Click any line to jump to that moment in the audio.
Buzzard, you're holding in your hand the spool of thread that reacted when the false
entrance appeared.
But it started reacting again and not spinning in the same way it was, but in fact it unspools
itself.
about a foot or two, it's not pointing to the location where you had entered this portion
of the archives, if that's what it was, but it's pointing beyond the city, more in
line with where the map that Alistair had rubbed out while you were in there.
Don't say it like that!
I already did.
No, continue to say it like that please.
You already did it.
No way to edit.
No way to edit it.
No way to edit it.
He rubbed it out.
Well, great job, Alistair.
Now this thread is pointing in that direction.
Okay, awesome.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a D&D actual play podcast, and I'm your dungeon master Russ
Moore, he him.
Also with me today is Carla Maxstead as Bonwyn Everbane, she her.
We were only gone for a night, right?
Tom Laird as Kavlaran Goldweave, he him.
I'm thinking maybe the Skewer Trio?
And Kyle Claset as Bizard the Wizard, he him.
No.
I'll come with you.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Patreon-supported show, which means it's funded by people
who saw what we do and said, yes, more of that.
And you can too at patreon.com slash dumb dragon cast.
We hope to see you over there and now fuck it, let's play!
I know the spool floats, so I'm gonna go ahead and let it do that and take the
thread that's like hanging there and I'm gonna start winding it around an ink pen
that I have out of my out of my bag.
So just kind of like creating my own spool of it and seeing if the spool moves on
its own. Or what is what is the lead here?
The foot or two is actually it's no longer it's not hanging, it's extended out
and holding position like it's pointing in a direction.
You can try to wrap it if that's what you want to do.
As you do, you wrap it around your ink pen and it clips your finger, like wraps
around your finger once and as it does, you get this fleeting vision.
You're all at once somewhere else, you see before you a stone door without
hinges, you see words carved and scratched out, you can't quite make out
what they say, and you see a shadow standing on the opposite side of the
entrance. As it slips from your finger, you're suddenly back in front of City Hall.
I kind of like instinctively reach out and like grab up the string in the spool
and like stumble backwards.
It's like, OK, um.
So I just let's let's go ahead and go get ready for dinner.
And I had this interesting tale to tell you about a dinner I had recently.
But we should do it away from here, since you're done working, Gav, we
don't need to be here anymore.
No, we do not.
OK, so you good?
Yeah, away we go.
Good. I'm I'm good.
Yeah, I just kind of kind of start like walking away a little bit like
days, but I know where I'm going and I'm going back to my shop.
Oh, my God, you're going to be your pirate dad.
No, I hope no.
I'll be on a date night or something.
Maybe they're going to be at the cave.
Yeah. Oh, God, that's going to be awkward as fuck.
No, they're going to.
It's no, they're at the cave.
You're going to cave.
Yeah, the cave, the spot where the old people make out.
Dope. Yeah.
OK, you're going back to Magic Closet.
I mean, I'm going to I'm going to start walking that way just instinctively.
And I'm kind of going to be rambling like under my breath,
like it's a stone door and like rambling a little bit about what I saw
and then like turning around as if I'm still kind of in the scene,
like trying to relive it, like my eyes are closed while I'm walking.
And then I turn around and I turn back
and I kind of like trace out the doorway that I've seen.
I'm very much in my own head, just like.
Completely detached.
What are Bonwyn and Cav doing behind Bazaar?
I guess maybe just watching him walk away.
I mean, because I I asked if he was good.
He said yes. He's definitely acting weird. Yeah.
And we need to get back to the other side of the bridge.
So I guess I'm going to follow him and like walk with him,
especially because he seems a bit out of it.
But we are obviously on like the noble side because we were at City Hall.
So we need to get back where we're going.
So, yeah, yeah.
Bazaar, I'm going to I'm going to come with you
because I'm going to go back to the hop lock and get ready for dinner.
Yeah, I'll head I'll head back to the Divorced Dad Motel.
Perfect. Yeah.
And then I'll meet you guys at Cade.
Ask Steve if Shelly is letting him see the kids enough
because I'm worried. Oh, I can answer that for you.
She is not. OK. Yeah.
Is that for the best, do you think?
I don't know.
I mean, maybe that'll change when he, you know, puts in a little effort.
Bad decisions. Yeah. Yeah. OK.
Shelly doorway, Steve, kids.
Oh, no, we're jumbling them up.
Dinner, caves.
Cave, cave restaurant, not.
Why don't should I come with you?
Are you going to get changed? Oh, no.
I'll come with you. We should both go.
Let's both go. Yeah.
You come with me.
Let's all go to my place and get ready together. Love it.
Oh, it'll be so fun. I love that.
OK, come on. Yeah.
Everybody I follow them walks.
Yeah, I'm going to maybe like link an arm with them.
Yeah, I'm worried about him.
He is he is the smartest of us and he is unclear.
There's something happening. Yeah.
Yeah. He is rattled.
As you're all walking.
Bazaar, give me an insight role.
OK.
All right, that's going to be an 18.
You're replaying this vision that you had over and over again in your head.
The the spool itself hasn't extended any further.
The same foot to feet in that vicinity of thread is like locked on this location,
which doesn't move very much because you're at a distance of perhaps where it's pointing.
But like it's still holding its position if you if you if you bring it out in front of acting,
acting as a true north in some way.
Correct.
As you're replaying this vision over and over and you're kind of talking it through,
mumbled out loud, Bonwyn and Cav concerned, looking at you, you start to.
Make some inferences about some of the things that you've that you've been seeing.
A takeaway that you draw is that based on what you're seeing,
the Weeping Archive can be reached.
But also based on what you're seeing, knowing that there were three lines in the map,
knowing that only one of them was up.
Some of the strange things that Cav said and the form that was filled out,
you feel that the Weeping Archive can be reached, but perhaps only briefly.
And without the spool, the entrance may not stay put.
You don't have the sense that the spool is a key,
but appears to be creating some stability for the actual entrance.
It's in and out and the spool, it's stitching, it's stitching itself to the, where are we?
We're just about the hotplot.
We're going to get ready for dinner together, have a drink, you know.
It's stitching itself to the world, I think.
Yeah.
Let's go get ready.
OK.
I have ideas, I don't, I'll explain.
OK.
You all walk into Everbane's.
It's Thane's day off.
He's not there.
You go in and Bonwyn, as you go in, you kind of open some of the curtains,
let some light in.
Just give me a perception roll with advantage.
Just Bonwyn?
Just Bonwyn.
Nine.
You sense something different about the space, which draws you,
like you start to see if there's tools out of place or anything missing.
It draws you over to the forge.
Make an investigation roll once you're over there.
Guys, there's something weird in here.
So maybe just like don't touch anything for a minute.
OK.
Yeah.
21.
You cautiously walk over to the forge.
And the sensation you got as you walked in is very apparent
now that you're in this location.
You look down and there are old tool marks on the forge
that don't match your hand.
Don't match your work.
You see hammer blows that look corrected in a way.
A section of stone that has been reworked repeatedly,
which looks to you and your eye, your stone cutting, generations apart.
And you lay your hand on it and you feel heat coming from it,
but not fire specifically.
There's this pressure building up inside the forge.
OK, there's something wrong with the forge.
Again, but different.
This is...
Come look.
OK, these marks, these are not me.
Well, who would have made them then?
I don't know, but look at the difference here.
Well, it's hard to explain, but I can tell that this is really old
and this is newer and something is not right.
The more you examine them, you see a maker's mark
that you don't recognize.
Someone's used my forge?
We were only gone for a night, right?
Well, I mean, we never did specifically get told
that it was the next day.
Yeah, it was just night and then morning.
But see this, this is not me.
This is...
I don't know who this is.
Bazaar and Kav also roll Investigation.
Mm-hmm.
That's a dirty 20.
Whoa, not 20.
Oh, damn.
The two of you look, and Bonwyn, perhaps you are distressed
or severely distracted by this thing
that you found inside of your forge.
The two of you, Kav, for perhaps the first time in several days,
like something clicked with you immediately.
Like this mark that Bonwyn just pointed out
was the same mark that you recognized
that was present on some of the stone books
and on the false entrance.
Bazaar, do you also start to recognize it
from similar locations?
And also, as you pull out the map,
like there's the diagram that was created.
It appears down in the corner of this,
just kind of like half there
because it wasn't part of the immediate map.
This is the thing we saw in the archive, right?
And in a few other places?
Mm-hmm.
Really?
Yeah.
What does that mean?
Oh, was this a portal?
I mean, they did it, there was a deity.
So, okay.
The thread wrapped around my finger and I saw a door.
Okay.
And a shadow standing behind me.
Okay.
And the Weeping Archive is,
we're able to reach it.
And somehow this is keeping those doors
or those entryways stitched to our world,
is my guess.
Huh.
Because this was floating towards Lingersville.
In fact, it's still pointing
in that general direction, I believe.
I mean, we should probably go to Lingersville
and check it out, right?
Yeah, yeah, I mean, we'll get more info
from Oak at dinner and kind of figure out
what we need to bring with us.
So the door had symbols on it.
Your forge has a symbol from the door on it.
The door was a fake door.
There are potential other doors.
Maybe it's a passphrase.
Hmm.
Did the map, we've been in one door.
Yeah.
The map has given us a symbol.
Maybe there's more than one test.
Well, there probably is.
Okay, so we'll, like, let's obviously make note of this
and maybe we need it.
I don't like the idea of my forge being connected
to anything other than the huge things
it's already connected to.
Right, it's already got a lot going on.
Indeed.
Yeah.
What if that's why it's connected?
Oh.
Oh.
Because there's, like, a thinness there.
Yeah, it's worn away by a connection between two realms.
Right.
Well, somehow that makes me kind of feel better,
I guess, because it makes sense.
Like, that because,
yeah, I've communicated with, like,
the other side there would be.
Yeah.
Which-
There would at least be, like,
residue or, like, a pathway had been established, so.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's, like, a thinness between the realms.
Which also lines up with the, I guess,
maybe almost like a ley line
that's going up into the mountains
connecting to that portal up there
that does have some similarities
to both the Fae and the Fi.
Right.
So.
And it's.
Maybe, oh.
Do we need to go through that portal?
Oh.
We might have to go through the portal.
That's the closest one,
and it's one we haven't been through,
but it's not lit up, so maybe we have closed it down.
Yeah.
My bad.
Okay, well, we've got a fun dinner to attend.
Yeah.
So, Bazaar, you can probably borrow
something of Thane's that he's left here
if you want to change into something fancier,
or you look great as you are.
Up to you.
We should all maybe get,
just brush some of the rubble off of us.
We are still a little bit dusty for cave.
Indeed.
Yeah, good call.
Welcome to the middle, everybody.
Oh, the middle.
Thanks for being here.
Thank God we're here.
Just finding myself here now.
You know, sometimes you just stumble into it,
and it's full of great people,
just like you, dear listener.
Oh, absolutely.
Yes.
Think of how many people are listening
at the same time right now.
Well, we're only talking to one.
It's true.
Ever.
We're only ever talking to one.
Just one?
That's how the magic of radio works.
Damn.
So if you talk to all of them,
you alienate every single one of them.
Is that what's going on in my classroom?
Yes.
A little different for a teacher.
Oh, God.
I mean, you got the eyes on you,
but in this audio medium, we're in the ears of one,
maybe two tops.
Fair enough.
I love you one listener, two tops.
Oh, yeah, it could be a couple
sharing AirPods or something.
Oh, I love that.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's very sweet. Kyle fixed it.
Yeah, yeah.
So we love you is still applicable.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely it is.
We got shirts.
Oh, wow.
Talk about them.
Sometimes Russ says something,
and you couldn't have guessed.
No, I would have never.
Yes, that's what he was gonna say.
Never imagined.
And there it is.
Yep.
We do have shirts.
Yes.
Individually, which we are wearing now,
and as a podcast,
which I think is probably what he meant.
I'm wearing a podcast shirt right now.
Wow.
Well, yeah.
What?
That's awesome.
Where do we find said shirts, though?
I mean, I know where we find them.
Oh, in our drawers, if we're just being.
That's right, you got it.
You were on the right track there.
But is it like, is it the dashery.com slash dumbdragons?
Dumbdragons.com, or dumbdragons.dashery.com.
Oh, there we go.
So close, yeah.
I had all the right words just in the wrong order.
Yeah, it's the slash, it's trying to brand it,
and all that sort of stuff.
You know what, I bet there's a place
that's easier to find like all of our stuff.
They're just one stop, go there,
and it'll take you everywhere related to us.
Yeah.
You know, all the stuff.
There is.
It's our website, actually.
It is our website.
Which doesn't, it's a work in progress.
Well, it has all you need.
Well, no, because I'm saying that we have a special person
that we need to say thank you to.
It's a work in progress, but it has all you need.
I'm focusing towards the Patreon right now.
Yeah, I know.
Straight out of Russ's wedding vows.
Oh god.
Oh my god, sorry.
Sorry, Kyle, what were you saying?
Yeah, Kyle.
Kyle's trying to get us on track.
I was just saying you could probably find
a lot of our cool stuff over at Patreon
where you can see extra content,
definitely links to where our merch is,
other shows and games that we play,
and also you can join up on the Discord.
But one of the cool things.
And the newsletter.
And the newsletter, that's absolutely right.
Jess puts together a ball and newsletter.
Really is, shout out to Jess on that.
That thing always looks great.
So one of the big, big upsides of joining the Patreon
is having an episode dedicated to you.
And this episode's dedicatee.
No, we're the dedicators.
They're the dedicatee.
But I don't know their name, Russ.
Who is it?
It's Travis Richardson.
Thanks, Travis.
Thanks, Travis.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Travis.
Do you go by Trav or Travis?
Or this.
Maybe just drop the S, go by Travi.
Travi's fun.
Or T-Dawg.
T-Money.
T-Money.
Yeah, T-Money.
What's the last name again?
Richardson, Richardson.
Oh, money makes sense.
There we go.
T-Rich.
T-Rich, that's good.
Yeah, there you go.
Well, that's what we call you now.
You could just go with Team Rich.
Of course, T-Rich.
Thank you very much, T-Rich.
I hope all your friends start calling you that too,
because they clearly listen.
But they haven't joined Patreon yet,
so get them on that at patreon.com slash dumb dragon cast.
We hope to see you over there,
and now we'll get you back to the episode.
Because who knows what we've said
for the last three and a half minutes,
but we love you, and we hope you have a great week.
We'll talk to you soon.
Love you, bye.
Love you, bye.
Can you believe we do these in one?
And they're so good.
Just professional.
They're so good.
T-Rich.
You all get ready, and it takes you a little while,
but you make your way to cave at seven o'clock,
right on the nose.
And you see,
you see Oak waiting in line.
It's an extensive line.
He waves at you.
Do I, do we, do we have to stand in the line?
Did you?
No, we, we, we're, we're-
Excuse me, sorry.
We're booked.
I'm gonna, my friends are here.
It's fine.
Get out of the way.
Hi.
It's great to see you, Kav,
and YouTube is art, and Bondwood,
I saw, we saw you earlier.
So we saw you earlier.
We understand. Great to see you.
How was the wedding?
Oh, it was a lot.
Yeah.
It was good, though.
It was good.
Everyone seemed happy.
Okay, well, for the sixth wedding,
you bring me along,
and I'll help wrangle all the things that happened.
I just- Love it.
I wanna take that- It's a date.
Take that off your plate.
Okay, well-
I just wanna go for the drama, honestly.
I know, it does sound like
there's a little bit of messy bitch in me,
and it made me wanna kinda be there
when Kav told us about it.
Fair.
I'd love to see that.
Great, so you guys have a reservation?
We have a reservation, so come on, yeah.
You walk up, and the
Mater D, who you recognize as Cliff Hanger,
he is, he's standing,
do you have, he looks down over his glasses,
you have a reservation, yes?
Cliff, you know me, you know we have a reservation.
Of course, here, let me just pencil you in
underneath this one here,
we'll move some people around,
we'll make sure that you get in,
it's fine, Bonwyn, come on in,
for just one, two, three,
for the four of you, yes?
Yes. No?
Mm-hmm.
Okay, yep, great.
He grabs some menus, takes you back,
and has a seat, and there are three specials
this evening, if you would like to hear those,
I know many people just come for the stalactite meals,
but we have the dripstone delicacy,
which is a slow braised cave goat
in mineral wine reduction,
served over glow root mash.
We have the spelunkers surprise,
stuffed deep cap mushrooms
with spiced lizard sausage and cave cheese,
as well as the under dark skewer trio,
fire roasted blind lizard, crystal beetle,
and cave eel with molten pepper glaze.
Thank you, Cliff.
I'll leave you to think about those,
we'll bring you some drinks around,
enjoy the evening, heads on.
Wow, those all sound great,
I've never been in here,
this place is schwanky, ooh.
It's fancy, isn't it?
This feels nice.
I haven't been here yet either,
it's really nice.
I feel underdressed.
No, you look great, dinner's on us, Oak,
so don't pick what you like.
Yeah, I put on my bestest polo this evening,
I even got the sweater vest for the top
just to make it look quite dapper.
Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Looks like he just kind of clues back in.
Oh, the files!
And he pulls the files out and puts a stack down.
Did you learn some interesting things?
Yes.
Yes, so the two I put on it, they found a few.
Had a feeling there might be more,
so I went down digging, found six more,
so I'm by two, a few, I'm in two.
But I did find several.
That's why you're the best.
Interesting things, there's a lot of redactions
about Lingersville, which feels,
feels odd, but there's some stuff
about the founding in there,
there's some water anomaly incident
that looked like it created some sort of like,
I don't know, psychoses among the people.
Oh.
Yeah, like, I mean, have a read through here,
but there's definitely.
I don't like casualty report is.
Yeah.
Well, maybe it's zero.
Could be, it's redacted, so you're right, you're right.
They don't want no people to know
about good things that happen, I guess.
Definitely connections to Vinter Smith and.
Yeah, I see that, like Herbert Linger
and Terry St. Vinter were,
they started Lingersville together, it looks like,
and then.
Bam, resonant.
That is. What do you mean?
Wasn't that on the form?
That was on the form, Cav, right?
Did they consider it resonant or?
Oh.
Was that something I, am I misremembering?
They were considering something inert.
I mean, it's kind of an antonym.
It's resonant, as in it's still resonating with something,
and that's the town that we need to go to,
that's the one that's lit up.
Yes, yeah.
I didn't know Vinter's mouth was spelled three,
I thought it was all one word.
Early, as they were kind of trying to find themselves,
there was record that they had it split up.
Vin being wine of the region,
there used to be good grapevines that grew here,
and then it was a play on words,
wine your mouth, basically, is what that meant.
Oh!
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
I actually really like that.
Once they stopped making wine,
so quite as regularly, it didn't quite make a sense,
so they just slapped the name together.
Okay, fair enough.
Okay, so everyone moved to a new settlement.
Flingersville's abandoned.
Memory weakens with distance, I mean, that's true.
I mean, that's just memory of actual.
Ghost town.
Reach up the fence, okay.
Uh, Oak, is there a reference of, like,
time that has passed since these events?
Oh, like when it shut down?
Yeah.
Let me see here.
He starts flipping through some pages.
Long story short, is somebody old enough
to have experienced this that we could find?
Oh, probably not.
I think some of the oldest folks in town are,
well, that would have been here for the longest,
or like your family, or at least some of the oldest.
Yeah.
And I mean, that was like, no one, you know,
my dad, my grandpa, great grandpa,
like no one's ever.
What about some of the children
that came back from the fey?
We don't know how long they might have been in there.
Some of them could have been in there.
Oh, wow, that would have been a very long time.
Oh, you think there's.
It's a possibility.
A connection to Lingersville with those kids?
I mean, they're kind of.
Stranger things have happened in the last week,
I guess.
Suppression orders.
Uh-huh.
Prevent critical mass awareness, Kingstown oversight.
Uh-huh.
And also.
Why would Kingstown, oh.
Well, that last page is creepy.
And that note that says lie classified as stabilizing.
Oh, my goodness.
Okay, I mean, I guess we have to go.
You have to go?
Well, what's going on out there?
I don't know.
Yeah, not like we don't have to leave right now,
but we have to.
Oh, yeah, I didn't mean we have to go.
I didn't even get my drinks yet.
Oh, oh, no, no, no, don't be silly.
We're here to enjoy them.
No, no, no, no.
We never do you dirty like that.
Oh, no, of course.
No, thank you for doing all this research.
This is incredible.
I didn't know any of this stuff.
Honestly, I didn't either.
A lot of this is, I mean, shutting it down,
obviously, was a well-known fact,
but a lot of the reasons here,
like, there's a lot that could be
under these redacted pieces, too.
You mentioned the fatalities.
Why would they block that out?
And that's, I mean, neurological distress.
Have we tried just highlighting it
and then changing the writing to white
and see if we can?
Oh, yeah, I don't know if you can do that
with these parchment documents.
Some people don't know how to redact documents properly,
so you can just show just like the red.
Right, yeah, no, that seems like a poor process
that somebody might have.
Yeah, it seems like a bad way of doing things.
It's like you didn't pay for a proper program
to do it. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
The emotional fixation on the lake,
I mean, that would explain the drive
to want to divert the water,
so maybe we need to be looking around the lake
as the source of whatever it was
that was influencing people. Definitely.
The water, I mean, they founded it
because of the water, right?
I mean, it's why it's here.
Yeah, it was like the number one reason.
Yeah, it's typical set up of civilization.
Public explanation, bacterial contamination.
Regulated license.
Who licensed the suppression order?
Oak? Sorry, you asked?
What kind of upward mobility do you have to find out
who may have licensed or filed this?
Oh, I mean, there's no real record on the files.
I could, now that I have the files,
I could go look and see if there's an archival
or a ledger record to see who submitted the records
or who even redacted the records.
That should be something that we find.
Well, unless it's redacted itself,
because that is entirely possible.
Yeah, that wouldn't...
Yeah, but I can certainly take that
and see if I can find something about it.
Maybe.
Fawn one cav, what are y'all's thoughts?
I'm thinking maybe the skewer trio.
Fair, I was thinking the dripstone.
Does sound good, does sound good.
My mind's still on food.
Don't try to fuck with me.
I knew it would be, I knew it would be.
I don't know if I can let you keep the records,
but take whatever copies you need.
I've got notebooks here,
like we can keep as many of the records.
Of course, yeah, you wouldn't be able
to let us keep the real actual records
that you need to go back.
It would also help me try and track down
if we used to have a record
of who submitted and redacted.
Just have somebody make a rub off of one.
I beg your excuse me?
Huh?
Nothing, what are you thinking about eating?
Dumbgeons and Dragons, season four, episode 54.
Starring Amy More as Alydin,
Carla Maxted as Bonwyn Everbane,
Tom Laird as Kavlaran Goldweave,
Kyle Klasset as Bizard the Wizard,
and Russ More as your dungeon master.
Dialogue editing and sound design
of today's episode is by Russ More.
Our community manager is Jessica Babiak.
Music is from Epidemic Sound,
and sound effects are from Epidemic Sound,
Boom Library, and Sound Ideas.
Our amazing cover art is by Matt Garbutt.
A huge thank you to our supporting producers,
Gabriel Lynch, Jessica Babiak,
Angaron Kierzen, Perry Matey,
Cat Waterflame, Jacob Madden,
Old School Gamer D, Craig Zeiss,
L.A. Branton, Chibs1012, and Kudzu828.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Patreon-supported show,
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How do we always crush it?
And this is like where you're fading out,
even though we've said bye,
and you just hear us talking this shit.
Sometimes there is just like a line after the bye,
that I'm like, I'll leave that in.
Just gonna leave it.
Yeah.
Can you believe we did that in one?
Can you believe that? Every time.
If we don't retake these, not once.
Damn it, we're professionals.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Dumb Dragons production.