The crew has found their way to the scar and the reason for the demon incursions into their realm. Can they possible roll all failures and still manage to stop the process? Well.. they are going to try.
Knights of the Night
KotN Actual Play Podcast - 142 - Dungeon World - Cricket Dome
[music] Hello, and welcome to the Notes of the Night actual play podcast. This dungeon world adventure, Scars, is run by your Jamtown. [music] And now, please enjoy episode 142, titled "Kricket Dome." Actual play begins immediately. [music] We are playing dungeon world on a young town, and we're absent a few players this week, but it's starting on my right. I like playing Simon, the grizzled warrior, like Scott playing Senqueness, the Corpulent Paladin. I might go and flank Zeb, the young elf is should do it. Thomas playing Drummond, the player who can't heal much of anything. John playing Dunwick, the deserted guard from the Elfen Empire. Anybody want to go over their bonds and jot some anyway? Nope. Is that-- Hey, but you remember where the hell we were last time we played? We were in a cave. I had to just convince the Manus man that we could communicate with him if we could utilize his well of power for a moment while my cousin-- Oh, shit, he just fell over. He fell over in a coma. So Jim's not here, we're not going to be able to have him do the role. Is there some other way we can get around this? Yes. So Roman the human bard was to phone in Zeb and have him attune himself to this Manus man so that he could transform. It is from another dimension, though. That's a good point. So I don't know if that won't-- You may take on the physical form of any animal whose essence you have studied or who lives in your land. As long as you have studied-- My character is a monochrome of magical manipulation. But yes, Dunwick, it's a possibility. And I'm willing to agree that Zeb could somehow-- Use his ability. Perhaps together, both of you working on some clever plan-- I've had some experience with scars. This doesn't address language, though. I'm not clear enough. I think you can talk to animals any way, can't you? It's genuine language. Is it an animal? I don't know. It's not Michael. I like you guys working together. Should come up with some plan that was me, go. All right, we've got permission to try to form some line of communication here to explain our purpose. But that doesn't guarantee that we'll have right to use this or seal it to the scar. The Manus Man seems to be giving you access to the scar. We're in the room with the manus. Yes. OK. And he's calmed down enough that he's not trying to kill you anymore. And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to close down the scar. But the Manus Man is trying to open the scar to come into our dimension, right? Why didn't-- When we came here, we didn't care-- You can study the scar, I don't know. We came here to study it. But after we've seen its effects, I'm with the opinion we need to show it down. Jared is not here to disagree with me. Just disagree. And as the two of the magically inclined cousins here, I say we need to shut the shit down before it burns the rest of the forest down and possibly the surrounding country. So you're here. I don't disagree with that. But there's demons coming into our dimension. Jared, if you disagree with this, say something. That was the time, buddy. Speak up, Jared. We might want to give him some of those stuff out before we just shut it down. Let's be fair, if he were here, he'd cause an interdimensional war. This is your outcome. Yeah. He said, I think we should try to figure some stuff out before we just shut it down out from under him. This isn't the only scar in the world. Yeah. True. We will learn a lot about it while we shut it down. I defer to sanguineus. What? Eat an ass. He likes to. Not even in the room. No. Dude's a big ass. Yeah. I know. I shoved you out of the room. It was hard. We're no longer in the room. You can't defer to anything. I'm kind of like walking over. I'm walking over. I can still talk. Yeah. I'm walking around Missio Mantis and checking him out and studying him as much as I can. I'm trying to gauge his reaction. Well, I've always got to react when we turn into something that looks like him, but maybe I won't be too close when I do that. He definitely looks like he's wary. I'm not sure if you can turn into anything like this. It might be a bit beyond you, but there are several insects you could probably imitate and try to work a language through that. Okay. Just to be clear, you as a bard have the ability to do magic with song. Yeah. It doesn't really state what you can do with song, does it? Yeah. Maybe you want to look at that and see if there's a possibility of some way you couldn't bolster or help Zeb perform things that he normally couldn't do. Maybe lay down a funky beat, give him something to work with with the base. Yeah. I don't know. I have the ability to weave a spell into a performance whereby the next time someone successfully assists the target with aid, they get a plus two instead of plus one. I want to ease the lines of communication with this, I don't know how that would describe that. But I'm going to utilize the scar in some sexy way of a spell that would totally work if Jared were here. Well, couldn't you change the wave, the wave coming, the sound wave coming from? Massage it into the mantas speak rather than... Yeah. Mostly on the middle that you can manage. You know, it's in a different hurt than... He's fluent in a dung beetle. So perhaps it's just not a best friend that doesn't need to bring that up. I'm changing the shape size of the sound wave. Okay. So I'm going to massage sound waves with my music. Did you have to... Besides, this is good. I roll a two-six-sided dice. By the way, the radiest, most depressing looking six-sided dice I've ever seen before. It will seem to have been like a 1970s. He went to the bag and he said, "No, this isn't bad enough. I need the one you can't see." It's like for you guys to eat at the '60s. Ooh. Well, I was trying to roll with this, but... Ding! You leveled. You leveled. Ding. Ding. That's not a big fat. Perhaps it'll work as a distraction while I make the shape-changer. Look over there, a horrible horn note. Sounds kind of like he's farting right into the horn. Now watch while he transforms, because you want to see that. Okay. The way we're going to so wait is good compared to what you just heard. His music. Well, it does allow you to tap into the magic and do some transformation that you normally wouldn't. It's so offensive to Clack Check that it actually assaults his ears to the extent that he attacks. Oh. It's painful. You know, Laura has been trying not to do it to... Hey, you know what? You had an experience point. Did you have a fake point to reroll that shit? No. I would. Who is standing closest to Clack? I was with David. How did you work to have? Because he said he did push you out of the room. I was actually hiding my shape. But how did you have it? I did. Because he doesn't go ahead. Which is fine. You will get to roll. Hold on. But you said you were going to be far enough away. Zab. So that... I didn't want to be close. Right. That it wouldn't be taken as an aggressive move. In your face, yeah. Right. So you are not the closest one. And Mike, who plays Simon. Can we... We might be in the house. No. We might be in the house. Simon is always put himself in the way of people that are... He's a protector. And he's a buddy of yours. So he didn't. He did not. When he threw the thing at you, you caught it. There was a little bit of a tussle went on. And then I said, "Do you get out of here right now?" We're just in the hallway though. There's no door. It's a cave. You could say. You're asking who's closest? Well, okay. That's me then. You. If I'm... I'm not at the back of the land. I'm in the house. That's me then. I'm not at the back of the land. I may not be in the room with him, but I'm still... Okay. So we'll do this. If you get a tax, I'll get it first. If I check a tax, you take damage. Because you're in the middle of doing something and you're holding it up. I'm playing the most offensive porn music. Was this a tax? Was it a porn? Because we don't know. We just were ass instruments. I think it's a little behind us today. I tried to say it was a horn when it goes. I think it was a blues, but nobody wanted to go with that. Like that insect porn? Yeah. You're playing your horn and you're kind of busy. So you don't have time to react as he charges you and tries to snip off your neck with his... Wow. It kept getting worse. I said the wrong thing. Simon, you see this and he takes damage from the first attack and you do much. How much? You have to roll. You have to roll. I don't know. It's like money. It's like money. He's a wizard. We're going to roll a guy eight. Yeah, it's not so bad. We're going to skip his eight. It's not only a hat-tat. See? I have some armor too. I think my side. So you see that? At the same time, go right ahead. You're going to try to transform into this type of creature and... Be a female. Boy's head right off. It's all about this problem for us. You're great. He'll appreciate it. Right? I'm pretty sure that's talking about it. There was two. Oh my God, you guys suck. In his shape changing, it actually does succeed in performing one action as that. It's written in his rolls. So you find this shape and the ability to communicate with it, but only... ...leavingly. You can get off one sentence before you lose the ability to hold this shape. Unfortunately, you want me to keep through order. Okay, one word. Think of one piece. Oh, no. I want a piece of you, bitch! What is that? P... That is English, alright? P... A lot is sexy. Eight of tons. This piece has more than one homophone in this... You don't like to say about it. You don't like to say about Eskimos having 300 words for snow. Mantis men had 357 for... For peace. He's an ass. And he's such a state. Which is what made Mantis have his head explode when he said... I meant packs. Wow. Right. White, white, white. Nice. That's disgusting, son. Yeah, clearly. It's a concept that checks a loaded gel. He knows insectoid and... So you turn for just a fraction of a sentence into a Mantis man and tell him that you want to... Not consume each other. There's only one sentence for that in their language. All the rest are I want to eat you and also... But... There's another... He's communicating... An asshole. He's communicating to Clack Check. You haven't had no idea what he just said. But he changes in your Mantis briefly and goes... Clack. Just click, click, click, click. Oh, now there's two. And then he changes back and what do you do? I react to Clack Check's original attack against the Bard and I will charge... And try to put myself between the Bard and Clack Check. Putting yourself between... Right. I'm using my shield and spear and... That would be the defense move, Simon. Oh my gosh. So gorgeous. Wow. Seriously, you guys suck. That is a whopping... It's a six. I do. You too get an experience point. I believe you love a lot. I do love a lot. So... By the way, leveling up occurs during camp. I don't know if that is. This game's where it doesn't. I like this. I like this game instantly. Yeah. I need a boost right now. It's several MMOs. It keeps going wrong. It's kind of fun. There's never a bad time for camping. I think maybe now it's... Clack Check, we're going to go to sleep. Just hang out. I'll be back. Wait six hours. You've got a bad throwing button. Drummond? What up? Drummond and Sanguines. You see what's going on. You see Simon go charging in and placing his shield high on his arm and threatening the Mantis creature as... Turns into a Mantis and then turns back into a human. Grasping his head a little bit and groaning because that was just really fucking strange. Really kind of mucked up his equilibrium for a while. I'll say you could try it again, but it really fucks with you. I'm assuming that I may not use iron wallaw. That's one with the NPC, and I say listen to me. I am the rightful servant of Asundia. And you... I would say that you could definitely use it, but you would be at a minus two because he's so foreign to the concept that he's supposed to be impressed by you. It's not only that you're a warrior type of bee that you have some other status that grants that people just should listen to you. Right. I mean he... It's like two-fold removed as far as necessary. Isn't there a question to discover the truth of the scar? One of the things you can pick is transcend languages. He didn't... Did you not? For what? Another good reason for gaming. You picked immunity to piercing? Oh, you wanted a voice that transcends language. Yeah, it'd have been nice. It ended up being command people. transcends language. Ah, that seems to be ideally suited for what we're trying to do. I got nothing else. I don't want to attack him first because it seems... It's unlawful to me. I know he's attacked us, but he obviously knows something. I'd rather try to walk into the room and use my divine authority to try to get him to stand down. One of the three things he can do is listen to what I say. So far that hasn't happened. Maybe they're attacked, me, or fled. I'm hoping that someone will one day... Eventually someone will listen to you. Who will listen to you? Who will listen to what I have to say? So I want to make the role with the minus two because... Because if you get a no one... I want you to level up as well. No one has succeeded yet, so I'm going to try to keep the ball rolling. Right. That's a six, which I get a plus two with my charisma, which is... But a minus two, so it's a failure. Oh, right. Hey, look at that. I'm going to go edit with my hammer. I'm not a subtle man. No, apparently not. Some screaming happens. I don't think there's going to be a word. Right. Before that can happen, Sanguis comes into the room and is doing things that apparently this man takes as being extremely aggressive and charges so much. You as a group, fortunately, Simon is standing in the way with the shield raised. So he attacks and does a die eight damage to you. Oh, my. You are, of course, defending. Before? No, it just will be the number of the day. You take four damage. So we failed and saw... So... ...and shapeshifting. We have to fail and divide authority. But no, let's try it. The mattress creature grabs you in his claw, squeezing that you can just feel it around your ribs and there's a cracking noise. I think this is the one drag ten. One claw. It's... It's a pinch. Oh, okay. But I mean, enough to not pick you up, but to kind of toss you and you stumble back in the chest. Back there trying to sound. Oh, so he cushions the blow, right? Oh, absolutely. Okay. It's, like, lean. Except for the chain on hardwood. Then Drummond does what? Oh, run out. Swimming with my hammer. Preferably hitting it somewhere. I don't care. It's a big old bug. So I hit it with my hammer. You don't seem to be following the intentions of the group so far. Well, so far everybody tried peaceful and ended up in a fight. He's throwing the right thing, guys. Nobody hit it. Friendship. Friendship. Do you seriously not want me to hit it? I could not hit it. I think he just ran up to it with a hammer. I think he got stuck at this point. I just told him, oh, so do him by tackling it, if you guys really want me to. I don't think any of us had a chance to stack it. Okay. Do what you want to do with my hammer. Five, six, seven. All of you. It was like plus one success. Plus two. Plus two strike. That was minus one because there's no minus. Oh, I thought you found that. I just want to see my failures. Okay. I could. I could understand that. You had to run around a very fat man. Okay. So you do succeed, but he also gets you. Like he's ready and he sees you. You were coming all the way from the hallway, so. You had to run past the fat man. Around that orbit takes a bit. Four damage. Right. And then you got to die a back at you. I bet you're going to run four. Six. Oh, wait. What's your armor? Two. So as you're charging him, he falls back a bit and picks up a staff and you crack him. A good one. And yeah, his carapace takes a bit of that damage. But you do get some damage done. He then brings the staff around and just crushes you on the ribs with it. And then he takes a step back and he's smacking it on the ground with a sharp crack. Clicking and clacking and making strange noises. Yeah. He is surrounded with what seems to be a bubble of magic. Is Drummond inside the bubble of magic with him? No. Could I be? That would be cool. Flight damage. Yeah. He definitely backed. Yeah, it's Mantis versus dwarf. Two creatures enter. Cricket dumb. Cricket dumb? Okay. So there's a palm coming from the circle that's surrounding this Mantis creature. Dunway. You can tell that he's tied into the scar. That shield he's got around him and it's drawing power from there. As I've leveled up, I intend to take some wizardly powers next fall so I can do a different flavor of magic than my cousin. Okay. Can I foreshadow this with an ability to kind of manipulate this scar in an attempt to shut it down by taking the power from my own? I like it. I'm going to use it to power a power I already have. Okay. I'm going to say since you have not leveled up, it's minus one because you're not quite sure how to do this yet, but... I have the ability metal parlant. Shadowing metal parlant. Like... Yeah. You don't want to shatter the chain. You don't want to shatter the chain. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I haven't run anything. What a hurling. So I'm amplifying it to break through a shield. What covered your ears? For now. Six plus... I got two on Chas. So that's one on Chas. Eight. 'Cause it's minus one. I still damage my target, but it's out of control. The jam chooses... What is the rise? The jam will not be one additional target nearby or other extenuating circumstances. I feel like giving you an experience point just for staying in care. Yeah. He gladly takes it. You know what I'm on. He really did take it. Okay. You know the horn that blew down the walls of Jericho. This is Dunway version of that where he blows the horn and it does... It does bring down the ceiling. Oh. Which falls on you. In addition to Blackjack crushing his shield. And he... It worked. He does manage to skitter out of the way. The shield is broken and the scar is released. Unfortunately, you get two die ten rock damage falling from the ceiling. I do die ten to him too, no? Yeah. No, he got a shield. Yeah, the shield was just... It piled up on a shield and he actually had his skitter out from underneath. He's not... You roll high now? One. There you go. That's the giant one. I picked the higher one. You picked the higher unfortunately. Oh, yeah. So it falls down and it actually pins him. He's stuck underneath some rocks there. Sure. He did manage to crush the shield, but it doesn't do any damage. He's his horn crush. No. That's all he wanted to know. He's here. The only thing you can see from underneath the rocks is his arm holding onto the safe horn. Holding onto the safe horn out of the reach of the rocks. We need to just unplug that. No. He did it. Unfortunately, Clack Chick is real good pissed off right now. Anybody got any ideas before he charges the group? That is my guy. Clack Chick, you are fully capable of trying to catch him. You did once. Is that possible? You did it once in it and you've got the concept now. So it's no longer... I think this should be the last chance for this thing. There's no minus for the dead part of it. It's not fair because he has to die due to our incompetence as well. Yes, it is because we're killing ourselves. I know, but it's just ridiculous. It's poor guy. Yeah! Whoa! That's 11. That's 11. Holy shit, any throw him across the entire table. That's the wrong table. That's the wrong table. Yes. So 13. That gives you three actions as a Clack Chick in or a man just man. Give you three actions towards us. And just making peaceful insect motions. We've got the... Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Sorry, sorry. Also, let's get stopped. You have many arms. So you could be doing peaceful with two of them and holding everyone back or waving everyone back with the other. Yes, I tuck that. Clack Chick calms a bit. He seems a bit taken back by the fact that you are speaking his language. What do you mean by his land? Why do you think he is under the rocks? This is how we say hello. Yeah, I explain what he's asking and ask for some input from... He's into a group here. Zev is going to insult him. I'm wondering why we're here other than beating the hell out of each other. The sky is causing damage to the above world and... He needs to... The sky is causing damage to the above world. Why is this happening? Can I take out to... Yeah, to... Pointing Dunwick and... Either heal him if he's close to death, which I don't think he is based on the tenor of his screams. Or dig him out if that needs to be the case. Clack Chick sees... Samlyn is moving towards him as aggressive and he starts making noises. About the soft, fat one. I kind of step in between and let him pass behind me to get to the rocks if that's what's going on. Yeah. And I ask the... Clack Chick. Clack Chick. I don't... His function in this... He informs you that he's a traveler lost and he's simply trying to get home. The normalistic. Aren't we all? Yeah, he tells you that there was a magic that was performed in his land at what wrong and he ended up here. And he's just trying to get back home and he keeps trying to open the passageway. Oh, you have birds too. He is a bartender. Yeah, crummy magic uses as well. And every passageway that's open is somewhere different, not his home again. We will try to assist you. We have no mechanics. It's tough to really sucks. We have no trouble. We have no problem with you. We'll try to help. We're in a similar situation. You also inform him that you want to get the eye out from under the rocks, I imagine. Yeah. He moves aside to allow that to happen. I only have eight health left. The healing is an order. I appreciate it, yeah. Okay, I pray to his idea to give me the strength and actually did you want to fly to help as well. So, I mostly want to fail. He wants to fail in healing first. I have an ongoing -1 for some fails to fail a while back. Good. So you want him to try to heal. He's stuck under a pile of rocks. He's getting a flop. I'm just asking. As a dwarf, you just probably get experienced. Riley, it was for him. Yeah. I don't care who does it. You wipe it out. In about three seconds, you're so cross-eyed. I can't actually hurt people if I fail them. Well, you really had to make you hurt someone. You're really good. Right. What do you say? -1 +1. Eight total. That's a... Okay, how much did you heal? A success. We're going to love. I think a conditional one. I'll totally forget healing. We're done with combat, right? Yeah, it's not a combat situation. For the next few minutes, maybe I'll have an hour to rejoin spells. Okay, so you request your god, and you guys liked this last time today. You tried like four times, and I don't like any of these people, just four. It's the number of the day. Yeah, it really is. See? Don't you feel better? Do you need more? How do you feel down there? There's a rock on me. Do you feel like if we removed the rocks and somehow crushed one of your vital organs, you'd be able to lift through it? Can you just lift them? No, it's not that easy. They're very, they're very eatin' jumbled. How old are you? Are you half-way dead? Let's get the rocks off. Get the rocks off. I don't want to fail getting the rocks off. Yeah, he needs to be healed. How do I rush you to get his rocks off? Good luck. He's going to die. Hey, you're better than I do. Hey, what's your strength? I'm Simon. My strength is, I'm pretty muscular. Okay. I will go ahead. Go ahead. Do my best to lift off the heaviest of the rocks off. I'll give them suggestions. That one looks really good. Let's get in the knee. I have to tell it with cave-ins before. No, it's just so strong. Sure. Because he doesn't need assistance. No, no, no, no, no, no. Now the dwarf might be able to save. This rock is the one holding up these. These are the low bearing rocks. You don't want to dwarf them that way. Oh, there you go. Success. Acceptation. All right. Nine. That's still intense. Plus one. I don't know. All right. I reached down there. This is the rock you want to lift off? Yeah, the big one. This looks like him. Are we sure it's not going to pinch off his blood supply or maybe hurting a dwarf? Don't have that problem. Just lift it. All right. Here I go. Nine plus... Two. Two. Plus one. Plus one. So that's so 12. I'm complicated to see. We told you to be fine. What? Yeah. Oh, hardy. Oh. I tried to hurt him. So meanwhile I'm asking. No complications. The rock doesn't fall in his horn. All right. You know, unfortunately more horn. It's one of the crushes fingers maybe. So is that you are asking clock check. Is there anything we can do to help you? I could try to open a portal. I hope you can talk to you. He's delirious. He's mad. He's runnin' on the head. Don't know magic. He doesn't know, truthfully. He doesn't know how to get back home. He has found that he can open portals, but they seem to bring in bad things accidentally. You might not want to do that anymore. He won't wait until he can't go home. Oh. So he doesn't have the ability to open a portal to his own land. Except if he got really, really lucky. I've heard many tales of our people wandering through the worlds. I know of many heroes of the past. And some have visited your land. You've heard of the Mantis people? Oh, only his fish, I suppose. But I can see that a lot. Actually, I could try to spot lore, which I could maybe think of sometimes we ever fought through the elvish campaigns. Maybe we did fight against Mantis men. Mantis men, so I could try to-- I don't know that they're all these realms. We do have some people capable of magic. The barbarians, occasionally, are successful. Occasionally. We might be able to help you get it right. But I'm trying to put it into, I'm a veteran of decades of elven and imperial rule, and they explore magical lands to conquer. The barbarians who split open and scars don't much care when it comes out. And I go where I'm told, so maybe I do know something about them. That's a possibility, because in the setup, we said that the barbarians are frequent users of excessive magic with their shamans. And it may be that you have-- Or the witness is something that might be useful here to try to help them. Right. I mean, it's not arcane lore, but maybe I can build on someone else's best roles. 8 plus intelligence, that's an 8. Yeah! That's a success. How's that going to make fun of that, Mike? Because it would have been a 7 for me. Oh god. I don't know, 8, the GMO only tell you something interesting. It's a new to make it useful. Yes. I would say, in fact, you have. I thought this man has been before, and Don Wick was with you during that particular incursion. It was a small, barbarian kingdom named-- Where was it you were fighting? It's got a wall made of bones. Jesus Christ. 12 miles wide. Maybe it was paved with tight, good functions. Mantis warriors. Oh. So, yes. I like that. It wasn't actually Mantis men that you fought. It was warriors that wore this same armor that was made out of this guy's carapace. You might not want to mention the fact that the barbarians-- Right. So obviously, they had been dealing with these type of Mantis creatures and killed them because they were using their carapace's armor. And so, fact that he's here and that you've known previously other incursions into this plane from that plane. So, is there any knowledge of other than the place of Grimwall, and maybe the Bartichlor can pick it up from there, but is there any type of symbol or name associated with that campaign? Other than, you know, we called it Grimwall, but maybe they have a different name, or if there was some type of arcane symbol that maybe I would have witnessed when I crossed her portal. I'm trying to find someone that can find her. I mean, I get you. If you could, for instance, write down any symbols you saw on that type of armor, then Clack Check might be able to say that they're useful to him in some way, but there's no way that you know, based on what you saw. Right. And again, the Bartich knowledge might come into play as well. I think this is where I have to kind of-- I deal with the blood and guts of war. Don't look, you're real quick. Don't look. Do you seriously need healing? I have 12 health. How are you? 19. So, you're about to just ask halfway? I mean, you have a little bit more to couch that and really vague, hard to understand terms. I don't care how you plan. Well, I don't know. Do you remember how the elves, they loved their poetry and songs and their songs to celebrate their victories? So, have you ever heard of, you know, if this is the campaign of Grimwall that we talked about, can you remember any symbols or-- Songs made of that night. Or about that situation. And then maybe that's the connection you need to find out what you remember. You have some bokeying to do. I, when spotting an important creature location or item might call a cover by your Bartich lore, can ask the GM1 question about it. The GM1 answer truthfully. Where are my Bartich Lords and all the legends of heroes passed? And, look, I don't think that's going to work. But, I think we have some tools here that you brought forth from your lands. And they might help us forge a connection to them. This dick. Have you molted recently? Hey, that is a very private question. Hey, baby. You molted recently. So, you're saying that you believe that his-- I did it if we could, or said discard a chit and we could, you know, cut him. Cut him. And with the fuck. It could help us forge a gateway to his lands. Is that a question you're asking me? I'm asking him if he has any other panel. It's already come off. If we had to start prying his arms off. What I want to ask is, has this been happening to others of this guy before it happened to him? And has he seen any-- That sounds a thing. That might be responsible for it. He doesn't believe that he's ever heard of it happening to anybody, but his hive is small. When he got here, did he see anybody who might be responsible for it? What happened is he is the creator of magic and his hive. And he was working on something, a spell, that was trying to draw forth more magic that he could use for something he was doing. And it created a rip that kind of sucked him in. So basically, he's the Jared of the Mantis. Yes, Jared of the Mantis. And it could be that in both universes, a spell was done at the same time that caused a rip. So I asked him what he asked. Yes, he says that he has been here through one molding and that they're somewhere here. I put that on a circle. They don't even understand the fact, they're gone. I look at scans of Jared and well, that's not helping me. I think this is a moment to camp and we can go through that without quitting, right? I get rituals. And then we-- I'm gonna heal you before. I'm already leveled, but I mean, we've started a new session with you being healthy. Well, you are all gonna have to consume a ration, if you're camping. And we could say that you're also eating it to research. Wherever that is, to send you, I'd love you today. That's okay. I get more love from them, for me. I'm not the toothiness. I'm the one with that guy. The dwarf is silently pumping his fish. Sure, he's excited. He's fucking out. He healed him. You know, I have kind of bitch slapped him throughout this story, so I'm happy that he got one. So we'll take a camping break for all of you to level off if you wish. I pick up the ritual. But yes, this would require studying with Jared. I also get smarter. Look at that. But before we do the camping thing, Zeb, you have... Some of the questions you want to ask before you go out of Mantis Mode. I ask anyone if they have any questions for this. You know, I might need this help to start channeling this. Jared's not up to the task. Yeah, he's kind of out of it. So I ask the management to be prepared to help in the time of need when it comes to the opening. We will respond in kind. Making a camp move means that you can all... If you have an XP level up, I really wanted to take like a fireball chip. 'Cause Jared was never going to do that. What? This is necessary. I just thought of you having a fireball in it really. It could be really fun. Really cool things can happen. There was an retirement spring table. Or death, exterminats us. Look at it. Is that a power you just got? That's a power I just got. And make sure that he understands that this is our place and all these nasties are coming through. But we're interested in sending everything back to work belongs as well. That's our way to phrase that. He will gladly accept any help that you can give him to send him back to his home. And as far as he understands, he stops opening places. There won't be any more things, but that might not necessarily be true. So while we camp, I'm going to check out his chip. Like the dead stuff. Hold on. What about that demon? Did we kill that? It's still alive. You should engage that person with combat. Yeah, it's a nice ship of the demon in the cage. The demon in the cage came through on one attack. And he kind of was able to protect himself in a bubble of magic shielding so that he wasn't affected. And he was glad to see it go. And then it turned around and came back. This would be because you guys drove it back. He didn't want to kill it, so he managed to capture it. And he thought if he just happened to open a place that he could send it back. He didn't want to kill it. We camped. He wanted to kill us. We successfully camped, right? Part of us. You didn't successfully camped. But Michael is saying stuff before he drops his form. He saw it. Right. I'm just wondering. Because that entails recovering HP. I could use that. Do you want me to kill you? Yeah, actually it does. What's your guy? Fuck no. Seriously. It does in fact give you, if I'm not mistaken. Half? Time beats both your guys. Yeah. It's like your main total. And then you get that back. So you're all here? Fully healed. Thanks to time. Now Ascendia. Nor. Bad. Whatever that is. You're a booty bird. He is a booty bird. Like as if our six didn't help him get healed. He's just bitter because his horn got scratched. He's talking about my horn. His balls are yaggy. What's happened? Well, I want to see how badly we fell. It's ritual. The only problem with that is things can be very interesting if you fail. Right. That'd be a cliffhanger. But what we need Jim for the ritual? I mean like. I picked up rituals as I level up. I would suggest you wait until we get everyone back. I got to back up my promises. I'm going to study with Jago. You had a backup. I got a backup plaque check. Send him back to where he belongs. Wait. What do you need to do for Jago? We all are going to be just talking about what the ritual is. Let the boy roll the dice. Please. He wants to. You said really damn it. You tell me what the ritual is. You said you wanted to use his armor. You arrange it in the circle, the spell circle. Put him in the center. And then you're tying scars into that armor to link it harmonically with his universe. Right. His universe isn't around here. So string out his gooey remains around in the circle. And then gooey. They could be dry husks of armor. I'm kind of new to this anyway. If you use this armor, they're probably fire-tempered. So they're probably hard and brittle. Hard and... No, this is actual... This is actual hard and husk. It's hard and... Armor-treated. It's probably ugly and brittle. Go right ahead. The ritual requires an hour of your time. It's an individual piece of his actual spell. Can I read the ritual? In the meantime, I read all of my spells, but it's going to take an hour. Yeah, I mean, the camping requires a bit of... No time. I eat. Stop rolling dice. I was sleeping while we were camping. Now I'm doing spells. So I think they have a... When you draw on a place of power to create a magical effect, tell the GM what you're trying to achieve. Virtual effects are always possible, but the GM will give you one, two, four of the following conditions. You require a power source. Oh, look. One right here. You require something from his universe. Oh, look, you have the armor. And you require help. I need... Collector? True. No, I don't like to make any disease involved in this. Yeah, let's go with magic of this world. Zeb. And magic of the gods. So I'll go with the dwarf drumming and... Oh, fuck. Zeb. It's just not dangerous. She was always dangerous. What's your mom gonna do? Tell me his story. How does this work all together with all three of you? You know how your gods traveled to the realm of demons? Yeah. Well, we're gonna do the same thing, but to a different place. Okay. Can you work with that? I'll certainly try. I know nothing about Zeb's magic. I don't have any magic. I just work with nature. Well, maybe you can better organize Clack Check to aid us in... Yeah, I'll be the communicator. Getting him in tune with his dimension. You're gonna cast a spell that is in effect. Hold on. Linking our dimension with him. Yeah, I'm on the bard. He should start singing a native song. And they'll do harmonics, right? Mm-hmm. He'll be singing alongside... And Zeb, being of both dimensions, of our dimensions, in the form of their dimension, will help unify the spell. So he must do another transformation into a Memphis man. And sing the song of the Memphis man. Hey, good luck with that. I can see where I'm to sing. You don't want me to sing? No, I don't want you to sing. Sing it loud. I've heard you sing. Sing it loud. You've heard me sing. That's a request. Not to sing. I'm gonna make up something. Sing it loud. I'll be ready to do that. I asked the man as man to sing. I can't sing his song. You want me to sing hisses and pops? I can't... No, Zeb is gonna represent the human. As a beatbox. Yes, Zeb. Go first. Before their time. I suggest that Tim sings the song. You have to change because you have to assume the form. You're here, you're zeb. And you know, he's going for the long distance role. 4 plus 2 is 6. You got one action. You still succeed. You get one whole word that you can tell. What happened to do while you're in this room? Well, he rushed. I mean, we're not exactly in combat. Could I just do this again? Sing. Look at it this way. He doesn't realize what his transformation, how stable it is. He thinks it's fine. So he begins to start singing in many ways. He switches back. And he's like, "Okay." Because I don't... I mean, you just keep rolling until you get it to work. And I don't like that kind of situation. So, they were all timing it. And you change into a mantis and you tell him to sing with you. And you start and it just... It starts to buzz in your head. Because it really is having an effect. And it just pierces your head with a headache. It drives you out of the form. And it falters slightly the song. Which actually affects you guy negatively as a minus one. That's rolled back to you. In the meantime... Drumman, you're right. Drumman says to the god... Yeah, I know you kind of fucking over. And tell me that these guys are worth shit. What? I need you. You're supposed to find the cosmos here. And help me, oh god, of dwarfish war. Human bloodletting. Like done with the Bible saying. You've had dwarven warriors that went to other lands and fought demons and sacrificed themselves. Or maybe presented in warlike terms. Help me rip apart the... The veil under the veil. Between the morals. Yeah. The universe is the veil. Beautiful. Reality. What would you do? Is it wisdom? I was just going to do wisdom. Okay. I don't have anything. I could think of better unless I'm physically ripping the universe apart. Which would actually be a minus one from this. We're going to say these two are building blocks for Dunwick. So he's either going to cancel out with his success. Gotcha. No pressure. No pressure. For this? For this? Oh, you're rolling it. Just like that. Five. Six. And sets it. Six. Okay. Oh. The universe. Oh, sweet. You're going to experience as well. You guys are great. You're very helpful. We'll have a lot. All right. I don't do rich full magic. It's not my thing. Maybe the dissonance between the universes are making the maintenance person exfoliate. It's only the one true God. I would appreciate that. Could have opened the door for you. But hey, you know, whatever. I'll just get Twinkie over here. I'll just shut my trap. Okay. So explain to me how badly let's see here. It's a failure. Oh, yeah. Didn't work for you. Strike two. I asked the God of civilization and home whose name I can embody remembering right now to help me send this man back. That's a problem, man. You don't even know my name. And the God of war was like, you're my priest. If you're going to ask for God's help, you might want to know his name. Okay. That's a valid point. I don't worship him. I don't worship him. I'm going to do worshiping a God and his God sucks in and says, no, you should crush and kill this man. I keep sending him home. This is an idiot who should die horribly. How's that minus two doing for you over there, John? You ask. I still have two daughters, so long, please. Yes, you do. And what am I rolling for this? You are doing a song of harmony of the universe. Here's a chop below. And you bring it. Yes, it's your charisma. And you explode. Bring on the horn, baby. Come on. Double six was both ancient dice. Ancient ritual. Ancient dice. Come on. You could do it. Five out of six. Oh, okay. We need to find a really nice saxophone solo from Jazz or something. Who is his name? Jazzercise. Michael Bolton. Yeah. You need one in place. He plays a sax. No. I'm sad that I even know that, but yeah. Well done, John. I think you're thinking of Kenny G. Yeah. Let's go with wooden marsa. I'm at minus two, right? Yeah. You are minus two, but you're on eleven, so you're down to nine, and then you've got your chrisma, which is two plus two plus two. So it's pretty close to that. You're not one chrisma. Man. You're not one chrisma. You're not one chrisma. You're not a musket. You're a trip asunder. You're universes. You dialed in correctly at this time. He goes to his land, and he sees his hive, and he is extremely happy that he can go home. And he tries to tell you something, but Zeb is human, and all he hears is a quick one. Got a chitterpink and clicking. The old stuff. We kick him through the door and said, "Get the fuck out before something else comes." It's been an horrible day for everyone to go home. No, this is our hell. You took him to the wrong place. What the hell? Mentus hell. So he does seem to thank you. It seems that he's trying to convey something. And he travels through and the gateway closes. And we can wrap up this session with you guys. Our heading back to the village after believing you have now satisfied everything that's truly... Oh, there's no one deep in the room. Oh, no. He's still a demon. Oh, there it is. Oh, I'm a beast. He's a terrorist. I challenge that to prove to you. Hey, hey, hey. Do it again. Do it again. Send him back. Send him somewhere. And the demon starts to get up. Or back to clock checks. Place. He didn't want it. We don't want it. He's going to fall open up the sky. Okay, we will end this way. We'll end it in this room. You still have a demon to deal with, and I wanted to end with this little kind of like, well, over in the village. Sketch is off in the village by himself. And he's doing whatever the hell he was doing. I'm not even really sure. Picking people's pockets. Probably picking people's pockets. But he sees two members of the... They're right at the cloaks. Right into town. And they are heading towards the church. They don't have anything better to do. And spotting those two, he kind of keeps to the shadows and comes looking for you guys. And we'll end there. We'll end there. Let's do a quick wrap up. At the end of the session, of course, has us each looking at, did you learn anything new and important about the world? Gates work. Gates work to other units. Well, scars could be used. You could file that magic to open up gates. Experience for everybody. Good. Did you overcome a notable monster enemy? I'm actually going to see yes on this one. Did you guys, by overcome, communicate with and send him home that he's no longer causing major crap? I mean, he's going badly. So, Jiminy Cricket was a major player? For this story, anyway. Yeah. I mean, he brought the dimp invasion. He brought the ice chimes. Why do you not kill the magic user? Just like the rest of them. He's like the whole fucking lot of ya. If the member will judge you, I would definitely say no. And then there is the fact of bonds. Did anybody... Or... Yeah, I did. Alignment. I had a bond. On the table. I thought magic started with it. For magic, it was fascinating. Let's use it to save the day. Well done. Also, I kept the promise, but I didn't make the bond. No? I don't know. See, things like that, you think, man, that would have been a good bond, if I have no. It happened so quickly that it was in the same session. I chose a meaningful decisive action for my character. Right. Although I didn't make it a bond in the beginning, I think it should act as one and I fulfilled it. I'm perfectly fine when I give yourself an experience. If you say, "I'm making this promise," just say, "I'm making a temporary bond or I'm making a bond here and now, I'll have a problem." Except, don't be a dick about it. I'm going to protect him. I protect him. Right. Because we're such... No, we're not. We're not. We're not. I'm just saying. My alignment didn't happen. It could be a beauty. Well, it would be... It would be... Sorry, man. Okay. Did yourself follow the precepts of your church with God? I attacked the Manchester man, but I don't really think I need the experience. Well, it's not whether you needed it or not. Did you? Yeah. Well, yeah. But if that's true, then I'm going to get XP every single time we get involved. Not necessarily. Everybody was in a situation where they were trying to peacefully resolve this. Your God is a war guy. You said, "Fuck that. I'm going to hit him." Right. You know what I mean, right? I did it. It was almost like World of Darkness where this is your vice law. Yeah. You can use that vice all the time, but you're using it to fuck over the group. The way we were failing it, I was always convinced that we should have attacked you. Right. I had a bond. My pride won't allow me to accept help for someone to see off to heal me. And I said, "Fuck him." Okay. Yeah. I'm only going to use that one because it feels a little cheap anyway. Oh, man. That helps something or someone grow. I might have done that. If you say "go" instead of "grow." What? I got no problem with that. Take one for that, Michael. Perving the same with the same way the other's daughter would be the only other bond, Michael. Well, you saw this before you saw this. Who the freak of the law? The freak of the law. Yeah. The freak of the law. Well, he did. Well, he did. He talked to him quite a bit. He took down the level of tension and the combat became negotiation instead. Yeah. I think that's a good one. Same with us? Yeah. Nothing across the board. Simon? About the only thing I would say is my act of trying to defend Drummond by throwing myself up between them or Dunwick? Is that alignment? Yeah. That's defend those weaker than you. I didn't come in to attack them. I came in to defend him. Didn't break out in a fight, but I was half dead. You didn't succeed. Does that matter? It just tends to defend those weaker than you. That might imply success. Success. You did fail. Been there. I can see them. But you leveled up. You leveled up. Is it really about tension? And if it's a failure, does it mean I get success? Or that I was already rewarded? Yeah. I think it's a point. I'm already rewarded because you failed. I think it's a valid point. We have a couple of people that probably leveled up, but since we're not camping at the end of this one, then we'll have to look at it next week as far as... Yeah. But everyone, you leveled up this weaker right and right. Because as a failure, I was able to level up during the... ...sameiness one to third as well. I made it to... Exterminus. Exterminatus. One more level. I'll get my strength up. So, technically, we could kind of wrap this up next week with the demon dealing, and then Lita is a future cliffhanger forever going to play down here all again with the red cloaks, or we could... That's good. ...we could go on to Dresden, or we could continue this for a bit if everyone's dying. ♪ Thanks for listening to the Knights of the Night actual play podcast. Visit kotnpodcast.com for more information on this and other adventures. Where you will find character stats, photos, storytelling, props, and even a form for comments and suggestions. Or you could email us directly at feedback@kotnpodcast.com. Or contact us via Twitter, or leave a message on Facebook. ♪ All music for this podcast was created and performed by Zen Audio Smith. If you'd like custom professional music created for your podcast or business, please visit ZenAudioSmith.com and please join us next episode for more Vistri and Adventure. ♪ Try, try, try to understand, because of Mantis Man. Mama. No. You have to be pretty old to get that one as well. It's hard to talk about. You do the group, though, didn't you? Yeah, I don't have the heart to tell you how that was. It was funny. Seriously. You're just leaving a lot of gold out of the table, that's all I'm saying. You're in color. Yeah. Gold's definitely in gold or another. Well, I want to mate with you and then eat your head. Well, that's a good. Yes. Stop those racist jokes. What are you talking about? It's racist. I think it's species. Yes, it's species. Yeah, I don't want to know what that species is. Are you better at that? In addition to species. Species. Species. Species. Hey, Drowny, want some dice for this decade? What the hell does that matter? It's six. It's all six. Because you know what, they're made of wood. It doesn't matter. And they're warm, so they roll unevenly. So you know what's a statistic boy? It actually is statistically viable with those dice. So you know the horn. How about I would affect him one time? You know what, I'm always affecting us. You know what, that little note just bounces right back on his ass one time. Uh, you know, you know, you know, you know, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, you know, um, um, um, can we roll to remove the rocks? Because maybe if we fail, we heard them more. But no, I'm not. I want to hear them more. You just want to. I want to see if we might get experienced points because it is. It is a situation. It's not normal. So that could be an interesting failure. He might tell him. We might crush his horn hand. I'm like, not that I want to or anything. But honestly, it just takes root strength to get the rocks off. And you could probably do it in a way without you really have to fuck up to crush him some more. Well, like Ben bars left age. I want to. Fine. He's got an ability. I'm going to lay against that. Uh, his ability to see why. If it's a question of strength and trained to lift these boulders or rocks off them, I can use Ben bars lift gates as a maneuver or move. Lift straights. It may sound like, you know, lift gates, lift rocks. Okay. I think the sandwich wants to peel him before you try to lift anything. Just in case something goes wrong. And if you really want to risk his life, I will let you take the most, uh, the most dangerous way to remove those rocks. Uh, come on first. I want to fail. We have to take the rocks off them before we start to, we can't just get him out of there. He's not going to get you. I get you. I was saying it. In this game, you don't require a roll for everything. If it's just something that's not very interesting, you say it happened. Well, I think you wanted to make it a challenge. No, he's got it. I want to make it a challenge. He's got it as much as he crushes his hand or kill the bar underneath the rocks. It was like, I'm trying to get people out of like building classes. I know. It's like the guy where he had a cruff his own arm. I know. That's what I want to do. I mean, that cruff his own arm. Just make it challenging. True slip up. I prefer to sing with this. Why? He can ask.