A Pint Of Cthulhu
Mappa Mundi Playtest part 1
Hello and welcome to Apaneakuthulu. Today we are having a very special playtist of Mappa Mundi and we have George, one of the writers, creators, whatnot, running the show for us. So without further ado, George, take it away. Alright guys, welcome to Mappa Mundi and Exploration and Ecology RPG. Today we are going to be playing Root and Branch, which is our pre-written adventure in our pre-release guide. People who are listening at home can find the pre-release guide available for free. There will be links in the description, no doubt. You can find it at MappaMundiRPG.com and Root and Branch is our pre-written adventure set in the region of Barbicia. So we have four chroniclers here. We have four chroniclers who have a recent graduate of the Mappa Mundi Institute, whose job is to set out into the world and encounter, engage with, document and understand the world's monsters, creatures and cultures and Root and Branch will be their first post-graduation test. Do we want to introduce our characters please everyone at a time? Sure. So I am playing Cathy Ather, who is the archivist, more interested in writing down and doing things about the wild creatures. And that sounds like an archivist to me, who is up next? God then. I am playing Cedric, the Fixer. I have steady hands, I know what not to eat and I am quite resourceful. And sounding quite a little bit like David Attenborough. Who is up next? Ok, I'll go. I am going to, so I am playing the Divina character. My name is going to be Levesh Dinger. That is a bit different. My strength for deduction, but I am not very good at exploration. Sounds a bit like a divina to me. Thank you very much. Flower, you are the last one up. Who are you? Flower, I will be playing Philip. My licence is the Guardian and he will basically try to find where they need to go and keep an eye on the creatures we basically need to find. And maybe even find the food we need to find. Perfect. Sounds exactly like the Guardian's role. So, because I don't have your character sheets in front of me because we are running this online, I will be referring to you all by your actual names, but obviously you refer to yourselves by your characters if that's fine. And we will get going, we will get started with Root and Branch. Now, this is your first assignment from the Mapamundi Institute. You are new chroniclers sent out into the wilds on your first adventure, your first attempt to go and put your training and study interaction. You have been dispatched by the Institute to the small village of Gasgar. Now, Gasgar is three days to the east of the capital city of Barbicia, the capital city is named Maltiers. Gasgar is a small village on the frontier of the semi-wilds and has been known for a long time as part of a land of inclement and changeable weather. The Mapamundi Institute recently received a letter jointly written by the mayor of Gasgar, a man named Bastion Hugo and a woman named Sylvie Perot and both Bastion and Sylvie who are respected members of the community of Gasgar have written to the Mapamundi Institute requesting the presence of a team of chroniclers because the weather in Gasgar over the last six months has gone from being inclement to being utterly terrible and actually potentially ruinously devastating to the local agricultural economy. As you as you make the three day trek to Gasgar are equipped with 50 Bezonts. Now Bezonts are the currency in Barbicia. They're also known as Bezkalokwili. Each of you have been given 50 Bezonts and a report from the Mapamundi Institute based on the letter sent by Bastion and Sylvie. Now this report contains the following information. For the last six months the rain that is a regular feature of Gasgar has been especially heavy and the village and its immediate surroundings which are on the edge of the semi-wilds are always shrouded in fog. The population of Gasgar at the time of the last census was 135 and most residents are farmers struggling to cope with this ever worsening weather. The local mayor Bastion Hugo also serves as the owner of Gasgar's only inn an establishment called the yawning mastiff. Bastion has held the position of mayor for the last 14 years and his father held it before him. Life is slow in such a small town and mayor Hugo spends more time maintaining the inn than he does taking care of local politics. The cut your named contact named by the Mapamundi Institute when you reach Gasgar is Sylvie Perot who is head of the local house of fate. Sylvie led the writing of the letter and it was signed off by Mayor Bastion Hugo and she is the one that drove the initiative to have you invited to the village. According to her letter townsfolk have noticed "moving roots and branches in the nearby azurea wood and public opinion holds that a monster must have moved into the area." So as you travel through as you travel east three days east you're obviously prepared for the wet weather but you're not quite prepared for the lack of visibility that greets you as you approach the small village. As you are walking down a rutted mud-soaked puddle ridden muddy road you suddenly out of the fog you are greeted by a worn sign that reads "Welcome to Gasgar" and just through the haze of the fog in front of you there is a gentle glow that radiates from the windows of several candlelit houses. The constant sound of rain landing on thatched roofs permeates the area and a dog could be heard shaking droplets from its fur further down the road. As you enter the village you notice that few locals are wandering the streets and those that are look like hard working weary farmers. Gasgar it seems is clearly the epitome of a sleepy village but you can't help but wonder what secrets hide beneath this quiet veneer. So as you move into the village it's very very clear that this is a tiny little frontier town. The town is even too generous a word for it. The central square that you walk into is open on the southern side and in front of you is a building that appears to be the yawning mastiff. You can tell this because there is a painted a worn painted side of a sleepy looking dog yawning on the outside. To your left there is a large building that looks like it could be a kind of village shop. There are some kind of barrels and farming equipment outside but they don't look like they've been touched for a number of days and the building itself looks very quiet. To your right you see a small house it would be generous to call it cozy looking but it's a small house and on the front of it you see the insignia of fate. Now fate is the kind of quasi-religion of this world and you see the symbol of the house of fate painted on the outside. This must be where Sylvie Perot your contact your named contact lives and works. So it is up to you how you want to proceed from here. Well I'd prefer to get out of this rain as refreshing as it is at times. It does get a little bit treery after a while. Let's see you back companions. Yeah no I think we should definitely get out of this rain it's being pretty much non-stop all the way here. Also we should seek out the I can't remember their names I think that there's Sylvie Perot we need to find to get to update us on the circumstances of the area. I believe she's in the fate area the fate guild house. That is indeed her job and involvement. Best place to start I suppose. Yeah well should we follow on to maybe find this house of fate. Perhaps we should leave our stuff in the in first I don't really want to go tracking all this equipment around town. That's a very good point we should make a home base. Yes that's a home base. Or a being cute. I'm partial to the little personally. A nice warm drink by the fire would probably be a nice idea it has been quite a while of traveling after all. Let's see you make companions. Ah yes I say to the pub. To the bar. Yes it was delightful. So then to the pub our companions our chroniclers go making their way straight ahead you open the door the wide-swing heavy door of a yawning mastiff. As you walk in a wave of warmth rolls out of the door at you this is evidently a welcoming place and very clearly considering the very few the small amount of people you saw outside but the largely full tables you see inside is the social centre of the village of Gasgar. Behind the bar you see a portly looking man just shy of 60 with a bushy beard that looks quite frayed given how healthy the rest of his head of hair looks. Off to the side you see a younger a young kind of serving boy who's bringing food and drinks in and out from the bar and an empty table over by the fire. But as before you can properly get your bearings the man behind the bar with a huge booming voice says welcome travelers welcome to the yawning mastiff please take a seat over there I'll be with you in just one second. Ah perfect good sir perfect. Come compatriots let's go and enjoy and I spot by the fire. Make way make way. So the the the town the the residents of the bar the patrons of the bar are somewhat surprised to see people who are clearly slightly better dressed than they are. You know you can you've come from multi-airs the capital of a capital of Barbesea and even though your humble freshly graduated map among the graduates you are still decked out in the tools of the trade. So as you take your seat the bar people kind of clear the way in front of you and just as you've taken your seat and rested in the man from behind the bar comes over begins to grab everyone's hand and begin shaking them and says welcome everyone. My name is Bastianne I am the patron the owner sorry of of this bar and I'm also the mayor of the village. I don't don't recognize you though can you like who who are you what brings you all the way out here to the to the edge of the frontier. Yes we're just a traveling party of thirsty travelers. We wish to buy drinks and maybe procure one of your rooms if you have one spare. We are steamworkers of things those are places. I think our compatriot has forgotten the fact that we are here under business of the legitimate guide. Yes we think the guilds if I remember correctly of the map of the institute. Of the map of the institute that's the one is old by divine when Bastian hears that you are map a Monday chronicle as he the man was already you know he's he's a kind of natural publican very gregarious evidently a kind of natural politician as well but suddenly lifts himself up to his full height grabs all of your hands and begin shaking again it says thank fate you're here map a Monday chronicle is come to our small village and right when we needed you as well have you seen Sylvie yet has did she send you over to me. No not yet we have been traveling in the rain for a long time but so we thought of warming ourselves up to make a little bit more presentable. When did it whistle? Yeah let's get some food in our bed is it's been a while. And maybe we should you know rent a room to drop our stuff off. We don't want all our bags to take up space just lying here by our feet. So he when you when you talk about a room he seems a little bit taken aback he's a little bit abashed by by an issue that he seems to have now he he says of course food and drink absolutely you rest by the fire he clicks his fingers the serving boy comes running over and he's like boy bread meat cheeses vegetables beer by the barrel bring bring everything these good people need and he says oh and before you go run across the square and bring Sylvie over here as well she'll she'll want to meet these she'll want to meet these chroniclers so off the boy runs to carry out his instructions and Bastion kind of pulls up a chair he sits down with you and he says I am sorry about the room but as you can see we're pretty busy at the moment he's he's kind of unsure about how about how much he wants to reveal to you at the moment but he says because of this infernal rain we've called all of the all of the all of the all of the foragers all of the people that live out closer to the wood we've called them back in and I've chosen to put them up at the bar here up at the inn because we can't keep control of you know we can't keep track of everyone so all of our rooms are currently taken and you see him kind of catch himself a little bit and he says well all but one of them are taken but that man left all of his stuff here so just in case he comes back I'm holding it for him can I potentially use one of my interactions to base him into saying what's what's what's on his mind what's actually going on you could bait is normally something that's kind of a physical monster kind of thing but you could absolutely use it you're going to have to roleplay how you're going to draw him into the trap though right okay so I'd probably be sitting here well I mean it does seem rather busy I mean what what is the local news of the area that seems to be it's you say you're not more busier than usual and what what's what's going on exactly so he gets a little bit he's you know he's he's this is a man you that you sense is is quite on the surface about his feelings he's not he's not ever he's not kind of consciously trying to hide anything from you but equally you get the sense that he is surrounded by people who look up to him and rely on him and so he's a little bit more reticent perhaps to be as open as he might otherwise be but he does say he says well the he says the local news is is kind of what you can see around you and is also the reason we've asked you here the weather has been getting worse it's it's he says it's always been rainy here I've lived here all my life my father was here before me and his father before him and gas car has always been wet and rainy even in the summer we're plagued by summer rains but he said this even the oldest office in the village can't remember anything like this before and he says when it first started we carried on as best as we could you know we we we went about daily life as as as as regularly as possible but he said the last couple of weeks have gotten particularly severe we've had we had foragers and and and herbalists who know the azure rewards or at least you know the the near azure rewards like the back of their hands but even they were beginning to lose their way and so I made the choice as mayor to call people in and to stop the collections going out into the forest and then he says just as he's about to say more the door opens and in walks a woman a kind of short plump woman in her you'd you'd probably say her mid to late 50s and Bastion turns around said oh Sylvie you're here finally maybe you can help me with this these are the map among the chronicles and Sylvie kind of gives you all a knowing smile as if she needed to be told who you were and you see as she kind of sweeps into the room that she's wearing robes emblazoned with the symbol of the symbol of fate's loom and she without ceremony she nods to the mayor she sits down and she says thank fate you're here I've been waiting for you to come and she turns to the mayor and says Bastion have you told them about the the missing yet and he kind of stumbles and sputters over himself a little bit he's like no I was just I was just about to tell them thus we get to the crux of the issue how many people have been missing them Sylvie so Sylvie seems to consider your question when you say the word people she seems to consider your question somewhat and she says well one of them I would hesitate to even call a person but we'll get on to him afterwards and you sense a real venom in her voice she says two of our locals have gone missing a nace she says a nace bordeaux she lives she lives in a cottage outside of town a gifted divina back in her day and still someone who I consider to be a sister in fate's teachings a nace was well travelled she settled in gaskar 30 or 40 years ago and it's been here for a long time but she has gone missing and with her a younger girl 18 years old she is Elodie Laval the daughter of Guillaume the owner of the the village store both of them have been seen around the village and on the borders of the borders of the wood for some weeks and both of them on the same day four days ago went missing she says that she herself is very worried about about Elodie being as young as she is and as inexperienced with the wilds as she is but is less concerned about a nace being as well travelled as she is though she adds that getting into her late 70s maybe the azurea woods are not the best place for her and then you see her kind of steal herself and her kind of soft and warm demeanour goes hard and flinty and she says and then there's him and she looks over at Bastion and Bastion kind of looks down at the ground a little bit almost quite sheepish and she says Pierre and she spits on the ground after she says his name she says he turned up a few weeks back calls himself a big game hunter and the rage and the anger and the hatred in her voice as she says this lets you know that she like you and like the mapper Monday Institute and actually like most of the world as a as a as a kind of collective community recognise that the killing and the hunting of monsters is basically the biggest taboo you could possibly undertake and then to brag about it is you know is much like it's much like having murdered someone and then warm their skin to their funeral it's the worst thing you can do and so she spits on the ground again and Bastion then says he is the one that I was talking about the one that left his room he left a week ago he hasn't been seen since but he spent every night he was he every night he was here asking everyone as many questions as he could about what their experiences of the azurea would were had they seen anything over the last couple of months that might have caused the change here yeah that's very interesting about the missing game hunter it could be maybe linked to something here is there by Charles we can maybe search some of this stuff Bastion and Sylvie look at one another and Sylvie you know Bastion is almost and it's this is a strange thing for you to for you to note that Bastion who is the mayor of this town is almost deferring to Sylvie and bearing in mind that this man Pierre's room is in his inn the fact that this this kind of deferral maybe seems a little bit strange to outside eyes but Bastion kind of receiving Sylvie's assent says of course you can absolutely you can even store your stuff up there while you're you know while you're staying here he skipped out with the room a week ago he's still he didn't pay off any of his tab he get you get a sense that he's quite you know angry about this he didn't pay off his tab at all but we've left his stuff there just in case he returns and you get the sense that he's kind of almost hoping that this is a bit of a bargaining chip for him to get the money that his own if Pierre should return but he says if you go to the top of the stairs the room at the end of the hallway on the left that was the one that he was renting try not to he says try not to damage anything when you're in there but you get the sense that he is if not quite as forceful as Sylvie was in his disdain for Pierre that he is at least getting close to it well it would be certainly a fun irony his notes helped us track down and help whatever he was hunting was Pierre after any specific creature in the woods so Bastion turns around and says he calls for a man called Philippe and you see you see a kind of older man you know fact you see an old man and a much much younger man a table across the bar both turn around when the work when the name Philippe is mentioned Bastion gestures to the table when both men come over and Bastion says this here is Philippe the elder and Philippe the younger grandson and grand son and grandfather Philippe has been here even you know was born years before I have he's the oldest the oldest man in the village and young Philippe here is one of our best gatherers and so knows the woods very very well and he says chaps can you share with our chronicleer friends here what it was that Pierre was was was asking of you and so young Philippe kind of kind of volunteers first and he says that Pierre was very very interested in the stories he'd heard of moving roots and branches he questioned Philippe quite heavily on whether he had seen any changes in the woods beyond the normal seasonal changes and Philippe himself said he hadn't he hadn't seen any he tells you the same information he told Pierre which was the woods had seemed normal to him he had heard you know the stories that other people were bringing back to the woods but put it down to you know tricks of the light and different things like this one last wonder Philip you've been here for your entire life you've respected these woods correct yes sir and he kind of nods his head a little bit this this is a man you get the senses is deferential to people he gets it that he perceived to be in authority over him so I have to wonder has anyone disrespected the woods of lakes disrespect he says he's the woods are our lifeline he says these are we know we grow up in and around them he said certainly back in my day we were you know the we children would play on the borders of the woods and as we got older our parents would take us out into them gathering and hunting in when necessary and he said you know a lot of the farmers tend to stay away from them but those of us that work in the gathering trades are in and out of the forest all the time but he says no one you know no one would disrespect the woods because the woods don't disrespect you and he talks about them as if they're a living thing you see that's my theory there compatriots I wonder if someone has potentially disturbed the balance this pier coming in and upsetting things oh I wonder he didn't kill something that was keeping whatever's causing trouble now and check what's the type of that or he's irritated it and as such it is attacking or defending itself in the way it knows best by these moving trees and such well I suppose they may for us to find out is to go explore the woods and see what we can find oh yeah go and check his room first of course explore the room explore the world that's so with all the chroniclers agreed Bastian stands up and leads you to the stairs reminds you of the room up at the top of the stairs down the end of the corridor last room on the left and as you ascend to the stairs the hub above the bar quiets behind you and opening the door to Pierre's room with the key that Bastian has given you you are you were greeted by what could only be called a humble room there's not much in it there is a bed there is a desk on the on by a small window and you can see the kind of it's it's clear that someone has been staying here for some time but the room is otherwise unoccupied okay so can I walk up to the desk are there any papers on the desk any sort of um I know writing material you can see an old um like a it's not quite a quill it's not quite a pen it's a metal tipped kind of almost the so you you you the map among the institute would have has trained you in basic map making and basic cartography and sketching as well and you know that these are commonly used surveyors tools that are sometimes used for etching in wood but also sometimes used like fountain pens and there are a couple of ink stains on the desk as well as some um some marks appear on the desk as well okay so um yeah I guess as well we'll do just I'm gonna um get one of the piece of paper and I'm gonna assume it's like a pencil it was like some lead nearby and you would be carrying charcoal and things like this we had that worked yeah uh and I want to take a trace of the desk like uh you want to put the paper on it and then kind of do a rubbing of it yeah okay yeah absolutely absolutely um so as sam as your as your character is doing this you are you're trying not to press too heavily on the desk and you get a sense of a pattern of some sort is emerging but the pattern is incomplete is is the way that I would describe it um it's clear that someone has been drawing on something on this desk and the pressure has gone through and what you were seeing is almost a palimpsest representation now can you give me please a deduction check okay this is the first role so it is the first role yeah normally we would have had we probably would have had some earlier roles with this but you guys have been role playing this very nicely so okay so yeah I've got deduction of d6 on my character so I'm receiving just roll 1d6 just roll 1d6 that'll be okay I've got a full 6 on that one a full 6 okay so the pattern is while the pattern is incomplete you get a sense of um that you are able to kind of fill in the gaps here and so you you kind of lift the paper up you look at it in different you know from different angles and you notice that it kind of has an outer circular shape but that as you start to look at it more and you almost kind of quiet your mind and focus in on this a little bit and this is this is one of the one of the things that diviners are able to do is is to kind of quiet their mind and listen into the the kind of patterns and the traces and the presences that have been um that have passed through the world before them and you start to kind of almost um what do they call it like ghost right you know when you kind of when people let their hand you know they put their hand on a piece of paper and then just let their hand start to to write in this case you're you're drawing and when you open your eyes after a few minutes you open your eyes and you are confronted with a now complete image of a huge circular shape that has a helix pattern it's kind of a helix sort of a helical spiral that comes out from the inside and kind of rotates around until it meets the outer edge okay okay i'm just about following you this one yucky go um so that's so that's that's that's the the discovery from the desk and this is something you're obviously able to to keep to take away with to take away with you to discuss with your companions just to summarize i've managed to sketch out some sort of ruin from the desk what do you would call it a ruin or some sort or that interpretation that interpretation would be entirely up to you what you see is is a circular shape um with this helix spiral radiating out from the center okay so i'll i'll jump i'll jump in as a character from that point when i open my eyes and i see what i have created and i'm like yep oh my god wow guys i mean i've just had a crazy hallucination uh of line and i have created this almost like you know out of sheer blindness and whim does anybody recognize this pattern and i'll show that guys it looks almost alchemical in a way yes you see you see the um the helix it's it's very strange it's almost like it tells or something we should maybe we should you know talk to sylvian pretty much it helped us with this one well what else is in this room first before we disappear is anyone anyone else have you got any idea of what this circular helix that our friend here has found um well maybe there might be some more around the room maybe if you guys you know have a closer look at stuff you might find some more stuff uh to more clues so if anyone wants to you can give me an observation check please okay yeah um for me it's a d6 a four for me a four for you there jx so jay jay as you're looking around the room you notice that the bed is the head of the bed is not quite flush with the wall and going over there you you find a kind of leather satchel um evidently well used and well traveled with and you find this stuff down the down the back of the bed um drawing it out as you pick it up um a journal falls out of the bed uh falls out of the um the bag onto the bed well not the first time i've seen leather and beds put together but that seems to be general oh i still love logs of travel so opening the journal up you get you see what you would describe especially as an archivist what you would describe as a clumsy hand um this is notes you know scratch notes someone might someone might uncharitably describe this handwriting as like a drunk spider with ink on its feet um but you are able to make out odd words here and there you see um you see a note that reads the old man and the woods um you see a note that um that refers to uh slime and you see a note that refers to um a moving forest hmm well i think that gives us some idea of what he must have been looking for um i'm slime moving plants and an old man of the woods i've reckoned that perhaps sylvie and bastion at least might be able to answer the old man of the woods part well is that not philip oh well uh what was his name he was philip philip singing i believe uh perhaps that seems i don't think he like lives in the woods though that is the oldest man around here and he knows much about the woods very well then what about the slime though that's an unusual one i think we could just get a sample of it it would probably tell us quite a bit but we'd have to find some first obviously good sir car parking lot of character's name again the vest the vest a moment if you build that circle i wonder if that has anything to do with this slime is it some sort of DNA part of perhaps it is a uh strange helix it could be uh somehow related i mean is there any um symbols that match this in that diary you found uh but they have a look certainly but i don't think so in this instance there is no matching pattern huh there are no answers then so i mean should we have maybe one final look of the room is there anything else we can find you know there's a desk in the bed is there any other um i don't know squeaky floorboards this is a sparsely sparsely furnished room and um mat and jay's search um as well as your work over on the desk sam have have revealed all of its secrets can i see if there's any muddy footprints any muddy footprints are you trying to use your footprints in the mud your tracks in the mud yeah skill here so if he's been here in like muddy footprints might be able to follow where we've gone next um in this instance the room looks surprisingly clean it looks like bastions bastions helpers have been into clean the rooms every few days as you would as you would hope from a respectable establishment so there are no there are no tracks in the room that are visible to you at the moment oh there's no print second fellow i have no use i don't know i've gone to think don't worry you're not in your natural environment yet with a as a guardian flower you'll get there soon enough so the party it sounds like i've agreed to go back downstairs and engage with uh with bastion and sylvie again is that correct yeah all right so making your way back down the stairs you notice that sylvie bastion is is kind of milling around with a little bit of nervous energy and it's kind of tugging on his beard in a little bit of a nervous and stressful way which would probably account for why it's looking quite frayed given the current situation um but sylvie is is is kind of locked in a contemplative conversation with uh philippe the elder philippe the younger by the look of things has gone back over to his table and it's kind of uh carousing a little bit with his friends um but as you get over you hear sylvie expressing her concern for a nace and elod but as you sit down she greets you and um and says so did you find anything in the room any um anything that might lead you you know might lead you to find out where he's gone and where he's gotten off to and you can sense the contempt in her voice she is she is concerned for what pia might be doing rather than for pia himself uh so yeah my character uh sets was yes sylvie we have found a few um interesting uh markers that we could maybe slowly figure out where this man has gone um by chance do you recognize this symbol and i'm gonna show her the um scribbling i made so she takes it in her hand and she looks at it and you see her kind of close her eyes and and really kind of dwell on on what's there and she says as she opens them she says this is this symbol is is unknown to me but she says she can she she says and she looks to you sam as the diviner as someone who will um perhaps understand what she's about to say on a on a deeper level than anyone else would but she's like i don't know what it is but i can i can feel it fate is is it's almost like fate is trying to talk to me through it yes she says i feel the um binding energy as well that resonates in this image sylvie then gestures she turns around she turns around to flower and says flower you by the look of your armor your this party's guardian am i am i right in that oh yes i um i i keep my eye on these renegades renegades she kind of chuckles a bit as she says as you say that and she says at the institute you know you you know you're the the guardian you're the creature specialists in in a way you and the archivist you're the creature specialist and she turns to jay and she invites kind of invites jay conspiracy into the conversation it says did did not did this not come up would it was there no record of any monsters that that bore this shape bore this kind of marking at all in any of your training well my specialty was urology so i don't exactly know how relevant it's going to be here much better for helping track down monsters and no dietary patterns in there yeah it's all about the symptoms you're all the taste uh sorry so sylvie says sylvie then kind of goes back to contemplation as she says she quite a quiet timeline once again and she says when she opens her eyes she says i think that this is the target that you're looking for she says i can't say what it is but i have no doubt that this is the this this pattern will be on the target that you were looking for i do have a few ideas on what it could be perhaps she's potentially a take the patterning to a vine of a monster that resembles plants i do think though i know you're quite concerned about this hunter that if we simply track down the creature the hunter won't be far so sylvie nods nods vigorously and she says that she thinks she thinks you're entirely right and she hopes as well she says when you're out she's you know she asks kind of playing tivly that when you are out in the woods you know when you're out in the woods please try and look for for an ace an ledi any trace they she says they might not have gone into the woods but it seems too coincidental that they were seen on the borders of the woods over the last few weeks and for them to have got missing at the same time and then as if the thought has just caught her she she shouts bastion um an ace is hot they can go and check there they can go and see if they can find anything do you still have the keys and bastion comes kind of roaring over and says of course absolutely anything we can do to try and find them we must we must do and you know he looks at you and says i know you've come all this way to see if you know to investigate the rumors that you know these rumors are the monster but if if there's anything you can do to help our you know to help our locals finding them would do us yeah would bring us all great joy before we go anywhere Philip could sir do you know anything no wrong Philip the the old man Philip oh that's the leap i'm Philip I'll fit out Philip but if you all sound the same to my ears i apologize "Slime have you come across any in the woods at all?" "Slime" he says not no slime he bogs he says absolutely bogs he said there's fierce terrible wetlands in the in the woods beyond the um beyond the lake you know make sure to be careful of those wetlands but he said they can get a bit slimy and grimy at times but no um no slime I wonder then why this pf and I was rising up out slime well he he was a he was a beast hunter maybe slime attracts the beasts or maybe he's using a nice anality as bait mmm questions upon questions i suppose we go to nieces hut and find any signs of a struggle any sign that she was dragged out into the woods against her wand that would indicate it yes i think our next best best bet is to go to a nieces list although perhaps we should talk to elodie's father or parents or mother or i'd rather act more quickly than not our next place would be to um go to the woods maybe we could start tracking you know tracking your friend here is a very good tracker we could probably um follow some footsteps and track him down laversh did you not just hear we have two other places to check potentially yeah four i don't think that her father's going to know much about the monster and no not about the monster but where she was last what what was she doing with this she was taken by the old woman that's what i was told yes but maybe we should find out why whether she learning or was she uh i don't know that's at this point sylvie sylvie seeing your indecision sylvie kind of into into means a bit and says that guillaume she says guillaume is uh and you she kind of catches herself a little bit a a good man at heart but is not much for outs not one throughout not normally one for outsiders and is a man worried about his daughter she says no doubt he will open his doors to you but i wouldn't expect a particularly warm welcome or even maybe a useful welcome but certainly an ace an ace's heart is on the way on the edge of the village by the azure woods um elodie has been spending an awful lot of time there recently but either of either you know our concern is and you you know you see her you get the sense that this she's she's voicing one concern while trying to kind of communicate another one she says our concern is obviously for their safe return um but you do get the sense that she's maybe holding back something my dear it's not good if you hold back information something that might be useful um matt give me a deduction check please a deduction a d6 elementary might do it matter that would be a three a three okay so not quite a success but also not a terrible failure um you get the sense from sylvie that she is she's so relieved that you're finally here after the after the time that it took for the letter to to to reach the institute for the time it took for the institute to dispatch you she's so grateful that you're here and she's she's almost becoming fixated on the idea that pia is means harm she is confused you know you you've understood from her anyway that she despises this man and everything he stands for and that she is primarily concerned that he means to do harm to whatever he thinks is out there and will do harm to anyone who gets in his way you believe them to be dead then so when when you say that she she kind of tears up a little bit and she's like all death all death is part of fates plan if if any of them are dead then it was you know it was it was their time it was their their thread has come to an end in fates in you know in fates tapestry but just because that might be the case and just because fate has planned everything out doesn't mean that we can't show concern and try to intervene where we can right so i suppose next his job is uh and he says would uh hut then on where we go yes oh and by the way sylvia if we do find that the hunter has done anything unsavory i'm sure the force would mind a little bit more compost that was an excellent work that was incredibly dark give yourself a fake point i love it um okay so bastion and sylvie stand up and you know bastion is doing his he's now familiar vigorous shaking of everyone's hand he he thanks you and he says as you're leaving the door he says oh the fog don't don't forget about the fog um he says we've left you know we left for years we've been leaving markers in the woods um to help guide your way um just look out for the ribbons he says um the traditional ribbons in the wilderness i like them once you see i once told you finip you're a little bit creepy what the good it's a good marker ah thank you thank you very much so as you gather your equipment back up you leave you know you leave some of your equipment behind some of your kind of like uh reporting equipment you will leave here in the um here in the inn but you prepare yourself for um for your you know for your the things that you will need for what proves what what promises to be no doubt a somewhat arduous journey through a fogged soaked forest so sylvie kind of leaves with you she walks with you in the rain to the uh to the eastern edge of the village and she points across some kind of boggy water soaked ground and she says that tree the oak the old oak tree that stands out there on its own on the edge of the bog that's where an aces cottage is um she hands you over the key that bastion had given to her and she said she she kind of as you're walking away um jay she grabs she grabs your hand kind of as as you're turning to leave and and kind of pulls you back in and she says please anything you can do to protect the forest and and whoever is in it please swear to me you will do of course i will protect whatever we find in the forest even she says even she says and she kind of puts a sardonic smile on even that monster pare not at the cost of anything else but if there's no reason not to of course i'll help him out so she gives you a bit of a knowing nod there and and then send you on your way so as you walk over as you begin to walk over the bog towards the edge of the forest the the village was relatively quiet but it has the sound you know it has the sound of of of vague civilization nonetheless but as you even as you move only a few steps into the bog it's almost as if the sound around you starts to deaden and dull as you as you move closer to an aces hut and you begin to see the borders of the azure would um beyond the hut um even it seems the birds you know the the few birds that were braving the rain that you heard in the on the outskirts of the village of as you entered seem to have fallen quiet and a few hundred meters from the edge of the village you reach a nace's hut and even calling it a hut is perhaps overselling it this would be described perhaps as a hovel um it's a kind of lean to lent up against the tree it doesn't appear to have been maintained very well but as you put the key into the lock um you turn the key the lock clicks open and the door swings open um the interior you see is divided into a joint common room and kitchen a small sleeping quarters and a toilet space hanging off the like you know attached to the edge of the building as you enter the smell of dust and rotten herbs hanging from the low ceiling permeate the cottage and a table in the common room immediately draws the eye the table is laden with parchment all covered with notes in an odd looking language um okay so yeah i'm going to repeat what i did last time right i'm going to go to the table um and i'm going to ask if i recognize a language written on the on the scrolls you do this uh this language you recognize to be div which is an old tongue once used by diviners um and just remind me sam you do have the div skill don't you i do i said i said i do conveniently redive what the coincidence so div just for context div is a kind of um it's almost like an old underground language for those people who are kind of familiar with languages like palari and and kind of market languages these it's that kind of thing there's words from common tongues are added in there but they're often grammatically changed and put into different contexts there's also some clicks and whistles that are written down as kind of x's and um x's and upside down exclamation marks um and sam your character is able to read this language brilliant so first things first i just wanted to watch it is the i can't remember the person we're supposed to meet in here but are they in this room um and nase no it is it's there is no one else in here so yet though the first thing we're done is walked up to the desk discovered that oh i can read this language strange it's quite an obscure language and i'm assuming it's not the common tongue of the area am i right it's definitely not the common tongue it's it's what it not even all diviners can speak it ah so it's a it's a okay so you say it's a rare language very very very strange you're finding a random heart in the in the in the edge of this village so yes i'm going to um admire and look into these writing some more and if you could please tell me what they say it'd be lovely i can yeah so on the parchment this it looks it's kind of this is a mix of a kind of journal and also kind of almost like academic field notes um a nase they're you know some of the entries are more innocuous than others one is a nase's plan uh to grow her garden um and to plant some of leds she mentions led by name and to grow some of leds um favorite plants uh and flowers and revitalize her garden and she describes led quote as a most willing student in the divining arts um as you pour through the pages there's a big kind of leaf of pages on the table and as you pour through them um a notable entry concerns the rain the the increase of the rain um and a nase describes this in an odd term she says that the rain is being caused by something called the effluvia of fate now this is a phrase you have never heard before yes this is the effluvia is a is an odd enough word as it is but the effluvia of fate is not something you've ever heard of before could you spell that yeah effluvia is eff l-u-v-i-a um now she doesn't she doesn't in the notes don't determine don't describe what the effluvia is but she is insistent in these notes that what she calls the root and branch monster its arrival is a direct result of the effluvia's movements and you see these kind of images of huge clouds and preceding them a kind of bank of fog and within them um a hill with an odd pattern on it covered in trees on top okay so this is almost like a living sort of island like a living your beast islands uh try to explain it um because you're talking like a whole ecosystem here aren't you that's certainly i mean it's an ecosystem it would be hard to determine an ecosystem from just the drawing but certainly it looks like a representation of a living forest um on and what appears to be a mound with with an odd pattern on it so if can Kathy lean over um carbon shoulder for a moment and check if that odd pattern matches the helix pattern absolutely you can roll me uh an observation just but i can check a pattern roll me an observation check it'll be at least six oh two never mind i do um you get the sense that there are similarities between them like there's the same general shape but it looks like a nace's drawings the patterns on a nace's drawings don't quite seem to sink up at least in your mind they don't seem to sink up um with with the with the the kind of rubbing drawing that Sam's character did earlier on i've just had an idea hold on one moment go on sir Derek what is your outstanding idea what if it's not so much the forest is moving as this is this creature that is represented in these doodles that you've clearly had time to explain to the rest of us that can't breathe if yes i've i mean i've been as i've been describing this fantastic um thing out loud he reads out loud i really thank you read out loud sense or go this gas has some sort of hallucinatory proposition to it ah that's a good idea there Derek i i i don't see much on the scribbling here to say of such but we we can assume so there could be some toxic gases amongst the uh this ecosystem we are seeing this living forest oh oh perhaps it could be toxic slime ah ah as we we wanted this line um coming to contact with it and it was nice as we are getting very off of and yes well perhaps this effluvia the definition is it's unpleasant or harmful odor or a discharge of some sort so yes it could be discharged i wonder if the monster has a uti i think it could be more just more likely it's naughty feels like the pieces are slipping together um there's only one thing i think that's fails ever hoped it just happened i hate that that took me a second yeah um there's one last thing i like to do with these um with these drawings and actually just drawing on what uh my my colleague sylv uh Kathy did i would like to um um compare my drawing i i took earlier to these notes and see what they i can see if i get any um but anything stands out uh give me a deduction check please cool uh deduction of six i'm gonna roll a six and go four um so you get the sense that the pattern that a nace has drawn is uh is is more similar than kathy my other ways of suspected kathy seems to have approached it almost dismissed it out with hand um kind of had a quick look um in a and in a very unarchivist way has been like no it doesn't look that doesn't look the same but as you kind of compare the two drawings you do get the sense that they are um they are similar things it appears to you that whatever a nace is writing about what has evidently been concerned with for some time um is is also the thing that pia is here to track down okay so there's just um no no it's all the correct few dots there just just a background thinking so we've got this living ecosystem we've got this sketch file i found on the desk we believe it's a sketch of a um some sort of mythical beast give or take that could be lurking in these woods am i sort of you know round abouting it all quite nicely this is this is this is what you've said this yeah this is what i is what i understand from your play so far yeah yep no okay just getting a bit of an idea of what we're sort of walking into um and um from what we're getting here as well we you know there could be a snotty encounter coming up or potentially somehow leucinogenic gas is good it's not fine it's mucous all right so would anyone else would anyone else like to do anything while you're here in a yes it's hard being resourceful i would like to have a look around if there's anything we could use potentially to help us have a look around uh work things out in the forest maybe to what's the best way it's basically if there's anything we could use potentially yeah okay and you're using your resource for uh skill here to do this right yeah okay so as you're kind of rooting around in an ace's cottage you it it becomes clearer to you that this is a woman i mean if you couldn't tell by the fact that she lives in a hovel this is a woman that lives uh is is of simple means uh there isn't really much about here um her proximity on the edge of the village suggests a kind of distance um and what what places where food would normally have been stored appear to have been emptied out now it doesn't look like there's been any kind of struggle the door was locked um which suggests it was locked after her when she left um but matt do give me a an exploration check please okay that is a d4 oh boy that's a one so one okay so um floor into the door i find the toilet yeah um what you do do at during your explorations you see some like yeah i've learned um you see some um you see some herbs hanging from the center of the room that look like they've been hanging over where a fire might have been kept and they've been dried out and these look like these might be of some use to you but as you pick them up um you realize them to be rotten like they they appear to be dry on the outside but they're rotten and you get kind of rotten herbs all over your hands oh i'm buzzing can i use my time out that's the time um can i use my keen eye to see if there's any like any plants or any basically in my mind it's like any plants that are only growing one part of the um i think anyone might grow an excess swamp would be interesting because there's no swampy part so you want to use keen eyes to have a look around to see if there's anything that might be you know of use or yeah that's like i don't do an overnight scene no i any like this sort of ising god i'm just watching this let's start an unusual leaf is only like the certain area of the swamp or if it's this growing grows in the city oh god yeah okay so as you so flower as you step outside you know you step outside and kind of cast your eye around the pond as much as you can through the fog and this is where guardians feel at their most you know outside even you know even in small villages most guardians often feel quite confined and so as you step out to get some fresh air and kind of scan scan the horizon um you feel more comfortable with with your place in this mission and you know that the forest you know the forest awaits you and whatever's in there is you know it is where the guardian really comes into their own and you notice that the weather appears to be the the fog appears to be rolling out of the forest um rather than kind of you know it's it's almost being propelled forward and there's not really much of a wind going on and the wind the wind is not blowing in the direction that the fog is and as you go back in to uh to inform your your party members of this you see a small note that appears to have been discarded by the door um and oh no no in a in a hand that is not the same as um as that that as you that you've seen on the notes that sam was reading um you see the words um meet in the clearing um and that's all the note says uh-huh um i found a note it says meet in the clearing it's either someone's having a sandwich in the outside or there's something in a foot i just want to bring something up here for a moment yes the herbs here have gone rotten but they have said she's only been gone for four days i wonder if she was losing her minds relatively i don't know much about divination but i assume if she's been having cost visions well how has she left before four days who can tell although that does remind me of something uh so can i she's she's had these visions of like a dark fog of fate going wrong could i use focus divination folks seem like they might be the folk witches or the lower keepers this world yeah please folk tradition to find out if there's been similar stories that we find it to be certain types of monster ah she's folk loose you're using you're trying to you're using your folk you're invoking your folk to see i know there's a traditional story about a similar thing that turned out to be this or that type of monster and you're asking this in relation to the fog particularly yeah the fog the feet going absolutely bonkers got anything okay so um you are your well versed in barbecian folklore barbecia is after all your home region it's where you've trained it's you know you're you're kind of familiar with the general folk tales from this region and while you can't remember any any tale that concerned fog in particular suddenly you link the journal that the phrase you read in the journal with a folk tale you do remember um and it's almost as if lightning has struck your brain and the phrase the old man and the forest comes back to you and you're like it can't be surely it can't be and the story that you remember and that is told in this region of barbecia is that one day an old man went out into the forest on a beautiful summer's day and after walking a number of miles was tired that the the heat of the sun was baking down on him and so he decided to have a sleep in the in the crook of a tree in the shade um and this was a part of the forest that he knew well and he falls asleep and sleeps for a few hours and when he wakes up he is miles away under the same tree still but miles away from where he fell asleep and that took him um you know twice as long to get out of the forest than it did for him to get into the forest um and that this is a folk story you remember from this region ah i wonder if we aren't just dealing with not hoisiness gas not all this in the gen eggs but simply an incredibly large monster with a environment on its back sort of like the pokémon tourtero if you were what a whole world turtle isn't that what the it's based on yeah i was thinking that i was thinking the lion bee from avatar yeah yeah lion turtle i think it is simply very large and is sort of accidentally causing people to walk away um a humble beast does it's merely just going about its business yes does move the scale of what we're dealing with up quite a bit there then that wouldn't make sense as to why the journal in Pierre's room also mentioned old man in the woods possibly the same story and the moving forest it mentioned that too um the journal in his room i wonder if that hasn't just been a sighting at least it's big which should be relatively easy to find well then i think we know where we need to go next with the story of um the old man and the forest in mind and the connections that you as a party have now started to draw the only thing that seems sensible and relevant to do is to begin your journey into the wilds of the azura woods so stepping out and gathering on the edge of this vast vast wood stretching far beyond sight to the east the party steals themselves and prepares to take the first step out of the semi-wilds into the wilds of barbecia