Episode 18: Threats and Merry-Go-Rounds (Transcript)

Welcome back to...

My name is Carl.

I'm going to be here bringing you into this...

My name is Carl, I'm going to be here, bringing you into this pretty exciting adventure man.

The daughter said to me, just before we started recording this, she believes that Carl is evil.

Or up to something.

From last week, or up to something.

I think Carl's just trying to pay the bills so he can shred the next wave.

Pay the bills for his surfboard?

Yeah, for sure, he's on the ocean, man.

Anyway, I am the dad.

I liked your, I liked your, I liked Flip, I like Flipit voice better than Carl.

Wow, Carl's your new NPC best friend.

Welcome back.

I am the dad, I am the dungeon master, I am the nonsense maker.

And continuing on arc two, or act two, I mean, of the story here.

Yes, we're not Indiana Jones.

Arc two.

And I am the daughter, I'm the player and nonsense receiver.

All right.

I would argue equally, if not more of a maker of nonsense.

Yes, yes, that's me.

And yeah, I'm the player for this campaign of kind of act two of campaigniness.

There you go.

Yes, this is what we're calling it, definitely.

And are you ready to jump back in?

Real quick, just wanted to shout out plus one to gaming for continually giving us a place to host.

And also if you guys like the podcasts, reviews, likes, et cetera follows, I don't know what it's called.

You know what I'm talking about.

We want to get more people watching this.

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Are you ready for the nonsense making?

Yes.

All right.

Serious voice.

Last we left off, you flew your way into the ocean town of Briarport.

You came with a lady named Beryl, who's a friend of Maude's, little bit of an ex-pirate, little bit of an alchemist, little bit of a half-orc, and she-

Yep, and she brought you to her home, this university on this hill above Briarport.

She hadn't been there herself in a couple weeks, but she was returning now because Maude sent her a cryptic message to the Bloodhounds, we're doing something, and it was a trap.

Dun, dun, dun.

And unfortunately, Maude is still nowhere to be seen.

As you got into town, you rested, you got flibbit woken up, and then you guys started to explore the town the next morning.

Don't forget the flapjacks.

Yep, everyone had, I don't know why it matters, but everyone had a delicious helping of flapjacks at Beryl's house.

She cooks all right, but the house is uncomfortable, so you were gonna look at maybe staying at the inn for the night.

You made your way out into town, and you saw when viewing the town, a ship, a Bloodhound ship in the docks.

And you decided to venture down the docks to check it out.

What happened?

I went down and played spy, and spied on the Bloodhound's loading crates onto the ship.

And then I infiltrated the ship.

You did?

As cats do.

Relatively successfully.

Relatively successfully, yeah.

I just barely managed to avoid being discovered by Skrick the Goblin Pirate Captain.

And then retrieved a list of hoards and caches for different rummagers and pastoral tech.

Specifically, it seemed like people that had large caches of the tech and you recognize some names on there too.

It's a Maude and Beryl and...

Theodora.

Theodora.

And you saw a name on there.

As you started to leave the ship, you managed to get out safely.

Flipit joined you.

You guys started heading back into town and you went near a shop.

You went towards Greta's gear and it was not in good shape, was it?

It was burned down.

It was burned down and you cross-referenced the list and you saw that her name was on it and crossed out.

So, then you noticed another store nearby.

You went in, it was-

Goods enough.

Yep, it was pretty lame.

It was goods enough.

It was headed, or I shouldn't say headed.

It was, the cash register was run by Carl the surfer dwarf.

And he was happy to sell you whatever you needed.

And you bought it, man.

So, you bought yourself a telescoping boat hook and enchanted ball of yarn.

Or I should say, a never ending ball of yarn.

Ta-da!

A cat's dream.

And then you bought the things and as you looked down at your receipt, you saw that goods enough was a bloodhound corporation.

You're starting to learn that they are bad.

They're official.

They are a government entity in the town of Scarlet Hill.

And perhaps outside of Map's Edge, things aren't as black and white as it seemed.

The bloodhounds do more than just rummage.

They open shops.

Let Carl run them.

Ah, which I sort of think this is a bad idea.

As you told me, his name was Carl about 10 times.

Carl, I think from outside of the street right now, you hear inside Carl talking to someone else.

He goes, hey, I'm Carl, man.

What can I get you?

And that's what you hear.

So you're in the middle of the street.

You were told tonight to meet Beryl at the Hawkbeak Inn at dinnertime-ish, you know, after the sun goes down.

And for now, you can explore the town a little bit more.

Let me know if you need a recap of where things are.

I think I wanna head to the city park because Map's Edge never really had a city park, so.

No, it didn't.

Okay.

So you start to head towards the city park.

As you go past, that'll take you past Hawkbeak Inn, too.

So you walk past Hawkbeak Inn, it's lively.

You can see through the front doors.

You get a great smell, too, as you walk by the Hawkbeak Inn.

Baked emotions?

No, soups, chowders, seafood, that kind of thing.

Goldfish?

Huh?

Goldfish?

Goldfish.

There's probably something similar.

Ew.

So you can come check that out with Beryl later.

And so you go by and you probably see it's quite busy in here.

This is a busy spot.

You go past some other businesses.

You go past a clothing shop.

You go past a hat shop and you keep going and down into the city park.

Okay, the city park is probably kind of interesting to you because it's you've been out in nature and there's nature all around.

But you know, as you started to come into the city, there were a lot of buildings, a lot of houses.

And this is a fenced off park in the middle of the town.

And it's very pretty.

A lot of the vegetation seems maybe it's tended to.

There's some bush shapes, you know, things like that.

And there's pathways through, there's little streams and creeks and things running through the city.

And they just kind of worked it to their advantage here.

And in the middle, there's a big fountain.

Almost seems a little bit as you start looking at it and walking into the park, that this park is giving you past world vibes.

And so you approach the entrance, you head in, and off to your right as you head in are a bunch of kids playing on these crazy structures.

These big A frames with chains going down and seats in them.

You have this other big tall step thing that goes up, and then the kids are like sliding down it, weirdly.

There's a climbing structure.

So listeners, you may notice this as a general modern playground.

General modern playground is the name of a military officer in my campaign.

What?

No, I'm just kidding.

His name is modern playground.

His father's name was vintage playground.

No, I'm just kidding.

Oh, there's also a merry-go-round.

Sorry.

There's also a platform that spins in a circle with poles on it.

Reminded of the spin to win thing.

I think she goes over and is, are there any kids on it?

I don't think there's anyone on the merry-go-round.

They're on everything else, because that's true of every playground I've ever been to.

There's only ever one kid on the merry-go-round.

Yeah, it's like weird.

I think because you actually kind of need a lot of people to get it to work right.

Yeah.

Anyway.

I think she stares at it a little bit and says, is this modeled after that ride that I went on, or was it the other way around?

It's like, I don't know.

I mean, it does look like it spits, and we did go spinning on that ride.

Would you like to go again?

How about I push you?

Sure.

So you hop on and flim it using the powers of levitation.

Is able to start spinning the merry-go-round.

Somehow.

Somehow.

And I think what happens, too, is you start getting it spinning and flim it.

You know, he's not running.

He's just floating, and he's probably able to get it going at a good speed.

I think all the kids notice.

And they rush over.

Loud screams of excitement, laughter, and they all start jumping on the merry-go-round as it's spinning.

And so there are a bunch of kids, you know, a little bit younger than you, for the most part, also laughing and riding and clapping and flim it.

And flim it.

It's like, haha, that's great, you know, and he's having a good time.

He loves being a celebrity.

So, yeah, you're right.

There's a bunch of kids around you.

They're talking about stuff.

Stuff.

Yeah.

Just stuff.

One of the kids, little Tiefling kid, is going, haha, this is crazy.

And then there's another little gnome kid next to him going, we got to be careful so we don't get hurt though.

And then there's another kid going, did you guys smell the chowder at Hawkbeak Inn today?

I think it's the coastal clam chowder.

And then there's just stuff like that.

And then one little girl comes over to you, I think.

She's probably about half your age.

I'm going to say she's an Aarakocra.

Oh.

She's a bird person.

And she tugs on your little waist, and she's, excuse me?

Hi, I'm Tally.

And she's just staring up at you with big wide bird eyes and her little feathered hand is tugging on your...

What, um, Kea, what is it?

I just think you look cool.

Thanks.

And she tugs on it, and she says, are you, are you from around here?

No.

Okay, are you staying at my mom's inn, then?

Um, I, yeah, later tonight, yeah.

Your mom runs the inn?

Yeah, she's cool.

She gives me snacks.

And she pulls out a snack pack of, like, jerky and cheese.

Why did you say that so, like?

Cheese.

What type of cheese?

Uh, blue cheese.

But not blue cheese.

Literal blue cheese.

Oh, wow.

Made from the blue cows of Briarport.

Canon.

How are we going into this?

I don't know.

You look over in a field and there's a blue cow, and it goes, brrrr.

This is Dadventurous.

Coming from the blue cows of Briarport.

So Tally kind of starts staring up at Flibit, too.

And she's just enjoying it, eating a snack on a merry-go-round.

On a merry-go-round.

Yep.

And she goes, yeah, if you're there later, I'll be there and I can show you things.

Well, thanks.

I'll look forward to it.

Bye-bye.

And then she just stands still right next to you, but turns the other direction.

I mean, you can't really go anywhere on a merry-go-round.

But she very clearly said bye-bye and is just...

I think I get off the merry-go-round.

And explore the park a little bit more.

Okay, letting flibbit continue, Spinner Kids.

He's like, this is the most fun I've ever had.

Look at all these kids.

You realize you're not on it, right?

I know.

That's what's so fun about it.

I just shake my head and walk around the park a little bit more.

Maybe sit in the fountain or something.

Yeah, you wander around.

Like I said, there's a fountain.

There is lots of beautiful trees.

There's some people gardening.

It seems almost like a town hobby.

You see people come in.

They maybe have a little flower patch or maybe they're growing tomatoes and everything.

Everyone's kind of using this garden area a little bit.

You follow the path down a little further and you find yourself to this large pond slash fountain, right?

And you've probably, I don't know, I feel like maybe it's up to you if you would have seen any sort of water feature before that runs on its own.

Like you've seen waterfalls, but basically what you see is a pond, and the water, you know, it's a little bit, got that stagnant sliminess to it.

But there is a fountain in the middle of it, and it's a big seabird, like a seagull, with its arms outstretched and its beak pointing up to the sky in a point, and then water is spewing from the beak back down into the pond.

Is there any, like, adults around?

I mean, not close by, but there's lots of people in the park.

There's someone, like, gardening nearby.

I think I'd go over to them and say, um, how does that work?

And I point to the fountain.

We'll say it's an old man, a human, and he just goes, What?

Who?

What?

Who are you?

How does what work?

The fountain over there.

Oh, oh, yeah, that's, uh, that's past world tech.

Really?

Yeah, I think so.

Been here as long as I can remember.

Really?

Yeah.

There's a facility down below.

In the ground?

Yeah, yeah, in the ground.

And he points to, like, a hatch that's on a metal hatch on the ground, in the pavement.

He goes, Pavement?

Yeah, kinda.

I mean, like, around the statue, you know, concrete, it's whatever.

He goes, Yeah, no, down there, there's somebody that makes sure it keeps running, but I'm pretty sure it's past World Tech.

It just cycles the water back up and through.

Cool.

Very cool.

I'm gonna go farm potatoes now.

And he turns and farms potatoes.

Oh, wow.

So there's just people that, like, say bye and just don't move.

Maybe that's the thing at Briarport.

I don't know.

It's what's happening now.

I think she just shrugged...

Is the grate, like, see-through?

No, it's like a metal plate.

There's a little hole for the handle.

Oh, but no.

And I think if you go over and inspect it, you probably can hear, like, motor whirring, like that sound of something happening down there.

I think she goes over and looks at it and says, past world tech, huh?

Cool.

Yep.

And, yeah, I mean, if you wanted to peek through the little handle hole, you could.

Yeah.

Go ahead and make an investigation or perception check.

Investigation or perception, you said?

16.

16.

Okay.

Yeah, it takes you a second to get your eye to adjust to the dark.

But as you start to, like, look down there, look down there, you notice that there's a ladder going down to a graded platform.

And there's water underneath here, too.

And there seems to be, you know, some sort of machinery down here that is cycling the water.

How it works to you would be, you're not sure, because normally, you know, the pink unicorn was the first time you'd experienced electricity in that regard.

There's plenty of people that have created fantastical and amazing things, as Beryl, for example, had an airship with past world tech.

So somehow, either somebody fashioned it this way, or it's from past world times, you don't know.

But there is a ladder going down to a thing.

And you can also see that it's not locked.

It's just an open hatch.

I think being satisfied with what she saw and staring at the fountain again, she's like, cool.

And I think her main goal right now is to pass the time and explore the park.

So you go around and you start checking out the farthest ends of the park.

The farthest end of the park, there is kind of one row of houses, and then it kind of breaks out and goes out back into wilderness a little bit.

So the edges of town is on this far side of the town.

Most of the town is around the three sides of it.

As you explore this backside, the trees are a little thicker and denser.

You probably see some deer.

You probably see, you know, a rabbit jumping by, things like that.

It's not the rabbit, is it?

Yeah, you can see that it has cobalt saliva on it, but it escaped cleanly.

And so yeah, you explore the park for a little bit and kill some time.

Is there anything specific you want to be doing, or are you just trying to kill time because we can jump forward if you want?

Kill time.

Okay, you wander around, maybe you check out some trees, and for the most part...

I'd probably like climb a tree and lounge up there for a little bit, and then...

I mean, you can't do that.

Yeah, go ahead and make me a stealth check.

For a tree.

Well, you climb up in the tree...

We'll say this, you clamber up in the tree, and you get up, you know, decently high, and you get kind of a nice view of the park.

It's really pretty, it's really pleasant, that warm, you know, warm air with a gentle breeze coming through.

You start dozing off like a cat up there in the branches, and you inherently are very quiet.

Eat.

Well, believe it or not, I rolled a nap on you.

Oh!

And so, maybe you didn't mean to, maybe you meant to.

We'll let you decide.

But you wake up from the cat nap you were taking.

I don't think I meant to.

You didn't mean to.

And so it probably surprises you a little bit.

It's definitely getting more towards evening now, right?

You took a two hour little cat nap.

And as you come to and you stretch, and you're sitting there for a second, you hear voices down below you.

At first, you probably don't think anything of it, but then you hear a familiar, what do you mean she was here, and now she's not here?

I don't understand what you're talking about.

I flip around on the branch and look down.

Look down.

And you see Scrick and one of those Bloodhound orcs chatting in the park.

And he goes, Oh, I don't know.

I was following her, you know.

A couple of hours ago, I couldn't follow her anymore.

She was gone.

And Scrick's like, You're all worthless.

New girl shows up in town, and all I ask is somebody to keep an eye on her, and you guys can't even manage that.

And he storms off, and the orc sits there and leans up against the tree, like, man.

And I'm just up here?

Yep, that's what you hear.

Does he show any sign of leaving?

The orc?

If you wait, sure.

But right now, he's just down there grumping.

I think I'd stay up here.

Maybe try to be a little bit more contorted to the branch.

But isn't that?

I want to stay here and wait until he leaves.

I don't really think you need to make a stealth check if you're going to stay there.

I think you wait, we'll call it 15 minutes, and he goes, I guess I ought to get back to work.

And starts meandering back.

And so you know that a few things you learned from your adventure on the ship.

Number one, the ship was going to leave tonight after it had another load of crates come in in the evening.

Right?

And you know that for whatever reason, whether it's you being on the ship, or you being a customer at Goods Enough, people know that you're from out of town and the Bloodhounds are trying to seek you out, keep an eye on you.

I think once the orc is out of sight, she climbs down from the tree.

Flipit is showing no sign of.

Yeah, I think you climb down from the tree and you start making your way back over to the playground.

It's like a whole new set of kids on the merry-go-round, but he's still pushing kids on the merry-go-round.

Probably also like one adult.

Oh, really?

Yeah, I think so.

There's a guy named Brad.

This is Improv'ing Names on Dadventurous.

Yes, I wish Carl was here.

Wait, Brad works at Kids Enough?

No, but Brad and Carl are roommates.

They surf together.

What do you mean, they go to college?

No, they're surfer kids.

They work part-time jobs on the surf, and they're off time.

I don't know what I'm doing or what I'm talking about.

I don't know why you expect me to have reasons.

This is Improv'ing on Dadventurous.

Just for the fun of it, I think I go up behind Flippet and whisper in his ear, so what are we doing here, Flippet?

And he leaps.

He flinches hardcore.

He goes, well, I see what you did there.

Thank you.

And we'll say the merry-go-round slows down.

Most of the kids say, thanks, Flippet, and they all run off and go away.

And Brad goes, yeah, man, and he gives Flippet a fist bump.

Tentacle bump?

I say, so you seem to be quite the celebrity here in Briarport now.

I don't know if you do that, but people really like me when I push them on things.

Apparently.

That's great.

It's been so fun.

I mean, that's all he's gonna say.

I pull them off to a side, maybe behind a tree or something.

Okay, yeah, it's easy enough.

And I say, um, flip it.

Yes, Kea.

So I remember how we stuck onto that Bloodhound ship.

Yes, that just happened a few hours ago.

I know that.

But so it appears that one of those orcs that was, that seemed to be that Goblin's lackeys, followed me.

And he said that they lost me, or well, I lost them.

But I think we need to be careful around here because we're being semi-watched.

Who would have thunk it?

I'm popular at the playground and you are a threat to the Bloodhounds.

Maybe.

I don't know.

Okay, so what do you suggest?

Do we need to get to Beryl?

Should we get back to Beryl and talk to her about stuff?

We should go to the Hawkbeak Inn, I think.

Meet Beryl there.

Sounds wonderful.

After you, Kea.

You're so formal.

Yeah, I don't know.

I'm just being weird.

And I think I probably take a shortcut through the trees just to further throw off further throw off pursuers and go to the Hawkbeak Inn.

Yeah, you guys make your way back to the kind of outskirts.

You probably remember where the Hawkbeak Inn was.

There's an alley behind it, so you're probably able to go to the far side of the city park and not the main street.

Yeah.

And kind of approach it from the alley.

Can you go ahead and make me one more stealth check?

Nineteen.

Nineteen, okay, good.

You and Flipit are able to make your way pretty easily over to the Hawkbeak Inn.

As you approach, you get that wonderful smell of chowder and, you know, cooked fish and potatoes and all that stuff.

Loud ruckus noises, too.

You approach from the back of the building, you notice that there is a kitchen door on the back of the building, and there also seems to be a side door entrance on the side of the building.

Or you go all the way around to the front door.

I think I...

And the kitchen door is open.

I think I'll...

I notice that the kitchen door is open and say, wait here, to Flipit and go over...

To the kitchen door?

Yeah, not going in, but just peeking inside.

Yeah, you peek in and you see there's a cast of people here.

There's, of all varying races and sizes, there's a dwarf, there's a goblin, there's a, I don't know, a half-elf, et cetera, et cetera.

There's probably at least one.

Maybe the main chef is this Leonin lion person.

And right at about that time, you also notice, you know, just by peeking in, an Aarakocra burst through the door.

She's dressed in a dress, you know, not formal, but kind of nicer looking, but with some stains on it and has an apron on.

And she whirls in and she picks up a couple dishes and she pecks the Leonin on the cheek with a little kiss and then she whirls back out into the thing.

That seems like it would hurt.

She has a beak.

That's true.

He seemed to appreciate it.

And you can see the resemblances of little Tali in this person as she goes back out into the main part of the inn and tavern and serves people.

So this must be the lady who runs it.

Okay, I think I back out, not noticing anything of interest and you circle around to the front door.

Okay, you circle around to the front door.

As you are standing or as you are coming around the corner, standing by the front entrance is Beryl.

And she kind of gives you a nod.

And she goes, hey, you ready for some food?

Yeah.

Alright, let's go in.

Fiona is the lady who runs this place and she's pretty alright.

I met her daughter in the park.

Oh, you met Tally?

Yeah.

Little whipper snapper.

She said she showed me her snack box.

That kid sure does love snacks.

And you go in and I think Tally is actually running the front of the restaurant.

She's six.

She's six, yes.

But she's adorable.

And people don't get mad at adorable people.

So she comes in and she goes, Hi Kea.

Tally.

Would you?

Are you here so I can show you stuff?

Okay.

Come this way.

We can find a seat and I can show you the table where I like to hide food in the benches and draw underneath the table.

And she leads you guys over to this obscure corner table that is just covered in artwork and she has at least three snack bags hidden for quick access.

In there.

Oh, wow.

And she goes, Do you want my mom to cook you or to have them cook you anything?

Food sounds good.

Beryl's like, Yeah.

Oh, you first.

Uh, do you have any goldfish?

Are you asking Beryl?

Oh, no, you're asking.

Um, we have, um, we have, yeah, we have the goldfish.

We can, I think so anyway.

You want fish?

Yeah.

And she write, she pulls out a little notepad and she writes fish just like across the entire page with a one next to it.

And Beryl goes, Hey, Tally.

And Tally's like, Hey, Beryl.

The usual?

Beryl goes, Yep, you know it.

And Tally wanders off.

Did I get the chance to see what she wrote down?

She wrote down usual.

Usual?

Yep.

Spelled U-S-U-L-E.

Wow.

Yep.

And for a moment.

I mean, she's six and a bird.

So for a moment, you guys are, you got your food order in and Beryl leans down close.

She goes, OK, I can tell you mine first, if you want to go or you can go first.

You go first.

OK, OK.

I did some research around town.

Maude did come here first.

So she passed by Retail Ruins to come stay here and ventured out the next day.

And it sounds like she stayed here in the inn.

And I figured out which room she's in.

So I don't know if it's anything, but I figured we could go up there and we could figure it out from there.

Which room?

She's staying in room number seven.

So I figured that out.

I also figured out that...

I don't know if you...

if you walked down Main Street at all, but like two days ago, maybe three days ago, there was a fire.

Gretta's gear.

I saw it.

You heard about it?

Yeah.

Well, the theory is, and she looks around a little bit, her tusks glinting in the firelight, and she goes, what's the cause of it?

I thought so, and I pull out the list that I got.

Okay, and you show her?

Yeah.

Okay, so she shows the list, and she starts looking at it, and looking at it, looking at it, and she's like, I'm on this list.

Yeah, and so is Maude.

And Theodora.

And Theodora, but we're not crossed out.

No, which means they haven't gotten to you yet.

Which means she's not captured by the Bloodhounds?

Or they haven't found her cash yet.

Oh, maybe.

But if they found her, it would still make sense for them not to cross her out because...

Yeah, you might be right.

Well, I hope they don't cross her out.

That could be bad.

Yeah.

Well, I know some of these names.

And she starts looking through it.

She's like, wait...

And she looks and looks...

Gretta's gear is on there and it's burned down.

I see that.

And then she zones in on a name about midway up the list that you didn't notice before.

And she's like, wait.

And it was because the line crossed through it kind of obscured it a little bit, and she kind of holds it up to the candlelight.

Harwick Thistle on there, and it says Emberhaven, and it's crossed out.

And Harwick was their old friend slash rummager buddy.

Harwick's on there?

Yeah.

That's not great.

Have you gotten anything?

I haven't talked to him in two years.

We don't see each other that much anymore.

It's just I don't run ruins as much.

So you don't know what happened?

So you have no idea what his status is?

I don't know.

I haven't talked to him.

But now I need to.

And so she looks at that and she's like, well, okay, okay, I'll give this back to you.

And she hands it back to you.

I told her everything that happened.

And she goes, oh yeah, that little guy Scrick, he's kind of a pain.

He runs a lot of the stuff out of Briarport.

One of his lackeys followed me.

They followed you?

Yeah, but I lost them in the park.

And she starts looking around a little bit more.

And she's like, well, maybe we ought to go check that room quicker than later and maybe it's not such a good idea for you to stay here tonight.

Why?

I lost them.

They stopped following me.

Okay, I mean, if you're confident, but we should at least maybe get out of the main room.

Yeah.

Okay, so we'll say pretty soon though, Fiona comes over and she goes, Hi, sweeties.

I got your food.

And she puts down these foods in front of you.

You have this beautiful like koi fish, goldfish.

A koi fish?

You know those big red and black like, so still like a pond fish.

Yeah.

But it's like seared and beautiful and lemon slices, and it looks delicious.

And then Beryl's is just a live lobster with a boiling pot of water next to it and some butter.

Really?

She cooks it herself?

She cooks it herself.

And she goes, I heard you met my daughter earlier?

Tally.

She's sweet.

She took our orders.

She did.

She is the sweetest little girl.

And you look over and Tally's like leading some other people to another table and just like waddling along.

And I appreciate you playing with her today.

Thank you.

And she gives you a little nod.

Is there anything else I can get for you guys to net?

I turn to flibbit and say, are you getting anything?

Nope.

I am still rocking those 17 flapjacks I had this morning.

No, I don't think so.

Oh, right, I was completely distracted by the fish.

And I say, after we eat, could you show us Room 7?

You want to get a room?

They're five silver.

You look over at Beryl, and she gives you an imperceptive nod.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, that'll be five silver.

And Fiona takes it.

You pay it, I assume.

She takes it, I assume.

She says, Room 7.

Okay, that is a nice balcony view, too.

Should be a nice night for it.

Well, I'll be back with some waters, unless you want something else to drink, and we can go up there after that.

Okay.

And?

And I whispered to Beryl, balcony room?

Yeah.

Balconies are like prime escape spots.

She could have had that room for a reason.

Yeah.

Hopefully nobody's stayed in there since.

Go see if anything's going on.

Yeah.

After this, and she starts cooking her lobster.

I just say, how do you know when to pull it out?

You pull it out when it stops wriggling.

Please send us a comment that says if this is the actual proper way to cook a lobster.

I have absolutely no idea, but I do know you boil them.

Then she just dips it in butter, and I think she eats shell and meat.

I just think to myself, her tusks must help crack that.

Her tusks are tearing into that thing.

And your fish is delicious.

It is amazing.

The chef is very good at what he does.

And maybe he speaks like this.

A lion that speaks.

Actually, that is kind of believable.

Lion with an Italian accent.

Yep.

And then Fiona comes over, and she's like, after you guys finish up your meal, and Beryl pays for the meal, you paid for the room.

It was like two silver.

And she goes, okay, you guys ready to go up to the room?

Yeah.

Okay.

All right, this way.

And it's starting to die down a little bit.

You don't notice anything as you start going on up the stairwell.

You go up the stairwell, and you pass by the first flight.

The first flight has rooms one through four on it, and then you go up through the next flight of stairs, and it's got rooms four through eight.

So this is a small inn.

I mean, it's got eight rooms.

Yeah.

It's decent for what's in here.

You can definitely get the vibe as you're coming up here.

The rooms are a little lesser used.

It's more of a tavern restaurant kind of vibe than it is an inn.

And so I think probably like there's someone in room like two, and there's someone in room like five, but that's it.

There's not a lot of people actually staying in the inn.

It's more of like a tavern that you can stay at than an inn.

Yeah, it's the Hawkbeak Inn and Tavern, but the inn part is a little bit outdated.

And you know, it's probably a little dusty up here, especially on the top shelf.

Most of the time, she probably just has people stay on that first level.

Yeah.

She's like, yeah, no.

And she's taking you guys up.

Yeah, room seven.

It's been popular lately.

Is there a reason you guys wanted room seven?

I had somebody in here last week.

I wanted room seven.

Uh, really?

Who?

Oh, some elf.

Nice, nice enough lady.

She was here last week.

Has anyone stayed in the room since?

I don't think so.

I mean, you would know so.

I run this establishment.

Nope, no one stayed here.

And...

I say, did the elf give you a name?

It started with an M, exactly.

Oh, yeah, Maude.

Yeah, no, she's sweet.

Actually, now that I think about it, she looks over at Beryl, she said she knew you.

She's like, oh, yeah, no, me and Maude were good friends.

And unfortunately, Fiona, she is missing.

And Fiona goes, oh, my.

I say, yeah, we just thought room 7 would be nice because we've heard it has a good balcony view.

Okay.

And she guides you up to the third floor.

And as she's kind of making small talk, and she gets out her little set of keys, she starts detaching one for you.

And she goes over to open the door.

And she goes to open the door.

And you guys are kind of standing in the hallway next to you.

And she goes, well, well, that's odd.

And you look and the door is busted open.

Oh, I say.

But it's cracked now.

Yeah.

But the lock and everything is locked.

And she's like, I'm sure I locked it.

I guess I haven't been up here since.

Your friend, you said she's missing?

You haven't been up here since a week ago?

Well, she paid a week in advance, so I didn't really have reason to come up here.

She paid a week in advance?

Yeah.

That's pretty common.

As in she reserved it, but did she come in here?

Did she come in here?

Yeah.

Did she come in through the main building?

For the first couple of days, and then I hadn't seen her in a while.

I just assumed I was missing her in the night.

Did you hear anything up here?

No.

You didn't?

Like on those missing nights?

I don't recall anything.

And Beryl's like, Kea.

What?

And she keeps nodding her head to the left towards the door.

I'm saying, well, here, we'll take it from here.

If the room's busted up, I can help fix it.

Oh, I mean, you don't have to do that.

I could come in there and help too.

Does she open the door?

I think right at that point, kind of being the time she opens the door.

I rush in and immediately survey the room.

Okay, you rush in and you do a roll all cool and you survey the room, and very quickly it's easy enough to see that something's wrong with this room because there's someone in here wearing a very familiar brown leather red tabard and this half-orc guy that you saw as his lackey, his Skricks lackey, is standing here and he turns around and he goes, oh, you shouldn't be in here.

I say to Beryl, or I say to Fiona, might be a good idea to go check on that chowder.

She goes, yep, and leaves and closes the door behind her and I need you to roll initiative.

This half-orc tall guy standing there and he pulls out a big club and he goes, 23.

You guys must be friends, Maude.

You could say that.

Well, then you might have exactly what I need.

Beats his club against his fist.

I was apparently ready from doing a cool roll and pulling my swords because I got a 23.

Dang.

Well, then he pulls out this club and it looks like he is going to fight you guys.

So what would you like to do?

How far away is he from me?

Like 20 feet, maybe.

15 maybe.

It's a small room.

I'm going to, I believe for the first time, I want to get rid of this guy.

He's been following me.

He messed up Maude's room.

I'm going to Hunter's Mark him.

Nice.

So a little innate thing where you use your Horizon Walker ability, slash, we'll call it like your Tabaxi cat eyes to keep your eye on him and start looking for very specific weak points on his body.

I believe that's a bonus action, though.

Yes, it is.

But I can still, okay.

I'm going to run up and slash him.

And Hunter's Mark adds to that, right?

Yes, if I hit him with a weapon attack, I can add an extra D6.

Nice, okay.

I'm going to go slashy, slashy.

Does a 12 hit?

A 12, fortunately, does not hit.

Okay.

He is wearing a leather armor thing, and so that one unfortunately deflects off of the armor.

Do you want to do any other movement, or that would provoke an opportunity attack and you don't want to?

Yeah.

Okay.

He's going to look down at you and he's going to go, that was a bad call.

And he's going to raise his club and go to strike you.

Does a 13 hit?

No.

He is going to use a second attack, a little bonus attack to try to punch you.

Punch me?

You rolled a nat 20.

That definitely hits.

However, it's poor damage.

It was just a punch.

So he missed with his club.

He went to swing.

You ducked out of the way, and he goes to punch you in the arm, and it stings quite a bit.

I'll probably have a bruise.

Beryl goes, Kea.

We're doing this?

I mean, yeah.

All right.

And she comes in, you know, and she pulls out from her waistband a cutlass.

And she puts a flintlock pistol in her other hand.

She flips it around and is going to use it as like a blunt object.

Is what taped?

Was it taped to your belt?

Yeah, you didn't know it was there.

It was hiding underneath her coat.

She got a hit, actually.

Okay.

So she runs up and she seems to slash at this guy.

He parries it a little bit, but he still takes a slash.

And he doesn't look that hurt.

I'm going to again try to believe I can double hit him.

Oh, okay.

I'm going to try to slash him, and then I'm going to try to swipe at him.

Try to claw him with your cat claws.

Go ahead and make two attack rolls.

First, for my does not hit.

For your claws?

Or your sword.

Claws.

Oh, you know what?

Does not hit.

Hang on.

I forgot flibit.

So let me backtrack and let me have flibit's turn.

Okay.

Flibit is going to scream in fear, as he often does.

Ah, Kea, I just want to be on the merry-go-round.

And he runs.

He didn't even go on it.

You know what I mean.

Okay, I think he is going to actually do his guidance cantrip on you.

So you get the extra D4 to attack rolls.

No, it's ability check, not attack rolls.

Sorry, ability check for you.

And then he is going to move to the corner of the building, or of the room, and stay out of sight and be ready to heal if need be.

Now you can roll your turn.

Okay.

The 15 hit for my sword.

And get to 9 damage.

Because I get to roll 2.

And swipe it in with my retractable claws.

With your claws.

All right, go for it.

14.

14 also hits.

That is the armor class.

5 damage.

Dang, nice, Nate.

I have sharp class.

Okay, Nate.

He stumbles back a little bit on that last slash attack.

And he goes, And then he stumbles towards the balcony.

And he goes, This fight is unnecessary.

If you just give me the information I need.

What information?

I can't give you it if I don't know what it is.

Where'd she store it?

Does a 21 hit you?

Yes, it does.

I'm not level 20.

He reaches out with his club and he goes for a thwack attack.

You are going to take 3 more damage.

He did even less than his punch.

He did, but he's going to come around and hit you with a punch again.

Was it a 14 hit?

No.

Okay.

He misses with his punch.

Oh, wait, no, sorry.

That was 3 plus 3.

So 6 damage.

So add 3.

Because I forgot to do the weapon plus.

But he missed the punch.

He missed the punch this time.

So 6 more damage.

And he, I'm going to say, is...

Yeah, he's going to stay in the room for now.

Beryl's going to go...

Can you roll for Flipit?

Flipit?

Flipit's going to do a stench spray.

What is...

Oh, to hit?

Yeah.

What's the plus?

It is a plus 3.

21.

Nice.

Flipit can roll the stench damage, which is 1d8.

That's a very powerful stench.

Yeah.

It's me re-flavoring Sacred Flame.

Ah.

Four plus anything?

No.

Four damage.

Four damage.

Beryl, unfortunately, missed him, and we're back around to your turn.

Can I shove him?

Off the balcony.

Yeah.

How far away?

How far away is it from the ground, because I don't want to kill him?

It's 20 feet.

That's probably down.

That might be a little far.

Never mind.

Maybe if it was like 10 feet, I'd feel better about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you just wanted to keep him incapacitated or something.

No, I mean, you could, but...

I don't want to kill him.

I want to interrogate him.

Yeah.

And yeah, you can just make that choice with D&D, how you want to do it.

I don't think I...

I think I see that, and like think about it, but I'm like, consider like the pros of keeping him alive and interrogating him, and so I think she's probably not pushing him off.

That's very moral of you.

I feel very virtuous right now.

As you go, I assume, to attack him again.

Yep.

With the sword.

Yeah, go ahead.

18.

Don't forget your D6, by the way.

I don't know if you did last time.

Oh, I did.

I rolled two D6s.

10 damage.

Oh, boy.

He stumbles down from the slash down to one knee, and he drops his club on the ground.

He goes, whoa, whoa, wait.

Wait, wait, wait.

It's fine.

You're stronger than I thought.

We don't need to keep going.

Don't underestimate a 12-year-old cat.

12-year-old rummager.

And he holds his hands up like this, and he's like, wait.

I'm sorry.

I'll stop fighting you.

I kick his club out of the way.

You kick the club out of the way, and he goes like this, and Beryl comes over, and she's like, Disgrace to the half-orc clans.

And he's like, There's no clans anymore.

The only clan I'm a part of is the Bloodhounds.

And she takes his club and throws it out the window.

He's like, Oh, my favorite club.

He probably thwacked a few people with it, though.

Like me.

I say to him, Explain what it is.

What?

Oh, the thing we're looking for that she had?

Yeah.

I don't know, some sort of powerful artifact.

Supposedly, people are finding these like, powerful past world tech, and boss thought Maude maybe was gonna go get one or had one, and he wanted us to come take it from her.

Do you know where she went?

No.

We showed up here, hoping to catch her, and the door was busted.

She was gone.

You didn't bust the door?

No.

I just got here before you to question you guys.

Well, that's going.

I say, um...

He's like, you're not that subtle, you know.

I saw you down in the tavern, and I saw you out on the street.

Because you rolled two really bad still checks.

Yeah.

I did.

I say...

He didn't say that part, though.

I say, well, you can't be subtle when you're eating fish.

I am...

Beryl nods.

She's like, yeah, I know.

I was crunching that lobster pretty loudly.

Um, I say, thank you, Beryl.

Uh, so, you don't know where she went?

No.

You...

the door was busted before you got here.

Yes.

Um, did your boss give you any more details?

No, he just told me.

Told me where she was currently and what she was doing.

So we got here as quick as we could, and she was bouncing around.

She was at Map's Edge, and then she was coming here.

I don't know.

Apparently, she had some sort of deal with somebody to find big magic artifacts.

Boss doesn't tell me much.

He usually keeps the big plans for himself.

Is that Scrick, or...?

No, no, no.

Not Scrick.

Scrick is...

Well, he's higher than me, I guess, but he ain't the boss, no.

Is that...

Mr.

Bloodhoof?

Yeah, obviously.

I just, like, said Mr.

Bloodhoof.

Like, very, like, unsure of whether I should call him Czar Bloodhoof, Mr.

Bloodhoof, or...?

Oh, yeah, I don't think anyone noticed.

Mr.

B.

Mr.

Bloodhoof, he goes, Yeah, of course.

He sent us out to find as much as we could.

For reasons unbeknownst to...?

I'm not telling you nothing.

Okay.

I point my sword at him menacingly.

Else, with your powers or anything like that?

I don't have any...

Oh, I get to add a default?

Oh yeah, yeah, ability check.

So I think Flipit comes over and he's like, You're gonna talk to exactly what she wants.

And, um...

15.

15?

Um...

He goes, Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Look, we've been picking up past world tech.

Boss came up with this idea, like, last year.

And, uh, I don't know, he wants all this stuff.

He keeps collecting.

He's got the biggest hoard of anyone.

But anything he doesn't want, we've been...

Well, we've been opening shops all around elsewhere.

Yes, I met Carl.

Uh, and we're, like, quartering the market, basically, on past world tech.

So you're stealing and then selling them.

Yeah, I mean, it sounds bad when you say it that way.

And Beryl's like, Yeah, no, that's pretty bad.

And he's like, Well, yeah, okay, fine.

I don't know what you want me to say about it.

I'm I'm going to take my never ending ball of yarn.

And I am going to it can only be cut by it can only be cut or separated by its own array.

So I'm going to wrap some like lots of yarn around him, like try to tie him up.

Okay, since I probably it's like it's never ending, right?

Yeah, you can keep going forever.

Yeah.

Make a sleight of hand check.

See how good your knot is.

It's bowling.

Um, sleight of hand or survival.

Do I still get the three or do I still get the D4?

No, it's a one time thing, but he could just cast it on you again.

So sure, you're not in combat.

He throws guidance up on you again.

It's a cantrip.

You just you decide between sleight of hand or survival.

Seventeen.

Seventeen.

He is so bound up tight.

He's like, the yarn is really strong.

That's what that's what it is.

It's good enough.

I see what you did there and I didn't appreciate it.

Thank you.

Well, what are you going to do with me?

Hmm.

Well, let's see.

I know Fiona has a there's a kitchen.

There's also a balcony over there.

And hmm.

There's also the ocean.

Yeah.

No, no, no, no.

I can give you more information.

I don't know.

I don't know what else I could stop.

Maybe I'll stop working with the Bloodhounds.

Okay, fine.

I have a sort of hmm.

Let's see.

Let's say this.

You're going to deliver a message for me to Scrick.

Ooh, I like where this is going.

And Beryl's nodding like, heck yeah, this kid's cool.

I'm 12.

And I say, and you're going to say, now this is anonymous.

I never did tell this guy my name, right?

No, he has no idea.

And I say, tell Scrick to tell Czar Bloodhoof that you better leave my friends alone.

And if you'll allow him, he'll run out the door.

Upper half of body tied up.

I tied his hands together.

Yeah, so his whole upper torso cannot be moved, but he could still walk.

Yeah.

And he runs.

I sent him down to the dock.

And he runs out the door.

Fiona and Tali come rushing upstairs.

Tali's like, why was that man in the yarn ball?

I say, don't worry, Tali.

He was just playing around.

And Fiona pats Tali on the head and shoes her downstairs.

And she's like, are you all right?

Yeah.

Is this going to be a problem?

And she kind of gestures to the room and the guy and all that.

The guy is at the door.

Well, I know, but like, I don't want them coming back and like messing with my shop or my tavern or anything.

I think you're safe.

Well, I told him not to mess with my friends.

Or friends with my friends.

All right.

Well, shoot.

The room's yours if you want it.

Sure.

And I think with that, Beryl and you chat about what this all means.

I want to search the room.

For anything of mods.

So Fiona leaves and you guys start searching the room.

Go ahead and roll me an investigation check.

And you can do it with advantage because Beryl and Flibit are also kind of helping you out.

Twenty.

Non-natural.

Twenty non-natural.

You start going through the room and you don't really see anything.

It's just a rentable room, right?

You start looking at stuff and you go through.

There's a little desk.

There's a little bed, a chest of drawers and the closet.

And you start kind of going through everything and you've went through it all.

You don't see anything.

And then you kind of think about it and you go back to the chest of drawers because the chest, kind of like what you saw in her cache, had a little compartment, right?

And Beryl kept that little thing in there.

You open it back up because you're like, wait, the floor of that chest didn't quite seem to be the right height.

And you can see that however Maude did it, she has inserted some sort of little, you know, secret compartment into this chest.

You open it up and inside you see a map.

And you open it up and you look at the map, and it's a marking to from Maps Edge to Briarport.

And then from Briarport to Retail Ruins, right?

Yeah.

And then written on with a big arrow to Retail Ruins is observed, or sorry, is the words observed at distance, trap possible, reevaluate.

And then that's what you find.

Is there anything on the back?

Nope.

Beryl's like, what do you think that means?

She knew there was a trap?

She said reevaluate.

Maybe she never went to Retail Ruins.

Well, crud.

And that's what we're end all session.

Wow.

Just ending it with crud.

Wow.

All right.

So serious.

Continuing on the adventures of what happened to Maude.

Boundstaker?

Did somebody else?

Where is she now?

Did Beryl cook lobster correctly?

Yes.

Please send us...

Please post a comment on something.

Comment us your lobster recipes.

All right.

That is all.

I don't even know if I like lobster.

Yeah, I don't know.

It's been a while since I've had it.

All right, folks.

Thanks for joining us again on Dadventurous.

I was the dad leading you through a whirlwind of, for some reason, very similar sounding characters.

And I was the daughter leading you through a whirlwind of threats and merry-go-rounds.

Threats and merry-go-rounds.

Ooh, that's a good episode.

All right, we will see you all next week on Dadventurous.