Episode 17: Floatation Infiltration (Transcript)

Do you want to tell everyone why you are chuckling like a weirdo?

But we have to introduce ourselves first.

Okay, well, welcome to Dadventurous.

You have me, the dad, part of Dadventurous.

The first part of it.

And I'm the dungeon master for this campaign into elsewhere.

And I am joined by this thing across from me.

That's me, the daughter.

I'm the player for this campaign into elsewhere.

The non-existent third half of Dadventurous.

The third half?

Yeah, cause there's no, there's no, it's Dadventurous, but then there's no daughter.

So that's why I said non-existent third half.

Did you know, do you want to know something?

I'll let a little bit of everybody know.

Did you know that the dad part of Dadventurous is not supposed to be dad?

I know.

Is Dad and Daughter venturous?

D-A-D, Dad and Daughter, Dungeons and Dragons.

Okay.

I'm the daughter, the player of this campaign and elsewhere, and I am wearing ski goggles.

Yes, you are.

It's to demonstrate the terribly cold weather that we're having.

Yeah, inside of our very warm sound booth.

I meant outside.

So I am staring at the daughter wearing giant bright orange lensed ski goggles as we record.

And it's wonderful.

All right.

Are you ready to jump back in to this episode?

Some things have happened kind of off screen, off podcast, because Kea has leveled up to level four.

Making your way down through retail ruins into a past, a flashback episode.

A past world.

A past world.

Ooh, hey, look at that.

You fell unconscious and made your way through, as Kea the cat, through your old stomping grounds, the warehouse there of...

I don't think kittens can stomp that well.

I just can't take you seriously with those ski goggles.

Okay, fine.

Ah, there you are.

I can see your eyes now.

And you were attacked by Surge Scarabs before this happened.

They bit you, they scratched you, they made you go unconscious, and when you woke up, you were aboard an airship.

You were aboard a ship captained by one of Maude's friends slash co-workers, Beryl Grom, the half-orc.

Pirate.

Ex-Pirate.

Pirate Apothecary.

Yeah, a little bit of everything.

Airship driver Dragonfighter?

Yeah, because as you guys were sailing through, she let you in on a little secret about airships and why they're not used that much.

Number one, the technology is really hard to recreate because it's a hodgepodging of all sorts of past world tech.

And number two, the dragons don't appreciate it.

To what happened?

I got attacked by a purple dragon with purple flame breath.

And it was purple.

It was purple and it was deadly.

You guys...

It tried to slash at our air balloon.

I had to patch it.

Then I did a cool shot of my arrow going through right to its scales.

And it flew away angrily as you plummeted on purpose down, down, down, down, down to the tree line.

Beryl did a cool maneuver.

And she got you guys down towards the tree line as it flew off from your hit.

And by the time it tried to find you again, you guys were low enough that it missed you.

Ta-da!

She coasted you in to Briarport.

This coast city on the ocean.

You guys got lead through town to her laboratory slash house.

It's very much a one-woman operation.

She didn't really have guest beds.

There was a place for you to rest a little bit and get your health back and for Flibbit to rest as well.

But for the most part, you were just enjoying your first views of the ocean.

And she told you a little bit about town, but not much.

And you basically were...

And she basically gave you guys food and a place to rest.

And flapjacks.

And flapjacks on the next morning, right?

So now we find ourselves in Barrel's laboratory slash home.

Again, these big kind of patio overlooking the ocean and the waves coming in.

I think as you're looking out, finishing breakfast over the sea, there's probably a ship sailing in from the ocean to port.

Briarport has a dock and some ships already at the dock, and there's one sailing in right now.

What is the ship made of?

Are these just like classic wooden...

9.

So it's not that you can't tell, it's pretty far away sailing in.

It's probably wood, it's probably metal.

It's repurposed hodgepodge stuff, like many things are in elsewhere.

What about some of the ships on the dock?

Ships on the dock, are you looking for anything specific or just what they're made of?

Just what they're made of.

You can make an investigation check, I guess, too, instead of perception, because you are actively trying to find out a little bit more about construction.

Fifteen.

Fifteen?

Almost all of them have a wood construction, standard ship building trees pulled down, that kind of thing.

I think one of them, though, is a dark metal, and it's catching a glint in the sun.

Dark metal?

Yeah, like a burnished bronze, almost red-brown bronze.

Dark, dark in color.

Not completely made of that, but plated in that.

Like the deck is probably still wood.

Yes, exactly.

And furled sails, but the sails look dark in color, too.

Is Beryl in the room?

I think she's probably doing dishes.

She's finishing up cleanup from breakfast, and Flibbit is probably in there helping her.

The image of a half-orc with a pirate hat doing dishes just is like...

Hey, sometimes you gotta book up and do the dirty jobs nobody else wants to do.

Wow.

Thank you.

That was deep.

I think I go over and say, to Beryl and probably start helping with the dishes, firmly avoiding the water.

And I think I start saying, so is the dock often used?

The dock down there in Briarport?

Yeah.

I mean, yeah.

We got lots of trade ships coming in.

We got various merchants, and yeah, it's used.

Mostly the sailing happens on the west side of the continent, but yeah, there's some stuff here too.

Do you sometimes get other than merchant ships, or is it mostly just trading?

In Briarport, it's mostly just trading.

Yeah, I don't know.

We trade with all over.

We trade with even Athelon.

Really?

Yeah, most of the time, we're dealing with carts going across, but some of the ships will make the circuit all the way around.

They'll go up to Scarlet Hill and some of the other places as well.

I was just asking because I noticed there was a ship out there that was kind of different than the other ones.

What are we talking about?

And she follows you outside.

That one over there, and I pointed.

So she looks down and she sees the dark metal.

Make an insight check.

Four.

Four?

Yeah, she doesn't look like it makes her feel any way, shape or form.

She goes, oh, oh, yeah.

Well, that's a ship you probably don't want to go near or do anything with.

Why?

Are they like?

She flips a towel over her shoulder.

She's wearing like this leather apron again, half work, green skin, tusks, right?

I think her captain's hat was on her belt, like on a little belt loop.

And she picks it up, puts it on her head.

And she throws the towel over her shoulder and starts walking back.

And she goes, not unless you want to mess with Bloodhounds.

And she goes back to doing dishes kind of, you know, with a hint of frustration in her voice.

I think I go in and try to after her and say, they're like official, like they have ships of their own?

I thought they were like small.

Uh, no.

And she kind of looks back and she goes, oh no.

Uh, years ago, yeah, they're small and pretty unknown and coming in just kind of has like a rummager, you know, group.

And, uh, oh, I don't know.

About ten years ago, uh, Czar Bloodhoof came in and now he's basically mayor of Scarlet Hill and they basically run that town these days.

Wait, he's, the Bloodhounds existed before?

Uh, no, sorry.

I just mean that they were kind of small and everything and when Czar Bloodhoof took over or created it, I don't know.

I just know that they started growing quickly and now they basically run Scarlet Hill.

They, so they, rummagers run Scarlet Hill?

Not like a...

Not anymore.

And I gotta say, it's profitable.

That's probably the biggest city here on the continent and not a bad place to be if you're a bloodhound.

But these days, the bloodhounds and the rummagers don't really get along.

Oh.

And you've heard of that a little bit.

Yeah.

Um, why would the, do you know why they would be here?

In Briarport?

Yeah.

Same reason they go anywhere.

Scrounge up other people's past world tech.

They steal?

Eh.

Other people's?

We'll say they intimidate.

They get what they want.

Hmm.

Oh.

I think her ears, as part of her rummager nature, her ears just go back at the idea of anybody like, selling past world tech is fine.

That's like her entire business.

But stealing past world tech slash taking it, she is just like, no.

Yeah.

No.

And I think that's kind of the vibe you get off of barrel and that you've gotten off of other rummagers that goes almost like against some sort of rummager code, right?

Yeah.

You got to go find that stuff and earn it or sell it, you know.

Yeah, earn it or buy it.

To do it the other way is not appreciated.

I ask, have you ever gotten anything taken?

No.

They know better.

They don't come up here.

And I think she probably like kicks a little panel open next to where she's in the basin of water that she's doing the dishes in.

And there's behind a cabinet, like a flintlock pistol and a sword taped to the inside of the cabinet.

You know, she might not be a pirate exactly anymore or whatever, but she's ready to go.

I'm like, oh.

Yeah, yeah, they know better.

Ah, I see.

Yeah, okay, and slowly back away from the cupboard.

So do you still not know anything about Maude?

Didn't get anything over the night?

No, no, I was waiting for the morning.

Maude and I have been friends since we were kids.

We ran for a long time together, me and her in Harwick, and I got some contacts in town that might know a little bit more.

Like I said, I was up north.

I haven't been to Briarport in a couple days, but this is my home.

I just was out doing other stuff.

And I'll reach out and figure out if anyone knew something.

If she was coming to Retail Ruins, there's a chance she might have come to Briarport first, or there's a chance that it was known that she was here.

Okay.

Well, I figure we'll break together.

We'll both do what we can.

You can go check out the town a little bit.

Maybe you'll hear something too.

I don't know.

But we'll meet tonight at the Hawkbeak Inn.

Okay.

And for you, you basically slept on a pallet on the floor last night and Flibbit slept in the bed.

It wasn't super comfortable, so going to the inn might be a better call.

Yeah.

I say, sounds good.

I'll go around and check out the town.

If I were you, I'd avoid the wharf and the docks.

But hey, you got a license.

You're your own rummager.

I'll let you decide.

But if the Bloodhounds are down there, that means they're in town too.

Okay.

Just maybe keep the fact that you're a rummager.

A secret.

A secret for now.

I take off the pin.

Okay.

And put it in my pocket.

Nice.

Does Gunther's Vestlight have an inner pocket or something?

Yeah.

I'm going to put it in the inner pocket.

We'll say you still can wear it.

Yeah.

It's just not visible.

Okay.

Do you have any questions for her?

I think at about that time, Flibbit finishes the 17th flapjack he's eaten this morning.

He finally brings his dish in.

He's like, Oh, thank you.

I appreciated every bit of the beautiful breakfast you have cooked for me.

And he bows his head.

And she looks at you like, This guy's weird.

Is Flibbit helping her with the dish?

He's taking the dish to the sink.

I whispered a barrel before he gets there.

Yeah, he says flapjacks are baked emotions.

I don't think so, but he says they're like that.

So he gets very excited whenever he has them.

All right.

Well, can't say I mind somebody enjoying my flapjacks.

Neither can I.

I walk out the door.

I'll leave Flibbit to his flapjacking.

Are you going off by yourself today?

Yeah.

I think I'll tell Flibbit I'll be around town.

Like if he wants to come?

I'm assuming Briarport isn't that big.

It's bigger than Map's Edge.

Yeah.

You're kind of up on a hill.

I would say it's probably a 10-minute walk to downtown Briarport.

You would have to walk down a trail.

You can see the docks and everything from a distance, but you were up on this kind of like hill, university hill type thing.

Yeah.

The thing about Flibbit coming into town on his own would just be like whether or not he could find you.

But he also could just stay with Barrel if you want to do stuff on your own today.

I think I'd just say, I'll be around town.

I'll try to stick to the main street if you want to find me.

And I walk out the door.

And Flibbit goes, Okay, well, be safe out there and watch out for any bugs.

Sure.

And then he goes into a deep discussion about the metaphysical emotional impact of Flapjack's with Barrel.

Wow.

I just want to give him some pen and paper to see if he wants to write this speech down.

I mean, she's probably got a lot of stuff too.

I just pat him on the head and say, have fun.

And you wander out the door and start heading down towards town.

The beautiful ocean air.

You got that kind of warmer vibe going on.

Every time the breeze comes across the ocean, I think it's a little chilly.

But only when it's breezy, otherwise you're feeling good.

The air is nice and clean, fresh, salty air.

There's birds flying overhead, white birds flying overhead.

And you walk down this kind of rocky, rooty path, the same one you came up last night, but it's daylight now.

And to town, I think as you start getting into town, it starts getting a little bit noisier.

You're used to Map's Edge being pretty quiet for the most part.

A hundred people is like how many people live in the town.

Yeah.

There's probably, I would guess, around a thousand people living in Briarport.

So...

So it's quite a bit more.

It's quite a bit more.

It's not city level, but it's still quite a bit more.

Yeah.

You start passing by some houses, and you start passing by some fishing racks, you know, people drying fish out in the sun.

How far away is the docks?

And...

You kind of got to go through to the main strip, and then you go left of the docks and right to town kind of thing.

So how far away...

So I'll probably, like, maybe slow my pace down a little bit, like...

Take your time.

Take a leisurely walk.

We'll say you slow your pace down a little bit.

We'll say that...

Admire the birds.

And I think what happens, too, a little bit is, as you come into town more, you start passing by buildings, there's probably a horse workshop, you know.

Not quite a blacksmith, but they sell saddles and they sell stuff like that.

There's probably a potter.

There's probably fishing gear.

Kind of shops that exist, but they're not exactly something that you would normally check out.

Yeah, I think I just take my time looking at the shops, but kind of fakily, but still looking at them.

I will say, as you come further into town, there's some signs now, right?

You get up to this main strip in town, and it's almost like a cross street.

This path you were on slowly turned into a road, a dirt road, and now it's cobblestones.

And so you come up to this cobblestone crossroads, and there's a sign, and it says, to the east or whatever, to your left, you got the docks, to your right, you have the rest of town.

As you look down the length of the rest of town, you see some bigger shops to go check out.

You also see a very beautiful fenced off nature preserve type park area, like a city park.

Sorry, like a city park.

And it's kind of at the end of the road the other direction.

And I will say, if you make a perception check...

Twelve?

Twelve.

It's hard to tell from here, but you can see that there's kids down in the park, and they're having fun.

They're laughing.

They're playing on something that you can't see from here, some sort of structure.

The docks are to your left.

It's probably been an hour, so if Beryl was moving on to other things, she may have moved on to other things.

I think I'm leisurely pacing, right?

I glance behind me.

Anybody there?

You're looking for someone's following you or watching you?

Following me, watching me, Beryl.

Yeah.

Make a perception check.

Finally, a good roll.

Nineteen.

Nineteen.

You look around.

You feel pretty confident that you got ahead of them.

You've been moving forward.

Even if they were going to come into town, they're not there yet.

No one's paying attention to you.

You probably see, as you look back and kind of worry about them, you probably also notice that there's a lot of people starting to move around in the morning, and there's people of all shapes and sizes.

Okay.

You got tortles, you got crazy, the Loxodons and the Leonans and the lion people and hippo people, and you also have a bunch of humans and dwarves and elves.

So in a way, you kind of blend in just by existing.

So no one's following you, that you can see.

I think I've been walking at a leisurely pace.

I take a sharp left.

Take a sharp left down towards the dockside wharf.

And pick up my pace a little bit.

So you start to jog a little bit down there.

As you approach, it's a marina, right?

You go through this big archway, and there's a big wooden pier that's the beginning of it.

As you get to the wooden pier, you look, and you can see areas where long ramp walkways go down over the top of the ocean out to these ships.

We'll say there's five ships, including the one that just is now docking.

This one, beautiful wood, blue sails, full of an interesting crew, and there's just crates and crates and crates on deck.

And as they tie up, and you're sitting there watching them, they start offloading the crates.

Looks like a supply ship of some kind.

To your right is the three of those ships, and one of them, the one right in the middle, is that dark metal one.

I think I go to the edge of the pier, because it's like railed, or is it just...

Yeah, it's railed.

OK.

I think I lean over the edge, like stare at the water a little bit, maybe a little bit of disgust going in the back of my mind.

But I continuously glance up at the...

OK, so you move over towards kind of where that ship is a little bit.

Yeah, but I don't want to like look like I'm about to get on it.

I just want to look like I'm like...

OK, so why don't you make me an investigation check?

And I will allow you to choose stealth or deception.

Investigation is 11.

Stealth is also 11.

11, OK.

You're trying to be not noticeable in a town where no one would notice you anyway.

Yeah.

Or they would notice you if you were doing something.

But with an 11, that's high enough that I will say maybe some people glance your way, but nobody thinks anything of it.

So we'll say people know you're there, but there's not like a who's this person, why are they looking my way?

Yeah, I wasn't necessarily trying to be like invisible.

I was just looking, trying to be like...

Trying to blend in.

Yeah.

I think that's a low enough DC right now.

In terms of the investigation though, the only thing that you really see is that the ship is dark bronze, right?

It's got that dark metal.

They have a plank down to the dock right now, and there are some figures down there on the dock moving crates around, mostly putting them on the ship from the dock.

So they're loading stuff on, and there is a short, stocky, green skin, pointy-eared guy wearing essentially a pirate outfit, big overcoat, hat, barking orders to all these peoples.

And you can see now that you're a little bit closer, they are flying a flag that you have seen before.

This Bloodhound flag with the dog on it.

Yeah.

I think I probably shift my position.

Are there any animals in the water that I have a reason to be looking over the piling yet?

You're not really near the water enough to see animals.

Looking down, you're basically looking down at dock structure.

You're looking down at pilings and...

Is there an enemy seaweed on there that I could be watching?

Sure, if you want.

Are you just trying to get closer?

Yeah.

I'm trying to move over, maybe trying to look like I'm trying to get a better view at some of the anemones on there or something.

I will say that you're going to have to get a lot closer if you're trying to hear or see what are you trying to do.

Because you can casually get there, but your role is going to kind of stay the same.

If you want to get a better investigation, you're going to need to get closer.

So what are you trying to do?

I'm going to try to get a little bit closer.

And like not too close as it like looks like I'm right at the ship, but...

Yeah, okay.

So go ahead.

Let's start with, do you want to do stealth or deception?

Stealth.

Stealth.

Nine.

Nine, okay.

You go over and you're kind of looking at the dock and you're looking at the animals.

There's a pretty white with blue striped anemone in the ocean there.

And you're kind of casually looking around and you're just sort of in a way, you trying to be not noticeable by looking at animals and stuff.

I think you probably start looking around at about this time and realizing that no one else is doing that.

No one else is standing there looking at the interesting creatures in the water.

Everyone's moving, everyone's got a job, everyone's got a purpose.

I mean, they probably live here though.

Exactly.

And so in your attempt to blend in, you kind of stand out.

And at that moment where you kind of start realizing, wait, maybe I went about this wrong, you hear a little voice go, Hey, hey, you're in my way.

I flip around and like, oh, sorry.

And there as you flip around and look, that short, stocky little goblin guy came over.

And you realize that you drifted a little too far, and you are kind of in the path of where they're starting to pick up these boxes and take them towards their ship.

I say, sorry, I was just looking at some of these animals.

I don't live here, so it's...

Sorry, I was just...

Hey, stop saying sorry.

I don't care.

I just want you to get out of my way.

Uh, nevermind.

He just grabs you.

I think he probably grabs your arm a little bit.

I'm trying to not say sorry.

I know, I know.

I think you're also getting the vibe that he's just a frustrated person.

I think he grabs your arm a little bit or your shoulder a little bit and just shifts you sideways.

He is shorter than you.

Yeah.

And he, but he looks mean.

He's got this angular face.

He's got scars on his face too.

Green, deep green skin, orange eyes.

And he looks up at you and he goes, I don't care.

I need you to stand out of my way.

This is Bloodhound business.

Good.

And right at about that time, a guy walks, a guy walks by, maybe an orc, and this little goblin turns to him, and the orc goes, Oh, Skrick, we're about 50% done.

So the rest of the crates are going to be coming in later today.

And Skrick the goblin goes, Looks to me like you're about 30% done with the way you're slacking.

And he starts yelling at this guy and having him load more crates onto the ship.

I scooch over about like five feet, or like 10 feet ish.

And I'm like, I'm assuming I'm out of the way now?

You are out of the way now.

I think she sighs a little bit and like thinks to herself, why would someone not want me to say sorry?

And he goes about his business.

I think he probably, if you're kind of staying there, he probably does glance over at you on occasion to make sure you're out of the way still.

If you're going to stay there.

Yeah, I think I'd probably like close my eyes and take a big breath of the salty sea air.

And eye the birds.

Make a perception check for me real quick.

18.

You notice a couple things as you're kind of casually looking around, staying out of the way.

First of all, you notice something that you recently heard about from Gunther, I believe.

And you're starting to put together, you know, you have that map that Callie gave you.

You have information about elsewhere.

And you look out and see across the ocean.

And there's an island not too terribly far to the east of Briarport.

Far enough that it's hard to see.

It's just a distant mountain on an island, but at the top of the small little mountain is a tower.

And Gunther told you about this recently called Far-flung Tower.

And it's way off to the east, and no one really knows much about it because people that try to sail there get lost.

Oh, so it's like...

It's a Bermuda Triangle type situation.

But they can see it.

Yep, you can see it.

You know, it's there.

And it's not, you know...

Like something turns them around?

Yep, it's not like they get lost at sea, but it's just hard to sail to it for some reason.

And so no one has a lot of information that you know of, or that anyone you know know of about the tower.

But you can see that.

The other thing you see is you're looking out that way, is you're kind of looking between the bronze ship and the ship next to it.

They're pretty close together.

They're docked basically right next to each other on separate slips.

And you notice that as you're looking at it and your perception, and I'm just giving you options and letting you decide what you want to do with it, that you could probably make that jump.

But that's if you want to.

Or if you want to go into town and do your own thing.

I'm just giving you options.

Those ships, they're probably only about 10 feet apart.

So I think you notice that looking out that way.

I'm a cat.

You are a cat.

But you also have been failing on all your stealth roles.

So it's up to you what you're thinking.

I will say you stand here for a minute, they finish loading the crates, Scrick and the Orc.

I will say the Orc goes on to the ship, Scrick probably goes, walks past you on the dock and heads towards like a dockmaster to talk about stuff.

So he's facing away from me?

Yeah, he's starting to walk away from you.

Does Flibbit or Barrel show any sign of...

You cannot see either of them at all.

Like not even, like they're not coming?

You don't, you couldn't tell.

Okay.

I glance around a little bit, like try to be as...

And I think I push off of the rail, stretch a little bit and start walking down towards that other ship.

You start walking down towards the other ship that's next to it.

You come along the side and you see no one around immediately on the ship.

The ship itself is smaller.

It looks to not really be a cargo ship.

Maybe it's a messenger ship.

Maybe it's a pleasure cruise ship.

You don't know.

It's smaller, but...

A cruise ship, but it's small.

It's smaller than the Bloodhound ship.

And yeah, it doesn't seem like anyone's on board.

The ship is quiet.

But there's also no plank down.

Oh.

So you'd have to clamber up.

Is it anchored?

Yeah, it's tied to the dock.

I think she, uh, like, sighs a little bit.

And it's like, I hate water.

And how crowded is this dock?

And is there any, uh, possible back ropes?

Slash anchors that I can...

So yeah, just like a normal dock, there's a dock that runs the length of the ship.

Going down the length of that dock towards the stern of the ship would get you out of the sight of a lot of people on the main walkway.

And so there would definitely be a stern line running up to the stern of the ship.

But there's no plank down.

No plank.

Infiltration.

Love it.

Let's see what happens.

D-d-d-d.

Um, I think I'm going to, um, casually walk down the dock to the stern line, um, or is there anybody?

Is this like a side dock that this thing's about?

Yeah, yeah.

So it's like the main dock is what you were walking on and they're loading stuff and then each ship has a smaller finger dock that they're tied to.

They are perpendicular to the main dock.

The ships.

I'm going to, uh, I'm gonna, uh, how many people are there on this finger dock?

None.

There's none on the finger dock.

They're only on the main part.

Um, then I'm going to, so there's a stern line here that, is there like a stern line kind of on the other side of the ship?

Like.

So the ship is tied to the dock with four lines.

A bow, a stern, and two in the middle.

Yeah.

The line goes from high on the ship, like deck level, down to the dock.

Yeah.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

I mean, like, on the finger dock that if I climbed up, would the ship hide me from sight from the main dock?

If you were on board the ship, you'd be hidden from sight.

But you're gonna have to get on board to be completely hidden.

So, make a stealth check.

In this moment, I will tell you, the DC currently is not very high, because no one's on this dock.

Okay.

And no one's on this ship because of things I wrote.

Nineteen.

Nineteen.

You stealthily and nimbly dash your way up the stern line and get to the transom, the back of this ship.

You flip over the rail, your heart's beating.

A seagull probably calls very close to your face and you freak out a little bit.

But you are on like a back section of this ship.

As your feet hit the deck, you do feel and hear someone on board this ship.

But...

Are there any windows?

They're below deck.

And you're up there.

This is not the Bloodhound ship, right?

This is the ship next to it.

So it's up to you if you care.

But you do notice that you feel underneath your feet and you can hear faintly somebody working down below.

Okay.

Are there any windows?

There are none on the ship you're on, but there are on the Bloodhound ship.

But they're small little porthole windows.

Are there any above the level that I'm at that could possibly allow somebody inside to look down?

Well, you're basically at deck level, roughly, between the two ships.

This one's just a little smaller.

So you would be jumping over to the deck of the other ship.

As you've gotten up to this vantage point, you look over towards the Bloodhound ship, you see two guys wearing Bloodhound outfits.

One is that orc that...

What are those?

So they are mostly deep reds and browns, you know, dark leather and reds.

And they all have sort of a...

almost like a tabard, you know what I mean?

Like a jersey.

Oh, yeah.

With the Bloodhound logo on it.

I'm gonna...

I think I'll go over and...

Are they...

They're not tied together, I'm assuming.

They're just not next to each other.

Does it look like there's anybody on the deck of the Bloodhound ship?

The two guys I mentioned, they're up forward organizing crates.

Are they, like...

If I were to...

Would it be possible to jump from this deck of the ship to get behind them?

Yeah, yeah.

Because you're at the stern...

Both sterns of the vessels are lined up.

You'd be a good 50 feet from them if you jumped over.

And they wouldn't...

They're not facing my direction?

Not right now.

And you rolled well on your stealth for now.

I'm going to take a running leap.

I want to try to grab onto the Bloodhound rail so that it'd be kind of below deck level.

Okay, so you're trying to jump and then be stealthy.

Yeah.

Okay, so you are going to need to make a stealth check.

But you get up on your little cat paws, you make your little cat dash, and you leap, trying to grab onto the rail.

So you're still kind of dangling.

Yeah.

But yeah.

Okay, go ahead and make your stealth check.

A seven.

A seven.

In all your setup, in all your intensity of making sure you infiltrated this correctly, you make the leap, you grab the rail.

The rail made of metal, not exactly what you were expecting.

Your hand slips.

And you don't fall, but your hand slips enough that when you go over there, you catch with one arm, your body hits the side of the ship, and you kind of flump a little bit to the side, and unfortunately you make a noise.

I'm going to say you make an oomph noise or something.

Yeah.

Not a clang though.

Yep.

And after a moment of you dangling there and getting your footing, getting your hands back up, you hear voices up above, and one of the voices goes, I'm going to go check that out.

Scrake's going to be mad if something happens.

And you hear that voice of the orc that you heard earlier plodding his way from the front towards the back of the ship.

Now, where you are, you're above the deck, or sorry, you're hanging on to the deck level.

Above you, a mast with a sail attached, a little leap vertically could get you there.

Below you, water, ocean.

Wet.

Whether or not you want to try to clamber down on either side of the vessel is up to you.

The side you're on, you look down, there's not much going on, there's some windows, and the main deck, you can't see the other side, you would have to circle around the ship.

Can I circle around the back?

So if I crab walked my way around, and the guy is looking at the back of the ship, if I rode high enough, I would be on the side of the ship, right?

Potentially.

I'm going to try that.

Let's make another stealth check.

19.

So I think you start clambering around the side, clamber, clamber, clamber, and right as you clear the edge of the ship, you see an orc head look over the rail, but he's looking the other direction than what you are, and you're able to finish your maneuver.

He looks over the rail, and at the same time, a gull nearby lands on the deck and just goes, near him, and he goes, and he starts making his way back to the crates.

As you come around to this side, you do see that there is a little deck, a little lower, almost like a view station down beneath you, at the back of the ship.

And you said the getting up into the, like, the sail and the sail supports would be, like, just a short leap away from the deck?

It was just however you wanted to deal with that situation.

The sails are gonna get you up out of sight, but you're up in the sails.

Below you now and to the side a little bit is a tiny little balcony with a door.

I'm gonna...

Can I see from where I am if the door is open slash windowed?

There is a window.

The balcony is one of those balconies where it doesn't...

You can't really stand on it.

It's designed to open the doors and stand outside, but there's no deck.

It's just like a balcony over an opening.

So you clamber down and you see that there's a window in the door.

Okay.

I think I'm gonna drop down and try to...

I'm gonna drop down and try to land on that balcony.

Okay.

But try to crouch below the window.

You drop down, you crouch, you got a good stealth check.

We'll allow that.

And you feel confident in your quietness.

And as you're standing next to the door, unlike the ship you were on before, there's no sound, there's nothing coming from, it sounds quiet.

You can hear the guys up top organizing crates, but that's all you hear.

I'm gonna try to peek through the window.

You peek up, go ahead and make an investigation check or perception.

16.

16.

You look inside and you see a pretty nice bedroom, cabin.

You see a little work table slash map table, you know, for charts.

Yeah.

You see a cot in the corner that's bolted to the wall, and you see a wardrobe, and you probably see a framed picture of a female goblin with yellow skin and also pirate outfit.

And you get the vibe this is Captain Skrick's quarters.

Is there like another door?

To the deck, yeah.

Oh, to the deck.

There's two doors.

Okay.

The balcony and the deck door.

And there's nobody else in here?

Nope.

Looks empty, and the door to the deck is closed.

Okay.

I turn the handle as a test to see if it creaks or anything.

It doesn't creak, and it does seem unlocked.

I tug it slightly.

Okay.

You go to open it, and you give it a push, because it's a push in.

Go ahead and roll one more stealth check for me.

Seven again.

Seven.

You go to push it open.

It opens smoothly, it opens quietly.

You feel really confident.

And then I want you to react accordingly with a seven to all of a sudden, next to your face, a voice goes, well, what are we doing here, Kea?

And Flibbit is suddenly floating next to you.

What do you think Kea would do in that moment?

Two of seven.

I think she'd...

With Flibbit suddenly appearing...

She'd let go of the handle, turn around, and give a little, like...

Cats sometimes, like, squeak, right?

I think she squeaks.

And Flibbit suddenly appearing next to you.

And you make the squeak noise, and goes, oh, I'm sorry, what?

What are we doing?

Oh, oh, are we being stealthy?

Yes, but please don't sing your song.

I was trying to figure out why you were sneaking on board the ship.

I'll tell you later, don't sing your song.

And as you listen, you hear the familiar footsteps again of someone coming towards the captain's quarters.

Like, on the door?

From the deck to the door.

Yeah, from the main door to the deck.

Someone is coming your way.

In the room, you have the wardrobe, the desk, the bed, the balcony.

What do you want you and Flibbit to do?

The bed is obvious.

Is there a space behind the wardrobe?

Is there...

behind the wardrobe?

I would say there's a space above the wardrobe.

But it's a boat, so the wardrobe is probably bolted into the wall.

Or like below it, that would be big enough for a certain cat person.

Not below it, I think just above.

I'm trying to think of less obvious hiding spots than under a bed.

I think I'm going to...

I'm going to close the door to the balcony.

And I'm going to jump on top of the wardrobe and hang my tail off of the other side.

I'm assuming it's facing away from the door?

And try to hunker down as low as possible.

What do you think Flibbit should do?

I say, Flibbit, can you float underneath the balcony?

Is that possible?

He will say before you close the door, he goes right away and he ducks down in there.

And we will make stealth checks.

Flibbit rolled as good as you can roll.

I got a seven again.

You got a seven again?

I'm going to use the other dice, because I feel like getting three sevens in a row is...

I'll say before this, Flibbit casts guidance on you, which is only a D4, but...

So, 11.

So you got it.

Okay, 11.

Okay, here's what happens.

You clamber up there, you hunker down low, you feel very confident in your stealthiness.

You hear the jangling of keys outside.

Jangle, jangle, jangle.

Jangle some more.

And suddenly the door cracks open and inside walks not one of the orcs, not one of the other guys, but Skrik himself.

Skrik the Goblin comes in to his room and he goes, Oh man, I'm tired of everybody not listening to me and I'm tired of having to deal with all these fools.

And he slams the door behind him and comes over, takes his hat off, hangs it on the hook and goes to open the wardrobe.

He opens up the wardrobe and you're basically experiencing this through sound.

You're trying to stay as hidden as possible.

Yeah, can I curl my tail up?

Yeah, you curl your tail up.

He starts taking off his jacket.

I think at one moment he goes, Hey, what's this?

And you have a panic attack and then he goes, Somebody got a stain on my jacket.

And he hangs it up and he puts it in.

And he kind of gets ready and he goes over and looks at the chart on the table.

He's facing away from you for the moment and you notice that he lays out a chart across the table.

And it's got a pathway leading back up to Scarlet Hill, right?

And he's just mumbling to himself and he's talking about stupid trade routes and all these rummagers trying to keep stuff from Tsar Bloodhound and the Bloodhounds and the good horde they found here in town from raiding that shop and et cetera, et cetera.

He starts just yakking about things.

Can you make just another stealth check?

But I'm going to give it to you with a low DC because he didn't notice you already.

He had a low perception roll.

Slightly better.

13.

13 beats his 12.

I'll say after a little while, something happens out on deck.

He grabs his hat and coat again, and he storms out, leaving the doors open this time and leaving you to the room.

I think I sigh and hop down from the wardrobe and open the door to the balcony and motion to Flibbit.

Hey, Kea, what are we trying to do here?

This is a Bloodhound ship.

You think they got Maude or something?

Yeah, or they're hiding something.

Well, what's the play?

Why do I suddenly feel like Flibbit has a Texas accent?

I probably mixed him and Scrick up a little bit.

I'm sorry.

It's not my normal voice.

That sounds like this.

Yes.

Okay, I got it.

I think I go over to the chart.

I close the balcony door, but I don't bother to close the room door in case you'll notice that it's closed.

And I go over to the chart and examine it.

Roll me an investigation check.

For?

For you're not a sailor.

You're not even, you've never even really been on a boat before.

You can tell that it's a chart and you can tell that there's markings on it, but they don't mean anything to you.

I'm gonna go over.

And is there like a chest?

Is there like a...

As you're looking at the chart, you look down and you do see that the chart table has some drawers on the back side of it.

Like a desk.

Yeah.

I think I pull open some of the drawers.

I'm opening, I mean, I'm looking through them.

Okay, so go ahead and make an investigation check.

18.

18, okay.

You start rummaging through quietly.

You know, you open the first drawer, there's like some coins in there that you can take if you want.

The second drawer down, there are books of varying things.

Nothing very important.

The third drawer down you get to, you do see a file of paperwork.

And you open it up and you look at it, and it's like trade routes.

And you notice, you kind of skim through that, you get rid of it, and then you get to this written piece of parchment.

And on this written piece of parchment is a list.

And at the top, it says, you know, Sterea, Emberhaven, Horde, crossed out.

The next thing down it says is Tia, Athon, Horde crossed out.

And you start looking down the list, and you see something, they're crossing out people on this list, and it says Horde, or it says Stash, or it says, or Cash, or something like that, right?

And there's names crossed out.

And then you get down to Briarport, and it says Barrel Grom, Horde, question mark, it's not crossed out.

And then it says Maude, you know, whereabouts unknown, Horde, question mark.

And then there's a couple different things, and at the very bottom of that list with that 18, you see the name Theodora, you know, human, whereabouts, you know, constantly moving with a star next to it, and nothing else.

Do you recognize some of the names on here?

I take it, I roll it up, and I stick it in my pocket, close the folder, put it back in, close all the drawers, leave the doors open, and I...

Would I be able to make a jump to the dock or this other ship from the balcony?

You would either go back the way you came, or down to the dock, where there are potentially people loading things onto this ship.

Back the way you came was a little bit safer in terms of no one was really there, but it does mean you have to go try to make that jump again.

I think she sighs, closes the balcony door behind her, and says, Flibbit, we have some investigating to do.

And I try to jump up to the ship.

To the one you came from?

Try to go back the same way.

Yeah, okay.

So you clamber back around.

Can you make an acrobatics check?

This one's a little bit more difficult.

You're jumping, and Flibbit will give you his classic one-per-episode help action, because he levitates, and he could lift you up a little bit.

Thank you for that.

I got the lowest that I could possibly go, and that helped me so much.

Acrobatics?

18.

Versus a six.

I think you go, and you slip a little bit, the help action coming through.

You go to make that leap, and it's kind of awkward because you're having to do it from hanging on a rail to leap back across.

You leap, and you feel like you're not going to make it, and Flibbit wraps one of his tentacle arms around you and Levitate carries you the last little way.

And you are able to make your way back down.

We won't need to do any more stealth checks or anything like that.

You're able to make your way back to the dock and make your way back up into town.

You have this piece of paper in your bucket, and you start making your way back up into Main Street.

Huge bustle of people.

You see the sign for the Hawkbeak Inn tavern.

It's probably midday, you know, something like that.

You see the city park in the distance, and then you also see a store nearby.

You see two stores, actually.

The first store you see is, it says, Greta's Gear, okay?

And Greta's Gear, and there's an image of a scraper painted on there too.

And you get the vibe like, oh, this is probably a past world tech shop, right?

Yeah.

Seems like this is where people would go to get their gear in town.

However, it is burnt down.

Burnt?

The shop.

And you are seeing the burnt husk of this shop.

I pull out the paper.

Okay.

And look at it.

You look at it, and the most recent one crossed off in Briarport, says Greta Dwarf Hoard line crossed out.

I look up, look at the paper, look up, look at the paper, do a classic movie double take.

And I roll it back up, put it in my pocket, and say, interesting.

And then I think down the street a little bit away, you see a store that's very kind of not interesting looking, very normal, basic, kind of cheaply put together with a sign that's just painted hastily that says, Goods Enough.

And this is like a general goods store.

I think I look at Goods Enough.

Goods Enough.

Yeah, it's not just goods.

As you get closer, there's a little subtitle underneath that says, They're not just goods, they're Goods Enough.

I think I juggle with that and say, Wow, very creative and go inside.

Okay, you go inside and you are treated to the most bland store you could think of.

The floor just wood, the shelves organized and stocked, but really spread out.

There's not a ton in here.

There's some ropes on the wall.

There's some tools and stuff.

And there's just a counter with a couple people working behind it.

And for whatever reason, you don't get the vibe of like, Oh, these like cute little local shops that you're used to.

You know, Gunther's, Past World Plunders and Callie's shop and all the stuff where it's like, Oh, it's these people running it, right?

Yeah.

And there's this guy, a shaggy haired dwarf younger man sitting at the counter, reading a book and sipping on a mug of something.

And he sees you approach and he goes, Oh, hey, I'm Carl.

You want, you need some goods?

He really does sound like a Carl.

Yeah, he's a Carl.

What you got?

Oh, we got, yeah, I don't really know.

I just work here, man.

And look, if you want stuff, I can check you out, but my name's Carl.

Yes, you did.

Okay, and do you got a punch card?

No.

Do you want a punch card?

What do you mean?

Oh, man.

Have you not been to a Goods Enough before?

No.

Okay, well, we're a chain.

We're popping up all over.

And look, if you buy enough stuff, you get a free potion after 10 purchases.

Okay, sure, yeah.

And he pulls out this punch card and he goes, he says, like, sign by Carl.

No purchase yet.

And it's got 10 little punch cards in it.

And he hands it to you and he goes, here you go.

Welcome to Goods Enough.

It's not just goods.

They're Goods Enough.

I'm Carl.

Yes, you said that already.

Okay, and he starts showing you around.

He starts showing you some of the gear they have.

And for the most part, they have kind of normal, like I said, adventuring stuff.

I think, and you know, to metagame a little bit.

What?

Why Carl?

It's called with a K, so it's fantasy.

Fantasy Carl.

To metagame a little bit, we already picked some shopping items for Kea.

And so the two things that catch your eye, we had talked about before, is you go and you look along this wall of just kind of tools.

You see rope, you see poles, you see shovels and axes and hammers and nails and things like that.

And then the one thing that catches your eye is there's a pole with a little hook on the end of it.

I pointed it and say, uh, what's that?

Carl goes, oh, yeah, that's a bow hook.

Which is?

You're not a sailor?

Okay.

Carl's known to do a little bit of sailing himself.

That's me, I'm Carl.

And he grabs the hook off the wall, and he goes, well, normally these are used for like grabbing lines and hooking stuff, and it's used for like docking and everything.

But check this out.

And he twists it open, and you can see that this tiny little two foot pole extends to a ten foot pole with a little metal hook on the end.

It's really good for snagging stuff, grabbing things, that kind of thing.

I say, wow, how much does it cost?

That's about, and he looks at the price tag, he's like, that's about eight gold.

Okay, yeah, I'd grab it.

Not much of a say word, but yeah.

No, but you can see the usefulness of something like that.

So you basically have a ten foot extending pole bow hook thing.

And it costs ten gold.

And then the other thing is you're starting to go through, you know, there's weapons occasionally and stuff like that, but nothing interesting.

And then there's this wall that you see up near the counter as you're approaching, and it says, Wall of Oddities.

And there's just a glass case on a wall with just weird stuff in it.

There's like little figurines, there's little marble sets, there's weird sewing kits, there's shoes of varying types.

And then finally, your eyes catch on to a little ball of yarn.

I think she, her ears flick back a little bit, like flick excitedly a little bit, and she's like, Um, is that ball of yarn in an oddities case?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I know, that one's pretty cool.

I checked this out, and he grabs a key, and he opens up the glass case, and he takes the ball of yarn, holds the ball of yarn, and he hands you the thread, and he says, go ahead and pull it.

I pull it.

Yeah, keep going.

Um, okay, what is happening?

And so as you start pulling, pulling, the yarn ball never gets smaller.

It's never ending.

It's never ending ball of yarn.

And then he goes and he squeezes the ball of yarn three times.

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

And all of that stuff that's in your hand coils back up.

Oh, I let go and say, wow, that's a very interesting ball of yarn.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

We get a couple of these oddities when the main branch sends them down to us.

We get some cool stuff sometimes.

How much?

Oh, this one.

And he looks at the price tag.

He's like, this one's 20 gold.

Yeah, but yeah, that sounds interesting.

So you want the bow hook and the portable yarn?

I mean, never ending yarn?

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

I'll ring you up over here.

And he takes you to the counter, and there's some other people in there doing stuff.

As you go to pay and you put your gold on the counter, he reaches down onto the counter, he grabs his book, and he flips it down onto the countertop.

He opens it up, and inside is the logo of Goods Enough.

You know, they're not just goods, they're Goods Enough.

And as he opens it up and starts flipping through like the sales things, as he's writing down the sales ticket and what you bought and how much gold it was, he's going to give you a receipt, and he hands you this paper receipt.

You look at it, and on the receipt it says, not just goods, Goods Enough.

And you're looking at all the things and it says, you know, 30 total gold or 28 total gold for a boat hook and never-ending ball of yarn.

Salesperson was Carl.

And then at the very, very bottom corner, it says a Bloodhound Corporation.

I point at the Bloodhound Corporation and say, your main branch is in Scarlet Hill?

Yeah, yeah, that's where they started doing these.

Pretty recently, yeah, we're just pretty kind of a new start-up, but we get stock from them and we sell it all over elsewhere.

Do you know where they come from?

All these items?

They come from the main branch, man.

I mean, do you know where the...

No, I just work here.

I'm just Carl.

I'm going to make an insight check on Carl.

Because he's kind of suspicious, saying that I'm just Carl.

Yeah, okay, go ahead.

He's going to make a pose deception check.

That is bad.

Seven.

I got to have six.

It's just Carl.

He's about as dense as you could get.

He just works here, man.

And he hands you the receipt, and he says, all right, well, hey, have a goods enough day.

Okay, and I back out.

And you back out.

And the smell of charred local shop nearby, and the weird sensation of having to deal with the corporate world of Carl and goods enough in the back of your mind.

So it's shabbily put together, and it's right next to the burned one?

It's not that it's like shabbily put together.

It's like quickly and cheaply put together.

But it looks nice.

Is it next to the...

It's down a couple streets down, but it's on the same street.

Yep.

And Carl, the BBEG of this campaign.

Oh, yeah.

And that is where we're going to end our session for now.

Thank Yeah, so that was our Infiltration slash Corporate Chain Grocery Store episode.

Yeah, we're going to call the episode, I don't know.

Carl's.

Carl's.

Awesome, I'm not doing it.

Um, uh, the Carl, Carl, Fin, no.

Uh, shopping and infiltration.

I like it.

Um, all right, thanks for listening to Dadventurous.

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So if you guys are enjoying the show, leave us a like.

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Leave us a review.

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And hopefully you guys are enjoying the show.

We're going to continue next time with Kea dealing with more in Briarport.

And the list.

Thank you all for joining.

Uh, I was the daughter, the player, the infiltrator and shopper, uh, known as Kea.

Still wearing ski goggles on your forehead.

Yes, that's me.

And I was the dad.

Thank you all for joining us.

And we'll see you next time on Dadventurous.