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: Lakeside Lullaby
Our investigator's eyes focus in on the town pariah, Gašper Košir, unearthing a tangled web of interconnected fates, while the eerie tune of the lakeside lullaby chimes in the back of their minds.
As emotions heighten, the narrative takes a poignant turn at the cemetery, where we explore the complex tapestry of love, loss, and hidden struggles, revealed through the man's overwhelming grief and his connection to Zoja.
TW: Discussion of domestic abuse
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 ¶¶ ¶¶.
Timothy (DM):Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, welcome fellow travelers and seekers of the unknown to the shattered realm of Vossen Slavine lands. For some reason my camera's not working. Oh it's a ghost. Spirits. I will deal with that while other people are talking.
Ellie (Akka):We're ghosts. We're ghosts. It's a spooky Halloween special.
Timothy (DM):It's gonna be spookier than usual. We've made Timothy completely disappear.
Ellie (Akka):Halloween special it's going to be spookier than usual. Spookier.
Chris (Joseph):We've made Timothy completely disappear With magic and demonic powers. That classic combo.
Ellie (Akka):Yes, Me at the McDonald's soda machine with the cup.
Chris (Joseph):It says magic demonic powers pixie dust spells curses, warlock stuff, Sprite ice and I'm just like it's a whole potion of malevolence.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, it blows up in my face when the smoke clears, just top it off with Sprite.
Timothy (DM):There I am, yay Okay.
Ellie (Akka):Potion of turn you into a worm.
Timothy (DM):Technology and a little sprite.
Timothy (DM):For flavor Alright, welcome for real this time fellow travelers and seekers of the unknown, to the shadowed realm of Vossen, slavine lands. Here, the whispers of ancient legends weave through mist-shratted forests and babbling brooks, bringing to life the eerie and the enigmatic. I am Kitchy, your guide and game facilitator, leading you through this dark and mesmerizing journey In the year 1848, within the rugged and mysterious Slavine lands. We traverse a world where the boundary between the mundane and the mystical is perilously thin. As we step into this unsettling realm, we'll explore the shadows cast by industrialization and enlightenment upon a land steeped in folklore and arcane rituals.
Timothy (DM):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, selkie 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 and eternal haunting waltz With me. Today we have.
Chris (Joseph):Stravo. I'm Chris and I'm playing Joseph Fox, a man who knows about tracks and fields.
Dan (Luka):Hi, I'm Dan. I am playing the p, the pika owning vagabond luca cos hi, I'm ellie.
Ellie (Akka):I'm playing akakorlov, your friendly local nurse and now for a few disclaimers.
Timothy (DM):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 or not be may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised please take one episode.
Ellie (Akka):You get a bingo, sorry.
Timothy (DM):No, you're fine please take care of yourselves while listening and if you find any of the content distressing, consider pausing or skipping ahead. Your well-being is important, yeah.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah.
Timothy (DM):So let us step forward into the shadows and begin Veliko sreće. Previously, on Vášen Slavín Lands, joseph, luca and Aka follow their first lead on the drownings in Ukhans, a tall tale told by a local, niko Gussek. Eyes of red, glowing embers, a haunting melody, and the blackest soul Seemingly flourishes to scare children. But what actually lurks beneath the surface of Lake Bohemia Are? Investigators set out to parse out what is truth and what is merely a tall tale. They made to turn in for the evening, but a short conversation with Evelyn Lezik confirmed one detail a haunting melody that could be heard across the lake. Unable to rest while a lead lay so neatly at their feet, they set out into the night to investigate. Out into the night to investigate. As they stood at the edge of the lake, the eerie tune began to dance across the stillness of the water, while they watched the light of a lone lantern bob in the distance, joseph led the charge along the coast to inspect, pathing them through the thicket, watching as the light disappeared into the tree line. Again, driven by the excitement of their growing weeds, they pressed further into the woods, hoping to intercept the nighttime boater. They uncovered a small cottage in a hidden clearing, but alerted the inhabitant of their presence, who promptly signaled their apprehension towards nighttime visitors by barring the door, Fearing an altercation, they decided to turn back and return to their beds for the evening. Just before finally turning in for the night, the antsy middle-aged duo, joseph and Anka, poked around the Lezik estate, uncovering details of their recent marriage and a gash on the hallway wall further sign of Jakob's rage.
Timothy (DM):Wednesday morning, evelyn greeted the investigators with a nutritious breakfast and shed some light on the mysterious hermit now known as Gaspar Kosher. Their trip to Town Hall developed another local connection, katerina Novak, and revealed yet another lead a news article detailing the strange disappearance disappearance of Zoya Herkog about six years ago. Their minds aflutter with theories. Our investigators latched on to their growing story and decided to pay a visit to the Herkog estate. They were greeted by Iris, the maid, who Lucas sweet-talked into revealing key clues that built out the history which tied Jacob, zoya and Gaspar together. After disclosing her regrets to the party, she introduced them to the matron of the house, nia Hercog. Nia took quite a liking to Luca and opened up about her daughter unearthing, the source of the chilling melody they heard the night before. A lullaby sung to zoya as a child and invited them to lunch the following day we're having a salt burn summer oh my gosh, what a good reference.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, basically Alright. So here you are. You have just left the Hercog estate, so World is your oyster. What are you doing?
Dan (Luka):Go see the guy in the woods. Yeah, old man's cabin Might as well, yeah.
Timothy (DM):Alright, same way we went last night um. Can you each make a learning role?
Dan (Luka):for me? Is it worth it for me? You?
Chris (Joseph):might get lucky.
Timothy (DM):No, I got one success. One success, all right. And what about Aka? I got one success, one success, all right. And what about Aka?
Dan (Luka):No successes A full house, though I rolled six die and I got no successes.
Timothy (DM):because learning is the thing that I'm best at. We did switch out her dice as well. Did Aka get?
Chris (Joseph):a concussion off screen that we did not see. It's those books, those, uh, those periodicals you're, they're they're filling my head with nonsense.
Ellie (Akka):All of my learning is about the character dynamics yeah and then, like fan fiction, my head cannons it's a vast, expansive imaginative world up there, yeah, and I've forgotten everything else.
Timothy (DM):With that one success, though Joseph is remembering a book that he picked up at one point while you were doing your research during your preparation phase. Okay, so the way that we're going to do a lot of this learning is that, as certain clues point you towards things that you read, we will reveal those handouts. So, joseph, this is the text that you came across, that is currently being recalled, based on all of the clues that you've picked up thus far.
Chris (Joseph):So it is a cracked leather bound book that says a field compendium of Slavic water spirits by Spella Pernat, spella.
Dan (Luka):Spella yeah, great name.
Ellie (Akka):What a great resource.
Chris (Joseph):Oh man, it's even got a okay, yeah.
Timothy (DM):So the way that I have designed this handout is it's just a bunch of excerpts from a larger tome that you're going to be recalling information of.
Chris (Joseph):Jazz. There's some gibberish in there. Okay, so I'll read through them.
Chris (Joseph):In many lore, the conditions that result in the tainting of a soul can vary widely, but do seem a common precursor to curse spirits. In some cases, although likely of christian influence is the status of baptism of the individual. Others note of pure spirits, such as those of a virgin, being subjected to some sort of corrupting influence, like a particularly violent death or betrayal, a corruption formed of rage. Asernitsia can be identified by their dirty green hair, bony bodies and thins, whereas the Balotnitsia, with their similarly messy and unkempt, are almost sickly pale, with frog legs that are cleverly hidden beneath lily pads. Voidianoi, by some accounts, are particularly fond of tobacco, an offering that can be, oddly enough, be sprinkled at the water's edge to vie favor of these malevolent protectors.
Chris (Joseph):Vazalki are typically portrayed as young women with long flowing hair, which is often depicted as green or waterlogged. They may have an otherworldly beauty that captivates those who encounter them. Their appearance can range from alluring and serene to pale and ghostly reflecting their tragic nature. There appears a commonality with the stories of warnings against the following of objects left along the water's edge Ribbons, mirrors and other precious items have been said to lure people to their death by spirits with an affinity for drowning. Any allure altogether should be avoided in matters of large bodies of water. Although some may say this is just poetry regarding the dangers of beautiful women, that's true.
Cross-talk:That's true.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, Joseph editorializes.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, whoa lore, as he has been known to do.
Chris (Joseph):He is such an open book in terms of his emotions. The motivations behind Rizalka's actions vary across different stories. In some folklore, rizalki are spirits of young women who have jied tragically or violently and are bound to the water as a form of punishment or unrest. In other accounts they are vengeful spirits seeking retribution for wrongs done to them in life. And the last excerpt is fear the sounds of large splashes, while alone at the water's edge voidian no, I have been said to deploy this technique to elicit further investigation while the victim's optimist seeing their beady red eyes buried in their algae covered faces just surfaced from the perches under half sunken logs.
Ellie (Akka):So oh, beady, red eyes We've heard about that. Yeah, in line with what we've heard so far.
Dan (Luka):That was from Nico's story, right yeah although we never really know with Nico.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, that's true. Compiling what I see about the Voidianoi, it seems that Voidianoi like tobacco, which aligns with Gasper, or it's a similarity between the two. They cause lots of of splashes, beaded red eyes, but yeah, I, I hand the book to around to the to the group I don't even have the book.
Ellie (Akka):You're recalling it.
Chris (Joseph):Oh, I'm recalling it, yeah yeah, so I I write this down on a piece of paper. But yeah, I thought this might have been. It was talking about the water. I didn't know. There was some sort of relevance, but that's what I remember about these different aquatic woman monsters.
Cross-talk:Nice.
Dan (Luka):Fun fact outside the game do you know that risalka, which is one of the ones in there, is the original inspiration for the little mermaid?
Chris (Joseph):no, that's cool. Yeah, so was it. Was it say? Is it just that she's a?
Musical Interlude:she's like a water lady gotcha I mean that's a good as as good as a basis as any for the Little Mermaid.
Dan (Luka):There's an opera about it and then she falls in love with a prince and it doesn't work out in the end. It's tragic. Does she turn into a bird?
Chris (Joseph):Does she turn into a cloud. Seafoam, seafoam, seafoam. Yes.
Ellie (Akka):Well, I guess once we lay eyes on this lady we'll have a better idea of which one of them she might be, although by the time we lay eyes on her it may be too late. Maybe we can ask, monsieur. Cosure for more information.
Dan (Luka):I hope so.
Ellie (Akka):I guess Monsieur is not. What's like? What's the Slovenian version of mister?
Timothy (DM):I don't actually know, mister. I don't actually know I don't know, mister mister mister
Dan (Luka):yes, yes, I hear great all right to the old man's house, to the woods for those of you who failed your um memory tests.
Ellie (Akka):Uh, so sorry there was no surprise. We're holding hands in the back and skipping.
Timothy (DM):I read a lot don't remember any of it I remember reading this like, like spell, that is like for offerings for water spirits, but unsure the details of it and Akka's remembering that at some point she did come across an excerpt about protection spells that could potentially be useful.
Ellie (Akka):But Didn't look very closely. No, didn't think very closely. No, didn't think it was relevant. I had a new periodical to check out.
Dan (Luka):All right, yosef Joseph Yep, do you want to lead us?
Chris (Joseph):I shall retrace her tracks.
Ellie (Akka):With Rudy's help. Yes, indeed, he's such a good dog he.
Chris (Joseph):This is his zone. He's been keyed in for this particular leg of the journey because otherwise he's just been like hanging around. But now he's on the hunt a hunt for an old man in a cabin so we are coming uh up to like northwestern edge of town.
Timothy (DM):Um, you know from your late night walk uh that the um cottage is up in this region just past past the old watchtower. So, as you like, yes, okay.
Chris (Joseph):I had to look at the map a little bit.
Timothy (DM):So, as you are making your way up through here, you're gonna be passing the old inn, which is a an older wooden structure.
Timothy (DM):You can tell that the roof has gone into disrepair. There's probably some leaking inside, but it does seem to be to have been at one point a very like large tavern space, very like open concept structure where they could have held quite large festival type um activities, noise, um, and this is really where you're getting to the edge of town. So at this point the sounds of all the townsfolk have kind of died out, um, and you're pretty much left with just the sounds of the forest. So today is a somewhat windier day than the stillness that you had encountered the day before, and so you hear the rustling of leaves and the swelling of cicadas, as you are kind of immersing yourself deeper into that like musky piney scent of the forest. And how would you like to approach? Would you like to try to retrace your steps from the coastline or would you like to try to approach from the main road? Um, understanding about where you ran into the, the cottage the night before probably either.
Chris (Joseph):Either path is fine, but maybe would arouse less suspicion if we came from the main road.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, since we're not planning on doing stealth this time, we're just going to try and talk to him normally.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, are Pika and Broody with you? By the way, pika is Broody is yeah, pika and Broody?
Ellie (Akka):are? Pika, comes with me Dog squad Everywhere.
Timothy (DM):I just want to make sure Dog squad Dog squad. You mean to leave that jacob's?
Chris (Joseph):I know we didn't really establish that man to take care of my dog not at all but evelyn's a evelyn's a housewife yeah, but jacob was like a dog abuser.
Ellie (Akka):He's a people abuser and so he's probably not above hitting a dog fair point, yeah all right.
Timothy (DM):So I believe we do, excuse me, I believe we do an investigation check. Is that what we've been doing to way find?
Dan (Luka):or was it vigilance?
Timothy (DM):no, vigilance is like anti-stealth mechanic yeah, I think it's investigation it's been investigation. So Joseph can do that. You get your extra dice from broody. I think that gives you like what?
Chris (Joseph):9, 10, 13 50 dice, that's surprisingly no successes no successes. I'm only good. Well, the failsafe is that we know the path from what we took the back way.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, but if we get lost?
Timothy (DM):Wow.
Chris (Joseph):Oh.
Timothy (DM):We're about to find out what happens. I guess we'll find out.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, this is what I get for trying to do something new.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, Just stuck with old reliable. Can't believe you were able to find your way in the dark through the woods at night and now that we're trying to take the main road.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, you know, sometimes just life is backwards, like that.
Ellie (Akka):I'm a man of the woods, not a man of the roads.
Chris (Joseph):What is this weird black river that I see Asphalt?
Ellie (Akka):It's flat, it's clear.
Chris (Joseph):I need, rushes, I need branches.
Ellie (Akka):There are no landmarks here.
Timothy (DM):So you press into the thicket, yeah, and you start making your way deeper into the forest in the direction that you remember the cottage being, and you begin to cross paths with several footpaths and potentially animal, deer formed paths, little trails through the woods, um. And as you are pressing deeper and you start to follow some of these, looking for signs of human travel Boot boot, boot, boot prints, boot prints, boot prints, boot prints in the dirt, that smoother wearing of the earth that comes from the way that humans walk, as opposed to deer and other animals, and you find yourself struggling to pick up the correct path. So you're traveling in the correct um direction, um, at least in that general direction, but you're having a hard time locating the pathway that gasper would be taking did he move his house when we left last night?
Dan (Luka):because I can't seem to find it. I would be impressed if he did, but I don't think he could have right.
Ellie (Akka):That was just a joke, oh oh, such a dry sense of humor.
Chris (Joseph):Like a summer field.
Timothy (DM):So you find yourself about 10 minutes into the woods leading to the northeast from the main road and you start to have the sense that you should have reached it by now. Regardless of being able to find the path, the correct pathway, that at least your general bearings would have put you in that general location, you would could have picked up additional signs. Um, can you give me another investigation check test?
Chris (Joseph):is this to be able to find if we can get it back out again. I'm imagining 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Dan (Luka):If we could find our way to the lake we're looking for signs.
Timothy (DM):So, basically, what is happening right now is that you're heading in the general direction because you haven't been able to locate the pathway that Gasper takes.
Ellie (Akka):So right now you're trying to look for signs of human activity in their region it's another failure that's help you bring you closer to that focal point we're about to get got by a forest spirit, we're about to run into a whole different boss and just from getting so fucking lost, yeah, I.
Timothy (DM):That's another nine failures, all right so you're at a point where you're like, okay, at this, at at this point, I should be close. So I'm going to start looking for some other signs of human activity. Maybe there's traps that he set around this area, maybe there are other pathways that he's taken, um, maybe he has a little hunting fort, um. And you start looking for these types of things and you come up with a loss. Everything in your immediate vicinity seems relatively untouched by people.
Chris (Joseph):Sorry folks, I really can't explain why this is happening now, when I did so well last night. But I'd be on your guard because something feels wrong about these trees right now.
Dan (Luka):Is it because we're heading east, I have trouble heading west. I get confused by it.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, that must be it.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, that sounds about right.
Ellie (Akka):It's the magnetic fields.
Dan (Luka):That's what I've been told. Yeah, luca gives a really like blank stare okay, maybe we should head.
Chris (Joseph):Can I see any part of the sky or is it total tree cover? Yeah, you can see part of the sky. Can I try to figure out like what direction I'm headed?
Ellie (Akka):still, because maybe we should just head back to town. Yeah, maybe if we can get to the shore of the lake we can follow it around.
Chris (Joseph):I'm going to try my best to find east.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, that's easy for you to do. You can easily pick a direction and go. The task that you are failing at is locating the exact bearings of a cottage in the middle of the woods. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. There's nothing that's preventing you from seeing where the sun is at. You know it's about noon or, at this point, probably a little past noon. Yeah, so you can at least find the south. Yeah, um, pretty easily. Once you know where south is, you can figure out the rest of the cardinal directions and go from there.
Timothy (DM):Uh, so you, you said you wanted to head to the coastline or back towards the main road, just to the coast back to the coast so, after about 15 minutes more of walking through the woods, you do make your way back to the coast line, um, and as you approach you are able to find your bearings a little bit more. So you, because you did this pathway last night where you walked up the coastline and you figured out and you knew where on the coast that light went in. So as you reach the coastline, you do realize that you hit a little bit south of where you had originally picked up his pathway, gotcha, um. So you can trace that back up the coastline if you would like. So, heading up north to the coastline, to where you remember dipping into the woods the previous night. And now give me one more investigation, check.
Dan (Luka):You got this.
Ellie (Akka):Is there anything we could do to help? If you would like to do a help action, you can I just don't know what Akka could possibly do that would be helpful in this situation.
Chris (Joseph):Well, you're in tune. You keep records of In your notebook the bird and the newt that you'd found. That's true. Maybe you recalled you saw like a bird at night.
Ellie (Akka):You were like oh, I heard an owl call or something.
Chris (Joseph):Okay, so that's one, two, that's two successes Nice.
Cross-talk:Okay.
Chris (Joseph):I knew I had to get back to this boat. It all stems from the boat path. You smell the tobacco. You get the sense from the, the oppressiveness of the, of the.
Ellie (Akka):I yes just never should have tried to take a different path. If it ain't broke, don't fix it exactly.
Chris (Joseph):Stick with what you know all right.
Timothy (DM):So you make your way back up north and, sure enough, you find that large shrub uh, that you had come across the previous night, the one. The path was tucked just behind and in the daylight it's so much more obvious. It is a clearly trudged path through the forest, very much human-made, of somebody walking to and from the spot many times over the period of probably years, and you're very easily able to follow it back to the cottage. When you arrive back in the clearing, you see a quiet cottage, no people in sight, no smoke billowing from the chimney or any other indications of human activity from the outside of the cottage. How would you like to proceed?
Dan (Luka):Was the boat there on the shore when we were taking the coastline up?
Timothy (DM):You can check for it Retroactively. Check for the boat.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, yeah, okay, uh, give me an investigation oh, okay, I was hoping just to look at the boat. Well, I shouldn't do it if it's investigation, don't make me do it.
Timothy (DM):I mean I think, unless you like prompt everybody else to look for the boat, you would have to do it.
Dan (Luka):If it's a question, I thought, like the boat landing was like our point of being, like I know where this is, I can turn in, so that's why I was thinking we would.
Timothy (DM):Oh no, the boat was not present last night.
Chris (Joseph):You didn't run into the boat oh, we just saw that there was like a track of yeah oh, where they told the boat, like where they gotcha okay, sure, why not?
Timothy (DM):go for it. I didn't get it.
Ellie (Akka):No, you didn two you didn't see a boat on the shore, sorry.
Timothy (DM):And that kind of hits you in retrospect. You're like I didn't see a boat docked anywhere and you don't remember seeing it last night either.
Ellie (Akka):Or, as some of my friends would say, you're so pretty. You're so pretty I'm not though You're so pretty.
Chris (Joseph):No.
Timothy (DM):He's very plain.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, he's undetectable.
Dan (Luka):A plain Jane of sorts.
Ellie (Akka):But a schmoozer, Schmoozer yeah.
Dan (Luka):Good with words.
Musical Interlude:I think Nia was just thirsty, so she's like ah he's under 20. Perfect Ugh, that was a gross.
Ellie (Akka):Would you like, as our resident schmoozer, would you like to knock and schmooze?
Dan (Luka):Yeah, I can do that. We're going to all go together.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, we'll go together.
Dan (Luka):Hello.
Timothy (DM):You knock on the front door, it has a soft thud to the moss-covered wood of the door and you wait for a moment. Don't hear any call and response.
Dan (Luka):Is there a window? There is a window. I'd like to look in the window.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, the shutters are closed, but you can Peer through the shutters.
Ellie (Akka):Peer through the shutters.
Timothy (DM):Okay, so you peer through the shutters, you see a dark room. Sunlight comes in from the outside and everything is shadowed. Lots of browns, simply furnished. It's a small dining room with a single chair at a small table. You can make out on the table that there are some papers, a book, an unlit candle and a plate with some silverware. As you look to one side of the room, you see a small cupboard. The door left slightly ajar and inside you can see some cookware. From the sliver of what you can see through the ajar door, hanging on a hook to the other side of the room is a fall jacket so leather, not particularly heavy and a set of like muck boots. You don't notice any activity happening inside this room. I don't notice any activity happening inside this room.
Dan (Luka):I don't think he's home.
Ellie (Akka):Well, I suppose it is sort of the time of day that he would be out working, doing things.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, from what it seemed like, I didn't hear anybody talk about him other than whenever we brought him up. Um, so I don't know what sort of role he plays in town if it's just old man or or whatever do you think broody could track where he went, although maybe broody's all snipped out after that performance?
Ellie (Akka):I, I, I crouch on the ground and I, I get up to broody's all sniffed out after that performance.
Chris (Joseph):I crouch on the ground and I get up to Broody's ear and I say what do you think, boy? You think you have another sniff in you.
Dan (Luka):Is there anything like lying around like a pair, like a set of gloves, can you?
Timothy (DM):give me an investigation. Check, Luca.
Cross-talk:Can someone else do it? Is someone else looking through the window.
Dan (Luka):Oh, not the window. No, I'm thinking outside. I want something that he can smell, that I can get for Broody to smell First, give me an investigation.
Timothy (DM):Check I failed, just assume.
Dan (Luka):I rolled two dice. It's bad.
Ellie (Akka):You still have some percent chance of succeeding.
Timothy (DM):Okay, so the idea is to try to get Broody to track him. Yeah, yeah, so you're looking for something outside?
Chris (Joseph):something like if he has like a waste pot that throws tobacco ashes out, or if he had dropped something like a piece of clothing, a handkerchief, gotcha work gloves he just sets aside gloves yeah, joseph, give me an investigation, check, okay.
Timothy (DM):Thank you, I wanted to give you an opportunity, since you were doing an investigation inside the house as well.
Dan (Luka):No, no, no, I'm not gonna break into the house. One success one success.
Timothy (DM):Okay, um, along the Along the tree line, you do notice an outhouse.
Chris (Joseph):Oh.
Cross-talk:Yuck I'll wait here.
Chris (Joseph):Stinky Nature calls yeah. I wander over to this outhouse and I look it's like your prototypical Crescent Moon door outhouse.
Ellie (Akka):Yes, first scene of Shrek style Somebody, somebody.
Musical Interlude:Somebody.
Dan (Luka):What if he's been in there the whole time?
Timothy (DM):Right then the door slams open, this hulking figure of a man steps out. The ground trembling Get out of my school.
Cross-talk:Get out of my clearing.
Chris (Joseph):This is my field.
Timothy (DM):All right, none of that happens.
Ellie (Akka):Just a little slight of fantasy A little fantasy, yeah.
Timothy (DM):So yeah, it is just. It's your standard run-of-the-mill Crescent Moon outhouse. As you approach, you do get the odor already. Odor already, um, and broody, sniffs around the outhouse and gets the scent of this man, gasper kosher, and you can be fairly certain, based on your experience thus far, that no one else is using this outhouse. This is a very solitary man who is not keen on having company. The scent is his.
Chris (Joseph):Gotcha. Well, it's weird how things work out, but we got the scent, Yep, from the source. From the source, lead us away, broody.
Musical Interlude:I don't know how.
Timothy (DM):Broody makes any checks. I think it's just your investigation, check with your broody yeah, broody is.
Chris (Joseph):Broody is the modifier for that check and broody is the reason why we are succeeding that check all right, um, oh, you did you already roll it? Yeah, I did. That's how I got the one success okay, so you have a success well.
Ellie (Akka):Well, that was the investigation. It's about the investigation for.
Timothy (DM):Broody.
Chris (Joseph):Yes, yes, yes.
Ellie (Akka):And now this is the tracking roll. Oh gosh, I'm rolling. It seems like a lot of investigation rolls. You're just investigating, nonstop.
Chris (Joseph):Well, when you're looking for something, yeah this is my bread, and butter, looking for stuff in the woods oh, that's so good. Before we run off what?
Timothy (DM):is Aka doing as well? Do you have three successes?
Ellie (Akka):Nothing useful. She's looking around for local wildlife. She heard some sort of owl hooting in the woods last night. She's really hoping to get a glance of it in the daytime, even though usually you can't see owls in the daytime, but she's hoping she's not really that helpful. She doesn't have anything useful to do. The boys seem to have it in hand. Okay, investigation, that's logic. Actually decent at investigation. I guess I could have been helping. No successes.
Chris (Joseph):I don't see an owl. I don't see anything. I fall over in the mud.
Dan (Luka):No, these are already new dice.
Ellie (Akka):I just have bad luck. I need to cleanse myself, I need to go out and scream at the full moon for two hours straight.
Musical Interlude:We need a dead body for you to do medicine on.
Ellie (Akka):I know For me to not be afraid of.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah.
Ellie (Akka):That's what I'm really good at, is not being scared of dead bodies.
Chris (Joseph):So start killing.
Musical Interlude:We need a serial killer now.
Ellie (Akka):Or I need to poison someone. Stat.
Timothy (DM):So okay, there's going to poison someone Stop. So okay, there's going to be some fun things. So Britty goes from the outhouse after having picked up the scent and he's going to make his way back to the main house and he's gonna circle that a while and you're like obviously that's his house. Yes, it's out there, I point to the woods, all right genius he does paw at the door for quite some time, the back door of the cottage oh it has two doors.
Timothy (DM):Oh, yeah, there's a back door of the cottage. Oh, it has two doors. Oh, wow, yeah, there's a back door. And then, as you point off, he starts making his way across the clearing over to the other side of the tree line where you can see a path that starts to head out towards the main road. Okay, and you all follow. Yeah, all right.
Timothy (DM):So he follows this path for about 10 minutes until you see the red roof of the old inn and you can see that you are making your way back to the main road. As you follow, you start to see more signs of his path to and from the village. So he basically has two pathways. He has the pathway back and forth between the cottage and the lake and then the village and the cottage, and so now you are starting to head back towards town. You make your way to the main road south, past Gullix, the Hercogs, the Bijiks, you turn down past the elder's villa, jakob's house, and you start making your way up the hill towards the church. It's about one o'clock in the afternoon Is it Sunday.
Ellie (Akka):No, this is Wednesday.
Dan (Luka):Wednesday okay, I wonder if he's visiting the cemetery Maybe.
Timothy (DM):You start making your way up the hill towards the church. At this point, Broody is starting to get excited. The scent is getting more recent and he is like really trying to rile you up, get you up that hill, and he runs right past the church and takes a left into the old cemetery.
Ellie (Akka):You were right.
Timothy (DM):And as you enter the cemetery, you see a man dressed in almost rags walking towards you, towards the exit of the cemetery, and Broody jumps on this man and starts sniffing him, running back and forth between you and this man, and is very excited.
Chris (Joseph):Sorry about that, friend. I suddenly give Broody a treat on the sly and I'm so sorry. I pick him up, I reach out a hand to help him off the ground keep your dog under wraps can't bother.
Cross-talk:Why are you bringing a dog into the cemetery in the first place.
Chris (Joseph):Sorry, we were trying to find you and he just you know into the cemetery in the first place. Sorry, we were trying to find you and he just you know, yeah.
Musical Interlude:What do you mean? Who the heck?
Cross-talk:are you?
Dan (Luka):We are investigating the drownings in the town. I don't know if you've talked to any of the other townspeople, but Jakob hired us to investigate his drowned men.
Cross-talk:Of course. I've heard of the drownings. Who do you think I am?
Dan (Luka):Well, I didn't know if you heard of us, because I don't know if you've heard the word around town about the investigators which are us.
Ellie (Akka):We're the investigators.
Dan (Luka):Why would we need investigators? Because it's an uncommon event for so many well-trained swimmers to drown in the lake. That's at least what Jakob said.
Ellie (Akka):In such short succession.
Chris (Joseph):Yes, it's causing some fear in town.
Dan (Luka):And so we were asking around for.
Cross-talk:All right. Well, what does that have?
Dan (Luka):to do with me? Well, we were, that's what I was going to say. We were asking around to the other townspeople and they mentioned that you lived out in the woods. So we tried to find you and we found you here.
Chris (Joseph):We're doing regular conversations with all people in town.
Cross-talk:And what about living out in the woods? Didn't tell you that I didn't want to be talked to?
Chris (Joseph):Well, I pass on my hip flask.
Timothy (DM):He like pushes away.
Cross-talk:I don't want none of that shit.
Chris (Joseph):Are you sure what's your poison?
Timothy (DM):Give me a manipulation, oh god. I'm terrible at manipulation? Well, you're certainly trying.
Chris (Joseph):What's your poison Give? Me a manipulation, oh God.
Ellie (Akka):I'm terrible at manipulation. Well, you're certainly trying.
Chris (Joseph):Okay, because I know he likes to bag.
Ellie (Akka):Oh true.
Chris (Joseph):I did get a success.
Ellie (Akka):Wow.
Timothy (DM):All right. You see that he has a sweat on his brow and there's like a little bit of a quiver in his left hand. Before he snatches it from your hand, whips it open and just takes a large swig.
Chris (Joseph):I get days like that too.
Timothy (DM):Caps it and pushes it back into your chest.
Ellie (Akka):Oh my god, akka is displeased that you're enabling this man's alcoholism.
Cross-talk:She scowls at you and is like I shrug anyways, I don't have nothing to talk to you about now. If you don't mind, leave me be. I'm gonna get on with my day. I suggest you do the same.
Ellie (Akka):I'm sorry, sir, but I suspect that's not the case. We're interested in speaking with you about oh god, what's her name.
Chris (Joseph):Zoya.
Ellie (Akka):Zoya Herzog, we heard that the two of you were close.
Timothy (DM):Give me a manipulation.
Ellie (Akka):I guess I can technically inspire him with alcohol, but I won't because this man has a problem. Oh no, okay, I'm not really very good at this. One success.
Dan (Luka):Nice.
Ellie (Akka):Wow, hey guys, I figured it out. The secret is to roll fewer dice.
Timothy (DM):Weirdly enough, all right, so can you also give me an observation?
Dan (Luka):sure can I also give an observation?
Ellie (Akka):oh yeah everybody give me an observation everybody, look at this guy we're wrapped in attention one success one success, no successes zero, all right.
Timothy (DM):So as you mentioned Zoya's name, you notice a wince, a tense up of his neck muscles, just grunts and sighs and you see his like fists are kind of clenched I smile blandly at him using my bedside manner how dare?
Cross-talk:you bring up that name. What do you want to know?
Ellie (Akka):Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that it was a sensitive topic. It sounded like she was just such a lovely woman.
Cross-talk:She was. You better have a point, or you better keep that name out of your mouth.
Ellie (Akka):You seem very protective of her.
Cross-talk:I don't know what you're talking about. She's a lovely woman.
Ellie (Akka):And the two of you were close.
Cross-talk:You could say that Well, we are.
Ellie (Akka):What our research turned up is that she was also a victim of drowning, and so we're trying to understand if it could have some sort of correlation to what's happening here. Of course, it sounds like her death just devastated the community, and if it has anything to do with what's been going on recently, we're very interested in, you know, bringing putting her soul to rest. Don't you think it could potentially be related?
Timothy (DM):These drownings in the lake, you see his eyes start to dart around the cemetery and then at each of you, looking you up and down, and you can see the cogs turning in his head.
Cross-talk:It's not possible, leave her out of this. Go to your investigation, probably, jacob. Anyways, she's trying to off employees that she doesn't like.
Dan (Luka):Luca will start to whistle the lullaby.
Musical Interlude:Give me a manipulation check.
Ellie (Akka):That's what I'm good at.
Timothy (DM):yeah, boy break this man, he's like he pulls out a handkerchief and wipes his brow you can see that it is stained with sweat and he coughs into it His left fist, left fit fist oh my goodness, left fist now visibly clenched, his neck muscle's tightening.
Dan (Luka):I'm gonna step in front of Arca. If anybody's gonna get hit, it's going to be me.
Ellie (Akka):Sir, the sooner that we're able to get this information from you, the sooner we will leave you alone.
Timothy (DM):Through gritted teeth.
Cross-talk:Where did you hear that?
Dan (Luka):I think I heard it the same place. You've heard it recently Out on the lake last night. I know, at least from what I've heard.
Cross-talk:I know that you really don't know what you're getting yourself into.
Chris (Joseph):You better be damn sure that you're ready for the hell that's about to come.
Ellie (Akka):Tell us more. Tell us what are we getting ourselves into? How can we know? How can we know we're outsiders here? You're the one with the knowledge, you're the one with the understanding, you're the one who knew Zoya, tell us, help us, and we will leave you alone.
Timothy (DM):He's just breathing heavily, his nostrils flared.
Ellie (Akka):Should not have given him alcohol Just a little bit.
Chris (Joseph):He can't act that quickly I know.
Ellie (Akka):I want to splash him with water. Yeah, should I do something stupid. Yeah.
Dan (Luka):I'm going to hug him.
Timothy (DM):Alright, give me manipulation Break this man.
Musical Interlude:Emotionally crippling.
Dan (Luka):Oh no, that's no successes.
Ellie (Akka):Good thing we've got a nurse. Three pairs though.
Timothy (DM):Alright, cool, I'm gonna pull out the book, oh no.
Ellie (Akka):Great, you're about to get your nose broken. That's fine.
Timothy (DM):As you go in for a hug, this man lurches backwards and puts his arms up into a defensive state and he goes in for a swing.
Dan (Luka):Um, I'm gonna pull up the combat mechanic okay, this is fine, I'm good at close combat actually.
Ellie (Akka):Do you want to beat this man up, do you want?
Dan (Luka):to be good. No, but I'm assuming you can use Not bad Because he is going to try to give you a big old wallop on the face. I'm assuming I use close combat to dodge and whatnot.
Timothy (DM):And if it's like agility instead it's also fine, yeah so maybe you can break.
Ellie (Akka):You have a slow action. I'll patch him up and then he'll feel plus a fast action slash reaction oh, oh right.
Dan (Luka):No, I've got a little thing that tells okay, so we actually, so we're gonna initiative.
Timothy (DM):So combat is divided into rounds and we will get playing cards that are 1 to 10. And I actually have my special cards that I got for kickstarting this game. Hey, that I believe is right here. So I'm going to pull these these out, and I don't know why.
Ellie (Akka):I didn't plan for this happening, but we nobody thought luca was gonna get in a fist fight.
Dan (Luka):I was trying to hug the man.
Ellie (Akka):No, I hey I'm right there with you, man. This guy is so combative this is what happens.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, no he's very combative.
Ellie (Akka):He has been aggressive this whole fuck, I want to time give him fucking ketamine, all right, so how combat works is that initiative is?
Timothy (DM):a card. Uh, there are cards, one through ten, but you select the numbers for how many combatants are in the fight and we just shuffle and then you draw and that's your initiative. So there's no like rolling initiative in the system. So this one's going to be for Akka. This is for Luka.
Musical Interlude:And this is for Joseph.
Timothy (DM):Can we look at them? And I believe one is um the top of the initiative. However, we are going to start with the action that initiates combat, which is the slug. So are we allowed?
Chris (Joseph):can we look at our cards?
Timothy (DM):yes, please look at your card. I'm three one.
Musical Interlude:Whoa nice, I'm quick on the draw. This isn't the first time.
Ellie (Akka):A patient has tried to punch me um so you do have a reaction.
Timothy (DM):luca, I'd like to dodge because you have a slow action and a fast action slash reaction. Everything in here is done zones in distance, so it's basically a zone or the same zone. Is that you can get there within a couple steps? So that would be close, medium, far.
Dan (Luka):I imagine we're all close right now.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, you're all close, you're all within close combat. So this is going to be close combat. And then a dodge is an agility-based reaction. So is agility, physique, agility and physique. I roll seven.
Dan (Luka):Wow, alright, I'm fast. Physique is my highest attribute.
Ellie (Akka):You can also.
Timothy (DM):There's a slow action called persuade that maybe you can use social actions in combat, because this is not meant to be a combat system climb a wall turns around. It just starts climbing, all right, and I believe it is the way that we do. That is. He will roll as well, and I believe a common person only has two dice for most of these things. He's also drunk.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah and old.
Timothy (DM):All right, roll your dodge. Two successes. Okay, he has zero success. And four fives you see as he swings, aiming for for your face. You dodge out of the way and he whiffs. He like, follows the punch through and he's putting his full weight behind this punch. He is going in for a blow and that's like lean back, yeah, you lean back.
Timothy (DM):He's moving very sluggish. You can tell throughout this whole conversation that he's relatively drunk, um, and so he begins to stumble on himself, um, which will bring us to the top of the order. So who has initiative? One, all right. So, anka, what would you like to do as he is stumbling over himself, having tried to punch Luca?
Ellie (Akka):Oh for goodness sakes, let's see. Is there like a hold? Grapple no, not a grapple like a can I like wait to do something until late, like I feel like I'm not gonna?
Timothy (DM):go in and try and punch this guy yeah. So what's really nice is that you all have your own initiatives, but you can kind of share within that. So until it's back his turn. So I have initiative four for him. So everything one through three can kind of be a little bit more fluid.
Ellie (Akka):Oh, because I kind of want to give luca a chance to, like, talk him down, I feel like if I jump in and start like messing or like it's just gonna make the situation it's just going to make the situation.
Cross-talk:It's going to like escalate the situation.
Ellie (Akka):I'm no good at persuading or manipulating, so I feel like talking isn't going to help. So maybe I'll just hold off and I'm ready, if somebody gets punched, I'll have some like a little ice pack for them or something.
Cross-talk:All right.
Ellie (Akka):I just don't think there's anything super useful. I can do this round.
Cross-talk:So I just don't think there's anything super useful.
Timothy (DM):I can do this round. So yeah, cause you. Oh, that's, that's how it handles it. So it is called swapping initiative. So during combat you can kind of just trade your initiatives around great Lucas first right?
Dan (Luka):do you mean actually physically trade the cards?
Timothy (DM):or yes, okay so yeah, so you can choose to swap initiative during combat. You may only swap cards at the start of the round, so this is the start of the round. Yep, yeah, so you can all now trade those out great, I feel good about this order.
Ellie (Akka):Okay, yeah, yeah, gorgeous.
Dan (Luka):Gorgeous. If I'm going first, then I would like to try and catch his arm to steady him as he stumbles, all right, and then I would like to try and persuade while doing so if that's okay, Absolutely. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You look like you were in a lot of pain. I know you loved her a lot.
Timothy (DM):All right Give me.
Musical Interlude:Like you were in a lot of pain.
Dan (Luka):I know you loved her a lot, all right give me that manipulation, my lord none zero full house though maybe we can just follow him secretly, he seems to be in a flurry of anger.
Timothy (DM):His anger is blinding him.
Dan (Luka):Alright, well, I'm holding onto his arm so he doesn't fall over now, that's nice of you. Alright, and that's it. I've used all my actions.
Chris (Joseph):I'm gonna try to grapple him. I'm gonna say friend, we're only here to help, and trying to fight us is not going to solve your problems. We want to help you. We want to work together to solve this problem, not only for you but for the whole town, because I think the source is the same guy that we're thinking of that's causing all this misery.
Timothy (DM):Alright, so a grapple is, I think it's force, force. Yeah, so I got five, um, and I believe he can resist this as his reaction.
Dan (Luka):He can break free or dodge, I'm assuming I got to break free.
Chris (Joseph):I got one success, nice One success Okay.
Timothy (DM):So it's actually kind of normal for people to have between two and four on any stat when they're on PCs, gotcha. So I'm going to say that he's not very agile, but he is a four physique, but he has zero successes.
Chris (Joseph):So I pin him, I get under one of the crooks of his arm and I sort of got him pinned up between you got one arm, or you're holding onto one arm, and I got the other side of him. But I'm gently holding yeah you're gently holding, but it's sort of like he's between. So I got a grip on him, but I'm gently holding. Yeah, you're gently holding, but it's sort of like he's between. Yeah, so I got a grip on him.
Timothy (DM):All right. He begins to profess and pull away Anka what are you doing?
Ellie (Akka):I'm going to. I'm not good at persuading, but I'm going to try and persuade. I'm going to say boys, please, no fighting in the churchyard, don't you know? The watchful eye of god is gazing down on us. At all appeal to his perhaps religious nature? Um, okay, so that's manipulation, which I'm not good at. We'll do. So. That's four, but if there's anything I've learned, it's the fewer dice I roll, the better I do.
Cross-talk:Nope, no successes all right, I'm doing great he is trying to break.
Timothy (DM):We are not trained to de-escalators grapple.
Chris (Joseph):So he is going to, and you said that like he's pinned between the two of you well, I've, I've got, I've sort of got him by the shoulders one arm, one, a hand on his elbow and a hand on his shoulder.
Timothy (DM):Okay so he is going to try to just elbow, check you um. So he's going to do a. I think it's close, close combat physique.
Dan (Luka):Uh, there's an unarmed attack. Does force force?
Timothy (DM):So he's going to use force physique. That's what it is for an unarmed attack. That will be one success. Would you like to use a fast action reaction to dodge it or attempt to dodge? You can also parry or parry.
Ellie (Akka):I don't know how parrying works, but I will parry you can um parry, close combat or dodge a ranged attack oh, a ranged attack yeah oh is that how
Timothy (DM):that works so it should always be parrying for close combat I didn't do that.
Dan (Luka):My bad close combat force instead of oh, it was one dice less that.
Timothy (DM):My bad Close combat force instead of I think mechanical kind of worked. It was one. Dice less, that's okay, oh, but close combat is an agility, isn't it? It's agility. It says you use agility to dodge, so that would be ranged, and force or close combat, to parry depending on whether or not you are armed Beast yeah.
Chris (Joseph):Okay, so which should I roll?
Ellie (Akka):So you're going to do close combat or force? Okay, in theory, you also must choose. Choose to do it before you know whether the enemy has succeeded oh, good to know for the future that's all right I didn't say anything no worries we're learning combat for the first time in the game.
Timothy (DM):One success, nice, one success, nice, one success. Oh, who wins on a time Is this?
Dan (Luka):a stalemate For every success that the fast action gets you reduce the number of successes Okay.
Ellie (Akka):Each success deducts one success from the enemy's attack. Yeah, Gorgeous.
Timothy (DM):Thank you, you're welcome, all right. So he tries to elbow you, but you're able to like palm it out of the way. Um, that brings us back to luca I'm sorry, truly.
Dan (Luka):We're just here to help. We don't want the people in this town to die and we know you have a connection with them, with with her I feel like at this point we should just try and get him to calm.
Ellie (Akka):I don't think we're gonna get any information out of him. Oh yeah, we just need to like get out of this situation and then follow him secretly or something, or break into his house yeah, I think he's too flustered.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, what's his name? Give me a person.
Dan (Luka):His name is gasper, she's killing people, gasper oh no give me a manipulation I was going for the like.
Chris (Joseph):She drowned and they drowned and maybe one success yeah, I think it's too on the nose in my mind.
Dan (Luka):I think he knows yeah well, because he talks to her.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, like he visits her. Yeah, okay.
Timothy (DM):So you see his body goes slack. Joseph, since you have him grappled, can you give me a force?
Dan (Luka):Okay, can I help, since I have the other?
Timothy (DM):arm.
Dan (Luka):Well, I guess, to do what?
Timothy (DM):I think is really the question.
Dan (Luka):Don't worry about it Okay.
Timothy (DM):I got one success, alright. So he goes slack in your arms and you feel his full body weight press into you. It's okay, buddy. And he begins to sob uncontrollably did it again. It's a twofer broken this man he stops fighting and and can you all give me observation? Hell yeah one success no successes none so he begins to sob uncontrollably, gasping for breath. His body slack and in between his sobs you hear him starting to mutter, mostly to himself, um, mostly to himself, but also maybe he's hoping you overhear what he says.
Cross-talk:Maybe he's hoping that you're actually going to help, because he starts to mutter about how it's not her fault.
Timothy (DM):It's horrible what was done to her.
Dan (Luka):Horrible what was done to her Um.
Timothy (DM):And he begins to slink out of Joseph's arms onto the ground, where he crumples onto his knees and buries his face into his hands muffling the remainder of his muttering, Luca will kneel down next to him and like rub his back, like consolingly, and say I know it's.
Dan (Luka):we don't blame her, but she's so angry.
Timothy (DM):She has to be stopped. It's almost as if the world falls into silence with how all-consuming the muttering and sobbing becomes becomes, and it takes him quite some time to even become responsive again.
Dan (Luka):I'll stay. I'll keep rubbing his back.
Chris (Joseph):What is everyone else doing? I look to akka and I give a glance and say, wow, um, joseph is kind of in shock just because this guy has had such a a wild escalation of emotions in this last minute of us talking to him. Um, but yeah, he's just, he's sort of pinned underneath um gasper, and he's just silent, you're stuck underneath him.
Ellie (Akka):I think he's just silent. You're stuck underneath him, I think he's. Oh, because he rolled onto his knees.
Musical Interlude:He's on his knees now. Yeah, he kind of slinked, yeah, yeah yeah, let's give them a little space.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah.
Ellie (Akka):I'm going to step back over to a nearby grave marker or something. Do you have any water?
Chris (Joseph):No, I just have the alcohol.
Ellie (Akka):I have a doctor's bag with medical equipment. Would that have water in?
Dan (Luka):it. Can you get some from the church?
Ellie (Akka):yeah, I'll go get water. So I'll go into the church and ask for a cup of water or like see if I can see if there's a well or something holy water, just kidding yes you just pulled the holy water off the wall and carried the bowl.
Timothy (DM):Here I found some water. No, you do run into Father Matei, who is able to escort you to the well off to the side of the church.
Ellie (Akka):Great, yeah, I'm getting water and bringing some back.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, and you're welcome to have any conversation with Father Mate. Father mate, if you would like to, if there's anything else you'd like to press on, or it can just be.
Ellie (Akka):Uh, he helps you get water uh, I, he'll just help me get water. All right, bless you, thank you um.
Dan (Luka):Luca has shifted to crisscross applesauce but is still his back until he, until he, uh give you a little response, perfect, yeah and then back off again yeah, we sit on a stone dude is going.
Timothy (DM):It's like hysterical.
Dan (Luka):I have like in very hushed tones, just enough to like, so he can hear me over his own wailing. Do you want to talk about her?
Ellie (Akka):You should put Pika Pika's therapy animal Pika right.
Dan (Luka):If I had sat down, Pika would probably hop out of the bag on her own. I'll put. Pika in front of him.
Ellie (Akka):We'll see how it goes. Who couldn't love Pika?
Timothy (DM):After a few minutes he begins to calm down a bit. He starts to sniffle and dry his face.
Dan (Luka):I hand him the cup of water he's not running down.
Timothy (DM):Akka returns with water and he takes the water from you and he chugs it. That tracks.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, I'll go get some more.
Timothy (DM):And then you see he holds out a shaking hand towards joseph.
Chris (Joseph):You notice his eyes locked onto your hip flats no I, I, I agree with the sentiment, mom, and dad are fighting.
Ellie (Akka):I'm staying out of this the man has a problem you probably have a problem what I don't have a problem.
Chris (Joseph):I protectively guard my hip. Last it's up to you we can save this for a little bit later. Um, it's up to it's up to you.
Musical Interlude:We can save this for a little bit later, but I think I think we I send Broody over.
Cross-talk:I can't think about it anymore. I.
Timothy (DM):I want to make the hurting stop.
Chris (Joseph):Have you tried talking to somebody about it? You can't keep all those ideas in your noggin.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah.
Chris (Joseph):Sometimes you have to talk to a friend.
Ellie (Akka):I kneel down next to him and say Remember, sir, you don't want that poison, or what was the phrase he used when he first rejected it. Do you remember when you first offered it to him and he was like what I don't need that. Yeah, get that stuff away from me.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, I tried to echo that phrasing.
Chris (Joseph):Look at me, who's gonna listen? We're right here you got three friends right here in your court ready to listen.
Timothy (DM):I loved her so much. I'll never forgive him for what he did to her, what he did to her, what he turned her into.
Chris (Joseph):He seems a pretty brutal person under that veneer.
Dan (Luka):Can you tell us what happened?
Ellie (Akka):we're all practicing active listening.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, eye contact nodding is he interacting with pika yet? Has he seen?
Timothy (DM):pika.
Ellie (Akka):Surprisingly he's not um he's, yeah, like, he's like he has this like hundred yard stare his responses.
Timothy (DM):He doesn't even like turn his face to talk to you all. It's like he is so ashamed that he's trying desperately to detach himself from the situation, to completely and utterly disassociate.
Ellie (Akka):Bro, you're doing terrible things to the mental health of the people in this town no, he'll feel better after he talks about it, I promise okay, I don't know. Are you a trauma-informed therapist?
Cross-talk:I don't think you have the tools to help this man with what's going on with him.
Ellie (Akka):Okay, this is fine dan knows that he'll feel better ellie being like oh god, we got this man disassociating in a graveyard let's do some grounding techniques breathe in for seven.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, you're all sitting on the ground. Name five things. You can see four things you can touch oh my god.
Ellie (Akka):So where are you feeling this in your body?
Timothy (DM):right here in my heart I think we can kind of fast track this conversation yeah okay, based on the trajectory yeah, we've broken.
Musical Interlude:He'll tell us you have.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, you've gotten him to a point where he is rather broken, he is fully broken.
Dan (Luka):Down, broken down. Okay, so not like broken, but where you die, he is broken.
Timothy (DM):This is a very broken man. This is a man who has been numbing himself for six years since the death of Zoya, oh my god. And to the point that he has moved out to the middle of nowhere, shut himself in and everybody in town thinks of him as this irreparable drunkard hermit.
Dan (Luka):Well, fuck this town, jeez.
Timothy (DM):I mean, you've not heard nice things about this man from anybody that you've talked to. They've all discounted him completely at this point and he has nowhere to turn to. He has no one to talk to. Nowhere to turn to. He has no one to talk tooya. Out of his pocket he pulls a cloth and since Luca, you're the one that's physically engaged with him. You see this rag that he clasps in his fists. As he tells you about Zoya, he tries to focus as much of the conversation on her as possible, revealing a much deeper relationship that anyone else has let on for the time since you've arrived at this town, since you've arrived at this town, but throughout this whole conversation, it is apparent that he does not know what happened to her. He is assured of her death. However, and the rest of the conversation he tries very desperately to avoid saying anything about the present. He holds tightly onto the past. He doesn't want to move from that path.
Ellie (Akka):That point when you say he's assured of her death. What is it? Just like that he's.
Timothy (DM):He knows she's dead even though the news article said that it was an apparent death, her body was never found but so when he had previously said like it's terrible what he did to her?
Cross-talk:like what?
Ellie (Akka):what was he alluding to? Does he elaborate on that?
Timothy (DM):yeah, so at some point of the conversation, if you push into that region, he gets again noticeably angry and frustrated. Um, but does tell you about his hatred for Jakob, that Jakob was a cruel, is a cruel man and let out the cruelest of his nature on her because she was so kind and would overlook so many of his pitfalls. Please those around her to appease her parents, appease Iris, that she just wanted to make everyone happy and for Jakob to take advantage of that and to cause harm to her made him monstrous in Gaspar's mind.
Ellie (Akka):So we kill Jakob, drown him.
Dan (Luka):I mean that's one solution. Yes, and we don't even know if that's a solution, though it can't hurt that's true, yeah, um, we'll figure out a solution in a minute.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, okay I believe this is a good place for us to go on an intermission. Uh, so we're gonna take a brief intermission and allow the shadows to deepen oh every time, every time, the trauma to deepen and the mysteries to simmer.
Ellie (Akka):Therapy, therapy, therapy. Back to bath For the next 15 minutes.
Timothy (DM):Immerse yourself in the atmospheric embrace of our interlude. Whether you are watching our video, where enchanting fog scenes will drift across the screen, or listening along to the haunting strains of Slovenian folk tunes, take this time to refresh yourself. Sip a glass of water courtesy of Akka Fresh from the well and perhaps indulge in a small treat. I know I will 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, guiding us back into the heart of our adventure. Return soon, as the shadows await and the veil beckons. Goodbye for now, my dear rose, why would you bloom?
Musical Interlude:Why would you wilt? Come with me, tell us where. Tell us what is it foreign? Foreign? So then he let me go. My heart is sad. Come with me now. The clowns silently cut off their heads. Then they came to their senses. They were sad is foreign.
Musical Interlude:If the wheat is warm, warm it. Warm it. And the other one, the father, warm it. Warm it. Foreign. When the sun rises in winter. You will sleep, you will sleep. You will sleep because your little ones will wake us up. You will sleep, you will sleep. You will sleep. My flower bloomed. Oh, oh, my dear. Where did you go? Oh, where did you go, my dear? Oh, my mother will fall asleep, my dear, I will wait for you, my dear, no-transcript. And when you come back, tell me when will it be like before? It's so nice to be home by the river with your sweet voice. © BF-WATCH TV 2021. I was sleeping alone. The world was frozen. Far away is my native land. ¶¶, ¶¶, thank you, ¶¶, ¶¶, thank you, tell us, tell us where you are. I'm sorry to ask you. I'm sorry to ask you, tell us, tell us where you are. I'm sorry to ask you, I'm sorry to ask you.
Timothy (DM):Welcome back everyone. Wow, we're here again and we just had a very emotional experience in a cemetery. What, what do you mean?
Dan (Luka):just your average cemetery experience. We were having a conversation. What do you?
Timothy (DM):mean. So we just wrapped up our conversation with gasper um, who we've learned quite a bit from, and yet surprisingly little also and surprisingly little also, yes, so but we're not done with him yet yes've got a couple more
Musical Interlude:tears we can wring out of this stone. Oh my god, oh my god men's emotions wow.
Ellie (Akka):I take men's emotions very seriously alright.
Timothy (DM):So yeah, he's been telling you little bits about Zoya, about Jakob, about the history between him and Zoya.
Ellie (Akka):Were they. Do I get a sense from the things he's saying? Were they mutually in love or was he just like kind of obsessed with her?
Timothy (DM):Give me an observation.
Ellie (Akka):One success.
Timothy (DM):All right, they were mutual.
Dan (Luka):Oh Whoa, Although Requited even Although.
Timothy (DM):At least he believes they were mutual. From what you I mean, you're only getting one side of the story.
Cross-talk:Yeah.
Timothy (DM):I can only tell you what he says, but from it it does seem like her actions were indicating a mutual feeling that she feared expression of it. She feared expression of it that they were spending a lot of time with each other in secret. That she was aware that this was a secret relationship. It was actually her initiation that made it secret, because she wanted to keep it from Jakob.
Dan (Luka):Which makes sense.
Timothy (DM):But it was not physically intimate. Okay, it was an emotionally intimate relationship that she still felt the need to keep from Jakob.
Musical Interlude:Okay.
Dan (Luka):Because he's a douchebag yep yeah, a violent douchebag hurt.
Ellie (Akka):Chef, I'm trying to decide if we want to like poke the bear a little bit more I mean, I feel like we haven't necessarily like found out anything from him that we didn't already like suspect. What I'm particularly interested in Although I'm not sure if, like, this is the right situation where you get the information but like, what's she doing now? Where is she? She's in a lake. Like, what's going on with that? Is there she? She's in a lake.
Dan (Luka):What's going on with that Is there anything he goes to see her, he goes to see her.
Ellie (Akka):Can we get any practical information that we can use to resolve the problem?
Dan (Luka):And from before it seems like he's intentionally dodging that aspect of the conversation.
Ellie (Akka):So I don't know if we have to press him for this, alright. I don't know if that's wise, because he's already going through it.
Dan (Luka):Has he grounded more? Is he more in the present now Emotionally, isn't quite as dissociated after talking about it.
Timothy (DM):Or is he still in the void?
Ellie (Akka):he is, but um you're noticing that he is reaching that wall, that like social wall of, like his battery is depleted. He is a hermit, he is exhausted.
Timothy (DM):This has been an emotionally tolling experience and he's starting to get slower and quieter and you can tell that he's looking quite tired.
Chris (Joseph):Should we walk him home? Yeah, let's walk, quite tired Should we walk him home.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, let's walk you home.
Ellie (Akka):Send him home and we can follow him tonight.
Dan (Luka):I could walk him home. I don't think we all need to walk him home, right.
Ellie (Akka):Do you know how to get back to his house?
Dan (Luka):He knows how to get back to his house, that's true.
Chris (Joseph):Last time we weren't so successful, but you might have to drag him.
Ellie (Akka):Okay, what should we do? Wall?
Chris (Joseph):can I? Can we swing by the church? I kind of wanted to ask father matey, does he come here often? Is there a grave site for zoya I?
Timothy (DM):imagine. Yeah, so father matey will um very openly answer your question. He comes often never into the church itself, but only to the cemetery to visit her grave. Although the body was never recovered, she does still have a gravestone and he can point you out to it if you would like.
Chris (Joseph):Sure, maybe we could check it out. I also wanted to know, before Zoya's death, what sort of relationship did Gaspar have? Did he have a job, did he have a profession before Zoya's death, or was he always sort of like a castaway? He's an artist, he's an artist.
Musical Interlude:No.
Timothy (DM):And, as he, you're having this conversation with Father Matej because Luca is taking Gaspar off All of a sudden.
Dan (Luka):Matej has loose lips.
Musical Interlude:He just needs a time to traumatize him, to get him to talk. Last time, this isn't like teenagers. This isn't speaking ill. This is gossip.
Timothy (DM):This isn't gossip, this is history All right.
Dan (Luka):Congratulations. Whatever, it's gossip when a 19-year-old does it, abusive behavior is still history.
Chris (Joseph):You just have to wait six years and then it turns from gossip into history. Okay, gotcha, all right. No, it's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're getting out of the cloth.
Timothy (DM):The rules are loose and fast.
Musical Interlude:Yeah, we know, all right, All good.
Timothy (DM):Anyways, he is open about just very like surface things, like he doesn't come to the church, he goes to visit her grave, he's an artist, he doesn't express judgment in any of these things and I think that was a lot of what your conversation with him before, kind of required judgment to be passed and you did push him to such a thing, and you did push him to such a thing, mm-hmm.
Timothy (DM):Anyways, so he shows you to her grave as he's saying yes, so Gaspar was an artist, although my understanding is that he hasn't painted anything in years.
Chris (Joseph):I can understand he was pretty hit by the passing. I can understand he was pretty hit by the passing.
Timothy (DM):But as you do arrive at her headstone, you do notice a piece of paper folded up, piece of paper sitting on it. That just says my love. It says my heart, my heart.
Chris (Joseph):Thank you, disembodied.
Timothy (DM):I read it, handed it over and immediately forgot about it.
Chris (Joseph):Father Matej is not with me, is he?
Timothy (DM):When you're, he shows you the space, the headstone, and then you can part ways, if you would like, before picking up this piece of paper.
Chris (Joseph):Yeah, I show it to Aka.
Ellie (Akka):I actually thought, if it's okay, I kind of wanted to go back um and check on evelyn now. Like, knowing what we know about jacob, I'm like pretty concerned about her well-being oh, yeah, yeah um, so while you're talking to father mate and you're taking him back to the house, I think I'd like to go check in on her to make sure we don't get a drowned girl round to electric boogaloo.
Timothy (DM):All right, so we will finish up the scene with Joseph and then we will go to Aka.
Chris (Joseph):So it's a small note. The world feels so much colder without you here, and my heart aches with a sorrow words cannot express. I bring these flowers as a small token of my love. I will always carry for you A love that time can never fade. Though I no longer see you smile or hear you laugh, you remain in every breath I take and every beat of my heart. I miss you more than I can bear, and not a day passes that I don't long to see your smile again. Rest peacefully, my love, until we meet again, you will forever be my light in the darkness and this accompanies a small bunch of daisies.
Chris (Joseph):He's a romantic. They were just friends.
Timothy (DM):They were just friends. They were just roommates. They were roommates.
Chris (Joseph):I will put that note back on the grave and I'll head down to Jakob's.
Cross-talk:All right.
Timothy (DM):All right. So, aka, you make your way towards Jakob's house. So, down the hill, at the base of the hill, you find Jakob's house estate, as one might have referred to it as earlier, and you can see that Evelyn is outside hanging up laundry on the clothesline great.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, I'm kind of hoping, since it's like the afternoon, that maybe yakov will be out doing something else, so I'll go up to her and, before anything else, I kind of want to like I'm, while we're interacting, I'm sort of like looking her over, checking to see like if she has any visible bruises, if it looks like she's like favoring an injury of any kind, um anything like that give me an observation all right. Observation All right, ooh, she's gone.
Timothy (DM):Is this like emotional observation or physical investigation.
Ellie (Akka):Yes, physical investigation sorry, okay, it's the same number. Oh, gotcha, okay that is Holy moly. Four successes. You're saving them all for now. Oh my god, dude. Yeah, wow, that is holy moly. Four successes dude yeah, wow, I'm. It turns out actually, aka is just a victim.
Dan (Luka):It's her colleague you mentally and emotionally harm this woman just by looking at her it's investigation, it's investigation.
Chris (Joseph):I just learned a lot. Yeah, you learned.
Dan (Luka):She's pregnant.
Timothy (DM):You found out. Congratulations.
Dan (Luka):No, we've already established.
Timothy (DM):I mean it would be news to her she was and a very special skill for Akada. Alright, alright, anyways. So Four successes. Special skill for akada? Um all right, anyways, uh, so four successes. Y'all only ever get like four successes or none yeah, there is no in between, there's barely any, just like single success.
Ellie (Akka):I, I did the task um is investigation the one where then you could like use it later if you get extra successes.
Timothy (DM):Oh, let me double check, because I do remember that being….
Dan (Luka):I think that was observation, because I got that and I have no investigation. I have very little.
Timothy (DM):If you roll more than required, you find more clues, understand the context or simply…. This is the one where you can simply enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done which I'm not going to do to you here, because four is a lot and also this is kind of important. Yeah, so you do notice that she is wearing long sleeves and she also has a long, a tall frilly collar and, as you recall, her garb in the morning and last night. Those are common themes.
Ellie (Akka):And is that unusual compared to the garb of other people in town, Like is it hot enough out? It's hot, it's summer. It's summer. Long sleeves is a bit bizarre. It's doable in this climate. And is that unusual compared to the garb of other people in town Like is it hot?
Timothy (DM):enough out that long sleeves. It's hot, it's summer. Long sleeves is a bit bizarre. It's doable in this climate, but it is a bit bizarre.
Ellie (Akka):Especially with the high collar yeah.
Timothy (DM):She is.
Timothy (DM):I mean, at first you might have thought, oh wow, she's a fancy lady, she's wearing the latest fashions, but now that you have all this history it is a bit suspicious. Um, you do also notice that every once in a while, as she's hanging the clothes on the clothesline, she kind of like winces as she raises her right arm and then you notice that she's kind of like she rubs it a little bit on the bicep area. You also start to notice that while she seems really sweet and lively might not quite be the word but a little bit more active in her speech, she looks tired, she looks very tired, remembering that she's only 30-something. You really see that she looks older, older, that all of the everything is put together. She's gone through all the correct motions to present herself as put together, um, and presentable. But the more you watch her, as you're like approaching, the more you realize there are these little signs all over the place that maybe that put togetherness has been a struggle. It's not so easy. I know you got four, but I think that's it.
Ellie (Akka):Okay.
Timothy (DM):It does kind of confirm your suspicions though.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, I mean, I suspect that that's the case. Tiger won't change his stripes, hmm, okay. Well, in real life, ellie doesn't know shit about dealing with domestic violence victim advocacy, so I don't want to fuck it up in fantasy world either. So I'll probably just leave that and um try and kill him later because I'm just gonna like fuck it up. I'm gonna say something insensitive and like just not gonna handle this well, so, uh, I won't. I won't bring it up to her or anything it's messy.
Timothy (DM):It's a messy thing to handle yeah, very. It's, yeah, very complicated and akka probably doesn't have as much experience with it yeah, no, she's just like she's a nurse.
Ellie (Akka):I mean like in theory, like I guess I could like leave her a little like something to like a painkiller or if, like maybe I mentioned like, oh, like I noticed your shoulder seemed sore, like here's a recipe for a poultice or something you know. But like I. I don't know that there's like anything I can do to help her besides kill her husband yeah sometimes support and solidarity can go a long way yeah, cool.
Dan (Luka):So can murder.
Ellie (Akka):So can murder.
Dan (Luka):In this case, that's pretty big.
Ellie (Akka):This problem has a name and an address.
Timothy (DM):Vengeance seems to be the theme. Yeah Well, I'm just saying if people are drowning.
Ellie (Akka):I got a guy who needs to drown.
Dan (Luka):We got a girl who could do it. Yeah, too god forbid.
Ellie (Akka):Women have hobbies oh man okay, well, that's. That's all for me all right.
Timothy (DM):Um, so you do actually go to talk to Evelyn, though. Right, you had kind of established that you want to go talk to her. Give her something.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, I just I think I just make small talk with her and maybe help her with hanging up the laundry and then say something Like I noticed you know that your shoulder seems like it's bothering you.
Timothy (DM):I have a recipe for a poultice if you need yeah, she smiles and she thanks you and asks you like she participates in the small talks, asks you how the investigation is going, how your day's been, um, where are the other two at, as she then notices joseph arriving hey, there yeah, I might ask like what time she expects her husband to be home, or like what time he usually gets home.
Ellie (Akka):I think I would like to try to be here when he's here until he leaves, basically so that he can't do anything, do anything to her gotcha all right so yeah, she'll um, welcome the company and just.
Timothy (DM):I mean, she just makes small talk and asks you how the investigation is going. She doesn't pry anything into anything. Um, she doesn't do anything to rock the boat mm-hmm, yeah, we'll help with her chores yeah you, you sense a bit of relief that there are outsiders here.
Chris (Joseph):Because she basically is an outsider herself.
Ellie (Akka):She's been here in.
Timothy (DM):Ucons with a bunch of people who have always lived in Ucons.
Ellie (Akka):Chat with her about her family. Does she have any siblings? See if I can get her to tell me about her family.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, she has a sister um both of her parents are still alive. She goes to visit them on holiday.
Cross-talk:Um good yeah I remember correctly that she goes to paris.
Ellie (Akka):I'll ask her about.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, she has been to paris, yeah um, it's been a while since she's been. Actually, ever since she married Jakob, she hasn't gone on any big trips.
Ellie (Akka):Oh gosh, he's very tied to his business and very concerned Well you know, a woman can travel on her own these days, fair Fair these days Fair. Fair If you're ever feeling a little, you know, homesick, or you know what is it called House fever, Cabin fever.
Timothy (DM):She looks wistfully into the distance and lets out a soft sigh and kind of avoids responding a little bit.
Chris (Joseph):Nia Herzog seems like a traveler type. Maybe you should talk to her yeah.
Dan (Luka):She's rich.
Timothy (DM):Oh she is, although I don't suppose we have too much in common, to be completely honest.
Chris (Joseph):Nothing. You never know until you try what. I don't live here, I don't know.
Ellie (Akka):How's your delivery? How's your guy delivery going?
Musical Interlude:Yeah, how's my guy?
Dan (Luka):delivery going yes, we can pivot over to that.
Timothy (DM):So you are able to walk him back to his cottage. And now that you're inside, there are a couple things.
Ellie (Akka):You're inside. Yes, you're so fucking in.
Timothy (DM):So you help him in. And he is very tired, he wants to go lay down. So you help him into the bedroom. Tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck.
Dan (Luka):Tuck you in really tight give me an investigation great nope, no, it added up to six, does that count?
Timothy (DM):no, okay all right, so you just see. So, like in one of the side rooms, you do see that there is something covered up in a white sheet, um, and then next to his bed there's like a little side table, and the side table does, oh a necklace a blue stone necklace oh I get it.
Dan (Luka):Yes, give it to me. Just kidding, I'm not gonna take it. Um, how old is he about? How old is he? I don't think we ever established. I know he's described as an old man. He's in his late 30s, late 30s old, for me.
Chris (Joseph):He's been an alcoholic for six years.
Dan (Luka):Oh, that's fair Probably longer.
Timothy (DM):He's probably been an alcoholic for longer, but it's really been exacerbated by the death of Zoya.
Dan (Luka):Has he been chatty at all with me on the walk back? I imagine Luca would have been somewhat chatty, just talking like small talker Forcefully.
Timothy (DM):you can continue to get information from him, but he's like really gotten to a point where, unless you are prompting him with questions, he is not just talking.
Dan (Luka):But like what, if I like small talk prompts, Like how?
Ellie (Akka):is do you fish?
Dan (Luka):Like do you go out on the lake? Like little things like that, Not pushing him on this.
Timothy (DM):His responses are a lot of like yeah and grunting and no, not really. The shortest possible response is, at this point Gotcha, okay, he's all talked out. He's starting to really fade.
Dan (Luka):Were these hers and I point to them. I don't actually pick them up.
Timothy (DM):He goes over by himself and picks them up and he holds them. They're very pretty.
Ellie (Akka):Beautiful. Put them on. Show us QVC style. Ooh la la.
Chris (Joseph):He's going with all of your outfits. Ooh, Zoya, come back to life.
Timothy (DM):One of the few things that we found next morning.
Dan (Luka):Oh, I'm sorry.
Timothy (DM):I managed to pick them up before anyone else noticed.
Dan (Luka):I'm glad you have something of hers. You know my sister disappeared a while back and Pico was hers, so at least I have that Been looking for her, but I don't know. It makes me happy that you have something to remember her by.
Timothy (DM):He has like a grimaced smile on his face and he puts his hand on your shoulder and then he walks back over to his bed. You hear it creak beneath his weight as he sits down on it, his shoulders slumped forward, and then he leans back and kind of curls up on his side and just kind of sits there with his eyes open for a little while well, I'll leave you be.
Dan (Luka):Do you mind if I check in on you later?
Cross-talk:yeah, that'd be fine okay friendship.
Ellie (Akka):I'll just I will.
Dan (Luka):I will like, as I'm leaving, just be like I'm not gonna touch anything. I'm not gonna like invade his privacy, um, but I will like look around yeah, you do peek around a couple different there.
Timothy (DM):I mean, it's a small cottage so there aren't like too many other sure rooms that you haven't already seen. Um, so there's like the one side room where you saw the basically it's an empty room with some shelving along one side, um, and then something in some of like in the middle of the room, covered in a white cloth what shape is this thing?
Dan (Luka):covered in a white cloth?
Timothy (DM):about?
Ellie (Akka):uh, your height maybe three feet wide does it have corners like a box, or is it like it has like yeah, is it?
Chris (Joseph):potentially like a canvas on a on an easel shape, potentially okay cool.
Timothy (DM):Um, I have no idea what that is, but I'm not gonna be like you failed your investigation check, but obviously there's a thing in the room.
Dan (Luka):Okay, yeah, but I'm luca doesn't, but it's a good.
Timothy (DM):That's what I imagined it is, anyway, and then there's the kitchen dining room, which is a small space and that's basically the whole cottage. Okay.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah.
Timothy (DM):He lives simply. It's not a lot of stuff in there.
Dan (Luka):What time is it about right now?
Timothy (DM):We're probably getting up to two o'clock in the afternoon there is kind of this pain in your stomach, that kind of like oh right, I'm hungry, sharp kind of sting that reminds you of the time of day.
Dan (Luka):Gotcha. Okay, I will just leave then and head over to. Well, I guess I'll head back in the direction that we were, yeah, and hopefully catch you guys. If I don't find you at the cemetery, I'll probably head back to Jakob's.
Timothy (DM):If you're making your way back to the cemetery, you're going to pass Jakob's house. Jakob's house.
Cross-talk:We're probably all having a nice lunch, having some fruit tea hanging out with evil and yeah, yeah since we got all.
Ellie (Akka):We helped her with her chores, so they all got done early, um, although you are.
Timothy (DM):If you're having lunch with evelyn, you are remembering you did get invited to the hercog tomorrow.
Chris (Joseph):That was tomorrow because this is still the day that we met.
Timothy (DM):Oh yeah, same day never mind.
Ellie (Akka):We have a packed social counter thursday, tomorrow, give lunch tomorrow.
Timothy (DM):That is correct, thank you. Yeah, it has been a long day and I it feels like it should be the following day.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, we would never do nia like that. Nia right yeah.
Dan (Luka):Nia. So when I get back I'll eat, because that's important, and then I'll just like mention that that I want to go back and check on what's his name Gasper. It's such an odd name, it doesn't stick in my brain. I could write it down um casper with a g.
Timothy (DM):Yeah, that's how I'm gonna remember it now um like gas like we could check it like
Ellie (Akka):hermit like we're gonna check on him later just to make sure he's okay, like later today or like tomorrow later tonight, maybe at dus, maybe at dusk. My favorite time To make sure he's okay. Yes, wink.
Dan (Luka):I mean yes, to make sure he's okay, but also wink, but that's all I got.
Ellie (Akka):But I'm also I'm hesitant to leave Evelyn alone at home alone with. Jakob tonight.
Chris (Joseph):Maybe we could take her because she hasn't been able to go to the. Oh well, he'd know that she's not there maybe we could take him since we're going to drown him anyway say we have a lead
Timothy (DM):right all right so at some point you all like leave evelyn yeah we don't have like a side conversation. I mean you all can have like little side conversations. Um, I mean this is this. What are you all doing for the rest of the day? You have lunch with evelyn. Do you stay with evelyn the rest of the day? I?
Dan (Luka):mean I feel like we would have side, we'd have to have some side conversations we can't like and I.
Timothy (DM):So at some point Akka pulls you all aside and says let's drown him.
Dan (Luka):I'm concerned that that won't actually fix the problem, because we don't know if that's going to necessarily.
Ellie (Akka):I'm not trying to fix the drowning problem, I'm trying to fix the Yakka problem.
Dan (Luka):I wonder if we expose him if the town will reject him.
Ellie (Akka):I'm not optimistic.
Chris (Joseph):I'm not sure, given that I think people already know he's kind of a jerk.
Ellie (Akka):Seems like an open secret With my motivation to improve public health.
Dan (Luka):I want to kill him public general.
Ellie (Akka):Well, what if?
Dan (Luka):we like, frame him for zoya's murder like six years ago it could happen yeah, yeah, okay, sorry, we're brainstorming, no bad ideas yeah, I'm just like thinking of like how do we get rid of him without killing him per se?
Ellie (Akka):You object to killing him?
Dan (Luka):Yes and no.
Chris (Joseph):We could lose him in the woods, I don't know.
Dan (Luka):Or maybe we just present him to the spirit of Zoya and let her decide.
Ellie (Akka):That's what I mean when I say drown him, I guess that's fair.
Chris (Joseph):If we can get a boat and try to capture, recreate the scene and we have life jackets, I think that's probably the best option in terms of trying to make it seem, capture, recreate the scene and we have life jackets. Yeah, I think that's probably the best option in terms of trying to make it seem like an accident.
Dan (Luka):I don't know. I think, either way, we need to get, we need to see her, yeah, so we know what kind of entity we're dealing with. So maybe we go by ourselves tonight and then bring him the next time yeah because, as shitty as yakub is, our priority should be the helping the people of this town and while I agree helping getting rid of, you know, getting rid of yakub in whatever way would be helpful to the people of this town he's not killing people.
Ellie (Akka):I'm not even thinking about like getting rid of him at this point. I'm just like worried that like he's gonna come home and like beat evil and yeah and by being here or keeping them apart from each other, like we can go, like, do investigation and try. It's an ethical conundrum it's like, are we?
Ellie (Akka):doing a greater good by going and doing our investigation tonight, knowing that that potentially means that she's being exposed to more physical violence? Or is it a greater good to specifically try to avoid her being exposed to physical violence as opposed to going and doing our little investigation of the spirit these? When you want to play with fucking domestic violence in your goofy fantasy setting, these are the issues that come up does okay question yes does evelyn know about gasper?
Dan (Luka):well, I'm assuming she knows about gasper, but she probably doesn't know gasper she doesn't know, gasper. She doesn't know Gasper. She's only heard of Gasper or seen Gasper very briefly and she seems like a lovely lady and I wonder if she would be amenable to visiting Gasper with us. And if she's having a hard time at home she might think of an excuse to why she would do that.
Ellie (Akka):We can say she's helping us with the investigation.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, true, we need a local to show us around because we got lost the last time. Yeah, we can leave a note for jacob before he gets home. If we leave before that, um, and gasper probably won't have the same animosity towards her yeah if he has never really met her before.
Ellie (Akka):She's like she's an outsider she isn't the same people who rejected him. And she's like a victim of the same situation that Zoya was a victim of, and if anything, she can stay in his cabin while we investigate.
Dan (Luka):She doesn't need to come to the lake with us.
Ellie (Akka):That's true, they could have a little biscuit together.
Chris (Joseph):That if you mean like stay there for days or like or at least just tonight.
Ellie (Akka):So she's not like tagging along with us on our investigation?
Timothy (DM):yeah, because I don't want to bring her to the lake in case yeah okay, so we are coming up on the end of the session, so I have two questions for you. One do you talk to evelyn about jacob at all?
Dan (Luka):how do we hint at it without hinting at it?
Ellie (Akka):um, well, maybe as a follow-up to our conversation about cabin fever and traveling, I say, well, it's not quite a trip to paris, but we could use a local to tag along with us um out to gasper's uh cabin tonight. We had kind of a hard time interacting with him this afternoon and I think, you know, having somebody like yourself there would really help and it is such a lovely being out in nature at nighttime, where you can see the stars and hear the crickets yeah, it would be a huge help to our investigation and we won't go near the lake.
Dan (Luka):If you're concerned about that, yeah, no manipulation role needed.
Timothy (DM):She will agree to that. Yes, um, do you talk about yakub at all, though?
Ellie (Akka):uh, I don't think, if she doesn't bring it up, I don't think we bring it up, maybe we mentioned that we could leave him a note, Like just that.
Dan (Luka):We could leave Jakob a note, so he doesn't come home and is concerned about your safety.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah.
Dan (Luka):And saying it that way might inspire something.
Ellie (Akka):Because, we've known this woman for like a day or two.
Dan (Luka):Yeah, we had breakfast with her. We're besties.
Cross-talk:We had cereal.
Musical Interlude:We want to be like is your husband beating you.
Ellie (Akka):Do you feel safe?
Timothy (DM):Can you all give me a learning roll, okay?
Dan (Luka):I sure can.
Ellie (Akka):Oh, I'm good at learning, I'm good at learning.
Dan (Luka):I rolled two ones. Does that do anything for me? It?
Musical Interlude:does not.
Dan (Luka):Snake eyes, nothing.
Timothy (DM):Nothing, oh no, nothing, oh no. Alright, so the plan is to take Evelyn after dinner yeah to visit Gaspar.
Musical Interlude:This is good.
Timothy (DM):Jakob will join you all for dinner. So, after a day of spending with Evelyn, you will have dinner with Jakob and Evelyn Keep it together, after which he will retire to the writing room on the second floor of the house.
Dan (Luka):So we go now, while he's not present.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah, I mean, maybe we brought it up during dinner that like, oh, like, evelyn's going to be joining us this evening.
Dan (Luka):I would say let her bring it up.
Ellie (Akka):Yeah.
Dan (Luka):If she wants to talk about it, she doesn't bring it up. Great, we won't talk about it, no problem.
Timothy (DM):All right With that. All right, yeah With that. We are going to close the curtain on this installment of.
Timothy (DM):Vossen, slavinland. Yeah Bye, the calls of the wild linger for next time. A heartfelt thanks to free league publishing for their steadfast support of independent ttrpg creators through the open gaming license rules and for crafting the rich tapestry of vossan, especially to the talented writers neil's hints, ne, niels Carlin and Richard Antoia for their exceptional setting guidelines. Our gratitude also extends to Tomas 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 Nerea, whose haunting renditions of Jreyo, yijito and Andro have beautifully enhanced our intersequence, 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 the loss of my grandfather during the COVID-19 pandemic, my last direct connection with my homeland. For all those like myself 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. Na zvidanya, © BF-WATCH TV 2021.
Musical Interlude:¶¶, ¶¶. © transcript Emily Beynon. Thank you © transcript Emily Beynon.
