Goblin Forge Presents
Goblin Forge is a varietal ttrpg production group with a wide range of projects and GENERAL MAYHEM IN THE FICTIONAL FANTASY WORLDS OF OUR MINDSSSS!!!! Past campaigns have included
Dungeons and Dragons: Shadows of Prophecy
Vaesen (World Zero): Slovene Lands
A Variety Show: Kitschy's Shoppe for Eclectic Curiosities
COMING SOON: SQUEEEEE!!!
LGBTQIA Mafia!
Goblin Forge Presents
Vaesen, Slovene Lands: Thursday’s Children
Meet the newest additions to the Thursdays Children, those cursed, or blessed with the Sight!
Brooding Joseph Fuchs is a hunter by trade, joined by his trusty hunting dog, Brudi. The oft distracted Akka Korolev brings medical knowledge, and maybe a few peculiar habits. Then there's Luka Kos, a young boy who is fairly difficult to describe, but boy does he have a propensity for theft, aided by the adorable Pikka.
These three eclectic individuals come together under the urgency of Linnea, a former member of the Society, though she mysteriously has no intentions of rejoining herself.
They arrive at their soon to be headquarters to be met by the castle Steward, Algot Frisk, plunging them into a world shrouded in mystery.
The opening number, Zrejlo je žito / An Dro is performed by the wonderfully talented Noreia
A Special thanks to our fabulous patrons, JayCeeAitch (JCH), Maggie Z., and Chris B.
Transcripts available at: https://goblinforge.buzzsprout.com/
The ¶¶ no-transcript to the shadowed realm of.
Timothy (DM):Vossim, Slavinlands. Here, the whispers of ancient legends weave through mist-shrouded forests and babbling brooks, bringing to life the eerie and the enigmatic. I am Kitchy, your guide and game facilitator, leading you through this dark and mesmerizing journey. In the year 1848, within the rugged and mysterious Slavine lands, we traverse a world where the boundary between the mundane and the mystical is perilously thin. As we step into this unsettling realm, we'll explore the shadows cast by industrialization and enlightenment upon a land steeped in folklore and arcane rituals. Lore and arcane rituals.
Timothy (DM):Here, amidst the crumbling halls of Predyama Castle, our society headquarters, surrounded by the daunting majesty of the Julian Alps, the placid mysteries of countless lakes and the haunting depths of vast forests, we shall uncover the secrets of the Vasin, trolls, selkies, fey and other mythical beings that defy human understanding. With the sight our investigators pierce through the veil of reality. Our investigators pierce through the veil of reality, Confronting ancient spirits that have lingered since time immemorial, Hidden yet ever-present alongside humanity. Join us as we rekindle ancient magics and face the uncanny Reconnecting with a world of mystery driven by primordial laws. Brace yourself for, in the land of the vasin, the familiar and the fearsome dance and eternal haunting. Waltz with me. Today we have chris, oh no, I'm the first one now is it the same traditional intro just say hello to the audience.
Timothy (DM):Hey, how's it going?
Chris (Joseph):audience my name is chris and I'm playing a character you're playing a character.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, I am Dan, and I am also maybe playing a character Gorgeous gorgeous.
Timothy (DM):We're gonna keep it a secret until we reveal it. I guess I love this.
Ellie (Akka):I'm Ellie, and rumor has it that I also may be playing a character. Did you hear? I heard.
Chris (Joseph):Oh my god.
Ellie (Akka):Guys, it's a secret. It's a secret.
Timothy (DM):And now for a few disclaimers. Yay, all characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental. This actual play contains themes of violence, death, religion, sexual and potentially explicit scenes, depictions or discussion of traumatic events and other adult topics that may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Please take care while while listening and if you find any of the content distressing, consider pausing or skipping ahead.
Timothy (DM):Your well-being is important. Which will introduce me to our in the moment safety tool. We have cards. They are green, yellow, red and black. Uh, these are to indicate uh, consent in real time. Um, I know these players. I've had many. I've had them do many surveys about things they don't want to talk about, and I incorporate those wishes into everything I write with them. But sometimes that changes. So that's why we have these, in case, in the moment, you realize something is triggering you and you want us to slow down. Yellow or stop entirely. Red. Also, fade to black is a great tool to use. And then, if it's ever confusing because your characters are angry at each other or you were in a red state and now you're all good, that's what the green card is for.
Timothy (DM):Alright, now that that is out of the way, let us step forward into the shadows and begin. We need to start with a how to play, because faucet is not a super common ttrpg, um, in the streaming space, uh, so I did want to take some time to remind ourselves what the rules are, but also talk about, uh, this system with the audience, because I love this system. It's fantastic, um, and I really wish more people would play it. So, um, starting with the basics, vasin is a role-playing game. It is typically set in the mythical 19th century scandinavia, where players take on the roles of investigators dealing with supernatural creatures from folklore. For our game, we will be migrating the setting to the slovene lands, a historical territory analogous with modern day slovenia. The game combines investigation, mystery and encounters with Vossen, which are beings from old legends and myths. Players start by creating characters with unique backgrounds, skills and personal goals, and I do have a little bit of a map, oh, which one, oh you've shown it I'm just kidding To show accompanying all of this text.
Timothy (DM):So here is a beautiful picture of the Slavian lands territory that the audience who has video can see. Wow, if you are not listening to this with a video accompaniment, you can DM me and I will describe what Slovenia looks like and where to find it on a map, or you could use Google.
Dan (Luka):Or just send the image.
Timothy (DM):Let me describe what the image looks like well, technically speaking not everybody can that's true, um but we are talking about character creation. Uh, so this is what the character sheet looks like. Again, for those of you, um, and I think I forgot to move on to the scene that allows you to actually see it hold on spoilers whoa, now you know my name. Can you read my handwriting?
Timothy (DM):character sheets. All right, so this is what a character sheet looks like. Um, so you start by creating characters with unique backgrounds, skills and personal goals that have a special ability called the sight, which allows them to see vasin that would otherwise remain obscured from humanity's view. The gameplay revolves around solving mysteries, interacting with the supernatural and navigating the consequences of their actions within a rich atmospheric setting. That's my job, just like any other TTRPG. The game's mechanics include rolling dice to determine outcomes of actions, utilizing various forms and resources, and managing character stress levels, which can affect their performance and mental state. The game is structured around a series of narrative driven scenarios where players work together to uncover the truth behind supernatural events. Each session typically involves exploring clues, engaging, engaging with Vasin and making critical decisions that impact the story's progression. The game facilitator, moi, guides the narrative, presents challenges and controls the Vasin, while players use their characters' abilities and gather information to advance. The cooperative nature of the game encourages teamwork, strategy and immersive roleplaying, as players face both the mystical and personal dilemmas of their characters.
Timothy (DM):This being the first session of our Vossen game, I will give the audience a quick overview of the core rules, along with a summary of how to get started as we encounter more specific rules throughout gameplay. I will try to give a short aside of the general mechanics, without obviously undercutting the need to purchase this rulebook, because we love Free League and want them to sell more copies of this amazing system. In setting To play Vasen, you first will want to create a character with a sight also known as Thursday's Children, as subject of a very strange nursery rhyme with a printed history going back as far as 1938. Yes, we're going to do a lot of history in this game. Monday's child is fair of face. Tuesday's child is full of gracenesday's child is full of woe. Thursday's child has far to go.
Timothy (DM):Friday's child is loving and giving saturday's child works hard for his living and the child that is born on the sabbath day is bonnie and blithe and good and gay hey, progressive I think I might have been born on a sunday wow, really nice I don't know, I can find out, I'm sure yeah okay, let's just derail this whole thing, find out what day we were all actually born.
Timothy (DM):On scrolling back to the calendar characters will follow a template using archetypes consisting of academic, dr hunter, occultist officer, priest, private detective, servant, vagabond and writer, and that will determine their special talents a main skill and a main attribute. Attribute points and skill points are assigned according to your age and have an inverse relationship with each other. An older character will have more skill points are assigned according to your age and have an inverse relationship with each other. An older character will have more skill points, which are related to their experiences in life, whereas a younger character will have more attribute points related to their innate physical and mental abilities. The compound interaction between these two allocations will determine the character, abilities and likelihood of success in a given skill test, as determined by dice rolls classic ttrpg. Every character will have a trauma that enabled them, with this site, a dark secret, to provide them depth and a motivation to inform decision-making, along with a memento to serve as an anchor in relationships with each other to help drive cooperative storytelling.
Ellie (Akka):Wow, just like real life.
Timothy (DM):After that, I was really thorough with these. There are really only three components of gameplay that determine what event takes place one the mystery, two role play and three skill tests.
Timothy (DM):It's it's actually pretty simple to play this game yeah generally speaking, each mystery has a common structure, although deviations are allowed. There's a prologue invitation, call to action and time to prepare, which will give each character something called an advantage, which we will arrive to in our mystery today. There is also a headquarters management system and an XP development system that can happen in between mysteries and influence gameplay as much as you would like them to. We will also cover those in more detail at the end of the first mystery, which will be like three or four sessions from now. The last rule we are really going to cover before we get started is skill tests. Rule we are really going to cover before we get started is skill tests, which is really the only rule that your players need to have down before you get started. Everything else can be referenced as you go. There are 12 skills agility, closed combat force, medicine, ranged combat, stealth, investigation, learning, vigilance, inspiration, manipulation and observation. They're all tied to an attribute and have archetype-specific influences. There are descriptions found in Chapter 3 of these skills, when to call for them and what the results of extra successes might be.
Timothy (DM):Whenever attempting to do something and the outcome is in question, the game facilitator will call for a skill test. The players will have described what they are attempting to do and what the goals of this action are. They will roll the number of dice equal to the skill value plus the related attribute. If there are any special talents being solicited or conditions suffered by your character, those may modify the number of dice you roll. So it's all just about the number of d6.
Timothy (DM):The successes are only sixes that are rolled on the skill test, which is why most rolls only require a single success. Challenging or difficult activities may require additional successes, but really that's not till the end of a mystery. There is also a help action. You can add a dice by helping somebody simultaneously with a maximum of three. And then there is also a push roll. If you fail your skill test and you would like to push yourself harder mentally or physically and you are able to narratively describe how you can do this, you may push the roll. You automatically are going to receive a condition because you are pushing yourself. This is not just a reroll.
Timothy (DM):This is going beyond your limits. And then if you fail, it's my job to figure out what happens. It's not always necessarily that you don't get what you want, but there are sometimes unintended consequences. The last thing is really just conditions that you accrue by taking damage or failing rolls in critical situations. They are basically our HP tracking system. So if you get three mental conditions or three physical conditions, the next one will push you into a broken state, which we will cover eventually because it's very likely to happen in this game it is brutal and that's it.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, those were very thorough rules, thank you for for uh staying with me as I described this game. I wanted to make sure that everybody knew what we were doing besides just rolling dice and talking to each other and go slap some fairies.
Ellie (Akka):Oh yeah, oh yeah, I wanna make a close combat check against this fairy.
Timothy (DM):Good luck.
Ellie (Akka):Thank you, I'm gonna need it.
Timothy (DM):Which brings us to our prologue Finally. Yay.
Timothy (DM):Alright, again, the map of slovenia as it was during this historical time period. Welcome to the slovene lands, a place where ancient secrets whisper through the countryside. The jagged peaks of the Julian Alps rise like silent sentinels, their snow-capped crowns piercing the heavens, guarding the mysteries of a time long forgotten. Their slopes are cloaked in a lush tapestry of emerald forests, where the trees stand tall and vigilant, their roots entwined with the bones of the earth, as the fog roll above, twisting between their branches. The rivers here flow with an eerie grace, their waters carving through valleys like veins of silver, glistening under the pale light of the moon. These rivers, born from the icy breath of the mountains, carry with them the echoes of lost voices murmuring softly as they journey towards the sea. Along their banks, shadows dance in the twilight, hinting at beings that dwell just beyond the edge of human sight. Still lakes, dark and enigmatic, reflect a world half-remembered, where shadows hint at mysteries just beneath the surface. The air is thick, with a quiet reverence, as if the very land is holding, waiting for the return of something old and powerful.
Timothy (DM):The year is 1848, and the Industrial Revolution has begun to bleed from Ljubljana into the countryside, which is where we begin our tale, which is where we begin our tale. Deep in the forests surrounding Pradyama, near the end of August, the pine needles softly crunch beneath your feet, joseph, as a mosquito lands on the back of your neck. Early as it is, the summer heat has already begun to melt, the dew from the treetops sinking into a fog along the cool forest floor. You listen for a rustling in the brush, your peripherals locked on Broody as he motions towards it, his left paw raised and his muzzle outstretched. Chris, would you like to introduce your character and tell me what you are doing?
Chris (Joseph):So crouched hidden behind some grass there is an old man. He is an older man, you can tell. It's been a few days since he shaved, so he's got some, some rough stubble. He's wearing an old hunting jacket. That's sort of like a tapestry of nature with years and years of dirt and mud and rain and and all this sort of weathering, and he's trained his rifle to where broody, his hunting dog is pointing and he's looking for something to rustle as he lines up his shot.
Timothy (DM):All right, so you're looking for something. So we are going to do an investigation check.
Chris (Joseph):Oh boy.
Timothy (DM):First check of the story.
Chris (Joseph):Well, good thing I got my dog Broody with me. Broody is a setter of some type and he gives me a bonus to investigation. Oh, so I get the plus three plus one. And then, oh, points, points, are he?
Dan (Luka):points with his nose. I don't like hunting dogs like point with their nose.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, he's a pointer yeah yeah, he's got all sorts of tricks, so I get three plus one, plus logic we know all about pointing dogs. Of course I know a lot about hunting as will become readily apparent, I got one success. Nice that is enough.
Timothy (DM):Uh, so you do find a outstretched branch from the nearby shrub. Um, it is barren, so it's a. You're able to grab onto it and shake the branch from afar, and as you do, you see something zip across your field of vision, scurrying between all of the shrubs over and under root, across the forest floor, and Broody takes off after it. What do you?
Chris (Joseph):do? I'm going to monitor, I'm going to skulk after Broody and prepare my rifle and as soon as I see an opening where, whatever this varmint is, I'm going to pop off a shot.
Timothy (DM):Awesome. So give me a ranged combat skill test.
Chris (Joseph):One of my best skills. So three plus four, that's another success.
Timothy (DM):All right, that's all you need. Again, most are just a single success. So you fire off that rifle. Fire off that rifle. The sound of the gunpowder in the barrel ricochets through the forest. Um, you feel it kick back into your arm right you push it up into your shoulder, um, and you hear a yelp. Um, it is a rabbit. Um, it lets out a very quick and sudden yelp as it skids across the forest floor, stopping and falling silent. Broody is immediately right up on it, showing you exactly where it landed.
Chris (Joseph):Good, dog, good dog Broody. I walk up to Broody, I give him a tussle of his head and I look at the prey that we've just collaborated on and I reach down and I pick it up and I stuff it into my satchel.
Timothy (DM):The smell of sulfur from the gunpowder? That's a question.
Chris (Joseph):Oh, I don't know if, because that's more I don't know very much about, but I think that's more for point-blank shooting much about uh, but I think that's more for like point blank shooting um.
Timothy (DM):Well, there is the residual smell of the gunshot. Yeah, it's lingering in the air, um, mixing with the smell of the pooling blood, that acrid, uh, iron filled aroma, um, and you lift it up, um, and it's dripping onto the dirt in the forest floor.
Chris (Joseph):I try to find some fallen leaves and try to scrape off the residual runoff. Before I pocket it, and I look at how many I've gathered already and I'm like, oh, it'd be really nice if I tried to fox, but uh, I guess we'll continue while we still have daylight, uh, and I pull out a small bit of rations that I have in my pocket and I give it to Broody as a nice reinforcement measure, and I look around and I absentmindedly reach to my belt as I sort of rub a pouch on it, sort of absentmindedly, as I'm trying to think of where to head off to next.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, so Broody welcomes the treat, snaps it right on up and, as you feel the pouch on the side of your hip, you can feel the smooth bit from where your thumb has been rubbing over the past, however long that you've had this pouch 13 years. Do we have a question on the other side of the table? Well, no.
Dan (Luka):Russell says that the stream is lagging.
Timothy (DM):Oh, that is unfortunate.
Ellie (Akka):Are you guys watching the stream?
Timothy (DM):I pulled it up when Russ said I will try to limit what I am pulling up, so I'm actually going to go back to just our video view and take off roll 20 and click out of some windows. Out of some windows. So I apologize to anybody who has or is experiencing any auditory or visual issues. Technology is often uncooperative.
Chris (Joseph):It's as finicky as life itself. It's a bison, yeah.
Ellie (Akka):That's a good analogy. No a bison Vossen.
Chris (Joseph):I'm thinking a bison and anything.
Ellie (Akka):Always got bison on the mind.
Chris (Joseph):I'm a cowboy, yeehaw.
Timothy (DM):All right. So, Russell Tussle, let us know if that helps with the frame rates issue. This is our first stream back up for a while, so just figuring out what this computer can handle.
Dan (Luka):Okay, so audio was fine, so we heard everything so that's great.
Timothy (DM):It was just a visual that was lagging gotcha, so we should cool cool and they said things look good now.
Dan (Luka):So gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.
Timothy (DM):Thank you thank you, russell, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and that is how a community works, all right. So we were back in the forest with Joseph and Broody, we were hunting some rabbits We've gotten quite a few today and we were deciding what to do with the rest of the day. I think you had said that you were trying to take advantage of the daylight available daylight.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah.
Timothy (DM):All right. So you continue to track through the forest. Through the forest, you hear the cracking of branches and the crinkling of leaves. That's the word now Crinkling, crinkling beneath your feet. As you push your way through the underbrush of the forest. You see Broody's ears are perked up, twitching back and forth and rotating as hunting dogs do when they're listening for something out in the forest. He is on high alert.
Ellie (Akka):What kind of dog is Broody?
Chris (Joseph):He's a setter. Oh, okay, yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Just want to make sure I'm picturing him right you know, lean wiry dog I'm more of a libero.
Dan (Luka):That was a volleyball joke, sorry, please continue we do not talk about volleyball here, okay what is this?
Ellie (Akka):a jock street welcome bros uh, we would never.
Timothy (DM):Anyways, um, as you're moving through the forest, you do come across a clearing in which you see, um, some larger branches that have been snapped as something made its way through this clearing, and you can see that the shrub has kind of been parted, almost trampled down. On the other side of the clearing the dirt's rather disturbed. Here. You see some claw marks along the floor.
Chris (Joseph):How high up off the ground are these branches that have been?
Timothy (DM):broken as you begin to inspect. I believe you should give me a skill check. Let's do so. I believe there's like investigation, which is to find things, but then there's observation. Yeah, observation is to piece together information gotcha okay, uh, so I'm gonna call for an observation skill check okay, it's a bust all right, oh no um, so you do notice that there are are broken branches along your height level? Um, in terms of the collection of broken branches, there's nothing to indicate the size of the creature but still pretty tall this is not this is not your typical creature, like I'm thinking.
Chris (Joseph):Is it bears? Bears would. Are they out about this time? Would they just beon? Normally you can tell by scratching of the trees that they've been there or where they've left their droppings.
Timothy (DM):You're thinking something. Maybe bear large badger dire wolf.
Chris (Joseph):Well, this is great for Joseph. Yeah, good news. To heck with these rabbits. I'm gonna, I'm gonna follow the path of the broken branches and try to send Broody off, maybe a couple yards ahead yeah, so now you can give me investigation skill test gotcha, I got one success again.
Timothy (DM):One success that is enough To notice the splotches of blood along this kind of trampled path that you are following along this kind of trampled path that you are following.
Timothy (DM):So you keep noticing on like a leaf or on a blade of grass, just like a little drip of blood, but it begins to become more frequent, larger drips, larger splashes, splatters, until you notice a lump off into the shrubs, something kind of dark and misshapen, maybe a foot tall, two feet in diameter, and you hear flies buzzing around this area and as you approach you start to smell the scent of death, that rot of flesh. And this is the middle of summer.
Chris (Joseph):So that is's pungent, yeah I, I get the, the neckerchief that I have, or the, the handkerchief I have in my pocket, and I sort of try to mask, mask the scent, um, but is it the lump, is it hairy like skin or like fur, or is it just something other?
Timothy (DM):Yeah. So you get closer and you do make out that it is a mixture of browns and kind of like a tawny, dirty blonde and like a mossy brown and kind of an amalgamation of fur. This is some nasty creature, and then you see eyes sunken and you realize that it's a pile of rabbit.
Chris (Joseph):Like a cluster, like a cluster, like a cluster. Oh gosh.
Timothy (DM):And they all Two feet in diameter, a foot tall.
Ellie (Akka):That's a lot of rabbits.
Timothy (DM):There's probably 20, 30 rabbits in this pile, 20 or 30?
Chris (Joseph):Oh, my goodness, what's the condition of the fur? Well, I guess I think about that for a moment.
Timothy (DM):You see, the rabbits on the top of the pile seem fresher. Their fur still has a sheen to it, it's thick. Their eyes are plump. But as you look down towards the bottom of the pile you notice that you're seeing bone protruding. The skin has kind of decayed away. The fur is patchy, all the eyes are sunken and almost dried out.
Chris (Joseph):I'm going to tell Broody Broody, hold back. And I tell him to wait by a tree. I'm going to try to find one of these broken down branches in the vicinity. I'm going to disperse this pile.
Timothy (DM):Alright. So you poke a rabbit at the top of the pile and it rolls down the hill onto the forest floor. Its limp body flopping out, splayed across the forest floor, and you begin to inspect it. No obvious lacerations. The forest floor to inspect it no obvious lacerations, open wounds.
Chris (Joseph):I say a prayer for these rabbits, as I think this is some strange rabbit death thing.
Ellie (Akka):I Astutely observed.
Chris (Joseph):He calls them as he sees them. Yeah, joseph, this is. I'm scared. Joseph is slowly turning around trying to see if there's some sort of predator that's used this as a bait situation, because it's. The drops of blood were leading up to here, indicating that they wanted to leave. Over time, many of them were drawn to this pile. I want to try to get to the bottom of this pile and see what's at the very bottom.
Ellie (Akka):Wow, literally get to the bottom of it.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, so you begin shifting more of the rabbit corpses and very similar, no apparent signs of external damage.
Timothy (DM):Um, you do see, you do notice that some of them do have crusted blood along their lips and nose um, but one thing that becomes more and more apparent as you start pushing through with your stick is that they all seem to be flopping in kind of a twisted manner, as if their spine was snapped, wow. And you continue to push through the pile until you start to hear a kind of almost squelching noise as you start to pull them apart from each other. The rot has gotten thick and wet and they've congealed together.
Chris (Joseph):Yes, like a terrifying jello. Rabbit king, yeah, rabbit king, a jello mold. This will not make for good coats. As I look at this disgusting pile of deceased rabbits Yep, nothing good can come from this I say to Broody, and I toss my stick into the brush and I walk back to Broody and I say we should find a different path here, right?
Timothy (DM):burn path here, all right, and you continue traversing through the forest. For quite some time. You managed to scrape together a couple more kills, uh, adding a couple more pelts to your belt, uh, before it's time to turn in for the day. Where does that lead?
Chris (Joseph):you. I tramp back out through the forest the way that I came in. I think there's a small village nearby where I'd been renting one of the rooms, as I've sort of been doing my route, my circuit around this forest area.
Timothy (DM):You're greeted relatively warmly by the innkeep and you're able to turn in for the day.
Chris (Joseph):I give one final head rub to Broody and I say we got 15. That's a record for at least this time of year. Rabbits are wily.
Timothy (DM):Alright, that is Joseph. How do you say your last name? It's Joseph Wolfram Fox, joseph Wolfram Fox, which is going to bring us to another section of Slovenia. All right, of Slovenia, alright.
Timothy (DM):The first shards of light hit your eyelids Luca that's me as the musty smell of last night's bed returns to your nose. As you blink your eyes open, you see the white sheets laid over the furniture surrounding you are grayed with a thick layer of dust. The floorboards down the hall creak as you hear someone shift in their bed. A few rooms down, the clinking of metal can be heard beneath you on the first floor, maybe a maid prepping the porridge for breakfast. Dan, would you like to introduce your character and tell me what you are doing?
Dan (Luka):Well, yes, of course I am playing Luca Koss, who is a 19-year-old young man, a modestly average 5'8", with kind of cropped, dirty blonde hair and has like a pretty thin lithe build.
Timothy (DM):Pretty unremarkable, just a regular old guy, regular old guy, except not old.
Dan (Luka):Regular young guy, so spry.
Ellie (Akka):This is a teenager you'd find hanging out in the back of a.
Chris (Joseph):Chick-fil-A For sure, sitting around with all his friends, because there are no third places anymore got A for everything alright.
Timothy (DM):What is Luca doing as he wakes up this morning?
Dan (Luka):Luca is going to check on Pika, his little dog. Two dogs with two dogs. Pika is like obviously not a chihuahua, but something along the lines of a small dog. In the genre In the genre of a chihuahua, probably some sort of like small mutt.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, I should get a dog.
Dan (Luka):Pika's pretty old Pika's like 10. Whoa.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, does she have a dog? Pika's, pretty old.
Dan (Luka):Pika's like 10. Wow.
Ellie (Akka):Does she have a gray face?
Dan (Luka):She does Wow, cute, cute. She's got a little gray face. She's kind of like a shih tzu, I would say so. She's got kind of longer white hair, but now it's starting to gray and darken and also she's pretty dirty. We're fine. She gets so many eye crusties.
Ellie (Akka):Constantly wiping away eye crusties.
Timothy (DM):Oh, my goodness.
Ellie (Akka):Crusty dog.
Timothy (DM):Ellie's getting so jealous. She has been this gorgeous dog IRL so soft.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, sweet baby. But I could have a dog in the world of fantasy too. Double dogs, yeah.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, so I check on Pika. Still alive, still alive, yeah.
Timothy (DM):Pika's tongue is hanging out. It never goes back in, it's constantly stuck out. They look at you with this longing that they will always give you. Every time they show you their face, they have this longing. Look on that. You will never understand that level of longing and that level of love and comfort, aww. And then they snort.
Dan (Luka):Hey Lola, shh'll go. Shh gotta keep it quiet. Come on now. You know better than this.
Timothy (DM):And I tap her on the nose, give her a little boop a reprimand a little boop she sneezes and kind of backs away just slightly and then runs over to the window and just kind of like, puts her paws up on the windowsill and starts kind of, uh, pawing at the glass all right, all right, all right, we'll get going.
Dan (Luka):Gosh, didn't didn't expect you to be so gung-ho about getting out of here, all right into the bag. I dropped my bag on the ground and she knows what that means.
Timothy (DM):Yes, this is the routine. She immediately just like, hops on over to the bag, does like three rotations as she kind of pads at the bottom of the bag before settling down inside it.
Dan (Luka):It's like a messenger bag, so I throw it over my shoulder and then I will slowly push the windows open as to not let them creak.
Timothy (DM):Yes. So here, the soft scraping of the wood frame against the wood of the window. As you push it open, the fresh air just rushes into the room and the dust kind of flies up off of the furniture. The sun is warm, it is summer and the humidity is starting to build Beneath you, because you're on the second floor, you do see the um garden trellis that you had climbed up the night before.
Dan (Luka):Um, and there's only a few people, just a spattering rugs, on the front porch, just kind of going about their morning routine yeah, I'm going to wait for a lull in people so that, like when nobody's looking and this is not my ideal situation I prefer to climb down into backyards, but this will be fine, so I'm going to sneak down the trellis and be on my way as if nothing happened. I'll close the window behind me because I am polite, so courteous.
Timothy (DM):As you hear the faint pad of the window hitting the bottom of the sill, you clamber down the trellis, your shoes hit the stone of the road and you turn to walk on.
Dan (Luka):They didn't leave any food out on a windowsill or hanging any laundry to dry.
Timothy (DM):Anything like that. You can make a short little detour around the back of the building to check out their laundry situation, but you only smell the faint odor of a millet gruel situation or like a porridge.
Dan (Luka):What kind of house is this? What kind of house did I crash in last?
Timothy (DM):night. I mean it's a two-story. It's relatively modest two-story. You can tell at one point this house was much nicer. The paint has begun to chip and you suspect that the owners have begun to age that maybe one time the empty room was for a child of theirs that has moved out or moved on and they are doing their best to keep up.
Dan (Luka):Then I won't bother them, I'll just be on my way looking for a meal.
Timothy (DM):All right, the sounds of the morning sort of filled the air. Sounds of the morning sort of filled the air, especially now as the sun is finally peeking over the tops of the houses, um, and so you hear the birds chirping, you hear the murmur of voices slowly grow, that like sound of doors opening their hinges, creaking and closing, just kind of echoing down the street. And then you see a carriage, horse-drawn carriage, not particularly fancy, probably carrying supplies for one of the local markets or vendors, the wheels hitting the stone, just clicking and clacking, making its way past you, and you do get this waft of fresh baked bread down one of the side streets sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, oh, not off of the carriage no, not off the carriage I'm going for bread.
Dan (Luka):I'm gonna go find some bread, get that bread.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, the carriage you see, um, it's. It's not a covered carriage, so it's an open carriage. You see crates that are tied down with ropes. You do see a stamp on them. If you would like to first roll to do observation skill check, oh heck yeah To piece together what types of potential.
Dan (Luka):One success.
Timothy (DM):Items that could be nabbed. All right, uh, so you do recognize the stamp as one of the local um, uh, what is it called? Bakers? No, like a old country store type of situation general store.
Ellie (Akka):General store.
Timothy (DM):Thank you that could be anything, that word so it really could just be anything on that wagon. Yeah, um, general stores typically have more, uh, shelf safe items, food items, um, along with lots of kitchenware, cookware tools and other odds and ends that you would need around the house.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, hard, pass on that. We're going for the thing I know, which is bread.
Ellie (Akka):Bread has never done me wrong in my whole life.
Dan (Luka):It's always bread. It's always bread. It was always you.
Chris (Joseph):Just a little bit. You bought it Holding up. Yeah, Alright, so you slipped down the side. It was always you, just a little bit.
Timothy (DM):You bought it Holding up, yeah, all right.
Timothy (DM):So you slip down the side street and you follow your nose until, sure enough, you see the sign for the bakery swinging at the ends of two chains, the creaking of the chains as it blows in the wind, and you see a pretty simple building.
Timothy (DM):There is a small bay window in which you see a little display of sorts of like little cakes the more like cute draw-in in attention types of items cakes and a couple pastries, all in a cute little um tray and a little stand. But through the window you can also see that the the bakery counter um does have a small line of people starting to queue up and the baker is making sales, selling loaves of bread, selling muffins and other morning baked goods to people, and they seem relatively busy um to to people and they seem relatively busy um. You do notice a small boy behind the counter, maybe six or seven years in age um, who seems to be kind of twiddling their thumbs um, every once in a while you see the baker um like glance over at her son um and give her this just like darting look um, but then he pays for no mind hmm, so it's busy, so that's good for me.
Timothy (DM):It's busy and she looks overwhelmed.
Dan (Luka):Which is perfect for me. I will casually walk into the building and peruse the oh God, Peruse the breads. All right Maybe. Peruse them with my hands in my pockets.
Timothy (DM):peruse the breads, all right maybe peruse them with my hands in my pockets, um, all right. So on the counter there's, there's some baskets of larger loaves of bread, um, but then there are also some trays of like croissants and other kind of easy to grab and hold breakfast items. And let's see, that's going to be a skill check for you to pocket something, isn't it? It sure will. That would be a stealth precision. I sure hope so. All right, I'm hope so.
Dan (Luka):Alright, I'm going to go for a couple of croissants that sounds good. That does sound good. Oh god, I missed Okay, one success.
Timothy (DM):One success. That's enough to do it. So you pocket two, or yeah, let's go with three. You're able to pocket three croissants quickly, just flipping them beneath your jacket.
Dan (Luka):I have big jacket pockets?
Timothy (DM):yeah, so into your jacket pockets and you feel Pika rustling in your bag as she can smell the bread.
Dan (Luka):I give her a little kind of like gentle, playful kick with the back of my heel.
Timothy (DM):Alright, so you have three croissants. And I'm out of there and you slip out. The bell rings behind you as another person is passing through into the bakery and you're back out onto the street. Cool.
Dan (Luka):I drop a croissant and, oh my god, my throat is like doing a weird thing. Are you hanging in there, okay?
Timothy (DM):Yeah, it's no, I'm dying. My seasonal shift, the cursed bread has been rough.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, my seasonal oddities have been absolutely monstrous, oh my gosh.
Timothy (DM):Do you think it might be the candle irritating you.
Dan (Luka):Nah, this is just always. Yeah, heading into fall is the worst. Oh, I will drop a croissant into my bag and then eat the other two.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, yeah, all right, and then where do you head?
Dan (Luka):I would like to head to a busy part of town.
Timothy (DM):All right, you had to do a busy part of town like a business area.
Dan (Luka):I don't know if that exists in towns like these. Yeah.
Timothy (DM):There's businessy areas. Um, I mean, they're not like modern day business years. It's not going to be like just back to back stores in a smaller town like this. But there are going to be quite a few shops.
Timothy (DM):A lot of houses that run businesses off their first floor or out of their attic, those situations, and there is kind of like a town square with the clock. They would have clocks at this point, um, with the clock, so that everybody knows what time it is, because people don't really walk around with pocket watches that much. Um, wealthier, more well-to-do people would, but um, not an everyday everybody, a everybody, regular Joe's sort of commodity quite yet. And around the clock there's just the paper boy calling out about whatever the latest news is, trying to get you to buy a paper for a nickel, and people kind of bustling about going to their various places of work because it is still morning perfect time.
Dan (Luka):Um, I'd like to find somebody who looks like they're important.
Timothy (DM):All right, I'd also like to buy a newspaper all right I'm assuming I have a nickel to spare uh, yeah, you can have a nickel to spare. That's really up to you in terms of what your um my resources is two, which means I'm poor but not like squalid yeah, you're not squalid. Um, so you do notice there's like a paper boys around the square, kind of positioned at various entry points, and you do notice a man in a hat, a relatively nice-looking hat, that does seem to be watching the three boys, almost monitoring them.
Dan (Luka):Oh paper person. He's the boss, the boss of the paper boys.
Timothy (DM):Potentially making sure they don't run off with the Of the money Earnings for the day.
Dan (Luka):That's fair. I'm going to run off with his earnings.
Ellie (Akka):He should be keeping a closer eye on you, right.
Dan (Luka):I am going to approach from behind and. I'm going to take Pika out of my bag and set him at the man's feet.
Ellie (Akka):I'm so excited to see what this is.
Dan (Luka):As to cause a distraction. Maybe Pika will pee on said man's shoes. Maybe Pika will bark. Maybe this man likes dogs. We're gonna find out and improvise.
Ellie (Akka):She's always a distraction in some way, alright.
Timothy (DM):So Pika snorts as you set her down on the ground Her tongue is still hanging out and she starts by just kind of like giving you that look again, just like this longing, loving look.
Timothy (DM):yes, yes yes, okay, that way, please that way redirect her and kind of give her a nudge, um, and she and starts to scurry off in front of the man, um, and he's kind of like he's looking around, but he's he's kind of walking slowly around as well um and pika just cuts out in front of him, um, and he trips over her a little bit, just kind of stumbles um, and he looks down and he just scoffs at pika, um, and straightens himself up during that whole sequence of tripping and that's when I that's when I go in and I want to check a pocket all right, give me a stealth skill test I'm not stealthy as I knock everything around over here we're.
Ellie (Akka):That's why we do this to live out our fantasies of being unlike ourselves.
Dan (Luka):That's crazy. I rolled three successes, holy shit gorgeous.
Timothy (DM):You only needed one. So that's two extra success, successes sounds like he has three wallets. Yeah, so there is. There's a mechanic for this in this handy dandy core rule book that you all should buy because it's a fantastic game. No, they are not paying me any money to do that I just actually do love this game um on page 44. Uh, there are skills and what to do when you have extra successes you do super good.
Chris (Joseph):I do so good Stealth precision is very straightforward.
Timothy (DM):Extra successes make you succeed even better. Yes, I take his shoes. His baby hat. You're the paper boss. Now I have my own hat. We have to reel in the realism slightly.
Dan (Luka):This is a D&D. I can't just take his shoes.
Timothy (DM):Sorry, don't be silly Without him noticing it's real, but with extra successes you are able to snatch his pocketbook along with a relatively nice pocket watch. Ooh, wow, take it. And you said three successes, so that's two extra.
Dan (Luka):So pocket watches, one extra success oh, and we're gonna just grab the handful.
Ellie (Akka):What else I?
Timothy (DM):have um a silk handkerchief with uh, his initials embroidered on them.
Dan (Luka):Oh, we're going to take those out. But yeah, great Silk, I'll take silk. Tied around Pika's neck.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, that'd be so cute.
Dan (Luka):And I grab my stuff and immediately like just hook a turn so he doesn't even see me, like I don't cross into his field of vision is the ideal situation and as I'm leaving, I give a little. I can't whistle, Thank you. I do one of those. Yeah.
Timothy (DM):For Pika and she just kind of trots along through the crowds of people towards you and you're able to scoop her back up.
Dan (Luka):She goes back in the bag and we walk off.
Timothy (DM):We leave the area.
Dan (Luka):Leave the area. You leave the area, you do not stick around. Yeah, exactly, it was a wind Scene of the crime. Nice, nice, nice, nice nice.
Ellie (Akka):Good job.
Dan (Luka):Solid day. I did, I did that truly three croissants truly let's go take a fucking nap in the park, all right, and you make your way to the park?
Timothy (DM):um, it's relatively quiet. You do see some people having a morning stroll, enjoying a nice croissant um on a park bench I already did um and you do find an open bench um. These are the days before we started putting all those horrifying little middle arm hostile architecture.
Dan (Luka):What?
Timothy (DM):correct hostile architecture doesn't exist yet Bless. And you're able to find a nice long sturdy park bench to lay down on.
Dan (Luka):I'm going to take out my knife and cut out the embroidery of the man's initials.
Timothy (DM):Yeah.
Dan (Luka):And then I am going to tie it around Pika's neck.
Ellie (Akka):Oh perfect.
Dan (Luka):And then I'll put Pika on my chest and I'll tip my hat over my eyes and take a nap.
Ellie (Akka):Little watchdog yeah.
Dan (Luka):Well, no, she'll probably fall asleep.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah.
Dan (Luka):But what have I got to steal?
Ellie (Akka):Apparently a really nice pocket watch, oh that's in my back pocket. You'd have to like reach up reach underneath me to get it.
Timothy (DM):We think about these things.
Dan (Luka):You don't look like a mark yeah, no, I don't have like. I wouldn't necessarily say I have like tattered clothing, but it's definitely like worn yeah, like it's been worn for a long time. These are not mine initially, they're mine now, but they weren't mine to begin with.
Ellie (Akka):They got a couple of years on them before you had them come into your collection.
Timothy (DM):Before I walked past a clothesline and found new clothes, gorgeous, and with Luca asleep in the park. We are going to transition yet again as a black and yellow spotted salamander scurries across the pathway in front of you. Akka. Slipping beneath the detritus bordering the trail. You can see the smokestack of the cottage you're heading to through a break in the trees. As the humidity in the forest builds, you can feel your medical bag hitting up against your thigh. Ellie, would you like to introduce your character and tell me what you are doing?
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, of course. So Aka is a middle-aged lady. She has a long brown braid that is going a little bit gray. Um, she wears a pretty sensible like linen outfit that looks uh, well worn in but also well taken care of, and she has a little like apron on um, it's blue with a little red stripe at the bottom. That's her like working apron. When she's going to go see patients, like you mentioned, she's got a medical bag. It's like a little leather sort of briefcase situation that she carries along with her and as she sees the salamander in particular, she fishes around in a roomy pocket because I'm living out my fantasies here and, um, she, she kind of shows the medical bag up underneath her arm. Uh, she pulls out a pencil and from her pocket she pulls out, um, yeah, a pencil and a little notebook and uh, flips through it to a free page and writes down like yellow spotted salamander Question mark. Question mark.
Ellie (Akka):And then she tucks the pencil back behind her ear, puts her book back in her pocket, you know, fixes her outfit a little bit where it rode up, grabs her bag and carries on looking all around, like looking up in the trees, keeping an eye out for salamanders or snakes in the ground, checking out the dappled sunlight as she continues towards the cottage.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, so the birds are chirping through the trees. The pathway is relatively clear, but the occasional twig that you step on does snap beneath your feet. Twig that you step on does, uh, snap beneath your feet, um, and you do smell the smoke as you get closer to the cottage. It's kind of this winding pathway that you you see the cottage through breaks in the trees, um, and you can like watch the smokestack through breaks in the canopy, um, but you do kind of meander your way through towards the cottage. You're about um 20 minutes outside of the proper town proper at this point, um, this cottage is a little bit removed more like 30 minutes the way she's walking.
Timothy (DM):Yes, and from what you know of the family that you're going to visit, the father is a hunter and the mother just kind of keeps to the womanly things of the time tending to the house.
Timothy (DM):Medicine, practicing medicine, womanly things at the time um tending to the house, uh, medicine, practicing medicine in your case um, it is not what the, the, the mother of this household, does, um, so they're hunters, so they're kind of off, um, in their own little space, not part of the rest of the town. And eventually you do come to the front of the house and it's a pretty simple wooden door with just like a small little window in the front of it. The windows themselves on the side of the house are shuttered currently, um, and the kind of area around the house is moderately well, um, not like super manicured, but also not just the forest.
Ellie (Akka):so, um, again, it's a modest house, brown mossy shingles, and the front steps are a little rotted yeah, I step over the second step as I walk up to the front door, because I already put my foot through that one a week or two ago and I'm not interested in recreating the experience, alright so you step onto the threshold of the house.
Timothy (DM):The wood creaks beneath your weight I knock on the door and call out hello you hear, uh, some movement inside and a couple moments the door creaks open and a familiar face greets you, a woman with bright blonde, straight hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. She looks tired, a little bit on the gaunt side from when you've seen her, um, and she says to you oh, thank goodness you're here, um, he's just through here.
Ellie (Akka):Uh, to the left all right, I come in and go to the left.
Timothy (DM):I assume I have some idea of what I'm here about yes, um some idea uh, she had come to see you maybe uh two days back, um that her son was sick, asked you to make a trip after you were able to tie up things at the local clinic and something about him being coughing, bedridden, weak, feverish, kind of the general maladies when somebody is sick, but nothing too specific or alarming at that stage.
Ellie (Akka):Okay, so I'll follow her.
Timothy (DM):So she pushes open a door as it creaks and inside you can hear a boy stirring beneath the covers of a bed and he coughs a little bit. The smell of the room is kind of stale and a little musty as somebody has been sick for a couple days inside, and kind of closed. Um, you do notice that the again the windowsill or the, the blinds are closed, the curtains drawn, it's kind of dark in this room, almost oppressive feeling hmm, what poor thing is he.
Ellie (Akka):uh, has he been experiencing sensitivity to light? I ask the mom, not that I'm aware of. Well, in that case, it's really better to have them exposed to the natural daylight rhythms of the outside, rather than keeping them cooped up inside. When they're sick, helps the body regulate itself and make sure that they're not, you know, becoming out of sync with the natural ways of the world.
Timothy (DM):Oh really, I never would have thought that I always start bundling up.
Ellie (Akka):Oh, bundle up certainly, but you know, have the blinds open. Let him see the trees, see the nature, look at the birds pass. It helps keep the spirits up, and keeping the spirits up is an important part of maintaining one's good health.
Timothy (DM):I will try to keep that in mind. Thank you, nurse.
Ellie (Akka):But that's not the only advice I have or the only help I have to offer.
Timothy (DM):Let me see the boy and I'll go over and uh inspect him please, um, and she steps aside as you're able to make your way across the room. Um, you see a young boy, eight or nine years in age, um, in a bed that is meant for him to grow into. He is covered with a comforter and several quilts, along with a knitted blanket as well, so he is just like. This is tiny little boy in his pile of blankets. Sorry, where's this kid boy in his pile?
Ellie (Akka):of blankets. Sorry, where's this kid? Wait a minute.
Timothy (DM):This is just an empty bed there's nothing in here we got you tiny little boy in his pile of blankets as he, as you see him, kind of shift and turn onto his side towards you. The covers, like barely move. You just see like a little ripple of the, the top blanket, um, and you do see immediately he's very pale. His skin is clammy, um, his hair is almost like slicked back from the sweat, um, and his like lips are chapped okay, so I'm going to, let's see.
Ellie (Akka):I guess we'll start with airway breathing, circulation, circulation. Um, so I'll uh kneel down to him and say hello, I'm nurse aka. Your mother has asked me here to help you. What's your name?
Timothy (DM):um. A very weak voice squeezes out pulling out the nameless alvar alvar.
Ellie (Akka):Well, that's a very nice name, a strong name for a strong little boy. All right, so airway seems good. Um, I, as I take his temperature, I'll lay my hand on his forehead and I'll check his respiration rate.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, and I don't have to go through all this stuff. Yeah, do you want me to just?
Ellie (Akka):give you an observation, investigation, check, oh yeah.
Timothy (DM):Should I just investigate his health, perhaps? Yes, give me yes. What's his blood glucose level? I feel like it would be observation. But, if you want to go, if you can describe a way that it's investigation. It's a very nuanced differentiation in the system. Observation is mainly used to put clues together.
Ellie (Akka):Oh well, I guess figuring out what's wrong with somebody is putting clues together. It wouldn't be medicine at this point, right, because I'm diagnosing, not treating.
Timothy (DM):Ah, that's fair.
Chris (Joseph):Medicine is knowledge of anatomy, disease or injury.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, I think we can do medicine for this.
Ellie (Akka):Okay, great. So if I have a three in medicine, that means I roll three dice, right? Is that how that works? And then you add your precision oh, okay, so six great, thank you okay, that's one success, yeah that is enough.
Timothy (DM):Um. So from assessing this boy, you can tell that he has some very severe form of cold or flu. Cold and or flu, um, like illness, um so he has. He's coughing. He does seem to have a lot of mucus that is being expelled and collecting in his body. He has a fever, as you like. Kind of move him around, he winces a little bit. So you can kind of tell that he's having some body aches and weakness, fatigue, all of those things that are so hard to tell apart when you're like this person's sick, um, but like, very like this is a severe case from your experience. Um, typically children of this age are a little bit more. They're able to bounce back a little bit more easily from this um, and this is three days after his mother originally contacted you, so it's been going on for a couple days, as in she was already worried when she contacted you. We're looking at probably five or six days of the illness, um, which is a long time for for something like this to be present in a child of this age.
Ellie (Akka):Has he been? Has his condition, I ask his mom has his condition been deteriorating or improving since we last talked?
Timothy (DM):I mean, it's pretty much been constant.
Ellie (Akka):There doesn't seem to be any change.
Timothy (DM):No, I was hoping he'd be better by now. It's um school's asking about him. Hmm.
Ellie (Akka):So I'm thinking maybe I have like a medicine to maybe help temper the fever a little bit and something with maybe like sedative or pain killing properties to help him rest a little bit and just sort of like chill out. I think mostly what we probably need to do for him is just like help him rest. I don't know, has he been keeping fluids down or anything? Has he been having trouble eating?
Timothy (DM):um, I've been able to get some bread and water into him typically that's good, yes yes, um you're taking good care of him I vomited a couple times last night, probably twice.
Ellie (Akka):Twice. She just pulls out the little notebook.
Timothy (DM):And definitely it's a slow process. He seems to be in pain, trying to swallow.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, okay. So, yeah, I'm thinking something that will help break the fever, yeah, okay. So, yeah, I'm thinking something that will help break the fever, maybe like a little bit of a sedative, uh, and like painkiller type thing that will then help him maybe have a little bit more of an appetite and feel more comfortable eating.
Ellie (Akka):Because with cold and fever, I feel like all you can really do is just like try and help the body do its own thing, especially in, you know, this time period yeah yeah let me get out my nyquil so I don't, I assume perhaps I have like some sort of little powder in a paper packet that I can like mix up and leave her with instructions, dosing instructions for it and like willow bark yeah, willow bark, maybe like a cool compress for his forehead.
Ellie (Akka):Talk about switching that out. Make sure that you know he's sweating a lot, make sure that you're and I know he's covered in blankets, which is good, but make sure that it's not his clothes and his blankets aren't getting cold and clammy. So if his clothing seems wet, try and change it and keep him in dry clothing, because that's really going to help him. You know, not create this feedback cycle of temperature. Those are my recommendations. So I provide those recommendations. I give them the first dose of his medicine, I leave uh the remaining doses, individually parceled with instructions for how to uh administer them, and then I ask to be taken to the, a water source to wash my hands, which is a hot new thing.
Timothy (DM):I'm trying. Uh, yes, there's a the well out back um and you can see that she's holding the piece of paper and the handful of the pills and she has this kind of bewildered. Look on her face.
Ellie (Akka):Well, I explained it verbally too.
Timothy (DM):Yes, yes, so she's like yes, I have all these things, but she has instructions. She does look a little like I mean, she was overwhelmed when you got there yeah um, so now she's like trying to process it and she looks very tired, like she's been staying up really late oh, sweetheart, I've.
Ellie (Akka):Do you have anybody who can come and help?
Timothy (DM):you for a little while her like mouth kind of agape, um, and cocks her head a little bit, she goes. Uh, I mean, my sister lives a town over and, um, I could always write yeah, why don't you write your sister a letter?
Ellie (Akka):I'll bring it back to town with me when I head back and I'll post it from there. It should be there by tomorrow. You'll get a little relief. You can't take care of anybody unless you're taking care of yourself.
Timothy (DM):You are a blessing. Thank you, Akka.
Ellie (Akka):You're very welcome. I don't want to have to come back here for you now, although the walk was delightful. The woods are beautiful this time of year well, every time of year well, the well is out back.
Timothy (DM):Feel free to wash up and um. Thank you again.
Ellie (Akka):So much of course I'll stop back to pick up that letter before I go perfect uh.
Timothy (DM):So you make your way uh to the back of the house. Sure enough, you do find an old well um stone with a little bucket, no crank or anything, just kind of like pull it up with your own strength. Um little bucket, you're able to wash yourself off. Um seems like a relatively well uh clean water source um, and you're able to do that excellent.
Timothy (DM):Uh, I will go back and pick up the letter um, and she hands it to you and again she's like thinks you, grabs your hands, kind of like holds them a little bit. Um, looks you in the eyes and you see, just like this faint smile, just kind of like, rise at the corners of her lips, um, before she lets go um and lets you be on your way.
Ellie (Akka):Excellent. As I head out, I pause, I look back Is the door closed?
Timothy (DM):Yes, the door closes behind you. Okay, perfect.
Ellie (Akka):I just take a step or two back. I fish around in my bag, I pull out a small iron nail and I tuck it underneath the little rotted part of the second stair where my foot went through the other week. Um, I tuck it under there with the tip pointing up and then carry on all right just in case um, now with your back to the house, oh wait, actually sorry. I just realized that made it sound like I want somebody to step their foot on it.
Dan (Luka):Oh no, it's gonna maim her sis.
Ellie (Akka):It's horizontal what I was trying to do it's supposed to be a good luck charm, I'll point it down instead.
Timothy (DM):I'm not trying to booby trap the stairs trying to show her superstitious nature I just assumed that was part of the good luck. Oh yeah, somebody had to. Yeah, well, no, that's what I was thinking too, to ward off evil, but I don't want somebody to.
Ellie (Akka):I'm more worried about tetanus than I am about brownies, exactly. On my triage list. So okay, yeah, I'll face it in a different direction.
Timothy (DM):All right, okay, yeah, I'll, I'll. I'll face it in a different direction, all right, um, so you go back and you readjust it after yeah, that crosses your mind and now, with your back turned to the house, you can continue down the path back into town, joined with the sounds of nature surrounding you.
Ellie (Akka):Do I see any birds I've never seen before?
Timothy (DM):That you've never seen before.
Ellie (Akka):That I've never seen before.
Timothy (DM):Give me an investigation. Okay, birds, birds, birds Investigation logic never seen before. Um give me an investigation.
Chris (Joseph):Okay, investigation logic whoa, you're so smart two successes two successes.
Timothy (DM):Oh my gosh, we have to consult the extra successes you see two new birds hanging out together, and Timothy really knows birds.
Chris (Joseph):You get a bird and a pocket watch.
Ellie (Akka):The bird's wearing a handkerchief too, and these better be actual birds that would have been in this region at this time.
Timothy (DM):Or we're going to know, sure, we're going to be doing great Extra success. No, not're gonna be doing great Extra success no, not observation.
Ellie (Akka):Investigation, investigation.
Timothy (DM):Investigation is on page 45. More clues you can use it to search a clue room. If you roll more, the game master decides whether you find more clues, understand the context or simply enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done.
Ellie (Akka):I'm going to enjoy the hell out of these birds.
Chris (Joseph):It's an endangered species of goose.
Timothy (DM):Oh my gosh, I don't actually know what birds are in Seville but you see a gorgeous, larger bird with a black bird, very sleek feathers, kind of like a nice little sheen to them, and there is red and yellow stripe along its wings, the tip of its wings.
Ellie (Akka):Cool.
Timothy (DM):Wow, you know I whip out the book and write that one down yes, and it sits for quite some time on like a really exposed branch that you can just like sit there and observe it. Um, yeah, it's lit up a little bit by the sky. You get a nice um, like a really nice view of it. Well lit um, and it just kind of is cleaning itself.
Timothy (DM):Um, you see it flap its wings a little bit like it's showing off nuzzle into it as it, kind of like, pulls back its feathers and the things that birds do this rules this I'm delighted I've never seen this bird before.
Ellie (Akka):This is really something I try my hand. I'm so inspired that I do try my hand At sketching it in my little book, but I'm not a good artist. But I feel like you know she's like inspired.
Chris (Joseph):Two new animals in one day, yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Well, the salamander, I think I might have seen before.
Chris (Joseph):Gotcha.
Ellie (Akka):That was not quite so exciting, although. I did like it quite a bit, so I return to town and I post the Gotcha. Yeah, that was not quite so exciting, although I did like it quite a bit. So I return to town and I post the letter.
Timothy (DM):Post the letter. They greet you warmly. Take the letter, it'll be—the post moves quite quickly here. It's the next town over. There's literally like a daily route between the two towns. They're like two kilometers apart. You could walk there yourself if you really wanted to, but this is kind of their job. They go back and forth between the towns in the region. I do actually have a map of the region around Pradyama yeah, um is that this one?
Timothy (DM):yeah, yes, uh, which, because of our video issues, I'm not going to be able to show the audience, but ellie can, with the gorgeous piece of paper in front of the camera we love how yeah um, really, just to give you some sense of how scattered uh settlements are in this region in the 1800s, um, we're not talking about any major settlements right now, um, ljubljana would be pretty large, um, and there would be some larger cities throughout the slovene lands, um, but the region that you're currently in is relatively scattered um. I think I literally took modern.
Timothy (DM):So to develop this map, I took modern day Slovenia, did an aerial view and I dropped buildings on actual roofs that existed on the aerial view of this region, and then I shifted them slightly and took out a couple um there's like 150 buildings in that entire region, which is a like seven kilometer radius. That's wild, it's a cool map yeah, so there's not a lot of buildings. All right, um anything else that you would like to share about akka's day.
Ellie (Akka):Um, I don't think so. I think after her house visit she goes back to the clinic in town and just sort of goes to work people for the rest of the day, like she usually does gorgeous but she feels very invigorated. It's not often that she gets to do like a nice walk in the morning all right, um, with that, we are actually going to go on our intermission.
Timothy (DM):So we're going to do this structure pretty much every session where we will have a single intermission. So we're gonna do this structure pretty much every session where we will have a single intermission. At the middle of the stream. Give or take a bit um, and we're gonna go on intermission for 15 minutes. Um, I did have like a little canned thing about that. But immerse yourselves in the atmospheric embrace of our interlude, whether you are watching our video, where enchanting fog scenes will drift across the screen, or listening along to the haunting strains of Slovenian folk tunes. Take this time to refresh yourself. Sip a glass of water, stretch your limbs and perhaps indulge in a small treat.
Timothy (DM):Let the whispers of the land call to you as we prepare to delve back into the enigmatic world of Vášenslávín lands. Return soon as the shadows await and the veil beckons. All right, we are back from intermission, which actually happened at such a perfect time for our scene transition. So we have met our three characters for today's well, this mystery and this campaign. So with us we have Joseph Fox, dan Luca Koss, ellie.
Ellie (Akka):Aka Korolev Korolev. Oh, I like that.
Cross Talk:Very pretty. Ellie Aka Korolev Korolev. Yeah, ooh, I like that. Thank you.
Dan (Luka):Very pretty.
Ellie (Akka):Thank you. Named after an important contributor to the space program.
Timothy (DM):Ooh, all right.
Ellie (Akka):I have no other information. I looked this up like a week ago.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, all right, all right. The winding road up to the ridge that the castle pradyama sits on has left your horses slightly winded. The light breeze is cooling, yet the sun beats down on you. The castle is tucked away A greystone collection of rectangles carved into the face of the cliffside. It almost looks like an accident, especially after the sparsely populated route here.
Timothy (DM):In your hand, uh, kako, kako, kako, wow, akako. In your hand, akako, you hold the key to the keep. Linnea gave this to you several weeks back, after you met her for the first time and she had petitioned you to restart the society, which is how Vossen is intended to be played. Post meeting Linnea. To be played Post meeting Linnea, learning about the society's history, agreeing to go to the headquarters and see what it's all about. And so you have with you the key to the castle and some information about the society that's included at the beginning of the core book. So just the history of it. Starting up, their time spent hunting Vasan and then their gradual dissolution. Linnea was also, at one point, a member of the society, although she is very cagey about why she left and why she wishes never to return and why she wishes never to return, mmm, mmm.
Timothy (DM):It is Joseph and Aka in this carriage as it pulls up to the front doors, crossing the bridge over to the castle, coming to a halt.
Chris (Joseph):Oh my goodness, look at the state of this place.
Timothy (DM):The stones are crumbling.
Ellie (Akka):I have to say when is it Linnea?
Chris (Joseph):Yeah.
Ellie (Akka):When Linnea described it to me, she left out some of the more pertinent details.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, I don't see a roof on that part of the building.
Ellie (Akka):Oh heavens.
Chris (Joseph):I can only imagine what is living inside right now. Oh heavens, yeah, Joseph is now rubbing his hands together. I'm like hmm, Interesting heavens, uh, yeah, joseph is now uh rubbing his hands together interesting well, shall we?
Ellie (Akka):she holds out an arm towards the.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, I castle door, castle door I I whistle for broody and I I link arms with uh aka and I sorry when I said holding out an arm.
Timothy (DM):I meant gesturing, you're like pointing, but I like the idea that you were like alrighty let's go.
Ellie (Akka):A little like one of those awkward stranger miscues.
Chris (Joseph):Oh, sorry, I thought your arm was extended, oh no, I'm sorry. We walk very cordially. Yeah, you know the history of this castle.
Ellie (Akka):Bits and pieces, but it's hard to separate legend from truth.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, there are a lot of tall tales. Well, I'm curious to see if it actually does have a dungeon.
Ellie (Akka):Indeed, I'm curious to see if it has habitable rooms.
Chris (Joseph):An equally inspiring mystery.
Ellie (Akka):Indeed, and I'll unlock it using the key.
Timothy (DM):Alright. You force the key into the rusty lock. It turns with a little bit of force and turns with a little bit of force and then, with a click, the door begins to swing open. As you push open the door with a creak. Thank you for the sound.
Ellie (Akka):I got whistles. I got creaks as you push open the door with a creak.
Timothy (DM):Thank you for the sound I got whistles, I got creaks, yeah Um, as you push open the door with a creak, you notice a faint light down the hall from the entry that you enter into.
Chris (Joseph):Is somebody squatting in our house?
Ellie (Akka):I certainly hope not. The door's locked.
Chris (Joseph):Good point.
Timothy (DM):You notice the corners of the entryway are clean, cobwebs removed.
Ellie (Akka):Hmm, it's actually suspiciously nice in here.
Chris (Joseph):If they squat like this, they can stay.
Ellie (Akka):Agreed.
Chris (Joseph):Broomswept. Oh my goodness. I pull out my white glove.
Ellie (Akka):Oh my goodness this is a little bit nicer than the outside implied.
Chris (Joseph):Yes, I am curious, I'm wary, I snap for Broody and I motion for Broody to sort of pad down the hallway towards the light.
Timothy (DM):Okay, as you make your way towards the light, you feel a cool breeze coming from deeper within the castle and you start to hear the crackling of a fireplace of a fireplace.
Timothy (DM):There's a couple side chambers, and as you peer inside the side chambers, you do notice that these rooms have not been cleaned. Detritus collects in the corners, cobwebs extend in the doorframe and they are plunged into a darkness beyond the light coming from the end of the hallway. And as the sound of the crackling fireplace grows, as does the light, you find yourself in a small study. Standing besides the fireplace is an older man in a aged butler suit. Clean, welcomed, but he's seen in some years, as has his clothing. Its sheen has dulled, the fabric has thinned and you notice wear marks, especially along the arms, where the elbow would bend, and the tips of his gloves. As he sees you enter the room, he raises his face towards you. Master Luca has been waiting and who may you be?
Timothy (DM):ah, my name is Alget. Alget Frisk at your service, my name is Alget, alget, alget Frisk At your service. I have tended to these halls for many years.
Chris (Joseph):It appears to be the one that you do a very good job at, and I point to the hallway that we just walked down.
Timothy (DM):It has been quite a difficult space to upkeep since the society crumbled all those years ago, but now that you have returned I suspect we will see a shift.
Ellie (Akka):Well, I certainly hope so. It's downright dreary in here.
Timothy (DM):Hmm, frightfully so.
Ellie (Akka):You said something about someone waiting for us.
Timothy (DM):Indeed, I did. Master Luca has been here for several days.
Chris (Joseph):Did we know? I just got my letter just to come and meet somebody at the town.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, you were the only person that I was told about.
Chris (Joseph):Where is this, luca?
Timothy (DM):He is sleeping upstairs, I suppose, typically this time of day. I was just about to leave.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, it's like no, I'm talking to him.
Timothy (DM):I was just about to leave out some lunch near his door.
Ellie (Akka):Well, perhaps we can bring him his lunch and introduce ourselves.
Chris (Joseph):A nice surprise.
Ellie (Akka):A little food goes a long way towards establishing camaraderie the stairs are to the left.
Timothy (DM):There he's in the third door to the right excellent.
Ellie (Akka):Is there like a little tray with his lunch on it or something?
Timothy (DM):yes, you see like a, a tarnished silver platter with like a ham sandwich and some crackers.
Chris (Joseph):Man, this is deluxe Wow.
Timothy (DM):Sitting on the side table next to the sofa in the study.
Ellie (Akka):All right, I'll grab the tray.
Chris (Joseph):And I will follow.
Ellie (Akka):I will head up the stairs. Third door on the right.
Timothy (DM):I will be here for when the three of you return.
Ellie (Akka):Much appreciated If you wouldn't mind. Perhaps, if there are two rooms that could accommodate the two of us, If you wouldn't mind opening them up.
Timothy (DM):Of course, mind opening them up. Of course, I have set two rooms aside already and I will make up the beds this afternoon.
Ellie (Akka):Way ahead of me. What a professional he's like. Don't tell me how to do this. Yeah, it's like this is my house, oh sorry.
Timothy (DM):And he goes back to his tending of the fire and the room. As you make your way up the stairs into another hallway, you hear snoring down the hall. Through the heavy wooden doors sounds like there's a lumberjack indoors.
Ellie (Akka):I know, and a second smaller lumberjack.
Chris (Joseph):It's a higher-pitched lumberjack. Intermittent sneezes too. That's odd, Wow.
Ellie (Akka):Well, this must be the door I'd stop at, the door outside of which the story is left.
Dan (Luka):I just rap sharply you hear, like someone, like tumble who is it Aka?
Ellie (Akka):and? Joseph we're your compatriots in the society.
Dan (Luka):Oh oh, okay, um we have your lunch. Yes, wonderful uh, luca will get up off from the floor, um, and he has set up in a like an incomplete room, like a room that has like not been made nice, um, because he's hiding an incomplete room, like a room that has like not been made nice, um, because he's hiding oh, um, uh, he has, so he'll, he'll like he's about to pull a con on us.
Ellie (Akka):He thinks he's about to pull a con on us. Maybe he's like. I just showed up here and they started giving me hand sandwiches, I don't know Um the.
Dan (Luka):The door swings open and um hi uh, luca cost at your service. Um, he, he's like wearing pants and suspenders, but not a shirt. Um, you caught me at a little bit of a casual moment I see do you own a shirt? I take. I take the plate of food. Let me get ready. How did you know I was here?
Ellie (Akka):Alget told us who the butler oh, that's his name. Yes.
Dan (Luka):He knew I was here this whole time.
Chris (Joseph):He said you were the master of this house.
Dan (Luka):Oh God, no, oh, so you just no. I snuck in through the open roof so there was a squatter. Okay, yeah, but I was invited. So it's like Well, yeah, you just, it's not really squatting if I'm invited right, oh, you were invited yeah. Yeah, like he goes into his, he like rumbles, rumbles, what's the word?
Chris (Joseph):rifles rifles.
Dan (Luka):He rifles through his pocket and pulls out the same letter like stamped, but it's like crumpled and it's got some and it's like been shoved into his pocket.
Ellie (Akka):See, yeah, yeah, I got two Indeed, so yeah.
Dan (Luka):I guess we're like friends or co -workers.
Ellie (Akka):Colleagues.
Dan (Luka):Sure, yeah, all three work. I know what that word is.
Ellie (Akka):Well, gosh, I have to say, seeing you eat that ham sandwich is reminding me that it's been a little while since I had breakfast.
Dan (Luka):Oh yeah, typically there are just sandwiches lying around out here.
Chris (Joseph):In the open yeah.
Ellie (Akka):You thought that Algett didn't know you were here.
Dan (Luka):Well, they were on tables in other rooms, typically Gotcha oh.
Ellie (Akka):I see.
Chris (Joseph):Specialty-aged open sandwiches.
Dan (Luka):Well, I checked to make sure they weren't there yesterday. That's good.
Ellie (Akka):Very good. Well, shall we reconvene down in the study in a moment or two.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, I'm going to put my shirt on. Okay, I'm so glad to be here. Yes, and I'm going to scoop up Pika under one arm.
Ellie (Akka):How are Pika and Broody doing with each other?
Chris (Joseph):You have a dog as well. Yes, this is Pika and this is Broody.
Dan (Luka):Your dog is big.
Chris (Joseph):Well, your dog is nice and carryable.
Ellie (Akka):Yes, I want a dog.
Dan (Luka):Go ahead, I'll let you hey girl.
Ellie (Akka):Pika.
Timothy (DM):Your wish has been granted.
Ellie (Akka):She holds Pika like she has never held a dog or anything. They're like just the most.
Dan (Luka):Watch out for the ends, they can get wet.
Chris (Joseph):Oh yes.
Ellie (Akka):Oh, she tries harder to hold her like right from the middle Plural end can't get left.
Dan (Luka):Luca will just pull his shirt on very casually, and then he'll come and take Pika back. All right.
Chris (Joseph):It's a well-behaved dog. Yeah, not really.
Dan (Luka):I mean she's really old. That helps with it. Yeah.
Chris (Joseph):Limited agility, but she's happy, isn't she? I see her.
Dan (Luka):She's really old, that helps with it Limited agility, but she's happy, isn't she? I see her. She's smiling, is she?
Ellie (Akka):wagging her tail.
Dan (Luka):Does she have a tail? She has a little nub Aww, and it's going, yeah, wow.
Chris (Joseph):It's an energetic dog.
Ellie (Akka):Enchanting Gosh. This place is just going to be so full of life and laughter Once.
Chris (Joseph):Once we fix it.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah or right now.
Chris (Joseph):It is. It got a certain charm to it.
Cross Talk:I think I saw a couple of rooms that had roofs. Does this room have a roof? I picked this one. This room does not have a roof.
Chris (Joseph):No this one has a roof.
Cross Talk:Oh, it does have a roof. Yeah, I picked this one because it has a roof I snuck in via one that doesn't have a roof.
Ellie (Akka):Okay, but you didn't stay there I don't want to get rained on.
Chris (Joseph):It's good that the castle is partially covered by the cave.
Ellie (Akka):That's true. The ribs in the back are probably fine either way. Excellent, let's head downstairs and get an accounting of what we've signed up for.
Chris (Joseph):Yes.
Timothy (DM):Alright, so the three of you make your way back down into the study, where the butler, elgort Frisk, is standing in the center of the room holding a leather-bound book. He extends it out towards you as he turns to Luca and goes Ah, master Luca, good to finally meet you. How do you know my name? Have you enjoyed your stay?
Dan (Luka):The sandwiches have been excellent.
Timothy (DM):Good Noted. This is for the three of you. It is a ledger left here by the old society members. It is now in your hands, as is the key to the keep. I will serve you as I did the society before.
Chris (Joseph):Thank you very much for your service.
Timothy (DM):He nods.
Chris (Joseph):What does this book do?
Ellie (Akka):Shall we set it on the table and look through it, rather than making him stand there holding it? Why don't you set that down. Yeah, I got it okay, wait, don't get mayo on it oh, he saw you, he waves his hands on
Dan (Luka):his pants and shirt here's somebody else want to do this yeah, you turn around.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, we'll flip through it all right um.
Timothy (DM):So you set it down on the coffee table or something and you start flipping through it. It appears to be a ledger of sorts um with names of people, with dates and short descriptions of various missions they met, went on or activities they carried out. Um not particularly descriptive, but you do notice some sort of classification system in the right ledger of or the right hand column of the ledger um, some sort of alphanumeric system, uh, related to each of them um, but in the cover of the book. But in the cover of the book there are two. So on the actual inside cover of the book there is a short poem and on the first page there is a symbol of the Ouroboros, which is also a poem. So here is the short poem for the inside cover, if somebody would like to read it for the audience oh me, oh, I mean, you have such a sonorous voice in the forest, ancient and green, the spirits dwell, unseen From the trees and the streams.
Chris (Joseph):They rise, guiding us with their gentle eyes. The wind carries their whispers, soft. Their presence felt but never lost. The flowers bloom with their loving care and the animals frolic without a care. The sun and the moon, they are their kin. As they dance and sing, the world begins. The spirit guides us through life and death, ever present with every breath. The natural world is alive and well. Hope of spirits that often dwell. Leshy guards with a watchful eye. Kikimora keeps the hearth, fires high high Vodyanoi rules the waterways, while Gamayun sings of bygone days. Alkanost's voice brings a soothing peace and Ovinik tends the fields with ease. So when you walk amongst the trees, listen closely to the gentle breeze, and when the wind whispers in your ear, listen closely, for the magic is near.
Ellie (Akka):Wow, that's quite something Enchanting.
Chris (Joseph):They have a good use of the E's rhyme. I enjoyed that.
Ellie (Akka):Well done by both the original author and for your recitation. Oh, thank you so much by both the original author and for your recitation oh, thank you so much.
Chris (Joseph):So this seems to be a foreword to some sort of folklore-ish book.
Ellie (Akka):And you said there was some sort of classification system in one of the columns. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Is it like code, like a three letter code indicating something, or like?
Timothy (DM):Yes, it's like a three letter, three character, alphanumeric, interesting Like a catalog. Catalog is kind of what you're thinking it might be related to. Hmm.
Ellie (Akka):Interesting interesting.
Chris (Joseph):These are things that I have not. These are mostly myths that exist in the forest, leshies being big bundles of grass and tree well, it's hard to distinguish myth from reality yes, I squint at it's hard to distinguish myth from reality. Yes, I squint at Aka. I squint at Joseph, the two can so often seem to intermingle. They do cross paths from time to time.
Timothy (DM):Now, as part of our initiation do we all know each other like? Have the sight, yes, linnea would have.
Chris (Joseph):So you see weird things too, oh okay, yeah yeah, linnea would have.
Timothy (DM):I mean, she would have said that you were all touched, that you had a gift that provided you with special skills to. Again, she's very cagey, so she'll give you history and stuff Mm-hmm, but she's always so cryptic, and so you have special skills that allow you the ability to combat Vison. And she does use the word combat hunting Like her language around it is very much the language of destroying monsters.
Chris (Joseph):My specialty yes.
Ellie (Akka):Well, we're lucky to have you on our side.
Dan (Luka):What about you, luca? What's your specialty? I am the most unremarkable young man you'll ever meet. Quite the feat. Um, I'd like to take something off of um joseph. Okay, let's see you try.
Timothy (DM):So this is an opposed role which we're going to learn about right now so you can make opposed roles. Npcs, vasin, everything will make opposed roles. Um, it really just means that, um, we figure out what you're doing and what the opposition to that would be and we roll those skills. So for this, it would be your stealth, uh, your stealth precision luca against um, joseph's. I think it's vigilance, vigilance that is one right vigilance. Vigilant logic.
Dan (Luka):How many dice is that for you I?
Chris (Joseph):got 7.
Dan (Luka):Oh gosh, I've got 6.
Chris (Joseph):You're doing pretty hot with those dice. I got 1 success, I got no successes.
Dan (Luka):I did roll almost a Yahtzee. That's pretty good you got 3, 5.
Chris (Joseph):Oh, just 2, 3's, 3, 5's, 3, 4's.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, we're playing yahtzee now you get to be the game master. Um luca, describe how you fail this um, I'm just gonna.
Dan (Luka):You said you carry like a bag.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, I have a little I have some pouches and like various things on a belt around my waist yeah, I like, wanna, just like, as I saying, the most unremarkable young man you'll ever meet.
Dan (Luka):I'm going to try and sweep a hand past your belt.
Chris (Joseph):I have a hip flask on one side, yeah and just pull it out of your belt. And Broody, bolting up from the ground lightly of like, lightly, puts their mouth on your arm.
Dan (Luka):Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, fine fine.
Chris (Joseph):Oh my goodness, Broody, you can't just do that to our new friend. I'm sure he was admiring. It's a very nice flask. I pull it off of my belt and I hand it to.
Dan (Luka):I take out a handful of wallets. This is what I'm good at.
Chris (Joseph):Oh wow, you make wallets. Leather craftsmanship is they're very well done. Yeah, they're not mine, I didn't make them oh okay.
Ellie (Akka):I took them.
Dan (Luka):Oh, that's what you did A petty criminal, sure, and you with so much promise, I wouldn't say that every young person has promise in their heart well, sure he like gets all of his wallets back and puts them in his pocket.
Chris (Joseph):I now understand why your dog has such a nice scarf.
Dan (Luka):Oh, again, not mine it's also probably very dirty at this point. I now understand why your dog has such a nice scarf oh again not mine.
Timothy (DM):It's also probably very dirty at this point.
Cross Talk:But, it's still nice silk, yeah and wet, yeah and wet.
Dan (Luka):So wet With what. When the tongue hangs out. There's not much you can do about it.
Ellie (Akka):It's just everywhere, like one of those frog toys. Well, what about you, aka?
Dan (Luka):Well.
Ellie (Akka):I am somewhat of an amateur naturalist. I saw a bird the other week that I had never seen before. It was glossy black and I described it to them. I also practiced medicine. I assisted the doctor. I was a nurse in our village.
Chris (Joseph):Good to have medical skills. You never know what you'll encounter.
Ellie (Akka):And bird identification skills and bird.
Chris (Joseph):Yes, being a naturalist knowing different creatures.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah. So if you feel like you're coming down with something or you break a bone, I can set bones, can do some basic medicine, although I have to admit I feel somewhat ill-equipped here, um, as the entire place reeks of fetid mold and I have only the supplies that I was able to personally acquire. I didn't want to take too much with me.
Chris (Joseph):I'm sure there are some wildflowers that can be picked around here.
Ellie (Akka):Well, what a team we are.
Chris (Joseph):Yes, truly.
Ellie (Akka):Aka reaches out to clasp both of your hands. What a team.
Timothy (DM):When you are all finished greeting each other. I will show you to the library. This is where I have spent most of my energy Upkeeping the headquarters. Great.
Timothy (DM):Right this way and he begins to slowly shuffle down the hallway, eventually taking you to a rather large room. Bookshelves lining the walls, um, and this is one of those like french style libraries with the long ladders that reach up to like the fourth. Oh hell yeah uh shelf, set of shelves. Oh, wow, um. This is the true glory of the society a collection of tomes spanning hundreds of years and 20 languages the last we counted hmm, so languages, the last we counted.
Timothy (DM):So I imagine there's a connection between the big brown book you showed us and these little books, somewhat the ledger counts the various missions where artifacts were uncovered. Unfortunately, much of the archives has been fallen to disrepair over the years. The collapse in the tunnel was quite a lot of rubble to sift through on my own, hmm.
Chris (Joseph):Well, I imagine we will wrap around to that as we tidy up this little cozy cottage ah, yes, please do make yourselves at home.
Timothy (DM):This is your property to do as you like. I will do my best to provide you with three square meals a day and ensure that the library is kept protected.
Ellie (Akka):Much appreciated, alget much appreciated and uh, so when we were like, got the pitch to restart the society, did we have a? Like? We don't have an assignment currently.
Chris (Joseph):it's just like come here, you've been selected, yeah okay you've won the trauma lottery, yeah congratulations um gosh.
Ellie (Akka):Is this guy like on our payroll?
Chris (Joseph):I was not intending I I.
Ellie (Akka):I just left my paying job to come here.
Dan (Luka):I've never had a paying job in my entire life.
Timothy (DM):You might be the best equipped of both of us to handle this Master.
Ellie (Akka):Arca, although I am old, my hearing is still here. I apologize, Alget, for discussing logistics in your shop. To answer your question.
Timothy (DM):I apologize, alget, for discussing logistics in your shot. To answer your question, I do not need much and tend to fare for myself. I wish only to maintain the headquarters and keep the society thriving, although that is something that I cannot say has been true for quite some time I'll get.
Chris (Joseph):How long have you been here with this society, or is I'll get older than I am?
Timothy (DM):yes, I'll get is like 90 oh, my goodness, oh gosh um. I was born in the castle and took over the stewardship of it after my father passed in 72 how could you have such a fascinating inner life?
Ellie (Akka):What.
Timothy (DM):I mean of course. I will take that at face value and proceed with my life.
Chris (Joseph):It was meant as a sincere. There is a mystique around Prajama Castle, given its storied past with erasmus luger and the siege that ended with his death on the on the commode I am not familiar with the story you're telling me you do not know he's the most famous resident of this castle. He a real story about this historical place.
Timothy (DM):You will have to tell me today at dinner.
Ellie (Akka):I look forward to hearing your story well, I have to admit this, as exciting as this all is, excitement really tends to tire me out and I would love to set my bags down If you wouldn't mind showing us the rooms we'll be staying in.
Timothy (DM):Uh, yes, they are on the second floor. I will show you to them now.
Ellie (Akka):Excellent and, once we get shown to our rooms, I'm really looking forward to checking out this library.
Timothy (DM):Yes, Alright, so he shuffles on back through the study, up the stairs and onto the second floor. Your rooms are not far from where you originally found Luca. Yay, super party. Luca will stay in the library.
Dan (Luka):Library, because Luca's stuff is already you've seen there. I've seen all the rooms at this point when you were picking yours exactly this is the best one the other two have been made up.
Timothy (DM):The bed's not quite, yet. Everything has been, like, cleared out. So the rooms are clean, um. The beds are currently without a spread, um, but everything seems to have been dusted off, any detritus removed, cobwebs cleared out, um, and there are clean candlesticks fresh candlesticks laid out on the bedside tables of each of the rooms, along with a oil lantern well, I'll.
Ellie (Akka):I'll just set my supplies down, maybe like change out of my traveling clothes into a clean set of clothes so that I don't get dust all over the books, and then I'll go poke my head in joseph's room yeah, I am unrolling the library.
Chris (Joseph):Yes, I enroll the blanket that I had stuffed in my traveling case and I put up a few personal effects and Broody is sitting on the bed, and then I join Aka as we head back down to the library.
Ellie (Akka):All right, what do you think of our new companions?
Chris (Joseph):You mean Luca and Alget. They have interesting personalities and I think they have much to offer.
Ellie (Akka):Indeed.
Chris (Joseph):It's all terribly mysterious. Yes, because I this is still a lot of unknown information. I I this is still a lot of unknown information. I know this is a society that is related to creatures of the sort, but hearing that it is so destructive it is interesting. I would think it'd be more conservative in terms of rehabilitating rather than destruction.
Ellie (Akka):Of the basin.
Chris (Joseph):Yes.
Ellie (Akka):Basin.
Chris (Joseph):Vossen.
Ellie (Akka):Vossen Adding an H. I'll get that right. That's exactly why I'm so interested in looking through the library. I think that some context of the historical efforts of this society will go a long way in helping us understand what we've signed up for here.
Chris (Joseph):Do you read many languages?
Ellie (Akka):Only the one, I'm afraid I see what about yourself?
Chris (Joseph):I only know two I know English and I know German.
Timothy (DM):Slovenian and a German.
Chris (Joseph):And I know.
Timothy (DM):Slovenian, just Slovenian, for me, just Slovenian, and a German.
Ellie (Akka):So we'll rejoin Luca in the library. Luca in the library.
Dan (Luka):Luca has kicked off his shoes and is walking around barefoot and has set out a couple books on the ground where it looks like he's like maybe like kneeled down to look at them. Um, and most of the pages that are have been open to have pictures on them look at carrie are you sure?
Ellie (Akka):I don't, I'm, but that's oh gotcha they are horror.
Timothy (DM):Some of these pictures are horrifying. Oh my god they are grotesque monsters yeah, most of the sketches that you come across he's.
Dan (Luka):He's up on a ladder like hooked one arm in to like flip through a book while on the ladder and he points down to a look at the one. That's terrifying.
Timothy (DM):It is a quadrupedal beast.
Timothy (DM):Dia Dia Based on the context clues within the sketch, you can tell it's a rather large creature. It is like sketched next to some trees and you're estimating probably 20 feet tall. It is a long, slender creature with these gnarly appendages and these long horns that just twist in many directions and its face is like gaunt to the point where it's like skin pulled over. Uh, a skull. Um, it's a long maw kind of like open slightly, and sharp teeth. Um, you can't. There's no color to the sketch but you can almost imagine that the eyes are like a piercing red or something terrifying in the night.
Ellie (Akka):You're right.
Dan (Luka):Terrifying.
Ellie (Akka):That one is especially awful.
Dan (Luka):And this encyclopedia also sounds terrifying'm just gonna put that one back, oh my goodness too many words yeah, well it sounded like a monster yeah, it's like a big bug what that one is um.
Ellie (Akka):So, looking at the, looking through the library, do the books appear to be like? Is it a lot more like ledgers and like handwritten or like documentation about the activities of the society? Or do these look like an encyclopedia, like folklore books, like what kind of books are?
Timothy (DM):here. It's a combination of a lot of different texts, okay, and types of texts, so some of them do appear to be like personal effect, journals, um, but then others do seem to be more like historical records and atlases and more like educational um. You get this sense that the purpose of the library is for academic minded people to be able to parse through the layers of folk, folk versus reality, like where is the lore, where is the tale and where is the truth, and that is a complicated relationship. So as you spend your time in the library, that's kind of the story that you're getting. There is some sort of organization system that you're getting. Um, there is some sort of um organization system that you start to notice. There's like the reference section, the historical section, the journals from people. You find a couple books that look like they're like almost shadow books from like a witch okay, like a spell book.
Timothy (DM):Oh my goodness like you open one text dusty, uh tome, with all these like weird symbols throughout it, and the it's in a language that you've never seen it's like. So there's a whole variety of stuff in this library. And, as he said, like 20 different languages, plus some witch shorthand and code books and stuff like that, as well as stuff from all over the world, stuff that you see, dates that go back hundreds of years and some things.
Ellie (Akka):Um, it's a lot to take in all at once oh, and I guess the, the book that alget brought us is sort of the best, like seems like the best summary or like overview of the society's activities.
Timothy (DM):There's nothing that's more promising it's quite literally the like history the like synopsis of the history of the society, so that one also used to go back like uh, I think the book says like 60 years of time that the society was standing before. Everybody either died or left Gotcha and you do find Linnea's name in there a couple times with some things about different places. She went, creatures that she encountered or believes to have encountered, creatures that she encountered or believes to have encountered, um, and then the alphanumeric code seems to be related to the archive, so like artifacts and stuff like that but is this the archive that we're in now, or is this the library?
Ellie (Akka):the?
Timothy (DM):archive um. There was a collapse in the tunnel that I'll mention um, and it seems that when the tunnel collapsed it took many years for him to clear it out, and during that time period the archive kind of fell apart. It was a lot to upkeep so it might have flooded, it might have been infested, all sorts of things could have happened, because it was a collection of artifacts and stuff like that, so there would have been cloth and wood and stuff like that down there.
Ellie (Akka):You know it's got to be climate controlled.
Timothy (DM):And that was not the situation.
Ellie (Akka):It was not the situation. Yeah, it was not climate-controlled.
Chris (Joseph):Well, this is a valuable resource for future tasks. Good to know.
Ellie (Akka):I suppose our first order of business as fledgling members of this society is to get our headquarters in order.
Chris (Joseph):Yes.
Ellie (Akka):Thoughts.
Timothy (DM):Indeed oh. And he is just like standing behind you? Oh, okay, that would be my suggestion. I should have warned you.
Dan (Luka):I saw him coming. Oh yeah, please.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, you'll be our eyes for next time.
Ellie (Akka):I'm a little deaf in this year.
Chris (Joseph):I imagine is there a particular area that needs the most attention right now.
Timothy (DM):You look around and it's like the library has been kept up and the entryway and a couple bedrooms.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, yeah like throughout the time that you've been in here, like everything has kind of fallen to disrepair. Everything's covered in dust and cobwebs. Some rooms are going to be easier than others. Obviously, the ones with throughout roofs are going to be a lot more effort. Yeah, um, to clear out, um, there is a small kitchen. Um, he's kept it moderately clean, um, but it's like a workspace, so it's really just like he's. He's kind of cleared it out as much as he needed in order to, like, prepare food yeah, ham yes, he lives, very simply.
Timothy (DM):I mean, he lives by himself in this giant castle and his main task has been to keep up the library and he's done an
Ellie (Akka):excellent job.
Timothy (DM):And the library is really really well kept and that is a hard thing to keep up.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah all the paper and the books.
Chris (Joseph):What would you like to see in this castle, Luca?
Dan (Luka):Oh, um, I don't know. I have a room and there's food. That's a lot For me it's like more than I normally have. What Don't give me that look.
Ellie (Akka):I see so much promise in you.
Chris (Joseph):Thanks. He's still got a lot of years on him.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, that's where the promise comes in.
Dan (Luka):All people are weird, we can hear you.
Ellie (Akka):I said I'm a little deaf in this ear. Not this ear, Not this one.
Chris (Joseph):What else do we do here?
Ellie (Akka):Well, I mean, we could go find ourselves some lunch, is that a?
Timothy (DM):yes, then you will restart the society.
Ellie (Akka):Oh yes.
Chris (Joseph):I thought that was a yes, we agree.
Dan (Luka):You put a roof over my head and a sandwich in my hand, sure.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah.
Dan (Luka):Thank you.
Ellie (Akka):I already quit my job.
Chris (Joseph):And I am a traveler, so I really have no fixed location.
Timothy (DM):Same I will send a letter to the network and inform them that this branch has reopened indeed it has if you have any questions about the local region, please do let me know. Otherwise I will go tend to lunch.
Ellie (Akka):I do have some questions, but I feel like lunch is more pressing.
Chris (Joseph):We can chat over a nice.
Ellie (Akka):Ham sandwich.
Dan (Luka):Hammy. I could use another Hammy, sammy. Yes.
Ellie (Akka):Well, perhaps we can accompany him to the kitchens then I am curious to see if there's a space that I could turn into a little clinic area. Keep clean store supplies. Yeah, if the kitchen area is clean, that seems like you know, I can boil water there and stuff which is a good start all right, uh.
Timothy (DM):So you follow him to the kitchen, where you do see a cured ham hanging from a hook, and then you do see a basket with a loaf of bread that has had a couple slices taken off of it Bread. So he begins to slice the bread and then also trims off a couple slices of cured ham. Um, they are quite literally ham sandwiches just. And then a little bit of butter spread across one of the sides of bread. Um, yes, very simple. And then he stacks those together, puts them on plates and is handing them out to you. But what were you wanting to do while he was carrying out that activity?
Ellie (Akka):I'm interested in poking around to see if there's any like maybe like a little pantry, or even just like the other side of the kitchen that has like a big counter or something. You know, if what I'm bringing to the table here is my ability to do medicine, then I want to make sure I have at least sort of a setup to do medicine. Yeah.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, so there is a little bit of pantry. That does have some like larger tables or larger counters. The pantry is not well stocked, so there is a lot of space in there.
Timothy (DM):Mixed blessing the cleanest space. Um, there are also like a couple bedrooms that are available. Um, they would take some cleaning up to do. Um, there's a couple that wouldn't have been like aren't currently caved in, or anything like that. Um, the furniture might be a little old and decaying but like having a mattress, putting like some shell, bringing some shelving in, wouldn't be that difficult okay then.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, I guess that's what akka puts herself to after eating her ham sandwich is yeah getting a space set up, probably one of the bedrooms, maybe near our area, our three bedrooms. That'll be my plan.
Timothy (DM):That's what I'm gonna do with my time and this can be an activity that takes multiple days or weeks like yeah like right now.
Timothy (DM):We're about to like montage forward as now, you, you've all arrived at the society, you've met alga, um, you've agreed to start this up and you have the key, and so now it's like a matter of you clearing out your little bit of space, expending your energy as you wait for something to come your way, um, in terms of a request or a job. Um, you do see that throughout this time period, elgott um does leave the castle, um, he takes, as you like, watch him. You see that he he leaves the castle through a back entrance and if any of you follow him um, it does go through a natural cavern system. So luca definitely like, follows him out through um, and it comes out through the base of the cliff side, um, and that's how he gets down um, as apollo, as opposed to like, the long winding path up the hill that you all took via carriage. Um, so, and that is what he does to do his errands in town, he'll go out the castle pick up ham bread butter simple things.
Timothy (DM):Take the sheets and stuff in to get laundered, so he takes them to a launderer and then has them returned, makes your beds up and does that kind of stuff.
Timothy (DM):Every once in a while he has to go get other supplies, more oil for the lamps, candlesticks. But again, very simple, his budget is very small right now and so he keeps to the bare minimum the basics. And so, yeah, over time period of days to weeks you clear out your little space. You get a nice little setup, a simple setup in one of the spare bedrooms. Bring some like shelving that's not as decayed from some of the other rooms, um put one of the beds in there that hasn't fallen apart. Get the cleanest mattress um put. Have him put new sheets on it. Um, I don't know what else you would need for this space, but it's that type of situation.
Ellie (Akka):Like any little medicines or whatever that I brought. I'll stock up on the little shelves. Get some scissors, clean knife.
Timothy (DM):Yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Fireplace hopefully.
Timothy (DM):Start acquiring some supplies. Yeah there's several fireplaces. Throughout this, I think, oh great, I'm not sure you've been chris. Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, are there? Are there multiple fireplaces? I?
Chris (Joseph):I know there's one in the kitchen and I know there's one in the master bedroom. The master bedroom was really the only heated part of the castle gotcha, but there might be more. I'm blanking.
Ellie (Akka):So are you really in your mind palace right now? Can you really picture it really well?
Chris (Joseph):I can certain parts, definitely the master bedroom, because that's where the chaplain was living, right next to the, and there's a window that he could receive mass while sleeping in bed. Bless. There are several guard areas there is the, the dungeon and the and the judicial court on the second floor. So yeah, I'm, I'm picturing that that map that you have is like actual it's a very accurate map.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, I, I also watched a virtual tour at some point, uh, like a year ago, when I was planning to do this. Yeah, that map is very accurate, which I will figure out how to share with the audience next session. Roll 20 was just. I think roll 20 is what was causing the frame rate drop on our stream.
Ellie (Akka):What about you guys? Are you guys up to anything in our montage?
Dan (Luka):I will just help.
Chris (Joseph):I might not have a lot of skills, but I can carry things, yeah I think um joseph will go up to where the old barracks were on the upper floors and see if there's anything left behind or anything useful that could be scout salvage, to like patch the holes in the roofs, cause I imagine there's a lot of just stuff that was left cause it was abandoned and they didn't want to take it, and yeah.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, I mean um finding uh wood that you can break down furniture in order to to salvage um is an option. Option they would have had, like some tools, nails, etc.
Chris (Joseph):Like that as well, to like keep up on repairs if there's an anvil or something like that, that'd be great yes, there is a, an anvil.
Timothy (DM):The floor beneath it has cracked a bit and it started to sink. Concerningly. What's this above? I will have to refer back to my map and listen back on all of the things that I am establishing right now, while not looking at a map.
Timothy (DM):But at some point there's an anvil spatial relationship correct, um, uh, but yeah, that is that's you can. You can find an anvil, you can find some, some tools and some repair supplies, um, and you can do some light repair on the building You're not going to be able to Mechanically. Vassen has a headquarters system in which you can expend development points in order to gain new rooms and new people and all of that type of stuff, but we don't have any development points. But you don't have any development points Because we haven't done an adventure yet yeah, you don't have any influence.
Timothy (DM):You barely have any money. The place is a wreck.
Ellie (Akka):I don't know. Luca was throwing around some wallets that looked pretty flush with cash.
Chris (Joseph):Oh no, those are empty. They're mementos.
Dan (Luka):I was going to sell them later, but that's what it is.
Chris (Joseph):Those are his trophies yeah.
Dan (Luka):Luca will also try and read. He can read, it's like at like a second or third grade level, like he reads very slowly, but he's gonna like try and find things on witches oh, that's cool he's gonna like go to. He'll go to Aka without any like, without any hesitation to be like. He's gonna like go to. He'll go to aka without any like, without any hesitation to be like. What's this word like? What does this mean?
Ellie (Akka):yeah, oh, um, it's. Let's see the conjunction of the planets. It's like when they all line up so conjunction is lining up yeah so if we were to stand in a line, would be a conjunction of people sort of it has an associated implication, I believe, of like a, a system falling into place, if that makes sense again the planet's lining up, okay, okay thank you, thank you, um, and he'll go back to reading and he almost he like kind of whispers out loud to himself as he like, reads one word at a time I'll also, aka will also do like some little superstitious things.
Ellie (Akka):She's got her like horseshoe nails you know she like braids, a couple of elaborate like little grass, like designs that she like puts above the doorway, or like tucks under people's pillows, just like locking us down on all fronts.
Timothy (DM):What's this nail doing under my pillow oh, put that back oh okay, oh my goodness, just in case have you been having any bad dreams lately
Chris (Joseph):no, yes well, now I might be.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, I now I'm gonna be dreaming about that now all right, and anything else that you'd like to do for for the the like settling in period of the headquarters, no no, I'm good all set awesome.
Timothy (DM):So a couple weeks later, as you are all sitting down after dinner, uh, in this study, which has become a thing that you do to pass the time, in this study, which has become a thing that you do to pass the time in this very quiet, isolated castle at the top of a hill in the cliffside where you've not made any friends in the locality.
Ellie (Akka):We haven't. Oh, I guess we could have said that we made friends, but we didn't.
Timothy (DM):I mean you probably went down to town you made some acquaintances with like the baker and other like service folk.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, um, and if you wanted to like yeah yeah, do errands.
Timothy (DM):Um, so you can probably have some relationships that are growing at this point. If there's any like things that you wanted to be like, I always go to the, the bar, the tavern and I hang out with the other people there. Um, that's stuff that you can establish for yourself.
Timothy (DM):Um and uh, we can do that by the next session in terms of figuring out what some of that passage of time stuff was. But for this you are all sitting in the study next to the crackling fireplace because, like, it's summer. But this is a natural cave system.
Timothy (DM):This is built into, so I'm assuming it's pretty cool yeah, it's naturally like a small yeah, a small fire, even in the summer, would probably be nice take a little yeah, take a little chill off, because it's it's like a cold stone structure, um, it probably won't get that cold in the winter as well as a result, because it's um I think, if you go like what is it if you go 40 feet down?
Chris (Joseph):uh, underground, it's like a constant 60 degrees yeah just some engineering facts that you should know underground where it's 60 degrees all the time.
Dan (Luka):That'd be nice.
Timothy (DM):I don't even think it's 40, I think it's more like 20.
Ellie (Akka):It's not that deep you do not have to, which is why natural fridges are just dug into the ground.
Timothy (DM):You just dig a fridge. Anyways, I'm going on a tangent. I studied engineering in undergrad. Anyways, you're all sitting. There's a nice little fire. I had to justify having a crackling fireplace because I like them.
Ellie (Akka):It would be so sad to sit in the study without a fire going. Oh my god, it'd be so dark yeah it'd also be dark.
Timothy (DM):Yes, correct, um. So you all are chatting at the in the study or sitting quietly. What are you doing actually? Let me ask you what are you all doing in the study?
Chris (Joseph):uh, I'm, I'm uh shaving uh the inside of a rabbit pelt that I have oh, does that smell bad? No, it's been tanned, okay, or?
Dan (Luka):it's been dried at least okay, great it's not like wet yeah, it is a dry I have a piece of string in one hand and I'm playing with Pika, and then I have a book in the other hand slowly making my way through a page.
Ellie (Akka):I'm braiding an elaborate grass structure and watching you play with Pika Nice. Have you guys seen those? Do you kind of know what I'm talking about?
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, is it like a mat that's woven or?
Ellie (Akka):um, it's sort of like these, like like an arch uh, not really they're like wall hangings. I'll send you guys a picture. It's like it's these, like I think it's slavic grass weaving sort of like traditional.
Dan (Luka):I'll send you a picture, okay all right, sorry, they're like wall hangings. Yeah, you like put them on?
Timothy (DM):yeah yeah, it's not like palm sunday crosses. It's a lot more pagan than that. Yeah, it's like the pagan version of that but with, like you know grasses and stuff all right, cool, cool, cool, yeah, um.
Timothy (DM):So it sounds like it's a pretty quiet scene. You're all kind of doing your solo activities around the fire in the parallel company of each other, as the door creaks open and you see elga carrying a tray, and on tray in the center of the tray is a piece of paper. Good news everyone. It appears we've gotten our first summoning.
Ellie (Akka):On the Hammy Sammy tray.
Timothy (DM):Oh an honor.
Ellie (Akka):Oh wow, A wax seal. Is that blood was so enchanted by the wax seal. Would luca, would you like to try your hand? Uh, I could try I think you're gonna do a great job do I just?
Dan (Luka):I think just yeah oh gosh, okay, it's actually ripping some of the paper behind it. Okay, we'll be fine. We're just missing a couple of words there and I work it okay to the society. I trust this letter finds you ready and willing. My name is Jacob Lesiak. Lesiak great, and I write to you with great Lesyak, lesyak, lesyak Great. And I write to you with great urgency from the remote settlement of Ukank.
Chris (Joseph):Ukans.
Dan (Luka):That's a random.
Chris (Joseph):C, c's make.
Dan (Luka):S sounds.
Chris (Joseph):Ukans.
Dan (Luka):Great, nestled in the base of Julian Alps, of the Julian Alps, on the shores of Lake Bohini Sure, I became aware of your service, the musings of my wife. So while I may not fully comprehend or trust your methods, my plea is desperate. As you may know, our community is heavily reliant on the lake for our livelihoods, particularly those of us who fish its waters. However, a shadow has fallen over our town In recent months. Several men have met their end in the lake, their bodies found drowned under circumstances that defy explanation. These were seasoned fishermen, men who know the lake like the back of their hands, strong swimmers the lot. Rumors have begun to spread among the townsfolk, whispers of a monster lurking beneath the surface, a creature insidious.
Chris (Joseph):Very good Thank you and cursed.
Dan (Luka):Yet none have been able to recount its visage. An air of mystery surrounds the beast and all sorts of fanatic theories have arisen regarding a curse on our town. I am a man of business, not one to give in to superstitions, but the deaths of these men have begun to affect the very core of our community. Fear is driving the fishermen away from the lake and, with them, the prosperity of Ukans. I think so. Ukans, ukans, ukans, as a concerned denizen.
Ellie (Akka):Yes, it's like someone who resides in a location.
Dan (Luka):Oh, okay, supernatural, come to ukans, investigate those deaths. And if there is indeed a monster in our midst, I beg you to put an end to its reign of terror. I am prepared to offer whatever resources you may require for this task. Please do not delay. The lives of our townsmen and the future of our community are in dire straits. With the utmost urgency, jacobzjak, lezjak, lezjak, lezjak.
Ellie (Akka):That was very nice.
Chris (Joseph):Thank you, a stirring tale.
Ellie (Akka):I know, and so confidently spoken.
Dan (Luka):Thank you. I've been practicing All those books. I know I don't understand most of it.
Ellie (Akka):Oh, I'm afraid.
Chris (Joseph):A lake monster.
Ellie (Akka):Well, it sounds like our first job. Yes, as the society, this is so exciting so terrifying a lake monster, a lake monster. Can you swim, yeah? A little bit.
Chris (Joseph):I can swim not, not well okay, not the length of lake bohin. That's at least two miles long. It's a long lake. Oh, big lake. Yeah, there's a little boat that goes across too.
Ellie (Akka):Not well enough to take out a lake monster on its own turf.
Chris (Joseph):Hmm.
Timothy (DM):With that, the curtain closes on this installment of Vossen Slavinlands. The calls of the wild linger for next time. A heartfelt thanks to Free League Publishing for their steadfast support of independent TTRPG creators through their open game license rules and for crafting a rich tapestry of vasin, especially to the talented writers neil's hints, neil's carlin and ricard antoia. I'm so sorry for butchering all of your names. For their exceptional setting guidelines.
Timothy (DM):Our gratitude also extends to Thomas Herrenstam for the Year Zero game engine and to Niklas Lundmark for his crucial role in making this game accessible through translation. Excuse me, we also owe thanks to Nuraya, whose haunting renditions of Gio, yizito and Andro have beautifully enhanced our intro sequence, and to our incredible players Ellie, chris and Dan, whose performances breathe life into their characters and craft the tales that captivate us. Finally, thank you, russell, for helping me prep for these sessions and for moderating on our channel.
Dan (Luka):Yay Russell, yay Russell.
Timothy (DM):This project has been a profound journey, reconnecting with my own heritage, a heritage disrupted by historical and personal trials from the destruction of historical records during centuries of crusades and colonization, enforced language barriers due to assimilation theory in the 60s, and to the loss of my grandfather during the COVID-19 pandemic, my last direct connection to my homeland. For all of those like myself striving to reclaim and redefine their cultural roots, I stand with you. May you find grace, empathy and kindness on your journey.
Timothy (DM):may you find grace, empathy and kindness on your journey as david mitchell eloquently wrote in cloud atlas, which I fucking love our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness we birth our future. Thank you for joining us. Farewell for now, and may the echoes of the past guide you until we meet again next week. Bye. Thank you, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, thank you.
