Cinder and Star investigate a brothel, while the others encounter a strange Dol'El
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ReRole Gaming
Episode 128: The Dust Den
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 Geyer, 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 rail, 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'm drinking heavily. Are you really? What are you having? It's too hot to do heavily. For a second, Rainier Tallboy in like the last, well, I don't know. 20 seconds. Slamming Rainier Tallboys. I don't know if we want to talk about politics on this, but something just happened, and you can probably guess what it is if you're smart enough to infer when this episode is recorded. But anyway, moving on. With that, let's jump into this fantasy world so we can escape reality. We last left off in the city. Oh, no, I have a good ice breaker, actually. Okay. You sounded very disappointed. No, it's fine. No, I want to make a joke so bad. Okay, so you as a player, as yourself, have to fight one very rotted up coked out chimpanzee. You get to pick one cast member from our party, alive or dead, existing or otherwise, to help you fight it. Who are you picking? Grop. Yeah, Grop. Grop. Yeah, Grop is a good soldier. Yeah, I'm not picking Grop. No, the ship is shadow. The ship is fast and has reach. I'm leaving shadow or star, for sure, because stars got a ring of animal communication. It's perhaps we can talk to it. Okay. Have you ever tried to talk to a coked out word up like Jim bro? Like it's just, yeah. Ask him about the original. So it's just you getting talked into a corner by a chimp for like an hour and a half about his gains and like, hey, I've been there before. Then he writes you on your number and tells you you should go out on his boat sometime. Rives, this guy really specifically. He calls you Jim's actually a pretty cool guy. Unfortunately. Oh, no. Wait, nevermind. I choose Grop. You pick shadow because she'll throw candy or that of it or something. I just figured to beat the shit out of shadow and I can probably get it. Here's a kid. Let me go. Here's a child run. It's like the least amount of honor you could possibly have. Well, if history tells us anything, it's that bad things happen when a gorilla gets a hold of a kid. So usually for the grilling. Gromby. Rip it. Threw it up. The gross wins. Two keepers or shoot it. Think so. Yeah. Frost. Yeah. Frost probably. Yeah. Groth did go get his ass killed by a zombie. Groth gets a lot more hits than Groth gets. Yeah. Maybe Bo could out heal the damage the gorilla does. So it's just massacring you. Bo just like, don't worry. I'll keep healing you to keep you alive. And you're just like, please don't. So I think I got that. Face off like three times. I should have died nine times. Also, I just realized buddy. Haley, you're wearing glasses. Oh, yeah. These are blue light glasses. I have. I got some more. I don't know why I noticed that. I'm like, I looks nice in her glasses. And I was like, wait, what the fuck. I didn't mean actual glasses. So I can see. But these are at least blocking the light. Because I just, I don't know. I need the firmware. Because there's fluorescent lights in my eyes. Don't like it. No, it's totally like it. My socks. I feel like my actual prescription glasses also do blue light blocking. And it's like, I feel like I just can't sit at my computer without them anymore. I have three other pairs. So much better with my out blue light glasses. These are my new pair too. So cute. And they have a little dangly. But every time I'm playing a game, I can hear it. And I'm like, what is that noise? No, for one of those while you're recording, please. We played, um, shut up. You better not move your head a single centimeter while we're recording. Stop it. Actually, that might help. Do you want me to circle over there? I swear. That's not a circle. Glasses near it. While we're in. That's the breading. In there. I got a pilot off. I think these are my new. You look, yeah, you look like you're about to go get in a military jet. Is there a giant mirror, maybe? Because we're going to go get bitches. All kinds of like glasses. Can you see right now? Me? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, it's a little dark. We'll speak. Speaking of dark. Of seeing in the dark. We go back to the dark city of spiders. Nikotov. And here, we put on some music. Mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah. Thank you. I've been really interested. We're going to the, we're going to the brothel. I got to get in the mood. Tanner, come get a pair of glasses. You can join the team. You're the only one without them. I wish I'd miss a glass. Brandon, do you want to wear my heart shaped ones? Yeah. No, over these. Yeah. Don't break them. We're all kick your ass. Oh, actually. Yeah, you get. Another one? Okay. Enough visual jokes for literally recording an audio podcast. Jesus Christ. We open. On cinder. And starlet moonbow. As you guys are approaching. Hold on, let me get back. I saw the 43 second time stamp for the now playing on roll 20. And then I got freaked out. Because I'm like, I've only been recording for 43 seconds. Because if I realized where my brain goes, whenever I see like anytime signature. Cinder and star. You have made your way to where this rumored brothel is located. Deep within house chemis territory. In the outer district. Of niacatov. An industrial factory lords over the worn cobblestone. The echo anxious steps of passing by commoners. This is a dreary place. Vobiting columns of smoke from stacked chimneys. This building is covered in thick. Robesized webbing and it blankets the walls and roof. And there's no secret who spun it. A goliath spider. Perches atop this wicked spire. Moving with an eerie silence. Its colossal legs delicately dance atop the strands of its web. Outfront of this industrial factory. Are two guards. Sitting lacks on a couple of chairs. Outside of a staircase that leads to a set of double doors. What are you guys doing? We have a way into the basement in theory, right? You guys didn't you didn't have a plan necessarily. You didn't know what kind of defenses or anything were. Outside this. Industrial factory. But this is house chemo, right? It's this house chemo. Okay, but we in theory had a way into the basement though. You don't know. The only thing you know is in the basement is a brothel. Okay, so casually sort of like casing the building. Maybe in a way that doesn't look too obvious. Is there any other way into this building that looks like it's more secretive. There are sexual windows crawling up the sides of the building, but you would have to hack away at this thick spider soak that's draped over the entire thing. Okay, well, so assessing that. Except it would kind of like roll her shoulders and take a breath and lean over to star and to say. All right, you ready? As ready as I'll ever be. I'll do most of the talking. Just keep your eyes open. See what you can see. If anything goes wrong. We'll meet back at the. What was the tavern? The widow's kiss. Yeah. If anything goes wrong, we'll meet back at the widow's kiss. Sounds like a plan. I also realized to disguised as a doll L, but I am still just doing regular cinder voice. So I'll take this opportunity to maybe ham it up a little bit. Ham it up and ham it real hard. Okay. So yeah, I guess the cinder will approach the front door, address these two guards and say. Good evening. I was sent to make contact with the seamstress. One of the guards looks at the other back up to you. She's chewing on something. Here's some sort of alchemical leaf, spits, nods towards the door. She'll give a quick nod and proceed up the stairs. As you enter this factory, stale sweat pollutes what you can see as this cramped sweat shop. Men work tirelessly with scabbed and bleeding fingers, stretching out fine silvery silk into spools that shimmer like moonlight. Not a single one of them looks up to you. Save for an older woman in a modest robe who glares at you from the back with dark purple eyes. She shouts from the back. "The avaros blessing to you. How may this humble seamstress be of aid?" And what was the code phrase I'm hearing about a dress or something? "I'm looking for a new dress." Okay. "Into a blessing onto you as well." "I was sent by..." "I still don't know what to refer to. Chiarans like character as..." "Not master, because I feel like that's not the relationship, but um..." "I'm a representative of a member of House Nemoneabs here to see about a dress." This old woman's curved smile fades quickly. She stands silently using a cane to assist her, and she hobbles towards the back room without speaking a word. She approaches a shelf neatly organized with different types and colors of silk. She runs her fingers along the spools until she lands on the third one from the bottom left. She pulls it out, and the false shelf slides open, revealing a dark staircase headed down. Without speaking a word, she steps aside, crosses her arms, and waits for you. "Looking around this sort of factory floor, does it look like there's any other good ways in or out of here? Aside from the front door, roll a perception check." "You key." "Can I roll one as well?" "Yes." "Did explicitly say to keep your eyes open, so yeah, start if you're not, then..." "I'd like to roll a unperception check where I don't see how hard I fail it seems to." "If you roll one on that, do you see a bunch of shit?" "The mushrooms, man." "You see a bunch of shit, but it's all explicitly incorrect." "It's actual literal shit. There's dog shit everywhere in here." "My god." "I got an unnatural 20." "I gotta try really hard to get that." "Question." "What?" "With this disguise, am I still wearing technically my obsidian goggles?" "Yes." "Okay, so I still get that plus one." "Sure." "Okay, that's a 30." "30, okay." "Looking around, you do see numerous windows rode around on this floor." "But it becomes very clear that this thick spider silk is securing all of these windows shut, and you get the sense that breaking out of any one of these would not only be difficult, it would also probably alert the Goliath Spider, which I do want to, you know, just really seal in the terror of that. There is a bus-sized spider on top of this factory." "That's not a big deal. I'm unconcerned about it. I'm going to go run and jump out the window that's nearest to me." "You bounce back on me." "I'm immediately starting to wriggling and screaming as much in a prey-like fashion as I possibly can." "Okay, so obviously that whole situation is like intentional." "Yeah, it's a valuable defense mechanism." "That's kind of cool." "Okay, yeah, I think Cinder might even just kind of whisper that to Star and just say, "Looks like there's only one real way in and out of here. We'll have to be careful." "And she'll start making her way towards that door and assuming she's not stopped, we'll give this seamstress a sort of, a deferential nod, mini bow sort of thing, and then head downstairs." "Excellent." "I actually know. I'm going to back that up. I'll approach the seamstress too as I'm entering and just say, "My, the person I represent is, they take secrecy to be of great import. Is there any less obvious way into this brothel than the front door?" "I forgot to do my voice." "The old woman looks at you." "And silence is your answer." "Can, can you hear me?" "Waver hand in front of her face." "Hello?" "She sighs and reorients herself staring back towards all her factory workers." "Alright, yeah, she'll, she'll leave her alone and proceed down the stairs." "You descend into the darkness under house Kima." "Does this door, sorry to derail you? Does this door that I walk through?" "Well, you're setting up like, kind of a dangerous the spot, so I want to make sure that I understand everything that's going on." "Does this, does this, uh, this hidden passage, does it look like it can be open from the inside?" "Interesting. Give me a perception, or give me a thievery check, actually." "Could I argue for perception, or do you want specifically thievery?" "I want thievery or crafting." "Okay. I have lore underworld, is that applicable?" "Yeah, sure." "Okay, just how knowing maybe how these things would be built." "Can I have three people on this right now?" "Yeah, uh, I would say thievery or crafting, or if you have a lore." "Not that makes sense for this. I'm going to do a thievery." "Would you get cinder?" "Uh, 30, again." "Okay." "What'd you get, sir?" "Hold on." "Just don't get around myself." "I had to use a re-roll." "Okay." "Both of you understand that this could definitely be opened, not only open from this side, it's not meant to trap anyone in, more as to obscure passage, but also that the nature of the door is very weak, and if, in an emergency, you could probably get through it relatively quickly." "Okay, brute force." "Alright, I will shut up and let you transition back to a different scene." "Mean, wow." "Dude it." "Where's the bathroom in this place?" "Wherever you want." "I already paid." "It's that kind of roster." "Hail, yeah." "I got me on the workbench." "All this is so common." "Frost, get down here. They're pissing everywhere. It's great." "Mean, while." "At the widow's kiss." "Kiaran, disguised as Bileil." Bo described as a dark priestess. Described, what did I say? Disguised as a dark priestess. And Frost disguised as a dolel guard. "Tell me exactly where you are in this tavern/in and what you are doing." "I think I just am sitting, nursing a drink in the corner watching the room and listening." "Okay, you have this dark red house wine in front of you. It's almost, it was the cheapest you could get, I imagine, since you guys are pretty strict on spider spools and it is almost viscous the way it moves in the glass." "Yeah, I think, uh." "I think Frost is walking around the entire establishment everywhere in this public. Obviously he's not going into people's rooms and shit, but uh, he's just walking around with a drink in his hand to sort of blend in, but he is like really nursing it. I'm talking like one drink over six hours. He's making sure he stays sober." "Okay." "Anything maybe you found a widow would just like water it down or something. Make it look like he's drinking, but not actually." "I am keeping an eye on Bo and Frost too. Well, watch in the room just in case there are disguises dropped." "I just like to say like the idea of Frost going around to all the doors, like jiggling the handles and if they don't open, he's like, 'Hello?'" "Also, I know you're in there. I have an inspection. I can smell you." "As part of it, I'm like pulling out a flask from my pocket and pretending to drink from it, so it looks like I might be getting drunker." "Bo, what are you doing at this moment? Pretending to throw up on the bar to sell the illusion." "I think that Bo would be like open to like kind of fainting conversation between Kiaran and Bo, but more than both just listening, so it looks like they're there together. I mean, they we are, but um, just seem more interested in our conversation that isn't actually really taking place." "Okay." "So here's what I'm gonna say. Bo and Kiaran, one of you give me either a deception or a performance check, the other one give me a perception. You can figure out who's doing what." "Frost, I want, are you trained in society at all?" "Uh, should it's growing? Yes, yes I am." "I want a society check from you." "Could I argue deception instead of performance?" "Yeah, I will allow deception for sure." "Okay, unless you have a really good performance, Bo." "Um, I have an okay performance." "Okay, you got perception then?" "Sure." "That's not true. The New York Times heralded Bo's performance in the re-roll podcast is a defining moment in this generation of tabletop RPG actual play podcast." "Well, that's nice." "Yeah." "I don't think we can legally say that." "Well, I'm going to illegally say it so fucking New York Times." "Boom, roasted." "And at this point." "Kyarren." "No, that's not true." "Bo, your head begins to sweat." "You take the back of your hand, wipe it off." "And as your hand falls, and you look to it, you see a slender, pale elf hand. It has been four hours since you--" "Told me." "You're disguise potions. This is so much fun." "I have always kind of really liked the idea of secret, like GM roles and--" "Yeah, I'm very conflicted." "Yeah, definitely, yeah." "I'm definitely digging this." "Okay, give me some roles." "Kyarren, what'd you get for deception?" "I totally thought you were going to say that, like, when he wiped his head from the sweat, the skin was melting or something." "Oh, that'd be gnarly." "Hold on, let me write something down." "He said we're at four hours." "I got a 19 on my deception." "Okay." "What did you get, Bo, on your perception check?" "25." "Okay." "Frost, what did you get on your society check?" "I got a wish that I had a re-roll, because that's not one for 12." "No!" "Natural one for eight-twelve." "Okay, first role of the night, baby." "Boy, this is very interesting." "Kyarren, with your 19 deception, you are engaged in conversation with Bo, trying to keep up appearances, trying to establish a relationship between a house priestess and a minor noble, and make sure that anybody listening would be fooled. But you're nervous." "It seems like people are looking at you, and Bo, with your 25 perception. There is one elf who has been looking at you, or members of your entourage, practically since you arrived, and he has moved quite close. You see this burnt male elf scarred face hidden behind a cloak, steal glances at you from just across, not the alley, but row, where people are busing tables and bringing drinks, and he has a full wine glass pushed up next to this mountain of melted wax with the flame snuffed out but sizzling still." "Frost." "You're trying to stay observant. You're trying to read patterns in this place, and you're saying quiet. Because you don't know the language. But that is a massive detriment as well. You can't tell who's saying what. You're having hard times picking out any societal hierarchy. The only thing you know is obviously what Kyarren has told you about males being a sort of lesser caste in the city, but it is... I mean, imagine being in a foreign country, you don't speak the language, and everything is entirely different. You are just getting confused, and before too long you've, as you've been slowly, deliberately nursing your drink, you find out it's empty. Just the stress of the situation has caught you to sort of lean into that a little more, and lose yourself." "Uh-oh, I think I hear the first thing I've understood all night, which is just two people fucking in a room somewhere that just like get distracted by that, just like stand outside the door awkwardly staring at it." "What are they doing in there?" " Kyarren, come here and listen to this. What do you think they're doing in there?" "Hello?" "Are they in distress?" "And after a second, a waitress approaches you, and she says, "Well, what you probably hear is, is that what do they have to do?" "That's... She looks at you quizzically. I'm going to need you to tell me, now we have been doing these identities and disguise kits a little wrong. Essentially, what we are doing with disguise kits or with these disguise potions are impersonating somebody, and it is using your Deception DC. So, what is your Deception skill plus 10 frast?" "But we get a bonus from La Potionry." "Relax, I'm getting there." "I guess that would be 20 total." "20, okay, are you trained in it?" "No." "Okay, so you get to add your level plus four from the potion." "So, a total of 12 onto that, so you're..." "My level plus..." "Yeah, yeah, so that'd be 32." "32." "Let me look at your sheet, just to make sure this is correct." "That sounds really high." "That sounds incredibly high." "You get plus 10 plus 12?" "You get to add your level if you do not already for me." "You're not trained in it at all?" "I'm not trained, but I do have a plus 10, so I don't know." "That's part of this." "A plus 10 in your untrained--" "Yeah, yeah, I have untrained improvisation, and then I've..." "Oh, what does untrained improvisation do?" "Add your level, even if you're untrained?" "I believe I have that too." "Because this is my lowest baseline is plus eight on all roles." "Okay, so it's equal..." "Okay, so you just get to add plus four to that." "Because you already add your level." "So 24--" "Get your proficiency bonuses. Yeah, equal to your level minus two." "Level minus 1/5 level and full at seventh." "So yeah, he should have his full proficiency bonus." "Okay, perfect." "Let me just look up the potion." "Make sure I'm doing this the way I think it worked." "Okay, interesting." "This waiter looks at you curiously and nods her head in agreement." "Disappears into the crowd." "Did you say go get the police and arrest me henceforth?" "Bokir and what are you doing?" "What did you say?" "Alright, uh..." "I'm busy distracting, so I guess what does bow to you?" "Being a seventh-name." "Um... I want to try to get a read on this person." "Give me a perception check to try to sense his motive." "One second, I'm looking at some stuff." "What is it like? Textile samples? You get new drapes or something?" "Yeah, um, no, I'm just desperately trying to find anything that will negate my natural one, but I don't have any feats or anything that'll help me, so..." "Okay, natural one." "You tried to slyly look back over." "I'm just mad." "And you go to take a sip of your drink, but you can't find the straw that you're trying to maintain eye contact." "Well, in a somewhat-related manner, you are focused a little too much on being subtle, and you knock over your wine glass, spilling it everywhere, and really quickly you try to pick it up. You notice eyes just dart towards you, and at this very moment, this man takes the seat next to you and scratches the countertop with his haste to sit down, and he says, "Mother of spiders forgave my intrusion. I need to talk to you." "Kiaran is going to pull out a dagger and slam it into the table next to his hand, and be like, 'How dare you?'" "Roll an intimidation." "I just watched that clip earlier of Dennis in the bar without his makeup on. I don't know if you guys have seen that episode, but this is exactly what I'm picturing." "Do you like Parker yeti?" "I don't have it. I don't have it. I threw it at all the children." "So fucking good. He's such a great actor just in that moment. Just switch his gears entirely." "29." "Okay. With a 29, he jumps back in fear, and looking into his eyes, his strangely red eyes. You see beneath this fear is a thinly masked, burning hatred. As he's glaring at you. And he flashes a wicked grin, puts his hands on the table, and for a moment, though, as he stands up, you can see these scars running down his forearms." And he says, "Apologies. Mother of spiders. I beg your forgiveness. I should be punished. Get on your hands and knees and beg." He slowly gets down, one knee at a time, places his palms on the ground. "Mother, please, I need this. Punish me. Please." "I'm gonna turn to Bo and be like, 'Shall I take him out back? What would you have me do?'" "Bo will address the... What is he? Is that a hell?" "He is a doll- he is a male doll- with a burnt face and scars all over his arms. His scars do not look like burns from fire, however." "Bo just turns to him and says, 'Leave me. I'm resting.'" "And just hopes that he'll fuck off." "Can I roll a religion check on this to see if this is a normal thing?" "Yeah, I'm not there, but I'm curious about what these dudes' motivations might be." "Yes, give me a religion check." "I imagine both of you's response to this is probably pretty common. This is kind of an offense that he's committed by approaching." "It definitely seems though. Frost, where are you at this moment? And you had heard the commotion from the bar as... Maybe not from the bar, but your personal table as Bo had spilt the drink and probably saw this from a distance." "Yeah, I imagine Frost would be all over this shit." "Yeah, I imagine I'm probably popping out from the hallway after that cut." "I guess did I have a moment alone after that lady left and has my potion of disguise worn off?" "Looks fine." "Okay. So yeah, did we establish this already are all of our potions from the same batch and thus have the same effectiveness? Or are we all affected differently and I have our own hour limitations?" "Well, actually, you don't know. So, yes." "Okay, you not, yeah, not knowing is also an answer, so thank you." "Yeah, I imagine at some point in this exchange, Karen would just turn to the side and just see Frost standing behind her shoulder. Maybe one hand on his axe." "Catchfully." "I got a 23-8 religion." "Okay, Bo, what'd you get?" "Oh, 29." "Kiaran, I think with your 23, you know something's amiss here and this seems fanatical and zealous in a religious manner, but it seems strange as well. And you know that, you know that chastisement is common, especially in this district in the Chapel of Servitude, but usually it's done to rather unwilling or at least hesitant recipients. This man seems to want to be punished, taking that a step further, Bo, what you are getting the sense from is there is something. Something else here, it almost reminds you of the possession you saw on the Gewerich dwarf not so long ago, but it's not the same. And the red eyes, you can't quite place it, but something about the red eyes is, you find unsettling." "Um, I think that I'll adjust what Bo said a little bit, just instead of what I said being, just request him to leave by saying, 'Leave me and be lucky you get to walk away.'" "Uh, Kiaran wants to turn towards, is the bartender looking this way?" "Yes, it seems like a lot of eyes are on you." Kiaran's going to abruptly stand up and look towards the bartender and be like, "This male has offended the priestess. Do I have your permission to take him outside?" "She reaches up, taps the side, no killing, no dust, no spiders." She says, "Not in the bar, not out front, take it far." "I'm gonna try to grab him and drag him out." "You obviously know of that, um, that auxiliary, like, entrance to that we had established that's near our room, so you could take him out the back way too." "Take him out back." "Yep, I'm sliding around a little bit." "Okay, are you taking him out back? Is that what you're doing?" "I'm going to try to grab him, I don't know if he's going to resist it." "He does, if he does." "I'm going to pull him out and go glance at Frost and kind of nod my head to join me, and then try to bring him to an alley that I think is far enough." "Yeah, I think Frost just legitimately just grabs this guy's arm, like his other arm." "So you can make each have one, we're just, like, dragging him." "What do you do now?" "I'll just spank, alley." "Bow my..." "Let me give me a second." "I mean, I think floral, if you're thinking of a pattern for those drapes, I think I'd compliment, um, rustic furniture." "No, she's different." "We'll, I mean, you can have G different, but how much..." "The other G green." "The other G green, but silk, like your high school bedsheets?" "Like my high school bedsheets, but she did not." "I don't want it slippery, so we're going to have to rub sand over everything." "It complements the serving plate of cocaine rather nicely." "What color were they in red, satin sheets, red silk sheets?" "It was more the texture that was the remarkable thing about them." "Okay." "I didn't actually read anything so as talking and listening." "I forgot Tanner, there was something last week that we could have played out where Frost, like, cleared their table and pointed at the corner. I actually have quick coercion and group coercion, which is both those feats wanted to play right there, and we just, I think it has to have like a planned intimidation." "Yep." "And they were like, "Okay." "I think I'm going to try something." "Okay." "I think that since so much attention was kind of put on Bo, he's going to retreat to his room." "Okay." "Upstairs." "You're all staying in the same room, by the way." "Bo's room." "Just for the record." "It's Bo's room, we're all still up to say that." "We're just living in it." "We're welcome." "But he lets you know that you're welcome every single time, and that hits his room every time you come in." "Yeah, Paige, idiots." "Okay, I think, yeah, Bo's going to retreat, and I want to try to consult the spirits to get more information." "Ooh." "If they're, he said it was kind of like a possession, maybe, so maybe they can help." "Okay." "You're that, or I'm going to make this place haunted, and not be able to deal with it." "Yeah, it probably wouldn't be the first time this week." "Yeah, maybe." "Okay, so as Kiar and Fras, the near disguises, push this male towards the back, and maybe even get to the back door and shove him through, as you're walking through. He doesn't seem to resist at all. But he is lightly chuckling intermittently." "I'm a naughty boy." "I'm going to tie his hands." "Okay, behind him." "And his elbows, so he can't pop his feet through." "Okay." "Meanwhile, Bo, you retreat back to the room with the intent in consulting these spirits, and right up front your door." "Actually, hold on, roll a dice." "Right up front your door is a basket with a bottle of wine, spider webbed inside, and a silk bow right on top. Silk bow for Bo." "I thought like you might have a bow and arrow. I was like, that's generous." "Made out of silk, it's incredibly difficult to use." "Yeah, it's really unwieldy." "Super slippery." "But meanwhile, cinder and star." "As you are descending this dark staircase, the room you're in begins to become very hazy." "And it's curious, it's a sparkling haze, kind of like gemstone dust. Hover's in the air that reflects this blue shimmer that pulses as you enter from these crystalline glassware throughout this dark room like fireflies in the blaxes of nights." "Would I know that this is like something from a drug that people are consuming? Is it arcane dust?" "It is arcane dust." "Okay." Again, kind of like over a shoulder to star. Arcane dust, read lightly. "As you take your first steps in, not entirely knowing how to proceed, shadows, shadowed faces gaze towards you. And you see curious patrons concealed behind thin translucent silks, draping this inconspicuous den in a blanket of mystery." "In fact- So-" "Yeah, go ahead." "Do you have something to finish?" "I got a bunch, go ahead." "Okay, I was going to say maybe this could come down to a roll, but I would actually argue if this layout is at all in this organization of how they have the setup is at all similar to like other places like this in the world, I think Cinder would actually feel very comfortable here." "You might, yeah." "Yeah." "And I- yeah. In fact, Cinder, look in your left, you see the silhouette closest to you thumb this peculiar bulmed mouthpiece that's attached to a hose, running towards this pale crystalline vase that sits in the center of a tail, that sits in the center of a table. She grins with her white teeth tearing through the darkness and draws on her pipe, illuminating the strange liquid inside with bright blue arcane sparks, providing a brief glimpse of illumination where you see two of her concubines passionately explore her body. From this room, if that's what you can call it, you hear central noises that seem to add to a greater chorus of pleasure that echoes throughout these private lounges. But it's undermined by an unmistakable tone of pain. Mostly nude servants, predominantly male, tend these strange apparatus in their clients, refilling empty glasses, serving drinks of wine and delicate refreshments, and of course, fulfillment of more sexual nature. It is not long before tall and slender Elle, with eyes as blue as the sea glide towards you, eloquently. Her smells both delicate and dangerous as she grabs starlet mumo's hand. I can sense your uncertainty and virgin exposure. This must be your first visit to our wonderful little secret. Please, allow me to guide you to ecstasy. I think, uh, unless star, unless you want to do something different, I think cinder will step in abruptly and you say, not tonight. We're here on business. Oh, yeah, shit. Star, you didn't understand any of that, so that was probably really horny and hard to see. You get the implication though, so yeah. I mean, star is kind of, yeah, no, she's not going to go for this, but she is definitely like, she kind of still has like a very stern look on her face and just looking down at this, uh, person. But yeah, same thing. Like, we're here on business. We'll take a table. No dust, just wine. She turns her attention to you. Taking your, well, I guess not small, taking your hands into her own. And at this moment, you look down and you're going to fucking do this. In your hands seem to be pale, slender, elven figures, fingers, figures. Oh, God, what is that? They're all elven, Scott. It has now been back alley boot, like disguise potions. And a reminder, these can go in here from two to 12 hours. 24. 24. Oh, because it's 2D12. Yeah, right. We could be like, we could be fine. We could have so much time and Tanner just making a sweat fucking bullets. It has been five hours. All right. She grabs your hands. Yeah, I think at this too. Like thinking about that like center, we'll just be like, can we hurry this along, please? You will find I can be quite a flexible escort in this journey. She squeezes harder and even drawing a trickle of blood from your finger and she covers her mouth to stifle a giggle. You just need to leave. It's from the pleasure. Oh, from the pleasure, from the pleasure. From the pleasure. You stole me into this, you fucking weirdo. Listen, fine, I wear some weird bitches, okay? Start us going to be like, I know we were here like to do something, but just give me like 20 minutes. I got to get my rocks off, buddy. I can't think. Clear my mind. If haste is what you desire, so be it. And she leads you down deeper into these chambers. Opens a curtain. There is an empty crystal vase. In the center of this table. She says, just wine, was it? Or should I accompany you? The center will sternly respond. Just the wine. Thank you. Wonderful. If you find yourself in need of any thing, please, my name is Leiti Vatal and I am happy to be of service. This is why we play these games, so I could be horny and flirt with my friends. That was like the first thing that I, yeah, the first real time that I kind of clicked, where I was like, oh, this is fun, is when, yeah, like I was playing a bard and me and Tanner were just endlessly flirting with each other. I remember that with my co-workers all day. They can't get away from me because we have to be there to work. Right, yeah, otherwise they get fired. It's about the power play. Yeah, I'm actually a supervisor, so they can't say no to me. Aaron doesn't flirt with me in this game. He just kills me. Yeah, well, those like twice at least, one on Valentine's Day. Good job, buddy. No, I never did that. That's true. That's what you're talking about. I killed Groff in Christmas. You did. Yeah, I forgot. So anytime we approach a holiday, like what do we got next? Yeah, so then it's like Russian we're wet. You're careful. Yeah, once the Labor Day comes up, everybody watch your fucking backs. Yeah, maybe it's because we haven't been getting him gifts. I need a gift for Labor Day, or one of you is going to die. Can I use a reroll for that? Really quick. What was Kieran's name? Again, Barry's not Barry. Belial. Belial, that's right. I wrote it, I did write it down, but then I left the thing that I wrote down 130 miles away from me. [MUSIC] Okay, so is there wine here? Yes, pretty quickly, a nude male. Put some fucking clothes on, have some self-respect. No, I shouldn't actually say this. Carofees. A nude male with a very slender frame. Penis. Enters with a bottle of wine, and he says, "I'm sorry, lady, fataled didn't tell me what vintage, so I took the liberty of something nice." Starlings over. Wait again, you just blew all our spider silk. Right, I have a plus 14, and I'm trained in lore alcohol. Is this going to like bankrupt us? Roll it. Just, Star's going to have to fucking do something on the side with this. The flash at 20. Just turn the tables, be like, "I got you for me." Completely foreign. Can I at least read the year? This doesn't have to infer any information, I'm just curious how old this is. I know obviously elves live a long time, so the vintage might not really translate. I mean, it is from year 812, so it is over 300 years old. Oh yeah. I think as he's maybe going to set this wine down on the table, she'll reach out and kind of grab his wrist and just say, "Just leave us." Unclocking a vintage is sumptuous as this left to me, meaning she doesn't want him to open it. As you wish. You may go. "His touch lingers for a moment before he leaves with a graceful glide." The next guy enters with a full Batman costume. "Just for you." Okay, yeah. "Stology may leave." No, we've yes are like leans over as he's walking away. She's like, "Do you think they'll put him in a skirt?" But Batman? Batman in a skirt? Yeah. That's really specific and exactly what I'm into. I think yes, and we'll also instruct him, I don't know if there's curtains in this booth, but I'm assuming that there is. She'll tell him to close the curtains. The drapes, yeah. The floral print drapes next to the plate of cocaine. Okay, Stalas, how are you feeling? I'm all right. Okay, so knowing at least having a loose idea of what may be the structure of just criminal organizations in general, who is the best person to talk to down here if we want to establish like a smuggling route to, I mean, preferably the castle, but more likely probably just the inner city. Do you have a lore of some sort that would be killed? Okay, give me a lore underworld. Oh, fuck yeah, 35. Okay, that I would say is a critical success. Fuck yeah. So what I'm gonna infer here is not only is Lady Vitale probably gonna be the person who knows the most. You get the sense she is likely the face of any transactions going higher up, but there must be somebody behind it all. Okay, but she is the point, de facto point of contact like right now, the most obvious choice if I want to try to like go down that route. That is correct. Okay, I think Cinder. Um, well, probably take like say we should take our time, maybe like find a place to chew along cork that probably really way too expensive bottle of wine. Uncork it and pour like half of it somewhere discreet to make it look like we've drank quite a bit of it. Okay. And after some time passes, maybe is one of the conky, whatever you call them, the the slutty dwarf man. No, exactly. When he comes back, I'll have him summon Lady Vitale. Of course, it would be my pleasure. Lady Vitale is so versed in so many things. Do you need more wine? Yes, but I'm afraid that it would not waste my subdued taste buds on anything to this effect. Bring me something cheap. Oh, all right. And he leaves. You don't wait too long before Lady Vitale herself comes with the bottle of cheap wine. Darling, you insult my pallets by ordering this. And Cinder will kind of give like a sort of like a warm smile and a laugh and just say. This is the problem with starting with the good stuff. You can't taste anything after the first bottle. It would be wasted on my tongue. I've had a bit too much to drink already, but there's a bit left and she'll note like nod to the bottle. Say, would you join us help us finish it? I have a business proposition for you as I mentioned earlier. How could I say no? Okay, you pour yourself a glass and then slides down right next to you. Is your friend going to say anything or does she prefer to watch? She is skilled and rather deft fighter, but I'm afraid mitigating circumstances with her old master cost her her tongue some time ago. I can't imagine why. Fortunately, I will never need to find out as she can no longer speak. How? Coates. Tell me, what is this business proposition? Lady Vitale, you hold much sway within House Keema. I represent the Lyle of House Nemone. He has, or she has, a great need to see things in and out of the inner city circumventing the normal checkpoints. I'm told that you are the person to talk to about such things. Give me a... I would think deception check. Okay. Could I argue diplomacy? Because this isn't necessarily lying. We do need to get things in and out of the inner city. Those things just happen to be us. It's up to you. I'll give you the option, but I will say that diplomacy is going to be a harder check to make. Okay. So, I got all this dude deception. Oh, that was almost a near 20, uh, reroll. You bitch, uh, 22. House Nemone, that's quite interesting. We don't get much of your house here recently. It seems like you lost your taste for some of the more exotic pleasures. The house Nemone has been making a lot of moves as of late. Gone had much power with the eyes of the city upon you. It gets harder and harder to sneak away for primal desires such as this. And she'll give a smile. That's why the need for a more secretive avenue of transport arises. Yes, hmm. And what exactly would be in it for me? Well, aside from having the ear of one of the most, no. Aside from having the ear of the most powerful family in Nagatov. I should think that having a foothold with the Nemoneys would grant you a lot more influence in the inner city. You don't get me wrong. You and your family has an iron grip on the lower city. Nobody dare. Nobody dare raise contests to your authority here. But as we both know, the inner city is much more difficult. This could benefit both of us. What is your deception DC? It is five teen and I am a expert. Fifteen's your bonus two roles? Oh, yeah, that's my bonus. So it's quite like twenty five. I also have no if that's untrained in propositions, so that wouldn't matter. You have a plus four bonus from the potion. So it's going to be twenty nine for your DC. And you're rolling something I can see. So dear God. She looks at you, curiously, up and down. Start. Give me a perception check. Actually, give me a nature check. She's thinking about it too slowly. She hasn't watered it in four days. She doesn't know if that's enough. She knows she knows it's better not to like over water than underwater, but still four days is a long time for anything without any water. And she's frankly just not good with this. She kills everything she touches. Could I argue like Lord Faye or does this have to be nature? It has to be nature. Okay, unnatural twenty. Okay, you're not sure why. But you do see her eyes look to the ceiling and linger on a tiny spider for but a moment. She stands and she says, I believe that's enough wine for me. Could I potentially interest the both of you in a back room? I want to try to understand. Sinner's been in negotiations like this before. Is this going well or is something a miss here? Give me a lore underworld check or a perception check to sense my... Perception 36. Okay. She does not look happy. But you get the sense with your history and background in the underworld. That you might be meeting somebody above her. Okay, she's not happy like the jig is up or I guess it's just I'm trying to understand like what the the flavor of this engagement is. She just does not look happy about this. Okay. Cinder wool finish what's left in her glass of wine. Set it down. Think for a moment and then give her a smile. Say yes this is probably a meta best discuss with your boss. Please lead the way and I think rolling over your 36 in perception you do realize that that infuriated her. But all you could tell was the slightest twitch of an eyebrow. She is a very good liar. Okay. And you both get up and you follow down this long haul. I think at some point too after Cinder gets up she just reaches down quickly and checks her concealed dagger and her belt because she probably doesn't have her crossbow at this point right. You can be armed. Okay I don't know if that was a problem or not. This is a city where you don't go a lot of places unarmed I think. Fair. She leads you down deep to this dust dead towards a heavy set of wooden gothic doors. And find out what's behind those doors next week. On the real gaming podcast. I'm nervous return to see. Yeah it's like let's go south so easy and you just both be dead. Yeah just what do we got like what I say like um three hours and then come looking for us it's been one one okay. 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