[0.0s] Welcome back to Dumbgeons and Dragons. We'll begin in just a moment.
[6.0s] The words crawling across its body slow then freeze mid-letter. Ink bleeds backward into
[13.8s] the seams of parchment and stone as if pulled by an unseen hand. The quill blade softens,
[20.7s] collapsing into loose pages that scatter across the floor and fade into dust.
[25.4s] For a moment, there's nothing. Then, the room exhales. The shelves grind once more,
[34.5s] not in threat, but in retreat. Stone books slide back into the walls, titles erasing
[41.8s] themselves as they vanish until the chamber is bare save for the far wall.
[48.1s] Where a door should be, there is only stone, unbroken, unmarked. A pause stretches for too
[59.0s] long and then the floor shivers. Fine lines etch themselves outward from a single point
[67.3s] at the chamber's center, not cracks but deliberate marks. A diagram emerges, circles,
[75.0s] angles intersecting paths carved with impossible precision. A map. Vintersmouth sits at its heart,
[84.7s] not centered but pierced through as if something passes through the city rather than rests within
[91.4s] it. Three lines extend outward. Two are still. The third flickers, its edges blurring,
[101.2s] shifting by the second, sliding across the stone like a shadow that can't decide where to settle.
[108.6s] As you watch, the line drifts slowly away from the city, away from here.
[116.6s] The air grows heavy. Pressure builds behind your eyes like a thought trying to finish itself.
[123.6s] You understand that this was never an entrance. It was a marker. A false
[130.5s] index. Perhaps a test. A way to see who would come looking and how they would read the record.
[138.8s] Behind you, faint and distant, the sound of quills resume. Not here but somewhere else.
[147.6s] Ink hesitates before writing as if considering you. The words appear uneven,
[153.5s] pressure changing mid-stroke. Seeker accepted. Then, after a pause, entry requires contribution.
[166.1s] One final mark bleeds through the stone.
[170.2s] Not words but a name-shaped blur, half-formed and familiar.
[175.4s] The stone walls around you begin to rattle and shake.
[183.3s] Alistair runs over to the map on the wall and begins sketching, as furiously as he can,
[189.6s] onto parchment. We have to get as much information as we can as stones begin to
[196.3s] fall around you. You look back and the way you came in, the long hallway has reappeared
[201.8s] and you see daylight down at the end.
[231.8s] Quick Alistair, rub it hard.
[233.5s] Dumbges and Dragons is a Patreon-supported podcast and we'd love for you to join us today at
[238.2s] patreon.com slash dumbdraggingcast. You'll get a 7-day free trial to check things out.
[243.9s] And now, let's get right to it. Fuck it, let's play.
[249.7s] Quick Alistair, rub it hard.
[254.5s] Do the rubbing real hard.
[256.6s] Is he doing a rubbing or is he drying?
[258.9s] Because if he's drying, we're rubbing.
[260.6s] We don't have time for me to watch.
[268.4s] Kyle set the tone.
[270.3s] Yeah, that's great.
[272.1s] We're in danger.
[274.1s] Yeah, it's a problem.
[276.2s] He was sketching it, but perhaps he takes Bizard's cue and instead rubs the engraving,
[284.6s] which seems to be working a lot quicker for him.
[288.6s] He grabs it and looks at it and he's like, I think this will do.
[292.2s] All of you book it down the hallway.
[295.2s] You hear stones filling the room behind you
[300.3s] and the hallway collapsing in on itself.
[303.4s] You feel dust and air pushing you out into the street as you all leap through the door
[309.4s] at the last moment and fall onto the pavement where onlookers are blasted by this dust
[316.3s] out into the air.
[318.2s] They're coughing and looking and there's a bit of panic and confusion
[323.0s] and you look up and you had gone in.
[325.4s] It was evening.
[327.5s] You heard the call of the bells as you were at the bird awakening
[332.2s] and now it appears to be morning.
[336.4s] Is everyone okay?
[339.8s] I think so.
[340.4s] Yeah, yeah, I think so.
[343.6s] Because like I kind of thought we might die.
[345.6s] Oh, always at this point, right?
[350.3s] I mean, yeah, a little bit.
[351.3s] Yeah.
[352.0s] Yeah.
[352.7s] Where's Alydin?
[353.8s] Shit, where's Alydin?
[354.9s] Can we look back?
[355.7s] Is everything just destroyed?
[356.9s] Everything is just destroyed.
[358.3s] Okay, no, no, no, we need to get back in there.
[361.4s] Okay, but like, how do we get back in?
[362.7s] I don't know, but we can't just leave Alydin in there.
[364.9s] It's Alydin.
[365.6s] She's just a child.
[366.8s] I'm going to pull out the thread and I'm going to walk right back to the center of that
[370.6s] and I'm just going to start unspooling it.
[372.8s] It was like, you make a fucking door right now.
[375.0s] You begin unspooling, like pulling at the thread and as you pull at the thread,
[380.2s] like the little bit that you're able to get at just spins the spool on top of it.
[385.6s] It's like you're not actually pulling the string off of the bobbin.
[391.4s] Okay.
[391.8s] It's just revolving around and you hear a faint cough from somewhere in the rubble.
[401.3s] There's a bit of movement off to the side and
[404.6s] like some stones, small stones kind of push their way out and Alydin reaches a hand out.
[412.7s] Okay, I mean, I'm going to go help dig.
[414.2s] I'm not just watching the child dig their way out of the rubble.
[417.4s] No, I'm not watching.
[419.1s] I'm just listening to your beautiful description.
[422.1s] No, I imagine we were like pawing at the rubble.
[424.6s] Indeed.
[425.8s] You pull her out and she coughs and then you hear a call from across the courtyard.
[431.8s] It's the voice of June.
[433.8s] Alydin, what the hell are you doing over there?
[437.5s] You're supposed to be in school.
[439.0s] Alydin picks herself up and brushes herself off.
[443.4s] Do I have to go to school right now?
[447.4s] Are you okay?
[449.5s] Are you broken?
[450.4s] I'm like giving her the once over, make sure no bones are broken.
[453.3s] Doesn't appear to have any broken bones.
[454.9s] She's got a couple scrapes, but more or less she's just covered in dust and dirt.
[460.3s] I mean, after that, I'd say, yeah, you need to go to school.
[463.8s] School's a much safer option.
[464.5s] I think that's a great idea.
[466.8s] We love you and we value your education, so it's probably best if you go with June now.
[470.9s] Absolutely.
[471.4s] I love you too.
[471.9s] It's true.
[473.0s] Don't do anything fun without me though, okay?
[474.9s] Nope, definitely not.
[475.4s] We wouldn't dream of it.
[476.5s] June comes over and grabs her by the arm.
[479.4s] And what were you doing in the rubble?
[481.8s] Come on, we've got some things to learn.
[484.0s] Alydin looks back at you and just waves solemnly.
[486.7s] She heads off towards school for the day.
[489.6s] Sometimes I forget she's just a kid and then something really dangerous
[492.8s] happens and I feel terrible.
[495.0s] Yeah, that was terrifying.
[496.2s] That was so bad.
[499.3s] Yeah.
[501.0s] Thank God for school.
[504.2s] Thank God for school.
[505.4s] Thank God for school.
[505.8s] That's what I'm always saying.
[507.1s] It's a good cold open.
[508.2s] We end on positive education.
[511.0s] There we go.
[513.0s] And we worked hard to get those schools back for this town, so like...
[516.4s] Yep.
[517.0s] It's true.
[518.2s] We worked hard to get schools back.
[520.3s] The four of you are standing there.
[522.3s] Alydin has just walked off.
[523.9s] Everybody hears a very familiar voice come down from the city hall stairs.
[527.4s] And it says, Kavlaran, are you back from leave?
[532.0s] Oh, good.
[532.7s] This is a disaster.
[533.8s] We need somebody to watch it.
[536.0s] Thank you for saying yes.
[541.1s] Okay.
[541.6s] Yes, no, we just need somebody.
[543.0s] There's people putting up barricades around the rubble.
[546.8s] You just need to stand here.
[548.0s] Don't let anybody near it.
[549.5s] It will be perfectly fine.
[551.2s] We'll come back and check on you in just a moment.
[553.4s] Everybody else, get out of here.
[556.6s] We need to take care of this.
[557.8s] Kavlaran, don't move.
[559.7s] Sure, I'll staple to the spot.
[561.3s] Don't worry about it.
[562.2s] Could somebody tell us, I don't know, what time it is?
[565.7s] Well, it's morning.
[567.2s] What do you mean?
[567.6s] What time is it?
[568.5s] Did you not wake up this morning and then come here and...
[571.8s] Well, no, I was inside the...
[573.8s] Oh, you went inside.
[574.8s] In there and it was night when we went in.
[577.2s] It seemed like we weren't in there for that long.
[579.6s] How was it inside?
[582.2s] Oh, dangerous at the end.
[584.0s] Yeah, a lot of this kind of situation.
[586.8s] This rubble, this...
[588.6s] Yes, well, no reason that Kavlaran should stay here,
[591.3s] remain on site, deter curiosity,
[593.9s] and record any changes that happen.
[595.8s] Okay.
[596.5s] Yeah, I'll do that.
[597.8s] Nina hands you a notebook.
[599.0s] Kavlaran, are you excited to see more paper?
[602.5s] Always.
[603.0s] Oh, you know, it's like...
[603.7s] How amazing.
[605.5s] Number one for me.
[607.0s] And I just walk around with like the clipboard,
[609.0s] and I say, nothing to see here.
[611.9s] Nothing to see here, anybody.
[614.3s] Nothing to see here.
[616.0s] He's really kind of doing well with this new role.
[618.6s] I wasn't sure.
[619.4s] It seems outside his normal thing,
[621.2s] but he's doing pretty good.
[622.7s] He should try yelling at people more often.
[624.9s] Yeah.
[625.5s] You see Alistair writing in one of his notebooks.
[630.6s] He's mumbling to himself, is it daytime now?
[633.5s] We went in there, it was nighttime.
[634.5s] We weren't in there for that long.
[635.6s] Were we in there for that long?
[638.1s] You fall asleep on a regular basis.
[640.1s] What has time lost to you?
[641.7s] Well, I don't know.
[642.5s] I don't think I fell asleep very much in there, did I?
[645.3s] No, not much.
[646.1s] Not as much as usual.
[647.4s] Maybe the air in there is different.
[649.1s] Actually, I don't think you fell asleep at all.
[654.2s] Well, that's interesting.
[655.0s] We're going to need a copy of that map.
[657.0s] Oh, yes, of course, of course, of course.
[660.0s] He holds up the map.
[660.9s] Here's the rubbing.
[662.2s] I rubbed all over it, just like you said, Basar.
[664.6s] Excellent. Great job.
[665.9s] Thank you.
[670.1s] Do you have work to do, Kavlaran?
[673.3s] Should we go and get you a snack or something?
[675.4s] How long you think you're going to be here?
[676.6s] You didn't really get a lot of warning.
[677.8s] Yeah, there wasn't a lot of details.
[681.1s] Let's take care of this for you.
[685.3s] I pull out a different spool of thread.
[687.0s] It's like this silver thread and I start putting it around where the door was
[691.4s] and I'm going to ritual cast alarm.
[693.4s] So if anybody crosses over it, we know it's happening.
[696.3s] And that way we can fuck off and do whatever we want.
[699.3s] And Kavlaran doesn't have to listen to Nina.
[701.5s] Breaking rules with wizardry by Basar.
[704.8s] Love it.
[705.9s] That's right.
[707.0s] Okay, so snack, though?
[710.9s] I mean, yeah, absolutely.
[713.6s] Yeah, you know what I was going to say,
[715.0s] or should we like get into this whole thing?
[717.2s] But no.
[717.8s] Well, we can do that over the snack.
[720.6s] And honestly, if I've learned anything in the past few months,
[723.8s] it's that if you have an opportunity to eat, bathe, go to the bathroom,
[731.9s] you take it because you don't know when the next opportunity is coming.
[735.2s] You don't know.
[736.2s] So are we going to go eat first?
[739.6s] Are we going to go to the bath houses or what's the order here?
[745.2s] I mean, I say eat.
[747.0s] I mean, they used to have that buffet over at the bath houses.
[750.2s] Do they still have that?
[751.3s] Yeah, it wasn't that good, though.
[752.9s] Remember how sick you got that time?
[754.8s] Yeah, well, sure.
[755.5s] But I get sick at most buffets.
[757.2s] So I ordered the soggy waffle and I was not happy about it.
[761.5s] It was too soggy.
[762.7s] It was as described.
[764.0s] I mean, yes.
[765.6s] Yeah, yes.
[768.1s] Yeah, probably just like them buns, though.
[771.4s] Sure.
[771.8s] Them buns, though.
[773.1s] My treat.
[773.6s] We're going for snacks.
[775.4s] I don't know what you wanted us to do, Russ, but we're going for snacks.
[777.8s] You can do whatever you want.
[779.0s] This is a world where you have complete control over what your characters do.
[782.9s] Tried to get Kavlarne to work.
[784.3s] That didn't work.
[785.4s] So nope.
[786.6s] They 86'd it so fast.
[788.7s] Didn't want to leave.
[790.4s] We already lost Allen.
[791.6s] And why are we just going to leave Kav milling around the center of town?
[795.5s] We want to stay together.
[796.6s] We're best friends.
[797.7s] It's a business owner episode.
[804.2s] Yeah, Tom, just sit there quietly.
[805.8s] You're guarding something.
[807.5s] Just kidding.
[808.4s] We kidnapped you with us.
[809.9s] That's right.
[814.6s] Welcome to the middle, everybody.
[819.7s] No, I don't even want to talk about Fred Durst.
[822.1s] I mean, it's kind of a nod to once you start doing it, you just kind of start rolling with it.
[828.8s] Yeah, the idea of Fred Durst into the middle.
[831.4s] Yeah.
[832.2s] And then, of course, everybody will sing the famous song in their head to themselves.
[838.6s] That one, they did it all for it.
[841.8s] And that's when we just transition into something else.
[845.7s] Like, how awesome you are for being here listening to us.
[849.5s] I mean, so true.
[850.4s] Oh, the best.
[851.9s] Very, very true.
[853.3s] You know what I did is I put the memory card in.
[857.8s] And then I didn't actually hit record.
[859.9s] So as the quality on our track changes, that's what happened.
[865.4s] Just so you know.
[866.5s] Yeah.
[867.4s] I love that.
[868.1s] It's a little adventure.
[869.3s] It's good now.
[870.5s] Yeah, it's good now.
[871.2s] Oh, perfect.
[871.7s] You weren't rolling.
[872.7s] Well, we're past it then.
[873.7s] I was not rolling.
[874.7s] But now you're rolling.
[875.2s] That's terrible.
[876.1s] What?
[876.9s] That's terrible.
[878.8s] You did it on purpose.
[880.0s] Just play it off like you did it on purpose.
[881.8s] Oh, yeah.
[882.2s] Look at you.
[883.1s] That's right.
[883.7s] Yeah.
[884.1s] It's a good time.
[885.2s] Good stuff.
[885.7s] Let's never mention Limp Bizkit again.
[889.4s] Unless they happen to ever be our patron.
[893.8s] Oh, wow.
[894.4s] In that case, we would mention them because they would get an episode dedicated.
[899.3s] And they're part of the $30,000 Limp Bizkit only tier.
[903.0s] Exactly.
[904.2s] Or if you just want to make your username Fred Durst.
[909.6s] You could say, hey, supported by Fred Durst.
[912.6s] Just flag me when you do.
[914.5s] Jess, don't do it out of principle.
[917.7s] I can see Jess typing.
[919.8s] Like, is this something that people could just sign up for under famous people's names?
[925.4s] Absolutely.
[926.5s] Look at our listeners.
[927.8s] Literally, we have names that are not names for whatever you want.
[932.6s] I'm going to come in tomorrow as this is released,
[935.3s] and everybody's going to be Fred Durst.
[937.5s] That's what I love about her.
[940.2s] Or any other member of the band.
[942.2s] I'll have to look it up.
[942.6s] Yeah, we all know the other member's names.
[944.1s] Yeah.
[944.4s] Wes?
[945.0s] Yeah.
[946.6s] Wes Borland?
[948.2s] Wes Borland, that's right.
[950.2s] Fucking son of Al Borland.
[952.0s] Son of Al.
[958.1s] Richard Karn's figment.
[960.4s] I don't think so, Tim.
[961.4s] But no, you do get an episode dedication to you when you are a patron.
[965.8s] If it's Richard Karn, I'm going to lose my mind.
[967.8s] God, I fucking hope it is.
[969.7s] But if it isn't, I'm going to love them just as much.
[972.4s] Yes, it's not Richard Karn, but it is Alexander Wright.
[976.5s] Thanks, Alexander.
[978.6s] Thank you so much.
[982.4s] If you're having just one of those days you don't want to,
[986.3s] then we hope we can turn around by shouting you out
[989.3s] and telling you how much we love you.
[990.8s] Absolutely.
[991.8s] We appreciate your support.
[994.3s] Does anybody remember the hook of Chocolate Starfish
[997.2s] and the Hot Dog Flavored Water?
[999.0s] I mean, that was the album, wasn't it?
[1000.8s] That was the album title.
[1001.8s] I'm pretty sure there was a track named that, too.
[1004.0s] I did not have the album.
[1005.9s] There might have been a title track situation, is what you're thinking.
[1008.6s] I had the album.
[1009.9s] Sorry, everybody.
[1011.6s] It's okay.
[1012.0s] I had the album, too.
[1012.5s] You had somebody sending you CDs.
[1016.9s] Yeah.
[1018.1s] Was it Columbia House?
[1019.4s] Is that who was sending you CDs?
[1021.0s] No, I had family who worked for Warner and Universal.
[1025.3s] And they were just like, here's Christmas.
[1027.8s] So you got the CDs with the notches out of them.
[1031.1s] The promo CDs.
[1032.3s] That's fine.
[1033.5s] Yeah, you ask for one rap album one time,
[1037.5s] and you only get boxes full of rap albums, which are great.
[1043.0s] Love the genre, but you got to mix it up a little bit,
[1046.4s] like throwing some Dolly Parton every now and again or something, right?
[1049.9s] Yeah.
[1050.3s] So thank you, Alexander, for being here on this journey.
[1052.7s] Thank you.
[1053.6s] I keep forgetting we're in a middle, like, seriously.
[1057.2s] We just had the gook hang,
[1058.6s] which if you are awesome like Alexander
[1061.3s] and you come on over to Patreon.
[1063.0s] Yeah, come to the gook hangs.
[1064.3s] You can join our monthly gook hangs,
[1066.7s] where we do a kind of shoot the shit and talk about random stuff.
[1070.1s] I feel like we should explain what we did.
[1072.7s] So gook hang makes no sense.
[1077.2s] That's not a word.
[1078.4s] It is so far from that, yeah.
[1080.8s] Yeah.
[1082.0s] We used to do it on Google Hangouts, guys, when that was a thing.
[1085.6s] And we called it the gook hang.
[1087.1s] That was 10 years ago.
[1088.8s] We still call it that.
[1090.1s] So now people are like, I don't know what that is.
[1092.3s] I'm not going to that.
[1093.5s] But we just hang out and have a little chitty chat.
[1096.0s] And we played a really fun game.
[1098.8s] It's true.
[1099.3s] We host on Discord.
[1101.0s] And they did try to change the name multiple times and I wouldn't.
[1105.1s] It's gook hang forever.
[1106.5s] Yeah, always has to be.
[1108.2s] I only remember it's weird because Aidan was like,
[1112.1s] hey, what are you guys recording tonight?
[1113.7s] And I was like, oh, we don't record.
[1115.5s] It's the gook hang.
[1116.4s] And he is like, the what now?
[1118.3s] And I was like, oh, right.
[1119.9s] I normally translate that from us to you.
[1124.4s] I'm sorry, the what?
[1125.6s] That just gave me the outside perspective of someone being like,
[1129.0s] not tonight.
[1129.5s] It's the blibli borp.
[1130.7s] Yeah, exactly.
[1131.6s] He was like, I don't know what you're saying.
[1134.1s] Like, we're saying it like it is a real word and it's not.
[1136.7s] Yeah.
[1137.2s] Yeah.
[1137.9s] Don't worry.
[1138.4s] We're having fun and we're not doing anything dangerous.
[1140.7s] Bye.
[1145.9s] Anyway, if you remember, you should come because it's really fun.
[1149.8s] We played Monster Dating Game.
[1151.9s] We did.
[1152.7s] And maybe it'll be a different game next time.
[1155.4s] Maybe.
[1156.2s] We got a list of them now so we could spring on any improv game at all.
[1162.7s] Please do.
[1163.5s] I love it.
[1164.4s] Okay.
[1164.8s] Patreon.com slash dumpdragoncast.
[1166.5s] Join us for all the fun at the first Tuesday of the month.
[1168.7s] Did we say first Tuesday?
[1169.8s] No, we didn't.
[1170.4s] I yelled it out.
[1171.1s] That's the gook hang first Tuesday.
[1173.1s] I would have caught it in post.
[1174.3s] But yeah, thanks for being here.
[1176.4s] Love you.
[1177.1s] Have a great week.
[1178.1s] Love you.
[1178.5s] Bye.
[1178.7s] Bye.
[1179.3s] Love you.
[1179.6s] Bye.
[1182.0s] Cut to them buns though.
[1183.1s] You've got a lovely beverage, a warm beverage, hot chocolate or coffee,
[1188.2s] whichever you prefer.
[1189.2s] There's fresh croissants because it's very morning as previously described.
[1195.1s] The freshest of baked goods have been laid out before you.
[1198.6s] You've got the little egg bites too that everybody's raving about.
[1202.6s] That's laid out and Alistair puts the map out onto the table.
[1208.6s] So this is this is what I got.
[1214.0s] You know the town in the area the best.
[1216.4s] And he kind of he's looking at the map.
[1219.9s] Then he kind of spins.
[1221.0s] There was one glowing, wasn't there?
[1223.2s] Yeah, kind of flickering.
[1224.7s] Yeah, I only had one color, so I didn't.
[1230.3s] Was it this this one?
[1232.4s] And he points to one pointing off into the hills.
[1237.0s] I don't know.
[1238.5s] Do you guys remember?
[1241.2s] That looks like is that going up to the mines?
[1245.1s] Yeah, I have eye for detail so I can.
[1248.9s] Really, it's to find a hidden creature or object,
[1251.6s] but it's got to be good for looking at maps, right?
[1254.1s] I mean, I would have to think so.
[1255.8s] Roll investigation.
[1257.7s] Bonwyn for your eye for detail.
[1259.1s] You can roll photography.
[1263.2s] Well, there is sometimes you have like map makers to it.
[1266.3s] That's true that but I love when that shit comes into play.
[1269.5s] Thank God that was with advantage.
[1271.4s] That's a 23.
[1272.7s] OK, you're looking at them.
[1273.8s] Otherwise it would have been a seven.
[1276.4s] You're looking at the map and Alistair's like spinning it around
[1279.5s] trying to remember and you take it from him and you just take a minute.
[1286.1s] Kind of correct the map in front of yourself
[1288.2s] so that ventures myth is oriented in a way that makes sense for looking at this map.
[1294.4s] And there are three lines.
[1295.5s] There is one that goes off through the hills towards the mountains,
[1299.2s] which as previously mentioned, may be in the direction of the mines.
[1305.5s] There's one that heads down into the south
[1307.9s] and then there's one that you distinctly recognize as being the glowing one,
[1313.6s] which is heading off into the north.
[1319.9s] In the sketching of the map,
[1321.8s] you see some symbols which could be the forest and then it continues to go off.
[1328.2s] And your long experience here, Baldwin,
[1331.6s] you know that somewhere off in that direction,
[1334.3s] you can't exactly remember how far, but there's a ghost town.
[1338.4s] The river diverges and it's a dry like a dry bed.
[1342.9s] Why the town, at least why you were told and through history of the town,
[1348.3s] why it was abandoned and ventures myth was made more into the port town that it is.
[1353.8s] But that line, you distinctly remember being the one glowing in the
[1358.5s] in the cave area that you were in and the library that you were in.
[1363.8s] And that's the direction that it's pointing.
[1366.5s] So player knowledge, this is like heading through the verboten forest to like
[1374.6s] back in the olden times when we made our hilarious penis maps.
[1378.1s] Exactly.
[1379.4s] Perfect.
[1381.6s] Alistair, do you have a different color of ink?
[1383.3s] Because this, this line here, that one was the one glowing.
[1387.1s] Sure.
[1387.6s] Yeah. So if we could.
[1388.4s] Filtering through his bed.
[1389.2s] That'd be amazing.
[1389.9s] Pulls his, here you go.
[1393.5s] Thank you. So I don't, you're all sort of newish here.
[1400.5s] There's like a ghost town over here.
[1402.5s] It was like the original settlement.
[1405.5s] You're like, you know, generations ago.
[1408.0s] Wasn't that what the sheriff was talking about in the goblin caves?
[1412.0s] Maybe.
[1412.6s] Oh yeah, that rings a bell.
[1414.3s] Yeah. So there was a settlement there,
[1417.5s] but I think like the lake or the river dried up because they're,
[1420.5s] you know, it kind of split.
[1421.8s] So I don't know.
[1423.2s] I mean, you know, the school's closed down.
[1425.1s] I don't remember exactly if we were ever even really taught that.
[1429.0s] But yeah, ghost town.
[1435.0s] And that's the one that was lit up.
[1436.9s] That's the one that was glowing.
[1441.3s] Which tells me, warning, don't go there,
[1444.4s] which secondarily tells me that's probably where we're going to go.
[1449.3s] Yeah. Unless there's no point in deactivating something that can't be deactivated
[1456.4s] and we need to prevent.
[1459.1s] But I wonder, I wonder if we deactivated this one.
[1465.5s] Does this this looks like it goes up into the into the hills.
[1469.6s] It does.
[1471.7s] I wonder if we deactivated that in a sense.
[1476.4s] Oh, and that's why that one's not glowing.
[1479.5s] Oh, interesting.
[1481.9s] Russ, thinking back to those monsters,
[1485.2s] like I'm trying to draw a connection of like appearance
[1489.3s] and they're like the way their body was manifested,
[1495.1s] if it was like inky in any kind of way,
[1498.1s] if there might be a connection to their biology.
[1501.7s] There wasn't specifically anything inky about them.
[1506.1s] They were definitely more like muscle bones in you,
[1511.9s] like a traditional monster that you'd thought of.
[1515.9s] Aberration monstrosity.
[1517.5s] There was, as you went down into the mines,
[1521.2s] like there was a portal effect that you did see.
[1526.0s] In fact, Bizard contemplated going through it at the time.
[1531.1s] Actually, I took a memory of that.
[1534.9s] Like I saved a memory of that portal.
[1537.2s] Yes, yes you did.
[1539.2s] And did that happen to look anything like the door that we just went through?
[1546.1s] What does it look like when you're calling upon that memory?
[1548.4s] So I know the spell is kind of odd, but like I encode thoughts.
[1553.4s] Duration is only eight hours,
[1556.3s] but if you cast a spell while concentrating on the spell,
[1559.7s] let's see, through this charge,
[1561.8s] I can literally just pull the memory from my head
[1565.6s] and like view it.
[1567.5s] So again, it's another one of those things
[1569.9s] where I just pull like this strand out.
[1572.4s] I'm just going to do the magic thing of dropping it into a bowl
[1576.0s] and saying, oh yeah, like this is my soup, whatever.
[1579.2s] Okay.
[1579.8s] Was anyone else picturing like the magicians
[1582.0s] like tied up handkerchiefs coming out of his head?
[1584.0s] That's right.
[1585.5s] Yeah, I have a good chicken noodle soup going on
[1587.8s] and it literally depicts the memory in the noodles.
[1590.7s] I love it.
[1591.5s] Okay.
[1592.3s] Okay, yeah, I like that a lot.
[1594.4s] So yeah, you pull the memory and lead it into this bowl of soup that you have.
[1600.3s] And before you, like instantly you and Cav are teleported back there.
[1605.1s] Bonwyn, you hadn't seen this.
[1606.9s] You weren't there.
[1607.7s] You weren't present for that.
[1609.5s] But the two of you are transported back to that moment
[1613.6s] and the four of you, five of you are in the caves.
[1617.9s] You see this, it looks more rift-like,
[1624.5s] more like any portal you ran into with the banjo man.
[1631.8s] Oh, okay.
[1632.4s] So going through the trees,
[1634.3s] going through different doorways,
[1636.2s] transporting, you know, ending up in different places.
[1640.1s] There's more of a direct connection there.
[1643.1s] That said, now that you're analyzing this memory,
[1647.5s] what you perhaps didn't notice in the moment
[1650.7s] as things were falling down around you
[1652.7s] and monsters were trying to eat your face off,
[1656.0s] is that there are distinct runes that are present.
[1664.7s] It's not like they're written in some sort of phrase,
[1667.1s] but you see them scattered throughout the space.
[1671.0s] A lot of them very faint and worn down, worn over.
[1674.6s] But roll a history, roll a history check.
[1679.5s] Got a 12.
[1681.5s] Bonwyn, you can roll us too, because you are seeing this memory.
[1686.0s] A seven for Cav.
[1688.3s] 19.
[1689.5s] Ten and up, you're making the connection.
[1691.6s] Is you, the runes you see,
[1693.7s] so the portal you see very similar
[1697.5s] to your banjo man experience,
[1699.6s] to going to the fey that way.
[1701.5s] The runes, however, aren't as similar
[1705.1s] as those that were along the pathways
[1707.1s] that you were walking, anything you saw in his house.
[1710.6s] They're more similar to some runes you saw
[1716.2s] just in this library area, in this false entrance.
[1720.1s] And there are distinct differences between the two.
[1723.0s] Can I do my cool move, like I pulled in the library,
[1726.3s] where I can use my stone cunning
[1729.5s] to check history, the origin of stone work.
[1734.5s] I'm proficient in that, to see if it will,
[1737.9s] I don't know, give me any info other than,
[1740.7s] like last time it basically just told me
[1742.5s] it was like ancient and hadn't been used in a long time.
[1745.1s] But, you know, something like that.
[1746.7s] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[1747.5s] Yeah, we pulled that in, and like it told you
[1750.1s] that there was definite dwarven work
[1752.7s] that went into this.
[1753.5s] Yeah.
[1755.9s] Yeah, for sure.
[1758.3s] 21.
[1760.3s] Looking at this memory that Bazaar just pulled,
[1763.5s] it's on a loop.
[1764.5s] He pulled a specific set of time,
[1766.5s] like you see monsters jumping out,
[1768.3s] you see the portal, and then you see a collapse.
[1773.1s] Looking at the carvings underground,
[1776.3s] like this is different.
[1778.6s] This is a very different space.
[1780.5s] This is mining carving.
[1782.3s] Like, there's no real distinction of who did this.
[1786.6s] The reason why is that they were mining for minerals,
[1790.3s] for ore, for any number of things.
[1793.4s] The runes, however, you don't draw any historical significance
[1800.6s] to you in terms of specific stone.
[1804.0s] Can I also, what would I try to see if I know the runes?
[1810.0s] Also history, or like?
[1811.8s] Could be history, or religion, or arcana, if anybody.
[1816.3s] Arcana might be a little more along those lines.
[1819.5s] Yeah.
[1821.3s] No, OK.
[1821.8s] Well, just kidding.
[1824.3s] Love that.
[1824.9s] The distinction you see is that although the spaces
[1831.1s] are different, the portal mechanisms are different,
[1835.0s] like the general vibe of them is different,
[1837.2s] there are those same similarities.
[1840.5s] So there is a connection within those specific
[1844.5s] runes that you're seeing.
[1846.7s] OK.
[1847.5s] So not totally dissimilar.
[1850.3s] No, seems like the two are connected,
[1853.1s] and it seems like we have the actual archives,
[1856.3s] and then this was a, it said it was a false index.
[1863.1s] So we could just call that, like, what, the fee?
[1865.9s] F-I?
[1867.1s] Oh, sure, yeah.
[1868.4s] Yeah, sure, yeah.
[1872.3s] I've read about false indexing.
[1875.8s] I don't, it's, they seem to pop up in the texts
[1883.7s] as more of a, as more of this, as more of a marker,
[1888.2s] as more of it testing the space.
[1895.1s] He puts his head on his hands, and he's just like,
[1897.8s] you notice after a second, you think he's in thought,
[1900.2s] but he's in fact falling asleep.
[1901.9s] So to his point about testing a space,
[1906.3s] the old city that dried up is lit up.
[1914.0s] What if they failed?
[1915.9s] And then that destroyed the town?
[1918.3s] I mean, it could happen.
[1920.9s] Yeah, I mean, nobody, like I said,
[1923.0s] there always is just kind of like,
[1924.3s] yeah, people used to live there, now they don't,
[1926.3s] river dried up, blah, blah, blah,
[1927.9s] but I mean, it could be anything, right?
[1931.5s] Could be that.
[1932.3s] I'm gonna go on the very, very extreme and say,
[1936.0s] what if the people were indexed to be goblins,
[1938.7s] and they moved into the caves,
[1941.8s] and that's what happened to them.
[1944.7s] I mean, that's an extreme, like,
[1946.6s] woe out there kind of theory.
[1948.5s] But they did have like that whole civilization,
[1953.5s] the goblins.
[1954.3s] Yeah, I feel a little bit worse.
[1959.1s] Yeah, were those like, had been, huh,
[1963.5s] I think it's maybe best not to think about that.
[1966.2s] How could I have known?
[1967.2s] You couldn't have known.
[1968.5s] We were in danger.
[1970.4s] It's true, but pretty wild and out there shit,
[1974.7s] if that's what's actually happening.
[1977.2s] I don't know, what are y'all's thoughts?
[1978.8s] Well, I mean, I feel like we kind of
[1981.6s] have to follow this path, right?
[1983.3s] And at least see what we can see,
[1985.5s] not just at the end, but also the journey there, right?
[1991.5s] If there are signs of anything and-
[1994.1s] Right, like clues to pick up along the way, sure, yeah.
[1996.7s] Exactly, clues.
[1999.0s] Should we go now?
[2001.8s] Bonwyn, does anybody know how long it's been
[2005.8s] since that town was abandoned?
[2009.0s] Do your parents remember by chance, or?
[2011.8s] I mean, this was so long ago.
[2014.3s] Like, generations and generations ago,
[2017.1s] even they wouldn't know.
[2019.4s] I mean, there's a chance.
[2023.5s] You know, before the schools all shut down,
[2026.3s] there was a pretty good library.
[2030.8s] There probably still is on the noble side.
[2032.8s] I mean, there could be something there,
[2035.0s] like an actual history.
[2037.9s] You know, we've been kind of,
[2039.8s] kind of living in the moment for a while.
[2042.3s] I think we utilize our resources,
[2045.3s] and Kav, you have a fantastic resource up at City Hall
[2050.7s] who could go and be a gopher for us
[2053.6s] in getting texts that are like-
[2056.7s] Yes, an expert at finding information in books.
[2060.6s] Exactly.
[2061.4s] He's the best.
[2062.3s] We have more important things to do.
[2064.1s] He's the best.
[2064.9s] Oh, great idea.
[2065.9s] Oh, perfect.
[2067.9s] Plus, I miss the little guy.
[2069.1s] I wonder what he's been doing.
[2070.3s] We haven't seen him in a while.
[2071.9s] We haven't seen him since you went away.
[2073.4s] It's been a minute.
[2074.4s] Probably just putting lotion on his mom's feet from what I hear.
[2078.2s] Probably been doing that.
[2079.5s] I mean, I've missed him.
[2080.8s] He's a good dude.
[2081.9s] He's a sweet guy.
[2083.1s] Yeah.
[2083.9s] Yeah.
[2085.7s] Do we go to City Hall?
[2086.9s] Is that rude?
[2087.7s] I mean, that's where he's going to be, so.
[2089.6s] Yeah.
[2091.0s] Maybe you should wait outside, though,
[2092.6s] because you are supposed to be explicitly at that.
[2097.5s] But I mean, you know, that's close to City Hall, right?
[2101.4s] Yeah, I'll just head over there and tell people that there's nothing to see here.
[2107.7s] And you guys hit up City Hall, and we'll meet back up in like an hour?
[2113.9s] Yeah, I don't think it'll take us.
[2115.5s] I mean, he'll see us, right?
[2116.8s] Yeah.
[2117.9s] We'll just tell him to go do the job and then meet us for dinner tonight.
[2122.1s] Yes.
[2122.7s] Perfect.
[2123.5s] And then, as an extra little treat,
[2126.2s] in case he's not super inclined to skip out on work to do it with us,
[2129.9s] he knows he has a dinner with you at the end of the day to look forward to.
[2134.0s] Who could resist?
[2135.0s] And a paid dinner at that.
[2136.7s] Indeed.
[2137.2s] Love it.
[2138.5s] Okay, I love this.
[2140.2s] Are we bribing a government official?
[2142.6s] I think we are hiring someone freelance to do a research project.
[2148.0s] Dumbgeons and Dragons Season 4 Episode 52 Starring Amy More as Alydin, Carla
[2157.1s] Maxted as Bonwyn Everbane, Tom Laird as Kavlaran Goldweave, Kyle Klasset as Bizarre
[2162.7s] the Wizard, and Russ More as your Dungeon Master.
[2166.3s] Dialogue, editing, and sound design of today's episode is by Russ More.
[2170.1s] Our community manager is Jessica Babiak.
[2172.6s] Music is from Epidemic Sound, and sound effects are from Epidemic Sound,
[2176.5s] Boom Library, and Sound Ideas.
[2178.6s] Our amazing cover art is by Matt Garba.
[2181.4s] A huge thank you to our supporting producers, Gabriel Lynch,
[2184.7s] Jessica Babiak, Angaron Kierzen, Perry Matey,
[2188.1s] Cat Waterflame, Jacob Madden, Old School Gamer D,
[2191.9s] Craig Zeiss, L.A. Branton, Chibs 1012, and Kudzu828.
[2197.1s] Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Patreon-supported podcast,
[2200.5s] and all of our amazing community help make sure that we have adventures for you every
[2205.5s] single week.
[2206.4s] Come join us today, patreon.com slash dumbdragoncast.
[2209.5s] We hope to see you over there, and you have yourself, right now, a great week.
[2215.0s] Yes, and we'll talk to you very, very soon.
[2221.0s] Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Dumb Dragons production.