The party takes its first steps into Nycatov
ReRole Gaming
Episode 127: The City of Spiders
Welcome to the Re-Roll Gaming Podcast, where I, Tanner Prentice, guide five of my closest friends through an original adventure playing the tabletop role-playing game, Pathfinder's Second Edition. In the World of Rail, five strangers brought together a resistance under the shadow of the Blackery Empire. Until everything changed. A villain and former lover named Hogoth fractured the plains of existence, ushering in an endless night and an era of undeath, all in the name of an undying dragon, Zarox. Now, the fate of rail is left to these five adventures. My name is Ayla, and I play Bo-Cantrell, a fallen Asmar and cleric. With Cosmios, the God of Fate as my deity. Hi, my name is Zane, and I play Cinder Lafayette, the halfling investigator with a dicey past. My name is Octavia, and I play Starlet Moonbow, Star, as she's better known by her companions, is on a mission to save her true love, Faya, from the Maiden of Spiders. Hi, my name is Latara, and I play Kiaran Nimone, the sadistic, the dolel champion of Emmon, who yearns for that redemption that is so far out of her reach. I'm Brendan Geier, and I am Frost, your new favorite cobalt bot, Berian, honor bound to protect and serve Grass Party, and oath bound to finish its mission. These five heroes are the last best hope to save Rell, but can they overcome this darkness that spreads under the shattered sky? Find out now on the re-roll gaming podcast. Welcome back to the re-roll gaming podcast. I figured I'd start this episode with nothing but business. In fact, we're going to start it by describing the city of Nai Katav a little bit. So what you see from this towering subterranean city, flowers, is a bunch of flowers. A Hello Kitty theme permeates throughout the city. That would be so awesome if it was like Hello Kitty, it's like death stuff. It's like the emo bunny from Hello Kitty. Yeah, like an emo version of Hello Kitty. Well, no, because I didn't do that. However, I want you to kind of think of it, and I think a good way to correlate it, it's kind of like a city like Minas Tirith and Lord of the Rings. It is a city that rises with every district forming somewhat of a mountain or peak of a city. So the first district you have this great outer wall that keeps the ravenous hordes of homeless from coming into the city. Thank God. So it's like Bellevue. Yeah, it's a lot like Bellevue. They have a moat rising above that. You see another towering black wall, but this one is connected to the first by a series of webbed highways that give this sort of translucent blanket over this section of the city. From this wall, you can see towers gothic and elven spires alike peaking over this great wall, clearly a place of higher nobility. And then above that itself, and even from where you're at, you can see the castle nikotov on its own little platform towering above the rest of the city. But here you find yourself outside of Daevara's gate. I think I mentioned the horrible scene of the severed heads last time, but you move past that emotionally and yes disassociate. Are there also like stalactites coming down from above, too? Stilag. Yes. Yes. There's this sort of sky of stalag tights that hangs over the city and some of them actually, I can't remember what's called, but they meet towering stalagmites that are natural formations of the city. In fact, you think that castle nikotov, and you would actually probably know this Karen, was hewn from one of these massive massive stalag, was hang tight from the ceiling. Okay. One of these massive stalagmites. So it's like carved out of like one big piece of stone? Yes, with smaller spikes and towers, not unlike the spider forest peeking through areas of the city, naturally giving housing to some of the spiders that dwell here. But that's also something I do want to have you keep in mind from a horrible arachnophobic perspective. There are spiders of all sizes. And even at this distance, you can see spiders the size of ox carrying baskets that are fixed to their thorax, full of goods, services, writers, things. Just picturing this like public transport infrastructure, like one bus size spider just pulls up like picks up 80 people on their way to go to work. Listening to airpods on the back of this spider to say, Oh, back to my job. Yeah, there's the one guy listed like having a loud conversation on his phone on speaker. Yeah. The spider just eats him because he's one worthless person that doesn't contribute anything to society. Yeah. But you approach this massive black gate imbued with spikes and barbs that glisten with vile poisons that are applied liberally. And this is something of a strange change for you, Kieran. But two towering skeletal giants stare blankly with their hollow eyes and wielding rusted great swords at the front of the gate. As you approach a little closer, a hooded elf yells from the gatehouse above flinging open one of the wooden collapsible archer slits. And she says, produce a rite of passage or swiftly face the maiden's fury. I'll kind of wave to Cinder to go up. Yeah, Cinder will not really miss a beat approach and produce that. Well, actually, we probably would have taken a moment to like write. What was your name, Dale? No, it was Blyle. Blyle close enough to write it in Blyle's name and finish out the forgery. Yeah, you were working on that the other night. It's easy enough. And you kind of walk forward towards this gate. And this woman sits in this gatehouse, roughly 25, 30 feet in the air, and it's like, closer, stretching out on your tiptoes like, and you find yourself, she sort of forces you to uncomfortably get really close to one of these barbs. And you can see this green liquid dripping off of it. And she waves out a hand and I can't remember what it's called in the remaster. What has made me a chanda called now? Bitch slap. Bitch slap. She reaches out a telekinetic floating hand. It's ghost like and translucent. And it comes and cenages the writ and brings it to her. And she begins to take a close look at this writ. Let's see how she does. Can I force disadvantage? Yes, they're yelling obscenities out her. Let us in you stupid slut. Yeah, tell everybody I can't talk. I forgot. Was there something you wanted to do? Do you have a? I mean, I just have a reroll, but that was, I mean, or I guess I could like, no, there's nothing that like a guard in a really short place, I don't think would make sense. So no. Okay, keep keep stalling because I'm just trying to look over my feet to see if I have anything for this star starts performing a ritual dance flossing. Is this being rolled against your DC? What's the DC that was set by the crafting check? Which was okay, I think it wasn't like fantastic, but it wasn't low either. We don't remember. I have it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. She unrolls this writs, scans it over with her dark black eyes. And with a dismissal from her thin old pale hand, it flies back to you and she says, you may enter. Center will internally maybe breathe a little sigh of relief, tuck the writ back into her breast pocket and just turn around and say, it's come a lady. We have a great many things on your docket to deal with today, not that these delays are out of our way. I was just looking lazy. I'm not lazy bored. I'm over there looking like, come on, hurry things up. And then once she says that, I'll walk in. Okay. Deivara's gate methodically opens its maw to a festering cobblestone slum. Rachidel scurry away at the site of even a minor noble dole-el leaving behind their search for sustenance and piles of abandoned detritus. And the stench of these slums is something reminiscent of filth and excrement. The homes are poorly constructed and stacked to top one another, like a city on a city on a city in this cramped and crowded manner. And these towering black walls that separate this outer district from the inner district serve as a crushing reminder of one's place in the social hierarchy. At every possible opportunity, Frost is going to, like if somebody even doesn't run when we start coming, Frost is going to flash him in intimidating glare. Okay, give me an intimidation check. I kind of want to roll in as well, but mine's a little different. I think anybody who's not immediately getting out of the way or scurrying off, she's like, kind of kicking at them and like, splaying her fan out, sort of like hissing or whatever, you know, spitting at them. Spitting. 80 years. Pores doesn't say anything. No, but just like intimidating, essentially, or trying to intimidate them. Okay. I have something I wanted to wrap this up. I'm going to kind of under my breath, say, like, I appreciate the effort, but we might want to try to start blending in seen as we'll need a in and if we're spotted as nobles, that might be weird. It wouldn't be that weird for nobles to be staying at the end. If they have business to do in the outer district, sometimes it's a lot easier than navigating through the gatehouses. All right, if that's it, if that's not weird, then sure. I'll just walk on. Would you get for intimidation checks, guys? Flaccid 20. Okay, roll and fucking rocks and then the P gravel variety. Natural 20 for a 36. Okay. So with a flaccid 20, I think frosty when your elven form, you do try to give this sort of intimidating glare, but you very quickly realize that despite the surface of slums and peasants, there are predators here and you shoot a glare at one hooded elf in particular and she meets your glare and her deep piercing purple eyes have this sort of evilness behind it and I think with your natural 20 at this point star, you kind of see that this could potentially be a problem and you're able to refocus and draw the attention aside by shoving a commoner pretty hard who's trying to scrape together whatever they found of value in this rubbish into this apron and you push them pretty hard and it makes this loud like scraping as these stones and different stale bread kind of clink along the cobblestone, breaking their gaze. So I have this skill feat called Eyes of the City that specifies I can track known targets with the help of locals. Can a target also be like a place or an establishment or does it have to be like a creature? That's interesting. Eyes of the City because it says you can track down targets with the help of locals, but then later it says you chat with locals to help follow the trail of creatures you track. So I don't know if it's specific to creatures if there's some flexibility if I can use the try to find like a like an inn that sort of like we would best blend in at. Well, I tell you. Yeah, so I think that is more of a tracking down a person. However, you can use a diplomacy check to gather information to try to locate an inn of sorts. Yeah, I don't know how I'd frame it, but basically just trying to like at certain opportunities sort of discuss or interrogate, you know, locals being like, I'm looking for somebody who, you know, basically fits Kiaran's like noble status, like similar description, like knowing where those people might hang out or be seen if they were in the lower city. Okay, ultimately my goal is to try to find a place where we're going to blend in the best. Sure. Give me a diplomacy check. Meanwhile, as the guards are beating up poor people in Kiaran is watching Bo. I think you are drawn to a rather grisly site. Directly across the courtyard you enter in of this dark city, you see four elves hanging from a gallows and assign an elvish that reads the maiden sees all servitude is your fate. Do not resist. And why don't you go ahead and give me a perception check. Okay. What'd you get for your diplomacy there, Cinder? Thirty. Okay. Thirty four. Nates? Okay. You notice immediately and your senses are tuned into this. One of these hanged elves is wiggling in her news. Her face is purple and her neck suffers lacerations. You think there's no way she is alive and you get a sense. Her corpse is reanimated. At that point, two elves cloaked in silvery woven web cloaks who look much finer dressed, even finer dressed than Kiaran is pretending to be. They step onto the gallows. Another one that won't die. Cut her down. Take her to the chapel. The elf draws a curved dagger and with a swift slice severs the rope before they drag the withering body deeper into the city. Meanwhile, Cinder, you're able to maybe pry a little bit into some of these citizens around or maybe just listening to conversations, looking down streets. It comes to your attention that a good place to go that has a reputation for being rather seedy and a place where somebody who's not trying to be found could pretty easily hide is a tavern and inn called the widow's kiss. Yeah, maybe like a place that's almost like, I don't know if they do this here, but like a brothel that like some nobility go visit to go get into trouble and, you know, visit the seedier side of the city. Actually, I tell you what, what did you roll? A 30? Yeah. It's pretty good. So I think, I think you do hear about the maid or the widow's kiss. You think that might be a good place, but then you do start asking a little more deeply and you say brothel and you hear the murmurings of, in fact, maybe you approach a figure who... If this helps you, I have hobnobber. What does that mean? I'm good at speaking criminal lingo. Okay. Yeah, great. I think I think you're speaking to somebody who looks a little bit above a peasant. What? Nothing. It's kind of like that, but not really, but I'm sure it's fine for the purposes of what you're doing here. Hey, bro, you want to go hit a lick? I think actually you find yourself on a quarter speaking to a peasant and maybe you're playing the part of this, you know, upper noble or more noble class than, you know, dating to be down in this district. And as you're interrogating this peasant and they tell you about the widow's kiss, there's two... Two elves who are dressed like roofians. They have leather armor. One is spotting a set of curved daggers while the other one has a mall. And she goes, looking for pleasures of the flesh? Perhaps. Depends on what's on offer. You got silk to spend? Don't waste my time with these questions, of course I do. How's Kima? Basement? Go up to the head seamstress and tell her you're looking for a new dress. I might just do that. She'll kind of give a cool nod and return to the party. Okay. So wait, am I getting the impression that this is a good place for us to let go? Like, is the widow's kiss still a place to go lay low? And then this is just like a good lead to follow up on? The widow's kiss is a good place to lay low. It's an inn that will have places you can stay, but you have now discovered a brothel that seems to be perhaps a connection to the underworld. Gotcha. Okay. So yeah, she'll probably like kind of, well, you guys are beating up pores and Bo is witnessing this body being turned off. She's just asking around and kind of comes back as we're all reconvening after a moment and says, um, if we want to lay low, there's a place we can stay called the widow's kiss. We should fit right in there, but this other leads have uncovered too. Perhaps we go, perhaps we go to the tip, hit there, perhaps we go to this widow's kiss and discuss there. Was he getting the impression that we could get rooms at the brothel and house keema? Um, no, you could get a room for an hour or two. Okay. What you're going to do with the other 59 minutes, I don't know. Is, um, is widows kiss at least kind of close? Like, is it in the East slums? Can we say it's in the East slums? Yes, it is in the East slums. Yes, widows kiss is in the East slums towards house keema. I'll turn towards a, um, frost and just be like, you hurt her. Lead the way. Yeah, that's this moment. It has been roughly two hours. Two hours. You said we'd have an hour to the gate. We just got on the gate, right? And a gather information check, which typically takes two hours. So I'm actually being pretty nice here. It actually takes one for me because I've under or that is actually what Hopnover does. It takes one hour because of rules. But I mean, also, if it was actually going to find it in, we would have been doing this while we were moving. This is a brand new say. We could say you're doing it while you're moving, but you are currently in the streets and bow. You look down at your hands. They look pretty open to you. Everything's fine. You prick me out. I was like, Bo's the worst one to have lose their costume. Yeah. So we have anywhere between one more hour and that's it. One in 22 more hours. Yeah. This is going to be the problems we're going to get, like, we're spent three hours, like desperately trying to find a place to hide out. And then we're just going to be like, okay, we should. Well, like, are we going to turn back now? And then we just sit there for 22 hours. Well, I feel like at least having like a place we could get to if we lose our disguise, like, no, like, we need to know where we're going. We can drink another one and reset our timer if we want. We just would rather more hours, but yeah. But yeah, do these wear off immediately? Or do we get any kind of heads up? Well, that's what he's saying is we don't know. So once one wears off, we'll have a better idea. Cool. All right. We quickly make our way swiftly. Yes. Okay. And you're going to the widow's kiss. Yeah. And on the way, too, I'm going to be doing information gathering on just like, just trying to get a feel for this house chemo and what their deal is. Okay, make me a society check. Frost is making a road through the pores. Just holding his axe sideways in one hand, swinging the windless bowlers. Anybody who tries to run away, instead of walk away, like the poor they deserve to be. Yeah, it's a it's a trip from behind them when they look to see what trip them. It's not even there anymore. I'm still swinging that bowler, then give them $100 and then immediately take it away from them and wipe their eyes. I also just trying to like intimidating as we walk. Are you trying to do intimidate or like an athletic showing off your strength there? Me? Yeah. Frost. I'll say I'd probably stick with that. I'll do an athletics. I'll show off my strength. I'll just I'll just barrel through. I don't care who sees what or thinks what star or bow. Do you have anything you'd like to do or just continue on? Just try not to draw attention. Continue. Okay. Yeah, I think stars pretty much just going to be trying to sort of keep the intimidation up and help clear the path. Maybe not as intensely as when we first got in the city, but definitely still like. Yeah, people scurry out of the way enough or quickly enough. Just are we are we saying that you cut out our tongues or what like are we just not talking? Just for now, probably just not talking. Okay. I mean, if it comes up, we'll see what we say, I guess. What are you gonna be walking me like, yeah, sorry, I can't talk. I should cut my tongue out. I mean, I can't talk anyway, because I mean, I can't I don't understand anything as being said. You know, my first is pretty obviously holding himself as somebody who like doesn't talk as part of his job, like it's not in his duties. So he doesn't imagine we both probably would do that just to keep up appearances. So okay, and I'm trying to be like intimidating in a way that's like a you don't want to fuck with me, but I'm not like trying to draw attention. Okay. What did you get for your intimidation for us? What did you get for your athletics and 34? 34. Nice. And center, what'd you get for society? 36. Jesus. I'll pay for it later, but I'm gonna ride that high as long as I can for sure. Did I need to roll an intimidation too? Yes, yes, as well. Okay. 34. I'm pretty sure this one rolls as much as all my other roles combined. Dies value. It's too clarify to you. I am I am not pursuing house chemo as a lead. Okay, great. Um, you guys make your way through the Easter East slums. Is he slums? Goddamn. Yeah. You guys make your way through East slums and you put off what'd you get for intimidation, sir? 34. 34. Jesus, guys. Why don't you give me a perception check, though? Okay. You guys make your way through the East slums and you are carving out a path like a shark in waters populated with a school of fish. There is a sizable space between you and everybody else and these disgusting poor fish. What'd you get for your perception, bow? Another natural one. I guess that was last episode, but they're very enthralled. They're like, why do my hands look like elf hands? What's happening to me? What a place to be overwhelmed. You speak elven, but you don't speak under common, which is probably the more popular language. So it is catching hints of conversations here, but flooded out by a language you don't know in a strange culture. And it's hard to really pick up on anything, but you guys make your way without much trouble to the widow's kiss. And in fact, with your society role there, Cinder, you are getting information, maybe maybe prying into a little bit of what Kiara knows as you're walking, as well as just trying to overhear a chatter or anything of the sort. And you know, you manage to pick up that house, Kima has their hands and quite a bit of illicit things. Their their specialty is vice. And you get the sense that they're able to accomplish such things and remain an official house because everybody has their vice. It's sort of an open secret. Okay, so they've been allowed to kind of like continue to and to exist in an official capacity, because people are going to be searching this stuff out anyway, they might as well keep it under control. Correct. And you do notice, you do know that, you know, house, Kima, while being in the outer districts is still a relatively notable house. Do they, um, just to kind of further extrapolate on this, like, would you say that they're also kind of like the rule of law in the slums being like the only official house out here? Are they kind of tasked with keeping it in line in any way? Yeah, they have quite a physical presence. And in fact, that sort of, um, that idea manifests itself pretty quickly. As you approach the widow's kiss, you see this rickety set of wooden stairs that climb this dilapidated longhouse that this ends built on top of. And on the door is a painted black spider with a bright red hourglass. And it reads in elven, the widow's kiss. And two heavy set dola lean over this rotted handrail. They're armored with scale mail and each of them has a spiked mace. One of them has a shield that is sitting against the wall behind her. These are likely enforcers. And in fact, you see the sigil on their chest that it is, I don't actually know what it is, because I didn't make sigils for all these fucking houses. But you do see the sigil of house keema on their breastplates. It's the American flag. They just not in that realm. You know, the right one, the one with the 13 star one. I think when we like as we kind of approach this to if I haven't already had the opportunity to observe, etc, be like kind of quietly to everybody's let's hold up a sec. I want to watch I want to watch somebody go in there and see what they do. So I kind of want to like post up and wait to see how like patrons enter this building if they have to do anything special or if they're just kind of allowed to walk in. Okay. You watch as this group of three elves who are dressed pretty similar to the elves you saw last night, but they're dirty and soot covered. And they are not wearing the sigil of house neemune. They are actually not wearing any sigil, perhaps to blend in and they walk up in the enforcer steps for instance. Wait. The widow's kiss is under protection from house keema. House keema takes attacks of all transactions made inside. You will see rules as written above the bar, no spiders, no dust, no killing. Any violations of these rules will be enforced with lethality from house keema. And the patrons not accept the terms and he let she lets them enter. I'll make sure the others know to. Yes, anywhere in the city is ruled by the house in charge. They are the law. We want to appear strong for whatever we're representing. But if we are arrested for whatever reason, they may choose whatever punishment they like that they think will give them more power in that circumstance. So keep our heads down, but don't appear weak, I suppose. Show ahead inside. Okay. Okay. If we're doing that as we approach when they kind of like do their spiel, um, cinder will kind of intercept and just like agree on behalf of of Karen. God, I cannot. I need to write your name down. Belial. Belial. They was doing that. Groth is already up. No, not Groth. Wow. Still. I know. Frost is already up about 15 feet ahead, just like stopping side traffic from a little like entryway onto the main path. Just clearing away up to the bar. Okay. I'm not going to make you roll for that. I think you have the influence to do so at this point. They know what they saw back there. The extender is trying to sell it to like, this isn't the first time that, you know, the Belial has been here. Like we know that we know the deal almost like weirdly, conversely in like a casual way, you know, like she's trying to make these guards job easier that they don't have to sit there and do their whole spiel again. Okay. And so are you walking up for a cinder? Yeah. She starts her spiel and she says, stop. The widow's kiss is under protection from house Kima. It's all respect due to house Kima. No killing, no, whatever. She's going to rattle off the other two things that he said before to like it like she's heard it before and she's going to kind of like give him a regarding like nod or her regarding nod. She seems satisfied and she nods her head back. Is all currency spider silk down here? I mean, there can be barter and trade if you have rare gems and things of the sort, but I mean, what use coin like gold coin. Okay, but like gold itself wouldn't like I'm just wondering if there's that whatever it doesn't matter. I want. Yeah. So give him a good nod and that's as much of a tip is he's getting or she is damn it. It's hard to run a city dominated by one gender. How much spider silk did you have? Yeah. So you have probably the value of 20 spools unrefined, but it'll be worth about half. So about 10 spools and a spool is roughly a gold piece of the sword. So we're kind of poor. Yeah. They wouldn't know that though by looking at us. Yeah, I know, but we have to be careful what we spend. I'm going to give him all of our spider silk. Her, all of ours. God damn it. Frost is just eating it. It's kind of candies. Really juicy. We should have thought of that earlier. We could have got more spider silk before we came in. You buffoons. We start our start our career of silk gathering field for the next three years to prepare for our journey inside. Frost starts pulling it off of his armor. Yeah, right. We're running through that just unblazed trail. All right. And so you enter this dilapidated Gothic style bar and it's made of dark wood that permeates this sort of pale grayish color throughout this entire rundown place. Candles flicker atop of mounds and mounds of old melted wax. And of course, the heavy sign hangs over the bar that's written both elven and under common, no spiders, no dust, no killing. And from behind the bar, just like a bar on the surface, a woman is barking orders at rather harshly at her servants running from this display of a massive wine rack behind the bar. Does this look like a place that has reservations for rooms? There's definitely a staircase that leads down. You get the sense there are rooms for sale here for sure. I'm just wondering if there's any reservations that may have already been made and like a ledger in which I could determine which names might be associated with those. You do see that there's an open book next to a quill and ink pot that's right under the right atop the bar there to the side and every now and again. And it's used, it seems to settle tabs as well as probably a ledger to for reservations and booked rooms as the bartender goes back and forth to it between every customer. Okay, kind of before we enter, Senator will turn back to the group and just and say, if we're looking to stay here for the evening, we could either try and botanomally or maybe I can talk our way into some free rooms. That might carry some risk though. How much would like a room in the slums cost? You think for per day it'll probably cost you about a spool silk for all of you. That's not that bad. Yeah, no. Well, we can spend the spool and hope we can move on quickly, maybe gather some more at some points. Could we, do I know if the spider highway, the web highway, could you gather some webbing off of it? No, that is very unrefined and it's not the specific spider. So those spiders in the spiderling fields have been bred for a millennia to produce the finest, toughest tensile. That's actually kind of a danger of the web highway is it's, you know, old webs, collapse, and then you fall stories into the pavement below. At least you're riding on a spider. Maybe. I mean, that's not too much of a different experience to driving in Oregon City because my God, the roads out there are just the absolute fucking worse than I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. I don't know. It's it's hard to say. You, you decide. I vote we keep our heads down. We just pay the fee. It's not that bad. We're hoping to only be here one night. That most like maybe not even the night. Um, I guess cinder will take the initiative and try to go secure us rooms as quickly as possible. Frost is going to go like find the poorest people in here and just like clear their table and then just stand there and look at them. Okay, that guard without a tongue just busts our table for us. Thank you. We were done anyway. It gives you a tip. Okay. Give me a intimidation and then, uh, you walk up and you see this somewhat middle aged woman who has raven black hair with a single streak of silver running through it. Uh, her hair is tied back to a point where her forehead is almost stretched back in a tight, tight bun and she says, name and house. Uh, yeah, did we discuss that? We are representing the Mone. Yeah, we're currently representing that. Okay. Uh, was belial actually associated with that or was that just an identity we picked up? Blal is actually a person that we killed from house. And even a okay. Cool. Just wanted to make sure that was all in row before I start spouting off information. So would you name be belial? Nemone? Yeah. Blile Donnie Monae something like that. Just blah. Yeah, I don't think we haven't. Yeah. All right. Yeah. She'll just say without missing a beat is belial house Nemone. Don't believe we have reservations, but we won't be staying long. And her, she writes the first name with muscle memory and pauses on the last name for writing it in Nemone. What business does house Nemone have in house chemis district? I think house keema is our business. If you catch my drift, she'll kind of like give a wink. Ah, very good. What will you be having? Uh, double cheeseburger. No pickle. No pickle? Parsonip soup. Like a rare medium? One rare potato. Single raw potato. Okay. Yeah, that's actually that goes. That's like 500 spools of silk. It's like a delicacy here. Right. Um, she will. Yeah. Like maybe order some drinks and like, I guess maybe just kind of like small talk with this bartender for a while to kind of like figure out what her deal is, but I don't know if there's much to input a dig up there. Sure. Um, you get the information that bartender's name is Vin Kima, a distant nephew or distant niece rather of their matric S run keema. Uh, she's not of noble built, but she's definitely her status is higher than running this bar. So you and maybe with your that's odd feat, you just kind of piece together that she likely and her in quizzical nature. She's likely a informant for house keema. Okay. Put here to gather information specifically out of drunk or patients. Patrons rather. Gotcha. I think, um, digging into that a little bit too sender will say, uh, her name was Vin, you said? Yep. Listen, she'll kind of lean further into the bar and say, listen, Vin, my, uh, what would I refer to you as? Like my, my matron, not my matron, but like my, you're my boss. I mean, you probably say, belial. Well, okay. Or master, but yeah, I don't know if we're having you be like an actual slave. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Then frost would call you a principal. Yeah. If he was asked, which he's not gonna be. Uh, well, she'll just leave him to say, uh, or his principal. Listen, Vin, uh, belial is a paranoid soul. It doesn't wish to be known to associate with the type of people in the basement that we will be patroning later. If there are any rooms near a back entrance, somewhere we can keep discretion a priority. I'd really appreciate it. I can secure that, of course, for house lemonade anything. I'll slide her a small pinch of silk. This is three cents. Don't spend it all in one place. Just like get the fuck out of my bar. Sitterwax. Okay. So what polly we all have to leave when we can't go back. Otherwise we'll be killed. Leave, leave, leave. Um, frost, what did you get on your intimidation? That's a 30 is frost. Just like backhands all their drinks off the table and points at a rock in the corner without skipping a beat. They all stand up in unison and walk over and it's just hutch around this rock. That is not a table, but they're, uh, without a doubt, where he'd disobey your work. I'd be like, what are you guys doing around that rock? I'm like, I don't know. We would have just left, but that guy pointed at the rock and I frankly don't really want to contest that. So. But now you are sitting around this dark wood table. This. Oh, good. This mound of old candle wax holds up three flickering flames. Um, and frost will say you chose a table a bit out of the way and you can see around this bar. It's it's a peculiar sight. You see peasants kind of keeping to themselves and maybe sharing a drink in their insane poverty, but you also see a elf with a bodyguard, a sort of entourage, not unlike you and they seem to be of somewhat noble birth. In fact, this is their entourage is consisting of these sigilous raiders who have come in here earlier. You also see a cloaked elf who just by flicker of candlelight, you manage to see a scarred face and he keeps shooting glances to all the other patrons in the bar. A cinder will sit down opposite Kearin kind of positioning Kearin in a spot where she can look over a cinder's shoulder at these people. So you recognize that man seems to be awfully concerned with the clientele in here. I'll take a glance around the whole room, including that man and just see if there's any one I would recognize. Check. Give me a perception check. Also would inform everybody that we have rooms we can bail to at any point and they should have a quick wait in and out of the bar to be unseen. Okay, 23. Scan around the room. Nobody you recognize. But you do manage to lie your eyes onto the cloakman, maybe not meaning to, but you just lock eyes for one moment before turning away. Any house sigils they recognize besides Kima? Mostly Kima, at this distance with a 24, no, the guards had removed, the raiders had removed their sigils. This cloaked elf doesn't seem like he's, first of all, he's a male, so he probably wouldn't be wearing a sigil unless he was a, you know, direct house servant. But yeah, none you recognize. I'll give a very minimal, like, shake in my head and then be like, you get the room, I have a headache and would like to rest. Yeah, playing along, giving a nod. Also Tanner, can you play den of iniquity? Yeah, because that's like perfect for this. Can you get through to the southern district in the outer city? Like it looks like there's walls, I don't know if those are actually like impassable or if there's gates there that go through. If you're looking on the map, you can see these gatehouses at the corners. So those allow travel, though Karen would probably let you know the gatehouse to the east, south of house Kima, because of whatever happened with Nuani, house Nuani, is not in operation. So the ruins of house Nuani would be a good place to dwell if you don't want to be disturbed because you have to go all the way around the city to get to it. Okay. Yeah, that would, and I don't know roughly how long would that take? Like hours and hours. Okay, but not like a day. Probably the better part of a day, for sure. Unless we did the web tieway maybe. Yeah. Hmm. Okay. So we're going to our room. Okay. Or at least I am. I don't know if everyone's following. Yeah, I mean, I don't see a reason not to at this point. Following Karen's lead, you stand and walk by this hooded man keeps watching you as you pass, but you descend the stairs and you find yourself in a series of long hallways and you go through one and then another and then another and find yourself tucked very deep into the corner of a corner room of this in. So question, and maybe I'll actually direct this out loud to Kiaran. Kiaran, it seems that that that mail in there wasn't taking his eyes off you. That would normally be a pretty capital offense here coming from a mail, correct, depending on his stature. That was a male, right? Yep. Would you be in, would that be something that you would feel like I like I should tell make him stop if I saw that? And also to clarify, he was like definitely not shying away from looking at Kiaran, but he was also kind of looking at just everybody, right? Correct. He was specifically focused on Kiaran. I mean, you could definitely make an example out of him. That's definitely a oddity in the society. Okay. But it'd also be like, if we push too hard, Kima might get upset because we're again in their territory. Right. I'm just wondering if it's something we need to be concerned about. Awesome. It is odd. Or it is odd that he felt so brazen, but I don't think it would be hoover to do anything about it at the moment. Keep an eye on him. Yes, it will kind of peer over shoulder into the hallway behind us as we're making our way down to our rooms. Make sure we're not being followed. Okay. Roll a perception. Well, actually, yeah, go ahead. Roll a perception. Okay, that one. Okay. I run directly into a wall. At that moment, Cinder, you are looking down the hallway and you're thinking it has now probably been about three hours and sitting here exposed. You in a quick panic throw your hands up to look at them and they look elven. Oh, God. Is this what having anxiety feels like is having Tanner describe to you how, like, you're about to be discovered. Really? You're actually fine. Well, Cinderella, yeah, just something about this feels off and we'll kind of like duck into the room without hesitation too much longer. Okay. And you guys find yourself in modest, modest quarters, but definitely nicer. You were probably identified at the door as patrons that then would likely want to take a little more care of. I also imagine this is probably used as sort of like a way station for people going to house Kima to go get their fuck on. Yeah, totally. No. All right. And what would you guys like to do? I'm just is Cinder sharing with us what she's learned. Yeah, she probably has just sort of been over the course of our time, like getting settled here. So that there is a brothel under house Kima in the basement, I believe, might be a good place to make contact with some of them all criminally inclined in this city. If we wish to pursue that as a lead to penetrate deeper into the upper city, it might be a good place to start. I imagine that anything that you tell them there will get to the ears of house Kima, which is a risk, but house Kima might also be the best option for finding ways through the city. They're known to help people disappear. Maybe we can convince them to that we're trying to get someone out and they might give us ways to do that. I don't know. We should be careful though, because if they operate like any other outfits above or below the surface, the cost isn't always limited to money. They will want something in return. Of course, they will always look for ways to get a leg up on the other houses. What do you suggest? Should some of us or all of us go? I feel like those of us that are sneakier, maybe, in case we lose our potions? We seem to have a decent foothold here, especially being of having a more noble stature here. I don't think we'll be disturbed in this room. Maybe, maybe me in Starlet can go scout out this house Kima and pull it back. If we don't hear from you by a certain time, shall we follow? Yeah, how long would it take to get there from here? Like less than an hour, right? Less than an hour. Yeah, probably 20, 30 minutes. Keep potions on hand. Yeah, I'm trying to think of a good way to like, we really need a way to like magically like communicate with each other. But yeah. What's Bo's animal messenger do? Oh, yeah, right. That can deliver a message, though. It can't return the message, right? Okay, just be a one-way message, right? Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking. Animal messenger, but I don't know animal messenger, the spell is the specifics of it, so. Because the ringed cat makes it so you can cast animal messenger. Yeah, so what it is, is it's one message that a tiny creature will deliver. But yeah, you're right, Zane, no response or anything. Let's tell you this. If we're not back in, what, three hours? Something like that, two hours? Three hours. Let's say three hours, including travel time both ways, so like four hours. We're not back in four hours, come looking for us. If I find another way into the house, and I can't use the front door, I will tie a red piece of fabric to a window with something to show you how to get in. And find what you can about ways into the castle, as well as we would need spiders. Okay, what will you do in the meantime? Probably just sit in the room. I mean, I wonder if we've got to find something for the if we're going to split the party, should make it worth it. I don't know. I feel like I'm not good enough at gathering information, per se. And so just being out and about risk being caught. Sure. I mean, yeah, I'll like me and Stark and just go figure it out. If anyone else wants to do something, feel free. But I don't. I mean, they don't mess a Ciaran would the messenger's ring lets me cast message. Okay, that's well far away for that. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, ranges one 20 feet. Yeah, okay. Well, yeah, me and star will just go scout it out. And then like, if you guys think of something to do in the meantime, I'm sure we can figure that out too. The only other thing I could think is since I could try to look less noble, maybe and just go be like the middle person, like stand outside and watch you guys do what you're doing as you go in. I don't know. Sure. Yeah, if you if you feel like you can like blend in, that might be not a bad idea just to hang out. I think if you do that, Frost is still going to hang behind and sorry. I think if you do that, Frost is still going to hang behind and just kind of like passively guard the hallway going to our rooms, not necessarily stop people from going down it, but just like put eyeballs on everybody that does, just kind of keep up appearances that like anybody has an idea they might they might get close to the group. They're not going to. They're in a good place in this hallway for like frost to hide. Not really. Somehow it's thinking I would go like just wordlessly like put down some silk that I get off my armor and try to buy like their cheapest beer and just kind of like hang out near that hallway as if like I'm off duty, but I'm still Yeah, totally. I'm still fucking watching. Okay. So we've got Star and Cinder going to House Kima to investigate their lead. Kiara and you are going to join them? I don't know. I don't know if it's worth it. I think we and Star got this. I think for the sake in the in the tavern area and listen. Let me let me put it to you this way. I think for the sake of a recording podcast, we should have all the characters do something. I'll be up in the tavern area sitting in listen. But yeah, but would do the same. And also that way we can keep it on each other to make sure our our costume, I guess stays. Oh, that's actually kind of interesting too because you're leaving your room unguarded. No, because process watching the room. Sure. But you're saying Kiara is the room unguarded or the room itself is unguarded? I don't know. What am I saying? I don't know what I'm saying. Yeah, because I imagine this this place, the windows kiss kind of seems like a more notable place, at least in the East Slum. So it's probably there's probably like some information to be had here. Totally time. Yeah. So Kiara described it as belial accompanied by her guard who's being played by Frost and her priest, who is, of course, Bo Cantrell are you three are staying in the widow's kiss while cinder and starlet are going to infiltrate house keema and potentially this brothel. Yes. We'll find out what happens next time on the re-roll gaming podcast. Well, synchronize, synchronize watches on my mark and mark. Who's Mark? I don't know. Synchronize them though. Synchronize. Synchronize all of our marks. Thank you for listening to the re-roll podcast. The world of rel and all characters within are copyright and fictitious. 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