Dumbgeons and Dragons will begin in a moment.
Bizard, you've been walking through the streets of Kingstown now for four or five hours.
You've stopped by all the old hangouts, you know, you've gotten some good street
meat on a stick.
You swung by just to kind of scope out the chest of drawers before you and Kav
hit it up in earnest before you go.
Right.
And you are aimlessly wandering through the streets at this point.
And just out of muscle memory, you find yourself on your childhood street and you
look up and you're right in front of your mother and father's house.
I look around, look down at my feet.
I'm like, damn you.
I look back up and I'm like, OK, OK, I go up and I look through the window.
And the place is quite unkempt.
Blankets are folded and tucked over the over the backs of chairs.
There's newspapers kind of scattered all over the tables.
There's bits of food left on plate in the middle of one of the coffee tables.
As you're looking through, you hear a hearty cough coming from inside and upstairs,
like a big just guttural.
She's got a glimpse into my future.
I want to stop for a moment and just rub my brow like I am actually in real
life thinking about this.
Fuck it. I pull out my old key, put it in the door, unlock it.
Open the door and walk through.
Set my stuff down where I had so many times for so many years, instinctually.
And I'm walking quietly again, like walking on eggshells.
And I stop myself for a moment and say, nope, nope, we don't we don't do that
anymore. And I start walking normally.
All the creaks of the floorboards that I remember from so long ago still acting
up, still making even a lot more noise.
Some of them kind of plunge through as I'm I'm taking a step in.
I'm like, that's that's very dangerous.
It looks around just like they could do itself.
I don't I don't want my mom living like this.
And she's the first person I call out for.
Like, I'm going to call it for her for anything into the house and say,
Mom, are you are you home?
It's a very brief pause.
You hear from upstairs says, who's there?
I begin making my way upstairs and make my way to their room and open the door.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a D&D actual play podcast, and I'm your dungeon
master, Russ More, he him.
Also joining me today is Amy More as Alydin, she her.
No, I think that eye's working really hard.
Carla Maxted as Bonwyn Everbane, she her.
So I like, are you a detective?
And Kyle Claset as Bizard the Wizard, he him.
I hope you can call on those favors as you need and do what you need to
take care of the rest of your life.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Patreon supported podcast,
and you can join us today at Patreon dot com slash dumb dragon cast.
There's a seven day free trial and a whole bunch of episodes
for you to listen to.
We hope to see you over there.
And now fuck it. Let's play.
Bonwyn and Alydin, you've secured the kids in the school.
Everybody's there.
Tally has a weapon.
You could call it a rusty butter knife at best.
You make your way over the bridge and you're heading towards the city
guards office.
Are they actually going to do anything?
Well, do they actually care?
We have to try.
And honestly, they were very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very
pretty good on the Night of the Monsters.
Yeah, but they were protecting everyone.
No one cares about us.
Well, that's not true.
I care about you as Kavlaran that's lots of people.
Thane and everybody, you know, you got a lot of people
rooting for you now.
But honestly, I don't know.
I don't know what they'll do.
Feel like we have to at least try and get help.
And maybe if they know, then can stop other kids from getting taken.
Because, of course, you guys aren't the only kids in town.
No, some kids actually live in here and have beds.
Yeah, like parents and stuff.
Live with them. Wild.
You arrive at the city guards office and you open the door
and there are a few guards in there.
One unnamed citizen is there.
They're finishing up and Dace, who's at the back,
is just kind of entering the main pit area.
He sees you and says, oh, hey, Bonwyn, how you doing?
Hey, I'm I'm OK.
Could you do you have a second?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, just a sec.
And he sets a few things down on a desk and picks up a coffee
and comes out to the other side and says, what can I do for you?
So there's a kid missing.
Which which which kid?
Cedric pulls out a notebook.
Cedric has one.
He looks to Alydin's one of your group.
Mm hmm. And I mean, no, he comes from a rich family.
I'm going to help you out.
OK, yeah, no, he's he's one of us.
And this all sounds a little woo woo.
OK, but he was singing a really creepy song.
All the kids learned it from some random person down by the docks.
Right. Yeah, the bards have been coming back through.
So that's yeah.
So about a creepy banjo man.
And then he drew a picture.
Alydin, maybe show him the picture.
Yeah. And then we found this thing kind of like burnt
into the floor of the room where he left and also these leaves.
So like, are you a detective?
Is there detectives in this branch of the city guard?
Yeah, magical detectives, I think is what we're looking for.
I'm working towards my detective badge as we speak, actually.
So like this is this is perfect.
He looks around and says, there's no detectives here.
I mean, we could go down to the military and get somebody higher up,
but they're not going to help you.
Like, they're not going to help me specifically.
I remember when I threatened all of them with the monsters and what have you.
Yeah, that was really great.
Yeah, that was badass.
That was meant to I know we haven't had like a few moments since then.
It's been a lot of that was really cool.
No regrets.
Just maybe I'm not like, hey, friends, can you help me solve this weird mystery?
Yeah, fair.
But you'll help us.
Of course, I'm going to help.
Looks around.
Let's go check it out.
If we need more people, we'll come grab them.
Let's get everything we need.
Can you give me a description of Cedric?
OK, yeah, he is about this tall and and he has his he's really pasty.
A lot of you are kind of pasty, but OK, not all of us.
He one of his eyes points in this way
and then the other one points forward and he doesn't have any eyebrows.
He doesn't have any eyebrows.
No. OK, I know the one you're talking about.
OK, yeah, no eyebrows, lazy eye, pasty.
No, I think that eyes working really hard.
OK, sorry, my mistake.
Hard working eye.
Working eye.
So offended right now.
Like, how dare you?
I'm sure that eye has worked twice as hard.
That eye takes night classes, OK?
That eye is going to be a detective soon.
Geez, we say this all in good, honest fun.
If you have a lazy eye.
Oh, yeah, like I said in the last downtime,
I don't care which way your eyes point at all.
But Cedric is a dick and that has nothing to do with his eyes.
So Cedric's not well liked among the group.
Oh, he's not hated.
He was in charge of a whole group of kids and then just disappeared
in a room filled with them in the middle of the night.
And he was the only one who disappeared.
Everybody else, as far as you know, accounted for.
We counted them.
Yeah, they're all together in the old school.
Oh, my God, should they even be in the school?
You know, I thought about moving them somewhere else,
but we don't know.
I mean, does the banjo man move around?
We really have no way of knowing if it's, you know.
Well, did we create a fish in a barrel type of situation?
Do we just put all his like, what does he do with them?
Eat them?
I don't know a lot about the banjo man.
Well, there's a whole song.
Alydin can explain it to you.
So there's supposed to be this guy down and he was the one
singing the song and then all the kids were singing it.
And it was really pretty creepy.
And I told them to stop.
So we thought we would go speak to that man.
That sounds like a great, great next step.
So let's do that.
Can I have that picture?
Can I take that?
Great, thank you.
Don't lose it.
I won't lose it.
Putting it very safe in my book here.
Keep everything together so that we have,
and then you said the leaves.
Yeah, have you ever seen leaves like this?
They don't look like anything from around here.
Holds the bag up.
They were inside the room in front of the window,
but I've never seen anything like this.
And there are no trees around the school.
And there's no trees around the school.
Banjo man leaves.
And then this symbol.
Yeah, that was on the floor.
On the floor.
OK, well, let's go see if we can find your bard.
I assume that's what he is, if he's singing songs down
by the dock and see what he knows about the banjo man.
Maybe he's got a lead we can go off of to try and figure
out where Cedric's gone.
Yeah, maybe he'll just admit the whole thing.
Maybe he's the banjo man.
Maybe he teaches songs to children
and then that calls the banjo man.
And he's working for the banjo man.
That is also a possibility.
Perhaps we go talk to this gentleman,
see what he knows and judge whether it's just a song
he's picked up or if he's working for the banjo man.
That is a more reasonable way to approach this.
I'm getting kind of caught up in the spookiness
of all of it.
Yeah, well, it sounds like it, yeah.
Let's go ahead down to the docks
and see what we can find.
It's footsteps down the hallway of your parents' house
and the door creaks open, another, who's there?
Bizarre?
Hello, Terry?
What are you doing here?
You left.
I did, I did.
And I came back from business and saw a mom
and against, well, she let me know
that you've not been doing well.
No, he looks around and you have a chance
to survey the room and it looks like he doesn't leave
for very many, very many reasons.
There's an aroma, I guess you could say,
an odor, probably more descriptive,
coming from the room.
He's got the blankets loosely tossed over him.
He has a chair beside his bed.
It looks like there's some crutches
down at the end of the bed.
No, no, I don't get out very often.
I'm not doing so great.
Your mom's been taking care of a lot of things
around here, God bless her heart.
Sure don't have any kids come around.
No, well, I'm glad to see at least
you two have a roof over your head.
I'd expect mom to have reached out
if things had gotten truly dire,
but somehow you managed to keep it together.
Yeah, I've done enough favors for people
that they turn an eye every now and again
when we're short on bills.
It's all in the day's work.
Are you still working?
The shop looks very unkempt and not ready for customers.
No, no, haven't been down there in quite some time.
I've been down there just to look,
make sure that nobody's walked away with anything.
You haven't walked away with anything, have you?
Not in a long time.
Not like the last time.
I wasn't fooling you, was I?
At first, yeah, you fooled me a little bit.
It was the drink that really just kept it from me.
Of course, dulls your senses.
You've done well for yourself though.
You've, on my back, made it through school and.
Oof, you would not have parted with that coin
to send me to that school.
No, I wouldn't have.
It's better things to do
than waving your magic wands around.
You, you don't, you never got it.
You never tried to get it.
All you worried about was your hats
and trying to climb a social ladder,
which actually, thinking about it that way,
maybe there's a good reason
for me to come see you after all.
Great, what you got?
You gonna pay back?
Did you have any dealings with a Cressida Thorne?
Lady Thorne, yeah, of course.
We've had dealings with all the nobles in town.
They all come here for their hats.
They all need something fancy.
Okay, I don't know what I think you can do
for me in this regard.
Do you, if I needed,
would you be able to make an introduction?
Wait.
Don't.
You've come here.
No, I've not come here for this.
I just happened to think about it while I'm here.
Okay, you want an introduction to Lady Thorne?
If I needed, would you be able to do it?
For what reason?
I can introduce you to anybody in town.
Of course I can.
How bad are your financial problems?
He turns his head to the side and things are fine.
Your mom's picked up a few extra shifts.
And like I said, I haven't been down
to make things in a while.
But we've got enough favors to pull in
that things are gonna be okay.
So I can get back up on my feet, that is.
You expect to get back up on your feet?
Mom made it sound as if any moment
you were going to keel over.
Yeah, well, that's one person's opinion, I guess.
But I'm really just got a positive outlook
on life these days.
So I'm really just pushing that I'll be in here.
I'm gonna get up right now.
He starts scooting himself over to the edge of the bed
and reaches, pass me that?
Pass me pointing to the crutches?
Do it yourself.
No, fine, I got it.
Scoots down to the end of the bed, grabs the crutches
and starts trying to stand up
and like buckles under his own weight.
He's down on one knee now.
Just, I'm getting better.
This is better than it was last week.
I step forward and I help him up back onto the bed.
Lie back down.
What'd you come for, Bazaar?
I didn't come for this.
I just, again, I happened to be here
and I don't know.
I stopped by and saw Mom at the cured pig.
Was surprised to see and hear how much she was working
in your state.
And honestly, I don't know why Mom stays with you.
I've offered to have her come
and stay with me in Vintersmouth
and whatever happens to you, happens to you.
I don't think she'll do it.
And I don't understand why.
The only thing, you cared so much for your status,
the people you made hats for
and those relationships that you ignored
the relationships in your own home.
Did you provide for us?
Yeah, sure.
I'll give you that.
You provided for us.
You made sure that we had food and house.
But you weren't there in many ways.
And I don't know if I can afford you the same grace
of just not being there, but helping out financially.
But if Mom doesn't go with me,
well, you maybe already know
that I've been sending her money.
But I don't want her working anymore.
And if it means having to give her money
to help take care of you, I will do it for her.
Do you have any medications I need to give you?
Like, you know, I can.
No, no, I don't want to put you out, I'm fine.
No, you sound like you were coughing here.
I get you a glass of water
and I grab a glass, go over to fill it up.
And I'm just kind of like, you know,
trying to capture myself.
I'm like at the counter with the water filling up.
And I'm just kind of staring into the water
as it fills the glass.
And for a moment, I reach into my like breast pocket
and reaching for like a handkerchief.
But then I feel a small vial
and I stop and like thumb the lid of it for a second
and just kind of like mile long stare.
Pull my hand out of my pocket, shake it off,
turn the water off and bring him the glass of water back.
And I set it down.
I say, one thing that you taught me
that I am so, so grateful for.
One thing that makes me semi-okay
with you being my dad is that you taught me
the kind of person I don't want to be.
So thank you so, so much.
And I will pay you back.
In fact, I don't want to owe you anything.
And I pull out a cashier's check.
And over the last 10 years,
not having to pay taxes out in Vintersmouth,
I've managed to scrape and save aside 800 gold per year.
Over 10 years is 8,000 gold,
which is four years tuition at Barnhart's.
I write it down and I say,
I'm gonna give this to mom to take care of both of you.
That is if she doesn't leave with me.
And if she does,
I hope you can call on those favors as you need
and do what you need to take care of the rest of your life.
Are you done?
Are we done?
Yeah.
You got everything off your chest that you need?
Yeah.
Do you have anything you wanna get off your chest with me?
Anything you wanna say that you never said?
Stares at you for a long, uncomfortable moment.
I wish I would have called you out.
Taking my money, going off to your wizard school.
Maybe you would have came to make a hat.
Maybe you would have done something valuable.
I don't have anything to say, kid.
I'll talk to your mother tonight.
Sounds like she has a decision to make.
I would say so.
Thank you.
Odd as it is to say it.
I guess mom was right.
It was good that I came here
cause I'm proud of what I'm doing
and I don't need validation from you.
Good.
And I've realized that.
Well, another thing I taught you then.
I just kind of like sigh and turn and walk out the door,
hand in my breast pocket again, thumb in that vial.
I walk downstairs.
I pick up my pack.
I take my key.
I put it on the counter, lock the door behind me.
I'm gonna go sit in a park
and think back on what the divining teacher told me
and try to piece together the parts of it.
We'll be right back.
It's the middle.
I mean, nothing against making a golem for yourself,
like a holiday golem.
Sure, yeah.
We're basically seeing like,
what is that?
Conjuration, transmutation, magic at work.
But you may as well do it all
so he can give you the hot frosty.
Yeah.
It's really what it comes down to.
What's the point of even having a snowman come to life?
Welcome to the middle, everybody.
Oh shit, we started recording.
I know, we're well into it.
I was too busy looking at all the pictures
of hot frosty.
Yeah, no, that's the big movie
that we're talking about this year
is Hot Frosty, not a sponsor.
We just talk about it
because we love it so gosh darn much.
Or maybe we will.
Maybe we will.
I mean, two of the five have seen it,
three have not.
Yeah.
Of course, it's only on Netflix, right.
Okay, that makes a lot more sense.
Maybe better than Hot Frosty.
Almost certainly.
I don't even know what you're gonna say, but.
Yeah.
Is our Christmas special, which comes out next week.
Oh, that's right.
Yeah.
Very true.
Folks, I can't even explain.
Like is it just us laughing?
Yes, that is the entire special.
With no other words coming out,
I feel like it might be wonderful.
Yeah.
Of just like one liner and then laughing
and followed by another zinger and then laughing.
Yeah. Perfect.
Just the way we do.
It was a delight.
Yeah. It was a great time.
Really, really fun.
It was a lot of fun to get to run
and it was everything I could never expect it to be.
I don't know how much I wanna tell you.
Like we should tease it in the middle.
I said nothing.
Don't say anything.
I mean, you already gave a teaser
with something you said a moment ago.
That's true.
You gotta really pay attention to words
and then look back on things, but you know.
Yeah, well, nobody else.
Well, there's no way people can hit rewind
and listen again, so.
Nope.
You won't know which words Kyle's talking about.
So, I mean, who knows.
Who knows anything.
But what we can tell you is
we have a wonderful guest, Abdul Aziz,
who's come to join us again
to help us ring in the new year and holiday season.
Nothing to do with the new year,
but definitely to do with the holiday season.
We all made a face.
I was so thrown off.
Do we?
I was like, did I black out?
We didn't do anything about the new year.
Yeah, in fact, the whole episode is a new year special.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Was I there?
We subvert your expectations
by delivering a different holiday.
Yeah.
That's right.
It's Easter.
Who knew?
Yeah.
It's a good time.
And we think you're really gonna love it.
So, stay on this channel.
Stay frosty.
Stay on frosty.
You know, you don't have to stay locked
because it's a podcast.
You know how those work.
Please check it out.
Yeah, please check it out.
Yeah.
What else should people check out?
Yeah, especially one person,
particularly who we love this episode the most.
We would like it.
The most.
Dedicated to them, maybe?
If they would come
and listen to the Christmas special.
I mean, we could probably dedicate it to them.
Yup.
Like, right now, they know who they are.
They know who they are.
They can feel it in their hearts.
Yeah.
But we should probably say it.
Because they hit that 15 seconds back button
that we were talking about a moment ago.
That's right.
So, they're not here yet.
So, they'll catch up in just a moment
and everybody else is listening.
But that person is Eric Valdez.
Thanks, Eric.
Thank you, Eric.
Eric.
Too cool of you.
Thank you so much.
You're amazing.
Thanks so much for being here.
And you too can have an episode dedicated to you
if you join us on patreon.com slash dumbdraggingcast
where you can get a seven day free trial
which is like the best deal you can get for seven days.
Just mainline some of that bonus content
while you're there.
Ooh, there we go.
That's right.
There's so much.
See how much you can get into your system
in seven solid days.
I don't think you could do it all.
I don't think so.
See, you're underestimating our Patreon members.
You'd have to listen at a higher speed than one time.
So you could do it and probably not sleep
for at least a couple days.
Okay.
So don't do that.
It would be quite bad for your health.
You have to have two going at one time.
So you do like one season and then something else
and you have two different earbuds
connected to two different devices.
He's stressing me out.
He's just saying that.
There's a reason you have like a hemispherical brain
it's so you can listen to two different versions
of our podcast at the same time.
I see nothing going wrong with this.
Not a doctor.
Nine out of 10 doctors would agree.
Join us today at patreon.com slash dumb dragon cast
where hopefully your brain won't explode.
It's gonna be a great time.
Or it will because of how awesome
what you're listening to is.
There we go.
There it is.
Brought it back.
Thanks, Kyle.
Okay.
That's it for now.
We'll talk to you next week
in the lovely, lovely holiday special
which I'm not telling you about.
You can't make me.
Don't do it.
I was gonna.
Don't do it.
I was so close.
Somebody cut the middle.
Love you, bye.
Okay, bye.
Thank you.
Love you, bye.
Somebody stop him.
We cut back to Vintersmouth.
We're happier things are happening.
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Down at the docks,
Dase is with you, Bonwyn and Alladin
and you're weaving through
the reconstructed artisan district,
question mark,
and you hear some commotion
down at the end of the street.
And I say commotion,
you hear some music being played
down at the end of the street.
You make your way down there
and there's a crowd huddled around a man
who's playing a lute
and you hear a stompbox going
and you're gonna push your way
through the crowd a little bit
and you see someone who,
for the description that was given.
Which was very thorough.
Can I see his feet?
Are they hairy?
Is he wearing a long knit, colorful,
stylish dress thing?
Does he have shortish hair
with some gray on top?
Yes.
Apache beard, a cape?
Yep, he does have a cape.
You have the difference between
a cloak versus a cape.
It does look more cape-ish and yes,
open-toed sandals,
looks like hairier feet.
This, for what you've been described,
should be the person.
He finishes up his song that he's singing,
which isn't the banjo man,
and everybody claps and tosses
a few coins into his hat
and then disperse
as he's counting out the silver
and copper that have been tossed
into his hat.
Dasa, Dasa, that's the guy.
That's him.
Yeah, the kids described him.
So how do you wanna play this?
Like, I'm bad cop, you're good cop?
Or should I go in really tough
and threatening?
Or how do you normally do this?
Let's maybe introduce ourselves first.
That's probably a good first step, yeah?
It's not the way I've seen the police operate
in this town, really, usually, but okay.
We are working on ourselves
and trying to be better
one person at a time.
But in this moment,
let's try and just be good.
Because if we're good,
we might get more information out of him,
good or bad.
You're right, you know what?
Innocent until proven guilty.
I don't know this guy.
He could've just been singing a song.
Or he's still Cedric.
Let's ask a few questions first.
Excuse me, sir, if you don't mind.
Captain Dasa of the city guard here.
Just have a few questions for you
if you'd have a moment.
Yeah, yeah, what's going on?
Well, there were some children here yesterday
who came and saw one of your shows.
Do you remember what would've been
pretty large group of kids?
Yeah, yeah, I remember playing for a bunch of kids.
They really liked the songs that I was singing.
So I played a few for them.
And there was one in particular
that seemed to have stuck with them.
Sorry, your name and where you came in from?
My name's Liriel.
Liriel, I travel around.
In Kingston, down here, further down the river.
No real home, just kind of wandering,
singing my tunes.
Fair enough.
Well, it's nice to meet you, Liriel.
I'm Bonwyn.
I work with the business association down here.
Really super nice to meet you.
There was a specific song.
It was about Banjo Man.
Is that one of your tunes?
Yeah, kids loved that one.
They wanted me to play that a few times.
They were singing it as they walked away.
So yeah, you wanna hear it?
Is that an original or did you write that?
Well, it's kind of, I kind of rewrote it in my own way.
Kind of just came to me a little bit.
It's one of those songs where like,
when you, I don't know if you've written much music,
but you write it and it comes so easily
that you feel like maybe it's been there all along.
So like, yes, I wrote it,
but I don't feel like I did.
You know what I mean?
It's like it was just given to me out of the ether.
Yeah, weirdly I do.
I design weapons and sometimes when I think of something,
it's just like, oh, this is it.
And I can perfectly imagine how it will piece together,
how I will weld it, how everything will work.
And it's just, it's so easy.
Awesome, so you get it.
But yeah, what's going on?
Have you been singing that for a long time?
You know, I've been singing it,
God, how long have I been singing it?
You know, I really don't know the answer to that
question, but just one day I think I started playing it
and I can't remember how long ago that was now.
So the banjo man isn't about a specific person.
It's just-
Oh, no, it is.
It's about a bard that's been out there.
His name's Calder Bramble.
He used to go around the Vorboten Forest
and search for inspiration.
So yeah, it's kind of one of those tales we hear about
from other bards kind of filters through.
So maybe it was one of those kind of inception things
where like, you know, we heard about Calder
and something with an archfey and some banjo capabilities.
Almost one of those like, you know, tall tales.
Make a deal with the devil to get good at music
kind of thing.
Deist looks to Bonwyn and Alice and Lyriel.
Archfey?
What's an archfey?
From what I know, I know they're pretty powerful beings
from the fey realm.
So I mean, they exist as far as I know.
Okay, great.
But yeah, you know, so I guess it's possible
that it's a real thing.
But not something you've heard about actively happening,
just sort of like a folk tale that you've heard
as you've traveled around.
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of that like, you know,
the archfey gave Calder this gift
and you know, it's those who listen too long
are kind of like pulled into the Feywild.
It's one of those storytelling tropes
kind of like, you know, scare children a little bit,
but also let them know like, you know, just behave.
Yeah, don't follow strangers.
Yeah, it's probably a good lesson.
Yeah, the heart of the song is to help them.
Why, what's going on?
Why are y'all asking me these questions?
Well, one of the children went missing last night.
One of the children who heard you sing the song.
Who heard you sing the song and then was singing it.
Sang the song a lot, as far as we understand.
They're singing a lot.
And then disappeared in the night from his bed.
I mean, I sing the song a lot
and I've never gone disappearing from my bed.
Nobody wants to kidnap big people.
That hurts.
It has a point here, yes.
I mean, kid is right in the name, I guess, so.
You don't sing the song for grownups?
Where did you sing it last time?
Well, I mean, last time I sang it right here.
No, before you got to Vintersmouth.
Well, you know, like, kids are really easy to entertain.
So like, you know, the last time I played,
it was probably at a playground a couple towns over,
or, you know, some of the other towns
actually have a school and they let musicians come in.
So like, I was surprised that wasn't the case here.
You guys should ask them if they have any missing kids.
Of course.
You don't remember the name of the town
that you were in?
How convenient.
No, I go to a lot of towns.
So, but the last one I can think of is like Ronlet.
You know, it's like southwest of here.
Yeah, no, I know it.
Yeah, well, we can, when he looks to Bonwyn and Alladin,
we can send a couple scouts over
and see if they had any similar occurrences
happening there after Lyriel.
Not a person of interest.
Are you planning on staying in town for very long?
I don't feel comfortable answering that question, officer.
All I'm saying is, you know,
we're trying to find this kid.
Cedric is his name and we're hoping
that he's just playing hide and seek somewhere.
You know, sometimes the kids do,
but on the off chance he's not,
we might have some more questions for you.
So if you don't mind, we can put you up.
We can put you up at the hotel.
Make sure you're taken care of
just if you have any other...
Bonwyn, show them the music note.
Yeah, I want to just ask you a couple more questions
if you don't mind.
Have you ever seen anything like this before?
And I pull out that etching I made of that symbol.
Have you ever seen this, anything like this before?
You can kind of see it was also,
there's a little bit of charcoal kind of on here.
It was like kind of burnt and scratched into the floor
and it was like a bit shimmery.
It was pretty unsettling.
And I just thought, I mean, you've been
all over the place maybe,
you've seen something like this before.
Oh, oh, and also,
have you ever seen this kind of leaf before?
We don't have anything like this here.
Well, hold on, let me see that etching.
You said it was burned onto the floor.
I sniffed the back of the paper.
Your etching smells like cinnamon,
so maybe that's something to go off.
If you know anybody that knows about magic,
that's not normally what burnt things smell like
unless you're burning cinnamon, I guess.
But, you know, kind of seems weird to do that
just to put an etching into the floor.
As far as this leaf here,
I don't know, what does that look like, holly?
I can't tell.
It was worth a shot.
Yeah.
I'd say it looks like a winter plant.
I don't know.
But I don't know shit about nature,
so, you know, take that with a grain of salt.
I appreciate your honesty about that.
I mean, honestly, I was hoping
you'd just act real shady and suspicious
and we just think you snatched a kid,
but you seem like a nice guy, so.
That's what they always say.
It was a quiet, nice guy.
Don't leave town.
Oh, yeah, as far as the hotel goes,
it's not gonna be like the sad one
with like the divorced dads, is it?
Not anymore.
I tried to play there and it was just depressing.
It's a sad state of affairs over there, yeah.
We'll put you up down the road,
a little bed and breakfast,
hopefully just a night, you know,
but we'll make sure you're taken care of.
If we have any questions in the morning,
we'll come find you.
Appreciate your help today.
And if you could, I'm so sorry,
I don't mean to get in the way
of like your artistic expression,
but if you could not sing that specific song anymore,
right now.
Yeah, I.
That would be great,
because a bunch of the kids are naturally
like pretty freaked out.
Because their friend's missing and it just.
I think that can be arranged
as he kicks his loot case
with like a couple of jingling coins
and he's like, you know what I mean,
like we can make that work, wink, wink.
Are you trying to shake us down?
No, you're asking me not to play
one of my biggest hits.
You've already played for all the children in the town.
Dase tosses a couple of silver into the hat.
Alydin's pissed.
Thank you for your time today.
Puts a hand on Alydin's shoulders.
We'll come find you if we have any other questions.
I'm sure everyone is just gonna enjoy everything
that you have to play from here on out.
Usher's Bonwyn and Alydin away.
Wow, I didn't know that a kid
costs a free night in one of our bed and breakfasts
and two silvers.
We're gonna find Cedric.
We are, and I mean, he's kind of the banjo man expert
as far as it goes.
He's the only one who has any information
on what sounds like a folk tale.
Yeah.
The fay's not real though, right?
It's in stories.
It's all I've ever heard of it.
Let's get the kids somewhere safe for tonight
and then continue our investigation.
Alydin, you wanna have a giant sleepover at Everbane's?
Gotta put away the really pointy stuff.
Yeah, most of the sharp things are in my office
so they just maybe won't go in there
but we could make a bunch of food and it'd be fun.
Thanks Bonwyn, I think that'd be nice.
Do you have enough room for them all?
Well, sure.
Great. Yeah.
A lot of them are real small.
Okay, if you need help, let me know.
Well, if you wanna come make food
and hang out with a bunch of wild children,
you're more than welcome to join us.
Sounds like a party.
Dumbgeons and Dragons, season four, episode 12
starring Amy More as Alydin.
Carla Maxted as Bonwyn Everbane.
Kyle Claset as Bizard the Wizard.
You heard all of us plus Tom Laird
and Abdul Aziz as the singing creepy children
and Russ More as your dungeon master.
Dialogue editing by Carla Maxted
and sound design by Russ More.
This episode featured music
from Epidemic Sound and Slipstream
and sound effects from Epidemic Sound,
Boom Library and Sound Ideas.
Our amazing cover art and character designs
are by Matt Garbutt
and a huge thank you to our supporting producers,
Gabriel Lynch, Jessica Babiak, Cat Waterflame,
Jacob Madden, Christian Brown,
Angaron Kierzen, Perry Matey,
Old School Gamer D, Craig Zeiss,
L.A. Branton, Barbara Sanderzeit and Sarah Murphy.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Patreon supported podcast
and you can find us at patreon.com slash dumb dragon cast
where you get an episode dedication,
a whole bunch of exclusive content,
access to exclusive community channels in our Discord,
hangouts and so much more.
We can't wait to see you over there.
Oh, and merch, merch is over there too.
After three months, we'll send you some.
Just like that.
Open the door.
We'll cut over to Vintersmouth.
That's our hilarious cold open.
I was trying to find something and I was like,
nope, this is just a,
this is the episode. It's just what it is.
I wanted to start a, making my way.
I can't, I do it charge.
Every time, in my head always.
And it's said so frequently.
Russ, is there any specific smell
that would be coming from that etching?
Yes.
Cinnamon.
Sure.
Cove, nutmeg.
Damn it.
This is how you conjure a pumpkin spice latte.
It's basic bitches on the other side, all right?
Basic bitches, god damn it.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Dumb Dragons production.