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!!!! Our first campaign, Shadows of Prophecy, uses DnD 5e mechanics and our current running show is Vaesen: Slovene Lands.
LGBTQIA Mafia!
Goblin Forge Presents
Vaesen, Slovene Lands: In Murky Waters
What lurks beneath the surface of Lake Bohinj? Our team of investigators—Joseph Wolfram Fuchs, Luka Koss, and Akka Korolev—are on a mission to uncover the truth behind the eerie drownings in the town of Ukanc.
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.
Timothy (DM):Hear the whispers of ancient legends weave through mist, shrouded forests and babbling brooks, bringing to life the eerie and the enigmatic.
Timothy (DM):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. Here, amidst the crumbling halls of Pradyama 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 Vossen, trolls, selkies, fey and other mythical beings that defy human understanding. With the sight 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 yourselves, for, in the land of the Vossen, the familiar and the fearsome dance an eternal haunting waltz With me.
Chris (Joseph):Today we have Hello there, I am Chris and I'm playing Joseph Wolfram Fox. He's a hunter.
Dan (Luka):Hi, I'm Dan and I'm playing Luca Koss the vagabond.
Ellie (Akka):Hello, I'm Ellie and I'm playing Akha Korolev the nurse.
Timothy (DM):Hvala, hvala.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah.
Timothy (DM):I think that means hello, right, thank you.
Ellie (Akka):Sorry, we didn't get prepped. I need flashcards.
Chris (Joseph):You didn't do Slovenian 101. No, I didn't.
Timothy (DM):And now for a few disclaimers. 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 discussions of traumatic events and other adult topics that may not be suitable for children or all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Please take care while listening and if you find any of the content distressing, consider pausing or skipping ahead. If you're listening to this, after the fact, your well-being is important Da. So let us step forward into the shadows and begin. Let's go previously.
Timothy (DM):On Vossen's Slavine lands we met the newest additions to the Thursday's children, those cursed or blessed with the sight. Brooding. Joseph Fuchs is a hunter by trade, joined by his trusty hunting dog Broody. We met Joseph on a regular hunting trip, well, almost regular. Something large and sadistic seemingly prowls the woods surrounding Pradyama. The oft-distracted Akha Korolev brings medical knowledge and maybe a few peculiar habits. Akha's story began with a cameo from the stately fire salamander that crossed her path as she traversed to a cottage outside of town to treat a young boy with a particularly aggressive illness, though little else seemed out of the ordinary. After treating the boy's symptoms and offering temporary relief to an exhausted mother, she left the home with a simple folk spell to protect it from ill will. And then there is Luca Cos, a young boy who is fairly difficult to describe, but boy does he have propensity for theft. Aided by the adorable Pika, luca was first encountered awakening in a closed-off room of an unsuspecting aged estate, after which he gathered breakfast from a local bakery and picked up some pocket change off an unsuspecting middle manager and the help of pika's charms, she gained a beautiful silk handkerchief as
Timothy (DM):payment for her work. These three eclectic individuals came together under the urgency of Linnea, a former member of the society, though she mysteriously has no intentions of rejoining herself. They arrived at their soon-to-be headquarters, Perdjama Castle, to be met by the castle steward, Elgut Frisk, plunging them into a world shrouded in mystery. The castle is in disrepair, having been abandoned by the society a decade ago. Settling right into the prospects of their new life, they set off into the library to parse through just exactly what they may have signed up for. Several weeks after Elgort notified the network of the reopening of the Slavine Lands branch, a letter arrived. And would you like to read said letter again for the audience as a refresher? Not me.
Ellie (Akka):You've done your duty, I did.
Chris (Joseph):To the society. I trust this letter finds you ready and willing. My name is Jakub Leziak and I write to you with great urgency from the remote settlement of Ukantz, nestled at the base of the Julian Alps on the shore of Lake Bohinj. I became aware of your services through the musings of my wife, so I may not fully comprehend nor trust your methods, but 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 knew the lake like the back of their hands, and they're strong swimmers the lot of them.
Chris (Joseph):Rumors have begun to spread among the townsfolk, whispers of a monster lurking beneath the surface, a creature insidious and cursed, yet none have been able to recount its visage. In an air, an air of mystery surrounds this beast, and all sorts of fanatic theories have arisen regarding a curse on our town. I am a man of business, not one given into 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 Ukantz. As a concerned denizen with deep roots in this town, I cannot stand idly by as my livelihood and the welfare of our people are threatened by the forces beyond our understanding.
Chris (Joseph):I implore you, the society, to lend us your expertise in matters of the supernatural. Come to Ukans, investigate these deaths and if there is indeed a monster in our midst, I beg of you to put an end to its reign of terror. I am prepared to offer whatever resources you may require for this task and please do not delay. The lives of our townsmen and the future of our community are in dire straits. With utmost urgency and respect, jakob Lezczyk, man of business.
Ellie (Akka):Man of business. He signed it that way.
Chris (Joseph):He did not, but Joseph acted that on the end.
Timothy (DM):What a power move. That would be, man of business.
Chris (Joseph):I respect a man that knows how to work in the mercantile district.
Ellie (Akka):I'm adding that to my email signature. Man of business.
Music:Man of business.
Timothy (DM):All right, I'm adding that to my email signature. Man of business. Man of business. Alright, so that is the letter that you received right before we cut off last session. You did have a little bit of chat amongst yourselves, mostly about whether or not you can swim. Yeah, mostly about whether or not you can swim. So, yeah, that pretty much sums us up and we now sit in the society headquarters. The stage is yours.
Chris (Joseph):So Algot, traditionally for this role, we research books and then go to the place.
Timothy (DM):Well, everybody tends to have their area of expertise. Leave it to you to decide what preparations are necessary for such a feat um luca has been trying to read.
Dan (Luka):I've been reading, but slowly, um. Has he come across anything that like is lake bound and or drowns people?
Timothy (DM):Give me a skill test. And that is going to be investigation. Great Logic.
Dan (Luka):It's a whole two dice. I'm rolling for this.
Chris (Joseph):Can I help him?
Timothy (DM):out, you can have a help action. So we are about to enter the preparation phase mechanically, which is you have time, almost always access to whatever resources you have in the headquarters. So we have a library at the beginning. We have Elgit at the beginning. Those have mechanical rules headquarters. So we have a library at the beginning. We have elgat at the beginning. Those have mechanical rules library mostly for finding clues. Elgat, basically helping you navigate the game. Um, he's just like a guide character, gotcha, um, and then beyond that, you all get to make a preparation that will result in what is called an advantage. So that advantage is going to use an advantage later in the mystery, but it's only one time, um, and I believe it is two extra dice for an advantage.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, that sounds about right um, I did not roll a success, by the way, on my although. What is it? What is the help action? What does that do for me?
Ellie (Akka):I think, it adds a die but don't you have to describe what are you doing to help so?
Timothy (DM):yeah, you would have to narratively for help actions describe how you are assisting and you cannot be doing a parallel okay, because that's, that's basically what it would have been, I guess so for this. It's most likely intended by the game developers. I haven't spoken to them. I apologize um, call them up, it's most likely intended by the game developers that, um, if you are spending time researching the library, you're doing your own investigation.
Timothy (DM):Rather than a physical task. This is a mental task that people are doing and it's not time-bound like mystery tests are going to be. So this is kind of an open-ended thing. You have days to weeks to prepare if you would like.
Chris (Joseph):Gotcha.
Timothy (DM):Just understanding that there's repercussions to how long you wait to make your travel.
Dan (Luka):Well, I found nothing.
Ellie (Akka):Can I do learning in the library?
Timothy (DM):Yeah, do you want to do learning?
Ellie (Akka):I would love to learn. I'm a lifelong learner. Great, I'm really good at that. So, yeah, I will also, sort of, as we start preparing for this, spend a lot of time in the library. Will also sort of, as we start preparing for this, spend a lot of time in the library kind of. Similarly, I'm like trying to find books that focus on like lakes or drowning. Look back through the archives, like that, that log they had about past, like contracts that they took, to see if any of them seem similar to what we're looking at here. So, if that's a learning check, that's seven dice, nice, can I borrow one? Oh, yeah, thank you, that is two successes no successes.
Timothy (DM):Okay. So some of the like mental skills are very nuanced in what they mean. So investigation is finding a thing. Learning is being able to exactly what it says. You need to know something about what is in front of you. It typically requires books and other sources of information. It's your ability to synthesize information. There's also observation, um, which is understanding the meaning of something.
Ellie (Akka):So those are all very three nuanced things that are very closely related, um but learning is going to be making sense of something yeah, maybe if I could add as like more flavor, like I guess I I'm looking for specific information that seems related, but I maybe I'm also like just seeing, like trying to understand how vasin in general are like handled, like you know it's like oh, there's like often like these types of rituals, or like there are these types of things to watch out for or sort of like, just more, maybe context, about like what circumstances we might find ourselves in, or like, because I I suspect that although, like, all different types of austin are different in some ways, there are sort of like thematic, through lines or like things that are consistent.
Timothy (DM):Um, so, maybe that's that's absolutely in the vein of learning. Okay, because you're synthesizing a lot of information.
Timothy (DM):You're not getting absolute facts out of it right and you're also not like making sense of something that you're observing, you're, you're really just like pulling all the pieces together, um. So in that vein, vassin, from what you gather in your readings, through that, the, the ledger, some of the journals that are turned up, you get a sense that Vossen are typically immortal in the sense of mortal wounds do not have much of an effect on them. There are, like occasional stories of somebody making an observation that they do actually get hurt, um, but the conditions are very specific. It's a very specific bossin. So your general sense is that you're you're starting to gather that, like, these are beings that are beyond our physical ability to hurt right, we're not gonna like stab them to death yeah.
Timothy (DM):Directly. However, you also come because you had two successes. You also come to the conclusion that there are multiple ways to abate a Vassen. There is a traditional way of either binding or banishing, and that typically will involve a ritual of sorts. So this is folk magic that have their own motivations. Vossen tend to be motivated by one thing or another, and you have noted several instances in which a member of the society was able to petition a Vossen in a particular way in order to either subdue it, come to some sort of agreement or even allow it to, in rare instances, pass on.
Ellie (Akka):I was going to say like oh, we don't negotiate with terrorists, but I guess it sounds like we do negotiate with terrorists. Okay, great this is, and I'll share this information obviously with the rest of my crew. So great and I'll share this information obviously with the rest of my crew.
Chris (Joseph):So that Sounds like an involved process.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, so don't shoot it. I suspect, whatever we're dealing with shooting, it is just going to piss it off.
Chris (Joseph):I can imagine so, if it's arrayed enough to try drowning people. Yes. Joseph, Arrayed enough to try drowning people? Yes, Joseph. So this is before we actually prepare our items that we're taking right. This is more like an information gathering session.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, you can gather this can all be done pretty from how the book is written about it. This can all be pretty organic. It's just a matter of discussing all of the activities that lead up to it. This can all be pretty organic. It's just a matter of discussing all of the activities that lead up to it, and then we have a discussion of what that means in terms of advantages, and then I will give you clues if you uncover clues.
Chris (Joseph):I think that Joseph will do research on the geography and sort of the local ecosystem around Ukantz, because I know it is a fishing town, it's a big lake. It's sort of the local ecosystem around ucons, because I know it is a fishing town, it's a big lake, it's one of the biggest in the country, um, and fun fact is that it actually puts out more water than water flows into it so the level's dropping no, there's an underwater water source that is supplying that is ae.
Ellie (Akka):That is a fun fact.
Chris (Joseph):And over 90% of it is deeper than 30 feet, like only 10% of the lake is under 30 feet deep.
Ellie (Akka):Wow, spooky.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Let me know if there are any good rare animals.
Chris (Joseph):Definitely a lot of trout. There are like five big fish that like to live in that pond okay, hit me with them.
Ellie (Akka):Oh gosh, I'm just kidding. There's like a trout. Your research period doing chris. Chris looks up wiki for you. Get really sucked like I did print out your, oh, you did, oh, that's great, um, so I do have your research on hand um and did note that you had looked up the-.
Chris (Joseph):The different fish that live in the area, the different fish in Lake Bohinja.
Timothy (DM):Wow, so trout was one of them. There are also two extinct or near extinct species of fish.
Ellie (Akka):Tell me more.
Timothy (DM):The Danube salmon and the marbled trout, yeah, okay, so those are endangered. I'll keep an eye out. But specifically in Lake Bohemia there's brown trout, burbot I have no idea what that is European chub Also unaware of what that is Common minnow and the arctic char. Eight, eight genera of mollusks as well as numerous algae. Yeah, Outstanding.
Ellie (Akka):I'm so excited to go. And all the animals and solve the monster problem.
Chris (Joseph):And solve the monster problem. That'll be a side task. We're more interested in checking off all the fish on our cart.
Ellie (Akka):I wonder if the monster has something to do with the endangered trout. I don't know. Anyway, sorry, Go ahead Yusuf.
Chris (Joseph):Oh no, that's basically. He's going to be looking through atlases and, oh interesting, you can only fish in three different parts of the river.
Timothy (DM):Fantastic. Is there anywhere you would like to go with that information?
Chris (Joseph):Knowing that we might be going around water, I think I'm'm gonna go into town and see if there's a tailor of sorts and try to create, like a sort of water, a life preserver. Three sets of life preservers wow oh okay, life preservers. Or like life vests.
Dan (Luka):Alright, when they add them for the Titanic, they can add them. Oh, that's fair.
Chris (Joseph):If anything, you can get some wax cloth and, just like, make somewhat balloons. Have you ever done that when you fold your jeans and you can make a life preserver?
Ellie (Akka):That's some Eagle Scout shit. It is Eagle Scout. Yeah, not for me. I got kicked out of Girl Scouts, and I don't think Girl Scouts did that anyway. No.
Timothy (DM):All right, that does sound like it's definitely on the in the potential advantage territory. So, depending on everything else that you all do, we'll decide what like is the most important. Um, as it pertains to the mystery, and I will tell you what that advantage is as we're making our trip to ucons is that advantage just one for the whole group, or do we each get one?
Timothy (DM) 3:each one thing to do. Each one of you gets one Yep.
Timothy (DM):So that's definitely. I mean you can continue to do things throughout your preparation. I wrote that down as you have it.
Timothy (DM):And the way that equipment typically works is acquiring. It does typically take a roll. Oh, we should probably just do that. We should probably do the roll, and I think that this is a relatively easy thing. So equipment has a level one through five that indicates its availability, how easy it is to acquire. Um, your party is expected to procure equipment for the expedition. Um, so everybody roll your. I think it's resources value that makes sense and then that is going to be your resources to spend on equipment for preparation.
Dan (Luka):No successes None.
Timothy (DM):None.
Ellie (Akka):Are we adding up the numbers or is it successes? It's just successes? Oh, I have one success.
Timothy (DM):One success. Hi, I'm poor, I got four, four successes.
Chris (Joseph):No, I only have four dice to roll. I have two dice to roll.
Ellie (Akka):I got four, four successes, no I only have four dice to roll. I have two dice to roll.
Timothy (DM):I have five dice to roll, so you have one success.
Ellie (Akka):Don't worry, mommy's here.
Timothy (DM):Your wealth, your cumulative wealth going into this mission is a resource value of one. So, you get to buy one thing, basically.
Ellie (Akka):Between all of us, between all of one, so you get to buy one thing Basically Between all of us, between all of you. I like the life preserver sound like a good idea.
Timothy (DM):I mean little tiny things that are like more just personal effects, like you buy soap, like that's whatever.
Ellie (Akka):I buy enough soap to fill the lake and change the ecosystem. It's a big bathtub baby.
Timothy (DM):I'm going to assign a pretty high resource value to purchase. There are your standard equipments, and those all have availability values ranging from one to five. But if it's not on that list, kind of make it up. I'm going to say life preservers have a value of one. That's a pretty easy thing to get. So if if that's the purchase that you would like to make as a group, you can do so if you want to check the list, I have it on otherwise you can collectively decide on something else do you think maybe a net, or probably life preservers are better for us to prevent us from drowning?
Timothy (DM):Wow, we're real poor right now. You spend a lot of time and energy and money fixing up.
Ellie (Akka):We all quit our jobs to come do this. Think for yourself.
Chris (Joseph):You've just been rotting our walls while you're here.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, exactly, food, and resources just to patch up the rooms has been quite a bit.
Timothy (DM) 3:I mean, I think, annette, yeah, exactly Food and resources just to patch up the rooms has been quite a bit yeah.
Ellie (Akka):I mean, I think a net is a good idea. I also feel like in the letter the guy said that he could provide resources for us and a net feels like something that they would have there already. Definitely.
Ellie (Akka):Honestly, maybe even life preservers or something that they have there already, but I feel like, in terms of specialized equipment, that we won't be able to ask them for. Life preservers feel like more pressing to me. I'd agree. It makes sense. So I'm on board with having life preservers be our one purchase. Here you go, here's some gold to spend thank you, akka.
Chris (Joseph):I will go with rapid speed to the tailor and I run out of the castle.
Ellie (Akka):Aren't you a little elderly? I guess you're spry.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, I'm like a hare, so spry for an old man.
Ellie (Akka):My gosh look at him scamper, Because we're up on the castle's kind of like up on a hill right, so we can see you scooting all the way down.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, I'm booking it. Look at him go.
Chris (Joseph):Oh my god, he's not slowing down. I don't marriage, or something that's. That's amazing.
Ellie (Akka):I've been pent up in this castle trying to fix stuff. I need to go for a little run, your usual lifestyle. I feel like it's like you're like roaming miles through the woods every day oh yeah, my, my step count has been down so much.
Timothy (DM):I gotta jack up those numbers keep that cardiac health uptight yeah you've invented the first fitbit, all right, so life preserve, life vests, and that is, uh, resource preparation. Um, again, this is very organic, so it's fine that you did this. There's no order to it yeah, um. Any Anything else that you would like to do, the library is still at your disposal. Anything in town is at your disposal. You're welcome to do things that are like training.
Chris (Joseph):Aka, have you done any autopsies before?
Ellie (Akka):Yes, okay.
Chris (Joseph):So we'll be.
Ellie (Akka):I wouldn't consider myself an expert by any means, but I have.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, gotcha Okay.
Ellie (Akka):I'll practice CPR. You can practice CPR.
Music:You could read up on autopsies related to drowning.
Ellie (Akka):Like you can do all sorts of things. Yeah, I'll practice my CPR skills and read about drowning autopsies. Those would sound like great ideas.
Dan (Luka):I truly don't know what Luca would be doing to prep. My skills do not lend well to prepping Making ham sandwiches for the road.
Ellie (Akka):Can you swim? Maybe you should practice swimming. That's a good idea.
Dan (Luka):I can swim pretty well. I go swimming in the lakes all the time.
Timothy (DM):How else do you wash off? I mean this mechanically just relates to a role a single role, so it could literally be that you work out.
Dan (Luka):I work out. That's preparation in this system.
Chris (Joseph):It was working on a thing that people did uh, yeah, I think around this time eugene sandow or he might have been look please go ahead well, eugene sandow is the father of bodybuilding. He would break testing like strength testing machines in London and there was this whole newsreel about like people were vandalizing these machines with hammers and sledges. And it's just this guy.
Timothy (DM):Who's so strong? You were meant to play this game.
Ellie (Akka):That's so wild, but I feel like so many people are just doing manual labor, that people are like. The idea of exercising just for the hell of it. It's like I've been lugging logs all day, training for endurance Maybe we can all start going on swims together during the day as practice.
Dan (Luka):Is there a lake nearby? Is there?
Chris (Joseph):That's a good question In Prajama Maybe.
Ellie (Akka):Is there.
Timothy (DM):In Prajama there's probably a pool that cows will drink water out of yeah it's relatively landlocked.
Timothy (DM) 3:Oh, okay, Never mind then there is a map of the region.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, there's no water on this entire map.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, Okay, so then no, never mind.
Timothy (DM):I mean, that's only a five kilometer radius, so there could very well be something beyond that I don't think we're going more than five kilometers for our little daily swims yeah, probably not that's fine, we're all good swimmers.
Ellie (Akka):Can you swim?
Dan (Luka):oh yeah, okay I can swim great, great um, so yeah, luca, what?
Timothy (DM):what are you doing?
Dan (Luka):I was reading for a little bit, you're doing a really good job.
Timothy (DM):Didn't find anything but I mean based on just general reading. That could become your advantage of being able to make an observation or learning roll during the mystery, with an advantage Because it rekindles something you picked up during your library search. Or you're good at reading different handwritings.
Dan (Luka):I mean I could continue reading, that reading, that's fine. I mean I already rolled for um investigation and found nothing you know how.
Ellie (Akka):There's and maybe I'm misremembering this there's like that thing spot in the basement that's all like collapsed in and they're supposed to be like artifacts and stuff, but it's all like blocked up and oh, that's true, any of it. Like totally, like totally optional, just spitballing if you're looking for options yeah, I mean like start clearing that out and like see if you can find anything useful yeah, if luca's good at anything, it's manual labor.
Ellie (Akka):So 100 could be doing some of that, yeah, but I don't remember. Was that like the room just collapsed and everything's ruined? Or was it like, oh, the passage is blocked, but if you clear it out, maybe you can now access something?
Timothy (DM):So there's the roleplay answer and there's the mechanical answer.
Ellie (Akka):Oh okay.
Timothy (DM):The mechanical answer is that you cannot access new assets within the headquarters without spending development points. Okay, right which you won't get until the end of a mystery Roleplay. You're welcome to roleplay clearing it out and that could have in-game influences.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, picking up, burning down, rocks you now get an advantage on a force.
Music:Like a force or close combat or something.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, something like that. Okay, I'll do that, downing ham sandwiches and picking up rocks.
Dan (Luka):That boy is getting so ripped.
Chris (Joseph):He's on a protein-only diet.
Ellie (Akka):This is the first time in your life you've had three square meals a day.
Dan (Luka):Right truly.
Ellie (Akka):Suddenly, you're a teenage boy who's getting enough protein and you're like. Suddenly, you're a teenage boy who's getting like enough protein and you're like maximize my gains.
Dan (Luka):That's what I do, great.
Timothy (DM):Anything else that Joseph would be doing during this time.
Chris (Joseph):So we have CPR getting buff. I think I will. I will clean my weapons and I'll prepare them. I know Aka said that visin are pretty immune to physical Well. They won't succumb, they won't die. But it might be worthwhile just be prepared to wound them or stop them. So I'm going to clean my rifle and prepare my bullets and sharpen my knife.
Dan (Luka):Can you sharpen my knife while you're at it?
Chris (Joseph):Oh yeah, I grab your knife. Aka, you got a knife you need.
Dan (Luka):It's like a fruit paring knife, oh nice. Yeah, I picked it off of a kitchen windowsill once and it's very dull.
Chris (Joseph):I'll fix that right up for you.
Ellie (Akka):You got to keep these little numbers nice and sharp, and I pull out my strop and I I guess I have like a scalpel or two type deal in my little kit so you can sharpen those.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, I am doing double duty with the different blades.
Ellie (Akka):And what are the dogs doing?
Dan (Luka):Pika's napping.
Ellie (Akka):Oh good, at any given moment. I'm so glad she's prepared pika's napping.
Chris (Joseph):Oh good, at any given moment she's prepared pika's practically a cat, and broody is watching pika from the doorway so we're like monitoring it. Broody still has a sort of stalking, uh like stalking prey, so there aren't a lot of animals in the castle. Keep away from Pika.
Dan (Luka):You keep away.
Chris (Joseph):Broody is very safe. He only goes after small animals.
Dan (Luka):Looks at.
Chris (Joseph):Pika, I guess yes, your dog is about the size of a raccoon.
Ellie (Akka):I'm so glad they're prepared, I they. I hope pika gets advantage for being well rested I think so all right, and are we, are we good on the library? Yeah, yeah, I think I've done everything in the library.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, I imagine we don't spend too many days preparing. It seems like a pretty urgent task, yeah.
Ellie (Akka):And it's our first like I feel like we're like all right, let's just go see what this is all about.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, because we don't know what to do. This is our job.
Ellie (Akka):Cool, we're out of money, so we gotta do something. Truly, that happens real fast. Um, I know, pretty soon, no more ham sandwiches for us, right? Because like, where is alga getting money from to buy our ham?
Timothy (DM):yeah, alga has like been living very measly for the last decade. I've just been like we'll just say that alga does some weird odd jobs in town for coin.
Ellie (Akka):Algett is like our sugar papa. She's like please. My ham sandwich ratio has quadrupled since you've arrived.
Music:This is unsustainable.
Ellie (Akka):We're going through ham faster than I can babysit children. Oh my gosh.
Timothy (DM):Oh, wow, that's.
Dan (Luka):Especially you. What? Stop eating ham sandwiches.
Timothy (DM):So many.
Chris (Joseph):Have you considered collecting fruit from the trees outside?
Timothy (DM):I understand you're a growing boy, but the ham does have to come from somewhere I've never bought a thing in my entire life.
Dan (Luka):That's probably not true, but I definitely haven't bought ham before, so gotcha no idea, no sense of how much it costs.
Ellie (Akka):Sorry, is ham expensive? How much could it possibly cost two gold?
Timothy (DM):oh, my goodness, all right, so we will make our preparations for the trip to Ukans. So, mechanically speaking, you've done four things. One procured life vests using your resource points. Those are just going to be an item that you have, so they will have a long-lasting effect If you need them. They just are a thing. So anytime you're using an item, it will have whatever advantage it has in the moment, given the RP that is going on, gotcha.
Ellie (Akka):To clarify. So I know our advantages from our things that we did are a one-time thing, but the life vests, that's something we have. Can we use them over and, over and over again? You can keep using the life vest until it's destroyed.
Timothy (DM):And if what you're using it for roleplay-wise has convinced me that it makes whatever you're doing easier, then you'll get the benefits of having a life vest Okay great.
Timothy (DM):So it just has to. You have to justify. Sometimes that's a negotiation, you have to convince me. Other times I'm going to just obviously understand why it makes you. It makes it easier, Not you easier. That would be weird. But the three advantages that I have um noted down. Um is that aka will get an advantage with anything around having to perform medical procedures for drowned or drowning persons Great, so that can be a broad definition If you have to give somebody CPR or if you have to autohepsy a body. You've just basically spent your time focusing on that whole phenomena.
Timothy (DM):Excellent Luca you buffed up, which means you will have an advantage surrounding some sort of physical feat. All right, joseph, you were cleaning and sharpening and preparing weapons, which means that there will be an advantage in some sort of combat situation. Okay, based on your upkeep of your weapons, and we can keep all of those definitions relatively broad. Um, so that, like, I don't have to give you specifics of what is going to happen in this mystery, uh, but it is also likely that those will all come up, gotcha, oh good, not up.
Ellie (Akka):Gotcha, oh good. None of us did anything useless.
Timothy (DM):The book does coach the game facilitator on trying to make advantages relate to the actual mystery and not just have people do useless stuff. Gotcha.
Ellie (Akka):Excellent, that's comforting.
Timothy (DM):This game is really big on ensuring that the players are having a good time and everybody understands what's going on and we're having consent and we're having it like multiple times throughout the book.
Timothy (DM):it's like make sure you're doing this as a conversation, make sure you're you're making sure that people understand what the potential risks are involved with it, because you, as people living in your real world, are going to be synthesizing a lot of information that isn't explicitly said to you directly. I'm your only source of information in this world, so withholding that information is just bad dming, all right hit the road let's do it our carriage.
Ellie (Akka):Do we still? Is the carriage we came in? Was that like our carriage or was that like a rental?
Timothy (DM):it's like a rental situation oh, but it it's expensive exists we don't have any money.
Ellie (Akka):We're out of money.
Chris (Joseph):We're on a loan, so we really got to get paid to cover these horses.
Ellie (Akka):Maybe we can catch a ride with somebody who's already going that direction.
Chris (Joseph):Oh, it's the cow ball they're having.
Ellie (Akka):Oh, the cow ball.
Chris (Joseph):Hold on a minute. That would be an anachronistic, but they do have a cow festival every fall for the cows coming out of the summer pastures.
Ellie (Akka):I remember you mentioned that you saw it when you visited right. It was stellar. I love it.
Timothy (DM):Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. All right, here we go. So it takes you several days to reach Ukans. You're not breakneck through the wilderness in this carriage. I know those of you who are familiar with games like Dungeons and Dragons. Everybody always wants to get everywhere as quickly as possible and is like like I'm going the fast speed and you arrive two hours later exhausted. Um, typically people don't do that. You take your time getting somewhere, you take breaks, you have lunch, you rent a room at an inn, um, unless you have like a real reason to be like powering through the night and arriving tired. Um, something like this is doable within 24 hours of travel. You're more likely to do this in three Sounds good.
Timothy (DM):So Ukans is northwest, actually it's pretty much north of Pradyama.
Timothy (DM):You would be traveling up north towards the mountains, so towards the Julian Alps, towards the Julian Alps.
Timothy (DM):As you get closer and you make your way, winding through the forests of the western side of the Slavine lands, you would start to get nicer and nicer views of the Julian Alp peaks. Specifically I could point out the Trilough, which is a particularly famous mountain peak in the Alps. And after three to four days you start to enter a region of scattered forests, enter a region of scattered forests, so the terrain oscillates between plains and forested areas and eventually you start to notice farms cropping up within those plains spaces. Some of the farms are a little bit further out of the city and you start to pass a couple of the smaller towns. Ukans itself is a small settlement on Lake Bohemia, but it is still more than just a collection of houses, which is what a lot of the remaining towns in the region you pass are going to be. They're just a collection of houses surrounded around some sort of crossroads or resource that is being mined or logged, etc. And you eventually arrive in Ukans.
Dan (Luka):What time of day?
Timothy (DM):You can time it to how you would like to show up. Um, you probably don't aren't gonna be like early early morning, like sunrise, um, but you can have stopped in a town not too far out and arrive late morning. If you'd like to arrive after lunchtime, that's perfectly fine with me.
Ellie (Akka):Um late morning sounds good. Yeah, that sounds good. Arrive like a little bit before lunch, so we can eat lunch there get some fish yeah all right.
Timothy (DM):So your route up to Ukans has been punctuated by an increase in caravans as you get closer and closer to Lake Bohemia. There's quite a few settlements along this relatively large lake. This is a large lake in Slovenia and there's quite a few around the perimeter. They're all going to be mostly fishing communities and the occasional logging community in conjunction with a fishing community. It's pretty much the economy in this region. There is some farming. During this time period, most communities did have to grow their own food. It's not like they're going down to the supermarket or having carts of fresh produce brought up from the countryside. So there is also farming, just not any large-scale farming in this region.
Timothy (DM):The road that brings you into the city does pass a watchtower on the right and you notice that there is no guard in the watchtower. It's really just a structure with two stories, a simple window, hatched roof, and as you get closer into the city the road turns from dirt to stone. It's about this time when the smell of dried fish starts to enter your nostrils. You have indeed arrived at a fishing community. You have indeed arrived at a fishing community. That's pretty much what everyone lives, breathes, sweats, baits in, baits in Yum and drying fish. Salting and drying fish is one of the best ways at this time to preserve it. There is some low technology refrigeration places there are root cellars and things like that but the best way is salting and drying it. That it is expressed in the air throughout all of Ukans.
Ellie (Akka):Well, I'm hungry, so it's actually a small and kind of good to me.
Chris (Joseph):I guess, I could go for some lunch.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah.
Chris (Joseph):Switch it up with some fish, some fish sammies.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, ooh, a little fish, sammy, don't mind if I do, certainly. Yeah, oh, a little fish, sammy don't mind if I do, certainly. As we head into town and, you know, disembark from our rental carriage, I guess, um, could we find some place to have lunch. I mean, we have to meet the guy who wrote us the letter, but he didn't say anything in particular about where so maybe we find a place to have lunch, yeah, and then ask about him, yeah, yeah, should know yeah, one of the first structures that you come across is actually the inn and tavern.
Timothy (DM):Um, it is located on the east side of uh ukans, um pretty small establishment, uh, basically one big room under a thatched roof with a second floor in the back where you would assume the beds would be. There are a couple of the locals who are present there. Uh, mostly workers, so these are fishermen by trade, um, from the looks of them, wearing kind of greased shirts and trousers, rough hands, um kind of grizzled faces, enjoying or consuming food at the tavern.
Ellie (Akka):Enjoying is perhaps a strong word. Consuming food at the tavern when you arrive, the tavern when you arrive, you do see a more squat woman behind the small counter that some ales for certain clientele, great. Well, let's walk up to her and order some lunch and then, after ordering, ask about our guy. She knows we're not just looking for handouts.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, I can get that for you. Uh, what brings you into town?
Dan (Luka):well, since you asked um, we are actually looking for uh jacob lesiak uh, jacob lesiak, do you? You know, jacob.
Timothy (DM):I'm assuming you know Jacob. Of course Everybody knows Jacob. You'll actually find his villa just down the road to the south of here, His villa. Up towards the church. You'll see the church up on the hill.
Ellie (Akka):Alright.
Dan (Luka):Well we appreciate that.
Ellie (Akka):That's fantastic. And then, in terms of food, what are we getting? Fish sandwiches um just really give me a sensory experience yeah the menu.
Timothy (DM):Here is there's. There's probably like a potato soup situation um, probably has fish in it. It's probably fish and, uh, potato. Um, that's if you would like something fresh. That's the freshest that you're getting is something cooked into a stew, gotcha. Then there's also probably some dried fish, some bread, and then, in the way of fresh produce, you're probably getting potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage the root vegetables and leafy greens.
Ellie (Akka):I'll have the stew. That sounds pretty good to me.
Timothy (DM):Yeah.
Dan (Luka):With some bread.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, stewed bread Can't go wrong, oh yeah, day old bread. Perfect Delicious.
Music:For dipping.
Timothy (DM):Yes, Otherwise it is hard as a rock. You knock it on the table and you hear it sounds like a hammer hitting a nail. Yeah, I mean, the soup is warm, it is hearty, it is chunky, it is hearty, it is chunky and it does have a very strong fishy aroma to it. We're talking freshwater trout, we're talking probably some mudfish of sorts, catfish, etc.
Ellie (Akka):Sure, all right.
Music:Farm to table baby.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, this is as fresh as you'll get.
Dan (Luka):Luca thoroughly enjoys his stew.
Ellie (Akka):Growing boy. Alright, and then should we find the villa once we've had our lunch.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, we just head towards the church, right.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, church on the hill. Look for a big house.
Timothy (DM):Sounds good Directions are simple in this town is it how sorry.
Ellie (Akka):We maybe already know this, but like, how big is this? Is that? Are we talking like large, like slightly more industrialized town? Is this like a village? I think that's it.
Timothy (DM):This is a settlement.
Ellie (Akka):So village is oh, it's pretty spread out.
Timothy (DM):Okay yeah, village could even be pushing it a little bit sometimes, oh okay, so it's not like bustling. No, no, okay, no, no, so here we're in the inn and tavern.
Ellie (Akka):Let's see, is that going to do anything?
Timothy (DM):Pradyama, which is also already pretty rural. Uh is uh larger than ukans gotcha at this time okay understood so, being on the lake, it it gets its fair share of seasonal workers and people traveling through um. But yeah, this is a very small rural place. Everybody knows everybody, and there's three roads One for each of us.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, Spread out.
Timothy (DM):Not even enough for the cardinal directions. Wow.
Ellie (Akka):Well, there's a lake of other directions, yeah.
Timothy (DM):Um, all right, so you are going to make your way down. You see the church on the hill, so you start making your way up it. And, sure enough, word has already gotten out that since, as you've been eating and enjoying your lunch, word has got out around town. Um, and you do see a man at the gate of a larger house. Um, a state was probably a um embellishment it's a nice house.
Timothy (DM):It's a large house, um. It looks like it might have a large family inside, um, maybe multi-generational, from your experiences, wow, um, and there is a stone wall um dotting the perimeter of this house. And there's a man at the front steps that is waving you down. Ah, you must be from the society. The name is Jakob Lezik. Pleasure to meet you. Hope you made the trip all right.
Chris (Joseph):Beautiful roads.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, safe and sound.
Timothy (DM):Can't say that I have made a trip out to the south in quite some time, so hopefully it was enjoyable but, I'm so. I'm very pleased that you have finally arrived. Have you settled in or anything yet I see you still have all your bags.
Ellie (Akka):No, we've. We just grabbed a lovely lunch downtown, downtown, downtown, downtown, and no, we came straight here to connect with you.
Timothy (DM):Wonderful, wonderful. My wife can help you get set up in the guest room, if you like.
Music:A little bit.
Timothy (DM):Although you're more than welcome to spend your days in the inn if that's more your speed oh no, I think the guest room will suit just fine, yeah yeah yeah perfectly, we're out of money we do only have the two. I hope that's alright for you men to to bunk together we can manage yeah, we'll figure out something and he kind of looks at the two of you again. He like catches himself. Odd bunch, I might say. How long have you been with this society?
Ellie (Akka):weeks has it been almost a month now. It's coming up on a month Like just shy of a month.
Dan (Luka):Yes, fairly recent oh.
Timothy (DM):I guess, I was expecting a little bit more experience, but any help would be great, any hope would be great. It was really my wife that talked me into reaching out to you in the first place.
Ellie (Akka):Anyways, Well, I can almost guarantee that we are at least more experienced than you, my good sir.
Dan (Luka):And an expert at our individual crafts.
Ellie (Akka):True. That is probably true, don't ask what those crafts are. Wait where's my?
Dan (Luka):pocketbook.
Timothy (DM):As I mentioned in my letter. All of this mumbo-jumbo seems a little far-fetched for me. I'm sure there's a more earthly explanation, but you are investigators by trade, so maybe you'll turn up something nonetheless. Indeed, we haven't failed, yet that is true, it's your first job, isn't it?
Ellie (Akka):Yeah.
Timothy (DM):Oh, alright, well, fingers crossed, it can't hurt. It cannot hurt, that is true. Um, anyways, uh, leave your bags here by the door and uh, why don't we take a walk down to the docks and I'll give you a little bit of a lay of land sounds?
Timothy (DM):great, we do that all right, so you drop off your bags and he is going to then the town hall. Um, he points out the elders villa, um, he points out a couple other, the families homes along the way, um, pretty much every like structure is like a family, um, multi-generational, typically. And then up towards the lake, you're going to get to the fisherman village, and this is more of a collection of structures. Either bachelors or young boys who haven't married yet, um, or too young to marry, and then the seasonal workers would probably all be in this village situation, um, and so they're more like hut structures in kind of a hodgepodge, circular layout just next to the boat docks and the boathouse. Well, here, here are the docks. We have two main boat houses, we have a fleet of ten ships, all owned by me, of course, and during the day we haven't had any issues, so I don't mind coming out here, but most of our situations have been happening in the evenings, so that is why I suspect that there is some foul play happening under the guise of night?
Chris (Joseph):Do fishermen normally fish deep into night?
Timothy (DM):Well, certain fish are only biting at certain hours of the day.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, late nights early morning, yeah, that's typically like eels, are only catchable between 6 pm and midnight on the docks of stardew valley and there was a time in which the fishermen would go out in the evenings for more social engagements.
Ellie (Akka):Bachelors indeed.
Timothy (DM):Now I dare say they would go out at night at all. I've pretty much lost all of the peak hours of production.
Ellie (Akka):Well, can you share a little bit more about these incidents? You said there have been drownings.
Timothy (DM):Yes, quite so. Several Probably started two months ago by now. What was his name again? Uh, Philip. Philip was the first one. Um, I think they found most of him the next morning.
Ellie (Akka):Oh, so it sounds like these are not just drownings, but there's some other sort of trauma at play when you say they found most of him.
Timothy (DM):Well, I'm not a medical professional myself, but when I did examine the body, there were definitely chunks of skin missing.
Chris (Joseph):Okay, and when was the last attack?
Timothy (DM):Actually four days ago. Yes, teo Teo Dolnar.
Chris (Joseph):Oh, he was one of the families of the house that you pointed out. Yes, indeed, yes.
Timothy (DM):So please be respectful, if you do pay them a visit. They are still in mourning.
Chris (Joseph):You said four days ago and about how many people have been affected so far.
Timothy (DM):So there was Philip Toe, just four days ago. Um, what's his name? Tristan, tristan, uh. And then there was chris and dominic.
Ellie (Akka):So five victims.
Dan (Luka):Yes, those two were brothers Same time.
Chris (Joseph):Yes, they were earlier on, before everybody started fearing the lake and spreading those nasty rumors. Yeah, you had mentioned that people are not able to exactly describe what they think the monster is. Have people claimed to have seen it?
Timothy (DM):They claim yes, so I'm told, although I'm never really told from firsthand. It's usually musings from one of the children in town overhearing a story told by one of the so-called adults scaring children. Who would do that?
Chris (Joseph):a monster right so.
Ellie (Akka):Right, so Do you um? Is it a possibility for us to inspect the victims' bodies, or have they already been buried or cremated, or whatever? The funeral traditions are around here.
Timothy (DM):Tao's burial is scheduled for two days' time.
Ellie (Akka):And all the others have been buried.
Timothy (DM):Yes, yes, we don't typically leave bodies laying around for extended periods of time, understandable. They tend to rot in the open air.
Ellie (Akka):And is there anyone in town, any so-called adults that you know of that have claimed to witness this creature that we could potentially talk to?
Timothy (DM):Just to explore all potential avenues. Well, I have been told that one of the main corporates for spreading these rumors is Nikogusic. I'd pay him a visit. I'd pay him a visit, see how uh much truth there is in his tall tales hmm, and where were the bodies found?
Dan (Luka):did they wash up on shore?
Timothy (DM):yes, um, mostly near the docks, although we did find one snagged on a rock in Craggy Cove.
Chris (Joseph):Hmm two months ago is june. Was there any festival or big event that happened back in june?
Timothy (DM):june festivals. Um gosh, it seems like we're constantly in festival nowadays. Anything to keep the workers happy, am I right? Hmm?
Ellie (Akka):Can you think of anything that changed around the time that these attacks started happening? Are there any other sort of events or incidents that seem to coincide? Because you've never before, two months ago, you had never had problems like this. Am I understanding correctly?
Timothy (DM):Correct never.
Ellie (Akka):Did you have drownings of any kind at all, or was this really just not an issue?
Timothy (DM):There was the occasion of drowning, but years passed in between, usually some drunkard going off in a social engagement at night. Mm-hmm, going off in a social engagement at night, mm-hmm.
Ellie (Akka):So is there anything you can think of that coincided with the start of these more frequent drownings? Any events around town? Strange weather, strange behavior.
Timothy (DM):Unfortunately no, okay, I wish I could be more help. Unfortunately no, okay I wish I could be more help. I mean I I wish for myself that I could be more help. If I had a better lead, I would have chased it down myself no trouble at all.
Ellie (Akka):you've been enormously helpful, and what would really be exceptionally helpful is if we could perhaps have access to a boat, potentially someone to take us out onto the lake, and some nets or other fishing gear. That will really be a huge help to our investigation as we follow up with these leads on land.
Timothy (DM):Of course, any of the boats are at your disposal. Equipment in the boat house. Feel free to make your way into the village and try to coax one of them to take you out.
Dan (Luka):And what do you do?
Timothy (DM):Well, I own the business.
Dan (Luka):So the boats? What is the business? Do you sell the fish or do you?
Timothy (DM):own the boats that you rent to fish. What's? Oh, yes, we export fish mostly.
Dan (Luka):He's a fucking leech parasite off the labor can I get a sense of? Because Luca's not good at a lot but Luca's pretty good with people yeah like. What's his motive? The care for his fishermen, or is it mostly his business that?
Timothy (DM):yeah, give me that observation, empathy yeah, six dice, baby get a fucking read on this guy that is four successes.
Dan (Luka):I can read his mind. You know what about? His childhood made him this way.
Timothy (DM):I am gonna consult diagnose him out of the DSM-5. I'm going to consult the skill tests for extra observation.
Dan (Luka):I revel in my success.
Chris (Joseph):You get a job good done.
Dan (Luka):Job good done.
Ellie (Akka):Job good done Job good done, job good done, job good done, oh oh.
Timothy (DM):That's good. This is an interesting benefit. Each extra success adds plus one to a test where the information is useful to you.
Dan (Luka):Plus one to a test.
Chris (Joseph):So you get plus three to whatever that check is.
Ellie (Akka):So you gotta remember that.
Timothy (DM):So what? I'm about to tell you this information. If you apply this information in a future skill test. I roll three extra dice. You roll three extra dice, and it doesn't necessarily have to be another observation skill. It's just that the information I'm about to tell you, if you can apply it in another situation throughout the rest of the mystery over and over, not just the next, the one next time, but anytime it doesn't seem to qualify with. Uh, I guess it's not like the information goes away, yeah.
Dan (Luka):I guess it probably just depends on the information. Yeah, like, how am I leveraging it?
Ellie (Akka):Because I do have to roleplay leveraging that information in some way Right, you have to figure out how it's applicable yeah, Blackmail Okay so Jakob has been very flippant about bodies and death and burials and corpses.
Timothy (DM):He's also made several comments at this point about business production, etc. His letter was all about business.
Timothy (DM):These things were all obvious to you and, uh, the audience, I'm sure, um, but his tone and his composure and everything else has been very um, friendly, amenable, um, um, pleasant, pleasant. That, like contradiction with how nice he's able to seem, saying things that are not nice, does cue you into quite a bit as being held back In terms of how he views people, he views his employees, you, um, and so you gleam that he's not to be trusted for his authenticity. What I've said so far is probably still fairly obvious, um, but what you, specifically, luca, really parse out is that there's definitely some details that he is leaving out. There's quite a few things hidden, um, there's definitely something hidden around um business practices, um, and there's definitely something hidden around his relationship with the town and town's people Got it All right.
Dan (Luka):I can run with that Excellent.
Timothy (DM):I'll also say oh, so much. Wow, no, because those are all still really vague. I'm trying to be like a good GM.
Ellie (Akka):A forthcoming GM A forthcoming.
Dan (Luka):GM.
Timothy (DM):I mean but sorry, you go ahead Without telling you something that's not actually present in what he's been saying. Right. What you also notice is that he has bloodied knuckles.
Ellie (Akka):Oh, dust up Hmm.
Timothy (DM):And other signs of an aggressive personality that is being masked right now.
Dan (Luka):Mm-hmm, you turned on business mode, you got four successes.
Timothy (DM):I had to give you a big one there. That's a good one. I like that I like that. Um, I believe that is a good stopping point for our intermission. Um, so we going to go on a 15-minute intermission. Let's drown this leech.
Dan (Luka):Just kidding. Probably not going to drown it. Use him as bait.
Timothy (DM):So we're going to take this intermission to allow the shadows to deepen and the mysteries to simmer for the next 15 minutes. That's what I call it. Can I go pee? Oh my goodness, oh my gosh, I don't know why, I was like so serious about this all right, immerse yourself in the atmospheric embrace of our interlude.
Timothy (DM):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. It's a little tree. Let the whispers of the land call to you as we prepare to delve back Into the enigmatic world of Vossen Slavine lands. A timer will count us down. No, it won't. I forgot to do that.
Ellie (Akka):Guiding us back.
Timothy (DM):Into the heart of our adventures Return soon, as the shadows await and the veil beckons.
Music:Venite rosce moje, zakaj bise cvetile? Zakaj bise my dear rose, why would you bloom, why would you wilt Come with me? Tell us where, tell us what is it. De kle povej kajtije prašale sorožite žalostnevse Povej nam. De kle povej kajtije prašale sorožitevse. So me, he let me go. My heart is sad. Come with me now. The clowns were silent. They were sad. They were sad. They were sad. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. Foreign. If the wheat is hard, it will be hard. It will be hard, like this other poppy, it will be hard, it will be hard. Foreign. Like a little boy in winter. He slept, he slept, he slept on his horse. He stood, he slept, he slept, he slept, he slept. Oh, oh, my dear, where did you go? Oh, where did you go, my dear? Oh, my mother will fall asleep.
Music:My dear mother will fall asleep. I will wait for you, my dear. I will wait for you, my dear. I will wait for you. Music, thank you, thank you, so no-transcript. The. I will not say goodbye to you. I will only wait for you, my dear, and if you come back, tell me no-transcript.
Timothy (DM):Where we left off. We have just uncovered some really spicy information about you, Some juicy details luca has looked very, very hard and has learned it's one of my stairs into yakov's soul just silently, for five minutes, just like I mean you've had a, you've had a relatively long, I mean you've been with this man for over half an hour at this point, he talks a lot about himself. He does talk about himself a lot and all the things that he's brought to the Like, all the prosperity he's brought to the town.
Chris (Joseph):You know I've been asking them to put a statue to me in the town square.
Timothy (DM):When I inherited this business from my father, there were only five ships in our fleet, and I've doubled that. Wow Pulled myself up by my bootstraps.
Ellie (Akka):Right.
Chris (Joseph):That's quite the growth. Do you imagine you'll live to see a 15-boat fleet? Oh?
Timothy (DM):that would be the dream. That would be true success. Infinite growth, oh my goodness. Oh gosh, I forgot to turn my.
Music:The shareholders. We must please the shareholders.
Timothy (DM):All right, we must please the shareholders um. Alright, so that that's we. We ended on a roll um. Basically, he's given you the extent of information that he will readily share um. I mean, if you were to press him further, there would be potential consequences there um one way or the other, um were to press him further, there would be potential consequences there one way or the other. Otherwise he will leave you to it and he will go on with his day, leaving you at the docks.
Ellie (Akka):Well, we need that equipment it's in the dock house yeah, he told us where to find it and gave us permission to use it too busy looking at his hands yeah, um. So I think, maybe, so we could our next step. I would say we should either go look at um. Is it tau's body? T-o-t-o-t-o. How do you spell that?
Timothy (DM):T-E-O and the family name is Dolinar, so it is one of the houses that you passed. It's not right on the road, so he would have been like here's the Hercog Villa, and back there are the Dolinars and the Rupniks Kirkog Villa and back there are the Dolinars and the Rupneks Mm-hmm.
Ellie (Akka):So we could either go look at his body or we could talk to Niku Gusik, who's the rumor spreader who potentially has claimed to witness this creature, or a third option that I haven't thought of.
Dan (Luka):Luka will start to walk slower along the docks to like give what's-his-face distance.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, jacob.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, jakob.
Ellie (Akka):Jakob.
Dan (Luka):Distance, I don't know. Do you see his hands?
Ellie (Akka):No.
Chris (Joseph):They look pretty normal to me.
Dan (Luka):No, he got in a fight recently oh.
Ellie (Akka):Really.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, you could see the bruising and the bloodiness on his knuckles. He washed his hands, but there were the scrapes in there, Very much fisticuffs I mean. I've seen bruises like that before.
Ellie (Akka):Our host is a tussler.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, I don't like him Businessman. He seems more concerned about the money that he the lack of fish coming in, rather than the people that are drowning.
Ellie (Akka):That's true.
Dan (Luka):I found him to be somewhat distasteful as well superficially nice not really talking about the people, more talking about the, what they can provide exactly.
Ellie (Akka):The gods never trust a businessman there's no denying that there is a problem and, regardless of his reasons for wanting it solved, it is a problem that should be solved.
Dan (Luka):That's true, agreed.
Ellie (Akka):And we're the best equipped to solve it.
Chris (Joseph):for some reason, We've got skills that are undeniably synergistic.
Ellie (Akka):Indeed.
Chris (Joseph):So thoughts on, I'm a little bit more interested in potentially going and examining the body, but of course that's just my personal bias I would agree if we are able to sort of surmise how the attacks occur, like if there's some sort of strangulation that happens before the drowning. Size of bite marks I think that'd be valuable to know, to prepare I'm curious.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, he mentioned chunks of skin missing and I'm curious if that is happening along with the attack or if it's rather that fish are feeding on the body after death and how long is it before between the attack and when the body's discovered Questions like that that I think examining the body should help with. So of course we'll have to handle the whole thing very tactfully. Is everybody ready to handle it tactfully?
Chris (Joseph):I look to Luca. Yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah.
Dan (Luka):Great, let's go visit the Dolinars ours. When have I not been tactful? Oh no, I meant more for me.
Ellie (Akka):I am not I there, you can just be quiet.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, I will stand in the back and I'll fold my arms and I'll nod approvingly yeah, past history with other projects and other players.
Timothy (DM):Tact attacked was not the group forte.
Ellie (Akka):I'm not saying it's going to be the group forte this time, but we'll certainly try.
Chris (Joseph):Did we get the names of the parents? Could we have gotten the names from Jakob saying oh, dolanars are.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, so yeah, the parents of Tia Dolanar are going to be Vid Dolanar.
Dan (Luka):Vid Yep.
Timothy (DM):And Stella. Okay. They sound like they would name their son Teo. No, not Stella. Stella Dolanar.
Ellie (Akka):All right. Off, we go.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, we'll make our way to the indicated house all right, uh, so we are uh about mid-afternoon at this point, um, so this is kind of the peak heat of the day, uh, which this close to the mountains is actually not so bad. It's actually probably a pretty nice respite from summers down in the southern region. But now it's kind of warmed up a bit, the sun is out and you make your way past the Hercog Villa and this is a collection of probably multiple families within the Hercog namesake Past them to where the Dolinars were pointed out. The Dolinars are one of the more modest houses in Ukans are one of the more modest houses in Ukans. This is a small wood and stone structure with a thatch roof. From the outside you're guessing maybe two or three rooms at most, and the door is closed. The windows are closed, the blinds not blinds the shutters are closed as well as you are approaching the front of the house great, I'll knock politely on the door you knock Great, I'll knock politely on the door.
Timothy (DM):You knock and you listen for a few moments as you start to hear some shuffling, kind of slow shuffling. And then you hear the creak of one of the window shutters over to your right and you see a woman's face. The sun hits her skin and just shows you a sliver of her sad, swollen, puffy under eye. Um, and then she closes it and you just hear, um, from behind the door, a voice call out we already go to church, leave us alone.
Ellie (Akka):We're not here about church, we're here about your son.
Timothy (DM):A couple beats of silence pass. You're outsiders, go away.
Ellie (Akka):Outsiders we may be, but we've been brought in specifically to help stop the drownings that have tragically stolen your son from you and so many others loved ones from them as well. We would be most gratified by your assistance.
Timothy (DM):A few more beats of silence pass before you see a sliver of the door creak open and again her sad, swollen eye, dark bags beneath them. What could you possibly do for us? You don't know anything about us.
Dan (Luka):How tall is she? Like how easy it is for me to get on her level.
Timothy (DM):I mean, I guess I'm not that tall, she's probably 5'2".
Dan (Luka):Then I'm going to step forward and take one knee, so like I'm pretty close to her, Are you that tall?
Dan (Luka):No, I'm 5'8", but like, still so I'm, I'm like underneath her, but I'm still more on her level than her looking up. I want her to get a little look down on me and I'm gonna make a very sincere face because, wow, thrown on the charm. Um and luca will say I can't imagine the pain that you're going through. Um, we were asked to come here to figure out what happened to the poor souls who are lost to the lake and make sure that no one else gets lost in the future. And while I understand what we'll be asking, you will be very painful. We're asking so that we can prevent this pain for other families and other mothers.
Timothy (DM):What do you want from me Out with it? What do you want from me Out?
Ellie (Akka):with it. With your permission, it would be our great, uh, our great privilege and honor.
Timothy (DM):Spit it out, I don't have time for this.
Ellie (Akka):We would like to examine your son's body.
Dan (Luka):The more we can know about his circumstances, the more we can help. We can bring prosperity back to your village, and while that will not bring your son back, I understand, it will hopefully bring you some, some small semblance of comfort.
Timothy (DM):You see, the door opens a little bit more and she's like shaking her head and she goes no, no, no, no, please, no, just leave him be my poor boy, just let him rest.
Ellie (Akka):All right, I'm tapping out, I'm not going to not gonna do this, I'm not gonna make her do this. Yeah, yeah, I'm so sorry, ma'am, you're right. Um, of course, we don't want to make you uncomfortable. Um, it's he's your son. Ultimately, it's your choice. Um, I I do feel this could be a last great gift that he could share with the community.
Timothy (DM):Stella, who is it? Nobody, they're just leaving. Go back to bed.
Ellie (Akka):Are there missionaries out there again?
Timothy (DM) 3:That's a huge problem with this town. We already got one.
Timothy (DM):No bid. I apologize for my behavior. The last couple days have been very rough.
Dan (Luka):Understandably so.
Timothy (DM):You're here to help I. It hurts me so much to think about the prospect of you going in outsiders and disturbing my son, but maybe it's for the best.
Chris (Joseph):I assure you she is a woman of medicine, she is respectful and we will treat this with great care.
Timothy (DM):Your son, you better fucking do that. Sorry, I'm a woman of the church, I shouldn't say these things.
Ellie (Akka):Extenuating times. Call for extenuating language.
Chris (Joseph):Thank you.
Ellie (Akka):We will.
Timothy (DM):Appreciate the grace.
Ellie (Akka):Treat your son with the utmost respect. As my colleague has mentioned, I'm a woman of medicine. I'm familiar with these sorts of processes and I will hold myself to the highest standards of professionalism and respect. All right.
Timothy (DM):His body is being held at the church. You can tell Father Maté that I said it was all right.
Chris (Joseph):Thank you, Miss Stella, Miss Dolinar.
Timothy (DM):Now, if you'll please relieve me of your presence.
Ellie (Akka):I'd like to return thank you, yes we will leave, right, yes, yeah, yes good talk thank you thank you and she closes the door um quietly.
Timothy (DM):You hear the door kind of creak into place and settled back down in its frame. There's no like latch or click or anything because, that's not a. Thing.
Chris (Joseph):This is trying times in this area.
Ellie (Akka):I'll say All right to the church you got.
Timothy (DM):It sounds good off to Father Mateo so again, yeah, there's a lot of walking and talking and looking for things in this game.
Timothy (DM):I don't know if you could have guessed that. So you make your way back across town, back towards the Eldridge Villa, past Town Hall, and then you turn onto the church road. As you are making your way up the hill to the church again, you pass jacob's house. Um. You also see through the woods. Um, there is an old, crumbling stone structure on the right? Um before you make your way to the double doors of the church house. This is the largest building in town, enough to fit everybody who lives in this settlement and probably a little space to spare.
Timothy (DM):It is a simple church, uh, nothing too fancy, just a? Uh single column, uh no, like cross, uh architecture in terms of, like the layout, um, just a single room where the doors are open. You can see the pews in rows facing the priest's podium, right beneath the crucifix. You can hear some shuffling about inside the church.
Ellie (Akka):Alright, we enter and look for the priest.
Timothy (DM):Shards of light pass through the plane windows, hitting the pews, and you can see dust kind of floating about in the air. As your eyes trace down the rows of pews to reach a man hunched over along the side of the church hall. As you make your presence known, entering the space, you do see that he straightens himself up and looks your way. Ah, travelers, I see what brings you into the town of Ukans. My children, we heard.
Chris (Joseph):Should we we had heard about some recent events that had popped up and were asked to provide our help?
Timothy (DM):Ah, yes, troubling, you are helpers. That is a relief to my ears. Looking the three of you over. What sort of help do you provide?
Chris (Joseph):Investigative know-how.
Timothy (DM):Well then, we are truly blessed as a community. This has troubled us for many months and every theory seems more crazed than the last.
Chris (Joseph):We have heard that there are rumors floating around that are starting to affect some of your younger parishioners, so we're hoping to evaluate what has happened and trace down any leads that we find that are credible.
Timothy (DM):Yes, I have done what I can to dissuade the inhabitants of this town to participate in rumors through my sermons. God does not look kindly to those who spread lies, so I am grateful for your aid. What can I do for you during your time? Do you wish to be blessed?
Chris (Joseph):That'd be most. Well, I won't speak for my colleagues, but I will accept one.
Ellie (Akka):Sure, I'll accept a blessing, although it's not the primary purpose of our visit here, Father.
Timothy (DM):Well, asking God for help hurts no one. Only ensures that he knows your love. Only ensures that he knows your love. I will make sure to include that in our sermon this upcoming Sunday. Thank you, would any of you like to seek?
Dan (Luka):penance, eyes darting at Lucaca, what, why?
Ellie (Akka):me, I step somewhat protectively in front of you. I believe we've all sought penance recently enough that there are no more sins weighing on our conscience. At the moment, what we're primarily interested in is seeing the body of young Tao, so that we may further understand the circumstances surrounding his death and potentially the death of others.
Timothy (DM):Ah, a woman of science.
Ellie (Akka):Indeed.
Timothy (DM):Pride will.
Ellie (Akka):Anyways, yeah, that's what I thought I may escort you to the boy. Thank you.
Timothy (DM):I do ask that you be respectful.
Timothy (DM):Of course I wouldn't dream otherwise and he will begin to shuffle down the smell of embalming fluid, basically just vapor, consuming the space. You can tell that, even though he's familiar with the smell, tell that, even though he's familiar with the smell, it still does sting his nose as he reacts rather, um, not violently towards the smell as the door is opened. But you can see he tenses up and that smell hits at least two of yours noses pretty intensely. Aka, might be a little bit more familiar. Yeah, um, and it's like a wall of embalming fluid.
Timothy (DM):Um, it's very astringent. It kind of burns a little bit sends a tingle down your body. Um, and inside the room on a small wooden table rests a simple coffin door.
Ellie (Akka):Is closed for the time being the two of you do not have to be here for this. I don't know. Have either of you ever seen a dead body before?
Music:I mean an animal yeah.
Dan (Luka):I will wait out and, father, if you wish to let my companions go about their business alone, I would gladly bend your ear to the people of this town gladly bend your ear to the people of this town.
Timothy (DM):I would gladly, though you will not catch me gossiping.
Dan (Luka):Oh, of course not. But you, of all people, will probably be in tune with the relationships and the workings of the people of this town and, as investigators of the tragedies this town and as investigators of um, you know the tragedies that have befallen um your quaint village, um knowing who who is who in town, uh, would be very beneficial for us, should we need assistance.
Timothy (DM):Of course I will aid your investigation in whatever ways I can. Aid your investigation in whatever ways I can. And then he will motion back towards the pews and follow you and sit kind of with a good amount of space between the two of you facing you.
Ellie (Akka):Rude Sorry, sorry, just kidding. He doesn't want his sins to rub off what is joseph um going to be doing?
Chris (Joseph):so it seems akka is going to handle the actual examination. You'll be talking to the father, I I. I suppose I'll try to assist Aka in what I can from what I know about anatomy or things that seem like animal related injuries.
Timothy (DM):That's fair. So you'd like to assist in the examination.
Chris (Joseph):Okay, so you'll stay in the room. Hold this. Yeah, I'm holding the shirt. You undo the shirt, so I'm actually going to start with a conversation with the father, since I'm home.
Timothy (DM):Like you, undo the shirt and you're in the, so I'm actually going to start with the conversation with father, since I'm already in the voice. Don't want to lose it.
Ellie (Akka):If you put it down, it'll be gone forever.
Dan (Luka):I'll be Scottish next. Oh, you're drifting father voice actor?
Timothy (DM):no, never would put that on the resume. Um, but anyways, my son, what would you like to know?
Dan (Luka):I well, I'm not sure if we mentioned on the way in, but it was um jacob the businessman, the owner of the fish fishery fishing fishing fleet the fishing fleet that called us here. He seems concerned about his business. Um, does he attend services with everyone else on?
Timothy (DM):occasion.
Dan (Luka):He seems a busy man, so I'm not too surprised by that. Do you have a sense of his? Um him as a person? Um does he does he seem to uh do well with the other, uh do well by the other villagers.
Timothy (DM):It seems to me that you are attempting to press my tongue for gossip, but I refuse. What I can tell you is that Jacob maintains an air of distance from the rest of the residents here at UConn. He does attend church semi-regularly most of the major holidays.
Dan (Luka):Well, trust me, Father, when I say that I am not asking you to dabble in gossip, as he is our hirer. I don't know a better word for that. As he is the person who hired us for this work, it is important for us to understand his relationship to the to the matter at hand in order to um truly determine what his desires are versus the desires of the community all right was there like a role here?
Ellie (Akka):yeah, I'm gonna ask for a manipulation, empathy that's seven dice for me wow, yeah, baby, you're as good at manipulation as I am at learning. I I mean, do I use the three extra.
Timothy (DM):dice that I I mean I would argue that you are already touching on information that you pulled from that other roll. This is the reason that you are going down this line of questioning is because of your previous roll's success, so I can roll ten dice. Whoa.
Music:You're going gonna crack this priest like an egg and I put this sincere charming-ass face on.
Ellie (Akka):You're like a little choir boy.
Dan (Luka):Three successes A young soul looking to help. Three successes, three successes.
Timothy (DM):Okay, this is the first time we've done this skill test, so I am going to pull it up real quick, um, and figure out what we do with extra successes. Um, I will say this was um, because he is specifically trying to avoid gossip. Um, and is a man of god. Um, I don't whatever. Anyways, um, I'm gonna say that this was a two success difficulty.
Timothy (DM):So we'll we'll run with the one success. I think I was supposed to have told you that ahead of time, but that's okay. Um manipulation, empathy, um influence how other people think, feel or act by lying, flirting, bribing, negotiating, haggling or by using your social skills. Um little angel oh me cherubic uh, player characters can make an observation to resist influence, um, but that's not a condition here.
Chris (Joseph):And more successes inflect a mental condition you want to break this man.
Dan (Luka):I want to give him anxiety oh my gosh.
Timothy (DM):Okay, so mechanically it gives him, or makes him suffer, a mental condition. So our mental conditions are angry, frightened, hopeless or broken. Um, so he is going to suffer one of those and I need to figure out which one makes the most sense and I can actually uh into roleplay.
Dan (Luka):It's this genuine face, I think that breaks him. That's someone who is truly just here to help.
Chris (Joseph):He looks into the distance and he sees one of the murals and the face of one of the angels looks exactly like him.
Dan (Luka):I'm backlit by candles.
Music:Yeah, father, I'm here to by candles.
Dan (Luka):Father, I'm here to help. I feel like maybe hopeless because he feels so hopeless about the situation that he's susceptible to a source of hope maybe, but not to backseat.
Timothy (DM):That's what I'm going to run with. So mechanically he is going to incur hopeless. That's probably never going to come up again in terms of this developing further unless I make him angry and frightened. Yeah, badgering this priest, just like, really just keep going at it better keep your blood pressure down Anyways so he's going to go.
Timothy (DM):I have done what I can to help the man, to bring him into the face and light of God. We at the church talk about the seven deadly sins, sins so egregious that they can cause death of individuals. They are vile characteristics of the human condition that can bring down societies, crumble communities. Jakob is wrath incarnate.
Dan (Luka):Not what I was expecting.
Timothy (DM):That man's temper will be his downfall and if we are not careful, someone's death.
Dan (Luka):I'm gonna scoot closer because you mentioned that he sat farther away from me, and I'm gonna, in hushed tones. I'm gonna say I did notice his bruised and bloodied knuckles. He had washed it and tried to clean them up to. It seems to hide them from us when we arrived. Do you know what that encounter was about?
Timothy (DM):I do not.
Dan (Luka):I can only make assumptions, all which would be heresy see, could you maybe point me to someone who might work with?
Timothy (DM):him on a more consistent and maybe a business basis. I'm sure any of his employees would be able to enlighten you or those close to him in familiar relationship.
Music:His wife maybe. Mm-hmm.
Dan (Luka):Well, thank you, father. I truly appreciate the information and I hope I did not put you in a place that compromises your faith or ethics.
Timothy (DM):Now, if you'll please excuse me, excuse me. And he gets up and you see that he beelines for the. What's the box called the?
Ellie (Akka):confessional, the confessional. He beelines for the confessional.
Chris (Joseph):Who does he?
Ellie (Akka):confess to.
Chris (Joseph):It's just like God. I guess it's just a mirror he has to confess to God.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, I think that's what priests do. I think they also can confess to other priests. Yeah. But in the absence of another priest, he would probably have to confess to God.
Dan (Luka):The big guy, the big man, the big man.
Music:The big J.
Chris (Joseph):J Jesus jay jesus, is it jesus? Sometimes they're all the one. The same so the lou malnati the lou malnati is that pizza place?
Ellie (Akka):yes, the Luminati.
Timothy (DM):Alright great. So we've insulted the church like 50 times, Oops.
Dan (Luka):Luca will lie down on a pew and maybe take a little shut-eye while he's waiting. Sure. Like pretending to pray but you're actually like Father Mateo's in confessional. Yeah, he's busy.
Timothy (DM):So let us cycle back to Aka and Joseph with the body.
Ellie (Akka):Excellent.
Timothy (DM):Alright, so it's in a coffin on a table Casket is closed.
Chris (Joseph):I lift up the lid for Aka thank you, joseph all right.
Timothy (DM):Um, inside you see a they tried real hard to make this look okay. Um, the odor is more pungent. As you open the casket it just like wafts out, and now it's mixing with the smell of decay, like no matter how much embalming fluid they pumped into this body. Um, it is a drowned victim, and drowning has a particularly pungent scent of rot. You can see that his skin is very pale and blued and bruised. Not bruised is like if, if you get a hot hit with something, um, but bruised is in the the? Um capillaries of the veins um started to the skin around, started to like necrotized from lack of oxygen, and so it creates this like bruising effect and I believe it also gets pretty puffy. The skin gets like puffy, bruised and pale. I'm, again, not a medical professional. I have never cut open a body or done an autopsy.
Timothy (DM):I'm doing my best, that's what I believe I've read about uh, drowning, um, so it's. It's a pretty grotesque situation. Um, they've tried to cover as much of his body as possible with clothing, so he's wearing a suit. Um, they even like tied something around his neck to cover up as much of the neck as possible. Um, they've caked on makeup in order to, like add some color back into his cheeks. It's all very like waxy and cakey looking. Um, his eyes are closed, um, and uh, they have made like a hair wig, like a, like a actual hair wig, um, to compensate for the hair that was lost oh, like a scalp was torn off, no, or just pulled out, just like hair was pulled out and it was kind of ratty and gotcha.
Timothy (DM):So they like put a wig on him to kind of mix in and cover up some of that. Um, they're really, they're trying, trying their best, it's 1848 and they're trying to make a drowning victim look presentable for a wake.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, probably best to avoid the hair and the face, but I'll try to help remove some of this clothing for a more baseline body.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, sorry. Clothing for a more baseline body. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, as you're, you start unbuttoning the clothes and and revealing more of his chest so I'll um do an autopsy and like maybe as a medicine check.
Ellie (Akka):But can I request? Can I play my little card and request that we just get the information that I receive? From doing the autopsy without the juicy details? Yeah.
Timothy (DM):So we are going to use the fade to black card.
Dan (Luka):But yeah, do your roll Taking up a scalpel, yeah exactly Fade to black.
Ellie (Akka):But do I get my advantage from my preparation? Yeah, because I prepared to do autopsies okay, what does that do mechanically?
Timothy (DM):you add two deaths, and this will be the one time you get to do that okay, great.
Ellie (Akka):Oh my god, no successes at all. Terrible.
Timothy (DM):And I'm okay at medicine, too terrible so I will redirect a roll to our assistant is there like a nature?
Chris (Joseph):is there a nature? Not really learning?
Timothy (DM):do you have any abilities related to um? Do you have any abilities related to nature in terms of doing an investigation with a bonus die if it's related to XYZ.
Chris (Joseph):Most of my things. I'm an herbalist. I can do a medicine check without a kit.
Timothy (DM):I don't think anything applies here for that you have plus two investigation in the wild because of your hunting equipment, I think.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, pretty far from the wild yeah.
Timothy (DM):All right, so just do an investigation, check it's going to be embarrassing if you notice something I didn't. Yeah.
Ellie (Akka):I'm a doctor, not a mort, a mortician. No, it's a bust. Sorry, I took all of our sixes. We cracked this guy open for no reason.
Dan (Luka):Well, I cracked that priest open and got something.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, there we go I got it so one of us, so I'm gonna stick with the baseline facts, which is there are small bits of flesh missing for the body we're talking about, like an inch mass.
Dan (Luka):Quarter size.
Timothy (DM):It does seem to be like they're, in particular, consolidated in particular areas Like a jawbone, like a bite mark, potentially I'm not gonna answer that question because we don't know. We're like lift could be anything um, just there does seem to be like there's a collection on the right arm and the left, thigh okay, and the middle of the torso and a couple Arrhenius, but that's it.
Chris (Joseph):Alright, and there's nothing on the neck Like they covered it up, but there's nothing to suggest that he was choked.
Timothy (DM):No other signs of death that can be identified, to the best of your knowledge, can be identified Gotcha. To the best of your knowledge, it was just drowning.
Ellie (Akka):Seems straightforward enough. My working theory is that something bites and drags underwater and then holds underwater and eventually drowning, but not to eat. Yeah, so some other motivation. And then holds underwater and eventually drowning, but not Eat To eat. Yeah, so some other motivation.
Chris (Joseph):Just vengeance, if it is Maybe territorialism. Do you have any instinct? You seem like somebody that's attuned to sort of the folklore of the area. It seems maybe like I've heard of selkies, in terms of creatures that drag things underwater but, short of being, like it, actually a big fish, uh, or some I, I don't know it's hard to know.
Ellie (Akka):yeah, I don't know why it would have just suddenly started two months ago. That's what's really puzzling to me. I think if we can figure out the nature of the inciting incident, that will provide us good information about how we could potentially diffuse the situation. Yeah Well, let's go see how Luca's doing with the priest.
Chris (Joseph):I'm sure it's going swimmingly.
Ellie (Akka):We obviously put all the clothes back on, closed the casket up, tried to make it exactly as it was when we came.
Timothy (DM):Alright, and sure enough, luca is sleeping, a state in which you find him regularly Luca, luca.
Music:Luca yeah, what?
Ellie (Akka):Oh, I'm up Pika Pika yeah, Is Pika asleep, like on your?
Music:desk. Yeah, pika Luca yeah sorry. I like, adjusted my hat.
Dan (Luka):We should now point towards the door.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, let's.
Music:He's in the confessional oh my god, what did you do?
Dan (Luka):to him so yeah, we'll quietly make our way out and then, once we're like pretty clear of the church so that there's no way for him to like overhear our conversation, so what I got was that apparently yakub, our uh, our client um, is not the man he seemed when we met him we kind of assumed that I kind of assumed that at least apparently he's got a temper on him. Well, uh, one that kind of bleeds into his relationships with the other villagers. He keeps his distance and does not frequent church as often as the rest.
Ellie (Akka):Interesting. I suppose I'm not surprised, but I am intrigued. Yeah.
Dan (Luka):I'm interested to see whose knuckles he or whose face. He has his knuckles on his knuckle imprints on him. Maybe something to look. Well, what time is it?
Timothy (DM):afternoon probably getting late afternoon at this point dinner time we're probably leading up into dinner
Dan (Luka):head back to the house, get settled in, maybe talk to his wife, get some dinner in us well, I was thinking if the inn and tavern is the only place, other than people's homes, to get food we might be able to speak to and maybe suss out some bruised villagers oh, good idea.
Ellie (Akka):yeah, tavern for dinner, then I mean my bag is and his bag is pecan. Wouldn't leave that behind anywhere. Yeah, tavern for dinner, although, again, I will just say we're running low on money.
Dan (Luka):Adults? No, how strapped are we for actual cash to buy?
Timothy (DM):Living expenses are pretty Like. You have a. I think on your character sheet you actually have a like living situation.
Ellie (Akka):I think it's based on your just standard resources.
Timothy (DM):Your resources, yeah, oh, okay, your resource value is basically your living conditions.
Ellie (Akka):So I think, aka, you have, you have a five yeah, and the assumption is actually pretty good money, yeah, so you have probably, I think five is like upper middle class yeah, she's like she has a pretty good life. She like raised her kids, sent them to school, like she has a respectable.
Timothy (DM):She's a respectable professional yeah, yeah, and I think Luca is obviously the lowest resource value with a two.
Dan (Luka):But two is like poor but not squalid. So, like I can afford, like when I need to, I can afford food. You're not starving.
Ellie (Akka):Right, exactly, I can treat you. Don't worry Mommy's home.
Music:I'm not that bad.
Ellie (Akka):And you said you're a four. Yes, yes, yeah, okay. So yeah, dinner at the tavern sounds lovely and scope out and maybe we'll even run into um nikku gushik oh yes, our gossip. Yeah, the inn keeps him to like me too. So, oh, yes, niku Gusik, our gossip.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, the inn keeps him to like me too. So yeah, you think, based on the way she looked at me, I think she'll like me. I can maybe get some, you know figure out who he goes yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Great Dinner. Maybe we'll try. I mean, the soup was pretty good, but I guess it could be nice to try something different. We'll see Local variety.
Chris (Joseph):We'll be here for a while. Yeah, at least three days.
Timothy (DM):The menu's not likely to circulate much in this week.
Ellie (Akka):What's the seasonal special? It's the brown trout.
Dan (Luka):Which is every season, let me check.
Timothy (DM):There would be some seasonality to like what's in season, especially produce wise yeah, yeah, get some cherries you're getting pickled stuff in the winter.
Timothy (DM):Pickled or salted or dried, that's your. Those are your options in the winter. Um, rehydrated stews, um, but yeah, so it's the same type of menu. It's all of the things that are in season in the town that they are currently producing. So the fish that it's in season, the produce that's in season, um, and you're just kind of given an op pseudo options, but it's like they're gonna bring you a plate with some vegetables on it and some fish and potatoes. Potatoes is its own class of vegetable in Slovenia. Its own food. It's its own food group.
Ellie (Akka):It's the bottom wedge of the food pyramid. Yeah, there's actually. You know, all the food pyramids that you see are actually just like cut off at the top. They don't include the final level at the very bottom, which is potato.
Dan (Luka):It's like the glacier meme. Yeah, the food pyramid, and then it's just potatoes.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, we've got potatoes. I think the next one is bread and butter together, somehow they're in the iam wedge um, then you got everything else pasta yeah, pastas so all right all right, uh. So while you are there in the tavern, um, you're welcome to enjoy some ale, uh, and also to get a lay of the land, uh, in terms of the social dynamics and looking out for particular people um you don't necessarily know what anybody looks like other than the people you've met in rp so far yeah any fishermen?
Dan (Luka):yeah, I was gonna say did we see fishermen we were when we were in the fish for lunch he saw people who are very obviously fishermen.
Timothy (DM):Okay, they're, if you are an able-bodied human you were in this town.
Dan (Luka):You probably are a fisher but I'm specifically thinking the people who live in the fishermen's village and if they're not fishermen, then they're salters or they're smokehouse builders.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, exactly um so what was your question? Um, anybody with bruises, anybody with bruises uh, so I believe that is going to be an investigation. Maybe somebody else should do it I yeah, you all can do individual tests.
Chris (Joseph):Are dogs allowed in this establishment?
Timothy (DM):Yeah, this is 1848. There's no hygiene law.
Ellie (Akka):OSHA's not coming for you. I didn't get any successes with six dice.
Dan (Luka):I'm on a roll today. I'm on some other kind of roll we need the green dice.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, we'll switch those?
Timothy (DM):I don't know we'll just switch those out next time
Chris (Joseph):yeah, I got one success I got two successes.
Timothy (DM):Two successes, I got one success one success um, and I think with investigation extra success we already establish is just you find more stuff um or you feel good about it, or you feel yes, that's right, it is. You feel good about it oh my god, oh my gosh you revel in your success.
Timothy (DM):Wow, oh, yeah because that's when I found yeah wow, I'm so good at looking so good at looking um get real egotistical about it, self-satisfied so with, uh, a success and an extra success um, you're going to be able to, in your investigation, get the following information um, your first question no, nobody with bruises that would indicate direct impact from a punch. Um, there are lots of bruises present, but they don't look like bruises from punches. These are all physical laborers, so they're going to have cuts, scrapes, bruises, lost fingers. But you also do with that check. You do get to pinpoint. I think we did say his name was nico nico gusick. Oh, uh, so, just like listening to everybody talk, you do hear somebody say the. So nico is fairly young. Um, from the way that he was described, he sounded like an older man. Um, but no, he's a young adult, like, like we're talking 17, 18.
Dan (Luka):I'm up here. I'm up here, a rap scout.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, so he is a so-called adult, but he is in his late teens, maybe early 20s at best, and he's with a bunch of other um fishermen. They're all having a chummy time um sharing an ale over a meal just one sharing the pass around one guy spits in it chugs it Local tradition Spit in your neighbor's ale and then you chug, you never run out, it's
Music:a perpetual drinking machine yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Oh God.
Timothy (DM):Just as you go it tastes more like spit less like ale, but the drunker you get, the less it matters the likelihood that there's anybody from the town of Ukans listening to this to be able to refute.
Chris (Joseph):We're so sorry I kind of forgot it was a real place well it's what we're like this is in the long in the past yeah, yeah, and from what I can tell it's mostly like a lake, like a summer lake area. Yeah, it's it's a.
Timothy (DM):It's a nice vacation place. It's like lake george, or um. Oh, it's not as big as lake george, um, like geneva, like geneva wisconsin yeah, it's like. It's just like a large lake that people go have like little summer rentals on. Nowadays I believe there's skiing in the region. It's a little far from the ski resorts, but Cool. Yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Sorry for our slander and libel Budget skiers.
Timothy (DM):But in 1848, it is a fishing community and it is relatively small and there's never going to be anybody who listens to this that can tell us what the local traditions are or are not. Um, honestly, someone spitting into a mug and somebody else drinking it doesn't sound that far-fetched to me sounds like something that might happen here in the US.
Dan (Luka):to be honest, Maybe it's not even a local tradition.
Ellie (Akka):Maybe it's just this friend group.
Music:Maybe it's just a weird thing that they do yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Just the guys being guys.
Chris (Joseph):This is hazing.
Timothy (DM):Anyway. So they're all talking. What would you like to do with this information?
Ellie (Akka):Schmooze or schmooze.
Dan (Luka):Yeah.
Chris (Joseph):Oh, that's me, yeah. Oh well, I can go up.
Ellie (Akka):I, I'm a man of the hunt so maybe I can true, I'll enjoy my potatoes a man of the hunt hey if yaka, if yaka, blesha can say I'm a man of business.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, adding that to my email signature.
Timothy (DM):Man of the hunt as you're talking about a group of young men having a conversation with friends.
Ellie (Akka):Man of business in the streets. Man of the hunt in the streets.
Music:Oh no, terrible Cool, cool cool, cool.
Timothy (DM):So what are you doing?
Chris (Joseph):Well, I now realize that I'm Do you? Want to, we can go up as friends, okay, go good luck.
Ellie (Akka):I'll be over here, just wave if anybody needs medical attention. I'm enjoying my ale without I mean so his friends are to.
Timothy (DM):If I, if I could really just set the scene for you, um, he's very young. For you, um, he's very young. The spread of ages is it skews on the younger side, but it's not like it's all 19 year olds. These are his co-workers, so like there is a broader range than one might anticipate, going into the social dynamic. Um, it's probably not a 19-year-old and a 50-year-old.
Chris (Joseph):I have a dog.
Dan (Luka):How many of them are there, there's five, okay, hey. Aka, can I borrow some money? I'm going to buy them a round of ales. There you go. Thank you, I'm going to buy them a round of ales. There you go, thank you. I'm going to go up to the barkeep and order six, seven, sure Seven. It feels harder to hold than six. It's like one of these motions where you have to grab all of them Well make Joseph carry his own.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, I'll carry the other half yeah.
Timothy (DM):You only have to carry up to four. Alright, so they're chatting and they're.
Dan (Luka):I'm going to dramatically not drop, but you know how you set, when you set down. I'm assuming it's like a sign. Almost. I'm going to set the signs down on the table pretty abruptly.
Timothy (DM):I go ales on me boys and I slide them across the table all right, so I'm not gonna role play a group of people, but they do that like and so my goal brings you into town and they just jump right into just like small talk, chumminess, like that's surefire way to win a bunch of strangers over, yeah is, bring them beer so in my mind, we don't need to necessarily play out the scene of having it because I don't.
Dan (Luka):I don't want to talk to it's fine I don't want to talk to nico specifically, because that's sus um, but I want to like, just like, get a sense of what their days are like, like ask them about their fishing. Maybe bring up jacob yeah, yeah to see what their reaction is all right and just like honestly get drunk and have a good time, and just like listen to what they gotta say we do also want to know if they've seen anything monstrous.
Ellie (Akka):I don't know if you can pry for that at all, I will.
Dan (Luka):I don't want to kill the mood. My goal is also to isolate Nico afterwards, as he's going home. That sounds really creepy.
Ellie (Akka):But a 19-year-old to a 20-year-old. I'm going to get him drunk and then split him off from his friends on the way home or a little walk. I'm gonna get him drunk and then split him off from his friends on the way home um.
Timothy (DM):We can treat this as like a levels of difficulty situation sure um navigating the social dynamic of like. Objective one is just befriend them. Objective two is get some light information about yakub um, and then objective three is get him to tell the stories that he supposedly tells to the kids in town, Because that's really how you would be prompting it. Is that like oh, I heard that you have a really good story Scaring children.
Music:Scary story to tell.
Timothy (DM):Like campfire story, like tell me a campfire story yeah exactly.
Music:That equivalent.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, all right, give me that manipulation empathy, oh baby.
Dan (Luka):So that plus three that I got for those extra successes is that used once like I've?
Timothy (DM):used it. No, anytime you are using that information to, uh, navigate the skill, a skill test, you can use it. I'm gonna say that it doesn't really come into play, sure, in the way that you're trying to navigate this. Okay, you're not using that particular information about jacob, yeah, to coax more out of him. You're you were going more for just like casual conversation, yeah, or he might be a topic of it.
Dan (Luka):Okay, cool so making friends. How many successes do I need, uh?
Timothy (DM):just one to start I did, I got one okay, just one. Yep, okay cool we're friends now, all right, so yeah, you get the sense that, like they're warming up to you pretty well so like that's.
Dan (Luka):I'm fucking charming that's why yeah this is a boys club.
Timothy (DM):Now, um sorry, sorry yeah look, if I wanted to talk to five, 20 year olds, I could um all right, so you get the sense they're warming up to you, they're being genuinely friendly um and forthcoming around you, um, they're having a good old time um, basically, the story that you like get from them is that like, uh, they're kind of bumming around at this point because, like they don't really want to do their job, like they're fishermen, um, but like a lot of it involves going into the lake at at um the like early or late hours, um, and everybody's kind of like put that down. Um, they have to like really like be convinced. And you you do hear a little bit about uh, yakub, um increasing rates for particular, just to like be like. Oh, this is like the equivalent of like if there was a strike and the like company came in and tried to like hire scabs it's a.
Timothy (DM):It's a situation like that where it's like, uh, there's this like united front of like everybody's just going to avoid doing this um work at night on the lake. But then jacob is like, no, I need people to do that, so I'm gonna pay this one group a bunch of money, like a buttload of money. Um, and teo was part of that the last cruise that went in this past week um and was doing like a good haul and they actually like they had a good haul.
Dan (Luka):Unfortunately somebody died, so teo was a scab is what I, what I heard, not really like this is not really a, but he was motivated enough.
Timothy (DM):Teo drew barrymore scabs for like a social dynamic that I can like describe um so there is a little bit of that going on where, like they don't want to do it, so they're kind of just like bumming around, um, they've been like sharing like sorts of odd jobs that they can try to pick up around town to try to like at least make some money, um, and then like there's a bunch of like things thrown out like, oh, I heard, if you go down to the next town over, we could pick up some jobs there. Um, nobody's been uh drowned in whatever the next town over is, um. So like there's that type of talk like they're trying to figure out what their next like career move is, um, on top of also just kind of um having a fun night out, um, with some money, because they're not really working as much right now all right, all right um, so they might be going for a little bit more of a bender than you anticipated fine by me
Ellie (Akka):which might bring your benefit um yeah, uh.
Timothy (DM):So like, yeah, they're, they're drinking a bit heavy um. They're welcoming additional rounds. If you are supplying, they might trade off a little bit um as well by a couple.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, I I. I motioned to my hip flask and I say this is definitely going to be stronger than what you'll find, and I do have I just in my equipment list.
Ellie (Akka):I do have liquor yeah, inspire with alcohol yeah but that's my private stash your private stash.
Timothy (DM):You're sitting in the corner sipping yeah I've had.
Ellie (Akka):I made myself like a nice little cocktail and I'm like I'm reading a book.
Timothy (DM):I brought my latest like novella I mean stuff like that's not that abnormal in a place like this yeah, like it's, it's all. Locals, like some of them, are just doing what they normally would do in a day while eating dinner.
Ellie (Akka):I'm keeping an eye on things, but I think Luca's got it. Seems like he's got it pretty well in hand, yeah.
Dan (Luka):Do I need to make another roll for more information? You said it was a threefold.
Timothy (DM):Oh, as in like, if you got additional successes, I was going to push into some more intense findings but, sorry, I lost my train of thought. That happens very frequently the general sense you get you do get some information about um jacob and uh, you do get some like sense that they're really hesitant to go back. If you would like to socially push that, you can oh, you can push it right by taking a condition?
Timothy (DM):yes, oh, sorry, I'm not so you could push a roll, um, and take a condition to really like push into something or um, I don't think I want to push a roll okay based on the way that the scene is going. If you can describe or explain to me how you twist the conversation to coax out Because you're going for the story, right.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, and I think it's going to be pretty easy, because we're already talking about the fact that they're on strike. So, I'm assuming we've talked about why they're on strike.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, yeah, yeah, so you ask about that. So I asked about why they're on strike. Yeah, yeah, so you ask about that.
Dan (Luka):So I asked about why people think people are drowning. All right um, I feel like I wouldn't need to. I feel like nico would just probably jump into it.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, yeah, I think I think I can be convinced that I'm trying to stay true to the mechanics a little bit, but that's fair. I know it's so hard with more sandbox games like this sometimes, where it's like you find information, the level of information that's a single success is arbitrary.
Timothy (DM):So, yeah, with the success, though, and just the fact that you, you have like a clear direction, um, I'll let you get a little bit more about that. So, um, he's gonna tell you a story, yes, um, and maybe, if we're lucky, I'll prepare a story for, uh, next session to open yes, we are about that time, uh, however, I will leave you with the following pieces of information.
Timothy (DM):Okay, so, um, in his story, uh, he does speak of a water monster from the deeps of Lake Bohemia, and what pieces of information you get out of it is that there are the signs that you are next to die, involve some sort of song and the sound of dripping water. Hmm, and the way the monster is described is beady, red, glowing eyes, the deepness of the blackest soul, the embers burning through your heart and dragging you down to the depths to remain there forever. Remain there forever. And I'm trying to think if there's anything else you would share. Sounds unpleasant, yeah, yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Good thing we've got these light preservers.
Music:Can't drag me down, I think there would also be a piece about misbehaving children playing in water at night.
Timothy (DM):Cause at the end of the day, this is a story he's telling to children to scare them.
Ellie (Akka):Um so, don't play in the lake at night. Don't play in the lake at night.
Timothy (DM):You misbehaving children.
Chris (Joseph):That's when we have our social monster.
Timothy (DM):Lake Boheme will drag you down to the depths to stay there forever. Yeah, so that's the story, and I will make a promise to you all to kick off our next session with an actual recounting of said story to really get us in the vibe, the mood.
Timothy (DM):But with that we're at a good stopping point, I think. So I think we are going to go into our outro sequence left with those thoughts. With that, the curtain closes on this installment of Vossen Slavine Lands. The coals of the wild linger, for next time. Of the wild linger, for next time.
Timothy (DM):A heartfelt thanks to Free League Publishing for their steadfast support of independent TTRPG creators through their open-game licensing rules and for crafting the rich tapestry of Vossen, especially to the talented writers Niels Hintz, niels Garlin and Richard Antoia for their exceptional setting guidelines. 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. We also owe thanks to Nuria, whose haunting renditions ofo G, gito and Andro have beautifully enhanced our intro sequence and outro 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 our channel.
Timothy (DM):This project has been a profound journey, reconnecting with my 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 those who, like myself, are striving to reclaim and redefine their cultural roots, I stand with you. May you find grace, empathy and kindness in your journey. As David Mitchell eloquently wrote in Cloud Atlas, 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 or the week after that or the week after that.
Timothy (DM):Actually, thank you, ellie we will be back in two weeks. Bye, bye ¶¶ ¶¶, ¶¶.
Music:Thank you © transcript Emily Beynon. Thank you © transcript Emily Beynon.
