Welcome to Dumbgeons and Dragons. We're a D&D 5th edition actual play podcast, and I'm your Dungeon Master, Russ More, and with me today is Amy More.
Yes, she is. I'm Amy More, and I'm playing...
Who do you regularly play?
I regularly play Thea Amastasia.
And also with us, Tom Laird.
Hey, that's me. I saw a really weird commercial earlier for a show called Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club, so we've got that to contend with as alternative programming, and I normally play Flint Firebeard.
Does it play at the same time as we do? Like, are we competing in bright time?
We play always, though, honey. It's a podcast.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's a real show, so...
We've got that going for us. And also with us, Carla Johnson.
And I play new Laura Moonbrook, and I had a dream last night that was very real, and I only just now realize it clearly must have been a dream that I was out at a restaurant and there was a child sitting beside me named New Laura.
But that can't be real.
I mean, it's kind of a real name, but it's not a totally wacky name or anything.
Maybe there are people who are now naming their children Flint, Thea, and New Laura because of the podcast.
That certainly can't be.
I certainly would just not enjoy that at all for that child.
No, I would just give them a good middle name.
I could actually see any of our names being names.
Well, Svea is a name.
The kid's god. Yeah, Svea is. But even Flint, I could see that.
I can see that.
I once taught a kid named Sunshine and also one named Boogie.
So Flinty and New Laura are not bad names.
No, there are no bad names. Maybe that's what I'm saying.
How's everybody doing?
Good. Weird day. Super weird day. But good.
That's good. I'm glad you're all here and ready to play the game because we're doing something different.
We're so ready.
But what isn't different is when we dedicate an episode to a patron.
That's true. We do that all the time.
Who is it?
Like today. Yeah, I mean, there was that incident.
We were all drunk.
It was just a blip. We mostly remember.
We were having a tough time.
Anyways, today's patron, we're dedicating to one, Jacob Madden.
Jacob, you da bomb.
Thanks, Jacob.
And if you want to check Patreon out, Patreon.com slash dumb dragon cast.
You can come join the community over there, but we also have other communities like Discord, where there are exclusive Patreon channels.
And our Facebook group, the Reckless Play Guild, where we joined up with the End of Time and Other Bothers, the Lucky Die and Dark Dice.
You can come join us over there.
They've got great, great people all over the place.
You can come hang out and chat with.
Hey, remember when Russ used to tell all this stuff, but then he used like pop quiz us and you'd be like, and you can also find us on Tom.
The worst.
But then it never worked out so we stopped.
But then we got really good at it, I think.
We were like so ready with like the websites and stuff that it wasn't fun for him anymore.
And he stopped doing it.
Yeah, it just became quicker just for me to do it.
You don't like us stumbling through it?
www.Patreon.com slash dumb dragon cast.
Damn it, Steve.
Yeah.
Well, and also that's the whole like mantra for our whole podcast is it's just easier.
You know what?
D&D.
It's just easier if the DM does it all.
Make that a t-shirt.
Yeah.
And we have t-shirts too.
We won't get into that now.
We'll wait for the interlude for that one.
I don't know if we should say fuck it.
Let's play D&D because we're doing things a little different today.
Fuck it.
Let's do it different.
So fuck it.
Let's do it different.
And we've been doing things differently for the last, it seems like a couple of months.
Have we said that every episode?
It's going to be a little different today, I guess.
I guess in that, in that respect, we're doing things normally for 2019, 2019 doing things
different.
Today, we are, we're looking to the future of Dumbgeons and Dragons is what we're doing.
And Flinty and Nulara, they've got a big battle coming up now.
We don't know how that battle is going to turn out.
We're, we're all hoping for the best.
But it is the inevitable rise of TMS.
Exactly.
And I mean, we've pissed Russ off a lot.
We are exceptionally irritating people.
It's, it's, I mean, it's still all up to the dice rolls and we still plan on going ahead with Flinty and Nulara.
However, we would like to explore the world around at a lower level.
It's double meaning there.
But so we're starting with some new characters today.
And these characters will do a couple episodes here, but they won't be back until after that battle.
And they're going to start at level one.
So that's something that US Dumbgeons and Dragons listeners haven't experienced with us because we only started Flinty and Nulara at level ones around the table before we started recording.
So they started like, I can't remember six or seven.
It was somewhere in there.
So we get to go through that process together.
And then it gets us to give a chance to look at what Flinty and Nulara haven't really been being able to take a look at, which is like how the world is changing for the regular people because they've been floating above in their airships, kind of just flying over all the cities that are on fire.
At one point we kind of just stopped going to different troubled cities, right?
Like we were in the forest.
We were helping elves.
We were in Leskin.
And then it just became a little too side questy, right?
Because we always were like, oh, we will help these people.
And then Russ is like, I've been trying to rise to that for two years.
What is wrong with these people?
The Cult of the Dragon is stalling now at this point saying, oh, where are the heroes?
They're just doing their knitting that they haven't cut off on.
But yeah, so we want to do that and hopefully introduce some new characters who you will love.
And then we don't have a schedule set up for this, but we'll be recording, I don't know, we'll say 50-50 for now and see how it kind of evolves after that.
If we like the characters, then we'll do that.
If not, then maybe we'll do something different.
We don't know.
What I'm saying is we don't know how it's going to look, but we're introducing these characters and doing some new things.
So who are these characters, you might ask?
Well, we don't know.
Oh, so that whole lead up.
Well, end of episode.
I have something to confess.
I haven't done my character.
Was I supposed to have a new character?
Just kidding Russ.
Stop having a heart attack slash plotting our murders.
We're ready.
Too late. They're level ones.
They're easy to kill.
God, they're so easy to kill.
So squishy.
So soft and squishy.
That's something too that Tom, Carla and Amy haven't really had to deal with in a while because Flintia and Eulara are like fucking tanks.
You know what?
I think after this episode, we are really going to go back to Flintia and Eulara with renewed awe and wonder at how fucking awesome they are.
Because you know why?
When you are used to awesomeness, you become complacent.
It doesn't wow you as much.
You know, the shiny armor has been dulled.
But I think we're going to go back and go like, oh, it's so nice not to have to roll death throws every fucking time.
Yeah, and to have like plus whatever attack bonuses.
I think it's going to make me more reckless with new Laura because I'll be like, oh, my God, I have so many hit points.
Let's fight this fucking dragon.
It's so tough.
Let's do it.
Let's climb right on in and kill it from the inside out.
Good idea.
Wait, which head?
Exactly.
You don't know which one's the key.
Is one a key?
No, he's just fucking with us.
Or is he?
This is the problem with Russ.
I never know.
Our marriage is like one of those like, it's like a game of Clue.
What?
It was Russ in the kitchen with the sandwich.
Usually.
Yes.
Usually I do like a good sandwich.
Nailed it.
That sandwich is for Addison.
Let's face it.
Yeah.
OK, yeah.
Tom, who is your character?
My character is a fellow by the name of Murin Arrel Odania Torserin.
But you can call him moot.
He's the youngest of a whole bunch of kids.
He's a half orc.
And since he was the youngest of a bunch of kids, his opinion often didn't matter.
And hence it was a moot point most of the time.
So the nickname kind of stuck for him.
He is a wild magic sorcerer.
So half orc sorcerer.
Orcs-er-er?
Bit of a weird combo, but I'm on board with it.
We can do this.
Orcs-er-er?
Sorcs-er-er?
Yeah.
Sor ors.
Sorcerer orc?
Sorcerer orc.
Yep.
Got it in one.
Yeah, that was one.
That was one, right?
Yep.
One group effort.
It was just one really long one.
And Karla, who is your character?
My character also goes by a nickname, as is the way of her people.
Her name is Nurixus Akra.
So Nurixus is her clan.
But everybody calls her Glim.
So I am a dragonborn pAlydin.
And she goes by Glim, because her scales are particularly shimmering
and beautiful, like metallic brass, rose gold, a little bit of platinum.
So she thinks.
And everyone from her clan thinks she's something pretty darn special.
So Glim.
When she was a kid, everyone called her Glimer.
So Glim.
I like it.
You're so fancy.
I imagine you with a unicorn horn, and I know that's not how.
I know that's not what dragonborns look like.
Dragonborns can wear hats.
That's true.
Yeah, they can.
Really fun hats.
Really fun unicorn horn style hats.
And Amy.
My character's name is Sullivan Sleight.
He is a lightfoot halfling rogue.
And he was actually a little bit of a sad backstory.
The Cult of the Dragon decimated his village when he was like nine or ten.
And he had what Russ called like a Thanos moment,
where he was found huddling under a pile of wreckage, essentially,
wood from homes.
He was found by one of the head cultists.
And was essentially taken in.
And from a very young age,
he had been indoctrinated into the Cult of the Dragon doing small jobs
where they needed somebody small like a halfling and slight and sneaky.
So something that we're going to do with these characters
that we haven't really been doing with Flinthi and Lara
because the focus has been more on this.
Well, I mean, it's kind of both.
The focus has been more on their goal and how we've got to the goal
and how we're getting to the goal.
Whereas these characters, I think what we're going to do is when you level up
and when you go through a level, things happen to each character.
You get new abilities. You get new things that happen.
Your body starts to change.
You grow hair in different places.
A lot of places.
But what we're going to do is we're going to incorporate those
a little bit more thoroughly into the story.
So if you get an ability, it's about how you learn that ability
or how you obtain that ability.
So we have to set out kind of story guidelines
as to how these things all come about.
So they don't just happen.
You always wake up the next day and they're there.
You move up a level and then we have to figure out a way to get your ability.
So you don't just wake up and all of a sudden
you can throw daggers with blinding accuracy
and you just look at your friends and go...
Exactly.
But the thing is your friends don't even react
like the way we've been doing and it's just like,
Oh, look at you go.
Hey, that's cool.
Like that scene in every superhero movie
where they test out their newfound abilities.
Or the Matrix where he wakes up and he knows Kung Fu.
So that's what we're going to do.
It's going to be more, a little bit more
real world for these characters, I think.
And then we're going to try that form of storytelling out.
And it's also going to be probably a little more like we did
I guess for you guys and for Patreon,
like we did with Fatecore
where it's a little bit more open world
and a little more you guys get to decide
which string you're going to follow, right?
So you can...
Which totally goes great for us.
Yeah. Well, I mean, it will be...
Sometimes it does.
I feel like we won Fatecore.
Yeah, sure.
It was very fun collaborative storytelling.
It was.
Yeah. If you want to check out Fatecore,
go check out Patreon, Patreon.com slash dumb dragon cast.
But what I'm saying is so I'll set up like, you know,
your bulletin board of things and you guys get to pick.
And then based on what you pick,
that's where that story goes until you figure out where to go next.
So it will be still controlled by the overarching God.
That is the DM.
Russ is going to say himself.
Yeah.
Wow.
The molder of the world.
I'm all board with it, Russ.
Don't let Amy DM shame you.
Yeah. So but you guys will have...
It won't be as as railroaded as it modules can sometimes feel.
Is what I'm trying to get at, I think.
That's the characters.
And that's what we're doing.
Sullivan Sleight.
We find you in Luskin.
So Sully is from a small village outside of Athkatla.
And a group of when he was 10 years old,
a group of the cult of the dragon came and decimated his entire village,
murdered his family in front of him.
He was huddling in a pile, probably a pile of ruins,
could potentially have been a wood pile.
He doesn't really remember much from that time,
but he was found cowering in the ruins by the head cultist,
Akhtar Tarvan.
And he was taken by Athkar and indoctrinated into the cult of the dragons.
And he was groomed to do their spy work.
Being a halfling, he was really good at fitting into tight spaces,
going places unnoticed.
And for years, he was loyal and did recon for the cult.
And he would bring back tales of,
and let me like if this is like right in timeline wise,
at this point after he's been with them for seven years or so,
seven or eight years,
bringing back tales of the decimators of dragons who are fighting back.
Akhtar sent Sully to Luskin with a group to learn higher skills,
as he put it.
Sully wasn't sure what that was meaning,
but he went anyway because he saw what happened to people who said no to Akhtar
and so went along without too much of a stink.
So you're with a small group of cultists and you're keeping,
like you said, pretty under the radar.
You're wearing more or less common or mercenary clothes.
Luskin is a big travel city, so you fit in.
There's no need to really hide.
There's a lot of unsavory fellows who you're with.
One of them's name is Benty and Barty.
They're brothers.
You're kind of going merchant to merchant,
just kind of seeing what they have available.
And Benty, he comes up to you.
He's like, all right, kid, we got the job.
So you're ready to go?
What's the job?
Look, Akhtar said you wasn't going to ask no questions.
Yeah, he said you was pretty easy to just come along.
Is that all I'm doing, is coming along?
Well, I mean, he told us to teach you the ropes, yeah?
What kind of ropes are we talking about?
Oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what he said.
Okay.
Meet us at the room tonight,
and then we'll head out and go get on our way, okay?
We'll be there by morning.
Okay, sure. Yeah, okay.
They wander off, blending into the crowd.
What do you do before you have to go to the room?
I probably go to probably like a local pub or a bar,
somewhere where there's music playing, and I sit in the back.
I don't order anything, but I love, Sully like loves listening to the music.
So anytime he can, anytime he's on a mission,
he takes a small amount of time out of his schedule
and we'll find where Bard is playing and get his news, essentially,
because he doesn't like to talk to people.
Yeah, you head to the Cutlass,
which is one of the larger, more well-known taverns in town.
You sit down in the back, and there's a bard playing,
and you order a drink or whatever you order.
Nothing.
Nothing?
No.
You blend in quite nicely.
Nobody really pays too much attention to you.
You see a lot of people coming and going,
and there's a trio that kind of catches your eye.
There's a dwarf and an elf and a human,
and they walk up to the bar,
and you see them kind of stumbling about,
not knowing what they're doing there either.
But otherwise, it goes by rather uneventful,
and it's about time that you should be going to meet Benty and Bardy.
I pass by where the bard had out his hat,
and I put a silver coin down,
and I continue out and to the room,
reluctantly, almost slowly.
You're walking your way to the room where you're staying,
and make a perception check.
Oh, my.
Ooh, 16 plus perception, 17.
You hear a wagon coming up behind you.
Squeaky wheels.
Yeah, very squeaky wheels.
You hear the familiar voice of Benty yell,
God damn it, Bardy,
you're supposed to get something sneakier than this.
Sorry, boss, it's all they had.
He hops down and he's like,
okay, I was going to scoop you up and be like,
you were kidnapped and teach you a lesson about paying attention,
but you could hear us coming from down the block.
Is this what I'm here to learn about?
No, just get in the wagon.
We're going to be going on the road here.
As I go around to the back of the wagon,
I give the wheel a swift kick in the hub,
and it doesn't squeak anymore.
See, Bardy, that's all you had to do.
Sorry, boss.
So you hop in, and they set off,
and they don't outwardly tell you where you're going.
You just begin to travel out of Luskin and on your way.
Can I tell if we're going north or south?
Am I good at that kind of stuff?
Yeah, you can make a direction roll.
Nature or survival?
At 15.
Yeah, you can tell you're heading in a westerly direction.
You're on the road for at least two or three days.
Oh, my God.
Are we there yet?
You've been asking that the whole time.
Look, we get there.
When we get there, we're going to meet up with some other folks,
and then we're going to help out the boss, you know.
Can you at least tell me what city we're going to?
They kind of look at each other and say, no.
Why?
We're going to get there, and you're going to be like, ah, we're in?
Well, no, it's going to be a surprise to the people in the city.
And I will somehow ruin that surprise by having that information.
Gosh, you talk back a lot.
Boss said you were pretty easy going.
Boss said you guys knew what you were doing.
Okay, we're going to the city of Kars, okay?
Was that so hard?
Well, we tried to keep the mirror of illusion and wonder in your tiny, tiny, tiny brain.
Maxar's going to be so pissed when he finds out you told me.
Oh, shit.
God damn it.
We're in trouble now.
Another day goes by, and you get to the high forest,
and you are a distance away from the city of Kars,
and you're pulling up to an area where there is a large gathering of other cult members.
So is this some sort of birthday party?
Yeah, you could say that because we're going to get all the presents,
and it's going to be really, really nice.
Is it a raid?
Yeah, yeah, it's a raid.
Look, you stick with us, you'll be okay, kid.
Don't worry about it.
How many villages have you guys raided?
Oh, I can't even count them on one hand.
Look, we're going in at night time, and it's going to be just fine, right?
You just stick with us, you learn the ropes.
What are these ropes that you keep talking about?
Look, what have you been doing for the boss?
I've been going to different cities, seeing who's meeting up together,
seeing how many people are meeting in what groups, what they're talking about,
and then coming back and giving them that information.
Yeah, well, now we're in more of a less of an information gathering situation,
more of an item and house clearing situation.
Got it?
Good.
Night comes and they signal to you that you're ready to go.
The entire cult begins moving towards the city.
It's dark, the canopy of the forest covers it quite well.
It's not a lot of light.
There's some light within houses as you get closer to the city.
The cult has this place surrounded.
They've got any number of humans and drakes and wormlings all waiting to move.
They get their signal and everybody begins rushing into the city.
They begin kicking in doors, setting fires.
You hear people screaming as you're chasing behind Bente and Barty.
What is Sully doing or feeling at this moment?
Sully's never really been in this kind of situation.
He's barely ever seen a battle, let alone been involved with one.
His heart is racing.
He's battling his feelings between following orders
and the fear that he's feeling that's coming up.
He's not quite sure where it's coming from,
but it's absolutely having to do with memories of this exact thing happening
to his village when he was a child.
As you see those memories flash in your mind's eye,
Bente and Barty get to a door and they try to open it and it's locked.
They kick it in and there's a scream from inside
and a man rushes forward with a blade.
He's tripped out the door and stabbed right in front of you at your feet by Barty.
Bente then moves into the house and you hear more screaming.
Barty pushes you into the house along with them.
You see a woman and a child huddled in a corner,
clutching various what could be construed as family heirlooms.
And they strike them down.
Cold blood. They don't strike out.
They begin gathering things into sacks
as the woman and the child and the man out in the street, the life drips away.
They fill up their sacks and say,
You're on the next one there, kid.
What?
And they begin moving towards the next house.
I think I remain frozen in this living space,
just looking at the mother and child just completely shocked and horrified.
Come on, let's go.
Yeah, guys, I don't think this is for me.
What do you mean this isn't for you?
Well, I'm not a fighter and this is a lot of fighting.
Look, Barty, just pick him up and let's get going, OK?
Barty begins to move towards you.
I back up.
He rushes at you to try and grab you.
I try to dodge.
Dexterity saving throw.
14.
You kind of stumble backwards and he reaches for you
and he trips over a floorboard and falls down
and you manage to sneak to the side.
The door is open in front of you.
I rush at the door.
You see Bente standing out in the street and saying,
OK, let's get, hey, where's Barty?
He'll be right there.
And I rush in behind the house,
so I make a hard right and rush in between the houses.
You hear footsteps up into the building
and then he looks and sees and says,
kid, I'm coming, get back here.
And then you hear footsteps in behind you.
There's forest in front of you.
I run into the forest.
You hear footsteps keeping pace with you almost
and then you hear, oh, Barty's in the tree.
I don't know if we're going to get him back.
We'll just say maybe he got shot with an arrow.
Yeah, that'll go over well.
All right.
Boss isn't going to be too happy about that.
You hear the footsteps stop
and start to walk back towards.
You hear screams and then an explosion.
There's a large ball of fire that goes up in the city.
I don't look back.
I keep running.
Where do we find Murian, Oral, Ordenya, Torsaren, or Moot?
Yeah, Murren, first off, if you're going.
Murren, sorry.
That's all right.
Marion.
I said Marion.
That's too wise.
Mid Marion.
Yeah.
So I mean, old school wise, he grows up in the high forest
in a small forest village east of Kars.
And how old is Moot at this point?
In his backstory where his event happens,
he's probably about 16 or 17.
So the city you live in,
largely humans and half orcs and that sort of type or just half orcs?
Yeah, the village that they're in is a blended village
of a lot of humans and orcs and half orcs.
It's a place where they all kind of gathered together to live peacefully.
Moot's family, how are they ingrained in the village?
Pretty well.
I mean, his folks are around.
His dad's name is Orell and his mom's name is Odania,
which are his two middle names, the two O's in his names,
because he has so many brothers and sisters that they ran out of middle names
by the time they got to him.
So they just named them after themselves.
It's a bright sunny day.
And we find Moot hanging out with some friends.
Who's he hanging out with?
Oh, good question.
Probably some other half orc kids.
We'll go with his friends, Davey and Raquel.
You're hanging around with Davey and Raquel.
And you guys are talking, you know, you're doing what, you know, young half orcs do.
And you're just kind of having a conversation about some things that you heard the night prior.
You heard primarily a loud explosion that ran through the forest.
Did you guys hear that last night?
Yeah, the rumbly thing.
Yeah, what was that?
I don't know.
My mom said it was an explosion.
Wow.
Who would be exploding things here?
I don't know.
I mean, it's pretty, pretty quiet place, really.
Yeah, no, it's probably like, I don't know, like people trying to mine trees.
People don't mine trees, Davey.
What are you talking about?
What do you mean people don't mine trees?
Well, they cut them down.
They don't mine them.
Hmm.
But my dad said that that's how they make wood.
I mean, I don't really know about that, Davey, but I don't I still don't think you mine trees.
You're kind of a fucking idiot, Davey.
Oh, geez.
Why do we keep him around?
He's fun.
So that's something.
Yeah.
I'm fun.
Right.
I think that's good.
I don't know.
Sorry.
Explosion.
Did you hear anything else about what it might have been?
I mean, I mean, I don't know.
My my parents seem pretty concerned about it.
But just I mean, they didn't really say too much else in front of me.
So it's hard to say.
My folks are saying there's some some weird stuff happening like outside of the forest, like big cults or something like that.
Have you heard anything about that?
Oh, shit.
No, that that doesn't sound good, though.
No, I don't know.
They seem pretty cagey about it.
Maybe they were trying to hide something, but it doesn't seem very good if there's like people mining for wood over there.
I mean, yeah, it's hopefully they they leave the forest alone.
I mean, that's our home.
Yeah, exactly.
That's all I'm saying.
Oh, well, hey, maybe we go check and see with the with the old man.
What's his nuts over there?
You know, old old man Barclay.
Yeah.
Old man Barclay.
See if he knows anything.
Yeah, I guess we could go go check with him.
Let's let's head over there.
Old man Barclay doesn't know anything.
Probably tell us they can't mine wood.
I mean, we've been telling you we can't mine wood.
OK, well, if he tells me, then I'll believe it.
OK, Davey, you guys carry on to old man Barclays,
which is just a rickety old shack at the edge of town.
You see him sitting out in his in his front front yard,
just kind of enjoying a cup of moonshine.
Hey, hey, Barclay, do you do you know anything about what happened last night?
We heard a big, big rumble and my mom said was an explosion.
Moot, you got to say hello first.
That's how you start conversations.
Sorry, sorry.
Hey, hey, Barclay.
Hey, Moot, Davey, Raquel, sorry, been drinking my cup.
You've been you've been hitting the shine today.
Well, you know, when they tell you to stay at the edge of town,
what else are you going to do?
Anyways, what was your question?
Did you see what happened last night?
There was something about an explosion nearby.
Do you have any idea what's going on?
Yeah, I did hear it.
It did wake me up from my stupor dream, my dream.
You know, it's probably nothing to worry about.
You know, they've been they've been like mining.
Yeah, wood, wood, right?
No.
Davey, they don't mine wood.
They don't.
I've been telling you for weeks, Davey.
Oh, right.
Anyway, there's some new mining things going up not too far from here.
Probably just that.
Oh, OK.
Well, I mean, that takes a load off.
Thanks, Barclay.
What do you know about the hold on, hold on, hold on.
What do you know about the cult situation things happening?
Yeah, I just kind of I just kind of heard about this from Raquel.
I don't I don't really know too much.
Oh, well, there's some there are some folks passing through here that said
there's some cult things happening where there's like there's there's people
trying to bring like dragons back or something.
Oh, dragons are cool.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, dragons are sweet, dude.
Sweet.
But I think what they're doing is, you know, not not the most good things.
Oh, that's what they say anyways.
It was just one group.
I mean, they were probably just trying to swindle me from a shine.
You got to watch out for that, hey.
Right. Right.
So what are you kids up to today?
I mean, I don't know.
We were just kind of hanging out, you know, walking around in the forest.
You should get a job.
I mean, I don't I don't know.
Like, my my dad's always looking for help at the mill.
But, you know, he says I'm kind of too young still.
How old are you?
About to turn 17.
When I was 17, I was.
I was working.
I was really I really thought there was going to be more to that.
No, no, no more.
I was working.
I was earning a living.
I had 16 kids of my own, probably.
Wow, that's a lot of kids for that young in life.
Well, that's what they called me.
The man with too many kids for his age.
Anyway, I'll probably let you kids get back to doing what you're doing.
Kid things.
Yeah, I guess we should we should head back.
See you. See you, Barclay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Come back any time.
I'll tell you stories.
I mean, we probably won't.
You head back to town and you spend the rest of the day, you know, doing what kids do.
Nighttime comes.
Your friends all kind of rush back to their houses.
And what does what does Moot do?
He heads home for for dinner as well.
He usually helps out, you know, setting the table, that sort of thing.
Yeah, you get back home just as just as your mother is kind of finishing up the meal.
You smell it as you walk through.
It's one of your favorites, too.
What do you smell?
Yeah, obviously smelling cutlets of some sort, maybe pork pork cutlets.
You walk through the door and you smell those delicious pork cutlets.
And you hear your mom call somebody comes at the table.
I'm on it.
Oh, good, good, good.
What what what you've been up to today?
We were in the in the forest and then we ran across Barclay and he was told you not to go by old Barclays.
I know, but he's harmless, harmless.
The man had 16 kids by the time he was 17.
Yeah, he was telling us about that.
What a weird choice.
What were you going out there for?
Well, we were talking about that explosion last night and then Raquel mentioned something about a cult or something.
And then Barclay was talking about a cult.
I don't know.
It was all really weird.
Do you know anything about this cult?
Cults.
I heard something, but it didn't sound like anything too serious.
You know, just you know what?
Cults is as cults does.
I mean, I don't.
But OK, I mean, they were probably just mining trees.
I really don't think that's a thing.
Why does everybody keep saying that?
I hear it's a new way to do it.
Anyways, it's going to put the mills out of the business.
Your father's not going to be too happy about it, but we'll just keep that between you and me.
OK?
OK.
Speaking of which, your father walks through the door and he sees you setting the table and says, oh, good job.
You have a good day.
Yeah, it was pretty good.
How was the mill?
When are you going to come work with me?
I mean, you've been telling me I'm too young.
So I've been waiting for you to say this exact thing to me.
Well, today's the day, boy.
OK, maybe not today, because it's the end of the day and the mills actually closed.
But tomorrow's the day, boy.
Awesome. I can't wait.
Can't believe I didn't say this sooner.
That means I get to work less while you do more work because I'm training you.
Yeah, that's usually how training works.
Yeah, it's not twice as much work for the person training the new person at all.
That's what I'm hoping for.
Easy couple of weeks for me.
Your brothers and sisters, those that are around, they come in and everybody sits down to a big meal.
You go through the evening and it's about time for bed.
Everybody goes and climbs in and your dad yells out to you, he's like, get some good rest tonight.
Tomorrow, get some good rest tonight.
That's the sentence I was looking for.
Were you into the shine with Barclay earlier?
No, don't go see Barclay.
He's not he's not good news.
Anyways, what I'm saying is big day at work tomorrow.
OK, great. I'll I'll go hop into bed.
You drift off to sleep and not sure how much time passes, but it's it's a it's a late sunset and it's pitch black when you wake up.
You wake up to the sound of screams coming from the streets.
I hop out of bed and run into my parents.
What's happening?
Your mother and some of your brothers and sisters, they're in the room and your father is not in there.
Your mother says he's he's out.
He's out by.
He went to go see what's going on, told us to stay here, stay here.
We we we got to go help them.
You and your two brothers are OK.
Let's let's let's go.
Let's go see what we can help them with.
You head out in the front doors open and you see people running and screaming and there's there's lanterns.
And you look across and down the streets and you see someone throw one into what you know as Raquel's house.
The house goes up quickly in flames and you hear screaming from inside the house and you see a couple of people dressed in black robes
and cloaks and they are running around, some of them carrying bags, some of them carrying weapons.
What do you do?
Yeah, I yell into my mom, I say like they're they're burning people's houses.
We we have to get out of here.
She yells back and begins bringing out your your sisters who are in there as well and kind of looks out the window.
You know, and two of these people come and stand in front of you and your brothers.
And they say, look, if you don't put up a fight, we're not going to hurt you.
Yeah, yeah, what he said.
Uh, yeah, I mean, please don't please don't hurt us.
Why why are you burning people's houses?
You kind of hear from behind you three more people begin to move into your house.
What? There's there's nothing in there.
Just what's happening?
Just don't worry about it.
OK, there's there's things above you kid that you're just you're not ready to understand yet.
Now give us everything you've got in the house and nobody else gets hurt.
You hear screams from inside your house.
I'm going to bolt for the house.
Dexterity check.
OK, it's a 13.
You managed to outrun one of the people behind you and you get in and you see one of the men with his arm raised towards your your mother and your sisters with a sword in hand.
I kind of shoot like the arm out like no.
But while I'm doing this, a like beam of white light like streaks out of my hand and and towards the the man with his arm raised.
The temperature of the room drops several degrees and this white light hits this man and he seems frozen in the place where he was.
Your mother and your sisters scream even louder as they see what you have done.
And I kind of look down at my hand like what the fuck just happened.
They run back into the house and into their room and two men come behind you.
And move to grab you and the same thing happens.
This blue white light emanates from your hand from your bodies and it freezes these people in place and a rift seems to open up in front of you.
And you see a deep purple black energy and you feel it begin to course through you.
Something you've never experienced before.
And the men frozen in place shatter to the ground.
I'm just kind of staring at both my hands like dumbfounded.
Your brothers are standing watching from behind you and say what what what happened.
I I don't know.
I. I. I.
He's just speechless.
You hear an explosion out in the town.
And you look out the window and you see a lot of these these men that you didn't recognize dressed in the dark robes.
They run away.
They have bags full over their shoulders.
Screaming is still happening, but they look like they are fleeing the town.
You go out into the streets and there are many more houses on fire.
Is there any sort of like water stations or anything that I can like try to help try to put these fires out?
Yeah, there's there's a there's a well in this in town center.
You see people running back and forth as quickly as they can to little to no avail.
The city itself is by morning half destroyed.
And news spreads quickly about what happened with moot.
Despite the fact that you you did what is deemed as is totally good because you saved your your family.
People begin to look warily upon you.
That's shitty, but kind of fair magic.
And those types of things is more or less frowned upon.
And you're sitting at the table the next day.
And your dad.
Sits down with you. He was out fighting the fires.
And he sits down with you and says, Well, well, well, boy, I don't think we're going to be going into work today.
Not just because the place is burned down.
But because we've been asked to leave.
All of us.
Well, most specifically, you, but we can't we can't leave, leave, leave, leave you.
But I mean, everyone's life is here.
You can't you can't leave.
I mean, the town needs to be rebuilt and people need homes and there's there's so much to do here.
Yeah, you're not wrong.
But what are we to do? Let our let our let our shining star or our lovely moot go out on the world on his own.
I mean, I can't I can't ask everybody to to come with me.
That's that's not fair either.
I mean, I know the the villagers are are wary and they're worried.
This is I'm worried, too, because I don't know what's happening.
But what if what if I left for a while and and went to go find some sort of teacher who could make me help me harness whatever this is that I've got going on?
And then I can come back.
Teachers, who where are you going to find a teacher?
Well, I mean, who even teaches these things?
I don't I don't know. But there's got to be somebody in like Neverwinter.
There's all sorts of magicians and things.
Sure, sure. Yeah, Neverwinter.
All right. Yeah, OK, sure.
Yeah. How about we think the day on it and then we'll decide whether your magician teachers are real and then or if we're going to go be realistic about life and go find somewhere else to live and then just maybe just I don't know.
Put gloves on you so you don't freeze anybody.
I mean, I guess that's it's I guess that's an option.
But this is I I'm worried.
What if what if this happens again and it's it's someone that.
That's not trying to kill us that I heard what like I don't I don't know what to do here.
Let's just think on it that they've given us the day we can sort it out with sleep on it.
Figure out what we're going to do in the morning.
OK.
You go through the day. I don't know how much going out you do.
Not a lot. Doesn't seem like everyone's too fucking happy to see.
But night comes everybody kind of nestles in and goes to sleep.
You're lying awake.
I pack a few belongings in like a knapsack sort of thing.
Write out a brief note that says, you know, like, I'll come back when I can.
Gone to get some answers.
You know, all the best sort of thing.
And I sneak off into the night.
Hello there, lost and lonesome Dumjineer.
Wait, you're not lonesome.
You're here with us.
It's me, your dungeon master, Russ More.
Thanks for joining us for episode 74 of Dumbgeons and Dragons, The Call to Adventure,
a beginning of sorts for these new characters.
And we'll be getting to Carla and Glim's story in just a moment here.
But first, I'd just like to remind you of a couple places that you can join us.
First is on Patreon, Patreon.com slash dumb dragon cast.
For those that don't know, Patreon is a platform where people join creators,
pledging a monthly amount to those creators,
and in turn building a community full of amazing people who enjoy,
celebrate, and love the work that they do.
In return for joining those communities, our community,
there are many different levels of support and many different rewards
and bonuses for being with us.
This includes monthly bonus episodes, naming NPCs,
monthly gook hangs, and special swag sent straight to your door.
Plus, a whole lot more.
Big thanks to all of our patrons who came out to the gook hang just last night.
We had a blast just catching up on the last month.
The second place that you can join us is the Reckless Play Guild Facebook group,
where you can join all of us, but also three other amazing podcasts.
At the end of time another bothers, The Lucky Die and Dark Dice.
We all get together, talk D&D, plan campaigns,
talk characters and upcoming releases,
and also, not to bury the lead here,
but the GMs of all of our podcasts get together
and release a video answering your questions.
So if you have a conundrum that we might be able to help with,
it's a great place to start and hopefully get answers.
Sometimes we fumble through it, but most of the time we try really hard.
We're also getting to know the DMs and, soon,
the players of the individual podcasts better
by hosting interviews with each person to find out
what exactly makes your favourite podcasters tick.
Links are in the description and we hope to see you in either of those places.
A final thanks to Syrinscape for some of the amazing atmosphere.
Make sure you check them out at syrinscape.com to bring your games to life.
The next episode will be out Wednesday, February 13th,
when Flint, Thea and Nularaaaa are back in the regular story
and they are getting on the trail to stopping the cult of the dragon.
No more pit stops. We're heading there.
Starting next week.
But now, let's get back and join Carla and I
and find out where Glim's story begins.
Have a great week. We'll talk soon.
So, Neryxias Akra, or Glim, where is she from?
Her clan lives in the Misty Forest, on the edge of the Misty Forest.
And she lives with a large clan or a small clan of dragonborn there?
I think she lives with, gosh, let's say,
I mean, quite a small clan.
I think there are sort of several clan enclaves in the same area
that sort of all like, you know, trade together and intermarry and all of that.
She's not, you know, totally isolated growing up like my girl Nularaaaa was.
But her clan itself is probably like 60 people.
And that's all basically like her family, right?
Her family and kind of extended family.
Dealings with outside, like you live in pretty much like a community
solely based on dragonborn.
Yes.
Probably a little bit more sheltered, well maybe not sheltered,
but there's probably only like pass or throughs of other races.
Yeah, definitely.
So that is predominantly like the people she has been around,
the people she has grown up with, you know,
like bards come through every once in a while.
So that's how they, of course, like get their news.
And so she sees different races that way.
And there are always kind of, you know, like adventurers and whatnot
that kind of roll through.
But otherwise, yeah, I mean, she's grown up with dragonborns.
Your family, they send you off somewhere.
Not because of it, for any reason, just to kind of go get resources.
But you say perhaps Glim is a good hunter-gatherer
or perhaps she might actually be not so much.
Not so much.
I think that Glim, she has thus far in her life,
she's only 25, has sort of been like almost literally the golden child.
Like she has been Glimer.
She can find her looks a lot.
Not necessarily her looks,
but because she and her clan and the surrounding enclaves
like all sort of believe that she is destined for something great
and have since she was very small.
Not necessarily something great,
but they believe she is, you know, a million generations later,
a descendant of Baha Men.
So she is like kind of spoiled.
She is like a good person, but yeah,
hasn't faced a lot of struggle in her life, let's say.
Let's take that a different way then.
There's a bard that's come through, an orc, long tusks.
And he comes through and he's telling tales of battles going on in Faerûn.
You watch his songs and you listen to his stories
and you come to learn through them that there is perhaps something
that you might have been shielded from
or just not told by some of your elders
is that there is a cult of the dragon
and they are trying to rise Tiamat,
who is the polar opposite to Bahamut.
The bard is singing in the center of your village.
Everybody is kind of crowded around him, listening to these stories.
Some look a little more shocked than others.
Others look like this is, you know, they might have heard of these tales.
But you come in and you catch the majority of one of these last songs
singing tales of what he calls the decimator of dragons.
And as he wraps up, everybody kind of claps
and gives him some change in food
and begins going about their day.
So he's tidying up his stuff up at the front.
Uh, what does Glim do?
Well, I'm going to go talk to him.
Um, excuse me, sir?
Uh, yes, yes.
Um, what do you...
Surely, please don't take this the wrong way,
but surely you must be exaggerating a little bit about the state of the world.
I mean, Tiamat couldn't be rising. That's crazy.
Oh no, my dear.
Um, yes, the world beyond your village here is, um,
uh, how do I say, uh, going to the shit.
Oh, but I mean,
surely the followers of Bahamater are fighting against...
I mean, our god is so kind and powerful and wise and strong.
I mean, there's...
So how... can you... what's...
I guess I'm just confused.
I understand your confusion, my dear.
You live in a very central...
How do I put this?
Um, so you... you are a shiny dragon.
There's... there's the not-shiny dragons,
and then there's the shiny dragons.
You know that, right? Yes, okay.
The not-shiny dragons, they want to take over the world,
and, uh, yeah, and the shiny dragons are there, I think.
They're around, and I think they try to stop.
I don't know.
What about just the normal people?
Aren't...
How... how can there be so many followers of Tiamat
that they can overwhelm all the other people in the world?
Oh, um, yeah, they...
Well, they have lots of things where they take in all these people
and they destroy their villages,
and they steal all their stuff,
and... oh, boy.
They make it very difficult for people to be around,
so lots of people have been fleeing from them
because there's not a lot of warriors,
but some warriors, the decimators of dragons, as you heard,
they are standing up for what is good and what is right,
and they are the ones who are leading the battle to try to stop.
They must be very brave and smart warriors.
Yes, yes, they are the bravest and the smartest.
I think I met them once.
You know, they were okay.
Um, well, sir, thank you.
Thank you for coming and seeing us and telling us the news,
and I give him some, you know, coins and food and stuff,
and then I go to try and find my parents.
Thank you, thank you.
And you head off to where you think you'll find them.
Where is that exactly?
Probably... well, I guess, I mean, they were...
everybody was just kind of there, you know,
in the bard.
So I think they're probably just, like,
walking back to our domicile.
So their names are my parents, Spark and Bean.
You're going to have to help me with mother and father here,
or mother and mother, or father and father.
I don't...
Oh, I like that.
Okay, yes, mother and mother, Spark and Bean.
Perfect.
Yeah, you catch up to them as they get back to your home,
and they're kind of just entering the door,
and they see you coming, and they're like,
oh, yes, yes, yes, come in, come in, Glenn.
And they open the door for you as they see you running up.
Mom, mama.
It's because they have to have different names
because they're both moms.
Did you...
Did you know that that's happening in the world?
That this cult is trying to rise team at?
You heard that, did you?
I did, and then I talked to the orc bard,
and he told me, I mean, things are really terrible.
Yes, yes, they...
Things seem to be...
We've heard from more than just that bard
that things are not well.
In fact, some of our own have gone out to see
if they can help,
and it appears that dragons
and dragon type are trying to do
things that would hurt others right now.
Well, don't you think it's our duty
to stop them from doing that?
Surely we can't just stay here and do nothing
if Tiamat might be rising.
I mean, that is for the love of Bahamut.
We couldn't possibly just let that happen.
We have to go do something.
You see them kind of look between each other,
and one of, we'll say, Bean,
is that mama or mom?
Yep, that's mama.
Your mama, Bean,
she kind of rolls her eyes a little bit
at Spark, your mom,
and your mom says,
Glim, we've been trying to keep you
from what is happening,
and I feel like...
I feel like you are old enough now
that you can know.
The world is not a great place
for our kind right now.
There are many people who look to
either recruit us,
to make us slaves,
to larger dragons,
or to harm us
because they don't understand who we are.
You have a special place in this,
and Bean, your mama,
she kind of crosses her arms
and walks into the next room.
We were...
It sounds crazy,
but it came to us in a dream
that you would rise to be
a great protector,
a great warrior,
someone who people could turn to
but our elders and your mama,
she didn't want to tell you this.
I want to protect you,
but it might be time
for you to see the elders
and to go off on your own.
I think that I have to.
I mean, surely I'm not so worth protecting
we can let Tiamat rise.
I mean, that's crazy.
I have to help.
We should all help,
even if it's hard,
even if it means leaving here.
I think it's the right thing to do.
Your mama, she comes back in
and she says,
I will take her.
She picks a bag up off the floor
that she was clearly packing
in the next room
and hands it to you and says,
we have people to see.
Okay, mama, let's go.
She hands you the bag and you head out
and you begin heading off
down a path you probably haven't,
well, you might have gone down,
but you travel for quite a ways
until you get to a building
you haven't been to before.
And on the wall
is a symbol that you recognize.
It's the symbol of Bahamut.
Some of the music in today's episode
is by Kavin McLeod
of incompetech.filmmusic.io.
Sound effects can be found
at sirenscape.com.
Okay, who wants to start?
Eeny meeny miny moe,
catch a tiger by the toe,
if he hollers let him go,
Eeny meeny miny moe.
Where do we find Sullivan's light
when we first...
It's Sullivan's light.
That's what I said.
There's no space in between the two.
Sullivan's light.
You can call him Sully.
Super squeaky wheels.
What do they sound like?
Hee hee hee, hee hee hee.
Like a sad monkey.
Sad monkey wheels,
it's a real problem.
It's all around Faerun.
Can I make a super sad dog?
While you're doing that,
let's just think about
the family dynamics
where one brother
has to call the other brother
boss.
Boss.
It's just a bad situation.
Maybe you should just let it go.
Maybe.
I mean, it's an option.
It's an option.
Just don't rule it out.
We haven't got there yet.
Fucking DOSNY.
Dumbgeons and Dragons
is a Dumb Dragons production.