'll look down and see the people who have moved into the, uh, room just before the office rooms. What is this distance that I'm looking at? Just so I can think for a moment.

I'm at the top of the stairs. Uh, it's probably around 60 feet to the far wall. Um, give or take a little bit. If you ran straight directly towards your friends, it would probably be 45 feet. But, if you are intending to be slippery and sneaky and move your way around either side, you might have to, you know, eat up a little bit of movement just in avoiding individuals and flying magical books.

We're still under silence effect. Yes, I do apologize. Yes, there is a silence spell active right now. Pass it down on me. Pass it down under silence. So, I

could create an illusion per se, or in theory, I don't know why I said per se, but in theory. Um, but it can't be a sound then. Like, does silence dampen? Well, it could be a silenced sound. I mean, it could be a sound, just nobody would hear it, is what you're saying. I mean, you could do an image of the world popping.

You know, you'd see it, but, you'd know what it sounds like, but you wouldn't hear it.

Alright, I'm gonna

pull up my battle axe and leap from the stairs. No, I don't have any. Um, I'm gonna sneak down the stairs. and behind the two pillars to the second pillar To this one or to the far one? Uh, the far one. Go ahead and roll another, um, sneaky sneak. Sneak a sneak sneak. Unicorn, unicorn. That is a twelve.

Hey you! Hi you guys! Nobody can hear the hey you because everyone is silenced. Actually I don't hear the hey you. If your eyeballs were turning this way at all, you'd see somebody mouth, Mouth, hey you. But nobody but the person who says it hears anything. Do you, do you see it or do you care and do you just continue forward?

Uhhhhhh,

excuse you. I'm in the middle of something. I feel like, I feel like the, the being who caught you has a furry face. Maybe some large canines. And just wants to be right here. She literally came up and just like tried to call me. She almost never does, so I had to pick her up. Um,

so if someone sees me Yes. They haven't done much more than visually react to your presence?

I can't disguise myself with an illusion, right? Well, they'll see you do it right now. Aaaaah, what do I do?

Do you want to continue your movement? Um Do you want to do something to them? I'm just gonna like turn and be like

Hello. Wave at them. Pretend like, pretend like I belong here. Roll a deception check. I'm gonna point at Ulua, and Seraphina's gonna be like, Bleh. Yeah, get him. Bleh. I'm just like miming all these like, hostile actions toward them. Roll a deception check. End. End. That's an 11. 11!

I think that your descriptor of this is actually perfect for that roll. I'm gonna have them roll an insight check and if we were playing in person, I would say I was rolling this in the open. They have to, in order to see through your 11, my elaborate deception, yes, because they have a minus two in perception.

Oh God. They have to roll 13 to meet the beats and you just see them nod their head. And then they poke the person next to them and they go, as they point to you. And so you have two people who are kind of just nodding, the second person looking a little bit more confused, as you continue along your way?

Sure. Bloopity boop. Jesus. I just want to look at these two idiots for a second. Yep, that fits. And then I would like to shove that bookshelf over. Okay. You are here. They will see you shove it over. That's fine. Okay. So you shove the bookshelf over. Right. In my efforts to kill those bad people, or something.

Alright, so having shoved the bookshelf over, sorry I gotta move your body for real now. Eee!

Did you want to dodge backwards into cover again, or are you going to stay out in the open? I mean, can I go into cover when they're looking at me? I don't think I can. These two are looking at you, but nobody else is. So you can do a dexterity save if you want to see if you slip away fast enough. Sure, let's give it a shot.

Oh! Uh, dirty 20. Awesome! Yeah, you jump back and, uh, you jump back to the two individuals on two faces looking at you like you're crazy for knocking over, uh, the bookshelf because they can see the evidence of these books. I'm going to be like, Oh, my bad, my bad. Like it was an accident. That's the gestures I'm making like, yeah, they still, they still don't have a clue.

Um, you, you just see them like, Oh,

they're all making a lot of gestures to indicate that they don't think anything happened and that are just going to, they're. One of them points back behind them at the person on the, on the library ladder behind them. They did it. They did it.

Alright. My secret new friendship. You have successfully, uh, charlatanized these two for the moment. Um, anything Who needs charm? See, your action would have been knocking you over the shelf, there's been a lot of other things at play in here just because of the fun of this, but we're getting warmed up to this, uh, encounter.

Uh, you have one more action if you would like to utilize it and or use that action towards me. One more action? Um This episode is brought to you by That's odd. By ADHD. And all of its symptoms. And stimming. Yes. And echolalia. We should just choose like a neurodivergent trait. Symptom? Yeah, symptom or something to sponsor every episode until we get real sponsors.

This episode brought to you by echolalia. Ekklelia. Ekklelia. Eleven! I'm so tempted to say Ekklelia again, I'm struggling, I forgot what else I'm doing. We're waiting for Jason. Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out if I have a spell that doesn't require me to say anything, but I do not. Um, except for, I'm going to wave my hand down here and cast a minor illusion.

Of a snake at the feet of the person closest to Ulua. All right. Like a snapping, biting snake. That'll be If a snapping turtle and a snake could have a baby. Well, um

Snaping turtle? Snaking turtle. That will be, uh Snapping snake. Intelligence saving throw. I need your spell. Wait, hang on. Maybe I can't do this. I only have minor revision. I'm a slithering snake. It would just be a still one, but in that moment, I feel surprised. Okay, so it's like a, it's like a snake, like a dead snake toy on the ground.

Like, you know, like when you put it in somebody's chair to freak them out. Okay. So could you, um, tell me what your intelligence, what the intelligence saving throw would be for this person? Um, my intelligence? I think. There's none on the spell, so. Okay. It's just there. Uh, Oh wait, no, there it is. Successful intelligence check against DC.

So, uh, 15. Alright, so, Ulua, in front of you, two of the people look really startled, and you look down and you see a little snake. Could I have you roll an intelligence saving throw? Snake. A snake. And your noodle. And your noodle.

Intelligence, right? You said? Mm hmm. You immediately see through it, and you'll make eye contact with the other individual who very clearly also immediately sees through it. Two of the three people around you, though, are now distracted and off put. Okay. With that said, it is Serafina's turn first. And Serafina, I just want to describe for you for a moment a wondrous experience that you're having.

So I would like you to roll a perception check. Depending on how high you roll will influence what I give you. Is it my head in a bag? I, I, shh. Shh. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I, I find joy in this moment here. I maybe spent a lot of time writing this up. Listen, the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, his head was in a bag all the time.

And this is a, a, a, a what again? Uh, perception check. Perception. Oops. That was not. Oh, that was the right button. Good job, Jessica. Oh, I have a high perception. So that's. Oh, and I get advantage. Good. I needed that.

Still that good. Okay.

Happy with the meaning. Beautiful. With a 13, you at first can't see anything and then you can hear those muffled sounds from outside the bag and you can sense pressure changes to the air around you as someone has moved closer to you. And as you feel that, you feel their warm body heat radiating towards you as you smell the scent of ancient potato.

Potato will long past its edible date. And as you are having this experience, you feel the vibration. of a spell to go off, vibrating through the air. It is your turn, what are you gonna do? Um, I'd like to try to pull the bag off my head. You reached up to try to pull the bag off your head, I need you to do a strength saving throw.

Okay. I feel like that would be like my first instinct.

Maybe this guy should go in jail.

It used to be like a smell version of silence to get rid of this stanky ass potato bag. Twelve. You tug and you're unable to pull it free, um, and with that, because you are restrained, and you tried to get the bag off your head, and you were unsuccessful with that action, unless you have a bonus action of some sort that you would like to try to use in this moment.

Um, nah, I'm just screaming profanities that no one can hear, and like, doing a weird dance trying to get out of the, like, As you struggle and squirm and wiggle, everybody feels the silence spell suddenly evaporate. But as it evaporates, you see Seraphina disappear. And as you see her disappear, this roiling fog has crawled up her body and the person next to her, and you spot I would love everybody, Ulua and Gus, to roll a perception check.

Serafina with your role? Oh, you can feel cold tile under your feet. And that's new. And that warm body is still near, near you. You were on wooden floors. I was on wood. Okay. And now you're very much on tile?

13. 13, okay. And Gus? I rolled in 11. 11. Okay. So, uh, with a 13

fin I. I think, um, Ulua does not spot you being transported, um, but Gus you do see the sudden appearance of, uh, after seeing the disappearance you can see the reappearance of Serafina across the room and just outside the doorway. Uh, Serafina you felt the spell drop, the silence drop, and with my new roles you get to go.

So if you're currently in a room that is not silenced. You are not restrained. There are two people who are distracted by this imaginary illusion of a snake at your feet and one individual who is not, who seems to be preparing to do something. Do you mean me? I'm sorry, Ulua. Sorry. Okay. Wow, that was bad.

No, it's alright. I'm having a hard time. It's okay. It was like, You know, I've got a different record in my head. It's my fault. I'm erasing it as I go. It's my fault. I distracted you. Okay, I don't see where she disappears to. So I've got the two in front of me. You see this little illusion, illusory snake?

Yeah. If you'd like to roll a different perception check, for something that you're trying to look for, I can do that. Um, if you're, uh Well, the room's not currently silenced, so The room is not currently silenced. You currently have the opportunity of Uh, cast Fireball. Hang on, I just want to double check.

And the Hall of Records goes up in flames. We've brought down an institution to the entire city. Uh,

silly way of

saying that. I just want to double check. Um, oh, that's probably not a good idea. Um,

uh, How far away is Gus from me, like, foot wise? Um, Gus is a perception check away from you. Can I roll a perception check to see how far away Gus is from me? Yes. Gus is being super sneaky. Hopefully you know I'm there because I don't think you actually know that I'm here. Uh. There's no reason for her to know you're there except that the snake has appeared in front of her which would be a clue.

And also that, and also that the bookshelf fell over. Um, perception, that's an 18. 18, you quickly spot Gus over by the bookshelves and you see that he's about, uh, I'd say he's like 20 feet away from you? 25 maybe? Okay, um.

There are individuals in your way who might take Uh, I, I'm going, okay, I'm just gonna, okay, I'm gonna do it. Um, I, as like a little kind of like free action, I'm just gonna kind of, Imagine my hand is to my, uh, is on my side, and I'm just gonna, like, do a little one of, like, these at Gus, as in, like, away, um, and he won't have time to react to it, but at least he'll, if he, if he doesn't, if he makes the save, he'll, he can do it, if he doesn't make the save, he'll do it anyways, and I'm gonna cast fear.

Alright, where are you casting fear? I'll go back to the screen so you can look overhead. Uh, it's a three. 30 foot cone. So I guess the question is, you could, I guess I would say 4, 5. So if I aim it, if I'm going like at, uh, at this, is it a square bookcase? Yeah, not that one. The other one across the way on the bottom.

This one? Yeah. So if I aim it that way, 1, do I at least get 1, if not six of them? Yeah, and if you sidestepped. Moved and then did it? Yeah. You would get more and you would not provoke an opportunity because you're not out of their range. Okay. I'mma do that, please. And thank y'all. Um, you will miss this individual with that cone.

It's okay. They're still at least farther from me. Um. So you cast fear in the save is what on that? Uh, wisdom 14. Wisdom 14. Aw. I don't think y'all are gonna do so good at this. Jason, you're muted.

30, 20. Hey, nice. You made the save.

Okay. This is so . The two who are surprised by the fake snake are totally shook, . It just gets bigger. It is now, it is now like basilisk size. To them, this, this, the fear has taken hold in such a way that their eyes are wide in stark terror and whatever, uh, uh, phobias they may have had in the past, they now can add snakes to those phobias.

The individual, uh, close to your left, who looks to be some sort of magical user is not within the range of the spell, but you can see the person next to them just start to shake and shiver, as well as two other individuals in the space begin to shake and shiver, and you know that Oh, we had a shaking going on, sorry.

Is it as a reaction that they need to do anything, or is it in their next turn? So, uh I know they can't come closer to you. Drop whatever it is they are holding, and become frightened for the duration, and Uh, up to one minute. Uh, while frightened, creature must take the dash action and move away by the safest available route.

If the creature ends its turn in a location where it doesn't have line of sight to you, the creature can make a wisdom saving throw on a successful save if the spell ends. So they have to drop whatever they're holding. They will do that on their turn then, because it is not their turn yet. But you have cast this spell.

You can see the terror in their eyes of at least a few. If I show you, you can see that. Two individuals within the cone were not affected, and the individual who was outside of the cone is not affected. But otherwise, you have had a raging success with this. Gus, she can't see this, but the cone reaches into this direction, and you see both of your two co conspirators suddenly panic and freak out.

What else would you like to do a little? You still have most of your movement and a bonus action available. I don't think I really have much of a bonus action available. Do I? No.

I would like to,

uh, use my last bardic inspiration to cast Unsettling Words at the magic user that wasn't affected by the cone. And on

the next saving throw, before my next turn, they need to subtract Eight! Motherfucker!

Awesome, nothing else from that effect? Just the Uh, yeah, it's just creature must subtract the number rolled for the next saving throw it makes before the start of your next turn. Awesome. So, with that, these two people, you have an opportunity attack, should you wish it. Take off and start running. Sure!

Uh, which one would you like to take? The one that I just moved or the one that I'm gonna move next? There's just two people in front of you. Let's do the one that you're about to move. That's the other one. Okay. So, go ahead and roll that attack. I'm gonna use the whip! Uh, uh Yes, the whip! First usage of the whip that I have seen!

Shh! Uh, let's do that one. Is it the first usage that Seraphine has seen? It's the first usage ever. We don't know what happened in that room. I'm being inappropriate.

There was a time where you were in that room together.

That's a gnat one.

It's like the beginning of Blast Crusade when, uh, it's the first time Indy picks up the whip and smacks himself in the face. As you whip towards this individual, an unfamiliar tool possibly, but one that you are trained in, you just haven't quite gotten the hand of. with it quite yet. No, she wasn't ready.

As you pass the whip up, and it extends like it's going to hit, it just zips back and does it. It dings you in the chin. As it dings you in the chin, Allie, you hear,

Do you believe in

life after love?

And you just feel a radiation of disappointment. And at the same time, you're distracted by I wasn't being serious. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That, that was my ele I'm sorry. Um, my, my honest reaction would be, uh, Lou is rather honest reaction would be more like

who, who is, who's that?

Uh, okay. So you don't feel disappointment. You just feel concern, a novice. And then as you hear, ah, a novice, you hear in the room in real life with you. Not in your head, not, not as some sort of strange echo, you hear, Keep them alive! Keep them safe! And you feel a spell start to descend.

It is another silence spell. Would you, anybody have a counterspell?

As that occurs, I'm gonna get it next time we level the way we're going here. This way, this way, and runs into the thing and knocks himself out. So they are more or less unconscious. This person runs. And they trip at the table, but they are not unconscious. This person's unconscious, so I'm just flopping them.

They're all also disarmed. Yeah, the ones around are disarmed, yes. They didn't have anything in their hands, because they were trying to be sneaky about what they were doing. Um, so as silence descends once again in the space, you, and that voice having echoed out, you see movement from elsewhere. Okay. Oh, oh, and Gus, your two friends also ran because they're currently frightened and they have to, this one can make a wisdom save and fails.

And Jess is where again? Jess is all the way back here, just outside the hall, in the direction they're all running to. Um, but, My plan exactly. These two individuals, uh, run up, having heard the shout and then feeling the spell recast. And they look very confused because they are now silenced. And this individual also runs down the stairs.

And, thank goodness, he's already saving through. They made it. Um, And they are all running into space trying to get their bearings on what's going on and follow the order that was last given before silence descended again. That takes us back to Did they say keep them alive and protect them? Is that what they said?

Yes. Yes.

That takes us to Gus's turn. Are they trying to help us?

So now I'm silenced again? Mm hmm. Yes. Dammit.

Do a little dance, I guess, I don't know. Well, a certain mage of silence just got a huge deduction in their ability to do a saving throw soon, so. Um.

Is Jess in the realm of the silent spell, or in the? No, she, based on what you know of Arcana, and this is a freebie, she's beyond the range of the silent spell, unless another one has been cast over there in the direction she's in. You are aware that whoever's with her is a magic user because of the fog transmutation situation.

Okay, if I cast a bonus action spell that is not a combat spell, can I also cast an attack spell? I'm sorry, what did you say? If I cast a bonus action spell that is not a combat spell, can I follow that with an attack spell? Like, I know you can't do, like, an action attack spell and then a bonus action attack spell, but can it, like, a non attack spell?

You can, you can cast a bonus action spell, as a bonus action, that's how it works, and then cast a cantrip,

but it can't be a leveled spell. Okay. I'm going to cast Bonus action can be the leveled spell. Misty Step. I would like to appear, like, in front, in the air, in front of the face of the guy that's holding Jess, and then Eldritch Blast him in the face. Oh my god. Okay. Okay, you are under the silence spell though.

Uh, there's no verbal comp Oh, there's a little Fuck it! I just looked at it, I swear to god there was no verbal component to Misty Steps. Son of a bitch. Sorry. Nevermind. Can you move over there, or not? It's like 90 feet away, I can't. Oh. It was a really good idea. I swear to fucking god I just looked at it, and it was not there.

I don't know what I was looking at. What's the range on Eldritch Blast? It doesn't matter, I can't do it under silence. Silence. It's a verbal semantic one. Yeah, but can you at least move out of the range of silence? You can try to move out of the range of where the silence spell ends.

You don't know where it's centered. Who's casting it? We don't know. Okay, I'd like to roll a perception check to see if I can tell who's casting the silence spell. How's that? Great! I rolled their deception check a lot earlier. It was really, really fun. Roll your perception check. Uh, 15. 15, from this angle and where you're standing, you can see that, uh, one of the two individuals who was not frightened, at least one, to be precise, is holding concentration very carefully on something.

And it is the face of young mage students when they're first attempting concentration spells. Okay, um So you get the sense that this is not an experienced user, this is an amateur trying to hold the silence spell. Noob! Punch him in the face. You could Eldritch Blast him. I can't. I Oh, wait. sorry, sorry, sorry.

Um Alright. But I'm just gonna run over to him and just hit him in the face with my staff. Okay. Roll that physical bashing attack. Roll that beautiful bean footage. I missed. What'd you roll? Uh, 6. You did not miss. What is his AC that I Roll the damage. Um Squishy stuff. He's only a student! He's a kid. Uh, 3?

They are dead. I murdered a child? The spell is over. Can I say that I was not aiming to kill but to knock him unconscious? Because I don't want to murder a child that's outside of Gus's Well, they're young. They're definitely childish looking. Okay, so this is like if you're in a war and you come up against a child soldier and you make a decision to not kill them just because they're trying to kill you.

Like, I would knock them out. You just knock them out. Non lethal attack. They are unconscious. Bloop. This young apprentice mage who had Only two hit points. Because they were just a gift. I feel better about the number of people in this room.

Uh, the spell of silence has been lifted. Uh, so you still have a bonus action available to you. Misty step. I don't, I can't attack now, so, um. But you can still get next to, um, Griffin. And if he moves, then you get an opportunity. Alright. I'm going to Misty step behind that person. Crouched down like this. So, if Jess wanted to just like, Like, pushed him over.

Yeah, although she can't see me, so maybe that won't work, but I'll try it. She's got a potato bag on her head. If you go behind this person, you'd be where Jess is, because they're kind of dragging Jess after that teleportation. I also can't see that, can I? Oh, I can. So yeah, if I hit him here, I should be able to see him.

If you came here, you'd still have enough movement to probably get positioned. If you missed, he stepped right in front of Jess. Okay. That's probably where you would have landed, and you would have the opportunity to see that they are trying to drag, uh, Serafina. Down the hall towards the door. How about instead I will just misty step since she can't see me anyway.

I'll misty step between him and the door. That's what I'll do.

Here. Uh, again you see a very young face. A young woman. Uh, looks like they have, uh, a bit of squirrel to their features. They are just a young The memory of Trixie! Hi! Hi! Just a young magic user who misty stepped. Oh. a captive this direction. And with that, it goes to Seraphina's turn. Seraphina, you are in the potato bag.

Um, you have felt your body move. You felt the heat of the person in front of you. And you, um, with your perception check, I think that's pretty much all you still get. So what would you like to be doing? Um, Therafina is just acting like Are you still trying to work that bag off? Yeah, she's just like, you know, like a cat with something caught on its head.

Just, all I can focus on is getting this stupid bag off. Okay, roll a strength saving throw again. Um, it's actually a lower DC now because another factor has been removed. Ugh,

nine.

You know how when a I'm very distracted by the smell of the potatoes. Uh Every time I go to pull it off I'm like, Eugh! Gus, you watch as Serafina pulls it off only to pull it back on at the same time somehow. It's just like, like a little child trying to put on underwear on their head and it's just all the holes are the right hole situation happening.

Like her head's through the armhole of a t shirt. Yes, and it's just like, you know that it would just take a little bit of outside help to solve this problem for her. But uh, you are not able to help her in this moment. Um, and the. Individual Serafina, uh, tugging your hand. You can hear, and you realize that you can hear, as you've been, like, wrestling with the cloth, and you hear them say to you, Don't worry, you're gonna be okay!

As a bonus action, can I yell, I'm not okay, my head's in a sack!

You yell, I'm not okay, my head's in a sack, and

I think because that sound, just Ulua, you hear, clear as day, your friend Serafina down at the hallway yelling this out, and that's it. Every head except for one turns to look at, down the hall, including the, the magic user. Um, but the only person who does not turn to look is the one muscle individual who's still standing watching you carefully looking for their opportunity to, to, to strike.

Um, and uh, we got other people running. We'll see if they, Wisdom saved the way out of it. Nope. Yes. Okay. One of the people. Makes their wisdom save.

They are going to begin coming back. And you just hear this voice go, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I don't know what happened! Big snakes! And, because the spell is lifted, you hear a response of, Don't worry, we just Just restrain them! So that we can get them down there!

And now it is your turn, Ulua. Uh,

I would like to, uh,

Point at the strong one.

And do something along the lines of and cast enthrall. Oh, okay. Oh, cast enthrall. And they need the, to make a wisdom. 14. So, uh, save, they rolled a six. Are they minus one. Oh, so they rolled a five. . They're enthralled. Um,

okay. Target

has disadvantage on perceiving any other creature than you until the spell ends born. Until the target. No longer hear you. Spell ends if you're incapacitated or can no longer speak. Oh goodness, this is not a concentration. So basically they're just completely focused on me, right? They don't, they can't see anybody else.

Yeah, they have disadvantage on, on perception checks, uh, to see anybody else around them. And they just, they're just, it's like you've cast an alluring spell. They're just like, um, okay.

Uh, I don't know. It did not consider you to be fighting it, so it did not have advantage on that roll. Ah,

that's really about all I got. Um,

I guess I'm, maybe I will move diagonally Can you point out where Gus is again? Oh, Gus is over, yeah, Gus is over yonder. Um, I would like to move, uh, towards the desk that has the chair at it. Yeah, and then essentially like, turn to face everybody except the Yeah. Yeah, yeah, just basically like, how those, how those people are in a line.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And because they can all see you now, they have, you have line of sight on them, they are all going to continue to be frightened of you. So, that is super fun. Um, that means more running. Running, running, then running, running, then running, running, running, running, running. These two are going to go up the stairs, so they go up the stairs.

These two are going to run to the door. Oh, they can't quite make it, so they're going to run almost to the door. This one is running towards the These, these are the ones that are coming back for you. They're going to come up

there. They're going to And as they get up here, you hear them say, Come quietly! Why? And as you look at their faces, you can just see that these are like teenagers.

Why? Where? You've messed up everything!

Gotta go below, fix the problem!

Is this about the thing in the lake? You see one of them just their mouth drop wide in horror. It was you!

And then you hear the other one actually, you hear another the other one behind the boat. It's not about that, you idiot! Dear Sticky Peak, beat up a bunch of children today. I might have killed one. As a reaction, can I can I just yell yell out loud?

Uh, everybody stop and explain why you're here.

Roll a persuasion check.

You got this face. I give you warlock inspiration. You got this or you're gonna turn into leprechaun gold. 19?

With a 19, the individual you've enthralled says, We need you. With resistance.

What? And then you hear another voice hype up and say, We've got one! They'll all come with one! You know.

And now from the distance, upstairs, you can hear A snake! You can hear what? Ah! A snake!

And more close to hand, you hear the snores of somebody who's unconscious.

I mean, I

don't know what else to do. I'm so confused about why they're here. Right? Uh, so if that's your turn Yeah. Uh, they're gonna try to grapple you and kidnap you. So could you roll a Strength saving throw if you're trying to resist? Yes.

Tim? Ooh! They, they, they're wily little buggers. They're not that little, but they're, they're young and lithe and they just, they get right behind you and, and suddenly you're in one of those, uh, holds where your arms are to either side and they're trying to like almost like carry you over their shoulders as if you've injured yourself, but they're really holding you tightly.

How tall are they in comparison to me? Um, this is definitely a struggle for them. Yeah. You, you, you realize that your first opportunity to fend them off, your ten, wasn't probably your strongest move and you could probably break out of this. Uh, that takes us up to Gus. You stand before a young individual who is dragging your friend as your friend gets further and further entangled in the bag.

Um, what are you doing, Gus? Um, can I have, like, free actions to try to have a conversation with this person? Um. Or no. Yeah, it can be quick, but if it's too much, then we're good. Why are you kidnapping my friend? Stop right now. They make eye contact with you, and their eyes widen, and they go, I gotta get you too!

I'm just gonna sigh, and then also bonk her on the head with my step. Just grand offering the shadow to this room. Does a, does a dirty 20

hit? Oh yeah, 100%. It hits, and then hits like three other of them if they were in their space, but they're not.

Four damage. Yeah, they are knocked unconscious.

And then, um, I'll use my bonus action to pull the bag off of Serafina's head. Serafina, you are freed of the trap that you've entangled yourself in. And Serafina, as you are freed, you witness two young people running away down the hall behind you. You see a slumped young person in front of you, um, and you see the awful potato sack.

It is your turn. And I'll just say, like, they're just kids. So.

With my incredibly even, somehow messier hair, that's now all over the place. Was it really the horns that were stabbing through parts of the potato sack that made it harder for you? It wasn't your fault. Yeah, mm hmm. Exactly. Yep.

Um I thought Larissa was flipping me off for a second. I'm stressing her out. I'm just trying to massage my eyebrows. I do a lot of mask I did a lot of masking today, so Ugh. Um, just to clarify for my head, Two of them have run off, carrying one other person. No, there's a slumped form in front of you. Oh, slumped form in front of me.

Your friend, Gassandusen, has released you from the bag. And as you were getting freed and looking around and all this mess was going on, two young people were running off behind you towards the other door. Oh, okay, so there's not a downstairs, it's through that door. There is a downstairs back in the other room.

Right. Okay, perfect. Um, I would like to

Can I, um, cast Thaumaturgy?

I want to, like, grab on, step over the child, grab onto the doorframe, and just yell, NO ONE MOVE! Roll an Intimidation check.

You're all grounded. Go to your rooms. Half of them are already appeared magically. The other half might be appeared non magically at this point. Do I get to add anything? Persuasion, you said? No, it's, uh, it's, uh, intimidation. Intimidation. Intimidation. It's very intimidating, guys. How intimidating? Uh, intimidating?

Oh, following him. Ooh, yeah, you are intimidating. Uh, the two individuals holding your friend, Ulua, drop her arms immediately. And like some primal part of their like student instinct is to follow orders set in harsh tones. The individual who's a little bit more dressed up and you can actually now as they kind of let their guard down you can see that they have a little badge on their chest and it's just a little badge that has the letter P on it.

Um. I thought it was going to say hall monitor. Pretty much the same concept. I was a hall monitor in elementary school. I was a crossing guard in elementary school. Okay, you all are crazy. The um, two in the hallway run right back out. They don't even stop. And you just hear them screaming, We didn't do it!

As they run. Um, those, this person's still feared. So they're cowering behind the chalkboard. Which they can't do physically, but pretend they are. Uh, and you hear, Shouts and screams. These people are not afraid. This one was, came back and was like feeling really confident, and now has like stepped back and is not confident.

Um, and this person runs up with that intimidation check, grabs a hold of their unconscious friend, and says, Scatter! And as I say scatter, uh, you feel a spell starting to hit Ulua. Um, and, You see fog rise up, and the two of them seem to disappear. The unconscious person and the person who shouted scatter.

You are left with a room of six individuals, who all seem to have been cowed and stopped running. One of whom is enthralled. One of whom will not stop looking at you, Ulua. Can I go up to the one with the little badge? And with, like, my clothes in there? They are the one who just, uh, disappeared themselves.

Oh, they're the one that left. Ugh, darn. They took the unconscious one. The one that they knew was unconscious and disappeared. Is there another one that looks either a little older or maybe has another, like, Little badge, or like, is there a clear second in command? Roll a perception check.

Perception, oh thank god I get another roll.

Twelve?

With a twelve, and as we come out of combat, Therafina, you see, or out of initiative combat, uh, you see that there's someone who is Just unable to break their gaze away from your companion Ulua's gaze. And they do seem to have slightly greater air of sophistication and knowledge. They're a little bit stronger.

They're actually wearing a couple of pieces of very simple armor.

Okay. With that note, They would be the next up. Is there

Totally changing of subject. Um, I would like to grab the bag I was just in, walk over to this person, put it over their head, and say, Don't look at her! And then I'd like to go to the next nearest person. They don't even seem to hear you come up before the bag is over their head. And then I want to go to the next closest kid, and I want to say, You are telling me what is going on right now.

Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, we, we, we, we, we, you did, you, uh, uh, uh, uh. They just are like completely. Okay. To, to, out of their zone. I would like to walk up behind her if she's like, asking these demanding questions and just hold my hand up and like, can I just like, start an Eldritch Blast? Just like glowing fingers.

Just to like freak them out more. Sure, you, you glowing fingers, and you just smell the scent of urine. Nyaaah. Like you should answer her questions. I just step to the next one. I just step to the next one. And I go with a different tactic. I go, do you have a name? Uh, Bronco. Bronco. Bronco Junior. Franco jr.

That is a very good name.

Who? Who? Where do you study? You're clearly a student.

Underton? At the Mage Academy? Wonderful. Why are you not there right now? Because, because the Ascendant shut it down. Is that something we knew? No, uh, the Underton Mage Academy isn't really well funded in general. It's kind of neglected and such, but it's rarely brought to the attention of you. He ascended, much less anyone else.

Okay. And then I'm gonna go, mmph. I'm sorry to hear that.

Who told you to come here tonight?

W w w we, we, we did?

You just decided on your own to come and kidnap us for no reason? No, no, no, no, no, we have reasons. Uh, so, so, um, oh. Oh. And you can see that they're like, finally thinking things through. A little bit.

Kidnap, no, no, no, you just, you got rid of the, the, oh. Junior, Junior! Stay with me here. No, I'm sorry, we're so, we're sorry. We, uh, I didn't know, uh. You're not, you're not in trouble, not in trouble. We just need to Yeah, I am. Get out right now. You're Not right now. Not right now. You're fine. I'm not angry. I'll stop Eldritch Blasting my fingers.

He stopped being scary. And then I lean in and I go, Pretty one, breather. And, uh, I just She, she totally charmed her friend.

She's mind controlling him. No, no, no. See, Junior Do you see that lovely face? And I'm saying this just so Junior can hear. That lovely face. It's just her face. It's, you would think it's magical because it's so lovely. It's just her face. Your friend just has a crush. He, he just points over at the person who put the potato bag over their head and he's usually the one who talks and tells everybody to do things and he's just drooling.

She has that way with people. I myself have drooled before. She is scary. She made you drool too? She did. She did. And he says this a little too loudly. Come here. Come here. Gus is like standing right behind Seraphina just like Back on track. You're part of the school. School's no more. You as a group of friends.

Friends? Students? Uh, classmates? Classmate, classmate! We had a group project. We had to, to, to survive together, and so, um, they're from the, and he kind of tilts his head towards, uh, where the unconscious individual had been, um, and what is no longer. Well, they're part of the Mage Academy, we're part of, I'm part of,

we all had different parts of the, but, we're learning how to go and explore the world. Congratulations, Junior. I'm sure your parents are very proud. Especially Senior.

Just like a traditional dawning horror, as you mentioned, senior. Just kidding! Senior's not important. Senior's gone. Don't think about that. What made you decide to come here tonight? You said we did something. We overheard that you took out the monster in the cavern. You know, that everybody worshipped. You know, in the village.

And, you know. It started it. Continue, Junior.

And then we've been trying to figure out how to get back our school, and we thought maybe if we brought you down, you would see what's going on and you would help us. And then we found out you were trying to find out about some Overton A person who was killed, and you know, nobody pays attention to kids, so

I found out and came here. Wonderful, Junior. That was a great job. Okay. I turn around to Gus, and to Ulua, who's away a little bit. I'm like, Ulua, did you catch any of that? I'm rolling for it now.

Mostly because I'm a little unnerved by the one that's staring at me, but only because I, I usually, that's not how I usually use the, the spell.

Uh, it's a nine. Well, it was staring at you, now they're under a potato bag, but yeah. Uh, that's a nine, so I'm gonna guess. That's probably not much. All right, Ulua, we'll catch you up later. Yes.

This roll should probably be about to wear off, right? It's about a minute, yeah. So probably. Yeah, it's, it's, the person's under a potato sack. I'm a potato. Ulua, do you have any snacks with you?

Yes. I'm gonna walk over and ask, may I have some? Maybe about, um, I'm gonna count all the kids and say that many numbers. There's like, Six of them left. I would like six snacks, please. Uhhhhhhhhhh. Just like, batting my eyes with my hair, absolutely crazy. Still a little like, anger in my eye, like twitching a little.

Sure, let me Uh, it's a little bit A ripped up remnant of potato sack still tangled in her horns. It's a little piecemeal, but, uh, I'm gonna take out, like, some I'll take out, like, a block of cheese, uh, and start breaking that up. And Uh, a small, like, small peasant loaf of bread, um, and a couple cookies, and I'll snack, uh, snap those in half and, uh, kind of hand them over and be like, uh, I don't usually,

I usually think larger portions for singular people rather than smaller, or rather than for multiple people, but does this work? This is perfect, and, uh, I'll collect it, and I'm gonna start pass if they will accept it, I'm gonna start passing out the snacks, and I'm gonna go, Okay, as I'm passing it out, be like, alright, so, I understand that your school is gone.

I understand that you think, because we are slightly older than you, That we would not listen to you because you are children. Note, I myself am not an adult yet. I know that I look very smart. Not an adult yet. You could have simply came and asked. Yet you did not. You came in and attacked. And because you attacked us, my head was in a sack.

A sack for a very long time that smelled like potatoes. And now, we're gonna sit here and pretend

like we're adults and you are going to explain everything

again, until we make a decision of what is next. And then I sit down.

Uh, as you do that, Gus is just kind of looking at Serena like, Also, I'm sorry, how old actually are you? I don't remember, how old did I say I was? Let me go look. 86. I think I was, I think I said I was like, 20. I like how she said we're not that much older than you. Gus is just like, Shut up.

You're short, alright. I'm old enough to be your grandfather's grandfather. And now Ulua is worrying. If she crossed lines, she should not have.

As you're having these thoughts, I'm going to take that as the cue, one of the young people comes running back in and shouts, the constabulary sees the three of you free and feeding the others. And goes, RUN! And runs up the stairs. And out of sight.

Judah! Do we need a follow? Uh, uh, uh, There, we're, uh, Uh, You didn't call. We didn't call. Why are they here? Probably because you were trying to kidnap people in the Hall of Records. But nobody's here to see that. Actually, it might be because of us. What did we do now when I wasn't here? Uh, well, okay, so Prince, I don't know if we have time to discuss decisions we made.

I, I, the, the I think it's because we set off that spell. In the book.

Um,

I don't know if we should stay or go. I, uh,

I want, I, Something tells me to stay, because then We're not making ourselves into fugitives, but I, I don't know if, if staying, if we'll still somehow get framed

because everything's corrupt. I don't know what's going on. I don't even know what book you're talking about. It's the, the case notes for, for you know who's who. Murder. Okay. They were altered. Hmm. And when we negated that, there was an alarm that was sent off.

We weren't able to decipher it all and figure out all of what was changed, but. Let's uh, let's see who shows up in response to that alarm. So we stay? Children should go though. I agree. Uh, I'm gonna look to Junior. He'll be like, Junior! My name is Serafina. Find us later. Later. The old man with a stick knocked out two of your friends.

You should go. Not fight guards, I think that happens. As the six of them scurry up the stairs, uh Scoop up your friends. They, they did not None of the children know about the child who's knocked out in the hallway. I was like, hey, hey, don't forget your friend out in the hall. Two of them peel back and go back and you hear shuffling of feet and then like a quick hurried conversation and then not too long after that you hear a loud door clang and you hear a high pitched squeak of Oh shit, it's the killer!

And then the quick scrambling of small legs and other doors opening and closing off in the distance.

These children are very confusing. Oh yeah, I'm gonna look at Gus and Alou and be like, I have no idea what just happened. All I know is my head was in a sack.

And I just, I walk over and uh, now in a in a slightly uncomfortable way cause again, now Alou is unsure if she's doing something wrong. Uh, and respectfully from a distance takes off the, the strips of paper. Potato sack still stuck on her horn. The little strips. Respectfully. As

Seraphina blinks her eyes coquettishly towards you, Cue car skidding to halt sound. Uh, you hear the approaching footsteps. Are you staying out in the open? Or are you, um, going to spy to see what happens? Or, like, what is your planning? I was just going to stand here. I mean, yeah, we don't have Sounds good to me.

Just stand here and wait. I mean, I've done nothing wrong. Dear Stickybeak, you're getting arrested again. We fed the children that Gus knocked unconscious, so that has been fixed.

No issues there.

As, as you do all this, uh, you hear the approaching footsteps of a very military Cadence. Um, someone who is very much a, uh, you know, they've, they've come from military. They've probably found it.

Useful to their career, and continue to find some of the traits of it useful in their new career. But it's definitely a power stride towards you all. And, opening the door with a crash. Oh, Ben. Steps out a high ranking member of the Watch Guest that you actually know. That this is the individual that, oh, so many years ago, directed you to, you know, Um, a different room where you came back with some abilities that you didn't have beforehand.

Their impassive stare and the insignia on their shoulder indicate that they don't recognize you, Gus, and time has led them to a position of greater power, and they glare about the room, dismissing the three of you at first glance. Does he have a name? I don't think I've named anybody like that in my backstory.

I don't think you recall. I mean, if you

think you have one for this individual.

No, I didn't delve into that. I was just like, that you're a person. So, not remembering who they were, they were a small part of your entry into the watch, really, because they were, that requirement to have some sort of magical ability was just a hoop to jump through. And this was the person who guarded the gate for that hoop.

Um, but nothing more memorable than that they were the individual you saw as you entered and exited. Whatever happened in between is not in your memory. Random name generator says tar, t a r r, floodgaze. Tar Bloodgaze. All right. Johnson. Do you want to be Tar Bloodgaze? That's great. Johnson. The third. Tar Johnson.

Tar Bloodgaze Johnson the third. Junior. Senior. Third junior. No juniors, no seniors.

Tar Bloodgaze. No, it's definitely Tar Bloodgaze Johnson now. Tar Bloodgaze Johnson.

Excuse me, folks. Have you seen anybody in here? Is that you? Uh, I don't know your rank now, but Captain Johnson?

I don't recognize you. Uh, it's me, uh, Gus, uh, Gesundhend Schniffel, former detective with Homicide. You must come from my times

before. Uh, you once sent me into a cave in Underton and I came out with this, and I'll do the light up finger thing again. How'd you do the The finger thing, you see their eyes light up for a moment and they go, Yes, and they hold their hand out and it's almost like a, a, a bleached version of your rainbow.

I, those were years that I cannot recall, but they helped me ascend to where I am today. So that you remember is impressive for a old creature such as yourself. But I don't remember how I got them just going into the cave. Approaching the cave entrance and coming out of it. That's all I remember.

Congratulations. I'm sorry that you lost those ears. No sorrow needed? Sorrows. Uh, make up for this with information. What happened? Um. Who was here? There was just us. Just us here. We, uh, were trying to look at the reports. You were looking at the reports? Yes.

Oh, what a bad case. You were allowed to. We are assigned to this case. By, uh, StickybeakSage.

Some secrets aren't meant to get out.

Well, did we get all the secrets? I'm gonna look for them. Get over my shoulder.

You too. In character? Did we get all the secrets? Like, I don't even know if we have secrets to be killed over. Like, I don't know what happened. Uh, and I'm going, I'm gonna say, not that I'm aware of. Uh, we didn't even get your secrets, so. Ulua, do you truly believe that you don't know any secrets, or are you being deceptive in this moment?

Uh, I mean we didn't learn all of the secrets. Go ahead and roll either a persuasion or a deception check. You don't have to tell me which one, but you have to beat their wisdom perception or insight roll. I don't know

if I trust you, but okay. Unnatural 20. Dang it. They rolled a 17 plus two. Hahahahaha. Not meant to be. Still eyeing you all suspiciously. Uh, but you tampered with an evidence seal. I was just because there was, I thought for some reason that uh, the, the text was coded, but, so I tried, I, I tried to understand it a little better, um, but nothing I did seemed to change it.

If you, uh, check with the front desk, you'll see we had the proper permissions, then I turn around and I'm like, we had the proper permissions, right? We signed it out. We spoke with Scrint. Well, I need to secure evidence, so, if you'll pardon me, and, which room was it? Um,

I point to the one next to where we were. To the right or left of the one that you were in? Left. They, just kind of passing all of you, march right into that room, and close the door behind them. Is there anybody else with them, or just them? It was just them. Um, their presence was pretty daunting. And the actual room is locked with a key that only we have, right?

Um I don't know that, but,

uh, should we get out of here before they come back? So the only thing is that if, if he actually looks at the book, he's gonna see that we decoded it. They'll see that we decoded it, right? Or no? Dunno. Maybe. Probably. Roll it! Roll a I guess Arcana? So now if I affected it? Just roll an intelligence check.

Can I look at Seraphina and go, right? As in, like, help me out here. And how about you roll that intelligence, how about you roll that intelligence with advantage? Yeah. I love the very careful, let's pass the intelligence coin around until the right person's holding it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she also did, she attempted to do.

No, no, no. It was great. So. That's great.

And this is just an intelligence? Yeah. Unless you can come up with a story of why you would use another intelligence based role. This is like an ability thing, not a, not a skill, right? It's not a saving check, it is a skill check. I mean you could do history to recall.

Yeah, you could make the case for saying you rolled a history check. Either history or arcana, because, like, your knowledge of, maybe not arcana. The arcana check, you already rolled those arcana checks around this book, I don't feel like I can get you anything through that venue anymore, so we did kind of go through a bunch on that.

Um, yeah, I guess then history, because, you know, we just did it, and trying to remember, you know, if we cleaned up after ourselves, or if, if I know that decoding something is alters the actual material, or if we were able to code on a different piece of paper or something and then throw that out. Um, so that would have been a I quickly take the notes that we took down and I put them in my bra.

So like, are you all like, scurrying back into the room and quietly gathering any last minute notes and stuff like that and looking at the book? Because then that changes the DC. Uh

I guess maybe we can walk towards it. I, I mean, what I, I guess what I would like to do is maybe gesture to her to go in there and I will stand outside the door in case. So, Stephanie, could you roll those intelligence checks of whatever sort they are? Um, uh, I got a 17. Okay. Uh, you think that any possible investigator would be able to figure out that somebody's already decoded this?

Because the magical seals have been shifted and broken in such a way that it would be impossible for you to reconstruct them in any reasonable amount of time. This is very obviously a ritual type creation, and just it would take too much time to repair the damage or to cover it up. And even as you're having this thought, you hear sounds from the room next door, and

then just a loud clunk.

And then you start to hear the sounds of something beyond your kin just Oh, fuck. That did it. Uh. I'm just going to grab this book and shove it in my bag. I'm stealing it. Alright. Uh. I'm gonna go open the door. The door that this guy walked into? Yes, but I'm not going in, I'm just opening the door. You go to open the door and the door won't budge.

Oh darn, we can't help. What? I'm gonna go back to, I'm gonna go give the, um, Can I start walking towards the, back to the, to Scrint's desk? But I want to try to see if he's there before he sees me. Okay. Yeah, I mean the three of you can head back towards the entrance area where the desk is where Skrint was.

That's a maze of corridors, the same maze that you came in through, but eventually you get to that space. Leaving behind the room with the strange sounds, a book tucked secretively in Gus's bag. Um, and roll a perception check to see if you can spot Skrint before Skrint spots you. Say that five times fast.

Perception. Another 13, I keep rolling 11s. Uh, yeah, you come around the corner and Scrint is already sitting there. Did it go well? Are you done with the room or do you need it for longer? Uh, so, we need your help actually because some, some, some one from the city watch showed up and he went into the room next to us and there, and it sounds like he was attacked and now, and we tried to open the door and we can't go in there.

Oh, is that Black Gates? I'm sorry, what? Bloodgaze Johnson. Yes. Yes. Ah, so he's unleashed his monster. I'm gonna have to clean that up again. I hate that man. Okay. Um, so he's okay? Yeah, until the demon eats him. Okay. Um, well Sounds like someone got a worse deal than I did. Oof. So, he took the book with him, but we still have the key.

He said something about evidence.

I'll have to file a report. Uh, if you, if you could give me the key, I can take care of this. You clearly had nothing in the wrong here. So, unless you were involved with something, did you find something that Well, I, I, like I told him, and you can check with him. I, you know, uh, I, we, I Well, I'm not checking with him.

Oh no. Nothing happened. Hand me the key. Nothing has happened. Nothing happened. I have lost the paperwork. Here's the key. If you see, uh, the janitor, tell them I said, have a lovely day. Oh yeah, thanks. Um, so say it the janitor. Thanks. Have a lovely day. Thank you for your help today. You are a darling. Hey, next time you want a tour around the space, let me know.

I totally can hook you up. I can show you the whole space in like less than maybe 12 hours. I actually wouldn't If you can keep up. Well, I was going to say I wouldn't mind that because the next time it wouldn't get so lost, but I think you're a little too fast paced for me. I do have a secret way we can get around that.

Kind of opens his coat a little bit. And you just see a bunch of vials of potions. I thought it was going to be Rolex. For a small fee we can quicken the pace. Ah, I see. Uh, something from Trixie's Apothecary maybe? Oh no, no, no. Never? These would never have gotten through those types of regulations if you hear what I say.

Got you. I get it. Way too strict. Well. Gotta go to a more flexible potion dealer if you want to get the good stuff these days. I see. I can't today, because Obviously, our friend, we were waiting for him to show up, so now we need to, we need to know what happened with his house. Oh, yep, you need to go, you have things to do, places to be, Scrin's not a big deal, just gonna have to clean up the whole mess.

But I will come back. Which means I'm popping this right now. And you see him popping the top of a, of one of the tubes. But I will come back soon. If you say so, pretty lady. I promise. Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. And then, he's not there. Oops, wrong one! Shit! Shit! Oh, you would think being invisible wouldn't suck, but when you can't see yourself, you run into things.

Um, what if you hold, what if you grab a book and hold it out in front of you? Then you can see the book. You see a book just disappear from the shelf. Ah, shit. Didn't know that would happen either.

I'd shake your hands, but you probably should go, because if I accidentally run into you, who knows what's going to happen. Oh, and I kind of just back up slowly, and go, okay, okay, well, I'll take care. Good luck! Hope you survive! Bye! You

just see the desk totally disappear as you're leaving. Shit! This is why we don't buy potions in the gutter. Alright, off I go. All right, so the three of you are free of the space, free of that experience, with a whole day of fun ahead of you. You've now discovered one of the crews of the Underton City, um, the, the, um, those who come from the academies below, um, which is a possible thing to investigate.

You also have now run into somebody who is from all Understandable situation here is probably working against the discovery of who killed Brand, O'Gran's Brand, because that is not the modus operandi of an investigator seeking the truth. You don't eat an entire room with your eldritch horror. Dear Stickybeak, an eldritch horror ate a room today.

It was disturbing. A room of arts and architecture, which just swallowed me. We have stolen key evidence, don't tell anyone. And with that, I would love for us to wrap up this session, and we will get together again soon to take on the next steps, which really, the ball is fully in your court, Ulua, Gus, and Serafina.

So many options. Not in mine. Yeah, this is gonna go well. Pursue what you pursue. We're so good at making decisions. I like Junior. Thank you for joining us. I wish you could help Junior. Thank you so much for joining us. Hope you have a wonderful and beautiful day and hope you find your pod. Thank you. Okay.

Bye

Creators and Guests

Jason McDowell
Host
Jason McDowell
Jason is a writer, marketing professional, MCU addict, and geek culture enthusiast. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing - Fiction from The New School in New York City, where he lives with his wife Larissa and their two dogs.
Jessica Lynne Becker
Host
Jessica Lynne Becker
Jessica is an actor, singer, and dancer by trade. She graduated from William Peace University, formally known as Peace College, with a B.F.A in Musical Theatre with a concentration in dance. Some of her favorite credits include Grease, Mamma Mia, Rock of Ages, CATS, Oklahoma, Spring Awakening and Cabaret. Jessica is currently a EMC Member with Actors Equity.
Larissa Flint
Host
Larissa Flint
Larissa Flint McDowell is a singer, actor, and instrumentalist located in New York City. She can be seen regularly performing with Melodia Women's Choir of NYC and the Stonewall Chorale, as well as the occasional cabaret and theater workshop.
Rurik Nackerud
Host
Rurik Nackerud
Rurik loves art, drawing maps, sailing and games. Currently a content manager developing a massive digital curriculum for teachers of young children, Rurik aspires to a quiet analog life writing stories and games with friends.
The Case of the Skirmish and the Students
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