Fantasy Pants: A DnD Adventure Podcast
Radiant Citadel Ep 89: Appease-a The Beeza
Pay pants people, we are thrilled that you're enjoying the podcast, and we want to share it with all of your friends, or at least one or two of them. So tell somebody about fancy pants. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] We're going to talk about the half-elf monk, Elirova. Raised in the Temple of Architecture on the world of Umizu, Elirova spent her early years in quiet isolation. Empathy and honesty became her guiding light, hoping to she came to realize her most terrible truth. You see, Elirova's true-born parents are now to be a group of notorious, ruthless parents, confused and torn by this whole revelation. Elirova left her temple behind in pursuit of her parents, and the further truths behind her birth. With her treasured bag of holding in hand, filled with books and blueprints, she made her way towards rumors of vicious pirate attacks. Early on her quest though, she came across a group of hollowed-up goblin battles, and teamed up with Darrow Twilight and the Verdi Viper to fight them off. From there, Elirova and the others formed a luminary adventuring party, Daisy Sannadase, and the rest, folks, is history. Yeah, but- Thank you, Gwen Shepherd! She thick, though? Yeah, I want to listen back to each of those episodes and see how you pronounced it each time. I'm curious to know what the actual way to pronounce that is. Yeah, we need to find out. Right in, if you're from Daisy Sannadase, that's... No, keep going. You almost got it. Gabby, who's the killer? Gabby, sorry, while I was speaking right there, my wife reached over their greasy little goblin fingers, pressed up on my keyboard, where she found the killer of this whole thing. Maybe you'll find it tonight. I don't know. But someone here in this room, apart from me, knows who the killer is. I mean, the real killer is Beaz's breath, but... The real killer is cigarettes. Thank you, Gwen Shepherd! Right in, let us know if she's thick. Really, thank you, though. The whole crew. Yeah, that was really special. I love that you guys made it a tongue twister to torture me. It's very fun. I mean, that earnestly and honestly, it was a good time. Guys, tonight could be the night. Tonight could be the night that you put all the pieces together and you find out who is behind this thing. Gabby knows. Maybe you'll know soon as well. But you're going to have to be clever. And you're going to have to make the impossible possible. I believe in you. We're screwed. I believe in you. I think you've got this. So let's start this off. We're really off again. What happened the last time? What did we end off with? We literally just did this ten minutes ago, David. Yeah, he's teasing us. Hey, I know. Hey. I know, and I'm being a dick. Let me do this. We didn't, like, not children. I don't know. Jesus. What the fuck? Hey, we're really off. What happened last? Was it cool? Was it exciting? Yeah, it was cool. Exciting. Something about a baby child. Oh, yes. The child. The child. Blench. Start off. Yeah. Yeah. Fuck you. Oh, yeah. He's extending the cliffy. Stay in the cliffy. [laughter] Start off in the cells. As you step in the room, Jean takes a hard look around. You could see the battle is flashing through his eyes as he just takes it all in. Probably looks at the stain, your blood stains along the wall. So, how? How they do it? How? Here? What do you think, sir? I'm not sure yet, tadpole. I know it's hard to think about, but what do you remember? What did you see? Walk me through the events that led up to the battle. Well, very well. I was here with that dandable adieu. It's dandable, fella. We were having a conversation. We were probably arguing. And he was probably wrong. And... [clears throat] Yes. Of course, maybe we had shared some words. These stops. You weren't watching, sir, right? Through the table, you didn't... You weren't aware of anything I was saying. It was probably a pointless, very annoying argument, the sort we normally get up to. So, it's good if you didn't hear it. If it's not something you wish for me to know, then I shall not ask. What happened? It didn't. Anyway, we had a moment. It was interrupted, though, but everything started upstairs. You know, the big ol' bombs, the rumbling, all that stuff. We had to dive back, and we were covered in dust. And as we were watching the room, the... Tell the Dweggar just approached Zenia. She was asking to be let go and drop stairs. And it seemed like Holland was going to go along with it, and then... And then he just struck. Wait, it was just dust falling from the room upstairs? You hear this, you look up. You do see right above where the Dweggar would be standing. There's a support beam running across the top of the room. And if you remember the end of the episode, the dust fell, and just after that happened. You think back, because you put this in yourself, you think back, and you remember there was dust covering the armor of Harlan and Grumbie. Wow. Wow. That was anticlimactic. But it still begs more questions. How'd they do it? I mean, you assume now, someone must have laced the pillar. I'm going to wave your investigation rolls on this. As you kind of look down, you have your glasses, you look down, and I'll cross the floor, and you see bits of dust are lacing it. Oh, I see. So you're not saying that it was just an accident that it went off, and dust fell through the floorboards. It was set there so that the explosion would set... Yes, you would know from the map that this is actually not set directly below the ballroom. It's actually closer to where the Solanas right beside the ballroom. So dust falling in the ballroom would not fall down here. What happened was someone who set the pillar laced the top of the urealizing with this dust. And when the bomb went off, and the place shook, it fell down. It was planned to be simultaneous. Hmm. Okay. So, is there anything that Blanche can gleam from climbing up and looking at the... I think that's stupid. Maybe not. There's two options. Someone came into this cellar beforehand and left it there. In that case, they would have had to have known people were going to be in the cellar, in this exact room, in these cells, in that spot, before anyone came into the building. Right. Well, I mean, yeah, if the plan was to get the heirs arrested. That could be the case. It very well could be the case. Yeah. That would imply then that someone who maybe was part of the staff or a family already here, or someone who made very, very swift work, somehow unnoticed upon entering. Right. But even pretty weird, if someone came down here, you know, between the events of entering the building, that one hour period, you were in the, in the, the billier drum. Yeah. Again, I'm having a hard time ruling out Amos Nier. Do you want to investigate the pillar? Yes, I would like to, well, yeah, that's, that's, that's another thing is getting up there is going to tell Blanche how somebody else would have gotten up there. John's going to assist you by sort of helping you, heaving you up. I'm going to give help to help action. He's just going to let you on his shoulders so you can get a closer look at everything. Okay. Could you back ride from John? Yeah. Double check my investigation here. And I have my advantage from my little gogley glasses. 18. You are lifted up. You sort of climb your way, sort of maybe you're climbing out of the pillar and you're kind of holding on to it. So we're standing on, on John's sort of opposite arms, just barely reaching the top of this room. And I knock Beez's breath all into his face. You see the pillar, you know, probably has some, some remains of dust on it. Maybe you do see some glimmer of pink mixed among it. Maybe not all of it fell. It looks like a good amount. A good portion was used here. As you investigate the spot, you realize, one, this pillar does not like it has been disturbed. Like, you don't think someone had climbed up here before you. There's, you know, as you kind of put your hand down, even where the dust has kind of fell off, there's still distinct sort of a small light layer that you can wipe away as you touch. It has not been cleaned in some time where ESA has been lacking in this room. But what you do realize, maybe you reach up and knock on the ceiling. You get the sound from the boards above that might be hollow. Hollow floorboard. Okay. So let's... So there might be something, a crawl space between the first floor and the ceiling above you now and cellar. You see like maybe a small knot hole in the wood just above where things are poured down. Is this someone had been in space above, slowly letting the poison fall, setting the trap? Uh, okay. Is there, is there a loose board to move? I wouldn't say there's a loose one. Okay. Um... Can I break your way through? Yeah, I was gonna say, how about we make one? Okay. All right. Uh, give me a strength check. Athletics. Oh, I thought that was a 10. It's a 16 plus 3 19. Okay. You crack the board, slide over the side, crack it on the wood. You move a few of these, you know, as you're kind of peering up into this crawl space above, looking out into the dusty darkness between floors. First thing you notice, it's pretty tight quarters in here. You would not be able to fit with your shell to move around. Oh, okay. So whoever was up here. Does not have a shell. Small, does not have a shell. Hey, you know what? You rule out too. You probably didn't think it was the pier hour to do, but like you can rule out the pier in the do perhaps. Right. Um, you peek around. I think you do see in the dust there is, uh, someone has been moving through here. Gotcha. Someone has disturbed it. Someone had moved through this place, which means it either climbed up from somewhere in the south. Or climbed down from somewhere on the first floor. Right. It'll be hard to go far, perhaps, with determination, anything's possible, but... Sure. Can Blanche get a direction of travel? Or is it in all directions? That's a good question. I mean, if it's dusty up there, she should be able to see... Yeah, it would be dusty. It would be pretty dusty. Give me a second investigation check here on this one. This is kind of a new scene to look at. This could be pretty cool. First roll is a two, so the second one better really do something. Uh, 19. There's no direction of travel. What exactly does that mean? It means there's no direction of travel. There's just marks everywhere? There's marks right there. And that's it. And that's it. Okay. So what's directly above us? Right above you now would be the salon. Can Blanche see light through the ceiling above the floor of the salon? Oh, that's a good question. I don't. I think the floors of the main floor are going to be very well made. I don't think there would be much more seams between them. John, pass me your spare. Oh, John, yeah. Slide the spear up to you. She uses the butt end. She starts poking around above her head to try to find something loose. Poke, poke, poke. Do, do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do. Board. There's something on it, but it feels loose. Okay. So the length of the spear between the board, the loose board, and the beam that Blanche is standing on. Can she wedge it in there? I'm just trying to like, so when I walk up to the salon, when Blanche walks up to the salon, I want her to be able to see this. I don't want to do a whole other role. Yeah, no, I'm into it. And I'm also leaving John's weapon behind. So that's stupid. So I'm not doing that. Okay. You can, I think you have a rough idea of where it might be kind of just orienting yourself to the base. Okay, sure. All right. You already were very high on like looking over the maps. So we'll say that you just kind of get an idea. John, we're going to the salon. Oh, sir. I thought you never asked. Not that, not that salon. The salon up, upstairs. Oh, it's a mystery thing. Yes. Okay. And Blanche is going to make haste for the salon. Jules. We're back upstairs. There was a child. Some of your continues. Her knuckles are white. You see a small trickle of blood run down her palm where her fingernails are digging in. This hurts her. There was a child there in the trees. I couldn't say much about them. It was a dirty, pathetic thing. You couldn't even tell the gender. They... Hold on. Looked like... They looked like her. They proud of you. I knew the others would see the child killed, so I... I urged them into the night to flee, to run. It's them, isn't it? They're back. They know who killed their mother. I don't know. She ran. She? Hey. He said earlier, I couldn't determine the gender. I couldn't determine the gender. Oh, okay. I'm going to tell you. I think I'm proud of you. They ran. What is the... Remind me of the time span between now and then. I'm trying to figure out if this child survived how old it would be. Sixteen years. Sixteen years. Okay, so... How old did the child look? I... Young, maybe... Four... Five... They could have been small. For their age, they were... They were tiny. They could have been even older. Tiny. How old is Diva Luma, I wonder? Diva Luma would be in her early 20s. Oof. Did she have early access to the building? Oof. That's the thing. Oof. What you've seen, she didn't. And she was in the room with you. The entire first hour. Oh, she was. So how could she be the one? Diva wasn't... Wasn't that... Where were we being held? The villager drum. Okay, so that... Far off on the western... Uh, no eastern. Uh, wait. Wasn't she in the salon, though, getting ready? She was in the salon... During the in-between time. Oh, fucking thing. That was good. Take a button. I actually did something. Take a button. She was in the salon. That's where she was getting ready. That's true. And she definitely has access to her own pyrotechnics. Yep. That's also true. But... How would she get to the bottle? Invisibility. Yeah, but she's a bard? Uh, her class is undefined from fighting her. She has, like, the qualities of an assassin. Um... When you saw her invisibility... So she's trained to get in and out of place. Sure. The bottle of wine could have been Fiodor. He could have... She could have provided it. He could have placed it. Yes. She could have made the order for it to be sent. You could always ask. I wonder if she's... I wonder if she's written it on anything. I don't know what happened. They ran it. They don't know what happened. I thought they were just... I don't know. Disappear. A bad memory lost. And then my son died. It's my fault. I'm sorry. Thank you for talking to me. And Jules will get up and open the door. Chester, in this moment of, like, tenderness... Kind of takes her by the hand. Hey, come on. It's all right. We're gonna figure this out, okay? We're gonna figure this out. Thank you. Like leads her outside. Close the door and just whistles. Oh, shit, Jules. What do you think? Well, Jules is gonna open the door right back up. See you at the door. Hmm. Let's chat for a second. I thought I will. Yes, I will. I will have chat with you. Theoror walks in the room. Jules, how long will this take? I am cooked with no kitchen. I am... Hey, my hands... Jules, I get it. I get it. I get it. The smell of the omelet. I get it. Do me this favor, though, okay? Was it tasty? It was... It was... It was fucking delicious. It was... It was so delicious, I almost stopped and left the fight because I wanted to eat all of those omelets. This is good news for me. This is good news for me. This is good news for me. All right, let's get down the brass tacks. Yes. The tacks are brass. The wine that you served. The one that was sent to Miller Orr's room. Yes. It was Larisa who brought, but yes, I am aware of this. That's the only thing you saw was Larisa bringing you the wine. Well, yes, I made the fruit platter and she brought wine. We put on the platter and it goes upstairs. Did you see where the wine came from? From sailor, of course, from wine sailor. The stairs are... The main stairs to sailor for wine is just by kitchen, so I can see everyone that goes in and out. And who did you say all went down there? You mean all day. Before... All day. Everyone inside. It was me here on there. Larisa goes down to cleanse it, checks it. Ezra goes down, of course. Amos checks on everything. Everyone goes... It is popular place. It is in, after all. Ezra went down. Yes, he went down today, yes. Just him? Him alone. Only once. Twice. Twice he went down. Just before you would come in. Was he bringing anything down or carrying anything up? I was very busy. I do not remember. I... have grumbles and he's worth thinking, running his head. I feel like he did hear something. Something he brought. And he looks you in the eye. And something he brought back. Planche. Fuck you. You move into the salon. Yes. As you go here, you also turn around the corner. I will say this. As you turn the corner towards the salon, the kitchen stands open as well. You know, you have a contact waiting outside. You could speak to on the way or afterwards, whatever order. So you're saying I don't have to wait until seven o'clock? No. A fielder hinted to you very strongly. Ah. That somebody is out there right now. That... because of all the... everything that's going on outside or the hubbub, his contact is there. Maybe just trying to get information waiting for someone to appear in the window. Okay. So as we're walking by the kitchen, Blanche is going to stop Jean. Oh, thank goodness. Yes. I'm so hungry. Do not enter the kitchen. Fuck. Um, Jean, I'm going to disguise myself as Fio d'Or and enter the kitchen. What? It's... I need you to stay out of sight. Do you understand? Yes, sir. Of course, sir. I should hold the line here. Blanche is going to cast all herself. Oh, that's really cool. To make herself look just like... not almost near. That would be not what I want. Like Fio d'Or the cook. Hell. Yeah. And she's going to walk over to the window. You walk over to the window. You peek out of it. Sure enough, there is a somewhat notable figure. I mean, there's a crowd all around this place, but just kind of right sort of leaning up against the fence. Almost not looking as inconspicuous as before. Kind of staring out towards the building. I sort of wide, like they're just willing themselves to be seen. You see this dark skin wrapped in a gray cloak and hood just a wiry build. Youthful features. This is the contact. And they see you. And there is just this relief that floods. Now, message is basically just... there's no word in it, right? It's just back and forth constant. Yeah. I can read it if you'd like. I think it's fine. I think it's whispering and then you hear it. The mouth begins to move silently way over there. And in your ears, or it's right beside you, you begin to hear words. Fyodor. Oh, thank goodness Fyodor. What is happening in there? No, everyone, you need to get out now. I'm sorry. I'm just looking through to see if I can change what I sound like. That's a good point. It's your whispering. So I think it's like your voice. If this kind of disguise your voice, it'll be a deception check. It's gonna be hilarious for you to try. Oh, no. Nope. You decide what you look like, including your height, weight, facial features, sound of your voice, hairline, coloration, blah blah blah. This is pretty like... That's really cool. Damn. This is perfect for this situation. Okay. You are now a big Russian man. Yeah. Well, sorry. Quote unquote Russian, David Russian. I'm bad at everything, but... Hmm. Now I need to think of the perfect thing to say. They said you need to get out of there. Yeah. How can you help me out, Ken? Oh, that's good. That was a surprise. Hell yeah. Fuck yeah. How do I get out of here? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe if you just... Maybe if you just tell them, look, we don't know what's happening in there. But a number of us... have surrounded the place. We're trying to figure out what's going on, and we need information. We do. But more importantly, we've been doing our own investigating at the edges. And fear that there's a beza nearby. We brought in cantata leaves to check. They burn in the presence of rage spirits, and they burn bright. Normally they don't venture into the city. It's got to be hiding its form somewhere inside, likely weighing on the call of its master. They can be bound to those who know the way to bind them. But it's in there. Does Blanche know what a beza is? Did we talk about this before? You know a little... You've only heard of their jungle rage spirits. You don't know a whole lot. Here's what's helpful. Fyodor is from Arnekek. Okay. It wouldn't be weird for Fyodor to ask. Well, maybe that's exactly what I was getting at. Yeah, I just didn't want to know if it was a waste of time for Fyodor to ask. I am getting scared. Tell me, what's this beza? How do I stay away from it? I think we went to know a little bit, but not a law specific. Okay. Maybe I have a meeting from Noire. But yeah, just beza. Sorry, you're foreign. They're spirits. Spirits are those killed in the deep jungle. Especially those who carry a burning rage within their hearts. They can command and lead a number of lesser specters. They're dangerous. They can force people to move on each other, to strike each other. They can instill burning rage in others. And they're in the area. As I said, they can be bound. They're used by jungle witches. Some say they're used for poison. Some say they're used for other such tasks. Whatever's going on, you gotta get out. They are all fighting in here amongst themselves, huh? How do we appease the spirit? I don't know. They explained so much, though. The revolutionary, the attack on the prince. That wasn't us. We didn't mean to do that. The bloodletters wouldn't have done that. We're peaceful. We're a beza. It could have inspired that rage. Someone is doing this to us, painting this on us. The beza make the sign? Sign? The symbol, the bloodletters symbol. A bloodletters symbol appeared. Oh wait. I fucking remember. She did it. Then you did it. Then you did it. Shit. I remember. Never mind. I am forgetting. I am... No, I understand. It's... It's so chaotic in here. It must be. It must be. How do the omelets turn out? You mean you said this horrible lady spilled them everywhere? I'm so sorry. You must have cried so much. I'm not sensitive. I'm not over it. I know. If I cannot get out of here, what is your plan? We don't have one. We can't get to the silent verse. Our numbers are not strong. We're not fighters. Fyodor, you're on your own in there. But we want to keep you safe. We want to keep everyone safe. Whatever happens, we don't want to see the kings of coin hurt or dead. For one thing, they'll blame it on us and for the other, it's not... It's not how we want to make a change. But someone does want them dead. I'm sure of that now. I have friend inside here. I think we can trust. You can do the walk downstairs. They are... They are investigating from the inside. If there is grave need, may I send help to you? Yes. Yeah, of course. Yes. You will know her by her shell. The fuck does that... Oh, tortles. She is tortles. No, I hear you. It makes sense. You could just said that. Excellent house guest. I must go. I cannot stay away for long. You move away from the window? Yes. Be careful. Fjodor! Oh, you're gone. Moving from the glass into the kitchen, moving towards Jean. And perhaps feeling something cold run down your shell as you realize there is one other guest in this palace, unknown. Something long dead, something supernatural. Waiting for the time to strike. Jules. This isn't going to be near as funny now because the moment has way past, but it's been in my head since this happened, so I have to say it. You said, "How do we appease the spirit?" and all that I can think about is, "How do we appease the visa?" We have an episode title. Take another button. Fuck it. Take a button. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Thanks. Damn. That's you, Jules. Fjodor, actual Fjodor. Because I took Jules into a row. Weird. You got to remind me, what was the last thing he said? Uh, fuck. Hang on. Oh, fuck. Yeah, okay. I remember now. Good, I forgot. No, I don't. Shit. It was. He was saying that you were saying. Oh, Azra. Azra. Was bringing something back. He was bringing something back. He brought something out and he brought something back just before you came. What was he bringing? I did not see. I was not paying that it was attention, but he was being strange about it, I think. I was sorry, I cannot be of more help, but... And you're sure it was just him? I mean, at a time, yes. Other people have gone in and out. Loreeza and Amos, of course, they are going in and out for wines, but... Azra was strange. If he is bringing a line out, why would he not drink? If it is wine, he brought. Why bring it back? Strange. Strange. Can I go make dinner now? Yeah, go make dinner. Wow. Whoa. Whoa. Flashback. No one leaves a room. I'm not serious. Oh, are you done with your door? Yeah. He stands up, help couch cranks in this huge form as he moves towards the door. Well, I am hoping it was of help to you. I'm sorry, I cannot be of more. No, you gave me some good stuff. Good. Good. Well, good luck. He just leaves. No one's seen. He's out. Well, what are you thinking? Azra's being weird, but Azra's dead. So, what's that matter? David, what do we know about Azra in terms of... He was a playboy. He was an obnoxious, spoiled, rich kid. So he had no friends? I mean, he had a lot of friends. He had money. Quote on quote friends. Yeah, quote on quote friends. He's a big fan of Diva Luma. Roll me an intelligence check. It doesn't need to be a high one. 13. Your mind flashes back to when you first arrived. Came into the gates. Spoke to the Piero, spoke to Ladu. And you turned to see... You heard some obnoxious laughter you saw Azra was speaking with Diva Luma. And he went immediately running back inside as she kind of waved him off. She approached you and mentioned something about how... Sending them off on little errands keeps them busy. Azra, you know, was running things in and out for Diva Luma. And I think a thought crosses your mind. Not saying this is anything that happened, but it could make sense. To put yourself in a killer's shoes. Azra, dear. What kind of lines do you have? Do you have jelly-black classic noir? I'd love to smell it. At the moment of this realization, Jules opens up the door. Harlan, put those manacles back on Diva. Oh no. Diva Luma just looks up. Her eyes are red-rimmed. She's been crying. What are you? What do you say? Harlan, I'm sorry. Oh, right. I mean, fine. Let's put it on. It's just for safety. I understand. I do. You want to speak to me now? You'll meet both luminaries. We know it's just for safety. It's fine. It's fine. Don't forget Blanche is periodically checking in with Turbo. Blanche, you see this? What is happening just when you get back from the kitchen, you look up and you see Diva Luma, the manacles, begins to be moved into the room. Now you know the salon is... Fuck the salon. We go now. John, run. It just starts to run back to Emo's nearest room. Okay, you're on your way, Diva Luma. I love that Blanche said fuck the salon. John's now! You move into the interrogation chamber. Harlan won't look you in the eyes. Shostai, or would rather speak to her alone. Stay outside the door. All right. Listen. We'll do. We'll do. Door closes and Diva Luma just sitting there, just looking like the side herself. Oh. This is either a foolish mistake or we got her. She's like slowly started crying. I think we got her, but she can also call the bees that's on her side. I know. And you're in the room alone. I know. Jules. Before you get started, whatever you want to say, I just want to thank you. I want to thank you so much. I killed Asra. I killed him. The prince of coin and a fan. And I would have killed others. I would have killed you if you hadn't stopped me. Please. I don't know if you've felt this before. Do you know what it's like to lose control over your body? To do horrible things? I think Jules in that moment for a brief second, your mind flashes back. I do. To new sorrel, to meringue, to your hand, covering the eyes of Jess and Kellig, to power flowing through him, to Zebulon's corpse. You blink and you're looking at Diva Luma, a woman who looks for all the world like, like her heart has been shattered. It's terrible. Jules? Jess, just looking at you, he doesn't know what to do. I think he's kind of not following your track entirely, and he's not sure what's happening now. Where did you come from? What? I'm curious. Do you seem to know all about me? I don't know anything about you. Yeah, it's like a slight sort of sauvish-junk chuckle. Jules. Funny time to shoot that she hit, but yeah, okay. I was raised in the lucidarium, the Bard College here in Zinda. I grew up there, I learned everything from them. It's how home the person I am today. Who was your mentor? Anybody I know? Probably not. I know it's a famous person to come from there, but I had many mentors. Do you have a favorite one? Lady Belana. She was kind. She taught me the very foot-heavy dancing style I use. I mean, you've got to have flair. Yeah, you've got to have flair, right? Yeah, of course. Yeah. With luminaries. Yeah. Absolutely. We've been fighting this style, you know? Absolutely. I'll get that. As you're having this conversation, I think we'll start to hear the door opens outside. Blanche, you and John step in. It'll be right on it this time that you'd make it up here. John just... I think when I hear, when Jules hears that, he's going to open up the door. Even when he snaps and looks around, huh? You go to the door and stand up, open it, Blanche, John. When Blanche comes into the room, you can hear the sound of her Blanche song activate. And... What is this? Whoa, Blanche. What are you? What's going on? It's out. What are you doing? Well, just a damn second. Are we missing one thing? No, what we're missing is that Blanche doesn't have any of the information that Jules has. Blanche doesn't know that there was a child. You only... You each have half of this sort of puzzle, right? Yeah. So like... But what you do know is that somebody that was in the salon... Okay. ...had perhaps an activist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where you found the thing was... Whoa. But like, you would know... Blanche back. I think you still have reason to be concerned, Blanche, because you know that whoever's in the salon likely was the one that poisoned the Dwayregon. Sure. You have a reason to spec deal a little like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, again, the impossible puzzle you don't know. I feel like I was acting on some of the information that Steven had, but Blanche did not. Yeah, you... But you don't know... Fair. Rome intelligence check. Okay. But can you also tell me that if Blanche saw Divaluma getting manacled again that she wouldn't think what the fuck was going on? Okay, yeah. Sure. Right, exactly. Because she knew that Divaluma was in the salon, she got the information about the Biza. Right. So... Roll with advantage. I'm sorry. I was only like half-listing. What am I rolling? So, we'll call it just a straight intelligence, we're contesting your memory here. Roll with advantage though, as your master's words, his information, his advice in the last episode kind of flows through your mind. Make the impossible possible. First roll, all told, was only a 14, so let's see what happens. 16. With a DC-15. Oh, baby! You assume moving this joint as you're on your way up, your mind is flashing. Make the impossible possible. And the pieces come together. You don't have the exact confirmation that Jules has, but the idea hits your mind. Divaluma could have been here before, out in the jungle before everything. She could have poisoned the Cayman, she could have killed Missy Milaine. Divaluma couldn't have had access to the line bottle, but then you remember Azra Neer. Going in and out, you remember Azra Neer bringing things to her, taking them away, and that same thought hits you. Did she ask for the bottle? Maybe just to open it to smell it, taste it, in that one moment, one pinch in the bottle. There was exactly one person, one person in this house that could have done this, someone who was both inside, or who was both outside, and had access to inside via a foolish accomplice. Okay, so, I'm not going to, I'm not going to rewind on the Blade Song. She pops in with the Blade Song, bonus action. Her action, she points her sword at Divaluma, and casts True Strike. Whoa! So, what's this look like? So it's the sound that Blade Song makes, and then she just levels the sword. Accusatory, at Divaluma, and she asks, "Where is the Biza?" What are you, what are you talking about, what's going on, what's happening here? You were in the salon, you found a loose, or made a loose floorboard, to poison the dagger, you put Biza's breath in your own pyrotechnics, and somewhere, there's a Biza. She's mad, Jules, what? Who is proud Eden to you? How should I resolve this? I'd like Intimidation Check, from Blanche, with advantage from Jules. You're leveling the sword, I think you should make the check. First one's a 19, on the die, second's a natural one, so that's 22. We'll go with the one. That's not how advantage works, actually. You just edit the episodes, so you say, "Disadvantage." Yeah. Disters. Disters. There, sword is leveled. Who is proud Eden to you? Tears falling down the smooth face, and then those eyes, every bit of sorrow fades from them an instant, brows curling down, mouth curving up into a wicked, sneer, completely different features, completely different person. Well, I'll be damned. Proud Eden is my mother, and I'm proud to be her daughter. Every step of the way you two, I swear you two. I would have had the total twice, Jean just steps back like kind of horrified. I would have had Xenia, all seven, the complete collection, but you fucking two. So what happens now? I can call in the Beezer, you know what's here now. I can kill everyone outside, or we can let me walk. You think you have the power here, but I think you need to understand that... And you watch, she just kind of smoothly, it's actually in the stat block. I believe, let me check this, in her stat block, I think she cannot be... You can, like, legendary action escape from... Let me go check this real quick. You know, while you're checking that quick side note, I said it right from the beginning. I don't fucking trust Devluma when we were meeting people in my notes here, Devluma has double asterisk here. Take a bite. I'm just saying. No, I already got a button. You can't do this. You can't do this. Shit, what am I going to point? This is non-magical restraints and ends the Grappler condition on itself as a legendary action. This is something that, yeah, another one of those sleight of hand parlor tricks that serve her so well, you just see the restraints kind of, you know, she thinks you're twirling a finger, and they're kind of just spinning in the air. Like I said, I have more power than you think. Power to kill everyone outside this room right now, you're the only ones who know. I think she's bluffing, this lady just went down, we knocked her unconscious, she's had a short rest. What Blanche wants to know, David, and I don't know, maybe, hopefully, I'm hoping that there's a role about this, Blanche wants to know, wants to try to recall more about Beezas. Like, if we kill Devluma, does the Beeza go free? Is it like some Beez being controlled? We're on to like the Beezas, the bigger threat here, 1000%. Not worried about fighting her, it's figuring out. Give me a roll. Yeah. Do you think of like Arcana? Arcana or religion? Okay. For an undead, it'll be a little easier on religion, but Arcana, actually, I think in this case, I'll actually make it the same because these are very much tied to more occult witchcraft. I'm close to using a button, but I'm just going to roll it because I've got a pretty good Arcana. Actually, that's kind of where religion is. 23. Wait. Or... Steven, again, I couldn't tell whether that was good or bad. Yeah. Sorry. This is a grumpiest roller. Yeah. 23. 23. In the case of something like this, this is a rage spirit, fueled from what you've heard by just like pure malice. If you kill its anchor, it's very likely to just go on a full rampage. Diva Luma is like the only thing keeping this visa from slaughter. I thought it was going to be the opposite. We killed it. We killed the anchor. That's the only rage in the room. Right. I'm glad I asked the question. It was like, I was just about to... Kill it. So what do you say, Phyllis? Are you going to let me go? Or do you want to meet my mother? We will not let you go. Haven't you had enough? No. There's still too long. You can't have them. I will. You've already seen how far I'll go. My determination, I would have died in that fight. I meant to. Would you die? Because I knew I would have killed every single one of them with it. I don't care if you kill me now. It would just be the murders who killed one of the world's most beloved luminaries. If you survived my mother, you would die for that. These people took everything from me, stole the flower, murdered my mother in cold blood, sent me off to die in the woods. If I hadn't crawled my way into the city, found my way into the Elusidarium, been accepted, I'd be a corpse too. But they're precious children. No. Fuck them. Why did your mother want the children in the first place she wanted blood? This was a response. They killed to defend, and I will die to defend today. My mother was a predator, like I am a predator, like that came and you fought, like the sharks out in the ocean. Birds that we know, it's natural to us, and it's not wrong to pursue what your instincts drive you to pursue. But they're lied. They turned around on their deal. They didn't know the price. Yet they reaped their awards. Here they are, richer than ever. Rich off my mother's corpse, the houses sold in her blood. The blood was her responsibility. She called for it. And their blood's yours, because if you don't let me go, it will spill. You're not leaving. So coy, master of defense. I don't see any fucking way around this, dude. It's like, everyone in this room, like it's just Chester, John, back into the wall, horrified, Jewels, like, what's Jewels expression right now? I want to get a freeze-frame picture of this moment as Diva Luma's just sitting on a couch, still twirling the manacle, still looking for all the world like she has all this control. Her face contours somewhere between like this, this divine sort of sadistic pleasure and this deep-seated malice. What's Jewels doing? Do you know who I am, really? Do you know where I come from? Oh, man, you sure you want to fuck with that? She turns to you. I know exactly who you are, my lord, and we'll call it there. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]