Introducing: The Glass Cannon Podcast Shadowdark E1 | Probably the Moon

Summary

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Glass Cannon Podcast Shadowdark E1 | "Probably the Moon"

Premiere Episode on Geek & Sundry's Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry Hub
Original Air Date: February 26, 2026
Main Cast: Troy Lavallee (GM), Matthew Mercer, Joe O'Brien, Sydney Padua, Pharaoh
Location: https://www.geekandsundry.com

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Episode Overview

In this highly-anticipated crossover event, the Glass Cannon crew launches their very first campaign of Shadowdark—a modern fantasy TTRPG inspired by the “old school renaissance” style of play. The players bring together harrowed survivors in a world devastated by an apocalyptic war where neither side emerged victorious. Set amid trauma, loss, and the hope of sanctuary in the isolated village of Marin’s Hold, this session is heavy on horror, grim humor, and vivid improvisational storytelling. The cast dives in with character introductions, house rules, and immediate, atmospheric roleplay—establishing settings and relationships in classic actual play style.

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Key Discussion Points, Insights & Highlights

1. Kicking Off Shadowdark (01:46–09:24)

• Tone & Philosophy: The team is eager to embrace Shadowdark’s old-school, “player-driven” gameplay—reminiscent of AD&D but with an emphasis on improvisation, emergent storytelling, and higher player agency over traditional module railroading.
• Memorable Quote:

  “You don't reference your character sheet to figure out what you can do...there’s so much more weight and responsibility placed on the players."
  — Pharaoh (08:08)

• All players share stories from running Shadowdark at recent retreats, noting its easy-to-pick-up mechanics and the fun unpredictability of random generation.
  • Sydney recalls:

    “The thing we rolled was, like, a large map...a Citadel...I gotta make a whole Citadel on the spot. But it all came together...” (06:35)

• The excitement mixes with first-day anxiety:

  “...it's gonna feel like walking down memory lane.”
  — Troy Lavallee (04:10)

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2. Table Rules, House Rules & Session Setup (18:04–24:56)

• Luck System: Bottle caps represent luck tokens, with no maximum cap. Uses: re-roll any check, turn a hit into a crit (before damage), or give the GM disadvantage (must be declared before the roll). (19:02–20:32)
• Casting Rules: Utilizing a Sly Flourish “house rule”—you only lose your prepared spell after the first successful cast or upon a failed casting after success, not on an initial failed attempt. (20:45)
• Hit Points:
  • Start with max HP.
  • On level up, both player and GM roll a die; highest result is HP gained (22:07–22:44).
  • New replacement characters enter at level 1 after a PC death, following classic OSR style (“play it as it lies”).
• Equipment/Encumbrance: Inventory management emphasized (slots for items), humorously bemoaned by hoarder players. (17:00)
• NPC Names: The group prepares a shared doc of NPC names to aid improvisation. (18:04)
• All agree proactive player agency and improvisation are at the heart of the table and system.

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3. Setting the Stage: World & Campaign Intro (28:00–31:33)

• Backdrop: The war is over—because both sides were entirely devastated by an unknown, impossibly destructive third party. No victors, only survivors in a shattered realm (29:20).
  • Troy narrates an atmospheric opener, painting imagery of burning battlefields and the sense of trauma and uncertainty:

    “No matter what side you fought on, you lost… Whoever this power was, simply ended the war with apocalyptic force.” (28:20)

  • The characters each recall the moment of catastrophe: light, heat, screams, and darkness.
• Initiative: Even exploration/roleplay moments use initiative to spotlight every player. (31:33)

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4. Character Introductions: Cinematic Openings (32:22–53:49)

Matthew Mercer as Allison Ricks:

• Awakes buried beneath corpses in a field; tall, young, prematurely white-haired, survives only by luck. He clings to a drawing of his family for hope (32:22–35:38).
• Quote:

  “…He finally reaches into his tunic and pulls out this small sheet of parchment...a sketch of a woman holding a girl...” (34:48)

Joe O’Brien as Warwick Blackburn:

• Half-orc, once a squire—shell-shocked and looted as he awakens on the battlefield. Driven by a need to recover his stolen sword and armor (37:27–44:02).

Pharaoh as Pharaoh:

• Field hospital attendant, suffers a skull fracture as the world ends. Struggles with guilt, thinking his own prayer might have triggered the calamity (44:14–48:24).
  • Quote:

    “He remembers a flash of a soldier that had been disemboweled... As he stood up in surprise, this impact shook the world.” (46:51)

• The trauma lingers and shapes his actions.

Sydney Padua as Saint Anthony:

• Gaunt, starving young man emerges naked from a muddy pit, scavenges the battlefield for food, clothing, and valuables (48:39–53:49).
  • Quote:

    “…completely nude when he comes out of this hole…and as he's taking these pieces, he's kind of getting dressed looking around..."

• Resourceful, secretive, and unflinching.

Memorable Moment:
Troy and Sydney tease the “HBO opening sequence” vibe, with much laughter at the grim nudity and graphic realism. (53:57)

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5. Arrival at Marin’s Hold & Group Formation (57:53–77:31)

• Marin’s Hold: A recently reinforced palisaded village promising sanctuary—at a price. The gatekeeper lays down the law: “Whatever side you fought on matters not... No magic within our walls.” (62:14)
• Players organically form a party to score limited inn rooms, forming bonds of convenience and necessity. Each claims a bunk in "The Feathered Wish."
• They pool skills and resources (a string of foraged squirrels becomes valuable protein), begin to probe one another’s backgrounds, and tentatively build trust.
• Notable Quotes:
  • “It's kind of like the beginning of a reality show...form teams and then go find the golden...let's go.” (76:15)
  • “I'd like to know why.” / “Thought we could all do a little bit to help each other out.”
    —Saint & Allison (88:54)

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6. First Night: Tensions, Trust, and Trauma (89:48–104:58)

• Shared Stories: After a sparse stew and a dose of hard-won humor, the group exchanges battered war stories, rife with uncertainty about the disaster’s cause—god, sorcery, or “probably the moon.”

  • Pharaoh’s guilt:

    “I think, like, Pharaoh, on some level, is convinced that he's responsible…” (99:04)

  • Saint’s stone-faced secrecy, Warwick’s righteous anger, Allison’s haunted compassion.

• Paranoia: Making camp in a town full of desperate survivors, the group debates watches and traps their own door—open about not fully trusting each other (141:00–143:11).

  • Quote:

    “Are you keeping…should we just all go to sleep…? We're sharing a room with a thief and…we wouldn't completely trust these other two people anyway…”
    — Pharaoh & Group (141:11)

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7. Night in Marin’s Hold: Ominous Events (144:01–147:27)

• Midnight Incident:
  • During Saint’s watch, a commotion outside: town guards dragging women to the drawbridge, cries that it isn't true, suggestions of witch hunts or magical persecution. Saint stealthily (and successfully) spies on the scene, but leaves the party’s door unsecured (144:01–147:29).
  • Quote:

    “You hear, like, a woman's voice. 'It's not true, it's not true.'...they’re shuffling, like three people out the gate…” (144:29)

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8. The Tavern: Seeds for Adventure (111:00–139:20)

• Crayfish Tavern: A bustling, tense room where locals eye refugees warily—a space full of potential contacts, jobs, and secrets.
  • Warwick seeks bandits rumored to have stolen from him; miners and laborers suggest jobs are scarce unless one ventures beyond the safe walls, or investigates a missing merchant (119:16).
• Gathering Leads: Hints for adventure emerge:
  • Caravan ambushed—merchant Regina Spence missing (120:13). Contact: her partner, Martin Gardok.
  • Saint hears of a “bandit camp near a massive marrow tree by Wardenwood,” a likely side-quest (134:33).

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9. Session Conclusion (148:51–end)

• Ending Montage: The party weighs their options—search for the lost merchant, investigate the bandit camp—while Saint witnesses a witch-hunt-like expulsion.
  • Troy’s “HBO closing”—he wishes he could cue Annie Lennox’s “I Put a Spell On You” over the dark town, as the camera pans up (148:51).

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Notable Quotes & Character Moments w/ Timestamps

• “You don't reference your character sheet...there’s so much more weight and responsibility placed on the players.”
  — Pharaoh, 08:08

• “No matter what side you fought on, you lost…this party, this whatever, did not win per se. They just ended the war with apocalyptic force.”
  — Troy Lavallee, 28:20

• “As he stood up in surprise, this impact shook the world.”
  — Pharaoh, 46:51

• “Are any of us all right?...A war.”
  — Matthew Mercer & Sydney, 107:52

• “Probably the moon.”
  — Pharaoh, 100:01
  [Episode title drop!]

• “I'd like to know why.” / “Thought we could all do a little bit to help each other out.”
  — Saint & Allison, 88:54

• “You're staring at people.” / “Just doesn't seem real. Seems like...it's all wrong, you know?”
  — Sydney & Matthew, 117:10

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Important Episode Timestamps

• 01:46–09:24 — Table philosophy, excitement about Shadowdark, OSR-style play
• 18:04–24:56 — House rules: Luck tokens, spellcasting, hit points, new PC levels
• 28:00–31:33 — Campaign premise, post-apocalyptic setting, initiative system
• 32:22–53:49 — Cinematic character introductions
• 57:53–77:31 — Arrival at Marin’s Hold, party forms, first group interactions
• 89:48–104:58 — Shelter, shared trauma, beginnings of trust/mistrust
• 144:01–147:27 — Midnight, Saint sneaks out, expulsion of accused witches
• 111:00–139:20 — Crayfish Tavern, rumors, job hooks emerge
• 148:51–149:32 — Cinematic “HBO ending,” cue Annie Lennox (thematic outro)

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Takeaways for New Listeners

• This episode exemplifies classic “zero to hero” OSR storytelling: The party begins in dire straits, forced by circumstance to join up and survive among tense refugees and hostile guards in a dangerous land.
• Roleplay-forward, character-driven play: Each player gives a vivid, nearly cinematic monologue for their character's introduction, and every scene plays to their strengths and trauma.
• Immediate plot hooks with ominous flavor: Mysterious disappearances, rumors of bandits, and witch-hunting hint at threats both external and internal.
• Grim, darkly humorous tone: Bantering about gear, intrusive thoughts, and gallows humor reinforce the world’s post-war, uncertain mood.
• Session leans heavily on improvisation, emergent narrative, and worldbuilding—all captured in the raw exchanges and memorable descriptive vignettes.

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Next Episode:

Will the party uncover the truth behind the missing merchant? Will Saint’s ‘lean-off’ pay off? What lies waiting in the woods—or within the walls—of Marin’s Hold?

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Listen to the full episode at Glass Cannon/Geek & Sundry for the banter, atmosphere, and deep roleplay that make this crew legendary in the actual play podcast world.

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Transcript

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[Matthew Mercer]

You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premier source for role playing game entertainment.

[Troy Lavallee]

I can never see the road in

[Sydney Padua]

front of me

[Troy Lavallee]

I keep touching for

[Sydney Padua]

the things I'll never be

[Troy Lavallee]

in my shadow time they say it's right off flight on Judgment Day I can barely see the world. Welcome everybody to the Glass Cannon Podcast. We're a bunch of good time pals yucking it up and busting chops. Make an actual play podcast of your favorite tabletop role playing games and today we embark on a whole new adventure playing a shadowdark. Enter the Shadow Dark. It happens today. If you like what you hear, here's what we would like for you to do. I want you to like and [e-mail] TheGlassCanon I want you to download and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The other podcasters don't matter, just those two.

[Joe O'Brien]

So rude to the other.

[Troy Lavallee]

The only reviews that matter are Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Follow us the Glass Cannon Network on Instagram and if you want access to tons of exclusive content and all of our public shows without ads, subscribe [e-mail] it's episode one day. It's time to take this baby and push it out of our birth canals. Take him to first grade.

[Joe O'Brien]

It's been gestating for a while.

[Sydney Padua]

That's so fast.

[Troy Lavallee]

That's how it works in this biz.

[Pharaoh]

Cat's in the cradle and the sill of the spoon.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's first that you made a Harry Chapin reference.

[Pharaoh]

I didn't say that I liked him.

[Troy Lavallee]

He can make a reference and regret it.

[Pharaoh]

I can make a reference and still hate something

[Troy Lavallee]

how are you ready? Are you ready to do this?

[Pharaoh]

I'm fucking ready, man.

[Joe O'Brien]

You're ready.

[Pharaoh]

I'm very excited, I gotta say, because we just had our retreat recently.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yes.

[Pharaoh]

And during that, I ran the village of Hommlet. I think the first original AD&D adventure. I have it with me. I brought it with me. I got a prop and just. God, it was fun. It was just so fun. And it just got me even more excited to do this. Like, something adherent to that spirit. I'm just. I'm ready for it.

[Troy Lavallee]

You're geeked. You're ready. Yeah. I feel like it's gonna feel like walking down memory lane.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

You know, you guys, Matthew and Cindy, you didn't play in the 80s. You weren't born yet. But we did. And I was born.

[Sydney Padua]

Matthew, just say thank you. Just say thank you.

[Troy Lavallee]

Say thank you. Thank you. Let me see that license.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

I feel like it's gonna. It's gonna reignite memories that I forgot that I even had you all. The three. Sydney, Matthew and Joe. You all ran Shadow Dark at our Nashville retreat as well.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, it was a spectacular experience.

[Troy Lavallee]

I've heard the war stories now from several people.

[Joe O'Brien]

I was shocked, honestly, at how much fun and easy it was to run and play. Yeah. Because you get a little bit stressed when it's like, oh, well, there aren't too many guidelines. It is super open and creative for somebody like me. That's. I'm like, that's a little stressful. I like to have my lines to color and I like to see exactly, like what I can and can't do. And it flowed so easily. It was just amazing and it got me really pumped.

[Troy Lavallee]

Did you run it for over a year for.

[Joe O'Brien]

No, I ran it for two hours.

[Troy Lavallee]

I hope it'll be as easy campaign

[Joe O'Brien]

level plays is going to be a little different.

[Troy Lavallee]

How does your sesh go?

[Matthew Mercer]

Great. Yeah, we all committed, I think, to the random. The random. The random generation mechanics with the tables from the book. So, you know, I rolled my map. I rolled my dice to make the map. Yeah, I rolled. I know. And then if we encountered somebody, I rolled for it. It was like completely committed to the randomness. And it was super fun. The emergent storytelling was really cool.

[Joe O'Brien]

And it wasn't. It wasn't only fun. Like, it was fun because it was great. Yeah, it was really like.

[Troy Lavallee]

It was fun because it was great. Okay.

[Joe O'Brien]

It was shocking. It was shocking. What a good adventure it became. Yeah. With like. And no pre written, you know, sort of handcrafted by A master of module writing. Like you didn't need it to have a spectacularly memorable session. It was. I was shocked at how well it ran.

[Sydney Padua]

I feel at my best in improv, and that's what I love about TTRPGs and role play. But I was nervous for the same reason, because everything was rolled randomly. And I was like, what if it's something that I just don't know anything about? And the thing we rolled was, like, a large map. And I was like. And then we rolled a Citadel. And I was like, fuck, I already love this.

[Troy Lavallee]

I don't know. I know nothing about it.

[Sydney Padua]

But I was, like, freaking out because I'm like, I gotta make a whole Citadel on the spot. But it all came together. We rolled the name of what it was, and it was like, Ruins of a Citadel, named the Citadel of the Holy Flame. And there was like.

[Troy Lavallee]

I just got chills. The group.

[Sydney Padua]

My group is fantastic. I love you guys. They came up with this idea because they were first level, and they were like, how about the. A team already went in and they like, the Citadel is destroyed, the battle is fought, and we're like, the cleanup crew, who are supposed to just get a great idea. They're supposed to get, like, a hostage, like, one guy. So they're like, we're just supposed to get this one guy. That's our whole mission, is to get one guy. And it just. Everything flowed. It came together. My nerves went away. And, like, the improv was so fun. No character deaths. Almost one.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, I didn't get anybody either.

[Sydney Padua]

Almost one.

[Joe O'Brien]

Wow.

[Sydney Padua]

One went down and was unconscious.

[Joe O'Brien]

Two.

[Sydney Padua]

Nice.

[Joe O'Brien]

It was nice.

[Matthew Mercer]

I took. I took two people down, and they both rolled natural twenties to not only stabilize but regain.

[Sydney Padua]

That's incredible. They had to roll a really high healing check, and they rolled it. But, yeah, it was. It was touch and go. It was. It was awesome.

[Joe O'Brien]

But I had the same experience where the players were making the story, like, as they went along. And, like, we say that a lot, but this was, like, they really were. Because it was randomly rolled, and then they were thrown in these details, and I was like, who knew players could add so much to a game?

[Troy Lavallee]

Can you guys do that?

[Pharaoh]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

Well, that's why I'm nervous today, because I'm like, man, I got a lot of work to do in these OSR games. You got to bring a lot. You don't reference your character sheet to figure out what you can do.

[Pharaoh]

That's the thing that struck me, too, is listening to some kind of philosophy, like, OSR kind of philosophy is that it really is. There's so much more weight and responsibility placed on the players. One of the things that again, Sly Flourish mentioned was that it's the sort of GM advice was like, don't answer any question that isn't asked. So like don't volunteer anything. But it's up to us to kind of say, like, I look behind that pillar. Yeah, like, oh, okay, well, there's a goblin back there. Whatever it is, it's just like it's on us to kind of force, you know, to drive the story that agency is there that sort of isn't in a lot of the other games that we've played.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, yeah. Is there a mirror on the wall or anything in here? Sure, right, exactly. Obviously you have a good idea of what to do with the mirror.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

I'm like, nah, this was not a vain owner of this room.

[Matthew Mercer]

Mirrors are incredible. They're incredibly expensive objects.

[Troy Lavallee]

That's true.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

There is a mirror, but it's cracked. I want to give you a treasure.

[Pharaoh]

Agatha Christie's been in here.

[Troy Lavallee]

Well, you have a lot of work to do, so I'm going to give you 59 seconds to think about it and we'll be right back and we'll start.

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[Sydney Padua]

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[Troy Lavallee]

We're back, ready to start a brand new campaign. Only the third campaign of this network, you know, for the Flash show. Ten years for a glass cannon podcast, you know, and the first playing a different game, playing shadowdark. I'm really excited. I have the. I was saying earlier, like I have those, you know, first day of school nerves and jitters. But I'm mainly excited because I've been working in a pseudo vacuum ever since session zero. You guys have been playing. I haven't been playing, I've just been and like rolling on tables and recording what I roll. And then I look at it and I'm like, what do I think is going on here and what is this thing? And then how does this connect to that? How does this connect? Oh, maybe I'll change that to this and move stuff around. And it's just such an interesting kind of fascinating and new way to work for me because I'm used to just reading something and putting my own spin on it, but now it's just kind of emerging out of dice rolls. So I'm interested. The last thing that I'm missing is you guys is characters in this adv. We built them last time and now you've loaded them into Foundry Virtual Tabletop. I want to thank Foundry Virtual Tabletop, one of our two Sponsors thus far for our shadowdark campaign. Wait till you see the cool things we're going to do with Foundry. You might even see it today. I want to throw it out there today. Very, very excited about that. And our second sponsor, of course. Back again for our shadowdark campaign, Norse Foundry. You're going to need them.

[Pharaoh]

North found.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yes.

[Troy Lavallee]

Those Nat 20s.

[Joe O'Brien]

Best dice in the business.

[Troy Lavallee]

I just rolled a 16 and a 19 on this beautiful Troy die.

[Joe O'Brien]

And we just got some newbies from. From North Foundry. Their storybook line.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

And it fits the Shadow Dark vibe.

[Pharaoh]

It looks like the book. It looks like the rulebook.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, it's super dark with, like, the silver dragon sort of just poking through.

[Sydney Padua]

Mine is called the Tome of the Forbidden. And I'm like, oh, that's so shadow dark coated. Oh, yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

I preserved a natural 20.

[Joe O'Brien]

Mine is heart of the desolate City. Another good shadow Darkness.

[Troy Lavallee]

Mine is. Why is it itchy down there?

[Joe O'Brien]

It's dark down there.

[Pharaoh]

Mine is called the Veil of the Forgotten Mage.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, that's fun.

[Joe O'Brien]

I mean, these sound like randomly generated shadowdark adventures.

[Pharaoh]

They do.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah. Where do you see the name?

[Pharaoh]

It's on the label.

[Joe O'Brien]

It's on the uv. It's super tiny for a forest.

[Troy Lavallee]

Fun. Dead Risen.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

Oh, that's fun.

[Joe O'Brien]

Anyway, I'm psyched to. To bring in. I love a new die and a new die set for a new campaign. Feels good. I'm gonna start rolling with a new die and. And see how this one goes.

[Troy Lavallee]

Well, it's like buying the school supply. I say first day of school, really? Is that you want to have your notebooks? You're like, I'm gonna take great notes for this campaign. This is the campaign I'm gonna take great notes for. That lasts for like a week or.

[Joe O'Brien]

This will be the one.

[Pharaoh]

Go to Target, Get a new Trapper Keeper.

[Troy Lavallee]

Sharpen all your pencils.

[Pharaoh]

Bunch of peachy folders. New dice.

[Troy Lavallee]

Who's tracking loot?

[Pharaoh]

I mean, we all kind of have to because, like. Well, yeah, we have to. We have our slots. Like, we have to be able to fill up our slots.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, not a lot. It's gonna be a lot of like, gotta drop this so I can put this in.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, someone's strong.

[Sydney Padua]

I hate that. It's my least favorite thing in video games. And I'm a hoarder. Oh, my God. Picks up every single thing because I'm like, 10 spoons. I'll sell these later in town.

[Troy Lavallee]

You read every Skyrim, but you read every Skyrim book.

[Sydney Padua]

I skip. I Skip sometimes, because sometimes they're a little long. I'm like, pass. But I do like to pick up every book. I read it and then I keep it because I'm like, I'll sell that.

[Troy Lavallee]

You never know when you're gonna.

[Pharaoh]

I read all the books in Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.

[Sydney Padua]

I thought there would be, like, an achievement.

[Pharaoh]

Not three. I didn't read them in three, but I read all 1 and 2. Like, I read them all.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, it's just a lot of lore.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right, so you're all going to be tracking loot. Okay.

[Sydney Padua]

And I will be asking, can I read this book every. Every time.

[Pharaoh]

Be prepared to improvise a whole book every time we walk into a library.

[Troy Lavallee]

I want to be better at NPC names because I often times. I don't know if you know this, I tend to make them up on the spot.

[Matthew Mercer]

Do you have the sheet ready?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, I have the sheet ready. NPC names sheet.

[Troy Lavallee]

So you want to be good.

[Joe O'Brien]

That's all it does. Yeah, it's. It's in our drive. It's in our shared john.

[Sydney Padua]

Oh, okay.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, I'll.

[Joe O'Brien]

I'll send you the link.

[Troy Lavallee]

Any other questions? You guys? Have you made any changes to your character?

[Pharaoh]

Yes.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, you have some. Some tweaks. Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

I chose spells.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, you chose spells. Right. Okay, Some. Some last minute tweaks. Okay.

[Joe O'Brien]

I might have moved ability scores around a little bit, but same. Same class. Same, same. You know, top ability scores are still the same, but.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay. Okay, let's go over our house rules because it's been.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yes.

[Troy Lavallee]

For you guys, it's been one week. For us, it's been like five or six.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

Since session zero. Sydney, very graciously, I have them written down. You wrote your notes down. Very good. All right, so tell us our house rule.

[Sydney Padua]

Okay, so house rules. We agreed that there is no maximum to the amount of bottle caps. We can have our luck tokens.

[Troy Lavallee]

That's straight out of the book.

[Sydney Padua]

Straight out of the book.

[Troy Lavallee]

I don't even know how it's ruled, but we do.

[Sydney Padua]

Bottle cap. So you said our cap economy. We'll keep it flowing. No, Max, you get a cap at the start of each episode.

[Troy Lavallee]

Last time I checked, this was an app Starts.

[Joe O'Brien]

This is episode one.

[Troy Lavallee]

I think you should put the cap in front of you. But it's your cap. You can do whatever you want with it. Caps. This is what we use for luck tokens. We use bottle caps. This came from Joe and Skidny's old game master, Chris Merwin because we used to drink a thousand beers. So he'd be like, hey, you can use this.

[Joe O'Brien]

You had a really good role playing scene.

[Troy Lavallee]

Take a bottle cap.

[Joe O'Brien]

You can turn that in for a reroll. And so it fits the luck token vibe I got Aldo.

[Sydney Padua]

Oh, nice.

[Pharaoh]

Actually, I just heard from Chris. It was his birthday a couple weeks ago.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, nice. Oh nice. Happy birthday, Chris. So you can use a cap to do what?

[Sydney Padua]

You can use a cap to re roll a check after it's rolled. So you can just redo that check. You can use it to turn a hit into a crit.

[Troy Lavallee]

Nasty.

[Sydney Padua]

And possibly my favorite and Troy's least favorite. You can use it to give the GM disadvantage.

[Matthew Mercer]

Gross.

[Troy Lavallee]

You fought hard for this one. I was gonna. I was thinking about on the drive in. I'm like, really? I still hate it it. But you need all help you can get.

[Sydney Padua]

And one more, one more.

[Matthew Mercer]

Use it to give ourselves advantage. Or is it just a re roll?

[Troy Lavallee]

It's just a reroll and you got to take the next roll.

[Sydney Padua]

But also if you hit on a roll, you can use it to get a crit. But you have to not roll your damage yet. We agreed on that as well.

[Joe O'Brien]

You also have to Troy if you use it against the GM it's disadvantage. So you have to announce it before he rolls.

[Troy Lavallee]

Right, Right.

[Joe O'Brien]

So if he's like, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and you know, it might be a little speed game.

[Troy Lavallee]

Two twenties,

[Joe O'Brien]

two natural twenties.

[Sydney Padua]

We also did the house rule for spell casting which we talked about which was a sly flourish one and we all liked it. You have to pass your spell check before you lose that spell. So you can't it.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's very One successful cast.

[Pharaoh]

One successful cast or you lose it for the.

[Troy Lavallee]

So for example, if you go to cast cure light wounds and you fail, we're going to say you don't lose the spell. Mishap would happen as normal. You don't lose the spell.

[Joe O'Brien]

You also don't cast the spell.

[Troy Lavallee]

You don't cast it.

[Joe O'Brien]

You just don't lose it for the whole day.

[Matthew Mercer]

You don't get it off. You're like trying to summon the magical energies and can't manage to try it again and fail.

[Troy Lavallee]

You don't lose it, try it again, succeed. Then any further failures, you lose it for the day. We're going to try that one out for size. You use that in your.

[Pharaoh]

I use it my ad and D game. I thought it was a a massive improvement to the base sort of vancy and rules of AD&D like I would use it in every game that going

[Troy Lavallee]

forward, hey, I aim to please. If that's something you think is going to increase your joy at the table, who am I to stay out of the way of your job is.

[Pharaoh]

Is like we have to sort of mitigate our mortality of our characters a little bit because, you know, spent money on this, the artwork and everything.

[Troy Lavallee]

I'll die in the first financial.

[Pharaoh]

It's a financial decision as much as anything.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay. Okay. All right. So those are the house. Any. Any anything else?

[Sydney Padua]

We said starting with max hit points, but that was kind of like a decided on thing.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, we like that. And you only get your con to your hit points at character creation.

[Joe O'Brien]

No, we didn't decide that. I'd love to decide now. I mean we got some time here. But upon level up we can roll for HP or we can roll twice and take the better like we used to do.

[Pharaoh]

Right.

[Troy Lavallee]

Well, actually that's not what we used to do is I would roll we and you would.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yes. But it's 2D. So the GM rolls one player rolls one. Whoever rolled the higher. That's the hit point total for the level up. We just thought it was fun.

[Matthew Mercer]

And if you roll the same you.

[Joe O'Brien]

You have to re roll it.

[Troy Lavallee]

You could roll like both roll eights. Yeah. I mean that's fun. That's. Sure.

[Sydney Padua]

We do that in Legacy. It's fun.

[Pharaoh]

We do do it in Legacy still.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, the old days. Yeah, I think that's fun. We'll see, you know, if we level up.

[Pharaoh]

Oh, this is one other thing I wanted to ask.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes.

[Pharaoh]

Is I don't know if we settled on this was if God forbid, there's a character death, the new character. Do they. What level do they come in?

[Troy Lavallee]

That is a good question. I think the game sort of intimates.

[Pharaoh]

You come in at first level.

[Troy Lavallee]

You come in at a first level like and. And I think pretty quickly.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

That's the thing is you catch. If you come in and the other players are third, you're maybe two sessions away from catching up. But you're also never. But they'll.

[Pharaoh]

You'll also never totally catch up.

[Sydney Padua]

I don't.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

Like,

[Joe O'Brien]

here's why. I don't hate it as much as I thought I did until I once I ran the game, I. I realized a little bit more the lack of. Of sort of cr. For lack of a better term as a concept.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah. There's no such thing as Encounter Balance.

[Joe O'Brien]

There's no such thing as Encounter Balance. There aren't like, if you're a level one creature, you're not going to only fight level seven creatures because, you know, because the party's level seven.

[Matthew Mercer]

Right.

[Troy Lavallee]

It's.

[Joe O'Brien]

You could fight a level seven creature at level one. Regardless. You could fight a level two creature at level five.

[Troy Lavallee]

Like the witch.

[Joe O'Brien]

Regularly. Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

It's like, I can't go into this dungeon.

[Pharaoh]

Right, right.

[Joe O'Brien]

Exactly. Depending on what you roll. So, like, I don't think. Think it's that crazy. Yeah. I don't know. It's. It's up to you.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah. I feel like we'll play it as it lies. Like we're not there yet. I. I think it's worth playing a little bit and getting a feel for it. Um, I. I think that you guys in. In our practice sessions, you got the second level much quicker than we did in previous incarnations of this show. With other games, like, you get there quick.

[Pharaoh]

I think it's probably 10 XP to second level.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah. So, you know, I just don't know. I don't know.

[Joe O'Brien]

I don't know. I don't think we have to decide right now.

[Troy Lavallee]

I don't think we have to.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, hopefully you don't have to decide ever.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah. And honestly, like, I'm interested in. In your opinion as well. If you want to get in on the conversation, subscribe, you can join our private discord. It's a great place to discuss what you like and what you don't like and comment on the YouTube video. Yeah, yeah, we'll be taking it all to heart. Anything else? We can procrastinate.

[Matthew Mercer]

I'm hungry. You want to get some food?

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, I could eat. I could eat. Quick break, quick break. Go get some Sam Bonis. I could go for like a 12 incher. Get a ball. That's more. Should we have this catered today?

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, let's go.

[Troy Lavallee]

D. Did you bring a charcuterie plate? No. That's a no. I didn't see a honeycomb in his bag. All right, well, I guess. I guess we gotta. We gotta start this. Rip that band aid. Rip it off, man. New campaign.

[Pharaoh]

I'm excited. I'm excited.

[Troy Lavallee]

I'm excited too.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, I'm obviously super excited. But, man, what is a strange and interesting moment, not just for players, obviously, but for a gm, you know, the first moments of a new campaign. Like, first, the opening. What's the opener?

[Troy Lavallee]

Now you make. You're making it a lot worse. You might think you're helping.

[Joe O'Brien]

No, I was trying to make it work.

[Troy Lavallee]

You tried to hurt me.

[Joe O'Brien]

Trying to Challenge you.

[Matthew Mercer]

If it's any consolation, I just realized Joe is wearing a shadow dark shirt that espouses a GM philosophy, not a player philosophy.

[Troy Lavallee]

Attack the light.

[Joe O'Brien]

Attack the.

[Sydney Padua]

Attack the light.

[Joe O'Brien]

AM a shadow jar gm. I just happen to be playing today. Did you say shadow jm Shadow gm.

[Troy Lavallee]

Have you been drinking?

[Joe O'Brien]

I was really nervous.

[Troy Lavallee]

I started early. They say the best time to drink is 7am out of your system by bedtime.

[Joe O'Brien]

Is that what they say?

[Pharaoh]

It gives you time to sober up

[Troy Lavallee]

for later in the day when your

[Pharaoh]

family really needs you.

[Troy Lavallee]

When your family needs you most.

[Pharaoh]

When you come up. Dinner time.

[Troy Lavallee]

There was a. There's some Instagram account where this guy, like, eats like former presidents and eats like former historical figures or eats like them. Eats like them.

[Matthew Mercer]

I heard eats former presidents.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yes. He goes to a graveyard, digs them up at Arlington. Ah, Not a chaff driver. And there was one president, I can't remember, who like, started the day 6am with a bourbon, and so he had to do that. And he goes through his whole day eating the menu of these presidents, and I can't remember what it was.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's funny.

[Troy Lavallee]

It was an interesting move because it was out of my system by noon and I slept great.

[Sydney Padua]

Who would start with a bourbon? Trying to think what president?

[Matthew Mercer]

There are many of them.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Pharaoh]

Lbj.

[Troy Lavallee]

I mean, Woodrow Wilson.

[Matthew Mercer]

That one's haft. My. My dad, he used to teach at this cooking studio, and he didn't teach this class, but they ran a class where they made the final meal in the first class dining room of the Titanic. It's preposterous. Like the. If you look, you can find the menu online. And it's just like. I mean, there's a lot of cream. There's a lot of heavy cream.

[Pharaoh]

I was reading that menu. Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

So they all had diarrhea and they died on a sinking ship. That sucks.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, the menu looked kind of gross.

[Troy Lavallee]

Way to go down.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's like you're like, oh, let me look at the first course. And it's like one dish in the first course would be enough, like, for more than one meal for me. It's like. And then it's like, all right. And then we'll bring out the filet.

[Troy Lavallee]

Well, hopefully your characters lives will fare better than those we lost on the.

[Pharaoh]

That's my segue.

[Joe O'Brien]

Segue.

[Matthew Mercer]

Segue.

[Troy Lavallee]

We opened today on a ship.

[Pharaoh]

A ship in the North Atlantic.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, no.

[Pharaoh]

Iceberg straight ahead.

[Sydney Padua]

It's cold out.

[Troy Lavallee]

You can do anything.

[Joe O'Brien]

In Shadow Bay, you randomly rolled the Titanic as the setting for The.

[Troy Lavallee]

There's a glacier, all right. So we established some of the story last time that we're jumping into. The war is over. No matter what side you fought on, what side you fought for, you lost. And this isn't something said sanctimoniously like the old adage that there are no winners in war. The history books, if ever they talk of this dark time in history, will be unable to hide this chilling truth that both sides truly lost. In the midst of this great struggle, a third party entered the battlefield and utterly decimated both sides. This party, this whatever, did not win per se. They were not crowned the victor. Whoever or whatever this power was, simply ended the war with apocalyptic force. And as the dust settles and the crows finish their feast, people will undoubtedly try to piece together what exactly happened. Each side may believe that there was a traitor in their midst. They may blame weapons and magic that got into the wrong hands. They may even blame the gods themselves, because the destruction was so catastrophic, it felt like a divine reset. Or maybe no one will ever know what happened because so few people survived during the last military campaign that your characters were a part of. Each of you were sent not only far away from anything you've ever known or loved, if you had families, homes, sent far away from that, but this war dropped you in the middle of wild, uncharted land. And it is in that land that your world ended. A beam of light, an indescribable heat, the sound of screams and bodies being torn apart is probably some of the last memories you have before the world went dark. But today, somehow, light has entered your world once more. You don't know where you are. You don't know how much time has passed as you try to move. Every inch of your body hurts. Let's roll for initiative. Here in Shadowdark, we may have mentioned this last week, you will find yourself in Initiative a lot. Even in roleplay moments or moments of pure exploration, as well as, obviously, combat. It helps to not only keep things moving, but it gives everyone else a chance to shine. At the table, though, I don't worry about that. At our table, Initiative is much simpler to keep track of, as well as whoever rolls highest goes first. And then we go clockwise from there. So who rolled highest?

[Sydney Padua]

You want to add our Dex bonus of our character?

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

Okay.

[Troy Lavallee]

I want you to roll Initiative.

[Sydney Padua]

I got a 1313.

[Joe O'Brien]

I want you to do exactly what

[Troy Lavallee]

I just said to do.

[Sydney Padua]

I didn't know if we were in character.

[Troy Lavallee]

We're all pretty nervous.

[Sydney Padua]

I didn't know if we were in character yet.

[Troy Lavallee]

We've only, we've only recorded 10,000 hours, but we're still getting nervous.

[Sydney Padua]

I got a 13.

[Troy Lavallee]

13. Lucky 13.

[Joe O'Brien]

I'm lower than that.

[Matthew Mercer]

I rolled a natural 19.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, we're an adjusted 20.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay, good.

[Pharaoh]

I got a 7.

[Troy Lavallee]

7.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, it does. So it only matters who rolled highest.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, it only matters who Rol.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right, so then, Matthew, we'll start with you straight out of the initial. All right, what do you, what do you see as your these little eyes open up and light streams in? Where do you find yourself?

[Matthew Mercer]

Well, those I see initially are darkness because as we'll see. Let's zoom out a little bit. What we find is that just on a field of battle out somewhere, you know, in this area, we don't know, a mass of bodies is totally scorched, torn asunder. There's just blood dried and also still gushing and viscera and like kind of severed limbs and just a pile of, of dead human. And it's completely still. And then it starts to stir because crawling out from underneath it is a blood soaked human. He's tall, he's gangly, he's in his late 20s, but his hair has gone shock white. He's kind of managed to wrestle himself through the pile of all these other people and get to the top. And he just looks around, he's got very friendly features, but right now obviously they're weighted down with, you know, a horrified and wearied expression. And he just is trying to understand what he's looking at. And he looks across. The trees in the nearby forest have just been shorn off at a certain level.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, I love that. Awesome.

[Matthew Mercer]

And he's staring at that.

[Troy Lavallee]

What did that? I want to know. I have so many questions. Why?

[Matthew Mercer]

And all of a sudden he likes just look a pan across his face and he just starts patting himself down, looking in his pockets on his belt. And then he finally reaches into his tunic and pulls out this small sheet of parchment. And he's looking at it. On it is a sketch of a woman holding a girl who looks about five or six years old. And he just stares at it and breathes a sigh of relief. It's like immense relief kind of falls across his body and he tucks it away safely, an extra safe spot within his tuna. And he starts to stand up and he winces and he pulls his leg out of the pile of bodies and sees a gash running down the side of it. So a few minutes later he's limping out into the, you know, that that shorn off forest. And he finds himself. He finds his way toward a secluded grove where there are still herbs and flowers and all kinds. There's stuff that's still living and still growing. And he takes a minute, and he picks through, and he finds, like, the right herb and the right leaf of a particular plant. And then he kind of. He's grinding it with the butt of his dagger in a small, little, you know, makeshift makeshift mortar and pestle. And then he kind of applies it to the wound and wraps it in a, you know, a strip of clothing he's torn off from another body. And then he steps back onto the field. He seems to me, seems to be the only one alive. And he sees a cloak that's attached to a torso with no arms and no legs and no head. And he delicately unties the cloak, wraps it around himself.

[Troy Lavallee]

Doesn't sound like he needed to work that hard.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah, he could have just pulled it up. There's no head.

[Troy Lavallee]

Or he could have just yanked the cloak.

[Matthew Mercer]

Well, you got to be respectful.

[Joe O'Brien]

Okay. Gotta be respectful of cloak.

[Sydney Padua]

Says a lot. Says a lot.

[Troy Lavallee]

I thought you were working really hard to pull that.

[Sydney Padua]

Says a lot about your character.

[Troy Lavallee]

Right?

[Matthew Mercer]

And then he'd start walking in the first direction he can think of.

[Joe O'Brien]

I love this.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay, let's take a look at this fella.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

Chapal.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh.

[Pharaoh]

Oh, wow.

[Troy Lavallee]

It's that white silver fox.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, I was gonna say, except he's, like, 28.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, wow.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, he's young.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah. But he's seen this white hair.

[Pharaoh]

It's like Steve Martin.

[Troy Lavallee]

It's like a young Steve.

[Matthew Mercer]

A young Steve Martin who looked exactly like. He finds a banjo.

[Pharaoh]

He wakes up with an arrow stuck right through his head.

[Troy Lavallee]

He starts juggling bits.

[Sydney Padua]

That's cool.

[Joe O'Brien]

It's awesome. Is he pulling the hood down or putting the hood on?

[Matthew Mercer]

The image I gave to the artist for this was Luke pulling off his hood in Jabba's palace.

[Pharaoh]

Oh, okay, cool.

[Troy Lavallee]

So he's a Jedi.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, I wish.

[Troy Lavallee]

That's cool. That's from cursed scroll 4 Jedi class. Jedi class coming soon.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's spelled G H E D D Y.

[Sydney Padua]

Okay.

[Joe O'Brien]

Awesome.

[Troy Lavallee]

I love this. You know how hard it was not to interrupt you and make the image you pulled out of your cloak? Something gross.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes.

[Troy Lavallee]

I'm proud of myself.

[Joe O'Brien]

I was thinking it the whole time. I was like, troy's grown.

[Troy Lavallee]

I was like, ah, it's just a picture of somebody on the toilet. It not sentiment. Oh, I still did it.

[Joe O'Brien]

Still managed to get sent anyway. I can't Believe I just thought of

[Troy Lavallee]

so many things that it could be, but I didn't want to.

[Matthew Mercer]

Just some examples of the things I thought and didn't say.

[Pharaoh]

I will now think and say.

[Troy Lavallee]

Think and say. Joseph o' Brien Pain. Flashes of memories. But your eyes crack open. What do we see?

[Joe O'Brien]

You see, I'd say let's zoom all the way in to this guy's face while he's laying on his back on this torn asunder battlefield. And he is completely covered head to toe, as is the ground around him in just ash. His face, you can't recognize any life color to his face. Everything is like white and gray. And his. The way that his head sort of like shapes into the large armor pauldron that he's wearing and the way that it crests on. He has a very long beard that almost goes down to the center of his chest. And the way that. That mixes with the chainmail that he's wearing. It's all one color. And he just. His eyes open and he's blinking ash out of them. And you can see small tusks coming out from under his lower jaw up over his mouth because he's a half orc, slightly pointed ears. And he opens his eyes and all sound is sort of drowned into this deep bassy, sort of giving like a. Like a disorienting, you know, the. The idea of like a. Like a concussion or something like that, right? Like it's. And he opens his eyes and just like can't even move his body. And like slowly turns maybe toward the camera. And then we just see there's another body on the ground right next to him, heavily armed. A warrior, a knight of some kind is on the ground with his bottom half shorn off and entrails in the dust, also covered in ash. There is this beautiful black steel sword on the ground in the clasp of this dead warrior. And a dead horse lies over what is probably his shield arm, crushing his arm and heavy large helmet on this knight. And he's just obviously dead. And he looks at this other knight and starts to just try to move. Every inch is agony. And he. He starts to just crawl his way towards this man. And maybe as Matthew said, like we can pull back a little bit. And you just see there's other bodies everywhere, horses and men everywhere, just laying there in the distance, all kind of out of focus. And the sound again is this. And he's just trying to breathe and trying to scrape his way and he grabs this sword and he sort of. You can tell he's trying to, like, lift it towards the chest of the man who has fallen and try to see if there's anything there that he can do. And he just. Even that amount of exertion completely shuts him down. And his face just goes into the dust. And he's out again for some unknown period of time. And then I imagine the sun starts to come through maybe a bit. There's a little less ash. Everything has kind of settled a little bit more, and maybe some time has passed. And you see him sort of, like, being tugged and moved around a little bit, and he's starting to come to consciousness again. And this time, as he opens his eyes, he's flipped over and the sun is kind of bright in his face, and his armor is gone. And he picks just his head up and looks over, and this knight that was next to him, his gleaming armor is gone. This black steel sword is gone. And he, like, opens and looks in the distance and you see the silhouette of these figures that are just moving through the corpses, just looting as they go, just peeling things off of them. And he's just, like, trying to reach out a hand, trying to speak, to say anything. And you can see just, like, rage in his young eyes. He's only 20 years old, and he's just trying so desperately to get that sword back. And he starts to get up to one knee, and the figures sort of disappear into the fog in the distance. And he sets his eyes on them and manages to get to his feet and starts trying to walk after them. And we'll just end it there. Oh, I like that. Let's take a look at this, Ella.

[Troy Lavallee]

This tall glass of water.

[Joe O'Brien]

That's when he had all of his shit. But, yeah, his armor's been pulled off of him. His cloak is gone. I'd say Matthew took it, except that

[Matthew Mercer]

guy was headless and legless.

[Joe O'Brien]

And legless and armless. And armless from Legolas is Legolas.

[Pharaoh]

Legolas was there. We should have art of him nude. You should just have nude.

[Troy Lavallee]

You have to dress him when you start.

[Pharaoh]

I'm an advocate of that, regardless. But I think this.

[Matthew Mercer]

He starts. All I could think of was theorem. The movie theorem.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

Pasolini movie at the end.

[Pharaoh]

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

[Troy Lavallee]

So you're like, almost. You're completely new. Have nothing.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah. He has, like, the undergarments that you would wear under armour. This, like, sweaty, bloodied armor. But strangely, he seems outside of what may be like a concussion or a lot of very serious contusions. Like, unhurt, uninjured, hurt, but not Injured. Right. Compared to the devastation around him, it is kind of actually strange. And maybe those that were pulling the stuff off of him also presumed him dead. But yeah, he's. He's got nothing. And he just starts like. And you can see it's. It's almost kind of pathetic. Like he's walking towards these people, but he'll never get to them as they disappear. And by the way, the figures are like. There's like, there's like a human and then there's like a goblin and like a halfling. It's like a. It's like a small crew of people that are different shapes and sizes.

[Troy Lavallee]

I like this crew. Okay, skit. Where do we find your character as the light re enters your world?

[Pharaoh]

So my character is similarly to Joe's awoken. Well, a little different, that he is being pried at by scavengers. And this wakes him. And he wakes as they're trying to pull his leather armor off of his body. They're trying to find the straps and they're moving his torso around, jiggling it. Unfortunately for my character, he has suffered a fractured skull. And so he awakens with this blinding pain instantly. And this causes him to shriek in this dry, hoarse, cracking scream, which startles the scavengers and they scatter. And he blinks and tries to like he can, he can. He can only open his right eye about halfway, but he just feels this. He can feel the crack, this blood streaming down his face. He looks around desperately as his eyes flicker and he sees that he is surrounded by not bodies, but just severed limbs, just sawn, hacked limbs just all around him from different sizes of kinds of bodies, just like scattered all around along with strands, long white strands of blood stained bandages. He comes, finally, remembers his last moments in a field hospital. He's. I was working there. I was attending one of the bodies. And he remembers a flash of a soldier that he had, that had been disemboweled, holding his intestines into his stomach with his hands, screaming for his mother. And he knelt next to him, feeling helpless and traumatized by all that he had seen in this war. And remember praying in a moment of extreme desperation to a God that he barely acknowledged before now, the God of his people, Gied. And somehow he felt this energy flow through him and into the man and. And his wound began to seal. And as he stood up in surprise, this impact shook the world.

[Troy Lavallee]

Whoa.

[Pharaoh]

And that was his last memory. So he pieces it together and he tries in this moment to do the same to himself. I'm gonna roll here. He fails.

[Joe O'Brien]

So

[Pharaoh]

the power is gone. Perhaps it was only a momentary thing. He doesn't know. But he pulls himself up. He's in, actually, a crater surrounded by these severed limbs, and he just sort of pulls himself out to the left lip of the crater, and despite himself, he's crying for help.

[Troy Lavallee]

So you think these severed limbs were, like, they were severed as part of.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, they were sawn off by at this field hospital.

[Troy Lavallee]

A gangrene or something like, oh, we got to remove the limb. And so there's just a pile of these limbs and bandages. Okay, let's take a look at this fella. Oh,

[Joe O'Brien]

cool.

[Troy Lavallee]

I love the hair.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, he's got the braided hair. It's funny because we had just got done watching Breaking Bad again for me, first time for Samantha, and I was explaining this character to her, and I was saying, like, well, he's, like, physically very weak. He's pretty dumb, but he's got the high wisdom, and he's charismatic. And she was just like, oh, he's Jesse Pinkman.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Pharaoh]

I was like, yeah, okay. This is the Aaron Paul was the reference that I.

[Sydney Padua]

That's great.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, that is great.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay. Very vivid image of this man. And then finally, we come upon your character, Sydney. What do they look like as they re. Emerge?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah, you see almost complete darkness, and you see the face of. Of a young man, but it is, like, gaunt. It is very gaunt. He looks almost dead. And as we kind of zoom out, we see that he's curled up in the fetal position and is nude, completely naked. He's in mud. And as we come out even further, there's something, like, dripping from a ceiling or something onto his face. And his eyes slowly open as he sits up, and it's just, like, mud around him. And as he sits up and he blearily through, like, this water or something that's in his eyes, he sees across from him a dead horse and rider, and it, like, looks. Looks as if the horse has broken its legs and neck. And the rider, too, had, like, fallen with this horse. And he looks, like, very confused and looks up, and we pull out as he looks at starlight coming in through what is now like a broken door. And we see that he is 10ft in a pit of sorts, and he has this look of panic, of realization of hope, all kind of at the same time. And he scrambles and climbs on top of this horse and this dead body and is reaching to try to climb out of this pit, and he's like, Clawing at these earthen walls and, and slipping. And he's able to prop this body up a little bit to step on it and get a hand out of this broken indoor. And as he claws his way out, we see similarly to everybody else, a battlefield that is completely an utter chaos. Blood bodies still burning, tents, no one moving in sight. He's like crawling out, he is covered in mud. He's very gaunt. He looks a little sickly almost. We now see in sort of these burning fire lights and the starlight. He's got shorter, kind of sandy blondish reddish hair. And he looks young, but he looks hardened and older just because of how hardened he looks. And he starts just scrambling around towards these other dead bodies, flipping people over. He walks through like a tent that's been just ravaged and destroyed. And there's in the mud amongst blood and like viscera. He sees stomped on bread and maybe like a chicken or like a turkey or something. And he just grabs handfuls with mud and blood and just is eating it. And he's like wild eyed looking around and then he's still holding some of the food, eating it and he just starts pulling armor off of whoever is nearest, trying to find something that would fit. He's like yanking boots off of people. Some of the boots come off and like the skin sloughs off with the foot and he just like tosses the boot back and just tries to find another boot, something he can wear. And again, he's completely nude when he comes out of this hole. And as he's taking these pieces, he's kind of getting dressed, looking around, always constantly looking around, watching his back, making sure no one is coming. And lastly, before he just tries to flee this entire battlefield, he grabs a ring off of someone who might have been like a higher up officer or like a noble or something. He likes just kind of sees it. You see him look around again and he just snatches it off this hand and then makes his way. We see the firelight and we see his silhouette kind of darting through areas as he disappears into the starlight night.

[Troy Lavallee]

Just like a wedding ring or like a signet ring.

[Sydney Padua]

It's more of like a signet. Like it's just a gold or silver maybe not gold, like a silver ring. Just saw a glint of it and just grabbed it.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right, let's take a look at this Sydney character.

[Pharaoh]

Oh, he's clothed.

[Sydney Padua]

Okay, but picture, but picture him nude.

[Troy Lavallee]

I feel like we've been forced to picture all of them.

[Pharaoh]

I know we have to.

[Joe O'Brien]

Is he wearing the ring. Is that the ring?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. Maybe he's wearing.

[Troy Lavallee]

I love the way he's holding the dagger.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

Don't worry about this.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

He's looking very conspiratorial.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

So I'm way into this podcast, but I feel like this is a great comic book now.

[Sydney Padua]

And graphic novel.

[Troy Lavallee]

Graphic novel series for hbo.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, I could see that. Yeah. Feels like an HBO opening, doesn't it?

[Sydney Padua]

Especially with all the nudity. Feels like hbo.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

The nudity was purposeful and I appreciate that. So I'm gonna make some phone calls. We'll be. Be right back.

[Joe O'Brien]

Quick pitch.

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[Joe O'Brien]

We're back.

[Troy Lavallee]

I have decided upon further review and discussion to just focus on the podcast right now. I get excited.

[Joe O'Brien]

That's. That's for the best.

[Matthew Mercer]

Too much penis for you?

[Troy Lavallee]

Not enough.

[Joe O'Brien]

Not enough to be honest.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right, well, we have been introduced to our heroes. We have heroes. Well, that's being generous. Our characters, our cast of characters, our actors. According to Foundry Virtual table talk. Stop. I'm going to say some time passes. Okay. We could discuss that if you want to. That's not my business. Some time passes and in the distance, both you and we, the audience, see a wooden palisade surrounding what appears to be a small village. You can see that it looks like part of this palisade was reconstructed recently. There's like a big chunk of it that has newer wood. There is a Motten Bailey hold standing atop a hill in the back where a river meets a bog. Google Motten Bailey hold if you want to see what a typical one of these looks like. But basically the hill that the keep sits on is known as the mop. Like a mound where it's raised up and the surrounding village with all the buildings and whatnot. That's the. The bailey. There is a moat surrounding the palisade with water that's flowing in from the river, a drawbridge that would enter this palisade. And this little village is up and there are dozens of people gathered outside. It looks like some of them have actually been camping out there for some time, waiting for something. Perhaps you come there as well. Do you think the four of you are among people that are just kind of rolling up on this, or do you think you have been camping out here for a while and here's the reason you would be camping. There are rumors that from time to time this place allows newcomers in. And so people wait for those times. Do you think you've been kind of waiting for that or. It can be a mix of both. Some of you just kind of rolling up. You hear noise, you hear fanfare. There were like horns blowing and so it's attracting people out of the woods. You tell me.

[Pharaoh]

Kind of like a lot of zombie fiction and stuff.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Pharaoh]

Like if you have radio transmission. So it's like come to like, so and so, like it's safe.

[Sydney Padua]

Salvation.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

Walking dead, fallout, that kind of thing.

[Pharaoh]

By the way, can we say that some. I guess probably not your character, but that someone like found me and helped me. Like one of you two, like, found. Help me.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah. You want to.

[Joe O'Brien]

No, you take. Yeah, it's dead weight. Okay. No, either way. No, you.

[Sydney Padua]

You do.

[Matthew Mercer]

Well, it makes. If you had a wound that you were unable to heal. Maybe I was. I saw you and realized you're awake and kind of put a surgical dressing.

[Pharaoh]

Match it up. Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay. Stitched it to get. Stitched it together.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah. So rather than like, maybe we were like traveling together for a while before we met.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah. Do you want to be there? You want to have then traveled and gotten there and.

[Sydney Padua]

We're waiting.

[Matthew Mercer]

We've been waiting for a while.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, sure.

[Joe O'Brien]

Okay.

[Troy Lavallee]

And then what about you? You think you're rolling up or.

[Joe O'Brien]

I think he's. Yeah, I think he's rolling up. I'm just picturing him with a. With like a small caravan, like a small merchant caravan sort of vibe. And he's walking now. He's looking a little bit haler, healthier, and he's still unarmored, just wearing regular clothes. But he's got like, sort of a tall pike, like a spear that's a wooden, like fire hardened. Very, very basic weapon. Spear. And he's using it kind of as a walking stick. At the moment, he's walking to the side of this small cart as it approaches.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay, what about you?

[Sydney Padua]

I think he's been there, but he has kept his distance. He's not like camping amongst everybody else. He kind of breaks away. But he wants to know what's going on because he does want to get in. But he's there. And maybe he's playing dice. We see that he's also a little healthier, a little more full. His cheeks have filled in a bit more. And he looks young. Like more young than he looked before. And yeah, maybe he's wearing some nicer looking armor that fits him right. And he's playing dice with somebody.

[Troy Lavallee]

You're leaving that flashy ring out for everybody to say no. Okay. All right. So this is the scene. There's probably. I said a dozen. Maybe it's like two dozen or more people. It's hard to tell how many people are sort of gathered here, but there's a good group. And a man sort of comes up on a guard tower on top of the palisade and addresses everyone and he says, greetings, welcome to Marin's Hold. I see we have some newcomers here. Welcome. Welcome. Our leader, Reeve Tarly Winters, has graciously offered our village as a place of sanctuary to those affected by the recent conflict. Reeve Winters answers only to the king and the gods. And thanks to both, we have been mostly an affected by the goings on that have forever reshaped our homeland. While from the looks of you lot, it doesn't appear that all of you were soldiers, I see some merchants among you and whatnot. It's important that you know this. Whatever side you fought on matters not once you enter these walls. And old battles will not be waged inside of our home. Do I make myself clear? Everyone sort of nods as limply as Matthew.

[Pharaoh]

How big is this crowd of people?

[Troy Lavallee]

Like two dozen or so.

[Pharaoh]

Okay.

[Troy Lavallee]

For those who break this law, or any of the laws of man, banishment may not be the only punishment you face. And as many of you have spent considerations considerable time wandering around these forests, you should know that what lies out there may offer a fate worse than death. If you enter Marin's hold this day, you leave the past behind. You might just get a chance at a new life which begins today. Beyond that, there is just one simple rule here. No magic within our walls. If you were born tainted by that disease or something happened in your life where you picked up what you believe to be A harmless trick or two. There is no place for that here. With that said, welcome to Marin's Old. And the drawbridge creaks down and several armed guards come to the entryway, and they're inspecting everyone who walks through, asking questions, writing things down. Who is the first to approach? Maybe you two. You're already together. You're talking. What, do you guys have known each other for a couple days a week?

[Pharaoh]

Couple days.

[Matthew Mercer]

I would say maybe a couple weeks traveling together. I don't know. It seems like if they've already developed a policy around neutrality in the town. Like, this has been a moment since whatever happened ended the war. Okay. Yeah, but. Yeah, so we've found each other, helped each other.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah. And my.

[Troy Lavallee]

I.

[Pharaoh]

But I thought initially that. So I'm traveling still. Like, even though you patched up, like, my wound on my head, I thought that this power was a momentary. It was gone. But then try again the next day. Like, I'm able to, like, actually heal myself. And so.

[Matthew Mercer]

Or maybe you healed my leg too, even though, yeah, you patched it up, but, yeah, you actually could.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, like. But in the interim, like, we're both completely healthy because of this.

[Sydney Padua]

But.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

So just establish we're at full hp.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, I know.

[Troy Lavallee]

I know what's being said.

[Joe O'Brien]

Read between the lines.

[Troy Lavallee]

I also have a magical sword now.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, but. Yeah, but we. So are these other. The rest of the people just refugees? Are they just.

[Troy Lavallee]

You can see some of them are soldiers, Some of them fought. It's hard to know at this point. They have all taken pains to hide any insignia that would designate them as being on one side or the another or the other. And I imagine you have as well, not knowing. Not knowing what happened. Not knowing, like, yeah, still, I mean,

[Pharaoh]

there's gotta be just mass confusion.

[Troy Lavallee]

Someone higher. This forest. Did the other side get some massive. What, you don't know? So it's safer to just sort of travel without showing your colors.

[Pharaoh]

And it's also, I assume, just super dangerous. Just wandering the wilds, even, like, as you know, with us, like, as a pair. Oh, yeah. Super dangerous. So, yeah, seeking refuge.

[Matthew Mercer]

So we make our way up to the front.

[Troy Lavallee]

You see the gods sort of inspecting your weapons. They might even, like, run a hand over. What, do you have a maul or something? What is that?

[Pharaoh]

I just have a crossbow.

[Troy Lavallee]

Crossbow. Okay.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

They're inspecting your weapons, and they look at you and says, name, please.

[Pharaoh]

Ph Faro.

[Troy Lavallee]

How do you spell that?

[Pharaoh]

F, A, R, O, E. Pharaoh.

[Joe O'Brien]

Pharaoh.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right.

[Joe O'Brien]

Last name.

[Pharaoh]

Sorry, I don't I don't understand the question.

[Troy Lavallee]

It's all right. It's all right. Okay. And you, sir?

[Matthew Mercer]

Ricks. Ellison. Ricks.

[Troy Lavallee]

Ellison. Rix. How do you spell Rix?

[Matthew Mercer]

R I X. R I X.

[Troy Lavallee]

That's fun.

[Pharaoh]

Lot of opinions on her. Thank you. She put people's names. Are they spelled?

[Troy Lavallee]

You don't have a last name. And yours is cute. Very well. All right. There are two buildings in town that serve as inns currently, but available rooms will be scarce. Your best chance at securing a space is making friends quickly. Welcome to Marin's hold.

[Pharaoh]

Thank you, sir.

[Matthew Mercer]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Troy Lavallee]

Get out of here.

[Matthew Mercer]

Did you write our names down? Down?

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, he did. He's recording.

[Pharaoh]

Literate.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

Wow.

[Matthew Mercer]

Very impressive.

[Sydney Padua]

You say that he's literally.

[Troy Lavallee]

I rolled on the literacy table. 99.

[Matthew Mercer]

Can you. Can you read?

[Pharaoh]

I'm pretty sure I can't read.

[Troy Lavallee]

Joe looks like he's ready to role play. So I can see it. I can see it. You had roleplay lips.

[Pharaoh]

Got the role play lip.

[Joe O'Brien]

That roleplay lips. Yeah. Some role play.

[Sydney Padua]

Role play.

[Troy Lavallee]

So let's go to city. No, you're ready. You got words ready to pop out of your mouth.

[Sydney Padua]

Up a little more.

[Joe O'Brien]

I just pictured. I'm just thinking, like, this guy. If weeks have passed like you guys said, which sounds good to me, I think that he's been traveling very briefly with this little crew to try to stay safe. And for one reason or another that, you know, we can. The specifics aren't important. That relationship has ended at the arrival of this place. He was sort of paid a pittance to guard this.

[Troy Lavallee]

Hired his muscle.

[Joe O'Brien]

Muscle. And he knew that this was kind of the end of the line.

[Pharaoh]

But the whole time, pay very much. Because he still don't have anything.

[Joe O'Brien]

No, no. Nobody has much. Like, nobody even in that caravan has money. Nobody's like, oh, maybe it was wealth.

[Pharaoh]

It was just like, yeah, they would feed you.

[Joe O'Brien]

Working for food. Exactly. Like. And I imagine them even asking him. I said I wouldn't go into details, but I imagine even asking him, like, for just. For just a strike strap of, like, leather armor to put on. You know what I mean? And they don't have any. You know, it was just like. Maybe it was just wine. You know, maybe it's just booze caravan or something. That's all they have. But they're trying to protect it and sell it in this place. And so I imagine that he is, to one degree or another, always on the lookout and always on the hunt for whoever these looters were that took his stuff and this sword in particular. And there's a reason behind that. But I think in the moment, what we see is he's a big dude. Big, hulking. And what's his strength? What's his. His strength is 15. Yeah, he's a 15 strength. And his biggest. His pretty.

[Troy Lavallee]

Pretty big.

[Sydney Padua]

Pretty good.

[Troy Lavallee]

As I said, he's skinny, fast, that

[Joe O'Brien]

he's a half orc, but he leans a little bit more human in his looks, especially from afar. You might not be able to tell. The orc part definitely comes in the breadth of his shoulders and his chest are very large. And he's looking. Scanning over the eyes of these two dozen people. And I think that maybe his eyes land on Sidney's character dicing. And he's just watching with this intent, these intense eyes.

[Pharaoh]

Actually half dice.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, my God.

[Pharaoh]

I don't know why you're miming.

[Troy Lavallee]

I feel like I'm there outside the palace.

[Pharaoh]

Why are you miming dice? I don't have actual miming dice.

[Troy Lavallee]

There are more dice in this room than most places on earth.

[Pharaoh]

Oh, you won.

[Sydney Padua]

I got it.

[Pharaoh]

She won her game.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, wow.

[Matthew Mercer]

Wizards and thieves.

[Troy Lavallee]

No.

[Joe O'Brien]

Anyway, he's just. He's just kind of looking over at. At these people playing dice, thinking there's probably a lot of crossover between looters and bandits and dice playing. Right. So he's just trying to see if he can recognize a form. All he really saw was a silhouette. He's looking for goblins, halflings traveling with a human, you know?

[Sydney Padua]

Anyway, can I roll like a. Almost like a perception, see if you

[Troy Lavallee]

see him staring at you?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. To feel the eyes on the back of my neck.

[Troy Lavallee]

Give me a wisdom check.

[Sydney Padua]

Okay. Wisdom.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, no.

[Sydney Padua]

Rolled a natural one. I have a minus two.

[Troy Lavallee]

We're wildly into this game.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah. So. And he's. That's cool, though. So we're just seeing, like, the back of your head, and he's just trying to size it up to see if it makes any sense.

[Pharaoh]

There's a profile. It's like shady piece. People think that's what you're Right.

[Joe O'Brien]

And. But he just kind of keeps walking. And he'll walk up toward this.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, I like this. So you're, like, staring at her, and the guy's like, name, name. He's like, do you know how to speak Orcish? This guy isn't answering me name.

[Joe O'Brien]

To him, it's all like, guys, like, I don't.

[Troy Lavallee]

I don't notice anyone. Anyone speak Orcish. Do you understand? What is your name?

[Joe O'Brien]

And then he'll like. All of a sudden it's very clear, like, what is your name? And he snaps back and turns around and looks. He says, sorry, sir. Warwick.

[Troy Lavallee]

Sorry, I didn't think you spoke our tongue.

[Joe O'Brien]

Warwick. Warwick.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right. Do you have a last name? Clan name.

[Joe O'Brien]

Blackburn.

[Troy Lavallee]

Warwick Blackburn. Very well. Come on in. And they're looking up at you. You're tall.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah. Is there much need for. For labor in the city?

[Troy Lavallee]

Well, there's always need for labor. Right. And for fighting as well. Just. You'll be found. You stand out. That's good and bad. Right.

[Joe O'Brien]

Any particular place I should go to ask about, I don't know, work.

[Troy Lavallee]

I'll find a place to stay first. You'll make friends that way. You'll need to, you know, find people that you can trust.

[Joe O'Brien]

I'm sorry, I don't really have coin for an inn.

[Troy Lavallee]

Well, then you better be charming. Please move along. There are a lot of people here.

[Joe O'Brien]

And he'll just nod and put his head down and start walking into the city.

[Sydney Padua]

Okay.

[Troy Lavallee]

You hear them kind of snickering back and forth.

[Joe O'Brien]

He like, turns, breathes, and starts walking forward again.

[Troy Lavallee]

He doesn't know any go.

[Sydney Padua]

And you hear a cheer from the dice table as this young man stands up and he does look healthy again in his haircut. You said from the back of his head, he's got. My reference was Timothee Chalamet in the King.

[Troy Lavallee]

So he's got like that undercut chalamet

[Sydney Padua]

hair with the chalamet hair, but with that kind of like curly, floppy hair on top with a shaved under shallow mullet. There we go. And you see him stand up and he kind of just like scoops the coin off the table and drops it into his purse and kind of like nods and just kind of grins at the guy he was playing against and turns around, he picks up his dagger, puts it in his belt. He picks up a short bow, puts it on his back. And then he picks up a string of. Of squirrels and slings it on his shoulder, too. And he just walks to the gate to the line.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right. Name, please?

[Sydney Padua]

Saint.

[Troy Lavallee]

Saint? You think you're some kind of a saint?

[Sydney Padua]

He just smiles.

[Troy Lavallee]

What is your actual name, sir?

[Sydney Padua]

Saint.

[Troy Lavallee]

Does Saint have a last name?

[Sydney Padua]

Anthony.

[Troy Lavallee]

Joy Marin's old. I doubt you'll be here long.

[Sydney Padua]

He looks, doesn't smile and then flashes another grin and walks inside.

[Troy Lavallee]

Just kind of follows you with his eyes. And you enter Marin's hold. Sweet little town. There is. There's some shops. There is a tavern called the Crayfish Tavern. There are these two buildings that look like they've been repurposed into inns for all the new people that have been rolling into town. One is called the Feathered Wish and one is called the Weathered Fish. Fish.

[Sydney Padua]

That's funny.

[Joe O'Brien]

That's pretty good.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah. Tell me what you want to do here. Obviously two of you have already met. You're side eyeing one of them and they. You see people are just like. It's kind of like the beginning of a. A reality show where they're like, all right, form teams and then go find the golden. Like people are just starting to talk to each other. It's like, let's go. It seems like look out for each other.

[Pharaoh]

Like, we need to alliances, like squid game or something.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

And there's only. There's a huge line forming at both the Feathered Wish and the Weathered Fish of groups of people that are like. Because there's only so many rooms, maybe

[Matthew Mercer]

I'll say, you take. You want to take a line? I'll. You take one line, I'll take the other and we'll check. Check them both. Right?

[Joe O'Brien]

All right.

[Sydney Padua]

Saint walks over and he strings up the squirrels near where those lines are. And he's like, squirrels, copper, peace. Squirrels, copper, peace. And calling out to anybody who seems starving and desperate.

[Joe O'Brien]

Okay. Already starting to sell on the street. I like it. Yeah, Hustling. Yeah, hustling.

[Sydney Padua]

I'll walk up full squirrels, copper piece.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah. All right. So yeah, you see this big half orc starts like walking over to you.

[Sydney Padua]

He kind of gets nervous for a second. You see him tense up, using this

[Joe O'Brien]

spear as a walking stick. And he comes up, just sort of like raises a hand like, copper.

[Sydney Padua]

You say, one squirrel, one copper.

[Joe O'Brien]

All right, I'll take one. And he starts to like, go into a small coin pouch. He pulls out a copper. And then he thinks for a moment. He looks across at you. How would I cook it? Do you have any idea?

[Sydney Padua]

You've never eaten squirrel.

[Joe O'Brien]

No, I haven't, but I'm extremely hungry.

[Sydney Padua]

Let me get you a big one. And he hands you one of the fatter squirrels. They're not that big. And he goes, well, I would skin it. First and foremost, I would get the innards out. You gotta go. You gotta go through the ass. Then once he peel that back, unrelated,

[Matthew Mercer]

I looked over at Troy, I was like, is he gonna be able to resist?

[Joe O'Brien]

He tried.

[Sydney Padua]

Couldn't help himself for a split second

[Joe O'Brien]

and like the dam breaking burst forth.

[Troy Lavallee]

I tried my best.

[Sydney Padua]

He hands it to you, holding it by the tail. And he's like. The eyes are pretty good. I would leave those in the tongue. I would avoid. It's not.

[Joe O'Brien]

What about maybe one more copper? Could you clean it? I don't know how to do any of that.

[Sydney Padua]

He kind of looks around. Yeah, sure.

[Joe O'Brien]

Thanks.

[Matthew Mercer]

She recorded those coppers on your sheet.

[Sydney Padua]

Oh, yeah. He pulls the two coppers.

[Troy Lavallee]

You're just.

[Sydney Padua]

I'm rich.

[Joe O'Brien]

You're just arriving here as well.

[Sydney Padua]

And you see he starts to carve around the tail and then he just rips the skin off the squirrel. Yep.

[Matthew Mercer]

Pulls the innards out through the ass.

[Sydney Padua]

He pulls the innards out through the ass. Uses like a stick.

[Joe O'Brien]

He's looking over like he's looking over your gear. He's looking to see if what you have matches sort of what you are capable of having. Right. In a way.

[Sydney Padua]

And without looking at you, he says, yeah. You alone? You don't have much?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, I'm alone at the moment. Yeah. I'm just sorta trying to find a place to get some work is all. You, Where'd you come from?

[Sydney Padua]

West. You?

[Joe O'Brien]

South.

[Sydney Padua]

How is it down there?

[Joe O'Brien]

Everybody's dead.

[Sydney Padua]

Hands you back the fully skinned squirrel.

[Joe O'Brien]

Did you. Did you fight?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. Didn't you?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah. Who for? You can see like there's like a tension to him and he's just like waiting for you to lot, But he's like trying to bite it back.

[Sydney Padua]

He's very stone fit. He looks as if this question was like, how's the weather? As he hands you the squirrel and he just says the league. Oh

[Joe O'Brien]

yeah, me too.

[Sydney Padua]

What's your name?

[Joe O'Brien]

Warwick.

[Sydney Padua]

Same saint. And he sticks out a hand.

[Joe O'Brien]

Saint to saint.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah,

[Joe O'Brien]

pleasure.

[Sydney Padua]

Just Warwick.

[Joe O'Brien]

Warwick Blackburn.

[Sydney Padua]

Nice to meet you.

[Joe O'Brien]

The squire in the army cavalry. Did you. What regiment were you with?

[Matthew Mercer]

He pick a number?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah, yeah. He.

[Joe O'Brien]

There's like literally one number. Don't pick.

[Sydney Padua]

Oh, 13 again.

[Troy Lavallee]

13.

[Sydney Padua]

He is very.

[Troy Lavallee]

I don't see numbers.

[Sydney Padua]

Cool, calm and collected. And he again, while talking to you, he's like squirrels. Copper. Two at the start.

[Joe O'Brien]

Infantry, then.

[Sydney Padua]

You 10th Cavalry?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah. Well, thank you for this. You haven't in your travels happened to come across any men traveling with a goblin and a halfling, have you? Just as kind of like a group together.

[Sydney Padua]

He kind of looks at you a little puzzled. Friends?

[Joe O'Brien]

No, they took something from me. Looters. And so I'm just trying to get some of my things back. They haven't sold them already.

[Sydney Padua]

Good luck.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

If I see anything, I'll. I'll find you.

[Joe O'Brien]

Thank you. And he Starts. Yeah, he walks away. Starts looking towards one of these lines.

[Troy Lavallee]

Ellison and Pharaoh, you kind of split up to see which would be better option. Alison, you get out in front of the feathered wish, and people, they're, like, starting to scramble. Somebody's saying, only fours now. Only foursomes left. And then surely thereafter, at the weathered fish, the same thing. It's like rooms of four. Soon it'll be six. We're running low.

[Matthew Mercer]

I've got four. I've got four.

[Troy Lavallee]

You've got four?

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, I've got four. And coin.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right, bring. Bring the four forward.

[Matthew Mercer]

I signaled.

[Joe O'Brien]

Is your whole party here, sir? Damn it. Sydney's late again. And I signaled.

[Matthew Mercer]

I signaled to you across the way.

[Pharaoh]

And I'm talking to someone in the other line. I see. It's like, oh, I can I just come running over?

[Matthew Mercer]

And then I. And I see. I see.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, I'm walking back. I'm walking toward one of the lines, like, looking where to go.

[Matthew Mercer]

Maybe it's when you're still talking, and I think.

[Pharaoh]

And I see the two of them,

[Matthew Mercer]

and I'm just like.

[Pharaoh]

They're still, like, standing.

[Matthew Mercer]

Those two over there. Those two. They're with us there with you? Yeah, Squirrel, the squirrel guy.

[Troy Lavallee]

Bring them over. Bring them over, Squirrel, I say.

[Matthew Mercer]

I wave to you as if I know you.

[Sydney Padua]

He just grabs his line of squirrels, thinking, you want to buy a squirrel.

[Joe O'Brien]

Comes over by the whole batch, the whole brace.

[Matthew Mercer]

And I say. And I was like, all right, we're all here.

[Joe O'Brien]

All right.

[Troy Lavallee]

See that young lady? She'll help you. And there's like a halfling woman behind a desk. You go in. Oh, hello. It's just the four of you?

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes, just the four of us. Yes.

[Sydney Padua]

No.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes. We need to stay inside tonight. We need to stay inside tonight.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, right.

[Pharaoh]

Yes.

[Matthew Mercer]

Get out of the elements.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay.

[Pharaoh]

And I'm looking at this shady squirreled merchant and this giant nude man.

[Matthew Mercer]

Are you nude or no?

[Pharaoh]

And I like. What the. What the. Has Ellison gotten us into this time?

[Matthew Mercer]

We've been in adventure.

[Pharaoh]

We've had, like, there's a two week. Like the. A prequel, like the adventures of Ellison.

[Matthew Mercer]

In those two weeks, we have six seasons of a sitcom.

[Pharaoh]

Right?

[Troy Lavallee]

Exactly.

[Joe O'Brien]

I want to see some of the flashbacks.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's like, we can do a. We can do a credit sequence.

[Joe O'Brien]

You guys might even be level two. Maybe we could go through the flashbacks and do the math.

[Pharaoh]

I think we probably just avoided more trouble than we've actually encountered.

[Matthew Mercer]

But I think my thought process is he's got food and we can use some muscle.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

I mean, it makes sense.

[Troy Lavallee]

Just had to grab people while other people in front of you.

[Pharaoh]

And I actually like. The one thing that I do have on my side is this wisdom. And so I might be like, take a look at them and be like. I think despite outward appearances, I think these two are okay.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, I think, like, he's. He's so. He's tall and his head is shaved. Like he's young. He's. He clearly shaves his head, which you guys might know, is a practice of people that follow the lost. A lot of people that follow the lost ritually shave their heads regularly. But despite that sort of whatever intimidating look and size and the weapon that he's holding, he has youthful eyes and a sort of honesty to him that I think your wisdom would pick up on.

[Troy Lavallee]

On.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah, he looks young, all right.

[Pharaoh]

I doesn't want to be with any old people. That's what you wisdom will tell you.

[Joe O'Brien]

Don't check up with a senior citizen.

[Pharaoh]

No old people

[Joe O'Brien]

especially. Especially if you want to start adventuring. True.

[Matthew Mercer]

Dead weight.

[Pharaoh]

That's right.

[Troy Lavallee]

I would say it would be nine gold a week or 15 a day.

[Sydney Padua]

Damn.

[Joe O'Brien]

15 silver a day, 15 silver a day or nine gold a week.

[Troy Lavallee]

You may need some time to get out of. Her voice is higher. I need some time to get settled and find yourself work. But those are our prices.

[Matthew Mercer]

We'll take it for the night and talk to you tomorrow.

[Troy Lavallee]

A lot.

[Matthew Mercer]

Ellison. He. He slips out. 15. He counts out 15 silver pieces and

[Troy Lavallee]

like, actually, you can tell there's not much left in that purse.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's what you think. And he's like, we'll take it for the night and talk to you tomorrow.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right. Very well. And if you end up staying the week, we'll go ahead and charge you the normal rate of a week. We can appreciate that. What's it called when you do that? Prorate. We'll prorate it. I just invented that word.

[Joe O'Brien]

I've never heard that term.

[Pharaoh]

What's your name, miss?

[Sydney Padua]

Name?

[Troy Lavallee]

My name is Mindy Feathertongue.

[Joe O'Brien]

Feather dung.

[Matthew Mercer]

Feather dung.

[Troy Lavallee]

Feather tongue.

[Joe O'Brien]

Feather tongue.

[Pharaoh]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

This is at the Feathered Wish. Not the weathered fish.

[Troy Lavallee]

Right. Feathered wish. Wait, where are we?

[Sydney Padua]

The Feathered Wish.

[Troy Lavallee]

Feathered Wish. Yes. Mindy Feathertongue. I'm the proprietor here.

[Matthew Mercer]

We're very lucky to. Lucky to be here. Thank you for. Thank you for taking us.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yes, we. Right now we're just in. Make sure shift in. We're still working on. There's thoughts of building a Restaurant, but there's good food at the Crayfish Tavern or cheaper fare at some of the shops if you want to get some jerky.

[Matthew Mercer]

Thank you. Which room are we?

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, yes, six. Yes, six from six. I have to look at my ledger.

[Matthew Mercer]

All right, we'll take the key and then we'll head upstairs. Upstairs, I assume. Yes, it's all the way up. All the way to sixth.

[Troy Lavallee]

On the sixth floor.

[Pharaoh]

Oh, one room per floor?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

Wow.

[Pharaoh]

Huge.

[Troy Lavallee]

We have an odd system.

[Joe O'Brien]

It's pretty impressive, this 50 story balcony

[Troy Lavallee]

all over again on the first floor.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, the six person rooms are on the third floor. Those are rooms seven, eight and nine.

[Sydney Padua]

Enjoy yourself as we're walking. Saint saddles up to you and says, well, I appreciate the kind hospitality of you paying for the room. I'd like to know why.

[Matthew Mercer]

Saw you out in the throng out there. I assumed you wouldn't mind a place to stay. We needed for. Thought we could all do a little bit to help each other out.

[Joe O'Brien]

Well, I appreciate the gesture, sir, but I don't have any coin to pay you. I'm sorry, I don't have work yet. I'm going to try, but I think

[Matthew Mercer]

we all need to find work. But in the meantime, you could. It's a dangerous world out there. Give us a little protection.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, that I can do.

[Pharaoh]

I think we could all use a

[Matthew Mercer]

friend or two if you wanted to cook us up a squirrel or two for tonight.

[Sydney Padua]

And kind of shifts it on his shoulder.

[Matthew Mercer]

Call it even.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

All right.

[Joe O'Brien]

I've got three coppers left. He goes in, he pulls out his last three, and he's like, you take that and then pay me what you like when you're ready.

[Matthew Mercer]

Allison thinks to refuse and then takes the covers.

[Joe O'Brien]

No, he expected you to take him. He wanted.

[Pharaoh]

I can't believe he took the money.

[Matthew Mercer]

You just shake your head knowingly.

[Troy Lavallee]

So you head up to your room, you open it, and there's four cots. You can tell that they've just turned some sort of building into this makeshift inn as a way of trying to provide sanctuary to the few survivors of this war. It's. It's. It's way better than what you're accustomed to. Even like pre cataclysm, like, we haven't probably slept.

[Pharaoh]

We haven't slept indoors.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah. For a while.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

I think it's dead.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah. The last we knew was barracks barracking, you know, in the camp with the units, whatever. Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

So I'm. I don't mean to speak for Pharah, but The two of us are healers. If you have any wounds, we'd be happy to take a look at them.

[Joe O'Brien]

I've been feeling fine, actually, lately. Thank you. But I'm all right there. I'm just eager to get some work because I got to get back on my feet here. I know everyone's struggling, and I heard that this town was calling people to it and employing people, so that's what I'm here for.

[Matthew Mercer]

Same. I'm just trying to make enough money to get home.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

What kind of healers? Saints in the corner, putting his bow kind of down.

[Matthew Mercer]

It was a medic in the war. I knew herbs, that kind of thing.

[Pharaoh]

I was an attendant, but I can help.

[Sydney Padua]

Saint just kind of nods. Looking both of you over. Not looking like you guys are particularly big or strong.

[Matthew Mercer]

I'm Alison Ricks. He offers a hand to shake.

[Sydney Padua]

Saint. He offers his hand.

[Joe O'Brien]

Warwick. And thank you very much for the room. I really appreciate it.

[Matthew Mercer]

Well, just for tonight, we can talk about it tomorrow. Hopefully we'll find some work and then we can just go.

[Troy Lavallee]

Pharaoh.

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, Pharaoh. Pharaoh.

[Pharaoh]

Sorry, Pharaoh.

[Sydney Padua]

Is there fire in the room? Like a fireplace?

[Troy Lavallee]

All room's on fire.

[Sydney Padua]

Oh,

[Troy Lavallee]

Why did she put us in this room? The last tenant left. It was a trap. Left a cigarette.

[Sydney Padua]

Oh, we didn't check for traps.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, you fools.

[Troy Lavallee]

No. There's like a little wood pipe stove or something you can use.

[Sydney Padua]

Okay. Yeah. I think he stole. Starts preparing the squirrels then. And he starts adding to the woodpipe stove. Pours like a pitcher of water in.

[Joe O'Brien]

I bring over the meat that I bought. It's like, I didn't think you were going to cook this for me, but.

[Matthew Mercer]

And I reach into my pouch, I pull out a sprig of rosemary and a little twist of time.

[Pharaoh]

Wow.

[Sydney Padua]

Didn't think we would be eating so fancy. Right away, he tosses it in the pot. Just puts a.

[Matthew Mercer]

He just throws it on the fire.

[Sydney Padua]

There's a pot. What's it in the pot?

[Matthew Mercer]

Put the lid on or we're gonna have stew. We're bringing stew.

[Joe O'Brien]

He's so hungry, too, and he says,

[Matthew Mercer]

I mean, this is the other thing. It's like, this is. I have a strength of 6. I don't think I'm doing much hunt. I haven't been able to do much hunting. Like, the idea of a few freshly cooked.

[Pharaoh]

That's I think is like. Both of us have just been darting from shadow to shadow the entire two weeks, just trying to avoid any threat because, yeah, my. I'm six as well.

[Matthew Mercer]

So the Idea of someone who's dexterous enough to catch a squirrel and who's strong enough to, you know, to defend us is. That's it. And I. I think also, I, Like, I have to pull back the current a little bit. I have a little bit of gold leftover in character creation. Because, like, what. What else are we gonna buy?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah. Given our situation, I literally had. What did I have? I had five silver pieces left over from character creation. So.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, so I figured, like, maybe, like, we found some gold. Like, we've been scavenging. We've found purses along the way. Like, it's not really ours.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah. Yeah. We found.

[Sydney Padua]

Scavenged some cash, and Saint looks well fed. Doesn't look dirty.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, we're pretty.

[Matthew Mercer]

I'm pretty grimy.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. Like, it seems. He seems maybe a little, like, out of place odd. But also maybe not. Maybe he just had a string of good luck.

[Joe O'Brien]

He seems like a survivor.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

Somebody that knows how to subsist on what's available, no matter what it is. In this case, even if it's in the wild squirrels.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

So cool.

[Sydney Padua]

He's as.

[Troy Lavallee]

That.

[Sydney Padua]

That's boiling. He kind of sits down. He, like, picks at his nails with his dagger, and he says, that'll take a while to boil. The meat's got to break down. Squirrel's pretty tough,

[Joe O'Brien]

so. And he's talking to. What was your name again?

[Matthew Mercer]

Ellison.

[Joe O'Brien]

Ellison, Right. He's talking to Ellison, and he says. He, like, puts him. Sits down on a stool. It's sort of like creeks. He sits down and. So where is home?

[Matthew Mercer]

Kragan's bridge.

[Joe O'Brien]

I don't know it.

[Matthew Mercer]

You wouldn't. It's a tiny little village to the north. Long way from here.

[Joe O'Brien]

I assume all of you are sent. What are we calling this land where we are? Like, this specific area where we were sent?

[Troy Lavallee]

You. I don't think you know what this area is called. It would have been called. You would have been. You were sent south, but you don't know what this specific area is. In fact, I think it's safe to say by the time you get to Marin's hold, you've traveled through other chunks, swaths of land. So you're not quite sure where you are located at this moment.

[Joe O'Brien]

Okay.

[Troy Lavallee]

You were sent south from where home is.

[Joe O'Brien]

Okay, so I said this is. So maybe I meant north. He's from the north.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah. And then, yeah, when we've been moving. Maybe we've been moving north from our battlefield, you know?

[Joe O'Brien]

But no, he just said we've been moving south. Right. We are south.

[Matthew Mercer]

South to war. And now I'm figuring we're moving north, trying to get back to where we're from. Right? Or is the other way around?

[Troy Lavallee]

However you want to put it. It's. The idea is that you were originally sent south. You were part of a southern. You were sent south.

[Joe O'Brien]

Okay, so we can be moving north.

[Troy Lavallee]

We could be moving north from there. You said Craggins Bridge.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

How do you spell that?

[Matthew Mercer]

C R, A, G, G, I, N, S with an apostrophe.

[Troy Lavallee]

Craggins.

[Sydney Padua]

Fun.

[Joe O'Brien]

Nice.

[Troy Lavallee]

I can take so many notes for everything you guys say.

[Matthew Mercer]

I know. I'm just breaking it up as I go along.

[Joe O'Brien]

Exactly. That's so cool.

[Matthew Mercer]

It's a tiny little town, not known for much. Just farmers mostly. My family were the herbalists.

[Joe O'Brien]

Ah, right. And that's what you did for the army?

[Matthew Mercer]

I know. I was infantry until they. Until someone noticed.

[Joe O'Brien]

So was he.

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, yeah. Well, they pulled me out pretty fast when they noticed I had some knowledge of the herbs and flowers and plants. Moved me to the medic Corps. You were

[Joe O'Brien]

cavalry? 10th. Yeah. And if you know some. Some stuff about the army, you might know that there's a rep for this regiment, the 10th Cavalry, as being almost like a. Like a Special Forces sort of division that were kind of like a first in kind of unit and very hard to get into and very dangerous to fight in. But yeah, you may know that, you may not. You can decide it as you wish.

[Matthew Mercer]

But he doesn't seem to recognize it

[Joe O'Brien]

when you say it. So he just says it. Doesn't say anything else about it. Says, yeah, I'd like to get north as well, but I've left some things behind and I'd like to find them. I'd like to find whoever managed to do this, whatever. I mean, have you heard anything about how Ordos did it?

[Troy Lavallee]

What?

[Matthew Mercer]

What?

[Joe O'Brien]

That was a spell. Was it a spell?

[Matthew Mercer]

I. I don't. I don't know it. I haven't. I've heard a lot. I've heard some stories that maybe it was a God. Maybe it was.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

It wasn't Ordos at all. It was just.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. What makes you think Gordos did it?

[Joe O'Brien]

I mean, it must have had to have. They're the only ones that crazy to try to put that many wizards together to pull off something like that. I mean, the power of the gods.

[Matthew Mercer]

They lost the war too. They're everywhere. No one won.

[Joe O'Brien]

Well, I'm not saying it was a good idea. And I'm not saying that they didn't Blow themselves up. They must have done it.

[Pharaoh]

I think, like, I think Pharaoh, on some level, is convinced that he's responsible because it happened to coincide with him.

[Joe O'Brien]

Faith, feeling that power, experiencing his power

[Pharaoh]

from him for the first time. Like it happened a split second later. So I think he wonders. He hasn't said anything. He's just like, I don't want them to know that I'm the one who did this. But I think he. You know, it gets kind of quiet when it gets brought up.

[Joe O'Brien]

Is there any indication that you're a priest? Did you say anything along those lines, or is there anything you're wearing that would indicate that.

[Pharaoh]

Not at all.

[Troy Lavallee]

He said that we both could heal, right?

[Joe O'Brien]

They said you were healers and you said you basically were a medic. Like, worked in a medical tent, Infirmary. What about you? What do you think? You think the gods did this? Or. Ordos.

[Pharaoh]

He's stammering his.

[Troy Lavallee]

I.

[Pharaoh]

Probably the moon.

[Matthew Mercer]

Moon.

[Joe O'Brien]

Moon. I probably.

[Pharaoh]

Probably came from the moon.

[Sydney Padua]

I mean, might as well have. I mean, you were Calvary, right? Cavalry, right?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

So you never saw orders up close, then? Probably.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, I saw him up close.

[Sydney Padua]

Did you?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, plenty. And you didn't?

[Sydney Padua]

No, I did. And they were men like us, right? I don't think they were capable of whatever that was. Maybe it was the moon.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, it's the moon.

[Joe O'Brien]

Well, I mean, any of you wizards, any of you know how to cast these kind of rituals? They do.

[Matthew Mercer]

You cast a ritual that would wipe out all the armies, across all the fields of battle.

[Pharaoh]

I don't know.

[Matthew Mercer]

Destroy the land.

[Joe O'Brien]

I don't know anything about this.

[Matthew Mercer]

Shear off the tops of an entire trees, of an entire forest.

[Sydney Padua]

If I was a wizard, I wouldn't be in Merrin's hold, I'll tell you that.

[Troy Lavallee]

That

[Matthew Mercer]

there's a lot more to wizardry than destruction. And anyway, we should probably look. Eat and see if we can find some work for tomorrow.

[Sydney Padua]

Checks. The stew. Smells. Smells done.

[Matthew Mercer]

Smells. Smells delicious. Thank you, Saint.

[Joe O'Brien]

It smells so.

[Matthew Mercer]

It smells amazing.

[Joe O'Brien]

And like, I'm so hungry.

[Pharaoh]

He's trying to not like, he's played.

[Sydney Padua]

He's hungry, too. Yeah, he's hungry, too.

[Matthew Mercer]

With actual herbs.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

Cool.

[Sydney Padua]

Smell of thyme.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

Thyme.

[Joe O'Brien]

Rosemary.

[Troy Lavallee]

Come on, rc.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sage, Rosemary.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. These little.

[Joe O'Brien]

I imagine. Yeah. I imagine that Warwick has been eating a lot of stale bread, like, for weeks maybe. If that. If that. Yeah. And gruel. And so, yeah. Having some flavor. I mean, just amazing. So, yeah, I'll start eating it.

[Sydney Padua]

Saint kind of stretches out with a bowl. Get used to this. Looking around? The room

[Joe O'Brien]

used to. What,

[Sydney Padua]

real room?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

A bed?

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

Sleeping inside again?

[Matthew Mercer]

I don't know what this town is like. And they said. They said there's no fighting in the town. But those guards took our names. That seems suspicious. Thought better to get inside for the night.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

I don't believe them when they say that no one in here is fighting. I bet you it's happening all the time.

[Matthew Mercer]

War's done, but bad blood lasts longer than wars.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Pharaoh]

I've seen you before, says the saint.

[Sydney Padua]

I don't think that's true.

[Pharaoh]

I've seen you somewhere.

[Sydney Padua]

Well, probably. Were you 2nd Regiment? Probably on the battlefield.

[Pharaoh]

Any, like touches the spot on his skull where the fracture was

[Joe O'Brien]

and he

[Sponsor Announcer]

says,

[Pharaoh]

I can't remember.

[Troy Lavallee]

But

[Pharaoh]

never mind. Never mind.

[Sydney Padua]

You don't look familiar to me. Did I say second regiment or fifth to You?

[Joe O'Brien]

Said second.

[Sydney Padua]

Second.

[Joe O'Brien]

Second.

[Sydney Padua]

He like sips his soup kind of side eyeing Pharaoh. Looks at Ellison. Kind of like, what's up with this guy? He just kind of looks at you. How'd you two meet?

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, it's a long story. We'll flash back to it soon enough.

[Sydney Padua]

What is that?

[Matthew Mercer]

No, we. We found. We found each other. Both of us were wounded. We helped patch each other up. And then we figured two were better than one. Especially when trying to find civilization.

[Sydney Padua]

You hit your head or something?

[Pharaoh]

No, I'm fine.

[Sydney Padua]

I knew a guy who hit his head once. Couldn't remember his own name. They put him down. They shot him like a dog.

[Pharaoh]

Shot him with what?

[Sydney Padua]

Arrows. They all lined. They just stood him there, lined up.

[Pharaoh]

Why would you shoot a dog with an arrow?

[Sydney Padua]

Watch it. Run. People are cruel.

[Pharaoh]

Why don't you just tell them, Come here. And then just hit him on the head with a club or something.

[Sydney Padua]

Is that how you'd kill a dog? Thought much about killing dogs?

[Pharaoh]

Thought a lot about not wasting arrows. He looks sort of back to the side. It's like, these are expensive.

[Sydney Padua]

Tell me.

[Pharaoh]

Shoot a dog. Probably wouldn't shoot a dog at all. But certainly wouldn't

[Joe O'Brien]

they want to swear to the gods.

[Pharaoh]

I've seen you before. I know I have.

[Sydney Padua]

Maybe

[Pharaoh]

it'll come to me.

[Joe O'Brien]

The. Whatever it was. When it went off. Did you get hurt?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. How? Roof fell in on me.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, you were inside?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

And did anyone around you survive?

[Sydney Padua]

Not that I know.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, me neither.

[Matthew Mercer]

I was on the field. Fighting was all around me. I was trying to put a tourniquet on a soldier who'd fallen. The arm had been sliced nearly fully off. And I was Trying to time off and then just. Everything went white.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

When I woke up, everyone was dead.

[Joe O'Brien]

There was ash everywhere, like. Like it had singed. Everything burned. The trees and the. And the men, everything, the horses, everything was on fire. That's why I thought, you know, sorcery gone awry.

[Pharaoh]

I'm having a panic attack. Like Pharaoh is on the verge of a panic attack right now. I'm gonna get some air. And he just stands up, spilling the stew like on the. On the floor. Just leaves. He leaves the room.

[Sydney Padua]

Is your friend okay?

[Matthew Mercer]

He's fine.

[Joe O'Brien]

He seems pretty shooken up. He keeps touching his head.

[Matthew Mercer]

I don't think I have to explain to anyone of you the. Just the horrific, horrific nature of what it was like to be there on that battlefield. He was in a high. He was in a field hospital when it happened.

[Joe O'Brien]

Was his head injured?

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes, he hit his head. He hit his head at some point during the battle.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, well, they're dangerous and they can. They can keep coming back is all. Andreess can mess with you.

[Sponsor Announcer]

You.

[Joe O'Brien]

I think he's like he said.

[Matthew Mercer]

I think he's all right.

[Sydney Padua]

You're talking about the moon. Doesn't seem all right to me.

[Matthew Mercer]

Are any of us all right?

[Sydney Padua]

A war.

[Matthew Mercer]

We don't need to talk about it. What kind of work you think we're going to find in this town?

[Joe O'Brien]

I don't know. But now that my stomach's full, I'm thinking it's time to start looking. Looking. I'd love to just lay down right now. I'd love it, but I just can't.

[Matthew Mercer]

What time of day is it?

[Troy Lavallee]

I think it's early evening.

[Matthew Mercer]

Maybe we can go out, like hit one of these taverns and ask around about work.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

I think Saint Crayfish start to meet some people.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. Saint stands up when you say we should start. He just stands up and he's like, I'm off to the Crayfish.

[Matthew Mercer]

That's a good idea. I'll come with you. See if I can find if anyone would need any kind of healing services or something. I can help.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, I'll go. Let's all go.

[Matthew Mercer]

Pharaoh, we're going in the Crayfish to see if we can get it. If we can scare up any work, maybe get nail.

[Pharaoh]

I'm gone.

[Joe O'Brien]

He left.

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, you're call. I was calling out.

[Pharaoh]

I'm gone so far.

[Troy Lavallee]

Let's cut to you. You. You go right outside of the end. You go right. Right to get some fresh air.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, I just like step outside. Like I'm hyperventilating. Heart is beating a million times a minute. And I am just like, looking around, see if anyone has any tobacco.

[Troy Lavallee]

You see a couple of fisher folk milling around outside of a shop that they're closing up, and they look like the smoking type.

[Pharaoh]

And I sort of walk up and says, evening. Can I. You got any. Got any pipe weed?

[Troy Lavallee]

They kind of eye you warily.

[Pharaoh]

I can pee. And I like fish. Like a couple of silvers, like.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, that's fine. It's fine. A little extra. You have something to smoke it out the of I've got. Yeah.

[Pharaoh]

And he just pulls out like little parchment and he's just like, in there. He folds it up. It's just like in here, please.

[Troy Lavallee]

And he just pulls a little out of his pouch and sprinkles it in.

[Joe O'Brien]

Not a lot.

[Pharaoh]

He just rolls it up, like, licks it closed. And it's like fishing in his pouch for, like, the flint and steel. It's like, look at his face.

[Joe O'Brien]

It's like,

[Pharaoh]

oh, catches fire. It's like he just like, lets his head fall back and it's like this wave of relaxation like, washes over him.

[Troy Lavallee]

It's like, thank you. Thank you.

[Pharaoh]

And he just sort of like, more slowly, more evenly walks back over to the feathered wish and is sort of like leans against the wall next to the door, just smoking his cigarette.

[Troy Lavallee]

As the three of you come out,

[Matthew Mercer]

we're going to go to the crayfish and see if we can scare up some work, maybe get a nail.

[Pharaoh]

Oh, right. And he like, puts it out on his tongue, tucks it into his pouch. So let's go.

[Troy Lavallee]

There's a bunch of people outside. You can tell they didn't get a real room. Maybe like five or six, you know, because there were. There was enough. Enough space for the small crowd, but there five or six that weren't able to scramble fast enough to form a group. So they're just kind of like talking and chatting and looking at you enviously as you make your way across town to the Crayfish tavern. As you take in the town, obviously there's that keep that's looming. It's not. It's a very modest keep. This isn't a big town. But you do notice that several of the buildings towards the front of the palisade look like they're under construction, like they're having some work done to them.

[Pharaoh]

It's just like Village of Hommlet. Exactly what's happening in village of Hommlet.

[Troy Lavallee]

And you had saw that the part of the palisade looked like it was redone recently as well. So you head into the Crayfish and there's a ton of people in there. It's like a. This looks like a town of fishermen and reavers and they're just like bursting at the seams. Oh yeah. And a bunch of new people in town. Obviously the new people are getting the side eye from the regular inhabitants.

[Pharaoh]

It's gotta be. I would imagine there's quite a bit of tension too.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, yeah.

[Pharaoh]

Any, like, influx of refugees with an existing, like, people who live there. It's like there's. There's going to be some. Some friction.

[Troy Lavallee]

And here we are, night one at the Crayfish Tavern, bustling with people that are in your exact position. Maybe former soldiers, maybe some of those merchants that you travel with, some people you were gambling with, as well as people who belong to Marin's Hold. Did. Were they here pre war?

[Sydney Padua]

Did.

[Troy Lavallee]

Marin's Hole. How long were you up? I don't know. What do you want to talk to? Want to get a drink?

[Sydney Padua]

Yes.

[Troy Lavallee]

Everything's happy hour.

[Sydney Padua]

It's happy hour.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

I get two. I. I think, yeah, drinks are a copper. I think Saint walks in and walks straight up to the bar.

[Troy Lavallee]

It's a woman, busty wench back there. And she says, oh, hello, sir. What can I get you?

[Sydney Padua]

Be here, please. Beer.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right. You're new in town.

[Sydney Padua]

Aren't we all?

[Troy Lavallee]

No,

[Pharaoh]

some of us lived here before.

[Matthew Mercer]

Business here.

[Sydney Padua]

He sips his beer. He sips his beer and he has like a little foam mustache and he goes, that's a good point.

[Troy Lavallee]

Let me get that.

[Sydney Padua]

I wanted that. That was. That was mine.

[Troy Lavallee]

She was feeling sexy.

[Sydney Padua]

Paid for it.

[Troy Lavallee]

Flash from that Scrubs moment. Your Zach Braff Scrubs moment.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah. I gotta say, there's also a full menu in. In village of Hom.

[Sydney Padua]

What are we working with?

[Pharaoh]

There is. You can get a pint of small beer for five copper, a pint of heavy beer for one silver.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay.

[Matthew Mercer]

You were undercharging for those squirrels.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, yeah. You? Well, I don't know. Some like, stringy, nasty squirrel.

[Matthew Mercer]

Fresh meat.

[Sydney Padua]

Not skin.

[Matthew Mercer]

Fresh meat in this economy. I'll come up and get a nail and ask for it.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, hello, sir.

[Matthew Mercer]

Hello. Could I have an ale, please?

[Joe O'Brien]

One ale.

[Pharaoh]

All right.

[Troy Lavallee]

One copper.

[Pharaoh]

That's two silver.

[Matthew Mercer]

He said. He said one copper.

[Pharaoh]

It is happy hour. So what do I know?

[Sydney Padua]

And as. As you walk up to, Saint is kind of propped up on the bar looking around. So who. Who isn't new around here?

[Troy Lavallee]

You can Usually tell at first who's new to town. They've got the look of someone that just saw some terrible things. But things haven't always been easy around here either. After a while, we all sort of blend together. Just keep your head down and you'll do fine here. Remy, by the way. Remy.

[Sydney Padua]

Both Martin Saint.

[Troy Lavallee]

This is my establishment. Allison was my father's before me. He passed, and so now I do my best to run the place. Excuse me. I've got to take some orders. Yes, sir.

[Matthew Mercer]

Is it crowded?

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

Is it bustling?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

That's a good, good feeling in the air. Although the people there, kind of grim and dour. You caught a whiff of that from the guards.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, but probably nice, too. Like, after weeks in the wild and not being able to trust anybody, to at least come to a place where people are convening in this way, you gotta believe it's.

[Matthew Mercer]

I feel like. I feel this as a player, but I also feel. I think my character would feel it. I still just don't trust anyone, right?

[Pharaoh]

No, no, you still don't. But at least people are together and they're not. Not actively killing and robbing each other in this big room.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

It just feels like.

[Pharaoh]

Still, it's like I don't. Yeah, I just don't trust anybody.

[Matthew Mercer]

But it's also just like a sense of unreality. Right. Like, we've just been through a horrible war that ended in the most horrific fashion. This on a kind of unexplained.

[Pharaoh]

Still don't know.

[Matthew Mercer]

Still don't understand what happened.

[Pharaoh]

Like, how much worse would that be? A horrible thing happened and no one knows. No one knows why or what is sheer.

[Matthew Mercer]

Like the sheer tonnage of death was. We have kind of crawled out from under. And then to come to a place.

[Joe O'Brien]

You quite literally.

[Matthew Mercer]

Me, quite literally. And then to come to a place where they're just like, life is happening and there's a. There are businesses and people buy drinks and, you know, just. It feel. I think Allison is kind of standing at the center of the crowd with his ale in hand. Just kind of. Just kind of like staring at everything. Like, it doesn't make. Doesn't quite make sense.

[Pharaoh]

Something on a Deer Hunter or something.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, exactly. Where it's like, it doesn't. It says it's. I kind of went through the motions, that I like what you would do. You would go to a tavern. You order a nail, and then you talk to the barkeep, and then you turn around. He just turns around. It's like the entire world feels like an illusion.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

You're gawking.

[Matthew Mercer]

What?

[Sydney Padua]

You're staring at people.

[Matthew Mercer]

Just doesn't seem real. Seems like. Oh, it's all wrong, you know?

[Joe O'Brien]

No, I don't know what you mean.

[Pharaoh]

All wrong.

[Matthew Mercer]

This makes sense. Be here. Sorry. Ignore me.

[Joe O'Brien]

I'm scanning the room for a man, a halfling and a goblin traveling together. You know, there's a lot of people in this room, so he's just scanning, see if he sees that at all.

[Troy Lavallee]

Plenty of men, handful of halflings. You don't see any goblins?

[Joe O'Brien]

No goblins.

[Troy Lavallee]

Also no one that really gives off that bandit vibe.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, a lot of soldiers and workers and stuff. What about somebody that might look like or you said that there were a couple of guards that might look off guard. Or there are a couple of laborers that might look off duty. Builders. Construction.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, yeah. People that maybe are working on some of this construction. They're sitting around, they've got dirty faces. They haven't even taken a chance to wash up after a day's work. And they're a couple glasses deep.

[Joe O'Brien]

I'll walk over to that table. And they kind of look at you like.

[Sydney Padua]

Walk up.

[Troy Lavallee]

What?

[Joe O'Brien]

I apologize. I don't mean to interrupt, but I. I'm just. I'm just got into town and I'm looking for work. I'm curious if any of you are a foreman or a manager or. No one that might be able to help me get some work building here.

[Troy Lavallee]

I don't know anybody that is looking for builders. Please. Sid. You say you're new here. You just came in with the batch that.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yes. He sits down. He said I worked for a caravan on the way here guarding it. But the. The man running it didn't need me anymore once we arrived here at Marron's hold. And now I'm just looking for work and I'd be obliged for any I could. I could get. Do you know if they're higher in there? At the wall?

[Troy Lavallee]

Not at the moment. I mean, usually able bodied soldiers are found and conscripted, so someone your size and look, I'm sure they'll come asking. I don't know what it pays in terms of work outside of that. You know, there's always stuff to do beyond the walls, but that's. That's dangerous.

[Joe O'Brien]

What kind of stuff?

[Troy Lavallee]

Well, there's problems that need to be dealt with. There was a woman, a merchant here in town went missing recently. Well, at least that's what they say. She was traveling north along the road with three of her guards and just never returned. It's unlike Regina to not come back after going out there looking to trade. So could always investigate that.

[Joe O'Brien]

This woman. Who does she. Who is she working for here? Anybody in particular that. Because if I could talk to them and maybe say I'd. I'd go looking for. Because he's starting to think like, what if these things are connected? Right? Like, what if this woman goes out with her guards? Which is exactly what I was doing. Is very dangerous territory. This wouldn't be surprising at all for them to get jumped. You know? What if they got jumped by the same people I'm looking for? The same bandits I'm looking for. You know? So he's like just jumping on this right away before the guy says anything else. Who would I talk to about that?

[Troy Lavallee]

The man. Her business partner. He's still in town. They have a cart. Her name's Regina Spence. And his name is Martin Short. Martin Short.

[Pharaoh]

It is a Short last name. I can't recall it.

[Troy Lavallee]

Martin Gardok.

[Matthew Mercer]

Gardock literally wrote down Martin Short.

[Pharaoh]

So did I.

[Troy Lavallee]

He's actually quite tall.

[Matthew Mercer]

I was like Martin Short.

[Sydney Padua]

Okay. Wait. Who was Martin Short? Sorry. Or Martin Gard?

[Joe O'Brien]

It's over.

[Matthew Mercer]

Martin Short is an enterprise.

[Troy Lavallee]

I remember that grimly.

[Sydney Padua]

Martin Gardok.

[Troy Lavallee]

Martin Gardok. Her business partner. They have a cart in town.

[Joe O'Brien]

And he doesn't happen to be here tonight. Right? As someone I could find during the day.

[Troy Lavallee]

I don't see. Martin is not much of a drinker. They came into town a while ago and just kind of stayed here. But they have connections all over. He's probably distraught. It's enough so that someone like me knows about it.

[Joe O'Brien]

Right?

[Troy Lavallee]

I'm sure he'd pay a good price to get information about where she is or what happened.

[Joe O'Brien]

Thank you very much. Did you. Was there anything else? Anyone else looking to hire?

[Pharaoh]

No.

[Troy Lavallee]

But I'll keep an eye out. You know, you seem strong. And you know, people get hurt all the time. Maybe something will open up. All right.

[Joe O'Brien]

Thank you.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yes.

[Joe O'Brien]

Enjoy your night.

[Troy Lavallee]

You too.

[Joe O'Brien]

And stand up and walk back over to you guys. Unless you wanted to do something while that was happening.

[Troy Lavallee]

Let's check in with Pharaoh. Pharaoh's been had a bit of a moment there where he had rushed out of the. The room at the inn. Found solace in tobacco. Now you're in here a lot of people. Is that making you nervous or how do you feel?

[Pharaoh]

I think the tobacco is still comfortable. Like he relights his cigarette from a candle on the table. Say and he's just sitting there waiting for his associates to come back. And he's just looking around at, like, all the people, like, the everyday people that are gathered here in this tavern. It's like the laborers, like, sitting at the table with their dirty faces and, you know, exhausted farmers and vendors and merchants and everything. And he's just. He's just thinking about how miserable their lives look, looking at them. And he's just thinking about, you know, he's been thinking about, like, what. What he would do with himself, like, once he got here to some place of relative safety. And it's just like, do I try to eke out a living, like, doing manual labor or as an apprentice to a. A leather worker or something? And. And he's just like, is that really the life I want? Like, he's looking at these. These people and he's like. And he thinks to himself, like, no, it's like, I want a bigger payday. I want. If I'm. If I'm going to work for some money, I want it to be something significant. I don't want to live like these people. So. And he just sort of, like, his hand sort of, like, drifts to his crossbow and. And he's just. He gets this, like, look of determination, like, on his face as it, like, draws another drag off the cigarette.

[Troy Lavallee]

And you see this as well as everybody in the bar. There's a man that's like. He's. He's sitting by himself, drinking, and he starts, like, crying. And he starts crying, like, so loudly, it's almost, like, comically loud. And he pushes his stein off the table and it shatters. And it's kind of like a record scratch. Everybody looks over. You being new people who don't know who this guy is, he's just, like, slumped over, wasted. And a couple of these builders actually get up and they. They talk to each other. And guys like, I'll take care of him. He says, okay, it's all right. It's all right. It's all right. And they. They walk him out of the bar.

[Matthew Mercer]

I'll lean over maybe. I'm still kind of standing a little bit, not quite in touch with reality at the bar. And I lean over to Remy. Who was that?

[Troy Lavallee]

She looks and she says, he's regular here. Lost his wife recently. Just having a. Having a tough go of it.

[Matthew Mercer]

Lost his wife in the war.

[Troy Lavallee]

No, no, no. Just a bit of. Bit of an accident. Excuse me for a moment.

[Sydney Padua]

Saint leans back over. He was kind of, like, a little further away from you. And he leans back over to you. Did she just say accident?

[Matthew Mercer]

She did say accident.

[Sydney Padua]

He looks back out where the guy left, and then he puts his beer down. And he's going to walk out of the bar following the builders.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, interesting.

[Matthew Mercer]

Okay, wait. Where are you going? Wait, wait, wait.

[Sydney Padua]

He does not.

[Joe O'Brien]

All right, Saint, come.

[Troy Lavallee]

Saint, you stay on.

[Matthew Mercer]

You.

[Troy Lavallee]

You follow this guy out. And maybe 20 paces ahead of you, one of the builders is walking this man to his house. And he's just. He's being kind of unruly. The guy's like, it's all right. It's all right, mister. Mr. Jones or whatever. And they're just. They're walking, but like I said, 20 paces ahead of you, and he's kind of falling, and the guy's picking him up and trying to just bring him back to his home.

[Sydney Padua]

I think Saint just wants to stay in the shadows. And his plan was to just hear a name, see where he lives, just gather any information he can case the joint for later. Case the joint for later.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay. So he walks halfway across town where there's these small little houses that are right on top of each other, and he brings him into one of these building. So you know exactly where it is now?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. And he didn't hear an actual name?

[Troy Lavallee]

No.

[Sydney Padua]

Okay. Yeah. He'll just, like, stand outside watching. I'm assuming the builders come back out of the house.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

After a while, the builder comes back out. You know, if you stand there for a while, light goes on, and then you assume he's putting him to bed or something.

[Sydney Padua]

All right. Yeah. He'll slink kind of back into the shadow and just mosey back towards the crayfish.

[Troy Lavallee]

Meanwhile. The crayfish?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, I'd say, like, the ruckus is going. Saint has walked out. And now Warwick comes back up, and there's no sign of Saint. He doesn't think too much of it for the moment. He just sort of, like, comes up and leans on the bar right up next to Ellison, and he's like, I might have a line on some work.

[Matthew Mercer]

What kind of work?

[Joe O'Brien]

He kind of looks around a little bit. He's like one of the dangerous kind. But you said you're good at patching people up, right?

[Matthew Mercer]

Yes, I have a few other skills, too.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, yeah? Like what?

[Matthew Mercer]

Say, I can come in handy when the situation calls for it.

[Joe O'Brien]

That's vague and mysterious.

[Matthew Mercer]

He.

[Joe O'Brien]

There's a merchant in town. Lost his business partner, too. I think bandits probably on the road. Might pay pretty well if we find out what happened or Recover some of what was lost. Wouldn't the band see he's like perked up. He's like more excited than he was earlier.

[Matthew Mercer]

Wouldn't the bandits have just made off with anything they took?

[Joe O'Brien]

Well, even it being bandits, it's just an assumption at this point. I don't know for sure, but he might pay. Even just for answers.

[Matthew Mercer]

Interesting.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

Is he here?

[Joe O'Brien]

No, he's not. But maybe tomorrow when he opens up his stall, we could speak with him. Wait, was he Martin? He was Martin, yeah. Yeah, his name's Martin Gardok. And yeah, he runs a business here in town. And it might be an easy way to get some money if we just find out what happened to them. Of course it could also turn a little bit dangerous if we can recover some of it, but sounds like, like it might pay a lot. Like what we'd make working on the wall for a month.

[Matthew Mercer]

That is enough to spark Alison's interest because like he's just trying to make enough money to get home. Right? And it's like to overland travel, you know, vast, vast distances. All right, that sounds.

[Joe O'Brien]

I mean, do you think that's something that Pharaoh would do or should we just leave him behind?

[Matthew Mercer]

Oh, Pharaohs. Pharaoh can also come in handy. Saint just walked out of here. You followed that man that was crying.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, I heard that. He seemed like he was just a

[Matthew Mercer]

drunk, feeling he might be interested as well.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, Saint doesn't look at but at first glance. But you can tell he's good with a knife.

[Matthew Mercer]

He's good with a number of things.

[Joe O'Brien]

You could tell like he was looking at the way that he scared skin the animal the way that he was like so easily picking his fingers with his fingernails. With an extremely sharp and dangerous blade and not missing a nick. He's like man's good with a knife.

[Matthew Mercer]

I know that. I know the type from the war. Certain kind of person always seems to know where. Where to get things.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, he seems very useful. And where's Pharaoh right now? Just in the bar.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, I'm at the table. I found a table. Smoking. Yeah, well, he's your friend.

[Joe O'Brien]

Sifu. What?

[Matthew Mercer]

Something strange about this town, isn't there? It just seems so untouched by the war. I mean the refugees and that kind of those of us wandered in, but the tension's there. But just going about their lives as if nothing happened.

[Joe O'Brien]

I'm sure they're just trying to build it back up. I mean, people want to forget. Some of us don't, but some do.

[Matthew Mercer]

Just a week ago, weeks ago. I Don't know. It just feels so. I'll ask Faro, and I go over and I kind of push through the crowd, you know, carrying my ale and his. Warwick might have a line on some work for us. Might be a bit more dangerous than just some work around the town. We might have to venture out, but thought you might be interested.

[Joe O'Brien]

Some merchant caravan went missing, so who knows what they could pay? Could be something pretty good. And these caravans are going missing because these bandits are working the roads. And if it is bandits, I mean, I can handle it.

[Pharaoh]

And takes another drag off of his makeshift cigarette.

[Troy Lavallee]

It.

[Pharaoh]

And he, like, looks again at these, like, lifeless faces as he sees them. Like, way in this. In this place, it's like, yeah, yeah, sounds great.

[Joe O'Brien]

All right, let's go. That's three.

[Troy Lavallee]

Then we'll cut to Saint coming back into the bar. And as you approach the doorstep, there's a guy standing outside. He's like, oi. You're looking to play a little dice game in there as well. You cleaned me out pretty good.

[Sydney Padua]

Was he the guy from outside?

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

One of the guys that you

[Sydney Padua]

sink. Just stop.

[Troy Lavallee]

Still alive.

[Joe O'Brien]

It's been like five hours.

[Troy Lavallee]

When I walked away, they don't exist.

[Pharaoh]

No object permanence.

[Sydney Padua]

Never thought I'd see them again. Florida NPC say it stops and looks up. You want to play again? Double or nothing.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, no. But you seem like someone that's interested in coin. I know where you can find some real coin.

[Sydney Padua]

I think I'm all right. And he goes to walk inside.

[Troy Lavallee]

Your loss. And he just leans against the edge of the Crayfish Tower.

[Sydney Padua]

Saint stops in the threshold of the door, comes back outside and kind of saddles up next to him. Leans also against the wall.

[Joe O'Brien]

They're both leaning.

[Sydney Padua]

We're having a lean off.

[Matthew Mercer]

Mutual lean.

[Troy Lavallee]

Classic thief lean.

[Joe O'Brien]

Classic thief lean.

[Troy Lavallee]

One arm up.

[Pharaoh]

It's like a movie directed by David Lean.

[Sydney Padua]

My favorite director.

[Troy Lavallee]

The Lean Chronicles, Says, well, you know, this information comes at a price. Maybe I could get some of that money back you took from me.

[Sydney Padua]

Maybe you could win it back.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right, all right. Well, listen, I'm giving this to you because you seem like you might be able to do something about it. Might help me get out of this place. Lord knows I don't want to be here for long. There were some foragers that went out west recently. And evidently there's a camp of bandits camping out near some huge marrow tree near Wardenwood. Have you ever been?

[Sydney Padua]

Maybe I passed through it on the way here.

[Troy Lavallee]

So one of the Few fragile bastions of mankind out here. A village full of trappers, hunters, and woodcutters. Anyways, if you're looking for some serious coin, I'm sure the good people of Wardenwood would be happy to get rid of these bandits that are prowling their roads out west. Oh, yeah, just west from here. Not too, too far away. Other side of the lake.

[Sydney Padua]

And what's the fee? You get a cut for the work I do.

[Troy Lavallee]

Well, I mean, that would be the honorable thing to do. Honor among thieves and whatnot. I would go, but I've got a bum leg. Wouldn't be much in a fight.

[Sydney Padua]

Well, thanks for the information.

[Troy Lavallee]

You'll have to let me know if you head that way, work something out. Maybe I can remember some more information that might be helpful to you on your journey. Journey?

[Sydney Padua]

Saint kind of gives him, like, a half smile. I'll let you know.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right.

[Sydney Padua]

Then he just walks back into the crayfish, spies the table, walks over Saint,

[Joe O'Brien]

we got a line on a job, and then we start talking it through.

[Sydney Padua]

And then he doesn't mention his job yet because he wants to hear what yours is.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, we tell you about it?

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

He. He says, all right. Is it to the west?

[Matthew Mercer]

No, to the north. They said to the north.

[Joe O'Brien]

She went.

[Matthew Mercer]

Why do you ask?

[Sydney Padua]

Just trying to get my bearings.

[Joe O'Brien]

You heard anything about a bandit camp west of here?

[Pharaoh]

You look like.

[Joe O'Brien]

You look like you just heard about someone.

[Pharaoh]

Heard about a bandit camp to the west.

[Sydney Padua]

Trying to remember. If I remember.

[Matthew Mercer]

You got that look about you.

[Pharaoh]

Maybe I'm misreading you.

[Sydney Padua]

What's the word you're using? Bandit camp. Huh?

[Troy Lavallee]

That might keep us alive.

[Sydney Padua]

No, when. When you say it might be bandits, like, that's your whole idea. You're like, it's probably bandits. He's like, well, there is a bandit camp to the west. I don't know much about it. They think there is a village out there. Maybe if we clear out the bandits, the village tosses us some coin. Two birds, one stone, huh? Could be the same.

[Joe O'Brien]

Could be.

[Sydney Padua]

Could hit the west first, take out the camp. Maybe there's scouts and stragglers up north. Yeah, or vice versa.

[Matthew Mercer]

Is that all the information you have?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Joe O'Brien]

I don't, like. I don't know. I'm, like, heading out there without knowing how many there are.

[Sydney Padua]

All I know is there's a landmark, a marrow tree. It's near a woodcutter village called Warden Wood. Never heard of it.

[Joe O'Brien]

Warden Wood never heard of it, either.

[Sydney Padua]

I could try to get more information, but costs

[Joe O'Brien]

and we don't really know what they'd pay. No, but we do know we can talk to this man tomorrow, this Martin. We'll know what he'll pay, and he may even pay a small advance to even start the operation. So I think we start there, start

[Matthew Mercer]

there tomorrow,

[Joe O'Brien]

and maybe we find these bandits. Maybe they jumped that caravan and headed back to where they're based in the west.

[Matthew Mercer]

Maybe that woman's at their camp.

[Joe O'Brien]

Right, but it's a lot of speculating. I'm gonna turn in and you can see he's never bought anything. He doesn't have any money. He never bought a drink or anything. He's just like, I'm gonna turn in and get some rest and let's talk to this merchant.

[Troy Lavallee]

In the morning, two people on the other side of the bar, there's another sound of glass shattering. And they stand up and they grab each other by the shirt and they're about to come to blows. And the four guards that were sitting at the table just stand up, hand on the hilt of their sword. And the guys are like, they just let each other go and rush themselves up. And one of them just storms out and the other guy's standing there, like, staring at the guards and just sits down, picks up the broken glass. You realize, like, as he's doing it, he, like, cuts his hand and he just wipes the blood and smiles, just keeps picking up the glass. Sorry, sorry, sorry, Remy. The guards sit down.

[Pharaoh]

I don't like it here.

[Matthew Mercer]

I think we're done for the night. Let's go.

[Pharaoh]

Let's go.

[Troy Lavallee]

And so you go back to the feathered wish. Room six. Sixth floor.

[Pharaoh]

Sixth floor.

[Matthew Mercer]

Sixth floor. On the way in, we wave to Mindy. Out of curiosity, how many rooms are in the sim?

[Troy Lavallee]

There's 42. There's 42. Yes.

[Sydney Padua]

We really lucked out.

[Troy Lavallee]

The way we do it is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Then we start back over. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. And at the time, it seemed like a good way of doing it. My father had his own. I think he was blind.

[Sydney Padua]

He's a madman.

[Pharaoh]

He was blind and insane.

[Matthew Mercer]

It wasn't the blindness so much as the insanity.

[Troy Lavallee]

He just wanted to do things different. Six would be on the first floor next door, but you're safe up there.

[Joe O'Brien]

Oh, man.

[Troy Lavallee]

Are you enjoying your stay here in Marshold? Do you think you'll be taking a sup on the weekly rate?

[Matthew Mercer]

We're gonna investigate, see about some work in the morning, and then we'll let you know.

[Troy Lavallee]

Well, best of luck to you best of luck.

[Joe O'Brien]

Thank you.

[Troy Lavallee]

And you go upstairs and start to turn in. If some of you want to, like, wash off, imagine there's like, some sort of, like, pump mechanism that just shoots water.

[Joe O'Brien]

That would be nice.

[Matthew Mercer]

That would be incredible.

[Joe O'Brien]

Really nice.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah, we're filthy.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Pharaoh]

We probably. Probably have to carry water up.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah. I assume there's a pump.

[Matthew Mercer]

I don't think they have a water pump capable of pumping up floors.

[Sydney Padua]

I'm sure there's a pump in the center of town. And you just.

[Troy Lavallee]

I want to make it as easy as possible for you.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, we got some water.

[Troy Lavallee]

Got some water. We see you bathing in this.

[Matthew Mercer]

We each bathe in front of each other.

[Sydney Padua]

Right.

[Matthew Mercer]

Slowly cleanse ourselves. Everybody else watches and

[Troy Lavallee]

do you. I mean, you're in a hotel or an inn, rather. You got a door that you can lock, but you've. You're used to a much different way of life. You're used to, like, watches and sleeping out under the stars and. And then since waking up, who knows what you've been accustomed to. Even worse than that.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

Are you keeping. Are you, like. What is the conversation about, like, should we just all go to sleep, or.

[Matthew Mercer]

I mean, I only. I. We're sharing a room with a thief and.

[Pharaoh]

Yeah, it's like, we don't. We don't have. We wouldn't completely trust these other two people anyway. Like, I think Matthew's character and I, like, have grown to come to some sort of level of trust over the course of the weeks we've been together. But, yeah, we have good reason not to trust, at least, especially Saint. And I do think that I have seen her. Him before. I do think I've seen.

[Troy Lavallee]

I love this thread.

[Pharaoh]

I can't place it.

[Troy Lavallee]

I do think.

[Pharaoh]

But there is something that's a little. A little shady there. So. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah, I would definitely say, you know, I would say we need to do a watch. Someone has to stay up.

[Sydney Padua]

Saint is like, turn tying leather strips together, and he ties it around the handle of the door and he's like, tying it as you're saying that, and he's like, I agree. My. My PA taught me this. And then he just nails the leather strip into the. Like, uses his shoe and just nails it into the wall. So it's sort of like.

[Pharaoh]

With one of your spikes.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah, with one of my spikes. So you can't, like, open the door because the leather strip stops it. Even if you were to pick the lock of the door.

[Joe O'Brien]

Right. That's good. Yeah. I just didn't like the way those people were looking at us when we left to go out to the tavern. There's a lot of people here that need a place to stay and haven't gotten one. And I'm not sure what they might be willing to do to make sure they. They get inside, so. All right, I'll take the first watch. Happy to.

[Sydney Padua]

I'll take the second,

[Troy Lavallee]

third.

[Pharaoh]

I'll get up early anyway.

[Joe O'Brien]

Right. All right, turn in.

[Pharaoh]

Then I head over to the bed. And on the way, I just sort of try to surreptitiously kind of tug at the leather to see if it's not some kind of, like, trick knot or something put on the.

[Troy Lavallee]

There.

[Sydney Padua]

It's tight.

[Matthew Mercer]

Yeah.

[Troy Lavallee]

Who had second watch? Second watch. Okay, so you are.

[Matthew Mercer]

I see those dice rolls over there.

[Pharaoh]

Uh. Oh, no.

[Sydney Padua]

And Saint sleeps with his dagger.

[Troy Lavallee]

Sleep with your dagger. Okay. But you're up, you're.

[Sponsor Announcer]

You're.

[Troy Lavallee]

You're keeping the watch, and you're laying there, and you hear a shriek from, like, beyond the window outside.

[Sydney Padua]

He goes to the window.

[Troy Lavallee]

I mean, go to the window. And you look out and you see there's like a. This is the middle of the night now. Okay. There's a bit of a commotion. You see the town guard, and it looks like they've got some people and they're kind of like dragging them to the drawbridge.

[Sydney Padua]

Can I open the window? Is it openable?

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

I'm gonna try to open it and just listen and try to hear.

[Troy Lavallee]

And you hear, like, a woman's voice. It's not true. It's not true. Being muffled. What the hell?

[Sydney Padua]

Can I see anything else? I see a woman.

[Troy Lavallee]

Bunch of guards.

[Sydney Padua]

Bunch of guards.

[Troy Lavallee]

And they've got a couple of people, maybe a couple women. It looks like three people that they're dragging to the drawbridge. And the drawbridge is starting to be lowered.

[Matthew Mercer]

Ooh. Wonder if she was getting into some magic.

[Sydney Padua]

Oh, that's what he. That's what he's thinking.

[Joe O'Brien]

Ding, ding, ding, ding. Not true.

[Pharaoh]

The witch.

[Matthew Mercer]

She's a witch.

[Sydney Padua]

I'm going to Saint goes to the door, undoes his knot, leaves it hanging loose, closes the door quietly behind him. And I would like to sneak outside,

[Joe O'Brien]

leaving all of us sleeping with an unlocked door.

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah, Gonna sneak outside.

[Pharaoh]

As I said, can't trust Saint.

[Sydney Padua]

Something about Saint sneak outside, by the way.

[Pharaoh]

So your name's St. Anthony, right?

[Sydney Padua]

Yeah.

[Pharaoh]

I just want to point out that the actual historical St. Anthony is the patron saint of, among other things. Sterility.

[Sydney Padua]

We change is why I picked it. And not the most known thing, the patron saint of lost items.

[Troy Lavallee]

Lost items like sperm?

[Sydney Padua]

Well, no.

[Pharaoh]

Where did my sperm go?

[Sydney Padua]

Where did it go?

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, no, no problem.

[Sydney Padua]

That's what he's known for. He's famous for it.

[Troy Lavallee]

Bring it back. Bring it back. St. Anthony, please. He.

[Sydney Padua]

He just wants to sneak outside, not get too close. But he wants to hear, see if he can pick up on any other conversation of what is going on.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay, I want you to roll some dice here. You're sneaking. Let's get a little dexie Midnight Runner here.

[Sydney Padua]

Okay.

[Joe O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

Let me just make sure. Because my thievery. What does it give me? Okay. I'm trained in the following task. I have advantage on any associated check, including sneaking.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah. It's dark. You're a thief. Give yourself advantage on a dexterity check.

[Pharaoh]

Advantage.

[Sydney Padua]

I'm gonna roll a different die.

[Troy Lavallee]

Okay. By turning in your bottle cap.

[Sydney Padua]

No, it is.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, you have advantage.

[Sponsor Announcer]

Okay.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yes. Why don't you roll them at the same time? Yeah.

[Matthew Mercer]

You're crazy.

[Sydney Padua]

I'm gonna turn in my bottle.

[Joe O'Brien]

Wow.

[Troy Lavallee]

Stabbing a cat cap. Oh. Oh.

[Joe O'Brien]

Ow.

[Sydney Padua]

Cap.

[Troy Lavallee]

Use these. Okay. And you get to. You get. I mean, you're rolling four dice now, so roll twice. Take the better. I'm going to tell you right now. I set the DC at 12. It's normal because it's dark.

[Sydney Padua]

Good thing I use that cap. Oh, my God. I rolled another natural one, which is what I rolled the first time.

[Pharaoh]

Wow.

[Sydney Padua]

And 16, 17, 8, 19, 19.

[Joe O'Brien]

Okay, okay.

[Troy Lavallee]

All right.

[Matthew Mercer]

So you.

[Troy Lavallee]

You get out there, hiding in the shadows, and you just hear more of this. Oh, it's not true. It's not true. Quiet, Quiet, you.

[Sydney Padua]

He's like, by a building.

[Troy Lavallee]

Come, come. And they're just shuffling, like three people out the gate. And then they signal to the guards.

[Matthew Mercer]

Woman, you said?

[Troy Lavallee]

Or no, like three.

[Matthew Mercer]

Three.

[Troy Lavallee]

Yeah.

[Sydney Padua]

All women.

[Troy Lavallee]

At least two of them were. Ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting. What do you do?

[Sydney Padua]

He'll just stand behind this building, waiting. Here's a dog bark in the distance. Waiting, waiting.

[Troy Lavallee]

Bark, bark, bark, bark.

[Sydney Padua]

He gets scared.

[Pharaoh]

That is sick dog forgot his lines.

[Sydney Padua]

The sick dog meow. Oh, no.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh, no, wait.

[Joe O'Brien]

Let me do it again.

[Sydney Padua]

This town is so fucked up. Dogs sound like cats. He waits and then he'll go back.

[Troy Lavallee]

I said jokingly that this would be, not so jokingly, a great HBO prestige series. But I always think of these episodes in terms of, like, TV shows. And you're great TV shows always end with popular music. And so I was just thinking of what would be a great song for this and there's a version by Annie Lennox of I put a spell on you.

[Pharaoh]

Oh, it's just like this piano screaming Jay Hawkins.

[Troy Lavallee]

This piano comes in and we just. We kind of pan up in this Martin belly hold and watching Saint go back to the feathered wishes. I put a spell on you because you're mine. And that just plays out. And we'll see you next week. Oh, man, what is going on that in this town? Some shady ass car. Listen to that. We can't play it. It cost too much money.

[Pharaoh]

But listen, you'll get it.

[Sydney Padua]

Go play that.

[Joe O'Brien]

I love that pop Music over the Shadow 5. It's so great.

[Troy Lavallee]

It has begun.

[Joe O'Brien]

So many options.

[Troy Lavallee]

Oh God.

[Sydney Padua]

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[Troy Lavallee]

Two good coffee creamers.

[Sydney Padua]

Real goodness in every sip. Find them at your local Kroger in the creamer aisle.

[Troy Lavallee]

Close your eyes, exhale. Feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today.

[Sydney Padua]

Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast.

[Troy Lavallee]

And breathe.

[Sydney Padua]

Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.

[Matthew Mercer]

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[Joe O'Brien]

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[Matthew Mercer]

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[Troy Lavallee]

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scoring model offers an approval not guaranteed.

[Matthew Mercer]

Eligibility requirements and terms apply subject to credit check which may impact your credit scores. Offers not available in all states.

[Troy Lavallee]

See experian.com for detail.